The Rest of the Story

Sorry not to have finished this segment sooner, but no wonder I was fatigued. I ended up with what seemed like every virus and illness around, but thankfully, I am feeling better today, though still very tired. Good thing since I am slated to return to teaching on Monday. Maybe my students will take pity on me and be extra sweet the first few days I'm back. (Hope you all are reading this!!) Now, back to the story: After the disappointment of not being able to fly on Thursday as attempted, we were put in a hotel for the night and shuttled back to the airport the next morning. After a few hours we were finally on the plane and in the air headed to America! I must mention again how very good Maxim was at the airport for those several hours we just had to stand around waiting to find out what was happening. He was very good at the hotel as well, even sleeping in his own little cot which the hotel staff set up right next to my bed. We are still working on the sleep issue here at home. Maxim is doing better, but we still have a ways to go for him to stay a whole night in his own room. Meantime, I have a pallet on the floor of our room, right next to our bed. It is a method of gradually getting him to spend the whole night in his room. It's making him and me both too tired as it is. But I realize from all the other blogs I've read that this is very normal and very short-lived.

Since landing in JFK and making it onto Louisville where we were met by John's son and sister, we have pretty much kept it low key, not only for Maxim's sake but also for ours. Well, that's not exactly accurate. John did make the long drive to Georgia for his niece's wedding. Maxim and I stayed home to get him acclimated to Kentucky as well as to get his physical and him enrolled in school. We also went to the dentist. Oh, my! That's where a major expense will come into play. His teeth have not been well taken care of at all and we've already had to schedule dental surgery early next week. Poor little guy. He probably does not even know what a pain-free mouth feels like. Again, Maxim was very good at the dentist though. He had to go ahead and get one filling with more still to do. He wasn't happy about the numbing shot, but he handled it like a trooper. Can't say the same for how he reacted for me when I only had to remove a small splinter from his finger! Goodness, is this young fellow strong! He weighs 75 pounds and judging from how hard it was to get him to hold still for the splinter removal, most of that weight is pure muscle. I guess that means he'll do well at "football" or soccer as we call it here in the U.S.

We have Maxim on a little U-8 soccer team called the Kickers. He is so excited by this. He has only made it to one practice so far, but he asks each day to go to "football." He took to it very well; ran after the ball, kicked it far, did great throw-ins. He wasn't so great at passing--he wanted to shoot the ball toward the goal rather. : ) Kelly has been home this weekend and so she's been out practicing with him. Maxim is in heaven with all the attention showered on him by her.

This week my school friends and co-workers showered Maxim with some toys and clothes and some gift cards to help us get him better outfitted and to let him have some of his own things to play with here at home. We are very thankful for their generosity.

Sorry to still not have pictures to post, but hopefully in a few days. There just has been no energy for more than the bare necessities, and the pictures take a long time to download and then upload.

But Maxim is doing very well--he's getting too used to us, meaning that he the honeymoon period has ended. Oh, he's still very good, but he is showing a stubborn streak and tells me no sometimes. He gets mad at me when I tell him no and when I tell him it's time to take a rest or to go to bed. Typical little boy stuff, but I need to figure out some more Ukranian words so I can make it plainer to him that there are consequences for disobeying. . . I might need a little luck to make that clear.

Maxim went to school a few hours two days last week and will try his first full day on Monday. So far, so good. He was curious and did some "exploring" of the classroom when he shouldn't have, but the teacher is very kind and understanding. We are very fortunate to have found such a warm, caring environment for Maxim's introduction to American school.

Wish us luck with all this,

Charlene