Highlight of my week

January 11, 2008

I suppose that you all have concluded that we made it home safely. My apologies for the cone of silence. We really hit the ground running once we got home and haven't stopped. Here are the details of our departure/arrival: As you may or may not know we had a terrible time obtaining the US visa to come home with Dasha. This was the result of a lack of care for the details on the part of a stateside government employee. BTW, I drafted a scathing post which shall not be published due to my concern for my own reputation as a nice guy. I spent a couple of hours at the embassy on Friday awaiting confirmation of our immigration approval renewal. It never came and the embassy closed at noon. So I spent most of Friday afternoon and evening trying to get that settled. By the end of the night between the guys at the embassy, Jana with Lifeline, and myself - four different countries had been contacted. What a circus! All because somebody wouldn't send an email - rant off.

In the end, we received our visa on Saturday morning thanks to the goodness of an embassy dude that had pity on us. However, I did make the mistake of not purchasing a ticket for Dasha earlier in the week. I called early Saturday prior to getting the visa to find that the flight was overbooked. I settled on the fact that we didn't even have the visa so I would worry about this little detail after we had the visa in hand. By 11AM it was ticket time. So I called back and this time the sweet lady told me that even though the flight was overbooked, the average no-show number was 37, so we stood a good chance to get a ride. We bought it - less than 24 hours from our boarding time. Thank you God.

Sunday morning was coldy-cold. I was determined to be at the airport 3 hours prior to boarding to increase our odds of getting aboard. We made it on time, got our boarding passes and then began to wait for the boarding. We (obviously) made it on. There were several seats vacant. I ended up with a row all to myself. The kids were able to sit all together. So I invited my honey to come on back and spend the next 9 hours with me - and she did. As we were sitting on the taxiway waiting to take off, I leaned over to Gina and said, "I can't believe we pulled this off." She sweetly reminded me that we hadn't pulled anything off and we really didn't have anything to do with it. We escaped and it was good! Breath deeply now and just know that all is good - for now.

On to NYC. Now I had carefully rehearsed in my mind what it would be like to bring a child immigrant into the US through NY. I was wistfully imagining the symbolic - maybe traditional - nature of coming to the US through NY as so many immigrants have. Customs was a little confusing because the line choices were citizens and aliens. Well, we were both at the moment. We chose to all go through the alien line and just see what happened. It worked out OK. We approached the officer (who had a great Italian name) and began doing the deal. In my mind I was realizing of the significance of this moment and trying to hold it together - dude, you were Ukrainian over there and you are about to cross this line and then you will be American and how awesome is that! Do you have any idea what people have gone through, risked, paid, fought for in order to gain this? And you, you are about to get it for nothing. Isn't that cool! Needless to say, she was not savoring the moment. One reason might have been because it was a blistering 90 degrees at the desk. The heat was ON! We were all beginning to wither - including the officer whose uniform included a full turtleneck.

Well, I had had enough with the obliviousness of our new daughter so I said something like, "Dasha, this is it! This is the big moment. Once you crossed that line you became American! Isn't that cool?" She wasn't overly impressed, but she wasn't rude about it. But, the officer called me down. He kindly informed me that she didn't receive citizenship until he applied his little stamp (Doesn't that sound just like a "Ukrainian" ritual?). He said jokingly, "so be nice to me." He cut up with us a little while he was reviewing our documents. So finally (and kindly) he ceremonially did the deed. Oh, it was incredible. cu-chunk, cu-chunk. done! You're in, baby, and you are with us! Now I had come to expect by this point a roll of the eyes or an over-expressed sigh. Instead, we got a very appropriate, accented, szank you, sir. Hmmm, that was pleasant. Maybe it was because he was carrying a nine on his hip. Don't know, but I'll take it.

Left out a little (no pun (as you will see in a moment) intended)) detail. Back to Kiev in your collective minds - as we were waiting to board the flight out, these two "little people" came walking through to board with us. These were the smallest people I had ever seen. Extremely small features and squeaky Ukrainian voices. Obviously, they stood out. So the guy has on a Cirque de Soleil jacket on and I'm thinking - this guy could be in a circus. So I just had to ask - I know, I know that is so un-PC, but hey PC ain't too cool in Ukraine anyway. So I asked if they were with the Cirque? And guess what? They were and were delighted that I had asked. The told us all about where their shows were going to be and were really excited about the trip. Dasha was weirded out a little because she hadn't ever seen such a sight. We got her calmed down and convinced her to stop pointing and went on about our business. Well, we ran into them again in the customs office when we were getting fingerprinted. She asked if she could have her photo made with them. Innocent enough, but they won't allow such in the customs ward. Had to let that one slip away. These two performers are know as The Little Clown and Clowness in the new "Corteo" show beginning in February on the west coast.

So all that to say we made it home. It was midnight, but we made it home. Home, indeed. Doggone, its good to be home! Can't believe it.

Well moving along (because I'm a week behind) as expected, the week has been a little sketchy for many reasons. Mostly just adjustments to new life. We're pretty hard core right now trying to make life boring and forcing interaction between us. Very limited TV, computer, telephone and visitors. The two kids with the American accents had to go back to school on Tuesday. I had to go back to work on Monday. So we were trying to get a handle on what would unfold at home when "and then there were two" occurred. We did get some initial "foo", but overall the moods have been good. Only a few minor skirmishes over the computer, but we've evened it out on them all and its been generally accepted by all. The English has kind of come and gone and there are long silent spells, with pointing and grunting (which I completely understand to be a universal language which I use often in a pinch). And then came Thursday....

Thursday began at the unholy hour of 3AM. A-train told us all that he had BB practice at 4:30AM. I called bunk, but he stuck to his guns and so we made a date. I got that kid to school at 4:15 and guess what - not a soul to be found. In his defense, this has been a tough week with the jet lag, make up work and the quick turn around, despite all that we exchanged a few remarks and I ended up leaving him there around 5:30. Came home, cleaned up went back to McDonalds to get him some breakfast - just a kind gesture. Come to find out, practice was in the PM - duh!

The weather on Thursday was predicted to be harsh. I spent the day in LA working in the field. I didn't head back to our neck of the woods until 5 and that was when things were beginning to deteriorate. By the time I was a half hour from home the worst of it was very near home. I decided to pull over and wait things out. I called home to check on the family and Gina had them all rounded up in the bathroom. I was thinking about the conversation that we had with Dasha's Ukrainian family about natural disasters - tornadoes in particular - and how infrequent they occurred. Now we were home less than a week and we are in full up wall to wall severe weather coverage. I don't think anybody was panicked, but Dasha did ask Gina if I was still alive. Isn't that cute?

I made it home finally and no harm to life or property occurred near our home, but once I got there, guess who was the first one to open the door and hug my neck? Yep, it was Dasha. Something had happened to her. Not sure if she really was fearful for our lives or if she just wanted to beat the other two to the punch. Doesn't really matter to me, I'll take it.

Now this wasn't the highlight of which I have referred. After we had eaten some leftovers - and there are many because we haven't quite figured out how much food his new family will consume at one sitting - she started talking. This was not the normal short two or three word sentences, but a full our barrage of broken English. She was giving Austin "down the road" because she had wished him good night and he did not give any response. She was really on him - laughing and cutting up - "Every night I say 'Good Night, Ousten,' and he no wish me good night." Austin heard the commotion and came dragging back in - he did get up at 4 this particular morning - and he attempted to apply the good night hug to her and she wasn't going to have it. He pressed on and she finally accepted. It was a funny time and that was the highlight of my week. It was so good to see them cutting up with each other and showing affection.

I know that there are many hurdles left to scale but this was a little moment that I will treasure. We will look for the good in every situation and use that as a stepping stone to keep us moving forward.

BTW, I know that we haven't properly thanked all of you that helped take care of our business and pets and property while we were away, but we are so grateful for all the love. It is good to have friends and family. The house was so clean and warm and everything was so perfect when we arrived home that first night. We have done a good job of scattering belongings and luggage to mask any evidence that anyone was here while we were gone. It is good to be home!

Chris and Gina