Productive Days...with a lesson in "No"

The last couple of days have been busy ones, but also productive. Wednesday we went and applied for social security numbers for the kids. It didn't take too long and was an important thing to get done. Then we took the kids to a Russian market, but it was closed. We told them that we would try again on Thursday. We had a quick bite to eat at McDonald's and then came back home. Michael has found "Lego-land" upstairs and has been hiding out up there building stuff. He does a great job. Primo Jr. and Dasha have been hanging out a lot. What 15 year old boy wouldn't want to hang out with a drop dead gorgeous girl...even if she IS his sister!!!!

Yesterday (Thursday) was really busy. We went to Michael's base school and picked up the registration papers. We also got a form to request a transfer (which has to be submitted by 6/1!). We want him to go to the year round school that Primo Jr. attended. Then we went to the church and picked up the donation bin that had been in the Welcome Center. There were many wonderful things...Bibles for each of the kids, a Russian/English dictionary, a backpack, journal, art set, gift cards, pillow protectors, sheets and a laundry basket. What a blessing!! From there we went to the high school to get the papers to enroll Dasha. We found out that because she is an ESL student she will be on the main campus with Primo Jr. next year (because of overcrowding they are putting this coming 9th graders at a satellite location). She was very excited and loved the school campus!

At 1pm we met with the English tutor at her home. She is great and the kids took right to her!! (Primo had talked to them alittle and they were both uncomfortable with a male tutor.) She does this for a living and has every resource known to man! Books, workbooks, games, visual aids, audio....you name it, she's got it! She played a couple games with the kids and they were very receptive. We are going to start classes next week on Thursday. We are going to slide into a time slot that is just opening up. It will be on Tuesday and Thursday for 1 hour with homework. She will tailor the work to their individual level since Dasha knows more English than Michael at this point. It was a very positive meeting and I can't wait for them to get started!!

From there we went to the Wake County school's main office to submit the transfer request for Michael. I handed it to the woman at the counter and she asked where the kids were coming from. When I responded "Ukraine" she said, "Are you part of that group from Wake Forest?"...I said, "Are you Mrs. Miller?!!".....Yes! I had talked to her AT LENGTH before we went to Ukraine because I wanted the heads-up on what I could expect from the school's program. She grabbed the four of us and took us immediately to her office. She is SO nice! Then she insisted that we meet her supervisor because she's been telling him about us for weeks! She wanted to meet with our whole group once everyone is back in the country (there are still a couple families in process). She had our transfer form in her hand when we left and I told her not to lose it to which she replied..."I'm gonna hand carry it upstairs myself!". I think she will put in a good word for us with the powers that be. We should hear in 7-10 days if the transfer has been granted.

Then, as promised, we took the kids back to the Russian market. It's very small. Dasha got some snacks and four containers of what is the equivelant of Ramen noodles. They wanted salami from the deli case. Dasha looked around at the food items, but Michael was fixated on the videos. He kept bringing various ones to us...some were for purchase, some were for rent and many were rated "R"!! We told him "no"..."no"..."no"..."no", but he kept going back and getting more. Primo told him that we have movies at home (many of the ones he picked were in English). We stood our ground and he wasn't happy. He didn't speak on the ride home and went immediately to his room. I went up to see what he was doing and he had his head under his pillow. Oh well! We have been buying things like crazy because they have needs, but they have to learn that they aren't going to get everything they WANT. There IS a difference! He got over it fairly quickly and wanted to go with me to Target later on. He had gotten a pack of gum around 12:30 and by 6:30 the whole thing was gone. I had a piece of gum in my mouth at Target and he wanted a piece. I said "no" and reminded him that he ate a whole pack. We walked around the store with him saying "gum" and me saying "no". I won that round!! :)

Sorry this is so long! We've been busy!