3 Weeks Home Sweet Home!!

So - finally - here I am posting an update to the last 3 weeks since we got home! We spent the first week trying to rest up a bit but honestly we really hit the ground running! This first 3 weeks have flown by! Ira did great just picking up where she left off in January and I think Tom and I kind of did the same! Tom and I had much to catch up on since I had been gone from home for over 5 weeks! I spent many evenings telling him all of the stories of the trip and bringing him up to date. Then during the days we were busy, busy, busy!! Tom jumped into the "final paperwork stuff" while I jumped back into domestic bliss! We have had pediatrician appointments, eye doctor appointments, dental appointments and last - but most important - hair appointments! Ira has fallen in love with the "Salon" and especially w/ Miss Rachel and Miss Shannon - who showered her with gifts of nail polish, shampoos, conditioners and lots and lots of TLC!!!!

We also celebrated her 14th birthday which actually took place one week before we arrived home but we had fun celebrating here! Ira was a bit overhwelmed at first with the cake and gifts but quickly got into the spirit of things once Charlie - our golden retriever - showed her how wonderful it was to open gifts!!!!

In just 3 short weeks it is amazing to see how much english Ira has learned! She is doing an amazing job and we also have been very fortunate to have found a wonderful lady that is a professor here at our local University, from Russia, who is now tutoring Ira 3 days a week!!! I could not have asked for a better workout to help Ira get up to speed. She has made new friends already and is also in contact by phone with a couple of other children that have been adopted and are from her home town! So that has eased the transition and has given her ties to her past as well as to her future!

We are having a ball just being with her! She is a wonderful girl in every way and we feel so blessed and fortunate to have her here with us! So far we have had no problems at all. Her attitude is wonderful, her sense of humor amazing and her willingness to bond and be a true part of the family astounds me. Her courage is more than I can describe. She truly seems happy and that just thrills us!! She is very affectionate, she is helpful and sensitive and compassionate and thrives on positive reinforcement. She is working very hard in her english studies and is proud of her accomplishments.

We have managed to find some time for more than doctors appointments and post placement appointments. We have been out to eat several times, done a little shopping, been to a ballet - which she LOVED and have been exploring on the 4 wheeler - she loved that too!!! We have set up her computer for school and she is working even harder on her english writing skills because she wants an email to use with her friends.

She has a fabulous time keeping Papa in line on a regular basis and she is beyond amazing with the dogs!! They adore having a little girl here in the house to play with - you would think that we brought her here just for them!!!

All in all - there are ZERO complaints! So far this adjustment has been amazing and Ira is doing one incredible job!!! I can only begin to imagine what the next months will be like!!!

You know life has seriously changed when you are so tired from all the changes and you finally get a "break" only to realize you didn't really want the break. And by that I mean - Tom and I were tired this week from all of "everything". We had a short break while Ira was being tutored so we went out to eat lunch. All we did during lunch was watch all the other parents with their daughters that were about the same age as Ira and we barely enjoyed our lunch for missing her!!!! We both had to laugh and almost cry at the difference that she has made in our lives! Tired means nothing - she means EVERYTHING!!!