First Day of School

Mama is filling pretty free today, both the kids are in school, the house is quiet, and all is well. What a summer! I have been a new mother, a teacher, and a best friend to Koyla. I can't even begin to count how many times I rode the roller coasters at Busch Gardens, all I know it was far to many times. I have a policy not to blog much when the children come home because I want to give them a personal life, but I will share some highlights of the summer.

We have been home for 10 weeks as of tomorrow. We spent our summer adjusting to our new lives in America. Koyla talked to Grandpa every Saturday with a great deal of excitement. Grandpa has been extremely supportive of our raising of Koyla. He even told Koyla, you don't eat good, you are not to call me that week. That has fixed most of the struggle with eating. One day when Koyla and I were having breakfast he asked if he, papa, Yana and myself could go back to visit Ukraine...tomorrow. His face was red and I could see he was holding back tears, but took it well when I told him that it wouldn't be that soon.

Koyla spent 2 to 3 hours a day home schooling to learn English. He did extremely well and I felt that he went to school today with a pretty good base for English. It didn't help take the fear away from him on his first day of school. He told me he was awake all night thinking about the first day of school. You would have never known that Koyla had come from another country if you had seen him in the school, he took control of the situation and was as independant as he could be. When I left, he looked pretty scared. The nice part is it is over, there is not another first day of school in America, he did it!!!

Koyla loves having a mama and papa and is thrilled about being with Yana. Maybe too thrilled at times. He bugs her a lot. That will level off when he makes friends and gets his own life in America. He likes having a dog too. He and our dog Ginny have hit it off real well.

Everything was new and exciting and challenging this summer. Meeting people was the most difficult for him, he is extremely shy and the language barrier made it much worse. He is getting better and better. Of course when you are told that when you meet someone you are to say "hello, it is nice to meet you" or your Busch Gardens pass will be taken away, that will punch through the language barrier real fast. He is really good at saying that now with all the practice he has had. Papa loves to parade his children around and introduce them to everyone. Yana has gotten used to it and seems to enjoy it. Koyla is at the level of painfully putting up with it. It doesn't stop him from searching out Papa though, he loves being with Papa, even if he has to meet people. At the end of the summer Koyla traveled to New York to meet my side of the family. We attended my niece's wedding. He did really well, but by 8:30 on the night of the wedding he was begging to go back to our room so he could sleep. We took him back and he was in bed and a sleep in minutes. The blah, blah, blah of all the people wore him out!

Koyla is on a soceer team this fall and Yana is the assistant coach. That is a real win win situation. Yana can use this experience, and it helped Koyla feel more comfortable in this new environment. Yana will only speak English to Koyla unless the coach asks for interpretation. She has done that at home too. I am very proud of her for helping us in that way. She has been awesome this summer.

Enough boasting about the children that God so graciously let Rick and I stewart. I am not saying it has been easy, but it is full of joy, His joy. When I say my children, I picture all 4 of us sitting in God's hand being held like minatures. We are all His children, He just put Rick and I in the drivers seat of life to help Yana and Koyla develop the skills to have a healthy world and spiritual journey. That is probably why we had to wait to be in our 50's to have children. We had to learn it for ourselves before we could help them! In all honesty, we don't know it, we are dependant on Him daily to teach us.

The Rahn journey continues, where will it go and will there be unexpected turns? I assume so.
Each day is it's own journey, tomorrow has it own excitement.