Hosting 2006

Well, it’s taken me close to a week to bring myself to write the entry for Thursday, the day we said Farewell to Masha. The day began early. Running on about 6 hours of sleep, we awoke to darkness for the first time since Masha arrived. She made some final preparations, checked her room for any final things she wanted to cram into her suitcase. The mood in the house was solemn, knowing that good-bye was near, and not wanting that to come. Masha ate her last American breakfast while Mark and I made last minute preparations.

At about 7:15, we loaded Masha’s suitcase into the car. We’ve had a running joke about whether she or I sat in front while Mark drove; for the ride to the camp, Masha asked to sit in front, and requested that I drive. I thought it funny that Mark would have to sit in the back, until Masha said sadly to to me “Mark raboota?” Mark is going to work? NO! I smiled at her and explained that Mark was coming with us…relief flooded her face and she relaxed a little bit. Mark climbed into the back seat behind Masha. For the most part, driving distracted me from the fear of what was coming up; I only started crying once.

We were the second family to arrive at the camp, and Masha jumped out of the car to see Vica and Little Masha. They ran around the parking lot, talking and smiling, while Mark and I talk with their parents about saying good-bye to our little girls. We comfort ourselves by sharing plans for next steps, planning a package to send all the things that wouldn’t fit in their luggage. Other families, escorts, and volunteers began to arrive, and the parking lot became a mass of activity.

Three moms volunteered to drive car-loads of kids to the Indianapolis airport. Once everyone arrived, luggage was transferred and riding arrangements were figured out. Kids and escorts scurried around to make sure that all the luggage was loaded up and that everyone had a seat. All logistics resolved, the hugging commenced and the tears began to flow. We had been prepared by the program organizers that this was the time for adults to be adults and keep it together for the kids. We tried that really hard, and I managed to keep it together as I hugged Masha and murmured “i love you” over and over again.

Finally, the time came to say our final goodbye. Masha piled into the car, and held Mark’s hand as they slowly pulled out of the parking spot. I hid behind Mark and cried as I watched her pull away. The only consolation was knowing that we would see her soon, and that we would never have to send her away again.

For those of you who haven’t heard already, we have made the final decision to move forward with the process to adopt Masha and bring her back to the US as our daughter. Over the next few months, we will navigate our way through the jungle of the international adoption process. We will continue to post updates occasionally, answering some of the common questions like “How did you guys decide to do this?” and “What next?” I will also take the opportunity to post some of the other great photos from Masha’s visit, so keep checking in…..

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two and a half weeks. In some ways, it seems like Masha has been here forever, and in other ways, time has flown. For Masha’s final day, Mark and I both scheduled time off from work to hang out and enjoy our time together. Our first trouble came when Masha came wandering into my office with a post-it note stuck her her finger. Fun Spot. Originally scheduled as a field trip for the day camp, the afternoon at Fun Spot in Angola was cancelled when the Vice Consul announced a surprise visit during the first week of camp. Not thinking too far into the future, we had moved that note to the side and did not worry too much about rescheduling. It was only when we discovered that Fun Spot is only open Saturdays and Sundays that we realized we had a problem.

Mark did some research into various options and we arrived at go-karts! We first went to the outdoor go-karts near Putt Putt. Despite their posted hours showing they opened at 10, we discovered that since school has started, no one will come in before noon. We moved to the indoor go-kart track up the road. We bought one ride to see how she would like it. We began the process by strapping Mark and Masha into individual go-karts; one lap around, Masha missed a turn and ran head-on into the track railing. She wasn’t going fast, but it scared her. We extracted her from her car and let her ride a few laps in the double-car with Mark. When she realized how to operate the car, she got more excited, and decided to take a shot at driving again.

About the same time, Lisa and Khrystyna arrived, we belted both girls into cars, and off they drove! It’s a good thing that the guys running the track were able to limit the speed on the cars, as we’ve discovered that Khrystyna’s role model must be Danica Patrick. Her foot was nowhere near the brake, even around the hairpin turns. Masha was driving a bit more conservatively, but she still kept up pretty well. As the first ride for each of them wrapped up, the girls hopped out of the cars screaming “again! again!” We called a five minute break, strapped them back in, and turned the speed up a little bit.

We had originally planned to take Masha to Taco Bell for lunch, but since Khrystyna is a more choosy eater, we elected to go to Doggie’s for gourmet hot dogs…her favorite. Of course, the moment we walked in, she decided she really had a hankerin’ for a sandwich. Masha chose to order two sausage dogs, and then loaded them up with a variety of very strange toppings, including more mayonnaise than I’ve ever seen on anything! Oddly, the girls also decided that they did not want their photos taken, and hid behind single-serving chip packets.

As soon as lunch disappeared, we piled the girls into the car and took them to the DeBrand factory, where we met Fred for a factory tour. We thought this would be a great time for the kids, knowing how much they like chocolate. The video, however, did not impress them. Further, there was very little going on in the kitchens. They enjoyed the samples very much, but the tour was a bit of a bust. The girls horsed around a bit, and all the parents focused on keeping them from running over the elederly folks whose tour we were tagging onto.

We came back home for a final evening together. It seemed so wrong to have to send her back when she was really starting to settle in and open up. She was just beginning to horse around, doing gymnastics in the basement and climbing up the stairs feet first. She discovered the dartboard, and played around a lot with Simon. We did pop out to WalMart to pick up the final set of photos and we stopped next door at the dollar store to grab an extra small photo album in which to store them. She loaded up the album as we drove home.

We quickly shucked three ears of the sweetest sweet corn we have tasted in a long time, and gobbled it up along with a salad and some leftover pasta. Masha then wrote up thank-you notes for all the people who helped us out during her stay. I started out a list of two or three people, and she began adding names to it and writing them on cards. She even kept at it when Khrystyna called her from Cracker Barrel to chat. Masha was cradling the phone on her shoulder and continuing to write cards until Mark showed her the speakerphone. Relief flooded her face as she set Khrystyna down on the kitchen table and kept working!

After dinner, we called a translator to talk about the logistics of packing and meeting back up for the return trip. Masha’s biggest concern was for her new earrings! We explained to her that we would divide the stuff in her room into three categories: 1) The items that had been borrowed from other people, 2) items that are hers to take back with her, and 3) items that are hers that we will keep here for when she returns. She quickly got the concept and threw all of her favorite clothes into the America pile!

We had also learned that the kids would not be allowed any carry-on luggage for the trip. This presented a bit of a challenge, as we had already given Nataliya the larger of the two suitcases that we planned to send back. We only had a small rollaboard suitcase for Masha, and were really counting on her backpack to carry a couple sets of clothes as well as Barbies, coloring books and colored pencils and markers to keep her occupied on the long trip back. We got everything crammed in, with only Sloan the Elephant left to carry! I just hope the zippers hold!

In the middle of all of this, we ran out to Ritter’s to meet Mark’s family for final goodbyes. Masha ordered the granddaddy of all cones…a chocolate dipped waffle cone with multi-colored candy sprinkles. She had it filled with peanut butter frozen custard, and promptly emptied it! She played with the Maxwell kids, and we all posed for many photos before the hugs began.

When we finally made it back home, Masha took a shower, climbed into her jammies, and joined the family for the first Harry Potter film. Yes, we know we watched them backward, but that logic was not of critical importance to Masha. Masha settled into our bed and watched while Mark and I took care of a few final details, including writing a letter for her to take back home with her. Everything finally finished, we joined Masha for the end of Harry Potter, and then tucked her in for the last time.

Tuesday was Masha and Dad day. The plan was for me to take Monday off while Mark worked, and then for Mark to take Tuesday off while I worked. While I got to take Masha to the dentist and eye doctor, Mark took her for a Fun Day. Mark and I both got up and got to work about 6:30, and let Masha sleep in a bit. They watched some TV and played some games, and then joined the rest of the kids for a pool party.

The pool offered a great opportunity for kids from two different orphanages to play together. Masha had never been down a pool slide before, and it took a lot of encouragement from everyone to convince her to take the first plunge. Once she accomplished that, she was invincible! Khrystyna was not so lucky…the deep end was a little much for her and she was pulled from the pool once with a pole and a second time by a fully clothed man!

After the pool party disbanded, Mark and Masha moved on to Tokens and Tickets. Masha wanted to play every game in the store, but proved to need a little practice. The deck was stacked against her when Dad accidentally selected the expert level of the guitar game, but she sure tried hard. Masha insisted on riding the kiddie horse, and further wanted to choose Barbie items from the prize store prior to actually winning any tickets! When she finally had her fill of games, Mark and the attendand finally steered her toward a nice necklace with a Jesus fish, and a fancy ring.

Mark and Masha returned home anticipating dinner at McDonald’s. I finished working, and we set off for the newly remodeled McDonald’s on Washington Center. A Number Six and a Polly Pocket for Masha, and she was a happy girl. She took a couple of passes through the Human Habitrail and we were off again. Despite Masha’s pleas of “Harry Potter, pleeeaaasssseeeeee” we decided to enjoy a family round of Putt Putt.

The first couple of holes were a little rough, leaving us to question the wisdom of choosing this activity. We have discovered a perfectionistic streak in Masha much like my own. But about three holes in, Mark worked with her a little, showed her how to putt, and she settled into a serious game. At the end, we worked on math skills by totalling up the score. When Masha discovered that she had earned the highest score among the three of us, she danced and cheered for herself! We didn’t have the heart to explain golf scores…..

The final promised activity of the evening: Ice cream and Harry Potter. Mark and Masha created mega-cones full of Nestle Crunch, Peanut Butter, and Sundae Cone ice creams, and gobbled them down in front of the television. Simon joined us to wach The Chamber of Secrets, and we pretty much ignored bedtime.

Some battles are worth fighting; for others, capitulation is the right option. This morning, I vetoed potato chips and coke for breakfast. As an alternative, corn on the cob seemed to be the Breakfast of Champions. Added to Fruity Cheerios, buttered bread, string cheese, and grapes, it soared right over the top. Every day, I say to myself that I have never seen a girl so small eat so much! The crazy part of it is that she followed this up with an apple!

Once the wild hunger was appeased, we watched the end of Snow White (well, Masha watched while I squeezed in a little work). Then began the Harry Potter debate. Masha found Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the cabinet below the TV in our room, and insisted, despite a previous thumbs-down, that she LOVED Harry Potter, and that she would DIE if she didn’t get to watch him right now. I agreed that if she would go peacefully to the dentist that we would consider an earlier Potter flick later in the day. Reluctantly, she hopped in the Jeep.

Two fillings later (thanks to Dr. Roach for his gentleness and generosity!!), we put The Prisoner of Azkaban in the player and I checked email and made a couple of calls before dragging her kicking and screaming to Lenscrafters. Note that she went to the dentist peacefully, almost cheerfully, but that the idea of wearing glasses was completely abhorrent.

The visit to the eye doctor presented its own special challenges! Our new friend Nadia was hosting two sisters from the orphanage, and Olena, the older sister, also needed a vision exam. Nadia is a refugee from the Ukraine; she and her family came to the US about 3 years ago, and she speaks Russian fluently. Nadia has been a tremendous blessing to the hosting program, acting as a translator and a surrogate mom for all of us! While Nadia translated during Masha’s eye exam, I wrangled Olena and Marina.

In the end, Masha chose a beautiful pair of glasses. Because of the distortion associated with the correction for her astigmatism, the doctor encouraged her to wear the glasses for just a few hours a day for the first three or four days. After that, she agreed to wear them all the time. We’ll see how that goes.

Nadia had been wanting to spend time with Masha for a while, and we agreed that Monday afternoon would be a great time for Masha to spend with her and the girls. They went to the chinese buffet where we finally discovered the ultimate capacity of Masha’s stomach. Mark and I were both surprised when she said no to dinner, and downright amazed when she said no to ice cream.

We finished the evening by watching the end of Harry Potter; the family congregated on our bed, complete with dog and hedgehog!