Adopting Natasha: Independent Adoption from Ukraine

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Journal of an Independent Adoption From Ukraine

13-Dec-2000

You have not seen any emails from me since last Tuesday for various reasons... head cold that Natasha gave to me... lack of access to my email account .... Natasha has been keeping me very busy.

We are finally home. We arrived yesterday around 5PM. Natasha did very well on the trip. We changed planes 3 times and total travel time was around 13 hours. She only had 4 melt downs. And in the Zurich airport she was running, tripped and banged her head very hard. Fortunately her head is very hard. (grin)

She is a very strong willed child that learns best by experience. So I have been letting her experience her mistakes. I believe this has kept the temper displays down.

I have only been telling her "No" on safety issues. For example, I don't think it is very safe to button a complete stranger's coat while the man is wearing the coat. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start a little earlier.

Natasha, my mother and I woke up on Tuesday at 5AM. Natasha is a very sound sleeper and I had to partly dress her. Normally she dresses herself and tells me that she can do it, if I try to help her. The bellman got our baggage downstairs. I love the Sheraton. It was super.

Anyway we go down to check out and there is some orange juice and bread for people leaving early. I totally missed the food but Natasha has a food radar. She pointed it out to me because she wanted the orange juice. During the taxi ride to the Warsaw airport Natasha fell asleep again. She woke up when we boarded the airplane. The trip from Warsaw to Zurich was mostly peaceful mainly because she was still thinking about sleeping. But the steward gave her some crayons and paper. Natasha loves to draw and decided it was time to wake up.

At one point my mother restrained Natasha from leaving her seat. Natasha bit my mom. Natasha will spit, bite, pinch, hit, kick, yell, scream nasty words (I am sure they are nasty words but right now they are in Russian so they don't really bother me) when frustrated.

Natasha's level of anger and frustration can be partly linked to our communication issue. In other words I don't speak her combination of Russian and Ukrainian. I only have a few words of Ukrainian and Russian. I should have learned more. Also she is only a 3 year old child. And she was also tired, excited and a little scared about the traveling. (She asked me when I first picked her up.. "Where will I sleep?" "Will I eat in the car?")

I was expecting this behavior and held her in my arms like a baby when she acted up. She hates being held like this but it does get her attention. Normally I look her in the eyes and tell her why her behavior is wrong. Then I ask her to say "Da". Normally she tried to free herself from my hold for a while before saying "Da".

More of this Feature
• 22-Oct: Home
• 08-Nov: Home
• 26-Nov: Kiev
• 27-Nov: Kiev
• 29-Nov: Kharkiv
• 30-Nov: Kharkiv
• 01-Dec: Kharkiv
• 02-Dec: Kharkiv
• 03-Dec: Kharkiv
• 04-Dec: Kharkiv
• 05-Dec: Kharkiv
• 10-Dec: Warsaw
> 13-Dec: Home

Related Resources
• Adopting from Ukraine
• International Adoption - Index
• Meet Natasha (photo)
• Natasha at Home
• Single Parent Adoption

When we landed in Zurich, Natasha was ready to take a walk and explore. In fact she wanted to go for a walk outside while we were still in the air. Also, the steward gave her some chocolate and she got a little sugar rush.

There was a little play area with legos next to our gate in Zurich. She tried to wrestle a boy twice her size over some legos. She almost won but I told her to stop. She gave me the "I am displeased with you" look and turned her back on me.

Mom found out that we had to go through passport control which was at a desk off to the side. Weird. Most airports force you to go through passport control before getting near the gates. Natasha and I walk over to the desk and she decides to run from me. (I was holding onto her but she can be slippery.) She ran and fell. Her head hitting the floor made an loud sound. People were around her acting concerned when I got to her. I held and rocked her. She was fine in a few minutes.

We finally got to board our plane for Chicago. This was a 9.5 hour flight. I lucked out because Natasha was tired from her fall, crying etc.. She slept for 3 hours before I had to wake her up. I needed to give her medicine for her cold and she needed to visit the toilet. It turned out that Natasha loved the airplane toilet. It was great fun to flush the toilet and wash her hands.

Natasha and I had fun for the rest of the flight except for a few problems. She wanted to run down the aisle and I refused to let her. She had an emotional melt down. She tried to go through 2 different woman's purses. She grapped a toy from a boy.

In Chicago we changed terminals via the tram. Natasha noticed that a man did not have his coat completely buttoned. She tried to correct the problem. She was very surprised when I told her no and the coat owner thought it was funny.

So now we come to the part where I lost the passports and some money. We had to go though the metal detectors again and I set it off. I pulled some coins out of my money belt around my waist and the security officer insisted that I put my money belt through the x-ray machine. I was tired and stupid and did it.

I did not find my money belt on the other side of the x-ray machine. The woman in charge offered to call the police but she was not concerned and did not really care what I did. It was not her problem. My mother got very, very, very angry. I was just tired. Our flight was leaving in 5 minutes and it was at the end of the terminal. We just left and caught our flight home.

We got home and were met by some local families. Thanks for meeting me guys. Natasha loves her "kit". She slept with it last night. Also she has tried on most of the clothes and they work great. In fact she has gone through 2 outfits today. I dressed her then gave her breakfast.. my mistake. (grin) And of course her balloons are the best toy.

Thanks for all your support.

Angela and Natasha W.
home at last.....

2000 (c) Angela W.

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