Natasha at Home - A Post-Adoption Journal
13-Feb-2001Sunday night I discovered that the fire department responds to my neighborhood in under 7 minutes. My neighbor's car exploded into flames and rattled my windows. I was highly pleased to see such a quick response. I was getting a little worried about the fire spreading. I had just gotten Natasha into bed darn it. (grin)
Bedtime is always interesting. Natasha comes up with new ideas on how to avoid going to sleep every evening. We now have a 30-minute routine for going to bed. Every evening Natasha tries to add something else to the routine. (smile)
Natasha has been in the United States for 63 days now. She understands a lot of English and is starting to use 2 and 3 word sentences. She is starting to have real conversations on the phone. She says things like
"How are you?"
"I love you"
"Schoola tomorrow" or "Schoola no tomorrow"
"Mama you stop" (my favorite.. smile)
"I'm fine"
My electric bill has gone down since I adopted Natasha. She always turns off the lights when leaving a room. She also loves cleaning. She vacuums, cleans dishes, and helps sort and wash clothes. She does think that I am crazy to dust. Dusting does not make any sense to her.
I have caught her cleaning the toilet bowl with my toothbrush and my hairbrush. She loves washing the bathtub and has washed her clothing in the bathtub before.
I have also caught her painting her body with lipstick, playing with steak knives and trying to open a bottle of 409 cleaner with her mouth. She is a very busy girl.
Natasha had her eyes examined last week. She has
esotropia strabismus AKA crossed eyes. She has no depth perception and is far sighted due to this issue. She is scheduled for eye surgery on March 12 to correct this.
I was given a pamphlet on strabismus, which reassured me that
"The eyeball is never removed from the socket during any kind of eye surgery."
Never in a million years would I even think to ask this question.
It is outpatient surgery and will be done with a general anesthetic. The hospital has a special children's tour which I have signed Natasha up for. She will be shown all the places and machines that will be used for her surgery. And she will be allowed to explore the various buttons and items. The focus of the tour is to let Natasha touch, taste, hear, smell and see the environment for her surgery. I personally believe that Natasha will have a blast on the tour. She loves exploring new places and things.
I was warned about needing to make up a name for the father. I used my favorite uncle's first name, Lee.
I do know a single woman who used "Cayman Island" for the father's name.
As part of the adoption process I was allowed to change
- mother's name
- father's name
- Natasha's name
- Natasha's birthdate
- Natasha's birth city
I saw no reason to change Natasha's birthdate or birth city so I left them alone.
Natasha is a hugger too. And she hugs anyone that she sees on a regular schedule.
Saturday I was standing in line to buy groceries and Natash recongized a woman that was behind us. Turns out that she is the Mom of Lena. Lena is in Natash's preschool class. Anyway I let Natash out of the basket and she ran over to the woman and gave her a long hug.
Natash will also run over anyone who gets between her and her hug. It is funny to watch. When I pick her up from preschool now, the other kids have learned to stand back to avoid being knocked down.
(FYI - Natash is the Russian/Ukrainian nickname for Natasha. I still call her that just to keep a piece of her past. School mostly calls her Natasha and Tasha.)
Angie and Natasha
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