Update on Nastiya

Here is our update on Nastiya's progress since coming to America. It has been three weeks, today, since she and Brian arrived at DIA with lots of friends and family to greet them. For the majority, she is doing better than I had anticipated in her adjustment to family life here with us. After recovering from her jet lag, she quickly settled into days of playing at home with me while the girls were at school. As much as I knew she was liking the time to herself, we couldn't put off school forever.

On her second week, we registered for school and set off to see her new stomping grounds. It just so happens that she will be attending a different school than Tate and Reaghan or Kenzie. Because of her English Second Language needs, we will now be shuttling between three schools for all of our girls. So far, we have worked out the logistics and pickup times. We met with her homeroom teacher that same day, and she got a little tour of the school. The next day, we set up an appointment with her ELA teacher, and she was extremely relieved when I told her nyet school today.

She started her first day of school on that Thursday, and it was an extremely stressful day for her as well as myself. I knew how scared she was, and after we arrived at her classroom and she sat down in her chair, the tears started. I cried a little with her and they got me a chair to sit beside her. A little later, the Russian liason arrived and we went to the library to chat. Nastiya was a little shy, but happy to have someone she could speak to. The interpretor wrote out her schedule in Russian for her and took her around and showed her how to use the bathrooms, and the cafeteria. She was great and reminded me a little of Nadiya. Nastiya had two more bouts with tears, and around 1000 I decided she was stressed enough for one day, and we went home.

By the next day of school, she was good to go and has been doing really well with staying all day. Next week will be her first full week, however, and it will be interesting to see how she handles the long days for a full week. Her interpretor told the ELA teacher, who is great also, that Nastiya will do fine, and that she has the gumption to get through this.

I now understand a little better how hard it is to give all four girls the attention that they are wanting and still be able to accomplish anything. The main fight we seem to have is for the attention of their parents, and Nastiya has no problem using whatever method she needs to put the other three out of the picture. We have seen some violence against the other girls, and I have had to make it very clear that this behavior is unacceptable. She especially likes to pick on Reaghan, who loves her to death and doesn't understand that Nastiya needs a little space occasionally.

All in all, it is really going better than I expected and we will just continue to deal with the issues as they arrive and settle into our new life.