One week home

I didn't realize it's been a week since we came home from Ukraine. Thank you, my blogging friends Tina and MoscowMom, for reminding me to post again!

We really enjoy being home with our kids, especially during holidays. It's so nice to be able to take Victoria to her music, dance and gymnastics classes, plan her upcoming birthday party, chat with Alex when he's available, etc. While we were in Ukraine, Alex was taking Victoria to her dance classes, and according to the studio owner, all teenage assistant teachers were lining up to see him come in :) His holiday break from school starts soon, and we are looking forward to spend more time with him. Even though he lives at home, we don't see him often as he's really busy at school. His Computer Engineering program at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) is one of the most rigorous, and he works really hard to earn his good grades!

Today at the music class Victoria just made my day. When her teacher asked her what she wants for Christmas, she said she’s getting a big sister! Isn't it sweet? She also had a visiting day at her dance studio this week, so I took several pictures and sent them to Raisa. She was very surprised to see that the dance class in America looks different :) The girls are not required to wear the same color leotards, the same color tights, the same color ballet shoes, and get this: they are doing the stretching exercises in the circle with the smiling teacher :)

We talk to Raya daily, and she's doing great, though every single time poor kid keeps asking when I'm coming to get her… Our court decree becomes final tomorrow, even though technically it will be Monday, since 10th day falls on the weekend. A new birth certificate can be issued without us, but a new passport is a different story. One of the documents required to apply for the passport is a notarized application signed by both parents. If you read my post about Notaries in Ukraine, you know, I'm not very fond of Ukrainian notaries :) We wanted to do this application while both of us were still in Ukraine, but of course none of the notaries wanted to do it for us until the court decree became final. Our great facilitator has several ideas on how to accomplish this, so hopefully it will work out. If you've been through this kind of situation before (when one parent flies home and the other finishes the paperwork), and you have any ideas, please let me know! I’m going to buy my plane tickets depending on the passport progress. Originally I planned to fly back after the Orthodox Christmas on January 7th, but looks like many offices are still closed until the “Old New Year” on January 13th (this is another Orthodox tradition), so I’ll probably fly the week of January 14th.

P.S. My friend Jim corrected me on my post about Wegmans. Looks like the “Ukrops” grocery store in Virginia has the best customer service in the nation. I’ll have to go to “Ukrops” one day and personally see the difference :) Isn’t it neat that the first 3 letters of “Ukrops” are identical to the first 3 letters of “Ukraine”?