Our story continued.....Part V

When I arrived home from Russia we settled in, and it quickly became apparent that Alex, our 4 year old had issues.  He was very active, and there were other signs that something wasn't quite right.  We were unable to take him anywhere due to his extreme hyper-activity, and so we began the quest to determine what we needed to do help him function.  Our pediatrician suggested that we take him to a child psychiatrist for an evaluation.  We did, and he said he's hyper-active.   We knew that - much to our dismay he prescribed medication, and while I am not an advocate of putting hyper-active kids on medicine it was our only choice.

What a difference it made in Alex..... We were able to go places - places like the grocery store, and he began to learn English....

We settled into our life with Max and Alex - there were some challenges.... for a while food was an issue... they preferred orange juice on their cereal - not milk, and they preferred cucumbers to chicken noodle soup..... but eventually we learned what they liked.  The bathroom was an issue - they had never seen a toilet that flushed, and they were scared of it at first.  Surprisingly language was not an issue - they were always able to make themselves understood.  Sometimes they had to take our hands, and lead us to what they wanted, but we all managed.

In the fall after we returned home they started pre-school.  On the first day Alex screamed when I dropped him off - the screaming lasted the entire day, and when they called and asked me to pick him up it suddenly dawned on me..... He thought I was leaving him at an orphanage..... Kids, women.....

So, for the next few times he went I spent the day sitting in the hallway, and eventually he realized that I was not going to leave him there and that at the end of the day we were going home.  After that he adjusted.

Max did well.  He was so sweet, and loved by everyone.

The boys adjusted remarkably well to their new life.  They learned English, and we settled into family life.....but I couldn't stop thinking about all the kids that I had left behind in Russia.

When I returned home the local newspaper did a story about our adoptions, and before long I was getting several phone calls a day from people who wanted to adopt from Russia.  Eventually, Alla and I began working together to make that happen.  I helped people do their US paperwork, and she handled finding the kids and the paperwork in Russia.  It was the start of my adoption career.....

I worked at night after the kids went to bed, and Joe helped.  We were busy - there were lots of kids, and lots of families....

to be continued.....