Life on Marz - Our First Month at Home

Greetings from the red planet!  We have been home for a month now and things are going very well.  Of course, adjusting to our "new normal" takes a bit of energy for all of us, but all-in-all, we are incredibly satisfied and just so thankful to be living through this special time together. 

The remarkable thing about the past month has been how perfectly natural everything feels most of the time.  Vitalik and Lera have easily claimed our family and our home as their own.  All five of the kids just believe the whole thing.  There has been no notable jealousy between any of them... they live, laugh, love, cry, irritate the crap out of each other, laugh some more.  I think that all-in-all, the seven of us are really enjoying this whole new life together, and honestly could not imagine it being any other way.  It is really beautiful ... noisy and chaotic most of the time, but beautiful for sure! 

The kids are doing lots of bike-riding and skateboarding, back-yard soccer, and playing with cousins and friends.  We are going through neosporin ointment and bandaids with such vigor that Eugene seriously needs to consider investing in the companies that make both products. 

Since we arrived home so late in the school year, we have decided to informally home-school until fall, at which time, Lera will enter 7th grade and Vitalik, 8th grade.  The new kids' English is coming along very well, and the little brothers and cousins enjoy using the few Russian words and phrases that they are learning.

Here are a few photos from our first month at home together. 
First, from our arrival at RDU on April 9th, 2011.  It was a glorious homecoming for sure!!

Virtually all of the people in this photo, foreground and background, were there to greet us. 

Excited brothers with cousin Krystin.

Anxious friends, cousins, and brothers.

Here we come!  It was really amazing to be welcomed by so many special loved ones!!!  What a special moment!

One of those there to greet us was Lera and Vitalik's friend Yarik (David) from the same school in Ukraine. 
He had arrived home in America only a few weeks earlier. 

RDU Parking Grarage... heading home.

This photo was taken during our first few minutes at home as a family of seven!

Our first month at home together has included LOTS of back-yard fun!

Friends prepared so many awesome meals and treats that we didn't have to cook for at least a week.  This beautiful "Welcome Home" cake was made by our friend Julie.  It was delicious!!

Bleeding Brothers!  Very proud of their first cycling scrapes together!

Zendi, the youngest of our NC brood, adores her new cousins and they seem to enjoy her company as well!  She and Lera are really good pals!

Feeding apples to the horse who lives over our back fence.

Vitalik and little Zendi chillin' and watching TV together.

Lera poses with dear friend Eleni... aren't her new glasses pretty!?

Lera enjoyed being reunited with Angelina.  Angelina was also part of the group of kids who came from Ukraine to NC last summer.  She joined her new family in America a few weeks before we got home with Lera and Vitalik.



OK, so with all of his awesome tricks, Vitalik had managed to live this long without breaking a bone... and after only 8 days in our home, yep, you guessed it... a broken collar bone from a cycling accident on our street!  This picture perfectly encapsulates his "recovery phase."  You should have seen the tricks that kid could do with one arm in a sling!  :o) 



Vitalik and Lera's first experience with the Easter Bunny! 

In our back yard after church on Easter.

Ten good-lookin' cousins - Easter 2011.  :o)