First day at school

I’m writing this about four or so days after the fact and I think they went to school for the first time on Monday, the fifth.
I don’t remember the day, but I do remember what happened and how everyone felt. Well most everyone, I couldn’t read Teri too well that day.
Nastia and Elena started the day just like they started everyday of their time here last summer when they had to get up, they didn’t do it willingly. I came into the bedroom; while Teri was in the shower and tried to be gentle waking them up, it didn’t work. I should have known it would not. These two are survivors of an Orphanage and are used to noise and distractions and all that other stuff that goes along with it. When I remembered that I straightened up, grabbed a handful of covers and pulled them off of them. They didn’t move. I turned on the light and got a groan, progress. Finally I resorted to sitting them up on the edge of the bed only to see them fall back over as I reached for the other. The final solution turned out to be getting them to stand up and not let them get back into bed. Of course it would have also been a good idea to get them to bed at an earlier hour, which we did try. It started out as an 8:30 bed time and I think it was after 10pm by the time they quit talking.
With the two of them full upright and almost awake I told them to get dressed and started to leave and when I turned back guess what I saw. Yes that is why I have the smartest readership I know, they were both getting back into bed. So this time when I told them to get dressed I waited for them to start before I left.
We had toast for breakfast, Teri fixing it and maybe some fruit too. At about 7:45 we started to walk to school. Teri and I had a big discussion about their backpacks and I didn’t like the packs we had bought for the Russia trip being used, but they had a lot of stuff to bring to school and nothing else fit it all so we did it. I was afraid that they would seem like freaks if they went to school with backpacks that I thought of as airline luggage. I thought that they were going to have enough trouble fitting in without starting out with some weird backpack given to them by their out of touch parents. It turned out OK, all the kids had backpacks of various sizes and they didn’t standout too much.
Walking to school I ended up carrying both bags. I don’t know if it was a scam run by those two to get out of carrying the bags or if they were just too heavy. I thought they were too heavy. Kids are supposed to carry bags weighing no more than ten percent of their weight and these bags were more than ten pounds.
We entered the school and were greeted by the people we met on our first trip there. I was allowed to walk the girls to their class room and we first went to Elena’s. I thought Elena was handling it better then Nastia so I continued on to Nastia’s class. There Nastia was introduced to some of her class mates and a fifth grader who spoke Russian. The teachers are all very nice and the principle is extremely helpful and nice. The ESL teacher is good too.
Everyone is so helpful and I have good feelings about it all. It is about time these girls catch a break in their lives.
I have read a history of their lives and it is not pretty. Their mother got a government pension for some mental disorder that Nastia and Elena are said to suffer from to a lesser degree and she would use the money to buy Vodka.
A very telling incident happened while we were at the airport. Teri told me about it. She and Nastia were out in front of the duty free shop and Teri said something about Vodka and buying some and Nastia very pointedly said NOOOOOH. And then Teri asked about Papa buying some and again another emphatic NOOOOOH.
It seems somewhere in her memory she remembers that her mother drank and what happened when she did.
Another story; we were at some friends house last year and someone was drinking beer and Nastia asked if he was a drunk?
It’s sad that a person and especially someone that young has those demons running around in their head. Maybe it will save her the grief of getting involved with alcohol and not being able to stop like her mother, hopefully for both of them.
After the Nastia was settled in her class, she was given a hook for her jacket and a desk for her books and stuff; I went to see how Elena was doing. She was at her desk with her jacket and gloves still on and did not want to remove them, I guess they were her safety blanket.
I left with the Principle, Mrs. Ryan and we walked down the hall and she kept telling me they would be OK and I told her I knew they would and that I was feeling worse than they were right now.
I left after another quick talk with Mrs. Ryan and our separate days were starting.
Teri picked them up at 2:30 and sat and talked with Mrs. Ryan and told the same stuff I was told in a phone call I received about 11:30.
For a first day it went well.