It's quiet time, time to say God bless America

This was written back on June 29th 2012 when we were adopting Leonid and Annya

I was a little kid in the sixties, yes it was a long time ago and god yes I'm too old to have all the birthday candles put on my cake.
  When I was a little kid, patroitism was a dirty word. Malikey McCourt, whose brother wrote Angela's ashes was on WMCA radio and would rile up everybody by saying he would wear the American flag for his underwear with no problem at all. What all this is getting at is this country is an amazing place. Iv'e only been to two other countries, but I look at the kids who come over here and are put on display. They put up with us taking their picture, speaking in a laungage they don't understand, eat food different from theirs all in the hope to become part of a family. I'd like to tell both of them their is nothing to worry about, they are going to stay, but I can't. What if something happens and we find we can't adopt them. That would be cruel. They would think it was their fault. We still don't know where the money is coming from for this adoption. We are still working on refinancing the house which will give us some of the money, then we will try for a second and have faith in god that it will happen. Their are other options like taking a loan from 401k monies and closing my e-trade account so if worse comes to worse we'll make it. I just feel this is meant to be.
  All of these problems are nothing compared to what these kids have been through. We bought them home and on the ride home they got to use Teri's Ipad and my smart phone and when I got home I went and read from my ereader. I got nothing to complain about.

Elena gets out of Felex Festa Middle School

Yes, Elena graduated from Felex Festa Middle school. She ended the school year with just under a b average, which I must say is pretty impressive for someone who didn't speak English five years ago and went almost catatonic when yelled at and who had behavioral issues for most of her time at Felex Festa. At the ceremony I was going to talk to Mr. Clemente, the dean of student behavior because I hadn't talked to him in several month and I'd been used to talking to him and Dr. Benjamin on a regular basis. I got to see Dr. Benjamin more often because her office is located in E-wing where Elena was and Teri and I would always run into her.
 The ceremony was a tight one hour affair. The
The kids walked in and sat in the first three rows of the auditorium. The School principle, made a speech, a student made a speech, a teacher described the awards some kids were getting and all of that was fifteen minutes. There were about five classes and each class lined up, half the class would be introduced, everyone would get a moment to clap , they would leave, then the second half would come up. This went on through five classes. Elena's was the second class to be introduced. Awards were given out with the certificate commemorating the day. Like I said a tight ceremony.
   Afterwards we went to Dave and Buster's for

The ultimate eye roll

some poor food. The girls had hot dogs wrapped in pretzel dough and looked good, I didn't try it. Teri had soup and some potato bits covered in bacon and some dipping sauce that was OK. I had a chicken Caesar salad and it was mushy like it had been sitting around for several hours. The chicken was not hot and over cooked. Won't go there again soon. Ten years ago I used to go there just for that salad, I remember it being really good. About three quarters of the way through lunch it was time for Nastia to go to work for training. Of course Teri walked Nastia to the theatres. Would You expect less? Teri, Elena and I went into the game room, which was why Elena wanted to go there. She was having some fun, but it didn't look like alot. So Teri said I should start playing some games with her, so I did and I think that was what she needed, someone to play with.
 

ALL HER TEACHERS LOVE HER!!

 The last game we played, Air Hockey, I left my card on the game. When I went back to get it,I start looking around. This young kid comes up and hands it to me. I buy them a game of air hockey and run off. It was a little cheap, but at the time made me feel good. The card has 25,000 points on it.

Nastia at the prom and her first job

Nastia was invited to the Prom by her boyfriend, David. The tickets were $90.00 each, a lot for a kid who works at Burger King when he is not at school. Nastia was asked to buy the flowers, a little odd, but again the price to go to the prom was a little steep. The plan was for Nastia and David to take a limo to the prom with some friends. There would be no after prom stuff. When I went to my girlfriends prom, I was twenty-one, she was eighteen, we went to the Jersey shore after the prom. I'd never let Nastia go to the shore at 16.
 David, driven by his Aunt picks up Nastia and the two are dropped off where the Limo is going to pick everyone up.  They go to the Prom, where Nastia dances and David dances a little, they have a great time and Nastia gets home around midnight.
    We were at the movie one night when Teri sees some help wanted signs. Teri was the one against Nastia getting a job until she could make change tells her to put in an application. There was a lot of not getting back to Nastia and her going to the theatres asking if a decision had been made and being told it was too busy to talk.

 We were at the movies at the Palisades Center and they were doing a major overhaul and they had help wanted signs up. Teri, who was against
  Finally, she is told to come in for an interview and again she is finally hired. Eventually she is told to come in on Sunday at 6pm for training. She stays until 10pm. The whole time they are training her. They go over the dos and don'ts, about what to do if there is a robbery, and I pick her up at 10. Her schedule says she will work on Sunday and Tuesday from 6:30 until 10:30. When I see this We go back into the theatre

At Amanda's graduation

and I ask for her manager. My understanding of child-labor laws and my desire not to get back home after 11pm motivates me to ask why she is working until 10:30, when the law says 10pm, I even ask it nicely. The women, I have forgotten her name says if it is during school, she can't work past 10, but during the summer 11 is legal, She might of said 10:30, either way, she said they follow labor laws closely. Not sure of that part of the law, I thank her and we go.
 Sunday, her first offical day of work Nastia gets to work the concession stand, (Oh no the change monster)  When I pick her up She says most people paid with debit or credit cards. She learned to make pop-corn and it was fun, Tomorrow she gets to clean theatres, she's not anxious to do that, she says it will be boring. After tomorrow, I am sure she will never forget to clean up her garbage after a movie.