Our first day home…

The first morning in her new home, Haley slept 10 hours (although she fought tooth and nail to keep from falling asleep!). So much had happened in the 3 days we had taken her from the orphanage (the only home she’s ever known). A 12 hour train ride, 2 long days in Kiev without a nap, 17 plane ride to get to the USA, becoming a US citizen…I think it all finally took it’s toll and she collapsed in exhaustion. She woke up about 10 am and I held her in our rocking chair where she quickly fell back asleep for another hour. She was zonked out. When she woke up, she quickly ate a banana and some yogurt, then watched "The Tour de France" with Hunter on the couch.

When she finally woke up, we were all just learning how to be a family…what our routine would look like, how she would react to being in a new environment. We took her to the dock out back to feed the ducks and she loved it! She started out with 2 pieces of bread, after 3 trips back to the house for more...we finally just took the rest of the bag. We went through the entire loaf! What fun!!

She was doing so well, we called my mom and told her we’d come visit that very day. Who knew how long this good behavior would last and we wanted to get a visit in with family while it was still going really well. We put Haley in the car without any fuss and she rode the 15 minute drive to my mother’s place without any fanfare! WOW. One hurdle out of the way, we thought.

She was very shy at my mom’s and buried her face in my chest for the whole hour. She was dying to play with the toys they had given her, but couldn’t muster the courage to leave my lap. After about an hour, the temptation overtook her fears and she climbed down and played with some of the toys they had given her.

We stopped by Target to buy some baby gates to protect her from the stairs in our house. Haley announced she had to "potty". Fortunately, we had brought the little plastic potty, so we were able to accommodate her right there in the parking lot. Thank goodness for minivans!!

Our plan once in Target was to run in, get the gates and exit. I would take her back to the car if she was too overwhelmed by all the people and things in the store.

We headed straight to the baby aisle…but had to pass by the shoe department on our way. When she saw the shoes, she arched her back and pointed. Hunter went on to find the gates and I stayed with Haley as she SHOPPED FOR SHOES!! It was an amazing sight. She surveyed the selection and had a definite opinion of the shoes she liked and did not. She found a paid of black Mary-jane shoes and quickly put them on her feet. They were too big, but she walked around proudly. Then she spotted a pair of hot pink boots. She quickly sat down and shed the MJ’s for the boots! Meanwhile, Hunter had found the gates and had returned to find his daughter amidst her shoe selection. He said, “What are you doing?” I told I told him I had nothing to do with this. She was on her own selecting out the shoes she liked and didn’t like and was very picky about what she wanted to try on. We picked out a pair of sandals with flowers and showed them to her. She turned and said, “Ni” (no in Russian) and went on searching. He said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” It was hilarious. I told Hunter that is was proof that girls love shoes, whether they grow up in an orphanage or not, a love of shoes is innate in all women! We could see this was not a learned response—she had never been in a store in her life!! Boys somehow fashion anything they can find into a gun…girls shop for shoes!!

She's all girl!!