The way home (part 2) and ...

not sure how that is a comfortable sleep...

playing with Misha

on the swings in our backyard with Sam

So… Here we sit in Toronto. Ivanna slept from around 3:00am (NFLD time) to 7:20ish, which is good. We played, had breakfast, got cleaned up and dressed then went for a walk – to the airport as the other direction had no sidewalks. It took less than 10 minutes to walk there. We walked inside a bit (it was about 7 Celcius in St. John’s this morning – so inside walking was good after being acclimatized to over 30 for the last 3-4 weeks!) and had a coffee at Tim Hortons and introduced Ivanna to donuts (pretty big hit). We walked back and then did the last second packing up and grabbed the shuttle back to the airport. Our girl was pretty tired by the time our flight was loading and had a bit of a fit as I tried to settle her and hold her so that she might sleep. We eventually tried some soft chewy candies (actually – oops – I bought sour candies and so had to suck the sour sugar off then she would eat them) which kept her quiet for seconds to minutes at a time. She slowly got tired though and even though she still was fussing a bit by the time the plane was taxiing her little eyelids were drooping and as we took off she fell asleep. She slept for 1 ½ hours (until I decided to try laying her down as we had an extra seat again – unfortunately she stirred and woke and didn’t go back to sleep despite probably needing it. Alas. Mom and Dad were back on. She actually did quite well for the rest of the trip and played mostly on her own in her seat with some books for most of an hour and only got a bit fussy right at the end (she really doesn’t like losing her freedom for take-off and landing!) Darren did a good job of distracting her with a puppet. Once we got into the terminal (gate service for the stroller is the most brilliant idea ever – much easier than yesterday) we had a nice meal (we were all hungry) of burgers for Darren and me (it’s been a LONG time without burger for Darren) and chicken fingers for Ivanna. Now as I write Ivanna is ripping around and playing. She’s enjoying watching the goings-on the tarmac and trying to entice her Daddy into a game of chase (which she loves, but gets incredibly riled up – which after yesterday we are trying to avoid - so Darren is doing a good job of emanating calm – or is it just the fatigue?) We are both feeling very weary and will be very glad to get home tonight. It’s still hard to believe all that has happened in the last 6 ½ weeks. In some ways it seems just like yesterday we were here waiting to leave to go the other direction and had no clue of what would happen when we got there. Now there is this amazing little girl who calls us ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ who is traveling HOME with us. There are many moments when this all still feels like a dream.

June 6th….the story continues
We are now safely home, but I will jump back to where we left off in Toronto. We managed to pass the rest of the time waiting for our flight and all were pretty exhausted by the time our boarding time came around – and passed without the plane boarding as it hadn’t arrived yet. We managed to keep Ivanna somewhat distracted from losing it (she was really tired and ready to sleep – airports are way too stimulating for toddlers!) When the plane finally arrived and we got on, she actually was pretty calm and fell asleep as the plane was taxiing. Unfortunately, it then proceeded to sit on the runway, in a line-up of planes and then the pilot came on to say that all takeoffs were being stopped as there was an electrical storm and the priority for air-traffic control was to get the planes in the air landed. We worried a bit as our connection in Winnipeg was only 40 minutes and we were approaching ½ hour delayed at this point. The positive to all this was Ivanna was sleeping (thankfully – neither of us had much for reserves to deal with a screaming kid). Eventually, we did take off, but it was an hour late. I couldn’t believe we’d come so close to only be stuck in Winnipeg for the night. Darren was quite calm about it and I just cried. I was feeling pretty desperate to just be home. Ivanna slept for pretty much the whole trip, but was quite restless and cried intermittently in her sleep – I think she was just desperate to have a comfortable space to move around (she does kind of thrash in her sleep) but was limited to the lumpiness of our laps). As we got closer to Winnipeg the pilot came on to say that we would be arriving 45 minutes late and said nothing about connecting flights, so I asked the stewardess to ask about whether we would make our connection to Saskatoon. She wasn’t sure and wasn’t able to get any answers from the flight deck as they were busy. All we could do was pray that somehow we would make it. As we landed and taxied in the pilot came on to say that the Saskatoon flight was being held for us as there were several people connecting and asked that people who weren’t on that connecting flight to remain seated and accommodate the rest of us getting off. Slava Bogu. We quickly got our stuff organized and stood up as soon as we could (along with most of the plane – so much for accommodating other passengers, people are funny). In any case we got out, grabbed the stroller and headed into the building. The Saskatoon flight had not even started to board yet – it had been delayed (what I prayed for as we left Toronto). I just sat down on a vacant seat with Ivanna and cried. The faucet was very leaky after that last and FINAL scare about not making it home that night. A few minutes later, an attendant asked if we were on the Saskatoon flight and came over to get our boarding passes and told us we could head into the plane. Ivanna had woken up on the landing from Toronto but was so tired still that she was very subdued. We settled into our seats and she quietly looked at a book and then fell asleep again as we took off. About halfway through that final and short flight, I realized my bladder would not make it to the end. We managed to shift Ivanna into Darren’s arms and I snuck out and then on my return did the reverse for Darren. Thankfully she’s mostly quite a sound sleeper. She slept right through landing into Saskatoon and just woke up with the seatbelt sign going off. She was a little trooper as we gathered our things and headed off the plane and was pretty happy to see her stroller but reached up for my hand as I walked beside her. We headed into the building and as we came out of the security area saw a sea of much-loved and missed faces in front of us. The cousins all had balloons and there was a great big sign welcoming us home. It was incredible. We were quickly surrounded by family and friends and the cousins swooped in to meet Ivanna. She did remarkably well considering she was surrounded by strangers and was exhausted. She was pretty quiet and rather stunned-looking but tolerated the adoring attention of the kids really well. They tied balloons on her stroller and gave her some to hold to (at which point she finally let go of my hand). She continued to do well, checking to see where we were when one or the other of us moved away briefly. After a lot of well wishes and hugs and a small smile or two from Ivanna as some people interacted with her, we (her parents who were not sitting down and were ready to drop) headed home in our car with Jonathan as our Chauffeur – he had picked up all our luggage and brought the car around. Ivanna didn’t fuss with the car seat – she just picked at and looked at the restraints with disdain and played with her balloons on the way home and began saying ‘paka, paka, paka’. Pretty sweet. We arrived home to a huge chalk arrow leading into our driveway and wonderful pictures and ‘welcome home’ filling the driveway. I took Ivanna directly up to her room and she went to sleep without a problem. We were completely overwhelmed by all the gifts and cards and pictures of us with Ivanna that filled our home and yard. That night Ivanna slept well until 6:30 the next morning. Darren did the same. I was awake from 2am until about 5:30 (forgotten how to sleep). Our first couple of days at home have been pretty amazing. Ivanna is adjusting well. She had quite a ball yesterday morning investigating her room and toys and the rest of the house. We’ve shut a few doors to limit just how much of the house she knows about right now – so as not to overwhelm her too much. I continue to sleep poorly and haven’t yet been able to nap despite being completely exhausted. Hopefully that will change soon. Things still seem to have a bit of a dream-like quality. Perhaps that will change with rest. We continue to be amazed at just how well Ivanna is doing. We are slowly getting to know better who this little girl is. We are discovering her likes and dislikes with regards to food (that can be quite funny – she has a pretty good whole body shudder when she doesn’t like something). We are guessing most of her food has been pretty bland so far in her life as anything with a lot of texture or flavour promptly gets the body shudder and spit out onto her tray. I am finding it both delightful and frustrating at different times. It would have been nice to have gotten more information from the orphanage about what foods she ate, but it is interesting to try different things with her – so far no major upsets to her tummy. This (like the whole process of adopting from Eastern Europe) is quite an adventure – probably not for the faint of heart. We are enjoying being home and are very thankful for our daughter and our family and friends who have supported us. We are blessed.