Monday means school :) and court :)

Monday morning we gave Gerri one of her birthday presents:

She LOVES Barbie!!

We managed to get everyone dressed and at school on time!! :)

She loves learning her letters and numbers

Victoria loves playing with her stroller

Gerri is already counting to 10 and learning her ABC's

We got there just as they were eating lunch.  Gerri had everyone around the table saying "ya zavoot..." My name is ... It was SO cute!

Danny wanted to come with us but he stays till 2:30.

We talked to the Prek3 and Prek4 teachers and have decided to move Gerri up on Wednesday to the Prek4 class. She will go 5 days per week. It gives Victoria a little space :)

Yesterday Victoria got mad at Gerri and asked us if we could send her back to krain!!

The teacher says that Gerri just lights up while learning! She is soaking it all up.

After lunch we headed out to St Augustine to the courthouse to file the readoption paperwork at the courthouse.

I think Gerri is just settling right in :)

Victoria was just thrilled with the whole thing :)

We picked Danny up on the way back and did a quick shop and headed home.

I broke out some of the gifts the kids did not get while I was away:

Dan did not want to deal with Playdough or glue

After eating dinner of hamburger, cukes, carrots, and cheese the kids ate the cookies we bought:

Pink frosting of course :)

I have another parent at school that talked to her in Russian after school today and Gerri, who never stops talking, wouldn’t talk to her!! She kept looking at me to see if it was ok. When Eleni asked her if there was anything she wanted to ask us, Gerri answered that my mama can speak Russian so we are ok!! :)
Luckily her 2 boys also speak Russian so if we need a translator at school there is someone there!

We did stop by the Pediatrician's office to drop off her shot records and the little medical info that I have. The office ladies came out to visit and meet Ms Gerri. Gerri sees the Pediatrician on Monday and hopefully we get a quick referral for an ortho dr. We are really interested to hear what the process will be for her hip and feet.

To answer some questions I have received:
I was able to travel and do the adoption by myself because by Ukrainian law the adoptive parents can not be more than 45 years older than the child. Ukrainian law also does not allow singles to adopt.
So I was able to adopt as a married individual with consent from my spouse, as Dan is more than 45 years older than Gerri. We still had to do the entire dossier and immigration process together.
Both of our names were on everything. Dan could not be put on the court decree or birth certificate as the adoptive father because of the age law. So according to Ukraine I am the only adoptive parent.
We would have readopted anyway so Gerri can have a FL state birth certificate. The paperwork is pretty simple and we did it ourselves for Danny and Victoria.
Once we get Gerri's readoption done we will submit the paperwork for her US Citizenship.
Danny and Victoria had automatic US Citizenship once they touched US soil and got their passports stamped, but Gerri was not adopted by both parents so she is a legal alien with a green card.
We really debated about all of us traveling or not and it ended up working for the best as the kids got to stay in their routine, going to school and cub scouts. It was so hard to be by myself and if I didn't have other families there to do things with I probably would have gone out of my mind! Thanks so much to the Webbs, the Lewandoski's, Cindy, Sarah and Shelly!!
Dan did amazing with the kids!! The teachers at school said the kids were always on time, in the correct uniforms and had the correct snacks and lunches!!! Considering the last week I was gone the kids were on spring break he did amazing!!!
My hubby is the most amazing guy in the whole world!!
Of course he told me that he would have killed me if I was gone much longer :)

Any more questions just ask  away!!