April 26th Sana received her visa. Three days later she arrived in Fort Wayne to a rather large group of excited people. The local television station even showed up. I was filled with so many emotions. One thing we all learned quickly is that we loved this little girl. She is so strong and independent yet she is just a baby to me.
We spent the next couple of days doing lots of firsts. The first obstacle we had to overcome was that she was terrified of our golden retriever “Luke”. I didn't even know people could be so afraid of dogs. Cultural differences.
The first day we went to McDonald's for lunch, she loved it and we were recognized from our TV interview. She had her first pop cycle, I would say she has had about 100 since then.
Saturday we went to Abby's first softball game of the season. It was fun and she won. YAY!!! Got a hit and scored. GO ABBY!! After that we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate. Not my favorite place but everyone else loves it and Sana mentioned how she loves wings. One meal down. Can I just tell you that I can eat at Ruth Chris' for the same cost as feeding Jake and Sam at that place. And I prefer Ruth Chris!!
Monday we had our first appointment with Dr. Brennan, our family doc. He has agreed to take the case pro bono. I am pretty sure we completely overwhelmed him. So many things to consider and get worked out. Getting other doctors, hospitals & therapists on board to take the case pro bono, what shots she will need and so on and so forth. When we arrived home Sana's luggage was delivered. Oh yes, we also shopped for some necessities over the weekend.
Tuesday a trip to Sam's Club was in order. The kind lady at the front of the store asked if Sana wanted a cart. Sana said “what is this”? I explained and she reluctantly said yes. So that may have been a mistake. That was the last time I saw her until I hunted her down to go pay for my things. While I was paying she returned the cart and went to the car to wait for me (all without telling me). Lecture number one – don't leave and not tell me where you are going! I am the mom! (I'm sure there will be plenty more lectures).
Wednesday we met with the vice principal of the school. My kids go to a local public school for grade school and a private Catholic high school. The private school is very expensive and we can not afford to pay another tuition. Anyway the school is willing to work with us. Sana was so excited, she really had her heart set on Dwenger and had already made several friends. The hardest part was when they gave us the locker combination. Sana didn't even know what a locker was. And getting it open....we've all been there before. She finally caught on and was very excited to start school on Friday. All went well. She loved school and all the kids, everyone was so nice. The only glitch was lunch. She is not too excited about American food and apparently the pbj's are not so hot. Not sure how you could mess that up.
After school on Friday Bart went to pick Brittany up. Brit is Amanda's little sister with big brothers big sisters, she lives about a hour south of us. Anyway, we all went up to Michigan to see grandma and grandpa for Mother Day weekend. Sana did not take the drive to well. I thought she was car sick. When we arrived she went right to bed. The next morning she was still so quiet. Still not feeling well. As it turns out she was just having a lot of pain and it was making her sick to her stomach. I finally forced her to eat something and take some aleve. Magically in about a hour she was her loud, funny, crazy self. I was pretty sure my in-laws thought I was lying about her. Now they got to see the real Sana and how all the kids interacted together. It was really fun. She and Jake had a argument over whose grandma it was. They were pulling her saying “MY GRANDMA”. So funny. She also hid the cookies from Jake and kept offering them to everyone else. When it came to him she would say “MY COOKIES!!” We also got to talk to Josh on the phone and skype with Amanda. It was a really good mothers day weekend. I am so grateful! We got home late Sunday afternoon only to discover that we (& I use that word loosely, it was really Bart) had left all of our dirty laundry in Michigan. Oops
Monday after school Sana got into the car and exclaimed “Mom, the boy in Leadership class is sleeping, he wastes his opportunity for education!” Oh the things we take for granted. Another softball game, this time we didn't win and we froze our butts off. Sana kept saying “mom, it's summer, why is it so cold?” Welcome to Indiana, at least it's not raining. She also spent the evening trying to convince me that it would be a good idea for her to get a drivers license. She's a funny one, I think Brittany and Jake are enough for one year. On Friday when I came to pick up from school Sana was nowhere to be found. I popped into the school office and asked if anyone had seen her. Mr. Tone, the principal, told me that some nice girl was with her in the cafeteria teaching her something. I am thinking that is so sweet, wonder what they are working on, math? English? Ha! She was teaching Sana to buy Cheetos from the vending machine. Sana was quit impressed with this machine and I predict will be visiting it often.
On a more serious note, when a 16 year old child has only had 2 years of school they tend to be a little behind as far as American standards go. I am nervous and worried that she will not be caught up enough to stay at Bishop Dwenger. She is very bright but there is a lot of catching up to do.
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