Heartbreak Hotel

We really are trying to bring closure to our blog page, but we just never seem to have enough time... Here it is, April 13th.. Tax day is two days away & we're not ready for it and we just had a conversation with Vera that ripped our hearts out...

The abridged version is that she is unhappy here and wants to return to Ukraine when she turns 18. A lot of it we can attribute to homesickness. Some of it we can attribute to anger about being told she could not attend the prom of "not her school".

She wants a family, but no rules, and believes that people with a lot of money are bad people...

She thinks Mari & I do not love each other (we're more like brother & sister than a married couple to her), partially because I don't bring her flowers or gifts... I tried to explain to her that the greatest gift anyone can give is their time.

She feels that since she was no longer going to the internot, all she really has to do while she is in the States is learn English, then not go to school anymore.

But she flat out told us that she could not allow herself to love us because she wants to leave. She does not really think of us as her family, though she calls us "Mom & Pop"...

We try to explain to her that several people spent a lot of time working to make this happen, but she does not see that...

Mari and I are at wits end... There's a lot more to this conversation, but these are the high points. We don't want to give up, but know that no matter what we do, she will be gone... Sooner rather than later...