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Reese
© 1999 all
rights reserved
Hi! My name is Ruslan Joseph Kenneth, but you can call me Reese (no
one can pronounce "Ruslan"). I was born in '94 and I turned four
in '98. So far, I
think Four is going to be a good age for me, because you see, I was adopted this
December!
Here I am after being in America for only
a week! (Told you I was cute!)
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Until then, I'd been living in a little
orphanage in central Russia. It was a nice enough
place, but I'm really loving living in America!
I've only been in the States for 3 weeks at the time
of this writing, and my mom is helping a lot. She's
good for stuff like that.
See, I've been waiting my whole life for a real family
of my own, and my mom has been waiting for me for
almost as long! She saw my photo when I was only
1 1/2, but she wasn't very interested in baby boys.
She wanted a big girl (why? I'm still trying to figure
that one out, myself!). Anyway, she got the "big girl"
first, my sister Natasha, who is 8 and VERY wise:
she shows me all sorts of things about living in
America, like how to buckle myself up in the car, how
to pick out socks in the morning, and how to hold our
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| cockatiel bird. (She also shows me things like how to
hide dirty socks under stuffed animals so we don't have to put them in
the laundry basket, how to sneak our dog table food, and how to get up
for water after we've been duly put to bed at night!) I guess she got
tired of "big girls" be-
cause she decided it was time to go get me! (A VERY good idea.)
One thing that is really cool about coming to America and having a
family is that they say I'll be able to get some help with my feet and
hand. See, my Russian mother lived near a nuclear plant in Russia and
lots of |
Here I am with my new mom and sister.
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Here I am in Red Square with my mom. She thought this was such
a cool place, but all I thought was that it was cold.
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kids were born with limbs like me. I have feet that
don't look right or work right and I need to get brand
new ones. That way, I'll be able to walk and run and
play like everybody else! Won't that be cool?! Also,
I have a short right forearm with only one finger,
and they think maybe that can be helped a little, too!
So I think this "America" and "Family" business
is pretty neat.
For now, though, I get around pretty well on my
knees. I can go really fast, and I like to run and
sliiiiide on the hardwood floors in my pajamas (they
are the slipperiest)! Even Natasha can't do it as
well as me! I'm anxious for my "operation", but I
don't really know what that is, yet, and I think they
are making me wait until I can understand it all
better. That's okay. I'm enjoying all these cool new
things in my life, like: light switches, baths, all the
milk I can drink, my really cool stroller (I call it my
"little car"), airplanes in the sky, pull-back-and-go
toy cars, and my dog. I also think flushing toilets are
REALLY cool!
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| Mom seems as pleased with me as I am with her, cause
she keeps taking pictures of me! I can hardly turn around without that
bright flashy light going off in my face! It seems to make her happy, so
I let her do it. (Maybe she'll grow out of it.) To show you what I mean,
I'm sending some photos along. (Natasha thinks SHE'S the cutest, but
really, the truth is, I am. I just let her go along thinking she's the
cutest.)
I hope you liked my story. I'm sure Mom will help me update it
later on.
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We're almost home! Here I am in the Amsterdam
airport. They had another one of those McDonald's eating places
again!
Hope they don't have too many of those in America.
Anyway, here I am in the McDonald's play area where I had my first
try on a slide! Mom sure did look silly trying to show me how to
do it. Once I figured it out, it was REALLY cool!!! I hope
they have THOSE in America!!
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Melissa
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