Enjoying Christmas break

I'm going to start this post by being brutally honest. These last few days have really made me wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew. I fully recognize I make mistakes raising my boys, but parenting my Ukrainian boys has challenged me more that I ever thought possible.  I said today that I feel like I've been failing as a parent to them and that every time we take 2 steps forward we take 80 steps back. I've been to the point of tears.  I've questioned my abilities, my strengths and my decisions. Thankfully, I'm not alone.  I have a strong community of other host families who are experiencing the same emotions.    

But, today, today was different.  I don't think today could have been any better. I've learned that these boys work better when they know what to expect. They do better when I tell them our plans. When those plans include chores, their last item on the list is always tablet time.  

I had asked them a few days ago if there was any food from Ukraine that they missed.  They said potato dumplings and belyashi. Potato dumplings were easy - they are what we call peirogis. They loved them! Today we made belayshi. And they helped! We made 16 and all but 2 are left. They wanted potatoes in theirs (it's similar to a puff pastry and this one had mashed potatoes). To me it was bland, but they loved it!

A friend and her son stopped by after lunch and the kids all played.  They did well together despite the language barrier.

When they left we went outside and played in the snow for a few hours.  They had a lot of fun playing with the neighbor kids.  

We closed the night with our question activity. I want to learn more about them and I want to give them a chance to learn about me.  I tell them that they can ask my any question- none are off limits. Tonight I learned that Y wants to be a policeman and N wants to be a fireman.  They have some pretty amazing dreams!