On becoming an American.

So our little Max is losing his Russian, and we're having mixed emotions about it. On one hand we love his Russian. Jory loves being called "Papa" and doesn't particularly want to transition to having all 4 kids call him "daddy". There are a handful of Russian terms that we all use that we are  hoping to continue using as a part of our Russian/American heritage - gouchet for eating, plavitz-ing for swimming etc.
On the other hand its a relief to think that I won't always have to introduce him as "my son who doesn't speak English". While it is a fun an interesting conversation piece, it sort of casts a faint shadow over our relationship. Instead of just being one of us, he's the outsider. One of these things is not like the others. And that's not ok. We look forward to a day when the casual observer will see a unified family of six instead of 5 Americans and a Russian.
So as we move forward with our "Russian-American" heritage we strive for a balance between letting Max let go of his heritage and making a bigger deal of it than he wants us to make.

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