This song is older… have you heard it? Get your tissues ready.
Category Archives: Adoption
Merry Christmas!
It is nice to be home. I managed to go upstairs last night and see the dogs. Lots of licking on my face… I never let them do that, but Nina was just so excited to see me. I was pretty excited to see her too… she is a special dog, very intuitive of how I am feeling. Silly when I need a laugh and calm and cuddly when I am upset or sick. It might sound funny if you aren’t a dog person yourself, but she and I have a bond.
One of the first things we did today was introduce the kids to the dogs. We brought Cache down first. He is a very good dog around kids, will let them pull his ears and jump all over him. He just laid on the couch and let us do what we wanted with him. Both kids were very scared. Aaron and I touched him and showed how calm he was. I put my mouth near his muzzle and made kissing sounds. The kids thought that was so funny and seemed to relax a bit when they realized he would not bite me. They petted him a bit, but they are still very scared. We let both dogs out a bit later. Nina, who has no kid experience to my knowledge, was a natural too. She often acts like a huge puppy, so that surprised me. Both dogs are good about keeping a little distance between themselves and the kids, but it is going to take more time. One minute they are petting them or reaching a hand out to be licked and the next their screaming in fear. Of course, this is normal, but I am ready to be past this and have dogs and humans peacefully co-existing.
We tried to go to Wal-Mart today. We wanted to pick some stuff up, like wipes, which we are totally out of. But, Wal-Mart was closed. Seriously Wal-Mart? I had much lower expectations for you. So, I was a little happy that Wal-Mart closes on Christmas and a little frustrated because we needed a few things. Target opens at 7am tomorrow and I am ready!
The rest of our day was just hanging out at home. We skyped with my family for awhile. We had our second annual gag gift exchange this year. I wanted to see the people who received our gifts open them. It was a lot of fun to see them open their gifts. Then, Ilya and Lena opened the gifts my parents sent them. Books which they just LOVED. Ilya got very excited because one of his books is all about trucks. We skyped for awhile longer, just talking while the kids played. It is great to see all 10 of them. I miss them a lot.
The Christmas tree is absolutely beautiful. My mom sent us my ornaments from when I was a kid. So, I gave Ilya and Lena those ornaments to add to the bottom of the tree. They LOVED that. My mom also got them their own bells, engraved with their names. It is a tradition in our family, a bell with your name engraved on your first Christmas. These bells are beautiful.
I am so grateful for all of these people we have in our lives. I know I’ve said it before, but it comes as a surprise to me constantly, how wonderful everyone is. Our friends and families have blowed us away with support. We still have our loan with family, but the rest of our adoption expenses are taken care of. Any money which we did not need, we are planning to put into the grant of a waiting child, specifically one of the boys at Ilya and Lena’s orphanage. We are not sure which yet, but we hope to soon be sponsoring one of these boys through Project Hopeful‘s Family in the Gap Program. I am grateful to have an opportunity to put something back into the adoption process.
Life here is so different from Ukraine. I want to share more about that later, but my American friends, we have it good. Really, really good. We are blessed. Blessed with things like clean water and building codes and vegetables free from giardia. I just wanted to share that with you.
Merry Christmas!
Overwhelmed
I was overwhelmed the second we stepped off the plane in Washington D.C. So glad to be off the long flight and so glad to be back in the U.S.
….the second that someone started singing “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”) on the PA system in Dulles.
…when we pulled into our driveway and even more so when we saw a package under the mat. A package from a dear friend who lives far away.
…when I stepped into our kitchen, food covering the countertops. Fridge stuffed full. Packages all over the kitchen table.
…when I went into the dining room and saw a beautiful table cloth, big enough for our huge table, two sweet scrapbooks, more cards and candy.
…when I went into the living room and saw the beautiful tree, and all of the other awesome decorations. Saw presents under the tree, ready for tomorrow.
…when I stepped into the bathroom, needing to give Lena a bath that very minute, not even thinking about where I had packed the shampoo. Set her into the tub, look down and there is a basket of bath goodies, including shampoo. And lotion, another thing that I had been needing for them.
I am so overwhelmed that I haven’t even gone upstairs yet to see my dogs, knowing that seeing them (and whatever surprises lie upstairs) will put me over the edge.
I have always loved Christmas, found it magical. I think this is even the first Christmas I haven’t been at my parents house, with my sisters and all. It is sad to not be there with them… I miss them a lot. But I am very grateful to be here in this moment, surrounded by so many wonderful people and spending it with Aaron, Ilya and Lena.
Last Day Here
Our flight will hopefully be taking off in 5 hours. I cannot wait. Well, actually, I am not looking forward to the whole flying with kids thing, but I cannot wait to be home. About 26 more hours and we will be home. Home the place with all the foods I love, medicines in abundance, a washer and a dryer, a big bed, and of course, my dogs. Well, two of the three. The third is still off having special adventures with Amy, Milo and co.
We made the kids take a nap today. Neither of them wanted to, but Lena has not thrown a single tantrum since. Ilya has actually been worse. So, Lena not throwing a tantrum sounds great, right? Well, I’d really like it if she slept tonight. 9, 10, 11, 12, 1… still waiting.
We also discovered something else which makes Lena happy, quiet and well behaved… videos of babies. I had the idea because she gets so excited when she seems my sister and her baby on Skype. Yesterday, she was being bad, so my sister showed her my nephew and she was just mesmerized. Well, they both loved the videos of babies laughing, but Lena especially can’t get enough. It’s pretty adorable, she just puts her head on her elbows and smiles. We have had no success with any other kinds of videos, so I am glad this works. We need something which they’ll sit calmly for.
Well, I need to go finish packing. I hope that all of our flights will be on time.
This is the video I wanted to show you yesterday, but had some trouble with…
How Things Are Going
We got all of the embassy stuff straightened out yesterday. Fortunately, an extremely nice and proficient woman works in Aaron’s HR department. She got us taken care of. We also had an American helping us at the embassy. He was nice. Even a bit Mr. Rogers like.
The kids are still hard. Scratch that, Lena is still hard. Ilya has his moments… he talks to us in Russian and we don’t understand. He gets upset over food. He can get really wound up. Yes, he just seems like a 3 year old. He can also be so cute. Like finding a piece of string on the floor and telling us it’s a snake or how good he’s gotten at signing “more please”.
Lena on the other hand is really hard. Incredibly hard and frustrating at times. She has thrown two fits in the last hour. The first because I wouldn’t let her play with dirty tissues and the second because she wanted to drink out of the big water bottle or Ilya’s cup instead of her own– they all just had water in them. We also had a fit today because she wanted to go the bathroom at the same time as Ilya. She will repeat behavior that she knows she should not do and will laugh until she has something taken away from her. I am hoping it is just because she’s 3. I talked to my sister tonight and she was encouraging. I haven’t felt in my right mind lately, so it was good to hear how she’d handle the situation. And that her bio kids act the same way. Lena still is not talking much. I am hoping that this because she was with children even younger than her at the orphanage and she needs to catch up. She has picked up some words and will use them without being prompted. She also seems very comfortable signing with us and will sign sometimes when she is upset too. The signs we’re using are all pretty basic… “more” “please” “potty” “drink” “eat” “sleep” “wait” “no” “stop”. They both have more, eat and please down very well and seem to understand the rest, but will rarely sign them to us.
Ilya drinks A LOT. 1-2 cups of water an hour. I am not sure why this is. He has only had two accidents during the day. The first was when we were walking home a few days ago and could not get him to a bathroom. The second was today, he was upset because we were waiting on dinner and Lena was upset. He cannot make it through the night now, but he has accepted this and will let us put diapers on him now. I am not worried about him making it through the night.
I am really ready for bed. I have not been feeling too great for the last couple of days.
Don’t they make it look like everything is just perfect here?
I had a video of Ilya learning to count in English for you, but it won’t process in Flickr, so you’re just going to have to wait another day.
a moose in moscow 