Finally...An Update...With Pictures!!!

Tom Says: Who knew that this blogging thing would be so hard...



Sorry All, It's been a busy month.  As you might know Mary is feeling better but that just means that she's busier than ever.  We've started schooling again, been to a dozen plus doctors appointments, started soccer for the littles, football for Ethan, met with the social worker(s) I'm busy at work (and school), and it seems that if only our days were about 6 hours longer, we might be able to get 6 hours of sleep. 

 But we're having good times, Tolly is doing well and Alina has gained some weight,  but still doesn't eat solids yet (Yaay pediasure/ensure/boost).  All the kids are too cute and we have pictures to prove it, so without further ado:

The Church threw us a baby shower.

Here we are in our Finest Ukrainian wear

Too Cute!

Bonus points for knowing it without Googling it

We met our friends here, dressing alike was coincidental (Homeschoolers what can you say)

Martha & the Girls

Boy with a stick, having fun, what else can you say!

Nice boat (or is it a ship) contains the answer to the above question

Dad says: uh oh, who went overboard? 

(nobody, really, I think I sneezed there)

Leaving the boat after a good ride

we'll try to do better and post once a week or so. Seriously though, the Lord is good, we're adjusting, and it's a good life Charlie Brown...

Stardate 8-30-11

"We're not lost Captain, only on a new course." This flight pattern is taking us all over the universe. From the moons of Joviality, to the Planet Content to the Wormhole of Stress. We're flying all over hoping to find our "new normal". Has anyone seen it? If so, give me the coordinates please so we can skip some of these sidetrips. :)

Update time in English:
1)I am doing very well. Strength is back and I feel great. Just in time too, cause I've got to get ready for another year of school :)

2) Alina has bloomed a little this week. She is interacting with others, playing, and exploring the house and yard. This is 100% more than she was doing previously. We can't wait to see what the next few months bring! She's still just drinking Pediasure and others,  but the GI Dr said that is fine for now. We've tried introducing foods to her again, only to have her spit them all back out. ARGH! The heart Dr. said that her pumper is great and he doesn't need to see her again for 3 years! Booyah! 



3) Tolly is adjusting beautifully. The language barrier is a problem sometimes like when he has to come back in from the van because he needs to be changed (pooped AGAIN). He thinks that he won't be allowed to go then and screams and cries during the whole time I'm trying to clean him up and explaining to him that "Yes, you are going. I just had to change you first."  As frustrating as that episode was, it makes me wonder how many times he got left out of things at the orphanage. I saw a couple of those times in person and it was heartbreaking to watch. 

4) Ethan had his first football game this past Saturday. Man, does he look so grown up in his uniform. Next game is tomorrow night and they're gonna rock!! Get ready for the Red & Black Attack!


5) Girls are all doing great and looking forward to Co-op again this year. 

6) Holly, Tolly and Trudy are all signed up for soccer. Can't wait to see how that goes. Trudy was born to play, look forward to seeing what she actually does on the field. It will be interesting to see if Tolly gets involved. The teams are 3-5 yr olds, so it won't be intense. :) 
Holly and Sophie are looking forward to Upward basketball and cheerleading this winter. Hopefully we can get the big girls to play too. This will be Phoebe's last year to play, so we'd like to see her take advantage of that. She's thinking about it.


7) My parents are up visiting from TX. They love their new grandchildren and have been a blessing to us. It's wonderful to see them embrace Alina and Tolly as they have.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Last, but not least....THANK YOU  to everyone who helped us out while I was in the hospital. From prayers to meals to kid sitting to cleaning, we appreciate all of you!! Thank you for serving our family!

Now, time for some pics:

Phoebe trying out a new hair spray.......JK

Must be something in the water.....

Holly and one of our bestest kid sitters and friends, Ashley.

His shirt says it all, "I'm a Little Firecracker"

Our "Almost Twins" Holly and Tolly.

Dear Aunt Mary., best dog groomer in the world!

Tolly riding his very own scooter!

Leanore and Alina, so excited to learn!! :)

Beautiful girls........

Climb, Climb, then slide. Having Fun!

Alina playing with Big Brother.

Trudy (2) and Alina (5), adorable sisters!

Sophie cruising on her two wheeler!

Yay

Mama is home, the last TB test came back negative and they released her a day earlier than we thought they would.  Along those lines, everybody needs to encourage her to stay off her feet and rest as she still has pneumonia.  The adage (true though it may be) that a "Mother's work is never done" doesn't cut it.  If she's to get better she needs to let me, the older kids, and our friends help more while her body heals itself.

Alina is now drinking 3-4 pediasures a day in addition to juice and other drinks; while she's not gaining weight, she's no longer losing weight like she was.  We've got a slew of Drs appts for her (and Tolly) over the next couple of months.

We finally had to tell Tolly no, the boy was eating himself sick, literally, he was putting it in faster than his body could process it, and it was starting to come back out in not so nice ways (this was about the time I told Mary she had to get better because I couldn't handle the poopy diapers).  Although last night he actually pushed his dinner plate away with some food still on it.  I hope he's learning that we will not let him go hungry...

Enough of that, Ethan's football is going well, he's off to BSA summer camp this week and we were able to make arrangements that he can still go to football practice for the week.

Phoebe and Lee both got to go to B-day parties this last week and had a great time; I just need to get the other girls out sometime and let them know how much I love them all.

Let me end with a question for the guys.  Men, are we too hard on our sons?  Is it because the mindset for boys and girls is different?  Are we trying to toughen them up unnecesarily?  Let me know what you think.

Thanks again for all the Love and Prayers!

Prayer Works

So, 2 of 3 tests have come back negative, praying that the third is good to go so Mary can come home soon.  (Tom's tired of changing poopie diapers)  Love you all, thanks for your prayers!

We're still here...

Unfortunately, here is the hospital.  Mary was admitted Monday evening and won't be coming home for a few days yet.  While technically they're treating her for pneumonia, they are concerned that it might be TB so they are running more tests.


Here are a couple of the promised photos:

Alina last weekend.

Cool Dude on his way to get big brother from football practice.

We serve a Mighty God.  While I'm tired, we've got lot's of help from family, friends, and church (which technically counts as both family and friends,)  They've helped to clean the basement and house, brought us dinner every night this week, and are visiting and helping with the kids. Special thanks to Nana Judith and Pappa Ross, they are all the way out from Michigan to see their adopted (all 8) grandchildren.

We've also had the first of many trips to doctors in order to get the kids evaluated.  They say that John's Hopkins is one of the best, I hope they prove it. Work is most cooperative with my taking the kids to their appointments while Mary's recuperating.

Thanks so very much to everyone.  Please keep praying for Mary.

We've been...

Sick.  Alina spent 3 days in the hospital, pneumonia among other things.  She has some scarring in her lungs, possibly from chronic bronchitis that wasn't treated over the years.  They did a bunch of tests and took some xrays to create a baseline of her condition.  She still doesn't eat much, which is probably why she's in the bottom 5th percentile for height/weight at her age (even for DS she's small.)  We have more appointments scheduled with some specialists and need to get additional referrals when we complete her physical and work up a comprehensive treatment plan. 

Sorry for not posting but Dad has had his hands full with work and the other kids.  We brought her home only to have to take Mary to the ER this morning because she has pneumonia in both lungs.  She's on 3 days bedrest in addition to the antibiotics and other medicine she's supposed to take.  Any bets on how much time she'll actually spend in bed resting?  I've threatened her with bodily harm if she chases any of the kids, but I think it was the threat of no chocolate that finally got her into bed.

More later and I promise; pictures this weekend.

Tom

We're not lost.....

just incredibly busy!! Sorry for not updating sooner. We have been home for five days now and it has been a whirlwind.

Vitaly was giggling and just about jumping out of his car seat when we pulled into our driveway. The OC (original crew :) were telling him and Alina that we're home now. He was one of the first ones out and kept looking at the house, then back at us. After being ushered inside, the NA (new additions :) were given tours and shown to their rooms. Tolly was so excited that he just had to grab a broom and start pitching in his share! We now know what job to assign him. AND he likes it, SCORE! It's hard to keep Tolly out of the kitchen. He's always looking for something to eat or drink. They had such a strict eating/drinking schedule at the orphanage. Since he's been with us, we pretty much gave him a drink whenever he asked. We learned after a few days that that probably wasn't the best policy since there was a rash of potty accidents. Oops!

Alina was only slightly less excited about arriving at her new home. She wasn't feeling well and pretty much quietly took everything in. She has started eating more, but it's still just a little each feeding. We're hoping to get referred to an occupational therapist or feeding clinic to find out how to teach her to chew.
We believe that she is starting to feel more at home now.  She has found "her" spot on the couch and knows which toys she likes the best so far. (the rocking chair and big legos)

There has been a lot of firsts in the past few days.
1) first time at our house,
2) the first time on a trampoline (Tolly looked at me like "what do I do now?" after being put on the big black circle with the net around. Little sister Trudy was in there with a soccer ball. He may have thought that it was some kind of closed cage match or something for all I know. Mad Max anyone?),
3) first time swimming in a pool (they both screamed at going in out of fear. Tom, Ethan and I eased them into it and they ended up loving the pool!),
4) Alina's first time in a grocery store (yes I count it) An elderly man in a wheelchair came up to Alina and starting talking to her and touched her hand. He said that his daughter has special needs and spoke very kindly to Alina. Warmed my heart! Also, five minutes later an employee came up and starting talking to her. With a lull in the conversation (cause Alina doesn't talk yet and doesn't give eye contact) I mentioned that this was her first time in a grocery store. The lady asked "why" and I said because she's only been in  the country for a few days. Our conversation turned to adoption and the nice lady shared with me that she wants to adopt a little girl from America. It was a nice God meeting.
5) Tolly eats pizza, hot dogs, corn on the cob we think for the first time. Still loves everything he can put in his mouth. He will scavenge the table and eat food left if not cleared off in time or he's not removed from the dining room. The boy has a hollow leg.
6) first time at an urgent care clinic for Tolly. Had to get his hand re-wrapped after swimming. Not one of his favorite firsts.

How many pictures do we have of these "firsts" moments, none. No, we didn't lose the camera again. Well, not really. It was lost somewhere in the unpacking of the van. Only now, it's found and we will start up again with the fotografs. :)

The OC have been wonderful in accepting their new siblings. Completely a God thing! We've tried to address their questions about Alina's habits and they have been satisfied with our answers. And very loving toward her! I didn't realize how small Alina and Tolly were until they stood next to Trudy (2) and Holly (4). Alina is the same height as Trudy and 5 pounds lighter (25 lbs) and Tolly is only up to Holly's shoulders. Wow!!  Ethan has embraced having a younger brother and finally a roommate! Although his room had to undergo some serious childproofing when we got home. Ethan says that Tolly is his alarm clock, mom likes that. :) Holly and Sophie (7) like to have turns "watching" their new sister and are being really big helpers. Phoebe (12) and Lee (10) have smothered the NA with hugs, kisses, and encouragements! We are truly blessed parents.

Alina has joined the Princess Parade and Tolly has just run in to the family like his spot was saved for him!

Okay, that all said, let me say this......Our adoption journey has been wonderful!! We definately know that God put us on this path and that these two little people were meant to be in our family. Forever.
That doesn't mean that our journey is over. Oh no, it's just begun. While there have been many wonderful moments, there have also been difficult moments, hard moments. With everyone of those hard moments, we learn a little more about our new children, about parenting and about relying on God. He never said following Him was going to be easy. But then again, everything that is easy is not always good and everything that is good is not always easy.  More on all of that another time....

We came home to find mold in our basement. Covering our furniture and some of the cloth toys. Tom has spent the last several days emptying the basement (furniture and stuff to the dump) and de-fungalizing and sanitizing. So the children have not been allowed down there since we got home. That means that everyone was allocated to the first floor or their bedrooms. After a few days, 8 kids in the same four rooms can be a little overwhelming. Little. I said little, right. So today I got the dynamic idea to take the Littles (all of them and our Lee who is 10) to the playground and then a walk by the bay. The artificial blonde chemicals I used must have come back to haunt me. What was I thinking. It was like 158 degrees outside. No one had fun at the playground, except Alina because she was swinging. So we decide to go for our walk. Tolly has a meltdown because he's now enrolled in the obedience school of Mommy says, several of the Littles and a Middle were complaining about the heat. And I only had a double stroller. Mind you, I had 6 kids ages 10, 7, 5, 4, 4, and 2. The younger four didn't want to walk. At all.  Determined that we're going to go for a walk, I put Alina and Trudy in the stoller and head off.
Needless to say that 20 minutes later, we're heading for the van to go home and most of everybody is crying. Oh, and I forgot to close the van doors during our walk. Uh huh, not a good idea. While in the van, the crying 2 yr old proceeds to ask the 4 yr old (Holly) why she's crying. Maybe she thought if they were crying for the same reason that they could form a union.

It was naptime when we got home.