We Are The Champions....Again!!!!

The kids played such a great game tonight. There has been some controversy about our coach and our team because they have won all but one game, but tonight I think all of that was laid to rest....they sent in the big guns to umpire the championship game (President and board members of the Little League). It was nearly a shut out and the game was an easy one for the Texas Rangers. They proved they were a great team and had great coaches.

It is bittersweet since most of them won't be allowed to play on the same team next year, but it was a very good ending to a great fall season! One I am sure every boy will remember and tell his kids when they are growing up. Great memories!!!

Second Thanksgiving Dinner

About a month ago Luke was telling Tetyana about Thanksgiving and what our traditions were. Here is what he said:

"Every year mom cooks a whole bunch of food with turkey and stuffing and we eat on the big table in the dining room. It is so good Tetyana, just wait!"

So when the idea came up about going to the beach for Thanksgiving we weren't sure what to do. We are working hard to establish traditions for our family and I really didn't think Thanksgiving was that big of a deal for Luke. After listening to him explain it to Tetyana we realized the way we celebrated Thanksgiving was a big deal to him.

Taking the kids to the beach was a surprise and we didn't tell them until we were packing up the car. At the beach we planned to eat a Thanksgiving dinner that was prepared by a grocery store. I knew I had to make Thanksgiving dinner at home also so Tetyana could experience the way we always have done it....the way Luke told her about.

Yesterday I made our traditional Thanksgiving dinner and we ate it at the big table....just the 4 of us. It felt perfect. We video taped the kids telling us what they were thankful for but you can't hear the audio very well. Here is a picture of my new apple and potatoe peeler and our first real family Thanksgiving dinner picture:

Hunting For Sand Dollars

On Friday we went to Caladesi Island to do a little shell hunting. Coach Mark kept telling us how many sand dollars he heard were on these beaches and all any of us could think about was finding sand dollars!!

Before lunch we hunted up and down one side of the beach and didn't find one sand dollar. We got a tip from another shell hunter that we were headed the wrong way, so after lunch we started down the opposite side of the beach.

Luke was the first to start finding sand dollars and the next thing I knew everyone had some but me! I was dead set that I was going to find a sand dollar if it meant missing the ferry back! They were pretty tricky to find but once you found one you could spot them right away. Here is how they looked in the ocean...see it there in the center of the photo? I ended up finding about 6 sand dollars and can't wait to hang one of them on our Christmas tree when we decorate it!

The next thing I knew Luke and Johnny found 24 sand dollars!!! Can you believe it? Luke had 2 handfuls of these beautiful shells! He was the master sand dollar hunter! Here is Johnny, Luke and Coach Mark with their findings....

Thanksgiving Week

We have had a great Thanksgiving week. We went with Luke's coaches family to Dunedin Beach from Wednesday to Friday. The kids had a great time playing and we all had a great time just relaxing. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving Day...

This is the four of us before we feasted!! Tetyana could hardly wait to eat!!!

Here is the kids table.

Here are Luke and Johnny being silly as boys will!

Tetyana loved all of the food but didn't like the "sauce" (gravy) on her potatoes. Has she never eaten mashed potatoes and gravy? She pigged out on the turkey which wasn't a surprise because she adores chicken.

The men went to a hockey game Wednesday night which left Tetyana and I free to find something for the girls to do. One of my oldest and dearest friends lives in Tampa, which is next door to Dunedin, joined us for dinner at PF Changs. Yet another first for Tetyana and again she loved the food....see a pattern here? It was so great to have a girls dinner with Becky and her daughter and catch up with each other.

I will fill you in in the next posts about what the rest of our week entailed....we have been busy as usual!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and eats a ton of turkey and pie!!!!

We are excited to share T's first Thanksgiving with her. I know she will eat a ton!

Have a great day!

Championships

Can you believe it???!!!!! The Texas Rangers are going to the championships!!! We were undefeated until todays game but this one didn't count toward the championships.

The boys have had 4 games this week and it has been the coldest week ever!!! Last night they played at 7:30 and had to be back at the field today at 12. They played a good game but they lost by one run.

There has been so much controversy this season because our Coach has had such great teams for 4 seasons. They are calling him a cheater and a liar and it is so not true!! He is a great guy and is very dedicated to the league. His poor wife never sees him!!

So, the championship game is the first week in December. We are ready for the season to be over but we are also sad. If they really split up the boys who Mark has been able to keep together I will be really sad. We have met some great families that make going to the games so much more fun.

Go Rangers!!!

Shuttle Launch

When Drew and Luke went camping with the Boy Scouts they were able to sit directly across the water from the launch pad where the shuttle took off. They said it was so awesome. We usually see the shuttle take off (when we remember) but they said this was even better than they imagined.

They were able to see the part of the shuttle that drops off into the ocean and the big ball of fire. Look at moon to the right of the shuttle. Aren't the pictures cool!!!

Life In The Orphanage

As Tetyana learns more English she has been able to tell us more about her life in Ukraine or "Krain" as she calls it. When we visited her at the orphanage we were so impressed with the facility and they way they took care of the children. Boy, were we misled! Don’t get me wrong, she was cared for and to this point has never said she was abused there or that she really wanted to leave. I am not even sure she knew this was an option since they have not had any families adopt from her orphanage or group since before she was placed there. The orphanage was clean and they had running water and heat but there was a big show put on for us during the weeks that we visited.

Each day we visited Tetyana she had on new, clean clothes and she would be in a different outfit for the morning and afternoon visits. She now tells us they wore old clothing and that the clothes she was in and the other kids were in when we went to see her group were only worn when we were there!

She also told us they used a squatter toilet not a regular toilet like the one we used during visits.

The director told us they showered/bathed each day but T says they only did once a week. No wonder why she asks me why she needs to take another shower after 2 days. She isn’t used to being washed so much!

Even though they showed us all of the food they fed the kids, I am waiting for her to tell us that there was a limited amount. She has food issues that we are diligently working through. If she doesn’t see a snack in her backpack for school she will nearly have an anxiety attack. Also, she is so thin. They had to have only fed the kids small amounts.

When we toured the orphanage, they showed us a gymnasium, dental office, psychology play room and told us they had a pool. Tetyana said she had never seen any of these places and they did not have a pool!

I guess this is why they told us there was Chicken Pox in one of the groups and we would have to visit in a tiny room. They didn't want us to see what was really happening there.

Report Cards

It was report card time a couple of weeks ago and I am so proud of my kids!!! Tetyana has been working so hard. She and I do her regular homework that is assigned by the teacher then we do about another 45 minutes to an hour. I am using Hooked on Phonics and some free educational websites to work on reading and math skills (please leave me a comment if you know of some good sites). Although she was in school in Ukraine for nearly a year, I am not sure what they were teaching her. Her math skills were nonexistent and obviously she had to start all over in reading.

All of her skills were at grade level on her first report card except reading, which we expected. She will get more one on one attention in the classroom as well as go to the reading lab once it begins for further reading support.

She gets very frustrated when she is reading and most days when she melts down into tears I have her take a break laying in her bed to recharge. I am so not used to the tears. I do make her work hard and expect a lot out of her. Yesterday her teacher called me and told me how proud she was with Tetyana’s reading. She said she read a short story extremely well and couldn’t believe her progress. When I told Tetyana what her teacher had said, I asked her why did she think she was doing so well. She didn’t have an answer but I told her it was because of her hard, hard work. That our work together was paying off!

I would like to have her catch up to her peers at some point. She is so tall and she is starting to make comments about being so much older than the other kids. I want to protect her from hurtful comments kids may make in the future. She is already different because of the language. I just don’t want kids to tease her. It would break my heart!

Luke did fantastic! He brought home straight A’s. He has never done this before. He has always had a majority of A’s but also some B’s. He rarely likes to work hard and says “Mom, what are you worried about? A C is average and it’s okay to be average.” It drives me insane!!! I am such a type-A and like things done completely and perfectly. He could careless if he grew up and worked at 7-11. The hardest part is, he is so intelligent.

This year I told him and myself (and everyone else so they would hold me accountable!) that I was going to back off. That if he failed and had to repeat the 4th grade then this was the best year to do it in…not in middle school. I guess it worked. I have not pressured him to study for spelling (he has not brought home less than 101 points on every test), ready or complete his homework. His teacher agreed that he is a hard kid to figure out and is still trying to figure out what motivates him. He also told Luke that he will need to continue to work hard and not just expect that he will earn straight A’s in the coming quarters.

For now, I am thrilled with both kids academic progress!!!!

Scouts

Both kids have really been enjoying Scouts. Luke earned his Bobcat badge recently as well as many other badges. He also was voted in by his troop as the “Denner”. This makes him responsible for helping to set up before the meetings, clean up and a few other general responsibilities. I figured since he was new to an existing troop he would not be voted in this time. But it was a tie between he and one of his good friends. The power is rushing to is head and he is “commanding” Cole (his friend in Scouts and school) to do or not do all sorts of things! When I finally told him that he didn’t have power really, he still went about bossing his friends around (in a funny way). “Cole, you may not eat anymore Big Mac’s while I am the Denner!” I am sure Cole is staying away from Mc Donalds!

I took Tetyana and her troop on their first field trip to the children’s theater. We saw “The Not So True Tale of Robin Hood”. It was really cute and they even made reference to Girl Scouts and cookies!

I think this will be my first and last year as a leader. First, the Girl Scouts as an organization does not provide much support for the new leaders and many parents use me as a babysitter and don’t realize how much time I have to devote to planning and holding a meeting. I had one mom just not bring her child to the field trip without calling to let me know. When I emailed her that evening to ask if her girl was going to return, I have still not received a response! I had the hardest time getting anyone to volunteer to be the cookie parent and still don’t have a camping parent. But they all want their girls to participate in these events. Can you tell it really bugs me!

Luke is away this weekend with Drew at his first Boy Scout camping trip. He has never been camping before but it is right up his alley. He would live outside if we let him. Hopefully Drew will have a good time…oh yea, I am going to Vegas to visit my best friend!!! Tetyana is staying at home with Paula where she will be spoiled rotten!

Halloween

The kids really had a great time on Halloween. This being Tetyana’s first Halloween, we decided not to throw our annual Halloween party but to take her and Luke Trick or Treating. We started the evening at a friends house where we had pizza and the kids played some. Since it was a baseball family, most of the kids were boys. Tetyana didn’t mind (this is a whole other post) and jumped right in. The kids ran around for awhile and then we began Trick or Treating. I swear they looked like a swarm of bees! They would all pile on to a porch and get their candy and then all at once they would run off to the next house. I don’t remember doing it this way. I remember checkout out the new candy I got and walking to the next house. One year, we did go on roller skates. After we did their block or village as they are called in our community we decided we wanted to Trick or Treat at some of our friend’s houses and then our street.

The poor woman in the pink shirt didn't know what she was up to when she opened her door to us. I asked her to take a picture with Tetyana since she was the very first house she was Trick or Treating at. She was very nice and agreed!

I don’t think Tetyana could believe her good fortune. Free food and it was CANDY! My kids don’t get many sweets so this was a real treat for them. We got home around 9:15 with some very full bags and tired feet.

Over the next couple of days the kids sorted and swapped their candy and then it was time to give it to mom. I had them pick out their absolute favorites and then tossed the rest. I hid their favorite candy away. Funniest thing about it was, they never asked for it again until just yesterday. They think they want it so bad but really didn’t miss it.

It was a really fun night for all of us!

Tetyana's First School Program

Tetyana's first grade class, along with the other first graders put on a Fall program last week. The classes all chose a fall holiday and dressed up and sang songs that represented the holiday. Tetyana's class did Halloween.

The kids practiced for about 2 weeks and they were so excited to have their show for friends and family. Here are some pictures from the program...

I have noticed when Tetyana doesn't know the words to something like the Pledge, she over accentuates the words. During practice for the play her teacher noticed the same thing and that she spent a lot of the time yawning. She was better and not over accentuating the words but we did catch a lot of yawns....

I guess singing really takes it out of her!

The whole first grade did such a cute job!!

Where Do I Start????

Life has been crazy this past couple of weeks!!! Between sports, school, scouts and Halloween we have been a super busy family. Let me back up a few weeks and I will start with baseball.

Luke's team is undefeated. This is the only team in his league that is undefeated! Feels a little like last season....some of the same players, same coaches and thank God, some of the same parents. They make the games so fun!

Luke is in a weird place in baseball this season. When he first started playing, he had absolutely no idea how to play. He became really good at hitting and was usually the 3rd or 4th in the line up order because he was always good for at least a base hit which would move everyone around the bases. We used to call him "Hollywood" because he would round the in field just to give his fans a little wave. Well last season we were in Ukraine for most of the season and when he came back he was just off. No mojo, no Mr. Hollywood. This is our first season in the AA league which means the kids pitch the entire game and not the coaches. For the last 4 games when Luke is up he just stands there...won't swing the bat. Sometimes he ends up walking but most of the time he just strikes out. When we asked him why, he told us he was scared because there were 2 outs and he was up. We explained to him that if he just stood there the bat would never hit the ball and he would be out, but if he swung at anything that looked good then he would most likely hit it. Drew took him to the batting cages and he started swinging again! He did really great. Today when he got up we told him that he better swing! He did. He struck out once and walked once but at least he didn't just stand there.

He has really started to like the fielding part of the game and wants to be in field, in the thick of it all. But his coach, who I will say is a great coach and guy, rotates him outfield a lot. This, on top of the hitting slump, has Luke really discouraged. We have been working with Luke, telling him if he doesn't ask for what he wants in life he may never get it. He asked his coach last night at practice to be the short stop and today he wasn't given the chance. He pitched on inning and was on 2nd base once but the rest of the game he spent in the out field. What do you say? It is so hard to see your children disappointed and experience real life.

He has been pitching a lot more than he ever has. He really is just beginning, but the intensity is so great to watch. Especially because Luke rarely focuses on something so hard. This is a bad picture but you can see in his face how hard he is concentrating.
The picture below is Luke getting the game ball. He got this one for pitching a great inning and for a great play at 2nd base.


The season is about 1/2 over and we are getting ready to enter the playoff games. It would be so great if we made it to the championships again and won!!!

How Could It Be 6 Months Already?

We have been home for 6 months! The time has flown by. It was just a year ago today that we got our travel date. We had absolutely no idea what was going to happen when we went to Ukraine. We were so lucky and found the perfect child for our family. I remember being in Ukraine just wishing to get home to start our lives. Here is a little recap of what Tetyana has experienced since becoming an American citizen and what she is like and a picture of when we first met.

• Tetyana has learned to swim.
• Tetyana has learned to ride a bike.
• She is learning to read and spell and has great strengthened her math skills.
• She has celebrated her first American birthday, 4th of July, Mother's and Father's Day and is anxiously awaiting to get dressed up for Halloween.
• She only speaks English and has forgotten almost all of her naitive language.
• She loves Hanna Montana and High School Musical.
• She is still very hungry and wants to eat 24/7. We haven't found anything she won't eat.
• She has only gained 2 pounds but has gained 2 inches.
• Her table manners are so much better.
• She is very obedient and very easy to parent. She is anxious to please us.
• She is very emotional and can turn on the tears at the drop of a hat.
• Tetyana loves school and is happy to do extra homework to get caught up.She has started ballet but I think she would prefer jazz.
• She is a Girl Scout.
• She loves TV and would stand right in front of it all day if we let her.
• Tetyana has learned to use a computer and mouse. Her favorite websites are Club Penguin and Webkinz.
• She is already boy crazy!
• She has no sense of style and needs a lot of help matching her clothes each day.
• She is very friendly and will walk into any situation and make friends.
• She is cavity free!

Here is how we are adjusting as a family:

• Luke often wishes he were the only child again but is happy when he wants someone to play with. They fight all the time over the stupidest things!
• Drew is worried about the cost of feeding her but is still smitten with her. She is thrilled to see him at the end of each day.
• I am still working on bonding with Tetyana. I have come to realize that it is okay that it is taking time. I am trying to let go of the pressure I was putting on myself.

We can't wait to see what the next 6 months brings her and our family!

I Admit It. I Did It....

I broke into the Halloween candy stash! I purposely put the Halloween candy in the utility closet...a place I hate to go...just so none of us have to look at it. The candy would not be calling out to any of us, begging us to eat it. But despite being locked away in a nearly safe place I heard it calling my name. I couldn't help myself! I picked out 2 Snicker bars and ate them in 4 bites! Oh, they were soooo good! Now what will I do if the kids ask for some? Say "No, we are saving that for Halloween?". What will I do if I want more tomorrow?

Sometimes it is good to be the grown up and make the decisions!

Daytona Beach

A couple of Sundays ago we needed something to do so we drove to the closest beach which is a toss up between Daytona and Cocoa. We had been to Cocoa before and wasn't that impressed so we decided on Daytona. I can't say that we were impressed with Daytona either but there was some pretty spectacular people watching out there! I will be nice and keep those photos to myself but I wanted to share the pictures of the kids enjoying the beach and water.















Here is Luke working hard on a sand masterpiece. He worked so hard on this and then the tide came up and took it back out to sea!


Can you see how tired it made him? And the water inching up in the background....

No problem, just have your sister bury you in your masterpiece and act like you are hating it!
Ok, secretly you loved it except when it was time to get the sand out of your pants!

















A fun day was had by all and we even saw Elvis (completely dressed in costume) walking on the boardwalk!!

"I So Lucky"

These are the words Tetyana told me last night while she was watching and questioning me about washing my face. Here is our conversation:



Tetyana: "Mommeeeee, I so lucky I live in Amerrrica now." (Rolling the r's in America)

Me: "Yea, what makes you so lucky?"

Tetyana: "I always want 2 dogs and here I have 2 dogs."

Me: "Did you know anyone in Ukraine that had dogs at their house?"

Tetyana: "No. I so lucky be-cause (a new word for her) I want mom and dad and I have you. I so lucky be-cause I want big house and I live here. I love, love, love Amerrrica"

Me: "We are so lucky because we found you!"

They tell adoptive parents to never expect your child to say "Hey, thanks for adopting me and taking me from the conditions I was in." But this was pretty damn close!

Halloween

Ok, I am quickly finding that you can take a girl out of Ukraine, but you cannot take Ukraine out of a girl!!!

Tetyana has been scouring the Halloween costume catalogs trying to decide what she wants to be. Just about everything she want to be has very high heals and is very skimpy! We went to Party City to look at the costumes and she found a costume that looked just like the one to the left. She wanted to be it so bad and really wanted the boots!

We finally compromised on the Genie. I know she wants to be the Genie because it shows some skin. I would be interested to see if other girls who have been adopted at an older age want to dress like many of the Ukrainian women.


We have a little problem with the costume and nearly all clothing for that matter. She is so thin that everything is so big on her because she needs the length because she is so tall. She has only gained 2 pounds since we have been home. I was concerned about this because everything I have read about orphans coming home said they gain an unbelievable amount of weight in a very short time. I asked her doctor about it when we went in for her pre-op physical and he assured me she is fine. Her parasite testing came back normal. I am still controlling the eating because if we let her, she would eat 24/7. We are pretty sure she does not know what it is like to feel full. I make sure everything she eats is healthy and balanced and I am supplementing with Instant Breakfast in her milk for breakfast and dinner. The doctor confirmed I am doing everything correctly and that we should not just let her eat herself sick. However, if in another 6 months she has not gained at least another 3-4 pounds I think we will retest her for parasites (poor Drew!). There is always something to worry about!

Anyway, it should be interesting when she is a teenager! I have to help her get some style now!!

Spirit Week At School

This week is Spirit Week at school and I just had to share these pictures of multicolor day. Luke always has to do dress up to the extreme. He usually wants to go out and buy the entire costume store but I told him he would have to find stuff at home and we could get the colored hair spray. Tetyana often comes out dressed in multi colors and I have to send her back in and help her pick what to wear. This day she still thought she matched! There was purple in the scarf she had on around her waist! LOL

Today Luke was supposed to dress like a nerd. I wish I would have been more on the ball and taken his picture when he got home. He looked like such a classic nerd! Tomorrow is sports day and we are going to put Tetyana in one of Luke's baseball jersey's. I think it will be really cute because it says our last name on the back. It would be super cute if she could wear a pair of Luke's baseball pants but she is just too skinny and she would spend the day pulling them up!

Surgery Today

These are some pictures before surgery....

Today was the day we had Tetyana's teeth surgery. Last night we got Luke settled over at the Guernier's (thank you so much Guernier Family!!) and all went to bed early. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 and it is about 45 minutes away without traffic. The thing that made Tetyana most anxious was not being able to eat breakfast. I think she thought she was going to melt away. Poor thing!

We got up and on our way. They make you get to the hospital 2 hours early! It just makes everyone so much more anxious. Tetyana was pretty calm and the nurses and doctors were excellent. They explained everything to her so she could understand. They told her they would not be using any needles while she was awake This made her feel very happy and relieved. We waited around for what seemed like forever. I tried to keep her busy by playing some games and reading (she is beginning to read English!) so we could keep her mind off things.

When the doctor came in to discuss the anesthesia, he told us there would be a nurse named Elaina and Tetyana piped right up. Her BM's name is Olena. We found out Elaina, the nurse is from Russia. I asked Tetyana to tell the doctor where she was from and she said "Russia"! This is the second time in a week she has said she is from Russia. It is the craziest thing. She couldn't remember which city she was from. We discuss Ukraine all the time. Maybe it is a mental block?

Anyway, they came for her and she went off without a problem. The doctor anticipated it would take him between 2-3 hours and he came out after 2 hours and 40 minutes. He told me that he changed much of his original plan once he got in there. He was planning on only extracting one tooth but once he saw the condition of the molars and top canines, he decided to extract 5 teeth, put stainless caps on 2 of the molars in hopes of keeping them until it was time for them to fall out, fill in all of the cavities and file down the front bottom teeth (they were very jagged). He told me I could go back in a few minutes when she was waking up.

On my way back there was another family there that had just come from the patient area and the mom asked me if I was the mother of the little girl in the back. I told her I was and she said "she looks just like you". I smiled at her and told her "that's funny because I just met her 6 months ago". She looked at me like I was totally loosing it and then I gave her a quick version of our story. We hear very often that Tetyana looks like me....I think it is so cool that so many adopted children look like their adopted families.

When I got to the back, Tetyana was crying and the nurse was trying to console her. The nurse told me she kept saying "Where's my mommy? I want my mommy!" When she saw me she nearly jumped into my lap. She looked pretty bad because her face was bright red from the tape they used for the nose tube. She had a little reaction to the tape but by the time we went home she already was looking better.

She had some apple juice, got out her IV and we were on our way after about 45 minutes. She couldn't wait to get in the car so she could eat. She wanted us to stop at Panda Express so she could get some "cheeken". I told her she had to start off slow and gave her a banana.

About an hour after we got home and Luke was home, she asked if she could go swimming! The doctor was right when he said she would be up and bouncing around by the afternoon! Here she is with her teeth. Just the filing of the bottom teeth has improved her smile. I think once the swelling goes down, it will look a little toothless but better. You can see the condition of the teeth in her hand. The were so brown with cavities. We have to go back to get the spacers put in but after that she will be done with the dentist for awhile!

She was very excited to get to bed so the Tooth Fairy could come. What could the Tooth Fairy possibly bring such a brave little girl? For sure an extra dose of magic fairy dust!

Self Sufficient Girls/Women

So yesterday I was outside trying to reset the clock on the sprinklers and Tetyana came over and said "Moommmeee, what doing?" and I told her I was trying to fix the sprinklers and she said "Girls don't fix stuff, mommeeee". Is she nuts??? Where did she get this notion? In Ukraine are the women helpless or do they appear to be helpless? Needless to say I set her straight and told her women/girls fix all kinds of things and there isn't anything a boy can do that she can't.

This morning I followed up that conversation with Drew and let him know he would be teaching her how to check the oil in her car and change a tire! It is so strange all of these weird girl raising ideas that have come out that I didn't even know were in me! Poor child is going to think she is going to grow up to be Super Woman!! I just want to raise a strong, confident woman and she would like to dress like Super Woman (short skirt and tall boots!)!!

Incredibly Lucky!

I am feeling incredibly lucky right now! I have been reading a few adoption blogs about families that are in Ukraine right now searching for their children. Things are much different than they were just 3 months ago. Younger, healthy children (younger than 8) are very hard to come by. Families are there waiting for 2nd and 3rd appointments and still coming home without children.
We were so lucky. We walked into the SDA and found our daughter. It was easy. Then we met her and knew instantly she was the girl for us. Maybe it is adoption amnesia or our process compared to many others was just easy. I think part of it was just fate....she was meant to be ours.

Some days I wonder why on Earth we even have kids...they make huge messes, argue with us, fight with each other and then they do something that makes you so damn proud you are brought to tears and you remember why they are in your life. Ok, for Drew I have to sometimes explain it to him a bit more but in the end I think he gets it too! LOL

I guess I just needed to acknowledge how truly blessed we really are!

Tagged!

Thanks Kathy for tagging me/us! I am supposed to write about our lives from 20, 10, 5, 3 and 1 year/s ago and also about yesterday, today and tomorrow. Here goes:

20 Years Ago

20 years ago I had just been out of high school for 1 year and working for a large savings and loan in Las Vegas. I had just began my banking career and besides a car payment and rent didn't have too many responsibilities. I don't think there was really much else going on....

15 Years Ago

I know I am supposed to do 10 years ago but I want to do 15 years because Drew and I met in 1994 and I love our story. I met Drew at a car wash in 1994. He was washing his motorcycle which I thought was so cool! It was a Saturday after work and he walked up to me and started asking me questions about where I got my car serviced. We ended up talking and he told me he had just moved to Las Vegas 3 days before to build and open a new automotive shop and didn't know anyone. I invited him out that night with my friends to our favorite bar, Tommy Rockers. We had a super crazy night and he ended up driving most of my friends home around 5 am! When he told me he would call me the next day I thought there was no way on earth he would because my friends had acted so crazy!

He did end up calling and we went for a motorcycle ride. Don't ask me why I went for a ride with a strange guy alone! I had called my friend to let her know I was going and if she didn't hear from me that night to call the police! I was just smitten with Drew.

3 months after we met, Drew asked me if I could go anywhere on vacation where would it be. It took me a couple of days but I came up with Antigua, in the West Indies at Sandals Resort. He bought the tickets! It was the most romantic place and vacation either of us have ever been on. If he would have asked me to marry him there, I would have. I knew he was the one!

8 months after we met, on Thanksgiving, we went up to Big Bear, California to be with a family that was close to Drew. While we were there he proposed to me in the most quaint little cabin. I couldn't believe my life!

The following year, I quit my job at Bank of America where I was an assistant manager to work with Drew. We opened the first Auto Tech in Las Vegas in 1995 and were married later that summer at the Flamingo Hilton chapel. After our wedding I even danced with Elvis!

10 Years Ago>>>> i love you momey love luke!!!!!!!!<<<<I guess Luke has been on my computer :)

After 6 insemination's we moved on to IVF. We were working with Dr. Sher in LA who was offering a full money back guaranty if you did not carry a pregnancy to full term. The first IVF we did we finally found out why we weren't getting pregnant. That IVF yielded 4 poor quality embryo's which we put back. As we suspected, we did not get pregnant. We did another round of IVF with ICSI and assisted hatching and had 11 perfect embryo's. In those times they put back 4....we were pregnant and with triplets! I am very small and we discussed way before we started IVF how many we would attempt and what we would do if we were carrying multiples. We knew my body would never be able to carry triplets and so for the very best possible outcome for our babies we chose to reduce to twins at 14 weeks. It was one of the hardest things we have ever done. From there my pregnancy went down hill. Not only was I throwing up 24/7 I was experiencing preterm labor. At 18 weeks I was put on complete bed rest and at 22.5 weeks I went into the hospital and one of my waters broke. I spiked a very high fever and the doctor forced my labor because he feared for my life. My first son and daughter were born way too early and did not have a chance at life. We were devastated to say the least.

After much begging I convinced Drew to do a frozen cycle of IVF. I waited and waited to start a new cycle. 60 days after the birth of my twins I found out I was pregnant completely on accident! We were blessed with a perfect pregnancy (except being sick again all the time) which resulted in Luke. We were so happy and couldn't believe our luck.

When Luke was 2 we decided we wanted to raise Luke somewhere other than Las Vegas. We bought a motor home and travelled the west coast. We went to Colorado and although we really loved it there, we decided we didn't want to live in the snow. We went up to Oregon in the fall of 2001 and fell in love. It was so green. We picked wild black berries from the side of the road. We were in awe of the beautiful landscape. We decided to put our house up for sale in Las Vegas and move our family to Portland, Oregon. We landed in our new home with 10 acres in June of 2002 thinking we were going to take care of the land on our own and slow down. Neither Drew nor I had ever run a lawn mower or weed wacker in our lives and now we had 2 acres of grass we had to mow every 3-4 days! For the first few months we butchered the landscaping and I contemplated ripping it all out and putting in rock! However, it was a great place for a little boy to explore and that was good for our family.

5 Years Ago

We came to Florida on vacation after a major ice storm that shut down the city of Portland. See when we moved to Portland everyone told us that it only snowed in Portland every 5-7 years and it rarely stuck. Liars!!! LOL It snowed every year more than once the three years we lived there. I even crashed my car into a tree because of the black ice! Florida in January after an ice storm that left us without power for days, was heaven on earth! It was 75 degrees in the middle of winter! We extended our vacation to explore the Tampa area. In June of 2004 Luke and I were living in Tampa and experiencing all Florida had to offer....5 hurricanes! Drew had to stay behind in Portland to sell our home and finish up his business and I wanted to get Luke settled before he started kindergarten. Drew was lucky enough to miss 4 of the 5 hurricanes!

While living in Portland we talked on and off about adopting from China. There were a lot of families there that had adopted from China. We decided to start the process and I got as far as sending in our application to an agency when we decided to build a home. We were not able to find a home or area in Tampa that we thought was exactly what we were looking for so I started exploring the Orlando area. I came across a great community and we decided to build a custom home. I knew building a home and living across the country from my husband, we would not be able to pursue adoption. I put the dream away.

3 Years Ago

Three years ago on September 30th we moved into our home. We were so excited and looked forward to building many memories here. I was really involved in Luke's school and even was a substitute teacher there. Still we were not thinking about adoption again at all. Our lives were very full.

1 Year Ago

I am going to have to go in between 2 years ago and 1. In January 2007 I approached Drew with the idea of adopting a little girl. He was for it so we talked with Luke about it. He had always wanted a sibling and was always asking us for a sister. We discussed China again and decided it wasn't right for our family for several reasons. I did some research and we decided on Russia. Because of some medication Drew took, Russia wouldn't accept us. Right around that time Ukraine choose us.

We started with an agency but quickly found that we could do this adoption independently. We began with Cathy Harris and sent our dossier to Ukraine in March of 2007. We found ourselves in a very long line of families she was helping and decided we didn't want to wait. We switched once our first dossier was expired in September to another stateside agent, Roman Kwit. He had our dossier submitted to the SDA in 3 weeks! We received our travel date in October and we were thrilled!

Yesterday

If you have made it this far and even care what I did yesterday here goes: I got the kids up for school and remembered it was "Doughnuts For Dads" day at school and everyone needed to get on the stick if they wanted to get to school on time. Rushed everyone out the door and got myself ready to go to the school to volunteer. I am at school about 2 days a week for one or the others class. Yesterday I was helping in Tetyana's class making fall trees with sponge painting. It was a lot of fun and a great way for me to observe Tetyana in a different setting.

Drew and I have been trying to sneak off to the movies on Friday's. We can see a movie around 11:30 and I can be home in time for the bus. We saw Nights in Rodanthe. I love all of the Nicholas Sparks books and the movie was great. I bawled my eyes out and Drew even shed a tear or two.

Today

Today we were up early for a baseball scrimmage. The Rangers looked great and we won the game. We have one more scrimmage/practice before opening day next Saturday. After the game we went and got lunch with some of the boys from the team and Coach Mark. Since we were next door to Super Target, I told the kids we could go over and just LOOK at the costumes. Every time we look at costumes online or in catalogs, they change their minds about what they want to be. I refuse to buy them more than one costume! They must have changed their minds 10 times in just the 30 minutes we were in the store!

Tomorrow

I need to get ready for my second Brownie meeting on Monday night. I am totally winging this whole leader thing! Luke has to sell popcorn for the scouts from 3-5. Luckily, the weather here has been so nice that it won't be miserable to be outside. This coming week is spirit week at the kids school so I need to help them put together all of the crazy outfits they want to assemble. Luke needs to make a dinner for his family for scouts so I will help him make tacos and he is insisting he needs to make guacamole! I really am a neat freak so having him in my kitchen is going to be a test of my patience!

Now it is my turn to tag a few bloggers to complete this little task....I choose Lisa http://payne-familyadventures.blogspot.com/ ,
Julie http://http//www.hinshawhappenings.blogspot.com/ and
Becky http://mymomthoughts.blogspot.com/ ( I told you I would do this. You have nothing but time on your hands right now and I am so envious!).

This And That

Can you tell the kids aren't home? I am getting caught up here!! Thanks Paula and Clay for taking the kids for ice cream! Here is a bunch of miscellaneous stuff that has been going on:

Tetyana's Teeth:
We have Tetyana's oral surgery all set up. We have put it off as long as we think we can. I am so petrified she is going to eat something sticky and pull out one of those weird Ukrainian fillings or crack a tooth and we will have an emergency situation. It looks like our health insurance will pick up the hospital portion so that is a major relief! Her surgery is set for October 2nd. She will need a physical before she goes so I figured we would do her last set of immunizations and kill 2 birds with one stone! Poor girl!

She also lost her first tooth since being home. She was eating an apple and the tooth became very loose. She continued to wiggle it and when she was brushing her teeth before bed, it popped out. She was thrilled to see it in her hand. She says she doesn't remember loosing teeth in Ukraine which seems so strange since she has lost 6. Maybe the dentist pulls them???

The tooth fairy (Aka mommy and Luke) waited for her to fall asleep before she tip toed into her room. She is such a light sleeper and seems so skeptical of the whole Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny thing, I thought for sure she would be faking sleep. We took her tooth and replaced it with goodies and sprinkled her with fairy dust.

In the morning when I woke her for school she immediately reached under her pillow. She had woken up in the night and put her dollar coin in her piggie bank! I have a feeling she wasn't asleep when we went in. I so wanted her to have the whole experience before she finds us out. Pretty unrealistic but we still wanted her to experience the magic of it all.

School
They both have settled into school great. They love their teachers and so do I! Since they both have IEP's, I have remained in constant contact with the school so they don't drop the ball. They haven't and I am pleasantly surprised at how efficient and well organized things have gone. They are even considering Luke for the gifted program! They just want to make sure he can handle the work load once he comes back into the classroom after missing a day.

Luke's EEG
Luke had to have his bi-annual EEG for his head injury. He has been taking anti seizure medications for the last year. We were really hoping if we took him off the meds his EEG would still come back normal. It did! We are so relieved it came back normal and for now he can remain off the medication.

I think these last few posts have summed up the last couple of weeks....

Texas Rangers!

Well, we are back in baseball season. A couple of weeks ago were the try outs. As we sat and watched Luke we couldn't figure out what was going on with him. He was not really trying and missing balls like crazy. We don't want to discourage him but we wanted to know what was going on. When he came over for water I asked him why he was having trouble. He said "Oh, me and Johnny (previous coaches son) decided I wouldn't try very hard and then nobody would want to pick me so Coach Mark could"!!! I couldn't believe it...he was throwing his try out! How could they be so smart so young?

We anxiously waited through the week for the drafts to see which coach would pick Luke. There were a couple coaches we knew and had heard they were all good. I am always worried each season that there will be a bad/mean coach that picks Luke and ruin his experience. I have seen Dads ruin their own son's experience! Very sad!! Well, we got lucky again and Coach Mark picked up Luke for the 3rd time!! 4 of the boys were all together last season...they call themselves the "Pirate Pack". So we are excited to be with Coach Mark again and the wonderful families that we have known from previous seasons. One of the boys Luke has been with for 4 seasons now and his dad is the assistant coach. It is great to have that rapport. They also have a girl on their team. She is very good and a super fast runner AND in Luke's class!!

The bad side of it is, Luke is way too comfortable with the coaches and the kids. He isn't giving it his all. We are not sure how to get him to be more dedicated. Two seasons ago we called him "Hollywood". He would come out of the dugout and walk in front of his fans before getting to the plate. We made signs for him and he just ate it up. He would showboat all the time and just really play well. Last spring was a weird season because we missed half of it. Besides scouts, baseball is all he talks about. He even thinks he is going to be a pro player and skip college! So I know he doesn't want to stop playing. Maybe we will have the coaches talk with him.

So, we are immersed in the new baseball season with 2 practices a week and soon to be 1 practice and 2 games a week. Luckily, for Tetyana she has the park to play in and a couple of other kids. She doesn't mind going at all!

Go Rangers!!!

Scouts

In the last couple of weeks scouting has gotten underway. Luke has den meetings every Sunday afternoon and Tetyana and I have Brownies every other Monday night.

I have been to several meeting that are supposed to help new leaders. I can say honestly that they have not helped me one bit! The Girl Scouts need to come out with a Girl Scout Leaders For Dummies book!! This is how you run a meeting....this is what you need to buy....thank God for the internet! I am such a type A personality I want everything to be perfect and don't want to let anyone down. I was so afraid we wouldn't do something as a troop and at the end of the year all of the girls and parents would be upset with me. Luckily, another leader invited us to her meeting so I could see how a meeting was run (remember, I was never a Girl Scout). Turns out I was putting so much pressure on myself for nothing!

Last week I had a parents meeting and let the mothers know that I could not have a meeting without a co-leader, blah, blah, blah and there was this mom there that was all over it. Too much into it....but I was grateful for help and was looking forward to the meeting this week. One thing that concerned me was she wanted to bring her 15 year old daughter to "help" and couldn't understand that if for some reason the mother couldn't attend that I didn't want her to drop off her 15 year old girl. Weird. This past Monday was our first girls meeting and she doesn't show up! Luckily, there was another mom who stayed and I think I can talk her into co-leading with me!

Despite the little problem, the meeting went very well and the girls all had fun. Tetyana knew one of the little girls because they ride the bus together. We learned 2 songs, did the Friendship Circle, and Tetyana's favorite part of the evening...ate snack!

Luke has been working on his Citizenship and Athletic badges. Poor kid, thought he was going to eat chocolate cake and have fun with his new den...they had the boys doing the aquatic portion of the badge and I think they must have swam for 2 hour straight. My family is so spoiled because I heat the pool for them. The water at the den meeting was freezing and Luke was really unhappy about this. His little lips turned purple! This past Sunday they did push ups, sit ups and ran like crazy. He is having fun but I don't think he expected the work. He is getting ready to go in front of the store and sell popcorn. So, if you see a scout out selling popcorn, please buy!

I think he would sleep in his unform if we let him. He has it on all the time and even got to wear it to school yesterday to promote Cub Scouts at school. I think they both look so cute in their uniforms.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are run so differently. In Boy Scouts it is all about the family. There is no dropping your son off at the den meetings. They invite the whole family to come and participate. This makes Tetyana a Den Princess. Girl Scouts have leaders encourage the parents to drop off the girls. Let them be independent. They are about going on a "Journey" and not just earn badges to fill up your vest. I am quickly finding raising girls and boys are so incredibly different!

I think scouting is going to be great for both kids and our family!! Let's just hope Drew will do the camping!