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!

Our New Ballerina

Before school started we began asking around for a good dance studio for Tetyana to take some dance classes. I wanted her to take ballet for her posture and jazz for fun, but thought with school and all of Luke's activities, 2 classes a week may be too much for her. We got her signed up for a jazz class and she began counting down the days until it started. The day before it was supposed to start, I called to see if her leotard had come in yet. They informed me that we had been the only family to sign up for this particular dance class and they were cancelling this class. We decided to go for our second choice and put her in ballet. The first class was beginning in 5 minutes! So she missed the first week and was totally bummed out.

Finally, her day had come and she was thrilled to be going to dance. This would be the first activity that was just for her. She proudly put on her leotard and headed into class. Turns out she knew two of the girls in her class! One of the girls is in her class at school and the other she met at a birthday party. This made the class even better!

She looked like a natural. She has a little dancer body....long legs and neck. My goal was to post some video of her and I allowed Luke to take the video...let's just say the video didn't turn out very good! We saw more of the floor and ceiling than we did of Tetyana! Next class I will take control of the camera!

In the middle of the class the teacher lets the girls have some fun and do a "jazz break". Tetyana really loves this part (I knew she would have loved the jazz class). They get to cut loose and listen to some fun music.

This week the teacher is on vacation! Poor Tetyana, she is so sad that there isn't any class this week. I can't wait to watch her learn more and really become a dancer not to mention the recital next spring!

Wow!!

Wow! Have we been busy!!! So much has been going on here that I haven't had a chance to post. I will do some individual posts dedicated to each activity that has been keeping us so busy.

Webelos and Brownies

Our kids are new members of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. On Monday night we attended the local den of Cub Scouts and Luke whole heartily decided he wanted to join.

The meeting was a lot of fun and everyone there was so nice! Tetyana's teacher is a den mom and asked if Luke would like to be part of their den. He was thrilled! He really likes her son Cole, who is in his class also. Cole seems like a great boy and I am trying to foster this growing relationship. The two boys seem to have a lot in common...baseball being the biggest! Someone had entered Luke's name into the cake drawing and we were all surprised when they called out Luke's name! He went up and picked up the best tasting chocolate fudge cake!!! That sealed the deal! The boys (and Tetyana) got to make a campfire out of candy, chips and pretzels and then eat it. I think Tetyana wanted to join!

Tuesday night Tetyana and I went to the Girl Scout meeting. Ok, not as fun as the Boy Scout meeting. Turns out it was more of an informational meeting for parents. I really could have left T at home and I think she would have been happier if I had. She kept asking me when we were going to eat and where were the cookies!

The exciting news of the evening was I decided to become a troop leader! I don't know a thing about Girl Scouts! When I was little we couldn't afford to join and my mom was at work all day so I couldn't attend the meetings. So my task for the weekend is to do the volunteer orientation on line and get Luke to read his book and work on his Bobcat badge. It is pretty involved. I am excited to do this and it will be a good way for T and I to spend time together.

Have I mentioned I am co-room mom for Luke's class and heard from another mom that Tetyana's teacher wanted me to co-room mom for her class? Wow, it is going to be a busy school year! I can't wait!!!

A+ Spelling Test

Tetyana got her first A+ today on her very first spelling test! She worked all week on the words. Okay, so there were only 3 words: on, go and the, but still she worked hard and achieved her goal!

The kids had their first full week of school and it went well. Luke is quickly making new friends as I thought he would and really likes his teacher. He sounds like a pretty funny guy. Tetyana is working on making new friends. It is a little different for her this time. Last year when she started school she was a bit of a novelty and the teacher paired her up with 2 girls who thought she was so interesting and different. This year she is just another kid like all of the others in her class. She and I are working on her English and pronunciation. She has come a long way but I am afraid kids may make fun of her for being different.

Anyway, it was a great week!