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!).