Summer Bordom

Who's big idea was it for children to be off for 90 days? Did they not have children of their own? Do they know that kids get BORED with "nothing to do"? That the kids will drive the parents up the wall daily? I think kids were off in the "olden days" so they could work on the farms for their families. News flash...most kids don't work on farms during the summers anymore. What about all of the info that just falls out of their brains all summer? We could eliminate the first quarter review that the schools waste so much time with!

So like most parents with kids home all summer, I am the entertainment advisor in the house. Since our budget is super slim I have to think of fun things to do that are either free or cost next to nothing. Here is a recent project the kids did.

The house already has a resident. We have been watching this little bird set up his new pad. Instead of using the front doors, he drags his furnishings through the little hole at the top. The twigs are packed so tightly in there. It is pretty fascinating to see how they make a nest.

The kids had so much fun with this I am afraid our whole backyard is going to be decorated with birdhouses soon!

Can You Believe The Difference??

I was moving some framed pictures around the other day when I came across the top picture of Sage and her best friend from the orphanage. She looked like such a little girl and now I think she looks so much more mature. I have noticed this about many adopted children after they come home to the US. I just couldn't believe the change in her....

Twelve Step Program for TV Addiction!

Is there such thing as TV Watchers Anonymous!! Sage (still working on calling her that :) ) cannot go into a room without being glued and mesmerized by the TV. It doesn't matter what is on...CNN, commercials or the digital music channel she can't take her eyes off of it! My kids are such polar opposites sometimes. I can hardly get Luke to sit his little butt down long enough to watch a show!

I have tried limiting the time she watches because she would just sit there all day long if we let her. If we tell her her TV time is up, she will move to the computer. I am not sure how much she was allowed to watch in the orphanage but I do remember if we took in a DVD to pass a little time, she wouldn't pay us any attention while it was on. Sometimes I really hate not having any history!! What was her life like before she was ours? Had she never seen TV? All of her memories are so jumbled now.

One nice thing is, she is really getting the hang of reading. We went to the library and checked out some books that are on her level (I kick myself for donating the 100's of Luke's books over the years!). In the evening before bed we have her go and read for some quiet time alone. It is a really hard thing for her to do but I think with time she will get used to it and I think it will give her a sense of pride in herself. Maybe I can get one of my children to sit still long enough to discover the love of reading!

Name Change

Not sure how this post will be received but this is our lives and we only get one shot at them. So on the brink of turning 40 I am learning how to live my life without any regrets!

Let me give you some background on how Tetyana kept her birth name. After we saw Tetyana's file we went to her region and met her. She was a beautiful child and we knew when the director asked us after only 15 minutes if we wanted to adopt her that our answer would be yes. It seemed like once we said yes they whisked us out the door with a stack of paperwork. Like many adoptive parents our heads were whirling and our hearts were full. We had found our daughter...the daughter I had dreamed about for years before I even met my husband.

You know the dreams...dressing them up in super cute things, doing their hair, decorating their rooms and as with any child....naming them. Before we left for Ukraine we made a list of names and decided once we saw our daughter we would chose the perfect name for her. But after we left the orphanage we were taken to a notary's office and asked what her name would be. Our facilitator left and told us she would be back in 10 minutes for the name. We felt so confused because our daughter was 7. We wanted to change her name but we also wanted to have a conversation with her about it first. Maybe give her the names we had chosen and let her decide what her American name would be. We were told her name could have been her birth mother's name and possibly not even her true name. We didn't know what to do, so we left her name as it was.

After being with her in her own country once we left the orphanage, I notice we were saying her name completely wrong. Yes we lacked the accent but even if we tried our best we still screwed up our own child's name! She pronounces her name "Tet-chon-na" and we call her "Tet-y-ona". Once we got home we saw that everyone who met her first could not understand her when they asked her her name and then just called her "Tatianna". So everyone butchers her name and always will. We tried to think of a nick name for her but nothing derived from her name sounded right.

On top of that I felt like we missed out as parents on naming her. It was one piece to my lack of attaching to her and making her mine. A good friend and fellow Ukrainian AP suggested once we moved, we change her name to her middle name (which is what we would have chosen for her first). After talking with Drew about this idea, we asked Tetyana how she would feel about using her American name. She was all over it! I have asked her a million times if she is sure and she says yes each time excitedly. So when I filled out her school papers I asked her one more time and told her if I put Sage on the papers we would have to stick to it. She wanted to know when we could start! We are all working on remembering to call her it. Each time we do, she gets a really big smile on her face. Today while playing Sorry! I said "It's Sage's turn." and she had a huge smile on her face and gave me a big squeeze! So our daughters name is now Sage.

Ukrainian Food and Drink

After being home for over a year we finally found a place that sells Ukrainian food. Thanks to our fellow adoptive parents who are my new GA neighbors, The Dove family! We had an appointment in a neighboring town and the market was just one street over.

It was so fun roaming the isles and looking at all of the packaging in Ukrainian or Russian. We were really on a mission for cherry juice. We usually drank the Sandora brand but they didn't have Sandora cherry juice so we got another brand. To Luke's delight they had one of his two favorites...mango juice! We all howled in delight!

There was a Russian woman and her daughter shopping there and they had overheard us talking we told her our daughter was adopted from Ukraine and they naturally asked us if she was a baby when she was adopted. We told them no, that we had only been home a year. The woman hugged T so tight and asked her if she liked America to which T answered a great big yes!

Last night we feasted on perogi's (sp??) and drank our juices. The flavor of the cherry juice took me right back to that tiny apartment where I first tried the yummy stuff!

Third Grade and Summer School

Not sure if I mentioned before that we took the kids to the new school for a tour before they started next year. I explained T's situation to them and they thought she should be placed in her correct grade for her own self esteem. She was nearly a whole head and shoulders taller than her 1st grade peers.

So the new school will follow her current IEP and provide her with an ESL person who will be with her all day AND place her in summer school!!! She isn't exactly thrilled by the summer school idea but it will really help her to transition into the higher grade and give me an idea of what we need to work on for the rest of the summer.

I was really worried about her true age, which we don't know, and being a girl 2 grades lower than she should be. What if she started her period in the 3rd grade? What if she had full breasts and her peers were only just budding? I had a friend in 5th grade who had very large breasts and her life was hell! People dared me to spend the night at her house to see if they were real.

So since they are willing to provide her the support I am willing to put her in her age appropriate grade. I have been working intensly for the last month and her reading skills are coming along and her math skills of the basics are strong. She is willing to learn and work hard. I think this will be a good move for her.

Birds

I guess I reached my photo limit on the last post. Here are the little birds...

Nature Walk

**Nature Path**

I have mentioned before that we have a nature area right across the street from our house. There are several pathways that lead to the pasture and nature walks from various areas of our neighborhood. In the middle the walk it opens up to several huge pasture areas. On our walks the kids have been finding all sorts of yummy treats and beautiful things to look at.

The first find was a honeysuckle plant/bush. Neither Drew or the kids had ever tried it so we began picking and sampling the ends of the flower. Now every time they see the flower they run up and pick the flowers as fast as they can!

***Honeysuckle Flower***

Then the kids came back with these long weed looking things. Luke said Tetyana told him it was onions and they were just munching away on them. I took a better look at them and realized it is garlic! They grow all over the neighborhood and look like weeds! Yesterday they ate so much they stunk! I have told them they couldn't eat anymore for awhile!

***Luke with his garlic***
***Fresh Garlic***

The third thing they found were some berries that look like long raspberries that grow on a tree. I looked them up today and I think they are mulberries (anyone know??). They are almost ripe. I think next week we will find them all ripe and ready to eat. Across from the tree we found blackberry bushes.

I remembered these well from living in Portland. When we first drove through Oregon we saw them on the side of the road and couldn't believe fruit that tasted so good grew wild (we grew up in LA and Las Vegas!). After living in Portland for several years we figured out that blackberry bushes are a pain and are a wild weed you can never get rid of!!!

We found tons of berries that weren't quite ripe yet but in a couple of weeks I think they will be very tasty!

***Mulberry Bush??***

***Blackberry Bush***

When we first moved here it looked like it was snowing all the time because this white stuff was blowing off of the trees. We found the tree that this stuff blows from. Maybe it is a Cottonwood? I told you we grew up in the desert! ;0)

***Snowy Tree***

Yesterday we saw a fawn in the back yard by the creek. We also had a bunch of deer on our property in Portland and thought it was so neat in the beginning until they began eating all of our plants! The kids were very excited to see her though. There is something about seeing wildlife right in your own backyard that is so thrilling!

And the last natur-y thing we have found a lot of is birds! In Orlando we had a nest of baby Cardinals. The father was so beautiful. We have seen several Cardinals here, Blue Jay's and these two tiny little birds who come to our porch each night at dusk. I see them sitting on the roof ledge and fly all over together. I haven't found their nest yet. They are super cute except they poop all night long! We just put a rubber snake up on the ledge and they haven't been back yet.

I can't wait to see what we will find tomorrow in our new backyard!

Totally Fun!

***View from our back yard***

The kids have spent the last 3 days exploring our back yard. We have a creek in the back and right now it isn't very full. They first tried fishing with a walking stick, fishing line and cheese stuck to duct tape! Tetyana has a fishing pole but has absolutely no idea how to use the thing. We have forbidden her to use hooks because we are afraid she is going to take out some one's eye or her own. Next best thing...duct tape! They swear there are fish in there but I've yet to see one!

The second day they got in the freezing cold water and made a slide out of the rocks. The spent hours out there! They were covered in mud but they were really having the time of their lives!

****Creek Slidin'***

***Bridge They Made***
***Vine Swingin'***

Today they worked on covering the rocks with more mud and sliding down even faster! In most spots the water is only up to their ankles. I really hope there isn't anything dangerous in there!

***This is one to frame***

Luke's Cherry Tomato Plant

Before we moved here, Luke and Tetyana went with their God parents to a downtown festival where they had all sorts of plants, fish, a butterfly exhibit and kids stuff. They came home with all kinds of goodies but this cherry tomato plant was the only thing that made it here to Atlanta. Luke has nursed this plant and taken such good care of it. Here is a picture of its first ripe tomato. He and I split the tiny thing and boy was it good!

We were investigating the plant and noticed tons of other little tomatoes that were budding. We are waiting for the four little green ones to ripen up and the four of us will sit down and enjoy them all together. I can't think of one thing in my life that I have grown that I actually ate!

Great job Luke!