Back in Washington

A lot has happened since my last post.

The boys and myself has moved back up to Washington to live with my parents, as my husband James stayed back in Las Vegas to focus on selling insurance. He was not able to do his job very well with having to watch the boys, and needing to be home to see them on and off the bus while they were at school for the 3 hours in the morning. It was not enough time for my husband to get anything done!

I will be returning back to Las Vegas in a couple months. In the meantime, I am taking insurance classes to get my licenses so I can help my husband and work from home. My husband is getting our home situated in the meantime.

The school district here in Washington is MUCH better than down in Las Vegas.

Based on Jonathan's IEP, they placed him in an all-day school program that is much different than his last classroom in Las Vegas.  This class is not as much education focused, but living skills focused, which I am happy for.  It is absolutely ridiculous in Las Vegas to have homework packets having Jonathan trying to match the capitol letters to the lower case letters, and to color in the objects that started with a particular letter. That kind of homework seems several years premature for where Jonathan is.  You give him a crayon, he may stick it in him mouth OR he may feel it but look up and around- not at the paper OR he may scribble on the paper for a moment, then want to grab the paper to flip it in his hand.  He doesn't know numbers or letters and he still can't talk.  I hear him say daddy a lot, but never in context, since daddy is not here.

Jonathan's class is AWESOME!  You walk in and the walls are a neutral color! The stations are carefully arranged so if Jonathan went to the the pretend play corner, there are visual barriers so he is not distracted by the children across the room.  I've done research on best practices for teacher children with ADD or FAS, and visual barriers are so important. Neutral walls are important, so the children can focus on the teacher when they are teaching, and won't be distracted by the artwork on the walls. I can't believe Jonathan is actually in an all-day program that caters to his needs.  We are re-doing his IEP this Thursday. The teacher was absolutely shocked that his IEP had no mention of needing OT.  They have an OT on staff at the school, and she will make sure his IEP is updated, so when we return to Las Vegas, they have to go off his IEP and give him the OT he deserves.  In Las Vegas, they were saying that he has the fine motor strength, just not the cognitive ability to do things, therefore he doesn't qualify- they are only working with children without the fine motor strength. Looking back, that is crazy! Jon deserves help too! He can't put on his own sock or shoes or clothes for that matter... and he's 5 1/2 years old.

The other thing I love about Jonathan's new school is all of the adaptive bikes and tricycles they have. There is a plethera, so I know they are working with him on riding skills. At home, I've bought tricycles, and even a little tykes cozy coupe for Jon to try, but he'll just sit there and not move, or he's too big. Especially for the little car, his legs are too long to actually use.  (He fits in the older, original car design, but the newer design's wheels pivot too much and leaves no room for his feet or legs.)  It's too hard to know what will work for him, I don't have much extra money, so I can't waste it on a product that doesn't work.

Let's talk about little David.  He is soooo busy.  He loves to lock and unlock doors.  He loves to open the refrigerator and unscrew tops to salad dressings, milk, sauces.  He loves finding a bag of chips and going to town on it. If it's quiet, then you know David is getting into trouble.

I have to constantly monitor what David eats.  He is a head shorter than Jonathan, but weighs 3 pounds more than him!  I don't let him have any sweets, but fruit, and maybe a splash of 100% juice in his water and I try to limit his carb intake.  But it's hard... We make a lot of soups, which David loves. His favorite is still borscht! David needs more physical activity- we are working on this.  We have to make a drive somewhere to make this happen, whether it be to the mall or park. It's too hard on me to do this alone with 2 boys, so it doesn't happen enough.

David is really starting to talk now. It's so precious!  He can say so many words, I couldn't list them all. He still prefers to use his jargon- especially when I give him the phone to talk to daddy. He will just start talking, and he will crack himself up. So cute indeed!  Today, David showed me he can count to 10, which is awesome! wa, tu, thhee, fuh, fi, si, sefee, ah, ii, ehh!  But he raises and lowers his voice to make the syllable sounds that he can't enunciate yet- so you know exactly what he is saying. I'm very proud of him!  :-)

David knows routine, and when Jonathan isn't doing the routine, David loves to help him. He he will help him eat, or take off his bib. Today he helped him put his socks on. They will hold hands when we go to the street corner to wait for their school bus. They both love the song "ring around a rosie"- they will hold hands and do it over and over again. David tries to sing it- I can't really make out any of the words except "ashes", but he does sing that in tune to the song. Jonathan doesn't sing it, but he will get very giggly instead. Jonathan loves to follow, and David loves to lead.  Jon chases David around the house a lot, and will follow what David does.

But most of the time David isn't doing anything too interesting, so Jon will wander off with a toy in hand and not really do too much with it. Jonathan isn't ready for puzzles yet. You give him a piece, he will set it down, but not to the correct location. Then Jon is done. No more puzzle. He doesn't want to touch the puzzle pieces anymore.  When he first came home from Ukraine, he would throw the pieces instantly. So he is doing better compared to that!  Jonathan does understand and will follow directions. If I ask him to come here or go upstairs, or go potty, his will go where I tell him to go. But he will not tell me or sign to me or cue me in on anything- not potty needs, not that he's hungry or thirsty or anything. He just hangs out until he is told what to do, or will follow David on what he is doing. I can ask Jon using sign if he "wants" to "eat". Then Jon will sign "eat". But Jon will never indicate anything first.

So that is a run-down of my life with the boys right now!  We are hanging in there!  I just can't wait to finally get situated a little bit more with life in general, so we can really focus in with the boys, and getting back in with the Southern Nevada Down Syndrome Organization and have play dates, and learn, and do more family things together!  This will be very soon, so I am excited!

Blessings to you all!

David and Jonathan Update- Post Surgeries

This is a draft post, that I forgot to publish. So I am posting it, even though it is unfinished and back dating it... Better late than never!  :-)

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These little guys have gone through multiple surgeries... David with his ear tubes and tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy surgery. Jonathan with his umbilical hernia repair and cataract surgeries.  The boys are doing great now!

Ever since David's surgery, he has been chatting up a storm. Give him a picture book, and he starts coming up with babblings for each picture as he points and looks at me. As if he were telling a story about it. He tries so hard to repeat sounds and words, but it's super hard for him to get the sounds right.  He can say all sorts of words, they are just his versions of the word. Like he can say "more", "cracker", "please", "cookie", "milk". the daycare told me he said "na ice" for "not nice" when he saw another child hit someone.

David is super smart and he is just moving right along with his development and learning. He is so loving and is always giving me kisses. He has a strong will, and that overpowers being obedient at times. He makes everything out to being a game, so if I tell him not to go there or touch that, he will do it, smiling and giggling looking at me for my reaction.

Jonathan just had his second cataract surgery 2 weeks ago. He still needs a fidget toy. I thought maybe he would let that go if he could see clearer, but he is always holding a toy and touching it, twirling it, etc.  He still has issues eating. He will feed himself fine with certain foods, like waffles- no problems there. But give him something new- he will take forever to eat, and I will have to step in a help him in some way for each bite. Whether I am repositioning his hands for holding his bowl or utensils, or whether I am reminding him to eat more, or I'm helping him put food on his utensil... I don't want to feed him, but sometimes so much effort is taken verbally or to set Jonathan up to eat, then it will be wasted on him getting a spoonful of "nothing", or just 1 tiny noodle, again and again.... so I end up having to help him.  If Jon is left alone, his brother will finish first and then go and hover over Jon's food and he'll eat it all up. Both boys are doing good putting their plates and utensils in the sink when they are finished.  They both will clap for themselves after doing so- very cute!

1 Year Post Adoption Update!

It has been a long time since I've blogged. I've recently took a full time job, which has kept me very busy. I haven't worked a full time job since 2007... so my days are very long. I barely have time to get to the grocery store let alone try to blog!

So I've started work about 2 months ago, and both David and Jonathan are now in full time day care at a learning center. There has been a lot of sickness the past 2 months for our whole family, and it's from all of the new germs!  :-(   But the boys are thriving in a day care setting opposed to being at home all day.  They are in different classrooms- David is in the2 year old classroom, and Jonathan is with the 4 year olds. Jon was with the 3 years old, but that was was over-crowded leaving Jon to get overwhelmed. When he gets overwhelmed he resorts to post-orphange behavior like isolating himself in a corner, stemming, flipping toys in front of his face, and humming.  He has really outgrown some of these bahaviors and has his personality has really started to shine- but I'm glad the learning center took notice and brought him to a small classroom where he can now flourish.

The other children have really taken to both boys, and are excited to see them. One boy helps Jonathan eat, and another little girl takes his hand and brings him around the room to play. Jon's face lights up and he gets so excited to play with the other children. It's so great to see the boys do well with other typical developed children.  They just are placed with younger children that are at their play level. It's interesting to see how 1 year ago Jonathan was so behind David's level, and now he's far exceeded David's level of development.  But there are some things that David still does better than Jonathan:

-David can feed himself better than Jonathan- when he's not being a texture freak. Jonathan will eat anything though, unlike David, but I think it takes him longer to process everything.

-David can work and manipulate toys significantly better than Jonathan. Also, David appreciate books, and truns pages and looks at the pictures. He will point and sing the things he sees. Instead, Jon will take the book from David to bend the binding in the opposite direction to flip pages- but not to look at them. He makes it more of a fine motor/texture/repitition activity, rather than a visual one.

There are things that Jon does better than David:

-If I start singing, Jon will start to join in with "bum bum bums" or "la la las" in a similar tempo and tone to what I'm singing. David will just sit and listen.

-Jon loves "Signing Time" and is always signing different signs. He is able to use his fingers and sign very clear certain, particular signs. David's signs are more approximate, but his fine motor muscle strength seems less and his fingers are more short and stubby compared to Jon's so I know it's harder for David.

-Jon is also doing pretty good with potty training. He can pull down his pants and pullups on his own and use the potty. I just have to tell him what to do- 1 step at a time. Jon is not good yet with 2 step directions. And even though using the potty should be routine by now, he still will just stand there with his pants down if I'm not there to tell him to sit down on the potty. He doesn't have all the steps memorized yet.

Both Jon and David are not talking yet. They know plenty of signs, but having them use there signs to communicate on there own is a whole different story. David needs ear tube surgery, which we are in the process of trying to take the steps needed for scheduling right now. So David has about a 30% hearing loss, and I hope after the surgery, he will hear more clearly and be able to talk shortly there after!  We have a cardiac consult in 2 weeks and we just got the insurance to approve a sleep study.... so we have a couple things to do first before the surgery can be scheduled. Plus I need to build up my PTO!

Jon is finally confirmed for having Down syndrome. We just got the blood test results in yesterday.  Jon's pediatrian thinks that he also should be tested for autism, which isn't fair because Jon was nervous on the doctor's examination table after waiting an hour to be seen. So he was rocking and humming and not making good eye contact.  If only the doctor could see him at home!  We will see if I want to persue a second diagnosis or not. As far as Jon having Down syndrome, honesty, I wasn't expecting that diagnosis as Jon doesn't have the classic Down syndrome physical characteristics that David has.

And now for some pictures:

Jon's Progress: Post-Orphanage vs. Now, 5 months later

FYI:  I deleted my last post, because I don't believe my adopted son has Williams syndrome or Down Syndrome. I won't know "what" Jonathan has until we have a vacation in Washington state (to visit family), since there is no genecist here in Nevada.  I don't know when we will be visiting Washington next....  We believe Jonathan has FAS/FASD, which is a completely different parenting ballgame than parenting a child with Down syndrome- at least that's what I've come to conclusion to based on what I've read from other mother's blogs and groups. I'm thankful that the Ukraine misdiagnosed Jonathan, because FAS is not on their approved list of health problems which would make a child available for inter country adoption before their 5th birthday.

I almost don't want to do testing until Jonathan can understand more English. I feel bad how low he tested into the the school district for special ed preschool. He has 3 things against him: Having some sort of "syndrome", not knowing the language, and living in an orphanage his entire life. Comparing Jonathan now, about 3 months after all of his testings, I would say he is understanding me more and more!

Jonathan knows lots of different signs, and is starting to use them to communicate. He use to just repeat whatever sign I would show him, but have temper tantrums not realizing I am teaching a communication tool to help him "talk" to me. But I am seeing him just begin to "talk" now (with his hands). Verbally, he will repeat sounds like, "Da Da Da" or "Ma Ma Ma" "Bub Bub Bub" and "Up Up Up". But he can sign "Mommy" "Daddy" "More" "Please" "Eat" "All Done" "Yummy" "Happy", he will clap his hands when I say "yay!", he will give high-5's when I say "Good job!", he's signing "boy" and knows when I call him a "Good Boy"... and there's more, but he's giving me excellent eye contact now and is really engaging in the "conversation" when before he would just look around and get distracted by the slightest noise or light- or anything!

When Jonathan first came home he did a lot of finger sucking, and rocking- making crazy angry noises. We knew this was common post-orphanage behavior, as he is trying to cope with the change. The first thing I worked on was the finger sucking (it was the two middle fingers on his left hand), he was always sucking it! So I would take his hand out of his mouth and say "No fingers". I was very good about being diligent about reminding him. At night, he would wear one of daddy's long sock underneath his PJ's so he couldn't suck his fingers. Less and less he would do this. I would even see him bring his hand up to his mouth and then shake his head and put his hand down to stop himself. 

Jonathan then mouthed everything. Toys, as if he were a baby! He would even kiss the walls, lick the glass door. I would remove the toy out of his mouth and say "No mouth", and if he did it again, I would take the toy away for a little while. Now, I've read about replacing the toys with a specific oral/motor chewing toy, but I don't have extra money at moment for things like that. But so far saying "No mouth" does make him stop and take the toy out of his mouth on his own. The finger and mouth occurrences happen less and less frequently.

I am now working on his fussiness. He can get very agitated at a toy and start making fussy whiny noises.  Now if he starts crying, I always remove him and give him a time out to his room. He is obviously over-stimulated if he is overly whiny or is crying or starts throwing toys. When he starts getting whiny I bring my finger up to my mouth and say "SHHH" (He knows this from the wheels on the bus song) and I say "No fussy". If he still is fussy I say "be happy" and I sign happy- he knows this from the "if you're happy and you know it" song. I am still working on his fussiness. But I am keeping things simple, and communicating what he can understand. I will try to remove the toy or whatever is stimulating him, and distract him or whatnot. But so far this is helping him. He knows my expectations, and it keeps me from getting mad at him- since I have a system in place.

Instead on rocking on the floor and making angry noises, Jonathan has stopped this and now just does weird "pelvic thrustings"  on the ground. It looks bizarre  and I just tell him to "Get up" and he usually stops what he's doing and sits up. I sign the word "Weird"- because it's all I know sign-wise, but he knows that is something he can not do. So I guess I'll just start signing "Weird" for other socially unacceptable things to help him learn!

We are having issues with him feeding himself. I have stopped focusing on this and making it a session of me feeding him, but he has to communicate by signing to get food. We also work on vocalizations of different words this way. I do this with David sitting right next to him. They both are on the exact same page with signing and vocalizations so it is excellent speech therapy this way, and it becomes a happy, non-crying outburst event when I try to help him feed himself.  He can feed himself finger foods, but holding the spoon/sassy spoon- forget it! I personally think it's too many steps for him to figure out... but then again the first 2 weeks home he spoon fed himself just fine, then one day stopped and started crying and throwing his hands in the air in refusal to touch the spoon. Interesting... I am much happier working on speech therapy at the moment, and so is he. We will address this again in the near future.

So Jonathan has made excellent progress as a whole! I just read about a week or so ago that some moms use the Google translate app to help communicate to their child. I haven't done this! I'm sure that is super helpful as well! Before the adoption, I took a speech therapy class called the Hanen Workshop, which really equipped me for handling a non-verbal kid- I now have 2 of them! But I keep things short, simple, I use signs with the words, I'm consistent.... oh, And he loves the Signing Time DVD's. So all of the above has really helped him!  I also recommend eliminating a good amount of toys from the play room. Put them away. Bring one out for fun that you will play with to teach how to properly play with certain particular toys, but put it away afterwards. My son does a lot better with fewer toys scattered about- especially anything with small pieces.  Besides, he usually just finds a sock somewhere and starts twirling it in the air, and that ends up being is his favorite toy! 

I hope this post is helpful to someone out there. It's really hard learning how to parent an adopted special needs child.  My adopted son is a 4 year old, but was evaluated by the school district at a 19-month old level.  I know if he were evaluated now, it would be at a somewhat higher level, but that is probably a common evaluation for a child such as Jonathan! Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts. No trolls please, I will delete your comments for sure!

Jonathan pictures:

Back here in Kiev with Jonathan

Yesterday was such a busy day for us! We woke up early at 4:45, to finish packing and getting ready for the day. We checked out of our hotel (hotel Ludmila, which we hope if you are traveling to Sevastopol you get the pleasure to stay there as well!) Afterwards we drove to the orphanage and the caregivers woke up Jonathan so we could take him for our Gotcha Day! Of course the outfit I brought was too big and was falling off of him, I wasn't given any size information and though he's 4 years old I believe he probably is the same size as my son, with 24 months fitting for the moment, and a 3T being a little roomier and being a better size overall. For the pants I better stay small because he is very thin (hopefully not for long!) and I don't want anything falling off! Thankfully the shoes we brought are PERFECT. We brought them earlier during one of the visits for a trial run. So we get to take some clothes with us and off to the airport we go.
The 4-point harness I bought for Jonathan was a life-saver at the airport because our hands were all full, and I couldn't hold him! So he was at least close by me at all times. I brought a full water bottle for him through security with no problem. It was handy having a baggie of skinned and cut up apples for him to snack on. I also fed him cheese and turkey from the meal given at the flight.
When we landed I met our ride and the person hosting us for the last week of our trip to bless us financially, Sveno. I am appreciative that Karen helped set us up with him. We have enjoyed his home and his company termendously!  Him and his fiancee and her beautiful daughter also blessed us with a delicious meal at a restaurant, then later with a big spaghetti dinner!
While Jonathan took his nap Sveno also took James shopping, I  instructed them to pick up sesamae oil- which they did! So now tonight I will make a big pot of fried rice for everyone, which reminds me that I should start the rice now being 4:30pm over here.
Jonathan didn't do too well with spaghetti. He was fussy and started stemming and making angry noises. However he did stay at the table for the entire duration of dinner just fine. After dinner we drove to this huge park area and let him play on the swing and run around. It broke my heart that he couldn't play with the other kids. They were older than him to begin with. But I'm excited to get home because Jonathan will ALWAYS have his brother David for a friend, and he will never need to be the lonely one at the playground again.
We came back and let Jonathan play in the house, and we got to talk with Sveno and see his Kermit photos. You can check out his website here: http://kermitaroundtheworld.com
We also got to hear Sveno's testamony and look at other pictures he has taken! One of my favorite websites ever is http://www.improveverywhere.com which is based in New York City. Sveno is doing some of the exact same improv missions here in the Ukraine. The photos and stories are incredible! Think subways system plus mousetraps loaded in a car. Think finger rockets in the airport for a 5-hour war! Think formalwear photo session in the water at the beach!  It is amazing to hear about these stories of spreading some good ol' American fun over here to the Ukraine!
Before I sign off I want to say how proud I am of my son Jonathan for doing as well as he did for his first day with us. He can already sign more, mommy, and all done!!! Though he has repeated what I have shown him for a request, he has shown me that he can do these signs out of memory! So cool and this is only just the beginning of our learning escapades! Thank you everyone for your prayers- I literally FEEL the blessing of God over us. I just am experiencing His grace in so many situations over here I am just overwhelmed on what God has done to get us here to this point, it is simply amazing!
Also note:  The photos are from our airplane ride, which Jonathan was an ANGEL on!

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Last day in Sevastopol tomorrow...

Hello! Today we got Jonathan's passport! It only took 3 days from when the application was submitted, which is actually quick! We have one last full day in Sevastopol tomorrow then early morning on Sunday - 5am - we will pick up Jonathan from the orphanage for our Gotcha Day! We will drive to Simferopol and board for our 08:45 flight out to Kiev. We will be done with all paperwork by Tuesday... I was given time estimates once we got our court date and I already booked our plane tickets using the worst case senarios, and now we will have 4 extra days in Kiev. So we will consider this 4 extra days of 2-on-1 mommy/daddy/jonathan special time.
So tomorrow is our last day in Sevastopol. We are considering going to Balaklava where there is a naval meuseum, or take the bus again to Chersonese so we can get video footage there. We need to get some Jonathan traveling snacks too, AND make a log for the hotel owners and taxi driver to sign off on so we have some sort of a receipt for our major expenses here.
Please pray for Jonathan to transition well! I am praying for extra measures of God's grace as a new mommy to Jonathan. Thank you everyone! I have included a picture of daddy and Jonathan waiting to get the passport photo taken. This was done last Tuesday. :-)

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our timeline

I wanted to share our timeline so you can be aware and to know what to be praying for while we are still here in the Ukraine.

-Today is Friday, June 29, and we are on day 7 of our 10 day appeal (waiting) period.
-On July 3rd our court decree will be issued, we will pick this up then go to the registry office for notarizing a new birth certificate for Jonathan.
On this day we will fill out the passport application, prepare paperwork for the social security office for the name change for his SS#
-On Wednesday, July 4th, we will submit the passport application, this takes 3-4 business days to process which brings us to July 10th. (On the 4th, our facilatator will purchase our airfare so we can fly to Kiev with Jonathan.)
-On Tuesday, July 10th, we will get our new passport for Jonathan, then we can officially take Jonathan out of the orphanage, and we will fly to Kiev hopefully later this day.
-On the 11th we will have Jonathan's medical examination.
-On the 12th we will submit for his visa
-On the 13th we will receive his visa
-We need to be at the airport around 4am on the 14th. We will land in Seattle 6:30pm, that is a nice long day for us!

Please pray there isn't any unforseen delays to avoid fees for changing our flight arrangments. Please pray that there will not be any misspellings or other issueson with the final paperwork. Pray that Jonathan will learn and understand us and to learn to follow our directions and cues. I know that the last prayer point will come with time and with God's grace.

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Now in the 10-day waiting period

I didn't realize that I was this far behind on blogging! Yikes! :-)
So we had court, and I thank those who were praying for us. There were some tough questions being asked that required behind-the-scenes prayers to get through. We are thankful for the approval for adoption paperwork, the approval to legally change "Evan's" Ukrainian birth name to "Jonathan Evan Brown", and the approval to be considered Jonathan's parents and legal guardians.
We chose the name Jonathan because our biological son, David was named after King David in the Bible. Well, who was David's most closest friend, a dear brother in the Lord in whom a covenant was made? Jonathan! The name is perfect, and we love "Evan" for a middle name, which means God is gracious.
So we are waiting during this 10 day appeal period. There are additional days following the waiting period that require more time to submit for passports, visa, and obtain Jonathan's, medical examination.
We will be home on July 15th, after flying all day on the 14th. Please pray for the flights. We have 3 layovers!
We will be doing a day trip on Friday, going to Yalta to explore some of the palaces there among other historical sights. Other than Yalta, we are staying low key. We are doing lots of reading, studing the Bible, praying for other families and their adoptions. We have the most precious faces stuck in our minds of children that so desparetly need families. We are truly changed for having come here to Ukraine for this adoption. Will God bring us back here in the future? We don't know! I do know if God tells us to "go" without a doubt we would do this again, knowing God would provide throughout the entire process, as daunting as it would seem. I will walk by faith and not by sight!
The pictures are from one of our visits at the orphanage. We just love our new son!

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Little guy....

Yesterday we visited "Evan" at the orphanage. It was a good day with him. We usually visit for an hour and a half everyday, except for Sundays. Our time with him usually starts with us walking up to his "groupa", and the second we catch his eye he gets the biggest smile on his face and with arms flung open, he runs to us! Today he ran with an additional squeeling noise- he is always excited to see us. So he loves us to hold him, and doesn't want to be put down. So usually our first 15-20 minutes are just having him on our laps and we will talk to him, he is so giggly and happy. We will sing pre-school songs that require hand motions. He loves to try to imitate the motions. Even after we're done singing and if we go for a walk I will still see him with his finger in the air (it's for "the mama on the bus goes shh, shh, shh").
We will usually swing for a little bit, but some days the little guy is a little more hyper and won't hold on or sit well, so we can't swing. They don't have anything to hold him in place to keep him from sliding out...
After swinging we will go through our backpack. I have a "busy book" for him, a pinwheel, a stretchy tube, a hand clapper toy, some raisens, water... and we'll take pictures and show him pictures of his family at home and of his brother, David.
But he loves it the most when the groupa caretakers start up the bouncy house, and then when they are finished, just maybe "Evan" will have a turn! We will throw balls to him and he is so happy to fall, jump around and throw the balls back to us. We gotta get one of these for our home!
Soon, the groupa holds hands and goes back in the orphanage. They sit in a sitting area with cartoons on, then someone brings in their afternoon snack or meal. I see a tea kettle and a pot of soup with what looks like potatoes in it. We don't get to see anything else or anywhere else of the orphanage, but it appears the children are well taken care of. I know "Evan" is in a group with pretty much normal children. They each probably have something in their medical diagnosis, but they get to run around a be normal children- they are not stuck in a room or a crib all day. So I'm so glad the orphanage recognized "Evan's" potential and didn't put the down syndrome label on him and tuck him away where he doesn't get his needs met.
But now that he just turned 4.... there's no telling what would have happened to him if we never came to adopt him. We serve a big and mighty God, and I know He would have called someone else to adopt this sweet boy. But looking around, there are so many children that need families, Lord please send parents to adopt them!

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Another beautiful day

Today is the last day Mark and Hansina are here in our city. We were able to spend the afternoon with them, which was wonderful! They showed the most beautiful part of the city- the pier area. I didn't realize the boardwalk pier arew was close to us and we could walk there! They have such neat souvinier stands- and lots of people go up to you trying to sell you something, whether it be a boating excursion or whatnot. It's very convienent not knowing the language...
Mark heard that James' back was hurting and he knew who to call! We had a massage therapist come to our apartment and for 40 minutes James got a massage, back adjustments for under 10 dollars. Wow. We might be calling her again. And James haircut for like 5 dollars! And we go to this amazing cafe and get beverages, soups, main meals, coffees, and 2 desserts to go for about 20 dollars. Today we splurged, we don't normally order so much. We normally eat twice per day and it costs 5 dollars per person per meal. :-)
I'm going to post some pictures from today... another beautiful, hot day here in Sevastopol!

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Hello! I can blog now!

Hi everybody. Today I met with Hansina and Mark who are also here in Sevastopol, and thanks to Hansina, she showed me the blogger app that I needed to download in order to make my posts while I'm here in the Ukraine!

Today we had a day off from visiting Jonathan at the orphanage, as our driver usually gets Sundays off. So we will visit the little guy tomorrow.

I want to say happy father's day to my father, my husband and any other dad that may be reading this blog post!

Our official court date is June 22nd. We will likely be here until July 14th or so. That will make for 40 days, the number of completion!

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so far so good

We are in Sevastopol and had our interview today and received our positive summary. now our paperwork is on a train heading to Kiev as we wait for our approval and court date. i apologize for not blogging more. i have tried, but i have a tablet, not a computer, and its not working for long posts or for pictures. find me on facebook if you want to follow us here in the ukraine and want to see pictures of the little guy! He is such a sweety, a very active happy and loud sweety!

On our way...

We are traveling to Ukraine now! We are in the Washington DC airport waiting for our flight to Frankfert, then on to Kiev! I miss my son David so much, but little Evan has been waiting almost 4 years for a family, so it's his turn now. Soon we'll be a family soon! I will keep you posted on our adoption trip daily, if possible.

1 Week Away from Leaving!

I am a week away from leaving to the Ukraine!  There is so much going on right now in our lives- lots of stress- my family knows what I am talking about.  At any rate, I am so excited to travel and meet my new son, and start bonding with him and giving him lots of love and attention!

I'm packing right now for our trip! I've received helpful advice from others to bring: laundry soap, duct tape, ketchup packs, lots of reading material, DVDs, cooking spices.... any other tips from my blogger friends who have already gone to the Ukraine before? I appreciate any otips you may have for us! Thank you!

EURO 2012 thoughts....

Please pray that my court date, whenever that happens, does not happen to be at the same time that Kyiv is hosting a Euro 2012 tournament!

On the Euro finals schedule the following dates will hold soccer tournaments in Kyiv:
June 11, June 15, June 19, June 24, and July 1st. (I don't know if the hotels and apartments are booked on only the event nights or if it's likely that they are booked for 3 weeks straight for the whole tournamnet...)

So on June 4th, I will arrive in Kyiv for my June 5th appointment date. I will receive my referral to meet "Evan" at this visit. Then by June 6th evening I will take the train to Sevastapol to meet Evan and confirm that we will still want to persue the adoption. So then I need to wait 1-3+ weeks for the official court date back in Kyiv, Ukraine, then followed by a 10 day waiting period. 

Our time in Kyiv around the official court date may mean NO HOTEL ACCOMIDATIONS! 

I am arranging accomidations for my stay at Sevestapol tomorrow.  I have inquired for accomidations for my first stay in Kyiv with a women who blesses adoptive families by hosting them in her apartment.  I don't know if she already has another family scheduled... So I will update you as I get word! 

I must walk by faith and not by sight- because I'm getting anxiety right now thinking about this. I think I'd best give it to God and let Him handle it!  :-)

APPOINTMENT DATE

We finally recieved our appointment date!  It is for June 5th- that is "Evan's" 4th birthday! 
I can't believe how long it has taken to get to this point!  :-)  We are super excited- thank you everyone for your prayers!

David's 28th Month Milestones

We don't have an appointment date- yet. I should be getting it in the next couple of days! It is VERY likely my court date will be around May 30th, give or take a couple days.  So that is so very exciting!

There is so much to share on my blog about God's timing, His faithfulness, and the changes happening right now in our lives... but I feel my posts need to wait until after the adoption is finalized, so please bare with me right now as I ask for your patience!

But I will say that the timing of the actual adoption itself can not be ANY later... the earliest dated paperwork in our dossier is for December 28th- and this is a paper we can replace in a week or two's notice- it would only be a little hassle... The next dated paperwork is January 16th- and I can not replace this paperwork without having our entire homestudy revised- but there is further implications with this that could delay the adoption so much longer... So I am thankful that the adoption is looking to work out in the most PERFECT timing possible for our lives and what God is doing, and for the paperwork!  Because my dossier paperwork can not be more than 6 months old!

It is due time to share about David's milestones as he is now 28 months old!

-David can walk longer distances, but can fall down if the ground level changes or if he trips over something.  He walked down the block to a park yesterday- half of the time walking by himself, and half of the time holding on with one hand so he could step over a curb OK.
-David now circles his hands in the air for "The wheels on the bus goes round and round", the only other verse he can do on his own is "The doors on the bus go open and shut" and he will cover and uncover his eyes.  He likes to beep my fist for the horn on the bus, but he will not beep his own fist.
-Put David in a room full of toys that are EVERYWHERE, and I will see him gather like toys and put them in a safe place away from the others. It's nice to see him separate toys out from others!
-David sits very well when you plop him down on any chair. He sits there just fine and doesn't try to get or fall out. I can feed him snacks or a meal this way. I'm finding I'm only using his real high chair for haircuts!  He's doing much better sitting next to me and sharing my meal with me.
-David understands me when I say "bath time" or "let's go play in the water"- I start to walk towards the bathroom and he knows to follow me there for bath time. The same goes for "let's go bye bye" or "we're going to go see grandma!" he knows to follow me to the garage!
-David has finally graduated from Baby Einstein videos to Mickey's Clubhouse! He doesn't miss the Baby Einstein videos anymore. I was getting very sick of them. I'm sure he would still love to watch them, but I'd like him to watch something with characters and talking going on.
-David's not saying any more/new words at the moment, but he understands us a lot more and is so playful, giggly, and loving.

I am so excited for Evan. I asked David yesterday if he wanted a brother, and he kept signing "Please"! It was so sweet!

David's 27 Month Milestones

I want to make this post before I forget what David is able to do this month!

-David is walking everywhere! He doesn't walk like a monkey anymore! His hands are more relaxed at his side now.
-David is an escape artist!  He will climb over couches and maneuver through tight spaces to get out of his play room.
-David says "up"- he emphasizes this with a hand pump.
-David now does the sign for "water"
-David will pat my hand for "on" (not his own), he will hit my elbow for "cracker" (not his own), he will move my thumb to my chin for "mommy" and not do it to himself!  The stinker! :-P
-David is starting to make the craziest words/noises with his tongue.

I have a video from our speech therapy visit. I'll post it soon. David says "ball" in the video. :-) Way to go! He hasn't said it since!
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Regarding the adoption, I am just waiting patiently for our appointment date, the latest I should know is May 2nd. That's coming up quickly! I'm so very excited to finally adopt our little boy!

Money Growing on Trees!

Oh my goodness! We were doing some yard work and in a tree we found a plastic baggie with money in it!
It's from my nurse friend, last year when we were doing the raffle.  She dropped off her share of the raffle tickets one night when I wasn't home and I never saw the money, and didn't want to ask about it out of respect.  Well she put the raffle tickets and money in separate bags in separate spots on the tree.  Oh my! 
Right now it's pretty moldly, wet, and stinky.  But that's another $114 towards the adoption I previously didn't have! Thank you Lord for putting in our hearts today to do yard work!  :-)

Dossier Update/Fundraisers

My dossier will be submitted on April 12th! The Ukrainian government has 20 days to come up with an appointment date for us!  So the time is drawing near to finally bring Evan home!

That also means the time is drawing near to come up with the last $10,000, and I am hoping to fundraise this amount!

Here is my last efforts and attempts to fundraise this:

**My friend Jessica is hosting a skincare/makeup party on April 24th, and we are trying to get the word out all over facebook for this event!
She will sell all of her products throughout the month of April with 100% of the proceeds to benefit Evan's adoption: https://www.amway.com/JessicaGanulin

**We are having another "Evan's MEGA Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale" on April 28th and 29th!  I have officially submitted our story to the local newstations and I am praying to get their help in spreading the word about our story and the yard sale. It would be amazing to see the community come together again in this event like the last time!

**Today and tomorrow I will be completing grant applications. That is the last thing I can think of for trying to fundraise the remaining amount.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to Evan's adoption this past year, and even to those who have contributed to Evan's fund- prior to us even committing to the adoption.  The grants are such an amazing help to us.  So thank you everyone indeed!