A Great Week of Relaxation, Spa Treatments, & Eating Bon Bons

OOPS...I MEANT to put a Great Week Of Hyperactivity, Parasite Treatments, and eating Mickey D's on the road in between appointments, haha! Wow...we have been trying to catch Inna and Vitali up on a LIFETIME of missed health care and it has kept us pretty busy lately! We went to the eye doctor this week and Praise God, we were cleared there and didnt have to get glasses this time. Vitali will need to go back in a year when he is speaking more and evaluate again.

Today, all 3 kids went to the dentist and it was Inna & Vitali's first visit ever to a dentist and so as expected much dental work is needed including 2 baby root canals for Vitali. They all did great at the dentist and Inna even said she liked it, which is a good thing since between she and Vitali, they will have 6 dental visits coming up to get everything fixed. Grant is still holding on to his record of no cavaties and mama has never been so thankful!!!

Ok, can I just tell you that by far the worst part of medicals so far has been the million "you know what" collections of both kids that I have had to take to the lab to check for Parasites(I just know that I am getting an Amen from you other adoptive parents doing this right now). Now, I know this is not ideal, but I confess that on the last day of collecting, I paid a family member $10.00 to be the pooper scooper into the viles for that day (And I know the rest of you are thinking this is too much info, but I figure if I have to do it, I should at least be able to vent about it on my own blog), They both are being treated for parasites from the water in Ukraine and now we will have to start collecting all over again once the medicine is done (Guess, I better start saving my $10.00...just kidding). Speaking of the medicine...the doctors told us that the medicine taste really bad (There is only one pharmacy that it could even be found at) and so I was expecting this huge battle with the kids taking it. Well, Inna really doesnt like it and so I play every "entertain you so you don't know you are taking your medicine" game when she takes hers, but Vitali actually begs for his and falls on the floor crying for more when he is done...it is pretty comical.

This next week will consist of a Birmingham Audiologist appt, English tutoring for Inna (which is going great and you wouldnt believe how well she is speaking English), and we have a social worker coming to our house for a mandatory post-adoption assessment for Ukraine~ maybe this would be a good time to place a "Enter At Your Own Risk Sign" on my door, so she will have a good warning of the hi activity level in the house before entering. One friend has already told me that it sounds like I'm at Walmart when she calls my home :) I said, could'nt we at least make Target.

Vitali is still being evaluated, but one thing that was confirmed on our first UAB appt is that he is on a 15-24 month old level in every way (While we were in Ukraine, Jason and I guessed 18-24 mos, so we were not far off). His severe orphanage conditions definitely has played a huge part in his developmental delays, but there is a good possiblity of other underlying conditions that would cause some delays also. He has had x-rays of his skull, but the x-rays did not come out clear for what the doctors need to see, so they have recommended to put him under anesthesia and do a MRI. We are in the process of getting this scheduled now. Please continue to pray for a quick report as I think the hardest part is all the waiting. It seems that it will be so much easier when we can get through with the diagnostic part and know the best way to help him. UAB was telling us from the beginning that the most important factor to his development is that he build a good attachment to us and bonds well with his parents and they said that they didnt recommend any physical, occupational, or speech therapy until that has taken place first and the GREAT NEWS is that he is attaching and the bonding process is going AWESOME and his last UAB visit, they were very impressed on how well it was going and we could all tell a big improvement in his development. We just feel that he has come so far in a short time- far more than we ever could have expected from our visits with him at the orphanage. We definitely want to be educated on all that we can on how we can best help him...at the same time knowing that God has the final say on Vitali's medicals and He has already done more than we could imagine in Vitali. About 2 weeks ago, he began to really interact and communicate back and forth, which was not happening before and his little personality is really beginning to come out. He loves to go around the house reciting his family's names over and over, which he pronounces, Mama, Tato (Ukrainian word for Dad), Inna (he pronounces "Yeena", Grant (he pronounces, "Vant"), and then he says, "Tali". It is so precious!!

Some more 1st since last post:
Inna~ 1st Vacation Bible School, which she loved and 1st time her hair has been long enough for pig tails. The pic below is of she, Grant, and Grant's long time friend, Emma at VBS.



Vitali~ 1st time jumping off the diving board and swimming WITHOUT floaties. He is a true swimmer now.

Grant has had a BIG week as he turned 7 and celebrated his birthday by 3 of his best friends going out for Pizza and then Go-carts and Bumper Boats. Here are a couple pics from his B-day~
1. Grant & friends
2. Tiff & Grant riding Go-carts...he wasnt quite tall enough to drive himself yet



One last thing~ I decided to add the link to the song "Never let go" by David Crowder as it has become Inna's favorite song. She ask me to play it constantly and she has learned all of the words and sings with the CD every time. From the first time it played in the car, she said, "Please, again". When she is scared at night, she wants me and her to sing this song together now. She loves it and I think it is great, because it is about no matter what happens in our lives Jesus never let's go of us...he has always been there through the good and bad. There is probably not many people who would understand how much the message of this song means more than a child who has been an orphan. It seems to bring her so much comfort and has become one of my favorites as well! Here it is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jHrbXEcee8


Pics below: I was looking over older pics and found these 2 pics...the 1st is of Inna now and the 2nd is of Inna at the airport her first day home with us 40 days ago...just can't believe how much she has grown in such a short amount of time. Does anyone else feel like your kids are changing at SuperSonic Speed? :)

Pics Cont'd....

Pics:

1. Grant talked his Aunt Tiff into having an overnight campout in the living room.

2. Vitali watcing T.V.

3. The first time we put Vitali in the pool his first week home, he did not have the strength to balance on floaties without his head tipping over in the water. Well, this is a pic of him now...not only can he balance in the water, but he jumps off the diving board about 100 times when we go swimming. YEA!!!!

4. Tiff with our animals...Max & Dil

New Pics

Here are some new pics of the past couple of weeks. We are all adjusting a little more each day and this week we had kind of a free week with no appointments or tutoring, but next week will make up for it with MANY appointments for the kids.We are awaiting confirmations on Vitali's medicals and will share with you what we can as soon as we know more, but we are seeing many improvements just from being in a family and having "normal" playing time outside. He started counting to 10 this week (which is HUGE!) and every week his balance gets a little better and his walk is much more stable than before.
We have many pics to share and because I can only get 5 pics per post, there will be pics on the post below too. Here they are.....

Pics:
1. Inna pretending to have a conversation on the phone. This is one of her favorite past times playing on the phone and practicing an English conversation. This pic is from one of those times. By the way, if you have called our house and someone answered and talked to you in Ukrainian and then hung up...it was Inna and we probably have no idea you called...try again :)

2. Papaw launching Grant in the pool

3. Papaw launching Inna in the pool

4. Inna took this pic of Mama & Grant

5. After many attempts of Vitali trying to stand and walk in Papa's shoes and after many face plants to the floor, in this pic he finally made it...SCORE!!!!

More Pics Below.....

What A Week- Part 2 :)

Well, we have had another eventful week. Daddy has officially gone back to work as of Monday and this was the first week of just Mama & 3. There were many challenges this week, but the Lord has been so gracious to give Mama & Papa the strength needed for each day! Thank you for all the support from friends and family this week...so many of you...you know who you are and I cannot thank you enough!!!

Inna & Vitali did go to the UAB international adoption clinic and it was so great to get the ball rolling there! I think they spent about 4 hours with us evaluating the two, but since they are older, the evaluations are quite extensive and they were not able to finish evaluating Vitali that day. We will go back on June 25th to finish his evaluations and get the results of Inna's. The Developmental Specialist tested her and did go ahead and tell us that she can start in 4th grade next year. So, when the school year starts, she will go to school with Grant. While we wait on our next UAB appointment, they will be seeing an Audiologist and Eye doctor. Grant went to the appointment with us and played hang man with one of their staff a lot of the time and he was just too excited not to have to get all the blood work with them. Inna on the other hand is one tough cookie and doesnt even react a little bit when getting blood work or even shots.

Well, with a whole new world to discover for Inna & Vitali, I thought I would post some of the things that they have found most AMAZING this past week~

Inna~
1. Tin Foil~ I pulled out tin foil to put on the left overs and by her reaction you would have thought she spotted Elvis...she was amazed even more the next day when she saw Jody(my hairdresser) put that AMAZING tin foil in my hair for highlights

2. The small ice in Sonic Drinks~ she looked at me in a panic and thought that something was wrong with her soda. I explained that it is just like what comes out of our refridgerator door, but smaller and she thought that was cool.

3. The fact that Mama is 33 years old. It was ok for Papa to be 33, but when we told her that I was 33, she just looked at me with very sadly and just kept saying, "Mama, No".

4. Tiff eating Bruster's Hot Fudge Sunday~ she just looked at it and fell on the floor in passing out position :)

Vitali~
1. The handle on the toilet~ potty training at it's best!

2. A Bath~ I could never explain the amount of activity involved in his baths, but let's just say a Gold Medal Gymnast has nothing on him. He loves it!!!!

3. Car ride

4. Back rubs~ He loves to be touched and usually will lift up his shirt meaning he wants us to rub his belly and then he always flips over and wants you to do his back.

5. Books~ At night, when I go to read him a bed time story, he just laughs and laughs when I start it off...he thinks it is so cool to have a book read to him!

Well, that's all for now! More updates later.....

Comments:
Stephanie~ Sounds like Riley IS a lot like Vitali. I would love to see a pic of him sometime! Thanks for keeping in touch along this journey!

Thanks for all the new post on the guestbook...Pat Miaoulis, Bret & Margie, and Elena Littlefield...it was great to hear from you!