Happy Birthday Vitali/Happy Easter

Vitali is 5 yrs old as of yesterday. We had a small party in the park today and I am going to blog about that with pics hopefully in the next couple of days. I will share quickly his prayer last night before bed as we had told him his party was today....He was praying and said in his own little words, "Kamp Ku (Thank you) Lord for mommy coming to my parlee (party)". "I toe lighted" (I am so excited). "I never had a parlee". Amen Grant got sick in the middle of night and we woke up going what are going to do about Vitali's party being at our house with a sick child, but how could you not have a party that day after a prayer like that:) So, we moved the party to the park and had a great time!
Also, Happy Easter...It has been a great weekend to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior! In rained and thundered and lightened on Good Friday, which I thought was so fitting to remember the crucifixion time and tomorrow is the day we celebrate Jesus's resurrection and it is absolutely beatiful outside....I love it! There is so much I wish I had time to share with you of even things the kids have shared with us about Easter and maybe I will get the chance on next blog, but for now...I am posting this post below since I had already finished it a few days ago and it was just waiting to be published on blog :) Have a GREAT EASTER!

Hitting a few highlights since last the last post....Let's see...Grant and Inna are playing soccer now. It is Inna's first time, so she is learning, but I think mostly is enjoying being on a team. She did decide this week that she officially didnt want to play soccer anymore, but since we are halfway into it...we talked to her about finishing the season out, even if she just considers it as getting a little exercise. She did go to practice yesterday and kept a good attitude and seemed to enjoy herself. We have pics of her as she has already had her team pics. She is 3rd from bottom right in group pic below...I will have to post Grant's later when he has his. Inna is doing better in school behavior-wise as far as fights go (it has been a big adjustment for her as she tries to come out of the orphanage aggressive survival mode)...but there hasnt been anymore fights at school lately...YEA!!! Her GiGi(grandmother) gave her a bracelet to wear after her 4th fight at school and told her that when she gets angry and feels that she is about to fight someone to look at her bracelet as a reminder to ask Jesus to help her..well...I guess this has helped as she hasnt been in a fight at school since then that I know of. We are still working on other behavior issues at school and the academic situation and just trying to finish out this year, so that we can get her in something more appropriate for her needs next year. We have met with school staff often for this year and everyone is working on the best plan for her. All in all when I look back over her going to public school this year...it may have not been the best academic learning environment for her in a regular classroom, but we never know until we try and truly I am also thankful that she was able to see a classroom environment in America and be with other children that have goals for doing well in school and see what that looks like. I became more aware throughout the year of how there is no motivation for doing well in school. I began talking to her about if she was expelled from school what that would be like and it hit me while I was speaking that before now, she has probably only seen people "graduate" from the orphanage with no education, skills for functioning in life and the unfortunate truth is that most of them become homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes, etc..so when this is all she has ever known why would being expelled even matter to her. So ever since then, I have been trying to encourage her about different motivations for learning in school and we have talked about different careers and many other things. The light came on and the other day she said, "I want to be a designer one day" and I tell ya, she is so creative and designs clothes on paper all the time, so it wouldnt surprise me at all! I just try to keep encouraging her!
Grant is loving soccer...I am not sure if he loves it as much as football, but he sure seems to be just as excited when he plays. We are praying and deciding about his school situation too and we are going to visit the gifted program before school is out to see if that seems like it will be enough for him next year to keep him challenged. We have heard that it is only a 1 day a week thing, so we are not sure yet, but I think it will help make the decision for what to do for next year. He has a little stomach virus this weekend, so please pray that he will feel better. He is collecting quarters for children in Brazil right now through the AWANA program at church and had until May to collect a card full of quarters and has asked us non stop if he could do chores for money to fill up his quarter card and he gets SOOOO much joy out of earning the money himself and he turned the 1st card in 4 days after he got and they couldnt believe it, so now he is working on his second card of quarters. They had no idea what they were doing at church when they started this missions project with the kids...but missions is his heart...It wouldnt surprise me if he was a missionary one day!

Vitali~ Is still developing by leaps and bounds. His teachers at school and church constantly tell me how much he is improving. Remember my posts about when we were in Ukraine and my friends called him "Vitality" on accident a few times and I really felt the Lord was speaking to my heart that this was what we would see in him one day (Vitality...full of life) instead of what we were seeing at the orphanage....well, one of his teachers came up to me at church the other day and said, "We just love Vitali....HE IS SO FULL OF LIFE". She went on to say...every activity we do...it is like he just lights up with so much excitement. She does not even know his adoption story and hasnt known him very long, but I thought it was cool that those were the words she chose. God is good, huh? We just registered Vitali for Kindergarten next year although he is in a 3 yr old class now with Special Ed services. The main reason is that Special Ed home base is at the Kindergarten and they really recommended he be right where they are and they will be able to meet his needs better there. So, although it feels really weird to think of him going to Kindergarten...it will really be with Special Ed and they said he can stay as many years as needed, so we agreed! I trust the Special Ed group there as they have been wonderful to us so far and they seem to really love Vitali.

We are coming closer to the kids being home for one year. I have some posts that I would like to get in before then, so I guess I better get on the ball :)