A Great First Christmas Together!

Our first Christmas together as a family was lots of fun and we felt blessed in so many ways! There are many pics and I will share some of the ones that we have. Inna and Grant were besides themselves with excitement most of the time and Vitali just seemed to kind of take it all in in wonder of all that was happening. He loved his new trucks most of all and has played with the constantly since getting them. He also learned to sing a few Christmas songs....our favorite song that he sung was Jingle Bells, which he pronounces "Gibble Bells".

Grant and Inna caught the spirit of giving this Christmas as they bought each other something special. They had already bought each other something very small at the Secret Santa Shop at school, but Grant & Inna had been given some money by a family member for Christmas and Grant came up to me a few days before Christmas and said that when he and daddy and Inna were in Walmart, Inna saw something that she really liked so much and he wanted to know if he could use his money to buy it for her. It was a "lifesize" Barbie. I told him that that was so sweet of him and if that was what he really what he wanted to do than of course he could, but I also explained that she may not choose to buy something for him with her money as she is so excited to have her own money to buy something with (I tried to manage any expectations, so there wasnt disappointment later :) He told me, "I don't want her to buy me anything, I just want to do this for her because she loved that Barbie". He always has a BIG heart and loves to give, so I pretty much guessed that would be his answer before he even said. Well, I took him to the store and he proudly bought her the Barbie and after she saw it under the tree, she also decided that she too wanted to buy him something special with her money. She bought him a crossbow from the Bass Pro Shop(Nerf arrows) that they were playing with and she knew he really liked. Here are some pics of their gifts to each other:


Vitali and his gal :)

Another one of our favorite things was looking at Christmas lights. We bought some glow sticks and went to the best houses in our area:

Daddy, Inna, and Vitali got out at this house with everyone else and had a closeup look. Grant and I had seen it up close to0 many years in a row to get out in the cold, haha!



This scary guy showed up Christmas morning...ok, it is just Jason in one of his Christmas presents to keep warm at work:


Then, a couple days later, some football in the yard:
Grant getting ready to catch and run:

Jason going vertical :)

Jason's mom, Grandmama, getting in on the action:

A Reason To Celebrate....

We have so many reasons to celebrate this year...our family being together, health, great jobs, and the list goes on and on, but what we love about Christmas is that it is a holiday set aside to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus long ago and to celebrate the peace that we have in Him.

I posted before that I was asked to share testimony at our church women's group's last 4 breakfasts and one of the times, I shared about how I love to read the story behind the hymns and I shared the story behind, "What a Friend We Have In Jesus". If you have never read how they were written, I encourage you to google it. These writers have been through so much in their life and yet they write about the faithfulness of God. Well, today at church they shared the story behind the song, "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day" and thought I would share a little bit...

The words to “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day” were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day 1864 in the midst of the American Civil War and the news of his son had suffered wounds as a soldier in battle. The poet had suffered the great loss of his wife two years earlier in a fire. But in the midst of it all, he wrote the poem “Christmas Bells” that became this carol. He finished with this last stanza...

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, goodwill to men."


Our adoption agency sent out Christmas letters this year and at the top was this Awesome heading:
The treasure of Christmas is HOPE,
The hope of Christmas is PEACE,
The peace of Christmas is Jesus!

At Christmas time, we are celebrating the peace of having a relationship with Jesus and our hope is that each of you will experience the peace and joy that only He can give this Christmas!

Below is the Casting Crown's version of I heard the Bells: (May have to turn off other music at the bottom)


ISAIAH 9:6
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called WONDERFUL, COUNCELOR, MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

More family updates next post :)

More Updates

It is hard to get a picture of Vitali without movement, so this one is a little blurred, but I didnt want to crop it.

Let's see...it has been an action packed week :)
One of us had an appointment everyday this week and some pretty long appointments too! I somehow actually "no showed" an appointment too when it just completely slipped my mind even after I had seen it in my planner that morning but with the events of the day, forgot...oops!

We had our UAB Adoption Clinic 6 mos evals done again by pediatrician, speech therapist, and psychologist. They are just great to work with us on all areas needed and they are so knowledgable. Vitali has some knots in his neck in lymph nodes and actually some swollen lymph nodes all over with some other minor symptoms and has been waking up in the middle of the night with bad leg pain, so he had to have lots of blood work done and THANK GOD the blood work was normal.
I will not bore you with all the details of the day (It was about a 4 hr appt to get everything done)....all of the ones that evaluated the kids that day are going to get together and let us know the results soon. It is great to know we are good hands with them (they are medical professionals, but also adoptive parents also with lots of experience :) They are specifically trying to help us with Inna and school as it has been a very difficult challenge for all involved this year. It has been a challenge for her to do well in school coming from the background that she has(there has been behavioral issues at school) and then starting off so behind academically. She is a very smart girl, but had only been taught to a 1st grade level academically when she arrived here and she is the age of 5th grade, but the developmental specialist felt that we should try her in 4th grade this year. So, now the adoption clinic are using their professional knowledge and experience with internationally adopted children(they see this happen all the time in school) and putting all this together with my "mommy sense" and Jason's "daddy sense" and we are all going to try to come up with the best plan for her in school. Please pray for us if you think about it as we make these important decisions.

We have had a fun week too! The Christmas parties have begun! The kids will have a Birthday Party for Jesus at church wed night and they are looking forward to it. Jason and I went caroling this past wed night with our church at a nursing home here in P-ville. We just walked through the halls and sang and it was so sweet seeing the residents in their rooms as we walked by singing along with us. Then, we went to my grandmother (Meme's) retirement home for the Christmas Party there. It was lots of fun and they always go all out on the decorations. We always look forward to all the great party food there. We did not get to the parade this year as Grant had a birthday party to go to for a very special long time friend of his that he had not seen in a while. Saturday, I was able to go to the Christmas Breakfast at Christ Community where I was asked to give testimony and speak about our adoption relating to a different topic each month. I have had the honor of doing this since June and December was our last one. It has been a great opportunity to be able to share so much of God's faithfulness in the midst of so many adjustments.


Sooooo...I have asked the kids if there is something special they would like for Christmas and everyone had let me know, except for Inna who always has a long list of wants and couldnt decide...you know, the list gets larger with every commercial and every store trip (Try taking someone who has never been in a store to Walmart...we havent gotten brave enough to do Toys R Us yet :) Although, we have gotten Vitali to stop trying to give the Target employees kisses goodbye, haha! So, this week she was brushing my hair and I asked her if she could narrow it down to one thing that she would really like and to my surprise she said, "Well, I have been thinking and my present for Christmas is my family...that is what I REALLY wanted". I agree, that is my present too! With her saying that, it reminded of the Stephen Curtis Chapman song, "All I really want", so I added it to the blog this time.

Hope you are enjoying this Christmas season!

Comments:
Mederma~ Good to talk to ya on the phone! We miss ya'll too. Come on over to
P-ville when you get a chance! Luv~ Prep H

Kathy~ Thanks for the comment! Looking forward to reading more about your family!

Alan~ Wow...4 girls and not far apart in age...I am impressed! You are right about the stories being heartbreaking! I am so thankful that I can always take comfort in like the old song says, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands"...it is a child's song, but so comforting when hearing things that are out of our control.

Tis the Season...

Here are some photos of our Christmas decorating day at our home (my camera was doing funny, so not all pics are real clear)~

The Guys:


Yes, everyone wanted to peek in the attic:


When the decorations finally made it down, the kids were in awe:



And...finally, the tree us up:



We also took some photos for Christmas cards and these are a couple that didnt make the card:

Next weekend, we will be going to the Christmas Parade here in our hometown. It is always lots of fun!

Tomorrow, we will be going to B-ham for our 6 month eval with our social worker (It was rescheduled last time) and then Inna and Vitali will have their 6 month eval at UAB Adoption Clinic. We have a busy day ahead, so guess I better close out until next time.....

In Honor Of National Adoption Month

Well, I just did make it....Today is the last day of November and since November is National Adoption Month, this post will be dedicated to this special time of adoption awareness! I love this time of year (Even before I was an adoptive parent) because our local radio station airs Family Life Today and they normally have such great adoption info for this month. I know a lot of emails went around about the 20/20 episode on adoption this week too. We were so blessed to have an adoptive family at our church of children born here in America speak today on their new ministry for adoptive families/children.

We believe that God called us to Ukraine to adopt our children and since we came in contact with so many of the orphans there, we have a special place in our hearts for them. I put this video on the blog once when we first started the blog, but thought I would add it to this post today also...you may have to turn the music off at the bottom of the blog page to hear music on the video.....



This video gives some of the unfortunate sitations the orphans face and in my opinion probably doesnt even touch the surface of some of it. In Vitali's orphanage, I do believe that the caregivers did the best they could with what they have and we actually loved many of the caregivers and orphanage director, but when we got home, the doctors told us that for Vitali to be in the condition he was in when we arrived home, he would have had to have been in a baby bed about 20 hrs a day most of his life. That we are aware of yet, he actually has no gene to be special needs or disabled, but all of his special needs are results of his living environment at the orphanage and choices others made that affected him while he was developing in the womb. Inna's orphanage had approximately 300 kids and Inna is very open and tells us often about the things she experienced there and in her past.


(I certainly am no expert on adoption, but these are just some of my thoughts from what I have seen)
Like the video showed, most kids over 4 or 5 are rarely adopted. I have to believe this is in the U.S. and international. From what I understand, it seems the reason is that most families are concerned with psychological/behaviorial issues from a traumatic past in older children. I am sure there are those who do not have such issues, but the truth is from what we have found, Yes, when you go into these older kid orphanages, you should be prepared for such things as it is almost impossible for a child to miss the basic stages in life and parental bonding, go through the trauma that they have that landed them in the orphanage, and experience orphanage life without having some sort of psychological/behavior/emotional, etc...issues, even if just a mildly temporary thing for some. That is one reason the decision to adopt is taken seriously, but will be worth it. To be honest, we have been through several of the behaviors talked about on the 20/20 interview and it is not easy, but when God calls you, he also gives you the strength to get through it and blesses you and he certainly has for us. The decision to adopt is the decision to love unconditionally. Not to mention, sometimes we have to go through lifes hardest things to experience God's greatest miracles! There are many ways that we have been able to understand more of the heart of God through watching him work in HUGE ways in our older adoptive child. We have learned to live life one day at a time and focus on the day at hand and turn the past and the future over to our heavenly Father who wants the best (best= that which draws us closer to him) for each of our family members. There are so many awesome older children in these orphanages who need an earthly family who is willing to love them unconditionally and in return, if that is your family who is willing to take them in, I do believe God will bless you more than you can imagine!!!

Before I close~ In honor of adoption month, we would like to bring before you 3 specific children from Inna's orphanage that I ask you to be in prayer for.
The first 2 are Lena and Valya that I have brought up before (Inna's best friend and best friend's sister). We receive letters from them often and Inna writes back. Jason and I pray for them and have been checking into trying to get them to America on a hosting program, hopefully in the summer for a little while in our home or however the Lord leads. We are prayerfully going forward with this and not sure where it will go, but taking it step by step for now to try to make it possible. Would you please pray that God will give us clear direction with this along the way and please pray for these girls. We will update you as we get more info!

Also, the other girl we ask you to pray for is Olena. Some of you may have seen in the comments section a few post back from 21 yr old Cristina from Italy. She contacted us through the blog about Olena that happened to be in the same orphanage as Inna and Cristina's family desperately would like to adopt Olena. I have asked Cristina if I could share more about her story and ask my blogging friends to pray specifically for her situation. It turned out that yes, Inna knows Olena and even remembered Cristina visiting her orphanage after pictures were sent. One very upsetting fact that we learned while at Inna's orphanage was that many of the children there are not available for adoption because their parents took them to the orphanage and signed that they will be back in 3 yrs (because it looks better), but have no intentions of ever coming back. This was told to us by our facilitator/translator. Most of the children are only available for adoption if their parents loss rights for abuse/neglect or died. The other children will never have an opportunity to have a family and will "graduate" from the system into what you have seen in the video. I am so amazed with Cristina of how much love she seems to have for Olena. She travels from Italy to visit Olena in the orphanage and has even spent the night in the orphanage with Olena, which believe me is a HUGE thing. Olena is one of the children that have not been released for adoption by her dad, but yet from what I understand does not see Olena or would not be fit to take care of her. Would you please join us in specifically praying that God will cause the things that need to take place in order for Olena to be in the best care and that His will will be done for Olena. Please pray for Cristina and family that God will comfort them and bless them in the meantime. Let's let Christina know that we will be praying!! Cristina let us know if there are any changes!

Comments:
"Our Family"~ Thanks for the comment on our blog. By the way, we heard you on Faith Radio with Jill the other day while we were riding in the car...it was a great interview!

A Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving Day! It was Inna and Vitali's first Thanksgiving ever and they seemed to enjoy the day. Grant has tried to fill them in on what happens on each holiday, but I am sure it is hard to remember all these new things at once, so I got tickled the night before when I heard Inna having a conversation that sounded like this:

Inna: Vitali, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we get candy.
(then, lots of cheering from Inna and Vitali).

Mom: Actually, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that is the Fall Festival where you get candy.

Inna: Oh Vitali, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we are going to get presents.
(Again more cheering from Inna and Vitali)

Mom: Ummm...sorry, but actually, that is Christmas :)

Inna: Huh, then what do we do on Thanksgiving?

Mom: Well, we get to eat a special dinner with our family and it is a day to give thanks, etc....

Inna & Vitali cheer again, but not quite as enthusiatic as before :)

We did have a great lunch and have had left overs twice since then :) Grant checked out a book from his library at school of the story of the Pilgrims and the 1st Thanksgiving and he wanted to read it to us all that morning and then, we all went around and told things we are thankful for and prayed together. It was a great start to our day!

Then, later in the day the kids talked us into going to see the movie "Bolt", which was another first for Inna and Vitali as they had never been to a movie theatre before! They loved it and it was a great first movie to take them to! At times I amazed as I try to wrap my mind around what it must feel like for them to experience these things for the first time, especially for Vitali who had never been outside the 4 walls of his orphanage until 6 months ago. It is really an eye opener of all the things that we take for granted and never notice or the things that we have become numb to because we see everyday...they notice EVERYTHING and if you have been around them for 2 minutes or more, you already know that they touch EVERYTHING they can get their hands on. Inna watched the movie intensely and Vitali was very vocal throughout taking on every emotion as if he was in the movie himself. He loves vehicles of any type, so if there was a car that crashed or turned over, he would scream out, "OH NO, IT'S BROKEN"!!!! I couldn't help but to think back to our first month or so home when he was just getting used to riding in a car and would scream and duck everytime a truck would go by us on the road and now, he LOVES for trucks to go by, especially school buses.

Hope you had a GREAT Thanksgiving Day too!!!

Trip to Oklahoma

Over the weekend, Grant, Tiff, my mom, and brother Jacob were able fly to Oklahoma to Caleb's graduation from basic training for the Army. Since Jacob works for Delta, we were able to fly on buddy passes, which is always a huge blessing! Everyone got out on the first flight, except for me and Jacob...me because someone had to stay back with one of our big pieces of luggage with Caleb's clothes that couldnt be checked in (long story) and Jacob because he was working and flew out on the late flight with me. I actually had 6 hrs in the airport by myself, but it went by so quickly. I am still amazed at how Ukraine still comes across my path so often even after the adoption...while at the airport, I ate lunch at Moe's and there was no seating, so a girl asked if should could sit at the table with me and we began talking and she shared with me that her husband is from Ukraine and she is from Moldova (by Ukraine) and her dad was born in Ukraine. I couldnt believe out of all the people in the airport, she had sat at a table with me and I told her about Inna and Vitali and we were able to share so much info with each other. She said that her family moved here a long time ago for religious freedom during communist times. She had so much to tell me about her experiences there and I had things to share with her as she had never visited an orphanage there, but had heard of the conditions. We exchanged email.

Jason wanted to go the graduation, but unfortunately does not have any more days off work from our Ukraine trip until May, so we video taped it for him. We felt that it would be best not to try to take Inna and Vitali yet since it is very unpredictable how they will do in new places, especially crowds of people, although this truly has gotten 10 times better than when we first came home.

The graduation was great and we are so proud of Caleb for his accomplishment. He seems to truly love the Army and passing his physical test did not come easy as he went into the hospital while he was there and we were all praying that he would recover enough to pass his physical test, which HE DID!!!!!!!
Here are some pics of the day:





Tiff had her 17th B-day this week! One way we celebrate b-days at our house is the b-day person gets to make the menu of their favorite foods for dinner one night (of course, I do the cooking, so I wil choose to go out to eat on mine) or choose to go out to eat. Tiff planned her b-day menu 2 months ago of her favorites and she has been waiting ever since. She chose:
Appetizer: Southwestern Salsa & chips (A great bean dip that she and I make)
Chicken Crescents
Green bean casserole
Mac-n-cheese
Desert: Chocolate Trifle

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS MONTH TO JOEY, KATIE, & MOM (GIGI)...Mom's is today!!!!!

Adoption "stuff" learned along the way #4:
I don't know how many of you journal, but I do keep a spiritual journal that usually is quite in depth writing. I have this blog that purposes as a journal for our family, but there are many things that happen every day in our adoption that would not be ideal to share on a blog, but to keep a personal journal of and eventually be able to go back and remember what you have made it through and even laugh about somet things later. I am a huge believer in a journal, because when you go through another trial, you can always look back at what you have already made it through and it gives you hope and builds your faith for the new trial. Anyway, up until recently, I had not been keeping a personal journal of the day in and out of our family happenings and a friend told me, "You have just got to write all of this down before you forget." She said even if you just write a one liner sum up for each child per day. I thought, yeah right, there is no way I could write just one line, but I gave it a try and it turned out to be great advice...it doesnt take but a second before I go to bed and I can already tell it is going to be great to look back at. Also, another awesome lady that I just met that owns an adoption agency and has adopted many children herself with special needs and said that one way she has gotten through the hard times is humor...so she deals with the trial during the day and then tries to find something humorous to journal about it that night. Afterall, laughter is the best medicine!


Comments:
Smurfette: I know the Joe Deertay look brought back fond memories for you...it almost looked as good as your Happy Day's Joni look...lol!

Kevin & Tammy~ I have enjoyed keeping up with your journey! So glad ya'll are doing well!