Winter wonderland!!
Christmas Day 2010: We had so much fun. The children stayed in PJ's all day. By the end of the day they were exhausted!!
Doctor visits: Emma goes to support her brothers and sisters.
She told them that she would hold their hand. You can see how thin Ian is. I hope a year from now we will see a big difference.
Bedtime stories.
At the museum we had each of the older kids pick a younger partner and that worked out wonderful. It allowed us to go around and spend time with each child without worry that the little ones were going to run off. The big kids for the most part agreed on who their smaller partner was going to be.
Family trip to the museum.
Emma waiting for the eye doctor.
Well, this blog has not been updated since we arrived and mostly because our days seemed to have flown by. I also loved our arrival home picture that I just could not give it up and lose it further down on my blog. LOL
Our past 3 months have been filled with enrolling Noah, Oksana and Nicholas in school, family trips to the museums and doctor appointments for our new little ones. We also had to catch up with eye and dental visits for the rest of the kids. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New years celebrations along with our big snow storm that made our farm a winter wonderland. So much that now looking back it seems as if it has been a year since I have written and updated.
Oksana is our 3 year old and I wanted to wait until I returned from Ukraine to send her to her special pre-K class so that I could meet with the teachers. Noah is 5 and he is also in Pre-K so he was returning again this year. Nicholas is 3 and 1/2 and he now attends school with wrap around services of PT OT 2 days a week. Last year Nicholas was so delayed that when we adopted him he was unable to roll over, sit up and even had a difficult time holding his head up. In august he was evaluated and said to be at a 12-month development level. That seemed amazing since that was exactly how long he had been in our family. It was as if he was born once he arrived in our family!!! If you remember we had met him in July/August in 2009 at the orphanage and he was 2 years 3 months weighing in at only 12 pounds!!
So once we had them 3 enrolled in going to school...we had to get the doctor visits started with Benjamin, Ian and Ellia. It has been 3 months and we have made lots of tracks seeing different specialties so as to make a plan of care for them (concerning medical). Overall the children are healthy but Ellia and Ian are very underweight and both will need their cleft palates repaired. We have also cleared Benjamin from any heart defect! We were told that he was originally diagnosed with a heart defect but nothing other then a PFO!! Yahoo. Ian's cleft palate that was repaired in Ukraine had come apart in 3 parts so the cleft palate team has said that his repair will be a little more difficult. What I thought was a loose tooth is actually hi upper jaw that is loose. He is a happy boy and eats by bringing food from the sides of his mouth. He loves pasta with meat sauce!! Ian is 5 but is weighed in at his firts doctor appointment as a 2 year old. Ellia is 3 and weighed as much as a 7 month old. Her cleft palate was not previously repaired so it will be straight forward. We have also found out that Ellia needs to be followed by nephrology for some mystery markings on her kidneys. Her kidney function tests are good now but her urine showing moderate amounts of protein and blood along with abnormal Ultra sound has her being followed by nephrology. We are hopeful and thankful that she is now able to at least be treated by a terrific medical team. Both children were also treated successfully for giardia upon their arrival. Many of these children in the orphanage hang on but it is just a matter of time before many of them pass away especially when they are transferred to an institution. Do we regret adopting these children because we have had to adjust our lives to meet their needs...No way! We have given them the basics of care and they have given us so much more. I hold these children and thank God so many times a day. I thank our Father for blessing me with these children. They have enriched our lives that you cannot imagine. Their smiles and joy fills the house. One year makes such a difference and I know that in one year I will look back and see so much progress in these children's lives. Enjoy the pictures from the past 3 months.
