14 degrees

My Life is Yours

2009-07-20T15:38:00.001-07:00

The Driver, Mini-Me and I are headed to H*iti at the end of this week. We are leading a team there to help get an orphanage off the ground. Not sure how--if at all--I will be able to post, but here is the link in case you are interested.

http://journeyintohisheart.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday (a Little Late)

2009-06-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

Daughter of Purpose has now been with us for over a year. About two weeks after her "Gotcha Day" celebration is her birthday. Here's a few pictures with her cake (when she stopped off her scooter long enough) and one with her new Build*A*Bear. Somehow that's become a tradition in our home...building an animal. Daughter of Purpose has finally joined the club!

(L-R: Mini-Me, The Talker, Daughter of Purpose and Littlest One)

4 of the 5 kids were around to enjoy the DELICIOUS ice cream cake made by my friend, Mo. The Negotiator had fallen asleep and we couldn't rouse him to save our lives! So at least you get to see most of our team! As you can see, Daughter of Purpose is very into dolphins. I think it started during our trip to Sea World earlier this year.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Scooter Queen

2009-06-02T23:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm really behind on this blog. I had planned on having it finished up by now, but I still have a few more stories to tell! I'll try to get to it this week. For today, the birthday of Daughter of Purpose, we celebrate that she is riding a scooter!

Yes, you read it right...she's riding a scooter. Another thing she is doing that beats the odds. Daughter of Purpose has been dying to ride some sort of mode of transportation, but hasn't had much luck yet. It wasn't until last week when we were at a friend's house that she discovered a scooter with 2 wheels in the back and 1 in the front. She actually braces herself with her weaker leg and then pushes with her stronger leg. Amazing!

We decided to give her a scooter of her own for her birthday today and she was so happy that she rode it ALL DAY LONG!! Every moment she could be on her scooter, she was on it. I thought for sure she'd ask if she could park her scooter by her bed tonight and sleep with her helmet on. She has already declared to me that she is done with the bike trailer. She told me that from now on she would be riding her scooter when we do a family bike ride. What a crack up she is!

As she readied for bed tonight, she needed me to reassure her over and over that she would be able ride her scooter in the morning. I think I have a long day of scooter riding in my future!

In the picture she was barking at me to "move outta the way" because she had a scooter to ride!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Bring it On!

2009-05-15T12:19:00.001-07:00

Daughter of Purpose is ready to take on the swimming world. Today is our first venture into the pool and Daughter of Purpose is going to explode soon if I do not take her into the P-O-O-L!!! She has been counting down the days, as you can imagine. Now that "The Big Day" is here it is pure torture to her that she has to wait until 1:00 pm!! What were these party planners thinking? She was ready at 7:00 am!!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Gotcha Day

2009-05-12T14:23:00.001-07:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Who Would've Known?

2009-05-06T22:38:00.001-07:00

Just about one year ago Daughter of Purpose was in Russia knowing nothing of the English language. Tonight Daughter of Purpose received her Awana Cubbie award for completing her whole book. Do you know what that means? It means that every week for the past school year, she has memorized one verse from the Bible--in English. Pretty amazing if you really think about it, don't ya think?

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Directions

2009-05-06T08:59:00.001-07:00

Another interesting thing I've noticed about Daughter of Purpose is her ability to know her surroundings. I noticed this awhile ago, but was watching to see if it was a fluke or not. We can be driving somewhere and if she knows our destination, she knows if we are going in the right direction or not.

For example, when we get off the freeway, she knows we are almost to church. We can even be driving somewhere else but is near the church and she can identify where the church is in relation to us.

It is not uncommon for her to direct me that I am going the wrong direction if I change course from what I told her our agenda was. Just the other day she knew we were going to our school group, but I decided to stop somewhere else on the way without telling her. As we pulled out of our neighborhood and I went left, she piped up from the backseat, "Hey Mom, you are going the wrong way. School is the other way."

The other moment that cracked me up was when we came out of In-n-Out Burger. In order to get to our house from In-n-Out Burger, you have to go right and then make a U-turn, but yet our house is to the left. Daughter of Purpose let me know that I was going the wrong way because home was back that way. I had to explain to her what I was doing. She still didn't really get why I couldn't go left, but once we got back to heading in the right direction she relaxed.

Since I'm directionally challenged, it is good thing that God gave me Daughter of Purpose. Apparently with her in the car, I'll never get lost!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Language Acquisition

2009-05-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a year that Daughter of Purpose has been with us. If you've been following her blog, you know that she picked up the English language a lot quicker than we expected. It was at about 6 months, she was pretty fluent.

Now we're seeing something interesting about her language. Based on the questions she inundates us with daily, we're starting to realize that when she appeared to be fluent, she really was just repeating phrases. She'll hear a phrase and repeat that one. Surprisingly she'd use the right phrases in the right circumstances. In retrospect it doesn't surprise me since I'd often hear one my other kids say something like, "My tummy hurts" and then within minutes her "tummy would hurt" also, but I just didn't realize until now that she's been repeating these phrases without ever really knowing what she was saying.

Nowadays she spends her time picking apart the English language. She's beginning to ask questions about what those "phrases" mean. For example she will randomly say, "What does 'died on the cross' mean?" or "What does 'eating' mean?"

Because her talking is constant, it can drive me crazy at times, but when I put it in perspective, I try to give it as much patience as possible. It's just like having a two-year-old that asks the "why" question all day long. It is just a phase and I know it will pass.

No one really told me about the part of adopting a child from another country, but in retrospect it makes sense. As Nathan and I attempt to continue our studies of the Russian language, it also gives me perspective into our language learning. We do the same thing. We learn phrases of Russian and then later we figure out what parts of that phrase mean and then move those parts of speech around and mix them with other words we've learned.

Ahh the things you learn from adopting...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Defying the Odds

2009-04-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Every day Daughter of Purpose defies the odds with every step that she takes, but every Saturday she goes above and beyond that when she plays T-ball. Never in a million years did those in her Russian orphanage ever think she'd being doing something such as this.

I wish I could describe for you what it is like to be the parent of a special needs child. I suppose it's not that much different than that of a "normal" child, but yet it's like taking your parenting and putting it in overdrive. I (and my husband) am my child's best advocate because no one knows her better than we do. In those moments when doctors and physical therapists have basically let us know that this is the best they can do for her, it is us who has to step up to the plate, pushing forward to use whatever resources we have to continue on in what we think is best for her. We've had to use our own "tools" and common sense and not rely on others to do it for us. We are with her day in and day out so it is us who encourages her to press on and knows her limitations--always pushing her a little beyond what she thinks she can do. We are the ones who won't allow her to cop out and take the easy route and when she sets her mind to something it is us who stands beside her and cheers her on to succeed.

I won't kid you though, it can be a mixed bag--we can sometimes be tempted to be discouraged. We've also had moments when we've had to reconcile our hopes with reality. We all have dreams for our children, but sometimes those dreams need to be adjusted and it can be depressing to realize that your child doesn't naturally have the same abilities as her peers. It can be frustrating to deal with people's ignorance and their stares. We will never forget the moment when it dawned on us that our child may never ride a bike. We won't soon forget that after less than a year, the physical therapist basically told us that he didn't know how to help, nor the moment when the doctors basically told us this was the top of the line for her.

But we cannot dwell on these things. That's how we've gotten this far--by thinking outside of the box. Who knows, maybe she will ride a bike, but it just might need some alterations to the bike. Maybe she'll go on to be a top athlete in softball, but it might be in a different league than our other kids. It's just a matter of perspective. While we raise this incredible child that defies the odds simply by walking, we will not settle and we certainly will not dwell on the negative thoughts. We recognize that how Daughter of Purpose views the world will be learned from us. How we respond to peoples stares and questions will be the way she responds. If we accept defeat--so will she.

So we will be forever grateful that God gave us this child to raise that has taught us so much, especially that life is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe she's right (remember when she said this last summer?), I will sit in the crowded Olympic arena one day and scream my head off for my Daughter of Purpose and I know which voices will rise above all the others--the voices of her family that didn't settle, but saw something in her and pushed her on toward greatness.

May these simple Saturdays of T-ball be only the beginning...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Our Family Vacation

2009-04-06T22:52:00.001-07:00

Yours

2009-03-26T15:18:00.001-07:00

Adopting Daughter of Purpose has been an experience that has changed how Nate and I view the world. We see the statistic that there are 144 million orphans in the world and we continually ask ourselves how we can do more. Yes, we have changed the life of one child and maybe if we were to adopt again in the future we'd change that life too, but it doesn't seem like enough. It bothers us to sit in our comfortable American home knowing that there are people out there who don't even know if they will eat today. Sending off a bit of money for someone else to fix it just doesn't sit right with us. So we have prayed that God will use us to be a part of the solution. No, we don't feel called to be missionaries in the dark jungles of Africa, but we are being called to go to Haiti this summer.

Nate and I have been asked to lead a team to Haiti to help get an orphanage off the ground. We are so excited that we are nearly busting at the seams because this what we've been praying for--an opportunity to be a part of something that will impact the lives of many orphans. On this trip we will also be taking our oldest daughter because we believe that even though she is a child, she has much to contribute. We want to work alongside her in ministry and share our heart for the nations with her. What we hope is that it is a life changing experience for her. Honestly, we hope it will be a life changing experience for all of us. May we think more like Christians than like Americans...

We share all of this with you because we have begun a new blog to journal how God has lead us straight into His heart for the fatherless. Although Daughter of Purpose was the jumping point for the passion God has given us for orphans...this blog--14 degrees--is HER story. This blog will be printed out into a book for her because it is a journal of the first year of her life. We don't feel like it would be fair to take this spot just for her and change it to ours. We will continue to write her story until she has been with us one year (in May).

If you are interested in reading our journal about our passion for orphans, you can visit it at http://www.journeyintohisheart.blogspot.com/. The rub is this though...we haven't fully decided yet if we want want our journal to be public or private. Right now it is private--you have to receive an invitation to read it. For now it will remain that way, but it may change in the future. If you are interested in following our thoughts and our trip to Haiti (and we pray more beyond that) then you will need to send us an e-mail asking for permission to read our blog. If you know us personally then you probably know how to do that. However, if you don't, but would like to read it you can e-mail us at nates5bs@gmail.com. Our new blog is titled "Yours" because our life truly belongs to the Lord and we desire for God to use what we perceive as ours to become His. It is still in the works so you will have to be patient as we develop it. From my graphic art eye, it's a mess right now...nowhere close to how I want it to look visually, but the reality is that "Yours" is not about what it looks like. It's a place to journal our thoughts.

See you in Haiti...

I Have a Dream...

2009-03-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

...of a world where no one has to live in extreme poverty...where there is no such word as orphan.

-"Red Lett*rs" by T*m Davis

Fun in the Kitchen

2009-03-17T22:41:00.000-07:00

Here's just a few pictures from the last few days. Nothing special going on here, but a whole lotta fun in the kitchen.

First, this is Daughter of Purpose practicing being a chef. We were adding our ingredients in for Friendship Bread. You know the one that keeps on giving and you care for it each day? Then you have to find people who want to take some of your "babies" from your bread? Well anyway, we had a great science lesson about fermentation!

For St. Patrick's Day we did all kinds of green things. Daughter of Purpose certainly knows the color green and the shape of a shamrock now! I didn't wake up this morning with intentions of serving such a green meal for dinner, but as the day progressed, I kept coming up with new ideas! We had Pesto, broccoli, green milk and we even made some very green bread in the bread machine! I topped it off with green butter.

The Talker wasn't feel so great this evening so he humored me with a smile.

In the late afternoon we took a walk to McDonald's by our house and tried to enjoy some Shamrocks shakes in celebration of this fine holiday, but apparently McDonald's wasn't selling them this year. Can you believe that? We were so bummed, but still managed to have a lot of laughs over chocolate milkshakes. We were grateful for the sunshine and exercise we got!

Baffling the Doctors

2009-03-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Daughter of Purpose had her BIG consultation with all of the doctors, residents, physical therapists and people from the orthodic/prosthesis dept at Shr*ners. I'm sure there were more departments represented, but those were the ones I could put my finger on as we sat in the room.

I'm not really sure how to explain to you about today so I will just summarize it with what one of the doctors said to us as they examined her..."We're just trying to figure out how she is doing what she is doing. How is she even walking?" It took some restraint to not respond with, "Because God is in the business of doing the impossible--that's why."

Previous to this, I didn't really realize it, but I had become focused on what she cannot do, how to get it fixed and how to help her come to terms with that. In this light bulb moment, it dawned on me that my focus has been wrong. She is astounding the doctors with what she CAN do. I guess I never realized that her abilities are beyond their medical expectations and that is much to be thankful for. It never occurred to me that she could be in worse shape.

With that in mind and with much rejoicing for her amazing growth, the only thing the doctors could say was that she is doing great and to continue with what we're doing. They did change one of her braces, but beyond that they just want to see her every few months to keep an eye on her.

All of this makes me want to do some more research about Marion*Rudolph who had polio as a child but went on to become an Olympic runner. Who knows what God has in store for Daughter of Purpose...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Fun in the Sun

2009-03-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

The weather has been wonderful here, but despite that a few of our kids decided to enjoy the souveniers Nana and Papa White brought back from their cruise in a very creative way inside the house. They took the toothpicks with umbrellas on them and instantly knew what to do!

Back to Shriners

2009-03-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

We will be on our way back to Shriners again this week. Daughter of Purpose is scheduled for a "Surgery Consult." This is the meeting where all of the doctors in the Orthopedic Unit and the residents gather (at a very early hour, mind you) to take a look at the file of and at DOP herself. They will put all of their expertise together and let us know if there is anything else they can think to do to help her. We will also learn the results of the procedure she had done a few weeks back. While all of this brainstorming is going on, we will most likely receive a long-term prognosis for her.

We honestly, don't expect to learn anything new for Daughter of Purpose. Our guess is that no surgery will help. It's basically physical therapy that will give us any results. So please be praying for us this week as we travel AGAIN. Pray also for the doctors to have wisdom and discernment. If Daughter of Purpose remains as she is today--great! However, we just want what is best for her and ask that if there is anything more we can do for her that it would be revealed. Thanks.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Perspective

2009-03-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

Almost 10 months ago we brought home a little girl with very short hair and what was there was sparse. The hair of Daughter of Purpose has been growing steadily, but today we were able to put it into its first pony tail! Yeah!

10 months of her being with us and so much to be thankful for. This past week, Nate and I had the opportunity to view a video of a 9-year-old little girl that needs a family. It was heartbreaking to watch it and realize that this little girl is functioning at the level of a 5/6 year old. I do not believe there is anything wrong with her except the fact that being in an institution has taken a toll on her. Absolutely heart breaking.

God used this video to put some perspective into my life. We adopted Daughter of Purpose to bless her by making her a part of our family. Instead, she has blessed us. We have been so fortunate through this process to get a gem of a child. She has attached and bonded with us and learned English better than we ever expected. She truly has become one with our family in such a short time. She has exceeded our expectations for her. All I can say is that God knows exactly what He's doing and knew what our family could handle. It strikes me often that God has known since the beginning of time that this child would be a part of our family and made her to be a perfect fit. She was not in our sights, but she was in His.

I read something lately that I've been meditating on and think it is so simple, but profound. I can't remember what book it was in (I've read quite a few lately) so I'm going to do my best to relay it to you. Daughter of Purpose is like Moses...God's purposes for her could not be accomplished in the arms of her birth mother. We know nothing about her birth mother and I think I'll always watch Daughter of Purpose and be curious about where certain characteristics came from, but I am eternally grateful for her birth mother. Without her, I wouldn't be so blessed. Daughter of Purpose has become so much a part of me--us, as a family, that I have caught myself thinking, "She does that like her Daddy" or sometimes I fill out medical information about her forgetting that she did not come from my genes.

It hasn't been perfect along the way, but I certainly have nothing to complain about. God is good.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Another Good Sign

2009-02-22T10:00:00.001-08:00

This past week, Nate and I had the opportunity to go out of town by ourselves. It was a welcomed break. It was great to be able to spend the time with just the two of us and not have an adoption hanging over our head and the stress of being in a foreign country.

It was also a good opportunity for us to see how Daughter of Purpose would do without us for a few days. I had a feeling she'd do okay, but as I began to write out information about her for my friend who would be caring for her--admittedly I got a bit nervous. I started to wonder if this was such a good idea, especially because she was getting sick as we were leaving town.

Before leaving, we had a lot of good talks with Daughter of Purpose to make sure she understood that she would be going with her big sister to my friend's house for a few days and that Mommy and Daddy would be back. She seemed to comprehend what we were doing and had only one request. She wanted to be able to call us or have us call her each day. No problem!

Well, she did have one other request...she wanted to go in my friend's pool while she stayed there. Ummm...how do you get a child from Murmansk, Russia to understand that it would be too cold? It's like the phrase, "too cold" is not in her scope of comprehension! I gave my friend permission to throw her into the pool so she'd understand what we kept telling her, but I think they got through the week without the physical demonstration. :)

Anyway, we are back from our trip and happy to report that Daughter of Purpose did an amazing job. My friend told us that she seemed to really understand what was going on and missed us in a healthy way. Yeah!

We are pleased with this for many reasons, but one of them being because we are currently praying about going on a short-term mission to Haiti with our church this summer. We have the opportunity to go and help finish up the construction and then outfitting the inside of an orphanage for use. Over the past few months, God has taught our family much about Haiti and given us a love for the country. God has given us a passion for orphans so we very much want to be a part of this project. At this point, we are taking one step at a time toward the trip and continue to pray that God will close the doors if this trip is not for us. Thus far, the doors are wide open. We ask you to pray with us that God would continue to guide us in what direction He wants us to go and that He would give us wisdom in all of the details that would need to go into something like this.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Procedure Complete

2009-02-13T09:21:00.000-08:00

The procedure that we have been waiting for has finally been completed. As you can read from a previous post, we headed to Shriners Hospital last week at a very last minute pace. We did manage to change all of our plans and get her to the hospital on time. A 5:30 am arrival time comes very early in the morning! Nate and I both commented that it was the day that went on and on and on! I guess that's what happens when you get up before the sun!

Once we arrived at the hospital and got DOP checked in, we quickly realized this was not just a casual procedure. She was treated like an operative patient. We had to go through pre-op, procedure, doctor coming out to talk with us and recovery. It was all very official.

I do have to say that Shriners did an amazing job of preparing DOP for what was to happen. The Child Life Specialist arrived at 6:30 am and began walking her through about what would happen. They had a binder full of pictures that showed her each step of the way. After all, she was just here to take a nap (wink, wink). She got to see the 3 "stickers" that she would put on and where they would go. She saw the mask she would put on and even got to smell its cherry flavor! She saw the room she'd go into and where she would be when she was done "sleeping." We made sure that she knew where we would be all through the process. Certainly making sure we'd be there when she woke up.

Once in the pre-op room, they gave her a personal DVD player with whatever she wanted to watch. It was no question that Scooby Doo was on deck. Thank goodness for Scooby Doo because it got her "in the zone" and she didn't give a hoot what they did to her as long as she could continue to watch Scooby Doo! This "zone" allowed us to skip the medicine they sometimes give to help kids relax before the procedure. For that I was thankful because my thought was that the less medicine they gave her, the quicker she would recover.

Through all of this DOP had her "game face" on and did what had to be done. We've noticed from day 1 that she puts on this certain face that tips us off that she is "coping." She appears very calm, but we, as her parents, know it's just a facade that helps her get through. Nate and I both knew she was nervous, but her "game face" was covering it up to the average observer. Our thoughts were confirmed when more and more nurses and doctors began to congregate around her bed. We knew she was watching what was going on with the other patients in the room, but not letting on. Being no dummy, she knew it was her turn. Again, it was clear to Nate and I when she reached up her little hand to scratch her face and her hand was shaking. It was only a 2 second crack in the facade, but it did a number to my heart. That's when the protective Mama Bear in me came out. It was gonna take a lot for me to now burst into tears with worry.

Well, I managed to get through the rest of the "send off" without crying, but that time frame between when they wheeled her away and we saw the doctor enter the waiting area seemed to take forever! Thank goodness we were starving by this point and fill up some of our time with eating. Otherwise, I would've spent more time than necessary meditating on the "what ifs."

When the doctor came out and said everything went fine, I was relieved, but couldn't wait to be given permission to go into recovery with DOP. FINALLY the phone rang letting me know she was waking up. I must confess I had tears in my eyes all the way down the hallway to recovery. I just love that little girl so much! I couldn't wait to get in there and let her know that mommy and daddy were still there regardless of her response to the meds.

When I walked into the recovery room and saw her little body with all kinds of tubes, monitors, etc on her I couldn't wait for her to recover so we could get outta there. Since we've never done this with DOP, I didn't know what I was walking into. Would the meds make her wild and unlike herself (we've had that happen with one of our other kids) or would she be mellow? Thankfully, she was the mellow type and was ready to leave recovery within 10-15 minutes. Only one person was allowed in there with her at a time. Nate and I anticipated a screaming child that we would need to take turns comforting. We were done so quickly that Nate never even had to come into recovery!

I cannot skip by this one memory of this moment that stands out. When I walked into recovery, Daughter of Purpose, was waking up and had this look of "where am I" on her face. It was a look of uncertainty. There was nothing like that moment when she saw me and all uncertainty was wiped away. It was a look of relief that Mommy was here. Irreplaceable! I hope I never forget that moment.

It didn't take long for us to be out the door and to hear her little voice requesting an "Amburger." She was certainly back to herself. Praise the Lord. At that moment, I would've climbed mountains and walked through high waters just to get her that "Amburger!" Thankfully In-n-Out Burger was just down the freeway so I didn't need to!

After her tummy was full (she hadn't been able to eat since dinner the previous night) she dropped off to sleep as we drove home. She really was quite mellow for the rest of that day. The next day she was back to her normal, talkative self. It was strange to be done and on our way home by 10:30 am. Like I said, it became the day of eternity because we arrived home by 1:30 pm and still had to be parents to the rest of our kids until bedtime even though Nate and I were ready for bed way earlier than usual!

Now what did the doctor say as a result of the procedure? Honestly, nothing we didn't already know. Although he was able to confirm that she has the classic signs of having had polio. Since those signs began showing up in the first month of life, we are unclear as to whether she really did contract it so early in life or whether she got it from her birth mother. We're not sure if that is possible or not. We will address that question when we go over the results of the procedure with her doctor in March.

In March we will return to Shriners for a Surgery Consult. What that means is that we arrive there before the sun again, but this time all of the doctors and residents in the orthopaedic unit will be there. They will all go over her file, the results of the procedure and take a look at her. The purpose of this is two-fold. We will be attempting to see if there is anyone there with any other ideas for her and making a long-range plan for her medical care. Secondly, we will be doing this for the benefit of research. It will greatly enhance future patients with polio to have these doctors and residents learn from DOP's case. We are grateful for those polio patients who went before DOP so that the doctors at Shriners did not throw up their hands at our daughter, like the doctors in our city did because they said polio didn't exist anymore. It may be an early hour to be a part of research, but worth every minute to know that we will be making the difference in the life of another child.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Normal-ness of it All

2009-02-13T08:30:00.000-08:00

I must confess I have been terrible about blogging lately. I am so sorry about that! I can't come up with a good reason why except just life itself! In some ways Daughter of Purpose lends me plenty to write about and in some ways she has become so much a part of us that there is nothing out of the ordinary to write about--she's just normal--and that's a good thing! It leads me to wrestle with whether I should bother to blog about the average-ness of our life and bore you to death or whether I should just blog anyway!

At some point over the Christmas season, I saw a switch over for Daughter of Purpose. Somehow I just knew she had stopped thinking in two languages and had switched to English only. Do I think the Russian is still in there? Yes, but I think her primary thought process is in English now. More and more often these days when I speak to her in Russian and she's paying attention, she asks me what I'm saying. Every once in awhile when it just requires a physical response, like "sit down" she responds appropriately. This leads me to believe it is still there subconsciously, but yet when she really thinks about it--she wonders what the heck I'm saying to her.

Another reason I believe her Russian is already on its way out is because when I sat down to do a Rosetta Stone Russian lesson this week, I did better on the lesson than she did. When I would ask her which were the right answers in Russian, she didn't have a clue. When I asked her to say the words in Russian, her pronunciation stumbled over the words like mine did when I first started speaking Russian. It's like as if her tongue has changed its abilities. This is all so very fascinating to me. Never did I think she'd become so much a natural part of us so quickly.

Here are some other indicators that she has slipped into family life in America and doesn't think a thing about it.

- She eats a taco like a pro.
- In-n-Out Burger is her favorite meal and she easily pounds a whole cheeseburger down. She's even has mastered the ability to "work" her grandparents into taking her to get an "Amburger." If only you could hear her sweet little voice saying the word.
- It is no question as to whether she'll eat pizza or not. Upon arrival, she wouldn't touch pizza.
- Each day I place a plate of fruit on the counter for the kids to munch on whenever they are hungry. She so naturally knows to reach her little hand up and get whatever she needs. This "being a part of the family" hit me again last night when I made kettle corn. There was a bowl for Valentines gifts and one for the family to munch on. Daughter of Purpose ran through the kitchen, grabbed a handful of popcorn and continued on her merry way. No thought as to asking first or waiting for me to offer. No thought as to whether this was okay or not. Just a part of the family. Can't imagine she had "grazing privileges" at the orphanage.

Daughter of Purpose knows where things go, knows the routine, and knows what belongs to who and most of the time she uses her words appropriately. I do have to say that I still miss it sometimes when I don't hear her little voice respond to my "I love you" with "I forgive you Mommy." That used to crack me up! She knew that phrase was a proper response to something just not sure which one! Now I hear her sweet little voice make sure to tell me that she loves me and receives her hug and kiss when I tuck her in.

This reminds me of when Nate and I go out on a date. She's one of the first to make sure she's given us a hug, a kiss and an "I love you" before we walk out the door. Some of our kids need that before we leave, but others just wave us goodbye. I love that she offers us that gift as we walk out, but yet doesn't cry about it because she knows we'll return. Her confidence in being a part of our family is solid. She doesn't seem to ever question as to whether we are her family and if we'll return for her. We certainly don't take this lightly. We keep it ever in our mind to make sure to be sensitive to this issue for her. Coming up soon, Nate and I will have the opportunity to spend a few days out of town by ourselves. This will be a big test for Daughter of Purpose to see how she does in that confidence of being a natural part of us. Right now, she is practically kicking us out the door because she wants to go in my friend's pool while were gone, but we'll see how it goes.

Side note, I've given my friend permission to throw Daughter of Purpose in the pool while we're away so that she will understand why she cannot go in the pool in February and stop asking me daily about going swimming! I'll let you know how that turns out.

As you can tell, we're just a normal family and Daughter of Purpose has acclimated well to that normal-ness. We are grateful for that and are glad that we don't feel like we're raising a stranger anymore. It feels more and more like we're raising the child that God intended to be in our family since before time began we just didn't know it.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Topsy-Turvy

2009-02-04T14:36:00.001-08:00

This post has to be quick because everything is going topsy-turvy. We knew Daughter of Purpose was scheduled for her procedure tomorrow, but were told we'd have time to drive up in the morning. Ahh!! They just called to tell us that because she is youngest, she goes first and her arrival time to the hospital is 5:30 am!!

It looks like the procedure may really be happening this time so please keep us in your prayers!

2009-01-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

Prayers for Health

2009-01-22T22:54:00.000-08:00

Daughter of Purpose will return to Shriners Hospital next week for the long-awaited procedure. Previously it had been cancelled. So far it has not been cancelled, but she does have a stuffy nose. I have heard her nose get stuffed with no other symptoms before so maybe it's nothing, but just in case...please cover her (and us) in prayer so that she will make it to this appointment.

As I have stated in the past posts, she will be sedated, but only because of her age. It is a 30 minute procedure and we should be in and out the same day. Also, please pray for her as we send her off into the hands of a stranger for the procedure and for her recovery time as the anesthesia wears off. Thanks for praying!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Please Pray!

2009-01-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

Please pray for this family. We recently started reading the blog of this family. This past week, their house burned down to the ground. You can read more about them at A Place Called Simplicity. If you click to here, you can help nominate them for Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

Editor's note: I just went back and read this. There were all kinds of typos in this. Why didn't anyone tell me?

Where Have I Been?

2009-01-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged and when I do it sure seems sporadic. Sorry everyone. I just haven't been in the blogging mood lately--even on my other blog. Can't really think of a good reason why. Just haven't felt like sitting on the computer more than I already do. There's plenty to blog, but for now I'm going to share with you some pictures of what's been happening this week. Later I hope to get back to filtering through our Christmas pictures and posting some of those for you to see the first Christmas of Daughter of Purpose.

This week, we've had the privilege of Extreme Makeover Home Edition coming to our town. It has been quite exciting. I am proud to say that we are a part of a church family that rallied together and raised $25,000.28 to help the very deserving family pay off their mortgage. Since Nate was the contact person for our church, he was considered a VIP and was able to take us with him one of the days (other days we went down as regular spectators). These are a few of the pictures we took while there with Nate and a few are with some friends when we went down there together.

The pictures from the VIP day are mainly in the VIP tent because while Nate and I got an up-close look, the kids stayed in the tent and were treated to free food. I was happy that it was relatively healthy since it was Chick-Fil-A. The kids sure had a good time with the cow that says, "Eat Mor Chikin." They also thought the bus ride was a kick. I was all for going down every day to see the progress and was willing to stand there for hours on the "reveal day" to help "move that bus", but when I asked the kids what their favorite part of the VIP day was and they focused in on the free food and playing with the cow--well, I decided it wasn't going to worth all of my efforts. In retrospect, I am glad I made that decision because the "reveal" was later than scheduled. So I would've been standing out there for about 8 hours. No thank you!

We are thankful for the part that we played. We are grateful to be externally focused and to have played a part in making an impact in life of a very deserving family in our community. I don't want to give much more away about the home or the family before the episode airs on March 8th, but I want to go on record as saying that I look forward to the day when Daughter of Purpose is older and we can reminisce about this time. I cannot wait to use the mother of this family as an example to my daughter about how she can do anything. It doesn't matter that she has weak muscles in her legs. God will use her no matter what limitations her body might have.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Card Player

2008-12-30T10:20:00.000-08:00

Although the days inside are long during the winter, there is one thing that I love about these colder months. We have a home that is freezing downstairs so we are driven to live a lot of our time upstairs in the coziness of our master bedroom (if we had a kitchen up there I don't think we'd ever leave). Part of our room is like a sitting area so I've created it to be a game and puzzle area for all of us to enjoy--and enjoy it we do!

The problem with this area of our house though is that with all of those puzzles and games--all of the pieces explode on a regular basis. So this year for Christmas, I gave myself a $30 gift of organization and tackled that particular area of our home. I am so glad I did because we have spent a large portion of our vacation time doing my favorite winter activity...playing board games and doing puzzles. We can now see the forest for the trees and the kids can clearly see the "homes" of each item. The older kids have been having a "Clue Fest" and playing detective. The younger ones have been playing "Guess Who" and being junior detectives.

In the midst of all of this game playing though has been Daughter of Purpose trying to figure out what's going on. The other night I finally landed on a game that she could play and she is now so delighted to play along with us--especially with her handy card holder. Now she can be her own team instead of having to be on Mommy or Daddy's team for a more complex game. It's like a junior Uno or Winnie the Pooh Uno. It's perfect for her color, number and matching skills. Here is a picture of the happy card player that can now join in on a winter family tradition.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Tomatoes

2008-12-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

Never have a met such a child as Daughter of Purpose. You see we are not a tomatoe kind of family, but yet Daughter of Purpose regularly walks around the house with a snack bag full of cut up tomatoes as a snack. Since tomatoes just don't make it onto our menu, I'm not quite sure how I figured it out, but she absolutely loves them. They are like candy to her. Even though in the past I never bought tomatoes, they have become a regular thing for me to buy since I really can't complain about her snack choice!

Just the other night, Daughter of Purpose went to the grocery store with me. In the produce section we stumbled upon "grape tomatoes." I had no idea they existed, but if you were in that part of the store with us, you would've thought she'd won the lottery! She even came up with a plan of how to get her siblings to eat them with her because she knows she is alone in her love of tomatoes in our home. She decided that I should serve them up as grapes--telling her siblings they were grapes and they would surely enjoy them with her. I didn't have the heart to tell her that they'd probably notice the red color right away and know I was telling a fib!

Well, I got out those grape tomatoes today and she couldn't have been happier.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Dress That Keeps on Giving

2008-12-21T20:54:00.001-08:00

I need to be sewing my children's Christmas gifts so this is a brief post, but I just couldn't pass it up. Above you will see some very special dresses on our girls. They wore then today for church.

Way back when Nate and I got married, my mother-in-law sewed all of the cumberbuns and ties for our wedding. When Mini-Me was born, she used the scraps from that fabric and created a dress for her. Pretty cool, huh?

A few weeks back, my mother-in-law asked me if I still had that dress because she had an idea. Well frankly, I had forgotten about that dress and I didn't know where it was. I took a gamble and there it was in my cedar chest. Eureka!

Well, guess what? That dress just happens to fit Daughter of Purpose and it gave my mother-in-law another idea. Since there was not enough of the wedding fabric left, she made a complimentary dress for Mini-Me to now wear alongside Daughter of Purpose. I suppose you could say that special dress has now come full circle. That dress is now extra precious to us. I think that when she's done wearing it, I will put it back in my cedar chest to save for my grandchildren. It's the dress that keeps on giving.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Drowning in Christmas

2008-12-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

To all of those who are still faithful enough to check this blog:

I confess I am drowning in Christmas. I have not a gift for even one child in my home yet and I still have yet to sew my "ambitious gifts" for them. So the clock is ticking away and I am wondering if my children will get gifts for Christmas or rain checks.

Top this all off with a mommy with a stuffed up nose and a child with croup (probably more will join her ranks) and now you know why I haven't written for awhile. I dare say that I will probably not get a chance to write again until after Christmas--unless hell freezes over--and it is close, but not quite. Okay, so maybe it's not even close, but it sure feels like it to my wimpy self.

So in the meantime, if you're looking for something Christmas-y to read, head on over to my other blog, The Mommy Map, and click on the Christmas label on the right. It will take you to my Christmas thoughts. Merry Christmas!

Procedure Cancellation

2008-12-09T21:29:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update...Daughter of Purpose was scheduled to have her procedure done last week, but Shriners had to cancel it to fit in a child with an emergency need. So she has been rescheduled for the end of January. Please continue to pray for her health that she would not be sick for her new date!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

2008-11-30T17:27:00.000-08:00

Before I sewed her real name on her stocking, I thought I'd give you peek at the stocking of Daughter of Purpose. I have sewn the stocking of each one of our children in a quilt-like pattern with fabrics that mean something to them. It's a lot of work, to say the least. Although I knew this one was coming I still wasn't prepared and really didn't want to go through all of that work again. I wanted to do something different this time. I came up with the American flag pattern on one side and the striped pattern of the Russian flag on one side. It was simple and I think it embraces who she is--just what I wanted. I was also glad it only took me one night to produce because as we started putting up Christmas decorations this weekend, I could tell she felt a little left out because everyone else had a stocking hanging and she did not. Speedo sewing to the rescue.

By the way, yes, we are one of THOSE families that gets out their Christmas stuff the day after Thanksgiving, if not ON Thanksgiving! It actually originated out of pure need because back in the day when Nate was primarily in the Lighting and Production world, after Thanksgiving was over we'd never see him again until Christmas day. That's was our way of life since everyone has something they need lit up at Christmas! Even though we are not subject to that schedule anymore, we still are in the habit. I don't mind it much. We get to enjoy the Season of Lights that much longer.

I am looking forward to sharing Christmas with you through the eyes of Daughter of Purpose. So far, she just knows there is a tree with lights (but I can tell she doesn't really understand why), but she has to wait on that for a bit. For now, she finds all of this decorating interesting. I can't wait to take her to see all of the houses decorated up with lights. I think I better bring the video camera for that--to capture the sheer delight I think she will have!

I hope I never forget the memory of yesterday as we opened up all of the boxes and began decorating. It was priceless to hear our older children explaining to her what Christmas was all about. It was neat to hear their interpretation of what we've been trying to teach them all these years. I know Daughter of Purpose doesn't really understand what in the world is going on and what all this Baby Jesus stuff is all about, but it will come in time.

Just one more precious moment to bore you with. One of the things the kids love about opening up our Christmas boxes is the special Christmas books that only come out at this time of year. They could not wait! As I glanced around the living room and saw each one of them looking through the books, it made me so proud to see each one of them realize that a whole new world was open to them. They could read the books themselves or at least read more of the books this year! The image of The Negotiator is ingrained in my head as he sat there on the couch reading and I could tell he was totally engrossed in the book. I love that!

Until another view of Christmas comes up...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Fall Bike Ride

2008-11-30T15:37:00.000-08:00

Earlier this summer, we purchased bikes and a bike trailer for everyone. We hemmed and hawed over whether we should go for such an expenditure, but I'll never regret that we did. Our thought was that the bikes are a great form of exercise, mode of transportation and easy entertainment--even if we have no money...we can still go for a bike ride! Great family fun. It's especially even more of a blessing to us because where we live there are wide trails everywhere that we can enjoy. Also, about 3 miles away from us is a huge park so today we rode there, stopped to play and then moseyed our way back home. They are actually building a park of equal measure less than 1/2 mile away and we are very excited about that, but part of me still wants to ride to the farther one just for the exercise. However, I don't think I'll get my wish. I have a feeling the new one will be my new backyard and we won't be able to get enough of it!

I wish you could see in my mind's eye what I saw today. All those beautiful trails were filled with the beauty of God's creation and creativity. Fall leaves were everywhere--from the crunch of leaves beneath our tires to the view of the colors. What made it even more memorable was the joy of seeing my family enjoying life as we rode along. You just can't be grumpy on a ride such as this! Here is Daughter of Purpose trailing along behind Daddy. At one point, she said she needed to stop for water because all of this riding was wearing her out and she needed some water! Such a comedian. She also serenaded us along the way by singing her version of "God Bless America."

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Thankful

2008-11-27T23:17:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving was really quite uneventful. We ended up hosting Thanksgiving at our house for both sides of the family. I suppose that sounds so crazy, but really...it was not a big deal for a host of reasons. One, I'm on only child and my extended family lives out of town so the total sum from my side of the family was 2 adults.

Next, Nate's side of the family boasts 3 adults right now--parents and 1 brother. His other brother's family lives out of state right now. So really it wasn't as huge a crowd as it sounds. It also was made manageable by everyone pitching in. Thanks everyone! It was fun and yummy!

Here are just a few pictures of Daughter of Purpose with her first Thanksgiving meal and a peak at what the kids found to do after our meal.

My very simple thankful thought for today is that I am thankful Daughter of Purpose is here with us in our family and no longer across the ocean!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Seven

2008-11-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back, we had some family pictures done to make sure Daughter of Purpose was included. There were so many good ones that this was the best I could do to get them on here for you to see! Sorry some of the heads are cut off in some of the pics. I wish I could figure out how to get http://www.bighugelabs.com/ to not cut off our heads! I am going to put a photostream from Flickr that will have these pics so just in case you'd like to see our head--you can click on those!

These pictures were done by my friend, Candice, over at http://tomakehimknown.blogspot.com/. She and her husband are adopting from Korea. As a fundraiser, she is willing to come and practice her new-found love for photography on your family if you will make a donation to their adoption fund. For us, it was a win-win situation. We got the family photos we needed to take and we also get the privilege of knowing we are helping one more orphan come home to their family! Candice gets to practice her photography and be one step closer to bringing her daughter home! If you'd like more info on this fundraising opportunity, please let me know!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Physical Bond

2008-11-16T14:51:00.001-08:00

It's funny the things we've had to teach and not teach Daughter of Purpose. She certainly didn't need us to teach her how to say "no" or how to put an attitude behind her words. Those came automatically, but yet the strangest things we have had to teach her. Things we take for granted. Some silly and small, but some quite large and sad in a way. Sometimes in just one day, I come across both.

Last night I introduced her to Clementine Tangerines. I peeled one and served it to her. She just bit into it like any other piece of fruit. She had no idea it came apart in sections. I had to show her that. Meanwhile, I served oranges for lunch today. I noticed Daughter of Purpose gnawing on her orange and something just wasn't right. I can't remember exactly what she said to me, but it alerted me to the fact that even she knew something wasn't right, but she didn't know what. It was the peel! Silly me, I forgot to remove it for her and took for granted that she knew to not to eat it, yet it was an easy fix.

On the flip side of the coin there are things we have had to teach her that just make my heart sad. We have had to teach Daughter of Purpose about the part of love that expresses itself through touch. I can't say that I think she was completely deprived of touch. She snuggled right up to the kids from the very get-go. It's the natural physical bond between parent and child that we've had to teach her. Even though I am not a terribly physical touch person, I never realized how much I took that bond between me and my children for granted. They all have snuggled up to me since the moment they were born. My biological children have had moment after moment to wrap themselves up in my arms and to study me and for me to to do likewise. I know them and they know me. It has never occurred to them to NOT throw their arms around me, curl up in my bed with me in the early morning hours or to grab my hand as we are walking along.

On the other hand, I don't think it ever DOES occur to Daughter of Purpose to do such. I think she probably has noticed the other kids, but hasn't known if it's okay for her. So in an effort to teach her about the bond that exists between a mother/father and child, along with many other things, we have begun allowing Daughter of Purpose to take an afternoon nap with Nate and I each Sunday afternoon. (Note: we tried this earlier on but she immediately took this napping as a "right" and not a privilege and would throw a major tantrum on the days we were unable to nap with her so we had to back pedal, but now we feel she's ready and understands that it is not an expected thing day after day).

I wish you could've been a fly on the wall the first time she ever napped with us. It was hard for me to keep my own eyes closed so that Daughter of Purpose would follow my example. Yet as she lay there between Nate and I, I could tell she was just laying there like, "Pinch me! Is this real? Am I really sleeping between a Mommy and a Daddy?" She never did sleep that day. I know she was tired, but I think she was too excited and didn't want to miss one moment of taking in this nap with a Mommy and a Daddy. It was just too precious as she lay there and I could tell that she was trying to decide if she should attempt to put herself out there and try to wrap her arm around me or not. She would cautiously and slowly lay her arm around me and wait in expectation. I don't know what she thought would happen, but there was definitely some apprehension. It was sort of, "Is this okay to do this?"

As I lay there I would sneak a little peek every once in awhile and I would see that she was intently studying me and Nate. Sometimes she would just lay there and, again tentatively, play with my earrings. Other times she would gain her confidence and rub my arm. It was such an indescribable moment that as you can imagine...I never got any sleep that day either. I didn't want to miss anything either.

As we've purposed to teach her about this bond and as her time with us as a family has lengthened I've noticed her relax in a myriad of ways--ways that I think signify her bond is tightening. I love those moments when she looks up at me with her arms stretched upward signifying she wants me to pick her up. I love those moments when she presses in close to me when she's uncertain about an unfamiliar situation. I practically shed a tear of joy when we are in a crowd and feel her little hand reach up and grasp mine for security and for someone to help her steady herself. I practically melt when I'm holding her and she lays her head on my shoulder. These may seem like little things to you, but, oh so precious and sweet to me. I won't even get into what it does to my heart to see her do the same with her Daddy and to watch that bond tighten. That's another post for another day.

Daughter of Purpose is learning much, but so am I. I have learned how such little things can be so easily taken for granted. Until she came along, I never knew I was taking those things for granted. As we purpose to teach Daughter of Purpose what it is like to have a physical bond with her parents, I will purpose in the like manner to not take these moments for granted with my children whether biological or adopted.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Shriners Results

2008-11-16T12:18:00.001-08:00

The visit to Shriner's on Friday was good. They fit her for another brace. The short of it is that they don't want the few muscles she has in her quads in her right leg to atrophy by wearing the larger brace all the time. So they fit her for a shorter one (below the knee) to wear part of the time so she still gets the support, but the thigh muscles get some work. Yep, you understood it right...she will have two braces for her right leg. One AFO and one KAFO. Wouldn't you know that instead of "blue with kitties" she chose her new brace to look like the American flag. Fitting in so many ways, but especially because she can spot an American flag from practically 3 miles away. She's an expert at spotting them and will tell you so every time she sees one!

The neuromuscular specialist also set her up for a procedure that will allow them to figure out exactly what muscles/nerves are working/not working and while they are in there to try and "wake" some of them up. They will need to sedate her for the procedure because of her age. They will not be cutting her open, but they will be poking needles in and out of each nerve/muscle and think that at her age, she won't sit still and she'll freak out over the needles. So it's actually not a huge deal procedure--no recovery time and she'll leave the same day. It's just for her benefit to sedate her so she's not traumatized. This procedure will help the doctor confirm his thoughts that it is indeed polio that has caused her muscle weakness. There's a lot of things he checked her for, but the main thing that makes him believe it's polio is that the areas of her body that are "out" are asymmetrical. If it was neurological or genetic, it would be symmetrical he says. He will also learn while he's doing the procedure as to whether we have hope of muscle re-generation over time or not.

The procedure is scheduled for a few weeks from now. It is right before an insanely crazy weekend that we already have booked solid. It's really not the perfect situation, but our only other option was not until February. We feel like this procedure is exactly what we've been waiting for so crazy or not, here we go!

Not only would we covet your prayers for this procedure, but we would greatly appreciate you praying for Daughter of Purpose to stay well. Any inkling of illness and they will not be able to do the procedure.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Big Visit

2008-11-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we will be headed to Shriner's Hospital for Daughter of Purpose to see the Neuromuscular Specialist. Apparently this doctor is very hard to get into because he's at the top of his field. He comes over to Shriners from UC Davis.

To be honest, we're not really quite sure what to expect. She has been referred to him in hopes that he will help us narrow down what has caused the decreased muscle tone in Daughter of Purpose's legs. She has definitely improved since arriving and it is not in the regions of her body that the Russian orphanage told us it was. It is only in her legs and her right is worse than her left. What we hope to learn is what is causing this and what is her long-term prognosis. A big question is whether or not there is anything that can be done to regenerate those muscles. We also need to learn if it will get worse over time. We will need to know if and what can be done for her.

Please pray for this visit. It's in the morning. We are trying to not be too hopeful so we're not discouraged, but yet at the same time--this is a big deal! God knows our daughter better than we do so we ask that you pray for God to use this doctor to show us what can be done for Daughter of Purpose. We feel like this journey for Daughter of Purpose has been fraught with doctors shrugging their shoulders because they haven't known what to do with her. We would really like some answers for once! Please don't forget Daughter of Purpose tomorrow.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

School Has Begun

2008-11-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

This week has begun a new phase in the life of Daughter of Purpose. When she came home in May, I had planned on giving her at least a year before I did any formal education with her. I figured she'd just work on learning English this school year. As she progressed, I thought maybe I'd work in some preschool activities in the Spring. Well, we haven't even made it to Thanksgiving and I officially began school with her this week.

You see, last week she brought me a piece of paper with her name on it. She wrote her name herself. She taught herself how to write her own name.

A few weeks back, I called up the stairs to her and asked her what color shirt she was wearing. In between when I did that and she answered, I remembered what she was wearing. I knew she had on a red shirt and black pants. This was her response to my question, "I wearing red on top, Mama, and black pants." I was amazed at her ability to respond with the right colors.

Just yesterday, I was counting down to something (I can't even remember now what it was) from 5. It went like this, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1." I was done. Daughter of Purpose pipes up..."Mama, you forgot zero. Zero next."

Well, if those things don't make it clear enough that obviously Daughter of Purpose is ready for me to purposefully work with her, here's a little more case in point. I will not kid you, last week was a tough week for Daughter of Purpose. She had a stuffed up nose and I learned very quickly that if she does not feel well, she does not listen and obey well either. I asked a few friends if they wanted to lease her awhile, but there were no takers. So I had to do some thinking about what may be going on beside being sick. This is what I came up with.

Every day we do our schooling from 8 am- 2 pm. That means that pretty much from the moment that Daughter of Purpose rises in the morning until lunch time, she is unintentionally pushed off to the side while I school everyone else. She's usually playing with one or more of her siblings, but by about 11:00 am each morning she's done with them and makes it very clear with her behavior that she is trying to get my attention. She is crying out for me to spend some time with her. Well, I thought I had remedied that by making sure that I put her down for nap and spent time reading books to her before I returned to finish off schooling with the other kids. Lately this has not been enough.

So with all of these pieces in mind, I started preschool with Daughter of Purpose this week and I was right on. She is more than ready. She ate it up and kept asking to do more school. I had prepped quite a bit, but apparently I will need to prepare even more for this upcoming week. Off we go on a new adventure...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Another Story

2008-11-02T10:43:00.000-08:00

For another story about Daughter of Purpose, go to Mommy Map. Instead of posting in both locations again, I thought I'd just provide you the link.

http://mommymap.blogspot.com/2008/11/missing-point.html

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

First Time Fall-Time Fun

2008-11-01T23:59:00.001-07:00

The older kids in our family did a good job of getting Daughter of Purpose all worked up about the fall-time activities. She was so excited, but really had no idea why. It was pretty funny...I can only imagine what the anticipation of Christmas will do to her since that will be a new experience too.

Nate was such an awesome dad and tackled pumpkin carving while I was gone one evening this week. I made Mini-Me promise to take pictures since Nate's hands would be busy. I think she did a great job. I loved what Nate helped Daughter of Purpose pick out for her pumpkin carving. I asked the kids if she seemed to like the whole carving thing or whether she seemed grossed out, but they said she was fine with it. Whew!

As stated before, the kids absolutely love dressing up so this holiday comes with much anticipation. I do have to say that I appreciate their willingness to be creative and accept homemade costumes and now they even pride themselves in putting their costumes together with stuff around the house. Really can't express my thankfulness for that enough because getting 5 costumes together can be an overwhelming task! So we arrived at our church's Pumpkin Patch carnival with Indiana Jones, a cowboy (who called himself George Washington--go figure), a fairy princess, a bat and a laundry basket. At one point, Mini-Me took off her laundry basket in order to jump in the bounce house so I was stuck holding our dirty laundry! Sheesh! It follows me everywhere!

Daughter of Purpose, in her normal fashion, relentlessly asked me all day when she would be able to put on her fairy princess outfit. Finally, the moment arrived and she was beside herself. She seemed to enjoy the time at the Pumpkin Patch and being able to play all of the games.

The moment during all of these festivities that sticks out in my mind the most involves cotton candy. Obviously Daughter of Purpose has never had cotton candy before, but I didn't really think about it until I handed her a stick of it and she proceeded to just carry it around with her. It was like as if she was wondering why I handed this to her, but simply did it because she trusts me and Mommy must have a reason! After awhile of her just walking around with it in her hand it dawned on me that she didn't know she was supposed to eat it! So I stopped and showed her how to pull off a chunk and eat it. She downed it after that, but I just had to chuckle...who would've thought that I'd need to instruct her about something as common as cotton candy.

At one point, one of the older church members said to me, "You know she's stealing the heart of this church, don't you?" I just smiled because I want that to happen--not that I want it to be about her or us as a family--by no means. What I wish for more than anything is for her to steal enough hearts that more people become open to adoption and are willing to give an orphan a family--their family. God is the Father of the fatherless and I believe He delights in "setting orphans into families." (Psalm 68:5-6a)

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Transcripts of Indiana Jones

2008-11-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

I've gotten many a question as to what Daughter of Purpose is saying in the Indiana Jones video. Here goes an attempt to translate for you. I don't promise that it will make logical sense!

"Go!"

Singing of the "Indiana Jones Song" (words are just his name over and over)

Mommy - "What're you gonna do Indiana Jones?"
"I'm gonna kill da bad guys because da bad guys is dead."
Mommy - "What weapon are you gonna use?"
"I can't because everybody using it."
"Oh! You there!"
"Hey! You over there!"
"Hey! I'm gonna get you."
"You going to die."

Shooting

"I gonna get you ee ("and" in Russian) I can jump--really jump."
"I gonna fight you...fight you."

Runs away to get the bad guy.

Going to Her Head

2008-10-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

As Halloween approaches and all the children in our home anticipate the costumes, games, candy and fun, Daughter of Purpose is excited to join in this year (although she really has no idea what she's so excited about). I'm actually having a hard time getting them to take off their costumes and save them for Friday! They are so excited!

One of our boys is going to dress up as Indiana Jones--he and I are both quite proud of ourselves for putting his whole costume together for $7. Part of that price tag was because we splurged on the "official Indiana Jones whip." So Indiana Jones is at the forefront of everyone's mind. Apparently all this Indiana Jones talk has gone to the head of Daughter of Purpose. If you need translation of what she is saying, let me know. I don't know if she's only understandable to me because I'm her mom or whether she's understandable to all. Don't forget to turn off the music in the sidebar before you watch it!

The Talker in our family is going to be a bat and his costume is awesome (Thank you, Nana Red!) I'll have to post some pics of that later. Can't wait to see how Daughter of Purpose will get into that one!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Oatmeal

2008-10-24T11:05:00.001-07:00

We learned something new about Daughter of Purpose last night. At dinner, we had oatmeal. It was a breakfasty type of dinner. I thought I had noticed something at an earlier time about oatmeal and Daughter of Purpose, but last night she proved my observation.

As we sat down for dinner, I said to Nate, "Watch this. She doesn't like oatmeal and just by sight of it knows she doesn't like it. Watch this...she won't even try it." As if on cue, Daughter of Purpose turned to me and said, "I no want that." Nate and I shared a knowing glance.

Nate tried to convince her to eat it because Mommy made it and it was yummy and she replied, "I like it, but I don't want it." All throughout dinner we tried to get her to eat it and she would have none of it. What was even funnier was that she never would pitch a fit or anything, but she would conveniently avoid it. She was willing to eat her scrambled eggs and many, many bowls of applesauce, but wouldn't touch the oatmeal. I even made a bargain with her--more applesauce after she took a big bite of oatmeal. She humored me, but I'm pretty sure the look on her face was one of gagging it down!

We found this whole situation funny yet interesting since she won't openly say she's never touching that stuff again in her life, but we're pretty sure that's what is going through her mind. We're pretty positive that it is what she had to eat for breakfast every day of her life until we brought her home. We can't blame her.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Compassion

2008-10-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a book called, "The Mission of Motherhood" by Sally Clarkson lately. I'm pretty sure I've underlined more than I haven't, but there is one part that really stood out to me. So much so that I've been meditating on it for the last few weeks.

In reference to the passage in Matthew 9:35-36 it says this:

"Jesus was going about all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. AND SEEING THE MULTITUDES, HE FELT COMPASSION FOR THEM, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd." (emphasis mine)

Sally Clarkson reflects this: "Instead of seeing the multitude and seeing them with disdain and scorn--or as an overwhelming drain on his time--Jesus felt compassion for them."

Boy can I ever relate to seeing my clan as a "multitude" and boy, can they ever make me feel drained. But this stood out to remind me as to how I should respond to my children--with compassion. I am grateful for this mindset that God had me in this week. He was setting the stage for me to "just happen" to be in the right place at the right time.

As I walked down the hallway, I unfortunately heard this argument between Littlest One and Daughter of Purpose:

Littlest One - "Why don't you just go back to Russia?" (in a very disdainful, angry voice)

Daughter of Purpose - "Fine! I go back to Russia. I go there and be with Nastia (her little friend)."

It was only a few sentences, but yet so incredibly powerful. Again, I am grateful I happened upon their argument so that I could do some damage control. I am so grateful God had me working on my compassion because that's all I could feel for these two precious ones in this moment. I really did think of them as precious at that moment. It was weird, I knew right away that these were two hurting children that needed compassion in that moment--not scolding.

There was nothing more important to me in that moment than to hold both of them and have compassion on them. Littlest One needed some help because some moments he's best buddies with Daughter of Purpose and some moments the two of them fight like cats and dogs. It's gotta be pretty hard to be him...the one who was the baby for 6 years and still feels like Mama's boy, but yet has had to grow up and be a big brother really fast. He's never had to share in such a way. He's never had to instruct someone--he's always been the one instructed! In the midst of my embrace, we had a big talk about what he said and how powerful and hurtful those words were and how he could make it right.

Once I let go of Littlest One, I could fully embrace Daughter of Purpose and pour out compassion on her like I never had before. I'm not sure what changed in that moment, but the depth of my love for her went so deep. Before this moment, I knew that I loved her, but there was a depth to this moment that I had yet to experience. I saw her in a new light. I saw what it must be like to live in her shoes and felt nothing but compassion. Imagine what it's like to be ripped from all that you know to this completely different world. Although the people here are nice and loving, proven they will keep their promises, there are plenty of playmates and good food to go around--what must it be like to walk the perilous line of not knowing if this will last or not? What must it be like to have two worlds and two languages in her head? When she wakes up out of a dead sleep--where does she initial think she is? In America or Russia? Does she dream in Russian or English?

The list of questions could go on, but there was something in this moment that said, "This is your child, not a stranger you are raising. This is your moment to make sure she knows that her being here is not dependent on her behavior. She needs to know that she will always be yours--no matter what." I held Daughter of Purpose close and made sure she knew from my words and my actions exactly that--she is my child and always will be. I made sure she understood that she will never need to worry about returning to Russia--no matter what anyone says even if it is her brother.

From that day on, God has given me new eyes for my Daughter of Purpose. She is no longer just one of the multitude that I have been given to raise. She is a chosen child that needs a Mommy that sees her as one of her own and embraces her for exactly who she is. It can be easy with many children to get so busy that I barely have time to look my children in the eyes each day. It's such a simple thing, but isn't that what we want from the Lord? To be seen as an individual by Him and not just one of the crowd? I know I won't be perfect at this goal, but as God weaves this thread of compassion in my life, I purpose to look at each one of my children in the eyes each day and see them as He does...with compassion.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-12T00:12:00.001-07:00

We took a trip to the Pumpkin Patch in Reedley today. We went to Hillcrest--which is also a Christmas Tree Farm. We got to enjoy a ride on a mini-train while there too! The kids favorite part of that ride was that they rode in the cattle car. It was hysterical! There is so much to do there--if only we'd had more time. Next year we're making time to explore more.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Sunday School

2008-10-09T19:33:00.001-07:00

As we have gotten into our Fall schedule, Daughter of Purpose has adjusted right along with us. I wasn't really sure how she would do with Awana Cubbies so I purposed to stay with her until I felt she was ready to go it on her own. Also, a few weeks ago I tried seeing if she was ready to go to Sunday School by herself and it was a no go. So I thought for sure that I'd be sitting in Cubbies with her for awhile.

Well I don't know what came over her, but at Cubbies she now seems to be fine as long as she sees me check in on her and knows where I will be. I'm usually sitting and helping out the secretaries at a table in the room she's in so it's not like I am very far, but I guess it gives her the comfort she needs and she now looks forward to Cubbies each week. She's even learning her verses! Obviously she's not going to understand the verses right now, but I figured that since she's such a sponge right now--it was a great time to hide His word in her heart.

For the last few weeks, I've also been taking Daughter of Purpose into her Sunday School class and hanging out with her. She's got a great team of teachers in there so I wasn't surprised when we rode to church this last Sunday and she said, "Mommy, we going to Sunday School today?" I replied, "Yes."

This was her amazing response, "I go by myself today, Mama. I not cry. I be okay. I know you come back for me."

Did it really work out? Yep, she did it. She was gushing with excitement when I picked her up and she could not wait to show me the picture she made of Jesus. She's certainly not ready to be in there for two services yet, but this is one incredibly large step toward the end goal.

Daughter of Purpose also just started gymnastics at a local gym that specializes in integrating able-bodied children with disabled bodied children. She is the only special needs child in her class, but loving every minute of it! Next time I go, I will have to take some pictures. The kids and I started out taking Daughter of Purpose to class along with her Nana Red, but today she went happily off to gymnastics with Nana all by herself. I was so proud of her! That was our goal--for her to get the exercise of the gymnastics, but also to have a special day each week with her Nana Red.

There seems to be an overall theme going on here and I think it's "adjustment!" It feels so good to know that she has come to a place where she understands that we are her family and are here for good--we are coming back for her and that she belongs with us!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Letter "A"

2008-09-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

This is the first recognizable picture from Daughter of Purpose. I suppose it looks like nothing to you, but can't you see that it is her first successful attempts at the letter "A" for her real name? She's also been identifying "her letter" in everything she sees. Below her letters are some members of her family. I think our family is so big she ran out of room, but hey--it's a start! Don't I look beautiful?

When we first began visiting Daughter of Purpose in the orphanage, we brought a coloring book and crayons to do during our visits. It seemed to us that she had not used a writing utensil before (or at least very little). She couldn't seem to decide which hand she wanted to use. She was ambidextrous to say the least and made nothing but scribbles. The concept of staying in between the lines was foreign to her. Now she colors all the time and has learned the fine motor control to stay in between the lines. She even has a dominant hand now. This is the first time I've seen something recognizable come out of her drawings. She has come a long way!

I have framed each one of my children's first "family pictures." This one is a keeper for sure!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Increasing in Strength

2008-09-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

I think Daughter of Purpose is increasing in strength. Even with her weaker leg, she climbed up on to the top bunk of her brother's bed today (with no assistance). I thought for sure that was a safe zone, but apparently I was wrong. Now that I think about it, why was I surprised by that? She does everything sooner than I thought and even accomplishes things I thought would be impossible for her. That will sure teach me!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Russian Princess

2008-09-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have followed our adoption journey may remember the trek we took in Moscow in order to buy an authentic Russian dress for Daughter of Purpose. Last time you got a look at it, as you may remember, she had the crown on like a visor and had a whole banana stuffed in her mouth. Well, we finally got a chance to put the real thing on. This was about the best one we got, but we'll have to work on better ones later.

For now, she spends her days recalling more and more of her time in Russia. It seems to go in spurts, but about a week ago she caught a glimpse of a picture of her best friend little girlfriend. Their beds were right next to each other and while we were in-country we spent a good amount of time with the two of them together. Daughter of Purpose seemed to take comfort in her friend and would calm down when she was around.

I don't think she's ever forgotten her friend, but now she has the words to communicate to us about her. She misses her friend and tells us regularly that she wants to go back to Russia to get her friend and bring her home to America. Our other kids have jumped on that bandwagon and think we should adopt her too. Well, there are many problems with that and I won't bore you with all of them, but the main one being that as far as we understand it, her little friend is unadoptable. According to Russian law, as long as a relative of a child visits once every 6 months, they are deemed unadoptable. Sadly, some poorer families put their children in the orphanages and then only visit enough to keep the child unadoptable. In Daughter of Purpose's friend's case, we saw at least one of her parents visit her each afternoon while we were there. We don't know her reason for being there. We just know she's unadoptable.

Just like we have seen prayer be the arms that cradled our daughter while we could not physically hold her, we take comfort in knowing that God will do the same for the friend of Daughter of Purpose. We thank Him for giving us the opportunity to pray for another orphan that we know by name. As Daughter of Purpose walks around holding the picture of her friend and joins with us in praying for her daily, we ask you to also join us in praying for her best friend too.

Editor's note: No, we are not looking to add her friend to our family. Unless we win the lottery, I get an extra jolt of energy, regain some of my brain power back, grow another arm and leg--it won't be happening. We are simply asking you to pray for a child in need. Who knows, maybe she'll someday become adoptable and come home to America to live in your family!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Sassy

2008-09-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

There is no question that Daughter of Purpose is improving in her English by leaps and bounds. While we were still in-country I knew that I had a sassy one on my hands, but it has become clearer and clearer as her English has improved that even though I didn't know a ton of Russian--I was right. Here are few of her quotes lately that prove I've still got my work cut out for me.

When I asked her to pick up something off the floor the other day to assist in clean up, she replied, "No, that you job." Oh yes, she was indeed corrected on that one and had to clean up more than she bargained for.

When Daughter of Purpose asked me a question, but one of her siblings jumped in to answer, she quickly quipped back to him, "I not talka you." I was thinking in my head, "Well, excuse him!"

As Nate and I drove back from Shriners with Daughter of Purpose, while she and her Daddy were having a conversation, she responded, "Talk to the hand, Daddy." She even did the hand motion. Nate looked at me and said, "Did she just say, 'Talk to the hand'?" He wanted to know where she'd learned that. I had a hard time keeping myself from laughing because I certainly didn't want to encourage her attitude, but I couldn't help it when I had to confess she learned it from me! During VBS week, each night she would confirm with me that we were going to church again the next morning. She would often tear up so Mini-Me and I would joke with her and say, "Talk to the hand." in order to get her to laugh. It was a comical moment, but I never thought she'd turn around and use it with attitude! Well, at least I can applaud her for figuring out how to use it contextually correct!

So as you can tell, I've got my hands full in more ways than one. Now that I know what she's saying, I'm chipping away at Miss Sassy Pants. I keep thinking to myself, "And they let you get away with this attitude in the orphanage?" Well, it won't last long here. Kiss your attitude goodbye, Little Missy...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Dude

2008-09-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I think Daughter of Purpose has adjusted. I just heard her say to her brother, "Dude..." LOL! :)

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Happy Feet

2008-09-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

Daughter of Purpose has very happy feet. Yesterday after she wore her KAFO, she was rewarded by getting her finger and toenails painted. I'm not sure she's ever had that done before. By the sheer delight of it all, I'm pretty sure it was a first for her.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Blue with Kitties

2008-09-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

I cannot seem to get "blue with kitties" or "KAFO" out of my head. I suppose with good reason. We spent the day at Shriners Hospital so that Daughter of Purpose could be fitted for her new KAFO that is blue with kitties on it.

While we were waiting for some of the details to be fixed on her KAFO, she got to play in the "play area" of the hospital. It is an awesome area full of things for her to do and play with. She can even do an art project if she wants! The rocking horse seemed to be her favorite.

Daughter of Purpose held herself together for her brace fitting and while the Physical Therapist and the man fitting her KAFO deliberated back and forth about what her needs were. The big discussion seemed to revolve around whether her KAFO should be locked or unlocked at the knee. They settled on locked.

Once we were done, that's when Daughter of Purpose decided to let us know how she really felt about her brace--she's not happy! She doesn't want to wear it. We made her wear it to the car, but we let her take it off in the car. We had many discussions all the (very long) way home about why she needed to wear the brace. The thing that struck me the most in the midst of all this discussion was something I've noticed over the last few weeks as I have explained to her why we were returning to the hospital. Here is it: I honestly don't think she had ever noticed there was anything wrong with her leg.

Ever since we originally went to Shriners and started asking her to do things with her leg without the assistance of her hand (she tends to use her hand to move her leg without thinking about it) she has looked at us like we're crazy. It's like as if no one has ever asked her to truly use her leg before. Now here we were--back at the hospital doing it again. We keep drawing attention to her leg and I think it's hitting her that she cannot control her leg. She seemed to have her "game face" on for the fitting, but when she asked us in the car why she needed to wear it, we explained that it is to make her leg stronger. We explained and showed her that we need her to be able to lift up her leg. She then seemed driven to prove to us that, in fact, she could do what we were asking so therefore she didn't need that "blue with kitties" thing.

Now I know she was tired and I think a bit overwhelmed with it all, but it broke my heart when she kept trying to show me over and over again that she could "perform", but yet she really couldn't. This brought her to tears because she couldn't do it. It brought me to tears too. This will be an adjustment for her AND for me. Nate seems fine with it all, but for some reason I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that she needs it.

Well, tomorrow is a new day and we'll see what it brings. We are supposed to have her wear the KAFO 1 hour per day for about a week and then increase it the next week and so on. I am not really looking forward to tomorrow when I have to make her wear the KAFO--even though the time will be limited. I'm glad Nate will be home to support my efforts and to also encourage Daughter of Purpose along.

I can't be grateful enough for the other kids and their excitement of it all. They've been great since we got home and were totally excited to see her brace. We keep catching ourselves saying, "Where is her leg?" Funny, but I guess we better think of a better way to refer to it. Below is a video of a few of her first steps showing off to her siblings. Again, I am so grateful for them to be her cheerleaders alongside me tomorrow. I think that will make a huge difference in her attitude about it all.

Here are some pictures of the kids and Nate goofing around posing with Daughter of Purpose with her new KAFO.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

On the Road Again

2008-09-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

We're on a our way to Shriners again. Tomorrow we will head to Shriners Hospital to pick up Daughter of Purpose's KAFO (leg brace).

She is getting stronger with every passing day and we are very curious to see what sort of impact the KAFO will make on her walking. She is moving at a greater speed now and I often find her tumbling all over the pillows in the living room. She's even taught herself how to do a somersault. She will be starting gymnastics in a few weeks and I think she's going to love that! Watch out world--here she comes!

We'll post when we get home and let you know how her visit went.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Happy Adoption Day!

2008-09-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

This post is well overdue, but here are a few pictures from our "Happy Adoption Day" with Daughter of Purpose. In August, we finished up her adoption with the state of California. We had to go down to the courthouse and have an official court hearing. What this does is allows us to get Daughter of Purpose an American birth certificate. So much easier than bringing the Russian one with an English translation everywhere we go!

Mommy, Daddy and Daughter of Purpose waiting for the judge.

Our "jury"--our kids and grandparents.

All the family (minus Nate's dad who had to work--bummer) plus the very friendly judge. He was so happy to do this hearing that he sat down on the other side of the table from us to go through the proceedings--not his official seat. He was so friendly to the other kids and guessed their names and ages accurately. We couldn't have asked for a nicer guy. Sorry the pictures aren't that great. The lighting was kind of dark.

The new Freeland Family (with the judge, of course).

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Love of Music

2008-08-30T09:04:00.001-07:00

As Daughter of Purpose increases in her English, so does her ability to sing in English. If there is one thing that we have found Daughter of Purpose to love, it is most definitely music. She just can't seem to get enough of it. I even think it is helping her English skills. I have even thought that as we get ready to start the Awana year, that maybe I should consider teaching her the weekly verses with music.

With her love of music in mind, I do have to say that some of my favorite moments have come as I've listened to Daughter of Purpose belt out her English songs. There was that moment that she was trucking along in the car with us and joined in with a Newsboys song, "Your Love is Better Than Life." It is a family thing to turn up that song and sing it at the top of our lungs--thank you Daddy for that one. It sort of like an initiation for our family and I think she passed!

Each Sunday Daughter of Purpose goes into the church service with us--the adults. It is music to my ears to listen to her sing along with all of us. Some songs she doesn't know the words, but she is sure trying! Then there was the Sunday that "Never Let Go" by Matt Redman was sung. It was a VBS song this year and now we were singing it in the adult service. You should've seen her face light up when she realized that she knew this song! You should've heard her singing that day! Oh yes, maybe you did hear it. I'm pretty sure everyone in the world heard it!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Gap

2008-08-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Life is pluggin' away over here. Can't say there's anything out of the ordinary to report about. We started school this week and Daughter of Purpose jumped right into our routine. In fact, as I write she came and asked me when school starts this morning. Not today--it's Saturday!

As I've written before, Daughter of Purpose is speaking more English than Russian now. In fact, I am finding that she says at least one word or concept per day that I didn't think she understood, but yet she obviously does. The one that is escaping her though is the concept of "today, tomorrow, yesterday." She often says to me when I tuck her in at night, "What are you doing tonight, Mom?" At first, I thought she really wanted to know what Nathan and I were going to do after she went to bed. I thought she was getting awful personal, but after awhile I caught on that she really means, "What are we doing tomorrow?"

I am finding the mental power I have to engage in with her is not getting easier, but harder. Now that she has a large English vocabulary, she is beginning to use it to tell me about things past. The other day she told me all about how it really bothered her when Nathan and I took off down the beach on 4th of July holding hands for a picture. She couldn't see us at first and didn't know where we were and then once she spotted us, she didn't know where we were going so it really scared her. I had no clue about that, but yet found it interesting that she needed to make sure that I knew about that. It was like as if she realized that now that she had the words, she could let it out.

All of this makes me wonder what is in store for me. As she increases in her ability to tell me about the past, what will she tell me? As of yet, we have not engaged in any conversations about her time in the orphanage or shown her any pictures from that time of her life. We are waiting until we know there will not be a gap in communication. It's an awfully touchy subject. I can imagine it might be quite emotional. We want to make sure there is no gap because we want to make sure she fully understands that she is here for good. She's not going back there. As the gap rapidly decreases, I realize those conversations and showing her the pictures are right around the corner. I certainly don't want to hide her first 4 years of life from her, but it's kind of scary at the same time. Will I be opening up a can of worms? What if I open it and wish I could get the lid back on?

For now, we have begun to bridge the gap with simple conversations about why we root for America and Russia during the Olympics. For now, we look at the world map on the wall in our school room and talk about how Daughter of Purpose used to live in Russia, went on an airplane to America and now she lives here with us in America. For now, I will rest in today and not worry about what tomorrow's conversations may bring.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Shoes

2008-08-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a little story and let you enjoy with me how a pair of shoes have come full circle.

I think every person who decides to adopt, especially those who feel a leading from the Lord to adopt, thinks that that their personal path along the adoption journey will be paved with gold. When we realize where God is leading, it's easy to think that because we are being obedient to the Lord then it will be easy street. I've seen it in others and experienced it myself.

I've heard it said that "Life is about the journey, not the destination." Well, with adoption, yes it is most certainly about the destination--your future child--but I will testify that I am not the same person today that I was when this journey began. My adoption journey did not turn out to be paved with gold, but for that, I am thankful. I can't say that I was entirely thankful along the way, but I am now.

Along that journey, there were many times of discouragement and wondering if God had really called us to this child. In those times was when God gave me little things like shoes to remind me of His presence and to encourage me to press on. My friend and I began to refer to them as His fingerprints.

About 5 months into this journey, we had a particularly discouraging time. I was questioning everything and worrying like crazy. While I was agonizing over all of this, I decided to delve into a bag of hand-me-down clothes that a family we barely know had given us about 3 months previous. I had never looked in the bag until this point. I knew that it was full of girl clothes for our oldest daughter, but didn't think much more past that.

When I began to dig into the bag, I stumbled upon 2 pairs of little girl shoes--like toddler size. At the time, my oldest daughter was 7-years-old so obviously they were not intended for her. Everything else in the bag was age appropriate for her. These precious little girl shoes stood out from everything else. I went over and over in my head as to whether this family knew of our adoption plans because at the time, no one really knew. I even thought through the dynamics of this family and could not think of anyone in their family that would've worn those shoes. Remember their girls were bigger than our oldest daughter.

After the few seconds it took me to process through all of those thoughts, I held out the little shoes to my oldest daughter who knew of my doubts. Here is what I wrote in my journal that day after this event. It tells you best of what my oldest daughter's response was.

"The best part about the whole thing was when I showed my oldest daughter and she said, 'Well, we know what size she is now, huh, Mommy?' What incredible faith and insight she has! What an incredibly personal gift God has given me in those shoes to renew my hope! What perfect timing!"

Had I happened on those shoes even a few weeks earlier, it wouldn't have been the same. I did end up asking that family about those shoes. I couldn't help it. I wanted to know if they knew something I didn't know. Their response? They don't remember putting them in the bag and like me, can't figure out who they would've come from. They had no idea of our adoption plans. Sounds like a fingerprint to me, especially now that Daughter of Purpose is home. If I look at her foot size now and think back to that time frame, I would bet that she was precisely that size--just like my oldest daughter said.

So what ever happened to those shoes? We put those shoes in our bathroom to remind us to pray daily for her--our future Daughter of Purpose. They also reminded us of what God had called us to do when we were discouraged--to press on and fill those shoes.

Well, now she's here and what has ever become of those shoes? They certainly don't fit her now since she's grown so much, but they still sit on our counter in our bathroom. They are still there to remind us of what God has done. Those shoes came full circle a few weeks ago when Daughter of Purpose was in the bathroom with me.

Daughter of Purpose said to me, "Mama, what are those shoes doing there?" It was then that I was able to tell her the story of those shoes and how they reminded me to pray for her each day while she was at the orphanage in Russia. There was no moment more precious than when she said to me, "Mama, you prayed for me?"

"I most certainly did. I most certainly did, child, and I will until the Lord calls me home."

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Life Motto

2008-08-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to pull together all of the pictures I wanted to share with you. Maybe another day. What I wanted to show you was all of the pictures of the kids doing VBS this year. We did VBS at my parents church to practice for VBS at our church. It was a good opportunity for Daughter of Purpose to get used to her siblings coming and going.

When it came to the week of our VBS, I stayed with her and committed myself to her group, but with the hope that she would become comfortable and allow me to come and go also. We had victory with this. At the beginning of the week, she check with me about every 5-10 minutes with, "Mama nee-yet bye-bye?" I would gently remind her that I was not leaving. The second day, the intervals in between these inquiries was greater. So she was becoming more comfortable.

By Wednesday morning of that week, Daughter of Purpose bolted down the aisle of the church at the beginning. I hung back to see what she would do. Without looking back, she found her group and joined in with the music. Once music was done, she started asking for me so they came and found me.

By day 4, she did the same thing and was willing to let me come and go. By the last day, I simply dropped her off and then picked her up at the end. That is such a huge victory! I actually went off campus and enjoyed a Starbucks all by myself to celebrate!

The picture above is quite telling of her life. I think it is picture perfect.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Future Olympic Swimmer

2008-08-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

I think these must be the words of a future Olympic swimmer.

This morning I woke up to Daughter of Purpose walking into my room with her goggles on (mind you, she had just gotten up herself). I said to her, "Why do you have your goggles on?" Her response, "I hold them for when we go pool."

A few minutes later as I was downstairs getting some coffee, I heard a duplicate conversation with her brother. Only this time he explained to her that we weren't going to the pool today. Her response, "I hold them because maybe we go to pool. I ready."

I just had to laugh and record these words just in case...just in case she beats the odds and does something great with her love of swimming!

Editor's Note: Later in this same day, Daughter of Purpose was going outside and thought it bright enough to need sunglasses. Never wanting to abandon her goggles, this is how I found her. Goggles stored atop the head with sunglasses also firmly in place. LOL!!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Shriners Hospital

2008-08-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

We have great news! We have been to Shriners Hospital and we now have a plan for Daughter of Purpose. Our visit was long (about 5 hours), but well worth it.

Initially our visit was not looking very promising. The Resident who came in to assess our situation didn't have the greatest "bedside manner", especially for working with children. Daughter of Purpose never really warmed up to him and we didn't really feel like he did a thorough job of getting her full story. He left us thinking that our daughter's needs were spread across three different specialties of medicine and that since different specialties don't work well together that she would fall through the cracks and not get the care she needs. He told us that he didn't know if the hospital would be able to help her. At that point, we thought we had wasted our time.

After getting a bunch of x-rays done to be assessed, we were finally able to meet the "real" doctor. Let's just say that amazing was not a good enough word for her. Daughter of Purpose immediately warmed up to her because she walked into the room with a smile and was ready to play. She played with Daughter of Purpose and was able to assess her in that manner. Our daughter thought it was great! The doctor listened to her story and asked intelligent questions--ones that signified that she was fully grasping our daughter and her needs.

Once we established with the doctor that none of us were sold on the Russian diagnosis for our daughter's muscle weakness in her legs, we made a plan to have Daughter of Purpose come back for another appointment to meet with a Neuromuscular doctor. We were all on the same page that we need to get to the bottom of what has caused her muscle weakness. From that we can make an accurate plan for her medical care.

For now, we have established that Daughter of Purpose will greatly benefit from a KAFO on her right leg. A KAFO is basically a brace for her leg. It stands for Knee-Ankle-Foot-Orthosis. If it only went to her knee (which we hope for her future), it would then be an AFO and would only go to right below her knee. After meeting with the Physical Therapist, we were able to get a mold done of our daughter's leg so that they can make a KAFO especially for her.

We will go back in a few weeks to pick up her KAFO and make sure it properly fits. After that, we wait for her neuromuscular appointment. Once all of that is done, we meet with her amazing doctor again to map out a long-term plan.

We are so grateful for Shriners Hospital. They have given us what we've been searching for since we brought Daughter of Purpose home--hope--hope that she may be able to walk close to normal some day. Maybe she won't play soccer or baseball, but now we're able to offer her a future she wouldn't have had in Russia.

As we sit and watch the Olympics each night, Daughter of Purpose tells me all about how she is going to do that (whatever sport is on) someday and that I, Mommy, will sit in the crowd and yell, "Yeah, Daughter of Purpose!!" I don't know what her future holds, but you can bet that it will give me no greater joy than to be my daughter's cheerleader. This visit to Shriners was just one step in that direction.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Gearing Up

2008-08-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't have all of the pictures I need to post and show you what we've done over the last few weeks that wore us out so that will have to wait...

At the moment, we are gearing up to start school, but more importantly, we are getting ready for our Shriner's visit at the end of this week. At the moment, 4 of the 5 children in our house have got the sniffles. Our oldest daughter has gotten it the worst and she was supposed to go with us. However, we can leave her home, if necessary. It's Daughter of Purpose that we are urgently praying doesn't get sick before her visit this week. Yes, we could reschedule the appointment if we needed, but we are so looking forward to this day that we would be so let down if we had to wait longer. Please join us in praying for Daughter of Purpose to remain healthy through the weekend. Next week, she can be sick all she wants! We'll let you know how our visit goes once we're back.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Guitar Heroes

2008-08-07T20:38:00.001-07:00

It's been an absolutely, insanely crazy week so I have the grand ambition of doing a post for you soon. I am trying to catch a few winks of sleep and am also waiting for a few pictures to show you what we've been doing this week. For now...here are some Guitar Heroes that reside in our home.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Imagination

2008-08-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Daughter of Purpose is now speaking more English than Russian (I can't believe it happened so quickly!), but a sure sign that she is blending into our family is the use of her imagination. I had noticed off and on a bit of playing along with the kids in their creative play, but recently have noticed a full-bore use of her imagination.

Earlier this week, Daughter of Purpose got herself into some trouble and lost the privilege of going to the pool. While Daddy took all of her siblings to the pool and I stayed home with her, she decided to unleash her creativity (after a good cry) and make her own pool experience. It was quite a sight. She and her siblings had thrown a bunch of pillows and blankets on the floor and were jumping off of the couch into the "pool" before they left. Daughter of Purpose took advantage of this set-up and decided that if she couldn't go swimming with the rest of the family then she would still find a way to go. It cracked me up because she got out her goggles, flippers and even wanted a towel. When she was "cold" she had me wrap her in a towel so she could warm up. She even showed me many tricks off the "diving board" and had me cuddle with her while she was wrapped up in her towel after she was done swimming.

I am in awe of how she has adjusted to our family. From picking up on English at the speed of light to the ability to use her imagination in a new language. Sometimes it seems like she's always been here.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Off and Running

2008-07-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Well, we know Daughter of Purpose is getting stronger...she can now open the refrigerator all by herself! She seems to be quite proud of herself. I wasn't sure how this was going to affect things. I wasn't sure if she would now stand in front of it continually surveying her food options and hounding me to eat or if she would take it in stride. So far, it's been somewhere in the middle of there. It hasn't been a problem thus far.

We've also noticed her strength increase because she will now go up and down the stairs by herself. She used to stand there waiting for the next victim (or sucker) to convince that they needed to carry her up or down. There are still some times we carry her for times sake, but for the most part she's on her own.

Running was a foreign concept to her when she arrived here. Now that her strength is increasing, we see her attempts at speed increasing. She may end up on her rear-end because her brain got ahead of her feet, but at least she's trying. Upon arrival, it was like as if the thought of running had never occurred to her.

I'm sure that better nutrition is helping immensely with this, but I also have to credit my dear husband. He's the one that is always so good with the kids at pushing them to learn new things. I tend to be in a hurry so I take the easy route with the kids and do things for the kids that they can do themselves. He takes the time and pushes them to do it themselves. I'm pretty sure I would still be dressing them, tying their shoes, bathing them, drying them off, combing their hair, etc if it weren't for Nate. It never really dawns on me to give them the opportunity to try new things until I see him doing it. So...thank you, Love. We make a good team.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Accepted!!!!!!

2008-07-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

We are happy to report that we found out today that Daughter of Purpose has been accepted by Shriners Hospital. Woo hoo!! We are so relieved! We hoped she would be a shoe-in, but didn't want to count our chickens before they hatched. She already has an appointment scheduled for mid-August. We are so encouraged that she will now have a team of doctors working in one location to help her get the best medical care available. Yippee!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

2008-07-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from one of the days we did not visit a pool. Daughter of Purpose was determined to at least feel like she was in the pool so she wore her googles around the house all day (I made her take them off for nap!). After nap though, she discovered the new water toy I bought on clearance at Target for $3. Watch out everyone Daughter of Purpose was ready for WET!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Waiting to Hear

2008-07-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

The doctor who will review Daughter of Purpose's application to Shriners Hospital was out and was to return on Friday. We were told that she would not be able to look over her file until Monday, July 21st. Please be praying with us that we would hear something positive from Shriners this week.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

More Ramblings

2008-07-17T09:40:00.001-07:00

These words from her mouth cracked me up this morning. Daughter of Purpose had to go to the lab and get a few tests done. She absolutely hates this and practically gives herself a heart attack on the way because she's so distressed about going to get shots.

After we left this morning and all they had her do was pee in a cup, she replied, "Wow, that was fun!" All I could do was laugh at her perspective.

Along the drive home, she saw a ponding basin and asked me if that was the ocean. Sadly, I had to break her heart and tell her that it was not the ocean. I think all of these water experiences are blending together for her. I suppose water is water in her mind!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Ramblings

2008-07-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

Ya know, when we adopted Daughter of Purpose, people would tell me how quickly she would acquire English. I heard the figure of 6 months tossed around. So in my mind, I was expecting a relatively quiet child until about Christmas--maybe a few words here and there--and then she'd start spouting out full English as a Christmas present to us. Honestly, I'm being blown out of the water. I have a feeling that Russian will be long gone by Christmas...

Here are a few of ramblings lately and this is truly just a snippet:

After brushing her teeth this morning, she called out to me, "Mama, look at my teeth!"

As we drive along, usually listening to Newsboys or Superchick I hear her little voice from the backseat, "Music loud, please!" I'm pretty sure this is a far cry from the Russian children's music she heard in the orphanage!

She's already figured out how to tattle in English. I heard this conversation between her and her brother the other night:

Daughter of Purpose, "I tell Mama."
Brother: "No, I tell Mama."

And back and forth it went. How does she know this already?

I've even noticed that her receptive language is good enough already that she can perceive when we are joking with her or not. The other day she and I were discussing where everyone would be during quiet/nap time. I told her that she would be sleeping outside. She instantly looked at me with a grin and replied, "Noooo Mama. I not sleep outside. I sleep inside in my room!"

She will also now tease us. She will tell us something silly, but instantly say, "Nooooooo. Ne-yet whatever she had originally said (you fill in the blank)." I think that's pretty darn smart for having only arrived in the US 2 months ago!

Here is my new favorite, "That was fun!" or this one, "Wow, that's cool."

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

4th of July

2008-07-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taken so long to get these pictures up for you, but here are a few of the attempts at family pictures we captured during the 4th of July weekend. We have always purchased Old Navy flag shirts from the year that each child was born. This year it was quite symbolic to buy one for Daughter of Purpose--especially with the American flag.

We had a blast doing fireworks at home on the actual holiday, but then headed off to the coast for a visit with my grandparents. While we were there, we also hung out with some friends who were staying at a local campground. That's how we got all of these pics. Daughter of Purpose was not too keen on the sound of fireworks, but seemed to be okay with the visual. Glad we opted out of going to the stadium for the fireworks show. I think that would've been a bit much for her this year.

A lot of people have asked how she liked the ocean. Well, it's water for goodness sakes...of course she liked it! The previous weekend we had gone to the lake so I think that it was a similar experience for her. She didn't exactly do a double back-flip over the first ocean experience, but I think that she most certainly thought she was in heaven to be in water again.

We've kept busy with visiting friend's pools almost every day. In fact we've made such a routine out of it that tonight before bed when Daughter of Purpose was reviewing tomorrow's activites with me, she became very adamant that we must go the pool tomorrow. I kept explaining that we are not going to the pool and I think she thought that if she raised her voice enough or stomped her foot that maybe I might change my mind. Umm...no, we will not be going to the pool tomorrow. She will live.

Underwater Adventures

2008-07-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Shriners

2008-07-02T21:20:00.001-07:00

A little while back we shared that we have had trouble getting the medical care here in our valley needed by Daughter of Purpose. After some additional research, advice from others and prayer we have decided to turn in an application for our daughter to Shriner's Hospital.

A little over a week ago, my friend "just happened" to be at Shriners for an appointment with her daughter. She was so awesome and shared with the doctors there about our predicament. The doctors told her that their experience with someone like our daughter is small, but they do have some experience. They told her to encourage us to apply. So we've done just that. We are encouraged that they have some knowledge and that they are a research hospital so I would imagine that if they don't have the answers, they will help us find them--unlike our experience so far.

We would appreciate your prayers as we now wait to hear back from Shriners. Please pray for the doctor who will review the medical information we have sent. Pray that they would be willing to see our daughter and that it would be soon.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Bonding

2008-07-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Attachment and bonding are huge issues with adoption and I am happy to say that they are going well for us over here!

Daughter of Purpose certainly loves her siblings and most definitely her Daddy. Who in the world wouldn't love someone that wrestles with them on a daily basis (okay, so maybe I'd have to say that I wouldn't like that--I hate being tickled). Maybe I should say, "What CHILD wouldn't love wrestling and tickling on a daily basis?"

I have also noticed that Daughter of Purpose has picked up that at a certain point in the day we begin doing the same things (the kids doing their chores and Mommy making dinner) and I begin to make coffee for Daddy. She knows that as soon as she sees this activity going on and I pull out the coffee that her Daddy is on his way home and she can barely contain herself with excitement! Once we have the coffee peculating, she is on a hot trail to open the garage door to wait for Daddy to pull in the driveway.

It is clear that since Daughter of Purpose doesn't like being without her siblings and I often see her curled up on the couch with them that they are certainly doing well with attachment and bonding.

Since my oldest daughter was traveling the last two weeks, I wasn't sure what that would do to their relationship, but it was like a sweet reunion between the two today when my oldest daughter returned home. I think that it did a lot for Daughter of Purpose to see that her sister came back just like we promised she would. I thought maybe my older daughter would be resentful of jumping right back into her role or that maybe Daughter of Purpose would be stand-offish, but that was far from the case. The two were practically inseparable today. They were almost giddy with excitement of being back together again. For that--I am grateful.

There have also been some great things on the attachment and bonding front with me and Daughter of Purpose also. At first I felt like "just the caregiver" and everyone else in the family was for the fun-loving stuff, but now that part of our relationship has come around. I am excited about that! Daughter of Purpose often comes up to me and randomly gives me a hug & kiss. My favorite time of day that she gives me those kisses and hugs is at nap time because she has also learned the sign and phrase "I love you" so she signs it and says it to me when I tuck her in for her nap. I love toddler fingers that sign "I love you!" There's nothing else like it!

She also loves to play the "baby game" with me. She comes up and tells me that she wants to be my baby. So I swing her up into my arms and begin rocking her and singing her lullabies. I love the closeness and even though I missed out on her baby years, I still get to sing her the same songs I sang to my biological children. I think she must love it too since at least once per day she asks for this game. I can't help but oblige her!

Having a little trauma will always attach and bond you too. Yesterday, I had to take Daughter of Purpose to the Children's Hospital to get a procedure done and it was...well, let's just say it wasn't her favorite visit to the doctor. I hate to put her through some of these tests, but I do have to say that the pay off in the attachment and bonding realm is that she sticks to me like glue after that. After we got home yesterday, she wanted nothing but Mommy and crawled up on the couch with me and we read books together. That bonding was worth the earlier crying. I love that she knows for sure that I am her Mama!

Daughter of Purpose is amazing me day after day. Each day it becomes more and more clear to me that she was intended for our family since before time began. God knew she would be a part of our family--it just took us awhile to figure it out! I'm thankful that although her route of getting to us was different from the rest, I'm thankful she's here and that we clued in to God's Master Plan.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Snippets of Conversations

2008-06-27T22:53:00.000-07:00

Daughter of Purpose is coming along quite well with her English. There are still moments that I'm still not sure exactly what transpired in our conversation, but for the most part she is doing really well. Here are a few examples of what you would hear around here.

On a regular basis, you can hear her voice bellowing out, "(Insert name here), come here, please!" I think that's pretty darn good that she would be using a full sentence already and with manners!

Yesterday she came around the corner while I was on the computer and said, "Mom, get off the computer!" I just had to laugh at that one because I honestly don't know where she picked it up from!

Earlier today I asked her to do something and she responded, "In a minute, Mom." I turned to my son that was in the kitchen with me and said, "Did she just say what I think she said?" He responded, "Yep, she just said 'In a minute, Mom' to you."

Those were the moments that I knew exactly what was being said. However, earlier today she and I had a most interesting conversation that I believe was about Spiderman. She had asked me to come upstairs because she wanted help with the costumes. She did a little charades with me and I figured out that she wanted the Spiderman costume. So I pulled it out and told her that this was her brother's costume (because now she thinks everything belongs to her unless we state otherwise). That's when it got bizarre because I think we were not fully understanding each other, but yet thought we were. I'm pretty sure her response to me was that she now thought her brother was Spiderman. She then went on to tell me that Spiderman must have to blow his nose because her brother blows his nose too. After helping her get the costume one, I asked her if she wanted to wear the Spiderman costume during nap time. She pretty much told me, "No, Spiderman doesn't need naps." When I walked away from that conversation I felt like shaking my head vigorously like a cartoon character and hoping it would clear away the weirdo conversation I had just had. Maybe it was just a figment of my imagination...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Daughter of Purpose

2008-06-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

I've decided that my new daughter needs a new name. You see, when I blog I try to not use my children's real names--especially when I write Mommy Map. I had been wondering what our new daughter's name was going to be because I can't keep calling my two daughters "new daughter" and "older daughter" because that's just plain boring.

So as I rushed around the house cleaning before some friends came over for dinner tonight and my new daughter followed me everywhere dying to help me, I thought up her new name. It came to me while I pondered about how she loves to help me with anything with purpose. Today it was while she was arguing me about cleaning the toilet. She was yelling at me, "Me do it!" because she wanted to participate in cleaning the toilet so badly. I was trying to explain to her that Mommy would do the yucky part and she could just do the seat and lid. She would have nothing of my ideas and wouldn't let up until I gave in and let her take the sponge and happily clean the toilet. It was in that moment that I decided that I would call her "Daughter of Purpose." She loves doing things with purpose, but I also believe that God has pulled her out of the life of an orphan and given her a life with hope for a purpose. I believe that He is going to use her in a mighty way someday. So she is now officially crowned with a special blogging name--Daughter of Purpose! May she live out her name.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Chicken Girl

2008-06-22T23:33:00.000-07:00

Birth Order

2008-06-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

There have been many tough things along this journey, but those are far out-weighed by the good. As I sit here 5 weeks after our new daughter has joined our family--making it complete--and think about what some of the highlights are, I would have to most definitely say that one of the best things that has come along this journey has been seeing a side of my oldest daughter that I have never seen before.

Obviously she has always been the oldest, but maybe because all of my kids are so close in birth order she has never really been super motherly towards her brothers. She's been an awesome blessing to me at the top, but she's struggled more with being the only girl than embracing her role. She's a lot of the reason we wanted to adopt a girl--because she wanted another girl in the family. She understood that they would be "bookends" and that her relationship with her sister would not necessarily be buddy-buddy, but that of caretaker. She didn't care, she just wanted a sister.

As we got closer to picking up our new daughter, we made sure our oldest daughter understood that things would change. She would no longer be the only girl in the family. She would no longer solely own anything "girl" in the house. She would no longer have the "girl" room all to herself. The life that she had known for the last 9 years was about to change. I was a little nervous about how this would go, but my oldest daughter has risen to the occasion of "oldest sister" better than I ever imagined.

From the very get-go my oldest daughter has embraced her sister and thought the world of her new sister. She has become a mini-mom and keeps her little sister under her wing like a mother hen keeps her baby chick under her wing. They have bonded like crazy. Without me even asking, she has taken on the job of making sure her sister gets dressed each day. She watches over her in the pool, helps her bathe, brush her teeth, and pretty much anything else she needs help with. She never minds carrying her sister up and down the stairs, keeping an eye on her for me or playing with her so that I can make dinner or get school done with the boys. She willingly gives up her toys and doesn't easily get ruffled about her sister getting into her things. I can't say she never complains, but she certainly rarely does.

The one thing that I have loved the most is hearing her words of encouragement for her new sister. I often hear her telling her what a good job she is doing and she recounts to me all of the great things she sees her sister doing each day. She also seems to have taken it on as her personal goal to know enough Russian to communicate with her sister and has succeeded. At the same time, she is also the one that takes the time to sit with her sister and talk her through each book by telling her the English word for each thing. Her new thing is to spell words out loud to me so that her new sister won't know what we're talking about. It cracks me up because it doesn't matter what she's spelling--our youngest daughter is not going to understand it--it's English! I just have a good chuckle and chalk it up to good spelling practice for my oldest daughter.

My oldest daughter has also been the one who has not minded taking her new sister alongside her and teaching her the ways of our home. Each night before dinner, the kids each have "jobs" to do. I hadn't given any to our new daughter yet because I didn't think she'd understand. I was dead wrong on that one. The thing she loves to do the most is anything with a purpose. Hence the apricot gathering, helping with meal prep, wanting to be taught how to vacuum, cleaning the table after dinner, etc.

I write all of this about my oldest daughter because I am so proud of her, but also because I miss her. She left with my parents this week to travel for two weeks. I'm not sure what that's going to do to the bond that the girls have developed, but I trust that in time it will get back to where it left off. For now, all of us really miss her. Our new daughter didn't take this leaving so well, but thankfully our Russian speaking friend was home when I called and explained to our new daughter that her sister would definitely return. I think that was our new daughter's fear--that her new sister was going on a plane to never return. I can imagine that in her little mind that planes mean never returning. So thank goodness again for someone who could explain that to her. Once she got that settled in her mind, she seems to understand as we add stickers to our chart each day that counts down when my oldest daughter will be back.

For now, our new daughter is happy as a clam to be sleeping on the extra bed in the boys room. We thought it would help with the transition and I think we were right! I'm pretty sure she's in heaven! While we await the return of our oldest daughter, my oldest son has stepped up to the plate to fill in for a bit. I think it will be good for him to have this opportunity to bond with his new sister and to take his bossiness and harness it for good. It means I certainly have to be on my toes to help him learn how to do this, but in the long run I think it will be worth the effort. He's been dying to lead, but under the shadow of his older sister for--well, his whole life--so this is his chance to shine! I'll have to keep you posted on how this goes. I think it will be interesting!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Indiana Jones, a cheetah, & a skunk

2008-06-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

While my mom is on vacation, she lent me her new Flip Video Camera. I am in love with this video camera. It all started back in Moscow when my friend, Tamara, showed me hers...now I'm hooked because it's so easy!

Here is my first video. I haven't used a video camera much so I'll have to learn how to get the the kids to "perform" instead of staring at it! I still have the ambition of learning how to edit the chicken costume video so you can see our new daughter peckin' popcorn in her suit. It is quite hilarious! I'll post that one as soon as I figure it out.

1,2,3 Go!

2008-06-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Here is where she began begging Nate to jump off the side into the deep end with her. She couldn't get enough and kept shouting, "Ee-show! Ee-show! More! More!"

She is really getting the concept of, "Ready, Set, Go!" or "1,2,3 Go!" so in these pictures you can see Nate doing this with her.

Hard to believe this natural looking fish came from a region in the Arctic Circle, huh?

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Brave Little Swimmer

2008-06-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

As I've written before, swimming is a "way of life" for us in the summer. Where we live it can reach up to 116 degrees during the hot parts of the year. We don't personally own a pool, but instead we choose to enjoy the hospitality of our friends who have pools. Although it takes gas to get there, it's worth every penny. The kids have such a blast swimming and our new daughter is turning out to be such a fish! Here are a few pictures of her swimming last weekend at our friend's house. Thanks Peace Family for the fun!

Swimming with Daddy and lots of practice in the bathtub makes her so brave!

Hangin' out with the boys in the boat.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Mixed Bag

2008-06-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

We took our new daughter to see the Orthopedic Surgeon today. It was a mixed bag. About 3/4 of the way thru the appointment, he let us know that he believes he can repair our daughter's foot, but he will not be at the hospital and is moving out of state at the end of July. So he can either work her into his surgery schedule before he leaves or we can opt to wait for her to adjust to her new home some more and have another colleague of his take over her case. We opted to wait since we'd like to think about it a bit more and we prefer that the doctor who does surgery does her post-surgery care.

Okay, so that fixes her foot, but what about the muscle weakness in her legs? He told us what she does NOT have, but since we had been told by the Russian doctors that they think it stems from her having Polio as a baby--our American doctor flat out told us that he really doesn't know how to help her since American doctors are not educated about Polio since it doesn't exist. We had to educate him (this would now be the second doctor we've had to educate about this) that only the Western Hemisphere is free of Polio. It is still around in the Eastern Hemisphere. So we now feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. How do we go about getting our daughter the help that she needs without paying a fortune for a specialized International Adoption doctor?

We still have a few more specialists for her to see, but some of them do not have any openings until September. Please pray for us to be able to get our new daughter the specialized medical care that she needs and in a timely manner.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Silly Goose

2008-06-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

So much has happened in the last week and so little time to tell you about it! I usually write these blogs after the kids have gone to bed at night, but lately I can't keep my eyes open after 9:00 pm to save my life! Adding this new "baby" to our family is really kicking me in the pants! Maybe it's the fact that this "baby" can walk, keeps me mentally on my toes and doesn't like to sleep for fear of missing something. If I compare that to a newborn that sleeps all of the time--I guess I have reason to be exhausted. I keep thinking that it's just like the adjustment of adding a newborn to our family. It will just take a few weeks to get adjusted.

As our daughter's English vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds each day and I hear her using more English than Russian, it creates some memories that I will cherish. One day, in my spare time, I am going to copy and paste all of these things I journal here and put them in a Word document so I don't forget.

My favorite English conversation that happened this week was while we were outside as a family after dinner. Nate and I were just sittin' around while the kids were playing on their bikes and scooters. When our new daughter got here, we got our tricycles out for her to play on. The older kids acted as if they had never seen them before (even though they were theirs in the first place) and have thought they were the greatest thing ever! This particular night, the kids were racing up and down the street on their scooters and tricycles. They were even timing each other.
While sitting there, it cracked me up when our new daughter walked up to her Daddy, planted a kiss on his check and then slyly asked for yogurt in her very sweetest voice. She hadn't eaten very much dinner and was trying to "work" her Daddy. Like a smile, smoozing can surpass language!

Shortly after the smoozing incident, Nate decided to jump in on the racing action and hopped on a tricycle himself. You can see from the picture how our daughter felt about that! What I loved during this time was how she encouraged him with her new English words. After one round on the circuit (and his legs burning like crazy), she walked up to her Daddy and said, "Good job, Daddy! Give me five!" while holding our her hand for "five."

She then spent the rest of the time using her other favorite line of mine (which she learned from me), "Silly Goose!" Whenever she would see Nate on the tricycle, she would say, "Silly Goose, Daddy!" Frankly, everyone was a "silly goose" that night.

Our daughter in her new found love--a chicken costume. She discovered the costume box this week and has spent more time in this suit than out. In fact, one particular day we had to go "head to head" over the chicken suit. She did not want to take it off when we went out in public. Honestly, I really didn't care if she went out in the costume, but it's been 95-100 degrees here so I knew she would overheat in it. I finally won and got her out of the suit while we went out, but as soon as we returned home, she was back in it. Her favorite thing to do in the suit is to peck at a bowl of popcorn. She is such a character!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

American Girl

2008-06-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

Two quick things for today.

My favorite thing I love to hear our daughter say is, "Good job, Natasha!" I love hearing her sweet little voice that is obviously very proud of her accomplishment.

On another note, we are very excited that we received our daughter's Certificate of Citizenship from USCIS a few days ago. Along with it was a letter from President George W. Bush welcoming her as a new citizen of the United States of America. I shed a little tear over that one. If feels good to finally have the official document in our hands that proves our daughter is now an American citizen. Yippee!

Little did you know that Elasta-Girl is living in America. Her legs are like rubber and she can get herself into some very interesting positions. We visit the Orthopedic Surgeon about her legs next week so we are very curious about what he has to say about her elastic abilities.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Surreal

2008-06-06T21:53:00.001-07:00

Here is one of my favorite pictures. It was taken when our daughter went swimming for the first time ever. We went from about 30 degrees in Murmansk to 100 degrees when we arrived home. However, the weather was nice enough to cool down a bit for us shortly after our arrival. Despite the cool down, we couldn't help but introduce our "way of life during the summer" to our new daughter right away. She absolutely loves to bathe so it was no surprise when her face lit up when she saw my friend's pool and realized she was going to get to go in that big huge thing of water!

In this picture is my closest friend's little girl from China. It is priceless to see her sitting with my daughter from Russia. Two little peanuts from the other side of the world sittin' together and enjoying the water together. It was slightly surreal because we began the process of adopting our daughter before my friend began hers. When our adoption began to look hopeless because of all of the re-accreditations in Russia and my friend's adoption was moving along smoothly and was even completed before ours, I don't think either of us thought we'd ever see this day--our two girls together sitting by the poolside. But God used that circumstance.

When we began our adoption, we were looking for a girl that was "healthy with normal institutional delays." When we began, we could've never guessed that God would bless our family with a little girl with special needs. Had my friend not adopted a little girl with special needs, I'm not sure that we would've been open to God's leading down the "special needs" path. Good thing God knows what He's doing or we would've missed out on the gift of our new daughter. I just look at her and think, "It's hard to imagine that our daughter would've been (or was) passed over simply because one of her legs is shorter than the other. Whoever passed her over sure is missing out! To think that had we not chosen her, such a smart girl with such delight in her eyes would've probably been left to live in an institution for children with special needs for the rest of her life--basically with no future. Such a simple thing and yet she was viewed as not perfect."

Well, we think she's just perfect and know that God definitely has a future in mind for her. I just can't wait to find out what He has in mind for her! Here is a prayer lifted off for these two special little girls. May God, who lifted them out of a hopeless situation and gave them hope, use these two to bring Him glory and hope to others!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

For more info on children that need to be adopted, but have "special needs", please see: www.untilallhavehomes.org

First Haircut

2008-06-04T23:15:00.001-07:00

This was our daughter's first haircut. We have a friend who comes to our home and cuts everyone's hair. Literally only days after arriving home, we had her come to tame our wild hair. We thought that maybe our new daughter would just watch this time and we'd get her hair trimmed later. Apparently she had other ideas because as soon as the first child was done, she hopped right up on the chair like she was ready for her turn. Not really being sure that she even needed a haircut, we obliged her and had her bangs trimmed and the back evened up.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Happy Birthday!

2008-06-02T21:48:00.001-07:00

Today was our new daughter's 4th birthday. We purposefully kept the celebration small so that she didn't become overwhelmed with all of the new people. Just our immediate family and both sets of grandmas and grandpas came for some cake and ice cream. We also figured that just being in America with her new family was celebration enough in itself! Here are a few pictures from our celebration.

By the way, I wasn't sure what our new daughter's history was with birthdays so I had our friend talk with her on the phone and explain it to her. Who knows if they did anything for her in the orphanage or if she even knew what a birthday was before today, but her face certainly lit up when he explained to her that it was her birthday today and what we'd be doing to celebrate!

She certainly knew what to do when we finished singing...blow those candles out, girlfriend!

My friend who makes the most incredible cakes for all of my kid's birthdays was ready with ideas for our daughter's birthday. She was practically ready on our court day! She was so excited for our daughter to have her first birthday with her new family that she made an individual "first birthday" cake for our daughter and a big one for the rest of us to share. Our daughter's eyes were so wide with excitement that all of this cake was just for her! Below is the bigger "main" cake--a crown cake for the new Russian princess.

Finally! A picture of all five kids. I'll keep trying for a better one, but this will have to do for now!

Opening presents for the first time. She kept questioning, "For me?"

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Laughing Instead of Crying

2008-06-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to laugh at the things that keep happening to me and my ability to blog. You see, if I don't laugh, I'm might begin to cry in frustration! First, I came home with jet lag. No problem--I expected that. What I didn't expect was that during my first 2 weeks home, my internet would go down and then once it got back up--my computer would die. I've had my computer for a really long time--long enough that any new computer games my children get won't play on my computer. I had a feeling that as it became more apparent that my computer was being outmoded that it was going to eventually give out on me. I just kept praying that it would hold out until after the adoption since it held everything we needed for our dossier. Well that prayer was answered, but on Friday my computer began spontaneously shutting off. That was interesting. By Saturday, it wouldn't even turn on. So here I am--blogging from Nate's computer while he sets me up on a new one. Didn't really want to fork out the money for a new one, but I am pretty computer dependent and I just keep reminding myself of how many miles I get out of a computer. It helps me feel better about it by thinking about it this way!

Okay, so onto our new daughter. I have so many "firsts" to share with you, but I will have to post those once I have access again to my pictures, etc. She's gone swimming for the first time, had her first haircut, been to the pediatrician...on and on. I'm also still so amazed at her ability to pick up English. She now says, "Good night, Mama" and gives me a kiss on the cheek and a hug before bed. She even said to herself today, "Good job, Natasha." Isn't that sweet?

We tackled church again today and I have to say that we had a victory! I explained to her before we left the house (the best I could in my limited Russian) where we were going and what was going to happen. She wasn't very happy about it and started to cry when I picked her up to carry her to the car, but once we were on our way, she was fine.

Once we arrived at church she was distracted by the new golf carts that are transporting people around during our parking lot renovation and the fact that her Daddy was driving one of them. To the delight of our children, he gave them a ride around the parking lot. I'm pretty sure he was high up on the "Daddy pedestal" this morning for that one! Once we were done with that, she did well until I started dropping off the kids in their Sunday School classes. She was begging for each one as I dropped them off, but thankfully for me, I learned the Russian for "later" this week. I was able to tell her that "No, they would not be with us, but we would pick them up later." Although she didn't like it, she seemed to accept it eventually. We ended up being able to make it through 1 whole hour of the service this time too. Again, to my advantage, this week I learned the Russian for "quiet." This helped her to understand that she needed to be quiet in there. She covered herself in stickers while she sat there, but at least she was quiet! After an hour in the service and she claimed to need to go to the bathroom, I let her escape with a likely excuse because I was so proud of her and wanted to leave on a good note. By the time she finished washing her hands in every one of the 5 sinks in the bathroom, church was done. Woo hoo! I'd call that a victory--especially compared to last week! You should've seen her face light up when she realized she had succeeded at what we had asked and now she was able to get her siblings back!

As I reply to everyone who asks how it is going, "Every day gets easier." Today we were fortunate enough to take some good steps forward. Now to keep stepping forward...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Food Discoveries

2008-05-29T15:29:00.001-07:00

I had no idea it would be so difficult to blog during these first few weeks home! Along with discovering what it's like to be in a family and the English language, our daughter is also discovering our food. We are also learning a lot in regards to food as we go along this journey with her.

Many people and everything I read had said to do my best to prepare food for her that she was familiar with. I kept my eye on what she was eating at the orphanage, got a menu of food she ate while there and observed Russian foods that were served in the hotel & restaurants. I was prepared for basic--very brothy--soups, tomatoes, cucumbers, brown bread and tea. I wasn't exactly going to break out the Borche (is that spelled right?), but I would make an effort to make similar foods.

From the very get-go we ordered the above foods, but she wanted nothing to do with them. We found during our first week with her, while still in Russia, that we were wasting our money by ordering special food for her. We eventually resorted to giving her food off of our plate and if she was hungry she would eat it. I had also brought dried cereals like Cheerios and Kix and some Goldfish crackers for snacks. Pretty much between what she could scrounge at meals and the snacks in the hotel room she survived. However, once we arrived in Moscow and introduced yogurt to her at breakfast and picked up a banana at one of the fruit carts on the side of the road--we were on to something.

Here we are a few weeks later and I still have to say that yogurt and bananas are still at the heart of her diet. When we first got home and all she wanted all day long was yogurt, yogurt, yogurt I was wondering what we were going to do with this problem then I quickly realized what I dork I was to think it was a problem. I could have a child that wanted only junk food. Instead we have been blessed to discover her likes and dislikes as we go along. All of her choices are great! In fact when we've offered her a sip of soda, a bite of a chicken nugget or fry--she's not interested!

Here are some of the things that are a sure-fire hit with her. Yogurt, bananas, pears, hard-boiled eggs (she pounded 5 of those down at lunch today), flour tortillas, shredded beef, tomatoes, quesadillas, apricots, popcorn, chicken and some pastas. Now, of course, she'll take candy any day, but we've managed to hide that so it's not an issue! Again, I can't complain. She's choosing healthy things and when she turns up her nose at what we offer for a meal, she's generally pretty good at trying new things if we reward her with the foods she likes. That's how she discovered that she liked quesadillas! 3 of those went down the hatch that night.

Speaking of food, here are some pictures of our daughter collecting apricots from our tree in the backyard. She was so delighted to walk back and forth from the tree to the kitchen to deliver apricots to me 2 at a time. She even started at 6:30 am one morning because she was so excited about her ability to help and be a part of the family. It was even more motivating to her when she discovered that she could eat fresh fruit straight from the tree while she made her deliveries. Bet she never had that opportunity in the orphanage!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Dancing at Church

2008-05-25T16:08:00.000-07:00

Since our daughter has been home for a week, she has been doing so well, and it's our first functioning Sunday we thought we would try going to church and see what would happen. I'd love to tell you how wonderful it went, but it wasn't quite a victory.

My expectations for church today were low because I wasn't really sure what our daughter would think of everything, especially all of the people, but what caused her anxiety was not what I anticipated. Our plan was to drop off all of the older kids in their Sunday School classes and then take our new daughter with us to "big church." We figured we'd have her sit with us in the back of the sanctuary or maybe even in the hallway. Before we even got to the sanctuary she began to panic. Honestly, I'm not totally positive what "set her off", but I think she either thought we were putting all of her siblings in Groupas in some sort of American orphanage or she just plain did not know what to do without her siblings. We tried having someone who speaks Russian ask her what was wrong, but she wasn't talking--that's how foul she was.

We tried the route of taking our oldest daughter out of her Sunday School and keeping her with us also, but that didn't seem to give our new daughter any comfort. Frankly, our new daughter never really relaxed in this new situation. We stayed through the singing and a little bit in the hallway through the sermon, but I could quickly see that this concept of being without her siblings was not settling with her so I decided to head home early today. I have to take her to her first doctor appointment this upcoming week and don't plan on taking her siblings so she's going to eventually have to get used to the idea of going places independent of them. I figure that maybe next week for church I'll have our Russian speaking friend explain to her about what is going to happen (maybe that was our mistake of not talking her through it previous) and try to have her stay longer than this week. My thought is that if I continue to take her each week and stay just a bit longer each week that it will eventually work out.

Here we go again...the dance steps begin. One forward and one back.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.

First Week Home

2008-05-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

As I write, it has officially been 1 week with our daughter home. We have had an amazing week. It started off a little tough with the language difference, jet lag and all of the tasks to be done to recover from a month long foreign adventure, but we've ended well.

I'm not super great at remembering to take pictures, but I tried to capture a few of the highlights of the week. Although I do have to say that the biggest highlight of the week cannot be captured by picture. Many people have said that our daughter will catch on to English quickly, but I never imagined that she would already have some English under her belt. I have been amazed to witness how well she understands what is being said to her already. For example, she will put her hands up when asked to (like when I'm helping her get dressed). She understands that if she stays in her bed at nap I will keep the door open, but if she gets out of her bed, I will close the door. She will go get her shoes when I ask her to.

In the last 24 hours, it has gone beyond receptive language to her actually speaking some words/phrases in the appropriate context. She asks to "brush your teeth" at bedtime, knows how to tell her siblings, "Stop (insert name here)!", says "be careful" when caution is needed. We are shocked at it all!

This is what I call, "the two peanuts" playing together. My two youngest have their "moments", but for the most part enjoy playing together. My favorite moment was when I found them curled up together reading a book.

Bath time has become our daughter's favorite time of the day. I've taken to giving her a bath in the morning otherwise she will ride me all day long about taking a bath. Sometimes she even asks me later in the day about taking a bath even though she's already had one. I think she's hoping I've forgotten and will give her another one! The other kids think this is great and take turns bathing with her. Our youngest son who also loves bath time is "in heaven" at all of this tub time!
The two girls are having a fabulous time together. My oldest daughter has owned up the job of big sister more than I've ever seen her step up before. She has been such a great example and teacher to her sister and has totally humored me as I've used her to help "train" her sister as to what needs to be done. For example, when I needed to teach my youngest daughter that I wanted her to lay down in her bed and rest for a bit in the afternoon, my oldest daughter laid in her bed and showed her how it's done. It was so helpful! I don't know how people do this without other kids around to show the new child what to do!

Probably one of the sweetest memories for me of this week was during one of those nap times when I laid in my bed listening to the two girls down the hallway during nap. My oldest daughter,who has struggled with reading, was indeed reading "The Very Hungry Catepillar" to her new sister. I couldn't help but get sappy over that one!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.

Last Pictures in Russia

2008-05-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

The pictures on my camera go back further than I thought so here are some of our last pictures before we left Russia. I will do the next post with pictures of here at home. The above photo is of the group of Americans that were staying the hotel with us. One couple traveled with us from our agency and the other we met while there and was with the other agency in the area. In this picture, two of the couples have their child (including us), but the couple on the left received their child the next day. It was great to have the fellowship!

Here is Natasha doing her "grounding" routine. Every time we would come into the room, she would want me to sit on the closed toilet and she would sit in my lap and play in the sink. For whatever reason, it was very theraputic to her. In fact, I found that if she did not get the chance to do it, she had a harder time with transition.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

For the Love of the Internet

2008-05-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally unpacked enough to find my camera cord, but then our internet went down for 2 days. It was pure torture! To be experiencing this awesome first week of our daughter in our home and I couldn't share it with anyone!

She is keeping us busy and certainly knows my name is "Mommy." Oops! She's calling me now so stay tuned until she's tucked into bed and I will update you on our week.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Home

2008-05-19T07:49:00.001-07:00

We are finally home. Well, we've actually been home since about 11:00 pm on Saturday. Boy, does it ever feel good to be home in the good ol' USA! I would love to post some photos for you of the past few days back and home, but I can't find the cord for the camera to do that. I'll have to get back to you with photos when I find it in the midst of all of the unpacking.

Here's a re-cap of the last few days. We had a seamless time in the airport, processing out of Russia, and on the flight home. It was 12.5 hours from Moscow to LA and our daughter did an awesome job on the plane. She fought the good fight against sleep until the last hour of our flight which would've made it about 2:30 am to her little body, but she did finally give in! It made our flight seem longer than we had hoped, but she really didn't give us much of a problem (yet she wasn't perfect), didn't cry and we were so glad to be able to get off the plane and not feel like everyone on the plane hated us. Whew! I do have to say though that the last hour was quite a relief! God certainly knew what He was doing because her sleepiness made her "out of it" as we went through passport control and immigration which made it easier since she didn't want to get down and run around in an inappropriate situation. My arms felt like they were going to fall off after an hour of holding her, but it was worth it to not have to chase her everywhere!

Once we finished up at LAX, we hopped into a rental car and made the 4 hour drive home. Again, our daughter slept--all the way home. It was kind of nice to turn off my brain for a bit. Of course, where do you think our first stop on the way home was? In-n-Out Burger! Once Nate's belly was full of his favorite meal the hardest part of the last leg our our journey was trying to keep him awake! At that point, we had not slept for the whole flight and it was getting to be over 24 hours without sleep, but we did manage to make it home.

We arrived home about 11:00 pm with my parents and Nate's parents there waiting. When we pulled up into the driveway of our house and got out, we pulled out our daughter's "Family Book" and showed her the picture of our house and then showed her how it matched the house we stood in front of. There seemed to be a light that came on because her eyes sparkled a smile broke out on her face.

Once inside, we introduced her to her Grandmas and Grandpas and showed her their matching pictures in her book and she seemed to know exactly who they were. It was so neat. It made the work I put into her "Family Book" totally worth it. After the grandparents, we woke up each of the kids one by one and introduced her to them. The kids were each so excited once they woke up and realized that we were finally home after 25 days and we had brought their sister with us. This was the sister they had prayed for over the last 2.5 years and she was no longer just a picture, but the real thing right in their home. It such a sweet moment in time! I hope I never forget it.

After a few hours of mid-night bonding, we all headed off to bed until the morning came and we could spend more time together. I'd like to say that the first night went well, but it was rough for our daughter. The second night was better.

We had a great day together yesterday as a new family and even ventured out to Costco to re-stock our food. It was probably crazy, but necessary. We had really scaled ourselves down to nothing so that no food was left to spoil while we were gone. I do have to say that it was weird to keep track of 5 instead of 4, but I will quickly get used to it--I have to--don't want to having anyone go missing on me.

Well that sums it up for now. I will keep you posted as we get adjusted to our new family life. For now, we just try to recover from jet lag, get through the mountain of laundry, put things away and give ourselves plenty of time to bond and give our daughter time to acclimate to her new home. Thanks for coming along on the journey...yet the journey has just begun!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Embassy

2008-05-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

This morning we had pancakes....pancakes! With real syrup! Aeniah-Natasha had two helpings of yogurt...she really loves yogurt and was very excited about getting that. Then we went for a small walk and took in some sights.

This afternoon we went to the US Embassy here in Moscow. Again, with American passports, you get to just walk to the front of the line. Fortunately, the immigration portion for adoptions was not super busy. We walked in and sat in a room with a bunch of other adoptive parents and their children and while we waited Brandy and I met a new single mom who is adopting her first child. She got delayed in her region for 7 weeks! We became very thankful for our 3 weeks at that point. It felt really good to just sit and talk with other Americans and to deal directly with American officials. They had a little play area for the kids while we waited and the Director of Immigration just wandered around and talked with couples and chatted...it was really cool. When our number was called, we went to the counter, made an oath that everything in our packet was acurate and true and a few minutes later we were waltzing out the door again with our daughter's entrance visa. The whole process only took an hour and a half.

Aeniah-Natasha will indeed hold dual citizenship with both the United States and with Russia. We originally had the understanding that she would lose her Russian citizenship, but this is not the case. So after we land in America and go through passport control and immigration, she'll officially be an American (and a Russian). How fun is that?

After the Embassy visit, we went walking again and went to buy Aeniah-Natasha a traditional Russian dress and headress. She will look so cute in it! Along the way, we bought her a banana and discovered she can really pound those down...she'll fit right in with our other kids at home! Here's a picture with both cheeks full and wearing her Russian headress upside down. She liked wearing it like a visor instead of a crown.

Tomorrow we board a plane...Aeroflot has a direct flight from Moscow to LAX and is only 12 hours...awesome. Then a short drive home. Please pray for safety and for Aeniah-Natasha to be patient as we wait for our plane, enjoy the ride, be calm, to sleep a bit and to just have fun. Oh, and you can pray for patience, sanity and creativity for me and Bran as well.

See you when we get back!

Love, Nate and Bran

Adventures in Mosow

2008-05-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, here in Moscow, we spent the morning getting our daughter's American Embassy Medical check done and filled out all of the paperwork necessary to get her visa into the USA. We will go this afternoon to pick up the coveted "packet" that we absolutely cannot open--only the immigration officials in the USA can open it.

Once we had all of that done, we headed off the Old Arbot Street and picked up a few more gifts and, of course, stopped in the only Starbucks in Russia. It was so yummy to have a Peppermint White Mocha after an unintentional 25 day fast from them! We were able to pick up new Moscow mugs--very excited about that since they broke after our first trip here. Now the trick is to see if we can get them home in one piece and juggle a child on this trip!

After a little rest after our adventures, we hooked up with a blogger friend of mine that lives here in Moscow. She, her husband and children are American citizens living in Russia. It was so awesome to have a "local" take us around the city a bit and show us some sights on the way to and from our destination--because we got stuck in a lot of traffic. I've heard it's worse than New York here! Our friend has posted about the destination she took us to on her blog. Click here and you will be taken to read about it and see some pictures of our daughter and some video. I could post it myself, but why--when it's been done already? If you are an adoptive parent on your way to Moscow, I would encourage you to explore her website. She's got some awesome info about places to visit with children in Moscow. Apparently, Russia is not very child-friendly so she's done a great job of exploring the city with her daughters and digging up the places that ARE do-able for children.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Art of Cramming

2008-05-14T14:43:00.001-07:00

Today was a very busy day! In the morning, I went with one of the other Americans to pick up our daughter's birth certificate and adoption certificate. Then we went back to the hotel, finished packing and loaded the van. All of us were crammed into the van (both families with new daughters) and we stopped by to pick up the girl's Russian passports. This was quite an experience...we get there and about 30 people are outside this little tiny run-down building, all waiting to get inside to work on getting passports. We met our coordinator Yuri there, talked for about 60 seconds and the door opened. As everyone crammed to the door, Yuri walked past everyone else, told the guy at the security counter who he was and we all just waltzed right passed the whole crowd. We could here some of the people yelling and asking the security guard why we got to jump ahead of the line. I literally walked into the room, signed my name in two places, they handed me Aeniah's passport (which was already completed) and walked out. It was very cool...but I could kind of feel the stares on our backs as we walked out of the building.

My daughter has a Russian passport...how cool is that?

We immediately got back into the van and went to the airport. It's about a 30 minute drive that seems like 60 because of the mass of potholes. I learned that if you drive fast enough the tires "will indeed" float across the air to the other side of the pothole with minimal dipping. I always wondered until today.

At the airport, both families together went through 3 sets of check points...none of which are large enough to hold two people leave alone six with luggage. But since we've been here for what seems like an eternity, we have truly learned the "Art of Russian Cramming." We waited for a short while in the airport...again the waiting room is much too small for this number of people...and Natasha walked around introducing herself to EVERYONE and their dog..and cat. Yes, there was a dog and cat on our flight. After cramming the entire plane load of people onto just one bus (see previous posts in February for an explanation of this) we all stuffed into the plane...which was a very nice plane by the way...much like our first trip here.

Aeniah/Natasha (we still waiver on what to call her...she's going to have identity issues when she grows up) was very excited to see the airplanes (semilote in Russian) and go inside one. She did very well and was quite pleasant for the whole trip.

So now we are in Moscow...whew! Moscow is getting ready for the big soccer game this weekend so the streets were pretty crammed. We met with our Moscow coordinator and made arrangements for the doctor visit for Aeniah tomorrow morning. Then we'll go to the US Embassy to get her entrance visa to America on the next day. I've been told we'll be with a bunch of other people and that the room we'll be waiting in is pretty small.

Oh, for the art of cramming..........

From Russia with love,
Nate

Settling In

2008-05-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

Again, this will be brief because our daughter is keeping us on our toes. We don't want to count our chickens before they hatch, but once our daughter fell asleep last night, she slept seemlessly all through the night and we have had no crying today so far. We're glad we got to visit her during that 10-days of waiting, but still not sure if it was really helpful or not. Hmm....

We did have to suffer through one more crying fit last night when she realized she was going to have to sleep here. I'm sure our neighbors loved us, but oh well. Once we pulled the drapes and put our own pajamas on and showed her that we were all going to sleep, popped in "Horton Hears a Who"--in Russian--we were good to go. Mind you, we had to watch it twice and she was still awake, she seemed to understand my basic Russian when I told her it was time for bed. I think she was so tired, she didn't have anything in her to argue with me at that point.

We have spent many a moment in the bathroom going potty (she even slept through the night with dry chonies), washing our hands, brushing our teeth and playing with the bath toys in the sink (we have no tub in our room). And then starting this process all over again.

This morning, we were able to eat some breakfast in the hotel resturaunt & borrow our friend's tub in their room (she had such a good time she was in there for about 1 1/2 hours). The 6-year-old girl our friends are adopting and our daughter had quite a good time together and speaking Russian to one another. It was really quite helpful to have their daughter talk with our daughter. She talked her through taking a bath and also told her all about how we will all be going on 2 planes and then on our way to America. It seemed to help our daughter to see and hear of someone else who was going through this. We will see how tomorrow goes when we board the plane together.

We also enjoyed lunch with them outside the hotel, fed the pigeons at the park (while it was snowing!) and did a little shopping. Below is a picture of our daughter as she enjoyed a little afternoon tea and watched out the window in a much better mood today. Guess we'll be having a spot of tea every afternoon for awhile. That might be nice for us as we deliberately slow down our life and adjust to our new family!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

She Is Ours!

2008-05-12T04:48:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! Our daughter is finally officially ours! This will be brief because she is keeping us very busy. So far she's done decently. Nothing like a good flailing tantrum through the lobby of the hotel. We thought that going out to eat and for a walk would be a good idea for our daughter initially, but she proved us wrong on that one. We gave up on the eating out when she pitched a major fit in front of the restaurant and all the way down the street and back.

The one thing that got her to calm down was Nate's genius idea of making hot tea in our room with some snacks. My hat is off to the big Papa!

So here we sit patiently in our hotel room while she goes in and out of happy and sad. We've got enough snacks and drinks here to sustain her, but not sure about us. That's the next thing to figure out. We've figured out that staying in our hotel is our best bet since she needs to realize that this is "home" and we are not going back to the orphanage. At this point, she keeps telling us she wants to go home and asks us to take her there.

We haven't been able to get her jacket off or her snow boots yet and she won't put on her regular "inside" shoes because I'm sure she thinks that if she puts those on it means she really has to stay. We've worked her hat and scarf off because she was sweating bullets, but once we get the jacket and shoes off we'll know she's settled in a bit. Until then, I'm off to be with my daughter and enjoy that I have her no matter how tired I am!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Here It Comes!

2008-05-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

In less than 12 hours, we will finally be on our way to pick up our daughter and receive custody of her. Woo hoo! We've waited almost 2 1/2 years for this day. Yippee!!

Our daughter blessed us with minimal crying today (maybe it helped to have the white coats all off today and not there to swarm around her). We are praying for her to continue in her bravery and to feel safe and secure with us as we take her from the orphanage tomorrow morning at 10:00 am. That would actually be 11:00 pm on Sunday--your time. We would covet your prayers to cover us during that time. Any tears will only delay our departure from the orphanage so please be praying specifically for no tears.

We took her departure clothes today so that she will be dressed in them when we arrive tomorrow (at least that is our hope) and we helped them gather all of her things together. Once we have everything in order we will be on our way to the mall to celebrate. Meet you back here tomorrow with hopefully celebratory photos!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."