[Mike67]

For those of you waiting for referrals or completing paperwork, I would like to make the following suggestions:



Spend your time child proofing your home. The last thing you want is to bring your kids home and have to keep telling them “NO”, don’t touch that, then having to move the item(s). We did a pretty good job of that ahead of time.



We bought sliding locks that go on the top of bi-fold doors, for various closets in the house. They work well.



We did not install any drawer or cabinet door latch/locks for the kitchen or bathroom. The kids go into them on occasion, but we remind them not to. We have a hand me down play kitchen and table in our kitchen. We remind the kids that the kitchen cabinets are mommy’s and that the ones on the play kitchen are theirs. The same goes for pot/pans. We have ours and they have theirs. It seems to be working well. It looks like I may have to put a latch on only one drawer (with knives) and one cabinet (pantry).



Before we went to Poland, we moved all the cleaning supplies that were in the kitchen to upper cabinets, and installed garbage/recycling bins under the sink cabinet.



I think it’s a good idea to have relatives or neighbors, who have kids close to the ages you will be adopting, to come to your house and spend some time there to see what they get into and what they can reach.



Make sure you install gates at stair cases and any other areas that are off limits. We installed a gate to our basement staircase before we got the kids. We thought about putting a fence unit around a wall mounted propane fireplace in our loving room, but decided against it. We’ve taught the kids that it is hot and not to touch it.



If there are any projects that you want to get done at your house, try and get them done before you bring your kids home. Our kids take up 100% of our time. It is very difficult to fix, repair, or build something, when the kids are around. They want our attention, and we’ve waited so long to get them that we want to give them that attention.



We’ve been home a month now and it is great. It is hectic, nerve racking, frustrating, and a joy, all at the same time. We started keeping a journal of milestones. Not entries everyday, but when “firsts” happens. The first restaurant that we took them to, the first haircut (with clippings), the first English words, the first song they sang, and so on. You may want to start this journal in Poland and keep it up after you get home. For many of us, we won’t have baby books, but this definitely will help fill the void.



We have a plastic tote set aside with things in it from our trip to Poland. It includes photo albums from the foster parents, and gifts and remembrances from them as well. We’ll eventually put their first toys in it, and clothes that they wore when we were in Poland. This way we have one location to put all these keepsakes into.



The people in Poland are very curious about how we live in the US. We put together, and brought with us, a photo album or our house, the rooms in our house, our street, and pictures of relatives. We showed this to the child welfare staff, the foster parents, and even the kids. We would tell the kids that this is their new home. We would also show them pictures of their new relatives, over and over again. We would recite the names of the people in the pictures. It may have helped, we’ll never know. It made us feel better. Most of the places we were in Poland had no English speaking TV shows. I have a TV tuner card in my home computer and recorded a bunch of my wife’s favorite shows (Monk,CSI) and burned them onto DVD’s. I did the same thing with Sesame Street, Caillou, and other kid’s shows. In all I brought about 30 DVD’s with me. Some of my relatives gave us a portable DVD player as a present. What a life saver. It was a way to have the kids watch cartoons in English, and us to kick back and relax at night after they went to sleep. Just make sure you bring enough electrical adapters to power the things that you are bringing. I also had my laptop with me, but I didn’t want the kids playing with it, so the DVD player really worked out well.



Well, these are just a few things to keep yourself busy while you wait. We thought the day would never come, but it did, as I hope it will for all of you. It was and still is very comforting to have this forum to look at and to “talk” to people going through the same situation.



Hang in there,

Mike

[Kama]

Mike, these are great pieces of advice. Thank you very much! Thank you so much for putting this together. We plan to do some work on our basement to make it into an inviting place to play, but I did not think about door latches and moving cleaning stuff higher up... This is great.

[LisArno]

Thanks for the advice. My husband and I moved into a house three months ago and I tried to think in a child-proof way as I unpacked. We live in Germany and that means every room in the house has a door on it with a lock/key that can be locked from outside of that room. We do have open staircases that need gates.


Thanks also for your advice about keeping mementos for the kids - and to bring along a portable DVD player - though it will probably be to keep my husband quiet

[yusen]

HI Master Mike ,

Thank you for the ideas, I had not even thought to bring individual pictures of My nieces and nephews and Grandparents and pets etc,,to show the children, this way , ,upon them meeting for the first time,, they might feel as if they already know them and would feel a bit comfortable. ( Great Idea)
I am so Happy to hear that you all are doing Wonderful.
So Nice to hear from you..
Have a Wonderful Easter......

Karen

[lastpaige]

When child-proofing - don't forget to tether those dressers and bookcases to the wall. Even if the children aren't climbing, one good reach for something up high can bring the entire unit over!

Think it never happens? Think again.

Great ideas, Mike, thanks for your continual sharing. It's very encouraging to watch your story unfold.

Appreciatingly,
Jacqueline