[momraine]

Lets hear the updates! If you are waiting, how are you keeping busy, are you drowning in the paperwork?
How are you preparing for kids?
If you have kids, how are they doing? Tell us thier ages and how long they have been home and what they are up to! A picture might be nice too.

[momraine]

M has been home a year and a half and turns 8 in just a couple of weeks. We already did his birthday party, he shares his birthday with my soon to be 15 year old and his cousin who lives with us has a birthday three weeks before. Since he and his cousin are in the same school and same grade they did a party together last week. He is loving baseball and school and church choir.

[mama08]

Hi,
I've been home almost 3 months with my son L. He's doing really well! He turned 2 at the end of Jan (while we were all in Poland). We have a weekly play date with 2 boys who were adopted from Russia, that are almost the same age, & have been home since Nov.

I have him signed up for 2 weeks of intoductory swim lessons in June, and 2 days a week of mother's day out at our church starting in Sept. Unfortunately, Daddy is getting ready to go to Iraq. They start preparing this month, and will be out of state until they leave in Aug or Sept. We will miss him!!! Hopefully he will be in an area with good internet & we can talk on the computer.

Kelly
PS I'd love to post a picture, are there directions somewhere?

[Kama]

Kelly,

We would love to see your son's pictures! I will try to explain how to do it. So, When you are composing a message scroll down and you will see "Manage Attachments" option, click on that. Then you will see "Choose File" and lower "Upload." So you first need to choose file (picture jpeg from your computer and then upload). You can attach several as you can see. There is a size limit so if your pictures are full size, you will need to save them as a smaller pdf. You may have to try it a few times. Sometimes they will come out too small, but you will figure it out after a few tries. Good luck!

Originally Posted by mama08

Hi,

PS I'd love to post a picture, are there directions somewhere?

[mama08]

Thanks Kama, here goes my 1st attempt!

[mama08]

Feb 13, 2008 The 1st morning my son woke up in his new bed in our home!!

[Kama]

Kelly, he looks so cute! Your first attempt was successful - you can try making them just a bit bigger . Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by mama08

Feb 13, 2008 The 1st morning my son woke up in his new bed in our home!!

[Jenmullett]

Looks like I am the first to post that we are still in the process. Out dossier was mailed to Poland on 2/5. We are eagerly awaiting a call!

[Paskal]

Hi everyone - Jennifer, you're not alone in the waiting stage! We're living in Poland and waiting since April 07 (when our dossier was approved). We can't help but feel a referral must be around the corner. It's great to hear the stories/see photos of all of you who have your children home. Best wishes for speedy referrals to all still waiting!

[MN_Mom]

We are also still waiting.... our dossier was submitted and approved in April 2006.

The paper chase seems so long ago at this point, but we are still cautiously optimistic that a referral is right around the corner!

~Sarah

[lastpaige]

We have been home with our (now) 8 year old twin boys for almost 6 months. We went from physical restraining and concern over what we had done to our family, to not believing that we ever lived without them in a very short period of time.

They have settled in beautifully and have even survived an unexpected move a few months ago. 80% of the big bad scary issues they had on their referral turned out to be non-issues that disappeared with a family who loves them, a home, consistency, and a ton of hugs and kisses. We did find that they needed dental/orthodontic, vision, and neuro-transmitter care, all of which has been easily managed. (8 cavities, 8 pulled teeth, 4 sets of orthodontic spacers, 2 pairs of glasses, and supplements. Whew!)

Piotr reads to them from their story bible, and they love doing science (astronomy this year) with him. Their copy work is getting better and better all the time, as is their use of English. While we were counting, sorting, classifying, adding and subtracting legos for a long time, they’ve got that down and are starting formal math as soon as the books arrive, probably next week.

Both the boys love going to church, playing with the dogs (of whom they were terrified at first) studying, reading, and spending part of each afternoon trying to kill each other with their light-sabers. Playing football is also a huge delight. They are in awe of how hot it is here. (Wroclaw to Phoenix is quite a difference!) Although we are long way off from completely characterizing them as such, they are getting better and better about their obedience, honesty, and making wise decisions in general.

What a long hard road, but how worth the effort and heartache!

For those of you waiting - we pray for you often, and hope you stay strong.

[Kama]

We have brought our now 10 yr old son and 5.5 yr old daughter home 1.5 yr ago. They also survived a major change, a move from MN to AK less than a year after their arrival to the U.S.! They have settled in beautifully. Our children were listed as completely healthy, but extremely sensitive when we got the referral. Our son was indeed extremely sensitive and threw major tantrums (keep in mind, he is a 10 yr old) when he arrived to the U.S. (and during bonding). These behavior started diminishing in the U.S. The main issues we had at the beginning had to do with their refusal to eat what we put in front of them, just general disobedience. We feel lucky that we had NO major health issues (minor fillings as for dental work), in fact our son has not had a cold since he came! Our son had a diagnosis of heart murmur but it was determined to be non-threatening. An annoying issue with our daughter has been ... toilet training. We are finally having success after month of success and relapse.

Both kids are doing well socially and academically. Son is in the 3rd grade, he spent the first semester in a public school, which was great (good ESL resources). In AK, we put him in a Catholic school, and it has been a blessing, since this is also our parish and community. Our daughter started attending pre-school part-time in MN, and will go to kindergarten in the fall, the same Catholic school.

Our son is very good at math and art, and also a very good athlete. He attended art classes the first year, and now is playing soccer and baseball. He is a server at church and likes to go to church very much (both of them in fact).

Our daughter did not attend any additional activities the first year, but now attends swim lessons and pre-ballet. She seems to be interested in music and dance, has good singing voice as far as I can tell.

Despite the lack of major issues the first year was .... exhausting for my husband and I! (while we think and write about our kids we must not remember about us parents and our adjustment!). We went from 0 to 2 kids, and had very little prior experience with children on a daily basis. I personally put on a few pounds and felt very very tired all the time. My advice to new adoptive parents is to try to take care of themselves during this process as much as possible. I am back to walking and swimming again after the initial period with the children - being in control of one's own health and well-being is important in not only feeling stronger as parents, but as an example to the children as well.

We still of course experience some regular childhood misbehaviors, especially attempts to manipulate, lie in little things, test how far they can go. Our son is working on being less talkative and not interrupting the teacher. He still occasionally tries to be the parent to our daughter in a school situation, for example (e.g. tells her not to play with someone, etc.). I found this from St. Catherine of Siena, it is a valuable thought (we have loved and been affectionate with our children but think it is advisable not to overindulge -- seems to be working pretty well!):

Children should be loved for the love of Him who created them, and not for the love of self nor of the children.
-- St Catherine of Siena

p.s. I will try to find some pictures to attach

[Kama]

Here are our kids. To be honest, I enjoy the ballet part much more. Have no clue about baseball and not much desire to learn (I tried!), but my husband loves it, so we are all happy.

[mama08]

Beautiful children!!

[Kama]

Thank you, Kelly .