[momraine]

Lets hear from everyone, we know some are still in the process, some are waiting to go get thier children and some have been home a while. Lets hear from everyone, where are you in the process and if you are home, how are you kiddos doing?

I will start. M has been home almost 2.5 years. He is doing very well. His English is great! He is about to turn nine years old. Right now his love is baseball. He plays in a special league for disabled children and he loves it. He is a little sad that his power chair which he kept driving through puddles at full speed is in the shop. (we told him not to do that, he said he thought it didn't count if he did it at school where I couldn't see him) His RAD is doing so much better. He is getting very good grades in school and loving church and his friends.

[MN_Mom]

Always fun to hear how everyone is doing!

We have been home for only a month and a half with our nine year old! He is picking up English faster than we ever could have imagined. He is a child who craves structure and loves to please. Springtime in our house means baseball season, so most nights find us running from one park to another for games and/or practices between our two kiddos.

School is going pretty well. He enjoys his classmates and his teacher is incredibly patient. And strict at the same time, which is SO important for us. He has been getting into trouble for talking too much and not keeping his hands to himself, but for the most part, he does pretty well.

Loving springtime!
~sarah
based on a true story...

[momraine]

It's great to hear! A good teacher is a wonderful blessing.

[MenloAve]

We are in between our first and second trip to Poland. Our latest update is that they have received the approvals from the central authority and the embassy. Hooray! They are now translating ourstate law and will submit to the court Mondayish. Then we will be able to find out our court date. By the time we get there, we will be adopting a 3.5 year old girl. When we received the referral she was just a little over 3.

[lastpaige]

The boys (now 9 ½) have been home for a year and a half and what a time it’s been!

Language – I used to be on the cel phone with my personal interpreter (husband) many times a day for assistance and now require this help once every few weeks. For a while we thought that perhaps Piotr would have to stop speaking to them in Polish, as their English wasn’t really picking up. Then one night after watching Star Wars we heard the boys speaking Gungan (no, I’m not kidding) and it was decided (unbeknownst to the boys) that yes – it was going to have to be all English starting the next morning. The next morning the boys came down and were chattering away in English like we had never heard. Go figure!

Their English is really good now – enough so that their English no longer requires interpreting to people outside our circles. Grammatical details and speech problems (like personal pronouns and getting that pesky ‘r’ sound) are making steady progress. They are also now getting the hang of knowing when they can use only Polish, only English, and when they can mix the two.

Character – The boys are extremely loving and pretty obedient. They love to help and serve and if they’re missing, you just have to look around and see who was in need of help – that’s where they’ll be. They are gentlemen in training and it shows. They have the most loving and protective hearts. We’re still working on honesty – but even that is coming along well. They know that if they want to be men, they can’t be lying like babies – and boy, do they want to be men! Now, if I can get them to quit crying every time they don’t understand something - that will be great. If anyone has experienced this and managed it successfully, I’d love to hear what you did, because it’s making me crazy!

Logic – By the grace of God, it’s coming along. A lot of it was just never having anyone explain the ‘whys’ about anything – so they had no base from which to launch in thinking things through. They are thinking now, and we really try to talk through what we do so they can understand. There are a lot of ‘systems’ in place so they can do a good job. (i.e. brushing teeth – start at the top left outside, count to ten, move the brush to the right, do it again, then move to the chewing surface, repeat, inside, repeat). We just look for different ways to fill in the holes left by their neglected past. The class I took for Cumulative Cognitive Deficit has helped as well.

Learning – We took the first year off from academic work to focus on letting them settle. They had never been settled before and it showed. They learned what a family was, how it operated, language, what we do, what we don’t do, how to take care of their room, their belongings, how to brush their teeth, how to shower, they learned that if they don’t feel well they need to tell me so I can do something about it. (That was a foreign concept for them – they had never had anyone care before!) They learned the routines of the family and experienced stability and want of nothing for the first time. We got neurotransmitter issues taken care of, as well as a boat load of dental work done (8 teeth removed and 8 cavities filled total) and vision assessed and managed (two pairs of glasses). They also learned how to pack an entire house in two weeks, and that when a family moves, they ALL GO TOGETHER!

Academics - While we were a little concerned that we were losing academic time (they were 8 when they came home, just repeating the 1st grade in Poland – and the classroom was a joke, so we were really starting at ground zero), the decision has really paid off. A year ago if you explained how to add 2+2 they couldn’t have done it again one minute later. Out academic year started in January, and they moved through the first level of Saxon math in less than one semester. At the current rate they will finish the second level and start the third before our year is over. Their handwriting is beautiful, their copy work attentive, and they will read to anyone who is willing to listen, including the dog.

Being Boys – at first they could each sit on their quilt and play near me (they couldn’t be trusted any further or with any other activity). Now they are free and responsible enough to make their own decisions. They play what they want and know what’s appropriate and what isn’t. (Wrestling is fine on the trampoline, not inside their bedroom closet!) They started swimming lessons this past Monday and love it. Both had a talking to after the first lesson (can you say, “over excited”?) but settled nicely. I spoke with their instructor and she understands them, and has them repeat back to her what she wants them to do. Both came up from the bottom of the pool with dive rings and are quite pleased with themselves. If they continue to follow instruction well, we’ll try soccer in the fall.

This adoption thing is not for the weak of heart. There have been many tears, much frustration, lots of questions, “What have we done?”, “Can we survive this?”, and “What about military school?” . But each frustration is met with a breakthrough, and every heart break is answered with the biggest hugs one could ever receive.

Our sons are home, and we are blessed indeed.

[Jenmullett]

I love the update threads! I am interested in hearing from others who haven't posted yet too. Anyone out there considering adopting from Poland? Any more updates from those home for awhile? Paperchasing updates?

We have done an initial trip to meet our little girl in southern Poland. We had three awesome days where we spent a lot of time with her. We eagerly await a court date to go back to get her forever. I don't know the exact status of our petition, but my understanding is that the lawyer has to finalize it all (with the adoption authority report and something from the embassy) and then file it with the court. Then it takes the judge some time to actually schedule a hearing. I am hopeful that it has all been filed and we are expecting to hear of a date to travel any day now.

I have a preliminary packing list together. There is a battle between wanting to have enough of the "right" things, but not wanting to overpack. I know we can buy diapers and other every day kind of things there, but I just want to be prepared!

Hope everyone is having a great spring...can you believe summer is around the corner?

[MrsC111007]

We are currently working out the provider agreement with our homestudy agency and our international agency. We had to slow our homestudy down to hopefully prevent it from expiring. I am hoping the provider agreement is done soon(!) so we get the list of paperwork requirements from the international agency. As it says in my signature (I think) we are hoping to submit the dossier at our 2-year wedding anniversary mark in November. Right now, we are sharing the news of our plans with family and friends (and answering a LOT of questions). I can't wait to get the balling rolling again!

[momraine]

Keep us updated!

[MenloAve]

I really enjoy the "how to" once you are home posts. Thank you. It is great to see how others are handling the issues you might face and see what is and isn't working. Thank you for posting the detailed info....

FYI - our papers are filed with the court and we are supposed to be getting a phone number to call our daughter (well soon-to-be daughter ) while we wait. Not so sure how much she will talk on the phone, but the fact the orphanage wants us to do it is neat.

[MenloAve]

We were asked to start calling M and talking to her. We were just given a phone number and a time without a date attached - so they didn't really have much time to prep her. We called and attempted in our best Polish to ask for M (or the orphanage director). --We got M!

It went so much better than expected. She actually spoke on the phone and we think she recognized our voices and got really happy and excited. We couldn't say more than hi, we love her, what is her name, where is she, and other questions like does she like bears, balls, etc? Our ds said hello as well. She was actually talking really well. I think they taught her bye, bye since she didn't know it when we were there last.

Waiting - waiting for the court date..... We aren't going anywhere this weekend. Instead we will be buying her bed, putting up wall stickers and some shelves for her new things Our pool opens as well - so we will be there. Anything to pass the time.

Keep your fingers crossed. There are two of us on this board waiting for our "return" court dates.

[LisArno]

My trio has been home just over 2 1/2 years.

My oldest daughter will be 13 in August, and she acts like it She used to be overly helpful and now she doesn't want to do for money what she used to do for free (if I have to do a chore for her, she pays me double of what she would earn because people with experience get higher wages). She does well in middle school and has made the 6th grade honor roll every quarter this year with very little extra help. There have been some struggles to get homework done, and she has deemed me a "teacher not a mom" for enforcing the get-your-homework-done rule. She aspires to be a nurse for infants or work with animals in some way.

My youngest daughter will be 7 in August and is just finishing first grade. She is a model student in school for behavior and work ethic. She had Reading Recovery (1:1 for 30 min/day) the first half of the school year, but is now reading 2nd grade level books. Outside of the seriousness of school, she's quite the entertainer. She thinks she wants to be a hair stylist, but she would do well on stage!

My son is 5 1/2 and will finally be old enough to start American kindergarten this fall. He's been in a German kindergarten (3-6 year olds) and if he were to stay in the German school system, they would recommend him for 1st grade this fall. He asks me questions about everything "because I need to learn how that works". He may end up being an environmental scientist since he's always telling me when I am wasting electricity, water, or gas (and I'm actually quite conservative!).

All three children learned English quickly and were not hesitant to speak it at school or at home with me. The younger two also do well with German and my oldest daughter is learning more now.

All three have been extremely healthy. The first dental bill was quite a shocker.

For those of you still waiting for a match, remember that good things come to those who wait!

[demeter]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this so please be patient with me. Congrats to everyone who is home with their children and congrats to those who are waiting to go or waiting to bring your little ones home. I have a little question that I hope someone can help me with. One of the agencies I talked with for adopting from Poland said that I would only be making one trip and not two to adopt my child and that the trip could be as long as six weeks because of the bonding period and waiting on the embassy paperwork. Is this not the norm? I am trying to get as much info as I can and any help someone can give me on this would be most helpful. Thanks

[momraine]

I did just one trip. We actually did an unofficial pre-trip to meet our son becuase his adoption got slowed down because he moved to another orphanage right in the middle of our process. So we went to go meet him and see if we could help get the paperwork moving. (it did help get the paperwork moving, once they saw us as real people who really wanted to adopt this child, neither orphanage had ever had a child adopted) Anyway, my husband was able to go home after three weeks. We did have a scare because the judge wanted him to see a psychologist to help him prepare for the adoption and this would have delayed us two to three more weeks. That would have been really hard as we had three other children at home. I had no option of going home and returning because we had him from the day we arrived in our coustody. (we had to take him back to the town where his old orphange was for bonding and such because his legal gardian was there.) Our trip home did get delayed by a day because the US embassy was not able to get the visa done in one day. We also had a scare because we were told his passport would take an additional two weeks, but then we found out that if we went to the region where he was registered (a very long trainride) they could do it in one day. It was one very, very long day and we had to wait for six hours in an office, but we got it!

[Mom2_4]

We've been home 5 years on June 17th. What a ride! I've seriously considered writing a book about the experiance now that things have settled down a little bit.

[momraine]

I would read it!