[angelkisses0102]

So have you been home 2, 3, 4 or more years with your kiddos? Did you used to post all the time but now just lurk? If so, how about an update?!

I still lurk here but rarely post anymore...and I see some old-familiar-names doing the same things and I often wonder how they are doing.

So 'old-timers' how about an update on your kiddo or kiddo's? Include a little bit of your journey if you are so inclined as well. Oh and I can say old-timers because DD has been home just one month shy of 5 years and DS was home 3 years earlier this year . How did that happen?! I'll be back to post our update...it is now bedtime.

Karen (who really needs to update her signature line)

[mcanvasback]

Do I qualify?? Probably not, as we have been home only 10 months but I'll chime in anyway! (Can't believe it's only 10 months, it seems like longer.)

Bella is 18 1/2 months old, doing great, smart, happy, healthy and adorable, as are all the kids that have come home from Kyrgyzstan in the past year. Sadly, as this program was beginning to really take off, the dreaded "govt slowdown" has started. Hopefully this will be temporary.

What can I say about my adoption journey? Only that it involved much testing of faith, several leaps of faith, and was not unlike a boxing match - you get knocked down and you keep getting up. And when it's over, you have the prize! So... three agencies, three countries, four dossiers and a divorce later, (oh, yeah, let's not forget the nervous breakdown, Karen!)I have my prize, the love of my life, my little Isabella!

[aimeemk]

Okay,

Guilty! I think we may count. Rheagan has been home for 2yrs and a couple of months. I have become more of a lurker.

Let's see- Rheagan - I can not say enough about her. She is a complete joy! Don't get me wrong she can be a real toot! She is thriving. She attends preschool on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays and loves school. She will be starting Pre-K at the same school in a month. She turned 3 on May 1st and had a gym birthday. She is learning to read. : ) We have had a couple of behavioral issues but nothing major. We just feel blessed to be her parents. Our process was trying and scary!

We were planning another adoption. But kind of got stuck in the process and could not decide on an agency and we really want to go back to the same region. We want to wait a little longer and see how things play out in Russia. (I KNOW!!!) Anyhow, Rheagan will become a BIG sister in December. Who'd of thunk it after 8yrs of infertility

We know that God meant Rheagan to be ours and he lead us to her. It almost scares me how all the pieces had to be put together and how they fell into place. Anyways, I think about that a lot! Well I have not posted pics in awhile so thought I would try.

1st will be referral and then more updated photos! Well thanks for listening. Now back to your regular scheduled program!!!

[aimeemk]

one more! Can't help it!!
Thanks for letting me share!!

I can not wait to see other updates!

[aimeemk]

Wow! Bella is so beautiful and looks like she is doing great!

[DelMarie]

We've been home exactly two years (as of June 1st) with Veronika. We started our process in Dec. 2003 and brought her home June 1st 2005 when she was 16 months old. Veronika is now 3 years and 4 months.

She is doing really well. We too have had some minor behavioral problems, shes' never been a good sleeper but we feel very blessed to have her in our family.
She is very tall for her age (40 inches) a little on the thin side still but she has very long legs. She is smart and independent (stubbornly so at times!). She tends to be slightly hyperactive but I don't know if this is truly hyperactivity or just a child with LOTS of energy.

I often think about Russia and how much I would LOVE for Veronika to have a sibling of the same heritage but don't honestly feel that we could ever afford to adopt again. We were 39 years old when we completed the adoption and we would still like to be able to save for her college and our pension-we pretty much exhausted all our savings on fertility treatments and the adoption.

[Amysue1112]

We have been home 1 yr as of June 2nd. Our process was CRAZY including changing regions, losing a referral the day we were to meet her, a hod up in court (release letter) that we were not sure was going to come...but now, 1 yr later, it is such a distant memory. Now all that is there is the beautiful memories of our first real days with our little girl, of her amazing birth country, and of all the wonderful people we met along the way.

Hannah will be 2 in a few weeks, and she is just amazing! Healthy, happy, funny and precious! She talks for than any of the kiddos her age..I think that it may have to do that her mama loves to talk too! HA!

Here are a few pictures from her Homecoming Day last weekend..

[momraine]

I don't know if this board was here when I adopted from Russia. It was 7 years ago tomorow that we came home with our daughter. She has been a total joy. I have three boys and there is just something about that little girl! She is amazing to me. She was born missing parts of both legs but now is a dancer. She is 7 now, soon to be 8. This past year, when we took her in to sign up for dance classes for the new year, she was still six, but they put her in the dance class with the kids ages 11-14! She is that good, even with two prosthetic legs. She also did some extra private lessons and did a solo without her prosthesis that made me cry! She has been such a blessing that a year and a half ago we decided to adopt again. We lost a refferal in the US and then one in Russia, and then were told about a boy in Poland, he is now our son. DH says our family is complete. I am so blessed. It seems like only yesterday I was in Russia, it was a very difficult journy, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong and the process ended up taking two years, but it was worth it! I don't have a picture of her shrunk down, but she is the only girl in my avatar photo!

[Katie63011]

We adopted our son in 2003 and our daughter in 2005. Son's adoption was relatively easy but my daughter's was really hard - almost 2 years in process and we lost a referral after our first trip. We now know why, we wouldn't have our daughter if it had happened any other way.

Both kids are doing great. My daughter has had a harder adjustment, probably due to being 6 mos older than my sonw as when she got home. I look at the two of them and think that we are the luckiest parents alive!

Our son is now 4 and and our daughter 2.5. We are in process for #3, so one more to come!

[kdk545]

We adopted two children at the same time 2 years ago August 2005. (I too have become mostly a lurker now.) We adopted them when they both had just turned 1 and 2 years old. Next week our son is turning 4, and in August our daughter turns 3.

It has been wonderful! We all (them with us and us with them) attached and bonded wonderfully. In fact, it was love at first site for both as soon as we met them.

If there have been any "problems" (other than typical toddler behavior!) its that my daughter has suffered from insecure attachment (very shy and clings to me for the first hour in most social situations) and my son will sometimes tell us he loves us 50 times a day! They both need and want lots of love and affection and boy do they get A LOT!

What might be intersting in our story is that we had gotten a few referrals, which we had to turn down for medical and other reasons. And then we got offered a chance to go on a blind referral. We turned that down too, not feeling comfortable going blind. Well, 2 months later we got another call for a blind referral and something in my gut told me to just GO and meet these children they had for us. My husband was shocked with my change of feeling about going blind, but I just had an inkling it was going to be all OK.....and it WAS! These children were meant to be ours! I LOVE being their mommy!

[justmp]

We just celebrated four years since DD joined our family from St. Petersburg. She came home at 15 months of age after only a seven month adoption process and has been a joy and a delight! She came home 50th percentile for height and weight and only needed to learn English to be completely on target developmentally, which she did! She is happy and healthy and can't wit to start kindergarten this fall.

DS is 2 3/4 and will be home 2 years in July. His adoption was a little rockier with all of the accreditation and database issues and changes, but his process still only took 9 months start to finish. He was very malnourished when he came home and suffered from severe ear infections. It only took us about 6 months to get him to the 45th percentile on height and weight, and after we got past those initial ear infections (tubes) he has been very healthy and happy. His speech is severely delayed at this point, but a sedated hearing test shows that he hears just fine now and a neurologist was very surprised at how smart and charming he is and couldn't attribute his speech delays to anything more than a rough first year of life that was plagued by ear infections.

We are incredibly blessed with these two amazing kiddos!

[58grace]

I brought Laina home in Dec of 05 when she was 11 months old. She has adjusted very well and is the love of my life. So much personality, she cracks me up all the time. She is doing very well in pre-school and is now 2.5. She loves to watch her "baby show" - the video from the referral. She is a bit petite, but growing well. I am single mom but she gets lots of love and attention from her aunts, uncles, cousins and grandpa.

My journey took about 2 yrs, but 1 year spent waiting for divorce. I had 2 referrals before Laina, that didn't work out. But I know it was meant to be. Everyone says she even looks like our family.

Alot of people want to ask me about Russia adoption and I don't know whether or not to recommend it given the new laws, slowdowns, etc. Overall my own process was fairly smooth, just seemed very long!

Here is a picture of the two of us from her announcement about 3 weeks after we got home. The other two are recent. A colleague of mine in Russia sent her a whole box of beautiful Russian toys.

I wish everyone luck in their process. It is so worth it and you forget all the agony once you are home.

[angelkisses0102]

YAY! So great to see so many post here already.

We adopted DD at age 10 months in July 2002, ah the good old days where our process took all of 6 months. She had spent her life in a Siberian hospital (hellhole) while in Russia due to some health conditions. Once she was home about 6 weeks, she had to have major kidney/bladder surgery. She was a tiny baby girl who was wearing 3/6 month size clothes on her first birthday. She had the perfect transition and attached wonderfully...and she has been mainly healthy since she came home. She still has one lingering issue with nighttime potty training that is most likely related to her initial surgery...we will be seeing the pedi urologist this summer about that.

She will be 6 (OMG) in August and just completed Kindergarten and did very well academically. She did struggle a bit socially and emotionally since she was such a young Kindergartener. Overall she is a very happy little girl.

The hard part now. My 'poster child' for the perfect transition is now gone. Last summer we saw a couple of signs that things may be bothering her regarding her 1st 10 months of life. Then at the end of the year she had a couple of triggers which imapcted her very deeply. Finally one of her friends and classmates died early this year and she is now battling PTSD full force. We fully believe that the battle we fought to heal DS did not allow us to realize that DD was struggling as there were some subtle signs all along. DD has issues with food and drink...due to being malnourished. She has issues with abandonment as well and when these issues bubble up or get triggered...it truly breaks our hearts. Our little girl's brain is imprinted forever with the memories of being hungry, thirsty, and being alone. We are working to get her through this...and while I know it is great she can express this to us...it does not make it any easier to see her suffering so. She bottles everything within herself and will not talk about it until she is full a rage and explodes...at me. It is getting better...but since we are so new to her struggles...the triggers are so unknown. Perfect example, the kids went to Sea World for 2 nights last week with her grandparents...we have been to Sea World before, she has spent the night with them before...she loves Sea World so much she even wants to be a marine Biologist. This should have been a happy few days and it was until she came home and fell apart.

All that being said...she is a wonderful little girl who is super smart, still very tiny, and has the most engaging and pleasant personality. She is on the border of being a 'tween'...can you say Hannah Montana, The Cheetah Girls, Libby Lu and all that fun stuff.

I'll post pictures from home...hopefully tonight.
Karen

[momraine]

My daughter has some of those same issues. She doens't blow up so much as close down. She needs constand reassurance about us not leaving. She does keep a bottle of water in room (we refill it as need be) and she keeps sealed snacks in her room, in her nightstand drawer. That solves any worries about food and drink. She does have issues with me and her fear of me leaving, they were made worse when she got a little brother and I had to be gone for six weeks to get him. That was probably not the right thing to do for her, but she is getting over it and we are spending lots of time together. Oh and we are totally into cheetah girls here!

[angelkisses0102]

Oh my little guy...anyone who has been here since 2004 knows his story but a very brief recap for anyone who doesn't know. DS was the polar opposite of DD...

DS was as close to a surprise adoption as they come...start to finish was less than 4 months. He came home from a great region and super orphanage before he was 8.5 months old. He was described as a happy and healthy skinny low risk baby by a top IA doctor. The only thing on target was the skinny...and he still is. DS's biggest struggle his first 30 months home was being attachment disordered...the first 11 months was a living nightmare...he refused to even go to his daddy. He didn't sleep through the night until he had been home 23 months, initially being up 8 to 10 times per night. He had giardia, had a hearing loss, a rare eye condition in which the kids are typically legally blind, he was always sick and we were constantly at the doctors, was hospitalized (PICU no less) for a week just 10 days after coming home. He was non-verbal and developmentally delayed. You get the picture...not a happy or healthy blond haired blue-eyed baby boy. Add is post adoption depression for mom and we were all a mess.

Today, OMG he is a different child. He has healed from his attachment and has had no regressions since September and has grown leaps and bounds in secure attachment. He finally trusts we too are not going to abandon him like his firstmom did at 1 month old and like his caretakers did at 8 months old. With tubes twice, he now hears with only a minimul hearing loss, his eyesight is functional in a normal size room but may have issues once he starts learning to read and he can not see in underlit or dark rooms, with speech therapy he is now quite verbal. After having his tonsils and adenoids out, he now sleeps good...he had had sleep apnea. It took us lots of hard work and sacrafice as well as basically changing our entire world for him...but it was so worth it.

He does still have some moderate SID/SPD issues and we are working on getting him an IEP for preschool and possibly into an 'exceptional child' program that will address his issues in a much smaller classroom size setting and hopefully he will be able to attend a regular Kindergarten class shortly after he turns 6...we have already decided to hold him back a year.

He just recently started pre-school and is doing GREAT! This in itself is amazing as we have tried several times and it failed terribly. He did great on the above mentioned Sea World trip, he showed no anger at me...a first. He will be 4 in a month...he is still a long lean guy. And he is so loving and affectionate...he will always be my baby boy.

While we never intended to adopt a special needs child, we know we are so, so blessed to have been given the gift of raising this most special child. We have learned so much from him...what is truly important in this world. And our experiences with him are now so beneficial to our precious little girl.