Really!!

Today I took Grace to the eye doctor and she needs new glasses.  Her farsightedness has actually improved a little, but her nearsightedness has gotten worse.  The doctor tells Grace he is writing her a prescription for new glasses.  She says "OK, but please don't give me blurry ones".  He sort of chuckled and said "No, I don't do that".  She replied "Yes, you did for my mama!!  I have looked through her glasses".  She was dead serious!!   Really!!

15 Second call

I  got a 30 second call from Grace today.   I answered the phone and heard "Hi, mama.  I am having lots and lots of fun.  I love you a lot.  Bye" Clunk..,she hung up.  I don't know if she thought she had gotten the answering machine or what.  Needless to say, I guess her fear of me "getting stolen" while she is at camp has past.   So all of your prayers are working!! 

Off To Camp!!

Grace left this morning for church camp!!  She will only be gone for three nights and I know she will have a great time.  She loves her Sunday school teacher and she knows a lot of the kids going.  Plus her papa will be there but with the boys!!  This is a rather large camp with about 600 kids there this week.  I think the age range is about 9 to 12 years old.  Our church is actually taking 150 kids.  Some of the kids go to our church and some of the kids are part of an at risk program in our community that our church sponsors.   So many kids from that program don't know how to swim, have never been to a camp or even out of our town for that matter.  What a wonderful experience for them!!

Please pray for Grace!!  She really, really wanted to go to camp but we could tell she was starting to worry last night.  Some old fears started creeping in.  When we prayed before bed she added a P.S. and said "please God don't let mama get stolen while I am gone".  She then made me promise that I would lock doors, shut the shutters, etc.,  Then this morning we loaded the car and she ran back in the house.  She came out about 5 minutes later and said "I am sorry but I had to write mama a letter".  Right before she got on the bus, she hugged me and said "this feels like I am leaving for Ukraine"  "No!! No!! No!! Sweet girl of mine, you will never have to leave for Ukraine again!!!"
 "will you miss me, mama?"  "Yes!!, Yes!! Yes!!  I will miss my daughter and her papa!!!"

It became official.., one year ago today

 

One year ago today, a judge and jury of two said "yes" to Alona Grace becoming our daughter.

What a change in one year!!  She has grown 3 1/2 inches,  speaks English really well and is becoming more secure in the fact that we love her and aren't going to reject/abandon her (which we thought was a given from day one).  

Then

Now

hat

Unforgettable day

May 26, 2011, I will never forget the day!!  It was the day we had been waiting for and dreaming about for so long.  The sight of our daughter barreling around the side of the orphanage yelling "mama, papa"!!  She literally jumped into our arms.

 This was not the only unforgettable moment of the day.  The real surprise came when we started dealing with the director.  One year later and I still find it hard to put into words.  Well, I actually did put our experience into words many times as I was writing this post but then decided to delete it.  The whole experience was just so wrong. 

Thank God that our daughter never has to walk through these gates again. 

One Year Ago Today!!

One year ago today we were at the SDA looking at the file and signing the paperwork to adopt our daughter.  After 15 months of waiting for this moment, we couldn't believe how fast and simple it was.  I think our entire appointment was only 20 minutes long.  We waited longer for our driver to pick us up from the apartment.   Fast forward one year and I am now trying to find 20 minutes without interruptions to write this blog.  I think Grace must say "mama" every five minutes..., but I wouldn't have it any other way.

One year ago yesterday

One year ago yesterday we received our SDA appointment.   Our dossier had been submitted on March 30th and almost a month had passed without an appointment.    We couldn't help but be a little nervous because the SDA was changing ministries and there were rumors of them shutting down temporarily.   Our facilitator kept telling us not to worry; but she had submitted another family's dossier on the same day as ours and they had received their SDA appointment 10 days later.   I knew God was in control of this situation and His timing would be perfect.., but I still checked my e-mails every 30 minutes.

Finally, early on the morning of April 27, 2011 we GOT IT!!   I literally had to stop the car when I got the call.  I started crying and shaking.  It is one of those "I will always remember where I was moments".   

P.S.  Not that my opinion matters, but I hate this new blogger layout.

Orthodontist fun

From the very beginning, we learned that Grace does better in new situations and with changes if we discuss it way in advance and take baby steps.  She goes into total fear mode if we spring things on her.  So we had been talking about her needing braces for several months now.  We made an appointment  with an orthodontist over Spring Break just for an estimate of the cost and a time frame of how long.  The whole time they took x-rays, pictures and measurements Grace was very cooperative but a little quiet.   Then the doctor sat down with us to go over a plan of treatment and we all lost our voices.

First, Grace will need a tongue thruster because even though she doesn't suck her thumb to fall asleep somehow before morning it will be in her mouth.  Next step, will be a metal expansion rod placed in the roof of her mouth.  Step number three will be a metal rod placed diagonally from top teeth to bottom teeth to move her jaw forward.  She then will have braces for approximately 2 years and then a retainer.  We knew she had an overbite, but never noticed that she has an open bite too.  If she puts a straw in her mouth, her front teeth are not even close to touching.  Most of her problems are from years of sucking her thumb.  The orthodontist said if she started now and had all of this done her jaw and everything will move relatively easily and quickly.  But if she waited until later in life it would require surgery and the breaking of bones.  We told Grace we wouldn't rush her but we probably needed to start this summer as it is going to require a lot of appointments for the first few apparatuses to be put in.

She never said a word in the orthodontist's office but started to cry the minute we got in the car.  Our little toughie who always acts like she doesn't care what others think said "I already talk funny and now people are really going to laugh when I talk with all of that in my mouth".  "I am going to look so ugly".

After she calmed down a little,  she said very quietly "mama, I am sorry I sucked my thumb..., I just couldn't go to sleep in Ukraine"  "I fall asleep now".  It sounds like such a simple thing for a child to do.., fall asleep; but not for these kiddos.  They have had to live on high alert for a long time and all the time.  When we first got Grace home, she would toss and turn forever before falling asleep.  Even after she had been asleep a couple of hours if I would tiptoe into her room to check on her she would bolt up and "say what do you want"  "what's wrong".  Ten months later, she falls asleep in about 5 minutes and I can walk in her room, kiss her little face and tell her I love her and she doesn't even stir.  What a blessing!!

We are still working on making all those orthodontists appointments.  She now is trying to convince us that her teeth are really straight and they do touch in the front.

So, so proud of her

Not quite 10 months ago, we were sitting in the orphanage director's office and listening to her describe our soon to be daughter.  Her words of warning to us were "she does not like school and she is not a good student".  She then ask if we were sure we wanted this child because there were many other "good girls/students" there waiting to be adopted.  We assured her that God had called us to Alona and no other child. 


Part of her statement was true, the little girl we brought home didn't like school and was very far behind academically (and still is).   We decided to home school her for 6 months and then in January enrolled her in school.  The school has been really great at working hard to get her caught up and Grace has been working so hard at school.   On top of the homework, she has had to compete in a Speech meet and a Science fair.  The momma in me wanted to scream "are you kidding?".  Do you know that this child only knew a handful of English words in June and didn't even know our alphabet.  Grace on the other hand never said "I can't do it".  Two weeks ago she got Honorable Mention at the Speech Meet and she/we were thrilled.  Last week we got her first report card and she made the A/B Honor Roll.  Today she got a blue ribbon on her Science Project and a medal for top in her grade in the Life Science category.  Next Friday she will represent her school and compete in the area meet.  After the awards ceremony, 3 of the judges came and told me what an awesome job she did of presenting her project and that she knew the answer to every question they asked her about her project.  All of this from a little girl that a few weeks ago had never heard of the word hypothesis, didn't have a clue what it meant and couldn't even pronounce it.

This makes me want to hop on a plane and go tell her director "you had already given up on this girl and look at her now".., 10 months later.  Yes, Grace is stubborn and can be so frustrating at times; but we love her so much and are so, so proud of her. 

I say all of this because there are so many orphans out there like our Grace, just waiting for a family and someone to say "I believe in you".   Even more importantly, they are waiting for someone to tell them about Christ and His love for them.

March 30th.., a special day

What a special day March 30th was and is.  We have been home 9 months today and one year ago today our adoption paperwork was submitted to the SDA.  

March 30, 2011 we were sitting on pins and needles all day waiting to hear from our facilitator.  We didn't get a text until 3p.m. our time -- 11p.m. Ukraine time.  It was short and sweet..., everything went fine, dossier accepted.

The funny thing is looking back I had the SDA pictured as this big building full of very stern looking government officials.  It was almost the exact opposite.  We went in a side door, up a narrow staircase and met with a casually dressed very young woman (maybe mid 20's).  She was very stern looking but our appointment was short and sweet.

Fast forward, March 30, 2012..., as I look back over the last nine months it has sort of been the same scenario.  I had it pictured one way and it has been the almost total opposite.., short and mostly sweet:)

Eyes open

Grace is going to freak out when she comes home today and sees the puppies eyes open.  She has been asking about 5 times a day "when are the eyes going to open?"  It is about the first question she asks when she wakes up and again when she gets into the car after school. 

I don't know what we would have done if Grace had not been a dog person.  She is about a nuts as I am over our puppies:)

How to explain..,Deer, Texas, Guns

I grew up and live in an area of Texas where deer and hunting is very common.   My family did not hunt but most people I knew did.  Nothing about it seemed abnormal.  Fast forward..,
For the past ten years, we have lived in a small subdivision close to town but still in the country. Hunting, of course, is not allowed in our subdivision; so we have a rather large population of deer around our house.  We do not feed them but they still have a lot to eat with all the natural foliage and landscape plants.  Grace's normal is to see 5 to 10 deer sleeping in our front yard.  We can ride bikes or walk our dogs within 10 feet of them and they just look at us.  So she thinks of them as pets and I have to admit sometimes I do too.  She does know people hunt them though because we live in an area of deer leases, deer processing plants, deer horns mounted in homes, etc.,  (Please don't write me and tell me we live in a state full of murders and/or barbarians)

Well, we had a very traumatic incident on the way to school this morning.  We drive on farm to market roads to get to her school.  We came over a hill and there was a police officer's car and a game warden's vehicle in the middle of the road with their lights flashing.  On the shoulder of the road was a deer that had evidently been hit by a car.  It was flailing around and trying to get up.  I saw right away that the officer had his gun out.  I drove quickly by, put my hand over Grace's face and said don't look back.  Of course, she pushes my hand away and looks just as the gun fires.  She totally loses it.  "Why did the police man shoot the deer"  "you lied to me and said police in America good", etc.  I tried explaining that the deer was hurt and suffering.  "Why didn't they take it to the hospital like we do Berkley & Sophie (our dogs)?"  The more I tried to explain, the angrier she got at me.  This is her typical behavior whenever she is fearful, angry, etc.  It is always my fault.  I finally quit trying to explain and said can we talk about something else.  "What?"  "Obedience!!"  If you would have listened and obeyed you wouldn't have seen that happen.  Granted I probably shouldn't have said don't look because human nature is to then look.  But I pointed out several times that I have told her to not do something or look at something and she does anyway and then is upset.  I told her my job as a parent is to protect her and I can not do it if she disobeys.  I reminded her that is why she is not allowed to watch the news or movies with certain ratings.  That is the reason I am constantly talking about strangers (because she doesn't know a person she considers a stranger).  I know I got a little away from the incident she witnessed; but hopefully a lesson was learned.  She told me she was sorry for disobeying and wish she had not looked; but she still thought the policeman was not a good person for shooting the deer. 

So happy it is March 2012

March 3, 2011...,we had a package delivered to Alona at her orphanage in Ukraine.  Our friend sent us some pictures of her, and although we were happy to have them, they broke our heart.  She had been waiting for us for almost 20 months and hadn't seen us in 14 months.  The best we could do is call her once a week, send her a package every few months, reassure her that we would try to adopt her as soon as they would let us, and pray, pray, pray!!  The funny thing is we had a conversation with her a few months after we were home and ask her if she ever doubted that we would come and adopt her.  She told us that she had been scared at first when they moved her to the big orphanage; but then God told her one night "not to worry, that we would come".  She said she never worried again.  I wish I had that child-like faith, instead of letting my adult analytical thinking (worrying) get in the way

Here is our Alona Grace March 2012..., almost always smiling except when we are having one of our moments.  I call them "moments" instead of "meltdowns" because she rebounds much quicker and also realizes that she is acting inappropriate.  Not to say we have an angel baby because we are still working on her need to have the last word and raising her voice.  She talks loud anyway, but when she acts up it goes up a decibel.  I have tried to always keep my voice calm and almost monotone; but one day I had enough and answered her just like she was talking.  She jumped about 6 inches off the ground and then started laughing..., "mom what are you doing?"  I honestly don't think she realizes how she sounds sometimes.  But as I said before "I am so happy it is March 2012".

We're back..,

We're back..,

I always said that I would not stop writing on this blog after we got home with our daughter.  I always disliked it when I would be following a blog and after they got home they would stop writing.  I always wondered what happened to them.  I am here to say I now understand.  My time is limited and when I have time sometimes I can not even put two somewhat sane thoughts together.  Having said all of that, here is an update of what is going on in our lives.

After homeschooling Grace for 6 months, she started school on January 2nd.  She is in 6th grade and is loving it.  I have to admit that she has totally surprised us.  She is really trying hard and seems to enjoy learning.  She is still behind in her education but the school has been very nice to work on adapting her work.  It helps that she is one of only 17 kids in her class.  I will write more on school another day. 

Grace is still swimming 3 times a week with her swim team.  She participated in two swim meets and really enjoyed them.  She did well in her first meet and not so well in her 2nd meet.  She said "she had no muscle and ran out of gas".  Her words not ours.  She is very competitive and doesn't like to lose.  This probably has a lot to do with her going from just dog paddling in August to being able to practice an hour at a time with her team.

The last update for today is that our dog had puppies last Friday.  Sophie (our dog) was pregnant when Grace was here for the first hosting trip, but she had to return to Ukraine before the babies were born.  She was sooo sad.  We promised her that if we were ever able to adopt her that we would let Sophie have another litter and she could keep ONE puppy for her very own.  Well Sophie had 7 puppies and Grace has been trying to figure out a way that we could keep them all or at least 2..., not happening.