Lots going on

Hmmm....let's see. Thanksgiving and Christmas went great. I had Thanksgiving at home for the first time ever. It was just us with two of our nieces. Christmas went better than expected. January was a flurry of activity. I took Grace to see the doctor in November over concerns with her swaying all the time. I suspected hyperactivity, but I didn't want to suggest it yet. The doctor was not very nice. He basically laughed at us and told me that sometimes mothers see problems where problems don't exist. I asked for a recommendation for an OT, and istead he gave me a recommendation for a neurologist so I will "see that nothing's wrong". Well...so her appointment was on January 10. The neurologist listened to my concerns, then said that Grace has sensory processing disorder. (SPD) Since then I've learned that she is a sensory seeker. She also told me that Grace has all the facial features of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Boy, was I shocked.

Since then it's been a whirlwind trying to get her the services she needs. The neurologist did prescribe OT and PT. We are having a lot of fun trying to figure out what her sensory diet is. This includes activities that she can do that will allow her to settle down and concentrate in class, as well as activities that will allow her to participate in story time appropriately. It will take some time working with the OT before we find that magic combination. My only regret is that we had to leave our doctor after all this time. He was there for us when we received word that we could not have children. He worked with us through our depression. He was ecstatic with us when we decided to adopt. He was so excited to help us fill out all our medical forms. He almost cried when we brought our daughter home and had her first appointment. He's really enjoyed seeing her grow and develop. Unfortunately, he's missed several big flags, and I've just had enough.

Whenever I would bring her in I would mention how gassy she was and expressed concern how that wasn't normal. He just kept insisting that she was just gassy. Fast forward a bit, and we learn that it was lactose that was doing it. We had a similar battle just recently and discovered all dairy and soy causes issues, too, but I had to do all my own detective work to figure that out. I have been concerned about her size. She is very small for her age. She will be five in a couple days, yet some two and a half year olds are bigger than she is. Her two year old cousin wears the same size pants! However, I was met with "she's just petite".

The diagnosis of FAS totally explains her size. It also explains her digestive issues, as I later discovered that a lot of children with FAS tend to be intolerant to several foods. It also explains the SPD. When I confronted our doctor with the evidence of FAS, he ignored it and said she just looks Russian. I've had enough. He expressed concern over "labeling" her too early because it will follow her the rest of her life. However, we have to acknowledge what's before our eyes. There are certain behaviors and habits that need to be addressed if she is to become a well-functioning student, and ignoring the FAS diagnosis could prevent her from getting the help she needs.

Currently, she is working with an OT to help us figure out what she can do to settle her system. We are also seeing a PT to help with gross motor issues. We are waiting to make an appointment with a developmental/behavioral pediatrician so we can confirm if some of the other behaviors are FAS related or if there is additional ADHD to work with also.

All in all, we are having a busy Winter/Spring. Hoping to write more later.

Oh, my how time flies!

Well, I had a very busy summer and had no time for updates. I guess since I starte posting on Facebook, I kind of forgot about my blog! So....the last post I mentioned that we've thought about adopting again. We went to the seminar and attended one meeting about adopting from Foster Care, and then put it aside for the time being. Towards the end of May, I went to the doctor because my shoulder had been bothering me for about 9 months, and I had been taking some pain medicine, but it wasn't really getting any better. After an MRI, it was declared that I had a torn tendon! So, off to the orthopedic doctor I went! It was determined that I would need surgery to repair the tear, which was 3/4 torn through. I took the month of July to get ready. I cleaned the house, purchased frozen meals, arranged for help the first week after surgery, and prepared my daughter for the fact that mommy would be in a sling for four weeks and won't be able to do a lot of things. The big day came on August 1. Surgery went well. My month in the sling went pretty fast, although learning how to do everything left handed was fun. I am now almost nine weeks post-op and have been attending physical therapy now for about six weeks. I have attended physical therapy for three days a week. Just this week, the PT said I would no longer need to be stretched out because my range of motion is normal, and I would only need to come and do my exercises. He also sent a request to the doctor stating that I would only need four more weeks of therapy. However, when I saw the doctor today, he said that I only need about three weeks of therapy and only once a week! Since the PT gave me exercises to do at home, there's no need to go to the therapist three times a week, when I can do many of the exercises at home. YAY!

So, I'm back to "normal" in some ways. I just have to build up my strength. My right arm is still very weak, and I still have trouble reaching behind me, but all other motions are back to normal. I think it was wise to focus on preparing the house for the surgery and also to keep a low profile after the surgery. Now, we can concentrate on our decision to adopt again!

Basically, we can't afford another international adoption. Even domestic adoptions are out of reach. I know there are grant programs and such, but I'm not sure that's where God is leading us this time. We have been considering adopting from foster care. We have some friends that have adopted through foster care, and we will schedule some meetings with them to kind of feel out the process and ask some questions. We will be taking our time, however, and it might be another two years before we finally have a child. We do need about 33 credits of PRIDE training through DCFS, and they have to be taken in consecutive weeks, so about 9 weeks or so. Not sure yet on the details. So, I looked at the schedule for DCFS training in our area, and most sessions in our area are done already. That's ok because we have to have a completed homestudy before we can begin the program. Perhaps by the time we get the homestudy done, it will be a new year, and we can start the program then. Like I said, we're not in a huge hurry, but we've both agreed that we can start, so it's just a question of finding the right agency and scheduling the home study.

So, now about Grace. She loved her preschool year, and she graduated in May. We had a fairly good summer. The weather wasn't great, and I spent a lot of time preparing for the surgery, but we did get to the zoo a few times and she was able to go to parks and play outside and such. We also went to Indiana to visit family a few times. August was hard. After the surgery, I was in a very bulky sling that attached my arm to my side so I couldn't move my shoulder. No driving and no lifting for me. I tried to take her to the park a few times. Mostly, though, we stayed around the house. She weathered the time well, though. She's very independant, and she was able to dress herself, and take herself to the potty. She was very willing to help me in any way she could, and she very sweetly prayed for me every night. I owe my quick recovery to her prayers.

Well, I must stop for now. Time to make dinner! I'll try to update more frequently, especially as we start the paper trail for another adoption!

Spring? And other news...

Well, spring is supposed to be here, but it's so cold it feels more like fall. Grace is doing great in school and every day she has to sign herself in. She's doing great writing her letters. G, A, C, E are all recognizable, but her R looks like an A. I think she's doing a fantastic job, and I can really see the progress from January until now. We are really looking forward to celebrating Easter. Today is Good Friday, and Grace and I are leaving this afternoon to visit with my mom. We will be coloring Easter Eggs. My nephew, Raymond will be there also. Raymond loves to be with Grace. He is so sweet. He's 9 and he is awesome with Grace, very patient and kind. After we visit with my mom and color eggs, I'll head over to my Mother-in-law's place where we will color eggs with her cousins on Daddy's side-Kiyana, Monique, and Sarina. On Saturday, we celebrate Easter with my mom. We'll arrive at around 11 and then eat lunch around 1 pm. After lunch my mom is going to hide the eggs (depending on the weather...if the weather is bad, the eggs will be hiden already...if the weather is good my mom thought of taking the eggs to a park to hide them). Anyway, Raymond and Grace will look for eggs. On Sunday we'll celebrate with Brian's family. We will go to the 9:30 service at Bethel in Crown Point, then go back to the house for the lunch. My MIL is thinking about having the girls search for some eggs on Saturday morning before we leave for my mom's but I don't know if that will work.

Well, so on to the other news.....

Earlier this month, I saw an ad for an adoption seminar coming up in our area. I signed us up for it and then realized that our own pastor at Calvary in Oak Park is going to be the keynote speaker. I am looking forward to this seminar. So, as I was thinking about it, I realized that this seminar is worth DCFS credits. Probably not much-like 5 or something, but I realized that I don't think we can keep those credits for very long. I thought that if we could start a home study we could use those points. I approached the subject with Brian and he agreed. I've contacted Adoptuskids.org, and they've passed our information along to an agency in Coook county that specializes in adopting from foster care, which is what we are interested in. So, although we haven't started the home study quite yet, I guess you could say that we've started the adoption process once again! It will be interesting to see what this process is like compared to the first one. I hope we are more prepared for the roller-coaster ride! Wish us luck. I'll probably be posting more often with all our frustrations and triumphs.

BLIZZARD 2011

Well, we survived the big blizzard. We all had fun waking up this morning and seeing all the snow. Looking out our back door, snow was piled up halfway up our door, so we couldn't get out our back door. For our front door, the snow blew across to our neighbors, so our stairs were clear. However, my husband never put glass in our storm door, so snow had blown in between. The outside of our front door was covered in snow, and I wasn't able to get it closed again once I opened it to clear the snow. There was snow wedged in the little cracks, and we had to clear it in order to shut the door. Our cars cannot be moved. We are in a townhouse, and we have 30 parking spots along a busy street. Not only do we have about 20 inches behind our cars, but the plows also pushed all the snow off the main road right along our parking area. We tried to call plows to move the snow, but all of them said that they couldn't even get in to begin to plow. Others said they can't do it because there is so much snow that they would need a dump truck to move the snow-which they didn't have access to. All 30 of us are going to try to call the village public works tomorrow and complain because the village snow plows helped push that snow behind our cars and therefor they should be responsible for helping us remove it.

We did venture out in the late morning and early afternoon. We shoveled the sidewalks. Well, our neighbors shoveled the sidewalk, I just did a little bit by our stairs. The snow piles were so high from shoveling we were able to create an area for the kids to sled. It was actually pretty fun. Later in the afternoon while Grace was taking a nap, I braved the snow to go out and clear some of the snow off my car. I had a really hard time removing the snow around my car just to get to the doors. I then used my shovel to remove the snow from the top of my car. At least when the sub-zero temps fall tonight, there's no snow on the car to freeze to it! I just can't believe how much snow is behind our cars! I don't know who we are going to end up getting to remove the snow, but I pray it's tomorrow. Here's another video to show the snow piled up behind the cars.

More photos from Disney

Grace with Belle. All these characters were very good and so very friendly! Grace is just absolutely in love with Princesses.

Ariel was really cute. She was calling the kids little fish, and asked Grace if she'd seen Flounder.

Snow White gave her a big kiss on the cheek and left lipstick lips. We showed Grace in the mirror, and she didn't want to wipe it off. Belle left lipstick on the other cheek. It was really cute.

Grace wanted to wear her Sleeping Beauty dress on this day, but it's very long on her and wouldn't have fit. Most of her princess dresses we got from church-sponsored resales, and the dresses were "Halloween" costumes purchased for very cheap-but they are authentic Disney dresses.

I'm usually the one behind the camera, and we therefore have very few pictures of Grace and I together. However, for this trip Brian insisted on taking the pictures. I was a little thankful because I really was able to enjoy myself without having the camera stuck up to my face the whole time. He did a pretty good job with the photos. He said that perhaps he'd like to get into photography as a hobby himself.

Grace did such a good job this trip. We didn't bring a stroller because she doesn't usually like to use one anyway. She actually did great. I think it was the fourth day before she started complaining that her feet hurt. She hardly ever asked us to carry her, and she was in such a good mood the whole week.

Since we've been home, she's talked non-stop about the characters we saw. I've shown her the DVD I made of all the videos we took, and she was so thrilled. She loves to watch herself on the movie, and she really enjoys watching all the shows we saw. We were allowed to videorecord whole performances. The only requirement was not to use flash or an extra light. As most performances were well-lit, the video turned out great. She can watch all the shows to her heart's content!

I also was able to get our photos printed. I made extra copies for Grace, and I'm helping her make her very own scrapbook. I purchased a scrapbook kit from Disney, and I'm currently working on it.

I started having the characters signing pieces of fabrich, which I am going to use to make an autograph quilt for Grace. Brian wanted to have signatures in a book also, so I purchased a small autograph book for the characters to sign also. She will have lots of things to remember her trip. I'm actually looking forward to another trip-and to see if we can save even more money than we did this time!

I'll post photos of the autograph quilt once it's finished. I have the first row complete. I have ten large 12*12 squares with the signatures on them. I then take 6*6 squares of patterned fabric to match the signatures (so Mickey Mouse fabric will go with the large piece that has Mickey's signature). I also have white squares with iron-on pictures. I will also be using iron-on photos of Grace from the trip, too. It sounds ambitious, but I did a lot of the cutting and iron-ons before our trip, I just need to sew them together and arrange the fabric.

On another note, I'm currently planning Grace's birthday party. For the first time, I'm planning on inviting her friends for a children's party. Grace wants a Princess party, so I am going to have the girls be Princesses and the boys be Knights. I'm a little nervous and a little excited at the same time because I've never planned a children's party before.

Vacation!!!

Well, Brian came home from the hospital on January 3 feeling great. All the phlegm was out of his lungs, and he was ready to go back to work! As a matter of fact, he went to work that afternnon after enjoying lunch with us.

On Saturday the 8 we left for our vacation. The traveling went really well, and Grace loved the airplane. We had six full days to visit Disney, and a 5 day park pass. On Saturday we arrived late so we just had dinner at our hotel. On Sunday we went to Epcot. There were a lot more live shows than I expected, and Grace loved them all. I wish we had seen more live performances at the Country pavilions, but we did see a couple.

On Monday it was rainy all day, and instead of wasting the rainy day at a park, we went to Downtown Disney for some window shopping. There was a huge Disney store, and Legoland. We had a nice day despite the weather.

On Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios. Again, I was surprised at the amount of live shows there were. Grace saw a lot of characters. She loved getting their signatures and sitting for pictures.

Wednesday was Animal Kingdom, and it was the coldest day there. I don't think it got to 50 degrees. In the morning, Grace had to wear gloves to keep her hands warm! We had fun, though, between seeing the characters and going on Safari.

Thursday and Friday we went to Magic Kingdom. I figured that Grace would prefer this park more than the others, and I was right. Not only did it have some nice shows, but it also had rides that she could go on, and Meet-and-Greets with the princesses, the fairies, Rapunzel, and Tiana. On Thursday we stayed to see the Lights parade, which was nice. We also saw the fireworks show. It was really cool. Grace was so tired she fell asleep in my arms while we were waiting for our bus to take us back to the hotel. Speaking of being tired-Grace did really well, and she didn't have a nap the whole week. We didn't feel like hauling her all the way to the hotel for a nap and knew that she would probably be too excited to sleep! She did really well, and didn't get cranky-just a little more touchy.

On Friday we had breakfast at the castle with Cinderella and the other Princesses. She had such a great time. I am so glad we were able to allow her to go to this. She did not want to come home on Saturday. However, the vacation had to end sometime. She was very disappointed and sad to go home. She wants to return to Disney again-she has asked about it almost every day since we came home.

Christmas came and went...

Wow, Christmas went by so fast! On Christmas Eve, Brian had the day off, so we celebrated with just us. Grace doesn't know any better, so we just said St. Nick came a day early. We slept in and then all came downstairs together, where we video taped and photographed Grace opening her presents. I think the one on the bottom says it all. She recieved a doll house with accessories and a whole bunch of Disney Princess stuff which we will be using on our trip to Florida on Saturday.

After we opened presents, we had pancakes and then just spent the rest of the day relaxing. Later in the evening we left for Indiana to spend Christmas with our families. On Christmas morning after everyone had eaten and was dressed, all the kids sat very patiently for a photo of all the Reynolds girls. Yes, the Reynolds have all girls. We then allowed the kids to open all their gifts, and it was a nice time. Grace received some clothes and ZuZu pets. They're interesting little things. Later in the afternoon, cousins came over and we all had lunch together. It was a very nice, relaxing day.

On Sunday we were going to go to church, but Grace had a really stuffy nose and was coughing a bit so we decided not to go. Around noon or so we went to my brother's house where we exchanged gifts and had lunch. It was much less stressful than it usually is, and we had a great time.

Now-on to other news. The day Brian was supposed to return to work (that would be the 27th), he wasn't feeling well. We took him to Immediate care, and they sent us to ER. He had pneumonia. 70 percent of his lungs were full. Unfortunately, he was there an entire week, so Grace and I spent New Years by ourselves. He was released on January 3rd and immediately went to work. He had to get in a bit of work because we are leaving for vacation soon and we needed some income to pay the bills that will come in. Anyway, he is doing well and has instructions to do his therapy even when he doesn't feel like it. So far this week, I think he's only missed twice. I'm a little nervous about the vacation. Perhaps I can convince him to start the antibiotics once we return. Especially if they cause digestion issues, we don't want to be walking around Disney and get him dehydrated again. Well, I'll just see what happens. We are super excited about our trip. We leave for Disney on the 8th and will return on the 15th. We don't plan on taking a laptop with us, so we won't have internet access. We plan on having a great time, however.

Cold, cold, cold!

Well, as you can see by the title, it is COLD! I am not used to weather this cold in December! Right now, it is about 10 degrees outside! Yikes! While I am tempted to hole up inside the house and stay warm, I know I am going to go crazy in the house. So-I am venturing out to the Women's Bible Study at our church this morning. I know I will enjoy getting out of the house for a while, and Grace loves to go to her "Little Lamb's" class. There's a girl in her class, I. I. is Grace's "Best friend". Last Sunday, I gave her a drawing. It was so cute. I am hoping to have I and her sister N over for a play date during the Christmas break.
Grace has been continuing to do well in School. A couple weeks ago we had Parent Teacher conferences. The teachers said that she is doing great, and that a lot of points on her Progress report that needed work no longer need work. Apparently, they assess the students shortly after school starts, but by the time the parents get the report several more weeks have passed. So, her "Needs work" areas are much less. The teachers did say that at first the other children tended to treat her like a baby (because of her size) and tried to take things away from her. However, now they realize that she can't be taken advantage of and she stands up for herself. This is a relief for me because I wanted to make sure that she didn't become a push-over.
Academically, she's doing well, too. The teachers are impressed with her math skills, and they are also surprised that she knows all her letters. One activity is an outline of a letter, say the letter N. Inside the N are other letters, like M, O, and S with some N's. They children have to use a Bingo marker to find the N's. Grace is always the first done, and she always gets all the letters correct. I explained to the teachers that she knew her alphabet by the time she was 2 1/2. All in all, the conference went well. I decided after the conference not to petition the school district for her to be tested for speech. I think that being around children her own age has really helped. She speaks more clearly, and I think that I will wait until Spring when I would need to register her for Pre-K. If at that time I am still concerned about her speech, then I will consider the school district again.
She continues to love going to dance class. I had to buy her some long-sleeved leotards because the little sleevless ones left her too cold.
Grace absolutely loves the Christmas season. Right around Thanksgiving when all the trees came out, she would just love to walk around the stores and look at the trees. We pulled our tree out and she had so much fun putting the ornaments on it. I also took out her little tree and let her decorate it with all of her little ornaments. I also bought an ornament from the Russian web site and let her put it on our tree. From that same web site I got a little Matryoska doll. It shows the life of Jesus on each of the little pieces. The largest on shows the Nativity, the next shows Jesus and the Triumphal entry, the next is Jesus on the cross, and the last tiny one shows Jesus rising into heaven. The biggest one is only like an inch and a half tall, so this set is really little. However, I always try to get her things from Russia that have a spiritual meaning. It's very beautifully done, and very well-painted.
I am really excited for this Christmas holiday. It is going to be much simpler than other years. Usually, we have a meal with my MIL's family on Christmas Eve, then on Christmas day have a meal with my FIL's family. My MIL makes both meals and it is very stressful for her to have two large meals back-to-back, and it is always frustrating for me, because I have squeeze in time with my family. So, my SIL and I decided that instead of trying to squeeze in an hour with my family, we would celebrate Christmas the day after or the Saturday after. This year, since Christmas is on Saturday, we'd have my family meal on Sunday. This relieved a lot of stress. My MIL also decided (after me mentioning it for several years) that it's not fair that she has to have two seperate meals for the two sides of the family. Although members of my FIL's family don't like my MIL's family, I told my MIL that she should host one meal, and if people choose not to come, that's their issue, not hers. She finally decided to have one meal...but no one can come on Christmas day-so....we get Christmas just with our immediate family on Christmas day and a couple weeks after Christmas we'll have a meal with cousins. AHHHHH!!!! Imagine-Christmas with just the parents and siblings! In the 17 years I've known my husband, that has NEVER happened. I am so excited about this Christmas.
Grace visited with St. Nick and told him she wanted a doll. We had already purchased her a dollhouse. The dollhouse will be from St. Nick. We've decided that instead of buying many gifts from Santa and just a few from parents, that only one would be from St. Nick. We don't want her to have the "gimmies". The trick is keeping the gifts hidden. She's still a little bit naive because she's been in our room several times and seen the gifts but she hasn't asked any questions and she hasn't been tempted to try to play with them. We know have the gifts under the tree, and not once has she asked to open them. Don't know if that will work next year.

Two Years Ago Today!

Today marks our two year anniversary! Time truly is flying by. Grace has changed so much in the two years we've had her home. Some things that have changed since last October- 1) completely potty trained. 2) knows all her colors and all her letters. 3) speech is coming along very nicely. We can pretty much understand everything she says. Of course, not all her words are pronounced all that clearly, but she's able to communicate quite nicely. 4) she is now over 20 pounds!!!! Huge success there. 5) She has grown another 6 inches. She is now up to 35 inches and 22 pounds. She wears 4t tops and 2t bottoms. 7) her gross motor skills have greatly improved.

She is very smart and very active. Right now we are working on memory verses for the Awana Cubbie year. Not only will she say the verse (I only give her the first word, and she says the whole verse)-she will remember all the previous verses! So far, she knows 8 verses. I don't make her memorize the chapter or book, though. I'm actually just happy she can say the verses.

This year for "Family Day" or "Gotcha Day", we went to the Morton Arboretum. It was a great day to be together. Although it was October, we actually had 80 degree weather. The trees are starting to turn, and it was great just to walk together, see the different trees turning colors and see the many plants still blooming. We walked in the Children's Garden, where Grace was able to do some crafts and paint a small pumpkin. We walked around one of the paths that goes around the lake and saw all the scarecrows the local Girl Scouts made. They were cute. Grace would run up to each one and say how pretty it was. Then she'd say "What's her name?" Each one was given a name by the troop girls that made her. She had a great time.

One thing I would like to say is that I finally found more information about a diagnoses that was in her medical records when we brought her home. The Russians call it "perinatal affection of the central nervous system". For two long years I have been trying to find out what it is. My doctor even showed it to a Russian-born doctor, but she didn't even know what it was supposed to mean. Finally, I found a post on-line this morning. Here is what I understand. Perinatal affection of the central nervous system is a very common diagnoses for orphaned children-particularly in Russia. Basically, it means that something happened to the child while in the mother's womb that could cause neurological issues. For instance; alcohol abuse or drug use while pregnant, poor prenatal care, poor social situation (poor nutrition) while pregnant, or prematurity are all indicators that they use to suggest this condition. They are concerned that any one of these situations could cause neurological problems (seizures, learning disabilities, or other neurological problems). From what I understand, most children in orphanages diagnosed whith this fully "recover" (or-never show any signs of this issue). With Grace-she was premature, her mother MAY have used alcohol, and she had no prenatal care-which is why Grace was "diagnosed" with this. There were no "symptoms" and her records indicate that she "recovered" (showed no signs of neurological problems). I am relieved to finally have found more information about this "condition". My purpose in mentioning this is that if you have found this blog by doing a search that you will be comforted to know that most children diagnosed with this really don't have any problems.

My final thought today: here are my goals for Grace for next year: 1) to get up to 26 pounds (or more), to be completely caught up in her speech, and for her to continue learning the Cubbie verses. It challenges me to know the verses, too. Enjoy the pictures! Some are of Grace's fall pictures I took at a local park, and some are from the Family Day at the Arboretum.

School Days

Grace absolutely loves school. She attends on MWF from 9:15-11:30. The teachers set up a routine for the coming in time. We enter, hang up her coat and backpack, wash hands and choose a job. I think choosing a job is the best part of her day. Perhaps it's time to set up a job chart at home...
She loves talking about school. There are a number of girls in her class that were in her playschool class, so she likes talking about her friends. She loves the days she goes to school.
The building she goes to is a community center, and they also have adult activities. One is a little room with gym equipment. For $20 a month, you have unlimited access to this room. Today I used the room for about 45 minutes. Seeing that this was my first "work out" in many years, I think that was pretty good! Eventually I would like to build up and work out the whole two hours she's in class. That would be ideal, but probably not very realistic at this point.
Anyway, our fall is in full swing. Next week we celebrate 2 years home with Grace! I can't believe it's been two years already. The time is flying by so quickly! This weekend, we will celebrate our Family Day by going to Morton Arboretum (if everything works out...). It's has great nature trails and lots of oportunities to see all kinds of trees and plants. I hope we will enjoy walking the trails together.

Gettin' Ready for School

Well, as August comes to a close, we are looking forward to the new school year. Grace will start Preschool after Labor Day. She is so excited, and I'm excited too. What can I get done in 6 extra hours a week? August was pretty busy. We had birthdays, celebrations, floods to clean up...I took some time out to take some photos of Grace. I hung a white sheet over an empty wall and then put another white sheet on the floor. I then let her play "dress up" and let her play while I took pictures. I also let her dress in her Christmas dress to practice taking pictures for Christmas. I can get much better smiles out of her than professionals can, so I decided to do our own family pictures this year. I'll have to see if it's worth it!

The fall/winter is going to be busy for us, and I'm grateful. On MWF she will have school. On Tuesday nights she will have dance class, and on Wednesday nights will be Cubbies (AWANA) at church. I am hoping that the schedule will help the cold days pass quickly. I'm sure she is going to have a blast in Preschool, and I can't wait to photograph her first day of school!

August, already?

Can it really be August?

More than half the year is gone already! Grace is growing so fast. I know, I say that in almost every post. She's not just growing taller, she's growing in her speech as well. She has a great vocabulary, but recently we've noticed that she's using a lot more sentences and is very much aware of what is happening around her. She is very independent. Now when we go to the store, she doesn't want me to put her in the cart. She wants to be a big girl and walk. So, I always tell her two rules. Today she said she wanted to walk at the store so I said "What are the two rules?" (this was the first time I have asked her to say them to me without me saying them first) She said "No running" and "I have to obey my mommy". She can be so funny. We are having a great summer. We've been going to the zoo a lot and enjoying the nice weather.

We had a flood a couple weeks ago. It rained like seven inches in one night, and our village's sewer system just couldn't keep up. We ended up with a soaked carpet and tons of sewage on the floor. We hired a team to come out and clean up and remove the carpet. We now need to put new flooring down. This is a long process for us, and so we have very little living space. Our Family room was in the basement: our TV and most of Grace's toys, our computer and my sewing/craft area. A lot of our belongings are currently in our diningroom/living room, so now Grace has very little room to play. Our TV is just connected for DVD and VHS since we don't have an antennae up here. I go stir crazy spending so much time in such little space.

We went camping on the last weekend of July. I was glad to get out of the house and get away for a couple days. It was fun, but a lot of work. We arrived on Friday evening and left Sunday morning. The minute we stepped out of the car on Friday, we were swarmed with mosquitoes. I have probably more than 100 mosquito bites on my body. I'm not kidding. Grace didn't sleep well. She kept waking up. She woke up at 6am and wouldn't go back to sleep and wouldn't leave me alone. I had a restless night sleep because I kept waking up when she woke up. On Saturday we went to Castle Rock State Park in Wisconsin. We went swimming at the beach. It was Grace's first time at a beach and she loved it. She was so worn out from swimming, playing and not enough sleep that she fell asleep on her towel. That night she slept a little better. Sunday morning we broke camp. I went witout Brian, so I had to do all the packing and such myself. It was harder than I thought since Grace was so tired, hot, crabby, and getting eaten alive by mosquitos. I left as soon as I got everything packed in the car. I felt bad leaving our friends there, but Grace couldn't stand being bitten by mosquitos any longer, and I didn't have a spouse there to pack the car while I comforted Grace or to comfort Grace while I packed the car...so...we left.

I am looking forward to this last month of summer vacation. Here are a few pictures from the past month.

Wow! The summer is flying by very quickly. We have been very busy here, and before I know it, the fall will be here. Last year was a dud. The weather was pretty bad all summer. I remember only taking her swimming two or three times last year. This year has been awesome! Despite the mega rain the last few weeks, we've actually been very busy outside. Because I have a zoo membership, we go to the zoo about once a week. I know for some that sounds like a lot, but Grace loves it, and it really stimulates her language skills. She knows a lot of the animals, and I really try to get her to talk about what's happening. I remember last summer, she went through another period of language growth. I don't know if it's the increased activities outside that helps, or just the way her body works, but she is doing amazing.

Fourth of July was great. We had friends over on Saturday as well and spent the whole weekend in Indiana with family and friends and pool party! Grace is doing great with the pool. We tried to put her in a suit that has floaties in it, but she didn't like it. We then put her in a regular suit and put her in a floatie ring. She swims like a fish in it! Her favorite thing to do is to stand on the steps of the pool and jump in. The floatie keeps her head above water, and she can swim anywhere she wants in that thing.

We plan to go camping at the end of July, and I am really looking forward to it. We went last year, but I was too obsessed with keeping her bed times. It was miserable to hear her crying in the tent as I attempted to make her go to sleep at a somewhat normal time. This year, I will not make that mistake. I will let her stay up until the other kids go to bed and perhaps it won't be as miserable. I will also be sharing a bed with her this year, as my husband cannot join us. He has a back injury, and sleeping on an air mattress hurts his back too much. Last year, we tried to get her to sleep on the other side of the tent on her own mattress. It would probably work better this year, but since my husband won't be there, why bother trying? This way if she wakes up really early, I can attempt to keep her quiet longer. We'll see.....

I am also going to have her tested by our school district. Our district is more lenient about testing than other areas are. We have very high testing scores, and our elementary school is one of the top schools in Illinois. I think she will qualify for speech and perhaps physical therapy. Don't get me wrong, she's doing a great job catching up, but she is still having problems with some sounds- Like "f" she says like "P" like instead of "fireworks" she says "pireworks" or "bireworks" When a word starts with the "l" sound, she says "m". " I want to sit in your map".

While most districts would say that she wouldn't qualify, our district would probably get her into therapy. If she qualifies, she would be eligible for free preschool. It's worth a shot!

Well, I have the rest of the summer to look forward to. I'll post more as the summer comes to a close.

Spring!

Spring is here-and turning into summer fast!

These are some of my favorite pictures of Grace that I've taken this spring. At the end of May, Grace graduated from her Playschool class. I also signed her up for a ballet/tap class. She was having some separation anxiety issues, so I decided to put her in a summer school program. The summer class is taught by the same teacher as the Playschool, but it is a drop-off class and is meant to prepare them for Preschool in the fall. It is six weeks. She loves it. She is now very good in the ballet/tap class. She has two weeks off of class due to the performance (which she missed because she joined too late to buy a costume). However, I'm glad she wasn't at that performance since she had only been taking the class for about five weeks. This summer is going to be great. She gets to go to summer school, and VBS at our church. We will go to the zoo often, and the sting rays and dolphins are back! Yay! Lots of trips to the park-walking, of course. She is doing very well, and we are tickled pink with her progress. I have some concerns about her gross motor skills and I'm unsure whether I should have her see a physical therapist or not. I'll see how she does over the summer. If I see that she's still having problems at the end of the summer (after all those chances to run and play, jump and climb) then i'll make an appointment.

otherwise, she is doing great!

Grace is three!!

Wow, time goes by fast. Our angel is now three! Her birthday is on March 11, so on the 6th we went to Indiana to have her birthday party with our families. It was a nice, small party, and Grace had a lot of fun. We had a Princess theme, so she dressed like Cinderella with her cousins and her male cousin had a sword and shield to be a knight. I made her a Cinderella cake, and used fondant icing to make the skirt. It turned out cute for my first one, but the cake itself didn't cook well, so I'm glad I made a smaller cake to go with it...unfortunately, the doll was too tall for the cake, so her legs got amputated. Grace doesn't seem to mind...

On her birthday we had school, and I took snacks and cake to celebrate. She had a lot of fun and enjoyed everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her.

As I was up in the attic, I found my Barbie collection I wanted to hand down to her. I also found my collection on Barbie clothes: ones from when my mom was a child, and ones from my Barbies. I brought them down, but the ones my mom had are hand-made and are falling apart. I decided as I read some blogs that I can use the clothes for a pattern and make new ones. So, I started with probablly the hardest one. I ripped all the seams out and used new material to make a dress. I didn't do so bad. I think I will enjoy picking out fabrics and making new clothes. The best think is I don't think I'll need more than a fat quarter to make any of them. A quarter of a yard is pretty cheap.

Progress

I can't believe how much Grace has changed in just the last couple of weeks. We noticed at Thanksgiving that she was really using a lot more words and increasing her vocabulary every day. However, since the new year, she's really amazed us. She is now using complete sentences. "I want to play with something else". Of course, her speech isn't quite that clear, but that's what she's saying. "I want to go to school, Mommy!"

She is also beginning to tell us when she has to go potty. This is a huge relief. Up until this point, I've been taking her to the bathroom every hour or so and that has kept her dry for several months. However, this week I've noticed that she's starting to tell me when she needs to go. The girl is a camel! She hasn't gone since about one in the afternoon, and she's still claiming she doesn't have to go...and she's been drinking lots of water, too!

Tomorrow (Monday, Feb. 8th) I register her for Preschool! I am so very excited about that. I am going to try to get her into the Community Center class. It's fairly inexpensive. It has two choices-twice a week (T and TH) or three times a week (MWF). I am hoping to get her in the MWF class. The following Monday she has her physical with the doctor to get all her documents filled out. She's never had a hearing or vision test, so this ought to be interesting. She will also need her vaccine form filled out. When we arrived with Grace, the Dr. decided to test her when she's 5 to see if she needs any re-dos on her vaccines. I wonder if he's just going to put the dates that Russia "claims" she had her vaccines. Of course, the records are all in Russian, and the translator only noted the vaccines given, not the date. We will have to assume they were actually given when they were needed. When she's 5 (starting Kindergarten) we'll know for sure if any actually took. Grace will be so excited to be in Preschool next year!

I am also looking forward to planning her third birthday party. Last year, we kept it really small with just our immediate family members present. This year, I think we'll do the same. On her birthday, we have Playschool, so I will take snacks and have a little "party" at school. We will also be celebrating a close friend's birthday (he'll be two) that weekend, and the only people I would have invited to Grace's party will be at his party, so we're combining parties. So, that just leaves our families. She's met my husband's extended family (aunts, cousins, second cousins...) but I have a HUGE family, and she's actually not met many of my cousins, aunts and uncles. A birthday party is no time to freak her out with all kinds of strangers. So, we're having a Princess party. Only problem is my nephew. I guess I'll buy him a plastic sword and let him be the king for the day. Oh, did I forget that we're having a princess party?

So, February and March are going to be busy. Today (Superbowl Sunday), my husband is off watching the game, so Grace and I are having a movie party. She gets to watch as many movies she wants, and we get to skip dinner and eat chips, cookies, and popcorn. Grace keeps bringing me cheetos and feeds them to me-even though I'm stuffed! She's having a great time, though, and each time she eats a cheeto she says "we're having a party!"

Starting a new year!

I can't believe it's already 2010! Where does the time go?
I don't know how many people read this blog, but I would like to take a moment to write about some families that need our prayers. First in my thoughts is K. K adopted a daughter from Russia a couple of years ago. She found out that her daughter has a sister, and has been trying since to adopt the sister. Needless to say, the agency couldn't help her, and a private adoption wasn't fast enough. The sister is now too old to come to the States as an orphan. They tried getting her hear on a student visa, but the Embassy in Moscow denied her visa because she would have no reason to go back. (no home, no family)
Second in my thoughs are a family I just read about. These women both used the same agency we used, and I am just sick that these cases had to happen. This adoption was in Pakistan, and it too failed. Turns out (long story short) that the girl had been trafficked and the Embassy found that the documents were forged. She returned home childless-and the agency refuses to refund her money or to help her untangle this web. Please pray for these families!

Grace is doing very well. She absolutely loves Playschool, and I am looking forward to registering her for Preschool. She will be three in a few short weeks. I am excited about planning a party-decorations, cake, etc...She continues to learn at an amazing pace. She now knows all her letters and is showing an interest in learning the sound each letter makes. She is also almost done with potty training. She will not tell us if she has to go potty, but I make sure she goes throughout the day, and if we forget, she starts to cry when she starts to go in her pants. She has now learned to "stop and wait" until she gets to the potty. Number two is similar. I try to get her to the potty when I know she needs to go. However, sometimes it's a "surprise" later in the day. Same thing now-my husband reported today that she started to cry and said "potty" and when he got her upstairs he found that she was just starting to go and was able to get her on the potty...she had been holding it until she got there. Progress! By September she needs to be completely trained-including being able to pull her pants up and down by herself. We're working on it.
No other news, really. It's been cold so we've been staying in. Can't wait for Spring!
Again, please keep the above families in your prayers (or thoughts!). It grieves me that they used the same agency we did. We had such a hard journey-but it's nothing compared to what they are going through!

Christmas 2009

Ok, so these were uploaded out of order, so you'll have to forgive the confusion. This photo was taken on Sunday, December 27th. We are going to try to take a family photo on Christmas each year. She was dressed up for church earlier in the day, but she went out to play in the snow, so we put her in jeans and sweatshirt. Anyway, this was the best of the bunch...cheesy smile and all.

We have a great picture from last year. Last year on Christmas, it was so cold the driveway iced over. We took the kids out and pulled them on sleds. We have this great picture of Daddy holding Grace. She is so bundled up you can only see her eyes. This year, I made sure we got a picture of me holding Grace in the snow as well. it was a great day, and Grace said "Having fun" while she was out playing. She had a blast!

Daddy holding Grace.

Grace was running through the snow and telling me she was having fun. She loves playing in the snow. The only thing that could have topped this is if the snow were good enough to make a snowman!

On Saturday, December 26 we went to my mom's house to celebrate Christmas. I loved that Christmas was on a Friday this year. Usually my husband has to work the day after Christmas, so this year was really nice because we got to spend the whole day with my mom instead of just an hour or so. We had a lot of fun-and argued about Cabbage Patch Kids!

Grace doesn't know Uncle Ray (my brother) that well, so I was really surprised when she let him hold her and read a book to her. Her cousin Raymond looks too!

Raymond and Grace. Since we don't see my brother and his family a lot, she doesn't know them very well. They'll just have to come up this way more often to see us!

Nanna reading a book to Grace.

Her little Christmas light necklace. The necklace lights up. You can't see it on the picture, though, because the flash cancels out the lights. She loved the necklace, though.

This was on Friday, Christmas Day. Her Aunt Sarah gave her Cinderella slippers for Christmas. I could never keep slippers on her feet, which is important because we have wood floors and down in the basement it's cold in the winter. This solved the problem! She loves her slippers!

Nana bought her a "My First Piggy Bank". The bank has coins that the pig counts as you put them in. It also sings. All weekend, all Grace could talk about was "my pig". Unfortunately, we had to put the pig (and all her other gifts) away because one of her cousins tends to hide things that she likes, and she took Grace's pig away first thing. Grace had a second Christmas when we got home and started unpacking everything!

Grace posing with her cousins. From left to right: Monique (8), Kiyana (7), Sarina (5 weeks) (all sisters) and Grace (2)

Grace loves to hold Sarina. I don't know how I got this, but little Sarina smiled for a split second, and I was able to capture it.

On Thursday, December 24, we celebrated Christmas at home so we didn't have to take all her gifts with us to Indiana. Here she is opening her stocking. She received some tights, a coloring book, and some sweets.

A few months ago, I found this Little People barn at a second-hand sale. I paid $3.50 for the big barn and two smaller barns-with two chickens a a few accessories like people. I called Fisher Price and ordered extra animals. I kept this all hidden until Christmas. It's her favorite gift. She is always playing with it and has already told me there is a "mommy goat, mommy horse, daddy horse, and baby horse".

Standing in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Not all the gifts were hers; most went to Indiana. We took it easy this year-taking advantage of the fact that she's too young to understand. We also knew she'd be getting things from grandparents and such.

My father in England sent us some money to buy gifts for her. She has the Tag Jr. reader. We bought her some books to go along with it. We bought an Elmo book, and a Curious George book.

My friend Natasha in England sent her a book and this Jack-In-The-Box. Grace loves it!

Here she is in front of "her" tree. It's a little tree that I decorated "Russian" style. A friend of ours are missionaries in Russia (well, were...they had to come home because of VISA issues). She told us that Russians usually decorate their trees with white, silver and royal blue decorations. So, that's what I did. I also went to some Russian web sites and ordered a few Russian ornaments. On Jan. 7 (which is Orthodox Christmas), we will let her open her gifts from Father Frost and the Snowmaiden (I purchased some little Russian dolls off the internet). I think I'll make this a tradition each year. Each year she will get another ornamtent to hang on her tree, and a Russian gift or two.

All in all, I think we had a great Christmas. There were a few arguements, but that's probably normal. We are happy to be home, however, and we look forward to the start of 2010. Grace has come a long way since last year. Even in the last few weeks her language has exploded. She has been using sentences, telling me her feelings, and communicating a lot more. Since the last time I posted, she's learned to recognize more of her letters. Today I went up in the attic and brought down a bunch of toys. I used to be a nanny, and for the little girl I used to watch I bought a whole bunch of educational stuff. Her mother didn't exactly demand that all her toys be educational, but she did push education a lot. I had to care for J in my home for a few months while their house was being worked on, so we needed toys to play with. Anyway, I went to the attic and there was a jackpot of things that I can use with Grace. Since she's learning the alphabet, I thought I'd teach her the sounds. She has the refrigerator magnets from Leap Frog, so she's learning the sounds from there. Melissa and Doug also make a puzzle set. One side has the letter and the other side has a picture representing the sound the letter makes. For example, H has a picture of a horse. It showes the capital letter and the lowercase letter-which is what I like. There was also a three-letter Leap Frog refrigerator magnet that helps children learn how to make words. Since Grace loves letters, I'd figure I'd let her play with it. I know she's too young to understand how to make words, but for right now, she'll just like to put the letters in. There's more which I won't bore you with the details, but I think that instead of going shopping for her birthday, I'll just go back up into the attic and bring some things down from there. There's stuff I bought Grace for Christmas only to realize that I already had it up in the attic-obviously forgotten!

I hope everyone has a great New Year!