How many times in life do we take kisses from loves ones for granted? A few nights ago, Elliana came up to me and said three kisses Mom. So I gave her three kisses. She said "No, Mom this morning you gave me three kisses." I normally only give one when they leave but that morning I gave her three. She said "Mom more kisses." So I did not just give her three kisses, I kisses her from her head to her toes. She loved it. She then went on to tell me that Latvian Foster Mom only gave hugs no kisses. She then says that she likes kisses from me. Ever since then she keeps coming up to me and says "kisses Mom". She has the biggest smile on her face. My heart melts every time.
Our kids have a special bond that I can't really put in words. Last weekend they were all out side and Hunter was wrapped in a blanket. Elliana said I am cold. Hunter moves over and covers them both in the blanket. We went out for ice cream and Spencer finished his first. He was asking for more. Elliana goes over and scoop him some of hers. I pass out vitamins in the morning for the kids if I don't have one of them in the room the other two point out to me that the one kid did not get there's. They will not stop until the other kid received there vitamins. Hunter is continually getting hurt at day care. Every time he does Spencer and Elliana tell me Hunter is hurt and gives him lots of hugs. We love that these kids have a bond and we want to keep that going strong. I just want them to realize that we are here too and that everyone's needs will be taken care of. Of course a few wants will be taken care of too.
The kids had a graduation from the preschool. We went because the kids were talking about it. During the graduation each kid had to stand on a platform and were asked "what do you wanted to be when you grew older." I freaked, they know English but no way do they know that. So the program goes one kid wantd to be teachers, another a police officer, then a firefighters, and other similar careers. Well they called Elliana's name. I was in the ready position to run on stage to spare her from people all starting at her. However, she answered right away and said "Mom." She wanted to be a Mom. I don't know if she knew or if any of the kids knew what they were being asked. Hunter was next, I was not as worried for him. He wants to be a Dinosaur. Yes, no mistake there loud and clean and confident "DINOSAUR" The place when up laughing. Then Spencer took the stage. He said "Dad". It was so cute. We now have a Mom, Dad, and yes a Dinosaur in our family. So how do we rank as parents???? There was finally 10 kids later one little girl who wanted to be a princess then a boy who wanted to be a transformer...so I guess our kids are not entirely crazy. At lease we don't have to worry about them being conformists.
We decided it was time to decorate the kids room. They currently only have one solid color on the walls. The boys room is getting dinosaurs. We have a small mural on one wall and we are making dinosaur hooks up from toys to hang on the wall. The rest will have to wait until we get more financially stable. Elliana wants flowers. We asked my step sister to help paint since she is really good at it. She said yes!! We are going to paint flowers all over her room. We picked out the colors already!!
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Starting to Trust
So this week has been full of fun, cute, and reality checks. The kids are adjusting so well that even I forget sometimes where they came from. I don't want anyone including myself to be sorry for my kids or sad because of their past. I want everyone to be excited about their future. Elliana just this past Friday started telling that she knows she is different. When she bring it up I tell her that yes you have a sleepy leg but it is ok we will make it better. Well tonight when I put her to sleep she again said "This leg ok, this leg is not ok" I told her that we are working on making it better. I was thinking why is she telling me this and waiting for a reaction. It was all in how she was saying this. She then asked me in some broken English if Mommy is ok with her not having a good leg. At first I did not know what to say. I told her Mommy loves her with a good leg and without a good leg. No matter what I will love you. I then went through all of the emotions she knows to try to get my point across that I'm not going to abandon her. I said I love you when you are mad, sad, happy, and sleepy. She got a big smile and she kept hugging me. Daddy read a book to all of us and she had to keep her hand on mine. She also randomly hugged me throughout the book reading. I thought Elliana would have been to young to remember her birth mom's visit with her. Her birth mother basically was not ok with her leg and told that to Elliana. I am telling her I will always love her but now I need to find a way for her to understand or a way to prove to her that I will always love her.
Some people have songs stuck in there head and other may have a rhyme stuck in there head. Not me. I have playing in my head Hunter saying the color "Blue." The word "Blue" is one of my favorite things he says. I am not even sure why. It is just a four letter word but when he says it my heart melts. I always point to something blue and say what is the color. He says " Um.. Aww.. Blue." So cute.
This weekend was awesome!! Jeff and I kept singing the song"Everything is awesome" from the Lego movie. The kids also jump in and sang it too. We went to a couple community events, Touch A Truck and Jr. Firefighter Challenge. All three did amazing. Touch a Truck was a blast. They had diggers, police cars, mail trucks, SWAT tanks, and so much more. The kids got to climb in them. The one trash truck the owner was not around and of course my kid figured out how to turn on the CB radio and started changing the channels. Jeff and I looked at each other and Jeff jumped in to stop them from talking into it. Luckily they only got it tuned to the CB weather station which they got blasting on the loudest setting. I was laughing once it was all under control.
I was nervous about the Jr. firefighter challenge. It was for kids 10 and younger. However you had to listen and follow directions. The firefighter does not demonstrate but just verbally tells them what to do. My kids know a lot of English but lets face it they heard their first English words less than 3 months ago. They did so well. They did everything they were instructed to do. What impressed us even more was that they were not in a group but one on one and they couldn't see other kids to visually copy. So they understood what they were being told!! They had to climb a latter and ring a bell, crawl through two tunnels, get a baby out of house, use a hammer to hit an X on a door, stretch out a fire hose, and spray it on the mock house and then check the chimney. When they were done we got to play in the water. The Fire department had their ladder truck out with a hose and they sprayed it down over a 30 foot area. They absolutely loved it. We did not bring a swimsuits so we did what any parent would do. Strip to your short well, Elliana kept her shirt on. I think two of our kids maybe in the newspaper coming out this week. The stow century got their information and asked if they can put their picture in the paper. That would be super cool.
This was a great week. I can't wait to see what the next one brings.
Some people have songs stuck in there head and other may have a rhyme stuck in there head. Not me. I have playing in my head Hunter saying the color "Blue." The word "Blue" is one of my favorite things he says. I am not even sure why. It is just a four letter word but when he says it my heart melts. I always point to something blue and say what is the color. He says " Um.. Aww.. Blue." So cute.
This weekend was awesome!! Jeff and I kept singing the song"Everything is awesome" from the Lego movie. The kids also jump in and sang it too. We went to a couple community events, Touch A Truck and Jr. Firefighter Challenge. All three did amazing. Touch a Truck was a blast. They had diggers, police cars, mail trucks, SWAT tanks, and so much more. The kids got to climb in them. The one trash truck the owner was not around and of course my kid figured out how to turn on the CB radio and started changing the channels. Jeff and I looked at each other and Jeff jumped in to stop them from talking into it. Luckily they only got it tuned to the CB weather station which they got blasting on the loudest setting. I was laughing once it was all under control.
I was nervous about the Jr. firefighter challenge. It was for kids 10 and younger. However you had to listen and follow directions. The firefighter does not demonstrate but just verbally tells them what to do. My kids know a lot of English but lets face it they heard their first English words less than 3 months ago. They did so well. They did everything they were instructed to do. What impressed us even more was that they were not in a group but one on one and they couldn't see other kids to visually copy. So they understood what they were being told!! They had to climb a latter and ring a bell, crawl through two tunnels, get a baby out of house, use a hammer to hit an X on a door, stretch out a fire hose, and spray it on the mock house and then check the chimney. When they were done we got to play in the water. The Fire department had their ladder truck out with a hose and they sprayed it down over a 30 foot area. They absolutely loved it. We did not bring a swimsuits so we did what any parent would do. Strip to your short well, Elliana kept her shirt on. I think two of our kids maybe in the newspaper coming out this week. The stow century got their information and asked if they can put their picture in the paper. That would be super cool.
This was a great week. I can't wait to see what the next one brings.
Monday, May 4, 2015
Another Fast Week
What a fast full week. We had our social visit and that went well. Our social worker said that normally when she goes to a house that adopted more then 2 kids the parents are freaking out. She was shocked at how well we were doing and the kids. I just replied we have a 7 year old, 6 year old, and 4 year old, adopted or not, they are going to push you to your limits. You just have to deal with it. I did not bring up the special needs question. Not sure if I should have or not.
We had our first physical therapy with Elliana. I called several different local places and decided on this one. WOW was I wrong. I paid a copay of $60.00 and I walked out knowing nothing more then going in. Over the phone they said they worked with CP kids well they may work with them but they do not have any experience with them. We would have been the second one with CP and this place really doesn't work very much with kids. I asked what I can do to build up her muscles and he showed me stretches and said you need to adjust them for kids. I asked how and he replied well you lay her down. Ok show me please. The one good thing that came out was he confirmed she can do all the motions separately for walking straight we just have to build up the muscle and get her mind set on doing it. Not sure what else to do we are trying a new doctor tomorrow. A friend from my church is also helping me get with a physical therapist. One way or another we will get her the help that she needs. Every night we do exercises to help build her muscles. Tonight was the first night I saw improvements. She is starting to get more muscle on her left leg. She can almost stand on one leg now. Elliana did say yesterday her legs hurt so I believe she really has soar muscles. :-)
This week we also had another bad fall. The unlucky person was Hunter. He was messing around with Spencer and fell on our fireplace hearth. It was a huge goose egg. We found him crying and I picked him up and held him. It was like a cartoon the bump kept growing. We put ice on it and he hated that. Right before the third round of ice he said "No more Ouchie." Meaning his head didn't hurt anymore because he didn't want another round of icing. Sorry kiddo, we did give him some pain medication. The next morning which was today he woke up and pointed to his head and said ouch. It did looked better. I kept calling the day care place checking in on him. I wanted to make sure he was doing well. They told me that he never even touched it or mentioned it to them. He lost some hair due to the fall.
Spencer is doing well. He is our slowest to adjust out of the three. Hunter definitely is adjusting the fastest. Elliana does some days and other days not so much. She got a large stuff animal this weekend and she was telling me that the stuff animal was sad. I could not understand why. Spencer had a hard day today with us. There were lots of no's and whining. This morning he wanted to wear his Latvian wool underpants under his jeans. I had to take them away because it would be to hot well 70's and for Ohio that's hot. He loves T-shirts and I told him he could wear one but he picked up a heavy sweatshirt. Maybe with Hunter getting hurt he misses Latvia? He did not improve this afternoon either. I tried to cuddle with him on the couch and he was happy, then pushed me away, then climbed up me to cuddle again. It was so hot and cold. I am not sure why. Yesterday he was awesome, he even helped up mulch the flower beds, although we had to pay close attention to him as he liked to bury mommy's flowers. We've always been told it would be a roller coaster with ups and downs.
We had our first physical therapy with Elliana. I called several different local places and decided on this one. WOW was I wrong. I paid a copay of $60.00 and I walked out knowing nothing more then going in. Over the phone they said they worked with CP kids well they may work with them but they do not have any experience with them. We would have been the second one with CP and this place really doesn't work very much with kids. I asked what I can do to build up her muscles and he showed me stretches and said you need to adjust them for kids. I asked how and he replied well you lay her down. Ok show me please. The one good thing that came out was he confirmed she can do all the motions separately for walking straight we just have to build up the muscle and get her mind set on doing it. Not sure what else to do we are trying a new doctor tomorrow. A friend from my church is also helping me get with a physical therapist. One way or another we will get her the help that she needs. Every night we do exercises to help build her muscles. Tonight was the first night I saw improvements. She is starting to get more muscle on her left leg. She can almost stand on one leg now. Elliana did say yesterday her legs hurt so I believe she really has soar muscles. :-)
This week we also had another bad fall. The unlucky person was Hunter. He was messing around with Spencer and fell on our fireplace hearth. It was a huge goose egg. We found him crying and I picked him up and held him. It was like a cartoon the bump kept growing. We put ice on it and he hated that. Right before the third round of ice he said "No more Ouchie." Meaning his head didn't hurt anymore because he didn't want another round of icing. Sorry kiddo, we did give him some pain medication. The next morning which was today he woke up and pointed to his head and said ouch. It did looked better. I kept calling the day care place checking in on him. I wanted to make sure he was doing well. They told me that he never even touched it or mentioned it to them. He lost some hair due to the fall.
Spencer is doing well. He is our slowest to adjust out of the three. Hunter definitely is adjusting the fastest. Elliana does some days and other days not so much. She got a large stuff animal this weekend and she was telling me that the stuff animal was sad. I could not understand why. Spencer had a hard day today with us. There were lots of no's and whining. This morning he wanted to wear his Latvian wool underpants under his jeans. I had to take them away because it would be to hot well 70's and for Ohio that's hot. He loves T-shirts and I told him he could wear one but he picked up a heavy sweatshirt. Maybe with Hunter getting hurt he misses Latvia? He did not improve this afternoon either. I tried to cuddle with him on the couch and he was happy, then pushed me away, then climbed up me to cuddle again. It was so hot and cold. I am not sure why. Yesterday he was awesome, he even helped up mulch the flower beds, although we had to pay close attention to him as he liked to bury mommy's flowers. We've always been told it would be a roller coaster with ups and downs.
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