Tomorrows appointments...

Are with the Audiologist, ENT, and Geneticist.....Another early morning and it will take most of the day.
I sure hope he doesn't cry as much...it's so hard to get anything done when he's crying.

I'll sure be glad when these are all done :)

Artioms first time at the beach!

He made his way straight to the water...I thought he may be a little scared at first, but NO WAY!

Playing in the sand with papa...

Big brother Michael in the water with him...

Papa giving him a helping hand....

Some fun splash time!

Finding some sea weed...oh what fun!

My sweet boy loved his day at the beach!

And she's off....

Lindsey is leaving in the morning to spend the summer in FLORIDA with our friends the Thornells....I am so green with envy :)
She's so excited, but a little nervous too...I know she's going to have an awesome summer, I mean it's FLORIDA, how could you NOT? ;)

It is so nice of them to open their home to her, THANKS NANCY!

My two dream babies...

These two little darlings are never far from my mind.....

No words could express how happy I would be to bring them both home...I only hope the Good Lord agree's with my plans :)

And I do need to mention that we have not committed to either one...so they are both available and in need of a family.

Gross but true...

When I was gone at the Dr. today, the kids made quite a mess in the house, no surprise there. The bathroom was particularily bad, with 'stuff' all over the floor, in chunks, ok, I know this is gross, and usually I don't talk about bathroom issues, but this time I will.

I was cleaning up all the mess...with cleaning wipes, and thinking to myself " man, what is this and WHO did it" type of thing...when I remembered I has just bought 6 nestle crunch bars and I hid them in the cupboard. Thats it! They must have found the crunch bars and were eating them in here to hide.....and got it all over.....so I didn't care so much about the wipes anymore. After all, it's just chocolate! I could probably EAT it , right?!

Well, thankfully I didn't.

When I was all done it popped in my mind to go check my hiding spot and count the bars....you know....just in case.

There were 6.

Enough said.

No finger food around here for a while....and one of the kiddos is having 'issues'.....

Cardiology Appointment

Went well, he only cried 80% of the time today!

And even better news...he does NOT have a hole in his heart, and it looked healthy :) YAY!

Toma's first Fathers Day with a Father!

Not only was it his first Fathers Day with his own papa, but it was his first time at the BEACH too! And you know how obsessed this kid is with water :)

He loved it, not afraid at all. I have pictures I have to add later.

Tomorrow he has an appointment with the cardiologist, for an echo cardiogram and an EKG. I'm very curious to see if he still has an oval window, which is a small hole in his heart. They can close on their own.

Then on Friday at the adoption clinic. That's all for this week, hopefully!

And yet another....

This is Alexander and our friends from MN who are in 'my special country' right now.....when we were there, he took us to this place too, but it was snowy and cold! That's where there was a camel standing out in the snow...weird. I guess it's like a park/amusement area and that was the day they let the camel out to get some fresh air :)

Another Alexander sighting!

This is my dear Alexander reading a letter I sent over for him with some more friends that are in Zaphoryzha adopting a cute little boy.....They have a translator with them that volunteered to read it for him, remember it's in English and he speaks Russian, but he declined and said he enjoys translating it himself...that's his little pocket translator in his hands :)
It will take him days to do it....he has to figure out each word and then put together the meaning...which is different because things don't translate literally.....anyway, I sure miss him.
We can't wait to go back.....

Artioms first parade was on Sunday...

Toma didn't like the sirens.... with his sister Lindsey.

Summer, having a ball catching candy.

Mom and Alex, making his usual silly face when he see's the camera.

Lindsey and Toma, right before he threw the sucker.

Summer trying to share her candy, but he won't take it. A lady came by and handed him a freezie and he threw it back at her! He won't eat anything other than baby food, and it's like he doesn't even know what to do with it!

This one's for you Kristin......our pierced and dyed oldest daughter................yeaaaaah. Okie dokie then.....

This isn't at the parade, but I like it. My two boys.

He still does the hand thing a lot, especially when he's in a different surrounding. He's not as bad as he used to be though.

Michael thoroughly enjoying the little piece of chicken a chicken truck was handing out....he literally ran after the truck to get a piece---that's my boy!

Reaching for papa.....how sweet.

I wish I knew what he was thinking of this whole new world.

Lindsey and Toma again, just watching the parade go by...

*****It was another long day today at the Dr. appointments. I have come to the conclusion that it does NO good to go to these appointments when all he does is cry the entire time. They can't get anything done anyway. So, unless it's a critical appointment or he's going to be sedated...I just don't see the benefit of going. Then my overly confident 18 yr old son got us SO LOST twice on the way home. It took an extra hour to get home. Right in rush hour traffic. So none of us were happy by the time we got home, I packed pb&j sandwhiches so we wouldn't have to stop and eat ($) and I fed Toma his cereal while waiting for the dr. to come in.

But the week is almost over! Yes!

I have about 7 more coming up before August. Oh, and the gastroenterologist and nutritionist want us to increase his caloric intake, so I will have to be creative in what I mix in his cereal. If he doesn't gain weight, we have to look at a G-tube, and I don't want to do that, nor do I think it's necessary. He eats a lot of baby cereal and yogurts, and things like that. So, I think I'm going to start mixing Pediasure in his cereal.

Whew...long day, I'm off to bed. :)

ps... Even though I complain about days like these, I don't want to lose sight of how blessed I am to have this sweet little soul in my life. He is SO needy and little....and sweet and gentle. And I have no idea what he has been through with doctors in his life, but I know he spent the first 7 months of his life in a hospital being poked and prodded, as he was somewhat of an 'oddity' there...and they were trying to figure out just what was wrong with him. And then of course, at the orphanage he wasn't fond of the doctor, as I saw first hand. So, I guess I have to cut him a little slack for crying for like 4 hours straight! :)

This week is consumed with Dr. appointments...

We spent the day down in Minneapolis today, another appointment. Toma does need glasses. Now picture this people....Toma in glasses....HE ONLY HAS ONE EAR!...

So we are off to find 'specialty' glasses that will some how fit him. I assume a band of some sort is a definite, and boy is he going to hate it! I really can NOT see him keeping them on.

In the morning we have to leave early for more appointments in St. Paul and then over to Minneapolis for more there too. I don't like it, and will be SO glad when the majority of them are all done. He totally hates going, and cries and cries when we turn into the parking ramp. The entire time he cries and gets so hot and sweaty. On top of it he has a cold right now and feels lousy, so being that he has no palate, the 'ooz' just comes out everywhere, his nose, his mouth, mixed with tears....yes, a mess I tell you.

Today was opthomology, tomorrow is Ear, Nose and Thr0at, and gastroentrology. Thursday is pediatrician to get ready for sedated MRI and ultrasound on Friday, with additional checks from the Opthomologist and Audio people.

I just like staying home....did I mention that?! My son Shane has to take off work and bring us to these because I cannot drive in the city! I have to bring Toma's baby cereal because he still won't eat regular food. Or drink. Anything. So he doesn't feel so good by the time we get home.

It's also difficult to communicate because he doesn't speak at all, and I don't know what if anything he understands. I sure felt sorry for him today. And I imagine tomorrow will be more of the same. And the next day. And the day after that.

Then we have a bit of a break and they start up again in July.

So there's my whining for the day. I'm tired and just want to go to bed. I have no news to report about the little boy we want to bring home other than he was transferred to an institution and is probably scared and confused.....and we still can't come up with the money. The good news is that I'm told he CAN still be adopted from this institution.

Why does life seem so complicated?

I'm off to give the kiddo's a bath and hopefully get some reading in tonight :)

Summer......aka Scrappy Doo

This is our Summer, our little Scrappy Doo, who is the dare devil of the family. She isn't afraid of anything. She comes in the house with snakes in her pockets, cups of snails and 'rare' slugs, and any kind of creature she can find. She's one tough cookie. Here she is on a BMX track showing off to her boy cousin and brother what she can do....



Off to a good start.....
Scrappy doo getting a run at it.....

Scrappy doo sayin, 'I can make it...I can make it....'

Scrappy doo bit the dust.

Sayin 'that didn't hurt' ........ that's my girl

some happy Artiom Pictures

Playing trains with his brother....

He's a happy little guy playing on the floor....

such a nice smile...

He's just a little joy to have around....

GREEN WITH ENVY....

Can you believe this????????

Man, she TOTALLY got me back for the llama stuff.

Payback stinks!

***for those of you who don't know, this is my friend Kristin who is in 'my special country' right now, with MY Alexander....

Kissing MY Alexander.....

And rubbing it in my face....

And do you see that silly grin on HIS face....

Ugh.

Her blog is the 'seeing the upside of down' one that is on my previous post. :) :)

The Miracle of Adoption...

I was going to put a new post on here today until I read these the latest post on these two blogs....anything I would put on just seems so.....I don't know....uninspiring compared to these. Take a minute or two and read these ...... it's truly what its all about.

http://seeingtheupsideofdown.blogspot.com/

and

http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/

Oh how life can change....

In two short months Artioms life went from this

To this......

Life is goooood :)

My friend Kristin is traveling tomorrow to 'my special country' to bring home their sweet little girl. She has this 'thing' for llama's, so i'm going to give her a fitting send off..... This is Kristin, BEFORE going to 'my special country', all beautiful like...you can't tell in the picture, but she's wearing awesome shoes.....

This is Kristin getting off the plane after a 12 hour flight.....

This is what Kristin wants to ride on out in the country..... at Rambo's house.

This is Kristin getting assimilated into the culture...

This is Kristin when Alexander tells her he likes Yula more......

This is what she is bringing to give her sweet little girl........

and in response to our earlier conversation...that you are going to lure away my sweet Alexander with those darn shoes of yours....this is my 'adios' to my friend Kristin ;)

he heee he.

Wow, that was a VERY long day. I'm not even sure what we got accomplished. Except more appointments.

What I am thinking about tonight is covenant loans for adoptions. But I don't know much about it, I've looked some stuff up about it, and still don't know much about it.....another brain fog day here.

Do any of you know anything about these loans? Like you can borrow the amount of the adoption or close to it, and then pay it back with the tax refund and employer credit? That would be awesome to find something like that. Does it exist....Yes? No?

PLEASE...share your knowledge with me :)

Appointments start today

Artioms appointments start today in Minneapolis. I don't have anyone to watch the other kids so everyone has to come. I also don't drive in the city, so my oldest son is driving us all down there. I don't feel good today mentally or physically, so I'm not looking forward to it.

I don't think we're going to be able to bring the little boy home that I had my heart set on. We just don't know where the money is going to come from and some doors have been closed and there aren't any new ones opening.....where they money is concerned.

Rich has been totally stressed out thinking about all this and not wanting to let me down and especially not wanting to let this little boy down.

But he just doesn't see any other way.