A new name and a new life!

The title of this post is the same exact title of a post I wrote back in June of 2010 when we went to court and became the parents of Oksana Valerie.  Today in a court room in Bulgaria we became the parents of Anya Rose!  Of course we weren't there but the email this morning was exciting enough and caused quite the celebration in our house!  It will be a couple of weeks before we get a better idea of when she will be home.  Everything has kicked into high gear here.  There is much to be done before that day.  To start, we have physical preparations still to be made.  We need to childproof our house, get her a car seat, etc.  All those little details that we need to tend to as we get closer to her arrival.  Besides that we have been working hard, hard, hard on the boys' school work.  I know from experience that homeschooling doesn't get easier with the addition of another child!  We are trying to get as much good solid work in as we can before Anya comes.  That will make me feel better when we have to miss days here and there for extra doctor appointments, rough days, etc.  Besides that we have some emotional preparation to do.  I've mentioned this before but I am very concerned about how Oksana will respond to Anya's arrival.  We've made some changes at school (I'll address this briefly before I end here), and the meds are finally starting to make a difference so I am cautiously optimistic, but based on what happened after we came home from Bulgaria the first time, I'm prepared for the worst. 

Lately I have struggled to find time to blog and I promised myself today that I would blog our court date so that I have it on record!  Because we are only going to get busier I'm giving myself permission to just back off for awhile while our family prepares and eventually adjusts to Anya's arrival.  I'll pop on here when I can, definitely to tell you when she is home, but I'm not stressing over documenting every moment like I usually do.  I'm not sure how long I will break but I probably won't be back on a regular basis until Anya is home and we are feeling a bit of new normal.  I've backed off of Facebook too.  I just need to be 100% about my family right now but I'm not gone for good!

In the mean time I wanted to link you to this blog written by Ellen about the special friendship that Nina and Oksana share.  I think you will enjoy it!

And quickly before I go I wanted to say that last week we had a fantastic IEP meeting.  We have pulled Oksana off of the bus so now I take her and pick her up.  She is also spending more time in the special ed room with her fantastic special ed teacher who is working so hard with her.  We also put her in adapted art and music (she was already in adapted P.E.).  We are already seeing the results of these changes and we are hopeful that with the meds we are on the right path for Oksana to be able to be peaceful and happy...something we definitely felt we were losing as her obsessions and behaviors increased.

Ok my time is up and I'm off to make my family dinner.  Thanks for listening.  I'll be back soon!