I had a crazy, nerve wracking, and fun experience last week. On Wednesday night I got an email from our social worker telling me that a radio station that their agency is sometimes on was featuring adoption the whole week. She said that the station contacted them because they had someone back out of a program that was supposed to be devoted to international adoption and needed someone else to step in. They asked my social worker if she knew of anyone and she thought of us. The catch was that the program was the next day! My immediate reaction was "ABSOLUTELY NOT" but my family talked me into accepting. I told her to call me in the morning to tell me more.
When she first called she said her supervisor may have found someone else and I might be off the hook. I was relieved! Then she called me back 5 minutes later and said I was going to be on and she was going to be on with me! At 11am I got a call and I was sent through to the studio to do a radio interview on international adoption. I was so, so nervous! I was shaking through the whole thing. It was nice that they also had my social worker on speaking from that perspective so I wasn't "on" the whole time. It was an hour long broadcast but if you have time and are interested you can here it online through this link:
http://www.kfuoam.org/2013/04/04/faithnfamily-12/
When it was over I was so relieved and I am really glad that I had the opportunity to share our story!
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
Anya update
Anya has been home for 5 1/2 months now. Honestly, it feels like she has been here forever. Let me share a bit with you about Anya. This is how I describe her to people: Anya is the sweetest, most affectionate, funniest, most disobedient, rotten kid I've ever met in my life! Seriously, I adore her and she drives me insane. When I try telling people how difficult she can be they always respond "But she is so cute." It's gotten a bit old. I'm going to start saying "Yes, she is a beauty queen and her sash says 'Miss Disobedient'"! Here are a few bullet points to tell you more about Anya:
-Yes, her behaviors do consume a good part of my day but she is the sweetest little thing. Just when we think that we are ready to lose our minds she will give us a huge hug and kiss right smack on the lips! She is the only child we have that will do that and I love it more every time she does it!
- Having said that, if it's off limits that's where she is. If it is a "no touch" that is what she is touching. If it is not allowed she is doing it. That sums up Anya!
-Her communication is coming along nicely. She is getting an hour of speech therapy a week. She ADORES Signing Time and has picked up some signs from there that I didn't teach her (including Hopkins:) which is very encouraging. Since having her ears cleaned out she is approximating more sounds though she isn't taking off verbally like I thought she might. She is also much more fearful of noises. She does babble more. So she will say "Bah de mo gu adah go chee" and then at the end she says something that sounds just like she is saying "OK?!" We like to translate for her and say something like "I am leaving now and I am going to take over the world. OK?!" :)
-Speaking of her love for Signing Time she spends her days wanting to hear the "Silly Pizza Song". She even "sings" the tune of some of some of the songs. There are few sounds I love more than hearing her sing!
-I registered her for Kindergarten and I should be getting a call by the end of the month for her to be evaluated by the school. I find this interesting. She is still so toddler like that the thought of sending her to school seems a bit silly to me but oh well. This is what I plan to tell them at the IEP meeting..."You must find her a para who will not be taken by her cuteness. If her para thinks she is too cute to make her behave I promise you that one day you will find yourselves locked in your rooms and Anya will be sitting at Dr. Yerke's (her principal) desk with her feet propped up eating pizza!" Do you think they will listen then?
-She calls everyone mom...everyone. It took us 5 months to get her to stop calling everyone DUHBAH so I guess this is improvement.
-Which sort of leads me into bonding. It's very interesting with Anya. I think she knows we are her caregivers and she likes us but I know she has no idea at all that we are mom and dad or that we are her family. I really still think that if she went to another family tomorrow she'd be just as affectionate and just as happy with them. That's to be expected after 5 months to some degree but I really don't see it changing anytime soon.
-She is getting her own room....hopefully sooner than later! Our original plan was for her to share with Oksana but we started with her in our room. She is still in our room. We learned that she can be a loud sleeper and that she will randomly wake up at 5 am singing and yelling for someone to wake up with her. Oksana NEEDS her sleep. We will all pay dearly if she is woken up like that so we are building a new room downstairs and Evan is giving up his room upstairs for Anya. We are in drywall right now and it can't come soon enough considering that I've been up since 5 am this morning.
-She is a great eater but has decided she doesn't like meat! I'm still trying to figure out what to do about that. Her diet is so restricted as it is because of her celiac disease that I hate to lose meat.
I'm sure I'll think of more later but for now that sums up where we are. Here are a few pictures to finish up her update!
-Yes, her behaviors do consume a good part of my day but she is the sweetest little thing. Just when we think that we are ready to lose our minds she will give us a huge hug and kiss right smack on the lips! She is the only child we have that will do that and I love it more every time she does it!
- Having said that, if it's off limits that's where she is. If it is a "no touch" that is what she is touching. If it is not allowed she is doing it. That sums up Anya!
-Her communication is coming along nicely. She is getting an hour of speech therapy a week. She ADORES Signing Time and has picked up some signs from there that I didn't teach her (including Hopkins:) which is very encouraging. Since having her ears cleaned out she is approximating more sounds though she isn't taking off verbally like I thought she might. She is also much more fearful of noises. She does babble more. So she will say "Bah de mo gu adah go chee" and then at the end she says something that sounds just like she is saying "OK?!" We like to translate for her and say something like "I am leaving now and I am going to take over the world. OK?!" :)
-Speaking of her love for Signing Time she spends her days wanting to hear the "Silly Pizza Song". She even "sings" the tune of some of some of the songs. There are few sounds I love more than hearing her sing!
-I registered her for Kindergarten and I should be getting a call by the end of the month for her to be evaluated by the school. I find this interesting. She is still so toddler like that the thought of sending her to school seems a bit silly to me but oh well. This is what I plan to tell them at the IEP meeting..."You must find her a para who will not be taken by her cuteness. If her para thinks she is too cute to make her behave I promise you that one day you will find yourselves locked in your rooms and Anya will be sitting at Dr. Yerke's (her principal) desk with her feet propped up eating pizza!" Do you think they will listen then?
-She calls everyone mom...everyone. It took us 5 months to get her to stop calling everyone DUHBAH so I guess this is improvement.
-Which sort of leads me into bonding. It's very interesting with Anya. I think she knows we are her caregivers and she likes us but I know she has no idea at all that we are mom and dad or that we are her family. I really still think that if she went to another family tomorrow she'd be just as affectionate and just as happy with them. That's to be expected after 5 months to some degree but I really don't see it changing anytime soon.
-She is getting her own room....hopefully sooner than later! Our original plan was for her to share with Oksana but we started with her in our room. She is still in our room. We learned that she can be a loud sleeper and that she will randomly wake up at 5 am singing and yelling for someone to wake up with her. Oksana NEEDS her sleep. We will all pay dearly if she is woken up like that so we are building a new room downstairs and Evan is giving up his room upstairs for Anya. We are in drywall right now and it can't come soon enough considering that I've been up since 5 am this morning.
-She is a great eater but has decided she doesn't like meat! I'm still trying to figure out what to do about that. Her diet is so restricted as it is because of her celiac disease that I hate to lose meat.
I'm sure I'll think of more later but for now that sums up where we are. Here are a few pictures to finish up her update!
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| In her brother's riding helmet. She knows he hates it when she puts this on....see what I mean ;)?! |
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| Digging through mom's purse while she waits for the brothers at the dentist. |
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| In mom's coat! |
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| This is for all those people who say "She's always so happy!" HA! This is what she looks like a good part of her day. Anytime life doesn't go her way this is what we get! She often growls at us at the same time. |
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| Shaving Cream! |
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| This is how she came out of my room when I told her to find her shoes! |
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| Waiting to get her ears cleaned out. They had to puther under because there was 5 years of wax caked in there. They also thought they might have to place tubes but her ears looked great when they could finally see in there! |
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Oksana update
Yesterday Oksana turned 8! I think it is time for an update about her, and most of the reason I want to give this update is because I'm so thrilled to have good things to report! First, let me share about her birthday:
Those of you who know Oksana know that no celebration is complete without balloons. She has literally talked about the day she would get an 8 balloon since the day her 7 balloon deflated last year! This was by far the highlight of her day!
Anya's birthday is in May so in a couple of weeks they are having a combined birthday party for friends and family at a place with inflatables.
So now a quick update. Oksana recently had an increase in her medication and it has made a huge difference! She is doing great! First let me tell you about school. The week before her med increase her teacher documented every instance of major behavior and/or aggression. There were instances daily, sometimes multiple times a day. The week we started the meds it went down to 2 instances in the whole week, and the very next week she had ZERO.....ZERO instances of significant behavior or aggression. WOW! I don't expect that this is a miracle cure and I know she will still struggle some days but what a difference! When I think about where she was last year I'm just in shock at the difference.
At home we've seen a difference too. She is accepting correction better, she is handling her anger better, she is regulating herself better, she is apologizing for her misbehavior, she is happy, she is less frustrated, she is gaining new skills, she is proud of her accomplishments. Big stuff.
The other day we were at therapy and a little girl said "Where is your mom?" Oksana ran over to me, threw her arms around me, and said "This is my mom!" Then she squeezed me and smiled the biggest smile at me. Big stuff.
I could also share many areas where she is still struggling but if you don't mind I just want to enjoy telling you the progress because this has been a long, long time coming. I'm so proud of her!
Those of you who know Oksana know that no celebration is complete without balloons. She has literally talked about the day she would get an 8 balloon since the day her 7 balloon deflated last year! This was by far the highlight of her day!
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| She got a Strawberry Shortcake RC car that she saw at Nina's house and has talked about non-stop since then. |
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| She got a lycra tube. All of the kids love crawling through this. Actually, I do too :). |
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| She got her lycra sheets which she calls "Squeezy sheets". She slept with them for the first time last night and loved them. Evan loved them too and he is going to put Anya's on his bed tonight to try it out and see if he might want some too! |
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| Her dinner of choice was chili and her birthday treat choice was brownies and mint ice cream!
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So now a quick update. Oksana recently had an increase in her medication and it has made a huge difference! She is doing great! First let me tell you about school. The week before her med increase her teacher documented every instance of major behavior and/or aggression. There were instances daily, sometimes multiple times a day. The week we started the meds it went down to 2 instances in the whole week, and the very next week she had ZERO.....ZERO instances of significant behavior or aggression. WOW! I don't expect that this is a miracle cure and I know she will still struggle some days but what a difference! When I think about where she was last year I'm just in shock at the difference.
At home we've seen a difference too. She is accepting correction better, she is handling her anger better, she is regulating herself better, she is apologizing for her misbehavior, she is happy, she is less frustrated, she is gaining new skills, she is proud of her accomplishments. Big stuff.
The other day we were at therapy and a little girl said "Where is your mom?" Oksana ran over to me, threw her arms around me, and said "This is my mom!" Then she squeezed me and smiled the biggest smile at me. Big stuff.
I could also share many areas where she is still struggling but if you don't mind I just want to enjoy telling you the progress because this has been a long, long time coming. I'm so proud of her!
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