Catching up

I said I would update again after school started.  My intention was to do that within the first week and then life happened.  Technically this is still after school started, right?!  I'm going to bullet point some stuff to make it easier:

-Back to school for Oksana has been up and down.  It is MUCH better than last year so I'm not complaining.  She has rough days and good days, rough moments and good moments.  Overall she fell back in place as well as I could have hoped for.  She's with the same incredible teacher and 2 really awesome paras.  She is set up for success as far as what the school is doing for her.

-Anya fell back into place as if she never left.  She also has the same teacher.  Her para from last year is with her 1/2 day now and her other para was in her room last year and was with her in summer school so they are both very familiar and comfortable with each other.  Anya's biggest problem is that she uses to much of her energy to be naughty.  Besides that she is so smart and really thriving in school.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

-Clayton and Evan had work to do at home last week but they start at their homeschool program on Tuesday.  I think we all have mixed feelings about it.  It will be really good to be back in a routine but being in 10th and 7th grade makes for a full and challenging year.  I know they are up to the task but it will take some time to get in the groove again.

-Larry and Clayton have been gone since last Saturday on a mission trip to Honduras.  They fly back in at 10:00 tonight!  We are so excited to see them and hear all about their trip. 

-Oksana's therapist finally just came right out and told me that she thinks Oksana has schizophrenia.  Of course she still doesn't have the diagnosis and she could be wrong but all of the indicators point to that.  When asked how I felt about that my response was "relieved".  I know that is an odd response but I knew she had it and it was a relief to hear someone else confirm it so I could stop thinking I was crazy.

-I'm wondering if we might have a med increase coming for Oksana.  She has been very stable since January.  It has been an incredible blessing but we all know that it won't last forever.  There have been a handful of times since January when the frequency of her aggressive behavior has increased for a period of time and we would think this might be the end of the stability but she always seems to bounce back and we keep moving on.  Recently I've been concerned with an increase in the intensity of her aggression.  We haven't seen that since her stability.  For some strange reason I have never been a big target for Oksana's aggression.   She was verbally aggressive to me and would be physically aggressive but usually only if I had to physically remove her from a situation.  Recently she has taken to attacking me whenever I say no to something she wants.  She will go after me to attack me and then she will grab at me, rip at my clothes, scratch my face, pull my hair as hard as she can to try to rip it out, and has threatened to bite me but couldn't get me.  These are things she commonly does to the staff at school but not me.  We are keeping a close eye on her to see if this continues.  Her therapist is aware and we see her psychiatrist in just over a week.  On Friday I am meeting with our regional center worker to talk about Larry and I being trained in restraint.  She is tall and it won't be long before she will be bigger than me.  If I can't control her when she tries to hurt me then I will have to call the police.  We are trying to avoid that if at all possible and learn ways to restrain her that keep us all safe.  The training is also a layer of protection if she ever tells the wrong person in the wrong way that we restrained her.

-I finished Anya's Halloween costume!  I haven't started Oksana's yet but I am thrilled with it! 

 

This is her in the dress before I finished it off with the snowflakes.  At Halloween she will wear a long sleeve white shirt under it.  Oksana's costume will be identical.

I think that about sums it up for now!  I'm off to get my boys from the airport!

One More Week!

We are officially at the one week mark to the start of school!  Things are wrapping up nicely over here and we are excited for what we hope will be a great school year!  This is going to be a bit of a random post because I just have some end of summer stuff to share.

Yesterday we did what ended up being one of our favorite activities of the summer.  Too bad we didn't do it earlier!  I got a plastic tablecloth, put it in my front yard, covered it in shaving cream, and stuck the girls on it!  If I did it again I would not use the tablecloth.  Every time the girls moved it moved with them.  Even rocks in the corners didn't keep it still for long.  I'd prefer a tarp well strapped to the ground.  You can see that didn't stop their fun!

 

 

 

This year I decided I wanted to do a little something for the girls' special ed teachers as a welcome back to school gift.  I only chose the two teachers because I know them well and truly, truly appreciate all that they have done for our girls.  I would have loved to have done more, but I just don't have the money, and this allowed me to make their gift a little nicer.  I did a little kit that has all kinds of things in it that they may need during the school year but won't have on hand.  I got a small Rubbermaid container and filled it with a tissue pack, hand sanitizer, sharpies, a tide stain stick, tic tacs, post it notes, clips, Airborne vitamin c thingy (I'm sure that's not it's official name), a lint roller, protein bar, wet ones, and tape.  I think they turned out really cute!

In other news, Evan got an incredible opportunity last week.  He has such a passion for riding and jumping horses.  He's been riding for 3 years now and he is at the point where in order to progress he just needs to be on a horse more.  I talked to his instructor about options to move him forward in this sport.  Two of the three options involved money we just do not have.  I emailed his instructor and the owner of the barn to tell them that we do not have the money to do some of what they were suggesting.  We live on a ministry salary and are in quite a bit of debt from Anya's adoption.  The last option they gave us was for him to volunteer at the barn on Saturday mornings in order to earn ride time.  That we could do!  Every Saturday Evan heads to the barn for a few hours where he grooms horses, helps beginner classes tack and untack for their lessons, and really any thing else they might possibly need him to do.  In exchange he gets to spend time riding a horse that needs to be ridden that day.  He absolutely loves it.  However, that isn't the incredible opportunity.  We got a call a couple of weeks ago telling us that they had an extra spot in one of their horse camps.  They would love for Evan to join them for free!!!  This is almost a $500 camp!  We were so excited.  They said he is one of their favorites and they know that he would benefit greatly from coming.  I was so touched!  Here is a video I took of him riding just this week at his lesson.

Don't leave me yet!  I have more tidbits :).  In a last minute opportunity, Larry and Clayton will be traveling to Honduras on a mission trip!  They are leaving August 23 and they will be gone for a week.  This is the ministry they will be working with is called Project Manuelito, www.projectmanuelito.org.  Calvary has had a partnership with Project Manuelito for many years now.  Their team will be doing a variety of construction projects, ministering to the kids, and the main reason these two are going is because Larry is going to do a video project for Project Manuelito and Clayton will help him.  This is WAAAAYYY outside of Clayton's comfort zone, but I know it will be an incredible experience.  We got his passport and he is currently raising the $1500 needed to go on the trip.  He is at $1000!  This has also been a great experience for him to see God's faithfulness to provide for his needs :).

I wanted to give a quick update on my last post about the woman I met through my dental hygienist.  We met for dinner on Friday and had a wonderful time!  We talked non stop for 4 hours straight!  We are hoping to do this on a regular basis.  That meeting was a wonderful gift from God that I've been praying about for a year now!

Last thing, and this is totally random but kind of fun, I am making the girls' Halloween costumes this year.  Let me start this by saying that the amount of craftiness in my body could fit in my pinky toe and still have room left over!  Here's the thing.  Anya especially, but also Oksana, is on a BIG Frozen kick.  It took a little longer than most kids but Let it Go is now being sung in my house like it is in millions of other homes around the world!  As I started looking around I realized that anything Frozen is flying off of shelves before the stores can even get them all out!  I had no desire to run to 500 different stores trying to find an overpriced and cheaply made Elsa costume this year.  The problem is I can't sew.  As I was looking around thinking that maybe I could get someone else to make me one I found a no sew option that I think will be so cute!  I've been pricing materials, and watching tutorials like crazy.  As soon as I have everything together I'm going to jump in and pray this works!  Here is a basic idea of what I am doing but it will be slightly different because there are things I saw on other dresses that I want to change or add to it.

OK I think that might finally be all I have to say.  If I don't update before next week I will let you know how the first day of school goes for sure.  If you remember, last year was awful.  It was a huge adjustment for Anya and the day that Oksana had one of her most severe outbursts ever.  Anya is 100% ready to go back.  She loves her class, she loves her teachers and paras, and very little is changing for her at all.  This is going to be a huge year of growth for her.  I have high hopes for Oksana as well.  Last year she had a new teacher and a new classroom, not to mention the fact that she was very unstable.  With the overall stability of the summer (minus the summer school incidents), and the fact that she is also going into a very familiar situation with little changes I think she should transition much better.  I'm meeting with her teacher on Friday to discuss what happened at summer school so she can be aware of what I believe caused that to be unsuccessful for her. My dad and step mom are visiting next week too so it should be a full and fun week!