Treasure

Tucked away in Ukraine, behind a tall fence that hid a pink house, sat a little girl. God told us that she was a treasure and that we were to go get her because the rewards of that treasure were to be ours. We had grand ideas about what this treasure would be like; however, I must confess that when we finally met out treasure she often didn't look, act, or smell like a treasure and sometimes I had trouble recognizing her as one. There were days when I said "Did we hear you wrong, God? Are you SURE this is her?" He continued to assure us that we had heard right, and so in obedience we brought her home. We hoped that we would be able to see what God saw after we got her home but to be honest it only got worse. Day after day we struggled to find this treasure. It was hard, but little by little we began to see glimpses of it. Now when we see her we are amazed by how blessed we are. We are truly reaping the rewards of our treasure from God. Does that mean it is always wonderful and always easy? Absolutely not! The difference is that God has allowed us to see her as He sees her and when that happens the "flaws" in the treasure are more difficult to see than they were at first. I remember when we came home I called my friend Ellen and told her "Don't EVER let me do this again!". She assured me that 1) she would never promise me that (I love you for that, Ellen!) and 2) the day would come that I would say I'd do it all over again just to have her. She was so right. We would do it a million more times for her!

Dancer!

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by a mom at Easter Seals who saw Oksana and wanted to invite us to the special needs dance class that she teaches! The best part is that it is free! Oksana has no idea what it means to go to a dance class but I figured it didn't hurt to try it out. She loves it! They don't do structured dance like you may be thinking of, it's really more of a movement class. They roll on the floor, pretend to be dinosaurs, play with scarves and balls, reach high and low, etc. all to music. She has 3 girls in her class. The classes last for 6 weeks and then they take a break...I think it's a 6 week break....and then they will start another 6 week session. Last week we got her a sweet little outfit for her dance class....you should understand that the outfit made no difference to her at all but I loved it ;)!

Potty Training and AFOs

We have 2 weeks of potty training Oksana behind us and I must say that I am pleased at her progress. When we started I don't even think she really knew how to use the muscles she needed to use. Once she figured that out she has been able to consistently stay dry during the day and even over night most nights. She is not yet at a place where she tells us when she needs to go. We just make sure we put her on there throughout the day and she will hold it until we put her on. She doesn't poop in the potty yet but one thing at a time! For 2 weeks that is great progress.

After what felt like an eternity we finall got her AFOs! We were so thrilled to get them since she uses walking now for about 90% of her mobility. Here are her old borrowed ones:


See how they are falling apart? Since they weren't made for her feet they also weren't providing the support she needed. This was not ideal but they were better than nothing while we waited. Now we have these pretty new ones made just for her and cute shoes to go with them!




Look out world....there's nothing stopping her now!

Potty Training

Oh I really don't like the words potty and training when they come together and are used in my house! Despite my feelings we are indeed full swing into potty training. First I'll give you some background and then I'll tell you the story of how we ended up here.

When we were in Ukraine we were told that Oksana was almost potty trained before her surgery. Apparently after the surgery she regressed in many areas and this was one. If you've followed this blog you probably know that she had a lot of fears when she came home and one of them was sitting on the potty. About 2 months ago we finally got her to sit on it with no problem and I was so excited that I decided to start potty training. It was not going well and I decided she just wasn't ready. She seemed to have no idea what I even wanted her to do and I even questioned if there might be muscle control issues that could be playing into this.

I had no plans to start up again anytime soon. Then on Thursday morning she was caught! She woke up in the morning and I needed to give her a bath so started running a bath and then took off her diaper and noticed it was dry. I told her we were going to sit on the potty and she FREAKED OUT. She was clawing at me and screaming. I put her down on the potty and she peed! It was the first time ever. I was so excited! I kept saying "You're doing it! That's it!" She was very angry and looked at me and said "Pee Pee in bath!" I looked at my husband and I said "The game is up. This girl knows EXACTLY what she is doing!"....and so our adventure begins.

Day one left me wanting to leave for Hawaii and not come back until she was potty trained. Goodness, I have no idea how much time she spent on that potty but it was a good part of her day and with no results! That evening on the way home Larry picked up one of those inserts to make the potty smaller. Since we got that we have had much better success. I think that she is too tense and unable to relax when she his holding herself up on the potty. Today she had 2 accidents and 3 successes. I still think Hawaii sounds good but I guess I'll stick it out for now!

Christmas!

Every year for Christmas we travel back to our hometown, St. Charles, MO, to be with family. This was a Christmas filled with a lot of firsts. It was Oksana's first Christmas with us, her first time going on a road trip, first time meeting most of our family, first time playing in the snow, etc. She had a blast. Unfortunately, illness swept through our family in the form of the flu so it was a low key Christmas and many of our plans had to be cancelled. We still managed to enjoy time with our family which was our main goal anyway!

Back at the orphanage on the first day we met Oksana, the one person in our family photo book that got the most response was our neice Auriana. Ever since then she has looked forward to meeting "baby Auriana" and she finally got her chance! She's making sure to really check her out!


Everyone was SO excited to see snow on Christmas Eve! We don't get much in Arkansas so this is what the boys wanted more than anything for Christmas. Oksana thought it was the best and couldn't wait to get out in it! They made a huge snowman and after we all went inside we realized that the flu had hit Clayton.


Here is Oksana and Evan surrounded by their presents on Christmas morning.



Clayton managed to make it downstairs to open presents. Poor guy looks like he's been hit by a truck!


Evan was very excited to get an archery set and immediately went outside to try it out. His target was a huge snowball!


It is a tradition at my in-laws house to have a Nerf war every year. We take it very seriously! Even Clayton managed to appear to shoot a few people from above!


Auriana in her Christmas best!


Oksana and her Aunt Valerie. Valerie is Larry's sister, Auriana's mom, and the person whose name we gave to Oksana as her middle name. They met for the first time this week!


My favorite picture of the week! At this point Clayton was recovering and Evan had been hit with the flu so there were no brothers around to take a picture with her.


She decided posing with Mama would be a fine substitute for her brothers!


Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

More Firsts!

Oksana seems to be changing daily lately. She got her first haircut in America and she loved it! We just had the back cut shorter so that it could start to even out with the top. It wasn't much but I feel like she looks like she has a sweet little haircut now!


She has been doing so great with all of her fears that it was finally time to see an eye doctor. She wasn't thrilled when they put drops in her eyes to dilate them but besides that she did fantastic. I'm so glad we didn't wait one more day! She is very farsighted! I honestly don't even know how she has functioned as well as she has! We got her 2 pair of glasses and she loves them! The first picture is her primary pair and the first pair we chose. We were then informed that a second pair would be very cheap and I knew immediately that I wanted a fun pair so we went for the purple ones :)!

Casting

Today Oksana was casted for new AFOs. I can't tell you how badly she needs them. Right now she is wearing afos that were casted for another child's feet and are "good enough". They are old and falling apart and I can not wait to get her nice ones that are made just for her feet! Her walking will be taken to another level after she gets these! Those of you that know much about Oksana know that this had potential to be a huge disaster. 3 months ago when she was evaluated for therapy she sobbed when the therapist just touched her feet. Her therapist has been working hard to build trust and that has been going great. Still, we knew she would need more than that so we found videos on YouTube of people getting casted, we looked at pictures of Nina getting casted, and we created a mock casting at home using a knee high stocking and toilet paper! All of this was a huge success because she had NO problems at all being casted today! I think she enjoyed it! It was actually quite an experience. To witness what I did today and know how far she has come in 4 months was amazing. Here are some pictures:
Socks go on first

Then a little tube that will guide them as the cut the cast off.

They start wrapping...

and then wait for it to dry.

Cut it off...

and you have foot #1!

Then you go through the same process with foot number 2. Tube...

Wrapping...

Waiting...

Taking time to pose for a picture :)...

Cut it off....

And you have foot #2!

Can you tell that she thought it was really cool when they came off?! She got so excited! It will take about 2 weeks to get her new AFOs in and we are all excited for that day!