Beautiful soaps that help orphans

My friend Cathy Dreher makes amazingly beautiful soaps that also happen to smell REALLY good! She started making soaps as a hobby and then she sold them to help fund her own adoption of a boy from Ethiopia. After the adoption was completed friends were still requesting her soaps so she started selling them in local stores and online. Her website is www.catiebeth.com. Now she uses a portion of her proceeds to help other families adopting. They make fantastic gifts for teachers, therapists, etc., and they are also perfect stocking stuffers! Below are just a few of these amazing soaps with their descriptions. I'll start with my favorite!


Oatmeal, Milk, and HoneyWarm and delicate, this bar is lightly-scented to smell like oatmeal, milk and honey. It is all natural and contains Calendula Extract Oil; an oil known for it's anti-inflammatory and skin soothing properties. This would be a great soap for infants, children or anyone with delicate skin. Each bar weighs appx. 4 oz. Contains: Olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, Calendula extract oil, sodium hydroxide, fragrance oil, skin safe colorants.


Cherry Limeade Fruity cherry and tart lime mix to make a scrumptious Cherry Limeade Soap! Moisturizing Sweet Almond Oil will soothe your skin while the delicious fragrance will ease your mind. Not responsible for inducing cherry limeade soda cravings. :)
This soap is handmade using Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Olive Oil, Sweet Almond Oil and Castor Oil. Because this soap is handmade, each bar is unique and may not resemble those pictured online.


Wintergreen I love the smell of snow. Really, it has a smell. It's crisp and bright...just like this soap! Wintergreen handmade soap has a bright, peppermint scent with hints of orange, apple and cloves. AND, it sparkles! It's a must have stocking stuffer!
Each bar is appx. 4 oz. and contains: Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Olive Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Sweet Almond Oil, Castor Oil, Fragrance Oil, Skin Safe Colorants.

Dancing Machine

Oksana's dancing cracks us up. Today when she heard the ABC song she broke out in a dance and we got it on video!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So much to say....so little time

Almost on a daily basis I think of updating the blog but I just can't find the time to do it. In fact as I type this I already know that I will soon be saving it so I can come back and complete it later. That's just life right now and it's perfectly fine with me!

Most of our days lately have been spent homeschooling and going to therapy. Both have their good days and their bad days! Oksana is in a phase right now where she follows me EVERYWHERE I go. If she doesn't know where I am she will go through the house saying "Where's the mama?" and when she finds me she says "There it is!" It was cute for the first few days but I've found myself hiding just to have 5 minutes alone! It's not just me either, she will gladly follow Daddy or the boys if they are more convenient. Obviously attachment is not an issue! Despite her desire to know where we are at all times she is doing fantastic when any of us have to leave the house. She finally knows that when her family leaves they always come back and she happily says "Bye" when we go out the door.

It's been interesting to see the relationship she is building with our boys. Clayton loves kids, especially kids with special needs, and has always been excited about Oksana. Evan, on the other hand, is our shy, quiet, and reserved kid who would prefer not to be around younger kids and we figured this adoption had potential to be really bad or really good for him. Thankfully both boys adore her. Clayton takes on a much more typical big brother role. He helps her and cuddles with her. She and Evan; however, have become great buddies! They play together all the time and Evan LOVES to make her laugh. It has been wonderful to see Evan come out of his shell and love this little girl.

We've had so many fun experiences as a family lately. We all enjoy living these experiences through Oksana's eyes. A couple of weeks ago we went to a pumpkin patch where we got to go through a hay maze, pick a pumpkin, and take a hay ride. They all had a blast. Last weekend we went downtown to see a sculpture show, got pizza at our favorite pizza place, and rode the trolley. We also loaded up our bikes and took a long bike ride through a local park. It was such a fun weekend! Last night the Kiev Symphony Orchestra came to a local church. We knew it might be risky expecting Oksana to sit through a symphony but we decided to take our chances and sit in the back so we could leave easily if need be. It was amazing! The kids all LOVED it. Unfortunately we had to leave at intermission because it was well past bed time already. Before we left we were able to find someone to speak Ukranian to Oksana. She completely and totally ignored the nice lady and only said "Hi" when I told her to! The lady said she wasn't even sure Oksana understood her. Whatever the reason we thought it was an interesting response. If you want to learn more about the Kiev Symphony Orchestra you can go to their web site at www.musicmissionkiev.org. They are Christians who spread the gospel through their music and also do work with Ukraine's orphans and widows. Very cool!

Well, times up and I've only been interrupted once but now I'm typing with her on my lap so I'll leave you with some pictures.

Oksana before church. I'm loving the huge hair accessories :)

Larry, Evan, and Oksana on the trolley in downtown Little Rock.

I love this picture! In the van Oksana often likes to hold Evan's hand. He is not a fan of hand holding and she knows it so she holds his fingers as tight as she can so he can't get away!

My kiddos at the pumpkin patch.

Our family on the hay ride at the pumpkin patch.

Walking alone!

This morning Oksana was holding onto our hands and walking back and forth between us. We started letting go a little bit before she reached the next parent and before we knew it she was taking 1, then 3, then 5 steps between us! We got her braces and shoes on and she ended up taking 8-10 independent steps back and forth! We were shocked!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Therapy, School, and More

Oksana's testing results came back and just as I suspected she is about at the level of a 2 year old in all areas. I told them that had they tested her 2 months ago she would have tested as a 1 year old. On Monday of this week we got a phone call from Easter Seals with therapy times and they told us we could start immediately! So on Tuesday we went to Oksana's first day of therapy. It was...ummmmm....interesting. She had PT and speech that day. Without giving details so this blog isn't too long I'll just say that I saw some behaviors I haven't seen in awhile. They are behaviors that she had with us in the beginning and they are all based on 2 things. First, she is SO scared. It was a new environment, new people, and they were asking her to do things she had never done before. She was scared someone would hurt her and she couldn't handle the transitions because she didn't know what was happening next. Second, she tries to control adults. It is a survival mechanism that she used in the orphanage. She wanted to see if she could control what happens in therapy. There were plenty of tears and lots of "No, no, no, no, no!". Still, she actually did have fun overall and screamed at the top of her lungs when we had to leave. The next day was MUCH better. She had OT which was new so that caused some issues but not near as bad as day one. We figured out that if we simply prepare her for any changes or upcoming transitions she handles them fine. Her PT and speech therapist are great. Her OT is OK. She has a more passive personality and Oksana seems to take advantage of that. Here is a little video of her in PT working on standing from a sitting position.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I've also been more intentional about her education lately. Up to this point we've really just been playing and she's been learning through that but today I started to work on the alphabet with her. I made a big A on the floor with tape and we drove trucks over it:

Then we lined it with blocks:

And we glued cereal on a letter A:

We talked about words that start with A and we did a matching activity using socks.

Now that she has her walker and rides in a stroller, we are able to do much more with her. Yesterday she also discovered that she loves the grocery carts that have little cars attached to the front of them so we got to do our grocery shopping together while she happily "drove" her car.`I never thought I would see that day! Week by week we see improvement and I find myself looking at her and feeling amazed that she is supposed to be in a mental institution right now. It blows my mind.