Staying in touch

We have been able to talk to the kids many times since we have been in Ukraine. It has been so nice to be able to hear each of their voices. If you are following along on our other blog, you may have read some of my kids comments. Quite cute if I do say so myself. Today, Anna called me to tell me that she had tried to post a comment but wasn't able to because Grandma's internet stopped working. She had a very important question to ask me.

"Mama, you know the slide that Grandma and Grandpa have? Well, we wet it and have been sliding down on our feet. Is that okay? Grandma says that I have to ask you."

I could only imagine the fun they are all having. Dennis will be so excited to watch them!

Playtime and oh yes, we are in Ukraine!

Annalyn loves to play with her three younger brothers. She has quite the imagination.

Spongebob the game can sure keep one's attention for a solid hour.

Jonny loves his ice-cream! :)

(Pre-scheduled post)

We should be in Ukraine now. You can follow our journey over at http://theukrainetrain.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday John!

We are well on our way to Ukraine now! What a birthday present, huh? My wonderful, awesome, loving, handsome husband is 39!

(Should I get the whole plane to sing happy birthday to him?)

6 Word Meme

My friend Courtney summed up her life in 6 words over at her blog. Very interesting when you stop and think about it. Since I am sitting in an airport with an eight hour lay over, I've got lots of time to think about this. Here are a few 6 word sentences that could sum up my life.

A mom who lives on grace.

Choosing a path that's less traveled.

And my favorite...............

Once broken, now living for Christ.

Wy don't you try and sum up your life in six words or less? Come' on, I tag everybody. :)

On a plane

We are now taking off! You all know how scared I am to fly so please say a prayer for safe travels.

P.S. You should try these scheduled posts. :) Pretty cool huh? I typed these out yesterday.

We've left the building!

John and I have said good-bye to our family and are on our way down to Los Angeles, Ca. I hope to stop and splurge with two coffees from Starbucks. Later, we will catch the red eye to JFK.

Our dog Dolly

I couldn't forget our dog Dolly. She is also a part of our family. Sveta adores her and Dolly likewise. However much we love her, I have to say that I don't like the yellow spots she leaves all over our grass. So I bought these magic little pills that are guaranteed to work. We shall see.

CRAZY FOR CHILI'S!!!!

John and I are leaving our kids in less than 2 days to go to Ukraine and hopefully bring home their new baby brother. Yes, it is very exciting, but at the same time we are going to miss our kids at home. To have one last time out together as a family before we leave we went out to dinner at Chili's with Grandma and Grandpa.


The kids were really happy and playful with each other and the food was excellent!




After Chili's, we went home and had some crazy, fun dancing time.

Andrew thought this get up was the coolest!

Here are the girls dancing the Macarena.

Have I told you that my youngest three boys periodically like to act like wild
hooligans?

Our Family Portrait

This picture was drawn by my 12 year old daughter Rachel. In just a little over a year she has come so far in being a part of our family. Her heart is singing probably louder than any other sibling with anticipation over baby Dennis coming home. Rachel drew this picture so that everyone in Ukraine can see how nice our family looks. She hopes it will make Dennis less scared about coming to live at our house. Bless her heart.

While Rachel and all of the older siblings are excited for Dennis to come home, I think Jonny knows that he will no longer be the baby of the family. He asked me to feed him his cup-of-noodles at lunchtime and I happily did this because I know that things will change some when Dennis gets home, and I will expect Jonny to do a little more than I used to. While I am hoping that Jonny will enjoy his new big brother role, I do hope that I remember to take time and not let him grow up too fast.

Overall, Jonny is happy that Dennis will be his baby brother, but he seems concerned about playing with him because of his owie. I think this is natural but I have told him and Andrew that while Dennis does have an owie on his face that will need surgery, he is just like they were when they were that age. At least that is my prayer for little Dennis because I so want him to have the love and attention that I gave to all of my little ones when they were his age so that he feels secure enough to go out and play like my other children do.

Since we leave on Saturday my posts for this blog will most likely stop until we get back from Ukraine. If you would like to follow our journey to adopt Dennis please visit us at http://theukrainetrain.blogspot.com/.

My kids think I am a real doctor

John accidentally dropped a plywood board on his toe. Can you say ouch? We thought about going to ER, but decided it wasn't necessary. Just look at John with his can of Pepsi... how much pain can he really be in anyway?

I think by the time his toe is finally healed I should be able to put doctor on my resume. And to think, there was actually some good that came out of this. The kids were able to see how much I love their Daddy by taking care of him.

I hope his toe is better by the time we leave for Ukraine this Saturday. Did I mention, that we are going to meet our son? :)

Answered prayer

On the side of my busy and hectic life at the moment, I still have a strong passion for helping families that feel that they need to dissolve their adoption. (I know, I know, as if I don't have enough on my plate) So if a family contacts me, I help however I could. Though dissolution is by far my first choice, I don't feel that not helping that family is the right answer.

Recently, a family asked me to help them find a new family for their 10 year old son after trying to make things work for a whole year. I may have even shared with one or two of you about him. Well, praise God because a family has been found and already has custody of him. Please keep this child, his new family, and his old family in your prayers. Though things seem to be going well for all of them, I know that some emotional times are ahead.

Birthdays, Baptisms, and Baseball

Last Saturday, we celebrated Sveta's birthday! She turned 11!

Here is Anna, Sveta, and her two friends, Kaitlyn and Emily.
They ate yummy chicken salad.

Sveta really enjoys swimming! I think she may be part fish.

Sveta looked forward to blowing out her candles all day.

She sure has some strong lungs! This picture says it all!

Sveta got some great presents -- shoes,a Hannah Montana barbie, a back pack, clothes, gum, candy, beads, Finch the game, etc. etc. Her face beamed with excitement.

Can someone please tell me what William is doing? His answer -- I'm standing like Abe Lincoln.

Here are the girls rocking out.

On Sunday, June 8th, Sveta and Rachel were baptized. It was an awesome celebration. Grandma and Grandpa came too!

Here is John and Rachel climbing into the water.

Next is Sveta and I.

John and I had the honor of baptizing our two girls.

I am so excited that two more of my children have decided to commit themselves to God and understand what it means. The have chosen to follow God ---- Hallelujah!

On Monday, I turned a year older. I got my favorite game -- Rummikub. It is so much fun! I also got a Kitchen Aid mixer from my Mom. John, bless his heart, did a huge list of honey dos and took me out to dinner while my in-laws watched the kids. I was hesitant to go out, being as frugal as I am and not wanting to spend any money for my birthday with our pending adoption, but John insisted. So we compromised and found an inexpensive Chinese restaurant where I had a wonderful three course meal for $7.25. I couldn't be happier!

I actually won the game of Rummikub --and that is a huge achievement because my mother-in-law is quite the Rummikub player.

Check out these bike racks! My father-in-law made them both. He gave me the second one as my birthday present. I love it! Anything practical and you have made my day. Thanks Dad! I really think you ought to patent the design.

Our Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike happened to be passing through town and stopped by to visit. Knowing that it was my birthday, she and her daughters got me this hat. Wearing it, I felt like a southern belle. :)

Here are a couple more pictures at the last baseball game.

Jonny just loves to show off his tattoos!

And lastly, one more picture of my beautiful 11 year old!

Trying to Catch up

It feels like this is the busiest I have been in a long time. In some ways, I see things winding down now that school and baseball are over but with our upcoming trip and new son joining our family soon, I am not so sure. So in an effort to keep up my blogging without doing it as often I am going to consolidate posts for awhile. Since blogging has taken the place of scrapbooking, you might see some silly things on here that I as a mom want to journal for my own record.

Julia and Sveta were playing doctor one night. Here is Sveta taking care of Julia's broken leg.

Andrew graduated from kindergarten on June 5th. Here he is sharing how he wants to be firefighter when he grows up.

Remember when I told you that William got a perfect attendance award? Well, all of the students that got this award (over 100) were entered into a drawing to win one of four new bikes. And guess what? William won one of them. How cool is that?

Caleb and Adam played their last baseball game this past Saturday night. Their team came in fourth for the season. Not bad at all. :)

Lately, Andrew and Jonny have been playing croquet at Grandma and Grandpa's house.


They both are getting pretty good at it.

Good job kids!!!!!!!

Julia, William, Adam, Caleb, Sveta, and Annalyn

Six of my kids won awards at the end of the school year. It was great to be able to see them each receive their medals for different things. While my two healthiest children, William and Annalyn, got perfect attendance awards, Sveta received the highest honor for her class alongside her brother Adam, as Huskies of the year. Julia, William, Adam, Caleb, and Annalyn all got Scholar awards.

Their teachers all had wonderful things to say about them, but one story made me teary-eyed. This teacher also happens to be the only one who gave me her speech and so I am sharing it with you.

It is difficult to read Adam Reed. His body language betrays very little of his feelings. He reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen's Steadfast Tin Soldier. When I taught, "no one could say that Adam "so much as blinked an eye." When his fellow classmates made a "ruckus," he "did not budge." If somebody bothered him during class, he acted "as if he had not heard."

When Adam had to read a book, he remained "steadfast" and always finished it on time. One time, after getting a low score on a challenging reading assignment, he decided to reread the book. When Adam was the only student asked to write an extracurricular research paper, he did not protest. I guess "he felt it was beneath his dignity to shout while in uniform." Due to Adam's willingness to accept challenges, his writing dramatically improved this year, and he placed second in the Creative Writing Festival for his short story "The Battle of the Bands."

The reception for the Creative Writing Festival winners happened to be on his birthday, and Adam planned to leave earlier to make it to his birthday party, but the reception lasted much longer than anticipated. And in Adam's house the guests were waiting and the candles were melting holes in his birthday cake, and Adam "could feel the terrible heat," but remained "steadfast" and did not leave until they called him to receive his rewards. And there "he stood as tall as he could" as he read an excerpt from his story to the appreciative audience.

At the end of Andersen's tale, the Steadfast Tin Soldier melts into a heart in the fireplace. Underneath Adam's impassive exterior, there is also a big heart. His awareness of others is unbeatable. He has been a model of patience and tolerance while helping his peers. His respect of my efforts as a teacher encouraged me to do my best. Definitely, Adam's heart is in academics. And this is why Adam is recipient of the Husky of the Year Award.

No longer a pre-schooler!

On Friday, May 30 Jonny had his preschool graduation. He was very scared to go up on stage, and finally was able to stand up there after I promised to sit on the floor right in front of him. After a couple of songs, his stage fright went away and by the end of the ceremony he was enjoying his special day!

He spoke nice and clear (at least I could understand him.) ;)

I'll have to say that Jonny had two of the most wonderful and caring teachers. Miss Dorothy and Miss Diane. A lot of my other kids also had them as teachers, and over the years they have only gotten better at what they do. Our family will miss them.

For a four year old, I think Jonny drew a really good picture of himself. Now in case I lose it, I will forever have a picture of it.

We're going to Ukraine!

Woooo-hooo! We got word that it is finally time to go and meet Dennis! Yippee! We have to be there in less than three weeks. Praise God! Our appointment date is on Tuesday, June 24! How amazing is that? Thank you for all of your prayers!

Please come follow our journey at http://theukrainetrain.blogspot.com/.

Thanks to all that have bought a raffle ticket or three or four. ;) We have sold 10 so far. If you haven't already, it's not to late to enter to win a Moscow Starbucks mug.

Win an Authentic Moscow Starbucks Mug

It's raffle time! And the prize is a Starbucks mug from Moscow, Russia. Please come check it out here. All donations will go towards Dennis' adoption.

Thanks ahead of time!

Oh, and fill free to enter more than once. Shauna did! Thanks Shauna!