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From Home and Back, our Ukraine adoption journey.Finding the missing part of our hearts and family, our Ukraine adoption journey. May 15 Wow, its been so long, hasn't it?
What can I say? Other than life has gotten in the way and what a
wonderful life that we have had. The kids are both keeping us busy running
to the ball park. Kelsey is loving her softball, I swear that girl lives
and breathes it and she has such a natural talent, that I only wish I had.
She again has gotten another GRAND SLAM as well as many homeruns. In
fact we are doing double duty with Kelsey, since she has been asked to play on
the 14U as well as the 12U teams, which means double the games. Kole is in
his second year of T-ball and he is doing very well. Of course he still
has to do it just like his sister, including the catching. Its very cute
to see. I'll try to add a couple of pictures of them playing ball this
year so far.
This MSN Photo E-mail slideshow will be available for 30
days. To share high quality pictures with your friends and family using MSN Photo E-mail, join MSN.       December 23 Merry Christmas
Another year has flown by. December 29th marks year #2, since Kole
left the orphanage for good. He has come so far and our family truly feels
complete.
This MSN Photo E-mail slideshow will be available for 30
days. To share high quality pictures with your friends and family using MSN Photo E-mail, join MSN. December 12 Wow, times really got away from me.I do apologize for that. We have been busy over the summer, with
softball, and T-ball. Kole really enjoyed playing ball. Of courses
he had to play catcher, just like his sister, and it was hilarious watching him
slide into home, just like his sister too.
This fall brought school and more sports. Basketball for Kelsey and
soccer for Kole. We enjoyed all of it. But I must be honest I am
glad to have a bit of a rest before the holiday begin as well.
The trees are up and I need to start wrapping presents.
Can you all believe that it will be two years ago tomorrow that we met Kole
for the very first time? Which also happens to be Beth's birthday.
I'll try to do better about updating the blog.
We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a very blessed and Happy New
Year.
Kristi October 20 Cooking lessons..... Kole styleAs we were eating dinner last night Kole informed us that pink monsters
make the best soup.
However if you wanted to make cookies then any old monster would
work.
His favorite food of any type is soup of any kind and lots of it. So
I think that we'll be going on a monster hunt this afternoon for pink monsters
to make some soup, anyone want some?
K September 03 Copied from another blog......I found this late one night as I was reading blogs of those who have been
there and done that and I felt it was so appropriate. Not nearly as much
now as it was when we first got home.
I am also posting this to show that we are not the only family that feels
this way.
Our family is not defined by adoption. We are defined by who we are and
what we do. Adoption is a part of our family's history, but it does not define
us. When the boys are introduced as "the two little boys who were recently
adopted", you have labeled our children and our family. Would you say "this is
the little boy who was born after 4 in-vitro fertilization attempts"? No, and in
the same way, it is our choice to share how our family has grown. Right now it
is our decision, and someday when they are older it will be the boys' decision
as to how much of their past they want to share. Please do not share it for
them. If you have someone who is interested in adoption, you are welcome to
introduce them to us as a family who is interested or has adopted, and we can
choose how much of our story to share.
It is our story. The story of our family. And ours to share, not yours. This post is the result of a few incidents that have happened over the past few weeks. Please do not feel that you cannot tell people about our adoption if they have a valid reason for knowing. But if you are introducing us as "the family who adopted", please carefully consider your reasons behind that and be considerate of our family's privacy. Here are the comments that followed this woman's post as well....
  Diana said...
AMEN!!! 8/25/2008 11:18 AM Jane said...
We were on vacation last week (went to Branson) and I heard a lady talking to Ben and said said "what State are you from?". I immediately thought "great Ben, you've forgotten what City we live in again". Later I asked him what she had said and he told me that she asked him where he was from. I asked him what he'd said and he said "Ukraine". With his American accent, no wonder she then asked him about the State!!!! 8/27/2008 5:58 AM And if you want to read it yourself here is the link to the blog http://markandcourtney.blogspot.com/
August 22 School has started now
and our days are mostly spent with just Kole and I. I am enjoying it
and so is he. However we are so very happy when Kelsey gets off the bus as
well as the other kids.
Kelsey has started with basketball practice as well. Kole has started
pre-school for the 2nd year, last week.
He loves it, however I still have to stay for a few minutes before I can
leave. He is ok with it, but he doesn't want me to be in a rush to leave
either. I think its because he likes me to see how big he is. He is
in a small group again this year only 6, which is great.
I'll try to post some recent pictures of the kids.
I also found a blog of a family in Kirovograd adopting a sibling set of
3. I hope to email them, the little girl and boy look very familiar.
I'll have to go look through my pictures to see if I can find them. I have
been lucky enough to have a picture of another little boy that was adopted about
6 months after we left. The family loved having the pictures of him
as well.
I hope all is well.
K
This MSN Photo E-mail slideshow will be available for 30
days. To share high quality pictures with your friends and family using MSN Photo E-mail, join MSN. August 09 Where do I start?Well, as you can tell by reading the last post, we were just a day away
from Kole's surgery. Kole's surgery was performed and well done. He
did great. He ended up having a double inguinal hernia and he was
pleasantly surprised that he would have two scars like Daddy.
He was funny after having given the happy juice before they took him
back...
After the doctor examined him, he was still quite loopy. The doctor
laughed at him and said buddy, if you were in a bar we would have to cut you
off. To which Kole replied, after being examined, You gonna cut it
off????? He was very worried. Much to the doctors dismay he quickly
scooped him up and gave him a hug and assured Kole that he was not going to cut
any thing off.
The night before he snuck into the kitchen and got a drink about 1:30
am. I explained to him that the doctor said nothing to eat or drink after
midnight. He very matter of factly said to me, 'Well Jesus says I can have
a drink of water.' Kind of hard to argue with him about that one isn't
it?
The surgery was on an outpatient basis and it was done on Thursday.
By Monday morning he was telling me that he was hurting much more than he had
been before, so I began giving him his pain medicine again. He threw up,
much to his dismay and he didn't know what all that was about. He wouldn't
eat anything all day. He went to sleep about 7:30 Monday night and woke up
at 11:00 pm screaming in pain and doubled over. After a call to the doctor
and some ibuprofen we decided to take him to the ER. He would not walk, he
kept screaming and could not have any clothes on anywhere near his surgery
sites.
When we got to the ER, we told them that the doctor told us to come in, we
waited a bit and they called us back. After the triage nurse took a quick
look at him, she made sure to stress to us not to let him have anything to eat
or drink, absoultely nothing and assured us that Kole was now their priority
case above anyone else in the waiting room. Kind of scary. By this
time he was much calmer and not screaming as long as I carried him.
When we got back to the examining room, we were told by 2 nurses and
2 doctors not to let him eat or drink anything at all. They gave him some
pain meds and then sent us to ultrasound to make sure he didn't have a torsion
going on. It took 4 adults to hold him down with him screaming bloody
murder and I must admit that I was crying as well. All looked well by
ultrasound and he did not have a torsion, but it was suspect that the hernia had
reoccured. Back to our exam room we went where they inserted and IV and
started giving him pain meds and morphine for his pain and admitted us. We
were there for two days. It was decided that he had been a bit overly
active and it had caused some internal bleeding, which pooled south and caused
EXTREME pain for our little man. So, all we could do was wait and his body
would reabsorb the blood. In the mean time they kept him on IV pain meds
and morphine to keep him comfortable.
He is still a bit on the cranky side, but getting better. The
swelling has continued to go down and his bruising is fading a lot.
Hopefull his crankiness will subside too.
Talk to you soon
K July 30 Kole has his surgery tomorrow.I'm starting to get a bit nervous about it. I know it has to be done,
but I worry. I worry because I am his Mommy. All he knows at this
point is we are going to the hospital in the morning and the doctor will give
him one scar like his Daddy's. Anything that he can have like his Daddy is
cool with him.
So please say a prayer for a save and great outcome to Kole's surgery
tomorrow. Also tha Tad's blood work comes back clean of cancer on August
6.
Thanks July 20 Sorry for the interruption.Its amazing at how fast the time does seem to fly and how quickly you
become busy, especially in the summertime.
We are all doing well here. Kelsey and Kole are now finished with
their ball, and they both did very well. Kelsey did better than
well. She was oustanding. I just love watching that girl play
ball.
The summer seems to have flown by and it will only be a few short weeks
before school starts.
Tad is doing well and will have more blood tests at the end of this
month. Kelsey is doing well and growing. Kole will have to have
surgery for a hernia on the 31st of this month, nothing serious, but it does
need to be taken care of.
I am staying busy with my babysitting duties. We have been having fun
this summer. We spend our days playing in the creek or going to the pool
to try and keep cool. All the kids seem to love it and I love watching
them as they explore.
Next week we plan on 'exploring' the river, as my kids call it. I
love to watch them as they find someting new. Any new fossil,
intresting rock, a turtle, a frog, and even crawdads, which I must say are very
hard to catch. Its great to watch the expression and wonder on all of
their faces.
Kole continues to show no fear when it comes to the water. He is now
doing front flips off the diving board, much to everyones delight at the pool
and gets lots of cheers and clapping when he does so. Which he does
love.
More next time. May 21 What are you thankful for?This will be the first in a series.
What are you thankful for is a question that is running around rampant in
the blog sphere, and it truly got me thinking. There are so many things
that I am thankful for and no, I won't list them all. Instead I'm going to
be telling you about the people I'm thankful for, what they have meant to me and
why.
Today I am going to star with my husband, Tad. My Aunt recently said
to me how she never in a million years that I would be with someone like
Tad. I was a bit taken aback by her statement. It was not said with
any malicousness at all. But it did make me stop and think. I
personally could not see my life without him. He makes me laugh so much
and we have a lot of fun and some great discussions. I love hearing his
insight and his opinions lately, especially when it comes to politiics. I
really enjoyed telling her why I loved him.
Our house is always full of laughter! He is a constant source of
amusement for lots of my family members and has been 'affectionaly' termed as
'Cousin Eddie", for his uncanny ability to come off as the goofy character in
Chevy Chases's Vacation Movies. You can always count on him to give a good
laugh, cause a good laugh, or to get a good laugh out of anything. He
never hesitates to lend a hand, in fact one of his earlier concerns after
finding out that he had cancer was to make sure our neighbor had enough wood
before he had surgery, and to get things done and have supplies on hand, to make
it easier for me and Kelsey,to do the chores that he usually does.
When we started dating, he knew that there was no way anyone would come
between me and my daughter, Kelsey. In the beginning of my 'dating, after
separating days' I dated a few people other than Tad, none of which I would
consider having them be a part of my daughters life. In fact the first
time he met my daughter, and we werent dating, she had a runny nose and he
simply took out his hankie and had her blow her nose. I know
that doesn't seem significant to anyone else, but for some reason it was to
me.
My Papa, who I'll tell you about more later, because I am so thankful for
him too, was a quiet man. It wasn't until I was a high schooler that I
understood that he was not of 'my blood'. In fact a family member had a
question, when a cousin was expecting, about how he would feel to have his first
grandchild. I sat back shocked that a question like that was even posed to
him, for he never treated any of us as 'less' than his family. From my Dad
and my Uncle having him as their father, to all of us as his children, there was
never a question of his love for any of us...
The point is, that Tad is the same way. There was no doubt that he
had love for Kelsey, as any father would. He took us as his family,
without question, without hesitation and smiling the whole time as well.
He always encourages me and I have never ever heard him put me down.
When I ask him a question and ask him to answer it honestly, he does. He
gives me his opinion on things, but he ultimately lets me make my decision and
stands beside me after its made. He makes breakfast, which I don't like to
do, on the weekends. Even though he works hard there are still times that
he comes home and fixes dinner and more often than not he is the one that cleans
up afterwards, if I have to give Kole a bath, or just spend some 'girl' time
with Kelsey.
He is one of Kelsey's biggest cheerleaders at her softball and basketball
games. He helps Kelsey with her math homework. He seems to
sense when Kelsey and I need our girl time. So he and Kole go do something
while we go do our thing as well.
He is the one who makes sure we go to church, because quite frankly I would
be sorely tempted to just sleep in. Which, by the way on a lot of
Saturday's he makes sure that Kole stays quiet and shuts the door so that I can
do so.
Our motto, after finding out that he had cancer, is 'you and me'. Its
the first thing I said to him after the doctor closed the door and left us alone
in the room.
I have no doubt that when we are old and wrinkled that we will be sitting
in rocking chairs on our front porch, laughing and talking about old times, good
times and how blessed we have been in our lives.
My husband, is one person among many of who I am thankful for. But
the thing that I love the most, is that just about every day, every
day.....
He still asks me to marry him.
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