Our paperwork that was being sent here overnight, went to Mexico. So we are going to have to change our court date until Wednesday. It is the orginal date that we thought we were going to court. So we will be patient. We have had such good timing that if this is the only hiccup we will be okay.
We did get Jaryd some shoes today and finished shopping for clothes for Jacob. I will still need to get Jacob some shoes. Poor little guy the Children's Home has him in shoes that are way too small for his feet. His little toys are smashed in the front of his shoes.
Visits went well today. English is going slow. We are still working on that. We stopped giving the moon and the stars today, only the moon. Jaryd wasn't very happy. We decided that he didn't need so much sugar. He starts bouncing off the walls. He wasn't very happy about that.
Alyssa is having some more breakdown moments. We are trying to cope as we know she is making some major changes in her life. Our patience is getting a little thin at times. Please keep us in your prayers.
Here are a few more pictures.
Kevin, Tammy, Jaryd, Jacob, Alyssa, and Kailyn
3 comments:
I am looking at your blog with Robin and Dillon. Dillon is quite excited!! He keeps telling me, "Jacob is my age, and I want to go see Aunt Tammy and Uncle Kevin so I can play with him".
I enjoying reading and looking at the pictures. We are all quite excited to get to meet them!!
Sending our love..
Donnie, Crystal, Donnie, Dillon and Robin
I am looking at your blog with Robin and Dillon. Dillon is quite excited!! He keeps telling me, "Jacob is my age, and I want to go see Aunt Tammy and Uncle Kevin so I can play with him".
I enjoying reading and looking at the pictures. We are all quite excited to get to meet them!!
Sending our love..
Donnie, Crystal, Donnie, Dillon and Robin
English will likely go slow until you get home. It is amazing how fast they pick it up once they're in an environment where they need it, though. Right now, he doesn't see a need for it, so there probably isn't a lot of motivation on his part to sit down and concentrate. He very likely doesn't get the "big picture" yet, either. From his perspective, you all may be the first English he's ever heard in his life. He understands what's going on around him just fine and assumes it will always be this way. You're the ones who really need the language lessons. :-)
That will all change in few weeks when he comes home, though. Once Joseph moved in with us, it didn't take long to figure out that he actually did better on the days when he was JUST with us, no translators or going back and forth, etc. By the time he was home 6 weeks, he knew enough English to get his needs met and communicate basic thoughts. At that point, he refused to engage with anyone in Ukrainian anymore, including his beloved translator and was already showing signs of forgetting it.
So, until you get home, it may be best just to focus on getting to know each other. Take some nice evening walks, point out things in English and have him tell you what they are in Ukrainian/Russian, and otherwise just enjoy being together.
As for Alyssa, this is a tough thing for her and it will be for a long time to come. Right now she's probably hot and tired and sick of the food, being dragged around to all the big people stuff, not sleeping in her own bed, and is probably terrified of the older kids and conditions at the internat. And, of course, she's no longer the queen bee!
Once you get home, as much as possible, have your older grown kids really dote on HER and spend as much alone time with her as possible. Your hands will be more than full with your three new blessings and you won't be able to do it. It is SOOOO easy for the sweet little bios to get lost in the shuffle.
We were heavily warned about this when we first got home as well. Despite our best efforts to make it otherwise, it still happened...and with some not so great outcomes, too. From one who's been there and done that, do everything you can starting now to minimize the impact and prevent it from happening. For details about what happened to our daughter right under our noses, check out our blog post about the first day of school. :-(
In the short run, though, a new toy from the flea market just for her every once in a while goes a LONG way! So do short trips to the local park or community playground, serving ice cream for breakfast (seriously) and a phone call or two home to the states to talk to whomever she wants, even if it is her little friend who lives next door or something.
Hang in there. You're in a tough inning of the game right now. Try to soak in and enjoy Ukraine as much as possible. In the not so very distant future, it will seem like a dream and you'll be asking yourself "did we really do that?"
Wishing you much peace and many blessings!
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