Saturday, January 27, 2007

Lawrence's First Week of School




Lawrence started school this past week. He attends half day kindergarten. We have been talking about school for the past 2 weeks preparing him for his first day. We talked about Dad's school, visited my school (I'm a teacher), and visited his school. We'd been counting down the days on the calendar. He was so excited to finally start! Only once did he have second thoughts, that we know of. We were discussing school one night at dinner. He thought everyone would be speaking Russian and was a little shocked to hear that it would all be in English. He got past this and was okay.

Bill stayed with him all morning the first day. Lawrence really didn't pay much attention to him, though. He settled right in with the rest of the class and went about his day. One little girl spent most of her day showing him around, making sure he knew what to do. The next day, I stayed for about half an hour. Then, on Friday, I walked him to his class and left. What a big boy!! We're very proud of him and how he is adjusting to his new school!! He always comes home and tells us he was a good boy at school.

He absolutely loves his classroom, his teacher, and especially being around other kids. I think he was missing being with the friends from his groupa. He can write his first name with a little prompting and is working on his last name. He can also sing the ABC song and recognizes quite a few of the letters. He can almost count to 20. He can recognize a few colors. He's got some catching up to do, but I don't think he will have too many problems. We just have to keep up his positive attitude!

William likes being home with Mom, but that changes next week when I go back to work:( I start back at my school next Monday and Bill becomes Mr. Mom!! I can't wait to hear how his days go. It will give him a taste of how my life will be when he transitions into his new job and I stay home all day. Things will probably be a little rough at first for him, but they will run smoothly after awhile.

Each day and every day the boys continue to amaze us with what they know! They understand more and more English every day and add several words to their vocab. We are full of joy and happiness and are very blessed to have these boys in our lives. Bill and I are always worn out by the end of the day, but it's all worth it!!

Peace,
Kelly
P.S.
The first picture is of Lawrence's first day at school. The second is of the family at their Welcome to the Family party and the last is of them in our yard after an ice storm.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

So Much to Say, So Little Time!

Since our last post, many wonderful, exciting things have happened! I'll start with our trip to New York City. Many of you know Bill has been working on an MBA at U of M for the past 4 years, I think. This past fall, he went through the recruiting process to search for a new job. He ended up with three offers, one that would allow us to stay in Michigan, one that would take us to Cleveland and the other to New York City. Because of our adoption, he couldn't make a final decision until these last 2 weeks, when he would be able to visit the offices.

Okay, that all being said, this brings us to our trip to NYC. The company offered to pay for Bill and I to fly out on January 12 and return January 13. I wasn't about to leave my boys, since we'd only been home 2 weeks. He spoke with people at the company about the cost of the tickets, so we could pay for the boys to come with us. To our surprise, they paid for our family to visit NYC, see his office and his possible future boss showed us around some neighborhoods in New Jersey.

The flight there was uneventful. The boys were excited about flying on a "samalyot," airplane again and didn't seem worried that maybe we were sending them back. The boys and I had lunch together and hung out in the hotel room until we needed to head to the office to meet everyone for dinner. I wasn't about to go out and explore the city with 2 kids who barely understand me! I didn't want to risk losing them.

We spent Saturday with Bill's future boss (by the way, he accepted the job at SMCG!). His boss showed us around some neighborhoods in New Jersey. We thought they were very nice and we could live in any of the ones he showed us. We will be headed to New Jersey in June after school is out. We're very sad to leave behind family and friends, but this is a great career opportunity for Bill.

The trip home was another story!! Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:30 pm. Well, we didn't get on the plane until 6:3o pm. Okay, we finally are going home. Wrong! We sat on the runway and waited for take-off for 40 minutes. This did not bode well with William. He started screaming and talking as loud as he could. The plane was silent and dark except for our little guy! Thankfully, he fell asleep shortly after take-off.


What would be a post without some humor? The boys of course have kept us entertained. Here's a sampling of some of the happenings that have made us smile:

Both boys are fully potty trained, but William, a.k.a. "Picasso," is still working on his wiping technique. After reviewing the process with William, Bill returned to the bathroom to see the boy doing his paper work. He was showing proper form, except for one detail: his sweater tail was firmly wedged between the paper and his intended target.

Bill tried to explain where the grandfather went that was pictured in the photo album that we took over to introduce them to the family. Since he had passed away, Bill pointed skyward, hoping the message "he's in heaven" got through. Later that night, however, it was clear that it did not: when Bill said "OK, time for bed" and pointed upstairs, both boys jumped up and down in terror yelling "NO! NO! Grandfather's up there!"

In the next post, I'll talk about Lawrence's first week of school!

Peace & love,
Bill, Kelly, Lawrence, & William

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Tuesday, Jan. 9



I am posting 2 entries today so be sure to read this one and the one after it. The next one goes back to our last days in Ukraine and the first few days at home.

We've been home almost 2 weeks now! Time goes by too quickly! We've been busy running to stores, buying clothes, more furniture for the bedroom, and various odds and ends that are needed for the boys. I bet the boys think the only thing Americans do is get in the "mashina" (car) and go to the "magazin" (store). Lawrence and William don't seem to mind and there haven't been any tantrums, yet.

Overall, we feel like the boys are adjusting to their new family very well. They are very affectionate towards us and wake us up each morning at 7:00 a.m. with a very loud, "Dobre Utra!!" translation, Good Morning. Then, they hop into bed with us and shower us with hugs and kisses. We love it, despite the fact that it is too early in the morning!

We are working on establishing daily routines. We spend the day playing games, going outside, reading books, and watching their favorite movie, "Aladdin, King of Thieves." We'd like to get the little guy to take an afternoon nap, but so far that's hit or miss. The oldest doesn't necessarily need one (he's six) and William wants to do whatever big brother does. This may change when Lawrence starts kindergarten in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, he'll have p.m. kindergarten, then we can put William down for a nap while big brother is at school.

Our dog, Bosco, is getting better aquainted with having two kids running around and making a lot of noise. Normally, we have nieces and nephews over for a weekend and then they go back home. These kids are here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Lawrence adores Bosco. He helps take care of him and always gives him hugs. On the other hand, William, plays really rough with him, sits on him, pulls on his tail, lips, and just about every other part you can imagine. Luckily, Bosco is a very gentle, well-behaved dog and does not react to any of this. We've had him since he was 6 months old and put him through obedience training, which included desensitizing his body to all the things that William does.

Bill & I talked about how Bosco would react to having kids in the house before our rugrats arrived. He's very protective of us and figured he'd probably start watching over our children when they arrived. Boy, were we right! He no longer sleeps on the floor at the end of our bed. He either hops into bed with Lawrence or he sleeps on the floor between the 2 boys. He has been my baby for a long time, so, at first, this saddened me a little. Now, though, it makes me smile that he wants to be with them and make sure that they are safe. Bosco is their guardian dog.

William got his stitches out a week ago without much fuss. The cut healed well and we've been applying Mederma for Kids to minimize the scar. Each of the boys have doctor's appointments in the next 2 weeks. They should go okay because the University of Michigan Health Care System provides translators if needed. We'll have one at their appointments. They also have dental appointments. That should be fun!

Well, we are going to try and post once or twice a week to keep everyone updated about the boys. We feel truly blessed and are so grateful to have 2 wonderful sons! We have to say thank you again to everyone who shared kind words and shed a few tears with us along the way. Family and friends kept our spirits high while we were gone. Now, we look forward to everyone sharing in the lives of our boys and watching them grow up with us!

Peace & love,

Kelly & Bill

Post Written, Dec. 30

Dear Family and Friends,


We are all home and in one piece. It's been a while since the last post, so I'll go back to when we arrived in Kiev, last Tuesday morning.

We arrived in town at 7 am and met the landlady at the new apartment. William was vocalizing so strongly his need for the toilet that Elena just asked the landlady to take him quickly. She must be a mother, because she didn't hesitate. We caught up to the two of them, and discovered a very nice apartment. This one was by far the best one yet. My favorite feature was the bed—a real bed, not a bed-like cot. There was plenty of room for the boys to play, also. It was located right downtown near Independence Square (we highly recommend this for folks heading over their in the future).

We only had time to freshen up before we had to go to our doctor’s appointment. The boys were tired and cranky, but we got through the process alright. The boys were pronounced healthy, except for a few minor problems that were in agreement with what we already knew about.

Our next visit was to the embassy, where we would obtain their travel visas. It was a long process, because they were operating on a reduced staff due to the holiday. I was feeling worse and worse, but figured it was just sleepiness. After we finally got the visas at 2 pm, I realized that I was, in fact, becoming sick. I had muscle aches, fever and chills.

When we got back to the apartment, I had to go straight to bed, leaving Kelly to juggle both boys, who were very cranky. I awoke around 8, to find the boys bouncing off the walls and Kelly climbing them. We calmed them down by getting them into the bathtub for their first bath. They loved it! Since then, they’ve begun begging for baths the minute they wake up. They also really like to brush their teeth! This leaves us with the very curious dilemma of whether or not to ever utter: “if you’re not good today, you won’t get to take your bath!”

Even though they had been up for so long, they still had a lot of fight in them when it came to bedtime. Lawrence asked to sleep on the couch, and we accommodated, but that only lasted for five minutes after William started sleeping with Momma and Poppa. His little brother is a kicker, though, so Lawrence ended up at the foot of the bed by morning.

Wednesday:

This was a fun day, because it was our first full day with the boys all on our own. We made an appearance outside, visiting some stores and letting the boys soak it all up. Independence Square is the vibrant heart of the city, alive with pre-New Year’s celebrations, shopping and socializing.

Thursday:

This was our last full day in the city, and we hired the driver and Luiba for a few hours to buy souvenirs. We visited the vendor stalls near the SDA, which cater to souvenir seekers. We found some beautiful Matruishkas and embroidery, as well other stuff. We also found some more clothes for the kids, and visited the beautiful Christmas tree in the square.

While we were souvenir shopping, Kelly had her heart warmed when Luiba took William back to the car because he was cold, then returned to let us know that he was crying because he missed his Mama.

Friday:

The big day: we had a 3 hour flight from Kiev to Amsterdam, then an 8 hour flight home, followed by customs and immigration. The boys were a handful, especially since we had two seats at the front of the 747 and two at the rear, and both boys preferred to sit next to Momma. William hit a rough patch where he had a full blown tantrum for half an hour. William slept for only 2 hours, and Lawrence none at all, so they were very cranky. Lawrence was very interested in the map that showed where the jet was on its flight path, and kept pointing to the end of the arrow saying with genuine excitement, “America!” then hugging me.

When we finally landed and made it through immigration and customs, it was 7 pm local time. Kelly’s mother and sister were there to pick us up, and thus got to meet the boys first. At home were my parents. They had prepared sloppy joes and snacks. Kelly’s family had fixed up the boys’ room, even doing some painting for us. We had a lot of fun introducing the boys to their new families, as my three sisters showed up during the next three hours.

We soon, however, had a new test as a family. William was spinning around in the living room and fell over, hitting his head on the coffee table. He gave himself a deep cut on the bridge of his nose, right between his eyes. Kelly showed great nerve as she tried to calm William as the blood streamed down his face. My parents agreed to watch after Lawrence while we went to the hospital.

We went to the emergency room, where William was terrified. He screamed every time someone came into the room and whimpered when they left. I’m not sure what he was saying, but he kept repeating something over and over that ended with “good boy.” I think maybe he was saying to us that he’d be a good boy, if only we’d go home. It was not a pleasant time for him, as his temperature was taken (not orally). The doctor also was interested in the rash on his hands, and said that he had to be naked. You all know by now that unless there’s a bath involved, William isn’t too enthusiastic about getting undressed. Both of these involved Mama and Papa pinning him down while the doctor worked. The hardest part turned out to be the stitches, of which William received three.

The rash turned out to be scabies, which is an infestation of mites that is very itchy. Because it is highly contagious, the doctor recommended that we all apply the curative cream that very night. The cream had to be applied to every nook and cranny from the neck down, and left on overnight for 8 hours. This also meant that we had to wake Lawrence up when we got home from his much needed sleep.

This was a short cranky night of sleep, but we all survived!

Peace & love,

Bill & Kelly