Family 2013

Family 2013
Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

My 6 little beauties :)

From left~
Baby girl-2 yrs
Bug- 9 yrs
Peanut-almost 12
Taya-4 1/2
Boo-4
Benji- 5

= A VERY HAPPY MAMA :)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Catch up

Our view out the window from our room at the church.
 The church home we were blessed to stay with. They were so kind and just funny and wonderful :)
 This little sweetie stole my heart the last few days. She is in Benji's OLD groupa ;) and I thought she was a boy, due to the clothes and hair until I started playing with her close up on this day and realized she is a GIRL FULL of smiles and joy :) She stole my heart. Not sure if she has CP or what, but she is so sweet and loving. A caregive took her back to the room while we were playing and she began to cry really hard. Broke my heart. So I walked right in, and went up and dried her tears and rubbed her cheek. What a beauty. Then a sweet nurse brought me an apple to give her and she calmed down :) She deserves a family. I wonder if she is adoptable? I will try to find out. so very sweet.
 Tayas old room :( way too many cribs with little orphans in them. How I wish I could make them ALL understand they are valuable and loved and should never ever give up. How can we do that? I had to walk away and not even pick them up....I made no difference in their lives. I couldnt. And it makes me sick.
 Benji and his BFF sharing a last hug. How we loved this little guy.
 My sweet girl when we first arrived back at the church. She was having a major flipping backward meltdown so I plopped her right down on the floor :)
 Benji entering our room at the church :) Home away from home !

 Taya starting to look a bit tired. Although she was thrilled with her ball and monkey :)

This is another one of the little cutie. Look at those eyes! Beautiful child who deserves a family. She is lucky to be in Benjis old groupa , they are kind and take great care of the kids-but what happens when it is time to be transfered? To an institution? How long will she last?

This is us at the sda, Serge took it for us. If I posted it already, sorry. Wanted you to see what it looks like. No biggie at all. Actually the lady we had never even spoke to us or really looked at us.
I am so behind I dont know if I should just keep going in order or for those of you that arent facebook  friends, share the bumps we had? For now I will just go in order , because cute pics make everything better :)

The kids are doing AMAZING. TRULY, I know it may be a honeymoon phase but so far things are just so smooth I am shocked :) heehee. Really I look at my 6 kiddos and just smile :) THIS is what my life is supposed to be. Taking care of my littles :) I love seeing my 3 (hopefully 4) small ones running and playing together . Love making 3 breakfast plates and a few jars of baby food then big kid food . Happy mama :)

Next post- being removed from the airplane (nice) and rushing to a clinic then the hospital for a 3 day stay for my very sick baby :( so very scary.
Hugs!!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Free Baby FREE :)

Some seriously happy, giddy parents of 6 !!

This is the amazing beautiful room that we received our new birth certificate for Taya. The sweet lady played music and presented her new bc to us :) it was so sweet and touching.


    
Benji's favorite caregiver and his best friend :)

Bundled up and walking out to a life with a forever family :)
Taya was NOT happy to be changed :( she wanted me to hold
 her.
Mama and Taya in the car finally and never to see that HOT SAD, ROOM again! She was highly stressed and was doing alot of clicking and rocking. She worked herself up a bit getting changed . My heart broke walking out and past all the kids in her room I would never see again. I felt so sick and defeated like I had let them down by just walking out of their lives....and leaving them there. To fight to matter to someone everyday. To fight to survive , to fight to smile. To fight to be loved.

Hugs.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

I won!

The worst blogger ever award that is ;) thank you Jodi and Gretchen,you  meanies :)

I know my blogging has well....sucked. I admit it :) but its not as easy as you think to keep up, with sketchy internet moving from trains to apartments then hospitals then planes then home to a flood. Yup that ALL happened , got alot to catch you up on :)

Right now Taya seems to be having an allergic reaction to something so more later, see told ya I am hopping!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Proud mama and Papa

Of 6 kiddos ! We became Benji's and Taya's official parents on October 12 ! SO happy. Our 10 day waiting period was waived, so we ran like crazy ALL DAY yesterday to finish every piece of paper so we can spring the kids today, and take the train to Kyiv tonite :):)
What an amazing journey. oh AND Benji's best friend IS adoptable ! His only sn is mild mental delay :) Marina promised me she would get him on Reeces Rainbow and I promised to advocate like crazy for this little sweetie and find him a family of his own!! He is an amazing little boy :)

Hugs!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Cheeky kids :)

 Looks like our boy is left handed . That is a first for our family. As soon as I handed him the pen and notebook he was thrilled ! He picked it up right and after a bit of practice was scribbling away :)
 We also bought some playdoh to spice things up a bit :) He loved to cut it into pieces. It was fun for about 20 mins until that evil little laugh came out and he started shoving it in his mouth! eek ;) we put it away after that ...
 How beautiful is this little boy of ours ?? We are so in love with him. (that is Taya's blankie btw)
Love my little Taya baby :) I HATE sitting in this dingy room , sweating, but HAPPILY endure to spend some quality with my baby girl :) She smiles when she sees us and reaches for me ! Makes it all worth it , to give her a bright spot in her day out of the crib. She eats potatoes, beets and some odd blended food each meal. She doesnt chew yet or drink from a cup, but thats ok..we will take it slow and like a new baby she will learn everything in time. She has had a bit of bad luck but God has been watching her and keeping her safe :)

Notice the fire/burn marks on the wall behind me? oye. That is scary to think about.
 Benji lovs to open the little backpack bags and discover the toys of the day :)
 I would love to buy crib toys for all the kids in Tayas group. I dont know if they would use them but it would be so wonderful for the children. They have nothing in their cribs to occupy them all day.....
 Mama sweating on the lumpy , old couch. Wish we could buy them a new one ....I had to crack a window!
Beets :) yummy. She actually seems to like them. The mystery blended food -not so much.

COURT DATE IS TUESDAY !!!!! :):) SO happy.

Hugs!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Leaving friends behind~ and cuteness



(Notice benji is grabbing his hand and telling him he has to go back to the room :)

This little guy has stolen our hearts. ALL the children here deserve mommys and daddys of their own, but this little guy along with a certain little girl (ahem :) have the biggest hearts and their ache for a family is so hard to bear. This little guy is so sweet and loving, blows kisses , talks up a storm and is our Benji's best friend since they were babys. It breaks my heart to think of the loss he will feel when both his best friends are gone :( you see the little girl we love is Stacey , Jenny's little one. She will be going home very soon too. He will be without his best friends. If we were approved for 3 , I betcha we would be scooping him up. He is a doll. I dont think he has Ds..he is crossed eyed at times and very thin but just beautiful and sweet. Pray for him, please. He is very calm , follows directions and just loves to steal hugs :) Hoping he can find a family thru Reeces Rainbow. I have to email andrea and see if that is possible.
ok-taya and benji cuteness...




 here benji is showing me a "triangle" for the roof of a doghouse in his book ! Smart boy :)
 stealing kisses from my sweet taya baby :)
cheeky girl :) she loves when i kiss in her ears :)

hugs!!!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Still here , and baby its cold outside !

Its a bit nippy outside :)  40 with a wind blowing. Father Andrew worries we are cold and keeps bringing me a coat :) Silly me didnt pack for 40 degree weather! Sarah, remember how HOT we were in Kyiv?

Nice visit with Benji yesterday and today. There is a little boy in his group that he is best friends with since baby's I am told. He is so precious. Not sure he has Ds , the only thing I notice is he has crossed eyes at times. He LOVES MY HUBBY! Runs past me to hug him :) Then he comes back to me ;) He desperately needs a mama and papa of his own. He talks well (not that I can understand him :) and walks and runs. he is tiny and thinner then Benji but just beautiful inside and out :) He isnt on Reeces Rainbow, but I hope he can be. I feel so sad to think of him being left here without his lifelong friend/brother :(
Benji is good for almost the whole visit then he gets a bit stir crazy and tries to living things up :) He jumps on the little end table and tried to pull the mirror off the wall-then laughed like crazy when I snatched him down ..next he grabbed a potted plant off the window ledge (they love potted plants here, its nice) and I grabbed it just in time, but a bunch of dirt fell out! I was trying to scoop it up quick-the only grumpy lady happened to be working today, and I knew she would scold him. We will work on some boundaries once home-he is such a sweet boy, and he listens very well to his caregivers. Just a healthy little boy :)

Taya is doing good. She is learning new things each day-so we know she is capable of growing and blossoming. She has learned to make kissing sounds, turn on her baby einstein music toy, and to bounce her leg to the rhythmn of my iphone. Oh the iphone she LOVES. You have to pry it out of her hand :) she lays her face of the screen and just zones out the the music. She has so much potential and she will be ok :):)
She had a new pj on today, it was size 18-24 and fit her little feet much better.  I was able to feed her again-wow can she put the food away! I really doubt they normally feed her 2 bowls of food plus a bottle of hot tea, or she wouldnt be this small, or maybe its the quality of the food?I dont know, but she ate all I fed her , nice and neatly then a big BURP! It makes us happy to know she is going down for her nap with a full tummy. She is sad when we give her back which is nice and not nice ya know? I just want to take her out, but we have to wait. I shouldnt complain, I have only been away from my kids for 2 weeks. SO MANY families have been stuck away for so much longer.
Interpol may be in monday, which means we may have court monday. Lots of maybes. I will let you know :)

The church is a nice homey place to be. They take very good care of us. Father Andrew took us site seeing yesterday and it was a lot of fun. He made us hike up a steep hill to see out over the river. It was worth it but I did think I was going to roll down it and die ;)  (Gretchen did you hike up there ?)

Still looking for anne-marie or gavin and alexander...havent seen any kids but a few little typical toddlers outside. It is too cold for them to bring most kids out.
Thanks for following our journey, its nice to know we arent alone :)
LOVE MY KIDDOS !!!!MISS YOU GUYS!!!



HUGS!! See that GIANT hill behind Father and Sister?? That is where we hiked. Oye :)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Taya and her blankie :) Benji in his parka ;)

We gave Taya her blankie today. She kept taking her too cute tongue out and feeling it . So sweet. She has a tongue that would make Gene Simmons envious ;) Then she would stroke the minkie fabric with her little bent fingers :) Oh so sweet. She loves my iphone, she rests herr face on the phone and just listens to the music. She walked to us today again, holding her caregivers hand but she did it :)

Benji ran and greeted us with cheers of "mama , papa!" He was wearing a tshirt, a turtleneck, and a sherpa parka inside :) he was very sweet today, no table tossing :) we played with a sticker book and looked at magazines.



So tired of hanging out in this dingy room, listening to little ones cry :(  These children ALL DESERVE to have mommys coming for them. They need hope and love .

Hugs!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Interpool...oye and more smiles





We have court on thursday IF our interpool clearance comes in. If so we should be on our way home next week :)
Kids are awesome. Taya is a doll. Benji is all boy with lots of hugs thrown in. He was pitching tables again today, so daddy put them on top of the lockers :) Then he settled down to play bubbles and trucks. It is hard to leave them each day. Taya cries, which breaks my heart. I have peeked in her room. I see SOME of what she sees and hears. Breaks my heart.
cold here. 41 tonite. and we have sore throats again :( bummer. We are staying at the catholic church and they spoil us. Truly they are so very kind, Perfect place to be when we are following Gods plan.
Hugs!!
** ps. love you kids! miss you all so much. thanks to granma nana and papop and aunt mem :):)
"...Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know, and holds us responsible to ACT..." Proverbs 24:12

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -(Mahatma Gandhi)