The four month mark......

The Moscow Circus was a very nice but we can't post any pictures because they did not allow us to take any. The kids really enjoyed it. Kristina was very interested in the music. They both thought it was really cool and liked it very much when their big brother went up on the stage with the clowns and did a little skit. Keegan on the other hand was a tad embarrassed.

On Tuesday, I took John to his new pre-school. He really liked it. He will be going 5 days a week for 2 1/2 hours a day. A school bus will pick him up and drop him off each day. We know that he is excited to be going to "his own" school but we aren't sure which excites him more - school or riding a school bus. He is going to start this week.

We had Kristina's parent/teacher conference on Thursday. The teacher said that she is so impressed with her and how quickly she is learning new things. She says that Kristina is ready to start learning to read. We are so super proud of her. Kristina has also been involved in an after school tutoring program to help her with her language skills. This is done with a junior high student. We were a little worried about it because it took her almost three months to be sure enough of herself to say new things to her big brother so we were not sure how she would do with a stranger. But again, they say she is doing very well. On a side note.....the school tested Kristina for her reading level. Needless to say we laughed when we got the letter that stated that she scored a zero. What did they think she would score? Because of the zero, she qualifies for additional reading help. Come on now we could have told them that before they tested her. But anyway, she will now get extra help in reading two days a week. That's all that really counts - is that she gets the extra help so she can succeed.

On Friday, we signed John up for kindergarten. He will start in the fall. We won't know until then whether it is morning or afternoon. By then, he will have at least a few months in pre-school so it won't be a brand new experience for him.

My birthday was Saturday and I decided that what I wanted for a present was a night away with the family. So we went to the Mayan Adventures Waterpark in Elmhurst, Illinois. We had a blast.

Enjoy the pictures!

By the way..........we have a camera shy fifteen year old. But we were telling him that he needs to take John to the local water park by us in the summer. John is a real ladies man and had all the lady life guards "helping" him out of the slide. He would hold up his arms and say "help please" and they would pick him up and help him out. We tease Keegan that he is going to need to teach John to say "Hey that's my big brother - want to meet him?"

The kids have come a long way in such a short time. This past four months have flown bye. We have been truly blessed. We actually have been thinking about the kids language. If we were to guess, we would say that there might be about ten words left that the kids still say in Russian, everything else is in English. One to three word answers mostly but they are improving every day.

Thank you for following along with us on this wonderful journey! More to come I'm sure........

Recent Stuff.............

Last Friday night, we took the kids to the Monster Truck Jam. They had a blast. Kristina rooted for the "dog" truck. John rooted for Grave Digger (because he got a hat of Grave Digger when he got his cotton candy). Keegan rooted for Nitro Circus. Kenny and I didn't really root for anyone in particular just wanted the kids to have fun. We heard things like....."that was cool" "did you see that?" "Wow - look at that" and so many more. It is fair to say they had fun! And cotton candy is good stuff.

http://www.moscowcircus.biz/

We have tickets to attend the Moscow Circus this weekend, but we had a very good friend that passed away and we have to attend the funeral on Saturday, but we are hoping we can still make it to the circus. If we do, we will post pictures next week.

Today we had pre-school screening done on John. Where to begin? I guess there are just people that will never get it. The two ladies in charge were very excited to see him and knew that he was adopted from Russia and has only been in the states since October 28th. But I guess they forgot to tell all the women doing the testing. The first two tests, cutting with scissors and matching went very very well. This is where it all goes downhill. The next lady was showing John pictures and wanted him to say the words. They called me in to the room to see if I could help her out. The first picture she showed John was of a bed. She of course wanted him to say "bed", well John didn't. Instead he said "sleep". The next picture was a teacup and she wanted him to say "cup", instead he said drink. She got frustrated with him and looked at me and said so he doesn't speak English? He's Russian? So he doesn't understand the directions I told him? I told her yes he speaks some English. Yes he is Russian. And yes I believe he understood your directions, he just doesn't know the word for those pictures but knows what to do with them. In the meantime, John was touching the cards that she was using to quiz him and she raised her voice and said you can turn the card after you say "cup". John went into defensive mode. Shoulders up, head down and completely turned away from her. I looked at her and said "you lost him". The lady in charge came over and said maybe we can try again in a little bit. I told her it was useless now, since she raised her voice at him, he was not going to have anything to do with her again. So I took him out in the hall and got ready to leave. The other lady in charge came out and tried to apologize and say "she came in late and did not realize he had been adopted from Russia". I told her what difference did that make, she should not be talking that way to any child. She then gave me her card and told me that John was eligible for services due to being adopted from Russia and that he could attend the pre-school for 2 1/2 hours every day Monday thru Friday. She wants Kenny and I to bring John there to check it out. I asked her if the lady doing the testing was one of the teachers and she told me "no". I told her we would come check it out because we want only what is best for our children and if extra services were available then we would check it out. But after leaving, I realized that there are some people that will just never get it, but that's why we have to be our children's biggest advocates and fight for them. Don't worry guys..................mom and dad will always be on your side and fight for you no matter what!

Three Months Home - Where have the spasibas gone?

Today marks the three month anniversary of the kids being home in the United States. So many things have changed.

Papa has become Dad or Daddy

Mama has become Mom or Mommy

Babushka has become Grandma

Spasiba has become Thank you

Nyet has become No, Nope, or Nah

Da has become Yes or Yea

Sobaka has become Dog (Most of time)

Kushka has become Kitty (Most of the time)

Some things haven't changed.

The kids attachment to their big brother - they love him.

They still will not eat ice cream.

They don't like green beans. (imagine that...)

They love their dogs.

The kids truly amaze us everyday. We were told Kristina was a slow learner and would have problems learning new things. Well just last night, she did an entire math page of addition and totally amazed her dad and I on how smart she is and how quickly she is learning new things. Her teacher is so impressed with her that she is now starting to work with her on specific letters, sounds and not just working on saying and learning different words. We were told John had a speech development delay. You couldn't tell that now. He is coming up with new words everyday. Right now you will hear him say at least once a day........"Daddy my car (truck, train, toy) needs batteries." Keegan thru all of this has been wonderful. He really loves his brother and sister and enjoys being with them and playing with them. He even makes sure that he helps Kristina with her homework at least once if not twice a week. He always makes sure he does a project with his little brother at least once a week and always helps him with his train. Thru all of this Keegan has kept his grades up and made the honor roll not only for second quarter but also for the first semester. We are super super proud of him! Actually we are super, super proud of all three of our children. Right now, we wouldn't change a thing!

We know that our family has been blessed and we are truly grateful for what we have.

The kids first train ride - December 27th

We left from University Park and took the electric line to the end. The kids had a blast and looked out the window most of the ride.

The kids looking at one of the store windows at Marshall Field's......ooops sorry Macy's.

Kristina riding a bull! A cold steel one at that!

The boys at the garden at Nay Pier.

After walking thru the gardens we went to the Winter Wonderland that was being held in the exhibit halls of Navy Pier!

The Russian Santa Claus. He sure is beautiful!





The kids riding the carousel!

John is smiling!

Kristina loves the ride!

The kids riding the mini ferris wheel!

The kids had a blast! We all did! The Winter Wonderland was a carnival indoors. They had kids rides, a train, a dinosaur ride, a big ferris wheel and a mini ferris wheel, a hang gliding ride for the big kids, and lots of jumpy things for the kids to climb on and jump in and slide down. The kids enjoyed it a lot. They were not scared of any of it. Maybe that should scare us a little bit, but we like rides too! After the Winter Wonderland, we had dinner at Bubba Gump's on Navy Pier. The kids don't like shrimp, but that's okay there was plenty of other things for them to try. They got their lunches in paper boats that had to make the trip home with us and are now on their dressers. The train ride home was uneventful and when we got the kids in the car to go home they were very tired, all three of them. The ride home was about 30 minutes in the car and I believe all three were sleeping within 5 minutes of leaving the train station.

Christmas Day

Our stockings!

Kristina with a game for her Leapster!

Keegan got a basketball jersey!

John opening a present from Santa!

A girl and her dog, Bruister! She loves him!!!

Kristina wearing our nephew Rob's storm trooper helmet!

John finally putting the helmet on! He was a little scared of it for a while!

John just being cute!

Christmas Day is spent at our house! We wake up and open presents and play for a while! Then in the afternoon, my side (Gloria) of the family comes over and we have Christmas dinner and a gift exchange. After that is all over, the ladies play a dice game in which we roll dice to get doubles and win presents. We play for about an hour and the presents get taken over and over again and we laugh a lot and make a lot of noise. The boys like to watch us and put in their two cents about which gifts we should steal and which ones they would like to have.

We know that this Christmas was extra special for our family and our gifts were truly gifts from God and we could not be happier! Merry Christmas (a little late) from our house to yours!

Christmas Eve

My sister in law Sue gave the kids matching pajamas with their names on them. So all three of our kids wore them to bed on Christmas Eve. We were able to take a few pictures before they headed off to bed.

Christmas Eve is spent with the Duda Family at Kenny's older brother's house. We all get together and exchange our gifts and have a wonderful lasagna dinner prepared by my mother in law. This year we had to do things a little different. Kenny's sister and her family are in Germany. Our brother in law is in the Army. So this being the case, we were unable to see the kids open their gifts because Germany is 7 hours ahead of us, but we got to see Sue and Don and baby Grace over the computer using Skype. It was different, but at least they still got to be part of the celebration. It was very nice, they got to see all of the kids open the gifts from them. Like I mentioned above, they sent us the monogrammed pj's for the kids. I loved them and even started to cry when they opened them. The kids as well as us were spoiled by the family again. We loved each and everything we got.

Christmas Party - December 20th

Kristina right before leaving for the annual Duda Pre-Christmas celebration!

Our boys on the way to the party in the car!

Our big guy has always loved the "big guy"!

Kristina loves Santa! She thinks he is really cool!

Well John is another story..............Santa is okay because he brings him presents but he was not having anything to do with sitting on his lap.

We had a blast at the party and the kids got to meet some new people. Friends and family both. The kids were very excited about all the presents and getting to see Santa two nights in a row. When going to bed that night, Kristina asked if Santa would be here tomorrow. (Most of the question was in Russian). I had to explain that Christmas was not for a few days yet!