Our Big Adoption Journey

Friday, June 24, 2011

We are not The Cleavers! - You are not alone!

I have thought long and hard about this post….I have read some of the other bloggers posts and feel bad about what I am about to say………we did not have a lot of struggles when we got home. Maybe because our kids were 4 and 8 when we got home. Don’t get me wrong, there were/are obstacles just nothing that we were not expecting.

~Of course the language barrier was the biggest, but I believe that the kids wanted to impress us so much that they worked really hard on understanding what we were asking of them.

~We did have some hitting of ourselves. We believe that was their way to get one on one attention. This went away rather quickly.

~We had difficulty getting the kids to apologize and/or admit if they did something they were not suppose to. We think that they were worried that if they admitted they did something they would get into more trouble. This is something that we are still dealing with to this day.

~Kristina’s medical stated she had a convergent squint – well we got her glasses within two weeks of being home and now you could never tell there was a problem. She really wants to get contacts and the next trip to the eye doctor we will talk to them about it. (Mom and big brother both wear contacts)

~She also was labeled a “bed wetter” at the Children’s Home. I think we went thru maybe a two week time period that this happened. She learned very quickly that it was okay to get up during the night if she needed to. She has told us numerous times that once she was in bed at the Children’s Home she was not allowed to get out no matter what.

~John’s medical stated that he had flat feet and a little bow leggedness (sp?) but it does not hinder him whatsoever.

Our struggles have been more lately, then when the kids first got home. School has been a struggle for the kids.

~Kristina has a tough time with math. Her reading is coming along very well. As far as the math is going, one day she does great, the next she doesn’t remember any of it. Is it because she has missed so much or is it that she doesn’t care? Not really sure – but we are plugging along. It gets very frustrating but we are hoping that it gets better.

~John was having troubles opening up to his teachers. Kenny & I thought he was doing great – learning so many new things until we got a call from his teacher…..”you may want to think of holding him back and having him do kindergarten over again next year.” (The school where the kids go, kindergarten is only a half day but next year it will be a full day.) John would not do things for the teachers. He would say all the letters, the sounds, the sight words, the numbers and even read to us but he WOULD NOT do it for his teachers. It took him about six months to actually open up to them. We are not sure what happened but all of a sudden we got a note from the teacher that John read to her that day and did an excellent job. So he is moving on to the first grade for the next school year. We had other issues with the school too. His music, art, and gym teachers were worried about him because he did not want to get involved with the activities. I just told them to let him observe for a while and then he would get involved when he was ready, not when they wanted him to be ready. He still won’t sing and dance but that’s okay – maybe that will be something he will never want to do. He loves sports but maybe doesn’t want to play them.

~Both kids are seeing a tutor over the summer, Kristina two days a week and John once a week. We are hoping this helps both of them to get better acquainted with the new things that will be presented in school next year.

~We have been told that John will get to the correct reading grade level before Kristina does and we believe that to be true. He is getting all the ground work since he started school in kindergarten, whereas Kristina has only had half of first grade and all of second grade, but we are sure she can do it. She enjoys reading and we just have to remind her that practice makes perfect!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Photo update....

So busy I just got time to check the camera...here are some new pics...

Friday, May 6, 2011

Two years ago today...

we climbed in a car for a three and a half hour ride towards the rest of our lives...leaving Vladivostok Russia to meet a brother and sister in Spassk-Dalny. A brother and sister that did not even know what being a brother and sister meant, as they had spent very little time together and no time together with parents or family or outside of the Detski Dom in Spassk. Wow what a ride that has turned out to be. Two great kids who continue to learn what being a family means, continue to learn how to make decisions (good and bad) for themselves, continue to learn to speak, read and write a whole new language, continue to grow by leaps and bounds.
The ride did not end with that stop in that Far Eastern Russian town. It continues down a road that, although it has bumps, continues to bless their mother and I with the family we had dreamed of. The family we had hoped for and the family we love. To John and Kristina and Keegan, HAPPY The lord has brought us together day! We love you and look forward to continuing down the road of life with you.

Dad.

Monday, March 14, 2011

It has been a long time.......

Some good things have happened......and some not so good things have happened.....

The kids went into a hurricane simulator with Kelli (the babysitter's daughter). They had a blast and laughed the whole time.

John trying bungee jumping.....Kristina tried it too but the picture did not turn out as well. They had a blast and didn't want to stop.

A boy and his dog. John loves the dogs and is around them as often as possible.

We took the kids to the Monster Trucks again this year. This year the big winner was Monster Mutt that just so happens to be Kristina's favorite. We all had a good time and even got to go into the pits to see the truck upfront and even got to get all the driver's autographs before the event started.

Since our last post.........

We welcomed a new family member....a new great niece Victoria Raine Cornejo!

We had parent teacher conferences for both of the kids and they are both doing great. Krisitina is reading better and better and John has started reading a little. We could not be prouder.

We took Keegan to a college fair to look at colleges for Keegan. He will be graduating June 2012. It is scary to us that this time is upon us.

We lost a member of our family. My sister Diane passed away on February 26th. She will be greatly missed by all of us.

I had my 47th birthday......

We travelled to Peoria this past weekend and met some friends that we haven't seen in a long time and got re-acquainted.

Kenny became a godfather again on Sunday to Jacinda Marie Estep and we got to catch up with old friends there and make some new ones also.

Things we have to look forward to......

Keegan will be taking the ACT on April 9th. Wish him good luck!

Kristina is playing softball this year.

John is playing T-ball again this year.

I am sure there are many more things happening and hopefully I will be better about updating the blog.

So until then.......

Monday, January 17, 2011

A Great Idea.....

A blogging friend of ours is in between trips 1 and 2 to go back to Vladivostok to bring home their second adopted son. They had a GREAT idea to make a book of other adopted children from that area to show to the MOE (Ministry of Education) and show them how happy and how good all the children look in their new homes, lives, ect. Here is what we sent them for our kids. Wow have they changed or what? Thank you to the Overstreets for doing this.

Referral Picture taken September 2008 received March of 2009.
Kristina DOB 10/25/2001
Ivan DOB 12/13/2004
Adoption Date: October 20, 2009
Institution: Spassk Children’s Home
Name of Territory: Primorsky Krai