Russian Medical Diagnosis

This one is for those adopting. I promised a few people I'd share a bit of the Russian Medical info we received... The russian medical terminology of the orphanage children can be very scary. We did turn down a referral before we got Katie because our agency coordinator had met with the child and caregiver and confirmed some very autistic, extremely violent behavior. We have been very lucky that all 3 of our children have had minor medical issues so far.

The Russian medical report of the boys is each about 2 pages long, Katie's is about 5 pages. All 3 children have had very illnesses while in the orphanages and Katie had an extreme 5 week hospital visit before our first trip as they were trying to rule out any major tumors or diseases that could cause her symptoms.

Alex @ 3.5 years... Main Diagnosis: tempo development delay; abnormally located chorda in the left ventricle; severe hypermetropia. Arrived in Orphanage @ 1.5 years.

Sam @ 2.5 years... Main Diagnosis: tempo development delay; mild hypermetropic; astigmatism; functional cardiopathy Arrived in Orphanage direct from Hospital.

Katie @ 2 years... Main Diagnosis: residual encephalopathy; secondary psycho-speech delay syndrome; neuromuscular dystony; high hypomethropy; capillary hemangioma; early onset of maturity. Arrived in Orphanage direct from Hospital.

We have seen many wonderful children in the orphanges that all run and call us Mama and Papa. There are children that need love and attention more than the 2-3 caregivers for their entire group can give. I would bring them all home in a heartbeat. We know our children have an uphill battle with everything they do. They have several years to catch up on after being in an orphanage. They have not been lucky to have a family unit to love them during their first years. I am proud of each one of them for their individual successes. It is truly amazing to see their growth in life and they will each turn out to be successful on their own paths.

And at their 4 year Family day this month.... Here's where we are...

Alex.. @ age 7 years. Does not qualify for any academic support at school. He struggles with reading and it takes him longer to get it done but he does get it done and makes that target level every time it comes around. He is very much all boy. He is athletic and I've said before he can learn to do anything athletic quickly. He only fell of his bike once learning to ride and the training wheels never went on. He just got a big award at his school for walking 40 miles in a month during mileage club and the teacher said he ran the whole way. He is very social and well liked among his peers.

Sammy @ age 6 years. Passed Kindergarten among the top of his class. He absorbs things very quickly and will probably be very successful in the school environment. But we will see what first grade brings. He is a thinker and it's always amazing what is going on in his head. He was very quiet in preschool, but has since blossomed into a very talkative social kid. He just never stops ;) And you never know what he's going to talk about.

Katie will be home 2 months next week. We have a doctor's appointment to follow up on her 2 months home. .We can tell she's grown physically and mentally. She's a social butterfly and an absolute joy every minute of the day. Her personality is so easy going.. Rarely does she cry or throw fits. She loves people and waves hi and bye everywhere we go. She loves to be in charge and will always tell if someone isn't following the rules. She is tough and can hold her own among the boys. She is a perfect complement to the boys.

Vocabulary Growth

Katie's growth in speaking English is taking great leaps and bounds! She is speaking more sentences and it's all on her own. "Open Please" "Where is..." And her song vocabulary is huge. She knows lots of songs, the melody is on target and you recognize a word or two as she sings. This morning my wake up song was Old MacDonald... I understood the duck, quack, and EIO parts... She also does a good job with Itsy Bitsy Spider and Six Little Ducks.

With the boys it was month 3 for vocabulary growth. I think having them around has given her the added instructors to move ahead with English now in month 2...

Sunny and Warm

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, the weather was beautiful in the 70s. I had to work on Saturday so we didn't go on the annual camping trip to Homer. Instead we stayed at home and worked in the yard. Katie is very intuitive she'd go to sleep for nap and then when she woke up she would go around and notice every flower that was planted.

Today during nap time, the boys and I pumped up the big 2 foot pool. When Katie woke up she was "wow" touching it all the way around. A little shy about getting in this one, I had to get in with her, but she got the hang of this very fast too... Here's some shots...

A little hesitant going in...

Sitting down in the water...Getting Braver... She'd say clear as a bell... 1, 2, 3 and jump down into the water...

End of the School Year

It's amazing how fast they grow. Sammy was once a shy, quiet 2 year old. Now he's graduated from kindergarten. He did an amazing job at his kindergarten concert and graduation ceremony. He knew every word to the songs and wasn't afraid to sing it outloud. Big progress for him!

And my big boy is now a 2nd grader!! Here's a shot of Alex wearing his tie for 1st Grade Author's Night reading his story "Froggy goes on an Airplane". A combination of his 2 favorites, Froggy books and airplanes.

First Camping Adventure

We headed out to Big Lake for the night, just to test things out in the Camper and do a quick first camping trip. Here's Katie and Sammy ready to go in their seats. Ahh.. Dirt. I'm happy just give me my bucket and shovel...

And you are never too old to play in the dirt...

Katie walking a "balance beam" with her faithful dog, Mattie at her side. They are best pals.

I love Clothes

Hmm.. Little girl is quiet and missing.... Where could she be? Follow the trail of clothes... It will lead to a naked little girl wondering upstairs to her closet to change her clothes again... This is a repeated performance many times throughout the day. She loves to change her clothes and model her new outfit for you.

At least she's getting a lot of practice at putting clothes on....

MIA

Sorry I've been short on posts lately. Lots going on!! It's that time of year juggling all the boys' school events and I started back to work this week to massive amounts of catchup... Here's the bullet version...

*Alex presented a wonderful story at his 1st Grade Author's Night. His story was about Froggy going on an Airplane... Hmm.. It was pretty similar to our trip to Russia... He's a great story teller and an amazing artist. I don't know where he gets his drawing abilities...

*Alex also had his end of the year field trip with a trip to release the salmon into the lake. He was exhausted at the end of a perfect day and will appreciate the fish in the river this summer I'm sure.

*I think we are done this week with events. Sammy's events are all next week with the big Kindergarten graduation!!

*All 3 kids and myself are slowly getting back on our early to work schedule. It's only for a short time and then we will all be done for the summer. Katie is doing great, I'm dropping her off at my parent's house and she is happy to go. And really excited when I get there in the afternoons to pick her up. She's still Mommy clingy when I'm around her but seems to enjoy spending the day at grandparents.

I promise to be more faithful when the sun goes in!

Happy Mother's Day

It's been a great Mother's Day to have all my family complete. All the smiles, hugs, and kisses make it worthwhile. It's a bit bittersweet and extra special as Monday I head back to work to finish out the school year. It's only a few weeks but I'm going to miss all the extra time with my little gal.

To you and yours... Happy Mother's Day!

Rewards Programs

So this morning I faxed off all our invoices/boarding passes to Alaska Airlines. I'm all about getting everything I can out of our mileage programs and the rewards programs that are out there. Here's what I was working on...

Alaska Airlines...Gave us the mileage credit from Seattle to Anchorage, but I just faxed info to get the 6,000 miles (x 5 people) for our trip from Moscow-Paris-Seattle. Also faxed the invoices from the Hyatt Hotel in Seoul (500 miles) and the Marriott Hotel in Moscow (2,500 miles). You can double dip on the Marriott as you already get Marriott rewards points but you can get air miles too.

I did the Marriott Rewards program and credit card before we travelled, so we had 1 night free and now I have about 3 nights free as a result of our stay. So I just used one of those for our trip to PA this summer as the flight schedule changed to the wee hours of the morning.

Call it OCD, but I'm all about signing up for the rewards programs and getting every little thing I can out of it :) So my advice for the day, if you fly a lot check the airline's partners' page, you'd be amazed at what you do every day that you can get miles for. I'm thinking we'll be able to take a very cheap trip to Disneyland in the next year or two!!

Swimming

Yes it's may in Alaska, the grass is just thinking about turning green, there is still some snow in the shady spots, the trees are starting to blossom. But the temperature hit about 80 at our house today, very unseasonal. So we pulled out the baby pool...

Sammy and Katie worked hard at cleaning off 3 years of dirt.
Then Katie put her swimming suit on for the first time and had no fear about diving into the water. She loved it. Even put her face under, trying to imitate everything her big brothers did. The threesome. The boys are begging for the slightly bigger pool, but it's too soon to go to all the trouble to pump it up. It will go back to the 60s again...

PS it's always very warm on our deck in the afternoon as the sun hits it full force, this allows us to have pool more than usual for Alaska. Also I run the warm water from the sink inside to fill it up as our well water is way too cold on it's own. So a pool day is a big deal! Hopefully after 2 hours of water and a lot of time in the sun today all 3 will sleep well tonight!