Pictures

This Saturday we drove to Calaveras Big Trees State Park . 

 It was very nice day, and we had fun. I am still learning to keep my camera always with me. We had lunch in the picnic area. Burgers, hot dogs, salads were very good.

 Daddy and his little girl! Love them!

 Danik and Stasik are not use to long drives. For them 2 hours one way was more than enogh. On our way back I was tired, and kids were full of energy, and playing games. I have no idea what game they were playing.............i was watching the road......:)))

 Our church is trying to do picture books of all members,and everyone had to go to take a picture. Last Thursday we had an appointment, and here is our kids ready to go..:)

Love them all, and enjoying last week home with them, before school starts .

More to my yesterday post...

Yesterday I post a little story how we found our boys. I didn't go into details, but I today, after few comments I want to share more details about our second adoption.

My English is not that good, and It's really hard to express myself. I have to really try and spend a lot of time (which i dont have now), to write my posts. I wish to have better ability and better English to write all of my posts. 

During our SDA appointment, back in January, we saw many other files, but decided to try and adopt now our boys. During our visits to the orphanage we couldn't tell boys that we will be back for them, or that we really want to adopt them. Orphanage staff took precautions not to give kids hope, in-case we change our mind, or something happen and we will not come back. So when we heard those words from Stasik, and when he asked us to adopt him and his brother, it was extra hard not to tell boys that we will be back with God's help. We prayed a lot, and we left with tears back to US, but we knew that our God is faithful, and there was a reason for our January trip. We kept in touch with boys via Skype, and talked to them every 3-4 weeks. The only thing we told Danik and Stasik, is that we will be back during summer time to visit them. Every time we talk to our boys, it was hard not to tell them that we will be coming to adopt them and take them with us to their forever home.

Around 3 weeks before our second trip to Ukraine,  our boys were already available for international adoption, SDA sent adoptive family, and they tried to adopt our boys. It was very stressful, we prayed a lot, and had worse case scenarios in our heads. Since our boys never been told that we will adopt them, it was very little hope that Danik and Stasik will say no to other family. Boy's foster parents had to tell them about our plan, and Danik and Stasik replied that they know, they are ready for us to come and see us as their parents. It was huge relief !

 I feel very sad for other family who came and saw our boys, and boys said they do not want to be adopted by them. Facilitator(for that family) was very mean, rude and tried to push and press boys, and told foster parents that they will be coming again to see boys the next day. Also when foster parents informed other family and their facilitator that Danik and Stasik already have a family coming for them, facilitator replied" We will see who will adopt boys, and boys will choose " after being told about us. The other family came few more times and brought toys for kids, they tried to win boys hearts with presents. It was very stressful few days for all of us. Finally when foster mom of our boys, started crying and told facilitator and other family, that all this breaking kid's hearts, and asked them to ask boys again, and leave if boys say no. Thankfully they listen, and after hearing that boys still do not want to be adopted by them, left.    We believe that God had a plan, and our first tip was just to meet boys, and give our boys hope and us to be more sure in adopting Danik and Stasik.

We had many hardships during this adoption. Especially It was very hard emotionally, to be away from our kids and all the waiting time, and financially , we had to make 2 trips and spend twice as much money for tickets, and Sergey ran out of his vacation hours, and had to take some time off with out pay. God is our provider, we had many people step in and help us! We do appreciate everyone who did pray for us and our situation, and for everyone who were able to bless us financially. God is amazing, and every second in our adoption He was ahead of us! 

Something I wanted to share a long time..

Do you remember my post back in February adopt us... please ? During our first trip to Ukraine we had opportunity to visit one orphanage. This is the orphanage where our two last kids came from. A little boy who asked to adopt him and his brother, was our Stasik. We couldnt' just leave them there, we did come back to adopt them. 

a little story how we found out about boys:
We had our SDA appointment scheduled for 1-24-12, and in the beginning of January, when we were getting ready to travel I decided to contact a friend in Ukraine, and ask if she knows any child/ren available for adoption, and wanted to be adopted. In few hours my e-mail was send, I received e-mail from my friend with info about two boys, and their pictures. We prayed, and when we were ready to go to Ukraine, in our hearts we had a decision to adopt Danik and Stasik if everything goes well, and at SDA we did ask to see their file. Unfortunately we didn't' have enough time to do research and find out more information about boys, and if they were available for international adoption.  At the time, in January they were not available for international adoption. We had to come back home with no kids, but we had opportunity to visit our kids at the orphanage, and when we saw them we knew exactly why we were there.

Our boys become available for adoption in late March, and we were back to Ukraine to adopt them. We had many prayers, stressful, sleepless nights, and finally we are all home!

**** We have few pictures from our first trip to Ukraine with all the boys and kids together. I will try to find it and post it when I have time.

Saturday

We spend all day together as a family. First thing in the morning we went to few garage sales try to find some things. It was good day. After we got done with garage sales we went to McDonalds, and had lunch. Boys enjoyed it a lot! It was hot outside around 105F.  Really hot! We decided to spend some time by the water, so we headed to Auburn. There is a river, but it's cold, and we were not planning to swim or stay long, just wanted to stop by and show Danik and Stasik this place where we like to come sometimes. 

In the car:) We have every sit taken, love it:)

                                                       McDonalds, lunch time . We all were able to fit and sit at one table :)

 Boys decided to go for a swim. Water was not too cold, and boys enjoyed it a lot. We had no swimming shorts for kids, but they didnt' care. Danik and Stasik even asked us, if it's ok to go swimming with out underwears, and not to get underwears wet. :))) Funny boys....

 Someone made this little area in the water, and it kind of looks like a private "pool" :) Bigger boys asked to go  outside of the "pool", and swim.

 Sergey and I were sitting in the "pool", with our feet in the water. Little ones stayed with us.

              Done, and ready to go home. They were cold after they just got out of the water.

 It was nice day, after swimming we ate sandwiches on our way home. Kids are asking to go again and spend all day at the river :)

Things you may not know about D and S...

Stasik love to eat. Most of the foods I made he liked.

Stasik love to come to me every 30 minutes and give me hug, and sometimes kisses and in the seconds he is back to what ever he was doing. Today he started to come to me, hug me, and say : "This is my mommy, only mine, I always will stay with my mom"!!! :) my little love bug :)

When Stasik playing Mario on Wii, his tongue is always out :)

Stasik 's showers are: get in, get wet (2 seconds), get half of the shampoo bottle on his almost dry hair, get a quick rinse and get out :))) wipe off rest of the soap and dirt of his body with clean towel :) DONE   ohh, no, not so fast, lets try again....get back in the bathtub and take another shower with moms supervision lol


Danik is more picky about food, but he is a good eater too.

Danik is warming up slower than Stasik, but he is starting to give more open hugs, and started to give chick kisses. For two days now,  he started to come and give random hugs through a day. Love those moments :)

 Danik takes long showers, really long....he just loves feeling of the hot water running down his back....same as his mommy :)

Love my boys...

Thankful

Once nobody to everyone on this world, and today they are in the family, and they are our sons. Thank you God!

Danik and Stasik are amazing little boys. Sergey and I are very proud of them. When these two entered our heart, life and house, sure our life and house did become more crazier, loud, and more fun.
These two little boys did change us, as a couple, and our life in a better, much better way.

I am thankful for our 2,5 weeks home with boys, and I happy that we are finally all together!  :) Our life getting back to normal, and it does have routine, not 100%, but we are getting there.
I know that we will still have our bumps and ups, but God is with us, and we can see His loving hand in our family. We are still bonding as a family, and it will take time. I was worried about all 4 boys, I was afraid that they will fight, and it will be more challenging a first few weeks. We are thankful that I was wrong, and God is doing amazing work in our family. Kids dont' fight, and they do get along really good. Yes, they do have "brothers" moments, but it's not even close to fighting, or big arguments.

I just love seeing all my kids playing together, and I enjoy seeing them happy! God is amazing God!

Appointment

Today Danik and Stasik had appointments. Boys did great! Stasik with his hyperactive syndrome did ok, it's still very hard for him to be in one place for long period of time.
We did take boys to a first available doctor, because our regular doctor is booked for next month and we wanted to get done with all medicals for boys before school starts.
Danik is on skinny side, below average, and Stasik is an average child.
Danik is 4'4" and weights 56 lb (9 year old)
Stasik is  4'1.25' and weights 53 lb (7 year old)
**funny part, our 4 year old Denny  weights 50 lb :) 


When Danilka came to our family in 2009
Danilka was 4'2" and about 60 lb (and he was 8 year old at that time). I know that Danilka weights 76 lb now, and I am not sure about his height, we have appointment for him next month.

We got a refferal for Danik to see eye doctor, and hopefully we can get a new glasses for him by the time school starts. They will call us with first available appointment for Danik. Danik's one eyes is way off, even with a glasses on.  This year, first day of school will be August 9, its way to early! I really hope that someday, I will be able to have our kids home, and home-school all our kids. For now, I don't see homeschooling as an option, because kids don't' speak English, and at home they will never learn.

SS# and Appointments

Today we got SS# and cards for boys in the mail. Also we finally did figure out with our insurance, and boys have doctor appointments schedule for Tuesday, next week.

We really need to check Danik's eyes, do to many traumas he had during his childhood,  his eyes has serious problems. We are praying for his eyes, and health. Stasik's health is much better, but we will check both boys, and hopefully many of syndromes and "labels" will be taken off by US doctors.

New family member

Her name is "Knopka", 

Two days in the row kids were telling me about this little white "thing" on our backyard. Later we found out , it was a little bunny. I think our neighbors don't' want to have them as pets anymore. Boys did catch two different bunnies on our backyard last week , different days, and took them back to our neighbors. They were not happy about bunnies, and just reply, "We thought that bunnies are already dead"   

And few days ago I found one more bunny, and I am not sure if this bunny has  a REAL home. :)  I was running around our backyard, and eventually I  did catch this bunny. It was good exercise :) When I came back in the house, and boys saw me with Knopka, their reply was" Where did you get it? We don't' believe you did catch this bunny, She is fast , and it took 3 of us to catch "!!! It was story of a day, Mommy catching a bunny :)) 

Kids talked me into keeping  bunny at our home :) We have this little temporary home/cage for Knopka, and Sergey planning to build a big hutch  for bunny, and keep this bunny outside(maybe). 

Real or not real

Today on our way to the store we had conversation about Santa. 
Danik: " Mommy, Santa is not real! Is it true?"
Danilka: " If you believe in Santa he will come"
Me: "Danik, if you believe in Santa, he will be real as long as you believe, and now you have a  family, many of your dreams will come true"


 (Danik and Stasik were hosted this last winter, and spend Christmas in America)

Danik: "When we were in  America for Christmas, and we spend time with "mom" and "dad", they told us that Santa will come but  I saw hosting family, "mom"and "dad" and they brought all the presents in, and Santa is not real"
 Stasik: " All our previous families were not real, our parents were not real, we never had holidays and Santa was not real and now we have a REAL family,REAL mom and REAL dad, and Santa is real, DO YOU GET IT? DO YOU SEE A DIFFERENCE ?! DO YOU FEEL A DIFFERENCE"?!!!

This words brought tears to my eyes, I got chills. Stasik has this innocence, he always says what he thinks. And I just love this little boy:)

*******Our boys were hosted two times, and been in 4 different families during their stays in US. Families couldn't handle them(this is what we been told) and they were moved to a different families. Boys were hoping to be adopted for 2 years, and they had many moms and dads. Especially Danik, he still calls his hosted parents "mom" and "dad". Also sometimes he does refer to his foster parents, as mom and dad. It will take some time for boys to finally understand and know that we are their REAL FAMILY.
Every child needs REAL DADDY and REAL MOMMY,  and I think Stasik really know the DIFFERENCE between having real and not real. :)))

Family time

Sunday we went to park, and had great family time! We played ball, ran, fed ducks, ran around, and had a lot of fun!

Boys taking turns to ride around. 

 Daddy making lunch! It was yummy :)

 There was this play structure just few feet away, and kids had fun running around and playing! Even baby girl got a gun :)

 Later daddy went to play with kids. He was chasing kids, and trying to keep them off the play structure. It was fun. Kids' loved it. At first Danik was staying away, but later he did join everyone else. It was new to Danik and Stasik, to be able to play with daddy like this.

 Ready to get somebody :)

 Danik and Stasik are very little and fast. Daddy was able to catch Stasik few times, but Danik is was to fast, and I  I think Sergey did catch only one time and this is only when they were on the ground not on play sturcture:)

 This park is by the lake. Kids had fun feeding ducks.

I am really starting to enjoy our family times!