Okay, I apologize for last night's post! : ) I reread it today and realized it was a rambling mess and people WEAR clothes not WHERE! lol
We made it through day one. Listed below are my top thoughts at the end of day one.
1. Last summer we hosted a veteran hostee and it made the experience very different (which isn't bad or good but just different).
2. Orphanage life and how it affects individuals breaks my heart.
3. She hasn't spoken to us yet.
4. She is soooooo sweet and lovable!
5. She is easy to shop with and loves to push the cart and look at everything!!!!
6. She is hard to shop for because she is in between sizes so we had to grab two sizes of everything to try on.
7. How can someone leave for a six week trip with nothing more than the clothes on their back?
8. It is so depressing that as I saw her eyes light up over a book bag, a set of pjs, and one shirt in particular, that I know when it goes back with her in August none of it will be hers to keep.
9. She is a love bug and spontaneously hugged Josh and I today.
10. She played like the other girls at the park this evening, which made me happy and sad all at once.
11. She LOVES fruit. (If anyone wants to donate fruit, I'll take it! I see our grocery budget increasing this summer! lol)
12. She loved playing dress up and Barbies all day long!
13. I heard her first laugh when we played UNO and she gave me a draw 2 and I acted like it was an extreme tragedy!
14. She likes to smell things! She spent five minutes opening every toiletry item I bought her to smell them all. Then, when we were in Target walking past the cleaning aisle I saw her take a big sniff of all the smells and smiled.
15. Ignorance is bliss. Last year I had no idea how hard saying good-bye in August would be. I do this summer and in the back of my mind I am sobbing about having to send her back! Don't worry I am not focusing on it, just acknowledging it.
16. I googled pictures of different foods and used thumbs up or down to find out what to put on the meal plan this week. She giggled through the whole process, but was really excited about spaghetti and pizza!
17. I can't wait to watch her reaction to everything we get to do with her this summer!
18. I better get some sleep!
Thank you for everyone who reads these posts and are supporting and praying for us! We appreciate it so much. We can't wait to share V with each of you and hope you get to see a glimmer of the sweetness we have already seen in her!
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
And then there were 6...again
It is 12:36am on Wednesday morning. This will be short and sweet but I like to write down my thoughts so I can sleep without them swirling in my head.
V's flight from Atlanta to Cincinnati was delayed so we had a later night than expected. We met a few other host families within our group and they were all so great to be around. It was like a party at the airport. The kids all where blue t-shirts with the New Horizons name on it. I was so happy to see the little pack of blue shirted children walking down the airport terminal! She was very quiet but lots of smiles. She fell asleep on the way home and we quickly did the five cent tour of the important places in the house (toilet, bed, where to find mom and dad)!
I'm pooped. She literally showed up with the clothes on her back. It makes me sad knowing she has nothing that belongs to her in this world. I can't wait to spend more time with her tomorrow and get to know her personality!
I have a lot more thoughts that I had started writing in my head on the drive home but it is almost 1AM and it will have to wait.
The end of the story is that we are home safe and sound and excited to spend the summer with V!
V's flight from Atlanta to Cincinnati was delayed so we had a later night than expected. We met a few other host families within our group and they were all so great to be around. It was like a party at the airport. The kids all where blue t-shirts with the New Horizons name on it. I was so happy to see the little pack of blue shirted children walking down the airport terminal! She was very quiet but lots of smiles. She fell asleep on the way home and we quickly did the five cent tour of the important places in the house (toilet, bed, where to find mom and dad)!
I'm pooped. She literally showed up with the clothes on her back. It makes me sad knowing she has nothing that belongs to her in this world. I can't wait to spend more time with her tomorrow and get to know her personality!
I have a lot more thoughts that I had started writing in my head on the drive home but it is almost 1AM and it will have to wait.
The end of the story is that we are home safe and sound and excited to spend the summer with V!
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Single Digit Countdown
Have you ever been to Times Square in New York City? If so, maybe you remember the jumbo tron screens that are constantly whirring with information and advertisements, especially the screens that are long and scroll information. Have that picture in your mind? Okay, that is what my brain feels like right now.
In 9 days the chaos of summer hosting will begin. My shopping list is dwindling of items V will need. Next week's grocery trip should wrap up the list with a few snacks and getting the puke travel bucket ready! Yes, I just said puke travel bucket. A lot of the orphans in Ukraine rarely leave the immediate area of the orphanage and when they do leave it is typically by foot so traveling in vehicles can sometimes be a new experience and not everyone has a stomach of steel. Hence, the puke travel bucket, I always say it is better to be safe than sorry regarding puke! : )
The girls and I made her welcome poster this last week. It is cute and looks like small children made it but it was made with love! I wish I could have gotten some freezer cooking done before hand for the extra busy days during hosting. My head is spinning a bit at the amount of things on the calendar! We have Adria's quarterly appointment at Riley the day before arrival and then the week after arrival we have dentist appointments for Adria and Amelia. Following that each week is full of birthdays, anniversary, dentist appointment for V, eye appointment for Adria, post-op visit for Eliza, church activities, and then one blessed week with nothing on the calendar before I go back to work. By that time hosting will be almost over and we will start preparing for departure! Between all that we are going to hug, kiss, and love V as much as we can to fill her up for her return back to Ukraine in August.
In the next 9 days I am not going to focus a whole lot (but let's be honest some focus will occur) on the state of my lack of cleanliness in the home or a mile long to-do list but instead consciously choose to focus on spending time with the girls and Josh. I am going to fill up my heart with scripture and time in prayer. We want to honor God in all that we do and need to prioritize time to prepare for that too.
Oh, and to top off everything we officially decided we will begin the process to adopt a child! : ) Let me know if you want to follow our adoption journey and I will add you to our group!
Busy and fun times in our household! Pray that we will keep focused on God and His word during the next seven weeks in particular as I know Satan will try to put things in our path to stumble and be a poor witness to V! Pray for V and the other children as they travel and open their hearts to families! They are such brave children to leave their country and spend six weeks with strangers in a land they aren't familiar with and can't understand/speak the language! They are warriors!
In 9 days the chaos of summer hosting will begin. My shopping list is dwindling of items V will need. Next week's grocery trip should wrap up the list with a few snacks and getting the puke travel bucket ready! Yes, I just said puke travel bucket. A lot of the orphans in Ukraine rarely leave the immediate area of the orphanage and when they do leave it is typically by foot so traveling in vehicles can sometimes be a new experience and not everyone has a stomach of steel. Hence, the puke travel bucket, I always say it is better to be safe than sorry regarding puke! : )
The girls and I made her welcome poster this last week. It is cute and looks like small children made it but it was made with love! I wish I could have gotten some freezer cooking done before hand for the extra busy days during hosting. My head is spinning a bit at the amount of things on the calendar! We have Adria's quarterly appointment at Riley the day before arrival and then the week after arrival we have dentist appointments for Adria and Amelia. Following that each week is full of birthdays, anniversary, dentist appointment for V, eye appointment for Adria, post-op visit for Eliza, church activities, and then one blessed week with nothing on the calendar before I go back to work. By that time hosting will be almost over and we will start preparing for departure! Between all that we are going to hug, kiss, and love V as much as we can to fill her up for her return back to Ukraine in August.
In the next 9 days I am not going to focus a whole lot (but let's be honest some focus will occur) on the state of my lack of cleanliness in the home or a mile long to-do list but instead consciously choose to focus on spending time with the girls and Josh. I am going to fill up my heart with scripture and time in prayer. We want to honor God in all that we do and need to prioritize time to prepare for that too.
Oh, and to top off everything we officially decided we will begin the process to adopt a child! : ) Let me know if you want to follow our adoption journey and I will add you to our group!
Busy and fun times in our household! Pray that we will keep focused on God and His word during the next seven weeks in particular as I know Satan will try to put things in our path to stumble and be a poor witness to V! Pray for V and the other children as they travel and open their hearts to families! They are such brave children to leave their country and spend six weeks with strangers in a land they aren't familiar with and can't understand/speak the language! They are warriors!
Friday, June 10, 2016
When Swimming Lessons Make You Cry
The days are quickly dwindling until arrival day is here! We are down to 18 more days!! Life has been very busy lately and it is helping to make the days go more quickly.
I have been picking up needed items here and there and bought the supplies for V's welcome poster we bring to the airport. Each step makes the very soon arrival of V more exciting!
We have been trying to get different things out of the way prior to hosting. Eliza had some food allergy testing done last week and then today she had a little eye procedure on a clogged tear duct. We have been working on a fire pit relocation project in the backyard. Adria went from snaggle tooth to gappy mouth when she lost her front tooth on the top. Amelia and Adria started swim lessons at the beginning of this week and will have one more week. Perry Township Learn to Swim program has been around for eons! The girls were shocked that mommy took swim lessons in the same pool they were. This is my third summer of being at swim lessons as a mom. It is such a normal thing. Even this evening, when we went to our neighborhood pool another mom was there with her son and we had chatted at the pool before and she remembered us talking about the girls getting ready to start lessons. She asked how they were going and then made the comment that it is an important life skills for anyone to know in order to be safe in the water. Thinking about her comment brought me back to my little break down on Monday morning.
The first day of swim lessons this week, I was looking around at all the moms and dads who were bringing their kids to swim lessons. I recognized a few people I knew from high school and swim lessons in previous summers. As I was sweating profusely in the upper level bleachers at the Perry Meridian HS pool, I had a mini break down (thankfully I held it on the inside). Tears filled my eyes as I looked out at the children and around me at the parents. I guess ignorance can be bliss sometimes. I look at situations through a different pair of glasses now that I am aware of a fraction of what an orphan's life looks like and about the statistics for these children. This was an autopilot kind of activity for our family, signing up and taking the girls to swim lessons wasn't really something I thought about deeply but just something that needed to be done. Those simple ways we care for our kids everyday without really thinking about it.
Last summer L enjoyed swimming but wasn't a very good swimmer. One evening when we were swimming, she got a cramp in her leg while she was down in the deeper end and she started to panic and yelled MAMA! I had to grab her and bring her to the side of the pool. She was scared (so was I). She never had the opportunity for a mama and daddy to thoughtlessly sign her up for swim lessons because it was just something that is an item on a to-do list of what needed to be done for her. How many other small things like swim lessons will L and V miss out on because they don't have a family?
I think this is one area that is hard for me to overcome and that I come back to so often. We have so much and they have so little and miss out on so many simple things. An acquaintance and what I would like to consider a friend through kindred hearts of loving orphans, recently brought her son home from Ukraine. She has given updates and we have chatted online a few times and she has repeatedly said how her heart hurts for all the things she will never get to do as a mother for her son and all the milestones she has missed in his first 15 years of life. These young children sometimes have gone so long without a parent and parenting it is hard for them to give up the independence they have built within themselves and allow a parent to do their job.
So I am trying to ready my heart and my mothering skills for a heaping six week dose of loving and parenting the heck out of V, just like I continue to try to do for L. It is why I got teary eyed at swim lessons. Pray for our family as we spend these last couple of weeks filling up our love tanks and carving out special time to pour into our bio kids before we are pulled in another direction. Pray that Josh and I find time to strengthen our marriage even more as we will have a decrease in our time alone over hosting. Pray for V that she will be open to our love and our parenting. Pray for L as she ends her school year at the trade school. Oh, and praise the Lord that He provided a soft and giving heart in the dentist who is once again donating her services to care for V's teeth. 18 more days!!!!
I have been picking up needed items here and there and bought the supplies for V's welcome poster we bring to the airport. Each step makes the very soon arrival of V more exciting!
We have been trying to get different things out of the way prior to hosting. Eliza had some food allergy testing done last week and then today she had a little eye procedure on a clogged tear duct. We have been working on a fire pit relocation project in the backyard. Adria went from snaggle tooth to gappy mouth when she lost her front tooth on the top. Amelia and Adria started swim lessons at the beginning of this week and will have one more week. Perry Township Learn to Swim program has been around for eons! The girls were shocked that mommy took swim lessons in the same pool they were. This is my third summer of being at swim lessons as a mom. It is such a normal thing. Even this evening, when we went to our neighborhood pool another mom was there with her son and we had chatted at the pool before and she remembered us talking about the girls getting ready to start lessons. She asked how they were going and then made the comment that it is an important life skills for anyone to know in order to be safe in the water. Thinking about her comment brought me back to my little break down on Monday morning.
The first day of swim lessons this week, I was looking around at all the moms and dads who were bringing their kids to swim lessons. I recognized a few people I knew from high school and swim lessons in previous summers. As I was sweating profusely in the upper level bleachers at the Perry Meridian HS pool, I had a mini break down (thankfully I held it on the inside). Tears filled my eyes as I looked out at the children and around me at the parents. I guess ignorance can be bliss sometimes. I look at situations through a different pair of glasses now that I am aware of a fraction of what an orphan's life looks like and about the statistics for these children. This was an autopilot kind of activity for our family, signing up and taking the girls to swim lessons wasn't really something I thought about deeply but just something that needed to be done. Those simple ways we care for our kids everyday without really thinking about it.
Last summer L enjoyed swimming but wasn't a very good swimmer. One evening when we were swimming, she got a cramp in her leg while she was down in the deeper end and she started to panic and yelled MAMA! I had to grab her and bring her to the side of the pool. She was scared (so was I). She never had the opportunity for a mama and daddy to thoughtlessly sign her up for swim lessons because it was just something that is an item on a to-do list of what needed to be done for her. How many other small things like swim lessons will L and V miss out on because they don't have a family?
I think this is one area that is hard for me to overcome and that I come back to so often. We have so much and they have so little and miss out on so many simple things. An acquaintance and what I would like to consider a friend through kindred hearts of loving orphans, recently brought her son home from Ukraine. She has given updates and we have chatted online a few times and she has repeatedly said how her heart hurts for all the things she will never get to do as a mother for her son and all the milestones she has missed in his first 15 years of life. These young children sometimes have gone so long without a parent and parenting it is hard for them to give up the independence they have built within themselves and allow a parent to do their job.
So I am trying to ready my heart and my mothering skills for a heaping six week dose of loving and parenting the heck out of V, just like I continue to try to do for L. It is why I got teary eyed at swim lessons. Pray for our family as we spend these last couple of weeks filling up our love tanks and carving out special time to pour into our bio kids before we are pulled in another direction. Pray that Josh and I find time to strengthen our marriage even more as we will have a decrease in our time alone over hosting. Pray for V that she will be open to our love and our parenting. Pray for L as she ends her school year at the trade school. Oh, and praise the Lord that He provided a soft and giving heart in the dentist who is once again donating her services to care for V's teeth. 18 more days!!!!
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
27 more days
27 more days! I kind of want to be really annoying and write it in size 500 font so you could realize how excited we are about only having 27 MORE DAYS, but I will refrain! : )
This past weekend we received the flight manifest! I have only looked at it like 500 times! This year we will be picking up from Cincinnati's airport which is wonderful! Last year we picked up at O'Hare and had to spend the night up in Chicago. It all worked out fine, but traveling even more after traveling for a day and half already was hard on L. Our bio kids are not good travelers, so the short drive of 1 hour and 40 minutes was extremely happy news for all parties involved. Plus, arrival time is earlier than last year too. We should be back home by 11:30pm, at the latest, if flights are on time. My sister graciously agreed to stay with our other kids so we don't have to drag them out of the house at bedtime. There was one slight glitch that we are praying about. The kids arrive into the US in Atlanta and then will fly to Cincinnati but the travel agency accidentally scheduled the flight from Atlanta to Cincinnati about 30 hours after arriving in Atlanta, so the next day in the evening. Oops! They were working with the travel agency to correct the problem and we should hear something before the end of the week. That is a very long layover for children or anyone for that matter.
I cleaned V's room out this week and it is all ready for her arrival. I have been picking up this and that for her as well. I need to work on our welcome poster for arrival day and pick out a furry stuffed friend to give to her at the airport still. All little things to finish up and plenty of time to do it in. I also am waiting to hear back from the dentist office about donating services again this summer. Once that is taken care of then we are ready for arrival!
For me personally, I would appreciate some extra prayers. I'm still grieving over not having L back this summer. There are times I feel so guilty that we are having another child into our home, when L needs us just as much as I know V does. I am so full of mixed emotions. While cleaning out L/V's room it was hard to picture someone else besides L in there but then I am so excited to prepare a physical space for V in our home too because I'm already choosing to love her! I also feel overwhelmed at times with meeting my bio kids needs, making sure I make time for L via the internet chat and phone calls, and then imagining how I will add one more to the mix. Really, I am just trying to process everything. In those overwhelming moments, I know who holds me and all my children, present and overseas and can rest easy in that knowledge.
I'm off to nest some more! I need a clean house and organized home to bring our girl home to!
27 more days people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This past weekend we received the flight manifest! I have only looked at it like 500 times! This year we will be picking up from Cincinnati's airport which is wonderful! Last year we picked up at O'Hare and had to spend the night up in Chicago. It all worked out fine, but traveling even more after traveling for a day and half already was hard on L. Our bio kids are not good travelers, so the short drive of 1 hour and 40 minutes was extremely happy news for all parties involved. Plus, arrival time is earlier than last year too. We should be back home by 11:30pm, at the latest, if flights are on time. My sister graciously agreed to stay with our other kids so we don't have to drag them out of the house at bedtime. There was one slight glitch that we are praying about. The kids arrive into the US in Atlanta and then will fly to Cincinnati but the travel agency accidentally scheduled the flight from Atlanta to Cincinnati about 30 hours after arriving in Atlanta, so the next day in the evening. Oops! They were working with the travel agency to correct the problem and we should hear something before the end of the week. That is a very long layover for children or anyone for that matter.
I cleaned V's room out this week and it is all ready for her arrival. I have been picking up this and that for her as well. I need to work on our welcome poster for arrival day and pick out a furry stuffed friend to give to her at the airport still. All little things to finish up and plenty of time to do it in. I also am waiting to hear back from the dentist office about donating services again this summer. Once that is taken care of then we are ready for arrival!
For me personally, I would appreciate some extra prayers. I'm still grieving over not having L back this summer. There are times I feel so guilty that we are having another child into our home, when L needs us just as much as I know V does. I am so full of mixed emotions. While cleaning out L/V's room it was hard to picture someone else besides L in there but then I am so excited to prepare a physical space for V in our home too because I'm already choosing to love her! I also feel overwhelmed at times with meeting my bio kids needs, making sure I make time for L via the internet chat and phone calls, and then imagining how I will add one more to the mix. Really, I am just trying to process everything. In those overwhelming moments, I know who holds me and all my children, present and overseas and can rest easy in that knowledge.
I'm off to nest some more! I need a clean house and organized home to bring our girl home to!
27 more days people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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