Houk Adoption Journey

Long overdue update :)

2010-10-14T20:12:00.002-05:00

I see that it has been a while since I last posted. Frankly, it is just because it feels like life around here so I don't get around to blogging like I once did. Some of the big highlights over the past few months include Charlie's 5th birthday! He had lots of fun celebrating with some family at Chuck-e-cheese. We also went on an awesome family vacation this summer. Last summer we stayed so close to home because Charlie was so newly home. He did great :) Got to go to Disney World!

I feel like we are hiking out of that "just home adjustment time" valley. Charlie has given us a run for our money over the past months in terms of his behavior. I kept telling him when he turned five he was going to have to have big boy behavior and not make baby choices but big boy choices. Whatever it was, it seems to have worked. He is calmer and better behaved. All I can say is that I am soo happy about that!

Charlie even looks so much older suddenly. He has lost that little boy look and just looks like a boy now :( I know he is in a good place and we couldn't be any more thrilled.

What a difference a year makes!

2010-07-15T12:43:00.002-05:00

Well, June 14 marked our one year anniversary since Charlie became an American citizen. I know this post is long overdue! We are just so busy with all 5 kids home all summer that updating time just is not in the schedule! The nice thing to be said about that is that this summer, we have the ability to do whatever we want. Last summer we pretty much stayed inside to get Charlie acclimated and used to his new family. Now we can just run and do about anything.

As I was thinking about our year in review I am amazed at how far Charlie has come. He was a frightened non-English speaking temper tantrum throwing little boy when he first came home! He also did not sleep at night and would take 3+ hours to get down only to wake a few hours later and roam around. Those were definitely trying times around here.

One of the best things we did for Charlie was get him in an awesome daycare/school setting for when I worked two days a week. He thrived on the structure and just loved it there. We are VERY MUCH suffering from the lack of structure this summer. We have had quite a bit of regression in the past few weeks. I am just PRAYING my way through it!!! :)

Charlie's English is very good, as a matter of a fact I am afraid he will be dropped from speech because our awesome Miss Trish cured him of his "prolongations" aka stuttering. I haven't heard him stutter in a long time!

Charlie's sleep is still a work in progress. He still stumbles out of his room, way too early, and most often I send him back. He has been known to in his way wake up his brother which upsets all. He does go to bed a lot easier--no more two hour routines! Just the normal 4 year old stuff!! Love that! He tends to go to bed later than any of my other 4 year olds did, but there is always so much activity.

Charlie's behavior has definitely improved over the year. While we still continue to battle the unbelievable control issues and intense desire to have things go his way--it is better. Maybe I am just handling it better :) Charlie's biggest struggle right now is listening and obeying. He knows what he is supposed to do but chooses to do otherwise. I am saddened and frustrated by this constant behavior, but am trusting when things get a little more structured when we get back into the school year he will improve in this area.
I am reading this book called "The Great Behavior Breakdown" by B. Bryan Post. I didn't hear him speak but he did so at the social work convention this year. Everyone raved about him that I bought his book. The front cover says "Lying, stealing, defiance, incessant chatter..." and it goes on. My oldest saw the book and said "well, this is Charlie". I am hoping he offers some insight to reduce some of these behaviors.

It really has been an amazing year. God has blessed us beyond belief with the expansion of our family. I would have never dreamed that after our 4th we would have any more kids. God calls us and we must follow that call, even if it seems unbelievable. Many people have told me that we have done a great thing by "adopting after having biological children". We haven't done anything great, God has worked miracles. This is an amazing boy who will go on to do wonderful things in this world. Each one of us has grown through this journey. God is building nurturing skills in sisters and a bond between brothers.

One Year Post Placement

2010-05-07T21:24:00.002-05:00

We had our one year post placement visit from the social worker this past week. Things are going well. She asked the typical questions--what areas of growth, how is he doing, how is he attaching to parents. I told her how behavior was much better than in the beginning. We still have melt-downs but I think that is because he is 4 years old, not that he is adopted. We do have a little issue with control yet. He seems to need everything his way and in his business. I can be talking to one of the other kids from the other room and he will pipe in whatever he feels like. He also likes to help discipline and that is where I have to tell him I am the mom and will take care of disciplining. Hmmm, I believe I have said that to all the kids :)

The only issue I would say that still really bothers me is the lying. He will look right at you and lie. I don't know if I posted on a specific incident, but there is no way that someone else could have done the offense and he swore up and down he didn't do it. I tell him he has one chance to tell me the truth "the first time" and if he doesn't, it is considered a lie. He always wants to know "will I get in trouble". I tell him it makes me more upset if he lies. He still lies. We did get to the bottom of that one offense and I just told him I wished he would have told me the truth the first time instead of making up stories. So, you would think we have lots of conversations about telling the truth.
WELL yesterday he went to speech and told the speech therapist (after she asked him what he had for lunch) that his mommy didn't give him lunch today because her foot still hurt (from the surgery 6 weeks ago). She questioned him a little further but he insisted that he did not eat. She pulled me aside and was laughing about it. I told her the crazy thing was that he had TWO lunches that day. I had given him lunch at home and then my girlfriends called and wanted to go out so I gave him a hotdog and fries there!! TWO lunches!! and speech is at 1:15!!! We chatted about it in the car and he was pretty much speechless.

But other than that...it has been going well. We say we couldn't have prayed for a better outcome to our adoption calling. Charlie is still working on things like turn taking, not interupting and playing NICELY with other kids his age, but it is all coming along as can be expected.

Love Spring!!

2010-04-03T03:08:00.003-05:00

We are just loving the unseasonable weather around here and spring break. We have tried to do something a little special and fun every day as sort of a "stay-cation". On Monday I took the kids to ChuckeCheese (will post pics later!). I can't believe Charlie has been home 9 months and I have managed to avoid that place! I really didn't ever take him there first of all, because of the winter months and all the germs in that place. Charlie was already sick 3 times this past season with colds, I didn't want to invite one unnecessarily. Secondly, Charlie has struggled with sensory overload and I really felt like he needed to mature into it enough before taking him there. It helped that I had all 4 other kids along. Charlie did great. He loved the "semi-freedom" of running around with his siblings and did really well with the game and token rationing. The girls are so good with him and it was evident in this environment. They each took turns playing with him-it was so sweet.
On Tuesday Randy took off work and we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Despite a 40 minute line upon entering, we had a great time and Randy just entertained the kids while I stood in line. I think everyone had the same idea!
Wednesday Charlie went to school so that we could remain some consistency in his routine. We have learned that he really needs this in order to keep himself regulated. I took the older kids bowling but don't worry! I took Charlie to the park for an hour and I believe he would have preferred this anyway.
Thursday I took the kids to the zoo. This trip turned out to be the most difficult of the excursions on the week for Charlie. He did well, but tired out shortly even with the stroller. We took the tram ride at the zoo, which we don't normally do. There was a long line (which I didn't know when I exchanged our coupons for tickets) so I maybe would have passed on waiting in the sun for 30 minutes while waiting for the tram to come. Overall, tho, knowing we have a memebership the older kids said we should just go home. I heard someone ask an employee on our way out how many people had come thru the door that day and she said they were over 35,000 and it was only 2 o'clock and people were still lined up to get in!! We will go another day when it isn't the first 75 degree day in Chicago!!
Today is Friday and Charlie went to school again today because I had surgery on my foot. We had explained to him what to expect when he woke up (because we left very early in the morning) and he was all good with it. A friend picked him up for me and brought him to school. The kids did a great job of getting him all ready :) When Randy picked him up today they told him that Charlie was crying for me at school. He used to do this when he first started going to daycare at naptime. Mainly because he doesn't nap and wanted out of it, I believe, but today they said he was upset during play time outside!! He was really worried about me. It is so sweet. He was giving me hugs and kisses when he got home. The reason I am especially thrilled with this reaction is that I am the one Charlie gives the most difficult time to in our family. When he is "naughty" it is typically because he has outright disobeyed something I have told him to do or not do. In the past few weeks I have really tried to change my reaction to him when his behavior is less than stellar and I think it is making a difference. He has his issues, as well, when he is trying to control the situation. I am trying to help him gain some control in his world by allowing some decision making. He also is one to pick up phrases he has heard someone else say (or on tv) and he has gotten into a little bit of trouble with that. His speech therapist stated he is doing amazing, however, there are gaps in his vocabulary that a child born here would definately know. Charlie asked me yesterday what a "street" was. His voice was very sincere so I went with it. I don't know how often we use the word street (don't play in the street (we live in a culdesac) ) but he asked clarifying questions even about my street defintion. So I need to remember that words we say all the time, he may not know the defintion. A few times he will say "what does that mean??".
Overall, he has handled the week out of routine very well.

When all else fails...eat!

2010-03-26T14:15:00.002-05:00

We are noticing a common theme with Charlie---he eats a lot! I have had a few instances where he has been really out of control behavior wise and I tried to distract him with a snack. I realized that this actually works! After he had a little food in his stomach his behavior turned around almost immediately. So, note to self---feed the boy.

We are looking forward to spring break. We are planning on doing a few things that should be fun for the kids! I just can't wait to sleep in a little!

I added another picture for you to look at. Jess is so good about taking pictures that most of the pics we have are of Charlie and Jess :)

Life...

2010-03-17T20:28:00.003-05:00

Not much to post lately, and I always feel that I should post pictures-after all that is what I like to look at when I search blogs!! Plus, my camera was MIA for a little while but it has been found again. Jess took these pictures as she loves taking pictures! I took the kids to the Shedd Aquarium on their day off last Friday. It was really fun and not too busy. We saw everything, including the new FantaSea show, in 2 1/2 hours! Maybe we just have a short attention span :)
Charlie is really growing. When I look at the pictures from last year when we first went to meet him I can't believe how small he looks. He is really just another kid around here. There have been some challenges lately, but I am not going to focus on that. I feel kind of bad for him at times because since I am in special education and am a social worker I MAY keep him under a microscope. I try not to analyze his ever move and figure out his motives...determine if it is typical 4 year old or ADOPTION RELATED. We have done so much groundwork for attachment and bonding but we are starting to see some behaviors I am not so happy with. Randy keeps reminding me that he has only been home 9 months. And he is a boy. So I am praying that I am able to take him out from the microscope, nurture through the tantrums and love unconditionally...

One Year Ago....

2010-02-25T21:37:00.003-06:00

One year ago this week we were in Kaluga, Russia meeting the most amazing boy who didn't even hesitate once to go with us and call us "momma e pappa". He wanted a family so badly--it was evident. He wanted to show off for us--show us he could put the cups together, stack them, sort, push a truck around...all those talents he wanted to make sure his mom and dad would like. He was eager to show us his bed--pulling the covers off so he could show us how he put them back on! He ran out of the potty and said (in Russian, translated of course) "tell momma and pappa I washed my hands!!"

There was never a question of if we were going to "accept" this boy--we knew from the very minute we saw his picture that he was to be the son God chose for us--and God kept his promises and with little issue Charlie was home in a few months.

It has not been without challenge. I am thankful that God chose us to care for this Child of the King. He will equip us with the parenting skills necessary to raise him!!

These pictures are the very first ones taken. Charlie took Randy's hand immediately and took him to the music room. It was love at first sight :)

I knew the day would come...

2010-02-08T21:26:00.002-06:00

I took Charlie to speech on Thursday last week and out of the blue he said something about how he grew in my tummy when he was a baby. I think he thought of it because we pray every night for Uncle Scott and Aunt Christy, Hannah and the baby in Aunt Christy's belly. Nothing we were talking about before that would have prompted that comment so it really struck me off guard.
I told him that Emily, Jess, Miranda and Carson grew in my belly before they were born but that he had another mommy where he grew before he was born. He looked at me and said "another mommy??" and I told him his first mommy loved him so he could grow and be born. I told him that in Kaluga Rita and Rita took care of him (the Dr./director and the social worker)and loved on him while he was a baby. I told him God called mommy and daddy to come get him and we went to Kaluga to get him. I said he didn't grow in my belly but he grew in my heart. That was enough talk in the bathroom before speech!!

So speech was over and as we were walking out he looked at the speech path and said "I grew in another mommy's belly but I grew in my mommy's heart". She just looked at me and smiled. I think it caught her off guard, too!

The Pirate Book

2010-02-04T08:43:00.002-06:00

Every night Charlie wants us to read him the Pirate Book. I try to fit in a few stories out of the Children's Bible, too, but he really loves that Pirate book. He plays pirate (although, we have had to teach him only nice play!). I found out that he makes a little girl at school play pirate with him, too. The book is OK in general, we are just trying to promote positive play and not play with any sort of swords, knives, etc. Charlie had some pretty aggressive streaks in him at first but that has really subsided. Thank God!! He likes the pirate book so I keep reading it. I think maybe he likes it because in the end the little boy goes home to get his good-night kisses from mom (pirates don't kiss goodnight!).

Otherwise everything is moving along here. We are celebrating our one year anniversary of meeting Charlie. I will post pictures of that a little later. He has changed so much.

"I love you all the way to Kaluga and back"

2010-01-27T16:33:00.002-06:00

Things have been pretty "normal" around here. We are remembering that one year ago we got the news that we would be traveling to Kaluga to meet our dear son. We were busy getting flights arranged and filled with all the anxieties of the unknown. Now, when I think that Charlie has been home for over 7 months it seems hard to believe. Now he is just a "Houk kid"!!

This month has been filled with birthday celebrations. My first baby turned 14 and my third baby turned 11. How can it be?? The one picture is Charlie with Emily on her birthday. He loves to give presents and he now understands to not walk up to someone with the gift and say "here, fuzzy socks for you!". It is amazing, too, what he remembers. Miranda's birthday was yesterday and he said to me "don't forget to get the balloons!". It is a tradition that the kids get a balloon on their bed and one on their chair for their birthday--we always "surprise" them, but they know by now that it will be there in the morning. Charlie remembered the balloons. Must have made an impact on him on his birthday. I suppose it helped that it was just Emily's birthday.

Charlie has had a few areas of regression but overall he is really good. He talks about Kaluga all the time. He might say "I ate those in Kaluga" or "Kaluga has a swimming pool" (which I am sure they did not), regardless, Kaluga seems to be in his thoughts. Lately he has been wanting me to rock him before bed "for just a few minutes". How can I turn down that opportunity?? It is a great time for us to talk one on one and perhaps talk about the behaviors I don't want to see anymore....We also get to cuddle and give lots of kisses. I told last night that I loved him to the moon and back. He said he loved me to the moon and back. I told him then that I loved him to Kaluga and back and he just laughed. I said "wait a minute... I love you to Kaluga and back and to Kaluga and back AND to Kaluga and back again!!!". He said THREE TIMES and I said, yes, that is how many times I went to Kaluga for you!! Charlie then said, "God put me in your heart to come and get me". All I could say while fighting back the tears was "Yes, He did".

"I like you, momma"

2010-01-12T20:41:00.002-06:00

Well, the past two days Charlie has hugged me and said "I Like you Momma". My response (wondering why he didn't say "I love you") was "Well, I LOVE YOU!". He just hugged me the first time and left it at that. Today, while I was carrying him into school he said "I like you, momma" and he wrapped his arms around my neck. I once again told him "Well, I love you! and I like you, too!"

I have been thinking about this for two days now wondering why he would spontaneously say he likes me.

I will say, that Mondays are sometimes difficult days around here. The kids are all back to school, Randy is back to work and it is just me and my Charlie Bear. He is "fine" if we are going out or running errands, but the stay at home and hang out stuff he has a difficult time with (ex. naughty, touching things he knows he shouldn't, demanding things). Yesterday-Monday-We came home after my haircut and he helped me do chores (which he loves). Then we had lunch, together, at the table. After lunch it was time for his "homework" AKA speech activities from the therapist. He is a crafty guy (very UNLIKE his brother!!) and so we finished a project. We then worked on letter flash cards and number flash cards/puzzles. We practiced our "slow easy talking" to work on his speech goal. After that we worked on a handout the speech therapist gave me. All of this took about one hour twenty minutes of undivided Charlie time. He rested for an hour with a movie and we were off to school--the first "I like You" time.
Today was a normal Tuesday--I dropped him off at school before I went to work. These are good days for him because he loves school. We are in the routine of his week.

Charlie tells me he loves me, and I have no concerns about his attachment. He is a sweet, sensitive, caring boy who has learned to love us and show us with hugs and kisses. So, in the scheme of things, I guess it is great that he likes me AND loves me :)

Christmas Fun!

2010-01-04T21:39:00.002-06:00

This season has been absolutely amazing with Charlie home. Our whole family has experienced Christmas again thru the eyes of a child. Charlie was so amazed by everything from the tree to the lights, the Christmas story and of course, SANTA. He says he wants to be Santa when he grows up. One day we were hanging out and Charlie said "remember Jesus on the cross, and those mean guys (refering to those who nailed Jesus to the cross) well, Santa needs to pray for them. I am not sure what his whole concept of Santa is, but if Charlie wants Santa to pray, well, then...Don't worry, Charlie is able to tell you all about Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus too!!

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with the kids at home. Randy and I have a tradition of hanging wrapping paper in the entry way to the kitchen. The kids run thru the doorway to go see what is under the tree and in their stockings. Charlie had so much fun. He especially likes his water bottle type sippy cups. When people ask him what he got for Christmas he always mentions that first....hmm...maybe the fact that he spills his drink at every meal has something to do with that!!
We kept Charlie's Christmas presents simple and to a minimum. The other kids were good sports about it as well. As they get older their toys get more expensive so they were good with just getting a couple of presents. Charlie is still way overwhelmed with too much before him. Too many different types of food on his plate, too many gifts, too many choices are not good for him.

We are suffering a little the past two days since being home from Iowa celebrating with extended family. As great and awesome as that experience was, he has been having control issues and meltdowns for two days. He has gone to bed early two nights in a row so hopefully by tomorrow he will be self-regulated again. He had such a great time playing with his cousins in Iowa. It was so fun.

Well, that is a snapshot of our Christmas. Now that he knows what to expect he keeps asking when Christmas is again!

Funny Story...

2009-12-26T21:05:00.002-06:00

I will post a little later about Christmas, but for now Charlie said the funniest thing. Tonight as we were saying prayers we went thru the whole family and we got to Uncle Scott, Aunt Christy, Hannah and the baby in Aunt Christy's belly. She is due in May. We just saw them and I think that may be the first time he has put together "a baby in the tummy" with a person. So I was saying the prayers and Charlie started laughing. I said "Charlie, we are praying" and he just kept laughing and said "Aunt Christy ate a baby!" Well now, how do you explain this to a 4 year old? I said, "No, Aunt Christy did not eat a baby". Well, you know what is next! "How did the baby get in her belly?". Best I could do was that "God put it there". Good enough, right? He doesn't give up. He said "how does it come out??" Hmmm. "Well, girls are different than boys, you know, and the baby will come out here" (and I pointed on him...) He paused a LONG time and said "I think I like boys better than girls!!"

Home 6 months!

2009-12-14T21:50:00.002-06:00

It is hard to believe, but today is the 6 month anniversary since Charlie stepped foot in America. I remember it so well--that horrid plane ride, the stewardess that made me wake the boy up after he had just fallen asleep so that I could put his seatbelt on him (after hours of restlessness and crying), the attempts to communicate with him...
And now Charlie sleeps (for the most part) and communicates just fine! He doesn't stop talking :)
The months have brought their challenges, but the rewards have been greater. Charlie is attached, adjusting and loves his family!

Praise and Thanksgiving....

2009-11-28T21:56:00.002-06:00

Well, as we prepared our hearts for Thanksgiving this year it was evident how gracious and good God has been this year. Charlie has come so far in such a short time, it truly is hard to believe. I am sure a lot of it has to do with the older siblings as role models and some of it has to do with his unbelievably strong willed personality!! The pictures posted are from a recent trip to Florida to spend some time with "babushka"--or Russia Grandma as Charlie calls her (my mom who went with me to Russia for trip three). The biggest changes we have seen have happened just since this trip.

For example, I was beginning to wonder if this boy was EVER GOING TO SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT. Well, we have had times where I would say "oh, he sleeps 1 out of 4 nights" and then it switched to "he sleeps 3 out of 4 nights, but the one night he is up is a bad one!!". It has been a few weeks, probably three, since Charlie has come into the bedroom to just see me in the middle of the night. He had a number of nights when he wondered around upstairs, walking into the girl's rooms, checking on them I suppose, and then he went back to bed. The biggest hurdle here is that he went back to sleep on his own. It just makes such a difference when he sleeps all night.

Now, the other thing that was totally exhausting this household was the bedtime routine. Charlie was (in a nice way??) demanding all our time at night and the other kids were really being neglected for at least an hour, but usually more, every night for the past 5 months as we tried to get Charlie to sleep. Charlie thrived on, and we stuck to, his bedtime routine for months---bath (or shower more recently), books, songs, prayers, AND SIT BY THE SIDE OF THE BED UNTIL HE FELL ASLEEP. This was the wildcard. This could take forever. Well, a week and a half ago before we left for Florida I told Charlie that if he wanted to go to FL I needed to pack! I told him I would check on him in 5 minutes but I needed to do something. I did as promised and came back in 5 minutes. This is a huge milestone because in times past he would call out or get out of bed. I hugged him and kissed him, told him I was packing for Grandma's and would check on him in 5 minutes. In 5 minutes he was sleeping!!! Wahoo!! This began a series of nights where I told him I would check on him, I always do, give him big hugs and kisses and tell him I love him and he always goes right to sleep. He has been sleeping through the night as well. Praise God!! Can you imagine how much of a stress reliever this is every night? We were sitting by his bed for at least 45 minutes. This meant nothing else. Now I know he needed us to be there, he was building security and confidence, ect. It is just such a relief and bedtime is so much more enjoyable knowing we don't have to sit there and "waste" time just sitting (not talking to him, just encouraging him to sleep). We just do the abridged bedtime routine now and can walk out! And he has been sleeping until 8 o'clock on the days off school :) Now that is my boy!

Post Placement Visit and IEP

2009-11-12T20:26:00.002-06:00

Today we had Charlie's 6 month post placement visit (a little early) with the social worker from our local adoption agency who did our home study. We had a new social worker since our first gal left the agency to pursue a new career. She was very nice, and very fast. During our initial visits the social worker was very chatty and stayed hours. This gal told us the visit would be 45 minutes. I found that so hard to believe since she had never met us before. She was outta here in less than an hour! Asked how it was going, what his strenghts and weaknesses were and if we had any concerns. She took the pictures we had scanned and that was about it. Short and sweet.

On the other hand...we had Charlie's IEP this afternoon today as well. It actually went well, too. I have no voice because I am sick so I can't do any talking anyway! He will get one hour of speech services a week--45 minutes individually and 15 with me for some parent training or teaching. Charlie qualified for fluency issues. He does some stuttering which we would like to monitor. It was fascinating to hear her talk about the "profile" for kids who have fluency issues--higher than average intelligence, sometimes English as a second language, non-stop talkers, often kids who interupt, sensitive boys. Fit Charlie EXACTLY.

Halloween

2009-11-09T15:44:00.002-06:00

Charlie was Batman and Carson was the Joker. It was really cute. It took Charlie all of one house to figure out that "trick or treat" meant candy. It took mom and dad all of one piece of candy to realize that candy makes this boy who has had very little sugar VERY WILD!! So we are trying to limit the candy consumption!

The picture of Charlie sleeping is a rare midday snooze. He actually fell asleep in the car on the way home from the mall. We trick or treated there first. He fell asleep and we let him snooze just a little on the couch before we went out later that afternoon. He was really tired. I wish he would sleep a little everyday but he fights it soo much. He will yell at you that he is not tired. AND HE WON'T GO TO BED AT NIGHT. So we really can't win in the sleep department. He has had a cold for a week so the night time cold medicine has helped with the number of times he has gotten up in the middle of the night. We only had one really bad night in the past week. I am thankful for that. I have not slept well because I have been sick, but at least he has slept thru.

His IEP is on Thursday. Randy is going with me thankfully!! I am disappointed that Charlie is not going to get the pre-school speeech programming that I had hoped for, but at least he will get something. We will find out on Thursday.

Update long overdue!

2009-10-29T21:07:00.002-05:00

Well, there hasn't really been that much to talk about. Charlie has been doing well. He is just a typical kid at this point. My prayer is that he would sleep better and go to sleep without one of us sitting there next to him but we understand that this will take time...this is the most trying thing. I thought we had hit a real milestone when he slept through the night 4 nights in a row. I felt like a new woman!! But last night was horrible. He woke up at 3:09 AM--his typical time to the minute, and came in. I brought him back to bed and told him I loved him. That is it, I used to tell him to go back to sleep, don't come into my room, I am sleeping, blah blah blah, but I decided to just reassure him with love and kisses and go back to bed. WEll, he came back at 3:24. Same thing, walked him back. He came back at 3:39. Now I am frustrated. I stayed in there for a few minutes until I thought he was really asleep. Back in at 4 something. Now I just can't fall asleep anymore. He was sleeping for the night now, no more in our room but I just couldn't fall asleep. I think I fell asleep at 6. Up shortly thereafter. He obviously didn't stay sleeping because he had set up shop on the floor with his pillow and comforter BUT AT LEAST HE STAYED IN HIS ROOM.
Tonight is a new night and he has to be exhausted. No school for all of us tomorrow so I am praying he sleeps until at least 8. Parent teacher conferences at 9:30.
Tonight he wanted me to lay next to him to fall asleep. Usually I just sit on the floor. I climbed off the bed after about 15 seconds because I was going to turn on the music and he didn't move so he was really tired. BUT IT WAS STILL 9 O'CLOCK!! He just cannot give it up. He cannot calm to go to sleep and struggles to stay asleep.

Charlie also had his speech eval this week. I will be brief as it is a topic, being in special education myself, that can really get me going. His IEP meeting will be next week. Will post more after the meeting I suppose. The meeting was a little rough for me, let me just say. We all know I wanted Charlie to qualify for speech services but to really qualify for the speech pre-school program that the district offers. It seems he will qualify for speech but not the program. I just want him to have every chance possible so I was extremely disappointed. I suppose at this point, before the IEP, I don't know everything so I need to wait to jump to any conclusions. All I know is that I didn't get what I wanted for him. I just wanted him in an inclusive setting where there were professionals working on all the aspects of his needs--socialization and speech, self regulation, occupational therapy, pre-school skills all in an integrated setting. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. IMAGINE MY DISAPPOINTMENT.

Nothin keeps this kid down!

2009-10-16T19:21:00.002-05:00

Well, Charlie had a little procedure done so I will share the pictures. He was so cute at the surgical center. He wins everyone's hearts over wherever he goes. They gave him a magna-doodle to play with and he was "knuckling" the Dr. and nurses. They just ate him up. The only form of pain killer was an epidural. It took him what seemed like a eternity to wake (one hour 15 minutes from the time I came in after surgery) and the pictures will show that he was REALLY OUT OF IT. But when we got home he ran around like a maniac (drugs from Walgreens). He actually hasn't stopped running around like a maniac so I am not sure what happened that day. I don't think it can take a week to get those drugs out of his system but it seems to feel like that.

3 month update

2009-10-04T17:41:00.002-05:00

Well, we were to see the Dr. on Friday for all 5 kids "well babies". I guess you cannot call a soon to be 14 year old a "well baby" but in terms of Dr. codes for insurance, that is what it was. Or a physical. The kids did not have school on Friday. They were supposed to get their flu shots as well, however, the office did not receive their supply so unfortunately I will have to drag all of them back again in November!! Hopefully noone will get sick before then.

Well, on to Charlie and his progress. He has gained 3 whole pounds and grew an inch in 3 months. Not only that, the nurse said she could just not believe how much he has changed since we brought him home. She said his coloring is so much different since that first day. I can second that!! He is naturally a little darker toned with his brown hair and brown eyes and I don't think that the poor boy's skin ever saw the sun. His hair has really grown in nicely, too. He had almost bald patches on the sides and now they have filled in.

That is about it! I told Randy it is hard to believe that it was one year ago end of October that the kids had their physicals done for the adoption process. Jess and Miranda both grew 3 inches and gained 10 pounds and Emily grew three inches and gained 12 pounds. I didn't get the stats on Carson.... As you can see from the girls in our picture---their height almost puts all of them taller than me! Emily already has me.

Just a little story to end. I picked Charlie up from Sunday School this morning. I had told his teacher that he may need to use the bathroom while he was there (I have stopped going with to SS since the school year started so I am not there to watch him)...When I picked him up the teacher leaned down and said "Charlie don't forget to tell your mom". I thought he was going to tell me he used the bathroom or something... I said "Charlie, what do you have to tell me??" All the kids were there, too, as we all picked him up. He said "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1" I looked at the kids and said "Charlie!!! That is great!!!" We just stared at each other in disbelief. The girls hugged him and said "that's so great Charlie!!" Of course, he just repeated it and repeated it then. Not what I was expecting when I thought he was going to tell me he went potty!!

2009-09-29T21:44:00.000-05:00

Charlie's birthday and baptism

2009-09-29T21:33:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been an exciting weekend around here. Charlie had his 4th birthday on Friday. He was very excited to have a spiderman birthday cake. I think he wanted that more than presents. We asked him what he had in Kaluga for his birthday and he said a cake so they must have celebrated his birthday there. I don't know if he ever received gifts before. He has had the benefit of his dad and sister having a birthday before him since he has been home so he knows about presents. He didn't like it so much when they were all stacked up and then each of the kids took one (so that they could hand their gift to him). He soon got it, though, when we explained that the gifts were FOR HIM and the kids were wanting to give them TO HIM. He just sat back and waited then.

We also had his baptism this weekend and were blessed with family from 4 states here to celebrate that with us. It was a beautiful day so we also enjoyed a nice party afterwards. Charlie was very attentive during the service as there were two others baptized. He was the second and he really watched as a little girl went first. This day brought lots of anticipation and conversation for Charlie and probably a little anxiety for the unknown. He got a really neat banner that we have hanging in his room next to a similar one that Carson received when he was baptized in the same church.

Charlie had a play assessment done by the school district on Friday and they are going to do a formal assessment of his speech. I am thrilled by this as I really feel he needs speech services. I laughed when the lady looked at me and said you have other children and asked me how old the little boy was that we adopted from Russia and I looked at her and said "this is the little boy we adopted from Russia". She could not believe that Charlie had only been here 3 1/2 months. She had no idea (I won't comment about how it was all over the paperwork I filled out) because his understanding of the language was so good. way to go Charlie!! So he should qualify for the speech pre-school program. YEAH!!

He is doing awesome and we are thrilled. He makes gains every day. Now if I could just get him to sleep through the night.....

Home 3 Months!

2009-09-16T21:22:00.002-05:00

Well, we hit the milestone! Charlie has been home three months. When I think about where we have come in three months it is almost overwhelming. That wild child in the apartment in Moscow who colored in permanent marker on those beautiful sheets is finally trustworthy (welll..). My mom and I were just remembering all those minutes (that is because we lived minute to minute in Moscow with Charlie--watching every move he made!!) in Moscow when we got to the apartment and how Charlie did things so quickly. He dumped the liquid cleanser on the floor without either of us seeing, in the fridge pulling the milk out, lights off and on in the bathroom because the switch was on the outside (??why do they do that?? so kids can turn the lights off on you while you are in there???), oh, so many memories!!

Now I was resting upstairs and Randy was playing the piano and I got this horrible feeling that Charlie was coloring on the fridge with a sharpie or something. I went downstairs and Carson and Charlie were sitting on the couch watching tv. Awww. It was so cute. It wasn't that long ago and we just couldn't take our eyes off him. I would still say that we can't trust him for that long and someone is always on "Charlie duty"! But he is definately learning to play by himself.

He goes to school/daycare two days a week when I work. It is working out well. He likes it, however, the naptime continues to be a struggle. They do tell me he cries for me and wants to call me on the phone. He will tell me "momma, I said 'momma, where are yoooouuuuu....' ". The director will pretend to call me and tell him that I will be there after he plays after naps. This seems to satisfy him.

Our biggest issue now is still sleep. He just will not give it up at night. He is king of distraction. He will play with something, scratch his leg, rub his nose, whatever, be almost asleep and then pop up like a jack in the box. It is so frustrating. We had gone 7 days before Labor Day where he slept thru the night but I think the stimulation of all the relatives and now we have regressed. We have about two good nights out of three. That one bad night is a killer, tho, and tends to be on a night when I have to work the next day. Charlie will be up from 2:30-5 or so. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. He is just up and down, in and out of our room. It is still tons better than it was so I am hopeful that this, too, will come to an end. I just think he will feel better, too, if he gets good sleep.

The school district will evaluate him for speech next Friday--which is his 4th birthday. We are anxious to see if he qualifies. We are hopeful he will get some services.

He is looking forward to his birthday! He wants a Spiderman birthday cake. I think that is the least we can do for him.

Too much to handle...

2009-09-09T21:48:00.003-05:00

Well, I knew Charlie was sensitive with the whole puppy store incident but tonight puts the whole realm of orphanage experience over the top and how as adoptive parents we need to be so aware of where a child is at and how their past experiences will directly affect who they will forever be...

Tonight as I was putting Charlie to bed I was trying to be fast and we bypassed the bath...straight to bed, no songs in the chair, I just sat on the bed, did prayers and sang. We had the discussion about how he needs to stay in bed ALL NIGHT WITHOUT COMING INTO MY ROOM and he said "Why? Is Grandpa coming??" Hmm, did I use that one before grandpa came??? I said no but then realized Grandpa WAS COMING IN A FEW WEEKS!! I explained that he was coming for baptism. I think I should have just left it at that but I decided to explain a little about baptism and told him that we were going to go up in front of church and pastor Chris was going to hold him and say..... I started to get choked up, well, because I was flooded with all the emotions of the past year plus and thinking how neat it was that we were coming to baptism day. I told him that mom and dad were going to make a promise to raise him in the church and that someday our prayer was that he would accept Jesus into his heart. He blurted out "I LOVE JESUS!!" I said "I love Jesus TOO!!". He hasn't even been home three months!! OK, so now I am getting choked up talking about baptism and how everyone is going to come and be there, well, with his little comment I am just now crying. He says "mommy, don't cry". He gets big alligator tears in his eyes and is visibly upset that I am crying.
I explained to him that I am crying happy tears because I am so happy God brought me to him and that he is MY boy. Well, now he is crying. I told him I waited a long time for him while he was in Kaluga and that I was just so happy to have him home. I was crying because baptism is an important day for us and it will be so happy. I told him there will be lots of people probably crying tears of happiness that day. He was now sobbing and said....he waited a long time for me in Kaluga, too, mommy. His exact words over and over were "I waited a long time for you in Kaluga, too, mommy, I waited a long time for you, too, mommy". So we just held each other and cried. He wiped his eyes with his comforter and then offered his comforter for me to wipe mine. He then said "mommy will always come for me..."
This story is ALOT longer, but long enough for now.
I am his mother and will have to help him heal and strenghthen. He is a Child of the King...

Things to think about....

2009-09-01T21:35:00.002-05:00

Well, there has not been a lot to update lately. Charlie has been doing really well at "school". He loves it and they love him there. He is always there ready to help with the broom they tell me! They love a kid who will clean up! He did have a fever virus end of last week which kept him down--never seen him just lay down on the couch but it finally gave me a chance to get the counter cleaned off :)

I was thinking about how far we have come in two and a half months and I just can't believe it. Our bedtime has gotten soooo much easier. He will now say he is tired--he used to deny it like crazy and yell that he wasn't tired. He is able to settle himself down now. I hate to say we have slept thru the night for THREE WHOLE NIGHTS. May not sound like much but that is a record around here and when you haven't had the sleep....you appreciate it.
His language is really coming along. He will be evaluated by the school district, however, they already told me preliminary thoughts based on the paperwork seem to indicate he has age appropriate speech even though he is from Russia... (we won't even go there tonight...)

Two more things...I took Charlie and Miranda to the petstore on Sunday without even thinking. It was our "date" afternoon. One of the puppies was in the cage just looking the other way crying wanting to get out. Charlie looked at me and said something like "mommy puppy out?" I said, "No, Charlie, we are just looking at the puppies today, not getting any out" and he had the saddest most pathetic look on his face and I thought he was going to cry. I was looking at Charlie and wondering what the world??? He said "MOMMY PLEASE??" and I said no. He said "mommy, he has no momma or pappa". OK< do you want to cry now??? Charlie is 3 years old!!! I admit, I started to cry. I told him that the people standing next to us were taking him home. Judge me for lying but I couldn't stand to see my son standing there broken-hearted about the puppy!! Those people were taking him out to play with him so they MAYBE were takin him home.
Moral of the story---these children come with a history that we can't ignore. We can put them into our families and treat them like Houks or insert your last name, but they have come from orphanages where they know what it is like to be alone and want a home....the good news is that charlie is evidently sympathetic to the situation.

On a happier note tomorrow Charlie has to bring a picture of his family to daycare. We pulled one out and he was going around the house showing all his siblings the picture telling them about it. When I put him to bed I was rubbing his hair telling him I was so glad he had a family and that he was bringing a picture of his family to school tomorrow. He said "mommy, happy family". God is good.

Last Days of Summer...

2009-08-22T22:10:00.002-05:00

Well, it is official. Summer is over. The kids go back to school on Monday. We went to the open house at school and the kids are actually excited to go back I think (well, not Carson...). The big girls have their lockers decorated on the inside. All the supplies are in the other kid's desks so it should be a smooth drop-off on Monday morning.

Charlie knows he goes to school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays--we check the calendar daily and I show him which days he goes. He says "not today mommy" "no school today". He likes to go, tho, I am pretty sure. They love him there I know. He seems to be handling it OK and it seems as if the little biting conversation, after further investigation, must have been Charlie telling me about that boy trying to bite another boy...Who knows....they assure me Charlie was not bit by the kid.

Anyway, no real news. Charlie was in daycare three days last week because of my multiple orientation days and he gets a cold!!! He was actually a pretty miserable kid and did not sleep for a number of nights in a row now. He will be better just in time to go back "to school".

I will post a picture of the kids with Randy's grandma Houk, the kid's Great Grandma Houk. We were blessed with the opportunity to spend some quality time with her while in Iowa last week.

2009-08-16T16:10:00.000-05:00

2009-08-16T16:01:00.003-05:00

Home two months, 1st day of school...

2009-08-16T15:46:00.002-05:00

Well, some big milestones this week. We had a fun time on vacation at Grandma and Grandpa Houks in Iowa. We took the kids to Adventureland. For a kid who gets carsick (and for the record...Charlie did throw up the second we got OUT OF THE CAR at the Iowa 80 truck stop on the way home yesterday...the timing couldn't have been any more perfect. We said "Charlie goladin?? (hungry?) and he said NO. Not like him....sure enough...blahhh all over the parking lot. good thing not in the car!!) Anyway, he rode every ride he could at the amusement park! and no puke!

Randy also took the big kids to the Iowa State Fair while Grandma took Charlie around to introduce him to some people. Some good Grandma Charlie bonding time!! I hung out for some much needed alone time.

Charlie also went to "school" for the first time on Tuesday as a trial morning to see how he does being away from me. He loved the idea of school and NEEDED to bring his Bob the Builder backpack to school. He loved it most that they had a "park" at school. He did great and I can't say enough wonderful things about the place we chose. Randy and I talked about it and we visited a number of places---in this kind of environment and for his needs we decided that you definately get what you pay for. It is outrageous but the programming is exceptional. Plus, he loved it. I had a long talk with the gal there and they actually have another boy who had been adopted from Russia go thru there as well as another boy who has English as a second language. Experience is everything. So he goes tomorrow for the full day. I told them good luck with the nap thing....

I will post some pictures. I have no idea how much he has grown or how many pounds he has gained. All I know is that he is a happy kid. He can be challenging and exhausting but he has learned so much. He now knows feelings, remorse, to say he is sorry, says "I love you", is starting to speak in sentences, is mostly potty trained during the day (won't talk about that little incident ten minutes ago...), is VERY self-suffient (Charlie do it!!!!) and so much more. He is cute as can be as well!!

Time for Work...Time for School...

2009-08-10T08:21:00.002-05:00

Well, only one more week until I report to work and summer is officially "over" for us school folks!! Can't believe it. Charlie has been "school" shopping and I think we have settled on one. He is excited to go, especially because school has a "park" (playground). The bigger kids don't start for another week.

Still waiting for the school district to evaluate Charlie for his speech. He is very difficult to understand to the unfamiliar ear. We do a lot of translating for people!! Hopefully they will feel that he qualifies for services and he will get some speech therapy.

That is it for now--will update more later this week!

Weekend...

2009-08-03T22:27:00.002-05:00

This weekend we drove up to Kalamazoo to visit my Aunt Judy so she could meet Charlie. We had a great 24 hours there :) The hotel was a comedy of errors but Charlie and I slept great, which is all that really matters. The girls stayed by Aunt Judy and played games and watched a movie. Randy and Carson stayed home for some boy time (White Sox game) and Carson had something he needed to do.

The picture is just one that Jess had taken sometime and I thought it was time to post one. I think it is perfect, tho, since when we got home Charlie colored with pen on all the kitchen chairs. The look is one like "I did not use pen on the chairs". All the chairs. That is why he was hiding under the table when he did it.

"I'm Charlie"

2009-07-31T09:39:00.002-05:00

As I sit here Charlie just blurted out "I'm Charlie!". He is watching Clifford and there is a boy on there named Charlie so I think he was relating to him. He then said "I'm Charlie, he Charlie!". Wow, pronouns and all!

Well, we have had an exciting week around here. Carson's last baseball game (in the tournament) and they finally won their first game as a travel team. Wahoo!! It was kind of a rough post season for the guys. It was the first time this group of kids had ever played together and the first time they ever saw "kid pitch" (or pitched themselves for that matter). It took them a month, but they finally won an exciting one!
The season ended with a game against the parents where the boys won in a marathon two hour 20-19 rally win.

We also went to the zoo. The kids from day one have said they couldn't wait to take Charlie to the zoo. He did great! We spent the day there with some friends and they all loved it.

Charlie also got a new bike from a friend of Randy's. He wants to live on it. Good thing for training wheels!! The good thing about it is we finally found a behavior modifier!! If Charlie is being naughty and doesn't stop his warning is "the bike". If he doesn't stop no bike for 5 minutes. He shapes up in a hurry!!!

Potty training is going great. Almost not an issue except for at night, for which the pediatric urologist said no worries.

Charlie's English is great, almost all his words are in english. Every once and a while he will break into a russian phrase (once when he was mad--full Russian). His speech, however, is less intelligible. I filled out the paperwork for the school district, will call them today to see where we are at with that.

On a very cute note, Charlie still likes his food and continues to be a great eater. It is no secret I am a diet Coke drinker...McDonalds...so the other day I was going thru the drive-thru and Charlie was in the back seat when I was ordering my diet coke and he was yelling out "fries, bacon..." all his favorite things. I guess he was figuring if I was getting my favorite thing from McDonalds he should get his favorite things from McDonald's!!

"BIG Boy"

2009-07-21T11:31:00.002-05:00

Well, today marks a big day for Charlie. He is wearing big boy underwear like his brother and papa AND he stands for pee-pee. Both are big deals around here. One, because he is big like his brother and his daddy, and two, because he wants to stand he uses the potty often. Randy went into the bathroom last night after changing his clothes after work to discover Charlie very proudly standing (leaning over!!) the potty doing his business. He just wants to be like the boys!

We have had some issues with this potty trainig business so I am hoping we are over a big hurdle here. He came out of his room this morning with the underwear and said NO PULL-UP. I said "big boy underwear??" and he said "dah". I said OK, but no pee-pee in the big boy underwear like Carson! he said no. I will keep you posted....

Home one month...

2009-07-16T14:13:00.002-05:00

Well, we have been home one month now and it is amazing what a month can do!! Charlie has had his time to adjust as have we :) There have been good days and well, days. I am a regular blog stalker and I have noticed that noone seems to write about challenges so I will stick with that and just write about all the good things that have happened in the month.

Charlie has accomplished sooo much for a 3 1/2 year old who has had to hurdle so many things leaving an orphanage just 4 weeks ago. I will list just a few that I can remember--

He can sing the ABC's (and it is sooo cute!!)
Count to 10
Brush his teeth
Dress himself
Eats VERY WELL! (no milk or juice but we are working on that...)
I would say almost potty trained but M&M's are my friend in this department!
Knows how to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "If you are Happy and you know it..."
Knows he needs to pray before you eat and go to sleep and yells "AMEN" at the end. We have said the same prayer every time for consistency and he almost has it down now. He will sit down and hold his hands out to hold hands to pray making sure noone forgets!
He is fearless at the park. Every time we get in the car he says "Park mona? (his version of moshna for may I?). He climbs everything.
He has been an English verbal explosion the past few days. One naughty story. Yesterday he broke something and I had to have a little talk with him. I put him in the "time in" chair and every time I need to be serious about something out comes the Russian/English dictionary. That way I know I get thru to him. When the girls got home last night he got the dictionary out and brought it to them. Clear as day he said "broken" and pointed to what he broke as he had the dictionary in hand. He also said it in Russian (which I recognized in my poor attempt to say it in Russian). He remembered the english word all day and remembered. It obviously made a huge impact on him.

Today in the store a lady started talking to him and asked if he liked the red or black better...he broke out into a complete Russian conversation. Most times he speaks jibberish because we know he wants to speak English but doesn't know the words so he just babbles. This was definately Russian. I just looked at her. At first I didn't say anything but as he kept going on I finally said it was Russian. He just wouldn't stop.

It has been a great month. He is a true blessing. At times he can be challenging-as any 3 year old can be, but his sleeping is getting better and behavior is typical of any three year old. He is sweet and loving and attaching well. He loves us all and greets us with "good morning!!" every day. He even says "I love you!!!"

2009-07-09T12:57:00.001-05:00

Lots to report...

2009-07-09T12:37:00.004-05:00

Well, I know it has been a while since I posted, mainly because I posted and I had to delete the post because the wrong picture posted and I never got back to it...
We have had some major milestones since the last post...Charlie saw the dentist (ouch...had novicaine for a tough little cleaning but thankfully what they thought was a cavity was not), saw the Dr.--all good there!, and had 5 tubes of blood drawn (sat still as can be!). He also met his Grandma and Grandpa Houk for the first time and it was great. AND...his papa turned 40!!!! ALL in a week!! What a week it has been.
With that said, we have had a little regression in the sleeping department. Things had actually been going pretty well but the past two nights we would all like to forget so that is all I will say.

The social worker came yesterday to do our 30 day post placement DCFS visit. She seemed happy with how he is "attached" to us. He is doing really well we think.

Anyway, I will post a few pictures. He loved the fireworks on the 4th. His first official party as an American :)

1st (American) Haircut!

2009-06-27T19:37:00.002-05:00

Well, this morning Charlie had his first American haircut. He did great and sat really still in the chair. He seemed like an old pro at that haircut routine! The buzzers didn't bother him at all, which shouldn't surprise me, since he had a buzz cut the first time we met him!

Here are a few pictures of the event!

2009-06-26T17:44:00.000-05:00

Just Updating...

2009-06-26T12:29:00.002-05:00

Well, things have been going well...Charlie is well loved by all:) He gets lots of attention from all the kids. We have to remind the girls that he has parents and that we need to instill in him that WE are his parents!! There is NEVER a dull moment around here with a three year old! I forgot what that was like. He is busy. I am enjoying a rare quiet moment--Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is in the tape player. Why didn't I think of that sooner??? He loves music and is GLUED to the television.
He is a great eater of fruits and veggies. He spontaneously will say "cookie!" (a true Houk!). He is well on his way to being really potty trained, not orphanage potty trained. We have the "kaka in the potty" down (thank you, Lord!!) but the pee pee is still a work in progress. He will say "potty dah" and point to his pull-up and say "nyet". So he knows...

Sleeping is still, well, a challenge but getting better every night. He has horrible itching and severe dermatitis. We are working on all of this. He at least sleeps until almost 8 every morning so I can catch up that way :)

Other than that all is good. We have had two episodes of carsickness (eww, says Carson who has witnessed both and assisted in one in holding the vomit catcher...)but they both happened only when Charlie ate while in the car (snack) or well, no connection....

A few pictures to update the progress. It seems like he has changed so much already, just being with older kids. He fits in so well and is just learning quickly to be a Houk!

Getting to Know Charlie

2009-06-16T21:43:00.002-05:00

Everyone around here (including the two dogs) is doing a wonderful job of adjusting to life with a 3 year old in the house. Good thing the dogs are very tolerant of a new small person pulling their tails.
Charlie has been doing great. He is such a happy kid. He is learning where everything in the house is. He loves sharing his new room with his big brother Carson. I think Carson thinks it's pretty cool to have a little brother too.
Charlie has had a couple of days of "firsts". He's watched his brother play a baseball game for the first time. He's tried his first pizza, and as you can see by the attached picture, he's played Rockband guitar for the first time. He's also tried his hands at the drums.
His sisters have been super with him too. They don't leave his side very often. Charlie gives them lots of hugs. I think he is just so happy to finally have a family!
Along with catching up on sleep, we are just trying to get back into a normal routine. He seems to be handling everything fine so far. We have a full summer ahead of us to introduce Charlie to new things!

The Fab 5

2009-06-14T21:29:00.003-05:00

Home and Tired

2009-06-14T21:16:00.003-05:00

We are home and have been up just shy of 24 hours with only a 1 1/2 hour nap. Charlie wouldn't settle down on the plane at all to sleep. I finally made him a bed on the floor (nobody say anything about the cleanliness of this, please!!) I put blankets down first and figured I needed sleep more than anything, as did those around us who needed some peace and quiet from row 10.... Charlie fell asleep until the "fasten seat belt" sign came on and the lady came by and said I needed to get him into the seat and buckle him. I wanted to tell her I was willing to take my chances with the turbulance but she was not very friendly!! Charlie really needed the sleep and of course moving him only woke the wild beast within him. He was beside himself trying to go back to sleep and not able to. The seatbelt sign stayed on maybe ten minutes!! AND NO TURBULANCE!!! OYE!!

Anyway, we are home and Charlie has been so happy tonight. He seems to love everyone and the dogs. He has played outside, had grilled hotdogs and met some neighbors. He is in heaven. The dogs are wondering what whis is all about!! We are so happy to be home and have this little blessing home. God has blessed us so much and opened so many doors for us this trip. We are aware of every step he made clear to get us home early and so grateful. Charlie is so amazing and we are so happy he has come home. Now for sleeping.....

Just Hangin Out

2009-06-12T12:59:00.002-05:00

Well we spent the day just hangin out with some fellow CSSers and walking around Red Square a little. It was hot and sunny so we weren't there too long. Some of the area was closed, too, so we couldn't go "inside" like we did in February. Wow, is Moscow different in June than in February. I don't know what the temperature is but I would guess mid 80's and very humid. The Square area was busy, unlike in February, I think maybe because of the holiday today???
We went to the grocery store today and as you know my rubel conversion is poor and I couldn't figure out why my grocery bill seemed so high when I got back. I asked the waiter at the Hard Rock tonight what I purchased for 350 rubels and he said that he hopes I like the 13 dollar ice cream. I haven't tried it yet, but I will tell you that it is not even a quart. Better be good.
I think tomorrow we will go to some flea market outside of town with the CSS family (same adoption agency as us...on their way back from court to pick up their daughther). It is nice to have someone to hang out with!

We are still getting to know Charlie! Bedtime and potty are the biggest challenge. Eating is awesome. The other kids can learn from him!!! He will learn from the others with the other things :) We have said he is a child in constant motion. The cutest thing he said tonight was when he pointed at the back of the book and said "tiger" and I said "that is a tiger!" and I must have sounded alarmed that he knew that and he said "GOOD BOY!!". Now if I could just get him to stay in bed and be a good boy instead of getting up for the 50th time. He comes right out and says "stoy!" which means stay, but he doesn't do it....we won't even talk about the potty...

He is a funny and amazing child. If I haven't said it we call him the little engineer. We weren't able to get the DVD player to work--Charlie did. We couldn't figure out the drain on the tub--Charlie did. He changed the batteries on the remote, set the timer on the stove, etc...can't divulge too many secrets as these things all happened when we WERE watching!!

Thanks for your continued prayers. I will say we are a bit exhausted. Pray for the plane ride home. When he is overtired he is a little wild! That is all for tonight. Must go put the boy back to bed...

Moscow Madness and Embassy Update

2009-06-11T13:25:00.003-05:00

Charlie had his medical appointment this morning and for my rubles the doctor told me he was built like a sumo wrestler and I would have to keep the girls away from him with a smile like that. 10 minutes later, honestly, and we were out the door. That included a discussion about food allergies and were to get something similar to benedryl which has kept him wired for the past hour and not sleeping.
I also had the dreaded Embassy visit because I had a questionable document in there (long story). There were many of us holding our breath but the guy didn't mention a thing and he granted a same day Visa exit interview due to the holiday weekend. YEAH!! I guess that never happens but since they don't want to keep us around an extra five days they allowed it. The unfortunate thing is that we couldn't get our airline tickets changed due to technicalities until Sunday so we will have to hang around here for a few extra days. That is still better than going home next Friday like we had planned!! Wahoo!! So, we will hang out here in Moscow and try to get this boy on a schedule of some sort.

Another Crazy Day

2009-06-10T13:10:00.002-05:00

Noone ever said this would be easy!! Today has been more than crazy and poor Charlie has been a real trooper. We waited around to see if our Passport would be granted, early, and thankfully it was. This will offer us the opportunity to perhaps come home a lot sooner than expected. We had to chase around town doing this and that and somewhere fit lunch in--ordering--leaving the restaurant--coming back two hours later--and after eating leaving straight for Moscow!! AMAZING!! Now, instead of being stuck in Kaluga for the holiday we may end up in Moscow for the holiday. OR we may end up getting everything done tomorrow and get to come home!!! Wahoo!! We were missing an important document (ut oh...) a slight technicality and miscommunication that we hope we have resolved (pray the American Embassey will allow a fax instead of a real document!!) and then pray the Visa will be granted the same day (never happens but the office is closed for 5 days!! for holiday and last time they did it....

God has been good and expedited everything for us. This boy needs to be home with his family (as do his momma and babuska) so pray tomorrow goes well--the Embassey at 10:30 (while you are sleeping) and the Visa exit interview to be granted in the afternoon instead of next week.

We appreciate your prayers as I am seperated from Randy and the kids. God has blessed our family with this amazing boy who is curious, adventurous, active, technologically engineered, animated and sweet as can be. And for the record, he will not eat cheese quesadillas, but did eat tomatoes, salad, hamburger, onions and pickles!!

OHHH Sooo Cute!!

2009-06-09T13:30:00.004-05:00

Well, it is official. I am worn out from toddlerhood and he has only been with us for, um, 6 hours. It has been an amazing 6 hours, though!! Charlie left the orphanage after we ran around doing pre-orphanage leaving things. Passport papers, stamps, lines, etc... but it is all done and worth it. "They" told us to expect him to be a little wild and well, he was a little out of his element in the hotel. He ordered a movie on the television I think, went "shopping" in all the suitcases and jabbered so much we wished we knew what he was saying. We tired him out tho by making him do some serious walking!!

I have to say, even though I can't get him to sleep in this dark hotel room, the most incredible thing he has done is whisper to me "momma.." and I said "what?" and he said something in Russian. I went over to him and he hugged and kissed me!! awww...it was so sweet!! It is still almost 11 pm and he won't even think about settling down :)

Today has been amazing. The most awesome thing is hearing him say MOM. I can't wait to get him home. Since I need to try to get this boy to sleep I better sign off for now.

We are here!

2009-06-08T11:34:00.002-05:00

My mom and I made it without issue. I posted a neat picture of the full moon we saw from the plane window. It never got dark but we did see the moon. We had a crew waiting for us when we arrived in Kaluga...waiting for those papers!! They needed to run to get them notarized. Tomorrow we have to wait for something (not sure what...) but I think then we will go to the baby home to get Charlie. Can't wait to see him again and introduce him to his babushka (grandma!).

Can't wait to post his picture :) Until then...Dasvidanya

Farm Sunday and Hail Monday

2009-06-01T21:41:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a big day around here...Carson had his big "Farm Sunday" baseball game on the big boy field in Lisle...it has dug-outs and everything. His dad had the honor of being the "announcer" during the game and got to say all kinds of fun facts about the kids during the inning. Randy was a natural at the mic and the kids all thought it was fun to hear him say things about them when they came up to bat :) We were blessed with a gorgeous day as well. Oh, the Bulls won, too! Bonus :)

Today the weather was so strange! The kids called when I ran a quick errand and said that there was hail!! I was just down the street and there was only rain, but sure enough when we pulled in the driveway there were hailstones everywhere! Big enough for me to get my camera out to take pictures!! They were everywhere and it took over an hour for them to disappear. Crazy for June 1st.

Getting ready to go in a few days...

Safely Back Home

2009-05-28T20:03:00.002-05:00

We made it back to Chicago without much trouble. There was a little delay getting to the airport because one of the roads from Kaluga to Moscow was closed so our driver had to go a different route he wasn't familiar with. After stopping and asking 6 different people for directions on the side of the road, he finally found someone who knew which direction the airport was. Luckily we had left in plenty of time so it was fine.
Michelle will return to Russia with her mom in just 9 days from now so we immediately sent their passports back in to the Russian Consulate today to get a visa for the next trip. Hopefully they will turn them around fast this time. We have to get lodging arranged for their time in Moscow yet, so we need to get on that. We're trying to figure out how to strategically pack for her 12 days in Russia this time between her things, Charlie's clothes and toys, etc. I'm sure it will all work out fine. We're just anxious to get him home at this point. Thank you for all of your prayers while we were in Russia for court. It sure makes it easier knowing we have the love and support from friends and family.

Charlie!!! Court and Table for 7

2009-05-26T12:21:00.003-05:00

Wahoo! Charles David became a Houk today! Yeah! Court went well...uneventful. Our interpreter was, to say the least, seasoned. I will leave it at that since Randy says we can't post his picture. But he got the job done. I don't think he really repeated everything they said. He told us it was important just to get the "main idea".
Anyway, Charlie is telling everyone good-bye because he is going to America and that he is going to miss everyone. He told his favorite teacher yesterday that maybe someday he would come back to get her. He is a very social boy! It was the typical questions so we hear about court-Why another child (when we already have 4), How in this economic crisis, are people supportive? Explain our visits with him, how did he respond to us, why did we want him...
so overall, it was pretty straight forward, she asked both Randy and I to speak.

Tonight Randy and I went to John the Baptist Cathedral and took a picture of the date in the flowers (picture posted). Every day they change the date. We thought it would be neat to have that.

So overall we better make a little room at the table because now we are going to need room for 7!!

A day at the Baby Home!

2009-05-25T13:21:00.002-05:00

Well, we are back in the swing of the baby home routine! Two visits today. C was so cute today when he first saw us--he came running without hesitation. He had his phone in hand, saying he shall call us--memories of last time we were here! He doesn't forget a thing. We went outside so they bundled him up like they were expecting a snowstorm. The poor kid was sweating like crazy by the time we came in and any time we were out of the sunshine for more than three minutes, like to swing on a swing, they asked us to bring him back over so he didn't get cold. It was nice to spend some time outdoors finally, tho, we didn't know if the sun ever came out in Russia and now we know it does. It still rained both days we have been here but the sun has been out and the temperature is mild as well.
Time to brag just slightly about C. I brought some picture cards of animals along just to see how well he could imitate English words. We know he knows the names of animals in Russian from last time we were here. I sat down with him and we looked at the cards. He would say the Russian word for the animal and I said it in English. I about flipped when he clear as day said "dolphin!" after I said "dolphin". I don't think he is going to have any problems picking up the language! He wants to please us so badly, too, so I think that is part of the repeating the words.

Last thing. I just don't get the Russian rubel system. The nice thing there is no tax here that I can tell so the price is what it is. I do know that the ladies at the supermarkets are not very friendly when the interpreter isn't there to tell you how to pay for the food. I just want my coca-cola light so it shouldn't be that big of a deal! Last night the lady really scolded me and I could tell I was not giving her the right denomination of some sort. She wanted coins and I was giving her bills. I just grabbed a bunch of coins and motioned for her to take it. For my next round of beverage I told Randy we needed to go to a different grocery store because I couldn't stand to face the lady again!! Well, we wisened up and decided that tonight's purchase was going to be an even denomination--we needed to spend right at 200 rubels so that I didn't need to use change and I could pay with two 100 rubel bills. UT-OH--the socks I needed were 53.50 rubles and so we needed to buy something else that ended in 50 to get us back up to an even number. Imagine us walking around the store trying to find something to buy (pop already figured in!) that got us up to the proper amount. Well, the Twix bar won and I made Randy add it up three times because the line was very long and I didn't want anybody else yelling at me. See I need to practice this as Randy will not be with me next time around. Oh, and don't try to hold your hand out for the change--they set it in the change holder. We spent 198 rubel and she gave 2 coins back. We got pretty close to our mark and I didn't even flich! And I have clean socks for the flight home, two bottles of coca-cola light, a bag of m&m's and a twix bar. Still don't understand the Russian rubel system but I made it another day....

We Made It!

2009-05-24T08:49:00.003-05:00

Well it is almost 6:00 Sunday night and we are safely in our hotel room in Kaluga. It was a very uneventful flight which is just the way we like it. The flight was almost full this time going to Moscow which is much different than when we came in February. We each had our own row in February which was nice for sleeping. 11 hours on an airplane just doesn't go by very quickly. The most interesting part was when we landed in Moscow and pulled up to the gate they told us to remain seated because the health department had to take everyone's temperature. So...two ladies walked down the aisles with a laser zapper thermometer pointed at our ears. It went surprisingly fast given the number of passengers.
After we made it through customs and grabbed our luggage, our favorite Kaluga person (Nadya) was waiting for us amongst all the chaos. Nadya is our translator when we are in Kaluga and she takes such great care of us....it was great to see her face again. The whole staff in Kaluga is so wonderful.
They are picking us up at 10:00 tomorrow morning to go to the baby home to see our little boy. We are so excited to see him again. We'll post more tomorrow night. Bye for now.

Whew!!!!

2009-05-22T16:54:00.003-05:00

We received our passports and visas by FEDEX today! Nothing like having them coming the day before we have to leave to get our blood pumping. That is a huge relief so now we can concentrate on finishing packing and all the other "to do" lists. Randy's parents are set to arrive any hour now. Our plane will be leaving the ground in 24 hours!

We are getting close!

2009-05-21T17:58:00.003-05:00

Yes, strangely quiet the past few days...not because nothing is going on but because the frustration level has been slightly high so we just needed to get through it before we could exhale. There has been "an issue" with the Visa, but if it arrives tomorrow---none too soon, we will be fine. If it doesn't arrive, well, we will have problems. We have a tracking number for overnight delivery so I think we are safe...we shall see!

Other than that, as I just told my mom, there are two women cleaning my house (first time ever :0) we have one more day to get ready and this day seemed to go pretty well with some other things that went on. The Visa should come and the kids cell phones arrived. Everyone is pretty happy right now at our house!! Especially me with this cleaning lady thing!! Randy, watch out, I could get used to this!

Anyway, we are soo excited to get back and spend some visits with our little guy. I just know that everything is going to work out! God has given us such a gift in this boy and we can't wait to get started. The kids want to know when we can go to the zoo! We were practicing our animals in Russian the other night at dinner :)

Counting Down!!

2009-05-15T16:32:00.002-05:00

Well, we have been quiet for a few days as we are busy getting ready to go back to Russia and get things settled here. We have had school programs and work things to tie up this week. We were blessed to get some updated pictures of our little guy this week. They were soo cute!! He was waving in one of them :) Makes us long so much to get there and get him home.
Busy week with Carson playing baseball and the kids in school programs. Miranda has her Communicants profession of faith this Sunday at church so it is a big week at our house. I don't think we will exhale until we are on that plane to Moscow and then we will have to think about those questions the Judge is going to ask us!!

Court Date!! Wahoo!

2009-05-05T21:54:00.002-05:00

Well, they told us not to expect a court date announcement because this is the time of the Russian holidays so imagine our surprise when the email came across today!! Our court date is Tuesday May 26th at 2 pm. We will leave on Saturday the 23rd, arrive the 24th, see little C on Monday and Tuesday morning and go to court in the afternoon and head out right after court. We will fly home on Wednesday the 27th.
What a surprise...we will run into yet ANOTHER Russian holiday in June when I go back to get little C, but at least he will be with me then! If everything goes as planned, he should step foot on American soil on June 19.

OH NO 4-0

2009-05-03T22:08:00.002-05:00

Well, Saturday was the big 4-0 for me. I am handling it fine if you are wondering!! Randy took me to my favorite restaurant Biaggi's and we had a great time. There is a little bit of craziness in the thought of raising a teenager and a toddler at the same time, but I am trying not to think about it :)

We had a busy weekend with our church having lots of activities for it's 25th anniversary. We had a program tonight that was just great. We were all reminded of God's faithfulness over the years. One thing we all did were family rocks....I put a picture of ours on here and we added "C's" name on there with all of ours because the verse we put on there was "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord". I figured God has gotten us this far he is going to bring C home!!

As for an update on him...good thing we have been so preoccupied with things. Since it is now the May holidays we have been told to not expect to hear anything until after the 12th. So we will wait...

A Party for C

2009-04-29T18:12:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday my friends at work tried to encourage me by having a little party for me and "shower" me with some things for "C". Because I am in education of course the gifts were all educational!! It was awesome. Some people gave clothes which were soo cute :) It was fun to see little boy clothes again. Anyway, it was really thoughtful of everyone to come and think of us as we await C's arrival.
I haven't posted earlier because we haven't heard any news and it is getting so discouraging. I figured I would wait to post until we got our date but now I wanted to post about the shower. AND IT HAS BEEN A WEEK!!! Yikes the waiting is killing me. As they say, all of this is character building, right??

What We Know

2009-04-22T20:07:00.003-05:00

I title this post that because we don't really know anything. We know the Judge reviewed our file what will be two weeks ago Friday. We don't know why she didn't give a court date that day-when we THOUGHT she would. What we were told this week is that the Judge will not be pushed. Our facilitator on the Russian end is doing what she can by making her presence known but that is the best she can do. What we also know is that May is full of Russian holidays-May 4th and May 8-11. So we should not expect at this point to have a court date until after the 11th. This is so disappointing to me because we had always thought/planned on that court date to be the first week in May (just based on mathematics) and I had hoped to have C home a little before the other kids were home for the summer. A little quiet would have done him some good before the chaos of the summer activities and it would have been good for me to work with him one on one-so I thought. Now it appears it will be summer break when he gets home. So, that is all----just a little frustration at the lack of hearing about this court date....

Carson's 8th Birthday

2009-04-19T12:49:00.003-05:00

The best news all week is that Carson turned 8 yesterday! He had help celebrating by going to his friend's birthday party and going to baseball practice. Nothing like being with friends on your birthday! He also got his new baseball uniform so I took a picture. His team is the Durham Bulls. We got him a new baseball mitt because he just plain wore his old one out that he got from grandma and grandpa last year!! Hard to believe but true. Goes to show how much he loves baseball. We also got him a pitching and fielding trainer. It has a "catcher" stike zone and he really can throw strikes. He and Miranda played well into the darkness last night. We had to beg them to come in before someone got hurt!

No news from Russia. We will wait for the court date.

Redecorated room

2009-04-13T21:05:00.003-05:00

Well, the room is painted and the bed has arrived. It eats the room but that is OK, I guess! What else are we going to do? It is kinda cute and Carson is so excited. He climbs up there, shoots hoops, looks over and says "how do you say go to sleep in Russian??" He is very excited. We sense the time is getting close now. We didn't get our news like we had hoped, however, tomorrow should be the day for sure now. Everyone is back to work-no more holiday breaks :)

Will keep you posted when we get the date to go to court.

What is up with that??

2009-04-11T16:04:00.004-05:00

She knows we are waiting....we check email every ten minutes...we know the facilitator went to court already!!! Email us already with our court date!!! We are so anxious to make plans!!

The bedroom was painted, Carson is still sleeping in Jessie's room but she is getting a little tired of him waking her up every morning (just wait til a little one wakes HIM up every morning :) ). The bed will be set up on Monday. We are moving along now we just need to know so we can anticipate going back!! It is driving us CRAZY!!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE.

At least SOME news....

2009-04-08T16:06:00.002-05:00

I talked with C today about something unrelated (although it always helps to call just to see if I can get an update about court!!) and what do you know...I did get an update about court! She said our facilitator called today and said she is meeting with the Russian judge on Friday to go over our papers and she (the judge) should give us a court date! Yeah!! Unfortunately, the agency is closed Friday and Monday for Easter so we should hear by Tuesday what our court date is. This is so exciting!! So, it is getting real now! I asked how long she usually schedules the dates out and C said it could be a week or it could be 4 weeks so I think I shall start packing :)

Rock Star for a Day!

2009-04-05T20:08:00.002-05:00

Well Randy got to live his dream of being a rock star for a day.:-) He played trumpet with his buddies at a CD launch party for the band Union Pier at the Hotel Baker in St. Charles last night. Tommy plays drums for the band and Randy and Mike had "special contributions" on the CD and so they got to play with the band for the party. It was really fun for all of us and quite the party! Tommy is the guy in the middle in the picture and Mike is the one not Randy.:-)

Time Creeps On

2009-04-04T17:00:00.002-05:00

Well, it seems as if we have sold Carson's bed so that is good :) We ordered his new bed that he picked out and hope to have the room painted the GREAT (hmmm) shade of blue he picked out by the time the bed comes. We are trying to be sensitive to the fact that Carson's life is going to change so much when C comes so we are trying to let him have as much input and control as possible until the time comes...picking out the bed...the room color, etc. Since they will share we want Carson to help make it "theirs".

Still no word and we are getting anxious. Since it is under a month since we had hoped to be back for court it is getting disappointing waiting (not to mention people just keep asking). We want to talk about it, don't get me wrong, but we want to tell a date more! On a positive note I have more time to get my reports done for work without pressure. I wrote another one today. I think I have 15 left on the school year.

I took the two younger girls to a motivational speaker last night on modesty. She was great and I think the girls liked it. Her name was Dannah Gresh and who knew that she adopted a girl and told her story and I just couldn't hold it together. I sat there and cried. Miranda stared at me, more feeling badly for me I think because I couldn't pull it together.

Anyway, that is all. Not a whole lot going on. Back to school next week.

Nothing to report

2009-03-31T17:51:00.003-05:00

We have been quiet for a while because there has been nothing to report. No news from Russia as to a court date. NO NOTHING. It is so hard to wait. We just want to plan and bring our guy home. It is fun to hear the kids talk and say "we want to bring C to the zoo, I can't wait to bring him to the park...". They are really incorporating him into our lives, now we just need to get him home!
We hope to sell Carson's bed soon and get his new bed in the room. We also want to paint the room and get it all ready for the boys. Carson has BIG PLANS for it all!! All this talk of decorating has the girls thinking they need to paint and redecorate. I hear murmurs of pink and lime green for bedrooms. I told them they need to get that passed by the boss.
We are all on spring break this week so we are having fun. Girls Day Out shopping today (we didn't torture Carson at the mall...thankfully he went to his friend's house for the day!!) Tomorrow dad is home with us to do something fun. Pouring rain in Chicagoland.....snow on Thursday???

A little Celebration

2009-03-22T19:18:00.002-05:00

Two of my friends put together a little celebration to anticipate "C"s coming home soon. It was so sweet and thoughtful and quite overwhelming. We had a gathering after church today and watched the video and looked at the pictures from our trip. Tonight we put the booster seat together and KC found his spot! He used to be so funny in the car, too, always jumping in the car seats when he got the chance.

Now we will work on getting the picture book ready for the judge (of our photos together when we were there) and for C of his room and everything else that he will need to know when he comes home. We will keep you posted of when we get that court date!

The Last of the Paperwork is "in the mail"

2009-03-19T22:17:00.003-05:00

Well, FED EX has our papers! and, 40 days actually puts us at my 40th birthday! What a present to put me back in Russia with our little guy! Hopefully we will have our court date soon and know dates real soon. Hopefully in the next two weeks we will hear something.

I thought I would throw a picture in there since it has been a while. Max and KC seem to like the new chair that arrived today! So much for keeping them off the furniture....

Hurry Up and Wait

2009-03-18T20:30:00.002-05:00

I guess this is that hurry up and wait time. We received our FBI stuff in the mail today, just in time for Randy to take it along with the last of the apostilling stuff in tomorrow. We will rush to get it FED EX'd tomorrow night so C's office can get it to Russia in Friday's shipment. They will have it for court petition on Monday. Then the wait begins for the official court date. It took longer than hoped for that clock to tick so we hope to have our little guy home before school ends for the rest of the kids, just so I have some time alone with him before the chaos of summer!!

Any chance of it taking less than 40 days for a court date?? Any chance of a judge waiving the 10 days after court?? Who knows. We can only wait and see.

Update

2009-03-13T21:32:00.002-05:00

Randy went back to work today and seemed to manage fine. Good thing because he will need to walk to the Apostille office next week! We should get our I71H form back tomorrow or Monday as the office emailed back and said it "was in the mail". C told us we should plan to travel beginning of May. That helps a little with the planning for childcare and work for the rest of the school year. The good thing is that our Homestudy agency should be off the "blacklist" by then so we should have no problems with that by the time we go to court. And the weather should be warmer in Russia!!!

Oh no...Immigration

2009-03-09T19:32:00.004-05:00

I guess we thought that our "40 day wait" for court started today but I guess we have a slight delay. We are waiting on our immigration paperwork to get approved and we thought it wouldn't hold up the court date but found out today it is. So we wait...

Carson picked out his new bed tonight so that he can share his room with his brother. He wants a loft bed with a twin underneath that sticks out like a T. He wants to be able to look down and talk to his brother. He also wants his brother to be able to look up and see him so he won't be scared. The social worker told him way back when during his interview that his brother will be used to sleeping next to kids and will need the security of seeing someone. Carson remembered that so picked a bunk that is not bed over bed but bed over sideways bed like a T. So he can see and talk to his brother...it is so sweet...

Well, lots to do since we are "down a man" around here. Keep prayin' for our dad as he recovers!

Recovery

2009-03-08T18:23:00.004-05:00

I will post for Randy and say that it is going slow but sure...He is home (same day surgery) and spending time recovering on the couch. The surgeon said his gall bladder needed to come out so hopefully it was the source of all his problems! We hope he will be feeling back to his ole' self soon enough.
We received our local clearances (again!) and await our court date now. We expect to travel in about 40 days or so, that is the word from Svetlana as to how long it takes to get a date once you petition and our petition should go in tomorrow. That is all for now, better check on the patient!

Surgery!

2009-03-04T19:35:00.003-06:00

Yes, I (Randy) get to have surgery tomorrow to have my gallbladder removed. I have not been feeling well since the beginning of the year and I guess my gallbladder has issues (polyps) so my hope is by having it out, all the problems are corrected. They say recovery isn't too bad, so I hope to be back to normal by the middle of next week.
As far as the adoption, we sent the signed court order and power of attorney to our agency today so that they can continue to work on getting us a court date. Last night Michelle and I got fingerprinted again for the FBI clearances. We did this before but they expire in May, so to be safe, we just figured we would get them done again. We are also still waiting for our Immigration approval, but hope to receive soon. I think that will conclude the paperwork for this stage. We'll let you know when we hear more. We miss our little guy!

Back Home!

2009-03-01T13:08:00.002-06:00

Yes! We are home and we are so thankful for all of God's blessings over the past week. We know He protected us along the way in a foreign country and gifted us with a wonderful son. We pray for a quick court date so we can go back and see him soon! We wish we could post a picture but rules prevent us from doing so until he touches down on American soil. We have jet lag and colds but hope things settle down and back to "normal" soon.
Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

Eight Doctor Medical Visit Today - Home Tomorrow!!

2009-02-27T10:47:00.002-06:00

It seemed like we had another marathon day today although all we really did was have our 8 doctor medical exam as required by the embassy and went out for dinner. We spent almost 4 hours at the medical clinic which our driver/translator Anton said was about twice as long as it normally takes. It was a lot of waiting but it was because there were about 10-12 other families there doing the same thing - typically there are only about 3-5 families there. It was nice to see all the other adopting couples going through the same thing we are...most of them were from the United States, but I think 2 families were from Spain and one couple from Germany.

After we finished with the medical exam, our driver took us to Old Arabat Street which is a popular tourist area and we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe - Moscow. We would have walked around a bit and shopped after dinner but it was another miserable day here with cold, snow and wind so we came right back to the hotel. Anton is picking us up at 10:30 tomorrow morning and taking us to the airport where we will board our flight at 2:30pm. It will be an 11 hour flight home and although we have obviously had a wonderful week in Russia, we are anxious to get back on American soil and see our kids! Thank you all for your support and prayers when we've been over in Russia. It means so much. We love you all!!!

Moscow and The Regional Office

2009-02-26T08:54:00.004-06:00

Well, we left Kaluga today and made the journey to Moscow to have our meeting with our agency's regional office people (Irena and Svetlana). They are some of the women who really make things happen! Irena was the one who translated all our paperwork in record time. We had our meeting there and went over the court order papers. We talked about changing our little guys name and if we are going to do that or not since he is three and already knows his name. They want to know right now!! Such pressure :) The sooner the paper is filed with the court the sooner we can get our date.

We walked around the Red Square for a little while but it is REALLY COLD out there so we didn't last long. Other than that we are resting up for our 8 doctor visit tomorrow and travels back home on Saturday.

Saying Goodbye is Sooo Hard...

2009-02-25T12:03:00.002-06:00

Well, the good news is that today we accepted this wonderful boy as our "referral". The bad news is that we had to say goodbye for now. We went to the notary to sign the papers this afternoon to begin the court process to make this boy a Houk! Tonight it was back to the baby home for a final play time. We brought him the dog the kids made at Build a Bear (which he loved) and the blanket the kids have been passing around and sleeping with for months. He showed everyone his picture book we brought of our family pictures and said "this is my momma and pappa, sisters, brother". They all told him "you are so lucky!" He tried to say their names but we will have to work on that!

When we went to leave he said "Come back as soon as you can, I will call you (we gave him a toy cell phone and he played with that every day calling back and forth)". He sat at the table waving frantically and blew kisses. It was just about too much to take!! Gives us so much comfort knowing that he is so well cared for here at this orphanage. The kids are truly loved and the people work hard with them. Tonight is our last night in Kaluga, we leave early in the morning for Moscow for paperwork. We will be there for two days and fly out on Saturday. Thank you for your continued prayers as we continue on this adventure.

Busy Morning!

2009-02-25T05:44:00.002-06:00

This morning was a whirlwind of activity with a visit to the baby home and our guy running out to see us. He is used to the routine now and yells to everyone upon our arrival "momma y pappa!" and grabs his spiderman figurine and his telephone that we gave him and comes running. He grabs our hands because he knows we usually go to a different room to play. Today we didn't have time to, though, because we had to go get his passport picture taken. We just stayed in the little area where their coat cubbies are and played a while. We showed him his picture book we made with his soon to be family with all the kids in it. He just soaked it all in. Everytime someone walked in he showed them. He even ran into the room where the kids were and showed them saying my brothers and sisters! They all hugged him. The speech pathologist is really sweet to him and looked at all the pictures with him and talked with him about each one. She hugged him real hard and said "You know you are my favorite".
We went on our field trip to the Passport picture place and it was so cute to get him all dressed up in his snowsuit. He had never been in a carseat before! After that our visit was over with him.
We went to exchange money for rubles, have lunch, and come back for a rest. Tonight we go back for our last visit with him :( it will be so sad as I don't know how a three year old will understand that we will have to go away for a while and then come back for him.
That is it for now....time for a rest.

Day 2 at the Baby Home

2009-02-24T12:01:00.002-06:00

We had two more visits with our little guy at the orphanage today. They have a "gym" with all kinds of activities for the kids including slides, ladders and a ball pit. He was extremely active today and kept us running in all directions. He wants to show us all the things that he can do and he tries to do it all at once! I think he had a great time hanging out with momma and papa today as he spent the day laughing and smiling.
We also spent some time with the orphanage doctor/director and she went over his medical history for us. Nothing major/not correctable according to the report. It was a very good meeting and Michelle was taking notes as fast as she could. We now have all his birth measurements and current measurements as of January-2009.
Tomorrow we have another busy day....we'll update then.

Great First Day!!

2009-02-23T12:09:00.003-06:00

Well, we have had two visits to the baby home today and met our little guy. He is sweet, clever, smart and has a great sense of humor even with a huge language barrier! We got him a cell phone (because the ladies at the orphange told him his "momma and pappa were going to bring him one") so we had to! He talked on the cell phone and said "momma y pappa" like he was talking to us! It was just too cute. He calls us momma and pappa. He stacked blocks, kicked a soccer ball like a pro, threw a ball, put shapes into a bucket, drew with a pen, shared his animal crackers with us and played with us for hours. The attached picture of us is one that he took after he figured out how to turn on the camera himself! The other pictures are of the orphanage from outside and of the music room where we played today. We met with the social worker who gave us a social history of him and tomorrow we meet with the doctor. He got to give us a tour of where he eats and sleeps and even how he makes his bed. It has been an emotional day and we are anxious to speak with the doctor tomorrow. We had a great day with him today and it exceeded our expectations. Two more visits tomorrow...until then...

WE ARE HERE!!

2009-02-22T09:06:00.004-06:00

After a 9 hour 45 minute plane ride, a two hour hour delay (ON THE PLANE IN THE GATE) and a three hour stylin' ride to Kaluga (as evidenced by the attached picture) we are finally here!! Wahoo :) And the good news is that even tho we were told tomorrow was a holiday and a day off for us we do get to go to the baby home (twice!) to meet the little guy! No sense wasting the day they told us.

I will have to say, this is an adventure. I can't even begin to explain how surreal it is to get off a plane in a foreign country and walk into unknown waters. The line at customs was not too bad at all, however, that sea of people when you turn that corner is like nothing I can even begin to explain. Just faces all waving at you (wanting to give you a ride, I now know) so we just kept walking. Finally at the end was a guy holding a sign that said "Mr. and Mrs. Houk". He of course had been there for hours because our flight was so late....

Anyway, we are here and it is good. We are hungry and all off on time. It is 9 in the morning for us but 6 dinner time here with no hope of a meal in sight. Looks like cold cereal that we brought from home. At least we get to go to bed really early since we missed a whole night of sleep!

More tomorrow after the meeting.

And we are off!

2009-02-21T09:52:00.002-06:00

Well, it is Saturday and we are off to the airport in a few hours. Our friends are taking us to the airport. My mom is here, the bags are packed and I think everything is ready!! As Chicago weather would have it, it snowed last night but hopefully it won't delay us too much :)
The adventure begins!!

Thanks! and News of Home Study Agencies

2009-02-19T16:08:00.002-06:00

Well, Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive thru your comments. We appreciate your prayers and support as we get ready to travel on Saturday. This news from the Russian Ministry of Education "black listing" home study agencies affects us....our agency is on there. We are still in the process of trying to figure out what this means for us. This is obviously not good news for us as we don't want anything to delay us! We feel like we are so close now!!

6 Days and Counting!!

2009-02-18T21:23:00.002-06:00

That would be until the day we meet him! Of course, some of you know that we have seen his picture but have refrained from showing it. It is bad (or would that be good??) enough that we have fallen in love with the photo but we are trying to prevent the kids from falling in love with him (and the grandmas and grandpa)...should there be some reason we can not accept him as a referral. We have no medical information but we have had a first hand information about him (you know who you are and THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!) from someone who has gone to Kaluga before us and taken the pictures. There is a buzz in the air around here and we just can't wait. One more day of work for me (two more for Randy) but lots more left to do....UNTIL WE LEAVE ON SATURDAY!!!!

Emily's Thoughts

2009-02-17T21:32:00.001-06:00

Hey it's Emily and I am so excited for my mom and dad to go to Russia to see the little 3 year old boy. I know all will go well because it is in God's hands. Even though the devil trys to get in the way when we do God's will, God will overpower in the end. We need to be faithful to Him and trust Him when things are rough. I can't wait until after my mom and dad get home so we can see a picture of our little brother. I'm so excited!!!

I can't wait!!

2009-02-17T20:28:00.003-06:00

It's Miranda and I can't tellyou how excited I am to adopt a little boy. I might be a little scared once my mom and dad leave. But I know they'll be okay.I cant wait to help a little boy read or play games. I'm not sure how old he's gonna be, so I don't know what he can and can't do. I'm just gonna be so happy to see a little boy that I know could of been with any other family but is with us. I CANT WAIT!!!!!!

Jessica's Thoughts

2009-02-17T19:25:00.003-06:00

Hi it's Jessica. I'm soooo excited. My parents are traveling in a couple of days, my Grandma is coming over to watch us while they are gone. I can't wait to see the picture of him. My parents aren't showing us the picture of him until they meet him. I'm glad my parents aren't leaving til Saturday, because Emily and I are in a play on Friday night so they will still get to see us perform.
Some verses that have helped me are:
Isaiah 40:8
Psalm 57:9-10
John 14:27
Bye until next time!

Packing!!

2009-02-16T14:15:00.002-06:00

Well, we are thankful that today is a holiday and we have the day to pack! Since I work for the schools and Randy works for an institution that recognizes today as a holiday we are both home to get everything we can done. We actually almost have our bags packed!! Wahoo! Since we have to pack nice clothes for most of the days that helps since we know we won't need them for the few days of work this week. We are so thankful for all of your support and prayers. We know God is in the details! Emily comes home from her retreat tonight and we have missed her this weekend. The kids have tomorrow off of school so this week is REALLY different for them :) Grandma gets into town on Thursday! Back to getting ready to go!

Trying not to Freak!

2009-02-13T21:55:00.002-06:00

As you can tell from the title this is actually Michelle writing the post this time :) There is so much to do in this week before travel we are just trying to take things one step at a time. Airline tickets, visas, hotel reservations, how do we pay these things??? cash or rubles? our medicals needed to be picked up from the doctor, oh the list is only beginning. I am sure everything will be fine and will all get done before we leave but I am sure there won't be many sleep-filled nights between now and then as out minds run thru all the pre-travel must dos.

All the Details...

2009-02-12T20:42:00.003-06:00

I was able to spend quite a bit of time on the phone today with our adoption agency going over the itinerary for our trip. She also helped me fill out the visa application which is totally new territory for us since Michelle nor I have ever been out of the country. Well...I did go to the Canada side of Niagara Falls once but I'm told that didn't count. So today we made our airplane reservations and sent our visa applications off to New York. I asked them for "next day processing" so that we're sure to get them back in time for our trip. We are thankful that American Airlines now flies non-stop to Moscow from Chicago. What a blessing not to have to switch planes in Europe. Tonight or tomorrow I will make hotel reservations for our stay in Moscow. I'm told the agency employees take care of the hotel reservations for Kaluga. Michelle's mom also made airline reservations today to come up from Florida to watch our kids when we're gone. We are thankful for that also. The agency also told me today that Monday, February 23 is a Russian holiday so unfortunately we will not be able to visit with our little guy on that day. That's OK because it will give us an extra day to recover from jet lag and we will still have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to visit with him. We're sooooo anxious now!

Did I Understand You Correctly?

2009-02-11T22:10:00.003-06:00

The "You" in this title would be our adoption agency. Last Friday we were told that it would take a couple of weeks to translate all of our information and register it in the Kaluga region. Well, Michelle and I received an email from our agency yesterday morning with dates to travel to Russia to meet our referral! Our agency said everything was completed in "record time" and that they would like us to go and meet a little boy in Kaluga. Our little referral is 3 years old. We don't have a lot of information on him yet, but we do have pictures which I am sorry to say we are not able to post or share at this time. He looks adorable and we are so excited to go and meet him. We are a little bit freaked out with the timing because this is not what we expected at all. The next couple of days we will be busy with making airline and hotel reservations, sending away for visas and starting to make our packing list. We are planning on leaving on Saturday, February 21 and returning on Saturday, February 28. We will have at least 3 days - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to visit with our referral in the Kaluga region and then return to Moscow Thursday afternoon, have our physicals in Moscow on Friday and then fly home on Saturday. We'll keep everyone posted as we get closer. I guess this is what people mean when they say this adoption process is an adventure!

On a Plane to Russia

2009-02-07T08:05:00.003-06:00

No, not us....our dossier. I talked with our adoption agency in North Carolina yesterday and our dossier is currently on its way to Russia. The staff in Moscow is already working on translating our home study since they've received an electronic copy of that. Our agency said that will take two weeks to translate and then we will be registered in Region. Our dossier is going to be registered in the region of Kaluga which is about a 3 hour drive south of Moscow. So, we probably won't hear much for a couple of weeks, but after that point we can get "the call" to travel at any time. It's certainly getting more real all the time!

Apostille Success!

2009-02-05T20:24:00.003-06:00

Well I brought all of our Russian dossier documents downtown with me today. I scooted over to the Index office of the Secretary of State at lunch to have all of the documents apostilled. The process was actually much quicker than I anticipated. I was in and out of the office in about 45 minutes without any issues. All of the documents are now on their way to North Carolina to our adoption agency. They tell us that they will send everything for us to Russia tomorrow so it should all be in Russia on Monday. Yippee! The CSS staff in Russia will translate everything for us and then officially register us with the Minister of Education office. We hope to hear something in the next couple of weeks. If you are wondering what's all involved in putting a dossier together, take a look at the picture. Those are all separate documents that we had to have notarized and apostilled. The pretty gold seals on the documents are the official State of Illinois seals. All in all there were 28 documents in the dossier. Putting the package in the FEDEX box tonight felt a little bit strange and scary, since this is what we've been working on for the last 4 months. We feel like we're letting our "baby" out of our sight. Can we really trust the FEDEX guy to deliver our package? I'm sure it will be fine.

Off To The Notary We Go!

2009-01-30T20:43:00.003-06:00

Since we have most all of the Russian Dossier Documents prepared, we are going to go get everything notarized tomorrow. We have about 20 documents that need to get notarized. If we are able to accomplish that tomorrow, we'll try to get everything apostilled this week. What is an apostille you say? No, they're not the 12 people that are in the Bible. It's an official seal that states use to make sure documents are eligible for foreign use. We had never heard of the term before this adoption process. Please continue to pray for us. Things are starting to move pretty fast here so stay tuned!

First Approval!

2009-01-27T20:05:00.005-06:00

I know many of you question whether or not we are fit parents, but apparently DCFS of Illinois thinks that we are. I talked with our social worker today and she let us know that she has received the endorsement letter back from DCFS that approves us for adoption. This is the first approval that we need to proceed forward. We now send the endorsement letter to the Department of Immigration so they can process our approval. At that point, we will officially be eligible to bring a little guy home. The Chicago Immigration Office told me they were turning around their approvals in 2-6 weeks so we'll see which side of that range they come in at. Anyway, this is an exciting step and shows that we are that much closer. We hope to be able to share fun news with everybody soon!

Miranda Turns 10!

2009-01-24T22:02:00.003-06:00

Well, we've got our 3rd daughter in double digits. Miranda has her 10th birthday on Monday so today we surprised her and took her to the American Girl Store in downtown Chicago. She was able to pick out a brand new doll (Amanda) and a couple of outfits for it. We also did some other fun downtown events like visiting Niketown and the Apple store. Too bad it was only about 10 degrees outside...we couldn't walk around as much as we wanted.

As far as the update on the adoption...we are almost done collecting all of our information for the Russian dossier. We should have that all completed by the end of this week and then we can take everything to be apostilled by the state of Illinois. At that point we'll be able to send it to our adoption agency to be translated and sent to Russia. We'll keep you posted on that. Nothing back from DCFS as of yet...hopefully we'll hear something on that this week as well.

First BIG Hurdle Accomplished!

2009-01-07T21:20:00.003-06:00

Well we found out from our home study social worker that a notarized copy of our official home study has been sent to Illinois DCFS for their approval. This has really been our first major accomplishment since most everything that we have done up until this point has been for the purpose of being able to send a completed home study to DCFS. Our home study agency was able to complete everything in about 7 weeks so we are really happy about that. It's amazing the amount of information that they ask for to be able to put a home study together but we understand why it is necessary. It is interesting to read your life's story in the home study report.
We've been told that DCFS has been taking about 4 weeks to send back the endorsement letter approving us for adoption which is what we need to be able to send to USCIS (Immigration). So, our social worker thought we should see the letter back by the end of January. In the meantime, we are going to use this month to get most of our Russian dossier paperwork together. The list is long again, but hopefully it won't be too bad. I think Michelle is putting a call into our placement agency on Friday to walk through the list of documents we need to gather.

Happy Birthday to Emily!

2009-01-07T21:05:00.004-06:00

Well today is Emily's 13th Birthday! We went out to dinner at Olive Garden last night to celebrate which was Emily's choice. I think she likes the breadsticks there, but then again, who doesn't? She was also very excited to finally get her chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake from Culver's. I think she's wanted that for about the last three years.

Hard to believe that we are parents of our first teenager. Time sure does go by fast. I told Emily it is appropriate that it snowed today on her birthday since I remember quite well when we drove to the hospital in a snowstorm the day she was born. She's turned into quite a great kid!

Christmas, Winter & Family

2008-12-29T13:33:00.005-06:00

Our family just returned from Iowa after celebrating Christmas with Randy's side. It was a great time filled with games, laughter and gifts. It is always fun to see the kids hang out with their cousins. They don't get to do that enough. Carson learned how to play battleship with Miranda and Grandpa, and all the kids played about 100 games of Boggle with each other and Grandma. Michelle and I even got in a "date night" in Des Moines filled with shopping and dinner. My family surprised Michelle and me with some very thoughtful items regarding the adoption, including a world map which they had signed with supportive comments and travel books. It is so great to feel the love and support of friends and family as we go through this journey.

We were delayed both going to Iowa and coming home from Iowa by a day because of the weather. On the drive back yesterday on the two lane highway, I was driving between 35-40 mph and Michelle says to me "It seems like we're moving around a bit on the road". I told her in fact, yes, we were skating down the highway on the ice with the van, but not to worry about it...I was a professional driver. I was glad to make it to the interstate where the roads were fine the rest of the way. It seems like we've had a whole winter of fun in one month. There aren't too many winters that I long for a snow blower because of my short driveway, but this has been one that I find myself jealous of the neighbors that are clearing their driveways in under 10 minutes with their snow blowers. A few more broken shovels like I had last week and I might give in.

One of the benefits of being stuck in Iowa an extra day was that we were able to get together with my cousins who had previously adopted a daughter from Russia. My mother invited them over for dinner Saturday night and Michelle and I were able to hear their story. They had an overwhelmingly positive experience and it was such a blessing to Michelle and I to be able to hear another family's experience from beginning to end. Their daughter who is 12 now came along and by the end of the evening, Jessie and her were acting like they had been friends for years. It was truly a gift to be able to see the interaction between all of the kids and to know what a loving environment this girl is surrounded with.

Carson Buddy and my wait for a new Brother

2008-12-19T18:31:00.002-06:00

I love to play sports. My football season was a lot of fun. We went undefeated. Now I am playing basketball and I love that too. I can't wait to teach my new brother how to play football. I am anxious for him to come home. My mom bought a new baby blanket for him and mom and dad will leave it with him in Russia so he has something to remember us by. Merry Christmas to everybody!!!