Cute memorable moment

I always talk about the things Leeza does, because she is often doing things that are so adorable.  Zhenya is equally cute and adorable, but not always as funny.  Today we had AWESOME weather.  It is was sunny and beautiful with all the snow melted.  We were in the car waiting for Jeff when Zhenya rolls down the car window.  He exclaimed with enthusiasm, " Ahh, this day is nice,  I love this day!"   ( If only I could write with the cute accent he has.)

Yet Another Snow Day

Ok, I am a teacher and typically I am just as eager and excited about having a snow day as my students.  Now that I am a mom...........not so much!!  Gone are the days of sleeping in until 10 or 11.  Leeza is up by 7 am pretty much any morning in which we could sleep in.  Zhenya will linger in bed a bit longer, usually until 8.  So around 7:15, I have a little girl peeking through my door calling to me.  Another less enjoyable things about a snow day is how Leeza acts.  She is completely off when we are out of schedule.  She gets weepy and crabby on these snow days we have had lately.  This morning was no exception.   She started getting crabby and crying even before I had breakfast made.   I moved her smiley face indicating a good day to her straight face indicating just an OK day.  It was on the verge of going to the frowny face.  Of course, the moving of the face was enough to set her to screaming at the top of her lungs.  Temper fit!  She was sent from the room while I finished breakfast.  Jeff attempted to speak with her about her behavior which made her cry more.  In the end,she had to go to her room for a bit until she would calm down and eat.  I think this lasted about an hour.  Then she was all smiles and I let her move her straight face back to her smiley face.   Geeshh...I have no idea what set her off to begin with...she was just plain crabby this morning!!  Guess I am just plain crabby some days too.  She has been fine the rest of the day, but snow days are just not something she enjoys right now.   Even Zhenya is praying for no more snow!!  You know it is bad when both the kids and a teacher are praying for no more snow!!  Maybe in a few more years, I can enjoy my snow days again!!

Speaking of Zhenya,  we don't have many problems with his behavior, but he has a habit of whining.  He does it so much that he doesn't realize he does it.  After he whines, he says he is playing, so we may have to come up with a different system for him to get him to stop with the whining.  It's kinda like a grunt with a whiny sound.  Hoping he will outgrow it soon!  Though I have to say if some whining and the occasional snow day crabbiness is all I have to deal with behavior wise with my kids, I feel pretty blessed!! 

We took the kids to the circus over the weekend.  They loved it as I knew they would!  Leeza declared afterward that she wanted a baby elephant.  We told her she had to choose between a baby elephant and a puppy.  Thankfully, she decided she wanted a puppy more than an baby elephant!! 

For those that haven't heard the news, we have some changes in our lives...outside of the obvious (adopting the kids).  After spending time in Ukraine and seeing/feeling all the things you see/feel during that process, we couldn't go back to life as normal.  For some time Jeff has felt the call to go into ministry and our adoption has helped in clarifying the path.  We have moved churches to a new church in our area that is very missions minded and we feel will help us grow and learn what we need to know to prepare us for the other things God has coming up.  Our big change will occur this summer, when we pack ourselves up and move to Colorado!  Jeff is going to attend a bible school in Colorado Springs and then go into ministry in some fashion to help orphans and the people in Ukraine.  That potentially could mean living in Ukraine at some point.  We don't know yet!  We are just taking one step at a time.  We are excited about the new church and felt so at home there the last couple of weeks.  We are also excited about moving to Colorado.  The kids are excited..mostly because they get a puppy when we move!!   Between now and then, we have to sell our house, find jobs,etc...  Please pray for God's guidance for each step as we move forward to do what we feel God is calling us to do!    Also, Jeff is planning to go on a short term 10 day trip back to Ochakiv to take stuff to the kiddos there. Zhenya will go too, if we get enough money to send them both.  Please pray for that trip as well. 

Here are a few pictures from the circus!!

They were enthralled!

The baby elephant Leeza wanted to bring home.

Posing with Elvis in downtown Nashville after the circus.

Sad Heart

My heart is very sad today.  I had to put my precious Shih Tzu, Paitence, to sleep today.  I have had her for 15 years, and she has been my comforting companion through a lot of trials and tears from my single hood to my married life.  She was a very sweet dog, the runt of her litter.  She never weighted more 8 lbs when she was suppose to weight much more full grown.  I am going to miss her very much, but I know it was her time.  Watching her struggle to lift her head this morning was more than my heart could bear. 

In reminiscing with my mother about the day I bought her, I realized that the situation from which I got my daughter wasn't much different than the situation from which I got my precious dog. Patience was so tiny and the other puppies were clamoring for attention and pushing her around.  She sat at the back of her kennel trembling when my dad went in to pick her up. My heart was instantly gone.  When Jeff and I went to visit Leeza for the first time with her groupa, she too sat back while the more aggressive children pushed her away to get to us.  She was the tiniest and most frail in her group.  She sat trembling timidly when we first saw her and she instantly stole our hearts.  When we brought snacks for the kids, they would push her away to get to them.  If we were doing something they wanted to do, she always got shoved aside or pushed to the ground by the other kids.  They were sweet kids, but Leeza was so very timid and didn't stand a chance against them physically.  They wanted/needed attention too.  Just like Patience needed me more than the other bigger healthier puppies, my little girl needed us more than the other kids.  We have often said that out of the thirty kids in Leeza's orphanage, she was the one child who needed a mama and papa the most.  She had the most issues and she was the most withdrawal.  In our care, she has blossomed into a spunky, sassy six year old full of personality and no longer the sad trembling little girl we met in Ukraine.  Now there is a sparkle in her eyes, because she knows she is loved.

  I know some might be offended about the comparison of my daughter to my dog.  I am certainly not one of those people who place more value on animals than humans.  However, when I think of both siutation I think of how God in His infinite Love for His Creation had a plan, and He knows what we all need.  My sweet dog and my sweet girl needed me, and I needed them.   I hope I can be as good a mama to my sweet Leeza as Patience was a good friend and companion to me.

Leeza-isms and Zhenya-isms ( and a few photos)

I have mentioned to my husband a couple of times that you never know how much laughter can be in your home until you have children in it.  I don't think I have ever laughed so much in my life as I have in the last 3 and a half months.  More often then not we are laughing at them and the incredibly adorable things they come off with each day.  I also find it quite amusing some of the English language words they have picked up over other words.  I know you all won't find some of these things as cute and funny as I find them, but this blog is has the dual purpose of being a "baby book" or Life book of sorts.  I plan to share this with the kids when they get older and can actually read English!!  So here are a few things that have made us chuckle over the past few weeks. 

Leeza-
This kid is hilarious.  I suspect it is the age and social level.   I am of course not going to write EVERYTHING adorable she has said, but here are a few.  Her personality is certainly coming out!!

• My girl is very sassy, and finding a way to get that sassiness to tone down has been a challenge.   Sooo...if she is overly sassy, she is grounded from candy.   She LOVES LOVES candy.  Well,  she got grounded from candy one day a few weeks ago.  Later that day, she went into her brother's room and got a piece of candy from his stash, then proceeded to go upstairs where my mom was wrapping presents and throw the candy wrapper away up so I wouldn't see it!!!  Sneaky and Sassy!! 
• While visiting my aunt, I was looking all over the house trying to find Leeza's Leapster2.  I asked her over and over "Where's your computer?" to which she replies, "I don' know"  Finally I find it ,and  I picked it up and to show it to her.  She says in all seriousness, "I told you!"  SASSY!!! 
• Zhenya and Leeza were sitting at the table eating pizza.  Leeza was talking about something random.  Zhenya asked her if she was being sassy.  Her reply: "I don' know,  Maybe"   My mom almost fell out of her chair.  
• This morning when we told Leeza to go look out the window at the ochen (means something like a lot) snow.  She marches out of the room, looks out the window and yells, "Yep, ochen snow"  Her answer for everything is "Yep". 
• Leeza does not have her "R" when she talks which sounds really cute, but concerns me a bit.  So we practice them.  My sister in law has a dog named Rocko.   Leeza calls him, Yocko.  She tried so hard to say it right.   She would practice it saying "Yocko, Locko, Llllocko"  before finally getting Rocko out.    
• Leeza is learning to recognize her letters.  I have 5 letters that I had been showing her every day.  She claimed she didn't know them.  As you know she LOVES candy.  I offered her an M&M for every letter she can identify.  She named all FIVE when just seconds before she said she didn't know them!!  
• Okay, last one for now.  Leeza LOVES to dance.  Last night, she hops off my bed and says, "Leeza, dance"  and begins dancing in her cute little way. I have a video on my phone I will try to post.  It is sooo cute!!
  

Zhenya-
He is SOOO smart and picking up English like crazy.   He is not quite as funny as Leeza, but still very adorable.  He is getting so affectionate and asks for a kiss at least 10 times a day. 

• Zhenya often asks me what different words mean.  He asked what "exactly" meant.  The only thing I could think to tell him was that it was like "yes", since then he uses "exactly" instead of yes.  It is so funny when he does, because often it isn't exactly the correct usage of the word, but he is trying!
• We had family pictures taken and Zhenya was looking extremely handsome in the pictures.  We tease him by saying he looks "GQ".  When I was showing our pictures to my aunt, Zhenya walks up and says, "Show me, Zhenya GQ"  He loves looking at pictures of himself.  Seriously though, the child could model!!
• His first week in America, he went to Walgreens with Jeff . The cashier, a pretty blonde teenager, ask all kinds of questions about him.  Since then, everytime we drive by a Walgreens,no matter where, he mentions her name.  If I have to go to Walgreens,  he always wants to go and he looks for her, but he will claim he isn't.  
• Zhenya is quite sensitive and wants to please us.  If he even thinks he is getting fussed at, he stops whatever he is doing and runs to hugs us, looking up at us with his sweet face as if begging us not to be upset with him. 
• I also tease him about his expression (see photo below) when our photographer got out her camera.  I tease that he was saying " Take my picture".  He asks me to tell that story over and over.  Hope he doesn't get conceited!!! LOL

Look at that face!!

• On the way home from visiting a friend in KC, Zhenya began asking a bunch of deep questions about Jesus.  We did our best to explain things in our limited Russian and using English vocabulary we know he understands.  Jeff told Zhenya how to pray to ask Jesus into his heart and Zhenya said the prayer.  We weren't/aren't exactly sure of his level of understanding of it all , but he seemed to understand until he asked if the Ninja turtles would be in heaven too!!!

I have read many horror stories about adopting older children and I am sorry for everyone involved in those stories, but I have to say that to this point we have been so very blessed.  We have a couple of beautiful, healthy, seemingly well adjusted kids who God has blessed us with the chance to raise in His love and care.  I am often amazed and humbled by it all.  I honestly don't sugar coat anything to make it sound great when it actually isn't....because it is actually really really great!!  I can't thank God enough for the blessing these kids are to our lives.  Hearing their little voices calling me, asking me for "kiss, mama, kiss" is the sweetest thing ever!  Literally life changing and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone considering adoption.  Don't let the scary stories scare you off...there are wonderful loving kids out there need a mama and a papa so much!



Here are a few photos from the last few weeks.

My three Ukrainians

They love their Tetya (aunt) Ira.

Zhenya and his faux-hawk

I love this beautiful face!

Lunch with one of Jeff's high school buddies. Zhenya being scary!

First American snowmen