Every 18 seconds, a child becomes an orphan. Lets not forget about them.

The children who are available for adoption in Ukraine are not allowed to be photographed and "published" for view due to current Ukrainian laws. This is meant to protect the children and eliminate the chances of unethical or illegal adoptions . That is why in my slide show you will not see any full view faces of the children from the desky dom.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Home 2 months!

Tomorrow it will be 2 months since we have returned home from Ukraine. When I think back to all of it now, it is so hard to believe that it was only 61 days ago we stepped onto US soil as a family of three! It feels as if Olena has been here from the beginning. I cannot explain enough how perfect this child is! It completely amazes me at how well she is adjusting and developing, physically and mentally. I really think that it is the workings of the Mykolayiv Baby House. I prayed every night for God to watch over her until the day we could bring her home. He definitely blessed this baby by putting her in a place where she would be loved and cared for until we could meet her. She entered the orphanage at 5months - making her stay there just over a year and a half. She shows no signs of any attachment issues. She knows who her mommy and daddy is, and though she is very friendly to strangers, she is very careful and nervous about them. She loves to be cuddled and be rocked. She listens to directions extremely well. She has great eating and sleeping habits and she is unbelievably smart.

Her personality is also starting to show more and more everyday. It would not surprise me one bit if this little girl becomes an entertainer. She LOVES attention, all eyes must be on her. She loves music (and not just toddler/children songs) she listens to musicals, classical, and the Disney movie sound tracks. She is obsessed with "The Sound of Music" so we have to keep the sound track playing on her CD player at all times! Expect for nap and night time because then she likes to listen to her Mozart CD or John Lennons "Beautiful Boy". And she loves to make people laugh. Her forte' is funny faces!! She will make cheesy faces or funny eyes at you until you laugh at her! Then she cracks up at herself. I will try to find a few pictures of this.

Being first time parents has obviously been a big adjustment for us, and parenting a 2 year old right from the start has taken a lot of prayer but we learn something new from her everyday, just as she learns from us. We have truly accomplished a lot over the past 2 months and I am very proud of us, as a family. We will now continue to grow and love each other, and we will forever be grateful to God for bringing us half way around the WORLD to meet!

December 17th 2006
19lbs
30 1/4 inches tall
size: 12 mons.

February 17th 2007
24lbs
31 inches tall
size: 12 mons. pants and 18 mons. shirts

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

Awesome!

Tonya said...

Good GRACIOUS! she's grown!!! Lyra has gotten smaller 8?. she lost a pound.5 , I think she was retaining fluid from not having enough water to drink at the baby house!!! She went from 25.5 lbs to 24lbs. She is getting taller though.

Brian, Pamela, Angelina said...

Hey Strangers! Good to hear from you on our blog. Wow Olena sure is growing. I hope you all three are well and yes we are happy to be finally introducing Gaela to family now that I am back. Just a couple more months and we will be making the big move to China! So much going on and I have only spent 7 weeks in the US since last August - a very transient 7 months! Take care.