Adoption journey story continued...

Okay, Okay! I'll keep going.....

We were in Kiev for 5 more days. Then we were in Warsaw for 3 days doing passports and stuff at the American Embassy there. We could've gone on to Poland and finished up everything we needed to faster than that, but I was wearing out each day pretty quickly and we wanted time with the girls and just us to adjust before "having" to be out in public and stuff. We did manage to take the girls to this fun little park near our flat in Kiev a few times. They had so much fun. There were slides and swings and most importantly, room to run! Rachel would sing this cute little song while swinging. I still wish that I knew what it meant. I believe it may be a nursery rhyme of some sort. It went like this: (this is phonetic spelling of what it sounded like she said)

Woah da woah da
woah da saw

Jack oh be la

da low ta

We loved hearing her sing it. The girls were good eaters (and still are), they ate most anything that Mike bought for them to eat. We had a couple of crazy times when they tried to run away from us because they thought it was funny. It took a few months actually to teach them NOT to run away from Mommy. One such event occurred in the Chicago Airport coming home. We were tired. We had already been awake and in airports or on airplanes for over 15 hours. Mike and I were literally EXHAUSTED! I needed to go and stand in a ticket line to check on some ticket or something (I don't remember know what it was) and so Mike said he would stay with the girls and wait for me about 5 feet away. The ticket line took FOREVER and pretty soon one little blond-haired girl took off. Mike ran and grabbed her and the other two tried to run. So he grabbed them and plopped down on the floor of the Chicago O'Hare airport and held tightly to three little girls. They all were screaming (well, not Mike, but I know he wanted to), and he got some weird looks, but it was the only thing we could do.

Our flight from Chicago to Salt Lake was so much better. It was at night and by then we had been awake for probably 18 hours. Oh yes, even the girls! Because they refused to sleep on the flight from Warsaw to Chicago. They were too interested in trying to run away from us on the airplane and talk to all the little Polish grandmas. It was a sight! ANyway, we all slept from Chicago to SLC and then our families were there to meet us and they pretty much carried us home. It was wonderful! Rachel fell down the stairs the first night we were home. So the next day we bought a gate to put up. I got super sick the day after getting home because of all the jet lag and pent up emotions and such. But my dad and Mike's dad and Mike gave me a blessing and I slept well that night and got up the next day and had no more morning sickness the rest of my pregnancy! We blessed the girls on April 20, 2003 (It was a Sunday). OUr bishop came by after church and we just did it at our home as a family. It was awesome!

Meghan knew a few words by the time we got home. Mostly "no" and "time out". Mean mom, I know! Rachel and Jenny only really caught on to "no". Meghan and Rachel were potty-trained, but Rachel would still have accidents. She was ONLY three years old, so it wasn't that bad! Jenny did not speak at all. She started to say words after we had been home a month or so. Meghan and Rachel caught on really quickly to English. My method for teaching them was this: put PBS on, or a Disney movie. Something that would catch their attention and they could understand even if they didn't understand the language, and pretty soon they started to repeat words and sounds. My sister also gave me this set of videos that they gave to the Kindergarteners in her school district that taught the letters and the sounds and how to write them. It was great! Meghan and Rachel could communicate with me pretty well after about 6 weeks being home. They actually memorized and sang "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" for the Grandmas on Mother's Day a month after being home. Their accents were very strong, but it was so cute. If I could figure out how to post a video clip on here, I would post them talking with their cute little accents.

Meghan started preschool about 8 months after we got home and had no problems understanding her teacher. She could write her name and knew all the letters and sounds. About 15 months after we adopted them, Meghan began Kindergarten. Her teacher could not even tell that she had spoke another language for the first four years of her life. Not until I told her, that is. Today none of them have an accent. They all speak clearly except Rachel, but hers is a speech problem not associated to speaking a different language or anything.

They all are super smart! The orphanages told us that they were all developmentally delayed, but I am here to tell you that they are NOT!! Each of them reads above their grade level, understands math probably better than I do, and excels at school. However, they all have some issues that are a direct result from living in an institution for the first parts of their life. I will not go into that here. Mostly because I believe that my children deserve a certain amount of privacy. I will say that it is nothing too horrible or life-shattering to make me ever regret our decision to adopt. I would do it again tomorrow even knowing all that I know and having experienced all that I have and still do experience. (If you are adopting and would like more info to be better prepared, you may email me and I will discuss with you. 1colegirl@gmail.com)

The funny thing is that these girls look so much like me and my husband that most people don't even realize they have been adopted. It only comes up if certain questions are asked like, "what kind of a baby was she?", or something like that. I am honest and I say,"well, I don't know. But I can tell you that she was this type of 3 year old,etc". I feel sad every time the school does a segment on family and requests baby pictures, because I don't have them. I hate that the girls don't have those things to share. But we make do by making it seem more special or exciting that they were adopted or that they have pictures from living in an orphanage.

Meghan weighed about 28 pounds when she was adopted, Rachel weighed about 26, and Jenny weighed a measely 20 (which is the size of my 11 month old). They are totally caught up and are pretty normal weight and height today. With the exception of Jenny, who is now as tall as Rachel.

Every year we are required to send in a report to the Ukrainian Embassy stating how the girls are doing physically and otherwise. Some parents that have adopted from Ukraine have complained about this in the past. I figure that it is no big deal and if my filling our a yearly report helps is so that the adoption process can continue and more children can find homes, then I am all for it! (Adoptions were halted for a time in Ukraine a couple of years back)

Anyway, that's the update. Oh, and if you are LDS and wondering....we took the girls to the temple to be sealed to us about three months after we got home. It was a magical day and one that I will never forget.

( I delivered Jonathan about 6 weeks later....that's why I am all big and fat! Don't the girls look so CUTE in their pretty white dresses?!)