4 year old check - up and shots :(

Vahnya had his 4 year old check- up today he is doing great but he had to get 5 shots and had to have his blood taken for a thyroid test.
This was not fun at all first of all Vahn does not like to be held down and we had to hold him down to do this. Daddy at his head telling him it was ok, me at his feet holding tight. Poor guy he cried and cried. But after it was all over we went to TOYS- R -US and he got to get a toy a puppy zuzu pet. We also went to Carl's Jr and he got a kids meal. So all in all it was not such a bad day.

This isn't so bad but what is this thing mum put on me? I'm sorta cold.

Playing with my toys on this strange table is fun.

                         Playing with Daddy is fun he is warming up my feet
                           cuz mum took off my socks.

What they want to stick me with that tray full of sharp things?

I don't like that idea at all!

Lets just gt out of this place

                               It is all done,that was not fun it hurt.
                           See this is where it hurts.

Mum made me this glove balloon I like to count the fingers.When mum made me this I stopped crying,Thanks mum I love you.

                                       I am tired now think I'll go to sleep for a while

shhhhhhhhhhh!

                                                                                              
                                         
                                                                     

Christmas pajamas

Mommy and son

Mommy and son first time  to ever look into eachothers eyes, November 2010  Russia.

Mommy and son 13 months later a love so strong, December 2011 USA HOME!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

  

Santa

Vahnya is a rock star!

So today we spent all afternoon from 12:00 to 5:00 at OHSU At the down syndrome clinic where they have  a bunch of different specialists and Doctors all there in one afternoon to check out everything from hearing to  motor skills. You go from one Doctor to the next.  He saw  six different Doctors. It was amazing  they were all so in awe over Vahnya. one after another of the Doctors and specialist that saw him said how smart he was, how well he was doing, how cute he was. They all just could not believe that he has only been home since March.
 He has grown too he is now 38 inches and 31 lbs he is almost off the down syndrome charts for his height and he is just under average on the regular  charts.
 His hearing is excellent and they did this thing where they would have a bucket of toy birds and when he would hear the sound he was to put a bird into the other bucket. He caught on the first time she showed him to do this. The lady was shocked.
 He said thank you to the Dr when she gave him some crackers and she was shocked.
 He built with blocks, strung beads, put little stones into a little bottle, he swung from a rope swing, climbed up a rock wall, made baskets in the basketball hoop,kicked a ball,threw a ball, rolled a ball,went down the slide all by himself, pretended to make us lunch and serve us.and so much more!He was a rock star and rocked that place!
 It was so neat to get to let other people see the joy that is Vahnya! he came out of there with a clean bill of health only thing he has to do is get some stronger supporting shoes to keep his toes from working over time. He is one wonderful boy! And we are so lucky he is ours!

.

Vahnya has been a real poop to his therapists they come to work with him and he will not do what they want him to do. He walks away from them and goes off to do something else. Last week Jennifer his OT was playing a game where she would put her hand over the shape sorter so he could not put the shape in.She would ask him to say move. He would not do it he threw up his hands and walked away and went to get a new thing to play with. This week she tried the same game and as soon as she put her hand over it he yelled at her," MOVE!"with a mean face.lol Over and over he would do that each time and she would say," good,good job" Ha I wanted to tell him no you don't talk like that but she was telling him good job. He sure knows how to work them.He is so smart!He acts like he doesn't know what they are saying but I can see by his attitude that he understands he's just stubborn.

He is just Vahnya Nine

I realized today that I didn't remember how long Vahnya has been home. I had to count back from March. Funny because before this we have all been counting the months. Posting on our blogs and face book(my girls and I ) about each month. It feels good though because you know what it means?It means that he is just one of us now! No counting down how long till we travel, how long till we meet him, how long till he is home or even how long has he been home. He is just home, he is just our son, our brother, our grandchild, our cousin, our nephew, our friend, he is just Vahnya Nine  and it feels good.

Taking a look back!

I went back from the beginning when I first started this blog and read it Some of it I forgot we went thru and I forgot I even wrote. I did a special post to mark each month.  I thought I would copy them all and post them all in one post so you can all get an idea of how the year of our adoption  went. If you want to read more  just go back to my first post and start reading.Oh and for you that don't know we were going to Name him Josiah  before met him and he already knew his name as Vahnya we decided  to keep his name Vahnya and name him Vahnya Josiah.

one month down

I can't believe it has been a month since we committed to Josiah on Reece's Rainbow sometimes, it seems so long ago but sometimes seems like just yesterday. I think of all the stuff we have gotten done in the last month and wow we really have done a lot. This week we are getting ready for our home study visit she will be coming on sat at 9:30 in the morning so we have been cleaning up the house for her lol.
Mike and I are going today to get ss cards for him, Josh and I because we can't find ours. We will be faxing the last of our paperwork to our social worker tonight. We still have to find a psychologist to do our psychological evaluation, not too excited about that but it has to be done. We will get thru it just like all the rest of the stuff they ask us to do. It is a great learning experience for both Mike and I.

So I guess that for now not too much to tell it will probably be slow here for a while while we start getting the things ready for our dosser.We will be sending out our I600A next and have to wait for our finger print appointment for FBI. I think we have to go to Salem for that.Today we are just going to think about getting things ready for the home study visit I'm not worried or stressed about it just want to get it done.
I do have to be honest I was starting to stress a lot about the finances for all this because we haven't gotten many donations and I was just thinking about all we still have to pay for, not just the big stuff but all the little things too. But I remembered that God said he was going to take care of it so I have piece about it. I don't know where it will come from I am just trusting it will come. so far it has and all we can do is have faith that it will be there when we need it.
 

TWO MONTHS DOWN

Wow it has been two months yesterday since we committed to adopt Josiah. I am amazed that I have only had this little boy in my heart for two months it feels like forever.we are more then half way there and to think in two more months we may be able to meet this little guy.So excited about that.It feels like the last month just flew by I hope the next two fly by as well.

3 months today

3 months wow we are thru the first trimester so to speak. when I was pregnant all 6 times, I remember being so excited to get past the 3rd month, to be in the 2nd trimester. so much more exciting things happened in the 2nd trimester, you start feeling the baby kick, you are not sick anymore with morning sickness, you get to see the baby on ultrasound, you get to hear its heart beat at each dr visit, your tummy starts showing so people can tell you are pregnant. so I was thinking maybe the 2nd trimester of adoption will be like that. maybe now that we are almost done with the paperwork, maybe its time to experience some fun. it leaves me to wonder what the fun could be. I'm sure the Lord has some fun up his sleeve for us. I do expect that in this next 3 months during this 2nd trimester we will get to meet Josiah, hold him, kiss him, get to know him for a week. it will give us the kick we need to get thru and make it to the 3rd trimester. sorta like when you go in for that big ultra sound, you know the one where you really get to see the baby and see if its a boy or a girl. I just pray that we will take time to take in and remember all of the special things that are about to happen in our lives thru this adoption, thru this special little boy. we will do what ever it takes to get him home, give him a new birth so to speak.thank you Lord for putting this little boy in our hearts, for giving us love for this little boy we have never met, we are trusting for the finances and everything else to work out.Both Mike and I know that the Lord would not lead us to do this if it was not his will and we just need to trust! and do as God wants us to. we don't want to miss the blessings he has for us by not being obedient. when he says go you go! no matter if he's telling you to go to China on a missions trip , to Africa to open up a orphanage, to Ecuador to start children's ministries, to your friend down the street to tell him about Jesus, or in our case to go get Josiah. you do what he puts on your heart no matter how much work it is, no matter how much money it takes, you do it in faith or you may just miss the biggest blessing you could ever imagine.

4 months!

Today it has been 4 months! only 4 months and we have come so far. As I have said before we have gotten so much done in the last 4 months. I don't think anyone knows how much work it is to adopt. Only if you have done it or are doing it would you ever know.I have such a respect for those who have adopted.

When the Lord told us to do this we said, "ok Lord, lets do it," we didn't know it would be so much work. humm maybe we would have said no and if we had said no think of what we would have missed out on. Yes it has been hard work, it is stressful ,it is emotionally draining and it is  hard work. But we have gotten this far, something I would have never seen Mike and my self doing. All this paperwork and digging into our lives, keeping on top of everything, making sure its all done, and doing it all during baseball/softball season our busy time as a family. with all-stars and Mike coaching, me doing uniforms, people wanting this and that from us, needing to be in 5 places at once. But we have still managed to get all of this adoption stuff done. I have to say I am proud of us.But I want all of you my family my friends to know this is not easy for us. we need your support, talk to us about the adoption, ask us questions, make us know you are thinking about us if you are we need to know,we need your support.
No we don't know where the money for this is coming from. We don't know how we will get it or when. All we know is that so far we have had it .So far we have had every penny we needed for each thing. and all we can do is keep on trusting that it will continue to be that way. We will take it one thing at a time.If you feel like  donating some money to bring Josiah home then please do. Even if its $5 it all adds up. My friend the other day handed me $5 but was sorta embarrassed acting and apologetic that it was only $5. Well you know what we had just paid our agency fee that day and our adoption fund was down to $15 and that $5 made it $20. each and every dollar counts, my friend blessed me so much that day with that $5, it made me see that the jar was filling back up.
If you feel led to offer us a loan boy that would be a blessing as we have said all along we are willing to pay fully to bring Josiah home we just don't have that much money all at once so a loan would be fantastic. Anyone?
so as I look back at the last 4 months I think about how your life can change, your thinking can change and your heart can change in such a short time. and I wonder what the next 4 months will bring, what new lessons we will learn, what new people God will place in our path and how our love will grow? not only for Josiah but for eachother and for God as well.

5 months today

  5 months today boy it seems to get faster and faster that I post these monthly posts. So it has been 5 months today that we committed to be Josiah's family. Not so much has happened in the last month .We sent in our application dossier, our facilitator is translating it and will submit it to the committee on August 23rd. In the mean time we have been getting the last things done for our court dossier ,getting a few forms filled out,a few things notarized, we had to go get a couple more copies of our marriage certificate, get the kids Dr. check up letters, and of course we got our the USCIS letter. We should have everything done by the end of this month and be able to send it all in to be apostilled . Then send it to our agency, who will send it to our facilitator, who will translate it and I think send it to the Judge. so that when we get back from our first trip our court dossier will already be in the Judge's hands and hopefully the Judge will give us a sooner then later court date.
We are working hard on getting money for our first trip we have sold things on Craig's list and had a couple small garage sales. On the 4th I have a table at the doll show where I will be selling my doll collection . So we hope to have the money we will need but I think we may come up $3000 short for the first trip. If you look to the right of this post you will see a chip in that still sits at 0, if you are reading this and would like to help us out you can donate by using PayPal on that chip in. Remember every little bit helps. We have not found out if they are giving us the loan yet, not sure when we will find out.

The next few weeks I really think are going to go by fast and I hope that when I post our 6 month post I will at least know the date that we will be going to see our boy. 5 months does not seem like a long time but when I look back on the last five months I can't believe we have come this far, just a bit more and we will have him in our arms.
 

6months

6 months today 1/2 a year wow ! so we are pretty close to getting to hold our baby and I pray that before I write the 7 month post we will have a bunch more pictures and stories to tell about him. 6 months can seem long at times but other times it seems so short, right now I'm back and forth on that because for one thing to tell you the truth I just cant believe we are done with all that stuff! homestudy and dossiers. I look back and it feels like it wasn't even us doing all that stuff,it amazes me that we did it all and have it all done and that our next step is to get on a flight to go see our boy . Then I think about how much kids grow in 6 months and I just wish we could have one new picture of him so we could see how big he is, if his hair has grown out. And an update on if he's walking, talking so on.As a mom you want to be there for all of their millstones. It's hard to think of everything he has probably learned or how far he has come in 6 months that I have missed. I know that I will see him not to long from now so that helps. So here is to 1/2 a year !!! let the next 1/2 be full of blessings!!!!  We are still short $3,400 for our first trip if you can help us please do we hate hate asking for anything let alone money so this is a hard thing for us to ask but if you had been planning to donate now would be a great time. Thank you to all of you who read this blog all the prayers and support.

7 months

  7months to tell you the truth when we first started this adoption I thought by the time we got to 7 months we would already have him home. After looking at other family's blogs and seeing that they had their child home in 7 months. But I have learned that adoption is not ever the same for anyone. For one family it could go real fast, for another it could take years. Different obstacles can get in the way, they are able to be overcome but it can slow you down. For some it could be the homestudy or USCIS or FBI fingerprints For another vacations taken by people in your Childs country,it could be something needed for the dossier or court and for another it could be a volcano eruption.You just don't ever know.But you know who does know? God because he is the one who has already gone before you and pathed the way, there may be bumps, hills or even mountains but if you just keep on the path you will get there. With each one of those bumps hills or mountains you will learn something, you will grow,your faith will increase. Each one is put there for a reason. you may never know what that reason is but it doesn't matter God does.

So as I type this and try to understand I realize I don't need to understand I just need to trust. I know the Lord told us to do this, I know Josiah is our son, I'm not gong to let any bump, hill or mountain get in my way! Yes we still need money,no we don't have many people that seem like they care, yes there is nothing we can do about the committee saying no more adoptions in 2010,there is nothing we can do about the one lady we need being sick for two weeks. There is nothing we can do is that true? No we can pray and God can move mountains RIGHT!!

8 monthsToday it has been 8 months since the day we committed to adopt Josiah. And it feels about right if I were 8 months pregnant I would be having all these same feelings mood swings and such. Ok yah I don't have a big belly, a sore back and indigestion no wait I do have all that stuff just not from a baby lol. I know I have said this before but everything we have done to this point seems like a dream, like I can't even remember doing it. I know that at the time putting together the dossier and all that was stressful and I thought I may go crazy. But I can honestly say when I think back I don't remember that at all . Now I have excitement filling me each day that gives me a little stress but its a good stress. we are going to see our baby soon,in5 days!I have been thinking about money because although we have everything we need for this first trip. I calculated up how much we still need to finish this adoption and its almost $20,000 we have already paid over $18,000 and to tell you the truth I don't know how! we haven't gotten many donations or any loans or grants. The Lord just made sure we had what we needed just as we needed it. And that is a fact! because never ever before this adoption if someone asked us to have $18,000 in 8 months would we have thought we would have it. We would have thought they were crazy. But look we have had it, God is good!! We still need help though so maybe someone reading this will have it laid upon their heart to be one of the people the Lord uses to get us where we need to be to bring Josiah home. Maybe a donation, maybe a loan? like I said we still need $20.000 and we may get a court date as early as December, that does not give us much time to raise $20,000 but I know God has a perfect plan. 

 

9 months today

Today it has been 9 months since the day we committed to adopt Josiah. Since I have met him, looked into his sparkling eyes, kissed his sweet face, held his cute little hands, listened to his magical giggle I am changed!! As Mike has said, "He has a joy for life in his eyes and smile that I can't really describe.."

With all six of my pregnancies as my belly would grow I would have the feelings will I love this baby as much as I love the others? Will I feel that same strong bond? Will this baby love me ? Then the baby was born and there was no doubt. That is the same way I felt about Josiah when I first held him in my arms. I am so thankful to God for that. I can honestly say I love him with everything in me, just as if he had grown inside me for nine months. That saying "born not under my heart but in it" is so true. It is hard now because we can't be with him,he is so far away from us and we don't know when we will get to see him again maybe not for 2 or 3 months. I have to keep reminding my self of what all we have already done, how far we have already come, that we are in the home stretch rounding third base, we are almost there.

10 months

Today it has been 10 months since we committed to adopt V Josiah. I almost didn't post because I really didn't know what to say. I feel content right now, I know God is working. we have had a few pretty good donations in the last few weeks, something I didn't anticipate. we have had ups and downs since we got back from our 1st trip almost two months ago. I miss him really bad one day and the next I'm fine. Right now I'm feeling good, I know we will have him home soon and like I said I'm feeling content. That is a strange feeling for me because for the last ten months I have felt everything but content. I just thank the Lord for giving me this peaceful feeling in my heart right now because its something I really needed. I could be stressing out over the fact that we still need just over $12,000 before we go for our next trip but I'm not. I could be stressing out that our coordinators in-laws were hit by a car and are in the hospital but I'm not, I just pray for them. I could stress out about getting our visas, our plane tickets, booking the hotel but I'm not. I could be stressing out about COURT or the 8 DOCTOR MEDICAL EXAM we have to have but I'm not. I'm calm, I'm content and I'm fine. For now anyways lol.I hope that I will have him in my arms when I post that it has been 11 months.

one year

Today it has been one year since we said yes to adopt our sweet little boy and I don't think I can say anything better then this, please go read Madison's and Amanda's posts his big sisters. 
 http://from-myheart-toyours.blogspot.com/2011/03/tomorow-will-mark.html

http://thesunshinebehindtherain.blogspot.com/2011/03/year.html


OH and today is my birthday! and in 5 days I will be going back to get our boy to bring him home forever.

Things he did but no longer does.

I was thinking the other day about the things Vahnya did when he first came home that he no longer does. So I thought I would list them.

1)Run when out in public like at a baseball game,park,store,and not stop when we called him.
2)Drop himself to the ground when we were trying to hold his hand to walk and he didn't want to go.
3)Throw things into the turtle fish tank.
4)Put things in the toilet.
5)Yell without using words when he didn't like something.
6)Try to run out the door any time it was opened.
7)Throw his food on the floor.
8)Scream and throw a huge fit when something fun he is doing is done like getting out of the pool coming in from outside ect.
9)Cry when ever his diaper or clothes were changed.
10)Throw things out of the cart at the grocery store.

I'm sure there are lots more.Reading this back sounds like he went thru the terrible twos all in 7 months lol


There are a thousand things he also does now that he didn't do 7 months ago but too many to list .

Happy 4th Birthday

Today is Vahnya's 4th birthday but the first with his family.We are so blessed that he is with us.He is so loved. Thank you Lord for the gift of Vahnya!

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so proud!

Vahnya had his first early intervention (EI) meeting today. The occupational therapist (OT) came and did preschool with us. After we were done doing our preschool paper and the kids went to play. She says to me with this shocked look on her face,"I am totally blown away right now,I have never had a kid on the first visit sit thru an entire circle time and participate and then go straight into doing a preschool project that has multiple tasks like he did." I said we do this every day. she just looked at me in amazement. WAY TO GO VAHNYA MY SWEET WONDERFUL SMART BOY!!!! YOU MADE YOUR MOMMY SO PROUD TODAY!

Vahnya's 4th Birthday tomorrow

I have a birthday to plan! This is like no other birthday! This birthday is also celebrating life, freedom, love. This birthday is huge because if he were still in his country and still in his baby home this birthday would have meant he was going to be transferred any day, to a not-so-nice place where he may have spent the rest of his life in a crib. Can you even think of this boy in a place like that? I can't, instead he will celebrate with a party and gifts and cake and balloons and friends and family. He will celebrate life and a future!!