Adelina’s fall soccer season ends this Saturday.  It will be her last game.  We attended the end-of-season party on Tuesday night where she got a certificate and a trophy.  She was pretty excited and the dinner was actually really great.  It was at a locally owned Italian place that reminded Steve and I of the wonderful Italian place we ate at regularly in Kyiv (they’ve officially changed the English spelling from Kiev to Kyiv, so I will be using it that way from here on out.)  The food was fabulous and Adelina had a great time and was so comfortable and relaxed.  It was just another opportunity to marvel at how far she has come.  Dinner out used to be stressful and frustrating.  Now it is fun!

Adelina’s language has taken another leap forward.  She speaks in sentences, and now we can often understand her sentences.  Many times we still cannot, and her grammatical structures are sometimes so far from proper English that unless she signs her message to us, we cannot get it, but many common things are now very understandable.  The amazing thing is that she can understand a much greater percentage of what we say to her.  Her receptive language skills have always been way ahead of her expressive skills, the impressive part is just how rapidly she progresses. We can use much more variety of vocabulary with her now, and we can explain new words in English, and she understands the explanations.  I think her expressive will continue to progress as well, but her intelligibility is still limiting, so it will take more time for her speech to catch up with her language. To put it another way, she wants and is able to say a lot, but much of it is not understandable by the typical adult (or child).

Another improvement of note is Adelina’s ability to play independently.  In the beginning, she did not know how to do this at all, and it was a source of great frustration for Steve and I.  It meant we could never just talk to each other and expect Adelina to play quietly with toys or dolls or coloring.  She needed one of us to interact with her at all times and show her what to play with and how.  But now, she is able to find any number of ways to entertain herself.  She will draw or color,  play with her animals (especially horses), imagine herself to be a dog, cat, or horse, look at books (though she still does this mostly with us), or play on her computer.  Not only is this easier on us, as we are often in need of adult conversation, but it is a sign of emotional and developmental growth for her.

One other thing which has been fun to see is how she is beginning to try to sing.  Sometimes it is distracting because her voice is so high-pitched, but occasionally we can actually recognize a tune.  Mostly, she is at the exploration stage with regard to music and singing, but we know this will eventually develop.  What a blessing that she can hear and enjoy music!

We are so proud of the many ways Adelina is growing up.  She is a beautiful person, and we consider ourselves privileged to be her parents.

Posted by jodi @ 5:01 pm — Filed under: Ukraine, Adelina permalink — Comments (0)

Adelina is in a horse phase.  She loves horses.  She has horses from her farm set and very small horses from other sources (I’m not sure from where - I can’t remember).  She has a nice size horse (about 11″ tall)  she received as a gift from a neighbor (a hand-me-down) that she ignored for  the longest time but who now goes in the bath with her as well as into bed most nights.  She loves to go around the house pretending to be a horse or to pretend to lead a horse or to be a mommy horse or a baby horse, etc.   She pulled out her stick horse (you know the head of a horse on a stick they can pretend to ride around) that had also sat ignored since we bought it many months ago and she discovered it makes horse sounds if you press the ear.  It first makes galloping sounds (hooves on cobblestone) and then the horse whinnies and then it snorts.  She loves each sound and now knows what they each are, too.

Anyhow, so the other day we are in Target and we are looking at toys to get an idea for what she might want for Christmas.  She is much more focused now than last year when she was so overwhelmed by all the toys.  Now, she goes straight for anything horse-related.  She kept finding a horse toy and acting like she was going to die if I didn’t buy it for her, but I would convince her we were just looking to see what she might get for Christmas.  Then, she would move on and, almost immediately, find another horse toy bigger and better than the previous one.  We repeated the “I want it now” scenario for several iterations, until we came across the toy that ended the search and made all the previous toys completely unsatisfying:  the FurReal Pony interactive pet.  Oh my, what an amazing toy.  It took a good bit of resolve for me to not buy one right then and there.  Of course, I know now that they were probably not even in stock beyond the floor model, but I am still quite proud of myself for getting me and - the much harder task - Adelina - to move away from the Pony.  Wow, I can really see now how easy it would be to spoil your child.

Not us - we are going to do one better.  No, we aren’t going to buy her a real pony or a real horse - that is unlikely to ever happen.  But, we have decided to pay for her to get riding lessons.  We found a local lady who does this and already has two students who have cochlear implants.  She has a small horse named Dandy that is perfect for kids Adelina’s size and she customizes the lessons to the child’s interest level and attention span.  She’ll start after Thanksgiving or the following week.  Hopefully I can get pictures to post.  So that is something to look forward to.

God, please let this be a phase she will soon outgrow.  Horses are an expensive hobby!!

Posted by jodi @ 4:28 pm — Filed under: Ukraine, Adelina permalink — Comments (0)

Does it get any cuter than this?

Posted by jodi @ 3:44 pm — Filed under: Adelina permalink — Comments (5)

Local school systems have started instituting a “fall break” here that lasts a whole week. They are gradually working towards a year-round schedule by starting school a little earlier each year (this year we started on August 9) and adding in more holidays during the regular school year. Anyhow, I didn’t take the whole week off to stay with Adelina, but she stayed with a neighbor and had a good time there.

We tried to at least do some special fun stuff during this week, though. One thing we did is go to a local “farm” for a trip to the pumpkin patch. Adelina got to select her own pumpkin (from a bunch just tossed on the ground - they don’t actually grow pumpkins there) and then decorate it. She enjoyed this. We also took a hayride and there were animals to pet and see. Her favorite was the huuuuuge cow they had who was happily chomping pumpkins like they were going out of style soon. She wasn’t afraid of it, either. This girl has no fear! They also had a hay maze and a bouncy room thing. We got snow cones and on our way out we bought a big pumpkin that we will carve and put a candle in for halloween. It will be a good experience. Plus, we have to show her the inside of a pumpkin and roast pumpkin seeds!

Tuesday they cancelled soccer practice, so we did an impromptu “Gotcha Day” (AKA “Adoption Day”) party, which was a surprise to Adelina, and she loved that she got a surprise party. We had just a few people over and we ate yummy ice cream cake from Maggie Moo’s. The cake was made up of blue ice cream - her favorite! The kids just romped around and played with balloons. Very simple but quite special!

Steve and I both took Friday off, and we borrowed some camping stuff and we left Friday late morning for Apache Lake (up near Roosevelt Dam) for a 1- or 2- day camping trip. We had a really good time, but after 24 hours, we decided it was enough. I hadn’t packed clothing for hot weather (we expected it to be colder, but it was somewhere in the 80’s), so after getting a bit too much sun while hiking at Tonto National Monument (to see the cliff dwellings) we decided to pack it in and head home. This was a good decision, and Adelina was also ready to come home. All in all, though, our first camping trip was a lot of fun - full of novelties, and she really enjoyed herself - especially the stars that were so bright and sleeping in a tent - way cool! Learning about campfires was also of great interest. She didn’t like it at first, but once she got used to it, she really enjoyed the fire.

We took some pictures of some of the above fall break activities that can be found here.

Posted by jodi @ 8:17 pm — Filed under: Family, Adelina permalink — Comments (0)

We had read about the one year mark being an often difficult time for adopted children, but we were certainly not expecting what happened this morning. Generally, Adelina is very happy and well adjusted. She is a very enthusiastic, fun, go-get-em kid. This morning, she was not. At first we thought it was just a whiny, I don’t-want-to-cooperate kind of thing. We sat down together with her and tried to figure out why she was so teary and having such a difficult time starting the day. We asked question after question after question - Did you have a bad dream? Did Mommy and Daddy sleep too long (we slept in longer than she did)? Do you miss someone? Are you sad? Are you scared? and so on. We got a whole range of yes’s and no’s on the questions, but mostly she just stared at us sadly and distantly and the tears rolled. She looked so vulnerable and lost. I know it really broke our hearts because we felt like we couldn’t quite reach the place in her that was aching. We ended up just holding her for a looooong time - first me, then Steve. Eventually, she seemed to be doing better so we suggested drawing (you know good ol’ art therapy) and she liked the idea but the next thing we knew she was tearing up again. We went back to asking her if she missed someone and she nodded. Do you miss Masha? Again a nod. Do you want to draw a picture for us to send to Masha? Nodding again. So we pulled out some paper and a variety of drawing tools and she made a picture for Masha.

Now I know most of you are thinking - Oh how sweet that she misses her friend from the orphanage! But folks, this is weird. She hasn’t mentioned Masha in at least 5 months and then was usually only if we brought her up. Even in the beginning she didn’t miss Masha in a way that would explain almost 2 hours of intense sadness. We really suspect this is a whole lot more than just missing an old friend from Ukraine. I reminded Steve what the books had said about kids going through strange emotions on the anniversary of their adoption, but I’ll be completely honest, I didn’t really put much stock into that. Well, I’m a believer now, because we are only 4 days away from her “Gotcha day”, and this was tough stuff.

The good news is that she did come out of it. And I’m so grateful we had no plans today and could just take the time to hug and hold and not be rushed off to a new activity. The drawing seemed to really help also, and she drew a second picture just for fun. It’s just an hour or so later, and she now seems fully back to her normal self. I’m glad we went through this, because it shows us how much of her past is still tucked inside and needing to be healed. We prayed over her as we snuggled her because really only God’s love is big enough for these kinds of hurts. God, help our precious little one to be healed and whole again!

Posted by jodi @ 12:55 pm — Filed under: Adoption Journey, Adelina permalink — Comments (3)

We were pronounced by a court in Kyiv, Ukraine, to be the legal parents of Adelina Joy Ivy! It was a Tuesday, and I remember it so well! My Mom had arrived the day before and was going with us immediately after court to meet Adelina for the first time. What a memorable day!

At the time, it wasn’t quite as exciting as it sounds now because it was only a fact on paper and they wouldn’t actually let us go and take her out of the orphanage for 13 more days after that. So for this year, we will celebrate her “Gotcha Day” on the 17th, the day we actually got to dress her, do her hair, and take her OUT of the orphanage and be her parents. But future years, we will use October 4 as her “Gotcha Day” celebration date. As she gets older and is able to read and understand dates, it will mean more to her to have a celebration associated with the date on the paperwork.

In any case, today is a day to be celebrated!

Posted by jodi @ 6:33 pm — Filed under: Adelina permalink — Comments (3)