This is Not Goodbye...

I knew the day was coming when we would be forced to send these kids back to the Ukraine.  After three weeks Y had fully integrated into our family and was 100% an Erickson.  Heck, Hailey and Y even started picking at each other exactly as siblings do.  To help ease the pain on all sides we sat down Saturday night and started a scrap booking marathon.  It as all hands on deck, all pictures on the table, and no holds barred when it came to getting Y's memory book put together exactly as she wanted it.  I learned all kinds of things that no man's man has any right to know such as:

     -  There are such things as pattern cutting scissors

     -  Not all glue is supposed to be used for gluing things together.  That's right gentlemen, there are decorative glues out there that you aren't supposed to glue with...

    -  Texturing, layering and teasing aren't just for hair and yes I know I probably shouldn't know those terms either...

    - Finally, when he hears the term scrap book, a man would think that scraps would be used to create the book.  Nope...  there are special papers, inks, stamps, stickers, fabrics, ribbons, books and pages for the purpose.  You can even go nuts with cutting tools, dies, and even dedicated cabinets or tables!  Snap On is missing out on a whole other market here...

     Once the major creative session was winding down for the night, Betsy came up with the idea of creating letters to Y pages.  One from each of us.  It's times like this when I remember why I married her :-)  So dark thirty rolled around and we rolled out of the bed and went to work on those pages.   The early wake up call was worth it to see Y's face when she saw those pages.  Knowing that she'll be able to keep that book close to her during these next few months and know she has a family who loves and misses her very much.    It just feels so much like we left one of us behind.



The girls right before we had to leave for the airport...goodbyes are really hard.


                                                  
 It's hard to put into writing what is going through mine and my family's hearts currently but I can at least attempt to put you into a position where you can get an idea.  Imagine if you will that you were told that you had three weeks left with your daughter or son.  During those three weeks you can cram in as much as possible.  However, at the end of those three weeks your son or daughter must get on a plane, leave the security of your home, and return to a place where there is no privacy and no guarantee of safety.  Where might-is-right rules the day and where you know your child will be stripped of all his or her belongings save for those few memories and trinkets that cannot be used for the good of the institution.  You will have no control of their diet, education, or sleep patterns.  If they get sick, you will not be able to help.  You won't even know they are sick.  What would you do to get your child back?   We are so thankful there are at least a few incredible folks there who see the kids regularly and love God and the children very much.

That is what our family is currently feeling and why we are marching down the path towards international adoption.  Y is part of our family now and it's our job to do everything in our power to bring her back home.  The potential rub here is that the Ukraine follows a blind policy when it comes to adoption.  In other words, we are not guaranteed a specific child until after our paperwork has been submitted, reviewed and approved.  Based off of the paperwork children will be selected for adoption.  While our adoption agency will work towards the goal of completing the adoption of Y into our family, there is still a very real possibility that she may be adopted by another family, sent into a foster home, or for some other reason we may not be allowed to adopt her.  We have to prepare ourselves for this possibility but in all truthfulness the idea that Y wouldn't be able to come home has not entered into the equation for me.  I know there is a risk.  I've seen and heard of this happening to others.  However, I don't believe that God would place this child in our path if we weren't supposed to help.   So now I travel this path with the certainty that in the near future she will return home and the adventure of learning to live full time in a strange new world will start.

 The Sidewalk Prophets summed things up perfectly when they wrote This...

When the Lord works on your heart and you allow Him to guide your actions, trials such as these are part of the package.   That doesn't make it easier though.  So now the name of the blog takes on a new role.  Even though originally created to allow the girls to send messages back and forth, now this blog will assume its next role during this part of our lives and act as a recording of all of our international adoption experiences be they good or bad.

I pray for a quick return for all those children and families who find themselves in this same situation and I am thankful for all of those souls willing to both undertake this journey or stand by those who will.  May God guide and comfort you on the path ahead.
                    

Settling into family life

Well it has been a while since there was a post but that is mostly due to a lack of dramatic moments.  Y has settled in to her current routine and is quite happy.  She has continued to open up and we've come to find out that she is quite the comedian.   It makes me wonder just how much of a class clown she would be without the language barrier.

Betsy continues to build on her Russian reading skills but alas I am woefully behind.  The joys of being a slow learner I guess.  I can take comfort in the fact that once I do learn more words they will stick.  That's just how this brain works folks.  Slow to change both when learning and forgetting something learned.

A few nights back we were able to meet Mikey and Lisa face to face for the first time.  They stopped by to take Y out with A to find clothes for their daughter.  By now Mikey is in the Ukraine and work is underway to bring her home.  Talk about exciting!  I don't believe she will be able to get home before Y leaves but I'm hopeful that the crew will be able to see each other at least one more time, either in the Ukraine or US before she comes home.   There was a slight bump in the road this weekend.  Y had a very sudden onset of a stomach pains and a fever.  However, they left as soon as they came.  She was down for the count at 10 PM one night with a fever but it was already down a few hours later and she was better the next morning.  I guess our less than wholesome American food finally got to her little stomach.  That's one tough girl!  It pained me to not be able to give her anything for the pain but hot on her tummy and cold on her forehead helped.  When you foster or host, stateside or international, you cannot give so much as a cough drop without a doctors note.  I understand why this rule is in place.  (Protect against well meaning but uninformed adults incorrectly providing medication that reacts in a child's body completely differently and potentially dangerously)  However, it's still tough to see a child in pain when your hands are tied.  So Saturday was a lazy day of relaxing and we found out that Garfield has a huge fan in Y.

Y and A sporting some stylin hair before shopping on Friday evening.

Lazy Saturday to recover - even Garfield relaxed.

Hold still horsey Garfield can't get in the saddle.

 Sunday things got  back to normal, Y got to meet Hailey's Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Keith and her cousin Gregory.    The the schedule was modified to add in some "kukly" time which means dolls.  Y is wearing her new shirt Mikey and Lisa got her and her new shorts - this girl really, really likes her plaids.

Adding some fun kukly time to the schedule.

Bed time stories

We always like to have family reading time before bed so Jon thought he would read the girls a Narnia book.   Well it wasn't long before Y was reading to us, what a smart girl.    I'm sure if anyone heard me reading Russian  - assuming they had enough time to wait for me to sound each word out - they would be convinced I wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack.  

Anyway, just thought this was a really cute picture and wanted to share.

 To all a good night!

Welcome to family life

We went on a long shopping trip (well at least a long shopping trip by my standards) on Sunday.  It turns out those stylish kicks that Y picked were more for looks than athletics and her flip flops rubbed her feet raw so it was off to Rack Room for a new pair.  She picked out a lightweight and comfortable pair of running shoes.  This girl learns quick!  I was very proud of her restraint and I could see that she took our advice to heart. 


The picnic was a blast.  Admittedly I  made a point of watching the kids from afar, talking to other hosting families and hunting for new faces.  The goal of these picnics after all is to introduce these kids to families that might be interested in getting to know them better.   Watching the kids I was amazed at K's energy and love of life.  He was a pinball of bright eyes and smiles.  A boy just looking for that puppy to run around and play with.  For some reason I missed getting pictures of his antics.  I guess I was just enjoying watching too much.  Just take a look at that twinkle in his eyes and you'll be hooked.  His sister N has the same exact eyes and sparkle.   Both of them will light up a room when they enter.  


V appeared to be a real comedian albeit a bit rougher on himself.   Just a whole lot of boy intent on packing in as much fun as possible.  One of his favorite activities today was laying down on one of the turntables and letting the others spin him as fast as possible.  The goal being to go fast enough to fly off of the turntable.  Regardless of the spill he jumped right back up with a smile and piled back in for more. He seems to be absolutely FEARLESS.  V will fit right into a family with other boys to play with or, with a father who wants to revisit his childhood (or both).

 I never saw A without a smile on his face and who wouldn't?  He was doing laps around the park with a remote control car.  I was surprised the batteries held out as long as they did.  He appeared to be very interactive with everyone he came into contact with and was able to multitask, talking and playing at the same time.

Friday was a really fun packed day.

Friday started out with Y's first bike ride ever she did great.   There wasn't much time for the bike lessons this morning though because it was a swim party!    Y had a whole gaggle of her friends, old and new over for a swim.    Fun was had by all.    Then after the swim party us girls headed out for some new dos at the salon.    (For any of you who want to grab some of the swim day photos I have them all on a separate page.)

Finally, if the bike riding, swimming, salon weren't enough we packed the mini van with girls and went to see "Ice Age 3 - 3D".   I am fairly certain Y was very impressed as there was much giggling and a whole lot of "oys".      We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then home and to bed.

Run Faster Jon!

Tour de France here we come!

Check out the Dos!

Nothing wrong with some pampering

and I want this color, and that cut, and...

L definitely livens up a party!

Honey, is that waterproof?

Doggies and kitties and brownies, oh my! (and big cone of shame for Jon and Betsy)

Well this morning got off to a very bad start - shame on Jon and Betsy!     As much as it really distresses a very seriously scheduled person as myself, I have to admit it, I and Jon messed up and didn't read the final "Week 1" camp schedule attached to the email from Amanda.   So for all the other host families and volunteers who were able to get to camp this morning by the 8:00AM parking lot departure - WE APOLOGIZE!    In the big picture though if being 20 minutes late is the worst mistake we do these three weeks then I suppose that is good.    UGHH - cone of shame - wearing it with humiliation!

Jon and Betsy - CONE OF SHAME TODAY !!!

In all seriousness though - I am so sorry for the mess up and hope the beach trip isn't too affected by the late departure.   We will be sure to thoroughly read every email and every attachment from hence forward from Amanda.     The latest detailed schedule sure explains why I was the only one who wondered around big Hope for fifteen minutes looking for the kids on Monday evening at pick up - ugh.  I hope everyone will have grace and give us our "first-time-hosting-pass" on this discombobulation.

Here is a pic of Y and her bff from home having some fun in the sun.

On a brighter note, we had a good time in the pool last night, a neighbor friend of Hailey's came over and all us girls got in the pool.

Go Y Go!

After dinner we made some brownies and Y and our daughter had a very good time decorating them and we all had a good time eating them.

I think some of the chocolate icing even made it on the brownies.

Viola!    Would you like to try one of these yummy masterpieces?

Y was up and got some morning snuggle time with our cat Faith - she really does love our furry little three legged kitty.

 Yesterday morning Y took some pics of her own with Jon and then they walked the dogs together.

Y and Jon taking pictures.

Walking the dogs.

Riley is Y's favorate sobaka.

Rained Out

Craft Explosion

     Greetings.  while the pool was calling once again, the weather had other plans.   Thankfully the girls are flexible and decided to invade the craft room.

No, this is how you say that...

     Did I say invade?  I really should have said decimated....  So far the carnage has been limited to the craft table so life is good.  Throw some colored pencils, some ink pads and a few scrapbooks and a few coloring books and it's fun for hours!  (Or at least 15 fifteen minutes.)   No worries though.  Nothing a scrub brush and a torch can't clean up...  In all seriousness tonight has been wonderful.  hearing the laughter and horsing around has been good for the heart.  Not even the weather can dampen the spirits of these two.  Although homework... that's a different story.  But we'll edit that part of the day out for now.  The work is done and we're all still around to talk about it so it has been a good night. 
     Communication remains a source of amusement.  A conversation usually goes something like this.  We try to speak Russian, our Russian sounds nothing like the translator, Y listens to both versions and then figures out what we're trying to say.   She then says something completely different followed by some English to make sure she understood us!  It's a real adventure but one we're all thoroughly enjoying.  To the girls relief, they were saved from my Ruslish (Russian + English).  Betsy dove right in to the deep end of the language pool and is trying to say everything she possibly can in Russian.  That is something I aspire to do as well so it is likely that tomorrow Betsy will be providing the updates while I provide some comedic relief.

Team Effort

You want to do what when?

Y has proven once again to have a heart of gold.  Betsy had the idea of creating a bilingual schedule.  She said it was for the girls but in reality it was more for me than anyone else.  Those three have this whole schedule thing down pat already.  I'm the one still playing catchup.  The girls dove into the task with gusto.  I missed her but Hailey jumped in midway through to assist on the English side of things.  With Y working on the Русский язык and Hailey working on the English side the task completed smoothly.  To see how things were going prior to Hailey's assist and to see just how helpful the peanut gallery can be, take a look at the video posted below:

  

Of course the peanut gallery isn't perfect and I'm always up for a good laugh so here is the sequel...

   

All things taken into account, it was a blessing tonight that it decided to rain.  Had the weather held out we may not have had so much fun.  Who knew planning could actually be fun?  Well, at least Y and our daughter were able to make it fun.  Ah to be young again.  Thankfully old codgers like me can still catch a glimpse of that childhood joy and innocence thanks to nights like tonight.  Have a good evening all and to all a good night!

Winding down with a good book

Off to camp this morning

 (posted by Betsy)
Well we safely and successfully got Y through her first night and morning and off to camp.  She is so sweet and smart - she really does understand most English and is picking up speaking it really fast unlike our very laughable Russian.    She is warming up to the dogs - she had no issue with our smaller dog but the lab and lab/boxer she is a little slower to warm up to but she knows now they won't bite or hurt her, just beg for food all the time.     She really loves our three legged cat Faith and luckily Faith unlike our other feline appreciates human attention.     The guppy ecosystem project our daughter brought home from school about...well...28 days ago, has given us about ten little surprises this morning...

Well I guess now we don't have to make that trip to Petco for another fish:)

Here is Y with her new best three legged fuzzy friend:

Nothing like a cuddly кошка

Well I need to get back to work now and then into the office.   I'm sure Jon will have more to add later when he gets back from dropping Y at her first day of camp

We Meet At Last

This is Betsy I am trying my hand at the blog tonight.   We made a cannonball run to Pennsylvania and back - visited my brother and his wife and then went to my family reunion - all in less than 48 hours.    We were so excited to come back and meet Yuila and get her vacation at with us started.  

Wow is Y ever a sweet and amazing girl.    We met her over at Amanda and Bryan's today and Lara a friend (originally from Ukraine) was there hanging out with Yuila.

We had some Chinese (Americanized) food for dinner, not sure if it was Y's favorite but she did like the Lomein.

We then headed back to our house and showed her around, introduced her to all the pets and Jon and the girls got wet in the pool - OK - it was more like the girls pelting Jon with the squirt guns.   We then went in for some showers and spaghetti and salad.

Finally Y and our daughter painted each other's nails.   Now, I have heard their five minute timer going off - they - were checking out the blogs - so I need to do some teeth brushing nagging and get them to bed.

Living Vicariously

Here I sit, six hours away from dear Y.  The fact that we missed her arrival ate at me for hours until the family who was kind enough to host her temporarily, sent Betsy some email updates.  There were pictures.  However, none will be uploaded until miss Y clears them. 

  I can provide some details though.  It turns out pink is a favored color and she has some kickin style when it comes to shoes,  I couldn't have picked a better pair of shoes myself and the choice is daughter approved.  How often can a father say that he agrees with the style choice of not one but two young ladies?

I can see it now, three women against one man... My family vote is toast.  Forget the fishing poles and baseball.  It's pink pinafores and puppy dogs all the way.  (But I'll love every moment of it!)  We can't wait to get back home and properly greet that sweet smile.    

Seeing that smile put my heart at ease.  Now that I know that Y is happy and enjoying her first days here in America, I can turn my attention to the task at hand, attempting to remember 200 plus names during photo taking and note gathering during Betsy's family reunion.  No pressure... Well, in reality everyone knows that I am the worst when it comes to names but I know that Betsy's family are all kind hearts and willing to put up with my bad memory.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow and gathering as much as possible for the memory book Betsy will be making for her father.  The book will be a surprise for him since he is unable to travel to the reunion any longer.  I pray it will lift his spirits and aid in his recovery.

Российская Клавиатура

Greetings!  This will be a short post.  One of the main goals for this blog is to provide a means for  S and her friends to talk to each other.  Being so far away would be hard on anyone so it is my hope that this Russian keyboard will allow them to chat and share experiences.

http://winrus.com/klava.htm

Дамы, Пожалуйста добавьте комментарии к постам, чтобы говорить с друг другом.

Up Up and AWAY!

Well it is official.  The kids are on their way.  If the 14 hour train ride with a 5 AM arrival isn't enough,  catching the plane at 2 PM will likely push those poor chaperones and all the kids to their limits!

Last night the hosting families met with some families who hosted last year at Amanda's beautiful home.  We are extremely thankful for all of the advice on what to expect and how to reduce the stress on the kids as they adjust to American life.  We got to take a sneak peak at the care packages that were put together for each child and I have to say the generosity is humbling and at the same time impressive.  Who knew you could fit that much into a backpack!

Tomorrow we will be meeting at Cracker Barrel before everyone heads to the airport to greet the children. Unfortunately we will be unable to meet Y at the airport because we will be traveling to visit relatives. The fact that we are missing her first exhausted moments in America is killing us but I take comfort in the fact that Amanda and Bryan will be hosting her Friday and Saturday.  She will be around familiar faces and a familiar language.   Hopefully that will help her bounce back from all of the traveling.  On the plus side we'll have hours and hours to run through our Russian while we're on   the road.  If I'm lucky I'll double my vocabulary before Sunday!   (That would be 10 words currently but who's counting )

To satisfy my curiosity, I have decided to use Google translator to translate a greeting into Russian and then back into English.  Here goes!

 Welcome to America!  We are counting the minutes until we meet you!

 Добро пожаловать в Америку! Мы рассчитываем минут, пока мы с вами познакомиться!

and now back into English...

Welcome to America! We count minutes, until we meet you!

Not too bad for a single sentence.  Now the real question... Would that translation make sense to a native Russian or is it flawed?

Welcome to our Lilttle Corner

Well this is a first cut at blogging  but I have an excellent template to follow thanks to Mike and Lisa. You can follow their adventure here.   For those not in the know, allow me to bring you up to date on the happenings in NC.

This week some children will be flying here from the Ukraine to stay with a host family for three weeks.  These boys and girls are orphans from the Ukraine.  You can get a snapshot of many of them by reading Mike and Lisa's blog.  Their daughter, S, was originally slated to be one of the hosted children.  However, God had other plans and decided that S needed a home sooner rather than later :-)  But I digress and will allow Mike to continue reporting on how things are going over there in Simferopol.  


While S's adoption is a blessing, it may mean that she will miss seeing her friends for an extended period of time.  You see, her family's court date may be delayed to the point that she won't come home until her friend's stay in the US is over.  They may literally pass each other in the air...


So, part of this blogs goal is to provide a conduit for these friends to communicate.  Our family will be hosting Y, one of S's friends.  If she is willing, I hope to be able to provide updates on day to day activities, new adventures and any thing else  the girls may want to add.  To do this, I may need to find a way to Russify our home computer.   Worst case, the plan is to use photos and what could only be called caveman Russian to provide at least somewhat of a window. 


For now,  the Erickson homestead is in a final push to get ready for the big day.  Last minute preparation, desperate attempts to add some words to our minimal Russian vocabulary, and of course getting the lines of communication up and running will be all consuming so, no promises on how chatty I'll be during the next few days.  However, if anyone has a few questions about hosting, what our limited experiences have been so far feel free to fire off an email.  For now we're looking forward to what we expect to be a life changing experience for not only us but all those around us and anyone involved in hosting (the kids included!)