Last night our family went out to get some dinner (sans Bekah who was working....). We hit Fazoli's in San Marcos, because 1) Alyssa is off from dance for a couple nights with a minor dance boo boo and therefore had a Tuesday night off, and 2) with their Tuesday night deals we can feed a family of seven for $20, and 3) we love the food.
Jodi and I are sitting at a table next to the table with the four kids. It was so awesome to watch them together. Acting all silly and laughing non-stop, making faces and acting all goofy, staring contests, etc etc. They are so happy together. Our family was awesome to begin with, and just fuller of awesomeness now.
It still blows my mind (frequently....) that they have been here less than 10 months, and yet seemed totally transformed by a new family, new world and new life. God is truly amazing:)
Welcome to our blog! We are so excited that you would take the time to follow our adoption journey! Thanks for coming along for the ride as our adoption of Kayleigh and Michael was completed in May 2012 and as we embrace our new world of parenting five teenagers!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Circles of Influence
Probably some of the best advice we got while preparing to adopt was, in the beginning with the newly enlarged family, to keep it simple and small. That is, keep their world small and at time and experience go by and they get more settled, start adding pieces to their life. I think this is especially good advice with older kids since they've already lived a life of sorts, and in some ways it's kinda like rebooting the computer to a whole new, well, everything!
The experience within our family went and has continued to go incredibly well. If you didn't know they were adopted, you wouldn't know. They just fit in. It sounds crazy at time, but it's like we found the other 2 kids that were ours, but like 6000 miles away (well, 6092 to be precise....). They look like us in appearance, act like us (yeah, even the bad sense of humor....) and have blended in like a ninja.
Probably the best outside our home influences have been their activities. All of our kids do something to keep active, it's one of those things we've always promoted and supported. For Kayleigh, she started taking dance classes where Alyssa had started dance the year before. It has been such an incredibly supportive and welcoming environment for her, and they have gone way out of their way to make her feel at home. For Michael, he started taking tae kwon do classes with Dylan and I. We have had the pleasure of watching a scared loner of a little boy transform into a happy and confident teenager, have a bunch of friends to hang out with, and we see him growing in maturity and self assurance every day.
It's been a great ride so far and we're still in the early stages but have enjoyed it so much. I love getting to be a proud parent of the Fab 5. To greet them in the morning with a big hug and tell them I love them. To chase them around the house (they love playing tag....), watching Kayleigh at dance class (big embarrassed smiles when I watch and we are always making faces at each other....), watching Michael spar at class (he's an excellent fighter with awesome kicks....), and tucking them in at night (or mostly saying good night as I hit the rack at a reasonable hour, being a working man....). Mostly the big hugs :)
The experience within our family went and has continued to go incredibly well. If you didn't know they were adopted, you wouldn't know. They just fit in. It sounds crazy at time, but it's like we found the other 2 kids that were ours, but like 6000 miles away (well, 6092 to be precise....). They look like us in appearance, act like us (yeah, even the bad sense of humor....) and have blended in like a ninja.
Probably the best outside our home influences have been their activities. All of our kids do something to keep active, it's one of those things we've always promoted and supported. For Kayleigh, she started taking dance classes where Alyssa had started dance the year before. It has been such an incredibly supportive and welcoming environment for her, and they have gone way out of their way to make her feel at home. For Michael, he started taking tae kwon do classes with Dylan and I. We have had the pleasure of watching a scared loner of a little boy transform into a happy and confident teenager, have a bunch of friends to hang out with, and we see him growing in maturity and self assurance every day.
It's been a great ride so far and we're still in the early stages but have enjoyed it so much. I love getting to be a proud parent of the Fab 5. To greet them in the morning with a big hug and tell them I love them. To chase them around the house (they love playing tag....), watching Kayleigh at dance class (big embarrassed smiles when I watch and we are always making faces at each other....), watching Michael spar at class (he's an excellent fighter with awesome kicks....), and tucking them in at night (or mostly saying good night as I hit the rack at a reasonable hour, being a working man....). Mostly the big hugs :)
Saturday, February 16, 2013
It's A Marathon, Not A Sprint!
Tomorrow very early in the morning I will get up and go to run my first marathon. It's been one of those things I've always wanted to do and the time came where I was in good enough shape, had been running enough to just extend training up to (hopefully) this level, and go for it! It's my first so my only real expectations are to finish, and not come in last place :)
Adoption is very much the same way. There are months or years of work before you actually go to make it happen. You don't know what to expect. There are so many things that can go wrong in the process that can delay or derail your adoption. It can be painful at times. But in the end, when you cross the finish line, I've heard there is a feeling of accomplishment and exhilaration.
We had talked about adopting for many years and the time came when we were ready to go for it. There were times when things could have gone wrong but didn't (we were in excellent hands :) The waiting was the hardest part (and for ours it was certainly NOT the longest it took by far compared to others...). There were stressful times but in the end, it was so totally worth it.
I still remember the feeling of being in the plane as it started rolling away from the gates in Kyiv on May 9th, 2012, with our 5 children on board. It was such an amazing feeling of excitement and thankfulness that God had allowed so many things to go right, for all of the support we had received, and that Kayleigh and Michael were now ours. They've been the best finish line medals of any race we've run :)
Adoption is very much the same way. There are months or years of work before you actually go to make it happen. You don't know what to expect. There are so many things that can go wrong in the process that can delay or derail your adoption. It can be painful at times. But in the end, when you cross the finish line, I've heard there is a feeling of accomplishment and exhilaration.
We had talked about adopting for many years and the time came when we were ready to go for it. There were times when things could have gone wrong but didn't (we were in excellent hands :) The waiting was the hardest part (and for ours it was certainly NOT the longest it took by far compared to others...). There were stressful times but in the end, it was so totally worth it.
I still remember the feeling of being in the plane as it started rolling away from the gates in Kyiv on May 9th, 2012, with our 5 children on board. It was such an amazing feeling of excitement and thankfulness that God had allowed so many things to go right, for all of the support we had received, and that Kayleigh and Michael were now ours. They've been the best finish line medals of any race we've run :)
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Dads and Daughters
Last night I took the girls to the Daddy Daughter dance, which has become an annual excursion for the girls and I. I think this was our 5th time. It is always fun to look at the pictures from each year and see how much they've changed from year to year. Each year I find that they've gotten taller and more beautiful! This year had the extra special addition of having Kayleigh and her first dance. She and her brother have been with our family for 9 months now and she has really blossomed into a beautiful young lady.
While I don't think anyone would understand the workings of the world that led to her being an orphan, I am so glad to God chose me to get to be her daddy. Having a dad is really a pretty big deal to a girl. As we danced last night I would watch the other dads and daughters dancing (mostly to avoid stepping on all the bare toes!....) and across the board it was the same observation: daughters clinging tightly to their dads, wanting to be loved and treasured.
I dance with each girl individually for dances, and then of course the embarrassing dances to the fast songs (the Squiggle dance I created was a big hit..... ;) and then the family dance at the end (3 daughters stacked up ... :) It was so awesome to be able to hold Kayleigh tight and dance with her and tell her I love her. I'm looking at the photo from last night and if you didn't know she wasn't our biological daughter, you'd never guess it. She looks like us, jokes like us. Because she is one of us :)
While I don't think anyone would understand the workings of the world that led to her being an orphan, I am so glad to God chose me to get to be her daddy. Having a dad is really a pretty big deal to a girl. As we danced last night I would watch the other dads and daughters dancing (mostly to avoid stepping on all the bare toes!....) and across the board it was the same observation: daughters clinging tightly to their dads, wanting to be loved and treasured.
I dance with each girl individually for dances, and then of course the embarrassing dances to the fast songs (the Squiggle dance I created was a big hit..... ;) and then the family dance at the end (3 daughters stacked up ... :) It was so awesome to be able to hold Kayleigh tight and dance with her and tell her I love her. I'm looking at the photo from last night and if you didn't know she wasn't our biological daughter, you'd never guess it. She looks like us, jokes like us. Because she is one of us :)
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