Happy Holidays 2010

Yes, it's that time of year again - and we know you have been wondering, "What's up with that Stephens family? Or maybe not, but we are going to tell you anyway!

Our big event this year was our trip to Orlando. We left the day before school was out and were down there for 12 days. We went to all four Disney parks and two days at Univeral Studios. We saw everything and did everything and by the end of the trip, Ray and I were so done with amusement parks. But we all love roller coasters and all kinds of rides, so we checked everything out. Our biggest thrill was getting on the new Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios. It was set for the grand opening that week but we were able to go on it twice earlier in the week while they were doing "test" runs. It was fantastic!

Our family did a lot of camping this year and most of it was with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. We did go on a our annual family camping trip with Grandma and Grandpa Fenton to Hoffman Lake and enjoyed it immensly. It was pretty hot that weekend so I kicked Jake out of the air conditioned RV and sent him to the tent with Ray! As for Scout camping, if it involves outhouses, port a potties, or lack of showers, then it's a guy thing and I stay home and scrapbook and watch chick flicks!

The boys and Ray continue to be active in Scouting and many of our activities are related to Scouting. Riley is helping Ray with his den this year and completed training as a Den Chief to assist with the Webelo den. It takes all the help you can get to wrangle 4th grade boys. Riley is working towards his Star rank in Boy Scouts and hopefully will have that the first of next year. He is looking forward to a High Adventure camp next summer.

Verizon was bought out by Frontier, so Ray is now an employee of Frontier. He is in the same position, but as with any buyout, things are very different and it's a stressful time of change. I finally gave in and went to work part time to help feed these growing boys!! I am currently working 3 days at week at the Fort Wayne Community Schools Nutrition Center. The hours allow me to put the boys on the bus and be there when they get home. Not to mention have the same vacation days,s now days, and summer vacation. I am still a substitute worker, but for now it seems to be working out.

October was a difficult month for us as Ray lost his mother on October 13th. Her health had been declining and she had some heart issues. We traveled to Ohio to help plan her service with Ray's sister and we had a family service at the gravesite. We all miss her a lot and we remember how generous she was to our boys and our family. Then four days after we returned from Ohio, we had to send our Sasha dog to doggie heaven with the help of the vet. We knew she was going downhill and as much as I didn't want to let her go, we knew it was time.

Which brings me to the new addition to our family, a rowdy, crazy, dog named "Brownie". We got her from a rescue about month before Sasha died. She is a boxer mix and is about 11 months old now. The boys love her because she plays like crazy, frisbee, soccer, football. Riley seems to have a special bond with her and she sleeps on his bed every night. It's been difficult for me going from my 11 year old mellow Sasha, to a dog who is always running, biting, and stealing food. But she is a lot of fun and makes us laugh.

The boys continue to be active in sports and Riley was on the Blackhawk Middle school soccer team this spring. Riley is playing indoor soccer at the moment and Jake has just started Upward Basketball. They both consisently are on the honor roll at school and seem to do very well at school. We continue to marvel at how blessed we were to get these boys! Don't get the idea they are little angels, we have our share of arguing and pounding on each other.

So that's it in a nutshell! We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and good things coming your way in 2011!! Pam, Ray, Riley and Jake

Another Year has flown by!

Hello to all our friends and family,
We hope the end of 2009 finds you in good health and good cheer and that you are looking forward to 2010. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was gearing up for the whole Y2K
scare and spending New Year's eve in front of the computer server. We know this has been a tough year for a lot of our friends and so many people have struggled with unemployment. We pray that 2010 brings a much better outlook for everyone.

Going through our photos for 2009 we realized we didn't take very many pictures this year! I guess we were so busy doing things that we forgot to take pictures. Maybe I will be able to catch up on scrapbooking if we don't have many pictures.

Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts play a huge role in our lives and we enjoy doing many activities. In February of this year Riley "crossed over" from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and is now in a troup with boys from 6th grade up. Ray is still the den leader for Jake's den and very active with the pack events too. It was hard at first to send Riley to weekend campouts by himself with the Boy Scouts since I was so used to always having Ray there at Scout events and knew he would look out for Riley. Ray did go on a couple of the Boy Scout events and enjoyed them.

It was a big year for Riley as he turned thirteen in August and started middle school. He has adapted to middle school very well and kept his grades up. He is also enjoying all the after school activities and playing soccer through school. Jake was a little nervous about being without his brother on the school bus and at school but he did just fine. This way no one can tell on him! He is in 3rd grade and he turned nine this summer.

We did more camping this summer than we ever have! We had several campouts with the Cub Scouts, our annual family campout with Mom, Dad, Kim, Scott, Jenny, Diana, Doug and Bella, and then we borrowed Mom and Dad's RV and camped for a week for vacation this summer. We have a small, low-sided trailer that we pull behind our van which makes it nice for hauling all the camping gear.

In between scout camps, the boys spent most of the summer in our swimming pool! It wasn't a very warm summer and they didn't get in as much swimming as they would have liked. The boys and I planted a garden but it didn't do very well with the cool temperatures either. I ended up buying a bushel of tomatoes since ours didn't every produce enough for canning. I got on a crazy canning kick this summer and canned tomatoes, pizza and spaghetti sauce, banana peppers, and strawberry jelly.

We had a couple really fun bonfire parties this fall at our house. Ray's scout den came over and we carved pumpkins and had a hayride and cookout and then the next weekend we repeated the party with more friends. We can hook up the trailer to our large lawn tractor and take the kids on a hayride and they love it. We go through the fields beside our house and past the woods.

I wish I could tell you where my days go but anyone that has raised children knows the answer to that! Scrapbooking and card making are my crafts of choice and I try to fit those in between the boy's sports, school, scouts, and managing the household! I still go out on a few computer consultant jobs now and then and love the extra income every so often. Ray is still with Verizon and wondering what the future will hold since the part of Verizon he works for has been sold to Frontier. They are in the middle of transitioning to the new company so he doesn't know a lot of details about what may change. Hopefully his job will be secure.

So all in all, nothing too exciting has happened this year but we are grateful to be healthy and have our boys, our parents and our sisters and their families, and are thankful we have a good life. Ray, Pam, Riley and Jake

P.S. Check out the link to the right for 2009 pictures.

Happy Holidays!

Greetings to all of our friends and family! First of all, we apologize for the year or so delay in updating our blog and the lack of Christmas cards last year. We moved to a different house mid summer of 2007 and it really threw everything in to a tizzy! Between putting away boxes, taking care of 1 1/2 acres of land, and house remodeling, things just went by the wayside. Who knew that moving four people and a dog could be so much work?

Riley is now in fifth grade and twelve years old and Jake is in 2nd grade and is 8 years old. They still attend the same school as before we moved. Actually, we only moved about a 1 1/2 miles away from our old house.

The boys are active in cub scouts and Ray is a den leader for Jake's den. Pam is the "craft" leader for the den and works to come up with a craft project for the den meetings. Upward basketball started last week and the boys are looking forward to playing basketball again. They played soccer in the fall and could hardly wait for the next sport to start.

Ray is still with Verizon and Pam is doing a few small computer consulting jobs now and then. We keep pretty busy with the boys, school, sports, and scouts.

Please check out the link to the left that will take you to our website with many new pictures posted for 2007 and 2008.

Wishing you all a happy new year. Pam, Ray, Riley and Jake

Basketball

The boys are doing Upwards basketball thru the church and we are about midway thru the season. Riley's team is the Longhorns and Jake's is the Panthers. Jake's games are at 8 am and we need to be there by a quarter til, which is kind of rough on a Saturday morning.

The kindergarten teams are pretty darn funny to watch. Traveling, double dribbling and not being allowed to steal the ball are all facts of life at that level. Riley's group pretty much is following all the regular rules for the game. They aren't ultra strict, but he's held a lot more accountable.

Jake is doing pretty well. This morning, he made three baskets and got a star for good offense. He's starting to display a little too much competitiveness. Last week, he got really mad at the kids guarding him. It wasn't because they were doing an outstanding job of guarding him, it was more about the ball smacking him in the face at least three times when he was trying to rebound. I told him to raise his hands when he looks up for a rebound this week. It worked much better.

He's also kind of being a ball hog and wanting to be the one to drive it down the court each time. He was giving his coach attitude this morning for not letting him be a ball hog. We've discussed it and hopefully he'll do a better job of being a team player. Riley went thru a similar thing with soccer last spring, but by fall he was a great team player.

Riley is also doing well. He's a speedster and if he gets the ball, can be down the court before the other team even knows what's going on. Unfortunately, his lay ups and shooting need a bit of work. He's all about passing to the good shooters if he's not in good position, so his team effort is excellent. He's also very good at stealing the ball. It's all about being quick with him. The other guy will be dribbling along and all of a sudden, Riley has the ball and is driving back down court.

Boy Quote of the day - I was bantering with the boys on the way to the game this morning and accused them of having monkey brains. Riley is a very serious voice said, "Look here. It's better to have a monkey brain than no brain at all." It cracked me up.

Merry Christmas

It's been fifteen months, since the boys came home with us. This will be their second Christmas in the states and a lot has changed since the first one.

Jake continues to be the goofy child. Looking back on my first impression of him from this blog, his personality really hasn't changed. Here's what I originally wrote about what I called our little brute, "Jake is not fat, but is stocky. He apparently has a bottomless pit for a stomach and is always smiling. He's not as much of a climber as his brother, but can kick a ball nearly as far as Riley who is four years older. He's got the makings of a linebacker, I guess."

Jake has grown a lot in those fifteen months and is a lot leaner, but other than that - he's much the same. He's really good at soccer (he's a natural team player and plays position well) and is starting out in Upwards basketball with his first game after the start of the year. Jake's the tough one of the two and it won't be long before he's bigger and stronger than Riley. He's a video game nut (only on weekends), likes to play any board game, look at comic books, and play with his action figures. Interestingly, he's more of a strategist than his brother when it comes to playing games. It's fun to watch him think through his moves and he oftens wins in any strategy game we play.

Riley is also a lot like we originally perceived. "Riley is a bit short for his age, very lean but amazingly fast. He climbs like a monkey and seems to be very active." He's still fast as can be and lean. He's also a really good soccer player - in the spring he didn't seem to get the concept of team work and was more of a ball hog. This past fall, it clicked with him and he's ended the season as one of the best players on his team. Riley is also getting started in Upwards Basketball at our church. Riley is a big time movie fan and will watch about any movie you'll let him watch. He's also an avid reader, since he's got English figured out. He was also a surprisingly good reader in Ukrainian. Interestly, he can remember how to speak Russian somewhat, but can't read it all any longer, since learning the English alphabet.

Both boys are doing well in school and Riley recently took the ISTEP testing and he's right where he needs to be with his skills and his grades are very good. Jake is showing a huge interest in "learning" this year and is working on the alphabet and spelling. Riley has also joined Cub Scouts and we have been enjoying that time. The big event this fall was a fall campout in a fort on the Boy Scout property. We camped under a roof and had a tarp on one side and a wall on the other. Otherwise, we had only our sleeping bags to keep us warm in the nights. It was below freezing both nights. Pam and Jake were thinking about going to the campout until she heard there wasn't any running water or bathrooms!

I'm still working for Verizon and as always, this time of year is more hectic for my group than any other. And for four years running (or is it five?), we are short handed for the holidays. Our center got hit by some downsizing, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I live for the weekends so I can spend more time with the boys. We play games, watch cartoons, throw around the football, go on scouting activities and spend lots of time at practices and games. One of my favorite things with the boys is their questions. While they often have oddball questions (who would win between a power ranger and a jedi knight? That was actually a good question), they also ask some pretty interesting ones. We've been doing a lot of talking about astronomy, reading books and looking at pictures on the internet about the universe, the solar system, the moon, etc.. All in all, life is good.

Pam keeps busy taking care of our family and trying to keep up with our hectic schedules. She takes Jake to kindergarten every day at 12:30 and is happy to have some time to get things done in the afternoons. She volunteers at the boy's school and is the room "mom" for Riley's class. She is busy planning the Christmas Party for his class next week. She is still doing some computer consulting work for two businesses and has recently started working with a realtor creating web sites and virtual tours of the realtor's listings. She also likes to work on her scrapbooking when she can and attends "scrapbooking night" once a month at our church. And of course, she still spoils our dog Sasha!

Here's a link to some new pictures: http://mysite.verizon.net/res08a93/rayandpam/id38.html

Hope you all have a great Holiday Season and a Happy New Year! Ray

It's been a year already!

Here's our little warrior boys enjoying a summer afternoon in our back yard! I was worried about how to keep them busy all summer and then all of the sudden it was time for school to start.

August 30th was our one year anniversary for adopting the boys. Ray and I were both amazed a year went by so quickly and still in awe of how well the boys have adapted to their new situation. Jake has grown six inches and Riley has grown three inches since we adopted them. All in all, I think we have done really well adapting as a family and the boys love their Grandma and Grandpa's and all of their cousins.

We did a lot of fun things this summer including camping, boating, swimming, festivals, Bible school, an amusement park, a 4-H fair, and trips to the zoo. The boys started off their summer vacation by taking swimming lessons at the community pool. They both did great and can swim under water. They also went to a gymnastics day camp and a sports day camp through our parks department. We read a lot of books from the library and played with our neighbor kids, Jenna, Jake, and Madison.

One of the highlights this year was traveling to Oklahoma with my mom on spring break to see our relatives. It was a first "vacation" for the boys and Grandma was very generous to take us with her and spring for hotels with swimming pools! The boys loved meeting all of their new relatives and we stayed with my cousin who lives outside of Oklahoma City on a big chunk of land. The boys had a great time running around their property and playing in the woods. We wish Ray had been able to come with us but he wasn't able to take vacation time for spring break this year. Hopefully next year.

The boys experienced their first taste of amusement park rides this year and of course they loved it. I think they went on the roller coaster about seven times. These boys are amazing on how they aren't afraid to try new things. They just walked right in to bible school and day camps, ready to make new friends and try something new. We are so proud of them.

They were starting to get bored by the end of August and there seemed to be more fighting. It's just lovely looking out the back door and see them on the ground wrestling, and pounding on each other! I do think I am adapting to being a mom to boys and I am learning to deal with the "boy" stuff like fighting, burping, farting, etc. All the stuff that makes their papa proud....

School started on August 21st and this year they are going to a "magnet" school that specializes in communications. The school has it's own tv studio and produces videos and newspapers. It is not an "ESL" English Second Language school, but we think Riley and Jake will be able to keep up. Riley is in third grade and Jake goes to afternoon kindergarten. So far I am spending my "alone time" afternoons trying to catch up on all the things I let slide this summer!

We are now mini-van driving, soccer parents. Yes, we traded in our Explorer for a mini-van and we have soccer practice three nights a week and games on Saturdays. It's nice to have the van for traveling, and with two kids and a dog, we needed the room. Just that neither Ray or I were too excited about driving a van! Oh well, if you can't beat them, you might as well join them!!

Check out some new pictures from this summer at: http://mysite.verizon.net/res08a93/rayandpam/id36.html

Summer Update - from Ray

Long time no blog. The boys and life in general have kept us very busy.

It seems like we've had the boys for a long time now, but it is actually less than a year. We are coming up on Jake's sixth birthday this Sunday. Amazingly enough, Jake understands barely any Russian/Ukrainian at all. Riley still understands enough for me and him to have some simple conversations, but he forgets a lot of words and his grammar may be worse than mine. He can still roll his "R"s like crazy.

While the boys have become very fluent, they are still finding a lot of words they aren't familiar with. It is usually more complex and uncommon words that confuse them, but sometimes it's the simple ones that stump them. For example: They know the word "frosting" for what goes on cakes and cupcakes. I grew up with the word "icing" for that, but it's not what they first learned.

We are also continuing to have other firsts. This past weekend we watched some fireworks with the family up by Lake Wawasee. Before fireworks started, I pointed out lightning bugs to them. They jumped and ran down to catch them with no prompting whatsoever. I had talked to the boys about these strange bugs a long time ago and this was the first sighting of them. They are usually in bed before dark since daylight savings started. The fireworks were good. They had seen some minor fireworks in Ukraine, but nothing like this show.

On Monday night our neighbors got together and they lit some small ones off. On the 4th, they saw the big show down in Fort Wayne and that was probably one of the best shows I've seen. They really enjoyed all of them.



Also on the 4th, we got together with the Sugar Tree gang and the kids played on a slip and slide then had a bike decorating contest and parade. The decorating and parade were Pam's idea and the kids loved it.

I've also started loading some videos of the kids on Google Video. Here's one from the slip & slide action on July 4th.

Our First Christmas Together

(written by Pam)

Jake and Riley are pictured here on Christmas Eve at their Grandma Fenton's house. We had already been to church and this was right before we started to open the gifts. As you can tell, they were pretty darn happy!

Christmas morning was a lot of fun and the boys actually slept in until about 7:30 that day. We had been out late on Christmas Eve so they were tired. Riley was the first up and checked out the tree and went back and reported to Jake that there were presents under the tree and their stockings were full! We stayed home on Christmas Day and the boys played with all their new toys and never even changed out of pajamas the whole day. (Click on the photo pages link for Christmas Pictures)

We went to Ohio the day after Christmas and celebrated with the Stephens and Conway families. The boys had a great time playing with their cousins and they loved all their gifts from Aunt Linda and Uncle Bill and Grandma and Grandpa Stephens.

I think the most touching moment of the holidays for me was watching their faces as they sang "Silent Night" by candlelight at church on Christmas Eve. Their sweet faces were lit up by the candlelight and our hearts were filled with joy that they are our boys. Of course, by the end of Christmas vacation all I could think about was getting back to our normal schedule and shoving Riley out the door for school! Ah, parenthood.

Ray had a lot of fun playing with the GI Joe "Action Figures" and helping the boys build legos. Actually, he had fun with all of their toys! All in all, it was a great first Christmas with our boys.

Update on Jake

Jake is our easygoing boy, but he does have his moments! When he first came home from Ukraine he had a tendancy to throw flat out screaming tantrums when he was told "no" or disciplined. I guess that is pretty normal for kids in an orphanage. He is doing much better and is a good boy about doing things when he is asked.

He really loves our dog, Sasha, and is frequently seen hugging and kissing her. Sometimes during the day when Riley is at school, I will see Jake playing and Sasha is sitting as close as possible to him. And since Jake is the child who spills his food or drink quite frequently, that also encourages Sasha to stick close to him!

Jake started going to pre-K a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and he is really enjoying school. He goes on Tuesday and Thursdays from 12:30 to 3:30 and there are only 7 children in his class. School has really helped him pick up English. He had a tendancy not to try very hard with English since Poppa and Riley understood what he was saying. But with Mama and everyone else wondering what the heck he was saying, he has started using a lot more English. He is really good at cutting, coloring, and he can tie his shoes.

Jake is always quick with a big smile that melts your heart! He likes to play with legos and he really likes to do puzzles. He is hooked on Playstation like all American boys but Mom won't let him sit in front of the tv all day!

Update on Riley

The teachers at school say that Riley greets them every morning with a great big smile! He is adjusting to school very well, although it's a struggle for him to do spelling and a lot of his assignments. It's really amazing how far he has come in only three months since we got back. He has made friends at school and excels at gym class. He also loves music class and he goes around singing at home quite a bit.

Riley is not as easygoing as Jake, but hey, who ever gets two easy going kids? He can be mopey and smarts off every now and then, but that also comes with the territory of a nine year old. He has a good heart and is always willing to help people and is especially kind to younger children. I think that comes from the orphanage and taking care of his brother and the other small kids.

He is very athletic and can roller blade like you wouldn't believe. He put on ice skates at Thanksgiving for the first time and took off blazing around the rink! He is also fast at riding his bike. The boys love their bicycles and are sad that it's too cold and snowy to ride anymore. They do like going outside and playing in the snow and sledding.

Riley loves to draw cards and make pictures and generally any kind of cutting, pasting, and gluing! He is lucky that he has a Mama who has a closet full of craft things to play with. He likes all of my scrapbooking stuff and gets my cast off stickers and paper. He also loves the Playstation and any kind of computer games.

Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama

Gosh, I can't even tell you how many times a day I hear the word Mama! It does get old, but then I stop and think how good it is to be called Mama after waiting so long. And how much we love our boys. It's just been unbelievable how fast they have adapted to coming to a new home and getting a new family.

They love our parents and all of their cousins. They have stayed overnight at Grandma and Grandpa Fenton's house several times since we have been home and they love wrestling with their Grandpa Fenton. Over Thanksgiving we stayed with Ray's sister and brother-in-law and their three children in Ohio. The boys had so much fun playing with their cousins. Not to mention a houseful of toys that they could play with.

Food was quite an issue when we first got back as they didn't want anything but potatoes and sausage. And fried eggs. Food in the orphanage is very bland and they are slow to try spicy foods or ethnic foods. They just recently decided they like peanut butter and I told them they are now "All American" boys since they eat peanut butter sandwiches. It was pretty frustrating to cook a meal and have them both say "yuck". But as the weeks have gone by, I get more and more thumbs up on the meals I am cooking. Or as Jake says "yum yumchka".

Both boys have grown an inch and a half since we got back in September. Jake's face has thinned out quite a bit and you can tell that they both are taller. They are good sleepers and once they hit the bed at night they are out pretty quick. Jake was taking a nap in the orphange and still takes one every couple of days or he gets really tired out.

We have been making a lot of Christmas crafts and our house is decorated with all sorts of cute homemade items from school and church. The boys and I recently went sledding at a local park and we rushed out to make snowmen when the snow was just right the other morning. I have always been a kid at heart and now I have some kids to play with!

We are really looking forward to our first Christmas with our new family. We have been very blessed this year and may all of you experience the the joy and happiness of the season.

Take care everyone, Pam

Proud Poppa

I'm having a good time with the boys. They can be a handful at times, but I really enjoy them. Riley and Jake are BOYS - the real deal. They love riding their bikes, climbing, jumping, wrestling, playing video games, watching action movies and any superhero cartoon or movie they can see.

I really enjoy having an opportunity to share some of the "Skolna" or cool things I know. They've watched a few of my favorite movies with me and as long as they aren't too dialogue intensive (which they seldom are) they lock in and watch. Afterwards, they may try out some new fighting moves or reenacting a scene, but that's to be expected.

The boys, as I've mentioned, like to fight and I'm much more open to them doing that than Pam is. I realize that they are just doing it for fun and it burns off some of their energy. Riley is bigger, faster and stronger than Jake for now, but Jake can take more punishment than Riley too. In another year or two, Riley will only be able to say he's faster. At that point, he's got to hope that faster is good enough or Jake will pound him. I've warned him a few times that the day is coming when Jake will be bigger than him. He disregards it - there is no way his "little brother" will ever be bigger than him.

Riley is really coming along with his English and learning to read very quickly. Since starting preschool, Jake's actually finally started to use English. He's picked up so much in such a short time, it staggers the mind. He was understanding a lot before, but now he's also saying it. The other schoolwork is going to take some time. Riley's math and spelling are far less than perfect, but we are working on those.

Last week was a busy one!

We ran around last week getting the boys in to the dentist on Monday and a pediatrician on Wednesday. We stopped in at Verizon to see where Dad works and check out his office. And of course meet everyone who had heard and read all about them. (And get a lot of candy and treats from their Dad's co-workers!)

On Thursday Ray and Riley went to the school and got Riley registered at Northcrest school which has and ESL (English as second Langage program). Riley started this Monday, the 19th and seems to be doing pretty well. He will have two hours of tutoring a day to learn English. And his teacher sent a note yesterday that said she found a fifth grade student that speaks Russian and can come down anytime and tranlsate if they need it.

Ray is back to work as of Wednesday, the 21st, and Jake and I are home during the day. Finally I can get some things done and get organized. We assembled bunk beds for their room and a new dresser last Friday. Just need some storage bins for the toys. I have been doing laundry like crazy and running the dishwasher every day! Ray and I are holding up pretty good but we have had our "crabby" moments. It's just been a little overwhelming with these guys. We are starting to get in a routine with the school and bedtimes, etc. I am going to start looking at pre-school for Jake a few days a week. He needs to be with other kids and play.

Jake and Riley seem to be adjusting very well and are at home in our house and with us and our families. It really is amazing how quickly they adapted and became our boys. We get kisses and hugs from them and wake up to a couple of boys jumping in our bed with us in the morning! Sasha (our dog) is getting used to the noise level and realizes that when Ray uses his discipline voice that it's usually for the boys and not her. (His "dog" discipline voice and "boy" discipline voice are the same). They boys love our dog and frequently hug and kiss her and want to feed her.

We will try to get a few more pictures up soon. Take care, Pam-Ray-Riley-Jake

Fly Boys

The boys are growing up fast. They are now employed by the airlines as pilots. This shot is from our our trip from Amsterdam to Minneapolis.

Our first family picture

Picking up the boys at the orphanage

on August 31st to officially take them

with us and start our new family!

News in Ukraine

CNN Report on Ukrainian Government

I found this very interesting. I'm glad we got the adoption finished when we did or we might have had some problems.

Home Sweet Home

We got back to the house yesterday late in the afternoon. The drive wasn't bad at all with the portable DVD player keeping Riley's attention with The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. Jake and Pam were both pretty out of it with their illnesses.

Pam went straight to bed when we got home and the boys quietly played in their room after a brief tour of their new home. They seem to like the house quite a bit and were especially delighted with the gifts waiting for them when they arrived. Pam's parents and her sister and her family had put up "Welcome Home" banners for everyone and had laid out some new clothes and gifts for them. Kim, Scott, Julie and Jenny also brought over some board games, toys and a huge bin of Legos. Riley loves Legos and has been asking for them since about the second day we knew him. Pam's friend, Michelle also brought some presents for the boys too. The two of them got some packs of Tic Tacs (their favorite) and each also got a very cool Matchbox monster truck.

In Ohio the boys were also well spoiled by my family and friends. My sister and her family bought them new booster seats for the car, some toys and the kids donated some of their old toys to the boys too. My parents bought them new bicycles which were a huge hit. They are actually currently bugging me about riding them. My good friends Matt and Mary and their daughter Emily were hugely generous in buying the boys not only a couple of trucks and some new clothes (including Spiderman t-shirts), but also a Playstation 2 and some games. Thanks, guys - Riley and I spent some good father-son time last night running down pedestrians with the driving game.

Jake crawled into bed last night at about 5 pm. The poor little dude was just wiped out from being sick for three days. He slept straight thru til 6 am this morning and it did him a world of good. I'm happy to report that he is back up and running today. Despite being afraid of eating, I convinced him it was some saltines or the doctor and he chose saltines. He then moved on to some dry cereal and (THANK GOD!) everything stayed down.

Well, I'm going to let Pam rest for a bit while the boys and I go grocery shopping. Dinner last night for me and Riley was a can of pork and beans and some chips. We are in dire need of groceries. Hopefully I can successfully shop for groceries and keep these two cossacks under control. It won't be easy.

Back in the U.S.A.

What a long strange trip it's been. We made it back to Cleveland last night and went to my sister's house where we have now got a night's sleep. The trip was very long and tiring, but we are so happy to be back home.

Yesterday we got up at 3:30 in the morning in Kiev and got our stuff together, then woke up the boys at just before 4:30. They didn't like waking up that early, but it didn't stop them from staying awake for far too long. In the 24 hours they were up, Riley got about 20 minutes of sleep in the car to Linda's and Jake got the same, plus about an hour on the 2nd flight of the day.

In Minneapolis, the boys became U.S. Citizens. While the U.S. doesn't recognize it, they are still Ukrainian citizens too and when they turn 18, they'll decide if they want to maintain the dual citizenship or just U.S. citizenship. When I told they they were now Americans, they were very happy.

The boys were not intimidated or scared at all until we finally met up with Linda, Bill and the kids - then they got quiet. This was new family and they didn't understand what the heck they were saying. Toward the end of the evening they started getting comfortable with them and this morning Riley is playing on the Playstation with Ryan and Jake is playing with a toy barn and a Noah's ark. Poor little Jake got a fever yesterday and was experiencing a lot of trips to the bathroom (I took that kid to the bathroom about 20 times). We gave him some advil and he seemed to be better, but this morning he's feverish again and throwing up. If you ask him though - he's "Hurashow" aka "Good".

Honestly, the boys were exceptionally good on the planes, in the restuarants, etc, but they weren't perfect and they squirmed around, dropped, spilled or lost just about 95% of what they touched. Pam was laughing her butt off at me for how much that stuff kept happening while I was watching them. It happened to her too, but not nearly as much. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

Today we are going to visit my parents for a short trip and probably go to the Geauga County Fair later today. If Jake is still feeling rough, I'll probably stay home with him and we'll nap. He and I have got to be napping buddies. In a couple of days, we'll probably head back to Indiana.

Oh yeah - we lost luggage again. That makes 3 for 4 on this trip. We lost it going to Edinburgh, we lost it going to Kiev and we lost it coming home. The trip to France was by train and we didn't lose it, so that doesn't count. Only the flight from Edinburgh to London ended with us finding our bags at the airport. They should arrive later on today.

PS - in Kiev on Saturday we went to a Friday's restuarant where the wait staff spoke English and had some American food. I can not even begin to tell you what a boost that was for us. I love the Ukrainian food, but it was SO good to have some hot wings and nachos. The boys turned their noses up at just about everything except french fries and ice cream, but Pam and I had a great meal.

Another high point in the trip was on the flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. The stewardess came by offering coffe and I asked, "Is this American coffee?" and it was. We drank coffee and espresso and cappucino in Scotland, England, France and Ukraine and enjoyed some of it, but for my money - plain American coffee is where it's at. The regular coffee in the other countries is more like espresso than coffee usually. It's good for a wake up, but not so great for flavor.

That's it for now. So much has happened since the last post, I'm sure I'm missing most of it. Those are what I can think of for now and we'll be updating later on. God bless, the USA.

Travel Schedule back to the USA!

We couldn't get any flights out of Kiev on Saturday so we will be leaving on Sunday. One travel agency said they did not have any flights out until September 15th, so we felt lucky to find one this Sunday! We will have to leave for the airport around 4:30 in the morning here! In Indiana time, that is basically leaving on Saturday night and getting to Cleveland on Sunday at 6:00 pm. It's going to be a long, long day or two of traveling. Hopefully we will all sack out on the plane. I have some "travel packs" of things for the boys on the plane.

We are going to stay in Ohio with Ray"s sister and her family for a couple of days and see his parents and our friends Matt and Mary. Then we will head for home with the truck stuff full of luggage, two boys, and a dog! YEAH! But be sure that I will be home by the weekend so I can go to the scrapbook convention in Fort Wayne with Mom, Julie and Jenny!

9/4/05

Kiev to Amsterdam - Flight 3097 leaves 07:05 a.m. arrives 09:05 am
(Ukraine International Airlines)

Amsterdam to Minneapolis - Flight #41 leaves 10:45 a.m. and arrives 12:45 p.m.(NorthWest Airlines)

Minneapolis to Cleveland - Flight 3530 leaves 3:10 p.m. arrives 6:07 p.m
(NorthWest Airlines)

Boys will be boys

Ok, so the first night back in Kiev at the apartment, our facilitator had a sofa bed folded out for both boys to sleep on together in the second bedroom/sitting-room. Well, you can imagine how that went putting two giggling, goofy kids together! After about 30 minutes of giggling,talking, and poking, I remembered that there was a cot in the apartment and folded that out on the other side of the room. Riley actually volunteered to sleep on that because he was tired and his little brother was bugging him. Last night they did better and we don't mind a little bit of talking a giggling before sleep. That is to be expected. And then their Dad had to go by the room and stop in and let out one of the biggest burps I have ever heard. Then I hear huge giggling and laughing from all three of them. It's wonderful thing to hear a couple boys and their dad cracking each other up. They have already started with the fart and burping jokes, even with the language barrier they seem to understand that kind of humor!

They are good boys but very active and we need to get used to that! We were exhausted last night and I know all of you with kids out there are laughing and understand. Especially my sister-in-law, Linda, who deals with three kids every day. She has been waiting for her brother to chase after kids and get a feel for parent hood! The boys have their "brother" moments with some head locks and fighting and Jake starts crying because Riley did something mean to him. But overall, they really are good kids. Riley wants to help me with everything. He wants to set the table and wash dishes every meal. Whoo hoo, I can use a kid like that!

Cooking is still a challenge here, even in Kiev, and I will be glad to be home in my own kitchen. There are so many foods these guys have never seen or tried before. And thank goodness for a washer and dryer at home because Jake gets dirty in five seconds. We have bought a couple of outfits here because they were filthy the first day! There was a second hand clothing store and we got t-shirts and some sweat pants. The weather has turned really chilly.

Thanks again to everyone for their prayers and support. It means so much to us. Love, Pam