And then there were 9.....

This is the newest addition to the Kellett clan!! The girls were promised a dog, by their father, in Ukraine. I put it off and put it off by saying: no fence, no dog. The girls NAGGED David to put up a fence....and he finally did. Then the excuse of, "we are going to KC for a weekend....a dog is something that needs to wait until after that". That was a month ago. We have since been in negotiations about the type of dog to get. True to my flakiness, I INSISTED it would NOT be a big dog....yet I was the one who mentioned the St Bernard. (I knew I wouldn't win on the Schnauzer...) I vetoed German Shepard, Lab, Golden, Pug, Chihuahua. So, we have settled on this gorgeous "little" pup and named her Zoie! She is 7.5 weeks old....and by the looks of her paws....she's going to be quite a big girl! Our cat, BC, seems okay with her so far. Our last pet attempt was a cat who lasted less than 24 hours. We realized fast that she could not live on top of the refrigerator...and BC was giving her no other options!

Oh, we also figured it would kill two birds with one stone....David also promised the girls a horse!!

The Curb...

One of the things I never really thought much about is curbing. I guess I just thought you can take the kids out of the orphanage AND the orpahanage out of the kids! But not really. So now, we are trying to curb some institutional behavior.

Sharing: Sharing is good...sharing EVERYTHING is not good.

Every man for himself: Well, it's hard for the girls to conceptualize that when you have a friend over or take a friend somewhere...you are somewhat responsible for entertaining them. Our girls seem to think once you introduce them around....they are on their own. From their history...that makes perfect sense to me. However, it leaves American girls a little confused, hurt, and offended.

Table manners: OK....I will be the first to admit that I am a stickler for table manners. No legs hiked up at the table. Cut your meat...don't stab a pork chop and gnaw at it. Wipe food off your face...preferably with a napkin. Chew with your mouth CLOSED. Don't talk with a cud in your mouth. And now that their English is good...speaking it at the table is a good thing!

Bad habits: gum stuck to the headboard...several pieces. Candy wrappers/sucker sticks on the carpet/beds/where ever. Handwashing underclothes.....enough on that topic.

So....there are the things I would like to kick to the curb! I only thought of big, obvious issues before we adopted this time...language, dating, makeup, driving, allowances, chores, etc....

(this is by no means a criticism of the girls, just an observation and things for p.a.p.s to consider when adopting older kiddos!! I'll take this stuff over potty training and diapers ANY day of the week..well, most days....)

Story of the Week...

Well...we had a pretty quiet week...for us, anyway!

Even our low-light for the week is funny. It started with a call from the assistant principal at Jakob's school (at least it wasn't THE principal!). The a.p. had to go to Jakob's classroom and retrieve him, as Jakob wouldn't go on his own to the a.p. office. Seems that Jakob threw his pencil (at the teacher or at the floor..depends on who you ask...) and was refusing to do work. He then disertated (if that's a word) about how he doesn't get enough respect (questioning if Rodney Dangerfield ever traveled to Eastern Ukraine in late 1998) from anyone. Jakob then spent about 45 minutes, disertating, in the a.p's office..about respect and other things that were not positive (no reason to live, no friends, etc). The a.p. had not seen this side of Jakob and was concerned so he called to see if we had seen these behaviors before. Um, yes...for about 5 years now. We have to find the humor, or all else is lost! This fell on the heels of Jakob giving David 10 days to show more respect or he was leaving home. The process was expedited due to the fact that the level of respect is not changing any time soon. I was unaware of the exchange...I thought Jakob was showering for bed! Imagine my surprise when Jakob comes thru with a suitcase wearing boxers, a hoodie, and sandals!! After some time on the porch in 40' weather, Jakob came in and proclaimed, "I've changed my mind, I'm staying, can I have a milkshake?"

I'll leave you to ponder whether Jakob got his milkshake....

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly......

Well, there's a lot to blog, but not sure where to stop and start!

The girls seem to be going through a cycle that I'm sure is common with adoption. The honeymoon phase.....done. Vacation clothes: put away. Tan:gone. Shiny: worn off. Reality: here.


There seems to be an expectation of adoptees that they are issued certain things when they land in America. i-Pod, cell phone, Internet in bedroom, cable in bedroom, the school should look as pristine as the one in High School Musical, music coming from the loud speakers, and Troy dancing down the hall with all of his hot friends in tow. Don't get me wrong, the kids NEED alot when they get here....but there is a blurry line between need/want (I think this is true of all teens....?) I would like to take this time to thank Hollywood for sending out a very skewed idea of what life as a teen is like in most of America. Perhaps if Senator Obama gets elected, he can take these items from the Willis, Pitt, Cruise, and Madonna's children and give to my children...as it would only be fair! I digress......

Vita is struggling making friends....as I think is normal for anyone starting a new high school...the language barrier can only hurt. We are trying to get her involved in stuff and try to be more outgoing...but I'm sure a small town school is not so in to opening their cliques. Her sparkle has faded since the first of the year...but we hope it will come back soon. The struggle is Vita's confidence and expressive English confuse the teachers....they think she is more capable than she lets on, so they have higher expectations than she can meet. And she gets frustrated. Hopes: parent teacher conferences this week....

Yana has made alot of friends...but none she sees/talks to outside of school. Oddly, she thinks she needs a cell phone so she can text them at school. That's a different blog!! Her teachers are more willing to be flexible and understanding of her limitations...so her school year is going quite well! Yana struggles with authority at times and I think she also has a hard time figuring out how to be a part of a family. Families are tough enough...but to not be a part of one, try fit into an existing one, and maintain sanity...we are asking alot of Yana!! Vita had visited us 3 times and pretty much had an idea of what to expect and how things work...I think she has tried to tell Yana....but sometimes you have to learn things on your own!

OH...we have some boys too!!

Levi...our little 4 year old is doing great! He loves preschool and is such a big boy. His Grammy and I already are getting teary eyed over his going to kindergarten next fall....he is the last of the last and we need him. I hope he is sad too!!!

Noah...borders on the perfect child....with exception to his sneakiness and mean streak! He loves to learn and is full of questions! (I never thought I would hope my kid wasn't so smart!!!) He has become bored with 1st grade and his favorite day is the day of the week when he goes to his gifted classroom. We are now advocating for him to skip a grade...no one in the district has ever done this, so we are not hopeful. However, I can be assertive when it comes to my kids!

Jakob....is getting ready to have an interesting week!! We are going to try to do a gluten/casein/soy free diet for a one week trial to see if it helps with his autism. Half of me hopes it doesn't work....so he can eat all the things he loves (chocolate...pop tarts...cereal with REAL milk....ice cream...cheese...yogurt) The other half hopes it does work so he can get off all the meds, do better in school, be happy, feel like he fits in, make friends, and just be able to have the same advantages as other kids.

Last Friday we went to the Department of Homeland Security, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for the girls to take their oaths, sign their citizenship papers, and confuse the federal employee. I felt sorry for him....but more sorry for us!! It may have been his first day. He may not be accustomed to English speaking customers. IDK. But we mustered through and only have a few more things to do to wrap up the adoption process!! We will get the girls registered with the Ukrainian Embassy and then get US passports and change their status with social security so they can get jobs!! hahahaha!!!!!

I think our adoption days are over for awhile. Five is overwhelming...for me. David is not a type A person like me.....I hope to mellow soon or at least reach a level of insanity where it doesn't matter any more!!

Been a crazy long time!!

WOW!! It's almost October!!


All kids are doing good in school...the girls are learning English with great speed and impress us all the time! Not all of it is good stuff...but that will make them well-rounded!

Yana and Vita have spent quite a bit of time at the dentist's office. Jennifer has been a little more lucky on then end of things!! All the girls are excited about their first Halloween! I would have never thought about that....but boy are they stoked!

The girls are getting extra reading in school....which I think will help immensely! Yana just recently added a reading component to her class schedule. It took much pushing on my part to get her OUT of US History and into something she can understand, learn from, and succeed at. Sometimes it's hard for authority types to think outside the box and use common sense over policy and procedure!! Especially in a small, rural district where non English speakers are few and far between.....and more so that the English is the primary language in the home! We love to challenge our school district, help then broaden their horizons, and take advantage all the tax dollars we have invested!

Vita had an incident with a closed minded person.....he said to her and her Japanese friend, "go back where you came from bitches!" Her idea to respond was punch him in the face....and she didn't care about 3 days off from school! We talked about diversity and discussed the meaning of the words "redneck" and "fear of something new". I think she gets it and dismissed him. I also told her she can tell him, " if you think I'm a bitch, you should meet my mom". I think she faced enough stuff in UA that she understands that some people are just that way and we can't all like/be liked by everyone.

This Friday is homecoming and Vita is excited! Not sure if she will go to the dance since her friends are not going, but she will enjoy the game and atmosphere!

Yana has been catching on at home a little better with regard to respect, rules, and cute doesn't cut it. She has lost privileges and learned the hard way that we mean business...and David and I are on the same team....always. Our team is also known as the winning team, the best team, the only team, and always having the home team advantage!

Life here is interesting...and fun...and exciting! We recently had David gone for 3 weeks. He had to do his duty after the hurricanes hit LA/TX. They gave him a chance to stay on for 60 days or 6 months more. Where as we would have enjoyed getting a pool with the money....it's better to have my sanity and no loss of life. I also don't think the 'Farm would pay for his divorce attorney!!

Will try to do better at blogging....in all my free time!!

School has Started!!

Well... the first day of school went well...I didn't have to physically take anyone in, no one followed me out, and no one cried. Yana didn't eat lunch...I guess her "buddy" failed her on that. So when she got home: Momma, I hungry!! Three pork chops, pasta, and veggies later....she was happy...other than the part where I made her drink milk not coke. She tried school lunch today...and referred to it as "foo". Vita tried bbq rib sandwich...and she foo-ed it as well! Maybe carrying lunch is good!

They also went back to school today willingly!! Vita had words with a boy on the bus....I think he won't be mouthing her any more! The district has little experience with ESL...so it's an opportunity for them to learn and me to teach them....hahahaha!!!

The boys are doing great with school and happy to be back in the swing of things...they are in portable classrooms and both of their teachers are pregnant....should make for an interesting year!!

Levi starts school monday...and he's stoked! We went to open house tonite and he cried when we had to leave.

This time of year is draining on me...the paperwork, getting everyone organized, and getting our new schedule figured out. But I love every minute of it from the time I drag myself out of bed to the time I collapse from exhaustion at night......

Time Flies!

The kids are all getting ready to start school this week...and boy am I excited!!!!

The boys are ready...no complaints. Vita....go with the flow. Yana....scared, defiant, but will be fine. I think the girls will be surprised at how many people WANT to help them and will take an interest in them. Just in case...I'll be close by on the first day and our friend Oksana has offered to go with Yana on her second day. Jennifer is also ready to go to school...she is a little anxious, but knows that it will be fine once she starts. Anxiety is a horrible thing and no amount of talking will convince the girls that it really is going to be ok...and they will not die from school!!

It amazes me at how Yana has just made herself at home. I think Vita having been here and being so comfortable has helped. I am pleasantly surprised at how well things are going!!

More later.....after the first day of school!!

Wild first week!!

Well...our welcome home dinner was interupted by me, Jakob, and PopPop going to the urgent care for Jakob to get stitches. I think I took it worse than Jakob...no tears were shed and he complained little about the pain..mostly about having to be still!

The girls have shopped...and shopped....and shopped. Vita and Yana got their cartilage pierced. All girls got their haircut....they asked for a cut they found in a book...but then told her to not cut their bangs or take off any length! The hairdresser did a great job and the girls complaints were shortlived.

Yana has been insistant that she is in the 9th grade....until we went to the high school and she saw how BIG it is. Then she was near tears telling us how she wants to be in 8th grade! We think 8th grade will be best for her...so she figured it out on her own! Vita and Jennifer were put off by the chipping paint on the lockers at the high school....I think they were expecting to see the school from High School Musical and Troy walking down the hall dancing and singing to the music being pumped out thru the stereo system installed in the school! Vita said she wants to go to a different high school. Our response: not an option. This is your high school. We told her that the more people there are, the more friends you will have. They will be fine after a week when the shock wears off. Just visiting the schools helped tremendously.

Monday Jennifer is going to New Jersey to stay with her former host family. She seems super excited and very anxious to be going. She has Ukrainian friends out there who have been adopted and will hopefully have a good time.

Today we are all going to White Water and taking Vita's bffl Jessica. Should be a good time....they girls will need tons of sunscreen on their faces...they got a little pink yesterday!

So long from our busy home!!!!

Wild first week!!

They are HOME!!

Everyone is home....safe and sound and tucked in bed.

So a funny story....Lucas Grabeel (Ryan from High School Musical) is from Springfield...and he came in on a flight right after the girls. No one was willing to go talk to him....but I took our 6 yr old over to him. We were going to get a picture....but he thought the crowd of 50+ was for HIM!!! I didn't realize that at first....but he said, "can we do the picture outside after I get my bags? I see there's a crowd gathering"

I wonder if he's still standing outside waiting at the airport....

Good times ahead...hope to keep blogging in all my free time!

I know they got on a plane in London....

Oddly, I could call any time when David was in Ukraine/London...but now that he's (hopefully) in Chicago....I can't call him!!

This has been such a long roller coaster ride of an ordeal....that it almost seems unreal that it's FINALLY going to be over (the adoption, that is....and life as we knew it!!!)

I think we are ready...or as ready as we can be!!

Will blog once everyone is safe and sound at home!

Life is FINALLY Good!!

Plan A: Embassy appointment, p/u visas at 3, leave tomorrow for london, leave london sunday to come home

Plan B: The visas were ready in THIRTY MINUTES!!! Get flights out of Ukraine today for London, get home saturday night.

Plan C: no seats on Saturday to Chicago from London. Stay two nights in London and have some fun!!

Plan D: Girls can't stay in London more than 24 hours without a visa. So slow down and see Plan A.

The things my husband does while I'm asleep!!!

The people at the embassy are superheros in my eyes.

I hope Monique and co. have the same good luck! If you are on British Airways tomorrow....look for a frazzled balding/grayish haired guy with three teenage daughters!!!

Baby Steps....

Today was a great day! Physicals were completed, fingerprints done, and an appointment for 10am friday at our embassy! The embassy said there should be no problem getting the visas by 3pm. The way our luck runs....there will be a bomb threat and the embassy will close down until monday!

Sunday night....Aug 3....8pm....Springfield Airport.....Welcome HOME!!!

Waking Up From A Nightmare!

So my morning started with a phone call to David that was 30 secs long and consisted of: we are chasing papers, might not make it home this weekend, call me in two hours. My thoughts: here we go again/still...

Then on my way to work I saw someone having a worse day than me (vegetarians....please skip this paragraph) They process a lot of turkeys where we live. Well, there was a little mishap this morning at a busy intersection during drive time that involved a truck load of turkeys. I am thinking someone lost their job today for not securing the turkey cages...resulting in two huge mounds of dead turkeys on the side of the road. And there still more turkeys in cages that appeared to be lifeless from my rubbernecking point of view. It was sad...yet I laughed at the sight of feathers and turkeys all over the place. By the time I came home six hours later, they had cleaned up the turkey piles...but left a mess of feathers. Good thing, as it was in the mid 90's today.

After fretting and making phone calls and waiting for my two hours to be up before I could call David...I was FINALLY able to get a call thru. My AMAZING husband and BEAUTIFUL daughters are leaving Odessa and heading for Kyiv!! As I type this, they are sleeping and will wake up in a few hours to go get physicals!!! And friday to get visas!!! And saturday....first leg of coming home!!! And Sunday they will cross the pond and FINALLY be home!!

Since all of our kids have dentist appointments scheduled next week...there may be a few wishing to be back in Ukraine!!

Thanks to all of you for supporting us, following our journey (which isn't over until we lay eyes on them!!), and for prayers.

I will give updates as the trip wraps up...hopefull all positive and turkey free!

It's Been Awhile!!

WOW!! I just saw that it has been awhile since we blogged!

So here's the skinny......

They got almost done today...tomorrow will be the passport hopefully and home sunday night. I'm sad about that...but happy.

David thinks it's a comical tragedy in Ukraine.....and it is in a way. They keep changing the rules from day to day with lists of things they need done. They went by Jen's apartment/room today....David refers to it as a fixer upper complex. It seems to be an efficiency unit with a common bathroom to share. Maybe it can be sold to pay for college!

So....here we are. They accomplished some stuff today, but didn't get Jen officially signed out. Of course, that office doesn't see the public on tuesdays! You have to laugh...knowing it didn't matter what day they were there...the office wouldn't see the public on that day! They stalked around the building for awhile to see if they could find someone willing to talk with them as there were people there working, but had no luck.

We will all be glad to wake up from this nightmare. The girls have all gotten "closure" and are anxious to come home...so that has been a blessing of the length of the trip. Hopefully that will help with their transition.

At this rate, I hope the kids make it home for the first day of school!!

The later date will work out best to allow David's parents to be here for the homecoming.

Thanks again for prayers and support. They layed David's grandfather to rest yesterday and he is finally where he has wanted to be for the past four years...with his wife.

A Little Blog from David

Not much going on…
After a day of much activity Wednesday, we are currently in a holding pattern. We did get news today that we have a meeting with the apartment people Monday morning. Our translator is optimistic that we will be able to get things resolved Monday and finish up our paperwork so we can head to Kiev.****
Yesterday Yana and Jennifer went out with some friends to the park for the afternoon. Yesterday evening Vita, Yana, Yana’s sister and I went downtown for Pizza. We had a good time and the food was good. We did have one funny story about the meal. I paid the bill and was expecting some change. We waited for about 10 minutes and the waiter never came back. Vita then said Yana, her sister and Vita all said Thank you, so he probably assumed I did not need change. You would think he would wait for my thank you since I was the one paying the bill. It was not much more than I would have given him anyway so we did not make a big deal out of it.****
Today was much of the same. Yana and Jennifer went to Jennifer’s aunt’s house to pack up some of her things to take home with us. She apparently has been storing a lot of her items there. They came back with 3 bags of clothes and a big box of misc. She told me that she was giving most of the clothes to her best friend, Luda.****
Tonight we all went to the mall for dinner and then grocery shopping.****
Tomorrow we plan to get together with our friends from Frontier Horizons. We are not exactly sure what we are going to do. We plan on meeting them at 1:00 and decide what to do from there. It appears it will either be a trip to the Aqua Park or the Amusement park.****
On a sad note, my parents and sister left today for Pennsylvania to lay my Grandfather to rest. He was 91 years old and had a long and eventful life. He personally has been ready to leave this earth ever since his wife died in 2004, but God choose to keep him here a little longer. We are all thankful for the time we, especially my kids, got to spend with him during the last few years of his life. It is hard to say good bye, but we have comfort that he is in a better place.****
Thank you all for your prayers of support during this adventure. With any luck we will be heading home next week.


(with any GOOD luck!)

Two down, one to go!

Well, as of today, we have passports in the works for Vita and Yana! Still dealing with getting Jennifer's apartment issue resolved. The lady who said she would have Jen's stuff ready Monday (as in two days ago Monday) is now all but calling the police (she already called security). So.....here we are! I guess there are FIVE people who need to sign off on the paperwork and this lady is the only one left. Seems there is a lot of chaos and bad feelings in this office due to a scandal a few years ago. Something about using vacant orphan apartments for extramarital adventures..... Sounds like some Realtors in our country...talk about staging a home!

Our translator came in today and kicked butt...and now there are no butts available until next Tuesday, so she can go home to see her family...which helps her stress level.

So for now, the welcome home party is on hold...and I could use a good party! The good part of a delayed return is that hopefully David's family will be back from Pennsylvania to meet the girls when they get off the plane. And that makes it worth a few more days in Ukraine because David's family deserves that day too!

Again, we appreciate all the prayers and notes of support. Also, thanks for all of the kind words regarding the death of David's grandfather.

Progress?

Not sure if progress was made in Odessa today. I'm hoping so. I think David is done asking because the process is so complex and fluid that the answer won't mean anything, so why ask.

On a sad note, David's grandfather passed away this afternoon to add stress to our already stressful state. Please keep David and all of our family in your prayers as we face the days ahead.

I don't know about anyone else...but I sure could use some good news at this point.

Frustration

No good news. Won't report bad news....now.

Sent David job openings at embassy as he might want to get a job to pass the time while nothing gets done.

End of our rope...coming soon to a blog near you....

Hopefully the last sunday blog from Ukraine....

It has been a while since I entered a blog so I will take a few minutes now and do it.***

It is currently Sunday here in Odessa. We had a pretty relaxing weekend. Yesterday the girls went to camp to say goodbye to one of their friends. She is going to another city for the next 10 days and they wanted to get her a present for her birthday and say goodbye since I certainly hope we are not here in 10 days.***

I spent the day by myself so I decided to venture out on my own instead of staying in the apartment all day. I have been downtown numerous times and think I have some of the bus lines figured out. I was successful in getting down there and getting back home without much problem. Since I am not exactly sure where busses go I ended up walking about 4 miles more than I needed, but I guess that is not a bad thing. While I was downtown there was a band playing in the main square. There were lots of people and I sat and watched for an hour or so. After that I stopped at the local Irish Pub as it is one place I am sure I can always here English speaking people. I was correct as there were 3 or 4 tables full of them. After that I headed back to the apartment where the girls had already made it home.****

Today was much of the same. Jennifer went with her boyfriend to see her boyfriend's Grandmother. She apparently had not seen her before. Yana and I went to the grocery story again to stock up on essential snack food. Vita hung around the apartment in her PJ’s. This afternoon Yana and Jennifer went with her boyfriend for a walk and Vita and I went downtown to take in the Opera that we have been talking about. We were unable to do so last Wednesday since we had a late day of paperwork.****

When we got downtown we went to the Opera house and discovered they are not open again until August 7th. We were pretty bummed out as it was something we were looking forward too. Again, I certain hope I am not around when they open again. Vita was a good sport and said maybe next time we are in Odessa. Yes, maybe next time…. *****

After that we went to the park where there always seems to be a band playing. I sat there and listened while Vita had her Picture drawn. The artist did a very good job. Vita was pleased.***

This square is pretty amazing. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people around listening and watching. There were about 5-6 couples dancing to the music and they even played a little Scott Joplin. After this we ate and Mario’s Pizza and purchased some writing items for Vita. We made it home around 9 this evening.****

A little bit about this week. As Angie has posted, our Translator had to go back home so we are without her. Jennifer’s Aunt is going to help with the papers this week. If all goes well, we should have the referrals to get the girls out of their residence tomorrow, get their actual release on Tuesday and get passports Wednesday. We hope to be heading for Kiev on Wednesday night. In Kiev we hope to get medical stuff done and visa by Friday. If all goes well, we might be heading home Saturday. There does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.***

Thanks for all the prayers that you have been sending out way. I was talking with Vita today at dinner and she is ready to come home. I think the other girls are ready too.****


(the rest of us in MO are ready for them to come home too!!)