The Hosford Family's Ukrainian Adoption

Update on us

2011-04-04T21:31:00.012-04:00

Sorry it's been so long since I have blogged. Things are pretty busy around here most days. Here is a long overdue update on our family - it is going to be open and honest because there are things I feel like I am needing to get off my chest.

Things have been pretty rough for us financially. Joe's work (he is in construction) has been SSSLLLLLOOOOOOWWWW for the last two years and that has really hurt us. The other thing that really hurt us is that we made mistakes big time with our finances when he was working a lot. It is hard to admit that, but it's the truth. We lived outside of our means and got caught up in having "things", which is really not what is important. Our house is too big and too expensive, our taxes are too high, etc., etc., etc. We are making due, but I'm not sure how much longer we can go on like this. The problem is with the way the housing market is and the way the economy is, we couldn't sell our house for enough to break even let alone have enough left for a down payment on something else. I don't want the mistakes that we have made to affect our children, so we try very hard to keep things good for them. We are blessed to have family that is way too good to us and I know I could never repay them, not only financially but emotionally what they have given to us. So, our family could use some prayers in this regard.

Now, enough of the negative, on to the best part of my life - my girls!

Morgan - Morgan is doing great! She is approaching the end of second grade with flying colors. She has such a personality and it's great to watch her grow up. She still loves cheerleading and we are actually leaving this weekend for her big competition in Virginia Beach. She is my funny girl and keeps me smiling even when I don't feel like it.

Victoria - Victoria is doing very well. She is happy and healthy. She has decided that soccer is her sport and is looking forward to it starting again this fall. I will break her down into a few categories for a more detailed explanation of how things are with her.

1. Medically - we could not ask for things to be better with her. She is still on the same medications (the ones we started after the allergic reaction to the first ones) and doing great. Her CD4 counts are still very high and her viral load continues to be undetectable. I hope we are able to stick with this medication combination for a while because it is so easy. She only has to take 1 1/2 pills once a day, which she swallows right down, and she has no side effects at all. We have an appointment with a pediatric neurologist on May 2nd. This is basically just to get a base line and see if there are any concerns. Due to Victoria's history (born at 26 weeks, brain bleed at birth, prenatally drug exposed, exposed to HIV for four years without medication) we just want to make sure that we do not overlook anything that would be better off addressed earlier rather than later in life. I will update about that appt. after it happens.

2. Education - Victoria is doing okay with education over all. She has shown progress in many areas, but seems to be struggling a bit now that the concepts are getting harder (using letter sounds to make words, temperature, time, money, etc.). We have talked with her teacher quite a bit and decided that she will repeat kindergarten next year. We are not sure how much is just that she needs more time, how much is because she on the younger side (late July birthday) and how much may be a true learning issue. So, if they see she is still struggling next year they will not wait long to test her and start her with special needs classes if needed. She is going to go to the english as a second language class next year, which I hope will help. It is a smaller class and she will get more attention. To me I feel like she has issues with processing and retention. We can go over and over the same thing for so long and then two minutes later it's like she has never heard it before. Her teacher described her as someone that is not an active thinker. For example if you show her the word cat and ask her what it is she will say something like pig without even thinking about it. But if you ask her what does pig start with she will tell you P. Do you see a P in this word? No. So, can it be pig? No. What letter does it start with? C. What sound does C make? C. Do you hear a C sound in Pig? No. So, the word can't be pig. Why don't you try sounding it out. Oh, it's cat. You physically have to go through the thought process with her to make her think about things. I guess only time will tell how this will all play out.

3. Behavior - This is the hardest thing for me, because it seems like Victoria's behavior is getting worse with time instead of better. Don't get me wrong, it is not anything major. We have all heard the stories of families that deal with RAD, and other similar problems and my heart goes out to them. I thank God that we do not have those types of severe behaviors, but it can still be frustrating at times. Victoria is very bonded to us and is very loving and affectionate. She plays wonderfully with Morgan (they do have the occasional normal "sister" arguements) and is not a bad kid. She just has been lying a lot about things that aren't even really significant, she doesn't follow directions in school and doesn't seem to really even care. Consequences don't seem to mean anything to her. She gets on the traffic light at school a lot and really seems like she could care less. She knows all the right answers when you ask her what she should have been doing, what happens when she misbehaves, etc. but really doesn't care. We have tried taking away toys, time outs, no dessert, early bed time, but she's just like okay whatever (she doesn't actually say that it's just the way it seems to me since nothing really fazes her). We have also tried a reward system for the days when she does behave and follow all the rules, but it never seems to last too long. I don't worry so much about the things that she is doing as a five year old, but what will happen when she is 15 and doesn't care about consequences.

I know things could be much worse for us, but this is where I see the difference in our biological children vs. our adopted child. I know everything that has happened every single day of Morgan's life, so I know what "makes her tick" so to speak. I know how to get her to pay attention when I mean business and she gets it when she is in trouble. It is hard not knowing the first four years of your child's life. It's funny when people ask me about Victoria's HIV. I almost laugh, because her HIV is the least of the things I think about with her.

Avery - oh my sweet, sweet baby! I can't believe she is going to be four months old this week. Where does time go? Avery is generally a very good, happy girl. She is very social and loves to be out and about where she gets lots of attention. She "talks" to all the moms at cheerleading practice. She loves to babble, loves to eat her hands and loves to stick out her tongue. She has rolled over a few times from her stomach to her back and gets about 75% of the way over from her back to her belly. She is big!

We have been so lucky that all of our girls have been very, very healthy. We haven't had more than mild colds the whole school year so far.

So, if anyone has made it this far, your reward is pictures and a little video of Avery "talking".

Morgan finally lost her other front upper tooth - she is now sporting the huge gap in the front look.

Victoria - aka my boy. I joke that Victoria is my "boy" because it seems like she is always getting hurt. It is funny because she loves dresses and sparkly things and baby dolls, but she is rough like a boy. I guess it comes from 4 years of living with mostly boys. She is now sporting the I got in a fight with Mike Tyson aka the corner of the kitchen table look. She whacked the side of her eye (where the red mark is) on the corner of the kitchen table Tuesday night. Wednesday morning she woke up with this beautiful shinner.

Avery - my sweet chunky monkey! I am enjoying every minute of this baby.

Another one found!

2011-03-12T15:28:00.003-05:00

I just found out that sweet Pauline that I just posted about the other day has found her forever family! It doesn't get any better than that.

Pauline

2011-03-10T08:59:00.002-05:00

Meet Pauline!

Isn't she just the sweetest!!!! She will be turning 4 in July and is facing transfer. Click on her picture to learn more about her.

Also, coming soon - an update on us!

Great news!

2011-02-10T13:04:00.001-05:00

Little Vaughn that I posted about two posts down has a family!!!!!

The Boys

2011-02-10T08:03:00.003-05:00

Today I am going to post three children instead of just one. These boys are all in the same orphanage and all have a very, very special place in my heart. These boys were Victoria's "brothers" for four years. She spent every second of every day with them. They are all sweet, playful, funny little boys that desperately need a family.

"Dillon"

"Owen"

"Cole"

Click on the Reece's Rainbow logo on the side of my blog and scroll down to the boys in 5 to read their information. I also have additional pictures of them and some information about their personalities if anyone is interested. There are a few other families that have met them as well that probably have even more pictures.

Vaughn

2011-01-26T10:16:00.004-05:00

This sweet little boy is Vaughn. Please excuse the girl shirt, he is a little boy. He recently lost his adoptive family. He has a $1995 grant toward his adoption. Click on his picture to go to his Reece's Rainbow page for more information on him. There are also other children with HIV available in his orphanage (any child with a 14 next to their name on the Reece's Rainbow HIV page could be adopted with Vaughn).

Advocating

2011-01-19T12:34:00.003-05:00

I have recently taken on the responsibilities as the HIV Family Coordinator and Support Liaison for Reece's Rainbow. This has really started me thinking about my responsibilities to the waiting children and the families that are in the process of adopting.

One thing that I am vowing to do better is to advocate for these children and families. So, I will be doing posts occasionally to introduce either a waiting child or a family in the process. If you feel led to help financially that is always greatly appreciated, but prayer and spreading the word is just as important.

The child I am going to start with is Marat. He is an older boy and doesn't have much time. Please click on his picture to go to the Reece's Rainbow page with his information. He seems like such a smart boy with so much potential!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-26T17:23:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I'm a day late and a dollar short but we had a wonderful Christmas and hope you all did too.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and the pictures I used for my Christmas cards/birth announcements this year.

She's here!

2010-12-09T18:44:00.003-05:00

Avery Lynn entered the world Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 6:22pm. She weighed 8lbs. 14oz. and was 19 1/2 " long. Mom and baby are both doing well and expect to be home by tomorrow afternoon.

In honor of World AIDS Day - Spread Truth, It's contagious

2010-12-01T07:37:00.002-05:00

Click the link below to view Project Hopeful's new video for their Truth Pandemic campaign.

Truth Pandemic

Okay - I'm ready

2010-11-30T07:51:00.002-05:00

I'm more than ready for the baby to be here. I'm not due until December 10, but she has been measuring big all along so hopefully she will make her appearance a little sooner. On ultrasound last Friday she measured an estimated weight of 8lbs. 3 ozs.

I guess technically I'm not completely ready for her to come - I still have some Christmas decorations I'd like to get up and some shopping done before she comes, but physically I'm ready for her to be here. I have enjoyed this pregnancy and it really has gone fast, but now that I'm in the final stretch I'm impatient.

So, anytime you're ready Avery!

Thankful

2010-11-24T21:03:00.002-05:00

It is easy to get caught up in all the negative things in our lives, in all of the things that bother us each day.

I am thankful for a day that makes me pause and truly reflect on the blessings in my life, because when I really think about them it far outweighs the negatives.

I hope all of you have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!

Talking about HIV adoptions for National Adoption month

2010-11-16T23:19:00.003-05:00

November is national adoption month. JCICS did a fact sheet on HIV as the feature for the first day of national adoption month.

Here is the link - HIV Basics

As always, if anyone has questions about adopting or raising a child with HIV I am always happy to try to help.

Vacation - week # 2

2010-11-05T21:40:00.004-04:00

Sunday - Halloween

We hung out at the resort for most of the day. We relaxed, swam, etc. Then in the afternoon we went to Downtown Disney to Trick-or-Treat. It was pretty busy, so we didn't stay long but it served the purpose.

Family Halloween photo - the old lady that offered to take our picture clearly had no idea how to use a camera.

Monday -

Another quite morning at the resort. We headed to Epcot later in the day for rides, characters and the fireworks.

Tuesday -

We went to Magic Kingdom. It was a fun day until the afternoon when it started pooring! We were soaked, but took the opportunity to ride Splash Mountain twice since we were already wet. Morgan has discovered a new favorite ride. This was the first time we had rain since we had been here, so we can't complain.

Wednesday -

We had breakfast at the Polynesian with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. After breakfast we went to the Magic Kingdom again for our last day there. We were able to get in the few things we hadn't done yet and do a few favorites again.

Rapunzel and Flynn Rider from the new movie Tangled.

Thursday -

They were calling for rain again, so we decided to make this a down day. We did go to Downtown Disney for lunch and some shopping, but for the most part spent the day at the resort.

Friday -

We started off at Animal Kingdom. It was much, much cooler today than it has been the whole time we have been here. It was a nice change from the heat and I guess getting us ready for the weather we have waiting for us at home. Morgan tried another first for her - Expedition Everest. It was not her favorite, but she seemed to enjoy the ride.

We had an early dinner at the Grand Floridian with Cinderella, Prince Charming, the stepmother and step sisters. We like this dinner a lot and the characters are always great.

After dinner we went over to the Contemporary for something that was a first for all of us. We did the Pirate and Pals fireworks cruise. We all loved this!!! First you are in a room where they have refreshments and you get to meet Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Then you head out to one of two boats (we were on the Captain Hook boat) where your pirate captain "Patch" takes you out on a cruise of the lagoon. He tells jokes, does Disney trivia, etc. Then you pull up right in front of the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks from the boat. They play the music for the fireworks on the boat too. Then when you arrive back at the dock, Peter Pan is waiting to greet you. It was really fun and a great ending to a wonderful two weeks.

Tomorrow morning we will be up fairly early to finish packing and check out. We are going to make a quick stop at Epcot to ride Soarin' one more time before getting on the road for the long ride home.

I can't believe how fast this time went!!

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday

2010-10-30T19:52:00.004-04:00

Wednesday -

We woke up early and went to Hollywood Studios. We were able to get right in line for Toy Story Mania and also got fast passes for later so we were able to ride it twice. We really like this ride. We watched the Muppets 3D show, the Little Mermaid Show and the Beauty and the Beast show. We also saw a bunch of characters. We ended up going to Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney for dinner and then doing some shopping before heading back to the resort.

Thursday -

We had breakfast at the Grand Floridian with Mary Poppins, Alice, the Mad Hatter, Pooh and Tigger. We spent the day taking it easy at the resort because we knew we'd be out late. We attended Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom at night. It was so cool!!! We decided to do a Toy Story theme for our costumes. Joe and I were Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head (since it was the only costume that I could find that would fit over my 8 month pregnant belly), Morgan was Jessie and Victoria was Bo Peep. We rode some rides, saw some characters and watched the fireworks and parade which were both wonderful!

Friday -

We planned Friday as a down day because we knew we would be out late Thursday night. So, we slept in, did some food shopping and just hung out at the resort.

Saturday -

Today we went to Animal Kingdom. We went on the safari ride, saw the Bugs Life show, watched the Festival of the Lion King, saw some characters and did a few other rides. We are planning to see the Finding Nemo show the next day we go to Animal Kingdom.

We are all having a great time. The weather has been much better the last few days. Almost 10 degrees cooler and no humidity. It's still hot directly in the sun, but there is a nice breeze and it's definitely much more tolerable. I hope this continues for the next week. I am holding up pretty well. My feet seem to be slightly swollen, but other than that I feel pretty good. I'll update again soon with a post that will include Halloween!!!

Let the magic begin

2010-10-26T19:18:00.012-04:00

I'm going to attempt to catch you up on the last few days. I will include only a few of the hundreds of pictures I have taken so far.

We left our house Friday evening after I got home from work. We drove pretty much straight through. We stopped for gas in the middle of the night and then for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in SC for breakfast. Then we stopped for lunch once we were in the Orlando area. The girls did better than I expected on the ride and slept a good amount.

After such a long ride, it was great to see this sign!

We arrived at our resort around 2pm on Saturday, but had to wait until 4pm to check in. We killed time by walking around the resort and checking things out. We are staying at Bonnett Creek. It is a really nice resort with playgrounds, many pools with slides, lazy rivers, etc.

We were all really happy when we finally got into our room. We are staying in a 2 bedroom unit

with 2 baths and a full kitchen. We all got baths and showers, ate some dinner and went to bed!

One half of the kitchen

The girl's bedroom

Mom and Dad's room

Sunday was a quiet day to get ready for the upcoming weeks. We went to Downtown Disney for about an hour to buy autograph books and just look around a little. Then we went food shopping to stock up. We spent a few hours in the lazy river and pool before heading to bed.

Monday we woke up early and headed to the Magic Kingdom!

We had a breakfast reservation with Winnie the Pooh and his friends. We saw Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger.

After breakfast we headed back to Toon Town to wait for it to open so we could see the Fairies. We got back there a little early, so I waited by the Toon Town entrance while Joe took turns riding the race cars with the girls. They both got their "drivers license".

When they were done with the cars they joined me to wait for Toon Town to open. Just before it opened one of the cast members came over and asked the girls if they would like to help Mickey open Toon Town for the day. It was so neat!!! We got to go back with Mickey and we were the only ones in Toon Town. Mickey gave the girls a personal tour of his house and then we got private meet and greets with Mickey and Minnie.

Of course Victoria's eyes are closed in this picture, but the photopass photographer took a ton of pictures of the whole thing so I'm hoping there are some better ones there.

When we were done with Mickey and Minnie, the cast member took us over to the tent where the fairies were and we were first in line to meet the fairies for the day.

We saw Tink, Rosetta and Vidia.

When we were done in Toon Town we went to ride more rides and see some characters.

Today we went to Epcot. It is the Food and Wine festival right now, so needless to say we ate way too much today.

We had breakfast in Norway with the Princesses. We saw Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora and Ariel.

We toured the countries, rode a few rides and saw some more characters.

So far we are having a wonderful trip! The weather is definitely hotter than we expected and they are expecting near record highs for the next few days, but we are dealing with it. We have been staying in the parks too long because we have more days to go back to do anything we missed. Today we were back by 3pm and spent the afternoon in the pool. Victoria is having a great time. She loves the characters and most of the rides. There are a few rides she has been unsure of and she really didn't like Snow White's scary adventures. The next 11 days are going to be so much fun!!!!

Wow, it's been a while

2010-10-21T08:56:00.003-04:00

Wow, sorry it's been so long since I've updated the blog. Things have been busy here with school and sports.

We are leaving tomorrow for Disney World!!! We are all really excited. People thought I was crazy for flying to Ukraine when I was 20 weeks pregnant, I must be completely insane to drive 16 hours and spend two weeks in Disney at 33-35 weeks pregnant! Oh well - it should be memorable at least.

I still feel very well and things have been going great with my pregnancy. I can't believe this baby will be here pretty soon. The girls are very excited to be big sisters.

Morgan has been doing well in school and continues to do cheerleading. Competition season starts in January and we have our first away trip to CT in Feb. That should be fun with a 2 month old.

Victoria is doing great! She had a doctor visit recently and all of her bloodwork is still perfect. She is doing wonderful with her medicine too. She really likes kindergarten a lot. I sat down with her teacher last week to review how she is doing. The teacher says she is well behaved, doing well socially and really seems to be catching up academically. She is definitely delayed in some areas (letter recognition and what sounds they make) but we feel she will catch up. Her retention also isn't the best, but I think it's just because her brain is on overload. After all, she has only been speaking English for about a year. She can count to 20, say her ABCs, spell and write her name, knows her shapes, colors, etc. So, she is definitely getting there. The teacher is going to refer her for a speech evaluation, which I am happy about. Her English is pretty good, but she is sometimes hard to understand. She knows the words for things, but when she is excited has a hard time getting it out clearly. We are going to be seeing a pediatric neurologist soon too. This is mostly just for an evaluation and to get a baseline because of her history. Victoria was born at only 26 weeks and had a brain bleed at birth. She was also prenataly drug exposed and was exposed to HIV untreated for 4 years during important brain development. She has shown slightly increased tone and tends to be pretty clumsy, so it may be that she has a very slight touch of cerebral palsy. Not enough to really notice, but we would like her evaluated anyway incase there are any services that she might benefit from (physical therapy, etc.).

Victoria's favorite thing right now is soccer! She is doing really well. She is very fast (probably because she is taller than everyone on her team and her legs are longer) and is getting better and better at handling the ball. She scored three goals in one game a few weeks ago and had another goal this past weekend.

I am going to try to post as much as I can from Disney (and to include pictures). Meanwhile, here are a few pictures from soccer.

Please read this!

2010-09-22T20:41:00.004-04:00

Please follow this link to Adeye's blog post about Yulia!

If you can, please post this to your blogs, facebook, twitter, etc.

Thanks!

First day of school, first day of school...I love the first day of school

2010-09-07T09:48:00.004-04:00

Actually, that is a line from the movie Finding Nemo, and I don't really agree with him. I am not one of those parents that can't wait for school to start again. I enjoy having my kids home with me and don't really look forward to sending them off to school. But, of course I don't have a choice and the first day of school has arrived.

It is strange to me to have two children in school this year. Morgan is starting 2nd grade and Victoria is starting kindergarten. Victoria seemed very excited about school, so we'll see how she makes out. She goes for a half day, so I'll be picking her up at 11:25am. I'm not totally convinced that she was ready to start kindergarten, but I spoke with her teacher a few weeks ago about my concerns and we're going to keep in close contact with each other. If she has to do two years of kindergarten I am okay with that, but she may catch up by the end of the year.

Can it possibly be true????

2010-09-05T15:27:00.002-04:00

How can it possibly be true that this picture was taken 7 years ago??? How do children grow up so fast?

This is my sweet Morgan the day she was born, 7 years ago today.

This is the funny, beautiful, smart, loving, wonderful girl she is today. I cherish every minute of the 7 years I have known her so far and look forward to all the minutes that we have yet to spend together.

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY MORGAN!!!!!!

First post placement report

2010-08-20T15:03:00.002-04:00

I can hardly believe it is time for me to be doing my first post placement report for Victoria. August 10, 2009 we stood in a court room in Kyiv, Ukraine and officially "gave birth" to our second daughter.

I will be mailing the report out this weekend. While I'm sure it will get harder to fill out each year, I feel like there is so much for me to include on this years report. One section is titled "New accomplishments/achievements". Wow, where do I start. Everything she has done this past year has been a new accomplishment/achievement. It is nice to go through each section of this report and truly see how far she has come in this last year.

Party!!!!

2010-08-09T09:59:00.005-04:00

Well, I arrived home from Ukraine Thursday night and pretty much crashed as soon as I walked through the door. I spent all day Friday (before leaving for work Friday evening) running around trying to get ready for Victoria's birthday party.

I kept the party small and it was very nice. Victoria had a great time!

Here are a few pictures from Victoria's very first birthday party!!!!

The newest Whites

2010-08-01T12:37:00.004-04:00

I wanted to post a few pictures of the newest members of the White family. They are, of course, the reason I am here. I am so blessed to be able to meet these sweet angels. I can't wait to watch them grow in their family and really blossom and flourish.

This is Peyton. He just turned 3 in July. He is so, so cute. I have been in love with this boy ever since I met him last summer. He was happily drinking out of a water bottle and licking his lip when I snapped this picture.

This is Jessa. She will be turning two at the end of August. She is such a squishy love. I just love to hold her. She is so happy and has the cutest little laugh.

This is Amelia (Mimi). She will be one the middle of September. She is the most content little baby. I just loved watching her stare up into her Mommy's eyes while she was drinking her bottle.

Isn't it wonderful that these children will know the love of a family. A few more days little ones and you will be home where you belong.

One year ago today

2010-07-31T11:56:00.005-04:00

One year ago today we met Victoria for the first time. It is so surreal to me to be here in the same place today. I will never forget the moment when we were all sitting in the director's office at the orphanage and they brought this shy little girl in to meet us. It is amazing to see how far she has come in the past year. It has really shown me being here just how far she has really come.

This is the very first picture I took of her and Morgan together when we met her on July 31, 2009. Victoria is so serious and unsure about what is going on.

I compare that to this picture I took on her birthday a little over a week ago. She is so happy and really has a light in her eyes.

This picture is from two days ago at the orphanage visit. I took the boys a few little trucks and some cookies. I just love these boys. They are such boys one minute and then the second you sit down they just jump on your lap and want to be held.

Today we went to Shevchenko Park. Shevchenko Park was my saving grace for the last week or so when we had Victoria with us in the apartment. My mom and I took her there every day. We ate lunch in the restaurant there and I had the mushroom soup and deruny (potato pancakes) that I have been craving. We got to go with another family that is adopting an HIV+ little girl and is in Kiev on the tail end of their trip. They are actually finished, they are just waiting for their flight home. They were so great. The little girl, Irina, is such a delight. She is almost 9 years old. We got to spend time with her, her mom and her big sister Amy. Amy is going to be the best big sister ever to Irina. I can't wait to see her at home with her family and how she will blossom.

This is the back of a statue of Taras Shevchenko looking at the "Red University" or more formally Taras Shevchenko University.

The outside of the restaurant. It is so, so charming inside.

Just a cute little thing in the park.

The kids

2010-07-28T14:34:00.005-04:00

We took the Metro to the orphanage this morning for a visit. It was kind of rainy so they had all the kids under their little play huts. As soon as we walked in I saw the kids from Victoria's groupa. I was happy to see that one of the caregivers I knew from last summer that speaks pretty good English was with the group. I went over to say hi and showed her some pictures of Victoria. She was very happy to see the pictures. One of the little boys, Kolya, that Victoria talks about a lot looked at the pictures and asked where she was. The caregiver explained that she was home with her Daddy and sister, but he obviously remembered her. As I was walking away I waived goodbye and that same little boy blew me a kiss! Break my heart!!!

Here are the kids. The little girl in the picture (Zoya) has a family that is here now completing their process and she will be going home next week!

Sherry got the tax ID #s for the kids taken care of today and will be taking them for their passports tomorrow! Things are moving along.

Morgan this picture is for you - this is the very, very long escalator Mommy has to take down to the Metro and then back up when we are coming back. Do you think you could do this one???

I'm here and well

2010-07-27T13:52:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. I arrived in Kiev safely on Sunday afternoon. Monday morning we went to the orphanage and I got to meet all of Sherry's precious babies! They are the sweetest children. I didn't get to see Victoria's groupa, but we will be there again tomorrow so hopefully then. I did get to see the director and say hi and he was very happy about how well Victoria is doing.

We spent the day today picking up new birth certificates and applying to change the tax ID numbers. We hope to apply for passports tomorrow. Keep Sherry and her children in your prayers that there will be no bumps in the road and people will be willing to do their jobs (that is not always the case here).

Sorry, no pictures on today's post, but now that I have mobile internet at the apartment I'll try to make sure to get some posted tomorrow.

It's A .........

2010-07-23T22:13:00.003-04:00

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today, and as you can see it will be girl #3 for us! We are all so excited, but I think Morgan might be the most excited. Everything checked out very well, except that the baby is measuring about a week big for my due date. My cycles are very irregular, so we had an early ultrasound done which is what they based my due date on. Now, based on this ultrasound they think the earlier one may have been off a bit. I am going to have another ultrasound at next month's appt. for more measurements and if the little one is still measuring big they will probably move my due date up about a week. Not really a big deal. Morgan was almost a week late anyway, so give or take a week doesn't make much of a difference.

I leave tomorrow around lunch time for Ukraine!!! I'm so excited. I am scheduled to arrive in Kiev at around 1:15pm (their time) on Sunday. I'll post as soon as I can.

Happy 5th Birthday Victoria

2010-07-20T14:30:00.004-04:00

Today Victoria turns 5 years old! It is hard for me to think of her five years ago today. In a hospital in Ukraine, born 14 weeks too early, weighing only 2lbs. 1 oz. No one to hold her or love her. I compare that to the day Morgan was born and so many friends and family couldn't wait to come and see her. To hold her, to love her, bringing presents, carrying on about the new baby. Every child deserves that.

Even though today is Victoria's 5th birthday, it is the first one she is celebrating. When you are in an orphanage a birthday is not something to celebrate. The older you get the worse off things are for you. You move from the baby house to the internat and then eventually to the streets. I am so, so glad that from now on birthdays will be a happy occasion.

We went out to lunch and Victoria was more than happy to be the center of attention. She was smiling ear to ear and so happy. We are having her birthday party in a few weeks after my trip to Ukraine, so I will be sure to post pictures of that too. Victoria is looking forward to that a lot, but today we celebrated with presents from Mommy, Daddy and Morgan, a special lunch for the birthday girl and a very, very big piece of chocolate cake. She was loving her birthday hat too (it has five candles on the top).

Back to Ukraine!!!!......and beach fun

2010-07-15T13:53:00.003-04:00

Saturday, July 24th I will be boarding a plane headed for Kiev, Ukraine! I am so excited. I am flying out to help another adoptive mother bring her 3 new babies home. She adopted 3 children under 3 from the same orphanage Victoria was in. I am so excited to be able to see the kids from Victoria's groupa again. It is also very surreal because it will be almost exactly a year to the day that we left for Ukraine last July (we left July 28th last year).

On another non related note - here are a few pictures from the beach on Monday.

Victoria actually went in the water this time AND LIKED IT!!!!

Morgan could spend all day finding and playing with the sand crabs

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-04T16:41:00.002-04:00

I have a secret

2010-07-02T17:33:00.002-04:00

Okay, so it's not really a secret - I just haven't announced it here yet.

Our family is going to be growing again!!!

I always thought that any future children would come through adoption, but God had other plans for us.

I am 17 weeks pregnant. The girls are super excited to be big sisters and Joe and I are thrilled. My due date is December 10.

Great questions

2010-06-27T11:50:00.002-04:00

I had a comment left on my last post that asked some great questions, so I wanted to answer them so that everyone could see the answers.

Ok some questions that have come up today (not from me, but I dont have answers, so I figured Id ask and pass the word along): What happens when a person with HIV is sexually active- will an undetectable viral load protect her partner? Can you get HIV from throw up? (The question was, what happens if your kid throws up, and you clean it up as most moms would...)If they shouldnt share toothbrushes, does the same go for anything that goes in their mouth- utensils, share food, share drinks, etc? I know you cant get it from saliva, but couldnt there still be a risk if a toothbrush is a risk?If you can get it from "other" bodily fluids, what about through mucous from the nose, or a sneeze?Again, these were asked directed towards me, and I didnt have an answer, perhaps you might? Thanks again for your openness with this subject

For the first question about the risk when a person with an undetectable viral load is sexually active, here is a good recent article that was published (thanks to Bethany from Positively Orphaned for posting this on her blog) - http://www.aidsbeacon.com/news/2010/06/10/study-confirms-that-antiretroviral-therapy-significantly-cuts-risk-of-hiv-transmission/
Even with the reduced risk of transmission we will talk to Victoria about always having safe sex. This will be something that her and her husband will have to discuss and will hopefully be able to make a decision as adults about what is best for them. We would suggest that when she is ready to have a baby they use artificial insemenation, but again this will be up to them.

No, you can not get HIV from throw up. The virus is only found in blood, breast milk, vaginal secretions and semen. It is not found in bodily fluids such as urine, mucus, vomit, feces, etc. So, even though it is gross, there is no risk of cleaning up your child's throw up (and I have had to do it).

The issue about the toothbrushes is really more of a precaution because gums tend to bleed. Even then there would have to be a significant amount of blood on the toothbrush and would have to be used within seconds by another person with bloody gums (the HIV virus dies very quickly outside of the body). With an undetectable viral load this is not something we worry about, but we take these precautions just to be responsible. So, yes, they can share things like utensils, food, drinks, etc. Although, with our children we prefer they don't share these things anyway just because of germs in general. We don't want them to share these things with people outside of our house, so we teach it here so that it is easier for them.

Again, HIV is not found in bodily fluids such as mucus, so a sneeze or cough is no risk.

With an undetectable viral load the amount of virus present in the person's blood is so low it is not even detected on blood tests. They will always be HIV+ because they carry the antibodies, but the risk of transmission in normal every day settings is really non existent. We take minor precautions because it is the responsible thing to do, but we really do not panic about things or make a big deal about it. I wipe boogie noses and poopy butts and clean up throw up, just like any other mother.

Thanks for asking these questions! I hope more people ask the questions they have.

Living with HIV

2010-06-24T11:27:00.005-04:00

This post is long overdue. I am asked quite often by parents considering adopting a child with HIV as well as people that are just curious what it is like to raise a child with HIV.

Honestly, our lives are not that much different than any other family. The only real difference is that Victoria has to see her doctor every 3 months and take medication each day.

This is what our doctor visits are like -

Before we leave for the doctor we put on Victoria's "magic" cream. It is a lidocane cream that numbs the skin where her blood will be drawn.

Then we cover this area with a clear plastic like what they use to hold an IV in, so that the cream doesn't get on her clothes.

We love everyone at the doctor's office from the secretaries, to the social workers, to the nurses, to the doctors. Victoria is very at ease with them and never gets upset to go to her appointment. They always have a little something for her - this visit it was a new book.

They talk to us about any questions or concerns, ask how everything is going and then they do the blood draw. Victoria is so good for this and just sits really still. Sometimes she even helps with putting the tubes in to draw the blood.

A pretty bandaid and the doctor visit is over.

The next question I get asked is about medication. As many of you know that read my blog, we had a scare with Victoria having an allergic reaction to one of the first medicines we tried. Thankfully we have found a great combination now. In just over a month of being on these meds Victoria's viral load was undetectable. She also has absolutely no side effects up to this point.

Victoria's medicine is very easy for us. She only has to take 1 1/2 pills once a day and she can swallow pills just fine, so it really only takes about 30 seconds out of our day for her to take her medicine. She takes it at dinner time, so if we are going to be out I just bring the pills with us and she takes them when it is time.

This is Viramune - Victoria takes 1 pill of this medicine

This orange pill is Epzicom - Victoria takes 1/2 of this pill each day

This is what I put on the table each night for her with a drink. For a while we were putting the 1/2 of the orange tab into a capsule to make it easier to swallow (so there was no exposed medicine on the end), but lately Victoria has been just taking it like this.

I get asked a lot about the cost of the medications. This is probably different for every person because of different insurance coverage, etc. It will also depend on what medications and how many your child is on. For us, we are lucky to have pretty good prescription coverage. Our copay for one month supply of Viramune is $47.77. However, the company that makes Viramune has a copay assistance program (as do most of the manufactures of HIV meds) that covers up to $50/month out of pocket copay. It is a card that looks like a credit card that you swipe at the pharmacy. The card is good for one year. So, what this means for us is that for at least a year we will pay nothing out of pocket for her Viramune. We have not had to fill a prescription for her Epzicom yet because our doctor has been able to give us sample bottles that they had in their office. When we do have to fill the prescription, the maker of Epzicom offers the same type of copay assistance. Since Victoria only takes 1/2 pill per day the copay should be less each month because we only need 15 pills instead of 30. Obviously at some point in the future we may have to change medications or dosages, so this may change.

The other common question I get is what type of precautions do we take. With Victoria's viral load being undetectable even contact with her blood makes the risk of transmission next to nothing. However, since we do know she is HIV +, we are responsible about it and do take some minor precautions. Our children do everything together that any other siblings do. The only thing we are careful about is that they don't share a toothbrush (because your gums can bleed) and when they are old enough they will not share razors (for obvious reasons). If Victoria does get a cut or scratch we make sure to cover it with a bandaid until it scabs. We do have "emergency" kits that we keep on each level of our house, in our cars and one in my purse for when we're out.

This is our kit - I bought a few of these travel size make up kits at the store.

They have a few pairs of gloves, bandaids, antibacterial wipes, waterless antiseptic, a few different size guaze pads and tape (in case of anything big that the bandaid won't cover) and a few plastic baggies to dispose of anything with blood on it.

Of all these things, the only thing that is on a daily basis is Victoria's medication. I would have to say that the hardest part of raising a child with HIV is disclosure. Who to tell, when to tell, etc. We have been pretty open about Victoria's status (my blog is public of course) and all of our close friends and family have been very accepting and wonderful. I know things will get more complicated as Victoria gets older, but we will just take it one day at a time.

If anyone has any questions, I am happy to answer!

Beach trip

2010-06-11T14:09:00.004-04:00

About a month ago we went to North Carolina to celebrate my youngest sister's college graduation, and Victoria got to experience her first trip to the beach. She didn't love the water (okay, she really wanted nothing to do with it), but she did have fun playing in the sand and building a sand castle. We only live about an hour from some of the beaches here in NJ (no, not the one from Jersey shore - we are more southern), so hopefully after some more trips this summer Victoria will enjoy the ocean more.

The girls with Aunt Amanada, Aunt Stacey and friend Anna.

New look

2010-05-16T10:33:00.003-04:00

I have finally got around to updating the look of our blog. Victoria has been home for 8 months, so I guess the blog was not really about our journey to bring home our daughter from Ukraine anymore. I am leaving our adoption time line in the side because I know that can be helpful for other families adopting. I still want to promote adoption and advocate for the adoption of children with HIV, so I want everyone to know that I am still more than happy to answer questions about adoption. If we are ever lucky enough to be able to adopt again in the future, our blog will be used to journal that journey again.

I mainly want our blog to be used to show how normal our life is living with HIV. We do the same things as other families and Victoria is just like any other 4 year old.

Bad blogger

2010-05-11T21:24:00.002-04:00

I have been very bad at keeping the blog updated and I'm sorry! My desktop has some kind of virus and I haven't had a chance to take it over to get fixed yet. I have been using my laptop, which is really just a net book, so it is slow and frustrating to do much more than check emails.

I want to give the blog a new look, so that will be coming soon I hope. I also have a few posts I have wanted to do about things like school, what it means for Victoria living with HIV at this point, Victoria's first trip to the beach and some other news I have to share. So, hopefully in the next few days or so I will be able to get some of that accomplished.

To the anonymous poster that left a comment on my last post - I did leave a comment back, but I'm not sure if you saw it. You did not leave a name or any contact information, but I would be happy to speak with you about adopting a child with HIV if you want to email me at jhosford0818@yahoo.com.

Ahhhh......spring!!!!!

2010-04-06T09:07:00.006-04:00

After a long and snowy winter, spring has finally arrived. It brought with it some of my favorite things.

Like trips to the zoo...

(where we encountered possibly the ugliest chicken ever)

(I'm not sure what's up with the strange face Victoria is making)

And sisters having fun playing at the park outside of the zoo

And girls driving each other up and down the driveway pretending they are going shopping, or to a friend's house, or off on some great adventure - but knowing their adventure can not drive any further than the last telephone pole down the driveway before they have to turn around and return home.

And brightly colored Easter eggs in baskets

And sweet little girls in pretty Easter dresses

(Morgan had to make sure to get her strange face in too)

And sitting out by the water fishing with Daddy

And the joy of a little girl catching her very first fish

Welcome Spring!

6 months home

2010-03-16T09:12:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was 6 months since Victoria came home. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. I know everyone says that, but it really is unbelievable. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were putting together our dossier and stressing about paperwork. Victoria has really amazed us at how well she has bonded and adjusted. She fits right in like she was always here. We do have our moments, but I would say most of them are just 4 year old moments and nothing to do with the fact that she is adopted. For the most part she is a happy, loving, funny little girl.

She went swimming for the first time two weekends ago. Since she came home in the middle of Sept. swimming weather was about over for the year. We stayed in a hotel for Morgan's cheerleading competition in Washington D.C., so she got to try out the pool there. It is really fun getting to watch her experience all these firsts. She was scared at first and held on tight to Joe's neck, but eventually she calmed down a bit. She still wouldn't let him get too far, but she did okay.

Victoria likes to cheer her big sister on at her cheerleading competitions. She doesn't love sitting in the stands for too long, but she does like watching Morgan compete. She goes back and forth about if she wants to be a cheerleader too next year.

Morgan and Victoria love to play dress up together. They will go into the basement (where the playroom is) and take turns dressing each other up. Then they come up the stairs and introduce each other and we have to clap and take pictures of the "model". It is cute to see how they dress each other up - each one has to let the other pick the outfit for them.

UNDETECTABLE!!!!!!

2010-02-25T10:04:00.002-05:00

The doctor's office called me with the results of Victoria's blood work from Monday. Her viral load is UNDETECTABLE! I am so excited about this. While I knew that this is the ultimate goal with medication, I didn't expect it to be so soon. Victoria hadn't even been on the full dose of medicine for two weeks when we had her blood drawn on Monday, so I didn't expect this type of result until at least the next set of blood work. Needless to say, I am so, so happy! This medication that Victoria is on has been great. It is a very easy regimine and she has had absolutely no side effects!

It's confirmed

2010-02-23T23:22:00.002-05:00

Victoria only has one kidney. I was pretty confident that this information was correct because we felt that she actually received pretty good medical care in Ukraine, but it was nice to have it confirmed (via ultrasound). I have heard many stories of parents that find all kind of false or missing information in their child's medical history once they come home. So far, everything we were told in Ukraine has been correct.

Victoria only has her left kidney. It is larger than a normal kidney, but they say this is what it is supposed to do since it is doing the work of what two would normally do. The ureter that leads from the kidney to the bladder looks completely normal too. We have an appt. with the nephrologist on March 5 to go over the results of the ultrasound in more detail and to form a plan of how they want to follow her.

We also stopped by the pediatric infectious disease doctor's office to have some blood work done. They are going to call me with the results.

I am planning on doing a post coming up (including pictures) about Victoria's medicine routine. I think I might wait until we see the doctor again on March 22 though, so that I can include some pictures of her at their office to show what that visit entails too. I think it might give a better example of exactly what living with HIV means for our family.

All is well

2010-02-12T19:07:00.001-05:00

We completed the first two weeks on the 1/2 dose of Victoria's medication and are 3 days into the full dose, and all is well. Victoria shows no signs at all of any side effects to this medication. She is her normal (although a bit crazy) self. She has a normal appetite, no stomach complaints, no fatigue and no jaundice.

The next test will be when she has her bloodwork drawn on the 22nd. This will tell us if the medicine is working as it should. Hopefully we will see that her viral load has gone down and that this medicine is working. I am praying that this will be the case because after the first set of medicine this seems too good to be true. As long as the bloodwork comes back okay, it looks like we have found a combination that is working and something that Victoria could be on for a long time.

We also have an appt. for Victoria to have a renal ultrasound on the 22nd before we go over for her bloodwork. Then on March 5th she will be seeing the Pediatric Nephrologist. This is all just to evaluate her kidney (because she was born with only one) and make sure it is functioning normally. We have no reason to think that she will have any kidney related issues, but especially because of the medication she is on, we want to see the nephrologist. They will decide how often she needs to be seen and I would also like to discuss if there are any precautions we should take with things like sports, etc. We are thinking about signing her up for spring soccer!

Isn't she just the sweetest!!!

2010-01-28T13:42:00.003-05:00

As many adoptive parents that adopt children that aren't infants know, any baby or younger pictures of your child are a rare treasure. We did not meet Victoria until 10 days after she turned four. However, we are blessed with a few photos of her when she was younger.

The first one is the photo that was in her file at the SDA. This is the photo we were shown at our appt. We knew it was probably about 3 years old, but just looking at this picture melted out hearts. I think she is probably just over a year here. The SDA allowed us to take this picture from her file since we replaced it with a recent one.

The quality is bad because it is scanned from a picture that was printed on regular paper, but you can still see how cute she is.

This next picture was taken on 10/16/07, when Victoria was 2 years 2 1/2 months old. I found it when I googled the name of her orphanage. It is a picture of Victoria with Miss Universe, who was visiting the orphanage as part of an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in Ukraine. There are a few other really cute pictures of Victoria from this same day that have a copyright watermark on them. I emailed the person whose website I found them on the other day to see if they would email me the images without the copyright. Hopefully I'll hear back from them. I am going to take these pictures somewhere and see if I can have something done with them so I can frame them and hang them up.

On more current news - it's only been one day, but so far so good! Victoria is her normal, happy, energetic self today. Hopefully it will continue this way.

Fingers crossed

2010-01-27T18:09:00.001-05:00

Victoria took her first dose of her new medicine tonight at dinner. She swallowed both pills like it was nothing, so at least we don't have to worry about that part. Now it is just a waiting game to see if she has any side effects and how her body tolerates the new meds. So far, so good - but it hasn't been that long.

Fingers crossed...........

Awesome raffle - please take a look!

2010-01-25T14:24:00.002-05:00

The White family is currently holding a raffle to raise money for the adoption of their two precious little girls. They are adopting two little girls with Down syndrome from the same orphanage Victoria was in. The prizes for this raffle are really, really great and tickets are only $10 each. Please visit their blog and purchase a ticket if you can. You can have a part in helping these girls get home. Here is their blog address - http://whitesadoptionjourney.blogspot.com

Next week

2010-01-21T08:55:00.003-05:00

We will be starting Victoria's new medicine next Wednesday. I'm praying it goes well.

Victoria went back to the doctor on Monday and the antibiotics are doing their job. The bump on her face is all but gone and does not hurt her at all anymore. We are going to finish out the dose of antibiotics (this weekend) and then give her a few days before starting her new medicine on Wednesday. I talked to her about her medicine and that she will have to take it every day. I showed her the pills and explained to her that she would take them at dinner time. She is okay with it and told me she will just swallow them like a big girl. We'll see if that holds true when Wednesday comes around.

Well, I asked for direction....

2010-01-14T22:36:00.002-05:00

and I got it.

We were not supposed to go to the doctor until Monday, but we ended up having to go see them today. Victoria developed a pretty big, swollen, hard lump right at the top of her jaw just in front of her left ear. She has no fever, no pain in her ears, in her mouth and is not complaining of anything except that it hurts when you touch it. She actually flinches when you touch it, so it must be pretty painful. The doctor can not be completely sure by just looking at it if it is a lymph node or her salivary gland, but either way it is inflammed and infected. So, she is on a course of antibiotics for 10 days.

So, this is my answer. We need to medicate. Victoria's body is showing us signs that exposure to this chronic virus is taking some affect on her. I am so thankful that it is something so, so minor but enough to tell me that medication is definitely the best choice.

We are going to keep a once a day medication regiment, but this time will give it to her at dinner time. I am hoping this way any side effects or ill feelings she has will be at bed time and she can sleep it off and feel good in the morning. I am praying that there will be no side effects this time, but we'll do whatever we can to make them as easy on her as possible. We are actually keeping one of the same meds that she was on before and just adding a new one. The new one she will start off at 1/2 tablet per day for 14 days and then go up to the full tablet. This tapering of the medicine will hopefully help her adjust slowly.

We are still going to the doctor's on Monday because they want to look at her face again and make sure the antibiotics are working. We will also talk about exactly when we will be starting this new course of medicine. I'm not sure if they will have us wait until she is done the antibiotics or start it right away.

I am thanking God tonight that He gave me an answer to my problem, but that He did it gently enough to not be too serious of a health issue for Victoria.

Back to the doctor

2010-01-05T20:20:00.002-05:00

I made Victoria's next appt. for January 18. We will discuss our options about medication with the doctor at this visit.

I am so torn about what to do. Victoria is so healthy right now. Her CD4 counts are great and her viral load is very low. If we were following the adult treatment recommendations, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be starting treatment for a while. That is an option. The problem is that I have read that long term exposure to HIV left untreated can cause neurological damage. I have also read that the earlier treatment is started the less likely the chances the person will develop AIDS. I obviously want to give my little girl every chance to be as healthy as possible, but I am scared about what starting new meds will mean for her. She had such a rough time last time and I don't want to see her go through that again.

We are going to wait to talk to the doctors before we make a decision. It has just been on my mind a lot lately and now that the appt. is scheduled I know a decision will have to be made soon. I'm praying for clarity and direction and that we will make the decision that is best for Victoria.

Merry Christmas (and catching up a bit)

2009-12-26T12:49:00.005-05:00

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

We had a wonderful day. Victoria loved her first Christmas and was so excited all day. She wasn't too thrilled when we came in at 7:30am to wake her up (Morgan couldn't wait any more), but once she saw the gifts she was okay. When I was putting her to bed last night I asked her if she had a nice day and she said she was happy that all the people were here and about all the presents. She asked as I was closing the door - Mom, Santa comin more? I think she wanted to wake up again today and have more presents. I told her she would have to wait until next year, but I know she doesn't understand that.

Victoria also loved her first snow fall here in America. The girls had a lot of fun playing outside. We also baked cookies, had hot chocolate, made a gingerbread house, etc. We've really had a wonderful week.

Baking cookies the morning it was snowing with my Mom and youngest sister who is home from college for the holidays

Our pathetic little gingerbread house (that colapsed about 2 minutes later)

Playing in the snow in the front yard

Sledding down the hill Daddy made in the front yard (perfect size for 4 and 6 year olds)

Their snow man

The girls' Christmas tree (decorated almost 100% by themselves)

Our little blue and silver tree (it looked bigger in the field)

Our gigantic red and gold tree (it looked much smaller in the field - LOL) There is an angel on the top, but she is up in the stairway opening so you can't see her (good thing we have another set of steps to get upstairs)

Christmas Eve before church

Christmas morning

Meeting the Big Guy

2009-12-14T11:09:00.003-05:00

We took the girls to see Santa on Saturday. Victoria sat right on his lap and told him a few things she wanted. She told him the one thing which she has been saying over and over that she wants, which is a phone - go figure. The other things she mostly repeated what Morgan was saying.

Then after we were done, as we were walking away she looked up at me with almost teary eyes and said "where's the presents". Poor thing! We have been telling her about how Santa will bring her presents and so she expected that after she saw him and told him what she wanted that he would give it to her right then and there - LOL. I had to explain that she was just telling him so he knew what she wanted and now he would go back to the North Pole and get the gifts together and bring them to her house on Christmas.

It is so special to "re-experience" the holidays for the first time through her eyes.

Here is the picture (it is scanned, so the quality isn't too great).

Christmas cards sent

2009-12-11T14:11:00.005-05:00

I finally sent my Christmas cards! I am usually one of those people that mails them out the first few days of December, so I feel like I'm running behind this year. I usually have Morgan's pictures done professionally and send out really nice cards. This year I cut it back a little. The cards are still nice, but I decided to just take the pictures myself. Victoria is so shy around strangers still that I thought I would be wasting my money to try and get their pictures done. I will wait a few months and then take them.

We went to Longwood Gardens a couple weekends ago and I am using some pictures from that day for the cards. There were a lot that I liked, but these are the ones I used for the cards.

** People tell me a lot that the girls look alike. I noticed in these pictures that they even act alike - notice their hands in some of the pictures. I never told them to hold their hands, but they both do exactly the same thing.

A wonderful weekend of firsts

2009-12-07T08:40:00.007-05:00

We had an awesome weekend!

On Saturday Joe took Victoria to get her ears pierced while I had Morgan at cheerleading practice. She was so excited. She had been asking to get her ears pierced and he said she did really well. She didn't even cry. We had warned her ahead of time that it would hurt and she told me "it little bit ouch", but otherwise was okay. She now has very pretty ruby earrings (her birthstone).

But, Sunday was the really big day of our weekend. We started out bright and early for a girl's day in New York City. It was me and the girls, along with their cousin Kayla and her mom and their friend Ava and her mom. All four of them are pretty close in age (from 4 to 6). We took the train, and it was Victoria's first train ride. We went up to go see the new Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog, which comes out this Friday. They had preshowings for the last few weeks in New York and Los Angeles. This was Victoria's first time seeing a movie in the movie theater. She really enjoyed the movie (we all did). After the movie, they had what was called the "Ultimate Disney Experience". It was at the Roseland Ballroom and it was a lot of fun. They had a play area, a craft area (all themed like the movie), and best of all meet and greets with all of the disney princesses (including the new princess from the movie Princess Tiana). This was Victoria's first time meeting the princesses and she had a wonderful time. Cinderella was her favorite.

After all of that we grabbed something to eat and then went to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree and of course had to stop in American Girl (since it is just about right across the street from Rockefeller Center). Morgan loves American Girl and Victoria did too. She wanted everything in the store of course - LOL.

Everyone was really tired after a long wonderful day, so we headed back to the train station to come home. Then, to top it all off, when we got home Morgan lost her very first tooth!!! Because, after a day like that it only seemed fitting that a fairy come to visit our house.

Outside of the movie at Ziegfeld Theater (Morgan on the left in the off white coat, Victoria on the right in the maroon coat)

Tiana

Aurora

Mulan

Cinderella

Snow White

Belle

Pocahontas

Jasmine

Ariel

Me and the girls in front of the tree at Rockefeller Center (not the best picture as I was trying to hold both of them up and all of my bags - LOL)

Outside of American Girl

Sisters

2009-12-03T09:52:00.002-05:00

I sat down last week on Thanksgiving to try to write a post about what I am thankful for. As I sat here, I was a little overwhelmed by it all and just couldn't find the right words. I could have written pages of things to be thankful for, but I couldn't sum it all up in a way that would do justice to the joy that my heart feels. We are blessed beyond measure and I feel that especially this year. I thank God every day for these two wonderful girls He has given me.

When I took these pictures the other day I realized they sum up perfectly what I am thankful for.

World AIDS Day

2009-12-01T11:55:00.001-05:00

Today is World AIDS Day. My heart has been touched by orphans with HIV. I made a little video of some orphans in Eastern Europe that are HIV positive. Not all of the children in the video are available for adoption, but many of them are. If you see a child that you want more information on, please let me know and I will try to point you in the right direction.

** Mute the music on my blog before playing the video.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Straight A's

2009-11-24T18:26:00.002-05:00

Morgan got her first real report card today (since Kindergarten doesn't really count) and she got all A's! I am really, really proud of her. Her teacher said she is a pleasure to have in class and she is doing very well. It's nice to hear that with all that has happened in her world in the last few months that she is still a happy, well adjusted child that is doing well in school.

Thank you all

2009-11-13T16:45:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to say thank you all for the prayers and well wishes for Victoria.

I did want to stress that Victoria is in no pain at all. She is mildly itchy but it seems to be under control with the prednisone and some benadryl before bed. She is actually back to her old self as far as energy, being happy and her appetite. The week on the medicine was bad, but the last few days (other than the rash) have really been good for her.

While it is extremely hard for me to see my baby girl like this, I really have to give a lot of credit to our wonderful medical team for helping me get through this. I am able to stay calm for her and help her get through all of this because of their support and reassurance. I also truly feel that they care about Victoria which makes me know that they really have her best interests in mind. You don't always find that with doctors, so we are really blessed. They even called first thing this morning to see how she was doing.

So, between the medical team, my friends, family and the prayers and support of my online friends, we are all getting through all of this without too much stress!

Doing better

2009-11-13T13:34:00.003-05:00

It seems the prednisone is doing it's job and Victoria is looking much better today. None of the rash has gone away yet, but there isn't any more either. It is also much less red and swollen looking than it was yesterday. It was actually starting to look like it was going to blister, but doesn't look like that anymore. Her face especially is much better.

Here are a few pictures I took this morning (and this is probably about 50% better than it looked yesterday)

Hospital visit

2009-11-12T20:50:00.003-05:00

Well, we spent about 4 hours of our day today in the ER with Victoria.

She woke up this morning and her rash was 100x worse than it was yesterday. I called the pediatric infectious disease doctor's office. Unfortunately, one of the doctors was off and the other one was seeing patients at a different location about an hour from where we usually go. Because of this, they told me to take her into the ER. Our doctor called ahead for us and also called Dermatology to come down and look at her. The concern was that she could have a severe drug reaction called Stevens Johnson syndrome, which can be fatal.

Thank God, after seeing the dermatologist, he does not feel that she has Stevens Johnson syndrome. He feels it is a very severe case of Erythema Multiforme, which can present very similar to Stevens Johnson when it is this bad. The difference is that none of her mucous membranes are affected which is good news. I won't go into Stevens Johnson too much, but I did read about it and it is very scary so I am so very thankful that they do not think this is what Victoria has.

Victoria has been such a champ through all of this. She is feeling really good since stopping the meds but is a little itchy from the rash. The dermatologist gave us a prescription for prednisone. They gave her a dose in the hospital and I think her rash already looks somewhat better. It isn't going away, but it doesn't look as red and swollen. Hopefully the prednisone will do the trick and will stop the progression. We have a follow up visit with dermatology on Tuesday.

The doctor that was off today did come in to see us in the ER. She is hoping that we will be able to find a better drug combination for Victoria and that she will tolerate it much better. Since it looks like most of her symptoms were related to the allergic reaction and not necessarily side effects, if we can find something she isn't allergic to we hope she will not deal with the same symptoms. Some of the nurses and social workers from the group also came over to the ER from the office (across the street from the hospital) with Oreo's, coloring books, crayons, books, etc. for Victoria. They are so great there and really take good care of us!!!!

Victoria really impressed the ER staff when she popped the prednisone pill like it was nothing! It was only a fraction of the size of the other pills she had been taking, so no biggy! She really is an amazing, amazing child. She takes everything in stride.

So, prayers that she is finally on the mend from all of this and that this past week will be history that will not repeat itself.

Well, it sounded like a good plan

2009-11-11T18:16:00.003-05:00

Taking medicine at dinner time sounded like a good plan, but it looks like we won't be able to try it for a while.

Victoria woke up this morning covered from head to toe in an awful looking rash. Of course I called the pediatric infectious disease doctor and they told me to bring her in right away. The rash (most likely erythema multiforme) can been seen as a reaction to certain drugs including sulfa drugs, which is what Reyataz (one of the two drugs she was on) is. This rash along with her other symptoms over the week of occasional vomitting, severe malaise and hyperbilirubinemia (she is yellow from a build up of bilirubin in her blood caused by the drug not letting her body break it down like it normally would) leads us to think that this is an allergic reaction to the drug rather than just side effects.

So, we have been advised to stop all of her medications right away. We are going to give her about 10 days to 2 weeks to get all of it out of her system and to get back to feeling herself. At that point we will re-evaluate what medicines we are going to try. It looks like Reyataz was causing all of this, so I'm not sure if we will continue with the Epzicom when we restart or try something different. We will definitely be trying a different protease inhibitor (what Reyataz is) with a completely different chemical make-up to try to avoid any bad reactions.

Victoria's doctor feels strongly that in order for patients to maintain long term compliance with their HIV meds, that it needs to be something that just becomes part of their daily routine. If it is causing her so much trouble that she is sick all time and not herself, then it is not what we want. We will find the right combination for her.

We do know that she can swallow pills now though, so we can keep that in mind when choosing the next drug combination. I also hope we can keep with a once a day regimine, but we'll see. If we can do it once a day, we will start with giving them at dinner time like we had planned to try with these meds. For the next couple of weeks though Victoria doesn't have to take any medicine and she is happy about that! She was already back to her cheerful, talkative, crazy self today (well, other than the awful looking rash).

Trying new things

2009-11-10T18:45:00.002-05:00

Well, it seems like the pill swallowing is working. Victoria doesn't love it, but she does get them down. It sometimes takes her a few tries, but it is still much better than when I was mixing them with things. The capsules are easier for her, so I am also crushing the 1/2 pill and pouring the powder into empty capsules for her to swallow.

The side effects are still pretty bad. She didn't throw up Thurs, Fri, Sat or Sun. but then did again yesterday. Nothing today, so hopefully it means she is adjusting. The other thing that has been bad is that usually about a few hours after she takes her meds she gets extremely tired. And I mean like can't even move tired. Of course I am letting her take a nap, but if she were in school there would be no way she could function. She is usually better after her nap and okay until bed time.

What we are going to try is giving the meds at dinner time instead of breakfast. This way hopefully she will get to her very tired, sick feeling time right around bed time. Then if she can sleep it off during the night and wake up feeling better hopefully she can have better days. I'm really praying this will work because the poor thing has not been herself for the last week. Since the pill swallowing is going pretty good, I think if we can get the side effects under control Victoria will be much better.

On another, happier note - Victoria went to her first tumbling class at the gym where Morgan cheers on Monday evening and she loved it!!! I'm a bad Mom and didn't have my camera, but I'll try to remember next week so I can take some pictures. She watches Morgan at cheerleading practice and has been asking me if she could do cheerleading. I don't think she is ready for competition cheerleading yet (maybe next year), but the tumbling class is something she can do. Victoria and Morgan are doing it together with a few other little girls, and she really seems to like being with the other kids.

Good news and bad news

2009-11-05T21:04:00.002-05:00

First, I want to start off by saying I'm sorry that my last two posts have not been very pleasant and for all of the talk of throwing up.

Now, the good news - we had no throwing up today!!! So, hopefully that will not be a topic that I have to post too much about any more.

The bad news - taking the medicine this morning was not as easy as I had hoped it would be. But, we got it down and that is the most important part. It is only day 3 and I know that as time goes on it will get easier and become more of a routine. We have a few other things to try to see what works best. We'll figure it out.

My poor, sweet little girl

2009-11-04T21:09:00.004-05:00

What a day.

It started off with me trying to give Victoria her medicine. I crushed the one pill and put it into a few spoonfuls of chocolate pudding and opened the two capsules and put them into another bowl of pudding. I started with the bowl with just the one pill and she fought me the whole time. It took well over 1/2 hour of screaming, crying, gagging, dry heaving, etc. to get just the few spoonfuls down. When that was over I looked at the second bowl and almost wanted to cry. I didn't know how I was going to get her to eat that bowl. So, I took out two of the capsules (of the same medicine that was in the second bowl) and put them in front of her with a cup of milk. I told her if she could swallow them she wouldn't have to eat any more yuckies. Well, didn't she pick up the first capsule, take a big drink of milk - gone. Second capsule, big drink of milk - gone! I couldn't believe it. To think I traumatized her over nothing. So, tomorrow morning we will be trying the pills again with a cup of milk. The pill might be a little harder to swallow than the capsules, so I may have to cut it into smaller pieces, but if she can swallow it our mornings will be so much easier.

Then, she seemed much better during the morning than yesterday. We went to get her H1N1 shot and she did great (I did cheat and put some EMLA cream on her arm before we went so it wouldn't hurt so much). We came home, ate lunch, her and Morgan played - everything seemed good.

At 2:30pm she had her dentist appt. This poor, scared little girl layed in that chair and had 5 cavities filled without so much as a few little moans. She is amazing!!! I could tell she was worked up because she was breathing heavy and her heart was beating a little fast, but she took it like a trooper.

Because she did so good I told her we could stop at Target and get her a new My Little Pony. Well, as we were walking toward the check out she threw up all over the floor! I could tell people were looking at me like she must have some kind of awful, deadly virus (well, I guess technically she does - but you know what I mean) and that I must be a terrible Mom for taking my child out while she was sick. I don't know if she threw up as a side effect from her meds or from everything else she had done today. It was after 3:30pm, so I really don't think it was the meds. I don't know. She was better again after she threw up and ate all of her dinner fine. Well, she didn't eat much steak because it hurt to chew, but she ate all her broccoli and a few helpings of mashed potatoes. I called from work to check in and she was singing in the background while I was talking to Joe. He said she was happy and playing, but did say her teeth hurt a little - gee, you think?

Tomorrow we just get to be home and relax, so we'll see how she does. She is exhausted and needs a good day to rest up. Hopefully we won't have any throwing up tomorrow. It is so hard to explain to her that she has to take her medicine so she won't get sick, but in her mind the medicine is making her sick. How do you explain that to a 4 year old.

And, after all that - after putting her through all that - she still hugged me tight, told me she loved me and was upset when I was leaving for work this evening. This little girl is so, so amazing!

Medication

2009-11-03T21:36:00.003-05:00

Well, we started Victoria on her meds this morning and it was not great.

She will be taking medication once a day (which is really nice) and has to take two capsules and a half of a pill. We started this morning at breakfast. We crush the pill and open the capsules and added the powder to yogurt (we will also use things like pudding, applesauce, etc.). I only mixed the medicine with about half of the yogurt in a separate bowl, so she could still eat the rest of the yogurt normal. She said it tasted yucky, but took it without too much complaint. She is taking Reyataz and Epzicom.

Then about 1 1/2 hours later she started complaining about her stomach hurting and just before lunch she told me she wanted to lay down. I put her in bed and less than 2 minutes later she came out and told me that her mouth spilled in her bed. It was so sweet. She doesn't have the words to tell me she threw up, so it was the only way she knew to explain to me what happened. We cleaned up her and her bed and gave her a nice bath. Then she fell asleep on the couch while I made lunch. I woke her up to eat and she did eat all of her lunch. After lunch she was much better.

I called the Dr's office to tell them she threw up and they said it was okay because it had been about 3 hours since she had the medicine, so most of it should have been absorbed. We are going to see how she does tomorrow, but if she throws up again we may try giving her meds at dinner. This way she has more food in her stomach from the day, so hopefully won't feel as bad or throw up.

The side effects of the medicine usually last for a few weeks while the body adjusts to them, so say a prayer for Victoria that she won't feel too bad during this time. I hope her little body adjusts quickly and these meds work well for her so we don't have to change.

Also, Victoria is getting her H1N1 shot tomorrow and has her first dentist appt. She has been saying her teeth hurt and I know she has cavities, so that isn't going to be fun either. I think she also has to get the 2nd dose of her regular flu shot this week, but maybe we can hold off until next week for that. She has a lot going on this week. Hopefully she won't hate me when it's all over with.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T19:09:00.004-04:00

Morgan and Victoria had a great time trick-or-treating. Victoria really enjoyed her first Halloween. She was so cute going up to all of the doors. At one house the lady said "bye" as the girls were walking away and Victoria said "bye - I miss you". I always say "bye - I'll miss you, I love you" when I am leaving for work and Victoria repeats it. It was really cute. The lady laughed.

Here are some pictures of my princesses. Morgan was Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Victoria was Cinderella.

The President lifts the HIV travel ban

2009-10-30T17:26:00.003-04:00

Today is a good day. A law was signed today that will end (after a 60 day waiting period) the HIV travel and immigration ban. This means people adopting HIV+ children will no longer have to get a special waiver in order for them to get a visa. While this waiver was not a very big deal in the long run, it did mean having to get letters from our doctor, insurance company, board of health, an extra 5 days in Ukraine and an extra $545 for the actual waiver fee. This is now one less thing to stop people from adopting these precious children!

Has it really been this long???

2009-10-19T19:10:00.004-04:00

I can't believe it is already over a month since we have been home. My family leave is over and I am returning to work tomorrow. I am lucky that I work part time and in the evening, so I will still be home with Victoria during the day. I am also very blessed that I work with such wonderful, understanding, supportive people that are very flexible with me. My first week back my hours will be a little different to catch back up after being off for 3 months, but after that I will probably go in after dinner. This way I am home with Victoria during the day and then will still be able to spend a few hours with Morgan after school to do homework and eat dinner. I have every Monday off too (I work six hours a night Tues.-Fri.). Joe will be home with the girls at night, so hopefully it won't be too much of an adjustment for Victoria. There have been a few times that I have gone out and she stayed home with Joe and she has been fine, so I think everything will be okay.

I am going to leave you with a few pictures from last Monday (Columbus Day). It was a cool fall day and Morgan had off from school so we went to a little zoo not too far from us. Morgan calls it the monkey zoo. They do have other animals, but the majority of them are different kinds of monkeys. There are tubes that go into their cages and you can buy food to put in the tubes to feed them. They are very funny and definitely have an opinion about what you put in their tubes. It is really neat to get to "interact" with the monkeys and both girls really had fun. The spider monkeys are my favorite because they have such long arms that they just reach out of their cage and take the food right out of your hand (fruit loops are their favorite).

Feeding the Giraffe

I just love this guy

Sitting at the bottom of his tube with his popcorn

This is how they drove home (well some of the way at least - Victoria is a ham)

Doctor visit

2009-10-06T16:14:00.002-04:00

Our appointment with the pediatric infectious disease doctor yesterday went well. We reviewed the results of all of Victoria's blood work and things look very good. Victoria's viral load is lower than we thought, her immune system is strong and functioning normally and it looks like based on the genotyping that our options for medications are good. The genotype testing takes Victoria's blood and tests it individually with each HIV medication available to see which ones will work best for her. The good news is that she does not have any resistancy to any of the drugs and the virus responded well to all of the medications. This means we will have much more to choose from when starting medication.

Since all of the results were so good, our doctor's felt we did not have to rush to start medications. The plan is to give Victoria another month of being home and adjusting to her new life and family. Once we start medications there is no going back. We have to be completely committed to it and it has to become part of our daily routine. Since medicine is not something that children usually love, our doctor doesn't want us to become the bad guy (aka medicine giver) just yet. We go back on November 2. At that visit they will have 2-3 different options for us to review. We will decide which will be best for us based on how many times a day we have to give medications, how many different medications, pills vs. liquid, what we can mix things with, etc.

I had a comment where someone asked if Victoria had been on medication in Ukraine, and I wanted to address that. To answer this question - no, Victoria was not medicated. They did do blood work on her every 3-6 months and because all of her tests kept coming back okay they did not start treatment. She also only has one kidney, so they were cautious about starting anything that might damage her kidney. We are actually grateful that they did not medicate her. If she wasn't so healthy I would have wanted her medicated, but because she has never been on medication she does not have any resistancy to anything. This is good because it gives us more options. It is also good because we can make sure she is also followed by the pediatric nephrologist so that we don't do any damage to her kidney.

I also wanted to clarify that some children with HIV in Ukraine are being treated. There were some children in Victoria's group that were on medication and some that weren't. Victoria was in a good orphanage where they had access to blood tests and good medications, not all of them do. I don't know exactly how the process works, but I would imagine children that are sick or have weakened immune systems or high viral loads are treated. Sometimes the medication is good, sometimes they have to use what they have or have to lower dosages to make it go farther. That may not always be the best choice, but it is what's available.

There is also some debate with children that have not yet been medicated and are doing well with whether or not to start medication. Once you start medication it is a long term committment because if you stop it gives the virus a chance to build resistance to the drugs and then they aren't as effective. If a child in the US is born with HIV they always start treatment, but with adopted children that have been medicated yet it is a decision that has to be made. After discussing things with our doctors, we feel that starting medication is the best decision for us. Victoria is healthy and I would like to keep her that way. The other thing that helped make our decision is that there is evidence that long term exposure to the virus can cause some issues with brain development. We feel like Victoria has enough going against her with being so premature, being drug exposed and being in an orphanage for 4 years that we don't want to add to that list of things that could hinder her brain development.

On that note - I have had a lot of questions about what we plan to do about school. This post is already pretty long, but I promise to do a post in the near future with some answers about school.

Sesame Place (and an update)

2009-10-04T17:32:00.004-04:00

The weather was beautiful today, so we took the girls to Sesame Place. They were all set up for Halloween and the characters were even wearing their costumes.

Victoria loved it!!!! She was not scared of the characters at all and she loved the rides. I can tell she is going to be my little dare devil, which is completely opposite of Morgan. Maybe I will actually have someone to ride the Tower of Terror at Disney with me now (my favorite ride). She did have trouble understanding the waiting in line and having to get off the ride when it was over, but I think most 4 year olds do.

Now that we have been home almost 3 weeks, this is how things have been. Morgan is slowly adjusting to having a little sister around. Each day they play better and better together. Victoria's English is also improving every day. The only word she really still says in Russian is spasiba instead of thank you. She is eating great. She likes just about everything. She is a little picky with vegetables, but not too bad. Victoria is also sleeping really, really well. I only rock her for about 10-15 minutes before bed and then she asks to get in her bed. She seems to like her bed and doesn't have any problem sleeping in it by herself. I turn on some music for her and she is usually asleep within 5-10 minutes from when I lay her down. She goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until about 8:00am. I don't want to make it seem like everything is perfect, but it is really better than we expected. Of course we have our issues and we are all still adjusting, but overall things have been going great. As hard as it was to be away from home for 7 weeks, I really feel that time we spent there has helped our adjustment. Victoria got to know us on her "turf" where she was comfortable and learned that she could trust us before we left, so I think that has really helped.

We go see the pediatric infectious disease again tomorrow morning to get the results of all of Victoria's blood work and I think we might be starting medications from there. Other than that, Victoria is doing really well. Her visit with the regular pediatrician went well and they said she is very healthy. She is in the 97% for height and 75% for weight, which is really impressive after being in an orphanage for 4 years (and also only being just over 2lbs. at birth). I'll update after our visit tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from today -

Cookie Monster as a clown

Ernie and Bert as a scarecrow and a crow

Mommy doesn't do the teacups!

Skeleton Elmo

Morgan

Victoria

One week home

2009-09-22T09:29:00.005-04:00

Tonight will mark one week since Victoria has been home. It has been an exciting week for all of us. The first two days were hard on me with the jet lag, but by Friday I was feeling good again. Victoria seems to be adjusting well and is picking up more and more English each day. She seems to understand almost everything we say, and she is working on the words she needs to communicate with us. Morgan is very patient with Victoria and is very excited to be a big sister. I pray that their relationship will continue to grow and that they will become not only sisters but great friends. It is definitely an adjustment for all of us and we are working through what it means to have a new little person in our home, but we are very happy and feel very blessed.

Victoria's appointment with the pediatric infectious disease doctor went very well. I really, really love this group! I can't say enough good things about them and they seemed equally as impressed with Victoria. She was such a trooper with all of the blood drawing and she just sat very calm and quite while they examed her from head to toe. We go back in 3 weeks to review the results of all the blood work and discuss what medications we will be starting. We will also be seeing the regular pediatrician on Thursday.

Here are a few pictures I took yesterday (I am putting together my adoption announcements).

Victoria is an American!

2009-09-17T08:15:00.002-04:00

We finally arrived home around 10pm Tuesday night after a long day of travel. Victoria only had a few minor melt downs on the plane, but other than that travelled well.

She has been slowly adjusting to her new home. She is sleeping pretty well. She is waking up a little earlier than I'd like, but at least she sleeps during the night. She was very scared of the dogs the first night, but now will not leave them alone. It is going to take some time for us all to get used to the new family dynamics, but we are happy and together!

Victoria has her first doctor's appointment this afternoon. I will update with how that went when I can.

I will also add some pictures soon, and a longer post about everything when I have more time.

I can't believe we are all finally together!!! It is such an answer to prayers.

We're coming home!!!

2009-09-15T02:58:00.002-04:00

Have to run - the cab's on the way, but our waiver was approved!!!!

We are picking up Victoria's visa on the way to the airport! We will be home tonight.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Prayers needed

2009-09-14T08:18:00.002-04:00

Well, it is now 3:15pm here and we still don't have Victoria's visa. The Embassy is still waiting for the approval from the USCIS in Moscow. We still have a few hours today and a few hours in the morning tomorrow and we could still make our flight. If we don't get it I guess I will have to change my flights again. Most likely my Mom will go home, but it looks like the next flight Victoria and I could get on would not be until Thursday.

Please pray that we get this visa!!!!

On top of things

2009-09-11T07:13:00.003-04:00

I have been very, very impressed with the US Embassy here in Kiev. They are very on top of things. I received a phone call before 9am to let me know that they had the part of the waiver back from the CDC and would be forwarding to the USCIS in Moscow. They said there was a chance that we would have the visa before the end of the day today. If not it will be Monday. That will work perfectly for us to make our flight on Tuesday!

Victoria's first trip to the zoo

2009-09-10T13:27:00.003-04:00

It was a beautiful day in Kiev, so we took Victoria to the zoo.

She really liked looking at the animals, but she DID NOT like the petting zoo at all!!!! I think the animals were definitely better to her behind the safety of the fences. The ones in the petting zoo were much too close for comfort for her. She really, really liked the rides that they have (no different then her sister Morgan).

On waiver news - I got a phone call while we were at the zoo from the US Embassy that they had confirmation that the CDC had received our waiver. They expected to get the CDC's part back by late today or early tomorrow. I did not get another call, so I am assuming they will get it tomorrow. They said they will forward it to the USCIS in Moscow (the "local" office for Ukraine) as soon as they have it back from the CDC. I received an email from the USCIS that they would process our waiver as soon as they had it. So, so far so good. If the CDC gets their answer back to the Embassy tomorrow it should also get to the USCIS tomorrow. Please pray that everything goes quickly!!! I really would like to have our visa in hand Monday so I'm not stressing about missing our flight on Tuesday!

Here are a few pictures from today (I won't post any animal pictures since I did that in my earlier zoo post from when we took Morgan)

New departure date

2009-09-09T12:19:00.003-04:00

Well, we changed our return tickets to Tuesday, Sept.15. I also purchased Victoria a ticket. Of course they only had business class available unless we wanted to wait until the end of next week, so although it is costing much more than I had hoped, Victoria will travel to the US in style!

Please say a prayer that we have Victoria's visa by Monday or early Tuesday at the latest. The few people that I have had contact with that went through the waiver process in Ukraine recently had their visas pretty quick. I hope the same is true for us. Sept. 15 will be 7 weeks from when I left home, so I am more than ready to get home! I really like it here, but I miss home and my family more than I like it here.

We are planning on taking Victoria to the zoo tomorrow, so stay tuned for pictures!

We're getting there

2009-09-08T12:09:00.003-04:00

We finally got Victoria's passport this afternoon. It was too late to go for her medical exam though, so we will be doing that first thing tomorrow morning. After her medical exam is done we will head to the US Embassy to apply for her visa and start the waiver process. If we did not have to get the waiver, we would be able to fly home as scheduled on the 10th. Unfortunately, it would probably be a miracle if we have the visa by Friday. I was really hoping to fly out this weekend, but it looks like it won't be until early next week. We'll see what happens - it never hurts to pray!

Victoria's first few days with us have been mixed. She is a handful when we are in the apartment. She has to be occupied at all times and she is into everything!!!! She has been sleeping well though and usually sleeps from about 9pm to 8 am! She is very, very good when we are out, so we have been doing a lot of walking. There is a very nice park not too far from us, so we spend a lot of time there. She plays on the playground and they also have ponies there every day that you can pay to ride. It is about $2.50/ride, so it is well worth it. Victoria really, really loves the ponies.

I'll leave you with a few pictures and I will keep the blog updated with our progress the next few days.

This is Victoria with the orphanage director the day she was leaving the orphanage. He is holding a book about New Jersey that we gave him to show him where Victoria is going to live.

Happy Birthday Morgan!!!!

2009-09-05T01:43:00.002-04:00

Happy 6th birthday to my oldest daughter (I like that I can say that now because I have 2).

Today my Morgan turns 6. Mommy is so, so sorry that she can not be there with you today. I can't wait until we are home and can all celebrate as a family. You are the best daughter a mom could ask for. You are beautiful, funny, sweet and so, so special to me. I can not put into words how much I love you my precious girl!

I can't believe it has been 6 years since you were born. Where does the time go?????

I am counting the days until I am with you again. Enjoy your day.

Love, Mommy

A very productive day

2009-09-03T14:00:00.002-04:00

We started early this morning and didn't get back until about 6:30pm.

We got the birth certificate authenticated, got the tax ID number, went to the bank, started the passport process and best of all PICKED UP VICTORIA!!!!

We have her with us! She is doing pretty good. She is so curious and into everything! She did have a small melt down when we got to the apartment but after a bath seems to be okay.

Thank you all for the prayers. Things couldn't have gone better today. We should pick up the passport Monday afternoon or early Tuesday morning and then will be headed for her medical and to the embassy to start the waiver process for the visa! Keep the prayers coming. I would like to be out of here the weekend of Sept.12. We will also need prayers that the adjustment with Victoria goes well and that this next week goes fast. This apartment is small!!!

The paper chase begins

2009-09-02T13:01:00.002-04:00

We picked up the court decree this afternoon and were also able to get Victoria's new birth certificate (with her new name). Tomorrow we will take the birth certificate for legalization and then go to apply for her name to be changed for her tax ID number. From what I understand this is similar to a SS# in the US. In order to get a passport issued with her new name the name associated with the tax ID number needs to be changed from her old name to her new name.

Please pray that things with this paperwork go smoothly. You have to complete one step before you can proceed to the next, so if we have delays with one thing it will affect the rest of the process. So far things are going well, but my facilitator says it could take up to 3 business days to get the tax ID number changed and then another 3 business days to get the passport. If this is the case it would mean we would get the tax ID # on Monday then passport on Thursday. This means I would not be able to start the US Embassy process until the end of next week and most likely would not be home until the end of the following week. I am praying that we might be able to get these things taken care of more quickly so that I can get home sooner.

I will keep you posted with our progress and more news of when we will be picking up Victoria from the orphanage.

The 10 day wait is over

2009-08-30T13:35:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was day 10 of our wait, so our court decree officially goes into effect today. We can't pick up the decree until Wednesday afternoon, but it still feels good to be able to say the wait is over. I guess this means Victoria is officially our daughter (although she has been to us since the day we met her). We will start the running around for the last leg of paperwork on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, depending on what time we have the court decree in our hands. We most likely will be taking Victoria out of the orphanage on Monday, Sept.7th. I'll let you know for sure when we know.

Victoria is doing well. She is really picking up a lot of English words. She likes me to sing the ABCs and already knows up to G by herself, then she chimes in with a few random letters here and there. I am very impressed. She knows that she is going in an airplane and points up to the sky when one goes over head.

I am going to post a few random pictures from the last week or so.

Our first family photo - taken in the afternoon of court. It's not the best, but we're all together!

Victoria and MomMom

My Mom and I had a sightseeing day earlier in the week. We went to St. Sophia's, St. Michael's and St. Andrew's Cathedrals as well as did some shopping. This is St. Andrew's.

We visited an open air museum the other day. It is a very large outdoor area set up with villages that represent the history of different regions of Ukraine. It was very interesting and I'm glad we got to see it. Here are a few pictures.

Happy Independence Day Ukraine

2009-08-24T14:22:00.002-04:00

Today Ukraine celebrated it's Independence Day, so Happy Independence Day or whatever they say here in Ukraine!

I haven't blogged much, but I wanted to give you a quick update. My visits with Victoria continue to go well. She is very smart and is picking up quite a few English words already. She will also repeat anything I say, so we have been counting to ten and naming things around the orphanage.

Joe and Morgan left for home on Thursday morning. It was sad to see them go. I will miss them very much these next few weeks. They made it home safely after a very long day of travel with quite a long delay at the airport here in Kiev. I did okay with them not here other than the fact that my power was out for 16 hours that day.

My Mom arrived in Kiev on Saturday to spend the rest of my trip with me. She has adjusted well to being here and seems to be enjoying herself. Victoria took right to her and gave her a big hug and kiss which I know my Mom loved.

We are about half way through our ten day wait. Our eleventh day is a Sunday though and here in Kiev you can only pick up court decrees on Weds. and Fri. So, we will pick up our court decree on Weds. Sept.2. Once we have that we can start the paper chase for birth certificates, tax ID, passport and then on to the US Embassy for Victoria's medical, waiver and finally visa. Then we can leave. We most likely will not make our scheduled flight of Thurs. Sept. 10, but hope to be out by that weekend.

Until we can pick up the court decree on the 2nd there isn't anything we can do except for visit with Victoria and be tourists here in Kiev. Tomorrow we are planning a tourist day to see some of the sights here in the city center and do some souvenier shopping.

I am still enjoying my time here, but do miss home. Especially since Joe and Morgan left.

I'll try to post some new pictures in the next few days.

Marked with an 8

2009-08-19T08:19:00.004-04:00

She currently resides at the Berizka orphanage in Kiev, Ukraine. She has lived here since September 13, 2005. She lives with 12 other children in room number 8. All of their clothes, down to their underwear, are marked with an 8. Nothing belongs to them and they belong to noone. These precious little souls that are so deserving of something and someone.

She was born on July 20, 2005 to a woman that had been an IV drug user for at least 7 years at the time of her birth. She was born when this woman was only 26 weeks pregnant. She was considered a miscarriage, they didn't even give her APGAR scores. She weighed only 990 grams (2lbs.1oz.). She was born with a hole in her heart, with one kidney, testing positive for both Hepatitis C and HIV. She needed a machine to breath for her and she developed a brain bleed, as many preemies do.

BUT she was given a name that means victory; conquer. And conquer she did. She beat all the odds. The hole in her heart is completely closed, her one kidney is strong and fully functioning, the bleeding in her brain stopped and left no long term effects. She does NOT have Hepatitis C, she only had the antibodies from her mother's blood. She does have HIV, but her levels have remained consistent and she is healthy and thriving.

Today she is a beautiful, spunky four year old girl. Today she became a daughter, a sister, a grand daughter, a niece, a cousin, a cherished member of our family.

Today she became Victoria Lynn Hosford.

Court tomorrow.

2009-08-18T00:28:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the biggest day for us here in Ukraine. It is our court date. It is the day when if all goes well our family will officially grow. Please pray that everything goes smooth and that the judge determines that Victoria should be part of our family.

Also, today is my Dad's birthday and mine and Joe's 8th anniversary. Happy Birthday Dad! Morgan says she can't wait to see you on Thursday Stinker! We love you and miss you. Happy Anniversary to a wonderful husband and the best father a girl could ask for! I can't believe it's been 8 years of marriage already.

Day at the zoo.

2009-08-14T11:16:00.007-04:00

Victoria had doctor visits and blood work today, so we decided to take advantage of the absolutely beautiful weather and go to the zoo here in Kiev. It was a very nice day. We got to see a lot of animals and they have a fun little area with children's rides where Morgan had a lot of fun.

I really missed Victoria today and can't wait to see her tomorrow. I really can't wait until she can go places with us as a family. There is so much for her to experience and I can't wait to see her learn about the world outside of the orphanage walls.

Here are a few pictures from our day -

This is a little baby horse of some sort - don't worry he/she was just taking a rest.

They had a cute little petting zoo area

These two younger tigers were really fun to watch playing

There was a big ferris wheel in the zoo - this is the view from up there

I felt really bad for the monkey's at the zoo -they definitely had the worst enclosures and living conditions

Court date

2009-08-12T14:31:00.002-04:00

We finally found out today that our court date will be next Wednesday, August 19. This is just in time for Joe and Morgan to make their flight out on the 20th!

I don't think I will be able to come home as scheduled on Sept. 10th though. If court goes as scheduled our 10 day wait will be over on the 30th. Usually you can pick your court decree up on the 11th day. However, our 11th day will be the 31st which is a Sunday. It wouldn't be too bad if we were in another region because we could just pick it up on Monday, but in Kiev you can only pick up court decrees on Wed. and Fri. afternoons. So, it looks like we will have to wait until Wed. Sept. 3. We can't get the new birth certificate and passport started until we have the court decree and I'm not sure how long passports take to get in Kiev, but it is probably longer than everywhere else. Once we have all of that I can start the embassy stuff (medicals and visa) which will take at least a week because of the I-601 waiver. I also have to factor in Labor Day when the US Embassy will be closed.

Hopefully I won't be home too much after my scheduled return. I guess I probably won't really know until after the 10 day wait. For now, things are going well with Victoria and we have a court date, so all is good!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!!!!!

2009-08-12T03:15:00.002-04:00

Today is my sister Amanda's birthday! I can not begin to tell you how much help she has been to us throughout this process. She is the one currently staying at our house and caring for all of our animals. For those of you that know us, you know what an huge task that is. For those of you that don't - it includes caring for 6 dogs, a cat and fish! I'm pretty sure any other person in their right mind would have laughed at us when we asked them to take care of our pets for at least 3 weeks (hopefully not longer). But Amanda always helps us without even blinking (well, I'm sure she curses us in private but at least to us she says yes with a smile). We could not be here if it were not for Amanda. We love you and miss you! I hope you have a very Happy Birthday! You really derserve the best.

On adoption related news - my facilitator is meeting this afternoon with the judge that will be doing our adoption court. Hopefully today she will know when our court date is and hopefully it will be before Joe and Morgan are scheduled to fly home next Thursday! I'll let you know when we find out.

Much better afternoon

2009-08-09T15:07:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to let you know that our afternoon visit with Victoria went much, much better than the morning. Again, we expect a wide range of emotions and behaviors, so we try not to go with any expectations of how the visit will go. After this morning I wasn't sure, but we were pleasantly surprised at how pleasant and sweet she was. So, we had a lovely afternoon.

After our visit we went to a place called Arizona BBQ for dinner. It was pretty good. It is not too far from our apartment, but it is down the hill from where we are staying (when I say down the hill-I mean a really, really big hill). There is a thing called the funicular that takes you up the hill. Well, we walked from the restaurant to the funicular to ride it up (it isn't a far walk to our apartment once you get off at the top) and it was broken down!! So, we walked up what felt like at least 1,000 steps to get to the top of the hill! Morgan was such a trooper and didn't complain once - she was even cheering on Joe and I. The Ukrainian's must have been cracking up at us fat out of shape Americans as the women were all traversing the steps with no problem in their 4 inch high heels. Thank goodness it wasn't hot out!!!

Anyway, we made it home a little out of breath but other wise okay. I am headed to bed now - I'll be sure to update if we hear anything about court.

A beautiful Sunday in Kiev

2009-08-09T06:48:00.002-04:00

After a cool and rainy day yesterday we woke up to a beautiful day today. It is in the 70's and very sunny with a slight breeze. The weather couldn't be better.

Our morning visit with Victoria on the other hand could have been better. It started off well, but then she starting getting pretty hyper. She wants to be spun around and rough house a lot. When we tried to calm her down a little she starting hitting Joe. I know it is mostly from being bored and frustrated because we can not communicate well. She is used to doing the same thing over and over for 4 years and now we have broken that routine. I'm sure she just doesn't know what to do with herself. She is so excited to have someone paying attention to just her that she seems to get carried away. It is hard too, because you know everyone is watching you. We ended up cutting our visit a little short so that she could get back to her groupa and calm down. She is very, very well behaved in the groupa and with her caregivers, so I know things will get better. Yesterday was great though because she gave me a few kisses without me even asking. Don't worry though, we are not discouraged. We know there is going to be a whole range of emotions that we all will go through and we know it it going to take time. We are going back this afternoon and hopefully things will go better.

After we left the orphanage we came back to our apartment. We decided to try some authentic Ukrainian food for lunch, so we went to a little cafeteria type place near us. I had some borsch and it was so good I had a second cup. After lunch Joe and Morgan went to a park while I went to St. Sophia's cathedral. It is breath taking. You can not take pictures of the inside so I am going to have to buy one of the book about the cathedrals here. I'm sure pictures would not do it justice anyway. I met Joe and Morgan at the park when I was done and we spent some time there.

We are now at our apartment for a little while before going back to the orphanage for our afternoon visit.

On another note, could I please ask for prayers for the orphans in Simferopol (which is where we were supposed to go)? We found out that things there have gotten bad again and it doesn't look like there are adoptions happening. I know that we are where we are meant to be, but my heart still breaks for the children there that may have lost their chance at finding a family. There is another family I know that was supposed to go to the same orphanage and they have also had to accept a referral for another little girl. They are also happy with their decision, but still sad for the little girl that they had thought would be theirs.

Our paperwork was submitted to the court on Friday, so hopefully I will have news on a court date tomorrow. I'll let you know.

We're still okay

2009-08-06T11:59:00.009-04:00

We're all still here and doing well.

Our visits with Victoria are going well. The communication is hard. We have picked up some of her words and she has picked up some of our words, but we can't really talk to her to see how she is really feeling. Right now we are just some people that come to play with her each day and bring new toys. We are all getting along though, so everything is good. She will soon learn all about having a family. She has spent 4 years in the orphanage, so it will be exciting to see her learn all about the world outside of the orphanage grounds.

We got the official approval from the SDA on our request to adopt Victoria today. My facilitator will take that to the judge in our region tomorrow. Hopefully we will know when our court date will be scheduled soon. It will be nice if Joe and Morgan could make their flight, but we will see.

There is a coffee shop a few corners down from us and Morgan really likes their ice cream. She had cherry earlier in the week and today she had strawberry. It is very good. We also got to go food shopping yesterday, so we have cooked the last few meals in our apartment. We haven't had any problems with the food here though or ordering when we are out. Some places have English on the menus and others we just point and nod. The people laugh at us sometimes, but they definitely do much better with their English than I do with my Russian or Ukrainian. We have been eating very American since we have been here. We have a pizza/pasta place very close to us that has good food and we had lunch on Tuesday at TGI Fridays with a few other adoptive couples from America. That was very nice. It has been really nice to get to know some other adoptive families and to talk English to people.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our apartment, some of the sights of Kiev and a few teasers of Victoria (where you can't see her face - because we haven't had court yet I am not suppose to post pictures publicly).

The bedroom

Please excuse the mess - we weren't sure if we were staying when I took this so we hadn't unpacked yet

The living room (and Joe's bedroom - he has been sleeping on the couch and Morgan and I share the bed)

Our kitchen

The bathroom - and yes, we have plenty of hot water for showers!

Washing machine - very handy now that we know how to use it!

A cute little sculpture outside of our apartment - it is made out of screws

One of the many, many beautiful cathedrals in Kiev. They seem to be everywhere you look.

Outside of the SDA the morning of our appointment

The first afternoon we met Victoria! I love this picture!

The second day with Victoria. I can't wait to show you the other pictures of her!

A little more accomplished

2009-08-03T14:33:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that things are continuing to go well. Our visits with Victoria are great. She opens up more each day.

We only got to go on our afternoon visit today because we spent the morning running around to the notary, the inspectors office, etc. So, progress is being made in all of the right directions.

We stopped this evening to pick up a few more toys and things to take with us on our visits. I'm sure Victoria will have fun with them. She is very smart and figures things out very quickly. She loves my camera!

We found out today that the other little girl we were interested in is not available. Her parents rights have not been terminated yet. It is sad because they probably will be at some point, but she will probably never get adopted.

So, it looks like we will be coming home with only one. That is okay though because I think Victoria will need a lot of one on one attention, so it will be good for her.

I'll update as I have news!

Did I say shy and scared???

2009-08-01T14:31:00.002-04:00

Well, not today! Victoria was very interactive today. Both of our visits went very well. She is quite the little firecracker. I think she is going to give Morgan a run for her money. I also think she is going to be a Daddy's girl, as she has taken quite the liking to Joe.

We got to spend a lot of time together today. We played separate from her "groupa" for the most part and every time one of the other kids would come near us Victoria would chase them away. She definitely understands that we are there for her and doesn't want anyone else taking our attention. I brought a picture book with me and she kept it with her. It was so sweet to see her keep looking at the pictures and pointing to all of us. I also brought bubbles today and she had fun with them. She also really liked my camera and taking pictures with it (although I'm not sure if all of the settings are still correct now).

There is another little girl in Victoria's groupa that I am just in love with. We are going to try and find out on Monday if she is available for adoption. If she is we will see about getting her referral. If not, we will just be coming home with one.

I can't say enough how impressed I am with the orphanage and the director. The place is such a contrast to many of the pictures I have seen of orphanages and what I pictured in my mind. The place is so clean and cheery, and you can really tell how much the director cares for the children. He is very proud of all of them.

The adjustment is going to be hard for us all, but we will work through it. We really feel like we are blessed.

We have decided to stay in our current apartment. My facilitator was able to negotiate a monthly rent with the land lady that everyone is happy with. I really like it here. We have everything we need and we are very close to a lot of restaurants, shopping, etc. We joke that we must be in the rich part of the neighborhood. There was a Bentley on the corner today and then an Aston Martin on the same corner later, then we Joe took the trash out tonight a pink Lamborginii (sp?) drove by. We are on the other side of the river from the orphanage so we do have to arrange transportation. Right now we are taking cabs back and forth but my facilitator says she is also going to show us how to use the subway. She says it is much, much cheaper so we will have that as an option too.

We will continue with our daily visits with Victoria and hopefully some more paperwork towards our court date will be started on Monday.

Amanda - I hope you aren't losing your mind yet! Give the puppies a kiss for us. Thank you so much for everything. We love you and miss you.

Mom - you can cancel your Wizzair ticket. I will pick you up in Kiev. Jacqueline will still be flying from JFK to Kiev with you. I'll explain the "immigration card" that you have to fill out on the plane before you land. Other than that customs was a breeze and our luggage was out before we even got over there. We'll keep you guys posted about Joe and Morgan's return. Love you all!!!

Wonderful day!!!

2009-07-31T15:48:00.002-04:00

After a slow morning and waiting a while at the inspector's office this afternoon, we were able to go to the orphanage.

We met Victoria and she is absolutely wonderful!!!! She just turned 4 about 2 weeks ago. She is shy and scared, but that is to be expected. I won't give out too many details about her yet because she is not ours yet, but we have officially said yes to her referral. Her story is amazing and she really is a miracle. Her and Morgan played well this afternoon and I can't wait to see their relationship develop.

So, now we will continue visiting her and hoping that she will continue to warm up to us. It is going to take her some time, which is fine with us. This is the only place and people she has ever known and she was told today that she would be leaving with these strangers that talk funny. I'd be scared too. She is beautiful and has the cutest little giggle!

We are not sure about a second referral. There is another little girl in Victoria's groupa that we are going to inquire about but we are not sure if she is available. The orphanage she is in is very, very good as far as orphanages go. It was very clean and the children seem well cared for. The caretakers and director all seem to care very much for the children.

We aren't sure if we are changing apartments yet. We may look for something a little cheaper for the long term, but we have everything we need here so we will see.

We truly feel blessed and Morgan said Victoria is perfect! She is right. I can't imagine feeling better than this.

I will keep you updated about our visits and as we here any news about court.

SDA appointment

2009-07-30T12:01:00.003-04:00

Well, as of this morning things were still uncertain in the region we thought we would be going to so we decide to review the files of other children.

Long story short, we decide to accept the referral of a beautiful little girl who turned 4 a few weeks ago. We were able to pick up the referral this afternoon and will be meeting with the inspector of the region tomorrow at 3:15pm. I am not exactly sure yet when we will be able to go to the orphanage.

Then as we were getting the paperwork for the referral we found out things had been straightened out in the original region. Unfortunately because we already accepted the referral the procedure is that we have to go meet this little girl first and then we can decide whether to go through with her adoption or go back and get the referral of the original little girl. A few hours could have made a huge difference but for whatever reason things have worked out this way for us.

We do feel very good about this referral though, so as long as things go well when we meet her we feel like we will be going through with this adoption. It is still very hard especially since now the other region is open again, so we are just going to pray and see how things go over the next few days. The other thing is that it doesn't look like there are any other HIV+ girls available for adoption from this orphanage, so if we say yes to this little girl we will only be adopting one. We did find out too that the SDA is not giving referrals for two unrelated children at the same appt., so if we were adopting two from another region we would have to meet the first one and say yes and then travel back to Kiev to accept a second referral.

If we adopt the little girl whose referral we accepted we will be staying here in Kiev. We will be moving apartments though because the orphanage is on the other side of the river. The downside to this region is that it is know to be very slow. It takes a long time to get a court date here. Once we know more certain how things are going to go and when our court date is we will make the decision about what to do. Probably Joe and Morgan would return home and then Joe would just fly back here for a few days for court and then go home. We will see.

But for now, things are good! We are all enjoying our time here in Kiev very much. I really like it here a lot, although I am sad if we stay here I will not get to see more of the country. I may have to go sight seeing. Morgan is being so good and seems to be having a good time. They have a zoo and a circus here in Kiev, so we will probably be checking them out if we stay.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! It really means so much to us.

We're here!!!!

2009-07-29T08:27:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note to let you all know we are here in Kiev.

Our flight was pretty uneventful until we were landing and Morgan threw up all over the seat. She was so good the whole flight too, poor thing. She isn't sick - I think it was just a combination of being tired and all the travel.

Our apartment is very cute. It is a one bedroom and we have a washer, a kitchen, air conditioning and internet access!!! We are also in walking distance of the SDA. I couldn't ask for more.

We went and had pizza for lunch and it was pretty good.

Now we are going to take a nap. It is only 8:30am at home and we should just be waking up. None of us slept very much on the plane.

I'll try to post a few pictures of our apartment later. Also, we only have a temporary phone for right now, but will be getting another one tomorrow. I will pass on the number.

Our SDA appt. is tomorrow morning at 11:30am. I'm still not sure how things will go. I'll let you know tomorrow afternoon.

I can't believe we are finally here!!!!!

Heading out.

2009-07-28T09:43:00.001-04:00

We are leaving in a few hours for Ukraine.

We are still not 100% sure what will happen when we get there. We are okay with our Plan B though if that is the way we have to go.

I will update as often as possible!

Just when we thought....

2009-07-24T21:56:00.003-04:00

that this rollercoaster ride of international adoption was on an upward climb, we have been thrown on an upside down loop.

I found out today (4 days before we are scheduled to leave and 6 days from our SDA appt. date) that the region the little girl we are hoping to adopt is in has shut down court proceedings for adoptions. It is due to some law that they passed (the region she is in is considered an independent region, so they can make laws separate from the rest of Ukraine) and there is a bunch of political stuff that I don't fully understand or care to get into.

We are not 100% sure what this will mean for us. Hopefully we will know more this weekend.

I imagine one of three things will happen:

1. Things will get straightened out and we will travel as planned and to the orphanage we planned.

2. We will travel as planned but once we arrive in Ukraine will have to go to a different region to adopt.

3. We will have to post pone our trip.

I am hoping it is one of the first two options. Obviously option #1 is what I am praying for, but option #2 would be okay too. We have known all along that there is no guarantee that we would adopt the little girl we are hoping for. We are attached to the idea of her in our minds and hearts, but the reality is that there are many, many HIV+ little girls in Ukraine that need a family and we would be happy to bring any of them home.

I will keep you posted as I know more, but in the mean time please pray that we leave as we have planned this Tuesday and that we are able to adopt the child (or children, as we are strongly considering adopting a second child) that is meant for us - whoever that may be.

Appointment Date!!!!

2009-07-16T16:45:00.002-04:00

Our appointment with the SDA in Ukraine is Thursday, July 30!!!!

I booked our tickets. We are flying out of JFK in NY on Tues. evening July 28 and will arrive in Ukraine on Wed. morning July 29.

We have decided to bring Morgan with us. We are all very excited for this trip!

I can't believe we are finally to this point in the journey!

Wonderful, exciting, awesome news!!!

2009-07-13T17:26:00.003-04:00

I found out this afternoon that our dossier was submitted to the SDA today!!!!!

Please pray that they don't find anything wrong with any of our papers. As long as everything is okay we should have our travel date by next week!!!

Aren't you scared....

2009-06-25T08:30:00.002-04:00

of adopting a child with HIV?

I get asked this question a lot and to be honest my answer is no and yes.

No, I am not scared of my child's HIV being transmitted to anyone in my family or anyone else for that matter. Once I knew the facts of HIV, the thought of transmition rarely crossed my mind when I think about our little girl.

No, I am not scared that I will not be able to watch her grow up. I am confident that our little girl will grow up and live a very long, fulfilling life. I am confident that she will go to her proms, graduate high school, go on to college (if that's what she chooses), get married, have children, have grandchildren, etc. The medications available today have done so much for the life span of people with HIV and I can only assume that the medications will get better as our little girl gets older.

So, why the yes? What am I scared of? Well, there is one thing that scares me just a little bit. I do think about the medication that our little girl will have to take and worry about what the long term side effects will be. No one has the answer to this because the medications have not been used long enough to know the long term side effect. But, I am sure that the benefits of the medication far out weigh any side effects, either in the present or in the future, of that medication.

The thing I am the most scared of though and think about the most often is that my little girl will be treated differently, or worse cruely, because of her HIV. We have not decided how open we are going to be about her status, but we have decided that it is not something that we are going to try to hide. We feel hiding her status only adds to the stigma associated with HIV. If she had inherited a genetic disorder from her birth mother no one would even think twice about it. And no matter how a person contracted HIV they still deserve to be treated with respect. I am so scared that people will be mean to her. As a parent you never want your child to be hurt, whether it be physically or emotionally. I can only hope and pray that our little girl will help to open people's hearts to people with HIV and that she will never have to feel ashamed of something that does not define who she is, but is just another part of her.

New Look

2009-06-17T10:53:00.002-04:00

As you have noticed I have given my blog a new look.

I want our blog to be not only about our adoption from Ukraine, but also about advocating for the adoption of children with HIV. I have added a few "buttons" on the side of the blog that will link you to some wonderful websites and blogs that have so much information on HIV and adopting a child with HIV. Please visit these sites and read the information and stories there.

I hope that through our journey we can open the eyes and hearts of even just one person to these wonderful children that are so deserving of a family. I also hope that even if in just some small way we can help to break the stigma associated with HIV, so that families do not have to wrestle with whether or not to disclose their child's status to people.

I hope you will enjoy following our "Positive Adoption Story".

God Answers Prayers

2009-06-01T18:56:00.002-04:00

I received word today that Ukraine's government will not be voting on ending international adoption tomorrow!!! The vote has been taken off their schedule and is not on the schedule anywhere in the near future. This is such an answer to prayer.

Please continue to be in prayer for Ukraine's orphans though as their future still is not certain. There are many economical and political issues at work in Ukraine and things can change at any time. For now at least, things look good.

Thank you for your continued prayers!!