First Thanksgiving

Last week was the week of Thanksgiving. We studied all week about the first 13 colonies and the first Thanksgiving. We even checked out movies from the library about it. By the time Thursday rolled around we were confident that Marina understood what the holiday was all about. She was a bit nervous about going to a big dinner with a lot of people there, but she seemed to really enjoy herself. In fact when we left and got into the car, she announced "I like Thanksgiving!" After we left, we took the girls through the Christmas lights display in Eureka. http://www.eurekajellystone.com/santa/info/ The little girls enjoyed it and Marina said, "not so much". Oh well, we tried. I want to take them all over to Bellville IL to see the lights at Our Lady of Snows??? . . . I can't remember, but I have heard they have a really nice display with a petting zoo, nativity scene, gift shop and a place to get hot cocoa or hot spiced cider. Sounds like fun to me. http://www.snows.org/Events.aspx?path=root/english/Events/events

It is frustrating to me to take Marina places that I think should be really enjoyable, only to find out she doesn't appreciate it. Most places we say we are going, she doesn't want to go, but more than not, she ends up enjoying it. The times she doesn't though, is kind of a let down. I want her to experience so many things that we enjoy doing, and she doesn't always have the same appreciation that we do. I guess I think she should enjoy everything, because I don't think she got to go and do very much when she was in the orphanage, and when she doesn't like something, I think . . . it has to be better than doing nothing!!! Maybe she enjoys doing less and being at home?? Oh well. Maybe she'll appreciate things when she is older.

So, now we are back to the regular schedule of doing school each day in the morning until early afternoon and it is going fairly well. There are days where she whines and pouts because she doesn't want to do her work, but for the most part, she gets her work done quickly. The only area that is a bit of a struggle right now is math, and that is because of the language barrier. Word problems are hard to to if you don't understand exactly what they are asking. So, for now we are drilling multiplication and division and learning about measurements.

Marina has quite the Christmas list going - almost as long and Jordan's!! I told her the biggest gift she got this year was to come to the states and have a family of her own. She looked at me like I was crazy!! I think she even replied with a "what?!" Hannah on the other hand has not asked for anything! In fact she tells the other girls "your not going to get everything you want". Good ol' Hannah - always the realist!! Gotta love that in her!

We set up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and then a couple days later, we took Marina to the store to pick out her own stocking. She wanted one that was pink with Cinderella on it, but I asked her if she thought she would like that when she was 16 or 18 years old, and she changed her mind. I tried to tell her that we keep our stocking and don't buy new ones every couple years. She finally picked out a cute one with a snowman holding a sign that reads, Let It Snow. Speaking of snow, we asked her how deep the snow gets in Ukraine and she motioned that it gets neck high. We told her we only get a little snow here, but when I used to live Iowa, we got a LOT of snow . . . she said, "lets go!" I told her it would take 8 - 10 hours in the car to get there . . . she said, "that's okay". I said, not today :)

Good News!

Friday we went to Children's Hospital in St. Louis to have an ultrasound done of Marina's kidneys and we learned that her kidneys are very small - about the size of a 3 year old. So, why are they small? Was she born with small kidneys and they are growing, but still small? Or are they shrinking due to them diminishing in function? This we don't know. We then saw a nephrologist (kidney specialist) who said she does not think she needs surgery at this point, which is what we had been told. She said she thinks that if we make sure to monitor her blood pressure, make sure she is drinking the correct amount of fluids and emptying her bladder every two hours, she should be able to avoid any surgery for at least 5 years. Every year she will have an ultrasound to see if the kidney's are growing, and if they are not growing, we will be faced with dialysis/kidney transplant 5 years or so down the road. We were just pleased to hear that she does not need the surgery right now as we were told. If they are growing, she may not need a transplant until she is well into her twenties or beyond. Her blood pressure is much better than it was, now that she is on new meds, and she seems to feel great! Praise God for excellent medical care and technology!! God is good and he will provide for her needs and make them known to us.

This weekend we got to spend some time with James sister and her husband as they came up to St. Louis for the weekend to catch a concert Sunday. They came into town on Sat. and we went with them to Herman, for a couple hours and we couldn't have asked for better weather!! It was a beautiful day and we were able to sit outside, enjoy a bottle of wine, food and some good conversation. After that we went back home and later went out for a late dinner at Hawthorn Inn, one of our favorite restaurants in the area, and had a great dinner out. While we were in Herman, the girls went to hang out with my sister and they had a great time with her. She spent time with them all, teaching them how to paint and they all brought home a beautiful painting. My sister has taught art for many years and is very talented in that area. They also went to the park and to Dairy Delight, which is a little hot dog/hamburger place in Washington. They all seemed to really enjoy their time with their aunt and we enjoyed visiting with Crystal and Shawn. I hope they enjoyed their time with us as well . . . even though I am a stick in the mud :)

Eventful Week

Well, this past week was quite eventful! I finally felt like I could resume our usual schedule of school and every day running around, etc. This would have all gone fairly smoothly if we hadn't had a couple other things thrown into the mix! This week we had to have one of the horses put down, which was such a bummer, because this was the one horse Marina really loved. (Me too) His name was Ice Man and he apparently had cancer, which we didn't know about until the last week of his life. This was one of my nieces horses and she is away at school. We were watching him become sicker and sicker before our eyes and the vets finally came to the understanding that he had cancer. By the time they realized this, he was wasting away and not eating any longer. We couldn't let him go on suffering, my niece decided it was time to say goodbye. He was buried on Friday and on Sunday, Marina bought flowers (3 roses) after church to put on his grave.

Aside from that, the week went pretty good. Marina did very well with school and we are not having any problems to speak of. She is doing remarkably well with her English and has been working not only in text books to learn English, but also on the computer. She is improving very quickly!!! Good for her!!! Some of the things I try to translate for her just so I know she understands what we are learning about - mainly in history, science and bible. The rest of it is no problem for her. She is doing great with spelling, grammar and English. She loves art and we found out today . . . she hates the song "Yankee Doodle"! Hahahaha! Jordan loves the song and since we are learning patriotic songs along with US History, we listened to it twice today until Marina ran out of the room like a mad woman :) She couldn't take it anymore :) It was quite funny. Tomorrow we are going to go see BodyWorlds 3 at the St. Louis Science Center! I am very excited and so are the girls. Marina is a bit concerned that it will be "yucky", but I think it will be fascinating and a great learning opportunity for everyone. We are going with other homeschoolers and I think it will be great. We printed out the education sheets of the website and I translated all of it for Marina so she knows what to expect and can answer some questions about the exhibit and what she learned. If you don't know what BodyWorlds 3 is, go to: http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html and check it out. I wanted to see this 2 years ago when it was in Chicago and missed it. Now we get to see it here and the best part is, we got FREE tickets!!

Friday we take Marina to the specialist to find out more about her health conditions. We are looking forward to that, since it should shed some more light on the issues and how we can remedy them. I hope and pray for good news. I know God is good and He has a plan for her, so we are not worried.

We got word that one of Marina's friends from the orphanage is coming for a visit this December for a couple of weeks, so she is extremely excited about that!! We will be sure to get together with her while she is here. Marina said she would speak English to her - she must be feeling more confident in her ability now. We also know another friend of hers will be here with a host family too, so we hope to see them all.

She wrote her friend Olga a letter and printed out some pictures for her. We typed it up in English and she said her teacher would read it to Olga and her class and translate it for them. Then she also emailed her friends through the school counselor, who said it would be fine to use his email address since the kids don't have access to email themselves. He in turn sent her some pictures of himself and she enjoyed getting those.

Yesterday, we went to a Thanksgiving Homeschool dinner. The kids did various crafts and we all ate turkey dinner together and I think she had a good time. They surprised her with a "welcome home" gift. It was a pink, leather bound journal, some organizing totes and to her delight . . . another $50 gift card to Target! She is ready to shop, needless to say :) Maybe I can take her to Target after BodyWorlds tomorrow.

Traveling Again

This weekend we left on Friday for Southern Illinois to visit family and see Dillon who we haven't seen in over a month and a half. We left Friday afternoon and got here around 7pm and met James mom for dinner at a little BBQ place. Dinner was okay . . .we have eaten there before and it was much better then, but Friday night it was just so-so. On Saturday we hung out and the girls baked cookies with Grandma and then we went to the park. While we were at the park we got a call to come get Dillon and so we did that and then came back to Grandma's house and made dinner. Hannah and Marina helped me make the salad and Grandma made the spaghetti and then Hannah helped put garlic bread in the oven. Dinner tasted good and then we packed up to go see Pawpaw and Nanny at their house. The girls and their cousin Josi all had a sleep-over on the family room floor and it took quite a while for them to settle down. Finally all were asleep and we fell into bed as well. Today the kids played hard all day outside. They rode 4-wheelers, swung on the swings, played soccer in the front yard, jumped on the trampoline, rode the zip line over and over again and played in the tree house. They even chased the poor horse around the pasture on the 4-wheelers!! They had a great time. Then pawpaw grilled out some pork chops and nanny made some mixed veggies and pasta. All the kids ate really well and finished their plates except Marina who refused to eat the two teaspoons of veggies I put on her plate. I told her she had to eat them just like all the other kids or she couldn't join us outside for the bonfire later and roast marshmallows, and she couldn't watch TV while we were outside. She said fine and went to our room to hang out by herself. It was a battle of wills and I left her plate of veggies out just in case she changed her mind . . . she did not. So, while we all enjoyed the fire she sat inside and pouted. Very strong will she has, but she can't expect the rules to be any different for her than the rest of the kids. It was very hard to stick to our guns, but it would have been a mistake to give in. Besides, I think a 12 year old can gulp down two teaspoons of veggies without too much difficulty. It's not like we were asking her to eat a plateful of liver while the rest of us ate ice cream . . . good grief. Oh well, at least she is learning boundaries and that we will do what we say we will. Now they are all in bed and tomorrow we will head home in the morning. James has to take Dilllon at 6:30 though so he can be at school in time in a neighboring town. He'll come back and get us after that and I guess we'll leave around 9 or 10ish.

Halloween

we went trick-or-treating last night and Hannah was a dalmation, Jordan a pumpkin and Marina a Geisha and James was a cow and I was a pumpkin also. We had a good time and Marina didn't want to go either. She kept saying, "I scary" because she was afraid people would want to talk to her in English. Once she figured out that all she had to do was say "trick-or-treat", hold out her bag and walk away, she was into it!! She even was at the head of the pack going from house to house and then didn't want to quit :) On the way home she said, "I like trick-or-treat!" It was fun to see her, once again, do something for the first time. They don't celebrate Halloween in Ukraine.

I think everyone is adjusting well, and the girls seem to be having a great time together. We haven't started school work yet, but I will next week. I wanted to take a week off to relax and get adjusted. I still feel a bit brain-dead myself. It seems I have forgotten how to cook and have been burning things and I can't seem to multitask yet. I guess I'll get back up to speed soon. (I hope)

Marina's English is getting progressively better and we are not having to use the translation books or websites very often at all. She seems to understand most things pretty well. So far it has been like a big sleep over for the kids. I wonder when the newness will wear off??