So Sorry, It has been so long!!!!!

Update:
I'm not even sure what to say it has been so long.  I remember thinking that I wouldn't be that parent.  I wouldn't be the one that once my kids were adopted I would go silent.  But the thing is, life happens, life gets hard,  and suddenly spending time writing blogs becomes the last thing on the list of things to do during the day.  So today I figured a quick update was better than no update.

Bella is growing and learning so much.  She now has a communication device and knows a ton of signs.  She communicates and interacts, and completely tells us how she is feeling.  She is so dramatic and hard headed.  She loves to swing, and spend time at the park.  She loves school, food, and family.   She is a snugly sweetheart.

Gracie is the most joyful child I have ever met.  She lights up the room when she walks in.  She had a long road to recovery, but we are getting there.  She has had many many doctors appointments over the last few years, and we continue finding ways to help her communicate.  She loves the sun, has favorite toys, interacts with people, and knows she is loved.  She is learning daily, and has even started saying sounds, we are hopeful that one day she will talk.  Even if she doesn't we love her where she is at, and for all that she is.

Last time I wrote, we were headed back to Ukraine to adopt again.  Plans changed and we actually are almost finished with an adoption through foster care.  Gideon has been in our home for almost a year and hopefully we will be headed to Kansas to finish up his adoption within the next month.  Because of the nature of Gideon coming from foster care I really can not give any details until his adoption is finalized.  He is a blessed addition to our family. 

On another note, I'm planning on blogging more often.  I will be changing up the site, and posting educational things that I am doing to help my children learn. Having three children who have multiple disabilities has been challenging to find services that do a great job of teaching. Things like tactile books, position boards, tactile schedules, and story boxes.  Teaching tools that teach to the varying strengths of my kiddos.    So stay tuned.

Life keeps me on my toes.  This blog has been on my mind for a while, but to find time to sit without interruptions seems to be a rare occasion.

Here is the promised update:

GRACIE:
Home almost 18 months.  She is so much fun, she is always smiling.  Gracie is at a stage full of curiosity, she roams around this house like she can see like the rest of us.  She loves to throw my clean laundry on the floor, get into the toy closet and pull out all of the toys.  She is developing and changing, even though sometimes the process seems slow going.  I often get asked when is she going to talk.  Honestly I have no idea, maybe she will never talk.  We love her no matter what, if she speaks someday that will be wonderful if not we love her no less.  Some days I forget that she spent the first 6 years of her life in an orphanage/ institution.  Then other days it is hard to forget because the past life leaves scars that will take years to fade.  Watching her grow though is just so precious

BELLA:

Home almost 18 months.  This one is a drama queen.  She has learned how to push my buttons, and thinks she is so funny.  (Well she really is.)  The looks she gives me when she knows she is doing something wrong, well they are just to much.  In the last few months she has grown so much, I think it is mostly because SHE IS WALKING.  Yes you heard that correctly my girl has learned how to walk.  She has overcome so much, last year she got really sick and she regressed so much.  We are thankful now because she is doing very well, and as far as communicating she is signing a ton. I have so much joy watching her explore her world.

We Are Headed Back!

Ok, I spent a day trying to make my blog look cute and failed.  I have way to much to do, so it is just going to have to stay plain for a while.

NEWS!!!!  We are headed back oversees to adopt another child.

Let me go back and start at how this came to be.  Dan and I  several months ago decided that we wanted to adopt again, however we were going to do a domestic adoption.  It seemed simple, easy, no fundraising, no dossier!  It seemed like the thing to do.  So we went back to our social worker and she approved us to adopt one more child.  It wasn't to hard, we didn't tell anyone, and we registered online to adopt a child with down syndrome through foster care.  This is where our story changed.  The process is different and we just couldn't go with it.  There are people in the United States waiting to adopt children with down syndrome.  We were just another number on a list.  Dan and I both just couldn't wrap our heads around that.  Where our girls were born they were stuck, unloved, nobody wanted them, and they definitely didn't have a list of people waiting and ready to adopt them.  Together we decided we just needed to go back.

So the last few weeks have been a blur.  We updated our home study for international adoption, and have done several of the initial things to get the process started.  We are a home study ready family and this process is going to go quickly.  We will be sending off for immigration approval soon, and about half our dossier will be traveling to Eastern Europe next week.

Dan and I have a few fundraisers going on.   We need to come up with 2000.00 quickly.  So if you feel led to help we are extremely grateful.  We are extremely blessed to be headed down this road again, and know that we couldn't have adopted the girls without you.  So thank you.

I do have a t-shirt fundraiser going but it ends in 12 days, so I need to sell 45 shirts in 12 days to raise the 500.00. Please, share, pray, buy a t-shirt.  My other fundraiser will start tomorrow!  (Details coming soon.)
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Update on the girls to come soon!  They are doing great!

We have news!!!!!!    A quick hint, I need to change the header of this blog!!!!   Update on the girls to come soon.

8 Months Home. A quick update.

Time just keeps zooming by.  It is hard to believe that Bella and Gracie have been home for over 8 months. They are growing, learning, and it feels like they have always been here.

GRACIE just a week ago has learned to give hugs.  She knows she is loved, she knows after a session of therapy that I am there for a hug.  She knows when she gets off from the school bus that I will meet her.  She knows that whatever happens that she can snuggle and now the hugs are given and received so freely.  This is a huge milestone for her, she is comforted by her parents.  This was not always the case for the longest time she comforted herself from the stress of life because that was all she knew.  She now knows differently.  My daughter knows what it feels like to be loved and it is really wonderful.

 Gracie turned 7 this month.

BELLA is doing wonderful.  We have gotten past almost all of the medical stuff she was dealing with, and she is back to her happy self.  She is working so hard on mastering walking, and she does it with such a joyful spirit. 

These two love each other. 

Gracie's hair is growing out!

Bella playing with a toy appropriately.

5 Months Home.

I can hardly believe the girls have been home for 5 months.  These months have been filled with doctors appointments.  It can be a bit overwhelming with how often we have gone to the doctor.  They both have had dental surgery, they both have had there tonsils and adenoids removed, they have both started therapy 2 times a week.  We have our up's and downs, but one thing that is constant is that they are both blossoming.  Oh my goodness my precious Gracie.  She is a different child, she is no longer the self stimulating child who wanted to sit in the window for hours at a  time.  She is talking, imitating more and more words daily.  She is eating big people food (chewing food),  she is going to school everyday, she roams around the house going up and down stairs. She seems to get taller and taller every day.  She is joyful and always laughing and giggling.  It is so wonderful watching her interact with her brothers, they all love her so much.

Miss Bella has had many ups and downs over the past few months.  After her tonsil were removed, we have spent a great deal of time at the doctors, including a stay in the hospital for dehydration.  She is such a fighter, and she knows she has our love even through all of the sickness she has gone through.

I can say I am amazed daily by these two sweethearts, they bring our family and those around us nothing but joy.  Every bit of stress that we went through to go get these two was completely worth it.  We are loving life and cant wait to see what the next 5 months bring.  I have watched as these two with proper love, and nourishment have blossomed.

2 months home.

I didn't know how to come here and post, so here it goes we are HOME!!!!   Gracie, and Bella are our daughters and are loved so much.  Dan brought the girls home on December 21st, 2012.  Our trip for the most part was smooth, and everything in country went ok.  There are so many things I want to share, but I just don't know where to start, or what to say.  So today I will share progress.  We traveled to our girls and it was love at first sight.  We waited so long and it was pure bliss.  My heart was torn to see the girls in the conditions that they were living in, especially Gracie.  Gracie was in an institution and there is so much to say, and I promise I will go there another time.  The brokenness you see in institutions, well I still don't have the words to tell you how it has impacted me and changed me forever.   Today's post is really to show the changes that have been made in just a short amount of time being home.  Really all I can say is I saw the hand of God in this adoption, and  REDEMPTION!!  ADOPTION is HARD, I don't really want to say it has all been easy. (Because easy is the last word I would us to describe it.) But look at the transformation in my girls in a few months and you will see why adoption needs to happen.  These girls lives have been saved, and it isn't all easy once you get them home to family, but it is so so worth it.  These are only 2 of millions of children who have broken spirits, living in neglect, and conditions that you can not even imagine, even if I told you.  This haunts me on a daily basis, my two are out but so so many more are left behind  and even I will go through my day sometime and forget with the daily time consuming life of raising 6 children.   I don't want to ever forget, and watching my girls heal from life of living there for 6 years is precious, amazing, wonderful, maddening, and angering to me at times.  6 years of institutionalized life needs to be broken, and they have come so far, but it is really really hard.

When we met Bella she could not crawl, or walk.  She would sit in a spot and not move, she would zone, and when handed a toy she only had enough fine motor skills to throw it.  She was only eating from a bottle, she didn't have the ability to chew.  She was very floppy, her legs and her arms were like jello.  It was hard for her to sit on our lap without falling off.  When we met her she pushed me away she preferred to be by herself.  She would harm herself with biting and hitting.   Bella is 6 years old, and in the photos she is wearing a dress that is size 24 months.  However, during our visits we noticed Bella start to get bigger. We were feeding her daily when we would visit her, she started crawling, and was interacting with us more at each visit.  While spending time with her in the orphanage  she learned how to drink from a sippy cup, she learned how to laugh, she learned patty cake, how to clap, and wave hi.  I was in awe to see my daughter come alive before my eyes, all from 2 hours of attention a day.

When we met Gracie,  she was a little ball of energy, and I called her my little koala bear because if she can get you to pick her up, you are going to have to pry her off from you.  She was so little, and thin.  In these pictures Grace is 6 years old.  She may have been tiny in stature but not in spirit.  I really think that is how she made it a year being in the institution.   She was constantly on the go, but if we interacted with her to much, she would have melt downs.  She coped with too much, with self stimming behaviors.  She constantly had her finger pressed hard into her eye, and her thumb in her mouth, and she rocked non stop.  We didn't get to visit her as much as Bella because she was so far out from the city.  However, after a few visits she knew we were coming because of the routine of getting ready for us.  Leaving our visits and giving her back was the hardest thing I had to do while we were there.  She needed out immediately.

 Dan made the long journey home with our daughters on December 21st 2012.  We were reunited as a family after I made a long trip across Nebraska to pick them up from the airport in a blizzard. Our family was together for Christmas.  So much joy to this mama's heart.  Joyously I took care of there every need.  They were like infants in so many ways, but I love them where they are at, and do everything I can to make them feel secure in there new life.  

The girls are doing so well, learning so much, and growing!!!!!!!!!  I can not believe how tall they are, it almost seems physically impossible to me  but they really are just shooting up, and getting taller.  

Bella has learned 3 signs.  She can sign eat, please, and more.  She can say the word eat.  She crawls all over our house, and usually makes her way to the laundry room because she likes the drier.  She has a preference of toys and knows which ones are her favorite.  She loves baths, and smiles non stop.  She is such a JOY.  She interacts and wants attention now.  She is LOVED so much.  She is making progress.

Gracie is doing so well since she has been home.  She is a little fireball.  She is so funny and always has us laughing so much.  She came home and loved being in the sun.  She would sit in the sunlight so much.  She loves music, and hums tunes.  She has learned 2 signs, eat, and please.  She has learned how to chew, and feed herself.  Her progress is slow but we have seen gains in 2 short months .Her balance is so much better now, and she knows she is LOVED.  I keep telling myself down syndrome isn't a problem for her, if only down syndrome was  the only issue.  Her issues stem back to being left in an orphanage for 6 years, she has learned ways to cope with no love, and no interaction and it will take time to a lot of time to break through all of the institutionalization.  We are making progress.

Today is 2 months home, and look at how great the girls look.  I really believe that there lives have been saved.  I am amazed daily, and thankful, and honored to be there mom.   I am extremely blessed to call these two precious children my daughters.  Our family is better because of them, who new how much two little girls could teach me in a matter of a few months.  They are LOVED, and TREASURED forever.

Gracie Maria Cole

Bella Anastasia Cole