Happy Birthday, Kylie!!!

11 years ago today I gave birth to a beautiful 8 pound, 21 3/4" tall baby girl named Kylie Ann!!! We named her Kylie because it means "lovely."  There is a verse in the Bible that says, "Whatsoever things are PURE, whatsoever things are LOVELY, whatsoever things are of GOOD REPORT; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things" (Philippians 4:8) and we named all three of our girls after the adjectives in that verse. (Katie means PURE, Kylie means LOVELY, Haley means good reputation.)  Our Kylie surely is lovely inside and out!!!!  She is the sweetest, kindest, most loving & compassionate child I have ever known.  I am so honored and blessed to be her mom!!  Not only is she beautiful, but she is also smart, artistic and athletic!  Happy Birthday, my lovely Kylie!!  Follow closely and passionately after Christ all the days of your life!!  Daddy and I love you so much!

I included several pictures of our Kylie girl.  She has a lot going on in her life right now.  She's finishing up 5th grade.  Since homeschooling she has brought her grades up a great deal and we are excited for her!  She has stepped out of her comfort zone as a shy child and joined our local rec league's girls' softball league.  She also has completed her first full year of horseback riding lessons.  She has been so faithful to her passion of riding horses and learning everything her trainer has taught her.  In the coming months she will probably be in some shows and we are looking forward to that. 

We love the fact that our lovely Kylie has no problem getting muddy and having fun!

Her passion is riding

Getting ready to open presents

She asked for a photo album with lots of pictures of Brandon in it.

An alarm clock with a c.d. player and that hooks up to an ipod.

She wanted a softball bat

Camo jacket from AE. 

A glove

She wanted a Krispy Kreme doughnut cake for her birthday :)

We love you, sweet girl!

Our two 11-year-olds...LOVE THEM TO PIECES!!!!!

One Month Home

I cannot believe it's already been a month that I've been home with Matthew.  The past month has really flown by so quickly!  There has not been one day that I have not been thankful to God for bring us home from Ukraine safely and that God blessed us with such a great son!  I do not take advantage that He heard and answered prayer.

It has been a terrible month in the history of Ukraine.  I have spent a great deal of time praying for our friends that we met while in Ukraine who received their referral letter the same day we did for their sweet little girl, Alina.  I am SO happy they made it home safely this past week!  More answered prayer!

Matthew is doing really good.  He is SO full of life and energy.  We have all said several times this month that it is SO MUCH FUN to have an active boy around the house again.  Brandon was a very active boy and we have very much missed having the constant commotion of a boy thumping around here!    In all seriousness, please pray for my nerves.  Our firstborn son, Brandon, died in a bike accident from being "all-boy" and the constant activeness and dare-devil things that Matthew does really makes my stomach tie up in knots ALL the TIME.  I hate to be a helicopter, hovering Mama, but honestly, my nerves are shot, simply because Brandon and Matthew have a very similar activity level.

The other day I nearly had a panic attack when Matthew put his hand down the sink WHILE the garbage disposal was spinning.  When I flew across the kitchen like a rocket and grabbed his arm to jerk him back out of danger while screaming, "Matthew NO!!" he laughed at me and said, "Neecheevo (no big deal) Mama.  Neecheevo."  Little does he know that the disposal could have severed his hand!  Earlier in the month he jumped into the pool when it was only 70 degrees outside and the water was probably in the lower 60s. He lost his new contact lens while doing that.  God surely protected him from pneumonia.  He rode his bike to the outside of the neighborhood with no helmet on and without anyone knowing he was outside (which is not something we allow).  He flips and jumps all over the place on the trampoline.  He is always in motion and a very big risk taker.  Seriously, please pray for my Mama-nerves to settle.  I don't want my little boy to get hurt, but I also do not want to be over-protective and hover around him all the time.  How many times over the past two years I have wished I WAS over-protective of sweet Brandon, but at the same time, I'm glad I wasn't.  Brandon would NOT have been happy if I had restricted his activity.  He would have been so miserable.  I have decided that I am giving Matthew over to God, but my nerves still get the better of me a lot of the time and I do tend to hover.  (He hasn't seemed to notice or mind so far).

What is really neat is Matthew is really settling in well with the family.  He has jumped in and contributed to chores around the house.  He absolutely loves to help me out.  He takes initiative if something needs to be done and does it without being told.  He gets along with everyone else in the household very well.   He has a wonderful sense of humor and will tease any one of us at any given moment.  He doesn't mind being teased back either.  Brandon took about 3 months, so we are grateful that so far Matthew has settled into the family within a month of being home and absolutely no sign of RAD or any other behavior issue.

He's already growing like a weed!  He came home to us weighing 72 pounds.  The first 2 weeks of being home he lost 2 pounds.  I'm not sure if he lost weight because of his activity level or if it was because he didn't eat much as I'm sure everything tasted funny to him.  He had his U.S. physical the other day and he was up to 75 pounds and 4 foot 9 3/4 inches tall!!  He has a wonderful appetite and follows the lead of the other kids by finishing all his food and saying "thank you, Mama" for cooking the meal.


I'll close with an example of his sweetness.  A few minutes ago I asked him if he wanted to take a few cookies to eat outside on this sunny day and he said, "No thank you, Mom" then turned to run outside.  He stopped dead in his tracks and came back to say, "I love you, Mom" before he happily ran back outside.

He's such a joy to be around and such a wonderful addition to our family.  I am taken back by God's goodness in helping us find our long, lost son.  Matthew did NOT belong growing up alone in an institution and I'm humbled that God chose us to raise him.  He has so much to offer the world and we pray that God allows us to see him grow up to come to a saving faith in Him.  We pray that he grows to be a godly, pure man.  We pray he will be a hard working man, and that he one day leads his own family to love the Lord as well.  

"And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me...See that you don't look down on one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of My Father in heaven"  Jesus (Matthew 18:5,10).

3 Weeks Home

We've had an amazing first three weeks with Matthew home.  He's such a great little guy and so much fun to be around.  He's definitely added a spark of energy and excitement to our family!  All of the 4 other kids love their new brother and they are so glad he's part of our family.

Matthew loves to help out around the house.  This weekend Tim's grandparents came for a visit and Matthew helped move the table and chairs out of the kitchen so I could mop.  He said he loves the smell of the lemon scented cleaner I use to mop the kitchen.  He scrubbed the sink, shelf and mirror in the bathroom they would be using.  He took everything off the shelf, wiped it down and then put everything neatly back on the shelf.  Any time our trash gets full, he likes to take it out.  He enjoys vacuuming the living room.  The other night I was especially tired so I was sitting down.  Here he went around the living room picking up Wii remotes, socks, shoes from all the family members and put them all away.  He folded the blankets we use when we watch tv.  He straightened all the couch pillows perfectly. I love that he takes initiative to help out with out even being asked.  He clearly pays attention to detail and how I like things put away.  He often organizes his closet and clothing in his drawers. He says he loves all of his clothing.   This past Thursday he said he enjoyed stripping down his bed remaking it.  He always smells his newly cleaned clothing and bedding and always says "It smells so good" in Ukrainian (I remember Brandon did the same thing!).  Matthew likes taking the net and cleaning the leaves out of the pool.  He likes to feed the dog, take her for a walk and add food to the bird feeder.  There is nothing he won't do if you ask him to help, but most of the time he does things around the house just because he sees it needs to be done.

His schooling is going really well.  I am using the Abeka phonics to teach him English and reading.  I am using ACE Accelerated Christian 3rd grade math.   He came to America knowing no English letters or even any simple math like 9-1=8.  Now he knows his vowels and some blends like la, le, li, lo, lu.  He also knows how to do a little harder math like 120-19=101.  He got 100% on his first math test.

His English is coming along well.  He understands a lot more than he can speak.  We can give him basic daily sentences like "Did you sleep well?" "Go brush your teeth"  "Go put on your pajamas" "Did you eat breakfast yet?" "Can you please wash your hands for dinner?" "Did you put your contact lenses in?" "Where is Andrew?" and he can answer us.  He can also say English phrases like, "Eww stinks" "Oh my goodness" "Let's go" "Let's jump (on the trampoline)" "Good morning" "Good bye" "Thank you."  I'm always amazed at how quickly kids can learn a new language.

Friday he had his first hair cut.  He wanted one of those long hair cuts with the hair all in his eyes.  I really wanted him to wear it shorter because I hate that he was covering up his gorgeous blue eyes with hair!  We talked him in to getting his bangs cut shorter and spiking them.  He's such a beautiful boy! 

I'm thankful he seems to be a happy boy and very eager to join in and be part of our family.  It was fun having Tim's grandparents come this past weekend.  Matthew was not shy to hug them or tell them he loved them.  It was cute because Grammie needed help untying her shoe one evening.  Matthew knelt down and unlaced it and pulled off her shoe for her.  The following morning he was sitting at the table eating his breakfast and he saw Grammie coming towards the table with her cup of coffee from the other side of the kitchen and he got up and moved over so she could sit in his seat.  I thought it was just wonderful that he had such kindness and politeness to honor an elder like that without even needing to be told. We are very blessed to have Matthew in our family! We love him to pieces and we're pretty sure he loves us too!  God has been so good to our family!


Matthew with his new hair cut and new church clothes he picked out.



WOW!!!!

Sometimes I’ve wondered what it would be like to be present when Jesus restored the eyesight of the blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-25). The shock and the joy he must’ve felt as he saw what he’d been hearing around him all his life was probably overwhelming to say the least.  I think Friday I got a tiny picture of what the reaction may have been like for that blind man when I saw our son Matthew react to seeing clearly for the first time.

We knew Matthew had horrible vision because he squinted ALL the time.  He needed to be 12 inches from the television screen to play the Wii.  We didn’t know how bad his sight was until we took him to the eye doctor this past Friday.  The doctor said he hated to throw out the word “blind,” but Matthew could not see ANYTHING outside of 6 inches from his face.

My dear Ukrainian friend, Anya, volunteered to come to his appointment and translate for Matthew and the doctor.  What an absolute blessing Anya has been for our family.  She has helped translate for all 3 of our boys now.  

Matthew was quite adamant about NOT having to wear glasses mainly for appearance purposes.  He wanted contact lenses.  Skeptically the doctor agreed to allow Matthew to wear contact lenses because of how bad his vision is and also how clean and responsible Matthew is for his age.  We still had to purchase glasses for Matthew to wear in the evenings per doctor’s orders.

The doctor reclined Matthew’s examination chair all the way back and put one contact in Matthew’s right eye first.  Matthew said in Ukrainian, “I already see 100 times better!”  When the doctor put the left contact in his eye, Matthew sat straight up, wide-eyed and looked all around the darkened room exclaiming, “WOW!!!” He looked around again and gasped in happy awe, “WOW!!!”  I’m pretty sure Anya and I both had tears in our eyes!  His reaction to seeing for the first time was priceless!  “WOW!” he kept saying over and over as he looked around.

After we left the doctor’s office the first thing Matthew said was, “I like Anya.  She is very good and very beautiful.”  (I can understand simple Ukrainian).  The second thing he said was, “Thank you for my lenses, Mama.  Thank you!  Wow!! I like these lenses!”  The whole 30-minute ride home he was enthusiastically pointing out motorcycles, Hummers, Mustangs, police cars and all sorts of things.  “Mama! Look! Hummer!”  “Mama! Look!  Helicopter!” 

Tim barely walked through the doors at 6pm before Matthew stampeded him, “I can see, Papa! I have lenses!”  Anyone he saw he told them he was wearing contact lenses.  He was so excited.

In the Bible healing the blind was a miracle only Jesus performed.  Likewise, spiritual blindness is only cured through the blood of Jesus Christ.  I am praying for Matthew and all our family members who may have spiritual blindness.  I pray their eyes would be opened and that they will see the love of Christ and believe in faith!

I saw a few parallels between physical blindness and spiritual blindness that I wanted to share.  The first parallel is it takes faith to see physically. The blind man at Bethsaida had to trust Jesus who put spit on his eyes and made him see.  Matthew had to trust me as his mom that I was leading him to a doctor who could help him.  He had to trust Anya to translate and the doctor who was touching his eye and putting contact lenses into his eyes.  Spiritual blindness requires faith in Christ, the Great Physician.  Second, Matthew was FILLED with joy and thankfulness for his new sight.  Those of us who have spiritual sight should live a life characterized by joy and thankfulness.  We should want to tell everyone we know about our sight and the Great Physician who gave it to us.  Third, Matthew has increased devotion to me as his mom.  Since Friday he has been more loving, respectful and affectionate.  Every day we should desire to show our love and devotion for Christ more.  It’s a testimony of the change in our lives from blindness to sight!  Finally, with eyesight Matthew has increased discernment.  No longer will he walk in darkness.  He won’t walk in front of moving cars, or miss someone sitting quietly in a room.  He will be able to see out the windows and doors and determine if it is a friend or a stranger on the other side of the door.  He can see his school work from further away which helps him learn easier.  Similarly as Christians we should have increased discernment.  We should see the world from a biblical world view.  As we grow and study God’s Word we should be able to discern between behavior that is dangerous and behavior that is edifying.  

I am so thankful for the calling in our lives to adopt Matthew.  He is such a joy and so full of enthusiastic life.  I’m thankful for all that I have learned from him already.  I am thankful for a husband who loves the Lord and is tender to God’s leading.  I’m thankful for the amazing father that Tim is to our kids and godly male example he is to our boys.  I’m thankful for Anya, for her friendship, and for her using her God-given abilities to translate to help our boys.  Most of all I am thankful for my salvation in Christ and my spiritual sight!  I’m thankful I don’t have to aimlessly stumble around this world without the Light in my life.

What a priceless memory forever etched in my mind of Matthew’s reaction when he saw clearly for the first time!  WOW!

Getting ready to see for the first time

Learning how to put in and take out contact lenses

Outside enjoying his new sight!

No No No Seven

We have always gotten a kick out of our Ukrainian boys little misspeaking’s they have when they first come to America.  Brandon used to say people were “Tootie” and he meant “tooting” or farting. For Punch Bug Volzwagon Beetles, Brandon would call them "Sponge buggies."   Matthew makes us laugh when he runs around the house from person to person saying, “Ya No no no seven!  Mama, ya no no no seven.  Papa, ya no no no seven.”  What he is asking for is to have someone turn on his Wii game “Double 0-7” (007-James Bond game).  

Our first few days have been going well.  He’s had home school for 3 days now.  The first day I just assessed what he did and did not know.  He could not do even basic math like 1+9=10 or 9-1=8.  So I’ve been teaching that along with his vowels for now.  We ended up ordering him ACE paces because it seems he can do it without being able to read English yet.  Matthew is going to do 1^st grade for English, Spelling and Reading, and I have him at 3^rd grade for Math.  That is what is so great about these paces is that he can work at whatever level he is at and then move as fast or slow as he needs to.  He’s a fast learner, so I think he will catch up quickly to his grade level.

 

The first day Matthew was home, we skipped church and spent a family day together.  We moved from soccer, to bike riding, to baseball, to the trampoline jumping to “No no no seven.”  We were all exhausted by the end of the day because Matthew has as much energy as 10 sons and we are not used to it!!!  Brandon had a lot of energy, but not even close to what Matthew has. 

Matthew and the girlies are getting along so well.  It is like they’ve known each other their whole lives.  Adoption is such a gift to everyone involved!  

When asked about his favorite thing about our house is so far, without hesitation, Matthew said his favorite thing is his “No no no seven” game (007 Wii game!) I think it’s funny because 007 was both Brandon and is Andrew’s favorite game as well. 

Enjoying some soccer

Haley showing Matthew our backyard turtle





Kids flying all over the place



Matthew trying out Haley's bow and arrow

Adding some air to the tires

Matthew rides really fast on that bike!

Katie and Matthew

Tuesday's snow ball fight



Matthew's got quite the arm on him!



Matthew coming after the camera lady (aka ME!)

Red cheeks!



Matthew

Haley Bee with red cheeks!

Matthew playing "No No No Seven"

Our Adoption Timeline

So our timeline went like this:
January 14th 2013: Dropped Artem off at the airport after Winter Hosting
January 15th 2013: Decided officially we wanted to pursue adoption of Artem & began paperwork
April 2013:  Submitted Dossier

August 6th: Received 1st SDA

(We declined the 1st SDA appointment waiting for Artem to become available)

October 14th: 2nd SDA appointment.  Found out Artem was already adopted.  We were handed the giant book full of available boys where we both found Matthew's file.  We weren't sure what to do because we were caught off guard thinking we'd adopt Artem whom we'd hosted 3 weeks the previous winter.  The director of Matthew's orphanage would not give any information out over the phone about Matthew.  Tim and I were still shocked and didn't like feeling like we had been "baited and switched" in this adoption.  Boys that are 11 years old sit waiting for families for years.  They NEVER come available one day and get adopted the next.  The whole situation with Artem getting adopted so quick was fishy to say the least and there was definitely a lot of deception involved.  We felt we needed to come home, pray, talk to the kids about their feelings about adopting "blind." 
 October 15th: Came home.
October 16th-November: God worked separately in both Tim and my hearts, speaking HIS will to us regarding this new boy we'd never met.  He gave us a peace about not having Artem, and He softened our hearts and grew our love for this new boy.

November 13th: Terrified, not entirely supported by on-lookers, yet in faith we obeyed HIS call for our lives and flew back to Ukraine to see about Matthew.  Applied for our 3rd and final SDA appointment.
November 21st:  3rd SDA appointment
 November 22nd: Picked up referral for Matthew

November 22nd: Met Matthew for the first time

November 25th: Said yes to Matthew.

November 27th: Matthew said yes, Director and case worker started paperwork for court

November 28th: Flew home
 December 14th: Preliminary Court

January 14th: Court

January 29th: Carinda flew back to Kiev after 10-day wait  (Our facilitator picked up court decree and new birth certificate before arriving at the airport).

January 30th: GOTCHA DAY!!!Went to the bank to draw out Matthew's money, picked up Matthew and had some paperwork done.

February 3rd: Received new i.d. number. Went to passport office to apply for passport.  Had his physical done at the medical center.  Had 1st Embassy appointment.

February 6th: Received passport 4:30 pm.
 February 7th: Went to pick up Medical results at the medical center.  Had 2nd Embassy appointment.  Picked up Visa at 3pm.
 February 8th.  Flew home!!!  30 hours of travel!!!

Super excited the passport came!!

Killing time waiting for the Visa to be printed at the Embassy

This is a cafeteria-style Ukraine restaurant and Matthew really enjoyed all the food there.  I enjoyed it as well.

The Embassy, thanking the Lord for no protestors standing outside

In Frankfort waiting for our connecting flight.  Matthew was watching the planes land and fly out

After 27 hours of travel, he FINALLY passed out.  He didn't pass out until the Coke-A-Cola fumes that the stewardess fed him wore off. LOL

Finally HOME!!!

Matthew is about an inch and a half taller than Andrew and 5 pounds heavier.  He's 8 months younger than Andrew.