Goodbye

She spent the day giving me tearful hugs, telling me she loved me and that I was her Mommy.  She wanted to take me back to Belarus in her backpack.  In the end, when it was time to go, she grabbed on to me and sobbed.  It was hard to make her go!

I took one last picture of the girls together.

And then I watched my little girl walk all by herself into security.  She still had tears in her eyes as she went.

Nobody was very happy.  As we walked away from security Dani looked at me and said, "Sveta was crying hard Mommy, it made me blink a lot!"

I will miss those beautiful blue eyes!

But as I said in my last post a year goes so quickly and soon enough she will be back!

I forgot my purse when I left the house this morning.  I am so lucky that Bridget showed up at the airport to say goodbye to Sveta, so I could pay for parking, or I might have been stuck there. 

Preparations

Brittany packed Sveta's stuff during the day.  She was helping me because I didn't feel well.  She packed and repacked and packed and repacked till everything fit and the suitcases closed.  I didn't want to let her know that I still had stuff to fit in so I waited till she was sound asleep at 11:30 last night to pull everything out and repack again.  I pulled everything out of the suitcase, and began packing again.  I got EVERYTHING in, which is a huge endeavor.  It was packing, unpacking and repacking till everything fit.  As I said, I finally got everything in, went to zip it and the zipper broke.  Then I had to go dig around in the basement and find my good luggage and repack her in one of those.  The duffle bag held everything well, but the bag itself weighs more which puts us right at 50 pounds.  I hope their scales are the same as mine or I will be standing in the middle of the airport transferring stuff from the duffle bag into the other suitcase to make them more equal in weight.  I am not sure how much more we can get into the other suitcase!

I got up this morning feeling a bit better, came into the living room the the prequel to the EXORCIST was on in my living room.  Luckily there were no children around.  Apparently they were watching Madagascar when they got bored and went down to the basement to play.  When Madagascar ended the Exorcist came on???? What in the world would the programmers be thinking doing something like that?  Guess parental controls are going on this TV too, who would have thought you would need them at 9 o clock in the morning?

In about an hour we will load up the kids and Sveta's stuff and head to the airport. 

A little Belarusian Information

If anyone is interested, this is what Wikipedia has to say about Belarus.  It is a very well written article and a lot of good facts.  One thing that interested me was that the average monthly income there is about 225 US dollars.  Ten years ago the avg monthly income was 20 US dollars. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus#History

Children of Chernobyl Farewell Picnic 2007

The day brought forth lovely weather for the Chernobyl Farewell Picnic!  It is amazing how fast the time flies.  It doesn't seem a year since the last picnic, which also happens to be the day that we were loading the Uhaul to move our stuff to the new house.  A year of living in our new house and a year of loving and keeping in touch with Sveta.  It hardly seems possible that 6 weeks have passed since we all sat waiting impatiently, watching for her shining, happy face to appear through the airport crowds in June.  Looking for the freckled nose and giant smile that have become so much a part of our lives.  It is hard to imagine on Wednesday morning after dropping her at the airport on Tuesday evening, not waking up to her giant bear hugs and her morning "I don't like you, I love you!".  Hearing her voice calling to the girls and telling me that she has "two mommies", one Belarusian Mommy and one American Mommy.  It is a wonderful thrill to have had this beautiful time with her, watching her grow and learn our customs and our language.  A child who just last summer, was torn from her family and brought thousands of miles to live for weeks with people she didn't even know, people she couldn't communicate with at all, who is now telling me "No I don't like that back pack, can we find a different one." and completing full sentences telling us all about her life in Belarus, a life that we will probably never get to know and understand.  How to express how I feel about sending her home...I feel like I am sending my own child, yet I know that I am sending her to her family who loves her way more than I do.  It is a bittersweet moment.  She is thrilled to be going home to her family, carefully choosing each of her gifts as tokens of her love for them, but I can see the sadness in her eyes at having to leave us behind.  She tells me over and over, "Next summer, I can't wait for next summer!"

The Blessing at the church was beautiful.  Nadya (the children's chaperone) read a letter from a grown child who spent many summers coming here with the Children of Chernobyl Project about how it had changed her life and thanking her family that had brought her.  Nadya then thanked all the families for their hard work and for loving the children as their own, but we feel that it is us who have been blessed!  Her speech was wonderful.  Then Sveta got to get up and help present the gift to the church as a thank you for helping make the program happen.  She spoke all of her words perfectly and in English!  Each child was knelt at the altar and presented with a cross from the church and the pastors said a prayer over them.  It was a beautiful service!

Then all the children gathered for pictures.  First just the Belarusian children.

And then all of the host family children along with them.  It is a big beautiful bunch of children.

After the Blessing all the families headed to the park for the picnic and traditional Russian and Ukrainian music.  It was fun to watch the kids as they noticed that the music was familiar.  Sveta even got to dancing for a little bit!

Sveta got her picture with Nadya (the chaperone) and Judy (the director), and her best friend Anya.

It poured down rain, but that didn't deter the singers and the atmosphere was wonderful!  After we loaded all the soaking kids into the van, we headed home.  Bridget and I took Sveta to buy clothes and gifts so I can pack tomorrow.  The time is drawing nigh!

Wow what a weekend, I have been running a fever for a couple days now, but feeling a bit better today.  We finally went and saw Harry Potter, I love the series, but having seen the first three in England, there was some level of disappointment at not seeing it there.  We still miss it!

We have added another few animals to our repertoire.

This is Hoppy...he was given to us by moving neighbors, who showed up at our door and asked if we wanted him.

This is Goliath and Freckles, Goliath is the little one!

Bridget had a little accident this week, she fell between the buildings at work! 

Now that looks painful!

The girls got their photos done at Target last week too, they turned out sooo good!

Tomorrow, new pictures of Copper, who we should be able to get at some point in the middle of August.

a long weekend but mostly fun, if you don't count the stupid cable company!

Sorry it has been awhile since I posted.  On Thursday the house or somewhere very close to it got hit by lightning.  The only damage was to our cable box and it was completely dead.  I called for someone to come out and so easily they said that they would be here Friday between 8-12.  I rearranged my whole day so I could be there for them, so when it was noon and they hadn't shown up I called to see what was going on.  The lady I spoke with told me that the technician was running late and he would be along  a little later.  4pm came and went and they still weren't there, so I made another phone call.  After being passed around to about ten different operators I finally surmised that somehow my appointment had been canceled by them without my knowledge.

David and I spent hours on the phone and finally got ANOTHER appointment for Tuesday.  Tuesday morning I woke up and called to make sure they were coming.  I finally got someone here and got my cable fixed so I am back up on the internet and have a telephone again since we use Vonage, which means no internet, no phone.

Monday we spent the day at King's Dominion.  This was great fun! 

Bela has added two frogs to our menagerie of pets.  We may be having LOTS more in a month or so as Bela came in last night and said, "Mommy it is sooo cute, the big frog is giving the little frog a piggy back ride!!"

Kassie had a tick this evening and when I pulled it off her head, it took a piece of her skin with it.  We had fun examining the tick and her skin in the new microscope, which I love!  I can't wait to get the new telescope put together too so we can look at the stars.  There is a meteor shower coming up in August and we are wanting to be able to use the telescope then.

Only two weeks till our little Sveta leaves, we are sad to see her go, but it is such a comfort to us that she is going home to a good family.  We will get the girls' pictures all together on Friday.  We are hoping to be able to get Cherry in the pictures too.  I am excited, we are going to send one of all the girls together to Sveta's mom.  Sveta keep coming to me and giving me great big hugs and telling me how much she loves me and that she is going to miss me.

There will probably be lots of pictures this weekend after we meet the new puppy!

Oh how they love to torment me

It was a wonderful day today.  The AWESOME folks at FAIRFAX 14 sponsored a movie day for all the Belarusian kids and the families that are hosting them. The kids got a tour of the box office and then free popcorn and coke.  They watched Shrek the 3rd and then had pizza and cake and more coke.  As if that wasn't enough, the theater also provided each child with a gift bag that had a short reel of the movie, a movie magazine, stickers, a pin of Harry Potter, etc.  It was really nice and I thank them very much. 

There was an interesting conversation on the way home from the theater. 

Brittany: Let's see if we can find a rhyme for "it"

Me: Don't even think about it.

Gabby: Uhhhh "pit", what do you put in a pit, when you are in the woods with a shovel and some toilet paper...(me giving her a fake dirty look) "s-s-s-spit", what did you think I was going to say?

Brittany: Now let's see if we can find a rhyme for "buck" Hahahaha

Wisdom from the peanuts

7 year old Bela walks in wearing a small bra.

Bela: Mom this bra fits me.

Me: Not really you don't have anything to fill these. (pointing at the cups)

Danijela: Yeah she does, toilet paper!

Why my children are SO much smarter than me!

Bela: Mommy I ate a cherry seed.

Me: Oh don't eat cherry seeds.

Bela: Why?

Me: If you eat a cherry seed a cherry tree will grow in your tummy.

Bela: Mom you are so silly...cherry trees need soil and sunshine to grow and I don't have either of those in my tummy.

Copper

David's new little bassett hound, that we are getting him for his birthday, was born on Wednesday the 11th of July.  There are three males born and we haven't decided which one we want yet, but we do know that we want the name Copper.  Here are the pictures of the three males.

This is the one I like the best so far.

This is David's favorite so far.

And this is the third one, which I also like cause he is darker colored.

It will definitely be easier to pick once we have met them on the 21st and gotten to know their personalities better.  We will keep you all informed. 

This puppy brings our family up to, 5 kids + 1 Belarusian daughter over every summer, 3 cats, 2 dogs and a bunny.  Brittany wants a canary for her birthday...Hmmmm.

And how did you sleep last night?????

It's bad enough that I have many nights where I have trouble sleeping.  Some nights it takes me till 3 or 4 in the morning to actually fall asleep.  Last night I fell asleep around 1.  Wonderful right?

2:30 am: Danijela crawls in bed with me laying down right on top of me.  I finally get comfortable and fall back asleep after a little while.

3:00 am: I wake up soaking from Danijela wetting the bed.  I get up, change her, change myself, put her on her little bed that we made on the floor for her for nights when she is having bad dreams, and luckily there was no wet spot on the bed since it all went on me, so I headed back to bed.

3:20 am Cherry starts barking

      "Cherry Stop it, go back to sleep!" and then there was silence.  It takes me awhile to go back to sleep, but I finally fall back into oblivion.

4:00 am: Cherry starts barking again. Usuall when she barks, I just holler down the hall at her and she stops and goes back to sleep.

     "Cherry stop it! Go back to sleep!" Silence again...I can finally get some sleep.  Taking a little bit to fall asleep again, I soon nod off.

4:45 am: Cherry starts barking again.  Maybe something is wrong, I better go check.  I smell the smell as soon as I get into the living room.  The inside of her kennel is covered from top to bottom in poo.  She gets out, SHAKES OFF and RUNS to the door.  I take her out and watch for 15 minutes while she finds ten different spots in the yard to go.

5:00 am: I get out the lysol, a hot bucket of water and begin my quest to get her kennel clean.  All the while gagging and cursing the fact that David can sleep through anything. 

5:45: The kennel is shiny clean and the smell is starting to wear off in the room.  I put a new blanket in her kennel, clean her up a little bit, and send her back to her bed where she IMMEDIATELY curls up and goes to sleep. 

5:50: I run outside to the dumpster to throw away all the papertowels and toys that were in her kennel (no I did not bother to clean them, that was just too much, I will replace them), come back inside, realize that the smell is going to take longer to wear off than I thought, but that the smell of poo and lysol is actually worse than the smell of just the poo itself, and jump in the shower. 

6:00: Now I am sitting here writing this, knowing very well that the kids will be up soon and I will have to get up anyway, so what is the point of going back to sleep.  David's alarm is due to go off any minute and I am worried that Cherry will want to go back out, so here I sit.

Caption This

Summer memories

Summertime has a lot of memories for me, different memories for different times of life.  My summer childhood memories include lazy, hot, sunny days in a small town where everyone knows everyone.  We would walk to the swimming pool every single day to be there by opening time at 1 in the afternoon and stay till closing at 5.  Sometimes we were able to convince Grandpa to drive us in his big old white Ford truck.  It wasn't that far, but we had to save our energy for the pool.  When we didn't get Grandpa to drive us we would walk the less than 10 blocks to the pool barefoot and in our bathing suits.  The hot sun beating down on us so that we were good and hot.  We always had some spare change with us so that we could stop at the Dimestore afterward and get some Lick 'em Sticks and Zebra Stripe Gum.  After that we would lazily make our ay back to Grandpa and Grandma's house, stopping along the way to pop the bubbles that the hot sun made in the tar on the streets, with our toes.  I hardly remember a time when we weren't barefoot and we never had to worry about someone hurting us or kidnapping us, we knew everyone.  Sometimes when we got home there would be fresh watermelon waiting for us. 

On some days, we would take a break from the routine and sit around watching WTBS "Superstation Funtime" or even on some days Grandpa and Grandma would load us up in the pick up truck and we would head out to Lake McConoughay.  No matter what, they are all good memories.

Getting Ready for another year

It's that time of year again.  Time to pick the curriculum, file all the paperwork that the school district needs, plan my school calendar, do lesson plans, and organize all the curriculum.  Each of these steps takes several days for me.  I carefully decide what subjects each girl is going to take, then poor over website after website, deciding what curriculum I want to use and finding the best prices.  That step alone took me a week.  Now that the curriculum is starting to come in, a few books at a time, I have to go through each book, list the subject and all the materials that go with it and how much it cost.  Figure out how many lessons there are and how many days in the school year and then plan out how many pages a day need to get done to finish by the end of the school year, factor in tests, quizzes and reports and...well you get the idea.  Let's just say I spend hours preparing for the school year.  It is a fun process for me and I get excited about all the new things they are going to learn.

California Achievement tests have been taken and returned, copied and ready to send to the school district.  The girls scored amazingly well and Bela scored off the charts  She is 7 years old, entering 4th grade and she scored in the 99th percentile on 5 if her tests, 97 percentile on one and 87th percentile on the last one.  The rest of the girls scored really well too, but they made me promise that I wouldn't post their scores here.

Next is a list of school supplies. I am so blessed to be able to be home with them!

It takes a village????

I have been thinking about the statement "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child" and I believe it is a cop-out.  It doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes two responsible parents who are willing to work at their own problems as well as to help their children with theirs.  It takes a Mom who is willing to get up in the middle of the night and nurse the baby even though she is so tired she can't open her eyes.  It takes a Dad who works 12 hours a day just to make ends meet or gets called in on holidays and misses all the fun.  It takes parents who are willing to to talk with their children about why they are being disciplined or why the other kids are so mean.  It takes a Mom who feels every feeling that her children have and a Dad who comes home when he is tired after a long day and wrestles with his kids because they need Daddy time.

The Mom who works because she has to and still comes home and bakes cookies for school the next day.  The Dad who spends his day helping with a Science project.  The Mom who took four hours one day making a costume for a play.  The Dad who backs up the Mom when the kids are in trouble.  It takes two people to raise a child and if you expect other people to do it for you, you will be disappointed and your children will miss out!

So many long nights I sat up with a sick child, holding their hair while they vomited, treating their wheezy coughs, or just cuddling their fevers away.  Every day I get up looking forward to what the day ahead holds for them, watching them grow into beautiful young ladies that nobody can take credit for, but David and I.  I am proud of them and I am thrilled to be their mother.  I pose this question to those of you who believe it takes a village...if you are expecting other people to raise your children, why did you have them???

Where do they get these ideas?

Dani: Mommy, soon we are going to have to start buying stuff for the baby.

Me: What baby honey?

Dani: The one that you and Daddy are having!

(By the way I am not pregnant, that was something she came up with on her own)

Happy Independence Day!

The day was sultry and hot, David got called in to work on an emergency, the yard was somewhat long because the mower was broken, but after all that the day still ended up a success.  We got up early, cleaned, vacuumed, cooked, cleaned the pool and put the chemicals in, picked up the yard, got all the kids dressed and hair fixed, and it was time for our Independence Day celebration.

Gabby found a giant green caterpillar munching on my green tomatoes in the garden...

We had barbecue and swimming, good friends and family.  Then there were the sparklers.

We had a full blown fireworks display at our house and then everyone went home.  It was a lovely day and I would just like to say about my friends, "I love you and you are all like family to me!"

I hope your day was as wonderful as ours.  Don't forget to stop and think about all the wonderful men and women who risked their lives, or gave their lives so we have the freedom to celebrate our Independence!

A couple of beautiful smiles