Christmas......USA style

Here is Coy before the carnage started. He would have been perfectly content to just play with that single train. Of course, that is not good enough for us, we want more. So we had him open up gift after gift after gift until he was running from gift to gift wanting more. He has also learned about being able to choose more of what he eats. He is still a great eater compared to our others but it does not bother him to leave food on his plate and it has become more of a challenge to get him to eat things that he would previously devour (i.e. bananas).

I like this photo of Caleb. You may need to click it to see it well enough to get the expression on his face. He has just put his hand into his stocking and realized that he got a package of white tighty underwear. Hey, they can't all be exciting can they?

The best present that we saw Coy get was a stuffed Elmo that is just about the same size as him. He yelled Elmo over and over and danced around and hugged it. It was pretty neat. Unfortunately, after just a minute or two, it was on to another gift. He did end up sleeping with Elmo that night.

Did Christmas Come Here??

I wrote this post back on December 23 but after much debating, I originally decided not to post it. I have now decided to post it. The folks at the orphanage were against us taking pictures of the other children and putting them on the internet. I am putting these pictures up here, not out of disrespect to the wishes of the leaders of the orphanage, but as a reminder to myself that there are still many very adorable children that are waiting for a forever family.

Here is the scariest Christmas lion that you have ever seen. You know about the story of the Christmas lion don't you?? Don't feel bad, we didn't either. Actually, the pre-school where Coy goes had a Christmas program and in their efforts to include all of the children, the older children sang a song about God and the animals and they had the young kids parade in and Coy got to be a lion.

Coy went to see Santa today. I am not sure that he even knows who he is because we don't really talk about it much but he got his picture taken with him anyway.

We have had friends and neighbors over the last couple of nights and it has been lots of fun. Stacey cooked for everyone one night and we ordered pizza the other night.

As we have gone through this Christmas season, I can't help but think about all of those children that we saw this year that aren't going to have the Christmas that Coy is going to have. I always feel guilty about all of the "stuff" our kids end up with but this year it has been especially bad for me. While we are basking in our excess this year, a much bigger part of me than usual will feel guilty about what we have. When I hear mothers that have many many resources here in the US worrying about what amounts to very trivial things and I know that children in other parts of the world are struggling just to eat and stay warm, I think things are sadly out of whack. As we sit here in our large homes, with multiple vehicles, and an over abundance of everything that we could possibly need or want and we hesitate to sacrifically give to God because we think we don't have the money then we are missing the point. I don't like to think about what God thinks about that.

Santa Grant This Wish Please

To see this full screen, you can double click on the letter and it should come up.

This is a letter that Caleb wrote to Santa at school. This is the kind of stuff that makes a Mom and Dad really proud. We obviously don't know what they are doing when we, as parents, are not around but you always hope that it is at least something nice. You try to teach them things and you hope that some of what you are trying to teach them is sinking in. This is definitely an item that we will hold on to and get it out some time when things aren't going so well. This gives us encouragement that he gets it. Just in case you can't read it, here is what it says:

Dear Santa,

Did you know that you are not the biggest thing in Christmas? It is Jesus' birthday, at last lets get to the presents, just one present, a Bible, not for kids.

From,

Caleb

Caleb, unfortunately, has been really sick today (Friday). He is acting like he feels much better now but he was in a world of hurt for most of the day today. His teacher sent his letter home with his homework.

Here are some left overs from our Christmas card photo shoot. It is hard to get all three of them to be serious and then capture a photo of it. We could a couple of them to do it at the same time, but hardly ever all three.

Christmas is Coming

Having a new person in the house that is old enough to start to learn about the meaning of Christmas causes Stacey and me to be so much more aware of what we are really teaching our kids about Christmas. We so much want them to have fun and enjoy the "stuff" of Christmas without that becoming the primary focus of Christmas. Of course we ask them what they want and will try to oblige as best we can but we really want them to know the true meaning of Christmas. We are trying to teach Coy what Christmas is about before he gets lots of presents and forgets to think about why we are celebrating Christmas.

Coy loves to "read" books. Here he is reading a book to Stacey. Stacey is really good about reading to the kids or having them read to her. Coy especially likes books about Clifford or Arthur.

We had lots of fun taking our Christmas card photo. This isn't the one that we ended up using but it is pretty close. I like it just the same. We also went to see the Go Fish Guys the other night at Southeast Christian Church with some really good friends of ours. We really enjoyed the music and we went out and bought the Christmas CD this past weekend.

I have been reading some blogs recently of some folks that are in Ukraine now finding out who their kids are now. How exciting for them. Some other friends of ours were over there at this time last year. It is hard to remember exactly what we were doing this time last year.

My parents got us a Web Cam and we got it installed. It is pretty cool. I don't think it would be cool just to talk to any old person with it but the kids really enjoy being able to see themselves on the computer and to be able to "show" Grandma and Grandpa stuff.

What is after Thanksgiving???

Of course, it is Christmas, but not until we celebrate Katie's birthday first. We did however manage to put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving Day weekend, despite all of our travels. Since Katie's birthday is the weekend after Thanksgiving (usually) we have to do it that weekend or it is just too much. I did not get very many good pictures of putting up the tree because it went up too fast. With all of the help (a lot of improvement of the help that we had last year) and the new help, it went up faster than I could get the camera out. When I did get it out, I had trouble getting the lighting right. I don't know if Coy knows what to make of the Christmas tree or not but he is definitely a big fan of the train that goes around the bottom of the tree.

This has been a week of celebration for Katie. We had her birthday with the Yankey family on Thanksgiving weekend and then the Ferguson side of the family came up through the week this past week to help celebrate. Katie also had a couple of friends over today (Saturday) for a couple of hours to play and do some crafty stuff. Caleb went to a movie with a friend but Coy and I stayed with the girls. He got right in on the crafts that involved food (cup-cakes and gingerbread men).

Coy is fond of shoes. I don't know what it is but he really enjoys putting on shoes that don't belong to him. My guess is that he is trying to make us laugh and it usually does. He will probably regret this picture in Katie's shoes some day.

Below is the scene at bedtime at our house. Unfortunately, I was out of town all week with work so I did not get to see this scene at all. I feel sorry for folks whose jobs take them away from their families on a regular basis. But I really feel sorry for the folks that are left behind

to run the house with one of their sets of hands tied behind their backs. I know it takes a toll on Stacey while I am gone. Fortunately, both sets of Grandparents came up to help break up the week but I know it is still hard to keep the peace alone for the week.

I don't know when, or if, we will make it to go see Santa. Neither Caleb nor Katie have ever been a big fan of Santa and Coy has not really shown any real affection for adults in costumes so we will have to see. Of course, Coy has no idea about Santa and it is not really a topic that we discuss much at our house. We will probably end up walking past Santa at the mall some afternoon to gauge whether or not to try it but I am guessing that ours will be a letter, or e-mail, campaign to that guy.

How About This For a Bunch of Turkeys??

Happy Thanksgiving. This video is typical of a night at our house. I caught Coy singing this song in the van on our way to church on Sunday morning. Just out of the blue came, "God made me, God made me, in my Bible book it says that God made me." I was able to make it out pretty easily even though I did not prompt him to say it, which is a big improvement alone. It must have been in his head because he was still singing it this night. The lighting is bad but it is the best that I can do.

I know this is a time for us to be thankful, this being the season of Thanksgiving and all but I was reading another lady's blog other day of a couple that adopted older children from Ukraine and she made a very interesting point that I don't know that I have ever considered. Or if I did, I don't know that I had ever pondered on it very much. She said that even though these children are being provided homes, and families, and love, and everything else a child needs to thrive, they are still grieving what they have lost. We expect these children to just be so greatful for all that they have gained, and I am sure that many of them eventually are, but initially, they could very well be upset over what they have lost. They lost their friends, what they knew as home, their culture, their familiar surroundings. Stacey and I were just discussing the other day how well Coy has adapted to his new situation. He really seems to roll with new situations and surroundings really well. He is easily made content and is never demanding. If there is anybody that should be thankful this year, it is Stacey and me, not Coy. We have 3 wonderful, healthy, children. We have lots of family and friends that have always supported us. We have been to Ukraine and back and lived to tell about it. We have lots of answered prayers to tell about and we have a Father in heaven that loves us very much. Now who could come up with anything more to be thankful for than that??

This was Katie's idea for how to make a turkey out of her brother. Actually, she made a turkey out of herself first but then she did it to Coy. Coy had on the "turkey feathers" before I could get the camera out.

If you look real closely in this picture, you will see a Wii remote in Katie's hand. We went out and bought a Wii the other day and have had lots of fun playing it since. It is hard to limit ourselves in how much we play but we have to or else the kids and I would play it all of the time.

We also have bought a new clothes dryer in the last week or so. Our other dryer was making a lot of weird noises so I decided to "take a look at it" by taking off the back of the dryer. It seemed like a good idea at first but it didn't take me long to realize that trying to take the back off of a dryer was not a good idea. We eventually decided to go and buy a new one because this one had already been repaired once and we felt like the cost of a new one would be about the same as the cost of a repairman and any repair that might need to be made.

Here is a Neat Painting

As a general rule, we don't let the kids play around in our bedroom. Every once in a while, they may get to watch our TV while one of us is in the shower or something, but our room is pretty much off limits. For some reason, just the other day, we were back in our room and Katie found this painting. I was astonished at how much it resembled Katie. She held it up in front of her and Caleb's comment was that he didn't think it looked much like her, the hair was too light of a color. I then began to explain to them that that picture was probably painted about 30 years ago. Stacey's grandma on her mother's side was very artistic, among other positive qualities. She painted and sketched and wrote poetry and many other things. This is a painting that she did of Stacey when she was probably Katie's age or perhaps a little younger. I had always been impressed by her grandma's abilities before but now I am impressed even more. I don't know what she may have been thinking when she painted her granddaughter that day or several days or however long it took her but she ended up painting a picture of her great granddaughter as well. It is kind of ironic because Katie is named after her. Her name was Cathryn with a C and went by the nickname Kitty whereas Katie is Kathryn with a K and goes by Katie. Katie is definitely the artist in our family. Not just drawing, but the unique and original personality that is associated with artists best describes Katie. She can be kind and gentle and sweet too. We also have a poem that hangs on our wall that my mom cross-stiched for us as a gift for us when Katie was born. The poem was about Stacey as a baby. Another one of her poems hangs in a shadow box that Stacey and I have. It is entitled "Thoughts for Tomorrow - Today". I have no idea when she wrote it but I would like to share some of her thoughts because they still apply.

"America, my country proud,

Your virtues we will sing aloud

Of sea and sky, vast country wide

You truly are the pilgrims' pride.

So let us deem it dutiful

To keep America beautiful

America, my country best,

Two hundred years you've stood the test

And better can be on the way,

If we will all just start today.

For in this land where man is free,

It's up to you and you , and me."

You are right on with the poem Kitty, and good job on the painting too. You were an amazing woman but I didn't realize how amazing you were until just the other day.

KISS ME BABY

Who could resist a big kiss from this guy?? The discouraging thing is that I scraped off most of the icing before I gave him the cupcake. He only eats the top half anyway.

We got good news from the doctor's office the other day. Coy's parasites are gone. Woohoo!!!

Katie and I are planning on going to the Casting Crowns concert in Lexington in a couple of weeks. It is going to be fun since a friend of Katie's and her dad will be going as well as three of my friends from Lexington/Versailles and their daughters that are all about Katie's age too.

Stacey and Caleb went on a date on Friday night. I think they had fun together. Caleb's highlight of the night was getting a rare Pokemon card with money that he had gotten for his birthday and Halloween. Katie had strep throat on Friday but she sure did not act like it. She has bounced around like normal ever since she got home from the doctor on Friday afternoon.

Coy got dressed up more than ususal to go to church today. I am not sure where he got this flag but we taught him to chant USA, USA and it is kind of cute. I didn't get any video of it but the picture is pretty good I think.

Katie is our little fashionista. This is the outfit that she put together to go to eat on Saturday night. The tights aren't tights but actually socks that she has pulled up to look like thigh high tights.

Passports, Flu Shots, and Other Stuff

The weekend went fine last week. I think all of the kids had a good time at their respective destinations. Like they say in the small town newspapers, "A good time was had by all."

By all accounts, our trick or treating was a success. The kids had a lot of fun and they got to spend time with the neighbors and see lots of their friends.

I was going to post that they felt no ill effects from the flu shots that they took earlier in the week but Katie woke up sick this morning. She complained about her ears hurting last night but we didn't think that much about it. However, she woke up with a high fever this morning and is at home today. She also had a bad bruise on her harm from the shot. You can make it out on her arm in this picture.

We received Coy's passport in the mail a week or two ago. That may not seem like such a big deal but it has been a really big ordeal for us. I won't go into all of the details here but I will try to give the condensed version. When we got back from Ukraine, we were kind of clueless as to what paperwork we needed to do to get Coy a social security number. Instead of asking others that had adopted what to do, I thought I could figure it out on my own. From reading on-line, it appeared that we had the paperwork to either apply for a passport ($82) or a Certificate of Citizenship ($210 or something like that). Easy decision for a cheap skate right?? So we applied for a Passport on a Friday at the first of June. The part that made me the most nervous was sending some very irreplaceable paperwork to the Department of Homeland Security. After mailing the application on a Friday, Coy received a Certificate of Citizenship just a few days later. Apparently we had applied for one while at the Embassy in Kyiv. Who knew?? Now the rest of his paperwork that we needed to get his Social Security number was on its way to get a passport. No problem we thought, we will get him a passport and he will have it if he needs it. A couple of months went by without hearing from the Passport so I decided to call and check on it. When I called, they claimed that they had never received his information. Instant Panic insued. Incredible panic. I called Stacey and just by happen stance (maybe or maybe not, you tell me) we had received that very day a letter from the Passport Agency in New Orleans a request for additional information regarding Coy's Citizenship. They had his name spelled wrong and his birthday wrong and since he did not have a SS#, they had no other way to track him. So he was in the system. With some limited relief, we mailed his Certificate of Citizenship out within a few days. We thought we were just a couple of weeks away from a Passport for him. In a couple of weeks we did hear from the Passport office but it was not good news. They sent us a letter saying that his application had been denied, that we would need to reapply because we had not responded within the required 90 day window. The worst part was that his information came back with some of his paperwork missing. Some of his very irreplaceable paperwork missing. I called immediately to discuss. It had not even been 90 days since we had applied, and we had just sent them his Certificate of Citizenship within the last couple of weeks (which was in the packet that was returned to us). Stacey and I both called the Passport Customer Service office number but they can not really comment on the specifics of each case. They can give you a status of your application and can send messages for you to the Passport office, but you can not speak to someone that is handling your case. THAT IS FRUSTRATING. Everyone we spoke to agreed that the Passport Agency was in error and that it needed to corrected. We asked what we could do and they suggested writing letters (how old fashioned). But that is what we did. I wrote letters (and sent them via signature confirmation) to both the Passport Agency in New Orleans and the Complaint Department in Washington DC. No response. A couple of weeks later we did get the rest of his paperwork back (some slightly damaged but got it back anyway). We took that paperwork and got his SS# and had almost resigned ourselves to not getting his passport. But we were out $82 plus all of the postage used sending them additional information and writing letters. (The first letter we wrote was lost by the Post Office). So one letter that I sent indicated that my next course of action was to either contact the local media or my elected official. When another month went by and we had not heard from them, I decided to call our US Representative's Office. I called and spoke with them on a Thursday and faxed them some information regarding Coy's situation. By the following Thursday, someone from the Passport agency had called and given me specific instructions on what to do. I sent of that information (again priority mail with signature confirmation) on a Friday morning and by Wednesday of the next week, we received Coy's passport via FedEx. Ok, so I went on a little longer than I had to, but it is important to me to get the details in there.

Katie is officially a Daisy Scout now. It will be interesting to see how this goes. They meet after school a couple of times a month. So far, the reports back from the Daisy Scout meetings have been favorable. There are several other girls that are Katie's friends that are in the group that makes it a good group.

A Parent's Dream/Nightmare

I was able to go to the zoo with Caleb's class last week. We were there when three monkeys escaped from the zoo. Fortunately, I was able to take this picture of the escaped monkeys that helped the folks at the zoo to catch them. They were so good looking though that they let them go free. These monkeys actually rode a bus back to Caleb's school after the field trip.

Coy really enjoys going to Honeybees on Wednesday night at church. He sings some song with it and dances and screams when he learns that he gets to go to Honeybees.

The kids are all going to spend the night somewhere over the weekend. Caleb is going to spend the night with a friend, Katie is going to her Aunt Dawn's, and Coy is going to Grandma Yankey's. This is a parent's dream because we are guarenteed a night of not getting up with someone needing to go to the restroom or having a bad dream or wanting to get up at 6 AM to play video games. It is also a parent's nightmare because we are worried about how they will do away from us. Caleb and Katie will be fine. They have been away from us before and they know how to act. But this will be Coy's first night away from us since he became a part of our family. This is kind of a right of passage for all kids I guess. Staying at Grandma's house is not quite as frightening as staying with a friend I don't think. I know that Grandma Yankey will do a good job of entertaining him and that as long as she has food to eat, he won't get bored. She can always put him in the bathtub because he loves taking baths. He is looking forward to seeing Grandpa's tractor. But as a parent, you still worry about it.

He has back slid a little bit with the potty training. He has gone weeks before staying both clean and dry but this past week or so, he has taken a step back in that area. We are not sure what is going on but we are hoping that this is just part of his learning process. He is really smart and understands almost everything we tell him now.

The soccer season has come to an end but basketball season starts next weekend. The kids did a great job in soccer. Caleb scored 4 goals this season and Katie scored 2 goals. This is especially good for Katie since she was a 5 year old playing in a co-ed 6 and 7 year old league. They play 7 versus 7 with a goalie so there are not a lot of goals scored in any game. Katie is not playing basketball but will probably get back into Angels' Wings or gymnastics or both.

The Zoo

Let me start by sharing this video. Some friends of ours told us about the Go Fish Guys last week and Stacey found a website where you could listen to some of their music for free. Of course, our two musical clowns loved it and wanted to listen to them over and over. I filmed this on Friday night after an afternoon of listening and dancing. They almost have it down.

The big attraction this weekend was the zoo trip. It is another one of those things that we do every year together as a family. It is safe to say that Coy still doesn't know what to think about adults dressed up in costumes. The Cowardly Lion just about had Coy making a cowardly deposit in his pants. He really enjoyed opening his bag and watching candy being put into it though. He got the hang of that real fast. He really didn't seem to be phased by the other kids in costume, but the adults in costumes really bothered him.

We can't believe that Coy is not gaining any more weight than he is. All he did on Saturday was eat it seemed like. The kid seems to go to bed asking about breakfast and he seems to ask about lunch as soon as breakfast is over. We ate lunch out with Stacey's parents on Saturday and I don't know how much he ate but it seemed like a lot. Then, when we got in the van, he asked if we were going home to eat.

Caleb learned a new skill this weekend or at least some time recently. He can cross his eyes. Boy does he make his father proud. He can also make this smacking sound by shaking his finger really fast. I taught him that.

River Dance, Magic Tricks, and Hot Air Balloons

OK, another busy weekend for the Yankey family. On Friday, we went to the local high school football game because Katie got to cheer as a result of going to a cheerleading clinic a week or so ago. There was a good crowd there and we thought that she might be afraid to go out there but she went right on when it was time. She actually cheered the entire 2nd quarter of the game. I am guessing that there were about 40 other girls out there cheering with the varsity cheerleaders. I am also guessing that it will be not much more than a blink of an eye and she will be out there for real. Stacey and I both would rather have her out there than hanging around behind the stands like we saw so many kids doing at the game. Caleb, of course, liked the football and some girls that he knows from school and church were also cheering so he liked that too. We thought Coy would like the band since he likes music and the drums so much, but he did not care for the band. It may have overwhelmed him but he cried for most of the band performance.

The video is of Coy wearing Katie's shoes and doing a dance on the kitchen floor. He thinks it is funny when he wears Katie's shoes (and it is for the most part). Caleb and Katie put him up to dancing in the kitchen and I just happened to catch it with the camera. He could be the next Michael Flatley (spelling??) if he works on it.

After the soccer game on Saturday morning, we went out to eat with my mom and dad and then came back to the house to visit for a while. In the afternoon, Caleb and I went to basketball evaluations for his basketball league and then afterwards, we went shopping for Halloween costumes. Caleb, for now, is Darth Vader. We may try to talk him into being Brian Brohm before we go anywhere other than the back yard. We had a babysitter come over for a little while on Saturday night and he was outside playing kickball in his costume. I am sure that was warm. Katie is going to be the little mermaid. I am concerned that when the weather cools off (if it ever does), that she will need to wear a jacket and that might not go over too well with her. I mean, who has ever seen a mermaid with a jacket on?

Sunday, after church, some friends of ours from over in Louisville came over for the afternoon. Yes, that is two of our children goofing off in the picture when they should be smiling. I think they get that from their mother but she thinks they get it from me. I guess we will never know. This was our annual pumpkin picking adventure but last year we did not have such a good experience picking pumpkins (they were just laying on the ground, they weren't even in a patch) and everyone had already made plans to go another time with others or through school so we decided to go the hot air balloon race at IUS instead. One of the families could not go but the rest of us went to the balloon race. Again, we thought Coy would like this but he was instantly afraid. He finally did warm up to the balloons after a while but it took a little bit of time. We think he really did have a good time. After the balloons took off, we got in our van and headed home. The wind was blowing in our direction and we saw several of the balloons landing in nearby neighborhoods on our way up the hill. There was even a chance for a while that a balloon was going to land in our neighbor's yard. The balloon was actually a lot closer than it appears in this picture. My guess is that it was about 200 yards away. I still had the camera around my neck so I snapped a few pictures of it. We really enjoy the IUS balloon festival because it is not very crowded and we can get right up next to them. This last video is one of my favorites. I used to be really enthralled with magic and I learned a few, very basic magic tricks. My best one is a card trick that I do from time to time. I showed it to Caleb and Katie on Saturday and they wanted to do it over and over. The video shows Caleb, trying to do the trick on Coy while Coy is eating. Of course, Coy is not that interested in the card trick and I don't think that he knows one card from the other. It is kind of comical. The funny part is that Caleb actually messed the trick up and showed Coy his card about 3 times and Coy had no idea what he was saying yes and no to. You have to watch it to enjoy it. It is over one minute long so it may take a little while to download it.

Picnic Day, Huber's, and Comments

We had quite an amazing weekend. To say that we were busy would be an understatement. Friday night, our friends, the Dorschs' came over to visit. Then, we had soccer on Saturday morning, the Hopeful Hearts Picnic for lunch, and then the neighbors had a Halloween party for the kids later that afternoon. On Sunday, we went to church, out to eat, to Target, to Huber's, and then to Dave D.'s football game. We had a flat tire on the way home from Huber's too.

At the Hopeful Hearts Picnic, we got to meet lots of kids that have been adopted from Ukraine and their new families. There were several neat families and kids that we met but one of the most amazing to me is this little boy in the picture with Caleb and Coy. His name is Max and is about 2.5 years old. The thing that is really neat is that he is from the same orphanage as Coy. His parents came and got him about a month or so after we were there. I doubt that they saw each other much because of the 6 month age difference but there is a chance. We also met a little boy named Eli. He is about 5 years old and his parents keep a blog too. If I get really industrious, perhaps I will post a link to their story as well someday soon. We also got to talk to a few couples that are in the process of adopting. Even though we were there only 7 short months ago, it seems like a lifetime ago.

The highlight of Sunday for Coy was by far and away the tractor ride at Huber's. He is definitely on a tractor kick. He even prays for tractors at night.

I have changed the comments settings to allow anyone to make comments on the blog. I wish I had gone in there and done this earlier. I just never looked around. Now, if you see something you like and want to comment on it, you don't have to be a member to post a comment.

Who is Perfect?

This is something that I have been meaning to do for a long time but have just now gotten around to doing it. I don't know what prompted me to do this now but here it is. It reminds me that none of us are made perfect. Some of our imperfections are more obvious than others but none of us is perfect. I have to admit that I am sometimes hard on Coy. It is not because he deserves it, but it is because I believe that he is capable of so much that I expect much out of him, just like I do our other two children. I hope that he realizes that I don't expect him to be perfect. I definitely don't want to exasperate him. I do my best to quick to praise him abundantly when he does do the right things and I try to shower him with touch and kind words at every opportunity but I have to admit that I am not perfect. I am not the perfect father. I try to be the best father that I can be but I make many mistakes. I am so glad for grace and the fact that no matter how many mistakes I make as a father, that God's glory and grace and can do great things through me, despite all of my shortcomings.

This picture was taken when Coy was about 10 months old or so. He had his first surgery in Ukraine when he was 11 months old. We guess that the picture that we saw of him in the SDA office was taken shortly after his surgery was performed. The picture that we saw at the SDA was a bad angle of his face and it made his nose look even more distorted than it actually is. I am so glad that God didn't allow our shallow attitudes towards appearance to get in the way of putting another very beautiful, wonderful boy in our family.

Underwear

What is it about running around the house in your underwear that is so exciting? I am not sure that I quite understand it but I can tell you this, it has to be the highlight of the week for three year old boys when their mom and dad let them run around the house in their underwear. Coy even wore underwear (and other clothes too) to school today and he apparently had the same pair on when Stacey picked him up this afternoon. That is about 6 hours of staying dry and clean. He has been going to church and CBS in underwear for a while now because that is only 3 hours and if someone knows to take him, he can pretty much stay dry all day. He hasn't really come to tell us too much that he has to go but he does stay dry. He has had lots of success staying clean lately too. He does a good job of telling Stacey when he has to go but he doesn't do so good of a job telling me. I watch his body language and try to guess when he is going. If he is outside and having fun, he won't stop what he is doing to go inside and take care of business. Either way, he really loves to run around the house in his underwear. It is priceless to see the smile on his face. I am not sure what that food is on his face, but whatever it is, I am sure that he enjoyed it.

His favorite foods tend to be yogurt, pizza, peas, green beans, and anything that you can dip into Lee's honey mustard sauce. He doesn't clean his plate everymeal but we don't have any problem getting him to try any food that we put in front of his face.

Coy was the spotlight student today at school. He took a picture of himself on Grandpa's tractor and he took a toy school bus. He lives for watching Katie and Caleb get on and off the school bus. In the afternoon, Stacey has stopped going out too early because when they go outside, Coy doesn't play, he just sits in his chair and waits for the bus to come. He loves to sing the song about the wheels on the bus. You can ask him what the babies on the bus do and he can tell you. You ask him what the drive says and he says "move on back." It still helps if you know what he is trying to say but it is getting easier and easier to understand what he says.

One of my favorite times this week has been watching Caleb, Katie, and Coy all playing together. They have been playing this game where they run through the kitchen and then into Katie's room and just before Coy gets to Katie's bed, Caleb will push him and he jumps on to Katie's bed. He laughs and laughs and then they do it all over again. We normally wouldn't let them run through the house but they were having such a good time, that we allowed it. The best part was later that night during our prayer when Caleb thanked God for allowing him to have that fun time that day with his little brother and sister. Thank you God for giving me each time with all of them and Stacey too.

Happy Birthday

Well, we had a big day, that is for sure. The biggest bummer is that I didn't do a very good job of capturing the day in pictures. Hopefully somebody that was here will send us some good pictures for me to post.

The day started out with a soccer game at 10. Then after the game, we had lunch with some of our family. At about 1, people began to show up to enjoy the bouncer that we had rented for the day. It was one that had an area to bounce, a slide, an obstacle course and an indoor basketball goal. The kids really enjoyed it. At about 6, we ordered pizza for everyone that was still here. Stacey and I did a rough count of the folks that came by on our way to church this morning and we counted a total of 80 folks that came by. It was almost 8 PM before the last ones left.

Coy had not been feeling good the last few days before Saturday. He had a respitory infection and was coughing a lot. He did pretty well on Saturday and actually feels pretty good today.

We really didn't know how many people may come by on Saturday so we had 2 cakes the size of this one in the picture. A few families brought cakes and cookies too. We were able to eat all of this one but there was a ton of the second cake left at the end of the night. We pushed the cake as hard as we could but there was a lot left.

Our kids were dragging today after the big day yesterday. We just sort of hung around the house after getting home from church. We all went out a couple of different times to enjoy the weather.

Every birthday is a blessing. Whenever any child in our family has a birthday, it almost always brings me to tears remembering how they have grown up and seeing how they have matured. This birthday was no different. Even though Coy has not been with us that long, he has grown a lot (mentally and physically). And when I thought back to what his birth must have been like and what his previous birthdays may have been like, I couldn't help but crying about that too. I would like to think that there is a lady and man in a small town outside of Donetsk Ukraine that remembers September 15 and wonders and maybe cries on this day too. We have no idea if they celebrated their birthdays in the orphanage or not. There were so many kids and they had so few resources that I know that they could not have had the excess that we had. Coy is a lucky boy but we are very lucky too. Not just because we have Coy, but because we have so many family and friends that have supported us through this and lots of other things too.

This is a picture of Coy enjoying his cake just minutes before he throws it all back up. He mainly just ate the icing and that , mixed with all of the mucus that he had been swallowing must not have sat well with his belly so up it came. It didn't seem to slow him down any but I don't think he ate any more cake after that. I am sure that if we had put it in front of him, he would have given it another try.

First Day of Pre-School

Coy had his first day of pre-school this week. As with most things like that, he did an awesome job. Being around other kids doesn't seem to phase him at all. Gee, I wonder why?? He does a good job of separating from Stacey which in most cases would be good but in his case, it is OK. The best part is how excited he gets when he sees her after she is gone for a while. He generally gets excited when any of us come back from being gone for a while but he especially gets excited about seeing Stacey.

Coy has a SSN# now. We have been going around and around with the Department of Homeland Security over his passport. It is a L O N G story so I won't go into it but the short of it is that they have lost some of his paperwork and they have sent some of it back to us and told us that we have to resubmit. The best part is that they don't take phone calls. The office that lost it is in New Orleans but the customer service number is not in New Orleans and when we call to talk (not complain yet, just talk) they tell us we have to write a letter to New Orleans. On the other hand, we were able to take some of the documents that they did send back to us and get his SSN# within a week. We would have loved to have done this sooner but we sent the paperwork we needed to get his SSN# off to the Department of Homeland Security to get his US passport.

Be glad if you are a 6-7 year old soccer player that you don't have to play this team. They won their first game today 6-0. Caleb scored 2 goals and Katie scored 1 goal. Every kid on the team did a great job. Normally, there will be one or two kids that you just can't reach but this team is full of really good kids. Most of them I have coached at least one year and a few of them I have coached for 4 years now. The parents are really good too. That is good.

This is Coy's version of "This Little Light of Mine" Of course it is only the "I'm gonna let it shine" part but it is pretty good stuff. He does such a good job of learning the songs and he loves to sing and do motions to songs.

We got some test results back in the last week or so that show that Coy still has his parasites in his intestines. The Dr. doesn't seem to be too concerned about them so I guess we won't be either. They sent us the test results in the mail and we looked them up on the internet and they don't seem to be too harmful so we don't think that there is any real need to worry. It is dientamoeba fragilis trophozoites. He also has entamoeba coli cysts and blastocystis hominis oranisms.

Don't forget that we are having a Happy Birthday/Welcome Home party for Coy on Saturday. NO GIFTS PLEASE!!!!! But please come by anytime after lunch and get a piece of cake and wish Coy a Happy Birthday. Also, if you are able to stop by, please PARK ON OUR GRASS. Our driveway won't be able to hold everyone and our grass is as hard as our driveway. Even if we get 3 inches of rain this week, our yard will still be plenty hard to drive on and the only thing you would kill would be the weeds.

This is Coy riding his big wheel down the hill, backwards no less. If we had a nickel for everytime that he has dragged that thing back up the hill and ridden it down again, we could just about pay for his surgery. He loves to do this. One of the best parts is that he still belly laughs everytime he does it.

Coy's speech continues to improve. He is really improving on his colors too.