Family Vacation

Another tradition that we started four years ago was going on a family vacation with my side of the family. The beauty part is that my parents usually pay for the deal and my sister and her family and me and my family get together for a weekend somewhere fun. This year, since my sister's children are really busy and since we didn't know if we would even be around this summer or not (since we did not know our travel dates until late February), we did not have time to plan much. So we decided to go to a hotel with a water park that is close to Louisville and then hit a mini-golf and go-kart place close to Louisville as well. The little water park in the hotel that we picked was just perfect for our children. There was not a lot there but Katie and Caleb were big enough to do the big slides but still small enough to enjoy the kids pool too. Coy really enjoyed the pool as well. It took him a few minutes to get warmed up to it but once he did, he spent 5 hours or so walking up steps to go down the slides. (Five hours is not an exaggeration.) We were there from 3:30 until almost 6 PM and stopped for supper from 6 until almost 8 and then went from 8 until 9:30. Then this morning, we went from 9 AM until after 10 AM. And trust me, there was no sitting around for this kid (or any of the kids for that matter).

This afternoon we rode go-karts and played miniature golf (after swimming some more in the morning). Caleb was the only one big enough to ride the go-karts by himself but Katie and Coy enjoyed riding with Grandpa and Mommy. Caleb enjoyed the miniature golf the most. Everyone is really wiped out and we have put them to bed extra early tonight.

In other news, we may have found an urologist to do Coy's circumcision at the same time as his cleft palate. Stacey called the plastic surgeon and just asked for another urologist and they suggested another one. I wish someone had thought of that earlier.

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I ended up hearing from several that are still reading the blog. That is good to hear.

I have been out of town some this week on work. It was actually the first time that I had been gone since we had come back from Ukraine. I must admit that I felt guilty for leaving Stacey here with the kids by herself for 3 days. It is hard work for us when we are both here. I can't imagine how she handles it for 3 days by herself.

We have forgotten to take our camera on the last couple of outings that we have had. Sometimes it is all we can do to just get to where we are going, much less with everything that we need.

One of our favorite times of the day is story time. The routine that we have gotten into is that either Stacey or I will read Coy a few baby books with colors and letters and I love you's and then we all go to Coy's room and pray together. We (either me or Stacey, usually Stacey) will read Caleb and Katie a few longer books and a Bible story or two and then we will all go to Katie's room and say another, longer prayer together. Coy's attention span is not quite long enough to last through that prayer. Although, he does a great job of putting his hands together and keeping them together until we say Amen. He likes to say a prayer too and say Amen. I, for one, have not understood a single word that he says when he prays except for Amen. That doesn't really matter to me though because I know that the Holy Spirit can interpret broken toddler Russian just as well as he can grunts and groans. It is a good thing that he enjoys the prayer time and the reading time. He enjoys sitting in our laps and letting us hold him and talk to him.

We are planning on having a babysitter on Friday for a couple of hours. Caleb and Katie will be with my parents one night while Coy stays here with us. We are going to have a babysitter watch Coy for a couple of hours while Stacey and I go out on a date. This will be our first time together during the day since we have been back. Stacey is especially looking forward to it since she will get to eat without having to get something for somebody other than herself. It's the little things that you appreciate when you are a mom. I am just looking forward to getting to spend some extended, uninterrupted time with Stacey. We will let you know how it goes.

Finally

It is finally raining a little bit. I have finally gotten a chance to get on the internet this weekend. And we finally got some digital pictures of coming home to the airport. It has been good timing for me to get these pictures this week and remembering the feelings that we felt when we got home that night. I expect it is much like a tired new mother that is exhausted with all of the late night feedings that every once in a while goes back to those hospital pictures and reminds herself of that emotional high. The day to day is much harder than that. I suspect that God plans these little pick me ups (like getting the pictures now) for our spirit's sake. He knows that every step is not going to be through a bed of roses and we need these little encouragements along the way. We still need all of the encouragement that we can get. The language thing is frustrating for all of us, even though we think he understands a lot of what we are saying. I also think that he is smart enough to know that if he acts like he doesn't understand us that he can get away with a lot more mischief.

Coy is doing fairly well. The potty training seems to be going backwards though. He will do great for a couple of days and then the next day or two will be accident after accident. We have been resisting offering food as a reward for achieving this skill so far. It doesn't seem to bother him to walk around wet either. I guess this will come in time though.

Our house stays pretty crazy pretty much all of the time. I am glad that it is summer so that we can get outside. I don't know what it is going to be like this winter. If you come to our house or if our house visits your house, be prepared (and warned). We are indeed a tornado of activity.

We camped out at some friend's house on Friday night. We were initially afraid of the heat but then we were afraid of the rain but it ended up being a nice night so we camped. Coy got the best sleep of all of us. It was so bad, that we all took a nap on Saturday afternoon. At least Coy, Katie and Stacey got naps. Caleb, who is obsessed with Star Wars, asked me no less than 1 million questions about Star Wars and a Star Wars Lego game that we rented from the video store.

Our neighbor had a benefit yard sale on Saturday morning for her fight with cancer. She is probably about 30 years old and has throat cancer.

Last night we had the two couples from our Growing Kids God's Way class over for supper. It was great to get to see them again.

This morning, Katie's Angel's Wings had a performance at a church that is very near our house. We all went to the service and enjoyed it greatly.

We got our driveway enlarged last week. This gives us more room for guests to park in our driveway but it also gives us more pavement areas for biking, tricycling, and soon, basketball.

Right now, as it continues to rain, Cedarmont Kids are singing songs on our TV. Caleb and Katie used to really enjoy these videos and it appears that they have Coy's attention for the moment.

This picture is one of my favorite. Who would not want to hurry back to such wonderful children?? What a sight for sore eyes!!

One last story........Coy is really good at imitating his older brother and sister. When Coy first got here and would get upset, Caleb would rythmatically wave his arms at Coy and chant "calm down, calm down, calm down." That was about the first two weeks that we were home. Just the other day, out of the blue, Coy begins to wave his arms at Caleb and Katie and chant "calm down, calm down, calm down." No one else would have had a clue what it was that he was saying but we recognized it right away.

If you are still reading this, please send us an e-mail at yankeyfamily@insightbb.com I know that some of our family is still reading it since they are out of town but I would be curious to know if anyone besides our moms are still reading. Thanks.

Count Your Blessings

If I was forced to count my blessings, I don't know where I would start. Since this is Father's Day weekend, I guess one of the first places to start would be my children. But I wouldn't be a father without my wonderful wife so maybe I should start with her. But I probably wouldn't be married to such a wonderful wife if my mom had not taught me a few things about how to be nice to others. But being a good husband and father is more than just being nice to my wife and playing with my children. And I was blessed to have a Father that was an awesome example of integrity and committment.

I will have to admit that I stole this next thought from a friend of ours that also blogs about her family's adoption from Ukraine and on Mother's Day she had sort of this same thought and I haven't stopped thinking about it since then. We certainly enjoy Coy and love having him here with us and we believe that it was God's plan and divine power that brought him to be a part of our family. But somewhere out there, there is a Mother and a Father that saw their little boy be born and they have no idea what has become of him. I wonder, if Ukraine has the equivalent of Father's Day, if it will cross that man's mind to

think about what has happened to this little boy. I wonder, if when Coy gets older, if he will see me the way that I see my father. I am sure that he will have questions one day about who his birth mother and father were and we will answer them with all of the information that we have but how that information plays out in his mind has to be a concern for almost all adoptive parents and parents of children from broken homes.

This Father's Day is going to be a little more special than the ones in the past. That is not to say that the ones in the past weren't special, because they were. But this year, I know a little bit more about what it means to be a father. I

know a little bit more about the sacrifices it takes sometimes to be a good father. I appreciate a whole lot more the opportunity I have been given to be a father to my children. I appreciate a whole lot more the fact that I am the only earthly father they will ever know and the sense that they will base a lot of their conceptions on our Heavenly Father by the way they see me as their earthly father nearly overwhelms me at times. I am obviously not perfect, far from it actually. And some days, I wish I could have a mulligan and just start them over from the beginning. But at night, I ask God to give me another opportunity the next day to do better

and He has so far. So I guess where I would start with my very long list of blessings would be that He has given me today. He doesn't promise me tomorrow and what has happened in the past is not held against me. He has given me today to be the best father, husband, and friend that I can be and it is my responsibility to do all of those things. I will do my best. It is the least that I can do.

We have been very busy this week. We went to a Bats game on Monday night. I think we discovered that Coy is afraid of adults dressed in silly costumes. Of course, that is not unusual for

young children to be freightened by such things but it is still cute just the same. We also went to Holiday World on Friday. It has been a tradition of sorts for us to take a picture of the kids in front of the mushroom in the water park. Coy got to take part in that tradition this year.

Coy's friend is Cole who is a neighbor from just one door down. They play together pretty well for how 2 year old boys play. They mainly just play beside each other but it will be good for him to have a friend his own age when he gets a little older.

The Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor gave us some good news on Tuesday. He said that it appears that Coy has a normal range of hearing and that our Pediatrician had misdiagnosed his last round of ear infections. He indicated that Coy's ears were indeed red but not from infection. They were red from the scarring of numerous, previous ear infections. He will have tubes put in his ears in July.

Getting Things Together

Coy is helping his big brother and sister wash the van and perhaps wash Coy, in this picture.

It has been another exciting week in our house and the coming week promises to be just as exciting.

Coy is now enrolled in First Steps of Indiana. He will be having some form of physical therapy for 2 hours a week beginning this week. One hour will be gross motor skills and the other hour will not exactly be occupational therapy. His pallete surgery is scheduled for July 23 but we were unable to get his circumcision at the same time. We didn't want to delay his pallete surgery so we decided to just get his circumcision done later. We are going to the ear, nose, and throat doctor on Tuesday to see about tubes in his ears during his pallete surgery. We have only been home about 5 weeks and we have already been through 2 rounds of antibiotics and they don't seem to be helping any. He is as congested and pulling at his ears just as much today as any time that he has been home. He has doctor's appointments on both Monday and Tuesday.

Coy and I went to the Hopeful Hearts prayer meeting on Thursday. Another couple was there that had just gotten back from Ukraine and they had adopted a little boy from the same orphanage where we found Coy. He had just turned 2 in February. Coy and the other adopted boy did not appear to know each other.

We went to my work's picnic yesterday. We had a good time until it rained.

We sent off for his passport last week because we thought we needed some form of proof of citizenship to get his social security number. Then Tuesday, after we had sent off the passport on Friday, we got his Certificate of Citizenship in the mail. We did not know that we were going to get his certificate of citizenship and from everything that we read, we thought it was going to cost us $215 to get one. Now we have to wait who knows how long to get his passport. Not to mention that we sent his Ukraine passport and the official copy of the adoption decree along with the passport application.

We had a bad week on the potty training this week. He had done so well the week before but there were several days this week where he had numerous accidents. I am not aware of any bowel accidents, only urinary accidents.

Whoa Horsey

Another exciting week goes in the books. We spent Sunday and Monday down at my parents' house in Springfield. While we were there, we went to the Baptist church, the folks from Mackville Methodist church came out to mom and dad's house for a cook-out and a hymm sing (my dad built a small church on his farm and restored an old organ and put it in). The pastor of the church also played the guitar and we all sang. We had a great time just showing all of our kids off to folks that we don't get to see very often. My sister and her family came down late on Sunday and our kids got to play with her kids, which they love. However, the highlight for our children was probably going out to Mr. Coyle's farm on Monday morning to ride the horse.

Riverman was a very willing participant. Coy didn't know what to make of that horse at first but after watching big brother and big sister take a ride, he was all for it. His death grip on the saddle lasted all of about 10 seconds as he proudly waved to the crowd after about 3 steps of the horse. After that, we went to my cousins to swim in their pool. Coy had a great time there too. He is not afraid of the water at all. By the end of the day, he was putting his face under. The only problem is that he was keeping his mouth open. He was trying to keep his mouth closed but he was having such fun that as soon as his head went under, his mouth would come back open. Between the horse riding and swimming, the boy was flat wore out.

In other news, Caleb lost his first tooth on Wednesday night. It had been loose for a long time. It was so loose that it had become discolored because it was just barely hanging on. He finally agreed to let Stacey tie some floss around it and it pretty much just fell out. Coy was already asleep when it happened so I don't think he even knew that anything went on but Katie was really excited for her brother. That is nice to see that she was happy for her brother. We talk about being happy for others when something good happens to them so it was good to see it in action. Of course, she thought Caleb was going to be rich.

One of our family traditions has been to go and pick strawberries in the spring and this year was no different. We were afraid because of the late freeze and the lack of rain that there might not be any strawberries but there were. We picked almost 7lbs of strawberries. They could have picked more but we won't eat them all. All of our children did well picking berries. Coy seemed to have a lot of fun, especially on the tractor ride out to the patch. He liked the wind blowing in his face.

Coy continues to do well. Stacey has really been working hard on the potty training this week and he is in underwear except for during the night. He has only had 2 accidents the entire week. There has been a change in his surgery date but we don't know to what date yet. The urologist is busy on July 23. We will keep everyone updated on when the anticipated surgery date will be.

We applied for Coy's passport today. We had to send off our original of the adoption decree. That is scary to trust such an important document to the State Department. We are supposed to get it back and we will need it back to get his SS#. It takes 3 months to get a passport. I am glad that we aren't in any hurry.

Stacey and I continue to be blown away with how generous God has been to us. He has really blessed our family with Coy (with Katie and Caleb too). I still don't know how to put all of my thoughts about it down yet. I am working on it and maybe someday, I can try to explain the overwhelming sense of gratitude that I feel for all that I have been given because I certainly don't deserve it.