Batman sings B-I-B-L-E

Here is Coy's rendention of B-I-B-L-E. As with everything else, by the time I got up to get the camera, his best performances were behind him but he does a good job.

We got to go to one of Katie's Angel's Wings performances tonight. It was at an assisted living house over in Jeffersonville. Caleb volunteered to read a scripture but something happened (I am not quite sure what happened) and he didn't get to read it. He was really funny about it though. I love seeing Katie performing with Angel's Wings. She does such an awesome job.

Coy had his first dentist appointment last week. Katie went first so that he could be convinced that it was not going to hurt. We learned that Katie has three loose teeth and one permanent tooth already has broken through. The dentist told us that Coy was obvisouly missing a tooth and that more than likely his permanent tooth was not going to be there either. He also said that orthodontics were definitely in our future but that in general, there were no real major concerns. The dentist was really impressed with how well the plastic surgeon had done repairing the roof of his mouth. Coy did a great job for the dentist and the lady that cleaned his teeth.

Coy's speech continues to improve. He is also improving on the potty training front. It has been almost 2 weeks since he had a massive accident. Most of the time, he ends up with a wet spot about the size of a silver dollar in his underwear.

It won't be long until we can start to say, this time last year, we knew the date that we were going to Ukraine. We got our appointment date on February 28 last year, so it was exactly a year ago this week.

I have noticed that my entries aren't as "deep" as they were while we were in Ukraine. The truth of the matter is that I sometimes have really good ideas about things that I would like to post but I often forget them by the time I find a free minute to sit down and type. My entries quickly turn into a data download session more than a blog entry. One of these days, I am going to write down my ideas when they come to me so that I can remember what I was thinking when it is time to share.

The mini-marathon is April 26 and it starts at 7:30 AM and should be over for Stacey by about 9:30. I suspect that we will have soccer that day but I don't know what time yet. Also, we signed Caleb up for baseball too. One of his best friends is playing on a team in Lanesville and we were able to get Caleb on the same team. He is not really interested in baseball all that much, but if his friend is on the team, perhaps he will at least give it a fair try.

Cabin Fever and Valentine's Day

These are the guys on the morning of Valentine's Day with their valentine's treats. I think they were all glad to get them. Nothing too big, just a small box of candy for each. They all made out like bandits at their school so they really didn't need much from us.

Their Aunt Ruth Ann sent them all a Valentine's Day card with money in it. They all love to open mail. They must get that from me. Caleb and Katie are both to where they can read the cards. Not that they don't rip them open first to see if there is money in there or not, but they do come back and read the card to see who it is from and to see what it says. Coy enjoys just getting anything and being able to say that it is his. He sees the other two get excited about money so he gets excited when there is money in his card but he has no idea what to do with money. He can't eat it and we won't let him play with it so it has no real value to him yet.

Here is a picture of our crew out in the "snow". It was snow on Monday night but by the time that we got outside, the snow had turned to freezing rain. We were pretty much on a solid sheet of ice with a bitter cold rain coming down. The kids loved it though. If we could have kept their hands dry, we probably would have stayed out longer but there is just not that much to do in the slushy, ice. The plastic sleds that we had went pretty well since none of the kids were heavy enough to break the ice. Lexa pretty much made a cameo appearance and spent most of her time outside, in the garage. Coy and Katie were outside the longest and Caleb eventually made it outside.

Tonight at the supper table, we had to remind Caleb and Katie that Coy is like a little sponge and that he is watching their every move and listening to their everyword and that is one of the reasons why it is important for them to choose their words wisely. It soon became a game for them to say a phrase and see how long it took for Coy to parrot it back to them. Coy caught on to this game pretty fast and he was having a good time with it too. Caleb then decided to sing a portion of the Halleluah chorus and see if Coy would follow suit. Well, of course he did. So while Coy turned around to face me with the camera, the other two directed the music. This was actually a recreation of the initial performance. They were both pretty funny.

During one of the snow days, the girls from across the street came over and spent a little bit of time playing with our kids. This video is a dance that they made up with the singing frog that Caleb picked out for Katie for her birthday. Make sure that the volume is turned up for this one.

A Special Visitor

Stacey's sister's husband has not been feeling well so Stacey offered to let her niece stay with us for the week to give her sister a helping hand. I was anxious because the plan involved Stacey driving north on I-65 during all of the snow. It took her a little while to get home but they made it safe. All of the kids were excited to see Lexa, that is for sure. We will see how long it will last. Tonight at supper, Caleb and Katie took turns feeding her. Coy enjoys her too. Tonight during the prayer, Coy thanked God over and over for letting Lexa come to stay at his house.

It won't be long now when we will be talking about "this time last year". We got the call from Kathy on February 28 last year telling us when our appointment would be. It doesn't really seem like it has been a year already. But in some ways, it seems like Coy has been with us all along. Of course, we didn't get to meet Coy until April 13th, but making plans to go to Ukraine was certainly more exciting than waiting on paperwork to expire so that we could redo it all.

We are expecting school to be closed tomorrow. We have several inches of snow on the ground and several more are expected for tonight. I am considering staying home from work tomorrow too. Not because the roads are bad, which they may or may not be, but because we don't get snows like this very often and it might be a good chance to play with the kids in the snow.

One of the local news stations had a story on a couple from the Louisville area that is in the process of adopting a child from Ukraine through the same group that helped us. The little girl, who is as beautiful as can be, has a severe cleft lip and pallete. According to the news story, she is going to go to the same surgeon as Coy.

Stacey continues to train for the mini-marathon coming up in April.

We are also planning our family vacation. A real good friend of mine from high school owns a condo down in Gulf Shores Alabama and has agreed to allow us to stay there during an "off-peak" time for only his cleaning costs, which is a HUGE deal for us.

Also, I ran over a screw one night last week and the Big-O on State Street fixed it for free. Of course, it took about 50 minutes for them to do it, but it was free. Stacey had gone to get Katie and the boys and I sat down there. Caleb had his game boy so he didn't care and the guy gave Coy and Caleb both a balloon (Caleb let Coy have his) so Coy didn't care either.

Total Attachment

I guess the attachment thing is a big issue with adoption. Taking a child (or children) that may have never known a mother and a father and getting them to understand that they now have a mother and a father can be a difficult task. The longer that they have spent in an institution, the more difficult the task. I don't know how the length of time that Coy spent in the orphange compares to other children. Obviously, every child's experience is different. However, I can tell you that Coy is totally and completely attached to his mom. He is attached to me too but he is definitely a momma's boy. Not that that is all bad. Our two oldest, I would say, were never more of a momma's boy/girl any more than they were a daddy's boy/girl, they clung to us fairly equally. Coy, on the other hand, definitely clings to Stacey more than me. It doesn't bother me all that much. I am glad that he has bonded so strongly to her. He has bonded with me too, just lots more to Stacey. What is not to like about her though?

The video shows the kids holding Stacey and doing the wheel barrow crawl. We did this for about an hour one day recently. We all took turns carrying each other. The kids didn't carry Stacey too many times and only Stacey tried to carry me. The kids thought that they could carry me but I didn't let them try after seeing how they struggled with Stacey.

We were on the wrong side to see the faces of the cheers during the time outs, but Katie did a great job. That is her in the middle with her hands up and her feet spread. I will have to admit, I was worn out by the time that the game started. Katie had to be there at 6:45 so I had prepared myself mentally for a 7 PM start. Well, it was actually a 7:30 start and they had Homecoming beforehand, which turned into an 8 PM start. We left at halftime, which was close to 8:45.

Stacey went to help some of her family out on this past Sunday so it was up to me to get the kids ready and to church on time. We made it. They did really well. Luckily for me, Katie knows how to do her own hair. I have very little experience fixing hair. It has been a while since I have had to style my own hair and I am not much better on other people's hair.