Post Adoption Follow Up

Someone asked about the post adoption follow up that we have had to do. It has been our understanding that each state handles adoptions differently and that each agency may have their own requirements too. As for us, we have not had to do any post adoption home studies or visits for the state of Indiana or for the group that did our home study. We do, however, for Ukraine, have to do yearly reports on how Coy is progressing. This is a real simple 2-3 page report that we sent both e-mail and hard copy to the Ukraine Consulate in Chicago. We do maintain contact with the group that helped us to adopt Coy and we also maintain the e-mail addresses of the folks that helped us while we were in Ukraine. I keep meaning to send those folks pictures of Coy to show them how he has grown in the past year but it seems like I never remember to do it while I am on the computer. Perhaps today will be the day.

Perhaps part of the reason that I have hesitated to e-mail the folks in Ukraine about how Coy is doing is because I would like to know what would happen if Coy had siblings that have entered into the government childcare system. I wonder if we would be contacted. I have also read about people trying to find information on the birth parents. We know really all we want to know about the birth parents. Who knows if this will be all that Coy wants to know about them. We will cross those hurdles when we get to them. Because of his age and because of the record keeping in Ukraine, I figure anybody could tell us anything and we would have no way of knowing if it was true or not.

New Video Camera Test

I am trying to upload video from our new video camera to our blog. It is quite a large file and I am not exactly sure which one it is. I hope to improve on this, if it even works at all. The quality is MUCH improved over the video feature on our still camera.

Since my last post, Coy has completed his speech for the summer and Caleb and Katie have completed swim lessons and Safety Town. Caleb and Katie earned free tickets to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, so we took them there one day. We were unsure how many rides they would have for Coy, since the website did not indicate any for kids under 42 inches tall so my parents let Coy spend the night with them. He had a great time. We all had a great time.

Stacey was also brave enough to take all three children to a public swimming pool in Harrison County by herself. I don't think I could take them to the grocery to pick up milk and cookies, much less, to the swimming pool for the afternoon. (Stacey is standing over me telling me that she thinks I could but I am not so sure.)

I am not so sure about the video so I am going to quit typing in case I lose it and I have wasted this time.

***Update*** I got the video to download but then it didn't play back once I tried to play it back from the blog. I will keep working on it. I don't have a lot of confidence that I can get it to work but I will keep trying.

Finally

Wow, it has been several weeks since I have posted here. I can't even begin to recall what all has happened so I am not going to try so instead I am going to share about something that I see at church. Getting three kids ready for church in the morning is not really easy and by the time we get to church, we are ready to sit down. (Full Disclosure: Stacey does most of the getting the kids ready, I just pitch in where I can.) I often find myself exhausted (mainly from watching them) by the time we get in the door. However, there is a lady that many times will sit in front of us. She appears to be the care taker of three or four different grown men with mental handicaps. She is always smiling and worshiping with such fervor. I feel guilty for even thinking that I have it tough when I see this lady and how she persists. I don't know her name and I don't know that I would recognize her face if I saw her out in public but she inspires me to have much less self pity (I am really in no position for pity) and much more appreciation for all of the good things that I have. I actually have it really well.

I did get a few really great gifts for Father's Day. We purchased a new video camera so we have been taking some videos again for a change. Also, both Stacey and my sister had the same idea of preserving this blog for keep sake. Stacey not only printed out all of the blog entries for me to save but she also printed out all of the e-mails that we had kept from when we were gone. My sister not only printed out the blog entries but did them in a scrap book. She said that she did it for Coy. I was hoping to have something so special to give to him instead of a "Baby Book" and now, we will have it. My sister has a real talent for scrapbooking and it shows in the product that she made for Coy. My sister and her family have been such a blessing to us. Thanks Michelle, we appreciate it more than you will ever know.

I have been travelling quite a bit and when I do, I have much less desire to get on the internet and blog. Also, I am having trouble getting on the computer because Stacey has been burning up the internet lately. Between Ebay, Craigslist, and just general research on stuff that we are considering, it has been hard to get in a keystroke.

The last day of school, we did have a big waterballoon fight. It was so much fun, we had another one a day or two later. The kids worked really hard for a long time filling up lots of waterballoons. They did a good job of helping to pick up the pieces afterwards too.

At the Corps Day picnic, Katie climbed the rock wall. I am guessing that it went about 20' high. She climbed up it like she was Spider Woman or something.

Stacey has been busy so far this summer. Caleb and Katie have swimming lessons and Safety town and Coy has been having speech. She hasn't been trapped at home with them all, all day but I am betting that she is glad of that. Especially when it is too hot to go outside.

One more thing, Katie's picture was in the New Albany paper today. She had gone to see High School Musical on the Riverfront in Jeffersonville and a reporter had taken her picture. They had a story about it today and ran her picture in the paper as well as on the internet. If you search for New Albany Tribune, her picture pops up. If you are reading this after Sunday, you will probably have to search for Riverstage after you get to the website. The picture is actually of the back of her head but it did give her name.