Our Big Adventure

Again and Again

2011-01-27T00:55:00.006-05:00

Well, it has happened again. More seizures for Coy. This one seemed to be the least severe of them all. The same thing happened as has happened in all of the previous ones. I managed to get the camera out and shoot some video of this as it was happening. Actually, Caleb is the one that took the footage. I was helping Stacey to administer the Diastat and talking to 911. This video is hard for me to watch yet strangely I found myself watching it over and over and over again. I'm not sure why. Some might criticize why I would choose to show this video. I'm not sure of that answer either other than I want people to see just how disturbing these events can be. Unfortunately, there have been several for him and I think that I'm handling them better and better every time but it is still unnerving to see your little boy laying there and know that there is nothing you can do to help him.

More Seizures :( :(

2010-12-01T11:27:00.002-05:00

It has been a long time since I posted last and so today, on my lunch break, I'm going to post just for a few minutes. Coy had a 3T MRI that showed no structural malformations which does not make him a good canidate for surgery at this time. However, he had another seizure episode the first weekend of November. It had been four months since his previous seizure so we were thankful for that. This one did not seem to be as severe as some of the others but I feel like it was because we caught it just as it was starting and was able to give him his Diastat almost immediately. He still ended up in Kosair for the majority of the weekend but most of that was just waiting on the Neurologist to show up and talk to us. So far, we have resisted adding a second medication to his maintenance medicine. Primarily because of the concerns that we have of how the medicine that was recommended to us could potentially change his personality. It is a scary thing to think about giving him a medicine that could alter his personality but it is also scary living with the fear that we might not catch his next seizure soon enough to get him the medical attention that he needs. During his last episode, we requested that he be taken directly to Kosair's but the ambulance driver did not comply. Apparently, because of the ambulance that we received, their policy is to take them to the nearest hospital to stabilize the patient first and then move him on to a specialty hospital only after they are stabilized. Coy's oxygen rate had gotten fairly low so they didn't risk getting him to Kosair's immediately. We were not thrilled with the service or explanation that we received from Floyd that evening but needless to say we were releaved that everything turned out OK this time. He is now on what I would consider a very massive dosage of his medicine for a 50 pound child. As of now, he seems to have very little if any side effects to this medication. We hope that continues to be the case and that future seizures can be more easily managed. He is such a sweet, sweet boy and brings a smile to the faces of everyone that he meets. He doesn't know when his seizures are coming and he has no recollection of anything that happens during them. I am hoping to video tape one of these seizures for the purpose of showing the doctors what he does when he seizes. Somehow though, when it starts happening, the last thing that I think about is getting the video camera to tape him. During the last seizure, Caleb and Katie were asleep and the EMS and ambulance did not wake them up at all. It wasn't until morning that they learned that Coy had had another seizure.

The First Day of School

2010-08-22T22:14:00.003-04:00

Coy got on the bus a couple of weeks and was generally very excited about his first day of school. He had been dying to ride that bus ever since he got here and August 11, 2010 was his day to do it. He did it. With a huge smile on his face, just like he does just about everything else. I have to admit, that boy smiles more than any kid that I have ever seen. It is amazing. Some or another, his brother and sister have become able to make him not smile at times but for the most part, he smiles a lot. I did great too watching him get on that bus. I was as proud of him and as happy for him as I was for either one of the other two that had gone before him. But then I saw him in that gym. He looked so grown up and mature. His brief time here with us flashed through my mind and I became a wreck. I briefly imagined what his life might have been like had he not been adopted. I imagined his medical problems and other issues and I have to admit it was too much for me to handle. I felt my eyes get misty. There may have actually even been a drop that fell out of them. I ran over, hugged him really good, told him I was very proud of him and then I got out of there. He was fine. A big, big boy.

It has been over 7 weeks since his last seizure. I'm guessing somewhere around the 10-12 week mark. He did have some bloodwork done recently that showed that his trileptal levels were normal but I'm not sure what a normal level of trileptal is for a 5 year old boy. He is going to have a fire drill on Tuesday of this week. He definitely is exhibiting a degree of anxiety about that. Hopefully, Tuesday will come and go without much excitement.

Coy did get to meet the EMT worker that has been the first responder come to the house on 3 of the 4 seizure episodes. It was good for the man to see Coy and how he is when he is awake so that he can appreciate how "out of it" he is when he is seizing. The man is a very kind and gentle man. He has no idea how much he is appreciated.

2010-07-10T22:09:00.003-04:00

I have missed posting to the blog. Life has gotten so crazy lately that I haven't had the time to post. And, quite frankly, when I have had the time, I haven't had the energy or the inspiration to post anything positive.

Unfortunately, Coy has had a couple more seizure episodes since I last posted. The most recent one, over the 4th of July weekend was easily the most severe. It started the same as the others but quickly progressed to the point where he required being hooked up to a ventilator to help him breath and to protect his airways. His seizures eventually became convulsive after he had been seizing for over 4 hours. The only solutions anyone is providing is increased medication. There is no hope in medicines for me. I have several other significant stressors in my life now and I would discuss them here (I don't think anyone but strangers are still reading this) but I'm too tired. The toll that his seizures are taking are untold at this point.

Another One

2010-03-03T19:36:00.005-05:00

Coy had another seizure last night. Very same pattern and timing as the earlier one. Increase in medication dosage is the only fallout so far. I'm sure that an increased fear at bedtime will follow as well. But in between the seizures, we have been having lots of fun. And after the seizures, the rest of us are exhausted and Coy does not remember anything about it at all.

Glad That's Over

2010-01-20T18:17:00.005-05:00

As we were going through the adoption process, I started using this blog to update people on what was happening with us and the adoption. We also used it to stay in touch with people while we were in Ukraine. But, after we got back, everyday life kind of got in the way as did the realization that our life was not really interesting enough to warrant very frequent updates to the blog, so, in time, my postings have declined dramatically.

Unfortunately, we have recently experienced an event worthy of bloging. Not so much as to pass on the news, although it is useful for that too, but for me to express it. For some strange reason, I seem to find comfort in sitting here and putting my thoughts out there. I'm not sure that anyone else is reading or not (except my mom and her sister) but I'm posting it anyway. Not because I have to, but because I want to let go of it and this seems to help me. Here is what has happened, according to me.

It was a dark and stormy night. Actually, it was more foggy and dreary. To be honest, I can't remember exactly what the weather was. But I do know that it was cold and that we had been outside for several hours on Monday. Thanks to the MLK holiday, we had played different sports outside for a significant portion of the day. Stacey had been to a doctor's appointment of her own and I stayed home and played outside with the kids. But the afternoon was memorable only because they had all gotten along the entire afternoon. Not only had they gotten along, but the older two had swung on the tire swing with Coy and let him win at some game that they made up just to get him to giggle his infectious belly giggle. Once Stacey had returned from her appointment, we loaded up and went as a family to Caleb's basketball practice. Afterwards, we bought a single Pepsi from the vending machine for the kid's to share and came home the same way that we had many other nights before. We did our family devotion together on the couch as soon as we got home so that I could go downstairs and exercise on the elliptical. The kids stayed upstairs with Stacey to complete the bed down process. After my time downstairs was done, I came upstairs to Katie having a "disagreement" with the boys. It ended with Katie in her room and us talking about the need to find her happy heart and to do the right thing and seek her brothers' and her mother's forgiveness. I left Katie stewing in her room while I went to take my shower.

I had been to the funeral home earlier in the day to see an acquaintance who was burying her 27 year old son. And later when I was taking my shower, I remembered very vividly asking God to never let me bury one of my children. So that thought was fresh in my mind. With my shower complete, I went to the living room to find Coy already in bed and Katie and Stacey reading a book on the couch with Caleb in his bed reading a book. I went in and told Coy goodnight by saying "Good night Abigail" and him looking at me very quickly and responding with a "My name's not Abigail, I'm Coy". Very similar to many other nights. Still, nothing going on that was worth remembering for very long. As Katie finished with her reading, she decided to do the right thing and make amends with her brothers. She went to their room and climbed the ladder to Caleb's part of the bunk bed to apologize for her earlier actions. It excited him so much that he hopped down to tell Coy the good news of Katie's remorse. But what Caleb found was not what he expected. He came to me at our computer and said "Dad, come and see this, Coy has fallen asleep with his eyes open." To which I lovingly replied, "Go lay down Caleb, you need to get to sleep." He walked in to his room and almost immediately came back to me and repeated his request because he said that it was spooky. So I got up and followed him into his room to find Coy staring blankly and lying lifeless in his bed. Not being educated on seizures like I am now, I immediately assumed that Coy was in a very deep sleep. I sat him up in his bed, saying his name and rubbing his back with no response from him. It was like he didn't see me or hear me. Man, was this kid sleepy. So I tried to get him to walk a few steps thinking that would wake him up but he had trouble walking. I brought him out into the living room with the volume of my calls of his name ever increasing but still no response from Coy. Caleb and Katie obeyed my instructions to go and get Stacey when none of my attempts roused Coy. Stacey sat in our reclining chair with Coy in her lap and he almost immediately started swallowing and drooling. Our reaction, he is going to throw up. Stacey carried him to the bathroom and steadied him over the toilet but nothing came. Coy reached for his throat so we thought that perhaps he was needing to get air to his throat so she ran with him outside to get some cold air to his throat. By this time, I'm on the phone with the immediate care center to see what we need to be doing for him. They are asking questions about his breathing and his lip color but none of our answers are scaring us yet. However, the duration of the non-response is beginning to get troubling. The older kids are imploring us to call 911 even though it was not a serious situation to us yet. I'm not exactly sure what happened because I was in the kitchen talking on the phone to the immediate care center lady but Stacey became animated and called for me to get something to help prevent Coy from swallowing his tongue because his swallowing efforts had become more intense and his drooling had become profuse. Also, I could have swore that the immediate care center lady told me that she was calling 911 for me so I hung up the phone and thought that it would soon be over. In just a few short minutes, Coy's condition seemed to get worse quickly. And as the phone rang, it was the immediate care nurse again telling me that she had spoken with our pediatrician and he instructed us to call 911. Really?? OK!! I tried frantically to dial 911 but I couldn't get our phone to ring it through. By this time, Stacey is in full panic mode and the other kids are beside themselves in distress. I'm a mess too as I punch in the password to my blackberry because I can't get our home phone to dial 911. The 911 lady begins to give me instructions and I'm not sure if I should act on what she is telling me or pass them on to Stacey for her. But I decided to do what she says and have Stacey help me. I begin to rub Coy on his chest with my fist just as I am being instructed by her and the slobbering begins to get better. His fingers and mouth are still blue and seem to be getting bluer. Thankfully, there is a knock at the door. It is a single first responder that lives in the neighborhood behind us that immediately comes in and has us put Coy on his side and on the floor from his place on the couch. Coy immediately vomits, albeit very slightly. Not long after that, what seemed like seconds but was probably minutes, the ambulance and the sirens and the lights showed up. What happened next, I'm not sure but I heard a lot of medical jargon and the only thing I remember clearly was one of the men saying "He's absent, he's absent." They were asking questions about chemicals or fevers or head bumps and the answer to all of which was negative. They worked kind of like I imagine Santa working because in no time the room was full of medical equipment and medics. We pushed furniture out of the way to make room for the stretcher. I also remember yelling at Caleb and Katie to get to their rooms and they would scurry back only to be back in the hallway seemingly every time I looked up. As the paramedics strapped a still lifeless and non-responsive Coy into the stretcher, I will never forget Caleb's question to the EMT of "Will he be OK?" and the EMT's response of "We will take good care of him." Caleb and Katie both screamed a sigh of relief and hugged each other like their team had just won the NCAA Championship. And just as fast as the EMTs had showed up, they took Stacey and Coy and they went out of the door and the house was as silent as it has ever been. I looked in the faces of Caleb and Katie and cried like a baby. I was so completely terrified. They helped me to pull it together enough to get on our knees by the couch and we all prayed for Coy and the doctors and everyone that would be helping him in the next moments. I called both of our parents to let them know what was happening and then I called our neighbor to come and sit with the kids until one of our parents made it to our house. Just a side note here: everybody needs good neighbors. By this time it was 10:45 or so at night. I just assumed that they would have been awake and would have seen the lights or heard the sirens of the ambulance. When they answered the phone, I asked Mrs. Lang if they were in a position to come over to the house for a little while. A most unusual request I will readily admit. She didn't ask why or what is going on or anything, she just said that she was coming over. And in a minute, she was there. What a wonderful blessing they are.
With the older two settled, I took off for the hospital. The only problem was that I wasn't sure which hospital I was going to. I made two phone calls on my way to the hospital. I called one of the men in my Friday morning men's group and I called one of my best friends from our Sunday school class to request prayer. When I got to the hospital parking lot, I called my sister to talk to her but she had already spoken with my parents.
I ran inside to find Stacey and Coy and the doctors surrounding him. He was laying there with the oxygen on him but it didn't look like Coy to me. We rubbed him and spoke to him and kissed on him but with absolutely no response. The seemingly relentless and repeating questions from the medical staff did not offer any hints as to what might be happening. They took him back for a CT scan and kept looking in his eyes but he was not there. His vital signs were good which gave us some sort of comfort. We weren't there long before a number of people from our Sunday School class began to show up. By this time it was well past 11, probably closer to 11:30 at night when these folks showed up. All of them with jobs to be at the next morning and all with children of their own at home in their beds. Words will never be able to express what a relief it was for them to be there with us at this time. We were stuck there waiting and their mere presence and conversation were a pure comfort that only people that have a common bond like we do can enjoy. We prayed and laughed and talked and prayed again. The doctors at Floyd Memorial seemed either concerned or perplexed enough to suggest that we be sent on to Kosairs. A CT scan had normal results. They called an ambulance from Kosair to come and get us but when it showed up, it was just a standard unit and they needed a paramedic with them to be able to administer more medication if necessary. We waited until 12:45 to leave for Kosairs with still no response from Coy. They kept telling us that he would be exhausted from the seizure as well as the medicine. This was in addition to the time of day but yet they kept rubbing him and calling him too like they were expecting a response.
By 1 AM we were at the emergency room at Kosairs. Three of the men from our Sunday School class followed us to Kosair's and stayed until 2 AM when they moved us to the Transitional Care Section in the Intensive Care Unit. While we waited in the ER, Coy looked up for about 3 seconds and for those brief moments, he looked like he was 'home'. He laid back down and went back to sleep but after that, he looked different to us. He looked like a boy sleeping and not the lifeless lump of flesh that had left our house.
It wasn't until 7 the next morning that he woke up and said his first words and answered a question. They immediately gave him more medicine and he went back to sleep. Stacey and I slept precious little in the coldest room in the hospital. A technician came in and gave him a EEG while he slept and then we waited even more. Around 11 or so, the first visitors of the day began to show up. And as they were leaving, Coy began to wake up. At around 12, he was awake enough that he seemed to be his old self. He was a little disoriented and wondered why he was in the hospital but for the most part he was back in the saddle.
The next couple of days consisted of more and more questions from the doctors as well as an MRI. The bottom line is this......I'm not sure if they diagnosed him as an epileptic or not but they diagnosed what had happened as a complex partial seizure and the it was epileptic in nature. The neurologist recommended that he be medicated because of the duration of the seizure and that we carry around medicine in the event of future seizures that might last longer than 3 minutes. The neurologist also said that based on the length of the seizure that Coy was at a greater than 50 percent chance of future seizures but that the daily medication would reduce that chance by 50 percent.
A few of the more memorable comments include that Coy started crying on Tuesday when he realized that he had missed breakfast. He couldn't eat because he needed to be sedated for the MRI. So I immediately began to talk up the intravenous fluids. "Coy, how about some intravenous fluids for lunch?" Later that night, when the doctors came in to look at him, they would ask simple questions that they expected him to know the answers for. One of the questions that they asked him was what did you have for lunch to which his response was, "Whatever was in that bag." Also, the nurse on Wednesday morning was very nice to Coy. I wasn't sure that we were going to be able to get him to leave.
It all kind of seems like a bad dream now. Nothing has changed but yet everything has changed. So many people have come to us and told us that they were praying for us which was such a source of comfort for us. It is so good to know that the body of Christ has such quick feet and good hands. We hope that we never need them again for us but that is a naive thought. We all need them sometime. I hope that I am as quick with my feet and as ready to hug and pray as the people around us were. It was such a welcomed blessing.
Several people have asked us how they can best pray for Coy now. The best that we can come up with is that this won't happen again. But if it does, that whomever is taking care of him will be able to handle his situation with confidence and courage.
And lastly, after any experience in the hospital, I have always walked away feeling like the luckiest person on earth. There are so many sad stories there and so many people that face death or a life-long struggle with courageous hearts and strong spirits that it inspires me. It also makes me thankful for our situation and for the way that it turned out. Coy always wants to pray for an ambulance. He is quick to say a prayer on just the sound alone. The next time I hear or see one, I will be praying. Not only for the family that is affected by that ambulance, but a prayer of thanksgiving for our family and how a little boy's ambulance ride has given me a renewed passion for what the real purpose of life should be. But for the ambulance ride, I'm glad that's over.

Where Have I Been???

2009-12-20T22:42:00.007-05:00

Not sure. Mostly on Facebook I guess. Nobody has really asked me about the blog in a while so I wasn't really feeling the need to post. Still not really feeling the need to post actually. Definitely not feeling the time to post here. Plus, blogs are so 2007 anyway. Facebook and Twitter seem to be much more popular.

The End of Flag..........Football

2009-10-22T21:05:00.005-04:00

A better term that I have heard for flag football is flackle football. For flag, there is an awful lot of tackling going on. Which is not all bad. The boys need to learn to be a little bit aggresive with each other when they are playing football. Caleb had a great year. I'm not sure how many touchdowns he scored but it was a bunch. He threw a touchdown pass or two and caught a touchdown pass or two. He grabbed a lot of flags on defense. But most of all, he had fun. And that is the most important. Oh yeah, I had fun too.

Coy and Katie enjoyed going to the concession stand during the games with Grandmas and Grandpas the most.

Basketball season starts soon but not until soccer season is over. The last weekend for Graceland is this coming weekend while Katie has another Net Surfer's game on Halloween.

Coy had another appointment with the plastic surgeon last week. The speech therapist is encouraging us to have a surgery to help him maintain the air in his mouth when he speaks. The plastic surgeon is recommending that we stay with the speech therapy and not be in a rush to do the surgery. We don't know what to do so the easiest thing for us to do is wait. That is hard for us to do when we know what we want to do or should do but in this situation, I don't think we have a clue as to what to do so we will just wait......and pray. We have seen some pretty amazing things happen and I feel like if we stick with it, we will see some more.

The first pictures are from a corn maze that we did in Lanesville a couple of weeks ago. The kids had a great time and we walked alot. The other picture is from a Halloween party that we went to in Versailles last weekend.

Nothing New

2009-10-02T15:21:00.002-04:00

Not really much new to report. A funny story, for some reason, Caleb was wearing around this Eeyore costume last weekend. He and Katie were wrestling around and all of a sudden, in a pretty good Eeyore like voice he said, "This is a good day for wrestling." It made me laugh.

Happy Birthday Coy

2009-09-20T21:32:00.008-04:00

Wow, I have really let time get away from me. I wasn't intending for this blog to document our life but I rarely have time nor energy to write about anything other than what we have been doing. We have done SO much the last couple of weeks that I just have not had the chance to post it on here. The biggest event in the last couple of weeks was easily Coy's 5th birthday party. This milestone is huge for us because it means that he has almost been with us for as long as he was in Ukraine. By Thanksgiving, he will have been with us for as long as he was in Ukraine. That boy has such a joy in life that I wish that I could imitate. It is hard for him not to smile, when he gets enough sleep. Caleb and Katie have also done a great job of making Coy's birthday a success. I think that they realize, at least a little bit, how lucky we are to have Coy in our family.

Soccer and football are in full swing now. Katie and Caleb get to play on the same team again this year. Kinda bitter sweet because this might be the last time. Coy is actually improving too. He has kicked the ball several times this year and is not quite as timid as he was last year. He even kicked the ball in the right direction and almost scored a goal. He has fun playing too.

Coy started his school on the Wednesday after Labor Day. He seems to like his class and his teacher. Stacey likes the start and stop time for the school. We are hoping that he will get ready for Kindergarten. He still goes to speech a couple of times a week. His speech teacher is encouraging us to take him back to the plastic surgeon to get him tested for air leaks in his mouth because he continues to have trouble making some sounds. We have not done that yet but need to soon.

On Labor Day, our plans to surprise the kids with a trip to Holiday World fell through so we ended up going to French Lick to the indoor water park. It is a Great Wolf Lodge lite kind of place and it was fun to just spend the afternoon there. Three and a half hours was just about right.

I had the privilege of going on Katie's field trip to Squire Boone caverns not too long ago too. We had a lot of fun. Katie really impresses me. She is so smart, and so beautiful, and is such a hard worker and has such a servant's heart. Me, on the other hand, got in trouble with the teacher twice while on the field trip. I should have known better. Maybe if I get to go again I won't misbehave. But I love having fun with the kids.

This is too much for me

2009-08-27T17:40:00.006-04:00

We celebrated Caleb's 9th birthday a couple of weekends ago. It just doesn't seem possible that he is that old already. But I guess he is. We had his birthday anyway.

Katie helped a friend of her's celebrate her birthday by riding in a limo to go and get ice cream. She then spent the night at the girl's house. Needless to say she was tired the next day.

The lizard is Mr. Snuffleupagus. I have seen bigger ones than this crawling on the side of our house but this is the first time I have troubled myself to go and get the camera to take the picture. He actually fell from the top of the basement door onto the concrete and I thought that the fall might have killed him but in a few minutes, he walked away.

Football and soccer are in full swing now. Between practices and games, we have something going on 6 nights of the week. Is that too much??? I'm not sure. Actually I am sure, I just don't want to admit it. If we are here, we end up watching TV so I am glad that we are out. We do spend a lot of time in the yard playing too but somehow we always end up migrating back to the idiot box. Me included.

Katie scored a goal this past weekend. She is still playing up (U-8 on a U-9) team but the girls are a lot more her skill level this year. I'm expecting great things from her and another girl that plays on her soccer club for the church team. Don't tell Caleb but both of those girls can play circles around him in soccer. Except for goalie. He is a pretty tough stop there.

Coy has spent some time with his grandmothers/grandfathers this past week and will again next week. His school doesn't start until after Labor Day so it makes for some tough times with Stacey's work. He has a blast though but he doesn't sleep well. I think he gets too excited to sleep.

Its Over

2009-08-13T11:37:00.005-04:00

I have finally scanned the picture of Stacey and Caleb from the newspaper the day after the triathalon. Caleb had wrecked his bike and didn't finish as well as he had hoped. The timing was all messed up anyway so even if he had not wrecked, we would not have known how he did compared to the others. It doesn't matter though, they finished and did their best. That is all that counts.

Summer break is over. The kids got on the school bus today. They were kind of excited but not excited enough that I have any hopes that it will last all year. They both have friends that are in their classes so that is good.

Soccer is getting ready to be in full swing. I'm looking forward to it but I know that it will be a lot of time too. Luckily, just two teams this year and not three like last year. Katie is "playing up" with the 8 and 9 year old league at Graceland. She actually only misses their cut-off date by a little more than a month so it is not like she is in way over her head.

We Are Family

2009-08-05T21:28:00.005-04:00

We had our annual trip to Holiday World on Monday. Lots of other people must have had the same idea. Although the crowds weren't as bad as we have had at other times. But we all had a good time. The bad part was that we had van trouble on the way home and had to call Stacey's parents to come and get us. They took the kids back to their house and then we drove Richard's truck back to Floyds Knobs and got home at 3 in the morning. We would have gotten home sooner if that State Policeman had not been so concerned with my speed. 72 in a 70 Mom, with a warning. : )

Caleb rode the Voyage 4 times and Katie rode it 3 times. The last time, they rode it with their hands up the whole way. I rode it too and that thing was fast. It has been a long time since I rode any roller coaster that size but I think it was just as fast as I remembered the Beast being. And my two oldest kids rode it. Coy rode a lot of things too and he has a blast. He just has a love of life that is unmatched. Even late in the day, after a long day of playing and walking and riding and standing in line, he doesn't whine or complain. He just loves whatever we do.

A Wild One

2009-07-16T23:28:00.011-04:00

Last Saturday was an awesome day that I hope to not repeat again for a very long time. To start things off, Caleb played a baseball game at 8 PM on Friday night. That put us all getting home around 10 PM and trying to settle down and get to sleep. Then we were all up and gone by about 6:45 the next morning so that Caleb and Katie could participate in a kid's triathlon. They had practiced all week for it (Coy, the ever present cheerleader had gone to practice too) and come EARLY Saturday morning, they were ready to go. We were at the race by 7 AM. The race only lasted less than 20 minutes but they were going at it hard for those 20 minutes. Caleb wrecked his bike during the race and got a pretty good strawberry on his shoulder and leg. Katie fell down during the run and skinned her knee up pretty good. The best part was though that they both finished.

From there, we packed up and went to Louisville so that Katie could play in a 3 vs. 3 soccer tournament. She and 5 other girls played in the U-8 Division. 4 of the 6 girls had done the triathlon so they were a tired group. They didn't fare so well but they gave it their all. Caleb and I only stayed for the first couple of games though because we had to be in Lanesville for the first of 2 games for him that afternoon and evening. He didn't do so well as far as the W/L column either but he had fun and kept a good attitude about it the entire time.

I was so proud of Coy though because he NEVER complained. He didn't whine, he just went everywhere that we asked him to go. He normally does not complain or whine (unlike the other two) and it helps out a lot when Grandmas and Grandpas are there.

Stacey and Caleb also made it on the FRONT PAGE of the Clark County Indiana newspaper on Sunday. Caleb was upset that he had wrecked his bike and was nearly in tears as he crossed the finish line. Stacey caught him and gave him a big hug soon after he finished. The picture in the paper was of Stacey giving Caleb that hug. We have a couple of copies of it. IF I get around to it, I will scan it and post it here. We had been looking for it on the web but were unable to find it. If I find it, I will post the link.

New Pictures

2009-07-05T20:08:00.007-04:00

A friend of ours is a budding photographer and she took our kids to a nearby park to take some pictures. These are just a few of them. I posted all of them to my facebook page. If you are on facebook but aren't my friend, send me a friend request and I will accept and you can check them all out!!

Lanesville All-Stars took it on the chin this week at the tournament in South Central. They won the first game but then lost the next three. Two of those losses were to the Graceland Baptist All-Stars. Their team had 5 or so boys that Caleb is friends with so they were hard losses for him. Truth be told, Lanesville is a small league and they just don't have the talent pool to pick from that most of those other teams do. Most of the kids play really hard and give it their all, which is the most you can ask for at age 8.

This weekend is shaping up to be a wild one. Caleb has another baseball tournament and Katie has a soccer tournament. Plus, they are both scheduled to participate in a triathelon next weekend too. We will see how it goes.

We went to the Great Wolf Lodge last week. It was a lot of fun. We were going to stay and go to the Air Force Museum in Dayton and then to Kings Island but Caleb's baseball tournament got in the way so we came home early. We are still hoping to go to an amusement park sometime in the near future.

Diving In and KAZ

2009-06-18T21:38:00.007-04:00

The kids are taking swimming lessons at the local middle school again this year. This is the fourth year in a row that our oldest two have taken them. This is Coy's first year. Funny how kids grow up. Last year, we were begging Caleb to jump off the diving board. This year, he has been doing front flips off of the diving board (more like back splatters but every once in a while he gets all the way around). Well, Coy is really progressing in his swimming and today he got to jump off of the diving board into 12 feet of water. That is not the amazing thing though. The amazing thing is that Stacey can sit by and watch these kids do these things. Caleb and Katie swim up and down the pool like little fish too.

A good friend of mine that lives in central Kentucky got news today that their adoption dossier has been submitted to the Kaz consulate in Washington DC. They have been waiting to get past this hurdle for quite a while and now they have. What this means is that they will likely get to travel to Kaz for an adoption within 11 months, but hopefully sooner. The process in country seems to be a little different than Ukraine but the result will ultimately be the same. A child that does not have a home today will ultimately get a forever family. Way to go Kara and Michael. Stay with it....

Caleb was the third grade camper of the week at his basketball camp. Not sure out of how many but it didn't matter to him. His reward was what looked like an old Floyd Central HS jersey that won't fit him for 5 years or so. We were all pretty excited about it though. Katie is excelling at her drama camp this week. All except for the getting up and getting ready to go part. She thought that she was going to be doing one of those big productions like "Sound of Music" or something. I don't think she needs any practice at drama but perhaps this will give her an outlet for her drama other than here at home with us.

We are really enjoying the pool too. At least when it is not raining we are.

Don't Eat the Ice Cream

2009-06-02T20:03:00.006-04:00

When you come to our house and we offer you ice cream, you might want to double check and make sure that it is a brand new package and not one that we have already opened as evidenced by the video. Katie and Coy love ice cream. Caleb can take it or leave it. We were playing a version of baseball in the pool tonight and Katie and I lost and Stacey and Caleb won and Coy was just kinda in the pool. When we lost, Katie storms off mad and Stacey yells "Losers get ice cream." Coy, who was not even paying attention, yelled "Mom, I'm a loser!". Nobody got ice cream tonight.

Coy had his well child check up the other day. Unfortunately, I was out of town so I did not get to go but I will report what Stacey reported back to me. He is in the 75th percentile in height and 60th in weight. No real other concerns. According to Stacey, our regular pediatrician was acting very sleepy so he wasn't his usual happy self so she didn't get a lot out of him. Oh well, Coy seems to be very healthy anyway. He did get three shots and blood drawn.

Katie appears to be healing very well. She was able to do the monkey bars over the weekend just 4 weeks after breaking her collarbone. She goes back to the no good Orthopedist in a couple of weeks but we are pretty much letting her do most things already. This is Katie at her soccer team awards dinner. She is going to practice with her travel team in the fall but play games at Graceland.

Caleb made the all-star team of the Lanesville baseball league. There are just three teams and the coach picked at least 5 kids off of Caleb's team but he was excited just the same.

The kids have a pretty jam packed first few weeks of summer. Basketball camp, swimming, drama camp, and probably some soccer camps and probably a soccer tournament.

This is vintage Coy happy face.

Maybe.......

2009-05-09T22:13:00.011-04:00

Katie has the most to share this past week but I have to start out with a story about Coy. Coy likes to eat, there is no secret about that although I will say that his volume has slowed down from the early years. He is still a good eater. He likes to take his time when he eats (he is easily distracted and looks around a lot while eating). That is a good thing, we could learn from him, but we usually end up waiting on him to finish. On Friday night, we went to Cici's and ate pizza. Everyone was finished and Coy was still munching away. I asked him by saying "Coy, do you want us to leave you here while you finish and then come back and get you in a little while??" and his response to me was a sheepish grin, a thoughtful pause and then......."maybe." We all shared a big laugh with that one.

Katie broke her collarbone on Saturday night. We had some friends over and she was out in the yard running in flip-flops and down she went. Softball season is now over and soccer season is more than likely over. The worst part was that we had planned for her to get baptized on Sunday. Even though she was in some pain, she decided that she wanted to go through with it so she got baptized, broken collarbone and all. Caleb and Katie also got the "opportunity" to get slimmed last weekend too. They each only missed one question and so they were only slimmed once.

Earlier in the day on Saturday (last Saturday) we went to Jeffersontown to visit Gayla, who was one of the ladies that helped us while we were in Ukraine. She is a sweet lady and her voice took me back to that apartment and those days that we spent with her. We didn't get to spend a lot of time with her but we did get to show her our other two children and let her see Coy for a bit. Seeing her also reminds me of the other children that are still over there, waiting for parents, or anyone for that matter, to love them.

Meet The Robinsons......Again

2009-05-01T22:25:00.002-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHAkYrNpqIo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPxyokPPztg
OK.....here are the you tube videos. The top one is Katie at soccer in the church league. The bottom one is Caleb at football. I will post one of Coy at his soccer games soon now that I have done it. It takes a while.
Stacey is out of town tonight. She is going to run in the Indy Mini-Marathon tomorrow. We stayed here so that she could "rest-up". To help pass the time, we stopped and bought the movie "Meet the Robinsons". The other kids did not remember that movie but I remembered it very well. We watched it the weekend before we left for Ukraine. Without going into the details....again (you need to watch it if you have not already), Coy watched the whole movie and when it was over, he said that he was the little yellow hair boy. That gave me an opportunity to tell him again that he was adopted by his mom and me and how we are glad that he is in our family. We sometimes talk about "that lady" in Ukraine because Coy was in her belly but that is as far as it has gotten for now. We don't want to hide anything from him but we try to be sensitive to what he can understand. I think the movie moved Katie that most though. She was able to piece some of it together and associate the little boys in the movie with Coy and his situation. It was very touching to see her make that connection.

2 Years in the US with US

2009-04-30T19:46:00.004-04:00

OK, so the last post was not exactly 2 years HOME per se but it was 2 years since he became a member of our family and that, to me, is home. It is not the wood and brick that where we lay our heads. We came back to the US two years ago on Derby Day and we haven't looked back since.

The next time that I post to this blog I hope to have a link to some videos of ours on YouTube as well as some pictures that we took of our recent visit with Gayla. Gayla was the lady that met us at the airport in Kyiv and she helped us through our appointment as well as getting our visas to go home. We stayed at her apartment while we were in Kyiv. We didn't get to visit long because there were a number of folks that wanted to see her but listening to her voice brought back so many memories for me. We also got to see the other couple that was in Ukraine the same time we were. They now have adopted 3 children from Ukraine and went back to get another girl but unfortunately if fell through. There were numerous kids from Ukraine there. Some you could pick out. Others were more difficult to tell. I think Coy looks great and is very smart and we are lucky to have him. He is a bundle of joy (mostly) and has been a very welcomed and wonderful addition to our family.

Anyone that reads this blog, please be in prayer for friends of mine/ours that are in the waiting process for adoptions. I know it can be painfully slow sometimes and that these folks need to be encouraged from time to time that God's timing is perfect. That is one of the main statements that I remember from the ladies that helped us in the US. I guess that they had been through the waiting so many times that they had seen first hand over and over how God had worked everything out perfectly. And He will again. In His timing.

2 Years Home

2009-04-19T20:26:00.005-04:00

We celebrated Coy's adoption day today. It was two years ago today that we stood up in an Ukranian Court of Law and gave our reasons for wanting to adopt Coy. There were so many then. There are so many more now. We didn't really do a lot. We went to Bass Pro Shop so that he could look at the fish in the aquarium. He likes that. We then went to The Fun House for supper. It is a Chuck E. Cheese knock off. We had gone to CEC a couple of weeks ago to celebrate Coy keeping his diaper dry at night for five nights in a row. We haven't had five nights in a row since but I digress. He is making progress. Anyway, back to Coy's Adoption Day. One of the best things we did today was to go back and watch the video tapes from our time in Ukraine and the few weeks right after we got home. All of our children have grown so much but it really helped me to appreciate how much Coy has grown. It is still the same boy but oh how he has grown. There were sections on the video tape that I had forgotten that we had taped. There was some good footage of him just walking around the orphanage, both inside and out. We will convert it to DVD and I will see if I can post it here somehow. But some of those images took me straight back there. In some ways, it seems like yesterday and in other ways, it is like it never happened. The footage from the orphanage made quite an impact on me. I can't remember if I had even watched it before or not. I probably had but I don't remember watching it. I filmed Coy playing outside with some of the other children in the orphanage and it broke my heart to watch it today. There was a little blind boy, probably about 4 years old or so and he was just standing in the yard, which was bare as it could be and he was talking or singing or something but he was just standing there, entertaining himself, unaware of everything around him. How sad. Our lesson in Sunday School today was on whether or not God causes disasters or tragedy to happen. And whether he does or not, we can certainly say that, at a minimum, he allows it to happen. And lots of people question God as to why He might let a 9/11 happen or a World War to occur but I question why He lets innocent children be born in to this world all alone. That is a tragedy that happens everyday. The best answer that I have is that He knows so much more about the big picture than I do that I can only trust Him. He has it all under control. I don't understand it and I probably won't until I can get to heaven to ask Him myself. But it does make me wonder. And I think this is where I should come in. Do I let the knowledge of that tragedy move me to do something about it somehow or do I just sit here and wonder?? It doesn't help my guilty conscience that I am sitting here in my essential palatial mansion comparatively speaking with all of the excesses that they will never enjoy. It also doesn't help that I look around and struggle with envy with all of those that have even more than I do. We had fun with Coy's Adoption Day, but for me, I want it to be more than about fun. I want it to be about something bigger than that. Something much bigger.

101 Posts and almost 2 Years Later

2009-03-22T21:41:00.005-04:00

It has been so long between posts that I have too much to write about making me lose interest in writing. It all happens too fast. Life is happening too fast and the kids are growing up too fast. Since the last post we have survived the ice storm (and 3 days without power), a mini-vacation, basketball season, and gymnastics.

Katie has started soccer and softball and Caleb is playing baseball again. Coy is a great cheerleader.

I wish I had more energy because there are so many things that I would like to share. The biggest news I guess is that Katie will be getting baptized in the near future. That is awesome. Caleb is right there too but he just hasn't been ready to make that jump yet.

These pictures are all from Caleb's camera. He asked me on Friday night to download his pictures and I did. Then on Saturday, we went for a walk in the park and he took some really good photos. Maybe I will get them up here in the summer some time.

On April 12, it will be two years since we visited the SDA in search of a child or children to add to our family. Man does time fly on this side of things. It doesn't seem like two years have gone by. I wish there was someway that I could slow time down and keep them small for a long, long, time but that wouldn't be fair to them. They keep growing up and they amaze Stacey and me with their wisdom and wit.

Stacey commented today that we need to teach Coy how to read a calendar because his favorite question to ask right now is "What do I have today?" Between his pre-school, CBS, speech, and gymnastics, plus he and Stacey volunteer at the school library a couple of times a month, church on weekends, AWANA (Cubbies), and just other stuff, we stay pretty busy.

Coy has gotten to the point where he can tell us which letter a lot of words begin with. He is really improving with his S sounds. The F sounds seem to give him the most trouble. He tries really hard though.

I will try to post again closer to Coy's 2 year adoption day anniversary. I want to post some then and now pictures for me to see just how much he has grown in just a short amount of time.

100 Posts

2009-01-10T20:23:00.005-05:00

Needless to say I have not posted in a while. No one seems to have noticed so I have not been in a hurry to post any more. Tonight as I post, Katie has a friend over to spend the night. The four kids are in the living room watching a movie and eating popcorn. Lots has happened but I won't bore you with the day to day. Coy continues to improve with his speech. He continues to eat well and sleep well. He sometimes struggles with short term memory and he has not even gotten close on staying dry through the night. He is now sleeping in a big bed since we bunked the boys beds.

I need to mention that all of the pictures on the post are courtesy of Caleb. He and Katie both got digital cameras for Christmas and Caleb is quite the photog and Coy is one of his favorite subjects. Coy is usually willing but has become increasingly less patient with the camera from Caleb.

The most blog worthy story from the past three months has to be the "Talking Potty" at Golden Corral. About a month or so ago, while we were eating at Golden Corral, Caleb decided that he needed to go to the restroom. Approximately 30 seconds after Caleb gets up, Coy decides that he needs to go as well. I took Coy to the men's room where Caleb was already in the stall. As Coy began to pee, Caleb starts calling his name from within the stall. The layout of the bathroom made it sound like the voice was coming from the potty. Coy's eyes became HUGE as he looked at me and proclaimed that the potty was talking. Caleb, being the witty one, started saying other things besides Coy's name to make Coy think that the potty was really talking to him. Eventually, the talking potty (Caleb) told Coy that he needed to go back to where his mother was sitting. Coy dutifully obliged. It was long after we sat back down that Caleb showed up and listened to Coy tell his talking potty story. We laughed. We went back to Golden Corral today for the first time since then. When I took Coy to the rest room today, he asked why the potty was not talking. Too funny.

Good News

2008-10-31T17:42:00.006-04:00

We have had lots of good news lately. Both Caleb and Katie's soccer teams won their league tournaments. It made for a wild day of soccer. Caleb's team finished in third place in the football league but they lost their "bowl" game. Caleb scored his first touchdown in the bowl game though. We went to Huber's with friends and didn't buy a pumpkin (we accidentally left it in the patch). But the best news of all so far has to be that we think that we were able to get Coy an Indiana birth certificate without having to readopt him in Indiana. This is super news. Friends of ours that adopted from Ukraine contacted us and told us that they were able to get an Indiana birth certificate for their son without adopting him in Indiana so we though we would try it. Stacey made several calls and even took our paperwork down to our county Clerks office but they would not do it for us. I called the State again and they said any county would work so Coy and I went to the next county, the same county where our friends live, and they filled out the paperwork for us. Now, if one comes in the mail, we will be stoked.

Imagine That

2008-10-09T20:40:00.001-04:00

As much as I wanted to post a picture of our kids, I had to share this video. Our kids have enjoyed watching this this week. There is another one of a home school family that makes us laugh too. If you go to God Tube and search this comedian (Tim Hawkins) there is a clip where he suggests Corporate Takeover of Christian worship songs. That clip is pretty funny too.

God has a unique way or revealing himself to us at different times and I kind of felt like he revealed himself to me/us tonight. There are two boys on Katie's soccer team that missed the last practice and game because they were late. They showed up early to tonights practice and they hung around afterwards. They have two younger sisters that are obviously adopted from either China or someother Asian country and in the conversation about them I learned that the two boys on the soccer team are also adopted, from Ukraine. Of course, the conversation quickly went to from where in Ukraine and it turns out that one of the boys came from exactly the same orphanage as Coy. What are the chances?? Ukraine is a big county. God is funny, but he is real too.

Here is a Post For You

2008-09-30T20:53:00.007-04:00

Seems like it has been a long time since I posted on here. Probably because it has been a long time since I posted. Frankly, I have not been that motivated to post. I have convinced myself that no one really reads it anyway other than people that we communicate with often so it just gets in the way.

Needless to say, there is always plenty to do around here so when I do post, it takes away time from either Stacey or sleeping and I am not really in a position to neglect either one of those things.

Right now, we are surviving school, football, soccer and life. We have made it through 2 birthdays (Caleb and Coy), a wind storm and three days without power, a trip to Holiday World, and numerous other visits with friends and family. Coy has had another surgery (a minor laser procedure to help his scarring on his lip) and has begun his speech again. We believe that he is very smart for his age since he can now name all of the letters and numbers 1-10. We have also found him to be very allergic to some sort of bug bite that he has been receiving this fall. One bite on his forehead just about swelled his eye shut and a bite on his ear left it sticking straight out. A bite on his leg turned the entire inside of his thigh bright red. They don't really act like they bother him though so we aren't real worried about them.

Where Have We Been???

2008-07-27T21:41:00.010-04:00

Well, I guess you could say that we have been pretty busy for the last couple of weeks. We had Vacation Bible School at our church one week. The kids had a great time. Also, that same week, we got a dog. Her name is Buttons. She has done pretty well so far. She is not a puppy and is fairly well behaved so there has been minimal effort on our part so far. Luckily the weather has been fine so she stays outside most of the time. Caleb and Katie fell in love with her instantly. Coy is warming up to her.

Oh yeah, we got a pool too. The only bad part so far has been the fact that Coy had his next surgery the day before the pool was installed and the Dr.'s orders were to not go swimming until his follow up visit, which is tomorrow. It is just an above ground pool but they had to dig out quite a bit to get our yard level. We have spent a lot of our recent free time shoveling dirt to backfill around the pool so at night, the last thing I feel like doing is typing. We have also done some night swimming, which is also more fun than typing. Once we get our fence up and the deck built, we will start inviting folks over to swim. Right now, the ladder is pretty flimsy and it is a pain to go in and out of the gate but hopefully that will be fixed soon.

Caleb spent a week at a friend's VBS and then the kids all spent the week at my parent's house for their VBS. Stacey and I went down for the picnic. The kids did lots of fun things there and we didn't know if we would get them to come home with us or not.

We have not heard back from the ladies in Ukraine yet. That doesn't really surprise me though. Sometimes they are slow to respond. If I don't hear anything back by the middle of August or so, I might try again.

Zickel family: We would love to do that. We could have you guys over. Can you try to send us e-mail?? I also looked on the Ukraine Consulate website thinking that I could help you with your question but there was not much help for Kentucky. I did contact the Chicago office directly (called them, what a trip that was) and they sent me a blank form via e-mail that we filled out and sent back (e-mail and certified mail) for Coy's yearly report. If you want, I could send that to you if it would help at all.

This is Coy shortly after his surgery. His lip looks a lot better. They were able to twist his nose some too. He is such a trooper though. Only as he was coming out of surgery did he show much discomfort at all. He complained some later about it hurting but he did not milk it for all it was worth like some others may have.

Fun Times at Yankey House

2008-07-06T21:53:00.005-04:00

We had a very happy Fourth of July. We saw fireworks, went fishing, and finally got to go swimming on Sunday. Even as I am typing this out at 10 PM on Sunday night, I still hear lots of fireworks going off outside.

From the pictures, you can tell that Coy caught his first fish this past weekend. I don't think he was as excited about the fish as he was the part of throwing the ball (the bobber) out into the lake and then reeling it back in. But he had a good time. He still doesn't like fireworks all that much but he tolerated them pretty well this year.

It is hard to believe that the summer is almost half over already.

I sent the e-mail to the ladies in Ukraine that helped us to adopt Coy. I just sent them some pictures of Coy and the other children but I also asked them how/if we would know if Coy had siblings in the orphanage system. I am guessing the answer is that they wouldn't tell us/contact us officially but someone that knew would have to pass the word on to us. To be honest about it, I would be leary of someone that I don't know telling me that my child has brothers/sisters. I trust these people and will believe what they tell me though. I will let everyone know what I hear back.

Post Adoption Follow Up

2008-06-28T09:04:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-26T22:48:00.004-04:00

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

2008-06-15T19:25:00.009-04:00

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.

Still Too Busy To Write

2008-05-27T22:20:00.008-04:00

It is late and I am tire so I am just going to post a few photos. Katie's finger after her fingernail has fallen off from where she smashed it at Gulf Shores. Caleb playing baseball. Coy riding his bike. Katie with her Kindergarten teacher. The video is of Coy after eating a chocolate doughnut. He has chocolate on his face that looks like a bad mustache. I was trying to get him to say "Suave'" but he kept smiling after he would say it.

Too Much Going On to Write

2008-05-18T21:26:00.007-04:00

There has been so much going on here that I don't have time to get on the blog a lot. Between baseball, and soccer, and Angel's Wings, and work and the warmer weather, we get to bed later and later all the time. Plus, it seemed like for a while after vacation, that we didn't pick up our camera for a while either.

Katie asked me a really tough question tonight as she was going to bed. "Which were you named first, Daddy or David?" after I answered that easy one, she asked me "Who was the first one to come up with the word Daddy?" I had to answer that I did not know. I assume that it would be Adam but I am not sure.

Last week while I was gone for work, Stacey decided to start talking about the birds and the bees with Caleb. Now I am concerned that we have a budding OB/GYN on our hands. He has asked several very interesting questions since this little talk. It is probably a very good thing that she has started this dialogue with him. We would much rather he hear it from us than from his friends at school. Of course, we don't really want him to be the boy that is educating all of his friends either, but we do want him to know the truth. Katie on the other hand, I don't think I want to tell her anything about it because she might use it against us. I am afraid that the entire Kindergarten would get an education if we spoke about it to Katie. Perhaps this time next year we can start talking about it with her.

Stacey's sister's dog had to be put down last week. He ran to the road and got run over and hurt his back really bad. Stacey told the kids and Caleb took it the hardest. Since we don't see that dog a lot, they didn't cry or anything, but you could tell that they were thinking about it (at least that is what she told me, I was out of town).

More Vacation Info

2008-05-06T21:08:00.007-04:00

Here is a video of Coy jumping in the pool. He only did this about two thousand times during the five days that we were there. I think he would have done it more if he could have climbed out of the pool without having to doggie paddle all the way over to the steps to get out.

Here is something else to know about Coy. His internal wake-up clock is set to about 7 AM eastern time, no matter what time he goes to bed. One night, we all stayed up kind of late. Coy fell asleep in Stacey's arms. The other two dragged to bed much later than usual. In the morning though, Coy was up and at them at 7 AM eastern, which was 6 AM local. Just to be clear, his attitude reflects his lack of sleep sometimes.

If he asks a question once, he asks it over and over again. His favorite question is "Where are we going?" He also likes to comment on the weather, especially in the van. When I turn on the windshield wipers and the windshield cleaner, he immediately asks if it is raining, even if the sun is shining bright outside.

We bought tickets on-line to a go-cart track and amusement park and were able to stretch it into two days worth of activities. Caleb especially liked the go-carts. He was big enough to drive the "rookie" ones by himself. The first day that we went, the first thing the kids wanted to do was bumper boats. Unfortunately for Stacey and Coy, Caleb is pretty good at bumper boats and at spraying the other boats. Stacey was soaked. It was good filler between getting up and the weather getting warm enough to go and swim. There were a group of women working at the go-cart track that were from Romania. We told them that Coy was their neighbor.

The kids would have swam at 70 degrees but Stacey and I have to draw the line somewhere. The last day it was warm enough to swim before lunch, but that was the only day.

We ate at Lambert's Cafe twice while we were in Gulf Shores. It is the home of the throwin' rolls. They bring a cart of rolls around and if you want a roll, they throw them to you. They sometimes throw them from far away too. They also play lots of tricks on you while you are eating. The kids had a great time and so did we.

Katie's Angel's Wings recital is this weekend. Caleb has a baseball game and Caleb and Katie both have a soccer game. It is going to be a busy weekend for us. Everybody seems to have jumped back into the routine fairly well though. We are thankful for that. At least everybody except for me. I am still trying to think of a reason to skip out on work. I still haven't found it yet.

WE'RE BACK, AGAIN

2008-05-05T21:26:00.007-04:00

We have been to Gulf Shores, Alabama for the last week. We had a great time and great weather. Although I think the kids would have loved not riding in the van so long and staying at the pool longer. However, at this time of year, it is hard to have one without the other. Of course there are indoor pools, but they just aren't the same as an outdoor pool.

Coy has gotten to where he loves the water. Unfortunately, he is not very afraid of the water. He still needs to wear floaties on his arms to help him stay afloat. As soon as we got to the pool on the first day, he climbed right in without his floaties. Luckily, I was right there to pull him out. He was on the steps going into the pool but he showed no fear going in, and only a little bit on the way out. By the end of the week, he was jumping in as fast as he could get around to the steps to get out again.

The kids really did well on the long drive. We didn't try any of that drive all night kind of stuff so they were awake for almost all of the ride. I think Katie and Coy slept a little bit on the way down and Katie slept for about an hour on the way home. Other than that, they were awake all of the time. Caleb read two big books on the way down and while we were there. We imposed a NO VIDEO week on him so he was forced to find other forms of entertainment. He read those two books but on the way home, we got lazy and let him work the DVD player. I guess they watched Alvin and the Chipmonks and Shrek both two times each.

We had a little bit of excitement on the trip. It was kind of stormy for a little while on Saturday morning and the wind was blowing. When the wind blows, it creates drafts on the large metal doors from the parking lot to the stairs that went up to the condo. Katie got her finger smashed really bad in one of those doors as it slammed on itself. By the time we walked up about 10 steps to our condo doors, it had swelled to about twice the size that it should be so we ran her to the immediate care to have it x-rayed. Everything was OK. We took her to the pediatrician tonight and they burned a hole in her fingernail to let some of the blood out of it.

Unfortunately, time has gotten away from me tonight. I need to start thinking of some reasons not to go to work tomorrow. I doubt that I will come up with any so I will have to go in. I will try to post some more on our vacation in the next couple of days.

Happy Adoption Day!!!!!

2008-04-19T17:14:00.008-04:00

One year ago today Stacey and I "defended" ourselves in an Ukrainian court room for the privilege of being Micah Coy Yankey's parents. It was not the intimidating experience that some folks have described. I am sure that it varies from court to court and from judge to judge. I still remember rather vividly walking down the hallways of what looked like an abandoned building and turning into the "courtroom". Luckily, we had met most of the people that were in the room before and knew that they were there to help us. The judge asked us several questions about who we were and why we wanted to adopt Coy. I don't remember exactly what I said but it was something to the effect that we had been given much and that we wanted the opportunity to share what we had been given with others. I didn't want to offend them by giving them the impression that these rich Americans could do so much better than their system, but lets face it, the resources that we have available to us far exceed what they have in every way. I have my suspessions that Sveta did not translate my words verbatim but instead said what she thought the court would want to hear. I don't know for sure. Eitherway, it worked out for the good. We were so glad when that part was over because it meant that the official countdown to the return home with Coy had begun.

Since today was Coy's Adoption Day, we tried to make it special for him. Seems like Stacey and I had heard or read something from James Dobson about giving adopted children another special day in addition to their birthday to let them know that their adoption is a good thing and not something to be ashamed about. So we decided to make Coy's adoption day a special day for him. We let him pick where we went to eat and then we went to the dollar store to get him a mylar balloon. He picked Ci Ci's Pizza for lunch and then picked out a Garfield Birthday Balloon. It made it home but as soon as we got home, he went outside and he took it off of his wrist and let go. Needless to say, we learned a lesson about helium balloons and letting them go outside.

When I think about Coy and where he came from and where he is now, I can't help but think that he is better off now. I know we are better off now. We try to help Caleb and Katie appreciate where Coy has come from and why we are so lucky to have him in our family. Caleb gets it. Katie, I think, is still having trouble at times. If you hadn't seen it though, I can understand not completely appreciating it.

What A Year

2008-04-11T20:49:00.006-04:00

I have a lot to post about tonight but I don't know how much energy I will have to post it.

A year ago this week, we met Coy for the very first time. It blows me away that it has been a year already. It seems like he just got here but it also seems like a lifetime ago that we were in Ukraine. Time is funny like that I guess. More on that in a minute.

I had a really neat experience earlier this week. I traveled to Madison Wisconsin for work and while I was on my trip, God worked it out for me to meet a couple of folks that are in the middle of their own international adoption. I remember being where Mark and Shannon from Texas are in the process. They are busy filling out paperwork to hopefully adopt a little girl from Ethiopia. But I know that the paperwork seems almost endless and that the waiting period and the expenses are daunting and I think that they were looking for a little assurance that they are following God's will. I was traveling on the same day on which we left to go to Ukraine last year and I was reading Hungarian Rhapsody for like the third time and looking for some encouragement that we did the right thing by bring Coy to our home. Their plans did not originally include the Milwaukee airport and neither did mine but I firmly believe that God's plan was for all of us to be there the other night. I got to share a little with them about Coy's adoption and they got to share a little with me about their adoption. Their reason's for adopting seemed to be very similar to ours. They, unlike us, already five children. The oldest is in college, the youngest, three years old. However, God is tugging at their heart and it is something that they can't deny, even if they can't rationalize it to the world in which we live. It was great to meet them and I wish them well. God didn't create American children, or European children, or African children, we give them that label. He just creates His children and they are all His children, regardless of where they are born. If you get a chance, please pray for Mark and Shannon and for their upcoming adoption.

As I was flying back to Louisville from my trip, it brought back a flood of memories from our trip. I remember walking back up through the terminal with Coy in tow knowing that Caleb and Katie and other loved ones were waiting for us at the end of the gates. I remember the utter exhaustion from having been gone and going through the emotional roller coaster that was bringing Coy home. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The stats go something like this: Coy has grown almost 6 inches since we brought him home. He was not small for his age like you might expect orphans could be because of the lack of nutrition and physical development. He is still a good eater. He has gained about five pounds or so but he is still as solid as a rock. His English continues to improve. Stacey said that a clerk at Kohls was able to understand something that Coy said the other day. That is a HUGE step forward. Most strangers have no clue what he is trying to say.

Baseball and soccer are both in full swing now. That keeps us busy. And since I have been traveling a lot recently with my job, it doesn't leave a lot of time for posting or taking new pictures. I hope you will be patient with me while the posts seem to slow down.

We have completed Coy's annual report for the embassy but we have not sent it off yet. I am wanting to include some photos with it but I just haven't sent any to the photo store yet. We will need to complete it and mail it in during the next month.

This video is from one of our visits to Coy's orphanage. I have posted it before. I went back and read and watched some of the posts and video's from we when adopted Coy. It helped me to remember so many of the details of the trip, even if they weren't in the post. In my mind, I could go back there and remember some of the sights and smells and sensations, even if I couldn't describe them in the posts.
This second video is from one of our first visits with Coy. At this point, we have already decided to adopt him (we did that as soon as we saw him). But it is the first time that we have visited him since we made that decision. Here is a photo of that same scene. Sveta is with us because we have absolutely no idea how to communicate with him. That banana really helped though. I don't think a stranger would get very far with him with a banana today though. Anything that looks like candy could be a different story though.

Spring Break Action

2008-03-31T21:19:00.008-04:00

Don't worry, we didn't go anywhere too wild for spring break. We did make it to Clifty Falls State Park for a night though. It was pretty fun. It would have been better if the weather had cooperated a little bit more but we had fun. We got to swim a lot and we did get to do a little bit of hiking. We will probably go back when the weather is warmer and hike some more. We also played a game called Boccerball. The kids really enjoyed that. I have included a short video of some Boccerball action but it is kinda dark.

We enjoyed staying up late watching basketball but it made it hard Sunday and Monday when we had to get up to go to church and school/work. I am anxious for spring to get in full bloom for every reason except for mowing grass. I am thinking about buying goats and turning them loose in my yard for the summer. Perhaps they would respond to an underground fence??

Here is a picture of Coy with his Great-Grandfather Wigg. Wigg has a lot of wit and has a likeable tendancy to tease and aggrevate, which may be where I get some of my tendancies. I can remember laying on the floor of my Grandma and Grandpa's house as a little kid and him pulling and popping my toes. Now I enjoy pulling and popping my kids toes. Is that cruel?? I stop if they ask me to stop and I usually don't keep pulling them if they don't pop right away.

Happy Easter

2008-03-21T20:53:00.002-04:00

Ok, so it has been a while since the last post. It has been almost two weeks but it seems like months ago. We have been very busy, but healthy. I have been traveling a lot for work and between soccer and baseball and science fairs and Awana and Easter Treks and Parent/Teacher conferences, there just has not been much time to sit down at the computer and let everyone know what is going on.

I had to go back through the photos to remember everything that has happened since I last posted. Pictures from the snow storm as well as Coy's big performance at CBS were items that I forgot.

Stacey and I have begun to work on Coy's annual report that we owe to the Ukraine Consulate in Chicago. Today, I went through some of the paperwork, digging out information that we need to include in the report. It is hard to believe that it has been a year almost since we adopted him. The one year anniversary of when we first met Coy is just a couple of weeks away. I have to admit, that just looking at some of the important papers (adoption certificate, court decree, birth certificate) brought back a rush of emotions for me. Coy seems happy enough now but I can't help but wonder what emotions he might feel later when he reads what we knew about him. We can only hope that we can prepare him and let him know that he is as much a part of our family now as anyone else and that we love him and we are glad to have him here with us. We also need to convince him that he is here for a reason and that it was not luck or happen stance that he ended up here with us. I believe that it has been just as much for our benefit as it is for his. People have often told us how lucky Coy is to be here and that is true but Stacey and I would both say that we are lucky to have him. He brings a balance and a perspective to our family that we can't help but appreciate. It is hard to be greedy or selfish when you imagine what those children that are still in Ukraine, or other parts of the world are having to endure.

The Easter season is going to be the last "first" for Coy. Actually, the Derby will be the last "first" for Coy, but I'm not really going to count that.

Stacey bought a dozen "Resurrection Eggs". She hid them inside tonight and let the kids find them. She then lead them through a devotion as each egg had an element that described the Easter story. Caleb and Katie both knew almost every detail but Coy probably did not. I know that we talk to him about pieces of it and we read stories to him about it and that they teach him about it in Sunday School, Honeybees, and CBS but this Easter season will be pretty much the first time that Coy hears the Easter story. I don't know how far it will sink in with him but it sure makes an impression on me when I watch him listen and try to imagine what he is thinking.

OK, he is probably thinking -"Where is the candy?" but I will give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that he is thinking "I am so lucky to have Jesus".

Something funny that Coy says sometimes after church is that Jesus is coming to our house. He says it with such enthusiam and conviction that I wonder if he is disappointed when Jesus does not physically show up at our house. We try to explain to him that Jesus lives in our hearts and that he is with us in spirit but I am pretty sure most 3 years don't grasp that. Hey, I'm 36 and I have to convince myself that I kind of understand it almost everyday.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine" You shine on Coy, you shine on. And keep on Shining till Jesus comes big boy, keep on shining. I love seeing your not so little light shine.

Snow Day

2008-03-08T16:52:00.003-05:00

I will try to post more later. I did create this little movie while the kids were watching TV earlier. Try going to this link: http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/Mc5tKcTZr1ibqkSzcIZLK1eq
We did get to go outside today (twice actually) and we have pictures so I will try to post them later too. Unfortunately, the snow has postponed the concert so we won't get to go to Casting Crowns tonight.
Stacey got up and ran her 8 miles on the treadmill. She is one tough cookie.
The kids all enjoyed the snow. Caleb got outside and was cold enough to come inside before we got Katie and Coy outside the first time. Later in the day, the wind died down and the sun came out and we got to stay outside for an hour or so. We packed down the little hill and we were able to sled down it a little bit. Everybody except Katie enjoyed that. She was too busy working to have fun on the sled. She shoveled snow most of the time we were out. The only time she did not shovel, she was busy building a fort. But, that was after the driveway was clear.

A GREAT BOOK TO READ

2008-03-02T21:04:00.004-05:00

Here is the book that Caleb wrote in his "Young Authors" section at school. He was quick to inform us that he did not win any awards for his efforts but we were quick to tell him how proud we were that he had done his best. It is a unique glimpse into the eyes and heart of a 6-7 year old that is very special to me.

A couple of FAQs that have come up from other readers of this book that I will share with you.

1. Straps=seat belts or the straps on a child's car seat.
2. We were actually gone for only 26 days.
You may need to click on each page to see the picture and to be able to read the words.

Kids grow fast. Everybody knows that right?? Here are the grandkids on Stacey's parents side in late February 2007. Compare that to the photo a couple of posts down where the four of them are now hanging around our table.

We got out and enjoyed the warm weather today. The kids played outside almost all afternoon and then our neighbors brough supper over and they played inside most of the evening as well.

We got the kids' science projects completed over the weekend too. Now all that needs to be worked on is the presentations. Caleb did an experiment with paper airplanes and Katie did an experiment with hoola hoops. They worked hard on the experiments. It is nice that they are motivated and interested and we are not having to drag it out of them.

I just realized how much earlier Easter is this year than last year. Last year, we were leaving the Tuesday after Easter but this year, Easter is not even the last Sunday in March. Strange. As is changing the time after the first full week of March.

Caleb is on a baseball team with his best friend in Lanesville. The mom of Caleb's friend called to get his number preference. Caleb picked "7". I was glad. I really can not remember ever telling him what my number was in high school.

Batman sings B-I-B-L-E

2008-02-25T20:49:00.003-05:00

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

2008-02-18T21:05:00.007-05:00

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

2008-02-11T21:04:00.000-05:00

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

2008-02-01T16:06:00.000-05:00

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.

Random Stuff

2008-01-24T20:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, this video isn't going to win any awards for cinematic performances but it does give you an idea of what Coy likes to do around the house. He is saying "One, Two, Three Go" If he is allowed to run and jump, he is happy. He has kept his underwear dry today so he gets to eat CoCoa Puffs for breakfast tomorrow.

Katie gets to cheer at Floyd Central High School tomorrow. She went to a clinic tonight and will be cheering during the High School game tomorrow. It is also Homecoming. So there should be a good crowd there to watch her. She is excited about it now, we will see how it goes tomorrow when we get to the gym.

The kids had a snow day on Tuesday. It wasn't much snow and they probably could have gone on a delay but hindsight is always 20/20 with those things. Since my dad was the head of Transportation for where I went to school, I have an appreciation for how hard of a decision that can be. (I just stopped to lift Coy up in the air and tell him what a great job he is doing with some of the new skills he is working on in speech.) Anyway, the kids got to go out and play in the snow. Several different neighbors came over and played in the snow with them. I think they had a big time. This first picture was taken just before the head rolled off of the snowman. Coy told me that he was trying to make a snow angel in this picture. I don't know if he was or not, but it sure does loook like he is having fun doesn't it??

The last picture is of Katie hard at work with the snowball (mud ball).

PRICELESS

2008-01-19T18:34:00.001-05:00

2 Tickets to a U of L game - $50

Coke and a hot dog - $8

Parking - $5

An afternoon with my oldest son - $Priceless

Caleb and I went to a U of L basketball game over Christmas break. It was a pretty much no-name opponent and our seats were only a few (a very few) rows from the top of the gym. But that did not stop us from having a good time. Stacey, Katie and Coy all went to the flea market while Caleb and I went to the game. Caleb is already anxious to go back, and so am I. About all that we can afford is the "nosebleed" section but almost all of the seats are good seats in Freedom Hall.

Here is Coy on a play phone that he got for Christmas. One of the funniest things that he still does is pick up any remote and talk into it like it is a telephone. I think he knows that they are not phones but he likes to do it any way. He likes to joke around with us. One of his other favorite tricks to pull is to say "C-O-Y spells Mommy" or "C-O-Y spells Daddy".

Katie had her friend Lindsey over one night. While the adults sat around the table playing a game, Katie and Lindsey had an art project. Notice the green marker on their hands and arms. They are also dressed the same and they fixed their hair the same.

Caleb's basketball team is doing well. A lot of the boys are improving. I am having more fun this year since we are winning a few games. We didn't win a game last year and it was frustrating because some of the boys did not do a good job of listening. However, this year, most of the boys do a much better job of listening. I have some good kids too, and that is helpful.

Here are some of the "FANS IN THE STANDS". Let's face it, watching big brothers basketball game is not the best way to spend a Saturday afternoon but when it means a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, its worth it. At least, that is what they tell me.

Coy continues to really improve on his speech. He is going to speech twice a week and it seems to be beginning to pay off. We have an appointment with the plastic surgeon the week after next to start talking about Coy's surgery. We are sort of a house divided on that issue. We would like to get it over with this summer so that he can heal before he goes back to pre-school next fall. The other part thinks that the surgeon suggested that we wait and let his other scar "heal" before we do another surgery. We are hoping that he will tell us that Coy is ready for his next surgery and he can get us scheduled for sometime in July.

Stacey is preparing to run the Mini-Marathon this year. She got our and ran 6 miles in about 24 degree weather this morning. She is awesome and I am so proud of her. The only thing that I am not looking forward to is getting all of the kids together to go and cheer for her at the finish line. I think that they will probably all be real excited to go and cheer for her, but it will be early on a Saturday morning, that is for sure.

Happy New Year

2008-01-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

I know, it is way past New Year, but I just haven't been in the bloggin mood lately. I am still trying to recover from Christmas break.

All of us went to some friends house for New Year's Eve and all of the kids (except for their 1 year old son) made it up until New Years. There were a couple that got very droopy eyed around 11:30 or so but they made it through.

Our camera has been taking a break lately too. I don't think that we have taken a single picture since the last Christmas was done. I know I haven't downloaded any off of our camera.

Everybody is back in the swing of things with school now.

We have really been struggling with Coy and his potty training. He does a great job of keeping his pants clean but he can not keep them dry for anything. The worst part of it is that it doesn't seem to bother him if his pants are wet. At times, he can't keep them dry for 30 minutes. We monitor what and how much he drinks and it doesn't seem to us that he is drinking enough to have to go as much and as often as he does. We need more patience in dealing with this issue because he is a smart kid and there is no doubt that he will get it someday, but it is stressful for now.

We measured Coy over the break and we think that he has grown over 4 inches in the 8 months that he has been with us.

Coy's speech is really improving too. At least, I think so. Most people still have trouble understanding what he is trying to say but Stacey and the other kids and myself have a decent chance of understanding him.

We got my parents four tickets for them to go to the Hopeful Hearts Foundation Benefit Dinner that is coming up in February. The main attraction for me was the opportunity for them to hear Brother Bob speak again. I don't know where his speaking schedule takes him, but I don't hear of him doing very many public speaking arrangements around Louisville anymore.

If you are still reading the blog, or even just an occasional visitor, feel free to post a comment or send us an e-mail. I have absolutely no idea if anyone is still reading or not. I see that the counter keeps going up but I am always curious as to who is still reading along, if anybody.

It won't be long before we will start being able to talk about "this time last year". In a way, it seems like just yesterday but in so many other ways, it seems like so so long ago.

Caleb and Katie brought home their Science Fair packets this week. That means we will have a couple of science experiment ideas to come up with. If you have any good ideas, please let us know. Caleb actually got a good one for Christmas but we will have to think a little bit for Katie.

Katie started back into Angel's Wings this week. Of all the things that she does, that is my favorite thing to watch her do. She loves to perform and I think the people that watch the Angel's Wings perform really enjoy the performances. It is a neat ministry and I am glad that Katie is very much a part of it and she has the opportunity to share with others.

Christmas......USA style

2007-12-29T08:52:00.000-05:00

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??

2007-12-23T19:47:00.001-05:00

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

2007-12-14T19:33:00.001-05:00

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

2007-12-11T19:09:00.000-05:00

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???

2007-12-01T21:20:00.000-05:00

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??

2007-11-20T21:37:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-10T20:59:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-04T19:43:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-02T09:17:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-25T20:33:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-14T21:49:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-07T21:55:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-01T19:44:00.000-04:00

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?

2007-09-26T20:50:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-24T20:29:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-16T20:40:00.001-04:00

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

2007-09-08T21:12:00.000-04:00

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.

Inside the Orphanage

2007-09-02T22:04:00.000-04:00

Now that I have the ability to share video, this is one of my favorite videos from our trip to Ukraine. Unfortunately, the audio is not too clear. This is what the beginning of each of our visits was like. We would come into the orphanage and let Oksana know that we were there to pick up Coy. She would then proceed to go to his room to get him and bring him to us. This is the reception that we got from him most days. Watching this video takes me back there everytime.

Coy starts school on Wednesday. We think he will do fine. He is usually so excited to see Stacey after only having been away from her for just a couple of minutes. It is very sweet to see how well he has bonded with her. He has bonded well with the rest of us too, but especially well with Stacey. At night, he prays for all of us and Grandma. He doesn't say which Grandma, just Grandma. Katie asked him tonight about Grandpa, but he just laughed.

We are planning a welcome home/birthday celebration for Coy on Saturday, September 15. If you are reading this, then you are invited to come. We are going to have lunch for the family on that day and then everyone is welcomed to just drop in and have a piece of cake and share as much time as you can with us anytime on that afternoon or evening. There is no set time and we would like for anyone that can to just drop in. If anyone is still here in the evening, we can order pizza before the football game. We are working on having something for the kids to do and we are hoping for good weather on that day, although we could certainly use the rain. There will be more details to come but please consider coming if you can. We would love to see you, even if you think that you don't know us well enough to come to our house, if you have been reading this, you pretty much know all that there is to know.

Birthdays, School, Out of Town Trips and an experiment

2007-08-24T22:46:00.000-04:00

It has been really crazy the last couple of weeks. Last weekend was our anniversary and Caleb's birthday. The week before that was the first day of school for both Caleb and Katie. Last week, I was out of town for work all week. Some of the exciting things that have happened include Stacey and the kids being involved in a wreck. Luckily, everyone was OK. I feel like God was watching over them. Sunday night before I left, I prayed specifically for God to keep them safe while I was gone. It was a very specific prayer. Monday night, Stacey was leading soccer practice for the kids while I was gone and on the way home from Graceland, a bee got in the van and into Stacey's shirt and stung her on the arm. As she was flailing to get rid of the bee, the wheel of the van went off the road and a tree limb busted out the side window and bent the window frame. Luckily, Katie was siting on the driver's side and not the passenger's side. Also, a few feet earlier and it would have busted the window right beside Coy. Stacey kept her composure and avoided over correcting or running further off the road. Our van will be in the shop for a week or so but the main thing is no one got hurt.

I like the picture above that shows Stacey's dad underneath both Katie and Coy while Caleb explains a gift that he got for his birthday. They all like to pile on Grandpa.
This is a picture of the kids on the first day of school. They all seem to have a good time. Coy especially likes to watch for the school bus.

I have tried to add a video to the blog this time. It is from our trip to Marengo Cave. It is typical banter for our family. Coy gave something to Katie and we were trying to get Katie to say "Thank you Coy." Coy and Katie both were trying to say "Thank you Coy." At the end though, they finally get it right and Katie says "Thank you" and Coy says "You're welcome". I don't know what Caleb is doing in the background. Pretty good stuff if you ask me. Please let me know if you were able to download it and watch it.

Too Busy to Write

2007-08-12T17:48:00.000-04:00

After a weekend of going to the Creation Museum, Marengo Cave, the Hampton Inn, and Hoosier Forest swimming pool, we have been too busy to post. The kids have done well and are ready to start back to school this week.

The Creation Museum was very neat. I would like to go back one time without the kids to learn more and then tell them what I learned at their own level. It was very crowded and I feel like we just skimmed the surface. Stacey and I were both looking for the "deep" scientific stuff while the kids just wanted to look at stuff. I think it did make an impression on them though.

I wished we had payed more attention to how the caves were formed in the museum so that we could have explained that to the kids as well. Caleb and Katie both said on Saturday that "It is designed to do what it does do and what it does do, it does do well." I guess you would have to know a little something about the Creation Museum to really appreciate it. It was actually on a video that we watched on the way to the museum but it seemed to make an impression on them. Coy liked the bus ride. I think he would live on the bus if we would let him.
We also snuck in a game of putt-putt golf on Saturday night as well.

The kids (especially Caleb) couldn't get over the fact that we were staying in a hotel less than 20 minutes from our home. We went swimming in the hotel 3 times in one nights stay (2 at night and once in the morning) and we all had a big breakfast so it wasn't that bad of a deal. The kids slept pretty well so we didn't really miss out on too much.
Coy has his last 2 doctor's visits on Monday. We are expecting them to turn him loose. He has already started some of his physical therapy again.

On a Mission From God

2007-08-03T22:35:00.001-04:00

I can't say that I am a big Blues Brothers fan but I couldn't help but think of that movie when I saw this picture. We have had a pretty busy week but nothing too exciting. The kids have had friends over to play just about everyday this week. Coy is doing really well with his speech and his play. He goes to see a couple of the surgeons on Wednesday of next week and we expect for him to be given a clean bill of health. He doesn't go to see the plastic surgeon until the following week but everything appears to be going well there too.

We did get Caleb and Katie registered for school. They are disappointed that they won't get to ride on the same bus this year as their friends Dave and Lindsay. It is hard to believe that school starts for them in just a week and a half. We got the news just a couple of weeks ago that Katie will be going to full time kindergarten. We were hoping for 1/2 days for her so that she could go to another year of CBS (Community Bible Study) but our school system has secured the funding that allows everyone to go to full day kindergarten. (Previously, 1/2 day was free and full time would cost an additional $1,700.) Katie will probably benefit from full time kindergarten a lot more than Caleb would but we still wished that she could have been in CBS another year.

Caleb helped me to work a Sudoku puzzle tonight before bed. It was just a 1 star but he did most of it himself. Coy can really pedal like a mad man now. He has gotten to where he will pedal the three-wheelers down the "hill" beside our driveway. He really enjoys that. Stacey wanted me to admit that he works on his "help me please" when it is time to pull it back up the hill. He is getting better about this though.

Healthy Children

2007-07-25T23:08:00.000-04:00

Well, the hard part is over, we think. Actually, the hard part didn't seem that hard at all. I am sure that if you ask Coy about it, it definitely was not pleasant but we were expecting much worse. The surgeon was able to close his palatte in one surgery. During the pre-op visit, he had warned us that it might require a second surgery since his opening was so wide. I looked in his mouth tonight for the first time and it was amazing. Except for the stitches, it looks like a normal mouth. It is truly amazing. Coy has been amazing too. Other than some minor irritability when his pain medicine runs out, he has been quite the trooper. Since coming home, he has felt well enough to go outside and swing and ride on his big wheel. I figure that any child that is strong enough to survive in an orphanage in Eastern Europe for 2.5 years is more than strong enough to endure minor surgery in the US healthcare system. Also, spending any amount of time at all in a hospital helps me to appreciate our healthy children and how fortunate we are to have such healthy children. Some of it can be attributed to how well Stacey took care of herself both before and while she was pregnant, but the overwhelming majority of it belongs to the grace of God. I don't see how folks with children that are seriously ill can handle the hospital life. I guess if it comes down to that or else, you do whatever you have to do to help your child in any way that you can and you really don't think about anything else. I am ashamed for the times that I have taken our kids health for granted.

Thanks for all of the prayers for Coy. Katie and Caleb prayed for Coy while he was having his surgery and when I called my mom to tell her that the doctor was able to close his mouth with only one surgery, Katie immediately cheered and said, "My prayer has been heard." She is quoting a Bible verse that she learned in CBS "Do not be afraid, your prayer has been heard." She said that she had prayed for Coy to only need one surgery for his pallete, and her prayer (and lots of other prayers) were heard. What a joy it was to tell Katie that the Creator of the Universe heard her prayer and to be able to let her know that he listens to her. Of course, we have to remind her that his answer isn't always yes, but He does hear her, and He does answer her according to His will. It was good for her to be able to see that in a tangible way. Some naysayers may claim that Coy's surgery would have been the same regardless of Katie's prayer to God. I would say bologne. God chose to answer her prayer and I am glad that He did. And I am glad that He hears me tonight when I thank Him for our healthy children, all three of them.

Bike Riding

2007-07-21T11:02:00.000-04:00

I guess it is something about kids that attracts bikes to their butts. After starting out slow this summer, our kids have really taken to riding their bikes around the driveway, over to the neighbors driveway, around the house, back around the neighbors, over to the other neighbors, etc. etc. etc. You get the idea. Coy stays on our driveway but he is really improving on the pedaling. When we first got home, he rode everything and walked it with his legs. We assumed that he had never pedaled anything. But by watching the older kids and trying and trying on his own, he has really improved. Our friends gave us a $40 gift certificate to Wal-Mart so we used it to buy Coy a bike that was just his size. He really likes it.

We have had a few bike mishaps but nobody has gotten seriously hurt yet. Just a few scrapes and bruises, which is to be expected. We insist on their helmets but not elbow and knee pads. Caleb has started to ride a bigger bike that uses hand brakes and has gears. His legs are just a little too short to get off of it gracefully but he does a good job of it. Katie uses the basket on her bike to take things that she makes to the neighbors. She likes to give her cards and art works away.

Coy likes to eat. I think we have mentioned that here already. His pickiness is picking up some. I guess that trait is something that we unintentionally teach our children. Not that he is picky by any means, but he has stopped blindly eating everything in front of his face. He does do a good job of corn on the cob though. Stacey's mom gets THE BEST corn on the cob. All of our kids like it.

Coy's surgery is on Monday. We haven't tried to explain to him what is going to happen. I don't know if there is anyway to explain to a child his age (even without the language barrier) what is about to happen to him. At our pre-op visit on Thursday, the doctor informed us that the hole in the top of his mouth may be too wide to correct in a single surgery. We will be staying at the hospital on Monday night while Caleb and Katie stay with my parents. We have to be at the hospital very early on Monday morning so Caleb and Katie will be going down to Springfield late on Sunday night.

Please pray for Coy and the surgeons. If it is past the 23rd, please pray anyway. I am sure that even after the surgery, that we are going to need all the prayers that we can get.

Looking Back

2007-07-13T09:42:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, we have not taken any pictures yet this week. We did have a fun night on Wednesday night though. I took off to go to Coy's Dr.'s visit and we got out earlier than expected so we came home. We flew kites, went and got ice cream, played tag in the yard, and shot basketball. We used a gift certificate that some friends gave us to buy Coy a bike and a helmet. He is still getting used to pedaling but he likes sitting on it and watching Caleb and Katie ride their bikes.

The people where I work took up a collection and gave Coy a $100 savings bond. Actually they gave us the cash to get him one since we are still working on a SSN for him. They also gave a $100 donation to Hopeful Hearts, which is the ministry that helps orphans in Ukraine and they also help parents to adopt those orphans. They also gave us a photo album to fill up with pictures of our family.

The pictures that I have posted are of the US Embassy in Kyiv. It was less than what I had envisioned. In such a beautiful city, I was expecting the US Embassy to be an impressive building but it reminded me more of a "temporary" building that was made from trailers. There were still lots of people standing outside wanting to get in. The security to get in was pretty tight but the complex was so small that if someone wanted to cause trouble, they could easily do so from the outside.

God Bless America

2007-07-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

The Fourth of July took on extra special meaning for me this year. I always knew that living in the US was a privilege but I didn't realize what a true privilege it is. I wonder sometimes what people that live in our country think is the reason that our country is so blessed. I wonder if they think that we, as Americans, are smarter and therefore, more deserving than other humans in other parts of the world? I wonder if they think that we work harder than others do and that makes us more deserving than others? I wonder if they think it is our innovation, our resources, our capitalistic nature, or our everyone has an opportunity reputation that makes us such a privileged nation?? I, for one, believe that we enjoy our status because of the way our founding fathers built this nation on Christian values and Christian beliefs. I believe that God has blessed this country because of the way that generations before us have trusted in Him. The generations before obviously weren't perfect but they were looking to the perfect Father. Also, there has been an enormous amount of sacrifice given for our country. As a young man and a father, I struggle to think about what it would take for a man to go to another country and fight to keep those at home free. I think it would take a sense of something greater than self. I wonder how many in our country today would still have that sense of something greater than self when needed. I am still proud to be an American, even if America isn't perfect. I will take it over any other country that is out there today. But I do hope that America will remember soon enough why it is such a wonderful country. Because for those that have been given much, much is expected.

Take for example, chocolate doughnuts. What a privilege to be able to eat chocolate doughnuts on occasion. Not that they don't have chocolate doughnuts in other countries but to sit at your kitchen table and to be allowed to enjoy a chocolate doughnut in your own special way is a true freedom.

Caleb and I went to a birthday party tonight and we were late getting home. Stacey and Katie had already put Coy to bed when we got here. Stacey told me that Coy prayed for all of us by name tonight at bedtime. He loves to pray (probably because at the end of most of our prayers is food). He does like to pray at bedtime too. Of course, we usually can't make out what he is saying but apparently Stacey and Katie both were able to recognize our names in his prayer. We pray for our children by name in front of them every night and I guess that he has heard us doing that and is just repeating what he has heard.

Coy didn't care too much for the fireworks that come with the 4th. We had some small ones at our house on Tuesday and he seemed to like those OK but then we went to some friends' house that were letting of fireworks and after about the second big one with a loud bang, he was saying/signing "all done" and was crying and was ready to go home. Some of it may have been that he was tired too but he definitely didn't want any part of those fireworks. I remember our other children being like that at that age as well.

Family Vacation

2007-06-30T20:51:00.000-04:00

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.

2007-06-27T21:09:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-24T13:40:00.001-04:00

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

2007-06-16T07:24:00.001-04:00

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

2007-06-09T09:21:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-01T21:39:00.000-04:00

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.

The Week in Review

2007-05-26T19:46:00.000-04:00

Wow, I don't know if I can't get it all in now or not but I will try. I will do it in reverse, starting with the events of last night. We traveled to Stacey's parents and her mom had supper ready and waiting for us when we got there. Everyone was busy helping to get the food on the table and drinks ready, etc. and all of a sudden we heard crying coming from the basement. Coy had opened the door to their basement and had fallen down the steps. We don't know how far he fell but to say that we were scared to death would be putting it mildly. We ran to the bottom of the steps expecting the worst. He had a LARGE knot on his forehead and a scrape between his eyes but amazingly, no other injuries. The door to the steps open in and we think that he just was exploring and opened the door and didn't realize there were steps there. After just a few minutes of crying, he was OK. His eye is not black but he does have a doozy of a bruise.

Katie graduated from pre-school on Wednesday night. They had the cap and gown thing going on and it was pretty cool. Katie did a wonderful job at this pre-school. We were so amazed at how much work they accomplished in just a couple of hours, three days a week. We are hoping that this pre-school is still running in a couple of years when Coy is ready. Grandma Yankey learned something at the reception that followed. She was going to get Coy just one more cookie. Well, she got one that he kind of acted like he didn't like so she went back to get him a different one. Her intentions were to switch them out so that he could have one that he liked. She learned that once food is in Coy's hands, the only way that you are going to get it away from him is to make him mad.

Last Sunday we got to go on a walk with our friends the Dorschs. Our kids have such a great time with their kids that we probably couldn't keep them apart if we wanted to. We hiked for about an hour around a lake that is nearby our house and then we came back to our house for homemade pizza and a water fight in the back yard.

In between all of that stuff, Stacey took the kids to the zoo to try out the new splash park. Coy also was diagnosed with more ear infections and given another round of antibiotics. The pediatricians thinks that we will probably just put tubes in his ears during his other surgeries to help reduce his ear infections. We understand that it is not uncommon for children with cleft pallete to be especially susceptible to ear infections.

The political unrest in Ukraine is still in the news as it has apparently begun to grow less peaceful.

We continue to be amazed at God's timing for everything. It has truly been unreal. Unfortunately, I don't have time in this blog tonight to go into the details of everything but He obviously had our path worked out ahead of us.

The Lights are Beginning to Come On (and off)

2007-05-19T21:50:00.001-04:00

People told us that we would be amazed at how quickly children would understand a new language. Of course he has been submersed in English but I would have to say that we are amazed at how much he understands. This morning, Caleb and Coy had gotten up early. Coy likes to try and use the restroom. He usually does something. He then likes to flush, wave goodbye, and then wash and dry his hands. Well, this morning, after about the third trip in 15 minutes, I left him after he got his pants pulled back up. I was about 15 feet away when I turned around and he was walking out. I said, "Coy, turn the lights off." He stopped. Walked back a few steps, and reached up and turned the lights off, just as I had instructed. That is amazing.

We had our first taste of public eating tonight. We all went to Ryan's for a meal. Coy was tired from getting up early with Caleb this morning and he fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got there. Fortunately, he usually wakes up in a good mood and he did this time as well. As we waited to pay, he did get a little upset but once we sat down, Stacey got him a plate of food really fast and we said our prayer and he was good to go. As always, he ate really well and we all generally enjoyed our time out. We did take him to the restroom a couple of times at his request but other than that, there he sat in all of his glory. The only time he got upset was when he realized that we were getting up to go home and not to go to the restroom. One thing he did like at the restroom was getting the papertowels out of the dispenser on the wall. Also, since he is smaller, he didn't see the hole for the trash can on the counter top so he went under the counter to throw away his towel.

Caleb likes to try and make us all laugh and he usually does a pretty good job of it. He tries to correct some of my poor grammer habits, like saying the word ain't. Well, sometimes, Coy gets real excited and he rattles off a lot of something that must be Russian because we have no idea what he is saying and Caleb will look at him and say, "Coy, please use proper English." Of course, he is just trying to be funny and it almost always gets a chuckle out of me. His other thing that he does is he will ask you what your name is and after you tell him he will say, spell it. Of course, everyone begins to spell their name and he says no, i-t. Get it?? If I did that, it would be annoying. Since a 6-year old does it, it is kind of cute the first few times.

Coy loves to swing on the swing set and slide on the sliding board but he can't keep up on the monkeybars with his big brother and sister. They worked up a "performance" for their friends and spent a lot of time one night writing out invitations to all of them. Unfortunately, they scheduled their performance for the next night so that we weren't able to deliver very many of the invitations and really didn't expect anyone to be able to make it on such short notice any way. But they did work really hard on them for several hours.

What's Next??

2007-05-16T22:09:00.000-04:00

We are busy looking around trying to get things ironed out for what we are going to do with Coy this fall. Stacey has called every pre-school in southern Indiana. We think we have one that we will be satisfied with but time will tell. We are actually on the waiting list but we are the first one on the waiting list. We are hopeful that we will get in. It is one that Caleb actually went to when he was about Coy's age.

Stacey is going to be teaching during the day time beginning this fall. This will require that Coy have some sort of child care for about 4 hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. Not the end of the world obviously, because lots of children go to daycare.

Going back to work went fine. Most of my projects were in pretty good shape. Lots of folks at work had been following the blog and were genuinely interested in hearing the details of our story.

We haven't heard back from the pediatrician about the results of Coy's tests and we haven't heard back from the plastic surgeon to confirm Coy's surgery date. We have however, heard lots of good stories about the plastic surgeon that will do his surgery. That makes us feel better. Lots of people have commented on how well his surgery already looks and they are right. The results of his first surgery don't look bad now and his lip looks pretty good. But he does need to have his pallete repaired for his speech development.

Coy's understanding of what we are saying is increasing by leaps and bounds. He understands lots of phrases. We also understand several of his hand motions when he wants us to do things. We try very hard to have him verbalize what it is he wants or is trying to get across. Don't get us wrong, he is a very verbal little boy, it's just that we have no clue what he is trying to say and whether or not it is in poor English or in Russian. We are trying to encourage his English development so that we will have a better understanding of exactly how much help he needs so that we can find that help for him.

Our Big Adventure

Again and Again

More Seizures :( :(

The First Day of School

More

Another One

Glad That's Over

Where Have I Been???

The End of Flag..........Football

Nothing New

Happy Birthday Coy

This is too much for me

Its Over

We Are Family

A Wild One

New Pictures

Diving In and KAZ

Don't Eat the Ice Cream

Maybe.......

Meet The Robinsons......Again

2 Years in the US with US

2 Years Home

101 Posts and almost 2 Years Later

100 Posts

Good News

Imagine That

Here is a Post For You

Where Have We Been???

Fun Times at Yankey House

Post Adoption Follow Up

New Video Camera Test

Finally

Still Too Busy To Write

Too Much Going On to Write

More Vacation Info

WE'RE BACK, AGAIN

Happy Adoption Day!!!!!

What A Year

Spring Break Action

Happy Easter

Snow Day

A GREAT BOOK TO READ

Batman sings B-I-B-L-E

Cabin Fever and Valentine's Day

A Special Visitor

Total Attachment

Random Stuff

PRICELESS

Happy New Year

Christmas......USA style

Did Christmas Come Here??

Santa Grant This Wish Please

Christmas is Coming

What is after Thanksgiving???

How About This For a Bunch of Turkeys??

Here is a Neat Painting

KISS ME BABY

Passports, Flu Shots, and Other Stuff

A Parent's Dream/Nightmare

The Zoo

River Dance, Magic Tricks, and Hot Air Balloons

Picnic Day, Huber's, and Comments

Who is Perfect?

Underwear

Happy Birthday

First Day of Pre-School

Inside the Orphanage

Birthdays, School, Out of Town Trips and an experiment

Too Busy to Write

On a Mission From God

Healthy Children

Bike Riding

Looking Back

God Bless America

Family Vacation

More Posts

Finally

Count Your Blessings

Getting Things Together

Whoa Horsey