Not a sunny day

Not a sunny Sunday, and we're not talking weather.

Judas. Church was slightly easier this week. I didn't even attempt to have him dress in Sunday clothing. I am a little bit bugged though because I know most of the other host families have taken the children they are hosting to church in appropriate church attire and have not had the conflict that we have had. Whatever. We got there.

At home we had another lovely (no, I'm not being sarcastic) lunch. And then, because I am getting pretty sick (of course. could there be any better time?) I tried to lay down. hahaha.

So, I just got up and started getting dinner ready. My sister with the silver hair and her husband were coming up for dinner and to meet the boys I had been raving about. Way. to. jinx. it. So, they came, my sis and I stayed in the house and chatted while we watched the husbands and all the kids play outside. And, as it often does when dads are involved, the playing got a little crazy. This itself is not the problem. The problem is that the children have a difficult time unwinding and often lose control and a whole new set of problems arise. This is what happened. BoyOne was super hyper. The out of control kind. Huz finally led him upstairs to his room and told him to calm down. Or at least he tried to. Huz rarely gets upset with the kids. It sometimes bugs me because I end up having to be the disciplinarian ALL THE TIME. (For any Modern Family watchers, I've started calling him Phil when this happens. i.e. the episode where Phil promises his children a new computer, a chicken pot pie and a car if they "unplug" for a week) Anyhow, so if dad ever gets mad, and his mad is really just a disappointed look, the kids are devastated. Devastated. And BoyOne was just that. I had to sit upstairs with him for two hours trying to console him. I think his heart broke. I felt bad for him. There's finally a father figure in his life and he feels like he just got in trouble. Poor kid. Finally, I convince him to come eat dinner with me (everyone else is long done by now). I'm hoping that he'll get over this quick. It seems like once he is downstairs he does.

Later, while we're watching t.v. as a group BoyOne comes up to me and says, "Thank you mama" and kisses my cheek. This is huge.

Halloween

Happy Halloween!!

Today started with a soccer game. Two's last one 'til spring. I must say, as much as I love soccer, I am glad for this season to be over. Here in the mountains it is c.o.l.d. And honestly, at this age these kids were ready to be done about three games ago. Still fun though.

After soccer we began to get ready to go trick or treating. We had decided to go to our old neighborhood. We know everyone in every house there and felt that it would be safer (as in if some Ukrainian child happened to get lost) and easier (as in the houses are all occupied and closer together). Also, this neighborhood has a fabulous tradition of gathering beforehand for dinner. Each year a picture of the kids is taken and it is fun to compare the size of the group and the height. Thanks so much to the same neighbor for hosting year, after year, after year...

I have learned these past few days that if we want to be anywhere at a reasonable time I have to start prepping the boys about 3 hours before. So at like noon we started getting costumes ready. Go me! BoyOne decided, after everyone was already in the car, he wanted his face painted like a skeleton to go along with his pirate costume. Fine, I thought. Like Pirates of the Caribbean which I'm guessing he has never seen. There was even a picture of how he wanted it done on the package the paints came in. So, about halfway through, and 10 minutes into it, he changes his mind. AUGH!! He just wants dark eyes. Whatever. Just wipe it off and get in the car. This is seriously way more girly than I ever imagined a boy would be. Good grief. In his defense, this is probably going to be his one and only Halloween ever and I'm sure he wants it to be perfect.

We finally get back to the old hood. He changes his mind even more and wants ALL the paint off. So, instead of eating, I'm inside wiping paint off that I just painted. Whatever...

It is now time to trick or treat. It is raining and cold. Know what? They didn't even care. We were supposed to have split up, me with the littles and huz with the bigs. Somehow, we kept overlapping and I felt like I was struggling to keep track of everyone instead. So, at the end of our street I took Four and BoyTwo and Huz took the older four kids. That lasted about 15 houses and then we all were together. At the end, I took the youngest four to my neighbor's house with her kids (who we were trick or treating with) and huz, One and BoyOne kept going.

It was a successful night. The kids made out like bandits, and so did we. One does not like caramel, nuts or most chocolate. WHO'S KID IS SHE??? So we score all the unwanteds from her. The boys had a great time and were well mannered, saying thank you at each house. In the beginning BoyTwo was trying to eat each piece of candy between houses but quickly figured out that this was going to be an all night thing. He still ate a ton of candy.

It's all good, everybody had a great time, we were so glad to see old friends and we all got lots of candy and went home with tired kids. Great day.

A Million Kisses

I am lucky enough to be hosting one of the younger Ukrainians. Lucky because I get to sit with him each night as he falls asleep and he doesn't think it's weird. I trace his sweet little face with my finger and listen to his breathing become steady so that I know that he is sleeping. As I trace his face, I try to do it so softly and slowly so that it will last him, if necessary, a life time. I try to memorize his little features so that, if necessary, it will last me a life time. And then, when I am sure he is sleeping, I kiss his cheeks a million times. He is so little and it breaks my heart to think that his little cheeks probably weren't kissed very often, that they are rarely kissed now, and that they may never be kissed again. I also do it for me. Because I may never get to kiss those little cheeks again. And that would be a real tragedy.

In case you're wondering, I do give him kisses while he is awake, but we all know how special it is to kiss a sleeping child.

Friday

Wow. Friday was busy.

We started by getting everyone bathed and ready for the day. Preparations included packing everyone's Halloween costumes. It went fairly smoothly until BoyOne's fake bloody sword was broken. He and BoyTwo had been sword fighting and it was just too much action for that fake bloody sword. BoyOne was, to put it mildly, devastated. These are the times when their emotional age shines through and is very easily several years younger than their actual age. I really did feel bad for him. I mean it's his first Halloween ever and he was so excited.

We had to haul into SLC for dentist appointments at donated dental. BoyOne has some chipped teeth but I hadn't looked in his mouth to see if there were any obvious cavities. BoyTwo, however had at least 4 that I could easily see. By the time we got to donated dental for our 11 o'clock appointment, they were very behind schedule. I had all 6 kids with me. I had hoped to drop off the girls with a sitter but I was worried about time frame for the rest of the day so I ended up taking them with me. We were supposed to have an appointment with a Facilitator to get specific information about the boys entrance into the orphanage. This meeting was to be at 1. Fortunately Facilitator was held up in another appointment. We didn't even get into the dentist until 1. Yes ma'am. That is 2 HOURS later than our scheduled time!!!!!!! With 6 kids!!!!!!!

By the time we had our appointments the dentists were done giving fillings as they had already done so many and were so far behind schedule. This was very sad for me. BoyTwo has 6 cavities. They are all in baby teeth but 4 of them are really bad and are in molars that won't come out for a long time. I know that they hurt him:( And, as you all know, dental work without insurance is kinda pricey. BoyOne was scared to death. I held one of his hands and Three held his other hand. In the end, we were told that his teeth were great. Good news. BoyTwo was not at all nervous. He really is quite the character. Always making us laugh.

After we were finished at the dentist, we headed back to huz's parents house. They live in between our house and where we needed to be for the night so they let us come crash at their house for our Facilitator appointment. This helped us a ton. We couldn't have driven back and forth three times-it would've been way too crazy.

Facilitator ended up coming to the appointment a little after 3. This was just fine. She is a native Ukrainian and speaks fluent English. It was wonderful to meet with her and find out a few details about the boys. We already had found out most of the information she gave us but it was nice to be able to confirm it. She visited with each of the boys, asked how they were enjoying their trip. She works a lot with orphaned children and knows what questions to ask and the kids seemed to be comfortable with her. We did find out that as of Friday the boys had not been cleared for international adoption. They are legally orphans but the government must have paperwork submitted for a period of one year after filing them as legal orphans and prior to legalizing them for adoption. We are hoping to find out in the next couple of days if they have been cleared and if not, when their year mark is.

After Facilitator left we hustled to get into our Halloween costumes to go to the SAC party. We got there late, as our appointment with Facilitator had been pushed back so far. Upon arrival BoyOne decided that he no longer liked his costume. He saw that most of his friends were wearing only a mask or a mask with a trench coat. BoyOne is VERY self-conscious and insecure so when he saw this he immediately wanted to go home. He told one translator that we had made him buy the costume he was wearing but that he didn't like it. That made me mad. I called him on it and that made him mad. As soon as it was time to leave BoyOne was finally starting to have a good time. This seems to be the trend with him. BoyTwo, fortunately, is more easy going in these social situations (I'm sure age has a lot to do with it) and had a great evening, as did our girls.

We grabbed some food on our way home and by the time we arrived home everyone was ready for bed! All in all I would say that it was a mostly successful night. On the down side, I am getting sick. I've been fighting it since Monday and each day I feel it getting a little bit worse. Nothing too terrible, bad head cold. Hopefully it doesn't go to my chest...

a little bird

Well, on Thursday the kids had a Halloween costume parade at school this morning. It was fun to go watch. It reminded me of my childhood. The boys were in awe as they watched all the kids in their costumes. They both decided they wanted to be pirates. We had one pirate costume that BoyTwo was going to use. We just needed one for BoyOne. I sent huz and BoyOne on a little shopping trip together that night. They had a lovely time. BoyOne was way excited to show me his costume when they got home. I have a great picture of him in it.

Thursday afternoon BoyOne went on a L O N G bike ride with my neighbor. I won't advertise where exactly they biked to, but take my word for it: it was far. He was in heaven. I know that when he had a family he was fortunate enough to have learned to do many things somewhere along the line, bike riding being one of them. He has told me that the orphanage does not have any bikes that he can ride. He misses doing that. Sad. So many things we take for granted.

BoyTwo is hilarious. He is always being a goofball, making us laugh, doing these funny little dances. Today he did something, I don't even remember what, and I told him no and he flipped me off. Apparently that is a universal sign that is learned and acceptable at a very young age in Ukraine orphanages! I spoke to another host parent the other day and asked how things were going. He said they were well but added that one of his Ukrainian visitors had flipped him off too. It was kind of funny. Surprising/funny. Anyhow, I had to have a little time out with him. Later on he flipped huz off too! And then on Sunday, he flipped off my brother in law. I remember when Two went through a phase where she was flipping people off. She had picked it up from somewhere at age 3 (yikes!!). Luckily, it didn't take long to break her of that habit.

We are still having fun, still enjoying this experience. It feels like they've been here for much longer than 5 days. I don't want to get to the halfway mark though because I know that time will go fast and they'll have to go home before I know it.

it's gone

Somehow, my contact case magically disappeared a couple of days ago. I have been keeping them in little medicine cups hidden behind a clock and lotions on my bathroom counter until I can get to the store and grab another. And this morning when I got up and went to put in my contacts, they were gone. BoyTwo had helped himself to a little drink.

Don't worry, I'm not going to look through his poop for them.

Good Times

Wednesday was a lovely day. My kiddos have early out on Wednesdays which, when we moved here I thought I would hate. I've ended up loving it. Who even knows why. Anyhow, SAC hosted a group bowling event. I was lucky enough to be able to attend this event with just the boys. It was great to be able to just worry about them and not be chasing everyone around. My awesome neighbor watched Three when she got out of school (seems like she's always watching my kids) and my awesome mother-in-law took Four.

On the way to bowling EVERY time we passed anything that remotely resembled Halloween they would shout out

"HALLOWEEN!! HALLOWEEN!!"

I think they're excited...

We were able to get to the bowling alley a little early which allowed the boys to eat some lunch before going in. Their choice? "Big Mahc and Coca-Cola." haha. We were the first ones in so bowling hadn't started yet. I got some tokens for them and the played some video race car game that they loved. These two love anything that appears to be car racing related. In fact, when we drive anywhere and I pass someone they cheer and say, "bye-bye" to the car we pass. If I get passed they say, "mommy!!" in this very disappointing tone.

When bowling started we went to the counter to get shoes and a lane. BoyOne and a couple of his friends wanted to bowl together. I showed them how to hold the ball and how to roll it down the lane. Anyone who has been bowling with me is probably laughing right now. Me? Teaching someone to bowl? It's like the blind leading the blind. I have yet to break 100. But my instruction worked out just fine and the boys had a fabulous time. Early on BoyTwo had a strike which set his expectations high for the rest of the day. Unfortunately he was disappointed with the rest of his game. Still, good times were had by all. It was great to see the way BoyOne and his friends all helped BoyTwo.

After a little talking to about how we need to feed the kids hot broth at least once a day so they will grow and a reminder to please keep an eye on them it was time for us to leave. Some of the other parents were buying their kids the crap they sell at bowling allies. Some of the kids had won tickets by playing video games. BoyOne wanted to buy the same crap. I told him no. He, of course, was not happy. I told him we were going to go rock climbing. He told me he didn't want to. Whatever. This morning he was way excited about it. He is reminding me of One. I'm not sure if it's the age/emotional stability or the way they come but they are a lot alike. We left anyway.

Once home we packed everyone back into the car and headed to the nicest climbing gym I have EVER been to. It's the Front in Ogden. It happened to be the day of an after school program. My lucky day. Well, let me tell you. BoyTwo did NOT understand the concept of taking turns, so after every turn I had to physically restrain him until it was his next turn. With six kids, two speaking a foreign language, we attracted quite a lot of attention. Fortunately we were fairly well received. And, thank heavens, I was extremely calm and patient. phew. Finally Huz showed up to rescue me with an assist. Now that there were two of us we could move away from the bouldering and actually harness ourselves and the kids and do some real climbing! They all had a great time. AND the area that we were in we had pretty much to ourselves, lucky for us and everyone else:) We took some great pictures that I'm not allowed to share and some video.

And the perfect ending to the perfect day? Everyone went straight to bed. Ahhh.