Ukraine Adoption

Sun and fun

The beach

Tomorrow we will take our little Ukrainian princess daughter and our future major-league baseball pitcher son to spend a week at an oceanfront beach house in North Carolina. This will be Tara's first family vacation. It will be her first time on a beach. She will be meeting two uncles and two aunts and a few cousins, too.

We are flying there, hopefully the 2 hours will seem like nothing to her, compared to the long overseas journey home in April. We will cover her in sunscreen and put a life jacket on her and what will she think of the roaring ocean at her feet?

We plan to upload pictures while we are there, so stay tuned for the adventures of the beach.

Sweet children

Friends and people I hardly know are asking me about the possibility of adopting in Ukraine. This is so heart-warming because there are so many sweet children living in orphanages. Many have no visitors, ever.

Tara's teachers at pre-school describe her to me as a smiling, happy girl that other children like to play with. She is silly, energetic and friendly. She is a loveable child. She kisses her grandma on the cheek, she teases her brother, she never forgets to feed the kitty.

How many of her friends that she left behind in Kiev will get the same chance in life that she did?

Weekend, friends and little lambs

When I told Tara we were going to a party for her, she could hear the excitement in my voice and started clapping and hopping. She knew this was going to be a special day.

About a dozen of my really cool gal pals from the place I used to work (Free Press) gathered together at my friend Jennifer's house Saturday afternoon, bearing gifts---they weren't supposed to (ahem.) What a wonderful day it was!

Tara warmed up after a little while and was running around, playing with her new friend, 3-year-old Emma.

She loved everything she got, so many toys and clothes (!) and when we got home afterward, she looked at everything again, one by one. She even tried a few things on right over her shorts, including a beautiful yellow flowered dress. Y'all are awesome!

On Sunday, we went to our friends' farm to see lambs being born. They are so small and cute and look like little dogs. I think Austin wanted to take one home with us. Tara (rhymes with Sarah) played with her new friend Mara (as in MAR ah). OK, that's confusing. But wow, can the weekend get any more exciting than this? On the way home, she wore the tiara she got from her cousin Lisa. I guess she thought she was princess of the farm...

Outside play

It seems like Tara has the most fun when she can just run around in the yard. I think it all still feels pretty new to her. (see more new pics in photo album)

The Little Rascal

People told me that orphans from Ukraine will eat pretty much whatever you give them and a lot of it. Hah. My little princess has figured out a new game that is very funny to her. It involves me scrambling around the kitchen trying to find something that she will eat. One day, she will love yogurt. Two days later, hates it (or pretends to). On Monday, she gobbles up raisin bread for breakfast; on Thursday, she turns her head. I think I will buy 10 boxes of cereal because that's where she has been most consistent. Sort of.

I remember going through this 2-year-old finicky eating thing with Austin. But that was 7 years ago! When we got McDonalds takeout for lunch a few days ago, I was so pleased that she actually ate the meat from her cheeseburger. Until I found most of the patty on the pink Play-doh.

Almost a month

Last month, Tara didn't know how to use a straw or a sippy cup, or even how to eat a lolipop. She had never played with a kitty or pet a dog. She had never sat in a shopping cart and picked out snacks or been to a baseball game. She had never had Chinese food or played with little neighbor friends. She had never helped wash a car in the driveway or kicked a ball in the grass. She had never looked for turtles in the woods or rabbits in the yard. She had never had a kitty greet her in the morning or a friend knock on the front door.

This Wednesday will mark four weeks that Tara Vika has been home with us. What a month, what a year, and what a life we all still have to look forward to.

She had me at hhhiiiii

People ask me how we communicate with a child from an orphanage in Ukraine. Tara understands so much English, it's incredible to me. I can tell her to do something, like put her shoes on, and she doesn't hesitate. She knows what I'm talking about when I tell her it's time to brush her teeth. She runs into the bathroom and grabs her toothbrush. And her sweet little voice tries so hard to repeat words, it's precious. She grins and says a breathy "hhhhhiiii." Buh-bye comes easy, too. All gone sounds more like Ga-gone. Ball is Baum. And when I say, not MMM, it's LLL, like La La La Ballll. She says NOOOOO. Maybe I have it wrong...

Well, I guess it can't be too easy to know three languages---Ukrainian, Russian and English. She is, after all, only two.

A sweet song

Sometimes when we're in the car, or playing with puzzles, or looking at books, Tara sings this sweet song in Ukrainian. We don't know what she is singing about, and at first, we weren't sure if it was just 2-year-old la-la-la stuff, but we noticed the same words, the same tune, each time. We want to videotape her singing the mysterious song, though we are never quite certain when she will do it. We will ask someone to help us decipher the words. We hope she forgets about her stay at the orphanage, yet we don't want her to forget this song from her homeland.

She does sing "la-la" in it, which she uses to refer to dolls and babies. Maybe it's some kind of lullaby?

She is learning about her new environment and, like any two-year-old, is testing the limits. She doesn't always stay in her chair at dinnertime; if she can't get her way, she'll lay on her stomach on the floor (or the driveway)and whimper, though we see her peeking at us for our reaction; and she points and whines if she wants something out of reach. This brings back all of the memories of Austin as a toddler! (And Sally on our week in Ukraine).

Little helper

Tara knows how to fold towels, put the milk in the refrigerator and unload the dishwasher. I'm not making this up. She is only 2 but seems to have the household knowledge of an older child. We don't know how she would know about dishwashers, or even know her way around a kitchen, for that matter. This little helper surprises us every day.

She does not like when I am out of her sight, she follows me from room to room, trying to anticipate my next need. She hands me a towel when I get out of the shower, she gives me the toothpaste and then scrounges around my closet to find a shirt for me to wear. Sometimes it's John's shirt but I hate to break her spirit so I pretend to put it on and switch it when she's not looking.

Is she really only 2? She covers her mouth sometimes when she giggles. When she gets hurt, I ask her if she's OK and she always says yes, so bravely, and she'll follow up with an "owwwww." She worries about our cat sneaking outside, she helps me call him when he gets out. She's a little helper. And she loves to be hugged for it.

Sunny weekend

Mother's Day was lovely, I have the best gift of all: Two wonderful children. Tara met her Uncle John and Aunt Anne at Grandma's house today, she really liked them. They brought her some cool stuff, including a super-soft stuffed doggy. Tara did her best "arf arf." She was hardly shy at all, running around the yard, playing ball, teasing the cat. My Mom (Grandma) gave Tara a butterfly pillow for her room. But isn't this Mother's Day?

My Mom got a lot of flowers and gifts today from her five kids and their families. Mom: I hope someday I can be as good of a mother as you have always been.

Baseball games and sleeping in

I'm getting the morning routine down to a science: load up all the stuff into the car, then get Tara ready for the drive to pre-school. The first day, I think I made five trips back into the house for my purse, my coffee, my jacket, her lunch, you name it. Each day, fewer trips back inside. I'm doing fairly well. But then, this is a 2-year-old, so her job is to throw me off my game. She woke up this morning before I was ready for her, and, being the warm, sleepy, clingy toddler that she is in the morning, I had to haul her around like a football while I did everything else with one hand. And she didn't want her usual breakfast, she wanted peanuts. Hey, that's protein, I figured, so I gave her some in a cup. And then, oomph, into the car seat you go! Hey, where's your other shoe?

On the way, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw her smiling back at me, raising her eyebrows and waiting for me to imitate her, then laughing at me. Such joy, a child in your life. And now I have two.

This weekend, we will go to Austin's baseball game and we will play outside and maybe plant some flowers. We will visit Grandma on Sunday and Tara will meet Uncle John (aka Ice Man)and Aunt Anne (aka Stick Woman) for the first time.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Settling in

The toddlers were happily romping around the playground when I went to pick Tara up from pre-school, but I did not see my little princess there. Once inside, I saw her pink socks and tiny tennis shoes in the bathroom stall. She was upset; she didn't like being removed from the outside play area to come inside for a potty break. Her light blue shirt had the tell-tale signs of an afternoon of fingerpainting. Her hair smelled like a little girl's sweat mixed with fresh air and sunshine.

Her teacher showed me their projects on the wall. I scanned the artwork and finally found Tara's blue handprints with the words above it: "Happy Mother's Day."

School and friends

Tara clutched her pink Barbie lunch bag and walked right into her pre-school this morning. She put her red coat on the hook with her name like she's done it a million times. She seems to be enjoying herself, her independence, her new friends. I already feel like she has this social life that I know very little about. She cried a little when I left; she greeted me with giant hugs and kisses on my cheek when I came back at the end of the day to pick her up. Her teachers say she is doing very well and getting a little more confident each day. I knew she was holding back when, after her first day, they described her as a quiet, reserved child. Hah!

Each day, she shows more of her true colors, her cheerful expressions, her silly antics. She has some sweet new friends, including a little girl named Natalia who speaks Spanish at home and English at pre-school.

I look around at all of their precious little faces, their nice clothes, the brightly painted walls and their YoBaby yogurt snacks. These children don't even realize how fortunate they are; every day, their loving parents pick them up and take them home.

Very active

There are a few new pictures of a very active Tara in the photo album. She likes to run, not walk. Anyone know how to say, "Slow down" in Russian??!

On the 12th day of Tara...

This is the second weekend that Tara has been home and it feels like she has been here forever. She moves (usually runs) from room to room with ease. She seems comfortable among a lot of people---lots of kids at Austin's Little League Opening Day today at the park; grocery stores; Starbucks; and among friends and family.

She wants to do everything herself, from putting on her pants and shirts, socks and shoes to picking out her own clothes and groceries at the stores. She hands me garbage bags when the can is full, she selects her snacks from the pantry and brings them to me only when she is frustrated at being unable to open them.

She squeals this high-pitch tone when she plays with Austin; she screams when she can't have her way; she laughs often when things are going right.