What Has Been Happening

Well I am finally getting a chance to update you on how things have been going over the past few months. I am hoping to update more often now - I know I said that before but now that we are all settled and Christmas is over and I have brain dumped everything over the last few months, I think it will be easier for me to update you on the little coming and goings of our family. It is really hard to believe that today has been three months since I walked out of the orphanage with little M. It seems so long ago. Below this post is a post that will update you on what happened from our last day in Astrakhan until we got home if you are interested. It is lengthy but there are pictures.

Little M is doing so amazingly well! I think that he has adjusted so well. He gets along with the kids very well. He loves his big sis and she loves to baby him. He runs around the house following his big brothers as they burn off energy – At first, there was some jealousy from little M when one of the other kids would sit on my lap, he would want to push them off and get on my lap Now he just climbs up besides me and wants me to hug him too.

The dog issue is much better. Poor Rocky was very jumpy for awhile but us better now. He still keeps his eye out for M but now it seems that he only gets stepped on by accident.

SLEEPING has been going great since about week three home. At first, I would try to rock him to sleep but since he would not stay in my lap when I sat down, I would have to rock him standing, I also had to make sure that we were in a dark room or else he would spend all his time looking around at things. After about a week of doing that twice a day for 10-15 mintues both my feet and back where killing me. So I started just putting him in his crib and let him cry for about 5 minutes(checking in on him every minute to ensure that I was there). After a few days, I then felt bad, so I would lay in the bed in his room until he fell asleep. One night, I could not lay down and he was fine and has been great ever since. He sleeps through the night for about 11.5 hours and 1.5 to 2 hours in the afternoon. He is in a room by himself because when he was in with one of his brothers, it messed up everyones sleep schedule. He does so much better in a room by himself – I guess each child is just different.

EATING started out great and now, even though it is difficult, it is typical of a two year old. He eats most things now except tomatoe sauce. Somedays he is more picky then others but he has gained about 3 pounds since we have been home so I think he is doing good.

HEATHWISE he is also doing great. No concerns with any of the doctors we have seen. We have had difficultly getting a good hearing check because he always seems to have fluid behind his eardrum. It is no infected but the doctor recently put him on antibiotic to see if we can get it cleared up. He has also had a horrible runny nose since I picked him up from the orphanage so the meds seem to be helping with that too. He still had not grown any heightwise and I am hoping that will kick in soon. He wears a 24 month top and 12 month pants. We joke and say that he is part Corgy because his legs are so short.

SPEECH: The only big concern we are dealing with is his speech. He was very dealyed in speech only speaking a few words( that we knew of) in Russian, so after about a month of talking to him in Russian and English, we slowly cut out the Russian and only now use English. He has picked up english so well and you can see how eager he is to learn know words. He often brings things to me so I can tell him what they are. But there are several sounds that he simply can not make so some words are just not recognizable and many sound the same. But each week he is making progress. A few weeks ago he started saying his first phrase on his own “I'm coming!” And last week he started with the toddler babbling. Before he would just say words in response to seeing things but now he will play and just babble on and on. We are on a waiting list for a speech therapist and will get him in the school system once he turns three. But we are going to more forward with our own speech therapist at the beginning of the year.

EMOTIONS: He has also really advanced with being affectionate. At first, he really never hugged and we had to teach him how to kiss. He never really liked being held either ( that is still the case but then he just does not sit still very long either – He's two). Fast forward three months, he is a very caring person. If one of the kids is crying he will go over and hug them. He loves to come over and rub my back and arm and even after he gets out of a time out – he immediately comes over to give me a hug( like is is telling me that he is sorry).

CONCERNS: The only issue that is a little concern to me is that he doesn't really know a stranger. We will be standing in line, and he just has to go up and touch people. I also have to be careful because he will let others pick him up. Most of the time, though, he will immediately turn away and want to come to me – which is good. There are a few people that he feels very comfortable with, my Mom and his Sunday school teachers. It is really hard after you have read all the attachement books on what you should and should not allow. It comes down to the child and the family and you just have to go with your gut.

I have to say that even though things are going well with M. It has been hard. I knew it would be hard but it still doesn't make things more palatable when you are going thorugh it. The things that took me the most by surprise was my feelings. I knew that it would not be love at first sight but with all our visits at the orphanage, he would just melt my heart. However, we never had a honeymoon period as others have mentioned because he started testing me during the last visits in the orphanage. So when we got back to a normal life, I have to be honest, he did not “feel” like my son. There is just something missing with him that I have with my other kids. Others say that it will come and I know that it will but I wanted to let others out there know that things are not perfect and that is ok too. However I feel at times, I am glad that we have M in our lives and that all the frustration of the paperwork, the wait and the adjustment will result in many blessings from God for both M and us.

Not to end a post on a downer – I will leave you with some pictures over the past few months :

My little Bumble Bee
My favorite present

You are saying that I CAN rip this paper?

Entries from Final Days in Russia

Well, Here is the recap of our time from Astrakhan until we got home. If you are not into reading scroll to the end for pictures!
October 1st:
We were to leave around 5 pm that night to make our 7pm flight to Moscow and we had nothing planned that day. Needless to say it was hard to keep a toddler occupied for several hours while trying to pack. It got to the point where I packed everything up an just kept taking him outside for little walks. It is always interesting how I think I stick out so much as an America but how Russians will come up to me and start asking me something, in Russian, I just kindly smile and so “No Russki”. However, I did meet someone I never thought I would ever meet in Russia – A Jehovah Witness! As I am walking the short little block in front of our hotel, a lady comes up to me and asks me a something – I say “No Russki” and she then proceeds to look for something in her purse. She pulls out a book and looks up something in an index and then gives it to me to read. After reading the first paragraph(in english) I knew she was a Jehovah's Witness and kindly said “Christian”, and “Jesus” and tried to walk away, she kept talking so I kindly looked and her and said “Spaseeba”? which is Russian for Thank you. Who in a million years would have ever thought that encounter would have happened?
Well, after a very long morning, it was wonderful when our translators finally came and we actually got to see his passport. We were not sure if we would get the paperwork because they only had two days to process it instead of the normal 7 but we had everything and were ready to go! It was a sight to see myself and Kyley and Greg taking all our stuff out the hotel to the car (the thing with this small hotel is that there were not elevators and it was a flight of stairs just to get to the hotel lobby – so carrying 40lb+ bags down the stairs was not easy. Thankfully we had the translators to help with the kids while we carried the luggage).
Once we made it to the airport, things went fairly smooth and we said our good-byes( so hard to say good bye when you know you probably will never get to meet again). We made it to the waiting area which was a big deal for me. Ever since our first trip home, I had dreamed about what it would be like to sit in that waiting room with our new little one and it was finally here! How wonderful! One of the last things I remember in Astrakhan was having the airport doors open to get on the bus to the plane and being hit be a hord of mosquitoes – In October!
Well the flight to Moscow was pretty good we had a bulk head seat so M had room to get up and down. No problems with the ears but did not like the seat belt at all. I had to bribe him with food once I got the belt back on for landing. And the Kids meal on the plane – well it was more of a snack then a meal and had only sugary foods – just what we needed at 8pm at night.
At the airport it was a bit of a wait for the luggage and then when we got outside it was raining – no surprise for Moscow but I am pretty sure M had not been in the rain before so it was interesting to watch him try to figure out what happened.
Next was filling out paperwork in the car on the way to the hotel so they could get everything to the embassy in time the next morning. We had to finish it up in the hotel room and got everything completed after midnight.
Here is where the worst thing since court happened. As we were filling out paperwork we realized that the I 600 form that I had had Russ sign and notarize in the States was not the I600 but the I600A! She was not too concerned at that point but I thought I would die – if I had to stay in Moscow any longer! Needless to say I did not get much sleep that night.

October 2nd:
The next morning we went to the doctors and I was anxiously waiting for our translator to let me know if the form would be ok. She got a call and said that everything should be fine so I was able to take a deep breath! There were three families at the doctors and he was running very late( found out later he was stuck in an elevator). Little M checked out fine but I had the doctor look at his thumb because by now he had a blister on the thumb that he sucked. He cut off the dead skin and bandaged it up – amazingly enough he would still try to suck that thumb, especially when he slept. I have to jump ahead and tell you that after the doctor's bandage needed to come off, I had placed a bandaid on it to let it heal. It worked great until he went to sleep. In his sleep he would still suck on that one thumb and when I went to check on him before I went to bed, the bandaid was GONE! An guess where it was – His mouth! He had sucked off his bandaid! From then on the bandaid was only on during waking hours.

Now back to the doctor visit – once the last family was done, they rushed us all out to the car(in fact the last family did not even have a chance to fully dress their child). They needed to get the medical reports to the embassy before a certain time or we would not get an appointment for the next day and then would have to wait until Monday. Everything seemed to work out ok and we were on the way to the hotel, until the doors opened and we were back at the embassy. At this point, I was told that the form I was worried about eariler would not work! The good news is that I just have to fax a form to Russ, get him to sign and notarized it and fax it back to the embassy. No problem, except that it needed to be at the embassy by 5 pm Moscow time and at the time it was about 3am back home and he had until 9am back home to get the letter faxed. So the afternoon was a loooong one as I had to call Russ at 4am, have him pack up the kids and travel to the local FEDEX store at 5am. He had contacted a 24 hour notary to meet him there. Amazingly everything all worked out - purely by the grace of God - but the stress level those few hours were through the roof.

The remaining highlights of Moscow:
*Taking a $60 round trip taxi ride to the hotel where Kyley and Greg were staying so that I could have some friendly conversation after a horribly stressful day.
*Little M still was not interested in naps
*Sleeping went pretty good at night – I would just put him in the crib and lay in bed beside him with the lights off – within 10 minutes he would be out an sleep through the night
*The embassy visit was great – it went smoothly and pretty quick. It was so nice to see the American flag and the lady at the window was American – Hearing English with no Russian accent was really great. Even though we were still in Russia – I still felt like I was on American soil – Oh how I missed it.
*The last afternoon, I wanted to take him to Red Square, Our hotel had a shuttle that took us close. So we walked down Tevrskaya Street(Not an easy trot with a stroller) and spent a little time looking at my favorite site in all of Russia(besides little M) St. Basil's Cathedral. There were other people on the shuttle that I ran into at Red's Square and they took pictures of us together. I also tried to get one of Little M and St. Basil's but he was more interested in the cars driving by – but I finally got one that is pretty good.
*Eating for Little M went pretty well, as long as there was food, he ate it. However, ordering cold milk to drink did not go over with him – they must have just had it at room temperature on the orphanage. He did however really like the ice cream that I got for him at the very expensive Italian restaurant.
*We tried McDonald's and he did like the chicken nuggets. He wanted to try my coke, so I let him, and the face he made was horrible – so no more pop for him!
*Did well at the airport. Got there in plenty of time, went through luggage check pretty well but then it took a really long time to get our tickets because we had changed them and did not have a seat assigned – but we ended up in a bulk head seat so it was worth it. Passport control however was one more nightmare on this trip. The lone was long but that was normal and little M slept awile in the stroller. Now for those of you who have adopted before, you are told many many times to make sure that your child's Russian passport has their new name in english spelled correctly – no problem, I had check it over and over again. However, when we got to passport control and I gave them his passport, the new birth certificate and the adoption certificate. It was then that the nice lady on the other side of the window(who did not speak english) pointed out to me that the passport had his name spelled wrong - in Russian! How was I to know that! I must have grown as pale as a ghost because the lady was so kind and immediately started saying Nyet, Nyet and handing all the papers back to me. She was trying to tell me it was ok and she let me through. Thankfully this was the last heart stopping event of the trip!

The Trip Home
Plane ride went really very well for a two year old. I could keep him confined to the seat area and did manage to get him to sleep for about 1.5 hours on the plane but I had to hold him for most of that. Thankfully Kyley and Greg were on the same plane so potty breaks for me were a little easier.
I was concerned about making my connection in Atlanta especially when US passport control said that he said there was no way I would make the connection. But then again – I had God on my side. We had to wait awhile in immigration( there were only two adoption families) and once we got to the immigration person, he was really nice. At that point I really wanted to make my connection but I was in the US and if I had to stay one more night away from home – I was just happy to be back in the US. I even felt like breaking out in the song ( God bless the USA). So I said my good byes to Kyley and Greg and off we went to catch our flight. We had time to stop by to get an I love Atlanta bear and some chicken fingers for the flight. We got to the gate – called home to tell them we made it and then it was time to bored – I wished I could have talked to the passport control person and told Him I made it!
The plane ride to Columbus went smoothly and he slept for most of it. I had him in the stroller walking through the airport but got him out before we turned the corner to greet our wonderful family. It was so wonderful to put my arms around them! He did well in the car and it was so great to walk in our home with him. The dog was scary for him but as long as Mama was holding him he was fine.


You are telling me that YOU are taking all of this half way across the world?

Our last glimpse of Astrakhan.

Our Little M at Red Square

First Picture as an American Citizen

What are you doing to me now?

Back in Papa's arms

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry I have been AWOL for awhile but it has been very busy and very crazy around our house. I am hoping to update this week since we will have some more relaxing times but I did not want to miss the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and to praise our Savior who so humbly was born into this world to become our King, Redeemer and Savior.

It is amazing to sit here with little M on this wonderful morning and to think of all the wonderful children who are now with their forever families for this Christmas - one of the best and most precious gifts to us all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All is Well

Yes we are alive and all doing well. I kept meaning to post but I have literally no time! There is not much time when he is asleep and I am not( maybe 3 hours in the entire 24 hour period) and then I am either tired myself or either doing one of the million necessary things that is much easier to do when he is not awake( and blogging is not a necessity for be anymore).
So for the few moments that I have while he is playing with his toys here we go...

Little M is really adjusting well. He is eating great, sleeping well and overall very happy. He does not like to go down for naps or to bed at night so that takes a little time but not as long as I have others have had to deal with. Once he is down, he sleeps great( unless we let him have too much to drink after dinner and then it is an early morning waking up to a full diaper, wet little boy and bed.
Eating, well, he loves to do eat. There is not much he does not like. At first he would eat until I thought he would explode but he is doing much better at recognizing that he is full.
The dog is no longer an issue, well at least he is no longer afraid of the dog. Now I have to worry about keeping him away from the dog. He loves to through things at him and try to step on his tail so I had to look up the phrase, "Don't hurt the dog" in Russian. Well, I found it so I know that others have had this issue too.
He is getting along with the rest of the kids also. He loves to play with them but does not like it if I am doing something with one of them and he is not included.
He is learning new words very well. His favorite is "CAR" and "BUS". Surprise surprise! Hopefully I will be getting him in some type of speech therapy in the next month and then hopefully he will get into the school systems program when he turns three.
So overall, things are going well. I think that I am the one with the most adjustment. I have been through the "twos" three times before but never did I get fropped right into the middle of them. I think that is the hardest thing. Most of the difficulties that I have with him are not attachment issues or adoption issues but two year old issues and those too will pass.
I also want to congratulate all those families out there that I either received their referral or been to court since we have been to court. I have not had much of a chance to read other's blogs let alone comment so I want to take the time now to congratulate you all. It is amazing how quickly you forget the pain of the wait and paperwork once they are home.

God Bless you all and I hope to post sooner. Here are a few pictures of life at home with our new family.

HOME!

Sorry for the delay in getting to blogging. For some odd reason, I could not get signed on to blog in Moscow. I thought I would have time to type up things on the plane ride home and post when I got home but M only slept for 1.5 hours on the 11 hour flight home. I am hoping over the next week I will catch you all up on things that have happened. But most importantly we our home and our entire family is together.
It was a wonderful wonderful wonderful sight to turn the corner and see Russ and the rest of my kids, along with my parents. I sight I will always remember.
A quick update: Since M did not sleep much on the plane ride he went down quickly and slept through the night. He did well Sunday night too but was up early this morning at 6am. I am hoping that in about a week, we will be out of jet lag mode and on a regular schedule.
He eats well, in fact too much if i would let him. He is getting along well with all the kids, I just have to remind them that he is not a toy to be shared. The only things that he does not like is the dog. But that is improving too. He was scared to death at first and would start crying when he would come near him but only after 1 day, he will pet him as long as Rocky is facing the other direction so give it a few more days and I am sure things will be fine.
He seems to be attaching well and this morning was a test to that. I usually walk O out to the bus stop in the morning and since Russ was here, he took M and I went outside. When I came back, M was crying. I guess he had cried the entire time. Since he saw me leave, he thought I was going away. No one wants their kids to cry but this was a good thing to see that he is attaching.
Well, off to get the day into full gear. I want to thank all of you who have prayed for our family, I do not think I could have made it through all the difficulties without being lifted up in prayer by you all.
May God bless you all for your service of prayer for us.

Last Full Day In Astrakhan

Well, today is the last full day in Astrakhan. Visiting the orphanage went well and M did not even cry. He was a little quite at first but after he saw the stuffed animals, he was back to his old self. We got to see the director and got the papers that we needed with his schedule and then a few pictures and out of the orphanage forever.
We did not do much today but walked to the store with Kyley and Greg and got a few things. He loves to go outside and when he is ready to go he keeps pointing outside again and again until you are ready to go. When he is in a new situation he gets very quite and wide eyed but is very observant and takes everything in. Here is a picture of his not so sure what is going on look:(we were not moving at the time, just parked waiting for Vika).

Here is another picture that I thought was too cute to pass up. We were getting ready to leave and he likes to try to dress himself. Well, here is how he put on his hat. Too Cute.



For dinner we decided to go to our favorite place one last time – the Chocolate Cafe. We went early and took a cab there and back. And it still took two hours! We came prepared for food for the kids and it went pretty well. I have to be careful with M because as long as there is food in sight he will eat it. Even in the room, if there is something left out on the counter, he will keep pointing to it like he wants to eat it so I have to put it away.
We are all very excited to be leaving tomorrow but it was a bit meloncoly driving through the city for the last time tonight. I will always have wonderful memories here but i am also very excited to be getting back home and being together as an entire family!
Tonights bed time routine took a little longer but I made some break throughs. When it was time to go to bed, I tried to hold him and rock him thinking that this would be good for attachment. Well, he did not want anything to do with that, he would figit and skworm trying to get down so he could play. So I would then put him in his crib for awhile. He would sing and play but never really lay down. Eventually He would try to climb out of the crib, which could happen, so I would pick him up and try to rock him again. After about 35 minutes of doing this routine, he finally let me rock him. He settled down and started putting his thumb in his mouth and eventually fell asleep. It was so nice to have him asleep in my arms.
The thumb sucking brings up another issue I ran into today. When I picked him up yesterday, I noticed that his thumb was split open like really dry skin or a small cut that had not healled. Well, I finally realized today that it was sore because it was the thumb that he sucked on. I brought pacifiers to try to switch him to them instead but that is not going real well right now. We will see.
There was thing that I am trying to figure out how to handle today that I would love input on. M knows when you tell him No what that means and as a two year, he likes to test it but what is weird to me is when he does something that I tell him not to, he starts to laugh. So I make a stern face and tell him no again and then put him on my lap and tell him no and hold him for a little while. The whole time he is giggling and laughing. So I try to get his attention on to something else and he stops laughing and continues on playing. I think that he knows what he is dong is wrong but I am not sure about the laughing thing. Well it is only day two and I have to remember that it all takes time.
I don't know if I will be posting tomorrow because we leave the hotel at 5pm, our plane is at 7pm and we probably will not get to the hotel in Moscow until 10pm, provided we get his passport tomorrow like we are suppose to( please pray for that one to happen). But I will post as soon as I can.

Blessings from Above

Introducing!!!!

Introducing the newest member of the Canestraro Family – Little M!


I wanted to get this posted earlier but when you have a two year old in a room that is not child proof, you do not have much time to sit down and type.

It was a whirl wind morning because there was so much that everybody needed to do get his passport by Wednesday so we did not get to spend much time at the orphanage saying our goodbyes, but we are going to go back tomorrow for that( I hope that he does not freak out thinking I am going to take him back). Since we rushed him out so quickly he was almost in shock, just staring wide eyed. It was a long bumpy ride but towards the end it slowed and and he seemed better. Once we got into the room and he saw the toys that he was familiar with, it was back to his old self.

We had a great lunch and he did pretty good with lunch and the sippy cup. But no nap for him. There was just to much to check out. We went later to get his visa picture taken right around the corner and purchased a new pair of boots for him because his feet had grown and what I brought were too small.He was not thrilled with everything that was going on but was not scared either. He just absorbed it all. Later we went back to pick up the photos and he was very excited about going outside again. He loved watching all the cars drive by on the street.

He has started this singing thing that I just love. He never barely spoke above a whisper but after awhile in the room while he was listening to music, he started saying LALALALALA loudly with the music. I was amazed! It was great to hear because you could tell he was happy.
We met up later with Kyley and Greg and their little girl and had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Of course he would have ate everything on the table so I had to stop him at what I thought was best and hurry up and eat my food so we could get away from the table.

Another first I saw today was him crying. He had never cried or even was upset before. Well, today, after lunch, I tried to take him to the bathroom, they say he is potty trained. I had no little potty or seat to put on top so I tried to hold him. He did not like that at all, and was a little scared. I tried later and he wanted nothing to do with the bathroom at all. In fact, when I went to change his pullup he started crying again until he realized that I was not going to take him to the bathroom. Even tonight, I had put him in the crib and tried to get him to lay down but he was just standing right up and thinking he was funny. I had was getting ready to go into the bathroom to change and wanted to tell him where I was going. Well, the only word he understood was potty and quicker then anything he laid right down. I am hoping that when we get home and start using the little potty, he will not be afraid of the bathroom anymore – something to work on.
Then there is the two year old, I am going to see how many times I can drop this and get mommy to pick it up. About two is my limit and then it goes Paka, Paka(ByeBye). Unfortunately he has three older siblings that have wore Mommy out on that one.
So, to end up the day as I have been typing, he sang his LALA song for awile and then started sucking his thumb and now he is fast asleep about right on time for bedtime. Here is hoping that he sleeps through the night. What a marvelous day. It is still hard to believe it is all real. Thank you all again for the wonderful prayers and encouragement. God Bless.