We also found out in August that the Latvian court will not clear Olegs for adoption. We knew all along that this might happen and it was hard news to hear but at least we have an answer now. He has family that visits him, albeit not that often, but apparently they have enough contact that the court thinks he is better off where he is. It makes no sense to us because he will continue to live in the children’s home. It’s possible that we can ask the court again in a year. We’ll just have to see what happens. We definitely don’t want Olegs to feel that he has to choose between his Latvian family and us. We will continue to call and write to him and possibly even host him again.
In spite of the sad times, we’ve had many, many happy times with Christina. She’s just the most awesome kid in the world. I’m sure most parents say that about their children but we just feel so thankful everyday that we found each other. She started school in early August and believe it or not in her first month, she was “Student of the Month” for her class. She’s adjusted so well and is making lots of new friends. The only hard part for her is being in a lower grade. She’s in 5th grade now but her age appropriate grade is 6th. However, we decided not to push to bump her up because she’s made friends and has wonderful teachers who are really helping her. Plus, she’s significantly challenged at this level. We feel it will help her in the long run to have that extra year of education under her belt before she hits middle school & high school.Christina has also gotten involved in our church youth group. You would have thought we were trying to kill her when we first forced her to go. LOL! Now, she’s begging us to take her there early because she wants to have extra time to play basketball with her new friends. She also likes going because she has a crush on a boy there but that’s a whole other story. We pretty much told her that she’s not allowed to talk to him. Okay, maybe she can say “hi” but that’s it. LOL!
This weekend the church youth group is going on a retreat (or as Christina would call it a “retreatment”) to Tennessee. I had a momentary lapse of judgment and signed up to be a chaperone. Don’t know what I was thinking. I’ll report back on how it goes.
Let’s see what else…Oh, Christina did complete all of her dental work. Turns out that she responds well to Valium mixed with laughing gas. She got all of her fillings and even got her root canal done!! We just told her she was going for a very big filling. Some of the kids at school had told her that root canals were painful so she said she was happy she didn’t have to have one of those. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her big filling WAS indeed a root canal. Luckily, Daddy took her to that appointment so he got to explain it all. She actually thanked us for not telling her it was a root canal beforehand because she would’ve been terrified.
Christina also went to YMCA camp for a few weeks during the summer. One of those weeks was horseback camp which she loved. She’s so funny. Each day she’d complain about camp but would come home and tell us how much she liked it. She also went to camp for a few days during her fall school break and got into a shoving match with a boy there after he kicked a soccer ball at her. One thing about Christina is that if she feels someone is out to get her, she’ll confront them. Little do these American kids know that the Latvian kids are strong fighters and can take you down! LOL! Christina has often said if someone bothers her she will give them one “pow” and “make them sleep” which pretty much means she’ll knock them out. We’ve had to explain to her that in America you can’t do that because the other kid’s parents could then sue us and take our house. Luckily, the small altercation above wasn’t a big deal and occurred on the last day of camp. So far, we haven’t seen a subpoena. :-)
We also took a few trips to Florida this summer…mostly to work at wrapping up some of Rob’s mom’s affairs but we did get to squeeze in a little fun. While Rob and I were working, Christina got to spend the night with my sister and nieces. She really enjoys them because they’re young and take her places like bowling, out to eat, etc. Then Rob’s stepmom took her shopping too. Talk about spoiled. HA! We also got to visit my parents near Tallahassee. One of their good friends has horses and she took time out to give us some short dressage lessons and take us on a trail ride. Christina also had a blast swimming in the pool with her pet schnauzers. We had the best time. For those of you who know me, you know that’s one of my passions. My dream is to one day have a farm with lots of horses.
Also, Christina has become quite the photographer. Her latest work is shown here. Don’t make the mistake of laughing like we did. This is very serious business.We went to the fair this past weekend and Christina got to try a funnel cake for the first time ever. When we first told her we were taking her to the fair, she said “that’s for babies.” That coming from a girl who had never even been to the fair and had no clue what a fair even was. Anyway, needless to say we all had a great time. She and Rob went on the Hammer which is this big pendulum type ride that flips you upside down and even leaves you suspended upside down for a second before swinging you back around again. They were both pretty dizzy after that so that was the end of the scary rides.
We also saw the poor pets in the petting zoo area. I used to enjoy that stuff as a kid but now I find myself feeling sorry for all the animals just sitting there with strangers pawing at them. I want to let them all out of their cages. Then there was the politically incorrect clown sitting in the dunking booth. He was getting everyone fired up with his insults so they would come try to dunk him. We finally had to leave before getting to see him dunked. Christina went up at one point and tried and came pretty close but missed. She got irritated and rolled her eyes at him when he called her a nerd. Too funny!As I said before Christina is doing great in school. It was a little rough the first few weeks because she didn’t understand her homework so we had to do homework with her every night up until bedtime. Talk about exhausting. Now she’s to the point where she’s doing her work herself and letting us check it rather than needing us to help her with every problem.
Oh and did I mention school fundraisers???!!! What’s with schools and fundraisers?? She’s already had 3!! First there’s the usual one with the Christmas paper, but now they’re doing two new ones selling coupon books and cookie dough. I just wanna know where our tax dollars are going. We finally had to say that we weren’t going to participate in the latest fundraisers because it’s just too much. There’s only so much stuff we can ask our friends to buy. She’s a little upset because that means she’ll miss a pizza party for kids who sold a certain amount. We just told her that we’d have our own pizza at home so she wouldn’t miss out. She didn’t like that idea but oh well.
Christina also survived her first “spirit day” at school. When she heard it was spirit day she immediately got nervous and thought it had something to do with ghosts. We had to explain that it didn’t mean that ghosts would be descending on her school that day. It’s only a day when she’s supposed to wear her school colors. We’ve had lots of funny misunderstandings like that. I’ll try to note more of them here as I recall them.
Christina’s class performed a couple of musical numbers at the first PTA meeting of the year. Rob and I just sat there taking in the moment. Yes, we giggled a little but mostly cause we were so happy. We love being parents. We are just so proud of Christina. She’s had so many changes to adjust to and just takes everything in stride. Of course, things aren’t always perfect but it’s pretty close.
Another highlight of the past two weeks was our celebration of Grandmother's 99th birthday!! No, that's not a typo. She's really 99. We went out to eat with her caregiver, Cheryl, and her daughter to celebrate. She enjoyed all the attention she got that night. She told everyone at the restaurant that she'd see them again next year when she turns 100. I bet she will too!!That’s all that comes to mind at the moment. Sorry this is so long. I’ll do my best to keep the blog updated every now and then.
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