First Week At Home

Things have seemed to have settled down a bit from the first few days at home, which is a great thing for all the Livingstons. The kids aren't so stimulated by everything being so new now, and they are starting to figure out "The Rules," as laid down firmly by Mama and Papa. I really thought we'd experience some of the separation anxiety issues we'd read so much about (for the orphanage friends and caregivers they'd miss), but frankly so far it's a non-issue with these guys. I think them having each other has really helped with that, plus the 5-6 weeks of us getting to know each other before we got home. The only separation anxiety they exhibit is when JoEllen, myself, or someone they really like such as Tim Hange has to leave...then they all wail for about 10 minutes. I don't like to deal with it, so when JoEllen needs to leave and go to the store or somewhere and the kids ask where Mama is, I have JoEllen sneak out and I just whisper to them and say "Shhh, Mama is asleep"...then they nod and get real quiet and say "Mama sleep," it's too funny. So as far as they know according to Papa, Mama sleeps a LOT. :-)

The routines they were used to back in Donetsk have really transferred well to our routines we're establishing here. Talia seems to have an innate feeling for what scheduled task should occur next. They announce at various time of the day that it's time for "ZOObie" (teeth brushing), which explains their excellent teeth. We actually use zoobie as an incentive for certain things, like going upstairs to get ready for bed, which would otherwise be a difficult task. Apparently they like the taste of toothpaste. :-) Another funny thing they do is request "soup" when they want to eat, seems like they had soup for every meal including breakfast in the orphanage...a very Ukrainian thing we noticed. We've been trying to teach them English words for the various meals of the day, but sometimes it's just easier to tell them it's time for soup.

Here's a typical scene of everyone at the breakfast table. We're going through LOTS of "baNAHnees", Cheerios, and "YOgie" (yogurt) with the crew, we even use yogie for incentive to eat foods they don't much care for like carrots.


Another treat for the kids (and to sometimes get them out of Mama's hair for awhile), is an outing they know as "goforawalk." Actually I have yet to make them walk, I am the only one walking while I pull them in the little wagon Grandma and Grandpa gave them, as well as the tricycle (usually towed behind the wagon due to hills).

Here's a shot of a goforawalk outing.











Right around the corner on our goforawalk route is the home of Alan and Mary Bell. In the photo on the right Mary is showing them how sweet their dog Maggie is (which is good because most dogs freak them out).

The good thing about this outing was JoEllen had just taught the kids the word "gentle" (mostly when dealing with each other), which we used here to show them how to pet a dog. It's too cute how they mispronounce words or names sometimes, they call Maggie "MaGEE." Alex also can't say "Ira" apparently and calls her "Eekah," so we all call her that as her nickname, at least for now. One other cute word they use is for the diapers that Vala wears and the Pullups the older two wear at night...they call them "Pampees." It's just too cute. :) JoEllen's favorite of their creative pronunciations is the way they pronounce grapes as "glapes." And how when we're all practicing how to say everybody's names, Vala's name comes out as "Valentina Glapes." (It's Valentina Grace.)

Being newbie parents of 3 toddlers, we really had no concept going in of how much time these guys would really take each waking moment and how little free time we'd have to ourselves...we have a good idea now! JoEllen likens it to being pecked to death by baby ducks all day, they are mostly harmless but ultimately relentless. The good times by far outweigh the bad, but by the end of the day Mama is ready for a break. My latest brilliant diversion when Mama needs a break to do laundry, organize clothes, or just relax, is to take the kids for a ride in Papa's "machina." They absolutely LOVE to ride in a car. They don't much care for seat belts, but they suck it up for a chance to ride. Sometimes we just cruise up and down 350 Hwy in Raytown, but we've had a few actual shopping outings as well.

What's very interesting is that if we ride at night, they all say "Prevyet Donetsky" (Hello Donetsk), harkening back to their first nighttime car ride through Donetsk to the train station. I keep correcting them saying "nyet Donetsky, say prevyet Raytown"...but that really doesn't sound nearly as exotic does it? I may just let them continue saying it for awhile.

Here they are in the car. They usually break out in some nursery song in Russian partway through the trip, indicating they are having a great time. I REALLY want to catch that on video, but the timing has never worked out as they don't sing on demand. :-P


Last weekend we went to Sam's Club, which they absolutely freaked out over (in a good way). They were wide-eyed in wonder and glee over the rows of cakes, food, and toys...I really can't imagine the impact on their little minds given their sheltered upbringing. The next day we did the totally American thing of taking them to Walmart, which they loved almost as well as Sam's.
Vala got a little worn out of Wallie World as we were about done shopping, as you can see in this photo where she's on the verge of a meltdown.




Vala's just too cute, but her "terrible twos" meltdowns are anything but. When she doesn't want to do something (which includes just about any change in what we're doing), she just plops down, pouts, and yells "Yah ne gah doo!", but it usually comes out as "Yakadoo!"...so now my nickname for her is Little Miss Yakadoo. When I had Tim translate this for us, he totally cracked up because it's not something a child would typically say (neither of the other 2 say it), it means "that does not suit me!" Again, Tim says it's a very odd turn of a phrase especially for a child, but for Vala it totally fits. Someday we'll look back on it and laugh, but for now it's more than just a little bit annoying.

I enjoy playing with the kids (usually the "tickle game"), and we usually end up on the love seat (appropriately) since my recliner is just too small for all 4 of us. I found there's no way to just have one kid on my lap, it eventually involves all 3 demanding equal time which is fine with Papa.
Here we are in the love seat. I love the "Daddy's Little Girl" shirts JoEllen had on the girls for this shot...they truly are. Alex is Daddy's little boy too, but they don't make shirts that say that.



We mentioned in the previous post that they also enjoy "Duck, Duck, GOOSE!", here's a video clip of them learning to play that when the Adams and Loethen kids were over last week:


A funny thing happened last week that forced me to run home from work. Since Alex has successfully defeated every childproof doorknob cover and most of the 6 child-gates in the house, I was determined to make the upstairs playroom Alex-proof so Mama could lock them up in there if she needed to tend to other business. My solution was to turn the doorknob around so it locked from the hallway. We even had a training session of how to unlock it from inside with the little pin you stick in the little hole to turn the knob. So at 10am while at work last week, I got a call from Mama saying that she and the kids were locked in the playroom (courtesy of Alex the budding engineer), and couldn't get the door open. After laughing hysterically and telling all my co-workers, I ran home and sprung the playroom inmates, several of which had to "pee-sat" immediately. Of course being me, I took the opportunity to video the event. Notice that when they call for Mama or Papa they start sounding like little Italians. :-)



Stay tuned for more posts. Hopefully we will get our schedule more refined to have enough free time to post a couple of times a week, but for now this is the best we can do.

P.S. Thanks for all your referrals, thoughts and prayers about my job situation. I've had about 6 interviews since posting my resume online last Thursday and have more lined out, so I'm VERY optimistic that I won't be short on hours/pay for very long.

Till next time, da svidania!

Papa John

The trip home / Settling in / Bad news

Well, we've been home a few days now and I hear from various readers that they are anxious for an update. Its been a VERY busy week trying to get un-jetlagged and into a daily routine, but it's starting to feel like things are beginning to run more smoothly day by day. The kids really thrive on structure and schedules, so we are attempting every day to keep it consistent with meals, naps and playtimes and all. This morning I realized for the first time how much slack time we had before we got the kids, now it seems like every move needs to be planned to get everything done every day. Oh well, the kids are making it worth it with the little things they do and the progress they are making getting used to us and their new surroundings.

I'm going to post the pictures in chronological order starting with the morning of when we left Kiev leading up to this evening:

This is a picture of the kids in the hide-a-bed in Kiev the morning before we left. Don't they just look like a bed of puppies all curled up together in a bed?! :-) They were so crashed it seemed a shame to wake them.




Here's the Livingston family at the airport, not sure whether it was Warsaw or Chicago.





Here's a shot of Uncle Tim discussing the "sim-a-LOOD" outside that we were about to take off in. Note the tails on our smaller passengers, the backpack/leashes were a godsend in the airports.




Another shot of Tim with Alex, on the plane. The kids were great on the short flight from Kiev to Warsaw. Not so much on the 10 hour flight to Chicago.




JoEllen looks though paperwork while Talia eats both their meals on the plane.







Here's what we like to see in our little world travelers. I think Vala got about 30 minutes sleep on the 10-hour flight, which made for a LONG trip for everybody.








The Livingston family having safely arrived in Kansas City around 10pm on Saturday.







Grandma (my mom) and the girls. Vala's eyes are barely open after 26 hours of travel.

Grandpa (my dad) and Alex, with the new sehBAHkah Grandpa gave him.






Here are the kids totally crashed in the back of the Sequoia, finally at home. Getting them to bed from this point was not a pleasant task, they were like whiny limp little noodles.


Taken on Sunday after a good night's rest, here are the kids in their new coats from Grandma and Grandpa. They think it's pretty cool that they now have clothes of their own they don't have to share with other kids.



Sunday afternoon there was an adoption family potluck gathering at our church, so we took the kids to meet other adopted kids. Alex was quite enamored with Tim's daughter Anastasia, who also spoke Russian just like him! Check out the look on his face.

Tracy Adams and her kids came over while they were in town to play with the kids. The new favorite game now is "duck, duck, GOOSE!" The Loethen kids as well as the Hange clan have helped welcome them home too.



Tonight we had a grand impromptu gathering of guests over who showered the kids with gifts and attention. Here's Alex in his new hoodie getting a hug by Alan Bell.





The Wall family also dropped by this evening for a photo op.









Bad news back home

The euphoria of finally getting the kids home was dampened a bit on Monday when I found out that my job was impacted by a layoff that occurred while we were gone. I still have my job and benefits, but I'm down to 50% time/pay, which is a bit of bad timing to say the least. Especially since JoEllen quit work in August to stay home with the kids. The upside is I'll have more time to spend home with the kids during their first few weeks while I try and find a new job. Also it seems that money just keeps rolling in either from BBQ sales or other means, we are truly blessed and this latest turn of events just shows that Someone is still watching out for us. :-)

Stay tuned for more!

Keep on reading for more updates. We'll try and post more details about daily life and funny things that have happened as things settle down a bit. Hope this helps bring you up to date!

Da svidania!

Papa John

First full day home as a family

I'd like to start this post by saying that I have no idea how adoptive parents can continue blogging after they arrive home with the kids. It's 2am Monday morning, and I've had the first 4 hours of contiguous non-interrupted sleep since we got home.

I have lots of pictures to post from the airport up to now, but I don't have time to load them just yet...I've GOT to get some sleep. As we constantly tell the kids, "UdNOO minUtoo," just a minute! I also won't make a long post other than to say we are safely home and hoping to settle into a routine rhythm of daily life so everything isn't so new to the kids. Frankly they have adjusted far better than I'd expected as far as remorse or separation anxiety from their various caregivers, I've seen none of that. Instead, with the vast host of friends and family that outpoured their time, food and gifts for the kids, I'm afraid that the kids look at life in America as Christmas morning every day!

I'm going to finish this quick post by thanking various folks who've helped amazingly in the last few days:

First off is Tim Hange, whose help we could not have survived without. Especially the 10-hour plane ride from Warsaw to Chicago. His help coming to meet us in Kiev and help us back was a huge blessing. Apparently the limit of a toddler's patience on any given airline flight is 4 hours, after that it's a LOT of work and angst for all on board the aircraft.

I'd also like to thank Tim's wife Karen, who came and picked us up at the airport at last-minute's notice. Terry Wells was here at the house entertaining my folks and ready to come pick us up, and then suddenly got very ill...please pray for his recovery, although he dropped by yesterday and looked to be feeling better. Thanks Terry for being there though.

Thanks to everyone who donated clothes and toys, especially my parents who met us at the airport Saturday night and didn't stop spoiling the kids till they left yesterday...they are going to be GREAT grandparents. Oh, and thanks mom for making me bawl like a baby at the airport when you hugged your new grandkids and started crying, I hope we didn't get that on tape. :0)

Finally (for now), thanks to all the folks who brought meals for us to eat the next few days, we are truly blessed by having so many folks willing to help out.

We'll post pictures and more details later, but for now...WE'RE FINALLY HOME!!