5 Years has flown by!

    Yesterday marked 5 years since a judge in Russia granted us the pleasure of being Annika's parents.  She is 6 years old and so much has happened since my last post.  When Annika was 3 years old she had surgery on her legs in several places due to her Cerebral Palsy.  It has taken 2 years for her to regain the strength in her legs to go up the stairs in a crawl position and uses an adapted bike, walker and wheelchair. 
    She attends a French Immersion School for grade 1 and has more friends than she can name.  One day she came home from school to announce "I FINALLY have a boyfriend!  He opens all my ziploc bags at lunch time."  What more could a girl want :)  Most of her school work is done on an ipad as handwriting is very difficult for her as her C.P effects all four limbs. 
    Her activities include swimming and adapted baseball.  She hopes to try adapted dance and downhill skiing this winter.  Therapy horseback riding is also an option if she wasn't terrified of animals.  She is still small for her age weighing only 31 lbs and wearing the same 4T clothes as her 3 yr old sister and only size 8 shoes due to her lack of weight bearing movements her feet don't grow very fast. 
    November being National Adoption Awareness month and learning about "Self" in school her adoption has come up.  She knows that she grew in another woman's belly, she decided to be born 2 months early and stayed in a hospital in Russia till she was big enough to live with a lot of other babies until we found her and became a family forever.  Simple but true.  I know that more questions will come and look forward to her unique view as she surprises me daily with how her mind processes information. 

Happy Mother’s Day!
Every year gets better and I know just how lucky I am to have such wonderful kids. Thanks to the help of a Naturopath and lots of prayers we had a beautiful baby girl in January we named Rebekah. I have tried to keep the myths down by educating people along the way. Comments like; “See you just had to relax ” I think when you call your hubby to come home from work early cause you are ovulating would count as still trying. “All you had to do was adopt and you would get pregnant” number 1 that is a terrible reason to adopt and second grade 5 health class would tell you adoption has nothing to do with it. I really don’t want to be the person that “ a cousin of a friend of someone to goes to church with a girl who got pregnant after adopting”. That being said Rebekah is growing so fast and at 3 months old is already rolling over and is almost 12lbs. I enjoyed every minute of being pregnant knowing that it will be the last time I will be able to experience it. Delivery was a little frustrating. I would be asked the series of questions on a form... how many pregnancies have you had? 9. How many were carried to term? 1. How many kids do you have? 2 aged 7 & 2. Then the nurse pauses and realizes things are not adding up as they have a very narrow mind when it comes to making a family. So I fill in the rest for them and since there is no space for Annika to be in the paperwork the completely disregard her. I realize we are not the norm and that their job is to take my medical history but it was still upsetting that the whole family was on the paperwork, except Annika (they could have put her in the margin).
Since this blog is mostly about Annika I want to share how she is doing. She loves her music class and Early Childhood Intervention Program worker and Physio/Occupational therapies for her Cerebral Palsy. She is able to crawl up the bottom 2 stairs and beginning to walk with a walker. She talks in full sentences and has a wonderful sense of humor. She loves to colour, swim, play in the sandbox and swing. She can count to 13, knows most of her alphabet, colours and farm animal sounds. She still surprises me every day with what she picks up.
One thing I hope she doesn’t pick up on anytime soon is the people who stare. One older lady asked if Cerebral Palsy is contagious. I was a little shocked that in 2010 people are still so uneducated. I feel at times like I am an advocate and have to defend our decisions, children and family. I am O.K. with doing so but it does get aggravating that I have to. I have 2 biological children and 1 adopted but they are all “mine” and I would not have it any other way!

One year ago

One year ago today we stepped foot on Canadian soil with our little girl in our arms. With friends and family at the airport to great us with flowers, signs, hugs and tears of joy. We then stepped outside into -30C for a short ride home to a happy dog and a long overdue birthday cake for Annika. Over the past year we have enjoyed many firsts with Annika and discovering her likes, dislikes and wonderful personality.
Her first Christmas was spent mostly at home with family visiting us. We spent most of our time just bonding as a family of 4. The next few months doctors appts. (eye, ear, pediatrician and physio) took up many of our mornings. Since her immunization records did not have dates given attached we had to re-do all of them plus extras like the latest H1N1. She has C.P. and has lots of help with Wascana Rehab with her right side of her body most effected. Her speech is on track at 2 years old has more than 40 words to her vocabulary and tone of voice is already showing her attitude. She is emotionally and socially on track, she is very extraverted, charmer and comedian. We now know what it is like to have 2 totally different kids in so many ways I can't list them all. It is shorter to list the ways they are alike; happy, smart, outgoing, love swimming, love watching cartoons, love music and toys of course. At first Annika thought of Nathanael as a hero and was completely amazed by everything he did. These days she has no problem picking a fight and even hitting him is now a problem at times. Although she can't walk yet she is pretty quick at army crawling and gets herself locked in the bathroom on purpose and calls for Mom then Dad with little fingers wiggling out from under the door... so cute. Then if we don't answer her tone changes to a "ohh, Mommm hewo Mommm" she says.
Summer vacation was wonderful with a trip camping through Baniff to Nainimo and back through Jasper on our way home. I was a great 2 weeks seeing the mountains, ocean, family and friends along the way. Celebrating her 2nd birthday was a moment I tried to capture in pictures as much as possible not that I would forget... Being that I had to go back to work I was unable to be home for her "Gottcha Day" so we celebrated it on Birobidjan time.
This Christmas is looking very hopeful too as we are expecting another little girl in February. With the help of a naturalpath, vitamins, a special diet and acupuncture we have been able to get and stay pregnant. God does work in wonderful ways and we feel very blessed to have the amazing children we have, and the special ways they joined our family makes our story one we are proud to share. We hope to help others considering international adoption in some small way as others have shared their lives with us.

We made the News

Wow. I think that is about all I can say. You can check out the story here: Regina Family Celebrates New Addition

Once again, we feel really blessed with this whole ordeal. I would like to thank the LP for doing the story for us.

Have a great day!

Home again Home again Jigitty Jig

We have been home for a few days now trying to get over jet lag but I'll try to recap our travels since we had unreliable McDonald's Internet access in Moscow and too much other things to accomplish in just one rainy day. Canadian Embassy, Old Arabat street for Christmas presents for family and friends as well as a trip to Red Square to capture Annika with some landmarks on film. I enjoyed the many gorgeous, tall Christmas trees set up all over the city. Our agency director surprised us at our apartment with 3 white roses. We both had to travel to a different continent to meet for the first time, life is so funny.
Our flight from Kabarosk to Moscow was long but Annika did very well. We were armed with nose drops to help her sinuses for her cold and benedryl to help her sleep if she needed it. She also takes a soother and bottle which was great for take off and landings. She had her first taste of McDonald's french fries and sucked them like noodles as everyone looked at us for not having her over dressed and feeding a baby fast food. We kept her on her schedule in Moscow which meant she was sleeping 3pm to 1am and we were off to the airport again at 3:50am for our flight at 7am to Frankfurt. Awake at 1am Moscow time and finally got to sleep at home at midnight = 33 hours of no sleep and running on adrenaline.
All of the flights home were simple, on time, helpful with baby in tow and surprisingly relaxing and spacious. Thanks to Air Canada we were able to catch up on our movie watching. There was enough empty seats on the plane Annika was able to have her own seat and watched a little "Rolie Polie Olie". She is such a happy baby and due to her developmental delays she was not needing to run around like most 14 month old toddlers. We met a little girl who was 19 months old also named Annika on that flight doing her laps of the plane.
During this journey God has connected us with so many great people, some encouraging and some full of questions. Although sometimes we felt like we were being interrogated we have been very open about our journey in the hope to help people understand how, why and the myths about adoption. We didn't decide to make a life long commitment to a child as a charity or a tax deduction. Just as women do not make an adoption plan for their child on a whim or out of convenience. It takes a very strong women to go through a pregnancy and choose a better life for her child than she can give. The prosecutor in court asked me if I had heard about child abuse and I had to tell the unfortunate truth that it happens far too often in North America by the child's own "family" that should have chose adoption and the children end up in foster care instead of a permanent loving home.
As our last flight landed I started to well up with tears, partly from lack of sleep but mostly of the realization that this very difficult journey of mountains of paperwork both in English and Russian, medicals, the 4 different currencies in my wallet, the 14 flights, the re-mortgaging of our house and the agonizing waiting was coming to an end. Don't get me wrong we are going to be paying for this journey for a long time to come but seeing her look you in the eye and smile knowing everything will be ok as long as we are together makes all the hard work melt way. It's like labour and delivery you never forget it and you make sure they never forget the story but you wouldn't change it for the world when you get that first baby open mouth kiss. I must say that the toilet paper felt like an epesiotomy and the food was much like hospital food, we are glad to be home.
We started down the stairs of the airport to be welcomed by family, friends, flowers and signs! Annika was a little overwhelmed by all the new faces but had no problem pulling her big brother's hair while posing for our first family picture. We enjoyed sharing some pizza, cake and stories at home followed by a much needed shower and sleep. She eats really well (nothing dry like arrowroot or Cheerios yet) and sleeps really well. In fact I think she has switched days and nights better than we have. Our dog Lady is having the most problem with the adjustment and looks for any opportunity to sit on my lap that she can. Nathanael has been a very good big brother helping with feeding, getting blankets and toys and singing her songs. He as been wanting a little sister or brother for over 3 years and with the age and sex difference the competition for toys is not an issue. He knows that he gets to do things with mom and dad that she can't yet, like movie nights and mini golf.
We also have had our first visit with a physiotherapist and although it is not a complete assessment, at 14 months of age she is physically at 6 months and socially at 8 months. She may have some problems with her right arm as well. This is not the norm for Russian adoptions most children are close if not on track developmentally which is why she was given the "possible CP" diagnosis and why we had our 10 days waved. Although she is not "perfect" she is perfect for us and our family and most, if not all, of her delays should "catch up" by school age as she shows no signs of CP. We are willing and looking forward to helping all of our children through whatever struggles they have in life as our parents helped us through ours.
We would like to add a special thank you to all those who made this possible. It takes an army to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together at just the right time. Thanks to God for opening our hearts and arms and working a plan to have just the right child be placed in them. Thanks to those working in both countries who's knowledge of the process was more than priceless it was comforting. Thanks to family and friends who asked daily for "any news" and was supportive even when the "news" wasn't all sunshine. Thanks to our son who kept us going to enjoy every minute of the waiting and to keep the promise to him that hopes and dreams do come true if you want them bad enough.
We will post pictures soon we just have to figure out how... so please stay tuned!

Happy Birthday to me

Friday we were able to take Annika to the apartment. We had to take her back several times to have her breathing checked due to her cold. Sunday was wonderful we had a "pajama day" and stayed in the apartment with no where to go! We had gotten some cake from the bakery here... only missing one person... Can't wait to get home and see our son and have our family of 4 under one roof!
We went to the outside market a few times and bought some more warm wear. Jason got a mink fur hat and a wool sweater with reigndeer on it... and I got a matching knit hat and scarf as well as some things for Nathanael and Annika.
Annika has been flurishing at the apartment and can now put her soother in all by herself. She is rolling over both back to front and back again and starting to sit. She can put all her weight on her feet but can't stand yet. She is chatting like crazy now (I thought she would wake up the neighbours that woke her last night with her chatting this morning)so I've been trying to get her to say "mama" and she has but she hasn't associated it to mean me yet. She is smilling most of the time and has had a few laughs at Jason sneezing from his allergies.

Tonya, Jason and Annika

New Timelines

Hey folks.

Ok, we have new timelines. We are pushed up a week from where we expected to be. We have new tickets and we will be home on December 5th. Whoo hoo!

This is great news for us as we will be able to make Nathanael's Christmas concert. That is one of the things we are very happy that we are not missing.

On the front here, Annika is teething right now. Yesterday she had a slight fever, but it has gone down, and we hope to bring her to the apartment tonight.

Ahh... we went shoping yesterday at the outdoor market. I was able to buy a fur hat, and Tonya a matching hat and scarf. I think that I got the better deal of the two :)

That's all for now. We hope to send another e-mail tomorrow.

Jason and Tonya