Monday, April 28, 2014

Welcome to Parenting

 The last few days we were just covering parenting 101, and couldn't believe how amazingly well behaved our beautiful children were. I told Roman last night, "geez we are really getting the hang of this parenting thing." I failed to mention the fact that they were eating everything we offered them, always cleaned up after themselves and were perfectly disciplined and super low key and independent. Andrey was super grateful and followed me around everywhere telling me how much he loved us and how grateful he was we picked him (little does he know it was God, not us). He also was a huge help, always cleaning up after himself and watching Katya's every move, showing her the ropes (iPad, iPhone, cars, etc). Katya is perfectly potty trained and keeps herself busy with one toy for an average of two hours and is capable of dressing herself and feeding herself. Her vocabulary seemed to have been limited to just a few basic words and anytime I'd as much as glance her way, she's just smile  from ear to eat and come hug me.  When asked to do something, she'd immediately nod yes and run off to complete the task. The only major struggle was the fact that Katya had never been outside the orphanage, so car and airplane rides are completely terrifying to her, so we have been trying to cope with that.  


Today however, is an entirely different story.  Welcome to advanced parenting! After spending two hours at the medical clinic to complete their medical exams for immigration,   Andrey came home to a 102-103 fever we couldn't break for hours. We have tried prayer, local medicine, home remedies, children's Tylenol and he is still burning up. Meanwhile, Katya has a cough and runny nose. Also, Katya has decided to show us her secret vocabulary, and although she is still a little sweet pea, this girl can talk like an old women. Boy, were we surprised. As we are trying to get sickly Andrey to bed (mind you we all share one room) our Katya decides to test out what happens if she refuses to sleep. After yelling for papa and mama for 30 minutes, she decided to turn up the stakes. At first, it was that she needed to go potty, next it was her head hurt, then her leg, etc. Lastly she reverted to crying the final, sure option, crying and wanted to sleep on our bed, which already included one too many. As we finally succeeded in getting our kiddos to bed, I realize we have an embassy appointment at 8, which means we wake up at the crack of dawn to get the kids fed, dressed and take our long drive to the US embassy. I'm praying our little guy will be fever free, if not we may not make it out of Ukraine by Thursday. Oh that's right, I still have big stack of documents to fill out before I can take a bath (I miss US showers) and get to bed. 


Overall, I've gotta say this parenting thing isn't easy. I never thought it was, but I think we just got our crash course today, while traveling thousands of miles from home with two brand new (sick) children, living at a friend's house, trying to make it to all of our painstaking adoption and immigration appointments. I gotta say, it's difficult but awesome. Despite of today's difficulties, I know we've hit the jackpot with our little darlings and we couldn't be happier! 

Oh, and it's our wedding anniversary today! I wonder what the next seven years will bring? ;) 

1 comment:

  1. 1. Happy Anniversary!
    2. We are OVERJOYED for you guys and your precious kiddos.
    3. Your family is in our prayers.
    <3

    ReplyDelete