It's a new year!

Hellllllooo!

Okay, where should we start...Halloween, Christmas? Sorry it has been so long guys! Since the last time we posted Lance has been an adorable skunk for Halloween (the cutest skunk I have ever seen.) We visited a few homes, but kept it pretty simple. We had Thanksgiving here in town at our cousin's home and then Oma and Opa were able to visit. Then the long awaited first Christmas. Lance has enjoyed the carols and lights everywhere. Other than that, he never really payed much attention. He wasn't even too excited about opening presents. This year he was just a little confused about what all the commotion was about. It was still fun having him there to share it with, though. Next year it will be great to see his excitement about the holidays and traditions. It should only get better. :o) We have been extremely blessed this year to be able to bring him home and share all of our lives with him. He has grown so much over the last 7 months.

Lance is now saying about 15 words consistently (even if no one but his family can understand them. hee hee) He can say: up, down, out, off, mama, dada, hi, bye, night night, help, more, banana, cracker, go, uh oh, quack, woof woof, please and maybe more that I can not think of right now. He is now wearing size 2T clothes and 7-8 shoe size!!!! What a growth curve! Our son is one amazing little boy. He is also quite comical. He keeps us laughing all the time. He is into everything except toys. Ha! Today he decided to climb to the top of the couch and reach as far as he could to grap the pendulum from the clock. Whew! You have to be ready all the time. We love that he is being a typical boy, though.

Some things Lance has overcome are being extremely scared of loud noises such as diesel trucks and motorcycles...he now ignores them or looks at us to make sure it is okay, spitting food out of his mouth...now he will give us what he does not want, he listens more each day, can bite crisp foods...now bites into an apple without it being cut, fear of being in crowds or around people he does not know...will run to poeple with open arms. Hmmm, so many other things that I can not put into words at this time. He is amazing. God is amazing for blessing him so much!

Happy New Years! It will be fun to see what this year holds!



Love you all,

John Michael, Karen, and Lance (Mattie and Rookie Woof! Woof!)

Ever changing

Wow, so much has changed since the last time I was on here. I can not believe we have already been home for over 4 months, but I can't believe we have only had Lance that long, either. He makes everything so easy for us! We have had our napping, eating, and bed time routine down for some time now and that helps tremendously. He continues to grow like a weed and change every time we turn around. He is going through many phases in 'super speed.'
Lance has gone through 2.5 sizes of shoes and up two sizes in clothes. Not to mention we love to run everywhere even if it isn't very smooth. hee hee! Lance continues to be a dare devil and is pretty rambunctious. In fact we are now having to work on sitting for longer periods of time and increasing our attention span. ha! As with everything, he is improving quickly.
Our favorite toy right now, as JM said, is the slide.
Favorite food: cottage cheese
Words he can sign: Please, help, eat, drink, sleep, milk, bath, bye bye, all done, down, more
Words we try to say: Bite, mom, da da, up, banana, and some times cookie
He can imitate parts of a lot of words now, but not necessarily know when to use them.
And...if we can't say or sign he will get his point across by showing you what he wants! It usually doesn't take a lot of guessing. He is a clever little guy.
Okay, sorry about all the bragging. I am pretty proud of our little Lance. His therapists probably wish they didn't work with me because I want to talk about him all the time. Ha!

If any of you are considering adoption...what everyone says is true...I don't think I could love him any more than I already do if he was our biological child.

I have to give a lot of credit to John Michael for being a wonderful and supportive husband and dad. He is great with Lance and me. Even more so I need to thank God for blessing us with such an awesome gift. Being a parent definitely has its good and not so good times and more guilt than anyone will probably admit, but above all it is fabulous!

Alright, I am responsible for telling you guys about the first half of the Texas trip. We were able to meet both of my sisters, our five nieces, our family's first exchange student, Cheryl and her family in Texas at my parents. It was crazy having 7 children 4 years and under in one house but fun, too. I wish I could put tons of pictures of how cute they all are, but I can't decide which ones to even start with. Needless to say, it was very nice spending time with everyone. I only wish we could have more time to do things like that. I am posting some of the pictures Cheryl took below. Enjoy...

HEEEY! Peek-a-boo!

(sorry had problems downloading to correct for red eye)
He was having a ton of fun crawling away quickly for others to chase him

He looks so big in the other pictures (which he has grown a lot) but this puts it back into perspective. This is Lance with 4 of his five female cousins and Cheryl's precious little girl in the background. The fifth was only 2 months at the time and not able to get in this picture unfortunately. Imagine this, we actually tried to have pictures taken of all 7 children together. HA! This is actually pretty good for how chaotic the setting was.

Back By Popular Demand

It's about time right?! Well, we really don't have any excuses for not updating our blog. We do however, react when people start getting on to us for not updating. You let us know and we'll emphasize getting something on the blog. Without further ado......

Back in late July we visited Aunt Susan and Uncle Larry's in Tennessee. Lance got to enjoy some time with cousins Julia and Amber and we all got to see the newest addition, Charlotte. Thanks guys for letting us stay and hooking us up with the Cracker Barrel!
Good ole' summer fun with the cool water ball. As usual, Lance cannot get enough.
Amber and Julia have a really cool swingset! We definitely need to get Lance one.

Here I gave Lance a mowhawk and put his comb in his back pocket like a greaser. Amber Kate took special interest in this and continually took the comb in and out.

These are shots from the second half of our recent Texas trip spent with Pa, Nana, Aunt Chrystal, Uncle Chris (not Unc), and the crazy cousins Clay, Colt, and Cadge. He also got to meet most of my extended family for the first time!! It was a ton of fun. It was really great to get Lance around the boys especially for such a long time(4 1/2 days). I think he learned a lot about just being a carefree boy, just one of the guys.

I'll try to get Karen to post with pics and commentary about the first half in Georgetown with all the Lance cousins plus Cheryl's cutie Christie(spelling?).

I had to show this shot of Cadge. Moma said it was time to go so as you can clearly see he has everything he needs to go back home. Hilarious.
Lance and Cadge just goofing around in the pecan tree. I remember Colton being very fond of that tree when he was their age. They are totally fearless.
And then a nice shot for all the mom's to gasp at. He was laughing the whole time. And I have mad kid catching and throwing skills so we were safe.
I took my first opportunity to introduce Lance (Class of 2022)to his future choice of college, TEXAS A&M!!!! This is in front of the MSC with the nice Nova buses in the background (Daddy's old wheels!) Be careful Lance! Don't step on the grass or some buzz-cut will give you the 3rd degree! On a sidenote: during my friend Matt's wedding festivities, Lance was able to meet 2 other future Fightin' Texas Aggies. Lance would like to send a shoutout to his boy Logan and a wink to his girl Lauren not only fellow Ags but, also fellow card carrying members of the KAPS(Kids against parents sleeping). Holla.

Tried to get a cool shot of the boys...not happening. It was hot and I had them staring into the sunset. Not smart.
Colt came over with one of the 12th Man jerseys I had given either hime or Clay so I I had to get Lance in his new 12th Man jersey for a shot.
Cadge saying good bye...in a very aggressive, loving way. He is a mess.
Fun on the slide! The slide has been getting tons of play the last couple of days. Kudos to the slide givers! I thought this was a cool mid-slide shot.
Once again Lance and water. Its like peanut butter and jelly...a great combination. We had a big bowl we filled up and tried to get him to fish things out with a colander. He just wanted to splash and dump. We went with that. As he does in the bath tub, he submerged his face and would come up real quick like it was cold. Good times.

So there's some updates. Oh yeah, he has started occupational and speech therapy and is continuing to develop in all areas constantly. We are also getting him to other health professionals for his other needs. Like I said I'll try to get Karen to post about our time in Georgetown and her thoughts. See you guys next time...hopefully sooner than later.

We couldn't be happier

Heelllo!

(By the way, it is not Christmas, don't be confused!)

Well, it is high time for a big update on Lance. He continues to amaze John Michael and I each day with how much he is learning and developing. I happened to look back at some of the pictures I had of Lance my first trip to Ukraine and it is unbelievable. He now seems like a different child than the one in the pictures. Probably because I know a little more about the true Lance and how he looks at the world.

Anyway, I have to brag on my little guy for a bit. He is now signing "more, please, eat, drink, bye, all done, and baby" and saying "Bi Bi Bi" for bite. At some points, he will combine 2 or 3 signs to communicate effectively. For example: more eat please. He is trying to climb up on his high chair, can climb into his crib (when the side is lowered) and into the tub. Lance will eat most foods now if he likes the taste, but not as much of a concern for sensory issues. He can stack 5 blocks pretty consistently, too....just a reminder, he has only been home for 2 months as of tomorrow. I am proud of our little Lance.

Our lives have been completely blessed by having Lance here. He is now a daddy's boy big time so on the weekends and evenings I try to steal as much time I can to hang out with him.

Here is a comparison of Lance from March 06, April 07 to now July 07

Don't worry, Mattie got close, but never actually was able to share the beater with Lance.

Lance is(has been) 3 years old!!!

Well, we have definitely fallen behind once again on the blog posting. Sorry to those that keep reminding us of that. So without further delay here are some recent pics and commentary.

We've got an addition for the "Lance Don't Like'em" List. He was a little curious when they were far off, but terrified when they are going off in front of the neighbor's house. If you don't know about NW Arkansas and fireworks, it is common place to set them off several days before and after Jan.1 and July 4th inside the city limits. A little different than what we were used to!

If you know about our tornado drills then you know what's going on here. BTW, he hasn't climbed in and out like that since that day.
Lance and momma(rockin' the A's lid) at his birthday party. This day was pretty rough for Lance. He did have some fun at times, but we think it was just a little too much stimulation.
First attempt at the "gift opening" did not go well. This is later inside and a little more relaxed. He got a Fisher Price Little People Noah's Ark. He is obviously not the only one interested. Leks and Myrah were stoked as well.
We didn't get to the birthday cake on the 6th so that Monday the 8th we presented his first birthday cake to him. It is well docmented on video however, the quality and length of the video made the file too big to host on the blog....for free anyway. It didn't take much coaxing and he tore into it. Karen made the cake and did an excellent job. It was still very moist 3 days after.
Cake demolished. It didn't all go into his tummy but, the parts you don't see here were at one time in his hands. Baby Bjorn bib was a lifesaver.Karen caught him just wildin' out making some funny faces. These are also unprovoked. I guess the weirdness makes him normal, eh? Gotta love the hand gesture.

And another one. He has started to do this face a little more often. Everyday is at least a little different. New sounds and quirks. He was evaluated yesterday on his speech. Thanks Cindy! With the eval. and some pointers from Aunt Judy we are starting to do a few more activities focused on his speech. We might regret this later, but I guess we should probably teach him to talk. Ha.

Tornado Drill

This is real time posting here. I'm posting this within 6 hours of this actual event. It is unscripted, unrehearsed, and absolutely occurred under natural circumstances. Its hilarious.

The latest

Here are a few more... Did I mention he is a sunshine in our lives?

Bowls, wisk, and Toys R Us coupon...What else could anyone want? Oh, he loves banging metal bowls together. The hard tile is an added bonus.

John Michael and Lance made Oma's famous oatmeal cookie recipe. Lance obviously enjoyed licking the beaters. Yummm! Lance will be three in a couple of weeks. I can not wait to see what he will do with his birthday cake!

we're back!

Wow, it has been a long time since I have update you guys, but in a way it only seems like yesterday. I have to admit a lot has changed for our little guy since then. I am sorry we have not kept up with this a little better. I can not wait to share some pictures and a few stories with you all!
Lance has adapted amazingly well. Again, all of your prayers continue to pay off! Our first week here Lance was scared of anyone new and especially if I talked or dared to hug them. That was a huge 'no no.' The second week back we visited both sets grandparents as well as some cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. He became comfortable really quickly. That was a blessing because no one knew how he would handle it. That is a lot of attention. Since then, he has welcomed our friends- especially if they are going to throw him in the air. He is all boy and loves daring things these days!

I love looking back at these pictures. The first few days at home we stayed primarily inside our house. When we first took Lance out in the front yard he became scared, cried and only calmed down when we went back inside. The next day I left the back door open and walked outside to see if he would follow. He quickly realized being outside is not so bad after all. I like to call this the "I'm free!!!" picture.

Lance has learned to love taking a bath. As you might be able to tell he enjoys blowing bubbles in the water...hence the small bubble beard.

Lance's first day in a pool at Oma and Opa's house! We were not too sure of it at first, but relaxed a little with Daddy's help.

Ahh! Isn't water great after a day in the hot sun. Gotta love it!

Here is our family minus mom. John Michael had walked down Nana and Pa's drive to show Lance the corn field. I was glad I was able to capture the scene with my little clan. To me, it is just classic. By the way, so far Lance, Mattie, and Rookie are all buds. Lance especially likes trying to throw things for them to fetch. Unfortunatly, he doesn't quite understand we don't throw everything for the dogs. Ha!

He continues to follow a regular schedule, learns to chew a little better each week, is walking far better than ever before with attempts to run occasionally, and shines his little light in our life daily. Current favorites: tuna (with applesauce), cottage cheese, yogurt, still loves bananas and playing with doors, throwing toys for dogs, being thrown up in the air or carried while we run around the yard. Oh yes, our little man turns into a maniac around 7:30. Somehow he has this huge spurt of energy and pulls us to the door to go outside to rough house with him. It is hilarious (although it can be quite tiring as well, hee hee.)

Okay, I guess that is about where we are now. I will post a few more pictures for you all. I wish I could put them all on here. Thanks for your continued support!

Love, Karen

Finally...

Sorry for all those that have been sticking with us and haven't seen any new pics or videos. Here is something for now.
Nana and Pa saw how much Lance was into jumping and bouncing so they found this cool Frog Trampoline for Lance. Pa, I got it put together in under an hour! I had to recruit the services of Karen to run the rubber cord though. Not a difficult task.
Thanks so much.

na na NA, na na NA

I love when I can get the camera rolling before I lose the shot.

Home Sweet Home Cont.

HELLLOOO!
It is really nice to greet you from home now (this is Karen.) Again, we were blessed with a pretty smooth process, but it is always nice to come back home. We are especially enjoying introducing Lance to our world. Like John Michael mentioned previously, we had a pretty good trip home. All the prayers came through. Lance was amazingly calm and cooperative the entire trip home until we hit our airport. He had fallen asleep on the last flight (only 1.5 hours long). So, he had to wake up from a deep sleep and was greeted by some of our closest friends. We were extremely happy to see them, but it was a lot for our little man here. He finally lost it. Once we were in the quiet car on the way home Lance was once again himself and laughing out-loud even through the fatigue.
Once we came home we could not have been any happier. First, we were home, then to our surprise some fabulous friends made sure we had everything we needed plus more. We were able to shower and watch Lance cruised around the house in amazement of the new things, his toys, and the carpet. John Michael videoed some of it, but the file is unfortunately too large to post on here. I wish we could share it! A few friends came by to visit and bring us some a hot dinner. Yummm! Lance welcomed them after a few minutes of hesitation.
We had a pretty good night's rest. Lance only became upset one time. I think he was very tired and was not sure where he was. He calmed down quickly once he realized he was still with us. Then we had to get him back to sleep because he wanted to play. ha! Right now he is taking a nap but we are going in to wake him up so that he will sleep tonight. I guess I better go.
Today has been very nice and relaxing.

Looking forward to sharing future stories,
Karen

Home Sweet Home!

Is there a more fitting title?! Wow! It has definitely been an experience for the ages. We are home and all is well. There are more specifics and we will update later. We just want to enjoy our home for a while. We are already unpacking and putting things up....I can't believe it either. It is comforting to put things away and get our house in working condition. I couldn't help it, we even made a real breakfast. FRENCH TOAST and our Millstone coffee!! It was amazing! We were also very excited to find several surprises in our house yesterday. Stocked refrigerator, flowers, streamers, new toys, etc. It was great....thank you so much to those who helped. (you know who you are).
We'll get back to you guys later...and hope to see you all soon!!

By the Grace of God,
John Michael, Karen, AND LANCE!!!!!!!!

SURPRISE!!

Hey everyone!
I have to give one last shout out to everyone on our last day in Ukraine. Full day, anyway. I will need to be quick because me awesome husband is keeping our son entertained outside so that we could update everyone and one of us get to read the comments and share. We have been so busy that I haven't been able to get on the internet personally for the last 5 days. Whew!

Quick update on the last few days:
The last day in Kramatorsk (Monday) we were busy making sure we had everything for the trip. Almost everything. We need to buy one more package of daipers before our flights and we are having a hard time finding a grocery store. hmmmm... It will work out.
Tuesday we picked up Lance for his last day at the orphanage. It was (and still is) pretty sureal (sp?). We then dashed off to Donetsk to get his passport, birth certificate and go to a notary. That all went well and we ended up having about 4 hours to waste at a pizza joint. We left on a train at 7:00 that night. Lance was such a trooper all day until we got on the train. I think that was his last straw. He lost it, but was able to calm down after about 30 min of rocking and singing. It was pretty hot, so that probably didn't help. BUT, once the train started, we had air conditioner!!!! Yes! I don't know if you can understand how great of a suprise that was. Lance and everyone except me seemed to sleep just fine. hee heedd. That made the second night in a row that I probably averaged about 3 hours of sleep. It was worth it, though. Anyway, we arrived in Kiev at 7:00am yesterday.
From there we went to the hospital for Lance's check up that is necessary for his visa. The lady was supposed to be there at 9, but arrived at 9:50. In the mean time we found out that the US Embassy is now giving about 50% of the visas out the next day. (We had the appointment planned for today and our flights tomorrow). That would NOT work and when I called there was no gaurantee. SO...we made a mad amount of phone calls and were able to convince them to give us an apointment for Lance's visa yesterday at 11:30. That means that we had to hire another translator and rush everything to be there on time. We finished at the hospital at 11:10. I didn't have the documents with me since I was not planning on going to the embassy until Thurs. (today). Augh! I called again and begged. It worked. We were able to keep our appointment, and actually get Lance's visa YESTERDAY!!! And, he had a good nap in the air conditioned embassy while we waited. It was a really long day, but so happy in the end.
So, today we have the day off to rest before our long trip tomorrow. I am glad that I was able to check in and I am very ready to be home and see all of you. Our flight leaves at 6:45am tomorrow morning. Please continue to keep us (especially Lance) in your prayers for the trip. Lance is hanging in there well, but I know all of this is not easy on him. Thanks! I am sorry if my spelling and grammer is horrible. I am typing as fast as I can. ha!

Love you all!
Karen

Love you guys!

Light at the End of the Tunnel, Home Stretch, Final Lap.....

Quote of the Day: Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
--Unknown

Day 30!! May 20th
Well yesterday was our big shiskabob picnic at the lake! Vova and his family(wife Elona and son Dima) invited us and provided more than enough food and drinks. We were unable to post because we went to Antoshka at 9 to see Lance then left at 10 for the picnic. We arrived back at the apartment tired and with a little bit of sun at 8:15 which gave us 45 minutes to take showers before the hot water was turned off. The weather was awesome and Vova and Elona proved to be great hosts. We built a campfire, cooked the delicious shiskabobs, played a little futbol, walked barefoot in the sand, and helped ourselves to the clear cool lake. Unfortunately we didn't bring our swimsuits to Ukraine(what were we thinking...wink) so Karen was unable to get fully submerged...until we threw her in...just kidding. Vova said the lake hasn't been there very long. They started digging there, for the sand, and tapped into a spring, hence the clear water. They are continuing to dig so the lake is getting bigger and bigger. The lake is outlined by a forest (mostly pines) which really provided a nice setting. On the way out before sunset, we had a short delay as a car had become stuck in the sand. From there on it was smooth sailing.

Now.... Onto our final days!!

I can't believe we are already here. Karen and I treated our infamous "10 Days" like the beginning of the trip. You just get going, get into it, don't watch the clock, and boom your there before you know it. It really seems like a short time since our court date last Thursday, 11 days ago. I mean tomorrow is our last night here in Kramatorshk!! Tomorrow Lance Ivan will officially be ours for the rest of his life! I need to sit down...yikes...I'm already sitting down.
The schedule from here on out:
Monday, go pick up our court decree(processed last week) which states that Lance Ivan is ours. We will say our final goodbyes and pack.
Tuesday Alex, Olga, Karen, Lance,me, Vladimir, and Vladimir(Vova) leave for Donetsk in two cars with all our luggage. We leave straight from the orphanage after picking Lance up which will be the beginning of him being solely our responsibility! Once in Donetsk we will be going to several offices, picking up documents, and doing a lot of waiting in the car. We will board an overnight train to Kiev from there with Alex and Olga.
Wednesday, immediately off the train Alex will take our luggage to the apartment and the rest of us will begin our work obtaining more documents.
Thursday, our appointments continue hopefully ending by 3:30 p.m. Our last stop will be the good ole' US Embassy.
Friday, departure time from Kiev at 6:45 a.m. with an ultimate arrival at XNA in Fayetteville at 4:33 p.m. on Friday!! 18 hour trip with pretty much no layover time to catch our breath. Don't be surprised if we pass out at XNA. Then life, in the U.S., as we know it will never be the same....AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! That is the plan and we hope that all of you will be praying for a smooth ride back home.
Tommorrow is our last gauranteed day of internet access. We'll have a "possible" final post tomorrow and as much as we want to keep everyone up-to-date it may not be possible in Kiev. We will try.

Enjoy the pictures and hope you're having a great Sunday!!

Karen and JM 4:15 p.m.


These are some pics from our little shiskabob picnic at the lake Saturday.

This is our little setup on the bank. Snacks all day.


I wanted to get a shot of the clear water. Not too bad huh? Can you believe some people come to adopt during the cold season and miss out on this?! Ha.


Vova's Family, Dima, and Elona


Vova had just put the stakes on and pouring a little "vino" for an extra taste.

One of our last days without Little Lance!

This is a car that got stuck in the sand on our way out. Vova is going to the rescue! I know what you're thinking. Me too. ;)




This was Friday. We officially said our goodbyes and gave our last gifts to Ivan's room. Saying this now I wish I would have taken a picture of the caregivers with our gifts. Dang it. This is the Director of the Antoshka orphanage,Antolly. We were able to give our thanks and visit together one last time.

Alex and Lance Ivan outside that morning at the orphanage.


A nice family shot, eh!

I found out a couple of days ago this a fun activity for Little Lance. I help him do pull-ups. He does more of the pulling up than you would think. He can hang freely for about ten seconds also! The Ukrainian mamas and babushkas didn't think this was very funny.

These are a couple of kids(Sergei and Igor) and caregivers from room 4....plus Alex again. Ha. Olga's mom is on the right.