I have been a member of FRUA for a while now. I haven't been as active as I once was. It is Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption. There is a family that just adopted two girls this past December. One has Cerebral Palsy and she is doing so well now. She has 2 older sons as well. The 14 year old son (Harrison) was with friends on a beautiful Sunday, almost 6 weeks ago. He was leaving the swim club and walking across the street to his favorite sub place with his friends. The friends made it across the street, but, he didn't. A car hit him at about 55 miles per hour. The driver was devastated. He was not at fault. But, I hear he is destroyed over it. They said that Harrison would probably not make it through the night. He broke so many bones, and worse..he had severe head trauma and they had to remove a part of his skull to help with the swelling. His amazing story is that he did make it. He is a miracle child. He is not recognizing people yet...but, I know he will. Please visit his site.... His mother is an amazing writer. But, it is her faith that is unreal. I read about him everyday as if he was a member of our family. He has touched so many people all over the country. Please pray for him and his family. He is truly a miracle.

I want you to also pray for my dear friend Michelle who is leaving for Ukraine in 5 weeks to adopt 3 children. She adopted a beautiful girl a few years ago. We became friends through the Ukrainian hosting program. She is amazing, and I feel blessed to know her. It is amazing the adoption community and the friendships that form. She is a survivor of pancreatic cancer as of this year. She is also an amazing inspiration to me. She is still trying to raise money for the children that she will adopt. She is considering special needs as well. I think that is so wonderful. There are so many children out there who need us. Especially those that need an extra hand. Please visit her blog. Her family has gone through so much and yet, she doesn't look at what she has been through. She is blessed to be alive to bring more children home. Please pray for her and if you are able to help her in any way, I know she would be blessed beyond words.

Thanks for reading this and praying for these families.

Well, the day finally came where Nikolai had to have surgery. He was born with ABS, which is Amniotic Banding Syndrome. In short, his right hand was fused together...well, at least 3 of his fingers. We were supposed to have the surgery a while back, but, he couldn't seem to gain enough weight to undergo anesthesia.

So, on Tuesday...he went under. Let me tell you what..I did not sleep the night before. The morning of, I just prayed for peace. God delivered. Nikolai was laughing with all of the nurses and flirting. It cracked me up. He had a crowd in there just watching his antics. It was hard to see him go down the hall to the surgery room. But, as he passed everyone, he made the spiderman fingers and pretended to put spider webs all over everyone. Again...he was hamming it up. It could be that he was a little funnier because they gave him so calming medicine.

The surgery was about 2 1/2 hours. When we got to him, he was crying pretty hard. Mind you, they basically broke his fingers apart and reconstructed 2 of them. He will only have 4 fingers. He was angry about his hand. It was wrapped up in a bandage and had a huge sock on it. Then, he happened to look under the sheets and was really mad. He had also a circumcision. As strange as this may sound, they needed the skin for grafting on his hand. A side note: I don't think that I will tell him that when he is older. He won't appreciate that too much :) But, when he looked under the sheets...he threw his hands in the air and with such exasperation said "OH MAN!! MY WEINER HAS A BOO-BOO" and then dramatically slammed his hands down on the side of the bed. I had to turn my head because I was laughing. The way he said that was hilarious. But, his pain was not. He was in pain.

When we took him home, we were in shock how great he was doing. He woke up yesterday and was acting like nothing happened. Then, around 9:00am, he started feeling really bad. He had a rough day. Last night, he broke out with shingles again. He had it last week. Our pediatrician said that they had never seen a child that young have shingles. So, now he is really ticked off.

Today was hard on us both. I couldn't seem to comfort him and he couldn't get comfortable. He is itching to death from the shingles and they hurt, and his hand hurts and his other part hurts. They gave him some pain medicine, but, it jacks him up pretty hard. Instead of resting, he is rocking back and forth and is very uncomfortable. Please pray for him that his recovery will be swift.

Hope you all are well!!

I have realized that after 2 years of having Nikolai at home, the adoption piece of it no longer is in my mind. It is hard to keep up with this blog, because we are no longer dealing with adoption issues. He is fully integrated into our family and now we deal with all the issues of what having 3 at home bring.

I will be quite candid about the whole adoption journey. I had a lot of expectations of what it was going to be like. I thought that the minute we saw each other, he would run to me. I thought when he came home, he would latch right onto me and let me hug him and love on him. None of that happened. He didn't know how to love or to show affection. I took it personal. I went through a really hard phase where I thought that I was a failure as a mother. He didn't want to be touched or held. He was very violent in his rocking at night. It tore me up that I couldn't do anything about it. I padded everything in his crib. He didn't want to be held when he was sick. I was crushed. Honestly.

We have come a long way. He loves life so much now and loves to hug, and likes to be held when sick. He can throw one heck of a temper tantrum that blows me away at times.

I have moved into the phase of what it is like raising three very independent children. So, in time...I may make a new blog to discuss everyday life.

I have appreciated so much everyone being such a support during the whole adoption process. I couldn't have done it without my blogger world friends and encouragement from random people.

There is so much that I am still learning. I guess motherhood is a work in progress. I sure do wish someone would have handed me the Motherhood Guide book. But, I suppose we write it along the way.