The weeks are flying!!

It's crazy to think how different our life was just 2 months ago. The time dragged by and it felt like we were never going to get our little girl. Now the days fly by and I forget what day it is or how long we have been home.

I will say it again (and probably every post), God has truly blessed us. Viktorija is a wonderful little girl, who loves life and her family very much. She is first at the door to greet whoever is coming home with a big hug. She has to find everyone in the house to hug them goodnight (which is also a trick to stay up later, but it's so cute, who cares).

She has been to the pediatrician, who says everything looks great. No major concerns that need immediate attention. He ordered some labs which brought on some interesting interactions. She had to have a blood draw and I had no way to explain to her what was going to happen. Well we arrived at the lab and an older disabled woman was at the counter with her caregiver and screaming, which terrified Viktorija. She kept covering her ears and asking to leave. When it was our turn to check in, she didn't want to go anywhere near that counter thinking that what ever made that woman scream, she wanted no part of it. I kept telling her everything was ok, knowing that it was only going to get worse. Well the order was incomplete and they were unable to complete the appointment. We had to leave and come back the next day. Oi! It was horrible. I had to hold her as tight as I could while she screamed. I don't think there was a person in the place that didn't hear her. Poor thing! Now every time we go anywhere she points to her arm, her way of asking "am I going to get poked again?" I just wish I could explain to her what happened and why.

Viktorija's understanding of English is growing. I can give her commands in English and she can understand and complete what I've asked, but she isn't speaking a whole lot of English. She will repeat some words if you ask, but she is have difficulty getting her mouth to make the sounds, so she doesn't like to. She was evaluated by our school district for a special preschool for kids with physical and speech delays. I'm praying she is excepted for the fall. I think it will help her so much!

She continues to explore and test her boundaries. She can really dig in her heels. From 6-8 at night has become pretty challenging. She just seems to want to rebel. I've been trying some different things to make night time a little more enjoyable for everyone. It's just so hard to tell if it's boredom, rebellion, tiredness or just part of the adjustment of coming from an orphanage to a family. I know she's testing me because she makes sure I see whatever it is she's doing cause she knows it's going to upset me. I've introduced even more of a routine and it seems to help but it's only been a couple of days so we'll see.

Her favorites continue to be music, dolls and playing outside. I just wish it would warm up outside. Neither one of us is enjoying this cold weather. Makes me even more bummed that I missed all that 80 degree weather we had while we were in Europe.  Her new favorite is doing my hair. I think she's going to make me bald. LOL! I wish it was more brushing my hair and less trying to put it in pony tails or jamming barrettes in my head, but it's all worth it when she says "grazus mama" (pretty mama) and hugs me.

Riding a bike, thank you Aunt Melanie and Uncle Russ.

Enjoying Easter morning! Candy before breakfast!

Easter dress before she got ketchup on it.

She loves her music!!

The little devil on my shoulder has whispered to me more than once "will you really love the child like your own?" I can no longer hear him. I'm pretty sure Viktorija knocked him off with one of her many hugs I get each day. I have no doubt that God has planned this little girl to be my daughter from the beginning. She is mine and always will be. Adoption is such an incredible experience. There's really no way to explain it. She was conceived in our hearts and grew there until we were able to bring her home to our family. God's amazing plan!

Happy Easter!!

Wow! I said something to my husband about being home for 3 days and he needed to remind me that it has already been 5. Time is flying! My kids have been off this week for Spring Break and my husband only went into work on Thursday, so it's pretty much felt like a continuation of our time in Lithuania. One big happy family, hanging out together.

Our time at home has been a little bumpy, but progressing well. Viktorija is getting used to the surroundings and the dog. She's got a love/hate thing going on with him. One minute she's sitting on the dog telling him how much she loves him, to the next minute screaming because he's crossing the room towards her. He's being so tolerant of her. He's such a great dog!


Ok...truth time. I started the above 2 paragraphs on Monday. It's now Wednesday and I'm trying to finish a blog update. Oi! Do you know the movie Monster's Inc? The part where they bring Boo back to their apartment and the sweet little thing runs around exploring and knocking over the TV, spilling over books and goes goes goes until she passes out? Well this is pretty much my life right now. Everything is new to her and she's not afraid to explore. She loves to be outside, but it's been so cold and windy she hasn't wanted to go out. So I've had to get creative in finding different things for us to safely explore. It's been a lot of fun, but exhausting as well.

We didn't end up attending church for Easter, which I missed a lot.  I sprained my knee playing outside with the kids and B is still fighting a terrible chest cold and ear infection. Also, I was too afraid of overwhelming Viktorija. The kids got up in the morning and looked for their Easter baskets. Viktorija thought this was really cool. A basket full of toys and treats some of which she was allowed to eat even before breakfast. You could just see the amazement in her eyes. She kept looking at me waiting for me to disapprove as she would pick up a jelly bean and when I would say "yes" she would pop it in her mouth fast before I could change my mind. I dressed her up in the Easter dress I got for our Easter dinner which had ketchup on it within 5 minutes. Thank goodness I took pictures first!! LOL!

Viktorija is extremely bright. She has picked up several English words already and uses them mixed in with her Lithuanian. Her favorite toys are her dolls and Leapfrog ABC magnets that sings the alphabet song and the sound the letters make. It's easy to tell when she overwhelmed or tired because she gets naughty. She does things trying to get me upset. I've learned that that's the time to scoop her up and find a quiet place to sit or to nap. She has been looking for a lot of extra comforting lately. Last night was a rough one. She didn't want to go to bed. She went from crying to playing to trying to be naughty. I think it was her effort to keep me in the room for as long as she could.  Today she doesn't want to let me out of her eyesight. I can only imagine what thoughts are going through her head. I just try to redirect her bad behavior, keep her busy, and tell her I love her as much as I can.

From time to time I think, " I can't believe we made it!" The adoption was such a long journey. The pain of it all is beginning to fade, especially when she flashes me one of those adorable smiles. I'm enjoying getting to know her. She has so much personality and determination. Over all the whole family is doing really well. It's not always easy...it's not the movie Annie. But the sun does come out....(groan, I know). The lack of sleep, my injury and B's sickness has added an extra level of difficulty, but we're making it work. We've had a couple of friends bring us dinner which has been a huge help. We are very grateful to everyone who has helped us in anyway through this process and continues to support us. God has blessed us with us a beautiful daughter and wonderful friends and family. He has been our strength through this all. Praise God and we thank Him for the many many blessings He has given us.

We are home!

Sorry everyone for the delay in the post. It was a very exhausting day of travel...over 24 hours of it. The kids were great and did it with very little complaint. The orphanage was worried about Viktorija being afraid of air travel, but the only complaint from her was having to wear her seat belt when we landed. The 10 hour flight from Poland was especially difficult. The food was awful, thank goodness I packed some crackers in my bag. I wanted to have a little temper tantrum so I'm shocked there was little noise from the kids. After traveling across the globe with 4 kids, I feel I can do anything now. LOL!

Once we arrived in Chicago, we had to go through the process of getting Viktorija's stamp of approval that makes her an official US citizen, more waiting and sitting. Once we had that, we got our rental van and stopped for something to eat. Viktorija passed on the food, but was more then happy to eat the ice cream I offered her. I was shocked to see all the lilac bushes in full bloom along the highway. Made me feel like I was gone longer then 3 weeks. Lilacs in April...crazy! The van came with a DVD player so we got HOP at Target and hit the road. Viktorija was asleep shortly after the opening credits. I think the boys made it through most of the movie before falling asleep. B and I tried to keep a conversation going so we could stay awake. Longest day ever!

Once we got home, the boys dragged themselves in and crawled into bed. Viktorija awoke some and was pretty disoriented. Poor thing! I showed her around a bit but then tried to get her in her PJ's. She started to cry. Then she realized that the doll that was in the picture we sent her of her room wasn't on the bed. She started asking for it and luckily that was one of the words I had learned so I knew what she was looking for. I pulled the doll out of the closet and she curled up and went to sleep. My sweet baby girl.

She woke up crying Wednesday morning, but quickly settled once she saw me. It was 6:30 in the morning. Oi! We had some breakfast and explored the house. She is not a fan on the dog. In our family picture, just his head was in it, so I think she thought he was much smaller. But just like the water park, she is trying to over come her fear. It's exhausting though, she wants to see the dog and calls the dog over then decides no still scary and get's upset. This goes on all day. Right now her favorite is to watch the dog from the office through the french doors. She can see, but is protected. The dog has been great. Just sits there and looks at me like, "what did I do?" LOL!

She was very excited to see clothes hanging in her closet. She especially liked the dress with a matching one for her doll. We of course had to try on a few things before we settled on something. It was a beautiful day, so we went outside for a walk. The boys were excited to have a little freedom away from us and see there friends. I think they were outside most of the day. At dinner I noticed their cheeks were all red. I figured it was from running, but by the end of dinner I noticed their necks were red too...they were sun burned! Never did it occur to me to but sun screen on them. Yesterday I was bundling them up because there was snow on the ground. And it is Michigan in early April, just wasn't expecting to have to worry about that yet.

She keeps me very busy. I really can't leave her unsupervised for very long. She's just so curious and if I'm not watching, she will try anything...like a roll of toilet paper down the toilet or a sink full of soap while she washes her hands. She doesn't sit still long and likes to change activities frequently.

Night time rolled around and we got everyone ready for bed. I laid down with Viktorija and we were both out. It was a very full long day for both of us. Unfortunately our clocks are still pretty messed up so we were up and down through out the night. Overall I think she is adjusting pretty well. I'm very proud of her. She's very brave and has a great attitude towards new things.

Thank you everyone for all your prayers and support while we were away. Every comment was greatly appreciated. I will still post here and there, but life is going to be pretty busy. She keeps me on my toes. Plus it going to be a lot of the same day after day while we get used to each other. We are so excited to have her home and just love her to pieces.

Last day in Lithuania

Today was our last day in Lithuania. And it's time too. We are all out of laundry soap, dish soap, shampoo, and coffee. I think it's a sign. LOL! While we are all excited to be going home, we couldn't help to be a little sad at leaving. Amazing things happened here and it holds so many memories old and new for Broderick.

Today turned out to be more active then we originally planned. We woke up to lots of snow on the ground and still coming down. Happy April!!  I started packing and cleaning. We then decided to go have lunch in our favorite Lithuanian restaurant one last time. Yum!! After that we trekked to a bigger store then we had near our apartment. We wanted to find a CD for Viktorija of some popular kid songs. Kinda like the Lithuanian Nick Jr. And we found it! She loves listening to it!

On the way back from the store, B stopped into a key store. In Vilnius, there is a bridge to a "suburb" called Uzupis. It has become a tradition for Lithuanians when they marry to put a padlock on the bridge and then throw the keys in the river below. It's to symbolize that they will be together forever. I loved the idea and thought it was very romantic. Well, he got us a lock and asked if they knew where we could get it engraved. The nice man walked us down to a jeweler who had an engraver and he engraved it for us on the spot. So we walked down to the bridge, put our lock on, and threw our keys in the river.

Forever and ever!!

 An early 15 year anniversary celebration.

Thanks to Pam Turke for the awesome shirt! 

She wears it with pride and spunk. She loves being the little sister!!

So now the kids are in bed. Everything is packed and we will be up at 3am to catch our flight, which is only 8pm in the states. I hope we can adjust to the time difference quickly. I'm a little nervous about over sleeping, but B has set two alarms. We have loved our time here in Lithuania and hope to return sometime in the future, but we are all ready to be home. Viktorija is excited to see her house, meet the rest of her family, and sleep in her very own bed. We love you all and will see you soon!

Water fun!

Today we took the kids to Vichy Water Park, Europe's largest water park. I had bought Viktorija a cute little ruffled bathing suit and it looked so cute on her. I don't know for sure, but I think it was her first experience with "swimming." At first she was very scared and clung for dear life, which didn't hurt my feelings any. So we floated around the lazy river to start.  After watching her brothers run and play in the water, she didn't want to be out done or left out. True to her spirit, she attempted to be more independent and not let what scared her hold her back. She kept trying to be brave and walk out into deeper waters. She kept B and I on our toes!! The girl continues to show me just how much determination and spunk she has. She has fear and caution, but she doesn't let it hold her back.

B and I took turns watching the younger two and riding the slides with the older two. Harry wanted to take me on a ride (or death trap, as I like to call it) that took you down 3 stories for you to hit a wall that you climbed up and then somewhat free fell to the pool below. The things I do for my kids!! I think my screams could be heard by all.  I wish I had pictures to share, but with all the water and having FOUR kids to chase, pictures just wasn't an option. Viktorija and I did get our picture taken by a roaming photographer which I made B buy so we had something to for Viktorija's first water park adventure.

It was a great time and we all enjoyed ourselves. It will probably be one of the kid's favorite memories. B and I were so tired this morning and wasn't really feeling like going, but we are glad we went. It could have been a pretty boring Sunday cooped up in the apartment. Just one more day before we travel. We are very excited to be heading back home. I will continue to post once we are home to let people know how we are doing. It's going to be an adjustment and we don't want to overwhelm Viktorija with too many visitors, so I think this will be the best way. We love you all and thank you for your love and support. Prayers for an easy day of traveling would be greatly appreciated!!