Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Six Months Ago - Tomorrow

We will be home six months tomorrow - 9/22/10. I am posting today because I will be very busy tomorrow. Each year at work, we have a reunion for all of the patients who have been at our hospital. We have had 248 people RSVP as of today, so we have a lot of work tomorrow. We cannot begin to set up until 2 -3 pm and the drop-in begins at 4pm.

Today Alex got fillings. I don't have all the details yet because Tim does the dentist appts. and I do all the other doctor appts. I have to handle all the shots and blood draws, so I think it is only fair that he do the dentist. Alex says that he cried because it hurt, but I am not sure if that is true because they used anesthesia. He picked out a flower ring as his prize. I am sure his daddy is very proud of that choice. He gave it to me just now, but I have to give it back.

So much has changed in the last six months! Alex speaks in English 99.9% of the time, he can count to 10, recognizes his name, knows all his colors and recognizes most of the alphabet. He can write A, B, C, D, E and F. He can almost write his name! He loves to make up songs and loves to sing songs he learns at school and church. We had two people from his school yesterday tell us that he is smart, but needs to learn to listen and pay attention better. Sounds just like my nephew Justin when he was this age.

Sunday, after Sunday School, he said "Praise the Lord with all your heart." This is the first Bible verse he has repeated from church.

I do have some photos, but my cameras are at work for the week. We had a balloon release yesterday, did ice cream sundaes and gifts today, tomorrow we have the reunion, Thursday we have a chili cook off and Friday we have a cookout and crazy hat contest.

This weekend, Alex wanted to know what that was behind his penis. I asked him what he thought it was and he said he didn't know. I told him to ask his daddy. So, he walks down the hall with his pants around his ankles and shows his daddy and asks him what it is. Daddy asks him the same question, twice. Alex finally said, "Probably so!", pulled his pants up and walked away. We don't know if he thinks that is what it is or if he just gave up asking. LOL

Well. that's all for now....

Love you all,
R & T & A

Monday, September 13, 2010

MAMOO

Mamoo,
If you are reading this, we adopted from the baby house in Nikolaev. The child you are adopting could possibly be there, but more likely has been moved to the next internat.

Please email me at www.dixonadoption@yahoo.com.

I would love to help you in any way I can.

Rita

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Ethiopia Adoption

http://www.facebook.com/notes/travis-agnew/elis-abbreviated-story/442974248520

This is a post from a local Minister and musician about his family's adoption from Ethiopia.

Alisha, this is the family I was telling you about.

Have a great day!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Photos only


Church Photos - first formal photos



My favorite photo from this sitting


Career Day at The Learning Vine



Dr. Alex - thanks Karen for his Vet kit!









Ours six months!

Alex has been ours for six months as of March 5th. Our Gotcha date was March 17th.

We are amazed at his progress. He can now say his blessing, count to 10, sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and tries to sing the ABC song. He knows his shapes & colors, can count to 10 and understands all English and speaks it 99% of the time. They are working on the alphabet and he is learning to identify the letters and how to write them. He can write A's really well and we still need to work on the B's. He is growing taller, but has not gained much weight. We think that he is just going to be tall and thin. I have a photo of him when he was younger and he was a little chunkier, so maybe he is just in a growing taller spurt. He is eating better and we actually got him to eat a hamburger patty with cheese on it. He does not want it on a bun. At least he is broadening his horizons a little. If I could only get him to eat some green vegetables! I tried mayo on green beans and it didn't work. Several people told me to try this and I remember that my younger sister used to eat them like that. Mayo seems to be a staple in Ukraine, but he doesn't care for it.

He has been good at school most of the time. He has been on green every day for some time, but he got time out today. They only move them to yellow if they get in trouble 3 or more times, but I have asked if they let me know if he gets it even once because he will fully take advantage of his three times if we are not strict on him.

We are really excited that there are several families in the process of adopting special needs children from Alex's Baby House. There is also another precious little boy from there who is available and someone is working on a button for him, so I will post it on the blog as soon as I get it. He is cute and sweet and we saw him a lot when we were there.

I attended my first Missions Committee meeting tonight at church and I am excited to work towards fundraising for missions in Ukraine. That is the subcommittee that we were assigned to and there is a mission trip scheduled for April 2011. We are not going to be able to go this time, but hopefully one of us can go in 2012. I would also like to see if we could possibly start a grant for those who would like to adopt a special needs child from Ukraine. I feel that more people may be willing to adopt if they had the finances. I know we would!

As of last Sunday, I am a Sunday School teacher for the 5 year-olds. There are two teachers in each class and the other teacher had the class last year also. I was supposed to be a helper, but the other teacher couldn't do it again this year, so I agreed to step in. I was hesitant to step in as a teacher, but God put me in that place where I should be, so I will give it a try! I couldn't say no with all those little kids in there, could I?

Better go,

Love,

R & T & A