A Final Post- So Thankful

To those that still might be out there....

So- as we begin Thanksgiving week I truly can't think of a year I have had more to be Thankful for. The addition of Eli to our family is nothing short of a miracle. Sure we have our hard times, and I know that we are going to have our challenges ahead of us... but just one day like today makes me realize how this little man was born a part of our family. He fits in perfectly and we are all head over heels in love with him!

As an update... he is growing like crazy... haven't officially measured him, but I can say that he is taller than kids he was noticeably shorter than 5 months ago! I was filling out an evaluation form for some testing and I was amazed.. I circled almost every word on the "does he know these words" questionnaire. He is adjusting to preschool- he loves going... however doesn't like it on the 2 days he has to stay an extended day. The biggest adjustments are playing with other kids his age and controlling his energy level... he is non stop all the time- I am used to this being that Jake is the same way... but I am a lot older than when Jake was this active! This is part of why he is getting evaluated- to see what we can do to help him stay focused on something for at least a few minutes. He is getting much more coordinated... something very apparent as he was flying around the basement on his big wheel... something 5 months ago he couldn't figure out how to move at all! And he is learning his letters and numbers, can count to 10- minus 9- he has something against 9!--- sing most of his ABCs and freaks me out with how good of a memory he has... Tonight we were sitting in the basement- which is unfinished (for now) and a big play area for the boys... and Eli kept on pointing to the ceiling by the duct work and saying "get me ball, up Daddy"... and Kenny said... silly there is not a ball up there... and I had a slight recollection of about 4 months ago him throwing a little sticky ball up there... so I told Kenny to lift him up that I thought he might be right... and yep, there it was, a little sticky ball... totally freaked us all out! One heck of a memory!

Ok- feel like I am rambling... but want to assure everyone that we are all doing great... and I feel like now is the time for me to bring this blog to a close as we are now really beginning to adjust to our new and better life!

Many of you know that I have another blog that I have had for a while... that will be where I continue to keep up with what is going on in our lives... if you want to find out more about that blog leave me a comment and I will get back with you! So I will leave you with a couple final photos of Eli! Thanks for all your support over the past 6 months... as a matter of fact we are just shy of our 6 month anniversary of taking off on an airplane to the Ukraine! Man time flies!

Sept. 24

Anyone that knows us knows we both love football... college, nfl, grade school and flag... all of it... I love football games when the weather turns to fall, wish that would happen sooner than later!!!! it was way too hot this weekend for football.




The last 8 days have been all about football... first with the big rival UofL vs. UK football game... we are a divided house with Kenny being a UK fan and me a UofL fan... so naturally the boys are fans of both... Kenny was lucky enough to go to the game and Jake, Eli and I headed over to the Gittings for a fun night out... Jake wore his UofL jersey the 1st half and UK the second, and Eli was outfitted in UK the 1st half and UofL the second... so the outcome wasn't what I had hoped for... but Kenny sure was happy!













Then yesterday Jake had a big game vs. a very good team. We are happy to say that Jake's team is still undefeated in 3 years... the game ended in a 7-7 tie... a true defensive battle... and our opponent scored on a bit of a trick play on the very first play of the game taking the snap before our defense was on the field... a bit of a bummer for 3rd and 4th grade flag football!









Today we headed back up to the field to watch Anna, Maddie, Sidney and Olivia cheer as well as Ryan and Austin play... Eli is Austin's number 1 fan! (I think Sandy would probably argue with me over that!) And Eli has developed a love of football... whenever we talk about going he will say "Eli football big" which means when Eli gets bigger he gets to play football...

















As another update on Eli.... this week Eli gave us a 6 word sentence... I for the life of me can't remember what it was, but I know it had a preposition in it and it made total sense and you could understand it... 3 months home and language is really starting to take shape!

Sept. 12, 2007

Lots has been going on...

The big news is Eli had surgery yesterday. He had tubes placed in his ears, as well as his tonsils and adenoids removed. Additionally we took the time to have him circumcised... He is doing very well for only one day after the surgery--- it is funny when you ask him what hurts, he will usually point to a little scrape he has on his toe!

School has been going fairly well- he is behaving, following the rules- the challenge is just getting him to join in with the other kids- I guess that after all you have been with your whole life is a group of kids your age that you would rather spend time with adults or older kids--- the latest report was he was starting to join in a little more... he does know the names of almost every kid I point out to him and ask him... sooner or later he will show his outgoing bubbly personality to his classmates!

Language continues to progress... he is putting together many words... and is trying to tell more stories. He sings about 30% of the ABC song... can count to 10 (most of the time.) Colors continue to be the biggest challenge... everything is blue... and then green... and then blue again... something we have to just keep working on!

So we are now into football season- well actually baseball is still going on with fall ball... but Eli now has a new appreciation for football too! We taught him to hike the ball to Jake... ok, he might not be the best center yet, but he enjoys it! Jake had his first game this weekend and they pulled out a 9 point victory after a slow start. Jake scored 2 touchdowns! Yep- proud mama here.

A few pictures to share... Bathtime- Eli's favorite time of the day... one from Labor Day...and some football pictures- Mom- we did get a good one of you and Eli there!

First Day of School

I have to admit I have been very anxious about today...Anxious defined as "I couldn't wait for the day to get here," and anxious defined as in "true anxiety of how will it go!" Yep the first day of school.

Now I am very lucky that the boys go to a school where both my mom and my sister teach, and they have a full day 4 year old preschool program... so Eli has had the opportunity to spend a lot of time up at school this summer getting very familiar with everything. We have played in his classroom, spent lots of time with the teachers and preschool director and Eli really likes being at school, however I was still very unsure how he would react. The other nice thing about my mom and my sister being there is that they could check in and give me updates all day long!

So by all reports he did well... we had a few appearances of the "Eli" where he falls to the floor and lays quietly as his display of dissatisfaction... but on the other hand...he participated in the group activities, ate lunch without incident, didn't have any bathroom accidents and most importantly didn't escape from preschool... which was one of my major fears, that he would just run out the door of the preschool building into the main school building!

At the end of the day when I picked him up he was all smiles... and said "school fun!" I would say it was a successful day!

The real test will be tomorrow... again I am anxious to see his reaction when I drop him off in the morning! Wish us luck!

7 weeks home

and things are going well... I wish I had a ton of time to update, but very hectic... Eli is doing very well... some people have asked why we went ahead and started him in OT... we just figured why not... and it is going so well, his balance has really improved, his fine and gross motor skills are developing and he has calmed down "a bit" he is still a VERY energetic little one... we also had our first speech therapy appt last week, well more of a semi evaluation, we were really surprised at how well he did, testing well into the 3 year old level... and then this weekend his language really took off, he has a very expansive one word vocabulary already, but now he is putting them together.... with things like "Mommy open cheese" to open the string cheese he was holding... or "Daddy go work" and many many more...

Last weekend Eli got the experience of his first wedding- my little sister Beaven's, and to top it off he was in it... he was amazing, he walked down the aisle without missing a beat- holding Jake's hand... and he was a perfect gentleman... I have lots of pictures to post, and promise not to take a whole month to do it, but I need to run, so I will leave you with just one picture, one that I can't take credit for... Jake at all of 9 years old captured this one with my camera of Eli and my new brother-in-law... Ty...

Keeping busy

Our life has always been busy, and things haven't changed much with the new little guy thrown in the mix... Eli is adapting better than I think I could have ever expected... it is me that is having the harder time having to adapt to chasing around a VERY active little one... I have to admit that I am exhausted at the end of every day...

Kenny is back to work, and I am working a lot from home and have made it into the office a handful of days for a few hours at a time...we did it this way to get Eli adjusted to me being gone for longer amounts of time each day, and he seems to be doing well with it... only the first day did he really cry when I left him with Paige.

We also started Occupational Therapy for Eli... we are in LOVE with our OT Lauryl, at Meaningful Play 2 here in Louisville... she has worked with a lot of adopted Ukrainians. We are mainly focused on Eli's motion and activity level trying to work with those... get him a little more coordinated and a little less all over the place all the time... Soon we will be starting speech therapy as well to give him every chance we can to develop into a healthy and happy little guy.

Eli loves the pool... has to be his favorite place to be... and it keeps him contained in one place...

That's all for now- but a few pics of the little guy for you to enjoy!

We are HOME!!!!

And so glad to be here!
I have a lot to update on.... but one piece of business, Galya, we don't have your email address and would like to email you... if you can please email us at k.zickel@insightbb.com! Thanks... and do you happen to know what "tooka" or "tuka" or "tukya" might be, he says it all the time, and seems to be happy to say it but we don't have a clue what it is!

So, since I last updated here is a very quick run down

On Monday we travelled back to Preluky.
On Tuesday we went to Eli's birth city and got his birth certificate switched with us listed as the parents, then we headed to Cherniv to do something- not sure what and back to Preluky to get Eli from the orphanage, it took a while but by around 4 pm we had him in the car and were out of there for good... we headed back to Kiev and spent our first night together- just Kenny, Eli and me.
On Wednesday- Galya had to head back to Cherniv to get the passport so we spent the entire day with Eli... we played, went shopping to buy him some underwear and took him to McDonalds where he ate his first Happy Meal- and it sure did make him Happy- he ate every last bit of it in no time flat!
On Thursday it was off to the medical exam- where he did excellent with the doctor, totally cooperating and answering all of his questions, he had gained 2 pounds since we had been to the doctor about 2 weeks before! Then off to the US Embassy to get his Visa... we had a few hours to spare before we headed back to the Embassy to find out the great news that his Visa was ready so we were free to fly home on Friday.
On Friday we started a very long trip... it was so sad to leave Galya--- she was so amazing, I couldn't fight back the tears... I admit, I was completely scared to get on that plane with that guy without her there... and then when we got on it Eli totally lost it, he was going crazy... the gentleman next to me asked if it was his first time flying, I explained it was, and it was complicated by the fact that we had no idea what he was saying... well what do you know but this guy spoke fluent Ukrainian and English and was AMAZING with kids... he was able to help us calm down Eli... a TRUE blessing! The next two flights he was fine, well if you call standing up telling everyone HI and waving fine! Kenny and I decided we were going to try to keep him up and get him nearer to US time... and it sort of worked! he is pretty adjusted already to the time... so, we landed in Louisville right around 10pm on Friday and were greeted by a small group of family... we pretty much ran to the gate to see Jake... and the tears were flowing from all of us... (OH- and Jake's hair was cut SHORT--- but he looks so handsome!) Eli was a little timid.... he said hi to Jake but really wanted either Kenny or I to hold him... then we went to the house where they had Papa Johns Pizza waiting for us!!! YUM a true taste of America! Eli was checking everything out but still not talking much, then, he was sitting at the table, just him and Pop (that is my dad) eating his pizza, and Eli bent over to his side, popped back up and said cookoo, which is basically Ukrainian for peeakaboo! it was precious, after that he was Mr Talkative.

So--- we have been home now for 3 days and the little guy is transitioning very well... in the first few days here he has been to 2 baseball games, 1 softball game, a cookout, eaten at Wendy's, been to a Father's Day Brunch, ridden his bike and fallen down the steps. He is sleeping pretty well at night, but isn't much for naps during the day. He is a superstar at the ballpark, first of all he is the Red Sox (Jake's team) good luck charm, they won the last 2 games he has been at and are now in the Championship game... he loves to talk to people, say "hi", wave, throw the ball, play on the playground and is so happy when we are up there!

Not that it has been all great, he is super active, keeping us running at all times, we have had a few communication problems, but he seems to be learning more each day... today he went to the kitchen, moved a chair to the sink, climbed up, got out the cup he had been using earlier, walked over to me and said "WATER" can you believe it!!! I about flipped out... after 2 days! He seems to be understanding some of what we are saying to him... we are making it work some how!

I will post more in the next few days... trying to get back in the swing of things, but mainly focusing on trying to love on this little guy as much as we can and make sure that he knows that he is not going anywhere and like it or not he is stuck with us forever!

Kenny and I want to thank everyone for all of your support... all of your comments on this blog has meant so much to us... I want to keep it going for a while to keep documenting Eli's progress! Hope you continue to stop by and see what we are up to :)

All our Love, Kenny, Shannon, Jake and Eli!