Andrew's New Specs

During Andrew's 4 year old check up at the pediatrician's office they tested his eyesight by having him name certain objects on cards that were held a short distance away. He told the nurse the correct name for each object on each card. Then the nurse had Andrew cover his right eye and had him look through these binoculars to name the objects through the binocular view. Andrew did great with his left eye, however, when the nurse had him switch to cover then the left eye to test the right eye Andrew kept trying to peak. So I then proceeded to cover his left eye with my hand and he kept saying that he couldn't see and kept trying to move my hand off of his good eye to peak to tell the nurse the correct answer. She had me bring him back to have him retested in a couple of months again, however, we ended up with the same response.

When I brought him home and I shared this with Robert he had Andrew sit on his lap and tell him what picture was showing on the laptop computer screen with Robert's hand over Andrew's left (good) to test his right eye and we got the same response, "I can't see, I can't see" and then kept trying to push Robert's hand away from covering his eye.

Our pediatrician ended up referring us to a specialist to have a closer more indepth look to see what is going on with Andrew's eye. Come to find out that there is no damage to the eye, he's just not using it. The doctor said that it's not considered a lazy eye since there is no drifting of the eye he's just not using it and that Andrew is nearsighted in his right eye. The doctor perscribed for me to patch his left eye for 6 hours a day starting today to force him to force him to use his right eye along with perscribing glasses for him with a light perscription.

Boy oh boy, the first few days with using the patch was frustrating for all of us. Andrew would let me put it on with no problem and then the minute I let him out of my sight Andrew would take it off. So back and forth, back and forth we went with putting it and a few minutes later him taking it off. I finally realized that I have to keep him busy and his hands busy to be successful with keeping the patch. So since he loves to help out making food items in the kitchen I had him make some brownies, and then we made some banana bread. He loves to pour the ingredients into the bowl and stir....as well as lick the bowl.

Our Dossier to be Submitted on September 2

OHHH My Goodness! We had returned from our long weekend with the Ukrainian Angels Family Reunion and in catching up on wash and housework I forgot to check my email.

Here I had an email from Valentina waiting for me since Saturday. She said that she had some good news in that our dossier will be submitted to the SDA on September 2, 2008. WHHOO WHOO!! It was so good to hear some news of progression in this adoption. Over the past few months of not hearing any news I was starting to feel a little down about the whole thing.

We are so excited and we are so looking forward in completing our adoption. Maybe we'll be traveling before the holidays and back by Christmas. Wouldn't that be awesome!! It certainly would be a Christmas we will never forget. I would be courious to see how the Ukrainians celebrate Christmas even though they celebrate around January 6th or 7th.

We shall see what God has in store. We really were hoping for warmer months to travel in however, it looks as if it will be winter when we travel. It's all in His timing not ours. He works everything out for good according to His Plan and His Purpose.

Ukrainian Angels Reunion

This year we were excited to take part in the Ukrainian Angels Reunion. They have a reunion gathering of the families that have adopted from Ukraine that have used Ukrainian Angels to help guide them through the process adopting over a weekend once a year. Since they just happened to be having it in a fairly close by town, Hershey, Pennsylvania we decided to join them. Okay, well it's about a 2 hour drive from us, however, the other years since we've been home with Andrew have been a lot further away. Each year they select a different part of the United States to have it.

It was a nice to finally meet some of the families that we have chatted with and followed (their blogs that is) as they found their Ukrainian Angels. Each family from Ukrainian Angels is such a blessing to give of themselves and share their experiences when adopting their angels in Ukraine. The wealth of information that is learned by each family sharing on the Ukrainian Angels forum totally prepares you for your journey when traveling in Ukraine.

We also met a family that had just returned in January of this year that adopted a young sibling group of 3 children all under the age of 3 years old. What cuties they are. Two, three year old twins (boy and a girl) and a two year old brother. It was interesting talking with Michelle and Bob the parents of the children to see how they have adjusted since returning from Ukraine. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them and all the other families. It was really nice to have the same connection as to how your family came together. Not only for us as parents and what we went through before, during and after travel but also for the children. It helps the children have somewhat of a connection to their heritage as well as they get to form relationships with children that have been adopted from their birth country and have shared some of the same experiences before, during and after adoption.



After the reunion, we took the day to experience Hershey Chocolate Factory and Hershey Park. Andrew loved both the Chocolate Factory and Hershey Park. We took the tour through the chocolate factory and sat in the moving car that took you through the factory and showed you all about how they make their famous chocolate.



I asked Andrew at the end of the day what he liked best about the day and he couldn't stop talking about the singing cows from the Hershey Chocolate Factory. Between the cows and the Falcon ride at Hershey Park which took us up above the whole park and spun us around (Mommy's tummy wasn't feeling too good after that) I don't know which he liked better. Andrew wanted to do that ride again but that was enough for me. I used to be able to handle all of the different types of rides but lately it's the spin around rides that my stomach can't handle. Even at Sesame Place last year the tea cup ride got my tummy turned upside down after Robert spun us as fast as he could.



Coming off a chocolate high. Catching some ZZZZZs.

Updated Dossier for the 3rd time

I contacted Cathy Harris our coordinator from Ukrainian Angels and Valentina our facilitator and lawyer in Ukraine to see if there is any chance our dossier would be submitted in June. She said that the SDA has already selected the dossiers that they will be accepting in June and ours was not one of them. I really dislike bothering Valentina since she is a very busy lady and I don't want to seem like a pest. I did however need to know a month ahead of time though whether or not to start updating our documents since our dossier documents were getting ready to expire as of the beginning of July.

Valentina suggested that we go ahead and update the documents and get them over to her since she had a feeling the SDA would be accepting families dossiers again within the next couple of months. So after almost 5 months of waiting for an approval here we are updating our dossier again. Hopefully this time around the SDA will take our dossier soon after sending it over.

We finally sent everything over to Valentina on July 9th. I was very happy to get that done and sent over to her as quickly as possible.