Moritz Adoption

Christmas through the girls' eyes

It has been so fun to watch the Christmas season transform this year
through Regina's eyes. She can't wait to visit the Christmas tree
section at every store we go into. She's learning the names of things
like stockings, Santa, snowman, nativity set, ornaments, and snow
globe. The whole season is just sparkling and glittery to her right
now. All the Dora toys are calling her name. We put on our first
Christmas CD this afternoon (the new "Go Fish" one---I highly recommend
it) and it brought tears to my eyes to watch those girls dance with each
and with me, especially when they brought out all the fancy princess
gear. Dancing is always more fun in skirts and high heels, right??
Today I explained that we give each other presents in honor of Jesus'
birthday. I told her He lives in her heart and she said, "Where? I
can't see Him". ;) She is learning all about faith and what that
means. The other day I asked her what she learned in Sunday School and
she said, "Go now in peace." Whoa! Five months ago she couldn't even
speak English. It is just so fun to teach the girls what this holiday
means to us. It's even more fun than usual!

I got away last weekend for 2 nights. It was wonderful and much
needed. I went to the annual Hearts at Home conference in Rochester,
MN. It's a workshop for Christian stay-at-home mothers. It was really
refreshing. There was a group of 14 of us who went together. Everyone
loved it, as we do every year. We cry, we laugh, we eat, we play games,
we talk (and never shut up), we learn, and we just feel like kids
again. Even just eating 6 meals w/o children was awesome. I came home
feeling like a new person. Dan did a great job with the kids while I
was gone too. When I got home everyone was so glad to see me and I
could barely wait to hug all of them. Regina looked at me and said,
"Mommy, I am missed you." (she doesn't quite have all the
verbs/pronouns down correctly yet) That just moved me to pieces. She
found out that I always come back though. I think abandonment is always
in the back of her head.

Regina had a dental problem earlier this week. We noticed a tooth
fragment was sticking out at a weird angle where one of her teeth had
been extracted in the back. The surgeon had said this might happen.
Her teeth were in such poor condition that they were shattered in her
gums. So this one just wriggled down. The dentist was able to use
laughing gas and extract it in her office in about 15 minutes. So that
was nice. Regina feels good again. She loves the dentist and all the
prizes she gets to pick out. She wanted to stay for a cleaning!

Lilia has her occupational therapy evaluation tomorrow morning. I'm
very curious what they'll say about her. She has come so far on her
motion fears and eating issues. The difference is amazing.

Halloween went over well in our household, of course. Who wouldn't like
going door to door for candy? The weather was awful though. 20 degrees
and windy. So the kids had to trick or treat in their coats. We went
to our old neighborhood and did about 15 houses. We stopped at all of
our old neighbor friends. It was really fun. We went to our realtor's
house to sign some house papers (our house has sold with a closing date
of 12/29...yeah!). We said goodbye and left Lilia in there! They were
like, "Uh, guys...you left one of your kids in here." Geez! We can't
even keep track of all of our children. :) Regina figured out how to
say trick or treat pretty quickly (after a lesson from Holden in the
car). She said thank you along with the boys too. Lilia didn't really
get it but sure enjoyed the whole idea of walking around with us and
getting stuff. But she also gave her candy to people at their homes.
They just don't get it at that age. It was one of our nicest Halloweens
ever. We all had a really good time. The boys were thrilled because
when you trick or treat in our new neighborhood you get like two
handfuls of candy from each house since we get so few trick or
treaters. So their buckets were full to the top.

We had Regina's parent conference for preschool in early November. I
just took the girls to it with me. Dan had to work. Her teacher said
she's doing wonderful. They're amazed at her drawing skills...her self
portrait was one of the best in the class. She can write her name and
her cutting skills are fantastic. She said academically she'll
definitely be ready for kindergarten next year. Socially she has
connected with several of the girls in the class. There is just one
girl she does not get along with because the girl is so aggressive and
strong willed. Regina cries easily in class and gets dramatic if
someone slightly injures her (we see a lot of this at home). She said
their main goal for Regina is for her to become more assertive and
confident to stick up for herself or ask for help if it's needed. She
gets frustrated and gives up easily. She said watching Regina play with
Lilia during the conference was enlightening. She acts much more
assertive with her sister than with anyone in school. That's very
interesting. The teacher commented on the fact that Lilia is sure a
spit fire and strong willed and wondered if she'd be in preschool next
year...yes, probably. She said she sure is different from her sister.
That's for sure!

Holden turned 6 on November 10th. We had a Spiderman party at home with
about 11 kids here. It was fun. It's hard to believe he's that old
already.

Great news on Lilia.....she is starting to have separation anxiety!! We
are probably the first parents to be excited about that. This means
attachment is beginning big time. She wouldn't let Dan leave her in the
nursery on Sunday (it was a trial run) and when I separated for ECFE the
other day she cried about halfway through. So the funneling is
working! We are really excited about it. We can probably open up the
funnel soon to include grandparents for greeting and goodbye hugs.
This has been hard work but it's paying off.

Hayden seems to be especially interested in helping out his sisters
lately...getting in the highchair, feeding them, playing with them, even
wanting to sleep in their room. It's really nice to see that
blossoming. He's been a good role model for Holden. All 3 of them are
pretty good at telling me when Lilia is in trouble. She found the
white-out in my desk a few weeks ago and painted her whole face with
it. She can find anything that is at her level I tell ya. It makes
life interesting.

We're almost at the 6 months home mark. Can you believe it?? The
adoption message board I frequent all said that the 6 month mark was the
magic time when things started getting much easier. They said the first
2 months would be awful and terribly hard. They were right. But we can
see the rewards now and the light at the end of the tunnel. It's
actually been really fun lately! I looked at my blog entries for
November 2005 and I am SO grateful we're not at that spot right now.
This might seem like work now but I'd rather be feeding these girls and
changing diapers and cleaning marker off the carpet than filling out
papers and getting yet another apostile. ;) Or just waiting and
waiting to get back to Russia.....

Happy Thanksgiving!! We have much to be thankful for this year. We'll
be in Fargo, ND celebrating with Dan's family....we splurged on a small
water park hotel for the kids. We're all looking forward to it.

posted by Dan @ 2:53 PM