I'm trying to think

What we did all week after Atlanta. We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese, I don't think she has ever been. The first game she went to was the skiball. Well, I can't really describe what she looked like when she first started playing it. It hasn't seemed that the CP affects her arms, but she was having a hard time, the ball was going in the next lane, behind her, on the floor, everywhere except for where she needed it to go. But she stuck with it. And yes, everyone was staring, I could care less, I was laughing my head off and trying to teach her how to do it. She tried and tried and listened to the tips I gave her, and by the time we left there she was rolling that ball up that lane!!! All while having her knees bent so she could prop herself up against the side of the game (she can't stand on her own, even though she can walk on her own)I took a video of it I will try to post it.
I now some people have asked us about what she can and can't do. Well it's really varied. She walks, but it's not real pretty. She can't stand on her own. When she falls, which is often, she has to crawl to something to pull herself up. She is very strong. She can go to the bathroom on her own, but most of the time I go with so I can make sure all is actually landing in toilet, because she can't really push herself all the way up onto the seat. I'm not sure if she could dress herself if she had to. Her legs don't bend like ours, it's like dressing a barbie doll, really, because that's how her feet are. She usually "W" sits, she sits with her knees bent, feet behind her when she is on the floor. She can't climb a slide then get her legs to where they need to be, so head first it is, no joke!!!
IT the muscles in her legs that are tight that is the problem, that is what she will have surgery on. She does not let her legs slow her down, and I can tell she longs to walk normal. She will show me how she can walk "normal like", she puts her hands down to her sides and gets her heels as close to the ground as possible. Ms. Iowa last year has the same kind of CP as Anastasia has, if you look up the video of how she walks.
Also when she is tired, her toes don't clear the ground, the shoes we bought her 2 weeks ago are shredded at at the toes.

The rest of our Atlanta Trip

We really had a good time in Atlanta. I saw my first Target with an escalator-say what? Yes, for real, I must live a really sheltered life. We took the kids swimming in the hotel pool twice, they loved it of course, we froze our butts off, but it was worth it. Anastasia loves the water. Hopefully she will be home by summer, and we can get her in swim lessons. We took the kids to the children's museum, Cody was a little bored there, but we did have fun. From there we decided to go the the Aquarium, it's not my favorite place, the Atlanta aquarium is over rated to me. We love the Chattanooga, TN one a hundred times better. But we decided to go ahead and go cause the kids really wanted to. As we were walking up to get tickets, a lady stopped and asked if I already had tickets, I said no, and started walking away, and she grabbed my shoulder and said, I do, here you go, now you only have to buy tickets for the kids, then she walked away. I was in shock, I did not have time to give her more than a quick thanks! That saved us over 50.00!!!! What a blessing. Anastasia loved the aquarium. Afterwards we went to the Atlantic station. They had fake snow, which the boys loved, Anastasia hated, literally she got really angry, and pulled her hat down over her face. I guess when you live in a place like Russia fake snow is not amusing!! We ate a the California Pizza place-yummy. Anastasia and I shared a chocolate souffle thing for dessert which was very funny, it was like combat dessert eating. She likes to eat as much as I do, and she was not going to let me have more than her!!! We had a really great mini-vacation,

Sneaking in a little blogging

Anastasia went to the post office with Papa, so I'm going to type a quick entry. I am doing this more for me than you. I wished I had journaled with all my boys, but I never could get myself too. Know that I can type it, it's easier, because unlike my handwriting, I can go back and read what I write. or type, whatever!
This past Saturday we went to Atlanta for 2 nights. Saturday Anastasia took Ekatrina (the assistant director from her orphanage) to Nutcracker at Fox Theater, it was fantastic, we all had a great time. Ekatrina was beyond sweet. I was so nervous, but I had nothing to be nervous about. After the show Gary and the boys met us for dinner. Everything went smoothly. The entire visit Anastasia talked and talked to Ekatrina, and you could tell she is one of those kids (like Cooper), who always has something to say. She must miss talking so much, I know I would!!! We laughed at her at dinner, in addition to her kids meal I got her a side salad, well it was huge!! Bigger than her head, but she ate the entire thing. Ekatrina and I just kept laughing. Then Anastasia told Ekatrina that she (Anastasia), is the "Eating King" Well, that is no lie, the girl can eat!!! She would even make a face like she didn't really like something, but keep eating it.
I gotta go, Cody just woke up from his nap, he's got a horrible ear infection, the Dr.gave him something for pain, and he threw it up all over the place. She said it might upset his stomach, well she was right, poor thing. Nothing seems to be helping the pain.
Type at you later

Christmas Day

Everyone has been asking how Christmas Day went. It was great!! We had told her the night before that Santa was coming that night. Cody was the first to wake, I heard him a 7:20, and we had told him that he had to wait until 7:30 to wake us up, and he did. All the kids loved all their presents. We cut back some this year. With Anastasia only being able to take back so much, we didn't want our boys to get more than she did. I'm glad we did, because much more and she would have been overwhelmed.
Her favorite present of all was the one that Cody bought her from his school Christmas Shop, I had given him 20.00 to shop for the family, and he did a great job. He bought Anastasia a pink heart necklace, it came in this adorable little box, she adores it. Puts it on first thing every morning. That and the 2 bracelets that came with the Hanna Montana shirts Papaw and Memaw sent her.
She loved the pink Hello Kitty backpack that we got her to take back with her on the plane. Of course it has pink sequins on it.
The boys favorite gifts were their "make your own lightsabers" from Papaw and Memaw. And of course Cooper adores his Batman Lego for Wii. That and the lightsaber were the only 2 things he asked for.
After opening presents we did our tradition of Cinnamon rolls. We just lazed around and let the kids play with their toys. Gary introduced Anastasia to the Wii. She loves the Nerf shooting game.
I made a turkey and our friends Amanda and Greg came over for dinner with their baby Ava. She tried everything on her plate. She did not like the Sweet Potatoes or the pumpkin pie.
Daddy got the new Star Wars game for Wii, and Mama got a new wireless keyboard and mouse, which I love!!! Daddy said my other keyboard was too loud, it would keep him up when I was on the computer at night and he was trying to sleep.
I think her first experience with Santa was magical. Although it is sad to me that it was probably the first.

No School!!!

Yesterday we had church. Anastasia is handling meeting new people much better, not that I blame her for being shy! She went into church with me for praise, then I took her back into the children's theater. She sat with me and watched, then once it was over she ran around like a crazy girl, just like the rest of them, dancing and singing.
Then last night we had our Welcome Christmas party for the children in Atlanta. It was a little more planned than I would have liked, but it was nice and very much appreciated. Each child had a sponser that bought them 3 gifts and sat with us for dinner. Our sponsers were very sweet and we enjoyed talking with them. Being around the translators was a little intimidating. Although they seemed very pleased with how well Anastasia was doing, and how pretty she looked. She calls all caregivers Mama, which I already knew, but I must say it did spark Mommy jealousy on my part. I have notices she does make a point to call me Mommy most of the time now, which I do think is different than Mama. One of the chaperones/translators took a picture of Anastasia and I to send back to our orphanage to show them how well she is doing.
Anastasia told the translator that she is having fun and she likes it here. She also told her that Ginger the dog pooped on the floor in her room, she was not happy about that. The translator just laughed. She also said she was very upset that she had left her other purse behind at the orphanage because it would have matched the dress she had on, and that the purse she had with her did not match!!! Oh, my we are in for it!
Santa was there for the kids and she told him she wants a purse and a phone for Christmas! Oh boy.
First thing when we got there I took her to go to the bathroom. She told me that she is Nastia, not Anastasia. When she first got here she told me "me Anastasia". When she comes home forever we don't plan on calling her Nastia unless she insists as it could cause some teasing. So we have decided for now we will call her Anastasia most of the time with a Nastia thrown in there to make her feel like we are not making her choose, or that they are referring to 2 different people. ALTHOUGH Cooper may be up to something, he has told her that his nickname for her is Stacia, and that is what he calls her most of the time.
She has definitly bonded more with the boys. This morning she picked up to foam swords and said "brother" and took off for the bedroom to play swords with Cody. He is very good with her, he paused his computer game to play with her! We went to Target to exchange the PJs her sponsers got her because they didn't fit. Then I took the kids to see Despereaux, they all said they liked it, but I must say not so sure I did. It was a little dreary and somewhat complex. Also it shows a father giving up his daughter as baby (he cannot take care of her), she is then enslaved, and later just happens to be reunited with her long lost father. Not really orphan friendly, but I don't think she noticed it.
At dnner she ran to her room to get her Target bag and show Papa her new pajamas. She seems to have a very healthy bonding with even Gary, so I suspect that she has had positive male figures in her life. After dinner Gary went to rent movies, it was supposed to be Cody's turn to go, but he said he didn't want to, so I asked Anastasia if she wanted to go. At first she said no, then when he went to walk out the door she changed her mind. So they brought back a Christmas movie and Cinderella, which she has been singing around the house, so I know she knows it and she was so excited to watch it.

Oh Christmas Tree!

We finally got our Christmas tree today. We wanted to wait for Anastasia, so it's up late this year. We went to a cut it down yourself place, we had fun! We had a blast decorating it. I am so happy we waited for her, she had so much fun.
I'll backtrack to yesterday. We went to Burger King for a birthday party. She had been so shy the past couple places we went I wasn't sure how she was going to be. At first she was really shy, then I made her sit in her own chair while I ate, and she is always happy to eat! Yesterday she had a banana, half a container of watermelon, a piece of plain bread, and a bagel with cream cheese, for breakfast! Today I limited her to a bagel with cream cheese and a bowl of frosted flakes.
My good friend Amy has a little girl who is in Cooper's class and she was very patient with Anastasia once Anastasia decided to go play. We were really surprised she did, it was soooo crowded and loud. She really came out of her shell, she was running and playing with the other girls. She had so much fun, and we had fun watching her. Up to this point her relationship with Gary has been based on snorting at each other and laughing and him tickling her. They had time to play more together and she actually let him put her to bed last night. This morning they had a big sword fight with the boys' foam swords, and they had so much fun with it. She then ran down the hall way and grabbed her brush and hairbow. She wanted Gary to do her hair! That was a sight to see!! She will now approach him and call to him when she wants something. I am the only person she will speak English to, and most of the time she whispers it in my ear.
We went to the mall today to see Nicole's son dance. She did not want to sit in the stroller. Once she got out she just ran and ran. She was so sweaty. Sometimes I see her walking slowwly, looking down at her legs, trying to make them straight, and to walk "normal". It breaks my heart!!
Today she ran up to me and hugged me so hard and then kissed me on the cheek an rocked me back and forth singing Mommy, Mommy.
She is such a joy always singing and happy, we are having so much fun with her.

dreshka!!!!

I don't know how to spell it, but that's how to say dress in Russian, we went to Kohl's today, and that is what she said very excitedly, so of course I bought her one! How could I resist. But I had her say "dress please" in English first, ahh bribery!!! She has also said "drink please", wait, come on, I love you, thank you, santa claus, and several others, so she is learning. Well I say that, but I know she knows much more, but she doesn't want to show it for whatever reason.
Last night I had gotten sun catchers for the kids to paint, I figured that didn't require language, it was lots of fun, and got Cody to finally acknowledge Anastasia. I think he was very intimidated by the situation at first, scared by the way she walks, and just overwhelmed. But last night they started a friendly game of throwing the santa hat at each other, so that is progress!! Cooper is doing great, they both talk all the time, in 2 different languages, and get frustrated because the other one won't stop talking! Cooper is great with her, he talks to her even though she doesn't understand and tells her that she needs to learn English. Today he wanted to show her something and he told her to hold his hand so that she would not fall!
I had bought a stroller for kids with disabilities, it cost 400.00, and is already worth every penny. She can walk, and wants to, but for things like shopping, it's really better and more helpful if she rides.
Last night the boys went to bed early since they didn't have naps, and me and Gary sat on the couch with her and watched Little Mermaid, she didn't care that it wasn't in English. I had her pick out an ornament, and they had one that had a set of two Ariels, one as a mermaid and another as a princess with a dress, perfect!!!!! She loves them, and it's a fond memory for us, and symbolic I think. She is a mermaid now, beautiful and wonderful, and from somewere much different than where she will end up, Russia vs. America. After she is home forever, and has surgery on her legs, she will be like Ariel with her legs, where she belongs. And like Ariel, she sings and sings.
Our challenges so far: well the language obviously, but that will just take time
The biggest, is her disabilities I think, not for her, that is life as she knows it, but I became the mother of a child with disabilities over night. I have to bathe her, lift her onto the toilet if I don't want pee all over my floor, lift her in and out of the car, etc... That is a total life change. But a mission and purpose God has given me and one that I accept as much of a gift as it is a challenge. I thank God for my legs and that they work the way I need them too, easy and effortlessly. That is a huge part of our lives that we don't even realize, and I pray so hard that one day she will know that freedom.
Well, she has entertained herself for the 20 minutes I've been on the computer, the first since she's been here!! She wants me at her side, and says mama or mom, every minute or so. I told myself she will just have to learn, so I just sat down, and told her Mom was busy but that I would come in a little bit.
Type at you later!!