Open Wide!

Yesterday was the first of many upcoming dental and medical visits. Going to the doctor, dentist, and ophthalmologist are welcomed by most orphans that I have met. They value the importance and understand that it is in their best interests that we are doing this. Our kids are no exception. Even Zina asked us if we would be taking care of her health needs once she gets adopted.

Starting everything off was Nadia. She was scheduled first for the dentist so that the other two would get an idea of what they would be going through next week. We took the whole family and made an evening of it. Nadia was scheduled for an hour's worth of checkups, X-rays, and cleaning. However, her teeth were in such great shape, she was done in 30 minutes! The dentist was astounded, he has seen our other host orphans and what dental challenges may be present in them. Nadia's teeth are straight, clean & white, and without cavities at all! Her gums are in good shape too. Praise God for this bit of good news! At a glance, Julia and Kolya's teeth seem to be in good condition, too. Whether this is good hygiene habits or dental cleanings performed by our children's wonderful former Spanish host families, we don't know. We and the children are eternally grateful in either case! I didn't see any filings for former cavities and I didn't ask the dentist if he saw evidence of prior work, but we will take it, a clean bill of dental health! One down, two to go!

The dentist let the other two come in and see their sister doing well in the chair. He joked that Julia seemed more interested in Nadia's teeth than Nadia was! She did have a lot of questions and watched all that she could in the few minutes they were allowed. It was good to see Dr. Kelson, Linda and Nicole again. Even the "Old Hand", Dr. McCarty, came out to see me, as he usually does when I'm there. We are both old Air Force dogs, so we have a bit in common. It feels like family there and they have been following our blog via Linda's updates. I saw tears in your eyes, Linda, I did! Thanks guys for all the care you give us!

Since we had some time left in Nadia's appointment, I brought up the fact that I needed some dental attention. I was going to wait until my cleaning in February, but it has been bothering me lately. I felt as if I broke a tooth or a filing while in Ukraine. There was a piece of bone in something one night at a restaurant and I felt it then. Sure enough, a quick examination by Nicole and Dr. Kelson revealed a broken tooth and some missing filing. I've had this tooth extensively repaired in the past, always dodging the inevitable expensive work that was needed. This time I accepted the fact that the whole tooth will need a crown, an expensive one at that, just shy of a thousand bucks! Insurance will pay half, so it's not too bad. I will have it done next week.

English is coming along at an outstanding rate. My favorite times of day are homework help, wrestle-mania, and bedtime story reading. Little Kolya is his class favorite and he is learning English the quickest, he is a little sponge. Julia needs the most help and will be a challenge, but she speaks the most Spanish and prefers it to the other languages. Problem is, Heidi's Spanish is limited and mine is almost non-existent. Nadia loves her New Comers class and is doing quite well. All three have been placed in grades, but are being allowed to be comfortable and proceed at their own pace. Nadia will be in the New Comers class for another year to year-and-a-half. She is in 6th grade, Julia is in 5th and Kole is in 4th. Everyday they all ride the bus to and from school and arrive home with smiles on their faces. We have received great reports from all three teachers thus far.

I used to wonder why all the adoptive parents either slowed down or stopped blogging all together once they arrived home. After all, I was entitled to know what was happening on the home front, too! I had been a faithful follower, perhaps not ever commenting, but a faithful follower none the less! I gotta know! That's my family too, albeit my electronic blog family (lol). Believe me, I feel your pain! I want to tell you everything about everything. But, our three take up lots of our time. We hear, "Mom" and "Pop" more times a day than you blink your eyes! And it's fun, too! It's what we wanted, it's what we prayed for, it's our gift from the Father. But OH MY GOSH...can I have a minute KIDS! Needless to say, we are hurriedly establishing boundaries, rules and relationships.

So how about a compromise? I'll post once a week, more if time allows or something big happens, and I'll see you here on Monday or Tuesday? That way, you can find out what we did, if anything, for the past week and the weekend. Once things get rolling for Rimma and Zina we will ramp up the adoption process again and of course, we will tell you all about it. For those of you who have told me that we should write a book, put me in touch with a good co-writer and editor! We need to finish the basement for Rimma and Zina and perhaps one more boy to round things off. I gotta pay for it somehow, any one got a pen??!!

~ Felix ~