Quick Update About Luke

Just wanted to let everyone know that Luke made it through Surgery and is resting in his room at Hopkins tonight with Jeane.....He is doing well and expected to be home by Saturday.

Updates about the new 5

Our new 5 have been home now almost 4 months

I have shared below each child's update and pics... they have done amazingly well with transitioning into our very large family... we love seeing how much they overcome and accomplish even in so little time. All 5 are speaking English- even using lots of sentences. They will even speak some among all the siblings and not just rely on Russian. Some can read a bit and all are enjoying life. I love the holidays with new kids... I am always brought to tears by watching the kids on Christmas or even Thanksgiving. We are celebrating Fall on Sat. nite with our usual family party... just us but we have a great time. Sometimes we square dance ( the only time we ever do), we play bingo with candy corn, do a candy clue hunt,carve pumpkins( that will be 22 this year) and this year we are adding some other things that were done in a book we just finished reading in our homeschool. The kids are excited . We are celebrating on Sat. because Luke is having another surgery Thurday am.- His second cleft palate surgery and hopefully last one on his palate to close a lg. fistual ( hole ). We will be at Johns Hopkins for a couple of days. Hoping to be home Sat... so we can do the party with the rest of the family---

Olivia-16 yrs

Olivia is much like Nataly was in the beginning.... very quiet and more reserved. I am sure she has had something in her past as we know Naty did . Also being the oldest of a dysfunctional family contributed some to this as well. She has however been coming out alot in the last few weeks. She talks very soft but will speak more and uses English lots now. She too is doing well in school and likes church but not as much as the others. She loves to be around us and is happiest playing with her family. She will do lots of things with the little ones and her smile is precious when Ava wants just her.... She is tenderhearted and very sweet. I would expect that sometime in a yr or so she will be more outgoing and able to be herself as she discovers a comfort level and love maybe she never had before. We saw it happen in Naty and she is a very diff. person than when she came home 4 yrs ago.

Rachel- now age 15 ( b-day in Aug.)

Rachel has been on the go from day one here. We were home on a Monday nite with the new kids and she went on Wed. nite to youth with our other teens. She is loving life here in the US. She has a strong personality and is very outgoing. She loves school and church. She will help out and also loves to ride bikes and roller blade... these kids are outside all the time moving ,jumping running and riding. She was positive for her tb ppd( the girl's grandfather and mom both died of tb) so their exposure was very high. None of them have any symptoms and on Monday they will be the first people in the state of WV to be tested for tb using a new blood test called Quantiferon Gold-tb. It will be able to differentiate some for us and we will know if we will be doing the 9 month INH therapy with them as we did with Leah. Should know by the end of next week.

Tia- 11 years

She is the one who has probably changed the most so far... While in Ukraine she acted very spoiled . She would jump all over Roma our translator or Ben. We would be playing cards and when she was done she wanted everyone else to be done... she would run around the room, put her hands in the fish tank, mess up the cards... a real pain. I did not like her manipulative part of her personality but we saw a spark of hope in her several times... and boy has she changed. She is no longer a demanding child and is patient and very caring. She loves Ava ( our baby grandaughter) and animals. We saw this tender part in her at the orphanage when she would bring us a puppy or once there was a hurt baby bird she tended to. She and Lily are very close. They love to wear similar outfits and hairdos. She is a good student also but more timid learning or speaking the English language. She loves church and even goes to our friends house to play... of course the mom is from Ukraine and speaks Russian which is fine because she is a dear friend of ours.

Jonas-age 13

Jonas came from a very hard family. He was or street kid. His dad killed his momand his brother killed his dad. Jonas also smoked from the age of 5. He has made some very positive changes to his manipulative behavoirs and has impressed many with his very sincere efforts to learn and overcome. He is the best one with the English language of the
5. He is a fast learner and is doing well in school. He has lots of compassion and has shown a real desire to change into all he can be . He too loves church and can be a great helper around the house. He will have his first eye surgery to create an eye socket for his left eye maybe in Dec. or early Jan... then he will be fitted for a prosthetic eye. It is a several month process but he is very anxious to have his eye and appearance change. He was more conscience at first than he is now of it which is a positive. He lost his eye due to cancer.