I would say i am not a blogger..........I honestly try to blog more often, but it just not happening. I was even thinking to write my last post here, and not worry about blogging but for now I will keep it.......

So here we go, updates of our family of 5 and +1(my brother)

Daniel J, is in school , and doing good. He had some behavior problems(not following rules), at school but now looks like everything getting better. He is still really sweet, loving and caring boy. We do have our ups and downs, but so far I can honestly say that we expected a lot more problems/attachment issues before we did adoption.
DJ is trying to change, and trying to do what needs to be done, there is still a lot little things that needs to be corrected in his behavior, action, and just the way he is, but nothing major. He loves his brother, and little sister. He loves helping me, and his daddy, he doesn't really like homework, but he loves school. He is smart, funny, bright. , He been home only 9 month, and already changed so much, he is different child now, my child, my little boy. Love you Daniel J, and happy that you are in my family. May GOd always be with you.

Daniel Dave is growing too fast. Last 3 weeks we been working on potty training, and for today we have a little boy who is wearing his underwear, and diaper only at night times. And a good thing is that his night diaper 90% is dry in the morning, so we been using one diaper for a week now! Goof job little DD, we are so proud of you.
DD going trough a terrible 2th, now, and it's hard. Sometimes his is sweet loving boy, helping his mama and brother, and next thing you know he doesn't want to do nothing, he is not following instructions, gets' in trouble, and wining. We love you DD, and we are really hoping that this stage will end soon.

Baby Elliana , is my little princess! Everyone loves her, and she is just so cute.
She is teething now, and we have bad days, but still she is my bundle of joy, my little girl. She is big, almost 6 month already.


We are doing great, and very happy. We do have our moments, bad moments as a family, but we are learning to change our selfs, to get smarter to seek God more. I am trying to read bible, kids bible, to our kids every night, and pray with them. And I think it will help a lot our relationship as a family, and our family will get stronger in GOd.

****will try to post some pictures later

School starts........

Thursday, August 12 Daniel started school, as a third grader. He is kind of happy to go back to school, where all his friends are, but we miss each other a lot. Denny miss his big brother, and I miss Daniel. I think over the summer, spending everyday together we attached even more. We are so happy to have him in our family.
We just came back from Portland, were visiting my parents. I will blog later about our trip, and will post some pictures of my babies.

We are still straggling with "putting things back where they belong" and how to take care of stuff that belongs to you(especially clothes). Did anyone had this problem? How did you deal with it? I am thinking it's every kid thing,

Ocean time....

My parents from Oregon came to visit us, and went San Francisco and we had a really good times. Here is some pictures from ocean, and pier 39


at the ocean, with my parents and my brother and sister (baby is in a sling)


Pier 39



on our way to San Francisco

What we did this summer...

Here is few pictures from this summer

here is my 3 beautiful children (it's not the best picture of our baby)



I love this picture, boys felt to sleep(both taking a little nap)



our baby girl 2,5 month old



Our princess and daddy



Water ball fight, boys and daddy (we had already few water ball fights this summer, it's a picture from one of them)



At the park daddy playing with his Daniels






I will try to post more pictures later

Something I want to share...

In December 2009, when we were adopting DJ, we met one girl. We felt that she belongs in our family, we called her our daughter, she did call us her mommy and daddy, her family. At that time we didn't know when she will be available for international adoption(we only knew that she will be available later this year), so after we came home to US we talked to our facilitator, and we been told to write a request letter to SDA about this girl. Few month later we did, and were waiting for a result from SDA.
We were in contact with this little girl, we did call her, and a month ago we send her first package(some toys, clothes, and etc.) June 17 was her birthday, we called to say Happy B-Day, she was happy and we did talked with her that we will come this year to bring her home. We started to do some paperwork, and our home study visit was schedule for this Saturday but..... On July 1st I called her caregiver to see if they got a package/her b-day present, and been told that our little girl been taken out of orphanage to a "home foster system".......... No words, just a lot of sadness and tears on our end. We are heart broken, it feels like part of my heart was taken....
She never got her B-day present. There is more details to whole this story by I can say only that money were involved.
We missed our little girl, and praying that she will have a good happy life. What ever happens it does happen for reason. Only God knows why we met her, and why we are going through this now.

I shouldn't take her so close to my heart, I did accept her as my daughter, and felt in love. I was always thinking how and when we will bring here home, where she will sleep, and how will she like us, as her new family and etc.....

Just wanted to share, and maybe feel better about loosing our little girl(I am not sure if it's possible to feel better about this situation)



*still can's stop crying Please pray for me and our family, and especially about this little girl, so she will have good mommy and daddy(in foster home)

6 month home....

It’s been a really long time from my last post. I don’t’ even know where to start, we have so much new. Daniel James is done with school, but we still doing a little homework every day, just to keep up his English and remember how to write and read in Ukrainian. He has been a really good boy. And I think like with every kid we have our ups and downs, but no big problems with attitude or behavior. He been home 6 month and I can’t believe it how much he had changed. Sometimes we still have a little change attitude/behavior when other people/relatives around, but he is doing much better from when he just came home. He has good grades and already start picking up some English, it’s harder for him with English, because home we speak only Russian but he is doing great.

Daniel Dave is doing great, like a 2,5 year old boy. He loves his older brother, and following him everywhere.
Baby Elliana is just beautiful princess everyone loves her. She is getting really big, she is already almost 3 month old. Time is flying!
Here are some pictures from last 6 month with DJ!

San Francisco Zoo, my handsome little man



San Francisco Bay Aquarium



Jungle Restaurant San Francisco, Ca




Aquarium, San Francisco

Meet our new addition!

On April 6, we had our baby girl.
Meet Elliana Rose Mironyuk:

Here she is 1 day old!






We are getting ready to go home:



Going home!



Boys are really excited to have a little sister. Daniel J, is a really big help, and he loves his little sister. Daniel D, is trying to help too. We are surprised that there is no jealousy going on. When baby start crying he runs to me, and telling me to pick up a baby and feed her. Also Daniel D gets mad if I don't do it (sometimes baby is not hungry, just needs to be change, or just making sounds).

Happy Birthday Daniel James!!!

Today is Daniel's J birthday, and also exactly two month as we came home with him.
Wow, it's been already 2 month, and he is doing so good. He changed a lot. We didn't have any big or a lot of problems with him, but even in little areas it's been a lot of changes in him. I do have few questions for adoptive parents, who had adopt older kids , but I will probably talk/ask later, not today.

2,5 month ago in the orphanage

Taking a walk outside



In his classroom



Today

home, ready to blow his candle, and go to sleep(we came too late back from Chuck E Cheese)



At Chuck E Cheese posing



At relatives house




It was a nice day, and I think DJ like it a lot. He been waiting for his birthday for sooo long. He been asking , and talking almost everyday about HIS birthday.
He still did go to school today, and after he came home, he opened his presents, grandma came to say Happy Birthday to him, and after that we went to Chuck E Cheese.
He was going "crazy" about everything. He was keep telling us "thank you" all evening.

Again, Happy Birthday DJ!!! We love you and happy you are part of our family, you are our son!!!

Been a while...

It's been a while since I blogged a last time. We are very busy, trying to prepare everything for a new baby, and also I started having some complications with my pregnancy, and been on bed rest for few weeks now.

Daniel J is doing great. We still have no problems with him. He tried to test us, but everything is under control now.

Here is new picture of our family!




I will try to post more pictures of our kids later.

Nothing much....

Sergey appointment, for his arm, went well. He is taking his antibiotics now, and some vitamin C, and it's already better. The first day, Friday, antibiotics made him sick, but after that one day,he was fine. Sergey forgot to ask his doctor, name of those things that he has on his arm, but it's not that important now. I am happy that medicine is helping him.

Daniel J is doing good in school.I am so proud of him, he is trying so hard. He has a lot of energy and cannot sit in one place for long time. He is trying to communicate with other kids in school with his hands, and it's not ok at school, a lot of kids take it personal and he was getting in trouble. We are trying to explain as best as we can , what is ok, and what is not. It's so hard for him in school with out language, but I know he will pick up a language very quck because he is a smart boy.

Pictures

Here is some pictures from Daniel D B-day:

Daniel D blowing candle on his cake



Daniel J going down the slide in the mall play area


My two boys

Doing good

We are all doing really good, just busy. I am trying to catch up on my sleep, and clean little things around the house. Also getting use to having elementary school student in my house, doing homework with him, helping him with his English.

Daniel J is doing really good in school, he is learning a lot. His favorite is math.
We are so thankful to our God, that he gave us this little boy. Daniel trying so hard to be a good boy, and follow everything we tell him to do. He would change his attitude when there is someone else around, grandma, or uncle, or aunt. If someone else is around he would start acting weird, questions everything we tell him to do, or if we ask him to do something, like "please go change your clothes", he would say "no", or "why", or "I don't want to". And this is would happened when some else is around. We had a little talk, and yesterday he did fine when my brother came over. We think he was just testing us, and I am glad it's over :) So now, we will trying to go to church. He doesn't like a lot of attentions and really shy when people trying to talk to him, but I think he is ready. I am so proud of him, he is trying so hard, and he has so many changes in his life in past 3 weeks, and he is doing great. My little son, happy to have you in our family.

Daniel D had his birthday last Sunday. It was only us, family celebrating. Because Daniel J is really shy we trying not to go out to other houses a lot, and not invite to many people to our house. We had aunt, uncle and grandma invited for birthday, and this is it. It was great. After we ate we went to mall, to play area, so boys can play and burn some energy. Also I am so proud of my 2 year old, he is finally off bottle, and pacifier.

Sergey is doing good. Very busy working everyday and trying to take care of other things. Today he has an appointment for his arm (still recovering after Ukrainian trip). I don't' even know how to name stuff that he is getting on his arm. But he gets one after another, and they grow bigger until they pop, and he has to put some special cream on it to speed up a proccess of popping. Maybe doctor will tell us the exact name for this little things today.

My student

January 4, Sergey was off work, and we went to sign up Daniel J for school. He been talking about going to school since we came home, and was counting days when he will go to school. I think he was missing other kids.

His school is really nice, and staff is wonderful. All morning Daniel J was not too happy, he was still nice, and good boy, just not too happy. And after we told him that he will start school tomorrow we got to the car he start crying. After a little talk with him he told us that he will miss me when he will be in school, and he is scared that we will leave him in school and never come back for him. I felt so bad, and we had a long talk about how much we love him, and that we will always come back for him.

January 5, was first day of school for Daniel J and me. It was so hard for me to take him to school and leave him there. I was standing there and watching him around other kids as long as I could. I was trying to be strong for him so when I got to the car only then I started crying. I felt so bad leaving him there along, and not be able to be there with him and for him. All day long I was watching time, and thinking to go and see how he is. But I made it to the end of the day, and then went to pick him up from school.
He liked his school, class and everything a lot. I am so happy for him, and I am not too worry now about taking him, and leaving him at school.

Having fun

Daniel J got a lot of presents but this one was one of his favorite. Thank you aunt Inna and uncle Ivan.




Trying his new bike


My little cute boys!!!

Please help

I am still trying to figure out how to post pictures. How can I post a picture, so you can see a small picture, and when someone click on the picture they can see "same,one bigger picture"? Ok, Thank you so much Marcie, now I know how to post pictures with out uploading them to internet first.

My 2 Daniels :))))

Meet Daniel James!!!

On our way back home! Our happy 7 year old handsome son!

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

I just want to say Happy New Year!!! Thank you everyone for your nice comments, prayers and just being there for us! God Bless you all!!!

We are very busy this days. I had 2 appointments already for my pregnancy, and yesterday we found our that we are having a GIRL!!! We are so happy! Also I had a regular appointment with my doctor, and he said that everything is ok with a baby. I was worry a lot, we had a lot of stress and some things during our adoption that I was worried that it will harm a baby, but everything looks good.

Daniel James is doing good home. He is such a loving little guy. We are not use to someone giving us kisses all the time, and saying thank you for every little thing. He kisses my belly and saying that he is already love his sister. So cute and sweet, make me cry. Always smiling and helping me with little Daniel. The sweetest thing to watch him and Daniel Dave playing together and dancing! Will post video later.... promise!

Little Daniel still has diarrhea, I have no idea what is going on, it started in Ukraine, a week before we were going home. Mabey he is teething, or something else is going on. If he continius the same way, we will go to see a doctor after New Year.

Sergey is happy and busy. His family is back home, but he got much more things to do now. My poor husband I feel so sorry for him.

I am just happy to be home!

We are home!

Finally we are home. It was a little difficult to travel, especially a 9 hour flight with two kids, and being 6 month pregnant was hard.

Boys are doing good. Today, December 27 was our Christmas day :) We opened all the presents, and had a lot of fun as a family. Our new son is doing great. We love having him in our family. So far so good, we didn't have any attitude problems or anything like that. I know, I owed you pictures and I will try to do it as soon as we settle a little bit more.

Thank for your prayers!

We are in Kiev......

Finally after 3 crazy days we are all ready to go to USA.
Monday: Was a lot of running around finishing things in Amvrosievka, getting our paperwork from court, and leaving to Konstantinovka in the evening to be able to get Daniel J new birth certificate on Tuesday morning in Kramatorsk(only 30 minutes from Konstantinovka). If we would drive from Amvrosievka in the morning we would have to leave around 5 am to be able to get to Kramatorsk by 8:00-8:30 am. My sister stayed with Daniel D in Amvrosievka.

Tuesday: Me and Lev(we stayed at his parents house which was nice) woke up at 7am and were ready to go by 7:30 am. We got taxi and were in Kramatorsk office around 8:30am.
First we been told that there is no way we can get Daniels J passport with out Sergey being there. Its was so stressfull... but God is with us and finally lady said that she can do it. First she even gave us all the paperwork back, and we thought that we are not going to make it to our train to Kiev that evening.

After we got birth certificate we had to drive to Donetsk to get Daniels J passport. We decided to get passport first, before we get our son from orphanage because it was on our way. We got to Donetsk around 12:00 pm, but after an hour being in Donetsk and doing legalization and notary, and waiting for our son's passport we new that there was no way we can make it to our train that night if we wait any longer for his passport. So at 1:30pm me and our taxi left Donetsk to drive to Amvrosievk and Lev stayed in Donetsk to finish and get Daniels J Passport. It was 2 hour drive back to Amvrosievka and we had only 10-20 minutes to get Daniel J from orphanage, and my cousin and Daniel from our apartment. Thankfully orphanage staff was very nice and supportive, and everything was ready for me , and I just took Daniel J and left. We didn't have any time to change Daniels clothes, we changed him in the train.
After that we stopped at our appartment to get my cousin and Daniel D, everything was packed and ready to go. At 4:00pm we left Amvrosievka, and it was 2 hour drive to Donetsk, and we had our train at 6:08 pm. We were praying to make it to our train. Like always, when you are in hurry there is something that will be on your way, so on our way was a lot of cars, and big traffic. We got to train station around 6:05 pm, how we got to the train I will try to explain next time...........long story but we made it.

If everything good I will be home with our kids on Saturday 26!

Where to start.............?

Now, when I have only 5 days left and we will go home, finally I have good access to internet, Funny....but I couldn't do nothing about it.

And now, there is so much to tell and share that I don't even know where to start. We are thankful to our God for being with us through this whole process, it's not over yet but we are almost done here in Amvrosievka. Our 10th day was on Friday 18, but on Saturday we were not able to get our paperwork from court even that they were open because..............when we came and almost at the same time another family came from Italy to adopt a 10 year old boy. The day we came and met our son, it was 1st day for them, of their waiting period. On 8th or 9th day of their 10 days waiting period, a little boy's mom showed up, and started demanding to get her son back. She didn't come to see here son for more than 3 years, not even one visit, and now she is buying him stuff(cellphone, cloth, toys, food), and telling this little boy that all this time she was looking for him. It's crazy! This Italian family is still here, and they are waiting for another court to see what will happen. And because of this situation local judge is not very happy to give all the paperwork to us, they want to wait another day, just in case something like this will happen. We are praying that everything will go smooth.

Tomorrow, Monday we should get our paperwork from court and me and our translator/helper Lev will drive to Kramatorsk(our son was born there) to get his birth certificate early Tuesday morning. My cousin(she ca

me to help me after my husband left back home) will stay with little

Daniel at our apartment in Amvrosievka. After that, me and Lev will drive to Donetsk to get a new passport for our son, and then we will come back to Amvrosievka to get our son from orphanage..........finally! With our son, we will stop at our apartment and get our second son, and all the luggage, and drive back to Donetsk to catch our train at 6 PM. Tuesday will be really busy day for us! Please pray for last part of our adoption, that we make it to our train, and that everything goes smooth.

The weather been horrible the last 3-4 days. Big storm, and all roads are blocked. For 2 days we were not able to get our from our apartment, a lot of snow and strong wind. This is one more thing that we are praying about, that all roads will be clear for us to drive to Kramatorsk and Donetsk.

Sorry for not blogging, and huge thank you for all your prayers we feel them!!! God Bless you!!!

I know that this is a lot of