Vadym

I just wanted to give an update to the hundreds of people who have followed our story with Vadym. He has his new American name and is a happy little guy now living with an amazing family in California. I now talk to his mom on Facebook and keep up on his photos and family. He looks amazing and it brings tears to my eyes to see his happy little smile. I will see him very soon and cannot wait. God has certainly bless him, his siblings, and his wonderful new family. I look forward to being able to watch my little man grow up happy and healthy. There is nothing like it.

We are getting our host children for winter hosting in two weeks. Please check in on my profile to follow the blog on our new journey as we to change more lives.

Vadym has been adopted!

I just go word today that Vadym has been adopted and now lives in California. I am so happy for him and looking forward to his new family reaching out to us. I can't wait to hear all about it and watch tis angel baby grow up happy and healthy. Yay!

Today a Piece of my heart got on an airplane to Ukraine.

Ok, here we are. They day I have been dreading.

I had to take Vadym to the dentist this morning because Dr. Radwan had ordered him a retainer to keep his teeth from moving while we waited for his permanent molars to grow in. He ended up with 4 pulled teeth and some fillings of three appointments. It was pretty cool to see him with a retainer. Dr. Radwan ROCKS!

We then did a stressful trip to Walmart (my least favorite store in the world, bla). I had ordered 450 pictures for our albums, one to send home with Vadym of his trip. I got a couple going away gifts for Bogdon and Vika also. We ran back home and loaded up Serg and Vadym. I did Vadym's album on the way to the airport and stuck it in his backpack. It was pretty cool. He looked at it in the car when I was done and then held it to his chest like he loved it. Anything to keep me from crying today.

First thing Grego said when he got up this morning was "Vadym leaves today". Please don't make me cry!

So yes, holding back tears ALL MORNING and worried about the waterfall at the airport. I joked with Vadym when we loaded the car and did my fake cry "No Vadym leave Mama. No". He smiles.

Oh and by the way. I am not taking pictures today because it's not a day I want to remember.

So we met up with everyone and went through the ticket line then sat down for lunch at the airport food court. All the Ukraine kids were sitting together and laughing and catching up. Vadym came over to check on us a few times. :0). We sat with the other families and traded stories. At least 3 of the 5 kids who hosted in California are getting adopted. Yay!

 So back to the airport.

We then did the dreaded walk to leave them at security. Holding back tears isn't going well at this point. This whole time Gary is pretty quiet and watching Vadym a lot. I know he is heartbroken to see him leave.

Ok, at security..... Eyes are welling up but it seems to be only me. Vadym was hugging everyone and I was sitting back. He came up to me and I lost it...like I am doing again now. (As I am writing this Grego is filling up his photo album with all the pictures and showing me each one and telling me what we did.) I hugged him and held him and kissed his head. When I had to let go he looked up at me and I can see from the look on his face he knew I wasn't joking when I told him I was going to cry at the airport. Then I looked over and all the host mom's were in tears hugging their little angels. Serg gave me his Ukrainian pout lip and shrug and gave me a hug while Gary hugged Vadym. Ugh. Soooooo hard.
(K, Grego is sitting here looking at my tears. I guess he has never really seen me cry before. Or not for a very long time if he ever has. I started laughing and asked him why he is staring at me and he said he has never seen a grownup cry before. Giuliana is kissing my leg then crawled up to give me a hug...lol. I just love my babies.)

None of the kids cried but you can see they are sad to say goodbye but happy to get on the plane. They all waved at us for the next 15 minutes in line. Gary still quiet and watching Vadym. He did talk a little today but mostly about how wonderful Vadym is. During this time all the families did tears and hugs and we talked about different things. Then we said goodbye and Gary and I got a coffee and pastries (comfort food). The drive home Gary was quiet and I tried to stay busy so I didn't cry. We came home and took a nap. I feel exhausted from the tears. Gary must be too.

Well thanks for following our journey. I will post anything I learn about Vadym and our communication. Serg said we will be able to stay in touch with him and send him letters. I will be visiting his orphanage the end of September and be able to visit him if he is not adopted by then.

I am going to back and adding some photos to my older posts now that I figured out I can do that. :0). Be sure to check them out. I also found out we are in the paper. Here is the link
http://ourcommunityfocus.com/bookmark/14878825/article-Visit+Brings+Hope+to+Ukrainian+Children#.TkxBvRXYsmQ.facebook

Sorry for a quick ending but I am so tired. i just want to hold my babies and cry.

We had an amazing 5 weeks with Vadym and though it's hard to say goodbye we will do it again and again.And yes it has changed all of us. I'm not really sure how describe it but I think our family is stronger than ever. We shared our lives with this beautiful little boy and he changed us....and I know he also changed. He has a happy smile, he has been loved, he formed a bond with all of us, and he had an amazing summer. The love and joy we have had the last 5 weeks is priceless.

Gary told me he is looking forward to keeping in touch with Vadym and says he will never forget us. I hope not. Oh he did see the article of Gary in the Business Journal in the car and was so excited to see "Papa" in the paper so I put it in his backpack. He knows us and knows where we live and knows our names and the winery. Gary told me at the airport "we will see him again". There is something so comforting about my husband/best friend's voice when I am hurting. This little sentence meant so much to me and I trust him that we will.

August 16th

So here we are the day before Vadym leaves. Ugh.

Serg came back from San Diego and Cara from Angel's Haven got to my house around 4pm. We headed over to the winery for a party for Vadym. I got a big cake and everyone brought presents.

All the kids played on the grass with balls and we had pizza. Everyone had a blast.

Gary brought Vadym over to cut his cake and he said "No No No". Then he ran behind the table and sat on the ground and turned his back to us.I could see he didn't want this party to be about him. He had also told one of the boys who was there that he didn't want to go home. He told this to Serg the chaperon also. :0(. So we just went forward and cut the cake and he got up and walked back to the kids to play. When I showed him all the gifts he said "no they are for Bogdon". :0(.

At the end of the night my mom got him to open a gift and he loved it. My mom was doing the dramatic sounds like the gifts were all amazing. He loves that so he got really excited and finished opening them all with the kids all around him in a huddle. Big smiles...yay.

It was really fun and at the end the Enderle kids and my kids were cracking us up with "pit farts" and "knee farts". Gross I know but it was funny at the time. Grego and Vadym have been driving me crazy with this since they figured out how to do it the last week. A lot of boys were doing it at sports camp so they have been on a mission to figure it out. Kim and Eric just finally met Vadym and of course they all fell in love with him as everyone does who meets him. He was really into Eric when he found out he was a police officer and they wrestled and played cops.

Of course toward the end of the night I started tearing up. Ugh.

We came home and packed all Vadym's presents in his suitcase. Again, you can see he is not thrilled about leaving but understands. Then we hung out with Serg and caught up on his adventure in San Diego and Ukraine hosting.

Tomorrow is a day I dread! Anxiety has set in as I don't even know what to expect and fear I will sob my eyes out.

Winter Hosting Program

I just wanted to put in a quick note that we are planning my trip to Ukraine for our Winter Host Program.

We are looking for cash donations to sponsor orphans to travel to the US and clothes donations to bring with us to Ukraine for the orphanages. Please email us if you can help.

I will be visiting 2 or 3 orphanages to meet children. This helps us to answer questions families have about the children and to help us learn more about them and make sure they are a good fit for the program and to travel to the US. We have an amazing coordinator in Ukraine who will be helping us put this all together.

Please email me if you are interested in hosting at Christmas and help us change the lives of these beautiful children.

ginger.guglielmo@gmail.com

August 12th

Today we are just recovering from our Disneyland trip. Grego and Vadym have been playing on the computer together, video games and being like best friends. They have not even had one tiff today.

He is eating well but I am having a hard time getting him to try new things. He is still my big meat eater.

One thing I have to say about him is he is very righteous. He likes things to be fair and he does not show any signs of stealing or being manipulating at all. He will cheat at games a bit because he hates to lose but that is it. We are working on that and he gets it. He will tell me when Giuliana is doing something bad or needs a diaper change. He has learned to use his words to tell her not hit him instead of push her down or hit her back. Not like he did these things hard or mean, just wanted her to stop and didn't know any other way. We worked on it now he will tell her to please stop and hold her hands or gets away from her until I can get to her.

When Gary came home from work Vadym came and sat right on his lap and watched football with him. Grego didn't even seem to be bothered by it except he wanted Vadym to come back and play with him.

I did measure all three of them and mark the wall chart. This was exciting for all three kids. Just too cute..Ugh more tears! Sniff Sniff.

August 10th and 11th

We took Gary to the airport and headed to Disneyland. Again it was hot and long lines and the boys were done early. We were back by 3pm to rest. I tried to get the boys to sleep but not happening. They have to much fun being boys.

We headed back and it was fun but they were tired and grouchy so we came home right after the fireworks. We went straight to bed. It was fun but two days was too much in the summer. Vadym did loved it and it was an amazing trip. The boys bonded even closer if that is at all possible. This child is like our son and he acts like it. We are going to miss him so much.

The next morning I got them up and out the door by 5a.m. to drive home. They did sleep most the way this time but still did their playing and chants. Fun times. :0). We got home by 11 and just chilled the rest of the day. Vadym did clean his and Giuliana's room again so I gave him money. I told him he could not take the money back to Ukraine and needed to spend it before he left. He told me he could exchange it for Ukraine money. He is super smart. I told him it was against the rules so we would have to go to the store. He was fine with that....I think!