Greetings from Switzerland !

We are enjoying being back in my homeland for a good portion of our summer.It is always so wonderful to be back.We have spent most of our time in the Alps so far. Yesterday we went up to Zermatt where the Matterhorn is.Next week we will head down to Italy for a bit of shopping. Our little Russians/Americans/Swiss are doing just fine here. They continue to show good signs of attachment to us.They just seem to blend in no matter where they are.

6 months ours...then and now

6 months ago today our little ones left their life in an orphanage behind.On November 18th 2010 we started the day by making the two and a half hour drive from Vladivostok to Ussyrisk to pick up Brock from the orphanage.It was a very cold day with temperatures well below freezing. All the children in Brock's "groupa" seemed to know what was going on when we arrived at the orphanage.His caretakers all came in and kissed him a tearful goodbye and told him to have a happy life.Priceless pictures were taken of his roommates and caretakers.Everything was pretty rush rush and we quickly changed his clothes,bundled him up to Russian standards and we were off to get Milana at her orphanage back in Vladivostok.Brock just soaked everything up while driving to get Milana. It was like an entire new world for him. He did get car sick (poor little guy)but, I knew that he might being the roads were very rough and bumpy.We were running late to pick up Milana so everything happened at lightning speed.The orphanages keep to a very strict schedule.We returned to the Vlad Inn at around 6pm and had both our precious ones with me forever !I can play the movie in my mind as if it were yesterday.

Fast forward 6 months later,they are like two completely different little children. We just can not imagine our lives without them anymore.It has not always been easy with two children adjusting to family life but, so very rewarding.Now that they know English most people are just amazed that they have only been with us for 6 months.We continue to work on some minor issues but, overall they are doing very well adjusting family life here in California.

First Beach Day

This past Saturday the little ones had their first experience at the beach here in California with actually playing in the water.While we were in Russia we took them to the beach near the Vlad Inn in Vladivostok but, it certainly was a different experience with the frozen sea there.The older boys wanted to go surfing and boogie boarding so we headed over to one of the surfer beaches pretty close to our home. What a joy it was to watch Brock and Milana experience another first. Brock was in beach heaven ! He loves the water and could not get enough of it. When the waves knocked him over he was still all smiles. Milana was a little more reserved but enjoyed the sand play. When she got wet she did not like getting dirty with the wet sand. I guess she is just all girl in that way.They both loved watching their brother Bryce and Papa surf.I am sure this will be only one of many beach days they will enjoy as they grow up as little Californians.

blog to book

A friend of mine shared with me the site sharedbook.com which you can turn your blog into a book. You had a variety of choices from hard or soft cover, what cover design you like,and what posts you want to print. I was pleasantly surprised how nice it turned out. The paper and picture quality are really nice.It is definitely worth checking out if you have interest in doing a book to remember your experiences. It was really simple to do and much easier the scrap booking.(at least for me with seven kids)

Autism Awareness

April is autism awareness month.When I had my first child almost 21 years ago I knew very little about autism.It was not until our son was almost 3 and diagnosed with autism that our lives changed forever.As a very young mother I did not expect this to be part of our world however, we became engrossed in learning all we could to help our son reach his full potential. Those who have autistic kids know the amount of patience, commitment, financial sacrifices, advocating,and stress it takes to help their children navigate through this world when the world does not understand theirs.

Strides are being made to help these kids and adults but, the reality is Autism does not go away when you get older. Autistic children grow up to be Autistic adults.Figures now show 1 out of 150 children have some form of autism.As a mother of an autistic son I would NEVER trade this experience of learning and personal growth. I can honestly say our son has taught us much more than we can ever teach him.That being said there is a great need for more awareness, education, research,support and most of all acceptance of those with differences. If you love someone autistic or challenged in some way you will know they are more like us then different.

class 101 in smiling

Our Virtual twins and language development

I have been doing some interesting research on Virtual twins. Virtual twins is defined by psychologists as 2 children who have no genetic connection, who are less then 9 months apart, and grow up in the same family from a young age.By that definition are little Russians are virtual twins.Psychologists have done a number of studies to see how environment vs genetics plays out.From what I have noticed is that virtual twins is much like rearing fraternal twins. I have noticed some interesting twin like behaviors in our munchkins. What I find interesting is they have only known each other for a little over 4 months and yet they appear to have a very deep connection to one another and have some very classic twin behaviors.It will certainly be interesting to see their relationship in a few years.Would love to hear from any ones experiences with virtual twins.
On the subject of language development, it has been fascinating to see both Brock and Milana switch their primary language so quickly.Four months ago they only spoke Russian words to one another but understood a lot that was spoken to them in Russian and now they will only use English and Swiss words . They are now putting 3 to 4 words together.It is often a combination of both English and Swiss words but, it is so interesting that they do not use Russian words to speak even though still understand it. We have a couple people we know who speak to them often only in Russian and they clearly still understand it by their actions.Just interesting to see how many changes can take place in such a short amount of time.
They are certainly keeping us busy but we would not have it any other way !