5 years ago today

5 years ago today I met this beautiful, wonderful, intelligent child.  She is the best part of my daily life.  She makes me proud to be her momma. 

From the moment we saw her, we knew she was meant to be ours.  We just prayed GOD and the Russian government thought so too.  It took a long time to get everything together that Russia required to get a court date. 

We were extremely joyous to finally get a court date.  Russia said she was ours, to come back in 10 days.

Happy Adoption Day - Court date was 11/15/11 - Officially adopted on 11/28/11

We came back and played some more.

We brought boots for her - she wouldn't take them back off. 

She played on the slide with daddy all day, while waiting to be released into our care.

 

 

She was finally in our arms forever on 12/2/11.  This picture was from the day we carried her out of the orphanage, like we were smuggling precious jewels.  She is our most precious gift from GOD.  For no one else could have moved all the mountains of paperwork so we could be together.

Here is a picture of her sleeping the first night we got her.  It was rough getting her to sleep and the hotel was HOT.  We had 3 twin beds pushed together. 

AND from then on ---- She has been our precious gift.

First day of Preschool

First day of Kindergarten

1st day of 1st grade

Her most recent photo.

She is now getting ready to enter 2nd grade.  She loves to read.  She loves to learn.  She isn't too crazy about math, but is happy to play at recess. 
She is getting smarter and more beautiful every day. (daddy is getting his guns cleaned)  She is my joy and my happiness. 
She is in "skip school"  to try and join the JUMP COMPANY USA club/team.  She is progressing.
She doesn't remember the orphanage (thank goodness). 
She is happy and healthy.  We couldn't ask for more. 
She has all our love forever.
For those who ask why we adopted from Russia and not the USA - my answer is - Because that is where my daughter was.  God put this child in my heart.  He lead me to her.  We were meant to be together.  She is my world, my everything.

I could go on and on, but I have other things to do today.  Like play with my girl. 
THE HAPPIEST MOMMY IN THE WORLD..... Tamra Lewis

 

 

OLESYA IS 7

Olesya is 7!  How can that be?  It seems like just a few days ago that we were in Russia visiting her for the first time.  She was so tiny and sweet and we fell in love with her immediately.  It was all in God's timing.

I can't remember life before her. She is my life, my everything, my best friend. GOD IS GOOD!

Without her life sure would be boring.

I wish I were there the day she were born.  I wish I had those memories to share. The memories I do have are when she was just a little over two years old. June 1, 2011, She seemed happy and content but very shy.  I was told she was one of their favorites. Which probably means that she was well taken care of. She took to Steve right away they were like two peas in a pod. We enjoyed every minute of the time we spent with her in Russia.  It seemed to go by so fast yet so slow as well.  Just hard to explain.  We only got to see her two days and made the decision to adopt her.

It took quite a few months before we finally got to go back for our court date. And then 10 more days later after that to go get her to bring her home. December 2nd 2011 is the most important day of our lives. It was the day she was finally in our arms. We hurried out of that orphanage,  Olesya in our arms, as fast as we could and we never looked back. We kind of felt like we were smuggling a rare gift.  We were, of course.  We did enjoyed our time with her in Russia although we were excited and relieved to finally land in the USA back in New York City on December 8th 2011.  This was the biggest and best adventure of my life.  It took 2 1/2 years from start to finish.

The first few weeks back home were pretty rough.  We had to learn to communicate with each other. And she had to learn a new language.  Within a month she was speaking English very clearly and full sentences. She is very smart and picks up on things very quickly.

She is a smart, beautiful, happy, healthy, curious, opinionated, joyful child. She wants to please everyone. Poor Steve, she always takes my side in every argument.   She is full of questions and wants to know what everyone is doing.

She is doing well in school and is continuously making new friends.

She seems to not remember anything from her two and a half years in the orphanage.  Of course, she was so young.

We have made contact with 3 of her 4 siblings.  The oldest, a sister, keeps in contact with us weekly through www.vk.com.  She is happy Olesya has us.  She seems to be doing well.  She is in school studying accounting and about ready to graduate. 

We hope one day that they will meet.  When she is much older, of course. 

We love this child more than life itself.  She is ours and will continue to fill our lives with joy and happiness.   

 

ORTHODONTIST

Hello everyone,
It's been awhile since my last post.  We have been busy with school and life in general.  She is doing well in 1st grade.  Mostly A's and B's.   She has progressed to 2nd grade sight words and is in an accelerated reading class.  We are very proud.  She is doing fine with Math, although she doesn't like it.  She struggles with subtraction, but is getting there.

I wanted to update everyone with what's been going on with Little "O". 

We have always known she has an under-bite.  Dr. McCarthy suggested we go see Dr. Eckle's Orthodontist.  So we did.

They saw her a couple of times, then I noticed her two front teeth were separating.  So I scheduled another visit.

They performed a 3-D scan - where you can see all the teeth up into her teen years.  Here are the results:
1.  Deep overbite
2.  Upper and lower spacing
3.  Missing 2 upper and 3 lower permanent teeth---- 5 TEETH!
4.  Bite is off.

Recommended treatment is as follows:
1.  Placement of braces on the upper front teeth
2.  Placement of a lower splint base to assist with opening the bite so the top front teeth can move out over the lower front teeth
3.  Placement of upper protraction headgear to assist with the bite correction
4.  Adjustment appointment every 8 weeks
5.  When the correction is complete we will place an upper retainer - worn fulltime for 6 months and then nights only.
6. monitor growth and development
7 a second phase of treatment will be recommended in the future

So last Monday, February 15, 2016 we went in and they put "spacers" (little tiny rubber bands between a couple teeth) in her top teeth to prepare for braces next week the 22nd.  Her teeth have been a little sore but Children's Tylenol has seemed to help.

So next Monday we go for top Braces.  She is excited.  I will try and post a video soon.

She is happy, healthy and thriving!

Signed:
Olesya's mom