Hey friends! I just wanted to take a moment to update everyone on how our family is doing! We have been home 3 weeks (as of 4-9) and have just seen huge improvements in most every aspect of our family life. We really had some huge emotional adjustments when we got home. I think we thought that getting to America would make things so much better, that everything else would be easier too. That was not even a bit true....except that we were so happy and relieved to get to be with all our friends and family again!!! Anyway, we felt like we were never going to see the light at the end of our new, long tunnel. But, we have, praise God! We are all feeling and acting more like a family of 5 instead of just a family of 3 with 2 visitors! Thank you all for continuing to pray with and for us and we ask that you keep that up! We have only made it this far and will only continue to make it with God's grace and help!

Philip is really understanding a ton of English! I accidentally asked him to turn the bathroom light off the other night, forgetting that he wouldn't understand me, and he went and did it! He is often the translator for Ryan...I will explain things to both of them and then he will explain it to Ryan in Ukrainian. He is very independent and wants to do everything for himself, so it is making it a little bit harder to try to bond with him and teach him things. But, we are trying to just be persistent and keep on pursuing him. He is very artistic and loves to do things with his hands. He will sit and draw or color for long periods of time. He seems to really want to bond with Jackson and even said that Jackson was his only brat (brother) one day...not Ryan. He and Ryan both make up their beds almost every morning without me asking. We are currently planning on putting him in a summer program on Tues/Thurs and he will start kindergarten in the fall...we think. We can't afford Briarwood anymore, so they will be at Valley Elementary in Pelham.

Ryan is still smiling. We told you about his smile...it comes after discipline, sickness, tiredness...almost all the time. It often is to get attention, but we don't care. We just enjoy getting smiled at. He tries to take care of us...making sure we are covered up if we are sitting watching tv, making sure we have food or drink, helping out with whatever chore we are doing (laundry, dishes, groceries). He is our little sharer...as long as he has his first, he will give every last one away to someone else. He is more receptive to our help with things, but that makes sense as he his the youngest of our boys. He is still the pickiest eater and we still just keep on offering him what we are eating. We just always have some fruit on hand and he gets rewarded with fruit if he eats well. He and Philip have both been to church with us now...Philip goes into Jackson's class, so he hasn't had a problem. Ryan went into class with no problems, but then cried when Greg picked him up. We don't know if he thought we weren't coming back or what, but we are going to keep on taking them so that they will begin to know that we will always come back.

Both boys went to the UAB International Clinic on Wed. and both did well. They don't appear to have any excessive emotional problems and checked out well physically. Of course, there will be normal emotional issues that arise when bringing home adopted children, but for now they seem to be very healthy otherwise. Philip has some issues with his teeth so we are going to get both of them into the dentist ASAP. They still have to have vision and hearing checks, but the MD at the clinic said their ears did not look like they had frequent ear infections. We are very happy that God has taken such good care of our boys to this point!

Jackson is doing better. We started him off in his old room with both of them in there also. Friends came and moved his bed to another bedroom and got us 3 twins for his room. So, for about a week and a half, they shared a room. This seemed to give Jackson more problems. They would talk and whisper in the room and keep him awake....and I'm sure it didn't help that he couldn't understand them. Now that we have moved him into the other bedroom and into his original bed, he is doing much better. He is playing with them a lot more and actually enjoying them again. He still tells on them quite a bit and we are trying to get that to stop because we know that they are going to stop letting him be around them if they think he is only going to tell on them. Emotionally, he seems to be better as well. He still needs a lot of individual time from both of us and we want to give him that. We are trying very hard to balance his needs with theirs, but since he can understand us and knows how our family used to be, we are really careful to do a little extra doting on him for now.

We are blessed and we do keep on focusing on that....even in the hard times! Praise God on this Easter weekend and thank you Jesus for the ultimate sacrifice you made on the cross! We love you all!