Reflecting on the past year...What an AMAZING year!!!

Lukie & Ryan vegging after the Holidays

Ryan & Lukie playing with Ryan's new toy (Lightening McQueen Car) from Pop-Pop

Our boys standing by the Christmas tree with their favorite presents...well for the moment

Big Brother finally gave up reign of his car and let Lukie drive Lightening

Ryan & Lukie on Christmas Eve

Our boys again by the Christmas Tree

Lukie adored all the wrapping paper!

Ryan loves anything that has to do with Lightening McQueen

Christmas cookies for Santa and reindeer food, of course :)

Our trip to Storybook Land from the Ferris Wheel

The boys in Santa's sleigh at Storybook Land

The boys "before" we even got to Storybook Land :)

The boys coming out of an igloo...that was one of the coldest nights it felt like we were in an igloo all night long!

The boys making Christmas cookies...FUN!!!

We certainly hope that everyone had a spectacular Christmas!!! We did!!! We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas present...he came a bit early but better early than never :) Of course we are talking about "Lukie"!!! Lukie has enriched all of our lives, especially Ryan's, every time we see them hug, kiss or even have the "typical" spat over some toy or another we can't help but shed a tear and think this was what we wanted to achieve...our boys/siblings forever. Family members and friends, who may I add were against the idea of us adopting again, at least in the beginning, are now saying to EVERYONE who will listen what a terrific thing we have done, especially for Ryan. Thank-You Everyone :)
As you know, or may not know, this was our second Holiday Season without my Mom and you know what I think this season was the hardest, as a matter of fact this second year not having my Mom around has been extremely difficult. They say that time heals all wounds?!? Who ever came up with this was obviously on drugs or drinking heavily! B/C I will state that this year, it will be 2 years since my Mom passed in February, has been the hardest. It's almost as if you expect that one you love to come through the door, as if they have been on vacation all this time. But, then by the second year you actually realize that they are not coming back from that vacation. So, needless to say it has been difficult. I've talked to my sister and she too feels this way. She thought she was the only one who felt like this :(

With the New Year approaching, after all it is December 31st, we hope that all of our Family Members and Friends have a WONDERFUL upcoming year...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
By the way...my New Year's resolution is to post more and I must get Lukie's timeline up on here. PAP's and others have been asking us about this, this is our next project. After all, we received a call from EAC that we had a referral on 1/31/08...we can't believe that this anniversary is fast approaching!!!

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Lukie :)

Lukie eating his favorite candy of the season...Candy Cane!!!

So much to talk about...

Lukie's 2nd Thanksgiving Dinner...at our house

Lukie's 1st Thanksgiving Dinner...at Babci and Dzydzyia's house...looking a little full aren't we???

Lukie's Birthday Party...it's Lukie and Joy playing Basketball at Kid Junction (this is where we had his Birthday Party)

Daddy, Mommy, Ryan and the BIG Birthday Boy!!!

Lukie truly did enjoy his 1st Birthday cake!!!

My boys holding hands at Lukie's Baptism celebration...word to the wise, if you are going to have a celebration after the Baptism (with food) PLEASE bring extra clothes :) We learned the hard way with Ryan :/

Sorry about this, it's confusing but here is a photo of Lukie's Birthday cake, in with the Baptism photos :/

Lukie smiling pretty at his Birthday Party at Kid Junction :)

Lukie looking at us all from the jungle gym they have at Kid Junction...he LOVED the jungle gym!!!

Ryan and Lukie driving...they both look so serious, don't they???

And here we are again, back to the Baptism photos :/ This is the Church of the Sacred Heart, where he was Baptized. As a matter of fact, this is the church where my Mom & Dad were married, Ron & I were married, Ryan was Baptized, and now Lukie too :)

Poor thing, do you see him holding onto Aunt Re for dear life :(

Cool photo, huh...Lukie running?

Ryan dancing or maybe posing?...too cute, heehee!

Lukie's cake that Ron's cousin, Cricket, made for his Baptism...isn't this beautiful?!?

As many of you will take notice, YES, this is the same photo from our Christmas Card :)

Summer, our 12 year old dog, the kiddos sure do wear her out!!!

Again, sorry about the order of photos here...I love this photo b/c you can barely see Ryan's head peeking above the Baptism bowl :)

Our dapper Lukie looking spectacular in his white mini-tux :) Thanks Aunt Re & Goomba :)

Ryan putting the angel on the top of our Christmas Tree, as you will notice, you can barely see Lukie looking at the Christmas Tree :)

Hi Everyone,

WHEW!!! Is truly all I can say right now! As usual we have been busy, busy little bees, with Holidays coming and soon to be gone.

The BIGGEST news is that Lukie celebrated his 2nd Birthday with us :) We can't believe he is 2 already!!! Where on earth did that time go? Then we had Thanksgiving, which I will say he was a trooper. Here's the scope on Thanksgiving in our household...every year we have 2 (yep, that's what I said...count them 1, 2) dinners for Thanksgiving. You really need to space these 2 dinners out. Ron's nephew actually had 3 dinners this year, God Bless him! We start off with Thanksgiving Lunch at my in-laws (Ron's Mom & Dad) and then we went onto the next. This year was extremely sentimental b/c not only was I missing my Mom (it will be 2 years since she passed 2/17/07) but I also had the guts to make my Mom's stuffing...which was a hit!!! Thanks Mom :) Ron made the Turkey and the trimmings, he is an amazing man!!! I really don't say that enough!

After Thanksgiving it was time for Lukie's 2 year old check-up. We are extremely HAPPY to announce that after being home 6 months he is now in the 50% for BOTH height and weight...WOOHOOO!!! We couldn't be happier!!! But as many parents know with check-ups come those dreaded shots...ugh! After Lukie received his, he looked up at me and said OUCH!!! And started rubbing his arm, awwwwwwwwwwww!!!

We have also been decorating the house in Christmas attire...mostly SNOWMEN!!! I realized WHY Ryan likes snowmen sooooooo much, it's b/c Mommy has hundreds of snowmen :) And you may be asking when I realized this??? Why, that would be when I was pulling all of my snowmen out of the Christmas totes :/ Luke is thrilled with the Christmas Tree, he absolutely adores it! The cutest thing is that right now he loves blowing candles out, learned how to at his Birthday Party, and literally this is all he does when we put the Christmas Tree lights on...tooooo cute!!! And of course he loves taking the ornaments off, bringing them to me and saying Uh-Ohh. I constantly tell others it's never a good thing when you "Uh-Ohh" out of your toddlers mouth b/c you truly do know that something happened :/ It's cute though and so far so good, b/c he has not broken a single ornament...well yet. However, now that I've said that, well you know :)

In the meantime Lukie has qualified for Speech services thru our Early Intervention Program. What happened was, we weren't happy with where his speech was, let me put it this way...he wasn't regressing but he also wasn't progressing, he was just stagnant. In our honest opinion, we thought he should have qualified for services back when he was initially evaluated, back in June. So, we had the EI team out at our house to re-eval him, last month, for his speech and he now qualifies :) The EI team and myself our working our schedules right now, which seems next to impossible but we will work it out.

Finally, yesterday was Lukie's Baptism :) It turned out beautifully! After the Baptism itself we celebrated at Braddock's and that too was spectacular, we couldn't have asked for anything else! A note to the wise...if you are going to have a celebration after the Baptism, PLEASE bring extra clothes! We learned the hard way with Ryan :/ Toddlers do not mix with all white Baptism outfits :)

WOW!!! I didn't realize that this much has happened to us in such a short amount of time?!? Ohhh, I almost forgot on December 4th Lukie has been home for 6 months now...OM! Again, time is flying!!!

And of course I have photos and a video :) Enjoy :)

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Lukie :)

PS-Yesterday right before we got him dressed for the Baptism, we found Lukie on our bed, with my crocs on, trying to do somersaults...he never ceases to amazes us :)

Hard to Talk About...

I think that I need to vent... It's about our oldest son, Ryan, who I have stated is Special Needs. It is extremely hard to deal with at times and unless you have walked in anyone else's shoes, not even for a mile...for a single step, do not judge! I realize I do not have a M.D. or even a Ph. D after my name, but what I do have is a degree in being Ryan's Mommy. There are friends and family members out that think that I will forever be "looking" for something amiss with Ryan. Trust me it's not this way...being Ryan's Mommy has taught me this. It's a gut feeling that YES there is something that is plaguing my child and I will die trying to find out what is askew with him. We once saw a counselor who made a comment, "why do you need to know what are Ryan's issues"? Was he kidding me??? He had children, I would hope that he understood this need to know and this need to be able to tell your child that nothing would hurt them but how can I do this if I don't know what is wrong or how to treat it???
This week Ron and I brought Ryan to a Dr.'s appt. at CHOP, yep I said CHOP. I do have reservations about CHOP, which is probably why a majority of Ryan's care happens at DuPont but with that being said CHOP has a Biochemical Geneticist and this is who Ryan saw this past week. This is the 3rd geneticist we have seen over the last 4 years and the 2nd Biochemical Geneticist over the last 4 years. I jokingly told Ron that I was not leaving the Biochemical Geneticist office until we had an answer or at very least a PLAN of action.
The Biochemical Geneticist told us that after reading Ryan's chart she automatically thought it has to be Mitochondrial Disorder, which is what we have been suspecting for the past several years. But then when she met Ryan, she was extremely impressed with his cognitive abilities and also that Ryan did not regress totally in any ability, in other words he may have regressed but eventually he reacquires the ability and then progresses. However, she was concerned about when Ryan becomes sick, he becomes sick so quickly and he goes down fast and hard. She said she couldn't dismiss him that she too wanted to know what plagued Ryan???
The plan of action is this...the lab took at least 6 tubes of blood (perhaps according to the Biochemical Geneticist it could be as simple as an immune deficiency), next she wants us to make an appt. with the Neuromuscular Clinic, in CHOP of course, to get an ultrasound of Ryan's muscle to find out which muscle it would be best to do the muscle biopsy from and finally she wants us to make an appt. with a surgeon to do Ryan's muscle biopsy. Finally a plan of action and perhaps, just perhaps an answer...could we be so lucky??? The Biochemical Geneticist is thinking that it is conceivable that Ryan has some type of Neuromuscular Myopathy?!? However, she did tell us that these are just speculations and it will be awhile before we get concrete answers.
It was good to hear that I was not going insane, as some Dr.'s have been known to tell those of us, who will forever be searching for answers for our children.

Thanks for listening,
Jenny

Our First Post Placement Report, Halloween and Christmas?

Hi Everyone,

Life as usual has been CRAZY in our household!!! Who would have thought that by throwing another child into the mix of things would create such chaos?!? But I will state it's a good chaos :)

We had our very first post placement report done by our Social Worker. Where on earth has the time gone? Many of you may be asking what is a post placement report, let alone a first post placement??? When we sent our Dossier over to Russia in our Home Study (completed by the Social Worker) was a document that stated "OBLIGATION" to submit post placements reports, which our Home Study agency and our Social Worker had to sign, then notarize...of course. Our first post placement visit took place after 5 months and the report will be sent over to Russia before the end of the 7th month after the effective date of the adoption decree. The post placement report itself is a document completed by our Social Worker, that states quite a few things...first it states how well our little Lukie is doing, how has the adjustment been for him and everyone else in the household, what milestones has he completed, etc., etc. Our Social Worker told us at the end of our first post placement interview that we (as a family) look extremely HAPPY and fulfilled :) She also stated that Lukie is thriving!!! All in all the visit was a success :)

Then there was Halloween...which came and went and I forgot to post the photos of the boys...sorry!!! Ryan and Luke were absolutely adorable, if I may say so myself :) They were UPS drivers, which made Ron so happy :) Early Halloween morning we brought the boys up to UPS in Lawnside where they gave out candy to all the UPS drivers. Ron signed the boys up to help the drivers realize that there are little "Trick or Treaters" running around and the drivers need to be safe and watch for them. Later, that day Ron, Luke and myself went to Ryan's Halloween Parade...so cute! Once Ryan was out of school for the day, we went to our neighbors and the boys were able to Trick or Treat. We followed up with a stop at Marantha's Fall Festival, which we go to every year. The boys looked absolutely spectacular!!!

Then the weekend after Halloween our local lawn and garden center had Santa and the boys sat on Santa's lap. Luke was not a happy boy when this happened :( But his big brother showed him the ropes. Ryan sat on Santa's lap for a long time and read off a laundry list of toys he wanted this year. We were in amazement with all the toys that Ryan told Santa he wanted. Ryan kept on telling Santa that he was a good boy this year...it was too cute.

What happened to Thanksgiving? Well, it's coming but not before Lukie's 2nd Birthday!!! I can't believe that he is going to be 2 years old!!! We are having his 2nd Birthday Party tomorrow (Saturday) and YES I will take plenty of photos...don't know when I will be able to post them but soon...so stay tuned :)

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Lukie :)

An Update and lots of photos and of course a video

Luke smiling b/c he knows he is about to brush his teeth :)

Is that us at Re and Goomba's wedding being a little bit silly???

Our family at the church.

Luke taking care of Summer the day after her surgery :)

Again Luke taking care of Summer, this time he has his stethoscope on.

Is that Ryan being silly?

Ryan the soccer star :)

Ryan's 1st soccer game this season.
Luke running around at Ryan's soccer game.

Is that Luke being silly :)

Hay ride to get to the Pumpkin Patch, notice Daddy wearing his EAC shirt?

Luke brushing/sucking all the toothpaste off his toothbrush :)

We loved the Pumpkin Patch at Johnson's Farm!

It's been a rough couple of weeks here in the Grabowski household :( Recently, we lost a good friend of ours due to cancer. She was an amazing woman!!! Truly an inspiration to all. We met her two years ago at the Philadelphia Azerbaijani Reunion. Her husband and herself adopted a baby boy from Azerbaijan too. Ryan and their son are the same age. I'm trying to wrap my brain around this but just can't seem to do so. I believe I am still in shock.

Then, the other day our 12 year yellow lab, Summer, goes into surgery to have a cyst removed from her paw. According to the Vet, she was unable to remove all of the cyst, short of taking Summer's paw off. Also, the Vet said it appears as if the cyst is a malignant tumor. So, it turns out that Summer has cancer, we are just waiting on the report from the lab to confirm what the Vet is telling us :( Ron and I have had Summer all of our marriage, I can't imagine our lives without her. She is "my little girl"!

On top of all of this our babysitter needed surgery and requires recovery time. I feel extremely horrible about our babysitter :( The kiddos really do miss Ms. Kimmy...Ryan told me he preferred Ms. Kimmy playing with him over me. Great, huh? He also told me that he really, really liked Ms. Kimmy and that he was going to marry her when he turns 7 years old b/c then he will be old enough. Guess I'm not his only sweetheart anymore :(

Now, on a brighter note...Luke is eating us out of house and home! He has gained a little over 8 lbs. in the last 4 months...truly amazing!!! And over the Summer he grew over 2 inches. He still has a Santa Claus belly but not as round anymore.

We have gone to the Pumpkin Patch to pick our Pumpkins, b/c according to Ryan (he told Luke this) "we don't buy Pumpkins, we pick them" :) I can't wait for Halloween this year, Ron bought them little UPS outfits, they will be his "little helpers"!!! Trust me I will take plenty of photos :)

This weekend my sil got married Friday night :) CONGRATS RE AND GOOMBA :) The wedding was beautiful, not to mention Re looked "Gorgeous", this according to Ryan :) The reception was terrific and had such wonderful food!!! Also, my sister was the maid of honor in her best friends wedding yesterday. CONGRATS KRISTA AND JEFF :) My Dad, Ryan and myself attended the wedding and again Ryan thought Krista, the bride, looked gorgeous. He also told me that his Aunt Lissy was the prettiest girl at the wedding and she looked tooooo gorgeous for words. What a little charmer!!!

Luke has learned how to brush his teeth, it's the cutest thing ever :) He brings his big brother's stool (that is now his) over to the bathroom sink, grabs his toothbrush and starts brushing but he really likes to suck the toothpaste off the brush more than anything. And then he spits or rather he does raspberries, thinking he is spitting. Too cute! Speaking of teeth...Ryan lost another tooth. We were told that it would be one or both of his top teeth next, last December he lost his one bottom tooth and then the other. But it didn't happen the way it was suppose to. Ryan lost another bottom tooth and we thought it was pushed out b/c his new bottom teeth didn't have enough room to move into. We come to find out it was "knocked out" by guess who...his "whirlwind" little brother,Luke!!! It was knocked it out as they were wrestling one day and it took Ryan a day or so to tell me the truth. I thought it was funny how the one day it wasn't loose and the next Ryan lost that tooth?!? BOYS! Ryan also started the soccer season, much better than last year, he is not picking any dandelions...yet :)

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan and Luke :)

Lukie enjoying his applesauce :)