Doctors and School

We returned to the doctor's office today to have their Tb shots looked at and both were positive, but the chest x-rays were clean. So the info is being sent to the cdc to find out if they will need to take the 9 months of antibiotics. I think I would prefer the yearly chest x-ray. We now have four appointments set up at Primary Childrens Hospital with one surgery looming in the future. June will be a busy month for us. Otherwise everyone is healthy and all the blood work came back negative, yeah!

I would love to hear about peoples school experiences. We just don't know what to do about school yet. Victor is doing ok, so far they don't think he is too far behind his grade level and as he learns the language he'll catch up. He's also pretty social and has a lot of neighborhood friends already. Ana doesn't like school and says she doesnt' need to learn English (I guess that comes with siblings who interpret everything for you : ) Tatiana is catching on to the language, but can do no math. We've talked to a couple people about her repeating 6th again (we felt it would be good for her too), but it puts her in with Victor and that really upset her and she said we had told her in the orphanage that she wouldn't be in school with the babies... etc. Anyone have any similar experiences? Any recommendations that we can mull over as we try to plan what would be best for the kids? I'm totally open right now.

Art Show

Monday night was LPA's Art show. The elementary kids all performed a couple songs they have learned this year. Ethan's class wrote an opera about dragons and crystals. Here is Ethan in his Dragon costume : ) Ethan's class will be performing their opera next Wednesday!

This is a song from earlier in the year when Morgan's class performed Sleepy Hallow. I missed her solo, but isn't she just the little actress! Her class is doing a play about Utah History on Friday at school.

Happy Mothers Day

Grant got some cute pictures of the kids getting my Mother's Day Breakfast put together this morning.  (And eating my mothers day breakfast treats : )



They also washed and walked the dog for Mother's Day, best gift ever!
And... I'm now the proud owner of a Suburban!  We can all fit in one car now, WOW!

First day of school

Monday a sweet mom, Jodi, who speaks Russian, came and took us on a tour of the elementary school and helped the kids meet their teachers. We also showed them where all the bathrooms were, the computer room, the lunch room and playground. Everyone was so nice and helpful and excited to finally meet the kids. So yesterday we went a little early and found their class rooms again and got them settled. I checked my phone 50 times through out the day, but no calls, emails or texts. So I assumed they were fine and met them at the flag pole at the end of the day. They came out looking for me and I even got a couple quick, short hugs. The kids seemed to do well, their teachers came out with them, and said they did great. They also told me that there were always kids with them at recess and lunch. So I think it was a good experience for them.

Today we are going to try to ride the bus...

update on birthcertificate for an adopted child (utah)

Alan emailed me about my information on getting a birth certificate for the kids here in Utah. You don't have to go before a Judge, but a Judge signs it. Hopefully that is correct. Our school did take the Ukraine birth certificate, but as was pointed out to me if that is ever lost or destroyed we'd have to go back to the Ukraine to get a new one. I'd much rather go to the vital records office here than the Ukraine to get a new one : )

This is the information Alan sent me.

Here is the contact information for obtaining a Utah birth certificate
for an adopted child: Carolyn Lucas is the person to contact. It takes
4-6 weeks to complete the process. She will send you a letter with
instructions of how to proceed if you contact her. By now, there
might even be something on the web that she could direct you to.

Carolyn Lucas
Adoption Specialist
Registration Unit
(801) 538-6363
cslucas@utah.gov

Street Address
288 North 1460 West
Salt Lake City, Utah
(801) 538-6105 (Phone)
(801) 538-7012 (Fax)

Here is the web address for the Utah Office of Vital Records:
https://silver.health.utah.gov/index.html

Trampoline... another first

My kids get home from school and everyone just goes and plays. It's been nice to just check on everyone, take pictures and just relax a bit. These were from yesterday, but it was the first time for the kids on a trampoline. They would just laugh and laugh. It's the neighbors tramp and a bunch of kids were over yesterday showing them different games to play, like crack the egg, dodge ball and mark-o polo. Pretty cute of the neighbor kids.

Paperwork

The school wanted vaccinations and social security numbers, so yesterday I was going through the paperwork Troy brought home to see if they received ss# or what I had to do to get one and found nothing. Well last night the Morgan's called offering their experience with the handleing of the paperwork here in the states. Good thing!

So this is really more for those coming home soon.... in fact I may wait a few extra days and do it all with Wendy : ) she's our pro at getting things done.

ss#
10 days after you are home you can apply for a ss#. The one closest to me is:
202 W 400 S
Slc, UT 84101
1-800-772-1213
(He said there is an office in Murray and he heard the best time is Friday afternoon from 1-4)
Take you packet of papers with you. You'll find your catagory and take a number...

Ukraine Passports
I did read the paper stating I had to mail the passports somewhere to get stamped and I have them ready to be mailed. Thanks to the Morgan's I won't be sending those in just yet. He said we needed them to get our social security number in 10 days! And after you send them in you can wait up to 3 months to get their citizenship papers.

Ukraine Birth Certificate
He also let us know that the Ukraine Birth Certificates don't count for anything here in the states - for all you go through to get it changed in the Ukraine. You will again go to court here. You go to the district court house and go before a judge to make the change. Then you can go to the vital records offices and purchase their offical birth certificates. He said to call and ask for the person over adoptions first so that you fill out the correct paperwork.

Thank you Morgans for the call. I'm a bit of a planner and I like to know what I'm doing... I wouldn't say control freak, but I'm definately less stressed if I have a plan of action. I felt a wave of relief last night to actually know what I needed to do and when. Thanks.

So onward we go, 7 days and we'll apply for our ss#! Exciting stuff.

As for the kids this morning... They saw the rain and asked for a movie. Phew, I was afraid they would want to be out first thing again. The movie is over, side walks are drying and they are putting on their jackets. So out we go.