Stratton Family

Ivanna Surgery

2011-01-05T12:59:00.000-06:00

Today Ivanna had tubes put in her ears and her adenoids removed. Boy was she a TROOPER. Mommy didn't cry until she went to recovery and they were just waking her up. The nurses were really good to her but goodness she was GROUCHY!! They all loved her and thought she was very sweet. She drank a full cup of apple juice. Before she got awake they had put her in my arms so that when she did become coherent she would find mommy and daddy there to comfort her.

Here are some pictures of on the way to the hospital, once we got her gown on her and then once we got her home and settled for some rest.

The doctor says she did great - it was over in about 20 minutes actually. He said she had a lot of fluid built up behind her left ear and the tubes will fall out on their on in about 12-18 months. Then we will need to re-evaluate to see if they will need to be put back in.

She will return to school on Monday!! YAY!!! Just kidding we have enjoyed having her with us for the extended Christmas break.

The pictures are not in order but you can tell what is happening by the captions! WHEW!!! Mommy and Daddy are glad this is over!

Happy New Year to all of you!

One our way to the hospital!

Can someone PLEASE get this braclet off of me like NOW?

So I am ok with this goofy looking tiger gown but this bracelet has GOT TO GO!! What happened to fashion?

Alright enough is enough......tell them to come on and let's do this thing!

Alright I'm over it - take me back RIGHT NOW or I am OUTTA HERE!

Finally I am back home in my bed!

Turn my TV on NOW (forget the PLEASE)! Yes dear! {sigh}

Ok I'm set....Dutchess make them all get out of MY room!

I'm still smiling!

Oh wait!!! I knew they forgot to give me something MY LAPTOP!!! Now you can GO!

Ivanna's First Encounter with Santa

2010-12-23T10:44:00.000-06:00

Regretfully I don't post as much to this blog as I used to - can't imagine why!! :D Been just a tad busy with holidays and Ivanna and all. I do keep Facebook updated though so it's the best place to find pictures and videos.

Below is Ivanna's very first encounter with Santa Claus and might I say she reacted just as we had expected UNIMPRESSED the little stinker.

Here are also her first school picture and the picture she had made with Santa on the day the video was done.

I'll post some more pictures soon I know I keep saying that but I will.

Love to all and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

DIAPER FREE!!!

2010-11-08T15:46:00.000-06:00

Well, today is DAY THREE of being DIAPER FREE!! I am now putting her in pull ups at night and she did GREAT in school today too. So very proud of our little princess. She is absolutely the smartest little girl I know - but you know we are all partial to our own :D.

Here are a few of the signs that she knows well.....
Please
Thank You
Sorry
Water
Aunt Lou
Ryan
Steven
Ball
Cat Dog
Sit
Yellow
Blue
Red
Boy
Girl
Drink
Eat
More
In
Orange
Pumpkin
Car
Banana
Bear
Play
No
Yes
Apple

I'm sure there are more that we left off. The majority of these she says when she does the sign which is GREAT!!

Love to all,
The Stratton's

First Day At The Beach 10/22/10

2010-10-22T21:55:00.001-05:00

Here are the compiled pictures from her first day at the beach. Ivanna had photos made today for next year's GCDSS calendar. Regardless of whether her picture makes the calendar or not we have another day of memories and another day full of firsts!! Love these pictures I think they all turned out wonderful. One of her Aunts curled her hair for her and then she visited her Aunt Beth's house to get washed down after we left the beach - the princess had sand in every crevice. Thank you Lord for another great day!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Two Bottom Teeth!!!

2010-10-13T20:11:00.000-05:00

Well today at school Ivanna lost one of her bottom teeth. When she got home I noticed that the other one was loose also. Well, as soon as Ivanna noticed it was loose she went to work on it. WHAT a surprise I could have never done that. She didn't shed not one tear but bless her heart her little mouth was bloody and she had smeared blood all over her face and was happy as I don't know what. GROSS!!! I got her Aunt Kristi on Skype and Andy came in with a warm wash cloth and finished pulling it - she was so happy!!!

She is excited about the tooth fairy coming tonight.

She also went outside and drove her new ride some today - she still gets to excited to push the gas pedal and steer all at the same time but it's so funny!!

She just loves her new car. She's had a great last few days - had another birthday party yesterday at school. I'll upload those videos as soon as I get them off of my other device. She will have another birthday party on Sunday the 24th -- this one is a family party at her Aunt Lou's house!!!

Also kept her hair from her first hair cut. Here's a picture of it:

She seems to really love school and is learning very quickly. She surprises us every day with more signs she has learned and she tries very hard to repeat every word you say - she can now look on a paper and point out her shapes and point out ball, cat, car, duck, bell. AMAZING!! The happy look on her face is priceless.

They are also teaching her computer which totally amazes me at how young they start learning now - They probably start teaching them computer when they are 2-3 years old. She loves it!!

Well, we love you guys and take care.

The Stratton Family!!!

School ROCKS!!!!

2010-09-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

Today I don't think I have been this blown away with our little princess up to this point. But she is EXACTLY like a sponge in that she absorbs EVERYTHING and does it very quickly!!

Before we left Kiev - we had bought her a wooden box that you put the specific shapes in to the holes and she could not do that at all or see that a circle was a circle.

WELL.....today is DAY THREE of school and the teachers and assistants ROCK I tell you!!!! Check out this video it speaks for itself. She came home with homework tonight and we kind of glanced at it and we are very ashamed to admit that we underestimated her. We questioned why in the world they send stuff like this home with her but boy did she show us!!

WATCH IT I promise you will be impressed too!!! It's the little things that make you go WOW!!!

The Princess of the Palace

2010-09-22T21:18:00.000-05:00

Well, second night in a row our precious little angel has let me rock her all the way to sleep. When we first got her she would have no part of being rocked. Still hard to believe how much she has changed in almost three weeks.

We have been so on the go that we are just now about to get settled. Will finish registration for school tomorrow and start her IEP - YAY!!! Mommy and Daddy get to start the crazy IEP days but I just feel like we will not have any issues. Ivanna is just so smart she amazes us more and more everyday with her wittiness and charm. Her and her daddy pick on each other constantly. It's quite funny.

She got a little more trimmed on her hair this evening now that Aunt Lou was in her shop.

Poor girl has been through it today. At 8:15 she had her first doctor's appointment. LOVED the doctor and she like him as well which is very important. He says all looks good. She had to he her finger pricked and boy did I panic - but it went NOTHING like the finger stick when in the Ukraine when she screamed and had to be held down by three of us. WOW what a big girl she was. Then God love her she had to have three shots to complete her immunizations for school which was surprising and one of those was a flu shot. She didn't take those quite as well mostly because she absolutely does not like restraint. Of course none of us do. But after it was done she was ok but her leg has been really sore. Tonight after her bath her little eyes teared up and she pointed to her leg and made motions for me to rub it and of course I did for quite some time - every time I would stop she would tell me to do it again. So you know us, anything for the princess. Then he also sent us to get some labwork done. I was really stressed about that. The stuck her in one arm and got under the vein and didn't get enough blood so they ended up having to stick her in the other arm - very aggravating. She cried just a little but as soon as they released the rubber band she was very quiet. One of the nurses gave her four shiney quarters to go get her an ice cream with. She didn't know what to do with the quarters but mommy showed her.

Of course her little smiles are used everywhere she goes to light up rooms and buildings. In the afternoons she is usually pretty tired so she can become cranky. Since she has left the orphanage she does not take naps. In school first graders don't take naps so I saw no reason to start or force her. She keeps herself busy with all her baby dolls.

Tonight for the first time she is in her bed. We have her monitor on and I'm sure we will not sleep well with her in her room just typical worry. But one thing is for certain if she wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to crawl in bed with mommy and daddy she knows where to find us.

Well, turning in - been a long day. Oh and also she LOVES to fold her hands and say the blessing. Last night at dinner we forgot to say it simply from being tired I'm sure and about five minutes in to eating she folded her little hands and closed her eyes and starting muttering. Then she will say AMEN - followed by a YAY!!!!!!

Love to all and please remember to say your prayers.

The Stratton Family

Baby Girl GOT BLING!!!

2010-09-21T21:19:00.000-05:00

Well, today is the last day the hubby is home - he goes back to work after six weeks. WOW!! Have loved spending the extra time with him. The only greater thing in this world is that now we have a little one also!

After I got off work today we went to the mall and got her ears pierced. Her Aunt Lou was going to pierce them but we never could catch her at the right time today. Although was thinking that maybe it was best that Aunt Lou not pierce them in case it hurt her too bad I didn't want her to have a negative memory of her Aunt Lou cause it was once again love at first sight.

How did it go? Went GREAT in our opinion. We really had talked a lot about getting them pierced and was really hesitant and afraid it would hurt her or that she would try to jerk them out. But low and behold - she let the lady mark her ears and then another lady came over to help and they did both ears at one time. She let out a gasp and a yell and then we started telling her out beautiful they were and held the mirror up so she could see and she was smiling and grinning as big as the whole state of Mississippi when she saw them. We were even more proud of her than we already were. I took the camera in to take pictures of her getting her ears pierced and hoping to take pictures of a big girl while doing it except I got so nervous and anxious about it I FORGOT!!!

She has learned several different signs and she repeats several different words and understand their meanings. We have taught her to "high five" and now she walk around telling other "five" and it's hilarious. We have to listen more closely now since she is actually saying words and we can figure out what they are.

In the morning she goes to the doctor for the first time and mommy is not looking forward to that.

We have had so many visitors over the last couple of days we have been busy not to mention trying to get several things done here. We had washing to do for days. I washed everything whether it needed it or not just so I could put it in the dryer.

Today we managed to only go through two outfits. Not sure why I think I have to change her when she gets just one drop of juice on her outfit.

She has been eating GREAT and has tried many different things. Most of the time if we have several things we let her pick which one she wants to try with which bite - she loves doing that - she will say "this" or "that" - it's funny.

I'm telling you - no one would believe how much she has changes in just a few very short weeks.

Tonight was the first night that we put her in her bed to sleep only because she had been somewhat going to bed later than she really needed to and we needed to give her a little time to wind down.

She now LOVES to be rocked and she is a cuddler. It's so hard knowing that for over six years of her life she rocked her own self to sleep. There have been many and will be many more "firsts" for her from now until the end of time.

Her skin was so dry when we got her - and when we got home we were able to get some decent lotion and mommy rubs lotion on her several times a day. She even wants me to give her some to rub on her baby dolls --- too funny. Can you say SPOILED???? That's ok that is what mommy's and daddy's are supposed to do is spoil their babies even when they get older. And yes the boys are spoiled too even though they may not want to admit it.

Well better get on too bed have a busy day tomorrow. I know I know I still owe pictures. Hubby is looking for the cord to the camera now and I still need to download some videos for you as well.

Hugs to all,
The Stratton Family

Welcome To America Princess Ivanna!

2010-09-19T22:53:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness there are just not enough space in the world for me to blog everything that I want to right now but eventually I'll get it all on here so that I can keep it FOREVER!!

The last few days of our trip were extremely busy.

On Monday, 9/13 we were able to apply for the passport however that took three days so it wasn't ready until Wednesday and didn't get signed until Thursday unfortunately - however we were able to go to the US Embassy on Thursday without and get the Visa process rolling. We knew the Embassy required two days so earlier in the week we had finalized our flights for Saturday hoping that every single thing fell in place just right so we can make that happen.

Wednesday 9/15 was Anna's birthday - Ivanna's biological mom. Yuri (bio dad) was supposed to have Skyped to us on this night so we could sing her Happy Birthday but that didn't happen. I'm sure they were most likely going through some emotional times but I guess I was just not very understanding towards the end of the trip and it didn't help getting sick, then Andy catching it then the poor princess caught it. But Anna and Katia came by on Thursday night and Ivanna was tickled to have company. She just loves people in general. But I tell you - I didn't want to show it but this was very emotional to see. When I saw tears from Anna I thought for sure I was going to lose it and burst in to tears myself but I managed to hold it all in. I just can not imagine the hurt and the happiness at the same time. But, I am really glad that they came to see Ivanna and hate they all didn't get to see her on Friday evening. Unfortunately we discussed and we had to tell them that we didn't want them taking us to the airport we just didn't think that emotionally we could handle that and maybe that was selfish but I didn't want Ivanna to see either of us cry (us meaning Anna or myself). Well enough of the depressing stuff.

Danielle and Ben (Igor's mommy and daddy) came to visit us at the apartment that evening. Our day again was quite busy - we started off early Friday morning with the medical evaluation required for Visa submittal. Unfortunately - there wasn't a notation on her medical paperwork that she had ever been tested for syphilis so we had to go upstairs and get her blood taken. WOW was I anxious about her having to have this done - I was so afraid of her being hurt. Well, it was way worse than I expected. Andy and I had to hold her and I think Nadiia may have been holding a piece of her too while the nurse pricked her finger and got the blood she needed for the test. All the while Ivanna was screaming and crying uncontrollably - but just as soon as the nurse let go of her hand she immediately stopped and wanted us to kiss her boo-boo. WOW my heart just ached. Then we went back in with the doctor who was just super nice. She did a quick check and I do mean QUICK and then we had to wait on the package to be prepared for us to take with us to the Embassy to obtain the Visa - OUR LAST STEP!! Ok got it and then we had to wait until 2:00 p.m. to go to Embassy. When we got there they scanned us with the wand at security and Ivanna just put on a show for them. She loved having the wand waive over her - she was so silly. The gaurd was really nice and she kept walking back over to him for him to do it again. It was hilarious. Then at about 3:10 p.m. we walked out with our completed VISA!!!! Praise the Lord we now oficially had everything we needed to depart on Saturday morning.

When we left there with Nadiia - we went to eat at the Italian place we liked so well. I just tell you I was really going to miss her. She had her stuff together and I don't know how she kept running the way she did and now she is juggling families and I know she is gonna be worn out by the time the next few months are over. After we departed - she said she had to go pick up something and was going to come by our apartment - when she got there - she had gotten Ivanna a "Princess" purse that was purple - that was so sweet - earlier in the week she had brought her a pair of PINK sunglasses!! Sweet, sweet girl and I can't believe she has found a lucky guy yet but whoever catches her will have him a good woman! Saying good bye was terrible - so terrible that I let her walk out without giving her her "happy" - but that's ok I'm going to e-mail her and get her address and I also want to get her a DVD of the Beverly Hillbillies so she can see who we were talking about.

Sivlet picked us up at 4:15 a.m. Kiev time on Saturday morning - that was 8:15 p.m. on Friday night for most of our local folks. It was raining and quite cool but we still wore out our summer clothes and chose to not wear jackets so we wouldn't have another item to keep up with once it warmed up. But we did dress the little one appropriately. She was good as gold on the trip to the airport.

Andy's brother, Bobby, picked up the boys for us on Saturday evening and we landed in New Orleans aroudn 7:15. Ivanna was asleep before we even got a mile down the road. She was just exhausted. We ended up getting home around 9:45. When we got home there was a "Welcome Home" sign in our front yard, snacks and drinks in our refrigerator, fresh fruit, yogurt and bananas for our little sweet baby girl and then several different bags of happies as well. Including fresh cut flowers on our kitchen table and pink roses in baby girls room and a bed full of more happies for the princess. WOW was this ever so sweet. I just can not even thank those ladies enough for all they did for us. Donna, Kim, Holly, Beth - YOU ROCK!!!

The house was clean and it had been lived in for the last 5 and a 1/2 weeks - that was so sweet of him to straighten up.

Ivanna came in and was introduced to her brothers, Steven and Ryan and my goodness she LOVED them and I know she understood - she did the same thing to them that she did to us for the first couple of days - just rubbed on their faces and smiled and hugged and kissed them over and over and over. Then she got to meet her Uncle Bobby and Paw Paw (my daddy). It was quite an amazing site. Can't wait to share some pictures with you.

We then gave her a few minutes to absorb things and we took her in to her room. Another WOW!!! She LOVED IT!! She couldn't get on the bed because it was too high for her but of course we put her up there but we have a stool (princess no doubt) that she now uses to get up on her bed and down. She had a bunch of little happies on the bed and her baby dolls - she had to take them all and love on them and give them kisses - that was just soooooo sweet.

How was our plan rides with Ivanna?
Well, the first leg of the flight from Kiev to Munich was very good and was about 2.5 hours. No trouble at all as a matter of fact I caught a little cat nap.

Second leg of the flight from Munich to Charlotte, NC was our longest leg of the return. Several babies and small children on the plan and each one of them cried and was whiney the entire time mostly. So there was no sleeping on the plan. I will tell you this Ivanna was the BEST child on the plane and I'm not just saying that because she's our child either. She was truly great. This flight was over nine hours and we absolutely could not believe how well she did - and she watching cartoons and slept quite a bit. THEN the very last ten minutes I'm not sure what triggered it but she wanted her safety belt off of her and she was not taking no for an answer. She screamed so much I thought she was going to pass out from not taking a breath - but as soon as we landed and clicked the button to remove her seat belt and immediately she stopped. I do believe though that part of her trouble was her ears popping - she kept holding them and she let me rub them so I'm thinking it was a combination of many things - not to mention she was tired. Too funny - I just tell you mommy can't stand it when she cries - almost makes me do it with her. Then we got off the plan only to go through passport control, get our luggage, have them rechecked and then off to immigrations check point for her package from the US Embassy in Kiev to be processed so we didn't have much time to spare and had to get moving as soon as they were done.

Last and final leg of the return home was the WORST! Poor girl - we got on the plan and I got her strapped in and all was good, then as soon as the engines started - she started screaming again. Oh my I kept holding her and rocking her from the side and even though she would not allow me to take my hands off of her she still was not going to lett up. Then once we were settled in the air - they still kept the light lit for seat belts and after thirty minutes of her screaming I finally just undid the seat belt and decided I'd take the consequences. Luckily they didn't say anything to us because they knew that had completely quitened her. Then she crawled up in my lap and wanted me to rock her and was asleep in about 10 minutes. Then since this was our shortest flight - it was then time to stick her back in her seat and buckle her in. Well, this time I left the belt loose enough that she could get all the way over to me and she wanted me to hold her the whole time so this time she was whimpering but not screaming and I rubbed her ears the whole time in hopes to keep them from popping as much

Today - we all got up this morning to get ready for church. We are still not unpacked but we will get to that tomorrow evening.

For now I'm going to sign off and go to bed - the princess is already asleep bless her little heart. Next blog I'll give you pictures and videos as well as let you know how she woke up this morning and tell you about her first night of sleep in her forever home.

Love to all,
The Stratton Family

Monday Night and Forward!!

2010-09-14T06:52:00.001-05:00

Tonight is our last night in this apartment. Oh yesterday and last night we had a FANTASTIC time. We took the princess to Walk with the Dinosaurs even though she wasn't that interested. Hate the boys weren't hear they would have loved and Steven would have been our tour guide telling us what kind each was and their background. Savage family and Nadiia was with us. The princess got to jump on a trampoline and of course again had no idea how to make it bounce but she knew it was supposed to. Thanks to Sandra who got in with her and bounced and bounced and bounced some more she had a fantastic time. She also got her first ride in one of those stationary cars that you pretend drive and plays music. More than likely going forward everytime we walk by one we will have to have tokens to be able to put her in or else it will be a bad time for all who are in her vicinity LOL!!!

Then we all went to Sam's Steak House ---- man I love that place. Almost felt like we were home. Nadiia is just so much like us she fits in so well and we seem to fit in well with her. I am sure going to miss her. She told us that after Erin left and "warned" her we were coming to prepare for our arrival she watched "Gone with the Wind" three times and had to keep rewinding the captions so she could figure out with the "southern" people were saying. She is hilarious.

When we get home we are going to get her a DVD of the Beverly Hillbilies and send it to her. She will laugh and laugh and laugh. She does such a GREAT job. Our facilitator better be glad he has her. :D

Well, we also hit another milestone shortly. THIS IS THE LAST NIGHT in this apartment. YAY!!! We are so thankful for our journey and look forward to many more doors that will open in the future.

Can't wait to get home and don't want to hear the clip clop sound of heels walking down the street for quite some time. I'm ready to be home and cook - can you believe that. I MISS COOKING!!!! Will see all of you very soon and can't wait to be back in church on Sunday.

I'll leave you of course with a few pictures.

The most wonderful husband of all!

The cutest little Princess with her new sunglasses compliments of her Auntie Nadiia :D!!

Ivanna knows a good woman when she sees one!!!

One bite and she'd be gone :D. Thank goodness those teeth aren't real!!!!

Nadiia.....you do wonders for the looks of that dinosaur!!!

A Dragon created from Legos but it was covered up unfortunately!

Oh my goodness she LOVED riding in that car!!!!

Sandra jumped and jumped and jumped and then had to wrestle her to get her off the trampoline!!!

Ummmm honey your hair has just a little static in it!!! Don't touch me please!!!

Marshall Savage

Just LOVE our translator and so glad we were able to cross paths with the Savage family!!! Sandra and Nadiia in this photo enjoying our visit to SAM's STEAK HOUSE!!

Love,
The Stratton Family

Our Last Sunday

2010-09-12T15:03:00.000-05:00

Today was our typical family day just didn't have the boys. We had a great day met a new family that came in last not. They are adopting Ivan/Igor from Ivanna's baby house I'm so excited for him and I know he is going to be so happy to see them finally walk through the door.

We did some shopping and bought Ivanna some additional cooler weather outfits. Can't wait to get home and she can wear all of her pretty clothes.

She is still doing better and better every day. Today was the first day that she didn't try to grab at food on plates which was fantastic. She has slowed her eating way down but of course we are still feeding her. Again we will regress a little and then move forward. Maybe not everyone agrees with this but we believe it to be working great for her. Once we get home we will start letting her feed herself again but not with a spoon the size of a shovel. Ugghhhh!!

Also yesterday her daddy was with her in the mall while I was in one of the shops and he found a tea set in a window and told me "she wanted it" --- funny - neither of us knew it was a procelain tea set. Well, needless to say several pieces of it are already missing. :D But, it wasn't because she threw them so that was good it was because they had accidental mishaps. So today in our shopping excursion daddy found her a big tea set that was plastic and boy does she love it. She went from not having any idea yesterday what to even do with one to today she is cooking up all kinds of stuff in her little pot and fixing us all kinds of flavored teas. She is such a sweet little angel. But, her horns to take a tendency to come out from time to time but thank goodness it's not very often.

Bath time is so much fun with her - can't wait to get home and get her some toys to go in the bathtub. I can't believe she went from being afraid of water in the bathtub to now loving it and now she doesn't even mind the spray nozzle. Little trouble with rinsing her hair but at least it's giggles and screams of excitement. Now, I just have trouble trying to get her out of the bathtub so I typically have to call daddy in to intervene LOL. Imagine that she doesn't listen to her mommy.

Well, tomorrow morning we will all get picked up at 8:30 to head to the passport office to have the little munchkin's photo taken for her passport. One step closer to going home. Really am going to miss this city though and I am really going to miss some of the people here. We have met some very interesting people and people have really been so friendly to us it's actually been quite surprising.

Well, again, I'll leave you all with a fiew more pictures. We can't wait to see the boys and get back to church. Ms. Alice is going to love Ivanna.

Laid Back Saturday!

2010-09-11T15:24:00.000-05:00

Well, today we have just taken it easy since neither of us felt very well. However I am feeling much better but still have a few sniffles. Daddy now has a stuffy head and a tickling throat so we are working on trying to prevent the Princess from coming down with it.

Ivanna's biological parents came over this morning. Her papa called on Tuesday I believe it was and told me he was coming the next day but didn't show up. Her maternal grandmother came back from the Black Sea yesterday and they had really wanted us to come over but we were just not feeling good enough to go and didn't want to risk any of their family getting sick and our germs being stuck in their house so we opted out. We thought Katia (maternal) grandmother was coming with them this morning but she didn't make it she is waiting on us to come over there. I'm not sure if we will get to or not we hope to but this week is going to be so busy and so crazy running from here to there to do all of the last minute stuff that we will just have to play that one by ear. Plus the fact that I am working in the evenings.

Well, I do have a few things to blog about and then I'll leave you with a few pictures. Found out a little more background on Ivanna that was quite a challenge for me to personally deal with. I haven't asked her biological parents about it yet and honestly it doesn't really matter just something that bothers me, personally.

Ivanna was able to talk on Skype tonight to her Aunt Kristi, Austin and Alyssa. It was her very first time to see a face with the voices that generally come from the computer. So it was really funny. At one point our power went off again and she was NOT a happy camper with the faces went away. She was very cute in that she was rubbing Alyssa's face while she was talking to her. She blew them all kisses and was just LOVING it!!! Pretty soon she will be able to see them all in person.

She has been doing GREAT at resteraunts. She is eating well and I feed her and don't shovel food in her mouth like she is accustomed to doing for herself in Vorzel - but those days are LONG GONE!!!

Right now it is AMAZING how far she has come - she is in her daddy's lap and he is rocking her. It took several days for this to happen. She crawled up in my lap one day this week and let me do it for about 30 minutes. We don't push her it will all happen in due time. She is getting use to the fact that she gets hugs and kisses any time she wants them and more than she could possibly ever want.

She communicates very well. When she wants something it has been very easy for us to figure out what. She gets up every morning in the BEST mood. She crawls over to us and just rubs our faces and looks in our eyes and we just wish we knew what she was thinking. She just jabbers. We think she is so happy that it is no longer a dream for her. She loves watching baby TV here. It's an English channel with lots of nursery rhymes and such and then at night has some "good night" stuff on it. So her and her daddy are watching that now.

Well, I'm going to leave you with some pictures. Ivan/Igor's mommy and daddy came in to town today so we are very excited about meeting up with them tomorrow. We got to spend a little time with their son since he was in the same baby house as Ivanna. They are going to be so very happy with him because he is another handsome young man and he is going to be so very happy that his mommy is finally here and it's going to be "all about him". Sad how you want to just round them all up and sit and spend time with them all.

Enjoy the pictures and thanks again for your prayers and most of all thanks for all of God's blessing that he has bestowed upon our family.

Love to all,
The Stratton Family

Final Preparations

2010-09-09T02:45:00.000-05:00

Ok woke up feeling much better today. We were able to get me some medication with the help of our translator. AND we were able to get some prevention medication for the princess and daddy. So looks like we are on the uphill swing.

Well, even being sick I still had to go out and do some stuff that was necessary to plan for our finalization of documents.

Our initial court documents were dated for Monday so on Monday we couldn't do much. But on Tuesday, we were able to go and get her birth certificate done. I went with the translator while hubby stayed home with the princess. They were unable to do it while we waited so we made a second trip later in the afternoon. At this point I was dying but had taken much medication so I was still able to stand.

On Wednesday our tax code was applied for and it should be back on Friday, again fingers and toes crossed. For those of you that have already been down this journey you know that the tax code has been a thorn in most everyone's side. WELL, they believe they have divulged a plan to prevent it from taking so long going forward and we are the first test of that plan. So, with all luck we will have that precious code on Friday or at the latest Monday. What is a tax code? It is similiar to our SSNs.

What's next? Once we obtain the tax code we have two more things left from what I understand we are off to get her Visa and medical. The medical is done in one day and the Visa is done in two. Therefore we should be able to make our projection of being able to leave at least by the 16th. Of course if we can leave sooner we will. Although Wednesday, the 15th is her biological mom's birthday. Happy Birthday to the beautful lady that has provided us with such a precious gift from God.

Well, the translator just called and she needed a "head shot" of the princess on a white background for her Passport. Boy oh boy were we creative LOL.

Not sure what today will bring I don't think we have anything pressing to do. This week-end we want to head off to get a few little small trinkets to bring back - still not sure how we will get everything back but as far as I am concerned the clothes I brought can be left behind because I'm sick of seeing them LOL.

Thanks again for your prayers. We still have videos to upload. We really would like for you all to continue to pray for our return home next Thursday as it is very important to us to come home in time for our next scheduled visitation time with the boys which is on Friday, the 17th and we are so ready to get back to church. Speaking of which we have been working with Ivanna on folding her hands and saying the blessing before meals. She catches on really quickly so I'm sure it won't be long and she will have it down.

Hugs to all and we hope to see the majority of you soon.

The Stratton Family

An Orphan NO MORE!!!

2010-09-07T14:38:00.001-05:00

Well, mommy is sick and we hate it here. But I have managed to get some pictures uploaded so here you will find Ivanna's journey as the Stratton Princess of the family. She has all kinds of things she wants to teach her brothers when she comes home.

Darlena got sick I believe from the significant weather change here and all the rain we experienced this past week. Luckily Nadiia stopped with her this morning and helped her get some much needed medicine and with our tender loving care and the medicine maybe she will be well in no time.

Ivanna is so sweet when mommy is laying down she goes up and rubs on her face and just mumbles the sweetest way to her. So sweet. She has come such a long way in just the few days since she left.

She now sits in the floor and plays with her legos and just sings away and she comes to us for approval of whatever she is building.

As you can see from some of these pictures she is entertained by her mirror I am so glad we made the decision to put one in her room however we may have to lower it some when we get home.

She is just loving life for sure. On Saturday and Sunday she spent some time with her biological parents. Saturday she visited the zoo for the first time and believe it or not she liked feeding the animals and really liked pulling on the ears of the goats.

She is eating great - mommy is feeding her to get her to slow her eating habits down quite a bit and so far so good. She is also feeding her more frequently so she begins to understand that food will be there for her and no one else is going to take her food away.

I'll leave any other updates for the Stratton Queen to update since she is much better at this than I am.

Thanks for all of your prayers and we can't wait to see those of you back home that have been following. Maybe even some of you will come to the Buddy Walk this year (and her SEVENTH birthday is the same day).

Later,
Stratton's

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Last Pictures as an Orphan

2010-09-07T04:52:00.001-05:00

Hubby got our home computer where we can now upload pictures and videos again. Here are the last pictures of Ivanna as an Orphan!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our New Life with the Addition of Ivanna

2010-09-05T12:22:00.000-05:00

Well, the first night, as you can imagine, there wasn't much sleep. When she finally did go to sleep she sat up several times and just looked around and guess you probably already know everytime she flinched we were wide awake but we just laid there and acted like we didn't know she was up just to observe. She would look around to make sure we were still there, rock for a little bit and lay back down and sleep for a few more minutes. We think she was afraid to go to sleep thinking she may wake up back at the orphanage or that we would not be with her when she woke up. BUT we were and boy was she happy. When she woke up for the last time on Saturday morning I opened my eyes and she was looking straight at me with the biggest, prettiest smile and then she just hugged and kissed on both of us and we HAD to get up. :D. Then, her bio parents got here and we took off to the zoo. We weren't sure how she would handle it but all in all- she did really good. There seemed to have been several animals missing. Andy and Yuri, I don't think really wanted her to go in the petting zoo for fear of what her response would be but you know - you won't never know if you don't try it. So off she and I went and low and behold she even let the sheep and goats eat out of her hand I was pleasantly surprised. And then the poor goats she of course had to pull their ears but she'll learn to be easy. I thought maybe some of the animals may scare her but she didn't seem phased but of course she wasn't "upclose and personal". Sure was NOTHING like the St. Louis zoo or the Audobon Zoo. We'll go there when we get home.

In addition around here she will certainly need a stroller. Of course, because we were hard headed and didn't listen, we didn't bring ours. But thanks to Yuri and Anna they let us borrow Igor's. Tomorrow though we are going to buy one because I am convinced we will need on in the airports because both of us will be pure worn out from having to worry about keeping a grip on her in the crowd of people.

We took her to our favorite coffee shop for lunch. She ate a whole piece of Loren Pie which to us is Quiche. She loved it too. Basically I don't think she will "not like" anything. Then we ordered her a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The first bite of course was really cold and she almost made the indication she didn't like it. BUT YAY!!! ..... she did!!

THEN.....we took her to dinner at TGI Friday's.....she had a BLAST. She ate chicken fingers and mashed potatoes and loved them. She giggled, and giggled, and then giggled some more. I think though because she was extremely sleepy. But even during the day yesterday there was NO nap for her. She was afraid she may miss something no matter how much she rubbed her eyes or yawned.

Then we came back home for a warm bath and this time we had no trouble getting her in the bath (imagine that) this time the issue was getting her out of the bath LOL. She then crawled up in the bed, watched television for a little while and then fell fast asleep along with her daddy and I. Boy how we needed sleep. Even though she was quite the acrobat during the night, every time she flinched I think my eyes would pop open. It was funny watching her have to be touching one of us. If we scooted over to give her more room she would make sure a foot or a hand was touching us - guess that was her way of KNOWING we would be there or else it would wake her up.

Then, again this morning she woke up with the prettiest little smile on her face. As soon as I opened my eyes - she just very easily touched my face and then she gave me the sweetest kisses. Then she crawled over her daddy, grabbed his arm and pulled it out and then got under the covers and curled up close to him then she just started rubbing his face and giving him daddy kisses. SOOOOOO SWEEET!! These moments are amazing.

Had a good day - Anna and Yuri took us to one of the churches today and it was just beautiful. After that they dropped us off and we took baby girl to lunch and walked and walked and walked through the mall. This time she was in the stroller so she was happy and contented. We came back and rested for a bit and when it was time to eat dinner we met Fedia and Lynda at the Ukrainian buffet. YUMMY we love that stuff. Ivanna was REALLY good again. I'm sure there will be times when we won't have it so lucky but we hope there are less times of those. :D. The only problem is we left here without the stroller thinking it would be a nice little walk for her but she has already figured out how to get her daddy to carry her everywhere. SOOOOO in the morning, we are OFF to buy us a stroller. We are going to make sure we get one that we can load stuff in to also for when we get home and go on excursions. Yeay I know, we aren't quite the brightest crayon in the box LOL.

Well, she finally got to talk to two of her brothers today and Ms. Alice. I hope they could all hear her but she told them all she loved them.

Well, right now she is building a train in the middle of the apartment with all of her legos and anything else she can find, shoes, bows, name it it's all lined up just perfectly in the middle of the apartment and she gets so upset if something is just a tad out of line. WHAT A MESS she is!! But she's a cute one!! Completely OCD about cleaning and other things. Remind you of anyone? LOL

Well as soon as we get to a wireless connection I'll upload some pictures and videos - went to buy a new computer today but they couldn't install the English version of software :(.

Live is grand here in our little humble abode. Tomorrow is a holiday for us at work so no work tomorrow YAY!!!

Love you all,
The Stratton Family

GOTCHA Day is Complete!!

2010-09-03T14:49:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Ivanna today was filled with so many thoughts, memories and feelings that are just beyond comparaison to anything else either of us have ever dealt with.

So our day began around 10:30 when Nadiia had a friend (Gene) drive over in a taxi that had given him instructions on where to drop us off to meet up with Nadiia and Oleg. So we met them at the metro and then proceeded to Vorzel. We had to go to the court first to obtain the court documents. Once signed by the judge they were dated for Monday however they allowed us to get her today which was great. We then went to the bank to transfer the money in her account back to the orphanage. This is what all famlies of the special needs children do - just a common courtesy to help the orphanage. However I would love to actually see it put to some good use like a swing set the children could enjoy at this baby house. So I can only give that prayer.

Once that was done it was time to go and get our baby girl and when we were at the bank we were practically close enough to throw a rock at her baby house. So we got to the baby house a little after 1:00 our time. Well, at this time the children had already eaten lunch and were down for their nap but I was a tad off in time so I was wondering where Ivanna was - one of the workers motioned to me that she was asleep. As if I knew exactly I took off to the room where Ivanna sleeps without even thinking - well of course they didn't care. When I got to her crib one of the workers walked up and touched her on the head - when she opened her eyes and saw me she came straight up out of that crib as quiet as a church mouse like she knew why we were there. I brought her out to see her daddy. While Nadiia was talking to the workers and they knew of course why we were there - they told Nadiia that Ivanna had been looking for us all morning. I knew she would be. Well, I began taking off her clothes to change her in to her "gotcha day" clothes. Once I got her dressed she had the biggest smile on her face and went and looked in the mirror she was so excited. She went to her daddy and there was absolutely no way she walking more than an inch away from him. There wasn't but one PAKA she was going to say today and that was the one to the orphanage. Daddy would move and she was moving right with him. Even when we were signing papers she was right underneath us. One of the careworkers that I LOVED had come in today just to see her off. The other lady that I truly adored and so did Ivanna wasn't there today - she thought it was going to be Monday. So that was really sad. But I do plan to go back out to the orphanage before we leave. I'd like to take Ivanna but I really need to give that some thought.

When Ivanna said her PAKA's and blew her kisses of course I was teary eyed. Then I video'd daddy carrying her over the threshold where she became FREE!!! She was so excited to get in the vehicle and observed every second. As we were headed out - we saw the Savage family waiting for their bus on the side of the road - we all crammed in the facilitator vehicle and they got to be part of our experience today. She oooohhhhed and awwweeeed. We teased Oleg about her wanting to bite his ear. It was so fun. She wanted to sit in her daddy's lap so she could see everything and her little eyes were HUGE.

Once back at the apartment, we got her cleaned up a tad and went off to "lunch" which by this time was close to dinner and we were starving. We went to TGI Fridays and she was so good. She ate great of course. I didn't put any food in front of her because she eats very fast and afraid one of the other children might take it from her so it will take us a while to get her to slow down and enjoy her food and realize that for her it is a never ending supply so we will do little meals several times a day to ensure her that she will always have food when she needs it. This may take some time.

Then around 5:30 her biological parents arrived at our apartment. WOW I could see the joy in their eyes. Excited to see their baby girl outside of the orphanage for the first time in over six years. We all walked to the Italian Rest. for dinner. Well of course when her food came she wanted it and everyone else's too. But I wasn't sure what to do so I took the back seat and let her bio parents have their time.

Then they started asking about Lyndi and I looked up her number and called her since she was just right up the street with her new son Fedia. So the two of them walked over to the resteraunt and met us and then we went on a "family" excursion which was WONDERFUL!!! Yuri takes us to the greatest of places. It was truly an awesome feeling knowing that we could all be together if even for a short period of time.

Well, once we were done, Ivanna had walked probably more than she had walked in a lifetime. So Yuri dropped us all off in front of the apartment and it was BATH time! UMMMM I had seen Ivanna get "bathed" a couple of times at the orphanage and this consisted of her getting in to the bathtub with no water and while the water was on, she splashed water on herself and that was called a bath. So we put just a little water in the bathtub and made it bubbly and at first she was afraid but she quickly lost that feeling after she found she could play for a bit. Well, then I bathed her and washed her hair - she was also afraid of the shower sprayer to rinse her hair with. So we had to work that one in too but she quickly got used to it. Then she was soooooo happy to be clean. I even blow dryed her hair and she LOVED that.

WOW oh wow!!! But....she sure does not want to go to sleep at all I think she is afraid she may "miss" something or that when she wakes up she may have been dreaming.

So to all of our friends and families who read our posts. Hope you have a great evening and enjoy your families.

We can not wait to see the boys again so they can meet their new sister. She is going to love them and they are going to love her.

Tomorrow we will spend more time with her biological parents and maybe even go to the zoo. I'll put some pictures on the blog soon and some videos.

Love to all,
The Stratton Family

Ivanna's Last Night!!!!

2010-09-02T14:52:00.000-05:00

Tonight will be Ivanna's last night in the orphanage tomorrow she becomes "an orphan no more". Our translator has scheduled a driver to pick us up at 11 (not our normal driver) and he will take us to a spot right outside the city to meet up with her and our facilitator. Then we are off to court to pick up our documents and then off to the orphanage to break out our daughter. Tomorrow we officially become a family of five.

We are just so excited that right now it's another one of those times when it just doesn't seem real. Tonight as we ate dinner I was thinking that it was most probably one of the very few times in our lives that we would ever eat dinner alone together again. I didn't say anything I just thought about it and I thought about how wonderful that will be even though we both enjoy our alone time. Baby girl still has to sleep and we can still have our quiet moments together. Love is absolutely amazing and we can only hope that each of you get to experience the amazing love that we have for each other.

Please say prayers that all goes well tomorrow. Tomorrow night we will be meeting up with Ivanna's biological parents and we are so very happy that they get to share in this joy. I've said from the beginning it's bitter sweet. They will ALWAYS have a special place in our hearts and in hers. Without them we wouldn't have her at all. They will be part of her life from here on after as well as they continue to watch her grow and thrive and live a happy, productive life. It is just the beginning of a new life. Continue to pray not only for our family but her biological family as well. They have been so good and so gracious to us while we were here. Hopefully tomorrow night they will go with us to dinner we can walk right up the street to our favorite Italian Rest. It will be baby girl's first experience and if she upsets someone then oh well, life is good. I doubt it though we'll just have to play it all by ear.

We have her clothes all laid out and are even taking a change of clothes JUST IN CASE there is some type of accident :D. We are taking chocolates and flowers to the baby house tomorrow. We have previously taken diapers and realized that they were never used on Ivanna which was a little aggravating. I made sure to get some big enough to fit her and they continued to put the small ones on her. Tomorrow she's wearing big girl pull ups. We'll work again on her being potty trained once we get home we probably won't give that too much time during our last days here.

Our next blog will be to tell you all that she is in the apartment with us.

Love to all,
The Stratton Family

Last Thoughts

2010-09-02T00:13:00.000-05:00

So this morning as we prepare to go and "visit" Ivanna for our last time there are millions of thoughts of preparation running through our heads. After our visit today we will have to make sure we have the final things that we need in the apartment and we need to find her a turtleneck shirt to go with her outfit and a light jacket. Everything we brought her is summery and of course is still fit for the weather back home with exception of all the rain I am hearing you guys have experienced.

But, all in all on the bright side we could not be happier as we have waited for this day for quite some time now and some even thought it would never happen. Just as many thought other avenues that we have crossed would never happen as well. Is it us that proves wrong? No, it is God, our Heavenly Father who makes our path. When you venture off His path He continues to tug at you until He gets you right back where you are supposed to be. Are you off His directed path today? If you are there is no better time like the present to get your life in order and back on track. It takes only ONLY one request to ask Jesus in to your heart and soul. Do you think it's not possible? It is possible. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. None of us are perfect we have all sinned and we will continue to sin daily even though we strive to be the best that we can be.

Adoption, I certainly agree is not for everyone and adoption of a special needs child is not either. We tend to make this in to a fairy tale at times because of our joy and happiness but you know what??? It's the best time of both of our lives and if we continue to treat it as such and follow the direction given then we will contniue to find true happiness regardless of the situation. Now, I'd be lying if I said certain issues don't upset us, as that is human nature. We will always have trials and tribulations but will continue to pray about them all.

I can't tell you the number of times we have prayed together before and during this trip and each and every time it's first and foremost being thankful for all He has done for us.

Did you thank God today? DO IT!!!

Love,
The Stratton Family

TOTALLY PSYCHED!!!!

2010-09-01T14:29:00.001-05:00

Okay so we are TOTALLY psyched. We have found out tonight that on Friday we will be able to break out Princess Ivanna so now she ONLY has two more nights in that orphanage. I know there are a few care workers that will miss her greatly and you can honestly tell they really care about her and then there are a few that I just really don't care for because they just have not been pleasant to us and you may ask how can you tell .... it's their tone and you know they are "shouting" at you and it's really only been about feeding her which upsets me but we just smile and say whatever let them walk away and continue doing what we are doing.

On top of the exciting news we were able to meet Lyndi for the first time - she arrived today to take home her new pride and joy - Fedia. Lyndi is with RR and basically was our hand holder throughout our dossier process. And boy, did she have a job!!! LOL. We also met up with the Savages and another family that had their precious little ones with them and they will be flying out on Friday Oklahoma bound. They didn't have the same facilitator and translator as we did and sounds like their experience hasn't been as grand. I have to say that our team was DEFINITELY TOP NOTCH!! We have been nothing more than pleased with our experience which is great compared to some of the stories that we have walked through and seen from afar. But we still have a ways to go and we will just have to take what comes our way is about all we can do and just be happy that we will be leaving here with another beautiful little princess.

Well, we are totally excited and we will leave you with a few pictures.

Here is her LAST TERRIBLE haircut as soon she will only have the BEST hairdos done by Professionals ONLY!!

The best Mommy kisses in the entire universe! And you can at least see that her hair was at least long enough to have been given a decent hair cut!! Sigh!!

She now LOVES her Ballerina bear but everything has a certain time :D. She also loves it when her bear (daddy) talks to her and here she is saying "Awwweeee" and then kisses her bear!! Too cute!! She says "Thank you Aunt Tristina!!!"

Well, this is the new BIG BOY toy that we bought today. Daddy is charging it now it is the most awesome thing the boys are going to LOVE IT. It has lights that light up on it and it is huge and when the propellers start turning you nearly freeze as the winds start blowing. Awesome -- don't ask me how we are going to get this thing home - Daddy said the boys JUST HAD to have it so daddy is going to have to figure that out!!! LOL

Thanks again for all of your prayers they have obviously been working.

Love to all,

The Stratton Family

Frustrated!!!!

2010-09-01T06:08:00.000-05:00

Ok so we went to see our little princess today and yes we still love her dearly and more and more every day as if that were even possible. However when we walked in to the baby house we quickly discovered that some IDIOT and yes I do mean IDIOT cut her hair and it is absolutely PATHETIC ----- why in the world would they do that this close to her leaving. I think they should make that part of the paperwork that once the child becomes YOURS and assumes YOUR NAME then they should play by our rules one of which was DON'T CUT HER HAIR!!!! Her hair had finally grown out enough to where she could have gotten a decent haircut to begin some type of style but now it is so gapped up and just horrible that I'm not sure if there are any miracles to be had. They of course, left the back long so now for sure she sports the "mullet" look. I'm just disgusted by that .... I know DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF but that's just aggravating. And of course whoever cuts it is just someone that picks up a pair of scissors and wacks it so you can just imagine.

Ok round two of frustration for our visit today. We have some careworkers in which we adore and you can really tell they care a lot not only for Ivanna but for the children, in general. Then there are maybe two that just seem to "have a job" if you know what I mean. One of them was on duty today. She discovered that we were feeding Ivanna yogurt and about had two heart attacks and a stroke to boot. I said (to myself of course) what in the world does it matter ---- in a few more days you will never see her again you old hagglett!!! But of course for the sake of others and the reputation of ourselves we hold all that inside just biding for our time to take her away from there so she can enjoy some time with her biological parents and start forming her life with her new mommy and daddy. In addition, this is the same woman who came after her when it was time for her to go eat lunch. Thank goodness one of our favorites took over and allowed her time to say her goodbyes so she wouldn't be upset when she left. At least we have comfort in knowing there are the good ones there that will for certain make sure that she is not upset and will do everything they can to calm her.

But there is some good to all of my venting today. Oleg stopped by and he is going to "try" with no promises to get our court document on Friday so there still may be a small chance that we can break her out on Saturday as opposed to Monday so all we can do is say our prayers and hope that she will be out of there two days earlier. But either way she is leaving there for good at least by Monday and mommy and daddy and mama and papa couldn't be happier.

Anyway - if you read this with sincere concern then thanks!!

Continue to pray for our families, for the workers, and for the orphans we leave behind and for all of the future parents coming behind us. May God continue to bless us all.

Love,
The Stratton Family

SIX Days Remaining

2010-08-31T05:56:00.000-05:00

We are down to six more nights that Ivanna will spend in the orphanage. I'm sure she will be missed but yet everyone will be so happy to see her go. There are several things that need to be worked on and we will just have to take one/two at a time. But all will be good. I haven't posted in a while and wanted to write a few things down before I let them slip.

Saturday: We rode to the orphanage with our driver and rode home with Anna and Yuri. Enjoyed our visit and after our visit we had the most incredible lunch thanks to Anna and Yuri. They took us to the Ukranian Buffet --- well, you ask how was that different because we could actually ask what things were and Yuri could tell us and I AM HOOKED on Verneke - that stuff is WONDERFUL!! I had the potato and cherry and I think I have had the potato verneke everyday since then. Good stuff.

Then we went down to the square that evening and strolled through the Globus underground mall which is fantastic we still didn't see all of it. I stayed too long in guess which store - yep the baby stores :D. Even though she really isn't a baby she is still our baby.

Sunday: Anna and Yuri picked us up to go visit Ivanna. I'm not sure why this day's visit was very hard for me. I was trying to stay in the background and give Anna, Yuri and Igor some space to enjoy the visit because we just didn't want to interrupt what will serve to be special time and special memories to them. I also saw that it was a struggle for us to be referred to as Momma and Daddy and that's understandable too. But Ivanna had a great day with her momma (Anna) and papa (Yuri) and enjoyed being tossed and twirled in the air. Bitter sweet.

Monday: Well, the traffic was INCREDIBLY bad as they were paving the road on the way to vorzel and we all know what that is like. It took us over two hours to get to the orphanage so that only left us with a little less than an hour with the Princess :(. Wasn't so hard to get her to turn aloose this day because it was almost like the visit was over before it ever got started.

Today: This morning we were picked up at eight as opposed to nine and headed off. Luckily there was little to no traffic today so we were at the orphanage in less than 45 minutes. I was a little worried the workers may be upset since we were there so early but much to our surprise they greeted us with smiles and Ivanna had already spotted us and here she came a running!!! So very sweet when she does that. We spent a little time inside waiting on it to warm up a tad outside and then once she got wound up we moved our party for three outside. We did all sorts of things outside but the one thing that was quite funny today is that when we would take her for a walk we would try to go out the gate and to the right and she just WAS NOT going to go that way....we finally realized WHY!!!! She was afraid it was time for us to leave and by golly she just was not going that way. When it really was time to go daddy had to pick her up and carry her. Then she continually went back and forth between the both of us hugging and kissing until one of the workers finally had to take her by the hand as she was continuing to wave Paka!!! Next Monday baby girl - you will be waving Paka to the baby house and the next time you come back it will ONLY be for a visit!!!

Also the ballerina bear that she once would not have anything to do with she was finally snuggling to today and giving kisses. WOW imagine what she is going to think of all the baby dolls already on her bed and waiting for her????

Watching the changes she has made over the past couple of weeks may seems small to some but some of them are really huge to us and we can't imagine how much she will blossom when we get home. Our hope is to be able to leave here on September 16th and be home for our visitation with the boys on the 17th so they can meet their sister for the first time.

We are so looking forward to next Monday. There is not the slightest reservation between either of us and we know that Ivanna was the child that God chose for us and for our family.

We are looking forward to Lyndi coming tomorrow and Danielle, Ivan's mom (or you have heard me refer to him in my posts as Igor - as this is what he is called at the Orphanage) will be here next week. Ivan is going to be SO GLAD that the visits will be all about him.

There are other children in this baby house and others that truly need a forever family so if you have any questions, please ask or visit http://www.reecesrainbow.org/ and Andrea Roberts will be more than happy to answer questions for you.

I'll post pictures and videos soon but right now it's time for a nap before I have to get some "real work" done.

Take care and please continue to say prayers for us. Our current prayers are as follows:

He continue to guide us through the final adoption phase
He continue to watch over us during our return home
He be with Ivanna and bring calmness to her during her next six nights in the orphanage
He be with every family during their adoption in the present and the ones that will follow us
He do His will in finding each and everyone of these precious children their forever families and forever homes
He watch after our boys back home, our friends, and our families.

Amen!

Love to all,
The Stratton Family

Photos from 08/26 and 08/27

2010-08-28T00:57:00.001-05:00

Here are the photos from our visit with the princess on 08/26 and 08/27. As you can see on 08/27 we are in the play room with the children. Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Videos from 08/26 and 8/27

2010-08-27T23:50:00.001-05:00

Well, here we are and all is going great which is highly unusual. Looks like GOTCHA day has now changed to Saturday, September 4th. If something happens to change it will be on Monday for sure. The workers were able to communicate with us again today that after we left yesterday and she realized we were gone after she took off looking for us she was crying again they are in total disbelief. So today when the worker came in to tell us it was time for Ivanna to go so she could eat lunch the worker had a really sad look on her face she didnt want to take her either because she knew what was going to happen. All I can say is prayers for our little girl and hope that she knows she only has to sleep there 8 more nights and then she leaves with mommy and daddy. I know her mama and papa are going to miss her greatly but they will at least have peace knowing that she has found a good home and we will do everything to our ability to keep them posted of her successes and we know there will be many.

We were able to play with her in the toy room today which I am guessing that not people get to experience. We had all three children in our care for a little while and boy WHAT A HANDFUL!!! We had the Princess, Igor and Leeza and buddy with all of them fighting to have the attention it was quite strenuous. Leeza would crawl up in daddys lap and Ivanna wanted no part of that as soon as she caught a glimpse of that here she would come shoving Leeza out of the way and then assume HER throne!! What a little mess she is and I mean that in the funniest of ways!

She would get all bent out of shape that she would work so hard to build her train track out of blocks and then Igore or Leeza would kick pieces of it and get it out of order and she was not at all happy. Then we had the screaming session. This is when Igor decides he wants to be noticed (as if he wasnt) and he stands over to the side and goes to screaming ---- well then what does that cause that causes our little mimic to go do the same thing as soon as he is done. Oh boy!!! Everyday I have tried to take them all a snack of some sort. Today it was cookies and they are eager to tear in to them. I just give them to one of the workers and they distribute them. Such sweet ladies at this house I have certainly been very pleased.

Well, after we were about to pull our hair out with all three of them in the room with just us and trying to keep them all rounded up and stop competing for attention one of the ladies came in just as Leeza had grabbed hubbys glasses off his face and bent them. So, while I was getting him back in working order, she took Igor and Leeza with her to the front room. It was attempting to mist today so today was an inside visit which was fine with us but the three of them together is boy howdy a little too much :D.

Danielle!!!! Hurry up!!!! Hes waiting on Y-O-U!!!! Brush up on your Russian/Ukrainian too cause he babbles constantly. :D. When you get here, if you havent learned them already, we will teach you the VERY important words LOL!!!

Well, come to find out the pictures didnt turn out well today because the camera had gotten switched to another setting :(. Thats what happens when little ones are around to constantly push buttons. Guess I need to put that on my list of things to remember.check settings before taking pictures. Butwe did get some good videos though so guess that makes up for it.

Having a great time still.this evening we decided to go out for a quick dinner since I am working in the evenings. We LOVE the Italian Resteraunt that is close to us. GREAT Pizza and other things too but we have come to really love their pizza. When we left guess what? it was pouring down rain. So off we go in the rain as my silly husband starts singing what song? Singing in the Rain and skipping and dancing!! I know, I know you all dont believe this but unfortunately I didnt have the video camera to capture this but it happened. He is a NUT! So by the time we made it back to the apartment we were soaked but we had a nice dinner and once again, made the best of it.

Our goal is to be able to leave here on Thursday, 9/16 since we are supposed to have visitation with the boys on Friday, 9/17. That way they will get to see their new sister in a timely fashion since well. So, lets all pray that we can get everything done in that time frame and still allow her to get to spend some time with her biological parents before we go and that all goes smoothly and we can leave on this date.

Thanks for taking the time to read our lengthy posts and we look forward to seeing you all soon! Hope you enjoy the videos we are leaving you with.

And now that's it's Saturday morning where we are she presently only has seven more nights in her temporary home!

Love to all!
The Stratton Family

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Court Day 08/25/2010

2010-08-25T08:59:00.001-05:00

Well here you will see the building where court was conducted today and then our short visit with Ivanna after our court appearance today!! What a lively little Princess.

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It's OFFICIAL!!!!

2010-08-25T06:15:00.000-05:00

Today we welcome a bouncing baby girl in to our family via a paperwork pregnancy and what a pregnancy it was Momma and Daddy are worn out. We now can officially call Ivanna Patricia-Nan Stratton our daughter. So now we are a family of six.

So today our facilitator picked us up at 8:15 a.m. and we stopped to pick up our translator then headed off to court. Luckily the Judge was in a good mood as Nadiya had told us the day of the "L" families court she was not in a good mood at all. We had a judge, prosecutor, secretary, social worker, orphanage director, translator and (2) members of a "jury". WOW huh?!?! Well she just proceeded to read through our home study and asked questions mostly to Andy where he had to stand and give an answer to our translator basically asking if we were asking anything extra of the court and if we agreed with our petition and still wanted to follow through with our petition. Of course there was no hesitation from either of us and then she asked if I supported the decision of my husband and of course no hesitation there either. They continued to look through our photo albums, one of GCDSS and one of our family. Then they asked if I had any pictures of Ivanna and then they all chuckled when I pulled out another photo album, same size with photos of Ivanna in it. They then also saw pictures of the Princess room. They all agreed that she was a very lucky little girl. When in fact - we feel as though we are the lucky ones.

Then as they were reading her name and confirmed this in to order I had chills all over me. They congratulated us as her new mommy and daddy and I said "Baseba" and the Judge just looked at me and smiled and chuckled "probably thinking crazy American can't even pronounce it right!!".

Then we headed down to the baby house to visit Ivanna while the Translator and Facilitator went and handled some business at the Director's office and another baby house. Our visit was great of course - when we first got there it was trying to sprinkle outside so when we went in to where Ivanna was - the workers led us to another part of the house to have our visit. I took out a brush that we had just bought at a pharmacy to brush Ivanna's hair....surprisingly she let me brush and brush and brush her hair and even acted like she enjoyed it. Then Daddy told her to brush mine and she did then she was not giving up the brush after that - she brushed and fixed my hair and fixed it some more and then it was Daddy's turn :D. One of the workers brought what I think was a boiled apple in for Ivanna to eat - of course she loved it - I don't think there is anything she will turn down. THEN our little wild child slowly started coming out of her shell. As daddy started playing with her she got a little rambunctious and started throwing her shoes and such and yes you couldn't help but laugh at her which of course was making her worse but she will learn quickly what she is able to do and not do. So then our facilitator came in which meant it was time for us to wrap things up. As we were gathering up our things she took off running to the front door which she has never attempted to do before and started sreaming to the top of her lungs as I was trying to get her back inside. So then we managed to walk her to the back where the workers and other children were. Our facilitator began to tell the workers that we had court today and they were so excited. Then Ivanna kept grabbing our hands and we thought it was because she wanted to swing from our hands like she normally does well, it wasn't at all, it was because she wanted to go. So then we kissed her and said Paka and she waved and I noticed she had a strange look on her face then as I turned away I heard a worker have a strange voice and calling her name and then I heard Andy telling me she was crying --- when I turned around and her eyes were filled with tears my heart melted. The workers told our facilitator it was the first time they had EVER seen her cry even when she would get hurt. Broke my heart so I kissed the tears out of her eyes and they explained to her we would be back in the morning. They said that for the last few mornings she had been going to the window and saying mama and papa and pointing to outside. Sad but good that she is feeling a bond there.

We haven't seen her biological parents since last Saturday they had e-mailed on Monday to say they were sick. Hope they are feeling better.

We will bring Ivanna to the apartment with us on Monday, September 6 and then start our preparation to leave while also giving her biological parents a little time with her before we go as two families that will love her for a lifetime.

Will be posting pictures and videos soon but right now it's time for a rest as I am emotionally drained. :D Can't wait to see her tomorrow but I don't want her to be upset when we leave I want her to understand that we will be back and soon she will leave that place for ever.

What does make this very comforting is that the workers seem to treat her well and really care for her the best they can. I think they will miss her also as she is very smart and does things for them and to entertain them too. She is a MESS!! We think you all will love her just as we do.

Love you all,
The Stratton Family!

Our Trip

2010-08-22T00:53:00.001-05:00

Thought I would take just a few minutes to blog about our trip. We absolutely have fallen in love with Kiev. We love the fact that you can walk anywhere you want to go (well mostly). Tons of stores to go through - many varieties of foods to eat. We have certainly enjoyed learning more about the city as well and I must say we have had a wonderful teacher! (Thank Yuri). We still haven't toured as much as we want but the one thing we do want to do is visit some of the churches here. Once Ivanna is released we hope we can all go to the zoo. It will be a first for Ivanna and for Andy.

I never would have thought that we would have enjoyed being "out of our element" but we have been pleasenty surprised. The only thing we have really missed is being able to set the air conditoner on what we want (which is COLD) and having a clothes dryer and a LARGE washing machine - although funny how you learn to adapt and I honestly think that as for energy conservation we could probably learn a lot from these people. We have come in contact with many and surprisingly they all seem happy - you know how when you look at someone and you can say "worry" in their face ---- I don't see a lot of that here.

Tons of beautiful parks and now that the weather has cooled down it makes it much more pleasant to get out.

Well, need to run - not sure what we are going to do yet - we were supposed to go see baby girl but the driver wasn't able to make it :( and unfortunately Anna and Yuri are off to church and we certainly wish we could be too. We miss our church family!!! I still hope we get to see her today.

Love you all and take care. More pictures and videos coming this afternoon I'm sure.

Pictures and Videos from 08/20-21

2010-08-21T15:41:00.001-05:00

Had a great afternoon today visiting with our little Princess. Yuri went with us today and he certainly missed his calling at being a comedian. He keeps us laughing.

Gets harder and harder to leave Ivanna behind when we leave but hopefully she only has about two more weeks left at the orphanage because just as soon as we get the OK for GOTCHA day we are going to break her out.

Don't get me wrong --- I can only speak for this baby house but these workers really seem to care about her and the other children. They take pictures themselves and they make do with what they are given for the children. A shame to see them count diapers as they do though - hurt my heart that diapers have to be rationed. I know I will take some to them and I know Anna and Yuri has taken some to them all along.

Ivan's mom (the one dancing in the video with Ivanna) will be coming for him shortly - she is scheduled to be here on 9/12. Can't wait to meet her. She's going to be another lucky mom because he is not understanding at all why Ivanna's has a mom and he doesn't so I am glad that he will be getting a mom of his very own shortly after Ivanna. Blessed children they are but there are still many more that need homes.

Hope you enjoy these videos and pictures we continue to watch them over and over ourselves and know the boys will love her just as much as we do.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Videos from 08/18 and 08/19 visits to Princess Ivanna

2010-08-21T07:39:00.002-05:00

Here are the videos from the 08/18 and 08/19 visits. We are going with Anna and Yuri to see her again this afternoon and we are so excited. Can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees us all. We wonder if she noticed we didn't come this morning. Love you all and thanks again!

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Visit 08/18 and 08/19

2010-08-21T06:50:00.001-05:00

What joy it is each and every time we visit her. On the 19th we took her a new outfit to put on. It was a little cool that day and she enjoyed the wind blowing and we get so excited everytime it did.

She loves her yogurt and fruit and the joy on her face when we show up to see her is just a feeling that is not even comparable to any other.

Her days are numbered at the orphanage and it won't be many more days that she will be able to make the transition to the apartment with us.

The song that we attached to these photos is very true!! FREE by Zac Brown Band - we don't have a lot of money but all we need is love. Free as we'll ever be. Ivanna is almost free.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support we certainly thank Jesus several times a day for bringing us this far in our journey. Can't wait to have us all home under the same roof.

We do like it here though and are certainly going to miss her biological parents but we have skype :D.

Videos coming soon.

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6th (8/18) & 7th (8/19) Visits

2010-08-19T14:34:00.000-05:00

WOW is a word that we say often. Don't have pictures an videos ready to upload yet but they are really good for certain. Yesterday and today we rode over to Vorzel with Sivlet (no where near sure how to spell his name). He is a driver that our facilitator uses to get families over to Vorzel if they choose to be driven as opposed to riding the bus. In our case we mostly have been going with Anna and Yuri which is great for all of us I believe to make the transition easier.

Yesterday was a lot of fun and as soon as she saw us round the corner up from the table she came and ran straight to Darlena - we sure wish we would have gotten that one on video. Her little eyes are the brightest in the world.

Today she was excited to see us but she was eating breakfast or a snack outside when we got there and they immediately took her in to get her cleaned up first. Well, before we went out to see her one of the ladies took Darlena by the arm and was telling her to wait....come to find out she wanted to show us some pictures of Ivanna - Ivanna was dressed in the Doctors white coat and using a stethascope and playing doctor on one of the ladies it was hilarious. Then she showed us quite a few other pictures as well. Tomorrow I am going to photograph them because there are some good ones of Ivan and the workers in there also.

Well, once the worker got Ivanna cleaned up (well I thought that's what was happening) --- goodness Darlena kept saying she smelled the most horrible smell as we were walking her out to the play area - well now I know she has a nose for an Ivanna stinky!! So she quickly gathered her up and took her inside and the workers took her. Darlena said she wanted to get her cleaned up but she thinks they were wanting to show her that Ivanna was Miss Independent and could do the majority of it by herself. Well, soon, she will learn a different side of independence. Well, anyway - here they come finally and I had the video camera on this time. Ivanna had to stop and attempt to fasten the velcro on her shoes which were worn out and wouldn't fasten and then she finally came running straight to me and ran right in to me while I was videotaping. That is the cutest thing to see her running towards you like that and the excitement on her face when she does.

We brought her a new outfit to put on today and it was a jumper again not what she was accustomed to so we had a little struggle from her at first but when her attention got diverted to a banana she will basically let you do anything you want as long as she gets her banana!!! She looked so cute.

We had taken her a new pair of shoes a few days ago but they still keep sending her out with the same shoes on that won't stay velcro'd any longer and are too short. So, today we went and bought her a pair of sandals that velcro that look similiar to the ones she had on except these light up. I bet she is going to be so happy that she doesn't have to bend down every few seconds and attempt to fasten her shoes. Just hope they don't disappear. We may take her a new outfit tomorrow we just haven't decided yet. The clothes they have to dress them in are many sizes too small and the diapers they use are the same ... way too small. Anna and Yuri took some diapers that were appropriate but for some reason they don't use them and they continue to use the ones that are too small. Before we go and get her we are going to take them quite a few ourselves to help with some of the other children.

She is also OCD about keeping herself clean which is too funny to me. She gets something on her mouth and she almost immediately wants to wipe it. Just way too cute. Spills something on her, she wants to wipe it off. Today we were able to capture on video her mommy singing ABCs to her and ennunciating a few letters sharply and Ivanna was catching on and attempting to mimic the same thing. Then Darlena started teaching her how to say I loooovvveee You and she would just giggle. She said it several times. Won't be long and we couldn't make her be quiet if we wanted to so I guess we better enjoy it while we can.

Oh and she thinks grabbing something and slinging it across the yard is funny. She's not going to think that's too funny if she picks up one of the lego sets that Steven so delicately put together and slings it across the living room. Guess we have to work on that trait huh?

We have missed Anna and Yuri the past few days as they have been spending time with Anna's grandmother. But hopefully we will get to spend more time with them on Saturday. Tomorrow we will go again with Sivlet. He is such a character. He has fun trying to figure out what we are saying and he also helps us with our words on the way out. Yuri has to correct us though and give us the Ukranian version as opposed to the Russian version. Sometimes they are similiar but yet different.

Well, hopefully tomorrow we will get pictures and videos uploaded again - we again have technical difficulties on our home laptop. Not sure why it is wanting to give us so much trouble but that may be a good thing. Darlena is working so just wanted to give everyone an update while we could.

We can't wait to talk to the boys tonight to tell them what all has been going on lately. Ivanna looked at the photo album again with me today while I called out the names of the boys and she attempted to repeat them.

She has so much capability and will soon be able to express more and more. Looking forward to it. She is a complete MESS - I hope all of you in Mississippi that are waiting on her arrival are ready. Darlena told me that they will probably have security meet us in the airport when we touch down in the US and they will tell us that we are not allowed to board another plan and will have to find an alternate route home. That is just plain funny.

We have eaten at quite a few places. This morning Darlena made coffee in the apartment for the first time. It was very good we hadn't had just plain coffee since we left and that is almost unbelievable for either of us. But it has just been way too hot.

Yesterday and today it has been so cool and felt so good outside. The boys would absolutely love it here there is so much to do. Hopefully when we have our GOTCHA day we will be able to take her to zoo and a few more things before we leave and not to mention the "official" stuff that must be done before we leave. But we want her to have time to spend with her biological family before we leave. This will be a first for them and a first for her and will mean a lot to them and to her grandmother and mean a lot to us because we will get to capture it all on video and camera.

Well signing off for now - thanks for your prayers continue to say them and we look forward to introducing our new family member to all of you very soon.

Videos from 08/15 and 08/17

2010-08-17T14:55:00.001-05:00

Finally uploading videos from our 3rd and 5th visits with the Princess. She is a mess. She is going to be so much fun so you all better get ready for lots and lots of hugs and kisses.

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Fifth Visit 8/17/10

2010-08-17T09:59:00.001-05:00

Another great visit today. We were so glad that Yuri, Anna and Igor joined us a little in to our visit so we could all spend time with her at the same time.

Ivanna was very playful again today and we watched her beautiful face light up again today when she looked up and saw us.

She colored, played ball, ate snacks which is her favorite!!! She is still not liking having pretty bows in her hair yet but she will get used to it after a while. As long as you bribe her with a banana she will keep it in for a little bit. When we got there she was in pigtails but that didn't last long either - out they came not soon after she got in my lap and she just smiles as though she is saying ha ha - I told you I wasn't going to wear them. But once again, she controls what she does LOL.

Today looks like the last hot day for a little bit thank goodness because having to walk in the city is a scorcher. Tomorrow's high is 76 which is about 20 degrees cooler than it has been thank goodness. Every one in Ukraine says this is the first year it has been this hot here. We are certainly looking forward to cooler weather however hope it doesn't get too cool because we brought nothing to adapt to cooler weather. But I don't think I'll be complaining about it being cool.

Well, hope you enjoy the montage and we will have videos coming soon. Going to combine videos from the other day and today since we just got our video flip back from Yuri today.

Continue your prayers for our family and don't forget the boys back home.

Love,
The Stratton Family

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Visit 8/16/10 & WE GOT A COURT DATE!!

2010-08-16T12:27:00.001-05:00

Another great visit today. Unfortunately we did not have Yuri to escort us today but it was still a good day! Ivanna is quite the princess for sure. Playing with other children is somewhat of a struggle for her because sharing is not one of her stronger points. We have become attached to the other children around her as well. Two of them have families coming soon but one little boy today really did a number on our hearts. Sasha was pointing to the bench seat beside him and looking and Andy and saying Papa wanting Andy to sit down. The workers started telling him that we were "Ivanna's Mama and Papa" and his little eyes looked so heart broken and he said very plainly "I want a Papa".....This was probably the worst pain we could have felt. He has a disability in his arm and his leg but he is elegible for adoption and has such a sweet disposition and is very shy and timid.

Ivanna wore her bow in her hair for all of about five minutes a few of the pictures reflect that - the workers brought me out a comb and ponytail holders to put her hair up in pig tails but that didn't work out to good for me so the doctor came over and showed me how it was done and how to make her cooperate - wow she certainly had a way with her. :D She is just too funny and just full of spirit. She is going to work out very well in our family since there are no younger children and she doesn't have to worry about sharing her "girly" toys with her brothers.

Our court date has been set for Wednesday, 8/25. At this court she will obtain her official name of Ivanna Patricia-Nan Stratton. Then we have a 10 day waiting period and then after that we can go and get her from the orphanage. Then it's off to prepare for our trip home but still have to get medical, Visa, etc. etc. and I want to give her some time with her biological family before we leave. I know they want this more than anything. Hopefully we will be able to visit the zoo or something together as two families that love her dearly. So we anticipate being here about 2 weeks after the 10 day period making our return around the 17th or 18th of September. Wish us luck and please continue your prayers as both of our families will need them. More importantly pray for the children we leave behind because it's going to hurt our hearts for many years to come.

Enjoy the montage and there will be more tomorrow!

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3rd Visit 08/15/2010

2010-08-15T06:56:00.002-05:00

Today's visit started off a little challenging. Several of the kiddos were outside when we arrive but Ivanna was inside. As soon as we walked in the door she ran to all three of us and hugged each of us. What a complete blessing that is. She had such a beautiful smile on her face. She was immediately looking to see what we brought her today.

So I took her by the hand and led her outside with Yuri's wonderful help - he was able to translate to us what the workers were saying. So we walked out to the play area and joined a few of the other children, Igor and Leeza included. Ivanna is accustomed to having to fight for what she gets or keeps and of course that is understandable. So she got no, no, no several times and JoAnn you will be pleased to know that I left with a battle scar today LOL. Completely understandable though and the more I think about it it is just so sad.

Larissa, one of the nurses was outside and today I showed her our family photos and the photos of Ivanna's room. She asked if she could take them inside and show others - Absolutely. Then later in the visit she gathered up the children and took them inside because lunch time was approaching. Ivanna's whole disposition changed once the other children were taken out of the equation. She became much more cooperative just like a flip of a switch. So it may take a little time to adapt to being around other children and prevent having that feeling of having to share or fight to keep what she believes to be "hers".

Oddly enough the careworkers invited me in today to sit with Ivanna during lunch. They had a little small childrens table that sat four. Ivanna, Leeza, Igor and one more. They had some type of soup first and then followed that with a bowl of potato mixture. Oh my Ivanna ate and protected her bowl as if she had to keep anyone else from getting her food. That was also very hard to watch. Because when she leaves Vorzel she will no longer have to do that but it may take a little bit of time for her to understand that.

We know the boys will love her. Her papa turned on music for her and she held it up to her Daddy's ear and just rocked with her daddy. To try and burn off some energy, Daddy and Papa swung her around and let her climb on the monkey bars. Our little Princess Monkey.

After watching her yesterday we took her a coloring book and colors which she really enjoyed. When she got tired of coloring, then we let Igor color for a little bit so Danielle be sure to bring a coloring book. Oh my goodness he is a talker and he so enjoys company. Yuri told the workers today that you would be there in about a month so they are expecting you and also they asked where you were from and he told them that as well.

Well, all in all it was a good day and we always have enough to occupy her. Very, very hot outside though but under shade. It is supposed to start cooling down here in the mid to end of the week.

Thanks again for following. We will go to the orphanage by ourselves in the morning which will be challenging with the language barrier.

We will also get our court date tomorrow. From what I understand our Interpol clearances are back but we will know for sure of that tomorrow also.

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Pictures 08/14/2010

2010-08-14T13:39:00.001-05:00

Here are the pictures from today's visit. Incredible journey so far and we have so much to be thankful for. This precious child will forever know love from two mommy and daddy's. We are very thankful for the many blessings that God has given to us and for a precious girl to be added to our family.

On Monday we will have an appointment to obtain our court date. It appears our Interpol Clearances are back since there was such a long time between submission and our travel date which is wonderful. Today we were asked to provide her official new name which will be Ivanna Patricia-Nan Stratton. Ivanna will be named after Andy's mother who passed away in October of 2004.

Ivanna will always know where she came from and how she got to America. The answer? Because of the love of her biological Mama and PaPa.

Enjoy!

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Video Visit 08/13/2010

2010-08-14T10:19:00.001-05:00

Some of you were unable to see the videos I posted of an earlier visit so I put them in a video montage. Hope this helps!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ivanna 08/14/2010

2010-08-14T09:58:00.001-05:00

Another wonderful day with Ivanna. Today we went to Vorzel with Yuri, Ivanna's father. Blessed are we to have such wonderful people in our lives. We had a great day. The workers invited us in and we got to see all of the children today. They all looked at the GCDSS photo album that I took and were amazed. They asked questions and Yuri translated for us. Ivanna took me back to show me where she sleeps and they had rows of baby cribs head to head and she took us back to show us hers. Igor/Ivan also wanted to show us his as well. Very sweet children. Met Leeza who is also a very pretty little princess.

Enjoyed our second visit today with Ivanna - we were there for about two hours. Nurses said we could give her anything to eat or drink but Yuri got us passed that one because it broke my heart to believe that our baby was hungry and thirsty. She let me rub lotion on her today and she was very playful. You all know she loves the telephone. Today when she got her Papa's phone I called her from ours and sang to her and she just listened and listened and as soon as I would stop she would put it down but as long as I was singing to her she would listen. Her and her daddy played and played as you can see from the video. Yuri helped us with words that would easily let her be able to understand us. VERY smart little girl. She wanted to watch herself on the video and quickly learned how to push the play button and play it back. Bunches of hugs and kisses today.

Was also some tough times too - when she was changed we saw a very bad rash on her hiney that was heart breaking. Oh how we can not wait to get her out of there. Looked as though it was from either heat or the diaper being left on too long. Either way it was bad. Yuri was very upset by this too and immediately washed her and luckily we had brought some baby lotion and he put some on her. Just aweful.

Hope you enjoy the video montage - oh and the beginning is of her Papa being funny - and rocking out to Elvis Presley!!

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Videos From First Visit and Other Stuff

2010-08-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

Well here are the other videos you have been patiently waiting on. Again I can not even begin to thank you enough for all of your prayers and support through out this entire process. Those of you that know me know that I am NEVER lost for words but the day has come. All I can keep repeating is that God is good and I am regretful for all those times that I allowed myself to question Him over the years. Whatever happened happened was because it was His plan and not mine.

Nadya, our beautiful and funny translator - I can not tell you how many times she has looked at me like I had five heads LOL ..... she is the sweetest thing - said she was going to have to carry around a notebook when she was with me so that she could write down all the stuff I come up with so I do things on purpose just to make her laugh. After we left Ivanna it was very quiet in the back seat just absorbing every second of what happened and then I finally tapped her on the shoulder and said "Nadya...did I tell you we got to see Ivanna today?" She just laughed. Then when I left my purse - that was a hoot - Oleg, our facilitator pulls up at the notaries building at 1:30 - they don't reopen from lunch until 2. Well....they never bothered to tell us that he was "dropping us off" and leaving so I left my purse/bag in the back floor board. So we walk down to McDonalds (I was in heaven!) and the first thing that happened we got up to the counter and the menu was in Ukrainian - well I recognized Big Mac but hubby wanted a quarter pounder so what do I do??? I tell her a quarter pounder and then realized they don't even do pounds so of course they wouldn't have it listed like that on the menu so I was standing in the middle of all of these people laughing. So we get to the table and she was like "What was that you wanted again?" so had to explain. Then her phone rings.......she looks to me and says Oleg says you left your purse in his car do you need it? I said no if I do I can just walk out and get it ...... Ummmmm surprise.....Oleg left. I was rolling then I went on this tangent of how my camera and video camera was in there and I would not turn that a loose. So everytime she would change the subject - I would go right back to "Did I tell you that my camera and video camera is in the back of Oleg's car?". Poor thing - I so pity her having to put up with me but what else can you do other than have a great time! So she talked to Oleg and since he lives on the other side of the city he had a taxi bring it to me - it was photo albums, Ivanna's toys and camera and flip inside but very important stuff you see.... Guess you can tell we got it!!!!

Hope you enjoy the videos. I plan to capture much more over the upcoming days.

Momma feeding baby girl a banana and talking as usual. Ivan/Igor is in these pictures whose mom will be going to get him very soon. That little boy will bring another family so much joy. He cried because he wanted her phone and she was not parting with it period. We had Nadya tell him that we would bring him a phone on our next visit so he stopped crying. OH how it breaks my heart when a child is upset.

Daddy playing with Princess Ivanna. She loved her Ballerina bear that Aunt Tristina gave her for a minute but when the Princess Phone came out - it was all over for anything else we brought her to play with because it was all about the telephone.

At a resteraunt eating and our first time to meet her mother - she is even more beautiful in person. She was wearing her necklance we gave her that reads "forever in our heart".

This video was when we had just arrived and we were dumping suitcases all over the place trying to locate the stuff we and brought for Ivanna's biological family to send back with Yuri.

Our First Visit with Ivanna 08/13 at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-08-13T14:05:00.001-05:00

There are not enough words to describe how incredibly wonderful today was with our vist visit with Ivanna!! It was GREATER than we could have ever imagined!! I will write more later but right now we are a bit tired. We will be going to see the princess again in the morning with her wonderful biological parents. How very lucky Ivanna is to have two sets of parents that love her very much. Thank you to all of those who have followed our journey with us yesterday, today and forward.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fantastic Wednesday

2010-08-11T16:11:00.000-05:00

Ok let me back up a tad to our eventful travel. We were originally supposed to fly from New Orleans to Washington to Frankfurt to Kiev. Well, when we got to the airport we found out that the previous flight in the same plane they had a medical emergency on and whatever happened to the guy he had lost a significant amount of blood on the plane. Can you say - only in the Stratton's life??? So they were having issues getting it cleaned up and the medical emergency kits replaced not to mention the ambulance had to come to the airport and remove the guy from the plane. Ok - so a few hours later ended up changing ALL of our flights after figuring out we would never make it to Kiev at this rate. So we ended up flying out of New Orleans at 5:30 to Chicago then to Munich and then on over to Kiev. On the long leg of the flight from Chicao to Munich there was a small child that cried the entire time with the exception of 1 hour out of 8. So needless to say zero rest. Yuri and Anna didn't get our message until 2 hours in to their wait at the airport for us that we had to change flights. So Yuri had to turn around and come back to get us - they were pretty worried. But it all worked out and I was presented with flowers as soon as he got to us. That was VERY special to me. Then he brought us to our apartment and we unpacked a few things and gave to Yuri and would see them both on Wednesday.

Today has certainly been eventful. Before you all woke up today we were running the roads. First stop - SDA (State Department of Adoptions) appointment. In this appointment they tell you what "disability" your child has and what medical issues if any. In our situation they told us Ivanna had Down syndrome. REALLY? :D. They also told us she had flat feet. REALLY? LOL Anyway all was going fine especially since the translator we knew everything there was to know about Princess Ivanna and then some. THEN they turned the file our direction and showed us baby girl's baby picture that's when the plumbing started to leak. She's a beautiful little princess now just like she was then. Our translator, Nadya, will take us tomorrow afternoon to pick up our referral and then we will be off to the orphanage first thing Friday morning for our first meeting with Princess Ivanna - can not wait. After the initial meeting we will be able to go almost anytime and of course as many times as Anna and Yuri want to go we will go with them when we can. These two are VERY special people to us. Without them we would not have our princess for sure and they will continue to play a very important role in all of our lives.

Yuri also picked us up and took us to several places in the city site seeing. All I can say is WOW!! The city is beautiful. We met up with Anna for dinner and again FANTASTIC. We got to talk about everything from start to finish from present to future of our little girl. Hard to believe that the great deal of love in their hearts for Ivanna is what allows them the courage to get through this.

After dinner they came up to the apartment where I could show Anna everything that we brought with us for Ivanna and we gave her the scrapbook created for her by Donna Brewer. She loved it. I told her she needed to translate the poem and when she did she was going to cry. They both said they have cried a lot during this process and I can only imagine.

The society here and their thinking of children/adults with DS is just highly mind boggling to us. They and our facilitator said very rarely will you see a child with DS walking the streets??? WHAT??? We then told them that they have jobs and attend REGULAR school and anything else they want to achieve then they certainly can. Today was extremely fun and we were able to learn so much about them More pictures and videos coming soon just wanted to make sure I got this out.

By the time all of you get up on Friday morning we will have seen Princess Ivanna for the very first time.

Flight Delay!!!

2010-08-09T16:20:00.000-05:00

Anna if you are reading this - our flight to Borispol will arrive at 4:15 p.m. Flight 3230. I am also going to try and e-mail you.

Because of a medical emergency on the flight just previous to ours the flight had a significant delay therefore we ended up changing our flights to New Orleans to Chicago to MUNICH to Kiev. We will arrive in Kiev at 4:15 p.m. as opposed to the original 1:15 p.m. arrival.

It is ok though just a change in pace a tad. We will be there soon.

We Depart!

2010-08-09T06:17:00.000-05:00

Today is the day our journey goes to a whole new level. Our paper pregnancy is about over and we are about to delivery a healthy blue eyed princess!! We have asked God to watch over our boys while we are gone as we will certainly miss them, we have asked Him to watch over us during our travels and to protect us and our baby girls biological family in the days that come. If all of you will help us do the same and pray for the same things all will go well. We fly out of New Orleans at 12:30 p.m. today and will land in Ivanna's country at 5:15 a.m. Tuesday morning our time - 1:15 p.m. their time. We go from New Orleans, to Washington, to Frankfurt and arriving in Kiev.

Thank you all who have supported us and continued to pray for us and our family. Without God's will and God's blessing our dream would certainly not be becoming a reality!!

We will update on Facebook at each arriving destination as we are able - we don't have any lengthy layovers. On missions at the airports to pick up requests from the boys.

Love you all and talk to you soon!

Less than one week away!

2010-08-02T18:25:00.000-05:00

We are now less than one week away from being on a plane. Anna sent pictures today from her visit this week-end. What an adorable little angel she is. So glad we are taking bubbles looks like she loves them. Did I mention how very hard this is going to be I just can not imagine how hard this will be on them but I hope they know that they can continue to follow her as she grows and blossoms in to a young lady that will be all she can be.

Here are the latest pictures of her and a short video.

6 days, 18 hours, 7 minutes and 5 seconds until we are on the plane heading for the Dulles Airport. OH how wonderful this is going to be. Yes, we know there will be some rough times because we are away from our home surroundings. We will be away from our boys and from our animals who are also part of our family and we will miss our families and friends but the sweet little princess that returns with us will be a great addition to our family.

Continue your prayers as God continues to bless our lives daily.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-07-31T08:31:00.000-05:00

Well, have not had a lot of time for blogging lately - been spreading time quite thin. The boys have been here so we have been spending time with them. And most importantly they had a GREAT time! Work has been quite crazy for the both of us with both of us getting ready to leave. So, now, it's Saturday and this is our last week-end alone to wrap up on the packing side.

Last night we went on a search to find our little princess a jewlery box and we had already looked at several and knew what we were after and we found one!!! I'll post pictures after I write.

Ivanna's biological mother and I have passed several e-mails this week. They are thankful that we are coming but I can not say enough how this will be bitter sweet so when we are there I am sure it will be emotional for us both because this has truly been the journey of a lifetime and I just tell you without my husband who rallied for this adoption I'm not sure we would have done it. Not because I didn't want it more than anything I just didn't think it was possible but he kept reminding me that if we let God have control then it is possible and He will allow it to happen and He did.

She is going to the orphanage to see Ivanna today I think so hopefully I will be getting more pictures and videos of our sweet little girl.

Ok so already told you we went shopping on a mission to find a jewelry box because those of you who have been here knows this child doesn't need anything in this house - she has it all, just like the boys - makes Christmas and birthdays extremely hard. Well, guess what she ended up with MORE dresses. Need to run both of us are getting our hair cut this morning so just remember to say prayers for us and our family and for Ivanna and her biological family. This is going to be tough for so many reasons.

We also got her the baby doll that goes with the outfit that matches her dress.

To help her understand as she gets older how she got here - we took this globe and added a few decorations. We have little pink "diamonds" going from the Ukraine to Mississippi and an airplane that shows how she got here. Then we added some ribbon so it would match her room decor.

Here are some of her babies on her bed waiting on her to come home. The big one in the middle is her dollie that will have some outfits that match hers. Then of course we have three of the baby Princesses...have two more that we want to find - Baby Ariele and Baby Belle.

Here is her Dollie and Me up close and she even resembles Ivanna but not quite the beauty factor. :D

Ok closing here we have mommy and daddy bonding over a cup of coffee time. Catch you later! Thanks again!

Two Weeks

2010-07-26T06:52:00.000-05:00

Well, today marks two weeks when we walk out the door to leave for the airport. I feel as though if I were to get the call now to walk out the door we would be ready. The only thing not in our suitcases are our clothes other than that we are sitting on GO! Hubby is getting ready for his time off from work not sure how he will adjust to that. Me, well, I am planning on working from the Ukraine since I will have an enormous amount of time on my hands and feel as though it will help take up some empty spots until we are able to get Ivanna. The time difference there will help make that happen so I'm glad I have the ability to be able to work remotely.

Had yet another fun filled day with the boys yesterday. Church, great lunch, nap and shopping. Ended the day with Pizza yummy! The boys are getting more excited - everytime someone comes over they have been quick to take on the "tour guide" of her room.

Thanks for continuing your prayers for us and our family please also include her biological parents as well because I know this will be hard on them but they are also a part of our lives.

Six Months and One Week

2010-07-24T10:56:00.000-05:00

Well, today marks six months and one week since we started this process and wow what a process it has been. Now that things are winding down a tad both of us are again back to a comfortable feeling as opposed to an anxious feeling. Well, me much more anxious than my husband because he just kept reminding me that we had to give it to God and for some reason I kept trying to take it back. :D Imagine that - there goes that control. Well, fact of that matter is - unfortunately no one has control of their life except for God and once we come to that realization then all of our needs will be met and we will be directed according to His plan and not according to ours.

With that being said - we had a wonderful time with the boys yesterday. I think it's finally becoming a reality to them that Ivanna will be home soon. I think for about three months we kept saying we will know something next week and poor things they eventually thought "next week" was never coming. I'm so glad they were here when we got our last approval in the mail!

We have a lot to do today good thing we started packing early because we have pulled stuff out and put stuff in on several different occassions. Thank goodness Andy thought of making a list of everything we put in the suitcase. GREAT idea. Thinking we had better pack Ivanna a few more outfits just in case she is with us longer in the apartment. Think we are down to only taking two suitcases now - we want to make this easily manageable.

Worked on additional "thank you" cards this morning. We could just write and write and write and are so thankful for what has been done in our lives that there just are not enough words to express the thankfulness.

We picked up Ivanna's biological parents a few more "happies" yesterday as a token for them to remember us by. So glad they have access to our blog so they can follow in Ivanna's happiness.

Thanks again to all of you who are continuing to say prayers for our new direction in life and we look forward to a successful homecoming soon.

Tabernacle Church Family

2010-07-20T07:57:00.001-05:00

On July 18th we all gathered to say farewell to not only the preachers wife and their children but to a great friend to many of us. Kristi has smiled when she could barely smile herself, she has laughed with many of us, she has cried with many of us. We are so thankful to have had her and their beautiful children as part of our lives now for quite some time.

We want to let her know that wherever she is she will always have friends for as long as us and some others are living and breathing.

Kristi is and has been a true walk of faith and beyond whatever direction she takes we know beyond a shadow of a doubt it will be the direction that God has chosen for them. I know that I have certainly been awe stricken in her attitude and her overwhelming love for the Lord and the way they have raised their children is UNBELIEVABLE.

When a ten year old can say to another ten year old "that's not very nice" or "you shouldn't say that" - then it's the prime example that each one of us should be in our daily lives. Who do our children learn from? They learn from their parents, caregivers and sometimes although it may be unfortunate at times, they learn from their peers.

We will love you and miss you Kristi, Austin and Alyssa but our door is always open and nothing will change here except you are eight hours away!

Many thanks for all you and your entire family has done for us and our family. We are very grateful and wish you nothing but success in your new endeavor as we continue to pray for each others families!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Flights Booked

2010-07-16T20:30:00.000-05:00

Today we finalized and booked our flight plans. YAY!!! We will leave the New Orleans airport at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, August 9 and arrive in Kiev on Tuesday at 1:15 p.m. their time. Our time it will be 5:15 a.m.

Please continue to pray for us and Ivanna's biological family as we go through this transition. We have had more support and prayers than we could have ever imagined. Thank you very much to all of you, Andy and I have many conversations about this on a daily basis.

WE GOT A DATE!!!!

2010-07-13T07:28:00.000-05:00

Another wonderful day in the adoption journey. Woke up around 5 this morning to discover that our facilitator had e-mailed us our SDA appointment date!!!! He wants us to arrive on August 10th for our SDA appointment on August 11th. We are certain the only reason it is so far away is because the judge is on vacation from August 1-9. But you know what - it is what it is and we are VERY excited.

We have booked our apartment - it looks bright and cheery see pictures below. We weren't able to get where we wanted so we hope this one will be just as well.

Lots of emotions during this process but right now they are of joy in knowing that we are going after our princess! We can't wait to tell the boys!

We leave you with pictures of our TEMPORARY HOME starting August 10th!

Princess Ivanna's Room

2010-07-10T23:23:00.001-05:00

Today we reached another chapter in our lives. We drove two hours to pick up her furniture, came home and Andy quickly started unpacking and putting it together. Then we went shopping again to finish off the last few pieces of her room. This montage is a result of todays events. We just love it. Can't wait until the boys see it they are going to love it too!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Room Fit For a Princess

2010-07-02T15:18:00.000-05:00

Well, my sweet, adorable husband has finished painting the room fit for a Princess! Pink, pink and more pink. Hope she like pink and I hope she likes Princess stuff - cause she has some. In an effort not to overwhelm her more than she already will be - she won't have access to everything immediately we are going to share it with her a little at time. Very little will be in her room to start off with. But oh boy are we going to be excited when we can start sharing it. We are waiting on the furniture to come in on July 21st before we put anything else on the walls so we can make sure we have it all arranged correctly first. But it is going to be PRETTY!!!

Last night a friend of mine and I went shopping and we got her more "stuff". Baby dolls, a barbie doll, a spinning top. We found her the cutest baby doll stroller except when we went to check out my friend found that one of the handles was already damaged ----- no wonder why they only the one left. :( I was so sad it was so pretty.

Andy and I are going shopping again tonight to see if we can find her one. This is another one of those things he said SHE NEEDS!!! He's so funny. The other day when we were shopping he sends me a message and asks me if I had gotten her anything yet ----- well of course I had - he wanted me to call him so I can tell him what all I got. We are both just like little kids so tonight he wants to join in the fun. I may even drag him to the Disney Store :). My friend and I went to the outlet Disney Store and there is a full Disney store over in Mobile I think we will go to tonight. He is amazingly excited - for him, if you were to walk up to him you probably wouldn't know it but all you have to do is mention the name Ivanna and his whole outlook changes and he begins to talk and talk and talk. Well for him it's a lot of talking :D.

Tonight we are also going to wear our Bringing Home Ivanna shirts. Well, most of this information the majority of the locals already know but her biological parents follow this blog also and we want them to be part of her "coming home" and continue to share Ivanna's life with them.

This week-end we are going to work on getting the house back in order and organized from having to rearrange the boys a little to make room for the Princess. The boys are really excited about a new little sister and Ryan can't wait to read to her and start teaching her English - hmmmmmm we may need to rethink that a little :D. We want to be super careful and ensure they are included and don't feel like Ivanna will replace them or come before them. She will be our child just as they are, no difference. Just will take some transitioning. It doesn't matter if you are a step parent, an adoptive parent or a biological parent - when you take part in raising a child they ARE your children regardless of thoughts of others.

Our Dossier Was Submitted

2010-07-01T07:42:00.000-05:00

Since I am a day late in posting. On Wednesday, July 30th, our facilitator confirmed that our dossier was submitted to the courts for an SDA (State Department of Adoptions) date.

What does this mean?
It means we WAIT - however this type of wait is MUCH easier than the wait of the unknown. The average time it takes to get a date is two weeks and then travel is set for two to three weeks after that so before you know it we will be off to get the most precious gift in the world.

Please continue to keep not only our family in your prayers but Ivanna's biological family in your prayers as well. Even though they are very happy that she is coming to America they will also have an empty place in their hearts for quite some time but we plan on helping them with that adjustment as they continue to follow her new journey for years to come. They will always hold a special place in our hearts and Ivanna's.

Not sure if we have announced what her new name will be but her name will be Ivanna Patrica-Nan Stratton. Patricia Nan Stratton was my husbands mothers name who died from cancer in October of 2004. We are so proud that she will be taking on her Granny's name.

Yesterday was another awesome day in which a couple of my bestest ever friends surprised me with the best stuff. It started off with a late birthday present delivered by FedEx from my BFF, Tristina in Missouri. This crazy girl had gone to a screen printer and had the MOST beautiful shirts printed. Here is what they looked like:

We are going to use something really similiar to this for Buddy Walk the largest difference is at Buddy Walk time (which is the same day as her Birthday) Ivanna WILL BE home!

Tristina, publicly, we would like to say thank you as the shirts were just beautiful and awesome just like you. Princess Ivanna will love all of her new stuff too.

Here are some other items received for the Princess:

Then after I came back down to Earth from all of this excitement then here comes another best friend, Kristi with more surprises for the Princess. WOW Kristi I'm not sure I needed to know there was a Disney Store so close :D. Thank you so much and you know she will love them! Here are some pictures:

Now if we can just get her bedroom furniture in, put together and set up in her room we will be good to go! And oh by the way PAST ready to go.

Well, Team Stratton, is signing off for now just wanted to share a little update and some precious pictures with you. Remember to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as well as her biological family. I now make this sound like a "fairy tale" but we all know there will be some reality to this story coming soon. We love you all and can not thank you enough for all of your support and well wishes and most of all your prayers.

I leave you with a picture of us in our new shirts. We are only missing Kevin at the moment to make this picture complete and then not long we will become a family of six.

It's Thankful Sunday!!

2010-06-27T14:19:00.000-05:00

Sunday has rolled around again and there is MUCH to be thankful for. Today we give thanks for all the many blessings that has surrounded our family not only in the past but especially the last six months. There has been so much growth in our family and in our lives.

Today we heard back from our facilitator that if he receives our I171 in his hand on Monday (tomorrow) and it is scheduled to be there, he will submit our dossier on Wednesday or Thursday so we are simply waiting on our initial SDA date. We hope to be traveling really soon and we look forward to meeting not only our precious princess but her family as well - because without them we wouldn't have her. Again we ask for many prayers for this family as we are sure this is an emotional but happy time for them. May their hearts be at ease knowing their little girl will be surrounded with more love than what she knows what to do with and may their hearts also be lightened knowing that they will always have pictures and videos of their little princess as she walks through her new life. God is good and we certainly believe that without Him we would not be where we are today.

Princess Ivanna

2010-06-24T20:57:00.002-05:00

Be sure to scroll to the bottom and pause the blog music before you press play here. We are so happy to have received new photos and videos of our little Princess today. Thank you very much for the pictures and videos!!! Ivanna is doubly blessed to have two mommies!!!

More Stuff!

2010-06-22T14:03:00.000-05:00

Well, things are still going nicely. Ivanna's room is still not quite finished and her furniture will not be here until 7/21. Here is a picture of the letters that will hang on the wall in her bedroom:

Can't wait to see her room all completed. Still have some extra things I am looking for like the perfect rug for a princess. I have one in mind just need to find it. I would like to be gone by 7/21 and if we are then we will get someone else to put her furniture together for us and put it in her room.

Still waiting on the mail to run with our final Apostille so I can send off the last envelope to our facilitator. Oh what a joy. Talked to Ivanna's biological parents yesterday and again I say they are very sweet and have hug hearts and they honestly without a doubt love their little girl. Our hearts are happy yet our hearts are sad for them but they don't look at it as losing their little girl because they know we will take GREAT care of her and we will supply them with photos, videos and slide shows. She's walking in the door of a home filled with love and she will never have to want for anything.

Princess Stuff!!

2010-06-21T11:55:00.000-05:00

Well, been a busy week-end. Shopping, shopping and more shopping! We have now started on her room - when it's done it will be pink, trimmed in purple to match her Princess decor.

We have picked bought her bedroom suit but unfortunately they were out of stock - they will be in on July 21. :( But here is what it looks like:

Also have her some Princess outfits that one of my BFFs brought over:

We already had all of her Princess bedding. Got her carseat as well and more outfits. YAY!!! What a blessing she will be to our family! She'll have more love than she will probably know what to do with. Even my husband was walking through the stores - saying "she NEEDS this" and "she NEEDS that".

Oh and here is what he picked out that she just HAD to have --- her Princess bicycle:

He was just so funny and cute with she just "had to have it" or "she NEEDS it". OKAY!!

But he's right she got it!! Well going to run for now as soon as her room is partially complete I'll posts pictures. It's going to be beautiful and most of all it's done with all the love in our hearts!

WE GOT IT!!!!!

2010-06-18T18:00:00.000-05:00

Oh my the sense of emotions jut got even larger. WE RECEIVED OUR FINAL APPROVAL TODAY FROM USCIS!!!!! We ARE going to get little Ivanna!!!! Oh but how I know how much her biological parents love her. They will always be part of Ivanna and our family!

What's next?
Today, since I received the approval so late - I didn't have time to drive to Jackson, MS to get the cover letter apostilled before they closed so I made the decision to mail it to them today so I will get it back on Tuesday. THEN - I will turn right around and send it to the Ukraine.

Most likely our facilitator will not get to submit our package to the courts until July 1st since they only process special needs adoptions on Thursdays. (I may have not worded that just right). Then we wait for a court date so I am hoping for last week of July or no later than August 1st. But, it is what it is, and there is NO stopping us now - regardless of what day it is WE ARE GOING TO GET IVANNA!!

So, if you felt the Earth move today it was ME doing the happy dance. My husband was on the phone with me when I opened up the envelope so he heard the first screams. Then one of my BFFs was the second scream and then she came rushing over to give me the greatest hug and to bring Ivanna the most pretty Princess dresses ever! Nothing better for our little girl than Princess dresses. Then it was FaceBook then it was call after call and then after posting on FB I received call after call after call.

So now at least I know we are NOW GOING - we are heading out this evening to go pick up her bedroom stuff. We already know which one we are getting. WE ARE TWO VERY PROUD PARENTS RIGHT NOW AND FOREVER AND EVER!!!

Continue with your prayers we have a long way to go. Love you all and thanks very much for hanging in there with us. When we do leave we will be blogging every day so if you want to follow please feel free.

Time for More Prayers

2010-06-13T08:38:00.001-05:00

Another beautiful sunny day God has given us today. Well been absent again just waiting on more information to share. On Monday, June 7 - our homestudy revision was completed and FedEx'd to our state. State received it on Tuesday morning and boy were we happy. Well, being that I am "trying" to scurry this along, I called our State and finally got in touch with the nicest man. I went in to my spill about who I was and why I was calling and I heard him keep trying to interrupt me but I just kept on (imagine that)! Finally bless his heart he was able to get a word in and he said "Take a breath" :D --- "are you Mrs. Stratton?" of course I replied yes and thinking all at the same time all these folks are so sick and tired of hearing our name they will do anything to get paperwork off of their desk (except USCIS). Well he told me that our file was already back in the FedEx envelope and waiting for them to pick it up so it could go on to USCIS!! YAY!!!

Well, then on Wednesday morning the package arrived at USCIS and yes, you're right there is no hurrying these folks. I tell you I just have never seen anything like it at all. Orphan applications ARE NOT their priority. And I can tell you they DO NOT understand someone wanting to adopt a child with special needs either but frankly it's NONE of their business. Their job, as I see it, is to ensure your fingerprints come back ok and ensure your homestudy has an approval. Well, ours does, so MOVE ON!!

With that being said - our sweet mail carrier is now on the lookout for an envelope from USCIS - if she find it when she sorts her route - she will call me and I'll meet her at the post office since our mail typically doesn't run until 2:30 or so.

You ask - Where will that last piece of paper put us? CLOSER!! Our full dossier package is already at the facilitator being translated so all they are waiting on is this last and final YES. Then they will go to the SDA (State Department of Adoptions) and obtain our initial court appearance. Once that date is obtained THEN we make our travel arrangements and have to be there 1-2 days prior to the date of our court appearance.

Some friends left yesterday morning to go and get their little girl and oh how happy that feeling must be. They landed about 1:30 this morning our time. Can't wait to follow them and hopefully we will be over there with them REALLY soon!!

For now say your prayers and we are praying for a soft heart for USCIS and for her not to be stubborn and for God to light her ways and direct her paths. He can do it I have complete faith. I also know that this is not anything that I have control over and that's not easy! We are also asking that God wrap His arms around Ivanna's family and provide them with complete and total comfort knowing that their little girl will be in GREAT hands --- ours and God's. We will forever be part of each others families!

Woooo HOOOOO

2010-05-25T19:13:00.003-05:00

Don't get all excited - have not gotten the "final" YES yet BUT today was a GREAT day. Today we sent our full dossier (minus the I171) to our facilitator. He was nice enough to tell us to send it on that way when we get the I171 he will be sitting on READY! So sent it off today and it is guaranteed to arrive by Monday. The homestudy agency is currently in the process of revising the homestudy. We hope to have that by the end of the week - the hardest part for them was to get all of the signatures on the homestudy again - but I do believe they are doing their darndest to speed things up for us. Ivanna is doing good - growing like you wouldn't believe. Her mom and dad got to see and talk to Ryan and Steven Sunday before last (May 16th). The boys couldn't believe it. They were amazed that it was night time where they were and the middle of the day for us. Our facilitator told us today by going ahead and sending him our original documents that it would at least save us a week. But to us adoptive parents a week can seem like an ETERNITY!! Well, we are a step closer and I can tell you our visit over there will certainly be great I'm looking forward to meeting some of the people we have been talking to. It will be an experience. We are just ready to go get her but we'll continue to have a connection in Eastern Europe for sure. Well keep saying prayers and maybe we will have more good news to report soon but at least this gives me something to do for the next few days and that is continue to check the tracking on our package so you know I'll keep you posted. It has already left Gautier, MS and is currently in Gulfport, MS. Hurry Hurry Hurry!!! Continue your prayers for our family and Ivanna's family who will now be part of our family!!

I'm BACK!!!!

2010-05-11T16:04:00.002-05:00

Ok haven't posted in quite some time because I was aggravated and worn out from TRYING to get my answer. Well, you all know by now about the woman in TN that adopted a child from Russia and decided to something idiotic and return him via a one-way ticket. What a dork!!! So, on top of everything else, we believe that further complicated things for us - that's our story and we're sticking to it. Not to mention the fact that I was very demanding in my request for an answer so they were probably making an attempt to make it has hard on us as they could - little did they know - it didn't matter what they asked us for we were armed and ready to jump through hoops.

So, on Monday, May 3rd we FINALLY received a letter from USCIS requesting a mental evaluation. Well, this is not because either of us are crazy by any means but there are some countries that already make this mandatory but Ukraine is not one of them. We feel like that since this episode they are only trying to do their job and be cautious which in some ways is comforting. Just wish it had not taken her a month to finally tell us but it is what it is. Needless to say we started the process the next day. Took the MMPI and the Rorschach test which is a personality type test that is supposed to tell you how you perceive the world and stress levels and all. Well, then my husband had to go in today. So as soon as he left he called me and he said that she had revealed to him the results from my ink blot test - said it came back that I had some type of Interpersonal Disorder - well my heart dropped and he told me to call her because she wanted to make my appointment for Friday earlier anyway. So, I did, I called her and she confirmed that yes I have what is referred to as Interpersonal Neediness Disorder - so I said OK - what does that mean - she said that she asked the examiner and low and behold she replied 'YOU NEED A CHILD'!!!! Well, DUH!!! I tell you I don't think I have laughed so hard at anything lately. But what a GREAT disorder to have you think?

You ask: What happens now?

Both my husband and I will go back on Friday and we walk out the door with our report. YAY - then it will be off to USCIS and to our homestudy group to incorporate in the home study and provide a revised homestudy to USCIS. So ---- I am in hopes that USCIS can have it in their hands by the end of next week - not sure that's realistic but it is my hopes anyway. THEN once USCIS receives it we are back in wait mode but my guess is she's tired of getting e-mails from us, Congressman, Senator, etc - I hope she has had enough and just stamps it and sends it on.

So say prayers as we are almost there. Really glad we didn't go in the month of May anyway since there are several holidays and also now the Volcano seems to be impacting flights again so be that as it may - we are not going until God says we can go and it's all about His time and His plan.

Thank you much and I leave you with a precious picture.

Soooo Dislike the Waiting Game

2010-03-19T16:55:00.002-05:00

Well we are continuing to pray for patience and guidance because I am so not good with waiting. Received a letter from customs and immigrations yesterday with a few inquiries we had to respond to. Had 33 days to return to them - do YOU THINK I was going to wait even near 33 days??? NO - responses complete yesterday afternoon and we hand delivered it to them today - BUT only to find out they are closed on Friday. I was nearly in tears when security told me that - we told the very nice gentleman that we understood and asked if we could please check it in at the mail room or SOMETHING - he continually explained no and I think he expected us to be "mad" and then he started explaining how he has had people get mad with him before because they could not accept paperwork - I then began to explain that we weren't by any means mad that I was almost to the point of tears that we had drive 2.5 hours to prevent a mailing or FedEx delay to drop off paperwork only to find out they were closed. SOOOOO he took the envelope from us, told us he wasn't making any promises but said he would be right back - low and behold when he came back - he brought us our EMPTY envelope where they had stamped it RECEIVED to show they had taken possession of it. I told him (as my husband was returning from the bathroom) that if I wasn't already married I could just kiss him - it was funny cause as my husband rounded the corner I asked him if he heard that and he grinned and said "yes I did" --- the guy who was old enough to be my dad, grinned as well and told me it's ok cause I don't think my wife would like that either. I was very amazed that he went above and beyond when the lady officer was questioning his helping us. So to whoever you are MUCH THANKS - we need more of you. So, now we are back in wait mode and I despise week-ends ONLY because I know it means that no one is helping us get Ivanna home during the week-end. So bring on Monday.

Also since the last time I blogged, I received a card in the mail that really was just very special - and very touching. Next post, I'm going to write what it said. Makes you think how we all should be doing the same in every walk of life.

Thanks again for your caring, your calls, your talks and listening - it's been a roller coaster of a ride but ohhhhh what waits at the end!!!! Hugs!! Darlena

Orphanage Visit

2010-03-14T13:49:00.002-05:00

Received an e-mail from Ivanna's biological mom today. She sent new photos and a new video of her. For some reason, at first, they would not let them see Ivanna. She was very upset. She had to contact the doctor at the main center to help her get in to see Ivanna. They would not relay to her as to why or anything. So, I'm very glad that someone helped her get in to see Ivanna. So I certainly hope everything works out I think she was crushed.

Crazy Good Day

2010-03-12T21:02:00.005-06:00

What an action packed day!! On top of me accomplishing my "real job" today. I knew that the FedEx had arrived in LA this morning so I was monitoring it closely for delivery at customs and immigrations. FINALLY it was marked as delivered - well it took me all of fifteen minutes considering all the patience I have to e-mail them. GOOD NEWS is this is our final approval. BAD NEWS is fingerprints are not back from FBI yet and she has to have those and review homestudy before she releases approval OF COURSE - well hurry it up already!!! Patience sayeth the Lord - I know, I know (and my husband) but, but I'm really trying.

Then I received the STRANGEST e-mail out of the clear blue and low and behold the sender didn't even sign their name to it - I took offense to it IMMEDIATELY - there goes that patience issues again. Anyway after finding out who it was and responding to them - it appeared to be someone that was very confused and distraught over the homestudy process and thought that because she already had a child with DS that the process should be a "no brainer". I offered careful but much needed advice to her and didn't hear back after that. I hope all goes well for that family sounds like she may need a wonderful support system like we will have. I tell you our DS organization here ROCKS however I am a tad partial :D.

THEN as of yesterday a friend on my FB page so elequently informed me that they would possibly be going to Easter Europe at the same time we were and that their paperwork had reached USCIS just the day before ours. OMG - I was just beside myself to have that connection. So low and behold we started talking and ended up in a phone call and .... well bless her heart - she knows now that I talk too much :D. Oksana (her baby that is 5 and has CP) is in the same orphanage as Ivanna so I sent her mom a note and asked if she would mind taking pictures of Oksana when she goes on Sunday - she immediately replied and said she would be glad to try. So hope to hear from her early Sunday morning. She also sent us two new pictures of Ivanna today. I feel so connected to her - well why not we share a beautiful child together.

I also e-mailed our facilitator last night and he has started translation on our dossier so we are doing everything possible to speed this process through.

Thanks again for all your prayers and well wishes. God bless all of you.

Praise the Lord --- ONE MORE STEP

2010-03-11T20:39:00.003-06:00

Well what another joyous day!!! If you will remember - our home study arrived at our state level DHS office last Friday morning. They were given an airbill to forward it to our USCIS office in Metairie, LA so needless to say I have wore the FedEx website out checking to see if it had been sent yet or not. MUCH to my surprise today JUST as I had started a 3:30 meeting I clicked on it and low and behold it had been picked up at 3:19 today and is headed for our USCIS office and is scheduled to arrive before 10:30 in the morning. This is our final step domestically then it's on to the Ukraine. I have sent all of our paperwork to the Ukraine tonight hoping they will feel our pain and start translation for us while we are waiting on the last approval from customs and immigrations.

In addition, we received two e-mails from her mother today - always makes us very happy to get e-mails from her. She went to see Ivanna yesterday and she was doing well and she also sent us a little movie of Ivanna it wasn't very clear but we were certainly thrilled to have it I think my husband and I have watching it numerous times already. That little girl will be home before we know it and oh how she will blossom and shine. She has no idea how many people are waiting to see her and how many lives she has touched already.

Continue saying prayers and that USCIS works as quickly as what we have been told they do and this will be over in a minute.

The video of Ivanna is on our FB page. By the way you if you don't have a FB page you really need to get one. :D

Customs & Immigrations

2010-03-09T16:24:00.002-06:00

Well, today was another step - biometrics (fancy word for electronic fingerprinting) was completed today. The USCIS office indicated that sometimes they are back in 48 hours some a little longer - so just hoping it's soon. However still waiting on our state level DHS to review the homestudy and forward to USCIS - trying to obtain a contact for them so bless their hearts I can hound dog them to death. Darlena is sooooo not patient. We found some more pictures of our babe and also a video clip that thrilled us to death. Can't wait to get over there and obtain our own videos. Last night spoke with Sandie who is an Early Intervention Specialist in Pennsylvania. She has actually seen our baby --- what I found so funny is that God love her when she got back, she did everything she could to find Ivanna a home, she posted flyers, sent e-mails - you name it - this lady did it. Little did she know her efforts were for nothing because God had chosen her parents already he just had to get through us.

My husband pointed out that in church on Sunday our preacher talked about watching a nail be made how they had to heat it, beat it, heat it some more and so forth and so on --- he compared us to this nail - we had to have the heat put to us and low and behold it worked.

We just keep trucking along - we are almost there. You know it's pretty funny though I am still trying to do everything I can to hold myself together and back some for the just in case something were to fall through. If all of these efforts are meant to come together then it's going to happen regardless because God has that plan.

We appreciate all the prayers, all the support that everyone has given - I personally have asked a gazillion questions. Some of you don't know my husband but he is the quiet reserved type. Bless him is all I can say. Continuing to pray for speed and patience and God's will.

Church & Update

2010-03-08T11:35:00.002-06:00

Well, we all joined our new Church on Sunday - Tabernacle Baptist - here in Gautier. We are so grateful to have finally found a church "home". My husband and the boys will be baptised soon - I have already been baptised. I'm looking forward to it. Our preacher and his wife and children are just an awesome family who we could stand to take some lessons from. We enjoy his sermons and leave feeling like we learned something and we shared a purpose. Have never had such a warm welcome from a church family. All of these folks truly welcome each guest with open arms.

Ivanna update: Our homestudy received it's final signatures last Wednesday, March 3rd. It was FedEx'd to our state facility and received on Friday, March 5th. YAY!!! We go for our fingerprinting appointments tomorrow with customs and immigrations. So you ask what does this mean? This means our homestudy gets reviewed at the state level then they forward it to customs and immigrations where it meets up with our paperwork. So then once they receive back our fingerprints and review the homestudy - customs and immigrations provides us with our final approval. At this time we then provide our complete dossier package to the Ukraine for translation and then they forward to the court to obtain a court date THEN we can finally secure our travel plans. Our hopes is to be gone in April and have her back in May but at this point it's God's plan and we are just waiting on direction.

Ivanna's birthday this year will be held on the exact date of our Buddy Walk --- WOW what a celebration that our little girl will have over 2,000 people at her birthday party this year.

Well, keep praying and keep watching as this story continues to unfold and we see God work in more of His mysterious ways.

Baby Steps

2010-02-27T17:04:00.003-06:00

Another exciting day at the Stratton's - we received our USCIS fingerprinting appointments today - it's amazing how it's the little things that put a smile on your face and knowing that anything is a step forward.

Went to the boys basketball game last night. Marissa showed up to watch Ryan play - bless her heart it just puts a smile on her face to see him. We are so proud of that little boy - equally as proud of our others of course but Ryan has amazed us in so many ways in that he doesn't let anything around him affect his feelings and beliefs and to that we are truly proud.

Haven't heard from Ivanna's mom today but more than likely she visited her today so hope to hear from her soon.

Continue to keep our family and Ivanna's family in your thoughts and prayers as we continue this journey.

Update

2010-02-23T19:00:00.002-06:00

Well, as usual, been a fast few days. Seems Mondays are the worst but yet they are the best because God did allow us to wake up and spend the day with Him. Well, FINALLY received our last outstanding apostille which was from Texas so our dossier is as complete as it gets until we get our home study and our I171. Talked to the homestudy agency and they said possibly a week for their review and final blessing of the social workers write up. Then from there on to Jackson to DHS and she says even though they say two weeks they usually have a quick turnaround there as well. Then from there it's on to meet USCIS and she even let me know that most of the time our Metairie office located in Louisiana has a quick turnaround as well. So with all this said it could be 3rd or 4th week in March before the final package is in place.

THEN we found out last night that once our faciliator receives the paperwork it takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks to receive a travel date -- NOW THAT was a lot to swallow. I know, I know - God is good and the outcome of all this waiting will be SO worth the wait. But those of you who know me know when I am on a mission --- I AM ON A MISSION ----- however, those of you who know my husband, he is the most level headed person and the most patient when it comes to anything. He is the one who reminds me on a regular basis that God is the one in control and leave it there. I know that, I really do but dang I just want her home where she belongs. SOOOO much support here that Ivanna will have a life full of love like she has never known and so will her mother, if even in our hearts.

So as I always say - continue to keep us on your prayer lists and rejoice and have faith in the Lord that Ivanna will be home very soon. Even with the extended wait periods she could still be home in May but I'm not in control of dates and God put his foot down yesterday and made me aware of that.

You know everything about this entire process, about our lives in general has been nothing but acts of God in that now that I have had time to look back --- all things happen for a reason. You may think things happen for a reason but we have been blessed by some wonderful people during this entire process and we wouldn't change a second of it even though it's just absolutely CRAZY at how the pieces of the puzzle has come together. The things that have happened to us and for us over the last three and a half years were much more than conincidences.

Great week-end

2010-02-21T17:38:00.004-06:00

Received another e-mail from Ivanna's biological mother on Saturday.

I will add the new photos to the bottom of our blog. Her weight equates to 37.4 # and her height equates to 3'6" tall. So she is tiny. She also sent a new picture of herself with her son. I'm telling you her mom is absolutely beautfiful so we certainly know where Ivanna gets her cuteness from LOL.

Had a very enjoyable weekend with the boys and their wonderful dad. Saturday GCDSS set up booth at the Arbor Day event for Disability Awareness. Networked with tons of people. Guess what I got to talk about - not only did I get to talk about our organization and what we stand for but I got to get the word out of all the children with DS in orphanages and tell Ivanna's precious story and share pictures of her and her family with everyone. Amazing to know the number of people that are so supportive and want to keep up as the adoption progresses. We'll have to see what this week will bring ----- have I mentioned that we are sitting on ready???

Got up this morning - daddy fixed breakfast and then we were off to church. Well keep praying for expedience - week-ends are exceptionally rough because I feel like everything is closed and the week so much gets done.

Today

2010-02-18T17:06:00.002-06:00

Well, not anything major to share today - our apostilles from the state should be in the box tomorrow so that will make the dossier as complete as it can be without the "original" homestudy and the USCIS approval. Talked to the homestudy agency and they have the social workers report and recommendation for approval so now they just have to review and provide their approval as well and THEN it's official. From there it goes to DHS in Jackson to be reviewed and then it meets up with our paperwork at USCIS. So all is still good and we predict that by April 1st we should at least have a travel date. So we just have to hang tight - stay strong in the Lord and let Him continue to direct our paths.

Tonight my husband and I are going to a wake that's never a fun event - however it is the celebration of eternal life but it doesn't help us as selfish humans to prefer that our loved ones remain on Earth with us. But in time the families will have peace we hope. Thursday is somewhat our Friday since my husband is off on Friday's so Thursday nights are when we go out to eat and most probably Wal Mart. We will talk to the boys tonight and see what kind of mischief they have been in to lately. LOL --- for the most part they are good boys. Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring as I will be happy to know that our original paperwork is back in our hands so we can put our dossier back together again. I feel disorganized without it :D. Stay tuned to the homecoming of Ivanna.

God is GOOD!

2010-02-17T13:43:00.002-06:00

Well, we have just seen our preliminary homestudy which concludes with the following recommendation:

John and Darlena Stratton have satisfactorily met all the requirements of the state of Mississippi and the agency. I (worker) believe John and Darlena have an overflowing capacity as a couple to provide all the love, care and stability to welcome a child into their home. They are physically, mentally, and emotionally stable and are a couple that seems equally committed to adoption and to raising healthy and happy children to adulthood. This family has the financial security along with emotional support and the mental and physical capacity to provide a good home environment.

There are several more pages to the homestudy as you know because this is tons of work on their part. But above pretty much sums it up to have their recommendation. Now we are waiting on final approval of the agency as well as then over to DHS for their approval and then off to meet our paperwork at USCIS (Customs and Immigration) for their approval. Should be getting a notification shortly of time/date to have fingerprinting done for customs. I think we have already had every background check known to man :-).

So now we just wait, wait and wait some more but everyday brings us one more closer to our little Ivanna. More prayers ahead.

Letter from Ivanna's Mom

2010-02-16T16:53:00.005-06:00

Well, today I finally understood why Ivanna's mom never responded to my original e-mail. It is apparent she didn't get it. I was informed through another friend that she was saying she had not heard form the "new family" and she was inquisitive.

Wow that was difficult - you can tell that she truly loves her child and she just wants more for her. For as long as her mother wants we will allow her to know about her journey and how she will live a productive life. We plan to make a scrapbook for her of things from our area and pictures of us, our home, our boys, our pets anything that will bring a picture for her to add Ivanna too. If the Lord above let's this happen for Ivanna, her family and for us then we certainly want them to remain a part of our lives.

From what I read the doctors told her mother to just go away forget about her and to have other children and she asked WHY?? I am her mother! basically is what I saw. I wish for all of these countries to be better educated and accept Down syndrome. In the mean time I sincerely hope that more and more children can be adopted out and others can understand and receive and return the unconditional love.

Hugs to her family as I absolutely can not imagine. I only hope that they will one day have peace knowing that she's in a better place and our plans are to stay in touch as we know this is what they truly want and we will respect that for as long as they would like and we hope it's a lifetime.

Fabulous Week-end

2010-02-14T21:45:00.002-06:00

First, today is Valentine's Day - Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I love to tell people that it's Valentine's day EVERY day at our house. Well, it's been quite a week-end. Friday the weather was cold, rainy, couple of minutes of snow and we were getting cabin fever. So Friday night we ended up going to eat dinner at Hard Rock Cafe - well appetizers and then we stopped off at Mikey's on the Bayou for Crab Cakes and Charbroiled Oysters YUMMY. Talking about a wonderful husband. BAAABBYY!!

Saturday was our GCDSS Valentine Party and WOW were we amazed at the turn out. If I counted correctly we had 57 parents/children and family members present. This event was held at Bayou Bluff Tennis Club in Gulfport which is a wonderfully centrally located area that is much closer for a lot of our parents. They definitely showed their enthusiasm of having the new location. One of our new mommy and daddy's were there and oh another very sweet and special family. Some of the attendees did not know of our plan on adopting Ivanna so we got to show pictures and of course were well received and had many well wishes. Everyone is looking as forward to this as we are. One of the parents, who I have become attached to for more reasons than one handed me an envelope and I stuck it in my photo album. Once we got home and settled, I opened it up only for my eyes to start leaking again. I have GOT to get that leak in my eyes fixed :D. She had written us a check and I was totally taken aback. However, I felt as though we just could not accept it. I have such issues with asking for money - I can do most anything in the world but asking for money I can not. I even stink at childrens fundraisers - I just buy whatever it is myself and be done. However even though there have been some inquiries. Anyway - I was completely dumbfounded and I sent her a nice note basically saying thank you but we just couldn't accept it. Well, we ended up making a deal and that was if all works out ok and everything goes well, then we will accept the money and cash the check. She's right in saying basically sometimes we all just have to suck it up and let others do things for us for a change. For those of you who know me well, I tend to be the one that runs around like crazy doing whatever I can to help others. So this adoption effort has truly been an eye opener to see the over abundance of others who have been eager to help us in so many ways it's just amazing. You'd be surprised how a "I'm so happy for you guys no matter what happens" feels when you hear it. In addition, at the close of the party I ended up talking to the family of one amazing young lady and such an inspiration to me and to everyone else. Ivanna is going to be surrounded by such an amazing extended family. In talking to them I saw them both tear up as they were telling me of some of her accomplishments and to see how much they support her in everything she does is amazing. It's so great to have a few of the older children at each one of our events because it really puts new parents minds to ease in that they know their children can live a fulfilling life and that the sky is the limit and just remember there is no such thing as "I can't". Everyone of us have something to offer no matter how big or how small. I have shared over the past two weeks something that someone shared with me and that is a phrase that I have heard in several different levels --- "normal". I had said "what is the definition of normal?" her reply "it's a setting on your washing machine!". WOW how true is that. Nineteen months ago when we became active members of our GCDSS team, we had no idea of God's plan for our lives and the change that it has made to us and to our family. Our boys are just tickled about hoping to have a sister real soon and when we found out from one of our oldest sons friends that he had been talking about it at school it was such a wonderful feeling.

Sunday we had decided earlier this week to try a new church in our search to locate our permanent "home church". This week we tried Tabernacle Baptist in Gautier and honestly we LOVED it. They are a small home town church family it appears - several people came up and introduced themselves to us which was amazing. They really made us feel welcome and we just immediately felt like they would make Ivanna feel welcome also. There was also an older gentlemen who was an usher that appeared to have DS also and even he came up and introduced himself and I had to choke back the tears. The terrible thing is I can't recall his name but I know that with being pointed to this church, that there must have been a reason that God was leading us here. We had called a larger church earlier in the week that we had frequented on a couple of different occassions and we were leaning towards making that our home church however, when we called to speak to the senior minister - we never received a return call. So, all things happen for a reason.

Received a phone call of assurance today that I don't wish to elaborate on at this time however we know in our hearts that all is well and that it's only a matter of time before we can go after Ivanna. I am full of faith and only had a moment of being overwhelmed last week and am feeling much better now. This is a very hard and emotional process especially when you accomplish as much as we have in a few very short weeks. I just have to remember that not everyone works like Darlena :D THANK GOODNESS for that. Well, we love you all for all the prayers and support we have received. Continue to follow this ever unfolding adventure.

OH Happy Day!!

2010-02-12T12:26:00.002-06:00

FINALLY the dossier is as complete as we can get it at the moment. The only thing it lacks is the homestudy and the approved I171H so even a little progress is PROGRESS. We are back on cloud nine again. Hurry Hurry Hurry on up. We managed to get snow flurries here today - haven't seen snow on the coast in several years. My dad just called - he lives about 30 miles from us and it is snowing at his house now. It won't stick however because there is so much water on the ground but it's pretty while it lasts.

Well, continue to say prayers that everything keeps falling in to place quickly and we are coming home with Ivanna soon. Hugs to you all!

Another Day

2010-02-11T22:17:00.002-06:00

Well, we are attempting to keep ourselves well occupied. Tomorrow we FINALLY get our medicals signed off on so that will complete our dossier other than home study and I171. We also owe the homestudy agency medicals as well so this will be completed tomorrow also. We'll get everything in the package apostilled next week.. Closer and closer everyday just waiting on the homestudy write up and decision. Looking forward to putting another check mark on our list of things to gather tomorrow. Well, aside from that on Saturday afternoon GCDSS has a Valentine party planned so that's something to look forward to. Hurry up Monday - I feel like week-ends are a waste since probably no one is working on anything related to the adoption over the week-end except the poor social worker that has to complete the write up. :D. Every day is one day closer for certain. If we were told to be on a plane tomorrow we would be "ready".

Paperwork Ugghh!!

2010-02-09T17:33:00.002-06:00

Ok so last two days haven't been that bad. Just really more emotionally draining that I think what we anticipated but it's not holding us back any. We are going to keep on pressing forward. Did get good news today in the realm of a reminder that it's all going to work out according to what God has planned and there is absolutely no other way around that. We honestly believe that Ivanna is what God has planned and are willing to accept whatever path he chooses to take for us. Will be heartbroken if that's not it however, we will certainly be ok. So with that being said - we have taken the advise of some great friends and taken a tiny step back, deep breaths and trying to keep in mind that just because you get questioned doesn not mean NO. It just means that people are doing their jobs in making sure that if they do put their signature on a document that they have, within the best of their ability, provided the best alternative possible according to the information and data gathered. It's frustrating and emotional all at the same time. The frustrating part is not that they are doing their jobs but every day is a day lost in our eyes. In addition, we also have to realize that we are VERY fortunate to be where we are today, in that most home studies take anywhere from two and one half months to three months to complete. Ours is almost there. So life is really great.

We mailed our first package to Oleg today which was exciting - everyone says how can that be exciting? ---- well every single piece of paper that gets signed, notarized and apostilled is one baby step closer. With that being said it's almost time for the love of my life to walk in the door and we are going to grab some dinner.

I received what I considered to be a very special phone call this afternoon from a very special person who I worked for at one time in my life and she will never know what a huge impact she made on my life. She was someone that was very supportive and was like a mother hen and when we crossed paths - I needed that mother hen. It's true that God puts you in just the right place at just the right time. Same way as our lives have been since we started this adoption - we never knew, I don't think, what an impact we had made to some people around us - the smallest things that you think people don't notice are the things that they don't forget.

Thanks again to you all for your love, your support, you many acts of kindness no matter how big or how small it doesn't go unnoticed. Today we looked at Ivanna's fund and now see that it's up to $424 - we have no idea where the money came from other than the first $134 so if you are responsible for this and are reading we thank you very much again.

Hugs to you all and keep saying prayers because we believe that God will work.

Close of Another Week

2010-02-07T17:43:00.002-06:00

Well, it's Sunday and the close of another week. We are ONLY 3 weeks in to the adoption phase and are already in "wait mode" and oh how we were dreading these days that lay ahead. We are going to do everything we can to expiditiously push through anyother hurdles remaining. Lu built our "grab button" however fund raising is not stopping us with the required funding needed. Whatever anyone sends in we are extremely grateful - however we knew from the start it was very important to be able to obtain these funds quickly and not have to rely solely on fundraising efforts to bring Ivanna home. Had our first hurdle on Wednesday night - thanks to Kim we were able to tackle it head on first thing on Thursday morning so we think we have that one back in the box. Had paperwork galore to finish getting together and so forth and so on. Really just simply waiting on medicals to come back now and those should be ready on Wednesday YAY!! Thanks could never be enough to my three best friends who have allowed me to cry on their shoulders continuously - Beth, Donna and Kim. All of our friends and family want this to happen just as much as we do - unbelievable support. I keep having to be reminded to just keep the faith and it's all going to work out. I'm in hopes our Dossier will be complete by Wednesday of this week - with the exception of the Home Study & the I-171H of course. Then we want to make a trip to Jackson to the Secretary of State's office to have the apostilles added. I'd feel better about hand delivering that paperwork because all the money in the world couldn't bring back the originals if the package were to get lost. Keep praying for all of this to fall in place and that Ivanna is home soon. I'll attempt to update our blog soon. Hugs and kisses to you all.

More Accomplished

2010-02-01T20:05:00.002-06:00

Boy has it been a busy week-end for us - we barely looked up. I missed the twins birthday party only because we were on a role and just couldn't miss out on time. Well, got a great call this morning from the bank - so as of now nothing stands in our way except time and approvals. So continue to pray daily for our family and Ivanna's. Someone e-mailed Ivanna's mom for me and asked if she would be interested in corresponding and she said she would love to so my first e-mail went off to her today. We have our dossier in order and are just waiting to insert the "Put XXXX Here Pages" with the real information. It's coming together nicely - we are now to that phase that has been so dreaded - the waiting. Home study group is still sorthing through all the abundance of stuff I have had to send to them and compiling - still waiting on medicals to come in - Dr's appt on 2/12. USCIS form sent off today and will forward the home study upon receipt for their review and approval. Once we get home study final written approval and USCIS approval then we are square, round, rectangular then nothing sits in our way. Again lots of prayers that it all works out. We completed 8 of the ten hours of adoption traning last night - finished up around 1:30 this morning. Hubby was exhausted, as was I. He took the day off then we went at lunch and picked up some letters and such that were being signed and I tell you I am just AMAZED at the folks around here who have wanted to help expedite everything they can. Dealing with people like mortgage companies that are not local and such is sooooo not easy at all. If we ever get the opportunity we will change our mortgage company. AND oh by the way - the new bank, Charter Bank in Pascagoula, ROCKS. The bank president was nothing more than a pleasure to work with and was it nice to sit and talk to a warm body vs a non-compassionate phone voice. Seems along the way that people have lost site to customer service and helping customers. Not this bank and I hope to see them stay that way. GO CHARTER!!! Well, going to look at doing the other two hours of classes and choose some additional classes that we'd like to take advantage of as well. Remember lots of prayers.

Supertastic Day!

2010-01-29T22:55:00.004-06:00

Another supertastic day!!! Feel like we got so much accomplished today. Have started the dossier paperwork and our first petition is about to be sent in and wow what a feeling!!! Today we did more blood work for medicals, had our TB test read which of course was normal and had several things notarized. Did I mention that we are the luckiest people in the world to have the support that we have on our side - attorney's, paralegals, nurses, mothers, fathers, secretaries, vets, teachers, our boys, my dad and my husband's family - just really overwhelming as we love them all. Without all of the help we are getting we would be lost because I couldn't tell you how many phone calls that some of my closest friends get of me in panic mode and being a "drama queen" and what do they do - put me right back on my feet and in reality and tell me it doesn't matter we will deal with each thing as it comes and so far so good. All of the panic moments I have had have just worked their way out. You think the Lord plays and intricate part in that??? YES He does. I was talking to one of my friends today and we were discussing about how long some of these folks and maybe even you have been working on their adoption and it is just amazing at what all we have accomplished in two weeks. Our VERY FIRST e-mail to RR was Friday 1/15 at 11:58 p.m. - Andrea first responded at 7:22 a.m. on Saturday and from there we e-mailed back and forth fourteen times on Saturday and Sunday and are where we are today. Is that not AMAZING??? Please continue to pray for us and more importantly say prayers for Ivanna and her biological family because I can't imagine even what they may be going through however I know that they are truly happy that Ivanna has found a home and I really hope they will stay in touch so they can continue to see what an inspiration and bundle of love her child will be and will have.

Passports have arrived!!!

2010-01-28T15:53:00.003-06:00

We are getting closer and closer everyday to our little Ivanna. Our passports arrived today it took less than two weeks for them to get here by expediting them. We did get confirmation today that the orphanage has agreed to hold her pending we continue to make significant progress as we have been we have worked diligently to make it through all these tunnels and let me tell you it is not easy but if you have ever even so much as given the thought to adopting a child with "special needs" I encourage you to look in to it more. I have the utmost confidence that if you have taken the time to read our blogs that you have a heart to either follow or look in to this yourself. Just remember we all have a lot we can offer these little ones no matter how big or how small.

Another Day Closer

2010-01-28T06:23:00.004-06:00

Another day closer. Passports are scheduled to arrive on Saturday, 1/30. YAY! Received paperwork from the dossier team - we will work to start compiling that data this evening. Hold us in your prayers for the upcoming days ahead. I did hear some great news from someone who has personally visited with Ivanna --- you'll never believe --- SHE LOVES MUSIC - now isn't that ironic. Once again another sign from God that she is our perfect match.

Awwee More "Stuff" Out of the Way

2010-01-27T16:38:00.000-06:00

Well, today has been great - took off a little early today to get some more things taken care of. Andy and I went to get our TB test started, blood work for HIV testing and then off to Sherrif's office to have our first set of finger printing done. Now we have to go over to Bama and have it done there also - they are getting away from doing FBI finger printing since it can take two months to get the results back so now pretty much they are doing state wide level checks of any state you lived in. Everyday puts us one day closer. Friday we get the results of TB and then take them to our "regular" MD.

Just a little about us!

2010-01-27T12:42:00.000-06:00

I am my daddy's only child. Lucky, lucky me! However I do have two half brothers, one that lives close to us with his wife and children and then one brother as I mentioned previously that is differently abled and lives with my other. Both of which are much older than me to the tune of 15-18 years. But with my differently abled brother he always lived with us growing up or as far back as I can remember anyway so I was obviously 18 years younger than he was and rode the church bus every Sunday together with him. I was like a pit bull dog - if you mess with my brother then you had then 5/6/7/8 year old sister to deal with and even though we were going to church - when you messed with him this little girl turned in to a "demon" LOL. So it didn't happen often but seems our world has come a long way in that there is a lot more inclusion than I can ever remember there being back when I was growing up and it wasn't that long ago so don't even go there :).

My husband has three children from a previous marriage, Steven - 13, Kevin - 11 and Ryan - 10. All of which are our hearts. We don't get to spend much time with the middle one however the other two we see quite regularly and they enjoy lots of things - of course video games, fishing, boating, bowling, skating, watching movies. Family time is important at our house and when they are here we attempt to have a "family night" where we all watch a movie or do something that is fun together and it has worked well for us.

The boys, especially Ryan is quite excited about the idea of having a new sister. Ryan wants to read to her which is great. When the social worker asked Steven what he thought about it - Steven's reply was "I think it's quite nice actually" - he is so funny - so grown.

Anyway so that is the jest of it our lives together, as husband and wife, pretty much make some people want to gag because we have been so goo goo and ga ga over each other. We were married in June of 2006 and we don't have annual anniversaries like most we have them every month. We never say a cross word to each other. When we have had maybe 5 disagreements in our entire marriage it has had to do with struggles with his ex wife and her very different ways but we've always been on the same page and know each others thoughts before we even know we are about to think it - now that's close.

Our goal is to make this transition easy on Ivanna and the boys and show her love like she has never been privy to. Family living is what the Stratton family is all about.

We started helping out the local DS group - Gulf Coast Down Syndrome Society in September of 2008. I became their cheerleader and the continue forward person. When they said they wanted to do something or that they were going to do something Darlena was right there to hound them all the way to the finish line. Only because I had more time on my hands than they did :) and that was my way of supporting. My husband always tells me he knows the names of more children with DS than any other child I told him that was completely ok. These families and their children or adult children have taught us so much and to see their interaction is nothing more than amazing. My friend has given me a new word in that there are a lot of people that are "differently abled" so that is the term I use. When I hear someone say "normal child" I then like to ask in return "what is the definition of normal?". Makes for a good conversation. Well this is one more heck of a support system and we wouldn't trade our road for anything. Ivanna is very lucky in that she will be walking in to a world full of people that can't wait to assist in her road of success and she will have a world of little and big sisters and brothers that will help her with that as well because I feel like we are more than friends and acquaintances in this organization we have developed our own little community families and it is remarkable. Well, enough, cause I could just go on and on and on and on. But these familes do have a lot to teach they "typical" family. So thus, we are well on our way in the adoption process so when you go to bed each night say a little prayer.

How do you pick?

2010-01-27T12:34:00.002-06:00

So my husband picks out a little girl and a little boy and low and behold we heard from our contact almost immediately. When we inquired about the two we picked out we were told that there was not a lot of information on them and then she came back with a suggestion of two little girls and our main goal was that we wanted one that was of higher risk of being transferred to a permanent institution/orphange. Well, immediately we knew Ivanna was the one for us and then our worlds were completely turned upside down. It was, and I can't nearly describe it as good as my husband can, but it was like as soon as we said YES then our future brightened, our eyes were wide open and we had a love for that little girl that was just like hers, unconditional and knew that we could give her exactly what she wanted and exactly what her biological family wants for her. So bottom line here if something were to fall through we will be deeply crushed. So for the last "almost" two weeks we have found ourselves in a whirlwind of paper work with a fast attempt of bringing her home where she belongs. Home studies sometimes take a lot of time to complete but fortunately for us because of travel, and the urgency to prevent Ivanna from being transferred the agency worked with us diligently to complete in an expeditious manner. Ours began late Thursday afternoon, 1/21 and ended 1/23. However we have still been scurrying to complete paperwork, medical testing and fingerprint back ground checks - just typical paperwork.

How did this start?

2010-01-27T12:20:00.002-06:00

There is not enough time in the day to venture back in time and tell you about our lives however we want to start going forward with this and share. This particular Friday night, January 15, 2010 - I was laying comfortably in bed and my husband got on a roll - now it had been one heck of a week - my friends brother that was differently abled had left this world to be with Jesus on 1/7, attended his wake on 1/9 and then a hole was burning in my heart that I had to call my brother who is presently 57 years old, differently abled and lives with my mother - much to my dismay I wasn't allowed to speak to him - yet another long story. So, my point being, I had a very emotional week and was very heavy hearted. Well, Friday night - I was watching a movie and of all things it was about an orphan from Russia which again triggered my husband to pull up the Reeces Rainbow (from now forward will be referred to as RR) site. He keeps trying to get me to come to the computer and look and I kept telling him now that I just couldn't. Well, then he kept harping about how he wanted to adopt one of the children listed. This was way more than ok with me, however, I just never would have even thought he would "really" want it to be a reality and would be more of an "in the moment" talk as we have had before but now looking back I think he was only testing the waters for me and my opinion because the two of us are so close that the importance of what the other is thinking is very important to the two of us. Well, finally just to get him to quieten down I just kind of shrugged and told him to pick us out a child that to me I'd take any of them and that's what he said but unfortunately that's not an option. So, he in turn did pick out two children THEN here comes the funny part. He wants me to get up and e-mail RR. I told him if he wanted to do this then he could e-mail them - so he walks over to the bed as if he is going to lift me out of it YEAH RIGHT! :). So again, to appease him, I got up typed up a little e-mail to Andrea and minimized it on my screen well there was no pulling a fast one on him he saw that I didn't send it so he sent it. I didn't send it because I didn't want to I simply thought he was making this effort because he knew it's what I wanted and to me it had to be both of us and I just didn't realize it really was both of us that wanted it badly. THEN our lives were "forever" changed.

Adoption Adventure

2010-01-27T12:04:00.001-06:00

Oh what a fantastic "almost" two weeks. Let me just attempt to get you started. I have been on the board of directors for our local DS group for the past 17 months - Gulf Coast Down Syndrome Society, http://www.gcdss.org/. Right before the our Buddy Walk in October of 2009 we were contact from another local family about setting up a table at our walk as a fund raising effort for them to bring their little boy home whom they were trying to adopt through Reeces Rainbow with Down syndrome. Well, as soon as I heard of this, I immediately visited http://www.reecesrainbow.org/. This was very heart wrenching to me and I just couldn't bring myself to look over the entire site. My husband immediately said to me that we ought to do that - as in adopt a child with DS. Well, I just assumed that it was an "in the moment" phrase and that it would go away. Well, it didn't go away - we had brought it up from time to time just had never put our thoughts in to actions. All the while we knew something was missing. We had and have become extremely attached to the families and children/adults in our organization. The personalities greatly vary but they all have one thing in common and that is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Well, what we didn't know is the Lord was certainly working on us through this organization because at first I was a little standoffish when asked to become a board member because I felt like I had nothing to offer since we were not parents to a child with DS - little did I know we both had tons to offer and more importantly we had tons to learn and boy have we learned.

Stratton Family

Ivanna Surgery

Ivanna's First Encounter with Santa

DIAPER FREE!!!

First Day At The Beach 10/22/10

Two Bottom Teeth!!!

School ROCKS!!!!

The Princess of the Palace

Baby Girl GOT BLING!!!

Welcome To America Princess Ivanna!

Monday Night and Forward!!

Our Last Sunday

Laid Back Saturday!

Final Preparations

An Orphan NO MORE!!!

Last Pictures as an Orphan

Our New Life with the Addition of Ivanna

GOTCHA Day is Complete!!

Ivanna's Last Night!!!!

Last Thoughts

TOTALLY PSYCHED!!!!

Frustrated!!!!

SIX Days Remaining

Photos from 08/26 and 08/27

Videos from 08/26 and 8/27

Court Day 08/25/2010

It's OFFICIAL!!!!

Our Trip

Pictures and Videos from 08/20-21

Videos from 08/18 and 08/19 visits to Princess Ivanna

Visit 08/18 and 08/19

6th (8/18) & 7th (8/19) Visits

Videos from 08/15 and 08/17

Fifth Visit 8/17/10

Visit 8/16/10 & WE GOT A COURT DATE!!

3rd Visit 08/15/2010

More Videos from 8/14/10

Pictures 08/14/2010

Video Visit 08/13/2010

Ivanna 08/14/2010

Videos From First Visit and Other Stuff

Our First Visit with Ivanna 08/13 at OneTrueMedia.com

Fantastic Wednesday

Flight Delay!!!

We Depart!

Less than one week away!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Two Weeks

Six Months and One Week

Tabernacle Church Family

Flights Booked

WE GOT A DATE!!!!

Princess Ivanna's Room

Room Fit For a Princess

Our Dossier Was Submitted

It's Thankful Sunday!!

Princess Ivanna

More Stuff!

Princess Stuff!!

WE GOT IT!!!!!

Time for More Prayers

Woooo HOOOOO

I'm BACK!!!!

Soooo Dislike the Waiting Game

Orphanage Visit

Crazy Good Day

Praise the Lord --- ONE MORE STEP

Customs & Immigrations

Church & Update

Baby Steps

Update

Great week-end

Today

God is GOOD!

Letter from Ivanna's Mom

Fabulous Week-end

OH Happy Day!!

Another Day

Paperwork Ugghh!!

Close of Another Week