Carving Pumpkins

No, they don't carve pumpkins in Latvia! So, it was quite an experience for my son to dig out the inside of a pumpkin, draw a face, carve it out, stick a candle it and put it on the front porch! In fact, he asked why we sit it outside and I honestly didn't know. I resorted back to my... "because that's just what we do" excuse! I use that one quite frequently. Ahhhh.... so many "firsts."

This kid has a "first year" photo album that would rival any baby! He's the most photographed teenager on the planet. Happy Halloween!

Salvation & Baptism

On September 8 & 9, Ryan attended a conference with his Christian School. It was called the "Get Real" Conference. This conference focused on exactly what it said... getting real with yourself, your family, your friends and most of all, God. I knew from the title alone, it would be a great conference for Ryan. He wants so much to please others, but we want so much for him to simply be himself and let his own thoughts and feelings known. We never want him to do anything just because he thinks we want him too, much less salvation and baptism. We've had alot of conversations about it, but have never fenced him into making a decision, that needed to come from him. Honestly, he's gone back and forth as to whether he was a Christian or not. Before you think that's normal for an orphan... Ryan was incredibly blessed in a "spiritual" matter of thinking. He was chosen to attend a Christian summer camp 2 summer's in a row. It was a camp put on by a Riga church. Their members and kids would attend and they would invite some orphanage children as well. Ryan took to "God" like a fish to water. He saw and heard something there, in the message and in the people, that made a huge impression on him. He came to us knowing alot about the bible. Granted it was a head knowledge that we will now apply to the heart, but it was pretty remarkable. In fact, he would travel from his orphanage into Riga city most Sunday's just to see them and attend that church.

Well, at the conference, on the last day, he did walk forward, feeling he had not made a heart decision for God and it was time. That Sunday, he went forward in our church and the following Sunday, September 21st, he was baptized. So that nothing is seen as "ritual," we showed him in the bible where Jesus was baptized. Baptism isn't a thing done over there, so it was important that he understood what he was doing and it was "symbolically" following in the footsteps of Jesus. My dad, who is a pastor, was able to baptize him. He baptized me of course, many moons ago, so it was a real special thing for me to watch my dad baptize my son. God is pretty awesome in general, but that day, it felt as though my heart would explode with the knowledge of the amazing thing he had done in all our lives! Enjoy the photos and God Bless!

Walk for Hope!

Ryan and I will be walking in the "Walk for Hope" on October 25, 2008. This walk benefits orphans. Unless our names move... you can see "Michelle" and "Ryan" at the bottom of this page to show that we are registered. http://nhfcwalkforhope.eventbrite.com/

Ryan has been given the opportunity to be rescued from the life he was living as a child in an orphanage. We will both walk together, in honor of the thousands of orphans that are still waiting in line behind him. We praise God for leading us to Ryan and having the opportunity to make him our son. Now, we work and pray for the other children who remain. Please join us as we raise funds to offer more orphans the chance to change their destiny. There are MANY more just like him... waiting.

If you are able, we'd love to have you as a sponsor on the "Vernon" team. We have both already received a $50 sponsor each (Thank You Hatcher's in Texas) so we're off to a great start at meeting our goals. New Horizons is a non-profit, 501c3 ministry, so ALL contributions are tax deductible.

You can make your check payable to New Horizons for Children and send it directly to our home address. Thank you! (33 Autumn Woods Dr, Dallas GA 30157)

Spirit Week

Well, it's safe to say Ryan never spent a week of school in Latvia dressing up in ridiculous costumes! This is spirit week, also known around here as Homecoming week. Each day, the kids dress up in different things. Monday was pajama day, Tuesday cowboy day, Wednesday decade day, Thursday sports team day and Friday is Lion Spirit day, because they are the "Lions." He and I both have had fun pulling the costumes together. Not easy, as we don't have a lot of wardrobe to pull from, but we have great friends who loan us things like cowboy boots and hats! (Thanks Boyers)

I knew you couldn't miss what my little European has dressed up as this week. On cowboy day, he looked awesome! He had pearlized buttons, big belt buckle, really great boots and a great hat. Some girl from 12th grade asked him if they even had cowboy boots in Europe! His reply, of course not. Him walking on a pair of "heels" was hilarious, he's never had anything on that had a heel. Anyway, we've had so much fun. His 80's hair is courtesy of his momma's fabulous hair skills! He was a most excellent looking 80's breakdancer. On Thursday, sports team day, he wore his Latvia soccer jersey and hat. We figured no one else in school would be wearing that team! It will stink to go back to uniforms next week... well not really, this has taken alot of effort. Enjoy!

Tooth Fairy suggestions?

I don't post alot about Ryan's "old life." Mostly, to protect his privacy. But, in this case, I'm going to share what he told me the other night. Two reasons... for you to really get a picture of the complete dysfunction they come from. I want you to really see why it's so important for these kids to, at least, be hosted. They really, truly NEED a new model of family. Second, to shine a spotlight on the childhood they've missed out on. If there was ever a reason to host and consider adopting an older child, this story might be it...

Ryan said to me that if he ever broke his tooth, he was going to put it under his pillow. I didn't know where that was coming from, but he is taking karate, so I suppose it's a completely plausible scenario. He said he'd "heard" that sometimes, if you placed your tooth under your pillow, it would get taken and there would be 1 Lat in it's place (which is like 50 cents here). I told him yes, that was known as the tooth fairy and little children place their tooth under their pillow for her to visit and leave something for them. He laughed out loud at the notion of a tooth "fairy." I asked again how he knew about it and had he ever done it? He said, yes, he had done it once, but nothing happened. I asked how he knew to do it and he said his "mom" told him about it. Puzzled, I asked why his "mom" would tell him that but then not actually do anything? He said, "I don't know, probably just to see if I was dumb enough to do it."

So, I'm taking suggestions on what our new Vernon family tradition can be, something to place under the pillow. Feel free to comment. My baby will be putting SOMETHING under his pillow and I... I mean the newly created Vernon family fairy, will be leaving him a dollar. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Please pray for the waiting children. Winter hosting signup will begin soon. This is a perfect picture of why I'm so passionate about these kids, especially older kids. They aren't perfect, they have challenges, but they've been so short-changed, they really deserve some extra grace and alot of love!

"Kid-legs" (inside joke, read on)

Thanks to everyone for praying for Ryan's first weeks of school. He is settling in very well. This smaller and Christian environment was great for him. Everyone has been welcoming and gracious. He has been doing fantastic with his school work. Everyday after school we sit down at the table and review what he brings home, do the homework and study concepts if needed. He's had a test in virtually every subject. His first test was in English and he got a 90! I was so excited and so thrilled. He studied very hard, he's learning and memorizing well when I put things on note cards for him. He's learning so much, how to take notes, how to listen, how to keep up with assignments, how to do homework, how to change classrooms, how to get books and get to the next class within 5 minutes, how to read directions, how to study... it makes me tired, but he's had a great attitude. He also got a 100 on a history test. He has struggled initially on science and vocabulary tests, but goodness, those words are just so foreign to him, they aren't everyday common conversational English. It's like this, if you put 20 Chinese words in front of me and told me the Chinese meaning and I needed to memorize them, it would be very difficult for me. I'd need to learn to recognize the word by sight, memorize how to say it properly, know how to spell it and know it's meaning! Yeah, exactly, feel his pain? In fact, he studied so hard for his health test last week and didn't get a good grade. I told him I was disappointed, NOT in him, but he worked so hard, I wished he had more to show for it grade-wise. He memorized 46 index cards of material. His response... "yeah mom, but look at all the stuff I know now that I didn't know before." If only we could all see things that way. His payoff didn't come via the grade, it came because he KNEW he was smarter for learning so many new things. He likes to use the word "symbiosis" now just for fun!

Funny story. I was teaching him where the adrenal glads are located. For those of you who haven't had 7th grade health in a while, they are above the kidneys. He didn't know what a kidney was. So, to teach him, I start with sounding the word correctly using visuals and phonetics. With kidney, I told him "kid" and pointed to the "knees." Later, as we reviewed the material, we got around to the adrenal glands/kidney question. Here's the conversation:

Mom- Ryan, where are the adrenal glands located?

Ryan- Well, let's see... hummm... (the universal sound of thinking)........ kid.......... kid........... the kid legs!

Mom- (laughing hysterically, virtually crying I'm laughing so hard, almost falling out of the chair)

Get it? Kid-knees.... couldn't remember the knees part... knew it had something to do with lower extremities..... kid-legs.

The kidneys will forever be the kid-legs in this house! Bless his heart, he's just so precious sometimes.

Citizen Vernon

Today was a really important day, Ryan's citizenship ceremony. Adopted children over the age of 14 must appear in person to take an oath and sign some papers in order to get their citizenship certificate. He was a citizen when he entered the US with me from the last adoption trip, but this gave him the official document that he will have to keep up with for the rest of his life! Here's a few pictures of the morning, it was a pretty neat experience to see all those people becoming "new Americans." The majority of people there were probably immigrating, but there were 2 other adopting families from the host program. Congratulations also to Jessica from Russia and Aleksandra from Latvia!

I confess I'm a mess!

My baby started school today... I confess to be a mess!

After I left him in his homeroom class, I went in the school office to ask a question and just started crying! I had been holding it in all morning and the levy broke! Bless their hearts... I promised to not cry daily at the front desk. Thankfully, there was another 7th grade mom there and she made me feel so much better. I am sad because I just lost having my boy with me every day. Other moms have 5 years to get ready for this, I only got 4 months! Whatever will I do with myself now that he's not here with me? I miss him terribly. Of course I took a picture, so many "firsts."

Special Guest

We have a special Latvian guest for a few weeks. Igor will be here until August 24th. He was a hosted boy in this summer's orphan hosting program. However, he was also 1 of 3 that missed the European connection flight because of major delays in their originating city. So, we've added yet another boy to the household... why is it always boys? Igor and the other 2 children will travel with the mission team when they leave for Latvia/Russia on August 24th. We were given approval to do so by Latvia, seeing as they don't start school until September and they certainly do not want them traveling alone. I met Igor in his orphanage in September 2007, he's 16 years old. He and Ryan are having a good time together. He speaks Russian, so Ryan's Russian is getting a workout. Ryan's starting school though, so he'll likely be very bored with only me during the days and my Russian is limited to about 5 words! Just a few pictures in case you see him with us.

Birthday Bash

We had a wonderful 1st Birthday in America, what a fun party. Ryan just wanted everyone to come out and play soccer, volleyball and any other games they wanted to bring outside. All the kids brought water guns and we had a water war later in the evening with most every child ending up soaking wet. Our church soccer fields were the perfect spot, God held the rain and it was overcast; we couldn't have asked for a better night. Ryan blew candles off a cake for the first time, what a blessing to watch. A night of many firsts for our very deserving boy. It really is a gift for us, to be able to offer him so much, not materially, but in life experiences. Jon asked him if it was the best day of his life and after he thought about for a minute and said, "well, it was the best afternoon!" Not sure what the best morning was, we'll save that for another day I guess, but the point was that he thought about it and really did enjoy his party and his friends coming out to play with him. I pray it was a special afternoon he'll remember forever. We thank each of you for coming and supporting him! I've posted several pictures but made them smaller size. Remember, you can always click into one of the pics to make it larger. Then, just press the "back" button to get back to the blog. Other than his trampoline, he also got a soccer goal to practice kicking in the backyard, some toys and this way cool spiderman suit... in case you wondered how it was that Spidey just came to hang out in our house on the loveseat! (hee, hee)