Thanksgiving

Wow - what a great Thanksgiving we had this year. So much to be thankful for with Deniss in our family. It was fun trying to explain our tradition to him - part history lesson - partly I just kept saying "It's all about the food".

We had Thanksgiving dinner with friends from church. Having a big group around always makes Thanksgiving fun. We couldn't get Deniss to try the cornbread dressing. Maybe at Christmas.

On Saturday, Ken's birthday, I had arranged for all the Likumi kids to get together for ice skating. All of the families came. That was eight kids that have been or are in the final stages of adoption that live in North Georgia. They all came from the Likumi Children's Home in Latvia. There are two brother/sister siblings groups that are in family's with two other siblings. There is a set of twin girls who were adopted by a couple with no other children. There is one girl who now has three siblings and then there is Deniss with two brothers. All of the siblings were there ice skating as well with the exception of our Bobby and one other older brother from another family. So we had a great crowd. The Likumi kids loved getting to see each other - after all - they are like family as well. The parents all enjoyed talking to each other and sharing the joys and pains of adopting older kids from another country. It seems like we all were able to laugh about our shared "issues". Kids that eat us out of house and home, kids not understanding why they need to tell us before they leave the house, kids that struggle learning enough English to get by in school. The list goes on - but it was nice to talk about these things and know that we all had the same issues. But most important - it was nice to see the joy and happiness from all of the families and the kids! We are already planning another get together for February!

Deniss got to experience his Dad's birthday as well. He was with us for Aaron's and my birthday back in June but our birthdays were overshadowed a bit this year because we were still in Europe. We were busy getting paperwork completed in Riga on Aaron's birthday. We were traveling to Poland for our US Embassy appointment on my birthday. Now that I think about it, we were busy with Deniss on Ken's birthday as well. Maybe next year we will all have birthday's that are not overshadowed by the adoption thing. By then we will just be busy with everyday life.

Robin

Halloween

Well - Deniss had his first experience with the whole trick or treat thing last night. He had never done that before. He went with Aaron and a friend. He was a "redneck" in camoflage clothing. Only we know how out of character that really was! He had a good time but I really think he is going to get sick from all the candy!

We also participated in a fall festival at church on Sunday night. I really thought he was going to be sick from the candy that night as well.

We have had a wild week so far and it is only Thursday. Besides the Halloween stuff, on Monday night we got a letter from the boys high school stating that two girls had been arrested for discussing a shooting threat in a My Space chat room. It has been in the local newspapers. Yesterday, rumors were flying at the school about another threat. About 25% of the students went home early. We did not get the boys because we felt like the rumors yesterday were not credible. People tend to get a little crazy at times like these.

Robin

We finally have citizenship papers

Even through Deniss officially became a citizen of the USA when he went through Immigrations in Atlanta back in June, Homeland Security wouldn't give us his citizenship papers until he went to a swearing in ceremony. Deniss and I went to an 8:30AM appointment in Tucker on Friday. He signed his papers, swore an oath ant then received his papers. It was actually issued back in July - go figure! We can now get his social security number and passport. Having a passport will mean that we can at least start thinking about a trip back to Latvia.

The wait at Immigration on Friday was long but I did find another family that has worked with New Horizons. They adopted a 15 year old from St. Petersburg Russia. So - at least I had someone to talk to during the two hours that I was in the waiting room. Deniss had to go in another room all that time. I hadn't taken my camera so they took pictures of Deniss receiving his paper and us hugging after the ceremony.

The Shultz's have left to go on their next Latvian adventure. They hosted a boy named Dima when we were hosting Deniss. Dima decided after their first trip to Latvia that he did not want to be adopted. It broke their hearts but not their spirits. They hosted again this summer - this time a brother and sister. Go check our their blog at jblatvia.blogspot.com. They left the USA yesterday. We are praying for better news after this trip!

Robin

I have been busy - so it has been a while since I last posted anything. We got wonderful news from some friends who have been trying to adopt from Latvia as well. John and Becky tried to adopt a 14 year old boy from Likumi. However, after their two week visit, he decided that he did not want to leave his brother behind. I think it is probably a tough decision to make at that age. In the short run, his life would be easier staying in Latvia. It is difficult to adapt to a family, to a new language and a new country. But, we all know that in the long run, having a family can make a kids life much better. That is a very difficult thing to understand at age 14. Thank goodness Deniss has the maturity to see that the short term difficulties are outweighed by the long term benefits.

Anyway, John and Becky didn't give up. Since they were already in the adoption mode, they decided to host a brother and sister from Likumi over the summer. Of course, they fell in love with them and decided they wanted them. They just got the good news that the referral for the kids had come from the Ministry in Latvia. They are scheduled to go for the two week visit the first week in November. They are also trying to make arrangements to bring the kids back with them under a temporary custody arrangement.

Another couple that hosted last summer (2006) when we did, is going to Latvia in a few days to bring home their new son and daughter. The Dolans were a little behind us in getting their paperwork done. The adoption was finalized in September.

So as of now there are four kids from Likumi here in North Georgia with another three in North Florida. Two more will be here before the end of the month with another two by the first of the year. Quite a crowd. We have gotten together with the twins a few times. We hope to get some of the others together.

It is a little harder for Deniss to get used to not being able to speak Latvian. All but one of those other kids have a sibling here in America that they can speak to in their native tongue. Deniss doesn't have that luxury. He says he misses his language.

The boys are out of school the end of this week. We decided to take a little trip to Texas to visit Bobby and Lana. Deniss will be able to add another state to his list of states he has been to or through. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and now Texas.

Deniss had an unfortunate incident last night with his bike. We had gotten him a really nice bike because he enjoys riding so much. Well, last night he rode it to Best Buy. He knows that bikes have the same rights as cars, so he pulled his bike into a parking space, locked it up and went inside. When he came out, he found that someone (who didn't have the nerve to stay around) had run over his bike with their car. He called Ken, Ken called the police. There was an eye witness who hung around to describe the car to the police but unforturnatly the van had the drive off dealer tag on it so there was no tag number to trace. We can only hope that they messed up their shiny new vehicle because they left Deniss' bike in a heap on the ground. Now we have to find a way to pay for major repairs to his bike or we might have to buy a new one. He was noticably upset!

I will try not to wait so long for the next post.

Robin

Well - school was a slight problem again but not because of Deniss. This time, we got a nasty letter from the school saying that they would take Deniss off the roles if we didn't give them his social security number by the middle of October. Well - that is a problem because we don't have one. We can't get his SSN until we get his citizenship papers. We can't get his citizenship papers until his "swearing in" ceremony on October 26. So - I had to go to school today and sign a paper saying that I objected to giving his SSN. Crazy stuff! Here he is in this country legally but they give us a hard time! Go figure.

Anyway - the school is happy for now. Hopefully we will get his papers in October. So much depends on that. We need the SSN for school, for taxes, for him to get a learners license, for getting a passport etc. Life just revolves around those numbers.

Robin

More school stuff

Yesterday Deniss and I met with the ESOL teacher and guidance counselor. Deniss is really beginning to believe that people want to help him. He comes out of these meetings very excited about getting a good education. He told me yesterday that when he was in Latvia he did not care so much about school. Now he thinks he can get a good education and eventually a good job. I think it is exciting that a 15 year old can see the value in having better opportunities. He sees that staying in Latvia would have been easier right now but not so good for the rest of his life. I am not so sure I would have been able to see the value in that when I was 15. But then, I always had parents and teachers looking out for my best interest. I get the feeling that maybe even the teachers in Latvia didn't put a lot of effort in the "orphanage" kids. Deniss seems amazed that these teachers seem to care so much about helping him.

Robin

School stuff

Yesterday Deniss and I had a meeting with his guidance counselor and all of his teachers. Well - it was supposed to be all but the most important one - the ESOL teacher was a no show. Anyway, it was a good meeting. Deniss was very nervous about it before hand. He had certainly never had a parent going to bat for him before. All meetings with teachers before were never for good reasons. I kept reassuring him that this was a good meeting - meant to find ways to help him.

When we left - he was happy. He now feels like we are mostly all on his side! (There is one teacher that wanted to only say his piece and not listen to what we had to say so I am a little concerned about him). But - for the most part, I think we found some ways to make the language barrier a little easier for Deniss. They are going to find a buddy for him in a couple of classes to read questions to him and write down his answers.

Hopefully the ESOL teacher will call me today for a rescheduled appointment. I really need some guidance on how to teach Deniss to read and write in English. I am not a trained teacher so my attempts are missing the mark a bit right now.

Anyway - we all have a lot of work to do to help Deniss. He is a great kid but understandably gets very frustrated and overwhelmed trying to learn in English.

Robin