It's Been Too Long & Rescheduled Twice!!! - part 2....

Part 2:


Car trip to New Jersey for a family funeral, overnights at a convent and a hotel and a visit to relatives.  That day started with a tooth being pulled under light sedation, followed by an earthquake just before taking off for New Jersey in a mini-van with six adults, and sleeping at the convent where his Great Aunt Gloria was a novice.  He also got his first bee sting at his cousin's pool.

A hurricane with power lost for five days so we moved into the farm which had no air conditioning!

Several parties with family and friends including a lovely shower for him,  gatherings of USPP friends, my great Aunt Jeannie’s 89th birthday, a WST reunion pool party, Labor Day picnic, Lithuanian Community Picnic,  family and friends visiting for weekends, birthday parties for his Dad, Mom, Grandpa and Nana, his parents and grandparent’s wedding anniversaries, Cookie Exchange Party, 12th Night Theater Party, etc....  His favorite song is Happy Birthday - which we sing in church almost every week.  He is a real social butterfly.

First haircut which he really seemed to enjoy.

Started all day kindergarten.  John had to get used to formal education which was completely new.  He caught on quickly with help from his wonderful, patient kindergarten and ESOL teachers. He is well-known to everyone at school and is dealing well with all the attention.  He loved the first school field trip to the local firehouse and the day that Mom joined him at school for the Thanksgiving lunch.

Riding the school bus.  He started out on the regular bus, but didn’t understand the rules so he got moved to the special ed bus which has a lovely driver and aide.  He loves riding the bus now and has made friends with all the kids on it.

Started Lithuanian Saturday School where he now speaks English when spoken to in Lithuanian.  After only one week in the USA, we Skyped with my cousins in Kaunus and they said he already had an American accent.

Started Sunday school which he really likes since many of his regular school classmates are there.

Tried to have an overnight with grandma and grandpa but he just didn't want to sleep and was waiting for us to come back.

Halloween!  He dressed up as a Teutonic Knight complete with Lithuanian flag and went Trick or Treating in the neighborhood.

now for part 3......

It's Been Too Long & Rescheduled Twice!!! - part 1

I tried to update this last week, but had major computer/iPad issues.  Gotta love updated internet security with non-updated apps!  Let me try this again.....





The best intentions often get put on hold.  I had hoped to update this regularly as a way to remember what happened when, but it just didn't happen.  We have been busy getting used to being a family and loving every minute of it.

The most recent news first - John's cardiac surgery date has been changed twice! We were originally scheduled for December 27th, but John woke up with a low-grade fever on Christmas morning.  One half dose of children's Tylenol, a half-hour nap, and he was fine and read to roll for the rest of the day.  However, the surgeon wanted him to be symptom free for three weeks.  Our second date was January 23rd, but I came down with a nasty case of strep throat on January 17th which took two weeks to really get rid of.  As John had been exposed to strep, the surgery got moved to February 14th!  John is staying home from school and I'm home form work until he is through the surgery and ready to go back to school, probably in late March.

Back to catching up!  Our "firsts" included:

Learning to play in the pool - wanting to spend hours in the water, shooting super-soakers, being tossed into the water, wearing his floatie vest, floating on rafts.

Five dental visits for one tooth pulling, four stainless feel caps and one spacer - he loves the dentist too!  They use a nice combination of medicines to lightly sedate him, which makes him feel like he had a four-martini lunch.

Pediatrician visits for booster shots, a rash from new clothes, and nasty cold.  An international adoption clinic visit with a  developmental specialist which went so well, we were told he doesn't need anything or to come back!

Cardiologist vista with an EKG and echocardiogram which he was really good for - he just laid there and watched Toy Story.

Ophthalmologists visit and new glasses which he loves to wear and has almost completely resolved his wandering left eye and eye crossing.

First week home!

I can't believe we've been home for a week already. We've gotten alot done. We are now calling Saulius his American, legal name of John. Sometimes he answers to it, sometimes he doesn't and often we "slip" and call him Saulius/Sauleke/Saulo. His English is coming along and sometimes he spontaneously speaks English without any prompting.

John has met his Nana Reardon and just loves her. She was in Wisconsin visiting Uncle Jim and Aunt Claudia until last friday. She came back with a nasty cold and stayed with my parents for the weekend to recuperate. She and John got to play everyday. He was very excited to meet her. John loved the ice cream cake that Nana Reardon brought for big John's birthday. Our little guy was very disappointed that Daddy got all the presents that evening, but he recovered quickly. Most of the presents that Daddy got were really for John - school posters with colors, shapes, etc.....

We went to Sam's Club for some basics and stopped at the pool store to get the water tested. John loved riding in the shopping cart and was charming to the pool store folks. We were bad parents and had "lunch" at Jimmie Cone. Of course, that was a big hit.

We have spent several afternoons in the pool - both ours and at the farm. He loves water and gets braver every time. We have little life vests for him and he's very good about wearing them. My dad was thrilled to finally see his grandchild in the baby pool that he built 20 years ago.

Aunt Rita came by over the weekend and John just loved being able to chat away with her. She gave him a lovely police car which he enjoys immensely.

John went to Wal-Mart with mom and grandmom, he loves riding in the shopping cart. We also stopped at the children's consignment shop in Mt. Airy. He behaved well and the ladies were very kind to him. I had shopped there before we left for Lithuania, so they were thrilled to meet him. I found two items for John that Daddy approved of heartily - a little Harley-Davidson denim jacket and denim shirt. John's gonna be the coolest kid!

We started the rounds of doctors, school and adoption post-placement stuff. We were able to see the pediatrician, and John behaved very nicely. He did get his McDonald's ice cream cone afterwards as promised. Mom came with us to provide translating services, so she earned her mocha frappe.

After two days of telephone tag/pass the buck/runaround by the school system, we got directed to the international students office and met with them. Really just more paperwork!

Mary Beth and Mary Lynn came to visit during the week and John just loves company. He gives everyone a tour of HIS house, HIS room, HIS toys and points out all of HIS family in photos.

This weekend we will be hosting Kim and her family for a visit and time in the pool. We also have another trip to the pediatrician and the lab for blood work. Guess we'll be having another trip to McDonald's for ice cream afterwards?

Hopefully we will be able to Skype with Mantas' family this weekend. John talks about his cousins in Lithuania every day.

We have our first dental appointment, first visit by adoption social worker and first eye doctor appointment set up for next week. There will continue to be lots of "firsts" for quite awhile.




Donuts are wonderful for breakfast!



I'm just not a morning person! Please pass the tea.


Yummy! Jimmie Cone makes a good lunch.







Daddy's birthday dinner!


Grandma Veronica reads Lithuanian fairy tales.

First day at home

We all woke at 6 pm and Saulius was ready to roll. We had breakfast, he wolfed down two eggs, then we opened all the new toys in his room. He especially loves the Harley-Davidson motorcycle and the CAT construction trucks from the Gudas'. Besides playing with toys, we managed to unloaded the car, unpack, and do all the laundry. It was wonderful to get to use a regular sized washer and actually have a dryer! We even washed clothes than we brought home clean just to get them softer.
We all took a walk around the yard, and met the neighbors horses. After our lunch of basic cold cut sandwiches, the family started to stop by. Mom, Dad, Kathy w/ Kayla the dog, Aunt Gloria, and Ted all stopped by. They each showed up separately so Saulius could have a few minutes with each one of them alone. Between visits, Saulius spent the day inspecting the house, playing with toys and visiting the kitties. Red and Tux are being very patient. They are sequestered in our old room, and we have short, supervised visits. After a couple of days, if everyone behaves, they will be released back to run everywhere. The day flew by and we had dinner at the farm and then visited with the family. When we got home and he had his bath, he decided it was time for bed and marched off to his own room and hopped up on his bed. He fell asleep in less than 5 minutes. We also crashed by 9:30. The pool is ready (many thanks to Harry for keeping it maintained while we were gone) but we'll hit it tomorrow after running some chores. John's mom is coming home from visiting John's brother and sister-in-law in Wisconsin tomorrow. Looking forward to more fun tomorrow as we will be celebrating John's birthday.

Home again!

We were picked up by Elona from the Family Law Center and took our last taxi ride.  She has been such a great help, we will miss her.  Our plane to Frankfort was 30 minutes late leaving Vilnius.  Of course, we only found that out after getting to the airport.  The Vilnius airport is very small and security was very short.  Saulius found the kiddie play area and loved the slide and balls.  They have a neat activity book available there and we picked one up.  He offered crackers to people at the gate, chatted up a nice lady and ran up to a guy with a tie since any man that wears a tie must be important.  Saulius was great on plane, acted like a real seasoned traveler.  The Lufthansa crew handed him a coloring book, coloring pencils w/ sharpener as soon as we got onboard, but he never used them.  He put his seat belt on, ate his snack, and enjoyed the juice.  It's only about a two hour flight to Frankfort and we only had an hour layover.  The plane de-planed next to the terminal and we had to use a bus to get to the terminal - it was about a 10 minute bus ride as the airport is huge.  We ran through Frankfort and made our plane - we had to run down about 4 flights of stairs, run through a tunnel, then take the elevator up 4 flights.  We then had to pass through another immigration check point as we were leaving the EU.  Fortunately the immigration check was right next to our gate.  At the gate we had to show our passports again and pull out the inch thick envelope of immigration documents for Saulius.  Only after that were we able to get our seat assignment changed.  When we booked his ticket, he was sitting 5 rows away from us and we could not change our seats until we were at the gate.  We ended up with 3 seats in the same row, but not together.  There was an older lady sandwiched between us, but she was kind enough to move over one so we could be together.  She was probably relived to have a buffer from our "Chatty Charlie".  John got stuck with the center seat, I got the aisle and we put Saulius between us.  He loved the headphones, in-flight movie, blanket and nibbled at his dinner.  As we did not get a bathroom break in Frankfort, he wanted to use the bathroom on the plane.  He thought it was really neat - so we had 3 trips in less than 1.5 hours.  John had picked up a portable DVD player before we had gone over.  It has 3 headphone jacks so we could all watch the Wizard of Oz for the 25th time in one week as well as the Sesame Street DVD's.  It was a lifesaver!  He finally fell asleep and got about a 4 hour nap - we didn't.  Landed at Dulles pretty much on time and there was no line for immigration.   Immigration was a breeze - the officer took a very quick glance at our envelope, opened it, and told us he would save us an hour - we were free to head on out.  All our bags arrived, and none smelled like booze (we had two bottles from the relatives packed in there).  Customs was a joke - just handed them our little card, I don't think they even looked at it, and moved on.  They weren't checking anyone!   Ted was waiting for us right outside customs, and had beverages in car for us.  Saulius recognized Dede Tedus and they shook hands then hugged.  He fit perfect in new car seat and climbed right in.  There was no real traffic getting home as it was already 9 pm.  We rolled in around 10 pm.  We showed Saulius around the house, pointed out his room, his toys, his bathroom and our room.  He met the cats briefly when we fed them and all behaved well.  He kept looking and asking for all the rest of the family - I think he was expecting them to all be at HIS house.  Then it was bath time and beddy bye.  He crashed with us and we all slept well as it was about 6 am Lithuanian time.  I hope the jet lag isn't too bad! Tomorrow we meet the rest of the family and finish exploring HIS new home.