Dreams Really Do Come True...

Ella Grace Ana Payne 12-24-2008

From Steven Curtis Chapman's "All I Really Want For Christmas"

All I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in; A shoulder to cry on if I lose, shoulders to ride on if I win; There's so much I could ask for, but there's just one thing I need; All I really want for Christmas is a family...

All I want for Christmas is someone who'll be here; To sing me happy birthday for the next 100 years; And It's okay if they're not perfect or even if they're a little broken; That's alright, 'Cause so am I ...

All I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in; Tell me I'll never be alone, someone whose love will never end; Of all that I could ask for, well, there's just one thing I need; All I really want for Christmas is a family...

Last Weekend of Shopping...

I can hardly believe this is the last weekend before Christmas! Have you finished Christmas shopping? I haven't but I don't plan on doing any this weekend. I panic in crowds and well, it is just not good. So, we will bake and prep for Christmas Day and jump into the last minute shopping on Monday!

I am wrapping the under the tree gifts tonight in hopes of not staying up until the wee hours waiting for Santa's delivery of unwrapped gifts. I am really hoping to just sit out that cup of milk, cookies, and reindeer food and go to bed early. I won't - never do; but it is nice to share the thought!

The kids are so excited with anticipation of what Santa will deliver! They are going to be so surprised!

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On another subject, Ella Grace and I have met an Ukrainian lady who has been able to speak with her in Russian on a couple of occasions now. In speaking her native tongue, Ella Grace seems a bit lost on some of the words - we hope the conversing will help her to retain her native language.

Checking the Blocks...

Finally after 5 (yes five!) phone calls we have Ella Grace's passport back from the Ukrainian Embassy. We mailed it in October...emailed BEFORE we sent it off to verify timeline - they stated 10 working days....and there you have it, 10 very long Ukrainian working days from October 21st to December 16th. They sent a drafted letter outlining our years (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2021) for filing our periodic annual reports about the progress of Ella Grace Ana.

We had our 3 month post placement conducted last week on Thursday and should have it in our hands tomorrow. It then has to be forwarded to the state to be apostilled, returned to us, and then on to our agency. Easy enough...maybe 10 working days?

Honeymoon...

It has been 3 full months since Ella Grace Ana has arrived home; and that time has just flown by. Ella Grace has had many accomplishments and a multitude of 1st since she has been home - so many I dare not list them here. She is growing and bonding magnificently and since she has "found her place" in the family her true personality and character has emerged. She is still the sweetest little girl full of love, hugs, kisses, warmth, smiles, and laughter however, the honeymoon is over (at least as she sees it).

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She REFUSES to take a nap anymore. She progressively went from 2 naps a day to none. Which is fine, but we all need some quiet time. So after lunch, I take her to her room so she can have some self play and learn to entertain herself. This worked great for about 10 minutes. Suddenly, there was an uneasy quiet and when I tiptoed in to find out why, I found Ella Grace 10 layers deep in my makeup! After we cleaned up, I took her back to her room and explained to her this is Ella's room, Ella's dolls, Ella's toys, Ella's place to play. Mommy wants Ella to play with her babies (LaLa's) and toys here for a little bit. After that discussion she stayed in her room and played for about 45 minutes (I checked to make sure she wasn't back into the bathroom) before she said, "Ella finished play now."

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Listening. She listens, seems to understand, repeats it to you, demonstrates to you what she should or should not be doing and then turns around when you are not looking and does it anyway! Testing boundaries in a big way here.

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Night Night. She was doing great for the first 7 weeks going to bed without any issues. Now, she refuses to have the lights off and her door closed (not all the way) - she doesn't cry, oh no, she SCREAMS. We put a night night light in her room and she still SCREAMS the moment one of us heads out of the room; and the screaming doesn't quit unless one of us goes back into her room. We have started "prepping" her before bed by saying we are going night night in 10 minutes, 5 minutes and so forth along with and we are not going to scream or cry. She repeats it with, Ella go night night, no cry, no scream....but it always ends up in tears. Which tugs at our hearts but we know we have to set the boundaries and be firm. It has gotten better (some nights) and she will just weep until she drifts off to sleep. I believe something traumatic happened and she is comfortable enough now to let her guard down yet, still unable to communicate what her fear is.

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Other than these few little hiccups, Ella Grace is happy, healthy, and growing. She is our bright little star and she knows she is daddy and mama's little girl. While it is not always a cake walk, it wasn't such with our other 3 children either; but we are blessed this little girl is a thriving, happy, healthy little angel in our lives.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

We had snow today! A rare event but it happened, and a beautiful sight. The kids were so excited - even Ella Grace who I am sure has seen snow before. We will pray we have some more over the winter! This is El Paso from a past snow....can we top it?

El Paso, Texas

Who Said....

Who said I was afraid of dogs? One could never tell that just 2.5 months ago this child screamed when she saw a dog headed her way. This is Ella Grace playing with Ginger at my Aunt's home in New Mexico.

Christian (10)

Carson (9)

Under Examination...

This morning we had dental exams...all 4 children in one shot. First, I must say to those of you who manage more than 4 children (plus a dog) to any one appointment on the same day consecutively - BRAVO! We managed to make it by the skin of our teeth!

Patrick - no cavities; needs sealants (partially covered by our insurance) and requires extractions (4) before he is 18 and the dental insurance drops him!

Christian - 2 cavities...teeth 3 and 14 - these teeth have erupted with zero enamel to protect them and while Christian could brush better these 2 teeth would still have needed the end result...a crown. Of course he will also need sealant (not covered by our insurance) on a few of his teeth.

Carson - no cavities; requires sealant (again, not covered) on several of his teeth and he will need braces in 6 months.

Ella Grace - no cavities and no sealants required! You go girl!

Cost $649.80
Smiles are priceless!

Then off to take care of Izzy. Our boxer beauty is 12 weeks old, weighs in at 14.7 pounds and is eating us out of house and home - a true Payne. She doubled her weight in just 4 short weeks! Izzy had a full doggie exam today to include her shots and micro chip. She is such a great dog and so cute!

Lastly, today was my 43rd birthday! Thank you to eveyone who sent birthday wishes. I am so blessed to have family and friends like you!

Now, I am off to bed at 1:05 A.M. because at 43 I need my beauty rest in order to stay looking like I am 34!

Let The Count Down Begin...

It is 25 "wake-ups" as our children describe it until Christmas morning. That means 24 days to purchase all those gifts we haven't already purchased (which is almost all); and with a small budget this year to do it with.

Tonight we headed out purchase our tree. As we were walking out the door, Christian asked if we are going to the PX (Post Exchange) to get our tree (he is only accustom to the fake ones). I said, "No son we are going to have a real tree this year; one that smells like Christmas and fills the house with the smell of the outdoors." With that, Christian said, "Don't we need a saw or something to cut the tree down with?" Logical question. He was so excited at the thought of going to the woods to search for "our" tree, cutting it down, and loading it into the truck to bring back to decorate as we listened to Christmas songs and drank hot chocolate. Ahhhh.....it does sound so good. After listening and seeing the excitement in his little face it was sad to tell him we are just going down the street to one of the vendors selling trees. Next year little man....we will go to the mountains so you can have the full experience.

Instead, we all piled into the truck and headed down Dyer Street to find one of the many "Christmas Trees Sold Here" lots for our perfect tree; and believe it or not it was at the first place we stopped! We debated for about 20 minutes between 2 trees and then decided the smaller of the two would be best....plus Ella Grace had to potty and she was at the point when "in a moment baby" was no longer working. We loaded the tree into the truck and headed back home....only Ella Grace HAD to potty REALLY BAD now and we diverted for a burger and a potty.

We finally made it home and placed our perfect NOBLE tree in the living room; no ornaments tonight... we are waiting a day or two for the limbs to relax and an earlier start with all the trimmings for a memorable decorating night!

Adapting to the Changes....

We are still here...

The postings have been less frequently lately but we hope that now we have adjusted to the changes in our family and our travels are over for now we will be able to begin posting to our blog on a regular basis.

This is what has been happening....

We (Christian, Carson, Ella and me) left for Tennessee on November 7th; we returned to El Paso with Grandpa and Flat Stanley on November 16th. Then on November 19th we took a trip to Albuquerque, NM to visit my Dad's sister Marcia we hadn't seen in over 8 years! We had a lovely couple of days visiting, catching up, and seeing snow flurries, before we headed back to El Paso on November 21st. That afternoon, Ben and Daniel came to spend the weekend while their parents headed up to Ruidoso - we officially have a house full!

We enjoyed a wonderful full weekend with 2 more boys and Grandpa. We just hung out and enjoyed our company; roasted marshmellows on the outdoor fire; the boys' played in the tree house, and my dad, Jim and I sat by the fire....it was nice. Then Sunday came and it was full of "see ya laters" sprinkled with a few tears. Dad headed back to Tennessee and Ben and Daniel walked back across the street to their home....it was quiet again. Maybe we need to add a couple more children to our family? I love the chaos!

In the midst of all the happenings, Jim celebrated his birthday, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with our family here in El Paso and today is Patrick's 17th birthday....where does the time go?

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the company of good food and sweet treats with family and friends!

Believe It or Not...

We headed out to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Aquarium today to see all kinds of life living in the the water that covers 70% of our earth! We saw poison dart frogs, four-eyed fish, fresh water stingrays, armored catfish, fish from the coral reef like the parrots, damsels, angels and butterflies, fish whose very names are almost as exotic and colorful as they are. We visited the shark lagoon where we leisurely traveled on a moving 340-foot long glidepath, as we made our way through the acrylic tunnel and came face to face with snappers, tarpons, grunts, squirrelfish, a green sea turtle, giant stingrays, sawfish and...very large SHARKS! Then me moved on to one of our favorites, stingray bay! Here, we saw so many different rays and sharks - atlantic stingrays, southern stingrays, cownose rays, spotted eagle rays, bonnethead sharks, leopard sharks, epaulette sharks, arabian sharks, brownbanded sharks and white-spotted sharks. They looked hungry so we stayed away!

We had so much fun!

Fall Foliage

OMGoodness!

Flying in over east Tennessee was so beautiful! Fall has arrived here and the sight of all the colors below was just breathtaking! Oranges, yellows, reds, greens, and golds all across the landscape; when you have sand and desert landscape you forget the beauty of fall.

What a perfect time to fly!

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Okay, back to the purpose....we arrived here in Tennessee with my family. It's nice to come back (especially in fall) to see everyone! I am not so sure Ella Grace knew what was going on but when I told her she was going to see her Grandpa and Grandma she squealed with delight!

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We have been here almost 5 days and she is finding her "way in" with Grandpa and Grandma - FOOD! She will resource one of them waiting until a drawer or cabinet is opened to see what is hiding behind it. When Grandma or Grandpa opens it, Ella Grace can hardly contain herself! Of course the find is more than anything she hoped for and her squeal is a true reflection of her desire to consume it! I have given up on telling them she shouldn't have this or that....hey, they are Grandparents ~ their job is to spoil her and send her packin'!

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Yesterday we went to the park with some of her cousins ~ the pictures from our outing are below.

Sliding and climbing

Big brother Carson

Big brother Christian

Waiting to zip line Carson, Ella Grace, Carly, Caden and Christian

Time to go home.....I'm cold.

Дедушка и Бабушка

That's Russian for Grandpa and Grandma.

We (Ella Grace, the little men and I) are leaving to visit with my family in Tennessee. We can't wait for everyone to meet our daughter/sister!

Gross (ology)

Homeschooling began with a trip to the Grossology Exhibit. It is truly an impolite experience of the grossness of the human body. We explored sticky, goopy gross things like blood, pus, sneezing, and athlete's feet; bumpy lumpy gross bodily issues of goose bumps, hiccups, moles, rashes, tongues and warts; and then on to squishy, mucky gross things of the brain, bruises, eyeballs, guts and poop!

Christian said, "The museum was cool and so was the operation game. I liked pumping the juices to make the man exhibit burp."

Carson said, "It's really not that awesome and I really didn't like it. I didn't like smelling all those stinky smells: armpits, anus, feet, and bad breath."

Our neighbor went with us: J, S, and B - thanks guys we had a great day with you!

Also little man from across the way went - thanks D we loved having you with us!

Halloween Fun...

I thought I would add some post Halloween pictures.....

Major Changes

Those of you still reading and who know me well - this is going to knock your socks off.

Have you ever made a decision/choice and then later thought better of it? Thought maybe I could have made a wiser choice? Perhaps a situation isn't what it appears to be at first and the 'other' option(s) may have been a better fit? My point is, often times we make decisions and later find those decisions may not have been the best choice. This had happened with the choice we made for schooling for Christian and Carson.

Coming from Madrid, Spain and the private school ASM we gravitated towards the private schooling here. We searched, we visited, we asked questions, we compared, and thought we had made the right choice. Now, we are sure we made the wrong choice. It has been 12 weeks since the boys began school - 4 of them while we were in Ukraine. Every night, they have had between 4 and 5 hours of homework - yes homework. Their routine consist of arriving home, 30 minutes to eat and play, then to the dining room table for homework. From 4 in the afternoon until bedtime we (Christian, Carson and myself) are at the dining room table with studies. They have absolutely no time to hang out with friends, socialize, play sports, or be apart of any community activities. I have no time to cook dinner, talk with a neighbor, on the phone, or go to the bathroom! It has been stressful and not very fun. They have cried and I have cried. It is terrible to see your kids so miserable. It tugs at your heart when they say, "We moved here on base to have friends, we don't have time for friends because it is always homework, homework, homework!" What do you do?

So we took a huge step back and looked at this objectively and asked ourselves..... Why do they dislike school? Why are they begging us not to send them to school every morning? Are they being pushed too hard and/or too quickly? What happened to enjoying and loving to learn? Where are the hands on experiments? Where is their community involvement at? Where are they learning team building? Do we want them to "learn" the material or "know" the material? How do we make learning fun? How do we make this work for our family?

After careful consideration, much thought, and a whole lotta praying and asking for guidance, we have decided effective Friday, October 31st Christian and Carson will no longer attend the private school they have been attending or a public school. They will be home schooled. Yes, I did say home schooled for those of you who thought you didn't read that correctly.


I never thought in a thousand years I would be homeschooling my children. I didn't think I had the personality or drive to teach my own children; but here we are at this juncture in our lives where we must make decisions that are selfless and in the best possible interest of others. We are excited and looking forward to this new challenge for our family. As we move forward in this new journey we hope to bring the fun back into learning math, science, language, history, spelling, reading; and to teach them new and exciting things, to have hands on experiences that go hand in hand with what they are studying, to be apart of their community and learn about citizenship, team building and volunteering, to join the football, baseball, soccer or swim teams AND just be a kid.

Birthday Girl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Ella celebrated her 5th birthday today - her first with her forever family and her

first as an American citizen.

Cake

New Name....so says she

Our little Ella Grace has picked a "new name" she insist on calling herself "Elle" or "LaLa."

She is showing us her comic side:

She plays this game: She will say, "Eta Mama, (pointing to me) and then "Eta Elle Lala" (pointing to herself). When I point to me and say, "Eta Mama" she says, "Nyet!" and points to me and says, "Eta Ella" (then points to herself) and says, "Eta Mama."

Isn't she just the cutest little thing!

She called me Mommy today! Still calling Papa - Papa.

It's Raining...Inside the house!

Our entryway was raining and the chandelier was the waterfall....

....the repair men came and OH MY now that is some damage!

Our hot water pipe had sprung a leak....this is the damage to the ceiling

The repairs were 3 days long - but they handled our home with care by draping off the rest of the house to avoid dust and damage....

And now it looks like new!

Ideas....

Thanks for all the great ideas for Ella's 5th birthday celebration and first with us. We are keeping it simple and pretty....

E-Mail...

Do you get behind?

I had 96 emails to respond to! I wish that "E" stood for Easy - it took all day to go through and respond to all those emails. I am good now...just one left to respond to - sorry Rita. Why did I leave just one? I can't imagine waking up in the morning and not having "mail" in my Gmail in box. Something to look forward to I suppose. :o)