New Blog

Please see our new blog at http://thealaskacarpenters.blogspot.com/
All updates will be to the new blog, so please change your bookmark (if desired).
Thank you.

A New Photo

Andrew & Grandma Celebrate Same Birthdates

Well November 5th just came so quickly but both Andrew and Grandma Gloria share their same month and day of births so to both of them a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! For Grandma Gloria the family members pitched in dollars and got her a new ceiling fan light for their home in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Sister-in-law Kim put the whole thing together so the rest of us could contribute and for that we are grateful.

Andrew wanted new tennis shoes as he is out-growing just about evrything he has....so as he kept telling us could we please consider a pair of RED Etnies shoes.
So Greg being the WONDERFUL father he is - ordered him a pair as that was the only thing on his birthday list. I probably will never share this with Andrew nor would he even understand but the new shoes look just like the ones that a very famous clown by the name of Emmeit Kelly used to wear when I was a kid.

Marina and Andrew both enjoyed the Halloween cards they recieved from their grandparents, uncles and aunts. This was so overwhelming for them but love the idea of having real family members AND cousins too......a lot different than Ukraine.

Today the newspaper in our town is doing an article on adoption and the children are featured in the upcoming issue complete with pictures in Ukraine as well as after they arrived in Seward. Tonight in observance of National Adoption Awareness Month we attended with the children a special presentation in our city council meeting where the mayor of Seward presented a Seward Procolation for them and they were featured on television here in town. Marina was all a dither over that!

Thanks to you who visit our site and HAPPY THANKSGIVING...from all of us!

A SPECIAL VISITOR

This past week we had a very special visitor come to our town to visit Marina and Andrew. Lt. Governor Loren Leman and his lovely wife, Carolyn of Alaska spent about 4 hours between our home and the local school for a volleyvall tournament in which their daughter, Nicole was a
team member. Marina had the biggest smile on her face when the Lt. Governor greeted her in Russian and then informed her that he is from Russian ancestory too. That is all it took to 'break the ice' as we say here and it was the beginning of a wonderful afternoon for the family and the Lemans. We served coffee and tea in the original cups and saucers that Andrew and Marina had given to us as gifts from the orphanage and the children were presented a signed book on the Alaska Constitution from the Lt. Governor, a picture of their daughter Nicole and an official Alaska state engraved pencil for Andrew. We were then invited to stop by the Lt. Govenor's office in Juneau, Alaska, our state capital, on our way back from visiting the grandparents and family at Christmas.

October News

We had a final bonfire of the season last week as Seward is getting ready.....we thought for winter BUT THEN unusually large amounts of rain fell and our town was designated a disaster area with flooding. We are okay....but others have many feet of water in their homes. The Red Cross came in and has set up emergency shelters but our property is completely safe. Took Marina around in the truck the other day to assess our neighbors damage and she was VERY happy to return home to a high and dry safe home. Marina has been playing soccer for the elementary school here and is looking forward to basketball season.

Andrew is on a five day school schedule also even though he is in a different educational campus at present. He is learning the fine art of the American way of playing ping-pong and is enjoying that game almost daily after finishing his homework. His daily work at school has it's ups and downs but when he applies himself he is almost hard to beat. Hope the weather continues to stay mild for Andrew's sake so he can still kick the soccerball around outside until freeze-up!

More later but thanks to you who stop by this blog to check on the family!

Major Family Adjustment

As everyone knows, life is always full of surprises....and so it is for some of us experiencing the inclusion of new family members to our households. Marina and Andrew have come a long way to be part of the Carpenter Clan and for that we are so grateful. This past week it was discovered that Andrew will need some additional help in behavior modification and will be recieiving therapy while he is in a special residence working with professionals qualified to assist children in post-adoption concerns. We all miss him so much but look forward to seeing him progress
thru this part of life on a more positive note.

Meanwhile, Marina is coming right along with her adjustments to new friends, church, school and of course her sports. She is a favorite at school and the children seem
to be drawn to her as she is such a vibrant, energetic and compassionate young lady.
At her last physical checkup she has grown taller and gained a few pounds (which is a good thing). She has gone from a size 10 girls to a 12-14 in the last few months!
Tonight, Marina is having a few of her girlfriends from school over for a 'sleep-over' and is pretty excited about all this....Wow....hope we ALL can get at least a few hours of sleep tonight!!! EArplugs will help for Greg and me.

Alaska is starting to get ready for its winter and so is Marina. Warmer clothes and
boots are all lined up in her new bedroom which we are remodeling for her. Thanks for visiting us again on this blog!

Soccer, Homework, Visiting grandparents

Another busy period has just past and more busy days ahead. Andrew and Marina's grandparents from Minnesota plus one of their uncles and aunts visited this last week and brought many, many presents for them....very lucky children! Marina has grown about 2 inches taller and gained about 8 lbs since returning here from Ukraine.
She attended her first dance at the youth center last week and danced with a boy. She looked so pretty when she got ready to go and a little anxious. When we picked her up after the dance she was beaming from ear to ear and had made many more friends and told us all about her 'first' boy-girl dance. She has such a beautiful smile when she is sooooo happy!

Andrew is busy each day after school with soccer and plays for his school. He and papa went to his first 'away-game' yesterday and even though Andrew's school didn't quite win the game - they learned a lot and plan to do even better next game. I baked a lot of chocolate chip cookies for the team and Andrew and papa sampled a lot of them I am sure. Andrew is having to really work hard on his homework and is trying to settle in to concentrating at school. He has never had parents watching his grades and helping him to do better. There are many behavior challenges for him at school and is learning that all his 'joking' doesn't always fit into an academic situation....so we are working with him on that.

English classes still continue for both children and Marina is doing a lot better. Since she is divided from Andrew more and more she is actually developing her own personality and becoming her own person....this is so important as she is finally feeling better about herself and is so loving and happy. Quite a 'social butterfly'.

We are doing chores today in order to get ready for winter. Right now Marina is playing with the two girls next door and Andrew is watching NASCAR racing with papa on cable tv. We went to church this morning as a family and had refresments afterwards at the church. Next month they start CCD at Sacred Heart CAtholic Church so along with school, church, sports, friends and fun there is not much time to sit around idle. More later.....hope everyone is as happy as we are!! Thanks for visiting us.