Stahlke Adoption

From Teeth to Nails

The children's teeth have required a great deal of treatment over the last three years. Our wonderful dentist, who is well-versed in dentistry and child psychology, has blessed us with both her dental care and the generous gift of insurance-only billing. So when Paul complained about pain in his upper right teeth, and I had some sensitivity to cold drinks, we quickly made an appointment for yesterday morning. If Jonathan and I are traveling soon to Ukraine, I'd rather not do so with a toothache and the need to find a dentist in Kyiv.

After our dentist took a look at my teeth, she concluded that the problem was not a cavity, but teeth-grinding from stress. Now what in the world could I be anxious about? Paul then went in and received the identical diagnosis! So we received samples of Sensodyne toothpaste and the potential for mouth guards later in the fall.

The other children are also showing their excitement and anxiety about Kola's coming. The younger kids all made his bed two nights ago, finding a mattress protector, sheets, and a cute blanket, and then making welcome signs in Ukrainian to hang nearby. They are finding outfits for him among the bags of donated clothes we've received. We've also seen some acting out at VBS, as well as difficulty sleeping. And some of them are chewing on their nails like they're corn on the cob.

Back to yesterday--
In between the already-scheduled dental visits, VBS, a tennis lesson, youth pizza party, and a counseling session, Jonathan and/or I managed to write the letter to the SDA, notarize the letter and the I-171H, travel downtown for the apostiles, and mail the package to Masha. It was a rough day.

We knew that the Ukrainian papers are very time-sensitive, and we couldn't make contact with Masha to know where to send them (to her or the SDA). She lives a long way from Kyiv (five hours by train), so it made sense to mail them directly to the SDA. But then Jonathan reminded me that she has hand-delivered all of our official correspondence in the last year. So, we made two official copies of each document, with everything notarized and apostiled, and mailed one set to Masha. If we find out later that the documents need to go directly to the SDA, we have a second set ready to mail.

I made it home from the post office, pretty wiped out, and went to our bedroom to stretch out on the bed. Who did I see there but our dog Dakota, biting his nails!

(By the way--
Masha wrote us today with the news that she wants to hand-carry the letter and I-171H to Kyiv. Whew!)

posted by Stahlkes @ 4:58 PM