Quick Alex Update

Yesterday I got all the kids out in the yard for a little family fun we like to call.....yard work! 

Wow. Having SIX able bodied kids help made a ton of difference. (Six, because Kambree's guy Cameron was with us - and he's a worker!) 

While weeding, raking, chopping down ornamental grass that should have been cut in the fall and attempting to pull ivy out of the the flower beds Alex found a branch and was whipping it around. He then decided to enlighten us with a Ukraine memory. He told us this was they type of switch he was hit with in the orphanage. Then he proceeded to try and show us how hard he was whipped with it - making that horrid whipping noise as the branch slices through the air. 

He was concentrating and I could tell he was gone. Lost in his past. I quietly asked him where he was? Where this was taking him?
"I know mom." was his answer. 

I asked him if maybe he should stop, that maybe this isn't good for him? To let it go?

He was a bit disgruntled and defensive but came back with an answer that warmed my heart. "It's okay mom, I  know I will never ever get hit like this again." 

Good. At least he knows that.

I told him that I am glad he feels that way but that this whipping the branch and thinking back to his past might trigger something like the Ukraine swear words?

He said nothing more but threw the branch away and went back to working on the yard.

Funny how little things seem to trigger him - like when Austin was using the nebulizer a few months ago. 

Last week Alex Skyped with his brother Ivan. It's been months since they've talked. I think over six? They're expecting again and their little boy, Egor - looks so much like Alex did in the few photo's I have of him as a toddler. We were rushing to get to church when they Skyped so I had to excuse myself to get ready and leave Alex to try and understand what they were saying. Ivan asked how he was doing in school? Good was Alex's answer. He asked if he had any lady friends? A lot was Alex's answer. (Which is left to be determined, I've yet to meet or see any "lady friends". ) He asked if he's playing sports and Alex told him water polo. That took roughly 20 minutes to communicate? That and that Snezhana is expecting a baby girl.
He seemed fine with their phone call but has decided he's going to go visit Ivan when he's older and bring $2,000 to fix up Ivan's house. (He's quite appalled at the state of Ivan's house?) Then we had to convert how many gryvna are equal to 2,000 in the US.

Later that day he told me if he could re-learn the Ukraine alphabet, he thinks he could relearn his language. I told him that would be great! Let's do it! But that's the last he's mentioned it.

In other Ukraine related news, let me share my Facebook post:

Banner mother moment: Kambree asked if I had some lip-gloss in church so I rummaged through my Sunday bag and couldn't find any but came across some Ukraine chocolates. I gave her one and then complained that she didn't give me a taste. She told me - while eating it - "I don't think you'll like it. It taste like cleaning solution. In fact, it's burning my throat!" I grabbed the wrapper and peered at the Ukraine writing, and there it was "Cherry In Liquor"!!! I gave my daughter alcohol in church!! Worse? I had given them to my Sunday school class for Ukraine Christmas in January! Good grief! I had grabbed an assortment of chocolates at the Russian store hopefully no one else got this "special" cherry one!