The Outer Banks!

Exploring the Outer Banks over Spring Break! Peaceful, Inspiring and New Adventures!!!

Currituck Lighthouse 

Climbing the Lighthouse!

Scared of heights!

Wright Brothers Memorial and Kitty Hawk

The Beach at Kitty Hawk

Flying the Phoenix at Kill Devil Hills!

On safari at Jockey's Ridge State Park

Bodie Lighthouse

Hatteras Light

Into the sunset at Atlantic Beach

Wild Ponies at Shackelford Banks

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

Cape Lookout Light Keepers House

Time Marches On...Growing and Becoming!

At Atlantic Beach, NC in 2009

At Ocracoke Island, NC in 2013

So much time has passed since I last blogged. The boys are growing, healthy and strong. All are diagnosed with ADHD, and a two are also diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder. Sounds scary, but it isn’t so bad. No different than finding out you need medication for a medical problem you might have.So we talked to our pediatrician and child psychologist for the right dosages, and we are on a good and healthy path of learning and working well together. Turns out, many kids who come from orphanages experience ADHD like symptoms.  It is interesting that a good percentage of kids also experience Sensory Integration Disorder. The doctor explained it like this: sometime in life as an early newborn, when the brain is growing and firing, something happens to kids who may not get held or the care they need. The doctor said no one really knows why, however, it is seen frequently in preemies as well as orphans and infants who are left alone in their crib a majority of the time. When I was teaching 2nd grade in Chapel Hill, NC, I had 3 children in my class who were adopted from foreign countries. One from Guatemala, one from India and one from Russia. Two of these students were in foster homes before being adopted, so they got one on one care from their foster parents. One of these children was from a baby house, which contains between 8-15 babies per room in cribs in a more sterile like setting. All of these children had systems consistent with ADHD. They were inattentive, impulsive, and had some measure of learning difficulty with their processing speed and working memory. My own newly adopted boys, who were  1 1/2 and 2 1/2 at the time, also displayed symptoms of inattention and impulsivity in varying degrees. It was amazing to see the similar characteristics in all of these children as well as my oldest son who was 8. And if we had the chance again, we wouldn’t do anything differently. Our boys are unique, gifted and special. We are so thankful for them…and the other families I have talked to feel just as blessed. Each day, we get up, eat breakfast, take meds, go to school, and work on our social skills. Being kind…getting along…playing nicely with each other. Does this sound different than any other family you might know? Pretty normal. I love my family!

The Adventure Continues!

Hi Everyone!

Would you believe it if I told you we have just now finally adjusted to being home from Russia? (a year later...that's not long, is it?)

With me teaching everyday and Donald staying at home watching the boys (watching them get into everything, that is!)...life has been busy. Ten days after arriving home from Russia I went back to work. Good intentions...and much needed money...but not so good with the adjustment of a new family of five. But we got through it...and I realized the best part of my day was getting home to see those little boys and hearing their garbled renditions of, "Mammmmmma!" Noah and Zachary quickly outgrew their orphanage ailments and their hair grew as well. Noah slowly adjusted to me more so that he would finally sleep beside me on his own. Of course, Daddy is still his favorite! : ) We have had our share of bumps and bruises and trips to the ER...and let me tell you...they truly are little monkeys! Where Nathan was a calm, obedient, mild mannered baby who never gave us any problems, these two rascals are sneaky! They wake up and sneak into the kitchen...get the stepping stool, and find what they can to eat...like 4-5 bananas or 5 apples with chunks out of all of them. It does not occur to them to come to us...it's like they LIKE trying to sneak past us! : ) Then there is the constant artwork on the walls by Zachary. Pencils, markers, permanent markers...whatever he can get his hands on. Re-painting is definitely needed. They still love the water...and they have figured out all of the locks on the doors and do their best to sneak outside, strip naked and get the hose to squirt each other. You can see how Donald has had his hands full this year! When I got home each day, we would visit, eat, and while I put the boys down for bed, Donald went to church and worked on his messages or bible study group for Wednesday. Life has been busy! And now, summer is almost over! (sniff, sniff!)

Nathan has adjusted well...with all of the normal issues that might arise from a child now competing with two others for his parent's affections! But, really, he has done very well. He got through his 2nd grade year, and his class was right across the hall from mine. It was a great situation for both of us. : ) He is really into Transformers, (the animated version), Spiderman, (again, animated), being a scientist, (there are experiements being loaded into our freezer at all times of the day), and riding his bike. He is still such a fun little guy to be around...he has such a sophisticated sense of humor and we just crack up at him all the time. He really wants to continue to travel internationally (and nationally)...but Mommy and Daddy needed a break!

So that has been our year, the condensed version, until now. I am attaching some pics of the boys...so write us and let us know how you are doing as well!

Much love,

the Cason's

So How Are We Now?

We have been home 1 1/2 years, and boy, what a RIDE! Here are some pics of the boys now...

Visiting Bob Evan's Farm in Ohio...

At Aunt Suki's in Radnor, Ohio for Thanksgiving!

Around the Kitchen Table with Libbi and Laini!

Picking out our Christmas Tree on the way home!

This was north of Mount Airy, NC.

In Lakeland, FL with family! Darbie, Sam, Emi and Aunt Jax with the boys!

Yes...We're Home!

We arrived home August 6th and are fine! BUSY, though. Thanks for all of your prayers and support! We are SO glad to be finally settled in with a normal routine. Noah has settled down quite a bit and readily gives hugs and kisses and is no longer apprehensive toward Nathan or myself. Zachary continues to do well, and Nathan is great! He is the coolest 2nd grader I know. Everything is just wonderful and we are having the time of our lives! (...but life SURE is different!)

In Moscow!

Yes...here is an addition to the blog after a long period of not writing. I think the lapse has something to do with two new babies in our family!!!

HOORAY! the 1o days were waived for Noahs court, much to everyone's surprise. (I mean, literally... it never happens anymore unless a child needs surgery or something) The judge had told our case-worker the previous day that he would defintely not waive our waiting period. But when we got into court and told our story, he agreed. It was an amazing moment! Thanks for your prayers...can you tell they work? : ) So, we got Noah the next day, and he cried and cried. He is much more apprehensive and nervous as a whole...where Zachary is such a jolly little guy. But we are working with him. Zachary now wants "Mama" ...but that is OK because all Noah wants is "Papa." He absolutely howled when I tried to hold him or walk with him the first several days. Now, he will let me hold him for brief intervals but still wants Papa and you can tell he is just tolerating me when I have him. But he is happy to give me kisses anytime I ask, and he is a great little helper. He LOVES to bring things to us when we ask, or pick things up for us. He loves cars...and everytime we see them on the street he says, "beep, beep!" It's cute. We are working with him slowly to adjust to Mama and Nathan. He is active and very rough and tumble...and he is FAST! We have to watch him every second...and we call him our bruiser!

Both boys have rickets and some kind of dermatitis. Noah's rickets are worse, and he has some physical signs. He has a big belly and chest, and slightly bowed legs and weak ankles. He weighs about 29 lbs. and is 28 months old, and Zachary weighs about 22 lbs. and is 18 months old. They are 10 months apart.

Right now we are again, waiting. Visa's for the boys took some time, and now the airfare to get back home is both difficult to attain and astronomical. We weren't expecting that. But we will fly home on Tuesday, August 5th and I go back to work 10 days later. For these next few days, we will go and see Red Square and try to soak up local culture. The market is right outside our hotel door, and Moscow is a modern and interesting city. We already ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, Moscow just for fun...and Nathan has become a souveneir junkie. He walks up to people and starts haggling with them over the price of something, and the language barrier does not phase him a bit. He works it all out. He wanders all over the place and then does not understand why we were worried about him. He is so independent and seems so old all of the sudden. : )

Lastly, it has been so interesting to see how generous a different culture is. As a people, Russians love to give gifts. Each time Nathan goes into a store in our hotel, he comes out with a small token of someone's generosity. In the market, when I was holding Noah and he was screaming, many babuska's were coming over to console him by giving him toys and chocolate eat. On the metro, young and old men will stand to give their seat to you if you have a child. It is expected. I even heard one young woman loudly chastise one man for not getting up...and then he jumped up quickly to give me his seat. I don't think they even knew each other. She just gave him "what for." It was so funny. : ) And in the restaurant yesterday, the owner came out to give us all candy bars...just because she was happy to see us and the children.

Introducing...Nathan the Brat

Yes...brat! That is what we call Nathan. In Russian, "brat" means brother. So we all get a kick out of calling him "brat." Zachary doesn't say much, but he calls Nathan "La-La" ...so we laugh and laugh when he does that. Court for Noah is tomorrow, and we are not allowed to bring the children this time. We are hoping our nice missionary friends will help by babysitting, but we are still trying to work that out. Zachary is a happy, loving and snuggly baby. He LOVES his papa. He cries when daddy leaves the room. He eats both baby food and small bites of whatever we are eating. He is used to having tea time so he likes to dip his crackers in his milk or juice, which is cute. In Russia, dads & moms are called mama and papa...so that is what we have been calling ourselves for Zachary and Noah. We met such nice church workers in Pskov. We ate with them, had tea with them, went to church with them and Donald even spoke one Sunday. They were so generous and caring, and even waived the fees for our apartment, so the entire stay in Pskov was graciously given to us by the United Methodist leaders there. They were also connected to Zachary's orphanage, so they had a photo of him when he was even smaller. : ) We have been very blessed by wonderful people all over the world. : ) More to come later, but right now we need to get ready for court. Please pray for us that the 10 days waiting period will be waived and all will go well with us connecting with Noah. : )

Saying Goodbye to Grandma

Hi Everyone,

Please keep my family in your prayers as my Grandmother, Clara Clarinda Cain, passed away last week. We loved our visits with her when we would go to Ohio for Thanksgiving, and her laugh was infectious. She got a kick out of Donald's jokes and sarcasm, and I just loved to listen to her stories and look at her pictures. She led a rich life. Nathan enjoyed talking with her, and playing with her many little trinkets on the shelves. It will not be the same without her, and I feel so blessed that I saw her semi-regularly and that Nathan had the opportunity to see her each year. (almost) We have the best picture of her holding Nathan soon after his adoption when she and Aunt Vicki visited us in North Carolina. That is such a good memory.

Thanks for your prayers....and love to all,

Jennifer

In Pskov!

On July 3rd, Zachary became a part of the Cason family! We were all so happy, and we will post a picture as soon as we can. Zachary has gotten more blond hair and looks a little older, but has outgrown his rash and pretty much looks the same. Nathan went to VBS and claims that a little Russian girl named Nastya has fallen in love with him. He says he is going to kiss her on the lips the next time he sees her...and so it begins! : ) We are going to eat dinner with the Pastor and her husband on Thursday, and Donald is going to preach on Sunday with an interpreter. Other than that, we get up, eat cereal, hang out in the apartment and when we want some excitement we walk to the small mall or take the bus to go and eat. We return to St. Pete on July 17th, and still no word about Noah's court date. We hope to hear soon. Please join us in prayer that Noah's 10 day wait period will be waived...but we will trust that God knows best and we will take whatever verdict that comes. We are so excited to read all the posts! We wish we could have been at the lake for the 4th and to visit with family at the reunion. Keep your comments coming! Nathan loves hearing from his Auntie and everyone! His 1st grade teacher even wrote to him! His head is healing fine, and I (yes...ME!) took out the stitches today. It was a piece of cake! : ) And his tooth is growing in so nicely! It helps so much to be connected across the globe. Internet access is not as readily available here as it was in St. Pete...but we are going to try to check it in a few days. Lastly...check out a free phone system online called Skype. If you have it on your computer, and we have it on ours...we can talk for free. Also, if we both have web-cams...we can see each other when we talk. The missionaries have it...so download it for free if you can...and when we talk you could actually see us. (even if you don't have a web-cam set up)

Love to you all! The 4 C's for now...

Cheese! Cheesy-cheese, cheeeese!

The title was for all of the Cason's Crocs who remember Junie-B. : )
As you can see, Nathan had a visit from the Russian Tooth Fairy! He kept wiggling that tooth when finally, he twisted it out. And the other tooth was already poking through, so now we call it his "fang." We were in Pizza Hut at the time of the special event. Funny thing, the Russian Tooth Fairy gave Nathan "lots more" money than the American Tooth Fairy gives. He got 100 rubles...(24 rubles = $1). We told him that that must be some special thing...due to lack of smaller bills or something, and not to expect that from the American Tooth Fairy. ; )

Ouch! That Hurt!

So we went to IKEA today...which is a very cool store that we love in America. The missionaries here say that when they need to escape a little bit, they head to IKEA and the mega mall attached to it...because it is really nice and reminds them of home. We agreed. After IKEA...we shopped at the mall and bought Nathan new shoes, along with items for the babies. And then we ate dinner. We had a great time, and after dinner Nathan was playing with his new friend Peter on the playground at the food court when he fell onto a piece of protruding concrete. He came running over to us, crying. As I tried to calm him down, I asked him where it hurt. He was pretty hysterical. I asked him again, and he pointed to his head. As I parted his long hair to find the spot, I saw a lot of blood. This did not alarm us that much, because we knew that head injuries tend to bleed a lot. So when Donald and our friend Janet brought the napkins to me and I applied pressure...I took another peek. It wasn't good. The scalp was split in an inch long cut that was gaping open, and it was pretty deep...definitely beyond the first few layers of skin. The center of the cut was even deeper. Two kind workers rushed to help, and told us of a first aid station near the ice skating rink. We went and the attendant was very nice and treated with basic first aid and cut the hair around the wound before bandaging his head. He told us to go to the hospital and motioned with his hands to say, "stitches"...which we already knew. So we took the IKEA shuttle back to the bus station, which took about 30 minutes. Then we got on the metro for another 15 minutes, and were on the main street where the Medem Medical Clinic was. This is where most Amercians go and some wealthy Russians go as well for medical care. It was SO nice, like a ritzy hotel. We walked in, were waited on immediately, and Nathan was patched up with 3 stitches in about 45 minutes. We then paid our 3, 950 ruble bill (about $167.00) and we were on our way within the hour. It was a great hospital experience. And our missionary friends were with us the entire time, which was a blessing. So now Nathan can not get his head wet, and they told us to clean his wound with Vodka every 2 days. !!! We bought alcohol swabs instead! In 10 days the stitches have to come out, but we will be in another region of Russia, so we may have to do that ourselves. (Yikes!) But, as for today, all's well that ends well! Thanks for your love and prayers!

Waiting...and More Waiting!

We seem to be waiting and waiting. We have one more week before our court with Zachary. We have just been informed that we will have no hot water for the two weeks we will be in Pskov due to a periodic shut down in the various regions across Russia. So we will have to heat water for washing, but we are still thankful for the apartment. We visited Noah again at the orphanage...nice drive to the baby house... but we were in 3 hours of traffic coming home. We all get a little car sick here from all of the starting and stopping and heavy braking and fumes. We were SO happy to get back to our temporary home. Little Noah was nervous around us this time, crying and apprehensive. So we went for a walk and all was well again. Then Nathan pulled Noah on his lap and we all found out Noah was ticklish when the "Tickle Monster" found him. He has a cute little laugh! : ) We also noticed that we have another potential drummer in the family...as you can see by the photo. We had a really good visit. Our day ended with a wonderful dinner with the missionaries that live below us. They have been so kind and hospitable to us, and we have enjoyed getting to know them. We also had dinner tonight with another missionary family, so we have definitely had some good fellowship since arriving in Russia! : )

Mission Work and Russian Friends!

Below are various photos of our mission work at the church and some Russian playmates of Nathan's. Yes, I realize in one photo I look like a babushka... (old lady with her head covered)... but is was COLD! And in the photos of the kids, these are Pastor Andre's children. Pastor Andre and his wife Natasha were very wonderful to talk to and work with. And Anya loved playing with snails as you can see. Anya and Nathan became fast friends, as you can see when they were walking together to Catherine's Summer Palace.