the Life of Olena

She is going to be 15 in January. She is funny, smart, genuine and beautiful.

We just celebrated our 11th Gotcha Day, this kid amazes me everyday.  She is doing fabulous in the 6th grade.  She currently has all As and 1 B.  She loves school and still loves to learn.  She struggles a bit with making friends, but she handles herself well, meshes great with the staff and the teachers and doesn't take any crap or bullying from anyone.  LOL!  She has had her fair share of issues, and has had to write out 50 Ways to be Respectful a handful of times and has been in the "warrior room" to work out conflicts more than once but she is loving, kinds, silly, strong and very self confident. 

She is going to be 12 in January.  She is beautiful, silly, strong, and she is still the light of my life!  She is 5th grade public school and is doing amazing. We just celebrated out 10 year gotcha day, and there is not a day that goes by that I am not reminded of what a true blessing she is.   Enjoy some updated pics and comment if you stop in.  Always wondered if any of our long time friends still stop in and check up.  I do miss this blog and everyone that came with it, but life must move forward. 

We just celebrated Olena's 11th birthday in mid-January.  This girl is amazing!! She is stunning, silly, and I love her with every bit of my heart! She is doing well, adjusting to public school as well as can be expected.  She does love going and at this point, that is what I care about most. Thought I would share a few updated pics with everyone.  :)

The time has finally come. It is with a bit of sadness that I have chosen to end this blog.  I have documented our journey since 2005 and it has been a great 10 years with many ups and downs.  I have made many friends, found lots of support when needed, and I believe I may have even encouraged a few others out there in this big big world. But things change, situations change and the stories change. I want everyone to know that this wasn't an easy decision and one that comes for good reason. Jason and I have decided that we are on different paths in life and we have chosen to separate. During a time like this, it is important for both of us to focus on ourselves, Olena and moving forward in this next chapter of our life.  This blog was started as a reflection of the Warchol family, the adoption, what we endured to become a family and the struggles we have faced since.  The things we face now, our marriage, all of it... I feel are better handled on a private lev...

It is hard to believe this year is already coming to an end!  I guess when I really look back though, the first 7 months were a bit tough to say the least and once that over and we took some time to heal the fall was already coming to an end and now here we are, only 2 days away from Christmas.   I have so many things to be grateful for this year, of course including this amazingly unique daughter of mine who will be 10 in one month.  I can't believe it! 10 YEARS OLD!  She makes me happy, drives me crazy, makes me wonder, and steals my heart all at once.   I can't wait to see what we have in store for us this year.  I don't have a lot of time to update but I wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone and share a few pictures of little "believer".   

OH DEER!!! ;)  

Sorry it has been awhile, we have been busy and to be truthfully lots of times I just forgot about the Blog.  Until my number 1 fan, my momma, complains at me for not updating. I always found that amusing considering she knows more about what is going on in my daily life than anyone else.   At this time I am feeling particularly unmotivated to accomplish anything else, and this seemed like a good idea...so here I am. As you have already seen in the pictures above, somewhere over the last few months my baby girl has become a young lady! The day I took this photos I looked through the lens and almost fainted.  We have all been so focused on everything going on in our day to day lives we often stop to really see what is happening right under our noses.  I had a shoot scheduled for that afternoon, and I was so disappointed I never had a chance to have her wear this dress (that I bought I ...

I can't believe that Fall is already here.  I know we had an exceptionally long winter here, but these last few months have flown by.  Olena told me in the car last night that July and August are really short months!  I reminded her that they have just as many days as the rest and she said "well it sure didn't seem like it, it went by fast"....tell me about it kid! So what have we have been up too?.... A few exciting things have happened.  Olena is a huge fan of the reality show "Fast and Loud" a series based on a car garage in Dallas named Gas Monkey Garage, they restore cool cars.  She is in love with the star of the show, Richard Rawlings.  We made the attempt to meet him when in Dallas over the winter but sadly he was out of town that weekend.  Well, here in Detroit, we have a huge car cruise called the Woodward Cruise, and Mr. Richard Rawlings was in town to make an appearance for the new Dodge Hellcat.  So  these 2 parents did everyt...

Things are finally starting to settle down and we are doing our best to get back onto a good schedule and have started the "retraining" process on Olena.  She has fallen off of the wagon so to speak, which is understandable, but no more excuses time to get her butt back into obedience mode.  She has taken on a sassy mouth and a bit of laziness, so we have been on her like white on rice this past week.  She hasn't been to happy about it, but she will straighten out quickly again.  An obedient child is a happy child :) She recently moved into another bedroom and we made it a bit more "grown" up for her.  She was really excited and I have to say she did a great job and picking everything out.  She wanted red walls, but I was not too excited about that idea so we compromised and we painted one wall red and the others a light grey.  We went to look for red bedding but she insisted on something with black, so she ended up picking a white comforter with bla...

This post is very hard to write, just as it will be very hard for some of you to read.  Most of you will judge, some of you will cry, and some of you will think "job well done".  But regardless of what you think,while you read this and when your done, remember one thing, this is MY life.  OUR life.  We struggled with our choices, we prayed and in the end we did what we felt our Faith and hearts were telling us to do.  Exactly 5 months after walking through our door as a family of 4, I watched my father's van drive away with the screaming and crying little girl I was once willing and hoping to call my daughter.   And once again, we were a family of 3.  I cried.  I cried for her, I cried for the family she was returning to, I cried for the "promises" I broke, I cried for my family...who was lost and breaking.  It was the hardest decision of my life and though I was stricken with guilt, fear, and heartbreak, once the decision was final, I k...

Well if you haven't noticed, I have updated the Title of my blog.   And it is an expression of exactly how my life feels right now.   I have sat here staring at a blank posting page several times over the last week.  Thinking about what exactly do I say?  How do I even explain what we are going through?   I decided I would be honest.  I would bare the internal soul of this house for everyone to read.  I decided this for several reasons.  1. I think it is only fair to other potential adoptive parents for me to keep it real.  Share how damaged these kids REALLY are and how not to take on more than what you believe you are capable of  2. hopefully I can inspire others.  Granted this hard and I will tell you things that will make your jaw drop, but it is not impossible.  I have faith and hope, though very slim at the moment.   I also know what me and my husband are capable of and I refuse to let an 11 year old ...

The time has come.  Though our adoption is not final we are comfortable sharing a bit more information and sharing a few details of what types of days we have been facing. Iryna  (pronounced Ear-ina) is 11 years old from Ukraine, the Donestk region.  She likes to go by the nick name of Ira. (ear-a).   She was sadly placed in an orphanage for the mentally impaired at a young age, however, you can clearly tell that was not where she belonged.  In my own opinion her story is divine, amazing and nothing short of a miracle.  To be in the "older child" category, in a home for the handicap, and just about to age out of that current home in a matter of days.   Hope for finding a family at this point is usually slim to none. But by God's amazing grace a family from the US was willing to call her their daughter.  For a girl with such tragety in her short life, most would imagine that this story went on and ulitmately had a happy ending.  Her ...

I took this picture of Olena about a month ago.  I edited it and was sitting here looking at it when I glanced up at my cork board where I have the picture on the left hanging of her bio-brother....WOW!  I couldn't believe the likeness in this picture.  He is much younger here, I believe he is 4, but it was too striking to ignore.