Grueling journey.....

Finally, my Fieldwork Practicum I & II are complete. I thought it would not be a big deal when I decided last August that I could get up at 4:30am everyday and maintain my full time job while attending classes and trying to help at home along with the new fieldwork that I would have to complete. I did it but certainly sacrificed my health a bit in the process so I will need to begin a gym regime starting next week. Not to mention the sacrifice my family has made for me which I am forever grateful for....

The great news news is that I am getting about 20-30 hours back for my week depending on much sleep you give me back.

The greatest news is I can get back to my regular schedule of not blogging.

I had an interview for a Fellowship with Rutgers yesterday and I am hopeful I will get it but I am not sure the interview went better than mediocre. I am sure I will have an answer by the end of April so fingers crossed with the hope and optimism that maybe my judgement of myself is a bit harsh.

After the interview I got to hang with Nadia as we listened to our Bob Dylan Best Hits on vinyl. She is continuing to catch up in size and she is doing great with her languages. The Russian is coming on strong even though it was delayed at first as she spoke English first. She is now using both with the words she speaks. Her English words still outnumber her Russian words but I have a feeling that will turn around sooner rather than later.

Tash is doing well and feeling better lately too. She is working away at her job that she enjoys very much.

Tash has also begun planting her two gardens (one veggie and one to sit in and enjoy) and they both will be beautiful sights to see come May and June.

As for other planting news... the orchard has basically doubled in size with 42 trees planted a few weeks ago. Lena and Baba Nina have planted onion, garlic, and potatoes in the field so far this season. Tomatoes and other veggies are planted in door right now and will be moved to the fields at the right time.

I have 4 more weeks in this semester with two fairly large papers to write and then I am done until May 29th at which point I will take a 6 week course. After that I am done until September. After the current semester ends I will be taking a two week break from work or a staycation as some call it. I will be going to the beach and hanging around the home with Nadia and Tash when she is not working.

So, if you want to hang during those two weeks give me a call as Nadia and I can come and visit.

Lastly, I want to mention how grateful I am towards Big Brothers Big Sisters of Monmouth and Middlesex Counties and the children I worked with in their programs. With all of the adversity facing the children in many of their programs they still find time to be children and that was great to see and be a part of for the short time I was there....

A Walker Amongst Us.....

Well, remember when I posted 5 weeks to go.... I really mean it this time as I forgot about spring break.

Anyway, as some of you know Nadezhda began walking on March 8^th, 2013. Significant for many reasons besides the most obvious of a child taking their first steps as a human. March 8^th is International Women’s Day. First it will be easy to remember when she first walked because of that but second it is a major holiday in Russia.

So, you might be wondering how it happened. Well I was holding Nadia and I went to put her down for a second. As I was going to put her down she made me put her feet on the ground first and I expected her to then sit or turn around and grab my leg to hold herself up. What happened next startled me as she started to run away from me. I grabbed and then Tash and I made her practice walking for 4-6 hours. It is funny because once she did it she has improved greatly since that day. I am so grateful to have Nadia and Tash in my life. I am a lucky person. 

With my schedule being consumed with a lot of things I figured that Nadia's first steps would be taken when I was not home. However, I was lucky and I am so happy that her first steps were taken in the presence of Natasha and me.

As for me I continue to grind away through my field placement and I have four more weeks of fieldwork over the next five weeks. After that I will have about 2 weeks of school left but two major papers to write.

At the end of the semester I will have about two weeks off before I begin six weeks of a summer class and then I will be off for the rest of the summer. I must say I am looking forward to it.

Until next time… 

5 weeks to go.....

Well....

After getting up at 4:30am since September 1st and getting home 14 hours or so later from Monday through Friday I can say that the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight.

I said this to my field instructor and his response was... "Well, you have to be careful there because sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an entrance to another tunnel."

With that said I am enjoying this tunnel exploration but it has been grueling and exhaustive.

Nadia, Tash, and I took sometime for a four day visit to Miami Beach and that was a lot of fun a few weeks ago. I have overcome my fear of flying and even though I was a little nervous I never really panicked as I have in the past. I also did not drink a bunch of alcohol to help me overcome this issue. In Miami we just laid on the beach for a day, visited an amazing botanical garden, and drove to Key Largo for no reason really.

My fieldwork ends on April 15th but my last day will be April 10th as that is how my schedule is setup.

Nadia is doing well and it is likely she will no longer be seeing her therapists after their next visits. She has made great progress and she is almost completely caught up. Any day now she will be walking as she is very close.

Well, that is it for now as I wanted to keep in line with my blogging schedule of every six months or so.

The second wind is on its way....

Halfway through the semester and I am exhausted but I am hopeful for a second wind that will come about soon.

I am learning a lot at Big Brothers Big Sisters with my field placement and I am having some fun too. Our school programs started this week and I am looking forward to the start of one next Tuesday that I have been a part of through all the steps.

Many children in this world are without mentors or good role models. This is especially true when it comes to male role models. Men in our society do not really step up to help out society as mentors and role models. Of course there are many exceptions to this but it seems women care more about being mentors and role models based on the statistics I have seen. BBBS is always looking for "more" men to step up and become Bigs to mentor young men and women.

Even though I am exhausted I am able to rely on a few things that are driving me to the finish which is closer now than it was when I left the house this morning at 5:30. First, being an example to Nadia is extremely important to me. Quitting never enters my mind as a serious thought because I want Nadia to view her father as a man who got a late start but completed everything he said he would. I want her to see a man who slept a bit long but still chased his dream when he woke up. I want her to see or at least hear about her father's resilience.

I am doing what I am doing because I have a desire to really have a positive affect on society. I want to help people change their lives for the better. Of course there is no way I could do this without the support of Tash and her family. We are lucky in that we have family to watch Nadia each day we are working and I am going to school. With Tash working full time now we are lucky to have who we have in our lives.

One of the programs I work at with BBBS is at Monmouth Medical Center where Nadia was for the first two months of her life. The program kicked off on Wednesday and I was not overwhelmed but I certainly felt a wave of good emotions when I was there. While waiting in the lobby I saw one of Nadia main nurses who cared for her a lot. It was great to see her and show her some updated pictures.

At Nadia's 1st birthday party we had a lot of fun. We joked a lot and never dipped into any morose issues. I am happy that we were able to share our joy with some of our family members. Some were not able to make it but they were missed and I am sure we will see almost everyone very soon.

Home again....

We arrived home to much fan fare (for Nadia) on Monday night. We split our trip from Georgia in half by staying overnight in Roanoke, VA and it is likely we will be visiting there once again with hopes of exploring the city a bit. On our way home we visited the Shenandoah Caverns  as well and they were amazing. Spires, bacon, water, minerals, and crystals all come together in one place to form amazing caves.

We stayed in Western NC for 5 days visiting a trout farm, Hot Springs, downtown Hendersonville, Asheville, The Grove Park Inn, and stopped to show Nadia her first water fall at Looking Glass Falls. We also had the best pizza available in Asheville thanks to Thom.

After our NC visit we headed down to D&Ks down in Georgia. On our way to our their home we stopped at the Cabbage Patch General Hospital. Yes, a place which seems to be where Cabbage Patch dolls are born. It was slightly creepy but very neat and Nadia chose her first Cabbage Patch doll by chewing on its head.

We had a blast once we made it to LaGrange with a Friday night pub visit for Dennis and me and then a visit to a southern party the next day with oysters (fried & raw shucked by me), fried shrimp, fried tilapia, stuffed mushrooms, ribs, pork, swedish meatballs, spicy lasagna, mac and cheese, mash potatoes..... and much more. It was good grub for sure.

Sunday morning was our last day in Georgia and we were treated to biscuits, gravy, and eggs by our friends Dennis and Kerrie.

And now back to the grind.... School starts next week along with my field class at Big Brother Big Sister in Asbury Park. I am nervous and excited but I am certain that I will work hard and that will guarantee my success.

4 weeks of summer left....

Well, it has been a great summer break for me thus far. We took Nadia to the beach twice now and Tash's grandmother also joined us on our visit to IBSP last week. I am hoping we get to the beach again soon as IBSP is a great beach to go to and it is also cheap.

We visited Luna Parc back in June as well and now we are left with 4 weeks till the end of summer. Of course, we also had over 60 of our friends and family members over for a successful picnic in July.

I have landed my field work program at Big Brother Big Sister in Asbury Park. I will be working from 12-7 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. My work is allowing me to shift my schedule around so for that I am super grateful. I will be trained and eventually have my own caseload at BBBS. I will mainly be working with children in after school programs. Although this is not my area of interest I am looking forward to it. So when September rolls around it will be family, school, work, internship, gym, and eating. I will sleep in December.

We also have a vacation scheduled for about 8 days or so and we will be traveling south. First we will be visiting our friends in Georgia for a few days and then back to western NC for 5 or 6 days. It will be Nadia's first trip south and our first vacation in two years. We are certainly looking forward to getting away.

RANT ALERT
Lastly, we joined WOW this week in order to exercise on a regular basis. Back to the gym... Of course every time we go to a gym to sign up they always figure out a way to irritate me. One time they handed us a $300.00 check to cover their member fee... to me that was just stupid because only an idiot would feel they are saving the $300. I know they do this to everyone but I of course take it as a personal attack on my intelligence.

The man at WOW took all our information: credit cards, DLs, emails, phone numbers and said over and over $5 per week no contract. After he filled out all the paperwork and we were there for 30 minutes he mumbled.... Oh yeah... each year you have to pay an annual maintenance fee of $50... and of course I get upset because of how he waited till the last minute to mention this. It was not about the $50 as $300 per year for a gym is pretty cheap but I cannot stand car dealership sales practices (I tolerate them at car dealers)  and they make me livid when I encounter them. Of course, Tash is there to talk me down after I called the fee a deal breaker and some other things that I will not write here. I should also mention on our first day there was found that over 10 of the treadmills are "waiting for parts." To which I stated.... "So much for the maintenance fee."
END RANT

Ok, on to Nadia. She is doing great. She is trying to crawl every day and she loves various types of vegetables and fruits. She also has learned how to do a neck bridge when she is attempting to move. I did not know wrestling practice passed through one's genes.

Nadia is growing and catching up each day. She has a hearing test coming up. She is alert and is very active with various verbal noises. She will be uttering her first words soon I suppose.

This weekend we will be relaxing and doing some work at the house.

Bye for now.

Family picnic.... 1 week away....

Hmmm.... no time to post or just too lazy. Probably both.

I am wrapping up a summer course at RU on Chronic Illness and Disability over the next week. And.... I received confirmation today that BBBS.org has offered me a fieldwork position for the next semester. I am very excited about this next step in my life.

So.... I have to write a paper by Friday and study for a final exam over the weekend.... and then it is 7 weeks off with a vacation during August to the South.

More importantly, our middle of the week family picnic is next Wednesday. We are excited to see people we have not seen in a while. Friends will be stopping by all the way from Georgia..... and family is already here from Moscow... OK she did not come for the party but she came to see Nadenka as are all the people coming to the party.

If you did not receive the invite... then call me... if you do not have my cell phone then email me.... if you do not have my email then... call or email someone who does. Food, booze, horseshoes, and plenty of things for kids to do like till the fields and water the crops....