Big, all-knowing brown eyes fringed with long, curling black lashes that brush tender, rose-color cheeks.  A small bow-shaped mouth.  Thick, auburn-colored hair that falls to below his ears in waves.  A thin face. 

This is our son, Valodymyr Aleksander, whom we adopted about three months ago, after over two years of waiting.  He is now six years old and we are getting used to having him around.

He is absolutely beautiful.  We couldn't be happier.

Unfortunately, Valodymyr will never learn to talk, read, feed himself, or walk on his own.  He is totally affected with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy.  He is in a wheelchair most of the time; he needs total care. 

It didn't matter to us one iota that our son was handicapped.  We saw past the palsied limbs, the wheelchair, the feeding tube, and the seizures and saw a beautiful little boy who was in desperate need of a family to call his own.  He had been in a Romanian orphanage since shortly after his birth when his real parents abandoned him. 

The parents claimed they couldn't deal with their son's disabilities.

Sad.

Valodymyr joins big sisters Kenzi Maureen (8) and Rhea Pearl (10), and his baby brother, Colin Ray (almost two).  We went from a family of five to a family of six just a few months back, and life is good, even with our newest family member's special needs.

Doctors don't hold out much hope for our new son to walk or do anything on his own; we, however, feel differently.  We want to give Valodymyr every opportunity in the world to succeed in a world that is not geared for kids like him.  We feel he has the potential to do whatever he wants to do in life; we just have to give him some extra help is all.

In the short time that he has been wtih us, our son's already started to make an impact on the neighborhood.  Everyone at church adores him, and the teachers and other kids at his school are waiting at his beck and call to offer any assistance.  He is a lot smarter than people give him credit for: he is a great communicator.  His face, eyes, and communication board are his way of speaking, and he isn't afraid to "voice" his opinion.  LOL

Well, it's time for me to take Valodymyr to school (he goes to afternoon kindergarten at the Montessori school), so I will go.  I will write in here again soon with more tales about our family, in particular, Valodymyr.  He is the best thing that could have ever happened to us.  If anything, little Valodymyr Aleksander has brought our family closer together.