Taylor's Update!

Hello everyone!  This is Taylor, Summer’s oldest daughter, and I am bringing some updates to you!  

From March to September 2012, I was living in Ukraine with my husband, Kostya.  Unfortunately, due to visa issues, I had to return to U.S.A. to apply for a marriage visa, as well as update my social security card, etc.  

From September 2012 to February 2013 I worked to get all of my documentation up to date, get the right amount of funds, applied for my marriage visa, and was finally able to return to Ukraine.  The original plan was to have Kostya come to U.S.A., but unfortunately that is easier said than done.  It would have been up to two years before I was able to see him again!  That is too much and far too long!  

In December 2012, I started to experience some medical issues.  I had a blind spot in my eye and experienced a migraine with vision loss.  My doctor thought I may have had a stroke, so she did blood work for clotting disorders and I also got an MRI.  Thankfully, I didn’t have a stroke and the blind spot was from “Yellow dot Syndrome”... which is pretty much an unexplainable build up that just happens sometimes in young, healthy women.  However, in my blood work they did find that I have a blood clotting disorder; Protein S Deficiency.   And thank God for that! My doctor told me that women usually discover they are Protein S deficient after repeat miscarriages/stillborns.  Yikes! 

I was exhausted from trying to figure out how to get my husband and I together and from the medical madness.  Thus, I decided to go the easier route to simply return to Ukraine and to figure everything out, together with my husband.  After returning to Ukraine in early March 2013, Kostya and I found out we were expecting in April 2013, due November 27 2013.  I thank God for learning about my deficiency because had I not, I would have never known, and the possible outcome makes me sick to my stomach.  God works in mysterious ways!  

After finding out, we decided I would spend my pregnancy in Ukraine and give birth here.  Some how, we don’t even know how, a Ukrainian family got our phone number and contacted us wanting private English lessons.  This was perfect because they just wanted to come to our home, rather than me having to go anywhere!  Kostya also found a full-time job a week after he graduated from his University in March!  I don’t want to jinx anything, but we have been so lucky… and I am so, so thankful.  

We were able to find a high risk OB/GYN and found ways to regulate my blood clotting through aspirin.  Ironically, Ukraine doesn’t even have a test to identify Protein S Deficiencies.  For awhile I was having a hard time trusting my doctor and I was battling food cravings.  I am happy to say those have been my only problems!  Medical care is certainly different in Ukraine, however I have lived to tell the tale.  

We were living in a rather small apartment, and there was no way we would have been able to add one more person to our family.  We always loved our friend’s apartment and always said if she were to ever move out that we would have to live there.  Well, she wasn’t going to move out, but her neighbors with the same apartment did!  We could not believe it!  Our friend called us and we didn‘t even know what to say.  I am thinking we should go for the lottery, but I don’t want to tempt with our fortune just yet.  

I cannot believe that in 8+/- weeks, my husband and I are going to be parents to a little girl, named Evelyn!  We are so excited and don’t see our lives going any other way.  What would I have been doing these past 8 months in Ukraine if I wasn’t always on the internet talking to other expecting moms and worrying about my pregnancy?  I don’t know!  I don’t see how I could have been doing anything else.  I can honestly say I am not afraid at all to give birth and I welcome the experience! 

After Evelyn is born, we will apply for her American citizenship, and hopefully her and I will return to U.S.A. in January 2015.  From there we will apply for Kostya’s immigration, as we would then qualify better, and hopefully have our family together by 2016.  But who knows?  My plans seem to plan themselves and leave me out of the loop… thank goodness!