Following our Hearts

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY?

2011-04-29T10:11:00.000-04:00

What?! It is Micah's 5th birthday already?(Well it was on Monday, I have been late for everything lately). Where has the time gone. It is amazing how big he is getting. He still acts like a two year old at times, going through a "MY WAY ONLY" phase right now but I am hoping that he grows out of it soon. But that smile gets him out of a lot of trouble.

The scratched nose and brused tooth is the result of a nose dive into the sidewalk. That boy is so tough.

I just had to take a moment to say hey to all. I have been completely absent from blogger world for awhile, I don't even check my friends blogs much any more. But I have to say that it is good business that keeps me away. Out of the blue 7 weeks ago, we decided to move and now we are the owners of TWO homes. One we are preparing to move into( hopefully soon) and the other we are trying to keep in perfect order as we showing it to sellers. The best way to keep your house looking "show ready" with 5 kids and a dog...... clean the house while the kids are at school and don't come home until bed time!

Sophia is doing well as we approach almost 8 months with us. We have started physical therapy, which she does not like much. But other than that, she is a very happy little girl. All the kids are excited to move but Sophia was not too happy at first. The new home was vacant when we looked at it and even though she like that she would have her own room, she was not happy that she would not have a bed, or toys or a table to eat at! After some explaining, she was then ok with the new home and very excited. You have to constantly remember their perspective on life from their past. We tend to go on with day to day life as we all get comfortable with our family, but there is always the past that reflects how you see the present.

Blessings to you all!

A Few Milestones

2011-03-07T18:14:00.002-05:00

Hello all! It has been awhile but as you can guess, I am kind of busy. Things have been going very well with Sophia's adjustment. She is going to school full time and loves it. She even comes home and continues to practice her writing after her snack. That is probably why she is doing so well. She is getting close to getting up to grade level in her reading, which is amazing since 6 months ago she could not even speak english.

Speaking of 6 months ago. Sunday was 6 months since we first met our Sophia. She has come a long way, it seems like she has been with us so much longer than 6 months.

I have a video of her reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. A few weeks ago she probably did not have half of the words correct but I recorded her this weekend, it was so cute I had to post it.(Sorry I could not figure out how to rotate it an frankly didn't have the time to research it)

Health wise she is doing wonderful. We have her on medication which is really able to help her control going to the bathroom. Her MRI's of her spinal cord are inconclusive so we are just making sure she doesn't get worse with her incontinence and walking. We are now going to try to focus our attention on some physical therapy for her walking.

Another milestone this weekend was on March 5th. Micah has now been WITH us more than he was without us. WOW, it is hard to believe looking at him now that he spent the forst 2.5 years of his life in an orphanage. Oh there are things that come up that are definitely from his life in the orphanage but he has adjusted so well. Here is a picture of him before our court date in September of 2008 and here he is now:

And here are the two little buddies playing. They play together great, when they are not fighting.

Well, that is the quick update for now. Take care all!

Have a Blessed Christmas

2010-12-25T12:00:00.003-05:00

Sorry I have not posted in forever. Life as you all know is busy and I have been really trying to focus on the top priorities in my life and the computer and posting on down on the list. But I could not miss this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Things are going very well. Sophia is adjusting well. SHe still has periods of grieving but the last question she asked about China was if she could go back and forth to live in China and then with us. It was hard to explain that that was not an option but I said to Russ that at least she wanted to be with us too!

We have had many medical appointments. The urologist put her on meds to reduce the pressures in her bladder and now we are working on a schedule to Cath her. It was horrible the first time I had to do it but we both are pros at it now. We are trying to figure things out to get her to be dry during the day but it is not going as quickly as I would like. I need to do some more research but with Christmas coming, it has not been a good time for reading. We also had an MRI to check out her back and get a baseline. But unfortunately, the doctor sees a thinning of the spinal cord and thinks there is a build up of fluid that is putting pressure in the spine. So right now we don't know what we have in store for Sophia except for more tests and appointments.

Sophia has been doing wonderful in school and wants to start the ELL program that would allow her to go all day. However with the start of cathing and the new unknowns about her back, we are going to hold off for a little while to see what happens.

We have had a wonderful morning and there is much more for the day so I nust be going. Here are some recent pictures and my gift to you from God's Word:

Come, let us worship and bow down,

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

Psalm 95: 6-7a

A Little Boy Wants a Family

2010-11-21T16:29:00.003-05:00

Isn't he adorable? No we are not adopting him. But I am hoping that there is someone out there who will.

I am advocating for this little who so wants to have a family. He has been in a group home in Beijing. He is 5 years old and was born with meningocele in his lower lumbar. He can run and walk but has incontinence with bowel and bladder so he wears a diaper. That is about the same description we had on Sophia one year ago and now she is home with us and we are so very blessed. His file is with Holt. You can check it out at

http://www.holtinternational.org/cgi/photolisting/display.cgi?ID=B10_28&Index_re=0

I have been in contact with a volunteer at the home, Lisa. He is the last of the children left from when she first arrived 4 years ago and he so wants a family. Can you imagine seeing other kids for the last 4 years finding their families and no family has come for you? His needs are so managable.

If you want to find out more infonformation about him you can contact Holt or my friend Lisa at ajrassi@gmail.com. They have more pictures and are wanting to help in finding his forever family. Please pass on this information to anyone who may be considering adoption and pray that his family finds him soon.

Sophia's First BIrthday with Us!

2010-11-13T14:48:00.003-05:00

What a great day we had. Our Sophia is now 6 years old( it took us a little while to convince her that she was turning 6 because in China they are 1 once they are born so in China she would have been 7. But she trusted us that in America she was turning 6 and seemed fine with it). It was so nice to know that even though we missed the first 5 birthdays plus her birth, we will miss no more. Sophia has been counting down to her birthday and has been very excited. She had an idea of what was coming because both Russ and I have celebrated our birthday's since she has been home but they were simple compared to what she was going to have. We had a party on the weekend with my parents, brother and his family. There was cake, ballons, and presents and she did great. The only thing that was too hard for her was the sing 'Happy Birthday". Once we all started singing, she tried to hold a stiff upper lip but started to cry. I think it just reminded her too much of her foster family. So needless to say, no more happy birthday singing.

Thursday was her actual birthday and along with more presents and dinner at a Chinese restaurant, she got her ears pierced. Oh she was soo excited about this. She has been asking me since we were in China and I kept holding her off until her birthday to see if this is really what she wanted. Since she does not have much continence towards pain, I was concerned that once she felt any pain, she would break down cry and pull away, causing more pain. So all day we talked about it and I was up front that it would hurt but only for a little bit. I kept asking her and she still wanted to do it. So later that evening, we all went to the mall and she got her Hello Kitty earing. Aren't they so cute. They fit her to a tee. She did fairly well but the anticipation was what really got her. She had tears rolling down her face and I kept asking her if she wanted to go but NO she wanted those earings. So I held her in my lap and we had two people do it at once( they were great). Once it was over, I think she was surprised that it went so quickly and that the pain was gone.

We then went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. This was she could pick out what she wanted. Once she finds someone who speaks Mandarin she takes the opportunity to catch up on all the talking she can. She talked about how she really likes her new family(yea) but that she worries about her foster family and how they are doing. She tries so much to take care of everyone that I am sure at times she feels guilty( like when we were singing Happy Birthday) about enjoying her new family. I have told her many times that it is ok to miss them and be sad and I know there will always be those feelings, it is just helping her get through them.

We had to tip the waitress a nice tip because Sophia was talking her ear off. They poor girl was being so nice to listen and talk back even though she was trying to keep working the other tables - like I said, our little girl likes to talk, watch out when her english improves. So here are a few pictures to leave you with.

Princesses, Buzz, Secret Agents and Clone Troopers, Oh My!

2010-11-01T14:51:00.007-04:00

Trick or Treat was a great time for the kids. It did not take long for Sophia to catch on. The funniest thing is that we explained that once we were dressed we would go get candy. So once she was dressed, she went over to our bowl and started taking the candy out of it! She loved going door to door and ran around with the older boys as Micah and I lagged behind; Micah like the candy but is really more interested in talking to people - such an extrovert. Here is a picture of 4 of the kids. Olivia went with her friends as a princess! Finally after how mayn years, she dressed up as a princess.

Sophia had a great first week at school. She is always a little hesitant going to school in the morning but oh so excited when I pick her up. I am ever amazed at how she just continues to pick things up. Today she started a sentence with Can I.... Usually it is Sophia..... We have been working on learning site words from school and some of them are me, my, I... How do you explain to her that they are the same but different? But she is picking it up. What was really great is that on Friday her class had a field trip to a pumpkin patch. Micah and I also got to go and we had a great time.
And then there was the Jack o Lantern carving... I think the picture explains it all. I love living new experience with the kids!
And then today, we lost another tooth! So we are officially wanted our two front teeth for Christmas, but as you can see, one is on it's way.

We have some tough moments at times but I would not consider them anything different than what we would go through with your biological kids. Things have finally calmed down a little from sports and we are getting to spend more family time together. We watched Up the other day and it was just fun watching Sophia and how she would react to things.

We are getting ready for her birthday in 10 days! Wow it was almost one year ago when we first saw her picture and now she is with us and fitting in so well. We have been so blessed by God and are so thankful for every little thing.

First Day of School

2010-10-26T14:39:00.004-04:00

Tuesday was the first day of school for our Sophia. She did wonderful! She was excited to go and nervous at the same time. Whe she got to school she has to place her name in one of two places, Yes I Like School, No I do Not Like School. She said she liked it a little bit. Once she got going in the class, I stepped out and the teacher said she did wonderful! There is a little girl in 1st grade that speeaks Mandarin and the Principal will be introducing them to each other. That will be wonderful for her. They also live in the neighborhood so hopefully play dates will be in her near future.

When I went to pcik her up, I asked her if she liked school a little bit or a lot. She said a lot!

I am so happy for her!

Micah's Gothca Day 2 YEARS!

2010-10-24T22:02:00.004-04:00

Well, I am late as usual but I did not want to forget about celebrating Micah's 2 year Gotcha Day. It was September 29th and thanks to Kyle and Greg, I remembered to get our picture together:
2 Years Home

Gotcha Day
Oh how big my little boy is. I have to say, I am glad that he is still my youngest, my baby, even though he has to tell me that he is a big boy now. He has been adjusting do wonderfully to having a new big sister and in ways it has helped him be more responsible. There are some things that I have not let him do, like go outside without an adult, that I left Sophia do( with her siblings). But I have started to give him trial runs now and he is doing so much better, especially sine he knows that if her does not obey the rules, he looses that priviledge. He has come such a long way and we are so proud of him. We love you Micah, I can't believe it has only been two years, what would we do without you!

We are Still Here

2010-10-24T21:35:00.004-04:00

Ambidextrous?

No Tooth!

Sorry for the long delay in posting. Below I have posted about the travel home and the first week. Writing is not my favorite thing to do so between the burnout from writing so much while in China and being soo busy, keeping up to date on the blog has gone to the bottom of my to do list.

It is now 5 weeks home and things are amazingly great! Sophia is adjusting so well. I could tell form the first week home that living in foster care for most of her life makes such a big difference compared to Micah living in the orphanage for the first 2.5 years of his life. She understands how a family works. She does what I ask her to do and doesn't have any fits if she doesn't get what she wants. When we go to stores she doesn't run around and even though she is very interested in looking at everything, she does not want me to buy everything.

The food situation is getting better. She tries more and more things and after a few days realized that while I can give her things that are similar to China, they won't be quite the same. We have made some trips to the asian market and she does enjoys that but we usually end up coming out with more snacks then anything else. She is trying and starting to like more and more things. Potatoes are are on the do not like list except when they are in the form of French fries. We are finally getting her to drink more water, it can not be cold but she will drink it. She prefers pop and juice but we don't have much of either in the house so I am trying to wean her off them and more on water. A healthy diet is definitly something we are going to need to work on.

She will be starting school this week. We have held off to see how she has been doing and after talking to our social worker for our six week post placement, she agrees that 1/2 day kindergarten would be good for everyone. THere are certain days when I am really busy that she just seems to get bored. We will go through all the list of things she likes to do but she passes and just like to lay around. WHich I think in turn she starts thinking of China and seems to get sad. So off to school. THis week she has actually asked about her going to school so that is encouraging. She can sing her ABCs, writes her numbers to 100 and can count to 13. She can also write her english name. I think that is pretty good for being home for a month.

SHe has lost her front tooth so that was pretty exciting. We have missed so many things with her so a milestone like this was so great to be apart of.

When we hit the three week mark at home, she just really started using more english. Before she would copy us a lot(even when I was punishing one of the other kids - that did not go over very well) but never really respond to us in english. She has started saying "THank you" "Are you ok" and many other phrases. She picks up things so quickly, I know that she will do great in school.

We have had a few tests at the doctors but nothing conclusive yet. We have another test is early December with the urologist that will hopefully give us some direction on treatments.

Things have been so amazing with her adjustment. She has moments of sadness that you can tell she is thinking about China. I ask if she is sad, and we give each others hugs. She is such a brave little girl. She never ceases to amaze me at how strong she is. She is definitely attaching to me and also to Russ. We both had to leave to do a service project for our church. She had stayed with Grammy and Grandfather at our house before and this time she was with Micah too. But she just did not want us to leave so she was upset but she did do ok. But I really try not to do anything in which she doesn't have at least Russ or myself - so attachment is growing.

She will be celebrating her birthday in a couple weeks and she is very excited, she has alresy started the count down. We are looking forward to her first one with her forever family!

First Week Home

2010-10-24T17:17:00.003-04:00

The first week has gone so well. Sophia is adjusting to things very well. SHe is getting along with everyone but Micah is not doing really well with sharing with her. I have allowed her to keep the toys we brought home, too herself for now but have asked Micah to share his. This is a VERY HARD thing for a 4 year old to do. But he is doing fairly well. I will give her a little more time to adjust and then ask her to share more, but one step at a time.

Food is really the biggest obstacle. We are trying to give her all the things that her foster mom listed for us but some of the things she does not want. So the list of what we know she likes is small. She is eating but she is eating a lot of the same things so I am sure she is getting board with it. I am also giving her foods that we eat and asking her to just try 1 bite. She complies but most of the things she does not like. SHe does have a sweet tooth and also told the doctors at hour first International Adoption Clinic that she " doesn't really like eating meals but likes snacks"! OK we have our work cut out for us.

Another major adjustment is the car sickness. We had had a motion sickness patch while in China. We took it off when we got home and forgot to put another one on her. So come Sunday morning we drove to church, which is about 15 minutes, and by the time we got out of the car... Yep.. all over the parking lot. Thankfully we were not in the car. So off to get some dramamine. So we will have to see if things improve.

Cloths and her hair are a little struggle. She really does not want to wear anything that she has not picked out form the store but that consists of about 4 outfits. Once we got home, I did insist that she wear a different outfit everyday so until I can get to the store, she is stuck in wearing things that she is not happy with. As for the hair, it is still ponytails and the same little bear ponytail holders. She will let Olivia "Do" her hair but since Olivia is at school by the time Sophia gets up, it is ponytails again.

I was worried how things would go on Monday when Russ, and the kids(except Micah) would be gone. It went pretty well. Micah and Sophia played but not with each other, THey just played with toys sitting on different sides of the room. I was actually a little nervous when Micah went to school on Tuesday because it would just be the two of us. But it went very well. We were able to go to Once upon a child and I made her pick out several outfits. She only picked out jeans for pants and the plainer the top the better. It amazes me how such a girly girl who lovers jewelry and makeup and painted fingernails, is happy with jeans and a Tshirt!

On Friday we met with the IA clinic. We had a translator there and you could again see her personality coming out as we were there and she had the opportunity to communicate. SHe had the staff laughing all over the place. She is very straight forward and loves having the center of attention. We found out that she has chicken pox probably a year ago. She did talk about her foster family and we learned a little more information about them. THe translator says that her speech is wonderful and very developed. We have an appointment with the Myelomeningocele (Spina Bifida) clinic in two weeks that will hopefully help us learn more about her incontinence. Otherwise the visit went great. She had to get the TB test redone and there were some tears but they quickly passed. We will get blood drawn on Monday so hopefully that won't be too bad.

Travelling Home

2010-10-24T17:00:00.004-04:00

Another Red Couch Picture with her Chinese Dress on

A very tired picture of a new American Citizen

All my kids together

WELCOME HOME!

Meeting Rocky for the first time( No Tears!)

One of My favorite Pictures

Thursday went quicker than I thought. We spent time packing and were able to go out for some last minute shopping. It was sooo hot. You could just stand there and start sweating. We grabbed our last lunch at the Deli next to the White Swan. We really liked eating there for a quick lunch but they were busy this time and I was not paying attention and they over charged us big time. Russ was really mad but we let it go because we are on our way out. We met our guide and a few other families at 4:30 to get Sophia's visa and passport. Sophia started crying once she realized were were not coming back. SHe was mainly upset over the fact that she would not see our guide again. So I put my arm around her in the van and she soon fell asleep.

Our ride to Hong Kong was suppose to be about 2.5 hours and it turned into 4! The traffic was horrible and the driver's foot was on/off/on/off the gas. I was really glad Sophia was not awake because this would have really made her sick. Unfortunately by the time we got to Hong Kong, it was dark so we could not really see the island. We were so glad to get to the hotel. We stayed at the Disneyland Hollywood hotel. It was great to have a little bit of back home. We ate at the buffet, which was outrageously priced, but we were tired and did not want to struggle with trying to figure out what Sophia wanted. Unfortunately, even though it had a lot of asian food, she really did not want most of it, except of course the dessert section. I think she probably tried one of everything, but I was not going to argue about it.

Our flight was not until noonish so we did not have to rush. When we got up we were amazed at our view. It was so beautiful, it seemed like we were in Hawaii. We would have loved to stay and see Hong Kong but we were ready to go home.

So we ate at a quick serve place for breakfast and requested two cabs to take us to the airport. Russ and Dominic were in one and Sophia and I the other. The rides were about 20 minutes and I got to see more of the island so that was great. What was not great was that the cabs did not stay together and we did not get dropped off at the same spot. Granted, we were on the same little strip but I thought Russ's cab was behind us, so I watched and watched, and sweated and watched. I was afraid to go inside because there were just more people to get lost in so I waited, and prayed that some how her would find me. Not 30 seconds after that prayer, Dominic came running out of the airport calling my name. They had already gone inside and were waiting at the United checkin. Dominic saw us through the window and my prayers were answered.

So through the airport we went, which was still sooo much easier than Russia, and we met up with some friends that were on the same flight.

THanksfully the flight went pretty smooth. Unfortunately on THursday, I started to get a cold, so as long as I was on meds, I did pretty good. Sophia, unfortunately had an accident on the plane, and even though I had wipes and pullups, I had NO PANTS, so that was difficult to deal with but we made it through. She stayed up until it was about 9pm China time and then slept for the rest of the trip. I had to laugh at the kids meals that we got on the plane, there was nothing ,kid like about them, in fact, they both liked our food better. Oh well.

We landed early, breezed through immigration and actually had the high hopes of catching an earlier flight home, but it was booked so we waited until 7pm for our final leg home( nwe landed around 1:30).

I have to tell you all of the bug laugh I got when we walked into the immigration section so give our papers to them. THere were several adoption families that were getting ready to leave the area as we came in. THere were also a few people that we not US citizens waiting for their paperwork. One was a family that sounded like they were from and Eastern European country based on their accent. THey had a son that was probably 5-6 ans were getting upset at the wait. He went up tot he immigration officer and was asking why all these "illegals" were able to go in front of him! Illegals? Hey buddy, we are all US CITIZENS!!!!

THe final flight home went well. Sophia slept some more. Once we landed I explained to her that when we got off the plane, she would meet Olivia, Luc and Micah. She had a very unsure look on her face so I was not sure how this would go.

It was so great to get off the plane and be home! As we walked toward security I was all smiles as I could see my three wonderful children that I have missed so much. We all hugged but Sophia just stayed very close to us. I introduced her to everyone but she was still very unsure and not too happy. It did not take too long as Olivia started to play with her for her to open up and feel comfortable.

We did not land until about 9 so it was after 10 when we finally got home. My parents stayed and the kids played until about 12:30am! SHe was a little weary of the dog but not scared like Micah was. She checked out everything and played with the kids for awhile. Olivia even was able to get Sophia to let her do her hair! Olivia has been waiting to do her little sister's hair forever!

We finally all made it to bed. I went to sleep with her for a little while but then finally got to get into my own bed!!!! Oh how I have been wanting to sleep in my own bed.

We all got a great nights sleep. Sophia did not even cry when we went to bed, I think she was just soooo tired.

Our trip to bring our little girl home is now over and we are finally a family of 7! Wow 7! I have to tell you all that as we were waiting at baggage claim and all the kids were so excited, I thought to myself, " Wow, this is a lot if kids!" Of how we are blessed.

Red Couch and Oath

2010-09-15T10:11:00.001-04:00

PICTURES: The girls that were adopted through Madison, the families that adopted through Madison, Our picture outside the American Consulate and Yanzi with her friend Natalie, the matching was not planned.

It is funny how by the end of the day, things are such a blur to me. If I did not write these things down before I went to bed, I am sure I would forget by the morning.
Today was a very busy day. We first went to a Jade and Pearl Store and spent some more money. Our guide then took us to a Pizza Hut for lunch. We all enjoyed our pizza and Yanzi even had chicken wings again! We the rushed back to the hotel, took the infamous red couch photos( however only one of the girls got to wear the traditional chinese dress) and then it was off to the American Consulate for our oath. We will try to get Yanzi to wear her dress for a little bit so we can get the picture tomorrow.
We took a large bus with many many families to the consulate. THere were two busses that left from the WHite Swan hotel. It took over 30 minutes to get there but it was enjoyable to see the town. We went up to the 5th floor, went through security and sat in a room with about 40 other families. We waited until our daughter's chinese name was called. Then showed our passport, signed a form and sat down until all the families were done. Then an officer came out and and gave us the oath to say and we were done. It will be so great when we land in Chicago on Friday and go through immigration, our daughter will then be a US Citizen. I know that does not mean much to her now but we know how important it is and are so thrilled for her.
We then did some walking around the island tonight with a little more shopping. Now I don't want you to think that we are actually buying things on all these shopping excursions but just the act of going around, looking at the shops and talking to the people is fun. We then ate at a restaurant called the Orient Express. I had never heard of it until a couple earlier in the week mentioned it. It is French and had a train car on the outside. THere were not very many people there because it is out of the way from the main hubbub but it was an excellent restaurant. THe food was great and it was great to look at inside. For those who may be coming to the island soon, walk out the back of the White Swan and down the street that is perpendicular to the hotel. When you get to the next street, make a right. THere will be a Starbucks on the left once you turn. Walk on this street until it dead ends, the restaurant will be on your left. One you are on the island for several days you start repeating the restaurants that you go to so a new one is always nice.

I don't know if I will get to post tomorrow. We will do packing and last minute picture taking and then leave for Hong Kong at 4:30. We won't get there until about 7pm and since we are staying at the Disney Hollywood hotel. I am sure we will spend the little time we have walking around and visiting the gift shop( more shopping) - I better get all my outings out of the way now because once I get home, I don't know how much I will get out of the house. Then Friday is off to the airport and the long ride home. We will get to Chicago at about 2pm Chicago TIme and after a 5 HOUR LAYOVER and up back HOME at a little after 9pm. Oh home, my kids my own bed, no suitcase!!!

No real changes today with Yanzi, I would have to say we are at a stand still right now. She loves to be around people and was really great today since we were with other families most of the day. However, once they were all gone, and she had time to sit and think in the room, she was getting a little tearful. She never balls but just usually gets a distant look in her eyes and tears. I am hoping that once we get home, all the newness will keep her busy and not make her sad. It is not that I don't want her to miss China but there is so much for her to miss right now that I think it would be too overwelming for her. I have to say there is a part of me that is going to miss being here. I will miss the families that we have met, I will miss looking at the way of life here and seeing how hard the people work and how appreciative they are of the small things. I will miss having my husband negotiate a better price for something, I will miss not having someone else do my laundry for cheaper than I can buy detergent back home, I will miss having a breakfast buffet that is out of this world, I will miss taking in the culture so that I can tell my daughter about it when she is older and I will miss hearing my daughter speak her native language with such pride to all the people we meet.

THank you for all your prayers as we have gone through this journey. We still have a very hard road ahead of us but we will have family and friends beside us then. Your prayers have met so much and I can not tell you how blessed we are to have had such a smooth and enjoyable time in China as well as being blessed with an amazing little girl.

Just Hanging Out

2010-09-14T19:58:00.001-04:00

Today we finally slept in. Oh it felt so good. We have finally adjusted to the time here and now we leave in 3 days and have to adjust back.
We had our consulate appointment today but our guide goes for us and handles the paper work. We just have to stay in our room for any questions. iT wasn't even an hour and then we were off walking around. First we found the store "A Gift from China" We had been looking for it. THey have things that are made by orphans and all the proceeds go to support the orphans. The things were beautiful and I could have bought everything. By far this was my favorite store on the island, we did not even have to deal with shopkeepers following us around the store.
We then decided to venture off the island and it is an entirely different world. This is how the chinese really live and shop. Many interesting food choices to pick from, or not. WE saw dried sea horses and curled up snakes. We would have liked to look some more but it was 95 degrees with probably 200% humidity so we were all dripping wet and ready to go.
So we decided to go swimming to cool off. However it wasn't long before a storm rolled in and we headed back to our room. THe nice thing about the rain here is that at least it cools things off for a little while.
We ended the evening with dinner at our favorite Thai plce with the two families we met earlier in the week. It is so great to make new friends on an adoption trip but sad when we know we have to go our separate ways.
Our little Yanzi is such a character. She talks up a storm to all the shop keepers and we think we have figured out why she often gets upset with them. It turns out that even though she speaks mandarin, she has a strong Tianjin accent. That and with talking very fast, I think some of the chinese have trouble understanding her, that is why she gets frustrated when she has to repeat herself to them. SHe even told one shop keeper, "I am proud of my Tianjin accent." I would liken it to a New Yorkers accent in the States.
On the bonding side, Dominic and Yanzi have enjoyed watching a cartoon that is very popular here, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. Dominic actually gets very excited to watch the videos even though they are all in chinese.
Oh, I forgot to mention how the outfit choice went today. SHe was not real pleased with the choices she had and now I know why. She motioned that she wanted short sleeves and everything I had were sun dresses. I had heard that the chinese woman do not wear sleeveless tops. But unfortunately that is all that we had so she choose one and was ok the rest of the day.
Since she also does not want to wear any of the hair things that I brought. I decided to use them as a bonding experience and started putting them in my hair. SHe had fun joining in and putting them all in my hair. It was a fun time.
My only real concern now is getting her food that she likes. Today she ate toast with jelly and chicken wings( not at the same meal) and liked them. Hopefully that will continue when we get home.
Only 3 more days, wow, the time has really gone fast. I can not wait to get hugs and kisses from all my kids at home and to have them all get to know Yanzi as we have in the past week.

TB Test and Swimming

2010-09-13T10:14:00.001-04:00

Yes Yanzi's TB test was negative. We were not too worried because her arm had no swelling but it was just nice to have it officially read. All the girls in our group were fine so it was a good start to the day. We then got together with our guide and gathered all our paperwork for the US Consulate. She will take it all to the consulate tomorrow and we just have to stay in our room in case there are any questions. And that is all our plans for the day( great to have nothing planned).

We did some more shopping and all the shop keepers comment on how good Yanzi behaves and looks. They can not believe that we just got her, they think she has been with us for awhile. That is all due to the wonderful care of her foster family.

We also got to go swimming for the first time today. I was concerned that she would not want to go. But once we told her in Mandarin, "swimming", she was ready to go. We got her suit on, she was very concerned that it covered her scar on her back( which it did). And once she saw it was ok, she was ready to go. She was not afraid to get in but did not like us holder her in the deep part. She would do it for a little while but then would start to wimper about going to the side. Once she found the shallow part, she wanted to stay in that part the entire time. THere was a little girl there that had been adopted awhile ago but spoke some chinese still. She would translate what Yanzi was saying. She kept saying "This is fun". In fact tonight, after we got ready for bed, she motioned swimming and said something, I am guessing she said that she wished she could go swimming again but it was dark and getting late( it was only 8:30 but for us that is late)

She is only getting upset now, when we eat. It is not an upset but a sadness. I think it is that there is not much food that she likes and she is missing that. It has been really hard because we have eaten at chinese restaurants and the breakfast buffet has both western and chinese foods but she doesn't seem to want anything. Finally today, we opened up some almonds that we had. SHe tried them and really liked them so I will make sure that I have them at all meals just in case. Otherwise she likes french fries and coconut milk. Not a very balanced diet but right now we are just trying to keep her full. She will try things for us( at least one bite) but something she will eat today she will not eat tomorrow. Oh well! Tonight we ate dinner with two other families and having someone that she can talk to really helps her during meals.
She was in a great mood after dinner and she even took out her pony tails( I think to show us she wanted to swim). When Russ commented (in chinese) that she looked beautiful, she lite up. She left her hair down for the rest of the night(she normally sleeps with her pony tails in - ouch!) and would keep going back into the bathroom to look at herself. It was so cute. THis was great because I tried to braid one of her pony tails today and she was about in tears.

THe big test tomorrow will be getting dressed. She has now worn all the cloths she brought and the two outfits that she picked out from the store. They are all dirty now and she will have to pick something that we brought for her. That will be a really big step for her so we will see.

Safari Park

2010-09-12T10:02:00.001-04:00

PICTURES: The Sea of Umbrellas, the girls in our group, Yanzi and her umbrella, Feeding the Giraffi, One of the many pandas

Today we did get to go to the Safari Park even though it was pouring rain. I really wanted to go to the Christian church down the street but it was at 11am and the service was 2 hours. Our group was leaving for the Park at 9am. I figured the kids would not make it through church so we did go to the park. As I said, it was pouring rain when we got there. We had umbrellas but at points it was raining so hard, that we were still getting wet. We ended up buying some rain ponchos for the kids, unfortunately the kids sizes were only in pink so Dominic really had to want one to wear pink. Thankfully the rain did taper off and eventually stopped. THe park was really great. THere was a walking area and a riding area. The thing that stands out at this park was just how many of each animal there were. On the riding side, we got to see tigers (white and regular), lions, bears ,deer and zebras but there were not just a few of each, there were many. Dominic saw 14 in the white tiger section! There were also 10 panda bears here. More than any other place in the world. 6 of the Pandas had been transferred from a Panda rescue that got hit hard in the earthquake last year. It was really great to see these animals. Yanzi had said that she had never been to a zoo before so she really did enjoy seeing the animals. We even got to feed the giraffi. Yanzi did not want to do it at first but after she watched several others do it, she was excited to try. The thing that cracked me up the most was when we were on the tram riding through the park, Yanzi would wave to the animals, every single one of them! And it was not just a normal wave, it was the princess parade wave. It just was so cute.

That was the big part of our day. We ate a late lunch at the Deli( which is out the back of the hotel to the left) and then a late dinner at the Western restaurant on the Island named Lucy's( to the right outside the back of the hotel). You never know quite what she will eat but she definitely is a french fries girl.

THe only break down we had today is a nap time. Even though you could mistaken the crying for sadness, she was just upset that I made her lay down. I laid with her but the crying kept getting worse. I was actually getting a little peaved because I knew that she was trying to convince me to let her up but instead, I held her some and the crying toned down until she finally fell asleep. After 1.5 hours Russ woke us up and it was hard to get her out of bed ( I knew she was tired).

We also started some shopping today. Got some really good bargins thanks to Russ' negotiating skills. Even the shop keepers laugh at how serious he takes it. More shopping on the list tomorrow, I think Russ actually is looking forward to it.
Not much tomorrow just the TB test reading and some paperwork.

A Few more pictures

2010-09-11T10:13:00.001-04:00

Dominic at the inside waterfall and a picture of the pool.

First Day in Guangzhou

2010-09-11T10:12:00.001-04:00

PICTURES: At the medical exam, my the water fall in the hotel, the fish on the pond in the hotel.

Well our flight was pretty uneventful. We were about 1.5 hours late in boarding and then sat on the place for about another 30 minutes but at least the air was on in the plane. Yanzi did great in the plane, she did not want to put her backpack under the seat, after she refused me two times I said fine, lets leave and grabbed her hand as if we were getting off the place. She immediately stopped an complied. I am starting to stand my ground more especially now that we are in Guangzhou. She gets the "mom stare" and understands that I mean business. She tries to push to get what she wants but as I stand my ground she has been folding pretty easily.

She also did great regarding NOT getting sick on the plane. I explained the special bags and even took a few for the car later, but there was no using them on the plane. She was not even scared on the place, except for the landing, which I was a little concerned. We did not land until about 9:15. We met our guide and another family and off to the hotel. Yanzi ended up sleeping in the car but did not get sick( I think that is her defense mechanism in the car). THings went smooth for check in and the kids got cleaned up and off to bed. I finished getting things ready for the morning because we needed to leave by 9:15am for the medical. THe room is great! WE have a suite and have lots of room so that we are not on top of each other.

I really like being here on what they call the island. It is more like a little outlet of land on a river that goes through the city. Once we got on the island, I felt like we were in a resort area. Fewer cars, the streets remind me of walking around in Savannah GA. THe hotel we are staying at is called the White Swan and is beautiful. It is big and fancy. THe breakfast buffet is the best yet, there is sooo much. THey also have a great pool that Dominic is dying to get into. THen there is a little river that runs through the hotel that has these amazing coy fish. I am sure that Dominic would take one home if he could. As for the weather..... it is HOT! THe humidity is very oppressive. The little walk we took to the medical appointment today made us sticky and sweaty before we even got to our appointment. They sky is overcast but I am not sure if it is the weather or smog. THe high today was 93 degrees F with about 150% humidity.

THe other great thing is that there are so many adoptive families. We have seen all the families from our agency and then the two families that we met on the plane here. We also met a family at breakfast who is from the Cincinnati area, I think we are going to have dinner with them.

So our activities for today were to get her visa photo taken and the medical exam. Photo no problem, except for no AC and we were all very hot. The medical exam not good for our little girl. First, there is some AC in the building but there were sooooo many families I could not even begin to guess. Every area we went to there were more families. We took care of the the payments first. They had said that Yanzi needed 3 shots! Yea that is pretty good (Chicken pox, FLu and DTaP). We then went back to the really cool area and had her weight/height, eyes checked, ENT and a doctor take a look at here. All went very quickly a pretty smooth. She weighs 16 KG which is about 35 pounds and about 3' 7.75 inches. ANd she know how to say AHHHHHH when looking in ther mouth. THe doctor kept checking out her spine about her scar and even asked another doctor to check it out and then they went on. Don't know what that is all about but we will get better answers when we get home. THen it was shot time, we were the first in our group and really thought she would be ok. You could tell she did not want to do it but I thought she would be tough. But once she got the TB test done, she started wailing and crying the entire time. THe thing that was so frustrating is that the nurses were so slow. Back home, if the kids get shots, the nurses get things set up and you are done just like that. I could not believe how slow they were between each shot. THen after is was all done and we got her to calm down( which see reached for me to comfort her---YAAAA!) I realized she had 4 bandaids. She had 4 shots!! What? I was so busy trying to calm her down that I did not even realize she had 4. Going back to look at the records she also got MMR. Well at that point it was over so what could I do. We will go back on Monday to have the TB read. SHe has has a BCG vaccine that usually causes a positive TB test so we may have to get a chest xray but we will see.

After a nap for Yanzi and unpacking, it was raining. Dominic really wanted to go swimming so Russ took him down while Yanzi and I went to the really nice play room here at the hotel. It is just as nice for the parents because we can all talk while the kids play. We then went to dinner with two families that we met just today. One was the family we met above and the other was a family that they had just met. We got a long great and had a wonderful evening eating at a Thai restaurant called the Cow and Bridge. It was great food and what was even more amazing was that both of the kids ate great. I am so amazed how God gives you little gifts that you are not even expecting or even asking for but tonight was one of them. Tonight we ate dinner with two other families that are all very strong Christians. We had so much in common and one only lives a few hours away from us. To think that when I woke up this morning, I did not even know these people existed. And then to have a wonderful dinner with total strangers.

I know that each day I say that Yanzi is getting better. But today she made really big strides. She ate more today than I think she had all week. She seems more ok with things in general. I am also starting to lay down a few more ground rules on how things need to be and even if she is not pleased with it, she doesn't get too upset about it. I think that being around other families that look like ours has really helped her understand that it is ok. She is not the only one that this is happening to. It is hard for me to believe at times that she is mine and she gets to come home with us, it just blows your mind away when you really start to think about it.

THank you all for your prayers again. I just can not say that enough. I have been through an adoption where things just always seem to be going wrong and it has been a blessing beyond imagination how things are going on this trip. Just seeing my little girl in bed with her eyes closed and hands together as I pray something that she does not even understand just melts my heart. Please continue to pray that things go well with Yanzi's TB test. Here arm looked ok tonight but you never know. I like this place but not enough to stay here a few more weeks.

Blessings to you all.

Travel to Guanzhou

2010-09-11T03:36:00.001-04:00

The pictures above are of 3 of us at our hotel, playing hide n seek, eating a McD's french fries, the kids as we rested from our walk and Yanzi looking at our plane.

We got to sleep in today since we did not have to leave for the airport until 2pm. We managed to keep ourselves pretty busy. After breakfast we finished packing and then the kids managed to play a good game of hide and seek for about an hour! We then found a McDonalds that was about a 20 minute - Yanzi walk( she tends to walk really slow and drag her feet when she gets bored). She seemed to know about the french fries and wanted them but did not want anything else. Even when the McDonalds worker was telling her about the happy meal, she was insistent on just getting the fries. Mom over ruled and we got her chicken nuggets also. I got her to at least eat one.
Our ride to the airport was enjoyable because we got to see more of the city. It is just amazing how big this city is. We drove for over 30 minutes and there were still high rise apartments! There was a section that we drove through that use to be under European control. You could tell the western influence, with all the stores and western looking buildings, I felt I was is New York.
The airports here seem so much easier to navigate than the Russian airports. I am very thankful for that. We have had a few more tears today, but I was expecting that. THere were some at breakfast, some when we left our guide Michael and some when we tried to throw away her drink bottle that she brought with her from her foster family. We ended up convincing her that she had to drink what was in it and they may let her keep it. So she downed about half a bottle, we jammed it in her back pack and proceeded through security. There was no problems - whew. She got a kick out of the security checks and quickly forgot about the bottle. Unfortunately, later the zipper on her backpack broke and now I am starting to loose my patience with trying to keep every little thing that she had... I mean it is just a green tea bottle from the store - but I know that she is loosing everything.

Ok done with my grumpy attitude for now. Our flight was delayed an hour because of the typhoon that is coming up the coast of China, I just hope it does not get delayed any longer, we are already not going to land until 9pm and then have to get to our hotel. My understanding is that tomorrow will be an early morning, because we are going to the medical appointment. Please pray that there won't be too many shots. SInce she is 5 and that is when you usually get your boosters, I am concerned that she could get several shots. I just have to trust the Lord, because it is all in His hands. We have been so blessed this trip, I just pray it continues.

Visiting Her Finding Spot

2010-09-09T08:44:00.001-04:00

THe first picture above is Sophia's finding spot. This is the spot where her birth mother placed her so that someone would find her and care for her. I am so thankful we got to visit because it gives us another little picture of her past. The place she was left was at a Children's Care Center. It is a place that was established by a doctor from Europe to care for orphaned children. This was not the orphanage that she stayed at because of her medical condition but knowing that her birth mother left her here shows how much she wanted her to be taken care of. THis was a very secure, clean and beautiful campus. We got to walk around some and you could tell the children were well cared for.

On Tuesday when we were back at the orphanage, I had stayed in the car while Sophia slept. While everyone was inside, I got to see something that most probably don't get to see. A car pulled up in front of us and two police officers got out. Once got a box out of the back and the other opened the door for a woman carrying a baby. The baby could somewhat hold its head up, while the woman carried him in, on her shoulder. I am pretty sure the woman was a social worker, and the box was this little babies cradle as it waited for someone to find it. So as one little girl finds her forever family, another little one becomes part of the system.... my heart just breaks.

Now on to the positive side of adoption: Sophia is also getting closer to Russ. As you can see she will let him carry her. And tonight after her bath, she sat on his lap while we watched some TV. We almost made it through the day with no tears. At dinner time, she started to tear up. She was very tired and it was rally a boring day for her ( a little shopping and a lot of packing). I think she is realizing that we are leaving this place tomorrow and she does not really understand where we are going. But holding her helped the tears and she just cuddled the rest of the night.
Again improvement each day. Today we went to a mall to try to get her to pick out some cloths. SHe does not want to wear what we brought so we thought she could pick something out and that would be ok. She was ok with picking out and outfit but was very particular on what she wanted. We found a skirt that she tried on and it was a little too big. She measerued how big it was and went out to tell the saleswoman so we could get the right size. She can take care of herself, that is for sure. When she finally picked one out, I asked if she could pick out one more. SHe told our guide that two was too much, she did not need any more. OK she did not need any more but I wanted her to have more especially since we are going to Guangzhou where it is still very hot and she had 2 pair of pants and one shirt. So we got her to get a pair of shorts and a skirt with two tops. Success!

Tomorrow we head off to Guangzhou. Since she gets car sick, so I am wondering how it will be on a 3 hour plane flight? We are sad to leave the town she has called home for 5.5 years but we are ready to move forward with the next phase of her life. We feel like we are stuck in neutral right now and are looking forward to getting our entire family together - all 7 of us!

Few More Pictures

2010-09-08T18:45:00.001-04:00

Just thought I would post a few more pictures of TIanjin from our hotel room, hanging out in the room and my favorite sleeping babes. We got our first hugs last night before bed. Russ had to ask her for them but once she hugged him she willingly went around and gave everyone hugs with a smile on her face. Now we just have to work on waking up with a smile!

Improving Each Day and Ancient Culture Street

2010-09-08T08:28:00.001-04:00

Well each day is just getting better. She definitely is NOT a morning person. So she rolls around in bed while we all get ready. But when she gets up she can pretty much do everything herself.

We had a little breakdown this morning when I did not have her same underware and cloths that she brought with her. We thought it was time to get them washed so we put them away with the other cloths. She was not happy and started to cry. I have a translator on my iphone that has been coming in very handy. We explained that she would get them back and that they were being washed and she calmed down but refused to put any of the cloths on that we brought for her. She had one top left that she brought and put it on but she did not want any of the skirts that we brought. So we were not going to push it ( a top with pj bottoms). However, as we were getting ready to walk out the door, she stopped , pointed to her bottoms and ran back to the bed room. SHe picked a skirt we brought and put it on! Yea success. Now it was huge on her and I had to pin it but Hey I will take every little step we can get.

THere was only one other break down today when she started crying, I could tell she was sad so I held her for awhile, we found something to do and she has been fine since.

We went to Ancient Culture Street, walked around and got a few things. We purchased scrolls hand made with Xin Yan and Dominic's names painted on them. He did a beautiful job and we got both of them for about $4.5! We all had to laugh and she gave our guide the business, when he did not write her chinese name correctly. SHe is such a character.

Her and Dominic are best of buddies but she looks to me for comfort. We use Russ to make her laugh! We are starting to get along very well. We spent most of the day in the room and had a great time doing homework, play dough and stickers.

TIanjin is not a tourist town. It is like a large metropolitan city with many many high rises. We are downtown and there is not much to do for kids. No park no big open spaces to run. So we have walked up and down the street looking around but that gets boring after awhile. There are also not very many foreigners here. We stick out like a sore thumb and since we have had Yanzi with us the stares have increased and some not so good. Tonight we went to Pizza Hut. We sat down and no one wanted to wait on us. Our waitress practically ignored us. We were about ready to walk out but I finally made eye contact with her and she came over. I have enjoyed seeing Tianjin but will be glad to move on to Guangzhou where we can be outside more.

We managed to not take any naps today and now it is 8pm and I can hardly keep my eyes open. See you later

One More Picture

2010-09-07T09:32:00.001-04:00

She is officially a Canestraro!

2010-09-07T09:31:00.001-04:00

I will try to keep it short today, Russ said I had too many words and not enough pictures. To my defense we had problems down loading one of the cameras so we did not have much to post.
The first three pictures are at the Civil Affairs office and then a few more of Sophia and her big brother!

Highlights of the day: we went to the Civil Affairs office to make the adoption official. SHe is our daughter according to the Chinese government. Now we just have to get her visa from the US and once she touches American soil, she will be an American Citizen!!!
There was some other running around and we were able to get her finding ad: this is a picture they posted in the paper after she was found searching for her birthparents. THe only real baby picture we will have of her.
We spent most of the morning running around in the car but unfortunately Yanzi( which is what we are calling her now) is very car sick. I thought she was getting worried about where we were going but when the guide asked her - she said she was getting sick. She did well for awhile, but then got sick(thankfully I was prepared), then she fell asleep in my lap. This was actually a blessing because she was asleep when we stopped back at the orphanage.
You could tell she did not feel good moat of the day, she did not eat lunch and was pretty spaced out most of the time. When we finally ate dinner, we were at a buffet. I asked her what she wanted and she did not want anything so I got what I thought she would like, including Jello( always good for a upset stomach). SHe ate some and did drink a lot. After we got back to the room, she was back to her old self. Playing with play dough seems to be her favorite thing. She has finally let Russ hug her, under the influence of a bribe but he will take what he can get.

THe funniest moments: Her first english word she learned the first day at lunch ... SUGAR. And now it is the only english word she will copy and she says it so adorably.
Tonight the most hillarious things was that she was trying to tell us something in Chinese, Dominic interupted her and without a hesitation she said something to him in Chinese and gave him the hand. She definetly knows how to hold her own.

Tomorrow we will do a little sightseeing. TIme for baths BYEBYE

Our First Day with Sophia(Yanzy)

2010-09-06T18:17:00.001-04:00

After breakfast, we headed out at 9am. We thought we were going to get the orphanage donation exchanged first but our guide(Michael) said that we could do it later and go back on Tuesday to give the donation. SO it was off to the orphanage, I thought it would be a little while but it was not even 5 minutes and we were turning into the orphanage. I quickly got out my camera and started taking as many pictures as I could. It seemed very clean and a newer orphanage. We went into a reception room and waited. We were told at one point that Xin Yan was on her way but they were having trouble with the car. Then later our guide told us that she gets car sick a nd she had gotten sick in the car - good thing I brought a barf bag for us! We were then told that she was there but she was having trouble with her shoes hurting her feet and they were trying to take care of that.
We had filled out some paperwork while waiting and they gave us some things. Two gifts from the orphanage and we even had what looks like a baby book that we were told the foster mother had kept. We will have to get that translated. I had a list of questions that I gave the guide to find out some could really only be answered by the foster mother but we did find out that Xin Yan has been in foster care since she was 5 months old. We think it is with the same family but are not absolutely sure. We also found out that her nickname is Yanzy so that is what we have been calling her.
Another mom, Mary was also with us to get her 11 year old. She is on crutches and came in first. SHe started to cry when she came in the room, it was soo sad to see what there wonderful children have to go through to get their forever family. We know that their lives will be better with a family to care and love for them but leaving all that they know is so very hard for them and for us.
Finally it was time for us. The orphanage staff brought in three bags of stuff from the foster mother, one of food and snacks, one with some cloths and a backpack with some toys and hair ties. They gave us the photo album that we sent her and we looked through it while we waited. THere were many pictures added of her foster family. So when it was time for her to come in there were about 3 women and Xin Yan that came in at the same time. We recognized the woman carrying her as the foster mom. At first she was all smiles and very silly. THey had said that she was timid but she was hamming it up, she reminded me of Micah, especially when he is nervous - he gets very silly. They introduced us to her as mama and baba ans she seemed to acknowledge that, so I think she was prepared some. They then went over to her bags to distract her and the foster mom slipped out. As soon as she saw she was going she started to cry. I went over to pick her up and she let me. She then sat on my lap the rest of the time. Her cries slowed to sniffles and then it was time to go. We quickly grabbed all our things and headed off to the van. Since she gets car sick, they suggested that her and I sit in the front seat so we did.
It was off to the police station to get her passport. The driving her is quite crazy but now that I was in the front seat! I tried to either look away of keep my eyes shut. On the way she sniffled the entire way. When we got there, I carried her because her heel was hurting. WHile we were waiting a big bug landed on my shoulder and when I shooed it away, we got her first smile! I then let her down and she really opened up. Playing with Dominic and the other girl. You could see her personality coming out. Once we took care of that, we went to get money exchanged. The first bank was giving us a hard time so we went to another one. The entire time she was doing really well and then all of the suden, she stopped, pulled out her winie the pooh washcloth and started rubbing her eyes. SHe let me hold her while we finished the banking and then we went to the hotel. She livened up again, as we saw the room, ate lunch and then went down to the local store(Carrfours) to get some food for the room. We played in the room for awhile and then we thought it would be time for a nap. She had told us that she would take a nap after lunch if there wasn't anything good on TV. I was going to lay down with her but she wanted us all to come. So we all layed down and she was out in less then 5 minutes. Her and I slept for 2 hours! Boy did I need that so I am sure she did. I was worried when we woke her up that she would cry but she did not. Mary and her daughter visited the room for awhile. I then gave her a bath and tried to put PJs on her but she insisted on putting her cloths back on so we did. SHe definitly knows what she wants and is insistent on doing it. Then my family called through Skype and we talked and she watched them all. SHe was very tired at that point and just watched all that was going on. We then were able to get her to eat some more fried rice( her favorite) and off to bed. I had her and DOminic lay in bed while I blogged and before I was done, she was alseep. That was about 8:45 pm and it is now 6 am and she is still out. We will need to get her up soon because we need to get ready, skype, eat breakfast and get our money out of the safe(China's largest bill is 100 yuan which is about $14 and change so when you get money exchanged you can end up with quite a wad) at be ready to leave by 8:30am.

Over all it has been pretty much what I was hoping for. She has moments where she shows her true self and moments of sadness but she lets me comfort her. The busier we are and the more people we are around the better she does. Dominic has been a great help and good friend to her. Russ, she tolerates right now. She doesn't seem afraid of him but doesn't really want him to hold her either but I am sure she will come around quickly. Sorry for the long details but I want to remember everything I can about these first few days. Thank you again for your prayers, we are so very blessed by them and the grace that our Lord has poured out on us.

I am attaching a video but not sure if it will come through

Waiting to Meet Her

2010-09-06T18:14:00.001-04:00

Surprisingly last night I was not too nervous. When we first arrived in Tianjin and started unpacking, the nerves started kicking in. But as the day went and we became very tired(still not over the Jet lag) we were able to sleep - for awhile. Dominic got up at about 2am to use the restroom and we were all up and down the rest of the night. I have to say it was no too much the nerves as it was still recovering from Jet lag( Note to self - Tylenol PM doesn't get me through the entire night so save it until I wake up at 2am!) and the fact that the three of us were sharing a king size bed. We are getting a cot for Dominic but thought we would wait until we got Sophia before we had them bring it up. So Russ threw in the towel at 4:50am and Dominic and I were able to make it until 5:30. Only 3.5 more hours until we leave. So we are double checking everything we need to bring and trying to get the room ready for her.

Wow it is finally here. I have to tell you that I can feel your prayers. I thought I would be a basket case by now and I am not, it is truly an inner peace and a trust in God that he has it all under control. Thank you all.

We have our Sophia!

2010-09-06T09:09:00.001-04:00

Things went pretty well today considering. I will have to be brief because we are all getting pretty tired. We have been busy doing things this morning and afternoon and this evening has been pretty quite so it gave her more time to think and therefore more tears. The good thing is that she will let me comfort her when she is sad. SO thank you Jesus for that. What we have seen of her personality is that she is silly and out going. Her and DOminic have been getting along great. In fact when we are out and about, she does not like to hold hands but she will hold his hand.

Tuesday will will go to the civil affairs to make things final and we need to go back to the orphanage to finish up some things also. A little conserned about that because I am not sure how she will respond.

There is another mom here with her daughter that is 11. Sophia and her do not know each other but they can talk to each other so that helps.

So overall everything is going as to be expected. We are really tired so are going to go now. Hope to post more soon.

We are in the Same City as Sophia!

2010-09-05T09:59:00.001-04:00

Today was a day of packing driving and unpacking. Nothing really that special, except that we are now in the same city as our daughter. Just typing that still feels so strange. We have been on this road to her for over 9 months now. Nine months at looking at the same pictures(until 1.5 weeks ago), Nine months of reading the same pages of information about her, hoping that I would cathch something new. And now we are only about 12 hours away from meeting her. It almost doesn't seem real, like this whole thing is not real. We are going to have a new daughter tomorrow! My stomach is just at the light stages of butterflies and even Russ finally said, that he was getting very anxious now that we are here.

So just a quick recap of the day. We got up around 6:30 did our normal routine. Met a fellow adoptive mom that has the same agency and talked to her for a little while before she flew off to her province. We then had to kill time until 1pm. We were traveling to Tianjin with another mom, who got in the hotel at about 2am, so we were giving her more time to rest. IT was hard for DOminic because we had been on the go so much and now, we were just sitting in the room. So at 1pm we met Mary and our new guide and driver. Drove to Tianjin in a little over two hours with a van jam packed with suit cases. Once we get the girls, it is going to be really tight to just fit us all in the van. You tell we are not in Beijing any more. There are still many skyscrappers and a few million people that live here, but we seem even more of a minority than when we were in Beijing. THe hotel staff speaks very little english, so our guide did all the check in for us. He is staying here in the hotel also, so that is good. WHen we first pulled up, we saw a group of people at the front of the hotel holding some sort of colorful tubing and something laying on the ground. We quickly realized that there was a wedding reception about to start. It wasn't 2 minutes after we entered the hotel that a huge blast of fireworks went off( the something on the ground)! They were extremely loud, glad we made it inside before that happened. And then the bride and groom appeared in a cute little red convertable. THat was fun to see. We then went to our room to unpack. For dinner we went with Mary to walk around at the local Carrfours(walmart like store) and look for something to eat. Well in the store, we kind of got stuck because you can not go in and out of the same door. So we had to try to find the exit - which was on the floor below, and then find the line that let "NO PURCHASES" out. THe store was packed so that was not easy. But we finally made it out and went to eat at Pizza Hut. We were all very thirsty and ordered the large drinks. Of course the waitress did not speak any english, but thankfully the menu was pointer friendly. Well to our surprise when she brought our drinks to us, we had one full glass( DOminic's) and three empty glasses( ours) and 3 PITCHERS of Pop!!!!. We all had to laugh at ourselves, no wonder the waitress kept trying to repeat the order!

Oh the fun and crazy things that happen when you are in another country( and don't speak the language). Well all I am off to bed. I can barely keep my eyes open. Took a Tylenol PM to make sure I was good and tired so I would sleep through the whole night. SO here is praying that they butterflies stay away until morning. Good night on the last day we are a family of 6!

Beijing Day 2

2010-09-04T08:37:00.001-04:00

Today was a fun filled day but very tiring, not that we aren't tired enough from Jet lag). It was the day to visit the Great Wall. It took about 2 hours to drive there. On the way we stopped by the Jade store. Got a quick tour a bought a couple small things. There were many beautiful pieces, it really is amazing at what artists can carve out of the Jade.
It was greet to see the Wall. It is just amazing and beautiful. as we got to the point where the climb up started, you think "oh man am I going to be able to climb this thing. I was here 12 years ago, in early August and didn't make it up half the way, it was soo hot then. Today it was warm but there was a nice breeze. So up we went. We would make several rest stops along the way and did not make it up all the way to the top but we made it to the point that we wanted to get to. Dominic was more nervous about going back down( which I don't blame him). It took us about 40 minutes to get up and 30 to come back down. By the time we stopped at the bottom, my legs would quiver if I stood still. I was hoping that we would go to the pass that had the cable car that took you too the top so I was a little disappointed at first but after we accomplished the limb, I am glad that we were here instead.
So we started back to Bejiing. Stopped for lunch at a place that had some good food but way too much and then on to the Acrobat show. We got back to Bejing a little early so our guide took us to Dr. Tea. THe give you a tea sampling and then try to get you to purchase the tea. It was fun but since all our favorite tea was black, we thought why should I pay for something I can get easily back home.
Finally we were on to the Acrobat Show. Remember how we were running early? Well the traffic was horrible getting there and we made it to our seats just before the show started. A special thank you to our driver who got us there in time but also gave us a taste of what it would be like if vans were in the NASCAR races!

The show was fun and we all enjoyed it. It was really great just watching Dominic and his expressions during the show. What was even more amazing was that we got to sit in the first row. The seats were probably not the best for the overall show, but we were so close that a few times I was a little nervous that one of the acrobats would fall and end up landing on us. In fact Russ got hit in the head twice by feathers from one costume.

We then went back to the room had a little to eat and are all ready for bed and it isn't even 8:30. Oh, we did manage to sleep in till almost 6 am today.

Tomorrow we don't leave for Tianjin until 1pm. There is another mom going with us and she would not get to the hotel until 2am, so they are trying to let her get as much sleep as possible. I can't believe that we have only one more whole day left without out little girl and that we will be in the same town as her tomorrow.Wow, it still doesn't seem real - I wonder when it will?

Pictures

2010-09-03T10:51:00.000-04:00

Beijing Day One

2010-09-03T10:40:00.001-04:00

Well we started off today early, too early really. I woke up at 3:30 am and tried to go back to sleep but it didn't work. By 4 am we were all up so I started to unpack some. Of course Dominic was bouncing off the wall and ready to go but there was no where to go yet so we finally got him to settle down by putting a movie in. We had a great breakfast buffet. There were several other families here adopting too. One of the families was on the plane with us.
It was overcast and rainy today. We went to Tian'an men Square and the FOrbidden City. It started off rather chilly and a light rain. Of course we had no jackets but soon the rain stopped and it turned out to be fine. RUss and Dominic were amazed at how large the Forbidden City was. My favorite part was the Imperial Garden at the end. So beautiful. It was a little unnearving for DOminic, you could tell he was very nervous about all the crowds and was very clingy, but that was ok. We did get a lot of stares and even one lady was commenting on DOminic and kept staring at him as we walked, he did not like it at all.
After the touring we went to the Pearl Market and Silk Factory. They are really just tourist traps to get you to buy something and being the typical tourist shopper, I couldn't let them down. I really wanted to get a strand of pearls that had all the different colors but it was way too expensive so I got my purple pearls, just love them. At least the silk factory was very educational. Dominic enjoyed it, probably because it had to do with worms and cocoons.

We ate lunch out today at a buffet which was pretty good but there was nothing DOminic really wanted except for fried rice. So at this point he was tired and hungry. SO after a quick stop at the Silk Factory we went back to the hotel, he fell asleep in the van.

We then took a little nap, ventured out to McDonalds for dinner and now are just trying to stay up as late as possible to try to get adjusted to the time.

Tomorrow we head out to the Great Wall and then to a Jade Store and end the day with an Acrobat Show. I hope I can keep Dominic up through it all.

I am thankful that we came early not only to see the sites but also adjust to the time. I was afraid that these first few days would go really slow but they are moving quickly. It looks like we will be traveling to Tianjin with another Mom getting her daughter so we will have someone to talk to in TIanjin besides ourselves and our guide.

Well off to get ready for bed and chill out a little. Only two full day until we see our little girl.

Can't Seem to get the pictures to come up throught this process so I will try to email them.

In China

2010-09-02T08:38:00.000-04:00

We made it safe and everything went very smooth! Yea God! We got up Wednesday morning at 4:45 am and got to our hotel at 4 am THursday morning(Ohio time) Just short of 24 hours on the go. None of us slept much on the 13 hour flight here, we just could not get comfortable but amazingly the time went quickly. In fact this flight seemed better then our flights to Moscow. It took about an hour to get to through the airport and to our car but the airport was so nice and organized. Kyley, Greg, Phyllis and Craig - passport control had lines!!! and I did not feel like we were in a smokey dungeon. We then had a long ride to the hotel but got checked in and to our room, even the phone I had ordered to be delivered to the hotel was there(and it worked the first time too)! We took a quick 1.5 hour nap and then called home. We ventured out around the block, there was a McDonalds Pizza Hut and KFC but we just were not that hungry, that will hit us a 4am. So we got noodles and water in the hotel and ate in our room.
We met two couples that sat beside us on the plane that are adopting too. They are in different provinces but we are at the same hotel in Guangzhou so we will meet up with them again.
We will be touring tomorrow so I should have some pictures for you then. It is so hard to believe that we are here. I know we have only been in the process for about 10 months( the couple by me on the plane had been waiting 5 years!) but it just doesn't seem real. only 3.5 more days until we meet our little girl. I find myself looking intently at all the little girls trying to imagine what it will be like in just a few days.

THank you for all your prayers, we definetly are feeling them. DOminic has been a great trooper. It was really hard for him to sleep on the plane but for a little boy with major sleep depervation, he is doing great! Well, off to get ready for bed. Talk to you soon.

God's Special Gift to a Frantic Mom

2010-08-27T12:59:00.002-04:00

Well this past week has been busy busy to say the least. The kids started school so it was a little hard to get on schedule but I have to say I have been getting a lot more done for our trip with them in school. But the hardest part is the emotions that are going through you. I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep because my mind is racing. I am excited to go, scared to death for Sophia and already starting to miss my kids. Most of the important things are taken care of but still waiting for the actual TA to be in our hands and paranoid that the carrier will loose somewhere.

So yesterday when I checked one of my yahoo group postings and saw "Lu Xin Yan" I just about jumped out of my skin! To try to make a long story short, there was a wonderful woman who went to China in July to get her little girl. She had pictures from her daughters birthday party in China and was smitten by the little smiling girl beside her. She inquired about her when she went to get her daughter found out her name(Lu Xin Yan) and has been praying for her to get a family. Well she finally decided to post on the Tianjin Families yahoo group. Fast forward, she has sent me PICTURES of our little girl that are from late May along with what she knows. I was above cloud 9 yesterday( and still today). Just seeing her gives me such a peace, a peace that only God can give.

Thank you Lord for your wonderful surprise!

So here are my favorites:

Isn't she just beautiful!!!

Back to packing!

Labor Day .... Gotcha Day

2010-08-20T20:06:00.003-04:00

Yes, we finnnnnallllly got our Consulate Appointment and needless to say it was a very long week. We should have heard by Tuesday or Wednesday the latest but there were problems at the consulates fax machine. Our agency really went the extra mile but it was hard since there is a 12 hour time difference. So finally we got our appointment today. It will be September 14th. So we will leave September 1st and our Gotcha Day will be September 6th. Next step is to finalize flights and hotels, actually start putting the piles of things I have collected into suitcases... wow it is starting to really sink in.. 12 days until we leave... 17 days until we get to see that beautiful face in person.

TA!!!!!

2010-08-16T22:50:00.002-04:00

YES today was the day. We received the call that our TA had arrived. I was very hesitant that it would come today, I was thinking it would be more like Wednesday and I was totally caught off guard. In fact, when the phone rang, I thought it was our doctor calling back about a perscription I had requested for antibotics to take to Chin@(just in case). But when I saw the caller ID was our agency, I was stunned more than anything else.

Now I don't have a lot more information than that because we have requested our CA( Consulate Appointment) which will be toward the end of our trip and will hopefully get confirmation Tuesday. Our agency said that we could request an appointment for as early as September 7th or 8th, which would mean that we would leave next Wednesday( because we want to leave two days early to tour Beijing first). I was totally floored. Only 9 days to do it all?! But we ended up picking September 14th or 15th as our first options which would mean we leave 9/1!

Of course after I hung up the phone I was second guessing myself all day but Russ agrees with me, it will be the best. I can get the kids in school, Dominic will have 1 week to get started before he leave for 2.5 weeks and I won't be totally miserable to be around the next week as I start to loose me mind. (Correction, I would not loose my mind but my "mind won't be functioning" - quote from my husband who is knows me so well.)

One issue that is beginning to surface quickly is how Micah is going to deal with this all. Up until now, he has talked about us traveling to China and getting a new sister but I think somewhere it is just a story to him, like one of the many he makes up during the day. Today when I told the kids that we can start finalizing plans, he told me he didn't want us to go. So we sat and talked about why we had to go and that Grammy would be here to take care of him. He seemed ok with it until I got on the phone and he proceeded to totally destroy our family room. When I came in all the pillows, magazines and toys were everywhere and no where to walk. Mind you, he seemed to be doing this in fun not anger but that is usually how he disguises his feelings. Also, the first things he asked me when he woke up from his nap, "Mommy, are you back from China?" So one big thing to add to my list of things to do..... Increase the amount of time I spend with Micah( and all my kids).

I will keep you updated.

Will let you all know the dates for sure when I find out.

9 MONTHS and Approaching Our Due Date!!!

2010-08-14T17:29:00.004-04:00

Yes, I noticed today on my ticker that it has been 9 months since we first saw Sophia. Wow, so quickly and yet so long. I guess I am now in the last few weeks of "Paper Pregnancy" with the Braxton Hicks contractions( heart stopping every time the phone rings) and Lamaze breathing ( anxiety attacks wondering how I will get through the day waiting for the phone call).

And yes, there has been no TA!!! I was sure that it would be here by now, and I think my agency thought so too but for some reason many TAs for our agency have not arrived so they are thinking that the director is out of town or something like that. Monday was torture for me but by Tuesday I was emailing with another mom waiting too and she was keeping me up to date on what our agency thought so as each day passed I became more accepting that we would not get one this week. BUT we now have a new week ahead of us so I guess I will be starting all over again with hopefully a better result. I am still hoping that we can leave by September 1st but it might be later than that so we will at least be able to get the kids going in school. I have a few little projects to finish up this weekend and then I am ready to pack, hopefully I won't be totally packed before my TA arrives.

Enjoy the sultry hot days of summer!

Testing

2010-08-04T23:03:00.001-04:00

"This is a test. This is just a test of the China blocks blogger system." Since blogger is blocked in China, I could use some other sites but I would prefer for everything to be in one place for our adoptions. So I am trying out option one to see if I can email posts to blogger. I have included a picture from our trip last September to Italy( the only pictures that I had on our laptop). It is from Venice - oh how I loved Venice. Hopefully it all works out ok. The only downside is that I will not be able to read comments and I really loved reading them when we were in Russia. I will have to figure out something else. So lets see how it goes. Monica

FIVE!!!

2010-07-30T08:10:00.006-04:00

FIVE. Yes that is a very important number. We received our Article 5( last Thursday 7/22) to adopt our 5 year old daughter so that we will become parents to 5 wonderful kids!

I did not post immediately because we were on vacation and this week ha been crazy trying to catch up. But When I realized that we are on day 8 of our wait for our TA I thought I needed to post.

Needless to say I am starting to have the anxiety kick in, especially since I don't have the exact timing down on things( and for a planner like me, this is a big obstacle). I do have my list created and only have three more things on the need to buy list. But the things that need to be done before we leave is quite large, and most of it can not be done until we have our dates of travel. Oh well, enough stressing for this early in the morning. We will hopefully hear something next week or the week after and then I will be in full blown action.

Now to mention our vacation. We went north this year to Michigan. We have never vacationed in Michigan but really loved it. We went to Lake Michigan and got to go to the beach but the drive there was only a wonderful 5 hours so it is on the list for a repeat vacation.

We were also able to meet up with our friends, The Smiths, with whom we had the pleasure of spending several weeks with when we were in Russia. Last Wednesday 7/21 was the two year anniversary of when we both got to meet our new little ones. Two years, wow! It seems like they have been with us forever not just two years.

Here is a picture of Grace and Micah last week:

And here is a picture of them on Gotha Day September 29th 2008.
PHEW! Have they changed. We are going to get together again with them this weekend along with two other families that travelled with us when we were in Russia. It will be so fun to see how the kids have grown( we will miss you Kathy and Andy).

Well I could write so much more but gotta go for now. I will write when the TA comes in. Here is a great memory of the beach 2010.

Happy Tuesday!

2010-07-06T14:00:00.002-04:00

Yes, it is a happy Tuesday in that we received our letter from the Visa center. I just emailed it off to our agency and they will email it to China. So Thursday our China contact will be dropping off our papers at the US Consulate. I then have two weeks to wait until they issue the article 5 which should be on July 22nd.

I have to say that it has been killing me this morning waiting for the mailman(woman in our case). I did not attack her as she drove up, but waited until she drove away until I ran to the mail box and quickly searched for a letter. Unfortunately Olivia is not home this week(at camp in very very hot weather) to remind me how crazy I act when another milestone has past. I'm am just giddy like a kid at Christmas. So here we are again, hurry up and ..... WAITING.

CABLED!!!!

2010-06-30T16:56:00.002-04:00

YEA YEA YEA! We are chugging along and getting closer to travel to see our Sweet Sophia. I called on Wednesday and our file was cabled to the US Consulate in China. We now have to wait to received a letter from them saying that it is done and we can then have the rest of our papers dropped off( hopefully on Thursday 7/8). It will take two weeks then to get our Article 5, which will go directly to the Chinese government and then anywhere from 1-4 weeks until our TA. OhOh so close. Dominic is getting very excited about our trip and he has asked me several times, " You mean that after we meet her for the first time, she gets to stay with us from then on?" My response: " Yes, from then on!" And we both smile.

I will keep you posted!

And the List Gets Smaller

2010-06-24T17:20:00.007-04:00

One more approval down! Yes yesterday, I called our officer at the USCIS and we are approved and the letter got sent out. Hopefully we will have or letter in a week as will the National Visa Center, who will then cable our stuff to China. We are getting there! Not many more steps left on my check off sheet. As the time is getting closer to travel, I am getting things all ready. Our house is pretty much ready for 5 children! I purchased booster seats last week. And this week I dug out my packing lists from Russia and started listing what I need to buy. I am hoping that we get to travel in August( probably late August) so I know we will be all ready to go. However, will Sophia be ready?

I don't really even know if she knows she will be getting a forever family. The last update we received were measurements in March. I have not heard anything since we sent the care package to her. I wrote a letter to her foster family, and provided a way for them to respond, but nothing. I don't know if she knows what is going to happen, let alone understand it. So, even though I have been praying for her since I saw her face for the first time, I have been stepping up the storming of heaven.

And I ask you to help me. At the top of my blog, I will be adding a little prayer (I will try to keep it little) that I ask all our readers to pray when they come to our blog. That way there will be many of you lifting her up in prayer over the next few months. I thank you for helping Sophia this way and I know God will respond in a might way!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEENAGER!

2010-06-18T08:17:00.005-04:00

Yes my little girl, my first born is a TEENAGER today! Boy do I feel old. She is such a treasure to us and is maturing into a beautiful young lady. She is also growing like a weed! She passed me up in height about a month ago and has grown about 1/2 since then! I am totally amazed at the growth, no wonder she is always complaining of this or that is hurting. Here is my favorite picture of her:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE! WE LOVE YOU!!

Adoption Update: We DID NOT receive our US approval yet(like I previously posted), just the receipt that they got the papers. Guess I am getting too excited!

LOA!!!!!

2010-06-07T16:32:00.003-04:00

Oh My Oh My Oh My!!! I am totally floored right now. The kids and I were out running errands most of the day( they were for the kids so it's not like I was torturing them the first day of summer break). Anyway, I thought I would sit down, take a break and read my emails since Micah was now napping. As I scanned my emails, I saw the letters LOA!! I about hyperventilated. I started frantically saying, "oh my oh my oh my". Dominic comes in and wants to know if I am ok. OK?! I am better than ok. We are one big step closer to getting Sophia! Our Letter of Acceptance was signed on 6/4/10. That would mean that we were approved in 28 days!! That is inconceivable to me. The lowest I had heard of recently was 35 days. Many have been in the 40s but most likely I was hoping for no more then 56( which would be 8 weeks). Someone on one of my yahoo groups had been monitoring peoples stats and he came up with 7- 10 weeks for approval. Our was in 4 weeks!

I know that it does not seem like it but I am speechless and my mind is racing a million mile a minute. I had been holding back to filling out the forms that I needed once we received our LOA. I was going to start on them this week since school is over. Well, tonight and tomorrow will be paperwork.

Next step: Finish our I-800 form and overnight it to US*CIS and wait for their approval( about 2-3 weeks) and also fill out the other forms that I need. This also means that we have a very good chance of traveling in August! Oh my Oh my. Got to get busy!

28 DAYS!!!

2010-06-04T11:20:00.005-04:00

Yes that is how many days we have been waiting for our LOA(Letter of Acceptance). It is hard to believe it has been that long already but with the end of school activities, I can see how it has gone so quickly. Today is the last day of school for the kids and summer begins, I am excited to slow down the pace and just enjoy time with the kids, but that would mean the wait will seem to slow down too....don't like that idea, guess I will just have to keep us all busy having fun right?

In the past week the wait has started to get harder. I have a little bit of paperwork to complete for when our LOA arrives and this week we went through Olivia's room getting things ready for Sophia so we are all set there. There is always more reading to do and we are going to start as a family learning some Chinese so that will be fun. Oh! I have to tell you all of how wonderful God is to provide! We have been looking for someone to help us out in our discipleship group in watching our kids starting in July( there are 7 with 3 more coming through adoption in the next several months). Well God has provided a wonderful lady who is Chinese and speaks Mandarin! I could not believe it. I had been thinking about trying to find someone in our area that spoke Mandarin so that when we run into communication problems with Sophia, there would be someone to call. It was on my list of things to do but to be truthful, I did not know if I would every get that one finished, I guess God knows that I will need the help and is already providing! Not only do I have someone to contact, but she will be someone we will meet regularly with at least one a week! And in the mean time we can practice our chinese on her - God is so good.

Another reason why the wait seems so long is that I have not received any new information on Sophia. We have a set of pictures from November, her original medical information and updated measurements in March. We sent a care package in April but we have not received any information back from her foster family. I keep staring at the same pictures trying to picture what she will look like when she is not posing for pictures. I don't even know if we will get more information before we travel but I know that all things are in God's hands and He knows best.

I did get a pick me up though a few weeks ago....

This is the necklace that I orders from www.jiayindesigns.com. It is custom made in China by a missionay's wife and is Sophia's chinese name - Xin Yan which means "Precious Beauty" so fitting. I have been wearing it a lot( when I don't have grunge cloths on) and will be wearing it in China all the time. I hope it will mean something special to Sophia.

So for now I will get back to planning a fun summer. Enjoy the time!

Happy Birthday Dominic!

2010-05-28T07:09:00.002-04:00

A day late in posting(because we were busy having fun) but yesterday was our Sweet and Handsome boy's 10th birthday! Amazing how 10 years fly by! This conversation tells you what a special boy he is:

Mom: Hey sweetie, your birthday is coming up, what would you like for your birthday?

Dominic: Ummm.... I don't know, I have pretty much everything I want.

We love you so much buddy!! XOXOXOXOXOXOX

How can we all help Orphans?

2010-05-21T18:31:00.004-04:00

Well, I could probably go on and on at the many ways that that could be done but I have an easy and direct way of helping orphans right now! A blog friend is trying to pay it forward in helping 26 families to raise money for their adoptions. This money will go directly to the forever families that are in the process of bringing home their precious child. Whatever you can give would be so appreciated. You can click on the "10K in 20" sign in the upper right corner to learn more about it and to donate. Please do what you can.

Who can see your copies?

2010-05-14T10:44:00.002-04:00

THere is a really great video regarding copy machines and the information stored. I had no idea and really never considered that all the documents that I have copied for our adoption have the potential for someone else to get at.

Just watch - It will make you think about what you are getting copied.

LID!!!!!

2010-05-10T20:26:00.002-04:00

Yea!!!!! We got an email today saying that we were logged in to China's system on Friday May 7th, only 3 days after they received our dossier. I have to admit that by Wednesday it had only been a week and the wait was starting to drag. The next wait will be for our Letter of Approval(LOA) from China. That usually takes 2-3 months but some people have recently been receiving their's around 40 days. This will be the longest waiting period from here on out so here's hoping for a speedy LOA!

Happy Belated Mother's day present!

It's in China!

2010-05-04T19:42:00.004-04:00

Yes, all our paperwork arrived at it's destination in China today( well actually last night) so one more thing to cross off my worry list. I thought it would get there by Monday so I never even looked up the tracking number until then, only to see that delivery had not happened because they were CLOSED! What? So the nerves start kicking in but I did remember something about a holiday in May so I did not panic too much. Hopefully in about a week we will be LID!

I also picked up today Sophia's new backpack that I will be bringing to our first meeting(packed full of goodies). I have been so excited to get this. I wanted to get her name printed on it, like I did with Micah, but I also had the idea of putting her chinese name on it too since she should be able to read her own name. It was way more money than I had planned but it was more important that she recognize something that is hers without anyone telling her.

I also found a website that makes custom necklaces with your child's Chinese name. That is the next thing on my list of things to get.

DTC!!

2010-04-28T13:20:00.004-04:00

Yes!! We are finally DTC(Dossier to China)! It is on its way to China and I will be watching it through our tracking number. We are now in the hands of the Chinese government as we wait for them to log in our dossier(LID) and then approve us(LOA). It will be about 2 weeks for LID and then 2 months for LOA but I have been seeing a hand full of people receive their LOA in 41-47 days so we are hopeful.

We also sent a care package to Sophia that was suppose to reach the orphanage last Friday. We used Lady Bugs and Love from Above. They were great. Here is what we sent her:

It took me awhile to send this because one of the things you get to send them is a letter which they translate for us. It was so hard to write that letter, I wanted to say so many things but at the same time was unsure of how she will be feeling since she is in a foster home. I ended up writing it more to the Foster family and also sent many questions that I pray they will respond to( We also included a return envelope to Lady Bugs and Love - which they will translate and send to us). We also sent a photo album with pictures of our family. I told Angela that I was not sure if she would get this because she was in a foster home but she told me that her orphanage is very good at forwarding the packages onto the foster family and very quickly. So I was very hopeful after that news.

I did have to chuckle at the doll. Here I have been buying every asian doll that I set my eyes on so that she will have dolls that look like her and the doll that is purchased in China is caucasian!

So the wait begins!!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY MICAH!!!!

2010-04-26T12:54:00.005-04:00

Yes my little guy is 4 today! Hard to believe. Here he is in his birthday crown from school. He just loves it. This morning we woke him up singing "Happy Birthday". He just smiled ear to ear and then said "I love my Birthday". We are so happy to celebrate his 2nd birthday with us. Unfortunately, he has spent 2 birthdays without us but he has now spent 2 with us and many many more to come. We love buddy!!!!! We love your birthday too!

Where oh Where have the Canestraro's Been!

2010-04-11T17:04:00.008-04:00

We have been on the go much of March, thankfully it has been for fun. See if you can guess where.

First Olivia and I went for 3+ days for her choir concert. She practices for 3 days and then had an amazing concert! It was so indescribable how these kids from 4th grade up through High school can come together after practicing on their own for 3 months, practice together for 3 days and sound so beautiful, just beautiful. Since it was just her and I, I got to have some precious time to myself to read and take some walks, it was a great get away for us. The only downside was the weather. Here is a picture of Olivia the last night we were there( and yes the white dots are snow!)

It was in the 30s that night with wind chill of 22 degrees. Can you guess where we were? Chicago? No. Boston? No. It was DALLAS. DALLAS TEXAS! Can you believe it. We thought we were going to get a little tan while we were there but it was warmer back home most of the time we were there. And they did get 1" of snow that night.

Once we returned, I had a day in a half to unpack, do laundry and pack everyone again for Spring Break. Thankfully this trip was a little warmer. This should be an easy guess:

The Wonderful World of Disney! We had both a great and utterly frustrating time all at the same time. Those who have been there can understand, especially with younger kids. We had a great time, but then there was the tired factor, which for most was ok. Get a little food, sit down and rest while you eat - then raring to go again. However, 3 year olds don't work that way, especially ones that you can't just put in a stroller and let then dozzz. Micah can only sleep when there are NO DISTRACTION AT ALL. Which required retreating to the room, and trying to make it as pitch black as possible. We knew naps were required but the problem was the timing. As each day passed(because of less sleep each day), he needed his nap earlier and earlier. So once his mean obstinate streak would kick in, we knew it was time for one of us to go back to the room. After the first day, he was never back to his normal self until we were home about 4 days. Needless to say, this kids works soooo much better on a schedule.

But back to the good part. It was so fun to be there and share all the memories of the times we have visited in the past, either as kids ourselves or when we went as a family 6 years ago(which only Olivia really remembers). They do a great job of making things pleasant for you. The workers are just so nice and helpful and understanding( especially with a screaming 3 yo) and they really do try to make everything magical. And as Russ likes to says, they do an amazing job of making your money magically disappear too!

So we are now back to reality but thankfully the warm weather followed us home and we can spend time outside playing, which is a great vacation from being cooped up most of the winter. Here is a picture of a tree in our backyard that is blooming:

This is the same tree, if you scan down, that I took a picture of when we had a major snow, fog, frost day. Isn't it stunning how God can make beauty out whatever the circumstance. I just need to remember that each day.

One more thing before I go. We did get our I-800A approval on Friday. Unfortunately, it was too late for me to get all the authentications done that day. So on Monday I will be making a trip downtown and to the FedEx store. If everything works smoothly( which is a big IF in the adoption world), we should have our DTC(Dossier to China) on April 20th! Here's praying that my best laid plans match with God's. I will let you know.

Here is a good bye picture of my boys with Mickey:

One More Step Closer to Sophia

2010-04-08T14:22:00.002-04:00

Things have been crazy the last month and I have so much to write about but for now I wanted to focus on my Sophia. I have to say that for awhile, I would think of her and then turn right to all the things that we have to do to get her home. But more and more, I have been thinking about her, what is she doing, where is she(have the moved her back to the orphanage or kept her in foster care) and is she safe. A few weeks ago there was a horrible sand storm that went through Beijing( and Tianjin where she is) and I just prayed that she would be ok and feel safe.

I know that I am starting to ponder these things more now because a lot of the work to bring her home is out of my hands. We sent off our I-800A papers to immigration on 3/1 and have been waiting AND waiting AND waiting for approval. And YES we now have approval from US Immigration to bring her home!! I talked to our officer on Tuesday and we are approved and now I am just waiting( not so patiently) for the letter to arrive. As soon as I get it, I will run around and get the final approvals, ship it off to our agency and then they will send it to the Chinese Embassy to get their approval and then it will be DTC(Dossier To China). It will take about 2 weeks after that to get our LID(Log In Date) and then more waiting begins. I am really hoping to be logged in before May(already?) On average it will be about another 4-5 months until we travel so we are thinking September( Another September Gotcha Day?). Right now it has almost been 5 months since we first saw Sophia's picture so hopefully we are at the half way mark.

Some other wonderful news was that while I was out of town, we got an update on Sophia! No pictures, actually not much info at all but we got some updated measurements from her. She is 3' 6" and weighs about 35 pounds and probably wears a size 11 shoe. So it sounds like she still looks like her pictures, taller and very thin. Micah who is a year and a half younger then her weighs 39 pounds! It is funny how excited I can get over a few numbers. Looking over them trying to figure out whatever information that I can.

For those wanting details on our timeline(especially approval times) they are on the right side.

I will update soon on our fun travels during spring break.

PLEASE SIGN!!

2010-03-09T20:18:00.002-05:00

Two posts in one day, don't fall off your chair! I wanted to alert all of you who are not involved with adopting from a Hague Country about a real serious problem that the children we are bring home have to face. Because of the new Hague Convention that is effect for adopting children from China and some other countries( not Russia), we as adoptive parents no longer have the option of getting our children updated on their immunizations once they are back in the states, we are required to get them updated all at one time in China, only a few days before they must travel to the States. Some children are having to get up to 8 shots at one time. This is just dangerous!!!! There is a little girl(First a Pearl, then a Ruby), right now, that has been running very high fevers after her shots. So we need your help - There is a bill in process that could change this and we need you signiture. Please click on the link on the upper right side of my blog and follow the instructions.

We and our soon to be children are so grateful for your effort!

Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork

2010-03-09T16:00:00.004-05:00

Ah yes that has been my hobby for the past 3+ months. It has not been constant but more like, do a little, wait for something, do a little more, wait some more.... But now FINALLY we have pushed through most of it and have sent it all off to where it needs to go. Unfortunately that is not to China yet.

First we received our approved home study and sent it off with a few other documents to Immigration in the US. This is so that they can approve us and approve a visa for Sophia to enter the country when it is time. That was sent of on 3/1 and on 3/8 we got an email saying that it was received and being sent to processing. Now we wait for our fingerprint appointment letter, and then try to get it moved up and once that is done we will get our approval letter that needs to be sent to China. Above is a picture of the documents that we sent off to immigration. It looks like just a pile of papers but it has been our life for the past three months. I hate it when you mail it off and they ask about having it insured. I want to say, $1,000,000 but since it is just paper, it is only worth the paper it is printed on!!!!!

TODAY was also a big day, I had our entire dossier(except the letter from immigration) sent off to our agency. With China they require an additional level of approvals at the country level from the Chinese embassy. I could have done this myself but once I figured the cost for authentication and couriers and stress, I decided that I would just pay my agency to do that part. So off it went today for them to get the authentication done. So now I am truly in a waiting state which is really great right now since the snow is melting and the weather is warming up and we have travel plans coming up too!

I guess the fun part of waiting now can start. Retail therapy some say but getting ready for her and buying pink is going to be so fun. We also found a really great program that we are hoping helps us learn enough chinese to communicate with her.

I wanted to end today with a prayer request for a beautiful little girl Emma. I met her and her mom & dad, Darla and Jeff, today. She is having some bad reactions to a surgery last week and she went in today for more surgery which will hopefully help her. Just pray for success, quick healing and strength for her parents. She is 5 and reminded me of Sophia, it just broke my heart to see her in so much pain. Please left her up in prayer.

I hopefully will be getting back with you soon on paperwork updates.

Glory!

2010-02-14T15:18:00.004-05:00

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1

What about these scenes:

These were pictures I took last Monday after taking the kids to school. We had had one major snow storm another one on the way and that morning everything was frosted over and a fog covered everything. My breath was literally taken away as I drove around the neighborhood. Micah kept getting upset every time I would turn in the direction away from our home because I was just glued to the scenes. It was a wonderful gift from God that morning. There are not many things that make me giddy as a school girl but this day was an exception. I took well over 100 pictures just trying to capture it. I just love how God takes frigid temps, ice, snow and fog - things that the world whines and complains about and reveals His glory. So as I started to whine today because they are predicting ANOTHER 4-6 inches of snow here on Monday( on top of the 18 or so we already have), I had to catch myself and be thankful that the kids and I are off and can enjoy it from inside - and that Russ has a monster SUV to keep him safe on the roads.

Not much on the adoption front right now - hopefully will have our home study approved and off to the USCIS(Immigration) this week?Maybe, maybe not? Don't know and trying not to freak out because I have no control over it.

Will update soon.

Happy Birthday Luc!!!

2010-01-27T13:27:00.005-05:00

It is so hard to believe the my little Luc is not so little anymore - 7 years old today!

And as you can see he did not get his two front teeth for Christmas OR his birthday. I am getting pretty used to that cute gap smile, I don't know if he will be quite as cute with teeth(Yes I am sure he will)!

So todays plans are out for pizza and ice cream and then present, if I can hold him off that long. I just love the simpleness of being 7!

As for the rest of the crew, we are surviving winter fairly well, Here is Micah and Dominic my two robbers in training( but the only thing they will be stealing is your heart).

Ok I am just a little too sappy today but I just love my kids. We are, however, ready for spring a little warmer weather, but none in the near future.

Micah is doing great at school. We are going to have him re-evaluated through our school system because of some of his attention problems and problems that he has falling down. We will see what comes from that. I am starting to lean more to Sensory Integration Disorder but we will see. He is coming along fairly well with the potty training too. We are hoping the daytime peeing in the pants is all but gone, but number two is still a battle. I am just happy with the little hurdles right now.

As for Sophia, paperwork is still a flying! We had our last home study visit this weekend and will be waiting for her to complete that. While we wait I am working on the I-800A paperwork that needs to be sent off to the US government. So it will all be waiting for the home study to arrive and off it will go in the mail. Next is the last of our dossier documents which should not be too bad. Once that all gets done, then the real waiting begins.

For all of you who have had a social worker come to your house for a home study or anything else, I have to include this story - it will make you so laugh.

At our last home study visit, our social worker had to speak with each one of the kids regarding the adoption, so when she was done with Russ and myself she decided to start with Luc who was in the other room playing with his hockey cards (the rest were with us in the family room). When she came back from talking to Luc, she said that she just wanted us to know that she just had a first in her interviewing experience, interviewing someone in their underware!!! Luc still had his cloths on from church and hates to wear pants with snaps or buttons. Well, he did not want to wear them anymore so he took them off but was afraid to go upstairs by himself to get new pants so he just played in his underware. Thankfully we have known our social worker for awhile and she knows us well, otherwise I would have been totally mortified! I had to laugh because this is the type of things that Luc does, he catches you so off guard that he just makes you laugh!

So there is your embarrassing experience forever in cyberspace!We love you Luc!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Let It Snow!

2009-12-27T19:35:00.007-05:00

Yes it is snowing! Yea! and no work or school tomorrow - even better. It may be a few days late for Christmas but that is ok. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Our's was pretty un- eventful and relaxing.

We spent Christmas Eve day with my parents and brother's family. So Christmas day was just at our home. My parents came over for awhile( so I actually got dressed for them) but the rest of the house stayed in their PJ's all day and just played.

It was interesting to see how Micah was going to deal with this Christmas. Since his birthday was 8 months ago, I was not sure if he would get the whole present thing. I was pretty sure he did not get it when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he enthusiastically said "A CANDY CANE!"

So he did get a candy and many other presents but the excitement of anticipation that you see with most kids was not there yet. He would wait patiently as each child had their turn to open a present, would calmly open his present, and then again calmly state what he got and would ask us to take it out of the box. Normally I would say that it was just overstimulation but when he gets overstimulated, he starts bouncing off the wall, he does NOT sit calmly and go into shut down mode. So I am not sure if it was just a difference in dealing with overstimulation or that he just does not get it yet. Well, we have 4 months to build up anticipation for his birthday, and he has already asked when we are going to open more presents!

I do have to say that there was a little bit of my heart that was sad because their is part of our family that is not with us yet. Thinking of what she was doing, did she understand or even celebrate Christmas, was she happy? So many questions. We now have all our homestudy documents completed and will hopefully have our first homestudy visit very soon - getting one step closer!

Here is our beautiful crew ready for Christmas! We are so blessed! And Luc did not get his two front teeth for Christmas!

I ran across this poem from another blogger and thought it was so true and wanted to post it.

The Call

Every call has a beginning,

a quiet moment when God whispers

a promise to a mother's heart.

A holy place where a father bows and faithfully

accepts the journey set before him.

A miraculous morning that unexpectedly dawns...

casting its first light on a chosen threshold.

A gentle knock...a closed door opens.

A sacred invitation sent by the Father leads

to the other side of the world where lonely

heads stare out orphanage windows praying for

someone to care.

And then one morning, on an ordinary day, an

orphan's life changes...God sends them a

second chance...through you.

Author Unknown

Here is to a wonderful New Year and many more children finding their forever families!

The Upside, A New Look, LOI, PA!

2009-12-10T17:10:00.009-05:00

Ok, I said during my last post that things had been up and down so here is the upside! As you can tell there is a new look to our blog to celebrate this wonderful news that we have ...... It's a girl! Yes, we are on another journey to add to our family and this time it is a girl so it is pink galore!
I have been wanting to tell you all for weeks now but with everything going on and then trying to go hyper-speed on the paperwork, I just have not had the time. So today I needed a paperwork break and thought it would be great to post and update the blog, I just love the colors, it has been awhile since pink has been a color that I get to look at much.

Ok, ok, so here are the details. We had decided to move forward with another adoption this summer but decided that Russia was just not for us this time. The last time, the stress was just unbearable at times and it seemed like they are trying to make it harder and harder to adopt from there. Also the travel was just way too much for all of our family to handle this time around. So with much thought, prayer and research, we decided to go to China. Now some of you who are familiar with adoption know that China's wait times are literally verging on 4 years if not more and that was not our plan, so we decided to go with the Special Needs program. China's special needs program includes older children, kids with medical issues both minor and correctable and more severe.

China adoptions are really very different then what we dealt with in Russia, especially the special needs program. So I have spent a lot of time searching the internet and joining yahoo groups trying to educate myself. We started the process to get our homestudy going back in August but I just put it off because frankly, I did not want to have to deal with all that paperwork. Ok, not a good reason to delay but I guess I was just not ready. I also know that God had our daughter all picked out and the time was just not right. The week I decided to get back on the papertrail, I started requesting info from agencies. China handles special needs in that they send out pictures and medical information to approved agencies on either a shared list( all agencies have access) or an individual list just to a specific agency. You can have access to these files and look for that one that you just make a connection with. So on Saturday November 14th, I got an email from and agency I was looking into regarding a little girl that was back on their list so I checked it out. I fell in love immediately and after Russ and I talked, I figured out how to lock her file and talking to doctors, we decided to move forward with the adoption( that is what the LOI is in the title), we wrote a Letter of Intent to adopt her. Next came the PA(Pre-approval) from China less than a week later. Now it is massive amounts of paperwork and trying to coordinate everything to get our dossier to China as fast as bureaucracy will let us. Once our dossier is logged into China(LID) we will wait for our Letter of Acceptance(LOA) and then our TA(Travel Approval). From looking at other's it seems that about 4-5 months from LID until travel, so the fast I get our paperwork done, the sooner we can bring her home.

Ok, The other great thing about working with China is that we have a picture and we know some things about her. Sophia is the name that we plan to give her. Her Chinese name is Lu Xin Yan, she just turned 5 in November and is currently in Foster care in a city south east of Beijing. Her special need is that she is post operative spina bifada but seems to be doing wonderful. She is a girly girl, loves pink and loves to be pretty( that means I can buy dresses again!). So without further delay here she is:
This picture reminds me so much of Micah

Doesn't she just melt your heart? That smile just gets me every time. I don't have much more to say except that we are all so very excited to add another little one to our family. It is so much easier to fight through the paperwork with a picture to look at and just dream. I don't know if I will get back to blogging before Christmas( trying to get a homestudy visit in before that - don't know if that will happen) so I want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas celebrating the joys of Christ in your life. I know that I already have my Christmas present and I couldn't be more thankful.

Blessings to you all!

Rollercoaster

2009-11-30T20:57:00.003-05:00

The past couple of weeks have been such an emotional rollercoaster for us. I will talk about the up side later but today I needed to post that my wonderful Grandma has passed away. She was an amazing 88 1/2 year old beauty that loved the Lord and I am so blessed that she was in my life. The past several years her health has quickly faded so her death is a blessing in the fact that she is not suffering and can now do all the wonderful things that she used to do but with the Lord. The hard part is knowing that all we have left is our memories, although they are quite wonderful, there are no more memories to make. But I have to not focus on myself but on the fact that she is singing and laughing and full of joy, something she has not been able to really do for awhile. I just pray for my Mom, who was her main caregiver for these past years. Her main focus was my Grandma and now that focus is gone, there is now a big hole in her life and we have to make sure we fill it up with her kids and grandkids. Thanks for listening.

My smiling Grandma and her pearls! She so loved pearls, kids and the Lord!

Halloween and Catch Up Time

2009-11-18T15:22:00.007-05:00

Yes it is almost Thanksgiving and I am posting Halloween pictures but they are so cute that I didn't want you all to miss out on them. Micah was a puppy this year and got to wear a costume that I made for Olivia.

Do you like his guards?

What is nice about the costumes that I made is that they actually hold up over time and each kids has worn them. Great memories when you look at the pictures of each one in the same costume!

We also did our annual pumpkin carving where each of them get to pick out their own pumpkin. Micah's choice was unique as he is, he picked a white pumpkin, it was so cute listening to him say, "whi punkin"

It usually is a very long night because just getting the guts out of four pumpkins takes awhile and we usually have a loss of interest about half way through and Russ, Olivia and I end up finishing them up. So we decided to cut our losses and have Micah color his - it worked out great that is until it rained a few days later and the washable markers washed right off. Thankfully he didn't notice.

Last year Micah was able to go trick or treating but he really did not understand what was going on. This year, he understood, it was all about candy! Every time we went to a house, I would remind him to say, trick or treat and then thank you(which only family members can really understand). What was so cute is that some people would try to hold a conversation with him, like "So what are you dressed up as?" or "Are you having fun?" and his response to everyone, no matter what the question was was "TRICK OR TREAT". I think he was trying to nicely say "Hey people, just give me the candy".

And speaking of candy, that is our reward of choice for potty training. We are doing pretty good with it but some day I feel like it will never happen. Micah know that if he does things on his own or goes #2 in the potty, he gets a bigger reward. So when he talks about it, it goes something like this: " When I go poo poo in the potty, I gets lota lota lota lota lota lota lota lota lota lota lota lota CANDY! YEA!!. Can you tell he has a sweet tooth.

Mica is also growing like a weed. When we brought him home he literally wore a 12 months pants( at 2.5 years old!) so this summer I was wondering what he would be wearing once he was home a year.......... 3Ts! Can you believe it, now they are slightly long but still, he grew in 1 year what kids normally do in two. So back in October I took his measurements and compared them to the ones taken when he was home one week - he grew 4.75 inches and gained 10 pounds! Man, no wonder my back is aching all the time! I really try to do everything to not have to carry him anymore( no I love to hold him, if he lets me but sitting down is the preferred method).

I love how 3 year old minds work. They get something in their head and that is the way that it is. My wonderful niece sat for the kids a few weeks ago and ever since then, I get the question from Micah about "Where is Christmas?". Now her name is Christa, but for now and forever, in Micah's head - she will be Christmas.

Well I have to leave you with the wonderful picture of the week in our house. It is of our Toothless Wonder - Luc. We know what he will be singing for Christmas this year!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Gotcha Day One Year

2009-10-10T15:49:00.001-04:00

Well, actually I am six days late but that is the theme lately around our house. We have had sports out the wazoo and I am ready for things to slow down so I can catch my breath before we start the holidays. Before I talk about Gotcha day I have to say "GO WILDCATS!" That is Olivia's volleyball team. They just played most of a tournament today. Her team was 7th seeded and are now going to play for 3rd/4th place. They were so amazing!

Also today is my wonderful and amazing hubby's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! We all love you so very much.

Gotcha day was on September 29th but it did not seem right to celebrate it on that day because it was just Micah and me. But October 4th was the one year anniversary of us coming home. So this was the day that seemed right to celebrate our new family since we were all there with all having memories(except for maybe Micah). What is so amazing is to think that one year ago I went in and wisked Micah from the only place he knew as home. And I when I say wisked, I really mean it. It was a busy morning and my translator needed to get to class, so we had enough time to sign the documents, have the caregivers change him and we trotted out the door as fast as we could, I almost felt like if we did not hurry, they might change their minds and take him back. But then the fun began, seeing his reactions to everything, some with confusion and a little fear( like trying to use the large toilet in the room) and some with excitement and awe( like realizing that he could just run and have fun).

It has been an amazing year. There have been great adventures, exciting firsts and giggles. But there were also frustrations and "pulling your hair out" moments. Even though I would like to say it has been all thrills and giggles( and that is what I wanted it to be), it has not. But I have to say that I would not trade this past year for anything. It has grown me in a way that I did not know I needed to grow in, it has made me love a little more like God loves us all - unconditionally. I still have a looong way to go but my eyes have been opened to something God is trying to teach me and that is thrilling beyond description.

I can not believe that God has blessed me with such wonderful and amazing kids - I love them so very much. What is been really interesting lately is that Micah will talk about Russia. I am not really sure if he remembers or if he is combining things that he has seen in pictures and things that I have told him. Like the hat he has on below. When we went to talk his picture in it he said- " I wear this in Russia. I cry in Russia but Mommy take me home and I watch Dora." No matter what he says there is always a theme of him crying in Russia, which makes me sad, but on the upside, that means he is happy here. And that is what it is all about.

Thanks to our friends Kyle, Greg & Grace (whose Gotcha day was the same) for the idea - I have a picture from that day of Micah and myself and another one of us on our 1 year anniversary Gotcha.

September 29, 2008

September 29, 2009 ( The hat barely fits)

If you would love to be a part of making another little child happy, Check out this link. I talk about this family below and they only need about $3000 more to bring home a precious little boy when he is born, which is any day now. There is no other family that wants to adopt him and if they don't raise this money, he will go into foster care.

Blessings to all!

Helping Adoption

2009-10-08T22:33:00.002-04:00

I have been wanted to post about our Gotcha Day Anniversary but have been so busy that I have not gotten around to it. I will do that soon but I needed to post about a friend who needs help. She is a fellow adoptive mom that has a heart so big that I can not comprehend it. She has struggled through many failed adoptions but has such a love for the orphan that she continues after God's calling on their lives. Right now there is a baby who needs a home and they are willing to be this baby's parents, they just need the money to do it. Please check out her blog "Storing up Treasures" and if you feel led to support them, please do.

Thanks for any help you may be able to give.

Court Revisited

2009-09-21T09:56:00.008-04:00

Yes, can you believe it! One year since our court date( the second one that is 9/18). I can remember that day so vividly. It was the perfect fall day( And I love the fall:). The sky was so blue with painted white clouds floating in their perfect places and a comfortable crisp day. It started out so stressful but after the judge came back in and gave us the wonderful news, you could not get the smile off my face for the rest of the day. It is hard to believe that it has been one year.

Last week while picking up Micah from preschool, the teacher's helper asked if Micah was here last year or if this was his first year at preschool. I politely said it was his first year but I was thinking - No he was in Russia last year, he did not walk very well and barely spoke! Can you believe it!

Anniversaries are great reminders of how things have changed. How much has been accomplished and how much more will be behind you in a year from now. So when the struggles of raising a 3 year old( or any other child at any other age) come rearing their ugly head - remind me at how much has been accomplished this year.

Micah has only been to preschool 6 days so far but it seems like it has been months. He absolutely loves it. In fact he loves it so much that I have to be creative with ideas to get him to leave school. And the teachers say that he is doing very well and has good days. He is learning the rules and doing a good job of following them. I am so happy for him and what he is learning. Now if we can just get the potty training taken care of....

Here are some pictures of my "big boy", as he likes to refer to himself.

First day of Preschool with his Diego back pack(I had to hide the pink Dora one at the store so he would not want to buy it)

My Big Boy with his adorable smile.

Don't you just love this one!

WHY?

2009-08-29T21:03:00.006-04:00

Yes, that is the 64 million dollar question, or should it be the 64 million times a day question! We have now offically entered the "why" period. When he first started asking, it was great, he was progressing and hitting another milestone. But after a week, I was ready to move on out of that phase. I try to do my best to answer the question that he is asking but after about 5 whys in a row, there is no real answer left to give except " because " or " because I say so". So when I turn the question back to him - his response now is "because I say so". Such a great example I am.

The other major hurddle we are trying to cross is the potty training. I was utterly amazed when we started. I stripped him down, since it was early summer, but we still stayed in the house, and he immediately would stop what he was doing, even in the midst of playing, and go over to the potty( for both one and two!)!! It was great but getting him to do the same thing with his pants on was a whole other story. Needless to say we are making progress by the end of the summer but he won't quite have it by the time preschool starts - but hey - Progress!

Things are really going well over all and I have to say that I am really blessed. The biggest problem we still deal with is overstimulation, especially in new areas. He just loses all control and runs around having a great time but being disruptive to others. I am really praying that his preschool teacher has great patience because preschool will be so challenging for him to focus for while.

The end of summer was great, we went on our yearly visit to King's Island amusement park and had a blast. (King's Island will always be a little different because our trip last year was the day we got our court date!) We made some money at our garage sale and then just tried to enjoy what time was left. We also had our one year post placement visit( wow it is almost a year since GOTCHA). Our social worker was amazed at how well he was doing and could not believe his speech - she could actually understand him. I remember a time when I thought there would never be a day when we would understand what he was saying - to those who are there now - it will come, it will come.

It is sad to have the kids back in school and I miss them so but I look at it as great time to complete all the projects that need to be done. And now that the weather has considerably cooled in the past week, it does feel like fall is on the way - Oh how I love the fall!

Here are a few pictures of the end of our summer.

SLiding down Grammy's water slide

Look at the BIG Tractor Wheel!

MY absolute Favorite picture of Micah!

How cool am I!

Finally I get to DRIVE!

We all love Scooby Doo and so does Micah, even though it doesn't look like it.

My beautiful kids.

Another Milestone

2009-07-21T22:13:00.006-04:00

Besides the fact that I am posting only two weeks after the last post, Today is another wonderful day to remember for our family. It was one year ago today that we got to see(face to face) and hold our little boy. It was a fairly smooth morning and we got to get our referral and get to the orphanage before lunch. When I first got to see him, one of his caregivers carried him in to a room of about 12 adults, most of whom he probably never saw. He was so unsure of what was going on and once they handed him to me, he began to cry. I only held him for a minute or two in that first meeting, and then they wisked him out of the room. We did get to see him later that day, after his nap. He was still unsure but no crying. He was cautious but was too excited to play with the toys we brought to let that hold him back.

Here he is that first day:

By the end of the day we knew that he would be our little boy.

It is so wonderful this time of year to start the many anniversaries of our adoption. What is so amazing is to see how things have changed since then.

Here he is today telling me how much he loves me:

He is so sure of himself now and so a part of our family. I was thinking as I tucked him in tonight to bed and he looked up at me and smiled and we did our bedtime routine, one year ago tonight, someone else was putting him to bed, he had no real routine except they put him in bed. He had no hugs, no kisses, no family to love him. It breaks my heart to think that he had to go through that. But we came to get him and now there will be no more nights like that, he can always wake up to a mommy and daddy.

Another great event this weekend was that 5 families who adopted from Astrakhan in the last year all gathered at our house for the weekend. It was such a great time to see each other, to see how the kids have grown and remember and share our journeys. I will write more about that later but you can check The Beadle's blog for her update(she always is so great at posting).

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

At the zoo with all those adopted from Russia( one from Kaliningrad, the rest from Astrakhan) minus one.

Later in the weekend minus three( just love how Micah and Grace are trying to hold hands.)

Where oh Where...

2009-07-08T16:19:00.013-04:00

have the Canestraro's been? Well, everywhere - almost! It has been so busy since I last posted that by the time I get the kids down to bed, I am too tired to post. So here is what has been up.

We have had two more birthdays to celebrate

Happy Birthday Olivia! Oh, what a beautiful young lady she is.

And Happy Birthday Dominic! How handsome are they!

We also had the end of school, many doctor appointments, a vacation to the beach and finally a mini trip to WV to visit family for the 4th.

I am still amazed that after 9 month, I still can see so much changes in Micah(OK, I am tired of using initials so I am finally going to start using their names). Mainly in his speech, he just continues to amaze me in what he is learning. It will be interesting to see how much more he will learn once he is in preschool. And speaking of preschool, our summer project is potty training. Kind of hard when you are on the go all the time, but for the effort we have put forth - He is really doing very well - Candy is a good motivator.

The highlight of the past few months has been our vacation to the beach. I knew that Micah would love it, because he loves water, but I was not sure how he would handle the waves.

Here he is evaluating the situation:

Here he is after the waves knocked him down a few times:

I think he likes it! Here is his first attempt at surfing!

I am sure with his energy, he will be great at it someday. There is not much that scares this guy, but we did find something on vacation - a macaw. THere is a bird in a gift shop that we go to that talks to you. I thought he would like it - Oh no. I don't think he has ever clung to me as tightly as he did once the macaw started talking. I would even turn around so that he could see that it would be ok and he would just turn his head. He also did not like the loud noises from family setting off fireworks so I think that it has a lot to do with the loudness of things.

After the episode with the fireworks at our families house, I was not sure how he would handle the big fireworks, especially since we happened to be so close to them( family lives right next to where they are set off). But with a special set of ear plugs, he was just fine.

He daily talks about the "Boom,Boom,Boom!"

The biggest event for us(Russ and myself) was that on June 27th 2009, it was 1 year since we saw our first picture of our little boy. Here is the first glimpse of him:

And here he is today(playing in the sand this time):

It's like he is not the same child! The change still amazes me. These kids are so resilient, if just given a chance.

One other anniversary that has passed, was the one year of our first trip to Russia in May. If you go back and check our blog from June 2008, you will see that we had basically had to turn down a referral of two wonderful children that we wanted so much to adopt. Their grandparents, even though they had turned down once to adopt them, did not want them leaving the country and we were told the courts would never grant us rights to be their parents. We were also told that the grandparents were going to adopt them now. So at the time, we were at peace with the whole thing. However, as time passed, and I continually checked the Russian database, they were both still on it. Month after Month, I was so upset that they were still in an orphange, but finally in May, I checked and they were not there any more. I am not sure if they are with their grandparents or another Russian couple adopted them, but they are with a family and that is what is wonderful. The other good news is the little girl we turned down because of FAS is not on the database any more, so she is hopefully in a loving family also.

So as busy bees we continue to pack as much fun as we can in before school starts back. I hope it will be sooner before the next post. Until then, I leave you all with a picture that describes Micah better than any words.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

2009-04-27T19:23:00.012-04:00

Yes, Can you believe it! Our Little M turned 3 yesterday and what a great day it was. Besides going all out for his birthday we also had him dedicated to the Lord at our church. I do have to say it was so joyous!

Here he is with his cake.It is hard to tell from the picture but there is a little icing left on his face from where he stuck his finger in the icing right after I sat it down. I am amazed he did not try to grab a handful! It took him a few times to get the candles blown out but he was so happy and was ready to eat "CAKE". He ate two large pieces. He loved all the presents but I think the most excitement of the day was having balloons! Even this morning when he came down stairs he was so thrilled to see the balloons. Daddy and M with his new toy.

The dedication went amazingly well also. Usually we dedicate infants and a little crying is usually the only disruption, but with a now 3 year old, I could only imagine the tantrum he might have if he did not get to go over and play with the drums. But, he was GREAT and held our hands and had the crowd eating out of his hands. It felt like a completion of sorts to our journey. We started this due to the prompting of God and we wanted this entire adoption to glorify HIM. So to finally stand in front of our church and commit to raising M in the Lord, was such a fitting piece of the journey.

Here he is being the perfect, charming little boy:

This weekend was so great that I am hoping that it is a starting point for a long stretch of happy times for our family. The past 6 months have been very sad for our family. We first had to deal with Russ' Mom's sudden diagnosis with cancer and then her death in January. After that His Dad, who has been battling cancer, started to go down hill quickly and unfortunately passed away in April only 91 days after his beloved wife of 51 years. With their deaths and the adjustments we have been going through with bringing in a new little one into our family, we are all ready for a long stretch of boring, not a bad boring but a boring that just consists of a regular routine that we can enjoy each moment not rushing from one thing to the next.

To touch on a few more highlights over the past month. We went to see the Harlem Globetrotters, in which the kids really enjoyed. Then M had his first dentist appointment. He is such an amazing little boy, he was such a tropper and did everything the dentist asked. They were going to skip the x rays because they did not want to push their luck but when he saw the chair, he jumped right up and was ready for the pictures! Then there was his first Easter Egg Hunt! He was not sure what to do at first but once he realized there was candy in the eggs, there was no stopping him.

All these great moments just make me love him more with each one and that is a wonderful feeling. There was a time I wondered why I just did not love him with all my heart but love takes a relationship and a relationship takes time and now I can say to all of you who may feel like I did several months ago, time changes things. And after almost 7 months of having him in our lives, to stand up in church and dedicate him to the Lord and celebrate his first birthday with a family and to feel the emotion of love that I felt, well I just have to say, PRICELESS!

Six Months

2009-03-31T21:18:00.005-04:00

Yes, that is how long it has been since I whisked our new little boy out of the orphanage. It is hard to believe that it has been that long already but as you look back and see all the changes that have happened, I am amazed it has not been longer. Here is a picture of M the day I picked him up:

And here he is today:

WOW! One of the most noticeable change is his speech. I mentioned in the last post he was getting evaluated by the school district for a special preschool to help with his speech delay. We thought he would get some type of assistance, BUT they said he was just below on qualifying so no assistance from them. At first I was a little frustrated because we has been waiting and doing testing to get him in this but as it sunk in, HE DOES NOT NEED IT!, I started to realize that it was a good thing. He has progressed so much that just putting him in a regular preschool will probably get him up to speed by Kindergarten. An example of how well he is doing... We were getting in Russ's SUV to go somewhere and as Russ was putting him in he said, "Papa's truck, Mama's van" point to each vehicle. Wow that just floors me when I think of how he has changed.

Other changes include not focused so much on food. I used to be able to use it to get him to do something - I know not a good idea - but now things like playing and going outside are more interesting. The one negative thing is that he is starting to have more temper tantrums - or more like crying fits. THe worst was a day he had to come in from playing outside for an hour. We needed to get dinner ready and he just kept crying about going outside. No matter what I did he kept crying. Finally after 30 minutes he calmed down. I told him after we eat, we would go outside. So after 2 bites at dinner, he was done and ready to go outside.

The other big milestone since I last posted, was we went on out first family vacation. It was one of those busy ones that you need a vacation when you get home but we did have fun. Our daughter had tried out for a National Youth Choir that was performing at a conference in Washington D.C. SO we decided to spend the week walking around the city. And walking we did! Little M was the luckiest because he got to ride in the stroller a lot. He just took it all in and of course wanted to touch everything! The hardest thing was when we were in the basement at Mount Vernon on a tour. We were not suppose to touch the walls or anything - it was like trying to hold on to an octopus trying to keep him from touching anything. I know he did not appreciate where we were ( But he sure LOVED riding the metro - a.k.a. train)but it was wonderful to know that he was visiting our National capital as an American citizen. Here are some pictures of our trip.

Before I leave, I need to ask for a prayer request. As I mentioned earlier in the year, Russ's mom passed from cancer. His dad has also been battling cancer for awhile and unfortunately things are not looking good. So please pray for peace for his father and strength.

God bless you all

God's Promises

2009-03-03T12:28:00.010-05:00

Ok, as I checked my blog, I realized that I only had one post in February - Oh I am such a bad blogger! So here is my March post(hopefully there will be more then just one).

Things are improving on a regular basis and if I were to type this yesterday, I would have said that things were great - but today Little M has been a testing mode - testing to see how many rules he can break before Mom explodes. So I just count it off as growing pains and make sure he gets down for a nap a little early.

But really, he is doing so much better in so many things. His speech just amazes me! He is now saying 3 word sentences! For a kid who barely said 10 words 5 month ago, I am so in awe. Yesterday we had our evaluation from the school district for speech. He will get into either just speech therapy or be entered into their special preschool program - either would be fine with me I am just anxious to get him some more help. He is speaking so much now but it is still hard to understand what he is saying - which is frustrating on everyone's part. The only concern that I have now is that they called today to get me to fill out a behavior study, so now I am wondering if they are concerned about his behavior yesterday. I know that he has some issues but overall his behavior seems pretty standard - so we will see what they say.

So what has been the highlights of the past month? First it is Micah trying to climb out of his playpen(successfully) and falling on his head. He also got his first official haircut since he was home - He did great, however the other 2 yo girl did all the screaming for the both of them. So far we have only been hit by a minor bug in our family ( only two kids down for 1.5 days), I am so thankful he has not been sick since we have been home. We are at epidemic proportions where we live right now and I am hoping that we can make it through the season with no more illnesses.

One thing that has happened that has saddened me some is an encounter we had with a lady from Russia. She is a seamstress that I use periodically and she got to meet Mfor the first time. SHe was great and so excited to meet him. The thing that was sad was that she would talk to him in Russian, and he did not understand her. It is a reality that I knew about since I have not spoken to him in Russian for 4 months, but none the less, it is his first language and now it is gone.

However, with something being lost there is always something that is gained and the big new thing for M, is that he likes to cuddle! Now not all the time, just before nap and bed time. I started rocking him and signing to him and as the weeks would pass, the time got longer and longer. And finally, last week, he came up to me during playing and asked to be rocked! Wow! that was wonderful to hear. He has also started to day "I love you" with no prompting and out of the blue. Those are moments that just melt your heart!!!!

And speaking of melting hearts, I have to say that little M is starting to feel more like my son now. I knew that it would come, and there was no one thing that made a difference, I think it is just time. There is still more that needs to develop but it will come too. I now can't imagine a time without him in our family. Drop down below to see the latest pictures.

With that said, however, it has been a very difficult 5 months. Just the fact that I did not have these special feelings towards M, has opened up an entire can of worms for me, issues that I have never had to deal with. It felt like everything in my life was becoming a struggle and I was having difficulties handling it all. My response to it all was to go to God, to pray and to see what His word said. However, things were no getting better, that is until this weekend. We were studying the feeding of the 5000 in John Chapter 6. Something I had read many times before and several more just in the past week, but something the writer of the study said hit me like a brick wall. After the miraculous feeding, the people are seeking Jesus the next day and find Him, His responds to them in John 6:26 is"... Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loves and were filled." It was obvious that they did not want Jesus but what he provided. The speaker(Kay Arthur) asked, "Are you seeking what the Lord provides or the Provider? When I thought about it I had to say that I was seeking what the Lord provided. Now, I was not seeking for Him to make food appear on my table with no work or that I would win the lottery( that I never play) but I just wanted to be more like Jesus. More loving to others, more kind, more patient, less selfish... things that He tells us to seek in the Bible. The problem is that I was still trying to do it myself. I had bible versus everywhere, trying to following them and remind myself how I was to be. I was asking for help in my prayers but not doing much praising of the Lord. I was reading everything I could on the problems I was struggling with. I was trying to work my way into being the way God wants me to be and I was not just wanting to be with Jesus - fixing my eyes on Him. I was not letting Him and Him alone be my bread of life. I know that some of you may read this and not get it - I did not get it the many times I read that verse, but it has made such a profound impact on me I just had to share it. I know there are many of you out there who are struggling now and I hope that this will help you. It may or may not but remember to stay focused on Jesus. I kept doing my bible studies and going week after week and there were so many times I just wanted to stop, because they were not addressing the problems that I was having but God used one little verse and a wonderful women to open my eyes - to point me back to Jesus. I will still be doing my bible studies and reading and learning versus but my emphasis has changed, it will no longer be on me but on Jesus.

Loving from big sis
Big sis "girling" me up
A FULL rainbow - Remembering God's Promises

Tummy Testing

2009-02-07T20:47:00.006-05:00

And I am not talking about food. Sometimes you just wonder what in the world is going through their minds. As I was washing dishes the other day, this is what I saw:

Now I was wondering what had happened? Did he fall? He is not crying. And then I watched as he got up and did this:

Instead of using his hands to feel the different temperatures of the heating vent and the cool tile, He was using his tummy. Only a toddler!

The past few weeks we have our ups and downs but things are getting better. Tonight was actually great. It was just Little M and myself and it went very well. There was a moment, when it was time to clean up for his bath, that he started pushing my buttons. Now he gets a massive amount of toys out during the day so I am usually helping him and asking him to do certain things. Well, he was not being difficult but he was being manipulative so instead of getting more frustrated, I got up, told him to clean up, and walked out of the room. Whenever he called for me, I told him to clean up and believe it or not - HE CLEANED UP THE QUICKEST I HAD EVER SEEN HIM. He was so proud of himself and came to get me to show me. He was happy that I was happy and things went great the rest of the night. I am not expecting this approach to work all the time but it is something to remember.

Unfortunately, I can't say I have much more exciting news than this. The days seem to go by so fast and I am so tired in the evenings that they all seem to be a big blur at times. However, one great thing that did happen this week. I got a call from a fellow adoptive mom that I met in Astrakhan on our final trip. It was so wonderful to hear Kathy's voice, it was like we were back in the Korvet hotel. It is amazing how you meet people on your adoption journey, if only for a few days, but because of the bond of adoption, you just feel like you have known them forever.

I love pictures and so I will leave you with a few of my favorite this past week. First is our play time in the snow and the last just cracks me up. It is morning hair for Little M( normally his hair is so fine that there really is no morning hair - but for some reason this hair would not go down) it reminds me of those penguins whose feather stand up on their head, or for us older folks, Alfalfa from the Little Rascals.

Flooding

2009-01-28T17:30:00.006-05:00

The title has nothing to do with the weather - in fact right now we have a ton of snow - but rather with the state of Little M's pants. Take a look!

He has been wearing 12 month pants and 24 month tops since we came home but just a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that his pants were getting too short. Normally this would bring dread to a mom who either had to go out and buy more cloths or dig through the closets for the next size, but this was big news in our house, Little M is growing! We were at the doctors last week and he has gained 4 pounds and grown 0.75" since we came home, that is wonderful.

We also got our first post placement visit under our belts this past weekend - that was nice too. We are finally getting around to completing the remaining of the paperwork that we have left to do. I so dreaded the paperwork from the months prior to the adoption that it took 3 months to bring myself to working on it, and the only reason I did was because we needed to get his SSN.

It is unbelievable how much his speech is improving! He is now using 3 word sentences that I can understand. I am just so amazed at this, I could not even come close to learning the equal amount of Russian in the same period of time.

We have our ups and downs as most do but we had a big turn for the down last week. Normally. when there is something that M is doing that he will just not stop doing, he gets taken to his time out spot. It is a spot in the kitchen, where I spend most of my time it seems. In the past, he would just cry, we would have a little talk and he would say he was sorry( in his own way) and life would go on. Well, last week, he started with what I would call little fits. There is yelling of "NO", he will not walk to the time out spot but just fall to the floor and start tossing his hands all over the place. And then then there is the all out, toss your body on the floor , literally kicking and screaming(well more like yelling) - I almost had to laugh at that one because it was typically a 2 year old. And then biting has begun to rear it's ugly head.

So there it goes, but I do feel like we make 2 steps forward and 1 step back and not 1 step forward and 2 steps back - so hey, there is progress.

I have to say that all this, along with the issues of the other three kids(yes they have issues too), had me really at my wits end - feeling like I was such a failure as a mom and every other negative thought that come through my mind. But then I got to get together with my friend Phyllis and oh what a difference that made. THANKS PHYLLIS! I got out of the house, away from everyone and got to talk with an adopted mom who know all of what I was going through. I came home and felt great and was like a new person the next day. So for all you moms that are wondering how you are going to do it - take a break, get away from it all, force yourself to do it. Yes, you will be returning home to all the same problems, but with a new strength.

Packing Up Christmas

2009-01-11T14:53:00.007-05:00

Finally we have gotten around to packing up our Christmas decorations and I had to post a few pictures of the two items that M thought were the "torture" decorations.
First is our "Singing Santa" that goes on our tree and says "HOHOHOHO". Well when introduced to this ornament this was M's reaction:

But when I began to pack things away, He had to say one last goodbye:

The other scary toy was our singing snowmen. I really thought that he would loves these since he loves music so much, but I was wrong. It took several days for him to start liking them but soon, he would be asking to turn them on.

This week was a major one for little M because we had decided that we were going to have him circumcised. Yea, I know that it was not necessary, but with two older brothers and the giggles that were already occurring, and we figured in the long run, it would be best. I have to say that he was a real trooper. After the surgery, he did cry almost constantly until I was able to get some food in his stomach, it had been 15 hours since he had eaten, and after that he was back to normal. He had a little pain medication that day but you would never know that he had been through surgery.

Right before Christmas, I mentioned that M was starting to speak in sentences, at least long strands of "M" words. Well that is about all he is doing now. In fact, after the surgery, he was talking through his version of what happened and I could actually understand him(with the help of motions). It was so cute to see his version of things. In his explanation he kept saying Ho Ho Ho, and then I finally realized that someone in the operating room must have had a beard(like santa). It was a great feeling to understand what he is saying. This week, we meet with the school system to get things moving on getting M into speech therapy.

I will leave you with my picture of the week of M:

A Sad Beginning to 2009

2009-01-08T21:40:00.003-05:00

I mentioned in my previous posts that things were very stressful after our return from Russia. It was not just the adjustment to having a new member of our family (which is a big stressor on its own) but the week after we got home, Russ's mom got sick. Soon we found out that she had an inoperable brain tumor that was quite large. So on Jan 2nd, after 2 months of a good fight, my sweet mother-in-law left to be with our wonderful Savior. She was no typical mother-in-law and there is nothing that I have to say about her but praise. I have learned a lot from her over the years and was always amazed at how patient she could be with others. Fortunately she was able to meet our little M and see him full of energy running around her house. We even have a picture of her smiling as little M is screaming in the background because he did not want to be held. Oh how she loved kids and Little M completed her dozen grandchildren. She will be sadly missed but I can not help but smile as I imagine her with her new body in the presence of our glorious Savior. Twice in our family we have brought a new child into our family at the same time we have mourned the passing of a sister and now a mother - it makes the new child just that much more special.

Glory be to God

What Has Been Happening

2008-12-29T23:32:00.018-05:00

Well I am finally getting a chance to update you on how things have been going over the past few months. I am hoping to update more often now - I know I said that before but now that we are all settled and Christmas is over and I have brain dumped everything over the last few months, I think it will be easier for me to update you on the little coming and goings of our family. It is really hard to believe that today has been three months since I walked out of the orphanage with little M. It seems so long ago. Below this post is a post that will update you on what happened from our last day in Astrakhan until we got home if you are interested. It is lengthy but there are pictures.

Little M is doing so amazingly well! I think that he has adjusted so well. He gets along with the kids very well. He loves his big sis and she loves to baby him. He runs around the house following his big brothers as they burn off energy – At first, there was some jealousy from little M when one of the other kids would sit on my lap, he would want to push them off and get on my lap Now he just climbs up besides me and wants me to hug him too.

The dog issue is much better. Poor Rocky was very jumpy for awhile but us better now. He still keeps his eye out for M but now it seems that he only gets stepped on by accident.

SLEEPING has been going great since about week three home. At first, I would try to rock him to sleep but since he would not stay in my lap when I sat down, I would have to rock him standing, I also had to make sure that we were in a dark room or else he would spend all his time looking around at things. After about a week of doing that twice a day for 10-15 mintues both my feet and back where killing me. So I started just putting him in his crib and let him cry for about 5 minutes(checking in on him every minute to ensure that I was there). After a few days, I then felt bad, so I would lay in the bed in his room until he fell asleep. One night, I could not lay down and he was fine and has been great ever since. He sleeps through the night for about 11.5 hours and 1.5 to 2 hours in the afternoon. He is in a room by himself because when he was in with one of his brothers, it messed up everyones sleep schedule. He does so much better in a room by himself – I guess each child is just different.

EATING started out great and now, even though it is difficult, it is typical of a two year old. He eats most things now except tomatoe sauce. Somedays he is more picky then others but he has gained about 3 pounds since we have been home so I think he is doing good.

HEATHWISE he is also doing great. No concerns with any of the doctors we have seen. We have had difficultly getting a good hearing check because he always seems to have fluid behind his eardrum. It is no infected but the doctor recently put him on antibiotic to see if we can get it cleared up. He has also had a horrible runny nose since I picked him up from the orphanage so the meds seem to be helping with that too. He still had not grown any heightwise and I am hoping that will kick in soon. He wears a 24 month top and 12 month pants. We joke and say that he is part Corgy because his legs are so short.

SPEECH: The only big concern we are dealing with is his speech. He was very dealyed in speech only speaking a few words( that we knew of) in Russian, so after about a month of talking to him in Russian and English, we slowly cut out the Russian and only now use English. He has picked up english so well and you can see how eager he is to learn know words. He often brings things to me so I can tell him what they are. But there are several sounds that he simply can not make so some words are just not recognizable and many sound the same. But each week he is making progress. A few weeks ago he started saying his first phrase on his own “I'm coming!” And last week he started with the toddler babbling. Before he would just say words in response to seeing things but now he will play and just babble on and on. We are on a waiting list for a speech therapist and will get him in the school system once he turns three. But we are going to more forward with our own speech therapist at the beginning of the year.

EMOTIONS: He has also really advanced with being affectionate. At first, he really never hugged and we had to teach him how to kiss. He never really liked being held either ( that is still the case but then he just does not sit still very long either – He's two). Fast forward three months, he is a very caring person. If one of the kids is crying he will go over and hug them. He loves to come over and rub my back and arm and even after he gets out of a time out – he immediately comes over to give me a hug( like is is telling me that he is sorry).

CONCERNS: The only issue that is a little concern to me is that he doesn't really know a stranger. We will be standing in line, and he just has to go up and touch people. I also have to be careful because he will let others pick him up. Most of the time, though, he will immediately turn away and want to come to me – which is good. There are a few people that he feels very comfortable with, my Mom and his Sunday school teachers. It is really hard after you have read all the attachement books on what you should and should not allow. It comes down to the child and the family and you just have to go with your gut.

I have to say that even though things are going well with M. It has been hard. I knew it would be hard but it still doesn't make things more palatable when you are going thorugh it. The things that took me the most by surprise was my feelings. I knew that it would not be love at first sight but with all our visits at the orphanage, he would just melt my heart. However, we never had a honeymoon period as others have mentioned because he started testing me during the last visits in the orphanage. So when we got back to a normal life, I have to be honest, he did not “feel” like my son. There is just something missing with him that I have with my other kids. Others say that it will come and I know that it will but I wanted to let others out there know that things are not perfect and that is ok too. However I feel at times, I am glad that we have M in our lives and that all the frustration of the paperwork, the wait and the adjustment will result in many blessings from God for both M and us.

Not to end a post on a downer – I will leave you with some pictures over the past few months :

My little Bumble Bee
My favorite present

You are saying that I CAN rip this paper?

Entries from Final Days in Russia

2008-12-29T23:04:00.012-05:00

Well, Here is the recap of our time from Astrakhan until we got home. If you are not into reading scroll to the end for pictures!
October 1st:
We were to leave around 5 pm that night to make our 7pm flight to Moscow and we had nothing planned that day. Needless to say it was hard to keep a toddler occupied for several hours while trying to pack. It got to the point where I packed everything up an just kept taking him outside for little walks. It is always interesting how I think I stick out so much as an America but how Russians will come up to me and start asking me something, in Russian, I just kindly smile and so “No Russki”. However, I did meet someone I never thought I would ever meet in Russia – A Jehovah Witness! As I am walking the short little block in front of our hotel, a lady comes up to me and asks me a something – I say “No Russki” and she then proceeds to look for something in her purse. She pulls out a book and looks up something in an index and then gives it to me to read. After reading the first paragraph(in english) I knew she was a Jehovah's Witness and kindly said “Christian”, and “Jesus” and tried to walk away, she kept talking so I kindly looked and her and said “Spaseeba”? which is Russian for Thank you. Who in a million years would have ever thought that encounter would have happened?
Well, after a very long morning, it was wonderful when our translators finally came and we actually got to see his passport. We were not sure if we would get the paperwork because they only had two days to process it instead of the normal 7 but we had everything and were ready to go! It was a sight to see myself and Kyley and Greg taking all our stuff out the hotel to the car (the thing with this small hotel is that there were not elevators and it was a flight of stairs just to get to the hotel lobby – so carrying 40lb+ bags down the stairs was not easy. Thankfully we had the translators to help with the kids while we carried the luggage).
Once we made it to the airport, things went fairly smooth and we said our good-byes( so hard to say good bye when you know you probably will never get to meet again). We made it to the waiting area which was a big deal for me. Ever since our first trip home, I had dreamed about what it would be like to sit in that waiting room with our new little one and it was finally here! How wonderful! One of the last things I remember in Astrakhan was having the airport doors open to get on the bus to the plane and being hit be a hord of mosquitoes – In October!
Well the flight to Moscow was pretty good we had a bulk head seat so M had room to get up and down. No problems with the ears but did not like the seat belt at all. I had to bribe him with food once I got the belt back on for landing. And the Kids meal on the plane – well it was more of a snack then a meal and had only sugary foods – just what we needed at 8pm at night.
At the airport it was a bit of a wait for the luggage and then when we got outside it was raining – no surprise for Moscow but I am pretty sure M had not been in the rain before so it was interesting to watch him try to figure out what happened.
Next was filling out paperwork in the car on the way to the hotel so they could get everything to the embassy in time the next morning. We had to finish it up in the hotel room and got everything completed after midnight.
Here is where the worst thing since court happened. As we were filling out paperwork we realized that the I 600 form that I had had Russ sign and notarize in the States was not the I600 but the I600A! She was not too concerned at that point but I thought I would die – if I had to stay in Moscow any longer! Needless to say I did not get much sleep that night.

October 2nd:
The next morning we went to the doctors and I was anxiously waiting for our translator to let me know if the form would be ok. She got a call and said that everything should be fine so I was able to take a deep breath! There were three families at the doctors and he was running very late( found out later he was stuck in an elevator). Little M checked out fine but I had the doctor look at his thumb because by now he had a blister on the thumb that he sucked. He cut off the dead skin and bandaged it up – amazingly enough he would still try to suck that thumb, especially when he slept. I have to jump ahead and tell you that after the doctor's bandage needed to come off, I had placed a bandaid on it to let it heal. It worked great until he went to sleep. In his sleep he would still suck on that one thumb and when I went to check on him before I went to bed, the bandaid was GONE! An guess where it was – His mouth! He had sucked off his bandaid! From then on the bandaid was only on during waking hours.

Now back to the doctor visit – once the last family was done, they rushed us all out to the car(in fact the last family did not even have a chance to fully dress their child). They needed to get the medical reports to the embassy before a certain time or we would not get an appointment for the next day and then would have to wait until Monday. Everything seemed to work out ok and we were on the way to the hotel, until the doors opened and we were back at the embassy. At this point, I was told that the form I was worried about eariler would not work! The good news is that I just have to fax a form to Russ, get him to sign and notarized it and fax it back to the embassy. No problem, except that it needed to be at the embassy by 5 pm Moscow time and at the time it was about 3am back home and he had until 9am back home to get the letter faxed. So the afternoon was a loooong one as I had to call Russ at 4am, have him pack up the kids and travel to the local FEDEX store at 5am. He had contacted a 24 hour notary to meet him there. Amazingly everything all worked out - purely by the grace of God - but the stress level those few hours were through the roof.

The remaining highlights of Moscow:
*Taking a $60 round trip taxi ride to the hotel where Kyley and Greg were staying so that I could have some friendly conversation after a horribly stressful day.
*Little M still was not interested in naps
*Sleeping went pretty good at night – I would just put him in the crib and lay in bed beside him with the lights off – within 10 minutes he would be out an sleep through the night
*The embassy visit was great – it went smoothly and pretty quick. It was so nice to see the American flag and the lady at the window was American – Hearing English with no Russian accent was really great. Even though we were still in Russia – I still felt like I was on American soil – Oh how I missed it.
*The last afternoon, I wanted to take him to Red Square, Our hotel had a shuttle that took us close. So we walked down Tevrskaya Street(Not an easy trot with a stroller) and spent a little time looking at my favorite site in all of Russia(besides little M) St. Basil's Cathedral. There were other people on the shuttle that I ran into at Red's Square and they took pictures of us together. I also tried to get one of Little M and St. Basil's but he was more interested in the cars driving by – but I finally got one that is pretty good.
*Eating for Little M went pretty well, as long as there was food, he ate it. However, ordering cold milk to drink did not go over with him – they must have just had it at room temperature on the orphanage. He did however really like the ice cream that I got for him at the very expensive Italian restaurant.
*We tried McDonald's and he did like the chicken nuggets. He wanted to try my coke, so I let him, and the face he made was horrible – so no more pop for him!
*Did well at the airport. Got there in plenty of time, went through luggage check pretty well but then it took a really long time to get our tickets because we had changed them and did not have a seat assigned – but we ended up in a bulk head seat so it was worth it. Passport control however was one more nightmare on this trip. The lone was long but that was normal and little M slept awile in the stroller. Now for those of you who have adopted before, you are told many many times to make sure that your child's Russian passport has their new name in english spelled correctly – no problem, I had check it over and over again. However, when we got to passport control and I gave them his passport, the new birth certificate and the adoption certificate. It was then that the nice lady on the other side of the window(who did not speak english) pointed out to me that the passport had his name spelled wrong - in Russian! How was I to know that! I must have grown as pale as a ghost because the lady was so kind and immediately started saying Nyet, Nyet and handing all the papers back to me. She was trying to tell me it was ok and she let me through. Thankfully this was the last heart stopping event of the trip!

The Trip Home
Plane ride went really very well for a two year old. I could keep him confined to the seat area and did manage to get him to sleep for about 1.5 hours on the plane but I had to hold him for most of that. Thankfully Kyley and Greg were on the same plane so potty breaks for me were a little easier.
I was concerned about making my connection in Atlanta especially when US passport control said that he said there was no way I would make the connection. But then again – I had God on my side. We had to wait awhile in immigration( there were only two adoption families) and once we got to the immigration person, he was really nice. At that point I really wanted to make my connection but I was in the US and if I had to stay one more night away from home – I was just happy to be back in the US. I even felt like breaking out in the song ( God bless the USA). So I said my good byes to Kyley and Greg and off we went to catch our flight. We had time to stop by to get an I love Atlanta bear and some chicken fingers for the flight. We got to the gate – called home to tell them we made it and then it was time to bored – I wished I could have talked to the passport control person and told Him I made it!
The plane ride to Columbus went smoothly and he slept for most of it. I had him in the stroller walking through the airport but got him out before we turned the corner to greet our wonderful family. It was so wonderful to put my arms around them! He did well in the car and it was so great to walk in our home with him. The dog was scary for him but as long as Mama was holding him he was fine.

You are telling me that YOU are taking all of this half way across the world?

Our last glimpse of Astrakhan.

Our Little M at Red Square

First Picture as an American Citizen

What are you doing to me now?

Back in Papa's arms

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2008-12-25T08:58:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry I have been AWOL for awhile but it has been very busy and very crazy around our house. I am hoping to update this week since we will have some more relaxing times but I did not want to miss the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and to praise our Savior who so humbly was born into this world to become our King, Redeemer and Savior.

It is amazing to sit here with little M on this wonderful morning and to think of all the wonderful children who are now with their forever families for this Christmas - one of the best and most precious gifts to us all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All is Well

2008-10-21T10:11:00.002-04:00

Yes we are alive and all doing well. I kept meaning to post but I have literally no time! There is not much time when he is asleep and I am not( maybe 3 hours in the entire 24 hour period) and then I am either tired myself or either doing one of the million necessary things that is much easier to do when he is not awake( and blogging is not a necessity for be anymore).
So for the few moments that I have while he is playing with his toys here we go...

Little M is really adjusting well. He is eating great, sleeping well and overall very happy. He does not like to go down for naps or to bed at night so that takes a little time but not as long as I have others have had to deal with. Once he is down, he sleeps great( unless we let him have too much to drink after dinner and then it is an early morning waking up to a full diaper, wet little boy and bed.
Eating, well, he loves to do eat. There is not much he does not like. At first he would eat until I thought he would explode but he is doing much better at recognizing that he is full.
The dog is no longer an issue, well at least he is no longer afraid of the dog. Now I have to worry about keeping him away from the dog. He loves to through things at him and try to step on his tail so I had to look up the phrase, "Don't hurt the dog" in Russian. Well, I found it so I know that others have had this issue too.
He is getting along with the rest of the kids also. He loves to play with them but does not like it if I am doing something with one of them and he is not included.
He is learning new words very well. His favorite is "CAR" and "BUS". Surprise surprise! Hopefully I will be getting him in some type of speech therapy in the next month and then hopefully he will get into the school systems program when he turns three.
So overall, things are going well. I think that I am the one with the most adjustment. I have been through the "twos" three times before but never did I get fropped right into the middle of them. I think that is the hardest thing. Most of the difficulties that I have with him are not attachment issues or adoption issues but two year old issues and those too will pass.
I also want to congratulate all those families out there that I either received their referral or been to court since we have been to court. I have not had much of a chance to read other's blogs let alone comment so I want to take the time now to congratulate you all. It is amazing how quickly you forget the pain of the wait and paperwork once they are home.

God Bless you all and I hope to post sooner. Here are a few pictures of life at home with our new family.

HOME!

2008-10-06T07:55:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the delay in getting to blogging. For some odd reason, I could not get signed on to blog in Moscow. I thought I would have time to type up things on the plane ride home and post when I got home but M only slept for 1.5 hours on the 11 hour flight home. I am hoping over the next week I will catch you all up on things that have happened. But most importantly we our home and our entire family is together.
It was a wonderful wonderful wonderful sight to turn the corner and see Russ and the rest of my kids, along with my parents. I sight I will always remember.
A quick update: Since M did not sleep much on the plane ride he went down quickly and slept through the night. He did well Sunday night too but was up early this morning at 6am. I am hoping that in about a week, we will be out of jet lag mode and on a regular schedule.
He eats well, in fact too much if i would let him. He is getting along well with all the kids, I just have to remind them that he is not a toy to be shared. The only things that he does not like is the dog. But that is improving too. He was scared to death at first and would start crying when he would come near him but only after 1 day, he will pet him as long as Rocky is facing the other direction so give it a few more days and I am sure things will be fine.
He seems to be attaching well and this morning was a test to that. I usually walk O out to the bus stop in the morning and since Russ was here, he took M and I went outside. When I came back, M was crying. I guess he had cried the entire time. Since he saw me leave, he thought I was going away. No one wants their kids to cry but this was a good thing to see that he is attaching.
Well, off to get the day into full gear. I want to thank all of you who have prayed for our family, I do not think I could have made it through all the difficulties without being lifted up in prayer by you all.
May God bless you all for your service of prayer for us.

Last Full Day In Astrakhan

2008-09-30T14:56:00.003-04:00

Well, today is the last full day in Astrakhan. Visiting the orphanage went well and M did not even cry. He was a little quite at first but after he saw the stuffed animals, he was back to his old self. We got to see the director and got the papers that we needed with his schedule and then a few pictures and out of the orphanage forever.
We did not do much today but walked to the store with Kyley and Greg and got a few things. He loves to go outside and when he is ready to go he keeps pointing outside again and again until you are ready to go. When he is in a new situation he gets very quite and wide eyed but is very observant and takes everything in. Here is a picture of his not so sure what is going on look:(we were not moving at the time, just parked waiting for Vika).

Here is another picture that I thought was too cute to pass up. We were getting ready to leave and he likes to try to dress himself. Well, here is how he put on his hat. Too Cute.

For dinner we decided to go to our favorite place one last time – the Chocolate Cafe. We went early and took a cab there and back. And it still took two hours! We came prepared for food for the kids and it went pretty well. I have to be careful with M because as long as there is food in sight he will eat it. Even in the room, if there is something left out on the counter, he will keep pointing to it like he wants to eat it so I have to put it away.
We are all very excited to be leaving tomorrow but it was a bit meloncoly driving through the city for the last time tonight. I will always have wonderful memories here but i am also very excited to be getting back home and being together as an entire family!
Tonights bed time routine took a little longer but I made some break throughs. When it was time to go to bed, I tried to hold him and rock him thinking that this would be good for attachment. Well, he did not want anything to do with that, he would figit and skworm trying to get down so he could play. So I would then put him in his crib for awhile. He would sing and play but never really lay down. Eventually He would try to climb out of the crib, which could happen, so I would pick him up and try to rock him again. After about 35 minutes of doing this routine, he finally let me rock him. He settled down and started putting his thumb in his mouth and eventually fell asleep. It was so nice to have him asleep in my arms.
The thumb sucking brings up another issue I ran into today. When I picked him up yesterday, I noticed that his thumb was split open like really dry skin or a small cut that had not healled. Well, I finally realized today that it was sore because it was the thumb that he sucked on. I brought pacifiers to try to switch him to them instead but that is not going real well right now. We will see.
There was thing that I am trying to figure out how to handle today that I would love input on. M knows when you tell him No what that means and as a two year, he likes to test it but what is weird to me is when he does something that I tell him not to, he starts to laugh. So I make a stern face and tell him no again and then put him on my lap and tell him no and hold him for a little while. The whole time he is giggling and laughing. So I try to get his attention on to something else and he stops laughing and continues on playing. I think that he knows what he is dong is wrong but I am not sure about the laughing thing. Well it is only day two and I have to remember that it all takes time.
I don't know if I will be posting tomorrow because we leave the hotel at 5pm, our plane is at 7pm and we probably will not get to the hotel in Moscow until 10pm, provided we get his passport tomorrow like we are suppose to( please pray for that one to happen). But I will post as soon as I can.

Blessings from Above

Introducing!!!!

2008-09-29T13:25:00.003-04:00

Introducing the newest member of the Canestraro Family – Little M!

I wanted to get this posted earlier but when you have a two year old in a room that is not child proof, you do not have much time to sit down and type.

It was a whirl wind morning because there was so much that everybody needed to do get his passport by Wednesday so we did not get to spend much time at the orphanage saying our goodbyes, but we are going to go back tomorrow for that( I hope that he does not freak out thinking I am going to take him back). Since we rushed him out so quickly he was almost in shock, just staring wide eyed. It was a long bumpy ride but towards the end it slowed and and he seemed better. Once we got into the room and he saw the toys that he was familiar with, it was back to his old self.

We had a great lunch and he did pretty good with lunch and the sippy cup. But no nap for him. There was just to much to check out. We went later to get his visa picture taken right around the corner and purchased a new pair of boots for him because his feet had grown and what I brought were too small.He was not thrilled with everything that was going on but was not scared either. He just absorbed it all. Later we went back to pick up the photos and he was very excited about going outside again. He loved watching all the cars drive by on the street.

He has started this singing thing that I just love. He never barely spoke above a whisper but after awhile in the room while he was listening to music, he started saying LALALALALA loudly with the music. I was amazed! It was great to hear because you could tell he was happy.
We met up later with Kyley and Greg and their little girl and had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Of course he would have ate everything on the table so I had to stop him at what I thought was best and hurry up and eat my food so we could get away from the table.

Another first I saw today was him crying. He had never cried or even was upset before. Well, today, after lunch, I tried to take him to the bathroom, they say he is potty trained. I had no little potty or seat to put on top so I tried to hold him. He did not like that at all, and was a little scared. I tried later and he wanted nothing to do with the bathroom at all. In fact, when I went to change his pullup he started crying again until he realized that I was not going to take him to the bathroom. Even tonight, I had put him in the crib and tried to get him to lay down but he was just standing right up and thinking he was funny. I had was getting ready to go into the bathroom to change and wanted to tell him where I was going. Well, the only word he understood was potty and quicker then anything he laid right down. I am hoping that when we get home and start using the little potty, he will not be afraid of the bathroom anymore – something to work on.
Then there is the two year old, I am going to see how many times I can drop this and get mommy to pick it up. About two is my limit and then it goes Paka, Paka(ByeBye). Unfortunately he has three older siblings that have wore Mommy out on that one.
So, to end up the day as I have been typing, he sang his LALA song for awile and then started sucking his thumb and now he is fast asleep about right on time for bedtime. Here is hoping that he sleeps through the night. What a marvelous day. It is still hard to believe it is all real. Thank you all again for the wonderful prayers and encouragement. God Bless.

Day 10!!!!

2008-09-28T14:06:00.000-04:00

I can not believe it! Day 10 is here and gone. We tried to keep busy today. Slept in some and had a late Breakfast. Then we went for a long walk probably about 5 hours with a stop at subway for lunch. It was amazing how much subway was like home, even the tables were the same. We were trying to go to a region museum of Astrakhan and found it but it looked like it was under construction. A wonderfully sweet woman tried to tell us how to get to another museum with the little English that she knew. We somewhat understood but did not think we would find it. Well, as we were walking by the park area near the Kremlin, Kyley recognized the russian word for museum so we went in. Again we were greeted with smiles as we asked if anyone spoke english. They did not however we managed to fingure out how much we should pay. It seemed to be the WWII museum that we heard about because everything was focus on the war but also included WWI. There again was this wonderfully sweet woman that was trying to show things to us and explain certain things. We did not understand but really appreciated her effort.
We took a walk along the Volga again, one of the most beautiful places in Astrakhan. Then back to the hotel for a little rest and back out for our walk to dinner. We were going to try another restaurant that we found out had an english menu, Kamila's but unfortunately, they were having a private party tonight so we could not eat there. Thankfully plan B was to eat at the Chocolate Kafe again. Our normal waitress greeted us at the door and they even gave us a free dessert of fruit and chocolate. I guess you can get that kind of treatment when you eat there three times in one week.
Well, I am all packed and ready to go in the morning to get little M. It is still so hard for me to believe that I get to take him out of the orphanage. I have a toy he likes for the car ride and the cloths I am going to change him into. All the cloths he wears must stay at the orphanage. Again, I can not believe that this day is almost here. This is the day that all the effort and paperwork and stress and tears and aches have gone towards, boy is it worth it.
I am glad that we walked so much today, it wore me out so that I will sleep good tonight, otherwise I think that I would be so excited that I could not sleep at all.
Pray for an easy transition. I am starting to get more concerned about the language barrier but we will do our best.
Have a blessed Monday!

Day 9(Last Visit)

2008-09-27T13:40:00.000-04:00

Today was the last visit before I get to pick up Little M! I do not get to see him tomorrow because it is Sunday but Monday morning, Off we go to get him out of the orphanage. I will have the translator explain to him but I do not think he is going to get it right away. I know today we were playing and someone came in and talked with Galina for a few moments. He immediately stopped what he was doing, got real serious and just watched this person. After she left, he went right back to smiling and playing. I can tell he enjoys being with me and I think he was thinking he was going to have to go back. What a surprise on Monday when he never has to go back.
Today was really busy. Orphanage visit, a visit to a baby store to pick up some diapers, etc. A visit to the grocery to get some food for the kids and then back to the room for a late lunch. And then it was laundry time. I was exhausted after hand washing, rinsing and laying out the cloths I needed washed. I really do appreciate my washer and dryer so much more.
We went for an evening walk to Creme Kafe. We really like these places to eat but there are only three that we know for sure that have English menus(we are not adventurous enough to deal with only Russia menus) besides our hotel and we would like to have more of a variety but I don't think that is going to happen. We probably only have one more night out anyway. We are not sure how the kids will do with eating out, especially Kyley and Greg's little girl so Monday and Tuesday may be in the room – we will see.
Another wedding tonight and we laughed as we came back to the hotel. We could see inside to the dance floor and what so you think we saw... Women and children dancing and men outside smoking, almost like back home. Oh another thing to add to my list of things to remember.... The size of the napkins about ¼ of what we have at home.
Well, finally a short blog entry! Off to check email and to bed. Have a great day!

Day 8

2008-09-26T14:32:00.001-04:00

Day 8
Well, I think this was the best visit yet with M. At first I was a little worried on our way because we stopped somewhere we had never been before. It was just Galina and myself and she told me to stay in the van. The building had a blue medical type cross on it so I starting getting worried that they put M in the hospital. Well, after about 5 minutes she came out with some papers and off we went, boy was that a relief.
Today he has no fever and was much more full of energy. But I think the best thing was his smile. Usually, when he comes into the room, he comes over, gives me a hug and goes right for the toys. No real facial expression – good or bad. But today, he was smiling before he even entered the room – ear to ear! He then came running over to hug me. It was wonderful! He definetly wanted me to hold him more today, which was fine with me. I could tell his mouth must still be sore because, he would sometimes struggle when swallowing but he seems 1000 times better. I will get to see him tomorrow at 10am and then hopefully take him with me on Monday!

Went out on my own this afternoon, the other families were visiting their kids. Just walked to the Mall/Grocery for more internet and phone cards. Thankfully, I got the english speaking guy today, He is very nice. I managed to exchange some more dollars for rubels on my own and then back to the room for lunch.

I was thinking about starting a list of things that I might forget once I leave here. Little things that will not mean much to anyone else except for those who have travelled to Russia and specifically Astrakhan. Here it goes:
*Remember how many times you would have to turn the key to get your door open. And then have to do the same thing on the otherside to lock the door once you were inside.
* Remember the horns honking and decorated cards driving down the street but on Friday Afternoon
*Remember never to walk down the street and look at the city. If you do not keep your eyes on the ground, you are surely to trip and fall.
*Remember the dogs and cats walking down the street. Especially the ones that knew how to cross the street with you and the adorable black and white puppy at the Astor that I would have loved to take home.
*Remember the heels that women would wear and how they never seemed to be limping from the discomfort. I never saw any of them trip on the street – boy were they good!
*Remember the Quail eggs in the salads
*Remember the room key on the large wooden key chain. At least I would know when I dropped the key.
*Remember that Lays did not make good flavor choices for their chips is Russia, SourCream and Mushroom, Crab and BBQ and Steak Flavor.
*Remember how we always specified to the taxi driver that we wanted to go to the HOTEL Korvet, so that they did not accidentally take us back to that ship. Always carry the hotel bussiness card on you.
*Remember to be careful on the steps because they are not all the same height
*Remember the smile that a waitress would have when we were NOT seated at her table. I always felt so sorry for the Russian waitresses that did not speak english but were stuck with us.

Well that is it for now, I am sure that more will come to me. Hopefully, those of you who have been here before, had an enjoyable time walking down memory lane.

We went out to dinner tonight with Andy and Kathy. For their last night here we went back to the Chocolate Cafe and had another fabulous dinner. For sure this is our favorite place. It will be sad to see them go. It is so strange how we all get so close in such a short period of time. We have only know each other for 5 days but it feels like much more then that. We joked that it is like camp. We even thought of getting T-shirts made that say Camp Astrakhan.
I have to take time out to thank you all again for your prayers. It really means the world to me.

God Bless

Day 7

2008-09-25T14:22:00.000-04:00

Not much new today. The same old same old. Breakfast, a little walk. We did finally stop in this store that we thought was a bookstore and had a great time. I found a couple nursery rhyme board books for M that we can not read but have great pictures. I am sure he will appreciate having them when he is older. I also finally went across the street to the open market. There were some fresh fruit and veggies that looked good but I really was not up to the effort involved in trying to communicate the price. It was just a real interesting experience that I will probably never have back in the US.

I spent the afternoon in the room just doing little odds and ends. No visit today but I did find out that M is doing better and I will get to visit with him Friday morning! I am hoping that is a good sign and that I will get to take him home(or at least to the hotel) on Monday. I am trying to get a list together of all the things that I need to do before we leave. I am starting to have those moments when I think, “I better do this now or I will never get to do it before we leave.”I guess that means we are coming to the end of our stay. I do have to repeat that it is amazing at how time does pass quickly here. You would think that it would drag on and on but the day is broken up enough that before I know it, it is time for our walk to dinner. Then it is back to the hotel and getting ready for bed. It is hard to believe that it has been 11 days since we left home(for the 4th trip that is) and that I will be home in 9 more days!

The Robert's will be leaving on Saturday and talked to their referral today about being adopted and she wants to be adopted! It is just so wonderful to see things working out. We went to San Pizza again for dinner. Dinner for us is a several hour endeavor. First, we either walk there or call a taxi. That could be anywhere from 10-30 minutes. Then we get our orders in quickly but it talks awhile to get our food, longer then in the US in most places. Once we are done eating, we have to remember to ask for the bill. We usually get talking and forget to ask, they never bring it to you unless you ask. Then we ask them to call a taxi. That is another 15 minutes for them to come.So we usually leave around 6:30 and get home around 9:30. It is long but very enjoyable to be with other families that understand everything that you are going through.

Can't wait to see M tomorrow, I hope he has bounced back quickly. Hopefully only two more orphanage visits and then he will be mine(ours).

I pray that you have a wonderful day and that God will shine His wonderful face upon you!

Misty

2008-09-25T08:42:00.002-04:00

I wanted to take a moment out of my own life and mention Misty. Some may have noticed that I have a link at the top of my blog page that says pray for Misty. I don't know her or her family, in fact I only came to know about them through a blogging friend. But She had been battling brain cancer and has now left this earth to be with her heavenly father. If you want to see how a wonderful strong faith can keep you going, read her husband's blog. No matter how difficult I think I may have it at times, there is always someone else out there who is struggling more so I focus my prayers on this wonderful family as they walk a path that none of us could even imagine. Please take some time to pray for them and especially their little girl Olivia.

Day 6

2008-09-25T08:41:00.000-04:00

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was a very tiring day and once I returned back to my room, I just needed to go to bed. You know we never do too much here; my schedule at home is always on the go; but nevertheless I get tired. I think that it is the emotions that really wear you out.

So first the good news – We are expecting to Leave Astrakhan on October 1st and be back in the US on October 4th!!!!! - 6 days earlier. There is a huge celebration that I may have mentioned before. It is the 450th year celebration for the City of Astrakhan. It starts October 1st through the 5th and it is going to be very busy and there are going to be many people coming into town. So Galina has been able to get the passports processed quicker then normal. We are so grateful for her dong that. Six days does not seem that bad but it is like an eternity when you are away from home. In fact, I mentioned today that I do not know if there was anywhere in the world that I would like to be at for three weeks or more.

Now for the not so good news. Little M was sick and I did not get to see him today. They say that he has an oral infection called stomatitis. I am not sure what it is comparable to in the US but he has sores in his mouth and Galina purchased a certain medicine that they use to clean his mouth. Unfortunately I might not get to see him until Saturday and they are unsure if I should take him with me on Monday. Since we are leaving Wednesday they thought it might be better to leave him in the orphanage Monday and Tuesday because he would be there with a doctor and they could make sure he is well before we leave on Wednesday. I am not thrilled with that at all but I also would not want him to get sicker when he was with me either and then have no doctor. So time will tell. Just pray for healing and that I do not get sick either. In fact Vika was saying that she was glad that I was going to get to leave Wednesday, meaning that I am leaving earlier and can get him home to a heathly enviroment sooner. But I just laughed and said that they are glad to see me go because they never know what is going to happen next with me! HAHA!

Otherwise the day was a little gloomy. Rain and old in the morning so no real walk that morning. We did walk in the evening, it had cleared up by then and took Andy and Kathy to the soverneir shop and then on to dinner at the Chocolate Cafe. We really like eating there, it is really good food and a great atmosphere. Once back to the room, I was able to change my flights to the US and my hotel rooms in Moscow(went very smoothly considering all the trouble I have been having). What is great is that I had to change my flight to arrive in the US in Atlanta and not JFK so I get to be on the plane with Kyley and Greg back to the US. I am sure that they are wondering when they are going to get rid of me, but they have to put up with me a bit longer. They have solved my major plane delimma... how do I go to the bath room on the plane? Do I take him in with me? Do I chance it when he is asleep(assuming he will sleep)? Now, no worries.

Keep up the prayers because this trip is not over and those flaming arrows keep heading my way.

God Bless

Day 5

2008-09-23T13:19:00.002-04:00

Ok, it is officially the half way point of the 10 day wait. Highlights of the day were first the continued wind that they have here. The computer said 27 MPH with gust up to 36 MPH. It was also overcast and sprinkling. Since the heat does not get turned on until mid October, my room(no carpeting just tile) is getting cold so for the firs time in the four trips we have made, I am actually cold in Russia - go figure.

On our walk today we stopped by the Azimut. I wanted to get pictures that I did not get the first time we were here. We checked inside and the lobby is looking like a regular hotel. It was the best part of the hotel before do I could not understand why they were redoing it and not the rooms but it looks really great now!

Today's visit was not well. Just because Micah is sick again. He is never fully healthy but today, you could tell he had a sore throat and a slight fever again but he was just really lathargic? We played some but you could tell he was not feeling well, so I tried to just hold him and rock him and sing to him. I want so bad to just take him back and give him medicine. I know that they have meds there but the germs just get passed around and not until I get him out of there will he have a chance of getting better. So pray that he will get better and that will stay well for the next 6 nights that he has there.

Possibly more good news, There is a potential that we may get to come home early!!! More news tomorrow on that so pray!

Thank you all for your support in words, prayers and help at home with my family. THere are no words that can express the gratitude that I have for you all. It is so hard(when you are a control freak) to be half way across the world and in little control of anything - at home and in Astrakhan. So you all have made it so much better for me. THank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Today we got to see God match another family together(hopefully). It is amazing how many times when you are on a path that you know God wants you on but things just do not seem to be working the way you thought it should and then God reveals His plan and it could not be more clear and more amazing - Oh we of little Faith and Oh God of Great Promises!

May God Bless all your lives as He has so graciously blessed ours.

Day 4

2008-09-22T14:24:00.001-04:00

Today started pretty much off the same, I think someone noted on their blog a reference to “Ground Hog Day” Well, it is true. You do the same thing over and over again for 10 days. And then I am sure that once I get Little M it will be more exciting but the routine will be the same day after day. Even though it is repetative time still seems to go by fast. The great thing about Breakfast this morning is that the Eggs were actually fully fried! At the hotel, Breakfast is included but you do not order off a menu or there is no buffet. They just bring you what they have. Usually, it is fired eggs, bread, yogart, cheese, sometimes some meat and coffee and tea if you want it. The thing is the eggs are always sunnyside up and very runny. Now I like then that way but poor Kyley could not eat them. We tried yesterday to ask for scrambled but we just got runny eggs with the yoke mixed up. So Kyley was thrilled today. We also had another treat, Andy and Kathy brought Peanut Butter with them! We were talking last night about how we were trying to find it at the store but there is none to be found here. Andy and Kathy said that they had brought some so at Breakfast, we had peanut butter on our bread! It does not take much to excite you when you are out of your comfort zone.
So off to another power walk but only for two hours today. Spent most of our time in the Kremlin area. They are working on restoring it and it is really pretty to look at. I got to go into the church today. It is very ornate inside and I slipped in a picture. I do not feel bad about being disrespectiful because they have little gift shops just inside the church. The paintings are very pretty. We then worked our way back in the wonderful wind. The thing we noticed the other day is that the dogs that run wild around here are very good about crossing the streets. They will stand near a crowd of people waiting to cross and when they move, so do the dogs, it is pretty funny to watch.
In the afternoon, it is calling home and internet catch up and then off to a visit. I started to think about if the hotel is charging me for the phone usage for a local call for my dial up. That could be really bad if they are. I will have to have Vika ask them for me. Today's visit was a little shorter but the testing has begun. He may be delayed physically and in his speech but mentally he is a sharp two year old. First of all he would spend his entire time have me hold him above my head so that he can take his favorite puppet and hold it over the puppet stage. So being the nice Mom that I am, I agreed to do that a few times but I would then put him down and and lead him away, well he started the leg collapsing thing so that he would fall to the ground, hoping that I would let go and then he would try to make a quick escape back to the puppet stage. I caught on quick and would not let go but boy is that so two year old behavior! The next was when he was paying with his stacking cups, one had fallen far from where we were playing so he picked it up and started tapping on the table, etc. as he walked. However, as he came to the TV, he stoped, held up the cup as to hit the TV and then looked at me to see what I would do! Of course I sternly said Nyet and walked toward him, he did not try but I could see in his eyes how he wanted to. Oh the two's!
The rest of the night was off to Sans Pizza for dinner and back home. Please pray for guidance for Andy and Kathy in their decision. Well off to bed and hopefully I can get up a little earlier.
Please pray for Russ and the kids as they try to get adjusted to the new schedule with Daddy being home. God bless you all in your lives and that God's peace will be with you.

Day 3

2008-09-22T07:34:00.001-04:00

Today was the day I was worried about because there was no visit to see Little M and we were on our own. But it went very well. I usually sleep in and get up in just enough time to get ready for Breakfast. I usually meet with Kyle and Greg around 9 - 9:30 am. After that I hung out in the room and went through emails etc. We then went for a 4 hour walk around the town. It is still pretty windy here. Friday was the first day of pretty high winds and they are suppose to continue through Tuesday. It is really hard to walk with the wind because it is do dry and dusty here that the dirt just blows in your eyes. Anyway, we made it all the way to the MegaStore that had a Subway restaurant in it and then headed back. There is a tradition here for couples that marry to take a pad lock and put on on this bridge. I got to see the Bridge today and it is pretty neat. Some locks are fancy and other just simple with the names written on it.
After our walk, I called home and talked to Russ – he got home safely but very tired. Skype will work but with dial up it breaks up a lot so I decided to us Skype to phone home and it is only $0.02/minute the cheapest we have seen. It works ok but I would still love to see them. Kyley and Greg have offered to let me use their internet access to use Skype so maybe after I pick up Little M I will do that so he can see them and them him.

Another family arrived then in the evening, Andy and Kathy. They are so sweet. We spent all dinner and then some talking and filling each other in. It is so very nice to have company here.

It was very late and I was tired so I called home once more to talk to my little girl who was not home earlier, and then off to bed. I was too tired to blog so that is why this is posted on Monday. It is three days down and 7 more to go until I can hold Little M in my arms forever.

God Bless

Day Two

2008-09-20T14:33:00.002-04:00

Well, I now have internet in my room. It is dial up but that is better then nothing and better then taking my laptop to a restaurant and type while I am eating. I was able to Skype with the kids today(somewhat). THey were very fuzzy and there was much delay but when you haven't seen your kids for awile, fuzzy is good.

I was thinking while I was waiting for the page to come up that I don't think I have given everyone the updated time line. It takes to long to change my tickers so I will just give you the info now. First there is a 10 day waiting period after court, I think it is for appeals. So the titles at the top of my posts are what day we are in of the 10 day. Today is day two down! After the 10 days little M will be ours. I will pick him up from the orphanage on Monday September 29th. We then apply for his passport so that we can fly to Moscow. Unfortunately it takes 7 days to get his passport so we should get that on Monday October 6th and fly to Moscow on October 7th. We then have to take him to get a medical exam, register with the US embassy and have an appointment to get a visa for him to enter the U.S.(he will have a Russian passport). We are then planning on flying home October 10th! Russ's birthday! The best present I think that we could give him.

In thinking about all the time that is ahead of me, it seems like forever, but surprisingly each days passes pretty quickly. Yesterday I spent time visiting with little M, oraganizing the room and taking a walk. Today was very eventful,at least for me. Woke up and had breakfast and went right away to visit Little M. THen off to the back to exchange more money, picked up the Smith's and went grocery shopping(this was great because I now have a stove in my room so I could purchase pasta and soups!). The afternoon was spent hooking up to dial up and catching up with emails and Skyping with the kids. THen off for a walk with the Smith's to dinner. We wanted to try La Vanilla, a restaurant that others suggested. THey still do not have an english menu, so after several minutes of trying to translate the menu on the spot, we gave up, asked to take the menu with us(that was not easy) and went around the corner to the Chocolate Restaurant. It was so nice to have an English Menu. Their food was also very good. Since it was quite cool here, we all decided to have Hot Chocolate at the end. I was a little dissappointed when the very small cup came out, but one we realized how thick and rich it was, that little cup was a lot. It was like drinking a melted Hershey's Bar, I actually ate it with a spoon. THen we came home by taxi and now I am blogging. No need to try to go to bed early. THe hotel has a large party room below. Last night and tonight there have been weddings. Since my room is now over the party hall, I can hear the music more then I would like. It is not to bad but enough to make it difficult to sleep. Last night it ended at 11:30pm, which was great - we will see about tonight.

Tomorrow is Sunday and no visits so we will see what we can do to make the time pass.

I can not end without a little update in Little M. Today he is starting to feel very comfortable with me. We were playing with the bubbles and I have been trying to get him to blow them. Well, today, he decided to take the whole container and carry it around. He kept tipping it and I did not want the bubbles to spill so I kept reaching for it, but he would just push my hand away. Then there is the puppet stage. It is more like a partition. He loves this little blue rabbit puppet and wants me to hold him up so he can put the puppet over the top. I have to be careful because I am afraid that it will fall over on him. But after holding him for several minutes, he gets heavy, and I get tired. I would try to distract him on the otherside of the room with other toys, but He would slyly sneek away and head right for that stage. It is going to be an exhausting 8 more days if I have to keep lifting him up. We go over pictures of the family in hopes that he will be able to say his siblings names by the time we come home.

I hope that things are going well and that the Buckeye's won this week. It will be wonderful that Russ will be home tonight for the kids. I am hoping that I will get a post tomorrow with a recap of the week that I missed. It seems that there are many others traveling on 1st and 2nd trips now or soon - that is so wonderful! God Bless you all!

Day One

2008-09-19T12:40:00.003-04:00

Well today was an early start, at least for Russ. He was picked up at 5:30 for the airport to start his trip back home. It is amazing that we have been traveling since September 4th and he will get back home September 20th - He has spent a total of 4 days at home and 2 sets of 2 days each in Astrakhan in that time. I know that he will love being home for the long haul and hopefully let his body get adjusted to one time zone.

Today we(Kyley and Greg and I) went for a walk. We had lost electricity at the hotel and thought that we could get away for awhile. Well we came to find out that most of the city was out. It was extremely windy and walking was difficult because all the dirt was blowing in our eyes and hitting our legs. So our plans to go to the bank and the store did not pan out because of the loss of electricity.

I got to see little M today and we had fun. He has a cold and was running a fever yesterday but seemed better today. Our visit was short today and when Vika asked him if he was ready to go eat, he shook his head no! Yea, I won out over food - but he still had to go. He definitely is expecting me when he comes in the room now and it just seems natural to be together. I do have to say that it is hard to get in my head that he is really our son now, I am sure that it will not really sink in until I get to take him home.

Tomorrow will be a morning visit, hopefully some grocery shopping and I think I will be able to get dial up working tomorrow! That sounds so weird to be excited about dial up but the internet is always down in the hotel and I now have a room with no internet(but a great kitchen and large table to eat at( no coffee table for lunch). We are trying restaurants with free wifi for dinner so we can check our blogs and emails so I am hoping that I can start doing it from my room and possibly Skype with the kids. Anyone that is on their way to Astrakhan, bring a laptop with an phone jack, and plan on buying a phone/internet card(150 rubels(about 6 dollars) for 10 hours internet - Pretty good.

I will start creating a recap of the past week and post soon. We have another family arriving on Sunday for their referral - it is so great that all our many visits that we have been here, we have had other familys with us. What a blessing.

Hope to post soon. Thanks again for your prayers. Love your comments.

Hey kids - we love you very much take it easy on Grandma and Grandpa! Love you Mom and Dad more then words can say.

Family of 6

2008-09-18T10:29:00.002-04:00

Yes, It has finally happened! We are now parents to a wonderful little boy. Court was great! I think that two times is a charm for us. Can't talk much because we are at dinner at Sans Pizza - THey have free wifi. The hotel does not have us in a room with internet but it doesn't matter much because it is usually down anyway. So my hope is that I will be finding restaurants to eat at with wifi and will be able to keep everyone posted. I want to say thank you to everyone for your prayers. They were felt and court was wonderful it went better then we could ever imagine. God is good and has blessed us immensely. Russ will be starting his trip home tomorrow so pray for safety. THankfully I will be here with Kyley and Greg, they are wonderful company. THey also had a successful court today. It has been a great day all around.
Again thank you all continue your prayers and have a blessed day. Now off to celebrate!

God Bless - Russ and Monica

??????????????????????

2008-09-11T06:10:00.002-04:00

Hello all! We are alive and well and back at home. We had severe technical problems in Russia and were not able to post again until we got home. I have the title as is because there has been so much going on that I do not even know where to start. But to sum it up things have not been on the upside. Basically, we went to court on Monday and it was postponed! I could not believe it myself. I feel like everything has been a bad dream and I am hoping that I am going to wake up soon.

Basically there was some paperwork that we did not have that the court wanted. So within 5 minutes of starting court, it got postponed. It has been rescheduled for September 18th. We should have the paperwork today and be back in a plane on Monday for our court. The good news is that we were planning on coming home this time so this has helped us to process things quickly. The bad news is that most of our dossier expired between 9/8 and 9/18(ccourt) and we do not know if the judge will have an issue with it. So we have spent an enormous amount of time and money on the phone trying to get things going while we were still in Russia. It also means that, if court is successful, we will not get to bring him home until October 10th, everything is pushed back 10 days. We have decided that Russ will come home immediately after court and I will stay the entire time. Our kids have been through so much and we can not ask them much more, especially since we haven't been able to Skype with them like we planned.

Also I want to give my Mom the Mother of the year award! Not only has she had to take care of my three kids, running them to school and activities. But she has been instrumental in helping get our paperwork updated and to top that off, in the middle of her running around for me she was sick and found out that she had a sinus infection. Now that is motherly dedication. I love you so much!

So, I have 4 days to get paperwork, reschedule planes and hotels, unpack/ repack for a longer trip, get more money and spend as much time with our kids as possible( the whole reason we were coming home in the first place)! Oh! and try to get our computer problems solved. Just a note to everyone out there who loves Apple computers, Russia is not ready for them! We have had so much problems and we think it is related to our macbook. So we are going to bring our Windows based laptop this time and pray that we can get things to work.

Needless to say, blogging has not been high on my list so I do not know if I will get to post again before we leave, or while in Russia for that fact but I ask for prayers, prayers and more prayers! Prayers for strength, for perseverance, for a loving heart and that we will glorify God with a loud voice through it all!

Blessing to you all. Thank you for the prayers!