-
Posted on May 31st, 2009
Russ
Every year for the past few years, we go to the annual Adoption Assistance picnic. They are the agency that helped us with both adoptions, and we love to go there and talk to the friends we have made at the agency and among the adoptive families. Julie and her staff are more like family at this point.
The children had great fun as usual, riding the ponies, bouncing in the inflatable and getting their faces painted. Can’t wait till next year!
-
Posted on March 13th, 2007
Russ
Our wonderful government has seen fit to pronounce our wonderful daughter an official US Citizen with all rights, privileges and taxes inherent therein. She didn’t even have to sign anything! We have been keeping up (somewhat) with the other parents who traveled in our adoption group, and most of them had received their citizenship paperwork weeks ago. Needless to say we were slightly worried. Of course, our government is quick and efficient in all things, so there’s no way a little piece of paper like this would be late (hahaha).
To keep it in perspective, not having this paper would just mean more forms to fill out – it doesn’t really have much practical everyday consequence. And now that we have the paper, Uncle Sam doesn’t suddenly rush in and change those poopy diapers for us either.
We also recently had some family pictures taken. What a deal at Portrait Expressions – $100 and an hour or so and we had an inch-thick stack of photos and a CD with 80+ professional pictures on it. Sweet.
-
Posted on February 10th, 2007
Russ
This week found the whole family settling back in to a normal routine. Karate and Cub Scouts, a regular nap time, bath time and bed time … ahhhh.
Jordan is quite the proud big brother, but he seems to be happy to have other people to play with beside just his little sister. He enjoyed being back in school, playing with friends and getting back to his normal activities this week.
Meanwhile, Sarah is really growing and learning. She’s learning to feed herself (and her dolls) and is heading full speed into being little miss independent most of the time. She is a joy and a challenge – sometimes both at the same time. She’s even beginning to enjoy meeting new people and is not so scared of going to unfamiliar places. On top of that, she likes to pet the animals (although she’s still not so happy when they run over to her). What a change in 4 weeks!
Just like her big brother, there are plenty of times that she wants to cuddle and hug mommy and daddy. In fact, to Jordan’s surprise, sometimes she wants to cuddle and hug him, and while he sometimes makes a sour face, most times he is quite happy to hug, play with and carry his little sister around.
I’m sure there will be plenty of fights in the future, but for this week, it is mostly peaceful in our house. I know – a dull blog with no drama – but sometimes that’s really quite a blessing. Peace.
-
Posted on February 3rd, 2007
Russ
Sarah has made great strides since we got back home. She was very clingy early in the week, with all the changes of a new house and all, but now she has really started to blossom again. She is walking around on her own upstairs today in her squeaky shoes and actually spent time in her playpen without screaming. As I write this, she was just put down for her nap and I’m listening through the baby monitor as she talks to herself. Yes, she really is blooming!
As you can see from last night’s dinner, she is also quite a character and loves to make faces at anyone who will watch. She is getting very good at telling people what she wants, although she is only using a few words so far. She loves to splash in the bath (far from the crying she used to do). Her beautiful personality is really beginning to come out. We are so blessed to be her family.
-
Posted on January 26th, 2007
Russ
Well, we made it home and thanks to the peculiarities of times zones and the International Date Line, this Friday was 37 hours long. We traveled for 23 of those and finally made it home. Mmmmm – a shower and our own beds!
Sarah is, of course, afraid of everything. She’s never seen dogs or cats up close, never had this much room to roam in, etc. Throw that on top of two plane flights, riding in a car seat, not enough sleep and all of the trauma of the trip and you can see why. When she first came to us, she was scared for days before she started to relax, and even after 10 days she would still grind her teeth when she felt stressed. At least with this change, she has calmed down and is drinking a bottle an hour after we got home. She’s smiling and talking, now that we’ve put the animals up. I think we’ll introduce her to changes a bit at a time, but I know that in time she’ll be fine.
God has really blessed us with our daughter, just like he did with each of our sons. Wonderful!
Total distance traveled … 18,239 mi
Total time … 375 hours
Which, for all you math nerds out there is:
Average speed (relative to the earth’s surface) … 48.6 MPH
-
