Pink Drum Set

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:55:53 -0700

Gigi has been asking for a pink drum set for over a month now. She draws drums, she jumps up and down when she sees drums, and she’s been going around banging various different objects together to distinguish the different “songs” they all have (her words). Drums weren’t our first choice for a musical instrument, but we’ll never discourage our kids from playing a musical instrument! We kept the purchase a surprise, and the video below is her first glimpse and experience on the set. She starts formal lessons on Thursday!

The playset is up!

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:55:37 -0700

It’s hard to believe that when we took this play set down to move across the country, Gigi was 19 months old, and here we are finally setting it back up now that the house is built and the lawn is in, and Gavriel is 19 months! Where does the time go?!

Two years ago. Was she really that little?

The first part of building the play set was bringing it out of outdoor storage. That meant encountering a few little creepy crawlies.

I earned myself a mommy award by instead of screaming and running away and therefore negatively biasing my kids against a perfectly harmless creature, I pasted a smile on my face and said, "Oh look! A cute little snake!" And then... I petted it. I contained the shudder and the minor gag reflex, but I petted the darn thing as if it were a puppy.

Apparently my effort was worth it.

Letting both Mr. Snakes go.

4th of July weekend pics

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:54:32 -0700

We had an absolutely wonderful 4th of July holiday. The weather couldn’t have been any better, and we made the most of it in every way.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the 'lake of fire' and fireworks display. Seeing the fireworks and all the lights through a 3 year old’s perspective made it the best show I’ve ever seen. Gigi was so delighted and excited, clapping and cheering and even giving out a few cat calls. Gav fell asleep in the BOB stroller around dusk, and woke up just in time for the grand finale to sit contentedly in my lap and watch the show. An amazing evening! An amazing weekend!

Watching the boats on the lake

Gavi just walked right up to these people who were playing frisbee, and joined right in. Cool tat!

Playing ball with Pastor Matt

Transition to School (a.k.a. Daycare)

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:10:37 -0700

I am one happy Mama today. Gavriel just finished his transition into school. Oh I suppose it’s not really school since he is only 18 months. It’s probably fair to simply call it a curriculum based daycare.

When we first brought Gigi home, I was incredibly torn up about having to put her in daycare. I had bought into all the hype that daycare was bad, poisonous to young minds even, and that staying home was the best thing. I ached and felt guilty for the old adoption adage of "taking her from one institution only to put her in another." I was angry and dramatically believed I wouldn’t be the one to raise her. Our lifestyle situation at the time mandated that Jim and I both worked. There was no way one of us could stay home without declaring bankruptcy. Sad, but true.

Several months after she started attending our carefully chosen school-based daycare, I ate my words. I ate them big time! I

Happy First Birthday!

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:16:23 -0700

We missed Gavriel’s first birthday by a mere two weeks back in December. Jenn, our travel partner, was in the same situation with her son Isaiah- our boys were born only 4 days apart. We decided long ago that we were going to get together at the 6 month home mark and celebrate the first birthdays of the two boys.

Jenn and Isaiah traveled up from North Carolina and spent a fun-filled weekend with us. Not only did we celebrate the boys first birthdays (at 18 months old), but we were also able to celebrate our exact 6 month home anniversary date. We all had a very wonderful weekend.

Happy first birthday Gavriel and Isaiah!

The bangin' boys! Always banging on something.Photo courtesy of Jennifer Kramer

Kisses!

Milwaukee Vacation

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:16:11 -0700

Each year a gathering of families who have adopted from Kazakhstan get together over a weekend to celebrate our families and connect with some of our closest friends. (That’s the background of ‘Kazapalooza’ (KP) for the non-Kaz readers.)

This year was quite different than last year. For starters, we had two kids instead of just one. Whoa boy! The second difference is that we spent a week in Minnesota before heading over to KP in Milwaukee. Let me put it another way: Imagine taking a vacation with two small children, and then without stopping at home first for a “vacation from the vacation,” we immediately head on over to another vacation. Only the second vacation is more intense and people-oriented than the first! Yikes for us!

The easiest way people had to recognize us is not by our son’s skin color- there were other children

Long Way, Baby

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:29:41 -0700

When Gavriel first came home, we attached so well in terms of him desiring to be close to us, held and cuddled, and give and receive hugs and kisses. He had absolutely zero issues with displaying affection and closeness in either direction, right from the start. He never ever pushed away; only pulled closer.

One issue that we did struggle with for the first few months was Gav’s trust that he was with us forever. He had extreme stranger anxiety for about 4 months. Even if he was in our arms, if someone across the room even looked at him and made eye contact, he would start crying in anguish and bury his face in our shoulder.

We can only surmise that he was afraid someone was going to take him away again. He didn’t feel secure in our relationship, and his permanency in our family. That is exactly what his reactions told us. (I do understand that some children are naturally shy and completely resistant to

Gav's Referral Anniversary

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:40:29 -0700

One year and one week ago we were frantically finishing our dossier. We had only the homestudy left to go, and this was the same week that China announced a HUGE list of homestudy agencies that had been blacklisted. China PAPs were scrambling to find a new homestudy agency, get the homestudy updated, and sent back out the door. Our homestudy agency was one of the several that was on the approved list, and quite a few China PAPs came running. Our Social Worker was trying to prioritize many “hot” homestudies.

We had been told of twin boys that were available, but we had to have our dossier in. We shared that information with our SW, and we went into the “hot” pile with the China PAPs. As soon as our SW gave us the rough draft, we received more info (not a formal referral) on the twin boys and realized they were not meant for our family. I was very disappointed. All that rush for nothing, plus the letdown of

Balancing

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:34:06 -0700

I’m away from home this week on a business trip, and while I miss the kids something fierce, I’m also loving it. Not necessarily the break in the routine, though there is that. I am just really enjoying being back in the corporate world. Going to meetings, having water cooler conversations (sans water cooler), dressing up (or as much ‘up’ as I can tolerate- I’ll never be a silk blouse and pointy toe shoe person, at least not on a regular basis).

Two years ago I decided I was going to leave the rat race and be a SAHM. (Sounded good at the time.) When I tendered my resignation and informed my company that I was moving across the country, I was asked if I could finish my project remotely (the original deal was only for 3 months, maybe 6). I briefly weighed the pros and cons and decided to go for it. It will be two years in October, and the arrangement is still going strong. In a lot of ways, I have the

Second Child Syndrome

Mon, 17 May 2010 09:49:43 -0700

I’ve been mildly concerned that Gav hasn’t been using words or being verbal much at all. He has an extremely limited vocabulary and if anything, it has seemingly decreased in the past 4 months. I was only mildly concerned because he’s already working with a speech therapist, so there isn’t much else I can do.

It all finally came to a head four days ago when I was talking with a friend who has a son the same age, from the same care center, arrived home on the same day. Her son can name animals, tell her the sound the animals make, and recognizes her friends and calls them by name.

Gav can’t do any of that! He doesn’t even say Dada!

Or so I thought.

Our problem is that Gavriel has an older sister who talks ALL the time. Literally all the time. If she’s not talking, she’s singing her way through the day. Sometimes she’s talking to one of us, but often times

My Beauties

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:01:18 -0700

Pictures taken March 28, 2010.

Gianna age 3 years, 4 months.

Gavriel age 1 year, 3 months.

We Are the Truth - Our Adoption Story

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:43:35 -0700

In light of the recent Russian adoption scandal, JCICS has put out a Call to Action. Today is the day to celebrate and share all the successful adoptions. Thousands upon thousands of successful adoptions.

I suppose it’s probably fair to categorize our adoption story into the “unusual” category. We didn’t adopt for the more common reasons that most people outside the adption community are familiar with. We are not infertile. We’ve never even tried to get pregnant. Not once. Not even by accident. We didn’t adopt to “save” a child or rescue an orphan. There are many humanitarian efforts that can do that. We didn’t adopt for Biblical or religious reasons of taking care of orphans and widows.

We adopted just because we wanted to have a family. In December of 2005, Jim and I decided we were ready

Out to eat... with kids

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:06:22 -0700

Took a one year old and a three year old to a fancy “here’s your sorbet to cleanse your palate, ma’am” restaurant last night. (Actually they didn’t say “cleanse your palate” as that would have been a bit vulgar.) Not only took them to a fancy restaurant, but took them with guests! We’re not fancy eat out people so I admit that my children’s education on fine dining is somewhat lacking.

What were you thinking?! Yeah, I know. But there’s no way I could leave Gav with a sitter, and no way I’d bring Gav but leave my Gigi-girl home.

I will admit that while I was looking forward to going to the restaurant and eating out, I was dreading taking my children. I had an inkling that one of us would be busy keeping Gigi’s fiddling, restlessness, and impatience to a minimum. The other would spend most of the time outside of the restaurant trying to

Kazakh Hair

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:23:06 -0700

I just love Gigi’s hair. She gets so many compliments on how lovely her long hair is, and she doesn’t even understand yet. She just looks at the person as if to say, “Yeah? So? It’s hair. You have some too. Now stop touching mine.” Some day she’ll understand.

It’s so long now that if she’s sitting on the toilet and looks up, her hair goes into ooey gooey places. That’s the only reason I have so far for cutting it!

It’s also the most incredible shade. Upon first glance, some might dismiss it as just plain brown. It’s not dark brown and won’t be likened to sable. It’s not light brown likened to waves of ripe wheat. However, when she’s in the sun, it comes to life and is a radiant cinnamon color shot through with streaks of glowing fire. A perfect description of Gigi herself I

Search engine key words

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:22:29 -0700

I’m going to try and do a lot more posting of just stuff. Instead of one big long post once a month (that’s boring- who wants to read a 2 page post anyway?!), I’m just going to try- keyword- to post little tidbits here and there (and more pictures).

I wasn’t planning on starting this today. I actually have one of those 2 page posts all written up where this new-to-me concept was going to be a mere snippet (and mostly a warning) at the very end.

This was way too good to pass up though. I rarely ever track my blog stats anymore (probably because I never write to the blog), but I did this morning. Boring Friday morning. I looked at the category “search engine key words.” In other words, what did people type into Google either looking for my site, or looking for something different, but Google showed my site- and the person clicked on the link.

Here are my favorites (no

Convergent Paths