russiansweetheart

My sweet little Ashlyn is 3 years old!

2009-10-02T21:01:00.006-05:00

We've had Ashlyn in our family for over a year now!

2009-05-25T07:17:00.003-05:00

It's so hard to believe that it's been a year now. My sweet little girl came into our family as a skittish little 20 month old, but now she's a crazy, jumping in the deep end of the pool, 2 year old. She's just an amazing little girl who isn't afraid to try anything. I had my concerns about fetal alcohol syndrome ( still do ) but I'm not as afraid of it like I was before, because I know that if Ashlyn, does indeed have FAS, then she's been mildly affected. She's such a well behaved and happy little girl. I can't imagine her having to live in an orphanage right now. Really, I don't think that she could/would survive it :(. Ashlyn's speech is still delayed, but she's pretty much caught up in other areas of her development. She tries so hard to pronounce words, but it just doesn't come out right. She's very social though, and is always trying to mimic other people ( she's a visual learner) , so we put her into a mother's day out program 2 days a week. The teacher confirmed that she was smart, a quick learner and just fit right in with the other children. Her last day of school is tomorrow, but we're looking forward to the summer and going back to Mass. for the month of July. I have a niece who's a few months older than Ashlyn, so I'm looking forward to the interaction between the two kiddos. I'll post photos soon, but for now, here's a list of Ashlyn's growth over the past year:

1. Couldn't walk at 20 months - runs all the time

2. Afraid to be outside - can't get enough of being outside. She loves to climb, ride a bike, jump off the deep end of the pool.

3. Couldn't eat solid foods- will eat anything now.

4. Her hair was so thin and damaged that you could see her scalp- it's nice and thick and curly now.

5. Didn't know how to put her arms out to us when we tried to pick her up- always hugs and kisses us now.

6. Was startled pretty easily by the boys- now runs and laughs with her brothers, making just as much noise :).

7. Very sensitive to touch. I wasn't able to cut her nails without her pulling back and crying . she was also very sensitive to me touching her ears- now she sits still so that I can trim and paint her nails.

8. She would gag BIGTIME when I tried to brush her teeth- she's good about keeping her mouth opened when I brush her teeth now.

Here are some of her likes:

1. Dancing/music

2. Strawberries

3. Reading books

4. LOVES animals

5. Swimming and playing with water

6. She's very animated and loves to make people laugh

Some photos for now, with an actual update coming this weekend :).

2009-02-07T10:22:00.019-06:00

Christmas!

2008-12-26T22:40:00.018-06:00

2008-12-17T20:24:00.011-06:00

WOW, I can't believe that it's been a year since we first met Ashlyn. It's hard to tell through the photos, but she was VERY tiny :(. I remember being so concerned about her size. She was also significantly delayed. We had to wait 4 months to go back and bring her home. She was shaky and couldn't eat solid foods. Everything startled her and she was very sensitive to touch. She's a totally different child now. She eats everything that we give her ( even peas :) )! She's pretty much caught up in her gross motor skills ( climbing out of her crib now). She's so attached to us and very loving. She's always giving kisses and hugs. She nurtures her dolls. The only area of her development that we haven't seen great improvement in is her speech. We have a speech therapist that comes to the house once a week and she's wonderful with Ashlyn. Her receptive language is good, but she's still not really talking. We just love her so much!!! Anyways, I'm tired, and this is really choppy, so I'm going to end it now :). Oh wait, I almost forgot, we met a blog follower at chilis last night. She recognized Ashlyn right away and said that she reads my blog :) !! How cool is that?? She adopted a 3 year old boy from Poland last year. K, if you're reading this, then say hi. Maybe we could get together sometime. I also have a 3 year old son. Here's some photos of our first time meeting Ashlyn, and then some from today.

A video of Ron and Ashlyn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y55JBEzI_JQ

Ashlyn with her caregiver. This is the last time that we would see her for 4 months :(.

Here is the beautiful girl that she is today! She absolutely refuses to look at the camera!

She's kind of looking up here, but she refused to look at the camera!

Even Alex tried to hold her head up!

The kiddos!

2008-12-10T20:45:00.007-06:00

Alex with santa!

:)

2008-11-13T21:55:00.004-06:00

Ashlyn continues to amaze me. She's totally caught up on her gross and fine motor skills. She's climbing on tables and getting into all the mischief that a typical 2 year old gets into. She's very loving and affectionate. She "has" to sit at the big table, with her brothers, and she's does very well with a spoon and fork. Her speech, on the other hand, is still pretty delayed. She definitely understands much more then she's willing , or able , to talk. She gets speech therapy once a week. Her speech therapist thinks that she's doing well and that she will eventually talk. Here she is sitting at the table and loving all the babies that nana bought for her :).

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

2008-10-31T22:17:00.014-05:00

The little gym and 2 year well check

2008-10-01T09:44:00.007-05:00

We officially started with The Little Gym yesterday and Ashlyn had a BLAST! She loves to just hang like a monkey on the bars :). She'll out hang some of the boys. She also had her 2 year check up. I'm proud to say that she's now in the 5th% for her height ( 31.5 inches) WOOHOO. Her weight (19.5 pounds) and head circumference (44 cm) still aren't on the chart yet. The doctor is a little concerned about this, but isn't overly concerned just yet because she's done such an awesome job ( developmentally) so far. She needs to go back at 2 and half , so that they can check her growth then. Oh yeah, I can finally get her hair into two pigtails :) !

HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY COURTNEY!!!!!!!!

2008-09-29T16:23:00.004-05:00

Today is my niece ( and goddaughters ) 9th birthday. She's a faithful reader of my blog , so I wanted to make an entry for her on her special day :) . After having 3 boys of my own , I was SO excited when my sister found out that Courtney was a girl. OOHHHH the fun it was to shop for a little girl. She's such a girly girl too. Every summer, she and I get our nails done together and I take her shopping for a new outfit or two. She's a beautiful girl inside and out. She's a little mother hen with the younger children and she loves Ashlyn to pieces. I'm so sad that my sister and I only get to see each other in the summer, but the good thing is , we get to spend about 5-6 weeks together every summer. Anyways , HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY , and to all who reads this , could you please take a moment to wish her a happy birthday? She would be THRILLED :) !

My attempt to get a good picture of everyone!

2008-09-26T18:22:00.013-05:00

AND I FAILED :) !!

ASHLYN'S SPECIAL DAY!!!

2008-09-24T21:22:00.034-05:00

Chuckie Cheeses , here we come !!!

Dancing it up!

Wiping the yuck from her nose.

Ashlyn with her new kitchen set!

Just walking around with her new balloon!

Heading to Mcdonalds!

All the kiddos!

We're here!

She was SO mad that her food wasn't ready right away!

FOOD!

Taking a sip of milk.

The boys wanted to decorate the cake!

Ashlyn was trying to figure out why the baby was crying!

I think the boys liked the doll as much as Ashlyn :) !

Click on this short video.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY ASHLYN!!!!

2008-09-24T10:01:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of photos that I took of the birthday girl this morning. As usual, she wouldn't smile for me :) . We have a lot of fun things planned for today and i'll be sure to write about it this evening and post more photos. I ordered her birthday hairbow from http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5282461 . Actually, i've ordered most of Ashlyn's bows from here and they're awesome ( very good quality and excellent customer service ) !

Little Miss Muffet!

2008-09-22T13:00:00.002-05:00

Ashlyn had her evaluation last week with the physical therapist and she did well. She was able to jump off the ground with two feet , and some other things that pleased the PT. Of course she's still a little clumsy, and she walks a little crooked , but that's because she's only been walking for a couple of months. The longer she walks, the more coordinated she should become. We're going to start going to The Little Gym tomorrow, for once a week , and that will also help her with coordination http://www.thelittlegym.com/ . Her speech therapy is coming along slowly but surely. She loves Ms. Joy :) ! Wednesday is her 2nd birthday, but we decided to keep it low key this year ( usually we have big parties for the boys) . I want to enjoy the day with her and watch her with her cake and all that good stuff. Here's a photo from this morning.

Nana banana dress!

2008-09-14T12:33:00.003-05:00

My mother in law ( nana banana ) sent Ashlyn some really cute dresses and she's wearing one of them today. I couldn't get her to smile. She's biting on her lip in the first picture :). The second picture is of Alex , trying to put Ashlyn's shoes on her.

How cool is this???

2008-09-13T09:53:00.004-05:00

I've recently been in touch with another family that's adopting from the same region that we adopted Ashlyn from ( http://wolffamilyadoption.blogspot.com/). They met their little boy in July and are now waiting for a court date. They just found out that the judge will be on vacation for ANOTHER month, so they're feeling a little discouraged about this. Anyways, after talking with the mother for over an hour, and sharing photos and stories, we realized that our little one's were most likely in the same room together at some time ( she's going to confirm this when she goes back). One of the things that I really wished I could have seen was where Ashlyn slept, and the children that she lived with , but we were told that we couldn't. This family insisted on seeing it and she shared the details with me! How cool is that??? I guess there were two rooms for sleeping. One room was for daytime and one room was for night. In the day room, the windows are left opened EVERY day, even in the winter ( they just bundle the kids up in snowsuits). The cribs are all white and there are about 18 or so lined right next to each other. She said that it was very sad to see some of the other children because it was pretty obvious that they had some major 'issues" going on. On a brighter note, she noticed that there was a little bulletin board with pictures of children who have been adopted from that orphanage hanging in the hallway . She sent a few pictures that she took of it to me and I noticed right away that Ashlyn was ON IT. How awesome to get to see this!!! When she goes back to Russia , to get her little boy , she's going to bring some photos of Ashlyn, to share with the orphanage staff :)! Ashlyn is the one wearing a red dress, right next to the little guys head.

Ashlyn is on the mend!

2008-09-11T20:42:00.005-05:00

Here she is, playing outside with her big brothers today :)! She has so much fun watching them play, and running around with them. It's really hard to get a good photo of her though. She ALWAY'S looks away, or looks down when I'm trying to take a picture of her.

My poor girl :( !

2008-09-08T07:44:00.005-05:00

About a week ago, Ashlyn had her first fever since her last febrile seizure. I was worried, but not too concerned because we were told that there was only a 30% chance of it happening again, and I also figured that I would just stay on top of the fever. I gave her ibuprofen just before I went to bed. At around 5:00 a.m. I woke up and went to check on her. She was burning up, so I started to take her temperature. Within 30 seconds it was already at 105. I'm not sure just how high her fever was because I stopped right there. I woke my husband up to help with the bathwater, and to give her another dose of ibuprofen. As soon as I got the medicine in her, she started having another seizure. I was much calmer this time, but I still couldn't look at her or hold her ( my husband was holding her ). It only lasted for about 40 seconds. As soon as she was done seizing, we put her in the tub, to try and cool her off. We called the doctor, and got one of the first appointments of the morning. After doing a ton of blood work and examining Ashlyn, the doctor felt that she had something viral. He also told me that because she had a febrile seizure for the second time, the chances of it happening again have increased quite a bit :(. About 2 days later, Ashlyn started showing signs of a cold. Saturday morning, she got up and seamed a little off. She developed another fever and just didn't seem to be breathing right. You could see her little ribs sticking out every time she tried to breath in, and if she just walked a short distance, she would start breathing really heavily. Again, I took her to the doctors and after two breathing treatments and an xray, we found out that she does ( it was suspected before ) have asthma and she had pneumonia and two ear infections on top of that. She was put on an antibiotic for 10 days, steroids for 5 days and we're doing breathing treatments every 4-6 hours. She's feeling much better now, but I'm so nervous about the winter. I'm going to be a wreck every time she gets a fever or a cold. I'm not sure if these issues are due to her being born premature or not, but we were told by the orphanage doctor that she got upper respiratory infections a lot and that she was hospitalized twice for pneumonia. It's funny, but I thought that she would be afraid of the breathing treatment, but she's not AT ALL afraid. She actually enjoys it :). The doctor said that once kids have a treatment and see how much it helps them breath, they're usually pretty receptive to having them. Anyways, here are some photos from yesterday, and be sure to see my last post ( more pics from the summer ).

Tons more photos from this summer!

2008-09-06T20:59:00.031-05:00

More photos!

2008-08-28T21:49:00.019-05:00

OK, I'm finding myself not posting because it's been so long, and I'm so far behind . I can't seem to finish the BIG post that I started over a week ago. I've decided just to start fresh. I'll just randomly throw photos from the summer in :) . Here's some of Ashlyn with her brothers and cousins in Massachusetts this summer.

Playing dress up!

2008-08-21T22:21:00.004-05:00

Here are a couple of photos of Ashlyn playing dress up with the little girl next door. She's so good with her :) . I'm also working on a MUCH larger post, with lots of photos from the summer, but it's going to be another couple days. I was working on it tonight, but there's still a lot more to upload and i'm tired, so I thought that I would post a couple of recent pictures for now and save the post that i'm working on as a draft.

I'm a slacker!

2008-08-16T08:18:00.002-05:00

I can't believe that it's been just about a month since my last post. It's been a very busy summer and I just haven't had time to blog. Now that we're back to a normal routine and the kids will be going back to school, I should become more regular. I have a lot of photos that I want to share, but I need to go through them ( hundreds of them :) ). I have one photo of Ashlyn in the pool with her cousins and brothers while we were in Massachusetts that I can post now. Ashlyn has been home with us for 3 months now and it's hard to believe that she's the same child. It's really incredible what a little love and nutrition can do. Here's a list of her progress so far:

1. Wouldn't eat ANY solid foods - now she eats EVERYTHING in sight.

2. Was very small ( maybe 16 pounds or so ) - has gained 3 pounds and grown about an inch.

3. Didn't walk - learned to walk on the 4th of July.

4. Was very shaky and skittish - barely notice any shaking now.

5. Still kind of played with her toys like an infant - plays with age appropriate toys correctly.

6. Would go to most people - is VERY much a mommy and daddy's girl now.

7. Didn't know how to put her arms out to be held - will come to me often with her arms opened wide ( she loves hugs and kisses ).

8. Didn't pay too much attention to her brothers - HAS to do EVERYTHING that they do now :).

9. Did NOT like being outside - can't get enough outside time. She is amazing in the pool and can swim under water for up to 5 seconds at a time.

10. Ashlyn enjoys watching me put my makeup on and puts her cheek up for a little powder.

11. Although a little awkward, she can use a fork now.

12. She's still pretty delayed in her speech, but her receptive language is good.

We made it to Mass. and had a big scare!

2008-07-17T22:40:00.002-05:00

We got here last Wednesday. I'm proud to say that I made the 30 hour trip, all by myself, with 5 kids, in 57 hours :). We went camping at jellystone Park http://www.campjellystone.com/ last weekend ( what a blast ) and we're having fun just spending time together. I'll post some photos tomorrow. Ashlyn has been pretty sick this week, so we haven't done much. On Monday, Ashlyn woke up with a small fever. She was in good spirits and her appetite was fine. I put her down for a nap as usual and about 2 hours into her nap, my sister started yelling for me. Ashlyn was having a seizure. It was the most horrifying thing that i've ever seen. She turned very blue around the mouth and even stopped breathing for a short amount of time. I really thought that she was dieing :(. My oldest son called 911 and she was rushed to the hospital. The ER doctor examined her and felt that the it was only a febrile seizure. Her fever finally broke yesterday :). I'm so nervous about her getting a fever again in the future. I'm not sure that I can handle seeing that again. We have a birthday party to go to this weekend, other then that, not much going on. My husband is flying out next Saturday and we plan to spend the weekend with his family and meet up with a few friends of mine on Monday ( the 28th ).

On our way to Massachusetts...

2008-07-07T19:09:00.003-05:00

Hi this is Sean sneaking on to my mom's blog. We're on our way to Massachusetts and it has been a long drive so far. Right now we're in Nashville, Tennessee waiting to get our chinese food.

Ashlyn has been great in the car. She loves watching the Wiggles and Finding Nemo. Here is a video of her in the hotel while we were waiting for our room.

She's walking :) !!!!

2008-07-05T21:47:00.004-05:00

Happy 4th of July!!!

2008-07-04T09:37:00.015-05:00

Photos from our neighborhood parade this morning :).

Sorry, no pictures

2008-07-02T22:39:00.002-05:00

My sister is still here with her kids and we're very busy, so I still haven't had much time to post. There has been at least 1 sick kid in the house since Saturday. Hopefully everyone will be feeling better soon. I took Ashlyn to the doctors yesterday for a weight check and she's gained a pound in 4 weeks WOOHOO!!!!!!! She's doing incredible with eating now, maybe too incredible. I found her digging through the trash this morning, with a piece of burnt bagel in her mouth. I can't believe that she was eating it and actually enjoying it. What a crazy little girl :). The boys ( and Ashlyn ) and I are driving to Mass. next Monday. We can't wait to see our family and friends. I'm doing the driving all by myself ( 2000 miles ). As I posted preiviously, my sister and I do a lot of fun things with the kids , such as camping , going to the beach and attending the county fair that we have gone to ever since we were kids. We take lots of pictures and we make a scrapbook for each other at christmas time. So much fun :).

OOPS !!!!

2008-06-27T20:46:00.007-05:00

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. My sister and her children are here visiting right now. We moved from Massachusetts to Texas 3 years ago, so we only get to see each other during the summer. She'll usually fly out here the last week of June, for 2-3 weeks and then the boys and I will drive back to Mass. for about a month. We've been pretty busy with the kiddos :). Ashlyn is loving her cousins and is doing AWESOME! She just all of a sudden started eating everything thing that we give her. She's put on about 2 pounds since being with us and she's now pointing to things/people when you ask her where they are. She's still not talking, but we have Early Interventions coming out here next week to observe her and come up with a plan. She's still a VERY easy going toddler and so lovable. She gives us hugs and kisses all the time. She's still sleeping well too ( usually about 13 hours a night ). Here are a few pictures of all the kids together over the past week.

Here's the miracle girl!

2008-06-17T00:02:00.004-05:00

We had a surprize visitor this evening. The little girl who Sean and William found in the pool unconcious and her mom came by to thank the boys and to let them see that she was alright. It's truley a miracle that this little girl is alive. It took about 10 minutes just to revive her. She wasn't breathing and she didn't have a pulse. She only spent 2 days in the hospital and she's doing incredible. The boys were very happy to see her tonight :).

Update on the little girl.

2008-06-16T07:56:00.002-05:00

She's going to be just FINE :) ! Thank god!!! She's leaving the hospital today and is expected to make a full recovery.

My little water bug :) !

2008-06-14T21:00:00.007-05:00

I'm not sure if i've mentioned this yet or not, but Ashlyn LOVES the water. She swims like the big kids and can hold her breath under water for up to 5 seconds. Here are a few pictures and a short video from this morning. Alex is whining in the video because I " wouldn't listen to him ". He wanted to go over in the big pool by himself and I told him that he needed to wait for me. As I was just uploading these photos, we had a HUGE neighborhood scare. My 14 year old and his friend pulled a little girl out of the pool :(. She was unconcious and not breathing. Medflight just took her. I'm so sick to my stomach . My son and his friend are pretty shaken up over this.

Pictures of my little chickity from today.

2008-06-11T16:26:00.004-05:00

We're still keeping busy, now that schools out. Nick and Alex are two weeks into their swimming lessons and they're doing well. Ashlyn continues to amaze us. She's eating a TON ( well, maybe about a dozen :) ) new foods now. She's definitely doing well with that, and hopefully gaining weight. Her gross and fine motor skills are steadily showing improvement. She's much more coordinated. Her speech is the one area that I probably worry about the most. She is only saying eye, kitty, uh oh, dada and maybe one or two other random words. We're waiting so very patiently for the speech therapist to call. My sister and her kiddos ( 1 boy and 3 girls ) are coming here for a two week visit on the 21st WOOHOO!!! I can't wait to see them. We moved from Mass to Texas 3 years ago and every summer my sister will visit us for 2 to 3 weeks and then the boys and I will go back home ( cape cod ) for about a month. We have such a great time and the kids love each other :). Are any of my Mass friends/family still reading my blog??? If so, please say hi.

certificate of citizenship, early interventions and ears pierced

2008-06-06T13:57:00.007-05:00

We recieved Ashlyn's certificate of citizenship in the mail a few days ago, so to celebrate, we had cake. Ashlyn tried her first taste of cake today and she LOVED it :). On Wednesday, the boys and I took Ashlyn to get her ears pierced. She wasn't too happy about having her ears cleaned, but she did well with the actual piercing. The best news yet, early interventions evaluated Ashlyn yesterday and they were very impressed with her progress so far. She observed Ashlyn playing with her toys and interacting with me and she felt that she was doing well with attachment and her gross motor skills. She did suggest that we have Ashlyn evaluated by a speech therapist, but felt that Ashlyn would catch up in no time :). I'm amazed at how well she's doing. She's such a resilant little girl and she's always willing to try new things. Now that the boys are out of school, it's really tough to get on here as often. I'll try and update every couple of days though.

Photos from the orphanage!

2008-06-04T22:01:00.007-05:00

As some of you may remember, we left a disposable camera at the orphanage during our first visit. I finally got the film developed and here are a few of the photos taken. I'm so happy to have these for Ashlyn. For those of you waiting for trip 1, I highly recommend you do the same :). We weren't able to see where Ashlyn spent most of her time, so it's nice to have these.

Video from trip 1

2008-06-04T09:50:00.003-05:00

Here's a video of Ashlyn and Ron on trip one. I'll post an update later today or tomorrow :).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y55JBEzI_JQ

Last day of school!

2008-05-31T12:31:00.006-05:00

The boys had their last day of school yesterday. Nicholas' class had an end of the year party. They had smoothies and played games. In the evening, there was another party at the neighborhood pool. Here are a few photos of Nicholas on his last day of school and another short video of Ashlyn walking ( she stands on her own now, from the middle of the floor ).

Pictures and a video

2008-05-26T21:33:00.005-05:00

Here are a few photos form this morning. There's also a short video of Ashlyn climbing up the steps of the slide and then sliding down. We had another small cookout today, with our neighbors and Ashlyn just wanted to keep up with the big kids :).

No scabies and a cookout!

2008-05-25T09:26:00.010-05:00

We finally had it confirmed that Ashlyn does NOT have scabies. I'm so glad that I brought her back to the doctors for the test, and that I didn't put the toxic medication all over her body. BIG relief :) !! We had some friends over yesterday for a cookout and the kids had a blast! My friend lives about an hour away from me and she has two boys ( 8 and 5 ) and a 12 month old daughter. Ashlyn had a great time playing with her daughter. They smiled at each other, waved, and took turns pushing buttons on one of Ashlyn's musical toys. Ashlyn enjoyed mocking her fake coughs and the many other sounds she made. I'm so impressed with how well Ashlyn is doing. It's amazing to see how well she's doing in such a short amount of time. I was so worried the first week, but i'm not worried AT ALL now. She's going to do well :).

My two youngest boys and my friends two boys!

My friends sweet little girl!

Having a great time on the water slide!

Our boys!

Friends sharing some cheerios!

Ashlyn loves her cheerios!

Alex with friends 12 month old!

Ashlyn had her doctors appointment today.

2008-05-20T21:45:00.012-05:00

Today was Ashlyn's first visit with the doctor since being home. She weighs 17 pounds and is 28 inches ( still small, but growing ). She had to have 5 shots and quite a bit of blood drawn today. I felt so bad for her and I made sure that I wasn't anywhere near her while they did it :(. She couldn't stand on her legs or crawl this afternoon, because of the tenderness . I pretty much just held her for hours afterwards. The doctor thinks that she might have asthma, because he heard wheezing , so we have to go back next week for a lung check. He also thinks that she may have scabies from being in the orphanage. He did a skin check and we should have the results by tomorrow. We're pretty much in seclusion until we find out for sure. Other then that, Ashlyn continues to thrive and do well. She's such a little love bug :). Here are some random pictures and videos of the kiddos over the past couple of days.

Ashlyn is doing very well!

2008-05-18T21:32:00.003-05:00

Ashlyn is fitting into our family very well. She now enjoys her baths. After watching her brothers put their heads under water, she decided to do it as well :lol. She loves the pool and splashing in the water table that we have outside. She tried two bites of a Gerber meat stick today, of course it was only after Alex ( my 2 year old ) took a bite. She finally pointed to my eyes tonight when I asked her where they were. I've been working with her on this since day 1, so I was becoming concerned that she wasn't " getting it ". I sometimes forget that it's only been 2 and a half weeks since we got her and that she really IS doing very well. She has a doctors appointment on Tuesday, so that will probably be my next update. It feels like she's putting on weight, so i'm hoping that she's close to 17 pounds now.

She ate cheerios!

2008-05-16T08:04:00.002-05:00

Pictures from this morning!

2008-05-15T11:19:00.005-05:00

Life with Ashlyn.

2008-05-12T22:28:00.012-05:00

Life with Ashlyn has gone pretty well the past few days. The boys love their little sister and will do just about anything to make her laugh :). She adores them and will copy everything that they do. She's an excellent sleeper and a pretty good natured child, but we're still having MAJOR eating issues with her. She still wont eat anything other then baby food. I'm feeding her infant cereal with formula and fruit 3 times a day, because that's all that she'll eat. We went to playgroup today and she LOVED it. She's very social :). She also enjoys going food shopping. Here are a lot of photos from the past few days. I've included photos of her wearing clipies from myprettyone. These are of excellent quality, very reasonably priced and incredibly cute. Here's a link to the website: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5282461

Alex holding Ashlyn.

Ashlyn with her brothers.

Playing with her brothers.

Very cute bow from myprettyone.

Nicholas pushing Ashlyn in the swing.

Ashlyn at the airport, with the adopted children of the family that we were traveling with.

We're home!!

2008-05-09T13:14:00.002-05:00

We left the apartment that we were staying in at 12:00 p.m. and it took about an hour to get to the airport. We then had to wait 5 hours for our flight to leave. Poor Ashlyn was so tired and restless. She went right to sleep after we boarded. She slept for about an hour and woke up in a better mood. She stayed awake for about an hour and a half and then fell back to sleep for the rest of the trip ( about 11 hours total ). We got a bassinet for her, so we were able to sleep also. We landed in Houston at 9:00 p.m., went through immigrations pretty quickly, and set foot in our home at 1:30 a.m. ! Ashlyn spotted our cats as soon as we got in the house and had a great time chasing them through the house while laughing :). We missed the boys SO much while we were gone and couldn't wait until morning to see them, so we woke them up. They were happy to recieve all the little trinkets that we got them and they loved meeting Ashlyn. Nicholas can't get enough of her today. He has been pushing her in the baby swing outside, feeding her her lunch, reading books to her :). She loves him just as much. I'm trying to get her to take a nap right now and then we're meeting some of our neighbors at the pool ( we have a neighborhood pool ) this afternoon. I'll try and take some pictures of all the kiddos together today and post them later.

It went well!

2008-05-07T13:53:00.002-05:00

Everything went very well at the US embassy today. We're coming home tomorrow and I can't wait to see my boys!! Yeah, i'm talking about you too Sean :) . Red Square was closed today, because of the new presidents inauguration, so we couldn't get the close-up St. Basil's picture ( it was closed last night too ) . We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe tonight and then did some shopping. We got some cool things for Ashlyn for when she gets older. It's been freezing cold here the past two days. I've actually had to bundle Ashlyn up in a snowsuit and hat. This morning I was in search of something warm to drink. I finally found a place that sold hot chocolate. GUESS what the hot chocolate is in Moscow ? I got one cup with ice water and one cup with chocolate syrup. I ended up heating the water up in the microwave and adding the chocolate syrup to it :) . It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't "real" hot chocolate. Our flight leaves at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow night. We arrive in Houston at 9:30 p.m. Thursday night.

Pictures from last night!

2008-05-07T02:34:00.010-05:00

More photos

2008-05-06T06:36:00.007-05:00

This is actually my second entry today, so make sure to read the first one too . Here are a few more photos of Ashlyn. The first two are of this morning, when she was being evaluated by a Russian doctor. The third one was on the train last night. The rest are pictures of Ashlyn with our new Russian friends. Please keep in mind that Ashlyn's hair is a work in progress :). She kind of has a mullet going on and very short bangs, so i'm limited in what I can do with it :) :) :).

2008-05-06T03:49:00.007-05:00

We made it! We made it! We made it! We had an appointment with the passport people last night, and after our coordinator bribed them with wiskey and chocolates ( could you imagine doing this in the us? ) we were able to get Ashlyn's passport. The other family, that adopted 3 children, were able to get there's too. We all took the overnight train to Moscow. Ashlyn fell right to sleep, and slept the whole time. Ron and I were able to sleep pretty soundly too. We got to Moscow at 6:00 a.m. and went straight to our apartment, so that we could shower and get dressed. Ashlyn had a medical appointment and we had to sign some papers at the US embassy . The exam went ok, I guess :). Ashlyn weighs 16 pounds and the doctor said that although orphaned children were usually small, Ashlyn was really small. They had to draw blood from her, to test her for Hep C and HIV. Ron went with her and he said that they were really rough with her and made her bleed quite a bit. He also said that they weren't being very sanitary while cleaning up the mess. I'm so glad that that's over. Tomorrow, we have an appointment at 2:00 p.m. with the US embassy and that will be IT!!! I can't wait to get home! I'll probably make another post, with more pictures and a video later today, but in the mean time, here are some photos and a video of Ashlyn and our new Russian friends ( the ones that had us over for dinner last Friday ). These girls are the sweetest girls ever. They were so good to Ashlyn, Ron and I. They really don't have any money, but there went out and bought us a box of chocolates, some Russian drink and a rose ( they did this for the other family too ) as a going away gift. They told us that " Russia is going to loose it's happiest person ". They were refering to Ashlyn :).

Didn't make it to Moscow today :(

2008-05-04T12:43:00.002-05:00

We were supposed to go to Moscow today, but Ashlyn's passport wasn't ready yet, so we can't go until tomorrow night ( overnight train ). This really stinks because we still have to pay for the two nights that we didn't stay in Moscow on top of the two nights here. Not only that, but we were looking forward to all the extras we were going to be getting in Moscow ( phone, internet, tv ). Ashlyn is really doing good! She can now say mama and dada and she learned to wave goodbye when prompted. She's a CRAZY girl :), into everything now, just like a toddler should be. We love seeing her explore and learn so quickly. She'll catch up before we know it. We tend to go to the food store, right next to the hotel each day, and it's the highlight of her day. She's so well behaved while sitting in the cart. We had to pay our fines today, for traveling on a business visa ( $200 per person ) and that went good. We were told to expect to be yelled at, but there was no yelling. We just had to sign some paperwork stating that we broke some law, and pay the fine. I'm glad that's over. Gotta go before internet time runs out. I'll post as soon as we get to Moscow. Thank you to all of you that continue to read my blog and respond. It really helps :).

Had dinner with a Russian family last.

2008-05-03T10:01:00.002-05:00

We had dinner last night with a couple of young Russian girls ( early 20's maybe ). One of the young ladies was the translator for the other family that we're here with, when they traveled here, back in September. She's newly engaged and lives in a cute, but small apartment. She doesn't have much money, but boy did she go out of her way to make a nice dinner for us. She made borsch, chicken, potatoes, peas, and some coleslaw looking salad. She set the table nicely, with fancy napkins and all. I took lots of pictures and videos, but we're still have issues with uploading them. I'm hoping when we get to Moscow in the next couple of days that we'll have better luck with the uploading. They were so good with Ashlyn and seemed to really enjoy playing with her. Of course Ashlyn had a great time there :). One of the girls told me that I was a good mom to Ashlyn before we left ( made my night :) ). We didn't get home until 10:30 p.m.! Ashlyn did great sleeping through the night again. She's doing really good eating her baby food and seems to have a TON more energy then when we first picked her up from the orphanage. We continue to try and give her solid foods, but she's not doing well with this at all. She gags if she has a small piece of cracker in her mouth. She threw up in my hand after I put a veeerry tiny piece of gerber fruit puff in her mouth. I can tell that we're going to have major eating issues with her. She's very observant and she's a quick learner, so I know that she's going to really blossom when we get home. She also seems really tall/long to me. I think that her feet might be bigger then Alex's :0). One more thing I keep forgetting to mention. The orphanage director gave us a few photos of Ashlyn from her time in the orphanage, including a newborn picture. They also took about 20 photos of her with the disposable camera that I left behind in December. I can't wait to get the film developed when I get back. Tomorrow we have to pay a fine for traveling on a business visa. We were told to prepare ourselves for getting yelled at :(. I'm NOT looking forward to this at all. Hopefully it will be quick. We're also hoping to get Ashlyn's passport tomorrow. As soon as we get her passport, then we can go back to Moscow. Once in Moscow, we'll have a washing machine, english tv, unlimited internet service, unlimited phone service back to the US and we'll be that much closer to coming back home!!!!

Here's one photo!

2008-05-02T04:15:00.003-05:00

We're still have issues with our internet connection and uploading photos, but we finally managed to get one up. We're still going to work on more photos and videos. We walked to a pizza place for dinner last night and she just loved it. They had music playing in the background and she kept dancing ( well, her version of dancing ) to the music. We went to the food store afterwards and she loved sitting in the cart as well. When we got back to the hotel, we gave her her paci and she went right to sleep again, sleeping through the night. She woke up in a great mood and ready to start her day. She ate breakfast pretty well and laughed quite a bit ( music to our ears ). She's trying to take steps, and enjoys walking while we hold onto her hands. She's such a good little girl. We expected at least a little bit of a transition period, but she's been perfect so far. The boys are going to love her :). The one thing that I forgot to mention yesterday is that Ron ended up getting pretty sick Wednesday night. We believe that it was something that he ate. Luckily, we were prepared, and had prescriptions from our doctors. He's still a little weak, but feeling much better. We noticed that the water was a little yellowish brown the other day, so who knows what may have caused his illness. Gotta post this before we lose our internet time.

Sorry!

2008-05-01T05:47:00.002-05:00

We're having issues uploading photos to my blog. I'm still working on it though :). Our first night with Ashlyn was incredible. We put her to bed with her bear, blanket, and paci and she went right to sleep. She slept through night without a peep. When she woke up this morning, we took her into bed with us and fed her a bottle. She LOVED this and she loved cuddling. She IS the sweetest baby. Very easy going and so lovable. We're spending a lot of time cuddling, playing and reading to her. We've already seen a big improvement with her verbal skills. Before, she was very serious and wouldn't make the typical baby babbling while she was playing, nor would she really belly laugh. She's now babbling like crazy and she's given a couple of belly laughs. We're having a difficult time getting her to eat solids. She'll only eat a small amount of baby food at a time, but I brought pediasure and she really likes this. I keep offering her Cheerios. She likes to fling them ( this is what actually makes her belly laugh ). She also likes to pick them up and transfer them back and forth between her fingers, occasionally, she'll take a bite, but always spits it out :). Hey, we're making progress. We just found out for sure that our adoption is one of the last in this region, for now, because of passport issues. THANK GOD we got our court date when we did because I don't know how long it will take to get this straightened out. We feel very lucky. As far as her size, she isn't nearly as small as she was the first time we met her, she's actually pretty tall. She has big feet and hands and the 6-12 month clothes that I brought are actually too small on her WOOHOO!!!! She does look pretty skinny and boney, but I think that she will likely put on weight now that we have her. Sean, if you're reading this before school, then have a good day today :)

Here she is!

2008-05-01T02:17:00.001-05:00

Hopefully you can all get to this link from here. I'm having a hard time uploading pictures from here.

http://www.shutterfly.com/share/pictures.jsp

ASHLYN IS OUR DAUGHTER!!!

2008-04-30T12:24:00.002-05:00

The 10 days was waived and we have Ashlyn with us right now :). Last night I went to sleep around 12:00 a.m. and woke up about an hour later . My heart was racing and I felt sooo sick to my stomach. I became panicked about going to court. If I had to go to court at that time, I don't think that I would have made it. I didn't go to sleep AT ALL. Thankfully, by 6:00 a.m. I was much calmer and just wanted to get it over with. We got to court on time and I was feeling pretty confident about giving my speech :). Welll, the judge came in and ruined it all by yelling and ranting. She was slamming her hands on our paperwork and all I could get out of it was Nicholas and Alexander ( my two younger boys names). That's how we started court :(. Luckily, she didn't rattle my nerves too much . My desire to be done with court was greater then my fear of court itself at that point in time. The judge smiled as she looked through the photo album that I made and she even took a few pictures to keep for herself ( including one of my boys ). Court only lasted for an hour and we were named Ashlyn's parents :). We found out later that our translator made a mistake in translating Nick and Alex's birth certificates, so that's what all the fuss was about. We found out at 2:00 that we would be able to pick Ashlyn up from the orphanage. If we couldn't do it today, then we would have had to wait until Sunday, so we were pretty excited. When we picked Ashlyn up, she was a little sad at first, but she quickly warmed up to us and was such a good little traveler back to the hotel. There was a lot of traffic and it took us 2 hours to get back, but she never once cried. Once back at the hotel, she played with all her toys and was just sooo happy. I laid her in the crib about a half hour ago and she hasn't made a peep. She's cuddling with the blanket and teddy bear that we left for her on our first visit. There's a lot more that I want to say, but i'm really tired from not sleeping last night, so I need to try and sleep. I'll post more tomorrow :). I'm going to also work on posting photos, so check back in :).

We got to see her today!

2008-04-29T05:37:00.003-05:00

First of all, I want to thank all of you for commenting on our blog. It means a lot to us :). Secondly, we got to see baby A today. I have my concerns, because she's 19 months old and still isn't walking or talking. She's also pretty small for her age still , but she has grown some. It was close to her nap time when we showed up, so she was pretty somber and fussy when we first got there. The last 15 minutes or so were a lot of fun though. I handed her a few Cheerios and she poked at them, causing one of them to fling up in the air. She thought that that was pretty funny and kept doing it over and over again, but she wouldn't eat them. There's also a rocking horse in the meeting room, so we put her on it and she held on to the handles and rocked like a cow girl. She's going to love the bucking bronco that nana bought for her big brothers. We also showed her a photo album with pictures of our first trip to NN, and pictures of her big brothers and she LOVED that. She got really excited when she saw the boys :). We have court tomorrow and OMG i'm scared to DEATH! We have court at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday , so midnight Tuesday back at home. Once we get through court, we're hoping that we can get her from the orphanage, but only if all of the paperwork is together and court runs smoothly. If things don't fall into place in an orderly fashion, then we wont be able to get her until Sunday. We're really hoping to get her tomorrow, because I think that it's critical for Ron and I to spend as much one on one time with her as possible before we return home. I miss my boys terribly :(. Alex had a fever of 103 yesterday and i'm so sad that I wasn't there for him. The last time that he had a fever like that, was back in September, and he wanted me to hold him the whole time. Hopefully he's feeling better today. Well, the next time you hear from me, we should be done with court :).

We didn't get to see her today.

2008-04-28T14:33:00.002-05:00

After writing in my blog this morning, Ron and I took a 4 hour nap. We woke up to the phone ringing. It was our translator, calling to tell us that we couldn't go to the orphanage, because it was too late, and the doctor wasn't there :(. I was really bummed out, but the good news is that we get to see her tomorrow, at 9:30 a.m. ( night time for all of you ). We also got some more information about the birth mom. We were told that she was beautiful and that she had a 13 year old son. None of her family knew that she was pregnant, not even her son. While she was pregnant, she took care of her body. She didn't take any drugs, or do anything harmful because she thought that she was going to keep the baby, and raise her with the baby's biological dad, but the dad bailed out. She couldn't afford to take take care of A by herself. Very sad :(. We were also told that she cried when she was told that A was being adopted. She wasn't told any details about us, such as being us being Americans . We met up with the other family that had court today. Everything went very well with them and it was nice to hang out with them for a few hours. Well, I don't have much internet time, but I wanted to update. I will post about our visit tomorrow.

WE'RE HERE!!!

2008-04-28T01:25:00.002-05:00

We got to NN at 7:30 a.m. , Monday morning, after about 27 hours of traveling, but we feel pretty good. The flight was EXCELLENT ( Singapore )! We ate dinner shortly after take off, watched Juno, slept until the last 2 hours of the flight, watched another movie ( I think it's called I'm Legend, or something like that ) and ate breakfast . We had about an hour drive to the train station and then we had to wait about 2 and a half hours before we could get on the train, so we pretty much just "people watched" while we waited. We took the overnight train to NN, about 7 hours, and now we're here. Our coordinator told us that we would most likely get to see baby A today, so we're very excited about that. He's going to call us after 2:00 p.m. to let us know when, but it probably won't be until after 5:00 p.m. because there's another family at court right now, as I type. I can't wait to meet this other family :). We're both from the same agency and they also live in Texas. We've been emailing each other and talking on the phone quite a bit, but we haven't met yet. They're adopting 3 biological siblings. Just a reminder, we're 10 hours ahead of most of you, so most of my posting will probably be done while you're all sleeping.

CHRIS GOING TO A FORMAL DANCE LAST NIGHT!

2008-04-26T07:38:00.007-05:00

We're leaving tomorrow!

2008-04-25T15:11:00.002-05:00

WOW, it's hard to believe that we're leaving for Russia tomorrow night. We're taking a direct flight from Houston to Moscow, leaving at 11:45 p.m. and arriving in Moscow at 8:00 p.m. Sunday night ( Sunday morning in the US ). We'll then be taking an overnight train to NN ( 7 hours ). Our total travel time will be about 24 hours. I believe we're going to see A on Tuesday and I can't wait. I wonder if she's grown any, or if she's walking yet. She was 19 months on April 24th :). The boys are very excited about meeting their baby sister. I will update as soon as I can.

8 days

2008-04-18T13:05:00.004-05:00

We leave in 8 days WOOHOO! We got our visas today, so that always makes it feel official. People keep asking me if i'm excited and I AM, but i'm also very nervous that something will go wrong with the paperwork or court. I'll be excited after court is over with :). There have been a few blogger friends ( you know who you are ) that have been sooo helpful to Ron and I , throughout this process, and I thank you for that :). This weekend we're getting our yard in order and tieing up loose ends. My oldest son is coming home next week, so we'll be busy with him. Thanks again, to all of you who read my blog and for supporting us in this adoption!

1 week and 3 days, also some pictures of Nick and t-ball

2008-04-16T08:43:00.003-05:00

Not that i'm counting or anything :). Things have pretty much fallen into place. We paid our agency fees and ordered our new money. We have A's suitcase all packed and i've gone over our dossier about 2o times, making sure that nothing is going to expire before court. I'm feeling a little better about leaving the boys this time because they're so excited about having grammy here. I have the most AWESOME friends/neighbors . They're just as excited as us to have Ashlyn home, and are helping out by taking the boys ( to give my mom a break ) and many have offered to bring meals to my mom and boys while we're gone. Tomorrow i'm going to shop for the last minute items that we need ( snacks and stuff ) and that should be it. I can't believe that we'll be Ashlyn's parents in 2 weeks!!!

2 weeks and 6 days

2008-04-06T10:07:00.002-05:00

Before we leave for Russia!!! I go back and forth between being excited and being scared to death. Leaving the boys for 12 days is freaking me out still. I thought that I was going to loose it when I had to leave them for just 5 days, so i'm not sure what it's going to be like leaving them for 12 :(. Hopefully we'll be so busy that the time will just fly by. What really helped me the last time was talking to the boys on the phone. They never once were upset that we were gone, so i'm sure that they will be the same this time. I'm thinking about leaving little notes/treats that my mom can give to them each day. I'm sure that they'll love this :). There's an end in sight now and it will all be worth it when our plane lands in Houston on May 8th. I also worry about something going wrong with the adoption, or at court. I'm very nervous about going to court in Russia, but from what I hear, NN is a very adoption friendly region. Here's what we've done so far to prepare:

1. Visa applications have been sent.

2. We purchased our airline tickets.

3. Purchased my moms ticket to come out here.

4. Hired a house cleaner to clean our house while we're gone.

5. Worked out carpooling for my boys school/activities.

2008-03-30T21:17:00.005-05:00

It's been a busy week since getting our court date. We're very excited about bringing A home, but we're worried about leaving the boys again. Our first trip was only 5 days, but it felt much longer then that. Our next trip will be 12 LONG days. We booked our flight already and sent our visa application out. I can't believe that we will be back in Russia in less then 4 weeks!!!! My mother in law came down here during the boys spring break a few weeks ago and we went to the Austin rodeo/fair. This is our second year going and the boys had a BLAST. Here are a few photos of our day at the fair :).

We got a court date!

2008-03-25T10:14:00.002-05:00

I was just looking at pictures of baby A this morning when my SW called to let me know that we have a court date for April 30th!!! I can't believe it, we will officially be her parents in a little over a month WOOHOO!!!!

Judge will be on vacation!

2008-03-23T11:16:00.004-05:00

I just found out that the judge will be on vacation the whole month of May :(. I can't believe that this is going to potentially be dragged out another couple of months.

The completed room!

2008-03-22T08:37:00.004-05:00

3 months and counting!

2008-03-18T16:58:00.004-05:00

Thank you to all who have emailed me, or posted a comment on my blog. It means a lot to know that I have people cheering me on :). I feel better ( for now anyways ). I spoke with my SW today and the latest news is that the coordinator in Russia is sick with a high fever right now. He has tentitive plans to go to the region that our baby is in to find out what's going on, at the end of this week. It's looking like the earliest that we will get a court date is late April or early May. Oh well, at least it will be warmer in russia this time. Thanks again, for all the support. I will update on Friday!

It's never going to happen!

2008-03-11T15:37:00.002-05:00

That's how I feel right now :(. I've seen many families that have traveled around the same time as us, and even after us, (from the same region) and they already have court dates ( different agency ). There's another couple from the same agency as us that has been waiting since September to get a court date. That means that we could potentially be waiting at least another 3-4 months. Paperwork keeps expiring. A little girl sits in an orphanage waiting for a family. My mother in law is here visiting right now. She saved all of her vacation time so that she could come out here to meet the baby. We were originally told that it would be about 6 weeks, so mil booked her trip back in December. We were told a few weeks ago that we would most likely travel in March. After hearing this news, my oldest son booked a flight in April to come home and meet his little sister. He's supposed to be here from April 22nd- 29th. We are now finding out that people are already getting court dates in mid April, so Jared wont be able to meet the baby now. I'm frustrated! I want to know why it's taking so long for us to get a court date. Friday's are tough. I usually have a mini meltdown every Friday, because I know that we'll have to wait until Monday before we have the chance of hearing anything. I have this gut feeling that we're not going to get a court date for months and i've requested to go back to Russia over the next month or two to check on baby A. I'm hoping to get the approval from my SW soon. That's about it for now.

Probably wont get a court date in March !

2008-03-03T13:51:00.003-06:00

I just spoke with my SW and she told me that they are still gathering the baby's paperwork, to submit to the judge, in order to get a court date. They're hoping to have the childs paperwork submitted by the end of this week. That's all :(. I'm so bummed about this! Our fingerprinting ( police report ) and 8 doctor medical forms expire in April. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Russian family in our neighborhood.

2008-02-24T21:30:00.002-06:00

We have a Russian family that lives right down the street from us (Carie, if you're reading this, then you probably know who I'm talking about :)). Anyways, the husband was outside washing his car today, so I stopped to talk for a minute. He and his wife are both from Moscow, and his wife is a neurologist!! I guess she used to examine children in orphanages while she lived in Russia ( I had NO idea ). He seemed really excited that we were adopting from Russia and said that they would do whatever they could to help. He's going to call me over the next couple of days, so that we can all get together and chat. He's offered to translate and his wife is going to examine the baby when we get her back home. How cool is that :0)?

Possible court date in March.

2008-02-24T08:14:00.003-06:00

I spoke with my SW on Thursday and she told me that we would probably get a court date in March. Our visa expires in March, and a lot of our medicals, so I've been working on getting the paperwork updated. I'll be going to the SOS tomorrow to have it all apostilled. I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll be traveling back to Russia in a few weeks :).

Zoo

2008-02-12T22:00:00.005-06:00

The boys and I went to the zoo on Sunday and had a great time. The weather was beautiful in Austin. Still no news on a court date :(. Here are a few pictures of our trip to the zoo )

100th day of school

2008-02-06T13:26:00.000-06:00

Today was the 100th day of school . The kids had to decorate t-shirts with 100 like items, and then they paraded around the school. They were then allowed to visit any of the 7 kindergarten classrooms to do special activities. Here are some pictures, and a video, of Nicholas making a fruitloop necklace. Alex had fun eating the fruitloops :) !

Round two!

2008-02-05T07:11:00.001-06:00

Well, my paperwork should be in Russia right now. It went over with another family over the weekend, so i'm techically in the "running" again for a court date. I'm so hoping that we get a court date in February, because there have been problems with people obtaining an adoption visa, and we have a dual entry visa that expires March 8th. It would just make life so much easier if we can travel before then. I'm still bracing myself though, because i've seen other couples wait a LONG time to get a court date in this region. I'm keeping my fingers crossed right now!

I'm offically nesting :) !

2008-02-02T14:12:00.000-06:00

I've gone through all of A's clothes and toys, and set aside what we're going to bring with us on our next trip. It was hard, because I really wanted to take everything :). My husband told me that I was bringing too many hairbows. PLEASE, a girl can never have too many hairbows ! One for each outfit :) . I washed all the clothing and bedding. We also picked out the pictures that we're going to take back with us. The judge likes to see pictures of you interacting with your child from the first trip. We also added some pictures of our home, A's room, and our boy's. Now, could we please get a court date??? Here are some new photos!

What we're taking on the trip!

Here is the finished mural!!

2008-02-01T12:37:00.000-06:00

The boy's room!

2008-01-31T15:50:00.000-06:00

The artist that painted the mural in A's room came back to paint a mural in the boy's room. It's not finished, but you can kind of get an idea.I will post more pictures tomorrow when it's finished. Here is a link to the bedding that I ordered.

http://www.olivekids.com/dr-ride.html

We got the paperwork done!

2008-01-30T07:53:00.000-06:00

I actually had everything done and apostilled by 11:00 a.m. yesterday. I overnighted it to the agency and it'll be traveling with a family this weekend. Thank you to the family that's bringing it for us :). When we traveled in December, we had to bring another couples documents and we guarded it with our lives. I was so afraid of something happening to it. Now, we just sit back and wait for the next paperwork request. I've been finding myself obsessed with checking my emails and sitting by the phone, but i'm NOT going to do that anymore. I bought Sesame Street live tickets for Alex ( 2 year old ) and I to go to on February 15th. I'm trying to just go about my normal business so that I don't drive myself crazy. It's so hard not to think about your child being so far away. I just want to get her home!

Paperwork problems!

2008-01-28T20:31:00.000-06:00

Yep, there's a problem with the boy's birth certificates. Apparently, the issue date on Alex's was January 2007, and Nicholas' was issued in September of 2004. Not good. It expires after a year. I dont get it. How does a birth certificate expire???? There are a few other misc. documents that we need to do. I double checked all of our paperwork and noticed that one of the notaries expired in November, and our cpa's license expires on February 28th, so i'm not waiting to be asked for these, i'm going to get it all done, and apostilled tomorrow. Sooo, the wait continues. I can almost bet that there will be many more updates and documents needed before we can get a court date. This seems to be the trend with people that have/are adopting from this region.

IT'S FINISHED!!!!

2008-01-25T12:14:00.000-06:00

It's done, and she did such and awesome job!!! She's coming back next week to do the boys room.

Mural

2008-01-24T15:28:00.001-06:00

Here it is! It's not quite finished yet, but I couldn't wait to share it! The artist did a great job matching the paint with the bedding and curtains.

It's there!!!

2008-01-20T08:51:00.000-06:00

My paperwork should be in Russia right now, so I can get a court date now!!!! I could hear something this week, or it may take months, but at least I know that I have done everything on my part. I'm going to pay really close attention to my paperwork, and update my documents before they expire, instead of waiting to be asked to do it. I think about A every second of the day, and I hope that she is doing well, and growing. She has no idea how much her life is about to change :). Her big brothers are so excited to have her as a sister. We've been working on getting her room done and it looks SO cute! I'll post pictures as soon as it's done. I have an artist coming here next week to paint a mural and we're just waiting for her crib to come in. I realized that I didn't post any pictures from xmas, so yeah, here they are ( a month late :) ).

Another update!

2008-01-18T13:26:00.000-06:00

Here's what's been going on since my last post. After coming back from trip 1, we had additional paperwork that had to be completed before we could get a court date. Because of the holidays, and doctors being on vacation, and all that, it took a little while to get everything done. We finally got all of our paperwork apostilled last Friday, and off it went. I just found out that it will be hand delivered to Russia this weekend WOOHOO!!!! Hopefully we will hear something soon. I've been working like crazy to get everything done and ready, and it's been a lot of fun. I have an artist coming next week to paint a small mural in A's room. I will post pictures of the completed room next Friday.

The wait for a court date.

2008-01-06T08:47:00.000-06:00

The wait to bring our baby girl home has been much harder then I thought it would be. Knowing that she's ours, and knowing that she's in need of so much right now, it's KILLING me to not have her here. We were told by our translator that it would be about a month after our paperwork ( additional paperwork ) was submitted before we get a court date. We're still waiting patiently for our doctors to complete the forms ( almost 2 weeks now ). I'm thinking that we should have everything done by next week. This would bring us into February for a court date. My social worker ( from the agency ) told me that there have been two other couples that are adopting from this particular region, and have now been waiting 4 months for a court date, so who knows. We may be traveling to Russia for trip two as early as February, or we may be waiting for months :(. In the meantime, we've been busy preparing A's room. Jared , my oldest son , painted it a pretty lilac color. I ordered the bedding and curtains from Pottery Barn, and we're just waiting to get the crib. Here are a few photos of the room. It's not complete yet, but you get the idea :).

Here is a picture of all my boys tonight!

2007-12-24T22:49:00.000-06:00

Hoping to have baby A in our Christmas photos next year!

Christmas cookies!

2007-12-23T09:32:00.000-06:00

Here are 3 out of 5 of my boys making Christmas cookies yesterday!

Pictures of the orphanage!

2007-12-22T20:20:00.000-06:00

We're home!

2007-12-22T00:00:00.000-06:00

We got home today and i'm so happy to be home with the boys! Sorry about the lack of updates, but we didn't have internet during most of our stay, so I will give a day by day run down of how our trip went.

Day 1 ( Dec 15th ): We left Austin Texas at 7:00 a.m. and sat at JFK until 8:20 p.m. ! It was the longest day of my life because I was so upset about leaving the boys. I couldn't stop crying :(. We had an overnight flight and arrived in Moscow mid afternoon ( Moscow time ).

Day 2 ( Dec 16th ) : Our coordinator picked us up from the airport and took us to a train ( along with the doctor who was to evaluate our baby ). We had to ride the train for 6-7 hours to get to the region that we were going to. We finally arrived in NN at 1:30 a.m. and checked into our hotel.

Day 3 ( Dec 17th ): We went to the MOE to officially recieve our referral. I'm not sure why, but I was SO nervous about going to the orphanage, and meeting the baby. Our appointment at the orphanage was at 11:30 and we got there just in time. Then the scary part. The orphanage doctor starting listing all of these medical issues, half of which I had no idea of what she was talking about . Then they brought the baby in. She wasn't feeling well because of a fever and cold, so she was crying. The doctor that we brought along with us examined her and said that she had her concerns because the baby was so small. She said that there weren't any signs of FAS, one of my biggest fears, but she was delayed in her motor skills. We spent about an hour holding her because she wasn't feeling well and then the director told us that our time was up.

Day 4 ( Dec 18th ) : We visited with our baby girl again and she was feeling much better. She was SO cute and SO playful with dh. We signed the papers to adopt her and now the LONG wait for a court date. She's loved the toys and books that we brought in. She also tolerated me putting a hairbow in her hair :). We took a ton of pictures and a couple of videos. I'm still worried about her size (she's in 3-6 month clothing ), but i'm sure that she will grow once at home with her family.

Day 5 ( Dec 19 th ): Our last visit with baby girl :(. She wasn't feeling well again, so we did a lot of cuddling. We were so sad to leave her because we know that she needs so much more then what the orphanage can give her, but we had to say our goodbyes. We took an hour long flight back to Moscow for the night. We got in Moscow at 1:00 a.m. !

Day 6 ( Dec 20th ): Time to go home. Our flight wasn't until 3:45 p.m., so we just kind of hung out at the hotel for most of the day. When we got to the airport, we met another adoptive familyhttp://www.rileyadoption.blogspot.com/ and we took the time to chat with them for a few minutes. Their baby boy is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! We took a direct flight to JFK and got in at about 6:30 p.m. ! We then had to stay in a hotel overnight.

Day 7 ( Dec 21st ) : Flew out of JFK early this morning and got home at 11:30 a.m. today!

I guess we're ready!

2007-12-14T21:37:00.000-06:00

Or at least I hope we are :). I'm so tired right now, but I have to wait for that last load of laundry to get done before I can go to bed. Anyways, just wanted to say bye {wave} and I promise to post as soon as I can. We're due to arrive in Moscow at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday and then we have to take a night train to the region that we're going to, so i'm not sure when I will get the opportunity to post ( hopefully soon ).

THANK YOU!

2007-12-11T20:14:00.000-06:00

I want to thank all of you who have sent me " good luck " wishes. It really means a lot to me. I'm becoming more excited and less scared. I can't believe how quickly time is moving. I feel like i've been really organized, but there's STILL so much to do to prepare! The boys are very excited about grammy taking care of them, so i'm feeling less anxious about leaving them. Nicholas talks about his baby sister all the time. He can't wait to show her around the house and to give her dolls, and all the other misc. stuff that we have gathered for her. I think that he's going to be a good big brother :). I've been gathering toys and blankets for the trip ( see pictures ) and can't wait to bring them to the orphanage. I hope that the babies/toddlers enjoy them. I will try and post tomorrow, but if not, I will definitely post while we're in Russia.

EXCELLENT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-12-10T12:20:00.000-06:00

We are traveling to Russia in 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a lot to do, so I will give a more detailed update later, but I didn't want to keep everyone wondering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still waiting

2007-12-10T10:23:00.000-06:00

We still haven't heard anything, but we did get our visas in the mail today.

Testing out the new camera.

2007-12-09T22:46:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pictures that I took with our new camera tonight. Nicholas is holding a very special bear. This bear started out in a 1st grade classroom in Massachusettes ( where we're from ) and has traveled around the US over the past few months. We're supposed to be taking pictures and writting about the bears visit with us, and then send him off to the next person on the list. HOW COOL will it be to bring the bear to Russia with us :)??? The kids would get a real kick out of it. I'm HOPING that the news is good tomorrow because we have all of our travel plans in place, my mom is due to fly out on Thursday, and i've made some meals ( froze them ) to make things a little easier for my mom. My SW is hopeful, so i'm trying not to give up just yet. I will update my blog the second that I know.

Still haven't heard anything.

2007-12-07T15:00:00.000-06:00

Now that it's so late in the day, I probably wont hear anything until Monday {sigh}.

It's not looking good!

2007-12-07T07:12:00.000-06:00

I was in contact with a family that adopted in the same region that we were supposed to adopt in and was told that it's illegal to adopt in Russia if you're an insulin dependent diabetic. I'm not sure what our options are now, but wow. We obviously wouldn't have invested all of this time and money into adopting from Russia, had we known this right from the beginning. I'm still waiting to hear what my SW has to say, but it REALLY isn't looking too good now.

Another problem

2007-12-06T13:07:00.000-06:00

While I was shopping at Walmart for our trip to Russia next week, I got a call from our SW. She told me that it might be an issue that my husband is a diabetic. This is incredibly frustrating to me because I feel as though this is something that should have been looked into two weeks ago, before we booked everything . I'm not feeling very good about this, but I will update as soon as I hear something.

There's so much to do!

2007-12-02T08:33:00.000-06:00

AND I don't know where to start, so I just thought that I would procrastinate more and surf the internet :). I can't believe that we are leaving in less then two weeks. Here is the itenerary so far.

Sat 12/15: Leave Austin 7:00 a.m. and arrive in JFK at 11:30 a.m.

Sat 12/15: Depart JFK at 8:30 p.m. and arrive in Moscow at 1:00 p.m. Sun/16 ( a couple of stops in between ).

Sun 12/16: go through customs and all that ( 2 hrs) and then we STILL have a 5 hour drive to the region that we will be staying in.

Mon 12/17 : Meet child

Tues 12/18 :Visit child ( do paperwork at some point in time ).

Wed 12/19: Drive back to Moscow ( stay in Moscow over night ).

Thurs 12/20: Depart SVO at 8:00 a.m.

Thurs 12/20: Arrive in JFK at around 6:00 p.m.

Fri 12/21: 6:00 a.m. fly out of JFK and arrive in Austin sometime throughout the day.

They arrived!

2007-11-30T11:16:00.000-06:00

PHEW

Got the photo!

2007-11-29T13:03:00.000-06:00

She's a cutie with dark hair! I can't wait to share pictures! On another note, what adoption would be complete without a mishap or two? Well, we are on mishap #1. We overnighted our visa application, along with our passports on Tuesday and they are MISSING!!!! Nobody seems to know where the package is right now. Ron has been on the phone all morning trying to straighten this whole mess up. SO FRUSTRATING!!!!

MORE INFORMATION

2007-11-28T16:01:00.000-06:00

We got more information on our baby girl. My SW says that she's healthy and beautiful ( I should be getting the photo in my email soon ). She is 14 months old and has dark blonde hair and gray eyes. I have her given name too, but i'm not sure if i'm allowed to post it in my blog. OMG this is starting to feel so real now. Ok, off to check my email for the hundredth time.