Our 6th Gotcha Day

I cannot believe it's been 6 years since Dan and I were standing before a Russian judge petitioning to adoption Jaelyn and Allie. So much has happened since then. We've had another child, we've moved 4 1/2 times (that 1/2 was a 2 month pit stop at my parents on our way back from Germany), we've lived through 2 deployments and through it all, we have grown more and more in love with our daughters every single day. Last year I walked down memory lane by posting my journal entries from that time period. This year, I thought I'd take you on a slide show of our 2 trips to Russia. I don't have time to do all the captions now, but most are pretty self explanatory.

To celebrate our Gotcha Day, we'll be making our gingerbread houses like we do every year. I woke up thinking about the Big Macs we ate in Moscow and after our court date....the best Big Macs in the world, hands down. I think we might have McDonalds for dinner as a happy reminder :).

Thanksgiving at Schools

The kids all had Thanksgiving celebrations at school this week. Allie had a "feast" consisting of apples and popcorn in her classroom. She made a thankful tree as s craft project. We've all written on it now and it's the center piece on our table.


Jaelyn's feast was in the cafeteria. She had a lot of "party food" and I'm thankful that she came home and behaved herself loaded down with sugar and artificial food coloring.

Jaelyn with her friend Allison.Caden's party was Wednesday. He told me he had "corn muffins which I didn't like, applesauce which I didn't like and cold water that I did like." He helped Miss Patty make cranberry relish. She said he did a great job of stirring.

Indian Caden with Miss Barb.

Indian Caden with Miss Patty.

Halloween

You all know about my dislike of Halloween and the overload of sugar. It's genetic, passed down from my mom; I can't help it. However, I am all for the dressing up part of Halloween.

Caden was Bumblebee the Transformer for his Halloween party at school. He wanted to be a character from Star Wars, but couldn't decide between a Clone Trooper or a Jedi. Bumblebee was his compromise, I guess. He was cute. One of his friends was Optimus Prime so they were a matching set.

We offered the kids $10 each for toy shopping and a nice dinner out in exchange for not trick-or-treating and then not having to throw all of their loot in the trash. They loved our offer especially since they still got to dress up and Walmart always passes out candy. Jaelyn chose to be a tiger like last year, and maybe the year before that. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can only think of 1 year that she hasn't been something in the feline family.

Allie went as a princess in a pretty red dress out of the dress-up bin. The dream of growing up and marrying a prince is alive and well in Allie.Caden had planned on being a nerd for our Halloween outing, but ended up in his spiderman costume instead. He spent his Halloween money on a new, super cool light saber. It's spring loaded, lights up and makes humming sounds. He's in Jedi heaven.

Jaelyn and Allie being sillyJaelyn spent her money well. She got a Webkinz, a Little Pet Shop Frog, and 3 jungle Pocket Pals. Allie got a new Cinderella Polly Pocket, because you can never have too many Pollys. Disney has gotten smart and painted the shoes on her feet. No more searching through the vacuum canister for a missing shoe.After we got home from shopping and dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, Jaelyn wanted to carve a pumpkin. The weather has been yuck and with Dan out of town, we never made it back to the pumpkin patch as a family. We only had the 2 small ones Caden and I got on his field trip. He wanted to keep his pumpkin whole, so I used my tiny pumpkin. Last year, I bought a Disney carvng kit clearanced after Halloween. I wanted to do Frankengoofy, but he was complicated so I went with Vampire Mickey instead. I had to free hand it on the pumpkin because the pattern was too big...or maybe the pumpkin was too small. Either way, I think I did okay.

In the beginningAll cut out and ready to be lit upGlowing Vampire Mickey - Whhhoooooo

Happy Birthday Dad and Jaelyn

My Dad's 64th birthday was Thursday. Since my parents won't be back for Jaelyn's birthday in July, we combined their birthdays and celebrated together with a VERY delicious chocolatey cake (that I've eaten way too many pieces of w/o a visit to the gym in between).

Anyway, we had a fun party and got to open a few presents. Jaelyn got a new ipod shuffle which she's been wanting. I've been letting her use mine as a calming technique when she feels anxious and it seems to help. She likes having her own so she isn't constantly asking to borrow mine. The kids also all got money that they enjoyed spending at the store. Jaelyn and Caden have no problem picking out toys, but Allie has the worst time deciding what to spend her money on. Toy departments have too many toys! No one had enough money for what they wanted, but thankfully we'd brought Baba with us so she floated everybody loans - which I'm sure will be repaid in hugs and kisses.

12/27/2008 - Caden's Birthday Party

We had a small birthday party for Caden at Joan's house yesterday. With my mom still sick (but finally getting over it thankfully), it ended up being Dan's family. We had a beautiful warm day as you can see by Caden's sweaty hair, so the kids were able to play outside. Uncle Nathan kept everyone occupied with a game of beach ball baseball. Everyone was able to get hits.

We also opened up Nana's garage and got out the ton of bikes and scooters that Grandmother has collected for us to play with.

After everyone was hot and tired, we went inside for a slice of birthday cake (cookies and cream ice cream and chocolate cake - yum).
I can't believe my little man is almost 4. Where has the time gone???

Gotcha Day

Today is my annual "trip down memory lane" day. 5 years ago today, Dan and I stood in front of a very stern faced Russian judge and petitioned the court to adopt Jaelyn and Allie. We am so thankful to have Jaelyn and Alexandra as our daughters. I can't imagine our lives without them. We have been truly blessed!!! The kids and I made our gingerbread house tonight to celebrate. The Grand in Moscow was decorated with elaborate gingerbread houses everywhere for Christmas and so we make one every year as a way to remember and to kick off our Christmas decorating (although not much decorating going on here this year :p)

So you can walk down memory lane with me, here are my journal entries from that week (sorry it's so long)....

12/1/03 -
This email is costing me $8 for 15 minutes, but I decided it was worth it to share our news with you as soon as possible. At 10:53 am (Samara time), after 30 minutes of questioning by the judge, she approved our adoption of Jaelyn and Alexandra and waived our 10 days. We will be leaving the hotel in a few minutes to drive to Togliatti (they didn't move the kids) to bring our kids home.

I can't believe this day is finally here. 8 months to the day that we started this process. Thank you so much for praying us through. God has blessed us beyond our grandest imaginations!

Tomorrow, we'll hang out at the hotel while Natasha completes are paperwork and gets our birth certificate and adoption decree processed. We are on a 5 pm flight back to Moscow.

12/1/03 - We were really nervous about our court appearance (when I say we, I mean us and the other 2 couples we traveled with). The night before, we asked our facilitator to tell us about the court, but she said "I'll tell you tomorrow." Do you know how frustrating that is. So over dinner, we talked and guessed at how things might go. The next morning, we met in the lobby at 9:00 all dressed in our "dark" court clothes. If it hadn't been for the glow on our faces, we would have been a rather somber group. Anyway, on the drive to court, Natasha told us a few things the judge would ask for sure. We, of course, were all wishing she had told us the night before, so we could have "studied." What nerds we are!!! Anyway, she told us we'd be asked our family income, we'd be asked if we knew our children had medical concerns and we'd have to ask the court to waive our ten days because "our children are sick, we have an appt with the pediatrician when we get home, and we have an appt with the American embassy."Dan and I elected to go first.

We went in and sat on the bench in the front of the courtroom. Natasha sat beside us. The judge sat directly in front of us on a small raised platform. It had 3 chairs and a desk - I guess sometimes they have panels of judges for other things. To the judge's left was the court reporter. We joked at dinner the night before about how she would record the session - it was with a pencil and paper. Beside her, directly to our right was the prosecutor at a small desk. To our left was a representative from the MOE. We all rose when the judge walked in (just like here). She read through our petition to adopt the girls and then the MOE read through the info on the girls. Natasha was translating for us.

When they were all done, Natasha told Dan to stand up. The judge was very serious, yet she was kind too. While she spoke, she looked at us, but while she deliberated our answers, she looked down and played with a folded piece of paper (it looked like one of those footballs we used to get in trouble with in elementary school). My favorite question came from the judge. She looked me up and down and then with the smallest smile, asked me "if I had enough strength and energy to take care of 2 young children, because I was so skinny." I was really nervous. The question made me laugh and smile and relaxed me a little.

After the questions, the judge had the lady from the MOE reread the info on the girls and asked us if we indeed wanted to adopt them (are you kidding - of course). The court was recessed at about 10:45. Dan and I were questioned for a total of about 30 minutes.

Then the judge came back in and read our adoption decree approving our adoption (at 10:53 am on Dec. 1, 2003) and waiving our 10 days. At the end she told us that she hoped we would love and cherish these children so that one day, when we are older, they will do the same thing for us and she wished us well. It was sweet.While the other two couples had their court appearances, Dan and I went with our driver to what we think was vital statistics and signed a bunch of forms for us and the other couples (while or before they had their court appearances) which we think were for the issuing the birth certificates. When we got back to the courthouse, in less than an hour, the other couples were done and the judge was gone.

12/4/03 -
It's 10:46 am in Moscow. The girls and Dan are taking a nap; so I'm doing one of my favorite things - playing on the computer. The computer is still down so I'm paying to use the one in the business center.

Thanks mom for sending the email. When we got to the orphanage on Monday, we all went back into the same room as before. Then Natasha came and got Dan and I and told us to come with her "something had happened to one of our children." Of course our stomachs sank. The week before Alexandra received 1st and 2nd degree burns on her bottom. We don't believe it was malicious or intentional. The caregiver also received burns on her arms. They told us they had some kind of problem with the water??? We'll never really know what happened. Anyway, the first few days with her were rough because we were instructed to leave her diaper off most of the time. I won't share the details....let's just says it's wasn't a pretty picture. We were given some sort of spray to put on the burns 4-5 times a day and medicated gauze for when she has on a diaper. We decided to just us the gauze and diapers (the blister is gone). The burn is healing and looking much better. We are only giving her Tylenol a couple times a day.

So as my mom said, Jaelyn is really bonding with Dan because I've spent lots of time with Alexandra. And when we've been out, I've carried 13 lb Alexandra and Dan's carried 22 lb Jaelyn. Both girls are really sweet and we think we've been doing a pretty good job with them. We haven't had any major issues anyway. It still doesn't seem real. It just feels like we are baby sitting. I think once we get them HOME, it'll all change. We can't wait to get home.

We are staying in the "baby suite" at the hotel. It has a complete babies room that is awesome and well stocked.

My time is almost up. There's so much more to tell, it'll wait. Please continue to pray for us. We still have a very long plane ride. We'll be at the hotel today and tomorrow. Amrex takes care of the registering at the Russian consulate so we don't have to go out in the cold. Also pray for quick healing for Alexandra!


12/7/03 - From my Mom

Kelly asked me to send you an e-mail to let you know what is going on with them. Yesterday morning we were awakened to a call from Kelly saying that Delta had cancelled their flight from Moscow to New York and that they were flying home on Aeroflot and that they should be able to make their connection. Before I was awake enough to tell her that there was a blizzard over New York, she was gone. Lou and I got in the car and drove to Atlanta with the assumption that maybe they really would make their connection. After arriving at Dan and Kel's house about 2:00 in the afternoon, we received a call from Delta airlines saying that their flight from New York to Atlanta had been cancelled. After four phone call with Delta, I had managed to get them rescheduled on a Monday flight and I was assured that there were no hotels rooms left in New York. At that point, we believed they would be sleeping in the airport for two days. So we just sat and waited. At about 7:00 last night Kelly called to say they had landed safely and that they well all fine. A while later they called to say they did get a hotel room although very expensive and were headed there in a cab. You can't believe the number of phone calls that we received yesterday. One of them was from Kelly's Uncle Larry in Philadelphia asking how they could help. My first thought was that they could drive to New York and pick them up. He said that the Philadelphia airport was open and if they could get there they could say at their house or they would help however they could. We gave the info to Dan and Kelly and later they called to say that they would be catching a train this morning to Philadelphia and would be staying at Sandy and Larry's home until Monday when they have a flight out in the afternoon.

At some point I realized we hadn't even asked how the girls were. I promise I wasn't being a bad grandma, just a tired one. So when I talked to a very tired, stressed, and hungry Kelly at the hotel I asked about the girls. One minute Kelly sounded like she could hardly put one foot in front of the other and then when she started talking about her girls, all of her energy and happiness returned. She was just bubbling over with pride for how well the girls had adjusted to every situation. She said Alexandra had even gone five hours without a bottle without complaining. Other than a shortage of diapers and a desire for different formula and a definite need for sleep, at least at that point we knew everything was fine. I spoke to Dan at some point and realized that his strength had taken over and he would get everything organized for them.

I probably don't have to tell you how proud Lou, Larry, Joan and I are of our children right now. They've already as very new parents, handled some tough situations. Also again I thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. They couldn't have gotten through all this without your prayers.
I'm sure Kelly will write to you as soon as she runs into the first computer.

12/8/03 - From Dan

Hello everyone this is Dan. We made it in today very frazzled and tired, but we made it none the less. Jeannie and Lou met us at the airport and are helping watch the girls while we get back on our feet. The girls have been GREAT! Kelly is not feeling well, and it may take a few days before she is back with it.

Thanks for all the prayers... we would have never made it without them.

Christmas Vacation Pictures

Click on the slideshow to see them bigger.

Our Christmas Vacation

I had the best of intentions of keeping my blog updated with our daily antics, but it just didn't work. Our schedule was insanely packed and so much fun. Here's a run down of what I can remember : ).

12/19 - Wed - fly to Pensacola. We had lunch with Dan's family and then spent the rest of the day settling in at my mom's.

12/20 - Thurs - Dan and I had a meeting while the kids played at Grandmother's house. We took my grandmother lunch and we got to eat at Moe's (because you know going home is all about where you can eat!!!)

12/21 - Friday - We went to the beach in the morning and then had lunch at Santino's (again about the food). We had dinner with Dan's family and opened Christmas presents...and toy overload begins!!! The girls spent the night at Grandmother's to play with Caleb, their cousin.

12/22 - 12/24 - These days are fuzzy. I know Dan and I got a date night to Coach N Four (still good food, but way too expensive now) and we took the kids to see Enchanted one day. We probably did other things, but I honestly don't remember.

12/25 - Merry Christmas - This was such a fun day. The kids woke up around 7 and we opened presents - more toy overload. We went to the big Beasley Family Christmas (Dan's Grandmother's family) for an hour and then went back to my mom's to help cook. We had a house full at my mom's: Chad, Karen and the boys, Grandpa and Doris, and Uncle Larry and Aunt Sandy. It was a really fun day! After the toy/food/people overload, we left the kids with my parents to put to bed and Dan and I snuck off to see a movie - Treasure Hunters.

12/26 - Wednesday - My mom and I snuck off to do a little shopping on our own in the morning (there was a lot of sneaking going on :). We wandered around the exchange and hit the dollar store to get things for Caden's birthday party. We had lunch at Grandmother's house and then had dinner with Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate out friend Jackson's 7th birthday!

12/27 - Thursday - What a fun day! The kids and I went to Malbis and met Sarah, Hope, Halle and Hudson for lunch. It's been so long since we've seen them and it was so much fun! We shopped with my parents in the evening at Kohl's (I spent way too much money on summer clothes for the kids but everything was clearanced). Then we had dinner at Cock of the Walk with Grandpa, Doris, Uncle Larry, Aunt Sandy, my cousin Dawn, her husband Ed and their daughter Sara.

12/28 - Friday - the day we've been waiting for - SPA DAY! We dropped the kids off at Joan and Larry's and headed to Destin with our friends Jennifer and Rich. We had lunch at McAllisters and then went to my favorite place: Serenity by the Sea! Jennifer and I left a mellow Dan and a nervous Rich and headed to the girls side for some girl talk and giggling (lots of both!). I had a massage and a facial. It was great. Dan didn't enjoy his as much because the girl used her elbow again. I told him to be a guy and tell her to stop, but I guess that's not macho. Rich had hilarious stories to tell about his facial (the extraction, getting electrocuted and being wrapped with seaweed) and I'm sure we'll be laughing about them for years to come. We had dinner at Hemingways in Pensacola Beach and ended the day with hot Krispy Kreme donuts! The perfect day!

12/28 - Saturday - It's a little early, but we decided to have Caden's birthday in Pensacola with all of our family and little friends. It was so much fun. We had a house full of kids and lots of yummy cake and ice cream. We were now way past toy overload and I wasn't sure how we'd get everything home the next morning.

12/29 - Sunday - We had a very early and un-eventful flight back to Maryland. It's good to be in our house, but we miss being "home."

Making the Rounds

We have been busy trying to see everyone. There's so much family here. It's been awesome though. I'd forgotten what it was like to have everyone so close and to be able to see them whenever we want. We are staying at my mom's; although it doesn't seem like we've seen them much between us being on the go, them working and my mom's doctor's appointments (more in another post). We've been able to spend time with Dan's grandparents, Nana and Daddy Doe. We took my Grandma lunch the other day. We had Christmas with Dan's family a few night's ago. We haven't seen my brother and his family or my grandfather, but we'll see everyone tomorrow! I can't wait.

Flying to Florida

Wednesday was a fun, but exhausting day. It started at 3:30 when my alarm went off. If you've never gotten up at that time, let me reassure you that it is WAY too early. We got the kids up at 4:00 to get them dressed and then piled into the car as soon as a friend, Robert, made it to our house to drive us to the airport. We ate cheerios and raisin bread in the car and were in a generally good mood. Check in at the airport was smooth and we made it through security and to our gate without any hassles. Once we found our gate, the kids and I got out the camera and went on an ABC scavenger hunt. We are going to make an ABC book for Jaelyn to take to school. We started with taking a picture of our airplane for A, a bag for B, Caden for C, etc. We had help from people in the airport with someone letting us take a picture of a book that had a picture of an elephant in it for E and with our pilot letting us take his picture for P. We continued our scavenger hunt in the Atlanta airport. The hardest letters were U, X and Z. Jaelyn had a great idea and I took a picture of all the kids pointing UP. For Z, we managed to find a zero candy bar. X was by far the hardest, but Jaelyn was wearing a shirt with Xs and Os so we took a picture of it and will write "X is for hugs and kisses." On the plane, the kids stayed busy with coloring and sticker books. Jaelyn did a little of her school work and Allie played with her polly pockets. Caden's favorite part of the flights were by far the lollies he got to eat when the plane was taking off. That was a huge treat. They never get candy like that. We got to the airport in Pensacola to not find our families excitedly expecting us, instead we found everyone sitting off to the side visiting and not paying a bit of attention watching the terminal exit. Silly grandparents, they got their hugs anyway, whether they deserved them or not.

Santa has Come and Gone

Santa came on Saturday night and the kids were so excited Sunday morning to go downstairs and so what he left. For Caden, Santa left a radio controlled dinosaur that roars, walks, and has red, glowing eyes. He was an immediate hit. For Allie, Santa left a doll that came with 9 different outfits to spend hours dressing and undressing. Another hit! For Jaelyn, Santa left a new baby doll bed and a baby. Santa had to work hard on the doll bed. The first one was defective (3 side rails cracked while he was assembling it) so he had to get the elves to make a 2nd one! Jaelyn named her new baby doll Isabella and is calling her Bella (after a favorite Dog belonging to one of Dan's coworkers).

After playing with Santa toys for a little bit, we ripped into the other presents under our tree. Allie got a pile of Polly Pockets and spent the rest of the day "working." She even refused to eat with the excuse that "she had more work to do." Jaelyn got the games Guess Who and Perfection. We played many games of Guess Who and I think it'll be come a favorite. Caden got more dinosaurs and a few match box cars. He also got a radio controlled car. He liked the remote better than the car, carrying it around with him all day.

Here Comes Santa Claus

Santa Claus is coming to town tonight and we are so excited. We pretended today was Christmas Eve. We baked cookies for Santa and left them with a glass of milk under the Christmas tree. Dan even helped the kids pour oatmeal onto a plate and left it outside for the reindeer. I hope they like it. I bought us all new pajamas and we opened them this evening. Caden's pajamas are so cute and remind me of something my Grandpa would have worn, only Caden's had a cute snowman on it. The girls got fleece night gowns which they were really wanting. We had only had one hand me down winter night gown and we were having nightly fights over who was going to wear it. When I told the kids they could open one present, I'm sure pajamas were not what they were hoping for, but they got over it quickly. I can't wait for everyone to get up to see what Santa left them. Jaelyn asked for a doll bed with a new doll, Allie asked for a doll with lots of clothes to change and Caden asked for a dinosaur. I'm pretty sure Santa got them exactly what they wanted ;).

Allie's Christmas Play

Allie's preschool put on their annual Christmas play on Wednesday. The teacher drew names for parts and Allie was chosen to be the Angel who appeared to Mary to tell her she was going to have a baby. Only four kids had speaking parts and Allie was one of them. Her line was "You are going to have a baby and you will name him Jesus." Allie, being the good Southern girl she is, changed both lines to "going to" instead of "will." She did a great job and was a perfect angel, keeping her hands clasp together the whole time. I've edited out some of the play before Allie's part and PLEASE ignore the singing at the end. They sang happy birthday to Jesus and the audience joined in. I forgot how close I was to the camera and most of you know how horrible my singing is. Sorry!

After the play, we went back to her room for a small party. The kids sang some more for us and did their finger plays. Santa dropped off a big bag of books for the kids and then we had yummy chocolate cake. Allie gave me a wall hanging she had made with her hand prints. It was a fun party.

Our 4th Gotcha Day

Today is Gotcha Day! 4 years ago Dan and I were standing in front of a Russian judge petitioning her to let us adopt Jaelyn and Allie. I am amazed when I contemplate everything that has happened in 4 years: Moving, Caden, Moving, Dan deploying, Moving, Moving, Moving...Through it all, Jaelyn and Allie have grown from babies to beautiful, smart little girls.

We haven't done too much today. Caden is napping now and when he wakes up, we'll make our Gingerbread House and tell the girls their adoption story or "baby story" as Allie calls it. In the meantime, we've been amusing ourselves with a game of Monopoly Jr. Allie continues to amaze me with her luck at games. She almost always wins no matter what we play. Today, after a 40 minute game (that I honestly though would never end), Jaelyn was out of money, I had $11 and little Miss money bags Allie had $79. It wasn't pretty as Jaelyn is about as poor a loser as I am and for those that have seen me, you know that can be pretty bad!

Thanksgiving Change of Plans

The days are just flying by. I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. My parents had been planning on coming, but my Grandmother has been in the hospital with pneumonia. She's doing much better and is close to going home, thank goodness. My parents have decided to stay in Pensacola to help her. While I totally understand and agree, it still doesn't make me any less sad. We've decided to plan a non-traditional Thanksgiving and will be celebrating at Medieval Times in Baltimore. I've been showing Caden videos of the knights from their website and he's totally excited about the adventure.