Nolan's 11th Birthday!

Nolan, my baby boy is 11!  Sometimes his birthday falls on Thanksgiving and lots of times we are out of town but THIS year Nolan's birthday was the day after turkey day and we we're home so he had a very special party with his friends and family.  It started with a "breakfast buffet" his favorite and ended with a Monsters hockey game.  After getting properly face and hair painted, Nolan and his buddies were treated to the VIP lounge followed by cake in a private suite.  They got to be part of the "Cave Crew" and high five the players as they went onto the ice and they even made it on the jumbo-tron!  We earned some pretty big cool parent points for this one.

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2010 Pre PreK School Pictures

Sisters!  Love how Macy has her arm around Nina.

I have no idea how to describe this expression other than goofy.  So not Nina but a classic none the less.

A Macy smirk...not her usual smiley face but doesn't her hair look gorgeous?!

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"Thank You for Giving"

The girls are having a Thanksgiving party at school today.  They were so excited to finally get to wear their turkey dresses and bows and were a bundle of energy as they left the house.  As we were going through our hugs and kisses goodbye ritual I said to Macy, "have fun at your party, happy Thanksgiving".  

Then cupping her hands one on each of my cheeks and bringing her face close to mine she gushed back, "thank-you-for-giving mommy". 

Priceless. 

Yes sweet Macy thank YOU for giving.

Macy and Nina at their school Thanksgiving party

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A Polite Reminder...

Max received a parrot for his birthday.

The parrot was fully-grown with a bad attitude and worse vocabulary. Every other word was an expletive. Those that weren’t expletives were, to say the least very rude.

Max tried hard to change the bird’s attitude and was constantly saying polite words, playing soft music, anything he could think of to try and set a good example. Nothing worked.

He yelled at the bird and the bird yelled back. He shook the bird and the bird just got angrier and became even more rude. Finally in a moment of desperation. Max put the parrot in the FREEZER.

For a few moments he heard the bird squawk and kick and scream. Then suddenly, there was silence…..

-Not a sound for half a minute. Max was frightened that he might have hurt the bird and quickly opened the freezer door.

The Parrot calmly stepped out onto Max’s extended arm and said:

“I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I will endeavor at once to correct my behavior. I really am truly sorry and beg your forgiveness.”

Max was astonished at the bird’s change in attitude and was about to ask what had made the difference and caused such a dramatic change when the parrot continued:

“May I ask what the turkey did???”

Don't Forget to Take the Turkey Out of the Freezer!

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Our Christmas Angel

The darling little boy under the red arrow is Vanya. He just turned 10 and is in the third grade. Vanya lives with his "family" group (pictured) at the RBS orphanage in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan. We don't know if Vanya is eligible for adoption or if he will ever have a mother and father to call his own but this week we decided we would sponsor him through the Antares Foundation and in a small way make him part of our family.

Many of the kids in this photo do not yet have sponsors. Those of us who have already sponsored children are working hard to make sure every child has a gift on Christmas morning but more sponsors are needed. The hope is that every child will have their own sponsor family to encourage them and let them know they are loved.

If you want to show gratitude this Thanksgiving in a real and tangible way,

If you've wondered about how to make this Christmas truly miraculous,

If you've always wanted to adopt or adopt another child,

If there is a face in this picture that tugs at your heart


PLEASE contact Antares today.

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Surgery Day

Macy had surgery to revise her lip and nose.  The initial plan was to also repair a fistula in her palate and to put tubes in her ears but it turned out those two procedures were not needed.  Macy was not happy about going to the hospital in the morning but still rolled with the process pretty easily.  Her naturally pleasant and easy going personality was a huge blessing.

The surgery took longer than we expected.  We got to the hospital at 8am and she was in the OR by 10am.  Her surgery wasn't over until after 3pm.  Let me tell you that feels like a long time to wait...especially that last hour! Her surgeon was very pleased with the outcome as were we.  Macy will likely have additional surgeries but not until she is in her teens.

We expected to stay at the hospital at least overnight but since there was no palate repair and since Macy was doing so well we were able to take her home the same night. By 8pm she was even playing a bit.  She is on a liquid diet for at least the next week. She can only use a cup, no straws or spoons. So far this seems to be her only complaint.  My girl likes to eat.

Macy was all smiles (as usual) before her surgery.

Macy in the recovery room just after surgery.

We thought her lip and nose revision looked great.  We were expecting her to look a lot more beat up than this.  All things consider we thought she looked fantastic.

She was sleepy for a long while.  She had no problems with anesthesia but the morphine kept her pretty groggy.  It must have done the trick for pain because she never cried or complained after waking up...never.

This is how you are discharged at Children's Hospital-no wheel chairs here.  Before we got to the car the girl pulling the wagon gave Macy a big teddy bear and a blanket. She was too out of it then but was very happy to show Nina the next morning.

We could tell when the morphine was wearing off because our sweet happy Macy came back smiling just hours after surgery.

Macy played doctor with Nana who apparently also had a lip revision.  She told us her name was Dr LiPing and I was her nurse.

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Dim Sum with Macy's "China" Friends

Slowly but surely we are making connections in the China adoptive community.  Today we met a group of families in Cleveland "China Town" for Dim Sum and a trip to a Chinese grocery store. 

We have such strong connections in the Kaz adoption community I have to make an effort to try to even things out.  The girls routinely have arguments that go something like,  " I'm NOT going to share my Kazakhstan friends with you"...."Mommy Nina's not going to share her Kazakhstan Friends"..."Nina I NOT going to share my China friends"...."Mommy Macy's not going to share her China friends".  Really I should just wear stripes.  Well it least now Macy HAS some China friends to negotiate with.  Hopefully the sharing will come later:)

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NINA jumping BEAn

 Our two year post placement report is due soon and I am gathering photos to submit.  I wish I could send this video so they could see how the vacant, stiff, tearful and scared child we met has blossomed.

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Celebrating Two Years with Nina Bea

Two years ago today Dart and met and held and fell head over heels in love with our first daughter.  I don't think I will ever know anything quite so emotionally intense as that first meeting.  We had waited so very long for a daughter and two years ago on a dark and cold night in Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan we met this beautiful, shy fragile little doll baby.  I immediately wanted to make her safe, happy, healthy, LOVED.

Two years later I feel we have done just that!

We celebrated the day beginning with a school party for Nina.  Her teachers were amazingly supportive and sincerely excited to be part of our special day.  We brought in blue and yellow Kaz cupcakes to share with the class.  (The girls and I had fun making them last night sans frosting as that is not allowed at school.) We also brought in apples and apple juice to share because of course apples are from Kazakhstan!  The teacher's read a book called "Forever Family" to the class and told the story about how Nina and apples were both from Kazakhstan.  The kids huddled around a globe to see where Kazakhstan was.  Then Nina shared a book of photos from our bonding trip at the baby house.  It was so interesting to hear the kids ask questions like "who took care of you before your Mommy and Daddy got you?" and "where did you sleep?".  The teacher handled it expertly and the  kids seemed to accept her answers without judgment.  Nina donned in her Kaz flag head band looked at little shy with all the attention but we could tell she was feeling proud.  At the end all the kids gathered around Nina and sang a song about love and acceptance. THIS IS WHY I LOVE THIS SCHOOL!!!!

Then later in the evening our family went out for a traditional Kazakh meal, (cough, cough) at the Japanese steak house.  Nina had a small present and a blue and yellow cake complete with with sparklers.

I can't help but see the joy and happiness present in Nina....so different than two years ago when we met.  And truly there is a new level of joy in our lives as well.  It had been a very VERY good two years.

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