Family Reunion

We had the best time last weekend at the first ever Family Reunion for my Mom's family. It was in Weatherford at the Texas Star Ranch, which is a beautiful place. Almost everyone was able to make it and it was so fun to see all my aunts, uncles, and cousins; hear about their lives, and see their children! We got to swim, play games, eat, visit, and eat and visit some more. The kids had a ball and were exhausted by the time the weekend was over.

My brother, Bryan and me

Valerie and Corey, just a swingin'

Blaine and Valerie hanging out with cousins

Dad and Mom

My sister, Ginger and me

These are some of the pictures Ginger sent me. I don't know why two are smaller. I have some more good ones on my camera so maybe I'll post more later.

A Fabulous Year!

I can't believe it's been a full year since this little girl became ours forever. And what a fabulous year it has been! Our friend and fellow adoptive parent, Catherine sent us this picture of Valerie on her "Gotcha Day". This is a picture of her on June 5, 2008 in the Baby Home. Her groupa had been outside playing and this caregiver brought her in so we could change her clothes and take her with us forever. Valerie had no idea just how much her life was about to change. And to be quite honest, neither did we! In one year she has adapted beautifully to a new country, new home, new family, new language, and new foods. Her progress has been amazing! Looking at this picture brings back so many memories and emotions. I was head over heels in love with this baby at this time last year but over the past year that love has grown and grown. What would we ever do without her? We are so very blessed!

Here she is one year later, 7 inches taller, 10 lbs heavier, and full of personality. She is totally uncooperative about taking pictures, but so very cute!!

This week 1 year ago...

We were in Khabarovsk, Russia!at Baby Home #2

meeting this beautiful baby girl

playing on the floor

getting to know each other

and falling in love!

These moments are so etched in my memory they seem like yesterday! We had such wonderful visits with Valerie for 5 days. The joy of meeting our daughter and the pain of leaving her there to come home and wait for a court date made for a very emotional week! Now she has officially been ours for 9 months!

Eeeeewwww!

Valerie has a really cool battery operated Dora toothbrush. She loves it and loves to walk around the house brushing her teeth. Yesterday, I caught her brushing Champ, our dog's teeth with it. She had his lips pulled way back in a painful looking way and was going to town on his teeth with her Dora toothbrush buzzing away. Yuck! Champ just sat there looking pleasant, maybe he was enjoying the bubble gum flavored toothpaste she had generously applied. I yelled at her, "STOP! NO, NO, DON'T EVER BRUSH THE DOG'S TEETH WITH YOUR TOOTHBRUSH! YUCKY, YUCKY!" She just gave me a look that said "what's the big deal?" I've seen that look before on the face of one of my first graders that I caught drinking out of my water cup on my desk. When I got on to him, he just shrugged and said, "I do it all the time." Eeeww!

Big Girl Bed

Valerie is now in a big girl bed in her very own room! She has been sleeping in a crib in our room since we brought her home last summer. This was working well for her but not so well for Todd and I. Valerie still bangs her head alot in her sleep and the whole crib would rattle loudly each time. We decided to try to move her to her own room and I worried that it would be a difficult transition. It worked out great and everyone is sleeping better! She pats herself and says "big girl" when we put her in bed. She has gotten up a few times and we just tell her to go back to bed and she does it with very little protesting! I think she is more comfortable and I haven't heard much head banging going on since the switch. I still have the crib up in our room. I feel a little sad because my baby really isn't a baby anymore!
This is the sure sign that Valerie is sleepy. She even sucks those fingers in her sleep.

She is so proud of herself!

Static Electricity

One Year Ago!

One year ago today we received our referral for Valerie. I'll never forget that feeling as I read over and over the very tiny bit of information we first received.

The email simply said:

Dear Cindy,

The Department has issued a referral for you - a girl, light featured, Valeria, DOB August 26. According to her referral letter, her diagnoses look average. My question is Valeria is half year older than you requested, will you consider her referral and we can work further on getting more info or would you like to turn her down due to age and ask for a younger referral?

Best Regards, Olga

She was older than what we had originally requested but we had been praying that we would get the referral that God meant to be our child so I immediately emailed Olga back and said we definitely will consider her, please get us more information. Two days later we received another email with her medical report and current pictures. Irina, the coordinator in Khabarovsk had gone to the orphanage and taken the pictures that week! When I saw her, I knew that I could never turn her down. She looked beautiful and scared and I wanted to go get her right then. I read over the medical and it scared me to death with all kinds of horrible sounding diagnoses but Olga assured me they were fairly typical of what they see on most medicals from that orphanage and she also put me in touch with Dr. Skurkovich, an international adoption doctor. He said Valerie seemed to be more light, more fragile, and certainly 4 or even 5 months delayed in development compared to the average US child but nothing that wasn't correctable. He gave a low-risk assessment. She had no physical signs of fetal alcohol syndrome.

Doesn't she have amazing eyes? I blew these precious pictures up to 8 x 10 and printed them off. I stared at them and prayed for her constantly for the next month until we traveled to Khabarovsk to meet her! They say not to fall in love with your referral because you might meet her and decide she's not the one or she might be adopted by a Russian family before you are able to complete the adoption. I heard that advice but didn't heed it. I was definitely already in love!