Russian Adoption Playdate

One Saturday evening recently Blaine, Valerie and I met up in Odessa with 3 other families from this area who have adopted from Russia. Mary was there with her beautiful little Kenzie. We met Dede and Rob and their lively little Liam after following their blog since before we traveled on trip 1! We were also excited to meet Marsha and Brad and their super cute sons Sasha and Dimitry. Sasha has been home from Russia for several years. We met at McDonald's, let the kids play and had a great visit. It was wonderful to chat with people who know exactly what you're talking about when you tell about all the ups and downs in your journey. Each of us had a unique adoption story but we all had smart, beautiful children to show off and share with each other! We had such an enjoyable time and all agreed we need to get together again sometime soon. It's exciting to me that there are other families living so close that have also adopted from Russia!
We worked so hard to get all the kiddos in one picture but it was like herding cats so here's a few different groups. I never got little Dimitry. He was way too fast!

Blaine, Liam, and Valerie in the slide.

Valerie, Kenzie, and Liam trying to be still!

Sasha, Valerie, Liam, and Kenzie

First Day of First Grade!

What a handsome young man!

Posing with Mrs. Coldewey on Day 1!

These pictures are from Blaine's 1st day of school. That was 2 weeks ago. I'm just a little behind with my blogging! We are so busy and have so many things going on that I'm always too tired at night to sit down and blog about it. Blaine is really enjoying school. He loves his teacher. He has several good friends in his class. His favorite thing is the playground (of course). Our only real problem is getting him out of bed in the mornings!

Splish, Splash, Dump!

Valerie just loves her bath! My bathroom floor is always wet. She kicks, splashes, and loves to dump water over her head. Anytime we walk into the bathroom, she starts pulling her clothes off and yelling, "Bath, bath!" I'm just glad getting clean is so much fun. If only Blaine thought so!

31 Words!

In Valerie's orphanage Russian was the only language that was spoken. We took her out of the orphanage on June 5. That was less than 3 months ago and she already has 31 English words that she can say! I'm so proud! Some of these she says perfectly, many are not real clear but she says them the same way every time and in the right context. Here's the Big List!

ball

bath

bite

Bubba

bye-bye

cookie

cough

cow

cup

Dada

diaper (sounds like bye-bye but points to her diaper and says it when she needs a clean one!)

duck

eye

hat

hot

hi

ice

Mama

Mamaw

moo

Nana (Todd's grandmother)

nana (banana)

night-night

No (this is definitely her most used word!)

nose

num-num (yum-yum)

out (as in "get me out of this highchair, carseat, etc.")

Pa (sounds like ba)

quack quack

up (as in "pick me up")

Yay! (while clapping for herself!)

I realize I'm a little biased but I think this is great progress for only being exposed to English for less than 3 months. She can also point to lots of body parts when we say "Where's your ______?" She knows eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, cheeks, hair, feet, and hands. But her favorite thing to show off is her belly button. She jerks her shirt up with the biggest grin on her face! It is so cute! She seems to understand so much of what we say. She follows directions when we say, "Get your shoes, Throw that away, Give me a hug/kiss, etc." We are trying to talk, talk, talk all the time to help her language acquisition. Narrating every move you make can get kinda tiresome! "Do you want a banana, Valerie? Yes? You do want a banana? Ok, Mama will peel this banana for you. It's a yellow banana. Can you say banana, Valerie? Good girl! Take a bite of the banana. Yum-yum. Bananas are sweet, aren't they? Mama likes bananas too. Hold your banana...... and on and on all day long!

Happy Birthday Valerie!

Valerie turned 2 last Sunday on August 17! Here is the birthday girl all dressed up for church in her pretty pink dress! She had no clue what all the fuss was about or why Daddy, Blaine, and I were all singing a funny song to her but we celebrated anyway.

I have been so happy to finally have this precious little girl! However, Sunday, I felt a little bit of sadness. I so wish I could have been there on the day she was born and seen her teeny tiny little hands and feet and held her. I guess I just was thinking about all the things we missed in those first 22 months of her life. But we have her now and she is 100% ours and we have a lifetime of birthdays and celebrations and everyday memories to make! Thank you, Lord for my precious little Valerie. She is perfect for us!

My Mom was out of town so we waited until Monday night to have a party. Here Valerie is with Nana as we lit the candles and sang "Happy Birthday". She didn't really get it but managed to sneak a bite of icing. You can see the evidence on her lip!

She REALLY loved the cake and ice cream! She had a plate and then finished off a few other people's also!

She had a good time opening gifts. Blaine and Jenna gave her a hand while Grama looked on. This little girl needed absolutely nothing but she enjoyed it nonetheless and got some really neat toys, books, and a little cash for the college fund.

Mamaw showed Valerie how to feed her new baby doll. This baby laughs, cries, blinks her eyes, and goes to sleep. Valerie loves to play with her babies. She covers them up, pats them, and says, "night, night". So sweet! Happy 2nd Birthday, Valerie!!

Fishing with Pa!

Dad took Blaine, Valerie, and I fishing at Lake Amistad this weekend. We had a great time and it was really nice to get out of town (but not out of the country!) for a little while. Pa had plenty of help driving the boat! Valerie wasn't scared of riding in the boat at all. She seemed to like the wind in her hair. We haven't found much she is afraid of! She kept trying to climb out of the boat the first time we went out on the lake. I just knew we'd be fishing her out before the weekend was up, but we managed to keep her on board the whole time!

The weather was nice, hot but with a nice breeze. We fished hard and tried lots of different lures but didn't catch very many fish. I think it was just too hot. Valerie stayed happy as long as she was eating! Blaine continues to improve his casting. Pa is so patient with all of us, rigging up our poles, getting us free when we get hung up, and not getting upset over spills in his boat!

Pa actually hooked this little bass and told Blaine he needed some help reeling it in. I love the look on Blaine's face. So proud!


Pa let Blaine drive a couple of times and he had a ball. It made me a little nervous!

We went out each morning, fished, swam, and had a picnic lunch in the boat. Sandwiches never taste better than in a boat! We went in for an afternoon nap and then came back out on the lake until dark. Fun times! Some of my best childhood memories are of going to the lake every summer. I'm so glad my kids are getting to do it too!

By Sunday afternoon, this was one tired little girl! She slept about 3 hours on the drive home.

I can't believe we've already been home for 6 weeks. Valerie will be 2 years old next Sunday!

Certificate of Citizenship

It's official! We received in the mail Valerie's Certificate of Citizenship. It has her passport picture on it and is very official looking with a fancy seal from the Department of Homeland Security. It states that she officially became a citizen of the United States on June 25, which is the day we landed in Atlanta. Now we can apply for her Social Security number. I'm not sure how to do that, but I'll soon be finding out. We've also decided to readopt her here so that she can get a TX birth certificate. We have her original Russian birth certificate as well as another Russian one listing Todd and I as her parents but if we lose this or it gets destroyed we would have to apply to Russia for another one. This way, she will be able to go to any courthouse in TX and get a copy. Considering how many certified copies of our birth certificate we needed for this adoption process, I think it will be a good idea to do this. We don't know how to go about that yet either so I have a little research to do. Any advice would be appreciated!