3 Years ago today...

...we stood in the small, crowded court room in a Novosibirsk courthouse in the middle of Siberia. We understood 1 out of every 20 words or so, but we got the point. We were declared the legal parents of an adorable blonde-haired boy in an orphanage in Kuibyshev. We went out to celebrate that night by getting pizza and Fanta. It's sounds cliche, but our lives have changed so much since that day. C has grown into a lively, compassionate, one-of-a-kind little guy. He is a great big brother. This morning at breakfast I said "Happy Adoption Day" and he just said "Thanks Mom" like it was no big deal. I still wonder how much he understands. We are very open with him and we made lots of comparisons for him while he was with us in Kyrgystan, but I still just wonder what he thinks.

his referral pic...

4-year-old C

6 months ago today...

Our little girl became ours forever. We walked into the orphanage and were immediately drawn to her. We knew her, though we had never met. Her life and our lives changed forever that day.

her referral pic...

and 6 months later!

Busy, Busy

We have settled into our back-to-school routine. Unfortunately, it doesn't leave much mommy computer time to be had. C is doing great at school. The only hard part for him has been adjusting to getting up earlier. He asks almost every morning "Why do you not want me to sleep?" He's not even getting up early, compared to most 4 year olds, but he was used to sleeping until he woke up on his own. AP has an endless supply of snot right now, we think there may be another tooth on the horizon. Here is a little bathtime cuteness from tonight (can you tell I like bathtime pics?)

Our Future Evangelist

As C was going to bed tonight, he said very slowly and quietly "Come...Follow Me". I asked him why he was talking like that and he said he was pretending he was Jesus talking to "his 12 special friends, the dicycles". I asked him who the dicycles (his pronunciation) were and he said "Matthew, James, John...and Pete Johnson" So there you have it the unnamed disciple - Pete Johnson.

He has really been amazing us with his knowledge of the Bible lately. I guess he is paying attention without anyone noticing. I am in his class a lot at church and I never see him listening intently, but something must be clicking up there. He told me last week in the van as we were driving that there were three people named "Shoshach, Mishack, and Abednego"(again his pronunciations, I know they are misspelled). He said these people were thrown in a "fiery furnace". A few minutes later he said "that must have hurt!" He also told us a month or so ago that he believes that Jesus died on the cross because He loves him. You go boy!

Our Little Cougar

Today was C's first day of Pre-K at my alma mater (1st-12th). Can I just say it was mass chaos? Hubby and I both went, but we took separate cars. It was a nightmare to find parking as every other parent was trying to do the same and walk their kiddos in for the first day of school. C was excited though, maybe too excited and a little overwhelmed. He kind of zoned out when I was trying to show him where the potty was. He was just staring at the other kiddos and all the toys. His teacher is my friend's mom and C knows her well so that helped ease him right in. He looked like such a big boy going in the door with his big backpack. Here are a few pics from the big day...

So excited to get up this morning

Going in the doors with his big backpack...not too sure

Getting a hug from his teacher

A happy, dirty face at the end of the day

Getting clean for another big day

Our Week Without TV

So Hubby has been out of town all week and I just realized today that we haven't even turned on a single TV at our house for the last 5 days! It has been nice. We have horribly missed hubby, but haven't missed the TV one bit.

15 months

AP had her 15 month check-up today. She is, as we suspected, doing great. She has gone from not on the charts, to the 1 percentile, to now the 25th percentile (in weight). She weighed in at an even 20 today. Her head is at the 50th percentile, we don't (lovingly) call her pumpkinhead for nothing. She is still on the short side, but I think she is just going to be short like her momma :) She got 2 shots today and got so mad she stopped breathing in the great AP fashion. She is hitting (or exceeding) all the developmental milestones. Praise God! She has come a long way. It's hard to believe that in a little over 2 weeks she will have been home 6 months...but then sometimes I can't even remember life without her.

He Did It

It's a day of celebration at our house. C made it through the night with a bone dry Pull-Up! He has been potty-trained for over a year...sort of, we had a set back after AP came home, but to be expected. I just had lunch with a friend on Wednesday and I was telling her how far away we were from staying dry through the night. Last night we just talked to C about trying to remember to get out of bed if he has to peepee, then going right back to bed. Who knew he would actually do it just b/c we suggested it? He got up at 2am and then went straight to the potty when he got up again at 7, all on his own. We had such a celebration when he got up. C's theory is that his new vitamins are helping his brain think better. He wanted me to take a picture of his Pull-Up...