Look who turned 11 years old

Happy Birthday Igor!!

Henry turns 5!

Our sweet Henry turned 5 years old!  He requested a donut instead of a cake.
Happy Birthday Henry!
 

Look who is Two!!

We celebrated Merone turning 2 years old! 

She was a little overwhelmed by the cake, candles and the singing so Henry helped her out.

Happy Birthday sweet girl! 

Guess who turned 9?

Today is a big day.  We are on our way to Ethiopia!!  We cannot wait to see our girl!  Today is also Igor's birthday.  He turned 9 years old today.
Last night we had a party for him.  He was sooo excited to celebrate a day early.

 








his Star Wars LEGO ship





We were able to pick the first tomatoes of the season before we left! 









we hope to post pictures of our gotcha day tomorrow!!

Henry is FOUR!!

Happy birthday Henry!  You are FOUR!!

Henry wanted teeny, tiny cakes, and small cakes with blue frosting!

Here he is in his new Toy Story PJ's!

Igor turns 8

Igor celebrated turning 8 years old with friends.  The theme was a water party.  We had water balloons, water baseball, and more.  The kids had a great morning celebrating with Igor.

Henry's Birthday

Henry is THREE! Although, Henry insists that he is four...
Henry's birthday party was postponed because of the snow.
We had a small celebration at home after a fun filled day of playing in the snow.
Henry opened his presents from his grandparents.

We'll have another party when the snow and ice melt and Aunt Shawn arrives.

Igor's Birthday, camping and the lake

Saturday we celebrated Igor's 7th birthday! Babushka order a cake with Igor's picture on it and I made pizza. Igor invited a few children from the neighborhood and they had a blast.

Sunday after church Papa, Igor and Rob went camping! Henry wanted to go camping too but he'll have to wait a few more years. This was Igor's first over night camping trip. They hiked a total of 10 miles. Igor did great!

They are going camping again next week. June 27 is National Wildlife's Great American Campout! Check out the link to see how many families in your state will be camping out this weekend.

Today we went to a local lake. This is Henry's first lake experience. Both boys had so much fun. Henry loves to put his head under water which is a little scary but he does the same thing in the bath tub. I think Henry will be swimming soon.

Insurance, Henry's first hair cut, Igor's paintings, Birthday

On Thursday our insurance was reactivated!! Praise, praise, praise!!

Henry went for his first haircut on Friday. Babushka was with me to document the haircut with photos. I am learning the barber shop protocol. Is it first come first serve? Which barber cuts little kids hair? Can you wait for a specific barber? What days are the busiest? A gentleman who owns a clothing shop next to the barber's shop was hanging out at the shop. He taught me where it sit, showed me the barbers who cut children's hair, etc... He was very helpful! The barber, Mark, was awesome but Henry was scared.

Here are Igor's latest paintings

Did you notice that the flowers were smiling?

Friday was Rob's birthday. Here are boys helping daddy open presents.

Henry's Birthday and we've been home a month!

On Sunday we celebrated Henry's Birthday! Babushka had a cake made with Henry's picture on it

I helped Henry blow out the candles

Henry enjoyed eating the frosting more than the cake

Igor helped Henry open his presents... Igor was much more "into" the party than Henry. Henry did show off his personality!

Today marks one month since we have been home with Henry! Life is starting to settle down and we have a daily routine. Henry remains a good natured, happy little boy. We are so grateful he is part of our family. He remains a barnacle, stuck to my side most of the day, but he is playing more on the floor with his toys, especially with Igor. He also likes to get down to take all the phones off the hook (sorry for the busy signal if you try to call) or get into the pots and pans cupboard.

A HUGE PRAISE- Henry has slept through the night for the last three nights! I hope this is the turning point!! Henry's tummy is still not right. He takes his last pill for giardia tomorrow. Henry and Igor are finding a good balance in being brothers and friends, YAHHH!

Here's Igor cuddling with Henry at bedtime ... of course, Igor is making a silly face...

Henry and I went to the Social Security Administration Office to apply for his social security card this morning. There must have been 45 people in the waiting room when we arrived. I thought it was going to take hours to be called but I was wrong. We were in and out of the office in 15 minutes! We should have his card in two weeks.

Tree cutting, bunnies, birthday, & first fruits

Last year's drought did a number on several bushes and trees. I finally asked Rob to chop down our cherry tree since there wasn't any hope of it coming back to life. I hated to have it cut down but it was dead, really dead. Rob cut it down with an ax. Our next door neighbor came over with his chain saw and cut it up into pieces.

While Rob and I were hauling the tree to the curb Igor thought he saw a toad in the bushes. Nope, it was a baby bunny! Igor chased the bunny and cornered it in the cinder blocks under the rain barrel. Igor asked for some cucumber to feed his "new" bunny. Igor decided to build a door out of sticks for the bunny's new home. The bunny made a break for it when Igor tried to pet him.

We haven't seen this little bunny since his great escape.

Igor's birthday party was wonderful. The kids had a great time and the weather was perfect. Nana sent Igor some race car candles and sugar cars and flags for the cake. Ms. Joya's candle was placed on the cake.

This morning before church I picked our first blackberries! I planted three vines last spring so this is our first harvest. Since the deers, bunnies and mockingbirds have eaten almost all of our garden Rob and I placed netting around the blackberries to protect them. The netting is working!

The majority of blackberries should be ripe at the same time. I should have enough blackberries to can some preserves....yummy!

Paperwork received and more.

Terra at AWAA confirmed receipt of our paperwork! Based on her e-mail there is a slim chance that we will make it to court before they close in August. If we don't make it I will be sad for several reasons. We really wanted to travel with William and Susan since we started our adoption journey together. I will be sad because BOC will remain in the Transitional Home until October or November.

On the other hand I will breathe a sigh of relief if we don't make it to court by August. Igor will start kindergarten in August. I want to be there when the bus picks him up for the very first day of school! I want to help Igor develop a school routine before BOC arrives. Life is better when Igor has a clear routine.

Public school will be very different than Ms. Joya's nursery school. Based on yesterday's the report from Igor's teacher at camp, we may be in for a long kindergarten adjustment period. Perhaps we will be better off if we deal with one adjustment at a time.

So we'll wait to see if we receive a court date before they close in August. Rob and I are ready for the wait. We waited 6 months for Igor's court date. I hope we don't have to wait that long for BOC.

Honestly, I am okay with whatever happens. I know that God's timing is perfect. He knows what is best for our family and he has never failed us. It helps to know that BOC has a nanny that adores him. We will get reports on BOC from the director of the transitional home. We will be able to send care packages to BOC while we wait. The Raymers will take a picture book, some cars and a teddy bear to Ethiopia for us. They leave on July 5 to pick up their boys!

Holly And Paul were in Ethiopia last week picking up their son. Holly took a few pictures of a toddler boy who hadn't been referred. She was sure he was going to be our son. She was right! She sent us pictures this morning. THANK YOU HOLLY!

Igor's birthday party is tomorrow. We asked Igor who he wanted to invite to his party. He named one child! I wondered, is that a party or a play date?? This is further confirmation that 3 is a crowd in Igor's book. It's Igor's party so we invited the one friend. Well, I invited the child's family over for dinner and cake. Papa and Babushka will be joining us. More on the birthday in another post.

Celebrating Igor's Birthday early

Nursery school ends tomorrow! Since Igor's birthday is after school closes Ms. Joya suggested celebrating it early.

Birthdays are a big production at nursery school. The birthday child gets to sit in a chair covered in their favorite color. Igor picked pink! He also picked out red for me and blue for Rob. Igor sat in the chair of honor. The children sang songs to honor our little boy. Candles were lit to acknowledge Igor's current age.

Each child presented Igor with a flower. Ms. Joya told a wonderful, magical story of how Igor lived in Russia and was united with us at age 3. She went on to share some highlights of his life since we have become a family. Then one by one each child walked up to Igor providing him with a birthday wish. It was so sweet to hear what each child said. Some of them whispered in Igor's ear, "I love you, Happy Birthday". It was the sweetest birthday celebration I have ever attended.
Igor received a present... jewels... they are small polished stones.... they are a treasured gift.