Dear little ones

Dear precious ones,
We have been thinking of you everyday almost nonstop ! We are waiting for you as patiently as we know how.We hope you enjoyed your birthday gifts sweet miss M.You are so small for your age but,I know you will be doing much growing when you come home. Little B, I hope you are enjoying your gifts too and hope you are able to get outside and feel the sun on your face a bit each day.
We have started preparing the house and getting ready for both of you.It is going to be a bit of an adjustment again to have 2 young little toddlers in our home .We are still trying to figure out which bedroom to use and whether to put you together in one room.Mom has loved buying cute little sundresses and hats for you little M.I have also gotten several ride on toys that you love to ride little B.
All of your brothers and sisters are exited for both of you to come home.They are exited for you to be able to learn to enjoy swimming in our pool and enjoy going to the beach.I have a feeling you are both going to love playing in the warm sand and before you know it you will probably become little fish and enjoy playing in the water.
We love you little ones and will be there soon to bring you home !

Great achievments !!

What a busy week celebrating great achievments!Since I do not talk much about our kids(who we already have) on this blog I want them to feel special too.
Brianna graduated this week and also recieved special recognition and honors for having ranked having the 4th highest G.P.A. in her graduating class.She also recieved a nice plaque for that honor too.During her junior and senior year she also took college courses and now already has a year of college behind her.She is looking forward to Brigham Young University in the near future.
Last week Bri also graduated from our youth seminary program for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.She was at church every morning at 6.30 sharp from Monday through Friday during the school year for All four years of high school. After seminary she would head straight to school.This is not an easy task !!Brianna's favorite qoute is "stand up for what you believe even if you stand alone"
We are very proud of her !
Caroline made us very proud as well graduating from Middle school and recieving a Presidents award for her high academic grades and leadership abilities. She is only going into high school but, is already taking her first class at our nearby community college.
Good job my girls !

Home Again

Home again just in time for all the graduations this coming week. I made it home just in time for seminary graduation for Brianna on Sunday. Now this coming week is High School graduation for Bri, Middle school graduation for Caroline and 6th grade commencement for Bryce.

On another note,I am happy to be home and know much has been accomplished this past week or so in Russia.Our sweet girl miss M is precious and so sweet ! Our little B is too ! We am very anxious to bring them home because they really need to be loved and nourished !! Ok, I am really going to be buying cream to put in food to get more calories in them.I was able to get more clear answers being there then from what our agency could give us.Not that I was happy with the answers I recieved but, at least I do not need to wonder what is really going on. For those waiting for court dates in our region need some more patience.The Hansen case has greatly affected this region.Hopefully the Vlad Inn will be full of adoptive parents and children again soon unlike the silence of my experience last week.I just really need my babies home !

Our sweet little girl and boy !

I arrived here in Vladivostok a couple days ago. I have spent precious time with our soon to be little girl. She is a happy little one and sat on my lap being very content unpacking everything I had in her little bag.She then proceeded to unpack my purse and find all sorts of little goodies. She feed me lots of goldfish first before she finally ate one. She is just precious and although small for her age seems very much on track developmently.Looks like I will be shopping some more for a size smaller then I thought.We are so exited to bring her and little B home. I will spend the next couple days with both our little ones and then head back home until our court date.Things are very slow here still and but will pick up again when the treaty between Russia and United States is signed. Patience Patience Patience!!!

UP UP AND AWAY ! !

OK, so where do I begin? First, I will share what I have been wanting to for a while now that I haven't because of all the Russia adoption drama lately.We have recieved and accepted a referral of a little girl too! When I first saw her picture I immediatly thought she reminded me of someone. When my mother saw the pic she knew exactly who she reminded me of. It was me ! I compared pics of myself at her age when me and my own family still lived in eastern Europe when I was a little girl and it is amazing the similarities.There is even one pic that I found where we both are wearing the thick tights and a bandana and have very chunky cheeks!

I am traveling this weekend to Vladivostok to see Miss M and also visit our little B. I am traveling solo this time because we will be going back soon again hopfully to have court for both children. Long story we will save for LATER!Last few weeks I have started SHOPPING for little girl things again. I have bought mostly 18-24 months size cloths for her.
We will see if they fit! The last good piece of info is little B's release letter has come!

Life lessons

A couple days ago Victoria came home from school somewhat quiet. Apparently several kids at school were talking about the little boy sent back to Russia by his adoptive mother.Several kids at school asked her if little B was going to have stay in the orphanage now?( All the kids and teacher know about little B ). We had spent time talking to each of the kids about the reality of things possibly being delayed to bring little B home because we did not have a court date yet before all the fiasco started.Victoria then said "It is not fair Mom. We did not do anything bad and you would not ever do what that lady did. Little B did not do anything bad either.Besides we already have clothes and cool toys for him to play with and we WANT him to be in our family.Can you tell those people in Russia that?" If only it were that easy.Still waiting for a court date... hopefully.

Trying to keep the faith

I am still in shock and numb over the news of the Russian boy returned to Russia on a one way ticket with a note by his adoptive mother.I can not even grasp the idea that a mother can think about doing that!This little boy is from the same region as our little B. This incident has Russian officials outraged and want to suspend all adoptions to US families.I have literally felt sick and grief to think what this may mean for us.We are soo close to a court date! Please pray for all families effected by this and the children who have loving families waiting to bring them home. I wanted to share some good news but, now we will have to wait and see.This is just so hard!