Vacation 2014!

On our way!!

The gang's all here (well except for our two big boys who had to stay home to work and Henry who has a better gig)!

Time for hours of sun and fun!

A FAMILY vacation...

Where babies get so so tired...

And Mommy holds them while the sun goes down...

Have a blessed summer!

Happy 2nd Birthday Yana!!

IShe came home on December 13, 2013

She was a 3 pound 32 week preemie at birth. When we met her she was17 pounds and 29 inches. Not speaking a word. She was "delayed".

She called me "mama" on Dec. 15.

Called Paul "papa" a few days later.

Now, almost 5 months later, She weighs 22 pounds and is 32 inches tall. From 9 month size clothes to 18 month size.

She is a champion climber.

An enthusiastic eater.

She can say almost 20 words including "apple" "Ella" "me" "mine" and "bowl" and several signs including "more".

She is living large as the youngest of my 9 here on earth.

Happy Birthday my Yana Faustina...

Wishing you many many many more...

Good Friday.

Two years ago.

Every year.

Reflecting on this truth:

Logging off until Easter.

Blessed Triduum.

Sometimes you just can't turn away...

He is in an Eastern European country with a well-established adoption program that requires 2 short trips by only one parent (single women can adopt from here also)...

http://reecesrainbow.org/70652/samson-438

He reminds me of Henry <3

7 Posts in 7 Days... Day 7!

I had so many amazing events and deep thoughts to share on this last post of Day 7....

About how so many people came together to fully fund my friend Amy's adoption of her precious son with ds from China...

About how Lent starts Wednesday and how I am choosing to spend these 40 Days in the "classroom of silence" seeking His Will in my daily life caring for and loving my family...

But it's time to snuggle on the couch and watch "Wreck It Ralph" with the kiddies...

So I will leave you with the extreme cuteness of what happens when you get adopted into a family with "creative" older brothers and sisters...

You have lots of fun every single day!!

Thanks for sharing every day with us this last week!

7 Posts in 7 Days... Day 6!

We met our goal for Amy and her boy in mere hours!!

So I owe you guys <3

Victoria Catherine is 11 years old...

She is on the left and my 9yo Ella is on the right...

They have become fast friends.

She prefers to be called "Vika" (pronounced "VEE-ka")

She likes playing with her little brother and sister from Ukraine...

She loves the rest of her siblings as much as chocolate :-)

She is going to school and is learning TONS of English...and making many friends...

We are SO happy to have Vika here in our family!!

Thank you for helping Amy bring her son home from China into her family!!

One more time:

http://reecesrainbow.org/73447/sponsorboroughs-3

Have a fun and refreshing Saturday and see you tomorrow for Post #7!!

7 Posts in 7 Days... Day 5 on Day 6... And a favor!

So mea culpa...I missed yesterday...

I was traveling clear across Chicagoland to do a real estate closing for a dear friend and it took a loooong time...

But then I was lucky enough to get to have dinner with my dear sister...

And it was sooooo late when I got home...

So I owe you all a post about Victoria...

But first my Saturday FB and Bloggy friends need to do me a little favor...

My friend Amy, a momma of many including many adopted children with special needs, lives near Philly and on chilly Sunday in October 2012 came to CHOP to sit with Henry while I went to Church and to get a decent meal...

I will be forever grateful to this sister of my heart...

Her heart is SO big that even after just comparing the adoption of their daughter with Down syndrome from Bulgaria, they stepped up to be the host family last summer for a little guy from China with Down syndrome...

And he stole their hearts.

So now they need to raise the money to bring him home...

You can go to my dear friend Julia's blog HERE:

http://covenantbuilders.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-big-giveaway.html?m=1

to read more and donate (tax deductible!) and share and enter to win some awesome prizes!

Or just go HERE to donate directly to their Reece's Rainbow adoption fund:

http://reecesrainbow.org/73447/sponsorboroughs-3

They are SOOOOOO close to $5,000...

When they reach $6,000 I will show you my lovely daughter Victoria...

So share away and I hope to be back soon :-) Thank you so much!!

7 Post in 7 Days.... Day 4

Leo Maximus.

Probably our biggest "surprise" of this adoption.

We had the benefit of "meeting" (over the internet) two families who had adopted from Leo's baby house and had seen/met our little guy.

We were told he was VERY anxious, nervous, sensitive, often crying, and did NOT like strangers...

In fact I have a short video from another boy's dad a few months before we met him where the dad (who had been visiting his son every day and saw Leo every day also because they were in the same groupa) tries to say "hello" to Leo and Leo would have NONE of it...

Well we have had some sensitive boys in this house so we were ready...

And then Leo met his Daddy...

It was immediate.

When Daddy had to go back home while we had to wait for our court decree, Leo kept asking for him and we kept saying "papa home and we go on airplane and he will get us with car"

Leo repeated this (in Russian) at least 10 times a day before we left....

In between being introduced to fries (which he loves with major ketchup)...

Leo eats well, sleeps well, speaks well...

But most important,

He LOVES well.

He LOVES his papa, then me, then his brothers and sisters...

He LOVES talking to his grandparents on the phone or looking at pictures with them...

He LOVES reading books and tries to repeat all the words after (or during!) you read them to him...

He truly has a smile on his face about 98% of the time...

Leo has a little surgery coming up this summer to fix up his cleft lip repair and then will have another surgery about age 10...

But a lip is an easy fix... 

We are so blessed that his heart is healing in our family and that it shows on his face every single day.

7 Posts in 7 Days... Day 3.

Yana.

Our youngest child is Yana Faustina, she will be 2 in May.

Although she THINKS she is about 12 :-)

You might be tempted to think, "Well she was only in an orphanage for such a short time, everything will be just fine!"

Well....

Yana was a preemie and spent several months in the hospital before she went directly to the orphanage where she spent her whole life...

She did not speak at all when we met her (she now says "mama" "papa" and "Teh-Tuh" for Tessa)

She has night terrors and sleepwalks several times a week.

Yesterday's nap time (like most of them) included her screaming and thrashing when I began to rock her in the chair of the bedroom, her squirming off my lap to go lay on her bed, then 20 seconds later she sits up and looks at me...

I say "you can come rock with mama" and she smiles and jumps out and runs to me and holds her arms up for me and I pick her up and she buries her face in my neck and hugs me with all her might...

We rock for 20 blissful seconds...

Then the screaming and thrashing and trying to get down begins again...

Because for 20 months she was never held or rocked to sleep...

So she wants it... She craves it...

But she is not used to it and sometimes cannot deal with it.

But she has a persistent mama. 

I let her down again.

She comes back AGAIN.

Then when the thrashing and screaming begins again I stand up and bounce her and sing a version of the lullaby I sang to all my fussy babies... But this time it has a few Russian phrases thrown in... And in about 5 minutes her whole body relaxes... I slow the bounce and end the song and snuggle her in bed and leave, counting this nap time as another small moment of healing...

Which we add onto this one...

And this one...

And this one.

And patiently wait for the day when all OUR moments will drown out THOSE moments.

7 Posts, 7 Days.... Day 2

Reminders.

I was ready to jump in with the update on our family, especially our newest additions, when my eyes caught on this on the whiteboard in my kitchen...

My 9yo Ella drew this soon after Henry died, it is Henry in heaven and her visiting him on a cloud and saying "in heaven i can do whatever I want" ... I used to post our daily menu and other scheduling notes and little encouraging phrases there, but now this has been there for over a year... I can't remove it.

I also can't remove this from my mudroom...

That was my favorite jacket for Henry that made him look like a little polar bear.

This is above my desk area.

This is pinned on my cork board.

And this is in my living room...

This statue of a sorrowful Mary holding... Or frankly almost SHIELDING...baby Jesus spoke to me when I saw it at Our Lady of the Universe Shrine in Orlando, Florida last June on a trip to visit a dear group of fellow adoptive Momma's...

It seems to me that this statue captures the moment right after Mary heard Simeon tell her that her baby boy would someday die for us... And she clutches him close, realizing that she could not, indeed should not, change that... 

I feel that Our Lady understands my loss and shares her compassion and just a bit of her strength with me...

So thank you for letting me share these reminders of Henry... Tomorrow we move on... One day at a time... Just as God calls us to....