Holiday pictures

Watching movies with Grandma.

In Christmas finery.

Mr. Snowman!

Jim and Liam...zoom zoom...

Oh, Canada!!

Well, I haven't been blogging much lately because we have been busy in Canada. It has been a winter wonderland, and we had a beautiful white Christmas. The kids surprised us by loving the snow. I thought they would like to look at it, but I didn't really think they would want to play in it much. I was wrong. Liam didn't want to come inside. He has been snowmobiling with Jim like crazy, and shoveling snow.

Natalie took a little bit longer to warm up to the snow, but even she didn't want to come in after building a snow man and a snow fort. They also got to go sledding with their cousins, and Dexter the bouncy puppy. Dexter was quite a hit. It took Natalie a good hour or so to stop shrieking at the top of her lungs, trying to make the puppy chase her through the house. Natalie is still talking about Dexter.

I will try to post some pictures soon!

The only down part of the whole trip has been that Jim and I were both a bit sick. I have had some sort of sinus infection that won't quit. And the kids luggage was lost for a good 3 days. But they finally found the bag, and I am feeling better. Grandma Helen has made us forget all of our ills with her beautiful Canadian Christmas. Both kids are sad about leaving.

Merry Christmas to Baby Owen too. He probably didn't celebrate, but we were thinking about him the whole trip, wondering if he is also looking at a white Christmas.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas Reading

One of my favorite parts of gift giving at Christmas is picking out books. In the past I always bought a book for each of my nieces and nephews at Christmas. I used to think I was pretty good at it too, but I have to admit it is a lot harder to do that now (2 of them are 16! Don't know how that happened.).

So I have been turning my book buying traditions to my own children now. I try to buy a special book for all the big occasions - Christmas, birthday, etc. This year I am very proud of my picks. It was one of those times when I picked with care, but even so, I ended up with a book even more perfect than I anticipated. I glanced at the title and did a quick thumb-through of this one, but did not realize until we read it last night how exactly right it was. It is called "You're All My Favorites".

I picked it for the message. It is about how parents love all of their children equally even though they are different. What I didn't realize is that there are 3 baby bears in the story, the oldest is a boy, the middle one is a girl, and the youngest is a boy. Perfect!! I even called them Liam, Natalie, and Owen when I read it, and Liam just grinned from ear to ear. Now I refer to Liam as my "Favorite First Bear" and Natalie as my "Favorite Second Bear", and can't wait to call Owen my "Favorite Third Bear".

I also got the Star Wars Pop Up Guide to the Galaxy for Liam. Of course, a hit! It really is an amazing pop-up book - such incredible complexity in the pop-ups, complete with a Darth Vader vs Luke Skywalker duel with light-up light sabers (there is a battery in the book). Excellent.

The third one I gave to Natalie, although I have to admit this one was more for me. It is a new version of Puff the Magic Dragon, with a CD included. I love, love, loved the book and 45 record of Puff when I was little. I did forget that it made me cry. It still does. I think Liam was also trying to decide whether he should cry. But the new version of the book gives a bit happier ending as it shows a new little girl meeting Puff (maybe Jackie Paper's daughter?). All is happy again in Honalee. The illustrations are incredible, and some of the buildings in Honalee actually look almost Russian (onion domes).

In other news, we delivered a new-baby gift to a neighbor today, and Liam's face when he saw her (she is about a month old, and VERY cute) was like a kid in a candy store. Tonight before bed he told me "Mom. I wish we could have Mia. If we had a baby like Mia, I think I would cry." Not sure if this was a good thing, I asked why he would cry, and he said "Because she is SO cute. Why are babies so cute??" Awwwww. I told him to rest assured that Owen would be very, very cute as well. I think he still might want baby Mia, however. I love it that he can love Star Wars AND new babies. I think he will be a Renaissance man.

Let the Holidays Begin

Well, we have had the first of many Christmas celebrations already. Due to our vacation plans, we decided to do most of our gift opening this past weekend. Then Santa is due to come early...on Friday while Liam is at school. Then we will no doubt have another celebration in Canada. I guess this way it will seem like Christmas for a whole month (can be good or bad...depending on your point of view). The kids enjoyed the first celebration, but Natalie has been sick and Liam had a sleepover on Friday, so they were both tired. Can't seem to keep Natalie well, with a congested cough and runny nose. I thought she was over it, but apparently the extreme temperature swings (40 degrees in 24 hrs) have been bad. I am hoping she doesn't have an ear infection, but if I look at the statistics...we are traveling soon, so she will most likely have an infection of some sort while we travel. It never fails.

In other news, we are still waiting for our next travel dates to meet Owen (did I mention we had decided on Owen as the new baby's name??). I would like to have dates before Christmas. But we wait patiently (ha). Jim doesn't seem to be holding any grudges towards me for being so quick to dump him. When we realized his Canadian visa was going to hold us up, I very quickly (and without Jim's full agreement) asked the agency to let me travel alone. In my defense, it was an adrenalin-fueled moment of maternal desperation. I just wanted to go on that trip NOW no matter what. They wouldn't let me travel alone (not because of the danger, but because it is when you officially accept the referral, and they feel the decision needs to be made by both of us), and in hindsight it is probably for the best. Of course, I want Jim to be there and fully make the decision with me.

I hope in the back of Jim's mind he doesn't wonder now if I would always be so quick to disown him. He can probably picture us going through customers some day, and if he gets into trouble, I'll say "What Canadian? I don't know any Canadian! Never seen the man!!" Just like a scene from a drug-smuggling gone-wrong movie. Speaking of which...we watched the movie TransSiberian this weekend. It was...interesting. It did NOT make Jim want to ride a train in Siberia. :-) I wouldn't exactly recommend it for anyone traveling to Russia. But it wasn't a bad movie.

Something To Cheer Me Up

Natalie does have a way of cheering me up. (Liam does too, of course, but right now I'm having fun with my new video cam, and for the moment it's all about my Nattie).

She is such a bouncy little thing. I think sometimes she has springs on her feet. Every time we go out to eat she has to visit the restroom at least once, and every time I watch her walk in front of me, or holding onto my hand, and I laugh at the way she bounces and bounds to the restroom. She has also nearly floored a couple waiters as she bounds back out of the restroom, but that isn't quite so cute.

She also has a soundtrack to her life. She can be caught humming or singing softly to herself quite often. Lately her favorite is the tune to Where is Thumbkin (I think it is the same tune as Frere Jacques). And then there is the tune that plays whenever Darth Vader walks into the room (Liam found it quite hilarious when I pointed out to him what she was humming). And then at dinner there was her rendition of Tequila (only myself to blame here - for some reason I pulled up a video clip on YouTube of PeeWee Herman dancing and singing Tequila....do doo do do do do doo do...Tequila!! and showed it to the kids because I knew they would laugh).

Anyway, I do love her spirit.
And I am going to try and attach a couple clips of the young gymnast. She has been loving her independent class. But now I don't know what to do with myself since I just watch...so I am taking endless video. Oh yes, and notice the leopard skin leotard. It is a hand-me-down from a neighbor, and she just loves it. Believe it or not, she's not the only one wearing one.

Bah Humbug

Alternate title: What goes up, must come down (like my hopes, for one).

OK, so I know a lot of people prefer their adoption blogs to be all sunshine and roses, with never a negative word to be uttered. I respect that. So, for anyone who prefers sunshine and roses, please skip this post and just wait to read another time. You see, I'm not really a sunshine and roses kind of person - I have to work really hard at sunshine and roses, and I just don't have the energy right now. Plus, my blog does dual duty acting as therapy for me, so It's My Blog And I'll Cry If Want To. I will try, in the interest of not being a total Debbie Downer, to make it as humorous as I can (though not finding it funny right at the moment).

The Christmas trip to Russia is off. We are back to most likely traveling in February. It came down to a little thing called a visa to get into Russia, and the completely unexpected revelation by some that Jim is Canadian (who knew????) . You know, Jim has been Canadian for 41 years now and never tried to hide this fact EVER. And every piece of paperwork we have ever filled out has called him out as a die-hard Canuck. He even mentioned his love of hockey in his Homestudy bio (seriously...he wrote about this in his "about me" paragraph).

Yet somehow we received travel dates, changed all of our vacation plans and tickets, and booked flights to Russia without his Canadianism ever being an issue. Until yesterday. So...after a zillion airline ticket fees, 3 extra days added to our vacation trip, and 4 days spent convincing ourselves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the best possible thing that could happen for Trip 1, as well as God's grand plan....we are back to where we started...with only the addition of change fees, extra vacation days, about 100 new gray hairs, a new eye twitch, and a growing mental instability (kidding, Homestudy lady, kidding).

Yes, everything happens for a reason...blah blah blah blaaaaaah...

The thing is...it's our baby we're talking about. It's not like a college Biology class that you were too late to get into, and you say "oh I'll just take it next semester". It's our baby. And next semester seems very far away. And if this can happen now, who is to say something won't happen then...or between Trip 1 and 2... sigh... Are we going to get him home just in time to pay for college?

Trying to positive: We have extra days in Canada now, together with Liam and Natalie. We might go skiing. And sledding (or toboganning, as they say). Jim can rest assured that he will have phone and internet access for his year-end sales efforts. I have some more time to find the exact right hat and scarf (after a frantic weekend, I'm OK with boots and coat). By leaving for Canada on a 6:30am flight now, we'll have lots of time to see everyone on our first day in Canada! (OK, being sarcastic here...nothing is really positive about a 6:30am flight with 2 kids...no, I don't think they'll sleep on the plane).

I hope to post better news later and promise to be sunshine and roses at some point in time before I die or turn 50. I think I'll have to just work on getting a video snippet of Natalie doing gymastics on the blog to cheer me up. Cheers.

Christmas Surprise!!

The adoption process...wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, now GO GO GO NOW GO!

We had some exciting, unexpected, and somewhat terrifying news on Friday. After officially accepting our referral, several hours later our agency emailed us with the directions that we are to leave for Russia on Dec 21st. 2008. Exactly 2 weeks from today. Over Christmas.

Be still my heart.

I am now in full-on panic mode. I had not finished my Christmas shopping or prepared for the trip we had planned for Christmas, much less thought about preparing for Russia. As a little insight into my personality...I was able to make the decision to adopt a child internationally and bring a third person into our family with relative ease....trying to decide on what coat, boots, gloves, and clothes to wear to Siberia in December has been IMPOSSIBLE. I was at at the mall this weekend, paralyzed with indecision. Checking the temperature ratings of coats...debating about shorter, longer, or extra long, having been advised by our travel guide not to wear the bright yellow ski jacket that is the warmest thing I own. Jim, being the ever more rational one about these things, told me I was being silly because even though it is cold there it is not like we are going to go out for a hike or making snow angels or anything. I decide that he is probably right, and even if the coat is not rated for the exact temperature, I can make up for it in layers.

Then tonight Jim pulled up the 10 day forecast for Novokutznetzk on Google. It is cold right now, but in the next 10 days is going to get significantly colder....if you consider -32F (at night) to be cold... (Insert expletive here!) Now I have to pull myself off the floor from my sudden faint and go back to comparing temperature ratings of boots and coats...

There is also the little issue of not being with Liam and Natalie on Christmas. I think we will actually be on a plane from Novo to Moscow on the 25th. I am trying not to think too hard about this aspect.

On the plus side, we are getting to meet Owen a lot earlier than we thought!

Oh yes, and a private note to God: You know, when I said that I wished you would drop a baby in my lap before the end of the year so that I would know it was meant to be...well, I get it...and I applaude your sense of humor.