A Heartfelt Thanks

I wrote a super special thank you post over on the Superkids Charity blog today.  Head on over to see what arrived on my doorstep yesterday!  :)

Sunday in Spring

Yesterday was a beautiful day!  We drove down to Keith's home area and went to a couple of his favorite childhood haunts.  While Keith and the boys did more serious hiking, the girls played and I took pictures.  That's how we keep everyone happy!

Eventually the girls and I headed down to a different trail to meet the boys.  I was a bit disconcerted when I realized that wading the creek was the only way we would make it to the trail, but we were not to be deterred.  So wade we did!  And it was worth it.  The trail was beautiful and the girls had so much fun striking silly poses and running ahead then back again.

When we met Keith and the boys wouldn't you know they were on the other side of the creek we had waded!  Fortunately they are all better at crossing on stones and logs than I am.

It was a really good day.  But I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't tell you that it was also a really hard day for me.  Doing things like this as a family only highlights my physical limitations. This type of activity has always been something we all enjoy.  I could never keep up with my energetic husband and sons, but I could certainly do a lot better than I can now!  Between my tremors and bad joints hiking just isn't the best activity for me.  I know it shouldn't be a big deal, but it is just one more grief in this physical journey.

Isn't life like that?  A beautiful family day, touched by sadness.  Things that were once taken for granted no longer possible.  Learning new ways to enjoy life is not easy.  So we once more come back to the word acceptance.  I can assure you that I don't make myself or anyone else happier when I don't accept it and move on.

Happy Birthday, Annika!

I'm going to apologize right here and now for the length of this post and the number of pictures you are about to see.  I'm covering birthday and birthday party all in one post here, folks!

Annika's 7th birthday was on Sunday.  At 7 you count the days and hours until your birthday!  You may even have difficulty going to sleep the night before because you are soooo excited! And then suddenly it's morning and the big day has arrived!

First we waited until everyone was out of bed...

Then we opened gifts!

We ate birthday cake for breakfast...

And we sneaked in a little time to play with a gift before going to church.

Today we had a cupcake decorating party.  We baked the cupcakes ahead of time and had the frosting and decorating stuff available.  Then we let all of the girls decorate to their heart's content.  I loved seeing the colorful combinations they came up with!

Then, of course, we had to try some of them out!

After the cupcake decorating they tried out Annika's new paints, then spent some time playing.  It was sure a fun, low stress party!

Happy birthday, sweet Annika!

Washington D.C. Visit

We've talked about visiting Washington D.C. when the cherry trees are blooming for quite some time.  We carefully followed the progress of the the blossoms and decided that last weekend was the perfect time to go.  We were correct.  It was perfect!  The weather was gorgeous, the trees were in full bloom, and the company could not have been improved upon.

We were able to attend a performance of St. John's Passion in the National Cathedral.  It was beautiful and masterfully performed (even if the chairs were a bit hard to sit on for 2 solid hours).

Poor Casper is recovering from poison ivy on his face and isn't too thrilled about pictures!

We are already planning to go again soon. We certainly were not able to take in everything we wanted to.

An Update on School (Among Other Things)

Our school year is winding down.  We try to start early and take relatively few vacation days so that we can finish in April.  Math books are finished and we are just filling in with some online options.  Most other subjects will be completed within the next week or so.  Everyone has worked hard and done very well, it is a good feeling.

Speaking of online math, we have been using Adapted Mind for some extra practice.  I really like it!  It tests the child's level then gives them the problems they are ready for.  There is a short video lesson for new concepts and if a child works a problem incorrectly it automatically shows how the problem should have been done.  Each day I get an email with a report for each child telling me how many problems they did and how many of those were right.  I think we will continue to use it throughout our summer break.

I really liked our curriculum line-up this year.  I think we will make a few minor adjustments next year (we made a few adjustments as we went along too!), but overall it has been a good combination.

We did achievement tests the other week.  We use an online testing site that uses the CAT from 1970.  This is the same test that was used in the private school the boys went to before we started homeschooling.  I know that these tests are not the most important scores, but it is still fun to see how everyone is doing in comparison with previous years.

Today Annika had her first piano lesson.  She absolutely loved it!  It was so sweet to see her concentrating on doing everything just right!  So now we will have another beginner to listen to.  :)

In other news, I got a new camera lens today!  They are quite expensive, so it is a big deal to get a new one!  This one is a Canon 85mm 1.8.  I also have a 50mm 1.8 and a 35mm 2.0.  Of course I had to try it out right away!

Just because it was the first shot I tried with the new lens! :)

 

It was a beautiful day so we headed to the park.  It was not my favorite lighting since it was full sunlight, but I still got some pretty fun shots!

I want to tell you all about the various projects we've been working on, but I'll save that for another post on another day.

Six Years

Six years ago today, in a little room in Baby House #2 in Uralsk, Kazakhstan, we met this lovely little girl.

We were nervous, suffering from the exhaustion that comes along with jet lag, and unable to communicate with most of the people in the room.  She was the third little one that we met.  I had imagined prior to getting to this point how very agonizing this decision would be.  It wasn't.  A caregiver walked into the room holding her little hands, helping her to walk.  I picked her up and she put her little head on my shoulder.  That was it.  My heart melted.  I really didn't hear the medical information which was quickly read off and interpreted.  (Honestly, I didn't miss much.  Let's just say the info was pretty limited.)  She was only in the room for a few minutes, but Keith and I both knew that she was ours.  They gave us four hours to decide and let them know.  It is a good thing that it wasn't an agonizing decision, because four hours isn't very long to make a life-changing decision!

I love that she still has this same adorable little grin!

Here are a few excerpts from emails Keith wrote while we were in Kazakhstan:

"We still don't have salt.  We walked a quarter mile down the road to the OPA department store yesterday and bought groceries.   We forgot the Russian phrase book so when it came time to buy salt we were stuck.  We meandered through the store looking and wondering.  There were plenty of assistants who would have been delighted to help us, but how do you receive help from someone with whom you can't communicate?  We saw what looked like oatmeal , so we bought some.  We bought a fair supply of food and then needed one thing more yet – salt.  We found a bag of something that looked like salt.

I asked the young man, "Is this salt?"  He didn't understand.  I performed a salt shaker motion, but he still didn't understand.  I gathered that it wasn't salt, so I put it back on the shelf.  Since I couldn't tell him what I really wanted we left without salt.  We will take the Russian phrase book next time and eat bland food meanwhile."

"Right now Erin is pulling clothes out of the baby suitcase, wracking her brain as to how big she actually is and trying to visualize how everything will look on the baby.  I can tell by the light in her eye that she is thoroughly enjoying herself.  We are asked to provide clothes and diapers for her from here on.  We are to bring about 7 diapers each day and a fresh set of clothes.  Each day they will give us the dirty clothes back."

"Yesterday our lack of Russian got us into a little bit of trouble.  We went down the street a block or so from the store, turned left and walked another several blocks to a little restaurant Katerina had told us about.  When we turned to come back we ended up losing our way.  So we walked aimlessly several blocks this way and that.  I tried to call Katerina's cell phone but the call didn't go through.  Nor did we know any addresses or the name of the store we had shopped at.  Finally we saw a travel agency.  Thinking they probably knew English I walked inside and asked if they could call Katerina for me.  This they willingly did and 15 minutes later Katerina and Alex picked us up from the curb in front of the agency.  Turns out Katerina knew the people at the travel agency.  We were very fortunate and we content to stay at home the rest of the day, except to go the store again for a few groceries."

Annika with Kate, our interpreter and coordinator (she was literally the "in country team"!)

"Today was another very nice day.  We went to visit Annika first thing this morning.  She acted happy to see us and we had a lot of fun playing with her.  I threw her up in the air and she giggled and laughed.  Then I grabbed her and gave her a big hug and lots of kisses and she just smiled and lapped it all up.  What a dolly she is.  We are beginning to love her very much.  At the end of the visit when Kate took her away she held her hands out and wanted to come back to us."

May Day parade

"On Monday or Tuesday we expect to meet the judge.  Kate gave us an overview of what the prospective father is supposed to say during the court session.  It is quite an exhaustive account of our family, our background, why we chose Kazakhstan, how we plan to care for our child, and whether or not we can support her financially.  Then she dropped the bomb shell.  This speech is to be presented by memory with no notes.  So I will have my work cut out for me over the next few days.  It all makes me nervous!  I need notes!  At least I will be presenting it one sentence at a time and Kate will translate it sentence by sentence.  She assures us that if I say something wrong she'll correct it when she translates it!  How convenient!"

As you all know, the judge said "Da!" to our petition to adopt and Diliara became Annika, our treasured little "Kazakh princess" daughter.  We are so blessed!

Sleeping on the airplane between Frankfurt and Philadelphia