Wedding Weekend!

Michael's cousin got married this weekend at a ranch in Graham, Texas! We weren't sure until the day before the wedding if we would all be going or just Michael and the girls..We decided it would be fun if we could all go.. We were mostly concerned about the long drive and the overnight stay with Andrew...The drive down went great until the last 30 minutes..it then quickly reminded us of our train ride in Russia!

What would we do without a DVD player in the car? Andrew mostly ate the earphones...but at least it kept him busy!

The wedding was beautiful!! The reception was sooo much fun! I enjoyed watching my kids dance and have a blast! Andrew surprised us...he loved the music and dancing...he got sad if we took him off the dance floor!! He wanted to be right in the middle of all of it! I think if he had his way he would have been playing with the band!!

                            Getting ready to go home....where's my luggage??

Surgery Day

Today was a big day for Andrew.. He had surgery on both of his eyes to correct his strabismus (crossing of the eyes). He was so brave and such a trooper! The worst part was recovery.. When he first woke up he looked at me, pulled at one of the many wires attached to his little body and said, "off!"...He just didn't understand... It didn't make it any easier that every time he cried his tears were bloody..broke my heart. The anesthestia made him really nausiated.. He threw up several times..Once we got medicine for that he was fine...His eyes will be really blood shot for a couple of weeks, no swimming for 2 weeks, and thats about it! His eyes already look straight! It's amazing what doctors can do in 1 hour! Thanks for all your prayers!

How cute is he in his little scrubs?

A bucket of action figures to keep him happy! Look how huge his pants are! I finally got him to be still long enough to get them rolled up!

At home after surgery! Look at the difference=)

First Day of School

Mika

Kennedy

My attempt at all 3!!

I can't believe my baby girl started Kindergarten and my big girl started 3rd grade!! Where does time go? They where both excited about going to school=) They both had an awesome day and love their teachers! The best part? Recess!! After school we went for snowcones!

Busy Week!

I am getting behind on my blog again! We had a great week! We promised the girls that once we got done with all trips we would go and do something really fun together as a family of 5..Well.. when it's 104 degrees outside the only thing to do is go to a waterpark!! So last Saturday we went to Hawaiin Falls! We lasted about 4 hours... it was almost too hot to even be at a waterpark..We had so much fun.. I keep trying to get pictures of all my kids together... I think it is mission impossible=)

Tuesday we went to my sisters house for dinner.. she lives out in the country.. Andrew LOVED being outside so much! They have 4 wheelers and all sorts of fun things.. I think my boy will be into the extreme sports for sure!

basketball

Skateboarding

He loved riding in this thingy! He would squeal he was so excited!! He did not like it when it would stop!

Sometimes Andrew does not like to take pictures!!

On Wed. Andrew had 2 doctors appointments.. We were at Childrens hospital from 9-2! Long day but he did great. We met first with our International Adoption Doc...Dr. Latour... She is awesome! She spent a long time with Andrew..she was very pleased with everything she saw=) He has already gained 4.4 pounds since we first met him in June! He is not as far behind as I thought he was... He overall is around 18 months.. not 14 months! We will have to get all his shots redone=( We will do this over time though..Then it was off to his eye appointment.. He does have strabismus in both eyes pretty severe so they will do surgery... tomorrow (Tuesday 8-24) 

On Saturday he went to his cousins birthday party! It was very cute to see him with a bunch of other 2 year old little boys!

                                                Andrew and PaPa

First Week

It has been a whole week home as a family of five! What a week it has been! We have never been so happy to be home!! We have the most amazing family and friends! We came home to a clean house and a stocked fridge thanks to some amazing ladies in our Life Group at church! My sister in law came by our house and had our air turned down for us and had left lots of toddler friendly snacks! I have not had to cook one meal this week thanks again to our Life Group! We are blessed! The transition has gone better than I expected..I did get a bad sinus infection the day after we returned. A trip to the doctor and a round of antibiotics later I feel much better! My girls are the best big sisters ever...Andrew has 3 mommas! Michael did have to go out of town Wed.-Fri. (today) but we have survived. Andrew is sleeping through the night for the most part.. he is still on Russia time zone! For the first part of the week he tended  to wake up around 3:30-4:00am ready to go for the day! Then he was ready to take a nap by 8:30 am..so I let him nap until 10:30 then kept him up for the rest of the day..it was hard but now he is sleeping through the night!

He is learning so quickly! This morning I told him to go get his books..and he did! When I ask him where his shoes are.. he starts looking for them! He now says "dink" for drink..."all done" , "up" , "open", "papa",and I am sure there are a few other little words.. those are the ones he uses often! He is so fun! He has done great with everything....even shopping!! I think he enjoys getting out of the house...even if it is back to school shopping for his sisters!

Home Sweet Home

We made it home!! It felt like an eternity to make it home but the flight home did eventually end=) We left our hotel at 3:00am Friday morning...Our first flight was not much different than our train ride! At least it was our short flight.. only 4 hours.. and he did sleep for 1 hour=)The 4 hour lay over in London went well...Then our big 10 hour flight...It went great!! Thank you for all the prayer! I know that is the only way we made it! He only slept maybe 2 hours but he was content and quite the whole trip! When we landed at DFW we were so happy to be home...we had no idea we were going to have to wait on immigration for 2 hours before meeting our family and that part was frustrating! When we did finally get our luggage and make it out of the terminal we had the most amazing welcoming party from our family and friends!

Andrew fell asleep during take off!! Greatness!!

Andrew meeting his sisters and cousins for the first time!

Still all smiles after 24 hours of travel!! Our completed family of 5!!

The Red Square

This afternoon we ventured out to the Red Square/Kremlin here in Moscow.. We found out it would be a 45 minute walk from our hotel and since it is at least 95 degrees here we started looking into other options...We decided to brave the Metro!! We got good directions on how to get to the metro station (subway) and directions on which line to take and what stop to get off at...Everything was written in Cryllic so we could not read anything!! But we survived!! We had to stop and ask a lot of people if we were getting on the right train, going in the right direction ... but people were helpful=) It was an interesting experience to say the least! We saw the world famous Saint Basil's Cathedral! We didn't hang out long because it was crazy hot..like in Texas! We got pictures and that's all that matters!

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Doctor's Visit

The Embassy Doctor, Boris, came to visit us at 8:00am this morning..All children being adopted from Russia must have an exam done before leaving the country.  My boy has had so many exams done he knew the routine! Most coroperative 2 year old I have ever seen with a doctor! The doc. said he was a handsome boy and the ladies would be chasing him soon! He also said he is starting to look like a little Budda around the belly already!! He said to let him eat as much as he wants small portions at a time.. that the orphans will eat 27 hours a day! I am pretty sure my boy has already put on some weight! The doctor also said that he looked very healthy and he could tell he was one of the favorites at the orphange. He checked his vision and even with Andrew's strabismus that all muscles were working properly (no paralasis) and that a minor surgery should correct it 100%!  Oh...he is teething too which could also be part of the reason for the fussiness... I am glad I brought Motrin! We were pleased with the report!

After Andrew's nap we are going to attempt to find the Red Square/Kremlin and sightsee for the afternoon.. Tomorrow is the big US Embassy day!! Just a few more days until we are homebound!!!

Train Ride

It is a little more difficult to keep up with my blog now! My precious little boy is starting to feel more comfortable and secure with us therefore he is exploring a lot more and becoming more like your typical 2 year old=)  Nightime is soooo much better for him now.. he knows the routine and he literaly just lays down and goes to sleep without tears!! Naptime...well that is a different story... but getting better. There is just too much to see and do in his opinion and he doesn't want to miss anything..He is so much fun and his little smile melts our hearts!!!

Yesterday (Monday) we took a 4 hour train ride from St. Petersburg to Moscow..We will spend 3 days in Moscow going to the US Embassy, another required medical exam, and more paperwork before we can travel back home. The trip started off rough.. We left at 1:00 in the afternoon and Andrew was already soooo tired and needed a nap.. He screamed in the car all the way to the train station.. the last time he was in the car was when we picked him up from the orphanage.. not sure if maybe he remembered? Once we got out of the car he was fine..The train ride started out ok..he was eating and happy, playing with his books..then he got fussy.. we were all but standing on our heads trying to keep him happy...didn't work...Let's just say that the last half of the trip he screamed his head off..and he could not be consoled..we tried laying him down on the seat to see if he would go to sleep.. yeah right.. what 2 year old does that=) In the meantime 2 very drunk, very large, angry Russian men tried to get into a fight with my husband..yes, you read that right!!! You had 3 little train attendants trying to keep them off our train cart, them yelling at us (in Russian-glad we couldn't understand!), some other nice Russian men trying to help and finally security stepped in.. Needless to say we were very frazzled by the time we got to Moscow...It then took us about 30 minutes to go 5 miles by car to our hotel.. in which our son continued to scream! Once in our room.. happy as can be!! I think it was just too much for him to understand in one day and we had no way to help him understand... because I only know like 5 words in Russian! We were all ready for bed! He went right to sleep and he is already taking a nap this morning (10 am Tuesday). I am just a little nervous about our 14 hour flight home with a 4 hour layover in London=) Prayers are greatly appreciated!!! He has never slept any place expect a bed and has never fallen asleep in anyones arms...so I am sure sleeping on a plane will not come easy for him..so many new experiences for him=)
I have pictures to post.. but since he is sleeping I don't want to dig around for my camera and cord right now...will post soon=)

Our train!

Looking out of the window kept his attention for about 2 minutes!! It was fun while it lasted!

Here he is.. starting to get fussy..the train provides eye covers, slippers, and earplugs!! The slippers and eye covers actully entertained him for a long time.. we kept hoping he would pull the eye covers down just long enough to go to sleep!! Ha!

And here he is eating our "Russian Phrases for Children"!