I know that I have told many, many of you that I just don't see the reason to move to a new blog after your adoption is final.   Your life does not just stop in one place and pick up in another.  You can always just re-vamp your old blog with a new background or header as you move to the next season of your life together.  Well, I still feel this way, but none the less, I am moving to a new blog home.  The main reason is that I pay for hosting a Blog-City.  By moving to Blogger (Blogspot) I can have a free blog.  Also, it seems like EVERYONE else I know is on Bogspot.  There are more functionalities and it is easier to use.  There are more options for installing cute backgrounds. 

So, I hope you will join me at kaymommy.blogspot.com 

Well, as usual, I have not blogged in a really long time.  Time just slips away from me and before you know it months have slipped by without record of our goings-on.  Since our September vacation to the coast we have been busy, just just in an every-day busy type of way, nothing spectacular happening here.

Here's the year in review: 

As I look back on 2008 we really have been very busy.  We started out by Celebrating Russian Christmas in January at a FRUA party in Austin, TX.  It was a little drive, but well worth it.  We were able to spend time with our friends there, and meet up with a family that we had met in the hotel in Russia!! 

Joshua turned 11 in February.  He was so very excited to go to Laserquest with a few of his friends.  The whole family played, it was a LOT of fun.  Also in February Dasha learned to ride a bike for the very first time!  It was the neighbors' bike, but she was bursting with pride in her accomplishment.

March was a VERY busy month - March brought our first Post-Placement report.  It was really a breeze, but we were a little nervous.  Our SW made us all feel comfortable and it was over before we knew it!   We also had our annual Family Day at Fiesta Texas, compliments of my company.  Dasha rode a big roller coaster for the very first time - she loved it!  You will never find me on one of those.  We participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure - just the girls.  We all wore shirts that said 'Cancer Sucks" as we supported my best friend Terry in her battle against this horrible disease.  At the end of March was Ryan's 13th birthday - can I really be Mom to a teenager?!?  I can't believe how fast he grew - and how fast the teenage attitudes appeared - like on the very day that he turned 13!  Where did my little boy go??

April was also a bit busy.  We started with our whole family participating in the Easter Drama at our church.   Joshua and Dasha were on stage - both of them are well-suited for Drama; while the rest of the family worked behind the scenes.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, but of course I cried seeing my angels on stage.  In April Dasha got her ears pierced for her birthday - actually a week before her birthday on Dan's birthday.  She was very nervous, but since she has a high tolerance for pain she didn't even flinch.  Dasha's Birthday is a day we will not forget for a long time.  It was a funny - (had-to-be-there kind of funny) day of disasters.  We nearly missed the party. We were running late and the car broke down, it was hot and the cake was melting, Ryan was vomiting from some unknown illness.   Fun.   Dasha wanted her party at Chuck E. Cheese - although she hates cheese and barely touched her food.  She enjoyed playing and getting all her presents.  As soon as the party was over Terry and I were off to our Annual Women's retreat.  We hit the road a little later than planned, but, as always, God revealed himself to us in an awesome weekend of worship.

In May must have been when we received our Tax Return, because over the next two months is when we started getting busy around the house.  We painted the living room, tiled the entry-way, put in new carpet downstairs, got a new (used - I love Craigslist) sectional sofa, bedroom set for Ryan (time for the metal bunk-bed to go), desks for the boys and one for me, and a Brand New refrigerator!!  I love my new fridge - we had the last one for nearly 15 years, it was time for a replacement.  Of course the old stuff was sold on (where else?) Craigslist!  LOVE IT!

July was also busy, time for vacation.  We traveled to Illinois to visit family.   It was a great trip, getting there was great, being there was great, coming home ... not so much.  Endless hours in the car at the end of vacation time wore on me just a little too much.  We nearly came home child-less.  I could have just put them out on the side of the highway and drove home in peace!  (Kidding of course, but don't think it wasn't on my mind)  Really, I wouldn't have passed the opportunity to take this trip.  It had been such a long time since I had seen my Dad and family.  It was good to be 'home'.  We stopped at the Moon Marble shop in Kansas on the way there - a MUST if you ever travel that way.  While we were there we visited the John Deere museums and just spent time in the oh-so-GREEN, QUIET country.  The kids fished, saw cows (up close and personal like), picked wildflowers for my birthday, rode grandpa's tractor, shot grandpa's gun (the boys only), ate like crazy, visited with relatives, roasted marshmallows in 98 degree weather, cried when we left.  On the way home we stopped at the St. Louis Arch, and visited the World's Largest McDonalds (by Sq.ft. of the building only, the one in Moscow was actually much larger in terms of Order lines and Dining area)

Summer was full of water-slides and swim lessons.  The kids absolutely LOVE the water.  It still amazes me, however, that Darya lived just literally a block from the ocean - they went there to 'swim' nearly every day, yet she had never been in a swimming pool, was scared to death the first time in the water and had absolutely no idea what it was like to swim.  She said at the Children's Home they only let the kids wade in water, not actually swim.  We also said goodbye to our Russian teacher who moved to California to take a job at the Defense Language Institute.

August, of course, means back-to-school.  The boys started Junior High at public school for the first time!  After having been in a charter school for the previous two school-years, this was a welcome change.  It was a little intimidating due to the size (over 1200 students in 6-8th grades), but they quickly caught on to the routine.   I am loving the on-line Parent Connection where I can look at their grades and everything.  Really helps me to help them be accountable.  Dasha returned to her Elementary school.  Her teacher is the ESL lead, so she knew Dasha from last year because she would consult with her teacher last year on her progress.  She was glad to have her in her class.  And, while she did not get her very best friend in her class this year, she did have lots of friends in her class.

September brought another Post-Placement visit - again, not a big deal.  We also took a trip to Austin to visit with our friends there, visited the Botanical Gardens and went swimming.  September also brought our Gotcha Day anniversary!  We celebrated our ''paperwork' gotcha day with dinner at a Chinese Buffet - so much more than just Chinese food, everyone loved it.  Then, on the Anniversary of Dasha's first day in America we took a family trip to the coast (as detailed in the post below).  That road-trip was of course much shorter and thus much more enjoyable than our long drive in July!

October was our annual Church picnic.  We always enjoy the day at the park with friends, but we didn't stick around for the annual cricket-spitting contest (no, joking).  In October Dasha's class went on a field trip to Sea World!  By this time of year they are closed to the public on week-days and open the park only for educational events like this.  There were soooo many schools there and nearly all of them wearing the same uniform (Dark blue shirts and Khaki pants)  Only one kid got lost from the group - but was quickly found with another class from the same school so he was never totally lost, just mis-placed between teachers.  Anyway, we had a good time feeding and petting the dolphins, that was the best part!

I can't recall if it was October of November, but we had a nice picnic with the Russian Speakers group of San Antonio, they even had a Russian/Ukranian band play some folk music.  Darya has really forgotten most of her Russian and occasional picnics with Russian Speakers is NOT enough to make a difference.   In the beginning when we started meeting with this group it was really good for Dasha just to hear familiar sounds, but as time went on and she learned more English, she really no longer enjoyed meeting with the group because it is all adults.  One older lady from the group really took a liking to Dasha and spoke to her very kindly - she told Dasha to call her Grandma. Tamara went home to be with the Lord just a few weeks ago, we will miss her. 

Of course November brings Thanksgiving.  Since neither my mother or I care to cook such a big meal all the time, we have made a tradition of eating out on Thanksgiving and then seeing a famil-friendly movie.  However, this year Mom had a total knee replacement surgery just two weeks before Thanksgiving, so this year we opted to eat-in.  I ordered a smoked turkey from a local BBQ restaurant and just cooked sides. 

In December we decorated and shopped and partied and prepared for Chirstmas,and that took what seemed to be every spare minute.  This was one of those years when I was actually glad that Christmas was over - I am home from work this week and trying to just take some down time to rest. Of course that is not really happening, I have been running around and grabbing up some after-Christmas sale specials.  So far, new dishes from Target and some curtains for the house from a national store that was going out of business - 80% off!!

As for family adjustments and how we are all doing - well, it hasn't been all roses and sunshine.  We had a lot of stuff happening this year and each event came with it's share of trials and troubles.  In a nutshell, the first 6-months after bringing Dasha home was pretty good.  Everything was new and fresh, adopters know this as the 'honeymoon stage'.  The next 6-months was pretty much down-hill.  The kids especially have had trouble getting along with each other at times.   We have had a few rounds of some pretty serious lying and hiding things.  There is the ongoing struggle with food - deciding to like or not like certain foods as a means of control.   The last month or so has been a little better, but that could just be the effect of the Christmas season.  Overall, things are good, just trying at times, as all adoptive families can (and should) expect as the family adjusts to the change.   They say that the adjustment period is at least two years.  I never really understood that before we brought Dasha home, now I can clearly see how it takes so long.  I think with younger children it is probably shorter.  This new person in our home comes with a history, and we are still learning about that, and she is still learning about us.   Not just the facts, but about personalities and how we all act/react in certain situations.  The things that make us laugh and the things that make us cry.   We're working on more laughing and less crying.

So, that's how the year went - busy, busy, busy.  I hope that 2009 will slow down just a little. 

 

Today is a day of solemn rememberance for our country, as we remember the 7th anniversary of the tragedies in New York and the Pentagon.   God Bless the families of those who lost their lives.

For our family, however, we have reason to celebrate.  September 11th has a new significance for us.  Today is the one year anniversary of our adoption!  To clarify, this is the day that the 10-days were over and we knew FOR SURE that the adoption was complete in Russia; it is the date on our adoption certificate; it is the day I took a BIG sigh of relief after a year of waiting and not knowing if we would ever be able to bring her home at all.   On this day we knew all that was left was for me to return to Russia to pick our daughter up and bring her home; since we did not stay in Russia during the 10 days wait.  So, today is a VERY important day; our 'Official' gotcha day.  We will celebrate again, however,  on the anniversary of the day that Darya stepped off the plane and into her new forever home.  

Tonight we will celebrate with just family with dinner out at a restaurant, and cake.   Our 'bigger' celebration will be later this month.  We were originally planning to have a party at the house and invite friends to celebrate with us.  Then, one day not long ago, Darya asked when we would be going to the beach.  She's been here nearly a year already, she knows the beach is not too far away (she has seen pictures) and summer is nearly over (well, not really - in South Texa summer is pretty long).  When are we going to the beach mom?  I explained that we like to visit the beach in in the fall, when it's not too terribly hot, usually September.  But, since we were planning a big party we probably wouldn't be going this year.  Unless.... she would rather go to the beach?    She immediately decided that we should go to the beach.   The whole family agreed - the boys REALLY preferred the beach trip and so did Dan.  So, that was it; we cancelled the party - no harm done, not much planning had really started yet anyway.  So, now I'm thinking that maybe we will start a tradition of celebrating our "Gotcha" Day - or days or month, whatever you call it, with a family trip to the coast.    After all, how we celebrate is up to us; there are no rules for how to celebrate. 

I have been searching for a beach house or condo rental.  In light of Hurricane Ike's impending arrival,  I will wait to book reservations until at least next week.  Those coastal buildings can withstand quite a bit, but if there is too much damage they could close up for the season.  If that is the case, we will make plans to go a little farther south along the Texas coastline.  South Padre Island is really beautiful, but a much farther drive.

I'll post more later about our celebrations and recap the past year.  In the mean time, I really need to get my house cleaned up this weekend.  The SW is coming for our one-year post placement visit on Monday! 

Also, my dear friend Terry (Pink) is in surgery this morning.  Keep her and the medical staff in prayer this morning.  She'll be in the hospital for a few days.   You can leave her a comment on her blog, I know she would like that!

Ok, so do you like it?  I finally got my first taste of digital scrapbooking AND put up a new blog headder!  Thanks to Rachael (and Debbie who also inspiired me to make a change) for telling your readers about Scrapblog.com.   Terry and I were on the phone last night clicking away and telling each other about design templates we liked.  It is Sooooo much better than the boring templates offered by Blog-city.  I know I really should change over to Blogger to keep up with the rest of the blog community, there seems to be more that you can do with your blog - and it's free! - Yes, I pay for my blog space, it's not much at all, but still.  The problem is that now I have all this history here and I would hate to re-create it at another site.   I know there is the option to print it out or even make a book of it, but I don't know if I really want to do that.

Summer is nearing a close and, while it was not my intention, it seems like I have taken the summer off from blogging!  We were not terribly, terribly busy but we did have swim lessons and then a long road-trip vacation.  On top of that I have been sick with a cough/cold for a very long time.   So, I guess that is some of what has kept me from blogging.

Swim Lessons were just two weeks long, but they were every night.  It went by very quickly, and it was much needed.  I was amazed that a girl who lived just literally a block from the ocean did not know how to swim!  They would walk from the Children's Home to the water nearly every day during the summer, but apparently most of the girls did not know how to swim so they would just let them wade in shallow water to cool off.  So it was another first for Dasha; she had never been in a swimming pool before this summer! 

For our summer vacation we took a drive to visit my family in Illinois.  Along the way we stopped in Kansas at Moon Marble - a very eclectic shop and marble making studio.   This was our second visit to the Moon.  We watched them make a marble from glass rods - technically lampworking, most marbles are machine manufactured.  Here is Dasha picking out  her favorite marbles.  (Sporting her  Matryshka-lined purse from Simple Wishes Etsy store - a little plug for my blog-friend Rachael)

Our road-trip TO Illinois was a lot of fun, the kids were very well behaved in the car.  Aside from being only 3 days into my summer-long cold/cough, the drive was really enjoyed by everyone.  This was NOT the case on the drive home - that's all I have to say about that! 

I was really amazed by how GREEN everything is in the heartland.  We saw corn fields for miles and miles.  OK, I was born in Illinois and spent my early childhood literally in the middle of the cornfields, but I guess so many years living in Texas has really changed my perspective of the color green.   And the grass was so soft!!  I walked around barefoot most of the time and loved it.

The pictures here really don't do it justice.  The picture on the left is just a random farm in Iowa along the drive.  The middle picture is in my Dad's backyard the fields just past the bushes are farmed by my Dads' cousin, the third picture is the farm that was once owned by my great grandfather. 

We had a really relaxing vacation, just hanging around the house and eating like crazy.  I totally lost my voice by the second or third day of our visit, but of course I still tried to talk.   Dad took the kids fishing and Dasha caught her first-ever fish!  It was a little tiny one, but that's mostly what's in the river.  She actually caught 14!  Dad said if they had kept them all there might have been enough for one fish sandwich!   Even though she has been with us almost a year (yes, time flies), there are still a lot of 'firsts' happening.

The kids were a little bored a times with the laid-back country life, but Dad did a good job of keeping them busy with fun stuff.   The boys got to shoot grandpas guns - my Dad used to do a lot of hunting.  He kept a close eye on their every move, they listened very well and did good.  They also took turns driving grandpas' 'tractor' around the yard. (It is a riding lawn mower, but a pretty big one.)  Ryan also got his first pocket-knife on this trip, he was really excited about that.  He has been very careful with it and keeps it very clean.  He has whittled a couple of sticks in the backyard, but he wants to keep it from getting dull so he doesn't want to use it too much. 

My birthday came along while we were there.  The kids picked 42 wild-flowers in the morning.   My brother and his wife came to have brunch with us.   We took family pictures in front of the house.

 We visited lots of relatives on our trip also.  Dasha thinks we have such a big family - really compared to some we are rather small, but compared to the family she has in Russia I suppose it really is pretty big.  She now has 7 grandmothers!  (including all the great-grandmas)

On the last day of our visit we stopped to visit the John Deere museums - one with antique tractors and one with modern-day tractors, my how they have changed! The old tractors were pretty big, but the modern ones are huge!  And did you know that those tractors have GPS systems to map out the fields! - OK, well, actually I knew that already but I am still amazed at how much technology is involved in farming.  They measure the harvested output of the field and know where they need to fertilize more for the next year.  The tractors almost drive themselves, guided by the GPS.  One day we will likely have un-manned machines doing all the work.

Leaving to head home is always bitter-sweet.  It is always hard to say goodbye, and to leave the place that is part of my childhood.  It just feels like 'home' when we are there - well, because it is - or was.  Our home now is in Texas - and it was so good to be back home.  But it will never be the same 'home of my childhood.'  I guess it must be a little how Dasha will feel about Russia - her young childhood home when she is grown.

So we started out on our way home - everyone a little quiet for the first 30 minutes or so of the drive.  I was surprised at how much Josh was really emotional.  He can't wait to go and spend the summer with Grandpa - maybe in the next couple years or so he can do that.   We are thinking about Disney next spring - but I haven't even finished telling about this trip yet so we will keep 'thinking' about that one for a while longer. 

Our trip home was long, but we broke it up a little by stopping to visit the St. Louis arch.  We had been there before when the boys were little, but they didn't really remember it much.  We rode the elevator/tram to the top.  The view is great,but that little room at the top was far too crowded for my liking; we stayed just long enough to gaze out the windows on both sides, take the obligatory photos and ride the tram back down.  The rest of the trip home was LONG - again, that's all I have to say about that.   

So, we're back at home, back to our regular routine, thinking about summer being over in just two more weeks.  Actually the kids are looking forward to school starting. Dasha can't wait to get back to seeing her friends every day - she has had enough of the boys.  And the boys are looking forward to their new school.  We are just about ready - clothes and school supplies are just about all in order, just a few more loose ends to tie up.  Next week we will go to orientations and meet all their new teachers.  We will take first-day-of-school pictures as we do every year on the front porch.  Then the fun and anticipation will be over and we will all too soon hear excuses about why homework is not done and complaining about getting up SO early and the regular grind of school-days.  

Contrary to popular belief, I am still alive and well and checking in on everyone's blogs.  I have NOT decided to stop blogging, just needed a break. I promise I'll be back soon with updates and pictures.