Speechless.

I got an email from Lu at Poppies Blooming the other day asking me if she could paint a picture of Addison ... this picture, actually ... you might remember it ... ;)


So a couple days later, I got another email from Lu telling me she was done ... that was fast! Here is the final product ...


Isn't that amazing? Thank you so much Lu! Please stop by Poppies Blooming to see how you can get a canvas of your own!

Her first hint of Christmas ...

During my Black Friday shopping spree today, I bought this train for under our Christmas tree. We still have to put up the tree, but the kids wanted to set up the train ... so we did. Nika was amazed by the train ... it was so cute!

"Wow ... I'm liking this thing!"

"How does this thing work?!"

"Ahh ... mama is taking pictures of me again!"

Eating ... and Signing!

I think we have only found two things Nika does not like so far ... egg yolk (but she likes egg whites) and tortellini ... I'm not sure if it was the tortellini or the spaghetti sauce that she didn't like. Anyway ... I videotaped her eating chicken noodle soup. LOL. Sounds crazy, but whatever ... she is my only kid that will eat chicken noodle soup, so I was proud. Plus, I think she has pretty good oral motor skills for a kid with Down syndrome that has never had OT or ST in her life. :) And ... not only that ... she is signing "more" already! Such a smart cookie, she is!

Self-feeding

In the baby home, they give the kids adult size silverware to use. It is quite comical to see these tiny kids using large soup spoons that are larger than their head. When we had a chance to watch Nika eat a meal in the baby home, she whipped that spoon around and somehow managed to get it in her mouth.

We have come to realization she has an obsession for silverware ... not only for silverware, but for holding her own silverware. She especially loves forks and she must always have a fork in hand when eating ... and she doesn't much like to eat her food without it being served to her on a fork. We have to help her stab her food most of the time and if we give her a second fork with food on it, then she immediately drops the other fork from her hand ... it is like clockwork. One of us has to be ready to catch fork #1 as she grabs fork #2.

Here she is maneuvering her fork at dinner tonight ... I'm impressed at how well she does with it ...

A smile and an appetite

Addison cracks me up! When I pull out the camera, I usually have about two seconds to capture a shot of her smiling with her eyes open ... like this one ...
... but then as soon as she sees the flash of the camera, her smile turns into this ... ... which is actually quite similar to Payton's cheesy monkey grin that she brings out when she sees the camera ... we should have some interesting family pictures, that is for sure!

We are also loving the fact that Addison is pretty much like a garbage disposal ... the girl will eat anything, which we are NOT used to. Trying to get Mason and Payton to eat vegetables (except corn for Mason) and most fruits is like pulling teeth. Addison, on the other hand, will eat pretty much all of them. Here she is at lunch today snacking on some fruits and veggies (imagine that ... she had her cheesy grin out before I snapped a shot ... LOL ... stinker!) ...

Love her!

We're running out of toys at the hotel ...

... so we have settled for Daddy's shoes ...

Playtime with Sasha

If you have been following our blog, you have heard me talk about the other family that we are traveling with. They adopted Sasha, a little boy from Addison's grouppa. Sasha is almost four years old and come his birthday in March, he would have been transferred out of the baby home to a home for older children. Thankfully he was adopted before that happened.

Since Sasha is a little older, he is more aware of what is going on than Addison is. He really enjoys spending time with Nika and she gets pretty excited to see him too, so we have tried to get the two of them together as much as we can. Last night they had fun playing together in the playroom at our hotel ...
We are lucky to live only about 10 - 15 miles from Sasha's new family, so hopefully we will be able to get the kids together from time to time. We are so thankful to them, as they have been extremely supportive of us throughout this entire process ... so from the bottom of our hearts ... THANK YOU!

Mason: This post is for you!

Mason ... we gave Nika your teddy bear and she loves it. She wanted us to show you some pictures of her playing with teddy ... you are such a good big brother! We miss you and Chicky and we will see you in three days! Give Chicky a kiss from us!

Bathtime!

My first bath (given in a shower due to lack of facilities) started out okay ... I was a little nervous, so I sucked on my fingers to keep me calm. You see, I'm not really used to getting full fledged baths ...
But ... it didn't take me long to realize that I pretty much didn't like my bath, so my mommy rinsed me off and took me out of the shower.

Whew ... where do I start?!

Addison and her favorite caregiver

Today has been a very emotional day for everyone. This morning we got to visit with Addison for a little while in between running around to apply for her passport and then to pick it up. As crazy as it sounds, I was really nervous for our afternoon trip to the baby home, because I knew it was going to be hard ... really hard.

Hard for us to take Addison from the only place she knows.

Hard for us to take Addison from the only people she knows.

Hard for us to imagine how her caregivers must be feeling as they lose Addison from their care.

Hard for us to imagine how Addison will feel after leaving the baby home with these two crazy Americans talking another language and feeding her food she isn't used to.

We got to the baby home and met the director for the first time. She was so sweet and we gave her a gift that we bought for her. She was very grateful that we are adopting Addison and she essentially meant that if it weren't for us, then she may not have ever been adopted. I got teary eyed and then we went to visit the social worker to give her a gift, and she told us the same thing as the director and I got teary eyed again. Then we went up to Addison's grouppa (aka: her "family unit"). There were four caregivers there and yes, her favorite caregiver was there. We gave each of the caregivers gifts that we bought for them and they thanked us. Our translator told us that we could get Addison dressed in the clothes that we brought for her, so we did. Good grief ... that really made her look like Payton! LOL.

There is another family that we know that is adopting a little boy from Addison's grouppa. We had court the same day and they also had their 10-day waiting period waived, as their little boy has a heart defect. They had left the room to change him and all a sudden he came flying through the door to show his friends his new digs ... a Nike warm-up suit. It was so cute! He was so proud and so happy ... it was so fun to watch his reaction, since he is old enough to know what it means to have new things (he is almost four years old). That alone almost made me cry. LOL.

So both of our families joined the caregivers in another room and they were already crying. I lost it, Kyle lost it, our translator lost it ... we all just cried. How could you stand there and watch this and not lose it? Seriously. I know they are so happy that these kids now have families, but their hearts are also aching. I promised them that we would send lots of pictures so that they can rest assured that Addison is doing great and that she is in a great place. I know the "not knowing what happens" is the hardest part for them. It would be for me too.

Before we left, we let Addison's favorite caregiver have her time with her ... she was so sweet. She has given her entire soul to our child and I just hugged her and we cried. What a special lady.

It was time to say goodbye and all the caregivers were there. The one in red that is holding Addison is her favorite caregiver and the one to the left in green in the physical therapist that had told us she was giving Addison lots of massages ...
We are emotionally drained and we are headed for Moscow tonight ...

I have a family!

She was cracking us up!

I know I said Addison was shy most of the day, but she was cracking us up at one point. She was sitting facing me and we were making faces back and forth at each other by tightly shutting our eyes. I would do it, she would do it, and so on and so forth. This picture was taken during that time and the pictures I posted earlier today show her making her faces earlier in the day.

I also wanted to post this picture so you can see her glamorous hair style! Nothing can affect her cuteness! :)

Silly Girl {That's what a camera flash will do!}

Journey to walking ...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Chilling with Addison {Trip One}

Addison: Day One {First Trip}

If you've been following our blog, you know how hard it was for us to leave Addison in Russia after our first trip. I feel like I sort of had to turn my emotions off, just so I could make it through these past few weeks away from her. That might sound weird, but it is true. I haven't watched many of our videos that we took of her, only because it upset me too much.

Now that we have a court date, I can't help myself ... get ready for video overload! I'm only kidding, but I am going to post a few videos of Addison, to give you a better glimpse into this child that we fell in love with in just three days.

This video was taken probably an hour after we met Addison. By this time, her caregiver was able to take a step back without having Addison cry. She is so stinkin cute!

Saying Goodbye

We got to spend just two hours with Addison this morning. I was a mess going into it ... and Kyle and I both were messes going out of it. We both cried and tried not to look at each other so as to not make the other cry more. The caregiver quickly took Addison from us {to make it easier, I suppose} and told us {translated from Russian} not to cry, that we would be back before we know it. While we know that is true, it is still so very hard.

We had a great visit with Addison, but the two hours we had seemed like five minutes. Addison has a cold and I think it is getting worse. My mommy instinct just wants to get her better NOW, but alas I will have the rest of her life to get her better. I'm determined to learn some Russian, because her receptive language {in Russian} is incredible ... you can just see the difference in her face when they talk to her in Russian ... it is so cute! If anyone has any good tips for learning key phrases quick, let me know! LOL.

I never imagined in my entire life that we would make this kind of connection with a child after just three days. I think it is because she reminds us so much of Payton ... and obviously our love for Payton it so strong it makes our hearts hurt. Many people are afraid of adoption because they are not sure if they could love a child that isn't theirs the same way that they do their own. I have been curious as to how I would feel once we were put in the situation, but I now know that we are living proof that it is one in the same. Becoming the parents of a child that has no mommy or daddy ... a child that just wants to be loved by a family ... being able to do that is an incredible feeling.

Until next time ...

Not a happy camper

Today we took Addison to the photography studio to have a quick picture taken for her passport. Side note: Wow, that is really exciting to say ... she is getting a passport to come home with us! Back on track: Needless to say, she hated the car seat. Umm ... hated might not even be the word? She screamed ... although that was the first time we had heard her cry, so it was so cute ... and sad, at the same time. She wanted nothing to do with being buckled in that seat and reached for us to take her out. We assume that the only association she has with cars is going to the doctor's office, which probably in her mind is a negative association because of shots. :( She finally calmed down {after Andrei talked some Russian to her} and enjoyed the view. Yikes ... we may have our work cut out for us when we get her home. Anybody got any Russian CD's I can play in the car to soothe her? LOL. Hopefully soon enough she will understand what I'm saying to her and life will be good. ;)