5x7 Folded Card

I Love Grandpa Father's Day 5x7 folded card

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5x7 Folded Card

I Love Grandma Mother's Day 5x7 folded card

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What a difference a Year Makes

At this time last year we were getting ready to fly from Moscow to Kiev for a connecting flight to JFK after seeing our daughter for the 1st time. We ended up being stuck in the Kiev airport for 24 hours only to get home on a different airline on the 26th rather than Christmas evening. We arrived home about 30 hours later than expected.

This year Katerina is sleeping and we are anxious to see her reaction tomorrow morning when she sees that santa has come :) What a difference a year makes.

We are quite excited about this Christmas even though we know she is still a bit young. We think :) Santa has brought a piano, a drum, books, puzzles, clothes and other toys. She has expressed interest in all of the toys and instruments previously at other houses so we hope she likes them when they are hers too. That is if Santa brought these gifts :).

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it. And Happy New Year to all.

Random Encounter at the Mall

Kelly and I were walking through the Holyoke Mall with Katerina the other day and happened to stop to take care of something on Katerina. So not remember what. Katerina was looking at a little boy in a front pack being carried by his mom.

Katerina says "hi" to the mom. She says hi to everyone. And we strike up a conversation with the mom. It was apparent from early on that her little boy was adopted. So I finally say something to the effect of, "This may be inappropriate but where is your son from?" The adorable little guy was from Ethiopia. So we and the mom had a ten minute conversation while Katerina touched his hand a few times. He is 11 months old and his hand is already the size of Katerina's.

In the end we exchanged emails and will try to get together come the spring when it thaws out with other adoption families that the mom has met along the way from this area.

A weird but cool meeting of people with something in common.

Thoughts

Tonight after we lost electricity I had to walk into Kat's room to reset the monitor which does not turn back on when the electricity comes back on. While I did this as quietly as possible so as not to wake Katerina, I looked down at her sleeping in her crib. She was all scrunched up in one side so small and cute.

I think Kelly and I would have been happy in our own little world with our nieces and nephews had we not adopted or had a child. But having Kat in our world for the past eight months certainly makes me think that I could never have imagined how happy she makes us feel. How just looking at her in her crib makes me smile. I would never, in a million years (or however many years I would have lived probably a few less than a million), thought she could make this much of a difference. Makes me, and I am sure Kelly, feel this good and happy.

Just felt like putting this out there. As I am sure most of you feel the same about your little princesses and princes, it is amazing how these little ones can make us feel as parents, adopted or not.

This is a test to see if video works - Kat on Swing

Kat on swing at Santa Land in Vermont.

Kat's cats

Because I was uploading pictures, I figured I would post one of each of Katerina's cats.

The first two are Sophie under the tree and her mommy Lilly. They are about 2 and 4 years old.

These two are her Maine Coons. Orion on the left, is the only boy and the youngest at about 1 1/2 years old. Luci on the right is Kat's biggest cat at about 19 pounds. She is about 3 and 1/2.

And then there is the Queen B., Beezer. Our oldest kitty.