Easter 2010

We don't make holidays a big celebration. We try to keep things simple, and enjoy the day. We didn't race to the photo centers for fancy pictures, and we didn't participate in the community egg gatherings.

Instead, we dyed eggs with onions skins the Saturday before Easter. The bunny hid eggs with quarters in them around the house, and left a small basket of healthier treats. Emma received a stuffed chick in a shell, and a few dollars from Grandma. We enjoyed the rest of the day together.

I'm glad a few eggs scattered around the house is enough to create excitement for the preceding two weeks. There is joy in simplicity.

We Are Moving

We ended up purchasing a bigger house. Did I write about this before? Anyway, that is where we have focused a lot of our attention (and money, my goodness). Emma will need her own bedroom one day, and kids need room to move around. This house comes with an empty lot, so they will have plenty of room to run.

I have been scraping rotten carpet padding (from original bright, red shag carpeting no less) in the dining room. Emma is two feet away from me in her Pack N Play, but I can only get about an hour of work done (which includes a brief nap for Emma). She is all of six months old now, so her separation anxiety has kicked in. I know that is a good thing, but it doesn't allow me to be much help. Drew has done some removal of kitchen weirdness, and is now replacing a floor joist (2 x 4) that is holding up a water heater on the back porch. We already can't agree on a future floorplan for the kitchen. The rest of the house needs a serious cleaning, and paint.

Emma is rolling around now to get wherever she wants to be. She is quite proficient at rolling. She eats egg yolk, banana, avocado. She isn't too fond of liver (can you blame her?). She adores her big brother, and laughs at all his silliness. This just makes him act even sillier. Emma still sleeps through the night. She has developed eczema due to the cold, dry weather. It should go away when our Florida humidity returns.

Aiden lost one of his upper front teeth. It was wiggly anyway, and he climbed up on the counter in the kitchen to get something out of an upper cabinet. Anyway, he lost his footing, and came down on his chin on the countertop. A couple of bites into his dinner, his tooth of out. The tooth fairy was very generous because she didn't have any change that evening.

No Sympathy for the Weary (Emma update too)

Conethia doesn't want to hear my daily woes (smile), so I'll just move on to talking about Emma.

We are most fortunate to have a baby that sleeps through the night. She is now 4.5 months old. She doesn't take a long nap during the day, but does cat nap. I think this helps for sleeping through the night, although it doesn't give me much of a break during the day for schooling.

Emma is a really easy baby though. When she is tired she throws her arms up and arches her back. She smiles a lot, and has a very pleasant disposition. She is teething, but doesn't cry about it. She makes cute raspberries. She does this crazy monkey yell when she wants your attention. It sounds like, "eh, eh, eh, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh". Stupid to write that, I know. She loves watching her uber energetic brother bounce off the walls and ceiling. Emma is also very alert. Aiden has been a good helper, and he hasn't had anything near the amount of sibling jealousy I expected.

We think her birthmother did a really fantastic job the first three months, and have a great deal of respect and admiration for her.

Going Crazy

I have a very active and demanding 6.5 year old, and now a 4 month old. I homeschool our very smart boy. I work with our contractor on remodeling our house so that we can put it up for sale, and try to keep up our temporary apartment in some order. I am trying to find us a larger home now that we have a girl. I still have our holiday decorations up, and the laundry could be folded. The cat is almost out of food, and my mother needs me to run some errands for her. Oh, I am also going crazy.

Republishing Old Posts from Ukraine

When we signed on with an agency to adopt from Kyrgyzstan, we edited our blog and removed several posts about our unsuccessful Ukrainian adoption attempt. It feels great not to have to jump through any hoops set up by international adoption agencies. Our entire Ukrainian experience is here now for anyone that wants to know what can happen.

We Have Our Girl!

We brought our baby girl home this month! She was adopted domestically, and we couldn't be happier. We didn't want to post anything earlier about throwing our hat into the domestic adoption arena because we would have also gone to Krygyzstan if it had reopened. Anyway, everything finds its balance sooner or later.

She is happy, healthy, and no exposure to drugs or alcohol. We are thrilled, and she couldn't be more perfect.

Hibernating at Home

There is nothing much to report on the adoption front.

It is hot hot hot outside, and we are staying inside and trying to stay cool. I've been doing some sewing lately. I just finished a baby quilt, and a crown. I have a pattern for some cute girl's dresses, but I don't know the sex of the child we may adopt one day.

Update, But Nothing Exciting

We are considering some other options right now. I've read that things might begin moving in Kyrgyzstan before the end of the year. That may or may not include families without referrals. Anyway, that isn't what we are checking out. But we aren't just sitting around waiting.

UPDATE: Kyrgyzstan

This from JCICS:

It is Joint Council's understanding from discussions with the U.S. Dept of State, Office of Children's Issues that a number of arrests have been made in Kyrgyzstan in connection to intercountry adoptions. It is also our understanding that key Kyrgyz officials have confirmed the arrests of at least one adoption coordinator. Joint Council is currently working to confirm the arrests of at least two other coordinators. The latest information indicates that some of the illegal activity under investigation involve intercountry adoptions for children matched with U.S. citizen adoptive parents, including the creation of fraudulent paperwork for the purposes of intercountry adoption. Joint Council is currently working to confirm the charges and the extent of investigations. It is unknown at this time how this will affect the 65 pending cases.

In response to the current developments in Kyrgyzstan Joint Council is currently advocating with the U.S. Dept of State, Office of Children's Issues for a conference call for families who are matched with a referral. Given the limited schedule of the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan this week we do not anticipate this call occurring until late in the week of May 11th or during the week of May 18th.

Further, Joint Council has at this time decided it is necessary to suspend the current campaign of waiting child stories and the U.S. congressional campaign until further information is available on the investigations, charges, arrests and extent of illegal activities. At this time we respectfully request that prospective adoptive parents with referrals not take drastic advocacy measures for their case or the 65 pending cases. In conversations with government officials it is apparent that aggressive advocacy efforts at this time may simply be counterproductive. In order to ensure that advocacy efforts are strategic and directed at the appropriate officials and within an effective context, it is necessary to see how the investigations are resolved in Kyrgyzstan. Joint Council is greatly saddened by these recent events and offers our continued support to all families. We will continue to advocate for the children of Kyrgyzstan and the processing of legal, ethical intercountry adoptions from Kyrgyzstan with the strongest of commitments. Joint Council will also continue to update Member Organizations, adoptive families and all key stakeholders as the situation develops.

Thank you for your continued support of Joint Council and the children we all serve.

One of Many Updates....Sort of

This is an edit of a post from an agency very active in Kyrgyzstan. They are kind enough to keep people updated on what is happening (or at least what they know).


The Parliament did not discuss adoption this week. Next week is holidays, so if they meet they may not discuss adoption. The following week they are back on schedule and we expect they will issue their decision. The MOE is clearly operating with the belief that they will give a green light to completing adoptions in process; they indicate that it will take about a month to catch up with the matched waiting families. We do not know if they will then continue to make referrals to other families, or if the Embassy will accept new dossiers, or what. Hopefuly all of the above. The investigations continue. Most in-country coordinators have been called in for questioning. A couple judges have been unseated. They continue to raise those bizarre questions about "Why do foreign families want Kyrgyz orphans?" We've heard that family stories and photos have been helpful at debunking myths and allaying fears. The US Embassy is actively engaging the Kyrgyz officials to resolve the impasse. I don't know how many more times I can bear saying "one more week" or you can bear hearing it, but we are still stuck.