Paradise Found and a New Cousin

We have certainly had a whirlwind of a few weeks here. I can't believe that September has already found us. I'm not quite sure where July went. Colby and I spent much of our time outside and visiting with friends. I also became the proud aunt of a beautiful little girl named Elizabeth, or Lizzie. I have 4 nephews already but now I finally have a niece. She was born in late July. Colby seems to really like here, although he keeps telling her, "No, no Lizzie. No cry." Way too cute. Mike, Colby, and I went to visit Mike's brother David and his wife Jocelyn shortly after Lizzie was born. Colby spent much of the time playing Baseball on Wii with David. David succeeded in hitting Colby on the head and Colby hit the dog, Benny, on the head. All in good fun! We can't wait until Lizzie gets a little older and then she and Colby can enjoy playing together. We have a picnic scheduled at Mike's parents' house on Sunday to celebrate both Lizzie and Colby and jsut to have fun with family.

Last week Colby and I enjoyed a visit with our friends Jill, Nicholas, and Sharon. We went down to Hamden to visit with them and there we found "Paradise". It is a country club that Sharon belongs too and Colby had a blast playing with Nicholas and going swimming. He is still talking about it. I enjoyed the time with friends, the warm sunshine, and swimming too. There is a pool but they also have a swimming area more like a small lake. You walk right in and it slowly gets deeper, like at the beach, except no sand. We had a nice swim and enjoyed lunch together before both Colby and Nicholas showed signs of needing a nap. We can't wait to go again. Colby loves playing with "Nichotin" and I really enjoy our friendship with Jill and Sharon. Nicholas is Jill's little boy, he's about 11 months younger than Colby. Sharon's little one, Sean, is about 6 months younger than Colby but he is still waiting in Russia to come home. We hope he comes home soon.

So, we found Paradise, welcomed a new little one to our family, and are enjoying the nice weather. Summer flew by way too fast and now fall is here. Mike and I are looking forward to bringing Colby to some of the local fall fairs, Goshen, Bethlehem, and also to the Big E. So many new things to do. And everything seems more exciting when you have a 2 year old to experience it with you.

On another note, I want to thank everyone for the kind comments on my last post. I can't say that the change from being "Melissa" to being "Mommy" has been tough but there were a few bumps in the road. I am enjoying my time with Colby and I know that having this time together is priceless. I do miss work, but only in the sense that I miss the adult interaction and the sense of pride that teaching brought. Now my pride comes from watching Colby grow, learn, and thrive. What better accomplishment is there? As for adult interaction, that is why I am thrilled to have Sharon and Jill and their relationship. I lost many of my "friends" when I left my last job so their friendship means all the more. I hope that we can even grow our little play group even more!

Random Updates

This has been a busy week for us. After his high fever and cutting his 2-year molar, Colby still isn't quite himself. The crabby boy is enjoying longer naps and seems very tired at night. He is also quick to be frustrated as well. However, we keep moving on.

Monday we spent a quite day at home but on Tuesday we had Sharon over. She and her husband, Patrick, live nearby and are waiting to go back to get their son Sean. He is 20 months old. Sharon came over on Tues so I could see photos from her first trip, they just came home about 3 weeks ago. Sean is an absolute cutie. Quite the chubby little boy, he looks like Patrick. Funny, Colby looks a lot like Mike.

Wednesday Mike was home and we had our social worker, Christine, over for our 6 month update for Russia. Wow! 6 months. It needs to be done early because it has to be in Russia before the 6 months is up. Christine was quite impressed with Mr. Colby, the show off. We had a nice chat then Christine mentioned that this would be our last meeting face-to-face. SHe would still be calling us for 2-3 years for updates and photos but she wasn't required to visit anymore. Wow! That was a shock. She's been there since we began this journey and now we are "on our own" so to speak. I hope that we will see her again though. Colby and I will have to visit her as he grows up . He was calling her "Aunt". It was very cute.

Today we are at home. We were asked to babysit my nephew Keith but he isn't feeling well and my brother Keith thought it would be better not to have the boys together. Colby certainly doesn't need to be sick.

Tomorrow we are heading to visit another friend, Jill, and her son Nicholas. Jill and her husband, Nick, also adopted their boy from Russia. Nicholas even came from the same region as Colby, Yekaterinburg. Nicholas is younger than both Colby and Sean at only 16 months I think. But, we are hoping that the boys become great friends. We know the mommies are already. I can't wait to see Nicholas for the first time. They just came home from Russia about 2 weeks ago.

Also on the adoption front, on Wednesday Mike and I went down to the Children's Probate court to see what we need to do to have a U.S. birth certificate issued for Colby. We haven't done anything with following up the adoption in the U.S. and now that things are settled down, as much as they will, it is time. We were told that we do not need to re-finalize the adoption here because we were present at the adoption in Russia and his Russian birth certificate has our names and his adopted name on it. So, all we needed to do was apply for a certificate of foreign birth issued. They took copies of our adoption papers and the judge will call a hearing, sometime in August, to see the originals and then issue the U.S. birth certificate. Colby was in a rare mood by then and ready for lunch so we went home. After lunch, while he was napping I went back downtown to the Social Security office to start the process for a Social Security card. They copied the original documents and will send them to be translated (dumb because we have the translations attached but they can't accept that, they need to translate it themselves) and then they will issue the card. They said we should get the card in about a month or so.

So, things are moving along. We are getting things done that have been pushed aside. Accomplishments have been made, or are in the works anyway. And now we just need to work on a job for Mommy!

It's Tuesday

Ok, it's Tuesday. Things are all set. Bags are packed, the passports returned from NYC via FedEx (GO FedEx!), the house is clean.... Can we leave now???

Jill, a fellow Ekat adopter is now on her way to Ekat. She is going for her first trip, to accept her referral. No info yet. It was great to talk to her last night as she was going to the airport. Her and her husband left late last night, the same flight Mike and I are going to take tomorrow. Right now they should be in Frankfurt for their long layover before going on to Ekat. Mike and I wish them a safe trip and we hope to see them when we get there.

So, can we go now????