....and a Partridge with a traumatic brain injury

Our Very First Christmas Story.


We left our new Christmas lawn ornament from Auntie Tracey on Friday afternoon and headed North to snow and all things Northwoods.



Nick's last creation before we left. A house with a noodle chimney. The pieces of cardboard where inserts in a nativity scene box.


We stopped early in Rockford, Ill so Nick could swim and try out his new one piece suit that I bought thinking that it would preserve body heat.....no luck, shivering after 2-3 minutes. Kazakhstan was the coldest place that I have ever been yet the 80 -90 degree orphanage heating system has left our boy with some significant cold intolerance. :) Nick is absolutely the best traveller ever. He never fusses and just reads books and watches out the window. He loves to hear the music on the radio and we played a few new DVDs on our new portable player.



My boys at rest. We drove the remainder of the way the next day after having a rather rambunctious night with Nick playing Ninja sleeper in the bed......we will be getting the double bed room from now on.......the extra two inches that he has grown in the last 8 months has made sleeping together nearly impossible! ;)

We arrived in the beautiful Northwoods just in time for a big snow storm. Luckily, everyone that was coming in that day had arrived before the snow started accumulating. As Nick would say "peh-fect". The snow was amazing and so festive.

My favorite view is from the picture window looking out into the woods. The snow fell and fell for hours.

Our first outing in the snow was to dig out the next day. With the snow that they already had, we probably had a good base of about 12 inches or so over the week. Santa was good to us!

The trail blazers were suited up and ready to make a path for sledding.

....and here they go! Gee, it looks like trees are in the way?

Mama and Nick after the path was declared ready for take-off.......don't ask about the trees at the end.....apparently only "southerners" like mommy run straight into them.....thank goodness for lots of snow...hee, hee!

And, it seems this is what re-located Northerners do when re-introduced to the white stuff. It would have actually been more fun to get the picture of Nick's face while he watched his daddy participating in this strange ritual.

4 PIRATES LAUGHING........

(notice the great Christmas village in the background)

3 PACKER FANS

2 KITZMANS READING

AND A PARTRIDGE WITH A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY!

yes, you heard right....a partridge flew into the garage and crashed into the window and sat in the garage all night and was practically frozen the next morning when we found it. It was decided that it would be un-Christmas (is that a word?) to let a Partridge die on Christmas eve and you definitely couldn't eat it!......SO........

Ata Bob and daddy took it to the wildlife refuge center (where they probably cooked it) ......um, I mean where they rescued it and protected it while it recovered from a TBI and frostbite. Pat just wanted to know if this counted for clinical experience with a brain-injured patient??

Nick's first reading of the Christmas Story by Ata Bob (sniff, sniff). We also attended Christmas Eve service at Grandma and Grandpa's church where Nick enjoyed the singing and candles and LOUDLY pronounced at the last prayer.....THE END! So cute!

Nick's first Kitzman/Tracy Christmas Eve party at Aunt Julaine and Uncle Dick's house. He had a great time with all his cousins who had wonderful treats for him also. Cousin Eric had the hit of the night......homemade GOO!

Nick doing his impression of Santa with his goo......ho!ho!ho!

Christmas morning at the stockings!

And, look what Santa brought......a "GIANT" rocket. He was immediately busy with countdowns and blast offs! The rest of us enjoyed the traditional Eggs Benedict breakfast that Grandma Ruth always prepares Christmas morning.....yum!

Uncle Mike, Aunt Julie and Dakota arrived late morning from Eau Claire for the rest of the gift opening. Nick was happy to help!

hmmm? Did Dakota get a rocket too?

This picture cracks me up because it is Nick having to endure the tedious outfitting for a journey outside (which always takes longer than the time actually spent outside) and he has just decided to read a book......I had to put down the hat, scarf, mittens and coat to take a pic.

Daddy says this is the lake that we swam in this summer but I just don't see how cars can drive where once there was boats....hmmmmm?

The last big outing was snowshoeing at Buck lake. Patrick had a great time outdoors.....just like the old days before he moved to the "south".

We stayed a day extra because a snowstorm was coming to town but true to the North experience ......All the roads were in tip top shape the next day even after 5 inches fell.....We would have been shut down for days in the "south"! ha!

We had such a festive and wonderful first Christmas with "Evey-one" (Nick's favorite new word of the week)......Whey Eveyone go?, What Eveyone doin? :) We hope evey-one spent the week just enjoying time with family. Nick had a blast with all of his Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins.

He was a trooper when we decided to drive all the way home yesterday.....14 hours in the carseat. He was a delight to listen to from the front as he read his books to himself and bobbed his head to ALL different kinds of music and always said "next bye, bye daddy?" when we left our pitstops. God sure did bless us with a great roadie boy since we both live so far from our families. We praised him over and over as we came into town and said thank you so much for being such a good traveller and Nick sweetly replied "wa welcome". Needless to say, he could have or do anything he wanted to today! :) Next Bye, Bye will be to Gatlingburg and then to Texas to FINALLY introduce Nick to most of my side of the family. Yeah!

We hope Everyone has a great New Year. We pray that many, many more sweet little ones find their forever family this next year and ask that everyone would pray for all of the orphans here and abroad. HAPPY 2008 to Everyone!

"For I know the Plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

First School Christmas Party

Today was our first Christmas party for Nick. He looked so cute in cousin Zach's hand-me-downs! Nick was excited to go to his party and had been singing Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells for several weeks so I was hoping for a little performance at the party.



They marched into the chapel and I was so excited because I brought the video camera with me and as soon as Nick saw me, he broke from the line and came marching straight to me. No bonding problems here! He would not go back up and sing but did great hand motion and sang a few words here and there while sitting in my lap! Oh well, he still looked cute. He did walk up and get his jingle bell for the song so I snapped a picture for the illusion that he participated but then came straight back to me.


They had a cute little table all set up for them and he sat nicely for the prayer and the snack although he only ate the m&m's......the red and green rice krispie treat did not appeal to him (secretely, yeah!) he sniffed it and touched it to his tongue and sat it back down where it stayed until thrown away. It is still anyone's best guess what he will and will not try........


He loves his homeroom teacher, Ms Marsha and even left Mama's lap to go talk to her about Santa, who had just come in and freaked him and a few other kids out. He will wave from afar but won't even consider sitting on his lap. He is a GIANT after all?? Not too worried about this one either....would rather him learn about THE ONE that Christmas is all about vs. develop a deep affection for Santa.


He is standing here in the circle with both of his teachers, Ms. Marsha and Ms. Vicki. I am so thankful for these women who have been so loving and patient with Nick. A wonderful first impression of School and Teachers for Nick.


He looks pitiful here but actually, he was the first to get the present as they passed them around hot potato style. As the gift stopped with them, they removed the child from the circle. Here in this picture, he reminds me of our dog Amigo salivating over the treat that we are making him wait for the command to grab........can I open it, can I open it?? He and all of the kids did a great job waiting until all of the kids had received their present.



Nick makes us laugh all of the time with his facial expressions and funny creations. This is his pirate patch and he is yelling "ARGH".......I have no idea how the spoon reminded him of a patch but that is what we have to make it.....and only certain spoons fit just right under his glasses...So Funny!


This is our other crack-me-up look but because we were asking for it, the look is not actually completely authentic. When he does his "umm" while thinking of choices/alternatives, it is much funnier and more theatrical but you get the idea.

We are on the Christmas countdown! In less than 3 days, we will be headed to Ata Bob and Grandma Ruth's house. Nick is so excited about the snow and sledding. We are done with our Christmas shopping so should be able to relax once we get up there. I have already decided that I pretty much will be crying all the time because I can't even THINK of Nick running for his new toy with all of his multiple expressions without almost boo-hooing. As I commented on someone else's blog, even though momentous things have happened to him over the past 8 months, he (being a boy/male) will probably just be going wow, what a cool rocket but I on the other hand will be filled with flashbacks, thoughts, and remembrances of the litte boy walking in the room looking scared and lip quivering just a bit and not quite understanding who those people in that green room were....... He did not even speak much in Kazakh or Russian ......and now we are constantly saying "Nick, Volume Control" on the singing or proclamations of the moment. Nick has been a complete picture of the metamorphasis of a caterpillar to the butterfly. As many days as Pat and I feel like we have been horrible parents or made too many mistakes, we can't deny the fact that Love and simply Love has changed our little boy into the most interactive, jovial, "Mr. Happy" per his Teacher, affectionate, and mind-boggling creative and funny boy that we could have ever imagined 10 months ago when we met him. Many people have commented on how this will be a great Christmas because we can see it thru a child's eye now but I don't think that is it for us. Adopting Nick took us on an unexpected journey to ourselves. We came face to face with our God thru the whole adoption experience......the highs and the lows brought us into a place of understanding that we could not have experienced before going to Kaz. So we will not see Christmas different this year just because we have a child but because we have been taken on a life-changing journey by another child that came to this earth to become like us so that He could sacrifice Himself for us making a way for us to be "Adopted" into His family and have life everlasting. When I hear Nick say the name "Jesus", I get chills. Just like the song, there is just something about THAT name. To know that we were hand-picked by God to introduce Nick to the JESUS that can change and, in many ways, has already changed his little world forever is nothing less than momentous and if I never, ever feel any other God given purpose on this earth, I feel that I have experienced the greatest purpose already. God is so Good and He truly knows what we need and makes all things work together for His Good purposes. Thank you God for the best Christmas present ever this year!

What have we been doing?

Well, Nick continued with his sickness for the whole week thus missing preschool and BSF. Mama was a bit stir crazy and cabin feverish so as soon as he showed signs of healing, we went out. We had plans to attend our church adoption support group meeting at Gattitown so we risked an assault of germs just to get some fresh air.

He loved riding the carousel with daddy and he was waving to me but I think they had it on speedy mode because I could barely get shots before they went flying by me.

Our next outing wasn't until a few days later since he had a spike in fever after gattitown...I know bad idea.....We went to Southern lights at the ky horse park. He loved the lights and thought the petting zoo was awesome. We also went to the model train exhibit and took video of that part so no pictures.

He liked the big camel and I could not get them all in the picture.

I can't believe we got him to do the elf and we were able to get a picture fast enough. If you look to the left, there is even a daddy elf! ;)

This week, he was finally able to go back to preschool even though he reportedly has a double ear infection and a new antibiotic. At least he is covered with drugs until we leave for Christmas. He made this little ornament at school for us and they used their fingerprints to make the snowman. They also gave us a shadow drawing of Nick but I am not convinced it is him....doesn't really favor him at all. Maybe they did this project when he was sick??

Couldn't resist this picture for Ata Bill and Grandma Martha.....this is his new Pooh that came in the mail a few days ago. He loves him and since Moose never became the sleeping buddy, we are going to work on Pooh being the sleeping buddy. It has worked two days in a row for nap.

And, for those of you who have been wondering, YES, we finally got our boy a real bed. He is off of the floor mattress and loves his new bed. Santa is bringing his bedspread and a March trip to Gatlinburg should help us put the finishing touches on the room's Northwoods theme. A better picture will come later when it is all put together. They put Nickle plated type knobs on the drawers which I feel ruins the "wood" theme so they have promised me that wood ones are on the way although I may look for some moose, bear, wolf ones in Gburg.

We got this great homemade (extra special) book from Cousins Rose Ella and Donna in Phoenix. I love it! It has pages for each letter of the Alphabet that explains Christmas stuff with pictures and little sayings. He loves the alphabet and it is a great way to talk about Christmas with him. He still is not liking Santa (thinks he is a giant). He already had a giant thing but we think because he keeps seeing Santa with Elves that he thinks he is a giant too. He will just have to see more of him in person, I guess.

We are on the countdown for leaving for the holidays.....cabin feverish Mama is so excited AND we hear that there is lots of snow up North! Hope everyone is not too crazy these last few days before Christmas and just enjoying time with Family and Friends!

Pics from the weekend.....

We had a calm weekend. We refuse to go out into the madness which is Christmas time at the local malls. Everyone, I mean, Everyone from all the surrounding small towns come to shop. I have lived in big cities all my life and have never experienced the mess that happens here in this medium sized city. So, Pat is taking off Thursday morning while Nick has preschool and we are going to shop some then. Much more tolerable! So, here is a few pics for the family to keep them up-to-date all of the "firsts" this holiday season.


My first Christmas tree putting up session.....lights are cool! He is singing a few bars of jingle bells that he is learning at school. He says Ho, Ho! but does not like Santa on TV. He thinks he is a giant! ?? Not sure how he will do when he shows up at preschool! ;)

Not a first but don't I look so grown up.....I will be 4 before you know it!


This is Nick's oven that I made out of his carseat box. He plays with it all of the time and I noticed him using his Kermit puppet as an oven mitt. He would pull the dishes out of the oven with Kermit's mouth and then hang it up in one of the slots on the oven. So funny!


Another creation for the weekend is the "space buggy" aka chip clip with screwdriver pinched in the middle. The yellow juicer thing is a "rocket". He is holding both of them currently and shooting them thru the sky. And people wonder why we are not buying many christmas gifts for his first Christmas....why?? I love his creativity more!


As of today, His first real illness. He did have a fever a month or so ago but this is all out stuffy nose and cough with fever. Poor little pookie! He is a cheerful sickie though. Last night at 3am, he was just all smiles and hugs while his fever was raging. He did have trouble falling back asleep with the fever but the Tylenol finally kicked in and he relaxed between 445 and 5am. So, Preschool was out and I let him put his new pajamas on from G.Aunt Nancy and G.Uncle John as his lounging clothes. Today will have to be a TV day since I have a pampered chef party tonight and was looking forward to the "free" time to clean while he was at school.


I almost have all of our Christmas Cards ready. A new record for me. I can't wait for everyone to see the cute pictures of Nick which is probably why I am so much more on the ball. I never figured everyone was that interested in just me and Pat! ;)

Also, if anyone is interested in unique donations this year, our adoption agency is collecting money for our specific orphanage in Zhez. So, new beds for all of Nick's "brothers and sisters". We of course think this is a very worthy cause so please feel free to go to the site and donate if you wish! http://www.adoptionark.com/public/pag192.aspx Thanks!