Playing Catch Up and Bye, Bye Orphanage!

Where has the time gone!

We have been here, there, and everywhere!



Our weekend with Princess Sophia was cancelled due to sickness and weather. We were very bummed out but will hopefully see everyone in the near future....if not, definitely in June, at KAZAPALOOZA!




We had a "snowstorm" for Kentucky with a big 4 inches in Lexington......boredom overtook us quickly as schools and all activities were cancelled. Alas, we watched a little more TV than usual...but isn't that what snowdays are all about? Nick hates to "suit up" so excursions to the outside were far and few between.

Nick on one of our snow days! Kicked back and well, I hope he doesn't eat often off that table.....

We had to do School pics during Nick's last illness. We had permission to bring Nick up for his pics and then take him back home. Notice how he looks and smiles.....it is very hard to tell when this boy is sick.....I guess we are lucky that he is a sweet and happy sickie! I told him that he had to stay with me while the other boys and girls had their pictures because he was sick. He stayed with me grudgingly and got me back when it was time for the group picture and he did not want to partcipate and go up on stage with the other boys and girls......He said, No! Nick SICK , ma-member (remember) Mama? Now, he chooses to listen! Ha!




We had some good weather finally and got out to the park with our friends Ryan and Kelly. It is nice for the moms because the dads are bigger goofs than the children.....we had to add the children to make the picture respectable....they were riding it alone without the kids....they were definitely testing the steel springs!


Nick's new favorite thing is to ride on daddy's shoulders. I love it because I don't have to carry him as much anymore! Not sure Pat is as excited about it as I am?

Nick has been taking major naps in the last few months so either a growth spurt is occuring (he has already grown almost 4 inches in a year!) or he is taking on the sleeping habits of a teenager (which would make sense because he already has the attitude!) ha! Papa often comes home and Nick will barely have rolled out of the bed.....this day, Pat had to go get him from bed and bring him downstairs and then quickly became the bed! ha! Nick was out cold....so cute! And, Amigo actually got up and walked over to the chair when he saw me get the camera as if to say.....ummm, remember me? I'm cute too!

We were gone for several days to Gatlinburg to meet Pat's parents for a long weekend....they are making their way back north after wintering in Florida. We rode the tram up the mountain and Nick loved it!

We also visited the Aquarium but this was the only moment Nick actually acted like he was interested in anything there. Definitely not paying for Disney world yet......Notice the Monkey on Nick's back.....a harness type thing that is supposed to be cute so the child will wear it and stay close by....Nick thinks it is a leash to pull mom and dad by......Anyone have creative ideas on how to get a child to stay close by in a crowd....if you hold his hand firmly, he screams "ouch, you are hurting me, no hurting me mama" Can you say "social services visit"..........I am hoping that this is a maturity thing that he will grow out of soon! We have tried everything short of never leaving the house (getting close to this one) or DUCT TAPE!

He did like this pirate's wheel in an interactive part of the aquarium!

Nick went to a small kids park with Daddy and Granpa while mama and Grandma shopped.

A miniture swinging pirate ship! What fun!

Pat and I are still adjusting to the "vacations will never be the same again" feeling but feel very hopeful that they will in years to come at least be "relaxing" again?

Funny Phrases in Gburg.......

"Nick no walk anymore, Nick dizzy! " big sigh

plopped down on a bench with the "thinker" pose...."No Walk, Nick hard day" along with another big sigh"

"Nick no like it here, make nose itchy!

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We are looking forward to our first "second".......it will be our second Easter with Nick. Last year we celebrated with our Wisconsin Kazakstan connection in Almaty, our "new best friends" Kiersten and Brad and their sweet girls. They work for the U.S. in Almaty and kept us sane (used liberally) for our last 2 1/2 unexpected weeks in Almaty. Pat's parents and sister are here this weekend to share in this special holiday with us.

We are also celebrating TODAY, Nick's Orphanage departure date (our version of the GOTCHA day)......On March 21st last year, we walked out of the Zhezkazgan baby house a new family! We never did show the video of that moment. It does not show the crying before hand in the green room. Dr. Roza was holding Nick's face in her hands and talking to him and crying. I can't even type it without tearing up at the memory. We have no doubts that his caretakers loved him and cared for him the best they could. His loving spirit is evidence of that! These videos show the "suiting up" for departure....no wonder, he still hates it .......and Dr. Roza walking us out and saying good bye. It seems quick but so much led up to those 38 seconds! (also, an unrelated side note, take a look at Dr. Roza's boots....typical fare for the women on the ICE)

He looks like such a little boy here......considering he has gained lots of weight and grown so much, he only barely resembles that serious little boy. I found another cute video that I will show soon of how immediate his personality changed once leaving the baby house. He almost overnight started saying the words that we had said to him over and over in the green room and the smiles started popping up all over the place (so did his temper but we were glad to know the boy had passion about something!) ;) Well, I still have a month to tie up our walk down memorey lane. It boggles my mind how much time we spent there.....glad we have it all in the blog!

Funny how time changes your perception of an event or memory of a moment.....Someday, I want to sit with God and just go over my whole life but especially the adoption and just discuss and be amazed at His orchestration of it all. Only He could have designed such a unique plan for us....cosmic collision, destiny, fate, Karma is just not good enough to explain the creation of a family in this special way, No one would ever say a beautiful Opera or Great classical piece of music or for my husband's sake, a really good Rock ballad, just exploded into creation or happened just by chance....there had to be a writer, a musician, a poet, to create them.........thus we believe and know to our core that Our creator and God hand wrote this Opus, this symphony, this poem, this journey, for us and on the first day of spring in 2007, we began the adventure of a lifetime with Nicholas.....out the door of the baby house, one step and one day at a time.

Now and Then......

We have recovered from the Party of the Year! It took a few days and nights to feel rested again. Nick was sick most of last week with a fever, ear infection, and sore throat. He did not eat for 3 days! I knew there was an issue when he would not eat french fries! He spiked to 105 during the night which is the highest fever that I have ever dealt with in a child. It was quite pitiful to watch him chill and shiver thru the fevers. Tylenol and advil worked really well on him and brought his fevers down pretty quick so we did not freak out too much.....I just couldn't sleep because I kept going in and taking his temp.......thanks to our great christmas present (ear thermometer) from grandma and grandpa, I didn't have to wake him too much.


We have had a great time getting to know some Kazakh students here on scholarship at the university. We met them thru our friends that also adopted from Kaz. The university has a program where they match up local families and international students so that they have some support while in the states since the often don't go home over holidays or breaks. We enjoy eating out with them and letting Nick hang with his homies. We were even able to get him to say some of his limited russian and kazakh with them. Nick never spoke either language with us at all except for the words that we said to him for basic needs....as soon as he learned the english, he spoke the english. I wish we could have heard him speak some kazakh but he just didn't talk until we brought him out of the orphanage.

Tonight we ate at our favorite restaurant with the students and come to find out, they love it too. Jason and Wyatt joined us also but Michelle was taking a class. Wyatt and Nick are finally recognizing each other and we hope to have lots of summer playdates. We had a momentous moment which almost brought me to tears.......we were all talking and not really watching Nick and I looked over and realized he was eating the Fatoush salad......yes, that is right, my son, ate a veggie...without prompting, without anything, he just started munching on it. Now, I don't know if we had starved him or something but he ate some lettuce! He will now eat some tiny bites of carrot and even tried a bite of red cabbage one day but mainly thru negotiation techniques. I will buy that salad everyday if it means he will eat some greens......it gives me hope!

We haven't been able to play too much with being sick and all but he got one playdate in last week with Logan and one this week with Lauren Clay. I love this picture of Nick and Lauren Clay. They look like me and Pat only pint-sized. We sit in those chairs in the evening and watch TV but Nick has adopted the bigger chair and calls it his King chair.....and you best not sit in it when he is around! ;) Nick was intrigued with LC's baby brother Ty. We tried to explain that he was a brother and Nick seemed to understand and even made a comment that he did not have one.

Nick has been expanding his vocabulary daily and the expressions are hilarious!

--If he is doing something and it is not working ....depending on his evaluation of the importance, he will say mama, Nick big pwobem, or have little pwobem, mama!

--he will get out of school or come home from somewhere and sigh real big and say, Nick hard day! take little nap!

--Thanks to Uncle Mike, you can ask him where he is going and every once in a while when you least expect it, he will say CRAZY!

--he has learned how to make excuses already.....too hard or Nick too little are usual but sometimes he might say, Nick get bigger, bigger first or policeman says no, no, no. I am impressed by how he uses everything in context but scared that he listens and repeats everything, EVERYTHING, we say to him.

We have important news to brag about to the blog network. We get to meet Princess Sophia this weekend of the Muriel and Jerry's blogs.... 2kaz4sophie and Tiaras and Tutus! We are sooo excited to meet everyone. We have been talking alot about the pending meeting and how we are going to be sweet and calm around the princess. He now calls her "pincess soapie". He thought we were going to see her tonight since we were seeing the other Kazakhs but we had to explain that Sophie is in a few days.......he didn't really get it except he said he was going to see her "ta-ma-yo"(tomorrow) after lunch? We are also going to see a couple who are in the waiting period to go to Kaz. So, they can get indoctrinated quickly on how fun and crazy these cuties are! Will post pics after our fun encounter.......pray for well children and travel safety for all of us!

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AND for the history lesson.........Last year at this time, we had just finished our court appearance and completely relieved and scared to death that this was really official. Below is our after court picture ......it seems like a lifetime ago yet there are days when it feels like yesterday.

I have been reading a bunch of blogs for the last year and new ones start every day. I love to watch the families journey to their child. It helps you remember all the fun and not so fun stuff and keep it fresh in your mind which is good when you are old like us! lol! I have been amazed at the apartments that I see from the bigger cities. We definitely were roughing it compared to the city dwellers and I continue to be amazed that God helped us to just be OK with everything that we had to endure.....well, at least we were OK for the first 7 weeks or so....after that, it could have been the RITZ and we still would have wanted to be home. So, in honor of our heartiness, I thought I would show the pic of our apt that we were in the longest for those of you getting ready to travel soon so you will be appreciative of the places you stay in the big city. In the picture below, you see our living room and bedroom and dining room all combined in YES, one room. I slept in the bed we lovingly called the double half-pipe......and Pat was on the floor because he did not fit in his half-pipe since there was a foot board (picture a water bed frame with two really bad college mattresses in it). There are two chairs and a side table next to Pat outside the picture frame that we ate and watched TV on. The TV was at the foot of the bed just out of camera range also. Our kitchen was not big enough for two people to sit in. We were so thankful to get home to our bed.....mere words cannot describe it! ;)

Hope everyone has a nice weekend....we are expecting another snow/rain storm in the next 48 hours......we are sooooooo ready for the spring!