The last few weeks in review ....or, for me, in "rear"view!

First and foremost, I survived my upper and lower scopes. Thanks for the well wishes. I don't have to do it again for five years which really will be how long it will take to get over the drink of death. I have tried several of the "methods" of cleansing and I had forgotten how much I hate the particular one I had this time.....Patrick was my hero as I hurled the last glass "exorcist" style and in the process slipped and fell amongst the....well, you get the picture. I was in the middle of crying and laughing (and having Kazakhstan Ice flashbacks) when Pat rushed in and all he could say is...."I'll get it, I'll take care of it, I'll get it"! What a guy.....fatherhood has definitely helped him jump those "just hold your nose and clean it up" hurdles. I am so Blessed! So, on to what everyone really cares about......The Nick Chronicles.



Preschool ended in style with a little ceremony. They sang songs and then each child received a little certificate. Nick was not thrilled to be on stage but he somehow had located me in the crowd and was telling Ms. Marsha where I sat as he got his paper!








Our church is very large and only has baby/parent dedications once a year. We missed last year with all of the early chaos but wanted to publicly dedicate our sweet gift to the Lord and our friends were there to take pictures and promise to help us raise Nick to love the Lord. Our families being far away requires dependence upon a great circle of friends to do life together (and help babysit!) ha! Nick got a little gift for his ceremony which he loved! A baby Bible! He wanted to immediately start reading every story! His favorites right now are Daniel and Jonah! I want to get Nick telling the Daniel story on video because it is so stinkin cute! He mixes the veggie tale version with the real version and talks about the "two un-juns (onions)" who portray the priests who throw Daniel in the lions den which is "creepy and scary" but Daniel isn't scared because God "pa-tects" him! His facial expressions make it priceless!






We are amazed that way more than half the time we sit down to read a book that Nick picks one of the versions of the bible that he has for kids. He literally wants to go page by page. We also utilize veggie tale movies to teach principles and he picks them up so well. His new mantra is that we "do not need too much stuff, need be tankful for what have". We also have started explaining money to him as he always wants every new addition or new character of any themed toy he has like Geotrax, Thomas Train, etc. I told him that we need to have money to buy more things and we should be saving money when we get it not spending it on things we don't need. So now he talks about saving money and when asked by Grandma Martha if he was going to come see her, he said, "no have money" .......with gas prices, so true, so true!


Nick continues to have an incredible imagination and took Pat camping one day. His box held "everything they would need" and they were sleeping out under the stars and moon! Amigo felt the need to have boy bonding time too!


We decided after a year that surely Nick was ready for Hiking......he was much easier to control, better understanding of safety and English, etc. We thought we would break him in easy at our nearby nature trail area and invited his buddy, Mikey. We continue to learn that new situations cause Nick to revert to old habits until he gets an understanding of the requirements and outcomes. Some days we can get him to work through the new experience and cooperate and some days we cannot. Everyone at Raven Run could probably hear that we could not. He wanted to bolt down the trails, go left when we needed to go right, sit when we needed to walk, scream and cry, and the list goes on..... so not so good for the first time. The hardest part will be to get his parents to stay diligent in exposing him to new things. The pictures that follow are the happy times (the first 10 minutes) ..... he loves maps and we were charting our course and then his buddy showed up so smiles all around....for a minute. Mikey was trying to sing us thru the stress (bless his little heart) but even he was awed by the volume that one Kazakh boy can make in the woods.









We also finished up speech therapy for the school year at his "big boy school". This is the same school he will attend if we choose public school and it will be nice because we already know all the office ladies and principal and LOVE our speech therapist. She is so good with Nick and he loves coming to see her. I got this great pic on the last day of school for them and us.....does everyone look ready for a fun summer!



NOW, to present day......we met my long-time friend Cathy and her boys at the Louisville Zoo today. She and her husband are on their way Indianapolis for the Southern Baptist Convention and they always say hi on their way thru .....Ben, her husband, officiated our wedding and Cathy was a post-college awesome apt mate. Her boys were unbelievable with Nick. He loved them and once he warmed up to his "new" experience, he latched on to them and they had a blast.


I love this sweet picture of Nick!

Cathy's oldest, Micah, patiently read the signs and talked about all the animals with Nick. It was the sweetest thing! Nick loved the Go-la-las!





I missed the sweet picture of them holding hands but thought this looked funny because we were so active and Nick looks like he is saying....oh my aching back!


The Zoo has two water areas and we spent some time in the splash park as well as this big slide that Nick thought was so cool but it was a buck per slide! Remember Nick, "we have no money"! LOL!


This picture does not need commentary, does it? What a fun day!



So, that is a not so short summary of Kitzman Kapers for the last few weeks. We also attended the annual Adoption Assistance picnic and saw some more adoptive families (waiting and done). It is so special to be able to connect with everyone at least once a year and give hope to those that are waiting that "this too shall pass" and their little one is being hand-picked by God just for them. We are going to Chicago this weekend to attend the first annual KAZAPALOOZA which will celebrate all of our adorable Kazakh gifts. Stay tuned for lots of pictures! We are having a garage sale tomorrow.........I don't like all the prep for them and we usually just donate everything but we thought with gas prices and one salary, the money would come in handy for our summer travels!

Hope everyone is starting out their summer with a SPLASH! We have a New Addition to the Kitzman clan and will anxiously await our fourth of July journey north to meet our newest cousin, Colin Robert! Tracey is doing great and Uncle Pat and Auntie KK cannot wait to get some baby time.......it is such a novel idea to us that you can (as a new parent) actually just sit and hold and gaze at your child for hours at a time.......that would require Duct tape for us! ;)