Dec 12, 2010

Long Time No Post

I'm feeling like a broken record everytime I post on here about how I am busy and have neglected my blog but it's true. So much has happened in the last month. We celebrated Thanksgiving together for the first time as a family of 4. We have much to be Thanksful about.


Starting with the first time we ever met Samara was over Thanksgiving. It was surreal that it has already been a year since we first met her. She has changed so much since then.


We also went out to Corsey's Tree Farm as we always do and chop down our tree. It turned out Beautiful and smells lovely. Samara likes to take the oraments off but since it's real and prickly she doesn't bother it too much. I took a picture of our tree with the Quinn in front of it since both kids were unavailable at the time. :) See below


So the big news is Samara now wears glasses, I have to say I was highly disappointed the selection of glasses for babies. Since Samara is so small she has to have baby size glasses and also ones that go around her ears. So the selection was slim to say the least. I settled on a pair but I still don't care for them. The good thing is she looks cute in whatever she has on so I can live with them. I am just about done with Christmas shopping only have two more gifts to buy. Thank God!!! I am ready to stop being so busy running aroung on evenings and weekends.


Right now Samara is napping and Justin and ethan are watching a christmas show on TV. The house is quiet which is unusal these days. Things are good and we are so excited about Christmas. Hope all is well with everyone. I am going to jump off and join my boys on the couch. Enjoy a few pic's.







Nov 8, 2010

Sneak Peak....Princess Samara

So as you all know, My extremely talented friend Lisa amazes me all the time with her picture taking talents....She just sent me two sneak peaks of the session she did for Samara's 2 year pic's...Now I can hardly wait to see the rest...I think you'll see why!

Nov 5, 2010

OMG-----Haven't been able to get on the blog----Couldn't post for Samara's 2nd Birthday












Arghhh so stinking frustrating....everyday I tried to get on and it would not let me post!!

Ok So last Friday the 29th our little Samara turned 2. Unbelievable she is doing so much better saying lots and lots of words and motoring around like a crazy girl.

We still have sensory and behavioral issues but we take those day by day.

Back to her Birthday, we had her Birthday on Saturday and other than mommy and daddy running around crazy getting everything ready it went really well.

She looked absolutely adorable in her tutu dress. She received so many gifts from family and friends and we are so blessed. Also another thing I could not post about and missed was Halloween and her 7 months home. Halloween was very chilly but she did so good. Trying her hardest to say trick or treat to everyone and always saying Thank You! So darn cute!

It's hard to believe it's been 7 months already.

Life is no where near perfect and we have our good days and not so good days.

Hey but who doesn't?

Happy 2nd Birthday sweetie. Mama, Dada and Ethan all love you very much!!! We hope your Birthday was alot of fun and you felt the love from all our family and friends.

Enjoy the pics!!!

Oct 13, 2010

1 Year Ago today we received Samara's Referral

It's hard to believe that a year ago today we got news that would change our lives. I remember sitting at work at my desk and getting the phone call from our agency around 11:oo am.
I saw the number on my caller ID but since it had been less than two weeks since we submitted our dossier to Russia I just figured they needed more paperwork but to my surprise when I answered the phone, Andrea said "Leah" in a different voice than usual and my stomach started to hurt right then and there. She said are you sitting down...I said yes as my voice was quivering, she said we have a referral for you and she's beautiful. I lost it right then and there. I didn't know a thing about her or what she looked like and I was already a mess. I was crying and honestly in disbelief. We had been told it would take 2-4 months to get a referral. She said she was going to e-mail me her medical and her picture and I should have in in less than 5 minutes. I was shaking, excited , nervous and scared. Those few minutes waiting on her picture and medical to arrive felt like it took forever. When it came in my inbox and I opened it....I saw her amazing and stunning blue eyes. She was so bald and so small. I forwarded it all to Justin as we read and looked it over, and over, and over.
That was a Tuesday and we had to let them know by Friday if we would except her referral or not. I barely got any work done those two days waiting on a response from the IA DR. I also could barely eat or sleep. I was a total mess.
When Dr.Staat finally called Thursday evening with her assessment of her medical and picture
I thought I was going to faint waiting on what she had to say. It wasn't roses and chocolate that came outta her mouth...but I had peace about flying half way across the world to meet this little angel. Justin on the other hand was scared and was not sure. We did decide that we would go and we are so glad that we did. Samara isn't perfect but who is? She was meant for our family and has progressed leaps and bounds since she came home only 6 months ago.
We are so blessed to have her as a part of our family.

Our first glimpse- referral picture


Our first meeting -They dressed her really cute for us!

It's unbelievable to me how much she has changed since then.

Oct 10, 2010

Another 1st...Going to Shaw Farm as a family of 4!!

Today is absolutely gorgeous here, it's 85 degrees. It was a perfect day to go to Shaw farm. The kids had a really great time and so did we! :) I thought it would be Super crowded since it's so nice out but it wasn't bad. I think most people were watching the game so it worked out great for us!
The only unfortunate thing is we took our camera to capture this fun day and guess what...our camera battery was dead!! Dang it...So the pictures we took are all from our phones! :(
Oh well at least we were able to document a little of it!!
They added a barrel train for the kids. This is so cute and Ethan and Samara rode it together. Ethan kept his arm around her the entire time. Sometimes he can be so sweet...keep in mind I said sometimes. LOL
Here are some of the pic's from today! By the way Samara kept her sun glasses on the entire time. I was amazed.

Oct 9, 2010

EDIT to post

So as promised I received Samara's growth in the mail.

Samara has gained 3lbs 5oz since we came home 6 months ago...whoo hooo!!
She is now 30.9" tall and her head has grown 1.5 cm.

Her development is charting like this now:
Personal Social: 22 months
Fine Motor: 18 months (I honestly think this should be higher but I'm not the Dr.) :)
Language: 21 months
Gross Motor: 22 months

More updates and pic's coming soon

Oct 4, 2010

6 Month Update at the IAC

So today was a loonng day at Children's Hospital...5 hrs to be exact. 9am-2pm...whew..Thank God I took a whole day off work!!!

Today was good, Samara is growing but slowly. :)

She finally hit the 20lb mark. Although her weight and head circumference still are not on the growth curve, her height is barely hitting the curve. Dr. Staat was very please with her progress and couldn't believe how well she looked and the difference in 6 months. That made us feel so good. We know in our hearts that she has made a huge improvement but sometimes when you see her everyday it's hard to see the whole picture, if you know what I mean.

Like a dummy I left all my paperwork from her new accessment so I don't remember exactly where she scored on all her development but it was from 18-21 months.

I will add it in when they send it in the mail to me.

We had lots of discussion around Samara's behavioral issues and how to deal with them and what is acceptable and what isn't. We are also going to schedule weekly visits with OT for her ensory integration. I felt like our visit was really good and lots of great discussion.

We spoke with the social worker on our concerns with attachment and bonding and she made us feel better about all the great signs that Samara is showing for attachment. This has always been one of my big concerns as I think it is with most adoptive parents.


So I know I had discussed on an earlier post about the Tutu dress that I got for Samara's 2nd Birthday...I had it embroidered yesterday and I am very pleased with the way it turned out...Let me know what you think!

I have some pic's I need to upload but I need to go get Justin from work...It's been a bit crazy lately. His car is in the shop again, second time in a month and our really nice 50" Samsung Plasma TV of only 2 1/2 years old went out on us...YUCK....Oh well stuff just happens sometimes right??? Oh wanna hear the funny part we are watching a 19" TV right now...LOL...it's quite a differnce to go from a 50" to a 19"...LOL...We are sitting really close to the TV.

Oct 2, 2010

6 MONTHS HOME TODAY AND ONLY ONE MORE MONTH TIL THE BIG "2"

Once again I have neglected my blog. Honestly life is really busy and blogging has become another chore instead of something I look forward to...I know that probably sounds horrible but in the beginning it was my release of every emotion going through this process.... even though I still have the need to vent I just cannot find the time these days.
Our trip to the Amish country was eventful.....Samara wasn't quite the trooper we had hoped she would be. She was out of her normal surroundings and was a bit on the cranky side to say the least. She did finally get a lttle better but we spent alot of time driving in the car and I think it got to ALL of us. It was nice though just going as a family and spending time together.

On our way home we stopped in Columbus to meet a family that has been such a great support system through our adoption process, as they adopted a little girl from the same orphanage in Russia as Samara is from. We had a great time with them and they are a beautiful family.


I am in Birthday planning mode for Samara. Since this is her first Birthday party I want it to be special. I am going with a Cupcake theme...it's really cute.

Samara has her 6 month home evaluation on Monday the 4th at Children's hospital. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. She has come so far but still a looonng way to go. There has been so much focus on her small size and her head size mostly. I have made myself crazy with obsessive measuring and hoping and praying it will grow faster. Her shape certainly has improved but as for big growth it's not happening. At least there is growth though, that is important. She says some words but inconsistantly. She smiles and laughs alot, and we love this because she wouldn't just smile back at you when you smiled at her when we first brought her home.

I am finally able to get her to drink Milk...she doesn't really care for it but we try and make sure she gets a good amount everyday. Hooray!!!

Ok so we are WAYYYY behind but we just sent out Samara's announcements this week...Only 6 months home...LOL. My fabulous and talented friend Lisa put it together for us. It's a 5x7 card with a front and a back....I am in love with it...You be the judge....By the way here is her website...she is wonderful ....if you need pictures and you want great ones...CALL HER!!!
http://www.hezlepphotography.com/



This is the front of the announcement



This is the back of the announcement
I have some pictures I need to upload from the past few weeks and will try to do that tomorrow or when I update about her appointment on Monday evening.

Aug 29, 2010

22 Months Today! Only 2 more months til the Big "2"


In just a few days Samara will have been home for 5 months and sometimes I cannot believe she has been home this long and it's like she been with us all along and other times I realize that 5 months is not very long at all and realize how long of a road it will be. Not to say that she hasn't made incredible strides because she has...tremendously.
She is a beautiful little girl with a lot of spunk. We are still working on attachment which is a loooonng road but I know one day we will get there, fully there. For the most part a lot of her little things she does that come from being in an orphanage for 17 months still rare their ugly head and sometimes several times or more a day. We have good days and not so good days...but really who doesn't ...orphanage or not!
I worked a car show today so daddy was home with kids for about 5 hrs without me.....he said that Ethan and Samara played really well together for an hour just playing cars on the floor. zooming them around the carpet and making motor noises....I know, I know..... listen when you have an older brother it's not tutu's and tiaras all the time! LOL
Sometimes I cannot stop myself and I look at her and my mind wonders back to Russia and her orphanage and I think how blessed we are to have this little girl in our lives.
Ethan loves his little sister so much, today he said to Justin in a little loving and adoring voice "Awww isn't she just so sweet dad?" as he patted her head like a dog! LOL....that's my Ethan.
I'm already planning getting a start on planning her Birthday...Well a little. I bought an adorable little tutu dress that I am going to have embroidered with her name and a #2. I'll post a pic of that when I have that done.
It's off to bed for me......back to work tomorrow. YUCK! Why does the weekend go so fast?

Aug 26, 2010

Update Way Overdue......

I'm sleepy..playing with one of my favorite toys "the farm"
One of my favorites..Look at her smile " I'm So Big"



Too Cool!


Too Cute!


I'm a Model...Look at me Pose!

No explanation needed! LOL


Hamming it Up!

Snack time after some hard playing!

Such a good Big Brother...his face is classic "Mom stop taking pictures" LOL

Putting some "GAS" in the cozy Coupe (using a purple bat of coures)....I love his imagination!

So the Gas didn't work...Guess it's muscle power for this princess!


So precious...and very tired!


Aug 5th- Appointment with Human Genetics and had Genetic testing done......Everything came back Normal!!!

Aug 11th- Our Social Worker came for our 1st Post Adoption Report. Where does time go???Went really well, she had nothing but great things to say about Samara!


Aug 12th- I had my first meeting with my IAC group for the fundraising event for CCH IAC....I think this is such a great cause and so far seems like it's going to be fun too. Apparently the invitation that has Samara's pic on it looks super cute according to one of the members but I haven't seen it myself.

Aug 15th- Had our first Official family photo's taken and also Ethan And Samara had individual pic's taken....haven't seen them yet our lovely friend Lisa who is a phenominal photographer is really busy so not sure when we get our proofs back...I plan to use one of these photo's for Samara's announcements......I know she will have been home for 5 months Very Soon...Next week in fact!


Today was Ethan's 1st Day of Pre-School......I cannot believe it....My baby is growing up and he did so good and really had alot of fun. He is going two days a week (Tues and Thurs) He's big stuff!

We are going out of town for labor day for a short little trip to the Amish Country....always relaxing and I LOVE all the yummy cheese and sweets! :)



Samara turns 22 months on the 29th...only 2 more months until her second Birthday....CRAZY INSANE!!!


Aug 1, 2010

Haircut by Dad

So, Ethan really needed a haircut, and with today being Sunday and not being able to take him to see the barber, I decided to give him a trim to hold him over until we can go see Rick. Other than the time I tried to cut my own hair as a kid, this is my first official attempt at cutting hair........and I'll let you be the judge! Ethan was all gung-ho about letting me trim him up until we got into it, then he was itchy and squirmy and wouldn't hold still for anything...........imagine that, a 3 year old not wanting to sit still while getting a haircut??
This isn't so bad....wait, we just got started...

Really Mom, we have to document everything??


The finished product.
The best part of this haircut for Ethan was getting to take a shower afterwards, the kid loves to take showers! I'm sure this wasn't the best cut ever given by a beard and mustache trimmer, but it will certainly hold him over until we can go see a professional.