Thursday, May 10, 2012
Adoption updates...
Hi everyone! We have finally received our travel dates to Ukr*ine and have started a new private blog while we are traveling. If you'd like to follow along, please send us an email or leave a comment with your contact info and we'll send you an invitation. We'll do our best to keep it updated as we go along.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
We're Making Progress!
The past six months have been filled with incredible amounts of adoption paperwork. The paperwork mountain started off with gentle foothills. We sent in applications to our local home study agency and the placement agency in GA while Kolya was still visiting with us. The hills got a little steeper with the home study. Our social worker came to our home and interviewed the entire family, including Sara. The social worker was friendly, very supportive and very experienced as an adoptive mom to 8 kids. We ordered copies of all of our birth certificates and marriage certificates, the entire family had physicals at our respective doctor's offices, Nathan and I had several background checks and were fingerprinted for Ohio and the FBI. Then we applied for updated passports and assembled more documents. The passports arrived quickly and we were excited that we were making progress.
Then the home study stalled. Two personal references were missing, and it took weeks before it was sorted out and we found out which ones needed to be resubmitted. Finally, in mid October, our home study was complete and we could move on to the next big step: submitting our US Customs and Immigration application to Homeland Security. It took a few weeks and a very generous friend's mom (She had never met us us, but heard that we were adopting and just wanted to help. She didn't know that we needed the exact amount she sent!) to come up with the money for the USCIS application and fees to the placement agency. That paperwork was submitted in early November and we received our fingerprint appointment date for Homeland Security in mid December. We had a few weeks, so we began working on the rest of our required documents in earnest. We got our employer letters to prove that we do indeed have an income, we ordered extra copies of our marriage certificate, and proof of background checks, and a letter from the bank saying that we do own and live in our home.
Meanwhile, Ukr*ine closed all adoptions for several weeks while they restructured their adoptions department. When they re-opened, many of their forms had changed and they had new requirements. Some were simple changes like a new address, but others were more complicated. For example, the employer letter changed to not only require us to list our total annual income and our total income for the past 6 months, but we also needed to add an individual breakdown of how much income we made each month for the past 6 months. We dutifully had our employers re-write the letters and notarize them again. A few weeks later, we had to ask them to re-do the letters for the third time, as another month had passed and it needed to reflect our most recent income. I thought my boss and Nathan's might kill us if we asked them to do this again! :)
Nathan and I went to our doctor for physical exams, again. (This one was so complicated, that it gets its very own paragraph!) :) This time we needed to be tested for TB, AIDS, and STD's. They couldn't do the TB test at the office, so we scheduled appointments at the Health Department and promptly faxed the results to the doctors office with explicit directions for filling out the required forms. Ukr*ine requires a very detailed form to be printed on the physician's letterhead and stamped with the office stamp that includes the above blood tests complete with the date, lab test number and results; physical and mental health status, as well as any drug and substance abuse findings, and any physical or mental disabilities. Additionally, they require a copy of the physician's license and all documents must be duly notarized. When we picked up the forms at the office, absolutely nothing was correct. The HIV test results were not in our charts, all of the lab numbers were missing, the dates for the exams and tests were all wrong, and the form wasn't notarized. To make matter worse, they used the sample forms we had faxed them from my job at the veterinary hospital and it clearly said so on the top of the form. The final insult was that the office refused to give us the copy of the doctor's license, saying it was illegal to make a copy of it! After much prayer, multiple calls and emails to the office supervisors, and a letter explaining everything again from our agency to the doctor's office, they finally agreed to provide a copy of the license and filled out the forms again. When Nathan picked up the amended medical forms, they were still not close to being done correctly - still no letterhead, no lab numbers, not notarized, and then, when the notary quickly stamped them, still missing the notary's information and date, and on and on. After we and the office made several additions and changes, the forms were still not on letterhead, but were finally deemed acceptable. And we got the copy of the doctor's license that was on letterhead. Thank goodness! This was the worst battle yet, but there were still more peaks to climb...
After our fingerprint appointment for USCIS, we were told we should receive our approval letter about 7-10 days after the fingerprint appointment. Several weeks and many phone call later, we finally learned that the 7-10 days only applies to Hague countries and Ukr*ine is - you guessed it! - NOT a Hague country. That gave them 75 days to process our paperwork. Thankfully, they didn't make us wait quite that long, and on a very rainy January 17th, the mailman brought us one soaking wet USCIS approval letter!! The letter had blue stains on it from the security envelope and pink stains on it from a bright pink paper USCISapostilled by New Hampshire.
I packed up the kids and rushed out to get the final document for our dossier notarized at our local home study adoption agency. Then we headed down to the Summit County courthouse to get each one of the notary signatures county certified (at $2 per document) and then later state apostilled at the Ohio regional secretary of state's office in Cleveland (aka "certified" again with a big gold seal by the state of Ohio this time - $5 per document). The kids were so excited that we parked in the parking deck and walked across the street on the pedestrian bridge. I was excited that I found where I was going without getting ticketed, lost, or mugged and thought the worst was over.... Wrong again. :) Three of the notaries who signed our various papers (six documents total, incidentally, including both of our individual employer letters, and the medical forms) are not residents of Summit County. We had to go their resident counties to get the papers certified. That meant driving 30 minutes east to Portage County ($2 per document), and then 60 minutes northwest to Medina County ($5 per document). When we finished in Medina, it was too late to make it to Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) before the court closed at 4 for the afternoon. The kids started out very naughty, but soon settled down and were great! By the time we finished at the last courthouse, they were sporting "junior sheriff's deputy" badge stickers and carrying a sucker in each a hand. We all four made it through security at three different courthouses and no one set off any alarms or had to post bail. :) The wind was gusting (the kids LOVED being outside in the wind) but it was nearly 60 degrees and alternating between spitting rain and sun. For a day in the middle of January when we would normally have freezing temperatures and several feet of snow and ice on the ground, we could not have asked for more!
We found out the the regional Sec. of State office in Cleveland is no longer open, so Nathan took the remaining document to the Cuyahoga County courthouse yesterday morning and got the appropriate certification ($1 per document this time!). In the process, he took a spill on the now icy sidewalk and ended up at the wrong building - turns out the "courthouse" and the "justice building" are not the same place in this county, although across the street from one another. Once he got home, we assembled our precious stack of documents representing our work over the past 6 months and triumphantly sent it overnight by FedEx to the Secretary of State's office in Columbus for apostilles ($5 per document) where it will then be forwarded directly to our agency. We also sent the remaining NH marriage certificates along with a huge chunk of our adoption fees to our adoption agency in GA. Phew! What a long climb it has been and there are a few more mountains in view.
We have been told that the worst is over now as far as the great paper chase. Now we know why they call this phase of the adoption the "paper pregnancy". Assembling the documents for our dossier has been a stretching process, but we are beyond thrilled that our dossier is complete and on it's way to our agency in Atlanta. From this point, our dossier will be sent to Ukr*ine where it will be translated and then submitted to the SDA - State Department of Adoptions in Ukr*ine. Once they receive it, they will add it to the bottom of the stack of other dossiers and process it when they get to it - most likely a month or two at the very least. Assuming all of our documents are in order, they will issue us travel dates to go to Ky*v for our official SDA appointment. It's hard to even guess what the travel dates will be, but we are hoping for a travel date in late March or April. There's a good possibility it will be even much later in the year as other families are being rescheduled to allow only one foreign family visiting this orphanage at a time.
Thank you for your prayers along the way! Our prayer requests now are that God will continue to provide financially for this adoption - specifically for the remaining agency fees and travel expenses and that we will be approved for the grants and loans we are requesting. Also please pray for patience as we anxiously wait to go get Kolya and he waits for us - many of his friends are already here in the USA and he wants to be here, too! We're looking forward to the next steps in the process, but for now we're content to linger on this mountain top for a moment and enjoy the view.
Then the home study stalled. Two personal references were missing, and it took weeks before it was sorted out and we found out which ones needed to be resubmitted. Finally, in mid October, our home study was complete and we could move on to the next big step: submitting our US Customs and Immigration application to Homeland Security. It took a few weeks and a very generous friend's mom (She had never met us us, but heard that we were adopting and just wanted to help. She didn't know that we needed the exact amount she sent!) to come up with the money for the USCIS application and fees to the placement agency. That paperwork was submitted in early November and we received our fingerprint appointment date for Homeland Security in mid December. We had a few weeks, so we began working on the rest of our required documents in earnest. We got our employer letters to prove that we do indeed have an income, we ordered extra copies of our marriage certificate, and proof of background checks, and a letter from the bank saying that we do own and live in our home.
Meanwhile, Ukr*ine closed all adoptions for several weeks while they restructured their adoptions department. When they re-opened, many of their forms had changed and they had new requirements. Some were simple changes like a new address, but others were more complicated. For example, the employer letter changed to not only require us to list our total annual income and our total income for the past 6 months, but we also needed to add an individual breakdown of how much income we made each month for the past 6 months. We dutifully had our employers re-write the letters and notarize them again. A few weeks later, we had to ask them to re-do the letters for the third time, as another month had passed and it needed to reflect our most recent income. I thought my boss and Nathan's might kill us if we asked them to do this again! :)
Nathan and I went to our doctor for physical exams, again. (This one was so complicated, that it gets its very own paragraph!) :) This time we needed to be tested for TB, AIDS, and STD's. They couldn't do the TB test at the office, so we scheduled appointments at the Health Department and promptly faxed the results to the doctors office with explicit directions for filling out the required forms. Ukr*ine requires a very detailed form to be printed on the physician's letterhead and stamped with the office stamp that includes the above blood tests complete with the date, lab test number and results; physical and mental health status, as well as any drug and substance abuse findings, and any physical or mental disabilities. Additionally, they require a copy of the physician's license and all documents must be duly notarized. When we picked up the forms at the office, absolutely nothing was correct. The HIV test results were not in our charts, all of the lab numbers were missing, the dates for the exams and tests were all wrong, and the form wasn't notarized. To make matter worse, they used the sample forms we had faxed them from my job at the veterinary hospital and it clearly said so on the top of the form. The final insult was that the office refused to give us the copy of the doctor's license, saying it was illegal to make a copy of it! After much prayer, multiple calls and emails to the office supervisors, and a letter explaining everything again from our agency to the doctor's office, they finally agreed to provide a copy of the license and filled out the forms again. When Nathan picked up the amended medical forms, they were still not close to being done correctly - still no letterhead, no lab numbers, not notarized, and then, when the notary quickly stamped them, still missing the notary's information and date, and on and on. After we and the office made several additions and changes, the forms were still not on letterhead, but were finally deemed acceptable. And we got the copy of the doctor's license that was on letterhead. Thank goodness! This was the worst battle yet, but there were still more peaks to climb...
After our fingerprint appointment for USCIS, we were told we should receive our approval letter about 7-10 days after the fingerprint appointment. Several weeks and many phone call later, we finally learned that the 7-10 days only applies to Hague countries and Ukr*ine is - you guessed it! - NOT a Hague country. That gave them 75 days to process our paperwork. Thankfully, they didn't make us wait quite that long, and on a very rainy January 17th, the mailman brought us one soaking wet USCIS approval letter!! The letter had blue stains on it from the security envelope and pink stains on it from a bright pink paper USCISapostilled by New Hampshire.
I packed up the kids and rushed out to get the final document for our dossier notarized at our local home study adoption agency. Then we headed down to the Summit County courthouse to get each one of the notary signatures county certified (at $2 per document) and then later state apostilled at the Ohio regional secretary of state's office in Cleveland (aka "certified" again with a big gold seal by the state of Ohio this time - $5 per document). The kids were so excited that we parked in the parking deck and walked across the street on the pedestrian bridge. I was excited that I found where I was going without getting ticketed, lost, or mugged and thought the worst was over.... Wrong again. :) Three of the notaries who signed our various papers (six documents total, incidentally, including both of our individual employer letters, and the medical forms) are not residents of Summit County. We had to go their resident counties to get the papers certified. That meant driving 30 minutes east to Portage County ($2 per document), and then 60 minutes northwest to Medina County ($5 per document). When we finished in Medina, it was too late to make it to Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) before the court closed at 4 for the afternoon. The kids started out very naughty, but soon settled down and were great! By the time we finished at the last courthouse, they were sporting "junior sheriff's deputy" badge stickers and carrying a sucker in each a hand. We all four made it through security at three different courthouses and no one set off any alarms or had to post bail. :) The wind was gusting (the kids LOVED being outside in the wind) but it was nearly 60 degrees and alternating between spitting rain and sun. For a day in the middle of January when we would normally have freezing temperatures and several feet of snow and ice on the ground, we could not have asked for more!
We found out the the regional Sec. of State office in Cleveland is no longer open, so Nathan took the remaining document to the Cuyahoga County courthouse yesterday morning and got the appropriate certification ($1 per document this time!). In the process, he took a spill on the now icy sidewalk and ended up at the wrong building - turns out the "courthouse" and the "justice building" are not the same place in this county, although across the street from one another. Once he got home, we assembled our precious stack of documents representing our work over the past 6 months and triumphantly sent it overnight by FedEx to the Secretary of State's office in Columbus for apostilles ($5 per document) where it will then be forwarded directly to our agency. We also sent the remaining NH marriage certificates along with a huge chunk of our adoption fees to our adoption agency in GA. Phew! What a long climb it has been and there are a few more mountains in view.
We have been told that the worst is over now as far as the great paper chase. Now we know why they call this phase of the adoption the "paper pregnancy". Assembling the documents for our dossier has been a stretching process, but we are beyond thrilled that our dossier is complete and on it's way to our agency in Atlanta. From this point, our dossier will be sent to Ukr*ine where it will be translated and then submitted to the SDA - State Department of Adoptions in Ukr*ine. Once they receive it, they will add it to the bottom of the stack of other dossiers and process it when they get to it - most likely a month or two at the very least. Assuming all of our documents are in order, they will issue us travel dates to go to Ky*v for our official SDA appointment. It's hard to even guess what the travel dates will be, but we are hoping for a travel date in late March or April. There's a good possibility it will be even much later in the year as other families are being rescheduled to allow only one foreign family visiting this orphanage at a time.
Thank you for your prayers along the way! Our prayer requests now are that God will continue to provide financially for this adoption - specifically for the remaining agency fees and travel expenses and that we will be approved for the grants and loans we are requesting. Also please pray for patience as we anxiously wait to go get Kolya and he waits for us - many of his friends are already here in the USA and he wants to be here, too! We're looking forward to the next steps in the process, but for now we're content to linger on this mountain top for a moment and enjoy the view.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Lows and Highs (and a "Signature Sara" Bonus Feature)
(Sara and her Thursday apple sauce disaster is being featured in this post, since it was incredibly gross and since I really don't have any other related pictures - enjoy!)
For the past few weeks, we've been living in a holding pattern while waiting to hear if Kolya is officially available for adoption. Our agency in GA told us we may hear news on Monday, which became Tuesday, and then, well, you get the picture. We would stay up late each night hoping for any bit of news from our agency, finally fall into bed exhausted, sleep poorly (if at all), and then get up early to see if there was any news about Kolya yet. I have always been pretty diligent about checking my email, Facebook, and phone messages, but this past week, I was beyond obsessed. The days ticked slowly by with no word. Wait, wait, wait. Apparently, God knows I need to work on patience, because we still have a lot more waiting ahead of us. By Thursday, I was resigned that we were not going to get our news that week. Then on Thursday afternoon, our hosting family group on Facebook started buzzing. Someone had received news about their child, then another and then another. By the time we went to bed that night, the old worry germ was attacking again. Other families knew and we didn't. It was another long night with little sleep. One thing is for sure, with all the wakefulness, I had LOTS of time alone with God to pray. And I think I prayed for just about everyone I knew (especially my Aunt Margaret who just lost her husband, Uncle Donnie, to cancer Wednesday morning - the funeral is today, and we are with the family in spirit today).
Finally, around 10 on Friday morning, we got the news that we were hoping for! Kolya is on the official orphan listing and is adoptable! However, he is on the "closed" list. This means that the children are available for adoption only within their own country for a 12 month period before they become available for adoption internationally. We were told it will still be "a few more weeks" (read: probably much longer than a few more weeks) before we find out when he is free for international adoption. What this does mean, however, is that, at some point in the next 12 months, if he is willing, we will be able to adopt Kolya!! We are so relieved and excited and still nervous all at the same time. It's a strange mix of emotions. Some time "in the next few weeks" (here we go again!), we have also been told that someone will talk to Kolya to see if he wants our family to adopt him. Then it's a matter of LOTS more paperwork, pulling LOTS of funds together, and waiting again until everything goes through and we are ready to bring our boy home for good. So exciting!!!
A few hours after we found out Kolya's status on Friday, our social worker from our Ohio agency called to schedule her home visit. She had a cancellation and could she come over at 3 on Saturday? YES, please! So, today we had our home study visit. Unlike our social worker for our foster care home study two years ago, our new social worker is so nice and we both found her very easy to talk to. She has eight children who are all adopted and was incredibly encouraging. She stayed for three hours! Libby gave her the tour of the house before she left and was seemed so grown up. All of the kids actually acted civilized and even Sara was on pretty good behavior. That's a miracle in itself, considering how she usually is - applesauce photos are my case-in-point!
We're off to eat pizza for dinner now and relax in front of the TV for the Cleveland Brown's pre-season opener game. Football season means that fall is nearly hear and that we are one season closer to bringing our family all together. I'm excited to see how it all works out!
*Sara Update: I just rescued a tube of ChapStick from Sara - she was literally biting off pieces and eating it!!!*
For the past few weeks, we've been living in a holding pattern while waiting to hear if Kolya is officially available for adoption. Our agency in GA told us we may hear news on Monday, which became Tuesday, and then, well, you get the picture. We would stay up late each night hoping for any bit of news from our agency, finally fall into bed exhausted, sleep poorly (if at all), and then get up early to see if there was any news about Kolya yet. I have always been pretty diligent about checking my email, Facebook, and phone messages, but this past week, I was beyond obsessed. The days ticked slowly by with no word. Wait, wait, wait. Apparently, God knows I need to work on patience, because we still have a lot more waiting ahead of us. By Thursday, I was resigned that we were not going to get our news that week. Then on Thursday afternoon, our hosting family group on Facebook started buzzing. Someone had received news about their child, then another and then another. By the time we went to bed that night, the old worry germ was attacking again. Other families knew and we didn't. It was another long night with little sleep. One thing is for sure, with all the wakefulness, I had LOTS of time alone with God to pray. And I think I prayed for just about everyone I knew (especially my Aunt Margaret who just lost her husband, Uncle Donnie, to cancer Wednesday morning - the funeral is today, and we are with the family in spirit today).
Finally, around 10 on Friday morning, we got the news that we were hoping for! Kolya is on the official orphan listing and is adoptable! However, he is on the "closed" list. This means that the children are available for adoption only within their own country for a 12 month period before they become available for adoption internationally. We were told it will still be "a few more weeks" (read: probably much longer than a few more weeks) before we find out when he is free for international adoption. What this does mean, however, is that, at some point in the next 12 months, if he is willing, we will be able to adopt Kolya!! We are so relieved and excited and still nervous all at the same time. It's a strange mix of emotions. Some time "in the next few weeks" (here we go again!), we have also been told that someone will talk to Kolya to see if he wants our family to adopt him. Then it's a matter of LOTS more paperwork, pulling LOTS of funds together, and waiting again until everything goes through and we are ready to bring our boy home for good. So exciting!!!
A few hours after we found out Kolya's status on Friday, our social worker from our Ohio agency called to schedule her home visit. She had a cancellation and could she come over at 3 on Saturday? YES, please! So, today we had our home study visit. Unlike our social worker for our foster care home study two years ago, our new social worker is so nice and we both found her very easy to talk to. She has eight children who are all adopted and was incredibly encouraging. She stayed for three hours! Libby gave her the tour of the house before she left and was seemed so grown up. All of the kids actually acted civilized and even Sara was on pretty good behavior. That's a miracle in itself, considering how she usually is - applesauce photos are my case-in-point!
We're off to eat pizza for dinner now and relax in front of the TV for the Cleveland Brown's pre-season opener game. Football season means that fall is nearly hear and that we are one season closer to bringing our family all together. I'm excited to see how it all works out!
*Sara Update: I just rescued a tube of ChapStick from Sara - she was literally biting off pieces and eating it!!!*
Monday, August 8, 2011
A Giving Spirit
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| Libby-girl |
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| Love this gap-tooth smile! |
Libby's eyes lit up then! She grabbed her piggy bank, and started dumping coins and bills on the bed. As she counted through the money, she asked, "Mommy, if I give you all the money in my piggy bank, is it enough so Kolya can come home now?" Awwwwwww. I teared up at that one! We scoured the cupboards and found an old fish bowl for Libby to save the coins she finds to help bring Kolya home. She tore the house apart looking for spare change and kept adding it to the fish bowl. Each time she found another penny or quarter, she would let out a little cheer and then show me what she had found. I am so proud of my big girl for giving all of her money to bring her big brother home. Like the widow's mite in the Bible, it's not much money, but it's all she had. That's huge! I love my little girl and her selfless heart. And I hope her little big donation helps bring her big brother home very soon.
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| Happy and toothless little girl |
PS Please excuse the messy mop of hair on this girl. I dragged her away from her cozy spot on the couch for her pictures :)
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Sara-Bear is 2! and other stuff
Her eyes got big and she kept saying, "Oh my goose (goodness)!" She was so cute! She loved her little baby dolls and her duplicate Mrs. Potato Heads - thanks to her parents and her Uncle Zack getting her the same toy. She loved everything about her little party.
Once we finished with gifts and dishes, we all went swimming. Sara actually swam by herself with her little water wing floaties for the first time. She must be part mermaid, because she loves swimming! After she went under a few times, she learned to keep her mouth closed and would come back up and spit the water out of her mouth and grin. All of the kids enjoy the water. I'm so glad they have the opportunity to swim at Grandma and Papa's house.
I finally made connections with our facilitator at our adoption agency in GA yesterday afternoon. She said that we may hear about Kolya's legal status this week - possibly as early as Monday or Tuesday. If he has been put on the "international adoption list", we are good to proceed with his adoption. If he is not on the list, we are either not able to proceed or are potentially looking at a 14 month waiting period before he is officially available. I'm really struggling with the waiting. Patience has never been one of my virtues. Most nights I can't sleep for all the thoughts jumbling around in my head. I can't believe that Kolya has only been gone a week. It seems like a month since he left. I really miss him - a lot. He was a huge help with the little kids and I miss his company. He is such a sweet kid with a funny sense of humor. Whenever I think of his goofy grin, it makes me smile. I'm holding on to the good memories and praying that we get good news soon.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Who knew?
Who knew how quickly we would all come to love Kolya?
Who knew how much we would miss him when he was gone?
Who knew how boring it is to go the speed limit without Kolya constantly urging us to go faster on the highway ("No Polizia, Daddy! Go, Go!")?
Who knew?
God knew.
And now we know.
And we will be doing everything we can to bring our son home to us soon.
Friday, July 8, 2011
July 4th in Pictures and Random Updates
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| Family movie night - watching Spiderman |
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| Libby the Seahorse |
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| Kolya helping Caleb onto a raft |
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| Caleb-man |
Everyone had a fun time together and enjoyed splashing unsuspecting victims at every opportunity.
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| Josh showing off |
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| Nathan has mad skills |
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| Libby - obviously shares Nathan's obsession with weird pool behavior |
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| another weird diving form |
It was entertaining anyway!
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| Sara wearing Libby's goggles |
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| At Blossom - Libby taking the picture, so it was a little blurry and poor Kolya was exhausted! |
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| Sara-bear |
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| Kolya having fun |
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| Libby helping Sara |
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| Kolya playing volleyball |
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| Kolya enjoying air hockey with Nathan |
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Potato Chips and Gatorade
Our first few days with Kolya have been great! The language barrier is a bit of a problem since he speaks a mix of Russian and Ukrainian. Overall, we are doing OK and at least communicating the important things through the iPod translator and lots of gestures. Darn that Tower of Babel!. Kolya is very quiet most of the time. When he does speak, he is very gentle and polite and always says "Thank you". He makes his bed every day, clears his dishes off the table, and constantly watches out for the little kids. Just today, he started to really loosen up and tease and wrestle with Caleb for a little bit. It was really good to see him having fun and settling into the "big brother" role.
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| Waiting for Kolya to get off his flight |
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| Finally! Kolya and our Family at the airport |
So far, we have discovered that he loves potato chips (a man after Nathan's heart!), and seems to like pizza, too! We have enjoyed several trips to the park where Kolya has displayed his impressive soccer skills. He likes playing ball, bike riding, and just being outside. He also likes to play Wii and any game on my iPod whenever possible. He has seen nearly every movie in Nathan's collection and enjoys going through them and watching them one by one each night. We're working on getting an MP3 player set up for him. I had one purchased for him, but I corrupted it by accident when I unplugged the USB before it was done loading. Ugh! I've ordered him a new one, and we'll get the music on it for him ASAP.
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| Sara and trouble in the making |
 | |||
| Kolya and Nathan lighting the fuses |
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| Kolya getting sparklers ready |
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| Kolya playing with smoke bombs |
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| Lighting a bunch of smoke bombs at once |
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| Nathan with a blue nose from handling the smoke bombs and rubbing his face:) |
The little popper things (that explode in a little "SNAP!" when you throw or step on them) were a huge hit and Kolya enjoyed throwing them right under Libby's feet, since he got a big reaction from her - she screamed every single time, of course.
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| Libby-girl |
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| Super-Caleb-Man |
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| Kolya putting a smoke bomb on Caleb's head |
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| Sara running through STINKY orange smoke |
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| Libby and her sparkler |
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| cleaning up the mess |
Kolya and Libby and I played a little prank on Nathan, too. When he walked into the living room this afternoon, we blasted him with silly string! Libby unfortunately aimed it the wrong way and sprayed herself in the face. Boy! Did she ever get mad! After she got over her issues, she begged and begged to get more silly string at the store. Um, NO! We had fun cleaning it up; it was everywhere in the living room and dining room! Caleb even found some on the wall in dining room that we had missed.
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| Nathan covered in silly string! |
Kolya and Nathan enjoyed a quick game of chess before dinner and we wrapped up the evening playing video games and watching the Matrix with Josh. We are all pretty beat, so it's off to bed to get ready for Sunday and our first full week with Kolya!
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| Kolya and Nathan playing chess with an audience |
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