Camping in the White Mountains

This past weekend, Ken and I took Lina to one of our favorite places. We have been going camping at Russell Pond in the White Mountains for a few years now, and just could not wait until the day we would be able to bring our child.

Thankfully, the rain only came at night and we were able to spend the whole weekend outside. Lina had a blast, and did mostly well throughout the weekend. She swam in Russell Pond itself, and we took her to another popular swimming hole along the Pemi River. The water was freezing but that did not stop her from playing in it all afternoon!

I think, for the most part, Lina had fun while camping. She enjoyed roasting marshmallows (of course!) and also liked helping make the camp fire. She did great sleeping in the tent with Mama and Papa, and 24 hours of fresh air wiped her out so much that Ken and I had a relaxing Saturday morning until 8:30!

We were so happy to share camping with Lina. It truly is one of our favorite pastimes, and we hope that it will soon become one of hers too.

Here are some pictures of the weekend…

I love this picture of Lina relaxing in her bag chair and looking over the fire...

Picnic in the Park

This past weekend, we met our good friends for a picnic in the park. Lina had a great time playing in the park with her friends whose parents we met through our adoption agency. I will leave the details below in pictures:

First, we played on the playground equipment.



And, the best part of the day was when Lina got to play in the water fountain!

I am so excited that the end of school is almost here. In less than two weeks, Lina and I will be home together for the summer. I have grand plans for us, including potty training and transitioning from a crib to a big girl bed! Also, we are hoping Lina will love camping as much as her mama and papa. Our first weekend camping trip is planned for next weekend...stay tuned for a camping trip post!

Lina's Language Development

Since March, Lina’s language development has really sky-rocketed. It is quite fun and interesting to see what is going to come out of her mouth at any given time.

Here is an example of Lina’s bedtime routine as told by her play by play commentary:
“Papa put lotion on”
“Lotion on bug bites”
“Diaper on”
“Put jammies on”
“Mama in chair”
“Mama rock Lina”
“Papa put music on, Papa close door, go downstairs”
“Lina go to sleep” “Pakonah Nocheee” (Spokoinoi nochi…Russian for good night)
“Love you mama”

Of course I would not be telling the whole story if I did not include the following:
I will yawn and Lina will say “Mama tired.”
Lina will pass gas and will have to inform me that “Lina Parted”

Oh there is never a dull moment at bedtime!

Besides bed-time, Lina has been using 2-4(sometimes 5) word sentences. She is really coming a long way and it has been intriguing to see her make the connections in her head and come out with what is happening around her. For example, if the dog is drinking water, Lina will say “Honey Bear drinking water”. When she wants to drink something herself, I ask her to use good words and she will ask “May I please have some water Mama?” I ask her to use “good words” instead of “manners” because if I just ask for manners, all she will say is “Water please”. Little Devil. Every morning on the way to day care, Lina will say “Going to Karen’s” then she will list off the 5 other children’s names that also go to day care with her.

I truly enjoy conversing with my daughter and I can’t wait to see what the next few months have in store for us in this part of her development.

My favorite line currently is her answer to my question: Where did Mama and Papa adopt Lina from? “Russssa” Priceless.

A Letter To My Daughter

To My Dear Lina:

It feels like only yesterday that we met you in the Karachev Baby Home in Bryansk. I remember not getting much sleep the night before our big day. Even though there were two very small beds in our hotel room, I snuck onto Papa’s bed as I was so nervous to meet you that I did not want to be alone. On our way to the office to get all of your information, we were told that our new child (you) was a girl. I wish I could have taken a picture of Papa’s face. He was already in love with you at that point! I think I even saw a tear in his eye. On the other hand, my face had the look of complete fear! I looked at Papa and said, “A girl? I can’t even braid hair!” He laughed at me and told me not to worry.

Driving through the town of Karachev made me sad. The houses there are run down and the people that live there are poor. Though, when we pulled into the baby home’s driveway, we noticed that lilac trees lined the way and there were beautiful tulip gardens on the grounds. When we first walked into the baby home, the smell of boiled cabbage filled the air. This was a popular food for you and the other children, though I don’t think I’ve made it for us since you have been home.

I could tell that even before we met you that you were a very special child. I knew that all of the baby home caregivers really loved you. When they would talk about you, they would smile, and though your full name was Angelina, they affectionately called you “Galina” for short. We were nervously sitting in the baby home’s recreation room when your favorite caregiver, Valentina, brought you in. Immediately, you ran to me, took my hand and started to dance. For an hour we walked and danced around the room. You smiled; we smiled back and took lots and lots of photos. From the moment you walked into the room, I knew that you, Papa and I were meant to be together forever. It was time for your nap, so they took you away from us. You left the room as happily as you came into it, and I knew how truly lucky Papa and I were.

That night after meeting you, Papa and I had a celebration dinner at the Italian restaurant in the center of Bryansk. We talked and talked about you and our plans for the future. We were so excited. I don’t think I slept for the remainder of the trip. I did not cry for you until we were on the plane back to home. I cried many times on the plane. They were tears of tiredness, relief, and (most of all) tears of true happiness.

I can’t believe how much you have changed our lives over this past year, Lina. You have brought Papa and I so much joy, and a happiness unmatched by anything or anyone. With you came the most precious gift a couple could get, the gift of a child, and we treasure you each and every minute. It is such a joy to be your Mama, and I only hope that I can show you endlessly how much you are loved and appreciated.

Before flying to Russia to meet you, Papa and I were told that there was a child waiting for us who they felt would be a “good fit” for us. I’m not sure how they knew the three of us would fit so well together, but I am thankful for this and for you.

I love you,

Mama

Lina's Database Photo...from a few months before we met her. I pulled it off of the website before they took her off after our adoption.

A few of my favorite pictures of the day we met Lina. The one with her and Ken at the top of my post is my absolute favorite photo ever!

A few pictures of Lina now.

Our Red Threads To Lina

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break."

Chinese Legend

As I think back to a year ago today, the day we got the “call”. I can’t help but notice many red threads that connected us to Lina.

I remember the social worker (our social worker was not in the office that day) actually called Ken to tell us of a possible referral. She called Ken because they assumed I would be teaching, though I was on spring break at the time. This referral was not a sibling group (as we wanted), but Ken still told the social worker that we would need to talk to me first. I know that, indeed, if the woman called me, I would have said no thank you right away. Her calling Ken would be one of many red threads that connected us to Lina that day.

After Ken had called me with the (as he put it) interesting phone call, we decided that it would be better to stick to the original plan of waiting for a sibling group. I called the social worker back and declined the referral. After that, I called my parents who ultimately convinced me that we really needed more time to think about this longer. With the possibility of this becoming very real, the butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Perhaps they were carrying another connecting red thread to my heart.

I called the social worker back and told/begged her that though we said “no” already, we actually needed more time to think about this referral. She told me that since they had not yet called another family with regards to this child, we could still have some time to think and decide. When speaking of red threads, this was the point of the day that made me think “it was meant to be.”

All we knew at the time was there was a child who was 16 months old waiting in Russia for us to be his/her parents, and that we had 2 hours to decide. We were told by a friend that either decision we made that day was going to be the right decision, and with a blessing from another friend and our parents, we finally decided to accept this referral.

Perhaps the thickest red thread of all was knowing that though we would never be able to announce we were pregnant, from that day on, it did not matter anymore. Even though all we knew of our child was that he/she was 16 months old, we felt as connected to him/her as if they grew inside me.

For red threads, I will forever be grateful. They connected us to Lina, who as destiny would have it, would turn us from a couple to a forever family.

Happy Easter and Other Ramblings

We had a very busy but fun Easter weekend. Karen, Lina’s day care provider did an egg hunt with the kids both Thursday and Friday. I was happy because at least she would know what to do when it came time for the “real” thing! Lina absolutely loved looking for Easter eggs. She was pointing around in all different directions saying “egg”, then would run around to try to find them. She was so cute, and it just made me so content to watch my daughter get so much joy out of such a simple thing. What a wonderful first this was for our family.

Our Easter weekend started Friday night when Lina and I colored eggs. She mostly liked watching me do all of the work while she sat and marveled at the eggs coming out of the colored water.


On Saturday, we traveled to Ken’s parent’s house to celebrate the holiday with his side of the family. Lina and her cousins had a blast looking for eggs, and breaking them (the plastic eggs) open to find chocolate inside. The weather was warm enough that we were able to hide the eggs over and over again.

The Easter bunny delivered Lina’s basket during nap time. He knew that since Ken had to work in the morning it was okay to make a special late delivery! Lina came downstairs and had a great time ripping through her basket to see all of the goodies. She loves her new jump rope but cannot figure out how to jump with it! We spent time outside for a short while looking for eggs, but the weather was too cold to re-hide them over and over again. Picture this: at one point, she had an egg (hard boiled) in each hand, went to clap and practically made egg salad right there outside. It was just so innocent. We had a nice low-key dinner with my parents and one of my brothers who dropped by while driving through our town.

I hope that everyone had a great Easter weekend, and if this is your first one with your child that it was as special for you as it was for us.

In other news, I will be eager to post next week with how Lina does at her first sleepover at grammy and grandpa’s this weekend. Since tax season ends this week, Ken and I are planning a day away. We both are looking forward to this so much, and though Lina does not know it yet, she will just love being spoiled.

Also, over the past few months I have been feeling the blogging blues. I’m sure you have noticed with my lack of posts! I contemplated ending the blog and changed my mind again a number of different times. I am happy to say though, that I am finding my interest again. Truly, it is not fair that I follow at least 10 different blogs weekly, get disappointed when they don’t update regularly then turn around and not update myself. So, here starts my new leaf!

And just because I can’t resist…here is one more cute picture…

Counting and Spring

Things have been pretty busy in our home lately. Between Ken being in the thick of tax season and I settling back into the school year, there has not been time left over for blogging. So, apologies for the lapse in posting.

Since my last post, we celebrated seven months home with Angelina. We are getting the biggest kick out of Lina’s newest skill. Since Lina came home, whenever we would walk up or down stairs, I would count them out loud. Now that she has become more vocal, she now counts stairs with me. However, it does not stop there. Lina has turned into a counting machine lately! She loves to count on her fingers, count the bites of food that she eats, and counts the pieces of food on her plate. Currently, she is counting from 1-13, pretty successfully most of the time. I am working on trying to capture this on video, but it has proven to be difficult as when Lina sees the camera, her hands go up in front of her face. Little turkey.

On another note, we are starting to see many signs of spring here in New Hampshire! We have had so much snow I was wondering if this was ever going to happen. I am so excited to get Lina outside this spring. She has grown a ton and has gotten so much stronger since she has been home, I know that she is going to enjoy running around and playing on her swing set so much more now than in the fall.

This Sunday it was actually nice enough to go outside without a hat and even with a spring jacket on! Here are some pictures of Lina enjoying her first ice cream stand visit of the season!