The Abraham Family’s Journey to Russia to Bring Home Their Daughter

March 15, 2008

From 5" of Snow to a Field of Buttercups, Optimism Endures!

First, I want to thank Jackie for showing me how to make links on my blog. It works! BTW, have fun in Florida, Jackie.

Second, you know your post is too long when Blogspot goes all haywire on you and starts doing crazy formatting on your text that you definitely DO NOT WANT! But, I have persevered and managed to finish this long post with way too many photos, despite the all trouble with Blogspot. So there! P.S. If you find a typo, sorry, I don't dare try to edit this post again!

Okay, back to our story... according to the Lillypie ticker, as of today, our dossier has been registered in Russia for one month and one week. When we sent the dossier to our placement agency, the director told us to expect the wait to be anywhere from a week to a few months, but that most likely we would have a referral in about a month and 1/2. So now we are at the point where every time the phone rings, I wonder... could it be our agency?

Last week, I left a message with our placement agency making sure they had all our phone numbers correct and the reminded them which numbers are the best ones to call. I also told them it was not necessary to wait until they found two sisters available, we'd be extremely happy with just one little girl! My voice last week was barely audible due to the Flu, so I don't know how much of my ramblings they were actually able to understand. But, at least I felt like I did something towards our adoption.

This past week, I decided from here on out I'm just going to focus on all the great things going on around here and enjoy our Spring. "The Call" will come when it comes and staring at the phone won't make it ring any faster!

There are many positives to not traveling in March as it is a very hectic month for the Abraham family. We've celebrated two birthdays and now Easter is just around the corner. We are full swing into baseball and Nolan is practicing for his Kindergarten Graduation program. (He is definitely the class clown.) We are going to Nashville's Children's Theatre next week to see "Go Dog Go!". This was Garrett's and Nolan's very first book they ever read cover to cover. I'm really looking forward to seeing the play.


But my absolute favorite thing about Spring -- that I would have missed if I was traveling to the other side of the world this week -- are the millions of buttercups that grow on our property. The boys and I have so much fun picking flowers and creating beautiful bouquets. Buttercups (or Jonquils) have been my favorite flower since I was a little girl and they grew in a long row in front of my grandmother's house. I used to take bouquets to all my teachers in elementary school. They just bring back good memories of spending time with my Granny. Martin and I searched a long time for land to purchase and build our dream house on, but as soon as we saw the field of buttercups on this property, we just knew this was the land for us!


Every winter Martin clears out a little more brush around where the flowers grow so we have more and more gorgeous clusters of buttercups each year. Hopefully, one day he'll have the brush cleared out all the way to the creek.


Last year, the flowers were very short lived because of a late hard freeze that killed everything about to bloom. I was worried about them this year because it seemed just as they were poking their heads out of the ground, we got


4-6 inches of snow! They came through just fine though as you can see from the photos!








I'm finding it really hard to believe that my first born son is ten years old -- double digits -- it's been a whole decade since that snowy morning he was born. Preston has always been a dream of a child, always eager to please, fiercely loyal, loving and affectionate, extremely gifted academically, a great athlete, and just an all around great kid! When it comes to birthday parties, we have a system of letting our kids chose between a party or a big present. If they chose party, then that is our gift to them. If they chose present, then they can chose a gift comparable to the money we would spend on a party and we'll have a small family birthday celebration at home.

For the past two years, there has been one "present" that Preston wanted really bad, so he opted not to take any chances on someone getting it for him and just forgo the party. This year, however, he couldn't think of anything he really wanted so he chose the "party". But not just any party... he chose to star in a movie along with 11 of his closest friends at Wizard Animations Studios in Brentwood, TN. Let me tell you, this was a very cool party!

They all chose to make a dinosaur expedition movie. We did have one girl that wanted to star in the Alice in Wonderland movie, but we couldn't talk any of the boys (or the other girls for that matter) into doing it with her. I knew Preston and Garrett would really get into it, but I was very surprised about how good little actors Nolan and Liam turned out to be. The mini-movies are not perfect by any means, but all the kids were all extremely proud of them and I can't tell you how many times we have watched them!!! For any of my blog readers in the Nashville area, this is really worth checking out.

That's about it for now. Oh, I have been doing a tiny bit of shopping for our little girl on the clearance racks. It is hard not knowing what size to buy, but the deals are so good that I figured if she can't wear them we can always donate them to the orphanage. Yesterday, I found some darling Disney Princess snow boots at Toys R Us for $2.50. They even light up! And I got this Snowflake Queen dress for 1/2 price. Garrett was pushing the cart and moaned about having girl stuff in his cart.






Here are a few more photos of the boys playing outside. As they say around here; "If you don't like the weather in Tennessee, just wait a day!" There are also some from Preston's party, and just in case anyone is wondering, I always get permission from the parents before posting photos of other kids. ;0)


This is the blue room where the kids "act" out the story at Wizard Animations.


That's Preston, Garrett and a friend on the big screen!




Preston and Garrett drove the Go-Cart to pick flowers. This explains why they are wearing helmets in all the photos.







View from the office balcony. Don't ask about why there is a latter leaning against the back of the house; it's a long story. Our snowman hung around for days after the snow melted.


Boys and Buttercups!











Optimistic Thought for the Day:

At least it won't be freezing cold when we take all the boys to Russia with us on Trip 2!

3 comments:

Over-Caffeinated said...

Hi Kim, I live in Franklin and saw your blog listed on another site I was visiting. I wanted to tell you that I think we might have alot in common (I have three boys, we are adopting a girl, we were with CHI and now have moved to another agency, I love the Tsarina too, in fact I have a great book if you haven't read Lifelong Passion. It's a collection of their letters to one another throughout their life (age twelve until death.)

Anyway, God speed on your journey to your little princess. We are WAITING AND WAITING too and it's so nice to follow others alone. Our journey is posted at http://marymargaretmaybe.blogspot.com

JEff said...

It's fun watching the boys grow up! Liam reminds me so much of what Nolan looked like (different hair color) when he was younger. And, are you really surprised Nolan is the class clown?

Over-Caffeinated said...

Yes, please feel free to link to our blog. And I probably saw you at some Floating Men shows... we LOVED to watch them at 12th and Porter and would usually have a big table of about ten idiots on the front row... that is until they started saving those seats for the record people and families... it was never the same from the back, was it? Do you remember crazy Mary, as we called her, that used to dance on stage?

I'm a little freaked out about my blog right now because I saw today that someone in St. Pete had looked at it. Maybe I would be better off without knowing. :)