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

March 5, 2008

We're still here...

We haven't dropped off the face of the earth. We're still here (and still waiting.) We've all been fighting the Flu, well everyone except Garrett and Liam -- so far. I've completely lost my voice, but at least I can still type. Despite us being on our death beds at times, we've stayed busy as usual and I have carried my camera around everywhere. Here are just a few highlights of our past few weeks:


We enjoyed a visit from good friends who currently live in Alaska. They were in TN for sad reasons, but we're sure glad they got to stay with us a couple of days. Our boys especially love to play with their boys and now they have the sweetest little girl. Martin and I always enjoy getting to hang out with Steve and Lisa. They were one of the first families we met through our church almost eleven years ago. The completion of their adoption last February is what made Martin and I decide to finally quit just talking about adoption and actually go for it! We're really hoping to get to back to Alaska to visit them before they are transferred next year.

We had another snow day! Almost enough to go sledding, but not quite.

Nolan had his Cap and Gown photos taken for Kindergarten Graduation with our cover school, Aaron Academy. He looked so precious. He has started fiddle lessons and is doing great! (Now, we have singers, cloggers, pianists, guitarists, and a fiddler. I sure hope our little girl will enjoy music too!)

Baseball season started so Preston and Garrett have practice twice a week now.


Preston, Garrett and Nolan all completed their Science Fair Projects this week. Boy, was that a ton of work. But in a fun kind of way -- if we hadn't all been so sick trying to put on the finishing touches.

Our last baby boy, Liam, turned four years old on Monday. We celebrated with a party at our local skating rink. Bad weather and Flu keep several families away, but we still had a good group of kids and, most importantly, Liam had a blast!


Preston and Garrett sang a duet in our Church's talent show Sunday night. They performed "Down to the River" from "O Brother where art thou?". This was supposed to be the debut of the Abraham Quartet, but due to unforeseen illnesses, we were luckily to get two of them there. Preston's voice was scratchy, so he could only harmonize, but they were still very good. Of course, that is the opinion of one very biased mother!

We still haven't heard anything new from our placement agency about a new referral. However, I am very excited that so many families I have been following since last summer are finally starting to get referrals and bring their children home. It is good to see that Russia is moving along again after the loooong accreditation delays. For a list of some of the families getting travel dates and court dates, jump over to Jackie's blog at http://www.blogger.com/stepbystep2russia.blogspot.com/

(Can a fellow blogger please explain to me how to create a link with a title like "click here"? I haven't been able to figure it out yet.)

Here's a bunch of photos:


Snow day! Nolan and Liam






Preston and Garrett building snow forts












Such a handsome little graduate, but silly as ever!








Preston and Garrett singing at church.







Nolan Science Fair project was about the Rain Forests. This photo shows him telling the judges all about it. That's huge for him because usually he is soooo very shy.





Preston's project was about creating circuits. He made this "Operation" type game. When the metal tongs touch the aluminum foil boxes, the lights come on and a buzzer sounds. It was the most popular project at the Science Fair.







Garrett's project was about the Forces of Nature and Roller Coasters. He had a lot of fun with his project too.










As part of Garrett's research, he created a really cool roller coaster with Preston and a friend using Sky Rail, Tinker Toys, Bionicles & dinosaurs.




This video is Garrett demonstrating centrifugal force. He has a metal marble going around and around the track without falling out. I have video with it going longer, but I love his laugh in this one!





This was four year old Liam's 1st birthday party outside our home. He got some new Spider man skates and wore them the entire night. He loved the games and races and was a good sport when his brother, Nolan, won the limbo contest. Garrett had trouble with roller skates and he and Preston decided they were definitely roller blading kind of guys. Liam picked out a King Kong cake. It was also his first "Wal-mart" cake. I've always made homemade birthday cakes, thinking that was so much more special. He announced that this year he wanted a party "not at our house" and a store cake. Go figure -- they sure get opinionated early. But he's totally worth it!






7 comments:

JEff said...

Is Liam really 4?! How is that possible? They grow up so fast. I think that illness has been going around our area. It looks like you all have stayed busy, as always, though!

Becky and Keith said...

I LOVE their science fair projects! What fun!!! I hope you hear something on the adoption front soon. This waiting stuff is for the birds, isn't it? :-)

Dan and Alicia Marlowe said...

Very cute graduation pics. I always get a kick out of K graduations. Only 12 more years to go until Grad day #2, right?! No, really, it does fly by. I felt like giving a little graduation ceremony when our last (before we added Dmitry) was out of diapers. I thought we could use little rolls of TP instead of the little diplomas with ribbons tied around. I'm sure our other friends who also have young children would of sympathized and attended whatever type of ceremony we would have conducted. Well, now we get another shot at it!

Troy and Rachel said...

Great photos and what a cute little gradutate!! I hope you hear some news soon about where your little Tsarina is!! I'm checking in constantly!

Ron and Dinia said...

Preveet from Moscow!

Thanks for leaving a comment on our blog site. Ron and I are part of a group of American expats lving in Moscow that would love to share our host country with adoptive families. We are all emptynesters and here to be an encourgament to adoptive couples. We are available for anything from a trip to the craft market to sharing a cup of coffee. Please feel free to pass along our contact info to anyone headed to Moscow. Visa issues have a lot of us traveling at the moment, but I am sure we can connect you have a ready resource here in Moscow.

Best wishes as you search for your Russian daughter.

Paka!
Dinia and Ron Warren

Mama Fish said...

Hi Kim! Here is how to make a link in your blog. Copy and paste the link you want to add. Then in your blog type what you want to say. For me it might have been Jackie's Blog. Then highlight those words and click on the little icon that looks like a paperclip. In there paste the address you just copied...and voila! You are done!

Loved reading your update on how your family is doing by the way! And unfortunately we won't be meeting up with you at the IAD's in April. We will have to plan another time.... :-)

Troy and Rachel said...

Looks like you are having tons of fun while you wait. Keep on enjoying everyday and before you know it you will hear news!