Break out the Bubbly

Wahooooooo!!  Way to go Jonas.  This is a reason to celebrate!

Dynamite Comes in Small Packages, Too!!

Well, she made it.  Made it one year old.  Some how.  :D

And she is thriving.  In these pictures she really needs a haircut (which she still hates).

Everyone loves holding her and getting "kisses" from her. 

Miriam really wanted to make her a cake.  She started asking a week beforehand.  So I let her and Kristina have at it.  They left Tessa's unadorned, for obvious reasons. But the rest of us enjoyed this:

We laughed, we sang, she at cake then cuddled up in my arms and went to sleep. 

Here is to 15 or 20 more years!!!

What started it all.

This little business card sized piece of paper has banged around here for quite a while.  Why? You ask.  These seven children (really 8, one girl, 6 boys and one unknown) are what started this whole adoption thing.  Well, not really started it, because it got started a LOOOOOOOOOONG time ago.  But this most recent productive foray into the world of adopting began when we heard about these beautiful children who were a family up for adoption in Utah.  Knowing that we wouldn't ever be able to get them (who even knows WHY we wanted them?  7 MORE children-- but they really caught our eye for some reason).  Sure enough they were adopted (or at least in the process) when we were far enough along in our paperwork.  They are what got the ball rolling.  They are what opened our minds and hearts to adopting more than 2. They are what fed the desire to keep a family together.  Where ever they are I hope they are happy, well, and together.  They will never know the change for good they brought into our life, how they played right into Heavenly Father's hands.

Love Notes

I have about 12 posts started waiting for me to finish.  I can't seem to get to them with Alina going to school at home (explained in one of said posts).  I hope to get to them soon...

I found this note the other day.  I think you can click on it and make it bigger (except maybe not in emails).  It may not seem like much, this laundry list of cleaning.  But most of the time, Ryah is hard to be around.  She makes demands, whines, and screams when she doesn't get her way.  I think this is Miriam's attempt at helping Ryah. (For now Ryah's permanent chore is folding and hanging up clothes, because it is something I can help her with).

They say to adoptive parents, "don't expect them to thank you for adopting them. It will be a looooooooong time before they do."  This note was particularly sweet, because it was a long and trying week with Anastasia, full of screaming, tantrums, rages and overall general uncooperation.