All 4 of our  kiddos Eric on the train

 

 

 The kids in the stable close to our cabin




Josie loved all the animals

She is talking to the chickens

 



Wesley found eggs!



Eric, Josie and Kelly



Pali, Tyler and Wesley





Mommy and Josie





Wesley, Kelly, Josie, Tyler, Chad and Eric





Wesley skiing





Wesley giving Josie a ride





Eric





Tyler riding back up



Typical Wesley face  "Wesley do you like to ski"   "Yea but.... I think I will be a Knight"



More his style









 
 



A brave Knight's job is never done.







Our Vacation

We take an annual vacation to Colorado to the mountains every year with the kids.  We really debated whether to go this year as we did not know if Josie would be adjusted well enough to go.  We really don't want the boys to have any resentment toward herand were worried that if we cancel the trip this year they might think it was her fault.  She has done so well that we decided to go ahead and go.  She has never been in a car seat for any length of time so we were a bit worried about that and knew we would need to make extra stops for her.  Well Chad took a train as a child out to CA and he has really wanted to take our kids.  He has so many wonderful memories from that experience.  The week before spring break I had an unexpected death of a friend so and Josie and I were out of town for a couple extra days before Chad came. During this time Chad finalized all the details of the trip and he decided we were taking the train.  He really though the boys would love it and it solved the problem of Josie not liking her car seat.  She could walk around on the train.  The boys were so very excited but I was apprehensive in the least.  The train boarded about 40 miles away at 2:00 a.m.  With 4 small kids that are very used to being on a schedule this spells disaster.  I was trying to do the best I could to put on a happy face and just go with Chad's plans.  Well we boarded the train and got the kids all to bed.  I was hoping they would all sleep late to make up for the interruption during the night.  Well come to find out there are speakers in the rooms and the conductor starts announcing at 6:00 a.m.  He continues to announce about every 5 minutes all morning long so the kids were all woke up very early.  After they all woke up I turned the light on and found out there is a volume control and ours happened to be on high.  Not something one looks for at 2:00 a.m.  Then came the meal time.  Eating without any place for a highchair with a 1 year old and a 3 year old was eventful in the least and it is community seating so I felt sorry for the poor sole that was seated next to us.  Of course there were all the little bowls of butter, creamer, jelly etc.. (perfect for squishing) on every table, not to mention the paper table cloth that got ripped to shreds every time we ate and flowers on the table.  A mother of 4's dining night mare.  We made it to our train stop where we had to switch trains.  This stop happened to be at nap time so after not much sleep at night the kids all missed naps as well.  By now this Mama needs a nap much less the kids.  We found a really nice kids museum to pass the time of our 4 hour layover.  By the way this was in IL near Chicago.  Yes, we went from KS to IL to get to CO.  There was not a direct route to CO so this was our only way.  So finally we boarded and get to CO on Sunday.  In all this was a 32 hour journey.  When we get there we immediately start checking for a rental car to drive home later in the week only to learn that all the rental places only do local rental.  We go on to have a great vacation despite a few bumps. Monday the plan was for Chad, friend Pali, and all 3 boys to go skiing.  Well Eric was up all night vomiting and was sick with the flu.  Poor kid.  He was very disappointed when his brothers left to go skiing.  He was sick till about noon that day so he, Josie and I hung out at the cabin.  We played some board games and caught up on some movies.  Chad, Tyler, Wesley and Pali had a great day and Chad decided he loved skiing.  This was his first time on the slopes.  Thankfully Eric began to feel much better after a big nap so he could ski Tue. That afternoon we went down to the barn that is on the ranch property where we were staying.  Wesley and Josie loved the animals. Then on Monday night Chad was up all night with the flu.  We had to change our plans and he and Pali stayed at the cabin with Josie and I took all 3 boys skiing.  We didn't want Chad taking care of Josie and giving her the flu so Pali took care of her and Chad stayed in a bedroom.  It was the first time I had ever left her for any length of time, and with anyone except Chad.  Pali hadn't skied for 10 years and I really didn't want to give her the job of taking all 3 boys.  We put Wesley in ski school and Tyler, Eric and I skied.  We had a great day.  Wesley enjoyed ski school for the most part.  He is used to being a cowboy or a knight so a skier is a bit different for him.  The following day we had a dog sled ride booked.  We had planned for Chad to keep Josie and Pali and I to take the boys.  Chad was still pretty sick so I called to see if Josie could ride and they said sure.  She loved the dogs and loved the ride when it was moving.  She didn't really like when we had to sit still but what 17 month old does??  That day we just hung out the rest of the day.  We all went souvenir shopping and then Pali and I took the kids to a movie at the mini theatre at the lodge where we were staying.  When we got back to the cabin Chad was finally feeling better.  The next day we took the kids tubing.  The rental place was nice and gave us an extra tube and Wesley (or us) pulled Josie around in it while the bigger boys tubed.  Wesley didn't really like tubing last year and he didn't want to go this year.  Chad and I took turns hanging out with our 2 little ones and tubing with the big boys.  They all had a great time.  Chad helped Wesley make a little fort and he was on a mission to collect power food (snow) to get the bad guys.  Josie liked being taken for little rides in her tube and just being outside.  Tyler and Eric loved going down the mountain in their tubes.  We then went back to the cabin and put everyone down for naps.  They all slept so long that we had to wake them to get ready for the train.  We were packed and ready with coats on when Pali (the genius) checked to make sure the train is on time.  Nope it was 2 1/2 hours delayed.  Lovely, we could have let the kids sleep.  We went over to the lodge's game room where the kids can run around and play games.  We bowled, played pool and air hockey and passed the time.  Josie walked around and checked everything out.  We then went to the lodge’s restaurant and were eating when Pali checked the status on the train again.  They bumped up the time by a 1/2 hour so we now only have 20 minutes to make it.  We hurry up and get to the unmanned station and wait, and wait, and wait... About the time the train finally got there Eric vomited all over himself.  We did a quick clean up and then the train got there.  Since it is an unmanned station we had no idea where our car is until the train got there.  Then we have about 5 minutes to load 4 kids and all the luggage (winter time ski stuff for 7 = a lot of luggage for 3 adults to handle) We found out that our car is the very last one on the train which means hauling all our junk about 10+ cars back.  Then a conductor said we can deposit it all on a car about in the middle of the train so we can hurry up and board.  Then another conductor decided that was a bad plan and made Chad unload it all and move it to our car.  By this time I took all our kids and got them in the warm train and Chad and Pali dealt with the luggage.  Now the adults are exhausted and the journey home has just begun.  A couple hours after we left we stopped in Denver for a bit and the stop seemed to drag on and on.  Come to find out the bigger engine went out and they were working on it.  We sat for 2+ hours.  We realized prior to this that we could very easily miss our 4 hour connection and the train only goes thru the small town with no motel every 24 hours.  We could easily picture ourselves sleeping on benches in a train depot so we throw in the towel and call some friends that brought us a vehicle to a town that is only 3 1/2 hours from our house.  These wonderful friends drove in the wee hours of the night to come to our rescue.  Needless to say the boys loved the train but Josie and I are going to stick to the ones at the zoo from now on.  Really all the kids were troopers and were really very good but 4 kids on a train in 2 small sleeper rooms for that long is just too long.  If it would have been an 8 hour train ride I would have loved it.  We did have some great times and have some great memories.  Chad and I both got to have a wonderful day skiing with our boys.  We got to introduce Josie to some more animals, which she loved, we had lots of snuggles, smiles and laughs around the fire in the fireplace Tyler built for us every evening.  Pali was a wonderful help and we thank her very much.  In all it was a great time but we will stick to our Expedition to get there from now on. 

It's been over 5 weeks since Josie came home!

Our little sweetie has been home for 5 weeks and 3 days.  She has changed so much in that short time.  She has become so much more secure with us and her environment and now walks all the time.  She has such a fun personality.  She is very expressive and we see tons of great facial expressions.  Her most famous one is WOW and it comes with anything new.  She doesn't say the word but her face says it all.  When she gets tired she loves to rub her belly with one hand if she has a shirt on that can come up.  Of course she has her fingers in her mouth with her other hand.  She still picks up things off the floor but we are starting to see less of it going in her mouth.  She is still a wonderful sleeper and almost always sleeps all night plus 2 naps each day.  One evening we had company over and she was about a 1/2 hours late for bed.   She started to have a little fit so I made her Sippy cup of milk and went to sit down in a rocking chair in the living room so I could still visit.  She proceeded to have a big fit and say Nigh-Nigh.  She knows we always rock in her bedroom and she was letting me know she was ready for bed.  It took about 5 minutes to rock and she was down.  She talks all the time and we can understand a few things she says.  So far she has Mama, Dada, Hi, woof woof, no no (na na) and nigh  night.  We hear a lot of things that sound similar to what we say so we know she is trying to copy and will have many more words soon.  Today I hear what sounded a lot like "Hi Trixie".  She LOVES the dog and all animals she has seen so far.  She rode on a dog sled ride while we were in CO and loved it but really wanted to be up with the dogs not sitting.  She still loves music and loves to dance.  Her attention span is starting to increase as well.  Today we were able to read 4 books in one setting.  When we first showed her books in the orphanage we were not even able to open them.  Anything we gave her was hers and she didn't want us to touch it.  She still doesn’t like to share (but what 17 month old does) but she lets us turn pages and loves the books that have flaps that open.  She loves to rock and have us hold her and love on her.  When we first picked her up she really didn't want us to touch her much.  She wanted to be held but when we rocked we couldn't touch her head and she didn't snuggle into us.  That is a thing of the past.  She loves to snuggle when she can be still long enough.  She also loves getting a massage after her bath with lotion. She is really a typical sweet little 17 month old girl that loves to keep busy and keep her Mama busy.  She is a wonderful child and we can't imagine our lives without her. 

Our little Sweetie has become a full time walker now!

Josie has gained so much confidence and strength in the past month. She now rarely crawls and we have even seen her trying to run just a bit.  With 3 brothers, a girl has to do what a girl has to do to keep up. 

Wesley's ready for the day!

Wesley is ready to go out on the town.  He has his 2 holsters with one gun, sword, ball pump,favorite Christmas shirt and "helmet".  Bad guys don't stand a chance with this brave cowboy/knight/ball player in town.  And yes that is how Daddy took him to town. 

Vacation

We are in Colorado on our annual vacation to the mountains. It has been eventful so far. Chad decided that we were going to take a train to get here. The boys loved it but not so sure the adults thought it was so great. It will be much more fun someday when all the kids are much older. Josie took it in stride. She did not sleep well on the train as none of us did but she has made up for it here in our cabin. Sunday night Eric got the flu and it was that terrible go thru all the clothes Mom packed for a week in 24 hours kind of flu. Thankfully it was short lives because he was soo disappointed to watch Chad, Tyler and Wesley leave to go skiing without him. Chad decided to ski this year for the first time and LOVED it. He was so excited to be going back today but then woke up to the flu himself. He has been down close to 24 hours now so hopefully he will be on the mend soon and ready for fun. A friend (Pali) came with us for the trip and has been a huge help. She helped Chad with the skiers yesterday while I had Josie and Eric at the cabin. Today our plans had to change so I took all 3 boys skiing while Pali and sick Chad stayed with Josie. Pali took care of her but Chad was here if she needed any reassurance. It was the first time I had been away from her for any length of time and she did well but was ready for Mommy time as soon as I walked in the door. The boys did great skiing this year. Tyler is getting better each year and has advanced quite a lot. Eric was a bit more cautious this year but that could be because he only got to ski one day. He did very well though. It was Wesley's first time on the slopes and he did good as well. He attended the 3 year old ski school and liked it for the most part. I think he will like it and be ready to go again next year. Well I will add more another day but I'm beat so off to bed.

Josie and I have been in Topeka. We are spending a few days with the family I babysat for about 9 year and lived with for several years. The father of the family died very unexpectedly. When something tragic like this happens it sure makes me remember just how precious life is and how we should never take anything for granted. Norman was such a wonderful father for his 4 children. He was such a good man. He loved to have fun and for all those around him to have fun. We will all miss him so much. Josie has done very well and has been some much needed comic relief.

Josie's new favorite song and Eric's interuption. Nice!

Josie tries to say pretty toward the end.  Maybe because she has heard that word about a thousand times in the last few weeks.   And well Eric is just being Eric. 

Josie is so close to walking on her own all over!!

Click on the arrow on the left corner for the video. 

Josie's new favorite place to hide!

She even tries to hide under here!

A video of her new hiding place. 

Rockets with the boys and Josie just being cute.

                                             Wesley and Josie dancing.  Love it!

God chose her for us!

 

We get asked all the time if we went to Russia and picked out our Daughter.  I know there are so many that don't understand how adoption works so I will explain.  No we did not pick her out.  This question sounds so much like grocery shopping or going to the pound to pick a puppy.  I can't imagine being given that task, to go into an orphanage and see all the little faces and have to pick the one that is right for us.  I would surly have nightmares for the rest of my like not knowing what happened to the ones that we did not choose.  Thankfully the Russian government takes that roll.  We sent our information off to Russia and within a VERY short time they sent us a brief description of our sweet girl.  We then had to go to Russia for our 1st trip to meet her before we could confirm what we in fact wanted to adopt HER.  It is required that both parents meet the child before signing any paperwork.  That leads to the topic of naming her.  Chad and I are on the same page about many things but naming babies is not one of them.  Many of you know how long it took us to name our boys.  Chad has this thought that he can't even think of names until he sees them.  Then the ones he does come up with are quite horrible.  Sorry all you Orville's but I just can't call our child a name which will make him the popcorn man.  When we decided we were going to adopt we knew we would have to have a couple names picked out as we would meet the child then start signing her legal name right away.  We had come up with 2 choices.  When we got the first picture of our sweet girl we took one look and knew she fit one of our choices to a T.  That name is Josie.  We would not know of her Russian name for quite some time so she was Josie in our hearts.  We later learned that her Russian name is Maria.  We soon decided we would leave her Russian name as Maria and add Josephine as her middle.  Well when we met her for the 1st time we learned she had never been called Maria.  The informal version is of Maria is Masha.  Since she had been Josie in our hearts for quite some time at this point we decided we would call her Josie but leave her legal name as Maria.  We soon learned that her birthmother's name is very similar to her name so our sweet girl is named after 2 mothers that love her.  Her Russian mother that gave the wonderful gift of life and made the extremely hard decision to give her a new life and her forever mother's middle name (Jo).  At some point we looked up the meaning of her name for fun and we learned that Maria is a form of Mary and Josephine is a form of Joseph.  I can't imagine anyone better to have your name resemble.  Mary and Joseph, with the help of God, gave us the greatest gift of Jesus and our sweet girl really is a gift from God.

It takes an Village to bring a Child home.

We've heard that old saying a million times, it takes a village to raise a Child.  Well it certainly takes a village to bring a child home from Russia.  We have been blessed by many of you along our journey.  There are so many people that have helped in various ways.  We had to leave our boys more in the past few months than we have ever left them before and we always had wonderful responsible people watching over them.  We also had a list of people that were willing to be emergency contacts for them and picking them up and dropping them off from various places.  One of our friends came over and helped watch over our oldest when he got sick while we were away.  What a blessing these people were to us.  We would not have been able to fly so far away if we didn't know our boys were in such good hands.  We had to have a huge stack of paperwork notarized all along our journey and we had 2 ladies that were willing to drop what they were doing so many times and take the time to notarize all our documents.  We are very thankful to them.  We received an unexpected tithe in the mail and the family said they were moved by God to send it to help spread God's love and bring our sweet girl home.  What a wonderful gift that we are so thankful for.  Our families have been very supportive and loving all along our journey.  We have a fantastic crew that work at our business that was able to take over Chad's job so he could concentrate on our journey.  We are so thankful to them.   We had help from a wonderful lady in Texas that we have never met when we got thrown that one last piece of unexpected paperwork that had to be apostilled in Texas and we had very short notice to have it done.  So many of our friends and family were so willing to help us in so many ways and we thank you all.  As we rock our baby girl in our arms we can't help to feel so much gratitude to all of you that helped make our journey possible.  Thank you is not enough.  We will always do the best job that we can do the guide, teach and help our sweet girl to grow into the wonderful young lady that God has planned.