more good q's

I'm glad that those of you who read this blog who don't know me well feel comfortable enough to post or email me questions.

One of your questions I thought blog-worthy...here is the Q: Why are you allowing so much press coverage of your family?

Good question!

There are several reasons...

First, the media is my friend. Some people see the media as an enemy - but I don't. Maybe because I've worked in and with media my entire adult life - I feel very comfortable sharing information.

I have nothing to hide.

There is a lot of negative information out there about international adoption. A lot of misinformation and a lot of horrible stereotypes. If there is anything we can do to put a positive spin on that, I feel that is what I/we have to do.

And no - our home phone number and/or address are not published anywhere.

I stopped reading the negative comments on the news stories. I have no time for the idiotic thoughts of those who have nothing better to do than to slam us. I dare those people to come up to me on the street and say something to my face...they won't. These people hide behind that anonymity of the internet. They are cowards who don't have all the facts.

let the birthday parties begin

So, Anya got invited to her first birthday party. The invitation was in her school bag, with her name (kinda) on the envelope - so I know it was intended for her.

But, I don't know who this child is who is having this party...and neither does Anya (not so surprising, she still can't remember most of the kids names in her class). I want her to have friends, and get invited to parties, but for some reason I don't feel OK about this. I am not at the point yet where I would just drop her off at a party and leave her there. Um, NO!

I hope something comes up so that we can't go...does that make me a horrible mother?

Speaking of school - you've asked me a few q's about school, I'll try to answer them here:

• No, we are not homeschooling.
• She started school on May 5th - 9 weeks after we "got" her
• She is in a public school - but I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised by how attentive they are and how well she is doing. We are fortunate in that we are in a small school system.
  
• Proof that I should not homeschool is in how well Anya is doing in school...in the 9 weeks she was with us, she learned English; but in the 12 days she's been in school - her vocabulary and communication has grown and flourished in ways that astound me!
• Summer school is till up in the air - in this school system, you apply and then are accepted into summer school. We are still waiting to see if she is accepted into summer school. We're looking into a language program that one of the local colleges has for kids her age, as well as a day-camp at our church and some other day-camp type things.

Hope that answers your questions...if you have more - ask away!

I think I forgot...

As if we haven't been in the news enough, on Mother's Day a story ran in the Elkhart Truth. It was on the front page that Sunday morning (and for all you news junkies...yes, it was above the fold).

Funny thing about the headline - they left off a zero (you'll see when you go to this link).

http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?id=512693

(Photos from Elkhart Truth, Photographer: Jay Seawell)









This is another story that ran on WSBT - this was a while ago, right after the news broke that Russia may close adoptions to American citizens.




I think I forgot to post this too. This is a story that ran on Fox28 WSJV a while ago as well. I think this was the Friday after we came home.

oh, really?

Yesterday, this came in the mail.

and this was inside...


This is Anya's Certificate of Citizenship. Every child who is adopted in Russia and brought into the United States gets one of these. The officials in Tennessee who WRONGFULLY believe that the child Torry Hansen sent back to Russia was not an American citizen need to carefully read this document. It says that pursuant to Section 341 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, he/she is a citizen of the United States. That is pretty clear.

I rest my case.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day. I still don't even know what to say about this first Mother's Day. Like so many "firsts", I don't know what I expected.

The best part of Mother's Day was picking up Anya from school on Friday. She was SO EXCITED to show me the present she had made for me.

It came gift wrapped in this bag:


Basically, it says:
Mommy, I love you so much
You help my ouchies
Mommy I love you so much so much so much so much
(sounds so much better when she reads it to me)

I love how she wrote this in what appears to be Russian, but it actually phonetic Russian characters (in English)...I think.

Inside this jewel of a gift bag was this flower:

I don't know if you can see in this picture, but she painted grass, butterflies and flowers all around the pot, and wrote ANYA on it. It is precious, and will always sit in my office window.

I had to work on Saturday, and was NOT looking forward to coming home from work and cleaning the house. We hosted Mother's Day at our house this year. When I got home, my hubby was cleaning the house, there were cards and flowers waiting for me in the kitchen.

HUSBAND OF THE YEAR!!! The award goes to my hubby!!

On Mother's Day, everyone came over to our house for a cookout.

...this is where the "first Mother's Day" story gets juicy.

So that morning, I was taking my own sweet time getting ready. Darling husband has gone to the grocery store, planned out what we were going to eat, cleaned the house. Everything seemed to be ready for company. He even decided to mow the lawn that morning. As I stood at the kitchen sink, I realized he probably hadn't thought about where the 10ish people (that were going to be at our home to eat) were going to sit.

I decided to pull out the linens, dishes, silverware - set the big table...get the little table up from the basement. Made both tables look pretty...

I decided to start getting ready - again, taking my own sweet time. I was finishing my hair, when I heard my mother-in-law come in..then everyone else showed up. We were all in the Kitchen when I noticed that the oven wasn't on. I knew one of the things we were going to eat was mac-n-cheese (which takes an hour to bake). Then I took note that none of the snacks were out on the table. Oops!

This is where communication in a marriage is key. Now, Marty and I are really good at this communication thing. We don't put unrealistic expectations on one another, therefore we don't have disappointments in our marriage.

Unless it was Mother's Day.

I guess I thought since he went to the store and everything, that he was going to cook. I saw the chicken thawing in the sink, and assumed that everything else was in-process too.

He assumed I would handle the food...since I always do...and given the fact I had set the tables, got out the serving dishes and so on - why would he think any different?

Oi!

After I asked him about the Mac-n-cheese, and had a moment of freak out when he said "oh, I thought you were cooking" followed by my comment "um, no - I thought YOU were cooking"..it all came together and had a very nice Mother's Day dinner.

My sincere apologies to my family who saw my freak out.

Hoping your Mother's Day was as memorable as mine!

What did we do on Friday?

There are things that I think are funny. One being "what do you do all day, since Anya isn't in school yet?"

Here is what we did yesterday:

First, we "played" on the computer. Anya is learning how to sound out words to spell.





Then we had a picnic lunch. It was really windy outside - so the picnic came inside. Meet the giant "Anya doll". She had to eat too.



Then we went outside to plant some seeds.




Then we had a snack, played on the scooter, hunted groundhogs, tried to read a book to the kitties, and did a lot of other really fun things that weren't so photo worthy!