A good friend of ours brought AJ a light saber as a “baby gift”. He is now obsessed with Star Wars, so much so that I ordered the Star Wars Trilogy to take to Florida with us in two weeks.
My brother graciously offered to knight AJ last weekend. As you can see, AJ is entranced.

I’ve been on a whirlwind this past month: Christmas, family visits, an international adoption, and emotional stress with our oldest child, AJ. Our new son, Gus, is thankfully very healthy despite an ear infection and two new molars that have been keeping him up at night.
I have been exhausted from travel and interrupted sleep, suffering from headaches and my own ear infection, and have done, in my opinion, nothing but laundry, change diapers, and feed Gus since returning home. Not that I’m complaining or anything…
But Friday morning I hit a wall. After two school snow days AJ had another day …read more

July 24, 2005
We have court tomorrow at 9:30. All of our papers seem in order and T and H are hopeful that things will go well.
We got passport pictures yesterday and are our plane tickets so it seems like we are on schedule to fly out Tuesday evening.
Thank you to everyone for your support and prayers. It has meant the WORLD to us to know that you all care and are looking out for us. Going into this process was hard enough, but knowing that we have friends, most whom we have never met, is worth its weight in …read more

July 23, 2005
Things are looking slightly better now that we have underwear…or should I say smelling???
For those of you who have not caught the Curse Part 1, 2, and 3…we just got our luggage today, were denied our adoption yesterday, and have pretty much had a miserable trip…except that we have had a wonderful time visiting with our beautiful son.
The update on the court proceedings: We were able to get a hold of our doctors back at home and within twenty minutes they faxed a handwritten document detailing that they were able to provide medical judgments regarding our health …read more

Remember that this series of posts is from 2005…(July 22, 2005)
Well, it looks like we are officially the first family to EVER be
DENIED in the region of Arkhangelsk, if only temporarily. We did
not get our adoption granted today as we had hoped.
The judge was very specific about our medical records and wanted verification on our physicians licenses’ as well as their ability to evaluate medical conditions such as psychological conditions and drug or alcohol additions as general practitioners. Additionally, he
was very concerned that my doctor had a medical license for “controlled substances”, which by our understanding is that she can …read more

It is hard to imagine that three years ago this morning I boarded a plane and left to go bring my son home from Russia.
The summer of 2005 was very trying in regards to Russian adoptions, as Peggy Hilt had just murdered her youngest daughter (and I mean just).  We packed our bags knowing that we NEEDED extra prayers to get through customs as potential adoptive parents and knowing we would be scrutinized every step of the way.
To put it bluntly, our second adoption trip was absolute hell and I would never, in any lifetime, wish it upon

I was going through old Yahoo group emails and found this one…for June 28, 2005.
Eric and I will probably have to cancel on the picnic this year…but for a VERY happy reason!
We got word from B today that T will be presenting our papers to court on Friday or Tuesday and that we expect a mid-July court date (B said probably the 19th!). They are trying to get everyone through before the summer slowdown in the region so it does look like it WILL happen! I will keep everyone posted.
As far as the red, white, and blue colors, we plan …read more

On our first trip to Russia to meet AJ we were able to spend about 9 hours with him over three days and each moment was precious. He began to take to us after that first day and we learned so much about him in that short time period. We have a lot to learn but he will certainly teach us…he was not shy.
Our representative walked into the room and handed AJ to me and he was so scared. He took a couple of deep rattling inhales and would not look at me or hang onto me, something I completely …read more

Just before we left to return home I captured this picture of AJ taking a break in front of the playroom window.
He was getting yet another cold, he was tired, and to me, he looks so alone. In reality, he was trying to escape stimulation, something that he continued to do at home when he got there. He used to stand at his favorite window with his cars and watch the cars on the street go past the house.

 
Everyday Cole waits at the front door at the same time.
 

 
So they can start wrestling.