Making Memories

We have a lot of catching up to do with Yasha. It is so tempting to want him to experience EVERYTHING he has missed, but the truth is, just going fishing and swimming is a big treat! I hope we are making some good memories for him and I pray that good memories will quickly outnumber any bad memories he has had in his childhood. Here is a photo of the first fish of the summer (and yes, I had to unhook it again, but not before teaching Yasha how to do it himself so that I didn't have to!).

Another fond memory today happened as we came home from the pool. I heard a familiar noise outside. NOTHING says summer to me like the sound of the ice cream truck coming down the street. Neither Alek nor Yasha had ever gotten an ice cream from the ice cream truck before, so when I heard the music I called the boys and told them to run outside to flag down the truck. Neither one of them knew what was going on or what the truck contained, but when I explained there was ice cream inside, they jumped for joy. And what did they choose? As if I couldn't have guessed--Yasha chose a Batman ice cream and Alek chose Tweety Bird!!!

Under One Roof

On Friday (6/25) Scott flew to Atlanta to pick up Yasha. Alek and I stayed home, spent some last quality time together, watched "Babe" the movie, and then he went to sleep knowing that when he woke up on Saturday morning, Yasha would be in the room next door. After several hours of delays, Scott and Yasha walked in the door at 1:00am Sat morning. It was a sweet reunion -- big hugs and kisses. He walked around the house looking at all the photos I had put up of him and our family. Then we went up to his room and he started looking at all his things, opening the drawers and checking everything out. I had resisted the urge to "re-organize" everthing in the drawers (they were a disaster really!)---But, I left everything exactly as he left it. I think that was somewhat comforting to him. At about 2:00am Scott and I kissed him goodnight....however, Yasha spent all night just looking through the stuff in his room. At 5:00am I turned on a movie for him and when it was over, He got to wake Alek up. It was so cute. I love the first couple of days that Yasha is home, the boys are both angels and play so well together!!! I felt nothing but contentment and peace this morning as our whole family is under one roof again.
We kept Yasha up all day on Saturday, had his birthday party at the T-Rex cafe. He was kind of in a daze! He FELL into bed at 6:30pm!! Here are some photos. You might notice that Yasha has grown about 5 inches or so since Christmas!!! He is now 5'0" and 93 pounds...he is going to pass me up for sure!!

Chains of Love - Only 3 More!

For the last few weeks, Alek has been so excited for Yasha to get here. He could sense that the time was getting close. When we got back from Africa, we decided to make a paper chain and take off a link each day to show him when Yasha would come for the summer. Last night when I checked on Alek in bed, I saw something so sweet...Alek had taken the chain off the hook in his room and was sleeping with it. It was a precious site. Then this morning, he woke me up by tapping me on the shoulder and putting the chain in my hand and tearing off one of the links -- only 3 more!

As much as Scott and I miss Yasha, Alek seems to miss him the most. He was made to be a little brother.

I was reflecting on this as I gazed upon the photo of our two boys that we had taken at Christmas. I wrote a piece for the photographer explaining how important the photos are in conveying a sense of belonging to both Yasha and Alek. The photographer published it as a marketing piece and used it in an art show where she featured this photo of the boys.

Here is what I wrote:

God has formed our family through adoption. That He has deposited love in our hearts for these two boys who were once strangers to us, is nothing short of a miracle. Alek, our youngest, came first to our family from Russia at the age of 2. Yasha, 10, came to us from Ukraine through a program called New Horizons for Children that brings orphans to the U.S. While adopting out of birth order is sometimes discouraged, we have always felt that Alek was made to be a little brother -- and we believe that Cedar Creek Photography catured his innocence in their photos. Likewise, as you can see in the portraits, Yasha has stepped lovingly into the big-brother role. For kids who have experience a lack of security in life, we believe it is important to show our sons through family photos that they will be included in our family forever. The photos captured how our relatonship has tranformed from strangers into a real family. We will always treasure these pohotos, remembering how our family first began.

When people say to us that they look like they are "real" brothers, our response to that is "They are!!" That is the miracle of adoption...God loves us this way.