Meeting Nicholas ~ One Year Later

We met our sweet boy exactly one year ago. Where did the time go? I remember leaving Novokuznetsk, wondering how long it would be before we could get back for court and to bring him home. Those had to be the 4 longest months. The time after that, has simply vanished in front of our eyes and it feels as though Nick has been here since day one.

An Absolute Blast

We hit the Pumpkin Patch this weekend with another Novokuznetsk family that lives very close to us. Nick and his little buddy J had a great time at the patch, which included a petting zoo, hayride, visit to the pumpkin patch and climbing up a haystack about 10 feet high.

Nick continues to surprise us. They had pony rides and considering how much he likes animals we figured he would want to see them. He wanted to get closer, and closer, and closer... and next thing you know he was riding the pony and took to it like he had been doing this for years!

Here are some pics of the weekend. As I spend more time with these guys I get better at getting pics of them together. Can't post proof of that though as I didn't ask J's parents for permission. Enjoy!

27 months old today...

and 100% adorable.

Tumbling - the aftermath

This is what happens when your child starts tumbling classes, the mattress suddenly becomes a trampoline and your child a jumping bean. We are **this close** from turning the bed around so that taller rail faces the outside.

On another subject, Nick was just tested by First Steps, Indiana's Early Intervention Program. He didn't qualify. I knew the gross motor, fine motor, social and cognitive skills were on target but wondered about the speech. They told us they had no concerns, especially with him learning two languages. This re-iterated what my speech-pathologist friend in Chicago had already told me.

We also had the opportunity to speak at our agency's (FTIA) informational meeting this past Saturday and share our experience. Lots of families considering adopting from Russia... yaaay!!!

A Year Ago Today

We got "the call". It was approximately 5:15 PM and I was walking out of my downtown office. I remember looking at the caller ID and wondering what FTIA could want. In the time it took me to press the green button on my phone to take the
call, I had run through what the next couple of days looked like, and wondered whether or not I could get one more document ready before we left for Europe two days later -- surely this call was about more paperwork, not a referral, we had submitted our dossier a mere 32 days before!

"We have a baby" - those were Inessa's first words after our "hi, how are you's?" were exchanged. I remember sitting right here during the most beautiful September afternoon and wondering how I was going to make the drive home. More importantly, how I was going to get up and walk to the car, my entire body weight had dropped to my legs.

I had to rush home to the pictures that I had been reluctant about. Bill and I had talked about not wanting to see pictures before meeting our referral. We didn't want to get attached to a baby before we knew he was going to be ours; after all, we didn't have any medical history on him. I told Inessa this and in her cute Russian accent she quickly responded "but you have to see him, he has the cutest cheeks!". After pelting her with 1000 questions, I hung up and called my friend Katie to tell her I wouldn't be going to tennis that night. The next call was of course to Bill and the grandparents.

During the next 48 hours I/we managed to:

- pack all of our adoption paperwork to take to Europe so we could make travel arrangements from there - good thing for the time difference, telephone in the apartment in Florence, and cheap calling cards!

- travel out of town to see a client two hours away - thanks Karla for driving so I could make 10,000 phone calls.

- arrange for Dr. Staat to review the limited information we had on Nicholas.

- get Visa applications ready to go so we could send for our Visas the day after we got back from Europe, 5 days before our departure for Russia.

- get our house somewhat picked up as we would only be home for 5 days after getting back from vacation.

- pack for two weeks in Europe.

On September 21 we took off for our 15 day European adventure.

On October 6 we returned home.

On October 13 we left for Novokuznestk, Russia

On October 15 we landed in Novokuznetsk, Russia and met the love of our lives....

The rest is history.

One Year Ago

Today

Rare sighting...

He never keeps a hat on, which kills me, because
I think he looks so flippin' cute with one on...

Goats and cows and horses.... oh my!

Yes people, I took Nicholas to the State Fair. I have told several of you over the phone and in person, and I know you are still picking up your jaw from the floor. The things motherhood makes you do ***sigh***. It was a spur of the moment decision, hence the lack of pictures from the fair. Nick had an ENT appt a week ago Friday, and right after that, we trekked down to the Fairgrounds. Nick was in looooove with the goats at the fair. Don't get me wrong, he liked all the animals in the barns, but the goats were his favorite. He even got to pet a baby goat.

In keeping with the farm theme, last Sunday we took Nick to the Traders Point Creamery. This place is a real gem, and just a 10 minute drive to our house. They milk their cows daily at 4:00 PM, so we went to see that, and to enjoy some fresh ice cream. The grounds at The Creamery are absolutely gorgeous. If you have a Whole Foods, you should be able to get their products. Their yogurts, milk (especially the chocolate milk) and cheeses are to die for.

And to round up our farming days, we spent some time picking apples at Stuckey Farms in Sheridan. We have been going to Stuckeys to get our produce for the past three or four years. Now that our time is more limited, we stick to our local Farmers Market. However, we wanted to let Nick roam around the farm and ride the tractor. Needless to say, he had a great time, despite the heat.

We have been kicking back the past couple of weekends, well, kicking back is a relative term. Nick got some more pool time with daddy and continues to do well overall. His six month checkup at Cincinnati Children's Hospital was on the 11th of this month, and we had a great evaluation. He is now on the charts for both weight and height, and right on target developmentally. We are going forward with speech therapy, just to give him some additional help as he learns two languages, so that's our next project. Can't wait to get him talking, considering how much he babbles and jibbers, this should be fun!

Looking forward to cooler temperatures and fall weather, definitely my favorite season! And, the one year mark from meeting our sweet Nicholas.

I am trying a Bubbleshare slide show in lieu of pictures, just too lazy to load them all up. Hope you like it!


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