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Lilypie Trying to Conceive Event tickers

Lilypie Trying to Conceive Event tickers

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Big day tomorrow

Tomorrow my little RP turns two - Happy Birthday RP!!! I can't believe we are already celebrating her birthday, and am truly excited for what the day holds in store for us. Since the weather is supposed to hold out (another 80+ degree day in Chicago in April - unheard of, but we'll take it!) we are headed to the zoo with Grandma and Papa to celebrate the day. I hope RP enjoys it, as well as the mound of presents that await her (and that's just from me - wait 'til the presents from Grandma and Papa hit that pile - I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a new house!) and her very first DQ ice cream cake (what can I say, she doesn't like regular cake!)!

I can't believe how big she is already getting, and how much she has blossomed since coming home six and a half weeks ago. I am also saddened by the stark reality that children do grow up too quickly, and in three and a half weeks I will be returning to work full-time - what am I going to miss???

Until then, we'll live one day at a time and savor every moment.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE RUSSIAN PRINCESS!!!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Six weeks home

Yes, we have officially been home for six weeks as of 30 or so minutes ago. Wow - I can hardly believe it has already been six weeks, or that it has only been six weeks.

Today is a bittersweet day as there is all kinds of ruckus going on in the media because a woman who adopted a seven-year old child from Russia last September had her mother escort him on a flight to Washington, where she then put the child on a plane to Moscow alone. She paid a Russian man $200 to pick this child up from the airport and deliver him to the Ministry of Science and Education, and enclosed a note with the child saying that he had "severe psychological problems" and that she could no longer parent him. As horrifying as that is, there is a real concern that Russia is going to freeze all adoptions to US citizens until the investigation is over and changes to the process are made.

This whole situation makes me sad - sad for the child who has been abandoned all over again, sad for the families who are in the process of completing their adoptions who likely will have to wait even LONGER to bring their children home (if ever - who knows how long this could take), and sad for the orphans who wait for their forever families in the orphanages. It is also terrifying to think that if the timing had not been what it was I could have been caught up in this whole mess and waited even longer for my little RP.

What a difference six weeks makes...

Monday, April 5, 2010

We've come so far...

We have now been home for over five weeks (five weeks and two days to be exact!) and it continues to be mind-boggling that the little girl I love and adore is the same little girl that I met for the first time in Russia just over four months ago! While she continues to struggle with having Mommy out of her sight, she has blossomed in terms of her temperament and her personality. She LOVES to babble and is picking up more and more words every day (she now says "puppy" and "Buddy" pretty clearly, although "Annie" is a bit tougher to come by - and she tries daily because two of her favorite things to do are call the puppies in from outside and bawl them out for various reasons throughout the day!), and she smiles more and more frequently and more freely, which is a far cry from the scared little girl they put on my lap in that tiny room just a few short months ago!

Easter was so exciting this year because I could see everything through her eyes. Not having celebrated Easter before, she didn't understand about Easter eggs, the process of finding them, or the goodies that an Easter basket holds, but it didn't take her long to figure it out! She LOVED hunting for eggs and popping them open to find treasures inside, and she had an absolute ball running around with her cousins at Grandma and Papa's house. The cutest moment of the day, however, was when she - unprompted and unexpectedly - ran up to her oldest cousin and gave him a HUGE hug, then proceeded to hug all her other cousins, her aunt, her uncle, and her grandparents (hey, wait a minute - she hugged everyone but ME!!! :( ). Hopefully this is a sign that she is opening up and trusting others around her, understanding what family truly is, and it makes me teary-eyed just thinking about it!

I officially notified work today that I will not be back until May 10 - a mere 4 weeks away. Tomorrow we start the hunt for day care to supplement the days that RP will stay with Grandma and Papa, and the thought of leaving her all day to return to work makes my heart hurt. I know she'll be in good hands, but I missed almost two years of her life already - it pains me to miss any more.

Our very first meeting - November, 2009

Five weeks home - April, 2010