Snow Balls, Snow Angels & a Snowman

Today was a winter wonderland. The first real snowfall this year even though we didn't even get 2 inches of accumulation. Andrew and I spent the day together playing in the snow.The first winter after Andrew came home it snowed considerably, however, he was too little to really appreciate the snow and I bundled him up so much he could barely move in his snow suit. Check out this picture from 2 years ago of him in the snow.



Last winter we didn't get much snow and what we got turned to ice by the time we were ready to play in it. Therefore, when it started snowing I figured we'd better take advantage of it now because from what the weatherman stated, the snow was going to turn to rain and be gone by morning. So Andrew and I put on our snow clothes and as soon as we got out the door Andrew was rolling around in the snow like he was a log. It was really the first time he thoroughly enjoyed the snow. He plopped himself down on the ground and started making a snow angel without me even showing him how. I asked him who taught him how to make a snow angel. Here one of the characters on once of his cartoon shows was making one. Here is a picture of him making a snow angel.

Then Andrew thought he'd be funny and started packing the snow in his hands to plumette dear ole Mom with some snowballs. The snow was perfect for packing and making snowballs, however, it was a good thing for me that Andrew couldn't quite make a decent size snow ball or else Mommy would have been in trouble.

I decided to teach Andrew how to make his first snowman since the snow was packing so well. So I got down on my knees and got Andrew to help me roll and pack the body part of the snowman. He was getting all into rolling and packing the snow until the mound of snow was too heavy for him to move. So I ended up making the next 2 mounds of snow for the body and the head myself. Andrew lost interest and decided to pull our flags out of the ground that we had in our flowerbed. He wanted to use the small flags for the snowman's arms so that's just what we did when we were ready to decorate him. Let me just tell you that I forgot what back aching work building a snowman can be. My back was aching me bad that night and the next day from walking on my knees for an hour and lifting the heavy mounds of snow to make a snowman. But it was well worth it. Check out my two little snowmen in this picture below. How cutie are they?

Happy New Year - We received our I-171H approval

Happy New Year everyone! It sure is a happy one for us. We finally received our last approval on the USA side for our up coming adoption. We were waiting for our I-171H Homeland Security approval so our daughter will have immediate citizenship once we arrive home with her.

Now we will quickly get our documents approved by our coordinator, Cathy Harris from Ukrainian Angels and then send them to get them apostilled by the state before we can send them to Ukraine for their approval. Boy it seems like we've been waiting a lot longer for our approvals this time around than when we adopted Andrew. I'm glad that we were extremely busy with our Ebay orders during the holidays since that helped to keep my mind off of the waiting. From what I hear, Homeland Security has been inendated with people getting passports and other immigration approvals due to the new law about traveling outside of the US you need to have a passport.

We received an email from our translator in Ukraine and she told us to Hurry Up with our documents and to get them to Ukraine as quickly as possible since the SDA (adoption ministry) is only accepting 1,453 dossiers for the year of 2008 and they are already up to #700. Well that just excelarated my anxiety level a few notches since it's early January of 2008 and they are already on #700. It looks as if they started receiving dossiers for 2008 before 2008, since their offices were closed for a few days in January due to their Christmas Holiday.

We had to get most of our documents updated since it's been over 6 months since they were originally completed and the SDA won't accept any dossiers with expiration dates that are over 6 months old. So I need to get them all updated before I can get them apostilled and sent to Ukraine. As Alla used to say "Sit...Wait...HURRY UP!! Now we are in the Hurry Up stage to get our documents over to Ukraine so we can get our approval before they reach their quota for the year. We are hoping to get a Spring or Summer appointment date to travel to complete our adoption. But it's all in God's hands, therefore I have to cast my cares over unto Him for He cares for us and it's all in His perfect timing.