Circus Play - Andrew "The Clown"

Andrew's preschool puts on a play every year of "The Greatest Circus on Earth". All of the children take part in the play and act out their character parts. This year Andrew is excited about being one of the clowns in the circus. I found out why he was so excited. It's because he gets to squirt the audience with the squirt guns. But the only person he wanted to squirt was ME! I didn't care, as a matter of fact when I knew his part was coming up, I made myself available to the stage area so he could get to me easily. I knew he was going to squirt me since over the past few weeks he gave away the surprise.

I didn't mind since the past few plays he didn't really want to participate in. He would be on stage doing what he was supposed to do in the play until he saw Robert and I and then he would cry until the teacher took him over to sit with us. As soon as he sat on our laps to watch the rest of the play/s he was fine.



So when I heard he was excited about being a clown and he was planning on squirting me, I wanted to make sure he had fun in participating in the program. And he did! As soon as it was his part to squirt the audience he made a BEE-LINE for dear ole Mom! After squirting me several times I told him to go squirt the audience or his teacher. Well he ran back to his teacher and sat next to her. He looked adorable in the clown outfit. Here are a couple of pictures.

Arthur's - Adoption Cartoon

One day recently I was sitting on the couch next to Andrew as he was watching the cartoon Arthur. I realized that this was the episode where Arthur's Friend Binky and his family adopt his baby sister from China. When I realized that the show was on international adoption and that our dossier was waiting for our dossier to be submitted for our approval in Ukraine, I felt it was the right time to start talking and preparing Andrew about our up coming adoption.

On the show, it talked about Binky's family flying on an airplane to China to adopt and bring home his baby sister and how they all were adjusting to each other after they were home. Throughout the show I asked Andrew, what do you think if we adopted a little girl to be your baby sister? He was all for it...with no hesitation. I then asked him what he thought about adopting her from Ukraine instead of China. Andrew knows he was born in Ukraine and when he heard that suggestion he lit up with a positive response of Yeah Mommy. I then said we would have to fly in an airplane, "All the way over to Ukraine". He wanted to see a map of the earth to see just how far we would have to travel to get there. I then had to let him know that we it won't be tomorrow when we will be traveling and that we don't know yet but hopefully we'll be finding out soon when we can go to adopt Andrew's baby sister.

To my surprise when I dropped off Andrew at Preschool today, his teacher, Miss Erica told me that Andrew brought up the subject in school one day how he and his Mommy and Daddy are going to China to adopt his baby sister. I was surprised that Andrew told his teacher all of that that I had to laugh and then tell her the corrected version of the story. She said he was so excited about it when he talked to her about it. Miss Erica has told me several times at how impressed she is with Andrew's vocabulary and is impressed with his memory and listening skills. She says that he's quite the conversationalist and remembers things she taught him a week or two ago. She says that he is usually one of the only kids in the class that will answer her questions to the class when she quizes them on what she taught them a week or two ago.

Andrew's memory is like an elephants for sure. If you tell him something or he if you promise him something you best remember and follow through with whatever it was or he'll call you on it even if it's the next day or so...he remembers.

Selling Books, DVDs and Cds on Half.com - The Millilo Book Store

Robert and I have accumulated many books over the years as well as many are from the auctions we have won. Many people have told us about their success with selling their books on www.half.com . Half.com is affiliated with Ebay and runs similar to purchasing and selling books on Amazon. However, there are no up front listing fees on Half.com and your books/movies/video games/music stay on their site until you remove them or sell them. Once you make a sale they email you to notify you to send the item to the purchaser. Half.com collects a small percentage of the sale and sends you a credit for shipping costs twice a month on all of your sales.

Since we heard so much about Half.com we finally decided to list some books this past weekend. We listed 30 books on Sunday afternoon and to our surprise on Monday morning we had our first sale. Yesterday we sold 2 more books. Wow! How easy was that! Last night we listed another 14 more books so now we have our own little book shop. We’ll be adding to it periodically since we have many many more books to sell. If you’d like to check out “The Millilo Book Store” click on this link http://shops.half.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?HalfSearch&seller=getitnow1013 or click on the link to the right side of the page call “Millilo Book Store”. It will take you directly to all the books we are selling to help pay for the adoption of our daughter. It’s another way to fundraise for your adoption. It’s easy to set up an account with Half.com especially if you already have an Ebay id.

One nice thing about listing on Half.com you don’t need to type the description in to the listing. Since all you do is type in the ISBN number (number near the bar code) it pulls up the picture of the cover of the book, description and the price ranges of other people selling the same book for. All you need to do is describe the condition and put in your price. It’s that easy. Much easier than Ebay and your listings stay on as long as you want and you don’t get charged for any fees until you sell the item/s. Give it a whirl with a few books you have laying around the house. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Happy 4th Birthday, Andrew!

I can't believe Andrew is 4 years old. My how time is flying by. It seems like just yesterday we were playing peek-a-boo with him and helping him learn how to walk.

This year we had a home birthday party with family members and a couple of Andrew's closest friends. The morning of his party Andrew and Robert went out to pick up the cake and balloons while I stayed home to put the decorations up and set up the dining room table with all of the plates and decorations and party hats. It was hilarious when Andrew and Robert got home from the store. Andrew came running into the house since he couldn't wait for Mommy to see his birthday cake. When he came dashing into the dining room to find me he stopped dead in his tracks and saw all of the decorations and started screaming with delight. I certainly didn't expect that reaction from him. He was hilarious how excited he was to see the house decorated for his special day. Too funny! He even gave me a hug and told me I was the best Mom ever.

All of the kids had a ball with the different games we played and it was especially fun for everyone to see how many hits it took before the pinata finally broke. It was starting to get a little scary to see how hard the people were swinging that bat in our living room. I'm really surprised to see my father-in-law sit on the couch through it all being so close to the action. He certainly got a front row view. Robert finally had to finish breaking the pinata open to end the game just so no one would get hurt. The kids were funny to watch as they went after the candy. I got a kick out of our neice Julia when she was picking up the candy. She wouldn't put any candy in her bag, instead each piece went directly into her mouth.

All in all Andrew's birthday party was fun and everyone had a good time. After everyone left we had dinner and then we got Andrew into pajamas early since he didn't have a nap that day. It was funny to see that he still HAD to wear his party hat even though the party was over and he was lying on the couch next to us. When he fell asleep I gently took the party hat off of his head and a few minutes later he woke up and immediately realized he was missing his hat and insisted that he have his hat back only to fall asleep with it again.

Paperwork in Ukraine, Translated & Waiting to be Submitted

Okay now, our paperwork or dossier is finally in Ukraine, translated and in line waiting to be submitted to the SDA for approval and a date to meet with them to complete our adoption. I'm glad it's out of our hands and in Ukraine getting ready to be submitted and approved.

I must say that now that I look back on the last few months of waiting for our approvals (so we can send our dossier overseas to Ukraine to receive our approvals) I see now that if our approvals came any earlier, we wouldn't have had the funds for the next step in the process of the adoption. God is awesome how He knows the perfect timing for everything. We always tend to wonder why not now for whatever it is we are waiting or believing God for, but He knows the perfect time for everything.

I praise and thank God for all of the Ebay orders over the holidays and even throughout January which certainly brought the funds we needed for the next step in the process. He's always on time, never late and never early but always on time.

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.

Christmas Giving and Glory in the Sky

It is always a joy to get ready for Christmas by putting up the Christmas tree and decorations. I just love Christmas and love to change the house into the wonderful decorations and bake cookies and other goodies for the holidays.

There are certain traditions that I want to implement into our family to make it a part of every Christmas season and one of them is to get our family including our children involved with giving to others in need. Robert and I do this year round, however, to show the love of Christ around Christmas time especially is more meaningful.

This Christmas season it was time to go through Andrew's abundance of toys and separate the ones he wants to keep and the ones he wants to give away to a little boy who doesn't have any toys. So to my surprise Andrew got into it more than I thought he would. We went through each toy and I had him put the toys he wanted to give away on his bed and the ones he wanted to keep away in his closet. To my surprise he filled his bed with toys so much so that we filled 3 trash bags full of toys. I kept making sure that he understood that the toys he puts on his bed were the toys he wanted to give away.

King Andrew - Too Cute

This year Mommy made Andrew a King's costume to dress up for Hallelujah Night at our church. He's been playing with this crown we found in one of the storage units that we purchased for the past couple of weeks, therefore, it just seemed to make sense for him to have a King's costume.

It was too cute when I asked Andrew the night before the party to let me measure him so I could size him up to create the costume to fit him. The next morning when I tried it on him he overwhelmed me with this gigantic hug and said "Thank you Mommy....You're the Best Mommy Ever" He was so excited and wanted to wear it to school. I still needed to put my finishing touches on it therefore he had to wait until that evening.



Andrew was so thrilled to be dressed as a King and let me just tell you he was sooo precious in his costume. Here are some pictures of the evening.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

This year for my birthday Robert asked me if I wanted to do anything special for my birthday. So I thought about it and thought it would be nice for all of us to go to the local farm and take a hayride to the pumpkin patch and go pick pumpkins with Andrew, Robert, my Mom and my sister Marli.



It was hilarious to see Andrew go running through the pumpkin patch trying to decide which pumpkin to pick. He's just like me in that aspect....I got to see all of my options before I select. Well finally Robert said, "Come on and just pick one". Andrew then went over to this fairly large pumpkin and tried to pick it up. The pumpkin was about half of Andrew's size. I snapped a picture just as Andrew bent down to try to pick it up. Too Funny.



After picking pumpkins Andrew got to ride a pony and then see all of the animals on their farm. It was a fun day out in the pumpkin patch and we all went back to our house for some dinner and some cake. YUMMY!

Starting to sell on Ebay for Adoption

Yard Sale season is coming to a close for the year and I knew I had to learn how to sell on Ebay to keep the cash coming in for the adoption in the winter months. I kept putting it off and putting it off because I was afraid of the unknown. Well, Finally I met with the Post Master of our local Post Office and inendated him with question after question regarding how to figure out the shipping cost (since the shipping cost has to be listing in the listing of the item before it's sold). He was nice enough to walk me through utilizing the Shipping Calculator that is listed on their website http://www.usps.com/ as well as ebay's website under the Sell tab.

I stayed up multiple nights until the weeee hours of the morning after Andrew went to bed so I could concentrate on learning how to list and sell, pack and ship our items. We listed a few barbie dolls that were still in their original boxes and to our surprise we made about $100.00 on a couple of barbie dolls for the first week of sales. Not bad. After I sold them I was remarkable surprised at how easy Ebay makes it for you to send an invoice, connect with Paypal and print off shipping labels. I didn't know what I was fretting about because it is easier than I thought.

Since we've been going to auctions and purchasing large lots of items we are well stocked up for the winter to sell on Ebay. Christmas is right around the corner so it will be intersting to see what kind of activity we'll have selling on Ebay.

If anyone would like to check out what we are selling on Ebay and possible get in on the bidding on any of our items here is the link to what we are selling http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/getitnow1013 Happy Bidding!!

Our Home Study is Completed

We are so excited to see the next step in our upcoming adoption come to pass. Our home study is completed and we have just sent it along with the application and fee to the Department of Homeland Security USCIS in the state of New Jersey to receive our approval to allow us to bring back into the United States our recently adopted child. This approval also gives our child immediate citizenship once we reach the USA upon our return.

We hope to receive this approval quickly since that is the last thing we are waiting for before we send our dossier to Ukraine for their approval and invitation to come to Ukraine to complete our adoption.

Happy 2nd Gotcha Day at Sesame Street

I can't believe it's been 2 years since we've been home with Andrew. Wow, how time
flies. We decided to do something special for our second Gotcha Day (the anniversary of when we officially became a family) and go to Sesame Place to celebrate.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Andrew get so into the rides...even the rollercoaster. He just made the height requirement to ride the mini roller coaster with an adult, therefore that was the first ride he wanted to go on. Robert and I looked at each other as if to say "hum...He's either going to back out at the last minute or ride the rollercoaster with us and just as it's slowing down to let us off he'll be saying"Again, Again". Well, he LOVED it! and was yelling just as we thought, "AGAIN....AGAIN!! So we rode it one more time and he was wanting to ride it AGAIN. But that was enough for Robert and I so we distracted him to move along to see the rest of the park.


We had a ball riding the rides and Robert even crawled through the tunnels and netting with him. He almost got stuck trying to keep up with Andrew. Andrew really needed someone to go through it with him since there were areas that he needed assistance climbing to the next level as well as it being huge....that we didn't want him to get lost. Here is a picture of Robert trying to keep up with Andrew in the netting tunnel. Too funny.



In the heat of the day we made our way over to the water rides. There was this one huge family tube ride that had a big rubber ducky at the top. The line took about an hour to wait through but it was well worth it. We all loved it and got soaked and screamed with delight especially with the last drop off in the slide.



After the water rides we took a break and went over to find some of the characters from Sesame Street. Andrew was so cute when we saw Ernie from a distance greeting other children. He stood a distance away from Ernie and peered around the corner in awe that he was so big and real. Too cute. We also met Cookie Monster, Elmo and Oscar the Grouch. Andrew was so adorable at the end of the day when we were all waiting for the parade of characters to come down the street on their floats. He had this look of anticipation and he was waiting so patiently but when they approached him he hid behind Mommy.

Niagra Falls & Canadian Zoo

We decided to take a long weekend and drive up to Niagra Falls for a mini vacation. It took us 8 hours to drive up to the Canadian side of the falls. We got there just around dinner time and checked into the hotel. The hotel we stayed in was within walking distance of the falls so after we ate we took a walk to view the falls. As we strolled down one of the side streets near the Skylon tower we noticed that everyone was looking up in the sky, so of course we looked up and found a man walking on this tightrope that was as high if not higher than some of the buildings around him. I'd say he was approximately 3/4 the height of the Skylon tower. One of the newspapers stated that he does this twice a day. A little too daring for me.

We walked on down to the falls and it was starting to get dark. It was a beautiful view with an actual rainbow going over top of the falls. Since it was getting dark we decided to call it a day and walk back to the hotel. It was an easy stroll down to the falls since we were walking down the hill. What a workout walking back up the hill. The hill is so steep that they have a ride that will take you back up the mountain/hill. But we decided to get a work out on our glutus maximus' instead. Wooo and what a work out it was. We had a beautiful view of the falls from our hotel room that night and were able to watch the fireworks as well. I think that was the first time that Andrew saw fireworks since he is usually in bed before they are set off at home on the fourth of July.



The next day we were able to do the touristy thing as most people do at Niagra Falls and go on The Maid of the Mist boat and take a boat ride near the falls. We also took a walk behind the falls and walked out onto this observation deck that was built very close to the falls. Andrew loved getting sprayed with the water. He squealled with delight as he walked down to the observatory deck with Robert as I took their picture. Too Funny. He could have stayed there all day getting a shower with the mist from the falls.


He loves to get wet. One time it poured while we were in church and then it brightened up as we were walking out to the car to go home. Andrew sees this huge puddle and walks right into it. He was knee deep in water. Needless to say we weren't thrilled about that and had to change his clothes once we got him back to the car.


Anyway, After the falls we took a walk through the Butterfly Conservator and were surrounded by thousands of different kinds of Butterflys. It was funny when we entered the conservatory, one of the people who worked there gave me a small like-radio which told all about the different kinds of butterflies as you walked through. We then started to walk into the conservatory to see the butterflies and Andrew started making a mad dash back to the entrance doors that we just walked through. I couldn't understand what was up with him and when I caught up to him to get him to come inside the conservatory I saw him reach for one of the radios that they were loaning out to people. The lady said it was okay for him to use one so then he was happy and followed me into the conservatory. Robert saw us come back into the area with all of the butterflies and asked what happened to us. As I went on to tell him what happened we looked Andrew and he had the radio up to his ear and was talking into it like it was a cell phone. We both chuckled as we watched him pretend he was on the cell phone.


When we finally found a restaurant to eat dinner at we were all hungry....it was almost 6:30pm, which is late for us to eat dinner. We got seated and Andrew was acting up. He wasn't listening when I told him to stay in his chair. Then he started getting loud and he was just being unreasonable. I'm sure it was because he was hungry and tired, but since I warned him that if he didn't correct his behavior and do what I asked we would leave the restaurant. We ended up leaving the restaurant since he wasn't behaving. Let me tell you......he through a fit. We were walking down the street to the hotel and Andrew was crying, screaming and acting up even more. I told him the reason why we left the restaurant. We all were tired and hungry and here we were walking down the street about 8 blocks to get back to our hotel. After about 3-4 blocks I stopped to firmly tell Andrew we will not go back to a restaurant until he learns to behave quitely, sit still and eat his food. I told him that it's a priviledge to eat in a restaurant and that many children don't have the priveledge to eat at a restaurant and many kids don't have enough food to eat to fill their bellies. He quickly changed his tune and appologized for acting up and by the time we got to the hotel (8 blocks later) he was asking to go out to eat opposed to eating oatmeal (not one of his favorites) in the hotel room.

Since Andrew was on better behavior and we were all starving by then 7:30pm I made Andrew promise he would be good and sit still and eat his food if we went to a restaurant. So we piled into the van and went to a restaurant down the street and to both Robert and I surprise Andrew was a different child in the restaurant. He sat still, was quietly talking and he eat a considerable amount of food. We all had an enjoyable meal.

The next day we checked out of the hotel and took a 15 minute ride to the Canadian Zoo before heading home. It was a smaller zoo than what we are used to in the Philadelphia area and much more simplistic. We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful weather as we visited the animal. We got to watch the Hippo's being fed and since there weren't that many people there we got a close up on that. Andrew and I got to also feed the Giraffes. Boy do they have looong tongues. We were up in the second story deck holding a few leaves on a branch (well I was since Andrew didn't want any parts of getting too close to the Giraffes) and out comes this tongue that is about 12-18" long. Once his tongue touched my hand I jumped and dropped the leaves. That was close enough for me, thank you very much. =)

We then headed over to the zoo university where the zoo keepers brought out different animals and told us some interesting facts about their habitat, what they eat and their behaviors. We got to pet a skunk (which was deskunked), baby turtles, and a baby alligator.



It turned out to be a wonderful trip. I've always wanted to go to Niagra Falls. I never realized though until now that it's best to stay on the Canadian side due to getting a much better view, closer to the attractions and within walking distance of everything.

Cai Help??? Cai Help?? Cai Help??

Andrew is quite the helpful child. He loves to get involved with whatever we are doing and wants to help. When he sees Robert or I doing something that he wants to get involved in and he will anxiously ask over and over again, "Cai Help?", "Cai Help?", "Cai Help?" Whether I'm making dinner, working in the office, cleaning the house, washing the car, planting flowers, or having a yard sale, Andrew insists on helping us and letting him partake in the activity of the hour.



He's a very curious little boy and wants to know what we are doing and "WHY". He'll ask you a question and then you give him an answer and then he'll ask, "Why". Then you tell him "Why" and then he'll ask "Why" again and then again and then again. It's funny to see him really think about your responses to the Why questions before he asks another, "but Why"? Finally I get tired of answering the Why's so then I'll say, "I don't know, what do you think?"

Kissy Face

One Sunday after church we went to Taco Bell to grab some lunch. While we were sitting in the booth eating out of the blue Andrew started kissing my cheek, then he took my face in his hands and kissed my nose and then my forehead. Then he thought he'd get Robert in on the fun and crawled underneath the table part of the booth and did the same to Robert. He kissed his cheek, nose, forehead etc. He was so cute how he out of the blue starts with all of the kisses. We finally had to tell him to stop and finish his food. Too Funny.

Baby Shower - Where's the Baby?

Recently I went to a baby shower and took Andrew along with me. It was a wonderful time seeing friends I haven't seen in a while. Andrew got into it and wanted to help the Mommy-to-be open up her gifts. He would take the gift over to her and help her unwrap some of her gifts. The Mommy-to-be took a quick break to cut the cake and it was at that point where I went up to the Daddy-to-be (with Andrew in my arms) and gave him a hug as I said to him,"Congratulations, Daddy". Andrew heard what I said and immediately Andrew said, "He's not your Daddy". I then replied to Andrew, "I know he's not my Daddy, but he's the baby's Daddy". Since Andrew knew he was the only child at the party he replied,"What Baby"? So I touched the Mommy-to-be's tummy and said, "The baby that is inside his Mama's tummy". Well, I opened a can of worms telling him that. You should have seen the perplexed look on Andrew's face as he looked at the Mommy-to-be's tummy. He then asked, "Why don't the baby come out"? So we then explained to him that the baby still has to grow and get bigger before he comes out.

When it came time for the Mommy-to-be to finish opening her gifts Andrew jumped in again to help. At one point the Mommy-to-be stood up to take a stretch and I knew exactly what Andrew was going to do next. He looked up at her big belly and gently took the bottom of her maternity shirt and looked up it and said in wonder, "Where's the Baby?" He was so cute about it that it made every laugh.

Well since that day of the shower, Andrew has asked me many questions that I wasn't ready to answer yet. Questions like, "Did I grow in your belly Mama?", "How did the baby get in the mommy's belly", "Why don't he come out now?" and many others. The one question that he's been asking the most was "Did I grow in your belly?" I didn't want to confuse him even more and didn't know how to answer honestly so he would be able to understand at the young age of 3 years old. So when he first started asking I wouldn't know how to answer so I didn't and changed the subject. This way it bought me some time to figure out how to answer his question in a way he could understand. So when the question was asked again, I just simply told him that he grew in another ladies tummy. From then on little by little I've been telling him of his adoption story and how we became a family.

It was so precious to see the look on his face when I told him that God had a special baby boy named Andrew in Ukraine to be our son. So Daddy and I got on an airplane and flew to Ukraine and met Miss Alla (our translator in Ukraine). Miss Alla then took us on a long train ride to come and visit you. Andrew was thoroughly enjoying the story especially when I told him of when I first held him. I told him that he was a little scared since he didn't know me so I was trying to calm Andrew down and I started singing to Andrew, "You are my sunshine". He immediately smiled and recognized the song(since I sing it to him often) and started singing it with me as we danced around the kitchen. Andrew received it well and still asks and talks about how we became a family.

Adoption Paperwork Started

It's official. We have met with Adoption's From The Heart (our home study agency) and are now in the paperwork process of our second adoption. Most people have asked us if it's easier and quicker this time around since we have adopted before. Even though we've been through the process before and been through all of the red tape in the past, we still have to do it all over again just like it was our first adoption. If we get our paperwork for our home study completed and the home study is complete by the end of August we will save $800.00 on our home study since this update on our home study from last time is before our 3 year expiration date of our home study we had done for adopting Andrew. So that of course is what we are going to do. We have our fingerprint appointment lined up already and have already started gathering some of the paperwork needed.

We are so looking forward in adding to our family again and bringing home our second child and a sibling for Andrew. Andrew is going to be a wonderful big brother. He is such a helpful little boy and plays nicely with other children. We haven't officially told Andrew anything yet about our up and coming adoption since he won't be able to understand that he has to wait a while. Once it gets closer and we submit our paperwork to Ukraine and get closer to traveling we will tell Andrew and prepare him. As of right now it's just the beginning and we have a ways to go before we get a travel date.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mommy's out there. This Mother's Day was quite memorable with Andrew. Andrew is much more expressive this year opposed to last year when he was just learning how to say Happy Mama's Day (instead he would say, "Happy Mama" and "Happy Day"). Last night I had some trouble sleeping due to a post nasal drip so instead of keeping Robert up all night with me coughing, I went out to the living room to watch some television and fell asleep on the couch. I must have been sleeping soundly because Andrew during the night had woken up and came out to the living room where I was and decided to cuddle up next to me on the couch. I didn't even feel him lay down next to me because I was pleasantly surprised to find him next to me when I woke up on Mother's Day morning. When Andrew woke up next to me he turned and smiled and said with a sleeping look on his face, "Mommy, You're Precious". Well that was enough to melt my heart for the day. How sweet. Andrew is always so full of compliments and tells me all the time, "You're the best Mommy in the whole wide world."

Bermuda Cruise Vacation

Robert and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary by taking a cruise to Bermuda. It was a wonderful trip and we had beautiful weather the entire week. Bermuda was one of the most beautiful islands that I have been to.

It was very clean and most of the homes and stores on the island were painted a pastel color. Since we arrived the first day after lunchtime, Robert, Andrew and I decided to get a 3 day bus pass and travel that afternoon to check out the different beaches so we could decide which one to go to the next day to relax and have some fun.



We visited Horse Shoe bay beach which had beautiful fine pink sand with a small cafe next to it (very pricey) and some huge boulders or rock formations near the beach. Very scenic and the water was so blue. We took a few pictures and then hiked up the hill to catch the bus to take us to the beach at Kings Wharf. Since we got there right as the beach closed they wouldn't let us in to check it out, therefore the next day we stopped there first.



We stayed on that beach for a short time soaking up the sun and Robert and Andrew making sand castles. Andrew thought he'd be funny and cool Mommy off from those hot rays by taking his watering can and filling it with water and running up to me to dump the water on me. I could see the look in his eye along with the smurk on his face as he was quickly approaching me with the water of the watering can splashing out as he was running. Andrew thought it was hysterical to hear Mommy scream from the cold water splashing on me, which made him quickly turn around to fill his can again. He was having a ball going back and forth filling his can just to run back and dump it on me. It actually felt good after a couple times so I didn't mind. I could see how much fun he was having therefore I just let him have some fun. I had to take some pictures of Andrew running with the huge grin he had on his face. He's such a cutie.





We finally packed up from Kings Wharf beach and have lunch at a nearby cafe before heading to Horse Shoe Beach. Kings Wharf beach was too rocky and the sand was very coarse with some larger pieces of shell and rock within it which made it uncomfortable to walk on. Horse Shoe Bay Beach sand was so fine and much more scenic. So we packed up and traveled to Horse Shoe Bay Beach to enjoy the rest of the day.

We had an enjoyable afternoon on the beach and splashing around in the water. The water was quite shallow and you could walk out a ways and the water would still only be up to your knees. At one point Andrew decided to hang out with Mommy on the blanket so we had fun burying our legs in the sand. Andrew got a kick out of not being able to see our legs after they were covered. The only downfall to going to Horse shoe Bay beach is that since it is located at the bottom steep hill. By the end of the day you are tired from the fun in the sun and you have to carry your belongings back up the hill to get to the bus stop. It's certainly a good workout for your glutes but it's worth the workout. Fortunately there was a mini van taxi at the bottom of the hill and would take people up the hill for one dollar a person so we took it.

During the evenings after dinner we would take a walk around the ship on their outside track to burn off some of those calaries we just consumed. Andrew loved to go into the video arcade with Daddy and help Daddy steer the racing car. Robert would crack up laughing as he watched Andrew drive off the track many times. As soon as Robert would go to help Andrew steer his way back on the track and Andrew insisted he didn't need help and wanted to do it himself. It's so funny to see how Andrew loves to drive the video race cars. Such a little boy he is.