Three Months Home!!

Yesterday Elizabeth and I made our "Happy Anniversary" calls to one another and spent some time remembering our time in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. We've both agreed that while we've been home three months, sometimes it seems like forever; other times it seems like just yesterday. We spent some time talking about how well our girls are doing before hanging up. The changes with both of them are phenomenal.

We spent our "anniversary" celebrating with three other families who have adopted from Kyrgyzstan as well. We started out with breakfast for 17 at Cracker Barrel. We separated into "girls and boys" tables since there was no way to seat all of us at one table due to our group size. We had the greatest time just talking and talking and letting the kids play. We had an 11 year old (Josh) and then eight other kiddos ranging from six years down to 9 months. You can imagine the chaos. *smile*

AP got out a basket for Ellie to sit in while we waited for our table.

Ellie and J. meet each other again for the first time since leaving Tokmok.

Allison and J. -- the ladies at Cracker Barrel LOVED the kids!

Andrea and AP (who was being a little camera shy!!) at Cracker Barrel

Ellie eating some "pre-breakfast" snacks -- right before her pancake and hashbrown casserole.

It was so cute to watch J. when the waitress took her French toast away. That girl loves her French toast!! It was also fun to see the "guys" bonding at their table and talking sports!! The younger boys had a great time realizing they were all from Russia!! They became inseparable. We had babies from Kyrgyzstan, Russia and China; boy were we multi-cultural.

After leaving Cracker Barrel, we went to the Adventure Science Center.

On the way there, Ellie passed out and had her a beauty nap for the first little while we were there. We finally woke her up so she wouldn't miss all the fun. Interestingly enough, she didn't miss anything because all she did was to crawl around on and play with J's toys. We discovered right after arriving that Ms. Ellie has cut a new upper tooth!!

AP loves Ellie and wanted her to be awake.

Stu and J. looking at the trains.

Barry with C. and J., also looking at the trains

We found some floor space for the little ones to crawl and play and the "bigger" kids went all around the Science Center playing. I would love to go back sometime with just Josh and check it all out and see the planetarium show. I think he would really enjoy it since he's such a "hands-on" kid.

Josh and S. play with a construction toy.

J. was fascinated with Kevin's beard.

C. playing with some fo the toys that Allison was smart to bring!!

Josh and Ellie playing.

Two of my favorite photos of the day -- J. and Ellie - rediscovering each other

Kat and C.

J. is the Cutest Little Princess and I LOVE her new haircut!

The four Krygyz cuties. Note the matching shirts? Andrea made them for all of us and we were THRILLED to get them. If you are interested in getting one like it, visit her site!! They are really darling!!

I'm just guessing, but it looks like J. is about to cry!

Unfortunately, I've realized that I didn't get pictures of C. or M. -- I suspect it might be due to the fact that they are four and were BUSY boys. They weren't still enough for photos!! There are some over on Andrea's blog.

So, after several hours, we had lots of really tired kids and we all started to disperse for other places. Josh had a basketball game that we went to. We made plans for those who could to come back for dinner later. It ended up just being Allison's family and us, but we had a great time at Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins. Ellie and J. had some more "one-on-one" time with Stu, who declared that the two of them on his knee "just felt right" and that they could just take Ellie home if we wanted. *smile* Yeah, right!! They were terribly cute together!!!

We've all made plans to get together again this summer -- this time in Kentucky for more fun and with the hopes that more people will be able to join us!!

As I thought back over the day, I realized that these wonderful people that we now call friends, would have never come together but through this wonderful thing we call adoption. These four precious children, who all had some rough starts in life, are now treasured beyond belief by families who want to make sure they remain connected to their past and to past relationships, while building new, wonderful futures.