ADOPTION DAY!

TWO years ago TODAY...we stood before a Russian court and we were "approved" to be Ana's parents FOREVER! We celebrated by making her a Russian dinner of cabbage (which is STILL her favorite) and a Tartar Tot (because she is from Tartarstan/Kazan region) casserole dish. She wanted to eat outside tonight for her special day and it was a beautiful Texas Spring evening!

I made her Banana Cream Pudding (being that bananas are still a favorite as well) for dessert but her daddy makes the BEST meringue ever so he did the final touches...

Our Forever Family!

We had to wait until 12 May to bring her home so her "Gotcha Day" is in a couple of weeks...ANOTHER special day!

We prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him. 1 Sam1:27

This was what a wrote on our http://www.tworussiawithlove.blogspot.com/ blog TWO years ago about Ana "legally" becoming our daughter!

It's official...Ana is our DAUGHTER!
Sorry for the delay in updates! From court we were not stop until we got on the train back to Moscow. COURT WAS AWESOME! The judge was stern but friendly. He even cracked a joke about me not marrying a "cowboy from Texas". We had to stand to speak. Marc spoke first and the judge was curious/asked questions about his military career. He didn't ask any inappropriate questions, he just seem to be comparing to their military. For me it was more specific questions in regard to our dossier...good thing we studied! Yes, it's about us...but it's good to word stories the same. At the end we stood to hear the judge's verdict and Elena was crying and I was crying...the judge said "approved" and even smiled! Could not have gone any better.

NIOSA

NIGHT IN OLD SAN ANTONIO...NIOSA!

This past week was Fiesta in San Antonio! It's a HUGE deal here. Kids were out of school last Friday for a parade that was downtown. There were 3 parades in all last week too! All the stores have "Fiesta Sales"...and EVERYDAY for a week there is a celebration of some sort but we only did NIOSA. Next year we hope to do more! Cascarones...or "confetti eggs" OR as Ana calls them "crack a head" are just part of the festivities! People who have never been "cracked" are ALWAYS shocked...it's funny! (That barrette in Ana's hair is a plastic egg with confetti glued in it so she had her very own "crack a head" the whole night!) My Uncle Lester and Aunt Carol went with us to NIOSA.

NIOSA had a fun area with games for little and big kids! There is TONS of food and Ana LOVED these "Shypoke Eggs". It was just a big chip with cheese and a jalapeno in the center...she gave the jalapeno to us! :) But she must have eaten 8 of these "eggs"!

There was music and we danced and played but by 8:15 it was shoulder to shoulder packed with people and we went on home. If you want to visit San Antonio....look into next April during Fiesta week! SO FUN and SO WORTH IT!

Chuck E Cheese Please!

CRAZY FUN TIME!! Our Russian Mafia at their best...but not for long! :)

She couldn't get enough of the games that gave you tickets! So funny!

Linette and Walker tearin' it up!

John Baylor and Ana loved being on T.V.!

We gotta take Marc there...he will love it!

Dury Ranch!

My good friend and sorority sister, Linette, has what us city folks call a ranch outside of San Antonio. (It's really just her house and land! :)Marc, Ana, and I love to go play there. Ana's favorite things to do are to feed the fish, the cows, and play with "the boys" and "wiener dog"...forgive me mom! She would kill me if she heard me call a dachshund a wiener dog...but that's her name...Wiener! Playing on the dock and feeding the fish! Soon I'm sure we will be jumping in to cool off when that Texas summer heat is here!

This is one of the many, many cows. Her name is Shelly, or Shel Belle. She was bottle feed by Linette and is just the sweetest cow!

Splashing away! All three were adopted from Russia too! It's going to be fun to have them share good memories and their Russian roots together!

Shel Belle

Post Placement Report

SO...on Monday it will be our TWO year anniversary of Ana's Adoption Day (Ana's court day when she was "legally" ours). We still have to do paperwork for Russia, called a post placement report, where a social worker comes to our house to interview us and assess our family. We had our paperwork completed, but then we have to have it apostilled before we send it to our agency. You can only have things apostilled at a states capital. Yes, you can mail it...but Austin is only 1.5 hrs. away and it is aways fun to visit. (Plus, it just makes me feel better to KNOW it's getting done in front of me!) SO, we took a road trip to the capital! Ana at the capital. I wish I would have brought a picnic! It was an amazing day and we would have had a blast playing in the grass...NEXT YEAR! :) (We only have ONE MORE post placement left!)

Afterwards, we went to a REALLY NEAT Russian market and cafe. I had heard about it from a friend but hadn't been able to make it there yet. SO we found it and got some fun things to eat! Can you believe it's almost been two years??

This Place is a ZOO!!

Ana and I took a break in unpacking boxes to play at the zoo with our friends the Starver's! Jennifer and I knew each other when we were 8 (I think) back in Germany days! Her parents and my parents were good friends. Now, Jennifer and her family live in SA. Both our girls were not sure about feeding the Lori's...but I loved it! :)
I had asked Ana what she wanted to see at the zoo that day...her answer, "A sleepy sloth!" Gotta love Diego! Anyway, the only sleep sloth we found was this one!

I have great childhood memories of the SA Zoo from going with my grandparents and uncles and it was fun taking Ana. With our love for animals, I'm SURE this will be a regular activity for us!!

Moving Fun

When I was growing up as an Army brat, with every move, my sister and I knew we had a job to do once we received all our boxes....it was to STOMP STOMP STOMP the paper down in the boxes as mom and dad unwrapped our things. SOOO, like the good Air Force brat Ana has become...she is now carrying on the STOMPING TRADITION!! Also, with every move, Marc has projects. This particular project here is building shelves for the garage to store all my many many boxes of holiday decor as well as "things we can't part with yet". Ana being our monkey...thinks it is FUN to be on the tippy top of anything and everything!!! YIKES!! (Marc put her up there!!)

As of last weekend we are pretty close to being settled. Still need the curtains up and pictures on the walls though. We DID get our Korea shipment and everything was great. It's so nice to have all our things under one roof again!!

What Dog Breed Are YOU?

I thought this was fun! Enjoy!

Every Birdie Welcomed

We have a bird! She welcomed us to our new home and has been here everyday since. They asked me if I wanted to have her nest removed when they gave me the keys and I said, "no she needs a home to"! She's very shy and flies away everytime we open the door. We say good morning and good night to her everyday...through the door of course! :) Just today I saw 3 other birds in her nest with her! She had babies!!! How do they all fit?

Texas Bluebonnets

One of the MANY wonderful reasons to live in Texas are the BLUEBONNETS!!! This time of year the country side looks like an ocean... full of bluebonnets! However, this year there aren't TONS of them. But we did find a pretty place to plop Ana down and she thought it was pretty neat! Bluebonnet Beauty

Just precious!

It really is the simple things in life!

Please take time to stop and enjoy God's creation He has made for you...and smell the flowers. :)

Cooky Cousins!

National Bridge Caverns Wildlife Ranch

One morning Ana and I took a break organizing and unpacking our boxes to go with Matt, Ang, and the girls to National Bridge Caverns Wildlife Ranch! SOOOO glad we did! It was a blast! We started at the petting zoo!
Then we got in our car. The deal is you drive through a park full of safari animals. They were within feet away from the cars!

Gotta have your Texas Longhorn!

THEN the fun REALLY begain! This ostrich was IN our car! The park had given us a bag of feed when drove in so....

I finally got brave and fed him. He wasn't very gentle either! I was pecked to death!

THEN the zebra decided he wanted in on some of the action! Ana is so brave!

The emu was MUCH nicer than the ostrich.

Funny Llama!

We had a great time and we WILL go back!