Cute Pics from Home

Jenya and her Great Grandma

Almost a 90 year age difference! I love how much Grandma wants to hug and kiss on Jenya. She keeps asking Rick and I, "Am I too old to have another one?" She is so funny.

Jenya's Baptism

We had Jenya baptised on October 17th, in her beautiful white Christening dress and her traditional Kazakh outfit. She looked adorable! She didn't really enjoy the whole process until the priest got to the part where he poured water over her head, which she loved! (If I haven't already mentioned, she loves bathtime and having the water from the shower pounding on her head.) Afterwards, our family got together at our house for a little party. Jenya had a great time that weekend meeting her new cousins and sharing her toys with them for a few days :)

We are amazed at how quickly Jenya has become a part of our family and at the same time it seems that she has always been here. Every day with her is a blessing from God!

So Happy to be Home!

We've been home for 2 weeks now and my mom informed me that I hadn't updated the blog since we left Almaty! I honestly didn't really think about it, now that I can post pics on facebook too. But things have been going so well these last 2 weeks with Jenya. She is the most wonderful little girl with such a great personality. We seem to be busy all the time, trying to visit with everyone in between naps. There have been so many people waiting to meet our precious girl and she's been getting much better with new faces. At first she was very shy and didn't want to leave my arms, but now she seems to be more confident that I will not be leaving her alone. I have to admit I love that she wants to be with me, but I also want her to feel comfortable going to other family members too. Unfortunately, I only have a few weeks left of maternity leave :(

I've posted some pictures of our adventures since we've been home. Jenya got to experience apple picking for the first time! Hopefully we can make this a yearly tradition as she absolutely loved eating the apples. And since Halloween is coming up, we've been experimenting with costumes for Jenya. As you can see, she doesn't really like props (fake hair and glasses!) We are so excited for Christmas this year too. Jenya already loves opening presents and she's received so many already. We even went to my cousin's baby shower where she wanted to open her presents too. She is just so cute!

I can't even begin to explain how much I love her. Reality has finally set in that she is ours forever and that makes me so happy that I still cry when I think about it. She is everything we hoped for and even more than we expected. She is the most easy-going, lovable child who loves to learn and play. I love to watch her with Rick especially. He can get her laughing so hard and I just love to hear that sound. And then when he asks me, "How did we get blessed with such a perfect little girl?," it makes me cry to think how much he loves her too. It makes me think of the poem about adoption. If you haven't read it, here it is:

Not flesh of my flesh, Nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously my own.
Never forget for a single minute,
You didn't grow under my heart - but in it.
-Fleur Conkling Heylinger

On Our Way Home

Everything went well at the Embassy this afternoon. We got Jenya's Kazakh passport with a US Visa in it- how exciting! Her passport photo is so adorable. We just had Pomodoro's again for dinner since we knew we really liked it. Now Jenya's taking a nap and mom and I are going to pack. We just can't wait to get home again with our little girl. I know Daddy is missing her like crazy!

I hope to continue this blog, although much less frequently, to keep anyone who wants to stay updated on Jenya's progress and photos. It will also be nice for her to see one day! Thanks for following along :)

Our Last Day (Hopefully)!

Well, the Embassy appt is today at 3pm, and we haven't heard anything otherwise, thank goodness. It's about 2 hours from now. We can't wait! Then we can finish packing and head home! We miss Daddy and the rest of our family so much :(

I got a couple of questions about Jenya's size. She is definitely only in 12 month clothing right now. I tried 18 month stuff on her but they were too big. She looks so much bigger than she is!

I know, the headband episode was awful. I definitely need some help from April and Kennedy in that department. But if she is ever in a workout video, I'll offer to dress her, that's for sure! Check out the pics of the animal velour sweatshirt we put her in yesterday. She didn't seem to like it very much when we put the hood up. This doesn't bode well for Halloween! And the looks we got from the people here were funny. I don't think they dress their children up as animals here, that's my guess. They were all very intrigued :)

See you all soon!!

Jenya's New Backpack

We found this cute little mouse backpack in an underground toy store on our way to the grocery store. Usually kids toys and clothes are really expensive here, even more than at home. But this was a bargain at 600 tenge ($4)! She loves to look at herself in the mirror wearing it, it's so cute. If you're wondering what an underground toy store is, it's just a shopping area under the main streets of the city. Instead of crossing the streets, you go underground through a tunnel to get to the other side.