Craven's Adoption Story

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T20:42:00.003-05:00

Kaden was so much fun this year for Halloween. He really got into the trick and treatin. This year for Halloween he picked out his own costume....Batman! He is really into Super Heros. I got some great pictures! Enjoy!

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October 2010

2010-10-29T20:53:00.003-05:00

I know it has been a very long time!! Life happened and I am hoping to get back to my blog. We have been busy being a family and working! I'll start back with sharing recent pictures of Kaden!

Create a scrapbooking design

Family Pictures

2009-07-28T20:23:00.003-05:00

I have to share some wonderful family pictures we had taken a few weeks ago. Rachel did an awesome job. I can't say enough about how wonderful she did. Kaden was a bit out of control for some of these but you would never know it from all the great pictures she was able to get!

Enjoy!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

1st Twin's Game

2009-07-19T20:37:00.008-05:00

Back in June we took Kaden to his first Twins game. We were lucky b/c he made it till the 6th Inning. I didn't think he would even make it that long! He enjoyed watching baseball, just like his daddy does. Here are some pictures!

The last 2 pictures I have to show you are Kaden's new hairdo we like to do in the bathtub. He likes to call it his "mocock" since he can't say "mohawk".

Dedicated to Dad/Grandpa Gary...

2009-07-08T21:35:00.008-05:00

Okay so it has been a really long time since my last blog and I know I have a lot of explaining to do! First off let me start by saying these past few months has probably been the craziest time in our lives so far. Aaron and I both started new jobs in April at the companies we work for. On top of that change we did find out that Aaron's dad, Gary, was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer in April. It was caught very earlier so we were very hopeful that Gary could beat cancer. At the end of May Gary had surgery to remove the tumor. The surgery was successful at getting the tumor out, however chemo was still going to be needed this summer. Gary was recovering better than the doctors expected. Gary has dealt with health issues concerning his heart for many years so this was a big concern for a surgery that was going to last 12 hours. Gary came home from the hospital and was home 2 days before he passed away. Needless to say we were all shocked at this b/c he was doing so well. We did find out that the cancer Gary had was the worst type of Pancreatic Cancer and if chemo could have helped it would only be a matter of time before another tumor would appear again. It would have been a long battle. One that Gary never would have wanted. We now have peace knowing that Gary passed away in good spirits thinking he was going to beat cancer. He never knew how bad it really could have been. God truly did answer prayers by not letting Gary suffer. We are also so thankful that Gary got to spend a year with Kaden! When Aaron and I were considering in 2007 what to do, do we continue with fertility drugs or do go down the path of adoption. We really felt a strong pull towards adoption and some of that reasoning was that we wanted to make sure the Gary got to meet at least one of our children. We are so thankful for the past year! Kaden loved his grandpa. And more importantly Gary loved watching Kaden play and he brought so much joy to Gary in the last year.

If there is anything that we have learned over the past 3 months, it is that you can not take each day for granted. Cancer is such an ugly thing and to be honest we never thought when Gary was diagnosed that we only had 2 months left with him. We took for granted that we would have many months left. We are thankful for the time we had with Dad/Grandpa Gary. He will forever be missed and thought of each day!

I have lots more to update on our family and Kaden. I will get new pictures out this weekend, however I really wanted to do just give our respects to Gary in one post.

"Grandparents hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever"- Author Unknown

Picture was taken at Kaden's Baptism September 2008

Mommy's Weekend

2009-03-30T19:40:00.002-05:00

I was so excited this weekend I was going to have some alone time. I had planned a baby shower for a friend when we found out that Aaron's brother from CO was going to CR Iowa. He decided to take Kaden and our dog Kirby down to IA for the weekend. I was excited to have some time by myself, which I haven't had a weekend by myself since Kaden has been home! My sister decided to come for Friday and we went shopping which was great. I could tell I was coming down with a cold but I figured it would pass. Well by Saturday the cold was here in full force. Luckily I made it thru the baby shower, since I was hosting at it at my house with some friends. After the shower I crashed for 3 hours woke up to eat and watch a little TV and then I was back in bed. On Sunday I felt a little better and was able to do some scrapbooking of Kaden's baby book. Well today I'm still feeling under the weather. It just seems to be so ironic I get a weekend to myself and what do you know I get sick! I can say that when all my boys got home on Sunday I was very happy to see them! Kaden is changing each day with picking up new words and I really do hate to miss that. They had a great time in IA visiting grandma Mary and grandpa Gary. Kaden of course came back with lots of new toys! I'll have to post more pictures this week. I'm hoping to also upload a video of Kaden on a sit in spin! He loved it! Grandma had it for him to play with and this toy it totally Kaden's kind of toy.

So besides hearing about my downer of a weekend being sick, I have to share a new story of Kaden. About a week ago I asked Kaden if he was poopy, he responded "Not me". I died laughing b/c I wasn't sure where he had learned this. I've tried to get him to say "Not me" to other things but he only says it when you mention poopy. Today I talked to Laura, Kaden's Daycare lady, and she told me that she always ask the kids if they are poopy and they respond "Not me". She said that Kaden started doing this last week and she also found it so funny. I think this is just the beginning of "Not me" in our house, I'm sure there will be plenty more sightings!

1 Year

2009-03-24T20:34:00.002-05:00

Today marks our 1 year since we met Kaden. This week has been so surreal for us. Our lives have changed so much in a year that it seems like it has been longer than 1 year. Today all I could think of was what March 24, 2008 felt like. I remember being so nervous that day. We were going to meet our son! Yet we weren't sure what medical issues we would see. I remember seeing the black and white photo of Kaden, which was not a good picture of him, but he still looked so cute! We talked to the MOE about the medical information they had. We were so excited b/c he was 9 months old and we wanted a baby if possible. I remember our agency reps kept saying this is good he is very young like you wanted and I kept thinking we are finally going to meet our baby! We then headed to the baby home to meet Kaden to find out he was actually in the hospital very sick. We talked and got all the information we could on medical and birth family background. After that we headed to the hospital. I will not forget meeting Kaden. We had just gotten into the room and all of a sudden this little baby boy was rolled into the room in his crib. He looked so confused as to what was going on. He did not cry or smile. He was just taking it all in. There were 6 adults waiting to meeting him! I picked him up out of the crib and he was so strong. He immediately wanted to stand up. He also loved to pull my hair. Once Aaron and I held him for a few minutes we let the doctor we had hired exam Kaden. Kaden got a clean bill of health physically. We knew that day meeting Kaden that he was our son. He was responding very positively to Aaron and me. The rest of the week went so fast between running paperwork around and spending as much time with Kaden as we possibly could.

Now fast forward one year later and I am amazed at how much our baby has changed! He is now a little boy. Each week he changes so much right now. He is talking a lot. He says at least 1 new word a day. We can basically communicate with him thru words now. I keep thinking back to how sick Kaden was for the first 9 months of his life. Since he has came home we have not had the problems he had then. I know his swallowing issues caused a lot of his sicknesses. I'm so thankful we have been working on this since being home 1 month and was able to figure out this was the problem. We are entering the 2year old attitude,which can be challenging some days, but the good days far out weigh the frustrating days. I also remember how when we came home I was so worried about attachment and if we were doing things right. Now I can say that I feel we are fully attached as a family.

To end this post I want to share with a story that happened last week. We have been working on putting Kaden to sleep without rocking him to sleep. Yes if you are wondering I am that mom that can't let go of the rocking time and I have been doing it for 10 months now! I just love that time and I wasn't ready to give it up but Kaden seems ready to go to sleep on his own so we are now working on this. Night 2 of doing this Kaden was still talking about 15 minutes after I had left the room. Aaron went into check on Kaden and tell him it was night night time. I still had the monitor on downstairs and I could hear everything. Aaron said to Kaden, "Night Night Kaden daddy loves you." To our surprise Kaden said back to Aaron, "Love you daddy." This is the first time he said love you! Aaron came downstairs with the biggest smile on his face and of course I was in tears b/c it was such a precious moment. Now I'll leave you with pictures over the past year.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

New Layout!!

2009-02-02T21:24:00.002-06:00

I realize that the blog needed some love so I decided to change it up! Check out the side bar. I added pictures from Trip 1 to Month 8 of being home. You can see how much Kaden has changed. Thanks Becky & Karyn for reminding me I needed to do this! That was my intention at the beginning of the blog but I slacked off. But now here it is and it is amazing to see how much Kaden has changed. I can't even believe it looking at the pictures. He really was so small when we got him and really did look sick. Now he is a healthy boy! At his 18 month checkup he was 23 lbs, he has gained 8 lbs since being home. Let me tell you this boy can eat. When ever you ask him if he wants to eat he runs over to his highchair and says "Eat, Eat".

Wearing Mommy's Glasses

2009-02-02T20:51:00.006-06:00

I wear glasses for reading and working on my computer. Kaden thinks it is so funny when I am wearing my glasses. He decided that he wanted to try them on. Here are some great pictures of Kaden in my glasses!! He loves to make people laugh. I think we may have a class clown on our hands. He latest thing is standing on the bottom step of our stairs and he says "I jump", then he tries to jump but mostly belly flops on the ground.

Christmas Photos

2009-01-30T20:24:00.002-06:00

These are way overdue but here are some pictures from Christmas. Kaden had a great 1st Christmas.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

No One Ever Said Being a Mom was an Easy job!!

2009-01-20T09:13:00.002-06:00

I have a new appreciation for stay at home moms especially when you get sick! This was the first time I have gotten sick since having Kaden home. Aaron got sick last week and then I started getting sick thru the weekend and Kaden did too. Well yesterday (Monday) we did not have daycare so I was home with Kaden and both of us did not feel well. Trying to take care of a sick kid and being sick yourself is not an easy job. Talking to my mom last night I asked her how did you do it. I never knew how bad you felt when you were sick. My mom laughed and said all you want to do is sleep but you know that you have kids to take care of so that becomes your priority instead of sleeping! That is so true.

Of course yesterday was not my day. Last night as I was giving Kaden a bath he decided that he would poop in the bath tub. Not a fun night both sick and cleaning up poop in the bathtub. We both are feeling better today so that is good but hopefully tonight we get better sleep!

Also I know I still owe pictures of Christmas, I will post these once all of us are done being sick!!

Happy New Year 2009!!

2009-01-05T20:16:00.006-06:00

I know it has been a long time since I have posted. It has been a busy time of the year with work and the Holidays, oh not to mention the 18 month old that I have been chasing around! The Holidays were great this year. For the past 3 years I have been picturing what it would be like to have a child and how the Holidays would be different. It was amazing to watch Christmas thru Kaden's eyes. He loved having the tree up. We had to give him a few ornaments he could play with to prevent him from taking all of them all the tree. That seemed to work this year, but who knows for next year. Also Kaden loved opening up presents. It took him a few times before he really understood what we going on but by the 3rd get together he was sitting around the presents just waiting to open them b/c he knew there were his. He scored big time in the toy area this year. Aaron and I have had fun trying to find places for all his stuff in our tiny house!! We also took Kaden to see Santa this year, he wasn't so keen on him. He wouldn't smile sitting on Santa's lap. He didn't cry but he looked at us like "Who is this guy and why am I sitting on his lap." Also for Christmas we had fun sitting out cookies and milk for Santa. Then we traveled from MN to IA to OH then back to MN. We took a 7 day road trip. For an 18 month old Kaden did great. He loved to watch Elmo in the car. We are now trying to break him of that habit b/c all we hear is Elmo when he gets into his carseat. We have taken the DVD player out of the car now but he still wants Elmo so he's settled for a CD to listen too! Overall we had a great Holiday. I'll leave you with some family pictures from my parent's house.

Dana, Aaron, & Kaden- Christmas 2008

Ebersole Family Christmas picture 2008

Back (left to right)- Steven (BIL), Bill (Dad), Aaron, Andy (BIL)

Front (left to right)- Lexie (niece), Kelly (sister), Marsha (mom), Me & Kaden, & Courtney (sister)

Grandpa Bill & Grandma Marsha with their grandkids!!

You Know You're An Adoptive Parent When . . .

2008-11-06T08:39:00.003-06:00

You Know You're An Adoptive Parent When . . .

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.

2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.

3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.

4. The fact that, if 7% of people adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.

5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.

6. It drives you crazy when people talk of an adopted child's "real" parents.

7. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)

8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.

9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.

10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.

11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.

12. You know what the word "Dossier" means, and you can actually pronounce it!

13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.

14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you are adopting them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to be welcoming him or her in your life.

-Author unknown

I found this on another blog that I read of a friend who is adopting from Moldova. I had to share.

Here is a recent picture that we took of our family this fall.

Trick or Treat!!

2008-11-01T10:02:00.004-05:00

We had a great time last night. Kaden really enojoyed trick or treatin. We decided we would only go to a few houses. After we were done Kaden was so mad he wanted to keep on going. He loves to be outside and he really wanted to play in the leaves instead of trick or treatin. As promised here are pictures!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

1st Halloween party

2008-10-30T08:22:00.003-05:00

Kaden has his 1st Halloween party today at daycare. Here is the outfit he wore this morning. The shirt says "Snack-O-Lantern".

You will have to wait till tomorrow to his Halloween costume!!

Fun with daddy

2008-10-27T21:12:00.002-05:00

Aaron took some of the best pictures of Kaden the other day. I really love these pictures and I had to share. This was an afternoon filled with Daddy and Kaden having a good time. Kaden is becoming such a Daddy's boy. I love watching Aaron play with Kaden. Kaden's favorite thing is to have Daddy throw him in the air and catch him. He will laugh and laugh. Once Aaron is done Kaden will point up and sometimes says up b/c he wants to be thrown back in the air.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Apple Orchard Fun

2008-10-20T20:47:00.002-05:00

Two weekends ago we decided to go to an apple orchard nearby. It was a gorgeous fall weekend here in Minnesota. We had a great time, Kaden loved running around the trees and picking up apples. He loves to be outside so this was a great afternoon for him. There was also a maze he could run around in and play. We did not try the hayride b/c we were scared Kaden wouldn't sit still for that. Check out the pictures from the weekend!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Kaden Update

2008-10-09T21:34:00.002-05:00

Thanks for all the comments and prayers for Kaden. I wanted to update and let everyone know that Kaden is back to his normal self. He is running around like he did before, he started this Wednesday. He is sleeping a little more than normal but that is it. His appetite is back. He does not seem to be in pain so we actually pulled back on the pain medication and we are only giving him Tylenol every 6 hours instead of rotating Motrin and Tylenol every 3 hours. The only thing that bothers him is diaper changes. He's not too keen yet on this and I don't blame him I wouldn't be either! Hopefully he'll be healed soon. The other 2 incisions don't seem to bother him at all. His eye is doing really well. We have not had to scrub it at all. We use to have to scrub it 3-4 times a day to get all the gunk out of it. We also had to tell people all the time "no he does not have pink eye it is a closed tear duct", that got really old. This is one thing I'm so happy about, his eye looks normal now!

Surgery Update

2008-10-07T20:47:00.006-05:00

Kaden's surgery went very well today. Everything went as expected. We did not find anything that would warrant another surgery thank goodness! Kaden today had 2 hernia's fixed, circumcision, ear tubes, opening of blocked tear duct, and a camera put down his throat to take a look. As the nurses said today he had the works done! He was such a trooper. He had to wake up at 5am and went into surgery at 7:30am. He was in surgery almost 3 hours. All the doctors were great and came out and gave us an update after they performed their part in the surgery, we had 3 doctors in the room. Afterwards Kaden was really sleepy till about 3:30 this afternoon. After that he started to wake up and play a little and talk. He is very sore so he really didn't want to move. He sat on the couch all day and played with us. It was some nice cuddling time!

One last note on Kaden's health. This past weekend we decided to start nebulizer treatments daily. Kaden has had a cough for 2 months. We have tried many things but nothing seems to be working. The nebulizer had made some improvements so far. We are hopeful this will help. We did find out today that Kaden does have some narrowing in his airways which could make him susceptible to Croup. Our ENT recommended we use the nebulizer which we had already started. However with his current cough he doesn't really fit all the symptoms of Croup b/c he doesn't have a fever, decrease of appetite, his oxygen score has been high, and nothing on chest x-rays so we are a little confused right now if this could be Croup or Asthma or neither. Either way the nebulizer should help.

Thanks for all your prayers for Kaden! He is recovering well and we are so thankful for that!

Kaden and Daddy cuddling after Kaden's surgery.

Kaden and Daddy playing after Kaden started feeling better. We even got some smiles tonight!

Tagged

2008-10-05T21:00:00.002-05:00

I have been tagged by a couple people. The rule is I have to give 6 random facts about myself.

1. I am a total control freak. I hate it when I can't control the situation. The adoption process really made me learn patience, which I'm finding is helpful with a 1 year old!

2. I love Jodi Picoult books. I try to read all of them.

3. I've always wanted to own a business. I have no idea what but hopefully someday I will figure that out!

4. I love shoes. I know what women doesn't right, but in high school I worked in a shoe store. My dad threatened me that I wasn't allowed to bring home anymore shoes. If I did he would throw them away. I don't know what it is but I just love trying on shoes and buying shoes!

5. When I was younger I would terrorize my little sister. She loved to play with me but I was such a brat for an older sister. I would make my sister lick the bottom of my shoes if she wanted to play with me. She did it every time. I know I was brat. Now we are best friends and she never lets me live this down.

6. I hate applesauce. When I was younger my mom would put my asthma medicine in apple sauce. I can now stomach the smell of it since Kaden loves it but I will have to pass on eating it.

Okay so I know the next rule it to tag 6 people but so many people have already been tagged so if you read this and you haven't done this yet, your it!!

Medical Update on Kaden

2008-10-01T22:02:00.002-05:00

Last Friday we had our 2nd swallow test. We were hoping that we would be able to stop the thickened liquids. Kaden started the test on thin liquids and was doing great until about 3 oz in and he started aspirating again. They stopped the test and then tried a slightly thickened liquid, again he aspirated. So we are still at the same place we were on thickened liquids. Our ENT seems hopefully that Kaden will start to swallow properly but it could a year or so. However we did get the go ahead to start Kaden on a sippy cup instead of a bottle. He loves the sippy cup! He can do this no problem by himself. On Tuesday October 7th we have his surgery. Our ENT is going to put a camera down Kaden's throat just to make sure there isn't anything that is causing his swallowing problems. Our ENT felt this was probably not the case but he just wants to check. This is what I am the most nervous about for Kaden's surgery. If they do find something then it would mean another surgery and this time he would have to stay in the hospital. We are asking for your prayers for Tuesday. We are hoping everything goes smoothly with all the surgeries and that nothing is found that would need more surgery. We were very excited to have all doctors scheduled for 1 surgery, so the thought of another surgery gets me down b/c I only wanted to go thru this once. I know that it is out of my control and what we really want is to make sure that Kaden is healthy and all medical problems are fixed. I just hope that this surgery will do that!

Also I want to say thank you to everyone for the nice comments on our 5 year anniversary. I am still shocked at everyone who reads this and I love to see new comments from people I didn't know! I love to read blogs when there is time. If you haven't ever said hi and you read this blog, I would love to hear from you so I can follow your story so I hope sometime you will leave a comment!

1st Postplacement Visit

2008-10-01T21:55:00.003-05:00

Can you believe it that we had our 1st post placement visit? Crazy! We have been home about 4 months. Our homestudy agency wanted to make sure they had plenty of time to get everything complete so we could send our report on time. The visit went great. We did it after work, which you never know if Kaden will be in a good mood or cranky b/c he can be so tired from a day of playing at daycare. However Kaden did great. He sat with us most of the time with the social worker. He played with his toys and brought books to us. The social worker was impressed with how well Kaden has adjusted. For a 15 month old boy she said he appears to be right on track development wise, which is what our pediatrician has said too. I was a little nervous for the visit just b/c you never know what feedback you may get. If it wasn't positive did I really want to hear it, was my worry. However everything was positive so we were happy. We were also able to ask some questions we had too which was nice.

Happy 5 year Anniversary

2008-09-21T21:59:00.002-05:00

Yesterday September 20th, was our 5 year anniversary. We decided to go away for the weekend without Kaden. Aaron's parents came up to watch Kaden. We had such a good time on the North shore in Minnesota! The leaves are changing and it was so beautiful. It was nice and relaxing and filled with plenty of resting! We missed Kaden so much but it really was a nice time for us to get away since we have not had really much time to ourselves since Kaden joined our family. Kaden had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa but he was so happy to see us when we got home. He had the biggest grin I think I have ever seen when we walked in the door, and it stayed on his face for at least 20 minutes! Also all weekend when ever he heard the garage door open he would run to the back door and yell Da Da. Kaden and I always greet daddy each night at the back door when he gets home.

How did it all start with Aaron and I? We meet in May of 2002. We were introduced to each other thru a mutual friend. That night Aaron and I talked and laughed. However he did not ask for my number so I didn't know if it would go anywhere. A couple days later our mutual friend called me and asked if Aaron could have my number. Of course I said yes. A day later Aaron called me to setup a date. Our first date consisted of Aaron making reservations at Biaggi's, an Italian restaurant we loved to frequent quite often when we lived in Cedar Rapids. After that we went for drinks at a swanky bar. It was a nice night filled with great conversation. The next day at work Aaron sent me flowers... Fast forward 6 months later and Aaron was studying in Italy for the semester. I decided to fly over to England and we met in London for the weekend, it was Halloween weekend. I had no idea that this trip would be the trip I would forever remember. Aaron had bought my engagement ring a month earlier in Italy. He proposed after being there for a couple days. We were walking in Kensington Park and he asked me to sit down on a bench to rest. We were talking and then Aaron started talking about how happy he was. I agreed with him. He started to get down on 1 knee, and I tried to help him get back up b/c still at this point I had no idea he was proposing. It wasn't till he pulled out the ring that I finally understood that oh my gosh he was proposing to me. He had to ask me twice if I would marry him b/c I didn't respond the first time b/c I was so shocked. Of course I said yes after the 2nd time and we were married September 20th 2003! Most of my friends probably thought we were crazy b/c we had only been dating for 6 months. Actually most of my college friends didn't even meet Aaron until we were engaged b/c of living in all parts of Iowa. Aaron was one of the best things that ever happened to me. He truly is the love of my life. We have been thru so much over the past 6 1/2 years of knowing each other. However even when tough times have come our way it has never even bothered our relationship. All the tough times have just brought us closer.

Celebrating our 5 year anniversary is the best anniversary we have ever had and I know it is b/c of Kaden. We struggled to have a family for 3 years and now here we are. Those past 3 years have just been erased from our memories b/c of having Kaden. There are some days that you know you just won't forget. Deciding to adopt is one of those days. Aaron and I had been trying to have a baby for 1 1/2 years. We were still trying fertility drugs but we decided in January of 2007 to go to an international adoption informational meeting that was being held by the 1st agency we were with. After that meeting Aaron and I went to eat lunch. We had just sat down and we started talking about what we had just heard. We both literally looked at each other and said let's adopt. The fertility drugs were starting to wear on us, mind you we had only been on them for 6 months. We just knew that God had a plan for us and we really felt that our child was in Russia. Little did we know that on March 24th 2008 our lives would be changed in a way that we never could have imaged. Meeting Kaden was one of the best days of our life. Picking Kaden up from the Baby Home on May 27th 2008 was another one of those days. We have so much to be thankful for. We were talking about our love for each other this weekend and realized that our love has changed since Kaden has came home. We always loved each other for who we are but there is nothing better than watching Aaron play and love Kaden. It has truly made my love for him deeper and stronger and Aaron said the same thing this weekend about me. Watching unconditional love is truly amazing and I can't think of a better way to see it than thru a father and a son!

Thank you to so many of you that have followed our journey so far. We have so much more to come in our lives but for now we are just so content and happy with where we are at in our life as a marriage couple and as a family!

Kaden's Baptism

2008-09-15T21:20:00.002-05:00

We celebrated the Baptism of Kaden on September 7th! It was a such a great day. We were truly honored to have Father Bill baptize Kaden. Father Bill married us almost 5 years ago. We were the 1st couple he married in the church Aaron grew up in as a child. Now Kaden was Father Bill's last baptism he will perform in the church since he is retiring in a month. Kaden did so good. He never once cried. We were so proud of him. The sermon that Father Bill did was really meaningful to us. He talked about celebrating your baptism each year like you do your birthday. On this day you should talk of your faith and reflect on the past year and the year to come. We plan on doing this each year with Kaden. We want Kaden to know that he is a child of God and that God did have a special plan for him. We feel so blessed that God's plan for Kaden was to have us be his parents. This little boy is so amazing. Many people have said to us that what we have done for Kaden is incredible, but to Aaron and I we feel that what Kaden is doing for us is incredible. We can't imagine a more perfect little boy to have as our son!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Update

2008-09-15T20:21:00.005-05:00

It has been a while since I have posted. We have had a busy end of the summer. I am going to try and get caught up on all the things that have happened over these past couple weeks this week!

First off I have to start off by saying "Go Iowa State" even though we lost this past weekend to Iowa. However Kaden is showing off his support already for ISU! Also I think we are in trouble b/c he loves driving anything that he can, yikes, I'm not ready for that yet!

Aaron celebrated his birthday last week. This was the 1st time as a dad Aaron has been able to celebrate. We had a great night of staying in. Here is a picture of Daddy & Kaden celebrating!

We also have Kaden's surgery finally scheduled! He is going to have it Tuesday October 7th. Everything that is being done it pretty minor but we had to schedule with 3 doctors which took us 2 months to get this scheduled. Kaden will be having his little boy surgery, umbilical hernia, groin hernia, tubes in ears, & blocked tear duct all fixed that day. Its a lot for 1 day but we wanted to only put him down once and our pediatrician agreed. Please pray everything goes well. We are very thankful that everything is very minor and that Kaden has been so healthy since we have been home.

Kaden will also have his 2nd swallow test Sept 26th. We will then be able to see if we can stop thickening his liquids. Hopefully we get good results back from this. Kaden is also cutting his 1st set of teeth since he has been home. His top eye teeth are coming in. It just started this weekend so we still have a while before this will be done. Normally the 1 year molars come in first but not for Kaden! So far he has been pretty good, other than being a little cranky and he got sick the other night from it.

1st Boating Adventure

2008-08-24T19:51:00.009-05:00

This weekend we had our first boating adventure with our friends Jarod & Leann, they have 2 girls Jayda and Lily. We had a great time. Kaden loved the boat. At first he wasn't too sure but daddy held him tight and as soon as he realized this was fun he started walking around and enjoying the ride. The fun part of the day was putting him in the "Body Glove" life vest. He did not like it at first but after a few minutes he got use to having it on. Kaden's favorite part of the boat ride was when he got to steer the boat, I think we are in for some trouble. He kept on going back over to Jarod and wanting to steer many times which Jarod would graciously let him each time. Kaden was in heaven! Kaden also really liked playing with Lily (11 months) and Jayda (3 years). I'm still trying to figure out which one that Kaden thinks is his girlfriend b/c he would smile a lot at both of them. However they would bring toys to him to play with and he would take them but he wasn't too good at sharing. We will have to work on his gentlemen skills! Here are a few pictures from the weekend!

Daddy & Kaden- trying to get a 1 year old to look at the camera is becoming harder!

Kaden wanting to steer the boat.

Kaden is concentrating very hard on driving!

Jarod & Kaden fooling around!

Mommy & Kaden after an afternoon of boating!

I did not get a good picture of Kaden, Jayda, & Lily, that will have to come next time!

I am that mom!!

2008-08-13T22:02:00.002-05:00

Okay so I vowed that I would try not and freak out when Kaden gets his first cold being home and run to the doctor's office, but guess what I did. Last weekend Kaden came down with a runny nose. He also started waking up in the middle of the night which is unusual for him. So on Monday I broke down and called the doctor b/c I was scared that he may also have an ear infection. When we went to the ENT they had seen fluid on his right ear drum and we are going to put tubes in his ears when we have his surgery, that will be another post on the frustrations of getting 3 doctors in the OR for minor surgeries for Kaden but we have been trying to get this scheduled now for over a month! Okay back to the pediatrician, we went in and found out that Kaden did not have an ear infection. However if he is still sick on Friday she wants us to come back in. She also made me feel good b/c she said for Kaden she would also recommend we come in sooner rather than later b/c of his history of getting bronchitis and ear infections. I was so glad I did take him in for my peace of mind. Kaden is still not back to normal so I think we will be back on Friday but we'll see. However he is still the happiest little boy. It's so hard to tell if he feels really bad b/c he is so happy. However tonight he was a little cranky so I'm thinking he may be getting worse. The good thing about going to the doctor is we got an updated weight.... Kaden is now 19.5 lbs!! We are so happy. He has gained 3.5 lbs since we have been home for 2.5 months. The doctor commented about how he is getting his baby thighs! His face has filled out even more too. Also the new word for the week from Kaden is ball. He is finally saying it. He loves balls and we thought for sure he would say this word earlier than what he did just b/c I swear we say it to him like 50 times in a night! Now it's so cute b/c he will carry his ball around and say over and over ball, ball!

Conference call gone bad!

2008-08-02T12:55:00.002-05:00

On Friday's I normally work from home. I decided to do this so that it could give me 1 extra day home with Kaden while we are bonding with him. Mind you I still have to work so normally I get on e-mail in the mornings and when Kaden goes down for a nap. Well yesterday my boss had setup a meeting and created a call in number for anyone that couldn't be in the office. He even scheduled the meeting around me b/c Kaden normally naps from 11:45-2:oopm. The call was at noon. When you become a parent don't they tell you that the child really does rule what you do, well Kaden decided that he didn't want to nap. So I thought okay I can still get on the conference call I will just put him in the play pen and hopefully he doesn't make too much noise. Well he did good with not making too much noise, I just forgot about hopefully he doesn't have a blow out while I'm on the call. About 10 minutes into the call I look over at Kaden and what do you know, there is poop coming out his shorts. I excused myself from the call rather embarrassed and got Kaden and the play pen cleaned up. There you have it for a great mom moment realizing that my child really does rule me.

Right now we think Kaden is going to be getting in his molars. He has ate kind of funny all week and had a runny nose. Well on Thursday he got his a diaper rash, the worst one yet for us, and runny diapers. Most of the time when he gets a diaper rash I can get it to go away in a day, not this one so far. It's getting better but still there. He also is still having runny diapers, hence the blow out story! I will have the admit the best thing about Kaden teething is he wants to cuddle more! Last night we were playing on the floor and he crawled up on me and laid his head down on my chest. It was so cute. Those are the moments that I love!

Happy 2 months!

2008-07-27T21:28:00.002-05:00

We have had Kaden for 2 months! It has been a wonderful 2 months. Don't get me wrong we have had our challenges too, but overall the transition is going very well! I can't believe it has been 2 months. The time is just flying by. The big changes for Kaden this month has been he is really starting to play with his toys, he is saying 3 words (Go Go, Mama, & Dada) and he babbles all the time, he learned to play patty cake & peek a boo, he waves good-bye, & he is walking (that is right he is now taking about 15 steps at a time before he falls down, he still prefers to crawl but he is very daring now with trying to walk all the time).

Here are some pictures from the 2nd month, enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Back to Work

2008-07-17T22:07:00.002-05:00

Things have been so crazy over the past 2 weeks. Last week I started back to work part-time and this week was full-time. Kaden is doing very well at daycare. He is really liking all the kids to play with. I know I had mentioned before details of our daycare arrangements but I will share again for those of you that missed that post. We decided to go with an in-home daycare just b/c of the environment that Kaden came from being in an orphanage. Our daycare lady is great. Kaden loves her. She also has about 6 children each day. The kids range from 1-4 years old. Kaden is the youngest. Kaden has not cried with us dropping him off. I was a little concerned about this at first but I think my concerns have died down. Kaden is a very happy baby. He really adjust well to new situations. What has made me feel more comfortable about the situation is that Kaden is always happy to see us when we pick him up. He also reaches out to us. Yesterday when I picked him up he came charging at me in the fastest crawl he could do but mid-way he got tired and laid down, it was so cute! Knowing that Kaden really does like daycare has made it easier on me to go back to work.

Another update was last week we went to the pediatrician for Kaden's 12 month checkup. Well he has gained 2 lbs and grew 2 inches in 4 weeks. We were so excited to hear this. He is also on the charts now in all categories. I swear he feels heavier each week. I know soon he will be 20lbs and we can turn the car seat around! A few of his outfits are already starting to get tight on him. Kaden also is now saying "Go Go". It is so cute. He wants to walk so bad. He takes about 2 steps and then falls down. However he gets back up and says "Go Go". He is also standing for 15-20 seconds on his own now. Soon he will be walking and I won't know what to do! Kaden is also babbling a lot more. I am amazed at how much he changes each week. We are still waiting on the 1 year molars to come in but his sleeping has gone back to what it was when we first got home. He will normally go down about 8am and get up 6:30-7am. He also continues to be a good eater. He is now trying finger foods again! He ate mac n cheese the other night on his own!

Next week we have our Eye Doctor appt and then hopefully we can schedule his surgery. Right now we have to arrange with 3 Dr's for his surgery. Next week should be fun trying to get that done.

Next post I will post some more pictures!

First Month Home Pictures

2008-06-30T22:52:00.003-05:00

As promised here are pictures of Kaden and his First Month Home! Enjoy, the song will probably go thru at least 2 times, it's a short song. Just in case your are wondering the song is "Safe & Sound" by Matthew West.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Doctor Visits

2008-06-30T21:21:00.002-05:00

Today was a big day for us. We had 2 specialist visits. In the morning we had to be at the Hospital at 8am for his swallow test. We did find out that Kaden is aspirating as he drinks thin liquids into his lungs. We are now going to thicken his liquids with rice cereal and then return in 3 months to have another swallow test done. From what we understood from today basically his muscles are not developed for swallowing and he struggles with thin liquids. He does better with thicker liquids. This is what has been causing his coughing during drinking and the gurgly sound we hear later. We also found out that this can cause respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Kaden has had both of these multiple times in Russia. We are so thankful to have an answer to what is going on. I swear he is already feeling better b/c today he was so happy and played so hard for a long time. He ran around like I've never seen before.

Our second appointment was with a cardiologist. We had not discussed much on the blog about this but now we are willing to share due to we hadn't shared much with our family till recently b/c we did not want to worry anyone until we had answers. On Kaden's medical report the only thing that showed up at the MOE was actually the fact that he had a "Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO)", basically this is where there is a small opening in the heart. This had been seen on Kaden actually in an ultrasound on the birth mother. We wanted to get this checked out, however all doctors before this have not heard any issues with his heart. A PFO is actually common to see in an ultrasound when the baby is in the uterus. This normally doesn't close on infants till the first few months of life up to 2 years of age. The cardiologists today said he hears no issues with Kaden's heart. He is very healthy! We were so happy to hear this.

Thanks for all your prayers! We have 1 more specialist this week, the ophthalmologist for his gunky eye! We are just so thankful to be getting answers to our concerns and all have been easy fixes!

Kaden Home for 3 weeks!!

2008-06-26T21:19:00.001-05:00

Last week was a busy week for us. We had Kaden's 1st birthday, (pictures posted in the previous post below!), doctor appointments, and 1 year old pictures. It was a very busy week. Kaden's 1st birthday was wonderful. He had such a good time. He got lots of fun toys, which he is enjoying now! He also got to meet my sister Courtney, brother in law Andy, and his cousin Lexie. It was so much fun seeing him interact with people. He also showed off and said mama many times! I was so proud of him. It was funny he was so tired before the party and my parents had just taken him on a stroller ride while I was finishing up preparing. Well the whole ride he kept on saying mama. When they walked in the door he said mama and put his arms out to me. I almost started crying right then! He was so tired and wanted a nap so I rocked him to sleep.

Kaden also had 2 doctor appointments. One was with his pediatrician to get more eye drops and find out his test results. We found out he did have the Giardia parasite. He is now on antibiotics and seems to be doing better. We have noticed a difference already in his poopy diapers. We also found out that Kaden was 17lbs and 2 oz (he gained 1 lb and 5 oz in 2 weeks!!). We also went to an ENT specialist to check out his cough. We are going to do a swallow tests on June 30th to see if that is actually causing his cough b/c he maybe aspirating when he drinks. I'm not looking forward to this b/c it is at 8am and he can't eat 3 hours before. I am going to have to wake him up at 4am to get food in him otherwise he will probably have a melt down in the car.

Kaden also had his first professional pictures taken. He did so well! He smiled so much. We had lots of good pictures to choose from. We get the pictures back soon and we ordered announcements too. For me this day really was a dream come true. I have always wanted to go and take our child to get pictures and send out announcements to our friends & family. It was so much fun picking everything out. I really can't wait to show people!

With all the good things going on we have also had a few challenges too. We think Kaden is teething (his 1 year molars- not fun). He started to get a fever on Saturday night and it lasted till about Monday morning off and on. He keeps on grabbing his gums too. He has been a little more difficult this week and we aren't sure if it's the teeth or other factors. He is starting to become a picker eater. He is eating only 1/2 the formula in a day that he use too. He also will eat 1 thing on 1 day and then the next day he spits it out. Sweet potatoes are always a guarantee that he will eat that with anything, so we have stocked up! He is also becoming more difficult to go to sleep. This has always been a challenge but now it is worse. He will go down for naps no problem with me rocking him. But at nights he will be asleep from us rocking him and then you put him in the crib and he is wide awake. The past few nights we have let him stay is his crib once he wakes up and he falls back to sleep within 5-10 minutes. I feel horrible b/c I hate leaving him in his room but if we pick him back up he won't go to sleep for hours. If anyone has any advise on this I would love to hear.

We feel really good about Kaden’s adjustment so far. He smiles a lot and is looking at us more. He is also really starting to know who we are. He will follow us or look for us when we leave rooms. It’s so much fun to watch him grow. He has changed so much already. I can already tell we have a potential heart breaker on our hands. He also loves to be the center of attention. One thing he has also learned is to do high 5’s and he is starting to wave but not on queue yet. We love to go in and get him when he wakes up. He is always so happy. He gives you these big smiles. Overall things are going well. I go back to work after the 4th of July. I’m excited to see everyone but I am concerned about leaving him. We are going on Friday for Kaden to meet the daycare lady. I know that having him go to daycare will be hard on me. We are going to try and ease him into daycare so I will be in the office part-time for a few weeks until we feel that he is adjusted to his new schedule.

Check back later this week. I hope to post a slideshow of 1 month pictures! I promise it will be worth it!

Happy 1st Birthday to Kaden!!

2008-06-23T22:34:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday Kaden! We love you so much. We are so blessed to have you home. We were so happy to share this special day with you.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

2 Weeks Home

2008-06-16T21:10:00.008-05:00

I can't believe we have been home over 2 weeks now. The time is just flying by. Kaden is doing so well. He has been such a trooper. We have gone on many outings to stores to see how he does, well he love Target. He talks up and down the aisles. It's so funny. We get so many comments about him. I'm so proud to say he is our son.

We had a Welcome Home party that our friends put on. It was so much fun. Kaden did well. He got tired towards the end so we left but he liked seeing everyone.

He is also teething right now. The 1 year molars have to be coming in soon. He started acting up Saturday night. Since then he has had the diaper rash, drooling like crazy, and a snotty nose (all signs of cutting teeth). He also just started a few days ago playing with a bottle when we give it to him. He likes to chew on the nipple between his gums, he never did this before he was so concerned with drinking the bottle down right away. Kaden has also decided he really does not like baby food very much. We still have some jars so we are trying to finish it, but he is really enjoying real food. However he still likes his formula which I'm thankful for. He is still eating all the time. I really hope at the next doctor appointment he has gained some weight!

This week we are going to see 2 specialists, the ENT & a surgeon. We decided to have Kaden circumcised and get his umbilical hernia fixed hopefully in August. There is a week with the daycare that we found that I will be home b/c of her vacation so we are going to try and get the surgery done then. We found a surgeon who can do both.

We also scheduled his 1 year pictures for Friday, hopefully he is feeling up for this otherwise we will reschedule.

He has been a very busy boy but very happy. We feel his attaching is going well. He is making good eye contact with us. He also looks for us when he is with someone else and we leave the room. Also this past week he looked up at me in his highchair and put his arms out to me and said mum mum. I'd like to think he really does know who mom is now. He has said mum mum many times to me. He also said it the other night when Aaron was trying to put him down for sleep since I was out with some of my girlfriends at a movie.

Father's Day was great! Dad and son got some good bonding time in. Kaden loves it when Aaron puts him in the laundry basket and swings him around like a roller coaster. He laughs so much and smiles the whole time! This is their activity they like to do together! I tried to get pictures of this but Kaden decided he was done just when I got the camera out, of course!

Kaden is also into trying to walk. He loves to hold on to your fingers and do laps around the living room. He also turned our laundry basket into a walker. He is getting better everyday. He will also stand now with just holding on with 1 hand. I think he will be walking in a few weeks but we'll see. Daddy also taught Kaden how to go up the 15 stairs we have. This is now another one of his favorite activities, funny how things that are not toys become the favorite things to kids.

The best thing about this week is Kaden turns 1 on June 22!! We are having a small family party on Saturday June 21st. We can’t wait to see how he reacts to everything.

I'll leave you with a few pictures:

Me, Kaden, Jess & Landon on a play date! The boys loved talking to each other. It was so cute.

Kaden on a playdate with Jadyn. We were getting ready to go to the park.

Kaden & Mommy at the park.

Kaden liked the swing!

Kaden using the laundry basket as a walker!!

Kaden & Daddy on their first Father's Day.

1 Week Home

2008-06-07T20:19:00.013-05:00

After being home for 1 week we have many stories to share! We have had a lot of great moments together, but there has also been challenges like we had been told that the first month will be an adjustment time. Kaden is still eating all the time! We hope to get him back up in weight and height. He is still eating everything we have put in front of him. He is also still struggling with going to sleep. He fights going to sleep for his afternoon nap the worst, however we have found ways to get him to sleep faster and can get him down in 10-30 minutes. We also think he will be getting his 1 year molars in soon. He is drooling a lot. The best way for me to tell you about all the good things going on is to explain all the first we have experienced this week:

First Pediatrician Appointment- The visit went very well. Kaden got a clean bill of health! He weighed 15lbs 13 oz. He still has some room to grow to get back on the charts but the doctor felt he would get there. However the most amazing thing is that between 9 months (when we met Kaden) and 11 months, he grew the most he has grown. The doctor was very impressed with this. We felt that meeting Kaden really helped him, so for those parents waiting I know it is hard but know that you did have a positive influence on your child on the 1st trip. Kaden also got 5 shots (we are redoing all his immunizations since he only had 1st shots of most things so the doctor felt it was best to start over) and 3 vials of blood drawn. He cried so much. I have not seen him cry that much nor do I every want to see that again but I know I will. We were also given some eye drops to help his eyes from all the goop. So far his eyes seem to be getting better. We are only half way through giving him the eye drops and we are seeing big improvements. Also Kaden is looking a lot better even in the week we have been home. He no longer has a runny nose, which is has always had. His cough is getting better too. The doctor said there was nothing in his lungs so she is going to have us see an ear, nose, & throat specialist about this to make sure everything is okay.

First favorite toys- Kaden has 2 toys that he loves to play with, not that he doesn't like his other toys but he prefers to play with these multiple times a day.

I love my Elmo Walker toy that Grandma Mary & Grandpa Gary got me. I love all the noise it makes!

I love the big ball Grandma Marsha & Grandpa Bill got me. I like to pound, roll, and sit on it!

First Hair Cut- Kaden did so well. He just played with the toys the hair stylists gave him.

During my Haircut.

After my haircut- don't I look so cute!!

First time I liked my bath- We have been trying all week to get Kaden to like his bath. Yesterday Aaron got in with Kaden to show him he could have fun. Well Aaron informed me that he thinks the bath water is too cold and that is why he doesn't like it. Aaron was right. I made the water warmer and he loves it now. Today he was splashing around and playing with all his toys. He played for 30 minutes in the tub!

Playing in the bathtub!

After the bath all cleaned up!

First Stoller ride as a family. It has been colder than normal in MN this week and rainy, so we haven't gone on too many stoller rides yet, but Kaden loves being outside. Its so funny b/c when he is in the stroller he likes to look over the side and watch the wheels.

First Blizzard- Today was a hot day so we decided to get ice cream for a snack. Boy did Kaden love the ice cream!

First Buddy- Kaden and Kirby have been adjusting very well to each other. Actually Kaden liked Kirby from the beginning. Kirby wasn't sure of Kaden but he is warming up to him. Yesterday they even played tug with one of Kirby's toy. We have to watch Kaden b/c as soon as you turn your back he is going for Kirby's toys and trying to put them in his mouth.

I saved the best for last, Kaden yesterday said Ma Ma for the first time!! I know that he may not know exactly who I am yet but it was so much fun to hear him say it. However he has only said it when I'm in the room so I think that is a positive thing to him associating the word with me!

2008-06-03T15:57:00.009-05:00

We made it home safe & sound! We are so glad to be home! You never realize how much you really did miss home until you are back sleeping in your own bed and just hanging out in your own house. We've had mostly good moments and a few challenging moments. However we are having the time of our life with Kaden. Our world has been turned upside down and we are cherishing every moment of it!

On Saturday we left Moscow at 8:45 am. We had to get up at 5am to leave for the airport. Kaden was such a trooper. I woke him up and of course I just got a big smile from him no crying. We spent 13 hours in a plane that day (total of 15 hours traveling). Our 1st plane ride was good. He slept for 1 hour out of the 4 hours. The 2nd plane ride was a bit more challenging. This was the long one for 9 hours. At the beginning he was doing so well. About 2 hours into the plane ride he started to get fussy. He fought going to sleep for about 30 minutes. Honestly it probably wasn't that bad but as parents you just want to get him to sleep. We hadn't heard him cry for more than 1 minute at a time. Well on plane his worst moment was when he cried for about 5 minutes. I'm sure the rest of the passengers were not too happy with us at that moment, but we well made up for it later. Once Kaden fell asleep he slept for 6 hours!! We were supposed to have a basinet but they forgot to put it up. By the time we got him to sleep we didn't want him to wake up so we didn't say anything again to the flight attendant. He slept in my arms. We did not get any sleep on the plane so that made for an interesting emotional time for me. After Kaden's meltdown, I had one of my own. I started crying b/c I was tired, frustrated I couldn't help Kaden, and I was missing my lil' sisters wedding. It was a very emotional day for me. I was so happy to finally be taking Kaden home, we have waited for this moment for 2 1/2 years but yet I was sad that it had to fall on the 1 weekend that was my sister's wedding. Once we landed in Minneapolis all the excitement took over! We were so glad to be done with our adoptive labor; thank goodness it was only for 15 hours! Kaden officially became a US citizen around 3:00pm! Then at the airport Aaron's family met us (Grandma Mary, Grandpa Gary, Great Aunt Sue, Great Uncle Chuck, and Great Grandma Meyer). It was so nice. They greeted us with signs and smiles! Kaden loved meeting everyone. We then went back to our house and hung out for the night. Our friends Leslie & Justin (Kaden's soon to be God parents) came over to meet Kaden that night too!! Kaden went to bed at 7:00pm. He slept until 3:00am. Not too bad for his first night home and trying to adjust to time.

Sunday was another big day for Kaden. My parents (Grandma Marsha & Grandpa Bill) came to visit and meet their grandson. This is the 1st boy in our family! My parents were so excited to meet him. Again Kaden did so well. Kaden went to bed around 8pm and then woke up around 5am on Monday. Hopefully we will get him to sleep a little longer! However he is taking 2 naps a day like he use to in the Baby Home. He really does do a lot better with a schedule. He is also eating a lot! He eats like every 2-3 hours. He has eaten everything I have given him, he is kind of iffy on green beans but he ate them!! He has had a little issue with sucking & swallowing at the same time when taking a bottle, so we went back to slower nipples on the bottles and this has seemed to help. We are learning he really is a people person. He loves to show off for people! It's so much fun to start to see his personality. We are also starting to see good signs of attaching. He looks for Aaron and me when we leave a room. He makes good eye contact. He also started giving us open mouth kisses! He is also letting us rock him to sleep for bedtime now. This is the highlight of my day, I love rocking with him and looking at him. We have some of the best moments together when we rock! We love him so much! He truly is amazing.

Aaron is doing so well with Kaden. This is really the 1st time he has ever taken care of a child. He is doing really well with feeding and changing him. It is so much fun to watch the boys connect. I never imagined I could love Aaron more than I already did but watching him with Kaden makes me fall more in love with the father he is!

I will leave you with a few pictures of our adventure home so far. We are still very tired & trying to adjust (jet lag + a new baby = very sleepy parents).

Mom & Kaden at the apartment in Moscow waiting to be picked up to start our long day to get home! I bought this outfit last summer with the hope it would fit our son for the plane ride home!

Dana, Aaron, Kaden, & Grandma Mary at the airport. Grandma Mary could not wait to get Kaden out of the carrier so she could hold him!

Dana, Aaron, Kaden, Grandma Mary, & Great Uncle Chuck at the airport!

Kaden & Great Grandma Meyer.

Grandma Mary, Grandpa Gary, Aaron, & Kaden

Grandpa Bill, Grandma Marsha, & Kaden.

Trip 2 Day 18- Friday May 30th

2008-05-30T12:19:00.006-05:00

Tonight blogging it is bittersweet for me. We have had such a good time in Moscow. We have really enjoyed our time here. However we are so excited to get home and start our new life with Kaden. He truly is a blessing in our lives! We love him so much. He is a very friendly baby and pretty easygoing. He is going to fit so well into our family. He has done so well this week.

The only struggle we are really having with him right now is getting to sleep. He hates to go to sleep. He fights it so much. Today he only took probably an hour nap. However at 6:30 pm he crashed and I know he will sleep till we have to get up for our flight at 5am. He is a good sleeper once he goes down. Hopefully this will change and he will get to sleep easier. Tonight we had a funny story of getting him to bed. We went to eat on Old Arbat Street and exchange some money and buy a few more items. Well he fell asleep in the carrier with Aaron. Once we got home we were trying to get him to the crib without him waking up but that didn't work so well. Taking off his jacket woke him up. He wouldn't go back to sleep. So Aaron put him back into the carrier and walked around the apartment with him. He was back to sleep within 5 minutes. I laugh at this story b/c Aaron's mom (Grandma Mary) use to have to walk in circles around teh living room with Aaron to get him to sleep. Now Aaron had to do this tonight. I know Mary will get a kick out of this! What goes around comes around huh!! Hopefully we can find other ways to get him to sleep but right now he seems to like motion to put him to sleep!

Today we went to MOE to try and sign the book, but they were in a meeting and we couldn't do this. Svetlana is going to do this for us on Monday. We then had the afternoon to sightsee. We went to Gorky park. This was one place we hadn't made it too yet. Gorky Park is an amusement park with lots of rides for kids! We had fun walking around. Kaden loved looking at all the kids riding the rides. I think he was jealous that he couldn't do it. This is good for us b/c I love amusement parks. Since I was a kid I always went to Kings Island in Ohio every summer. Now my parents (Grandpa Bill & Grandma Marsha) can take Kaden there when he gets older!

Once we were done we went back to the apartment. We started packing! We also had to wait b/c N & S was registering us today with the Russian Consulate. Once they were done they brought everything to us. It has been so nice to have them be able to run errands for us without us actually going. I can't imagine how much crazier our days would have been this week if we hadn't given them the power of attorney to do this!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from today. Next time we post we will be back into the US and Kaden will be a US citizen!

Paka, Paka (Bye-Bye)

Look at this little boy after his bath today! He is dressed up looking so good. Watch out girls I think he is going to break some hearts someday.

Kaden and Daddy playing!

Mommy and Kaden playing!

The Craven Family at Gorky Park

Trip 2 Day 17- Thursday May 29th

2008-05-29T13:48:00.013-05:00

I know that all you blog stalkers have been waiting for a post, sorry I was so tired yesterday! We have had a wonderful 2 days with our son! I know I had read it many times before from other families about how much their child changes in just a matter of days. Well know I truly understand this! For those of you that have gone to the baby home and worried about if your child will do this or that b/c you hadn't seen it well I can say don't worry! I had never heard Kaden really cry at that baby home. I was so concerned that he wouldn't cry much or let us know what he needs. Let me tell you he does cry! Not for a long time yet, but he does let us know when he is awake or doesn't want to sleep or doesn't like something too much! Most parents probably don't want for their kids to cry but I at least wanted Kaden too b/c then I would know that he is letting us know what he needs. He still doesn't really cry when he is hungry or needs a diaper change. But we are noticing other ways he is telling us this. He is just hungry all the time. He has not turned down any food we have given him. He is eating about every 2 hours, not full meals each time but he doesn't like an empty stomach. We have noticed he will not sleep with an empty stomach.

Sleeping is going okay. The part that has been a little tough is getting him to sleep. He wants to play. He does not like to go to sleep. He also will not let me rock him to sleep. However if he is really tired I can lay down in the bed with him and he will fall asleep. Once he is asleep he is out. Last night he slept from 8pm till 7:30am. It was great! I hope this continues!

Diaper changing is going well too. We have had lots of poopy diapers, and yes even 1 blow out. He is not suffering from constipation at all that is for sure! We had to go buy more diapers tonight b/c we have gone thru a lot already! We had one of those parents' moments tonight with Kaden as I was changing his diaper. It was a poopy diaper and I had just finished cleaning him up and had just put the diaper under him when oh my gosh he is still going! I had to wait another 5 minutes to make sure he was done and finished changing him.

Today we had our interview with the US Embassy. We have everything we need to get Kaden into the US! We are excited to leave on Saturday. There are a few more things to do tomorrow to finish up!

Finally have to say a big Thank You to Ron & Dinia! You truly have made our trip so enjoyable. I can't imagine staying this time and not having the help you provided while we have been here. Thanks so much for everything. We have enjoyed getting to know you. If you are ever up in MN stop by. We hope we can live up to the high standards you have set for hospitality! Also thanks so much to Karyn & Norm and Becky & Keith for meeting up with us and letting us share your experiences too. We have been truly blessed for meeting you guys and we can't wait to share in your moments of joy with your sons too! You guys are/will be great parents. Your little boys are so precious!

I will leave you with a few pictures of the last couple days!

Kaden getting dressed to leave the Baby Home! Kaden is so excited, this is him screaming out "AH" in excitement.

Picture of us outside the Baby Home! One last good-bye!

Daddy & Kaden getting ready for a walk on Old Arbat Street.

Ron & Kaden at TGI Fridays!

The group at TGI Fridays!

Kaden was so tired after TGI Friday's he fell asleep on the walk back to the apartment!

Here is the must have photo in front of St. Basil's Cathedral for all adoptive parents!

Picture in the park across from Peter the Great Monument.

Us in the park with the wooden Pinocchio

Dana, Kaden & N (our translator) in the park.

Trip 2 Day 15- Tuesday May 27th- Part II

2008-05-27T13:07:00.002-05:00

It is a little after 10pm, and we finally have Kaden down for the night. He was so wound up. We picked him up at 1:15pm. We hurried up gave our presents to the caregivers and then dressed Kaden, I promise to post pictures tomorrow. I have to admit I am tired tonight! We then went to the passport place so they could see Kaden and verify it was him. We should hopefully get the passport on Thursday. Kaden's normal schedule is to take a nap from 2-4pm, well today he slept maybe 30 minutes in the car. He was so cute. He wanted to play and talk. Then we got home and watch out!! He crawled all over the living room. His way of crawling right now is with his butt in the air on his hands. He really wants to walk. I think he will soon. Tonight he mastered pulling himself up on anything that he can. Boy does that make him happy. He loves to stand up and bounce! He did really good tonight. He ate many times! We also gave him a bath. He didn't cry but he wasn't really happy about it either. Then we started the sleeping process. He did not want to go to sleep. He was overstimulated from the day. It took about 3 hours before he feel asleep. His normal bedtime is 8pm, well tonight it was 10pm.

Overall we had a great day. We hope the bedtime routine goes better tomorrow, but honestly we can't complain. He is such a trooper! We love him so much. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Trip 2 Day 15- Tuesday May 27th- Part I

2008-05-26T22:39:00.003-05:00

Gotcha Day is finally here!! We leave in about 30 minutes to start our day (8:15am Moscow time). We won't get Kaden till this afternoon but we have paperwork to run around and get completed so we can leave on Saturday, yes in 4 days!!

Enjoy the pictures of Kaden! We have enjoyed putting this together! When you click on the picture below it will take you out to smilebox's website to view!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Trip 2 Day 14- Monday May 26th

2008-05-26T11:37:00.010-05:00

Less than 24 hours to go before we pick up Kaden!! Today we filled out paperwork for the US Embassy with N. There was a lot more papers to fill out then I expected. Once we were done N & S took us to some more sites in Moscow. We went to Novodevichiy Convent (also known as New Maiden Convent). This was a place that consisted of 2 types of people living there, nuns & the people that were exiled there. Tsars could send their wives (in order to marry a different women since divorce was not allowed) or other women to basically confine them for their life. The most famous story was Peter the Great sent his sister Sophia to this place after she plotted against him to take over power. She spent the rest of her life in the convent. We also walked around in the park beside the Convent. It was a beautiful day in Moscow!

Picture of the New Maiden Convent

Barbara Bush gave this sculpture to the children of Russia in 1991

We also went to the Novodevichiy Cemetery that is the 2nd highest place to be buried in Moscow (the 1st highest place is on Red Square). There are many famous Russians buried in the cemetery. This cemetery is also the final resting place for military & political dignitaries from the Soviet Union era.

Boris Yeltsin's tomb stone

Mikhail Gorbachev's wife tomb stone

Stalin's 2nd wife tomb stone

Trip 2 Day 13- Sunday May 25th

2008-05-25T13:53:00.005-05:00

It was another cold rainy day in Moscow, the weather is supposed to get nicer on Tuesday! We still ventured out to check out the huge Children's store we had been hearing about. Oh my goodness, where do you even start when you step into the store. There are so many floors and things to see! We enjoyed walking around in there. We also took the metro to get there and back since it was raining outside. We are really enjoying the metro. For future families I would highly recommend you go with someone for your first time to learn about the metro, but try it by yourselves too! We have seen so many things by using the metro!

Pictures of the Inside of the Children's Department Store

We also decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We were craving a real burger! The food was so good!

Tonight we did our 2nd load of laundry, everything went well again! We have clean clothes for the week. We can't be sticky parents around Kaden! This week is a busy week as I know I have said many times. Here is what we know so far:

Monday- Translator coming to our apartment around noon to help us fill out our immigration forms. Our translator will then go to court to pick up the adoption decree.

Tuesday- Go to vital statistics to get Kaden's new birth certificate, pick up Kaden, and stop by the passport place.

Wednesday- Kaden has a doctor appointment for the US Embassy. Paperwork will also be filed with the US Embassy so we can get our exit interview.

Thursday- Exit Interview with the US Embassy.

We still have to find out when we will go to the notary and the MOE. That will be towards the end of the week either Thursday or Friday.

We have less than 2 days before we pick up Kaden!!!

Trip 2 Day 12- Saturday May 24th

2008-05-25T02:39:00.006-05:00

It was cold and rainy again today in Moscow. We decided to try and find the European Mall we had heard about from Ron. We found it!! We took the long way there b/c we actually thought that we weren't going to find it so we were looking for a metro stop to get on and was walking towards that when we found the mall. For those you staying here in the future and you want to kill some time, this mall was a great way to do it. It was so neat. Very pricey but fun to look. We did end up buying a tie for Aaron that was a good deal but that was it! They also had a Build a Bear! To get there you can take the metro to the Kievskaya stop (line 4 or line 5 can get you there) or you can take Old Arbat street to Smolenskaya cross the bridge go past the metro stops and you should see it!

The rest of the day we hung out at the apartment. We have started to prepare for picking up Kaden on Tuesday. The diaper bag it packed, his clothes are organized so I can find outfits, food is ready, and crib is ready! We also put together all the caregiver gifts. On Friday we gave the orphanage our donation. We had planned on giving a monetary donation but when we asked what they needed last Monday they told us that they needed candy for Children's Day on June 1st and bibs. That is what we gave them. It was so much fun getting all the candy they needed. They told us they will give the children this candy on this day to celebrate. It so much fun knowing that we provided the candy that all the children there will get!

I also worked on the slideshow of pictures that I will be posting on Tuesday. I think I have it all done! I'm pretty excited about this! I used Smilebox to create this. I absolutely have fallen in love with this website/program and everything you can do. I love to scrapbook and this is like scrap booking online! Check back on Tuesday morning. I plan on posting it before we leave to get Kaden since our translator will pick up the adoption decree on Monday evening!

Many people have commented on my birthday and my dad's birthday with questions. My birthday is May 23rd and my dad's birthday is May 22nd. It has always been a very special time for me growing up b/c we would celebrate our birthdays together and we still do this when we get together in May! I still love that to this day. Now we have 2 more things to add to our May celebrations, Gotta Day May 27th for Kaden and my lil sis's (Courtney & Andy) wedding May 31st.

Outside European Mall

Metro Stop at the European Mall

Trip 2 Day 11- Friday May 23rd

2008-05-23T13:43:00.002-05:00

Today I got the best birthday gift ever, I got to send the day with my 2 boys (Kaden & Aaron). We had a wonderful day with Kaden!! He was so happy. He smiled right away when he saw us. Today he started to say Da Da to us. We have been trying every time we see him to get him to say this. Well today was the day! We realize he doesn't understand this is daddy b/c in Russian Da is yes and is said all the time by the Russia people but it was still really fun to hear him say this. Hopefully soon he will understand this is daddy! Also as the caregiver was coming to take Kaden back to his room, he didn't want to go with her. He kept on playing with Aaron's zipper on his jacket. They told us this was a good sign b/c he wanted to stay with us.

We also found out today that we get to pick up Kaden on Tuesday! We can't wait, 4 more days! We switched apartments today too back to our 1st apartment. We are so happy to be back at this place. We really do like it. It is the perfect location, on Old Arbat Street. Also it is a lot bigger than the place we went to for 4 days.

Tonight we went out to dinner at Pasta Mommas. It was delicious! We went out to eat with Ron, Karyn & Norm, and Becky & Keith. We are sad to see Becky & Keith leave. It has been so much fun this week getting together in our group. Thank goodness we still have Karyn & Norm and Ron still here.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me a birthday wish today! It truly has been a wonderful day. We can't wait to bring out little one home so you can see the joy we have with him!

Trip 2 Day 10- Thursday May 22nd

2008-05-22T11:27:00.003-05:00

Today was a rainy cold day in Moscow. We decided to just hang out at the apartment. Not very exciting but was a nice day to relax. I also got a lot of work done since I am still working while we are in Russia so I can say all my time off for when we are back in the States. Tomorrow we will switch apartments for the last time. We are packed and ready to go back to the 1st apartment we were in. We really liked that apartment b/c of the location on Old Arbat Street and it's also bigger than the place we are in now. It will be nice to get back to that apartment b/c there will be more room when we get Kaden for him to play! Tomorrow is the day we find out when we pick up our little one! We can't wait to hear all the details of next week. We have 9 days left in Moscow. We are getting closer to going home. We are excited to get home so everyone can meet Kaden.

I will end this post today with wishing my Dad a Happy Birthday! I hope you are having a great day and we can't wait to see you on Sunday June 1st!

Trip 2 Day 9- Wednesday May 21st

2008-05-22T03:06:00.010-05:00

Are you Red (Manchester United) or Blue (Chelsea FC), that was the question of the day in Moscow, of course in the best British accent you can do! The UEFA Championship game was in Moscow today! We decided to go to Red Square to check out all the pre-game festivities. The Champions Festival took place in Red Square. There was no drinking of smoking in Red Square so it wasn't too crazy. However the Pubs along the side and on the way were filled with people and of course you heard lots of chanting! We decided we would go with Red! We guessed right b/c Manchester United won in Penalty Kicks! Here are some pictures of the day.

View of the Champions Festival in Red Square

Celebrity Match, Russia Legends vs. European Legends

The Trophy the teams are playing for! You could get your picture taken with it. There was a huge line of people waiting to do this.

We bought a Red scarf for Manchester United for Kaden's sports themed room. The front of it says the Manchester United and the back says Moscow Finals 2008! We thought this was a perfect addition to the room to capture the big event that happened in Moscow while we were there adopting him!

Fans dressed up!

Since Moscow was going to be very busy that night b/c the game did not start till 10:45pm, Ron invited us, Karyn & Norm, and Beck & Keith over for dinner. It was fabulous! He had cooked a pork roast, rice, beans, bread, and carrot cake. We ate so much food. Dinia you have a great cook on your hands! Ron did a great job of hosting. He kept on saying Dinia is normally the social organizer! You must have taught him very well b/c it has been such a pleasures having Ron show us around!

On Friday we find out our schedule for next week. We get the adoption decree on Tuesday May 27th. There are a lot of things that have to be done that day. We don't know yet if we will pick up Kaden on Tuesday or Wednesday, however Friday we will find out. Either way we have less than a week left before Kaden is our forever! Time has flown by here in Moscow. We are very glad we chose to wait the 10 days out here in Moscow.

Trip 2 Day 8- Tuesday May 20th

2008-05-20T12:50:00.010-05:00

Today we went to explore around the Moscow State University. We took the Metro and did 2 changes to different lines to get there. This was our first time of changing lines by ourselves. It went very smooth! Once we got off the metro we explored around the University. We were trying to find the hill that overlooks Moscow. We found it! Here are a few pictures from today

One of the 7 Sisters buildings that was completed in 1953 commissioned by Stalin. This is the tallest of the 7 Sisters buildings.

Stadium where the UEFA Champions league finals (Manchester United vs. Chelsea FC) will be played on May 21st! This is the stadium where the 1980 summer Olympics opening and closing ceremonies were held.

Views of Moscow from the hill.

At night we went out to eat with a big group of people. We went to the 5 Spices Restaurant. We had a great time. The food was really good! This place is located a few blocks from Old Arbat street.

Trip 2 Day 7- Monday May 19th

2008-05-19T11:49:00.007-05:00

Today we went to the Baby Home to visit Kaden. We had a good visit. It was 70 degrees outside today so we were able to take him outside to play. We stayed out there for about 30 minutes. However he really wanted to get down and crawl around so we took him inside and played. He babbled a lot today. Each time we visit we see a more interactive child. We can't wait to pick him up. He really liked talking after you gave him a Gerber Graduate snack!

While we played with Kaden our translator meet with the caregivers and director so we could understand more about his schedule. We absolutly love having "N & S" this trip. They have been wonderful!

A few new things that we learned today is Kaden loves to sleep & eat. He is very curious and likes to figure things out, we have noticed this from the beginning. He likes to play with other children and is a happy baby. Once I can post pictures you will see we have a lot of pictures of him with a huge smile on his face. He loves it when you get excited and when he gets kisses!

We also got a tour of the Baby Home. It is very nice. I wanted to share with you pictures of the Baby Home. Kaden is in the Lubertsy Baby Home. It takes us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. This Baby home can have 105 children there. It is for children 5 and under.

Entrance into the Baby Home- this was taken on our 1st trip

Play area for this group- Kaden is in Group 1

Crib area inside

2nd crib area they use when it is nice. They open the windows and let fresh air in.

Kaden's crib in the 2nd area. They told us today he loves to sleep here. It is his favorite place to sleep!

We were very impressed with the Baby home. It was very nice. The caregivers and doctors are very caring. You can tell they love Kaden and he also responds very well to them too! We are very thankful that he has been in a place that has given him such good care.

Trip 2 Day 6- Sunday May 18th

2008-05-19T11:27:00.008-05:00

Today we went to Victory Park. We took the Metro by ourselves out to the park. Thanks to Ron we had no problems using the Metro!! This park is to commemorate the Great Patriotic War (World War II). The park was completed in 1995, in time for the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. Here are a few pictures, enjoy, we had a gourgeous day to walk around. We spent about 3 hours there walking around and people watching!

View of Victory Park

Nike Monument- 466 ft. tall- designed to honour the Greek goddess of victory.

Church of St. George the Victorious- built in 1995

The Triumphal Arch celebrates Napoleon's defeat in the war of 1812.

After an afternoon of walking around we meet Karyn & Norm, Ron, and Becky & Keith out for dinner. We went to My My cafe (pronounced Moo Moo cafe). We had a good time talking! We are going to try to get back together on Tuesday for dinner. We want to hear how things are going for Becky & Keith since this is their 1st visit!

Trip 2 Day 5- Saturday May 17th

2008-05-18T01:28:00.008-05:00

Today we went to the Outdoor Market (Verniszah Market at Izmailovsky Park) with Karyn & Norm, & Ron. It was so much fun. There were lots of great things to buy. We bought most of the souvenirs there. We also ate lunch there, which again was really good. It was chicken kabob, veggies, and some great bread with marinara sauce. Here are some pictures of the day.

This was just one of the many aisles they had!!

Look at those hats!!

Christmas Santas

Matryoshka Dolls

Ron, Karyn & Norm shopping!!

Tonight we hung out around the apartment. We decided to try the washing machine. We were successful at washing our clothes! On Monday we switch apartments for 4 days and then come back to the place we are at now. I figured I only want to learn 1 washing machine while we are here so why not wash clothes now! Then we will have clean clothes for the week.

Trip 2 Day 4

2008-05-17T00:12:00.012-05:00

On Friday we had a good day of sightseeing. It was sunny outside the whole day! We decided to take advantage of the nice weather. We mainly went to the Red Square area. It was so beautiful with all the flowers. We also were able to see some military ceremony happening at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. We also went to the underground mall by Red Square too!! Here are a few pictures of our day!

Fountains outside of the underground mall

Red Square

St Basil's Cathedral

Lenin's Tomb

Tomb of the Unknow Solider

Flowers in the park- it is so pretty here this time of the year!

At night we went out to dinner with Karyn & Norm and Ron. The food was great. We went to a local restaurant. The "blini" dessert we have was so good! We had also some great conversations! We have really enjoyed having people to meet out for dinner while we are here. Also for anyone that will be traveling to Moscow Ron and Dinia really want to help people. They have been such a great resource to have here. We have enjoyed his stories and advice. I would strongly recommend you contact them. They have a wealth of knowledge about Moscow.

Trip 2 Day 3- Court

2008-05-15T11:47:00.005-05:00

After 2 1/2 years of trying to start a family we got the news we have been waiting for!! We are officially Kaden Meyer Craven's parents. We were in court for 1 hour and 30 minutes today. Our court was a little longer b/c there was lots of discussion around waiving our 10 days. The social worker & prosecutor supported our request but the judge ended up denying it. We were a little bummed but we understood. We knew this request was a long shot but we had to try. We are just so happy that we were granted the right to adopt Kaden! We will go see Kaden on again Monday May 19th! We can't wait to tell him he is our son officially now. Also today we got 2 more pictures of Kaden from the Baby Home. One is when he was 1 month old and the other is at 2 months old. We were so happy to get these pictures. They will be nice to put in his baby book!

Also congratulations to Karyn & Norm check out their blog.

Here is a picture of us outside the Moscow Regional court house after the hearing.

We will now wait out our 10 days. We will get to pickup Kaden on either May 27th or 28th. We get all our documents on May 27th but due to processing paperwork at many different locations we may not be able to pick him up that day b/c the most important thing that day will be to get the paperwork processed and getting Kaden's passport so we can leave on the 31st. On May 27th we will be able to post pictures of Kaden. You will have to check back them to see our bundle of joy!

Tonight I want to leave you with a saying that expresses how we are feeling today!

Before you were born I dreamed of you,
I imagined you,
I prayed for you.
Now that you are here I hope for you,
I love you, and
I thank God for you.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. We felt a peace thru the court hearing. We are very lucky to have such a great support system. Also sorry for posting so late. I know many of you have probably been stalking the blog. I was having a few issues with the internet thru my work computer.

Trip 2 Day 2

2008-05-14T08:48:00.004-05:00

Today was a wonderful day! We got to see Kaden. They woke him up from his nap to see us. He is such a trooper. He didn't even cry. It took a few seconds before he smiled at us. We think he does remember us from last time. He still has a little cold but not as bad as last time. We were able to take him to get his passport photo. In the picture the child can not be smiling. Well it took a couple times b/c Kaden wanted to smile!

Once we were done with getting his picture we went back to the Baby Home and played. We brought out his favorite toy from last time which he loved again. We were able to play with him more on the floor this time. He loved to crawl around and check things out. He also like to walk more with help! He walked across the room and back while holding onto Aaron's fingers.

Then the Doctor at the Baby Home brought in his lunch for us to feed him. That was so much fun but boy am I going to have my hands full with feeding him. He is eating more solid type food. We fed him some hamburger, potatoes, and soup. Plus he also got his juice out of a cup. He did so well. Aaron held him and tried to keep his hands down, he kept on trying to grab the spoon or bowl. I don't think I was feeding him fast enough. The Doctor also said that she could tell he really enjoyed us feeding him b/c he also tried to play with us while we were feeding him!!

Some things we noticed today that we didn't see last time was, Kaden has a ticklish spot on his stomach. He would get a big smile and laugh when you tickled him. He also is talking a lot more. Today we heard Ga Ga, of course we are hoping for Da Da soon! He can also sit up straight on his own this time. He has gotten a lot stronger physically.

After the Baby Home we went back to the notary to sign some more papers needed for court. It was a great day! Tomorrow we have court at 10am. We will leave our apartment at 9am. Pray for a good hearing tomorrow.

P.S. For any PAP's that are going to stay in apartments make sure to bring an alarm clock. Our apartment does not have one and of course we did not bring one. We are going to go buy one tomorrow b/c we didn't have time today.

In Russia!

2008-05-13T08:56:00.003-05:00

We have made it here! We have just got to our apartment and we are getting settled. We are happy with the place. It is bigger than what we thought it would be! It also has wireless Internet which is nice. We are going to have our first venture out to go get some groceries and something to eat for dinner.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. We are going to head to the baby home at 10am. We have to take Kaden to get his passport photo, most of the time you do this on the 1st trip but we couldn't with him being sick. After our visit with Kaden we have some more paperwork to complete before our court hearing on Thursday. We will also prep for our court hearing with Natasha, our translator. We did find out that our court hearing is at 10am on Thursday!

So far the trip has been uneventful which is nice. We even got a couple breaks with the airlines, we checked 3 suitcases and they didn't charge us for the extra one. We also had one that weighed 53 lbs instead of 50 lbs and again they didn't charge us. It was our lucky day! On the way home we have to balance the suitcases a little better so we don't have to worry about getting charged for being overweight with the luggage.

Also at the Boston airport we heard a page over the intercom for Kaden Craven, they were looking for his passport information. Aaron and I weren't sure if we heard right so we went up to the desk to see and sure enough we were right we did hear his name. We explained we had a paper ticket for our trip returning on May 31st and that he wasn't traveling with us now. They were fine with it. His name is tied to our reservation and they just wanted to at least get his birth date and what type of passport he would have!

Leaving Today!!

2008-05-12T07:18:00.004-05:00

The day is finally here! We leave in about 3 hours to go to the airport. We are so excited. We have basically been packed since Saturday. This week is going to be a crazy week for us in Russia. We leave today and get to Moscow on Tuesday. Wednesday we get to see Kaden! Thursday is the court date! We are asking for our 10 days to be waived. We don't know if this will happen but we are asking with a signed letter from our Pediatrician. Thursday will determine when we get home. Right now we plan on coming home May 31st, however if the 10 days are waived it will be sooner. We'll see!

This past week has been very busy for us. However we did find time to enjoy the life that we know now b/c we know that will all change when we get home. We slept in this weekend realizing this is probably the last time in our home that we will get to do this for a long time. This morning was also the last time I have to walk into Kaden's room and not see him there. There are a lot of lasts for us this week. We welcomed all of them b/c we can't wait for all our firsts with Kaden!

Yesterday was the 1st Mother's Day I got to celebrate! Aaron got me the movie "P.S. I love you" and a chocolate cake! I also got Chinese food for dinner!

Keep on checking back. We'll keep you posted on how things go this week!

7 Days Till We Leave!!

2008-05-05T20:02:00.002-05:00

We have finally hit the week mark! We leave in 7 days! This weekend was actually a very busy weekend. I think Aaron was excited to go back to work to get out of cleaning. I now finally understand what the nesting phase really feels like. This weekend we cleaned a lot since once Kaden gets home I want to focus all our time on him and not on Spring cleaning.

Here are the things we did to make the time pass quicker this weekend, cleaned and organized the kitchen cabinets, cleaned our closet in the bedroom (5 bags of clothes went to Goodwill), cleaned Kaden's closet to fit more stuff in there (packed away 18-24 month old clothes since they are way too big for him now), cleaned both SUV's, finished packing Kaden's suitcases (yes he has 2 suitcases a large one & small one), started packing our suitcases (yes we have 2 suitcases a large one & small one- I really hope we get a mini-van to pick us up), and completed our weekly cleaning. We were very busy.

One funny story I have from this weekend is we decided after my SUV was cleaned to put the car seat in. How long do you think it normally would take to put a car seat in, probably 5 minutes or less right, well not for us. It took us probably 30 minutes to get the car seat in. This was the 1st real thing we have had to put together for the baby (all the furniture was delivered and setup so we didn't have to do this- probably a good thing since who knows how long it would have taken us to put together a crib!!) We made it thru without any major fights, just frustration from lack of reading the directions. Any new parent I would strongly recommend you look at the directions first this could help save you time!!

Travel Update

2008-04-28T19:14:00.002-05:00

Today was a great day for our trip!! We received our visas. I was so happy to see everything is okay! I always freak out about this. I think Aaron is sick of hearing me say did you check the dates, our names, our birth dates, our passport numbers, etc. We also got today Kaden's plane ticket. It was so much fun to get the ticket with his name on it in the mail. We had also requested for the trip from Paris to MN to have a bassinet, since we had only bought a lap ticket for Kaden since he is under 2. The airline told me they weren't sure if we would be able to get this but they would try, it just depended on availability. Well we got it!! We hope this will help with the 9 hour plane ride!

I also had a great surprise on Thursday, my work threw me a baby shower. It was so nice. I was totally surprised, I was supposed to be getting my review from my boss but instead had a party!! We got our 2 of the big items that we had left, our 2nd car seat and the play n pack. We also got an outfit, 2 blankets made by a girl I work with, and some gift cards. We love all the gifts. They helped complete what we needed! We really are all set now!

Tagged

2008-04-27T10:15:00.002-05:00

I have been tagged by Teresa. I have to post 6 things that are a little quirky or unusual about myself.

Here you go!!

1. I love to warm up peanut butter sandwiches in the microwave for 10 seconds. I love to eat peanut butter that is melting!!

2. When I am home on Fridays I like to watch soap operas!!

3. I love to scrapbook. However when I sit down to scrapbook on the weekends it turns into me sitting down for hours and days trying to complete a book.

4. My favorite author to read is Jodi Picoult. I have to buy all her books!

5. I love country music.

6. My husband and I love the show “How I Met Your Mother”. We really like the song at the beginning and of course we like to hum the tune while watching the show. Aaron would probably be totally embarrassed that I posted this but it is quite amusing! Hopefully Kaden likes the tune too!

Travel Update

2008-04-23T13:07:00.001-05:00

We finally have all travel arrangments made. Here is what our trip looks like:

-Leave MN on Monday May 12th at 1:08pm
-Get into Moscow on Tuseday May 13th at 2:50 pm

-Visit Kaden on Wednesday May 14th

-Court date on Thursday May 15th- 10 days wait start on May 16th

-We are going to try and visit Kaden once during the 10 days wait period. My birthday is Friday May 23rd so I'm hoping to visit him then!!

-Pick up Kaden on Tuesday May 27th

-Return to MN on Saturday May 31st at 3:15pm

We are also staying at 2 different apartments while we are there. We really wanted to stay in the Arbat area but we could not find one that would work for the whole time we are there. Here is what our apartment switching will look like:

May 13th- May 19th- Old Arbat 2 Apartment
May 19th- May 23rd- Downtown Moscow Apartment
May 23rd- May 31st- Old Arbat 2 Apartment

We also sending off today our visas. This is one of the last big things we have left to do with travel arrangements!

I also have to say congratulations to Karyn & Norm for getting their court date today, May 15th!! They will be in Moscow the exact same times as us. We are so excited about this. There is actually going to be quite a few CSS families over there during our time. We are so excited to meet all the people who have been such a great a support group during this process!

Happy 10 months to Kaden today

2008-04-22T16:33:00.000-05:00

It has almost been a month since we met Kaden. This is the first month we get to at least celebrate a milestone with Kaden. Happy 10 months to our little boy!

Kaden, we will have you home before your 1st birthday and we can't wait to celebrate that with you!

On the travel front we are still waiting to hear the date when we can come back before we book airline tickets. We have booked our apartment with the latest day so far in the hopes to cancel any days we don't need. Once I have everything together I will explain all our travel plans!!

We have a Court Date!!!

2008-04-21T13:34:00.000-05:00

We have a court date! We heard from our agency today and our court date is Thursday May 15th! We will leave on Monday May 12th (in 3 weeks) for Russia! We are still trying to find out when we should plan on returning, we think it will be June 4th or 5th. Our agency is going to confirm this for us tomorrow. We have lots of things to do before we leave but we are so excited!

Thanks for all your prayers!!

Prayer Needed

2008-04-19T09:21:00.000-05:00

In international adoption they always say expect the unexpected but honestly you never know what that truly means until you go thru it. Yesterday I was exchanging some e-mails with one of my friends Karyn. She had been told yesterday that their case would be assigned to a judge on Monday to review and hopefully get a court date. There are only 2 judges for the Moscow Region for adoption. One of these judges is on vacation right now. If they get assigned to that judge then the court date will not be assigned until that judge is back from vacation.

On Monday I had received an e-mail from C. saying our case would reviewed with judge on April 21st and a court date would probably be set at that time. Now we are concerned b/c if we are assigned to the judge on vacation then we also may not get our court date on Monday like we were hoping for. Of course I decided not to e-mail CSS on Friday b/c Aaron and I really just want to wait and see what happens on Monday.

This weekend we are asking for your prayers for both Aaron & I and Karyn & Norm. We are praying that we both are assigned to the judge that is working now and that we get our court dates on Monday. We are praying for the court dates of May 12th or May 19th, right after the Russian Holidays in May. We also ask that you pray for both of our little boys. We want them to remain safe and healthy. We also need a lot of patience this weekend!

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Kaden Update

2008-04-16T14:44:00.000-05:00

Today I received a great e-mail from my friend who is over in Russia right now visiting their little one! They are both at the same orphanage so she asked about Kaden. He was sleeping so she didn't get to see him but was told he has recovered from being sick. We are so happy to hear this!! It just made our day to hear our little one is feeling better. Thanks so much Denise!!

Please keep praying for Kaden to stay healthy until we can go back to get him!

Update

2008-04-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had to talk to CSS. I thought I've done pretty good, we've been home for over 2 weeks (it's been 18 days since we have seen Kaden, yes I count the days b/c I can't wait to go back to see him again and we miss him terribly) and I haven't contacted them yet to find out when they think we will hear something. So I did on Monday. C. told us that it looks like next week we should hear something on our court date. We are very anxious but I have to admit I am happy to know okay I need to wait another week instead of worrying all week about if we will hear something.

Yesterday was a very busy day. I met with a Pediatrician who I loved! We went over Kaden's medical history. It was so nice to talk to her and talk about different things we will do once he gets home! I can't wait for him to get home. He has had so many colds. I hope giving him love and different medical care will help him to stay healthy instead of getting sick every month.

I also met with the daycare we are going to use. We decided that we really did want an in-home daycare. A friend I work with gave me a recommendation. I went there yesterday. The caregiver was great. I also liked the setup she had in her house. For those of you deciding what to do with daycare, a center vs. in-home, we decided on an in-home just because we felt like the center may feel like the orphanage setting. This is all preference. We plan on starting out with an in-home and then eventually putting him in a center when he gets closer to pre-school age. The location is very nice for us too. I'm so happy b/c Aaron can drop Kaden off in the morning and I can pick him up. This will really help me out when I start back to work after maternity leave.

The last thing for this week is my adoption buddy is over in Russia for their court hearing on April 17th. The really cool thing that we had always talked about was wouldn't it be cool if our sons were from the same orphanage!! Well they are! She is going to try and check on Kaden for us. We hope to hear something about him this week to keep us going till we see him again!

Busy Weekend

2008-04-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

I'm so thankful I have a busy weekend! My lil sisters bachlorette party is this weekend. I'm going to head to her house today, which is about a 4.5 hour drive. We are supposed to get hit with the April Snow Storm I hate this evening. I'm scared if I don't leave today I won't make it there. It should be a fun weekend and hopeful a break from all the waiting. Of course I will be the old women out with all her friends but I always gladly volunteer to be the DD.

In adoption news I have started getting everything together for our trip. I have piles of things laid out to pack for Kaden. I have already sterilized all the bottles and washed his clothes. I'm also meeting with a Pediatrician on Monday (April 14th) to go over his medical information. I'm hoping to find out which formula we should start him on.

I also have to say congratulations to some of my adoption friends who got good news last week. Congratulations Denise & Mike for getting their court date of April 17th. Also congratulations to
Becky & Keith on getting their 1st trip travel days.

Just another day in the life of the adoption journey

2008-04-07T21:43:00.000-05:00

It has now been 10 days since we have seen our little guy. When we first got home I thought "this wait won't be so bad." I was doing really good until this weekend. It was hard to be at home and just knowing that your little one is in a Baby Home waiting for you. All those thoughts that you don't want to think about creep into your mind, what is he doing now, does he remember me, does he miss me, does he think we abandoned him. I know every adoptive parent has those thoughts but of course I told myself I would focus on the positive but little did I know that being positive is not always easy. We are trying to focus on what we are going to do with Kaden once we get him home. We are so excited for him.

Of course since I was feeling a little down this weekend I did some retail therapy. I have been cut off from my husband again from shopping. However I got the cutest things this weekend, he now has 4 pairs of shoes, shorts, and onesies that will fit him. I also had fun buying baby food for him & teething toys. I'm excited to see his reaction to trying new foods! I also started buying the gifts needed for the caregivers at the Baby Home.

I also have set up an appointment with a Pediatrician we are going to use to go over Kaden's medical history. We want to find out if there is any type of medications that the doctor will give us for his cold (we think it is bronchitis b/c he has already had this once). I also want to find out what formula would be best for him.

Lots of things going on. I know I should just be happy b/c we really do have a lot to do before Kaden comes home. But of course this still can't happen fast enough. Please keep praying for Kaden. Since we can't be there to hold him we're praying that God is there wrapping his arms around him until we can do that again.

Russia Adoption Death in the News

2008-04-01T04:06:00.000-05:00

I know that I had posted last week saying we were hearing about another case of a Russia adopted child dying from abuse. Here is link to a youtube video covering the news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxlbYK59EPc&feature=user

One interesting point I heard was that this couple adopted independently instead of using an adoption agency. As many of you know adoption agencies had to go thru a strict accreditation process over the past year. Hopefully when Russia is reviewing this case this is considered. So far we are not hearing any news of slow downs in the Moscow Region because of this. We are hopeful that we will hear something in the next few weeks concerning a court date.

We are home

2008-03-31T06:47:00.001-05:00

We are finally home! We are happy to be back but are missing our little guy a ton. We have had a lot of fun talking to family and friends about our trip. Of course I already have my list put together on stuff we have to do before our next trip. We are going to start on that just in case we get an early court date.

So what's next many of you are wondering. We will now wait until we hear our court date. Right now it is taking about 3-5 weeks before you hear this. We are hoping that we hear something before the end of April since the beginning of May there are some Russia Holidays and our agency did not think we would hear anything between May 1- May 12. We have been given ideas as to potential dates they thought could happen, realize these are just our agencies ideas they really don't know until we get the date from the court:

April 28th (return to US with Kaden May 17th)
May 12th (return to US with Kaden May 31st)
May 19th (return to US with Kaden June 7th)

The process we are going to do for the 2nd trip is we would leave the Friday or Saturday before court and then we will be there for about 3 weeks. The reason why you are there so long is b/c once the court hearing is done in Russia they impose a 10 day wait period. This wait period is to allow for appeals. They do this for all court hearings, not just adoption. Once that 10 day wait period is up we can go pick up Kaden at the Baby Home (this is when I can finally post pictures of Kaden on our blog). We are then in Russia for about a week after that to get him cleared thru the Embassy and finish up paperwork in Russia. That is where the 3 weeks come from. We are excited to do a lot of sight seeing during the 10 day wait and shop in Russia too!

We'll keep you posted on what we hear. For now we will just continue to get things done preparing for Kaden to come home!

Leaving Moscow

2008-03-29T06:32:00.001-05:00

We are finally able to post on the internet. We have had many issues at the hotel. We are now at the airport in Moscow waiting to make our way home. Read below to hear all the details of our trip and meeting Kaden!!

Day 6- Trip 1

2008-03-29T06:31:00.004-05:00

Today was a busy day. We started at 8:30am and we didn’t get back to the hotel till 5:30pm. We first started by going to the Moscow Regional Court House for more documents. This took about an hour at the courthouse.

Traffic in Moscow was horrible today. Aaron was starting to get car sick by the end of the day. Next we were off to the Baby Home. We had to sign more documents saying our intent was to adopt Kaden and then we were able to see him for the last time. We had another wonderful day today. Each day he is changing. Today we heard him cry a little and talk too! Of course he cried when I was trying to feed him and the bottle was going so fast I took it out of his mouth so he could catch his breath but he did not like this. This little guy loves food. I don’t think we will have any problems with him being picky about what he eats. After he was done eating we had a good play time. We got lots of good video footage today. He is so adorable! Then we decided it was time to go. He was starting to rub his eyes but would not go to sleep in my arms. We wanted him to get his nap time in b/c he seems to be getting better a little each day. However he still has this horrible cough and wheezes. We are going to talk to our pediatrician about this and see if they can give us any medicine just in case he is still having problems when we go back. His cough and breathing reminds me of how I was when I was a kid struggling with asthma. I want to make sure we give him medicine to get better. We were very sad to leave him today but we know we will be back soon to get him! We can’t wait for that day to come.

Next we headed to the CSS office. We had to pick up the medical records that have been translated for us. We plan on taking this to our pediatrician. For those of you that are CSS families I just have to say that we have been very impressed with the services that CSS has offered. They have been so helpful. If we ever decide to go back for a 2nd child we will use them again. They really have your best interest at heart. Each day when we walk into the CSS office for business S. & I. always ask us first how Kaden is doing. They also like to look at the pictures we have taken for the day. We have been very touched by the compassion they have for us and Kaden.

After we got back from our day we went to the Grocery store by our hotel. T. pointed this out to us yesterday. This was our 2nd trip there. It was so easy. We have been able to find what we wanted! We are feeling so much better about getting around.

Tomorrow we start our trip home. We will be staying in Amsterdam for the night. We are excited to get home to talk to our family and friends, but very sad to leave Kaden. A big piece of our hearts will remain in Russia until we can bring him home. This miracle has brought us so much joy to us this week. We are head over heels in love with him and can’t wait to introduce him to everyone. He has a smile that will melt your heart. Meeting him has truly made the wait worthwhile. It has been a journey for us so far but we feel the ending coming soon. We also now know that God has revealed his plan to us. Getting a baby at 9 months old is not very common. He had just become available for international adoption. I know the wait has not been easy but God kept on telling us to be patient and now we know why. The plan he revealed to us is better than I ever imagined.

Day 5- Trip 1

2008-03-29T06:31:00.003-05:00

Today we went to Arbat street to look around. This is one of the main roads in downtown Moscow. Next time we come we want to stay as close to that as possible. There is so much to do there. There are lots of shops & places to eat. We went into a very big grocery store. We now have a better idea as to what we can buy, especially for Kaden while we are here. This is such a relief to me that I can see all the baby food so I know I will only bring a few things with us but will buy most of the stuff here.

Next we went to the 8 Doctor visits. This was very easy. We got there a little early but the whole thing only took us about 2 hours. The longest time I was with 1 doctor was probably 10 minutes and that was the psychiatrist.

Tomorrow we are going to start early. We have to take some more documents to the court house. Today S. took some stuff for us but there are a few more things we need to drop off. Then we will go see Kaden! This will be our last time of seeing him before we leave. We are excited to get home but very sad to leave Kaden. We hope we will have a quick return. However this past week we have been hearing about another child that was adopted from Russia that died. We are very sad to hear this. I can’t imagine a mother doing this to a child. We are concerned that this could cause some more delays in the adoption process again in Russia. We really have not heard this from CSS, it’s just a concern.

Please pray for a quick return to Kaden. Also please pray that this new issue of another child that was adopted from Russia and was killed does not hold up our process or anyone else’s from CSS. We know that this family was not from our agency.

Day 4- Trip 1

2008-03-29T06:31:00.001-05:00

Today was a very busy day! Since we decided yesterday to adopt Kaden there were lots of things to do. We started the day by stopping at the notary to have the documents that S. is taking to the court tomorrow for us. After that we went to the Baby Home. We were able to get the medial information we needed for court also. Plus I. in the CSS office is going to translate all this information for us so we can take this to our pediatrician. Then we were able to see Kaden. Today was our best day yet with him. He was already in the room when we walked in. He got this big smile on his face when he saw Aaron. I can already tell that he is totally going to be a daddy’s boy. I love seeing the two of them interact. I have to admit I was concerned before the trip as to how our son would react to Aaron b/c most of these children have not interacted with a man. However Kaden has loved Aaron from the 1st day. He is just so curios. Kaden loves to play with our faces. Also the past few days he loves to suck on Aaron’s arm. I can see the 3rd bottom tooth coming thru, so of course he wants to put everything in his mouth. However today it was so funny he bit Aaron’s finger. It started to bleed a little but it was quite funny. I don’t think Aaron will let him suck on his finger again.

Today I also had a really good experience with Kaden. I got lots of smiles from him today. He reacts to your voice when you get excited. He gets this big smile on his face. He also still loves kisses. He smiles every time. I also realized today that when I was bending over to give him kisses my hair would tickle his nose so of course I had to do that for a few seconds and he would smile at that too. After yesterday I was concerned about how I couldn’t calm him down and he wouldn’t sleep in my arms. The only way to have him sleep was to put him in the crib. I didn’t like this b/c I want to rock him to sleep. Well today I got to feed him a bottle. I finally have heard a lot of sounds come out of this little guy when food came into the room. He wanted it right away. Also there would be times that I would think he was finish so I would take to take the bottle out and boy did he get upset. He ate so much. He also tried to talk to us of course with the bottle in his mouth. Towards to the end of the feeding he feel asleep in my arms. He was so cute! He looked so peaceful with his belly full. I tried to get up to put him in the crib b/c I know he needs his sleep to get over his cold; however he woke up and of course wanted more food. We gave him a little more of the bottle. Then he was done. It was also time for us to go. I put him back in his crib and gave him some good-bye kisses. He smiled for me and I told him we would be back on Friday. The caregivers took him out of the room. As I was walking out I saw him in his room. He was lying on his tummy in his crib with a blank stare on his face. I hated seeing this. I wanted to go into the room and pick him up and never leave him again. I got teary eyed as I walked out. I am hoping we get a quick court date. It is going to be so hard to leave him. It is already hitting me that we have only 1 day left to see him. I hate to think about what he is going to think when we don’t come back for weeks. Will he remember us? I really hope so. We love him so much. I just have to remind myself it will only be a few weeks and then he will be with us for the rest of his life!

After we were done seeing Kaden we went to the CSS office to drop off the papers we had gotten today. Tomorrow S. is going to the court for us to drop of the papers. We need to have these papers filed so we can get a court date. We hope to hear something back in the next 2-3 weeks or so. We’ll see what happens.

We also stopped to get more water at the grocery store. The store we went into was totally different than the other day. They had a lot of food. You could also look around and see what you wanted, pick it up, and take it to the cashier to check out. This was a such a relief to Aaron and I to see a grocery store that we could get around in for the 2nd trip since as of right now we are planning on staying the full 3 weeks in Russia.

Tomorrow we won’t see Kaden as we have our 8 Doctor appt, but before this T. is going to take us souvenir shopping and check out some more sights in Moscow.

I really just want to say thank you for all your prayers. Today we saw a different Kaden. He truly is changing each day we go visit him. We can’t wait to bring him home and watch him change. We are very hopeful after today that this change will happen quickly.

Day 3- Trip 1

2008-03-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

First off let me start by saying that we want to welcome Kaden Meyer Craven to our family!! We made our decision today to adopt the little boy that we were given as a referral. We are absolutely are in love with this little boy. He is so cute and just loves attention.

Today we started out going to see Kaden 1st thing in the morning. Again when we got there he was woken up to come see us. The little guy is such a trooper. His cold today was better than yesterday. It still breaks me heart when I hear him breathe very hard and listen to him cough but today he had moments where he would breathe normal. The doctor was very hopeful that he will feel better soon. Today we played with him a lot. He loves toys. Of course everything goes in the mouth. We brought today a teether toy which he played with for probably half of the time we were there. The next thing he loved to do was suck on Aaron’s arm. I’m sure by the time we pick him up after court he will have more teeth! One of my favorite moments of the day is when you give the little guy kisses he gets the biggest smile on his face. I wish I could posts pictures now b/c I have the greatest picture of his smile. When I see him smile it just breaks my heart that we have to leave him in the baby home for weeks. Also today we fed him some graduate chewable snacks, they were a hit. He was starting to get a little fussy and I thought it might be b/c he was hungry. After we got out the food he would just lie in our arms and eat! Towards the end of the visit the little guy was so tired but as long as we were holding him he would not fall asleep. I think over stimulation and the fact that someone holding him and trying to rock him to sleep is new to him overwhelmed him. We put him back into his crib and sat there for a few minutes. As he was falling asleep I can see the way he has comforted himself is by sucking on his 2 fingers. He would close his eyes but then open them about 30 seconds later to see if we were still there. After about 5 minutes of this we realized that we needed to leave so he could get his sleep to feel better. We know that we still have 2 days left to see him (Wednesday & Friday).

After the Baby Home we went to the CSS office. We looked over the papers that we will be taking to the notary tomorrow. We shared with S & I the pictures we had taken today. We got lots of good ones. For future adoptive parents traveling one hint may be to learn how to turn off the flash & the red eye reduction. Yesterday our pictures were mostly okay with a few good ones b/c the lights were hard on Kaden’s eyes and he kept on closing them in the picture. Today we have lots of good pictures showing his face & eyes! At the CSS office we also learned more around the upcoming Holidays in Russia and the times that there will not be travel. From what I understood today we that we can expect no new travel May 1st – 10th. Basically either we travel the last week of April (which is the 4 week mark for us) or after the Holidays in May. We will wait patiently for our court date but at this point if we don’t travel the last week in April, then we can expect to miss my sister’s wedding (sorry Courtney L).

Wednesday- Go to the Notary in the morning to finish documents needed to fill with the court on Thursday; Go see Kaden

Thursday- Doctor Visit; File documents to adopt Kaden with the Moscow Regional court

Friday- Go see Kaden for the last time till our second trip L

Saturday- Fly to Amsterdam and stay the night

Sunday- Arrive home!!

Please continue to pray for Kaden. We want him to get healthy. We also are now seeing the adjustment we will have for the first couple months of him being. We are very excited to bring him home and to see how he changes!

Day 2- Trip 1

2008-03-24T12:51:00.002-05:00

Today was a great day. We started around 9:15am. It took about an hour to get from our hotel to the CSS office. We talked for a few minutes at the office and then we were off to the MOE. The building we went into for the MOE reminded me of the building I went o Jr High School in. It was very run down, not exactly what we expected. Also we experienced the world’s smallest elevator. It really is a 2 person elevator but we fit 3 on it. The whole time I was thinking please don’t let this elevator get stuck. We made it to the 4th floor. We waited for about an hour before we went into the MOE office. The head of the department has to give the referral so we had to wait for her. We received a referral of a baby boy that is 9 months old! We were very happy with the age as we wanted as young as possible. The picture for the referral was not so good. The best way I know to describe it is a really bad driver’s license picture. We now understand a little more as to why the picture didn’t turn out well especially if they had the flash on. We got some pictures today but he really does not like the flash and kept on closing his eyes. We did have some medial questions we wanted answered so we were off to the Baby Home to hear more about the little one. The Dr M. we had hired meet us at the Baby Home. I was very thankful we had him. He did a complete evaluation and gave us his opinion on the little one.

Now for the moment you are waiting for… they brought the baby into the room. He is so cute. He has sandy blonde hair with grayish eyes. He is very tiny. He weighs about 15 pounds. He had just woken up from a nap and he has a cold right now. He just stared for a few minutes and then he wanted to interact with us. He loved 1 of the toys we brought it was a soft toy with lots of things for him to chew on and it makes sounds. To look at his physical skills we would put the toy away from him. He would crawl over to it. He also got this really big smile on his face when you help him stand up. He has such strong legs and arms. He loves to pull himself up. When he would smile I could see that I think he has 5 teeth! Overall we had a really good day with him. He is adorable. He also loved being held by me or Aaron. He is all boy he just wanted to go everywhere and play with toys. He is so curious. He also is just craving attention as we noticed today. He made great eye contact with us which made us very happy to see this too. By the end of the day he was starting to get very sleepy. This was when we left. It was already very hard to watch him leave.

Now what is next, we get to go visit him 1 more time before we have to make our decision. We will leave our hotel at 10am tomorrow and go to visit him. Hopefully for a few hours, this will just depend on how he feels b/c he really needs his sleep right now to get over his cold. After the visit we will go to the CSS office and let them know our decision.

Tonight we decided to go cheap for dinner and there is a McDonald’s right beside the hotel. We were able to eat there for $8.00. We may be hitting that up again to try to save money! We also went to the grocery store today with Tatiana. That was an experience. First we went around and looked for what we wanted. All we wanted was bread, water, & fruit. We then had to tell a cashier what we wanted then we paid. Finally we went back to the different stations and picked up our food. We never would have figured this out so we’re very thankful Tatiana helped us!

That is it for tonight. We will write more tomorrow about Day 3. Pray for us that we have peace with the decision we make tomorrow. Also please pray for Kaden, we want his cold to get better fast.

Day 1- Trip 1

2008-03-24T12:51:00.001-05:00

Our trip was rather smooth, no delays at the airport. We slept okay on the planes, we each got about 4 hours of sleep. Our translator, Tatiana, was waiting for us once we got thru customs. We were brought directly to the hotel. We got to the hotel at about 4:30pm. We were so tired so we fell asleep for about 2 hours. We have not had a chance yet to exchange money and go to the grocery store. We are going to do this on Monday. We decided to just eat dinner at the hotel. This was our first experience of how expensive the food can be. We had cheeseburgers for dinner and it cost about $60. We will be looking for other ways to eat out and keep the expense down. Off to bed for the night, we have a big day tomorrow!

Internet Access

2008-03-24T12:50:00.001-05:00

I have to start by saying that the internet is not cheap here at the hotel. We are a planning on posting today and tomorrow but we will probably wait on the rest of the postings till we get back to the US on Sunday. Please do not be disappointed if you don’t see anything past Day 3 till we get back from the trip.

Less than 24 hours to go!!!

2008-03-21T18:39:00.000-05:00

We have less than 24 hours before we leave. I have this amazing peace that has came over me, so thanks for all your prayers!! We are just so excited to go. We basically have a few things to add to our suitcases in the morning and then we should be off on our way. My packing didn't go as I had planned. We ended up having to take 2 large suitcases. However I like the advice Becky had given me about packing clothes for both in each suitcase just in case 1 is lost you both will still have clothes so that is what we did. We leave on Saturday at 4:10pm. We will get into Moscow at 2:40pm on Sunday.

Everyone have a Happy Easter! We will post again once we are in Russia! Thanks for all the love and support we have gotten from all our family and friends thru this process. Our dream of having a child for the past 2 1/2 years will come true on Monday. We can't wait to meet Kaden!

4 days and counting!!

2008-03-18T11:42:00.000-05:00

We leave in 4 days!! We are pretty much set to go. We have gotten the money from the bank, so thank you for your prayers on this as I was concerned about this. We started officially packing on Sunday, however one of my friends at work had to remind me that I have been packing for weeks already b/c I would buy things and set it on the chair in Kaden's room. The piles were my way of packing without getting out the suitcases b/c I was scared if I got out the suitcases our dream would not come true.

I know people have been asking how we are doing. Right now there is such a wide range of emotions that we have felt over the past week. At times you are so happy and then of course your fears and being overwhelmed creep in there too. I know that every parent must go thru the roller coaster of emotions but I think for us we have tried not to feel too many emotions for a while around the adoption and now all these emotions have been hitting us over the past 2 weeks.

Some of you may be wondering so what does next week look like for us while we are in Moscow. We leave on Saturday from MN. We get into Moscow on Sunday. Monday we will go to the MOE to receive information on the little boy that will be our referral. After that we head straight to the orphanage. We have arranged for a Doctor to come and evaluate our little boy at the orphanage. Right now that is scheduled for Tuesday but it could happen on Monday. CSS will help us call him once we are done at the MOE and then we will know which day. We will hopefully get to spend Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday with our son. The visits will be for about 1-2 hours each day. On Friday we have an 8 doctor evaluation that Aaron and I have to go thru. Then on Saturday we leave. We get back to the MN on Sunday. A big week for us! I am going to try and post every day on what has happened. However we will not be able to post pictures of Kaden on our blog until we actually pick him up from the orphanage on our 2ND trip. This rule is put in place so that the identity of the child is protected and not revealed until he is actually our child. Sorry but there will not be any pictures of him on the blog for the 1st trip.

Finally I want to end this post with an adoption poem I found on another blog. I loved this poem:

Once there were two women who never knew each other.. One you do not remember, the other you call mother.

Two different lives, shaped to make You one...One became your guiding star, the other became your sun.

The first gave you life and the second taught you to live it. The first gave you a need for love, and the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name. One gave you a seed of talent, the other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears. One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears.

One gave you up ... that's all she could do. The other prayed for a child and God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me, through your fears, the age old question unanswered throughout the years...Heredity or environment .. Which are you the product of..Neither, my darling .. neither..just two different kinds of love.~ Author Unknown

Please continue to pray for us as we travel. Also please pray for Kaden. And finally I ask that you also pray for Kaden's birth mom. I know this was such a hard decision to give up your child. I will thank God everyday for giving us the beautiful gift of knowing & loving Kaden.

Visas have arrived

2008-03-14T08:22:00.000-05:00

Our visas arrived yesterday!!!! Everything looks good on them, we are so relieved. This was one of the things of course I stress about hoping that nothing is wrong. I was so relieved when they came yesterday and everything was correct. I am starting to feel the count down before we leave (8 days). I woke up early this morning thinking about everything that still needs to be done for the trip and work.

We just have 1 big thing left and once that is complete I will feel a lot better. We are waiting to get the cash we need from the bank. I haven't gotten the warmest feeling when I have called them so I'm a little nervous. For those of you that don't know, when you adopt from Russia you have to carry cash with you to exchange over in Russia for Rubles or some things you can pay for in US Dollars. Well the big thing is the cash you take has to be new bills (or look like new bills, no writing, stamps, or creases). I am going to call the bank today and see where they are at with getting our money together. I hope to get this early next week!

This weekend I plan on starting to pack. I have piles of stuff sitting in the babies room of things I have bought for our trip. I figured it might be time to start trying to fit them in suitcases. We are hoping to take 1 big suitcase and a carry on. We'll see how that goes. I like to over pack so this is hard for me not to do this. Normally for a week we would be taking 2 big suitcases but I am trying to limit if I can!!

I also want to say congratulations to Denise & Mike on their 1st trip and meeting their son! Also good luck to Karyn & Norm as they leave this weekend for their 1st trip! There is lots of exciting things going on with CSS.

Travel Plans are complete!!

2008-03-10T08:14:00.000-05:00

We have had a busy weekend but very exciting. We have made all our travel arrangements. We leave on Saturday March 22nd at 4:10pm. We will arrive in Moscow on Sunday March 23rd at 2:40pm. We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Moscow Sokolniki. This is not in the same place that most people stay but we are close to a metro station so we figured we will try this out to get around at nights. We were also able to send out our visa's on Friday since CSS issued all the documents needed since we are staying in a Hotel. We are hoping to get these back this week. No packing has started yet but I do have piles of stuff that I have bought this weekend for us to take. We have made a lot of progress but still have lots of packing to do and other errands. Thanks for all your prayers. We have had a lot of peace this weekend as we have gotten things done.

Travel Dates!!

2008-03-07T09:49:00.001-06:00

It's official, we are traveling March 22nd-March 30th. We will meet Kaden on March 24th. I will post more later but I at least wanted to let everyone the day we have been waiting for has finally arrived! We are busy making our travel plans and getting the visa information together. Thanks for all your prayers! Please keep praying for safe travels and for Kaden!

Good News!!!

2008-03-06T09:43:00.000-06:00

Well the crazy day we had on Monday paid off, we are going to be registered tomorrow (March 7th)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited. I am having a hard time working since I got the e-mail from CSS. CSS is going to request that we travel March 23rd week, and meet Kaden on March 24th, 18 days from now!!!!!! I want to say thank you for all your prayers this week! Look for more to come!

Crazy Day

2008-03-03T17:23:00.000-06:00

Today was a CRAZY DAY!! I got a call at noon from our adoption agency. When we sent in our dossier we sent our picture pages in wrong (didn't have it notarized & apostilled). We were told that this really was only needed for the 2nd trip so there was no hurry to get this complete. They told us to to wait till we got back our FBI clearances (again which is needed for the 2nd trip) and get both of these apostilled together and send to CSS. Well that was the plan till this morning. CSS has some concerns around a couple things to be able to register our dossier, they wanted our updated Home Study (again we had been told they could register our old one which expires March 20th and then once we get our updated one we would use that for court) & pictures. The conversation was basically that they aren't sure they can register us with the old Home Study & without the pictures. Of course I go into the "I can do anything" mode and decide to get everything we can done today. I called our Home Study agency and they completed our update today. I finished the pictures correctly & had it notarized. We also got our FBI clearances back on Friday so I thought I should just get this done too. So I was off on a mission. I left my house at 1pm and by 3:15 I had all the papers completed and apostilled. For those of you that don't know what this is, you have the take your documents to the Secretary of State and they have to apostill documents. Luckily for us in MN we can walk into the Sec of State and get this done same day. To make things even crazier we are sending all 3 of these documents straight to Russia via Fed Ex so that hopefully we can get registered on March 7th.

Today has probably been one of my most panic moments yet in the adoption. We really need to travel before the end of March so Aaron can use the 7 days he has saved from last years vacation. His company requires him to use them by end of March. Our agency is aware of this and is trying to do everything they can. I have a BIG prayer request, please pray we can register Friday March 7th so we can travel March 23rd week. If we can't register this week then we will get to register on March 14th and hopefully we could get a travel date of March 23rd but making arrangements for travel would be very stressful with a weeks notice. For now we know we have done everything we can to try and get registered on Friday March 7th the rest is left up to God. This adoption has really taught me to rely on him b/c he always has a plan and it may not match my plan. So for now I will just let everything go and what ever happens is b/c of the grace of God and I will trust that!!

Update on Registartion- Again!!

2008-02-28T12:35:00.000-06:00

Today I talked to our agency and last Friday I was told there maybe a possibility of us getting registered on Feb 29th but they weren't sure. Well today we found out we will be registered on March 7th. Our dossier is done being translated but it is still at the notary that is why it won't happen this week. We are thinking that we will travel March 22-29 but that is not set yet but just tentative for us. Keep your fingers & toes crossed for us. We can't wait to travel to meet Kaden. We should know more next Friday!

Update on Registration

2008-02-21T15:22:00.001-06:00

We have heard today from CSS that is looks like we will be registered more than likely on March 7th instead of February 29th. They are hopeful that we will travel then on around March 14/15 and then meet Kaden on March 17th. So it looks like we have 2 more weeks to wait and see when our final travel dates will be!!

Register date will be February 29th!!

2008-02-20T16:16:00.000-06:00

Today we found out from our agency that our dossier will not be done being translated by Feb. 22nd; however we should be good for Feb. 29th. We have requested to travel as soon as possible. We have friends (Denise & Mike) traveling March 9th-March 16th. We have asked if we can travel at that same time, even if we only have about a week to get everything done!! I know you must be thinking you are crazy!! The reason we are trying to travel so fast is b/c Aaron has 7 vacation days he has to use at the end of March. Also my little sis is getting married May 31st. We really want to make it back for the wedding and hopefully have even a few weeks to adjust with Kaden beforethat. Also I can't for all my family to meet him at the wedding since they live in Ohio and we live in Minnesota! We will see but right now if things stay the way they have been running for other families here is what our timelines would look like:

Trip 1- March 9th-March 16th
Trip 2- April 11th- May 3rd/4th (Home about 4 weeks before the wedding!!)

These timelines are very rough and may not mean anything yet but as you can see the earlier we go the potential of being home for my sisters wedding is greater!!

Please pray we receive our travel dates on Feb 29th! Also please pray for our patience b/c we are not patience people! This process has tested that completely!

Dossier Safely in Moscow

2008-02-18T17:38:00.001-06:00

Our Dossier has made it safely to Moscow, thanks so much Emily for carrying it over for us!! I can't tell how much of a relief it was when we found out it was being carried over to Russia by a family and then we found out it was you, THANKS SO MUCH!!

So what now is the question all of you are dying to know! Well our dossier is now being translated. This will take 1-2 weeks. Hopefully we will know more later this week. If our dossier only takes a week to translate, it will get registered in Moscow on Feb 22nd. If it takes 2 weeks to translate then it will get registered on Feb 29th. What our agency has been seeing is that once your dossier is registered you get a confirmed travel date, normally 2 weeks later. This is so exciting. We are hoping that we have about a month or less before we meet Kaden!!!!! For now we will try to wait patiently. This is all just very exciting for us b/c this is closest we have been to meeting Kaden.

Dossier on its way to Moscow

2008-02-14T18:45:00.001-06:00

Today CSS confirmed our dossier is going to Moscow this weekend!! A family from Charlotte is traveling this weekend and is going to hand carry it over to Moscow for us. If this family reads our blog, THANK YOU!! We feel really good about having a family carry our dossier over to Moscow so now we don't have to worry about the potential of our dossier getting lost in the mail. Hopefully next week we can get an update on the translation. We are still hoping for 2/22 or 2/29 to be registered in Moscow Region! We'll keep you updated but we feel very positive about the progress we are making! Please pray for our little one as we are anxiously waiting to meet him. We are praying for his safety and health.

Dossier looks good!

2008-02-11T14:34:00.000-06:00

We heard back today from CSS that our dossier looks good! They are going to be sending it to Moscow to get this translated. They aren't sure yet if they are going to send it via mail or have someone hand carry it over to Moscow. I am suposed to hear back on that later this week. We are hoping a family traveling this weekend carries it over for us. However it should be registered by the end of the month, either 2/22 or 2/29. We will know more details around how long it will take to translate once it makes it to Moscow. So basically we have tentative dates for traveling March 7th or March 14th!!!!!! We are so excited. Finally we are making progress after a year of waiting. We'll keep you posted on any new information.

Thanks to all the PAP's using CSS who have introduced themselves to us. We feel so welcomed by everyone and can't wait to get to know you more. Hopefully for those of you still traveling we hope to cross paths!

Dossier #2 Done!!

2008-02-09T07:19:00.000-06:00

We have completed our Dossier #2 today! It is now on its way to CSS and will arrive on Monday. Hopefully we hear back everything looks good and it will be on its way to Moscow next weekend. Also what we have seen is that once CSS is done reviewing your dossier they will give you "tentative dates". We are hoping they give us these "tentative dates" for our 1st travel next week! We are so excited. This week has been a busy week with getting our paperwork done in a week but I am so glad when it is done. Now the wait begins, again, but I feel very positive that we will hear something soon! Pray for us that we get to travel in March! Aaron has 7 days a vacation that he has to take that month so we are hoping he can use those for our 1st trip. We are so excited b/c we feel we are getting very close to finally meeting Kaden! We can't wait!

Big Decision

2008-02-07T19:41:00.000-06:00

I know the last posting I talked about switching to the Moscow Region with CHI. Well I finally heard back from CHI and we are able to switch but they aren't sure that they have everything together for what is needed to regisiter our new dossier in the Moscow Region and when they will know. Well Aaron and I realized we had a big decision to make, do we stay with CHI or do we go elsewhere. The reason we felt like we were at this point was because our Home Study is in the process of being updated since it expires on March 20th, 2008. That is our first document to expire and more were coming with CHI. We were not feeling very hopeful on a timeline with CHI. Well we decided to switch agencies. We have heard wonderful things about CSS. Plus they work in the Moscow Region. All the blogs I have been reading have shown me the process is moving very fast for an infant boy. I know this all can change but right now we just felt like it was time to make a change. Tomorrow we are turning in our new dossier with CSS!! We are so excited. We should have our dossier registered in Russia by the end of February. We are hopeful then that we will travel for our first trip in March. Only time will tell what is going to happen but we are very hopeful and excited.

Update on Moscow

2008-02-03T09:26:00.000-06:00

I know some of you are waiting to hear back on the news I shared this week thru conversations. On Monday there was an e-mail I got from CHI about opening new regions. One of the regions was Moscow Region and Moscow City. We are open to both but would prefer to switch to Moscow Region. We requested on Monday to look at switching. CHI was supposed to get back to us on Wednesday, then Thursday, and then Friday. Well we do not have any information. We are frustrated by this but we'll wait and see what comes back. Some you may be wondering why switch. Here is what we know about the 2 regions we are looking at:

Moscow Region
1. You will travel on a blind referral- this means we will not know anything about the child till we get to Moscow. We will not use the International adoption clinic here in MN to evaluate the medicals b/c we won't get anything till we get to Moscow. However we have decided to hire a doctor in Moscow to evaluate the child instead. The doctor would come to the orphanage with us.
2. The travel time between the 1st & 2nd visit is about 4-6 weeks right now.
3. Other agencies that have been using Moscow Region have been getting referrals rather quickly.
4. We would only have to fly into Moscow and then stay there.

Tver Region
1. This region is about 1 1/2 hour drive from Moscow.
2. Before you travel you receive a picture and medical information on your referral. We would have the International adoption clinic in MN look at this information for any concerns.
3. This region has been rather slow so far.
4. This region use to be about 2 months wait in between the 1st & 2nd trip. However this summer there was a judge change which has caused delays in the adoption process. We really don't know how long in between trips it will be. We have heard of people waiting over 4 months lately.

There are pros and cons for both but we have decided we would really like to switch to Moscow Region. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

For other news, Aaron has now made his 2nd batch of beer. It will be done in a few weeks. He is excited to see how this one tastes.

Thoughts for the Day

2008-01-23T20:07:00.000-06:00

The news of the week has been that Aaron's beer tasted good! He is very happy with his 1st batch of beer. He is now making his 2nd batch of beer. I'm glad he is enjoying his new hobby, he needed something that he enjoys right now since he is not really enjoying work. He is really trying to wait to look for something new until we have the adoption complete. On the job front for me there may be a few possibilities of new jobs at Best Buy. I am very excited at looking at new opportunities but I will have to wait a while longer to see what happens. Aaron and I are really hoping that maybe in the next few years that he can stay home with Kaden. We'll see what happens but we would love for him to stay home.

As for the adoption we have no news. I can't wait till the day I have something to post but we are still waiting. I am starting to get a little frustrated but I know that I have to be patience. I found this quote on another blog. It really hit home for me. This just really helped me to remember to lean on God in times of need. That need is different for everyone but for me it is patience in this time of unknown! Enjoy and I hope you feel encouraged that God is there for you!

Christians
by Maya Angelou

"A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her."

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin'" I'm whispering "I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say... "I am a Christian" I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not claiming to be perfect. My flaws are far too visible but, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not holier than thou, I'm just a simple sinner who received God's good grace, somehow!

Russia is back to work!!

2008-01-14T14:35:00.000-06:00

Russia is back to work after the Holiday. They were supposed to be back to work Jan. 9th but we had been told not to really expect everything to start moving until Jan. 14th and going forward. We are hoping that in the next month or so we will know more around timing as to when we could expect to travel. We have been staying busy. I started the baby book I'm making for Kaden. I had a hard time finding a baby book I really liked for adoption so I decided to use my scrap booking skills to create one myself. It has been years since I have scrap booked and now I remember why I liked it so much. I can sit down for hours and do this. I also started making a list of things we need to do when we get "The Call". I know at that moment I will probably be a mess and forget everything b/c I will be so excited! One of the things on my list was to buy some clothes for Kaden to leave at the orphanage until we return for our 2nd trip to finally take him home. Of course this weekend I went to Target and saw lots of good sales so I bought some clothes for Russia for him. I also bought a winter coat for him from Gap. I know this may be wishful thinking but just in case we did get to bring him home this winter I wanted to make sure I had a coat for him. Gap had really good sales. Not much else going on with the adoption.

For those of you who know that Aaron has taken up the hobby of making his own beer, thanks Mary for the kit Aaron thinks it the best Christmas present ever, well the 1st batch of beer will be ready to drink this weekend. I hope it turns out good for Aaron's sake. He worked so hard!

That's all I have!! I'll keep you posted if anything changes. Please continue to pray for Kaden's safety and health and that we get to bring him home soon, hopefully before Courtney (my lil sis) and Andy's wedding May 31st!!

Update

2007-12-26T16:16:00.000-06:00

I don't have much to post. I have finally talked to CHI. I really didn't get any new information than what I already thought but CHI did tell us we have moved up on the list, remember we started at number 11. They have told us they feel we are in a good spot, which I really don't what that means but I guess I just have to trust them. There have been 2 families that are traveling in Tver now. This is good news because Tver had not given out new referrals since August to CHI because of the judge change and I'm sure the pending accreditation didn't help. Right now CHI is not giving out time frames yet for families waiting because they really don't know yet how the accreditation will affect them. We are hoping things start to really move and that our time lines told back in August of May-July '08 will improve. Right now we know of 1 couple that is over there and they have a received referral of a 9 month of boy. That is so exciting!! However if this was us I would have to buy more clothes because all the clothes I bought would be too big, I think this would make both grandma's happy because I think they are dying to buy clothes since I already bought so many!! Right now I am trying to be patient. It is very hard some days but I know in God's time our son will come.
We had a good Christmas with our families. We got lots of good things and had good bonding time. My favorite moment of Christmas was the Christmas Eve service we attended at our church. It was so nice. We sang lots of Christmas carols and the children had their Christmas play. It just really helped me to get in the Christmas mood. Thinking back to what Christmas is all about helps to put a lot of things in perspective for me. Knowing that Jesus came to this earth and was adopted by Mary and Jospeh always brings me back to having peace about the whole adoption. I know that God wanted us to do this but when you run into so many problems you do start to wonder. Christmas came at a perfect time for me. It really showed me that God is with us and to have patience in a time in my life when all I want is for things to go fast!!
I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas!!

Best Christmas Present Ever!!!

2007-12-20T12:20:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we received an e-mail from Children's Hope saying that on Friday the 21st of December they were invited to the MOE to get their accreditation certificate!! We were so excited. Today it looks like the MOE actually accredited Children's Hope on Dec. 14th however the certificate will come tomorrow. This is the the best Christmas present ever, well 2nd best, having a referral would be the best Christmas present ever. I have sent an e-mail to our agency to find out what this means for us. We still don't really know timing but we are so excited to be working with an accredited agency. It is tough in Russia right now if you are not working with an accredited agency. I had been praying for a Christmas surprise on the adoption, and my thought was getting a referral but God had other plans which I'm glad he did b/c getting the accreditation for CHI will make things easier for our adoption.

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I will get better. I have more pictures to post of the baby shower my mom and sisters had for me. I got some great stuff!! We are all ready. I really can't think of anything that we really need!

Merry Christmas to all!! I know this year I am very thankful to know that God is in control and I know he has a special baby boy for us waiting in Russia for us. Hopefully soon we will get to meet him!

Waiting can be so hard with no new information

2007-10-01T20:26:00.000-05:00

Today we received the August Newsletter from your adoption agency. Our agency posts in the newsletter information of people who had brought home their child/children. You do have agree to release your information for it to be posted. However it is very frustrating b/c since we have turned in our dossier to the Tver region we have not seen any information around people bringing their child home. Before that we were seeing 2-3 people each month. I had talked to my agency about this over a month ago and they told me I should see more in August so I was really looking forward to this newsletter. However we did not see anyone in the newsletter that adopted from Tver region. It is so frustrating!! The only way that I truly know how to explain this wait time period is to tell someone who is pregnant that imagine if you were told your due date is anytime between January to July (7 months on not knowing when your baby will be here). It is so agonizing some days. Today is just one of those days when my patience is running thin. I want Kaden to be here now. We love him so much and we don't even know anything about him. It just kills me to think of him over there in the orphanage and knowing that his development is being delayed, he has no one to rock him to sleep, and he has no one to tell him every minute of that day that they love him. I can't wait till we have Kaden home. We started this process 9 months ago and hopefully at the most have another 9 months left. I really hope we get some positive news on the adoption front soon. Please pray for Kaden and for the accreditation of our agency. Also please pray for us to stay busy so the time will go by fast.

4th Wedding Anniversay

2007-09-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

This week Aaron and I celebrated out 4th wedding anniversary. These past 4 years have been wonderful, even thru times that could have been very hard. Going thru fertility problems could have caused problems, but instead it really brought us closer together and really made us realize how much we wanted a family. We are so excited to think that next year Kaden will be here for our 5 year anniversary.

This week new on the adoption front is us looking for someone to help consult on medical information we get on Kaden. The University of Minnesota has an International Adoption Clinic. They will be able to read the medical history we get from Russia and tell us if there are any major concerns. Also once Kaden gets home we can take him to the clinic and they will evaluate him medically, behaviorally, and socially. We are very excited for this. Plus one site for the clinic is in Burnsville which is 10 minutes away from our house! We will take Kaden there 4 times over the next 2 years after he comes home to make sure his development is okay. For those of you who don't know much about children who have been in orphanages their development will be behind when you bring them home. The rule is for every 3 months in an orphanage you can expect 1 month delay in development, so for Kaden if he is 12 months old he will be 4 months behind a normal 12 month baby. We want to do everything we can to help him develop correctly. Also other concerns we have are how he will bond and attach to us and if he has signs of fetal alcohol syndrome. Aaron and I feel that God has a purpose for us and Kaden. We believe that God only gives you as much as you can handle. Kaden is very special to us and we know that no matter what we will love him and help him thru any issues that may arise.

Thoughts of the Day

2007-09-14T17:15:00.000-05:00

This past week has been very busy for Aaron and I. Sunday was Aaron's 28th birthday. When special events come up right now I find myself looking to a year from now and imaging what it is going to be like with Kaden here. We aren't sure if he will be here for my birthday in May but according to the time lines our agency gave us he should be home for Aaron's. It will be so much fun to be able to celebrate Aaron's birthday and make it a special day with Kaden in our lives.

This week for the adoption we have started meeting with a financial advisor to help us determine the best way of financing some of the adoption. We love the guy we are going too, thank you Leslie & Justin for giving us his name! It's amazing how when you we first started the adoption I was worried about how to pay for the whole adoption. Now I'm starting to feel better about what we have left to pay since so far we have been able to pay cash for everything! This is just such a relief.

Now I have to share with you the news we got today from our agency, basically our agency is very close to getting accredited according to Russia. Right now all they are waiting on is the Ministry of Education to issue the Accreditation Certificate! This could happen any day. We are praying for this. The accreditation could help to make our adoption happen sooner! Please pray this will happen for our agency and that we will meet Kaden soon!