A Perfect Angel.

Happy Fourth of July

5 Weeks Old

4 Weeks Old

The Girls.

Grace's last day of preschool..

Amelia 2 weeks old.

Amelia 3 weeks old. (WHO ME?)

Look at this face.

Another beautiful girl with gorgeous eyes. We are so lucky and blessed! Can we keep a secret or what?  I will tell you that we started looking into domestic adoption in Feb/March. The thought of both of us traveling to Russia 3 times and leaving MG was too much and something didn't feel right about Russia this time around.  Little did we know she was right here in NY. We learned about "A" in early May and things moved fast from then on ... including "A" coming 3 weeks early. It has been a fast and smooth process. We think the world of her birth mom and are honored she chose us ... and so grateful a very special person found us. 

Introducing Miss Amelia Catherine.

Sneak Peak From the Beach

Happy Easter.

Hello, Hello

Seriously, I have no idea where the time goes. Between work, home and running a 3.5 year old around to all her activities and socializing there is no blog time, let alone time to gather my thoughts. First, MG's surgery went good and she was up and running within a few days and back to daycare a week later. She was a trooper but it was quite stressful for me and I can tell you that I don't want to do it again for awhile.

It was so stressful I had to take a trip the Dominican for an extra long weekend to rest up. That's a joke, I really went with a dear friend to celebrate our BIG birthdays.  It was wonderfully relaxing and so happy we made it happen.

We're off on a family vacation to the beach tomorrow. MG is sooo excited, even for the car ride. I don't think she remembers the 15+ hours ride from last year. :)

Took this the morning after the the big thunderstorm this week. In my jammies, wearing Dan's shoe's on the slippery cliffs. (how's that for a story;)

Dreaming of Spring.

SUPER DORA Sneaks.

Off to the hospital.

We're off to the hospital tomorrow morning for MG to have a lip revision. It's just a little fine tuning to the work she had done in Russia. The cleft surgeon here thinks they did a great repair but he thinks he can improve a few things for her.
We think she is perfect but know this will help her down the road.  Obviously we are very nervous  and hate to see her in pain. I've almost backed out about a 100 times. As of right now I've got all her favorites packed and lots of fun planned when we get home. We're  keeping her up to late to keep eating ... boy can that girl eat!! She will have surgery tomorrow and will spend one night in the new Golisano Children's Hospital.

Happy 2nd Adoption Day Grace Viktoria!

We celebrated MG's second adoption day on Feb. 12th. So hard to believe she has been home two years, but at the same time it's like she's always been here. The weather got in the way of our first set of plans, so we quickly came up with a backup.  She had a two day celebration with lots of swimming, crafts, friends and of course ice cream & M's. (her favorites)   So lucky to have her in our lives.

Embracing Winter

Sweet Girl.

Christmas 2010

Our Granite.

Our Granite has been missing since 12/16. Please leave a comment or e-mail me at jill_swenson at hotmail dot com with any information. Thank you!

Santa Encounters.

Where does the time go...

Busy, busy, busy ... but a FUN busy!  We've been visiting friends, celebrating holidays and getting ready for more holidays.  Love this time of year and MG is at a great age.

We are still moving forward with another adoption. Things with the first referral didn't work out and we are OK with it. We were still finishing up our home study and were scrambling to finish it to secure the referral. In the end it just wasn't fast enough. There was also a good chance I could be traveling over Christmas, so it all worked out for the best. It's going to be hard enough leaving her without throwing Christmas in there.

Right now our paperwork is in Russia and we are going to touch base with our coordinator at the beginning of the year. I knew this agency was fast but never dreamed it would be SOOO fast. (no complaining :) So for now we are going to enjoy the holiday time with MG.

Meeting MG.

11/19/08
She is a doll!
Things went great today and she is a little ... very little doll. Everything happened very fast this morning. We met with the officials as planned and then went to the baby home. We were only there ten minutes when they brought her out to us. She went right to both of us and didn't cry once. We got to see her twice today and she played well and picked right up on things. We will visit her again tomorrow. We are already dreading leaving.

Looks like the Regatta is going to be quite big next year ... her birthday is x.xx.xxxx!
 

Meeting Daddy!

Moving right along.

We're moving right along with our paperwork and it's so much easier this time.  We've been there done that and there's a little less paperwork for the region we're going to. Hoping to wrap it up next week, get it apostilled and off to our agency. Then we wait for a referral. We've been told it will be very fast and we've seen how fast it happens with our new agency and other families. With that being said, it's Russia and anything can happen. And really we are OK with a little wait. Of course we have a name picked out, the room is already decorated in my head and there is a Red Sox jersey hanging in the closet, but we are fine with the wait. It will give us time to get organized, enjoy MG (I love 3) and save money.

Ahhh the money part of adoption. Lately I'm feeling like I should educate people on the money part as I'm finding many people don't understand the fees associated with adoption ... some think we "buy a child." There is no price tag on a child, you don't pay extra for blue eyes, you don't go in and pick one and ask how much. Yes the money part can be frustrating when many people add to their families for a few co-pays.  Health insurance doesn't cover home study fees, agency fees, apostilling documents, drivers,  plane tickets, visas, hotel stays, translators, immigration, etc.   The agency that does our home study needs to paid, the agency that takes care of a million details to bring our child home needs to be paid, our driver that drives us around Russia needs to be paid,  delta needs to be paid for our numerous plane tickets, the embassy needs to be paid for Visas, hotel bills need to be paid ... just like the doctors and nurses who deliver babies get paid, just like you get paid for doing your job. I guess you could say it's like having a baby without health insurance and then some. I hope this helps people better understand where the money in adoption comes into play.

Now back to our newest addition. Chances are he, and I say he because it will most likely be a boy, will be around 10 months when we meet him and will come home around his first birthday. If all goes it should be late winter/early Spring. Grace was 17 months when she came home so we are excited to have him home earlier. We will do three trips this time. :(  Our new region never waives the 10-day wait after court so we don't get to pick him up right away and it's too expensive to stay in-country and too long to be away from MG. In fact I may do the first trip with a friend or a family member so we aren't both away. We both need to be there for court,,but only one of us for the pick-up trip. Just got a little stomach and laughed at the same time thinking about doing a pick-up trip alone. We need to figure that one out.

Going back to Russia.

It's true we are going back to Russia. We were going to keep it a secret for awhile but if all goes as planned it could be very, very fast.  It could be a boy or girl but most likely will be a boy.  A name has been picked and the room is underway. We're all very excited to meet the newest addition to our family.

The Girl in Charge of the Petals.

And the best part about 3 ... Bribes.

Three.

MG is 3 years old, 3 feet tall and almost 30 pounds ... 28.5 to be exact. She is so 3 and can do everything herself! Getting in the car, "I can do it myself." Getting dressed, "I can do it myself." She is always so proud of herself with a big smile and her pants on backwards and inside out.

Not sure how this kid only weighs 28.5 pounds when she eats like a truck driver. Here she is after a turkey dinner, her 3rd cupcake of the day and a BIG bowl of ice cream.

"Ahhh ... told you I could eat all that mommy"

Happy Birthday Girl.

The birthday girl had a great weekend. I'm so happy she is little and thinks the world is made of balloons, ice cream, cake and oreo cookies. After our trip to Sesame we decided on an Elmo theme...clearly I was wrong by the amount of cookies she ate. Or maybe she was trying to be Elmo's friend Cookie Monster because she ate ALOT cookies ...  crumbs were flying. No worries though she still had plenty of room for cake and ice cream cake.

Happy 3rd Birthday My Sweet Girl.

Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone,
but still miraculously my own.
Never forget for a single minute,
you didn't grow under my heart ... but in it.
We love you Grace Viktoria.

Catching Up.

I can't believe it's the middle of September already and MG is going to be 3 on Friday.  It has been so busy. MG started a new daycare with preschool last week and is adjusting well. Yeah! She is a tired little girl at the end of the day. She is still doing gymnastics and starts ballet on Wednesday. Not sure she's ready for it or if it will be too much but we'll give it a try and see how it goes....