We are a Family of 4...not 3 anymore :)

Ryan's 1st day of Kindergarten...I'm happy for him but sad that he is growing up, my baby isn't a baby anymore :( And believe me he lets me know every chance he gets that he no longer is the baby of the house anymore!
Kindergarten... here I come!!!



Luke likes wearing his Daddy's sneakers :)

Ryan and Luke smiling for Mommy's camera at our local Barnes & Noble story time.

Sooooo precious!!! My sister, Aunt Wissy (this is what Ryan calls my sister Melissa), and Luke hugging.

One day I decided to get out the PlayHut we have and apparently even the dog, who happens to be 12 years old, liked to play in it too...fun for the whole family :)

Luke peeking out of the PlayHut :)

The day we spent on the beach and then on the boardwalk later that night in Ocean City, NJ proved to be too much for Luke :(

Luke: Is it windy here or is it just me??? Heehee!!!

My boys :)

Luke trying to make a sandcastle...Hara sho Luke!!!

It literally just dawned on me the other day when I was looking at the ABC Distributing catalog, we received in the mail, that we are no longer a family of 3 but rather a family of 4. This realization brought me to tears, seriously! Some of you may think I'm crazy and believe me Ron did too when I told him this story :/ I'm a little slow on the upload these days, I like to call it "Mommy Brains"...we will leave that for a totally separate blog b/c believe me I could write a novel on the subject! I open the first page of the catalog and in the catalog is "Personalized Family Canoes" and the most adorable snowmen sitting in a canoe and not to mention it's for Christmas time, well the family of 3 was $7.95--which I seriously started to write down. I stopped myself, started crying and looked down the page to the family of 4, which incidentally was $8.95--more money of course. Crazy, I know...you would think I would have realized this fact by now but nope I didn't :/

Life in the our household has been nuts, it usually is but lately OM it seems as if someone- somewhere turned the crazy switch on :) I've started school, once again :/ And Ryan started in Kindergarten this year...and YES I cried while Luke and I walked home that morning. As some of you will remember, Ryan started a half day program of Kindergarten and a half day program of Pre-School last year, which by the way worked out beautifully. This year we (Ron and I) thought Ryan would be more successful if we tried the Kindergarten program again and not move him onto a half day program of 1st Grade and a half day program of Kindergarten. We honestly believe that this was a wonderful decision on everyones part, including our school district.

Recently, I made a remark to my Dad that looking back on I chuckle about it now. The remark was "We haven't really gone anywhere this Summer or been on a "true" Summer vacation". My Dad replied back to me, "Jen, you and Ron had a vacation in Russia this year". I suppose it seems as if our time spent in Russia happened years ago! When believe it or not Luke has only been home 13 weeks...where on earth has that time gone??? My Dad also told me that we did have a chance to make it to Ryan's Azerbaijani Reunion this past July in Washington, D.C., and we have taken day-trips to the Aquarium in Camden, NJ, to Playland in Rye, NY where EAC held their Annual Picnic, and we went to the beach in Ocean City, NJ. Even though we didn't take a "true"vacation this is a Summer we will never forget...after all we did become a family of 4 :)

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Luke :)

Video of Ryan, Ron and Luke :) It was extremely rough that day on the beach, I don't know if you can tell but it certainly was and in fact there was this one wave that knocked both Ryan and Luke over, Thank-Goodness Ron had their hands.

Adoption Moment with Ryan

Above are photos of the fun we had on Sunday at Playland in Rye, NY where EAC had their Cultural Event/Reunion Picnic :)

I want to apologize for not blogging :/ Life is a little crazy here to say the least and it will be getting crazier with school starting for Ryan and myself, finding a babysitter for Luke, and arranging or I should say rearranging our schedules and our bonding time. But we Welcome new changes or so we think :/

An adoption moment with Ryan happened on Sunday and quite honestly I thought it would never happen. Ron and I have read and read on the subject of adoption and you read about how inquisitive children can be about their adoption. Well, Ryan has never truly been one of those inquisitive children. He more or less just goes with the flow. I hope that made sense?

Here's what happened: On Sunday we were going to a Cultural Event/Picnic Reunion that EAC (European Adoption Consultants) were having in upstate NY. EAC is the adoption agency we used to bring our younger son, Luke, home not too long ago...about 10 1/2 weeks ago at this point :) You always hear/read about these questions happening at the most inopportune times...well, I now know what adoptive parents mean by this! We were sitting at WaWa filling up on gas, and Ryan asked "Mommy where are we going again"? I said to him, "we are going to a picnic that EAC is having and EAC is your baby brothers adoption agency that we used to bring him home from Russia". It's funny b/c you could actually see the wheels turning in Ryan's head, he then asked me, is Luke adopted? I sorta chuckled but then composed myself and realized that this is "actually" happening and the reason Ryan is asking is b/c he doesn't remember, so I said of course he is adopted, just like you are too :) Ryan then asked I'm adopted too? As if it just dawned on him that he too was adopted and it was as if something "clicked" and the light bulb was burning so bright at that very moment. Now up until this point he had never asked any of these types of adoption questions before. We always told Ryan that YES he was adopted and when we brought his baby brother Luke home that he too was adopted, we have never kept any of this from him. Ryan then asked me "why did you and Daddy adopt us (meaning him and his brother)"? I thought to myself OM here we go, here it is "all the adoptive magazines, books, articles, etc., that we have read up to this point all boil down to this one moment"!!! I was talking to myself at this point, b/c did I forget to mention that Ron was in WaWa? I said to Ryan, in terms he could understand, that the reason Mommy and Daddy adopted is b/c we loved each other very much and we wanted to share that love with you and with your brother. We very much wanted to adopt you and your brother. Again, you could see that this was making a huge impact on him and he was seriously thinking about what I was saying. I could then see a smile come across his face and then the questions (for now) had stopped and he asked me something totally off the subject of adoption and it was then I realized okay he must be done, is this what the "adoption experts" mean? I wanted to ask him "how did Mommy do at answering your questions? Too much information or not enough"? Personally I would have gone on till the cows came home but all the experts state not to over-analyze, keep it simple, in terms your child can understand, etc. And of course you can't ask this question to your child, but hey wouldn't it be nice if you could? I also find it funny that two very simple, yet complicated, questions can so intimidating to us as adoptive parents.

Ron came into the car as tears were rolling down my face and he asked what did I do now? I answered him, it's not you, it's our son, Ryan...he's growing up!!! It wasn't until later (Ryan was out of ear shot) that I explained to Ron exactly what enfolded in the car earlier in the day.

Then, on Monday night Ryan asked us "what he needed to do in order to get into Heaven"? Where do children come up with this stuff?

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Luke :)

Luke is home two months :)

Luke on the beach behind the VMI

The brand new playset at the VMI

VMI sign (notice the Canadian leaf)

The train in Vlad., Russia

The staff at the VMI playing with Luke :)

Geena the Crocodile and a white mouse...unfortunately we don't have a photo of Cheburashka

Above is a photo of Jason, Jesse, Alina (their little girl) and Luke playing :)

This is Irina with another adoptive couple :)

Yesterday we celebrated an Anniversary, of sorts :) It was Lukie's two month Anniversary since arriving here in the USA. We didn't do anything unusual, although we have started on the path to get him vaccinated. He officially only needs 5 vaccines, which is GREAT! Yesterday, he received 3 vaccines plus a PPD test. Then in 6 to 8 weeks we return to his Peds. Dr. so he can receive the other 2 that he is missing. This way we don't have re-vaccinate him with vaccines that he is already immune to. We also thought we would take the opportunity to reminisce about Vladivostok, Russia...the things we miss and well not so much :)

These are in no particular order:



Things we miss about Vladivostok, Russia...

• Irina, Irina, Irina...after all we have her to Thank for completing our family and EAC's wisdom to have such a WONDERFUL facilitator!!!




• Jesse & Jason...without this couple I don't think Ron would have made it 23 days in Vladivostok, Russia (these are Ron's words and you know what I second this statement!!!)




• Stroller walks to the beach, to the train station, to the amusement park, or to the market to get essentials such as soda or ice cream.




• Skipping stones with Jason & Jesse




• Joking that Ron would come home with a Russian bride :)




• Geena the Crocodile, Cheburashka...we have Jesse & Jason to Thank again for this one :)




• Baby Einstein time with Jesse, Jason, Alina, Luke and Ron..."Tropical Bird".




• The wildlife in Vlad., Russia...especially those funky looking squirrels and those crazy birds.




• The groups of families we met in the different stages of the adoption process.




• The restaurant at the VMI for breakfast...Ron's stuffed french toast and my cream-cheese and crab filled pancakes...Mmmmm :)




• Friends that we have made in Vlad., Russia, from the different families to the staff at the VMI (who were willing to bend over backwards for you, no matter what!).




• Children playing on the brand new playset at the VMI.




• Sanity checks every night at the "White Rabbit" :)




• Being in your own little cocoon at the VMI.




• Being able to stay in Luke's birth country...what an experience and you know what we wouldn't have it any other way!

Things we don't miss about Vladivostok, Russia:

• Being apart...Ron and I were apart for 18 days and believe me there were times we didn't think we would make it. We didn't think we would miss each other as much as we did!




• Going to the grocery store and not knowing what you are getting, or going there and not being able to order deli style sliced lunch meat or American cheese...can you believe they don't have American cheese? However, as Ron found out they do have what they call "Hamburger Cheese".




• The driving...need we say more???




• The bath water being brownish before you give your child a bath :)




• Having to brush your teeth with either bottled water or water that had been boiled...when we were recently in Washington D.C., it was the first time we had been away since returning from Russia and I was brushing my teeth with bottled water until Ron pointed it out to me...LOL!




• Not being able to just get a drink of water from the tap.




• Camping experience does come in handy at the VMI, we only had 2 forks, 2 spoons, 2 knives, 2 cups, 2 plates and 1 pot to cook in...we soon realized that we would have to wash the dishes at least 3 times a day and this was in our fully stocked kitchen :) However we did have a refrigerator, a microwave and a stove and we made due.




• The washing machine that sometimes spins and drains your clothing but sometimes it does not :/ A dryer that for no apparent reason just decides to turn itself off...in mid drying cycle.




• The cable television...on a good day you had maybe a couple English speaking channels on a bad day maybe one if that and it always seemed to be BBC Television. As Ron stayed those 18 days he loved the fact that the English speaking channels would play the same exact thing that they played in the evening as in the morning. As if it was just looped...LOL! But Ron did become quite fond of Russian MTV :)




• Paying an enormous amount of money to eat, some meals were great some were not.




• The wildlife in Vlad., Russia...especially those funky looking squirrels and those crazy birds!




• Joking that Ron would come home with a Russian bride :)

I believe that is everything??? If we have anything else to reminisce over we will, you all know that :)

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Luke :)

Pictures, pictures and more pictures...and video of course :)

Our first family photo with Luke (minus Ryan, Ryan was back in the USA)

These are the bottles Luke used to get in the Baby Hospital...notice the glass that the liquid is in and the nipple...also it's filled with sweet tea.

I couldn't resist the photo of the potty's all lined up :)

Luke looks so serious

Above and below is the first day we met Luke...he cried, clung onto us, and literally was shaking

:(

Luke passed out at the VMI in Vladivostok, Russia after a nice stroller ride with Daddy, during their 10 day waiting period :)

Luke: Are you serious Daddy? This is way too many clothes!

In the beginning Luke despised baths!!!

We like to call this Luke's "incredible Hulk" look...LOL!

A bit stunned...this is the car ride to the hotel after picking Luke up from his Baby Hospital.

Our Family!!! Luke looks MUCH, MUCH happier, doesn't he???

All smiles climbing up the slide :)

Awwww, that's Ryan and Luke...doesn't this photo just melt your heart?

Happy Baby! Notice the Santa Claus belly and the lovely snot running from his nose...heehee!

He loves climbing up those slides, doesn't he? This photo was taken at the VMI in Vladivostok, Russia :)

We realized that we never put Luke's pictures of the first time we met him on here, so this is what this blog is about today, plus other photos of how Luke has changed. Can you tell he is much happier?

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Luke :)

This is Luke singing the itsy-bitsy spider with his Mommy (sorry my voice is awful but thought this video was too cute to pass up!)

He was an itsy-bitsy polka-dot baby...thats how the song goes, right?!?

Now that I have time to reflect on last weekends travels to Washington D.C. I thought I would add why we were extremely stressed...or at least I was! About two weeks ago Luke developed a fever, had it for a good five days, we thought it was an ear infection. Ryan was notorious for ear infections, we were one ear infection away from getting tubes. As it turned out it was not an ear infection, however his peds. told us to keep him on the antibiotic for the next five days, which we did. Then, Luke developed hives or some type of rash on the trunk of his body, two days after starting the antibiotics. I thought maybe it was due to him having a fever (which is extremely common with children)...called his peds. and was told to keep an eye on it. On Wednesday of last week it seemed to have disappeared, thought nothing of it. Then last Friday he woke up and had hives or those small bumps everywhere, from head to toe! Immediately, I brought him to his peds., who asked me "is he on Amoxicillin"? And YES this was a different peds. than the one who prescribed the antibiotics, same group just different peds. Dr. Anyway, my head snapped around and I said YES! The peds. told me Luke is allergic to Penicillin and he has a "classic" Penicillin rash. He also asked me if it had started on his trunk, to which I replied Yes. He said again, it's a "classic" Penicillin rash. I asked the peds. if it were okay to go away with Luke that weekend, if he was in any sort of danger and he said YES we were allowed to travel with him, and that the antibiotic just needs to get out of his system. Thank-Goodness it was only a rash and not something worse such as an obstructed airway, b/c this can happen too when you have an allergic reaction to Penicillin.
As we were driving to D.C. the Penicillin rash was getting worse, spots, spots, and more spots! He honestly looked like a polka-dot baby :( He wasn't uncomfortable just looked as if he was :/ I didn't think it was possible but Saturday morning he looked like one big spot and yes worse than the day/night before...I will say I was worried a bit. A friend who was there for the Azerbaijani reunion weekend as well, who we saw at breakfast and who also happens to be a pharmacist, told us yep it's a "classic" Penicillin rash. Then, we saw her again at the Cultural Center (later in the day) and she said Luke is looking much better from this morning. I thought so too but didn't want to jinx him :) Then on Sunday we woke up and the Penicillin rash was nearly gone.
At least we now know that he has an allergy to Penicillin and that he can not have it, b/c the next time it could be much worse of a reaction than this one. That to me is a scary thought!
If you look close enough at the photos I posted on Wednesday you can definitely tell Luke is a polka-dot baby...trust me you can see them :)

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Luke :)

Celebrating Our Families 2008, Washington D.C.

We made it home!!! Of course we had a wonderful time but we are now totally exhausted and may I add take notice to the fact that it has taken three days to blog about our experience :/

We arrived late Friday night, this after the car ride from hell (pardon my French!) but you would not believe how difficult it is traveling with two children now, not to mention traffic didn't help out at all! Our car ride was only suppose to take us three hours. After arriving on Friday night in Washington D.C. I was spent and all I wanted to do was go to bed. However, I knew that there was a get-together at the hotel pool so Ron and I decided that he would go to the pool with Ryan (after all we were there for Ryan, it was his event, so to speak) and I would stay back in the hotel room and go to bed with Luke. Ryan had a ball that night :)

On Saturday we woke up early went downstairs to eat breakfast, which by the way was expensive but good, and then we were off to the Metro to take us to the Smithsonian's. Ryan wanted to see the "Air and Space Smithsonian", so that is what we did. It was perfect for children Ryan's age, however I feel as if Luke was bored. But Luke did get to sit in a helicopter cockpit, which I'm sure was the highlight of his day :) We then hightailed it back to the Metro, almost got lost, but made it back to the hotel to freshen up for the Azerbaijani Cultural Center. We were late to the Azerbaijani Cultural Center and Ryan missed the group photo...the highlight of the trip :( I did however take photos of the children enjoying the festivities of the Azerbaijani Cultural Center. I even videoed an Azerbaijani woman dancing the traditional dance of Azerbaijan, just beautiful!

We were off to the DeBakey's house were we would spent time watching our Azerbaijani children run around, play in the pool, enjoy traditional Azerbaijani food, bid on the Silent Auction (the Silent Auction benefits the UAFA), and spend a delightful night chatting with old friends and making new ones as well :) It was an evening to remember!

A funny thing happened at the DeBakey's house, Ron was watching Luke, as Luke was running up and down this hill, well Luke ran away from Ron a little too far and Ron says in this deep voice

идите сюда! (translated this means come here and pronounced "idi suda!"), there were special guests from the Azerbaijan Embassy and the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce at the reunion and this Azerbaijani woman over hears Ron stating this to Luke and she was pleasantly shocked or this is how I read her face immediately after Ron told Luke to "idi suda!". Ron asked me if I caught her face and how pleasantly shocked she looked. In Azerbaijan they do in fact speak Russian.

This made me reflect and brought me back to our court date for Luke on May 15, 2008, when the Russian prosecutor asked me "how would you raise two different children from two different countries"? In a lot of ways Azerbaijan is similar to Russia and in many, many ways they are two worlds apart. What an incredible process to be a part of...what I mean is we (Ron and I) get to raise these WONDERFUL boys as ours (Americans) but no matter what they will always be a part of their cultural/heritage too, whether it may be Azerbaijani or Russian.

We left the DeBakey's house at about 9PM and no sooner had we turned the corner and the children were out of it! That night all of us slept extremely well! On Sunday we woke up and were totally exhausted...still :/ We decided not to go to the National Zoo and to head home. Which we did, after we said our "Goodbyes" to everyone who was staying at the hotel. I knew that Ryan was tired b/c he told me that he didn't want to go to the Zoo all he wanted to do was go home. Believe it or not, the children actually took a two and a half hour nap on the way home. Our trip home was easier than our trip there!

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Luke :)

PS-This was our first trip "post Russia", it was quite interesting :) An example...I found myself brushing my teeth on Saturday morning and not even realizing that I wasn't "drinking" the water :) Ron pointed this out to me...LOL :) Old habits die hard, I guess???

"Baku Babies"

We are off to Washington D.C. for Ryan's Azerbaijani's Reunion. Every year adoptive parents, who have adopted from Azerbaijan, get together for a weekend of fun and excitement, attend a luncheon with traditional Azerbaijani food (or Russian, or even Turkish food...which is extremely similar), a silent auction for the United Aid for Azerbaijan (UAFA), let our children run around and see their friends from "Baku". Or as Ryan likes to say his "Baku Friends". Some of the adoptive parents refer to the children as "Baku Babies". We have made it to 4 reunions so far, there have been 7 reunions all together and each one is held by a hosting family in a different part of the U.S.A. The first reunion occurred in 2002 and was held in Tennessee that was hosted by the first family to ever adopt from Azerbaijan (truly an inspiration to all of us who have adopted from Azerbaijan); the 2003 reunion was held in Kansas City, MO; 2004 it was held in New York, NY; in 2005 the reunion was held in Seattle, WA; 2006 it was held in Indianapolis, IN; 2007 it was held in Philadelphia, PA (which we hosted), and finally this year's reunion will be held in Washington, D.C. :) Ryan's culture is extremely rich and we feel blessed to participate in these reunions! I believe b/c there are only 151 children who were adopted from Azerbaijan (this according to the Travel.State.Gov as of 2006) the adoptive parents feel as if we are a close knit family. As a matter of fact, some of our children were in the same Baby House as one another and they were even in the same group of children as one another.

Hosting last year's reunion was a feat, in and of itself, but so worth it! This year we will go to the reunion "actually" realizing all that goes into these reunions. I have included some photos of last year's reunion above. Aren't the children just beautiful??? Here are some websites that detail Azerbaijan's rich history and culture. http://www.azari.com/index.html, http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/93_folder/93_articles/93_kimi_guidelines.html, or http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/93_folder/93_articles/93_kimi_inara.html.

Love & HUGS,

Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Luke :)