What Helpers!

Andy has one more week at home before he heads back to work. You'd think after 8 weeks of being together we'd be ready for a break, but we've had so much fun, I am not looking forward to his return to work. Too much fun being a family of 4 all day long. He, however, might be very ready! We've visited just about every park we can think of in SB and Saturday we were truly tourists as we rented the beach bikes and rode along the path to the bird refuge for a family picnic. The boys loved it!

We have such helpers, it's fantastic. Stasi loves to help papa with any project around the house. The two make daily trips to the trash and it is a highlight for Stasi. Thank goodness because it is a job I hate! He has also helped mow the lawn and helped me paint their toddler table and chairs blue while Sasha was napping.




Sasha loves to be the helper in the kitchen and is learning quickly it has it's benefits, like licking the bowl. Below are some pictures of me doing my favorite things with the boys; baking, art and reading.





Stasi had his first Dr.'s appointment last week and did great! He has gained 3 pounds since he has been with us the last 4 weeks. Big difference from no weight gain in the orphanage in 6 months to 3 pounds in 4 weeks. That's almost a pound a week. We are scared to bring our giant baby (Sasha) in this coming week. We are guessing a 5 pound weight gain. We'll know on Wednesday about Sasha. The Dr. said Stasi looks great; heart, lungs, eyes, teeth, etc. all good. He will re-do some vaccinations and we agree with that. So both boys will begin that process at the end of the week. I am sure that will not be a fun day.

Tomorrow is Labor Day. Enjoy the BBQ's!!

Friends, Friends, Friends

The boys are getting more and more comfortable with people. We've had many playdates now with friends and the boys are warming up to the fact that other people are in our lives. The pool has been a great way to bond with other people and the boys LOVE the water. Sasha is truly a little swimmer. Stasi just loves to climb and climb and climb. The higher the better. Here are some pictures of our boys with some of our friends and some of their little friends.


Stasi met his pre-school teacher today at our home visit. He was very shy, but when she left, he said, "bye-bye Lisa". We asked her for a picture of her so we can start talking about school each day until the big day arrives. Until then it will be more beach days, swims in the pool and trips to the zoo.

One Week at Home

Yesterday, Wednesday, marked one week of the 4 of us at home all together. Each day is better than the last with new discoveries, better behavior, more words learned and added smiles and giggles. Almost daily we are asked if the boys are twins due to their similar size. Yesterday didn't help when I dressed them both in 49er clothes. Mama's Boys for sure!

Today we went to the Sea Center and Stasi held everything they offered him. Sasha was too scared. In the picture Stasi is petting a swell shark. After the Sea Center we rode the carosuel and Stasi hated it and wanted off and Sasha wanted it to go faster. Go figure! We have one adrenaline junkie and one nature boy. The world is an adventure!

Sasha has refused all vegetables until Andy and I got smart and started giving him baby food. We now can get some veggies in him each day. It took a while for the boys to get the concept of reading stories since that had never happened before, but for the last 3 nights we've read books after bathtime. Sasha has a better attention span for books, Stasi loves to pull them off and on the shelf and will sit for a page or two. He's still getting the idea down.

Saturday we meet with our realitor to put our condo on the market and we've already seen a 4 bedroom we like and will be touring a few more. We may already have a buyer for our condo..Exciting!

Day 4 at Home

It's been busy here to say the least. But very Fun! Jill's parents were here for the first 3 days and we don't know how we would have survived without them. They did Costco, Trader Joe's, OSH and Home Depot runs for us. We kept them busy building sheds adding an outside step and cooking, we are so grateful. Stasi has been asking for his Babushka since they left, so cute!

The boys are acting like true brothers. They now hug and kiss each other in the morning, and after naps. While in the double, side-by-side stroller they argue about what a car is called. Sasha says "beep beep" and Stasi will then argue and say "Neyt! Meeshina (car)!" This arguement will go on for a good 5 minutes. A brotherly love/hate relationship!

Today we went to the giant Kids World playground downtown SB and they had a great time. We had our first family picnic under the shade of a tree and then fed the turtles at the pond. Stasi hasn't been napping but today he did, so we have had a whole hour to ourselves today...Hooray! Andy just got off the phone with our realitor and we are in hot pursuit of a house. We meet with her tomorrow! Hope for a 4 bedroom for us!!

We Are Home

Today is the end of day one and it has been a great day at home in Santa Barbara. The boys didn't sleep much on the Moscow to NY flight but they slept on the flight from NY to LA and on the drive home. We were greeted by Jill's parents in the airport and it was so wonderful to see familiar faces! Once home, they slept another 4 hours and then were wide awake at 3:00 am...Ouch! We kept them awake as long as possible today, Thursday, so we could get them on Pacific Time. They both were falling asleep at 6:00 pm so they easily went down to bed. We'll see how it goes on day 2. My mom and I took the boys to the school playground while my dad and Andy finished child proofing the house. Afterward we took the boys to the beach for the first time.

As you can see from the photos, they both loved the water and loved the sand. It was a fabolous day. Sasha couldn't get far enough out into the water. He kept wanting dedyshka to go farther and farther out. He loved throwing the sand, and once he tasted it, he realized he didn't want to eat it! Sasha also loved chasing the seagulls!


Stasi was a little more timid at first, but still loved it. He also loved being buried in the sand by babushka (grandma). The boys have bonded to their grandparents, already calling for them and offering hugs and kisses. It is wonderful! Thank you again for your prayers, emails and phone calls. We are working are way through each one, just give us some time! Love to you all and thank you for praying us HOME!!! And yes, we ate Tri-Tip for dinner tonight! YUMMMMMMMMMM!!!!

Final pics before we head home

Here are some final pictures of our trip.



Uncle Alan and all his nephews!



We went to the pool at another hotel just down the street from ours. Sasha, our dare devil, learned to jump into the pool thanks to Uncle Alan’s fine teaching!



Alan teaching the boys how to feed the birds.



We have just one more day to survive in Moscow. We are SICK of Chicken! We’ve eaten chicken for 4 weeks straight and cannot wait to sink our teeth into some delicious tri-tip!
We’ll let you know when we’ve arrived home, safe and sound. For now…Das-vi-danya!

3 days left!

Privet! It has been awhile since we posted. It certainly made it easier in Kras with the Wi-Fi in our room. I’ll make this long to catch everyone up. Get Cozy!
Praise the Lord for Uncle Alan!! He has been with us 2 days he has been a terrific help as well as a wonderful familiar face for Andy and I. The boys ran right up to him and gave him hugs and kisses. It was wonderful to see! Sasha keeps saying “Ucle!” He leaves out the n, so cute!

Our plane flight wasn’t as bad as expected. The boys only cried at the take off and landing because they had to have their seatbelts on (not promising for car seats in America!); other than that it was good. Sasha did the best; played in his seat, slept for an hour, ate food, played some more, sang to himself (he does that a lot!) and then we landed. Stasi was just bored so Andy walked him around the plane which was much more fun than sitting. He slept as well but didn’t like sitting too much. We’ll have to do better at entertaining him on our next fight. Pray for that! Neither one is interested in TV or Movies, which we like for at home, but we do wish for the plane fights, they’d find some interest in it!

We arrived in Moscow Wednesday morning and went straight to take the boys pictures for their Visas and then off to do the boys’ medical exams. Sasha is 3 pounds heavier than big brother. He has more effects from the Ricketts (lack of sunshine) than Stasi, and we thought it was the other way around. The Dr. said more sunshine and exercise. This could explain for Sasha’s lack of strength. She did say OT for him and we had already looked into that before we left for this trip so it is nice to hear that the Dr. and Andy and I are aligned in what we see in Sasha. Stasi is in the bottom percentile for height, weight and head circumference for a 3 ½ year old, but this we knew. She estimated he’ll be 5’10 or so. Sasha should be well over 6 feet when fully grown. Stasi is in need of speech therapy, she said his Russian is horrible. He omits lots of letters. We’ve noticed this when teaching him English. Sasha will say “lease” for please while Stasi will say “cheezta”. He adds letters we don’t say and has trouble mimicking us. We are wondering how you do speech therapy on a Russian speaking 3 year old. Mom, you taught ESL, looks like you’ll be doing it again with your Grandson!! Get ready!!

After all our appointments we checked into our hotel and went to the pool. The boys LOVED the water! It was so much fun! We liked the hotel we were in, but there were no supermarkets nearby and the restaurants in the area we realized just weren’t going to work with our boys. Too fancy. We chose this hotel because of the pool and the 5 restaurants it had inside, but it is under construction so only 1 was open and it cost us $120.00 for lunch for the 4 of us! OUCH! And we even ordered from the kids menu for the boys! We decided to move hotels on Thursday, and had our driver deliver Uncle Alan to the new hotel site. Alan slept the afternoon away while we scouted out parks, restaurants, and markets. Thursday evening we met up with 2 other families that we met in Kras. Their hotel in Moscow was just a block away. We all went to dinner Thursday and Friday night. Stasi was SO excited to see his friend Sophia. They chatted away in Russian, probably relieved to have someone to talk with.


Friday morning we took the boys to the zoo. They loved the elephants and the seals. Watching the elephant poop (Ka-Ka) was just fascinating! The Moscow zoo is quite incredible. One of the best I’ve seen. It is HUGE! We only did half the zoo Friday. That leaves us with an activity to see the other half another day. We had our US Embassy appointments after the zoo. It took 1 ½ hours, so again, praise God for Uncle Alan! He helped entertain the boys while we did paperwork. Then we went to the famous Arbot Street and did some tourist shopping. They had a STARBUCKS! Andy and I finally got our cup of coffee we’ve been craving for 3 weeks. Max and Anna, our driver and guide here, just laughed and laughed at the Americans who are hooked on coffee. It has never tasted so good! Uncle Alan treated the boys to their first ice cream cone. They didn’t know what to do with it at first; we had to show them how to eat it. Within minutes, our little piggy Sasha had devoured his, while Stasi very calmly enjoyed every flavor of his ice cream. It was hysterical to watch, we only wished we had captured it on video. Drastically different eaters! We also bought some new toys for the plane. Hopefully the new toys will entertain them for a little while! Sasha had a major meltdown Friday night at the restaurant. His schedule has been so out of whack; I think it all finally hit him. His world is unpredictable and he just lost it, poor guy! I had to take him back to the hotel and Andy got my food to go. At least I had time to drink my beer! I can’t wait to get home so we can bring some consistency to their lives and make things more stable, comfortable and give them a feeling of safety. Sasha fell asleep pretty quickly when we got back to the hotel and slept for 13 hours. Because of our appointment at the US Embassy he didn’t get his nap and I am sure that added to his state of mind.


Today, Saturday we went down to Red Square and Gum, the huge shopping mall. We were going to get the boys caps that said Russia on them but they were $60.00 so we nixed that idea. I took a bad tumble on the stairs (I just can’t seem to stop myself from falling!) and am back in the hotel nursing my ankle and knee while Alan and Andy have the boys at a park. My knee has swollen to the size of a softball, but it is my ankle that really aches. Pray that they can heal quickly, I can’t chase after toddlers like this!! Thankfully the Olympics are on and I LOVE to watch the Olympics so I don’t mind too much being in the hotel this afternoon! Sunday is another free day so we hope to go through the Kremlin and maybe walk along the river.
Thanks for your prayers. Being in Moscow makes us feel like we are one step closer HOME and we are SO ready to be home!

Back to Moscow

We are packing up the hotel room and headed to Moscow early in the morning (4:30..YIKES). It is very expensive to email in Moscow and we don't have the convenience of using our room, so we may only be able to do one or two posts now that we have the boys.

For our last day in Kras, we went back to our favorite espresso place and had one last good coffee. The boys ate fruit and oatmeal. Afterward we went down to the river and threw rocks again. Well, Sasha tried to eat them more than throw them, but oh, well. Stasi rode a horse today, not the pony. Brave boy. Sasha was still napping so he missed out on the fun. They both drove these motor cars you can rent in the square. Sasha loved the motorcycle and Stasi liked the jeep.

Pray for save travels for us to Moscow. There is heavy rain so we could be delayed in Kras (Ugh!)

For those of you in Santa Barbara, VIVA LA FIESTA!!! Can't believe I am missing my favorite Santa Barbara event! Have a margarita and some guacamole for me and enjoy Fiesta Pequena!

Our first couple of days

Middle of Day 3 with the boys. Both are down for naps. Sasha cannot get full, so Andy is out to make another grocery run. We’ve noticed how dehydrated both boys are, they drink and drink and drink. Naptime has been grocery runs and laundry time for us, praise God for 2 hour naps!

After naps on Saturday, day 1, we walked around the fountains outside our hotel, chased the birds, watched the horses and then went to dinner with another woman adopting a girl just a few months older than Stasi. She and Stasi hug and kiss and walk hand in hand. It is so cute! She and her husband have two boys and are adopting a girl to complete their family. We’ve actually meet 4 families adopting additions to their already existing families. It’s wonderful to see families adding on this way. One family has 2 teenage boys and they are adopting 3 sisters from Kras, 8, 10, and 12 years of age.


Anyway, we’ve seen a shift in personalities. Sasha has become fearless and tries to jump into the fountains and eat anything off the ground, while Stasi wants to be held or at least holding our hand. He’s not sure of anything outside! Sasha’s favorite things to do are chase the birds and watch the cars (surprise! surprise!). Sasha especially loves the buses and calls them “bu”. Almost! Stasi’s favorite thing is the play dough and transformers (yeah! Cousin Kaden loves transformers too!) Naptime and bedtime with Stasi are interesting to say the least, but we knew this as the orphanage said he wasn’t easy to put down. Sasha is a champ and goes down in the midst of Stasi’s crying. Andy, who hates messes, has been quite surprised with how many diapers Sasha uses a day. Nothing out of the ordinary, but to Andy it’s been quite impressive.


The boys have taken their first baths together, (sooo much fun!) love play-dough, and yesterday, took their first pony ride. Sasha was actually scared of that, but he stayed on. Today, Monday, we took them to a park for their first train ride. Shockingly, Sasha hated it and wanted off immediately, but Stasi loved it. Both boys are great in a restaurant, which is good since this hotel room get’s small fast even though it is a two room suite. Last night they ate their first pizza and LOVED IT!

We have one more day in Kras. Now that we have our boys, we can’t wait to get home. 3 more days until we see Uncle Alan. He is the first family member to meet the boys, and we are so thankful to have his help in Moscow and on the plane.

Gotcha Day!

WE HAVE THEM!! (This is a picture of me walking out of the orphanage with the boys for the last time!)

Came back to the hotels for naps and Sasha went down pretty easily, however Stasi fought us for 1 and 1/2 hours. Ultimately the parents won (Parent 1, Kids 0):) Sasha is awake now eating his snack. We are hoping that Stasi will sleep another hour. Jill and I of course did not get lunch today (I wonder why). We enjoyed a kit-kat bar, bread, and instant coffee. We are considering this our latest crash diet. Once Stasi does wake up, we will venture out into the big new world!

The Bridge

Picture of the eclipse we watched from our hotel square around 6:30 tonight. It was pretty awesome!

We got a tour of the orphanage today and saw each of the boys’ living quarters. Sasha is in a room with about 16 other cribs and Stasi is in a room with about 14 other toddler beds. We took pictures with caregivers and Sasha’s caregiver wrote him a letter. I cried when she brought it in to us. That is something to be treasured forever. Yelena is translating it for us so we will have both the original written in Russian and the English translation. We found out that when Sasha returns to his area, he throws himself onto the ground and cries for mama and dada! Tears welled up in our eyes when we heard this. When we went to see Stasi’s side, he was so possessive of us, yelling at the other kids to get away from his parents, especially dada. He was so panicky that one of the other children might take us away, he was sweating. Andy had to carry him around and reassure him that he was our little boy. Stasi was so incredibly sad today when we left. Yelena told him tomorrow he would leave the orphanage with us and he put his head on Andy’s shoulder and said, “da” (yes). We both had tears today as we drove away. It was our hardest departure to date.


The Bridge. This is the bridge that has taken us to and from our children over a dozen times over the past 6 months. Joyous moments of play, bonding, hugs and kisses, and heart wrenching moments of tears and good-byes. Today was the last time we have to cross that bridge and return back over it to our hotel without our children. Tomorrow it will be the bridge that brings us together forever. We will cross the bridge at 9:30 a.m. (6:30 pm PST) and return over it again around 11:00 a.m. with our boys. Then, we will forever be together as a family. To us, it is the most important and most beautiful bridge in the entire world.