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Text of the page (random words):
ved it was 10 years ago today on september 24 2008 that our love was signed sealed and delivered i can remember the cold dreary day and the long 45 min drive out into the country where kristina s home was it was baby home 6 department 2 passing one of the many dachas or seasonal homes found out in the suburbs i remember the excitement as we walked up the driveway leading to 6 with lydia our translator and dr victoria khouloudis this is where kristina lived from 3 mos of age until she came home at the age of 28 months old the name of the baby home child house no 6 department no 2 when we first laid eyes on kristina she was 20 months old walking climbing stairs and extremely inquisitive not much talking and only an occasional grin but she followed commands and gave good hugs there was no going back and we prayed every day that nothing would stand in the way of our dream not a day passes that i don t realize how fortunate we are yes even when she drives me crazy the expectant parents just moments before a caregiver brought kristina through the door the moment kristina was brought in i wish the pic was more clear but that moment was a blurr anyways my chance to interact with kristina under the watchful eye of an interpreter a pediatrician the orphanage md and a caregiver no pressure for this first time mom to be she was already the apple of jon s eye dr khouloudis doing her examination of kristina finally got a smile out of this little one that first meeting went so very fast we only go to interact with kristina for a little bit because the doctor had to catch a flight back to moscow and she needed time to do her examination all results of the examination came back as we had hoped except for some deficiencies you expect to find growing up in a baby home with limited stimulation care touch love she was pleased to tell us that kristina would thrive in a family no matter what that doctor would have told us that day it really didn t matter we were starting out battle to complete the boat load of paperwork and do whatever we needed to get kristina home we met kristina on a wednesday and returned for 3 more days to play and love on her as much as we could before heading home to the states on sunday september 28 prior to seeing her on that saturday we sat down with our in country coordinator olga and signed the paperwork that we commit to pursue the adoption of kristina we did not change her first name as we were told it was given to her by her birthmom in the hospital we did elect to change her her middle name from sergeevna to deann our russian angel kristina deann making it official we intend to become kristina s parents kristina s very own crib in a grupa of many children ahhh some foreshadowing of the love this girl would have for an iphone someday the moment the caregiver came in for the last time to take kristina from us kristina knew we all cried it would be a long 7 months before we would be asked to return for court and become a forever family and fast forward our little girl is not so much a little girl she is 11 years old turning 12 in less than 4 months i would not change a thing in regards to the process we went through everything brought us to where we are right now 10 years later happy metcha day sweetheart we love you baby girl more than you will ever know xoxoxo posted by laura at 11 45 pm no comments sunday november 26 2017 thank you santa ted the last 18 months have been a blur and for the first time i m sitting down free of work projects and trips and soaking in the joy of the season today our daughter begged us to go and see santa at the mall we have spent many hours in line at that mall waiting to see the jolly guy in years past and something inside of me told me to give in i m so very glad we did it was 5 30pm and we knew santa would be wrapping it up at 6pm even though jon thought we were nuts he reluctantly agreed to go with us he really is a big softy and could not live with himself if i took our daughter to see santa without him our little girl in the back seat was all dressed up and so excited i could feel her anticipation we arrived at the mall and got a great parking spot first positive sign we walked through jc penneys and left jon in the dust kristina held my hand and guided me quickly through the aisles knowing who was located right outside in the center mall he s there and no one is in line look mom the jolly old man was there and waving to kristina we weaved our way through the stanchions and ropes after the obligatory warm up photos kristina ran up the ramp to the stage where santa waited there he was santa ted back in 2010 santa ted was the first santa that kristina ever felt comfortable approaching we saw him again in 2011 2012 and 2013 before hitting a dry spell missing his shift i was so excited that i brought up the 2011 photo of kristina with santa ted on my phone so she could show him seeing kristina sit there on his lap made me so nostalgic our little girl is not so little anymore what was on her christmas wish list a laptop an iphone x but an iphone 8 will do corresponding phone case fake nails nail polish and hair dye thank you santa for downplaying the phone even though i wasn t supposed to i took some undercover photos of kristina s magical encounter with my iphone ssshhhh what makes it so magical is kristina s continued belief in santa i expect this belief won t last much longer as kids at school well they talk i wanted some candid pics because i m sure each visit after this will be viewed from a different perspective on kristina s part for the last 8 1 2 years i have tried to capture as many firsts lasts and everything in between old habits die hard overall it was such a great visit that lasted over 10 minutes because there was no one else in line nothing sadder than seeing a santa sit there with no one around and for me the eternal procrastinator i will listen to my daughter in the future if she wants to see santa on thanksgiving weekend i feel like i just gained a few hours of holiday shopping wrapping writing a year in review blog update etc by not having to stand in line at the mall and complain about how hot it is or how much my back aches we re off to a great start for the christmas season thank you santa ted kristina and santa ted through the years this was kristina s 2nd christmas home and our social girl was no longer afraid of santa she sure gave him an ear full oh how i miss these days sometimes age 3 this is the year she asked for a pony age 4 yup kristina had no fear of santa ted kristina told santa her favorite movie was polar express after we left he found us to give kristina a bell he had in his pocket you have to see the movie to understand the significance and how special this made kristina feel this is the year kristina started picking out what she would wear to see santa she chose the fanciest dress she could find age 5 no longer a toddler age 6 fast forward 4 years and reunited with santa ted kristina is showing santa a photo from 6 years ago now age 10 the pose is the same every year by coincidence ahhhh an iphone x you say getting the lecture that there are 4 weeks until christmas and you have to be good a high 5 seals the deal just having fun how often does one get the full attention from santa without hundreds of kids clamoring behind waiting for their turn kristina s favorite photo our most special gift in life we love you kristina deann posted by laura at 11 59 pm no comments monday february 27 2017 our snow angel the weather here in california has been crazy this winter after being in a drought for years and getting used to brown mountains and lawns we have seen more rain than i can ever recall this winter has seen not only rain but we have had our share of cold days i ve had to break out a credit card to scrape the ice off the windshield frantically when trying to get kristina to school on time with this coldness we ve also had a lot of snow up in the california mountains one thing we have wanted to do is to take kristina to the snow but hadn t up until recently i don t count when the local ymca shipped in snow and planted a patch of it on their side lawn only soon to turn to slush we ventured to bear mountain where we signed up kristina and her friend jasmine for snowboarding lessons it was a 5 hour class so we had our fingers crossed that the girls would enjoy it and not ask to quit shortly after starting did they have fun you bet what about mama well let s just say it was a holiday weekend and 1 2 of southern california skiers snowboarders were up there and everyone drove because there is no public transportation the crowds and the traffic really put a damper on my fun it took 4 hours to get there instead of 2 5 2 5 hours for jon and i to park the car and get shuttled up to the mountain we dropped kristina jasmine and jasmine s parents off at the mountain so they could get to class and then over 5 hours to drive home next year we will book way in advance and stay overnight somewhere local at the end of a very long day the girls had a blast and kristina loved snowboarding if we didn t know better we would ve thought she had done it before but before this day kristina hadn t seen real snow since her days in yekaterinburg memories of big bear mountain in pics up at 5 30am and on the road photo taken a little after 6 30 when we finally had sunshine one of our first glimpses of snow on the mountains our snow angels ready to hit the slopes no doubt that the babushkas in the mother country would approve how layered kristina was we dropped kristina and jasmine off along with jasmine s parents at the entrance to bear mountain so the girls could barely make the class thanks to all the traffic after 2 5 hours of searching for parking and two shuttles later jon and i finally arrived at bear mountain i just wanted a hot drink by this point after much searching we finally got a glimpse of the girls on the far away slopes taking a break lots of smiles they were really having fun while the girls were snowboarding zoltan monalisa jon and i enjoyed lunch hot dogs and beer what else is there on the slopes note to self put the sunglasses on jon and i hadn t been to the slopes together since the 80 s two tuckered out girls ready for the looong drive home someone was already falling asleep before jon and zoltan picked us up all good things come with a price the next morning kristina had a fever of 104 that lasted all day let s just say i got lots of cuddle time in posted by laura at 2 23 am no comments tuesday february 14 2017 belated birthday party check as i sat at the edge of kristina s bed on sunday evening i was in tears i sat there watching her sleep something i have had the privilege to do for over 7 1 2 years i was in tears probably because of the rawness of my emotions when i m exhausted after trying to put 110 into a birthday party that i hope she will remember for the rest of her life ha like she can forget it when i document her life here on this blog yes kristina s birthday was last month but it falls around winter break when everyone is traveling and off from school i would have had to send out invites before christmas and well i never did get christmas cards out this past season first time i ve missed in 32 years so a party in february made so much more sense for many reasons since kristina is into gymnastics she really wanted the party at le club gymnastics where she goes weekly her last big birthday party was in 2010 when kristina turned 3 back then it was her very first party as they didn t celebrate the kids birthdays in the baby home in russia ever since we have kept the parties small to her 5 closest childhood friends or just family she was due after wracking my brain for a week over the invites i went to costco and ended up with this one i love costco i have a feeling those tears of mine were also stemming from the fact that i know that this party was such a big deal for her she has been talking about it for the last 6 weeks constantly it was a tad difficult making up the invite list because she wanted to invite everyone but knew we had to keep it to her longtime childhood friends and closest 4th grade girlfriends believe me we had to trim it numerous times and have a few come to jesus meetings to keep her on track as it turns out kristina had 12 girlfriends attend and they all had a great time after 90 minutes of running jumping swinging around the girls were hot sweaty and smiling and hungry my hat off to all those who work in food service it was a team effort to feed 13 girls i sincerely appreciate fellow moms and dads who were there and jumped at the chance to help out during the party and cleaning up afterwards the party was supposed to be 11am 1pm and we finally left at 2 10 eek thank goodness there wasn t another party scheduled for the next party slot 1 30 i crashed for a 15 minute nap when we came home and our birthday girl was asleep by 7pm talk about sleep i think i ll go sit next to her now as she sleeps so soundly so i can watch her for a little bit before i retire for the night not a day passes when i don t thank god for picking us to have the privilege of being kristina s mom and dad i think i ll have that discussion with him right now birthday party pics the gym where the girls are running and jumping kristina loves the gym and sharing it with her friends was just a bonus bella focusing on the beam gaby racing along the beam natalie s turn with gaby right behind andrea s tired but still smiling two year old lily showed some awesome balance skills lily had lots of fun coach asked if i wanted to take a spin around the obstacle course ugh no focusing on beam work with coach jake and coach robert handing out the drills kira channeling the inner gymnast in herself the girls are checking out memory lane i put up photos of kristina with each of her girlfriends who attended some now and then photos going back to when kristina was 2 years old because i had so much time on my hands had to have all of kristina s favorite candy cake table pizza and fruit big hit i tried to get creative by having a fruit rainbow not sure anyone noticed but the fruit was delicious the cake from la paz bakery in canoga park was fabulous not only was it decorated beautifully but it tasted delicious chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing on the bottom and white cake with buttercream chocolate frosting on the top layer we had so much food that i asked families who just dropped off their daughter to come back at 12 30 to have some lunch i truly wish i had more time to socialize with everyone kristina was so surprised by how big the cake was yes i kept the tradition with this cake too always having a matryoshka with the birthday cake honoring the woman who brought kristina into this world the deary girls our little family getting ready to sing blowing out all 10 candles plus one for good luck was shocked to see that the cake was 6 layers six delicious la...