Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted
according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or
slow to do the humble work.

- Mother Teresa

About Me

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Sunny Florida, United States
I am the proud mom to 6 kids: Natasha, 24, Nikolai, 20, Reese, 20, Maylee, 14, Erik, 10 and Violet, 7. The kids come from Russia, Ukraine and China; I'm so proud of my family sometimes I think I'll burst and I needed an outlet for it - so I've created this weblog. :o)
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
- Mother Teresa

Motivation for Moms

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One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
Mother Teresa

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Saturday, October 22, 2011
Now that Erik has been home for over 2 years, we can now say we have "traditions" with him. For example, this is his 3rd October with us, so it is now "tradition" that we visit the Methodist church's pumpkin patch and get pictures of Erik each year. Here he was on the very first October that he was here (he was home for just over a month at this time):

He was terrified of the whole thing! He wouldn't touch the pumpkins, he hated sitting on the hay bales, and he wanted nothing to do with the scarecrows! At the time, I felt really guilty taking these pictures of him bawling (he did cry an AWFUL lot those first days, in my defense), but knew that someday it would be worth it, and it is. New parents of adopted children, document EVERYTHING you can when your child first comes home!! It is so wonderful to see them progress and you don't want to have forgotten any of it!
Here he is again, terrified of the scarecrow! His nerves were really shot by this time, and after this picture was taken, we paid for our pumpkin and went home.

*************************

Fast forward to the next year - what progress!! Look! He's sitting by a pumpkin without screaming!! Yay, Erik!! And look - he has HAIR and is smiling!! :oD


Also notice too, in this one, he is standing and walking, though not with confidence just yet, and is willingly observing the pumpkins. What a kid!!

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Fast forward to this year: He's still really hard to get a posed picture of, but we tried. ;o)

See?? Saying "Smile!!" only elicits a blank stare. LOL Here, I had just told him to close his mouth - what a goofball!!


This year, instead of passively looking at the pumpkins, he thought they were balls and he kept throwing them! LOL We couldn't get him to hold on to any!

Yes, this is sweet, isn't it? A nanosecond later, he threw the pumpkin. ;op

Ah, life is always better when your favorite big brother is around! Nikolai was volunteering at the hospital this morning, so he missed the trip this year.


Can't leave The Bearded One out of the picture-taking action...!


I'm open to caption ideas, but I think he was telling me that Erik left his designated spot and was on the loose.


"How much longer are we going to be taking pictures...? This is getting embarrassing."


As long as Erik's having fun, we'll keep taking pictures. ;o)


That's my boy!! :o) I just love him to PIECES.


Happy October!!!

3 comments:

amyl4 said...

Great pictures Missy! We are going today:):) Give those boys and yourself a big hug from me:):)

Melissa Macy said...

So great to see his progress! Is he the boy you adopted from Ukraine? One of our boys is adopted from Ukraine also. We adopted him Jan of this year.

Missy said...

Hi, Melissa! Yes, he was adopted Sept 09. If you look in the archives on my blog, you can read follow his adoption story! Go as far back as July 09 to start. Thanks for visiting my blog, and congratulations on your new son! :o)

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My family

My family
Nikolai, Mark, Missy, Reese, and Erik

Nikolai, 19

Nikolai, 19

Reese, 19

Reese, 19

Erik, 9

Erik, 9

Daisy

Daisy

Mary

Mary

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