Wednesday, March 23, 2011

When One Door Closes....

 Watching the animal show at the Nature Preserve at Hueston Woods, and below, at the beach.
The Mountain Lion..Hannah said "Meow Kitty."
 Hannie vs. Shamrock Cookie. Final Score: Cookie 1, Hannie 0
 If you are lucky enough to be irish, then you are lucky enough.
 Cutest Asian Leprechaun
 Mommy's Lucky Charm


My future double's partner, IF she can get more rotation on her swing volley :-)


As you can see, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day BIG around these parts.  ****TMI alert, skip ahead to avoid a gross out****  Hannah celebrated in her own way.  When I went in to change her diaper on St. Patrick's Day, it was BRIGHT GREEN!!  GROSS!!! Festive, but GROSS!!!

Spring has FINALLY made it's way to Ohio, and I have decided that Hannie, at 20 months, is finally old enough to join Mama on the tennis court. Call me Tiger Tennis Mama, I don't mind.  For those of you who don't know me IRL, I really, really like tennis, and have played my entire life.  I hope Hannie wants to play as well, and so far it's looking promising.   Well, she didn't get the ball over the net or anything, but she looks pretty good in her new tennis outfit and kicks!

This weekend was beautiful weather, and we cooked-out with the neighbors and went to the beach and nature preserve at Hueston Woods State Park with Emily and Isabella.  Emily and I also got up and went to a Mom to Mom Consignment Sale Saturday morning.  It was horrifying.  It started at 8am, we got there at 8:05 and we were oh, about 400th in line.  People were grabbing clothes out from under each other, pushing, shoving, blowing whistles, it was utter chaos.  Like picture Black Friday on crack. Never ever again.  If you need me, I'll be at nice, calm, orderly Gymboree. Better yet, I'll shop online.

An interesting tidbit for my KazMama's out there.  The space capsule carrying two Russian Cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (twin brother of Mark Kelly, who is the husband of wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords) landed safely in the steppes of central Kazakhstan this week.
Check out the article, there is a great picture of Scott Kelly dressed in a traditional Kazakh folk outfit holding a matroyshka doll! Oh, and before I forget, happy Nauryz everyone!
 
And finally...dum dum dum...Great news in the adoption world...after much sadness with the reduction and eventual closing of Kazakhstan's adoption program (only 131 children adopted last year, still 100,000 orphans in country), just a few days later, China announced that the Special Focus Adoption Program is now open to Single Women!  Hmmm...Is there a China Doll in my future?! Stay tuned!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Greatest Show On Earth



 As you may have guessed from the blog title and pictures of dancing elephants, we celebrated Gotcha Day 2011 with a trip to the Barnum and Bailey circus with another Cincy Kaz adoption family.  My mom swears I went to a circus when I was younger, but I don't remember it.  In any case, I was thoroughly entertained by the show and Hannah...well Hannah liked the snack bar a lot and was mildly impressed with the actual performance.  Half way through she said "go away, bye bye Mamoo" and sweetly put on her coat and handed me my purse, but luckily the midgets riding motorcycles paraded out just then and that placated her for a while.  It was a fun day on top of a very busy weekend ~ Friday night was the fish fry at church for the start of Lent.  The priest calls himself the Codfather and his helpers are the Sole Men :-). I had planned on giving up facebook, but decided instead to give up texting. We'll see how it goes.
 
On the adoption front, there is a new facebook page called the Real Face of Special Needs Adoption.  If your heart needs a lift, check out this page filled with stories of beautiful children and family.  One of the topics on the page that I really like is the question,

What do you want people to know about your child with special needs? (I paraphrased that to use person-first language).  Here are some of my favorite responses


That his special need does not define him. He is the same as everyone else; he is different as is everyone. He is special, and not just because of his need. You are special, too.


That the only limitations my guys have are those put on them by others.


Yes, we knew they had special needs before we adopted them. No, they were not second choices, we did not settle for them - they are perfect in every way and we are lucky to have them in our lives.


That my kids needing a family was really their greatest special need.

I am staying busy working on my newest volunteer project, The Passport to Forever event benefiting the Int'l Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. After I posted about this the last time, a few people emailed me asking why we are raising this money.  As many of you know, the IAC in Cincinnati s the MOST comprehensive program of it's type in the entire United States.  Although they are affiliated with the hospital, they are entirely self sustaining and non-profit. Although they charge for some services, many of their support groups, educational programming, and parenting classes are free. With adoptions in the US declining rapidly, events like Passport to Forever help the center stay afloat and continue to provide desperately needed services to adoptive families.  I am helping with the Silent Auction and our goal is $10,000. We are currently looking for hostess items (Pampered Chef, Thirty-One, Silpada, etc), theme baskets (i.e. holiday, sports teams, picnic, etc) and of course items from birth countries.  If anyone would like to help with a committee, donate products or services, or even just attend the event, please email me.      


Hannah Update

Happy, Healthy, Wonderful!!  At twenty months, her favorite books are Miss Spider, Go Dog Go, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and the Sandra Boynton books.  Her favorite foods are spaghetti, ice cream, pizza, and fruit snacks.  She loves to swim, play with her kitchen, and do puzzles.  She can identify all shapes, colors, animals, and almost every letter and it's sound, she is starting to count, has a rapidly growing vocabulary (her favorite phrases are "More ____ please" "No! My _____" and "Hannie big Girl."  She probably has over 200 words but I haven't counted.  She is starting to copy basic shapes on paper (just line up/down ,circle, etc). 99.999% of the time she is smiling, laughing, chatty, and generally wonderful.  However, this weekend, I accidentally stumbled upon the one thing that sends her into a fit of rage.  I tried to hold another baby.  My neighbor and friend Jenny had a little girl last week, and I made the mistake of attempting to hold her in Hannie's presence.  No dice. She wouldn't let me anywhere near her, but I took a pic of Nana holding the baby and Hannie.  One of the few pics and times in which I have seen her genuinely distressed.
I think her reaction was pretty normal for her age, but it does concern me for the future if I would chose to have to adopt another child. Oh well, as the old saying goes, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. We have a busy month ahead, and the key word is PLANNING.  Planning an EPIC Easter Party, planning summer vacations and a possible "dirty 30" trip to Germany this fall, and planning on enjoying every minute of it!  If I don't blog before then, ""Hoppy Easter" everyone! ~Erin
PS Check out my video of Hannie's words of wisdom from inside the spice drawer!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Twenty Nine-ish

And so it begins.


This is the year that all my friends begin to turn the big 3-0.  One by one, the "dirty 30" surprise party invitations have arrived in the mail.  Last weekend it was my friend Brent's turn.  A party was set up for the purposes of loving humiliation by his well-meaning parents, complete with a party hats and a giant clock with his face on it that read "Man of the Hour." Ouch.

This past weekend was my friend Davy's big day.  Davy is an old college buddy, he married my friend Ashley a few years ago, I was the Maid of Honor in their wedding.  The party was a reunion of sorts, for the old Miami University gang.  Our lives have taken us in many directions (literally and figuratively), and it was great to see everyone, to reminisce, to catch up.  I am amazed that we 20-somethings who spent literally days at a time playing beer pong and eating Top Ramen noodles have somehow transformed into productive, successful grown-ups.  After the party ended, they all headed to downtown Cincinnati in a gigantic stretch limo to continue the night of partying and general debauchery.  I took some good natured ribbing for not coming along, and, two years ago, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. The reality was not lost on me, that, had I not had a child (I am pretty much the only one with a little one at this point), this could have been my life every weekend.  The pub crawls, peaceful mornings sleeping in, simple, affordable trips to mall without stops at Gymboree and Playland.  Truth be told, I felt a tennsy, tinesy twinge of jealousy.  But I didn't make that choice.  I chose a different path; a messy, chaotic, noisy, stressful, beautiful path; and I wouldn't have it any other way.



It's not the life I thought I would have.  It's a thousand times better.

Hannah/Mom Update

My best-friend-since-we-were-babies Elizabeth (who traveled with me to Kaz) has been living and working in India for the past 6 months and she came home for a visit this week before relocating for the next two years to Afghanistan.  It was wonderful to see her (we MISS her SO much) and she got to see how much Hannie has grown up since this summer.  On the one year anniversary of the day I went to court in Kaz, we went to dinner with our friend Joe, who we met in Kaz and is now living in Cincy post-peace corps.  It was a fun night reminiscing about all our fun nights in Shymkent.

Hannah is going through a stage right now (which, I am told by my mommy friends lasts well into adolescence) where "No" means "Wait 8 Seconds and Ask Mommy Again."  It is really true what they say, you spend the first year of your life teaching them to walk and talk and the next 17 years teaching them to sit down and be quiet!  And whoever coined the phrase "I hope someday you have one just like you"  well, I'd like to meet.

I had a "I'm doing a good job" Mommy moment the other day as well. We have been working hard on the concept of sharing.  Although we try to get together with friends, Hannie isn't really around many kids her age on a regular basis.  The other day, her friend Mei dropped her sticker at Chick Fil A.  Hannie willingly and unprompted gave her one of her stickers!  That's my girl!

Some sad news is that Kazakhstan continues to be closed to adoptions.  It hurts my heart to think about all those beautiful children who will never find their forever families. These children did not ask for the lives they were given.  Please pray that the bureaucratic issues are resolved quickly.

Pictures below are of Hannie Herman, 1st Gotcha Day 3/5/11.

                  80,000 orphans in Kazakhstan alone.  143 million worldwide.  Minus one.  



Micah 6:8 "Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly"