went trick or treating for the first time ever last Saturday night.  He was a little scared of a few of the costumes he saw on kids(and adults) in our neighborhood.  He also did not want to wear a pig nose.  Otherwise, he loved the concept of going to say “hi” to the neighbors and being given candy.

When we first started talking to him about Halloween, we tried to ask him what he wanted to dress like.  His initial answer was “clock.”  After several weeks, he answered the question with “piggy.”  We tried to model his pig on one of the three little pigs thus the overalls. Maybe Mama made his ears a little too long ’cause he did get mistaken a couple of times for a bunny rabbit.  Oh well!  He was a cute little piggy to us

He loved working on his jack o’lantern Friday night and getting to turn it on at night.  He also found the roasted pumpkin seeds to be extra yummy treats.  We used a dry erase marker to draw our face on the pumpkin before cutting it out (since it wipes off easily) and we used an ice cream scoop to remove the seeds and extra pumpkin gunk.

Heather

A year ago an American family adopting their daughter from the same baby home where Colin lived for almost 2 years took photos for us(and delivered a photo book to Colin).  We first saw these photos in early November, and  I remember staring at them so often as we waited for word of our travel dates.  These photos were taken over 3 months since we’d met our son.  I won’t kid you..It was extremely hard to see him in one sense because he looked so sad and scared in the photos and we had read blogs of families who’d been blessed to bring their children home within 3 months of first meeting them.  Oh how I wanted to love on this boy and know he was forever our son!

Over a month more would pass before we could see him again in person. 

We are so glad to know that a year later if our sweet son is hurting or sad or even  mad, he has us to comfort him and love him.

Our Colin in October 2009: What a difference the love of a family makes!

Last week was rough due to the colds Colin and I had and the home study interview and post-placement report #2.  Early in the week, we did find time to make some feely goop. He spent a long time playing in the goop. 

I turned away for one second and Colin started putting it on his face and in his hair.  Since it was just cornstarch and water and food coloring, I let him have fun doing it and made him strike funny poses.

Colin enjoyed his first popcorn last week when Alan popped some kernels the old-fashioned way on the stove.

Here are a couple of photos from a Sunday walk in our neighborhood with Papa.  Our trees are almost past their peak.

On Sunday afternoon, we decided that Colin and I’d had enough of our sickness and seclusion.  It was time for Alan to take us on a pumpkin patch adventure!  At the pumpkin patch in our town, we were able to take a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch and then let Colin pick out pumpkins.  Colin was a little scared on the tractor because it was loud.  He loved walking out in the field looking at pumpkins.  He helped us pick out a little one and a big one.

As we prepare to enter the paperwork stage for our second adoption, this article by Jason Kovacs of The ABBA Fund is a timely reminder of the “Good News for Those Trusting God for Adoption.”

Check it out at:

http://abbafund.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/good-news-for-those-trusting-god-for-adoption/

We have started a new home study while doing our second post-placement for Russia.  Our second post-placement will be due in Russia by the anniversary of our court hearing.  It is incredible to think that we were still waiting on word of our court petition this time last year!  I remember trembling at the thought that if we didn’t get our petition in October, we might no be able to return for Colin before Christmas.  How wonderfully God provided for us and helped us to return to the U.S. with Colin before Christmas 2008!

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather

This cookbook’s title has immediate appeal for many families trying to save money these days.  Hall has cleverly organized it with suggestions for meal combinations and shopping lists.  Each section has a mini index listing which recipes are 10 minutes or less, 15 minutes or less, 20 minutes or less and 30 minutes or less.  Each recipe uses 7 or less ingredients.

BUT (this is a big “but” for us because of a family history of heart disease and strokes), the content is not for families who are conscientious about making healthy food choices for their families.  Doctors and dieticians recommend reducing the amount of sodium in our diets but this cookbook’s recipes range from 9 to 2157 mg of sodium per serving.  The majority of them are 1000 mg or more of sodium per serving.  The only sections that I found to contain mostly lower sodium recipes were the breads and biscuits, beverages and desserts.  For me, I have found that I would have to adjust the majority of the recipes in the cookbook to be lower in sodium and made with fewer convenience items (like canned potatoes) so that I feel better about serving them to my family. 

Note: Read more reviews by my fellow Thomas Nelson Book Bloggers at http://brb.thomasnelson.com/reviews.

Fall is usually my favorite time of year…I love the cooling weather and the leaves beginning to change.  I love putting away shorts and getting out long sleeves and sweaters.  I enjoy tasting recipes that just seem to taste better in fall–like pumpkin bread, pumpkin lattes (Alan just made one for me!), pecans, and apple crisp.

Fall last year, however, was not my favorite time of year.  We were waiting anxiously for our court petition and we knew that if we didn’t get it in October we wouldn’t likely be able to bring home Colin before the slow-down of the Russian New Year. 

What a blessing to have Colin with us this fall!  Fall is not very long in Russia and Colin’s life was limited to a small yard behind the baby home.  We are excited to watch Colin enjoy his first long fall here in Indiana.  Tonight on the way to church Colin began to ooh and ah over the first signs of the bright colors of autumn leaves!  

Here he is in his Halloween pajamas.  He has no clue what Halloween is.

We aren’t going to make a big deal out of Halloween.  We will pick out a pumpkin or two soon and carve them.  We have tried to ask Colin what he’d like to dress like…The first time we asked him this (not sure whether he really understands this question when we ask it), Colin said, “Clock.”  Hmmmm…At another time, we asked him if he still wanted to dress like a clock and he denied it….So we don’t really know what he is going to be dressed like for Halloween.

We probably will let him trade his candy for some other treats.  If people handed out marshmallows instead of candy, Colin wouldn’t be open to trading.  He absolutely loves marshmallows and will say every day or so, “I want marshmallow.”  He is very motivated by food to speak in sentences. Besides marshmallows, he loves every vegetable imaginable.   This week he devoured raw cucumbers, grape tomatoes, broccoli, kale chips (I made from scratch), and carrots.  He has even been known to try to eat beans and potatoes raw.  One afternoon, he actually begged for the green peppers I was chopping rather than eating the rest of his apple slices. 

Colin enjoys helping Mama bake…Unfortunately every photo of him helping me is awful of his Mama so I’ve had to edit me out to spare our readers! 

I try to make sure that we attempt to do art at least once a week.  Here Colin is “painting” with a magic bag.  He loves painting and would do it every day if I were a braver Mama!

Colin also enjoys practicing cutting with his scissors.  This week he has been less patient with my attempts to guide his hand.  “No, Mama,” he insisted as he tried to cut by himself.

Colin is doing well with answering more questions and is talking in more sentences.  We are proud of how his vocabulary continues to grow, too.

He enjoys having company.  He loves to greet our Tuesday night small group members when they come to the door.  He is always pleasant and friendly with people he meets as well as people he knows.

We are going to try to work on potty training more than we have in the past.  Colin is somewhat receptive and has picked out his first pair of cloth training pants (we’ve got to check the sizing before we order more) and just wait until you see the print he chose! 

I encourage you to consider listening to Family Life Today’s interview with author Russell Moore.  The discussions center on infertility, adoption and orphan care.  Moore is the author of a recent book on my “To-Read” list–Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches.  Just because I include the links to this program here does not necessarily mean that I agree with or relate to all that Moore says in the interview; I think it does offer food for thought and is worth listening to.

To listen to each of the 3 audio programs (or to read transcripts) go to the following site for the links:

http://abbafund.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/family-life-russell-moore-on-infertility-adoption-orphan-care/

I’m sorry I still haven’t posted much on here lately.  We have some new photos to upload which I plan on doing this week (Really, I do!).  We will have our post-placement #2 interview this month and…we might just be doing a new home study…We’ll share more on that soon.

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather

This month, I read my first-ever Donald Miller book.  Donald Miller is best known for Blue Like Jazz.   His new release is  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. The book describes how Miller discovers what makes a good story while co-writing a script based on Blue Like Jazz. Miller is transformed by the realization he could live a “better story.”  As he begins to make changes in his life, he encounters pain, joy, and a sense of purpose.

Miller’s writing style is conversational.  He is random, funny, deep and authentic as he tells his story and as he reflects on the stories of others he has encountered along the way. I felt like he was someone worth listening to because he seemed down-to-earth and easy for me to relate to.  His book delivers a message of hope–that everyday people can find meaning in life.

As a Christian, Miller does not promise that living a better story will be all sunshine and roses; instead, it can be downright messy and painful at times.  This I can wholeheartedly attest to.  In our adoption journey to our son, one of our most painful moments was waiting to return to Russia to finalize the adoption.  It hurt to wait almost 5 months before we could see him again.  It hurt that it was out of our control.  Was that pain (and other difficulties of the adoption process) worth it? You bet it was!  But we kept going on because we felt called to become parents through adopting from Russia.  The risks and pain brought meaning to our every day life…My husband and I found ourselves part of a greater story and are smack dab in a more exciting, meaningful adventure than if we had chose to play it safe when God called us to adopt back in 2007.

Regardless of where you are in your life or your personal beliefs, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years will entertain you and possibly even inspire you to turn the TV off and get out and live your life with passion.

Note: Read more reviews by my fellow Thomas Nelson Book Bloggers at http://brb.thomasnelson.com/reviews.

“Take good care of him.   He’s precious…”  I wish I could remember the exact words Colin’s Grandpa Brandt said to me a couple of visits ago.  I know that he dearly loved each of his grandchildren and it brought me such joy to see him enjoy getting to know his youngest grandchild during the past several months.

“Next time we’ll help more with him.”  Our visit in July is when he told me this and I remember being puzzled by his words since we felt like he did help us simply by loving and enjoying time with Colin.

It was heartbreaking on Monday afternoon, over a week ago, when Colin ran to the medical scales where his Grandpa always checked his weight and there was no Grandpa to see how he’d grown…We couldn’t explain to him that his Grandpa had passed away that morning and wouldn’t be around to watch him grow any bigger.  There was a hole in our family and even a two-year-old could sense something was never going to be same about his visits to Illinois.

This has been a bittersweet year so far–a year of “goodbyes” intermingled with “hellos.”  We had the wonderful experiences of introducing Colin to his extended family this year and watching as he grew to love each special person.  We had the sadness of saying “goodbye” to Granddaddy (whom Colin still plays the piano for as he looks at the picture frame of his Granny and Granddaddy) who had just met Colin…We faced the grief of losing another grandfather and father–Grandpa Brandt–just six months later. 

Without our faith and hope that this life is not the end and that through faith in Jesus Christ we have a better life awaiting us, these losses would be unbearable. 

We are thankful for memories of our loved ones and for how hard they worked to take care of our families through the years…They both could be stubborn and unbending but these qualities helped to make them the strong individuals that they were.  And they both were fiercely proud of their families and loved us dearly…I know that even though they didn’t always show their feelings face-to-face to their loved ones but often bragged about us to neighbors and friends.  I’ve been blessed to see how dedicated and in love they each were with their wives. 

I’ll leave off today with a photo of Colin with his Grandpa Brandt from earlier in the year.  We are very thankful we took photos and videoed this very special story moment with Colin and his Grandpa.

Alan’s father passed away this morning. We are now in Illinois and the funeral will likely be Saturday. We appreciate prayers for our family.

We’ll get back to posting on here next week.

Thank you for stopping by,

Heather