Summer fun

It has been just crazy the last couple weeks and I apologize for not posting pictures and activities that Karuna has been up too. The last weekend of June we went to Illinois to visit family. On the way back here we visited with the Baxter's again so the kids could see each other again. We had fun letting the kids play on the playground.

Karuna and Henna

Karuna joined the school cub scout troop and they got the chance to march in the 4th of July parade. Later in the day we went to the park so that he could see his first fireworks since he arrived. He was so excited when the fireworks started and the look in his eyes was priceless.

Karuna in his scout uniform

We have been going to the library to the children's programs that they have there. A couple of them have been about animals which really seems to interest Karuna. Spiders and snakes definitely are not his favorite.

Karuna petting a huge tortoise

Learning some camping skills!!

Last Friday July 19th we were able to finalize Karuna's adoption. What a wonderful day after everything we went through to get him home and now we can final say "our son"! We had a big decision to make when we did the petition to finalize....do we change his name? We know we didn't want to take his Indian name away from him but did want to give him a middle name. Karuna doesn't really understand what it means to have a middle name so asking him what we should do was very hard for him to understand. So, we decided to keep Karuna as his middle name and his first name is now Joshua. We are giving him the option of going by either his Indian name or Joshua when he gets older. For now we are still going to call him Karuna.

Finalization Day!!!

Karuna and his big sister Jessica

Our first month home

We have made it through our first month home with Karuna. We have had our fair share of ups and downs just like anyone that adopts an older child. For the most part things have been positive. His language is exploding. We visited the ESL teacher this week and she gave us a few websites to have Karuna practice Math and reading. She is starting him at a kindergarten level because of his lack of the English language. So far he seems to understand theath much easier than reading. We are calling this a "game" because when we mentioned school he seemed to be very uninterested and would say "NO".

As I mentioned in my last post, Karuna had to have 2 cavities filled and he was very unhappy with me afterwards. The dentist said he did very well during the procedure. I have already decided that Maurice gets to take him to the doctor when he has to have shots before school starts!!


At the end of May we were able to visit the Baxter family who brought their daughter home a week before we came home. They were so happy to see each other. We had a wonderful pizza buffet and afterwards the kids went to the play room and enjoyed almost an hour of playing in the arcade. We hope to see them again this month. We also had our first visit to Nana and papa's house which included meeting my brother, his daughter and her husband and 2 kids. We had a cookout and the kids had fun playing.

School is finally out for Jessica so things are much less stressed for her. We put the trampoline up last weekend and they both had fun jumping on it.

That's about all for right now. I will try to post some pictures soon.

Our first week home

It's hard to believe a week ago we left India. Karuna is doing just great. He's sleep patterns are still a little off but seem to be getting better. Tuesday was his first doctors appointment and he did super. He will need 3 shots before school starts in the fall which I'm not looking forward too. He has been complaining about pain in two places in his mouth and I was able to get him in to see the dentist Thursday and unfortunately he has 2 cavities. So next Tuesday we go back and get them filled. Jessica has never had a cavity so this will be my first experience with a child.

This week has been full of first for Karuna. We visited his school that he will be going to in the fall for the first time. Everyone was so happy to finally see him and welcomed him with open arms. Tuesday it was a beautiful day outside so Karuna tried rollerblading for the first time. I wish I would of had a video camera rolling to capture this moment. At first he had a hard time staying up on his feet and would giggle everytime he lost his balance. He had me laughing at time so hard I had a hard time helping him. Anyway, it was a great experience for him. Wednesday we got his bike out and he loved riding it around in the driveway. He has been playing basketball, hitting a ball with a bat, playing with sidewalk chalk,and I think his favorite blowing bubbles outside.

Yesterday we went to the zoo most of the morning. He had a blast looking at all the animals. He got to feed some goats which he thought was great. It tickled his hands and he was laughing. We then we to a little playground they have at the zoo and he climbed the monkey bars like a pro.

I will post pictures when I get the chance to get them off the camera.

Our journey home

Our journey home started at 12am Friday morning. We left the hotel and drove through the dark and still busy streets of Delhi. We got to the airport just before 1am and checked in. On the way to India I had to sit by myself and I wasn't about to do it again. Jessica, Karuna and I sat together and Maurice was across the aisle. Both kids fell sound asleep even before the plane took off. We landed in Abu Dhabi at 7:30am and had only 2 hours to get off the plane and get to the next. By the time we got to the next gate it was almost time to board the next. Jess and I sat together and Maurice and Karuna we across the isle. The flight from Abu Dhabi to Chicago is exhausting. Since Karuna and Jessica slept during the first flight they were doing pretty good. I don't sleep well on planes so I was totally exhausted. 14 hours in a plane is just not my idea of fun. Karuna was really antsy but who could blame him. Even the little TV on the plane wasn't enough entertainment for him. He finally fell asleep when we had about 4 hours left of the flight.
We landed in Chicago at about 3:45 in the afternoon and made our way to the very long line in the immigration section. It took us about 30 minutes to finally reach the desk. We gave all of Karuna's paperwork to the very nice lady behind the desk and in just a few minutes she was done and we moved on to get our luggage. After that we took his paperwork to yet another person who then proceeded to give their stamp of approval :-) They told us to go to yet another area where we had to have our luggage screened again and we were then told we were free to go. Yipeeeee
A couple of our friends who also adopted children from GKF had asked if it was okay if they came to the airport to meet us and when we went through the last door there was Vidya(mom) with her daughter Neelu and Ashu and Anjali with their daughter Sindhu waiting for us. Karuna was so happy to see Neelu and Sindhu and they were just as thrilled. We got something to drink and visited with them for about an hour. We then called our driver that would take us home which took us about 1 1/2 hours. Jess, Karuna and Maurice all fell sounds asleep AGAIN but I just couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep.
We arrived at home by 8pm and I definately was ready for bed. Jess got her pj's on, we got Karuna ready for bed and told him "Karuna go sleep", he said "Karuna no sleep!" I thought oh boy we are going to have a long night! We decided to get ready for bed and maybe he would realize it was time to sleep. I was out the minute my head hit the pillow. We gave Karuna a small flashlight, showed him where the bathroom was and Maurice put him in bed. At about 2 am he came into our room and said he was hungry!! Thank goodness Vidya had fixed him some idilli and rice with yogurt. Maurice warmed it up and he gobbled most of it up. We thought with a full belly he might go back to sleep, WRONG!! I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open and neither could Maurice. To make a long story short, he didn't fall asleep again until about 4 in the afternoon. Last night he slept pretty good but was up again at about 5. If we can just get him to sleep a couple hours longer we will finally have his little clock set to Wisconsin time.
Karuna is doing great. The only time he actually got scared was when our cat came to greet us when we got home. It took him awhile to trust her and then Saturday my parents came to bring back our dog Max. He wasn't to sure about him at first either but now all is good.
Maurice goes back to work tomorrow and Jess to school, so it will be just Karuna and I alone. Mommy and Karuna bonding time begins :-)

Our last day here

In just about 15 hours our plane will be leaving Delhi on route to Abu Dhabi and from there to our final distination, Chicago. As I sit here typing this, I look back on the past 3+ years that this process has taken us to finally get to this point. The licensing issues, NOC delays, court delays, and passport delays that were a constant worry for us. But looking into the eyes of my little boy makes all these things go away.
Being in a motel room since we got Karuna, I don't think that he realizes everything that is waiting for him back home. He's seen pictures but I can't wait to see his eyes when he finally sees that he has a real home. His own bedroom, a big yard to play in, a puppy and a cat, and so much more.
I want to thank all of you so much for your love and support through this process. I will keep posting update as much as I possibly can.

Monday and Tuesday

On Monday Madhu took Karuna's medical report to the Embassy for us(very nice of her to do). She called us later to let us know that everything went well and that Karuna's visa should be done Tuesday afternoon. We spent the day doing a little shopping here at the mall that is attached to our hotel. With the heat as bad as it has been here, its nice to be able to stay inside.

On Tuesday afternoon Maurice and Madhu went back to the Embassy in the afternoon to pick up the visa and all of his paperwork for immigrations when we land in the US. I have never been so glad to see his visa inside of his passport and the sealed envelope in my life. This now means that we are ready to leave India!! We are all ready to get home and start a new chapter in Karuna's life.

We will be flying back on Friday. Our flight leaves here at 5am so we have to be at the airport no later than 1am. We want to make sure they don't separate us like they did on the way here. It's no fun sitting by yourself on a VERY long flight.

So the next couple days we will be packing and helping Jessica finish her homework(fun)! She has done a pretty good job keeping up with everything especially as busy as we were the first week we were here.

Will post again when I get the chance.

Saturday and Sunday

On Saturday, Maurice,Karuna and Madhu went to the medical center to read Karuna's TB skin test and good news, it came back negative!! Jessica and I stayed at the motel and worked on homework. Jess was not feeling the greatest the past few days and it's probably a combination of the food and the pool water :-( She started out with just nausea and then Saturday she started vomiting. Thank goodness we had the antibiotics that the travel nurse gave us. We gave her a dose Saturday night and by Sunday morning she was feeling better.
On Sunday morning we got up early to made our way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get there. What an amazing sight to see!!



The Taj Mahal

We had an English speaking guide that took us around. The weather here is sometime unbearable. The temperature yesterday was 107 degrees!! They said this was the hottest time to be there. We counted the empty bottles of water we drank from the time we got there until we got home and it was 11!! I got a good jump start on summer tan :-)



Jessica and Karuna


All of us together.

We made it back to Delhi before night fall and all of us were so tired from the heat it didn't take long for all of us to go to bed.

I didn't get a chance to post this picture earlier but this is the Meenakshi Temple that we visited in Madurai. Absolutely beautiful.