Welcome Home Karina!!

I know I've been secretive about our adoption process - because we needed to be. But now we are so excited to introduce you to . . .  

Karina Nichole Vogt

Karina was born December 28, 2011 in Russia. Our adoption decree was issued December 10, 2012. Gotcha Day was Christmas Day and Coming Home Day was December 28, 2012 (Karina's first birthday). 

Here we are at the airport - we were so blessed by those of you who showed up to welcome us home. And thanks to Amanda Balzer for the pictures!

We are hunkered down at home for quite a while now. Catching up on sleep, recovering from jet lag, and trying to adjust to being a family of five. Karina is awesome and we already love her so much. But she is grieving and adjusting too. Hard. Hard to watch and hard to know what to do. And hard for Addyson and Braden too. They don't like sharing mommy much but they love Karina. Braden today told me so seriously, "I really like Karina. Can we please keep her mommy??" He is so sweet and loving with her. But just dealing with his own emotions too. Addyson is so helpful and fun to watch with her baby sister. Karina loves watching them both too, but their loudness and attitudes are stressing her out . . . and mom and dad too for that matter. So you can pray for our adjustments - for wisdom and patience as we get to love these three children the Lord has blessed us with. 

I might also add that you probably won't see us out and about much (as a whole family at least) in the next couple months. We will be working on attachment and doing whatever Karina needs. I'll update the blog so you can see her that way, but we kindly ask that you not stop in for a visit to meet her. We know so many of you have prayed for her and for us and love us so much, and we so want you to meet her soon. But when she is ready. Praying that day comes for her soon. It is just so important that she learns about family and to trust us and all the things that go along with attachment.

Thanks again for all your prayers and thoughts. We are so excited and I have so much I want to share. Hopefully between all the craziness of three littles I will find time to share my heart with you and more of the journey we've been on during the last 6 months. And more pictures too!

Random Silliness

Hello!

We have been pretty silly around here!

But we wanted to catch you up a little on what we've been doing! 

Playing with pumpkin pie play dough.

I think it's so fun to watch how differently they play. Braden drives his cars all over it. Addyson "cooks' with it. 

Loving on the dogs. They are both so patient with the kids!

Addyson followed Maddie out into the field. The beans were poky and pretty tall (on her) but she had made her mind up to go to the dog.

See her in the middle of the field? So stubborn determined!!!

Making paths out of books. And just being really creative no matter what they're playing!

Playing catch with daddy.

Having crazy nap hair!

Eating chocolate chip cookies and getting very messy.

And this boy has crazy hair all the time  . . .  unless it is shaved really short. Which explains the summer haircut he is sporting now.

We all had fun packing our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, but especially Braden! He has such a big heart . . . and he likes to organize. Perfect project for him.

That's it for now. 

Thanksgiving is almost finished being celebrated.

Christmas preparations have begun. 

We are so excited for Christmas this year that I can not even begin to explain to you!!!

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is here.

Yippee!!!

It got much cooler here this last weekend and we had our first freeze!!! Allergy sufferers begin to rejoice - the ragweed is slowly dying. The allergies have been horrid this fall; I'm thankful for the meds and shots that gave me some relief but those weeds and grasses that keep pollenating can die!!!!

So anyway, we pulled out the boots and coats. And after church on Sunday these two were looking too cute to not attempt some pictures.

Then we headed to the local pumpkin patch with some friends!

Braden liked these tire swings.

And Addyson found the perfect swing. Yeehaw!! See her hand in the air - she only wanted to hold on with one hand; that's how brave she was. They are perfect for her because you go back and forth and don't swing up high!! And she could move her body back and forth to make herself go as fast or slow as she wanted. Perfect swinging has finally been found for Addyson!!! Ryan thought we might even be able to rig something like this up for our swing set. She would be SO happy!!

We picked some pumpkins.

And Addyson insisted on pulling them. I know they don't look like big pumpkins but that wagon was pretty heavy and it took all she had to pull them. But she would not give up - all that stubbornness IS good for something!

The slide was probably the best part.

Braden and Daddy might even agree!

Thankful for fall days to spend together.

Toy Room

A while ago we did some reorganizing of the toys. Almost all of them moved downstairs to the basement and one spare bedroom turned into the new toy room! Come on in and have a look.

This just might be my favorite part. The toys are organized into bins. There are finally actual spots for animals, tractors, cars, balls, and lots of other things. And they are all neatly organized in the closet. So thankful for this closet space!! And I realized that organization makes me peaceful. And finishing a project. It sure feels nice to work on something and then see it completed.

One wall has pictures hung with tiny clothespins so we can change them up and/or put artwork and stuff they make at Sunday School or Cubbies. And my Barbie house.

My Grandpa Dyck built me this for one of my birthdays. It's hard to see but the roof has real shingles. He crawled up onto the roof of their old farm house and got old wood shingles which he cut down to size and used to shingle my Barbie house. I still remember the smell of the fresh varnish the first night it moved into my bedroom at home!! Super special. My mom "wallpapered" and decorated it.  And then my aunts and uncles and parents helped fill it with furniture. It is a tad outdated, and I thought about doing a reno but since all the furniture still screams late 80's and early 90's I figured I might as well just leave it. Especially since Addyson and Braden are really playing with it so it's going to take some wear and tear. I may have had just a little too much fun setting everything up though :)

The kitchen set moved downstairs. I am really glad to not have to clean up little pretend food items from every upstairs room of the house like we did daily before the toy room existed. At least some of the mess is confined to the lowest level.

Along the other wall are clipboards where we can display some of Addyson's and Braden's artwork. And little chairs for reading or sitting. Or possibly climbing . . .  and falling - that may have happened. And a soft comfy rug for each of them to sit on. The stained concrete floor is pretty to look at and pretty perfect for building train tracks and fences for the herds of plastic animals we own, but not so soft for bottoms to sit on. They've worked out really well!

Addyson loves her some watercolor lately. It's fun to see what she paints. I think these were airplanes.

Braden prefers more writing and drawing with pens. Fun to see how things are starting to take some shapes instead of just lines and scribbles.

I wanted something on the window but since I wanted to make sure that it still let in lots of light I ended up making bunting out of burlap and painting polka dots on it. I like how it turned out!

So there you have it. The new play room!

Now could you please convince my two littles that it is fun to play in there? They do not like to be down there by themselves. Hopefully they will outgrow that eventually. But for now I guess I should be thankful that for the most part it stays pretty organized!!!

We are AWANA Cubbies . . .

The first night of Cubbies was a few weeks ago. Here they are before that first Wednesday!

But last night they got their vests and had a great time. (We had a bit of a rough start the first couple weeks . . .  they got split up in different rooms at first, and then life has just been full of transitions for them and they weren't sure about Cubbies. But last night seemed to be a turning point!! Yay!!!)

That first night we headed to McDonald's afterwards to try to soothe some sad hearts. :(

And the next week we promised ice cream sundaes if they went without crying and fussing - bribes are always great. :)

Then last night they asked for ice cream just because . . . and daddy is a poor sucker who will take them to McDonald's for just about anything :)

Because he really likes it too.

And ice cream is good for celebrating, consoling, or just because!!!

So we all enjoyed our ice cream sundaes at home last night to celebrate what big kids they are getting to be!!!

Dropping them off that first night was a bigger deal for me than I thought it would be. Our babies are growing up!!! Thankfully one of my friends dropped off her oldest at Cubbies too and we could justify our sadness and nerves together. Oh well, we ALL survived and now it seems to be fun for everyone too!

Good stuff!!