One more down

Quote of the Day:
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.
-Booker Taliaferro Washington, 1856-1915

Yeah! I'm back (Karen)! I haven't been able to write in a while and for some reason I am pretty excited. I guess I feel like I get to talk to you all. ha! Well, as you can tell things are going rather smoothly here. In fact we are hoping to get the papers that were supposed to come back tomorrow, today instead. If this does happen, it means that we should have court early next week (hopefully Monday.) Wednesday is a holiday again so we need to get it done before then so our 10 day waiting period can begin ASAP. When the 10 days are up we will only have a few days of paperwork and we will finally be on our way HOME. Augh that sounds so good. It is always nice to be home. :o) We can't wait to show Lance his new home and his family and friends. Wow, that will be exciting.

Right now he is adapting well, but we are still needing to introduce new circumstances a little cautiously. The sun, even with cloud cover, is still extremely bright and tiring for our little guy. We tried to eat soup with him there (after we had helped feed him lunch, mind you) and he became very upset trying to get it. I was giving him some, but obviously not fast enough. I think it is too much like the food he receives from the caregivers and he was worried that he wouldn't get his food. It was sad and hard to explain to him. However, with new foods that he is not familiar with, we have not had this problem. He became a little upset when his yogurt was finished, but not too bad. We discovered he might be like his dad with the love of milk. He would drink some then stop and sigh, then continue. Other than food, he is really trusting us and showing his true colors. Let me tell you, he is all boy. It is hilarious. He is now trying to climb up things, loves to play wrestle, and even makes moves as though he is challenging the stuffed toys. It is in a cute manner not truly mean for those who were getting worried. We are still infatuated with swinging hinges on doors and windows, though.

I am not sure if it is us wanting the clothes to fit better or him gaining weight from our continuous feeding trials, but they seem to fit better. We are going to try pinning some of the pants today and see if they won't fall off.

It is sunny today, so we hope to go outside again. Although it is really cold. We heard it snowed in Kiev yesterday. Whew, in May. This is not normal weather for here, either. It shouldn't matter for Lance because he is always wrapped in about 5 layers like the kiddo on Christmas story. We need him to get a little vitamin D from the sun and we need it too. Okay, one more brag on our little guy- he laughed almost all day yesterday. It was fabulous!

Last night we hung out with the couple from Spain for about 1.5 hours. It was really nice. We were even invited to visit them. They have all sorts of ideas on what we could do there. I have to admit we are very tempted. I have always wanted to go to Spain!

tidbits:
-Dad, sorry we didn't expain a little better. We were getting Lance to sign 'more' for the food, not verbalize. He is making a lot more sounds, though.
-Chirs, the family from Tel Aviv is the family with the deaf little girl with the cochlear implant. He is very nice, by the way.
-Munchkin, I a glad to hear you are doing so well. I was wondering if you got caught sneaking to the computer. We do have an A&M shirt (he might fit in next year, hee hee), but definitely need to work on the A&M hat.
-About my 'glow', thanks by the way, it could be from motherhood. It does make me really happy. OR it could be from the bronzing blush I am wearing. ha!!

Love you all!
Karen and John Michael

PS- I need to get back to chasing and lifting all the kids all day. I am losing muscle and gaining...shhhh the bad stuff.