Good luck Matt & Suzanne!

Matt & Suzanne Ruley are en route to Ust, Kazakhstan! The Ruleys have been longtime supporters of Noelle and I, and we wish them the very best luck in their journey to find the little boy or girl they've dubbed "Eyeball"! (Hopefully they'll change their mind about that one :))

Noelle's 1st Easter

Happy Easter, everyone.

Noelle enjoyed her first Easter immensely. As you can see, fashion played a big role in the day's activities, but don't be fooled by the pictures-- she didn't just wear two outfits today, she wore three! :) The weather was a little chilly when the day started, so I was starting to look for alternatives to Noelle's cute little Easter dress, so we tried on an outfit my aunt had given her-- only to discover she couldn't crawl in it! So, since you can't keep this little girl down for long, she first made it into a cute outfit we brought back from Kaz and when the sun finally did its job-- into the Easter dress. Noelle, my nephew, my sister and I all went to a friend's neighborhood for a multi-family Easter egg hunt. Noelle didn't have any idea what was going on, but she was plenty amused by all the big kids running around like lunatics. Next year, she's going to be one of them!

First steps, first words (maybe) and everyday pleasures

Hey, all. I know it has been a while since I have posted an update on Noelle-- but there is just so much to do now, and so little time! :) Noelle is doing very well, and settling into her role as an little Long Island girl quite nicely-- whatever did she do before she had a remote and a phone to play with??! And you can see from the pictures above that she is a good eater-- who knew egg noodles were so much fun!! Despite all of the food she eats, Noelle has only gained a pound and one inch since she's been home (not a good return on my grocery investment, if you ask me), but the IA doc says she is healthy. She is a little delayed in speech and gross motor skills, but I am not worried-- everyday she picks up something new!

Which brings me to the real news: Noelle has started to walk and, according to some sources, she has said her first words! The walking thing is for real, as I have seen it with my own eyes. She is still using her knees as her primary method of travel (it's faster :)), but she can takes steps on her own and we practice every day. As for her first word(s), the jury is still out on that one. A couple of weeks ago, Noelle was spending time at my sister's house, and Noelle was babbling as usual when she allegedly said "dog". Now, my sister's dog, Beans, has been known to inspire some words, but usually they are curses! But not only did my sister hear it, my nephew did too-- he was playing nearby (probably keeping Noelle away from his toys), and he whipped around and exclaimed "did she just say dog?" So the consensus is that dog was her first word. Unless you talk to her babysitter, that is. When I told Jane the "dog" story, she said she could swear that Noelle had said the word "duck" the day before. There is a lake outside my apartment, with a ton of geese and ducks, and Noelle loves to check them out-- and apparently talk about them. So there it is-- Noelle's first word was dog.. Or duck.. Or something that starts with a "d"..

Good luck Karen & Bob!!

Tomorrow Karen & Bob depart for Uralsk, Kazakhstan, to find their heart's desire. Noelle and I will be thinking of you!

Noelle is a big reader!

Or a big mess maker, depending on how you look at it!! She is getting more precious day by day.

Finally-- some bath time fun!!

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. It took a couple of tries, but Noelle not only doesn't scream when bathed-- she actually likes it. And she is getting darn good at the splashing-- I never stay dry during a good bath!

"The stickers only stick if you let them"

Have you guys heard of the book "You Are Special"? It is by a man named Max Lucado, and literally it makes me cry every time I read it to Noelle. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Actually I might even cry right now just talking about it. It is a touching story about having faith in one's self, and finding self worth through the love of a "creator." The story goes that the creator is a woodcarver named Eli-- but when I read it, I am the creator and it is Noelle who will find herself in my love. Add it to your library-- you'll cry too.

Noelle and her gang!

Remember my meeting with Noelle's friends from Spain? Olga, the woman I told you about, sent me these great pictures of what Noelle was up to while I was back here in the states waiting for the waiting period to be over. It is heart-warming to see her so happy... Wait a minute, why was she so happy if I wasn't there?!?! Doctors and other parents tell you that the attention alone from a caring person can make the world of difference in these kids-- Noelle and I were very lucky that she found 4 (Olga, her husband, her daughter and her sister) of those caring people to keep her company until I could make it back to Kazakhstan. Thank you Olga!

Look, ma-- no hands!

Okay, she is getting some assistance, but Noelle is "thisclose" to walking by herself. I actually think she could do it if she tried, but so far she insists on holding onto someone or something to cruise around the apartment. Noelle is doing great these days. She spent the week getting comfortable with her new babysitter-- I go back to work on Monday-- and they hit it off very well. Noelle has also joined a baby gym, and she has a blast crawling up and down the mats. She is also very intrigued by the floor to ceiling mirrors-- she spends a part of every session just checking herself out!

Noelle also got a "thumbs up" this week from the pediatrician. She is still on the small side-- 25th percentile for height, but only 5th percentile for weight (19 pounds!)-- but otherwise, she seems to be doing well. Bathtime is going better, too! Today was her first bath without me in there with her (quick-- think of something else, you don't want the mental image of me in my bathing suit!), and she was hesitant at first but by the end, she had learned of the joy of splashing mommy! What else? There are dozens of things that happen everyday, I should be doing a better job of chronicling them. Mostly, she is a happy little girl. My nephew picked out a "Snow White" doll for Noelle at the Disney store the other day, and she loves it! She hugs it and squeals. Otherwise, her favorites are the toys that make noise-- she has a Fisher Price Learning Puppy (I think that's the name) and she revels in making it sing or talk to her. And even though none of the Mickey ears have her name on them, she is putting the "Daniel" ears to good use!

Noelle finally starts to earn her keep!

Okay, okay-- I didn't really make her do the laundry or mop! I'm just glad she offered..

The heart-stopping thing that happened on our way home from Almaty

I was so happy about getting home and getting Noelle settled in, that I forgot to tell you about the craziest thing that happened at the Almaty airport. Our whole group was in line waiting to check in at the Lufthansa desk, and Noelle decided she needed to stretch her legs, so we started to walk up the line. Suddenly, a woman with blond hair and an accent yells "Natashka" (Noelle's nickname in the babyhouse) and comes running over to hug Noelle! Of course the first thing that went through my head was that this was someone from Noelle's birth family-- my second thought was "You can't have her!!". Thankfully, it turns out the explanation was much less threatening. The woman, her husband and sister, all from Spain, were just returning home after their first trip to Karaganda, and they are adopting a little boy from Noelle's room. They spent a lot of time in the children's room itself (unlike us-- we spent most of our time in a separate playroom), and they had gotten to know all the kids. She even has pictures from when I was back in the US that she is going to email! We spoke for a few moments then went our separate ways. Later she came up to me and asked if she had scared me, and I had to tell her yes! But it was sweet to know that someone was watching out for Noelle while I was gone-- and she may have picked up a little Spanish along the way..

Know how to make a little Kaz girl cry? Give her a bath!

Well, the honeymoon is over. There are no pictures to mark the occasion-- just the reverberating cries of a little girl who is just a little bit mad at her mother tonight. And crying may not be the most accurate term to describe Noelle's reaction to her first real bath. Wailing might fit. Keening would work too. I knew going in it was going to be an event-- every blog has a story about that first bath, and how the kids hate them in the beginning. And I tried to be practical about it: I have been sticking to a sponge bath method to get her clean over the past week until she was more comfortable with me and her surroundings. I kept the water level low and skipped the bubbles. I held her close to talked to her as I undressed her, kept her warm and explained what was going on. I provided a distraction, in the form of a toy and her cousin who talked to her from the sidelines. But man, was it sad! She was shaking, and she cried more than I have ever heard, all times combined. The bath only lasted about two minutes, but Noelle is holding a little bit of a grudge. Dinner followed shortly thereafter and any time I said her name, she would turn her head away from me! At one point I thought she was warming up to me again-- she grabbed my hands and started walking toward me, but it turned out she was just trying to get the taco I was eating. (The girl never stops eating, did I mention that today?!) I hope she has forgiven me by tomorrow!

Sleep, Must have sleep.

It is 9:40pm on Sunday night, and Noelle and I are home! I mention the time because, by my count, 56 hours have passed since we received our wake up call Friday night to head to the airport. And out of the those 56 hours, I have slept 7 (maybe 8) hours. Our travel was long but relatively painless. We were traveling with several other families as far as Frankfurt, so the kids kept us occupied as we whittled away the hours. And man, were there hours to whittle! The flight from Almaty to Frankfurt (7 hours, I think) did not have any kind of movie or other entertainment-- so it was totally boring for the adults. Noelle was a trooper, however-- catching some zzz's here and there as you can see from the photos. (I finally slept a couple of hours on the Frankfurt to NY leg) And there was plenty of excitement to be had when we arrived at JFK. Immigration was a breeze, and we got through so quickly that part of our welcoming party got there after we did! My sister Ann and her husband and son, my brother Brian and my brother Terry and his son threw Noelle a little welcome home bash-- and somehow, we all found a way to stay awake through it. Noelle lost the battle around 7pm on Saturday, and I thought I was home free (silly, huh?!) I was just getting into bed at 11pm when she started to cry-- and that was the end of the sleep discussion until 2am. THEN I thought I was home free (I never learn) and finally fell asleep-- until 5am when Noelle was up again. This scene repeated itself several times throughout the day-- each time, with me thinking she is finally getting onto her schedule. Now she is down again-- I guess I will have to wait and see what tonight brings.

Noelle has settled very well into our home. She "walks" and crawls from room to room, and has been pretty pleased with the toys she has found. She absolutely loves her exer-saucer! So many people were concerned with the exersaucer once they found out how old she is-- thought she is too old for it-- but for now, it is doing the trick! She thinks it is hysterical to rock it back and forth, and she loves all the little things around her. She had fun meeting her cousins and playing with one of them again today. She met her first dog today, my sister's Australian Shepherd, Beans. Noelle was visibly nervous, but she didn't cry (that was reserved, strangely for her intense fear of a big teddy bear and Humpty Dumpty doll that belong to my nephew) She is eating everything in sight-- and is always trying to get to what is on my plate, a habit she picked up in Almaty. Probably because she was hungry-- the baby food they told us to pack for her definitely did not do the trick. On the menu tonight: spaghetti and chicken parm. I might need to get a second job if this keeps up!

Last post (ever!) from Kazakhstan

It is Embassy day! In just an hour or so, Noelle and I will head over to the U.S. Embassy with the rest of the families, to process the paperwork for Noelle's visa and her application to become a U.S. citizen. She will not actually become a citizen until we touch down in New York-- the immigration officials there will finalize everything.. But by the time she hits the Southern State Parkway, she will be an American (keeping her Kaz citizenship too, until she is 18).. Next step: paying taxes and voting!

This will be our last post from Almaty-- we fly out tomorrow morning at 4am, and (barring any delays) will be home at approximately 1pm EST. We cannot wait to get Noelle home!!

Breakfast time in Almaty

It's Thursday in Almaty-- just 2 more days to go! Mom and I are having a ball with Noelle. Things we learned yesterday: Noelle likes Irish music (The Saw Doctors, in particular) and she likes to dance. She was boogying all around the room! And she likes spaghetti and meatballs (or maybe its just that she wants everything that I'm eating).. We went to a little coffee shop for dinner last night, and Noelle was taking the pasta right off my plate-- then she dug into my cake. She doesn't know it yet, but she shouldn't be messing with my cake (and it was black forest-- my favorite).. This morning, we're going to head out to the National Museum-- anything to get out of the hotel room. Oh yeah, and my mom wants to start to pack!

We got her!!

What a crazy 24 hours this has been! The kids were supposed to arrive at 9am on Tuesday, but we got a call just about 8am that the train had been delayed (actually they said canceled first, and my heart about dropped) five hours and now they weren't expected until 1pm. Mom and I decided to nap a little and read, while many of the others went out shopping. Good thing we stayed in the hotel-- the kids actually arrived at 11am, and several of the parents weren't even there to greet them :( We all hung out in the lobby until every baby had a mommy or daddy with them, then split up for some quiet time. The kids all seemed a little stunned at the commotion, and they didn't seem to quite know who we were. Mom, Noelle and I went up to the room and played for a while-- you can see from the first picture that she was all smiles. Then she completely conked out, sleeping for 3 hours. Some more play later in the day, and dinner in the bar with some friends and we were ready for bed again! Noelle slept like a rock, from about 7:30pm to 7:45am-- too bad Mom and I did not sleep as well. This morning, after breakfast, we went to the SOS International Medical clinic. The exam they gave Noelle was brief, but they said all looked good. They took some blood, and those test results will be back tomorrow.. The most interesting thing about the clinic is that we met other families adopting that are not in our group-- one family had actually adopted their daughter from Kyrgystan (I know that's not the right spelling!) but since there is no US consulate there, they had to come to Almaty for processing. After the clinic we came back the hotel and after a little play, Noelle was ready for a nap-- I just hope these good sleep patterns hold when we get home! You will see in the last picture above that Noelle is pretty intrigued by her new manner of dress-- in the hotel room, I took off her heavy tights and just had her pants on-- and she was soooo cute pulling up the legs of her pants to check out her naked little legs! I can guarantee that she never hung out with bare legs in the baby house, so she was completely intrigued. Very funny. And the last two photos are friends of ours-- Holly and her son Foxx and Eileen and her daughter Mariah. It is so great that we are all back here together-- tonight, Holly has proposed a "bath party" to see the kids through their first real bath. We will see what happens!

We're in Almaty-- and we are tired!

Hello, all.. We made it. We arrived just about 2am last night after a long (long!) series of flights.. On the last flight we hit some significant turbulence so by the time we got to Almaty we were ready to be off the plane.
No kids yet, but that is okay since we are still getting our bearings (Mom slept about 4 hours this afternoon). The kids arrive tomorrow at 9am, and we were just joking that this should be our big night, the last night of freedom-- but nobody can muster any energy to do anything about it! Just about all of the families have arrived-- the last 2 couples arrive some time tonight.
That's it for now-- new pics of Noelle tomorrow (yay!)

Flying the friendly skies again!

Can I say that if I'm flying Lufthansa? (I've probably infringed on some kind of copyright or trademark from whatever airline coined that phrase!) Anyway, my mom and I are off to Kazakhstan tomorrow (Saturday) evening!! We will fly through Germany, and will arrive in the wee hours of Monday morning. I am getting more excited the closer we get to leaving, and even the fact that I am not packed cannot bring me down. Ironic, huh--considering I was packed for the first trip in October? We have a short layover in Frankfurt, no time for sightseeing this time around. But that's okay-- Noelle already has her first gift from Germany, via Clearwater, FL. One of the beautiful gifts she received at the baby shower was a Hummel figurine from a family friend, Kay--Noelle is starting her collection early. I have found a place of honor for it in her room-- far above her grabby little hands! Now I just have to find a place for the picture my niece Grace drew for us for the shower-- she is a great little artist and I was so happy she could be there.. Thanks, Grace!

Talk to you from Almaty!

The reviews are in-- my shower was fantastic!

On Saturday, my sister Ann (that's her in the blue, in the top pic), my mom and my Aunt Connie hosted a baby shower for me--and let me tell you, Noelle now has everything a little girl could ask for! Okay, there was no pony, but she still did pretty darn good. She got tons of clothes that will put her on the "best dressed" lists for years to come. She also got some of the good old standby's-- a stroller, 2 car seats, an exersaucer/activity table, bath toys, blankets, stuffed animals-- you name it! Each of the guests also brought their favorite book, to help me get Noelle's library started, and Ann got me the cutest bookcase ever, in the shape of a doll house. Ann and my friend Debbie also collaborated on a wonderful scrapbook for Noelle with pictures and excerpts from my blog. And Debbie and her husband Chris have made Noelle a little storybook about how she ended up my daughter-- it is amazing! Chris even made me a CD, setting the pages of the book to music. I have very cool family and friends :) And speaking of cool, proof positive that adoptive parents are some of the coolest people out there, my friend Holly, who adopted Foxx at the same time I adopted Noelle, even sent me a gift!

Everyone's generosity was overwhelming-- thank you so much! I am very lucky to have all of you in my (and Noelle's) life.

P.S.-- check out the photos of the tables! We put together a travel theme-- little suitcases, filled with baby gear, luggage tags inscribed with Noelle's name & the date, and these great passports we put together with Noelle's picture, birth date, adoption date etc. It all looked so great!!

Catching Up..

I have been home 2 weeks now, and I am just now starting to catch up. Actually, not really-- I still have a ton of stuff to do before I go back to Kaz for Noelle. All that organizing and buying I did before traveling? It doesn't seem like I did anything, so now I am knee deep in stuff trying to re-organize my closets and Noelle's bedroom. This is further complicated by the unpacking, laundry, pack again merry-go-round I am on-- I just got back from a long weekend in Texas and the remnants in of that trip remain scattered around my living room. Right next to the piles of mail I still have to review. And the stuff I am bringing back to Kaz-- the list goes on and on!!

And I only have a little over a week to go! On January 12th, my mother and I will fly from JFK to Almaty (via Frankfurt) to pick up Noelle. All of the families who traveled in my group will be returning at the same time, so it will be a nice little reunion. Given the chance, I might have chosen a sunny locale for our next meeting, but it will be exciting to see all of the kids-- maybe all those warm fuzzy feelings will keep our toes warm too!

Noelle has been on my mind, of course-- the other day, my sister caught me watching videos of her. And I have had approximately 300 pictures developed-- I couldn't bear to leave any one out, even the blurry ones! And I am getting ready for my baby shower-- it is this Saturday, and I cannot wait to show off all of those pictures to my friends..