Mommy's last trip to Kyrgyzstan

Mommy & me - one last time at FatBoys Restaurant... nothing fancy like the 4 Seasons.BUT it's where our GroundHog Days began with breakfast every morning and they have pretty good potato skins and peach smoothie (which is pretty much like frozen peach juice w/ crushed ice) which you're pretty lucky to find ice in Kyrgz...

Daddy in Kyrgz

Daddy & Riannon at the 4 Seasons Restaurant....

First week back to work

Wow, what a week- I went back to work this week. I transfered to a new school where I am sharing a 50% contract in 3rd grade. In about 2 weeks, I will begin working 2 days a week and every other Friday.... I wanted to be prepared for when My Girlfriend's Kitchen finally opens sometime this fall/early winter....The 2 little ones have done especially well w/ Grandma & Grandpa Koopman.... They're both on a pretty good schedule and it hasn't been too tiring (at least that's what G'ma says :-) but we are so thankful....It's so wierd- we've only been home 2 weeks, but it seems like we've been a family of 5 from the beginning....She just has been so easy and has adapted to the pretty hectic schedule we have w/ Grant's football practice & games on Saturday... Grant is playing flag football again this year, but this time he was one of the seasoned players and plays all the time... They're trying him out as full back this week, so we might get to see him run the ball a little...Exciting...Brett has really taken his big brother role seriously... The first thing he says when he wakes up is "Baby?" and wants to go to her room.. He helps w/ getting the diapers and even throwing up the dirty ones... He's just such a cutie...
Riannon is really flourishing... she seems bigger already and her legs have gotten a lot stronger... We have an appt. next week w/ our Pediatrician to do a complete physical and vaccinations...She is just precious....That's all for now... thank you to everyone for all your well wishes and coming to visit her... she's already pretty spoiled by everyone.... I'm trying to get myself organized to send thank you notes to people.... Let me acknowledge the cute outfits & giftsthat are already coming her way... THANKS TO Grandma & Grandpa Koopman, Nana, Great-Grammy Dioquino, Aunt Tricia, Uncle Eric & cousins, Auntie Joyce, Kirsten (mommy's friend from MGFK), Miss Shobna (friend from football), and of course thanks to all of you for checking in and for always supporting us...

first week as a family 5

Wow, what a week.... Our first week as a family of 5 has been a success... The first night for Riannon was very rough, she cried for 3 hours- just very confused I'm sure... she was a trooper during our long flights to get a home- she just wanted to party...
Finally at 2 a.m. I finally had to put her down and she did get to sleep about an hour after that... She slept for the latter part of Friday- jet lag I'm sure... She's pretty much got a night time schedule down.. Bed at 8:00- tiny fuss for about 5 mins. then she sleeps until about 6-6:30 a.m. we're pretty lucky... Grant & Brett adore her... They're both very good with her and always kissing her... Brett has been a little whinier that usual and clingy (but he was like that before- since he is such a mama's boy)... but other than that, they love her...I go back to work next week... I'm ready, but I just hope that Grandma will be okay with the 2 little ones... Thank you all so much for your support throughout the process- we trully are blessed... now you can just keep up with the blog on family events... we thought we were busy before :-)

Welcome to your forever family- our little princess!

One more night...

One more day..... Whew, what an experience this has all been.... We are one day away to finalizing everything then getting on a plane... everything for the most part has been smooth, a couple annoying events/glitches Right now is Tuesday evening 6:30 (about 5:30 a.m. your time), we are in Almaty, Kazkhstan for one night. We woke up at 4:30 a.m. to leave Bishkek for a 4 hour bus ride to Almaty, come to find out that we have single entry Visas to Kyrgz (my first annoying snag) luckily it all worked out & we were able to get a Visa at the Kyrgz embassy in Almaty, but a stress that we really didn't need )... anyway had to vent.... We arrived in Almaty at 10 a.m. and we went right to the medical center for Riannon's medical check up, all was well- she's had a little bit of a cough this week, & they said her Respritatory level was a bit elevated- but it was okay (I'm thinking another seasonal asthma child :0 Then we ran around getting our Kyrgz Visa so that we can get on our flight Thursday.... Tomorrow the plan is to go to the American Embassy where we will have an interview and process Riannon's paperwork & issue her Visa..... Then back to Bishkek for our last night to come home... We are ready... we are missing everyone, especially Grant & Brett... Riannon is pretty mild tempered- she's getting a bit spoiled, being held and sleeping in our bed (the Hyatt only had 2 cribs & our other 2 friends got them first) which is okay for now... The week home we will be working on getting her on a schedule as I am going back to work on the 18th... lots of changes and MGFK work to do... Angela has really held down the fort... I am so grateful, but I know I'll have to catch up :-) Well, little Miss thing is starting to fuss- time for dinner...... We will see you all when we get back... Thursday at 8:00 p.m. is our flight, my mom has all the flight info.... Love you all & thanks for your comments- they keep us going through this emotional, but worth every bit of it time.......