happy birthday brett!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Brett- Wow our little guy is growing so fast... He's a total nut... He dances & sings "Shake your boody" while shaking his boody... He's a bit of a brut but he has to defend himself w/ an older big brother...I hope he breaks the bullying soon.... Brett always makes us laugh- even when he says "NO" :-) He loves kicking everything (we're trying to focus his kicking more on footballs & soccer balls).... He really had a great time Trick or Treating this year- it was his first one walking to doors holding Grant, Christian, Leo, or Madysen's hand & he couldn't say Trick or Treat- so he'd say More Candy Please... either way - it was too cute...
I just can't believe he's TWO.... Wow 2 posts in a week :-) This is an old picture of his 1st haircut back in August- he's really not cross eyed :-) hee hee

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!!

Happy 1st Birthday to our Princess Riannon.... I know I haven't posted in awhile, but life is quite busy here and I can't keep up w/ the blog & even downloading pictures on to our computer.. I wanted to post pictures from Halloween, but sorry- not this time- hopefully this weekend I can go picture crazy & get some updated pix of the boys & their sister.... So here is the latest- Riannon is having many firsts ...
*1st two teeth have come in.
*she pets her dog Bailey instead of crying...
*She got her 1st flu shot- she's high risk w/ her asthma & chronic lung disease...
*she survived her 1st season watching big brother Grant practice & play football 4 times/week.
*She kind of crawls- she'll get up on all 4's, ROCK back & forth, then lay back on her stomach & army crawl EVERYWHERE....
*she had her 1st Halloween & Trick or treating w/ her brothers & friends: Riannon was Tinkerbell (Thanks Shelley for letting us borrow), Brett was a pirate, & Grant was a Storm Trooper...
*She"ll have her first BIRTHDAY party this weekend- of course shared w/ brother Brett who turns TWO on Friday....And boy I'm feeling the "TWO" STAGE...
*She's ONE.... I just look at her & the boys & feel so blessed.... She is so happy & her smile lights up a room & just melts your heart....The boys are very protective already, especially oldest brother Grant- who sometimes has to protect her from her sneaky "Terrible Two's" brother Brett who likes to snag toys from her- but he still loves her of course... I'm enjoying my part time teaching position- love my school & my partner- Ted is constantly on the go w/ work
.... No sports probably until after the new year... I'd like to get Brett signed up for Bumble Bee Sports & maybe a Spring sport (low key) for Grant until football season starts over the summer- just want to focus on the family & getting My Girlfriend's Kitchen open....
Love to you all! Here's a month old pix from the pumpkin patch & her adoption announcement- but just love her facial expression...

Riannon is doing well- she turned 11 mos. on Saturday & got her first 2 bottom teeth.. She took her first trip to the pumpkin patch w/ her brothers & friend Christian and had a blast....
She is rolling everywhere, sitting up very well, and beginning to "rock".... Maybe she'll crawl by her 1st birthday (though, we're not in any hurry :) I've started my half time position, teaching Wednesday, Thursday, and every other Friday... It's been very nice... I'm even going to help out in Grant's classroom next week- teaching a guided reading group w/ his teacher... I'm looking forward to that...We're getting ready to plan a double birthday party for Riannon & Brett next month...Grant is still playing flag football.. Pretty hectic schedule we're on, but I have to say everyone has adjusted really really well..... More later....

1 month home

I can't believe we've been home a month.. Riannon is doing very well.. She's adjusted to her new home, her brothers, all her relatives, and friends, and has finally gotten used to her doggie Bailey...The first few nights home were rough- she was pretty jet lagged. She sleeps through the night and has a pretty predictable schedule....She's becoming stronger and stronger and is always smiling (even in this picture after peas & rice) :-) So sorry I haven't posted in a while, but with 3 kids- 2 under 2 and a football playing 6 year old, our days are pretty late....
We went to a reunion picnic for Adoption Options
We meet the neatest people who are just starting the process, soon to be travelling, or just wanting info to make a decision...and of course the the children who have been home for a long time...Riannon worked the crowd quite well... We even got to see her friend Sam- from her orphanage...Amazing how much they change in a month..She's not crawling yet (but to be honest I'm in no hurry) :) and is starting to get her first tooth...Hopefully more later...

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.......

We're here...

After a 12 hour layover in Moscow- we are finally here.. It is 6:15 p.m. (4:15 a.m. your time) and we've just been unwinding & headed to the US Embassy to process our paperwork so that we may go to Almaty, Kazakhstan for Riannon's medical visit, immigration interview, and to get her US Visa.... That took about 2 hours.. tomorrow is a national holiday so we will not be able to get her yet, but we will run a couple more errands- getting our Kazkhstan Visas and getting Riannon's passport.... Then finally Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. (6 PM your time Thursday) we will finally pick her up and bring her back for the weekend... Then we will head into Kazakhstan sometime Monday & stay there for 2 days & head back to Bishkek Wednesday late & get ready to go home... Hopefully everything is in order and we'll be home before you know it...
We'll try to get here to the internet cafe sometime over the weekend.... Love to you all! Please kiss the boys for us & tell them we love them & miss them..

last night as a family of 4

Well, our last night as a family of 4... We are off bright & early for the 2 day trip to pick up Riannon... I hope we get a chance to stop by the internet cafe to update the blog while we're there... we just don't know if we'll have a whole lot of lul time like we did last trip.... This trip sounds like a ton of paperwork & meetings... we'll see.. but it's the last & final leg of our journey to bring home our daughter.... Again thank you all for your continued support & prayers... We'll be home soon on Sept. 7 to be exact... as a family of 5 + doggie :-)
Love you all!

daddy's girl

She's already DADDY' s little girl...

Finally...dates

We finally have official dates to go back to Kyrgyzstan to bring our daughter home! We will leave August 25th to be there by August 27th and return home on September 2nd... Our week will consist of picking her up, completing paperwork and getting our visas to go to Kazakhstan. We will spend the last 2 days in Almaty, Kazakhstan (a 4 hour bus drive-through winding roads & mountains we here). There Riannon will have her medical visit at the Embassy and day 2 we will have our exit interview and everything processed & completed... We will head back to Bishkek and leave Saturday at the crack of dawn...Now the fun...Hopefully she'll do okay on such a long flight, but then we'll be home......Here's one more picture from our last visit...I will post one more time before we leave- I am not sure we'll have time to post anything there- but we will try... We are so close.....

We are still waiting for official travel dates. They said we would either need to be back in Kyrgyzstan on the 21st of August or the 28th- so hopefully we'll know exactly the date this week... We heard that court went very well. Our translator sent us an e-mail and she said that everything went smoothly and the officials were very kind. She has walked with Riannon and fed her... So it's nice to hear. Now we're just getting more and more anxious to go back and bring her home! We've been busy here- Grant started Flag football for the 2nd year. It's a young team & he's more a leader-instead of getting thrown around the field... Love football season! My Girlfriend's Kitchen is under way! We're still waiting for our final architectural plans to submit for permits and bids from our contractor- should be getting those next week- then we can roll & get in there to start demo & build out....Everything is such a waiting game :-) Well we'll update again once we know our dates- of course I'm already packed & ready to go- We have to weigh & reweigh the bags everytime we add something in the suitcase... Don't want to go over the 50 lb. limit and trying to only bring 2 large suitcases on this trip....

1st week back

Well we've managed to adapt back to our schedule. Grant started 1st grade at our neighborhood school.. He likes his teacher and is making new friends...Brett and I have just been running around getting errands finished (oil changes, etc...) and going to Tumbles...We finally signed the lease to our store and have met with our contractor to start the build out of My Girlfriend's Kitchen in ... so excited... We're trying to keep busy so the weeks will go by faster and we can get back to Kyrgyzstan soon and bring our baby girl home...Now we're just trying to get our house back in order and start thinking about repacking for the last trip... We'd love to have everyone over soon for a BBQ and see pictures of our trip... Love you all! Until next time...

more pictures

last day w/ our baby girl

Hi all, this is our last post in Kyrgyzstan.... We have very mixed emotions of leaving... we are extremely homesick... We miss the boys tremendously and all of you.... but leaving her behind, just is heartbreaking... she really is well taken care of... The director, the doctors, and caregivers are very loving and we feel very fortunate and at ease knowing that they really do love the children.... so we will be home Thursday evening and will wait until August to come back- this time to bring her home forever.... It's just the next step....I caught a cold 2 days ago & think I gave it to Riannon- yesterday she had a mild temp & runny nose, but they gave her medicine & today she was fine... We took the babies to get their passport pictures taken yesterday... It was cute- they all have little mugshots :-) Riannon was so adorable today.... she made lots of little noises and cute faces... she also seems a lot bigger and stronger from last week.... On day 2, we bought some multivitamins for her & it seems to be working..We're going to try to post one more picture of our princess.. if it doesn't work... we'll have you all over this weekend to see video and pictures of our trip.... Thank you all again... I love all the news & comments from home..... see you this weekend.... love to you all...

Day 5 and 6

Hi all- well these 2 days w/ Riannon have been great.... for the first hour, she interacts and smiles with us, but these past 2 days, she's fallen asleep on me for about 40 mins. or so... We think she's probably overstimulated and just really loves the snuggles (we do too)...The time w/ her seems to fly by... we all feel like the movie GroundHog Day (remember how his day was the same every day)... that's us... except after coming home from the baby house, we do get a little down time, then we venture off to eat dinner and walk a little....We've had some pretty funny run ins, the language barrier is a bit tough... today we had Italian (sometimes I feel like we're not in Kyrgyzstan)...it's so funny......that's all for now... Happy Birthday Christian (7th) & Angela (11th).... Sorry we're missing it.... Ang- take lots of pictures and notes at MGFK retreat...
It sounds like the boys are having a blast w/ everyone... thank you all so much again.... We love you!!!

Day 4 with Riannon

Today was a short visit...We had to get back because our interpretor (sp?) had to get back... but any event, when we got there, she was getting her massage.. Look out Daddy- I see mother/daughter spa days :-) It seems that is great for her circulation, but I'm not sure she liked it as much... She was pretty mellow with us today, a couple smiles, but she just wanted to snuggle... About 15 or so minutes into our visit, she fell asleep on my chest for about 45 mins. or so... it was such a great feeling to snuggle with her like that... when we left, she had to wait her turn to be fed & I put her in the little bouncy seat... when I walked out, I heard her start to cry... It's only day 4 and it's getting harder and harder to leave her....
We met up w/ a family from Raleigh, NC adopting a 5 year old little girl... we had dinner at an Indian (as in from India :-) restaurant... pretty good... Now we're heading up to our apartment to rest up for tomorrow.... Love you all so much, thanks for leaving comments, it's so nice to get word from home....

Happy 4th of July

Wow- I cannot believe we are half way around the world on the 4th of July... Dorothy is definitely not in Kansas anymore :-) I guess now, I will definitely have to make a trip to the Philippines with my Mom & Manani...Well we had an eventful day w/ Riannon today... No pictures today, because it's kind of a pain here in the internet cafe (although this place is great)..
When we walked into the baby house today, Riannon was already dressed & playing in her little bouncy seat... I called her name and she looked right at us.. It seems in 3 days, she already knows the sound of our voice. She was so expressive and happy today.... Lots of smiles and giggles.... she loves to be kissed on her cheeks.. everytime I'd kiss her cheeks or the filipino sniff on her cheeks she would have a huge smile on her face (it's comforting to know, that it does seem that she is used to getting kisses because her reaction is not one of uneasiness)...She is already a Daddy's girl.... She loves nose rubbies and butterfly kisses (just like her big brothers love from Daddy)... Just her huge smiles and giggles just absolutely melted our hearts...We fed her again today, but we fed her bottle first- we didn't know we needed to feed her the mashed potato type of food first... She's definitely used to eating fast.. she would get kind of irritate with us if we slowed down for anything... hopefully we'll get to feed her again tomorrow..We get so excited everyday to see how much of her personality we will see... Just in these 3 days, it seems that the 3 babies (ours, Nadine's, and the Brugnoni's) have progressed and they are all starting to open up.... I just feel very blessed & fortunate....We do have comfort in believing that our children are loved dearly....It's not as difficult to leave.... We've been taking in the sights a little here (yes I'm not such a scaredy cat :-) Walking around (lots of people walking everywhere & yes Dad- we're not walking in the dark :-) It really is a beautiful country... I wouldn't trade this experience for anything... We miss you all so much... especially Grant & Brett and again thank you all for your support... none of this would not be possible without you all... sorry again for no new pictures... we'll see if we can spend some time here in the early part of the day to get some new ones up.... God Bless & kiss our boys for us...