We are the TRUTH

Today is Adoption Blogger Day – part of the Joint Council on International Children's Services Call to Action – We Are the Truth. We are the PROUD and BLESSED parents of a BEAUTIFUL adopted child from Russia. We have been following the horrible story in the news lately of the Tennessean woman who returned her adopted son to Russia with a note stating she no longer wanted to parent him. I cannot begin to explain the range of emotions from anger to sadness that we have felt over the past week. I think the biggest emotion is sadness for the boy. This woman is not representing adoptive parents in a positive light (OBVIOUSLY) and unfortunately, is affecting TONS of families who are waiting for referrals. Now, because of this woman's senseless act, many children may not be adopted and will miss out on the gift of having a loving family, just like Logan (and many other children) have received if it weren't for international adoption. We continue to pray (and ask that you do the same) for all of the adoptive families who are somewhere along their journey to their child and are being affected by this event.

On a more positive note, we have been having a blast with Logan over the past month. I know we start most posts with "It's been awhile since our last blog entry...", but as many parents know - parenting keeps you busy!!! So, my time to "blog" is few and far between these days!!! Here's a TOP 10 list to re-cap what we have been up to:

1)Logan is now 18 months old and changing every day (he now has 12 teeth, his hair is still growing, he is saying the "ba", "ma", "da", and "na" sounds, is still very ACTIVE, and so much more!!! You just have to see it for yourself!)
2) Logan had a small surgical procedure done at the end of March. He came through it wonderfully with no side effects and was back to his normal self the following day.
3) We have FINALLY gotten rid of the bottle!!! This was a HUGE step for us because we wanted to keep him on it for attachment purposes and we had tried once before to stop it, with no luck. So, we just said it was no big deal and we'll try again later. But on Logan's 18th monthday we decided to try it again and had SUCCESS!!! So, we have been bottle free for 1 week now - PROGRESS :)
4) We celebrated Easter with our family. Logan had 2 Easter Egg hunts and was great at finding the eggs, but wanted to hold them all once he found them. It was quite a sight to watch him try to figure out how he was going to keep them all in his hands. But, in the end, he walked away with many cute toys, goldfish & animal crackers, fruit snacks and marshmallows.
5) Logan loves animals (especially his dog, Maggie). We have taken him on some "trips" to the pet store, Bass Pro Shop, Blue Bird Gap Farm and the Norfolk Zoo. He absolutely loves watching/petting the animals.
6) Logan has started his weekly speech therapy sessions. We have only had 2 so far, so not too much change, but we know progress will come with time.
7) We had our first family photo taken (professionally)by a local photographer. Stay tuned to for the pics!
8) Logan is going to have a new babysitter during the day for May & June. Our neighbors (who watch Logan during the day) are moving and due to health challenges are not going to be able to watch Logan. Please pray for our neighbor, Gary, as he begins his chemo/radiation treatments. They have been such a blessing to our family and have loved Logan like their own grandchild. They have been our "family" down here and we will greatly miss them when we move.
9)Logan loves to laugh and what a beautiful sound it is! He is a pretty funny kid and he tends to think that the littlest things are HILARIOUS!!! So, we do what we can to make him laugh because it makes us laugh! And laughter is good for the soul!!!
10) We are still looking for tenants to rent our house. We still have time and know we will find someone before we move in June. 9 more weeks and we are moving!!!

So, I guess that sums it up! We are just living life and loving being parents to the most awesome little boy! We hope you are all doing well and we will talk to/see you all soon!

Swim Lessons, Warm Weather, First Post Placement Visit, Moving....YES WE HAVE BEEN BUSY!!!!

Hello to all of our friends and family! We hope that you are all doing well and enjoying some warmer, spring weather, just like we are! By the title of our post, you can see that we have had a lot going on. First, Logan has started his "Mommy & Me" Swim Lessons at the YMCA. We've only gone twice, but he is definitely a fan of the water. The mother of one of the children in the class is actually from Russia - what a small world!!! Next, the weather has finally decided to warm up and we are taking advantage of every minute outdoors that we can. As I have mentioned before, Logan LOVES to be outside and gets pretty upset when it's time to go in. So, we have taken many walks around the neighborhood, gone out to feed the ducks and enjoyed a couple of trips to the local Peninsula Town Center (outdoor mall/restaurants) that recently opened near our house. This weekend they are saying it will get up to the 70s, so we are planning a trip to the zoo. Pictures to come! We have also had our first post placement visit from our social worker. For those of you who do not know, it is required that our social worker visits us and writes a report at the 6 month, 1 year, 2 year and 3 year mark to see how Logan is developing and adjusting and how we are adjusting as parents. This report (along with pictures) is sent to the officials in Russia. It's hard to believe that we have already been home for close to 6 months. But, the social worker was extremely pleased with how well Logan is doing and the visit was easy and quicker than we thought it would be. Lastly, we will be moving at the end of June. Dennis is getting transferred back to the Recruiting Command and we will be back in NOVA. We are looking forward to being closer to family and friends. So, this week our house was listed to rent out and we are hoping we get GOOD renters, quickly! That about wraps up what our life has been like lately. Since we are approaching our "6 months home" anniversary, Nicole has found a great website (onetruemedia.com) to organize all of our photos we have taken since we began this journey. Some pictures, you have already seen on our blog, but some pictures will be new (and we also included some video). We have posted the "montages" below if you would like to look back on our journey with Logan. It's amazing to see how much he's blossomed and changed!!! ENJOY!!!

The Past 6 Months at OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Logan's first days home at OneTrueMedia.com

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Logan here we come!!!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Montage 2/25/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Quality Family Time

We have been enjoying the weather and some quality family time, lately. The snow has finally melted, the sun has come out a few days here and there and we have had some warmer days that we have enjoyed. But, it seems as if the cold is back this week, along with rain! But, that hasn't stopped us from enjoying every minute. We celebrated Dennis' birthday on Wednesday (having Logan here made it EXTRA special). We are grateful for Dennis' parents who came down to babysit Logan on Tuesday, while our usual babysitter had an appointment and we are both running low on leave from work. Logan had a blast spending the day with his MomMom and PopPop - and I know they enjoyed every minute of it, as well. Dennis and I had our first "date night" since we have been home with Logan. It was nice to go out, just the two of us, but at the same time we both missed having Logan with us and couldn't wait to get home to him. Here are some pics of the fun we have been having lately.....

Logan enjoying some of Daddy's birthday cake - can you tell he liked it?!!?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!!!

The Candygram birthday card that Mommy and Logan made for Daddy

On the trail at the aquarium - this has to be one of my favorite pictures of Logan - he is just too darn cute!!!!

SHARK ATTACK!!!

Daddy and Logan amazed by the fish - love this picture!!!

Mommy and Logan having fun at the aquarium

Logan touching a horseshoe crab

Exhausted from a fun-filled day of sea creatures :)

This is Logan's yucky face - he mainly does it when we tell him not to touch the trash can - YUCK!!!

Enjoying the nice weather and learning some golf tips from Daddy

This child LOVES to be outside - he cries whenever we bring him in

One of his favorite things to do - take the food off of the pantry shelf, line it up on the floor and then put it back...

Our weekend trip to NOVA to visit our family who had been snowed in for over 1 week. The amount of snow they had is hard to even imagine...

Celebrating Love

Happy Valentine's Day (a little late) to all of you! We spent the weekend in Northern Virginia with our family, who we love dearly. Logan is loved more than he will ever know. The love for a child is something that you can't describe - you just have to experience it for yourself and that was something that we were so happy to celebrate this Valentine's. Logan is the best gift of love that we could ever ask for!

Home 4 months

Today marks our 4 month anniversary of being home with Logan. It's funny all of the days we now celebrate or remember now that we have a child. Logan also turned 16 months yesterday. I have posted a "month-by-month" photo review since we first saw Logan...

8 months old - first day we met Logan (June 18, 2009)

11 months old - Court Day (September 15, 2009)

12 months old - Moscow, Russia (October 8, 2009)

13 months old - playing with his toys

14 months old - at home with Daddy

15 months old - bringing in 2010

16 months old - getting SO big

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!!

Well, we are down here digging ourselves out of the biggest snow storm that the Hampton Roads has seen in a decade!!! We got hit with the snow on Saturday, followed by sleet, then more snow on Sunday. It closed the schools down for 3 1/2 days (which Nicole didn't mind because she got to stay home with Logan). But, just as everything is beginning to melt away, they are calling for more this weekend. So, maybe the groundhog is right - 6 more weeks of winter!!! We will wait and see....

Logan is continuing to grow and blossom every single day. If he could be outside all day, running around he would. When we took him out to play in the snow this weekend and he just wanted to run around - he didn't care much about the snow itself. So, we would bundle up and go outside for a little bit each day for some fresh air and exercise. He has finally learned to go down the stair safely and not just continue walking off the top step! He still loves to spin the toilet paper roll, so all bathroom doors are closed at our house. He is also learning how fun it is to flush the toilet (maybe this will help when it comes time to potty train). Logan is completely off formula now and our next step is to move from the bottle to the sippy cup. He can stack 4-5 blocks himself (and of course loves to knock them down). He loves emptying out his drawer in the kitchen (with his bowls, cups, etc) and lining them up in the doorway - it's rather funny to watch. He is great at helping us clean up his toys. His communication is still a challenge - he still only says dada and then yells for everything else he wants. We are waiting to see if he qualifies for speech therapy through the city's Early Intervention Program. During our initial meeting we had with them, Logan is above average in all areas except communication (he is right on the border line of below average and average). So, we were pleased to see his development and progress since we have been home with him. Logan also loves to dance to music. His dancing isn't a lot of moving around though - it mainly consists of him waving his arm back and forth, with an occasional head bob and maybe some swaying in there. You'll have to ask him to show you his moves next time you are with him. We are still waiting for his molars to come through - it would be so much easier if they would all just come in at once, right?!?

I think we mentioned that Dennis is getting transferred back to Northern Virginia this summer, so we will be renting out our house until it is better for us to sell. Work is going well for both of us. Nicole is starting a new semester - which means the year is 1/2 way over and Dennis is holding everything down at the training center. We are enjoying the month of February where we have nowhere to travel and can have some good quality family time.

We hope all is well with you and your family. Check out http://adaywithlogan.shutterfly.com for some new pictures (and older pics I forgot to post from Christmas. Love you all!