"Big Girls Do That...."

Hi everyone!!! It has been quite awhile since we have updated on Alyssa's blog, but yes, we are all still alive and kicking!! Alyssa is growing up before our eyes. She is such an amazing little girl. She is constantly talking and running around. Where she finds all of that energy, we will never know. We made it through the Spring and are looking forward to the Summer. In April we traveled to Michigan to see friends and family. It was so great to spend time with the Smith family who live just outside of Detroit. They had adopted a little boy from Russia the same time that we adopted Alyssa. We had spent the first and second trips together, so we became very close to them. They are like family and always will be part of our adoption journey. To see the children play together was simply amazing. They seemed to remember each other from when we brought them home in December 2008. Besides our trip to Michigan we have been gearing up for Summer by planting a garden and doing work outside on the house. On May 5th Alyssa turned 3!!! We cannot believe that she is already 3 years old!!! We had her "Dog and Cat" birthday party the Saturday before her birthday. We all had a really good time!!! We had many family and friends at the party. Alyssa had a really great time!!!
Alyssa is learning everything so very fast. She is starting to potty train and she is always so eager to try to do everything her self. She has a very independent soul, and can be very stubborn also. As adoptive parents we know that this is not always a good thing, because we want the child to be very dependant on us. It helps with the bonding process. But as far as bonding goes, we don't seem to have a problem with that. This child is so much a part of us, and us of her, that it seems like we have had her forever. She is definitely a "talker". She loves to talk all of the time, and it is so funny that you can hold a regular conversation with her. She has all kinds of phrases that makes us laugh and also brings us to tears. One of the newest and funniest is "Big Girls Do That"!!! We sometimes tell her when she is doing certain things that she is not a baby anymore and that she can do it, or she can help. She has come up with that phrase. It is so funny!!!
We are trying to decide where we will go to the beach this summer. We had planned to go to Navarre Beach in Florida along the Gulf coast, but with the oil spill we are not sure if that will be an option in August. We are also having yard sales this summer as a fundraiser to raise money for our next adoption. Hopefully by the end of the year the LORD will show us where HE wants us to go next. Our dream for Alyssa is to have a little sister from Russia. But who knows, we will see what HE plans for us next. Our journey as a family that began when Wade and I married in December of 1995 has been such an amazing journey. Our family has been very blessed along the way, and it makes we smile and wonder what will be next in our journey. For all of you that have kept up with our family, we are very grateful. We are grateful for the well wishes and prayers, and we look forward to sharing Alyssa's journey in her "Forever Family".
Blessings,
Julie

Winter 2009

Snow.....??? We live in Tennessee.... Did someone say snow??? Yes, it did snow and it has finally melted. We made it through it without too many problems. Schools were out for 3 days, but they are now back. Alyssa really loves the snow!!! She tries to catch the snow flakes in her mouth, and she loves to try to make snow balls. We did not have snow at Christmas, but we had the most amazing Christmas!!!
Alyssa asked Santa for a car..... Yes, you heard me right, a car!!! And he filled her wish.... A red Ford Mustang convertible!!!! She must have been a really good girl because she did rather well on Christmas morning. It was really fun for Wade and I to watch her face as she opened the gifts. This child is the light of our lives. Everyday is a new adventure. She is really starting to talk, and you can actually hold a conversation with her!!! One of the funniest things that we have heard her say was at Christmas. We were teaching her about the real meaning of Christmas, and birth of baby Jesus. To hear her say baby Jesus is so funny!!!!
She pronounces baby Jesus as "baby Jeee" and Joseph as "Joanie". It sounds like she is talking about a rap group or something..."baby Jeee and Joanie". She makes us laugh everyday. Yes, having a 2 year old in the house is fun, exhausting, and trying, and yet these are the best days of our lives!!!
To bring you up to speed also on the future plans for our family.... We have decided that we are going to pursue another adoption!!!! What I can tell you now is that we are contacting America World Adoptions again about starting the process again. Depending on the answers we get from them on a couple of questions, we intend on starting the process again this year. We are in the process right now of trying to come up with some ways to raise money!!! One thing that we are going to do is start to ask for people's donations for our adoption on our blog. There is a donation button on the right that you can donate through Paypal!!! We have also decided that we are going to have an all out fundraising campaign starting in the Spring through Fall. We are going to have a yard sale every other Saturday starting in March!!! We are going to put an add in the newspaper asking for donations for our sale. You can either call us and we will pick up the items, or you can drop them off at our house. We will have the sale twice per month until the Fall. We know that other adoptive families have had a really good outcome with their fundraising efforts doing yard sales. We will not be pricing anything at the sales. We will only be taking reasonable donations for the items that you would like to buy!!!! At every yard sale we will have newly collected items, and we intend also to be selling baked goods!!! I am also coming up with a couple of other ideas about making some Russian items to sell. It seems like that when I would try to find some little things for our Russian adoption, they were hard to come by. I can find all kinds of things for adoptive families that are adopting from China. So I will let you all know soon what our plans will be with that!!!! We also still have a few cookbooks left for sale from our first adoption. Please let me know if you would like to purchase those as well!!!
Well, I guess I will go for now. Keeping up with this blog is sometimes extremely hard, but I do know that we still have many, many followers, so I will try my best to keep you all informed of our next adoption journey!!!!
Blessings,
Julie