MORE SUMMERTIME PICS.....

SUMMER TIME IN TENNESSEE!!!!!

Did someone say summer??? Yes!!!! Little Alyssa is starting her first summer here in Tennessee and it is a HOT one!!! Having come from Siberia this little girl sure loves being outside in the summer sun. She tans so easily which makes me rather jealous.... I just burn only being outside for 10 minutes. She has started this summer off on a great note. For her 2 year old wellness visit we were told that her immunizations that she had done in January, along with what she had done in Russia, she will not need anymore shots until she starts school!!! Thanks Children's Hospital for that wonderful news!!! Alyssa is learning to ride her new bike that she was given for her birthday by Grandma and Grandpa Word. Although she has not quite gotten the hang of it, she gives it a try. She loves to swing on her playset, and she loves to play in her sand and water table. POOL!!!! Did someone say POOL???
Yes, this girl loves the water!!! She has a small pool at home which she really loves. She also has gone swimming in her cousins pool. We are hoping that she learns to swim pretty soon. We will probably have to have her take some lessons.
We had a pretty good 4th of July!!! That morning we headed off to the Knoxville Zoo. It was her first time at the zoo. (I love all of these firsts!!)
At night we had a few family members over, and did a few small fireworks. Alyssa was ok with the little fountains, but when it came to the big shells she really wanted no part of it. So we went in the house to watch them through the front window while Aunt Lori and Daddy shot them off.
We are gearing up for our first "vacation from home" to Grandma and Grandpa Church's house in a couple of weeks. It will be a long weekend, but we are looking forward to everyone meeting Alyssa!!!
We cannot believe how much she has grown since we have been home. She has grown about 3 inches and gained 7 lbs!!! She has grown so tall!!! She is learning more and more words everyday. And she is really starting to like some childrens shows on t.v. She loves Blue's Clue's more than anything. She had her first dental appointment a few weeks ago, and passed with flying colors. She has only 1 more molar to come in, and then we are home free on teething!!! She is constantly drooling and biting on her fingers, which in turn causes a little rash on her face. She is enjoying the summer during the work week at Grandma Donna's house. Sometimes her cousins Logan, Bryson and Ethan are there also.
Well I guess I will close it up for now. Enjoy the pictures.......
Thanks for stopping by.....
Julie, Wade and Alyssa

A Day in the Life of Alyssa.....

A day in the life of Alyssa truly is a blessing!!!!
She makes us laugh and cry, and keeps us on our toes. I have posted a few pictures of Alyssa for you all to enjoy. We had taken a trip to the aquarium in Gatlinburg on Good Friday so I have included one with Alyssa and Wade inside one of the aquariums. We have been enjoying some of the warmer days by taking Alyssa outside to play at the park. Alyssa is really coming in to her own little person. She pays attention to everything, and she tries to figure out how things work. She tries to be very independant, but also loves to be held by her mommy and daddy.
Another funny thing is that she loves the singer "Lady Gaga". When ever she sees her on T.V. or hears her singing on the radio she gets very excited!!!!
Our daughter definitely loves music!!!! Our family is so blessed to have Alyssa in it!!!!! Keep watching.....
Love Julie

Alyssa is 2 !!!!

It is hard to believe but our little Alyssa has turned 2 !!!!!
Her birthday was Tues. May 5th, but we had her Princess Birthday Party on
Sat. May 9th. We were hoping to have her party outside, but because of the threat of rain we had it in the basement. We decorated with pink and white balloons and the cake was a Princess Castle. Alyssa's aunt Cheri made it!!!! It was so beautiful!!!! We had many family and friends at the party, and we had a really fun time. On the day of her birthday we had a small dog cake for her which she really loved!!!! Alyssa got many presents, and loved playing with the other kids.
It is hard to believe that Alyssa has been home with us for 6 months!!!
She is growing so fast, and we are so overjoyed at watching her grow!!!
We have been so busy with everything that I just don't take the time to post.
I will do another post so that we can catch you up on little Alyssa.
Thanks for stopping by....
Julie

Spring is Here at Last!!!!

Has it already been a month since I last posted??? Once again I have failed to keep posting on a regular basis. I know that many people still log on to see little Alyssa, so here we are again!!!! We get so busy that time flies by so quickly!!! We are so glad to say that Spring is finally here!!! Today it got to 75 degrees, but guess what...... Tomorrow it will only be a high in the 40's with snow showers.....???? Did I just say snow showers????.... Yes I did!!!! So much for the Spring flowers!!! Let me catch all of you up to speed on little Alyssa.
We celebrated Wade's birthday on March 5, which was really special since it was his first with Alyssa. She helped me make him a cake, and it could not be complete of course without a cat somewhere on it. (I will tell you more about that later). The only cat that I could find for the top of the cake was from a Halloween cupcake topper that I had in the drawer. Alyssa didn't care......it was a cat....that is all that mattered!!! She added all of the sprinkles and the cat!!!
As you can see in the picture, she had such fun making it!!! I am just wondering what I will have in store for my birthday???
Let me tell you a little Alyssa secret. Life is not worth living unless it involves a cat or dog!!!! From the moment she wakes up and then again before she goes to bed she has to make sure that her stuffed dogs and cats are in the correct spots. We love how she says "kitty..kitty". We cannot explain the way that she says it, you would have to hear it for yourself. All that I can say is that it sometimes bring me to tears from laughing at her.
Another love of Alyssa's is clothes and shoes!!! Great......I guess when she becomes a teenager we will have to get 2 more jobs to support her clothes and shoes habit. One day in JCPennys we were shopping in the store and were getting ready to leave, well it just so happens we were passing by the teenage girls clothes section and she decided that she did not want to go.... She had things that SHE wanted to look at!!! She pulled daddy over to this one shirt hanging up, and you will never guess what this shirt said........"Remember me, I am going to be famous"!!!!!
Well that told it all!!!! We knew that she was our little drama queen, but that confirms it. HOLLYWOOD bound we should go!!!! We have high hopes for our daughter, but stardom is probably not one of them. Who knows though.....She loves music, she could be "Your Next American Idol"!!!!! She loves the show!!!! She will clap and yell "YEAHHH", only if they are really good. She definitely has a love for music!!!
As you can see by one of the pictures I posted, she LOVES daddy's boots!!!
She can actually walk in them too!!!! When ever she can, she walks around in either our shoes or our socks, but she refuses to keep her own socks on!!!
As some of you know, Wade has been reduced in hours at work like alot of people in these slow economic times. It has put a tightening on our budget, but it has been somewhat of a good thing for Wade to spend some quality time with his daughter. One day during the work week Alyssa spends with her daddy instead of her grandma. Wade is such a great daddy. She really loves the time that he plays with her!!! She has gotten very close to him in the past month or so. He took her for the very first time to Panther Creek Park a couple of weeks ago. The picture I posted is from the top of the overlook, looking down at the lake. What probably most of you don't know is that is the spot that Wade proposed to me!!!! We also had our first date there!!!
We have very fond memories at that park, and knowing that he took his daughter there for the first time brings tears to my eyes!!! She got to see her first deer there that day, and she got to see her first boat go across the lake from the overlook.
As you can see by the picture of us in our front yard by the Bradford Pear tree, spring is in bloom!!! We had Lori take this picture so that we could use it for our 6 month Post Placement assignment. Yes, I said 6 months!!! Under the guidelines from our agency and from Russia, we have to complete a post placement visit for them about Alyssa at 6 months, 12 months, 24 months and 36 months. We have a social worker from America World come to our home and visit with our new formed family. They check and see how Alyssa is doing, and see how our family is adjusting. We just had our 6 month Post Placement visit on Friday April 3rd. It went really well!!! She said that Alyssa is bonding beautifully, and that our family is doing great!!! We have to have this report turned in to Russia by May 11th. That will be 6 months from when we were told that we were officially Alyssa's parents!!!!
We look back on the whole adoption experience as an amazing ride!!! We look forward to all of the days ahead, and who knows........ Will we start this ride again????
Maybe!!!! Keep tuned in..... We may decide to adopt again!!!! Talks are in the works.... We believe that Alyssa needs a sibling.......As for now though, we are enjoying every second being the parents of little miss Alyssa.....
Love, Julie

There is a First Time for Everything.....

Riding in Daddy's Stang...
First Valentine's Day
First Day of Church!!!
Having fun in a box
First ride in my wagon...

When we began this adoption journey I would always think about all of the things that Alyssa would learn and do when she joined our family. I would tell Wade, "I cannot wait until her first Christmas, her first birthday, the first trip to the zoo, and her first day of school". Now that she is home all of that is coming true!! It is so amazing to watch her learn something new each day. Each new day brings a new experience for her, and for us!!! A couple of weeks ago we had a very warm day on the weekend, so we broke out the new wagon!! She really liked it, until mommy got tired of pulling and we had to stop. We took a little trip down the road and back, and then a small trip into the play yard to visit with Toby and Wendy. I think that her favorite thing to do besides play with daddy is visit with and feed the dogs a treat!!! She is a definite animal lover!!! We cannot wait for summer to take her to the zoo in Knoxville.
The next picture was of Alyssa playing in a box from her diapers. Wade would put her in it, and they would race around the house and through the air like an airplane. She loved it also, until the sides of the box gave way!!! I guess I know what the next diaper box will be used for!!! HA HA HA !!!!
The next picture is one our absolute favorites!!! This was Alyssa's first day of church. This little dress was so cute. We had not seen her in one since she was in Russia at the baby home. She is really a girly girl. She loves to wear dresses and pretty shoes!!!
The next picture is of her first Valentine's Day. She was not too crazy about the whole thing, until I gave her some chocolate M&M's!!! It was the ones that come in a mini M&M little guy container. She is definitely like her mama!!! Loves that chocolate!!!
The top picture is of Alyssa sitting in the front seat of daddy's Mustang. She really likes his car. She really likes to push the horn!!! She helped daddy move the car in and out of the garage last Friday on his day off. He really looks forward to taking her to his car shows this summer. We hope to give her the little Mustang pictured in an early post this coming fall if she is big enough. We may take it with us to a few car shows and see if she can win a trophy!!!!
We would again like to thank everyone who asks about, and says a prayer for our family. We have so many people still watching this blog, and I am afraid that I am not keeping up so good with the posts. I will try to post more often so that you can watch our little Alyssa grow in her new family.
Wade and I are so very blessed to have her as our daughter!!! She makes us laugh and cry happy tears everyday!!
With all of the hardship going on right now in our country this happy journey gives us all something to be thankful for!!! Even though this country is under a tremendous amount of stress right now, be so very glad that we live in this free country!!! There are many, many people in this world who are not as fortunate as we are to live in the United States.
Please say a small prayer for all of those orphan children here and overseas who may never know what it is to have a "family". We became so blessed to bring little Alyssa into ours......
God Bless...
Julie

2 Months and Counting....

First Sucker!!!



I have finally gotten a free minute to try to catch you up to speed on little Alyssa. It is Sunday night, and Alyssa is sound asleep after a restful day. I cannot believe that it has been just over 2 months since we had "Gotcha Day". We had picked up Alyssa on November 21st from the baby home in Sosnovoborsk. To see her today you would think that it is a different child. She has already grown over
1 inch, and she has gained over 2-1/2 pounds!!! Someone who had looked at her picture then, and then her picture now said that they could tell that she was growing like a "weed". Her little face is filling out, and her pants are getting shorter and shorter on her. She also has 4 more teeth coming in!!!
We have been extremely busy with bonding with Alyssa. She is very attached to me, and seems to be getting closer and closer to Wade everyday!!! She comes to him to be held and for hugs and kisses!! We have been trying to get her used to our close family, and so far that seems to be going well. She has taken pretty well to my mom also, which is good since she is now watching her since I went back to work on Monday Jan. 19th. We are trying to get used to our new routine now that I am back to work. Alyssa is very excited when she sees me there to pick her up after work. So far, me leaving her with Grandma has not been a problem.
She is starting to say a few more words everyday. She surprised us this past Friday morning when we were leaving for work and she said "Hi Toby" very clearly!!! She tries to copy what we say, but usually it just comes out as the first syllable of the word. When she tries to say blanket, baby or bee, she says "Be". She continually makes us laugh, sometimes even to tears!!! She loves every kind of animal that there is, especially Toby and Wendy!! She got to see Grandpa and Grandma's cat named Miss Kitty this weekend, and she loved it. She kept trying to pet the cat, but since the cat wanted nothing to do with a little girl, the cat hissed a little. This made Alyssa run and wonder what on earth was wrong with that cat!!!!
We have learned tonight that a family that is very dear and close to our hearts, will finally get to return to pick up their little boy in Russia. He is in the same baby home that Alyssa was in. They had traveled on the first trip with us when we met our kids. We got a chance to visit with him on our second trip and sent pictures back home to them by email while we were there. They have been in our thoughts and prayers this whole time. We were so happy to hear that they will be leaving soon for Krasnoyarsk.
Sorry once again for not posting sooner..... We get so busy anymore, that it is a struggle to get on here to update all of you.... Many people have been asking for more pictures and updates, and we feel so blessed that all of you are still following this little girl's journey!!!!
She is our dream come true......
God Bless,
Julie, Wade & Alyssa