Fun at Cheekwood

We hope you have all had a good summer and are enjoying the beginning of fall. Ours was jam-packed with family travel and events, both here and away. We're still waiting to hear word from Kazakhstan about being matched with baby #2 - we hope to have good news to share in a month or so.

We closed out the season with a wonderful visit to Cheekwood botanical gardens and their amazing Chihuly exhibit, featuring stunning, hand-blown glass sculptures on display throughout the botanical gardens and mansion. The exhibit runs through October - if you get a chance to see this, don't miss it - we've never seen anything like it. Here's a slideshow from our day there - as you can see, Lily Grace is growing fast! -- Steve and Tonya

What A Wondrous Time is Spring

We hope this post finds each of you enjoying the beginning of spring and all that this beautiful time of year represents. In March, Lily Grace and her cousins enjoyed a joint birthday celebration with their Maddie and Granddaddy Young – another round of cake, ice cream and blowing out candles! April has been full of outside play, hunting for Easter eggs, and rolling around in the fresh green grass whenever possible!

Steve & Tonya

You know you've turned two when ...

Lily Grace turned two years old on January 22, and has loved every minute of her new year.

The fact she’s growing and changing right before our eyes was brought home in an hilarious instant. Lily Grace has never removed any clothing on her own, other than pulling off socks, and for sure hasn’t been able to put on any clothing. At least that’s what we thought. Yesterday, I went to get her up from her afternoon nap, and as usual, found her sitting happily in her crib playing away. She jumped up to be lifted out of the crib, and as I held her, something seemed strange. Then it hit me – she didn’t have a diaper on under her pajama bottoms! Had I forgotten to put one on her prior to putting her down for her nap? I didn’t think so … then I saw it – a wet diaper lying among the stuffed animals. As I was trying to process that odd scene, Lily Grace announces, “diaper wet, pants inside out!” And sure enough, they were. A long pause of speechlessness gave way to laughter and disbelief. We’ve always been told she will grow in bursts – just didn’t appreciate how true that is!

Steve

A Season of Blessings

Halloween, then and now

A year ago, we were winding down our time at the baby house, getting ready to move Lily Grace to our apartment in Karaganda. Our adoption coordinator, Janet Ball, gave us a cute Halloween outfit for her to wear.

What a difference a year makes! This year, Lily Grace, with the help of her cousins, Libbey and Emily, got to experience trick-or-treating for the first time. After a while, she got the hang of it, and our little bumblebee had a great time.



Steve and Tonya