One Year Ago Today We Met Our Precious Girl!!

In the Directors Office in the Orphanage immediately after they first brought her in for us to meet
She was a happy girl even then!!
The first time Daddy held our girl
Our Haylie Booster
1st Family Photo--can you tell we are happy???

I can't believe it has already been a whole year since we first traveled to Russia and met our darling girl. It was exactly a year ago today that we first met her in the orphanage in Proko. We got to spend only 1 1/2 hours with her that day, and then 2 hours the next day, then had to come home and leave her there for four long months before we went back to get her. It truly seems like it was just a couple of weeks ago. The entire experience of that trip is still so fresh in our minds. It occured to me that I had never posted any pictures of Haylie from that first trip because we weren't allowed to show any pictures until the adoption was finalized. So, just look at how my girl has changed in the past year!!! We went for her official 2-year-old check up yesterday. She has gained 7 pounds and grown 5 inches since we brought her home in January!! She was only 18 pounds--is now 25 pounds, and was 30 inches--now 35 inches. It is truly amazing what love, good nutrition, and vitamins can do. The pediatrician yesterday said "You have really hit the jackpot with this little doll!". We certainly already knew that and feel so lucky and blessed that God sent her to us.

Big Kids Place Playdate!!

Carl, Elijah, Kim, & Ava
Baby Ava
Karen & Nick
Nick and Karen
Eli, Haylie, & Nick (I never could a picture of all 3 looking at the camera!!)
Haylie playing in the balls
Not too sure about all this
She did love bouncing in the jumping thing
Eli & Haylie bouncing
Playing on the Flinstones car

We had our first official playdate this week with our friends who have also done adoptions with Adoption Ark. We all met a Kids Place in Lexington to get the kids all together for the first time. Karen is my friend who first gave us the idea about doing an international adoption when she was adopting Nick from Kazakhstan. She was using Adoption Ark and recommended them to us. We are eternally grateful to her--we never would have found our Haylie if she hadn't gotten the whole ball rolling for us!! Kim is another friend we met actually thru the Adoption Ark blog, who we found out also lives in Lexington. She traveled on her first trip to Russia one week after we did. We got together on the phone first and then in person and commiserated thru the entire process. Unfortunately, her first trip didn't go exactly as planned when their referral was no longer available. Long story short, they had to make 2 more trips but finally got their precious little guy, Elijah. She then also was blessed with a little baby girl named Ava whom they adopted domestically this June.

We had a great time and of course the kids had a blast. Nick, who is 4, had been to Kids Place before and was a pro at all of the climbing, sliding, and bouncing contraptions they have. Haylie and Eli, both 2 were a little more leary of the things, but finally got into playing in the balls and bouncing in the blowup bouncer thing. They actually spent most of their time climbing on the many car and animal rides they have that you put a token in and it rocks back and forth. They liked the riding part, but enjoyed climbing up and down on them just as much!! Of course Ava, at only 3 months was too little to play, but I enjoyed holding and playing with her. It's been a long time since I've got to be around such a little one. Course, with all of those years working in the newborn nursery, I am a pro at baby holding. It was great to be able to talk for awhile with Kim and Karen as we are all so busy with the kids, seems like we never have time to call anymore. It is so nice to have friends, especially older moms, who have been thru the whole adoption process and have had the same experiences to compare notes with.

She's a Water Baby

Splish-Splash
A rare still moment
With my bestest friend--cousin JuJu
She is fearless and sticks her face right in the water--unfortunately she forgets to close her mouth and usually comes up sputtering, but laughs about it
So much fun!!!

I'm posting a few cute pictures of Haylie playing in her little pool in Grandma's backyard. A few of them are from when we went camping and took her pool along. She absolutely loves the water and wants to stay in even when she starts to shiver and turn blue around the lips (which she easily does while swimming even when it's 95 degrees outside!!) I wanted everybody to see my little water baby. Just like her Aunt Lisa, who gave her the pool.