HOME SWEET HOME

Well, one last 'this marks one year' post. Today marks the day Maia, Mom and I came home from Kazakhstan, one year ago! What an incredible, fabulous year it has been!! Mom and I had spent 8 weeks and 1 day in Kazakhstan. Most of the time there was wonderful, overall ... :)

Today was extra special a year ago because Maia got to meet her big brother, Matthew. She also got to meet her wonderful grandpa and she got to meet her aunt Regan, and her cousins, Marie, Caleb, Kate and Ezra. Everyone greeted us at the airport (after they waited hours for us to land, deboard, and get through customs, immigration, luggage claim... ) It was a wonderful reception and so great to see our family after so long away, and to have Maia finally meet a lot of the family on that day. (She got to meet her uncle Bobby that weekend and her other uncle, Joel later that summer.) Getting home was rough - a long couple of flights, with a baby who wanted to walk and not sleep and a mommy who DID want to sleep (and a grandma on the other side of the plane). Landing at Dulles made me want to CRY - for 1,000 reasons. She was now a citizen of the U.S., we were HOME, we were SAFE, and the trip was OVER (both good and bad). The whole 8 weeks was part of my story of how Maia came in to my life, and I wouldn't change a thing, as that's what makes it my story... :) Let's just say, I got what I went for and that's all that matters. She is home with us now and we are a forever family!

Maia is such a wonderful little girl and the most special daughter I could have ever gotten! I'm sure I'm repeating myself, but... it bears repeating. Maia is happy, silly, funny, energetic (to say the LEAST!) loving, caring, snuggly, independent, dependent, *(yes, I know what I just said), she loves to tease, she loves to sing, she loves to climb and jump, she love to run, she loves to swing, she plays with dolls, she reads, she likes to watch Winnie the Pooh and The Jungle Book, she loves milk, she is learning how to use the potty (I go potty too) she says everytime someone says the word Potty... she loves bars (Nutri-grain bars), she loves her vitamins and doesn't understand why I'll only let her have one a day, she LOVES lipstick (chapstick), she loves powder in her diaper and/or on her belly, she loves to tickle and laugh, she loves shoes and boots (she calls them boops), she loves to take clothes OUT of her dresser, she likes to look at dogs, but if you get within 10 feet, she'll scream and climb UP you if you don't pick her up fast enough, she likes to wear other peoples shoes (grown ups), she likes to go on walks in the woods near our house, she likes to take a bath, she likes to say hello, to anyone and everyone, she likes to give hugs and kisses, she likes to say I Love You (which I LOVE!), she likes to brush her hair, she likes to brush my hair (which I don't love...), she likes to change her clothes, she likes snacks, she likes whatever anyone else is eating or drinking, she loves when Grandma and Grandpa visit, and I'm SURE I could go on and on, but basically, just about anything makes her happy.

Let me think about what she doesn't really like. She doesn't like to be told No. (Who does?) Wow, that's really all I can think of, at least at the moment. She is truly a wonderful kid who just brings such joy to all of us, all the time!

I'm not saying it was easy 100% of the time and I've never had a bad moment or day with her, but surely that was as much about ME as it was about HER. I hate to see her growing 'older' already, and yet it has made some things easier to deal with and handle. Admittedly, I was more tired this time around (and a good bit older!) since I did this with Matthew. Thank God Maia sleeps so well through the night - I've only had to get up during the night with her MAYBE three times in the past year. Not bad! LOL. She is so active and in to EVERYTHING that the first 6 months wore me out just TRYING to stay one step ahead of her. Luckily, I could recoup while she slept. Now, although still active, it's easier to keep up with her and she is still sleeping well. In the beginning, I was lucky if Maia would sit still for 10 seconds to listen to a book... or a sentence. It was CONSTANT from morning until night. As I said, she is still a VERY ACTIVE little girl, but we get some stretches where she'll sit for even 30 minutes sometimes to watch a movie. The times that were hard were especially when I was tired, or dare I say, moody! And/or when she was especially testing me to see what she could get away with. We have a pretty good understanding now, so she doesn't test as much, or as often anymore.

She is strong willed and determined, to be sure! But that makes Maia, Maia, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Matthew had a meeting tonight for scouts, so I had to kill an hour with her, around bedtime. I decided to take her to Baskin Robins to 'celebrate' our one year home. I got her a cute little kids cup of some colorful (gross) looking ice cream, but she loved it! When she saw the pictures of the cakes on the walls, etc, she started singing "Hap birthday, to you!" SO CUTE!! They sang that one day in day care and she's been singing it ever since. Adorable.

As I'm sitting here wondering what else I can think of to write about Maia... I glanced over at my night stand table... top drawer open... my chapstick inside that i use before bed, cap OFF laying in the drawer. HHMMMM, I wonder what SHE was doing while I was in the restroom for 30 seconds?????? Oh, Maia! I wonder how much of THIS one she ATE?

Thank you to all you wonderful readers, family and friends who have followed us on the whole journey! It's great to have you along for the ride!!

Return to Me

Hi everyone! We made it home and returned to all of our loved ones. Oh, how sweet it is!!

I won't lie, the trip home was L O N G. But I also won't sit here and whine about it. Even by myself, it would have been a long, terrible trip... add a 17 month old... and what did I expect? She did WONDERFULLY, but she is 17 months old... and I was tired. (Why are the only flights leaving Almaty at 3:20 a.m??) The worst was the second flight - completely filled and over 8 hours long. Add a medical emergency on board the flight (none of us!!) and added time waiting on the plane after landing to await the paremedics, and then clearing customs and immigration... it was LONG and TIRING. The thought of family and HOME kept us going though. Nothing was going to stop us now!

The awesome part came (and is what kept us going all day) when we cleared immigration and walked out and saw Matthew waiting for us! He pointed across the walkway (as if to let others know we were there (I did wonder where dad was!)) and I turned to see Regan, Marie, Caleb, Kate and Ezra all there as well to welcome us home and to meet Maia! They had a wonderful sign and balloons, and it was just so so wonderful!! We were so thrilled to see Dad and Matthew and so excited to have the extra bonus of having Regan and the kids meet us there too. What fun!! Regan and her family could stay until Sunday (today!) so we had a nice long time to get to catch up and for them to get to really meet Maia. My brother Bobby was also able to come on Saturday for the day and WOW! Did Maia take to HIM!! It was amazing! She wouldn't let him put her down almost all day.

Regan cooked delicious meals and desserts and really made us all feel special. She even stopped and got us our first Starbucks yesterday. Yummy! We are very sad to see them head home, but also ready to try to settle in to a 'normal' routine and figure out what that even means!

I let Matthew stay home on Thursday with us all. He did go to school on Friday. He gets Monday off for a teacher work day, so our 'normal' should start on Tuesday. He has adjusted very well to Maia. Maia, on the other hand, took a few days to adjust to Matthew for some reason. No huge deal, we're pretty good now, but she was more excited with younger cousins or woman (like Regan) than Matthew or my Dad. As I said, each day has gotten better and she seems fine with Matthew now. I am really pushing some time together so that she gets used to him too. I'll need him to be able to help sometimes, so I need her to know who he is and accept his help.

It has been rainy pretty much since we got home. I promised I wouldn't complain about the weather, but I am ready for some nice sunshine to brighten the days. As excited as I am to be home, a nice sunny day would be great and would really be nice to be able to walk outside. I may try an outing with Maia tomorrow - we'll see!

We've had calls from family which has been really nice. It's always nice talking to family - and even nicer to celebrate special occassions together, if only long distance. Family is great!

I haven't downloaded pictures yet. I am still trying to baby proof a room or two that Maia can play in without getting in trouble or without getting hurt! :) Then, maybe I can focus on pictures again. There is so much 'to do' being back home, I must admit, I'm not much in the computer mood... I will try to continue with updates at least weekly though to chronicle our adjustments and changes as Maia grows!

She seems very excited and happy. I am so glad. She has been such a trooper and is just so good. She even slept through the night the very first night home and hasn't looked back since. WoW! How did that happen? I won't question it, I'll just accept that! :) Yeah!

Thanks for all the well wishes and emails too. All is well and I will email you all back as soon as I can. So much to do!! :)

Stay tuned - more to come.