Friday, December 7, 2007

Please support the "Adoption Tax Credit" petition in India

If you have not supported the "Adoption Tax Credit" (http://www.petition online.com/ atc26047/ petition. html) petition in India, read this following article and I can bet that it will change your mind.Here is a link: http://www.ibnlive. com/news/ adopt-an- animal-get- tax-benefit/ 23680-3.html
The government of India has this all backwards putting their animals above thier children.
Signing the petition above will help kids find homes that they so deserve.
Thanks to those who sign it, you are helping a child!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Thankful

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are still so thankful for all we have, this will be a great Christmas this year with our new addition home and fully a part of the family. We were getting some tree ornaments and I remembered that last year at this time I had bought a special blown glass elephant shaped tree ornament to hang up to include Sananda here even though she was still in India. We also had a wrapped package just waiting for her under the tree, when she came home in March, to open. She didn't know what to think about it then of course, it will be so much fun this year to have her be a part of us all opening gifts together. Are you ready for more pictures??? Finding our Christmas tree....

Mom, look, I can feed the bears!
Let's do some tree shopping!
Any over here?
How bout this one sis?

Here guys, come here, we found one! Where are my brothers?

We had a big week!

Not only did we finalize but also had Sananda's baby dedication the same week. Here is a picture from that day.
Here is a picture of her in the same cute outfit at our Harvest party in October.

National Adoption Month

We had big plans to celebrate National Adoption Month, some of them fell through, but the best did happen for us this month. We were finally able to finalize Sananda's adoption. Here are some pictures. The celebration after finalization. We looked and looked for about an hour for a new Indian restaurant that we heard had opened sort of close to us, but to no avail, guess it was only a rumor. We finally decided on Carlos O' Kellys, the food there was good too.
Us with the court judge. Love the smile on his face.
Celcbrating at our church with cake.
Another picture from our supper celebration.


More pictures








If August was busy.....

it sure has been even more eventful than that these last few months. I can't even recall all that we have been doing at this point, but thought it was long overdue to update the blog and have a couple of mintues to do that. First some pictures that people have been asking for.




We did some fishing, but didn't catch more than seaweed. I know I had a bite at least once, but he got away. The scenery was beautiful though, so at least we caught a pretty sunset.























Wednesday, August 29, 2007

What we've been up to

This has been a busy month. We took Sananda to her first county fair, she loves going places and doing things, this was no exception. The animals were fun to look at and the lights on the rides at night made it festive. She had a balloon to entertain her until sadly she let go and we watched it sale away into the sky, but not before she kept bopping mommy in the face with it about twenty times. I promise that I had my husband attach it to us so she wouldn't lose it, but evidently it was not in the kind of knot that stays well. So, the balloon flew and then Sananda go to hold big sister Olivia's balloon which meant more balloon in the face for mommy. I also got to hold all the big blow up toys that the other kids won and they were fully inflated. Oh, and the bags of pencils and flyers that came from the 4-H building. I had quite an armful, daddy was too busy helping the others kids get rides and play games so he couldn't help too much.

The next weekend we attended an India heritage camp which was a lot of fun. There was some great Indian food catered in by an Indian resturant, activities, wonderful families to meet and crafts. I volunteered to help with the mendhi and ended up doing a design on me, plus a couple of cute little Indian girls.

We celebrated India's Independance Day (Aug. 15th) with sparklers and decorating our house with balloons and streamers that are the colors of India's flag. We just celebrated Rakhi, which is another Indian holiday where sisters make bracelets for their brothers and the brothers promise to protect their sisters. Then we all get Indian sweets to eat. I made Gulab Jamun, my husband said mine tasted better than the resturants. :) Opps, better not let them find this out. It worked out pretty cool cause for my boys school they were suppose to make a covenant with someone and this just fit in sooo perfect. It was so sweet to see Sananda and Olivia both give thier brothers the bracelets that we made. They gave the bracelets to them on paper airplanes, we got this idea out of a story we read in a children's book about an Indian adoption. It was a real tear jerker for me. My husband laughed at some parts of the book and said it brought back memories of waiting for Sananda. Why am I the one who always cries at these things?!?!?!

The India Children's chior was also in our area recently and it was wonderful. Another adoptive mom told me that she cried when she went to it. I thought I wouldn't cry, but the tears started coming the minute I set eyes on the kids in their little uniforms. I had to hold back the tears from then on. At the end of the performance the kids all around age 8-10(I am guessing here, but they really weren't very old) all came out to the audience and gave us hugs. So, if I hadn't been about to cry before I am sure that this would have done it anyway.

We also attended a local bible conference where a native of India was speaking. From what he said it sounded like he was from around the same area that the kids in the India Children's choir were from. I picked up a book, that he wrote, at the conference but noticed later that at the India children's choir concert they also had the same book out for sale. Anyway the book was really good and helped me to understand more of how India came to be the India that it is now ,and it addresses what can be done to help the Dalits and others of India to be truly free. It is interesting because I finished reading this book on India's Independence Day. The author is Vishal Mangalwadi and the book title is THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM & DIGNITY caste, conversion & cultural revolution.

If you liked The lion, the Witch and the Wardrode or The Lord of the Rings you may also like a similar book that they were plugging at the conference. It is called Conspiracy of CALASPIA, I have been thinking about getting the book but haven't yet. It was written by twin boys who were born in India, they were 11 years old when they started this book and are now, I think, about 17 or 18. I guess the book has gone through many drafts over the years. I think the boys were about 8 when they moved to another country from India, maybe sweden or England, I don't remember. I thought it would be really interesting to read something like this from someone who has a different view of things from another area of the world.

So anyway, my baby has become a real climber recently. This keeps me chasing her even more cause I am always afraid that she might fall. It was so cute the other day, we were outside on the steps and the "kitty" was sitting on the step below us. This was a huge motivator for Sananda to try and get down there, yet she didn't know how. She would move her foot over the step's edge but didn't know to bend her other leg to make her foot go down to the lower step. She tried many different ways, setting down and thinking about crawling backwards but just couldn't get it to work, and maybe scooting down to the lower step on her bottom but just couldn't quite do that either. Ok, this is the first time she has really tried so you have to give her lots of slack here. I guess I will help her work on this one so she can get down too.

Sananda is also getting some more teeth in and has been kinda whiny. I don't get much done but carry her around some days. She has the runny nose that goes with teething too. It is so sweet though when she lays her head on my shoulder and just wants to be held. How could a mom not like that?

Well, it's getting late and my baby is in bed, so should I be.

Monday, July 9, 2007

A Time of Firsts

We took Sananda to her first concert in the park which featured Chris Rice, Thor Ramsey, and Stellar Kart. She loved it as you can see and we had a hard time keeping her from standing on her chair. She didn't learn that from any of us! :) There was also a play ground there that we had to check out for awhile.


Sananda is sure growing up fast. She took her very first step on my birthday last month, but hadn't taken one since. I was starting to wonder when she would ever try it again. Well this week she has decided that the time is now. It has been so fun watching her try out her new walking skills. She still crawls mostly but she is getting braver and will be going all over on two feet before long. She says" yeah" and claps for herself when she walks and looks to see if we are excited for her too. Of course we are!


Sananda at the 4th of July parade. Sananda liked her first 4th of July, parade and she wasn't even scared of the loud firetruck horns. We took Sananda to the fireworks but she slept through all of them, even the really loud bangs. Next year I hope she stays awake to see how pretty they all are. She slept through the sparklers too. She did get to see the 4th of July parade though and loved it.

I would love for us to celebrate India's Independance day here and am wondering what they do in India to celebrate. I think they have fireworks too and maybe a parade with elephants? We can't do that here, but if anyone else has any ideas what to do, besides sparklers and hitting the zoo, let me know. I know some of you who are reading this may already celebrate this in the US.
We also went camping for the first time with Sananda. It went ok, except she didn't want to give in and go to sleep at night as she might miss something exciting. So, we enjoyed the campfire,
made smores, and she enjoyed eating the graham crackers.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Doing well

Look, I'm standing! Our little cutie! Notice she is headed towards the computer? She loves to push the buttons on it.

It's been over a month since our last post, but time sure does fly when your having fun. It is such a joy to have Sananda in our family. She fits in so well with the other kids and they just adore her.

We have been home a little over 3 months now and it seems like she has always belonged to us. She has adjusted so well, is gaining weight and developing on target. Her first step was taken recently on my birthday and what a great present it was. Soon she will be all over the house on foot.

Sananda has picked up some new words, including "Cool", "Oh yea", and "Uh-Oh", which usually follows her dropping an item on the floor. :)

Some other cute things she does are taking my glasses off of me when it is her nap time or bedtime (she wants me to sleep too), looking at me and rocking side to side when our favorite songs come on the radio, and our baby also stands up by herself and then looks at us and claps. It is so cute to see how delighted she is that she can do this on her own.

We recently received another picture of Sananda of when she was still in the orphanage, it was sent to us by another family who traveled ahead of us and they kindly just sent us this picture. When I see it I remember the time we spent waiting for our baby to come home to us. We are so thankful that she finally is here. Many thanks go to the family who sent us the picture. All pictures that we get of Sananda are so precious to us and someday will be to Sananda as well.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Helping more children find homes

There is an online petition started by The HOPE House to help create an adoption tax credit in India for couples there hoping to adopt. It would help many Indian families to be able to afford to adopt some of the many children that need homes in India. Here is a link http://www.petitiononline.com/atc26047/petition.html to sign the petition if you would like to help the children of India. If you would like to learn more about this subject, you can go to the following blog http://indiadoption.blogspot.com/ .

Friday, April 27, 2007

Sananda at Home

Thanks for peeking in again!!!
Thanks for all your prayers that got us through the whole adoption process and for your support in each way that you have contributed. Most of all, thanks to God for bringing Sananda and us together as a family. Without Him, we could not have done it.

Easter picture.


Let's play ball.



Sananda turns 1 year old. She is not real sure about this cake thing. However, she found out that it is good after all.




Saturday, April 14, 2007

Pictures of New Dehli

Well, if we have not lost all of you by now, we finally got around to posting a few pictures of New Dehli.

Presidential Palace
Outside of McDonald's in New Dehli
McDonald's menu inside the store.
Ghandi memorial
India Gate Monument - our camera ran out of batteries before we could get a picture of us in front of it.
Mt. Dew at last!!! - this outside vendor was the only place that had some.
With 4 people and a baby, we had a lot of luggage. The driver had to SET(not tie down) some of our luggage on the top of the taxi. But we didn't lose anything on the wild ride to the airport.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Finally, pictures of Kolkata!

I will TRY to post more pics. Some of Delhi next time and our new daughter at home.

A really narrow road that made me nervous.
Cool three wheeled truck. We would have great fun with one of these out here at the farm.
Victoria Memorial.
Bike powered rickshaw.
This would be enough to give you a headache.
Speaks for itself!
Flowers strands strung in a doorway.
Man powered rickshaw. Traffic.

A neighborhood in Kolkata.
A building across from our hotel.
The girls, sacked out!

Monday, March 19, 2007

We reached home!

Sorry I hadn't posted sooner, we have been so tired and our internet was out for a day and we got home a day later than planned as we had another flight added, by the airlines,to our route home. We were just so tired after all the plane changes and the rushing inbetween them and such that we stayed a night near our final landing spot. It felt so good to just rest and know that we wouldn't have to get up the next day and fly somewhere, but to be able to just drive ourselves home. About 5 hours later we were finally reunited with our sons again and it felt really nice.

Guess I still have Delhi belly. I thought it was Mcdonalds that made me sick but now I am rethinking that it may have been the bottle of pop that I drank. I was so careful about this and only drank pop that had been bottled by Pepsi. This pop had the same name, but after I drank some of it and realized it had a different taste to it, I looked and didn't see that Pepsi logo on it. Opps! So, now I am blaming the pop. I am starting to feel better though.

Sananda is still doing well, she loves to eat. I weighed her today, she is 18.5 pounds. We all are still just trying to adjust to a new time zone. I will try to post some more pictures tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Olivia and our driver on embassy day with thier ice cream.
Sananada with her chopsticks and Daddy with his. This one's for you Bill!


Sananda likes Lemons!


Olivia in her cute Indian outfit!



My baby is all smiles! It sure is worth all the time it took for us to get here, hard but worth it!




Sananda and her crib neighbor, Daya. What cuties!





Sananda in her cute Indian outfit!






Hi all,

It has been a few days since I could post, sorry bout that, this trip really takes a lot out of a person and my time on the internet has been pretty limited.
We were able to meet with another family adopting through our agency, they just picked up their little girl too. We found out that they were in cribs that were next to each other. I will post a picture of them together.
We met a second family who has adopted from our agency. They are here to pick up their boy this time from another area, but wanted to visit their daughter's agency. It sure was good to talk to them.
We were sad to leave Kolkata and are finally getting used to Delhi, but we now leave tomorrow night. This may be my last post from India. We have had a few mix-ups here in Delhi, but overall we are having a good time here too. This country is so beautiful, but it is hard to not be able to help all we meet that have such need. The driving here is crazy and fun, can you imagine that they talk on cell phones here while they are driving too.
We were able to see the President's Garden which is only open a couple of times a year. we couldn't take pictures though, due to security reasons. It was beautiful and very large.
We ate at a Chinese restaurant at our hotel. The food was very good, but we are not used to such service. Just for you Bill, I will post a picture of Sananda with her chopsticks. :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAVIN, we have some great video that you and Isaac will love to see! I hope you had a great day! Can't wait to celebrate with you when we get back home!
Jessi is REALLY enjoying her stay too, as all the men are madam this and madam that to her. What's up with that??? The rest of us are not getting much of that treatment. They even brought a coat rake to our dinner table to hang her purse on. %)
We are ready to come home and see our boys, wish it didn't take so long to get there.
I am feeling a little sick today as I decided to get brave and eat at McDonalds here just to see what it tastes like. They even have a doorman there and delivery. The delivery car is a red moped with a large yellow M on the side of it.
So much has happened here that it is just too much to mention here.
Our driver for Embassy day took a liking to Olivia and bought us all ice cream bars from a street car vendor. Yes, we did eat them, hope we don't all get sick. We will post a picture of her and driver with their ice cream. Thanks Deb, for your recommendation of hiring this guy!!