1 Year Ago today

We met our sweet baby boy!!!!!!! Oh my gosh....somedays I can't believe it has been a year but most days I can't even imagine what our life used to be like without our sweet Matthew. We woke up that morning feeling refreshed after being up for 48+ hours and were so anxious and could not wait for the time to get here when our girls from our agency would be picking us up. Our drive to the Baby Home took about 1 hour. We took in the sights of Vladivostok as we drove thru the unbelievable amounts of traffic. We made one last turn and there it was the Baby Home where our little boy was waiting for his forever family. When we got there we were taken to a small office where the Baby Home Social Worker was waiting to meet with us. She was such a sweet lady and had lots of pictures of forever families spread around her office. She had our little boys file and was going over his information with us. Meanwhile, the Baby Home Doctor came in and began to go over the medical information with us. I (Mama) was trying to take as many notes as I could but it was so hard to concentrate. They told us that our little boy had woken up from his nap and they were getting him ready. A little while passed and all of a sudden there was a knock on the door, the door opened and there he was...this little person bundled up so warm all we could see was his little face which took one look at all these people in one room and started to scream. Tears poured down his face....I tried to keep in together but no sooner were tears pouring down my face as well. The caregiver kept telling him it was ok that this was his Mama and Papa which made the tears stream even harder. They handed him to me and he screamed even harder. They were able to calm him down and then gave him back to us. He was the most beautiful little boy we had ever seen. We just could not believe our eyes!! Everyone that was in the room with us then left and it was just the 3 of us. We sat him on the floor and tried to make him comfortable and showed him some of the toys we had brought for him. All he seemed to want was to be loved and hugged on....we were thrilled. We wanted nothing more than to just sit and love on this little angel. We had the opportunity to spend about 2 hours with him and then our visit was over. We knew we would have 3 more days with him but it was heart breaking to have to leave him behind. This was definately the best day of our entire lives!!!! Here are some pictures from our 1st trip.

Nashville Zoo

Matt had his first visit to the zoo on saturday. We took the 2 hour ride up to Nashville and enjoyed the hot late September day at the zoo. Unlike Animal Kingdom in Disney, the animals were closer so Matt could see them better. There was a little area where if the kids wanted to could pet some of the animals, goats, camels, etc....Matt liked to look at them from far away but as they came up close as you can see from the camel picture, we was a bit afraid! All is all it was a fun filled family day!!!!

Disney World, Sept, 2010

We had a fabulous trip to Disney World over Labor Day weekend. We all had such a great time. We went to the Magic Kingdom 3 days, Animal Kingdom and even went to dinner in Mexico at Epcot one night. We saw fireworks 2 different nights, one from our resort and the other in Epcot which were fantastic. Matt was such a trooper as we just really ran him ragid. We would get up early every morning and just go and go and boy did he sleep good at night. We went on all the rides that Matt could get on in the Magic Kingdom (and Mommy even snuck in a few rollercoasters). He especially loved the Carousel in Fantasyland as that was definately his favorite. The 1st day we were on it 4 times straight and had to take him off kicking and screaming!! If they would have let us, he would have stayed on it all day long. We were able to see alot of the characters at the Magic Kingdom and when they were far away, Matt was fine but when they came up close, he really wanted them to get as far away as possible as you can see from the pictures. We got some autographs from Pooh, Tigger and a few more. We also got to see the Electric Light Parade at Magic Kingdom along with the Main Street Parade and then the parade at Animal Kingdom. He loved them all and would clap his hands to the music coming from the floats. I think the favorite for all of us was the Electric Light Parade and we really was just amazing and worth the 1.5+ hours wait we had after we found a spot on the street. Overall it was a fabulous time and we can't wait to hopefully go back next year. Will leave with some of my favorite pictures.

A few more pics....

It's Football Time - Go Philadelphia Eagles!!!!

1 Year Ago today

It was one year ago today that we saw the eyes of our little angel we had been waiting our whole lives to see. This is a day that will never be forgotten. It was 9/9/09 and I (Mommy) sent Daddy this email that morning after I got to the office:

So....today is 9/9/9, my car is about 1/10 of a mile away from turning 99,999 and we were married in 99 - do you think maybe something good should happen today?

Our dossier had now been in Russia for 10+ months and we knew that we were 1st in line with our agency for several months. That afternoon around 4 pm, I called my coordinator just to check in and let her know about some paperwork that had expired that we were working on updating. After I was finished, she said, I spoke to our representative in Vladivostok and she has a referral for you…..my heart dropped!!! She said, at this point, we don’t know anything about him other than his birthday and we have 1 picture of him. Our representative in Vlad is working on getting additional information. She said, would you like to see his picture or do you want to wait until we get more info…..For just a slight second I had to think about it and then I said….We WANT to see the picture. Well as you can see from the picture, it was love at 1st sight. Those beautiful big brown eyes, little button nose and those full cherry red lips!!! Since it was so late in the day, I wanted to wait to tell Daddy in person when he got home. I got home first and waited and waited for what seemed like forever for Daddy to get home. I had the picture waiting on my laptop in the kitchen for Daddy to see. After he got home he was fiddling around outside with the dogs and I kept saying “are you going to come in” he was like yes, in a couple of minutes, so again, I waited and waited and he could tell I was anxious about something. He said is there something you need to show me inside….."I was like maybe", he just looked at me. He then came inside and I directed him over to the picture and there you were….he just looked at me with these big eyes and said “Did we get a referral” and I said, “yes” look at him, isn’t he beautiful!!! We both could not believe our eyes. We were able to get medical information in 2 days and we accepted the invitation to travel and were leaving in 11 days!!! 1 Year Ago today our Lives Changed for Forever!!!