San Antonio Visit

Our first stop in Texas was San Antonio to my Uncle Lester and Aunt Carol's house. After two long days on the road is was WONDERFUL to settle and regroup with good food and good talks.

Ana LOVES the McGilvray's and it was awesome to see them again!

We are in TEXAS!

This is Ana and John Baylor! John Baylor was adopted from Russia 3 years ago. If the Russians could see them now in their cowboy hats! :) ALWAYS a good visit with the Dury family. This one was quick because the Dury's left the following morning for Russia AGAIN to adopt their second son! Dury's are who introduced us to our agency and helped us through our process!

Fini Flight- Luke AFB

Marc's last flight at Luke AFB! Bitter sweet. We are in the mind set to move but we are leaving a good group of friends and memories. It's been a great 3 years in Arizona (except for the heat!).This is Marc after he just landed and was taxing in...there aren't many times I get to see him on the runway like this...ALWAYS a heart pounding, exciting moment!

It's tradition in the fighter pilot community to "hose down" the pilot for his last flight. He was soaked with water and champagne...Ana was a little worried when she saw them "getting him"...but I told her they were "playing in the water" and she calmed down. Little protective of her daddy!

I am so proud to be his wife!

15 Feb. 2007

THIS is the day we met Ana ONE YEAR AGO! We were on the train to Kazan on Valentine's Day and then on the 15th we walked into her orphanage and this dark hair, dark eyed little girl toddled out and went straight to Marc. She won our hearts forever!

Ana 15 Feb. 2006Ana 15 Feb. 2007

Just this week Marc and I were giving her a hug together and she said "my family"!!! We both just melted.

Pack em up and Move em Out!

Well the house is packed up and the packers will load the truck tomorrow! Ana had done SO well with all this craziness. She hasn't acted freaked out or gotten into too much. She is just so laid back. She has been climbing boxes and squeezing into little holes and loving the maze of our house! Tomorrow night we will be celebrating Valentine's Day with the Toberqte's and saying at their house. Thursday morning is Marc's fini flight (last flight here at Luke AFB) and after that we will come home to clean this house and finish up loose ends. Friday morning we leave for TEXAS!

It's funny the stuff she finds fun to play with....that red "candy cane" as she calls it...is the "clanker" part of a dinner bell chime. She has it everywhere she goes right now...the packers even know not to pack it. She will leave it somewhere and they will come across it and leave it because she is so attached to it.

Marc is putting away all the electronics right now and I just cleaned the fridge and can go put it back together...hopefully it's dry now. I've got one more load of laundry and need to find our bed. :) Hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day! I will try to blog from San Antonio next Tuesday to let you know we are alive and well.

Valentine's Day Playgroup

Ana's last playgroup was this past Monday. I COULDN'T GO and was so bummed. Marc had to go to work for the day to get qualified to fly again after being out of the cock pit for 5 weeks...plus just the craziness of out processing from this base etc. SO I had to stay with the packers. Our good friend Victoria took Ana so she could enjoy the morning with her friends and o.d. on cupcakes! THANKS VICTORIA! All the kids got a bag with their name on it and everyone had valentine's to share. Such an awesome group! We will miss them all terribly!

DADDY'S HOME

Ana comes to get in bed with me Sat. morning for our morning routine of cuddling/watching cartoons. She says, "Morning Mommy, morning Pookers, morning Thomas, morning Daddy...D...A...D...D...Y!!!! Jumps over me and the cats to a HUGE bear hug and FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER cuddles up to him and FALLS ASLEEP AGAIN! We have been working on "cuddling" and trying to get her to fall asleep in our arms and SHE CAN NEVER DO IT!!! She just cuddled up and didn't let go. Almost as if she felt so safe in her daddy's arms to relax enough to fall asleep. HUGE BREAK THROUGH! These two have been two peas in a pod. It is NO BIG DEAL anytime I need to leave to do anything because she is just loving being with Marc again. Even to help her go potty..."Daddy do it"....fine with me! :) We've all just picked up where we left off and it is so good to be together again.

Count Down Begins

Marc gets home FRIDAY...late. Ana will wake up Sat. morning with the biggest surprise...HER DADDY WILL BE HOME FINALLY! We call him every night before bed for him to say goodnight and tonight was brutal. She kept kissing the phone and saying, "More Daddy"...I really think she just wanted to keep hearing his voice.

We will fly into action this weekend...doing final preparations for our move. (I have a list for Marc!) Packers will be here Monday morning. Marc has his last flight a week from today and we drive out next FRIDAY! This week will go quickly I'm sure.

I will be ending this blog the end of Feb. (after Ana has met my dad and sister.) I plan to start a new blog of our Korea experiences starting in March. I will be sure to get you that info. when I start it! Thanks for keeping up with us! :) Til next week...

ONE more Vegas visit!

So after our Korea shipment left and Ana's post placement visit I squeezed in one more trip to Vegas to see our good friends. Take our minds off of Marc STILL not home and all Ana's favorite toys are gone!(On their way to Korea!)We took the girls to a little carnival...they love eachother so much and play awesome together! I looked up and these three where walking across the playground holding hands! Katy, Ana, and Reily Lewis...Reily's daddy is in Korea for a year and we will get to see him soon! (Reily and Kelly will visit him throughout the year and hopefully we will see them too!)
Jen Bacon had us over for a "girls dinner party". Ana, Katy, and Gina had their own lovely dinner of dino nuggets and applesauce (don't forget the capri suns) while the mommy's feasted on a fabulous pasta and salad dinner (don't forget the wine) prepared by Jen. SO FUN!
We took the kids to dinner and there was a "balloon artist"! Ana wanted an elephant (she's had a thing for elephants for some time now) and Katy wanted a dog "on a leash". Ana's was a hat! SO this was our "Girls Night Out" down on the Vegas strip! Keith watched the kids for us and we had a WONDERFUL evening of fancy food and dancing the night away. A MUCH needed break from the moving drama/single parent stress! We got home at 3:00am and I was up with Ana at 7:00am LOVING LIFE and feeling good believe it or not! Thanks again girls...and KEITH! Love you and miss you already!

Post Placement Visit

So you would never know it by this picture, but Ms Ana was SUCH a pistol for her post placement visit that we have to do for Russia. She was on her WORST behavior....I COULD HAVE DIED! She pulled out all her "3 year oldisms" and didn't stop for the entire hour. (Which felt like eternity!) She could not have picked a worst time in her ENTIRE life to pull her stunts. My mom always told me a "story" about a time she wanted to beat me and couldn't...THIS day will be Ana's "story". BUT the good news is...we get to keep her! :) Terri Lindenmier is the lady who did our Home Study for our dossier we needed to adopt Ana. She has been apart of our adoption process from day one and it is so special that she got to do our first 3 post placement reports! She said she was so impressed with Ana's progress since we brought her home almost 9 months ago. GOOD JOB ANA! Only 2 more post placement reports to go! (March 2008 and 2009) Don't know who will do them...we will cross that bridge when it comes! :)