The great outdoors!
On February 14 we celebrated two years since the girls arrived at our home. Time flies! It’s been fun to see them mature. They really enjoy going hiking.
What could be more fun than trying on wedding dresses at the thrift store!
Exploring the wilderness
We're a happy family!
It was exactly two years ago that Melissa and I, and Trevor, traveled to Ukraine to finalize the adoption process. We had no idea that we would spend a whole month there in order to finish! Nor did we know that it would take three more months until we actually got the girls home. Nothing is ever as simple as advertised!
We are all still adjusting to life together as a family, but generally it has been a positive and educational experience for each of us. The girls are proud of their American identity, and we almost never hear them speaking Russian anymore. (Although people often say to them, “I love your Russian accent!”)
Today Karina turns eleven years old. This little girl has been through a lot of dramatic changes in her short life! She continues to spread cheer and goodwill everywhere she goes. We are blessed to have her in our family! It’s amazing how one little person can have such a huge influence on so many people, but Karina is responsible for saving her sisters and changing our whole family for the better.
It has now been 15 months since the girls arrived in our home. It’s getting hard to remember now what our life was like without them. We still have a big job ahead of us as we continue to discover how much they don’t know about life. It seems like many of the common sense lessons we learned as kids that we take for granted, they still haven’t learned yet. Melissa is showing a wonderful amount of patience as she mentors them. They generally have a positive, appreciative attitude and contribute a lot to the family. I know that the time and energy we invest in these girls is well spent.
All my favorite girls
The sisters (Karina, Miranda and Jessica) with Mama, brothers Luke and Ian, and sister-in-law Ariana
Our home is often a busy place, full of people and activities. It’s extra fun when Ian and Ari come to visit. The girls often reflect on how nice it is to belong to a family and be loved and accepted. As they learn to communicate better in English we continue to learn more about their past. We hope that we can make up for some of the experiences they missed when they were younger.
At a birthday dinner for brother Trevor
We discovered a great place to hike on the Santa Rosa plateau, not far from our home. The girls love climbing and exploring. It’s a good chance to get fresh air and exercise. I think they never had much experience with nature before joining our family.
We thought this rock looked like a big animal of some kind
It’s nice to have a brother who flies airplanes! Miranda and Karina went for a ride with Luke for a tour of the area. Thanks Luke!
The sisters enjoyed being at a Christmas banquet
This was the first time that these girls experienced a real Christmas. In Ukraine Christmas is barely noticed. You can see holiday decorations like trees and Santas, but they are all about New Years. Christmas is officially on January 7, but is very down-played. We had to explain to the girls that Christmas is the celebration of the birthday of Jesus. They were very happy to hear that! They have each made a decision to follow Jesus.
They had lots of fun helping with the decorations.
As a result of a generous gift the girls got to attend a performance of the play "The Grinch."
Visiting sister-in-law Ariana
Christmas morning with cousin Madelynne
Miranda trys her hand at cookie production.
One day Melissa decided to show the girls how to make cookies. They experimented with several different types of Christmas cookies. The girls had so much fun they didn’t want to stop.
Jessica displays some of her creations
Karina's Christmas helicopter
The best part of cookie making is sampling all of them. They got help from cousins Madelynne and Conner, and our neighbor Autumn.
Preparing the Thanksgiving feast
We enjoyed explaining to the girls the meaning behind Thanksgiving. They all enjoyed participating in the preparation as well as the eating. We had a house full of people and all three girls found it to be very exciting. We all shared about things we are thankful for.
We shared a big feast with friends and family. Brothers are always trying to spoil otherwise nice photos. (Thanks Ian.)
Karina shows off some of our holiday decorations. (What's the deal with brothers anyway?)
Camping in the backyard!
“Can we sleep in the tent every night?!” The girls all loved sleeping in a tent on our lawn. It was their first tent experience.
Life doesn’t go smoothly all the time. Sometimes the girls have little spats, like any sisters do. But, as they told me today, “when we wake up, we always love each other in the morning!”
Karina told me tonight, “Papa, I can’t believe I know how to speak English now!” She told me how worried she was when she arrived a few months ago and didn’t know any English at all. She’s learning very quickly. I see rapid improvement with all the girls now that they are in school.
