Gotcha Day - one year later!!!

Today marks the one year anniversary of the day we became a family. I thought it would be an appropriate time to revisit the blog for an update. To celebrate our first "Gotcha Day", we took a day trip down to Houston to visit NASA and Space Center Houston. We had a great time celebrating the day and learning some things at the same time. I guess some people realize their dreams by traveling to space; others adopt from Russia :-)

We're back at home now after stopping to visit with Aunt Eva and Uncle JD on the way, and we wrapped up the celebration by giving the kids letters that we wrote to them a year ago during the adoption process. Now they can actually read and understand what we wrote, so it was the perfect time!

It has truly been an amazing year. God has blessed us immeasurably. The transition has not been easy for anyone, but some would say nothing worthwhile ever is. And when we think about how difficult it could have been, we are reminded again of how blessed we are.

Our family and friends have been wonderfully supportive, the kids had a fantastic first year at school, their English is great, they've made some precious friends, everybody has been healthy, and we feel more bonded and settled in as a family all the time. Dima has made a decision to trust Jesus and was baptized in March. I would say that it seems like the year has flown by, but instead, I'm amazed at how much has happened and how much we have all grown (in the case of the kids, the physical growth has been incredible - Dima has moved from being third tallest to easily the tallest in the family.)

What else can we say? We are far from being the perfect family, we have our struggles, but we are thankful and we love seeing how God is at work in us and in those around us. On a related note, we are attempting to publish our adoption story along with several other stories that will be compiled into a book. We will have to keep you posted about that. Every story is different and so inspiring.

We are praying for and with several friends who are in the process of adopting from Russia, and others who have recently brought their children home. We pray that God will continue to "place the lonely in families" and to use us to share the story of His adoption of us.

God bless you all!
Karen