Happy GOTCHA Day 2010

Well ... here we are ... one year later and the "first" anniversary of our November 11th GOTCHA Day. We can hardly believe a year has passed since we walked out of Baby Home #6 in Russia with Roman and Maxim! It has been an incredible year with lots of new memories and fun times for us as a family!!! We decided to celebrate our first Gotcha day on Friday, November 12th since Stephen and I get that day as our Veterans Day holiday ... we are planning to spend the day together as a family doing something fun and starting a tradition of GOTCHA Day celebrations for many years to come!

Here are some never before seen photos from GOTCHA Day November 11, 2009....









These woman were some of the caretakers that watched over the boys til they found their forever families ... look at the love on their faces!!

First Halloween ... October 31, 2010

This was the last "first" holiday together for us and we had a BLAST trick or treating with Maxim and Roman!!! They really got into the knocking on doors and really liked wearing their monkey costumes!!! After early naps and a quick lunch to counter the candy and treats they would be eating we headed out to Marist College for some "safe trick or treating" in one of the residence halls! It was so much fun but a little chilly!!! After dinner at home we headed to Stephen's parents to surprise them with our monkeys ... they didn't know we were coming so it was cute to see the boys knocking on the door and waiting for Grandma to open it!!!

Mama, Papa and the monkeys!!!

Romans' best gal pal Auntie Sara came from Massachusetts to trick or treat with the boys!!!

sooooo did Grammy!

getting to pick their own candy was a HUGE hit!!!


waiting to surprise Grandma Pupek with a Trick or Treat!

The monkeys with Grandma and Grandpa Pupek who were surprised to see these monkeys at their door!

Two tired monkeys at the end of a GREAT day

At the safe trick or treating they do a costume contest .... guess who got the cutest award ... CMON GUESS ....

We've been parents for one year!

A year ago today we went to court in Ekaterinburgh,Russia and after almost 2 hours of telling our story to the judge and both of us answering questions he "officially" announced us PARENTS!!! After a year of trying to get pregnant, a miscarriage, another 6 months of trying and then a year of infertility treatments, our dream of becoming parents finally... FINALLY came true! We were so excited that day - well once court was over and we didn't need to be nervous anymore!!! Here we were outside the court and beaming because we were done!


We wouldn't get to see the boys that day or over the weekend so we had 3 days to keep ourselves busy until we could see them again .. this time knowing we were their parents and now we just needed to wait the 10day period and then we would be taking them home with us!!! We celebrated that night with some Russian vodka and spent the rest of the weekend exploring Ekaterinburgh!

Day 3 & 4 - October 28 -29,2009

Day 3 ... boys come into the room excited and like to go through our toy bag!!!




Our fourth day with the boys was actually the day before court so the boys social worker came along to watch us with the boys! Here she is with Svetlana!!!

Roman always arrived first for our visits!!!


Day 4 - Look who is coming down the hall!!!

Day 2 - October 27, 2009

Our second day visiting the boys at the baby home ... they are beginning to warm up to us!!!

10/26/09 - First visit with the boys

The first day we got to see the boys was on Monday, October 26, 2009. After two days of traveling to Russia from New York we got settled into our apartment and anxiously waited for the morning to come so we could go and see our boys!!!
Here are a few pictures of our first visit on trip 2!





Both boys were very shy and skittish when they first came in and because we got to the baby home just before lunch/naptime Max was very sleeps and actually fell asleep in my arms. For us it was a great visit and we couldn't wait to spend more time with them!!!

What were you doing a year ago today ....

We were getting ready to board a plane at JFK that would take us back to Russia and our two boys!!! Hard to believe at times that it's been almost a year since we packed 3 HUGE suitcases and 2 carryons and were getting ready to board Delta airlines and travel to Moscow and then onto Yekaterinburg for trip #2!!!

I'm not sure how much I remember about that day ... I remember it was warmer than anticipated ... I remember the confusing process to check into Delta ... self checkout is NOT friendly and the rude woman who was behind the Delta counter did not ease any of the travel tension we were dealing with!!! Oh and since we had 3 suitcases we had to pay for the 3rd one and we also had to pay since our bags were over the weight limit ... talk about "friendly skies" ... but everything we went through in that airport was worth it by the time we were on the plane and traveling back to Roman and Max!!!

Over the next few days I will post some never before pictures of our trip to Ekat ... the sights we saw and our daily visits with the boys ... we are coming up on our 1st year together ... we even completed our 1 year post adoption interview with our social worker this past Friday.

Stay tuned for some great memories of our journey to bring Roman and Maxim home as we prepare for our first Family Day on November 11th.