The end of the journey the beginning of LIFE!!!

It's been some time since I sat down and blogged about life with Roman and Maxim but that's not to say that we haven't had anything to share ... we've just been living as a family and enjoying each and every experience as a family of four.

I've also been trying to decide if I should continue blogging or if it was time to say goodbye to the blog... I'm still not entirely sure ... after all I started this blog almost 3 years ago when we began thinking about adoption as a way to keep family and friends posted on our journey to parenthood and now that journey is over and we are enjoying the journey of life with two very active and loving boys!!!

The journey we have taken to become parents was not an easy one but in the end we made it through and fulfilled the dream we both had of being a Mom and Dad and some nights when I watch my boys outside together playing I find it hard to remember life before they invaded every inch of our being!!! What a ride it was just to get to this point and to be honest every day since we've become a family has continued to be a hell of a ride!

My favorite quote along the way hangs just to the left of my computer in my office at work ... at times it kept me going and other times it brought me solace for the difficulties we were experiencing "The journey only looks long from the beginning. When we look back up the path, the reality is, we can be happy we started or we can wish we had." When I look at my boys, hear their laughter or their many request at night to sing "pleasant dreams" ... I know .. KNOW this journey was worth it in every way we experienced it!!!

Our journey to having a family is complete but the journey of life together continues and I think I will post occasional updates of the boys and what life brings our way!!

Sledding Fun

After our "holiday blizzard" the boys got the chance to go sledding in our back yard. They are pushing each other into the area that will have our pool this summer ... it's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time!!!

Enjoy!!!!

Christmas Day and the beginning of the New Year

We had a great holiday season at the Pupek house!!! Santa was very good to all of us and we stayed home this year and enjoyed the day with all our new presents and relaxing around the house!!! On New Year's Day we piled into the truck ... Lucy and Happy with us and headed to Grammy's to celebrate the beginning of 2011 with the Nadeau's and to celebrate Christmas and more presents!!! We hope everyone else had a great Christmas and New Year and we wish everyone a wonderful 2011 with lots of new memories!!!!

Santa came ... Santa came!!!

So excited for the presents from Santa

We LOVE LOVE BARNEY

New hats ... a kitty and a penguin

Giving his brother a lift in his new tractor

Christmas Morning ... our little family!


Presents from Grandma and Grandpa

Light Up sneakers for Roman

New boots for Max

Getting ready for Santa

Christmas Eve 2010 - we began the night by joining some of Roman's classmates at the local hospital to hand out gift bags to any children who were too sick to be at home and had to wait for Santa in the hospital. After, we headed to Marist College for Christmas Eve mass with Fr. LaMorte and friends we know from the college. After church we came home for a quiet dinner just the four of us and opened our first gift of Christmas ... Christmas pj's ... a family tradition!!! After the boys got on their new pj's and then we got ready for Santa to come visit!!!

All ready for Christmas Eve mass and dinner ... handsome little boys!

Opening the first Christmas gift from Mama and Papa

Christmas pj's for Maxim

Christmas pj's for Roman

All the Pupek boys ...Happy, Papa, Roman and Maxim


Cookies for Santa

Carrots for the reindeer

Snug in their beds waiting for Santa to come

A Shepard and a Sheep

Roman's school held their nativity play for Christmas the other night and he played a Shepard (thanks for a great costume Grammy). He did much better in this role than he did the Fall school concert ... he sang his heart out and we were very, very proud of him. Max got to star in the play as well .... he was Roman's understudy in case Roman couldn't remember his line "the wise men ... Maththew 2, 1-12" but at the last minute they called Max to be a sheep!! You've never seen a cuter or more animated sheep!!!

Christmas Spirit 2010

This past weekend we took Roman and Maxim up to the North Pole ... Jefferson, New Hampshire to visit Santa and get ready for Christmas!!! After the 6hour ride from New York it really did feel like we travelled all the way to the North Pole!!! The boys had a great time and we are definitely ready for Santa to come to our house this year!!!
The other highlight for Roman and Max was the indoor swimming pool at the hotel!!! The minute we arrived Roman was constant chatter about going swimming ... we got to see first hand "nature vs nurture", because Stephen said he was the same way when his family did a similar trip when he was a little boy!! Every time Roman asked about going swimming, Stephen just smiled and said "you are definitely my kid"!!! Another moment of "what a year it has been and look at how far we've come as a family"!!!

Pictures from our visit to see Santa at the North Pole!!!




Santa's Reindeer ... they really DO exist!!!

Our Journey Home - November 14, 2009

If you are a follower of our blog you probably noticed last year that I never did the "obligatory" post about returning home and the welcome at the airport. Well, there was a good reason for this ... there was no HUGE fanfare welcome by family or friends ... oh not for lack of planning, arranging and trying but because the limo company we hired DROPPED THE BALL!!!!

Let me explain ... the one thing Stephen and I REALLY looked forward to was walking through the doors after going through customs at JFK and seeing the faces of our parents, sisters and the signs and ballons welcoming Roman and Maxim home. We always thought of it as the "going into labor phone call" and well since we never got to do THAT ... we couldn't wait to share this final leg of our journey to become a family with those who had been through the worst with us!!!

I started planning our trip home from JFK in July 2009. I contacted various limo companies in New York and New Jersey for prices and found a company that was willing to work with us on pricing. Now if you are familiar with NYC and JFK airport you would understand that part of what I needed was a way to get our two families (parents and sister) from our house to JFK and then return with all of us back to the house. JFK is crazy to try and negotiate if you are not familiar with the airport so a limo was the best way. By August I had secured a limo company and being the Type A that I am I had every detail in place ... or so I thought! The very last email I sent before boarding the plane on October 24, 2009 was to the limo owner to finalize all details and giving him all contact information for my mother and sister and reminding him that they would all need to be picked up and that they would bring the car seats for the boys! Well as they say ... best laid plans and all that!!!

On November 14th ... we boarded Delta airlines in the Moscow airport to JFK in New York, with Maxim and Roman .. they were amazing on the 11hour flight!! They played, slept and ate and hardly ever made a fuss ... excellent travelers!!!



As soon as we landed in New York I turned on my cell and texted my sister ... EXPECTING she would text back "We're Here" ... instead I got "Call Me" ... this was NOT good!!!! In a nutshell the limo company SUCKED ... they never showed at the agreed time to pick up our parents and my sister and THEN tried to say that was NOT the plan ... well that's is to say until my sister started reading the emails back to him with the agreement! So at this point it was to late for any of that to happen and since they didn't have car seats in the Town Car for the boys the limo service was cancelled and Stephen's sister jumped into our Expedition with her husband and my mother and made the journey to JFK to get us! Again, Type A me had put the boys car seats into our truck before leaving just to get used to driving around with them ... GOOD THING, Huh?!?! The only problem ... we live 1.5hours with traffic from the airport, the plane was early so you guessed it ... we walked through the doors of customs with no signs, no greetings and no balloons .... we had our sons ... we were home and very, very tired and now we had to wait outside of departures for our ride entertaining two children who were probably just as confused as we were!!!!

WELCOME TO NEW YORK

No welcome home picture outside of customs for us BUT instead a more traditional New York picture ... us outside the departure doors in front of a trash can with all our luggage, strollers and the best gift anyone could ever wait for ... OUR SONS!!!! It wasn't the ending we imagined but at least it ended with us coming home with the two boys we had waited sooooo very long for and I hope someday when the boys read this blog they can find the humor in what on that day was just a real kick in the pants!!!

Now that we have been home for a year I've come to learn it doesn't matter so much as how you get there but just that you GET THERE. It took us longer than we ever could have thought to fulfill our dreams of having a family but WE DID. It was not the road we expected to travel for becoming parents but in the end WE DID ... we are parents and one year later we have experienced some AMAZING highs with our boys and along the way a few lows but HEY, isn't that what parenthood is all about!!! One year has passed ... there were some days I never thought we'd make it or I'd ever know what sleep was again, okay so I'm still not sure what sleep is but isn't that what those teenage years are for ...PAYBACK :-) .... just kidding ... we made it from start to finish and in the end that is what really matters!!!