December 2008 Update

Wow, how time flies! Today I was just thinking back, this coming Sunday, December 21st, marks the one year anniversary of the day that I met my daughter. Wow, how life can change in just one short year. :) So many blessings! Our God is so Good!

I remember being taken to the Ymit Baby House in Aqtobe Kazakshtan. We entered the front doors and I was immediately taken into a small office right off the entry. The office was maybe 7x8', stark white walls, one small old desk, a filing cabinet and a small sofa like chair to sit on. When they brought in Zahria, they put her in my lap. Immediately she looked to her caregiver, then at me, and with a quivering lip started to cry for her caregiver. I was touched immediately, it was positive to see that she had some kind of attachment to her caregiver and some concern about me. After maybe a minute or two, Z was cautiously interacting with the little frog toy that I brought for her. We still have that same frog in our car. :) I was able to hold her for only a couple minutes and then they took her back to her Baby Room. I asked some additional questions of the Head Nurse and learned that her birth name was Zukhra, so close to the name Zahria I had connected with but hadn't committed to. I also learned that Z's birthday was March 3rd. That is my birthday! So many signs. Okay, so later I learned that her birthday is really March 30th, a small translation error, but still a connection nonetheless. That day I committed to start the bonding process. I left that little white office wondering what in the world had I committed to. I had such little information. What if.....? What if......? and what if.....? So many what ifs, but something in me told me that I was meant to bond with this little girl. Bonding was a slow process, filled with many emotions, but never did I have a moment where I questioned if this little girl was to be my daughter......she just was!

Fast forward to today, nearly a year later, and Zahria is a ball of personality! This girl has the best sense of humor out there!!! She runs around like nobody's business and dances up a storm, we call it 'Rocking Out!' Zahria is speaking in small sentences now too, some of her favorites are:

Oh No, What Happened?
Polka Dot
Mommy's House
Rock On Dude
Okey Dokey (LOVE this one!)

She is brilliant I tell you! This girl puts things together in her little mind that there is no explanation for. She is so smart!!!

All that I can say is that I am incredibly blessed! My daughter is my daughter 100%

June 2008' Update on Z

I just have to post an update, since this is a public blog now. I know that it is fun to see how babies grow, learn, attach, etc. when researching adoption.

I can honestly, with my entire heart, tell you that Zahria is my daughter. She is my complete heart. She is attaching tremendously. She is brilliant, not just because I am her mom and a tad biased, but because it is the truth. I have been teaching her sign language, as a way for her to better express her desires, and she is catching on like wildfire. So far, Z knows: more, all gone, eat, hat, swing, bubbles, cat, dog, monkey, car, turtle, bird, ++++ She is just amazing!!! Zahri is now walking, mind you she couldn't crawl when I met her a mere 6 months ago. She is eating like a champ, nearly sleeping through the night (minus a couple bad dreams here and there), says 'momma and puppy', off the bottle and on to whole milk (lactose free), she loves music, is a freak about water / loves it, loves her puppies and kitty, ++++ I can't say enough amazing things about my daughter.

The following photos were taken by Nancy at Jane Bailey Photography. If you are from the Twin Cities / St. Cloud, MN area, Nancy does phenominal work!!!!! Check her out at www.janebailey.com

New Blog is Up

Hi all, just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I sent out emailed invites to our new family blog today. If you didn't receive an invite, please email me, or post a comment with your email address, and if I know you :), I will send you an invite. By no means is the blog ready but I had fun news to share. :)

That's a Wrap

Day 1 of Bonding


Today :)

This will be my final entry on our adoption journey blog; it is now time to start a new blog dedicated to our budding little family. Thank you all SO very much for following along on our journey, your comments and support have been nothing short of amazing. I have met so many amazing amazing people on this journey, something that I had never expected to happen. Who knew that adoption would bring together so many wonderful people and that the Internet, and this addiction we call blogging, would foster so many true friendships. What a bonus! :)

A special thank you to my favorite Ms. Suzanne in California, my first true friend I met on this amazing journey. You are a friend for life! I can't wait to meet your little 'soon to be' daughter from Kryg! :) Just a little over a year ago we were drinking wine in front of our fireplaces, emailing each other about agencies, websites, great books to read, our dreams, our fears, and just talking about our days and now I am home with my most perfect Z and you are soon to be traveling to Kryg to meet your little girl. Life is crazy amazing!

I also wanted to give a special shout out to Sandi, Kristi, Eileen, Susan, Shannon & Alysa. You are all amazing people and I am so excited to continue our friendships past our initial adoptions!

Thank you also to my cousin Stacy for following my journey and for printing off every entry for my grandma to read, I know that this helped ease my grandma's fears of having me overseas, on my own, adopting a little one. Thank you also for our wonderful blanket and for the collages of our time in Kaz, both collages are now framed and hanging in Z's nursery - they are perfect!

It goes without saying, a BIG thank you must go out to my entire family, thank you for all of your support throughout my journey. I know that I somehow tend to stretch the comfort in the family, but you all are amazing at your unconditional support. I am SO lucky to be blessed with the best family ever. I mean who else gets to have both their mom and their sister join them in Kaz? ME ME OVER HERE - ME! :) We all agree that Z is the most amazing little girl, she has such a wonderful spirit, and just meeting her you know 100% that she was absolutely meant to be in our family!

And to my friends here at home, a HUGE HUGE thank you for all of your support at home! My greatest friends Angie, Sherree and Marla, you 3 rock! Thank you for taking care of our business, paying my bills, getting my mail, feeding my dogs / kids, helping with gifts, packing my bags, skyping me while in Kaz, planning our shower, loving my little Z......... To the 2 greatest sisters in the Midwest, Jill and Liz, thank you for following our journey with such genuine interest and love, I loved getting your comments and Z loved meeting you last week! You 2 are amazing people, genuinely! I love you all.

My new blog address is www.blessedwithz.blogspot.com this blog will also be an invite only site, so if you were already invited to this blog, you will be receiving an invite soon to our new family blog. If for some reason you don't recieve an invite in the next 2 weeks, please email me for an invite. :)

THE BEGINNING

Let's Try This Again :)

Okay, so this time I will be sure to press save before trying to publish my post. :)

It is Wednesday, March 5th and I am now 32. Wo! I am old! I started this journey to adopt Z one year and 2 days ago, on my 31st birthday, that is the day that I mailed out my application to LMI. And look how life has changed in just one short year. I now have the most perfect little munchkin lying upstairs in my home in her crib. How much more lucky could I be. (No question mark there.)

Well the last couple weeks have been filled with getting settled, recovering from slight jet lag, figuring out sleep schedules, dreaded doctor's visits (more on that to come), insurance coverage information, daycare dilemnas, many kisses and great hugs.......... It has been great! Z is so adaptable! Seriously, she amazes me more and more each day! I keep wondering when the little monster will pop out and it still hasn't surfaced. :)

Our day at the doctor was horrific. I nievely thought that it was just an initial consultation, no shots I assumed. Ummmmm nope, not just one shot, but 4 and 4 viles of blood drawn too. You know when a baby is born and their screaming so hard that they can't scream and their face is just beat red? Well that was Z. By the end of her 4th vile of blood that was drawn she was drenched in sweat, as was I since I was cheek to cheek with her. It was a sad day! But, for the 5th time, we have now confirmed that Zahri in fact is HIV negative! How many times do we need to do that darn test? :) Anyhow, her pediatrician only said that she is slightly Anemic so we need to give her a multi-vitamin with extra Iron, which I was already doing. Good Mommy!

Zahri is a rockstar in her car seat, in fact she often just falls asleep. She went right into her highchair no problem. She loves bath time now, in fact last night she was splashing up a storm with her feet and hitting her stacking cups in the water to make big splashes. She is crawling up a storm and pulling herself up on everything too, in fact, it is much more difficult to get her down for her nap now that she knows she can just pull herself up and look at me and give me her cheesy, I am so proud of myself, grin. Currently Z is sleeping in my room, we have a travel crib (same as a regular crib just a wee bit smaller) next to the bed. The first couple weeks she slept right in the bed with me which was great, that way when she woke up, she knew that I was still there to comfort her. Now, I can still be right there for her, but she isn't necessarily in the bed with me (that is until about 4:00 am when she wakes up for her bottle and I keep her in the bed. hehe) At nap time I still lay on my bed while she goes to sleep in her crib, but in the next month I hope to transition her to her own room. We will have to see how that goes. ;)

She is warming up to the puppies. At first she wasn't so sure of them, so I didn't push. My dogs are mainly outside dogs, they have a very posh kennel in my heated and insulated garage that then walks out to a nice concrete kennel with a wood deck just for them, so no worries people, the dogs have it made here. Anyhow, I bring them in almost nightly and Z gets to see them. Slowly she warmed up to getting closer to them, and now she giggles and gets all excited when she sees them. 2 nights ago she let Diesel give her many kisses.











She loves mommy's headband. How funny is this? She didn't even try to take it off. haha










Auntie Becky and Uncle Dan bought her the sweetest Pottery Barn Easter Basket, our Fave store, and they also bought her this sweetest little Cabbage Patch Doll. Did you know that the Cabbage Patch Kids are all adopted too? And this doll was born on March 26th per her adoption certificate, and Z was born on the 30th; how crazy is that? To top it off her CPD is also Kazak! :)












Thank you SO very much Eileen and Pat for Zahri's cutest little hedgehog ever! I adore this little guy, he is so bright and textured, and his nose is perfect to suck on........that is if you are 11 months old and teething. :)

Slacker Blogger Mom Here :)

Okay, so I just spent 1/2 an hour typing up a good post and then it didn't save. Grrrr! It is now 11:00 and I am so pooped that i must hit the hay without retyping. Grrr! Both Z and I have the cold so I have little extra energy. :) I promise to post soon with some great photos! We are awesome!

Blog Now Open To All Readers

I just wanted to quick post that if you want to pass on our journey/blog to other adoptive families, or if you would like to add a link on your blog to our blog, please feel free, I have un-password protected our blog now that we are back safe and sound. Is un-password protected a real word/phrase? :)

I plan to post one last post soon and then we will be starting a new 'family' blog.

Congratulations Karla and Ben, as of today, they should be in Aqtobe to meet their child!