Random Christmas Pictures Part 2

The Vancil Family Christmas - and very soon there will be 3 additions to this clan!

My nephew Trevor was so sweet and gave me a cute sock snowman he made!

Dalton was having a blast with the Christmas wrapping and bows!

 The kids have fun taking turns opening their presents so they can see what each other received.

What did Grandpa get?!?!  

Look at the twins in their matching jackets!  Their twins will be arriving any day now!

Check out those smiles.  Alexis and Trevor were shocked to receive the Nintento DS's they had been asking for!

Random Christmas Photos Part 1

There are so many Christmas memories from this year.  I wish I had time to write about all of them.  Here are a few photos to help us remember!

Brady, Madison, and their cousin Sydney enjoying a coconut they cracked open!  They love having Uncle Jake, Aunt Jackie, and Sydney stay with us!

The Sunday after Christmas, Alexis invited us to her church to hear her sing some songs.  She did a great job and we were very proud of her!

Christmas morning - we slept in until about 8:00 a.m. it was great!

Check out Madison's loot!  

Blake was so sweet and thanked Madison for the gift she gave him!

I love that Brady is so into reading!

Madison made Justin and I a calendar for us to hang in the office.  She did a great job!

Even Annie got in on the Christmas gift exchange!

9 months of chocolate

On our last evening in Vlad we took Irina and Lana out for dinner to their favorite Chinese restaurant downtown.  During dinner we got on the topic of what Justin and I had given up for about 9 months as a way to remain in constant prayer over our adoption.  Both girls could not believe that I had given up all chocolate for that period of time.  (Honestly – I think I need to give it up again as a weight loss measure!!!)  The next day we headed downtown to get one last document notarized before heading out on the plane that afternoon.  As I gave Irina a hug goodbye she handed me a gift bag.  She said she had gotten me 9 pieces of chocolate for each of the months I had given it up.  That was so thoughtful of her!  I wanted to include pictures as a reminder of how sweet those two girls are!   

Random Thoughts from Russia

Ussuriysk Baby Home (Little Guy's) vs Artem Baby Home (Blake's) 
Ussuriysk Baby Home Number 3 is in the middle of Ussuriysk City which has a population of several thousand people. Artem Baby Home is outside the town of Artem in a village which appears to be in the middle of nowhere. It took us 45 minutes to drive to Artem when visiting Blake. Because of the icy roads, it took us 2 to 2.5 hours to get to Ussuriysk. Artem’s Baby Home is larger and houses 120 children while Baby Home 3 in Ussuriysk houses 80 children. The director of Artem deals more with the business side of things and did not appear as hands on as the director in Ussuriysk. The Ussuriysk director is also a doctor and an adoptive mother and seemed very involved with the children.

Black American
On our second visit at the baby home, Lana – our interpreter – knock on the staff’s door to let them know that we had arrived. Lana began to chuckle. She said the workers had asked if she brought a Black American couple to visit today. They do not see very many African or other dark skinned people in Vladivostok. The only other ethnicity that can be seen besides Caucasian is Asian. They are very interested in other ethnicities and think it is intriguing that the US is a melting pot of people. We smiled at Lana and said we were sorry to disappoint them but we were not Black Americans.

Tori Hannsen
That is the name (maybe not spelled correctly) of the lady that sent her adopted son back on an airplane by himself in April. While this is a private blog, I won’t say much as there is nothing ever truly private on the internet. But while in Russia it was very interesting to hear another point of view on this situation. We had never even thought of a possible ‘conspiracy theory’ surrounding that situation. Very interesting.

Strollers
For those that have been in Vladivostok, you know that you must bundle up your child to go outside. Even in weather that many of us would wear a sweater or light jacket, it is expected that children wear winter hats and mittens. In the winter babies are bundled up very tight and then put in carriages that have wool lining. It struck me as funny that at the Vlad Inn couples would park the carriages outside the restaurant in front of a window. They would leave the baby outside and come in to eat. It was probably 15 degrees outside. Granted the baby had to be warm and I am sure they didn’t want to go through the trouble of unbundling them, but I still just couldn’t get over the idea of leaving a baby outside while going in to dine.

Blake’s Russia

First of all today is Justin’s birthday! All five of us are planning to go to dinner and do some last minute shopping for things we need for our trip.

Prior to about 3 or 4 days ago Blake appears to have no recollection of Russia. Well, maybe I should say he has had zero interest in taking about Russia at all. If we ask him is he remembers various things or if we show him pictures from our time there he just changes the subject or looks at us like we are completely insane. The other night Justin and I were looking for some papers in the office and came across the album we took to court. We were flipping through the pages and Blake came in. We showed him the pictures. He saw one of him and Justin and pointed to Justin. Here is how the conversation went…

Blake: “What is your name?”
Justin and I exchanged a puzzled look.
Justin: “What do you mean, what is my name?”
Blake repeated himself: “What is your name?”
Justin: “My name is Daddy”
Blake: “Papa, your name was papa and now it is daddy.”

Justin and I were speechless. This is the very first time Blake has made any reference to Russia at all. It took us by complete surprise. And then yesterday when we were talking about Russia to Madison, Blake piped in and said “My Russia? You goin’ to my Russia?” It will be very interesting to see what develops of the next several months. Thankfully Blake is very excited to have a new family member – especially one that is smaller than him!