Sad week

It was a sad week for the Radcliffe family. On Wednesday, Derby went to Heaven. Derby has been my baby boy for over 14 years. He was the best dog, companion and friend and that I could ever have asked for. He will be missed by us all. I will miss him keeping my feet warn at night when watching TV. I will miss his floor cleaning abilities when Emme throws food on the ground. Leah will miss feeding him treats and hugging him after school. Emme will miss pulling is ears and putting her fingers in his eye and saying "eyes". Overall I will miss his constant presence in our lives. I know he is better off now, as the past few months he was suffering. But is was a hard week for us.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We did. Christmas was wonderfully busy. Santa did not forget our house and I think everyone was happy with their gifts. Leah's favorite gifts include her camera and a guitar. Emme had enjoyed all the noise making gifts, as well as Leah's camera and guitar.

Emme's favorite part of Christmas has been playing with the manger set at both our house and my parents. Baby Jesus ends up in some strange places, and the sheep are always wandering away. As my mom has said, it looks like a hurricane hit Bethlehem. Leah's favorite part of Christmas was the gifts as well as being off of school.

As for the new year, we celebrated by eating at one of Leah's favorite restaurants, Margarita's, and then home to celebrate the New Year with hats and horns. Everyone was in bed by 9:30.

Next up.. Emme's birthday bash. Where did the year go?

It's almost Christmas

Dear Friends and Family,

As the days are counting down to Christmas and the year is almost at end, I thought I would take a few moments to reflect on what a wonderful year it has been.

January brought the biggest gift of all with the arrival home of Emme. She was well worth the wait and has brought so much more life into the family. Leah proved from the start to be a wonderful big sister.

February can and went quickly and quietly as we all adjusted to being a family of three. I was able to play stay-at-home mom this month and had a lot of fun watching Leah and Emme grow as siblings.

The end of March saw me back at work and learning that getting 2 girls up and ready in the morning was a lot more difficult than getting 1 child up. Thankfully Emme is a morning person which offsets Leah's grumpy mornings. I am just as thankful for Emme's early to sleep habit as this allowed more time to be spent just with Leah. We also took our first family trip to see Katie in Arizona. The plane trip was not so great, but the visit was.

Leah turned 5 in April and really started growing up and maturing too quickly for my taste. She no longer is my baby.

In May, Emme learned to walk, finally, during our yearly trip to Cleveland. We caught up on all the families that adopted at the same time as I adopted Leah. Wow! It always is amazing to see the girls and realize how our lives changed in 2004.

The summer months saw us at the pool, on vacation and playing outside. It was a fun summer spent with family and friends. Leah and Emme turned various shades of brown, while I turned pink/red at the sight of sun.

Leah started Kindergarten in the fall. She did much better than I ever dreamed she would do. Thanks in part to her teacher, Mrs. Collins, who Leah just adores. There have been no tears or anxiety during this transition, which goes to show how much Leah matured in the year.

October had many fall fests and of course Emme's first Halloween. I had 2 very cute mermaids and everyone enjoyed the candy that followed. Emme even managed to say a version of trick or treat to get the candy.

November brought everyone home for Thanksgiving. I am attempting to scan the family pictures into the computer and getting them on this page, but I am having trouble with the scan.

So now it is December. Christmas lists have been written and Leah is waiting for Santa to come. She has asked for a camera, a guitar and a DS for Christmas. Emme has no clue other than the mall Santa is scary. Leah thinks Emme wants a camera, a ball, and surprises.

As for me, I have everything I need, including a new automatic garage door opener (my Christmas present to myself). I have 2 happy and healthy girls that I love and adore. In a perfect world I would like a little more money, a little more quiet at times and a little more time in general. But I am not complaining. My life is just as I thought and hoped it would be this year.

Merry Christmas to all. I hope everyone has had a wonderful year and I hope Santa brings everyone what they want this year.

Jeanne

Happy Thanksgiving

It is amazing how time flies by. November came and went in a hurry, and now we are getting ready for Christmas. Emme's first Christmas home. How exciting! It was last year on the 3rd of December that the judge finally granted Emme's adoption. What a year it had been. This is a picture of that fateful day.

This November we had a lot of family time as soccer is over and the weather is getting colder. We have been spending afternoons baking, eating and being silly.

I met with Leah's teacher who stated that Leah has adjusted well to Kindergarten and she expressed that Leah is on target or ahead of schedule in all areas. Emme's vocabulary has taken off the last few weeks of November. We just may avoid Speech Therapy yet. Her favorite words are stuck, sock, cheese and eat. She also can say SpongeBob, which is really irritating since she will not say Leah.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Matt, Katie, Chad and of course Mya were all in town to visit. Ali also spent many nights at Grandma and Grandpa's house which led to Leah spending the night as well. While everyone was in town, we had a family picture done (pictures to follow later). Unfortunately, Emme and Mya did not think this was a good idea. Hopefully 1 picture out of the 200 she took will include some smiling babies.

We also got into the Christmas spirit by decorating my parent's tree and well as exchanging gifts with Katie and Chad. It was a wonderful week.

Now it is time to get ready for Santa to pay us a visit.

Pictutes of October

Here are a few photos of the Radcliffe family adventures during the month of October

Picking pumpkins at the Zoo's boo fest

Even princesses get hungry while trick-or-treating

Emme showing true team spirit while attempting to play with balloons

Halloween is so much fun, especially with Grandma and Maria joining in the fun.

October Fun

Now that we are in November, I thought I would update everyone on the events of October. Leah and Emme went Trick-or-Treating multiple times in the month, starting the first of October and ending on Halloween itself. I had 2 mermaids on my hands for the official event, but they masqueraded as princesses as well for other events. Leah had a wonderful time and really got into the spirit of Halloween (candy, candy and more candy). Emme eventually figured out that if she said a convoluted form of trick-or-treat, some one would put a piece of candy in her bucket. Amazingly, she did not eat the candy right away and was content to move candy from one container to the next.

We went to pumpkin patches, hay rides, and to the zoo for BOO fest. The girls and I helped chaperon a 13 year old boy/ girl football themed party. Emme was ready, dressed in her OSU cheerleader outfit. Leah decided that older kids were much too noisy and spent most of her time playing hide and go seek with the birthday boy's brother.

Leah seems to like school and really likes her teacher. I meet with her at the end of the month for conferences. We had an informal meeting at McDonald's the other day over dinner. She said that Leah is a bright child, but can be stubborn and likes to do things her own way. What a shock! She has Leah's personality down pat. Emme is adding several words to her vocabulary, but will not say any on command. The Kazakh's were known to be stubborn people, and I have 2 prime examples. (I would not have it any other way)

Emme- one year ago

On October 15, 2007, I met Emme Indira for the first time. She was brought into the music room by one of her caregivers and placed in my arms. One year ago today, Emme became mine.

What a year it has been. I can hardly believe that last year at this time I was in Kazakhstan starting the bonding process with Emme. I can't believe that she has been a part of our lives for only a year. Although I know that children grow, I can't believe how far she has come since the baby house in Ecik.

Gone is the rolly-polly baby who was unable to support herself in sitting and could barely commando crawl. Today she is a very active toddler who like to run, dance, climb, jump and attempt to do everything her sister does.

Gone is the passive, quite, meek baby who was content to be held all day. Now I have a loud, babbling, laughing, screeching (as her sister would say) child, who even though is not yet talking, makes her point across very clearly. She also is a very independent, stubborn, inquisitive little girl who still likes to be held, but only on her terms.

What has stayed the same is her smile that warms your heart and lights up the room. She uses that smile when happy and as a way of saying "Mom, I know I am causing trouble, but I'm so cute so I can get away with anything." (Which she doesn't, but that does not stop her from trying.)

Life goes by so fast. Although I can't say that raising 2 girls is just as easy as raising 1. Life is much more hectic than it was one year ago., however, I would not have it any other way. See how much she as grown!