A Long, Long Time

My goodness. It has been a long time since I've written. A long, long time.

As you know, we've been blessed with a sweet baby boy. And we love him to bits. And he has kept us busy! For most of his little life, we have had *something* extra to attend to concerning him (or me) . . . most weeks, there has been some kind of appointment or procedure or other activity. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Nothing too serious (so thankful!) but definitely things that needed attention. The good news is things are settling down and we don't expect that to be a part of our lives much longer. Yay, yay, yay!

Aside from that, we've been busy enjoying all of the sweetness of a little boy and figuring out what life looks like now and trying to get some kind of sleep. It has been hard to keep all of the plates spinning these days, but we're getting there.  It has been especially hard to make our actions match our hearts for our beloved children in Sovietsk.

This is the longest we've gone in 7 years without going to Russia. We miss Russia terribly! We miss our children, we miss our friends. It was so strange to come to August 2011 and instead of boarding an 11 hour flight, we were preparing for our little one's arrival. If only we could teleport, they would be a part of his life and he would know them as his Russian family.

We are unsure how traveling will work out in the next few years. We have to balance our son's needs with the importance of visiting our other kiddos. In the meantime, it's important to stay in touch.

In our dream world, we would be taking video and making brilliant movies and sending them to Russia. As it turns out, my tech skills are pretty weak and that becomes more of an undertaking than it should be. Time to shake the perfectionism out of me and send what I can--a choppy video is better than no video! And then there are letters. We've sent a few rounds of letters and photos, but not as many as I'd like. Beyond letters, we have a wonderful collection of gifts to go to Russia, but no way to get them there. Other travelers have their bags full, just like we would if we were going.

Our sweet friends have sent us a few updates and sent James the cutest little baby rattle. We love them so much, and we think of them all the time. Now we have to find a way to send our thoughts to them more often.

If anyone is interested in taking a greater role in the Sovietsk sponsorship, please let me know. We are committed to these children, and the deserve more than we are managing right now. We'd love to share the role with someone who feels the same way.

Also, please remember to write to your little ones! The letters are so important. We'll be updating the site with info about the new children, and what's been happening over the last year. If you have any questions for us, just drop us a line. Thank you, as always, for all you do.