Happy 4th Gotcha Day Little Russky!

this is the only "baby picture" we have of nick. he's about a year-ish old here & i found it on a random russian orphanage blog which showcases all russian children available for adoption to the russian public

holy moly!  i can hardly believe it's been 4 years since kris and i made the loooong couple of trips to st petersburg, russia, to meet, then bring home our crazy little man!  we knew our lives would be forever changed, but didn't quite realize that we, as individuals, would have to be the ones that would do the changing.  no one ever said parenthood would be easy peasy!  there have been plenty of times we've thought we were gonna screw up the dude...still do sometimes!  we certainly didn't have a clue as to what we were in for as new parents, but we've muddled through it the best we know how, and in the end we have bonded as a family, attempted to find harmony in the day-to-day, laughed, cried, snuggled, played, created, celebrated, mourned, learned from each other, and become more thankful for each other and everything we have.

we took this picture during our first to st petersburg to meet nick ...he actually smiled at us this trip, so we thought we were in like flynn.  trips 2 & 3...yeah, not so much!  he definitely let us know he wasn't happy about leaving the orphanage with us.

since i love me some lists, let's look at what nicky has accomplished in 4 years:

1. left all he knew of home with a random couple of strangers who couldn't even speak his language
2. toured st petersburg & moscow, russia
3. flew halfway around the world & became a u.s. citizen
4. was poked & prodded ad nauseum to ensure proper health {i will forever hear him crying "noooo cut penit!"}
5. went on a super-duper family adventure to the florida keys
6. had a fantastically awesome-tastic vacation in the virgin islands
7. tested out some so-cal livin' in san diego
8. road tripped to st louis, el paso & san antonio
9. and most importantly ... became part of our forever family!

picture of the 2 texans & 1 unhappy little russky taken just after we left our court date, where we were officially approved to be the little dude's parents

of course these are only a handful of the firsts nick has experienced, but i think he's covered more ground than a lot of grown-up peeps have in a lifetime!  

1 very serious little russky...serious about the fact that he wasn't so sure about these folks everyone was calling "momma & papa"

he's quite the different child than the one that left baby home #1:

1. he ditched his stoic outer shell 
2. smiles & laughs easily and loves to be a goofball
3. speaks ENGLISH!!! {maybe that one should be listed 1st?  but - i think i'd take a happy, smiling kid over a grouchy little man any day!}
4. loves animals & adopted his very own pup
5. he's more comfortable in his skin & has overcome most of his social anxiety

one of his 1st unsolicited smiles we got from him {taken at the kremlin}

and because i'm taking this time to rave instead of my sometimes ranting, here are a few reasons we love our crazy, loud, stinky, cute, non-stop-chattin' little russky:

1. he's so stinkin' handsome & those lips...have you seen those juicy lips?!  oy!  wanna eat them off!
2. somehow, despite all he's been through in his previous life, he's so very loving
3. he always kisses my forehead when my head hurts
4. if there's cleaning or working around the house to be done, chances are he's there asking to help
5. although he can't always sit still long, when he does, he is one great cuddle-buddy
6. he picks up dead bugs for me!  not the "walking" ones so much...but i'll take what i can get!
7. he's forgiving & he bounces back

i'm not sure who saved whom when we left that orphanage 4 years ago.  i do know that even though we've had some days we wondered what the heck we were thinking, we take a deep breath, and remember all that we've learned about ourselves, good and bad, and we thank God we're together. 

♥ “Adoption is when a child grew in its mommy’s heart instead of her tummy.” Unknown ♥

xoxo ... liese f

From the Motherland

Check out this little Russky...

Luntik, from Vladivostok, Russia, proves that just because you're different, doesn't mean you can't be a cutie! 

From the Motherland

This was just too good of a story, I had to post about it, plus it felt relevant given the Russia connection!

5 cm. fir tree removed from patient’s lung

Wow! That's one way to cut back on some of the costs at Christmas...grow your own tree! No thanks - I still prefer to get mine at Target or some other supercenter!

Words to Know When Traveling to Russia

Kris and I by no means learned how to speak Russian before we embarked upon our whirlwind trip to the motherland. I studied the Cyrillic alphabet over and over before our first trip. I figured I may not be able to pronounce the words, but at least I would be able to transliterate them (take the letters from Russian and change them to English). Come to find out, a lot of the words in Russian are actually English words, just written in Cyrillic! It became a game for me; I got so excited when I was able to actually read a sign, and even more so when the word I was translating turned out to be an English word!


A few key phrases that we did learn to butcher, I mean, to say were: Hello (privyet - means "hi") & good bye (easy version - paka paka); please (pazhalsta) & thank you (spasiba); yes (da) & no (nyet) (we know this one very well now, thanks to our oh so sweet toddler!); and so forth.


Below are a few of the other words we learned to recognize & say. After the picture will be the Russian (transliterated) word, then the word in English, then the word according to the Johnsons! After being in a foreign country for so long, not understanding much around us, we got a bit silly and made up little things to keep us occupied! Plus - it's just kinda fun & making things up to go along with the words really helped us to learn better.

Russian: Apteka
English: Apothecary/Pharmacy
Johnsons: Alpha Pi Teka (the second letter in the word "Apteka" is a "p" and to me it looks like the "pi" symbol.) This became one of our "sororities"...like I said - we got a bit silly! The Alpha Pi Teka's are the sisters to the Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon's you'll meet a few pictures down. They're the "good" girls.

Russian: First word: Bar; Second word: Kafe
English: First word: Bar; Second word: Cafe
Johnsons: 1st - Bap; 2nd - kappa alpha boobs epsilon
Explanation: It's kinda fun to really butcher a language, even thou one knows the proper pronunciation sometimes. This was one of our faves...Bap! It's more fun to say "lets go to a bap tonite", than to a bar! Now the second "Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon", well, that was the "fraternity" that got it all started! When I was learning the Cyrillic alphabet, the way I learned the letter "f" was to call it a "stick with boobs", thus the fraternity had it's beginning. The guys in the Kappa Alpha Boobs Epsilon house, we decided, were the good guys; the jocks; the ones everyone wanted to hang out with (brothers to the Alpha Pi Teka's). (we had a lot of spare time on our hands while we were awaiting our little one!)

Russian: Vodka
English: Vodka
Johnsons: Bodka (gotta butcher this one...and it's best to say with a deep Russian accent)

Russian: Cankt Peterburg
English: Saint Petersburg
Johnsons: Cankt Peterburg (butchering, again, but this word was a must to learn, seeing as thou that was the city we spent the majority of our 3+ weeks as transplants)

Russian: Kassa
English: Cashier
Johnsons: Well...use your imagination as to how we said this one! :) (think back to "Peter" and "Mockba" bellies!)

Russian: Carl's Jr
English: Carl's Jr
Johnsons: Kris' burger joint (he said it tasted pretty much like any old US burger...I took his word for it!)

Russian: Vihod
English: Exit
Johnsons: Enter (nothing too exciting about that one)

Russian: Vhod
English: Entrance
Johnsons: The Beta Chi Ode's (the last letter in the word is a "d" - to me it looks like a "house" and the Russian word for house is "dom", so we referred to the letter "d" as the "house".) (This was our second sorority, and the sisters to the fratboys of C T O Pi...yet to come. They were the more rowdy girls on campus.)

Russian: STOP
English: STOP
Johnsons: C T O Pi's (This was our 2nd fraternity - they are the guys you would drink & party with and most likely get into trouble with on campus)

Russian: Makdonalds
English: McDonald's
Johnsons: Mc Households (see above re: the explanation of the letter "d"; McD's is a "household name", even in Russia, so it just makes sense!)

Random Words to Know When Traveling to Russia:

Russian: Bank
English: Bank

Russian: Supermarket
English: Supermarket
Johnsons: The Cypermapket (it's just more fun to say it that way!)

Russian: Megafon
English: Megaphone
Johnsons: Megaphone...this was our cell phone service provider, so we thought it was fitting to have a picture of the advert.

Russian: Moskva
English: Moscow
Johnsons: Mockba (again, we enjoyed butchering the language!)

Russian: Akva Minerale (name brand of the water) (Boda = Water)
English: Bottled Water
Johnsons: Much needed staple to avoid both "Peter" and "Mockba" Bellies

Russian: Restoran
English: Restaurant
Johnsons: Pectopah (literal translation...aka butchering)

A Few Pectopah's to note...

Subway

Sbarro

TGI Friday's

Starbuks Kofe
English: Starbuck's Coffee
Johnsons: Lifesaver; nectar of the Gods; yummy; etc

And last but not least, the place we all need to visit at least once a day...

Russian:

Russian: Tualet
English: Toilet

Hope you all enjoyed our little lesson of the Russian Language! I'd have to say, reading signs here in the US is a much easier task, althou, not as fun!