Lovin Lil Leeza--xoxoxoxo

{warning: very long post--this is a journal for our family too, so I don't want to bore my faithful blog stalkers,but I want to write down my thoughts as they come for Leeza...just explaining my rambling up front)

So sorry for the late post……we moved into our first apartment today and Eugene just came over tonight to show us how to use this internet card we got the from phone company. It’s slightly frustrating not to know how to do simple things like read a phone card, but what’s a gal to do who isn’t versed in the Cyrillic alphabet! I also have no clue how to figure out this washing machine either….

In other news (and I know the only news you REALLY care about), we had a great visit with lil Leeza today. Her group was inside today, and when we walked in, she was getting changed from her nap. She saw us and gave us a huge SMILE! This lil angel has certainly melted our hearts already. It sure didn’t take her long!! We played inside while they fixed lunch. While we were playing, they were bringing the other kids out and putting them in the swings, walker and playpen. It was really cool to be around all these children. I got to “don the feeding garb”( the apron and doo rag) and sit in the tiny chair to feed her. I felt PRESSURE because the caregivers were feeding kids too. At least Joe could watch and tell me what they were doing. It takes some coordination getting Leesa in the lil chair in front of me, so I could get the food in her lil mouth with the big giant spoon. You have to get her kinda between your knees with her lil chair and watch it so she doesn’t slump forward. I think high chairs are much easier!!! She was HUNGRY and dang she gets anxious if you don’t go fast enough. Sean told me that they caregiver fed 3 kids by the time I finished feeding Leeza. She ate almost everything today…her whole bowl of “soup” and then this beef, potatoes, and onions. This child eats better than Sean does. While we ate, Sean took tons of pictures. He is a good lil photographer. We took like 243 pictures today! He got some great ones of the kids in her group. He is getting attached too, not only to his sister, but to the other kids. They are all so sweet and so cute!! After lunch, Leeza got put in a layer of fleece and her lil pink bonnet (I do LOVE the hats they put them in –so adorable!!) and outside we went. It was another GORGEOUS day in Kostanai. It’s so NICE out. I can’t get over this weather. It’s perfect. I would, however, be sweating if I had to wear fleece, but lovely lil Leeza didn’t seem to care. She was a tad fussy a couple times, but was consoled very quickly with hugs from mom and dad. Sean said that “she gave me attitude” for the first time because she was OVER her picture being taken. Joe was hiding her from the camera until I put it away. Already, “my boys” are ganging up on me! The caregivers came over and gave us a stroller, so big brother Sean pushed her around in the stroller. She likes to go FAST! When I would make him slow down so I could take a picture, she would cry. LOL! Once again, time went by all too fast and we had to take her back upstairs. I handed her back to her caregiver and gave her a kiss and said DASVIDANYA, DAS AFTRA! I started walking away and she started CRYING!! As we walked down the stairs, I could hear her sweet lil cry. It breaks my heart-and I have only known this child for 3 days!

Joe and I have already had discussions about me staying the whole time. I just can’t imagine leaving her!!! We’ll just have to take each day as it comes, but I just can’t imagine bonding with this lil angel and then having to say good bye. I just think she needs her family now that she has found us. Joe, of course, is not surprised at all, and said he knew I’d never be able to leave. However, we shall see. We haven’t been here very long (I can’t believe it’s Sunday-we got her Friday) and already I’m attached to this lil blue eyed pixie girl. I still recall that conversation last summer with a mom of one of the kids our neighborhood when she said she could never “love” a child that wasn’t hers. I can’t imagine that-but then again, I know I loved lil Leeza before I even met her!!

Besides loving Leeza, we are all really enjoying the town of Kostanai. It’s so nice! We are also being incredibly spoiled with this awesome weather, but it’s also very cheap! Eugene took us to dinner to his favorite restaurant last night. Joe had a greek salad and Sean and I got meatloaf, and dinner was about $12. We are just amazed at how inexpensive everything is. Joe went to the grocery store and came back with a few things (3 kinds of juice, milk, diet coke, beer, etc) and it was only $25. I really just wish I spoke more Russian. When we were leaving the hotel today to go visit lovely Leeza, the hotel lady stopped us and wanted our key. We weren’t taking our luggage until 1:30, after our visit with the princess. I finally figured out she wanted us to pay our internet bill, but I just got out the phone and called Eugene who was on his way anyway. The only thing that has been frustrating is the lack of ability to communicate with our friends and family in the states. Joe’s blackberry stopped working again. It said he lost his access point?? So, that is really frustrating and my phone is somewhere with someone else or still lost in the London airport. At least we can get ON the internet, (well, we will be able to as soon as Eugene gets here) but dial up is frustrating and slow for an impatient web neck blog stalker eamailer girl like me. One more lesson for me..GO with the FLOW baby.


The food has been REALLY good, the portions are small, so I can see why people lose weight here. This apartment is really nice. It’s so wild because I recognized it in pictures from a year ago when I followed Sarah and Andy’s journey to Zach and Addie. I remember crying and reading their blog and being so excited that SOMEDAY it would be OUR FAMILY bonding with our child…and, HERE WE ARE!! It’s pretty amazing!!!!
It’s been great to see Tricia and Rustam walking around the baby house. Rustam is just adorable. Sean likes him too and wished they lived closer to Florida. However, I just know that we will keep in touch with the Hoffa’s, because we’ve become very close friends in this fabulous journey to our children. Plus, Leeza is buddies with Rustam. Tricia said she has TONS of pictures and videos of Leeza before we met her. Leeza changed groups (moved up) a couple days before we arrived. The caregivers told Tatiana that she cried for 2 days when she moved. AWWW! Poor lil Lepcian!! It reminds me when Sean moved from the 2 year old group to the 3 year old group and how he cried. I do think it’s good though cuz this lil girl can DEFINTELY form attachments. Now, we gotta work on forming one with us.  We are all I certainly already attached to her. Adoption is such a wonderful MIRACLE!!! I think I have decided on her name…
Leeza Grace Serra. Since it is only by the Grace of God that we found each other, I think it’s very appros!!

The in country staff really work their tails off around here! It’s very impressive. They do such a great job at making you feel at home and comfortable.
Tatiana has a day off today, and she has been incredible. She is such a beautiful girl!! Eugene is GREAT with Sean. He gave him a couple Kayne West cd’s to listen to, and took him for ice cream last night. He has a very dry sense of humor, a lot like Joe, so we all get along really well. He says he has heard of me and that I’m a “blog queen”. I wonder WHO TOLD HIM THAT??
Our job is to relax and bond with our daughter, and their job is to get us thru this process.
Kostanai is longer than most regions, which I always saw as a detriment to coming here. Now, of course, I am so glad that we came here, and the wait, the agony, the worrying really was forgotten about the moment I laid eyes on Lil Leeza. Of course, I am also quite aware we still have a loooooooooooooooong road ahead of us before we can take our sweetie home, but we are taking it one day at a time.

I was reading this book of daily devotions that Tricia’s Aunt Mam gave me. The devotion for August 1st (the day of our “best blind date EVER!!—the day we met Leeza) was quite fitting:
Blessed Bond

“Jesus, let thy beautiful presence be always with us.

I will never leave thee, or forsake thee.”
There is no bond of union on earth to compare with the union between a soul that loves Me-and Me. Priceless beyond all earth’s imaginings is that friendship. In the merging of heart and mind and will a oneness results that only those experience it can evenly dimly realize.