Happy Gotcha Day, Dimka-Doodle!

Happy Gotcha Day to my baby of the bunch!  I absolutely cannot believe it has really been 2 years since we left the orphanage with Caleb safely in our arms forever.  I know many miracles took place on our journey to our son and I am still awestruck when I reflect on them.  Our God is an AWESOME God!

So how is Caleb celebrating his very special day?  Well, he woke up to the smell of blueberry muffins (his favorite) and got to hear the story of the very first Gotcha Day.  Then, we went to church and had a great morning!  After church, Caleb got a Happy Meal for lunch at his request and gobbled it right up.   Now, C-monkey is spending the afternoon swimming to his heart''s content, which is a real dream-come-true for him (no nap enforced today!).   Later Grandma and Grandpa will come over for a family BBQ in the backyard.  Should be fun!!!

Happy Gotcha Day, Dimka-Doodle!  We love you so VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Salute

I just had to put this on here... it is just too cute! As soon as I added the Russian National Anthem to our blog, I was reminded of something. Whenever it plays, he does this...

We discovered this fact shortly after he came home almost 2 years ago.  We just happened to be watching Rocky IV, and as soon as the anthem started (Ivan Drago is getting ready to fight Rocky- he is Russian), Caleb stopped playing, stood up, situated himself within a few inches of the TV, and saluted the TV for the entire duration of the song.  That was quite a sight, watching a 2 year-old do that.  My guess is the kids in the baby house were taught to do this- maybe they did it every day, kind of like the kids here recite the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Fast forward 2 years and Caleb is still well-trained and will drop whatever he is doing to fulfill his duty.  In the pic above, he was right in the middle of eating when the anthem started to play.  Too cute :0)

Keep'in it Russian- Part One

Keeping Russian culture and reminders of Russia in our daily lives as much as possible is a goal D and I have for our family.  We want C to grow up feeling proud of who he is and we want him to know that we are all feel very deeply about his place of birth.  We know Russia made a sacrifice when they allowed C to become a part of our family and grow up in the U.S.... we haven't forgotten that fact.

We have done a lot of things to keep Russia in our lives, and I don't have the time to go through all of them (I'll do that in the next post), but here's one I love.  I love it because D did this one all on his own.  He's such a good Daddy :0)

Since Andrew is a hockey player and Caleb aspires to be the same, D thought it would be really special for them to have Krasnoyarsk hockey jerseys.  Andrew has already worn his on the ice during practice.  He looked pretty cool in it and was really proud to have a Russian hockey jersey.  I just love the fact that he can tell people he has actually been to Krasnoyarsk.  It truly was a blessing to get to share that experience with our oldest son.  And it is so special that he can tell his little brother stories all about the things we saw and did there together.

Someday Caleb will get to wear his jersey while he is playing hockey and he'll get to tell people that he is actually from Kras.