Anastasia turns 26

August 29, 2012

My Anastasia turned 26.  I really can't believe I have a 26 y/o.  I still remember when I was pregnant with her in Augusta, Georgia.  She was due on August 9 and had the sweetness of taking another 20 days to arrive on this earth.  In Augusta, Georgia.  Do you have any idea how hot it is down there? 

Anyways, Ana has had a hard life.  First she was diagnosed with Autism at 4, and than over the years received many more diagnosis much more severe than Autism.  To me she is just borderline.  Its been a hard 26 years but we all love her dearly and couldn't imagine life without her.  She is truly our sweetheart.  

27 years

27 years on the 27th. Pretty cool. Magic number:)  I am just in awe how we have grown deeply in love even more just over the past few years.  We treasure every little moment we have alone so much more now.  You would think with all the ups and downs of raising Anastasia, adding 4 children after sending off Danica to college, but not so.  This has only strengthened us because we have persevered.  We are chucking along and have never loved and appreciated each other more.  Today compared to 5 years ago we have doubled our family size and started all over again, have half the income what we had before, but life is so good when we are together.        

March 31, 1985.  Our little engagement picture

Misrak turns 9

June 6, 2012

My precious daughter turned 9.  Every day, I look at her and can't believe she is mine here to raise on this earth, one the loves her God so wildly.  Beyond my biggest dreams did I ever imagine to have such an amazing daughter.  She is the true rock of the 4.   

Micah's Preschool Graduation

June 4, 2012

Off to Kindergarten in the fall

Micah and his best friend Kimani

Danica home from Germany

Danica came home in May and will be leaving again July 2.  This is when they first saw her being home.  The little ones were so excited.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

What a blessing to be a mother.. I am so humbled I get to mother my 6 children.  In 1 week and 4 days my Danica will be home from Germany and I get to have all my chicklets in one nest..Danica will be home for 5 weeks.

Mother's Day luncheon with Micah at his pre-school.  So much fun.

Awhhh, a rare picture of Anastasia.  She was so sweet today.

Biruk turns 8

April 25, 2012

Easter Pictures

 

Danica on the lake (Maschsee)

Since Danica can remember, she has never been in cold weather. We left Germany when she was only one. We moved to Arizona and last stop Washington State. So now she is in Germany and its below freezing. She used to ice skate competitively when she was young. So the other day she was out of her mind and couldn't believe that people would ice skate on a frozen lake. She had never seen anything like that. For real. The picture below, Danica is laying on a frozen lake where she has been skating on. And of course I had to mail her ice skates to her and now she is in heaven. She just emailed a few hours ago. Guess where she is again. At that lake at 2:00am in the morning, ice skating with her friends. Actually she is teaching them how the skate, lol. She can even do jumps. Pretty talented.

December in Pictures

Woohoo December is over and a new year is ahead. We had a really good month of December, few days here and there were pretty stressful but all in all it was really good.

Danica came home from Germany for 3.5 weeks that was the icing on the cake. She left today and has made plans to stay for a year but has to come back in June for a wedding. Pheww, it will be hard, six months of no babysitting. Anyways, seriously, we all really enjoyed Danica, especially me. We got alone just awesome and everything was perfect.

As usual Anastasia is in just one of the pics. Since this is a blog I won't go into details but she is having a really hard time again which has lasted for months now.

Have I told you lately, I love my man! :)))

12/31/2011 Kevin and I attending a wedding

Danica was one of the bridesmaides Misrak received so beloved gift for Christmas. Never seen any of the kids wanting something so bad

Danica and she kiddos making sugar cookies

Those are Micah's little hands. They still so cute and tiny

On December Sunday after church

Danica and daddy

Danica and mommy

Anastasia and Misrak. A rare photo. Ana hates having her picture taken.

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS PICTURE

My baby and I

Misrak and I

Micah and I after his Christmas play

Catching Micah at a moment in his Christmas play

At the tree farm

Cutting our tree down

Micah turns 5

November 25, 2011

Our little man turned five the day after Thanksgiving. For a special date, he wanted to have IHOP breakfast with daddy. After breakfast he picked a spider man toy and a race car. He had white cake with cream cheese frosting. For dinner he wanted chicken but since we had all leftover turkey dinner, we ask him for another choice. Micah picked chicken pizza from Pizza Hut. Of course he was in his element because everyone else had to eat leftovers.

At the pumpkin farm the end of October

At the pumpkin farm. Micah and I had a special date
Daddy and Micah at the soccer field when Misrak had her last game

Danica turns 23

Today is Danica's Birthday. This is the first year in 23 years that we are apart on her birthday. It feels really weird and sad. When I talked to Danica this morning she said it didn't feel the same either. At least she is around family.

Haven't talked about her since she left for Germany September 8. Her main focus for going was to learn the language and immerse in the culture. So Danica is over there living with my mom. My two sisters and brother live near by. The following Monday she got there she accepted a job immediately teaching English. Unfortunately she only gets about 15 to 20 hours per week. We will see if she has enough money to last. I hope so for her. At least she is living with my mom and doesn't have to per for house and food. So far we have talked almost every weekend via skype.

She is coming home for Christmas for 2 weeks. Right now she plans on staying until next summer. We all just miss her so much, its really hard but its all good for her to venture out on her own.

Last weekend. Danica at a club posing with some random girls.

September 8. The day Danica left for Germany.
This picture below really cracks me up. We were trying to adjust the camera to take a picture of us in the car. We both had our tongues sticking out and didn't even know it, lol. I always tease her for sticking out her tongue yet I do exactly the same.

Micah finishing his Soccer Season

Its been a rough 4 months. 4 days a week at the soccer field and Saturday games, Amira doing gymnastics. Last night Micah was the first one to finish his season. He belonged to a micro league. His team is called "The Minions". 4-5 y/o. It has been such a joy watching him. Each game my little man has scored a minimum of 3 goals, no joke. Of course he has been the littlest on his team but everyone just loves him. His feet are so tiny (size 7) I couldn't even get soccer shoes for him. He is also the fastest. He is such an entertainer. Micah thoroughly and wholeheartedly enjoys playing soccer. Last night he got a bloody lip smashing together with someone. He was crying badly. I picked him up of the field and minutes later he was ready to play again. Everyone screamed and wowed for Micah, saying "Micah, Micah, Micah" because he went back in there and played his heart out. Then almost towards the end of the game someone smashed the ball right into his private part. He fell back, almost knocked him out. He got up and played again. What a way to finish the season.

Biruk has 3 more weeks left and Misrak has 2 more weeks left. Looking forward to a little break.

Not obsessed anymore

I don't even know where I am trying to go with this post. A few days ago I went through my whole blog skimming through it and I was amazed at all the information I had collected on the children. I was almost feeling guilty when I read some of the things that it has been so long I don't even remember it anymore. Kids firsts, pics, ups and downs..than I was glad I started a blog. But to look back now, I was trying to be hip and had to do what other moms are doing. Writing about the adoptions and the progress of the children because by no means I don't like writing nor blogging for myself but I did it anyway. I am glad I did it because otherwise I wouldn't have much on the children except memories. As you noticed my blogging has become less and less but I am intending of still keeping up with a few events just so I have something on my kiddos.

I guess what I am trying to say is what the title says "I am not obsessed anymore". I am not obsessed to follow adoption blogs (except for a few who became my friens), adoption news, yahoo group, anything adoption... I have a life now. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to talk about adoption, when asked and help people in the right direction, advocating for adoption, but as for me "I am done".. I am so done, its not even funny. I got a FULL HOUSE. I am ready to enjoy life with my hubby and children.

Often times I have even ask myself, 2 kids each, back to back, was I insane? Was I so worried that my biological clock was running out I need to move fast? I don't know. As this might sound a little negative, I don't mean it at all. I feel very blessed with the 4 children God has entrusted with my family that we have adopted. When I hear the problems many families are facing, mine with the children are nothing compared to theirs. These children that I finally were given to my family were totally meant for us. I would not change a thing about these 4.

I am looking back now and I was into it from 2006 to 2011. Totally into it. All I could breathe is adoption. In the mean time I let everything else go. Especially my health. I got bigger and bigger and unhappier every day with myself. I was paper pregnant for 5 years even when I wasn't adopting I was eating and eating up adoption.

In January of this year I literally started to take my life back and the biggest thing was to take care of myself again and concentrate on more important things. The first thing I changed was exercising and eating right. Slowly but surely the old Andrea came back and started taking care of herself. Since than I have lost 30 pounds, ran 2 races, a 10k and just last Sunday, a half marathon. Kevin and I have a deep relationship again that we haven't had in years since I started all my adoption business. I finally started to put my husband first again over the children and Kevin is loving every minute of it. Children can seriously terrorize your marriage, they most certainly have mine to the deepest root. If you let them its bound to happen, but my sweet man has stuck with me, like he always does.

Anyways, life is good, life is actually great! Don't worry about me if you don't see many posts but that is what's been going on here on the Hill front.

Amira turns 7

October 6, 2011 - 7 years old

Gosh, my little girl is growing up so fast. She has been home with us nearly 3 years. For her birthday, Amira wanted to have a breakfast with me at IHOP. For dinner she wanted sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, beans.. than I had to stop her. I told her she would get all the other wishes to eat for Thanksgiving. She really cracked me up with her food list. She wanted a recorder and a fairytale book.