Favorite pictures of January...

So, It's been a while, but, hey! I've been busy and I figure that most of my readers also have been reading our adoption blog, that is, If they really love me...

Fact is, that has pretty well consumed my mental sphere of late. I haven't been trying any new recipes or crafts. I haven't even made my bed most days, for goodness sakes! But, even though I like to make my bed but have been too preoccupied for that, the good news is, I have not been to preoccupied to shower or brush my teeth! So, hopefully, that puts it into perspective a bit for you.

Life is pretty good right now, considering what it could be like! We have our moments and routine is peeking its head up over the horizon in tantalizing seductiveness! I have, naturally, managed to take many pictures of the boys. The girls have suffered a bit this month from lack of photographic proof of their existence but, in the grand scheme of things, well...I think they will recover...

Anyway, I haven't posted in so long that I decided to do a "Best of" post. This one will be my favorite photos of this month. It's about the end of the month and my pictures are sorted on my computer by month so I can't be bothered to open other files tonight! Be happy to get this much!!

So, without further adieu, here are my selections in completely random order ( Just to irritate the chronologically obsessive. Sorry, Dad...)

Vitali. A lot of my favorites are of him. Hey, he's three!
And you're only three once, right?! After that, your cuteness starts going downhill!

Again: Vitali.

Yep, him again. See? I told you he's cute!

OK, now, first of all--a disclaimer:
My mom raised me better that this. So it is with a pang of guilt that I have posted this picture. Obviously, my mom actually only almost raised me better than this...but not quite. Sorry, Mom.

Isn't this a sweet picture?
It's actually a little fuzzy, but look at that charm... so... it makes my favorites list!

Doesn't he look happy?! I can't wait to be able to talk to the boys and have them talk back and have us understand each other!!! I am so interested to find out what they are thinking! I wonder what they miss, or especially enjoy, or what is amazing to them, etc...

My man. I have a hard time getting pictures of him that I think do him justice. I like this one. I am glad that men get better looking as they get older (in my opinion). Really, that works out well for us women who have to look at them all the time. I do wish it were the same for women too, though, I have to admit...

Misha.
I don't know why this one makes my favorites list.
He is always so animated for the camera. I think I like it because he's not looking
...and because that hat is too big for him!

Annette loves her daddy.
Me too, Annette.

This one is in Ukraine at a McDonald's there.
I like the colors and the randomness of the poses.
Everyone is sitting there but not everyone cares to be 'cheesing' it up.
Hey! The kids just thought it was a picture to show off their balloons!

I love this one. This was us taking Max out of his orphanage for the last time. The suitcase is stuff we took to him. He left with pretty much nothing. Only a couple of gifts from his teacher.
I had to choose between this photo and the next I had taken to post as my favorite one. The following being where Max turns around to me and says, "MAAAMA, Idee suda!" (Mama, come here!)

Max's first haircut (with us). He suddenly looks so American!
And handsome!

The Malinkees. That's what I call these two. "Malinki" is Russian for "little". Steve sometimes sings that title to the tune of "Hey, Hey We're The Monkees" These two are exactly the same size except for Vitali being so skinny. He's a year older than Ivy but is still more of a baby.

Why this one?
I don't know... I guess I just like all the visual interest that the lines in the chair and her shirt give...

Also, She's pretty cute!

So, there you have it! Hope you've enjoyed my favorite January pictures!

Oh, and tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY!!

33.

Just thought I'd remind you...

Our boys...

We are home for a brief holiday and the chance to prepare the home a little more specifically for our three new sons. Sons! That's right! December 26th made us the official parents of Max, Misha and Vitali, our little Ukrainian Angels. Once they were orphans; now they have joined our family! Praise God!

If you haven't been watching our adoption site then this is your first opportunity to meet our little guys! Let me give you a proper introduction to the newest Eimers':

Max, whose full name is Maximus Stephen Eimers, is eight years old. He is only about two weeks younger than our oldest girl, Hannah. He loves to draw and paint and play cars and kick around a soccer ball. I am sure he has many more interests too; we still have much to discover!

This picture was taken the day we had court. He was freshly "ours" but we couldn't tell him! As far as he knows, he's been ours right along anyway.

Misha. His full name is Mikhail James Eimers. Misha is 6 years old and quite a little ham. He loves to have his picture taken. He is also most likely to sit on our laps and color and is always very excited to see us and disappointed when we leave! He is happy, happy, happy and my bet is that he will make friends very quickly here in America.

He loved sledding and playing outdoors. I am glad that we have a big yard for all these boys! He also likes trains and cars--especially trains.
Vitali Luke Eimers. Ahhhh...Vitali! So much personality. He is a very busy little three-year-old who is constantly on the move. Consequently, I have taken many pictures of him but most are blurry or he isn't looking at the camera! He is very possessive of new toys and especially likes to have a bag to put them in. He loves things like purses for this reason. Ha ha! I surely hope he outgrows the purse thing! I am hoping we get to hold him more as we get settled as a family. For now, we have to be content with lifting him over our heads and catching him when he jumps. I am becoming well-acquainted with the Russian for "Pick me up to the ceiling!", "I'll do it myself!" and "I want to get down!"

I can't begin to tell you all the ways this whole experience has affected us. Beginning last November when we made the decision to pursue our plans to adopt till now when we are so overjoyed to have finally met the objects of our pursuit! The work of preparation, the waiting, the anxiety of financial pressures, the stress of the final decisions and the overwhelming joy when we saw the boys that first day and knew they would be ours. All this has been a package deal. Can't have the final prize without the work to attain it. And the story isn't over!

We praise God for His mighty hand all the way so far, and we pray that He will continue to make our paths straight. He has not only answered our prayers but also the unspoken prayers (we call them 'dreams') of three little boys on the other side of the ocean. And we will get the opportunity of introducing them to the One who has made their dreams come true. A blessing and an honor.

We will be leaving again for the final leg of this journey on January 7th. When we come home, amid the craziness of adjusting to family life, you can bet I'll be posting our new family picture!
Even if we aren't all smiling! Oh, boy, this is going to be an adventure!

Americans!

Hi All! We have the wonderful privilege of spending an evening in Christian fellowship with a missionary family from Missouri all the way over here in Ukraine! English! Hooray! Thank you, Phil, for hooking us up!

We just have spent a little while sitting around thier table visiting about our adoption, their church planting efforts and general Ukrainian-specific topics. We may even be able to go to an English church service this Sunday!

How nice it is to nibble Christmas cookies with Wendy and Kieth and their children. They have a Christmas tree set up in their apartment and it is the first we've really seen except for the big ones in the squares of the cities. It is just too early for most to have trees since they don't celebrate Christmas until January here.

We spent the morning with the boys again. We had a great time taking Misha and Vitali out on the sleds. Misha especially loved this. He rode down the hill over and over again. A few times he asked Steve or me to ride with him. It has been a long time since I have done that! We got it on video, too!

We went next to see Max at his place. He is obviously proud to have the older kids "deliver" us to him. They are proud to be able to help. We played in a big room with him for quite a while and Steve asked him to show him where the bathroom was. Max jumped up and his tongue stuck out just a bit like it does when he is slyly pleased with something. He knew that to take Steve to the bathrooms would require parading him past his friends! Oh, how he must feel to have what every child in that place is dreaming of! I am so glad to be a part of his joy.

Thanks to Wendy and Keith for the loan of their high-speed internet! And thank you all for so many well-wishes and prayers! We get so excited to log on and see your messages!

Things are progressing smoothly with the adoption. All is well at this point. Tomorrow we should have more of an idea about court.

In Kiev

A little bit blurry but here we are in Kiev! Click here and read about our adventures at our other site! We are going to call home to the girls now and then probably go to bed. We are doing great so far! Our appointment is Tuesday; pray for us!
Oh, and here is an exclusive--I didn't post it on the other site: Dima, who took us around town today said that I blend in somewhat but that Steve definitely looks American. We aren't sure why. :-) I jsut thought that was funny.

Time to go...

Okay....Forget Christmas Steve...I give up! I am out of time!

We leave tomorrow morning. Steve's brother and then his friend are coming to take turns sitting for the house and Mom and Dad Falk are sitting the kiddies.

I have to put the last things into the bags and get the bags to the car. Tidy up my bedroom a bit. Mom is going to bring the girls over and do any housework I can't get to. I wanted to leave it perfect, but...well, you know. Thankfully it's Mom to the rescue!

Reminds me of the night before my wedding. I had everything planned an perfect until that last little thing. In that case, I left Steve's apartment key at the church-which was locked-and when he stopped by the house at midnight to get it, I went downstairs to my mom and started bawling. She got out of bed with my Dad's church key and found it where I had left it, on the front pew.

I was so grateful. Imagine how bad I felt, letting down my almost-husband the night before the wedding! Tonight, we were taking the girls for their dress rehearsal for their Christmas concert that I am going to be missing. And, almost there, Mom says, "Umm...where are the Angel costumes?" Yup, at home. She and my dad went back for them while the kids and I were at the church. Fortunately, They didn't need them until well after she got there. Thanks, Mom...and Dad! Oh, and I forgot to mention that she had already rescued me by hemming the darn things!

The practice went FOREVER! So we weren't home until it was after 9:30 and we had left at 5:00! The girls were so cute in there parts. I'm glad I at least got to see them do the dress rehearsal.

Tomorrow is Steve's birthday so we are having a little birthday brunch at my mom and dad's house before we leave. The girls have opted to go to the airport with us. That is going to be one hard goodbye.

Pray for us. I am sure I will be tear-streaked for my flights. Thankfully, I am not anxious about the girls' care or safety or anything...I'm just going to miss them like crazy!

Tomorrow!! Or maybe today for you since I am typing this late in the evening. I'll try and post when we get there!

My Sippy Cup Runs Over...

I promised that I would post pictures of ChristmasSteve ( our invented Holiday to have a little Christmas with the girls before we leave. Hannah came up with the name). I am several days late posting but I have a good excuse. At least, I think I do...I lost that particular list of good excuses.

Anyway, better late than never, right?!! But first, for those of you who haven't been on the other blog, I have good news!! We have, through God's blessings, more than met our goal of funds-needed for our adoption!! An not a moment too soon. We are leaving the day after tomorrow! Even that elusive kitchen table is being provided! For all the details go to our adoption website and read this post.

I have been working on teaching Ivy the 23rd Psalm. (That isn't her on the video on the link above to our adoptions site but that little girl surely is darling, isn't she?) She is getting it but still likes to "embellish" a bit. My favorite embellishment I was fortunate enough to catch on video. I want to figure out how to put video onto the computer so maybe I will get it posted here sometime. But for now, you'll have to take my word for it. There is the part that says: "..My cup runs over..." Ivy starts to say that but then stops and puts her own twist on it:

"...My cup, my sippy cup, runs over!"

Besides bragging on the cleverness of my adorable two-year-old, I mentioned that verse because that is truly so descriptive of how we have been blessed. Our cups are overflowing. God has blessed us with more than we asked. Several people who have known our budget is met, have still brought us gifts (one last night, for instance, of $500) and said we should use them for whatever we need; be it for the trip expenses, or settling the kids, or whatever might come up. We will probably use some of that for a really nice Christmas party for the kids at the orphanage. Maybe some for root canals on the kids when we get home...who knows?...Well, God does! He knew from the dawn of time what we would need and has supplied it. We are so grateful. To Him and to those who have been His hands and feet by doing whatever they could to help us. Praise be to Him!

All right, the next post will be ChristmasSteve...I need to go and get my camera.

Thanksgiving and ChristmasSteve

We went to my mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving this year. They live just down the road in a sense so, unless we travel somewhere, that is THE place to be! That's fine with us!

This year Thanksgiving was also a Family Reunion for my side of the family. There were 21 of us in all ( I think) and next year there should be at least six more! That's right! The Falk family tree has been watered with Miracle Gro or something! Three of the girls are expecting, and us--well, we're bringing along three new ones of our own!

Here are some pictures of the weekend in random order:

Lynn, the "most pregnant" (If it's possible to be more pregnant or less pregnant or sort of pregnant or half-pregnant) of the girls needed a little snack before dinner. She is eating for two!
Nobody bought my line about "eating for four".

I took some family pictures of my brother Nathan and his family. The dog was pretty tired, it would seem, and kept trying to lie down. "Sit up, Gunter!"

Ethan played this little Don't-take-my-picture game with me. I caught him from the side here, though. Gotcha, Ethan!

Simon decided to scoot down the hill during the family photo session. Isn't he a cutie?

Hannah and Ethan (back) share an enjoyment of taking pictures. Hannah liked showing off her shots to him. Ivy and Annette just had fun wherever they were.

Ivy just LOVES Uncle "Ebban". Who wouldn't enjoy an Uncle who carries you around in a cardboard box?!

For those of you who visit Kari and Dan's blog and are wondering what Owen looks like now...
Here he is listening to the Falk Grandchildren's (well, the littlest ones) favorite book, Duck is Dirty.

Where are the pictures of the Turkey? I took those on my Dad's camera! I should sneak over to one of my siblings' websites and swipe one! It was surely a beauty. Mom outdid herself!

Oh, yes, and someone left this sock and Mom sent it home with me. I like it, but it's not mine. If it's yours, please send me the other one.
Hope you had a nice holiday!

Tomorrow, I'll tell you all about "ChristmasSteve"!


But for now, Goodbye and a Merry ChristmasSteve to you all!

Phew!!

We just finished the two-day, huge task of moving Hannah's (aka, the Pack Rat) room from her small room upstairs down to the basement in anticipation of bringing home our little ones!!

Doesn't she look comfy?!!

One week to go!

Three Beauties...I know; I'm unashamedly biased!

Two weeks till we leave for Ukraine!!
It will make getting these kind of pictures even harder!!

I am so thankful for so many things! These three are right on top of my list...
And even though we don't have them yet, we are thankful for the opportunity to be growing our family!

What are you most thankful for?

Thanksgiving Cut-out Cookies!

Who doesn't love sugar cookies?!!

The girls and I decorated some cut out cookies for Thanksgiving. Leaves, turkeys, acorns and pumpkins. I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe. You can find it here.

(We are taking them with us to my parents' home where my brothers and my sister, their spouses and children and us will all gather to eat ourselves silly and play games and debate theology or politics and maybe play a little tennis and whatever else comes to mind... over 20 of us in all!)

The girls did a lot of licking. I am wondering about the wisdom of posting this before we set them out at Thanksgiving since my family may read this! I guess it will help me sort out who is reading the blog and who doesn't love me...Sob! Sniff!

Ivy took a bite out of a couple of her cookies. I guess she wanted to make sure they were good! Can you see one of hers in this picture of our finished products?

Annette's were the ones we all chose when we were done and we each got to eat one before I packed them away for Thanksgiving. Why? Well, see for yourself! You couldn't even tell what the original cookie shape was because they were so loaded with icing that it was pouring over the sides. Also, we had to eat them outside because she used so many sprinkles that they kept spilling off!

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

Warm and Fuzzy

(Me in the new Coat and the fur hat I got at the
Goodwill last year for Steve to wear in Moldova. )


The "baby sister" of an old friend of mine from high school (aka, my brother Daniel's high school girlfriend. the link to his website is at the right) saw that I was looking for a warm and toasty winter coat for wearing in Ukraine. Look what arrived in the mail on Saturday!

Thank you, Mandie!

Gus the mouse

I was reflecting on the state of my basement today. I got the storage room all organized over the weekend but now the excess is all over the basement! Well, I did manage to keep the new bedroom clutter free but it is kind of a small accomplishment in the grander scheme of things. And I do now have a place for everything and I can get at it! A major accomplishment, let me tell you!

Remember the Disney movie, Cinderella? There is the one little mouse, Gus, who tries to gather too many corn kernels for himself and it ends up that when he puts the last one on the stack that the whole pile is spilled so he picks them all up only to have the same problem. That one last kernel never seems to fit!

That is my theory on housework. You can only store so much stuff. You can only spend all day working in one area of the house if you don't mind other parts going to pot in the process!! I'm not complaining...just observing. Although if I thought complaining would help anything, I'd be complaining! LOL! As it is I find it not worth getting too excited about.

After all, someday the kids and all their stuff will be gone. (in theory anyway) I can have every space in my home perfect at the same time then... but for now, That extra "kernel" is worth it. I can overlook the fact that there will probably always be at least one room that could really use a good sorting!

Annette and I worked together to clean up the kitchen this afternoon. She didn't exactly complain about helping but she was eager to be done with the work. So, me? I like to finish a room and sit back and enjoy its neatness. Annette? To her, it looked like a good place to dump out the baby doll clothes and play with Ivy!

That's the way it is! Why fight it?!! :-)

Sleepover!

I have plans...

My mom decided that she'd like to take the girls overnight every Friday from now until we leave so that they can get used to spending the night there and so that I can have some time to get a few errands done at grow-up speed at least one day a week!

I have a coupon for 15% off at Kohl's so I am planning on going over there and doing some clothes-for-the-trip browsing (and hopefully finding). I think I will also stop by the Goodwill and look for a super fluffy warm winter coat too. I figure my odds of finding one are about 50/50 since we live in a sort-of mild climate and people here don't buy those kind of coats much but at the same time, people who do, realize that those kind of coats are unnecessary here and end up taking them to the Goodwill, where they stay till I get there...Hopefully!

I think I may do some grocery shopping too. Then my big plans for the house are to tackle the storage room. If I don't post for several days you'll know the closet won...

Sounds like fun, right?

29 Days to go.

Enjoying the nice fall weather and making rustling leaf piles.

Ivy said to me later in the day, " I fwim in da weeves!" ( I swim in the leaves!)

I'm hiding from responsibility...

I have so much to do that I am down here on the computer pretending like I don't have

only 29 days till I leave the country!

I need to make a list. Or dig up one of the thousand lists that I have already made!
29 days, Y'all, 29 days... Is it possible?

Yesterday, my gums felt like they were aching so I thought it was because of a cavity that I had recently noticed in one of my back teeth that had formed under and old filling. So, I looked. Nope, worse... My tooth right behind that one was crumbling away right at the gum line, badly! How did that happen!!?? So Steve and I called around to a bunch of dentists ( We were in the car when I noticed and we have a miniature yellow pages in there) Everyone is booked forever!

So Steve remembered a dentist that he does some work for and we swung into their office. They were just closing down for the day. She listened sympathetically to our tale of woe and our reason for some urgency--since we were less than a month from leaving the country.
We visited a bit. She was very kind and wanted to help but they were booked through February. She took my phone number in case she had a cancellation in the hopes of fitting me in. Steve left one of our prayer cards with her and we said our goodbyes.

So, the good news is, she fit me in...today! Not even 24 hours later and they had a cancellation!
I have never been so glad to go to the dentist! ( I don't think I have ever been glad to go to the dentist.) Haha!

From there I have to go to church to help teach our girls' Wednesday night class. Only a couple of classes to go. And word is, next week is a pizza party!

OK, time to get to work, now... where's that list?

Planting flowers

The girls and I packed our shovels, rakes, hand-spades , two buckets full of iris bulbs that I had dug up when we changed the landscaping, and a bunch of baggies and packets of seeds that I had but didn't know where to plant and headed down to the end of our street which is a dead end and turn-around. That may be a run on sentence, but if you read it a few times it may begin to make sense....

Annette donned her overalls for the job. Ivy grabbed her pink poodle. I am not sure what the poodle was for.
The winky-eyed smile again.

Planting. I don't know how much will actually grow. I kept thinking of the parable of the seeds and the rocky ground. I hope we have a rainy spring!

Heading home again. Ivy wanted to pull the wagon.

Annette picked me flowers that she found from way back in the weeds.
She rode her little tricycle.

I like this close-up. It shows her pretty eyes and toothless gap.

I like this one too.

Maybe next spring or summer, I'll be showing you pictures of all 6 of the kids picking flowers we planted today!

Grandma

We got the news on Saturday evening that Steve's Grandmother had passed away. The girls took it pretty well, considering. Annette had done most of her crying when we told them earlier in the week that the end was near. Hannah was sad and teary but thoughtful and just nestled into Steve's arm for a while. Before the girls headed to their beds, we asked Hannah what she was thinking. She said, "Well, I am half sad and half kind of happy for Grandma--so, it's kind of weird..." She said this with her face telling us that she truly was grieving but the absence of actual crying telling us that she did not have the feelings of despair that we were expecting. She is maturing in so many ways and this response really brings home to me how fast she is becoming responsible and thoughtful and a young lady.

Steve and I feel the same way as she did. Steve's Aunt Denise said she found herself "torn between sad for me and happy for Mom" (or Grandma, to us) It was no secret that Grandma was eager to get to Heaven and that her body was tired of this world. She had quite a grasp of the reality that death of the body for a Christian is to be ushered into the presence of God as those who have gone before us.

Steve has a sister, Laurie, who works as a flight attendant for United. He was able to get a couple of "buddy passes" from her at a discounted rate (cheaper than driving) and he and Hannah left this afternoon for NY. Hannah was on cloud nine! Not only that, but they are stopping in DC on the way and staying overnight with Laurie and another sister, Mary. This means they can all fly up to NY together tomorrow but even better is that Hannah is right now getting a whirlwind tour of DC! She even got to ride the subway!

The funeral is on Thursday. As exciting as this all is for her, I expect that to be rough for her. If you think of it, say a little prayer for her, okay?

Finished landscaping...for now.

During
(...I never can seem to get a true "before" picture)

We worked hard to re-do our landscaping around the front of the house recently. It took us a while. I did most of the stuff in front of the house myself. Not because Steve wouldn't help. He certainly would have and did, some. But because I liked the work and the freedom to work at my own pace. The girls helped a bunch too. Well...Hannah did. The other two tried a bit but spent a lot more time playing in the dirt. :-)

Not that Steve didn't work hard. Just that I did the parts by the house. We had a lot of rock-work we wanted to do....cheaply! So we made a few trips to an area in the mountain/boonies where we could haul a bunch out of the creek there for free! It was a lot of fun and we would be sore going to bed at night but it was worth it. (I mentioned Julian the craw fish a while back; that is where we got him. We had company for dinner one night and were going to show them Julian who lived in a plastic shoe box on the kitchen counter. Thing is, he wasn't home. This was unusual for Julian who never left home, on account of the fact that he couldn't, up until someone- me- had the absence of forethought to put a little rooting plant in the corner of the box. Turns out, craw fish are pretty good climbers...)

Anyway, now that you know all that extra stuff, Here are some pictures of the girls working with me on the yard:

Hannah was a big help. She was actually able to fill the wheelbarrow alone several times. She was a very eager worker. She's growing so fast!

In this picture they are all working.
This is misleading as the next two pictures will illustrate...

Ivy likes to supervise.

Annette took many breaks.
She used this time to remind us how hard she had been working.

The finished product on the left-hand side. This whole bed wasn't there before.

The walkway. This was just a smooth slope but we decided that we would like to terrace it with stacked stone walls. I am very happy with the finished product! I wish I had closed the garage door for this photo...

We need to plant some flowers. Actually, I do have some that I put in there. A couple of hydrangeas over here and a couple of peonies on the other side, but they aren't much to look at yet.

Tomorrow I'll show you some other planting we did this week!