Ah, The Memories

The past week has been flooded with memories of last year in Kazakhstan. Wow! It's feels so weird to be saying that. Has it really be a WHOLE year since we were over there? Has it really been a WHOLE year since I held my soon-to-be-daughter for the first time and fed her a bottle of tea???

We have been so tremendously blessed this past year. In the past year, we've:
• felt the many, many prayers of our family and friends.
• traveled to Kazakhstan.
• adopted a 9 month old little girl that was born 10 wks. premature (with pneumonia) and was unable to sit up on her own and possibly didn't sit up on her own until after we met her.
• grown to love and care for a handful of people on the other side of the world.
• gained great respect for the caregivers at the baby houses in Uralsk, Kazakhstan.
• learned the value of a tenge (Kazakh money).
• traveled on planes and through airports for over 26 hours straight with a baby who was ready to be home on about the 16th hour.
• met a whole slew of guardian angels that helped us through airports and onto the correct flights in cultures where we couldn't understand the language or the customs.
• grew to understand the deeper love of a family after a long absence.
• met the incredibly caring people in our local Help Me Grow program.
• learned the value of a great pediatric physical and occupational therapist and the education they can provide for the parents of a child with delayed development and extremely high muscle tone.
• met the incredible support staff that helped with Em's PT.
• gained an even greater appreciation for the love of our church family.
• learned to laugh and smile every day with our daughter and her bond with her teenage brother.
• learned to not take for granted the help and support provided by "Grandma and Papa Daycare".
• celebrated Emily's 1st birthday (in May).
• traveled to Tennessee with the kids for summer vacation and family bonding.
• learned to clean up messy diapers, really messy diapers, vomit, runny noses, and ear wax.
• learned that apparently in Em's world cats really do say "BAAA!".
• celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of 4.
• learned that regular blogging is invaluable in remembering the details of the things that you really don't want to forget.
• learned that at the moment there is nothing better on a rough day than a sticky kiss and a pat on the back from Miss Em.
• celebrated Em's first Christmas and New Years' as a family in the USA.
• and, yes, I could go on and on and maybe some day I will. ;-)

Since you're all dying for some more photos here is a link to where we were a year ago!