My brother covertly reads this blog, and I thought it would be nice to call him out and wish him a Happy Birthday! He's passed the halfway point to 30; hard to believe how fast time passes!

So I thought I would say thanks for all your comments & emails about the video I put together. I enjoy doing that sort of thing, and it was really fun for me to do. I've had several people tell me how obvious it seems that Iliya was just meant for our family. And I have to agree. Many prayers have been answered, and we really feel like he was meant especially for us. Sometimes I thought the waiting was going to kill us; and I often feel bad for that, because there are so many others who have waited (at various stages in their process) much longer than we have. But I think all things happen in perfect timing.

I haven't shared the following story yet, but I thought that it would be a good illustration of just how things happen in their time.

A couple months after we had met Iliya and come home (and getting VERY antsy to go back), I became a member of a webgroup for families specifically adopting from Vlad. I had not found the group before, so you can imagine that I was really excited to stumble across them! I was really interested in finding out about the court experience from families who had already been there. I also was interested in finding families who had children from the same baby home as Iliya. It's a small home, and it's just neat to connect with people who have that in common with you. For me it is, anyway.

But I digress. So I found the group, and I did a message search for the city where Iliya was born. A couple pages of messages came up, and as I scrolled through them, one caught my eye. It was dated around the first part of February. Here is a small quote with no identifying information in it:

I just received a medical report for a 15 mth old boy, Ilia, from the XXX baby home. I guess I'm a little anxious since I've tried to google some of the findings, looked on orphandoctor.com and have left messages for a couple doctors locally to interpret the report. I was wondering if any of you had heard of these findings:

((list of a few 'familiar' diagnoses))

Any insight is much appreciated!

As I read this message, it dawned on me that she was talking about MY child. The one that we were soon to return to Russia to bring home! This woman received his referral a couple weeks before we did. There was no followup message, so I'm only to assume she turned it down before meeting him...and we were given his referral. And I will be forever grateful to this woman for turning down his referral...because without that crucial decision, Iliya would not be here with us today! I don't know where she is, now, in her adoption process, but I can tell you that I strongly feel that God was working (in both our lives)!! And how thankful I am!!

Anyway...I had forgotten about that until a couple days ago, and I wanted to share it. Just thinking about it still gives me chills...and probably always will.
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And, by way of updates...

We've been loving our morning walks. It's been a fun time to see people out in their yards, and to see birds, squirrels, and today, a chipmunk! We decided to attempt taking both dogs for a walk today, and it has gone really well! It was a brave move, and at least 2 people on our route told me such. But I figure that the dogs don't get near as much attention as they once did, so this will be a good way of giving them some attention while still spending quality time with Iliya too. And the dogs REALLY enjoyed themselves!!

On Wednesday, I decided to try to add "please" to Iliya's "more" sign. We practiced it a few times, but he never really showed interest in using it, so I just let it go & figured we would tackle it later. Well, yesterday...we ran to my office and one of my co-workers was blowing bubbles for Iliya. He was really enjoying it, and she wanted to see if he would sign "more" for her. So guess what he did?! He signed "more, please"!!! He remembered! Sometimes, I am just totally amazed by my child.

Here are a few pictures of him playing, because I know you need some cuteness today:


Loving on Heathcliff...who loves him back (or at least tolerates his love)


Attempting to love on Jay...yeah, not happening (do you see Jay's face?)


Great smile!


Playing around, being silly


Loving my shape sorter!


Mama's little Beethoven!

And yesterday afternoon was momentous. Iliya got his first haircut, which was really more of a trim. You may've noticed in some of his pictures, he had some curls at the base of his neck. But those curls never lasted long...in a matter of minutes, they would straighten out and look like a mullet. Which is not really cool. Even in the South. (or at our household in the South! ha!) Some people are skilled enough to cut their own kids' hair...not me. Any hair I touch with scissors turns out really bad. From my Barbie's when I was a kid...to Nathan's, a couple years ago. It just wasn't happening that Iliya would get his first haircut from my hands. So at Nathan's insistence, we called our friend Stephanie and made an appointment with her. She did a wonderful job...and we got pictures (thanks to one of S's coworkers!). Here they are...hope you enjoy!








See? Doesn't it look so cute?

On the agenda today is a visit to Daddy's work, to see him and eat lunch with him. Aside from a couple car rides in Russia and the one on the way home from the airport (almost 2 weeks ago!!), this will be Iliya's longest car ride. Hope it goes well!

And lest you think I lie to you about taking Iliya for a walk with BOTH dogs: