I took the YouTube video off for now because it was too wide and made my side bar all out of whack. It made it fall way to the bottom and was annoying.

Hope you were able to enjoy D's contagious laugh while the video was up!

I know many people have joined blog-land quite recently and I wanted to take a minute to direct you on how to view our whole story from the beginning.

In the Archives Section to the right ----> over there ----> you can click on the month of May or just click here and it will take you straight to it. When you arrive at the month of May, you'll need to then scroll down to the very bottom. That starts the story of our first visit when we went to meet baby V in March.

Note: When reading blogs, the most recent entry appears at the top.

For some reason (I don't know why, I am computer challenged) some of the other month's archives do not show every entry. They are cut off at the bottom of the screen. I apologize for that.

For those of you who personally know us, you'll see that for privacy's sake I do not mention any of us by our proper names. I also cannot post pictures of baby V on the blog until after she is signed, sealed, delivered, 100% OURS.

Another little item of clarification. There have been some who have thought that Russian Adoption Dva is somewhat like Russian Adoption dIva :o) . I am so not a Diva! In the Russian language, the word Dva means TWO. So, the title means Russian Adoption Two - since this is our second adoption from Russia. Clear as mud?

Now, back to your regularly scheduled program . . .

Go look what Mary Mia got today!!!!

till later . . .

My order from Amaz*n!

For any China adopters following my blog, Dora also visits the Great Wall in China in this book! Dora visits France and Tanzania in addition to Russia and China.

As much as I love Am*zon.com, I think I'd recommend that you look at your local Wal-M*rt for this book. I paid full MSRP of $3.99 which wasn't bad, but then you add the additional shipping (I won't tell you how much it was). I'm sure the mega-store will discount that MSRP plus you won't have to pay shipping. Because I tell you what, when you get the books, you're going to want to get the stickers that go along with it and now I've learned that there are friendship bracelets (which is the whole theme of the story). Thanks to Lisa for giving me the heads up on this (and for the link to order the stickers - I think I'm going to try teacher supply store first though).

Till later . . .

Starting the 17th of August, D's classroom began having color days. The 17th was Red day . The 18th was Yellow day. The 21st was Blue day. The 22nd was Green day. The 23rd was Orange day. The 24th was Purple day. Ok, so all those were easy breezy because we have really cute outfits in all of those colors. But then came the 25th which was Brown day!

Now, I know that brown is all the rage right now, but my baby girl didn't own one brown thing! So what else could we do? We went shopping! It was so fun. We giggled and laughed up a storm. This is the first time D really got into shopping in a "big girl" sense. She just had to go into the fitting room and try the things on. Then she went out to the three way mirror and looked at her rear view and even shook her bootie to see the ruffles - ruff. I really was surprised at the amount of brown things they had for 5 year olds! Of course some of it was too grownie for my taste. I want her to dress like a little girl as long as possible because I know it won't be long before she is going to have wayyy too many opinions regarding her clothing!

Well, today was Black day. I had already gotten her a pair of those black leggings with the lace bottom to wear under a jean mini-skirt, but we didn't have any summery black for the top. So we went to Targ*t on Saturday and bought her a cute little pink and black striped rugby top to wear today.

Who knows what color day tomorrow will be, we may be shopping again tonight - bummer!

I just haven't really had much to blog about this past week. There is nothing, absolutely nothing happening on the adoption front. We have a weekly conference call on Wednesday afternoons at 4 p.m. and the past two weeks have been pretty much Hello - Goodbye. No news.

I also hate for my blog to be a perpetual downer. But this past week I have been feeling really low. With all the other happy news happening for other families (Elle, Suzanne, Tina) I just don't want to be a party pooper.

Maybe this next week we'll turn a corner - I can only hope. I have never been so happy to see the month of August come to a close as I will be to see this month be past!

I see babies as I go about my day to day routine. Mamas carrying their 15-18 month old little girls and I just want to reach out and hold them - just to get a minute to close my eyes and pretend they are V. The only thing is these little ones are much bigger than V probably is right now. So I try to figure out - what size shoe will she wear now? Surely not the chunky size 5 or 6 I'm seeing on most babies her age. I'm fairly sure she would still be in a size 9-12 months clothes for now. But when will we finally travel?

At church last Sunday I was holding a friend's almost 6 month old (she was born while we were on our 1st trip to meet V, March 7) . She weighs the same as V does right now (at 19 months!). At the same time the daughter of another friend, who is 2 days younger than V is running around like lighting and jabbering away. It's hard to fathom that my V is the size of that young little baby but the age of that big toddler. I can hardly wrap my mind around it!

I am beyond excited for the families who are traveling or about to travel to complete their adoptions. It gives me hope beyond measure that yes this grueling wait will one day be over. I'm living vicariously through their journeys.

Till later . . .

You would think with D starting school I would have had oodles of time to blog and do all kinds of fun things in my freedom. Last week was the busiest week I've had in a long, long time.

D is L-O-V-I-N-G school. She has a great teacher and classroom. She woke up yesterday morning with a runny nose, so I dosed her up with Claritan this morning and sent her on her merry way. She didn't have any fever. I gave her a little personal pack of tissues to keep on her desk. Do you think she'll use them? Probably not, even this precious prissy princess prefers the back of her hand to a nice soft tissue -ugh and double ugh!

Ok, for Lauren, I'm posting my Monday wish for the week ahead. My fervent wish is that our agency will hear that NGO has been approved this week. Please God! Please-Pazhalusta!!

I am so happy for Elle and CS on their court date news, although that was sneaky, sneaky, sneaky the way she told us about it! So many families are moving toward their children.

When will it be our turn? Oh the waiting is so, so hard. Somedays I just feel numb. It has been good to be busy with getting D started in school.

I have also taken on leading my Ladies Sunday School class for the next 8 weeks. Of course they know I could be gone toward the end, but at this point we'll all believe it when we see it. I'm not really teaching. We're doing video lessons. I have been watching the videos and working up "viewing guides" to fill in the blanks during the sessions. So, that has been taking some time in preparing those. The speakers on the video sessions are Beth Moore, Dr. Tony Evans, his wife Lois Evans, Priscilla Shirer and Lisa Whelchel (Blaire from Facts of Life). It is a really great series of lessons and I'm excited about our class doing this.

D was excited this morning about going to what she called her second year of school. She's still working on the concept of days, weeks, months, years. Well, I am too. I can't believe it has been 5 months and 13 days since I last held baby V. D said yesterday, "Baby V is going to turn into a kid before she gets to come home!" It looks like you may be right baby girl.

till later . . .

I've only got a minute to blog, but wanted to share this great link I found. This is a FoodBlog of a lady living in Moscow. She blogs for one week and shares the culture, restaurants, etc. I thought many readers of my blog might find it interesting. So without further adeiu, here is Alinka's Moscow FoodBlog http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=91433 .

I am lost.

D has gone to school. It is a wonderfully exciting day, but my baby is now in another's hands. D walked right into that classroom, sat down and started coloring. She is having a ball. But Mommy is lost.

I didn't full out cry at the school. Only got teary eyed. But when I walked into the empty house and saw Blankie lying on the chair all alone, I lost it!

She looked so sweet in her "going to school" dress with the apple aplique. She handed her teacher a shiny red apple, put her lunch money envelope in the little basket, labeled "lunch money", then sat right down at her table/desk with the other several kids who were already there. I think they must have ridden the bus, because we were really early.

My baby is growing up so quickly! Do mama birds feel like this when they push their babies out of the nest?

Ok, got to go find that Kleenex box - again.

Till later . . .

I stumbled across this simple Russian Lullabye titled "Bai, Bai, Bai, Bai" There is a place to click on this website where you can hear the song sung.




It is something simple we could learn for our children before we bring them into our families. Something that may possibly be familiar to them.

I hope this will be helpful for many families adopting Russian kids!

Till later . . .

Thursday was meet the teacher day. We were at the school at 8:25 and the doors opened at 8:30. There were hundreds of people there, I really thought we would beat the crowd going right at the beginning.

D's classroom is really great! It is decorated in a jungle theme which is right up her alley. Her seat is right by the teacher's desk (which I'm glad for - less distractions). It is a very well equipped room and looks like they will have a huge blast of Kindergarten learning fun! I just wish I could go!!! My baby is going to be beyond of my control for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. I won't know what she is doing at 8:00, 9:15, 10:01 ... you get my train of thought here? I asked hubby if he thinks the teacher will give me a play by play detailed copy of the daily schedule. But I doubt it. She did give us her e-mail address which she may regret. This is my precious baby she is taking captive. I had to fly around the world TWICE for this baby girl. I'm excited for D, but I sure am going to miss her! I want to go to Kindergarten too!!!

There is an ancient Chinese Proverb which states, “An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break."

Many families who are involved in the China adoption process hold fast to this statement as a reminder that they will one day be united with the child who is meant to be theirs - no matter what.

About a week ago, I started noticing that every day I was finding a red thread somewhere throughout my day. I have not failed to find a red thread somewhere everyday since I noticed this was happening.

As a Christian, I don't believe anything happens by destiny or by coincidence. I believe that God has a wonderful plan for our lives and that He has guided us in this adoption journey and is with us even in this hard and rocky place. So, the red threads that I am finding are simply reminders to me that God is in control of bringing our child home one day.

Everytime I find my red thread, it reminds me that V is meant to be our daughter and no matter what, no matter how many twists and turns, tangles and stretches this red thread is enduring, she will come home. Each day when I find my red thread, I stick it on my shirt, right above my heart and know that it will happen - one day.

till later . . .

Well, as you can tell I haven't had time to blog lately which is just as well since I haven't had much to blog about anyhow.

We received an update from our agency that their NGO (Non-Governmental Agency) Registration application has been perused by the Ministry of Justice and they have graciously asked for some further information and several changes - imagine that.

That's all we have on that...

If there are two things that waiting adoptive families like, they are making lists and reading articles on adoption.

This is an article from Adoptive Families Magazine - about making lists!

By the way, if you're interested in ordering this magazine (a really great one!) you can order it from Debbie's magazine adoption fund raiser (found in the left column of her blog).

till later . . .

Ok, I thought of another thing that is good about V coming home later than we'd hoped - she'll get to wear her welcome home to Texas outfit after all! It won't be as hot as it would have been this summer.

I'm pretty sure it will still fit her.

Oh and another thing (since I'm digging here trying to find good things) - the airfares will be cheaper if we don't travel in summer.

Of course, if the miracle did happen to occur, I'd happily bring her home naked (V, not me !) and pay thousands and thousands of dollars to fly over there to do it!

Now, back to folding my mountain of laundry, and sporadically checking to see if Elle and Suzanne have heard anything yet!

till later . . .