and we're off.....

The car is packed up and we are heading to bed. We plan to be on the road by 4am (or so...). We are all very excited to see Gramma Mary tomorrow night in New Smyrna Beach!

This photo was taken in August of 1986 in Miami Beach with a beautiful 5 month old Kaitlyn and much younger parents!!

tagged by Annie

My friend, Annie, has a blog. She tagged all who read it to answer the following questions. They are fun questions. Annie is WHY and HOW we found out about Russian adoption and specifically how we found our Julia! Your job, if you are an adoptive parent and have a blog of your own, is to answer on it.

What are the first three things you bought for you new child?
It's been a couple years, so I will have to think.

1. A pink Donley Dolphin sweatshirt. That was Julia's school in East Lansing.

2. A small backpack filled with all the goodies a girl could want...lip gloss, crayons, a doll, paper, coloring book, brush, hair stuff, etc.

3. A Russian Bible.

Who laid the first big kiss smack dab on the face of your new child?
I did!!!! I could hardly wait to hug and kiss her. She was afraid of Papa at first. She still is reluctant to hug and I don't think she's ever kissed him. She does love him dearly, although she still won't say "I love you" to anyone in our family.

What was one of the first phrases you learned in your child's native language?
Ya tiber lublu which means "I love you."

What was your favorite food in country?
I liked the porridge that we would eat in the morning. The yogurt was also good. It wasn't low fat so it was very tasty.

What was your least favorite food?
I can't remember. I do know that the "sausage" at the Hotel Ukraine was more like our hot dogs. I think I liked everything I tried.

What part of the adoption process has been the most sentimental to you apart from meeting your child?
After court and knowing Julia was really our daughter. We brought her clothes to the orphanage for her to change into. She was so excited to put them on. She just grinned from ear to ear and ran back upstairs to show all her friends her new clothes. I was overwhelmed with love and joy for her!

florida for thanksgiving

On Saturday, Mike, Tim, Julia and I will be driving to Florida to celebrate Thanksgiving with Gramma Mary. We are planning to leave around 4am. It will take us about 14 hours to drive down there. We will be spending three nights with Gramma Mary in New Smyrna Beach. We are looking forward to that very much. On Tuesday, which is Tim's 12th birthday, we will be driving to Daytona Beach. We will meet up with Tim's football team around 4pm and check into our rooms. We are staying at a Hilton right on the ocean! Kait and Nick are flying in on Wednesday afternoon. We will drive to Orlando and pick them up. Kait and Nick will be staying with Gramma. They are so happy about spending time with her. We will be celebrating Tim's birthday on Wednesday night with Gramma, Kait and Nick. I think he said he wanted to go to Norwoods! Good time!

Things are going well down here. We are making connections and that is good. Still need to find a dentist and eye doctor. There are so many details in life that you take for granted until you do a long distance move. In East Lansing, we were so well connected. I knew who to call for house repairs; great schools and principal; so close to major shopping; nice variety of restaurants nearby; long term relationships with dentist, pediatrician, eye doctor, family doctor; who to cut my hair now that I have it again, etc. Here, I have had to start all over. Sometimes it's been frustrating just not knowing WHO to call. It all takes time and sometimes errors are made, like finding a trusted auto mechanic and all the money we put into Reege (the kid's car). I have found someone to cut my hair that I like alot. We have found a trusted place to get our cars repaired. I have found an Oncologist that I like. I found a Pediatrician's for Tim and Julia. We found a Cardiologist who is an expert in Julia's condition. God has taken care of even the smallest of details.....I worried so much before I moved and he has gone before me and prepared the way. God is like that. Yay God!

Karen

Thank God - A Normal Weekend

Well, it was a normal weekend for the Combes family this weekend. And we are thankful to God for a relaxing and relatively uneventful weekend. On Friday, we went to our favorite local restaurant, Anderson Bar and Grill. Karen and I had a chicken wrap and a couple of beers while the kids ate and played video games. I came home and was asleep by 9pm. On Saturday, the girls (Karen and Julia) went to get Julia's haircut (looks adorable) and to a craft show. They were gone for hours having fun together. Tim and I hung out, mowed the lawn and raked some leaves. I was able to get a 15 mile bike ride in which was fun. Karen then went on a girls night out with some friends while Tim, Julia and I went to the Bee Movie. Julia loved it and so did Tim and I since we are BIG Seinfeld fans. Sunday we went to church (another great sermon and moving service), went to Panera a then home. Julia and I played games for 3 hours while Tim and Karen went shopping. We built our first fire in our home this afternoon as it was a cold and rainy day. It was fun to sit by the fire. Julia and Tim even roasted marshmellows and made smores. Now we are just hanging our watching some NFL football. The Bengals won - Whodey!! as the say here in Cincinnati (long story - which we still don't fully understand). We were excited that University of Cincinnati beat the #16 team in the country (Connecticut) yesterday and moved to 7-2 on the year. If they win their last two games, they will win the Big East and go to a BCS bowl. We were glad to see Ohio State lose to the Illini on Saturday. Karen has become the biggest Ohio State hater as she is sick of their arrogant attitude already.

Karen and I got a chance to talk to Kaitlyn and Nick this weekend and they sound like they are doing good, despite both having heavy homework loads. Please pray for them - that God would have them find some joy in their schoolwork.

We want to give a special shout out to my sister Linda who completed a two year spiritual internship with the Catholic Church and was commissioned last night to go and love and serve the world. Linda was selected by the group to give a speech regarding the internship and the commission. I am so proud of her. She is a such an example of God's love as she reaches out to all she comes in contact with and shows them God's true love, wisdome, caring and kindness. Congratulations Linda.

Have a great week. Love and blessings to all of you.

Mike/Dad

kaitlyn loves the kids of haiti

hail storm

While I was writing the "michigan" blog, this hail storm came through Cincinnati. I haven't seen hail in a long time.

a fun michigan weekend

Mike and Linda

Mike loves his big sister.

We had such a fun weekend in Michigan. We got to Linda and Tom's house around 10pm on Friday night. We slept in "Linda's Loft" as Mike calls it. Thanks Tom and Linda for the nice accommodations and also the great breakfast. Tom made his "famous pancakes" which were delicious.

We left Tom and Linda's around 10:15 am to head to East Lansing. We planned to have lunch with Nick at Cosi's (our favorite lunch spot in EL - the nearest one in Ohio is 90+ miles away). We picked up Nick and off we went. To our surprise, it wasn't very busy. Mike's great friend, Larry Sernick, dropped by to say "hello" before the Spartans hosted the Michigan Wolverines. Larry does the stats for the radio broadcast. He is a HUGE Spartan fan. Unfortunately, my camera was out of battery and I didn't take any pictures.

After Cosi, Mike, Nick, Tim, Julia and I walked across the street to Michigan State and walked to a tailgate hosted by Mike's good friend, Denny Mayer and his brother, Brian. It was great to see Denny and Brian.

Next we found my cousin, Dan VanKirk. He was at the game with his awesome girlfriend, Jessica, who graduated from MSU. We got to meet Jessica's family. It was great to see Dan and have a beer and Screwdriver with him. Mike knew a lot of people that Jessica's mom went to high school with! (small world) Dan was dressed in his Illini sweatshirt and Bears ball cap. All I can see is, GO GREEN! Mike went to the football game with Denny and Nick, Tim, Julia and took off. We had people to see.....ha! (BTW, congrats to Linda and Kaitlyn on the Wolverine victory.)

Julia got to see her VERY best friend, Anastasia. Nastya (her nickname) is also from Russia. Nastya helped Julia so much when Julia first got to the USA. Julia was invited to sleep over with Anastasia. Julia was SOOOO happy; she also got to see Nastya's brother, Zhenya. Zhenya and Julia were in the same 2nd grade class and are great friends.

This is Tim and Anastasia's biological brother, Ilya, whom the Kitching family just adopted. It is quite a story. Ilya is 12 and has been here just since the beginning of September. Tim had a great time with him playing soccer outside while Annie (his mom) caught up with each other. I miss her so much.

Then we drove Tim over to his best EL friend, Colin. Colin and Tim met in 2nd grade and have been friends ever since. I didn't get a photo of Colin. Colin had Tim (well, can we say Tim invited himself) over for a sleepover. Colin had three other friends there, so Tim got to catch up with them, too! Tim had a GREAT time.

While Tim and Julia were off having fun, I got to spend time with Sara. Sara and I have been friends since Kaitlyn and Nina were in Kindergarten together (they are now 21 and each going to graduate from Univ. of Michigan soon). She is a GREAT friend and I miss her very much! Nick dropped Sara and I off at CapCafe and we drank coffee and caught up on each other's lives. I love you Sara and hope I can see you soon!

After the football game, we went to Pizza House. This is Tim Weiruch and his wife, Jan. Tim worked with Mike at the MAC and Mike likes him so much!

Carl and Paula also came to Pizza House. It was so nice to see them and celebrate "life." It was just a fun evening. Megan Garrett and her son, Brandon, also stopped by. Larry and Cathy Sernick were suppose to, but Larry was too bummed after the MSU loss to come.

Mike and I slept in the dorm......yes, you read right, the DORM! ha! Nick has his own room and across the hall is his office with a couch. He also has a private bathroom. Nick was gracious enough to let me sleep in his bed (see photo). Mike slept on the floor and Nick slept on the couch. I had a personal fan and cable TV! What more could a girl want??? Thanks for your hospitality, Nick!

We left East Lansing around 9:10am on Sunday morning. We drove to Ann Arbor to meet Kaitlyn at Panera for breakfast. It was great to see Kait....Julia asked all weekend WHEN we would see Kaitlyn. We had a great time. We will all be together in about two weeks in Florida. I can hardly wait!

It was just a wonderful weekend. I miss our Michigan friends and family, but know that God has us in Cincinnati for this season in our lives. I like it here! I think it's my favorite place I've ever lived.

Karen