Our Big News!

Happy Easter!

Sarah here... as you can guess because this is a picture post. ;)

We're with family this weekend, and yesterday we had the egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's. Elijah and Jonathan quickly got the hang of it if they didn't remember from last year, but I don't think either of them realized that there was candy inside!

Jonathan

Elijah

Rachel

Rebekah

Isaac

Anna

And... this would be where my camera stopped working so no pictures of me. Not that I would have posted them anyways. :)

And some pictures from this morning (from grandma's camera)...

Best picture we got of Rachel in her dress... she wasn't in the picture taking mood. This beautiful Ukrainian sparkle dress was Little Miss Ruby's dress. She generously donated it to a blog auction to help her new big brother, Maxim, come home from Ukraine. Rachel loved wearing it today, even if she didn't want to pose for a picture.

Elijah was all dressed up too.

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

World Down Syndrome Day

World Down Syndrome Day is tomorrow - March 21st -- 3-21 -- for 3 copies of the 21st chromosome. We will be celebrating with our local DSAW group at Monkey Joe's.  The kids are very excited!

In honor of this special day, I invite you to watch the following video produced by IDSC. It has a GREAT message!

You know you live in WI when...

...your husband comes in from plowing the driveway and using the snow blower with a drenched shirt from sweat. At my surprise he says, "It's hot out there!"  I turn to look at the thermometer, which reads 36 deg, and say, "You're right. It is!"

Yes, only in Wisconsin is 36 deg "hot".  :-)

A special song for parents of special needs kids

This is a beautiful song! Enjoy!

"Your Child' by Jennifer Shaw - A song celebrating every life

Milka Chocolate Anyone???

Some of you may remember from our trips to Ukraine that I LOVE Milka chocolate!  Believe it or not, I'm really not a big fan of chocolate. I'll caramel instead any day. But Milka is different - oh so yummy - the best chocolate in the world says my Ukrainian friend, Max, and I agree!

My dear husband just returned from a 3-week trip to Russia for work.  I am SO glad to have him home. (He got in almost 8 hours late last night and had every imaginable type of delay possible, but he made it. Thank you Lord!)  Anyway, he picked up some Milka for me to donate to the Hidden Treasures auction. (Hidden Treasures auction runs every other month to support a family adopting from Pleven, Bulgaria. It's lots of fun!)  So, if you are craving some chocolate - some really, really good chocolate, hop on over to the blog site and put your bid in. It's super easy and just follow the directions here.



Here is the first collection. Pat was told the chocolate w/ the baby on the label is the best Russian chocolate, made in Moscow. I haven't tried it yet.




Here is the second collection. All Milka...yum...

Hope to "see" you over there!

Fun in the Barn!

Yesterday, one of our friends from church took Isaac and Rebekah to their house for the afternoon. It sounds like they had a lot of fun!

Thank you Mr and Mrs. M!!

Fun with Signs

Who says you can't communicate using signs?? Not Elijah!

Today I (Sarah) was sitting on my bed, and Elijah came in after waking up from his nap (actually I don't think he ever slept). He signs "sleep" over and over and climbs up on my bed, crawls under the covers and pulls the covers up. Then he signed "lights off please" and told Rachel (who had also just gotten up) and I to be "quiet". He laid there for a couple minutes and kept closing his eyes like this:

Then he sat up and signed "wake up" and "all done sleep". He got out of bed and told us bye, turned the light off and shut the door on us. I opened the door to see him running away laughing. Stinker!

Merry Christmas!!!

I know, you are saying, "Jill, it's long past Christmas. You are a little late."  Well, if you live in America, that may be true. But if you live in Ukraine, you are waking up very soon and it will be Christmas Day! So, Merry Christmas to Mama Tanya, Papa Igor, and my missionary friend, Max. :-)

Here's our Christmas letter.  (And no, I did not have it done before Dec. 25th. Oh well.) Happy New Year!!! I pray it will be a blessed year for all of you. (You should be able to click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Just a side note...when compiling this letter, I looked at what I wrote last year for each child. Not a lot has changed. But Jonathan's said something about being a very laid back baby. HA!  That is so NOT true anymore. :-) And I thought Elijah was the stubborn one... Jonathan has definitely learned being in a family has many, many advantages. One of them is being able to express your opinion about life. As his OT says, "Not all stages of development are pleasant ones." So true. We love him through it all though! Each one of our children are true blessings in our lives.

Playdate & the faces of Rachel

Sarah here - Tonight we had a playdate/get together with our local Ds group...

Both Elijah (right) and Jonathan had fun climbing around, and I think everyone else did too!

Mr. Monkey got a bit bored at times, but when you aren't big enough to climb much of anything, wouldn't you too?? (Helping him through was kinda outta the question, he's a chunk! Besides when we tried to, he freaked going over the netting.)

Anna and Jonathan, with Isaac and Elijah in the back...

 Anna and I (Sarah) also spent some time playing with and helping an adorable little girl with Ds around the playset. It's been awhile since I got to play with any girls with Ds (love you and miss you Bug and Bean!!), and Anna and I are both in agreement we need a little girl with Ds in this family!!!

After, we had some shopping to do, so the littles and I hung out in the van for awhile.

Rachel imformed me that she and Jonathan were holding hands nicely and wanted me to take a picture. ;)

She was asking me about the cars that were parking or leaving in front of us and who those people were, and why that car has it's lights on, etc. I finally told her when she said "Sarah?" for the 100th time that the answer is going to be I don't know. She told me that she wanted me to know so I could tell her. Good gravy does she like to talk! ;)

 She also makes pretty amusing faces.

Happy face

Sad face

Silly face

Grumpy face

She's a hoot. But don't let how sweet and innocent she looks fool you!