All you need is love...

We’ve been home a month exactly today…it’s been one amazing day after another. Haley is incredible and continues to blow any expectations we had out of the water. From day one, she responded to her new name (we started using Haley the moment we got to Atlanta on
7-7-07 and have not used Nastia since). If we call out Nastia, she does not even turn around to look, but quickly responds to Haley. I think she was just waiting for a cuter name!! She loves anything we do outdoors (riding in the stroller, feeding ducks, wading in the pool), reading books, and eating! She loves bananas, Costco chicken salad (which she would eat for every meal if we let her), pickles and apples to the core! She loves opening the presents our friends and family have sent her...reading all the great books, trying on new clothes, playing with all her new toys. Here she is trying on 3 different outfits a friend sent her all at once.

The second day we were home, we visited some friends at a neighborhood pool. We didn't go to swim. We only intended to stop by so that they could meet Haley. She sat on the edge with me, burying her head in my chest. Slowly, she touched the water and after 15 minutes, Hunter was able to persuade her to be carried in the water. She was quite timid at first, but after a few minutes was giggling and splashing. Ever since that day all she wants to do is go to the pool. She LOVES it! …the blow-up pool, the big pool, the bathtub, the shower…really she is crazy about anything that has to do with water.

This is a picture of Haley with her cousin, Abbie, kicking up a tidal wave at the pool.

Every morning, she’ll say to us, “pool, pool” and makes swimming motions with her arms. It’s very cute and we have been fortunate to be able to take her most every day. We’re dreading the winter and don’t know what we’ll do without sunny days at the pool for her!

Haley has made great strides in so many areas. It’s hard to imagine that she is the same little girl we took from the orphanage last month! We joke that somehow they must have switched the children on us the day we picked her up! She learned to use the “big girl” potty just after a week of being home, she’s sleeping in her own bed (although she still doesn’t like to go to sleep and has no trouble letting us know how unhappy she is about taking naps or going to bed at night).

The first week, she slept in our bed at night (although she would take naps in her own). We had heard it was important for the bonding process for her to be with us in our bed. After a week of terrible sleep (we only had a queen size bed and somehow the little thing would take up more than half of it!), we decided to see how she would do in her own bed. She normally sleeps straight through the night, so once she was asleep, she didn’t seem cognizant of where she was anyway. Most mornings, she will crawl into bed with us when she wakes up, but my mother-in-law gave us a king size bed as a gift last week and this has been a great help! Even with the bigger bed, however, she still takes up a ton of room. For some reason she likes to sleep all over my head, chest, body…some part of her body is constantly on mine (usually her feet on my head!). But it’s a delight to have her want to be near us, so I don’t mind it.

Haley’s been on a lot of play dates and has made a lot of new friends. This is a picture with Nettie Cantey. She has developed better social skills since leaving the orphanage (where she took toys from other children and hit a lot without consequence). My sister and her husband were here last week with their five children (ages 1-12) for the week and this was a great environment for Haley to learn to “live and play” with other children of all ages. Since she was only with kids her same age at the orphanage, she wasn’t used to being with children other than the two year olds in her group. She did just great…she's learning to share, to apologize when she hits or takes a toy, to give hugs and blow kisses…

she's even learned to say “cheese” when taking a picture and smile for the camera!!

Here's an example...

"cheeeeese!"

Haley is so open to doing new things, trying new things, tasting new things. It's great. She doesn't always like them, but she'll try almost anything! A few things have surprised us...she doesn't like swings or going down slides yet (although she does love climbing up the slide, we then have to lift her up to get her down). At times she seems fearless. One afternoon, my friend Robbie brought her kids from AL to visit. We took them to McDees indoor play area. This was the first time she had been to this type of playland with the different tunnels you can climb up and slide down. She stayed most of the time on the bottom steps, stepping up and down the first platform. Just before we were leaving, she started climbing up the tunnel. She made it all the way to the very top with Sam (Robbie's child they adopted from Ukraine 2 years ago..pictured together on the teeter-totter). She was laughing and banging on the plexiglass bubble at the top. Sam made it back down, but Haley didn't want to leave. We had to send up another child to get her down.

What a little adventure-seeker!!

Haley's learned to be kind to animals. Hunter's mother brought her dog, Sweet Pea for a visit. We were nervous at first because she didn't seem to know how to refrain from hitting animals. But once she met Sweet Pea, she learned to be sweet and soft. Haley loved walking her! She gets very excited when she sees any animal and wants to run over and pet them, even the squirrels! It's hard to explain to her why she can't pet the squirrels. Fortunately, they are fast enough to get away from her when they see her coming!

Haley attended her first wedding Friday night and was the flower girl!! She walked the aisle with a basket of rose petals (although instead of throwing them, she bent down and picked them all up and put them back in her basket). After about 2 minutes, she was “done with that event” and started walking around and getting into everything. She dumped candle wax on her dress and finger, then announced to me that she had to go potty and started to cry. (I had put her in a diaper, but she does not like to use the diaper, so I had to take her to the bathroom right in the middle of the vows.) The ceremony went on and we made it back for the crucial kiss!

Haley loved the wedding cake and bubbles that followed. It was a great evening!

At the end of the month, we are taking her to the beach! We can’t wait to see her reaction to the ocean (the biggest pool she’ll ever see!). We’re dreading the 7 hour car ride, but will try to do most of the driving at night so she can sleep.

She will also be attending her first ever UNC game! My college (JMU) is playing Hunter’s college (UNC). Of course, Hunter has already schooled her in who to root for and she even has a UNC outfit to wear to the event. She’s already practicing her Tar Heel cheer…”Go Heels!”.

We’ll continue to keep you posted on Haley's development. But we are thrilled to have her home with us. She is the most amazing blessing to ever happen to us!

Thanks for all your prayers and support! The Lord definitely has been good to us! We can't wait for you all to meet her. She is wonderful!!

Blessings, Lauri and Hunter

Our first day home…

The first morning in her new home, Haley slept 10 hours (although she fought tooth and nail to keep from falling asleep!). So much had happened in the 3 days we had taken her from the orphanage (the only home she’s ever known). A 12 hour train ride, 2 long days in Kiev without a nap, 17 plane ride to get to the USA, becoming a US citizen…I think it all finally took it’s toll and she collapsed in exhaustion. She woke up about 10 am and I held her in our rocking chair where she quickly fell back asleep for another hour. She was zonked out. When she woke up, she quickly ate a banana and some yogurt, then watched "The Tour de France" with Hunter on the couch.

When she finally woke up, we were all just learning how to be a family…what our routine would look like, how she would react to being in a new environment. We took her to the dock out back to feed the ducks and she loved it! She started out with 2 pieces of bread, after 3 trips back to the house for more...we finally just took the rest of the bag. We went through the entire loaf! What fun!!

She was doing so well, we called my mom and told her we’d come visit that very day. Who knew how long this good behavior would last and we wanted to get a visit in with family while it was still going really well. We put Haley in the car without any fuss and she rode the 15 minute drive to my mother’s place without any fanfare! WOW. One hurdle out of the way, we thought.

She was very shy at my mom’s and buried her face in my chest for the whole hour. She was dying to play with the toys they had given her, but couldn’t muster the courage to leave my lap. After about an hour, the temptation overtook her fears and she climbed down and played with some of the toys they had given her.

We stopped by Target to buy some baby gates to protect her from the stairs in our house. Haley announced she had to "potty". Fortunately, we had brought the little plastic potty, so we were able to accommodate her right there in the parking lot. Thank goodness for minivans!!

Our plan once in Target was to run in, get the gates and exit. I would take her back to the car if she was too overwhelmed by all the people and things in the store.

We headed straight to the baby aisle…but had to pass by the shoe department on our way. When she saw the shoes, she arched her back and pointed. Hunter went on to find the gates and I stayed with Haley as she SHOPPED FOR SHOES!! It was an amazing sight. She surveyed the selection and had a definite opinion of the shoes she liked and did not. She found a paid of black Mary-jane shoes and quickly put them on her feet. They were too big, but she walked around proudly. Then she spotted a pair of hot pink boots. She quickly sat down and shed the MJ’s for the boots! Meanwhile, Hunter had found the gates and had returned to find his daughter amidst her shoe selection. He said, “What are you doing?” I told I told him I had nothing to do with this. She was on her own selecting out the shoes she liked and didn’t like and was very picky about what she wanted to try on. We picked out a pair of sandals with flowers and showed them to her. She turned and said, “Ni” (no in Russian) and went on searching. He said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” It was hilarious. I told Hunter that is was proof that girls love shoes, whether they grow up in an orphanage or not, a love of shoes is innate in all women! We could see this was not a learned response—she had never been in a store in her life!! Boys somehow fashion anything they can find into a gun…girls shop for shoes!!

She's all girl!!