T A M A R A

T A M A R A

She can almost spell her name. We get a "T A M A A" never realized how tough those "R's" can be to a little one.

Below Tamara (with Mommy's help) Writes her name on the driveway. Love this chalk stuff... love that it washes away so well. The possibilities are endless.

She like to mess with me... she's 4

Where's the "T" ?

Doing the Hula with Daddy during our walk.

I wasn't kidding.. we live in a rough neighborhood..lol

Waiting to go to church. Tamara plays with Barbie

All ready to go see the new Hannah Montana movie. Sparkle pants and shirt. She looked like Johnny Cashes kid. lol



She still loves her piano.

My little bunny.
So cute.


I wasn't going to throw it... honest.

Early Spring.. nice day during our walk.

One of the many nice things about having a kid is they make you stop and smell the flowers.

Thumbs Up!

Mmmmm!

Daddy had a Boo Boo and used one of her Hello Kitty band aides. So of course Tamara wanted one too.

All better time to play with Lilly.

Trying on Daddy's shirt

Weeeeeeeeee

These next two videos are so cut.. you have to watch.

Yes... hit play. Really it's too cute to miss.

Helping Daddy? No not really.. Daddy cuts the grass and then he lets her drive. She's getting really pretty good at it. lol. Hide those car keys.

As I was shooting my lovely family I took some pictures of our early blooms on the property.

trees and bushes came alive that week.

Another lap.

Our plum

Daffodils .. seems like the only thing the deer won't eat.

Oops forgot to dead head last Fall.

After the tractor rise .. it's time to wash it.

She loves to wash stuff.

Daddy and Tamara working.

OK.. back on the tractor. She has him so wrapped around her pinkie.

She gets pretty serious.

Steering like a natural.

Getting Barbie ready for bed

Yes?

Gardening

She remembered how to pot plants from last year. Amazing kid!

Well that was April. June is just around the corner.

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Gotcha Day

Gotcha Day

Today was Gotcha Day! One year ago we took possession of our daughter Tamara. It's hard to believe it been a year already and yet it feels like she's been with us forever.

Gotcha Day is almost always celebrated by adoptive families. Very much like the birth of a child..it is the day we became a family. To many adopted children Gotcha Day becomes as.. if not more important then their Birthdays. It is in many cases the day their new life began. The day they were permanently united with their forever family.

Bruce and I have been doing a lot of reminiscing these last few days. I thought it might be fun to share some of the many pictures we didn't post during our trip last year.

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Bruce setting up Skype .. first thing. We arrived in Tbilisi in the middle of the night.

Bruce worked on setting up our Internet connections and...

I got to work unpacking and gift wrapping. Yes.. gift wrapping we had a lot of gifts to bring. A custom in International adoption. Here are a few we needed for the first few days.

A heart that was part of the view from our balcony. For those who have stayed there this should spark a memory ;o)

The 21 st was the first day we actually saw Tamara for the first time.

Below are some pictures you didn't see the first time around. There are more.. many more but due to the Foster Family being in them.. I decided not to post them. Just in case if Tamara decides to read her blog. She likes to play the videos and look at the pictures.

She also likes to follow other adoption blogs.

Hi Finley and Grace

Below we arrive at the Foster Home. 9th floor.. Thank God the elevator worked.

Notice the walls in this photos. Lots of chipped paint, plaster and peeling wallpaper. The concrete steps all had cracks and chips as well. I mention this as I've had people ask me why on earth we got in that elevator? If you remember last years post I talk about the missing, elevator that does have a habit of not working properly. and was found between floors. Well if you saw the steps you too would have risked the elevator. Much safer.

Tamara came to see who it was and then ran off.. so I followed her.

There she is...

Gotcha!

OK.. she was a little scared.

Actually we ..Tamara and I talked about this a few months ago.

She told me she was really scared that day. When I told her Mommy and Daddy were too. That we were afraid she might not like us she laughed her butt off. It was a pretty amazing conversation.

The famous 1st picture.

She would not look at me for a rather long time.

I asked to sit down with her almost immediately. Not only was it easier for me but it let her know that we weren't scooping her out the door right then and there. Very important.

She starts to relax a bit.

Another Foster child. There were 3 in total at this home. Tamara being one of the three. She was the oldest and smartest so she really looked out for the other two.

Bringing the other two gifts I scored a few points with her.

I was very aware that she was studying every move I made.

It was obvious that these children didn't own any toys. This little boy we so touched when I gave him his very own toy.

Tamara knocking on the bathroom door

Mommy scoops her up again

Tamara and Mommy ;o)

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The 22 nd we were in court in Tbilisi and were granted the adoption.

Our last photo as a childless couple. Site seeing in Tbilisi trying to kill a few hours before court.

The view

Bruce video taping

A church

After site seeing it was off to court. Probably our hottest day in Tbilisi.

Our driver parked behind the court house until they were ready for us.

The hearing went very smoothly and the judge waived the waiting period.

After court we went to visit Tamara again.

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Below she draws.. she was scared. Now that I know her so much better and I can read her expressions to a T.. yes my baby was nervous and scared those first few days.

One of the things that I don't think they realized is that Tamara understood everything they talked about around her. She definitely knew we were there to get her and if you can imagine being this sweet little girl. Having to go with "your Mama & Dada" to a place called America?

WOW

During our 2nd visit I tried to let Tamara be Tamara. And let the Foster Family do their thing. I wanted to see what the relationships were like. How bonded she was and how bonded they were to her. I also made sure that Tamara saw us being friendly with everyone there. She had to see that they trusted us. So I told stories, jokes .. whatever I could to make them respond favorably in front of Tamara. This was also the even we came bearing gifts for the entire Foster family as well as a few neighbor children who I had heard were nice to her.

Below.. Tamara sits on our nanny's lap as I attempt to entertain the troops.

And the 23 rd we took custody of her.
I still remember going to pick her up with our translator and nanny. Our nanny went on ahead and met us there. Then came down stairs to meet us when we arrived with our translator. I remember when we arrived Tamara seemed excited. She was wearing a pretty little dress and had her hair neatly styled in a pony tail. No one but the Foster Grand mother was there as I had requested the night before after observing the dynamics of the Foster Family. I noticed the Foster Mother was very attached and really didn't want to or perhaps couldn't step aside emotionally so I asked to have her removed. As it turns out it was the right move. Tamara was agreeable. I had our nanny take her out of there. Tamara had known her for some time and trusted her. So I felt it would be less stressful for Tamara. I also didn't want Tamara to feel as if we "took" her away from the only family she had known. Something that children often misunderstand. It's often easier for them to believe that they were taken away rather then given away. A bitter sweet moment for all concerned knowing that she may never get to see them again?

Our original plan was to take her out to the park to play and then just take her home with us. I was told another family had done this and had a fairly smooth transition. But once we got in the car with her I thought "no.. let's just do it" . When I told the staff this I got a few raised eyebrows but they agreed. I couldn't see deceiving my daughter that very first day. She was told repeatedly who we were and that we came to get her.. to bring her home to the USA. She seemed excited and curious about us and about her future.
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When we arrived at our home away from home Tamara became very shy and started to cry as soon as the nanny left to go buy us a new crib as there wasn't one in the apartment. Many new adoptive parents co-sleep with their newly adopted children but since Tamara had always slept in a crib by herself I didn't want to change that while in country. Structure and consistency is what the children are used to there. I made sure she stuck to her sleeping / napping schedule and it worked. I did stay with her in the room until she fell asleep. Sometimes I'd fall asleep before she did and Bruce would wake me up an hour later and say "hey Mommy .. you fell asleep. You going to update the blog?" lol Yes.. he did do that more then once.

And so "IT" began.. Tamara's love for sunglasses.

She still gets annoyed from time to time when I take her photo but now she usually tries to accommodate and smiles and sometimes will even strike a pose.

Our first meal together.


Anyway Tamara cried for about 15 minutes or so when Anna left and then was fine. As soon as she discovered all the goodies we brought for her she knew she was safe, wanted, loved and frankly she felt at home. Thinking back she basically took over the place wearing her new dress, light up sneakers and shades. The staff watched her in amazement and the Foster Mom called the nanny almost every hour on the hour to see how things were going. I think she honestly thought that Tamara would have such a melt down that we'd have to return her? Hum? Nah.. not my girl.. not these parents.

Anyway... I recently sat down and watched our videos from Tbilisi something we hadn't really had a chance to do yet. Something we really didn't want to do with Tamara in the room as there is a lot of footage that has her Foster family and her little friends. She still seems to remember most things and I really don't want to upset her if she misses them. I'm not able to post any yet as the video format is different then what I use for Blogger. Bruce says we need to get some Gizmo to make it work? When I can pin him down to do it I'll post some footage from our trip. One of my favorite clips is of Gotcha Day night after Tamara's first bubble bath I was getting her ready for bed. I was putting baby lotion on and she giggled through out. So sweet, so cute and I must say watching it almost a year later brought tears to my eyes. She was so frail.. weighing only 25 lbs and 34 inches tall. A little peanut.. she didn't even register on the growth chart for her 3-1/2 years. She was the size of an 18 month old. Now she's about 37 lbs and 41 inches tall. She wears an age appropriate 4T. Her hair was very thin and sparse.. it's grown in nicely and is getting rather thick. What we thought was very dark ..almost black hair is really a golden brown. She has so many natural highlights in her hair I envy her.

She's come a long way. She's had to learn so many things this past year. One of her and our favorite things is teaching her how to be a kid. She really didn't know. She didn't know what toys really were. She didn't know how to play with any of them. But once we showed her she caught on very quickly. She used to like watching soaps and movies rather then kids programing and cartoons. Now she's pretty familiar with children's programing and is responding well to the educational material.

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So what did we do this Gotcha Day? Not too much.. my daughter woke up with 101F fever this morning. She stayed in bed until 3 pm when her fever broke. I think she enjoyed the pampering. She had breakfast and lunch via room service. My daughter likes breakfast in bed.. figures doesn't it? Since she's under the weather we stayed put and made sure she rested. When I put her to bed tonight the fever returned.. just over 100F so I'm keeping a watchful eye on her tonight.

We gave Tamara her first Gotcha Day ring.. it's the 3rd in a series of three that I bought for her before she came home. She loves it ... The first a Ruby / diamond was a size 2 she found that one in her Christmas stocking, the next was an pink diamond size 3 which she got for her 4th Birthday and the last is a diamond size 4 for Gotcha Day. They are adorable and she loves wearing them to fancy parties. The amazing part is the 2 doesn't fit her ring finger anymore. She's now a 3 and the 4 fits her middle finger. Some day when they no longer fit they will make adorable charms for her to wear and remember her first year at home.

In the garage hiding under a blanket is the cutest princess bicycle with training wheels. Complete with basket, tassels and a bell so we can hear her coming. We wanted to give it to her today but we knew she'd want to try and ride it and she really needed to rest today so we'll be celebrating Gotcha Day later on this week when she's better. Oh yes a super cool and very pretty custom fit riding helmet as well.

This was also the weekend we had hoped to have her Christening / Welcoming party. It's a long story but we've had to switch churches. Sadly the church that we have attended for 3+ years had a change in pastors right after we returned from Tbilisi. The new pastor is one in training and hasn't been very attentive regarding our daughter's Christening. After 7+ months of asking we finally decided we needed to switch to a larger more efficient congregation. It does sadden us that we've had to make this move as we have put a lot of effort into the smaller local church and have made some wonderful friends whom we miss a great deal. Hopefully I'll have a date soon and we can start planning her Christening and party. Those who know me well know that it's not going to be a casual pizza party.. not that I don't like pizza but it's Tamara's BIG day!

OK.. have I typed enough? Yeah... I know I still have so much catching up to do. I will ..I just had to skip ahead and do Gotcha Day! Hope you enjoyed our trip down memory lane.

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