Four weeks home!!!

Wow! Anna and I have been home for four weeks today! The time has just flown by and it really doesn’t seem like it has been that long. I cannot describe to you just how well she has fit into our family. You would never know that this little girl had her whole world turned upside, moved half way across the world and joined a new family of her own in the last two months. If you didn’t know we had adopted her, you would swear I gave birth to her myself!! Anna is such a joy and has made our whole family so happy and proud and we love her to pieces.  Even the boys are giddy over her! My oldest son Spenser totes her all around the house on his shoulders all the time and acts like a big ol’ kid himself playing with her. Mason adores his little sister and Ashlyn is coming around! I think there will be a good chance that these two will be best buds before it is all over with. There is still a little jealousy between Ashlyn and Anna but it is nothing like we imagined because Ashlyn is typically one jealous girl! She does still hide the toys in the bathroom from Anna but she used to do that to the dog too, so don’t take it too personal Anna, LOL.


Anna is so happy and that beautiful smile of hers tells it all. She will just be sitting there and look up at you with the biggest most beautiful smile….makes me just want to eat her up!!! Anna is so easy to love.  She isn’t hard to please, but when she gets upset ….look out! She breaks out into a crippled walk where she bends her body to the side and walks around like she is crippled. The tears start falling BUT you do not hear a cry. It’s pretty sad and breaks my heart to watch her do this without a noise from her mouth. When she is upset she will go through all of the motions except the sound cannot/ will not come out. I don’t know if she never cried when she was upset in the orphanage because she knew no one would come or if she got in trouble for crying. I can’t quite figure this out. But when she gets hurt, like the million times she has fallen and hit her head (this makes me nervous) she SCREAMS and cries like a baby! How weird!?! She can’t cry out when she is upset but she does cry when she gets hurt. Crazy!

My sweet friends at work gave a me a surprise “big girl shower” yesterday for Anna. I am so blessed to have the friends and family (and strangers) that care so much about us and have helped us bring sweet Anna home and love her so much now that she is home.  Anna received lot’s of pretty clothes, shoes, baby dolls, a purse, toys, candy and money! Ashlyn got several gifts too. It was like Christmas last night when I got home with all of the bags of gifts!! Both girls dug into the bags and had a blast looking at all of the goodies!

We are so thankful for all of you that have helped us make this beautiful, sweet child our daughter! She really is a treasure and God couldn’t have hand picked a better daughter for our family than our sweet Anna!  I look at her beautiful face and need to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming......

Thank you God for this beautiful, precious gift!

I would like to post a comparison of Anna's picture last summer as an orphan and then photos of Anna this summer, an orphan NO MORE!!!  What a difference love makes!!!  We love you Anna!!!

Little Miss Anna has moved right into the Williams family and taken her place as the new household bully, LOL.  Her older sister Ashlyn isn't taking it too well.  She is used to dishing out the smack downs on the family and now someone has moved in and taken her place!! We were a little worried that Ashlyn might be a little rough with Anna but Anna can hold her own because SHE is the one issuing all of the smacks and pushing her siblings off the couch! Who does she think she is, Queen of the couch or something? She has politely taken Ashlyn's spot at the end of the couch closest to the TV and if you are in her spot, well look out...she will wedge her little 34 lb body behind you and boot you off!  I know it's bad, but she is hilarious  and too stinking cute and she knows it!  Anna really has moved right into the family so well, like she has known us all her life. I keep thinking, is this too good to be true? She doesn't appear to mourn her old life and she is one happy and LOVING little girl!!  She demands our hugs and kisses, not that we are holding out on her or anything.  You can't help but scoop her up and love on her all day long.  Oh and when she is sleepy and sucking her sweet little thumb.... I could just eat.her.up!!!!  I love to lay down with her when she is falling asleep, just like Ashlyn, you can just feel the love ooooozing out of her skin. What is it about kiddos when they are lying there all sleepy and lovey??? 

We went out to eat tonight with my stepmom Denise and her mom.  The two girls did not do well at the restaurant.  They were both just being very mischievous and showing their rear ends, which Ashlyn is known for doing, especially when Daddy is not with us!  Here are a few pics of the kiddos today~

Small update

I am so sorry that I totally forgot to post an update on Anna’s foot.  She does not walk with a limp anymore!  With all of the irritation and sores on her feet, one of the places was infected and sore and had “something” in it.  The sore has healed and she no longer walks with a limp! The poor girls feet were/are a mess. SCABIES is the diagnosis.  My heart just aches to think how long she has had those nasty little boogers biting away at her skin and oh how she has suffered from severe itchiness.  In July, YES July, they had her dressed in sock tights, long pants, undershirt and a shirt and I imagine all of that heat and sweating only made the itching worse.  She walks around scratching all over and is rashy all over because of scabies but her feet look the worst of all.  She even scratches her feet in her sleep.  Her feet are constantly rubbing each other in attempt to scratch at the ickyness that is biting away at her skin.  She and the rest of our family have been treated for scabies and the literature says that the itching can last up to 4 weeks even after the scabies are gone!!!!!!  I will be sending an email to our facilitator to get in contact with the orphanage director and the orphanage doctor because the doctor had told our facilitator that we were overreacting about her feet after we had taken her out of the orphanage. She said that we were silly and that it was just an allergic reaction.  To what????  They had no answer for that, but now we do! It’s scabies, not an allergic reaction!  I cannot even imagine how many children at that institution are walking around scratching and in misery and suffering from scabies as well.  All I can do is just hope and pray that they seek treatment for them and don’t just turn their heads to this issue.

We are home

and soooooooooooo thankful to finally be here!  I ended up getting strep throat the day before we left for home and have been trying to recover from that, jet lag, being gone for a MONTH and catching up on my family and life!  So for now you will get some pictures from the trip and hopefully you will get an update soon too!

Feeding chasing the birds

She did not like ice cream at first, but it didn't take long for her to finally enjoy it!

Anna loving on Katya, a wonderful Godly Russian woman that God placed in our path on our journey through Russia

Entertaining a few people at Red Square

Hanging with our new friend Gentry who is adopting Maria,

you can follow their journey at A family for Maria

This child would not fall asleep anywhere except her bed, until this day.....

I never thought it would happen!

A Down syndrome sighting in Russia! This little man lived in an apartment above the passport agency!

It's very rare to see someone out and about with Down syndrome, believe me, we got lot's of stares at our girl when we walked around the city.  They are not used to see people with disabilities out in the community, as they are typically shut away in mental institutions.  I honestly could not believe that this man lived in the community where we saw him.  It was a small community out in "the sticks", LOL. He was so funny. I was in the car waiting on our facilitator to pick up Anna's passport and he was waving and talking to me and he was such a hoot!