Baby Shower #2

Yesterday we had a couples' shower with several more friends and their kids. Our friends Jennifer and Lisa hosted it for us at our house, and we very much appreciate all their hard work to pull it together. One cute thing happened to Lisa when she went to pick up the cake. She had them write "Welcome Alina" on the cake. When she went to pick it up, the woman at Tom Thumb in a very thick Russian accent asked "Is the baby from Russia?" Lisa smiled and answered "Yes she is." We are so very proud that Alina is from Russia and we hope to learn more about her country and culture when we travel back there.

We had a great time sharing stories of our Russian travels at the party, and we fielded questions about the adoption process from our guests. One thing is for certain, when you decide to become an adoptive parent, you will instantly become an advocate for making the entire process easier on deserving families. We certainly cannot complain, because the length of time for our adoption was shorter than we anticipated, but it certainly has had its bumps in the road. We thought the wait before getting matched to a child would be hard, but we had no idea that the wait to return to get our little girl after we had met her would be a thousand times more difficult.

We also were able to show off Alina's room now that it is finished. With its green walls and cherry wood furniture, it has become a very peaceful and serene part of our house and we find ourselves drawn in. We have a couple pictures of her in the room so that we can see her beautiful face every time we walk in. We can't wait to bring her home and spend time with her in her new room. Very soon we will know what it is like to be parents day-in and day-out, and we look forward to the day when we can't remember what it was like without her in our lives.