9 Month Gotcha Day

Today Oliver has been with us 9 months. It seems like he never wasn't our son. I feel like he came from my own body.....I always wondered if I would feel that way. I knew I would love him and prayed that God would give me the ability to feel the same unconditional love I feel towards Brynn for Oliver. He saw me through, I guess I never doubted I would but maybe it was when would I feel it. Life is wonderful!

Oliver is doing great! He babbles constantly but we are still waiting for more words than up, mama, dada and ba(bye). We have an evaluation with early intervention on December 3rd to hopefully get speech therapy started. Our health insurance will not pay for us to take him to a private speech therapist. I know it is crazy but thank goodness there is early intervention. I think it will work since they come to your house usually, it will save me a long trip to the other end of town.

Michelle has had big news in the last week, she is returning to the University of South Florida to continue her education. I got an email from her last Wednesday morning with the subject line "I just need to vent" well she had finally been accepted in to USF's BS to BSN accelerated program. She had applied for the summer or fall 2007 term and been turned down. Evidentally she had checked the box to have her application considered in future terms. She wasn't planning on accepting the offer and I told her she was going. The orientation was on Thursday and she even asked me to go with her. A major step in our relationship, I think we are back to pre-February terms! Later when we were talking I said "You didn't send me that email for no reason." Her reply was "I knew you would make me go." I am a big pusher in the girls pursuing their dreams and not giving up. I reminded Michelle that Oliver is my dream and I never gave up. We are excited but not looking forward to the added expenses right now but she has to do this!

Last night we met Michelle and Stephanie for dinner in Tampa on our way home from Orlando. I sat at the table looking at our 4 kids thinking how truly blessed we are. Oliver was so happy to sit on Steph's lap and play with her glass of water and she was only too happy to drink from the cup afterwards. I see the girls all slowly growing to love him and truly care about him! Yes, even Michelle is warming up to him! Brynn and Steph are totally taken with him. I so wish I had the camera to capture the moment and I can never remember I have one on my phone:( God is good to us!

One year ago today Maxim entered our lives

One year ago today we received Oliver's referral, it was the day before Thanksgiving. We had been out and about preparing to leave for my parents house the next morning. I had a message from our agency director that they had a referral for us from Kirov for an infant boy but we would not be traveling until February! We were so excited! Here is the picture that was emailed to us that evening! Such an exciting time it was! Hard to believe we were transformed a year ago today. That little picture tucked in my pocket and put on my night stand to see first thing in the morning! Oh dreams do come true!

Brynn's car

Here is a video of Brynn's suprise on Friday, she got my parents old car. We had it shipped down from Omaha since my parents had it there for a summer vehicle. It is in really great shape, what a nice first car. We are hoping it will last until she graduates from college since it will probably take her that long to pay us back for it. I had to tape the surprise arrival for Don and my mom to watch. She was too funny!

The cutest giraffe you ever saw

Here is Oliver at Trunk or Treat this past Sunday night! He was so good and so sweet. He wasn't even afraid of Mama in her scary costume for the haunted house. My friends were disappointed, they thought he would be afraid of me and he would finally willingly come to them. But no luck there! He is one lil' mama's boy!

Six months ago today

Oliver Maxim became a Baer! It was one of the best days of my life! Sadly, we didn't get to see Oliver that day, which is a long story but he truly became a part of our hearts on February 4th, the day we met him! We knew in the first minutes that Maxim was our son, never a doubt for either one of us!

February 19th:

August 20th:

Walking update

I think this video speaks for itself!

Our other big accomplishment is on the sleep front! We are in the process of doing sleep training, thanks to my friend, Amy! She has been such a great help, she works at an international adoption clinic and will hopefully soon be a new mommy to a baby boy from Russia too! We are making major progress and hopefully nighttime issues will be a thing of the past. Thanks, Amy!

Two months since last post!

We have had the craziest summer! We were pretty much gone for 4 weeks on two different trips. The end of June we took off for a week to Greenville/Spartanburg, SC area and had a great time! Stephanie and Brynn both came and we got to meet Oliver's second cousin-to-be, Malachi. Don's neice, Erin and her partner, Amy are fostering him with the hope of adopting him in the near future. Aren't they so cute together? Malachi is 3 months to the day older than Oliver. We also got to see Aunt Connie, Uncle Dean and Cousin Nick. We also threw some sight seeing in with them and by ourselves. It was vacation and family time all rolled in to one.

This is Oliver and his Kirov buddy, Evan! We traveled to Kirov and back with his parents, Brian and Jackie. Acutally Jackie and I set a world record for talking on a Delta flight. According to Don and Brian, Jackie and I didn't stop talking the whole way from Moscow to Atlanta. Not true we both napped! What can we say but we were excited moms to be! Brian and Jackie have two beautiful older kids from Russia as well and it was great to meet them too! We had a great trip to Greenville!

Oliver learned to climb up and down stairs at our hotel in record time!

We got home on a Sunday and the following weekend Brynn, Oliver and I were off to Omaha for 12 days! Poor Dad home alone with the animals!! My mom and step-dad spend summers there and my dad and step-mom live there year round. Grandpa and Grandma Keech hadn't met Oliver before and Grandma and Grandpa Brittsan hadn't seen him since the end of March. So everyone was new to him. He is finally going through some separation and stranger anxiety, both excellent signs of attachment! So it took a little time for him to warm up to everyone! He got to meet my nephews and nieces, it was so fun. My step-mom had a kids hair salon, Ponytails and Buzzcuts in Omaha and Oliver had to try out all of the "chairs". He doesn't have enough hair to cut but he is practicing!

The final leg of our whirlwind of trips was going to orientation at the University of South Florida in Tampa for Stephanie. She is following in Michelle's footsteps and going to school there! She moves in tomorrow, August 17th! She was just 6 when Don and I started dating, it is so hard to believe she is going to college. While we were in Tampa we got to see our friends Marie and Bryson. The boys are so cute together too!