A close call

When I finished my last post, I knew what my next post would be. We were approaching the one-year anniversary of what I think of as "liberation day" - the day when we walked our daughters out of the baby home where they had lived for three hot Russian summers and two cold Russian winters. While we were "officially" their parents on July 14, the day when their names technically became Hope and Leah, we didn't get to be with them, to assume custody, until July 29. I was planning the post in my mind. Would I put then and now pics? Compare them, and us, to now? Talk about what a year it's been?

But the year wasn't done; fate wanted to cram one more big event in.

I preface the news with this: We're OK. It could have been so much worse.

We had a fire. As in house fire. As in flames, a 3:15 a.m. evacuation, a 911 call, fire department (at one time 3 or 4 trucks), the police department, an ambulance, lookey-Lou's. Again, we're fine. There was lots of damage to the exterior back of the house, but it's liveable and...we're fine. Scared (me, mostly), but fine.

We were all asleep, when our front doorbell began ringing, ringing, ringing, followed by someone/s pounding, pounding, pounding. I threw on my glasses, raced downstairs as Brian was getting himself together and raced to the front door. I thought someone was hurt, had had some kind of accident and was coming to our house as a haven. Or, I though, maybe someone was trying to get in. But when I got to the door I heard young female voices screaming. "Your house is on fire! Your house is on fire! Wake up! Wake up!"

Hope and Leah emerged from their room, I cracked the door, heard that there was a fire in the back of our house and said "Thank you" as I shut the door and ran to the back door. I looked out the sliders and saw...flames. Orange. Brian was running down the stairs by now, I yelled that there was a fire and to call 911, and turned to the girls.

I amm so incredibly proud of our girls. So, so proud. Without question, when told to put on their shoes, they did. There was no, "Is this the right foot? I want THAT pair. Where is the red pair?" They simply put on shoes. I grabbed the dog's leash, checked on Brian, who was now on the deck with a soon-to-be-melted hose putting water on the fire, and the girls (human and canine) and I went to the neighbor's front yard and then porch.

Fast-forward through scary images forever in my mind of firetrucks, emergency lights, firefighters, the sound of a chainsaw in our backyard.

Then it was over. It was out, the firefighters wrapped it up, we said thanks to the neighbors who had come out to their porch to wait with us and keep the girls occupied, and came inside.

Fast-forward more. What we know is this: The young women who woke us up (about 14-16, I'd guess) were out (I don't know why, but I don't care. They saved us) said they smelled smoke, wondered why someone was grilling at 3 a.m., saw our back yard was alight with an orange glow, saw the fire, ran to the front.

The big question, after, "Are you OK?"? What started it?

We have no idea. We don't know. We won't know. It was the second deck fire of the firefighter's shift.

So, now we move on. The insurance guy came out and we hope to have an estimate next week. We worked on the initial clean up today (and maybe the girls played a bit and got a bit sooty, in an attempt to take a bit of fear out of the whole thing). I'm trying to not play every moment of the morning over and over and over. I'm also trying to think about what if. That's way too much right now.

We were very close to disaster.

So, I hope tomorrow to post the one-year-of-being-together story.

God, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Impending...school!

Must. Get. School. Supplies.

School starts in just a few weeks for Leah and a couple of weeks after that for Hope. EEEK! Leah will be in K and Hope in preschool. Unbelivable.

Thank goodness for air conditioning

I'm a Midwestern girl; except for last summer spent in Russia, I've lived my entire life here in The Middle so summers get hot and winters get cold.

Except this hot seems excessive.

Maybe it's because I have two 4-year-olds (until two weeks from today when the older 4 turns 5!!!) and that means doing anything car-related means getting them both in and out of carseats with buckles and straps. The asphalt in parking lots radiates heat. There's lots of whining and dragging, and then there's how the girls feel.

The daycare provider is taking a much-deserved vacation this week, so it's been one of those crazy puzzle-piece weeks of a patchwork of kid care; I've taken time off from work, a dear friend/teenager played endlessly and braided their hair one day, they are with my parents tomorrow. This morning I just turned on the hose and let them do with the sprayer what they would. Now Snow White is on the DVD and we're back inside the blessed air conditioning. I hope the person who invented AC has an extra-special spot in Heaven.

My mom and I took the girls to get summer pictures done yesterday and I hope to have some to share this weekend. I'll prepare you right now - the pictures are beyond adorable.

I'm stealing this from a fellow adoptive mother of a Russian child; adorable Clara Jane:
I just checked out the US Dept. of State website and found these stats regarding the number of children adopted from Russia to the US by year:


2010: 1,079
2009: 1,586
2008: 1,857
2007: 2,303
2006: 3,702
2005: 4,631
2004: 5,862
2003: 5,221
2002: 4,950
2001: 4,292
2000: 4,286
1999: 4,381

Wow, that's a tiny number for 2010.

Back to Holly: Yikes, that is a tiny number. What's funny to me is I can put a name to some of those numbers: Hope, Leah, Anthony, Clara Jane, Anna, Natalia...goodness I'm blessed to know these precious little ones who started their lives in Russia.

Electric!

I think we are really lucky...we're among the only people in our neighborhood who have electricity after a summer storm last night. Brian and I sat on the couch and watched the wind, rain and hail, and saw pops of light in the distance as transformers blew. We took flashlights and put them next to the bed, but were fine this a.m.

But, daycare wasn't.

But again, thankfully, power came back on there tonight. We had an adventure today with girlies going to work on the big campus with Mommy today. They were really very good and I can't complain, but man, that was hard!

Here's to hoping more lights twinkle in windows in the neighborhood tonight and that tomorrow is back to the same-old-same-old! I'm all for a little regular right about now.

Four! Hope's birthday!

We now have two sisters who are both 4, but who aren't twins! For this brief about-4-week period each year the girls will technically be the same age...until Leah takes her yearly leap forward each August.

We had a lovely day with Hope. She awoke to the dining room decorated with streamers, balloons, a princess tablecloth and centerpiece and more. We met friends and family at the Zoo and saw everything on Hope's list of have-to-sees (my fave? The Russian polar bear named Nikita). Then we had lunch out (even though our original choice, a family fave near our home had shades drawn, a locked front door and a moving van in the parking lot...never a good thing to see when you're excited about some fish and chips and a good black and tan!) and then came home for presents and cake and ice cream.

Days like these are jewels.

This girl is simply precious.

A smiling girl and a sleeping lion behind her.

Sea otters!

Everybody's naked

Hope had an epiphany today.

On our way home from Grammy and Grampy's, where they spend each Friday, Hope said to me, "I'm just pretending, but Grammy was naked today."

"Oh, she was?" I said. "Yes. I'm just pretending," said she.

A few seconds ticked past.

"Mommy, everybody gets naked."

I responded affirmatively, and said that at bath or shower time people got naked, or when they were changing their clothes. What followed was a list of lots of people who get naked. Eli. Grandpa Phil. You get the picture.

So, sorry friends and family, for imagining you naked. It's the almost 4-year-old's fault.