Slacker

I wish I wasn't the description of the title of this post..but it's true, downright true! I'm sick that I have let nearly a whole month go by without posting. Jason has come and gone.. :( , but we had a wonderful visit while he was home..and a great vacation at St George Island, Fl. Jason is back in Basrah now, but is hopefully headed to Kuwait and then eventually NJ later this week for a two week course he needs to complete. If his plans do come through..and he actually makes it back to the States (he says there are many issues that could halt these plans), then we are planning a weekend visit with him in a couple of weeks in NJ. Since we will be up North we are headed over to visit with our friends the Merkts. It will be great to see them again! Here are some pix from our beach vacation. There are way too many to post individually, so I plan to make a slide show for the rest. :)

Aidan

Teagan

Loren

Jordan, Ryan & Adalyn

Adalyn & Teagan

Addy Grace

Jason & the kiddos

Sisters

It's really June already?

School is officially out..and summer camp has begun. :), but only two days per week so the other five days I hear 'can we do something, can we go somewhere, Teagan stop!, Aidan no!...lol I'm so serious though. :)
Jason is due home on leave next week..hallelujah!!! I have no idea what day he will actually be home, but I know it's less than a week now. :)
Nearly everyday Teagan comes out with some word or saying that I have never heard her say..its very comical sometimes. Yesterday is was the word 'submarine'. She was playing in the tub with a plastic yellow boat and she kept calling it a submarine. Today it was 'I'm so mad'..she would go sit and sulk somewhere. with her head hanging down to where her whole face was covered with hair (doesn't take much..her hair grows forward that's why she has a 'pony holder' and/or a bow in her hair in every picture I take of her). I walked over to her and peered through the hair asking 'why are you so mad'..and she would smile and giggle at me.
Teagan had her three yr check up last week. She weighs 36.5lbs and is 40 in tall! That's the 95 percentile for height. Her dr just said...'she is going to be a big girl'.
Ok..I'm still way beind on updating..but this will have to do for now. :) Here are a few pix that I took recently. There is only one of Aidan..although it is adorable...because he isn't very cooperative when I get my camera out these days.

28 days

I'm on a count-down until Jason arrives home on leave. This is foremost on my mind today as I've been stuck in the house with both little ones because Aidan is sick with tonsillitis. :) No..really, of course it's something I think about daily regardless of what is going on in our family. During his 15 days at home we will be spending a week at the beach....St George Island, FL is our favorite beach destination. We haven't been during the summer in a long time though..we usually prefer fall break in October. It is less crowded then, the weather is still great (if you can dodge the hurricanes), and the prices are much more reasonable.
Speaking of Jason, he is presently in Basrah, Iraq (southern Iraq near the Persian Gulf). Camp Basrah does not have wireless internet so our daily skype sessions have ceased. I do see him online occasionally on gmail (just to chat) and he has begun to 'attempt' to call daily..I say attempt because our calls are dropped/lost frequently. There apparently can only be a certain number of calls at a time...so some just get bumped off without warning. He rarely gets off camp and has yet to take..or at least..send any pictures since his arrival. It takes too long to email pictures on the internet connection that he has to pay for... for his personal use.
I just looked over to my right..and here is my view. :) What a blessing!

So great a treasure....

The day has almost past here for us, but I couldn't let it end without a post. I just can't seem to find the energy or zeal to keep this blog updated lately. I feel like I'm running on fumes these days. Anyway....that is another subject for another time...maybe.
Today is Teagan's 'gotcha day' anniversary. I can hardly believe I have been her mommy for two years already. It's just unreal how time seemed to creep by while we were waiting for her, but the past two years have flown. I am immensley grateful for this sweet child..this 'great treasure' as her Chinese name translates. I love you Teagan Josie Baohong Fleming.

God's plan revealed

Part II:
Six years ago today...we awoke in our hotel room in Krasnoyarsk, Russia (after very little sleep) and prepared physically and mentally for the trip ahead...the trip back to the orphanage. We were being allowed to visit with our son for an hour and a half for the two full days we were there in Kras (first trip was only five days long). As we entered the lobby and met our guide, Alex, we were very honest and said we really didn't want to go back just to visit with Kirill again...that we still felt the same as we did the day before...that he had more issues than were originally reported. Alex told us that we could visit with another child if we wanted. Wow..that was the first we had heard of this option. Nothing was mentioned the day before when we 'talked' to the director though our interpreter. I prayed the whole van ride to the orphanage...asking God to change my heart if this was indeed the child He had chosen for us. That was my only heart's cry. Upon arriving we again assembled in the director's office..and started the whole rehashing of our concerns again. Finally, after literally 45 minutes of 'discussing' we were told that there were three boys we could visit with today. Two of them were two yrs old. We had requested 'as young as possible' as Jason has no biological children and we really wanted him to experience as much of our child's young life as possible. We were told there was a five month old..who had tested positive for Hep C antibodies at birth and was planning to be retested at six months. We discussed the issue of babies carrying antibodies from their birth mother..and actually being negative for the disease. I tried to rack my exhausted brain for what I may have learned regarding HepC in nursing school...and ultimately decided to visit with 'Sasha'. We waited in the director's office for a nanny to prepare and bring Sasha to us. A woman walked into the room and in her arms was the most beautiful, lively, blue-eyed baby boy that I had ever seen. I walked right up and took him..before I was even instructed to do so. He was smiling, we were smiling. It was a match made in heaven..literally..before the foundations of the Earth..this child was our son. Jason, Sasha/Aidan and I went to the 'play room' (and joined the other couple visiting with their son) and had the most amazing hour and a half visiting, playing, and feeding this adorable boy. It was sad to leave him that day..but there was such peace and relief in my heart that it was somehow OK. We returned to the director's office to sign official papers stating we did indeed want to pursue the adoptions and to request that our children be removed from the adoption database. We were told that Sasha would be retested before we returned for our court date and our agency would notify us of the results. As it turned out...Sasha was not even in the 'available' adoption database because they were waiting on him to be retested at the six month mark. God had literally preserved this child for us.
We had a seven week wait before we could return to go to court to legally make Sasha our son. Sasha is a nickname for the name Aleksandr....so our son is now Aidan Josiah Aleksandr Fleming, and he is perfect in every way (his test was negative two weeks after we left him..and negative again upon returning home). God is so good..and I will forever praise Him for the precious gift of our son.

Krasnoyarsk, Russia Anniversary

Six years ago was one of the most emotional days of my life. I had traveled across the globe to Krasnoyarsk, Russia with Jason to meet our son. Throughout the trip, I had pulled out a small picture of a tiny little baby....our referral...looking at that photo gave me purpose..a reminder of the reason I had taken my first plane ride (yes...my first time ever being on an airplane was to fly to the other side of the world) and why I had left my daughters, Jordan and Loren back at home with my parents. I could not wait to get our son in my arms.
We arrived in Kras and met our translator/guide who took us to the Krasnoyarsk Hotel to check in and get settled before visiting the orphanage later in the day. That afternoon we spent an hour and a half with a child that I knew I could not take home. It was the most horrendous guilt and despair I had ever felt. From the moment they placed Kirill (his given Russian name) in my arms....I just knew. He was severely hypertonic at four months old. His body felt rigid in my arms..the arms that wanted to cradle my baby..my son. I knew there were issues..and I explained my concerns after our visit (also explaining that I was a NICU nurse). The other couple that traveled at the same time was visiting their son..also a four month old and the difference between the two babies was like night and day. It was not just me. He never even made eye contact with us during the visit. The director kept insisting that he would 'grow out of it' and that they were 'massaging his limbs' to help. I cried the entire hour long trip back to our hotel...and into the night. I actually told Jason that I just wanted to go home..it was too hard. How could I have traveled so far only to reject the referral we had been given, and would we even receive another referral during this trip if we declined this child.
Part II coming tomorrow....

Happy Teagan Referral day!

Actually yesterday was 'the phone call' day anniversary, but today is the day that I got her packet with PICTURES..and that is what we all really wait for, right? :) I can hardly believe it's been 2 years since her referral. The two years waiting for her were so long and hard..and the past two seem to have flown by. Is that right, two years??!!! Teagan has certainly made these two years interesting, exhausting and trying at times, but she has also completed a void in my heart, filled it with the most amazing love and lit up my life with her beautiful face. Jason and I are so in love with this little Chinese firecracker. Thank you God for orchestrating the whole process, continuing to bless our lives with her presence and for the simple joy of loving her.
I would post a picture...but my 'lovie girl' has a GI bug and isn't feeling well (yesterday or) today. I will get some new pix this weekend...as it is predicted that we will have nearly 70 degree temps the whole weekend.
Jason is being a slacker on taking and posting pix. And likewise I have been a blogger-slacker. :) Here are a few he took a week or so ago.

Jason sitting in one of Saddam's chairs (only there for the novelty of photos and such). Just look at all that marble everywhere!

Al Faw Palace