8 Months

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the R Adoption Ban which has ruled our lives for the past year.  As we slept, Vladimir Putin signed the ban into law in what we still believe to be a knee jerk reaction to the ego blow of the Magnitsky Act that our government had signed.

The R government assured its citizens, as well as the American citizens that the were in the pipeline when the law was signed, that the children in these R orphanages would receive families in R, as they were boosting their adoption programs, handing out all kind of incentives (even apartments!!) to those adopting children, including those with special needs.

1 year later, our sweet boy still sits in his sub-par orphanage, with the vast majority of his special needs friends.

To our best estimates, Hudson would have been home for 8 months now. At a glance, it may not seem like much, but this is how we see it:

8 months of medical care, physical therapy, dental work.
8 months of education, speech development, socialization, Sunday school.
8 months of nutritious and balanced meals, fresh fruits and vegetables, meal time prayers.
8 months of holidays with birthday cake, fireworks, trick-or-treating and Christmas trees.
8 months of Legos, Wiggles sing-a-longs, balls, toy cars and trucks.
8 months of a very excited brother and sister, rambunctious as they may be!
8 months of bed time stories with Mama, early morning snuggles with Daddy, the love of a family.

I could break down those 8 months into days, hours and minutes but it would only break us down even more.  In short, 8 months that could and would have truly transformed his life and ours.

Instead we have had the following:

8 months of praying to, waiting for, pleading with God.
8 months of pulling together with other parents to put the pieces of every day life back together.
8 months of monitoring all R news sources, calling politicians, joining advocacy groups.
8 months of explaining to a 2 and 4 year old why God gives us free will and how our fallen world can abuse it in so many ways.
8 months of tears and chocolate.

Through the past 8 months, we have still felt God's hand in our lives and He has blessed us in so many other areas.  While we are joyous to be adding a new addition to our family (due January 17th), we know that our family is not complete.  Until Hudson has a family either with us or with a Russian family, we remain 100% committed to him.

Today, we comfort ourselves with the thoughts of God's amazing love for all of His children, and we pray for the children and the families who have been caught in this heartbreaking ban.

The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time. For the LORD protects the bones of the righteous; not one of them is broken! ~ Psalm 17-20

Thanksgiving Trip Recap!

In November,Team Lewis hit the road for 2 and a half weeks of work/fun/family time/Thanksgiving merriment!

Noah and Audrey and I made the first leg of our trip to PA on our own, while Dave slaved away at the office.  We spent 2 days in Philly filled with work meetings, some visiting with friends and a trip or two to Chick-Fil-A and Jamba Juice.

We then headed out to Greensburg for 5 days to visit with Tiffany's family.  We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas complete with a turkey dinner, presents and lots of play time at Happy's karate school.

Despite calling for a terrible storm, Dave was able to make it into Pittsburgh on the day before Thanksgiving.  We then headed to his parents' for lots of cousin time, another Thanksgiving celebration with the famed Lewis family stuffing and even a trip to a Lego playland.  All of Dave's siblings were able to make it into town, and even though it has only been since May that such a gathering had occurred, we know as we all continue to spread across the country and welcome more and more children into our families, these occasions will become fewer and further in between.  We treasured the moments while we could!

After the Turkey coma wore off, it was back to Philly for more meetings and more time with our Eastern PA cousins and friends.  Since Dave and I both had meetings while we were in town, Aunt Wendy was super sitter and Noah and Audrey could not stop talking about all of the fun things they did with her.  She set the bar quite high for me when we returned home!

It was a long two weeks, complete with about 5 different overnight accommodations.  The kids did an amazing job of keeping it all together, attempting to eat healthy foods, staying well rested and containing their emotions with all of the stimulation that surrounded them.  We were beyond proud!  It was quite a transition home as we had all been used to sleeping in and having some lazy days. We are back on track now, just in time to interrupt the routine again for Christmas break!!

As we prepared for our big trip, we welcomed 70 degree weather in Boston.  An outdoor picnic on Nov. 17th was a super special treat for our send off!

Noah and Audrey loved the Christmas train in the mall in my hometown. It always makes me sappy to think that my brother and I rode the same train when we were little!

The kids loved spending time with Grammy at the mall. 

They were so patient as they waited for their turn in the engine of the train.

Noah and Audrey have a blast at Happy's karate school.  A huge padded space all to themselves to run around in.  Oh how I wish we had this on those frigid winter days up north!

The kids with Bubba, their great grandmother. 

The kids with Grammy.  (Audrey has clearly had enough!)

But a snuggle with Bubba cheered her right up!  What a blessing to have such awesome great-grandparents!

Bubba, Grammy, and Pap Pap. These kids are so blessed!

She knows she shouldn't have favorite cousins, but Audrey definitely has a soft spot for cousin Cole!

All 7 Lewis Grandchildren.  Clearly Audrey has space issues! 

During our last stint in Philly, we were so lucky that Cole and Cameron had the day off school and we all got to go bowling. 

Cole helped Noah position his bowling ball on the ramp.  Noah's final score was in the high seventies! Not too shabby for his first time bowling with the big balls!

Cameron was a great help to Audrey.  It was Audrey's first time bowling and she finished with a score in the 60s!!

I don't think she was really a fan of the shoes, but she was a good sport!

Audrey adores her Aunt Wendy and requests we go to her house at least 3x a week!

The kids' favorite part of bowling was the little arcade at the bowling alley. This was their favorite game.  It was mama's, too, as they sat and pretended to drive while the driving preview planned over and over again. Pretty great free entertainment!

Late Summer/Early Fall Photo Dump!

I entered the world of the smart phone in May, and though I have yet to download a single "app", I have amassed well over 200 photos. Today, I finally learned how to get them off of the phone, onto the computer and into a blog post.  So please enjoy a synopsis of our late summer/early fall moments through pictures since we have been slacking on the regular updates!

Noah has a super best friend at school.  We are so blessed that Noah has a great buddy and we enjoy his family so much.  We all had a great time at the Marshfield Fair!

Noah and Danny couldn't get enough of the rides.  Since Noah is usually intimidated by rides, we were thankful Danny was there to get him excited and help him conquer his fears!

Team Lewis at the fair.

Audrey was quite a fan of the fair's cuisine. Though apparently you can't get funnel cakes at MA fairs, only fried dough.  Big disappointment for the Lewis Ladies. 

The boys didn't mind the lack of funnel cakes quite as much. 

Dave's sweet ride home from work on Friday evenings!  We loved meeting him at the ferry then enjoying awesome burgers and fries while sitting by the water.  Summer Fridays rocked!

Audrey and Dave enjoyed some arts and crafts on a rainy summer weekend.  Sand art is quite manly ;-) 

Oh, apple picking! Our family is slightly obsessed with fruit picking; it is one of our favorite ways to spend a Saturday morning. 

Audrey has become a big fan of pumpkins this year.  She points them out everywhere and says "Hi Pumpkin!"

Fall = Hayride time!

Noah had his first day of Pre-K!  

Audrey had her first temper tantrum since she couldn't stay for Pre-K.  This girl is ready for school!

Noah and Dave build on rainy days.  They created an awesome K'Nex Ferris Wheel!

We took a quick weekend trip to Mystic, Ct.  Our first stop was the Mystic Aquarium.  The kids had a blast!

Audrey wanted to pet a penguin and this was the closest we could get. 

The Begluga whales were a big hit.  We sang "Baby Beluga" about a thousand times. Audrey now calls me Mama Luga....it's cute and depressing all at the same time! 

We had to hit up Mystic Pizza.  Noah didn't understand the significance, but loved the pizza. 

Noah and Audrey picked out little turtles as their souvenirs from the aquarium.  More best friends for Mommy to drag around from place to place each day!

Audrey chose a pink turtle.  Are we surprised?  

Audrey got new boots for fall.  She refused to take them off for about 3 days.  We're in trouble. 

Another day apple and pumpkin picking at our local farm.  I think Dave is more excited about Fall than the kids!

And what do we do with all those apples??  Audrey made her first French apple tart.  She did most everything by herself and was so proud.

Whew!  Someday I might start actually using my real camera again and updating regularly!  Until then, this photo dump should hold you over on the happenings of Team Lewis!

A Campin' We Will Go!

We did it!

Team Lewis had a truly awesome, fun-filled camping adventure and we couldn't be more excited to do it again soon!

If you know us in person, we are not the type that you would initially think would be all over the camping thing.  Though we don't consider ourselves high maintenance, per se, we aren't super outdoorsy.  Hiking is good, as long as it is relegated to 1 or 2 weekends a year, we don't particularly enjoy bugs, and to be honest, layers of outdoor filth on everything we touch kind of grosses me out.  But camping is different for some reason.  Camping is pretty magical, actually!

I think my parents may have been slightly brilliant with the whole camping scheme.  Almost every summer we did a beach vacation and a camping trip. Though the beach was fun and I may have even been more excited about the beach trips at the time, the camping trips are the ones that truly stand out in my memory.  Growing up as the only girl with 3 brothers, it was easy to feel left out.  Add our significant age differences (one of my brothers is 7 years older than me and another is 9 years younger), and it was rare that on a typical weekend in our free time that any of my siblings were hanging out with each other.  We all had our own friends, our own rooms and our own interests.  Even when we had "family time" it was hard to ever find all that much that a 17 year old and a 1 year old would all really enjoy.

But camping.  Camping was different!

We were forced to be together all the time and for once, didn't mind a bit.  Even if we spread out a bit during the day, that evening campfire brought us all together. No one was hanging out with video games in the tent, no friends were stopping by to see if we could play. It was just us.  And talk about common interests:  roasted marshmallows and mountain pies can be appreciated by kids and adults of all ages!

As our kids grow, they have the added bonus of handheld technology to distract them from true family connection, so camping as a family seemed like the perfect way to get together as a family and remove all of the pesky distractions of life.

The first weekend in August we headed down to Shawnee State Park in PA (the same place I had grown up camping!).  Team Lewis was joined by my dad, my youngest brother, and my oldest brother with his two girls. The camp site was set up very quickly, as the sky was threatening to rain at any minute.  Luckily, all we ever got was a slight misting.  When the camp was all set up, we started on dinner and we were all very thankful for the Pinterest camping pointers that we had put into place. After dinner, we explored our surroundings.  We were thrilled to see that a new and even closer bath house had been built since the last time we had been there.  We hit up the camp playground and even checked out the amphitheater to find an interesting speaker on the evolution of teeth in animals based on their diets.  At dusk, we headed back to the campfire, made s'mores with the kids and then put the kids to bed. The adults then had some time to catch up before we hit the hay.

The next morning, though a bit chilly at first, after a great breakfast, we all headed to the lake. Noah and Audrey haven't had a lot of extended time with their cousins on my side of the family so it was awesome to see the kids all swimming in the water together and having a blast.  After swimming, we had nap time for Audrey and Uncle Shaun led a nature hike for the bigger kids.  Dinner was followed by another campfire and more marshmallows (oh, the marshmallows!).   The following morning, we decamped and headed our separate ways, very eager to do this again next year!

Noah and Audrey could not stop talking about it.  They loved spending time with the cousins, sleeping and playing in the tent and falling asleep to the beautiful night song of nature.  As we are planning a little vacation time in September, the kids have made it clear to us that their vote is camping again.  In short, I would say it was a grand success. Now let's pray they still feel this way in their teens when they have friends, drivers' licenses and their own cell phones!!

(pardon the pics, I forgot my camera and only had the phone!)

The kids claim their spots around the campfire. 

Audrey got a new pink chair just for this trip.  She never wanted to leave it!

Noah was this deliriously happy for the entirety of the trip. 

The had a blast swimming! Noah NEVER gets this deep in the water. He had no fear.  We are thinking of hiring his 4 year old cousin as a swimming instructor. No floaties or anything!

We searched high and low for a yellow camping chair for him.  This is one happy camper...literally!

There was a window in the tent right where Audrey's Pack and play was set up.  She liked to play in there and open the window to tell us when she was done!

Audrey loves her Happy! (Grandfather)

The kids pretty much stalked my father.  He never had a moment's peace! What a trooper!