Happy Holidays !!

Here's the 2 children sharing in the holidays...

Happy Holidays!

It's our first year as a family of 4 and Baby Mia's first Christmas with her family!  Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and may all your dreams come true this coming year...

The Kessler Family

YES - we're here!

OK, fellow bloggers - we've been busy adjusting our son to a new school and enjoying our daughter who has been with us for 7 months now!  Time sure flies...

Last week we visited the federal judge to work on finalizing our adoption!  Hooray - Mia was so good that day and I promise (I swear) to post pictures this weekend!  As part of that process, our social worker, Jacque visited us this morning and is busy preparing the final review to send to the court to get this adoption finalized - we're hoping to finalize by the end of the month or by mid-January at the latest...

More soon and promise, more pictures soon...

The Kesslers

After the Birthday Cake...

Guess what - I LOVE cake!  Who would have guessed that our daughter who has never had sweet goodies like cake just loves it after the first bite!

And, you should have seen the real mess all over her when we popped her out of the highchair...

Before the Cake...

Can you tell I am so excited that it's my birthday???

Birthday Gal...

And, the Birthday Pictures...

We're Back - It's Birthday Time for Baby Mia!

Time flies when you return home from Vietnam!  We can hardly believe our little one has been with us for nearly 6 months!  Baby Mia is 1 years old and we'll attach a few snapshots of the wonderful day.  

Overall, we're adjusting so very well to being a family of four now.  I sure wish I had taken more time off when first home from Vietnam as returning to work so quickly has left me with a sad feeling that I am missing out on so much with our little one - the practical side of me says that it's quality time rather than quantity but that emotional side sure feels the parental guilt that many of us face!  With the economy so challenging these days, I don't dare cut back on work hours (a real dream but not a reality at this point in our lives).

We're following the journeys of our friends who have returned and wishing safe travels to those waiting for I-600 approvals and such.  A special congratulations to a dear friend Linda who was just matched with a baby girl via a domestic adoption (she missed the Vietnam deadline) and we cannot wait to see the adorable baby pictures!  

Speaking of adorable baby pictures - here's our 1 year old...

And, more of our beautiful one...

I'm Back online! NEW PICTURES...

It's official - I have become the super busy mom with 2 children!  How do people find time to catch up on things.  I have been so busy yet happy to catch up with folks waiting to travel and in country now - congratulations to the group and we can't wait to see your little ones joining the family today in Vietnam!!!  There are 6 families becoming forever families today!

Tonight I'm going to update the blogs I've been following and provide some new pictures, etc. of our crew!  Here's our baby girl celebrating her first 4th of July in America...

See how she has grown and how much we have enjoyed the celebration as a family!

Love to all - Christy, Doug, Bradley and our Baby Mia!

OK - One More Picture of the Little One...

Who can't resist an adorable picture...

Our Two Water Kids...

Posing after Bradley's First Swim Meet...

More water fun...

I'm Back and With Pictures...

I know, I know...

I said I would post pictures real soon! But for those who read and know what it's like to adjust with a new baby, balance the rest of the family, work full-time, etc. you know the drill....

Anyways, here's some adorable pictures of the children at Bradley's first swim meet and at the pool. Mia is truly a water baby! She loves the bath tub and the pool and screams when we have to get her out (even when her lips are blue!).

At Bradley's first swim meet of the year, he swam in four events and did (in his own words) awesome! He moved up an age class and managed to compete in the first heat (the one that scores points for the team) and they won their first meet. Bradley shaved off nearly 1.5 seconds from his freestyle swim competition and he was able to, for the first time, swim in competitive relays (his first time and he didn't get the team concept for points and placement) but now he's ready for the next meet (which is tomorrow).

The highlight of the entire day was that he lost a tooth at the meet - see the picture attached!

Wish us luck and enjoy the pictures of our water babies (or should I say children)!

Yes - we'll post more pictures soon!!!

Once again, busy living life and been offline.  Just returned to the living and found out that our agency has had a flurry of approvals - WC families will descend on Vietnam in the next week or so - Congratulations to everyone!!  Also, congratulations to our buddies in Ireland who are busy traveling to meet their forever families...

What's new with us??  We finally beat the scabies - hooray!  For anyone who's been thru this, it's a great relief!  A word to the wise for those to travel - treat early and often!

Our beautiful daughter is 9 months old and we took her for for portraits this weekend (will post a great picture or 2 in the next day or so).  Our son Bradley just adores his little sister and our family has bonded really well.

Thinking of everyone often and will post pictures soon - really I will...

Off tomorrow on a field trip to a local zoo with our son (weather reports storms all day - this should be fun)...  Stay tuned...

Bradley Adores His Sister Mia...

It's just amazing to see how much love our son has for his little sister. He really adores her! Somehow we thought the newness of the entire experience would wear off but it's been a month since we've been home now and Bradley just adores his little sister...

The Almost Always Happy Baby Mia...

More Pictures of the Family Having Fun

Funny face Bradley posing while his sister is sound asleep from a stroller ride, complete with formula on her face!

Mia Meets my sister's dog

Well, we have a dog lover in our midst! Mia just loves Bailey (my sister's pet dog) and is not afraid of the dog at all! She had so much fun playing with the dog during a recent visit.

Happy Mother's Day & Latest Updates...

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all readers who are moms, have moms or are waiting to become moms!!! We've been super busy with scabies at our home - I never knew it was possible to do so much laundry - it's been over 15 loads so far...

We've slathered up with the cream for our first treatment and have the fun of doing it all over again next week - YUK! Our son Bradley had so much fun dressing himself fully and covering his hands with socks - check out this pose...

We're sending pictures of what we've been up to lately...

A Happy Girl!!

Happy May! More Pictures...

Greetings to all our readers! It's been a busy couple of weeks as I returned to work already - boo, hoo! Adjusting to work and family has been a challenge sometimes but we're getting used to all the rushing around!

Mia is adjusting really well - she's a great eater and loves all the baby food. She also loves swinging! She sits up and is trying to figure out how to crawl - frustrating for her because she just isn't there yet! She's sleeping thru the night most every night which is great for the family.

Here's some pictures of Mia with her wonderful big brother (don't tell him we posted bath time pictures-ha, ha) but I couldn't resist!

Baby Mia Finally Meets Her Daddy!

Back Among the Living...

Yes - it's me - back among the living! So delayed in posting updates to the blog and I know that many are emailing seeking news...

Here's some pictures of the first day home meeting Daddy, Big Brother, Aunt & Uncle, etc. I'm going to get caught up posting additional pictures from Vietnam and since we've been home this week - promise!

It's been 2 weeks since we've been home and believe it or not, I'm back at work this week! With Doug recovering from surgery, I had to get back to work at least for part of the days. I'm working a modified schedule now that allows me time to spend with Mia and with our son Bradley.

Mia is great - finally sleeping thru the night - a big hooray on this! And, just in time for me to get back to work...

She's a big eater and loves all the baby food we can put in front of her. She now sits up very well and is making all sorts of new baby noises. It's so funny to see that her baby sounds were so different as they were Vietnamese sounds and now she's learning English baby sounds - she's got an interesting blends of sounds right now!

On the Bac Ninh front, there are a few families about to be matched with babies from our orphanage and we just can't wait to hear of their good news! There's also been a Yahoo site created for our province and it's been great to email others both in the US and in Ireland who have babies from the Bac Ninh orphanage.

More later on the blog...

Back Among the Living - Updates & Pictures

We're getting on a schedule of sorts. Mia slept last night from 7pm until 4:30am, took a bottle and went back to sleep until 7am - hooray! Today she's been a mess of sorts due to her first doctor's visit and the first round of shots last evening! She's a fuss bucket and feverish due to the shots. She's only calm when we play her Vietnamese lullabies - thanks heavens for this music!

Backtracking a bit with pictures and thought you would all like to see pictures of the US Embassy Visa day. Here's pictures from that day - a very special day in Vietnam as she was declared ours and we received our Visa approval to come home!

We're Home!

That's right folks - back in the USA!  We arrived at 3am on Saturday morning (only a 30 hours trip back this time) so that was great.  Mia did pretty well - she only lost it during the beginning of flights and screamed for a few minutes (with the exception of the beginning of the Hong Kong trip - that lasted for about 60 minutes!)  We would give her first travel on airplanes a grade of B - pretty good for a little one!

Spent most of Saturday sharing our little one with our son Bradley and husband Doug!  It was so exciting to see their reactions and Mia's as well.  She is adjusting really well to the two of them. Bradley loves to hold his sister, play with her and even wanted to help give her a bath and change a diaper!  He woke up at 4:30 am on Saturday as he heard us home and wouldn't go back to sleep - he played with his sister most of the day!  

The ultimate question - Yes - we are welcoming visitors!  So many have called and followed the blog.  This is an open invitation to stop by.  We welcomed Aunt Pam and Uncle Jeff on Saturday along with Jeff's parents who were in town from Iowa.  We also had a few neighborhood visitors.  Mia is a lively little gal and loves visitors!

 

Our only issues remain adjusting to the 12 hour time difference, the increase of her night terrors again (anyone have ideas for help on this one? - please share), and her eczema - poor little thing is covered with it.  We're scheduled for the first Dr. visit on Wednesday and hope to get some relief for this then!

We're a little behind in posting pictures and tales from the balance of our Vietnam journey but hope to catch up on this on Monday.  

Thanks to all who have assisted us in celebrating the addition of our family!  We've been so excited to share this blog with everyone...

Greetings from Hong Kong!

We made it through our first leg of the journey home! Mia was great on the flight - only screamed for 5-8 minutes before take off (she was too hot - everyone was!). After that she was great.

Let's hope we have as much luck on the next flight to Los Angeles - 15 hours - taking bets for this...

Next time we post we'll be in the USA!

More families arrive in Vietnam for their babies!

Forgot to mention that two families traveled today to Lang Son to receive their babies. Mia and I stopped down this morning to the hotel lobby to wish them well and send them on their way...

And, a group of 3 families arrive this weekend or so for a G & R Ceremony later next week in Bac Ninh. Things are moving in Vietnam and with space opening up at orphanages, I'm sure we'll learn of new CFC's very soon! Thinking of everyone in the waiting phases and wishing everyone well!

See you online in the USA...

Update - US Visa Approved and We're Coming Home!

It's been a couple of busy days here in Vietnam and there's been little time to post. I know many of you follow the blog and we're a bit behind in the news...

Completed all of our shopping and site seeing by the skin of our teeth! There's so much to see and do here and with a 13 day trip, it's impossible to fit it all in. Yes, it's 13 days and we're coming home!

We had our US Embassy appointment yesterday and it was a snap! It took about 5 minutes and we had our Visa about 3 hours later! We all had a group farewell dinner last night as some in our group left tonight. The rest are heading out tomorrow (Friday) including us! We're traveling from Hanoi to Hong Kong, then to Los Angeles and finally arriving in Chicago - Home Sweet Home.

We can't wait for Daddy and Bradley to meet Mia!!! They've met via Skype and web cams and that's been a great communication tool. I recommend this to everyone for keeping in touch with loved ones at home.

We'll try to post more pictures very soon and share the experiences of our journey home!

As we close another day in Vietnam, sweet dreams to everyone...

Ending the day with our cutie....

As we close another day in Vietnam, here's a couple more pictures of our little sunshine...

Cultural Tour Today - US Visa Appt Tomorrow

It's Tuesday evening in Hanoi and a cold spell hit our neck of the woods - a cold 65 degrees! A couple of women were concerned that we didn't have a hat on our daughter. We will bring a hat with us tomorrow so we don't insult the locals. She was dressed head to toe in long sleeves, a sweater and stuffed into a quilted snugglie! But, for the locals, they dress their babies so warmly!

Today we went with our guide exploring the cultural aspects of Hanoi - visited temples, the red bridge, the Temple of Literature, Ho Chi Minh burial site and museum. Very interesting and we'll post a bunch of pictures from our day next.

We definately recommend a local guide arranged via the hotel for convenience and the ability to see so many things in 1/2 day. We never would have seen so much on our own and it was so easy to travel with the baby via car everywhere.

Our US Embassy appointment is set for tomorrow afternoon. Assuming all goes well (keep your fingers crossed for us and the other families) we'll start our journey home on Friday. Let's hope it takes a little less than the 56 hours it took to get here!

Enjoy the pictures we're posting...

Shopping Sites of Interest

Our guide took us today to a shop that features, hand embroidered with silk, paintings in all sizes. The picture shows one of the woman working on a painting. They are awesome and a typical painting 11x17 takes 1-3 months of full-time work to complete. They use either cotton or silk (mostly silk) thread. They were so beautiful - we just had to pick one up for our home. We recommend experiencing this while in Hanoi.