Fisk Family Adoption

Jack turned 6 months old this past Wednesday, and he’s such fun. He’s a bouncing, laughing baby boy. Since my last post, it seems like he’s made a new discovery each week: first it was his ears, then his hands. He learned to go “bam bam” with his legs, slamming them against the crib mattress; then he learned to go “bam bam” with his “keys,” one of his favorite toys. He loves toys that light up and play music and can listen to the same tune over and over again.

He’s such a good baby, although the first few weeks of teething were challenging. We bought teething toys galore, but nothing seemed to help. Finally, he seemed to accept the fact that he was going to be in pain and stopped wailing. I preferred the wailing. His quiet teary-eyed suffering was so much more heartbreaking. I submit the following as evidence:

Still no teeth, but he seems to be feeling better. We’ve been able to take lots of good pictures lately, as seen below. Each year, Scott uses our tax return money to get something nice. Last year, it was a new bedspread and Egyptian cotton sheets. This year it’s a new camera.

As you can see, like his sister, Jack is fond of hats. And, speaking of Arina, she has had a whirlwind of activity since March. She was in two weddings. For Sarah and Matt, she was a miniature bride. For Julie and John, she was a flower girl. We’re still waiting on photos from Julie’s wedding, but we have lots of photos from Sarah’s. In the first, Arina is . . . well, being Arina. She loved going to a hotel and getting dressed with Sarah and her bridesmaids.

And, as soon as the ceremony was over, she plopped down beside her miniature groomsman, Ryan, and enjoyed a lollipop. Then she and her flower girl friend danced the night away. That’s our girl.

Other March-to-May highlights include Easter, Mother’s Day, and a weekend get-away to Jacksonville, NC, courtesy of my cousin Bobby and his family. There are tons of photos in the gallery, but I’ve included, below, a photo commemorating my first Mother’s Day with my boy and my girl, and a photo commemorating Jack’s first trip to the beach. Thanks to Bobby, Jenn, and Alyssa for a wonderfully relaxing beach weekend that was actually full of firsts! Jack rolled over for the first time. Of course, Scott blames me for the fact that he hasn’t rolled over before now. Basically, Jack hates to be on his belly, and I hate to hear him cry. And Arina jumped on the trampoline (or, as she calls it, the jumpaline) for the first time. Fun!

And, now, for some Arina-isms:

On whether Scott and I should have more kids: “Two kids are enough. Babies are hard.”

Arina wanted to wear one of her Dad’s t-shirts as pajamas one night. When she put it on, she twirled around and said, “I look like God.”

Arina has been excited about her kindergarten class project, which involves pooling money to build a much-needed well for an African village. She took her dollar to school, gave it to her teacher for “the poor children who need clean water,” and then promptly asked for it back when she found out that she could buy ice cream at lunchtime.

Arina went to the zoo with her kindergarten class. The night before, I asked what she most looked forward to seeing. Her response: “The ice cream.”

One night at dinner, I asked Arina to tell me her favorite part of the day. “Having a mom,” she said.

I received a phone call from Arina’s kindergarten teacher. A little boy in Arina’s room didn’t believe that Arina could pull her loose-fitting pants down without unbuttoning them. So she showed him that she could.

Conversations regarding the baby weight I haven’t lost are as follows:
Arina: “Mom, let me help you. You’re pregnant.” Me: “No, I’m not!” Arina, as she pats my belly: “Well, just a little.”

Arina: “So, are you losing your weight, Mom?” Me: “What do you think, Arina?” Arina: “Maybe a little. You just have to make yourself stop eating the cookies. Like I do.” Note: Arina does NOT make herself stop eating “the cookies.” Humph.

Well, my valiant effort to post once a week has failed abysmally. Jack does not have the web site coverage that Arina had at nearly four months as a Fisk. I’m so very sorry, my poor darling boy. And I can’t say it’s because he’s a difficult baby. He certainly has his melt-downs, but, on the whole, we really couldn’t ask for a better baby. He slept through the night a few times at 6 weeks old (before getting RSV and getting off schedule), and he sleeps through most nights now. So, my excuse for not posting? Scott and I are just busy with life, which includes hectic jobs, two kids, and two very high-maintenance dogs.

An example of what our day is like: Scott wakes up at 5:00am to be at work at 6:00am; I wake up between 6:00am and 6:30am to feed and change Jack; I get Arina ready for school, load both kids in the car, and drop off Arina at Brennen Elementary by 7:30am; at home, I shower, bathe Jack, and get both of us packed up for our respective “schools”; I drop Jack off at nursery school and go to my office at USC; I pick up Jack at either 12:30 or 1:00, and bring him home to feed and change him; Jack and I pick up Arina at 2:40; Scott gets home at 3:30; I either go back to the office or work from home until dinnertime; then dinner, bath for Arina, and bed for all (unless I still have work stuff to finish).

I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

Still, we’ve had a wonderful time as a family of four. Arina adores being a big sister, and Jack thinks his big sister is as entertaining as we do. Nana captured a sweet brother/sister moment during Jack’s first spend-the-night in McBee:

At nearly four months old, Jack coos and laughs and wants to see everything. — although he’s been an alert baby from the very beginning. Scott was holding him in the hospital when he heard my voice and turned his head around to look at me. And, we figured out soon that sometimes he cries not because he’s hungry or needs changing, but because he wants to be held up so that he can see. Nana calls that spoiled, but Scott thinks that he just gets bored.

So, how do I begin to chronicle the first four months of Jack’s life and still manage to get to bed before 12:00am? I’ve decided to list five memorable moments, starting with labor and delivery. I hate that I’ve waited so long to tell this story, because I find that some of the memories have already started to fade. But, here it goes:

5) I longed for the adoption experience throughout much of my pregnancy, because I felt alone. Scott and I were very much a team in Kazakhstan, but we couldn’t share pregnancy in the same way. However, I felt like we were very much a team in the labor and delivery room. I couldn’t have asked for a stronger, encouraging, and more protective partner. I have to say that I was very proud of how I handled labor and delivery — at one point, I overheard the nurse tell my doctor that I had “the most amazing control” (patting myself on the back now, thank you very much) — but Scott said that I looked at him for help two times. One of those was during the transition phase of labor when I was being beleaguered by a nurse and the second was immediately after labor when another nurse found it necessary to pummel my uterus. Scott spoke up for me both times, when I couldn’t do it myself. Our wonderful doula, Judy, told my parents that she could tell how much Scott and I love each other, which I thought was sweet.

Oh, Scott thought it was funny that the nurses and my doctor bragged about my “control,” because he thinks they meant that I’m “controlling.” He swears that I completely ignored a contraction that he was watching on a monitor, because I was so “into” telling my mother, who I was talking to on the phone, where to find my Harry Potter books-on-cd. In my naivete, I thought that it would be “fun” to listen to a Harry Potter novel during labor. So, Mom brought one to the hospital for me. Needless to say, I lost interest in that quickly.

4) Another favorite moment was the doula telling Mom, Dad and Arina about how “tough” I was during labor, and Arina telling the doula that she’s “tough like my Mommy.” For the record, I had a completely drug-free labor (patting myself on the back again). I asked for drugs at one point, during the transition phase, but my wonderful nurse Cindy told me that I could do it and offered to turn off my pitocin drip. From what I had read about pitocin and the unnaturally strong contractions that come along with it, I imagined that having the pitocin drip turned off was like receiving a dose of pain medication. I don’t know how big of a difference it made in the pain since I was on such a low dose, but placebo effect or not, I felt like I could do it at that point. As a 19th-century Brit lit specialist, I feel good about having experienced childbirth the way the women writers I read experienced it.

3) There were a couple of scary moments. My oxygen level dropped during the transition phase of labor, so I had to be administered oxygen. Also, the cord was wrapped around Jack’s neck and his heartbeat rate was dropping, so I had to have an episiotomy to hurry things along. Ouch. — but totally worth it. And, once I got home, I fainted (*or nearly so) a couple of times in the shower. Scott literally had to help me off the floor. I had a low hemoglobin level, which I’m assuming was the cause, and got on iron supplements. *By nearly so, I mean that things started fading to black, so I slid to the floor.

2) Jack ate well, and, as I mentioned earlier, was alert from the start. And I felt AMAZING after the delivery, other than the low hemoglobin level. I feasted on chicken tenders and curly fries as soon as I got back to the labor and delivery room and showered first thing the next morning. When we came home on Sunday, I had more energy than I had throughout my entire pregnancy. I cleaned the house. I taught my Harry Potter class on Tuesday. And I laughed, and laughed, and laughed. It must have been the “happy hormones” that your body produces to get you through labor, but I have to admit that I was sad when they wore off, because I’ve never laughed so hard in my life.

1) So, what’s the favorite Jack moment so far? The first time he cooed. I was nursing him in the middle of the night when he was only a few weeks old, and he looked at me with wide eyes, pursed his lips, and said, “Ooohhh.” He looked so pleased with himself, like he had been practicing and was waiting for the perfect moment to impress his mother. It took my breath away.

And, now, photos. Here’s the most recent photo of the little man. There are many more in the photo gallery!

And, now, here’s one of Arina, along with a more Rina-centered update and some Arina-isms:

Arina still averages a note home a week from school. Most of the time she’s being reprimanded for talking too much, although she’s been known to spit in the face of anyone who “bothers” her. In that respect, she and I couldn’t be more different. I cried whenever anyone bothered me, whereas Arina turns around and spits in faces. Mom says that she prefers Arina’s way, but that’s a doting grandmother for you.

I’ve decided that Arina is like Catherine Earnshaw, at least the way she’s described as a child in my favorite novel, Wuthering Heights:

“Certainly she had ways with her such as I never saw a child take up before; and she put all of us past our patience fifty times and oftener in a day: from the hour she came down-stairs till the hour she went to bed, we had not a minute’s security that she wouldn’t be in mischief. Her spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going - singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same. A wild, wicked slip she was - but she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile, and lightest foot in the parish.”

She’s a “wild, wicked slip” of a girl indeed, but we love her to pieces.

Here are some past and present Arina-isms:

1) For the first week of Baby Jack’s life, Arina believed that our baby sound monitor was her personal two-way communication system with her brother. Before she left for school, she would pat the monitor and said “Bye, bye Buddy.”

2) Arina’s response to breastfeeding: “Eww! I don’t want to have babies! I’ll adopt mine!”

3) After listening to Les Miserables, Arina composed and sang the following: “My name is Cosette. My mother sold her locket. And her hair. And then she died.”

4) One of Arina’s bedtime prayers: “Dear God, thank you for bathrooms, so that I can go potty. And thank you for boogers, so that I can blow them out.”

5) Arina gave Scott a pencil. Scott asked, “Why are you giving me this?” to which Arina replied, “I just knew I was going to draw on the table with it and didn’t want to get in trouble.”

6) I suggested that Arina make a classmate, on whom she spat, a necklace as a gesture of apology and goodwill. Arina said that she didn’t know how big the girl’s neck was, though she guessed “10 pounds.” Nevertheless, she made a necklace for the girl, because I told her that being kind would make her feel warm on the inside. When I picked her up from school the following day, she said that she was “hot” from “all that loving.”

7) The toothfairy forgot to visit Arina one night. Thankfully, Arina didn’t think the toothfairy forgot her. She said that we shouldn’t have put the tooth in a tiny ziplock bag, because clearly fairies can’t open ziplock bags.

I’ve decided that Arina takes after her father, because I have a couple of Scott-isms to record as well:

1) During those last few days of pregnancy, I was trying to clean the house from top to bottom and was trying to talk Scott into helping me finish one night. My rationale: “What if I go into labor tonight and it’s almost but not quite finished?” His response: “If you go into labor tonight, Sweetheart, you won’t give a damn.”

2) After Jack’s birth, Scott was bemoaning the fact that he seems to have the same dark circles that Scott has under his eyes. He then said, “Let’s hope he doesn’t also have your bags.” I told Scott that I didn’t know I had bags under my eyes (dark circles, yes, but bags?), to which he replied “oops.”

Like father, like daughter.

Happy New Year from the Fisk family! Since my last post, we’ve added another person to the family. Baby boy Fisk, or Jackson Scott, was born November 12th. His arrival has made me wonder if I should recreate this blog, and if so, how. It’s certainly grown beyond an adoption blog. The “Our Journey to Kazakhstan” part of the title is no longer appropriate. — although, to give Scott credit, he did include “. . . and back.” And, boy, a lot has happened since we’ve been “back.”

And a lot has happened since my last July post. On August 16th, Arina started kindergarten and on August 19th, she turned 5 years old. It’s hard to imagine a child who loves school more than Arina. She insists on being at school at 7:00am so that she can eat breakfast with George and friends. At first, we didn’t know about her little breakfast club. We only knew that she liked getting to school early and that money was draining way too quickly from the automatic draft system we set up for her lunch money. Upon further investigation, we discovered that she was eating a second breakfast every day. — one at home and one at school. The first featured photo is from Arina’s 5 year old birthday dinner at MeMe and PaPa Fisk’s house. In the photo gallery, you’ll find Arina’s “first day of school” shot.

At the end of August, we visited friends Shawn and Amy Reeves in Beaufort, SC. Arina had tons of fun playing with their children, Atticus and Amelia. We spent the weekend strolling through downtown Beaufort — Arina’s favorite stop was a candy store next to a playground — and then we visited historic sites, such as the Chapel of Ease. The next featured photo is of me, very pregnant, at the Chapel of Ease.

We were thinking the baby would arrive before or on Halloween. So, Arina spent Halloween weekend with Mom and Dad and trick-or-treated in McBee, while Scott and I walked the neighborhood, ate spicy food, and tried everything else we could think of to hurry Baby Jack along. I have to admit that I was disappointed when he decided to spend Halloween in utero; I was planning on penciling a lightening bolt onto his forehead and trick-or-treating with him as Harry Potter, “the boy who lived,” on the maternity ward.

He finally made his appearance, with a little prodding (i.e. Pitocin), on November 12th at 3:44pm after 6 1/2 hours of completely drug-free labor (how much of a rock star am I?). He weighed 7 lbs. 8 ozs. and was 20.25 inches long.

A couple of people have expressed interest in the fact that I’m now a mother through both adoption and biology and have asked how the two experiences compare. I’ll admit that, at the moment, I’m very into my boy. I’m on a post-pregnancy high, and although I had a miserable first trimester (b/c of morning sickness) and second trimester (b/c of a never-ending cold), I’ve fantasized about having a second biological child because of him. But, I can remember being similarly into my girl and being on such a post-adoption high that I actually filled out a second application to adopt the November after we got back from Kazakhstan in August! So, my reaction to both experiences was exactly the same.

As for differences, I was definitely more anxious during my pregnancy. I would, for example, have to find the cure for amniotic fluid embolism before a second pregnancy in order to have any peace of mind. And I find that I’m much more anxious about and protective of Jackson’s health; I’ve never worried about Arina’s. After all, Arina spent a year and a half of her life in an orphanage with 100+ kids and has the immune system of a superhero as a result. When she started going to nursery school, she’d bring home germs. — but they’d affect us, not her. She’s only vomited twice since we’ve known her, for goodness sake. Jackson, on the other hand, came home with jaundice and has already been hospitalized (albeit briefly) for RSV. The next featured photo is of sweet baby Jackson seeming vulnerable, although whether he’s really being vulnerable or mad is up for debate.

I suppose the best and most honest response to those who have questioned the adoptive vs. biological child connection is to say that I’m confident I have the kids I’m meant to have, regardless of how they got here, and that I feel incredibly lucky to have had both the adoption and birth experience.

As for Arina, she adores her baby brother. I honestly have not detected an ounce of jealousy. For Christmas, she wrote a letter to Santa for him so that he’d get presents too, and I know that she’ll gladly share this blog with him. And I have to say that he reminds me so much of her, young as he is. He’s tough. — a “pistol,” one nurse said, after receiving various punches and kicks when trying to administer an unwanted breathing treatment. But he’s also incredibly laid back. — he rarely cries (even when sick and/or tired) and practically sleeps through the night at 7 weeks old. So an appropriate final photo, I think, is big sister Arina’s first glimpse at her new baby brother.

Happy New Year Arina and Jack. We love you.

One more thing: I’m going to try to update this blog more often. After Arina’s “birth” into our family, I blogged nearly every day from mid June until early August. I want to try and chronicle Jackson’s first few months in a similar fashion (sadly, I’m already a month behind). I won’t be able to update every day, simply because I don’t have the downtime that I had between orphanage visits in Kazakhstan, but I’m going to make a valiant effort to update once a week.

Part of those updates, though, will include what I call Arina-isms. — funny things that only Arina could come up with. Some examples and early favorites are as follows:

1) Arina responds to the “What does your Mommy do?” question with “She’s a doctor of books.”

2) During my pregnancy, Arina observed, “Wow, Mom. You tell me what to do and Daddy what to do, and we do it! You’re like a queen!”

3) My favorite Arina-prayer before dinner: “Dear God. Thank you for our food. It looks tasty. I wish we could eat it. But we can’t. Because we’re praying.”

4) My favorite Arina-bedtime prayer, after she was told that she needs to pray to God, not Santa: “Dear God, please tell Santa . . .”

5) Arina complained that she had bitten her nail to the quick. I said, “I told you not to bite your nails.” She said, “Sorry, Mom. My ears just shrink sometimes.”

6) I complained about a headache. Arina said, “I have a lot of headaches, because of all the ideas I have in there.” Scott responded, “Your ideas make my head hurt too, Arina.”

7) Arina’s response to Uncle Tom giving Jack a Christmas present: “Wow! That’s great, Uncle Tom! I didn’t know you liked my baby brother!”

Another Adoption Day has come and gone, and I have a lot of catching up to do. — something that will be difficult, since we seem to be missing a regrettable amount of photos from October 2008 to July 2009. I don’t know if this is because we neglected to take photos or because we’ve misplaced them. Suffice it to say, though, that we did in fact celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas 2008, regardless of whether or not we have the evidence.

We do have a few more photos from October, to go along with the Disney photos we posted in the last gallery. Below: A photo of Arina as a Halloween fairy and of the Fisk family at Scott’s 10 year Citadel reunion.

Now, we’ll skip ahead to Easter 2009. In the featured photo, the Fisk family (Scott, Nicole, Arina, and baby boy Fisk) stand in front of MeMe and PaPa Fisk’s house.

Because I’m only a couple of months pregnant in this photo, baby boy Fisk isn’t very visible. A little about him, though: We weren’t expecting to have a biological child. We had actually filled out the paperwork for Adoption #2, when Scott got the opportunity to fulfill one of his life’s goals: buying an investment property, renovating it, and renting it. And there went our adoption money!

So, we had to reevaluate the baby plan. Before adopting Arina, we had tried to conceive for a short period of time. Not being very patient, we decided that if we weren’t pregnant by October 2006, we’d adopt. When we returned from Kazakhstan, we went to a fertility specialist, just to see what our options were for Baby #2. Although we preferred adoption after our life-changing experience, we knew that our pocketbooks needed to recover.

For those of you who understand infertility speak, we learned that we have male factor infertility with 2 million sperm/ml and 1% normal sperm morphology. But, apparently, male factor infertility + above average female fertility = candidates for natural cycle in vitro fertilization. Basically, I didn’t have to take any fertility drugs. I just made a trip to Dominion Fertility Clinic in Virginia and underwent two simple in-office procedures. A wonderful doctor, by the name of Dr. DiMattina, retrieved the egg I ovulated the month of February, fertilized it with Scott’s sperm, and implanted it in my uterus for a few thousand dollars, all of which was covered by our fabulous insurance plan. The result: baby boy Fisk, who is due November 10, 2009.

And what does Arina think about being a big sister? When she thinks about it, she’s excited. As would be the case with most 4-year-olds, though, she doesn’t think about it that often. Instead, her days are full of playing with her friends (favorites include next-door neighbor Ethan, and nursery school friends Gregory and Tucker); creating works of art (when I “accidentally” threw one of these away, she said, “Mommy, what did you do?!”); and playing pretend (her favorite, and our least favorite pretend game, is when she plays “dog” or “kitty” and crawls on all fours).

And what do I think of being a pregnant Mommy? I’m not too keen on it, probably because I spent 2 1/2 months of it vomiting. I overheard Arina playing “pregnant Barbie” in the bathtub one night. Pregnant Barbie (aka Arina) said, “This baby is making me sick! Bleh!” — a perfect illustration of this experience for me. Add to that, of course, the fact that I’m a 19th-century British literature specialist and am constantly reading about women who die in childbirth, and you’ll have a pretty full picture of me as the nauseated bundle of anxiety that I am.  

I know that once baby boy Fisk is here, I’ll be grateful for the pregnancy experience, since he couldn’t have gotten here any other way. But, I think most people are nostaligic for that first experience, because that’s what is familiar and comfortable. And, for us, that’s adoption. If there is a Baby #3, she’ll get here via the adoption route. (”She” because Arina wants a sister. — I think because of a cute set of girly bunk beds she saw at a baby furniture store).

As for Arina, she’ll be five-years-old on August 19, so she’ll be starting kindergarten this year. — hard to believe. Because Adoption Day 2009 fell on a weekend, we decided to celebrate in Myrtle Beach. The featured photo is Mommy and Arina on the carosel at Broadway at the Beach. The matching zebras were her idea. Happy Adoption Month, Arina. We love you!

Arina turned 4-years-old (hard to believe, I know) on August 19th. We had a birthday party for her here, complete with a SpongeBob SquarePants cake from Nana and a homemade cake from Nat, baked and sent, priority mail, from California! Arina had a great time with her cousins Marley and Parker from Charleston, her next door neighbors Ethan and Hannah, her friend from Malutka-Baby-House-days Dawson, and, of course, many of her favorite grown-up friends: “aunts” Tracy and Rachel, world’s best baby-sitter Sarah and entourage, and the Goffs (Jill, Dave, and Baby Gavin). The kids spent most of the day in the swimming pool, only getting out to take a few bites or to open (or to help open) Arina’s many birthday presents. Bad parents that we are, Scott and I hardly took any photos! — Scott got some video, I think, but who knows when that will be up. We do have one featured photo, though, of the birthday girl in full Kazakh regalia!

For a late summer vacation (does Oct. 2-5 count as a late summer vacation?), Nana and Pop decided to take Arina to Disney World. They graciously offerred to let me and Scott tag along . The only stipulation was that Arina had to stay in their room, rather than ours, which was fine with us! — we wanted to watch the VP debate Thursday night anyway.

Because the trip had to be a short one, we only went to the Magic Kingdom. But we had a magical time in the park both Friday and Saturday. Arina’s still young enough to think that she *really* met the Disney princesses. The only problem was that she thought the scary rides were real too. I had forgotten that there’s a scary moment on the jungle cruise: the tour guide shouts “GET DOWN” when she has to shoot at the hippos to keep them from capsizing the boat. Arina was literally “getting down,” and when the ride was over, she said, “Whew. That was a close one.”

The featured photo from Friday has to be one with Cinderella’s Castle in the background, since that was the first thing Arina noticed. (She was only sure that she was at Disney World when she was able to see the castle. Scott had teased the poor baby earlier, saying “Yay! We’re at Disney World!” when we stopped at our first rest stop.)

On Friday, Arina got to go to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for a full princess make-over (thanks, Mom and Dad). Of all the beautiful princess dresses and fairy ensembles from which she had to choose, Arina chose the half-shirt and fish tale. — although, really, who doesn’t want to be a mermaid? After having her hair, make-up, and nails done by a fairy-godmother-in-training, Arina got to eat a late lunch in Cinderella’s castle. All the princesses were there except for Ariel, who we were able to visit in her grotto after lunch.

A fun time was had by all. Arina was sad to leave “Dizzy Ward,” as she pronounced it, but hopes to return soon to see all the princesses again, including “Sweeping Booty.” Visit the gallery for more photos than you probably wanted to see.

The Fisk family celebrated Arina’s second adoption day, or her “A” day as she likes to call it, on July 10, 2008. We had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese, and then we went to Target and let Arina pick out a toy. She told us that she wanted “hairies” for her A-day, and, eventually, we understood that she wanted fairies. Dragons and fairies. That’s our fantasy-loving girl.

The past three months have been eventful. In April, Arina attended her cousin Jill’s wedding. The reception was outside . . . at Nana and Pop’s house! So, Arina was very excited, especially to see an outside tent and dance floor in Nana and Pop’s yard. Also in April, Arina was a bumblebee in the USC Dance Conservatory’s production of “Young Girls in Europe.” We were unsure about how much Arina was enjoying her dance classes, but she definitely enjoyed performing at the Koger Center. During the scene when the bumblebees were supposed to hold hands while dancing in a circle and shaking their bottoms, Arina broke away from the circle, faced the audience and entertained us all with a full body shake!

In May, Arina attended her “Aunt” Tracy’s graduation (yay for Dr. Bealer!) and visited Dr. Feldman and Peter in Kiawah. One of the highlights of our fabulous beach weekend was a trip to a quaint market/petting zoo between John’s Island and Kiawah Island. Arina loved all of the farm animals, but she especially took to the rabbits and kittens.

Unfortunately, Arina was feeling under-the-weather by the end of the weekend. And, unfortunately, Dr. Feldman, Peter, Scott, and I all felt under-the-weather once she started feeling better. So, our thanks to Dr. Feldman and Peter for sharing beautiful Kiawah with us and our apologies for what Arina shared with them.

June was an especially fun month, because Todd and Brittany Kennedy visited from New Orleans and “Aunt” Nat visited from L.A. Also in June, we all attended Mom and Dad’s annual summer picnic. We celebrated Father’s Day in Charleston and the Goodin-Thomas wedding (friends J.D. and Carrie) in Greenville. At the wedding, Arina made friends with Carrie’s nephews, one of whom was the ring-bearer, and danced the night away. I wish we had photos, but Scott was too busy video-taping and I was too busy eating food and drinking margaritas.

This past weekend, we were in Charleston for Marley’s 6th birthday party. We were especially excited to hear that Susan, Steve, and Lauren were flying in from Texas for the big event. So, Saturday was a full day with a birthday party at Wannamaker Park and a family dinner at Michelangelo’s. The three girls (Arina, Lauren, and Marley) always have a great time together and love each other so much that there are sometimes arguments about seating arrangements (they all want to sit beside each other). A Father’s Day squabble about this reduced Marley to tears, and as Arina walked with Scott to the bathroom, she shook her head, sighed, and said, “All that drama.” Lots of pictures of the girls are featured in the July 2008 photo album, thanks to Susan! (There are also pictures of super cute fourth cousin, Baby Parker, who manages to stay away from all the girl drama).

Arina had lots of early “Adoption Day” (and birthday!) presents, such as tickets to see Disney on Ice in April and . . . a new above-ground swimming pool! Nana and Pop couldn’t resist getting Arina a pool after seeing her swim at Uncle Amos’s and Amanda’s house. Arina would cannonball from the landing into the middle of the pool, after yelling, “Watch out guys! Here me come!” It looks like we’ll be having a pool party next month!

So, we’ve been insanely busy. Nicole is taking two night classes, and I’m taking two myself. I know what you’re thinking. Dr. Fisk has a PhD, so why would she need more classes? Turns out she doesn’t know everything. (I v’e been telling her this for years). So, she has to go to class a bit more to make herself a better teacher. That being said, we haven’t updated the web site in a while. In fact, I don’t know where to begin, since so much has happened.

I finished a new video (only 2 yrs late!) Nicole and I went to New Orleans, so that she could present a paper at a scholarly conference. While we were there, we stayed with Todd and Brittany. We had a great time! They showed us around New Orleans, while Arina stayed with her Nana and Pop.

For spring break this year, we went to visit Susan, Steve, and Lauren out in Texas with my parents. Arina is an excellent traveler. Along the way, we went by the casino in Tunica, Mississippi and the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. The Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only diamond mine in the world that is open to the public. So, if you find a diamond, you get to keep it! Below is a picture of us before we struck it rich . . . well we thought this would be the picture before we struck it rich.

The mine wasn’t what you would think. It is a large open field that has been churned up, and you can either walk along the rows looking for diamonds on the surface or dig and filter the dirt through a screen. Arina loved it, because she had a huge open field of dirt in which to play. She would follow her “MeMe” around with her little shovel and say “uh, this a dy-mon?” We, unfortunately, didn’t find any diamonds, but we did get to see one that a lady found while we were there (Nicole’s friends swear that she was a plant). The yellow diamond was beautiful and probably about a carat uncut.

Arina thought she struck it rich. She found a half-buried rubber iguana that she named “dragon toy.” It made her day.

Next, we went to see Susan, Steve and Lauren. Arina and Lauren had a great time playing together. They played “squirt squirt” (a game comprised of squirting things with a spray water bottle), dyed Easter eggs, blew bubbles, watched movies, and went to an arcade.

There are lots of photos of the girls hunting eggs in the gallery. The best moment of the Easter-egg-hunting day: When Arina saw that the plastic eggs had “prizes” in them, she got so excited that she grabbed a real egg and pulled it cleanly in half. Uncooked egg yoke spilled out on Susan’s deck. We all laughed, but Arina was sulky and said: “It not funny.”

After we got home, we celebrated Easter with Nicole’s family. We had another Easter egg hunt in Jefferson, but I was so busy pushing Arina on the swing that I didn’t get to take many pictures. Nicole’s parents came to Columbia for Easter, so Arina thought it was fun for Nana and Pop to visit her church (see family photo in front of the tulips below).

Next up? Arina will be a bumblebee in the Koger Center’s production of “Young Girls in Paris.” Cant’ wait! More photos to follow after the big performance!

Arina’s second Christmas in the States has come and gone! She definitely knew more of what was going on this year than the last. Telling her to be a good girl for Santa Claus worked wonders. My parents have a friend who is tall with a long white beard, and when Arina saw him, she ran up to him and said, “I been good!” 

We spent Christmas Eve, and a few days before, in McBee. This particular day wasn’t the best weather-wise, as it had been raining, but it was warm enough for Arina to go outside without a jacket and to jump into puddles. The jumping into puddles part, however, made it the “best day ever.”

As always, we went to MaMa Shirley’s house on Christmas Eve. Arina is wearing the “puddle clothes,” after they have been washed and dried, of course, and is posing in front of MaMa’s Christmas tree, which she probably helped decorate. She helped decorate the trees in McBee, rather than in Columbia, because her MaMa and Nana have much more patience than her Mommy. I decorated the house in Columbia while the baby was away.

We woke up Christmas morning in McBee and then drove to Charleston to spend the evening and a couple of days after Christmas with the Fisks. Arina had a great time with her cousins, Marley and Parker. She followed Marley around everywhere, calling her “Marmey,” instead of “Marley.” (We’re having a bit of trouble with our “L” sound, but it’s very cute.)

Visit the gallery for the rest of the holiday photos and happy 2008!

P.S. We did celebrate Thanksgiving this year, but, unfortunately, Scott forgot his camara. Arina is a huge fan of cranberries, though.

On October 13th, Arina was reunited with a little girl from Malutka Baby House. Tom and Linda Adcox brought their little girl Stephanie, who is about a year younger than Arina, to visit. They’re from North Carolina. Interestingly, Arina and Stephanie were part of a group of three little ones who were shown to Tom and Linda when they were in Karaganda, about a month before Scott and I left the States. They said that Arina would have nothing to do with them, that she cried the entire time, whereas Stephanie only had eyes for Linda. This confirms the theory that many adoptive parents have: the children choose the parents, rather than the other way around. Below: Arina and Stephanie, reunited.

The following day we went to the South Carolina State Fair, and Arina had a ball. The first thing she wanted to do was ride a roller coaster — The Dragon. All of the other kids looked to be around five or six years old, and she was barely tall enough. The man in charge let us on, with the stipulation that I ride with her, of course. She looks terrified in the photos, but as soon as the ride was over, she raised her arms and said “again!” (We realized afterward that it probably wasn’t smart for us to let her ride a roller coaster immediately after she ate — fried mushrooms and italian sausage, no less — but she managed to keep her food down).

Her next ride of choice was the much less exciting kiddie train. She wasn’t impressed and asked to ride another roller coaster. The second roller coaster, The Dragon Wagon, was a bit tamer than The Dragon, so she rode this one by herself. We were very proud. There was another, older girl who was crying and screaming the entire time, but Arina’s confidence wasn’t phased a bit. Below: Fisk family at the Fair.

Other events this month have included Vena Catoe’s birthday party. Arina loves the skating rink, but she must have been going too fast, because all of Scott’s photos are blurry.

Halloween was a big event this year. We started asking Arina what she wanted to dress up as months in advance, and the answer was always the same — “Squeak, squeak.” Yes, she still calls most animals by the sound they make rather than their name. We’re working on that. So, Arina was a mouse, both at her pre-school and for Halloween. I was under the weather, so Scott was in charge. He took her to a Halloween festival and to a trunk-or-treat. (For those of you who have never heard of trunk-or-treats: people decorate their car trunks (with spider webs and such) and fill them with candy). Scott didn’t have time to decorate, so he put Arina in the trunk with a flashlight and let her jump out to scare people, and then hand out candy. She LOVED this — better than trick-or-treating herself, actually. Below: Arina and her friend, Ford, participate in a Halloween activity.

So, the only thing about blogging is that I feel like I need to record every cute thing Arina does, lest I forget. She’s still very affectionate and talks all the time now, though she has a tendency to leave words out when she’s in a hurry. Rather than saying, “I love you,” she says “I you, Mommy” or “I you, Daddy.” Of especial cuteness was her phone conversation with Dad a few nights ago. Scott and I could only hear her end of the conversation, which was “I you, Pop. Ever, ever, ever.”

Visit the gallery for some pictures of Arina swimming — in October, no less. On a particularly warm day, she came downstairs in her bathing suit, and Scott decided to entertain the whim. When she complained about the water being cold, he — sweet father that he is — filled up a bucket of warm water from the bathtub and dumped it in the pool.

Below: One of my latest favorites. I like the pageboy hat, and Arina’s slightly lopsided grin. Her doctor suspects that she was delivered with forceps, which damaged the muscle on one side of her mouth. I love such “clues” about her birth and life before we knew her.