Passing the Hours

Well, it's Friday night. Tomorrow I will have been home for four weeks. I still don't know when I will go back to Kazakhstan to bring Anelya home. The last couple of days have been especially hard on me. I can't really explain this feeling of emptiness I have. It's a huge pit in my heart and I just feel on the verge of tears all of the time.

I have been trying to continue to keep myself busy. I thought you would all like to see what I have been doing to keep busy. Anelya's stroller came today. It's amazing. It's lightweight, she can sit facing me or facing outward, she's nice and high up so she can see me more closely AND it's just totally stunning. Now would be the appropriate time to rave...

I know you will all like to see the progress that has been made in her room. I have hung the rest of her pictures and completed the room with the rug and chenille glider. I can't wait to rock Anelya to sleep in that chair and read her stories.


Dad put the changing table together last weekend. I just love it. It's perfect for my height and fits the slope of the room perfectly, as you can see.

Something about installing baby gates sure makes it feel like there is a baby coming. Much to Gunnar's dismay, he now has a very hard time navigating his way upstairs. I don't allow the dogs upstairs, but Gunnar is always finding ways to get up there and bury himself under my covers.

I just love her colorful playpen. I have no idea where to put it yet and have decided that I will just cross that bridge when she comes home and see how it goes, where we hang out the most and where I need all of these various contraptions.

Little Anelya will no longer have to sit on my lap when I feed her. Now she can sit in this highchair and throw food on the floor for the dogs! Oh the joy...

My friend Sandi suggested I get this jumper that Finley still loves at 14 months old. As you all know from our trip footage, Anelya LOVES to jump! This toy is impressively tall and will last for a long time! It will also keep the pooches out of her face and keep her in one place!

And the #1 way I have killed time during this wait is making baby food. Three shelves of my freezer, full of steamed and pureed baby food of all kinds. It's been so much fun. I will add the fish oil, multivitamin and vitamin D to her food when it's time to feed her. Right now, I just froze single ingredients so I can see what she can tolerate and what she likes and use the single ingredients to cook them together to make new and interesting for America's newest food critic.

Opening my cabinets to find baby formula, extra baby food and baby vitamins is surreal. I can't wait until I can finally USE these products and not just look at them.

I managed to find a 12x18 inch frame for the calendar Olga gave me on my last night in Semey. The picture of Anelya is her passport picture that we took after court.

Note serious passport face. Well done, monkey!

It is proudly displayed by the breakfast bar, which is part of the open living room, dining room and kitchen areas of my house. This calendar is something I never would have bought, but it's significance cannot be underestimated. It will always boast a prominent place in our home.

I am really hoping for travel dates on Monday. I am afraid if we get dates after Monday that it will push us into next week. Every week at Anelya's current age of 8 1/2 months marks a milestone and it hurts to think of what i may have missed. Is she clapping yet? Can she pull herself up to stand? Has she started to crawl? I will have all of the answers to these questions very soon, but for the first time I can honestly say, not soon enough.