Swearing In Ceremony

Although already citizens when they land on US soil, the Immigration office requires that children age 14 and over participate in the official swearing in ceremony. This is very odd to me since a) they are already US citizens and b) most speak little or no English and have NO CLUE what they are saying! Regardless, we took the drive to Fairfax and tried to participate in the ceremony ...

As you can see from the photos, Amber did swear in, but there always has to be an adventure, doesn't there? So ... we missed the ceremony completely and Amber had to be sworn in, just her and the officer (fortunatley a very nice woman)!

We had received a letter in the mail with the location, date and time and so we went. We had to go through a secuirty device, similar to what used to be in the airports before the full body scanning machines, and then we were directed to a waiting room. It was very DMV like with many "window" with agents behind them and several display boards blinking which number was to go to which window box. We knew we would not be doing this, but a printed sign overhead said something that seemed to be what we needed, so we sat there and waited ... thinking we would see a sign on the overhead or would hear an annoucment over the speakers.

We had arrived about 30 mins early and we waited nearly 45 minutes before I started to get worried. I mentioned to Brian and we were running 15 mins behind schedule, but he said that was probably usual and not worry about it. We couldn't tell if others around us were waiting for the same purpose or for a window, and since most appeared to be immigrants, we were not sure if we could communicate with them in the first place.

So, we kept waiting ... and waiting ... trying to entertain the impatient and nervous Amber with games on the ipad. Finally, 45 mins after our given time, I convinced Brian to get up and check into it. He approached a window, and I saw him speak with someone and then she took off. She actually headed our way and out a door. She came back about 5 minutes later and spoke loudly to the people seated in our general direction, asking if anyone was waiting to be sworn in! - UMM HELLO!!!!! :)

The agent was very apologetic and took us upstairs ... oh, so that's where we were supposed to be - OOPPPS! As we were going up, several small groups of people were gathered in the hall and others were exiting the room, so cleary we had missed the group ceremony. However, 2 agents were still in the room and we explained our situation. One of them again apologized and very graciously offered to just do the swearing in with her and Amber!

Amber was nervous, but did a good job ... as good as a Russian speaking child can do having been in the US less than 2 months and having to repeat words too large for me to even comprehend their meaning! :) After that Amber signed some documents and we took her to lunch! :)

A much happier Amber @ lunch!
PIKACHU!!!

The First Thanksgiving

No, not the one with the Pilgrims, but the first one for Amber and Dennis since it's an American holiday that is not celebrated in Ukraine.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2011

The preparations for Thanksgiving Day actually started on Wednesday when Brian took Amber and Ashley out shopping for the food we would need for the big day. That afternoon they started preparing the food by working on the home made pie crust, made/cooked the pumpkin pie, and prepared the apple pie filling. Amber loved working with the apple corer peeler machine.

 She can have fun with anything

Makes nice earrings, eh?

Thanksgiving morning Brian was up about 7:30 to get the stuffing ready to put into the turkey and get it in the oven. Then he and the girls made some waffles in the new waffle makers for breakfast. I made some pumpkin bread (which is no easy task for me since I'm horrible at baking). The kids spent most of the rest of the morning outside on their bikes in the circle or racing up/down the cul-de-sac.

 Ashley & Amber racing

 Ashley & Amanda

Amber & Amanda

Then the big girls decided they were going to torture Amber's baby doll by dragging it around all over the place - swings, slide, toy truck, and then tossing it up in the air as high as they could ... and they failed to catch it!!!

 Baby meets "Princess"

  Baby slides with Mama

 WEEEEEE ..... they didn't catch her! :(

Soon it was time to help Daddy with the rest of the food preparations. The girls took turns kneeding the dough, rolling, cutting, and brushing the rolls with butter. The recipe was handed down from Brian's mom and we have used it every year! Then mashed potatoes & gravy.


<--- Daddy needed a little cooking advice from his mom regarding the size of the rolls!

 Kneeding and rolling the dough

 Home made cranberry sauce

 Mash those potatoes, girl!

 Classic Amber & Papa - no explanation needed!

Making gravy - MAMA NO MORE PICTURES!!!

Not everyone liked every part of the meal, but everyone had to try one bite of everything and then could decide what they liked and/or wanted more of. The hit of the meal was that everyone had their own bottle of sparking cider!!

 WHAT? We each get our own bottle?

 Amber's 1st Thanksgiving Meal

Troy got some leftovers, too!

Some more Thanksgiving fun!!

 The last of the fall leaves - everything else is bare!!

 Amanda & Sam playing Wii

To view all our Thanksgiving Day fun, visit Dennis' blog http://macyadoption.blogspot.com/ 

and also the entire album on FB here:  

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2687464067275.147298.1276629484&type=3

One Month Home

November 14th marks one full month that Amber has been home! We celebrated by having a Costco take-n-bake pizza at home (oddly enough she HATED pizza when she was here for hosting, but now asks for it frequently and cheers when we have it!) and some cinnamon rolls that I purchased at the local market bakery. (We have kids that have issues with food coloring and chocolate, so those were removed from the options.) Oh, we also had home made milkshakes - each child got to choose their own flavor of ice cream! Due to food coloring and chocolate issues, the options were vanilla, dulce de leche, and pumpkin! :)

I don't have a lot to say for this post or many new photos, but I did want to put a blog up marking our 1st month home! I think it has gone about as well as could be expected during our first month home. Many people talk about a honeymoon period, and how it comes to a crashing hault!! I think because of hosting being just a month prior to our adoption and then having her with us 24/7 for 3 weeks in Ukraine that maybe we won't have such a harsh adjustment and abrupt end to our honeymoon period.


Having said that, I can't say that the first month has not been without its ups and downs! However, I really cannot complain too much about it! Having 5 children is always and adventure!!! Add a foreign language, new siblings, a new school, starting 7th grade (don't think that needs any explanation), missing friends/relatives, teenage attitude, hormones (and not just hers), and I think anyone would have a hard time being perfect all the time! Other than that, she is nearly perfect! :)

 We did go and get our family photo updated. We had done this back in February when we brought Dennis home, but we definitely needed to re-do it for the holidays! They will be in just in time to put them in Christmas cards and I'll be sure to update one of the blogs with them!

Here's some of the scenic drive in our area near the Potomac and 

Shenandoah River on the way to get our portraits done.

Welcome Home Party

After only 2 days of school, Amber wanted to invite some friends to her welcome home party. We had started planning this party as soon as the jet lag wore off! We've been home less than a month, but we wanted to have a welcome home party as soon as was reasonably feasible for us and our guests. I really do enjoy entertaining, a new skill I seemed to have acquired since moving to VA. I rarely had any parties at home before we moved here, a couple of birthday parties every other year or so, but it seems like I have a couple of gatherings per year since we've moved out to VA.

Amber & some of her new friends

I created an e-invite and sent it to all my friends/family. I then created a printed version to send to the extended family that lives in PA that still doesn't have internet yet (no digs to PA, just digs to the previous generation who still can't get on board with what's happening in this generation). She saw these and wanted some of her own. Said she wanted to invite the kids in her class! 

 

Amber hamming it up with her fall-ish decorated cake

So, on Friday, without much hope of anyone actually coming since they'd only known her 1-2 days, I let her take them to school. I got 3 RSVP's through email!!! Four girls showed up + 1 from our church that she already knew. Come to find out none of those 4 girls were in her ESL classes - they were locker mates and/or in her PE class! Parents drove all the way out here into the boonies for a girl their daughter's had just met! I was actually floored!

Abigail & Amber

Everyone had a really good time! The party lasted from 2:30pm (when the first guest arrived) until almost 8:00pm (when the last guests left - they arrived after the end of the original end time for the party - 5:30pm).

Gotta love some 7th graders on kiddie swings! :)

Guests of all ages were there. Friends from church, mostly. The youngest guest was 4 and was adopted from Ethiopia. She and 3 of her sisters came to celebrate with us, along with their mother.

Betel, Grace, & Eliana

The food was just snack stuff: chips & salsa, veggies & dip, fruit, crackers & crab dip. Then we had cake! We also had hot apple cider, just to give it that fall-ish flare. 

Pastor Victor & his wife from Russian church

The Haak Family

More friends

To see the rest of the party photos, go to FB here: 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2587591330519.145198.1276629484&type=3

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Celebrating 1 Month "Adoption Day"

Today is the 1 month anniversary of the day we "officially" became Amber's parents. By this I mean the day the court decree was received and her new birth certificate stating our names on it was in my possession. Sometimes this is also "gotcha day," but in our case the inspector was out by the time we got everything done, so we had to wait until the following day for the official release from the orphanage. However, October 4, 2011, was the official day that we became Amber's parents!

So, we decided to have a little mini celebration with just the family out for a nice dinner. This was good for me, too because tomorrow is her welcome home party, so the less dishes for me to do beforehand, the better!

Yes, a total Daddy's girl!

She choose the Japanese steak house/sushi bar that we took the girls to during hosting. I think she just likes the big fire, but she does actually eats rolls and a few pieces of sushi. The other kids don't! But, honestly that's fine by me ... I didn't even know sushi existed until I was like 20-something! I didn't eat it for about another 10 years!

California Roll and Volcano Roll

The onion volcano!

As usual the food was good. For dessert they serve small bites of an orange. She ate the oranges, plus the rinde! YUCKY!! SU MUCHESHI, AMBER NOELLE MACY!

For the rest of the photos, to go FB here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2587574850107.145197.1276629484&type=1