Six Months Ago...

in a land far far away (Novosibirsk, Russia) Steve and I became the official parents of Andrei Nikolas.

It doesn't seem like it's already been six months, but looking back on our pictures and video from both our first and second trips we can see how much all of us have grown. We've also got our routine down and it really feels like little Andrei has always been a part of our family. I don't think Steve or I ever imagined how much bringing this little light into our lives would really change everything.

Here's a few pictures to show how much the little guy has grown and blossomed:

This is the first picture we ever saw of our little guy even before we knew he'd be our referral. Once Steve and I found out our region had been changed to Novosibirsk, we looked at the Russian photolistings and saw this little boy who looked like a baby chick.



Then we got his official referral picture:



In September 2007 we had our first visit:



Finally we went back in November 2007 and had court and were officially named as his parents.



My how our little guy has physically grown in those six months. From our first doctor's visit, he was 22.5 lbs and 30.5 inches tall. At his pediatrician visit last week, he's up to 26 lbs and 33 inches tall. Wow, no wonder he's grown out of all of his clothes.

His other areas of development are moving right along as well. He's speaking many more words and actually said his first two word sentence the other day (dada car), he's feeding himself and has refused to sit in his high chair, can throw a ball overhand (straight and gets some distance) and is really growing up into a little boy.

Here's another recent picture of our little guy:



We are thrilled and honored to have Andrei as part of our family and are looking forward to the future.