Annual Gun Shoot In Missouri

About once every year, Jason gets together with his buddies from St Louis Rich, Jake, Bernie, and Brett for a full day of shooting guns. Unfortunately Bernie wasn't able to attend this year's edition due to a prior commitment but that didn't stop the rest of us from blazing away.

The Shooting Gallery

A well-armed tree

One can never have enough ammunition....

This year Rich and Jake fabricated some fairly elaborate target stands and several different sizes of 3/4" steel plate affectionately known as "gongs". Every year we try to see how much damage we can do the gongs and this time Jason brought along 200 rounds of 30.06 armor piercing to show them who's boss. While nothing else would fully penetrate the plates, these rounds went through them like a hot knife through butter. One of our victims...

Also we tried our hand at "bumpfiring" some of our weapons which is a method of simulating full-auto with a semiautomatic. Here's one of the results:

Anyhow, it was another successful day of shooting. Hopefully Bernie will be there next year to lend us a hand.

Santa Claus

After our fun time at the zoo, we stopped by a friend's house to show off our cute little pirate. While we were visiting with her in her home, Daniel saw a picture on the end table. The picture is of her grandkids sitting on Santa's lap. That night, when I was putting him to bed he asks, 'Mom - will Santa come here?' I didn't know what he meant at first. I said, 'It's not Christmas, it's Halloween. We are going to go trick or treating.' In a very confused voice he says, 'Mom, teacher in Ukraine say Santa no come here.'

Let me pause for a moment while that sinks in.

How sad. We have heard stories from other adoptive parents about their kids being told strange things to try to make them not want to leave Ukraine. How sad is that? That an adult would tell him that Santa doesn't come to America? So, he wanted a family so bad - even thinking that Santa wouldn't come here, he came home with us anyway.

It totally put me on the spot. We hadn't really decided yet if we were going to tell him about Santa or not. (you can visit Jason on Facebook to join the rollicking debate on if you should tell your kid the truth about Santa. If they find out you lied about Santa, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy - what will they think about Jesus?) That's a whole other debate.

I told him yes - we will have Christmas, just not yet. In a few months it will be time for Christmas. We will put up a big huge tree, and we'll celebrate Jesus' birthday, and we'll have presents. I love you. Good Night! I totally evaded and avoided answering the actual question. The bottom line is - Christmas here is going to blow his mind. (just like everything else up to this point) It is going to be so fun and magical and we can't wait to share it with him!

Halloween party at the Zoo!

We took Daniel to the Zoo for the biggest Halloween party in town. He was the cutest little pirate you ever did see. I explained to him what Halloween was all about - you're going to dress up like a pirate, and we'll go to the neighbors and knock on the door, and the lady will come to the door, and you will say, 'Trick or Treat'. I had his rapt attention. He says, 'And then, Mom??' And then she's going to give you candy!! His eyes got as big as saucers. Let's Go!! He said.

So our first round of trick or treating was at the zoo. He's not scared. He walked right up to the lady and said 'Trick or Treat' and held out his bag. When she put something in, he was rooted to that spot. He didn't move. He pulled out the candy and gave it to me and said, 'Mom, open?' We ate it right there. It was yummy! He had such fun seeing all of the characters and getting candy. We've been enjoying it all week. We are looking forward to this weekend and seeing our cute little pirate again....

Pumpking carving

Saturday was a slow day for us. We laid around and tried to get over our colds, watched the Cards lose at football and then went out and got a pumpkin. Daniel had no idea what was to come next.
When I cut off the top and told him to stick his hand in he goes, 'Mom, I'm scared!'. After a bit of coaxing, he finally went in and pulled a few seeds out.

I carved and let him poke out the pieces from the inside. Then he said, 'That's Cool!'

We put it out on the porch and admired our handiwork.

He had to give it a BIG HUG before going off to bed....

Field Trip!

Friday was Daniel's first field trip. All of the places around town that he's never been, and we went to the farm. He's been there twice! (for strawberry picking and peach picking) That's OK. The farm in the fall is great fun. We were really looking forward to it. It rained several days this week and turned cool. They sent home a note saying the trip would happen - rain or shine! So, we bundled off to school in the drizzling rain.

By the time they sorted us into groups and bussed everyone over there, the rain had stopped. It was still chilly and overcast, but I was thankful for no rain! We loaded up on the wagon and rode out to the Cartoon corn maze. The farmer met us out there and told all about the history of the farm, which was great unless you were five. Then it was totally boring and long. After the farmer's chat - we headed into the Cartoon Corn Maze. There were cartoon characters hiding and we were supposed to find them.

After 3 days of rain - the cartoon corn maze was a solid mud pit. I can't believe they actually sent us in there. It was unbelievable! They didn't even put down straw and try to minimize the mess. There were big huge puddles of mud that there was no hope of going around. Can you imagine 5 year old boys in all that mud? They were stomping. They were jumping. And by the time we emerged at the other end - they had mud everywhere. It was crazy! We picked out pumpkins, took a wagon ride and had a great big farmhouse lunch. They all had fun - and fell sound asleep on the bus on the way back to school.

Finally - an update!!

I know - it's been forever, right? I have been sick, so that's my excuse. I feel like I have been sick on and off (mostly on) ever since Daniel started Kindergarten. My immune system is a big wimp apparently. A gal at work told me it takes the first 6 months to build up immunity to all of those little kid germs. If I have to be sick for 6 months - I don't know if I can stand it.

The good news is - Daniel is healthy!! If one of us has to be sick, I am glad it's me! He is doing really great in school. He got his first report card. I am proud to report that he got all A's, with the exception of a C in PE. We expected that. He is behind the other kids in his strength and abilities. We are seeing leaps and bounds in progress though. He is able to do things now (like climbing etc. on the monkey bars) that he couldn't do when he first came home. We are so very proud of him. He knows all of his letters and numbers and the teacher said that they are very impressed with how great he is doing! She actually told me that he is a 'gifted' little boy and they expect big things from him. WOW! I mean, we thought he was smart but we don't have a point of comparison. For her to confirm it, is amazing!

God has blessed us with such a sweet boy. Tonight when he was saying prayers he said, 'Thank you for Mama and Papa and Daniel. I love all this.' We love you too sweet one. Life has changed completely since he has joined us and we're so happy with our new family.

We're so amazed at what a good sleeper he is. We put him to bed - and that's it, we don't hear from him again for 10 hours. A few times he has gotten up to go to the bathroom or to ask for a bandaid, but that's very rare. Usually he sleeps all the way through.

Jason had a surprise last week. I had set out Daniel's warm coat for a cold day and when they came down and saw it sitting there, Daniel said, 'That's not my coat. Daniel's coat is purple.' Who remembers the pictures from the orphanage? His famous purple coat? He never says anything about it, so we didn't know if he remembered it or not. Jason told him, 'No, this is your coat. You don't have the purple coat any more.' Daniel says, 'Oh - the purple coat is in my far away home.' That's the first time he's said anything about the orphanage. Once he gets more English, then more may come out. It was good to hear him speak about it.

I can't find the cord to upload pics from my camera so I will have to do that later. Tomorrow is Daniel's first field trip. I am taking a vacation day for the grand event and going with his class as a chaperone. I should have some good pics from that!

Gooooooooo CARDS!

We took Daniel to his first U of L football game this past weekend. It was big excitement - not just for Daniel but for Mom and Pop too! He has lots of U of L sports in his future. We had a great time, but it was a late night. The game didn't start until 8:00 and he's usually in bed by 8:30. He hung in there for quite awhile, but then he crawled up in mom's lap and fell dead asleep in the third quarter. I couldn't believe in the midst of all that cheering, whistling, jeering and whooping - he was sleeping! It was time to head home. Even though the Cards lost in a big way, we had a great time. See for yourself....

Ready for Halloween!

He was hoping that the kids at school would be scared of his creepy shirt!