Spring Break...woohoo!

This is what a college student on Spring Break looks like...at least in our house. Our oldest is a freshman who has a love of hangin' at home when she's not hard at work hitting the books. For her very first Spring Break, she has chosen the following wild and crazy activities:

• chilling with our dogs while perusing her favorite cookbook
• cooking dinner for the fam two nights (count them--TWO nights) in a row...the food was great and the best part was that Mom had 2 nights off cooking detail!
• shopping and lunch with Mom at the mall...acting as Mom's very own personal shopper by helping her pick out work clothes
• volunteering in her former first grade classroom with the best teacher ever!

I know....it's not Daytona Beach, tequila slammers, or wet t-shirt contests but it seems to be just what this girl wants to be doing at this point. I'm one lucky Mom...

Don't be in a hurry to move out, sweetie. We'd all miss you too much...not to mention that yummy chicken enchilada casserole you made last night! It was the best...but not nearly as wonderful as you!

Breathing deeply and repeating the mantra in my head...IlovemykidsIlovemykidsIlovemykids

As I look back to my own teen years, I recall my mother saying that teens should be put in suspended animation when they hit puberty and not let out until age 18. As a teen, I remember feeling that my mother's assessment was harsh...but now that I have 5 children of my own between the ages of 16-18, I'm rethinking Mom's position. It seems to me now that Mom was overly optimistic re: the age of maturity. Anyone know where I can find a sleep pod that unlocks at age 21?

This is why they teach us Lamaze breathing during pregnancy. It's not for surviving labor and delivery at all. It's for surviving adolescence.

Fully licensed driver!

Our newest driver

The boy and his pretty sweet ride

My oldest son took his road test this morning and passed with flying colors. His permit will serve as his temporary license with an approval signature from the examiner until the official picture license arrives in the mail. He'll be taking a big step tonight, driving without Mom riding shotgun for the very first time. The plan? He and a couple of friends are going to the movies in his shiny red Mustang. Sooo proud of my boy!


Note to self...try really hard not to be nervous. Baby birds all have to leave the nest. He's ready. He passed. You taught him and you trust him. Resist the impulse to run after the car...seriously.

Reflections on snow days, holidays, and food

It's always busy around here and even more so at the holidays. It's hard to find a minute to breathe, much less blog...but once in a rare while, we are forced to stop running, stop the hustle and bustle, and just be. With a winter storm bearing down on us and nowhere to go that's even remotely appealing in the snow, tonight is one of those times. We're tucked into the house, the cars have all been removed from the street, the snow blowers and shovels are at the ready. The storm is supposed to dump 1-2 feet on us before morning, we've already gotten 3-5 inches that the wind is blowing into impressive drifts. I've fed the troops homemade soup and a pretty awesome frittata for dinner, both new recipes I've been wanting to try. I have a pot of Berry Compote simmering on the stove and later, we'll have a warm cup of the fruit drink all of my kids from Kazakhstan remember fondly. For now, the house is quiet and the kids are all occupied with screens of one type or another. Nothing to do at this point but to reflect on the holidays just past and bask in their warmth.

Aniyar on Christmas morning...he found the pickle!

Christmas was low key and relaxed. Teenagers don't tend to pop out of bed at 5:00AM like little kids so we managed to sleep until 8:00. We probably wouldn't have gotten up then if not for our youngest...even at almost 16, our Aniyar is an early riser and the lure of gifts under the tree was more than he could stand. He rousted us out and the festivities began. We were sad that Craig's nephew David couldn't be with his own family in Georgia but were delighted to have him join our family Christmas, a rare treat for us. (In fact, Dave was up first and was probably the only reason Aniyar was able to control his impulse to wake the rest of us in the wee hours...thanks for the help, Dave!) After the frenzy of gifts being exchanged, the day unfolded into one long feast of goodies. If there's one thing we do well here, it's food, both homemade and imported traditions from a variety of cultures just like our family. The kids love the Russian candies and Lindt chocolates that fill their stockings; the grownups enjoy things like triple cream brie and multigrain bread. Lunch was our traditional pot of borscht along with smoked salmon, cream cheese and crackers. Tons of mixed nuts were cracked and consumed along with oranges and pomegranates galore. It's a wonder we were able to eat at all come dinner time but we managed. There were 11 of us around our holiday table, 8 of us and our three friends from next door. We served prime rib and brussel sprouts in a balsamic glaze. Rick and Deb brought 10 pounds of mashed potatoes and some yummy green beans to round out a perfect meal.So nice to share the cooking as well as the company!

 
Craig's birthday is just a few days after Christmas so our fun doesn't really stop. The kids did a great job choosing gifts their Dad would enjoy and helping to make the evening special. I managed to pull together another special meal geared to Dad's tastes, scallops wrapped in bacon, a Thai soup, a salad, and salmon burgers with a spicy garlic aioli. Kate helped me bake a carrot cake and coat it with cream cheese frosting, a favorite of her Dad's. Not exactly kid-friendly but it was a hit with my DH and the kids were good sports about trying new foods.

New Year's Eve was really quiet since we barely made it to midnight. David came by to hang with us for a while and do his laundry; he joined us for some homemade soup (Mixed peas, beans, and lentils cooked with a ham bone) and bread before he headed back to his apartment. We stayed home all evening, watched movies and played videogames.  There were a few naps...OK, those were taken by the adults...but we were all together to watch the ball drop and to toast in 2014 with sparkling apple cider. The best part of the whole event was sleeping late on New Year's Day!

We made Hoppin' John and rice for our New Year's day dinner, another new recipe from my Christmas gift to myself, the newest Pioneer Woman cookbook. It was delicious and will undoubtedly bring us all good luck in the year to come!

Hmm..I just realized how much time I've spent writing about food in this post. Comfort food, for sure, shared with the people I love. Material gifts? Yes, we had them and they were nice. Gifts of the heart and home, shared with the people dearest to me...the best gifts of all. Time to close this post and check on the snow...10 inches at least according to my DH, more to come overnight. It's currently 3 degrees...brrr! Time to go pour some warm Berry Compote for my children.

Guess who came to dinner?

So I was puttering around the kitchen on a Thursday afternoon, doing food prep and chores, when the phone rang. It was an old friend, the social worker who wrote all of our home studies for our 4 adoptions and she was calling to invite us to a gala in Boston. Hmm...a gala? On a school night? In the city? Not a chance that was going to fit in the schedule at the last minute so I thanked her and said we couldn't make it. Too bad because it was a concert by an orchestra from Kazakhstan and diplomats from the Kazakh government would be in attendance. Since Kazakhstan is currently closed for international adoption and is once again considering reopening, our friend thought it would be great if we could meet some officials and show off our 4 success stories. Even though we couldn't attend, she asked if she could talk about us with the officials. Sure, why not? Then she asked if she could tell them we would extend a warm welcome to have them come visit the children some time. Why not? I mean, what were the chances that diplomats were going to show up at my door, right?

Well, about 7:00 that evening, she called me back. She said she was standing with the Consul from the Kazakh consulate that is based in New York City and he was wondering if he could come visit us the next day. I said "Ummm...sure!" I thought OMG...seriously? She said he would love to come for dinner and meet the kids. I said, "Oh, we'd be delighted!" while I was thinking, AHHHHHHH! What does one feed a diplomat???

I got off the phone and filled in Craig and the kids on the surprising plans for the next afternoon. The next day was busy. Kate was a gem, she cleaned the house. Tanya helped me to police the kids' bedrooms for tidiness. Craig took off early to be home for the visit. The kids were prepared to meet and greet our guest. I made a pot of borscht at the kids' request and rounded out the meal with roast chicken and salad...no idea if there were any diplomatic faux pas involved but I went with my gut and the advice of my children.

 The consul arrived around 3:00 and we sat down at our dining room table for tea and a discussion of post-placement reporting, the health and history of our children, and dual citizenship rules. The kids were amazingly open and polite; the consul was gracious and kind with them.He turned out to be a laid back guy in his 30's who has kids of his own so the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. Our adoption agency friend joined us and we all shared the story of how each of our kids came to our family. Dinner was served family style around 4:30 since our guest was driving back to NYC that evening. Our guest requested a tour of the house; he took pictures of the kids' rooms (good thing they were tidy, huh?) and asked to take pictures with our brood. I'm pretty sure all of that info was being gathered for a higher reason but we were fine with that; I was actually delighted to show off our kids to a government official. By the end of the visit, he agreed that the kids looked great and thanked us for our good care of them. In turn, we thanked the government of Kazakhstan for entrusting us with them. Our guest left around 6:30, after giving the kids gifts of books and music from Kazakhstan and inviting us all to visit the consulate in NYC. We may just take him up on his offer of a tour...what a treat that would be for our children of Kazakhstan.

The possibility of a visit from the government of Kazakhstan was something we agreed to when we adopted the kids but we never really expected it to happen. Who would have believed it? This was diplomacy at work right in my own home and we were suddenly the poster family for adoption from KZ...what a surreal few hours! Just hope we helped to put a more positive face on allowing Americans to adopt from KZ in the future.

The diplomatic dinner

The official group photo...the consul is the guy in jeans and a sweater

After all the excitement (that's code for stress), I was totally exhausted, fell asleep by nine. Guess I'm not cut out for international relations...

Guess what my youngest can do?

See the platter of French toast on my stove? Looks like it came from the Food Network kitchen, doesn't it? See the disembodied thumbs-up in the pic? That would be the chef...my youngest made breakfast for the family this past weekend...and it was delicious. So proud of my boy!

Five years ago and half a world away...

Our life was different 5 years ago. We only had 3 kids then. We were embroiled in a fight with the government of Kazakhstan to adopt 2 more children and had spent a big chunk of the fall in Kazakhstan, away from our home, our jobs and our children. By Thanksgiving 2008, Craig and I were back home after a series of frustrating delays in our petition process. We were hoping for a court date in early December and a quick second trip back to Kazakhstan to finalize the adoption of our 2 new sons. Didn't work out that way...Here's what I wrote back then:

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving...and fear

We've been back from Kaz for 2 weeks now. If all had gone as we had hoped, we'd be on our way back for our anticipated Dec. 2 court date...but it didn't happen.

On November 20th, we were notified by our agency that our judge had decided that our adoption dossier was out of date and we needed to redo it. For many, this would have been the death knell of the adoption. Never mind all the updated docs that we had given to the judge in Kaz while we were there...she wanted the full dossier, 30+ docs, all approved by the Kaz Embassy. She gave us until Dec. 9 to accomplish the near impossible...assembling an adoption dossier generally takes 2-3 months, then another 2-3 months to get it approved at the Kaz embassy in Washington, DC. If we can meet her goal, then she says we can have a court date of either Dec. 17, 18, or 19. Sigh...I did a lot of whining and not sleeping for the first few days, then I kicked it into high gear and started assembling a dossier...for the fourth time. Our adoption friends have been a great help...our home study agency and social worker have moved the world for us to update our docs; our friend and personal notary even showed up at our house in her bathrobe late one night to notarize docs for us. Our international agency arranged for emergency translation services so that each document could be translated as I completed the notarization and apostille process, even over Thanksgiving weekend. People we don't even know have hand-carried docs for us from Kaz to the US which they will send to our agency tomorrow to complete our dossier...and yes, after I finished whining and complaining, I did manage to assemble a 25+ document dossier in a week's time. Craig and I sent it via Expressmail yesterday to our international agency. Our new docs and the updated docs that were returned to us from Kaz will be married up, checked for accuracy, and sent to the Kaz embassy this week. We have been told that the person who reviews dossiers there understands our special circumstances and will review our paperwork on an emergency basis. We can only hope...

Yep, Thanksgiving 2008 was a real nail biter. and the weeks that followed were equally filled with drama and intrigue. Suffice it it say that we survived and prevailed....that which doesn't kill us really does make us stronger, I guess.

Fast forward 5 years. The highlights of Thanksgiving 2013 are as follows:

• TADA!! we have 5 kids, all teenagers who alternately delight us and drive us a little batty not just on Thanksgiving but every day
• there was no drama in our house other than the adolescent kind
• there were no trips half way around the world; the closest we got to Kazakhstan was the giant vat of Russian winter borscht I made for Thanksgiving lunch
• we watched the Macy's parade, cooked all day, and ate too much
• we counted our blessings


• Our blessings included a very special dinner guest; Craig's nephew David is working in Boston for a few months and he joined us for the holiday...sooo nice to have extended family at our holiday table, a rare treat for us.
•  Did I mention that David is my favorite relative right now??? He gave up an afternoon of his time to hang wallpaper in my dining room and I'm ecstatic with the results. Talk about something to be thankful for!
  
• Then there's my DH who took the week off from work and installed copper back splash tiles in my kitchen. Gorgeous! 
  

All in all, it was a pretty normal kind of Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving with some Black Friday shopping thrown in on the side. Five years ago, I was afraid we'd never get the chance to be a family of 7, to celebrate holidays together that were just traditional and maybe even a little mundane. Grateful doesn't begin to describe how I feel about that.