Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

See some pictures from our Christmas adventures at Yahoo. Click on the link to the right of the page titled "Pictures of Our Adventures."

Received a letter from Frank Adoption Center in the mail upon our return from holiday travels: "Roman's post placement report will be due in our office by March 18, 2007. Due to a November 2006 change in the Russian Ministry of Education's post-placement requirements, we have been alerted that post-placement report visits should not occur more than one month prior to your child's adoption anniversary date. Your documented date of adoption is March 25, 2004. Therefore, we are asking that your social worker not conduct her home visit prior to February 25, 2007...... Please remember that your post-placement report needs to be apostilled in your state... and must be accompanied by at least six different photographs of your child. Please choose your photographs carefully, as they will be viewed by the officials in your child's region. Do not submit photographs of your children taking a bath or in their bathing suits." Oh, golly. Last year, Russia called FAC becaus...

The smell of poop and garbage in the air. The house at 48 degrees. Sorting laundry to find your cream-colored sweater stained by your new red shirt. Watering the plant to have the water overrun and spill on the hardwood floor. Welcome home, Van Eeuwen family... welcome home. Well, it's not that bad. An hour later and the poop was cleaned up (thanks, kitties... we'll be calling the vet tomorrow). The furnace was reset, the sweater was Oxi-Cleaned, and the water sopped up. The boy is in bed, and Doug and I are going to unpack & shuffle everything around tomorrow. We had a good holiday, Roman received a lot of great gifts, and we made it home safe. I have until Jan. 8th off, which is great. Looking forward to organizing pictures, other files on the computer, scanning some stuff in, and just relaxing.

We busted our "bootums" all weekend. All evening Friday, 4-5 hours on Saturday, all Saturday evening, and 5 hours on Sunday... cleaning, painting, packing, painting, grouting. We headed out to Toys R Us on Sunday around 12:30, and Doug thought to swing back by the house to make sure the "guest realtor" showed up. 10 after 1pm, and no one was there. We called our own realtor, who tried to contact the guest realtor - couldn't get ahold of him! So strangely, the agent had volunteered to show our house, then couldn't be gotten ahold of. Our agent said he'd check to see if it was advertised anywhere and if it was, he'd head right over (he was watching his kids while his wife worked). When we returned around 5pm, it didn't look like anyone had been there. So... ....the silver lining is, of course, that practically everything in the house has been done. Nothing else to pack. Nothing else to fix. A couple things to paint, but no big deal. So now, we ...

Our realtor called Doug today and announced that he had found someone to staff an Open House for us this Sunday, 1-4pm. "Holy crap!" I said, a few times, when Doug told me. There was so much we were going to do over Xmas break, that is being done today and tomorrow. So... after Roman went to bed tonight (second night in a row of being the sweetest boy ever), I grabbed the paint and touched up the kitchen and spots in the living and hallway where Doug had plugged up holes. Also took down the stereo in the dining room. Doug stripped and re-caulked the tub tonight, so no baths or showers tomorrow! Luckily, Roman can go play at church from noon-4pm tomorrow, so we'll have time to do other things. Still lots of touch-up painting in the basement, at least 2 trips to the storage unit, and more fun in the bathroom. In other news, I am progressing through whatever illness has hit me this week. Losing my voice, which was fun at school today. We found a small flashlight and checked...

The great movie "A Christmas Story" is taking place in our home this season. Roman is a true boy, getting very fascinated with guns. He makes up guns - popcorn guns, bow and arrow guns (I think a crossbow, although how he knows what that is I'm not sure). His friend Jake at preschool informed me that Santa doesn't make guns, which I was relieved to hear. I told Roman this, and his reply was, "but my Santa does." Yesterday we were shopping at Meijer and went down the toy weapon aisle (not deliberately). Roman's eyes latched onto one particular package and he grew very excited. "I want THAT for my birthday!" was the cry. Behold! A toy M-16 rifle, nicknamed "The Peacemaker." When you pull the trigger, it shakes and makes great popping sounds. But not so great for a 3-year-old. I just said "We'll put it on the list" and rolled along. I suggested to Doug that just like the commercials, one day we're going to have an 1...

While it is easy for Doug to let go, I cannot. I was falling in love with that house. I felt we had a future together. It was available and ready to start a relationship - it stood there with open rooms, waiting for memories to be made together. It had moved beyond its past affair with color and was ready to start anew... maybe with taupe? It practically asked for me to come into its life, improve its bathrooms, swap its electric stove for gas, and put a gas log in its fireplace. But it was not meant to be. That house wanted a commitment. It wanted us immediately; in fact, was moving way too fast. December 31, it said. You have to be living with me, or else. We tried to reason with it. We tried to explain that we had to let our current house down gently... we couldn't just toss it into the marketplace, settle for less than its value. Our current house deserves more from us. And we couldn't play the field, start a relationship with a new house before breaking up with our current...

We think Roman must have been sick for the past couple weeks, because he's been in a great mood the last three days... which makes us realize just how grumpy he was. Our sweet child is back. Some whining, of course, no napping at preschool - but is playing well and is much more patient. Maybe a "switch" turned on, who knows. As Christmas is just 20 days away, it's been great having Roman understand and enjoy the holiday. He "gets" Santa, but also gets that we're celebrating Jesus' birthday. He's in love with Frosty and Rudolph, as any good three-year-old should be. But most of all, he knows that no Christmas tree is complete without a train going around the base. And ours, according to Roman, is a Golden Train. If you can believe it, I bought it when I worked at K-B Toys back in the good ol' days (1993, I believe). Good employee discount. It's been out some years, packed away some years, but we knew that Roman would love it. Not only do...

At best, we've been given lukewarm support for our seemingly out-of-the-blue bid on a house. So I thought it best, to reassure those who now think we're certifiable, to express what's been discussed in our household for not only the past few weeks, but in some instances, four years - and some since before we got married. Why we want to move to Plymouth: 1. We can’t take Roman to the nearby park because of the druggies who get into fights in the parking lot and swear a lot. 2. Neighbors who tear up the street and take the corners fast that I fear for Roman crossing the street when he’s older. 3. The neighborhood we are in is clearly beginning to turn over; we have little in common with the newcomers from Redford, Detroit, etc. 4. To participate in a neighborhood-like activity I drive 25 minutes to Plymouth (band concerts, Santa, school events, eating ice cream on a park bench). These activities are what I grew up doing in a small town, ...