Happy New Year! We welcome 2013!

Happy 2013! We are so Happy to welcome the new year!  We have had changes...good and bad in
2012.  Stella is thriving! Her speech is coming along well.  We have just been accepted into Texas

 Childrens for once a week Speech Therapy.  It seems like Stella drops constanants on a lot of words.  She also can't say F or W.  They are still just saying delay which makes me happy.  Stella also attends St. Mary's preschool and has made a lot of friends, along with her Mommy!  Great bunch of people and teachers too!

 The downside of 2012 was loosing my precious, sweet Mom.  She was so healthy and vibrant in 2011 and at the beginning of the 2012 her Kidney's failed and she just was never the same.  Her little body just couldn't handle the dialysis.  In six months time, I had to say goodbye to the most wonderful Mom a person could have.  I will never get over this loss but I know that my Mom is where the sun always shines, the beach is always warm and she always has a smile on her face. Miss you so so much Mom.  I was blessed to be able to spend most every morning and Wednesdays with Mom in those last 6 months.

 The above picture is of Mom and her girls taken just a bit before she passed away. Below is a picture of Mom and Stella from November 2010. She loved Stella and all her grandkids and great grandkids so much! Stella was lucky 7.

 Mom left us in May and I moved within the same town just a month later.  Got my little white house with a white picket fence and I am able to walk Stella to school on most days.  Downtown Bellville is just a short walk also. Oh and a park just across the street!  We love it!

 Here is just another picture of Stella (before we moved).  Like I said...Thriving.... and is such a sweet, loving little girl. Such a character too. Still loves her clothes and shoes.  Very tiny. Can wear a 12 mo waist but has just shot up height wise.

Thanks for reading after all this time away.  I feel so blessed to have Stella.  Kazakhstan closed their adoptions shortly after I brought Stella home in October 2010.  I can't even imagine my life without this little toot!

stella valentine 2012

Whoo Loves You Valentine's Card

Get personalized Halloween invitations at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Time flys!!

Here it is over a year since Stella came home...wow, I am just amazed. Stella continues to grow and overcome so many of her delays. She is walking...or should I say running...like a fiend! It's a struggle to keep her in my shopping cart at the market because the girl just wants to run! Go Stella! Just slow down enough so that Mommy can catch you! Working with ECI has really helped. Through their eyes and expertise I have seen her go from this wobbly walk (22 months) to a sure footed gate. Sometimes I have to look back and compare to when she came home. She was such a baby at 16 months. No muscle tone, pale, eating only pureed food, only knew a bottle. NOW? I have a self confident, strong willed, loving, sweet little lady. Stella didn't really know how to show affection at first. Her hugs were putting her thumb in her mouth and folding her arms in. Now I get sweet hugs, still the finger in the mouth, but head on my shoulder sweet hugs and kisses. Sometimes you feel this sweet little pat on your back too. Not saying that she can't be a toot! When tired or excited she has been know to slap...but thank goodness those moments are few and far between.

Stella is 28 months now. I was worried a bit about her talking but now her words are starting to come. Mostly the basics...Car, ball, no, go, dog, cat.......Sometimes I swear she says a sentence but I am not sure.

Halloween was a blast this year. We went to a flight attendant costume party and Stella practically ran up to the front door! Stella finally got to meet so many people that went through the years of the process with me. Seems like ages ago. I miss my CAL family...I am just working one trip a month so it gets lonely at times. I do miss my AMS and FRA layovers. One a month is just not enough! Trick or treating was fun too....my little bumble bee "got" the concept this year and wanted to eat her candy in front of the people who gave it to her. Now isn't that polite?? Ha ha! In sign she would say thank you. Now she points to her bucket and says "D"? She is addicted I do believe!

ECI is coming over next week to reevaluate Missy. I am thinking we may be done with them? I am kind of sad...it's been nice to have feedback from them on what and how she is doing. They also persuaded me to put Stella in two days of "play school" and I think that it will help her a lot. She just recently got moved up from the 18 mo old class to the 2 and 3 year old class. She loves them and there are several mother hens in the class that Stella loves.

This is the best but hardest thing I have ever done. I can't even say how our lives have changed. I sometimes wonder if Stella remembers her life as Sabrina. On vacation there was a Russian family who mostly spoke Russian....Stella paid no attention and didn't seem to recognize the language. She has seen pictures of the BH director and she calls out Baba...russian for Grandmother. I am not sure if she called her that or not. So there must be some memory. For months after Stella came home...I would lay her down and pat her back and walk away. Now it's a little more complicated.....books, mood lighting, crying, rocking and holding! I cherish those moments that we rock and she lays her head on my shoulder. The girl has stolen my heart. Love you baby girl! Shine on Stella!

summer fun!

This slideshow made with Smilebox

She's my daughter!

It just dawned on me.......I have been Stella's Mommy officially since August 17th, 2010. For me it felt more real when I got her home. That was in October, so it has been over 5 months. It hit me like a brick that I have been her Mommy for longer then her birth mother was with her. I don't know all of the circumstances of her life before me but I do know that she was with her BM for 3 months.....a hospital for 2 months then the Baby House for 11 months before I whisked her away to Texas. Oh how I love my daughter! It's taken me awhile to be able to say that word...daughter. I don't know why....It just didn't seem real somehow.

Enough about the adoption now on to my Stella Bella! She is growing in leaps and bounds! Her little size 2 infant shoes no longer fit and her clothes seem to be getting smaller and smaller. Stella came home weighing 15 pounds at 16 months and now at 21 months is weighing about 19.5 pounds. She is eating big people food but still gets a bottle for the vitamins and nutrients that she missed. She is saying lots of words like Chichen (chicken), bath, car, cracker, bye bye and her favorite is ball! She is not so much into toys but she can spot a ball a mile away!

Now that she is home we have had all the doctors appointments to determine that she is 100 percent healthy! Her eyes that we worried were "lazy" are totally normal. Nothing wrong with this little girl!! Such a huge relief! Oh, one thing that I should mention is that she did test positive for TB...apparently normal for some of these Kaz kids. At birth they are given an inoculation with the dead TB virus in it so she will ALWAYS show positive and they will have to do a chest x-ray to determine that she doesn't have TB when a TB test is required.

My little Stella is one of the most stubborn little critters that I have ever met. Stella is also funny and demands attention from everyone! Stella wasn't a favorite at her Baby House and was very quiet....now......when I have take her to day care...once a week...the older kids come running up yelling "Stella"! Her caregiver there said "Yes...they all know Miss Stella"! Ha ha! My little toot. Okay on to the pictures. We took her to Padre Island last weekend and we have another Kaz water baby. No fear! And about a month ago she rode a pony, funniest thing....she had one hand on the sadle horn and the other resting on her knee like a real pro! Must be in the blood! Enjoy my favorite pictures of my favorite daughter!

Happy 18 months!

Today is Stella's 18 month birthday! On her first birthday she was still at Baby House #1 and I was back home, so we didn't get to celebrate. Tonight we will have a piece of the special pink cake that we had for her back in June. It's been in the freezer just waiting for Stella!

This past summer I finally got to meet Lou Ann and Lexie. I can honestly say that I have not met a couple of girls that I like more then these two! I feel like I have known Lou Ann for years. More then the 3 years that she has been there for me through the times with CHI and every aspect of the adoption. I know that I can ask Lou Ann anything and she will give me her honest opinion. She and I have so much in common. Both military brats of pilots, attended the same University at the same time, Her major theater, mine art. Both lived in LA to persue careers in motion pictures and television (she was successful....I was an extra ; ) ) Both single Kaz mamas.

Finally yesterday we got the two Kazakh princesses together. A fast friendship was created and I know it will be a forever one. These girls even had the same color on. Stella loves Lexie and I see a new light in her that I didn't see yesterday!




On Sunday we got into the holiday spirit and Stella, Tina and I went out to the winery and enjoyed the sunset, which you can't see but we really had a nice time.