It's Gotcha Day!

Hey everybody! These are two Jayhawks with mohawks celebrating the one year anniversary of the day we became a family! On August 8th, 2006, Mummy and Daddy went through a harrowing court proceeding that concluded with the Russian government's blessing to bring us home to Kansas.




Here is a picture from the window of our Siberian hotel room the morning after Gotcha Day. If you look closely, you'll see a rainbow, which we decided meant it was more than the Russian government who was blessing our new family. Today is a day the four of us will celebrate the first year, and look back on the most amazing adventure of bringing Carson and Conner home.





These are some before & after pics of the boys. They kind of speak for themselves. We were so lucky to have been sent to an orphanage that was well funded. And you can see from the Kras picture above that this was no small village. We believe that the secrets to this success story were being well prepared and being very lucky. We may have been one of the last families to receive two young, healthy, unrelated children from Russia in one trip. We squeeked through the process just as major changes were sweeping through the international adoption scene.




This is a chart Daddy used for a presentation to his Rotary club. It doesn't do justice to the major changes in the international adoption process this year, and the shrinking numbers from the three primary countries. For several months this year, Russia shut down its intl adoptions completely. It has recently restarted, and its numbers for 2007 may be only half of those from 2006. It makes us that much more thankful that we brought home Conner and Carson when we did.




So, we are smiling and holding hands as we sing Happy Gotcha Day to each other. The first year of familyhood has been such a challenge. Couldn't have done it without supportive friends and family. The boys are still quite a handful, but our toughest days now are not as bad as our average days were a year ago. They are truly brothers now, we are truly their parents, and the bond continues to grow stronger by the day. It's Gotcha Day!