Tiggers don't jump, they BOUNCE!

Happy Halloween! This was our first time to celebrate with Paul and even though he is a tad on the young side to fully appreciate the fun and candy, we still got him dressed up and went "Trick or Treating". Paul was Tigger this year - a soft and warm costume for him and he tolerated it very well!

We headed over to Gram and Pa's in the mid-afternoon so they could check out their little Tigger.....and while we were there we took a walk over to see Sue and Larry too!

Here's our little man in his Tigger outfit while we were walking to Sue and Larry's house!

Getting "candy" (ie. yogurt bites) in his pumpkin from Pa!
Digging in his personalized pumpkin to score his loot (thanks Mimi!). Tigger having fun with Gram and Pa!

Pointing at the ghost in the tree.....love those festive decorations!

We left Gram and Pa's and headed over to a birthday party and then headed for GranJo's house for dinner and some more trick or treating. Thanks GranJo for the yummy pizza!

Here's Paul reading a book at GranJo's house.....

Paul got back in his Tigger costume and we ran to a couple of GranJo's neighbor's to show off his cuteness! Here he is scoring loot from Carolyn - not that he can EAT any of the candy, but he had fun picking from her bowl!

Walking with mommy - pumpkin over the shoulder and his pumpkin flashlight in the other hand...cute!

And before we left, a big hug with GranJo!

It was a fun first Halloween.....we love our little Tigger!

Happy Half Birthday Paul!

Yep, that's right, Paul is officially 18 months old today! Our little man is growing up so fast - it's hard to believe that he's been home for over 7 months now. We are so amazed by how much he is talking and really comprehending the context behind the words he says.

We had a busy weekend celebrating both mommy and daddy's birthdays! Lots of good food and fun for our family. I spent 3 days this week in Des Moines - its hard to be away for 2 nights, but we make the best of it by talking on the speaker phone during breakfast and dinner. Paul really likes to talk on the phone now - conversations consist mostly of "hi", "momma" and "bye-bye" repetitively. He loves to hold the phone himself so he often hangs up on people!

We're pretty excited for Paul's first Halloween this weekend. We are planning to trick or treat at Gram and Pa's and then head out to GranJo's house too! Rest assured that there will be plenty of pics to post to the blog!

Daddy and Paul were goofing around with Paul's John Deere hat....check out his cheesy grin!

Dude.....what's up??


Fun at the park.....

Talking to Mimi on the phone......


Check out the cool Elmo Halloween card that GranJo sent......


Our studious little man was "reading" the paper over at Gram and Pa's house today. Smart little man!

And because you always tend to see the happy moments, it seemed appropriate to share a not so happy moment. He's still cute - and check our his epiglottis at the back of his throat! HA!

Lifelink's Annual Korean Festival

Saturday was Lifelink's Annual Korean Festival in Bensenville (suburb of Chicago). Even though it had been a terribly long week with 2 trips to Des Moines, we packed up the car and made the trek.

Paul just loves to take his shoes and socks off when he is in the car (and other places for that matter). I was entertaining him by sticking his fake money between his toes - got LOTS of giggles with that trick.




When I found out that Bensenville is only 25 minutes from Schaumburg where IKEA is located, it was then my mission to work that stop into our trip! It was a little crazy, but nice to walk around a bit and check it all out. I will say that it is much harder to shop at IKEA with a toddler in tow than it was as a single lady!

Here's Paul making himself at home in one of the kitchen displays.......


We left IKEA and headed to the event. It was held on Lifelink's elderly living campus and it was PACKED with people! I think I lost about 10 pounds of water weight - it was SO stinking hot in that place!

We were so lucky to get to visit with Paul's Korean social worker. It was a quick meeting since she had so many other families to visit with as well. Ms. Lee remembered Paul and was very excited to see him again. She told us that his foster mom is doing well and she is currently caring for another baby that will be adopted to a US family. Unfortunately, Paul wasn't in a great mood when we met with her - he was very quiet and didn't want to play with her. She still thought he was cute and we assured her that he was happy and healthy!

Here's Paul playing with the bean bag toss game....they had all sorts of crafts and games for the kids.

We were so excited to see the Lipic family! It's been a few months since we've seen them so it is always a fun time when we get to see them in person. Here's a shot of Nia (sorry that I cut her head off)......

Here's me with Paul and Kathy with Nia.......look at Paul checking Nia out!

The room we were in had big bird cage thing that Paul just loved. I am sure those birds were all freaked out with the kids coming and banging on the glass.

There were so many families at the event that we have only ever known through blogs and online forums.....it was such a pleasure to meet them in person! Funny that you only know the parents by recognizing the kids! Here are some random group shots from after the event started to die down a bit and we could all sit on the floor and visit.

Check out the expression on little M's face (red shirt on the right).....shear panic!

We packed ourselves back into the car and headed home - quick stop in DeKalb for McDonald's (nothing like a nutritious dinner), went to pick up Maya from her doggie daycare playdate with Millie (thanks again Tammy) and then home to get the little man (and us) to bed!

Check out the cute Korean gifts that Ms. Lee gave to Paul - they got shoved to the bottom of the bag and we didn't get to check them out until we got home.

It was a lot of fun, but a LONG day. We spent the better part of today just hanging at the house with lots of laundry and picking up. We had a house showing at 5pm so we went to have some pizza while the people looked at the house. No word yet on their interest - fingers crossed!

Here's hoping for a great week for everyone!!!

Official Marchik Family Day....welcome Paul!

So the day has finally arrived - we made our appearance in front of a judge who made the adoption OFFICIAL! What a long road it has been - what started in December 2007 with a detailed application (the first of MANY forms to be completed) ended in October 2009 with a Judgement of Adoption. The hearing itself was pretty anti-climactic.....it only took about 5 minutes! We were blessed to have my mom as well as Jason's parents to come along for the fun.

Here's the nice judge that presided over our hearing this morning.


The official Marchik family in front of the State of Illinois seal.


After the hearing, we all headed to Village Inn for some breakfast.....here's a shot of Paul playing with the HUGE Elmo balloon that Gram and Pa brought to help celebrate. I swear, that balloon was taller than Paul!

Paul with his Funny Face breakfast at Village Inn.....

Eating with his spoon AND his hands....how much pancake do you think he can stuff in his mouth at one time?
We headed home for Paul's nap and then the 3 of us headed to the Children's Museum. We had SUCH a great time playing with all the fun stuff there!

Look daddy, a skunk that stinks like you!

Shots from this cool tube with moving lights in the floor.....

The next members of the Blue Man Group!

Driving a tractor and having a little snack on some plastic corn on the cob!

This truck was the hit of the day - he kept going back to it. Funny part is that it is really simple with no bells, whistles or lights. Sometimes the best toys are the simplest toys!

Mommy, look at this cool garden....but the veggies are flat???

A fun fall shot that we took on the way out!

We ran a few errands and then headed home to lay low for the rest of the day. Jason made a nice dinner and then we celebrated the day with cake from Olde Towne Bakery.


My veggie eating boy......how great is that??? Peas AND green beans before the main course.

The cake.....everything is Elmo right now.......

It is easy to tell that Paul is definitely a Marchik.....mouth wide open waiting for his first bite of cake.

And what fun is cake without a little frosting on the nose!

After bath time is always the best part of the day - pj playtime! Paul was sporting his new dinosaur footie pjs! He loves to wrestle and snuggle with daddy......

Thanks to everyone that has sent such warm wishes to us on this exciting day. I must admit that nothing FEELS any different since Paul was our child from the first day that our eyes fell on his picture - but we are glad to be offical in the eyes of the court system. We feel so blessed to have made it through this process and we both know that it would not have been possible without all of the love and support of our family and friends.

A little snow in October.....

Well, today brought some light snow flurries today - yes, it is only the 10th of October....weird! It was darn cold so we had to pull out Paul's winter coat and hat. After a lazy morning, we hit Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and then ran to the mall. It was a pretty lazy day but given the weather, it was probably a good day for it!

Love this shot of Paul looking out the window (holding a remote of course).....

Paul LOVES his monkey and has started to chew on his tail - had to throw him in the wash today as the tail was getting pretty cruddy.

Here's Paul sporting his winter coat and hat......too cute.

OK mommy, the coat is nice and all, but it makes for a cramped ride in my car seat. Oh, and check out my new sneakers!

Here is some fun video from lunch - I would put an animal cracker in the back of his Tonka truck and then roll it to him. It was lots of fun!

1 year ago today.....Referral!

One year ago today, at 3:30 in the afternoon, I was sitting in my office when my phone rang....a very normal occurrence but this was not a normal phone call. It was our social worker Danielle calling to tell me that we had a baby boy! She ran through all of the specifics - birthdate, height, weight and she read me his history. I quickly got off the phone with her so I could call Jason and she faxed over the pictures that she had....we couldn't see much in the grainy faxed photos, but we just KNEW he was the cutest little man in the whole wide world. It was a long wait until the next day to pick up the real photos and actually SEE our son for the first time.

So much has happened in the last year and while there were moments that seemed to take forever, I must say that overall the last year has flown right by. We are so thankful of the blessings we have been given.....we have the perfect son that fits just right into our family.

Here's Paul in his referral picture at 5 months old..... .....and Paul today in his red rocking chair.....