Monday, December 12, 2005

There is no place like home

Two of the newest US citizens arrived at JFK on Friday 12/9/05 at 12:49pm EST. They did not enjoy their trip. I will tell you about the trip in a separate segment. We were greeted by Uncle Michael and Aunt Brigid. Grace was introduced to Brigid and she was not too sure about this stranger. Then Brigid handed her a bouquet of Balloons and suddenly she was the favorite Aunt. And since Michael was the driver he is the front runner as favorite Uncle. We know others want the title too. We say let the competition begin. The Aunt and Uncles can spoil our kids any time. As a matter of fact if you can pay for their college we will grant you the title outright.
The ride in the van was exciting for Grace and Michael, they both slept. Chris and Barbara were too wound up to sleep. When we got home we ran in to greet the dogs. They missed us and we missed them. They were a little out of sorts with the commotion the first day but they have settled down. Then we greeted the Barbara’s parents. They were jumping out of their skin to meet their first Grandchildren. Barbara carried in Michael. Michael was happy to see them. It was very emotional. Then Chris brought Grace in. As he took her from the car, the emotion over powered him. It is difficult to put into words. We are sure every parent has felt the same surge of energy when you are carrying your child to begin life in their own home. Your life passes in front of your eyes. Your entire heritage, all of your dreams for the child swell up. This is the moment you waited for, worked for and were groomed for all of your life. To take your child into their home, You feel the power of God. Chris walked with a tear in his eyes. Whispering “Welcome to your home, Grace Tanya”, “Ya tee bya Lu Blu” I Love you. Then Chris looked up to see his big sister Brigid looking at him with a knowing look, asking “how are you doing?” She gave them both a big welcome home hug. As Chris and Grace approached the door the grandparents were looking with wide grins and a sparkle in their eyes. Chris turned Grace’s face to them, their was as gasp, as if they said “this is our granddaughter, she is so beautiful”.
On Sunday Chris’ parents came to the home to visit. Grace was out playing in the snow with her father. Chris brought her to the car where the parents had that same wide smile and sparkle in their eyes. Even though there are more then 20 grandchildren it was obvious that these two are as special as each other one. A grandparent’s love has no limits. Their smiles lasted through the whole meeting. Grace and Michael behaved in a way that seemed to suggest “Yes, we are a family” Grace sang and danced with her new Snoopy doll from the grand parents. It was nice to watch her Grandfather’s eyes when her sang her song in Russian and she enjoyed her gift. At one she gave an unsolicited hug to Chris as if to say to the grandparents “don’t worry about us; I love my Mama and Papa.” As the Curran grandparents were putting their coats on to leave, Chris hugged his mother while holding Grace. Grace wanted nothing to do with that, she pushed Grandma away saying something in Russian including Papa, She was obviously saying this is my papa, you get your own. WE ARE HOME. THANK GOD.

New writer

We need to apologize for the grammatical errors on the previous two blogs. Grace wanted to participate, so we let her. We thought it would be cute to leave the mistakes in the final write up. Considering that fact that she only speaks Russian we are happy with her typing.