Meet Michael Joseph Curran

The face of a happy boy!

Introducing Grace Tanya Curran

This is a smile that is going to break alot of hearts. Click on the photo to get a close up view. I personally can't take my eyes off of her... Papa.

Our Little Girl! Grace!

I hesitate to describe Grace Tanya after only 2 days because I know we will discover more each day. Grace is a very happy little girl. She loves to have fun and she will laugh ‘at the drop of a dime’. Barbara discovered her playfulness the moment we went to pick her up on the first day. She was prepped that “Mama’ and ‘Papa’ were coming to greet her so she was asked to give Mama a big hug. So of course she ran to the interpreter. How was she to know?. Then she was passed to her real Mama and Papa. As Chris was signing the sign-in sheet Barbara was lifting her pocketbook and made it look difficult. Grace immediately took up the challenge and try herself and found it very easy. Barbara tried again and failed Grace had no problem for the next 5 attempts. Then she hosted the pocketbook over her shoulder and walked down the hall to meet her brother. Each day at 4:00 we collect the kids and go into a 10x12 room filled with toys. It is the family meeting room. On the first day the first thing Grace sees is a big clear plastic beach ball the size of her. She picks it up and starts Giggling. She throws it and catches it. She has a catch with Barbara all the time laughing and having fun then she finds a big rabbit bigger then her and starts sitting it up and putting a blanket on him and lays him down to sleep. All along she is talking in Russian and interacting with us and the interpreter Rashan. We bring her over to meet with Michael and she likes him and like all toddler girls she picks Michael up, as if to say I’ll take care of this kid for you. We see that she knows how to share and that she likes to help. On the second day we asked her caretaker about her and that is exactly how she described her. She shares and she takes care of the younger kids in her room. The caretakers agree that she is a happy kid.

Our little boy! Michael

Before we go on any further I know what you are all saying “how can you name a child Michael? You know they are all little devils. It has been proven time and time again” Believe me we know all about that but our boy is the exception that proves the rule. He has been a happy little boy since we meet him. After we made our selection we were told that that is the first time he went to any strangers and did not cry. We have not really seen him cry too much. He is very attentive to things going on in the room. As we move around with Grace he follows along. He also likes to play with his toys. Barbara witnessed how smart he is. At one point he had a toy in each and wanted a third toy that was on the shelf. He thought about it and figured there is only one way to get that toy. So he leans over with his mouth he picks up the rattle. Then triumphantly looks at Barbara to show her that he can have everything he desires. Barbara starts yelling for Chris to witness this but it was too late. He likes playing with his buckets. He sometimes fills them but mostly he like to grip them and bang them around. We will have more descriptions as the days go on. Our children are happy and so are their parents

How will you know your children?

As we mentioned we were shown 4 healthy children. If we did not get a connection I am sure we could have asked for more. So how do choose out of the 4. Here is how the Holy Spirit works. In walks a little girl with a shy and curious grin. She looks at us and wonders what to do. After a few minutes her care taker tells her she can walk to us. She does slowly but without hesitation. We hold her hands and look at her with big smiles on our faces. She does know not what to do next and neither do we. We examine her hand and she looks at each of our palms. She looks at the flower on her sweater and we all admire it. Then Barbara asks if she would like to sit on her lap. She nods yes and Barbara picks her up. She still has this grin and a look of anticipation but nothing is making this an extraordinary meeting. As she is on Barbara’s lap, Chris admires her brown sweater and her velvety green skirt and finally her green knit stockings under her black mary-jane shoes. When Chris lightly touched her knee she burst out in this great big giggle!!! Chris went to touch her knee again and there was that squealing infectious giggle. We had our little girl! Everyone in the room joined her in giggling. After a few more times of Tanya trying to playful cover her knee and laughing continuously she was asked to go back to her care taker.

Before Grace Tanya entered the room Mishka was walked into the room. He was wearing a white jumper and black shoes. He was happy to be there and he kept looking at us and his caretaker. Eventually he was walked toward us and Chris took his hand and he walked the rest of the way. No hesitation. He looked at us will his blue eyes and held both Barbara’s and Chris hand with a death grip. We made google eyes at him for a while until the director told us that we can pick him up. As you know many 15 month olds do not always like to be picked up. But Mishka was in a good mood and Chris picked him up with no problem. He stood on Chris’ knees like he had been doing it all his life. Barbara lightly touched his hair and face and he gave a slight hint a little smile. We had our little boy! If Chris raised him high by holding his knees like he does with the nieces and nephews we are sure Mishka would have enjoyed it just as much. Since we were being closely observed It is wise that he did not do that. As he was standing on our lap we talked to him and he looked at us and then looked around the room to make sure it ok. Once he was reassured he turned back to us. After a little time he was walked back to his caretaker and the girls came in.

We got off easy we were able to touch 2 of the 4 kids. One big concern was how would we know. Don’t worry they were picked long before we got there!

Information blackout

Sorry it took so long to write but we were held up in our hotel room until our coordinator came back with papers to sign. She flew into our room at 10:oo this morning. So we will fill you in on what has been happening.

God is Good!!!

Today we met our children. We went to the orphanage this morning and met 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. After about 20 minutes we were asked to choose who we might want. The decision was actually easy for us, although we would have taken all 4 if we could. We decided on the 3yr old girl. We named her Grace Tanya. We then chose a one year old boy who will be called Michael Joseph. We decided to keep thier Russian names as part of their full names. Michael's Russian name is Miskalene which is Michael in English. Tanya is the girl's orphanage given name.
Now we spend the next two weeks bonding with them. We will go to the orphanage again today to start the process. We are very excited.
Please remember us in your thoughts and prayers. Because we are parents now, we don't know what we are doing. We will post pictures as soon as we can.

Da sveeyi dan ya,
Grace and Michael's parents hooray!

So, how are we feeling?

Well, This morning I (Chris) had a little breakdown. As I walked the dogs, I started missing them (3 weeks is a long time). I also started thinking about all of the changes that are about to hit me, like: We will be 5 miles from Russia I will not be able to cross the boarder. What would my kids do If I got caught and couldn't return. We will be near a ski slope in the Himalayas; what an opportunity, But how will I get the kids home with a broken leg? Plus the cost! I need that money to buy my kids a new pair of shoes! It is the end of the world as we know it. By the time the mile was up my dogs and I were ready to leave our 'childhood' behind and be the responsible ones. All fathers have said, I can still be a kid; I just need to combine that with more responsibility and authority.
How is Barbara doing? Well, she was up at 7:00 this morning painting a closet. The raw energy is building. Later.

We have a flight!

We leave out of JFK on Friday 11/11/05. We hope to be back Dec 3rd or 4th.

We are cleared to travel to Semey KZ!

We just received word that the orphanage will be ready for our arrival anytime after 11/12/2005. So we will travel as close to that date as we can. Probably Sunday 11/13/05 or Monday. We will let you know when the flights are booked.

• We will take 18-20 hours to fly to Almaty KZ. The next day we will fly 2 hours to Semey KZ.
• Semey is about 10 miles from Russia in the very eastern part of the country, along the Irtysh River.
• It is 11 an hour time difference. The area is still very Russian so the adults and kids will all speak Russian.
• We will bond with the kids for 2 weeks then 1 week of paperwork. We will back sometime in early December.

We have a visa!!

Wow! Flo is in the house. Monday 10/31/05 we send our passports to The Kazakh Embassy, we use express mail (They don't accept UPS, the nerve!). Anyway, it gets there by noon on Tuesday. Nov 1st. Because we sent a self addressed, prepaid 'express mail' envelope, we recieved our Passports back by noon on Wednesday Nov 2nd. By the Way(BTW) when things are going smoothly for Barbara and I, we say "We've got Flow" or "We know Flo." We'll it is a good start. The word on the date should be known on Thursday! We will let you know.

We have an Invitation!!!!

Almost two years to the day from when we started our Homestudy we have an invitation to go to Kazakhstan. Thank God for getting us over this 1st barrier. Tonight we celebrate. Dinner at the Clinton House. Yeah that is going all out, around here. Thank you for sticking with us all of this time. Rule number 1 while adopting should be similar to Rule number 1 of pregnancies...Don't tell anyone too early. Who would of guessed it would have taken this long. In case you are wondering, we started our process going to Lithuania. We thought it would be nice to go with Barbara's heritage. You never know with international adoptions and Lithuania decided they would work to keep the children in the country. So we went to plan B. We asked for the country with the quickest, process for multiple kids, That is Kazakhstan!!. Now we wait for a date. One step at a time. God Bless Chris&Barbara