CHI Easter Open House

Greetings everyone! It has been so long since we have done a blog post. Time seems to be flying by as the days get warmer and longer. Things here at the Fritsche household are going extremely well. It is amazing how time and experiences knit a family together. Even though it has been only seven months since Slav and Sergei have joined us, Joel and I can hardly remember life without them.

Slav is doing so well in preschool. His teacher even stopped me as I dropped him off and mentioned how wonderful he was and how happy they were that Slav was there. I smiled that "Proud Mama" smile. My boy is just amazing! He is also dealing with losing some teeth and has had his first forays into the world of the "tooth fairy" (He LOVES the dollar store!)

Sergei is also growing and maturing right before our eyes. He is really working on following directions and being helpful. He and I have recently spent a lot of time reading "blooks" He knows all his ABC's and is very inquisitive about the things we discover in books. He is never far from my side and we have plenty of good laughs together. He is so unstoppable. Nothing gets him down.

Joel is done traveling for work for awhile, so we are very glad that our family will be together for a few months. A couple of weeks ago, Joel travelled to Seattle for work. He was able to see the Greens, the family we met in Vlad on our first trip. Rich, Helen and their son Roman took Joel on a whirlwind tour of Seattle. Roman lived in the same baby home as Sergei. What fun to keep in touch with all of the wonderful people we've met through the journey of international adoption!

Yesterday we went to Children's Hope International to join them in an Easter celebration. It was so wonderful to see how many children have found families through this agency! We know the families that we saw weren't even a small percentage of the people that Children's Hope International has helped. Praise God for CHI!

While we were at CHI the boys got to color some Easter pictures, hunt for Easter eggs, see the Easter bunny, marvel at a REAL fire truck, and play with a huge parachute. They had such a fantastic time! We also enjoyed talking with other people who have adopted children. It is so neat how everyone has their own story and every story is unique. This is one reason we have enjoyed looking at blogs so much.

Speaking of blogs and blog friends, we want to wish the Overstreets a happy and safe journey as they head to Vladivostok to pick up their son. He is in the baby home where Sergei lived. We are so happy for you! God be with you! Say Hi to Lana and Irina for us!

Being at CHI and reading other adoption stories has given us pangs of nostalgia that we aren't in the adoption process anymore. It was such a big part of our life for 2 and 1/2 years. We are looking forward to the day when we can adopt a sister for Slav and Sergei. My sister is pregnant and the other day Slav said " Mom, where' s your baby?" I said "You and Sergei are my babies." We know it takes planning and saving on our part for our family to grow. God's timing is perfect and we pray that should it be His will our family will grow once more in the not to distant future.

God's Blessings to you all as you ponder Jesus' passion this Holy Week. Here are some family pictures. Enjoy!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav, and Sergei

Six-Month Celebration

Hey Everyone! Today is the six month anniversary of our court date. On August 25th we nervously sat down in the courtroom in downtown Vladivostok with Lana, our translator. We answered questions about our boys, our jobs, our finances. About 45 minutes later we were declared the parents of Slav and Sergei. What a day! What a celebration we had that evening! We continue to praise and thank God for the wonderful gift of family and for all those (all of you!) who prayed for us and encouraged us through the journey of adoption. To God be the glory!

Today we celebrated the six-month anniversary of our court date in a very special way. We're out in Los Angeles visiting family and we decided that today would be a perfect day to go to Disneyland. So off we went! We could've spent several days here riding the rides and having fun, but we managed to do as much as we could in one day. We all had a blast! The boys got to meet Mickey Mouse and everything! What a day! What a celebration! We're so thrilled to be a family!

Our six-month post-placement report went very well. One of the social workers from our adoption agency came over earlier this month to do the home visit for the report. We had a great visit with him. He was impressed with how well the boys are doing, especially their language skills.

We recognize the importance of following through with the post-placement reports and are happy to let our Russian friends know how well our boys are doing. Our prayers go out to all of you who have been affected by the recent list of home study agencies which were blacklisted because they supposedly didn't follow through with post-placement reports. We pray that all will come together and that your adoptions will proceed without difficulty. We pray also for your children who are waiting to be united with you. May God continue to keep them in His tender care!

Below are some pictures from our special day today!

Love, Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Book Tag

We've been tagged, first by the Overstreets, then by the Gebhardts.

The rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open to page 56.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.

5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!

6. Tag five (or more) other people to do the same!

The nearest book is "Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel" by Nahum M. Sarna.  (I was doing a study on the Exodus last week and the book is still laying next to the computer.)  Here's the excerpt:

"By restricting his petition to this limited and reasonable item, rather than demanding the wholesale and permanent release of the people, Moses might succeed in outwitting the pharaoh.  The immediate and outright rejection of even this modest request exposes the true nature of this monarch. No wonder, then, that the divine proclamation to Moses introduces a note of caution. The one called to be liberator of Israel is forewarned of the implacable obduracy of the king of Egypt.  Moses must be prepared at the outset of his new career for a long series of disappointments and failures in his dealings with the pharaoh."

We tag:

1. Rich & Helen

2. Cindy

3. Bill & Meghan

4. Carolynn & Steve

5. Concordia Blog Cabin (Alison or Kyle, you better do it or else!)

Snuggling fun and snow

     Hello everyone!  As we get ready for a visit from the social worker we think about the fun that we have had with the boys the past few days.  The snow makes for great snuggling weather and a lot of fun outside.  It has been really great to watch the boys enjoy the snow.  Sledding, snowball fights, and building a snowman are just a few of the wonderful memories we will keep from the past few days.  

     Things have been going extremely well and we continue to be blessed as a family.  Slav and Sergei are such eager, sweet, loving boys who are always up for some fun.  It is such an adventure being their parents.  

    Slav has really taken to school well.  He knows his teacher's name and is getting to meet new friends.  Sergei usually gets to practice helping mom at the store or some other such activity while Slav is in school.  He needs the practice of behaving well in a public place.  Slav has healed from his oral surgery wonderfully.  His mouth looks and feels so much better.  Both boys have grown some and gained weight since their last doctor's visit so we are grateful for health.   

     Other than the fact that all is going well we don't really have much to report.  Joel has a very busy few weeks coming up with travel and preaching. Clarion is looking forward to their trip to California to visit her sister and family.  The boys are looking forward to finally meeting the last of their cousins.  Let's hope they are ready for us!  

     God's blessings to all!  We pray everyone is well as we delve deeper into 2009! 

Tattoos, Bunkbeds & New Friends

Hey Everyone! What a weekend it was! We met our goals for the weekend of taking down Christmas decorations (finally!), setting up big boys beds and getting a number of things organized. As I (Joel) was going through some of my stuff, I found some "Pirates of the Caribbean" tattoos that I had stashed away. The boys saw them and of course had to try them out. Thankfully the boys didn't have any kind of skin reactions or irritations (something we thought of after the fact...what newbies we still are at parenting!).


Since Sergei did so well sleeping in a big boy bed at Joel's parents' house during the Christmas holidays, we decided to set up the bunkbeds that we've had down in our basement for the last year or so. The boys were very excited. We did not have the beds stacked downstairs, so when I showed them a picture of what they would look like stacked, the couldn't wait to have the bunkbeds in their room. It took a couple of hours. We had to disassemble the crib and toddler bed and store them away. Then we had to take apart the beds downstairs and reassemble and stack them in their room. We were pooped afterwards, but it was really worth it. The boys love their new beds!


This was also a big weekend for us because we made plans to get together with our friends the Pitmans, who have been home for a couple of weeks now with their three little ones from Vladivostok. We have been looking forward to meeting the children for quite some time. The Pitmans were just a few months behind us as we waited to be bring our children home. We have so enjoyed their friendship throughout the last year or so of our adoption journey. Now that both of our families are complete, our children can enjoy that friendship as well.


Eric and Becky and family are doing great! They are experiencing many of the same things that we (and many of you who have your children home) experienced in the first few weeks of being home. We have no doubt that things will progress as well as they did with us. Their children are beautiful. We were disappointed (but not surprised) that neither of our boys made attempts to speak Russian to Max, Olivia or AJ. We would love for Slav and Sergei to maintain the knowledge and use of their native language, but that is probably a challenge that we won't be able to meet. We still do our best to keep them connected to Russian culture as we look at souvenirs and pictures from our trip as well as Russian books and videos. Someday when the boys are older we hope to make it back to Vlad for a visit. We enjoyed watching The Pitmans' videos and reliving much of our own experience from just a few months ago. The Pitmans only live less than an hour away from us, so we hope for many more get-togethers to come!


God's blessings to all of you who are still waiting for referrals and/or court dates. It may seem like a long time now, but as everyone told us, once you bring your children home time really starts to fly. I can't believe that we're already preparing for our first post-placement report which is due next month. Wow! It's yet another opportunity for us to reflect on the Lord's tremendous grace and goodness to us these past few months especially!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Slav's First Day of School

Slav started pre-school today. He goes two mornings a week. He was very excited this morning as we prepared for the day. Slav ate breakfast on "the special plate" this morning in honor of his first day of school. The special plate was a gift from Joel's parents years ago to use whenever a family member has a special occasion, like birthday's etc. Now that we have children it will get a lot more use.

Slav has his own backpack and it was stuffed full of school supplies. His bear had to come along for the ride in the car. Here is a picture and video from this morning as we prepared to head out the door.





Mama, Papa and Sergei dropped Slav off together this morning. All went very well, except Sergei cried and cried because he wanted to go to school as well. He kept saying, "Go school." After a few minutes in the car, Sergei settled down and all was well. Mama picked up Slav a few hours later. The teacher had a good report. Slav was excited that he spoke English to the teacher. He sang, played and heard stories, among other things. On Thursday he'll have "show & tell" with his favorite Christmas gift. Good thing we have a couple of days to determine what exactly his favorite gift is.

Happy 2009!

Hello everyone!  We returned yesterday from a wonderful Christmas vacation in Texas.  The boys experienced many firsts over the last two weeks.  They had their first road trip, their first Christmas with us, their first meeting with many new family members and friends, their first fireworks, their first jacuzzi experience, and many more.  

We all had a great time!  We stayed with Joel's parents in Houston and drove out to visit Clarion's parents.  It was a lot of time in the car but the boys handled it very well.  They were overwhelmed with presents from loved ones but are becoming familiar with the real meaning of Christmas.  They can point out Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in any nativity scene!

The boys continue to do wonderfully.  Family and friends were amazed at their English and communication skills.  Slav has his first day of preschool (two half-days a week) coming up next week and Sergei is looking forward to the extra time with mom.  

Congratulations to the Pitmans who are beginning 2009 at home with their three beautiful children.  We look forward to getting the children together.  We continue to pray for all the couples and children involved in the adoption process.   

Enjoy the pictures from the trip and have a blessed New Year! 

Tree Decorating

Tonight we had a great time eating homemade turkey noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Then we decorated the Christmas tree.  What a night!  Enjoy the video and pics!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

It's Getting Colder Outside

Greetings everyone! We're having colder and colder weather here in St. Louis. It was still nice and warm when we got home from Russia in early September. It's so hard to believe that we've been home with our boys for over two months now. As of tomorrow, Slav will have been with us (counting our time in Vlad) three months. Unbelievable! While we were waiting in between trips, everyone always said that once you get home with you child(ren) time really starts to fly. That is so true!

Sergei is still sleeping in a crib, even though he is a tad over three years old. He has started climbing out several times during the night. We were very concerned about him falling while trying to climb out, so we took the side rail of the crib. Well, that was a mistake. Within an hour of going to bed, he rolled out of the bed onto the hardwood floor. Ouch! (This happened a lot while we had him with us at the hotel in Russia.) So we decided to put the rail back on but to put it as low as it would go. That way it still prevents him from rolling out of the bed, but if he climbs out he has much less of a chance of falling and hurting himself. Of course, with easier access in and out of bed, Sergei now climbs out two sometimes even three times a night. Thankfully, he usually goes right back to sleep when we put him back in the bed, except at 5:30AM when he is ready to get up. Gotta work on that one! We hope within the next six months to have both boys in big-boy beds.

The boys are definitely making progress with English. We have noticed that more and more they are speaking English to one another. The other day Slav was laying on the couch watching TV and Sergei stood right in front of him, blocking his view. Slav growled at Sergei saying, "I can't see!" They speak mostly English to us, but use a few Russian words yet. They have not stopped using the Russian words for "pee" and "poop," although they are beginning to say the word "bathroom" when they have to go. Sergei is using more and more two or three word phrases, one of which is "not yet." We're very proud of their progress with language!

Slav is making some progress with eating. Recently he ate some chicken noodle soup and actually liked it. One of the caretakers at his orphanage told us that he didn't like soup. He also ate about half of a small bowl of potato soup a few days ago. The biggest struggle with Slav's eating habits is not necessarily what he eats, but getting him to actually eat. When he is hungry and likes what is on his plate he usually devours his food. This is the case when he has sausage, hot dogs, corn dogs, bologna or chicken nuggets. Much of the time, however, Slav just eats so slow. He will chew on something for five minutes. Sergei, Clarion and I will be all done eating, sometimes even with two helpings, and Slav still has a long way to go to finish his food. Thankfully, at least we can usually get Slav to try a bite of something. Last night I made chili. Slav took a bite and hated it. It wasn't even the hot kind of chili. Sergei, as he does with 99% of the food we put in front of him, devoured his chili. He is a very good eater!

The boys love playing outside. With the colder weather, we've already started bundling them up with hats and gloves. Slav isn't a big fan of jackets, but he is learning that he must have it on to play outside when it's cold. Sometimes he throws a little fit, but once he realizes he's stuck inside, he changes his tune. Slav has gone from throwing big fits, to little whiny fits once in a while. He especially does it when he's tired. The good news is that whether it's a big fit or a little whiny fit, he quickly begins to understand that all the fit does is get him into further trouble. Back to playing outside. Just about everything Slav finds outside (sticks, etc.) gets turned into some sort of weapon. Slav also like to climb trees. Thankfully the tree on the side of our house is fairly small and he won't find himself to high up off of the ground. Sergei loves to play with the soccer ball. I will kick it all the way across the field and he will chase it. He would do this all day if I stayed out and kept kicking it. I think we've found a great way to tire the little guy out!

The boys are getting excited about Christmas. We were in the mall last weekend and they saw the Christmas trees and immediately started talking about Christmas. It seems that they have a pretty good idea of the tradition of Christmas. We're trying to work hard with them about why we really celebrate Christmas. Every evening before bed we sing a hymn and pray the Lord's Prayer. We are amazed that both boys get some of the words in the prayer, words that you wouldn't expect, like "hallowed," "trespass" and the like. Cool stuff! We have some great children's books that tell the story of Jesus' birth. Thankfully the boys love books!

That's all for now. Thank you for your continued prayers for our family! Congratulations to Eric & Becky who have their court date and will soon return to Vlad for their three children. As always, our prayers go out for all those who are waiting for referrals and court dates. God bless you all!

In Christ,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

Halloween & Glasses

The boys enjoyed their first Halloween last Friday!  Slav went as Batman.  Sergei went as Superman. It took a little bit of time for them to figure out the concept of trick or treating.  We practiced at our front door several times before going out for real.  We bought the boys the little plastic pumpkins with handles to hold all of their candy.  When we left the house to go out and trick or treat, Slav said, "Papa, Batman no pumpkin."  He was telling me that Batman doesn't carry a pumpkin.  AFter a few stops at houses on our street he realized that carrying the pumpkin was a necessity.  He had to get all his candy home somehow.  Surprisingly, the boys have not begged and pleaded to eat all the candy.  We give them a little bit each day and they're very happy with that.  Ask if that's the case again next year!

Slav went to the eye doctor last week so that he could be evaluated in light of his strabismus.  The appointment went very well.  The doctor also determined that Slav is a bit far-sighted.  Yesterday he got his glasses.  He looks adorable in them.  However, he doesn't like them at all.  At first he kept trying to take them off, but thankfully he eased up on that.  I think what he dislikes is that the nosepiece is rubbing on his nose and it hurts.  We're hoping that he will get used to them over the next few days.  If we determine that they are rubbing him too hard we will go back and see about getting them adjusted a bit.  Anyway, all is well otherwise.  Both boys will be seeing the dentist next week.  We are pretty sure that Sergei has some cavities and we know for certain that Slav will need some dental work.  His teeth are not in the best of shape.  Here's Slav in his new glasses. 

As for learning, the boys are progressing by leaps and bounds.  Every day we hear new English words that we weren't even sure they knew.  Slav's newest phrase is "Not glasses"  Sergei even said "medicine" at the table last night to remind us that they needed their iron.  They are each counting more and more each day and they are now masters of colors and shapes.  Slav has moved on to letters and recognizing his name.  Sergei is learning to hold a crayon correctly and follow lines.  They make Mama so proud! 

God's blessings to all of you who are waiting for referrals and court dates!  Our prayers go out especially to Eric & Becky who are anxiously awaiting their court date so they can bring home their three beautiful children from Vlad.  Their paperwork is being reviewed by the judge and it should be only a matter of days before they receive their good news.  The Lord be with you all!

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei

A Very Big Week!

This was a big week for the boys.  Clarion’s mom and dad arrived this week for a visit to meet their newest grandchildren.  The boys had a great time getting to know them. The boys have done so well meeting relatives.  They have attached to their mama and papa very well and seem to know the difference between us and other family members.  Temper tantrums are less and less every day.  Usually they’ll only take place if one of the boys is very tired.  Overall the boys are progressing nicely.  Slav had a 24-hour stomach bug in the middle of the week and his temperature got up to about 104 degrees.  The next day he had a light fever, but he was much better.  The day after that he was back to his old self and asking for sausage, one of his favorite things to eat.

The boys were baptized at church this morning.  This was the other big event of the week.  Today is Reformation Sunday, a day when Lutherans rejoice in God’s free grace in Christ Jesus.  It was great to see God working that grace in Slav & Sergei’s lives through the water and Word of Holy Baptism!  Clarion’s brother drove over from Tennessee and Joel’s mom flew up from Texas.  It was nice to have so many family members here as the boys were received into the family of God.  The boys were very well behaved.  We talked with them quite a bit about Baptism the last few days so they sort of new what was going to take place.  Below are pictures from the last week or so, including the baptism.

God’s blessings to you all!

Love,

 Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei