Merry Christmas!

Anna Loves Santa!

My kids are just so darn CUTE!!!

Some success with birth family search!

What a wonderful man our searcher is! While he had almost nothing to go on, he was still able to get us a tad bit of information and perhaps some birthfamily contact can be found in the future. I was able to get pictures of the house the birthmother grew up in and some info from a close neighbor who it seems still has some contact with the birthmother. I don't know quite why I feel this way as I really never thought finding the birthfamily would be of any importance to me.....but it just feels good. Even if nothing further ever happens, I at least know someone who was close to the family has seen Anna's pictures and can see she is happy and healthy and perhaps pass this along to the birthmother/father someday. And even if this is all the info and pictures I ever get for Anna, she can get some sense of her history and know I tried the best I could. I was also able to get some answers that explained why it took soooooo very long for Anna to get released for international adoption. I guess I like knowing even just a few more pieces to her history and the path Anna had to take to find her way HOME to US!

Thank you searcher Illich. I feel he did a wonderful job and charged us an extremely fair price for all he did. I know its a very personal decision to each family to search out the birth family. I just wanted to share what a positive experience its been for us overall, even without the best ending.

No such luck

So our birth family search will not have a happy ending at this moment. Our searcher will not get to show her the wonderful cuteness that is Anna and let her know how much we love and adore her. I think I still somehow hoped that having this knowledge would somehow give her a bright spot in her probable pretty hard life. I was so hoping to have a picture so show Anna some day of the woman that gave her life and perhaps some type of communication. But, not now.....perhaps later, I don't really know....maybe never.

Wish us luck

Our birth family searcher just said he found "traces" of Anna's birth mother. So, I have spent all evening writing up the birth mother letter and trying to narrow it down to 12 pictures to send (yes, double what he recommended but how can I limit such cuteness??) I'm trying not to get my hopes up but I think I am anyways.

We just returned from a wonderful long weekend away in Sedona, Arizona to celebrate my big 4-0 and our 11 year anniversary. Auntie Manda and Gramma watched the kiddos and I know they had a BLAST. They made the cutest halloween cupcakes! Anna did really good but I'm pretty sure she wore out my sister who has no kids.