Happy New Year

 From our family to yours, have a healthy, joyful and prosperous 2022.

Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

2021 Food

Most of what we eat around here is cooked or baked from scratch by me.  We try out many new recipes each year and also enjoy our perennial favorites.  Here are some highlights from 2021.

Donut experiments...

Strawberries from a local farm
turned into yummy strawberry sauce and freezer jam

Summer lunches...

Garden salsa...

Nutella crepes

No bake pies in the heat of summer

Hot pepper jelly

A farewell cake for a therapist

Apple cake in a cast iron pan

Plated Halloween brunch

Rosemary cheddar soda bread

A picnic lunch

Holiday cookie plates for friends

A dessert tray for a holiday brunch

And that's a wrap.  Kitchen's closed.

2021 Garden

Before  we adopted, I was a pretty avid gardener albeit with some space limitations.  Nonetheless, I grew most of the vegetables and herbs Craig and I would eat in any given summer.  I tried to continue gardening after the kids arrived, but there just wasn't the time nor did I have the energy and the attempts I did make were consequently not very successful.  I am not a person that sets New Year's resolutions, but at the end of last year it did occur to me that I missed gardening, so I decided to give it a more serious effort in 2021.  Below are some photos from the season.

Our first crop for the year consisted of these gorgeous radishes.

We had parsley, basil, green onions, and cilantro.  We used fresh basil almost every day and were even able to save it through a beetle infestation.

We had yellow and red tomatoes.  The yellow tomato plant was started indoors from seeds that my mom brought me from Bulgaria some years ago.  This single plant was extremely prolific well into October and I think must have produced around 200 tomatoes.

Just for fun I started two Jigsaw Pepper plants from seed indoors.  They struck me as very ornamental, so that was my motivation.  Both plants bore fruit and were fun to watch through the summer months.  I think we probably had over 300 of these tiny, super hot peppers.  We used them sparingly for cooking, made super delicious hot pepper jelly that's so good on grilled cheese sandwiches, and dried a bunch to give as part of Christmas presents for our spicy-loving, cooking friends.

We tried our hands at two kinds of cucumbers, but didn't quite have enough space for them to provide us with a big harvest.  We did get regular cucumbers at least weekly and there was one, lone Armenian cucumber from rare seed.

Emilia's take on gardening

Armenian cucumber

We also had thrown some pumpkins into various spots in the yard after Thanksgiving 2020 and were surprised with volunteer pumpkins in 2021.

Many days I went outside and harvested my lunch which I very much enjoyed.

I would say our 2021 garden was a success despite some frustrating moments created by an overly enthusiastic little helper and some pesky beetles.  I am already looking forward to 2022.

IAC Sessions 529-534 Referrals

 The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 529 which was held on August 5, 2021:

1) French dossier from October 2014 referred a female child aged 9 years and 10 months with features in health status

2) Spanish dossier from July 2015 referred a male child aged 1 year and 9 months with features in health status

3) Canadian dossier from July 2019 referred a male child aged 1 year and 9 months with features in health status and a family history

4) Canadian dossier from July 2019 referred a male child aged 1 year and 7 months with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from February 2020 referred a brother and sister aged 5 years and 11 months and 8 years and 11 months

6) Italian dossier from June 2021 referred a brother and sister aged 7 years and 9 months and 9 years and 4 months with features in health status and a family history

7) US dossier from August 2021 referred an identified waiting child

 The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 530 which was held on August 19, 2021:

1) Spanish dossier from June 2013 referred a male child aged 6 years and 9 months

2) Italian dossier from March 2014 referred a male child aged 2 years and 6 months with features in health status

3) Finnish dossier from October 2015 referred a male child aged 2 years and 11 months with features in health status

4) German dossier from March 2020 referred a male child aged 10 years and 4 months

5) Italian dossier from April 2021 referred a female child aged 15 years and 4 months

6) Canadian dossier from April 2021 referred a male child aged 1 year and 2 months with features in health status

 The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 531 which was held on August 26, 2021:

1) US dossier from April 2016 referred a female child aged 2 years and 4 months with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from July 2018 referred a male child aged 10 years and 11 months with features in health status

3) US dossier from August 2021 referred an identified waiting child

4) US dossier from August 2021 referred an identified waiting child

5) US dossier from August 2021 referred an identified waiting child

 The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 532 which was held on September 9, 2021:

1) Spanish dossier from April 2012 referred a male child aged 2 years and 2 months with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from April 2016 referred a male child aged 1 year and 10 months with a family history

3) Canadian dossier from February 2021 referred a female child aged 4 years and 2 months with features in health status and a family history

4) US dossier from February 2021 referred a male child aged 6 years and 4 months with features in health status and a family history

5) US dossier from August 2021 referred an identified waiting child

 The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 533 which was held on September 24, 2021:

1) Spanish dossier from April 2013 referred a male child aged 4 years with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from February 2014 referred a male child aged 2 years and 2 months with features in health status

3) Italian dossier from January 2021 referred a male child aged 10 years and 5 months with a family history

4) Italian dossier from March 2021 referred a female child aged 10 years

5) Italian dossier from August 2021 referred a female child aged 11 years and 5 months

6) US dossier from September 2021 referred an identified waiting child

7) US dossier from September 2021 referred an identified waiting child

 The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 534 which was held on October 7, 2021:

1) Spanish dossier from February 2014 referred a female child aged 1 year and 2 months with features in health status

2) Spanish dossier from March 2014 referred a male child aged 1 year and 7 months

3) US dossier from December 2018 referred a female child aged 3 years and 8 months with features in health status

4) Italian dossier from February 2020 referred a female child aged 3 years and 3 months with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from August 2020 referred an identified waiting child

6) US dossier from October 2020 referred a male child aged 1 year and 10 months with features in health status

7) Italian dossier from July 2021 referred an identified waiting child

8) US dossier from October 2021 referred an identified waiting child

Little Dreamer

 

I have had dreams, and I've had nightmares.

I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.

- Jonas Salk

Our Baby Ten Years Home

It's been ten years since we took a child with a broken heart from the only place she'd ever known.  She was a frail and fearful shell of a little human, having existed only in the margins of life and having hung on by a thread.  What happened to her in those first two years - three if you count the trauma she experienced from conception - will impact her forevermore.  We cannot love it away.  We cannot treat it away.  We cannot chalk it off to the past and move on.  But we can give her the tools to carry it well and we can carry it with her.  We can cherish her at her best and at her worst.  Together, we're working toward a future that has so much promise.

November 14, 2011

There is something in the human spirit that will survive and prevail, there is a tiny and brilliant light burning in the heart of man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes. - Leo Tolstoy

Fall Getaway 2021

I can't believe this was our 6th annual fall getaway with (adoption) friends.  As always, we had hot-tubbing, campfires, golf, board games, lots of food, and for the first time ever a moms' day out.

Fallingwater

Gyumri girls turning into young ladies

We may have outgrown our trusty cabin,
so this could be the last ever photo of us there.