Gotcha Day - 2nd Anniversary

March 1 was the 2nd Anniversary of our "Gotcha Day." My blog entry from last year explains the significance of this milestone so well there is no sense in repeating it. Most adoptive families celebrate the day that they "got" the child. Technically we "got" Roman {according to the Russian courts} on February 8th, however the next day we left Russia empty-handed; returned on February 25th, went to the orphanage and got custody of Roman on the 26th and returned to the US on March 1. We consider the day we were safe & sound at home on US soil our "Gotcha Day". It was the day that we could finally breathe easy. My sister Leah forgot the term "gotcha" and called it "Gimme Day." I was cracking up at the thought of just loitering around Russia whining "Gimme a kid! Gimme a kid!!!!". Of course "gotcha" isn't much better because it sounds like we hid behind some bushes and just snatched a kid up and yelled "Gotcha!!!" as we plucked him off the playground.

We celebrated this year with a dinner with Nana & Pop the night before and then lunch at Chuck E Cheese's on the actual day with some neighborhood and church friends. I want to give Roman a gift each year that symbolizes his heritage, not just a Transformer, etc... I spent half a day trying to track down the DVD "Dora's World Adventure" where she travels around the world to China, France, Africa & Russia. I didn't want to put money towards a Dora DVD for an almost 4-year old BOY, however I had friends convince me that I wouldn't be buying it because it was "Dora", I was buying it because she travels not to some fictional place in Russia, but to St. Petersburg and specifically "Winter Palace", which was down the street from our hotel. I ended up buying it at a consignment sale for $3!!! Because I doubt the DVD will last through Roman's adulthood, I opted to get him a second gift, and so I treked down to the Russian and European gift store at Crown Center {YES!!! It actually exists - we stumbled upon it at Christmas when seeing Santa} Most Russian gifts are on the feminine side: nesting dolls, figurines with strawberries on them, Faberge eggs, etc... but while I was at the store, they had a little wooden bear cub playing with a ball that opens up and you can put something little inside {we plan on putting his Russian coins inside}. It was the perfect gift - unusual {I can always get a stacking doll}, masculine, goes along with mine & Jason's inside jokes about bears in Russia, and when I got to the register... it was 40% off... Can't get much better than that!

I also bought our Hobby Lobby out of their unfinished wood stacking doll sets and decided he'll paint a set every year on March 1. {I have enough to last us through his 18th year, to which there have been jokes that he'll design them with middle fingers up by then... oh well...} I wish I would have thought of that idea last year, but my excuse can be that we celebrated that day with his baptism and a big party. Check out the pix on our Shutterfly site {password: lewis} from the big day and you can see him paint the dolls.

We can't believe its been 2 years since our little bear cub came home!!!

{Also to commemorate the occasion, I added a link on the blog that will take you directly to the pix of us in Russia meeting Roman. I decided to do this because we've met so many people recently who we didn't know in the middle of the adoption and they've been wanting to see the pix. This way, they don't have to sift through the hundreds of albums on Shutterfly. Enjoy!}