Hall Family Adoption: February 2009

Today is Inna's 11th Birthday and her party was supposed to be today (Sat), but unfortunately 4 of us came down with strep throat Thurs/Fri including me and her, so we are rescheduling party for hopefully Mon or Tues evening and she is sooooo very excited! For now, we wish Inna a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and are so glad that we get to celebrate this 11th Birthday all together as a family with you. Thanks to Papaw and Nanny for dropping off the ice cream cake at our house today! It was yummy and felt good on our sore throats :) I don't know who is more excited about her Birthday, Inna or Grant, but they both have been pumped! We will definitely post some pics and more update on that after her celebration! We are trying to squeeze in her party before she has surgery on Wed this week (March 4th) to have her tonsils removed. She has had tonisilitis/strep a lot and doc says it is time for them to come out. As far as I can remember, I have never had strep until now, but somehow always come down with a sinus infection when the kids get strep. This time I have it too and feel like poo :) The kids have actually been through about 5 rounds of strep throat since May and we hope that Inna getting her tonsils out will at least help some of the cycles of sickness.

We have been to so many appointments since May and are finally seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel as all 3 kids had their 6 mos dental cleaning and checkup and NO CAVATIES for any of them....YEAH!!!! I think this is the first appointment since Inna and Vitali have been home that we have not been told something was wrong and would have to schedule with a specialist or have return appointments. Also, we just had our last appointment at the TB Clinic for Inna. She has been on TB treatements for 6 mos...She DID NOT have active TB, but was exposed to TB in Ukraine and was infected with whatever causes active TB, so anyone who has a positive skin test is required to have TB treatments for 6 mos so that there is not a chance for her to ever get active TB. Because she did not have active TB, she never has been contagious. Anyway, that is almost completely done now....no more appointments for that...just finishing up the meds now!!!!

Sunday, Feb 9th was a very special day for Inna and Grant as they were both baptized! I cannot express to you the amount of excitement and joy they had. Grant was completely pumped from the moment he woke up. It was such a HUGE blessing for Jason and I to see the joy of their love for Jesus and being baptized!!
This pic is the morning before we left to church for baptism:

Then, last week Tiff finished up cheerleading for this year with a cheer competition in Tuscaloosa where her cheer squad finished in 3rd place. I had a chance to go with her and cheer the girls on and had lots of fun!

Well, in continuing in posting a video of each kid. Here is a video of Grant and when I told him I was going to video him he came up with lots of stuff for me to video, so I cut out a bunch of it in order to not be so long. When you hear some of the states and capitals, just a little side note here that he learned all 50 by himself studying a map (as it is not time for him to learn that in school yet) and so the way he pronounces them may be a little different as it is the way he sounded them out by looking at the word. He does all 50, but I just added a small portion to the video :)and I hope you enjoy the first part where I think he pulled in some Napoleon Dynamite moves :) He loves to put on a show....