Hey, where's my blog?!?

It has been a little over a month since we arrived back in the US. It has been a crazy month with me starting back to work and my Dad going to the hospital. (My dad (Lewis) is recovering nicely from his triple bypass. Thanks to all of you for your kind thoughts and good wishes!)




Erlan has been amazing throughout the start of his journey as an American citizen. It has been fun to watch his personality emerge over the past month. His true self continues to come out, and our love for him continues to deepen.


Erlan loves his cousins. Six of the boys came over to see us the first day we were back. Midway through their visit, Erlan gave each of them a hug and a kiss. It was as if he knew that these were going to be important people in his life.

His cousins were very excited about meeting him. Despite all of the videos and pictures that they saw while we were in Kaz, they were expecting a younger kid. The funniest one was Kolton (age 5) who said, "How did such a big baby come out of Aunt Karla?"

It is fun to watch Erlan play with the kids. He copies everything. The bigger boys have realized this. So far, they have only used their powers for good. For example, they have shown him that you do not need to use the ladder on the slide; instead, you can walk up the slide itself! It took Erlan a couple of weeks to master this trick, but he finally did it.


When the big boys got onto the trampoline, there was no stopping Erlan. He crawled up into it. Despite requests from their mothers, the big boys cut Erlan no slack. They were going to continue to jump and Erlan needed to keep up. He had the best time. He couldn't stop smiling no matter how many times that he fell.

Erlan is also a water kid. He likes the kiddie pool that I got him, and he LOVES the sprinkler. The sprinkler is a hose that has little lines that coming off of it. The little lines are supposed to wiggle around and get water everywhere while the kids run through it. Erlan discovered that he could grab the line and spray the other kids. This was fun, but the MOST fun was when Grandma showed up. Erlan's eyes lit up, and he turned the hose on her. It didn't help Grandma's case that her daughters and granddaughters were laughing at the activity. Grandma was clever, though, and took a circuitous route to the back deck. She escaped Erlan's attempts to hose her down.