Beginnings and Endings!

It is with sincere sadness to say this will be my last post. From the beginning I intended to end my blog after Sean had been home for a year. The blog was meant to present a record for Sean of our adoption journey, so it has served its original purpose. It also was a great way to keep friends and family updated on our journey. I know some family members still want me to continue blogging so I might on special occasions. This blog has always been somewhat of a challenge for me as I am not much of a writer, but I found it extremely enriching and rewarding. My plan is to have it printed as a book for Sean to have and read when he is older. I'll still be reading other blogs when I have a chance. Thanks so much to everyone who has read this blog and shared their comments with us, especially when we were waiting for our referral and then during the period of time to get back to our son. The love and support and the new friendships I made through blogging means so much to me. I am so looking forward to what this New Year will bring. Best wishes to all for a very happy and healthy 2011!

I would like to give special thanks to my wonderful husband because for without his devotion and determination this Journey would of not of been possible. Because of his love and dedication not only to me but to our “family”, he brought us across the world to bring our son home! This act is something that I can never say how thankful and grateful I am to him for this. Patrick I truly love you with all my heart for our beautiful boy that I have always dreamed and hoped for. You have brought me so much happiness and gave my life so much meaning.

Always your loving wife, Sharon

Dear Sean,

We don't know, nor will we ever know what you exactly went through during the first 23 months of your life. What you felt when you got a boo-boo and no one was there to kiss it better. What it was like to go to bed without hearing a bedtime story and being kissed on your little forehead before being tucked in. What you were was certainly cared for those first 23 months as well as you could have been under the circumstances.

But God decided that you needed a Mommy and Daddy of your very own. So he sent Mommy on a mission to complete a lot of paperwork. So mommy made sure we got all of the paperwork completed as fast as I could possible do. When we started the process, we didn't know you and you didn't know us. But God knew all three of us and had already started us on a path towards each other.

There has been exactly one time in my life that I knew I was doing EXACTLY what I was put on this Earth to do, and that was adopting you. I know Daddy feels the same way about you. You are a pretty special little boy for God to have picked you out for us. We don't really understand why we got to be the lucky ones God called on to be your parents, but we will always be thankful He did.

As we continue to grow together as a family, we promise to love you every step of the way. Your boo-boos will always be kissed, and you will always be tucked in each night by your Mommy or Daddy. You have been loved each minute of your life since you were born, and you will be each minute of the rest of your life.

We are so happy to be apart of your life son.
We love you with all our hearts!
Mommy and Daddy

Christmas 2010

Christmas Eve was spent again with the Gaffney gang. We had wonderful night together. Sean really enjoyed his cousins and spent the night running after them. This year Santa was daddy. But Sean did not know that. It was funny to watch Sean get closer and closer to him, but did not want to sit on his lap. He was very curious about Santa this year. Sean loves all his gifts and did not know what to play with first.

Sean got to bed late that night but still managed to get up twice in the night and come into our room. Christmas day was spent at home. It was very relaxing day. Sean got up for the third time at his 7ish time and came into our bed for a little while. Then it was off to fix him breakfast and of course gift opening. Sean loved all his trucks this year. His fire truck was a hit. He got a few diggers and he got this year’s Hess truck with the jet plane. He also got a drum that lights up. He likes to ride Thomas the Tank Engine around the house. Of course he got plenty more Elmo stuff and tickets to see Elmo Live at Madison Square garden and tickets to Coco Key water park.

I actually surprised my husband with his gift this year with a Kindle. Patrick gave me a necklace with Sean’s name and birth stone on front and our gotcha/family date on the back. I just love it! My best gift was Sean giving me kisses. So cute! He puts his lips to mine and making the kissing sound (mmma) My sister and husband came up from NJ. This year it was great to have my sister help me out with the cooking. We had a delicious prime rib roast this year with no left over’s. So to burn off dinner we all went to the playroom to do a little bowling. Patrick bought the family Xbox with Kinect. What a lot fun that was.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas this year!


Love this pic with his new hat on!

The first big snowstorm this year!

Sean does much better in the snow this year, last year he did not like it at first.

Wow look at my digger, Santa brought me! He likes the word "digger"

He loves to say "Thomas" real loud.. It is to funny!

Sweet Madalyn, who he loves to play with.

Sean given his mum-mum some love and hugs!

Sean moving closer to Santa. Dad enjoyed his Santa roll this year!

Student of the week!

Patrick and I were invited to Sean's pre-school classroom yesterday because we were notified he was student of the week! Sean has done very well in the short time he has been in school. He is a little star at school. He walks into school with his backpack on and approaches everyone to say "hi." It is funny to watch! He is like a cruise director! We observed Sean in his classroom and he did great in circle time. Whatever the teacher ask him to do he would perform it and then turn around to tell us. Later the teacher said Sean was showing off for us and she thought it was great that he would look to us for praise.


Here is Sean with his pals in circle time. He loves the singing and dancing. It was so great to see him having fun in class. We are so proud of our son to see how eager he is to learn and participate with his peers in school.

Sean 1st school picture. He looks so grown up.

Ti's the Season!

This year was a success with Sean sitting on Santa's lap! He protested a bit, but sat long enough to get the picture taken. He greeted Santa with a "Hi" and shook his hand when he got down. I think Sean thinks the mall is a magical place with all the fun things to do there. He loved the train ride around the mall. Going up and down in the elevators was a thrill and playing with the other kids in the kiddie area was a blast. We are enjoying the Christmas season so much this year. Sean sure does know who Santa is this year!

Sean and daddy time!

Sean loved saying choo-choo and ding-ding on the train ride!!

"Big Bird" is also a favorite of Sean's as he was yelling it in my ear! lol.

We went to our town Holiday Festival and Sean ran right to the carousel for a ride.


I had to take a picture of Sean in his hat we bought last year in Russia for him. It was to big last year and this year it is to small. Oh well..It is a cute pic though.

Sean in his holiday pj's

My little sweetie!

Our Christmas tree outing. The boys had fun picking the tree!

Sean helping dad with the measurements.

Such a big boy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We really enjoyed our second Thanksgiving with Sean this year!! This year we went to my sister in laws house and it was so nice just to bring a side dish this year. I am so thankful for my wonderful family!! It sure is nice spending time with the people you love and over eating with them too!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving Day!

Here are some pics of our recent happenings!

We took Sean to this great Parade in Stamford for the first time last weekend.
Sean went crazy for Big Bird!! He just keep yelling and pointing to "Big Bird"!

People where just smiling at Sean because he was so happy about Big Bird.




The balloons where the highlight of the day!

Dad and Sean enjoying the band.

Sean is still a Elmo fan. We will be attending the parade next year and have made plans to stay overnight down town the night before the parade so we can get a great seat!

Dad found Sean sleeping in his chair instead of his bed one night!

Sean had a real busy day last week, and I found him sound to sleep like this at his nap time.
Cutie pie enjoyed his dinner, he loved his sweet potatoes and turkey with gravy, yum yum. We are now looking forward to Holiday Season and all that the joy it will bring this year!

Some great changes and an update!!

First let me say Patrick and I think our son is remarkable! We knew Sean would have his challenges but thinking about the how far Sean has come from a year ago makes us so proud of our him. He has overcome the odds. He is smart, happy and beautiful inside and out. He is wonderful, and we are fortunate to be his mom & dad.

There have been so many new and wonderful changes since Sean has turned three. He began Preschool where he is doing fine. With in the first two weeks he has adjusted very well. He gives me a smile and says “good-bye” when I drop him off. When I pick him up, he is usually at recess and he does not want to leave because he is having so much fun! But my best greeting I got was when he was playing in the gym and he saw me come in the door. He ran up to me with a big smile and jumped into my arms. (I was beaming!)

So our next big change for Sean is he is now in his toddler bed. Sean started climbing into his crib by himself (thanks to dad’s instructions!) so we decided it is time for his big boy bed. So week after his birthday we started Sean in his new bed. The experiment started on a Friday night and by Sunday Sean was happy with his bed. Even with Sean having his first cold of season he did great!! He got up a few times to see what he could do, and we just told him to go back to bed and he would run into his bed. By Sunday night he and mom had a good night sleep. Sean still waits for me to come in and get him in the morning. At nap time he won’t get up and come out on his own. I wonder how long that will last!

We have been talking about getting started on potty training so we got potty Elmo and the Potty Elmo DVD. Patrick started to have him sit on the potty before bath time so now goes potty whenever we bring him in and put him on the potty. (Hooray) Wow!

Sean had his third year old check up and I am happy to report he has grown 6 inches and has gained 6lbs since he has been home. He is all caught up with his shots and does not need any more until he turns 4. It would be great for him to have a healthy year and not to return until then. We also had our 1 year home report with our adoption agency via telephone, I was happy to report on how well Sean is doing.

Sean loves singing. He is always trying to sing to all his favorite songs. I am amazed at all the words he tries to say and saying his numbers. He loves it when I ask him how old he is, so he can yell “3”! He sounds so cute when he says his name. He really tries to copy almost everything he hears whether it is from me or his teachers. At bedtime when we say our good nights and I love you to him, he replies with "See ya!". We don't know where he picked that up. One of my treasured sights is watching Sean blowing kisses to whomever asks! Sometimes he blows them without being asked! It is so darn cute. Sean’s attachment to me is definitely all I hoped it would be. We are looking forward to another year of Sean growing in every way. We are excited about the upcoming holidays and as this year comes to end so will my blog. With the extra time I will have I look forward to getting back to some other things I really enjoy doing.

Sean is still riding his horse once a week and has some real silly moments when he is on Frisco! He also has days that he is cranky and just does not want to ride.





Such a sweet smile!

He was having a lot of fun on this day.




Sean's testing out his new bed and it's bouncing ability!

Sean enjoys playing his piano he got for his birthday! Here we come Carnegie Hall!

Happy 2nd Halloween!

This was Sean's second Halloween. Last year Sean was only home for two weeks and was not too sure what was going on. This year Sean really enjoyed going up to all the different doors and ringing the door bells. He had lots of smiles and liked skipping along the sidewalk with me. He looked so cute in his Elmo costume. He got to see his cousins that evening and had a nice visit with his Grandma. Hope everyone had a great Halloween.

Trick or Treat!! He is the best treat!!!

Sean saying his Hi's and goodbyes at each house.

Sean was pulling me up to each door.

Sean's cousins so cute this year!




We had a good time at Grandma's house.

Sean did not want me to wear my witch hat.

Elmo on the run.

Dad did a great job on the pumpkins this year.