We have made many new friends over the past year and a half of our adoption journey, and have been blessed by the support of so many people. As we look back at 2012 the year started with our paperwork submitted and just waiting for the Ukrainian government to resume adoptions (they had hit the pause button for a few months while they transitioned adoptions to a different part of the government....). The our 47 day adventure 6,092 miles away from home and return with Kayleigh & Michael. The our first 7 months together as a family and the joys of being the dad of the Fab 5. It has been a remarkable experience. To everyone our family wishes you a very Happy New Year and a blessed 2013. May the coming year be your best ever!
Chris, Jodi, Rebekah, Alyssa, Kayleigh, Dylan & Michael Tansey :)
p.s. new blog cover picture up from Christmas Day 2012 :)
Welcome to our blog! We are so excited that you would take the time to follow our adoption journey! Thanks for coming along for the ride as our adoption of Kayleigh and Michael was completed in May 2012 and as we embrace our new world of parenting five teenagers!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Flowers In Bloom
It's been one of those fun weeks where you look at your kids and it seems like there was one of those sudden changes, where things are all of a sudden a bit different. I love being a Dad and being involved in the lives of the Fab 5, so these moments are funny to watch.
Bekah is growing up and maturing into an amazing young adult. She has worked hard this year and I think that has been a very good thing for her. She approaches it was a great attitude and work ethic, and it really, really financially responsible. I make sure that she knows that, no matter how old or grown up she gets that she will always be my little Boobunny, but it's easy to see that she's crossed that threshold into adulthood. As awesome a kid as she was, she'll be an amazing, beautiful woman!
Alyssa continues to amaze at being so incredibly blessed and pretty much anything she tries to do, she does with excellence. We also overshot on the have good looking kids metric by a long ways. She went to a dance last night for a young lady our family knows through martial arts, and to say she looked beautiful would be a gross understatement. She is supermodel beautiful, and supremely talented, yet so sweet and unassuming and humble.
Kayleigh went out for dinner with Jodi and I last night while the rest of the Fab 5 were scattered about, and we had such a great time with her. She is blossoming into a stunning young lady and is a joy to spend time with. She so definitely has our family sense of humor (blessing or curse.....). She and I kid around a lot, and spent the dinner scattering peanut shells on each other (while Jodi looked at us like we were nuts of course....). It is wonderful to give her hugs and tell her how much we love her and are thankful she is our family now.
Dylan went to the dance last night as well and it was the first time I've really seen him dressed up, slacks, dress shoes and a real to goodness necktie. Man, this kid is growing up fast (and tall!!....) and he looked so handsome! I've told him this for years, but he is the son that every dad in the world prays he gets. He is such an amazing person with a maturity well beyond his years, a heart of gold, and that perfect blend of steel and velvet. And, I'm sure, he grew another inch last night. Or I shrank. Or both.
Michael continues to grow in confidence so much which is so awesome. He got to hang out with Bekah last night (the super cool older sister thing....). While we were at the beach for Christmas we got a lot of comments about family getting to talk with him a lot. He would come in and even initiate conversations and was quite the talker. This is a big jump from the shyness both he and Kayleigh use to have around people and really nice to see that they are getting comfortable. He is really looking forward to karate classes starting back up in January, he has excelled and it has been an amazing venue for him in his new world.
2012 was an incredible year for us as our family completed the adoption process and the Fab 5 started their journey as a family of kids. It's been a truly joyous and humbling walk so far for God to have given us the responsibility of providing these kids with a life and future. We can't wait to see what 2013 has in store!
Bekah is growing up and maturing into an amazing young adult. She has worked hard this year and I think that has been a very good thing for her. She approaches it was a great attitude and work ethic, and it really, really financially responsible. I make sure that she knows that, no matter how old or grown up she gets that she will always be my little Boobunny, but it's easy to see that she's crossed that threshold into adulthood. As awesome a kid as she was, she'll be an amazing, beautiful woman!
Alyssa continues to amaze at being so incredibly blessed and pretty much anything she tries to do, she does with excellence. We also overshot on the have good looking kids metric by a long ways. She went to a dance last night for a young lady our family knows through martial arts, and to say she looked beautiful would be a gross understatement. She is supermodel beautiful, and supremely talented, yet so sweet and unassuming and humble.
Kayleigh went out for dinner with Jodi and I last night while the rest of the Fab 5 were scattered about, and we had such a great time with her. She is blossoming into a stunning young lady and is a joy to spend time with. She so definitely has our family sense of humor (blessing or curse.....). She and I kid around a lot, and spent the dinner scattering peanut shells on each other (while Jodi looked at us like we were nuts of course....). It is wonderful to give her hugs and tell her how much we love her and are thankful she is our family now.
Dylan went to the dance last night as well and it was the first time I've really seen him dressed up, slacks, dress shoes and a real to goodness necktie. Man, this kid is growing up fast (and tall!!....) and he looked so handsome! I've told him this for years, but he is the son that every dad in the world prays he gets. He is such an amazing person with a maturity well beyond his years, a heart of gold, and that perfect blend of steel and velvet. And, I'm sure, he grew another inch last night. Or I shrank. Or both.
Michael continues to grow in confidence so much which is so awesome. He got to hang out with Bekah last night (the super cool older sister thing....). While we were at the beach for Christmas we got a lot of comments about family getting to talk with him a lot. He would come in and even initiate conversations and was quite the talker. This is a big jump from the shyness both he and Kayleigh use to have around people and really nice to see that they are getting comfortable. He is really looking forward to karate classes starting back up in January, he has excelled and it has been an amazing venue for him in his new world.
2012 was an incredible year for us as our family completed the adoption process and the Fab 5 started their journey as a family of kids. It's been a truly joyous and humbling walk so far for God to have given us the responsibility of providing these kids with a life and future. We can't wait to see what 2013 has in store!
Friday, December 28, 2012
Merry Christmas!
As you can imagine this Christmas was a bit extra cool as it was our first Christmas with Kayleigh and Michael on board as part of our family. We did things a bit different this year as our family down in Corpus Christi rented a house on the beach and invited us down for the holiday. This did alleviate our marriage long debate of whether you open presents on Christmas Eve (Jodi's wrong way...) or Christmas morning (Chris' correct way.... ). We did open a few before we left and made our way down to the beach.
The house on the beach was really nice and a quick 2 minute walk to the sand and surf. I have always been a huge fan of the beach and would live there in a hearbeat (not to mention I would look awesome in one of those grass skirt thingies....). It was great to get away and relax for a couple days, enjoy the swooshing of the surf on the beach. Christmas day was nice and sunny, shorts and tshirt playing on the beach (and my requisite sunburn of course...). We had a very tasty family breakfast and a very large game of white elephant gift exchange with all of the family, our aunt & uncle, cousins and more cousins!
The day after Christmas a cold front came in so I took a few of the kids to go fishing as they really wanted to go (K & M are fishing fanatics...), but it was very cold and the fish weren't biting, so another time! Upon our return home we finished exchanging and opening gifts and had some great family time together. We kept the gift giving to a reasonable amount financially and gave each child a budget (Bekah has a job so she ran more on her own budget there....). The kids made a wonderful game and made their portion go an extra long way.
So often people hear the negative post-adoption stories of adopted kids who act out, or are selfish and think only of themselves, having come from a self-preservation environment (really can they be blamed for it.....). Our story continues to amaze us with how great K & M have done in the 7 months they've been here. They are both very giving actually, and really made a point of wanting to do for others this year. At the white elephant exchange, Michael ended up with a snazzy popcorn popper that my cousin really was shooting for. The next morning, totally on his own, he gave it to her as a gift. It was really sweet of him! At our exchange, both he and Kayleigh would get excited when one of us would open their gift (I got awesome Star Wars pajama pants :)
In these 7 months we've been able to see that not only has God watched over them in their transition to a new family and life, but that He was watching over them long before they became ours. We truly love our 5 kids and can't imagine life any other way.
The house on the beach was really nice and a quick 2 minute walk to the sand and surf. I have always been a huge fan of the beach and would live there in a hearbeat (not to mention I would look awesome in one of those grass skirt thingies....). It was great to get away and relax for a couple days, enjoy the swooshing of the surf on the beach. Christmas day was nice and sunny, shorts and tshirt playing on the beach (and my requisite sunburn of course...). We had a very tasty family breakfast and a very large game of white elephant gift exchange with all of the family, our aunt & uncle, cousins and more cousins!
The day after Christmas a cold front came in so I took a few of the kids to go fishing as they really wanted to go (K & M are fishing fanatics...), but it was very cold and the fish weren't biting, so another time! Upon our return home we finished exchanging and opening gifts and had some great family time together. We kept the gift giving to a reasonable amount financially and gave each child a budget (Bekah has a job so she ran more on her own budget there....). The kids made a wonderful game and made their portion go an extra long way.
So often people hear the negative post-adoption stories of adopted kids who act out, or are selfish and think only of themselves, having come from a self-preservation environment (really can they be blamed for it.....). Our story continues to amaze us with how great K & M have done in the 7 months they've been here. They are both very giving actually, and really made a point of wanting to do for others this year. At the white elephant exchange, Michael ended up with a snazzy popcorn popper that my cousin really was shooting for. The next morning, totally on his own, he gave it to her as a gift. It was really sweet of him! At our exchange, both he and Kayleigh would get excited when one of us would open their gift (I got awesome Star Wars pajama pants :)
In these 7 months we've been able to see that not only has God watched over them in their transition to a new family and life, but that He was watching over them long before they became ours. We truly love our 5 kids and can't imagine life any other way.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Christmas Caroling
Thursday night our family went out to some dear friends place and went for a hayride and Christmas caroling. Kayleigh and Michael continue to get more and more excited with the season as we get closer to Christmas, and as this is their first one as family with us, we're making sure we do it up right. The tree got set up right after Thanksgiving (because you can't set it up before, it's not right....) and the yard is all lit up at night.
Christmas caroling was a lot of fun, they're still working on reading English fast enough to hop to a song on the songsheet and sing along, but seemed to have a great time with it anyways :) Back to our friends house afterwards for hot chocolate and cookies and time to chat. Our friend Stephanie gave Kayleigh a wonderful picture with the caption of "He answered by setting me free". How appropriate it is for orphans who have not family or future and face the captivity of likely failure in their lives, and the freedom they have gained to have a family, love and future through adoption. We still meet up with people who have not met them yet (they're getting better about not being totally shy....:) and it is so awesome for people who have prayed for and supported our adoption journey to get to see the reality of what they took part in, the freedom to live a life.
We also got to enjoy a special treat as a person we had met at the beginning of our adoption trip in Ukraine. The meeting was so definitely random to us but planned in God's eyes, as this person called a contact in the town we stayed in most of the trip to keep an eye on his American friends while we were there. Through that random meeting in Kyiv, we ended up with a church family, many friends we continue to keep in touch with to this day, and our favorite cafe! Our family was so blessed by this!
We still know little of their life back in Ukraine other than a few things that Kayleigh has shared, other than it was bad. We are truly blessed that they are our family now, and love watching God unfold their new life for them here :)
Christmas caroling was a lot of fun, they're still working on reading English fast enough to hop to a song on the songsheet and sing along, but seemed to have a great time with it anyways :) Back to our friends house afterwards for hot chocolate and cookies and time to chat. Our friend Stephanie gave Kayleigh a wonderful picture with the caption of "He answered by setting me free". How appropriate it is for orphans who have not family or future and face the captivity of likely failure in their lives, and the freedom they have gained to have a family, love and future through adoption. We still meet up with people who have not met them yet (they're getting better about not being totally shy....:) and it is so awesome for people who have prayed for and supported our adoption journey to get to see the reality of what they took part in, the freedom to live a life.
We also got to enjoy a special treat as a person we had met at the beginning of our adoption trip in Ukraine. The meeting was so definitely random to us but planned in God's eyes, as this person called a contact in the town we stayed in most of the trip to keep an eye on his American friends while we were there. Through that random meeting in Kyiv, we ended up with a church family, many friends we continue to keep in touch with to this day, and our favorite cafe! Our family was so blessed by this!
We still know little of their life back in Ukraine other than a few things that Kayleigh has shared, other than it was bad. We are truly blessed that they are our family now, and love watching God unfold their new life for them here :)
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Seven
OK, well seven months-ish! I have been remiss in my blogging as we've been quite busy as a family preparing for the holidays and doing normal family stuff! The 7 month anniversary of Kayleigh and Michael arriving home in Texas came and went like any other "normal" day in our family. The kids continue to do amazingly well in their new home and family and each day with them now is pretty much one of our ordinary days. Which is great! I will endeavor to be better at blogging and sharing our experiences :)
Our family has been busy preparing for the Christmas holiday. After Thanksgiving we broke out the tree and decorations and the Fab 5 hit it fast and hard. Before you knew it we had the tree up and decorated and lights up in the yard! It looks very pretty and festive. This will be K & M's first Christmas with our family and no telling but odds are good their first real Christmas. It is easy to see how excited they are about it. We gave each kid a budget for making or getting gifts for each other, and all 5 of them have had a great time with that. Our 3 have always been incredible with their attitudes of keeping Christmas real, focusing on the real meaning of the holiday and thinking of others before themselves, and K & M seem to have been right on track with that as well, very much wanting to do for others.
Kayleigh continues to blossom which as been great to see. She is turning out to be quite a beautiful young lady and is a wonderful person. I very much enjoy the one on one time I get with her, like when we're driving back from dance class and such. She continues to enjoy dance class very much and the girls there, and it has been a super environment for her to make connections with other girls outside of our family.
Michael continues to develop a ton. He's starting to get some height finally :) He has grown so much in confidence and we can tell the teenage years are approaching as he starts to try and assert himself some which is great. He's been taking karate classes and has excelled, earning the highest score in the last belt test! He has his group of friends there and has a great time. It has been remarkable to see how different he is now from the quiet little boy who mostly stayed to himself or hung out alone in the woods back at the orphanage.
The layers of the onions are beginning to peel away a little bit. We know so little about their life and family back in Ukraine. It is typical that kids coming from an orphanage background don't or won't remember their past, either because they were too young, block it out totally or just don't want to remember things. Kayleigh has begun to share a little bit as we carefully inquire during regular conversations on the subject. It sounds like it wasn't good stuff, so we're continuing to pray over these 2 kids that as they continue to grow into our family and their life here, that God will heal what needs to be healed from their past life.
I'm looking at the calendar as I prepare to look at 2012 and set my goals for 2013, and 2012 seems like it has been such a long year. So much has happened! It seems so long ago that we started the year with our papers turned in for adoption and waiting for the Ukrainian government to start back up with adoptions (that happened in March), traveling to Ukraine for our 47 day adoption adventure, and returning home in May. We continue to remember our trip a lot and keep in touch with friends we made there. We still miss the food :) I have no idea what adventures lie ahead of us in 2013, but we are looking forward to enjoying the full year with our 5 awesome kiddos :)
Our family has been busy preparing for the Christmas holiday. After Thanksgiving we broke out the tree and decorations and the Fab 5 hit it fast and hard. Before you knew it we had the tree up and decorated and lights up in the yard! It looks very pretty and festive. This will be K & M's first Christmas with our family and no telling but odds are good their first real Christmas. It is easy to see how excited they are about it. We gave each kid a budget for making or getting gifts for each other, and all 5 of them have had a great time with that. Our 3 have always been incredible with their attitudes of keeping Christmas real, focusing on the real meaning of the holiday and thinking of others before themselves, and K & M seem to have been right on track with that as well, very much wanting to do for others.
Kayleigh continues to blossom which as been great to see. She is turning out to be quite a beautiful young lady and is a wonderful person. I very much enjoy the one on one time I get with her, like when we're driving back from dance class and such. She continues to enjoy dance class very much and the girls there, and it has been a super environment for her to make connections with other girls outside of our family.
Michael continues to develop a ton. He's starting to get some height finally :) He has grown so much in confidence and we can tell the teenage years are approaching as he starts to try and assert himself some which is great. He's been taking karate classes and has excelled, earning the highest score in the last belt test! He has his group of friends there and has a great time. It has been remarkable to see how different he is now from the quiet little boy who mostly stayed to himself or hung out alone in the woods back at the orphanage.
The layers of the onions are beginning to peel away a little bit. We know so little about their life and family back in Ukraine. It is typical that kids coming from an orphanage background don't or won't remember their past, either because they were too young, block it out totally or just don't want to remember things. Kayleigh has begun to share a little bit as we carefully inquire during regular conversations on the subject. It sounds like it wasn't good stuff, so we're continuing to pray over these 2 kids that as they continue to grow into our family and their life here, that God will heal what needs to be healed from their past life.
I'm looking at the calendar as I prepare to look at 2012 and set my goals for 2013, and 2012 seems like it has been such a long year. So much has happened! It seems so long ago that we started the year with our papers turned in for adoption and waiting for the Ukrainian government to start back up with adoptions (that happened in March), traveling to Ukraine for our 47 day adoption adventure, and returning home in May. We continue to remember our trip a lot and keep in touch with friends we made there. We still miss the food :) I have no idea what adventures lie ahead of us in 2013, but we are looking forward to enjoying the full year with our 5 awesome kiddos :)
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