Busy time of year!

This week will always be a busy week at the Harmon house...
Halloween+Birthday+Diwali party= fun

What a week!

I have posted forever but this week was quite a milestone week. Leah started pre-school and she started dance class! She is beyond excited about both! On her second day of pre-school (it meets 2x a week) we pulled into the parking lot, I unhooked her carseat and she hopped down put her back pack on and said "okay Mom, I'll see you in a little while" as if she was going to walk into the school by herself!

The dance class is beyond cute. The other 3 mothers and I decided that it would be good therapy for clinical depression or something as you can not help but smile when you watch 4 little girls prance around in tutus and tap shoes!

No news from India on adoption # 2- or no good news anyhow. Kind of hit a low point with being discouraged last week but between watching the adorable dance class and a gorgeous hike with Andrew yesterday (followed by a late lunch/early dinner at our favorite place Riverdriver's) I am back in a "happy place"!

How lucky are we?

Hanging out with Anita. Still amazes me these girls ended up in the next town over from each other in MAINE and were together in Mumbai!
Picking blueberries with Manisha, our other "neighbor" from Bal Asha!

6 Indian kids+ 1 Chinese girl= 3 very happy families!

Cast is off and we haven't stopped since!

Bath in the camp sink! Any bath feels pretty good when you haven't had one for 2 months!
2nd annual parade ride with Uncle John and Megan!

Cast free- fishing and swimming with my pal Lilly!

Chair July 2009

Chair July 2011

What a busy week! I had a birthday, Leah had her cast off, we went away to a camp for 4 nights, it was 4th of July and Andrew had a birthday!

Leah got her cast off on Thursday and our car was loaded down with all of our camping supplies and canoe on it in the hospital parking loft so we could leave from there! Leah was pretty excited to head swimming! The girl loves to swim, but gets cold SO easily!

Her foot looks good according to her surgeon. So far we can not see any visible improvement but it is stiff and she has been a typical 3 year old and using it a bit too much also!

Leah was sitting in her little chair relaxing after a hard morning of being in the Burlington parade with Uncle John and Megan again and it made me remember that she got the chair two years ago from Uncle Matt so I just went back and found the picture. I love the comparison pictures- it proves she does grow- all be it slow as a snail!

Cast is off... well, practically!

We did it!
Must coordinate your clothing with your cast!

Since Dad helped put it on do we get a discount?

The new cast is so much smaller and lighter we feel like it is almost as good as no cast at all! And, the best news is we can get it off June 30th so we get to have a fun 4th of July weekend! Yeah! Leah was a trooper getting the first cast off and the button suture out of the bottom of her foot. For a special treat for being so brave she requested a chocolate ice cream cone so we went straight to Dairy Queen when we left the hospital!

A new picture!

Well Hello there handsome! How have you been? As much as we have been trying to be tough and say this time is SO much easier than waiting for Leah was (which it is, because we are already parents blessed beyond measure), it was pretty nice to get an email with a new picture of our little guy all smiles this afternoon!

Baxter State Park

Kidney Pond 2011
Kidney Pond 2010

Kidney Pond 2009

We couldn't let Leah's cast ruin a tradition so we ventured to Baxter State Park this weekend, but only for a day trip. We drove up and checked on Dad who I think quite enjoyed a Mom and Leah free weekend to fly fish and camp on his own! I wish our 2010 picture was also on the bench on our favorite "hike" to Moose view... must remember to always get a picture there! Happy Memorial Day!

Pre-School Ends for the year!

Leah's pre-school at Hampden Academy ended for the year yesterday. She had not been able to go for a few weeks because of conflicts with pre-op, surgery, recovery and "speech class" so she was thrilled to get to go to the last day of the year. She has enjoyed school so much! Here is her end of the year class picture thanks to another Dad who brought his camera!

Upgrade

Leah's cast got upgraded today, the fiberglass wrap went on this morning. After telling us for days she was going to get green Leah decided on orange. Andrew took this picture with his phone as the tech was finishing wrapping it and while Leah sat on my lap. She continues to be such a trooper about all of this. She will have this cast for 3 weeks and then she will get a shorter one for the last month.

Leah's Anniversary+Dad

Taste of India May 13th, 2011
Taste of India May 11th, 2010

Bal Asha May 11, 2009

Leah's "Anniversary"

Mom and Leah: May 11, 2009

Two years ago today Leah was placed in our arms forever. It is still so strange for us to realize she wasn't always with us and we weren't always with her. There are many things to call this day "Leah Day", "Gotcha Day", "Adoption Day" but today my friend Liz mentioned they used to call her brother's day his "anniversary". I like it. We tried to make the most of the day even though Leah is wearing a cast and Dad is in Vermont at a conference. This morning we went to Audrey's and played with all of Leah's "friends" and this afternoon she went to Maggie's to play while I went to Verizon and got myself a gift for Leah's anniversary- an iphone! My phone went missing yesterday so seemed as good of a reason as any!

We will celebrate when Dad comes home by of course going to eat at Taste of India! In the meantime we documented the day with a picture of Leah and I! Thanks Michele.

Mom and Leah : May 11, 2011

Surprising Husband

Just taking a moment to brag... look how sweet and thoughtful Andrew was for Mother's Day! Luke "sent" me a Mother's Day card from Hyderabad! A couple of weeks ago we did sign the Power of Attorney letter for the Orphanage Lawyer so that was another step in the right direction but other than that no news. Luckily we have our hands full here with a casted 3 year old so we have plenty to keep ourselves busy!

Surgery

Pre-op! Turn getting ready for surgery into "dress up" and you are all set!
Happy that "Monkey George" was on PBS in the room we waited for surgery in!

Home sweet Home

Elevated foot for 48 hours- not a challenge when you have a mini recliner and a new blu-ray!

Today Leah had surgery to balance her tendon on her right foot. We have been so anxious about it since we scheduled it, but as is with most things in life it was not as bad as we had anticipated it would be. She has been AMAZING! She is currently at home, eating snacks, watching "Tangled" in her recliner and entertaining the various well wishers who have stopped by with balloons, bubbles and other treats for her. We are medicating her every 4 hours so it could be a long night, but well worth it if it keeps her pain at bay. She did not want to take her medicine until a very good Papa thought to pretend he was taking it too! Worked like magic! She will have this temporary cast for about 10 days and then a permanet fiberglass one for a month and then a shorter fiberglass cast for another month. Cross your fingers the cast is off for 4th of July!

Here are a few pictures of our "adventure" as Leah called our day. She knew the doctor was going to fix her foot and it was going to be an adventure- that's about it. Close enough.

Announcing...

Luke Indra Harmon

Born on March 1, 2009

Hyderabad, India

We got NOC!

Background story to follow. Sorry for the "little white lies" we have been telling everyone, including all of our family, but we wanted to keep it to ourselves until we had the No Objection Certificate!

Happy Holi!

Leah and her green bindi!

Bal Asha friends Manisha and Anita! Mom and Leah in matching shirts!

We are so fortunate to live near a University that has a large South Asian Association for their students and for others in the area that are from or interested in the culture of that region. Andrew has a lot of connections through his work to people who belong to the group and they started including us for all of the events. We have been welcomed with open arms to the group and the Holi festival this weekend was no exception. Holi is a spring religious festival celebrated by Hindus. We had a great time visiting, dancing and eating great homemade Indian food! Leah got a bindi and everyone had colored powder smeared on their face- no actual throwing powder at each other- probably because it was in the basement of the local Methodist church! Here are a few pictures of our fun (and late) Saturday night!

More winter fun!

It's a small world afterall...

Friends we have known for years recently returned home from India where they adopted two girls from Bal Asha! Maureen and Carol and big sister Olivia, live in our neighboring town and welcomed Manisha and Anita to their family in January! Andrew saw Anita and Manisha when we were at Bal Asha and we are so thrilled that they are FINALLY here. They had a very long process and we are so thrilled that it is now over. What a special connection Leah, Manisha and Anita will always share!

WinterKids ski big mountains, advocate for outdoor activity - Bangor Daily News

WinterKids ski big mountains, advocate for outdoor activity - Bangor Daily News

Look at me being a blogger again...

So much for me not blogging- I am back on the bandwagon! Today Leah had her "end of the semester celebration" for the pre-school she attended at Hampden Academy. The program was adorable! The children sang a song, had an ice cream party, we got to watch a video of clips of all of the great activities they did this semester and then each child was called up front to receive their award! It has been such a great first "school" experience for Leah. Luckily they will have another 8 week block of it from March to May so she is not done with her school friends yet!

The significance of skiing...

Leah learned how to ski this weekend. Sure many 3 year olds and younger do it all of the time, so why so significant to us? Well as Andrew and I were riding up the chair lift alone this weekend we both reflected on how 3 years ago we would go skiing to distract ourselves from waiting for a referral and "enjoy" the alone time while we had it to do things like ski, 2 years ago we would go skiing to distract ourselves from waiting for guardianship and wondering when we would get to travel to India. Last year, we barely went skiing because we would not yet leave Leah overnight or hardly for a long afternoon as she had only been ours for less than a year. And now, here we are, this year taking our daughter to Sugarloaf and teaching her how to ski. We truly dreamed of this for years when we would see other adorable kids on the slopes and could only hope one day we would have a family to do that with ourselves.

Some people have big reflection moments on birthdays, or "gotcha days" or anniversaries of referrals. We have them on chairlifts.

The last piece of the significance did not occur to us until we were on our way home after the long weekend. Leah was born with bilateral club feet. When we accepted her referral we were not even sure she would be walking "normal" by age 3 let alone running, skipping and now skiing. Amazing.