Summer Afternoon

Mrs. Beaver:

Sisters and Now Friends

Princess Bink (9) and Oksana (7) (l-r) have become fast friends in the seven months since we adopted Oksana. Here they are last night at a park near Grandma and Aunt Jean's home.

We thank God for their blossoming friendship!

A More Adventurous Birthday Than Expected

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver:

For Princess Bink's 9th birthday we decided to take a hike. When we arrived at the county park, we discovered that the elk in the reserve there were being fed. It was a great birthday gift for the Bink, because she got up close and personal with a real, live bull elk. Mr. Elk came right up to the fence and allowed her (and her siblings) to feed him grass through the fence!

Unfortunately, later Princess Bink got her fingers nibbled, but not by an elk. She was helping prepare her own birthday dinner when she accidentally cut herself with a kitchen knife. Mom cuddled her and held her, applying direct pressure like the experienced Mom she is, but we still needed to visit the doctor's office to get the bleeding stopped.

The injury did allow us to see a new side of 6-year-old Oksana who never left Princess Bink's side. Oksana accompanied us to the doctor's office, 'reading' books to her sister all the way (actually, Oksana can't read yet, but she has a wonderful imagination and made up 'stories', complete with inflection). She was a great support to Princess Bink.

Princess Bink finished off her day on a happy note, opening gifts and eating Blue Bunny ice cream and red velvet cake decorated by her dad. (It says "Pink-4-Bink"). In the picture below, Bink is holding her new doll, Grace. We all think Grace looks a lot like, Meddie Grace, the new daughter of our friends the Nordstroms. Princess Bink had asked for and dreamed of getting this particular doll for weeks. When she received "Grace", she looked at us with her big blue eyes and told us solemnly that she had just adopted her from Ethiopia.

Remembering a Birthday Past

Mrs. Beaver:

Today is Princess Bink's 9th birthday. My thoughts this morning are returning to her first birthday with us when she turned four.

She had her third birthday just three days before we adopted her so she'd waited a full year to have a birthday celebration as part of our family. Here are some of the pictures from that day back in 2006:

Making the cake with Anna

Dad decorated the cake, a family tradition

Princess Bink only weighed about 20 pounds as she turned four

She loved the big dog that came out of the big box. She still sleeps with him every night.

As she waited for the candles to be put on her cake she paraded in her Dad's shoes

We all delighted in being the first to provide birthday delight for this former orphan

Her Long Wait Over

Mrs. Beaver:

Princess Bink has heard one refrain too many times. Over and over people have looked at the gap between her top teeth and said, "I bet all you want for Christmas is your two front teeth." Often times they've even broken into song with those words. Our precious little Bink has had to be patient with this routine for a long time.

Princess Bink with a brand new tooth

When we adopted Princess Bink from Bryansk, Russia six years ago this month, she had just turned three years old, and she had a mouth full of rotted teeth. The dentist suspected she had so much damage from being left repeatedly in her crib with a juice bottle. In fact, so many of her teeth needed attention that the pediatric dentist said he would have to do the work under general anesthesia. We had the surgery done within just two months of her adoption because she was battling infection. The oral surgery took an hour and a half and left her with just 11 teeth. She'd lost the front two on the bottom and on the top, all four.

When Dr. Hemmingsen met with us after the surgery, he told us that she was so developmentally delayed that he didn't think she'd get her top teeth until she was eight.  Princess Bink is developmentally delayed because of the alcohol her birthmother drank while she was in utero. She is also delayed because of the severe neglect she suffered while a baby and toddler. The choices her birthmother made have affected even her teeth.

Dr. Hemmingsen was spot on about the timing of the arrival of Princess Bink's front teeth. Finally, this weekend, just a few days before she turns nine, she came running down the hall after brushing her teeth one evening, hollering, "My tooth is in! My tooth is in!"

We all love our Princess Bink exceedingly and had been waiting with her for months for the beginning signs that change was taking place which would turn into tooth eruption. We came running and dancing and skipping down to meet her, each one of us eager to see the tiny white buds of a tooth pushing their way through her pink gums. Sure enough, the six year wait is over. She can now have front teeth like her eight-year-old peers.

Most people probably wouldn't include a photo like this one to the left in their family blog, but this tooth is a REALLY big deal to our whole family! Watching your baby wait for six years and listening to countless well-meaning folks ask her who knocked her teeth out or how long will it be until they begin to come in is enough to cause extreme rejoicing when the event occurs!

So please rejoice with us as we say thank you to God for the front tooth that has emerged in the mouth of a former orphan who has waited for nearly six years.