Saskia?

Luca really is excited about having a baby sister from Kazakhstan. Maybe he thinks she will take some of the heat off of him. Can you imagine a minimum of 2 sets of eyes looking at you while you do everything? Maybe he needs some company for Pete's sake. You can talk to cats and adults for only so long, you know!

So, why is this post titled Saskia? Because we asked Luca what he wanted to name his baby sister a few weeks ago and, without blinking an eye, he said "Satsia." At least, that was what it sounded like to us! And, for the last few weeks we have been chuckling about this . . . "how did he come up with that name?" and "it sounds so Russian!" Well, Scott figured out the mystery. He was reading a book about the artist Rembrandt to Luca the other night. Rembrandt's 2nd wife was named Saskia (see above for a portrait of Rembrandt & Saskia having a good time) . . . that explains it! So, baby Saskia it is! Although, I cannot say that we will actually name the child this - we have some other names in mind - but it is good to have a working name and a name connected with Rembrandt, no less.

So, our quest for Saskia continues. We had visit #2 with our social worker on Friday. At this visit, Scott and I spoke with the social worker individually about our self-study (aka life stories). The next (and last) visit she will come down here to see our home. I plan to schedule that for the end of August. After all the visits and the background checks and the TB tests, she will write up a report that (hopefully!) reassures the Kazakhstan government that we are good parents!

Here is a site with links to blogs written by families who have adopted from Kazakhstan. They are arranged by city/region the child(ren) was adopted from. http://www.kazakhadoptivefamilies.com/families.html

Our boy is going to be 4 next weekend . . . so hard to believe! Here he is doing some experimental painting:

That is about it for now!