First Valentine's Day

Before I start this blog, Dusty and I wanted to thank everyone at the Altoona Surgery Center for a wonderful party you put on for us adopting Dima.  You guys know how to put on a great party!! We truly appreciate how thoughtful it was to do that for us.  Your donation is going to help more than you know!!!

Now back to my the blog......

I get the feeling the holidays are going to be a blast with Dima! It was a three ring circus trying to get everyone a gift without each one knowing.  Dima was learning about Valentine's Day with his English teacher and was really getting into the spirit.  He pulled Dusty aside on Friday to ask if they could get something for me for Valentine's Day.  He later came to me and said he wanted to get something for Papa.  This seemed like it would have been easy, but it was more challenging than we thought since Dima wanted it to be a secret.  Sunday, Dusty was not feeling well and decided to take a nap.  I told Dusty that Dima and I were going to "hang out" and Dima played along with me.  We went out to find something for Dusty and started looking at the cards first.  As we were looking, Dima found a card that was for a Mother and Father and I noticed he was looking at it for a while.  We kept looking and found Dusty a card from Dima.  Then Dima picks up a card and hides it from me.  He said he wanted this card too.  I gave him his space and we checked out.  Dima hid Dusty's Valentine's gift way back in his closet.  Later that day, Dusty told me he and Dima were "going to the store".  Dima played along and repeated Dusty.  I had to pretend I didn't know what they were doing.  Dima was having a blast with this game. Later that day, Dima asked Dusty if we could exchange gifts, but we had to explain to him that we would exchange on Valentine's Day. He was so excited that he was even willing to get up with Dusty at 5:30 in the morning to exchange gifts.  We finally talked him into doing during dinner.  We also have not had a chance to get Dima something from us since we were so focused on helping him.  We had to do it the next morning after Dima went to school.  Later that evening, I hear this giggling and through the kitchen doorway I see these flowers! Dima could not wait to give them to me. 

The next day after school we were trying to all get our gifts downstairs without everyone seeing what they were.  Dusty and I were laughing so hard.  I think Dima was more excited to give gifts than to receive.  The smile on his face was priceless! I hope this excitement never goes away for him and that holidays don't become routine for us all.  Having Dima has opened our eyes to so many things and has helped us appreciate the little things in life.