Follow our journey while we adopt Mia’s brother, Caleb, as we spend the next couple of months preparing to go to China!  Click here:

www.journeytocaleb.bernadsky.com

Did you miss me?  I know … it’s been awhile.  But Mia has been growing like a weed and I figured we had better post a few pix!  This afternoon we went to a park in Centerville, OH, and had a picnic!

Here we are as a family.  We figured we had better get this shot first because if we waited, the kids would just keep getting dirtier!

Here is Mia, mom, and cousin Hannah hanging out, sitting on the logs.  Notice the hand-truck in the background.  My sister-in-law is about 12 months pregnant with her tenth kid.  That’s how we got her in and out of the woods!!!

Gotta love the Lukster!

Yeah, I wanna be a rock star …

Jake, Josh, and John … the Three Amigos … Or triple threat, depending on how well you know them!

I am the Fire-nator!  And, no, we don’t let our kids play with fire.  Well … maybe we do, but NOT OFTEN!

And what are THESE two up to?  Nick and Nathan … just chillin’.  Notice the rather large pregnant lady in the background?  Remember the hand-truck from earlier?  Now you’re getting the picture …

Kenna spent a fair amount of time tending to the frog that she caught.

And Uncle Chris helped Nick catch a HUGE fish.  OK, not HUGE, but Large.  Well, not really Large, but …

After the party, we came home and Mia decided it was time to be a little silly.

Just a boy and his dog.

Every night, Mia takes her little Baby, who we have named “Chop,” lays down in your arms, and sing’s “Jesus Loves Me.”  It really is about the most precious thing you could ever see.

Well, today was Mia’s readoption day!  We went down to the Warren County Probate Court and they recognized Mia’s adoption as accurate and complete and authorized her name change and the State of Ohio to issue her a U.S. Birth Certificate.  This was the final step in the process and the book is now closed!  Yeah!

Mia started her day looking smashing in her Sunday Best!

She did not, however, end up looking this good.  In fact, by days end, she look like a train wreck.  Between her running nose, her drool from teething, and then playing outside in the water this warm afternoon, she was looking a little rough.  But, I think we will keep her.

My sister-in-law, Kim, came to the ceremony this morning along with her nine children and my mother-in-law.  OK, her nine kids and our seven.  It was a PACKED court room!

As week walked in, the guard as the baliff what in the world this was for!  Then, when it was explained to him, he told the baliff that he would stick around just in case this group got out of control!  They were, however, very well behaved.

The judge went through the paper work, asked about how Mia was doing, asked if there was anything we wanted to say (Anything WE wanted to say?  Like, if we said nothing this thing might not go through?)  Then he approved everything. 

There is a tradition at the Warren County Courts that all new adoptees get a flag pin.  So, the judge came down and pinned a US Flad on Mia’s sleeve.

After that, we all took a picture with the judge.

 Then we went to a park, and went to lunch.  All-in-all, a pretty good day!  And that is the end of the process.  Mia is officially Mia and is ours.

Cameron

Today, since it is one of the few Saturday’s in the year that we don’t have a sporting event, we went to the Cincinnati Children’s Museum.  This museum is in with several other Cincinnati museums in the historic Cincinnati Train Terminal.  This is one of the prettiest buildings that I have seen in this area.  It was a place where, in the 1920s and 30s, the trains would arrive and buses, cabs, and personal cars would greet visitors coming to Cincinnati.  I hope that you enjoy the shots of the museum and the family!

Cameron

Here is a picture of the clan in front of the Terminal.  We also had our two nephews, John and Josh, along for the day.

Here is an example of the type of signage that is up everywhere.

It has this huge open area from which you can get to all the museum’s and the IMAX theater.

On of the best parts of this common area are the murals that surrounds most of the walls.

Once we got into the Children’s Museum, Nick and Kelly had a chance to look at one of the exhibits.

The biggest hit by far is the water area where all the kids, young and old, get to enjoy being a little wet!  The first picture is Max managing things and the second is Luke and Kelly working the ropes.

I took this picture just after Josh and Jake had sabotaged one of the water exhibits.  At least they don’t look guilty!

There is a large ball area where you can use different pulley’s, channels, etc. to move balls around to a centralized pit.  Here Luke tries his hand at working the ball channels.

Zach, John, and Luke work one of the pulley systems.

Kelly, Max and Mia, along with a few other helpers, see how air can lift a ball into a catch basin.

Sir, can I fill you up?  It is only $4.25/gallon!

Josh seems to just LOVE Mia (who wouldn’t?).  Here he is playing Lego’s with her.

The girls of the family take a few minutes out of the day to do a little crafting.

Go Speed Racer!

Is this a great country or what?????

As many of you know, there are a LOT of grandkids in our family.  So, instead of doing birthday parties every-other week, we choose to just do a few parties each year.  So, tonight we had a party for everyone that has a birthday between January and April.  That encompassed Jacob and Nicholas.  Here are a few of the pictures from that party!

Cameron

The theme of tonights party was BINGO!  We only had to explain the game to a few people.  This group should do well in the old folks home.

Luke waits patiently to see if his two numbers may turn into winners!

Max was actually the first person to win!

Brittany came oh-so-close to winning one game.

You all don’t get to see Zachary very often, so here is a nice picture of him.  He is growing up to be a handsome man.

Since it was their party, both Jacob and Nicholas opened their presents.

Mia took her turn at the stacking cups game!

Finally, Mia realize that they just don’t have chocolate like THIS in the mother country!!!!

Well, we are living through the white death of 2008.  It started snowing yesterday morning and we are currently at over 12″ and it will continue snowing until late this afternoon.  This was the first time that Mia was able to come out and play with us in the snow.  As they probably don’t see a lot of snow in Nam, this was quite a treat for her!

Cameron

Here was her first experience.  I’m not sure she knows what to think!

A little father/daughter snow portrait:

What the use of being outside if you can’t do a little sleeding??

Brittany gives it a shot, too.

And Max needs a turn, also!

OK, for all of those who have been complaining that I haven’t added a THING to this blog since we got back … here you go!  Hey, it has been a busy time for us.  But, Mia is adapting to the family very, very well.  Here are some updated shots (ignore some of the quality because some of them were taken with the cheap, easy-to-use camera):

Here is Mia in her Sunday best!  This picture was just taken within the last week.

And here is the budding artist at work:

She seems to spend more time standing in her high chair that sitting in it!

Here is Kelly reading to the little ones on the couch.

Mia sure has big shoes to fill!

I know … this isn’t a Mia picture, but Kelly and I celebrated our 16th anniversary over Christmas.  We enjoyed a little horse-drawn carriage ride and then a little ice skating.  It was really, REALLY cold. Be, we had a lot of fun!

I will try not to wait quite to long to update this again.  Have a great week!

Cameron

 I know I said I would post some pictures of Mia with the family this weekend, but I was tired!  Everyone who is complaining needs to give me a break! 

Here are your pictures.  First, I thought I would put a picture up of Mia in the bassinet on the plane.  This really was a life savor as she slept a lot of the flight without us having to hold her!

The first people Mia got to see was Ed & Vickie Collins, as they picked us up from the airport.  She didn’t have any problems warming up to them.

Next, Aunt Kim came over with Max and Luke. 

Mia really seemed to take a liking to Max, which was a good thing because she had already been in his cars and taken his car keys.

After awhile, Aunt Koreen came with the other kids.  As predicted, Nick and Brit fell in love right away!

Mia got busy playing with the new toys and trying her hand at a high chair for the first time in the new house.  She seemed to enjoy herself.

On Sunday, we had to take her on a little tour of the neighborhood.  She loved being in the wagon with Luke, although I’m not sure how much he enjoyed being with her.  At first, he thought she was pretty cool, but over time he has realized that SHE is getting a lot of the attention HE used to get.  He is doing OK, but we are having to show him a little love!

I will get some shots of Grandma and Grandpa with her, also, and get those up!

Cameron

It was a LONG flight home, but we finally arrived this morning at
7:30am.  Ed and Vickie Collins were at the airport to meet us and it
was so nice to be back!  Mia was a trooper the entire way.  She started
to get a little fussy on the flight from Los Angeles to Cincinnati, but
it was the middle of the day for her system and she didn’t feel much
like sleeping.  However, she settled down and we were able to finish
that leg off.

The three of us have had a little more time to be
together before all the kids come storming in!  They are supposed to
start heading home after lunch.  I will post pictures this weekend of
their first interactions with Mia.  So far, she has already started
carrying around Max’s cars and his keys, so I think there may be some
problems!  We will see.

Cameron

Everything went well with the consulate office and our VISA’s will be ready this afernoon at 3:00, in plenty of time to get to the airport.  The staff at the consulate bent over backwards to help us get to our flight.  I can’t thank them enough.  The Lord has been faithful through out and we are happy to be coming home!

Cameron