What a difference a few days can make...

Meet Tougy's (future) little sister Nurai!

I bet that catches more than a few of you off guard and leaves you trying to imagine how we got from the last post to this one.  Truth is, it took a village.  We are so eternally grateful to our greater community of family, friends, and most importantly in this case, fellow Kaz adoptive families.  The perspective, reassurance, advice and counsel from so many of you kept us moving forward.

We met Nurai last Wednesday and visited her again both Thursday and Friday of last week, though only felt truly confident in our path this afternoon during our visit.  She is impacted by both her premature birth and her institutional delays and it took a lot for us to begin to see past the fact that this 10 month old girl was really more of a 5 month old developmentally.  That said, we now feel as confident as we can that these delays are surmountable and should present few, if any, lasting effects.

Her name is pronounced Nur-eye, and it means "light of the moon" or Moonlight, so once again we have a 'moon' baby.  She was born on 28 December 2008 and we expect to be back in Maine in time for her birthday.  Oddly, even though we are just announcing her today, tomorrow marks day 7 of the 14 day bonding period after which we petition the court to officially adopt Nurai.  Before we know it, we will be a forever family.

Tougy has really done exceptionally well.  She is so excited about being a big sister, and now we can proudly say she will have a little sister.  Tougy has been remarkably tender and understanding throughout our visits and gleefully talks about Nurai in her absence.  What more could we ask for at this point.

Interestingly, when we asked Tougy if Nurai was Bobek, she said no, though when we asked Tougy if Nurai was her little sister she said yes.  So there you have it, Nurai is not Bobek, but she is Tougy's little sister.  Probably best for all of us that way.

We'll give you all some time to catch your breath and jump onboard with us.  Again, we are so grateful to be loved and supported by so many fantastic people all over the world and look forward to introducing the newest member of our family to her greater community.

So, deep breath in and deep breath out... we now have TWO daughters!  Take Care.

-KJ, Steve, Tougy and Nurai

P.S. - Sorry Christopher, looks like you are on your own to carry on the Morrison name, as Nurai will soon have a big sister, 5 girl cousins, 1 boy cousin, 4 aunts, 3 uncles, and 5 grandparents.

P.S.S. - For whatever reason, we have been unable to view our blog with our internet connection here in Shymkent.  I hope that everything formats well.  Thankfully all of your comments come straight to our email and so we are able to enjoy and appreciate them all even if we can't log on to the blog.  If things look out of sorts, or are not loading correctly, please let us know.