curated news for friends & family ™ 
GOTCHA DAY AND MERRY CHRISTMAS( family / adoption / holmes )
Today we were finally able to celebrate Gotcha Day with our now-16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. She and I both forgot on the actual day, December 10th. Her mom, Tara, remembered but Elizabeth was working late, Tara knew it would not work out, so said nothing. Elizabeth called that night from work, saying No big deal, but we forgot my Gotcha ... read more
OUR ADOPTION STORY( family / adoption / holmes )
My wife Tara has written up our adoption story in response to that woman (not far from us, unfortunately) who returned that boy to Russia a couple weeks ago. With the recent headline news about the Russian adoption that went very very wrong, I have been asked by many friends and family about my opinion of the situatio... read more
OUR RUSSIAN ADOPTION STORY( family / adoption / holmes )
/images/moscow-st-basils.webp With the recent headline news about the Russian adoption that went very very wrong, I have been asked by many friends and family about my opinion of the situation. I've not been ab... read more
DOCTORS SAY SHE'S NORMAL( family / adoption / holmes )
Tara took Elizabeth to the international adoption specialist doctors today for a psychological evaluation and another physical exam. They say she is perfectly average/normal for a girl her age. Of course, that puts her well above average for a foreign orphan.We think she's better than any other girl her age, but we might be bia... read more
BABY SHOWER( family / adoption / holmes )
Tara's female family and friends threw Elizabeth a baby shower last weekend. I was the only man there. The only reason I went was so that any other men showing up wouldn't be the only man. Oh well. I was able to get a lot on video, and Tara took pictures. titleShower1 href/images/shower1.webp... read more
SUMMARY OF OUR RUSSIAN ADOPTION EXPERIENCE( family / adoption / holmes )
Fill out /contact/this adoption video permission form to get access to any videos in this post.To sum it all up: We love our daughter. Elizabeth is a wonderful, beautiful, intelligent little girl. We thank Russia for giving her to us. Otherwise, we did not enjoy Russia. In thei... read more
A FEW PICTURES( family / adoption / holmes )
Finally, some pictures of Elizabeth. They're not even the latest, but it should hold you over if you've never seen her before.titlewith orphanage director href/images/elizabeth-with-director.webp title... read more
WE'RE HOME! (FOR GOOD, THIS TIME)( family / adoption / holmes )
And now I'm going to bed! :) I'll blog tomorrow.... read more
ELIZABETH'S ROOM( family / adoption / holmes )
OK, here are the pictures:BeforetitleChild's room 1 href/images/childsroom001.webp titleChild's room 2 href/images/childsroom002.webp After... read more
THE DAY BEFORE( family / adoption / holmes )
Sounds like a movie title. Anyway, it's Thursday morning. amazon.com/dp/B01E7XUONI/refas-li-qf-sp-asin-il-tl?ieUTF8&taghepyacom-20&camp1789&creative9325&linkCodeas2&creativeASINB01E7XUONI&linkId19a52ec4efea06a810015bed361ed046Grey's Anatomy season premier tonight. Tara says woo-... read more
TRAVEL DAY( family / adoption / holmes )
We fly out today. It would've been nice to have gotten one last good night's sleep, but the cat made sure that didn't happen. Stupid cat. Anyone want one? Seriously. She's very pretty; and sweet when she's not keeping you from sleeping. I'll miss the pugs while we're gone, but if one of our pet sitters happens to los... read more
PREPARATION FOR OUR FIRST TRIP TO RUSSIA( family / adoption / holmes )
Tuesday morning. Everyone's still asleep except for me, the pug Joey and /images/joey-sitting-on-sunny.webpthe cat Sunny . In preparation for our trip, I'm trying to reacquaint myself with the digital cameras, video and still. I would've put Joey's and Sunny's pictures here, but the camera is connected to Tara&#... read more
THIS TIME NEXT WEEK( family / adoption / holmes )
I'm happy to say that this time next week, we will be in Astrakhan, Russia! We leave the States on Friday, September 28 and arrive in Moscow on the 29th. Depending upon the schedule of the flights to Astrakhan, we may have to stay in Moscow one night or we will board another plane on Saturday and fly straight to Astrakhan. We're kinda ho... read more