Christmas 2009

(click on image to enlarge)

Important - Please read

Dear friends,
We have some news we need to share with all of you – as it is a major change in our family.
As you know, we adopted Mark & Miranda in late 2003. Then, in early 2008, we brought home Matthew, Maria and Max from an orphanage named Fundaninos. We went into the adoption of these 3 older children with eyes wide open but with hopeful hearts. Unfortunately, we did experience many problems with our oldest son, Max (who came home at 12 ½ and is now 14) since day #1... and despite our every effort here at home and with many professionals, we were unable to help him for him to be healthy enough to live in a family.
This is so hard.... Max is no longer living with us.
As you can imagine, he led a very hard life in Guatemala and came to us almost at age 13, with many issues. As it turns out he had more psychological and emotional issues than we anticipated. In early September, he became a safety risk to our other children. After much additional evaluation, it has been determined that he cannot return to our home to protect the rest of our family. He is now getting the intensive help he needs and we are working with professionals to find the best solutions for him until he is an adult. We are in shock, devastated, and are trying to figure everything out, and get everyone the help they need to move forward. It is hard to Mark, Miranda, Matthew and Maria to have their big brother ‘disappear’ from our family. We are keeping the specific details private and we hope you understand... but please pray for us, for Max, and for everyone this is affecting. Please honor our privacy and do not ask us or our children for additional details. We simply ask that you try to understand our situation and support us in this difficult time.
It has been a terribly difficult time for our family but without him here, the other kids, and for that matter, Mike and I as well, are doing so much better. To say the least, Max was extremely disruptive in so many ways. We are trying to move forward as a family of 6 instead of a family of 7. We also know that Max is still going to be much better off here in the USA than he would have been living in Guatemala ... Counseling, an education, medical and better nutrition... But it is still sad that it didn't work for him to live with a family. We will most likely remain his legal parents, but we will not have custody of him in order for him to get the help he needs. There are still many unknowns. We hope and pray that in the future, he will be healthy enough to maintain a relationship with our family and especially with Maria and Matthew, his biological siblings... only God knows our future and we will leave it in His hands.
Thank you for your understanding,
The Hanavan Family
Michelle, Mike, Maria, Matthew, Miranda & Mark

Tuggle Visit May 31, 2009

How thrilled we were when the Tuggle Family stopped by our house for an afternoon on their way home after visiting family up here in Ohio.

It was so nice seeing our children together again! Many more times will follow, we hope!

After our night of swimming, basketball, pizza & S'mores, are arose and headed off to church. Here are all the kids right before we left. Love it!

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Having the Sims boys over for the night - May 23rd

We were lucky enough to have all three Sims boys for the night on May 23rd. Aaron, Daniel and Sean had a blast with our crew - we went swimming, played basketball, rode bikes, and had a firepit with S'mores! Too fun!

May 22, 2009 R.R. Movie Night!

Rachaels Run Movie Night - May 22, 2009

Here are some photos from our street's "Movie Night" in May...

Very fun!

Tuggle Homecoming Day!

I packed up the kids and stayed over in Tennessee (Nashville) so wake up the next morning in time to be at the airport for the HOMECOMING of Kevin, Claudia and Kelly to the USA!

It was a wonderful event - one to remember!

To see the photos larger, just click on it!!

Important Day in History...

Whatever your political views, it's hard to deny that the Inaugeration of President Obama is one to remember! I wanted to make a lasting impression on my kids, so I included CUPCAKES to help celebrate. Yes, I made my kids sit and watch the entire speech! They thought is was boring, but I hope when they are older they can say "I remember watching that!"

To enlarge the photo's, just click on it!

Easter Saturday Events

Here are some photos of our Easter Saturday events today. We had such a good day - everyone has been getting along, happy and having lots of fun. Our family has really been getting along so well the past month or so - they said that after the 1 year mark (just past a few weeks ago) that things would feel more settled and they were right! It's been lots of fun and I'm really looking foward to a great spring and summer this year.

Can't wait for the Easter Bunny to arrive tomorrow!

"... Hippity, Hoppity... Easter's on its way!"

Easter Egg-stravaganza!

Here is our night of decorating Easter Eggs - our second time doing this as a family but the first time with Granny here! Everyone had a GREAT time. This year, the kids liked making designs with crayons before dying their eggs. Maria spent the longest time with her eggs- dying and re-dying them to make them darker and darker. She actually ended up with a black egg with cool crayon drawings on it. It rocked! After, the whole family ate some of their creations - Matthew devoured 4 eggs! More to be eaten tomorrow for breakfast - with bacon for sandwiches. YUM!

Here is a photo collage of our night. CLICK ON IT to make it LARGER to see it better.

Happy Easter!

Miranda gets 3 teeth pulled!

Ouch! We went to the dentist today and found out that Miranda has some VERY large adult teeth coming in (and will need expanders & braces as she gets older) so to make way for the new teeth, the dentist pulled 3 teeth. Miranda lost one last week, so now she is without 4 teeth on her bottom front!

She was a trooper and didn't cry until after everything was all done - and only because she was scared after seeing the blood. But, after Maria reminded her that the tooth fairy brings DOUBLE for a tooth the dentist has to pull, she smiled! ($1 x 2 x 3 teeth = $6!!!)

In two weeks, Maria will be getting her BRACES put on - whoo hoo!!!

Maria's "Letter" about today - 1 year anniversary....

Mike just showed me this letter that Maria typed this morning. It is soooo cute and shows how much English she has learned this past year. Here are Maria's thoughts in her own words:

"Dear book this is my first year in the united states of America and we get to go some were with my family and I am so happy because I have a nice family and my grandma is liven with as and she help as with are homework and I told my mom that she was so nice and my mom helps my grandma with chores. And I have some friends from Guatemala their mane is Kevin and Claudia and Kelly they are adopt from some people that are my mom is friends and Kelly and Claudia and Kevin are my best friends and my brother max likes them as a friends because he play with them and I have two dogs name salty and pepper and they are very nice to people and they and that is way people like are dogs and my mom is name is Michelle and my dad is name is Michel and I love my family so much because we are so nice to people and I am 11 years old and my sister is 6 and I have three brothers that are 13 and 7 and 6 and my mom is 36 and my dad is 36 to like my mom I love my mom so much. Love Maria. And I have a brother name Mark that he likes to play games and his favorite games are Lego races and Mario and my other brother likes to play Mario to. And my sister and me like to watch Hannah Montana. And my sister is favorite movie is high school musical and my favorite movie is john is brother because they sing and they are so funny to. And I love my sister so much and my brother and my mom and dad and my grandma and Jesus so much more than everything and my dogs."

Well - today is our 1 year anniversary of bringing home Max, Maria and Matthew. It's called our "Forever Family Day" - and that first year sure did fly by!

I've attached a photo of us at a restaurant named "El Rancho Grande" close to our home. It was too funny to hear Maria say the name - she sounded like a total Gringo, almost with a southern accent! Her Spanish accent is almost completely gone. Max on the other hand still rolls his "r's" like a pro when he says anything in Spanish... but he too is forgetting some of his Spanish. I have enrolled him in a full year of again Spanish next year (as I will do with all of my kids!!!) and hopefully he'll retain most of his Spanish as he grows older - and hopefully all of my kids will learn or re-learn it!

Max is just too cool to smile for photos anymore - and Matthew is taking his "hip hop" stance! So funny to see these little personalities shine - each child is truely unique! Maria and Miranda have their normal big smiles on and Mark has a new smile - not sure what it is yet! They crack me up!!!

Maria said that it doesn't seem like it's been a whole year and I have a feeling this upcoming year will have a BIG impact on the three kids that just came home. So many things were a blur to them last year because everything was so new... so this year they can slow down, take a better look and learn more!

Thanks so all of you who have supported us in this big adventure we're on - and we look foward to more great adventures and the Hanavan M's x 7!

Check out the brochure (paper verstions were printed and mailed to 1000's of families a few weeks ago) - on page 1 you might spot Maria and on page 9, look for Matthew! These photos were take last year while they were at summer camp.

My kids are going again this year - session #2 - maybe your kids can go too?!?!

http://www.gmvymca.org/library/Camp%20Brochure%20Full.pdf

Let me know if you sign your kids up for summer camp too - my kids L-O-V-E-D it so much it's hard to explain!

-Michelle

Girls Dancing to High School Musical

Crazy!

Wow, things sure have been crazy lately but I am TRYING to get organized and start posting more photos here very soon...

So, stay tuned!