UN:
Caroline MaeLN: Kunze
DH:
Thibault Arkell DW:
Freya Winifred--DUncle:
Ronan DD:
Marguerite Concetta "
Marta" (6)
DD:
Tatiana Madeleine (3)
DD:
Stefania Petia Cecile "
Effie" (10)
DD:
Rahela Agnessa Fleur "
Ella" (13)
DS:
Radmilo Grozdan Dov "
Ray" (10)
It has been quite a while since my last update, and I have so much to share.
First and foremost, our family has grown again! We re so happy to welcome three of the smartest and most beautiful children into our family. It all started about two years ago when
Thibault got a chance to go on a trip through Eastern Europe through his university. He and
Ronan left early in the summer and were gone for about four weeks. It was difficult being alone with
Marta and
Tatiana, but I managed somehow, and I was so happy when they returned.
During their trip
Thibault and
Ronan were fourtunate enough to do service work in some of the poorer sections of the countries. Upon his arrival home all
Thibault could talk about were the lovely children he had met. A few weeks later he brought up the idea of adoption and said he already had three perfect children in mind. I was hesitant considering I already had two children under five, I also thought it was just one of his crazy notions, the sporatic kind that quickly fade after a few weeks. However, he continued to be very adament in his ideas and every few days would bring up the idea of adoption. As I mulled i over I began to really love the idea of having more children (wihtout the pain of childbirth!). Once
Marta turned five I told
Thibault we should start the adoption process. He was ecstatic and could not stop smiling for days. Cut to a year later and we have
Effie,
Ella and
Ray in our lives.
Effie and
Ella are stuning young women who lived in a Russian orphanage from the age of 3 (
Ella) and infancy (
Effie). They have quickly assimilated into our family, and have already begun to pick up some uniquely Kunze quirks (such as the speaking of Greek, much to their new uncles delight)!
Effie and
Ella look so much alike, each with beautiful blond hair and stunning blue eyes, that one would almost think they were twns from a three-year labor!
Marta and
Tatiana love the girls and follow them around everywhere, which is good news for me!
Ella and
Effie are both taking ballet, and are extremely natural dancers (they must have the Russian ballet gene). They will both be starting school in the fall, and are extremely excited.
We also adopted
Ray! He is a charming, and extremely intelligent boy from Bulgaria.
Ray is so much more introverted then the four girls, but he really comes to life when ever he is playing with
Thibault and uncle
Ronan. I know
Thibault and
Ronan love having a young boy around the house, they have already begun training him to be a football quarterback or a basketball star!
Ray is a born athlete and is already rather tall for his age with the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. he has also proven to be a math whiz and loves architecture. He builds stunning towers out of legos, blocks and anything else he can find! He will also be starting school in the fall and is happy that he can be in the same grade as
Effie.
Ray's favorite sister seems to be
Tatiana who is very much a tomboy, even at her young age.
Ray likes to watch
Tatiana and enjoys doing typical boy things with her, i.e. playing with bugs, squirtguns and dirt.
Upon adopting the children we were given the option of giving them middle names. We didn't want them to forget their heritage and so we gave them a Russian or Bulgarian middle name and a middle name that we chose despite the nationality.
Marta and
Tatiana have been surprisingly welcoming to their three new siblings. I think
Marta enjoys not being the oldest, and
Tatiana loves having a brother to play with.
Ronan is still living with us, and it seems as if the split between him and
Daphne will be final as she has gone and found a new boyfriend.
Ronan has been a little depressed lately, but the new children have really lifted his spirits!
The addition of the three children made us decide to definatly move. Finding a home was extremely difficult as
Thibault still needed to be able to commute to Boston College. Finally we found a gorgeous house in Cmbridge, MA. It has six bedrooms and five bathrooms. It was quite a bit out of the price range of a lowly college professor and a piano teacher, but
Thibault's parents and my parents got together and paide for a large portion of it, which was a complete surprise to us.
Tatiana and
Marta are sharing a room and
Effie and
Ella are sharing as well.
Ray has his own room and so does.
Thibault and I have the master suite and we hve am extra bedroom just in case, but of course the dogs have taken it upon themselves to adopt the bedroom as their own!
I have taken on more students, and have also started playing in recording studios for CDs which has significantly improved out income. We are so happy and love our life!
Q:
Stephanie and
Rachel didn't seem very Russian to me, so is it alright if I gave them more Russian(or polish/hungarian...eastern europey...) names considering they would most likely have those kinds of names? If I should change them back just let me know!
♥
Ralph: What did she says the play is called?
Leroy: 'Christmas Pageant.'
Ollie: That's no name. That's what it is.
Gladys: I know a name. I'd called it 'Revenge at Bethlahem.'
-The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
♥