Karen Schindler's St. Louis Real Estate Update

Happy Holidays!

         

It is hard to believe we are about to celebrate out third Christmas with Rani.  She is doing wonderful and we are so lucky to have such a healthy happy child.  Thanks to every one who continues to ask about her.  We are excited because this is the first year she is really aware of Christmas and Santa and has asked him for a pink watch that lights up like Grandma's.  So hopefully he will have one of those on his sleigh!

 

This photo was taken from the plane ride on the flight home from Nepal. 

Rani Update

Thank you to everyone who continually asks about Rani and talks to me about her updates in the newsletter!  Rani’s update has quickly become the most talked about part of these newsletters.  Thank you.  It is a joy to share news of her with you.  It is hard to believe it has already been one year since we have been lucky enough to have Rani join our family.  Time flies when you are running to keep up with an active two year old! 

Rani recently turned two years old, but as she says it “I’m CHOO!”  It is amazing how much she has begun to talk!!!  She loves to talk all about her dogs “Lubby & Po Po” better known as Lexi and Posey.  They have a love hate relationship.  She loves to chase them and they do not love being chased. 

Rani is also becoming a BIG FAN of Big Trucks, tractors and anything that moves and is noisy.  One of Rani’s most prized possessions is her fire fighter’s hat she got during her ride on the fire truck at Affton Days.  You have no idea how many outfits a fire fighter’s hat goes with!  When we took her to the pumpkin patch this month, she was so excited about riding the tractor that nothing else mattered.  You would have laughed out loud watching us chase her across Eckert's as she ran to get on the tractor.

   

She is one of the greatest joys, and we feel so fortunate to have this sweet girl as our daughter.  I must say that being a parent is by far the hardest job I have ever had!!!  Very fun, but challenging!  Thank you to all of you who keep asking and wishing us well, it means a lot! 

Rani News!

Thank you to everyone who asks how Rani is doing! She is wonderful! It is hard to believe that she will be two next month and has been home for seven months now. She is a blessing and a joy, and life is definitely different than before she arrived.  We knew life would be different once we adopted her, and we had NO IDEA how different life would be! I don’t think you can truly comprehend the complete change having a child makes in your life until you experience it. I am the oldest of 5 kids and 10 to 24 years older than my siblings. I thought this qualified me to KNOW what being a parent would be like. I was WRONG! (You might want to cut that out and save it, I may never admit it again!)

I had no idea that running to get a gallon of milk from the store would take 40 minutes to get everyone dressed and ready, get out of the house, load in the car, drive to the store, to then unload everyone out of the car seat, load up in the cart which Miss Rani may or may not be agreeable to at that moment depending on length of nap, time of recent snack and so forth to then check out and load the whole crew back in the car again and return home. Once home, stop and pick clovers in the yard, then talk to the neighbors dog who is on a walk and then finally decide it might be a good idea to take the milk inside the house. I also had no idea how much milk one family could use! I have bought more milk since November than I have in the last 7 years!

Rani is such a blessing! We are truly lucky to have her in our lives. She brings us so much joy and such a fresh perspective on everything. She is literally teaching us to take time to stop and smell the flowers, even if they are only clovers!

We have had our first trip to the zoo. Every animal was a ‘dog’. We knew if Rani had seen the animal or not by if she starting talking about the ‘dog’. The monkeys were her favorite ‘dogs’ at the zoo. We have been to visit our family in Kentucky and Tennessee.

In Tennessee we got to see the horses and donkeys and goats and those were all cool ‘dogs’ too! Donkey was a favorite until she started making hey hah noises and then we did not like the donkey ‘dog’ anymore. We have been to our first friend’s birthday party. Happy Birthday Nina and Vanessa! We liked that. Playing with friends is fun! Scribbling with sidewalk paints and playing at the water table is especially fun.

We are very blessed too to have such a wonderful support network to be the village it takes to help raise this wonderful girl. My sisters and brothers have been campaigning to be the favorite aunt or uncle. They are almost competing with each other to baby sit Rani or come and play with her. It is a gift, to have them so involved in her life. Larry, Jackie, Kevin, Aidan, Kevin, Tommy, Kari, Grandma, Kim, Kirstie, Ron, David, Jennifer, Joe, Patti, Dave, Selma all our neighborhood friends, friends from work and everyone who has been so supportive. It is wonderful! Thank you.

We would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend adoption as a way to grow your family. The difference it makes in your life is awesome!


Click Here to View More Photographs of Rani

She's Here!!!

Adventures in adoption. I am thrilled to announce that Rani Ruth is finally home! She arrived home to stay on Thanksgiving Day! We are so thrilled and have never had so much to be thankful for. Rani was born in Kathmandu,Nepal August 17, 2005. We left
St. Louis to travel to meet her and bring her home October 30th and arrived in Kathmandu November 1st. If you were ever wondering, let me be the first to tell you that getting to the other side of the world, literally, is quite an adventure. It took 4 flights and over 24 hours to do. We flew from St. Louis to Denver, Denver to LA, LA to Bangkok, a 17 hour flight, and finally Bangkok to Kathmandu. Oddly enough, the most foreign place to us was the international terminal at LAX.

Nepal is a wonderful country filled with very friendly people. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It is a world filled with vast contrasts, ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples, the Himalayan Mountains, Mount Everest and vast poverty. In the streets you see women in traditional saris and very modern western clothing. You also see cows on the sidewalks and monkeys roaming freely just like a rabbit or squirrel would be here. The weather was beautiful in the high 60’s and low 70’s and site seeing was quite an adventure.

Kathmandu was filled with sites, sounds and smells unlike anything I have ever experienced. It is a lot more densely populated than we are used to. Riding in a car in Nepal is not for the faint of heart. The streets are small and narrow and have cars, busses, motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrian traffic and live stock all trying to share two narrow lanes. Stop lights and stop signs are almost non-existent so each driver uses their horn to sound that they are going to take their turn. It is more or less a case of may the bravest win. The cars are very small the size of a Yugo or Ford Festiva and in the taxis we rode in, the seatbelts had been removed. The food is very tasty, although after 23 days, it did get old. Meals are a mixture between Chinese and Indian food with a lot of vegetarian options. Beef was really not something that was available. That first cheeseburger and Imos pizza I had upon returning home were some of the finest tasting food I have ever enjoyed! At 5’6” I was taller than a lot of people in the country and my pale skin and red hair made me very visible. About 12 times a day, people would come up and ask if I was from USA. They were all very polite and excited to talk to me. They wanted to know if I was from New York, California or Chicago. People repeatedly said how lucky we were to live in America, and I could not agree more. We take so many things for granted that are not readily available in countries like Nepal…Clean drinking water, employment, opportunity to advance, reliable electric, food, health care, clothing, education. I was amazed to find about 80% of the people in Nepal are fluent in English. That was very comforting. Many people have mentioned how lucky Rani is to be adopted by us, but I can tell you we truly feel like we are the lucky ones. She is a blessing and a joy, and life is definitely different than before baby. We were repeatedly warned Rani would be developmentally delayed and may have some health issues. I cannot speak highly enough about the care she must have received at the orphanage in Nepal.

Rani has not shown any signs of developmental delays and is extremely healthy. The FACES Adoption Clinic here in St. Louis and her pediatrician have been thrilled with how healthy Rani is and how quickly she has adapted. She has bonded with us from the first night we met her and has shown no difficulty attaching to us or us to her. It took holding her one time to melt our hearts forever.

We would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend Nepal for anyone considering International Adoption.