A person's a person, no matter how small...

Our Joshua and the local "Kids on Stage" theater group put on a wonderful version of Seussical the musical this past weekend. Josh played Horton, the big hearted elephant who protects those whose voices are too small to be heard by most of the world/jungle. The messages and corollaries to the plight of orphans and other helpless children around the world were too loud and touching to be ignored in this simple little story.

From Seussical

"Alone in the Universe" - Click below to view the duet between Horton and Jo-Jo the Who.

Alone in the Universe from Tom Lococo on Vimeo.

Reminded me of another little angel who is still finding her voice, and needs some standing up for now and again.

We're glad Reece's Rainbow and Andrea Roberts are out there, raising the cries of these little ones so they can be heard (Happy Birthday Andrea!).

Ukrainian Buddies Reunited

For those of you that did not already see pictures/videos elsewhere, here is how the recent re-union of Julia with two of her buddies from the orphanage went.

Hinz/Lococo/Conley Family get-together from Caleb Lococo on Vimeo.

We love these kids, and we so appreciate the opportunity to share this time with other families that have walked the same path.

9 years ago today....

We received a 6-month-old Guatemalan peanut at JFK airport.

                                   And our tiny family of 5 would become a family of 6.

                                        Freaky how 9 years can change things, ain't it?
                                                 And our tiny little 6 month-peanut.........

                             Is now a little lady, who's insanely photogenic and fun-loving

Gabby, you're our humor, our randomness, our creative artist. You can make us laugh so easily. your creations are one of a kind. And you were the special little bambino that first opened our hearts to adoption. Happy 9th Gotcha Day sweetie!

Julia's first day of summer school

Today with great trepidation we sent our little angel off to summer school to continue the therapies and learning activities she began here at home a couple months ago.  She had a wonderful day of activities including some outdoor water fun and plenty of developmental games.

She did really well and made it through the whole day!  We missed her so much and were very glad when she arrived back home in the afternoon.  Looking forward to the developmental doors this will open for our little girl.

We'll leave you with a couple other random acts of cuteness including snuggling with her big sister.

We'll keep you posted as the school experience unfolds.

RR Gathering Montage

By popular demand, here is Caleb's summary of the Reece's Rainbow gathering in upstate NY that happened over the Fourth of July weekend.


Reece's Rainbow Reunion 2011 Slideshow from Caleb Lococo on Vimeo.

Thanks go to Andrea Roberts and her family for the effort that went into bringing us together and hosting two wonderful barbeques with the folks from Pathfinder Village.

Julia meets some Reece's Rainbow Friends

In our last post we mentioned our upcoming vacation over the Fourth of July week.  That has come and gone and we are back.  What a wonderful vacation it was.  We spent lots of time with friends from Reece's Rainbow, visited sites in Cooperstown including the Farmer's Museum, cruised along the Erie Canal and stayed at a real nice Jellystone campground.

Julia got to meet lot's friends as you will see below.

Here are several girls with Andrea Roberts, founder and director of Reece's Rainbow (and mother of Reece and Owen!).

Some Reece's Rainbow moms having a grand old time:

And some dads too:

Not to mention lots of fun for the kiddos:

Here's a slideshow of the whole thing (for those of you with Flash player capability)

For a more in depth perspective on the value of this "reunion" see Caleb's post.  He's got a lot of great pictures and will be posting a more sophisticated multimedia collage soon.

Now on to the rest of the summer.  Talk to you all soon.

Signs of summer

While the weather may still be fluctuating wildly here in NY state, we've had some good swimming days and Julia is a fish! The following pictures will give you some idea.

Here's Julia the rock star - she loves that Barney guitar...

On Memorial Day we even got the following family shot (minus Caleb the photographer).

Which brings us right up to the almost birthday of our almost sixteen year old.  Guess where he wanted to go?  You got it - a camera store and photo gallery.  ;-)

We're keeping busy and so looking forward to the Reece's Rainbow celebration over the 4th of July weekend.  Hope to see you there!