Here we are at Polish Fest 2009 held at the Henry W. Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee. First and foremost, we had a blast with our family and clearly a very close 2nd were ALL THOSE PIEROGIs & POLISH SAUSAGES !!! .....and cold beer, but we won't go into that!

The Polish Dancer's were amazing and full of incredible energy! Even at almost 90 degrees they smiled and kept us entertained.

I really have no idea what kind of warriors these are, so I guess I will have to keep reading up on my Polish history.

Non-Stop Polka from 12 noon to Midnight is what the festival advertised and they weren't kidding! It went on and on and on all day and on multiple stages!

Here is our Family!

Clearly, I really liked the Polish Dancers! This was the Syrena & Syrenka Polish Folk Dance Ensemble.

This was Stas Venglevski - Accordionist. One of his songs was the "tornado" polka becuase of how fast he played. Which was ironic because a real tornado had been reported in the area the day before!

The family again...I think they are getting tired. Who wants to POLKA????

Don't we look like "Fun-Parents-To-Be-Someday?"

Truly the Milwaukee lake front is beautiful and Maier Park is a great venue. The lake breeze was a life saver!

ahhhhhh......Just one more!!!

Okay, last one I promise. They just look like they were having so much fun!


I saved the best for last...Through this blog, Lee and I made a connection with a couple who adopted from Poland on three seperate occasions. We met at the fest and had the privledge to meet them and their family. When I had said the research possiblities would be endless at Polish Fest, I never imagined we would discover a live referral! They were wonderful people and I hope we meet again at Polish Fest 2010 with our children! Wouldn't that be something?

A field trip to Homeland Security

I thoroughly expected my finger tips to be BLACK for this post! I was all excited about showing them off as "proof" that Lee and I had really gone to get our BIOMETRICS done. Oh well! Now, my job will just have to wonder if I played hooky for the afternoon!!
Lee and I had a nice afternoon driving downtown and exploring the city a bit. We found a great deli and enjoyed a delicious grilled roastbeef, cheese and sweet red bellpepper panini. Yum! We were prompt for our 3 pm appointment and only had to wait a few minutes. The finger printing process was very interesting. They roll each of your fingers out on a flat surface, kindof like a Xerox copier and the image appears on a computer screen. The staff then presses a button with their foot and a picture is taken which appears on the screen. I seriously really wanted to ask a bunch of questions, but do you know the feeling when it is best just keep your mouth shut to avoid raising suspicion? I kindof felt that way. The security guards were probably profilling us and I wanted to shout out "We are ADOPTING and We are SOOOO Excited!!"



This is the Homeland Security building in downtown Milwaukee. Since I couldn't bring my camera inside, I asked Lee to drive past so I could take a picture. Well, this UPS truck pulled up right as I was about to take the picture! Which was probably a good thing because there was a security guard standing out front and I am sure he would have looked at me funny while taking pictures of the federal building! I was taking my time snapping a lot of pictures when Lee said so sweetly "honey, will you please get into the car now?" I love him for wanting to keep me out of trouble! Again! It is all for the blog and to document the Journey! Stay tuned......Polish Fest is 2 weeks away. The research possibilities will be endless!