In addition to all the other records I keep, I measure the boys' height and weight on the first of every month. The changes in size are insignificant compared to mental, emotional, and social growth, but it's fun to see them all laid out on a line. I plan to update this page once every six months (or maybe just once a year when they're older).

Beneath each picture I've listed (where available) each boy's age in years/months, each boy's height in inches, and each boy's weight in pounds. Click the thumbnails to see larger versions of the pictures.

Nicky

1997	May 2002	June 2004 Referral Photo	July 2004 Passport Photo	August 2004 1 Month Home	January 2005 6 Months Home
Unknown	Unknown	6.5 years old	6.5 years old 47 inches 44 pounds	6.5 years old 47 inches 46 pounds	7 years old 49 inches 48.4 pounds

August 2005 1 Year Home	January 2006 1.5 Years Home	July 2006 2 Years Home	January 2007 2.5 Years Home	July 2007 3 Years Home	January 2008 3.5 Years Home
7.5 years old 51.5 inches 54 pounds	8 years old 52.25 inches 58.6 pounds	8.5 years old 53.25 inches 61.8 pounds	9 years old 54.95 inches 66.5 pounds	9.5 years old 56 inches 70.8 pounds	10 years old 57 inches 69.6 pounds

Zack

1999	May 2002	June 2004 Referral Photo	July 2004 Passport Photo	August 2004 1 Month Home	January 2005 6 Months Home
Not Available	Unknown	4.5 years old	4.5 years old 38 inches 33 pounds	4.5 years old 39 inches 35 pounds	5 years old 41 inches 38.2 pounds

August 2005 1 Year Home	January 2006 1.5 Years Home	July 2006 2 Years Home	January 2007 2.5 Years Home	July 2007 3 Years Home	January 2008 3.5 Years Home
5.5 years old 44 inches 40.6 pounds	6 years old 44.75 inches 44.4 pounds	6.5 years old 46.5 inches 44.2 pounds	7 years old 47.25 inches 47.0 pounds	7.5 years old 48 inches 50.0 pounds	8 years old 49 inches 49.4 pounds

 
This page shows the only baby picture I have of Nicky, and also a few pictures of each boy from before we met. The records are somewhat scanty, but as far as I can tell, the boys became eligible for adoption on either 31 May or 01 June 2004, and the referral photos marked "June 2004" are from somewhere near that time. The orphanage in Gadyach took the photos while preparing the boys' paperwork. The photos appear to have been taken in one of those little photo booths, or perhaps by a street-side vendor. The Gadyach orphanage gave me the sheets, each one with three photos remaining and one cut out. They told me the missing photo had been sent to Kyiv for the referral sheets at the National Adoption Center. However, the photos I saw at the National Adoption Center were black and white, and showed Nicky's hemangioma, which disappeared sometime between 2002 and 2004. The National Adoption Center refused to let me photocopy the referral sheets, so I don't know if they showed me the 2002 pictures or something else that's now become lost.

The photos marked "May 2002" are from the orphanage in Komsomolsk, where the boys stayed from 31 May 2002 until 25 November 2002 when they were transferred to Gadyach. I don't know that the photos were taken in May, but they were glued to a sheet of paper from the Komsomolsk orphanage that was dated May 2002.