Appointment Date!!!!!

This morning we received the BEST email! Our SDA appointment date is April 13th, which is exactly 2 weeks from today!!! So we will be leaving for our kids country in about a week and a half. I was shaking as I read the email and I'm still trying to process it all. There is SO much to do! I will do my best to get everyones invites out tonight, so look for them tomorrow or Thursday by the latest. So many lists...so little time! We are trusting God to help us!!!

Going Private

After much thought and consideration, we have decided to make our blog private during our travel. This will allow us to openly share where we are and honestly share our experience. Please leave me a comment (under this post ONLY) and include your EMAIL address if you would like an invitation. We are soooo appreciative of everyone who has cheered us on so far, and we look forward to sharing the rest of this adventure with you all. (I personally can't wait to get over there and post pics and videos of our kiddos so you can all marvel at how adorable they are!!) So, I will try to get around to sending out invitations in the next few days. We are expecting to get our travel date sometime next week. Once that happens, I will have a million and one things to get done, so I'm going to try to get all the invites done this weekend. We are getting SO close!!!

Thankful

When we started on this journey, we new it would take us to new places...figuratively and literally. We new it would stretch us and change us, and forever change our family. But we never realized what amazing people we would meet along the way. People who have blessed us with their prayers, their encouragement, their money, their time and their talents. People whose hearts ache for the lonely, the orphaned, the forgotten. They have walked alongside us on this journey and we are forever grateful for them. Lu, thank you for designing this beautiful new blog for our family! Your talent is only eclipised by your heart!

Submitted!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!! We just found out that our dossier was submitted yesterday!!!!!! That means we should receive our travel date one week from Monday!!!! We are beyond excited....I would like to apologize to my poor sister, who was accidently dialed amongst the jumping up and down and screaming and who was ready to call 911 on our behalf! Sorry Auntie J :). Oh and a big thank you to whoever donated $50 to our kiddos recently...I don't know who you are yet but thank you so much for sowing into our children's lives! We just cannot wait toget them home! God has been so faithful throughout this adoption, inspite of my doubts and my questioning...Truly our God is mighty and able! He is moving heaven and earth to bring three precious angels out of an orphanage and into a home! We know we are in very capable hands as we get ready for whatever is ahead! Thank you for your continued prayers, specifically for favor and quick approval of our dossier and a quick travel date!!! Now please excuse me as I must go jump up and down some more ;)

Beautiful Bella

Happy 2nd birthday beautiful Gia Bella! I cannot believe you are already two. It seems like each and every day you get bigger and older. Mommy has such a hard time with this because she knows that you are not hers. She knows that you are too wonderful, too amazing to be held on to forever...

You are beautiful. Not just on the outside. No, your beauty can't be captured in pictures. It radiates from the inside out. It is expressed in the giggles, in the sheepish grins, in your silly faces and sweet, sweet, STRONG spirit.

Speaking of strong, you are STRONG. Strong in spirit, strong in mind, strong in body. From the day you were born, at just 6lbs. 2 oz., lifting your head to look around, others have been amazed at your physical strength. Now that you are 2, you prefer to show off this strength, by "throwing down" and then yelling loudly, "fall down, oh no, i fall down, hold it." By it, you are referring to yourself. I love when you tell me to "hold it" and oh, how I love to hold it! Did I mention your strength transcends the physical?!? You, at the sweet age of 2, are the strongest person I know. I love this about you, it may exhaust me just a bit at times, but it is something I adore about you. Again, I have known this about you since the moment we met face to face. Your Heavenly Father adores this about you too. He has big plans for you. Strength was thoughtfully and lovingly knit into the fabric of your being, it is not an afterthought.

You are compassionate. Even at your tender age, you care deeply for others. Just hearing a little boy cry will cause you concern for hours. A bug bite on mommy's toe means a bug bite on your toe. Our dog, Jax, will always have an assortment of play food and toys surrounding him. You worry about him and care for him like the good mommy I know you will make one day. I know he especially enjoys the plastic mushroom and cake left for him last night. Your big eyes are only eclipsed by your big heart.

You are silly. I love hearing you laugh. It is absolutely infectious. You know how to make me laugh and yes, you know how to use it to get out of trouble. Our timeout chair talks are often short lived because mommy has to walk away and compose herself, not out of anger, but because she cannot contain her laughter. I love pretending to eat your tasty toes and I love seeing the dinner table set for your books. Seeing you walk around with Mr. Potato Head glasses on your face or a swimsuit on top of all of your clothes, will always bring a smile to my face. Singing and dancing with your toys and your artwork makes me laugh in a way nothing else can. Everyday brings a chance to get down on the floor with you and just be silly.

You are so much more than I could ever sit here and list out. I hope you will always know how very much I love you. Even more than this, I hope you never lose the peace that has always radiated from your spirit. Daughter of the King, you know who you are. Don't ever let that go. Men and women spend fortunes and lifetimes searching for what you have. Ground yourself in His perfect love for you. Mommy and Daddy will always love you well, but He will always love you perfectly. You are, after all, one of His favorites.

Confession

I have learned something new about myself the last two days....online tracking does NOT bring out the best in me!! There is something incredibly frustrating about watching your package reach it's destination, but then just SIT! Our dossier arrived yesterday at 10am (yay!!), but didn't make it through customs in time to be delivered on Friday :(. So, please pray that they deliver it early Monday SAFELY. Hopefully, they will be able to translate in time for a Thursday submittal, otherwise we'll have to wait another week. And waiting stinks :(

Our Kids :)

Tonight our dossier is in Cologne (I LOVE TRACKING!!!)...overnight it will make it's way to our kid's country. Please join us in prayer that it makes it there safely, quickly and that it is translated, submitted and approved quickly. We are also praying for a quick travel date!
As we get closer to meeting our kids face to face, I have to admit there are so many different emotions surfacing. Excitement and nerves mingling all together!! Today I looked back to re-read the information we have about each one of our sweeties and so I thought I would share it with everyone. I was reminded while reading these today the urgency with which we work to bring these babies home...
Tatya

Streeeeettttch, and why did you wake me? Tatya is just waking from a nap here. She has sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. She is completely healthy and doing well. Just waiting for her family!

I have $0 in my grant fund towards the cost of my adoption!


Angel (soon to be our Anastasia)

Angel is considered significantly delayed, but so much of this could be institutional. You have all seen how these kids, even the "lowest functioning" of them, just BLOSSOM once home. Please give Angel that chance!! Every day she waits makes it worse :(

Angel was born with ASD. She also has some strabismus.

From one of our adoptive families who visited with her in July 2009: " The caretaker was quick to motion me away from them....making a face of disgust and saying "dumb". But since she was sitting and wasn't going to be going anywhere I knelt down to cup each of their little faces. Angel was on the verge of falling asleep, but she opened her eyes and looked at me when I stroked her face. Her eyes are blueish, not brown, and her hair is kind of a mousy brown. She almost seemed stunned by my touch at first, but then was okay and let me keep stroking her check. Her muscle tone is weak and she wasn't able to really hold herself up very well.....but she was tired too, and I know that adds to the low muscle tone becoming even more low. She looked more at me once I stopped stroking her face and talked to her. She was tired though and looked like she was fighting sleeping hard to be able to keep looking at me. She finally gave into sleep while a ran my hand over her head."

Serge (soon to be Eli)

Serge is another little chunky muffin :) He has sandy brown hair and big brown eyes. He does have some strabismus, and an umbilical hernia, but no heart condition. He is doing great and will really do well in his new family!

From one of our adoptive families who visited with him in July 2009: "Serge was bewildered by me...his little tongue sticking out of his mouth the way my Eli's does :) I don't think these children get talked to in a tender tone very much, if at all. Serge looked at me like a little puppy does when their trying to understand what your saying....you know, that head cocked to the side and ears perked up look? That's how Serge looked at me :) Because he was sitting behind Angel he would lean in to my hand when ever I cupped his face. He didn't smile at me, but liked being talked too and touched. He kept putting his hand on mine when I stroked his cheek and he moved his feet for me to get me to stroke them again whenever I stopped touching them. He had no shoes on so I was able to massage his little feet & legs tenderly and he liked it :) All these children need is attention, affection and some eager arms. Once they have these things, these babies will grow in every way! Here, their looked at as "dumb"....not even worthy of touch or tender words. It explains a lot about our Isaac's own behaviors. What's amazing is how little time it's taken for Isaac to learn to accept and even desire our affection & attention. My heart hurts for these beautiful babies. "

A letter to my children...

I saw a link to this on a blog I follow and I just have to repost it. If we were to write a letter to our daughter, this would pretty much be everything we would say...you can read it here

Rollercoaster

It's been an up and down week...we've had paperwork lost, then found, almost had to drive 6 hrs up and 6 hrs back for new paperwork, and much drama in between...but the end result is our dossier is on it's way!!! We can only give God the credit for this, and so we rest confidently in the knowledge that God, and God alone, is directing this adoption. Here are the pics of our "paper baby" as it was shipped off....And yes, I did put it in a ziploc freezer bag, but only because they don't make a waterproof UPS envelope ;)