Happy Easter!

Happy Resurrection Day, from our family to yours!

Hope you had a blessed day, celebrating because our Savior is RISEN!

SHE IS FREE!!

Just a quick update for those who haven't heard on Facebook.... we busted Grace OUT of that stinkin' institution yesterday morning!

Yesterday afternoon we drove up to Kyiv. Grace did great on the trip for the most part!

This morning we did the first of two embassy appointments for her visa and went to get her medical done. Tomorrow we pic up her visa, and Wednesday we fly HOME!

Longer update and more detailed update tomorrow... right now we are both going to bed! :) Thank you for your prayers! Grace is doing well, but keep them coming please!

ONE LESS ORPHAN!!!

There is one less orphan today!!!!!  Our God Reigns!

Introducing...

Grace Olena (o-LAY-na) Birschbach

Born in Kherson, Ukraine on March 4, 2005

Forever in a Family on December 5, 2013

Our court hearing went amazingly, AMAZINGLY well today!  Only God!  The judge did not ask any questions, nor did the jurors or prosecutor.  The quickest court case ever according to our facilitator!! Only God could have done this. He gets ALL THE GLORY!  We are SOO very thankful to the Lord for blessing us with our 8th child!  We are also very grateful for everyone who has prayed for us, supported us, encouraged us, given financially to us, and especially for those that have been holding down the fort at home for the past 4 weeks.  THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!!!  Everyone had a part and we couldn't have done this without you.

Here's are a few more pictures from the day we first met Grace.

So, tonight, Pat and I will take an overnight train to Kyiv.  Unfortunately, the train gets in too late to make the early morning flights out, so we'll spend the day in Kyiv and fly out early Saturday morning, arriving home mid-afternoon - Lord willing. Then, on the 14th, Sarah and I will head back to Ukraine and start the next paper chase for her birth certificate, passport, medical and visa.  It will probably take about 2 weeks. So, yes, I will get to spend Christmas in Ukraine once again! :-)  (I spent Christmas 2010 in Ukraine when adopting Elijah.)  Rumor has the medical facility is still out of  the serum for the TB skin test, so that may save us a few days if that stays status quo.  The goal is to be out of the country before the BIG Ukrainian holiday of New Years.

Thank you everyone for all that you have done for us and our family. I can't wait to have all of us together under one roof! Love to you all!

2 years HOME!

This is the little boy we called Elijah two years ago:

It's hard for me to believe he's the same child!


Happy 2 years home Elijah! We love you!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating the Savior's birth!

So much heartache around the country this season, yet through Jesus, we can have HOPE and JOY!

Christmas Eve 2012

A Christmas Miracle!

Look what Jonathan did today!!!!

To think....when Jonathan came home in July, he still had some head control problems.  He couldn't sit up on his own. He couldn't push up on all fours, or even push his tummy off the ground. He would NOT bear any weight on his legs.AT.ALL. They were complete jello. HERE is a post shortly after we met him. Oh, and he's gained like 6 pounds too! :-)

This, my friends, is the picture of what love can do for a child (and some PT too). I fully believe that if he were still in that crummy old orphange, he would still be spending his days laying flat on his back in a hard wooden prison playpen staring at the ceiling - or worse...

This, my friends, is (one of the reasons) why we chose to be obedient to the Lord's calling to adopt Jonathan to be our 7th child, our 2nd child with special needs. Most people thought we were (are) crazy. So be it. An orphanage is NO place for ANY child. Please pray about what your place is in helping with the orphan crisis, especially those with special needs.

His Gospel is Peace

Truly He taught us to love one another;

His law is love and His Gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break for the slave in our brother

And in His Name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy and grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us praise his holy Name!

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born

O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

If you would like, you can view our 2011 Year in Review page. 

We have been so very, very blessed this year. The Lord has been so very good to us this year. My God is LORD!

One year ago today...submitted!

Yep, last year on October 28th, our dossier (for Elijah) was submitted to the SDA in Ukraine to officially register us as adoptive parents. I blogged about it HERE. Wow...what a year it has been!

We've added not just one, but two beautiful boys to our family.  Between both adoptions, I've flown to Ukraine three times and spent about 9 weeks of the last year there. You would think I should be fluent in Russian after all of that! :-) Nope, not even close...

But all the glory goes to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Without Him, NONE of this would have possible. To Him be the Glory! I praise Him for ALL of the beautiful children the Lord has given me...whether they grew under my heart or in my heart.

Happy First Birthday, Jonathan!!!

The Lord has blessed us in AMAZING ways so Jonathan was HOME for his first birthday!  He turned ONE last week.  So awesome!  It is pretty rare an orphaned child in Ukraine is in their forever home before they turn one. We count this as an incredible miracle. Thinking back over the past 3 1/2 months, it blows my mind how the Lord worked to get him home so quickly. Our court hearing naming us as Jonathan's legal parents was exactly one day shy of 3 months from the day we found out that we lost Noah. 3 months...when the Lord wants to move, HE MOVES!

Let's review how HE did this - not how we did it. God gets all the glory for this! (I know you want to see birthday photos, just scroll down and come back - this is important! :-))

The timing of Elijah's post-placement report on the day we found out about Noah, working with our new facilitator that was willing to keep up with the speed at which we wanted to go, awesome support from our homestudy agency for a speedy quick homestudy update, favor in obtaining dossier documents, Luke fetching our apostilled documents from the Sec of State office in Madison, Max hand carrying our dossier over, a travel date issued from the SDA a shocking week "early", being able to visit Jonathan for the first time on a Saturday, the city social worker coming back to the office 2 days early, court on a Saturday instead of waiting out the holiday until the following Wednesday, red one-day passport and everything else that needed to happen on Gotcha Day (oh ya, I still need to post about that, don't I??? LOL), and smooth sailing at the embassy.  Whew! TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!! We were home with 5 days to spare before his birthday. :-)

Ok, on to the photos! The lucky boy got 2 little birthday parties. One on his birthday, and the second one after church with the Gibsons (other family and friends couldn't make it).

On his birthday:

His shirt says "I'm the Birthday Boy" :-)
Yes, Elijah and Rachel still adore him. Praise God for that!

 

He loves his oatmeal baby cereal! He improves with his eating each and every day. I'm finding out  his "ability to move the food to the back of his mouth and swallow is directly dependent on if he likes the taste of it or not...hmmmm....

Elijah sat well on my lap while I fed him. But look where Little Miss Monkey is....

Yes, this is the same bowl I'm feeding Jonathan out of!

Guess she still likes the baby cereal!!!  Lil' turkey!

"Happy Birthday to me!"

"Yep, I'm total cuteness!"

And yes, Rebekah has as much personality as it looks like here. :-)

Oh, remember this cute guy? :-)
He now says "CHEEZZZE" when we say smile!

Elijah wasn't diggin' the cake and ice cream though. I ate it for him. LOL

Jonathan is simply adored by all of his siblings.

Second birthday party!

Ben practicing to be an uncle! :-)

Jake practicing to be a DAD! He'll be an awesome one!

Elijah enjoyed the very delicious cherry cheesecake from Jake and Ashley's benefit much more than the other cake. Don't blame him! It was wonderful!

Jonathan checking out his very first birthday present from Auntie Debbie and Pastor Dan. Thank you so much!!!

But there is something else VERY significant about this last photo. Can you tell what it is? Go ahead and look, I'll wait. :-) Don't see it? Really, it's what you don't see that is significant. Nothing is holding him up while he is sitting there!!! Anna was very close to catch him in case he toppled, and he did eventually. But this is HUGE!  Just one month ago, he still had head control problems and was not anywhere close to being able to sit even with minimal support. Truly amazing what love, stimulation and not laying on a hard wooden playpen day in and day out can do for a little guy. Hmmm...imagine that....

And just to leave you with a little Elijah fun! Auntie Debbie had put of those (I can't remember what they are called) things that you blow into to make the paper unroll on top of Jonathan's present. We gave it to Elijah to try. At first he sucked it like a straw, but after we showed him to blow out, he was doing well with it!  WAy too cute!!! Well, pretty quick the end got pretty mushy, as it didn't have a plastic tip on it. Here he is trying to blow it with a mushy end. :-)

Daddy trimmed the end off for him. Success!!!!

Homecoming Pictures!!!!

Well, I do plan to post photos of my whirlwind trip, but for now, here are some AWESOME photos that Ashley took at the airport of our homecoming. (It really rocks to have a professional photographer as a dear friend!!!)

As you may remember, Elijah, Debbie and I didn't have the big "homecoming" experience. Our flight from O'Hare to Appleton was cancelled, so we arrived home at 12:30AM under the cover of darkness early on December 31st. I was very disappointed, and felt like I didn't have any "closure" from one part of the journey to the next. So, that's why I put an open invitation out for anyone to come if they wanted to. I was completely overwhelmed by all of the love and support we received!!! I'm so humbled and yet so very grateful!!! I can't say thank you enough. :-)

Isaac and Rebekah waiting patiently

Anna, Rebekah, Isaac, Sarah and her friend, Rachel watching for the plane

Rachel and Grandma (my mom)

Ben  holding Elijah with my plane in the background
I felt so bad I didn't even look out the plane window to see the signs and everyone waiting. I was too concerned about getting Jonathan strapped into the Ergo and getting off the plane. But maybe it was best I didn't look so I wasn't a total blubbering mess walking out. :-)

Elijah and Daddy

Waving to the kids as Rachel started running towards me and was stopped by the security guard as she entered the "secured area". :-)

Rebekah checking Jonathan out up close and personal

Yes, baby, we made it home! You are now an American citizen!

He had is own very special "parade"!!!
I saw this shirt and just couldn't resist getting it for him. :-)

Family of NINE!!!

Ya, I still can't wrap my head around that one, but thanks to Sarah for suggesting we get this photo instead of waiting until who knows when to have one taken. 

The whole group!!! WOW!!! It was a blast!
L to R: Ashley (gave up her camera for one photo), Rachel and Rebekah G, Mrs. S, Auntie Debbie, Ben, Jake,  Mr. S, Grandma Marilyn, Michelle Z, Pat with his gaggle of kids, Sarah w/ Elijah, Me w/ Rachel, Cathy (who has adopted 2 blessings from Liberia), Papa and Pastor Dan (who performed TWO weddings already that day!). Whew!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYONE WHO CAME! :-)

In his Daddy's arms!                      

GOD IS GOOD!!!

JONATHAN IS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN!!!!

Yes, that means we landed on American soil today!!! :-) Jonathan did great on the flight and the Lord provided many "angels" along the way to help me...cab driver, other adopting families (not all from RR) and a wonderfully sweet lady from Lithuania that spoke great English.  We had a GREAT homecoming celebration at the airport too! I'm so grateful for everyone that came out. Love you all!!!

Ok, I'm very tired and need to get to bed. Jonathan has been sleeping for awhile, so I should be too. The first few hours of transition went well too. More details on my whirlwind week coming in the next few days, including LOTS of photos!

Thanks again for everyone who has prayed us through this process the last 3 months and prayed us home. Please don't stop. :-)

Hangin' Out

Just quick...we're in Kiev having breakfast. Train ride went well and Jonathan slept like a champ! Can't say the same for me, but that's normal for me on the train. Today we'll have our first embassy appt and then go get his joke of a medical exam done.  Then tomorrow we'll get his visa Lord willing and then HOME!!!! This will most likely be my last update. See ya there! :-)

Thanks for praying!

I GOT HIM!!!!

Today went great so far!!! Right now, we're hanging out at Vanya's apartment (since he conveniently lives in the same city as the passport office and the train station) while we wait to leave on the overnight train to Kyiv in a few hours. So, yes, that "we" is Vanya, me AND Jonathan!!!!! Our day went great with obtaining the court decree, his new birth certificate, closing out J's bank account and getting the one-day red passport! Praise God!!!! The Lord worked out all of the details with everything. He is SO good to us. Oh ya, the "Gotcha" part of the day went great too. We got photos of his crib and his play area, as well as group photos with the nannies and one with the director. The Lord also gave us favor with the director to let us see and take photos of one of the very special little ones here, so I'll be passing those on to his mama as soon as I get home.

Jonathan is doing well. He wasn't too crazy about his bottle at first, but managed to drink down 6 oz of it. Right now he's laying on the couch next to me, cooing and smiling at me. He's a little love. :-) I'm going to try and give him some cereal here in a bit before we get on the train, so I'd best sign off and get back to being a mommy. I'll post photos when I get home too.

Thank you to everyone for praying about this day. God is faithful and has blessed me tremendously today. Please continue to pray for a smooth train ride tonight, smooth processing at the embassy Thurs and Friday, and of course, a quiet, uneventful trip home with no cancelled flights! Love to you all!!!

(My flight over here went fine too. So far so good! :-))

Ahhh....We are HOME!

We pulled into our driveway about 6:45pm last night and were greeted with lots of hugs and kisses from the kids! I was worried Elijah would not want to come to us, but both he and Rachel (20 months old) gave us big hugs and smiles. It was funny, they kept staring at us with a big smile to make sure it was really us in person, not just on the computer through Skype. It was very cute! :-)

Our flights were all uneventful, which is the best kind of course. But, they were long...I kept thinking about how I'm going to bring Jonathan back by myself (Sarah is not coming back with me since the trip will be so short), but the Lord will work it out. We flew from Donetsk to Kiev on Saturday night and stayed in a hotel just a little bit away from the airport. We finally got into bed about 10:30 or 11pm, and set the alarm for 2:30AM. Yikes! Little did we know until the next morning there was a window open in the room behind a curtain, so the room had plenty of mosquitoes in that were buzzing around my head until shortly before we had to get up. Oh well...it felt WONDERFUL to sleep in our own bed last night and to take a shower this morning in water that it doesn't matter if it gets in my mouth or not. :-) I feel like a whole new person today!

Court Saturday morning went very well. "Court" over there consists of sitting in the judge's large office, not in a court room like it would be here. So, there was us, our most wonderful facilitator Vanya, the judge, the prosecutor (who couldn't speak Ukrainian very well Vanya told us later), the city social worker, the orphanage social worker/lawyer, and 2 witnesses. (Since Ukrainian is the national language, court and all official documents are all done in Ukrainian.) Most of it was a formality, and very few but easy questions. It's been a night and day difference with the questioning compared to last time since we now already have a child with Ds. There were no surprises, which was nice and we didn't learn anything new about Jonathan's history. Court was scheduled for 9AM, but I think it was 9:20 before we were asked in. We were out of there by 10:15 I think. We stopped by the birth certificate office on the way back to the hotel to see if we needed a spousal POA (power of attorney from Pat to me) to get Jonathan's birth certificate. Turns out a POA wouldn't work either, so we stopped back by the office at 3pm for Pat to sign some papers. Everything should be all set when we stop back on the 6th to get his new birth certificate.Yay for Vanya! We then called the taxi driver that had given Max his phone number (he has a newer car w/ AC), and he drove us down to Donetsk to catch our plane. It was a good, good day!!!

Thank you again to all who were praying for us! We can't thank you enough. The Lord is Faithful!!!

Isaiah 1:17 - "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow"

LOTS of GOOD NEWS and ANSWERED PRAYERS

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING!!! The Lord has heard our prayers!

1.) Dear sweet Isabelle is doing much, much better. She is still in the hospital having tests, so please keep praying! http://luckytolovelyla.blogspot.com/

2.) Elijah is doing better. He had a pretty tough day yesterday again. He was mopey, but medicine was able to bring down his fever. We skyped with him last night and it broke my heart. He was visibly ticked at us and wouldn't even look at us. :-(  I'm SO glad he is feeling better. Sarah said she would put up a blog post if she had time.

3.) We heard an answer to prayer today. The judge here does NOT waive the 10-day wait after court. He says it is illegal and he's right. Some judges still do it for special needs adoptions, but not here. That's OK! We definitely weren't counting on it or anything. Jonathan's RR profile says that judges in this "region" have a history waiving the 10-day wait for urgent medical needs. Technically, that's true. A judge in a city north of here about 20 miles (in the same region) has done it, but to the best of my knowledge, it's never been done in this city. Kostya, my facilitator, told me that early on, so it isn't a surprise. God just answered that prayer with a "no" and that is OK! :-)

4.) WE GOT A COURT DATE! (Well, tentatively anyway.) It is Saturday, June 25th! Saturday??? Yes, Saturday.  Have I ever mentioned that this particular country in EE has A LOT of holidays??? Well, if I haven't, it does! A LOT!!! (Vanya says he wants to work for the US Embassy as they get BOTH EE holidays and U.S. holidays off. lol) It seems every family coming here is affected by at least one of them. Anyway, it seems that Tuesday, June 28th, is Constitution Day - a day off. Well, gov't offices have the option of working on Sat., the 25th, to get Monday, the 27th off and thus a 3 day long holiday. So, that's why our court date is on the 25th!!! So, in this case, the holidays worked to our advantage since we got court a couple days early. The judge said he needed to find 2 jury witnesses (guys that sit there and do nothing), but it shouldn't be a problem. That's why it's tentative. We'll know for sure by Tues or Wed. So, KEEP ON PRAYING! Oh ya, please pray we pass court too! :-)

Lord willing, we'll be able to get down to the main city in this region on Sat after court, catch a flight up to the capital city, fly out Sunday morning, and arrive home Sunday afternoon!!! Now, THAT is exciting! :-) We miss our kids SOOO very much.

5.) JONATHAN'S PASSPORT - In this country, there are 2 types of passports - red and blue.  The blue one can take up to 10 days to process. (We got Elijah's in 7 days: Tuesday to Monday.) The red passport takes like 15 minutes...I'm not kidding. The dear Hannons got the red passports for their boys when they were here in Dec. So, guess what, Debbie? THEY ARE STILL AVAILABLE!!!  WOOOHOOO!!! So, what does that mean for us? My second trip will be QUICK! Once we get here to the city, I believe we pick up the court decree, J's new birth certificate (remember, he was born right here in the city - yay!), have "Gotcha Day" (meaning we take him out of the orphanage FOREVER), drive down to the main city where the passport office is (2 hrs), get his new passport, and we're back on the plane/train back to the capital city! We will have 2 days of embassy business to take care of and we are on our way back home! Now, THAT is exciting too! :-) (We can pray that all of the offices will be open that need to be open on that day, and that all of the people who need to sign off on things will be in the office. Definitely not a guarantee this time of year.)

6.) Jonathan was pretty responsive this afternoon. We hadn't got him to giggle since that very first day, but we did this afternoon. He is pretty stoic most of the time. That may change as he gets more used to us, but if not, that's ok too. He's just a mellow baby. I'll take that. I suppose some pictures would be in order!

Tickle time with Daddy!

In the stroller asleep...yesterday....

...and today...he just cannot stay awake. The nannies haven't fussed at us about allowing him to sleep, so I guess we'll just let him rest if he needs to.

He's fascinated by the buttons on my shirt. :-) Love bonding with him this way.

Notice the "7" on his shirt in marker and stitched in thread on his pants. He's in grouppa #7. He's our 7th child (still wrapping my mind around that!). 7 seems like the number of the trip. So we put our backpack in locker #7 at the store, but I'm SO glad we aren't on the 7th floor! :-)