Christmas Day!

Maybe I'm the first one to post about Christmas Day?!?  :-)  But, you'll never guess!  We have tickets booked to arrive home ON Christmas Day!  WOOHOOO!!! I never thought it possible, but God has done it.

We got Grace's passport picked up and stamped late on Friday afternoon after a bit of running around in a taxi and taking the tram/trolley bus home (fun and cheap).  Our best information right now says that the hospital in Kyiv is still out of the TB skin test serum (shortage exists in the US too). That shortage shaves a couple of days off our time in Kyiv.  We should just have 2 days doing her medical and visa paperwork, and "should" be able to fly out on Wednesday - Lord willing!!!

Unfortunately, the schedule to fly from Chicago to Appleton is greatly reduced on Christmas Day...go figure. We would have had a 6 hour layover there. I think it would have about killed me to sit there for 6 hours when it is only a 3 hour drive. So, I think we will take a bus to the Milwaukee airport and my dearest husband will come pick us up!  This route is exactly what we did when bringing Elijah home. The big difference is we sat in Chicago for hours waiting for our "delayed' flight, which was eventually cancelled.  (Yes, I cried more than once.) This time it will be planned - well, as much as you can plan international travel in winter on a holiday.

So, we won't have a big airport "homecoming" which is fine.  I don't think too many people would have come on Christmas anyhow. :-)  Hey, one out of three adoptions isn't bad! 

Tomorrow, Sunday, will be GOTCHA DAY!!! Right now, Grace is sleeping for the last time in that ol' institution. She doesn't even know her life is about to flip upside down!  We know it is for the better - it just may take awhile for her to realize that. 

We would appreciate your continued prayers for safe travel and Grace's transition to a new life! Thank you so much!

We're back!

Sarah here!

Well the 10 day wait is over and we are back in Ukraine! Mom and I that is.

Our flights were long of course, but okay. We were delayed 2 hours on our first flight, but we made the one out of Chicago because that one was an 1 hr late. We made up time in the air and made it to our gate in Germany with literally a few minutes to spare. Then on to Ukraine! Our MAF (most awesome facilitator) met us at the airport and we stayed with his and his beautiful wife last night (it's mid-morning Monday here).

Waiting in Chicago

eMy mom's update last night:
We arrived safely in Donetsk with no issues! Thank you Lord. As soon as we got our boarding passes at the gate in Munich, it was time to board. Whew! We slept most of the way to Donetsk. Our MAF picked us up at the airport and brought us to his apt. We all had a wonderful meal (borsch and a yummy Paleo friendly casserole) made MAF's wife. We have all the amenities of home, including super fast internet. Oh wait, we dont have fast internet at home.  But we are in good hands. Plan is to get some medical stuff done tomorrow morning to prove Sarah doesn't have TB so she can visit the orphanage. Then we'll head off to Grace's city to get the court decree, new birth certificate, tax id number, and then apply for her passport! Once we have the passport in hand, we'll head up to Kyiv.

Anyway, that is the plan. Thanks so much for praying us here. God is so faithful!

One last thing..has anyone ever had "pomelo"? Our MAF just brought some home from the grocery store. It is a very large citrus fruit, kind of like grapefruit but much sweeter and not as juicy. Very yummy!!! Wondering if anyone has seen them in the States? Here's a photo of it. 

Happy Sunday!

++++++++++++

This morning, we went to go get a chest x-ray done to prove I don't have TB and can visit the orphanage (I don't!), and then this afternoon, we drive down to region. Tomorrow we start the paper chase and I meet Grace!!! We'll continue visiting her this week while we wait for the passport. And gotcha day will sometime later this week, over the weekend, or Monday. That's when we will bust her out of that stinky orphanage forever and ever!

Then we head back up to Kiev, to do the embassy and medical appts for her. And then we will go home right after Christmas.


Here we come Grace!

BRINGING GRACE HOME: 11-11!!!!

So, 11-11...Some of you may remember I like cool dates. :-)  10-10-10 was Elijah's benefit.  11-11-11 was the final re-adoption court hearing for Jonathan. 12-12-12 was nothing big, but I prayed about adopting again, and the Lord whispered to my heart, "You will know when it is time to adopt again." And so I did. So, 11-11.  (Yes, it is 11-11-13 but who cares.)  What happens on 11-11???

We fly to Ukraine!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that's right! We (finally) got our appointment date for 11-13, so we will leave on the 11th. WOOHOOOO!!!! 

We are all SOOO very excited! We should be holding Grace in our arms on Nov. 15th, Lord willing. I CAN.NOT.WAIT!!  We are coming Sweet Baby Girl!  We love you and can't wait to bring you HOME where you belong!

(By the way, please do not hope for court on 12-12 for us. That is way too long.  A 12-12 Gotcha Day would be an awesome miraculous thing!)

Please pray we are home with Grace before the end of the year. New Years is a HUGE thing in Ukraine. Not to mention Orthodox Christmas on January 7th, and Orthodox New Year on the 14th. Not much gets done the first 2 weeks of the year, especially in gov't offices. :-)  I have lots of prayer requests, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Thanks everyone for your love, support and prayers!

BRINGING GRACE HOME: Dossier Update

We got word today that our dossier has been APPROVED!!! Everything is ok!  I am SOOO relieved. If they would have kicked it back again, we would have to start over with new medicals and a good chunk of the dossier. THANK YOU JESUS!!!

So what now you ask?  We wait. We wait again. We wait for a travel date to be issued. I'm believing for a miracle for an expedited travel date. That might mean the end of October.  It may be the end of November. No idea. I need to finish tying up some loose ends with school planning and then I can turn my focus back to "nesting". :-)  Oh ya, I have a gazillion more tomatoes to make into spaghetti sauce, carrots to slice and freeze, squash to bake and freeze, and basil to make into pesto to freeze...at some point before the frost comes in a week or two.  As overwhelmed as I can feel at times, I'm so grateful for this opportunity to preserve our harvest for my family.

Thanks for praying! Grace, we are coming - SOON! Can't wait to wrap my arms around you, Sweet One.

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. :-)

Today's Embassy/consulate's visit went well

Well, Vanya decided to hang out with me for a bit longer before he leaves on the train to his next city. :-) So, while he works, I can use his computer for a bit!

Today at the US Consulate's office, I got all of my forms and documents submitted and ready to go.  I had to remind them that I needed to pay the second I-600 fee of $720 though. :-) He didn't mention it but I told him we had already used one approval on our I-171H and since the boys weren't biological siblings, I owed them another $720. It was the right thing to do. They would have caught it tomorrow and it may have delayed things, so it was best to just take care of it now.

The medical exam went MUCH quicker this time. It helped we didn't have to wait for 2 hours for the doctor to get out of a "meeting" like last time. It was still a joke, still costs $110, but hey...I gotta do what I gotta do to get out of here. :-)

So, tomorrow, I go back to the consulate's office at 2pm for the final visa processing. I know it will be a HUGE relief when I finally get it.  Then, the driver will pick me up at 2:45AM - yes you read that right - for our journey home. Please continue to pray all goes well, esp for J's ears on the plane.

Remember, Sat at 4pm at the Appleton airport - Lord willing. Hope to see you there! :-)

I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

...in just over 12 hrs from now! I can.not.wait to get back to hold Jonathan in my arms again. I have missed him dearly this last week. It's hard when my heart is in two places. But, on the other hand, it almost seems like those 3 weeks in June were a dream. I mean I have nothing here to show for it...but that will change!

Ok, it's late and I do need some sleep tonight, so I'm just going bullet point this.

Prayer requests:
- Uneventful flights there and back
- Smooth "paper chasing" on Wednesday for the court decree, the birth certificate, the PASSPORT! All it would take is for one "director" at one of the places to not be in to sign off on something to derail our fast track and we won't be home until Tuesday.
- A fun "Gotcha Day" on Wednesday! I have a couple of things to take care of at the orphanage, so please pray I'm granted favor for that as well.
- Peace for Jonathan as he leaves the only home he's ever known - that he would sleep and eat well and stay healthy.
- Wisdom for me as I parent him solo in a foreign country - so glad Vanya will be with me Wednesday and Thursday. :-)
- Smooth process in Kiev for the medical exam and visa processing
- Sleepy, quiet and cooperative baby :-) on the flights home and that the Lord would put the right person on the flight to help me if need be.
- Here at home: understanding for the kids as Mommy leaves once again, patience and endurance for my parents, the 3 "middles" start swimming lessons this week, Sarah going to Lifest, a fun 4th of July for the family and friends they'll be visiting, and a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANNA!!! She will be 9 years old this week! I'm very sad to miss her birthday, but I know she will be surrounded by those who love her. I'm so proud of her for being so understanding!

Blog updates:
I'm NOT bringing the laptop with me as I would only have the potential to have internet a couple of days, plus it's heavy. I'm hoping Vanya will be able to email Sarah quick updates and she can post updates throughout the week. Gotcha Day photos will come when I get home. :-)

Homecoming:
All the "experts" tell adoptive parents to keep the airport homecoming thing low-key. I'm sure there is wisdom to that. BUT, since we got totally jipped out of the "homecoming" experience with Elijah, anyone who wants to give up part of their Saturday afternoon is more than welcome to join us!  Lord willing my plane will get in about 4pm. :-)

Attachment:
Just a quick note about this until I can explain it better at a later time. Jonathan does not know who his mama and dada are yet. He has always had revolving caretakers, not one single person to "attach" to. So, in an effort to help him understand who his mama and dada are, we will be making a conscious effort to limit who holds and feeds him to basically just Pat and I. We are so grateful to everyone who has loved and supported our family through this process and love you all. We feel this is the best thing for Jonathan at this point. Thanks for your understanding!  Tensey, who brought home Kirill from Russia, wrote a wonderful, thoughtful blog post about this here.

Names:
Typing Kirill's name above reminded me of something.  Jonathan's middle name is Kiril with one "L". It is his given name and we wanted to honor his heritage by preserving his given name as his middle name. In a way, I regret not doing that with Elijah, especially since we are in contact with his birth parents. Anyway, when translating the name from Russian, it is spelled with 2 L's. When translating it from Ukrainian, it is spelled with 1 L. Interesting, huh? Aren't you glad you read all the way down here to learn that little tidbit.

On that note, I'll sign off! Thank you again to everyone for your prayers, love and support for this final leg of our journey. We are beyond grateful! Love to you all!

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! :-)

They made it!

Hi all!

Sarah here, just got an email from my dad. He says that they made and have all their luggage, so things are good.  He sent it 15 minutes ago, and says they are sitting in their apartment getting ready to go out to eat (I think with Silva's, (Noah's family) as that was the plan before they left). He said that they also met the Silva's. Beyond that and telling me to call a few people and blog, he didn't say much.

For those of you who don't know or didn't read mom's moms other posts where she explained it - the game plan is. Right now they are in the capital city. Tomorrow they have their SDA (State Department of Adoptions) appt. On Friday, they pick up their referral from the SDA office, that they need to go meet Jonathan. On Saturday or Sunday night (I'm not sure which), the take the 12 hours train down to Jonathan's city (or a city close to it). And Lord willing, on Monday they meet our boy! :D

Sarah

Explanation of SDA appt

In my excitement this morning, I didn't really explain what exactly "getting our SDA appt" means for those that are new to this process.

Basically, we now have a "letter of invitation" to come to EE and meet with the adoption authorities in the SDA (State Department of Adoption) on June 9th. At this meeting, we will be given info (medical, birth, siblings, etc) about Jonathan, possibly share a bit about ourselves, and then request that we be given a referral to go and meet him. The referral will be picked up the day after the SDA appt. Then, we head to his region to meet him. After we meet him, then we are asked if we want to adopt him. Very few families adopting special needs children decline after meeting their child. :-) (Those seeking a "healthy" child is a different story.) Then we start the paper chasing to file with the court and get our court date - hopefully within 2 weeks.

Since our SDA appt is on a Thursday, we pick up his referral on Friday afternoon, and won't meet him until Monday. That adds a couple days to our trip, but hey, I'll take it!  Our facilitator already tried getting us train tickets for that Friday night, but they were booked up already! So, we'll spend an extra day or two in the capital city sight-seeing, so that will be fun. (We didn't do much sight-seeing last time as it was very COLD!)

You'll remember that the SDA is undergoing some changes on June 12th/13th. I'm not sure anyone knows yet what that will look like. They may be shut down for a couple of days, weeks or months. So, getting this appointment is HUGE - HUGE - HUGE!!! God does answer prayers!!!

Our flights are booked already. Summer is obviously a much more expensive time to fly than December. But, we shouldn't have any problems with snow delays. :-) Pros and cons to everything.  We will leave on the 7th, arrive on the 8th, and meet with the SDA on the 9th. Last time, we allowed an extra day since we traveled Thanksgiving weekend with the potential for snowstorms. Hopefully, this will work out ok.

Another fun thing is that Noah's family's appt is just 2 days before ours. We might be able to meet them for supper before they leave on the LONG train ride down to Noah's region. It would be so fun to be able to meet them in person!

Sarah says I need to add more photos to my posts...so here you go! I'm not sure I've ever posted this one.
This trip will require sacrifices on many people's part and I am so grateful.  But those cheeks are totally worth it! :-) Can't wait to be kissing them!

JUNE 9TH!!!!

I was shocked to check my email just a few minutes ago and find out that we have our SDA APPT!!!  JUNE 9TH! PRAISE THE NAME OF JESUS!!!!!!!!!

I guess this is really going to happen! LOL And I think the next 2 weeks are going to be a bit busy! Holy cow!

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING for us to get an appt date. God answers prayers!!!!

More later! Gotta go start our day!  Oh and maybe start packing or booking flights or something...

WE'RE HOME!!!

It's almost 1AM and I'm beat, but WE ARE HOME!  As Sarah said in the last post, Pat drove down to get us in Milwaukee. So, no "homecoming" pictures, but that's ok. The really important thing is that we are home, Elijah is HOME and is officially an American citizen!  And I must say Elijah is a CHAMP traveler! He held it together better than I did. :-) More details coming...not sure when. But we are home!

THANK YOU LORD!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost home...

The flight from O'Hare to ATW got canceled, so my dad and Debbie's husband (PD) are driving down to Milwaukee (Mom, Debbie, and Elijah can take a bus from Chicago to Milwaukee) to get them. They probably won't be back here until midnight now. Please Pray that there is NO FOG, and they have safe travels! Ok, now I'm pretty sure that the next post will be that they made it home! :) YAY!

There is NO way I'm going to bed.... :)

So Close to Home Sweet Home... PRAY!

Hi all! This is Sarah posting on my mom's blog again. My mother called a little while ago and they are back on American soil, even if it is only the airport! They are in O'Hare (Chicago) right now. The first time she called she said that as of right now their flight from O'Hare to ATW wasn't cancelled or delayed, but the flights leaving at 2am and 5am were cancelled do to fog. The second time she called she said that their flight was delayed one hour, so instead of getting in at 9pm it would get in at 10pm.

I just got off the phone with Ashley (Debbie's daughter in-law), and she had just gotten off the phone with Debbie and now it isn't coming in until 11. Soo, it's now two hours late, but so far, as far as we have heard, it hasn't been canceled. Please pray that it doesn't get delayed again!! And pray that Elijah is feeling a little better for his last flight. He has had a cold and has slept an hour of fitful sleep at the most. Thank you for praying! They are almost home and the next post will hopefully be that they have made it HOME!

THIS WAITING IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!! 4 HOURS!!! AHHH!!!

Waiting not so patiently,
Sarah

Days of Elijah Day 22

What a fun, beautiful day we've had so far! The weather is absolutely beautiful the past few days. 65 deg F at the moment!  I've had plenty of days where I've worn my long underwear, heavy gloves, and hat, but not this week! Max and Debbie brought the warm weather with them. I'm thankful. :-)

A few other exciting things:

***We have flights booked for our trip HOME!!!!  Even though we don't know for sure when we will get Elijah's passport, I went ahead and reserved/paid for some seats for us, so we had them. Due to the holidays, flights next week are getting slim pickings, so I scheduled them for Thurs., Dec. 30th. We will be able to hold those flights if Elijah's passport comes tomorrow (Friday) or Monday. We need two business days in the capital city at the embassy for a medical visit and visa processing. Our travel agent said availability on the 31st is pretty slim, so PLEASE PRAY we are able to make our flight as scheduled. IF Elijah's passport comes tomorrow, we will have "Gotcha Day" tomorrow too!!!!!!!  (Gotcha Day means we take him out of the orphanage for GOOD!!!) We would then head to the capital on Saturday then.  Oh my, what a Christmas Eve it would be!!!!!!!! :-)

*** Debbie's suitcase may be here tonight or tomorrow morning! Praise God!  Sarah, my daughter, sent gifts along with her for the orphanage, so it would be wonderful it would be here before we left again. :-) A HUGE thank you to Max for calling and checking for us. Oh, by the way, the other day when Max was traveling with us around the city, I decided it really rocks to have someone with you that speaks Russian. LOL  UPDATE from this afternoon:  Max called (again) to check on the suitcase and they said either tonight before 6pm or early tomorrow morning. Debbie decided to stay home - just in case. And low and behold, it came!!!! Praise God!!! She looks like a new woman in a different colored sweatshirt. LOL

*** We have English speaking friends here with us! :-) Dave & Summer Spitz arrived yesterday morning on the train and met their beautiful little girl yesterday!  http://www.luckytolovelyla.blogspot.com/  She's beautiful and they are in love. :-) They had their first long visit with her this morning. I remember those emotions of the first visit. It is fun to be on the other side of that, but I have great anticipation for them as their love grows for their sweet princess. I've had the honor and pleasure to "show them ropes" so to speak with the "marshuka" (bus) as our visiting hours are at the same time. Their apt is just down the street from ours, so we are able to walk to the bus stop together. What a blessing to be able to meet them and get to know them better!  We even had our first market shopping experience together today. Fun! They did great and are going with the flow. PLEASE PRAY for them so they can have court by the end of the year!

*** We hope to have a little party with all the boys in Elijah's grouppa tomorrow afternoon. I have some balls for them, bananas and cookies. (I also bought balloons too, but I found out people with Shea's type of spina bifida have a high chance of being allergic to latex, so I'll bring them home for our kids. I'm sure they won't mind...) I also got a little pop tent for them too. I hope they are able to keep it. I thought it would be fun for them to crawl in and out of. I asked the very nice nanny yesterday that speaks some English what was on their wish list for the kids. I finally understood that they had to ask the doctor for ideas. :-( I've learned that she also is very "by the book" though. Hopefully, she will get back to me. We would like to bless the grouppa with a few new toys. UPDATE from this afternoon: I found out this afternoon (through charades with the nanny :-)) that a gift I could buy them is a wall heater for the main grouppa room. They have one in the sleeping room, but not in the main room. I was very honored to gift them a heater. I went to the store where we were this afternoon to get something for Summer, and picked one out. It was less than $40, but the lady gave me a discount. After I paid I told her "detsky dom" (baby house) and she shook her head yes. She gave me the discount because she knew it was going to the orphanage. How sweet is that! And this is something that will make a huge difference for those precious boys left behind...

Ok, enough rambling for today. I'll leave you with some great photos and videos that Debbie took. It is very nice to have my own personal pro-wanna-be photographer. :-) We were outside for the whole morning visit - so wonderful!

When Pat was still here, we taught him how to make a "doggy" noise. There is a nice orphanage dog that we see on our walks. He used to just make a single grunting sound, but he's doing MUCH better now! SO cute!!!

Auntie Debbie had a little tangerine in her backpack, so we went over to the other side of the grounds to see if Elijah would take it from me. He did great with it!  I peeled all the "chewy" stuff off of it and he loved it! He was patient with me. I'm so happy he accepted food from me! That can be a big deal from some institutionalized kids. We are definitely not over the hump with food issues, but this is definitely a good start.

Introducing "Luda"
Shea told me her name tonight. :-) I found out Shea is a little tattle-tale too. LOL
Anyway, this is the sweet woman Debbie blogged about and the same one that I got all teary eyed with over Shea a couple weeks ago. She loves him dearly and wants to see him have his own family. I'm SOOO thankful Shea has his perfect family coming for him. Can't wait to tell you all about them! :-) (with their permission of course)



His teeny tiny hand in mine...



You can see above how dry and beat up his cuticles are, so I try and rub lotion on them as much as I can.

Just too cute not to share!

Pat is home!

I found out this morning, through one of Sarah's Buzz posts, that Pat got home last night. No one bothered to email me though. :-) Guess they were too distracted with Daddy and the gifts he brought. That's ok though. I'm just so thankful to the Lord for bringing him home safe and sound. Thanks for praying!

Pat is in Wisconsin!

Or, he should be very soon. His flight was able to land in O'Hare, but his flight to ATW was cancelled. The next available flight was not until 8pm and he was on stand-by. Not likely he would get on that flight. He called home (while I was Skype-ing with the kids - LOVE Skype!) and he was on a bus to Milwaukee. His sister, who lives there, is going to pick him up and drive him half way home. My dad will drive down and meet them, and bring Pat home - safe and sound! He even has his luggage, so the kids can get their presents right away. :-) Please pray for safe travels in the cold, windy, snowy conditions.

Days of Elijah - Day 1

Today was the long awaited day!!! We met Elijah for the first time!!!  I’ll go ahead and put the pictures at the top so you don’t have to scroll down to see them. J

 What a sweetheart!!!


Our train got in just after 11am and our driver met us there. Our first stop was the social workers office. Marina brought her a special cake from the capital city. Always good for her to stay on the social workers good side! We sat down with her and she asked us about our family, our home and why we would want a child with Down syndrome if we have 5 healthy children. A very normal question and one that we will hear again at court I’m sure (and the orphanage director asked us later too). She was happy to look at our photo album too. Next stop was the orphanage! The “detsky dom” (I think that’s right anyway) – the baby house. Since it was getting into lunch time, we went up to his “groupa” to meet him first! (For those that have been here and will be coming, his groupa is down the hall to the right from the front door, up the stairs past the stain-glass window, and right at the top of the stairs.) After we got up there, we heard a child crying. Come to find out, it was Elijah because he didn’t want to leave his meal. He had finished his first course, and had seen his second course when they took him out of there. Poor little guy…

The nurse brought him out to us. Oh my…there he was in the flesh. Our sweet Elijah Joseph! The moment we (and so many others) had prayed for. They handed him to me and he wrapped his arms around me. Oh, what a wonderful feeling! He stayed like that for just a bit, and then he must have remembered his meal. He gave quite the pouty look (3rd picture). The nurses said he was sensitive. He’ll fit in just fine in our family. LOL Then, Papa (Daddy) got a chance to hold him for just a bit. He gave Pat a hug too. I was a bit surprised by that actually, as sometimes kids in orphanages are not used to men and are a bit scared of them sometimes. Elijah didn’t seem to mind him though. The only man we saw at the orphanage was the orphanage director, and I doubt he has much interaction with the kids.


Oh, Mom, in case you are wondering, I did cry when I was holding him, but not as much as I thought. At least you can’t see the tears dripping off my face in the 3rd photo. LOL

We also learned some great news! The nurses were proud to show us how he can walk! We were expecting him not to be walking, so that was a pleasant surprise. They also said he can feed himself (assume that means from a bowl).

Next, it was time to meet w/ the orphanage director. He asked basically the same questions the social worker did (except not as much about our house). The orphanage doctor went through his medical records w/ us. There is still some concern about his heart. The doc said there was a question mark on the form where it asked if he still needed surgery. This isn’t a surprise to us though. The pediatric cardiologist is 2nd on our list after we check in with our pediatrician. His kidney issue he was listed with on RR doesn’t seem to be an issue, but of course, we will get it checked at some point.

THEY MET ELIJAH!

Yes, they have met little Elijah! This is Sarah posting on my mom's blog. I have been patiently waiting all morning, checking my email and refreshing the blog, and about a 1/2 hour ago (from noon when I started this post), I finally got an update! I checked my email for about the hundredth time this morning, and I had an email from my dad, and saw he was on! So I talked to him for about a 1/2 hour. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post. :(  So here is an update from them!

They arrived in Elijah city (which will not be named here), around 11 am (EE time) this morning. My dad slept on the train, but my mom didn't sleep so well. They went to see psychologist (I think... couldn't really tell) and got the ok to see Elijah. Then they went to the orphanage to see him. They interrupted his meal, and he wasn't very happy about that, but he still gave them big hugs. He is very cute and lovable. He just wanted to hug them, and keep hugging them! They got to see him for about 5-10 minutes then had to leave, because it was past visiting time. (I imagine my mom cried the whole time... hee hee) They then met with the dirrector and doctor, (not sure why they didn't do this before they met him) and things went well there. Elijah is very healthy, only having a few colds in the past year. He is walking about the same is little Rachel is now (which is much better now than the video my mom posted awhile ago!). They got more information about his birth parents, which I'm not sure I can share, so I won't yet. Then they \ did a lot of waiting around as their facilitator had to do all kinds of paperwork.  It has been a long day for them (wait...wait...wait...lets go now quick...wait again...wait...wait.. then go again).  This pattern of running around started while still in the capital city last night, just before supper so they have been on the go with little sleep, no food, so as you can guess it has been a long day.


They finnally got to their apartment around 5:30. My mom stayed at the apartment to shower and take a nap, while dad ventured out into town to do some grocery shopping, buy more phone minutes, and find an internet cafe or McDonalds with WIFI. They don't have internet in their apartment, but they will have it in a couple days. He did find an internet cafe and was able to have internet for an hour. He says he feels very safe around the city, and he loves Elijah! He says that is 65 degrees F! Much warmer than in the capitol yesterday! :)


He also said that they have all the paperwork in to the court system already, so they already are waiting for a court date! (Well, they haven't been waiting too long..) Praise God!


They will be able to visit Elijah twice a day, although the missed their second visit today. He was not able to get pictures to me because he wasn't on their laptops, but on a computer at the cafe. But they'll try and get pictures to me tommorrow, if they can't post themselves! Sorry this post took so long for me to get up... And check back tommorrow for pictures!