Catching Up

Well, wow!  Sorry for the long lack of updates! It's been just a week since we met Grace, and in some respects, it seems much, much longer. What a week it's been!

Our visits with Grace have been going pretty well. We've seen some behaviors we expected to see adopting an older child, but that is ok. We still love her all the same! I've seen her interact with other children and she is very gentle with them for the most part...unless she wants to be on the swing at the same time and then there may be a bit of a shove...totally normal. :-)

On Tuesday, we had the extreme pleasure of being able to visit with Elijah's biological family. It is always such a blessing and honor to be with them. Mama Tanya spoiled us with so many gifts. We are so grateful for Elijah to have this relationship with them (through us). I grieve that Jonathan and Grace will not have that with their birth families, but that is just the way it usually is over here. So, thank you Mama Tanya for making the huge effort you did to come and see us and for all of the beautiful gifts you brought for us and the children.

We have court date! Woohoo!!!  God did the miraculous and our MAF (most awesome facilitator) was able to get all of our paperwork gathered to submit to the SDA on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the SDA now takes 2 weeks to process their consent that we need for court. (It used to only take one week.) So, court will not be quite as soon as we had hoped, but there is still a fairly strong glimmer of hope we can be outta here by the end of the year and the New Year's shutdowns.  We were so thankful the orphanage director and Social Services were so easy work with in getting our paperwork gathered in just a couple of days.

Let's see what else..right now I'm not actually not "home" but in Krivoy Rog visiting Max!  Check out his website at http://truehopeukraine.com.  I know I've blogged about him several times. He really is the "real deal" and his ministry is making the difference in the lives of 1000s of children, teens and adults.  He said right now is a very stressful time as the nights are getting colder and the kids from the streets need a warm place to sleep. Hmmm...what was the last thing you worried about? After this weekend, I hope to do a single post about Max and his ministry and ways you can help.

Early Wednesday morning, Pat and our MAF traveled up to Kyiv to return our rental car and submit the documents. Yes, every adoption brings something new for us and this time it was a rental car! And yes, Pat did drive in Kyiv!!  Are you impressed? You should be! LOL  It is no easy feat, but he did great!  Our MAF did most of the driving though and it was indispensible in going back forth between the city she is living in and the city she was born.  Anyway, we decided it would be best if Pat went home to be with the kids for Thanksgiving, so he totally surprised them on Thursday afternoon!  They were shocked!!! How fun!  :-)

So, I'd appreciate the prayers as I go it alone for a couple of weeks. I feel very safe and with only one visit per day, I'm home several hours before dark. I'm not concerned at all, but a little extra prayer support doesn't hurt.

This week, I'm looking forward to meeting up with a Canadian missionary family - you know, that speak English. :-)

I'm so very, very thankful for our caregivers at home. Even with Pat home, we will still need help during the day for school and what not. We could NOT have done this without you! Thank you so very much to the O and G families!!!

Thank you everyone for your prayers, love, support and encouragement. We deeply appreciate it!

THIS IS THE DAY...

That was the song in my mind as soon as I woke up at 3am.  "This is the day - This is the day that the Lord has made!"

We started the day very early with a shower and my new blow dryer. (So happy to have one now! This would be the 3rd one I've bought in Ukraine by the way. :-)) We left Kyiv about 4am with our MAF (most awesome facilitator) and headed south.  After experiencing all we could experience on Ukrainian roads (pot holes, chickens, pot holes, cows, pot holes, trucks, pot holes), we arrived at the social workers office around 11:15.  (SW office is always the first stop in region.)  She hardly asked us a single question.  SOOO very different than when we were in Simferopol adopting Elijah - she grilled us.  It really does help tremendously to already have adopted a child with Ds.

Anyway, next stop - the orphanage!!!

We met with the director first and talked quite awhile. She was very nice and cordial. I was also very impressed with the cleanliness and "niceness" of the orphanage. It was very obvious that director cares deeply for her children as she greeted each one by name as we walked around later. She showed us picture updates from other families that had adopted from this same place. We assured her we were more than happy to send her updates about Grace.  We showed the director and all of the other "legal" people there our photo album. One of them noticed Elijah looked a little like Grace. I would have to agree.  It is probably just a Ds thing, but some of their mannerisms are the same.

Then it was time to meet Grace! We heard her before we saw her. :-(  An unfamiliar caregiver brought her downstairs to the office, which she was also unfamiliar with, and she was scared and crying. She had a toy that she threw on the ground when they tried to comfort her with it. (I've seen that before!) The director said she had never seen her cry before as she is usually very happy. So, they took her back upstairs and let her settle down a bit. We talked more with the director about her history. She has no known health issues beside Ds. As is pretty typical, she was abandoned at birth and her parents terminated rights then. :-(  She will go potty when she sits and sometimes asks to go. Yay! (She'll be wearing diapers/pull-ups on the way home I can assure you.) She also feeds herself and doesn't need her food pureed, just maybe the bread softened a bit. That is great news as well!

After awhile, the director called up to see if she was calm and we went up to meet her! She was calmed down and ready and eager to play in what looked like the PT room.  Grace's main caregiver was very proud to show off all that she knew and could do.  She was able to point to her ears, nose, eyes and even did nose on the puppy we brought. She waved hi for the camera and we got a few good smiles and giggles out of her. She's very ticklish too. :-)  She responded and turned to her name being called too - a great sign! I think she will learn to sign very quickly.  The nanny knows she understands everything said to her, she just can't speak in return.

They told us how she is very active and likes to get into trouble. LOL We've dealt with that! We saw a little taste of this.  In the room we were in, they have a long, wide, flat swing mounted. Several times she took a flying leap on it and went swinging.  My little sensory seeker!  We'll see how well Elijah and Jonathan have prepared us for her. :-)

She was receptive to me holding her after awhile. She is tiny, but I think she is taller than Rachel. She has lost her 2 front teeth too. Very cute!

Our visit ended all too quickly, but we'll go back Sat and Sunday AM.  We ran around all afternoon doing paperwork, including a visit to the notary (like a lawyer here) and lunch finally at 2:15 while waiting on the notary.  Our MAF got the bus route figured out for us, so we can return our car once we are done filing the paperwork early next week.

Sorry for no pictures though!  I know, I know.  But I've said from the beginning that we would not be posting pics of "who" we are adopting until sometime after court. Sorry...Thanks for understanding. Thanks for all your love and support!  We appreciate it!

All is Well!

Praising God!!!  Everything went well today at our appointment. Grace is available for adoption. Good to know! :)  We saw her baby photo.  Too cute! :)

We went sovenuir shopping afterwards.  You know you've been to Ukraine too many times when you have your favorite souvenuir guy to buy from! LOL (Rochelle, we went to see Alex again!)

I'll try to post photos later.  I had to take a pic of my first (of many) bowl of borsch.

We'll travel to Grace's region Thurs night/Fri early AM. Train tickets are not looking too promising, so we may have our facilitator drive down. I can't say as I'm too heartbroken about not taking the train. We'll see how it goes!

Thanks again for all your love, support and comments.  We deeply appreciate it!

We're Here!

After a big delay in Appleton due to weather in Chicago, we made to our flight for Munich just fine. In fact that flight was 3 hours late leaving. But we had a 3 hr layover in Munich, so we made it fine to Kiev. (The airlines pad their arrival times, so we still had an hour to spare...)  Anyway, we slept a fair amount on the plane, made it through customs very easily, and went out for borsch for supper. Yay!!! LOVE borsch!  Pat, not so much...

So, tomorrow, we have our appt to see Grace's file and start the process to get her referral. Please pray everything goes very, very smootlhy with the appointment. In Ukraine, we do not have a "hold" on a child until the referral is in our hands.  Lord willing, we will pick up her referral Thursday afternoon and get on a train Thursday night.  Friday will be THE DAY we met here!!

I'll update when I can.  Thank you to everyone for your love and support to get us this far!

Blessing and Challenge

Adoption = "the biggest blessing and the biggest challenge you will ever face."

As most of you know, today was Orphan Sunday. November is National Adoption Month. In just over a week (yikes!), I'll be posting about plenty about adoption and the process of it. But for tonight, I wanted to link to Meredith's blog about Orphan Sunday.  All of it so very, very true, and will be so much more true when we get Grace home. Thanks for reading it!

http://cornishadoptionjourney.blogspot.com/2013/11/orphan-sunday-2013.html

We have a pretty intense week coming up, not only with frantically getting ready to leave, but we have several additional appointments.  I'd appreciate prayers!  Also, please pray for my children's hearts as we prepare to leave. A few of them are having a tough time already. :-(

Luke 9:23 - 
"Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

The calling of adoption is not just for Pat and I, it is for our whole family.

(Hopefully, I'll have some extra time while we are in Ukraine to do very long overdue updates on Elijah and Jonathan.  You know, things like sleep study results, school, ENT, etc.)

Thanks for praying for our family this week!

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!

Tears...(Sleep Study Update)

(Don't worry. Blogging 3 times in one day will not become a regular occurrence. Just an update from the sleep study lab. Here's a copy of the email I sent home.)

No, not the tears you are expecting. My tears...tears of the goodness of our Lord for answered prayers.

I am still shaking my head in disbelief. Jonathan did not fuss one single time. We watched Signing Time while they did the setup. He maybe moved his head three times. No noise. No nothing. Even when they taped the cannula under his nose. Nothing. No no-nos either. This is from a child that doesn't like it when I straighten his colic out at the back of his head. It took him probably 30-45 min to fall asleep, but he just laid there on his tummy breathing deeply and sounding like he's asleep but with his eyes open. He fell asleep about 9:15. I think I got the easier bedtime tonight! :-)

Thank you Jesus!!! GOD IS GOOD!  Amen and amen. Thanks for praying. God answers 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.

Sleep Study Update and Round 2 Tonight!

Sorry for the delayed update, but Elijah's sleep study went very well - amazingly well - miraculously well!  Thank you Jesus!  And thank you all for praying! He only fussed a bit while they stuck all the wires on his head.  We put the no-nos (arm boards) on his arms right away so he didn't think he could start yanking off playing with the wires. Just 2 things really bothered him. It wasn't the canula up his nose or even his mesh "hat" holding all the wires.  It was his hospital wristband and the thing on his toe to measure his oxygen levels (I think).  I took his wristband off. I figured it was the least I could do. :) I'm not surprised about his toe either. He HATES, I mean HATES to have his toe nails trimmed. Very sensitive feet. Anyway, as he was falling asleep, I took his no-nos off and he was asleep in 5 minutes. I was shocked!! He did GREAT! He didn't even fuss at the finger poke the next morning. Frankly, I was shocked - that was a good thing!

He set the bar pretty high for his little brother. Jonathan is much, much more sensory "defensive" than his brother. I joked with someone I was going to have to pray and fast for a long time before Jonathan's test for it to go as well.  J's was scheduled for October 4th in Milwaukee, but after being at the New Berlin sleep lab, I wanted to go back there. It was very nice w/ a private bathroom.(Plus it was the night before our DS walk.) So, I rescheduled it for Oct. 30th and put him on the cancellation list.

They called this AM with a cancellation for TONIGHT! So, Jonathan and I are off this afternoon for sleep study #2.  Please pray his nose stays clear. (Both boys have sniffley noses but Jonathan's was fine this morning when he woke up.) Please pray he tolerates this well and can fall asleep. I would keep the no-nos on him but he always always falls asleep with his right two fingers in his mouth. I'm not sure how this is going to work. Prayers I can sleep too would be appreciated. 

Thanks so much everyone! I appreciate you all so much!

(Here's the link I posted last time about sleep studies in case you missed it. http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/986521/sleep-studies-for-children-with-down-syndrome)

Sleep study x 2 - Comin' right up!

Yep, both Elijah and Jonathan will be having the notorious sleep studies.  I'm heading off in a few minutes for Elijah's and Jonathan's will be in a couple weeks. I'd appreciate prayers tonight for all to go smoothly for both of us. :)  I'll try to update tomorrow, which happens to be Elijah's 6th birthday! Fun way to start a birthday I'd say.

Sorry it's been so long since I've update here. We've been too busy livin' life to blog about it I guess. I'll try to update more soon!

Thanks everyone!