Monthly Archives: August 2012

Cookies (Trip 2, Day 5)

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Today, Thursday, was our last full day of visits. Vita had to take a paper to the court, so she left us with you this morning. For some reason, you are wearing the same dress from Monday and Tuesday and not the dress from Wednesday. Maybe you got it dirty last night.

You dug right into the bag and found our craft of the day – headbands!

I had perfect images in my head of creating them and then leaving them in the corner to dry. I should have known better by now 🙂 Before we even got to Step 1, you had glitter glue all over your hands.

So, in less than 5 minutes we were looking for the next activity. The rain this week has really been a dampener on our time together. We all love to be outside, but when it’s this cold and rainy we can’t go outside.
You found your juice box and after offerring mama and papa a glass settled in to multi task. You like puzzles and could probably do it yourself, but right now you get more enjoyment out of asking Mama where the pieces go and having me help you. 

We had kept this a secret from you for all our visits, but desperate rainy times in one small room call for desperate measures. We uncovered the sand table. You tried to be very careful, but you are 4 years old so a little sand ended up on the floor. Nothing we couldn’t sweep under the curtains though. You spend a long time scooping sand through the waterwheel.

Soon enough Vita came back and it was time for lunch.
We went with Vita back to Globus this afternoon. We ate at their lunch buffet and talked some business with Vita. There was lots to discuss regarding court, what happens next and other matters.  Then we walked around and shopped a little. We bought Mama a bottle of nail polish for 17 rubles so she could fix her toes before court (open toed shoes). We also bought Sweet Girl a 99 ruble DVD of a local cartoon. We are employing every possible tactic to entertain a spunky 4 year old on a plane for 9+ hours!
When we got back to the orphanage, there was a meeting in our room so we waited in the peach room for you. We hadn’t been allowed in here yet, so we took a look around. 
Vita had MORE paperwork to run around town, so she left us here by ourselves. We were to wait for the meeting to end and then wait for you to come up. Vita also told us that the director had asked for us not to come tomorrow afternoon. They were having an inspection and she did not want to cause more commotion with our visit. We were bummed, but we understood. This means though, that the last of the items we brought you were still at the hotel.
Finally, you arrived! I think they told you we were here and you hurried through lunch because the first 30 minutes of our visit were consumed with you eating!
First a banana…

And then the animal crackers!

We knew these last few minutes would have to tide us over for weeks so we tried to make the most of them. We took lots of pictures of you and tried to get lots of cuddles in. 

I thought this video of you stacking these rings was cute. It was obviously easy for you, but your little personality came out so much!

We once again explained that Mama and Papa had to leave for a few weeks, but we’d be back, just like before to see you. I promise baby girl, we will take you home soon!

A Field Trip (Trip 2, Day 4)

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Same routine again on Day 4 – we were picked up about 9:45 to head to the orphanage. You might wonder, “My goodness what do they do with their mornings if they don’t leave that late!” Well, 9:45am here feels like 1:45am to our bodies. That means, no matter what time we go to bed, it takes lots of effort to drag us up at 8am. We turn on TV and somehow try to get the gist of an American program dubbed in this language. This morning we watched “Dual Survivor.” Other choices have been Fear Factor, Back to the Future, etc. We have a mini fridge in the room so we buy milk at the market. We brought cereal from home because we are cereal snobs and couldn’t find one here we liked. This week it is Frosted Flakes. He usually hops in the shower while I pretend I’m awake. We also have to have me shower, check emails from home, repack our toy bag for Sweet Girl, list out any questions we have for the day, prepare any gifts for new people that day (adoption center worker, etc) and then make sure our valuables are locked up and get out the door. It’s tight every morning.
Anyway, on to what you care about. This morning we got a new outfit out of sweet girl! She looked adorable with her pigtails and denim jumper. She found her little air rockets in her toy bag and pretty much knew right what to do. That held her attention for oh, 3 minutes.
On the next pass through the bag she found her morning juice box. She used the ice cream dishes from the Playdoh set and poured Mama and Papa a glass. I have issue with drinking juice from something Playdoh touched, so when I said nyet, Sweet Girl drank it.
Vita had to take a paper to the court so she left us alone for most of this visit. Poor Sweet Girl tried so hard to talk to us. She’d ask us questions and He would repeat the “words” back to her. She would get exasperated that she was asking a question and he was asking it back.
When Vita got back she talked to the director and we heard some interesting news – we were being invited to go see the art exhibit the kids were in! It’s pretty unheard of as far as all my research goes for the director, facilitator, adoptive parents and child to get in the same car and go somewhere! We left the morning visit excited about the afternoon.
After Kraft Mac n Cheese in the room for lunch,  we headed back to the orphanage. It was raining and pretty chilly so we weren’t sure if the offer still stood or not. But when they brought Sweet Girl to us it was clear she was ready for a fieldtrip! We looked through our pictures again while we waited for the director.
And then we were off into the rain!
Here’s the exhibit. I think it’s sort of a gallery for amateur or independent type exhibits. The hardest part was trying to act interested, trying to keep Sweet Girl from touching all the toys set up and trying to show the director we knew what we were doing (because court is on Friday and the director has to give her consent!
Mama and the star of the show!

Looking very confused as to where she is and where the doctor or airplane are (she only leaves the orphanage to go to the doctor and we’ve also talked with her about leaving with Mama and Papa to go on the airplane)

This doll that she’s clinging too is a baby we brought her.

Spying some of her friends from the orphanage.

On the way out the door we tried to continue our displays of excellent parenting. I was carrying sweet girl (apparently her shoes couldn’t get wet) and also holding my purse and an umbrella over our heads. All went well the whole block to the car waiting on the corner except I thought my arm was going to fall off. We got to the corner and I got the car door open, but couldn’t figure out how to get her in, the umbrella down and all the logistics without a drop of water on anyone. Well, I decided to set her down on the pavement in front of me while I opened the door and shuffled her in. Except.. I set her down in the most massive torrential river of water that immediately washed over both our feet. She immediately started crying that her feet her wet. Oops. So then I had to get a crying wet child and me and the wet umbrella in the car. It was traumatic for me 🙂 And where was everyone else in this? Waiting on the curb watching it all because there was no where else for them to go. A+ parent here!

We left and dropped the director off at home. Poor Sweet Girl started crying when the director got out. She thought we were taking her then. We explained that we were going back to the orphanage and we’d see her tomorrow. Might be a good preview of what’s to come in several weeks!

On the way back to the orphanage she continued to be very unengaged and didn’t say a word or move.  We just looked out the window and watched the buildings pass in the rain.

That night He and I braved the rain and we walked around the mall and went to a souvenir shop we’d been to last time. The prices were pretty good and I had a couple things I wanted to pick up. We then did dinner at good old faithful, McDonald’s and stopped by the Market before heading back to the room.

Rain, Rain Go Away (Trip 2, day 3)

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(I’ve posted a bunch right together so if you missed them, go check out day 1 and 2 below!)
Vita and Ilya picked us up at 9:45 this morning so we could try to the orphanage by 10. The weather here is rainy and cold for August (55-65*) so we haven’t spent too much time outside.
When we got there, Vita went and looked for you in your room, but they told us you were upstairs playing. When we got to the top of the stairs, you were in the peach room. You quickly came out to us. The peach room is a special room to me. When I found out what orphanage you were in, I spent hours searching for pictures of you. Your orphanage has a big peach ballroom type space where you have plays, host visitors, and have celebrations. I found you in a picture in the peach room and when I’d find other pictures of the same room I knew I was on the right track to find more pictures of you!
Speaking of pictures of you, about a month ago, I found out that a local photographer had come to your orphanage to take pictures of all the kids for a display he was doing on Children. I found a news story with a video about it and saw the most adorable picture of you! I couldn’t share it here because there were too many identifying details and I didn’t want to get in trouble.
But yesterday, the director of your orphanage brought us a picture book. She explained about the art exhibit. She said that they blew the picture of you up very large and it was the centerpiece of the show and everyone thought you were so beautiful! We already knew that of course 🙂 In this photo album were lots of other pictures of you from your time at this orphanage. There were lots we hadn’t seen! I asked if we could have copies and they explained that this book would be given to us when we take custody – yay! It’s still not a baby picture, but it’s some of the youngest pictures we’ll probably every get of you!
The first thing you went for in the bag this morning was the playdoh. Mama and Papa may have been too ambitious with the ice cream set though. It’s becoming clear that you aren’t given too many chances to “pretend”. It seems like you prefer to pick one task and do it over and over rather than try out new things. Or maybe, the ice cream set was just a little too old for you.
When you went back to get something else, you found your juicebox we brought! If we get the little juices from the market here we are allowed to give them to you so we take every chance we can get to get you a little more hydrated and get a few extra vitamins in you!

We brought this balloon set with a pump and long balloons like for balloon animals. You weren’t interested in pretending anything (hence the hat on my head and not yours) but you enjoyed blowing up the balloons and then letting them go to watch them fly.

Here you said something very close to “Papa, I do it!”

And here you said something like “Papa help!” It’s a big thing as far as getting comfortable with us. On our first trip, you would sit for a long time and try yourself. Slowly, the time it takes you to realize we won’t steal your toy or take it away and ask for help is decreasing.

And surprise, we made our way back to the bubbles. Today you went to the animals set up at this little table and blew bubbles on them. You were especially thrilled when they would land on the animals without popping.

We finally convinced you to sit still long enough to take a new family picture! Soon we will get the other two girls in one too so we can have everyone together!

We came back to the hotel and ate a can of soup we brought for lunch and watched tv. There are no english stations, but it’s still something. Then we took a little nap because we’re still so tired from no sleep the day before.
We made our way back to the orphanage at 3:30 today for our next visit! You said you ate a good lunch and took a good rest.  This afternoon, you also said that you were excited to ride in the car and on the airplane with mama and papa. You said you were excited to go home with us to your new house! I don’t think you know what that means, but I’m happy that it seems they are talking about it with you and at least you don’t appear to be scared yet!
This is a video of you going through the photo album of all your pictures from the orphanage. I hope it works for everyone!

You found your new afternoon toy (sidewalk chalk) and we got your first drawing. You made lines and shapes very well, but weren’t interested in changing colors or drawing too long. We asked Vita to ask you what you drew, but you wouldn’t tell her. I’m voting for “cow”. If so, you and your cousin Benjamin will get along great since cows are his favorite too!

Here are some other things we did to fill the afternoon.

We heard from a friend who adopted from this region earlier this year that this pizza place, “To-To” had good pizza. I asked Vita when we were leaving the orphanage if we could call a pizza in and pick it up on the way by. That created lots of trouble so we ended up just stopping to put the order in and paying to have it delivered to our room rather than wait 30 minutes for it.

We ended up with the “Margherita” pizza which was about an 80% match to an American pizza.


Now we are just hanging out until it’s a respectable hour to go to sleep. I can’t believe day 4 is tomorrow already! I hope the weather is nice for one of our visits tomorrow so we can go outside!

Bubbles! (Trip 2, Day 2)

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The rest of Day 1-

I attempted to finish this last night, but after being up for 24 hours with just cat naps on the plane and in the car, I just couldn’t do it, so here’s the rest of Day 1.
We got on the plane and settled in. We felt like we had just finished our Chili’s dinner, but within about 90 minutes of taking off, they started serving dinner. We had heard that the Delta food wasn’t as good as the Aeroflot food, but it seemed about the same to us. Our choices were cheese tortolini or a baked chicken and vegetables. Here’s his chicken:

The flight was uneventful. The in-seat entertainment was better on the Aeroflot flight, but this was fine. It felt like there were a few more movie choices, but they also had some pay movies. When it got dark outside, we attempted to nap.

Fast forward some sore bottoms and tired hours later, we got to Day 2!

Day 2:

About 90 minutes before we landed they served breakfast. It was a banana, orange juice and some sort of hot pocket breakfast burrito with egg and sausage. Meh.

We arrived at the big airport at about 9:30am, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We knew where we were going and what line to get in to go through passport control this time. We quickly made it to baggage claim and then waited, and waited, and waited. Finally our bags showed up and we went through customs. He knew this time to not make eye contact and keep walking so he wasn’t pulled aside this time.

As soon as we went out, there was Vita waiting for us! Such a welcome sight!

We went out and were excited to see Ilya was our driver again. We had requested him, but never got confirmation of if he was available. They all drive like crazy people, but we had grown attached to Ilya and his broken English and talk of cars and technology. We are also learning that Ilya can understand almost everything we say.

We got into the town with the orphanage in under 3 hours this time (it was over 4 on the first trip because of traffic). We checked into the hotel and unpacked a little until it was 3:15 and time to go visit our Sweet Girl. Not the most perfect first picture, but after hugs, she went straight for the bag of toys.

We had a brief diversion with the markers, but very quickly we settled on bubbles. We initially told her we couldn’t play with the bubbles inside, but the weather is cold and rainy here this week so we weren’t sure we’d get to use them. The director of the orphanage stayed for our visit this time and chatted with Vita and at some point she allowed us to use the bubbles inside. After she saw the floor, she might have regretted that decision!

We tried markers again, but she was more interested in cutting the paper up into strips and squares. We were a little nervous she’d cut herself or try to cut her hair/clothes, but she was pretty good. Made us nervous though! We haven’t had court yet we can’t injure her!

When Papa started taking more pictures, she remembered the camera too and took about 30 pictures of her surroundings. She’d frame it in the viewfinder and then while she tried to push the shutter, she’d always lower the camera. So, we have lots of shots like this:

It was sooo good to feel her again. She’s still a little skiddish on touches and affection, she can’t tolerate it for long, but I try to get some snuggles in real fast. I think that once we take custody of her we are going to find out that she’s learned to be so independent as a defense. I think our attachment is going to be a hard fought battle. We’re ready though and we certainly won’t give up.

If My Heart Had Wings

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Night 0: It took us a little longer than normal to pack because we had 160# of stuff that had to fit perfectly into 2 suitcases, 1 carryon and 1 backpack. But we needed to manage our space combined with our liquids, combined with the weight limits. We finally at 10pm managed a perfect 49# per suitcase and made sure all the liquids were packed. The 8# of donated toothpaste for the orphanage certainly didn’t help!Day one: We woke up this morning at the normal time and got ready. Then the first challenge of the day came. The girls slept in a little this morning which meant that when we were ready to go, we got to go up and be the ones to wake them. Cranky was her normal smiley self in the morning. She is such a cuddle bug. Happy on the other hand takes after her mama. If you wake her, she is cranky pants. She was a little fussy, but when she saw mama and dada in her room she was all smiles. We gave them their milk and got in some last minute cuddles.

The trip to Charlotte was uneventful and we checked in with no problems. We proceeded to our gate and waited for our flight. Our first baby “issue” was that he and I didn’t have seats together on the first flight. We didn’t want to be difficult and put up a fuss. We were just a row apart and this was only a 2 hour flight, we would live. But God let it be known quickly that He is in charge of this week. We were passengers 3 and 4 on the plane (thanks Delta AMEX) but one of the first people who walked to the back where we were was his row mate. Before she even got to the row, she was already calling out, “I’ll move seats so you guys can sit together!” We jumped on the chance and I was thankful that I started this trip out with my Rock.

When we got to JFK we found out that since we weren’t switching airlines, we could walk to the other terminal and save the trouble of the last flight which caused us to leave security and go back through. We also had a new game plane.. Last time, were were on such a budget mode we made out last meal in JFK something from fast food. This time, knowing it would be out last decent meal, we splurged on Chili’s which is one of my back home favorites.

While we were sitting at Chili’s and talking about how far we’ve come, a song came on the radio. It was Faith Hill’s “If My Heart Had Wings”. I hadn’t heard the song in a long time, but as I sat and listened to the words I thanked God for providing it.

Damn these old wheels
Rolling too slow I stare down this white line
With so far to go
Headlights keep coming
Loneliness humming along

Who poured this rain
Who made these cloud I stare through this windshield
Thinking out loud
Time keeps on calling
Love keeps on calling me home
I’d jump all these mountains and take to the skies
Sail through the heavens with stars in my eyes.

If my heart had wings
I would fly to you and lie
Beside you as you dream
If my heard had wings
We both committed
We both agreed
You do what you have to to get what you need

Feeling you near me with so many miles in between
Lord, it ain’t easy out here in the dark
To keep us together so far apart

It was also very fitting that the song played 5 minutes after he and I talked about what time it was in your city. We determined it to be about 9pm and therefore you would be sleeping. Coincidence that the song talks about being with you while you dream? I think not. We board our flight to your capital in about 90 minutes. Until then, we found a little charging station cafe thing. We are making sure that all of our electronics have maximum charge to get us through the next leg. Then it’s a short 9.5 hour flight and we’re on your home soil. I can’t wait to feel you so close to me again. I don’t know if we’re going to get to see you tomorrow or not, but we hope so. Sweet Girl, Mama and Papa didn’t forget. We are coming back. I long for the day to tell you that you can come home with us!

What is Reece’s Rainbow?

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If you have been around here for the past couple months, you have probably heard us talk about Reece’s Rainbow. They host our FSP (Family Sponsorship Program) page. That allows people to give to us with tax deductible contributions.
But if you didn’t come here through the Reece’s Rainbow community, perhaps that’s all you know. Reece’s Rainbow just put a new awareness video out and it’s great. But before I link to that, I want to tell you about Reece’s Rainbow.
Most people think of international adoption in one of several ways. They either think of sweet little blue eyed Russian babies, or maybe little girls with dark hair and eyes from China. Maybe even, you think of gorgeous Ethiopian toddlers. I can’t think of many people that haven’t said, “Oh, my cousin/sister/friend adopted a baby from ___. That’s the American view of international adoption. Most adoption agencies will tell you that adoptive families want the healthiest, youngest child with the shortest wait possible.
Where does that leave all the other children in the world? What about the little boy with the cleft palate? What about the little girl born blind? What about the child with the heart defect? Sometimes these conditions are repairable in the US, but in their home countries, there isn’t hope. And, the flagship of Reece’s Rainbow, what about all those kids with an extra chromosome? Unfortunately in many countries around the world, the education, medical care, and frankly, money, isn’t there to care for these kids so they are given up by their parents to live in understaffed and underfunded orphanages, and then later mental institutions because there aren’t social services available to integrate these kids into society.
Reece’s Rainbow finds these kids through their own advocates, through adoption agencies and through orphanage directors and photo lists them. What’s the big deal about a photo listing?
Well, let me tell you about a little boy named Hudson. I had the privilege of naming Hudson. It’s a boy name I love that he would never let me use. Hudson is almost two. He has blond hair and blue eyes. He lives in Eastern Europe. Hudson doesn’t have a mommy and a daddy just because he has cerebral palsy.
You skimmed over that right? You said, “okay, and ?” right?.
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Well, what if I show you his picture? Meet Hudson.
Your heart skipped a beat didn’t it? You said, “Oh my, he’s cute!” right? I did too.
Because Reece’s Rainbow has him in their photo listing he has a chance at a family. Reece’s Rainbow is the ONLY link this little guy has to finding his parents.  Without his picture, it’s not likely that ANYONE would ever adopt him. When he turns 4, he’ll be transferred to an institution. There he will live FOREVER. It doesn’t matter that Hudson is cognitively normal, he will be put in a crib and left alone for the most part to live out his life. How long do you think the sparkle will stay in his eyes?
I’m ashamed to say that I could have *read* Sweet Girl’s profile a million times and never stopped to think about her. I definitely wouldn’t have inquired about her. But I saw her picture and I heard God’s voice and now we are 8 days away from going to plead with the judge to let us have her forever.
Without Reece’s Rainbow, we wouldn’t have found our sweet girl and hundreds of other families wouldn’t have found their children.  It’s a ground breaking ministry that works to place special needs children in forever families. And they do it all for free.
If you want more information on Reece’s Rainbow, special needs adoption, or international adoption in general I would love to talk to you and tell you what I know.  Or you can click here: Reece’s Rainbow
If you want to donate to Hudson’s grant so that the financial burden is less overwhelming for his future parents, you can click here: Hudson (edited later to add that Hudson lives in Russia and Russia is currently closed to American adoption so Hudson’s grant is frozen).
And without further ado, here’s the video I promised. This video isn’t sad or depressing. It’s purpose is to celebrate and give hope.  Even though she’s not home yet, He and Sweet Girl are pictured – see if you can spot them – It’s one of my favorite pictures. J

 
 

Weary…

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This has been a very hard week on the adoption front. I’m growing weary. At a time when the end is in sight and I can see the finish line, I just can’t seem to find the strength to get over these last few hurdles.
We got a court date for August 31st. We leave in 10 days. We should be jumping up and down, we should be so excited, but we can’t, because once again, there might be one simple piece of paper that’s missing that could bring it all come crashing down. I feel like for every single document, for every step of this process, the burden has been on he and I to fight for our Sweet Girl. Nothing has come easy. Nothing has been simple. After months on end of EVERY DAY having to fight for something, we are drained.
I can’t wait for the judge to ask if I will treat this child as my own, if I will love this child. I want to tell him that beyond a shadow of a doubt she is already my child. I already love her as my daughter. I want to look him in the eyes and tell him that every day of this journey I have fought for her and I will not rest until she’s sleeping in her bed, in her house, with her mommy and daddy saying prayers with her and telling her stories.
As I was listening to the radio in the car on the way to work this morning, I was thinking of how of course I won’t give up, of course we’ll keep going. I suddenly realized that this is what God does for us every day.
He fights for the souls of his children.
Through war, poverty, hunger, and more, He battles for us.
Yet, He’s never grown weary and He’s never thought of giving up.
So when today, we grow more weary still by the battles yet to fight to bring her home, I will remember, that I don’t have to be strong, my Father is already strong for me.
Until she is in our family pictures, we won’t rest.
Saving a spot for you Sweet Girl…

A Thousand Years.

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In between the milestones sometimes it feels as if this is a dream. It feels like we never met her and she’ll never be ours. Then, the milestones hit and I read the words… court dossier registered… and then in a rush, the reality sweeps over me and my fingers get tingly. I catch the breath in my chest and I can’t focus. I can’t remember what I was doing 5 minutes ago.
The next several hours pass in a blur as my imagination goes crazy. What will the date be? When will we leave? Does anything have to be rescheduled? Then more, does she miss us? Does she remember us? Does she know how her life is to change?
Then, even more, I hope she’s home by Halloween to see her sisters in their elephant costumes. I wonder if she wants to be the ring leader or another animal. I wonder if she’ll be sad not seeing as much snow this winter. I wonder if she’ll like my cooking. I wonder how she’ll be as a teenager, as a young woman. I imagine her as a mama.
No matter how far my brain takes those thoughts, I am always brought back to the first minute we saw her. So many people have asked what it was like to see her for the first time. Her groupa leader led this scared little girl into the room, dropped her hand and left. She stood standing there for a minute with big tears just waiting to fall as she looked around at us. I instantly had tears in my eyes for her and rather than rush to her and attempt to comfort her, I let a more familiar person go to her.
A sweet fellow adoptive mama, posted a song online today. As I read the lyrics, my breath caught again and there I was. Watching her watch me. Willing her to know.

“Heartbeats fast
Colors and promises
How to be brave
How can I love when I’m afraid to fall

But watching you stand alone
All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow
One step closer
I have died everyday waiting for you

Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I love you for a thousand more
Time stands still

Beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything take away
What’s standing in front of me

Every breath
Every hour has come to this
One step closer
I have died everyday waiting for you

Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I love you for a thousand more
And all along I believed I would find you

Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I love you for a thousand more
One step closer
One step closer
I have died everyday waiting for you

Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I love you for a thousand more
And all along I believed I would find you

Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I love you for a thousand more

-Christina Perry “A Thousand Years”

My favorite lines: “Beauty in all she is. I will be brave. I will not let anything take away what’s standing in front of me.”
Now the judge has 10 days to issue a court date or request more documents. Even if he requests more documents, he can just request that we bring them when we come for court so we don’t have to wait for a court date.
My Sweet Girl, I have loved you for a thousand years and I will love you for a thousand more.

Yardsales, Court Updates, and More!

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(written by him)
7/28 was our big fundraising yard sale for Sweet Girl. Before I get into how that went, its been a while since we had a blog entry so let me fill you in on all thats been happening… its been an odd feeling since returning from our first trip and meeting Sweet Girl.
Now there is a person attached to the name and an understanding of her personality and some fond memories. I find most of my time contemplating what the return visit will be like. Will she remember us? Will we pick up right where we left off with big hugs and flying leaps or step back to square one with caution and timidness? Sweet Girl’s orphanage appears to receive missionary visitors on occasion, so I’m sure she’s used to new faces coming into play with her and her groupa, but she probably never has experienced the same faces returning, let alone returning just for her. I continually wonder if she realizes we are her parents, that she ultimately will be leaving with us to start her new and loving life, or if all the excitement is centered around having new attention from outsiders. But either way, I’m comforted by the thought of seeing her smiling face again, no matter the reason.Last time, once we got back from eastern europe, it took some time to readjust to our normal schedule and become reintegrated with the life we left on hold. The twins were thrilled to see us! Both their grandmother and school informed us they had become increasingly more curious and wondering where we were as the week went on and our few Skype interactions brought out the biggest smiles in them.

We had returned just in time for July 4th holidays. Our family has made a tradition of spending this holiday unplugged and relaxing in the NC mountains with close friends and family, so we barely got home and settled before packing up the entire family to head for an extended weekend away. Because we had just returned from a weeks vacation traveling to meet Sweet Girl, we weren’t able to afford any additional time off from our respective jobs for our annual trip. Thankfully my job occasionally offers me the flexibility of working remotely where I was able to remain in the mountains with the girls, while she unfortunately had to put on some extra miles and return to town for work on Thurs and Fri. The girls enjoyed the thin mountain air and getting to experience the lake. We couldn’t help but imagine Sweet Girl joining us for our very next July 4th celebration… what would be her reaction getting to experience mountains for the first time?

After returning from the holiday weekend, we finally got settled back into our normal routine and an eerie silence. Since we had worked overtime leading up to our first trip, we had completed our court dossier in addition to our registration dossier and were able to travel with it and hand it over to our facilitator before returning home. With so much excitement and activity, its odd to be sitting still, not having to gather some document, signature or stamp. Since leaving country, we had been waiting on some documents our facilitator had requested to come back from the capital before she would be able to complete our court dossier and register us for a court date. With summer vacation, this took almost a month.  Just as things appeared to quiet down, we got word that our faciliator had received the waiting documents and spoken to the courts in Sweet Girl’s town… we would be allowed to formally submit our court dossier on Aug 8th! I’m not sure the reason for the delay, I believe it is a customary time for officials to take vacation around this time of year, so that might have had something to do with it. But at any rate, we had a date to look forward to that was less than 2 weeks away. To keep us occupied during that time, they mentioned some additional, non-standard documents that the courts in her region would require… we needed to collect 3 more. After collecting dozens and dozens, it seemed hardly a challenge. But we took several weeks and sort of ignored the not so fun part of adopting (paperwork and fundraising). We took our time and collected those and they went off to the facilitator and to be apostilled on Friday.

For some time since before our first trip, we had been collecting items from friends with the intention of holding a yard sale fundraiser. This would be our second large fundraiser after our online giveaway contest. We had several items around the home to sell and figured we could collect enough other items from friends and family to hold a yardsale. As our garage started to fill up with donations and the reality of traveling and expenses started to set in, it was time to pick a date. We hardly felt ready or prepared, but decided that picking a date would motivate us. Being that July was filling up fast having just returned from trip 1 and July 4th holday and August was starting to hold promise of our 2nd trip, we picked the last weekend in July, our 6 year anniversary weekend, giving us about 2 weeks notice to put together the yard sale. So we bought an ad in the local paper and locked us in. There was no turning back now!

Right up to the day before the yardsale, we were both unsure of how it was going to turn out. We had collected some items, but items didn’t really start to roll until there was less than a week left. It seemed every night the week of the event I was driving my truck to a new location to pick up donated items, a definite blessing, but frenzied all at the last moment. Then trying to source a substantial number of folding tables, clothing racks, and hangers to display items on was another challenge. Thanks to the Johnson’s and the Voigt’s for helping us out. We couldn’t have done it without them. And thanks to her mom for letting us have the yardsale in her front yard. It was an excellent location! All in all we raised about $1600!! Our goal was $800 so this doubled our expectations! It was a definite blessing, but reminded us that fundraising is tough and not for the meek! We took the camera, but never got a picture we were so busy!

We now have two last fundraisers:
1. A Christmas in July Auction – Yes, it’s August now, but this started in July! This is a joint effort of several families adopting from Sweet Girl’s country. You can see the items up for bid here: http://www.facebook.com/ChristmasInJulyAuction

To bid, just comment on the picture with your bid and at the end we will announce the winners and tell you where to pay. Then the person who donated the item will ship it to you! It’s loads of fun – like ebay for a good cause! The auction ends 8/12.

2. One of my friends from school has graciously set us up an account at indiegogo.com. We are understandably a little fundraised out, but we are excited to use this as our last push. There is a really awesome video of our first visit over there which is worth a look! You can see it here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Sweet-Girl . There are some great incentive’s for donations too!

AND, most importantly, pray for Vita this week (Wednesday or Thursday) – she is presenting our case to the judge and he will do a preliminary review of the documents and hopefully assign us a court date. I have talked to the only two other families who I know have adopted from this region and they both got about 2 weeks notice for court. This means that we could possibly travel as soon as 8/26!