Leaving in the morning!

It is hard to believe that our day has finally come. We head out in the morning to catch the first of our flights. We have been working towards this day since just after Christmas.. and here we are. I'm hoping we are not forgetting anything major, but otherwise I am rather calm. I thought I would be a nervous wreck when this day came. Maybe that will be tomorrow. It is getting very real around here. Some tears shed already, but still everyone is holding up rather well considering. Shelby realized I would not be here for our nightly prayers and bedtime song. She has been 'missing me' a lot already today. Abby has been a little clingy tonight as well so I think they are starting to 'get it'. Please pray for all of our family at home. This is a big change and a lot of responsibility has been shifted to shoulders that are gracious to except the weight. Pray for our travels and that all goes well with both of our girls paperwork. Looking forward to being able to update you with some GOOD news! :) God bless each of you and thank you again for you prayers and support. To those families that are leaving out soon themselves.... God Speed- you are in my prayers.

Just about ready...

We have been so busy this week with getting ready for the trip. Of course, the daily life continues here as well. Between dentist appt, meetings, school orientations, last minute shopping, etc... we finally made it to start taking inventory of our travel supplies and packing the bags this evening. We have a few more things to squeeze in there, but I think we have it mostly done. It is odd for me to look at one large bag, one duffel and 2 backpacks knowing that we are living out of those few bags for the next month or more. We have been spending as much time as we could with the kids. Tonight they threw us a 'surprise' going away party. (well.. they didn't know we knew anyway!... they have not mastered the 'whisper' yet!) Courtney had helped them make cupcakes, she cooked supper, they cleaned up around the house (I'm really thinking that Courtney threw the party at the others reqest because I only saw the others playing today!) I had to go outside when Tim came home so we could both come in to them jumping out and yelling surprise. Before we could open the door Romney had left his hiding spot and at the door with Abby right behind him. Only Shelby was still "hidden". They did yell surprise and were tickled that they had 'pulled off' the surprise party! :) Afterwards we all loaded up and made a trip into town on a very important mission.... DOUGHNUT RUN! Krispy Kreme has to rank rather high on the "to do" list! We all had a good evening... then we came back to reality and started packing! :) Finishing up the details tomorrow so we can have tomorrow evening to enjoy time with the kids. Leaving out Saturday morning... on our way to bringing home our girls!!!! :)

The gift of a child...

I wanted to take the opportunity of this post to spotlight the generosity of a few people. The reason these gifts are so important is that they came from children. Children with big hearts. Abby (our youngest) purchased a gift for each of our girls at the very start of our process to bring them home. Caroline (niece) gave a gift to each of our girls that she had made herself yesterday. Jackson and Josie (niece and nephew) pooled their resources and gave me their money yesterday to purchase things for our girls or the kids in the orphanage. I was able to go shopping last night with their funds and purchase things for our girls and the children at the orphanage. I am touched by the innocence and love in each of these gifts! Thank you all! We have also received other gifts for the girls and monetary gifts/donations towards our FSP... all of your gifts are important and appreciated as well. I don't think you will mind me spotlighting these though! :)

Gifts from Abby


Gifts from Caroline (they look the same so I took the picture with the front of one and back of the other)


Gifts from Jackson and Josie

I love this song and wanted to share it with all of you. This is for all of you adopting families... thanks for giving all!

(you may need to scroll down the blog to turn off the playlist so you can hear)

More children have made it home!!!!

Buttons coming down!!!! I was catching up on other RR blogs last night when I saw that 2 families have made it home now! Congrats to the following families and WELCOME HOME!

The Marchenko Family

Grab This Button

The Boroughs Family

Grab This Button

Getting together with RR families...

Today I had the opportunity to meet other families from RR. Not everyone could make it since some were preparing to travel, others were sick and others didn't receive my message in time. I enjoyed seeing those that could make it though! Amy w/ her 4 boys, Shelley, Rita w/one of her girls and myself w/ both Shelby and Abby. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground while we had the chance to visit. I really enjoyed being able to visit with these ladies... so glad we had this opportunity to get together. No.... I didn't take pictures! I know, I know... Shelley took a couple of Amy's boys, but we never did get a group shot or anything. :(

Looking forward to being able to meet other RR families when we arrive in the girls' country. Not sure who all we will be able to catch up with since there seems to be so many going and coming lately! We should be able to meet Paula. There are others scheduled to come in before us and after us, just not sure how long everyone will be staying put before moving on to meet their children. Fingers crossed that we will get to cross paths before spreading out to gather up our precious little ones. Prayers for all of the families ... each in their individual needs, whatever they may be!

Prayer Request

I wanted to ask for all of you to pray about something... or a lot of little someones, actually. There are two different regions in our girls' country that have special circumstances that are impacting adopting families and a lot of waiting children.

One region has a new foster care system that is giving monetary compensation for local families to take in children from the orphanages. There are many families in process that now have the additional concern that they may not get to their children in time. If a 'foster family' were to take in a child, it impacts the child's eligibility to be adopted. This is very unfortunate since these children could be missing out on a Forever Family instead of a temporary change in location. Prayers that the local families that participate in the 'foster' program have the children's best interest at heart.

The other region has the authority to act on it's own and apparently without notice. From what I understand, this region has 'stopped' the adoption process until some political 'unrest' over adoption is settled. This is devastating to the families in process. There are families already in country and some ready to travel that have just had the rug pulled out from under them. They are all waiting and praying they will receive word that they will be able to adopt their children. Please pray this situation is quickly resolved so these adoptions can be completed and these children can come home.

Neither of these situations involve our girls' region, but we would greatly appreciate your prayers for the children that are living in orphanages within these regions and the families that are trying to bring them home.

Preparing for goodbyes

Reality is starting to hit. We have always intended on leaving the children here behind instead of trying to juggle taking them with us. We strongly feel this is in their best interest and the best interest of the girls that we are bringing home. Yes, our children will miss us while we are gone, but they will be places that they are comfortable and familiar with. They will be with family they know and love. We feel the trip would be more difficult for them than being without us for the time it takes us to complete this process. We also believe this will give us more time to devote to our new girls and more one-on-one attention that they are most likely starving for. Even knowing the whys of our decision... it is hard to say goodbye to your kids knowing it will be weeks before you see them again. Today just talking about saying goodbye next week has brought me to tears. I can't imagine how I am going to act next week! I am hoping I can stay together long enough to keep them from seeing me fall apart.

Have tickets, will travel!

Well... major step finally accomplished. Tickets have been bought! Looks like we will not be starting our journey off together though unless some sweet traveler is willing to trade seats with one of us! I can always 'look ill', tell them this is my first time flying, maybe even hold the airsick bag in a death grip... that might motivate them! :) Regardless... we are leaving Saturday, August 1st headed across the big pond! We are so ready to go-mentally, emotionally... not physically (I still have to pack!). The kids know the day is coming soon and are okay so far... even Shelby. I guess her birthday was her only hold up. It looks like we will be able to meet a few RR families in country! I'm really excited about that!

It also turns out that an RR family that lives in another state will be traveling through here this weekend so a handful of us from RR are meeting up so we can all visit! Looking forward to it! I've only 'met' some of these ladies via phone/blogs/email/rr so it will be nice actually visiting with them. I'll try to remember to get some photos, but if not... some of the others are avid photographers so I can ask for their mercy! :) Well... better go! Lots to do!!!

Happy Birthday, Shelby!

Today is Shelby's 15th birthday! Hard to believe she is already 15! We celebrated her birthday party early since we were afraid we would miss her big day, but we are here with her afterall! Tonight we will be going to Applebees for the birthday song.... I mean dinner! :) I think once that has been done we may have redeemed ourselves in her eyes! She has been a little put out with us since we first started 'preparing' her for the possibility that we may not be home on her birthday! Here is a photo from her birthday party! We looked everywhere for a Camp Rock birthday cake and never found one! Shocking, I know! We had to go with a non-Camp Rock cake, but Shelby decided it should say "Happy Birthday Rockstar Shelby"... so there you go! We 'rocked out' after all! :)

Happy Birthday, Shelby! Daddy and Mom are so happy we get to spend your special day with you! We love you so much and are so thankful that God chose us to be your parents! :)

A bigger purpose?

Our life was changed December of 2008. This is when "our eyes were opened". This was the turning point in our life where we went from being completely content with our family 'status quo' to committing to bring home two more little girls with Down Syndrome. We are so close to our appt date and finally meeting our little girls... so close to ending this journey home. Tim and I both feel that our journey does not end here. What else will HE ask of us? We do not know. We know that we will be unable to come home and go on with life as before. Now we know... there is an awareness that was not there before. A sadness knowing these children are out there without basic needs being met, without health care, without joy, without acceptance, without love, without a family... without. And there is the joy to see a child find their family, knowing how they just received their miracle. We know we will continue to pray for the waiting children, continue to pray for the families that answer God's call. We will continue to support families on their journey. That may be all that HE ask of us... just to continue to care. To be aware and burdened by the suffering of his children and to do our best to make a difference. We do not know yet what he will ask of us later, but for now we will bring home two of his children.

Will you seek what he ask of you?

To do...

We still need to order our tickets. I emailed Golden Rule, but it was at the end of the business day so I won't hear back until Monday. I need to pack or at least START! I want to see how much space/weight we still have so I can add some things that didn't make the first cut! Hard to believe we are finally at this point. Two weeks from today we will be on a plane going after our girls!

Hey... a perk at having the August date. We will be here for Shelby's birthday! We already had her party on the just in case we had an earlier date, but she had already started in on us missing her birthday dinner out. She always picks Applebees! Nope... not for the food. You can order Chicken strips and fries anywhere... we KNOW this! :) She selects her birthday meal based on the Birthday Song! She loves the way they come out stomp and singing! Now... she will act shy the whole time, but she is BEAMING inside! We are lucky that we like their food because she really wouldn't care what we had to eat!!!

Confirmed!

Our date has been confirmed.... August 4th we will be meeting with the SDA and requesting to be entrusted with the referral files for our girls! Very excited to be finally at this point! I am humbled as I watch God unveil his plans for our lives and bless us through our journey to bring his precious children home.

We have a date....maybe???

Tim noticed the RR website had updated our information to list a SDA appt date of August 4th. However, we had not been notified... nor our agency! We are in a unique situation where our agency is working with a facilitator that they have not used in the past so things are not running as smoothly as normal (hopefully the kinks will get worked out before we are in country!). We are still waiting on our agency's confirmation, but it appears that we have our appt date! Prayers everything comes together!

Will it be today?

We would love to hear our travel date today, but since we have absolutely NO CONTROL in this situation....we will wait, pray and hope!

I was updating my blog buttons a minute ago... so many children will be going HOME! It is so amazing to see God's work in progress! Many families stepping out in faith and being blessed with beautiful children of God! Reece's Rainbow is a wonderful ministry that highlights the helpless and helps to bring awareness to these children that normally would go unnoticed, unseen, unheard. We would not be on our way to bringing home our two beautiful girls had we not been introduced to Reece's Rainbow's Christmas Angel Tree. Less than a year ago adoption was not in our minds, hearts or lives. How quickly things can change in life.... "God places the lonely in familes..." Psalms 68:6.

I also have this habit of looking down the blog sidebar to see which "visitors" have stopped by each day. I do this because I think it is so neat to see the many different places listed! That is also part of the Reece's Rainbow ministry... the people, the 'clappers', the supporters, the friends. Many are places where we didn't 'know' anyone before RR and our committment to our girls. Now there are places all over America and around the world listed... places that represent PEOPLE. People that care, people that are praying our girls home! Thank you all for following our journey to bring home our girls... your support is noticed - daily! :)