Praising God

Praising God everyday for His mercy, His guidance and for the beautiful moments we are making here in a far away land. For the friends we have made along the journey and for God's fingerprint on every snapshot of this walk. We are still on track to have court on Thursday! We will know for sure tomorrow (wednesday) around 3pm our time. Our interpol has come back, just waiting on one more paper to be signed!

We have been having some good visits with Little One and are finding out more about her personality.

Spunky.

Opinionated.

Sweet hearted.

There is not one single reason I could ever come up with that would be an excuse for not saying YES to bringing this little person into our family. After coming here we are completely blown away at how God has worked to bring this little person so full of promise and love into our family.

She is a shining little star.

People tell us she is lucky.

No...WE feel lucky. That God chose US to be her mommy and daddy. Chose Peyton and Paige to be her brother and sister.

Most of the time I am in shock of how huge His love is. His love is what brought us here - to this place, over 4,000 miles away from our home.

His love is carrying us each and every moment, through the incredible reality of missing our other children, to the day we will someday leave the gates of the baby house with Little One for good.

For now though, we are taking our days very easy. A quiet routine is settling into place as we get to know Little One and as she gets to know us (without getting too mad at us for not knowing how to play playdough correctly!). Yes, she speaks very well and quickly when she is ticked off at us! I believe she may have called us big dummies yesterday in her native language.

She even threw in a bit of hands on hips, head shaking and foot tapping.

But in the cutest, most adorable way you could ever imagine, of course.

She is slowly becoming less "hyper vigilant" - meaning when we first met her she always seemed almost on guard as to what was happening around her. She would be engrossed in an activity and would hear something - a car, a baby crying - anything and would stop what she was doing. Her eyes would widen and she would watch/listen/wait to see what was going to happen.

She is now asking Eli to help her with things in her little voice...she will say "papa..."(and then alot of words we dont understand!) But we are learning what she wants and together we are learning to understand one another. She does say mama alot but we know the kids call most any female "mama" at the baby house. She is very, very protective of us though and will literally growl and push at other children in her groupa who get near us. Eli has nicknamed her "alley cat" because she is so fiesty.

We understand though.

She has waited a long time for a mommy and daddy.

We are yours Little One.

Forever.

To end...we are so excited because we got to eat lunch with two other American families, the Krulik and Evans families (Danil and Vera's families)! It was sooo good to talk to other people in English! You simply don't realize how much you take for granted until you are in a foreign land. So amazing at how God has placed us all on this path at the same time, from the same area. Danil and our Little One knew one another well from the baby house and the first time I actually saw Little One she was in a short video with Danil. Amazing how God has weaved this journey for our families.

Everyday we get to see precious Vera with her mama and papa. She has a smile that lights up the world!

Here is a pic of us from today - the Evans and Krulik families, adopting Vera and Danil! It was so fun to talk to them and enjoy a meal together. Praising God for his mercy every day.

Energy!

Little One has lots of it! We are getting our exercise and coming up with all sorts of ways to entertain her during our visits. She loves to try just about anything but especially loves bouncing balls, drawing with sidewalk chalk, blowing bubbles and RUNNING!!!

WHEW!

We have a court date next Thursday IF all our documents come back. Pray for interpol clearance and one more paper. If they are not back court will be rescheduled. Which would be fine of course.

Okay...off to see Little One. I am going to end with a short video. I turned the camera at some point so you will have to turn your head sideways to see, lol! I am not sure what is going on with some not being able to leave comments..if it won't allow you to leave a comment feel free to email us at the address under "contact"

 Blessings!

Never Letting Go

On June 16, 2011, our lives changed again. Your picture had captured our heart for months but as your tiny hand took our hands - we knew in an instant we were meant to be here at this exact time.
                                  
                                   We are Never Letting You Go Little One.

Friends reading this blog - we have been without internet and finally got it working last night. I promise...more details later. But it is going well. There is so much to wrap our minds around and we are just focusing on Little One and bonding. She is a precious little soul and we are so thankful God brought her into our lives.

She is smart...before we went in we told her it was time to go back to her groupa...so she shoved almost an entire cookie in her mouth before going back in. She is a spunky little thing!

She will hold her little hands up to me and ask me to hold her. I think most of the time Eli and I are on the edge of tears. It's difficult to explain how you feel once you get here. Thankful God placed us on this journey, bombarded with sights, sounds, and experiences and always remembering we are to continue following His footsteps with every decision we make.

 Please pray for continued bonding and attachment.

We are HERE!!!!!!

Lukewarm

Friends - my heart is full, my head is swirling with thoughts. We had our SDA appointment - this is where we met with the officials in charge of adoption files in Little One's country. At this appointment we talked to a social worker to get the official referral for Little One.

The appointment went very well - we were asked a few questions and given information on Little One. Some of it we already knew but it was the things we didn't know which we found out today, that have left my heart broken for a tiny little child I have yet to meet. I love this baby girl as if she was born right out of my body. Beyond a shadow of a doubt we know God showed us His heart for orphans and for one child in particular. What happened in the past with Little One will remain in the past. We only move forward, praying the Lord will continue to guide us and lead us to the point we can bring her home.

And the cold, hard, harsh fact is - SO MANY CHILDREN have a much similar story as Little One. They ALL need a mama and a papa to say YES we will go. YES we will embark on something that seems impossible and crazy to others but is in perfect alignment with what God has directed us all to do. And that is why we said yes.

He didn't ask us what we wanted.

He has commanded us to GO.

We are not Little One's Savior. He is. We are simply here to bring her into the fold of a family, to love her, to never, ever let her go. To spend the rest of our lives showing her our love for her will not end. We are not here to bring a child home which we hope to change - we accept her for exactly how she is.

As I have said all along - it's not about us. It's about Him. Continually following his commands even when we can't see the road in front of us.

Trust.

We are not "extreme", "extraordinary", or believe what we are doing is a radical thing. So many times I asked God "why" is this happening to so many children - why is there this crisis? So many children unwanted, unable to be cared for. WHY God? Ahhh...but God asked me what I thought people on earth should be doing.

What we need to be doing is continuing to open our eyes and hearts to what He has already shown us is important. It's right there - in words, numerous times in the Bible. He said it over and over - care for orphans, needy and poor. 

Its so easy to hear the stories and feel sorry for children then go about our daily lives - until you get here - till its right here in your face.

I have been reading the book Crazy Love and something stuck out today - this passage -

 "Lukewarm people are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act. They assume such action is for "extreme" Christians, not average ones. Lukewarm people call "radical" what Jesus expected of all His followers."

Folks...I laugh because Eli and I are the epitome of average.

 And we are here. Opened hearts. Opened eyes.

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" James 1:22

I am not saying every single person is in the position to adopt. But we can all do SOMETHING. I pray more will rise up and ask God to show them what He is commanding them to do. I am sorry if this sounds harsh - but it's truth. For too many years our own family lived in a shadow of believing material things were most important and that others who did wonderful things were extraordinary Christians who must have been "called". We were "lukewarm" people. I am thankful God opened our eyes and brought us to this place.

We pick up our referral letter tomorrow and head out to Little Ones region on an overnight train. More to come...keep following! Soon we will have pictures of HER!

4.000 Miles From Home!

We made it here Sunday afternoon - 12 hours in the air, who knows how many time zones and a plane ride from h. e. double hockey sticks.

Apparently a week 1/2 notice to get half way across the world will book you the nicest seats in the back of the plane on a transatlantic flight.

Can you say HOT. Smashed like sardines? I won't go any further...because...

We are doing GREAT!!! We are truly loving it here in EE. The culture is different but not in a bad way. We got in yesterday afternoon (which was around 5am for us) and hopped (okay so we stumbled off the plane in a jet lag haze...) onto a tram to the terminal. Had a funky issue with customs and thought we were going to get deported (not really) but then got picked up by our driver and took off at a high rate of speed after somehow getting out of  parking lot with no rhyme or reason..just a jumble of cars all mashed up together pushing to get onto the road. It was nuts.

We were prepared though and just took it all in. The quirky little things. Just wait ...if you are not here yet..you will see!

Our driver got us safely to the Hospitality House where Karen greeted us with a welcoming smile. We are so thankful to her for her help and generosity. We are staying in a neat part of town with tons of little shops. The apartment is lovely..really! We have wifi, english speaking cable stations, plenty of utensils to make food, a dvd player and its close to everything.  We met an awesome lady and her girls yesterday, Traci with Project Hopeful and they took us on a trip on the metro. Yep...less than three hours here and we joined the chaos and jumped (literally!) onto the metro and headed to the square for dinner. Had the most awesome pizza..Eli and I both ate for less than ten bucks. Incredible! We got to know Traci and her sweet girls better. They are so charming and they even took us grocery shopping afterward. Oh, at the metro stop we used, we had to take a ginormous (yes thats a word!) escalator.

I hate escalators. No, really.

And this one was taller than my house. Its a good thing I was in a jet lag haze. Once I realized how freaking high that thing was I started getting sick. I would rather walk up and down the huge hill than get on that escalator.

When you hear the women are beautiful....believe it. There are many beautiful women and I have no idea how they walk on the cracked sidewalks or the cobblestone roads in the stiletto heels. Its quite umm...interesting. And they make it look effortless. They have 0% body fat...but when you see how much people walk and the huge hills you understand why. We have seen many intersting choices in clothing including completely see through garmets. Its only disturbing if a babushka is clothed in this...but I digress...the women take great pride in their appearance and they are lovely.

We are loving being in EE and all that entails. It is good to learn about other cultures and we are having fun. Even if we have not a clue what anyone is saying. Ha. We were exhausted today after sightseeing and only managed to head to the store for groceries. I have no idea what kind of meat we ate. It could have been ox for all I know. But we made spagetti out of it and haven't died yet. Eli says there is a uniqe odor here but I havent picked it up yet...anyone else ever notice a smell??? My sinuses are so bad I cant smell anything! We got out with Traci and her girls again and they showed us the SDA.  We head there tomorrow morning! So, when you guys are sleeping we will be meeting to learn more about our Little One.

We have heard she is a little bit of a wild child and we cant wait to see for our own eyes.

I will end with a few pictures...sorry for the delay in posting....we spent today sightseeing and sleeping. More tomorrow...keep following us...WE ARE HERE!!!!

Little One...we are so very close.

Eli at Independence Square area...I didnt even notice the girl in the high heels in the background...look...there to his right!

The view outside our apartment...its beautiful...the street is very busy and pigeons live in the top of the apartment building.

The pizza place we ate at with Traci...yummy! We ordered pizza with some kind of meat...sort of looked like ham...

The elevator. Teeny. Tiny. Okay...so if you know my husband you know he kind of sticks out...I laughed when I saw this elevator...we can fit in there together but not us, the driver and our luggage. The driver started laughing too when I pointed to the elevator, then to Eli.

Our breakfast and snack! Cherry juice (suk), bread, eggs, cheese, butter, chocolate (of course), water and that's a beer in there! (no thats not breakfast..or a snack!)

water...a big thing it seems for our american friends...if you dont get the right one it will have "gas" in it. We get the bonaqua with the light blue cap. No gas! When you buy you can just ask for no gas...

Okay..its late here and we have a busy day tomorrow.

Praising God for placing us here at this exact time...when Traci was here and getting to meet her and her beautiful girls Sveta and Hannah. We are in awe of the Heim family and admire all the work they are doing for Project Hopeful. Their family is beautiful.

Stay tuned....

The best is yet to come! oh...sorry if there funky words...the spell check wont convert to english...so its saying all words are all wrong...!