Trip 3- Day 5- REDEEMED!!!!

 

Waiting to be picked up!

Baby Girl,

This day will always be a special day for our family...it is the day you our daughter joined our family forever...we have filled our every form known to man for YOU, we have paid every ransom requested without flinching for YOU, we have travelled the world three times this year for YOU...I would do it a million times again... 

 For this moment...in my arms never to leave you again. I will cherish this photo for my lifetime...

 We brought you new clothes that they changed you into while we went and signed on the dotted line...one final signature, and you were ours. Your caregiver was SO kind, she even kissed me. :) She genuinely loves you, which who wouldn't?! She spent time to go over your schedule, tell my what you ate and how you like to eat it, how you like you sleep...quick run down of everything. She even gave our coordinator her personal number so we could call her anytime while we are in town to ask her questions...that doesn't always happen...again you were loved, and we are so thankful.

 You seemed unsure with the car ride at first but you did AMAZING! Not one sad face or tear...you talked up a storm the whole way home! You had a death grip on that baby doll until you decided it would be fun to play the "drop my toy and mom picks it up game."

 We got back to the room and i swear you drank from that cup for like 15 mins straight! THIRSTY girl!!

 

We played for 40 mins or so, you got right into the toy suitcase! I kept thinking "I can't believe you are in our hotel room!!!" Had to pinch myself a few times...sweet girl! I never have to take you "home" because I am your home now.
 

 

After 40 mins of playing, you were on the bed and just flew backwards on your back into the stack of fresh white linen pillows...a deep sigh came from you perfect pouty mouth. I can only imagine you were soaking in the moment of such comfort! I decided I would try and see if you would let me snuggle you...sure enough you didn't resist at all, I swooped you up and your sweet little body just melted into mine, i even felt you snuggle in a little closer.

 

 

  Your little thumbs have been your source of comfort I can only imagine since you discovered you had them. In went your thumb and the soft rhythmic sucking began. We laid together...your eyes just absorbing me...searching my face, every time i smiled at you, you seemed to be reassured you could close your eyes, but they would pop open again in a sleepy haze. Maybe you were seeing if I was still there...we did this back and forth for 15 mins or so before we both fell asleep.

 After we woke up an hour and a half later you were very hungry as per your schedule you would have had lunch before your nap, not following a schedule is the name of my game, and you seem to be going with the flow beautifully.

 We decided that after eating it was time to wash away the old, my daughter...wash away the smell of the orphange, not a bad smell, just a distinct one. I wanted you to smell like my baby...I wasn't sure how you would respond as you have NEVER had a bath in your life, only sponge baths. YOU ARE A FISH my dear!!! You LOOOOOOVEEED that little sprayer and played in the bath until all your little toes were pruned!

 

 My daughter, you are so loved, and this first day together has been BETTER than I ever even imagined it would be!

Trip 3- Day 5-BIG day ahead of us

A little daughter's bag is packed with NEW clothes carefully and lovingly picked out just for her.

 A suitcase of toys and books awaits little chubby hands.

 A soft and cozy bed ready for a sleepy head.

All packed and ready for our baby girl's BIGGEST DAY...4.5 hrs to go...She becomes a daughter and makes me a mommy times two!

Thank you

Lord

for

the

gift 

of 

today!

Trip 3- Day 4

 

I had a hard time falling asleep last night, and then was dreaming weird dreams in Russian so I woke up a few times and only slept a solid 5 hrs. Weird...hoping for better rest tomorrow. Luckily its 4pm here and I haven't hit the jet lag wall I hit yesterday, so improvement.

I was wide awake at 5:30a but Mom was still sleeping so I decided to lay in bed with my phone and read my bible app. Today's passage of the day:

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness;come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."    Psalm 100

I woke up with such a thankful heart this morning...so many of His promises have been answered over the last year and a half. He promised us a little daughter and a grand adventure around the world...all under the condition we were just willing to be obedient to his prompting. We have learned that his timing is perfect, so when he did prompt us, we immediately shouted "YES, Lord!" We didn't want to miss out on his FULL goodness and blessings because we were still debating whether it was comfortable or doable. He can make ANY mountain move, and if he doesn't we KNOW his glory will be revealed on the other side of an uncomfortable life event or circumstance. Why do we try to put our human restrictions on what He is capable of making happen? Why do we try to fit him in our little box, when he created that box with just a spoken word? HE IS SO FAITHFUL!!!! He has brought every promise to fruition, he has carried us every step of this challenging process. I feel incredibly blessed to be living this unique life, this narrow road journey he has so attentively planned just for us.

I laid in bed for an hour just pouring over scripture and singing (just mouthing the words and singing in my head as to not wake up my mom!) all my favorite worship songs...what a beautiful way to wake up!

 We had another delicious breakfast and showered up and it was time to head down to the lobby to be picked up! We completed all of our business in two hours! Much sooner than I had expected! 

SO, I asked if our coordinator would take us to a shop to buy some special gifts for our little girl that we can give her some day. Amber is really special to this city because it is only found a few places in the world, and the Baltic Sea is one of them! So i wanted to get her a couple pieces of jewelry that I can give her when older that will be a special gift for her. I picked out a necklace, a bracelet, and a little hand painted jewelry box to put it in. :)

 I also got myself a beautiful floral wool scarf in a beautiful sea green color that reminds me of some of my favorite historical buildings here in Russia...one being the beautiful well known ballet and opera house.

 I also bought myself an amber pendant that has the most INCREDIBLE sparkles inside of it, that will always remind me of our flight in this week night, my flight in to pick my baby girl up. We flew over Rush's city and it was a breathtaking sea of glittering amber colored lights...it was incredibly beautiful. Mom bought a beautiful hand painted ornament set of the nativity scene. We were both so happy with all of the purchases!

 We requested a crib from the hotel to have in our room, and its all set up for her. Its all set and ready for her!!!! We have a Pea pod travel tent that I will set up and let her play in and get used to...but for now we will have many options for her to choose depending on what makes her the most comfortable...little Miss is in for A LOT of changes here quickly...we will try our best to introduce change slowly.

Here is a shot of our beautiful room!

We went by the grocery market to pick up some snacks to keep in the room and some specific baby items that Rush is most likely used to...baby tea w/vitamins, baby juice, baby crakers...etc.

I can hardly believe tomorrow is the day!!! Tomorrow I will see her and never have to leave her! Please pray for her sweet little heart to accept all the new changes that come with tomorrow...pray for us, extra patience, extra grace and wisdom, extra compassion and stamina...I can hardly stand it!! How in the world am I going to fall asleep?

We are just relaxing in our room, soaking in the peace and reading books and watching movies and chitty chatting! :)

Our BIG DAY starts tomorrow at 8:45am and have our meeting to pick her up at 10:00am!!!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you that want to pray and celebrate with us, we are exactly 12 hrs ahead of you...so your Tuesday night our daughter will be our daughter in my arms for the first time...FOREVER. A cherished, beloved daughter!! EEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!

Trip 3 Day 3

Today was a mix of a pretty productive day out and about and a nice relaxing day in for us. 

We had a delicious breakfast this morning! I always miss the breakfast they provide when we go home. I had some cold cuts (turkey, salami) and cheese, pickles, a soft boiled egg, fresh cucumber, grilled tomato sprinkled with basil, sausages (little hot dogs), crepes, and half a grapefruit. YUMMY! They had quite the variety, so I will be trying some more things tomorrow morning.

We were picked up from the hotel at 8am and off the the government office to request Rush's passport. They open the doors at 9am, but it takes awhile to drive ANYWHERE in this beautiful city, due to all the traffic jams, and we wanted to be as close to the front of the line as possible. 

This government office is a refurbished/re-purposed, 200 year old factory that used to make many different fabrics. We were told it is pretty unique in its architectural design...its "industrial" with all the exposed duct work on the ceiling. This is something that is not common here. I thought they did such a wonderful job remodeling the building, perfect balance between maintaining much of the original design mixed with the modern industrial feel. We got in line, and the line slowly weaved its way down the hall and up the stairs. We were given number 83...which was definitely NOT BAD, as we were told sometimes it is very easy to get 100 something. We decided to sit and wait. 

Lining the wall was 25 clouded glass vestibules with electronic reading boards above the doors. We were told our two doors were 219-220 and we waited until our number showed on one of those two doors. I brought my iphone to play some games on while we waited. Mom, our coordinator and I enjoyed Whirly Words for some time, and then our coordinator enjoyed going through all my pictures and vidoes on my phone. 

Then it was our turn! We walked into the little room where there were two desks with two officers sitting at them. The lady officer checked all our documents that we brought, and had me sign a document. Before I knew it, it was done! We were told that is SHOULD  be ready by Friday, but to check the website (which our coordinator will do) that it may not be ready until Sat. 

Before moving on we stopped to have tea...i always have time for a little cup of tea. That is something that I truly miss when we leave too, is the amount of tea i drink here! 

Next we headed to the bank in the building to exchange some money to buy train tickets for Sunday. We had planned to drive to the train station to buy the tickets but noticed an office you could buy them in this building! This saved us another stop and another traffic jam drive across town. We purchased our three train tickets!

We made our way back to our hotel and watched a "chick flick" that we don't always get to watch with our guys at home...Letter from Juliet. Loved it. And enjoyed a cup of Lipton instant chicken noodle soup from bed. Jet lag started to creep up so we decided to take a little two hr nap. We slept hard and had to force ourselves to get up and juices flowing again...convincing ourselves that we could go back to sleep in 4-5 hrs. Darn comfy beds, just wanted to suck us right in. :)

We are heading to dinner right now, as our tummies are starting to grumble! Tomorrow we expect to have another day of business to wrap up! 

Trip 3 Day 1-2

Good Morning from us!!

Well, after 28 plus hours of travel we finally made it! :) We were delayed 2 hrs out of the US due to a mechanical problem with the plane, made up some time in flight, but still missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt by...7 MINUTES! Oh well, we were luckily booked on the next flight 5 hrs later. 

We maybe slept a total of 3 hours of that time, sooo exhausted but had a hard time being SLEEPY. 

We had many stares and a lot of questions as to where our baby was since I was pushing a stroller around with a "back pack baby" perched in it. :) Figured it could at least serve as a luggage cart! When we arrived in Frankfurt and we were trying to get to our new reassigned gate, we arrived at the LONGEST LINE I HAVE EVER SEEN for security. A man came our direction, pointed at the stroller, then had some words with the other lady working the line, and motioned for us to follow him. We walked down the hall and around the corner to a private security for families and children! I thought it was SO cool that they have this extra space for families to take their time, a bigger scanner belt for strollers and such. One family was waiting in ahead of us, then it was our turn, and the glass doors opened. The man, "WHERE IS BABY? WHERE IS BABY?" I was trying to communicate we were adopting and on our way to pick her up, and my mom kept saying "Orphan" and finally they understood. But said, "NO, you are in wrong area, this is for families with CHILDREN ONLY! YOU HAVE NO BABY" After some convincing that we had been escorted over in person, they rolled their eyes as if to say, "Fine, just go, got to keep the line moving." SO we hopped right in and got thru.

We got to our new gate and talked to the lady at the service counter who informed us we would need to get new boarding passes, and she couldn't do it, we had to go to the ticket counter...which...was back out passed security! UGH we had no other choice, we exited and got new tickets. I was not about to go back to the family line and upset them again, so we tried getting in line for the regular security. The woman came up to me and said, "NO, follow me, we can't fit the stoller on the belt in this line, you need to use the family line." Well, they let us do it again, but not with some major amounts of mocking (I don't need to speak your language to know you are making fun of us!)

We slept most of the last 2.5 hr flight and our baggage arrived NO PROBLEM! We quickly found our driver and made our way into the city to our hotel.

We got to our room and I started unpacking/nesting since we will be here for a week, and was dissapointed by the room size (i thought i had reserved a bigger room, wanted to have room for Rush to play) and then started to notice some of the other amenities of the room I booked were not present. So I called down to the desk and sure enough they had put us in the wrong room. SO, we packed up all our bags again and made our way up two floors and AHHHHH, relief, much better!

We made a pot of tea, laid our tired bodies in a WARM, COMFY bed and sipped our tea until our eyes couldn't stay open any longer. :) 

We slept hard for a WHOLE night's rest, thank you Jesus! And we are just getting ready for the day of business appointments! We will spend most of today requesting her passport (told it is like our social security office or DMV, take a number and WAIT) It should be ready by Friday or Saturday. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is another day of business meetings and right now we are planning on seeing Rush and picking her up WEDNESDAY MORNING!!!!! :) 

Thank you SO much for praying for us! I am so excited for what this week holds! :)

A long road

^" There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"

Romans 5:3-5 (The Message...loved the commentary interpretation of this verse)

Friends and Family!!

I am so proud to announce that after months of waiting and delays outside of our control, on October 2, 2012 Lance and I traveled to see our sweet girl again and appear in court before a judge and request to be named her parents and the judge said YES YES YES!!! :)

We are officially very proud parents to:

Rush Vera

It has been a LONG road...but a road i would do all over again, every single part of it, to become this little girl's family! God asked us to go, we were asked to put our yes card on the table, don't ask questions or try rationalize why we shouldn't...and through all of the struggles, including an excruciating 8 month delay, our character has been formed, shaped, molded into something new...something better. I have grown to see the world and my life through a different lens...a spiritual lens...struggles are still struggles they are hard, no getting around that sometimes...but my faith is bigger than my fear of those struggles...I KNOW the Lord works EVERYTHING out for the good of those who love him...and BOY DO WE LOOOOVE HIM! I know without a doubt I can rest in knowing HE knows what the heck is going on when all seems so off balance and out of control. LORD THANK YOU FOR USING EVERY PART OF MY LIFE, EASY AND HARD TO PULL ME TOWARDS YOU!!!

We so appreciate every heart that has been burdened for our daughter...every prayer for our family as we waited, every encouraging word or conversation, every dollar that was so lovingly gifted to our family, and for every hand that had a part in our adoption...YOU have made this story, you are forever a part of our journey...YOU have shown us LOVE in many different equally crucial ways...and that is what life, according to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is all about...LOVE.

In just two short days we will be heading back one last time, this time...to 

bring Miss Rush, our cherished daughter 

HOME!!! 

THANKING GOD FOR CRAZY PAPER CHASING

Oh thank you Lord, for throwing us back into the crazy brained paper chasing time of this process again...I don't enjoy much of it, but oh boy, do i LOVE who I am working towards... Rush. it feels good to be busy again.

We received word Monday that the committee in our little gals city, is anticipating the treaty being ratified by the Duma this Friday!!!! So, they are providing our in country coordinator with the necessary documents she needs to submit our paperwork to the judge and giving her permission to submit our paperwork. We won't even have a chance to be issued a court date until after the treaty has been ratified, but there is MOVEMENT!!!!! 

SO, the crazy-brained, frazzle-haired mommy, paper chasing part...

After being delayed for months we have to redo some of our paperwork, because everything has an expiration date...of course it does. So yesterday we overnighted the necessary documents that our coordinator needs to submit our paperwork to the judge, and we will in the mean time work on redoing the expired documents. We will also be waiting to hear what other documents the judge will ask us to provide or redo...it's pretty much a guarantee that the judge will ask for something else. One point of specific prayer for all this paper chasing is we had to redo our FBI background checks because they only last 6 months per Rush's country's standards, so those can take UP TO 8 weeks, depending on their workload! I am praying that when it arrives tomorrow morning, they won't have many to do, and will get ours completed and back to us in a couple weeks. When i receive them, I then have to have them apostilled in Washington D.C. One of my beautiful friends, another Reece's Rainbow adoptive mom, has been such a blessing to many of us as she works just blocks from where this is done, so she has offered to allow us to overnight the docs to her to apostille and then she will overnight back. WHEW, a lot of overnighting happening here people!!!! 

Our in country coordinator has never had a case with this "new" judge before. We are in uncharted unpredictable territory...guinea pigs, trail blazers, what have you. This requires an EXTRA dose of patience with those we are taking instruction from when what they say may be a little different than what they said before...because they are doing their best to react with answers when they themselves are trying to figure out the best course of action.  I feel SOOOOO blessed to have the agency we do!! We have an amazing woman here in the states and an amazing woman at the ground level overseas that are both working so hard for our family and our sweet little girl!! We are all just being flexible and taking one request at a time.




Another source of craziness is Rowdy's physical.  There is some debate on what is required for Rowdy's medicals at this point, but we are just moving forward with what we feel at this moment is the best course. So he requires his pediatrician to sign off on 8 different areas of specialties, a copy of her license, a letter stating his treatment for his Hypothyroidism, a letter from Rowdy's Urologist stating his treatment and care, along with his doctors license, and finally a letter from the Medical Board of Oregon stating that our pediatrician is able to sign off on all 8 areas of specialty. Whew...a lot for one little two year old, eh??

PRAISE JESUS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE OVERWHELMED AND BURIED IN PAPERWORK AGAIN!!!! PLEASE CONTINUE TO BATHE US IN PRAYER AS WE HAVE ROUNDED THE CORNER TO WORK ON RECEIVING A COURT DATE!