The phone call

One year ago today we got "the phone call" that will forever change our family. When we began the adoption process, we were told that it would take about 18 months. Our dossier got shipped to Russia on Sept 23, 2010 and we got "the call" on Oct 14, 2010. Chad had just gotten home from a business trip and was here with the boys while I ran errands. As soon as I got home he immediately went to sleep. I soon realized we had a message on the machine. I had to repeat it about 10 times. I just couldn't believe what they were saying. "We have a referral from Russia, would you like to look at her file".  Wow was I ever suprised!  I woke Chad right back up and it didn't take long for us to call them back and say of course we want to see her "like yesterday". She was absolutely beautiful and of course we wanted to go see her. 

 We were told by people that saw her picture that she looked sick in her eyes.  We now know that she just had the look of a child that has never known a family's love.  That is the same sad look we saw in all of the children. 

Our biggest worry was "how will this affect the boys". Well, it was a crazy winter with 3 long trips to Russia but I am so very happy to say that this (below) is how it affected the boys. Yes our youngest showed some jealousy and needed extra attention but that is the normal with youngest children any time there is an addition. They are all totally head over heels for their sister.

                                             All 3 boys are wonderful big brothers

Orphans

I heard today that there are an estimated 147 million orphans in this world!  147 MILLION!!!  How can that be?  No child deserves to be living their life in an institution without parents to read them bedtime stories.  When we went to meet Josie we got a very slim glimpse of the orphans we left behind.  Has a family found them?  When will it be their turn?  I pray for them often.  Their faces are etched in my mind.   

Why are there so many orphans when God commands his people to take care of them?

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless: maintain the right of the poor and oppressed” Psalm 82:3

"You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more." Psalm 10:17

 "Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan.  If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry" Exodus 22:22

I do not hear in any of those verses, “Now, if you feel like it, and when your home is big enough, and when you have enough money, THEN you should take care of the orphans.".  NO, God commands that we as his people take care of the needy.  So many people think that they are not "called" to help an orphan but I disagree.  We as God's people are all commanded to help them.  There are so many different ways to help. For starters we can all pray for these precious waiting soles.  There are organizations that help fund adoptions such as Reece's Rainbow that can be contributed to or used to help fund an adoption.  And of course there are the 147 million children that need someone to step up and give them a home where someone tucks them in and kisses then good night.  If the over 2 billion Christians would all do just a little or maybe a lot then there would no longer be orphans. 

These are some of the faces that are forever etched in my mind.  Thankfully one of these precious angels is no longer an orphan and I am blessed to get to be her Mommy.  Our baby girl is sitting in the chair on the left end of the table.

This room was full of precious babies just moments before but the doors remain closed during most of our visit so we were unable to take a picture with the other children. 

 

We did not get to take his picture but there is a precious baby boy that stole our hearts in one of those buggies.  We went over to "talk" to the babies and he sat strait up and gave us the biggest toothless grin that you could ever imagine.  It was all we could do to not scoop him up and stash him in our suitcase. 

Thankfully our daughter spent the beginning of her life in a "good" orphanage.  There are so many children that are not so lucky.  They go to sleep every night in a cold metal crib and spend almost all their day lying on their backs in that same cold crib.  They don't ever get a warm embrace or feel a caring touch.  The little food they get comes in form of a bottle propped in their crib.  They lie in their own urine until someone gets around to changing them.  They too are "fearfully and wonderfully made" by God but yet are treated like inconveniences. 

I so often wonder "Have they gotten their turn"? 

Praise God!!

This is from Kirill's new family

What a blessing!

I pray the judges see this ruling from the Supreme Court and begin letting other little ones with disabilities go home to families that want to love them.

 

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

GOD OF MIRACLES

WE ARE NOW THE PROUD PARENTS OF GREGORY KIRILL DAVIS. HE IS OURS. THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURNED THE JUDGE'S RULING. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, HIS NAME IS GREGORY KIRILL DAVIS AND WE WILL GO PICK HIM UP IN JUST A FEW SHORT DAYS AS SOON AS WE HAVE THE OFFICIAL COURT DECREE IN HAND. I WILL POST THE DETAILS WHEN I KNOW THEM. RIGHT NOW WE ARE IN A FLURRY OF TEARS AND EXCITEMENT AND WE WON'T KNOW EXACTLY HOW OUR NEXT FEW DAYS WILL GO UNTIL TOMORROW WHEN WE MEET AGAIN WITH OUR FACILITATOR.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT. MAY YOU SEE THAT GOD IS THE GOD OF MIRACLES AND THAT HE IS FAITHFUL TO COMPLETE THE WORK HE HAS STARTED IN YOU.

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW. PRAISE HIM ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW. PRAISE HIM ABOVE YE HEAVENLY HOSTS. PRAISE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY GHOST!

Please pray for a little boy named Kirill, his new family and the supreme court judge.

A while ago I posted about a family that is trying to adopt a little boy with downs syndrome.  Tomorrow is their big day so I ask that you remember them in your prayers.  Children are blessings from God and no child should be left in an institution for his entire life.  His entire future lies in the hands of this Russian Supreme Court judge.  Pray that he will get to come home to the family that has grown to love him where he will have the future he deserves.  This ruling will set the bar for how judges in Kirill’s region see cases such as his. Please pray that God will soften the heart of the judge so not only Kirill will get to come home to his family but many other children will follow. 

This is a post from his family. 

We leave in less than 24 hours. God is with us. We are going with him. We are taking peace, hope, and the understanding that HE is writing this story. We covet your prayers. We humbly ask for you to especially pray on May 24th beginning at 6:10 a.m. CST. This is the exact time we will be standing before the supreme court judge. Pray for him. Pray for our lawyer. Pray for Kirill. But above all else, pray that Christ is seen by everyone who hears Kirill's story. THANK YOU ALL! I will update here as soon as we know the supreme court ruling.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a great day at our house.  I got woke up to breakfast in bed that consisted of breakfast pizza.  Our 8 year old came up with the recipe and it was an interesting thing to start the morning off with.  The recipe consists of a cheese pizza topped with fruit that makes a happy face.  I also had a vase full of flowers that just began to bloom from our garden.  Of course what topped it all were all 4 kiddos and my wonderful husband singing Happy Mother's Day songs.    Mother’s Day makes me feel so grateful for the wonderful mothers in our lives.  My mother is a rock.  She is such an awesome lady in so many ways.  She has 5 children but has always had time for each of us.  She taught me so many things that has made me a better Mother to our children.  Chad’s Mom is also an amazing woman.  She taught my husband to be the wonderful man that he has become.  She has always been there for us for anything we could ever need.  Chad has told me many stories of his childhood full of good memories of his Mom.  We also have wonderful Grandmothers.  They are the glue that holds our extended families together.  They have taught us so many values and lessons in life. 

Today at church our Preacher’s sermon was taken from 1 Kings and was about 2 women that had babies within days of each other and one dies.  They were fighting over the live baby when King Solomon suggests that they cut the baby in half so each mother could have a part of the baby.  The real mother cries out, that the other woman can have the baby to spare her baby from harm.  The king granted her the baby but she showed that she unselfishly would have caused herself sure grief and pain but did it to save spare her child from harm.  I could not help but to relate this story to Josie’s birth mother.  She is also a Mother that we hold dear in our hearts.   See, she may not have her baby in her arms today, but she gave Josie the greatest gift.  She gave her the gift of life and then unselfishly made the choice to give her a new life. She gave her a life she could not give her herself.  I have not doubt that these choices have cause her a great amount of greif and pain but she did it for her child.  What a hard thing for any woman to do.  Even though we have never met, she will always be dear to me.  She gave us this little person that was missing from our family.  Happy Mother’s Day to our Mothers and Grandmothers and Happy Mother’s Day to a very special Mother in Russia. 

Please pray for this little Boy and all children that live in Institutions.

I can't imagine what this family is going through.  When the referral and photo of a child comes, parents begin to fall in love.  These parents have met with their son several times, fell in love, and now the judge says that he is “not socially adaptable” due to his “medical condition” and he was better off in an institution than in a home with a family.  What agony these parents must be feeling.  Please pray that the supreme court of Russia will do what is best for this child and for all children living in institutions. 

Kirill's Story

For those of you just joining our family's journey to adopt Kirill, I thought it might be helpful to have a summary so you don't have to go back and read this entire blog. That could take a long time since we started our adoption almost two years ago.

Two years ago; that was when Greg and I began praying for God to do whatever he wanted with our lives. We handed him a “blank check” so to speak, and told him to cash it. He opened our eyes to children with disabilities wasting away across the ocean in Eastern Europe. We joined God and started our adoption journey.

Our family is more than equipped to handle a child with special needs. I have a degree in Early Childhood Education. I am a member of the Board of Directors of Best Buddies of Alabama. I have volunteered for RISE and Eagles’ Wings. All of these organizations serve individuals with special needs. My husband I have close friends and family who have special needs and we are a big part of each other’s lives. Our wedding party included some of these special people. Our involvement with individuals with special needs led us to adopt a child with special needs; specifically, we chose Down Syndrome.

As we prayed over the faces of thousands of orphaned children with Down Syndrome, we ultimately chose a little boy named Sergey from Russia. Eight months later, as we neared the finish line of our adoption, one of Sergey’s family members in Russia stepped forward to adopt him. We were heartbroken for our loss, but God showed us that we were following him, and his ways are perfect. We knew we still wanted to adopt, so the way we saw it, two children would find homes because of our journey…Sergey went to his family and now we would choose another child to come into our family. We took great comfort in knowing that God could see this when we first committed to Sergey! We were honored to be a part of his plan.

Shortly after losing Sergey, we received a new referral with a grainy photo of a four-year-old blond-haired boy wearing pink glasses named Kirill. We were instantly in love with him. We had to re-file a lot of our paperwork because of the change in referrals and regions of Russia, but we were fast and we thought we were looking at three more months at the most until we would have Kirill home.

That was well over a year ago.

Since then so many things have happened. A tragic story of an adoptive mother sending her child back to his country alone on a plane with a note pinned to his shirt rocked our world…he was from Russia. Adoptions in Russia came to a screeching halt. Kirill’s region stopped processing adoptions for eight long months. The judge refused to accept any Amercian adoption cases until an official treaty was signed between the United States and Russia.

Even though we wouldn’t be able to finalize the adoption in court until the treaty was signed, we were allowed to go visit Kirill and sign our official petition to adopt him in August 2010. We fell more deeply in love with him. This was our son.

During that time, we found out that Kirill is the first child from his region EVER to be adopted with Down Syndrome. A birth mother keeping her child with Down Syndrome is unheard of in this area of the world. Adoptions of children with Down Syndrome just don’t happen there, these children are literally hidden away from society in orphanages and mental institutions. As our process continued, it became apparent that Kirill would be a pioneer. If our adoption was approved, it would pave the way for other children with special needs to be adopted from this region.

Then, a miracle happened around Christmas and the judge in this region suddenly changed her mind and began processing American adoptions again. We were elated.  Could this be the light at the end of a very long tunnel? I was somewhat nervous about Kirill being the first child adopted with Down Syndrome from his region, but our agency was very confident that if we got a court date, our adoption would be approved. In seventeen years, they had never had a case rejected IF the family was issued a court date. We were told not to worry, so I didn’t. After meeting the judge’s requests for several supporting court documents, we were finally granted a court date-March 17, 2011. St. Patrick’s Day…I was thrilled. This would be our new favorite holiday! Our son was coming home!

Our other son, Clayton, who had just turned three when we started this adoption process, has prayed fervently for his brother. He is now almost five. When we told him Kirill was coming home, oh my…we had an excited big brother on our hands! At one point he even went to his room, dumped out his toy cars and divided them into two stacks…one for him and one for Kirill. He will not even speak of having separate bedrooms. He wants Kirill to sleep in the same room as him and has been sleeping with a stuffed animal he is planning to give to Kirill.

Last week, as we sat in the courtroom and suffered through five agonizing hours of difficult questioning, we were not prepared for anything but an approval of our case. Two doctors, two social workers, and the Minister of Children’s Services all made very strong statements on our behalf. They spoke strongly on our behalf.

But when the ruling was read, the judge said, “Your application to adopt is rejected.” The basis given was that Kirill was “not socially adaptable” due to his “medical condition” and he was better off in an institution than in a home with a family. As the judge read her ruling, she stated several times that we were a good family, that we met all the criteria to adopt a child, but that she would not approve our adoption because Kirill has Down Syndrome and he could not socially adapt to being adopted. She told us that we could adopt another child, because legally our application had no problems according to Russian adoption law. The ruling stated she would approve our adoption for a “typical” child, but not this child. The ruling also stated that he would be better served in a mental institution than in our home; an institution that does the best it can with what it has, but that has one caregiver for every 13 children, all of which have intellectual disabilities. Even though we were approved by our home study and by the USCIS to adopt a child with special needs. Even though we have so much personal experience with children with special needs AND the resources, knowledge, and community support to provide him with the therapies that he will need (and could never get in an institution) to grow and develop at his maximum potential. Even though we had two doctors (from his current and previous orphanages), two social workers (one from the region and one from the orphanage), and the Minister of Children's Services testify that Kirill would be better off in our home than he was in an institution.

It was like a terrible dream. We were so unprepared for this outcome. As we left the courthouse in a mental fog, the doctors and social workers that had testified on our behalf came to us and said, “If you appeal, we will speak again for you. Appeal this decision. Kirill belongs with your family.” Of course we were going to appeal…I could no more walk away from our biological son, Clayton, at this point. Kirill is just as much my son. WE LOVE HIM. It is absolutely heartbreaking to think about having to explain to Clayton that Kirill may not be coming home. I cry everytime I think about it. He loves his brother so much already.

So here we are, asking God to move the mountain that is standing between Kirill and us as we appeal to the Supreme Court in Moscow. Please pray with us and for us. 

Josie's Identity

We have been asked by the local newspaper if they can do a story about Josie's adoption.  At first we thought no.  We are really more of a private family and we just didn't want to do that.  The more we talked about it we decided that if it could help an underprivileged child in anyway it would be worth it.  The problem I have is I want Josie to have more of an identity than just being the child that was from Russia.  Don't get me wrong, we will always be proud of her heritage and want her to be very proud of whom she is and where she is from but I want people to see her for more than that.  I want people to see her gorgeous brown eyes that shine like stars.  I want them to hear her laugh that lights up any room.  I want them meet her bigger than life personality.  She has an amazing smile that would be a shame to miss if one was only thinking about her past.  We are blessed beyond measure to have wonderful friends, church home and family that do see all these wonderful qualities and accept her like she was of our flesh.  We see her the same as each of our children that we love with all our hearts.  We have so many hopes and dreams for each and every one of them.  Many of the dreams are the same.  We dream that they will put God first in their lives and let him lead their paths.  We hope that they will be caring and compassionate toward all God's creations.  We hope they will live long lives and that are productive members of society and accomplish their hopes and dreams.  We love you so much Tyler, Eric, Wesley and Josie Pinson. 

God chose her for us!

 

We get asked all the time if we went to Russia and picked out our Daughter.  I know there are so many that don't understand how adoption works so I will explain.  No we did not pick her out.  This question sounds so much like grocery shopping or going to the pound to pick a puppy.  I can't imagine being given that task, to go into an orphanage and see all the little faces and have to pick the one that is right for us.  I would surly have nightmares for the rest of my like not knowing what happened to the ones that we did not choose.  Thankfully the Russian government takes that roll.  We sent our information off to Russia and within a VERY short time they sent us a brief description of our sweet girl.  We then had to go to Russia for our 1st trip to meet her before we could confirm what we in fact wanted to adopt HER.  It is required that both parents meet the child before signing any paperwork.  That leads to the topic of naming her.  Chad and I are on the same page about many things but naming babies is not one of them.  Many of you know how long it took us to name our boys.  Chad has this thought that he can't even think of names until he sees them.  Then the ones he does come up with are quite horrible.  Sorry all you Orville's but I just can't call our child a name which will make him the popcorn man.  When we decided we were going to adopt we knew we would have to have a couple names picked out as we would meet the child then start signing her legal name right away.  We had come up with 2 choices.  When we got the first picture of our sweet girl we took one look and knew she fit one of our choices to a T.  That name is Josie.  We would not know of her Russian name for quite some time so she was Josie in our hearts.  We later learned that her Russian name is Maria.  We soon decided we would leave her Russian name as Maria and add Josephine as her middle.  Well when we met her for the 1st time we learned she had never been called Maria.  The informal version is of Maria is Masha.  Since she had been Josie in our hearts for quite some time at this point we decided we would call her Josie but leave her legal name as Maria.  We soon learned that her birthmother's name is very similar to her name so our sweet girl is named after 2 mothers that love her.  Her Russian mother that gave the wonderful gift of life and made the extremely hard decision to give her a new life and her forever mother's middle name (Jo).  At some point we looked up the meaning of her name for fun and we learned that Maria is a form of Mary and Josephine is a form of Joseph.  I can't imagine anyone better to have your name resemble.  Mary and Joseph, with the help of God, gave us the greatest gift of Jesus and our sweet girl really is a gift from God.

It takes an Village to bring a Child home.

We've heard that old saying a million times, it takes a village to raise a Child.  Well it certainly takes a village to bring a child home from Russia.  We have been blessed by many of you along our journey.  There are so many people that have helped in various ways.  We had to leave our boys more in the past few months than we have ever left them before and we always had wonderful responsible people watching over them.  We also had a list of people that were willing to be emergency contacts for them and picking them up and dropping them off from various places.  One of our friends came over and helped watch over our oldest when he got sick while we were away.  What a blessing these people were to us.  We would not have been able to fly so far away if we didn't know our boys were in such good hands.  We had to have a huge stack of paperwork notarized all along our journey and we had 2 ladies that were willing to drop what they were doing so many times and take the time to notarize all our documents.  We are very thankful to them.  We received an unexpected tithe in the mail and the family said they were moved by God to send it to help spread God's love and bring our sweet girl home.  What a wonderful gift that we are so thankful for.  Our families have been very supportive and loving all along our journey.  We have a fantastic crew that work at our business that was able to take over Chad's job so he could concentrate on our journey.  We are so thankful to them.   We had help from a wonderful lady in Texas that we have never met when we got thrown that one last piece of unexpected paperwork that had to be apostilled in Texas and we had very short notice to have it done.  So many of our friends and family were so willing to help us in so many ways and we thank you all.  As we rock our baby girl in our arms we can't help to feel so much gratitude to all of you that helped make our journey possible.  Thank you is not enough.  We will always do the best job that we can do the guide, teach and help our sweet girl to grow into the wonderful young lady that God has planned.

Absolutely without a doubt!

Several people have asked us if it was possible to have the same feeling for an adopted child that happens for a biological child.  I can honestly say without a doubt that yes it is the same.  The love started in a different but very similar fashion.  When we found out we were having our boys there was an overwhelming sense of needing to protect them from anything that could possibly hurt them.  Never again would I sit in the smoking section of a restaurant no matter how long the wait was for a nonsmoking seat.  When we heard their little heartbeats they started to become real and the seed of love began to grow.  The ultrasound confirmed that realness and the love grew.  Then finally the moment that they came into this world and were placed in our arms, there was that overwhelming wash of unconditional love that nothing can change.  It is similar with Josie.  The moment we saw her picture and learned that this child could be our daughter, we had a sense of needing to get to her to see if she is being taken care of.  We wanted to protect her and our only way was thru prayer.  We had to let God be her protector. The first time we met her our hearts melted and we wanted to be her parents but we felt as if there was still so much uncertainity so we had to guard our hearts a little.  With each passing visit we could feel the love for her growing until the moment that she was placed in our arms forever.  There was that overwhelming wash of unconditional love that just can't be changed.  In a way with the adoption of Josie we had to rely on God so much more.  It felt as we had less control over the outcome than with our boys.  As soon as we decided that we would adopt we began praying for her wherever she was.  We knew we had no control over if she was getting good nutrition or care or what conditions she faced.  We had to leave that in God's hands.  Until we meet our Heavenly Father we will never know why our precious daughter began her life 1/2 a world away but I'm so very glad that we followed his plan and she came into our lives.  We just can't imagine our family without her.  Our lives have been forever changed in so many ways.  

The Gift of Life

I didn't give you the gift of life,

But in my heart I know.

The love I feel is deep and real,

As if it had been so.

For us to have each other

Is like a dream come true!

No, I didn't give you

The gift of life,

Life gave me the gift of you.

--- Unknown

We are so blessed.

 

 

We are so blessed.  We are officially a family of 6.  We have the 4 most amazing wonderful children I have ever known.  Each is unique in their own ways.  Tyler made us parents.  With him we got to experience everything for the first time.  He is such a responsible, soft hearted caring boy.  We are so lucky to get to be his parents.  Eric made us feel more like a family.  Being from a large family it just seemed like there was something missing with only one child.  Eric gave Tyler a brother.  And that brotherhood is a bond unlike any other that that the will have for life.  Eric is such a creative funny child.  He loves to be center of attention and make others laugh.  Wesley was our baby and I think that made us savor those warm baby touches even more. He has earned the nickname Bear as he wakes up running and enters the room like a bear.  He doesn't mean to bang doors but he just always makes his presence known.  In the last year he has turned into such a snuggle bug.  He comes to our bed almost every night to snuggle and announces his presence as "hey Mom, It's me Wes".   Josie is such a sweet little girl. She is so snuggly and has already stolen a piece of our hearts.  Chad and I feel that we are the most lucky people on earth that God blessed us with all 4 of our children. 

Embassy went well!! We are almost done.

Today we went to the Embassy to get Josie's visa and packet of paperwork to get her into the US.  The only thing left to do is to registered with the Consulate which our coordinator is in the process of doing now.  The embassy went well and there were a lot of other families with their little kiddos waiting.  Josie loved seeing other kids.  She will be so glad to see her brothers as I think she really misses other kids.  The Embassy was quite painless, just a lot of waiting with a lot of kids who were hungry and tired.  Josie did great though.  She really has been a trooper thru out all the appointments.  She has learned to say Mama and Dada.  Yesterday when we went to the Red Square she had to be really bundled up and she didn't like it, so she kept hollering for Dada.  I think she knew if he was here he would rescue her from the wrath of Mama bundling.  Josie and I look at animal books and she has learned the bear sound.  So now she growls all the time.  It is super cute.  It has been so nice to have my Mom here with us. It has been great to spend the time with her and she has really enjoyed seeing the sights and getting to spend time with Josie.  It is still very cold and damp here so just managing a bundled up baby along with paperwork would be very hard to do alone.

We just go the phone call from our coordinator that she as all the paperwork done so we are officially done and will now be heading home tomorrow.  We leave our hotel at 4:00 a.m. for our 22 hour trip home.  We could use some prayers for this last leg of our journey.  Josie is a wonderful baby but that long of a trip will be hard on her.  She has a really hard time going to sleep anywhere except her crib.  The day of the long train ride we got a sneak peek of her coping technique that she has used during her stay at the orphanage.  That day she was done with all the holding and only wanted to be in her bed.  We gave her that space and let her put herself to sleep the way she normally does.  She lays on her back and rocks herself from side to side very fast until she winds down enough then rolls over and goes to sleep.  Chad and I have always wondered why her hair was rubbed off on the back of her head. It soon became obvious.  It breaks my heart to think that she has needed rocked but for so long but no one had the time to do it.  Baby girl, you have a family now and we love to read books and rock. I promise that you will never have to rock yourself to sleep again.  She will fit right in with our bedtime gang at home.  Our boys love to read and snuggle and that is defiantly a part of bedtime that they don't ever let us forget.

Today is a new day!

We have our happy girl back!  She woke up smiling and has been doing so ever since.  This morning the Dr came to check her out.  This is a requirement before being able to take her oversees.  He came right to our hotel room and did her check up.  She looks and sounds great.  He did the famous baby lift that we have heard about to check weight.  He picked her up over his head and said 19 pounds.  If he is right she is 4 pounds heavier than we were last told.  I think I will let Dr Brian be the official baby weigher in a few weeks when we get back to Kansas.  Our coordinator came right to our room and went over a ton of paperwork that she has to take to the embassy.  We are now done doing paperwork for the day.  Josie is taking a huge nap so maybe when she wakes we will go check out the Red Square. If she is not in the mood we will just vedge for the day.  Tomorrow we will be going to the embassy for the last bit of paperwork so she can come HOME.

Josie is so sweet; when she goes to sleep she has to see me the whole time.  Either she wants to sleep with me or have me hold her hand or pat her back.  Like I can resist that!

A hard day for Josie

Yesterday was a hard day for our sweet Josie.  We took a very scheduled little girl that has probably never missed a nap and that has her own methods of putting herself to sleep on a 4 hour train ride to Moscow.  Yikes!  I'm quite sure she has never eaten or slept in a vehicle.  Poor baby.  She ended up getting a quick 30 minute nap where she always gets 2 / two hour naps.  We tried for all we were worth but she just could not get to sleep as there was just too much stimulation.  We only fed her small snacks on the train as we were warned about babies that have not been in a car much getting motion sickness.  Well after 4 hours on a train and then 7 lanes of backed up stop and go traffic in Moscow the poor baby was hungry.  I took my chances and fed her some baby food in the car figuring it was much better than on the train.  Nope I was wrong.   I got christened.  I'm sure the driver was thrilled!  We could definitely use some prayers before our 24 hour trip home Saturday.  I pray that planes don't cause motion sickness as bad.

A day of adjusting

Today Josie is definitely more reserved and not nearly as active.  I think yesterday was a fun adventure for her and today she is wondering when it will be back to normal.  She has wanted to snuggle and be held most all day.  Not that either of us are complaining about that in the slightest.  Thank goodness we bought her that Russian musical princess book.  It has been a lifesaver when she gets sad.  It usually brings her right back to her fun loving self.  Tomorrow Chad and Megan will be leaving for the States.  Megan needs to go back to work and Chad will be going home to our boys!  Boys, Dad will be home soon! We are missing you very much.  My Mom and I will be leaving St Petersburg on a train headed to Moscow.  We have to register her with the embassy and do some more paperwork then on Saturday we will be headed home where Josie will become a US citizen as soon as she touches down on US soil!  She is very excited to meet her 3 big brothers. 

Happy Valentines/Gotcha Day!!

Today has been amazing.  We did a couple of paperwork related things this morning then headed to Luga to the orphanage.  The director was out today but we worked with the wonderful Social Worker.  She took Josie's new dress that Grandma made, to her caregivers.  They got her all dressed up and brought her out.  We had to sign her book and that was it.  She is ours forever!  She did wonderful and has continued all day.  She is so funny, sweet and just plain wonderful.  We have seen very few tears all day and she has been so happy.  We bought her a Russian Princess book that has buttons that play music.  I played one of them that she had obviously heard before because she really started dancing and has been dancing ever since. There was music playing at the restaurant where we ate tonight, and she was dancing the whole time she tried to eat.  She was really being a ham.  What a Wonderful Valentine’s Day/Gotcha Day!

 Josie playing with her Russian Princess Book.  She loves it!

I said "where's Mama"  Could she possibly melt my heart anymore? 

Today is the Day!!

 
Today is the day we have been working toward and waiting on.  In a few short hours we will leave for Luga to go get our sweet Josie and she will be ours forever!  I am so excited I just can't sleep any longer.  It is definitely the same type of excitement we had on the early mornings as we were leaving for the hospital to go have our boys. We were told that the orphanage is going to have a celebration in Josie's honor.  We are going to stop by a grocery store to get some cakes for the party.  What a special day for her!  This is the best Valentines I could ever imagine. 

As happy as I am, I can't help to feel a little sad for our girl for all the changes that she will go thru in the next few weeks.  Josie’s life as she knows it will soon be completely changed.  I can't even imagine being in that place where everyone and everything that you once knew are suddenly gone forever.  I know that we will give her all the love that she needs to help her thru this time and that in long run it is by far for the best.  As we walk around the city of Saint Petersburg we see street people and can't help to wonder if they once lived in an orphanage.  There is just no help for these people that need it so badly.  It really pulls at our heartstrings.  We have grown to love Saint Petersburg and all of Russia.  There is such beautiful culture, the sights are absolutely spectacular, and there are so many wonderful people.  But most of all, we love Russia for the wonderful gift that they are giving our family.  Our sweet girl!  She is without a doubt the missing piece to our family.  I can't wait to get her home and introduce her to our boys. 

I'm very excited that my Mom and my sister Megan get to share this special day with Chad and I.  This is both of their first trips oversees and it has been a fun adventure already.  Chad has been here since Wednesday but Megan, Mom and I just got here yesterday.  We walked around last night and saw some beautiful sights.  Boy was it cold and we are told it will be getting much colder.  It was -17 yesterday and was told it will be -37 for the next few days.  That is not wind-chill temperatures either.  We thought Kansas had been cold last week but it has nothing on St Petersburg type of cold.  

Well Paka Paka for now.  The next post, we will be official parents to our girl.  We have actually been her official parents since court now it will be real and she will be in our arms forever.

Only one little something missing

           Her Russian Nesting Dolls

The Angel Daddy Gave her for Christmas and her Faberge Eggs
and coach which was the

inspiration for

her room. 

Our next step

The paperwork is finally complete and we are ready to go get our sweet girl and make her a forever member of our family.  Our next step will be to help her bond to our family and help her realize that we are something more than another caregiver that comes for 8 hours a day.  We have been blessed to be working with an International Adoption Doctor that has given us many good ideas and suggestions that have worked for other families.  Unfortunately our Sweet Girl has no concept of parents and family other than the caregivers that she will soon be leaving.  One main suggestion that our International Adoption Dr has given us is that Chad and I, with the help of her brothers, do all of Josie's care, affection and holding for a while.  This will be hard as we know there are many family members and friends that are anxiously waiting to meet and love our sweet girl. The importance of this is that she has never had parents show her all the affection and love the biological children normally get.  If we play the "pass the baby game" she will be much more likely to look toward others in the future, even strangers for the affection that normally comes from parents.  We are told that the first few months when she is going thru the loss of everything familiar to her will be a critical time to form a bond that normally forms at birth.  She is a very sweet girl and we know the bonds will come with time, and when it does we will be anxious to share her with family and friends.

Travel Schedule

We have out tickets bought and are ready to go get our girl!  This last trip is a long one and we really want one of us to be here with our boys as much as possible right before we bring Josie home so our travel is a little different this time.  Chad leaves tomorrow (Tue).  During this time he will be applying for Josie's passport and doing some paperwork.  I will then leave Sat with my Mom and one of my Sisters.  We will go get Josie on Monday, (Valentines Day).  Chad will stay with us until Wed when he will leave with my sister to come home to our boys.  At that time my Mom, Josie and I will ride the train to Moscow for the last bit of paperwork and will then bring her home on Sat the 19th.  Our boys are very excited to be going with Chad to meet us at the airport to meet their sister.