For the Love of Each Other

Help needed for a church friend!

2012-03-05T11:54:00.003-08:00

I know most of you have been reading our blog to follow the adoption process of Julia and Aaron, to watch how they have thrived and grown here at home, and to again, follow the story that is unfolding as we are in the adoption process again with Marina! But today I am taking a break from my usual updates about our family, our kids, and our adoption process (which is going fairly smoothly at this point). Today I am asking for prayers for a church friend of ours and for any financial assistance you feel you can give to help.......

His name is Greg Brown and he is in need of an emergency heart transplant. Here is a picture of Greg with his wife Tiffany and a little bit of history:

In 2002, Greg came down with a virus that attacked his heart. He was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy in January of 2003. By 2009, Greg’s heart would no longer function well enough to support any activity. Though Greg vowed that his illness would not define him, his failing health forced him to stop working in October of 2006. Greg continued to fight the effects of the disease by staying active in the lives of his children and friends. However, in 2009 Greg’s heart would no longer function well enough to support any activity. Greg was very fortunate to be a qualified candidate for a left ventricular assist device (L-VAD). The surgery and device gave Greg an additional two years of life that he might not have otherwise had. Unfortunately that device is no longer functioning properly and Greg now needs a heart transplant to survive. He is currently on the waiting list for a heart transplant at University of Virginia Hospital.

First and foremost, we ask that you all keep Greg, Tiffany, and their children in your prayers during this trying time for them. We also want to give anyone who feels led to help the Brown family financially to be aware of his need and to be given the opportunity to donate here. He is raising money required by the transplant program prior to having a heart transplant. This money, we've been told, is necessary to ensure the patient has the funds to cover the cost of the anti-rejection and other drugs after the transplant. He needs to raise this money to quickly qualify to be on the list. Please prayerfully consider donating to help this family. Thank you so much.

Marina

2012-02-26T14:44:00.009-08:00

Today I finally have some time to share with you all how Marina worked her way into our hearts. The story starts way back in April of 2011 when I was on my second trip to Julia and Aaron's orphanage to bring them home. I traveled back with my good friend Aimee (who is set to travel next week to bring her 3 babies home from another country in EE....Yay!!!!) since my husband could not take any more time off of work. We were also there with another family from our church, the Hinz family, who were on their first trip to adopt Dusty and Sonya. It was such a blessing to be able to enjoy our orphanage visits with good friends from our church family.

One morning, John and Amy Hinz, my friend Aimee and I, were at the orphanage visiting our four kids. All of the sudden this cute, little, pixie looking girl came running down the hallway from out of her room and into the area where we were playing. At first, she was running around and flitting like she wasn't sure what she was going to do with this freedom she just acquired. At this point, she does not interact with us....she was like a bird who just got let out of a cage. She was on the go, but with no direction. We all just sat there snickering about the fact that she escaped from her nannies and wondered how long it was going to take them to figure out she was on the loose. We certainly weren't going to say anything. Our plan was just to keep an eye on her and let her have a little fun. After all, this was probably the highlight of her day! Eventually, she did come to see what we had to play with, but still did not sit in one place for very long. She was continually off to the next toy. Maybe she had done this before and knew she only had a short period of time before she was caught and taken back to her room? Or maybe it was simply sensory overload? Either way, it was obvious she wanted to make the most of it!! We all thought she was adorable and that the whole situation was very funny. None of us knew who this little girl was or even recognized her as one of the children listed on Reece's Rainbow. All of about 5 or 10 minutes went by and one of the nannies finally came running out and carried her back to her room. For the rest of time there, I never saw her again. Julia was in a different room from Marina and Aaron lived a different building.

Aimee got this picture of her, as the nanny carried her back to her room.

Fast forward to January 1, 2012. Eight months had gone by. A little boy from Julia's room was in a terrible situation. His name is Valentin. I met him when I was there. I did not get to spend a lot of time in Julia's room, so I only saw him briefly. He is 6 years old, diagnosed with cerebral palsy and is declining rapidly from the life of being confined in a crib. A family that was to adopt him, met him, and felt that they were not equipped to handle what they experienced and decided they could not adopt him. Heartbreaking, most definitely. But God always has a plan to bring good out of the most dire of circumstances. He would use me to rally the troops for this poor little boy. I sat down for a couple of hours on the evening of New Year's Day and wrote this post. And that night, I prayed very hard that the Lord would move someone to read it, fall in love with him and KNOW that he was theirs!! My prayer was answered. The Ashton family got in contact with me after having read my post. They wanted to know everything about him. It reminded me of when I read the post Adeye had written about Julia. I just had to talk to the person who had met Julia and yearned to know everything about this sweet girl, her orphanage, the conditions, the country, the experience. I knew I was going to get her. I could tell by talking with Jamie Ashton that they were going to get Valentin, even before they officially committed to him. Praise God, they are well on their way to rescuing him. God has moved mountains for Valentin, just as he did with Julia. It is simply amazing and humbling to watch this happen again.....all for His glory and honor.

But little did I know that God was working another plan, intertwined in all of this. Because of this experience of advocating for a child who needed a voice, it got me thinking about whether it was in God's plan for us to adopt again. I knew that Valentin was not meant for us, even though the thought crossed my mind. It was clear I was to do something, but it was not to rescue him ourselves. But were we to consider another? Should we be praying for God to lead us to a child? It couldn't hurt......so I did....and God answered.......

In just four short days, I was compiling pictures to put in this blog post introducing Valentin's family. I went to Reece's Rainbow (RR) to grab the picture of Valentin. While on Valentin's write up and picture, I scrolled down a little just to peruse the pictures of the other kids from this same region. The picture below Valentin's was Marina's. I knew I had seen her picture before. Something looked familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I read her description. I felt some emotional stirrings and I started considering the possibility. I remember when I first read about Julia, I felt like the "considering the possibility" was really more like a "done deal." It is a nervous, excited, warm feeling that makes you go from just looking at a picture of a little child to instantly knowing you are looking at a picture of your child. If you've experienced this, you know what I am talking about. It's difficult to describe in words.

But this time, as compared to when I first learned of Julia, I didn't have someone to call that had just been there to fill me in on every detail. I had even better. I had been following the Eubanks' family blog and their progress of adopting two girls from this orphanage. They were there making daily visits to the orphanage and so I decided to send Carrie Eubanks a Facebook message and see what she could tell me about Marina. What's really funny at this point, is that I still haven't put together that the picture of Marina on RR is the same girl that I met when I was there. The picture of her on RR is very outdated and she looks much younger.

Reece's Rainbow picture of Marina

So when Carrie responded to me about Marina, one of the things she mentioned was that she is always escaping out of her room to come play with them during their visits. I instantly know who this little girl is now. And within a few days, Carrie had sent me a new picture of her.

Thanks Carrie for taking this picture for me!

Before I go any further, I need to bring my wonderful husband into this unfolding story. Ever since this started with Valentin, I had been sharing everything with him. And although he had not said anything to me prior to this, he now tells me that before I had even mentioned we consider adopting Marina, he had been feeling nudgings that we should consider another child. The only reason he had not mentioned this to me yet was because he wasn't sure whether I would be open to having a 7th child so soon after going from 4 to 6 kids. He felt that with my being a stay at home mom, carrying the bulk of the work that comes with raising 6 children, his one and only factor in this decision is whether or not I was up for it. And I will let you all know that he does not give himself enough credit. Yes, I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom.....but I could not acccomplish half of what I do without him. Even though the process and the adjustment of bringing Julia and Aaron home has at times been difficult, hectic and trying, it has also been fulfilling, wonderful, and rewarding. Going through the rough spots has brought Steve and I closer together in our marriage. More than ever, we work as a team, complimenting each other in our strengths and weaknesses. Julia and Aaron have been an incredible blessing to our whole family and we cannot imagine life without them.

So now that we have made the connection between the picture of Marina on RR and the little girl I met in the orphanage, we both felt even more drawn to her. Over the next few days we continued to pray about it, mentioned it to the kids, and discussed our desire to adopt Marina with our family and friends. Will they think we are crazy? Will we have the same support we did with Julia and Aaron? Amazingly, and not surprisingly, YES!! The only thing left now is for us to again, say "yes, we will go" and make the official commitment. On a Sunday morning at church, we shared with John and Amy Hinz of our plans to commit to Marina. They remembered this little girl as well. They were very happy for us and Amy mentioned to me that she would look and see if she had taken any pictures of her. Later that night, as Steve and I were turning in, we were chatting about this big decision. At one point, I noticed my phone started blinking letting me know I had a new message. It was an email from Amy Hinz. She had sent me a picture that she had taken of Marina the day she played with us. When I opened the picture, my heart stopped. It was a picture of Marina on my lap!

Marina and her soon to be mommy

I had not specificly remembered that she had stopped to sit with me and blow bubbles. I was amazed to think that back then, God knew! And He knew what it would mean to us to see this picture at the point where we were deciding on taking this leap of faith. It was all we needed to know that this was right.....that she was meant to be a part of us. We trust that it is His plan to wholeheartedly welcome into our family, the blessing of another fatherless child. With His guidance and provision, Marina will no longer live without the love, security, and warmth of a family.

And as an added bonus, Tatiana, our lawyer/facilitator for adoptions in the region, also sent me two more pictures of Marina. Thanks Tatiana!!

As I wrap up this post, we would like to thank each and every one of you for all of the support that was provided throughout Julia and Aaron's adoption process. Thank you for all of your kind, encouraging and uplifting words and prayers over the last 10 months that they have been home. We sincerely appreciate and rely on them. We ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers as we embark on this new journey. We look forward to sharing it again.

Snow day!

2012-02-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

I know I said I would post about Marina in more detail, but we had a really busy weekend. I am working on it!! We just received all of our dossier documents last night....so let the paper-chasing being : ) But in the meantime, I wanted to share some pictures of the kids from today. Last night was the first real snow accumulation we have had here in Virginia this winter. Aaron has been WAITING and WAITING for snow that he can go out and play in. He was extremely excited and had so much fun. It's so funny that in many of the pictures I take of him, his eyes are closed because he smiles so big!! Here they are.....and I promise to post more about Marina coming into our hearts soon.

Aaron, Evan, Camren (friend), and Regan

Ethan

Aaron

Regan

Evan

We're adopting again!!

2012-02-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

We have been waiting to share this exciting news, but were asked by Reece's Rainbow to wait until they set up our FSP (although she was moved to My Family Found Me last week). It was listed just this afternoon. You can look at it by clicking here. I am itching to write more, but we have a busy evening planned where our church is offering babysitting while parents go out on a "date night." So I promise to give much more in the next few days, but we have been anxious to share this news that has been unfolding ever since I advocated for Valentin. Her name is Marina and she is from the same orphanage as Julia and Aaron. I have actually met her and played with her. Her picture on RR is very outdated, so I am putting up two more pictures of her. The first one below is from when I met her back in April of 2011 and the other one is a picture that Tatiana, our facilitator/lawyer from her region took just after Christmas.

Aaron's 7th Birthday Party

2012-02-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

Aaron celebrated his first birthday with us this weekend. His birthday was Sunday, but we had his party on Saturday at American Family Fitness (our gym) at his request. The biggest reason he wanted his party at AFF is because he LOVES to swim. He, his siblings and friends got to swim and play for an hour, followed by pizza, cake, crafts and gifts. You can tell by the pictures and his famous smile that he had a blast. But then again, when does he not? He is almost always smiling, happy and having a great time. Even one of his preschool teachers today tells me, "I just love Aaron.....he is so sweet!" He really is. In fact, it is truthfully hard to get that smile off his face even when he is in trouble and we are unhappy with him. Anyway, here are some pictures of Saturday. And be waiting for another blog update very soon.....we have some big news to share : )

Ten months with our smiling Aaron

2012-01-30T15:13:00.000-08:00

Mommy meeting our boy for the first time!

Daddy meeting Aaron

Visit to orphanage ~ March 2011

He is such a clown : )

Love this profile!

Naughty boy : (

More smiles....

Building a masterpiece

Checking out daddy's scruff

Barely letting mommy help him

BIG smile

Passport pictures taken this day

Gotcha Day.....no more orphanage clothes!

Getting his final instructions from Tatiana

Train ride from Kharkov to Kiev ~ He's setting up his toys

Waiting for his first take off from Kiev to Frankfurt

One of his first few days home in America

A ride with his new big brother

Building marble works with Ethan

Helping mommy do laundry ~ He still does this!

Playing with Julia when she was in the hospital

Putting silverware away ~ He still does this job too!

Swimming with Grandpa

Playing in Regan's room.....obviously : /

Kings Dominion amusement park

Evan and Aaron

Melissa and Aaron

Aaron and Uncle Ricky at the Outer Banks, NC

Regan, mommy, and Aaron

Daddy and Aaron

Aaron being wheeled to his eye surgery

Regan and Aaron at Forever Families Picnic

Aaron loves the button table at preschool

LOVE this picture of Aaron and Evan

Aaron on Santa's lap

Ethan, Evan, and Aaron

Daddy and the boys

Ethan and Aaron as shepherds in Christmas Eve service

Aaron on Christmas morning

Aaron asked Santa for a truck like mommy's

Ethan watching Aaron open one of his Christmas gifts

Aaron made a "campfire" and his toys are sitting around it

Aaron at the March for Life in DC

March for Life

2012-01-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

Steve and I

Kacey

Ethan

Aaron

Julia

Regan

Evan

The whole crew who marched for life with us!

Look at the difference!

2012-01-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

One of our first visits to the orphanage in March 2011

She is watching Aaron play

Proud daddy!

Showing us how strong she is!

Early on we discovered she LOVES hands.

The sun shining in the patio was hard on her eyes.

Second trip ~ Playing with Aaron, Dusty, and Sonja

One of our last visits before Gotcha Day

Gotcha Day: April 25, 2011

All dressed and ready to go!

Finally asleep on the long leg over the Atlantic Ocean

Getting some love from Regan ~ May 2011

Big brother, Ethan with Julia ~ May 2011

"little" sister, Regan with Julia ~ May 2011

Camping in June 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

October 2011

Getting herself to sitting position ~ Nov 2011

November 2011

Julia's 5th birthday party ~ Nov. 20, 2011

So many wonderful presents

Family and friends at her party

Evan, Julia, Aaron, Ethan, and Regan on Santa's lap

Christmas Eve 2011

January 2011

I'm a lil' Angel!

10 months home.....look at me now : )

Amazingly, Julia has doubled her weight and grown 4 inches over these last 10 months. When we first visited with Julia in the orphanage she couldn't even roll over from back to front without help. Now she can get herself to crawling position and sitting position. We still can't get her to crawl as she is very proficient at getting around on her back. But she will occasionally play sitting up in her play pen. We are in the process of getting her into the preschool program in public school where she will receive more therapy and hopefully thrive and show us all she can do!

Introducing Valentin's Family!!

2012-01-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

Once again, praising God......IT IS OFFICIAL!!! Valentin is being rescued. He has a family coming for him! And his family has spent countless hours over the last few days working on committing to sweet Valentin and getting a blog started. Here they are.....The Ashton family.

The Ashton family has three children, two 3 year old boys and a 2 year old girl. One of their 3 year old boys was adopted from China with spina bifida and they just got home in October from adopting a 2 year old little girl with cerebral palsy, also from China. Here is a picture of their 3 blessings.

The Ashton family has started a blog, for all of us to follow them on their mission to rescue Valentin. The link to their blog is http://headoptedusfirst.blogspot.com/.

As I have mentioned in my last post, they are going to need all the financial help they can get. In their first blog post, they write.....

"Valentin is facing EMINENT TRANSFER to a mental institution and we have been told to prepare to adopt him from there because TRANSFER IS LIKELY INEVITABLE. We have also been told to prepare ourselves emotionally for what we will see. If the 'laying room' is horrendous then the mental institution is horrifying. This means we must move QUICKLY to rescue him.

The truth is, we need your help…he needs your help…and he needs it soon. As part of the body of Christ we know that we do not do anything alone. This is not a story of the Ashton Family going to adopt a boy; this is the story of the body of Christ working to rescue a child dearly beloved by God. We are doing everything humanly possible to complete all the paperwork, research his needs, find local doctors and resources for him, plan for travel and meeting him, plan for his return, etc... The one thing we cannot do…is pay for it all. And it is expensive. Considering Christ died for our adoption, $25,000 does not seem like too much.

We have paid for two adoptions in the last two years and have exhausted every financial resource we have. We know God will perform a miracle here and we are trusting in that with everything we have. We do not like nor are we good at asking for help, but hopefully we are wise enough and humble enough to know when we need it...to know when Valentin needs it. We know the sacrifice we are asking you to make by donating and we do not take even the smallest donation for granted. Your prayers are just as treasured."

God's army is coming together to fulfill what he has called us to do......"to look after orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:27)." God is moving mountains to pave the way for this family to travel to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to bring this 6 year old boy into the love of a home.....to no longer languish in a lonely crib. Please pray for Valentin and the Ashton family during this journey. Pray specifically for all the paperwork to fall quickly into place, for all the travel plans and the many arrangement that need to be made happen smoothly and as easily as possible, and that Valentin can hang on for a few more months and not deteriorate any further. All of this would be so much easier for this family if they didn't have to worry about fundraising. Valentin's grant fund has been growing. Please join God's army in rescuing Valentin by visiting their blog by clicking here and donate to his tax deductible grant fund on Reece's Rainbow.

A Family For Valentin......

2012-01-05T06:08:00.000-08:00

Thank you God in heaven!! Our prayers have been heard and answered.....there IS a family working on committing to adopt Valentin. We have been in touch with this family over the last few days and just last night they informed us they are going to adopt him. As soon as they are "officially" committed to him and have started a blog, we will post again : )

The power of prayer is amazing. There isn't a mountain too big for God to move! We are rejoicing for Valentin. And we are rejoicing with this family who will be so incredibly blessed to be his family.

One thing I will tell you all is that this family has, in a relatively short period of time, adopted twice! Their financial resources for an adoption that will need to get moving quickly is somewhat depleted. They will need help financially to get Valentin home as quickly as possible. Please consider donating to his grant fund on Reece's Rainbow by clicking here.

Valentin needs HELP!!

2012-01-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

When we began our journey to adopt Julia, I had many conversations with Adeye, who had adopted from the same orphanage, about what she had experienced. It was so hard to hear what these children's lives are like. Hell on earth......the malnutrition/starvation, the sedation, the loneliness, the lack of love and affection, the boredom, the endless rocking (self-soothing), the head banging, the chewing on crib bars. It is a very sickening reality. For many of us, it is easier to pretend the problem of thousands of fatherless children wasting away in orphanages doesn't exist. Or we convince ourselves "it is not something I can do, someone else will go."

I needed to hear these things beforehand. Maybe I thought I could prepare myself. I knew before we arrived at the orphanage that the hardest part of this journey was going to be getting a glimpse of the conditions that these children are in. And then have to leave them behind. It is terribly sad and horrible that any child be confined to cribs with minimal care for their entire lives.

One little boy, I found continually chewed and gnawed on the crib bars.

This poor little boy, I did not see awake EVER!

And there was one boy kept in a crib in Julia's room that I won't forget because I could not understand why he was in there. This room is reserved for "the worst of the worst." The children with the most severe special needs. They are deemed completely worthless......the children that nobody would ever adopt. They are literally kept hidden from the world, except for a few of us who get a very small glimpse. Even volunteer therapy groups are discouraged from going into this room. They are told not to bother. It didn't appear that this boy's special needs were anywhere near severe enough to warrant his fate in this awful room. He also looked entirely too big to be kept in such a small crib. He was always quiet and calm. He looked at me, seemed engaged, and could move around in his crib as his gaze followed me around the room. This is a five year old little boy we now know is called Valentin. He is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, just like our Aaron (Sergey). If a family doesn't come for him soon, he will "age" out of the orphanage and be placed in an institution, where there will be virtually no hope for him AND he will live under worse conditions.

There was a family committed to adopt him. They knew very little about him and had virtually no medical information on him. And without anyone spending any quality time with him in this room, it was difficult for them to know what to expect. From what I know, he was transferred to this room about a year ago. Sadly, spending every day in this tiny crib in a small room with about 7 other cribs jammed in side by side and around the perimeter, has been devastating and detrimental to him.

I have heard that he is not the same child he was when he was first transferred to this room or even since I was there. The family that was to adopt him learned some medical information about him when they received their referral once in country. What they learned about him at this appointment caused them to become concerned, as they have a large family of 6 children, many of whom were adopted from other areas of this Eastern European country. They were concerned about whether they could handle the more severe special needs they had learned about. They continued on, with trepidation, to his region where they would meet him. They visited him twice, one time for 20 minutes and the next for a couple of hours. Even spending time out of his room was too much for this poor boy. Extreme overstimulation. He was found to have screaming fits brought on by seemingly nothing. And they would stop just as inexplicably. He would get agitated and start banging his head on his crib or anything he could. From when I was there, it appears he has also lost a lot of mobility, no doubt from being so confined.

This has been an extremely difficult time for this family. They have prayerfully decided that they cannot adopt him. How hard this must have been for them. They fell in love with a picture of a beautiful boy.

They completed a homestudy, filled out hours of paperwork, spent lots of money, traveled to the country, and were left with this terrible decision. This is a risk that many of us have faced when adopting from this country. I am sure this has been a gut-wrenching ordeal as they realized he is going to need a family that will be able to give him more than they can. They had to leave him there having seen his circumstances. I ask that you all keep this family in your prayers. They know that his living conditions have made this cognitively functioning child that I saw, into a child who has become disturbed. A child that has to be strapped down with padding to keep him from hurting himself.

No child deserves this kind of life. I know they are praying hard for a family to come for him in time......a family that can give this child the quality and quantity of time it will take to try to undo this damage, if it is even possible at all. It will take a very special family.

I am asking for everyone who reads this post to pray for this little boy. Pray that a family can come for him. The Lord places the lonely in families. We have seen it happen over and over again. We have witnessed the most "unadoptable" children placed in loving families. Our own Julia, was considered an "unadoptable" child. She was a frail four year old child weighing 15 pounds 8 oz. (fully clothed) with a diagnosis (Cockayne Syndrome) that gave her a life span of 4-7 years. The Lord brought her to us. We answered His call with "yes, we will go......" The road was not easy. When we brought her home she could not even roll over from her back to her front. She had never known anything else but life on her back. She is now a happy, energetic five year old, who has doubled her weight in 8 months and can get herself to sitting and crawling position. Miraculously, we have found that she does not have Cockayne Syndrome. Our prayers were answered.

Nothing is impossible with Christ. There is power in prayer. The Lord will hear our prayers for Valentin too! Please share his story. Donate to his grant fund on Reece's Rainbow by clicking here. All donations are tax deductible. No amount donated is too small. Thousands can be raised if everyone who reads this donates only $10.

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families...." Psalm 68:5-6

Family Christmas Pictures

2011-12-23T14:59:00.000-08:00

Julia's 5th birthday party

2011-11-13T16:19:00.000-08:00

Julia almost sitting up!!!!

2011-11-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh! I am so excited : ) I came into our family room just a few minutes ago and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw our 4 year old daughter, Regan, playing in Julia's new play area we set up for her. The reason I thought this was Regan, was because what I saw was someone in a "sitting up" position. But it wasn't.....it was Julia!!! She still had her hands on the ground, propping herself in this position, but WOW....go Julia! I managed to run and get my camera really fast and got two pictures before she rolled over to her back. I have shown pictures here on our blog of Julia up on all fours, but she had not yet started heading to the sitting up position. She has been loving this play pen area with colorful foam mat and lots of toys from Beyond Play. Our Julia is getting stronger and stronger everyday. Oh, and before I forget.....she is now 28 lbs. 2 oz. That's up 12 lbs. 10 oz. from her weight of 15 lbs. 8 oz. when came home with her almost 6 1/2 months ago. She has also gone from 18m clothes to 3T. We are amazed. Praise the Lord!

Renewing our vows (August 13, 2011)

2011-11-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Saying Goodbye to the Salems

2011-10-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

One year ago today, our family met the Salem family. Steve and I were sharing the story of Julia at our church. Anthony, Adeye and family came to show their support and even said a few words. Over the year, we have seen them several times (they live one hour south of us) and have kept in touch by email, hospital visits with Julia, and phone calls. Adeye even made it to the airport to welcome us home with Julia and Aaron. The Salem family will always hold a special place in our hearts, as God used them to lead us to the two beautiful children we brought into our family.

Yesterday, we attended a surprise party to say farewell to the Salem family as they are moving across the country in a few weeks time. They will be missed very much and by so many people. We join in prayer with many others for their safe travel and many blessings as they continue to serve the Lord in all they do.

Three moms and 6 children, all from the same orphanage

Me, Adeye, Amy and kids (clockwise) : Julia, Harper, Sonya, Aaron, Dusty, and Hailee

Long overdue update

2011-10-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hello blogging friends! Sorry it has been so long since an update : ( Obviously, the reason is simple: busy, busy, busy!!!

When we brought these two sweet children home, we were wrapping up the school year.   Between being gone for 6 weeks last spring and adjusting to two more kids with many doctor's appts., I really slacked off on the homeschooling. So, I am trying to be more consistent and "catch up." So please continue to be patient with the blog updates.

Aaron is going to 4 year old preschool and LOVING it! Every night before he goes to bed, he asks if he is going the next day.   His teacher, Mrs. B has CP also, and she just adores him. I think sometimes she worries too much about how he is going to be able to do things.....a lit bit protective! He and Regan, our four year old daughter, are best buddies. They really enjoy going to preschool together.

Aaron has had surgery on his eyes, but we think it will have to be done again. About 5 days after the surgery, we could see them coming straight to the front and then they actually came in and were crossed. The dr. said this is normal and that they would correct themselves over some time. He also said the longer they stayed "crossed" the more likely they will stay straight permanently once they straighten. But now, they have drifted back out. He has a follow up with the dr. next Wednesday. I'm sure he will recommend he do the surgery again, where he will inject more botox into the outer part of the eye to "immobilize" the outer eye muscles and cause the inner muscles to tighten and pull the eyes straight. This requires visual feedback from the brain. This is why it is not an exact science. But once they get the right amount of the injections into his eyes, it should be a permanent fix.

We have also been taking Aaron up to Shriner's Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. So far we have made the four hour trip twice. The first was to have an initial evaluation. The second was for a motion lab study. This was a two hour appt. where they do a series of tests and evaluations to guide the surgeon's plan for operating on his legs. We will have to go up for a pre-op visit sometime soon, as this 4 hour surgery is coming up on Nov. 18.

Julia is doing very well also. She had surgery to put in a permanent GI tube. This is so much easier for her and us than the NG tube. She is still gaining weight, though I am not sure of her exact weight. It's somewhere over 26 pounds. She has had some problems with reflux, constipation, and wretching. But we have gotten all of these under control with the surgery, antacid meds, and Miralax. During the surgery, the dr. discovered a large hiatal hernia which he was able to repair.  So things are going much more smoothly with her and she is not suffering from so many unpleasant physical problems.

I guess the most important information to pass along to you all is that the genetics department finally got back to us about Julia's "diagnosis."  At the moment, they are still working on writing up a report with all the information in it. I did talk with one of the genetic counselors on the phone a couple of weeks ago and they told us they have found several unbalanced translocations in studying her chromosomes. But none of them are on the section of the 5th chromosome that would indicate she has Cockayne Syndrome.   There is some defect on the 5th chromosome, but lower or higher (I can't remember) than where the CS defect would be. What it does point to is another disease that isn't named after a doctor.  They said it is called 5Q14.  However, this is not a complete diagnosis as there are several other unbalanced translocations between chromosomes 9-16. So at this point, it sounds like we don't really know exactly what she has, but we know that it doesn't look as though it is Cockayne Syndrome. This could mean that her life expectancy is not as definitive or shortened as we thought. We knew from the beginning that we would love her and give her the best quality of life we could give her, for however long the Lord keeps her with us. This has not changed. Medically, it really doesn't matter. With or without a definitive diagnosis, we will treat her symptomatically. And most importantly, she has a family who loves her and will care for her needs, even without having a definite diagnosis.

Wheeling him to eye surgery

Best buddies!

First day of preschool for Aaron and Regan

Button table....one of Aaron's favorite activities at preschool

Movie time!

She always wants her hands in her mouth

She is ticklish under her arms!

Look how strong I am now : )

Daddy's turn to tickle

Why do you keep flashing that in my face?

All six kids in one picture

2011-09-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

They are at least all looking at the camera!

Beautifully plump Julia

Always smiling Aaron

Julia's first haircut

2011-08-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! So I was just finishing up giving Julia a bath, getting her dressed and combing her hair and I came to the decision that the bangs NEEDED to be cut! Trying to pull all of her bangs back into a hair tie or clipping to the side was not working. The ties/clips fall out and then I am afraid she will choke on them lying around her. And her hair in front is always in her face and looks very "bed head." Her hair, from the cowlick on top of her head, always wants to fall forward. So I thought it might be easier to comb some of the hair to the front, cut them across and try to train the rest to clip to the side. Here are the pictures of the end result. BTW, this is the first time since her surgery that she has been in the exersaucer. She has definitely missed it!

Julia's New Do

2011-08-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on Julia and Aaron. Julia had surgery last Monday to put in her permanent GI tube. She came home last Thursday and is healing and doing very well. It is wonderful to not have that NG tube taped to her face all the time and I am sure she is more comfortable not having a tube down her nose and throat! Her hair is slowly getting longer. It's hard to decide what to do with it. She is still most comfortable and happy laying down. Unfortunately, this is conducive to messy, matted hair! I guess this picture below shows my first attempt at keeping her growing bangs out of her face without having to cut them. We'll see how it goes......

Aaron and I are taking a trip up to Philadelphia this coming Monday afternoon. We will stay over up there and his evaluation by the pediatric orthopedic center at Shriner's is on Tuesday, August 23. The following Monday he has outpatient surgery to straighten his eyes.

On top of all of this, I am in the process of getting everything ready for this next school year. Kacey and I started 7th grade as of today and Ethan will be starting 2nd grade as soon as I can get his curriculum organized and ready to go. As I have mentioned before, Aaron and Regan are going to attend 4 year old preschool at our church, which thankfully doesn't start until after Labor Day weekend. This will be three (MWF) mornings a week......we are sure they are both going to enjoy this!

2 Days at the Beach!

2011-08-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Regan

Aaron and Uncle Ricky

Aaron

Bathing beauty(in the shade of course!)

Evan

Uncle Curt, Uncle Bret, Steve, Carey, Uncle Ricky and Aunt Laura

Ethan

Kacey

Enjoying summer!

2011-07-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness.....things have finally started to slow down so we can enjoy summer! It has been a crazy, busy last couple of months with finishing school, winding down on school year activities, and many doctors appointments. First of all, we want to say that Julia and Aaron are doing wonderfully, better than anyone could have ever expected : ) I know so many of you who follow our blog are itching for an update, so here goes!

First......in the picture below, look how full Julia's face is!!! Yesterday at a doctor's appointment she weighed 23 lbs. 7 oz. That's right.....the starving little 15 lb. 8 oz. girl has put on 8 pounds in 2 1/2 months!

By far, the most common question I get is: "So, do they know if she has Cockayne Syndrome?" As of now, we still do not have any conclusive diagnosis. Genetics at MCV is still working on it. I have been on the phone with the genetic counselor a couple of times and they have some information, but the lab is not finished with their study and have not come to a conclusive diagnosis yet. At this point, I need to provide them with some more blood sample from her for them to complete their study. All I will say for now, is that what they have so far, is leading them to believe it is not Cockayne Syndrome, but possibly something mimicking some CS symptoms. I am going to hold off on any more details until they have completed their study. Regardless of any diagnosis, she will be treated symptomatically. Last week, Julia had an appointment with the GI doctor and he says she is strong enough for the surgery to put in a permanent GI tube. Yesterday's appointment was a consultation with the doctor who will be doing the laparoscopic surgery. It is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 8. Please pray for our sweet, big girl on that day. She will be in the hospital for a couple of days, provided she is tolerating the feeds well. It's a long story, but even though she was taking bottles pretty well for the first few weeks we had here home, she at some point just stopped. We have tried to reintroduce bottles periodically and she refuses them. And soft foods like applesauce and yogurt cause her to throw up. It really is not fun trying to get her to eat or drink a bottle. She has had enough struggles in her life. She doesn't need to get stressed out over eating. It is not her digestive system that is the problem....she is metabolizing food wonderfully as it gets pumped into her by her NG tube. She just won't drink out of a bottle anymore.

The important thing is that she is feeling better, gaining weight and getting loved. She is getting stronger and stronger all the time. When we first came home she couldn't even roll over onto her tummy from her back. Now she can roll to her tummy and get herself up on all fours. It's hard to get a picture of her in the act of doing this. Every time she gets herself on all fours I never seem to have my camera handy. By the time I run and get it, she has already rolled over to her back. And just like a baby, when you attempt to repose them, it is never successful. The pics below are the best we have been able to get so far. She doesn't go anywhere (yet!), but she rocks on her haunches and has moved her hand forward one step before flopping over to her back. She has always been strong, even when she was a starving 15 pounds. We were always amazed what she could do physically with so little nourishment. The doctors were not even sure how she was still alive. But now with 8 more pounds on her, she is trying to do more and more. First we started noticing that she would try to pull herself up to sitting position in her reclining seat. She grabbed hold of the toy bar and would pull herself up. So we decided to get her an exersaucer. She loves this. Now that she has padding over her tail bone and is able to sit more upright, we also bought her a high chair so she can sit with us at meals.

Julia also LOVES the pool. This surprised us as she is not too fond of her baths and she is extremely sensitive to sunlight. But 4th of July weekend we put her sunglasses on and took her out to the pool late in the afternoon when there was some shade. She had a blast! She was kicking and moving about and laughing!! I think I had her out in the water for a good hour. Water therapy : ) Then a couple of days ago we had her out in a floaty thing and she was intentionally putting her whole face in water. At first, I was nervous about it, so I kept trying to stop her from dunking her face. I also was not sure if she was doing it intentionally or not. But she kept throwing herself forward and I eventually just let her. She WAS clearly doing it on purpose and was loving it! When she came up out of the water, she was squealing with delight and went back to dunking her face in again. All the while, she is kicking and moving her legs around underneath the float. It was so cute!!

Now for Aaron......he is doing fantastic! He is so happy and has such a great sense of humor. He is about 50/50 now with his Russian and English. At first it seemed like the improvements were so slow. It amazes me how much he improves everyday. The communication barrier that was such a frustration in the beginning, has virtually disappeared. Part of the adjustment for him was learning the routine and expectations of things around here. Since he knows "what comes next" it makes it easier to give him instructions and expect him to accomplish what he is told to do. He is very cooperative and obedient. Although, he has started asking me "Why?" when I tell him things. No doubt he picked that from the other kids. Another bad habit he has picked up is bossing his siblings around. He has learned that from his new siblings as well. So when they get annoyed by it, I just have to point out that he learned it from them. When he does something wrong to one of his brothers or sisters, all I have to do is give him a look, and he quickly looks to the offended party and says "Sorry." He is very good about cleaning up toys when told to do so. He eats very well, but still chews very slowly if it's something that's not soft and mushy. He has the most trouble with meats like chicken breasts or pork chops. If he doesn't like something nowadays, he lets me know and indicates that he doesn't want to finish his plate, by pushing it away and making a yucky face. All I have to do is tell him that he doesn't have to eat it, but if he doesn't he won't get dessert. I then put whatever dessert we are having right in front of him and instantly he wolfs down whatever it is he didn't like without any problems. He enjoys our nightly devotions. He knows all the words to "Jesus Loves Me" and our bedtime prayer. He has been going to Sunday school without either of us with him and is doing fine. He spent a week going to Vacation Bible School at our church. This was his first organized activity with other kids outside of our family. He loved every minute of it. His favorite activities around here are playing in the backyard (sandbox) and swimming in the pool. He asks me every morning, "Pool? Bathing suit?" He goes under water and can hold his breath for short periods of time. He likes to climb up the pool ladder and then flop back into the water with a big splash. He also enjoys going down the kiddie slide. There are some pictures of this down below. Because his lower body is still so stiff and rigid, he always lands in the water with his whole body in the shape of a banana. He lands on his back every time. It doesn't seem to bother him, as he comes up out of the water with that big smile on his face.

For the rest of this summer, we have several medical appointments for him. He has seen a pediatric ophthalmologist twice and right now we are waiting to hear when they have his botox injections scheduled to straighten his eyes. This should be in the next few weeks. We also have an appointment up at Shriner's in Philadelphia on Aug. 23rd to have him evaluated by their pediatric orthopedic center. We were kind of glad this wasn't able to be scheduled until closer to the end of summer. If he has to have surgery, we didn't want him to be unable to play in the pool his first summer here.

For the fall, we have him registered to attend our church's 4 year old preschool program with his sister Regan. Holding him back academically 2 years will give him some more time to learn English. We felt he would benefit from this, as children from orphanages typically display varying degrees of developmental delays. He seems to be very intelligent, but there are no doubt social delays and he is small in size for his age. He is only a little bit bigger than Regan, who is 4 years old.

Evan, Ethan, and Aaron.....the boys!

Buddies.....sometimes : )

Up the ladder....

.....getting seated.....

......and down he goes!!

Aaron's first dentist appointment.

Jody and Aaron

Camping and Kings Dominion

2011-06-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Julia had a follow up appointment with her GI doctor. She weighed a whopping 20 pounds!! That's 4 1/2 pounds since we got her home....praise the Lord : ) She has another appt. in a month, at which point they will look at scheduling her to get a GI tube placed. We have finally gotten them on our health insurance. We are looking forward to getting Julia some glasses and scheduling Aaron's botox injections to help straighten his eyes. Now that we have gotten over the major hurdle with Julia's severe malnutrition, we are going to start getting Aaron the orthopedic appts. to see what steps we can take to help him walk better.

We have been busy trying to finish up school with our oldest daughter, Kacey. Unfortunately, I will be doing school with Ethan probably until the end of July. He was basically without school while I was gone for 6 weeks. Kacey had her Spring Dance show this passed weekend. But dance is not over for the year. She is finding out any day whether her teachers think she is ready to go on point in ballet. This means ballet classes for most of the summer. Regan's preschool has ended for the summer.

I'm so wanting things to wind down and calm down, but with 6 kids, even if the running around ends....the craziness at home does not! Evan, our two year old is still, by far, having the hardest time adjusting to 2 new siblings. He still wants so much mommy time and there is just not enough of me to go around. I need prayers for patience and for peace in not getting everything accomplished as quickly as I would like to. Many days I feel like I have very little time to sit back and enjoy these 6 blessings, besides taking care of their physical needs and keeping the house running smoothly. It is quite a challenge.....a challenge that I knew I was facing, but being so wrapped up in all the adoption paperwork and travel, I could never have fully anticipated or processed how much of an adjustment this would be in all areas of our lives. But when we can see the noticeable weight gain in Julia or watch her roll over to her tummy and get on all fours or hear Aaron speak more and more English everyday or delight in his squeals of laughter on an amusement park ride......it makes it all worth it. God is good and will sustain us!

Here are some pictures of our camping trip two weekends ago and Kings Dominion yesterday:

Julia getting breakfast

Daddy frying bacon for our breakfast

Kacey and her best friend Sarah setting table while Evan waits to eat

Regan, Evan and Ethan romping around with Julia just before bed

Julia, Evan, and Ethan

Julia on her tummy!

She is so proud of her new energy and strength!

Ethan and Evan at Kings Dominion

Regan and Aaron at Kings Dominion

First Month in Pictures

2011-06-02T07:31:00.000-07:00


Ethan and Aaron building a marble run

Evan and Regan giving Julia love...

.....more love from Regan...

.....and some more! Can you tell Regan adores Julia?

Regan feeding Julia a bottle

Ethan's turn feeding Julia

Aaron's favorite chore....helping me with the laundry

Julia at the park

Aaron at the park

The finished project!

Aaron's second favorite chore......

....sorting the silverware from dishwasher

Aaron playing with Julia at the hospital

Grandpa and Aaron....Aaron loves dunking his head under the water!

Kacey's 12th birthday slumber party

Evan's 2nd birthday (he and Kacey share the same birthday...May 5)

Evan's birthday gift

Julia is doing great with her NG tube feedings. Yesterday she weighed 18 lbs. 1 oz. I am sorry it has taken so long to get pictures up as I had promised, but I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed. It's been very busy for us. It is my birthday this weekend and my wish was to get away for the weekend. So we are going camping!

Julia's coming home tomorrow....

2011-05-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

Yay! Today they finally confirmed that Julia is coming home tomorrow. We are so happy....we have missed having her at home. Of all of our children, it seems that our three year old, Regan, has missed her the most. I took her with me today to visit Julia. She was loving on her and kissing her. She loves her so much. On the ride home tonight, I told her that she is coming home tomorrow and she got super excited. Julia's crib was in our bedroom at first, but after about a week, we moved it into Regan's room. Regan has been begging to have her in her room with her, but we had to keep telling her that she needs to start out in our room and we'll see how things go. When we decided to move her, Regan was so happy. Thankfully, when Julia is up at night playing with her toys, it doesn't keep Regan awake. So Regan has been missing her roommate. One of the nurses went over the feeding pump with me today and tomorrow we are going to take the NG tube out, so I can place it in one more time before I take her home. She was about 17 lbs. 6 oz. today. She is slowly, but steadily putting on weight. It's almost 2 pounds up from when we first brought her home. You can visibly see the difference. She is also becoming more and more energetic every day. It also seems that there is more in her eyes each time I see her. She is coming alive and feels so much better I'm sure.

It has been so warm here and Aaron sweats like crazy! He plays hard outside. Yesterday, he and the other kids were so sweaty that I got out the sprinkler. Aaron loved it. We got his bathing suit on and off he raced (crawling as fast as he could) toward the water. He sat there kneeling for something like a half an hour while the sprinkler went back and forth and up and down his face and body. He laughed every time and the water hitting his face hardly phases him. After a while he did get cold. We had placed the sprinkler in the shade so he wouldn't get sunburned. Unlike my other kids, his skin is very fair. Not sure yet how well he tans/burns. Our 4 feet deep above ground pool is now ready, so while Regan and I were at the hospital today, daddy took the other kids for a swim. He said Aaron is not very comfortable with the large quantity of water, but he had fun as long as someone was holding him. He was not ready to float on his own yet. We buy these life jacket/water wings type things that have a part of it that wraps around the front. It is made to hold them up higher in the water than just regular water wings. They are also not inflatable, but made from the same material that life jackets are made with. They are great and I'm sure he'll get used to it soon. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly he acclimates to new things. Oh, before I forget.....today we were driving somewhere and our two year old, Evan, was crying in the car. Aaron comes out with, "What's the matter?" Yes, his English is coming along. He is like a 10-12 month old age baby, when you know the baby can understand much more than he/she can say. And then shortly after this stage, the speaking comes on rapidly. We can't wait. We know it's coming!!

Wow!!!!!!

2011-05-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

I have never posted twice in one day and this is not going to be a long post.....but we are soooo excited! Julia weighed 17 pounds 2 ounces this morning!!! This is 10 oz. up from yesterday's weight. So incredible: ) Praise the Lord!! She is also tolerating her daytime bolus feeds very well.

Aaron wanted to get in her crib today and play with her while she was getting her noontime feed. He was so sweet and gentle with her. She enjoyed having him in there. Oh, also.....we were at Chick-fil-A for lunch on our way home from the hospital and Aaron sang 'Jesus Loves Me' to Grandma. He knows the whole song and it is very sweet....he is so proud of himself : )

Update on Julia and Aaron

2011-05-23T05:17:00.000-07:00

Julia weighs 16 pounds 7 oz!!!!! That's almost a whole pound gained since we brought her home. She is thriving in the hospital. Last night she was smiling, laughing, playing and very rambunctious. As of yesterday she was up to 55 mL of continous feeding an hour....that's up from 30 mL when this started and their initial goal was to get her up to 42 mL. Last night they upped it to 65!!! Today they are also discontinuing the "continuous feeds" during the day and switching her to bolus feeds. She will get fed at 9, 12, 3 and 6 and then go back to continuous feeding throughout the night. I am sure she will contiue to gain weight steadily. Yay!! So the dr. told me that she is doing so well, that she may come home by the end of this week. We cannot wait : ) She will have to continue to be fed through the NG tube for about 2 months. Then she will be evaluated to see if she will take enough food orally or if she needs to have a GI tube placed in her stomach. Some of this will depend on when she is strong enough for surgery. But for now, when we bring her home, we will need to be placing the tube down her nose to her stomach. They had me do this once a couple of days ago and it's not easy. Not because it's difficult to feed it through, but she is a fighter and is very strong. The nurses are impressed with her strength. It takes two people to hold her still and one person to actually put it in.

Aaron continues to thrive here at home. He is coming out with more English on his own. We are starting to realize that he understands more than he can say. We will be at the dinner table and talking about something and all of the sudden he chimes in (in Russian) with hand motions and such and we realize he is joining in on our topic of conversation. He knows what we had been saying. It's so awesome. He loves to play outside with all the kids. He got a little bit of a sunburn on his arms a couple of days ago. Good Vitamin D for him though. The mosquitos LOVE him. His poor neck, face and arms got bitten up as it got to evening time. His favorite is the sandbox in the back yard. He was so proud of himself when he mastered the monkey bars dome. His upper body is very strong and his muscles are very defined. He pulls with his arms and draws his legs up to the bars. As he was accomplishing this feat, he yelled, "Ethan! Look!" He wanted his "big" brother to watch him.

We are off to the hospital again today. Since Julia's roommate was moved out of her room, they said they will make an exception to the rule of no children under 12 allowed back in the rooms....as long as no one is sick. Grandma (Steve's mom) wants to visit Julia today too, so she is driving here this morning and we will all drive down together this morning. On Saturday, we all went down and we were able to bring Julia out of her room to a family/toy room, so the kids could see her and play. Yesterday, I went down by myself and left the hospital at 9pm and didn't make it home until 11:30pm. It's normally a one hour drive, but two lanes were closed down on 95N for 3 miles of paving. I was in almost complete stand still traffic for almost 1 1/2 hours. I was very exhausted by the time I made it home.

We will continue to update you on Julia and Aaron's progess. Pray that Julia continues to thrive and that she can come home before the weekend!! My mom, dad, and brother from CT are coming down for Memorial weekend, as well as my brother from Chicago. They all can't wait to meet both Julia and Aaron and it would be such a blessing for her to be home and not to have to meet and visit her in the hospital.

Craziness and thankfulness

2011-05-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

So if the Schwenzer's didn't already have enough craziness going on with two new adopted kids, one of which is in the hospital in Richmond for severe malnutrition, and having 7 girls sleep over for Kacey's 12th birthday party last night.......Ethan fell off the top bunk in the camper this morning, hitting the back of his head on the floor. During the first hour afterwards, he complained his head was progressively hurting worse, began crying, and then started vomiting.....off went he and Steve to the ER. Thankfully, they are on their way home now. Doctor monitored him for a while and thinks he should be fine, though we should keep an eye on him today. In a half hour, the 7 girls should get picked up and then the whole family will head down to Richmond to visit our sweet Julia. We are so thankful for the medical care that Julia is getting and praise the Lord that Ethan seems to be fine. Thank you God!!!

Julia in Hospital

2011-05-18T04:29:00.001-07:00

I wanted to apologize for the lack of updates on our blog. We have been having some major issues with our computer systems at our house. We currently don't have a single computer up and running. This makes blogging rather...well...impossible. I am working on getting one of the computers working so we can have one less thing to worry about.

Now on to the updates. Julia had an appointment with a pediatric GI doctor down in Richmond yesterday afternoon. We were eager to get her to this appointment because she was not eating very much for us. She was refusing to take her bottle for the last several days. She did manage to take about 10 ounces yesterday morning when she woke up, so that was a bit of a relief. But, we still were very worried about her. Carey took her down to her appointment and very quickly the GI doctor said Julia needed to be hospitalized. He explained that none of her GI systems were working correctly. They call it re-feeding syndrome. Her malnourishment was so bad that her body had basically forgotten how to eat and digest. There was no way for Carey and I to get her healthy again by just bottle feeding her. As a matter of fact, force feeding her could have jeopardized her life. The doctor explained that because her body is this malnourished, reintroducing food is a delicate process. The food needs to be introduced gradually while closely monitoring electrolytes and her heart.

So, Julia is now hospitalized down at MCV in Richmond in their pediatric progressive care unit which is one step below intensive care. They have placed a drip tube through her nose and down into her stomach. They are going to slowly bring her digestive systems back on track. They are starting her on an ounce of food through the tube per hour. They will monitor her electrolytes every twelve hours to see if her nutrient and chemical levels will come back into balance. They said she will be in the hospital at least two weeks. It is a great relief to finally know part of what is going on in her little body and knowing that she is getting help now. Please keep her in your prayers that she will make a swift recovery and her body will finally get the nutrients it has so badly needed.

On a lighter note, both Aaron and Julia had ophthalmology appointments on Monday that were very positive. Julias occasional crossed eyes are a result of being very farsighted. So the doctor wrote her a prescription for glasses that will help her in a couple ways. She will now be able to see us without having to strain so hard. And we will be getting her transition lenses which will help with her light sensitivity. We found her a pair of glasses that fit, but we need to wait for them to officially be on our insurance before we can get the glasses. She will look so cute!

Aaron's eyes see just fine. So that was good news. But one eye tends to go off to the side instead of staying focused. The doctor explained that with a couple of botox injections in the eye muscles on his right eye, this problem should completely, or at least mostly, clear up. That was great news! We will schedule that procedure once the insurance is completely in place.

As for home life, Aaron is adjusting well to being in our family. We have discovered that he thoroughly enjoys doing certain tasks around the house. He actually seems to get giddy over the idea of putting laundry in the washing machine and starting it and then switching it over to the dryer. He actually gets upset if there is no wash to be done on a given day. Hopefully some of this work ethic will rub off on our other kids. He also likes helping with the dishwasher and he would love to vacuum. We have a toy vacuum that he pushes around the upstairs and pretends to vacuum everything. Maybe we should get him a dust buster and let him do some work while he's playing.

Well, that's all for now. I have to get back to work. Once we have a computer back up at home, we will add some more pictures up here. Please keep Julia and our family in your prayers. Thanks and God Bless!

Soooo busy.....

2011-05-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I am so sorry I don't seem to be having the time to update as often as I would like. Please be patient : ) And keep in mind that I also homeschool and I have A LOT of catch up school work after having been gone for almost 6 weeks....I REALLY do not want to be doing school all summer. We also keep having computer problems....a long story....

Anyways, I just wanted to tell you all that I will try to post more pictures very soon. Everyone is doing very well. Julia is coming alive more and more everyday. She is so much more vocal with all the auditory stimulation she has been experiencing with so many kids around her all day. She doesn't talk, but is very vocal with her sweet voice. She is smiling and laughing a lot and seemingly enjoying life all around her. She enjoys the fresh air as we have her outside as much a possible. Spring is such a nice time to be outside. We are continuing to try and get her to drink as many bottles of PediaSure or Carnation Instant Breakfasts a day, but about three 8 oz. bottles is as much as she will take. All of the kids love taking turns feeding Julia her bottles. I have taken pictures of this and will be sure to post them as soon as possible.

Aaron is doing very well too. The language barrier is the most difficult part. He doesn't seem to understand that we don't understand Russian no matter how many times we tell him. He talks and talks and talks like he thinks we will miraculously understand him at some point. We so wish that we could understand all that he has to say. We are managing, but cannot wait until we can communicate better with him. He loves playing with Ethan and Regan. He and our two year old, Evan, butt heads the most. In some ways, mostly socially, they are on the same wave length. Aaron seems to like routine and order, which is good for me. I like order and organization. Once he seems to know what is supposed to happen next, he is ready to go and do. He is eager to be mommy and daddy's helper. His favorite chore to help me with is emptying the washing machine and putting the clothes in the dryer. He even puts the dryer sheets in and LOVES to push the button to turn it on.

We had a drs. appt. for both of them down in Richmond last Friday. The dr. recommends that Aaron see an eye dr. since one and possibly both of his eyes stray off to the sides. Once in a while they align properly together in the front, but not very often. He obviously needs to see a physical therapist and most likely an orthopedic surgeon about his legs. We are hoping and praying that he will be able to walk better someday. He uses his walker, but it is slow and he obviously can't play outside while using it. So he crawls everywhere. Brand new jeans will have a whole in the knees after one wear. I am patching up jeans daily. And when he wears shorts, we are trying to get him to wear knee pads. But he doesn't like them and then the skin on his knees and shins get red and sore.

Anyways, they took 10 viles of blood from each of them, to check for how strong their immunizations took effect and what additional boosters they may need. We had a fresh diaper from Julia for the lab to check for parasites. Aaron is eating very well here and is not a very picky eater. He most certainly understands that he has to finish the food given to him on his plate before he can have dessert.

Julia also saw a geneticist while we were in Richmond. The geneticist thinks that we should back away from zeroing in on her definitely having Cockayne Syndrome. She is not saying that she doesn't have it, but she would rather do a complete genetic panel and look closely at all of her genes to get a better picture of what she may have. She also would like do have some x-rays done to help with a diagnosis. She says that Julia doesn't appear to have cataracts, which is usually a symptom of CS, but she would like her to see an eye dr., just to make sure. She thinks there are definitely some signs that she could have CS, mostly the aging/glossy look of her hands and feet and the texture of her hair. But she says there are many other symptoms that she should/could have that she is not classic for. One thing that I have been told by others who have had CS children is GI issues, typically vomiting. Julia has only vomited once since I have had her and that one time I think was because I overfed her. She weighed 15 lbs. 8 oz. at my local pedicatrician's office, with clothes on. When we were in Richmond, she weighed 17 pounds with the same amount of clothing on. They are different digital scales, so I have no idea if this difference is due to variations between the scales or if there is a possibility that Julia has gained 1 1/2 pounds. It would be nice, but I'll have to wait and get her weighed on the same scale before I get too excited.

Well, I have been all over the map here....but just wanted to give a quick update. Hopefully, in the next few days, we can get more pics up. Stay tuned......

Last six days in pictures......

2011-05-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long.....we have obviously been busy and our computer has been having issues. Everything is going very well. Julia is sucking down 3-4 8 oz. bottles of Pedicare or Carnation drinks. We are hoping to fatten her up. When we took Aaron to our local pediatrician to get a prescription for a walker, we had them weigh Julia. With diaper, cotton tights, socks, sleeper and fleece hoodie on she only weighs 15 lbs. 8 oz!! Yikes!!! We have a drs. appt. for both children on May 6 down in Richmond. Julia will see a geneticist this day as well.

Aaron is doing very well getting along with all of his new siblings. He is testing boundaries and learning the rules here. He is very attached to me and definitely see me as his caregiver. He cries if I need to be upstairs with the other kids while he needs to stay downstairs. He is so curious and needs to have constant supervision for his safety. If I am busy getting other kids baths and brushing teeth, I need him to be downstairs with Steve. Hopefully soon he will learn adjust to our "routines."

We have no pictures of our "homecoming" at the airport. There was a whole bus full of people that were coming up on our church bus with banner and all. Unfortunately, the bus broke down on the way to the airport. Aimee and I came out of customs with the kids and found no one there to greet us. I obviously called Steve and found out what had happened. After such a long journey, this was a very big let down. The group managed to get someone else from our church to drive a 15 passenger van to pick us up. They could not fit everyone so my family, Aimee's husband and 2 of her kids, and Adeye Salem. finally arrived about 2 hours later. Everyone else found other rides back home.....quite a bummer. But these things happen.....we made it and even though it was disappointing, we were so exhausted that we were just glad to see our family and get HOME : )

Gotcha Day!!

Tatyana giving Aaron some pointers for the trip home for me.

Our 6 hour train trip

Aaron organizing his stuff on the train

Driving around on the day we finished up at the Embassy

Getting ready to head to the airport

Just before take off

Julia sleeping on the long flight home

Ethan, Regan, Kacey and Aaron

Running errands.....

Julia is stylin' in her pink sunglasses...she actually keeps them on!!

Nap time : )

Ethan giving Aaron a ride on his four wheeler.

WE ARE HOME!!!

2011-04-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe I'm writing that we are home. It was a rough trip, a few tears from all of us at different points during the trek home, but we made it.....praise the Lord!! And thank you every one for lifting us up in prayer during our homeward journey. I haven't uploaded pictures yet, or unpacked, and I know I have not posted since we busted these two out of their old lives, but I am pretty exhausted and have 6 kids running around here today that need to have some structure.....so this is going to be about it for today. We just wanted every one to know that we made it home safely and more pics and details will be coming........

Homeward Journey Begins Today!!

2011-04-24T23:13:00.000-07:00

Good morning to you all!! Today is the day....I can hardly wait : ) Aimee and I are spending the morning packing up and then we will have one more lunch here at McDonald's. We get picked up around 1:30 pm and load up all of our luggage. Then we head to orphanage to get Julia and Aaron. Once we are all dressed and ready to go, we head straight to the train station. The train leaves at 4:25 pm. This is the 6 hour express train. It will obviously be late by the time we get settled in and we won't have internet from the time we leave this apartment until we arrive. So please be patient with pictures and updates. We are spending Tuesday at the embassy. Hopefully we will have some time to upload pictures before we fly home on Wednesday. Keep the prayers coming that we have an uneventful next few days.....

Last visit before Gotcha Day!!

2011-04-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 25, 2011 is Gotcha Day!! Today is the last day we visited before leaving the orphanage for the last time with Julia and Aaron with us....YAY!! Tomorrow will be a day for Aimee and I to pack for our trip home and I need to work on filling out some paperwork for the embassy.

Julia was holding this ball and shaking it back and forth for a very long time. She loved listening to the sound of the jingly ball inside. I took two minutes of video, but again, I can't seem to get it to upload here. It was uploading for a half an hour and then stated there was an error occurring. Not sure what the problem is...bummer! It is so cute to see the concentration on her face as she shakes the ball. At one point, she dropped the ball on her face and it must have smarted. At first she had a very startled look on her face, rubbed at her face with her hands, and then a few seconds later started crying. It is the sweetest, softest cry you have ever heard. You would probably not even know she is crying by the noise, except for the look on her face. So pitiful. For about 10 minutes the tip of her nose remained red. I loved her up and gave her back the ball and she quieted down. It is so pitiful to hear her sweet cry, she had me in tears.

Aaron is very attached to me. When we are at the visits here, Aimee and I are usually with John and Amy Hinz visiting with their children, Dusty and Sonya. They have noticed that whenever I leave the room or walk away, his eyes are on me and sometimes gets upset. I have gotten in the habit of making sure he knows I am coming back. His whole face lights up when I return. It is also very obvious that he knows I am his mama apart from Aimee, John, and Amy. But he is also not overly physically clingy. I suppose this is a good thing, since at home he will be one of 6!! Today he was getting very frustrated with his building. Something was not going right and he threw one of the blocks in agitation. I tried to help him, but since I can't understand what he was saying, I was kind of useless. I just brought over some more blocks for him and watched. He must have figured it out because he was eventually satisfied with his structure. Our driver, Edward, has been immensely helpful in communicating with Aaron. A few meltdowns have been averted due to someone being able to translate between us. I am sure the meltdown will happen at a point when no one will be there to help us communicate. I was joking with Edward today that I should buy him a plane ticket for Wednesday and he come home with us until Aaron learns sufficient English.

I can't wait until Monday when I will be able to post pictures of Julia and Aaron wearing something different : )

The Welcome Home Bus!!!

2011-04-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

For anyone interested, I will be driving our Church bus up to the airport to welcome home Aimee, Aaron, Julia and my beautiful wife, Carey. I have 11 of the 29 seats occupied. We will be leaving the church at 6:45pm on Wednesday of next week. Their flight arrives at Dulles at around 7:45 and I figure they will be tied up with passport control/baggage claim/customs for a bit.

If you'd like to ride the bus up with us just leave a comment below. The address of the church is 5120 Harrison Road, Fredericksburg, VA 22408. I can't wait to see them!

Aaron's orphanage

2011-04-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

These pictures were actually taken yesterday. We went on an outing to get Julia and Aaron's passport and visa pictures taken. We first went to Aaron's building and I took a few pictures of where he sleeps and spends his days. Then we went to get Julia and got in the car for our first trip out of the orphanage. Julia was absolutely wonderful and did not seem phased at any point in time while traveling. She did get a bit distressed when they were trying to get her to look straight when taking her passport picture. But it never escalated to anything disruptive and she was just as happy after as she had been before. So from what we can tell, she seems like she will be a trooper while traveling home. I can only hope and pray! Aaron was very excited to be going somewhere as he was getting dressed. And as you can see from his picture down below he was all smiles about it. I made sure it was explained to him that this was not the day he would come home with me. So he knew he was coming back to the orphanage afterwards. He was fine until about half way to the foreign passport office when he became agitated about the seatbelt. He was progressively getting squirmy and irritated. Tatiana was explaining to him why he was to wear the seatbelt. He would be okay for a little bit, but started getting more and more restless. He started swaying his head, seemingly displaying some sort of "self-soothing." Aimee and I were getting a bit nervous of where this was going to go. When we got to passport office, I picked him up and carried him across the street. There was some construction being done that was fairly noisy outside this office and he promptly covered his ears with both hands. He seemed to not like the noise at all. Aimee was carrying Julia who is still completely fine with all of this. The only thing that seems to bother Julia the most is the sunlight. We cupped our hands over her eyes and she was okay. I brought some sunglasses that will strap around her head, but I forgot them. I'm not sure she will like them, but we will try them if needed. Anyways, when we got inside, I sat him down on a bench. While we were waiting to get taken back for his picture, he was displaying the same head rolling behavior and sometimes looked like he was about to cry. He was very squirmy and could not sit still. Then, finally, I saw him pinch himself between his legs and I finally realized HE NEEDED TO PEE!!! I quickly asked Valentin to find out where a toilet was. Once found, I raced him in and the poor little guy went for about 2 minutes. He really had to go.....and was fine afterwards!! Phew : ) I was so relieved that was all it was. Now I know what signs to look for AND I know he can hold it for quite a while.

I know many of you are wondering what the time line is from here on out. The passports should arrive here on Thursday. All the paperwork will be overnighted to the embassy for it to be submitted on Friday. Then we have the three day weekend for the Easter holiday. Gotcha Day will be the Monday after Easter and we will travel by express train Monday evening. This will be a 6 hour train ride to Kiev. Tuesday we will go the embassy and take care of the kids medical and receive their visas and passports. Wednesday we have a 2pm flight from Kiev to Frankfurt and then a one hour layover (yikes....pray that this is enough time) until we fly home to Washington. Please also pray that we can get a bulk head seat with a bassinet for Julia. She does not sit up and is rigid with her back, neck and head slightly to severely arched most of the time. This will be a difficult trip if I cannot lay her somewhere flat for at least some of the time. I have been told that the bulk head seating is set aside for passengers with small children and people with special needs, but it is also first come first serve. With only a one hour layover, this in not likely if I can only request this at the gate in Frankfurt. I am going to try to request this when I am in Kiev, however, I don't know whether this will work or not.

The room Aaron and his "groupa" sleep in

Room where Aaron and his "groupa" play and watch TV

Aaron's bed

Aaron's name tag on his bed

Aaron getting dressed for our outing

All ready to go!!!!

Visit with kids and sightseeing

2011-04-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Aimee loving on Julia

Aaron loves to play!!

Smiles from Julia.....

....more smiling!

View of our apartment building

Anunciation Cathedral

Another catherdral....don't know name

....and another

Aimee and I bought paintings from them....they were very nice.

Dinner at Maranello's

I'm back....saw our babies again!!

2011-04-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

It is so good to see the kids again! We were told by Tatiana that Aaron really missed us. She saw him a couple of days ago and said that he was asking for his mama and papa. When she told him that I would be here in a couple of days, he kept asking, "Really?" She told him over and over again....."REALLY!" So he was very happy to see me. The Hinz family who are adopting Sonya and Dusty are here on their first trip. We were able to visit the orphanage together. What a playgroup we had : )

When we first arrived, I walked down the hall straight to Julia's room. I was hoping she remembered me and didn't have to warm up to me all over again. I walked up to her crib and looked in and smiled at her. She gave me a big grin! I talked to her for a little bit and then let the nannies get her changed. She was very happy to be put back in my arms. She did very well with the "playgroup." We had to watch out for kids clambouring over and around her. When she does get bumped or leaned on, she flinches a bit, but ultimately takes it in stride. This is good since she is one of six kids now. She also warmed up to my friend Aimee who is with me to help bring the kids home.

When we left today, Aaron was pretty upset. He was crying and clinging to me because he said he wants to go home with us NOW! He was also wondering where papa was. He had me in tears too. We explained to him that he would be coming home to America very soon and that papa was home getting everything ready for him. I think the 10 days were very long for him and he's now afraid that it will be a long time before I come back again. It has been such a long journey....he can't understand that it really will happen very soon. How I can't wait to get both of them home!!

Going back....

2011-04-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

I'm literally walking out the door to head to the airport with Aimee.....prayers please! Neither of us are fond of flying, to put it mildly ; ) Next time I write will probably be Friday when we arrive. Stay tuned......

We made it home!

2011-04-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

Phew! We're home : ) It was a loooong trip, but we made it. We arrived home on Thursday evening and have been trying to recovery and get so much done at the same time. As soon as we got home, the countdown started in my head that I have 6 days until I turn around and head right back. Even though it is short, I really needed to see my kiddos that were here at home with my mom and also get recharged. Besides being at home and seeing my kids here, I REALLY missed tortilla chips and salsa. The last day we were in Kiev I was able to get some at the TGIFridays. But yesterday we went to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Salsarita's and had a ton of chips and salsa. Tonight we are going to Carlos O'Kelly's for dinner and I will surely have some more!! Did I mention that I LOVE chips and salsa?

We are very excited about tomorrow also. One of my greatest friends, Ruth, had her baby days before we left for our first trip. I was bummed that I was going to miss out on his first few weeks. She did post pictures for me and that was awesome....he is soooo cute. Anyways, baby Seth Martin Robbins is being baptized tomorrow and Steve and I are his godparents! This is our 5th godchild and how we love and pray for them all!! We are very much looking forward to this blessed event and sharing this time with our good friends tomorrow. God is good :)

So....there is also so much to do before I leave on Wednesday, April 13. It is hard trying to balance all that I need to do before I go back. I need to get ready to go bring home Julia and Aaron. I also need to spend some time enjoying what I have missed so much while we were gone for almost 4 weeks. We also miss Julia and Aaron very much. Coming home and seeing Evan reunited with his older brothers and sisters was just a taste of how joyous it will be when they all finally get to meet their new siblings for the first time. We cannot wait.

It is also so incredible to have so many friends praying for, supporting and encouraging us through this journey in our lives. We take so many things for granted in life all of the time. We all do it. We know we have good friends, but when we stop to think of what they mean in our lives and what they are willing to do for us, it is just so awesome. My wonderful friend, Aimee, is taking 2 weeks out of her busy life with a husband and 4 kids to come back with me to help me bring Julia and Aaron home. I know she knows how much this means to me, but it still warms my heart when I think about what great friends God has placed in our lives. Please pray for her husband and kids at home that the time passes quickly for them as we know she will be missed. Also, Ruth will be coming to my house two days a week to watch my four kids while Steve is at work.....and she has 3 of her own kids, one of them a new baby, and she homeschools too. My neighbor and another one of my dearest friends, Lena, will be coming over one day a week to also watch the kids. And Steve's mom, who came with us on the first four week trip to help us watch Evan will be coming over one other day to take care of the kids. And my mom leaves on the train this morning to head back to her home in CT. She has held down the fort here with our three oldest.....shopping, running them around to their activities, cooking meals, doing laundry, homeschooling, etc., etc., etc......I LOVE MY MOM!! She is the best mom I could ever ask for. It was so comforting to be so far away and not need to worry.....I knew my babies were in good hands. The sacrifice of so many people to have this all come together means so much to us. We cannot begin to thank you all enough or convey to all of them how much we appreciate the sacrifices!

Lastly, we want to thank each and every one of you who has contributed financially to this entire adoption process. What a testament to God's army being joined together for His glory. For us personally, it has been such a blessing to not have to worry about how we would be able to afford what God was calling us to do. We have thought about this every step of the way. Many times, while we were visiting Julia and Aaron at the orphanage, I was thinking about how this was all possible....and how many people besides us fell in love with them and knew how important is was to us and God to bring these children into our family. We are so looking forward to the day we leave the orphanage with them and even more for the day they walk into our home forever.

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!

2011-04-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

Carey and I are the proud new parents of Julia Adeye Schwenzer and Sergey Aaron Schwenzer!!

Court went well. The judge asked us some questions pertaining to where we live and why we want to adopt 2 more children and why we are interested in adopting children with special needs. Our lawyer and translator let the judge know that we love children and feel that we are the last hope for these little ones. Then a whole lot of documents were read by the judge. Then the judge asked us one last time what our request is. We told her that we wanted to adopt Julia and Aaron and stated what we wanted their names to be. Then she left with the jury (two older gentlemen who sat on either side of her during the proceedings) and said she would be back in 10 minutes with her decision. One of the two jurors looked over our way and gave us the thumbs up as he left the courtroom. 10 minutes later the judge and jurors returned and the same juror gave us a big smile and another thumbs up. I was feeling confident, but still nervous until I heard the decision read. The judge read the decision, which was a 3 and a half page, single spaced, small type document. It took quite a while to read. Finally, she got to the last paragraph which was the actual decision, and Tatyana, our lawyer, turned to us and said the judge is satisfied...which was to say we could adopt them into our family and they could take our name! Carey, who had been calm as a cucumber up to this point shed a few tears of joy after the decision was read. We received many congratulations, hugs and handshakes from everyone in the courtroom, including the jurors. I couldn't stop smiling. I was so stressed out before the appearance. It's just so amazing to think that those kids are ours now. Yay! Спасибо тебе, Боже!

Now we can't wait to get them home...the ten day waiting period has begun. We will be taking a train ride back to Kiev this evening and going to the embassy tomorrow to fill out several forms and have them notarized. Then we head home on Thursday. Carey will head back here the following Wednesday to finalize all the paperwork and bring our "newborns" home. Carey's good friend Aimee is going back with her for this two week trip to help her get them home. I can't wait to meet them at the airport and scoop them up and take them home. What an amazing journey it will be for them. And us!

Until next time...до свидания

13th and last visit on first trip

2011-04-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

So today was our last visit with the kids. Tomorrow we have court at 9:30 in the morning. As long as everything goes well, tomorrow night we leave here and take the overnight train back to Kiev to take care of some things at the embassy so that I can come back and bring the kids home without Steve. We fly home on Thursday, April 7. We had Tatiana explain to Aaron that we are going home and that I will come back. He said he will not cry while I'm gone. So cute. Today I got Julia laughing again. It is so wonderful to hear an all out full belly laugh out of her. It is so sweet. We video taped it again, but it is still not working for us to upload videos onto the blog. We are so bummed. When we get home we will find a way to post them. Aaron has learned so many English words and is starting to use them with me. He knows: mama, dada, mama help, mama fix it, good boy, hello, I love you, bye-bye, mama open, close it. He is also very good at picking up the toys he plays with, even without being told. Amazing! He will learn some bad habits from our kids at home. Hopefully they can learn to be better about this from him. He is very polite too. Today I helped him tie a string around a toy for him. After I was finished he took the toy and said in Russian, "Thank you mama." Such a sweet boy!

11th and 12th Visits

2011-04-01T08:22:00.000-07:00

So happy to see us!

She loves reaching for our faces now : )

Check out these acrobats! She arches her back completely off the ground so that she balances on just her head and feet....amazing!

Looks like Aaron is a leftie : )

We went out on a patio where there was more sunlight....the photosensitivity of Cockayne Syndrome is apparent in this picture.

Checking out daddy's scruff!

Julia almost on all fours. Strong little girl!

Tenth visit....Julia in a different outfit today!!

2011-03-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and Ninth Visit Today

2011-03-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon everyone! Here are some pictures of our walk around the city yesterday. We went walking to look for Coffee Life coffee house where they have wi-fi. We have internet in our apartment with our modem, but it still takes too long to upload pictures. We found it and had some wonderful desserts and hot chocolate.

This picture was taken on our walk back. We cross over this river and the building ahead is our apartment.

Across the street from our apartment is a playground.

Evan enjoyed playing here for quite some time, even though his hands got very cold.

Evan in the stroller we bought here. It is much easier to walk around the city now!

Today was our ninth visit to the orphanage. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable visit today. Julia is very comfortable and used to us now. And Aaron has calmed down a lot. We have also learned what triggers some of his misbehavior and hyperactivity and avoid these triggers.

Even though he still seems to want to play by himself, not with us, he is learning to come to us for help with the toys. He asked me to tie this tape measurer to the ball. He is a smart little boy. The tape measurer has a little metal tab at the end. He figured out by himself that he could attach this metal piece to the magnetic connectors on the Thomas trains and pull them. It was very neat! I brought this tape measurer to measure the kids so I would have a better idea what size clothing they are in. I had no idea it would provide over an hour of fun for Aaron. He is very imaginative and likes to make his cars, trains and toys talk to each other. We only wish we knew what he was saying.

Julia was having a great time today rolling around and playing with the balls. She still prefers the two balls that she can grab onto, bang around and drop. The other toys that she has a harder time grasping only keep her attention for a very short time. They brought out a carpet for the kids to play on. This was very nice!

Aaron still playing with the tape measurer!

Julia on her tummy! We are not sure if she has been able to do this before today. Up to this point, we have not seen her roll to her tummy. While playing on the floor she kept getting way over on her side like she wanted to get all the way over, but just couldn't quite get there. So we helped her over a couple of times and helped her pull her arm out from under her. Then we watched her do it all by herself a little bit later. She didn't stay in this position for too long though. She had no problems rolling back over to her back.

Aaron playing with the trains and talking to them the whole time : )

Julia's hands were very cold today and they looked a slight purplish color. They always have her in this sleeper with these socks over the sleeper feet. I wanted to feel if her feet were as cold as her hands and they sure were. Poor thing. I thought maybe it would help if the socks were directly on her feet inside the sleeper, so I switched them around.

At the beginning of our visit today, we had Julia laughing. This was the first time Steve got to hear her laugh. It is such sweet giggle. She would laugh everytime I laughed... it was contagious! We tried to get the camera out fast to video it, but I think we missed the best of her laughing. We did get some of it. I tried to upload the video today, but it didn't work. I will try to get it up as soon as I can.

Catching up.....

2011-03-27T03:50:00.000-07:00

We have had some more internet problems.....but we think again that they have been resolved. Uploading pictures takes much longer, so we may not be putting up as many. We visited Julia and Aaron on Thursday and Friday. On Friday they took us down to a room to visit that has rabbits, parakeets, a turtle, and some other animals that I can't remember. There are a few toys in this room as well. It smells kinda funky, but it was a change of scenery.

Aaron loved playing with a toy cell phone that records your voice and plays it back. It has a prerecorded voice that says, "I love you!" He gets a big kick out of this since this is one of the few English phrases he recognizes.

There is carpet in this room so we could put Julia down and let her have some more freedom to move around. She is very good at grasping toys that are near her and moving herself to better positions to get to the toys.

Yesterday, Tatiana and Valentin took us to a children's market to get a stroller. It is getting difficult to lug Evan everywhere we need to walk here in the city. We also need a stroller to help get Aaron home. We will leave it here for when I come back on the second trip..

After we got the stroller we went out to lunch with Tatiana and Valentin. The food was very good and it was nice spending some time with them. They are so nice. It was also much easier to talk with Valentin, with Tatiana there to help translate.

We also learned a little bit more about Aaron's backround. We had been told by the doctor at the orphanage that he has been here since he was four years old and that he was at a different orphanage before this, probably since he was a baby. But Tatiana told us that paperwork she has gathered says that he was put in an orphanage at around 2 or 3 years old when his mother died. This was sad to hear, but it also means that it is more likely that he did form an emotional attachment and was socially and physically nurtured during most of his formative years as a baby.

Julia focused on her toy

Aaron displaying one of his favorite "misbehaviors."

This is the view from our apartment window.

This is our apartment building from the outside (street side).

This is the backdoor entrance to our apartment.

He is so cute!

Julia has very good hand-eye coordination

Outside the restaurant where we had lunch with Tatiana and Valentin

Court Date

2011-03-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we seem to be back in service with internet! Yay!! We have a court date....Monday, April 4. After this we will head back to the embassy to take care of some things since Steve will not be coming back on the second trip. And our flight home is Thursday, April 7.

We have gone to visit Julia and Aaron over the last two days. Yesterday, I asked about seeing Sonya and Dusty, the children that our friends John and Amy Hinz are adopting. We were not able to see Dusty, but they did bring Sonya out for us to visit with her for about 5 minutes. We got some great pictures and even a video. We are posting the video here for everyone to see because it is too large to send via email.

Julia is such a sweetheart and loves playing with toys. She is always happy to see us and spend time with us. We just can't wait to get her home, so she can be loved on so much more by our kids, family and friends at home! Aaron always has a big smile on his face as they bring him to us everyday. All we can do is show him pictures of our house and of his new brothers and sisters. We are really starting to feel like we cannot wait to get them home. There is only so much we can do at the orphanage everyday. There is so much more we want them both to experience and we can't wait for them to be home and really incorporate them into our lives. It is so hard to believe that there is still so much more to do and so much more time has to go by before we can get them home. We must pray for patience : )

Internet issues

2011-03-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Everything has been going fine. We have not heard about a court date yet. Our new apartment is nicer and cleaner, but the internet is terrible. We are working on trying to find somewhere to go where we can upload the pictures faster and have the time to update in more detail. Sorry to make everyone wait, we are very frustrated too.

Julia is wonderful and continues to love our attention and affection. Today, Aaron was a bit calmer....we left the tennis ball at home brought some blocks instead. He loves playing with matchbox cars. I got a hug from him today.....a hug that he totally initiated himself! It made my day : ) Hopefully we will get to post some more pics tomorrow. Stay tuned......

Fourth visit....some videos to watch!!

2011-03-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

Today we had both kids at the same time again. We go to Julia's building and they bring her out to us and then someone brings Aaron over from his building about 15 minutes later. Julia was again visibly happy to see us. She was receptive to us gently stroking her cheeks, jaw line and neck as she arched backwards. Her eyes still flinch/flutter whenever our hands move towards her, but she relaxes quickly as she enjoys the sensations. It is so heartwarming to watch her learn to enjoy gentle contact with us. We did some more snuggling and nuzzling today and continued to get smiles. She loves the toys we bring her. She has a distinct preference to the toys she can grab ahold of. She likes to drop the balls to the floor. Today I watched her eyes track the ball to the floor and I tried to hold her over the toy to see if she would grab it back, but she didn't. She was holding onto my arm and I think she felt like she would fall to the floor if she let go.

During our first few visits with Aaron, I have tried to give him a hug when they first bring him to us. He always pushes me away. Steve's mom picked up on this too when she visited with me. He is otherwise receptive to any other form of demostrative affection. He lets me kiss him on the cheek and even mimicked the word "kiss." It dawned on me as I was laying in bed last night that it is not necessarily because he doesn't want the hug, but that he doesn't know what one is. I get the feeling that he just thinks I am trying to hold and confine him. He will learn in time, when he is home with us.....what hugs are all about! We were doing high-fives today and he understood this. Eveytime he blew bubbles and popped them all, we did high-fives. He says a word when he plays with the toys that we have to figure out what he means. In English it sounds like "maladoy." We thought it meant toys or cars, but looked those words up and they're not it. Steve thinks maybe it means "mine." Anybody know??? We also got to see some more "misbehavior" out of Aaron. Today we experienced pinching, screaming, spitting and attempting to bite me. He exhibited these behaviors when he had the tennis ball taken away from him. One time he accidentally threw the tennis ball at my head (while I was holding Julia) and thought my startled reaction was funny. I am sure it was! But then he kept trying to throw it at my head. When we took the ball away, he tried to pinch our hands. When this got him no where, he started spitting. He already knows from a previous visit that we shook our heads in disapproval at his spitting, so he thought he could get our attention this way.

Then when this got him no where he started screaming. He finally went onto getting another toy when this failed at getting him what he wanted. A little later on we gave him the ball back and we motioned for him not to throw it at our heads, so he started throwing the ball at the windows and a mirror. At first he wasn't throwing it too hard, but as soon as we made it clear that he shouldn't continue throwing it at these two places, he started throwing it harder at the mirror. So the ball went away again and the screaming commenced. We pretty simply ignored this behavior and he quit. He definitely knows how to listen because we notice that whenever a nanny would walk through and say something to him, he became immediately attentive and submissive. He is just trying to learn where our boundaries are. All in good time : ) It's just hard when we are only going to have about an hour a day with him for a few weeks. Much of this learning won't come until he is at our home and relearns appropriate social behavior.....and we know this may take years. Kacey, Ethan and Regan are hopefully going to be huge assets in this area.....and they will need our guidance in patience, understanding, and definite boundaries!

Third Visit

2011-03-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

Another great visit today with both kids! Julia definitely seems to know who I am. There was no "warming up" period today with her. When they first brought her to me, she seemed groggy like they had just woken her up. When she looked up to me, her face lit up almost immediately. We had smiles in no time. She lifted her chin up and I tried to caress her face and neck and SHE LIKED IT : ) She seemed to want me to keep doing it. I even got a small giggle. It was wonderful. She has learned so fast that I am not someone to be fearful of. Then we progressed onto snuggling and nuzzling her with my face and she laughed and laughed!!! It was a great time. I was in tears again. Poor Steve was so jealous that he missed her laughing......but there will be more, I'm sure!

Shortly after they brought Julia to us, they brought Aaron over from his building. This was the first time we have had both of them at the same time. Since Steve's mom (Grandma) came today, he initially looked very concerned. As the nanny was taking his coat off, he was asking, "Papa, papa, papa?" We told him Grandma was here today and he repeated "Grandma." He hardly took any notice of Julia. I pointed to her and said "Julia" and he repeated "ju-ju." He was more interested in getting the toys out of my backpack again. We brought some Thomas trains and enough tracks to make a circle. He connected all the tracks and hooked all the trains together. After this he thought he was finished. So I reached down and pulled the trains around in the circle. He squealed in delight! He was still mostly interested in the bubbles. So we spent a lot of time taking turns blowing the bubbles and popping them. We left him with a book of pictures of our family to take back to his building. I was teaching him the names of all our kids. He does very well at repeating words I teach him. We are not going to the orphanage on Sunday so there will be no new pictures of the kids tomorrow.

Grandma's words, "I'm in love!"

Julia's building

Aaron's building

Our second visit....

2011-03-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

Today's visit with the kids was fun and more relaxed. Julia seemed much better. We didn't push the touching much, just played with her. She loved this. She even snuggled into me a bit. I loved this! When they brought her to us, they handed us a small spit cloth. We can tell she has a head cold and she was drooling more today. The first time my hand reached toward her face to wipe her mouth, she flinched big time and arched away from me. The second time she was a little bit better. By the third and fourth time, she was okay. She already learned that I was going to be gentle with her. Sweet doesn't even begin to describe how precious she is! Oh how we love her....and will be loved by so many more at home : )

She was very intentionally banging this ball to her other hand, very much enjoying the noise it made. She then learned the game of throwing it to the floor and making us retrieve it for her. She would smile as the ball came closer when she reached out to take it.

I love this one.....so sweet : )

You could tell Aaron couldn't wait to come and play with us. We brought a back pack full of small toys that he quickly rummaged through. We had tennis balls, bubbles, play dough, coloring book with crayons, a toy car, and a picture book filled with pictures of our house and his siblings. He liked looking at the picture of his bedroom and bunk bed he will be sleeping on. Tatiana's son Edward drove us to orphanage today. He was great at translating our conversations with Aaron. Aaron was asking if he could sleep on the top bunk. We told him maybe when he's older. He also wanted Edward to clarify that Steve and I would be living there with him. He wanted to know when he would be going to live at this new home. He now understands....."wait, wait, wait, and then you will go." He knows he will go on an airplane to get home. He is very excited about this! We showed him the picture of our pool in the backyard. He mentioned that he only wanted to go swimming if there was a little bit of water in it. We told him that we would hold him in the water. He was okay with this idea. When he had to leave to go have lunch, he wanted to bring all the toys back to his "groupa." We let him take one play dough, one bubbles container, a small puzzle, and his toy car we brought for him. Oh, one more thing.....he is going to learn English sooooo fast. He was already using several English words we taught him today without repeated prompting. The word "open" is most definitely in his vocabulary now. He also said, "I love you" when we said goodbye!

Tomorrow we are going back again. Steve's mom and I are going so Grandma can meet her new grandchildren....can't wait!

The moment we've all been waiting for!!

2011-03-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

Here they are.....we got to hold and play with Julia and Aaron today!!

Look how strong she is!

In this picture, I let go of her sides and she was holding herself up.

This is my first time holding Aaron. (We will be calling him Sergey while he is still here.) The rest of these pictures are displayed in chronological order. But first let me tell you about TODAY......

Oh my goodness, the emotions were up and down and so much to take in. We were picked up from the train station at 6:30 am and taken straight to Tatiana and Valentin's apartment.   Ours was not ready until 11am. We had breakfast here and then Steve and I were taken to the orphanage. Grandma stayed with Evan and Valentin at the apartment.

When we arrived at the orphanage we had to wait around for quite a while.....they were taking care of paperwork and waiting for the doctor to arrive. Then we were walked to a building where Aaron was. We saw a bunch of adorable children all sitting around a table coloring or something. They were all looking at us.....as if they knew what all this fuss was about. We waited just a bit and then a little boy came walking towards us using a walker.  It was Aaron!!  I had been wondering whether he would be apprehensive at all in meeting us for the first time.  NOT AT ALL.....he had the biggest smile on his face as he came to us saying, "mama" and "papa." I couldn't believe it, he was so adorable and so little. He is only a little bit bigger than our 3 year old daughter Regan. I asked if I could pick him up.  Tatiana said sure and I scooped him up in my arms and he hugged right back. He was talking a mile a minute in Russian. I asked what he was saying and they translated that he said, "I have been waiting here all my life for you." I had tears streaming down my face at this point. I hugged him, kissed his cheek and he was receptive to it all. We sat down on some small chairs they brought out for us. He started repeating something else again in Russian. They translated again, "Where am I going to go live now?" He is ready to leave with us, like yesterday : ) He is such a riot. He loved trying to take pictures with our camera.  He laughed so hard when I tickled his face with my hair. He climbed over to Steve's lap saying "papa!"   The only time I saw his face get serious was when he was told we were leaving. He wanted to know when we were coming back. He was relieved to know that it was tomorrow. He asked us to bring him back a toy car and airplane. We have the car, not sure about the airplane......But he went back to his "groupa" without a fuss.  They handed him back his walker and off he went!

We learned from the doctor that he was born at 33 weeks gestation with asphyxiation due to the cord being wrapped around his neck.  He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 3 years old.  We were told he learned to sit up at one year, walk at 3 years, and speak at 2 years. He had developmental delays before the age of 2, but since then has had no other developmental delays. He has been at this orphanage since he was 4. Before this he was at another orphanage probably since he was a baby.

After we said goodbye to Aaron, we headed out to another building. We were asked to sit down on a couch and wait. The doctor was giving us the information on Aaron when they brought Julia to us. I was still taking notes so I couldn't fully pay attention to her in the beginning. Steve was holding her in his lap. They told us she had been sleeping and she looked a bit befuddled and concerned.....not really awake....poor thing : ( After the doctor finished with Aaron's medical history, she continued with Julia's history. She has lived at this orphanage since she was 6 months old and was brought there from the hospital where she had been since she was born. At 3 days old, she was put in the intensive care unit. At 5 months old, she suffered some head trauma and an MRI was done on her head that came back normal. She was diagnosed with Cockayne Sydrome at 2 years. They could not specify whether it was type 1 or type 2. Both children are negative for Hepatitis B, C and HIV. When the doctor was finished, everyone left us alone for about 15 minutes. Now we were able to finally spend some time with our sweet Julia. You could tell she was studying us. We discovered VERY quickly that she does not like to be touched. If you gently caress her cheek, hands, arms, legs, anywhere....she become visibly agitated. She turns her face away or pushes your hand away from wherever you are touching her. Her body tenses up. She was very comfortable with us holding our hand up in front of her and letting her touch us. You can see her doing this in some of the pictures. Then I sat her facing me on my lap. She spent quite a bit of time studying me. She was playing with the neckline of my shirt and at one point started lightly smacking my chest. She was concentrating so much as she she did this. I wanted to see what her level of discomfort was in tactile touching. So I rubbed her back for a little bit, where she couldn't reach to push my hand away. She ended up crying and I obviously stopped. She REALLY doesn't like to be touched/soothed. She has such a quiet, weak cry.....so sweet. I had to lay her down on the couch to get her to stop crying. She did settle down and was back to playing with our hands as we held them up above her line of vision. We will let her lead the way as far as how comfortable she is with tactile stimulation. (This may prove difficult on the plane ride home.) Anyways, Steve was behind her head at this point and she would arch her back and head to see him. She most definitely follows the sound of voices when she would hear people talking as they walked through the room. She has very good head control. She is very small....probably 18-24 mo size.

This is all for now.....we are very exhausted. Neither of us slept very well on the train. The train ride was comfortable. I couldn't sleep b/c my mind was racing with excitement over the upcoming day. We are not able to get completely settled in our apartment tonight, because we were told we are only staying here one night and then moving to a different, better place. Not sure what the deal is, but we are going with the flow : ) "This is the day that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! " Today was a joyous day indeed : ) Tomorrow morning, we are being picked up at 9:45 am to go back to the orphanage for another visit.

Pictures from lunch today

2011-03-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

This is where we had lunch today

My lunch....YUM!

They fold the napkins like this everywhere we have been, even in our apartment.

Daddy and Evan

Mommy and Evan

Picture of the inside of restaurant

Our waitress was so sweet. She only spoke a little English and was very patient with us knowing hardly any Russian. She brought Evan this balloon to play with.

Steve and I outside the restaurant.

After lunch a driver picked us up and took us back to the SDA building to get our referrals. There was a lot of traffic in the city so it took a while to get there. Then we had to wait for over an hour at the SDA building with many other families also waiting for their referrals. It was nice to talk with other Americans for a little bit. There was more traffic on the way back to our apartment. One funny thing.....any time someone honks their car horn, Evan says "Beep-beep!" It's pretty cute. Anyways, he was exhausted and fell asleep on the way back. He is still asleep.....this does not bode well for our overnight train ride. We have packed up and leave in an hour for the train station. We arrive in the region around 6:30 am. Supposedly, we will get taken to our apartment and then we go somewhere to get permission to go see the children in the orphanage. If all goes well, we go straight over there.....YAY : ) We're not sure how good the internet connection is at our next apartment. Here it has been great.....we have not had to go anywhere to get a good connection. So hopefully tomorrow we will be able to post pictures of us with Julia and Aaron!!!!

SDA appointment today!

2011-03-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here we are outside the door to where we had our SDA appointment. As we were told it was very quick. Just a few questions, they show you some pictures of the children in their profile. You confirm that these are the children you would like to have referrals for. We saw two pictures of Julia, one when she was quite a bit younger and another more recent one. They were both so adorable. We saw one younger picture of Aaron. Cute as a button as well. We also learned that he has one 16 year old brother. We were told if there is any other information about their background or medical history, we would learn that when we get to the orphanage. Below is the picture of the SDA building from across the street. Steve and Serge are in this picture.

This church is right next door to the SDA building. They are doing quite a bit of work on it as it is in danger of falling down the slope to the right of it.

This is for you Autumn. It was not tomato sauce, but canned whole tomatoes. I poured off the juice from the can into the browned ground beef and baggie of spices I brought from home. Then I chopped up the tomotoes very finely and added them too. It turned out very good!!

Dinner was yummy : )

Pictures from our first day out

2011-03-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at Frankfurt Airport during our layover. Evan was fascinated with all the "goings-on" outside the window.....trucks, buses and planes!!!

We walked about a half an hour down the street to have lunch at TGIFridays. The weather was beautiful today....upper 40s/low 50s and very sunny. It was a very enjoyable walk : )

We stopped by at this grocery store on our way back to our apartment after lunch.

Here is a coffee shop just under our apartment. The two left windows (with the decorative bars) above this coffee shop are our windows.

This is the back side entrance to our apartment. These apartments are called Botanic Apartments.

Tomorrow morning is our SDA appointment. We are being picked up around 11am and our appt. time is 12 noon. We are supposed to get our official referral by the next afternoon, which is Wednesday. Then we take the overnight train to the region of the orphanage. The train leaves around 10:30 pm and arrives around 6:30 am. So we're hoping our first trip to see the kids will be on Thursday!! We can't wait : )

Settled in.....

2011-03-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

We didn't have to wait too long to get picked up at the airport. Our driver took us to get some money exchanged, to the grocery store and then helped us get settled into our apartment. We just finished our dinner of pizza, pineapple, and pepsi (milk for Evan). We are looking forward to bed!! Hopefully we can fall asleep.....we are pretty tired : )

We're here....almost!!

2011-03-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to the airport, but no one was here to pick us up! We waited a while and then fired up the netbook and started sending emails. Someone is on the way now....thankfully!

Evan did really well on the airplane, as well as one would expect a 22 month of to be on a 7 hour flight and then another 2 hours flight. We are tired though!!

Here We Go!!!

2011-03-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

It's finally here!!! Today we leave for EE to start the in country process of adopting Julia and Aaron. How we can't wait to meet them : ) Our SDA appt. is Tuesday, March 15. After which, we will take an overnight train ride to the region where the orphanage is and hopefully meet them on the 16th!!

Today, we are leaving around noon for the airport. Our good friends, Aimee and Roger, will be bring us. Our flight is 5:50pm out of Dulles. I am not very fond of flying, in fact, it always causes me a good amount of anxiety. Steve and I are traveling with Steve's mom and our 22 month old son, Evan. We have horrible seats on this 747....right smack in the middle of the 5 seats across the middle of the plane, 2 in front, 2 in back. Hopefully, someone will be kind enough to switch seats around so at least we can have 3 seats in a row with Evan between Steve and I. Please pray that this happens.

We are pretty much packed and just tying up loose ends and spending time with our three oldest that we are leaving behind. My mother is coming down on the train on Sunday to stay with them. For tonight, Steve's dad will stay overnight with them, get them to church in the morning, and pick my mom up from the train station tomorrow at 4pm.

Well, that's the update for now.....our return flight is scheduled for April 7, but if we get a court date earlier than this, we can change it and come home earlier. Thank you everyone for all of your love, encouragement and support. Please continue to pray for this leg of the adoption process, that everything goes smoothly and in God's good time! We will update shortly after we arrive.....

Homeward Stretch

2011-03-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Long time, no blog. We have been extra busy now that the end is in sight! Just got off the phone with Eldon at Golden Rule Travel. We have our first trip flights booked and ready to go. Carey is busy scrambling around trying to get the myriad of lose ends tied up that come with having family and friends watching 3 of our 4 kids for 3 plus weeks. This is a rather daunting endeavor with so many unknowns. Will we have enough time? Will we have everything we need? Will we have enough money to make it to the end? Did I forget any documentation? ( I have a bad memory so this is a very real concern)

We just have to remember to put it all in the Lord's hands. I have to remind myself often of Matthew 6:25-27 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

I have also updated our Chip In for what we believe is the final amount we will need to complete the adoption of Julia and Aaron. Rest assured, any money raised that we end up not needing for our adoption will be donated to another family in process once our children have been brought home. So prayerfully consider helping us reach this final goal. I thank you all for your prayers and support. This has been an exciting but very taxing journey so far. Please continue to pray for us. It means the world to Carey and I.

SDA appointment!!!

2011-03-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

We just found out about an hour ago that our SDA appt. is MARCH 15!! I don't have time to write much now, but we wanted to let everyone know as soon as possible that we have a date now. We are very excited and a bit panicked over all that needs to be done between now and when we travel : ) Keep the prayers coming......

Happy Birthday!

2011-02-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

Today is Aaron's birthday. He is now 6 years old. We hope and pray that this special little boy had a great day today and that his birthday was somehow celebrated : ) Happy Birthday Aaron! This is the last birthday you will celebrate without a family. We are waiting eagerly to hear when our appointment is!!

Dossier submitted!!

2011-02-10T08:48:00.000-08:00

This morning we got word that our dossier was submitted today...yay!! This is the first day the SDA office is open since November. We had no idea what to expect as to how quickly our dossier would be submitted, but now we know and will be anxiously waiting to hear when our SDA appt. is. Then we can make travel plans. It's seeming so much more real every day. We're coming soon Julia and Aaron! May God continue to keep you in His care : ) We are excited!

One other development that has greatly eased our minds, is that my dear friend Aimee is planning on coming on the second trip with me to bring the kiddos home. We have been racking our brains for months trying to figure out the best way to accomplish the second trip. Steve just really shouldn't be away from work that much more and I obviously can't get both of these kids home by myself. We worked out a few possible scenarios, but none were seeming right for a range of reasons. God has taken care of this and has blessed us with so many wonderful friends. From Aimee coming with me to my other dear friend, Ruth, who has been willing to help in absolutely every way possible. Ruth will coming over with her three kids (one will be a brand new baby) to watch the kids many of the days I will be gone, while Steve goes to work. My neighbor of 13 years, Lena, who has been one of my closest friends will also be coming over on some days too and Steve's mother will take a couple of days as well. We are so incredible blessed. We love you all and can't thank you enough!!

IT is off!!

2011-02-01T16:23:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Praise the Lord....IT is off to EE!! Yes, the proof of home mortgage letter arrived from AHMSI last Thursday and it was.....wait for it.....DONE RIGHT : ) So we shipped it off to Secy. of State office in TX that same day to get it apostilled and it arrived Friday in Austin. We sent a letter urging the office to expedite, complete w/pics of Julia and Aaron. They turned it around back to us on Monday and we got it today.....now that's how it's done by compassionate and capable folks!!! Steve is sending it off to EE this evening to be joined with the rest of our dossier. Thank you EVERYONE for your prayers and for listening to all of our frustrations over this one document! And also thanks to those who reached out by being willing to trek over to AHMSI or send someone you knew to help them out, even though it never would have worked. We are very appreciative of the offers.

Goodness gracious, what will we do with all of this free time now that we don't have to spend hours on the phone w/them, jumping through the many hoops to "help them" get it right, and agonizing over whether they would EVER figure it out? Hmmmm........get ready to travel? Sounds good to us : )

Heartwarming Stories

2011-01-31T09:50:00.000-08:00

Throughout this adoption journey, many have asked how our children are feeling about all of this and what their expectations are. I have some recent, heartwarming stories to share.

Steve, Kacey (our 11 year old) and I have been watching the TV series "Lost" since the summer on Netflix. Kacey and I were in the kitchen talking about whether a character Juliet was "really" dead. Regan (our 3 year old) comes running from the playroom with a very worried look on her face. In a sad little voice she asks, "Did Julia die?" Poor little girl. We assured her Julia was just fine. She was so concerned!

And last week, while Ethan (our 6 year old) was outside playing in the snow, my neighbor asked him if he would shovel her sidewalk for $2. He got right to work and told her he was going to give the money towards Julia and Aaron's adoption costs. He came straight home after earning his $2 and proudly handed it over. Very heart warming!

Kacey is obviously at an age where she can understand more about the serious problem of how many orphans there are, particularly special needs kids in many countries. She has her own "list" of Reece's Rainbow kids she would want to adopt if she could. She was sad the other day when we learned that one of the kids on her list with Down's Syndrome passed away in an EE orphanage. I believe God is preparing her heart to someday be the answer for some of these children needing homes.

And Evan, our youngest, at almost 21 mo. old, is much too young to understand all of this. We do talk about Julia and Aaron often and their pictures are taped to the kitchen cabinets. I have heard him attempt to say both of their names!

Even though they are not here yet, they are very much a part of our lives. When we are saying prayers with the little ones at bedtime, they are the first ones to remind us we need to pray for them. This morning the three oldest divided up their stuffed animals and decided which ones they were going to give to Julia and Aaron. We cannot wait until they are here and the kids can shower them with love and attention every day!