blessedtobehome

Please excuse this pause in the updates –  we are experiencing growing pains, and growing pains hurt…. a lot!

That’s about all I can say for today except for the fact that I am very grateful that the Lord’s Grace and Mercy are new each day.

It’s 11-1-11 and that means our “official” waiting time is over. Somedays we were not sure if this day would ever come, but as of today, he is OFFICIALLY our son!!! One more trip to go for new passport and birth certificate and American Citizenship. Thank you Lord for our official “new” son! Thank you to EVERYONE who has helped us bring our son home. So very many have prayed and contributed time and money to this journey, we would not be here today without all of you!

We got an email yesterday that we are “good to go” to come back to Latvia for our final trip next month. We are guessing everything worked out at the Embassy with our paperwork, but she did not address that in the email, just said come, so we are going.

Now to book plane tickets. We always have given ourselves one day “extra” in case we miss the plane on some connection. This time I REALLY want to be here to shop for Black Friday deals…. so to leave Black Friday or the following day is what I am now struggling with. So far prices are exactly the same (too much!) for the plane tickets.

It will be “murphy’s law.” If I stay to shop, there will be nothing on sale I need, but if I go there will be many things I need to buy that can be gotten at a great deal. AND we have been telling David since last year about shopping at 5am to get the “good deals” and he is really wanting to go this year too.  hmmmmmm. Granted the plane does not leave until afternoon, but… no sleep & then travel for 24 hours. Not with my traveling companion!

Have a wonderful weekend.

I only took a handful of photos on this trip. Tonight I looked at them for the first time. These two stood out. The first is of David right before we went into court. The second shortly after we left on the drive back.  This reminded me how emotionally exhausting that day was for both of us.  I had forgotten he fell asleep right after we left the courthouse.

I am so very thankful to be home with our son! Tonight he is experiencing his very first camp out as a Boy Scout! Something he would have never experienced without all the prayers and help from so many of you. Words can never say how much we appreciate all that has been done to help us get here.

Before Court

After Court

Yes, WE says it all.  WE are home. 

Sorry for the lack of updates. The place we stayed says “wi-fi in every room.” Well, that was not to be the case and updating even our family at home was nearly impossible.  

Let me start at the beginning of our week. There are major parts I’d like to forget, but much I want to chronicle to remember. 

David and I left Atlanta at 5pm Tuesday afternoon. After an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam we arrived early morning to a 6 hour layover before our flight to Riga. Atlanta would not issue our next boarding passes for some reason for the next flight and Amsterdam is not the “usual” airport. The people at the desks to issue new boarding passes do not even come until 2 hours before flight times. We have a long wait in chairs and then had to go back through security again since we had to come out to get our boarding passes. (Later we were to figure out what a transfer station was and find also there is LOTS of shopping, but we sat for almost 6 hours not knowing this.)

We are about to leave for the airport for our flight “across the big pond.” I am still sick, and now running a fever, but so far, David is feeling fine. Trying to not breathe on him or anyone else.

I am brining another family’s dossier packed along with all our paperwork in our 2 carry-on’s. I sure hope they don’t make me check these bags, but I have a back up plan for our documents if they do as they need to be kept “hands on.”

We checked in with our adoption coordinator, Cathy, this morning and we think we have all we need for this trip.

We will update when we arrive and have internet service.

Please pray for my mom, Connie, here with the 3 kids while Oscar is working. She is going to try to school them and bring them to all their activities this week.

Praying the Lord leads us and shows us His path on this trip and we arrive back home Sunday with our son.

Have a wonderful week!

Blessings, Wende

Oh my, with 48 hours left to go, I am getting sick. I was standing in the check out line yesterday at Kroger and all the sudden started feeling terrible, like the flu was coming on.  On top of that, it was my sweet daughter’s 14th birthday party last night, good thing teenage girls don’t really want their mom’s around when they have 6 other girls here to hang out with.
I got up slow to get to church this moring and had to leave after Sunday School I was feel so terrible and missed a cook out with our Bible Study group today. I did stop at the store on the way home and bought garlic. A friend last night was telling me how much taking crushed garlic each day has helped their fmaily stay healthy. With 48 hours till flying I’ll try anything almost. A clove of garlic in me & a big drink of water and I am off to bed, praying when I was up I will feel better.  WAY to much to do before we go to be sick!

Sick or not, we leave in less than 48 hours. Please pray I feel better quickly & no one else gets this (whatever it is), expecially David who has to make the trip back to court with me.

It’s been very busy around here. Between school, scouts, 4-h and all the big kids working / volunteering to work at the food booths at the Coweta County Fair, we’ve not stopped this week.

Last night we pulled out what we needed to pack and looked at our carry-ons and it made me laugh. I have NO IDEA how to pack for 5 days in 2 small carry-ons, but I am determined to not check a bag this trip. In a few weeks we will be there longer, so I will have to, but not this time I hope.

Another family adopting is sending us their precious documents for us to hand carry to Latvia. We pray they arrive in time to go with us.

This also has been a week of BIG feelings. It’s almost time for it to be “real.” I am very nervous about the court. Having to stand there and try to answer tons of questions to “prove” we love and want our son and can take care of him is nerve wracking. I have been talking to other parents this week who have gone through this and I am told expect court to take anywhere from 22 minutes to 2 hours. One mom spent 2 hours answering questions from a new prosecutor. For those of you who know me personally know I can talk to small groups, but there is NO WAY I can talk in front of a group (that’s 3 or more to me). Maybe when I faint they will have pity and realize they asked me enough questions.
Then our son has to come forward and answer questions and tell the judge yes too. We believe he will say “yes”, but only the Lord knows for sure.

Some specific prayer requests:
For safety as we fly. We leave Tuesday 10/4 and return Sunday 10/9

For peace that only the Lord can give us on Friday at court. Court is 6am local time in GA, 1pm in Latvia.

For an unspoken prayer request for while we are in Latvia. The Lord knows this need, but I can not share here at this point, but it’s very, very important.

For all our documents and a quick return trip date in November. Many of our papers expire soon and we need to be back in Latvia the week before or after Thanksgiving or much of our papers will have to be re-done and new government approval which will delay this for months and cost a whole lot more.

For funding to help us finish this trip and the next. We are thinking of new fundraising ideas for the last trip.

If anyone feels led to donate here is the link directly to our account at Promise 686:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FPTABTVSSMSWL

We would most appreciate your prayers.  We are almost there. On October 13, 2010 the courts told us, “minimum 1 year before we could begin our adoption.” Well, our Lord is mighty and not confined by the courts, and less than a year later we will have our court date and he will be “legally” our son.
He has been our son in our hearts for 15+ months. It will be wonderful to make it legal.

Blessings,
Wende

Fall is in the air here is Georgia and so are the preparations for our next trip. Calming nerves and paperwork are the top priority now. Nerves, I am sure you can understand – paperwork – Yup! MORE and more paperwork. AND for the 3rd trip, coming soon after this one, there is tons more paperwork! Just got the last documents appostilled and in our hand today and I will scan & email this weekend to our in-country lawyer for translation before we arrive.

So much to do to get ready to leave again for a week, but this time Dad gets to stay home and help Nana with the three children here since only one of us is required to come to court with David.

This will be a fast trip, in & out, yet the next one will be more relaxing as there is no more court after this one.
Please pray that the Lord’s will continues to be the most important thing on our journey and we remember to follow Him, where ever he may lead. We know from our own experience last trip and many other friends who are adopting just before your trips all kinds of things go haywire at home, so we are praying for the Lord’s peace and protection on our family.

On an exciting note, our friends Jama and Sabina leave tomorrow for their last trip to Latvia and one week from today Sabina will also be an American citizen! We are so very excited for them.

More updates soon … counting the days until this part of our journey is behind us and we are home forever as a family.

Three months ago today we sat on a plane leaving Riga. It seems like a lifetime ago, yet only yesterday. So many memories have been made.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Sorry for the long silence. We have been busy growing and bonding. Much like a newborn baby brings the household to a stop (or a great slow down) so does the adoption of a child. We spent most of June & July learning to be a family.

As August rolled around we were getting ready for school and all the new activities. Elijah is in Boy Scouts as a Star rank, and is hoping to begin taking guitar lessons at some point again this year. Noah continues his scouting as a Webelo I this year and really is hoping to get back to gymnastics. Those of you who know Noah personally know he has the body build of a gymnast and he hopes one day to go to the Olympics as a gymnast. He LOVES the sport, but it’s been on hold for him for over a year now.

Victoria started back with 4-H Horse & Pony Club as well as Horse Quiz Bowl on the Senior team this year.  She is also in Drama Club and spends as much time with friends and around horses as possible. David is still trying to find his “niche.” He has joined Boy Scouts and is investigating if it’s for him or not. He also wants to box, and we found a new gym in Peachtree City that teaches kids to box. Later this year, we may investigate that for him once we are finished with our trips to Latvia. Right now he’s working real hard on his English, making new friends and learning the difference between a foster family and a forever family.

As a family we have begun a Bible study group with 3 other families. While it’s very hard to coordinate 4 families’ schedules with a total of 11 children we are trying very hard to make this a priority in our lives. We so enjoy getting together with our new group and studying the Lords Word and fellowshipping with each other.

August 15^th all the kids started home school with a field trip to the Atlanta History Center. It’s the one day a year it’s free to enter and I love all things school related that are free! The older kids are taking English, Writing and Science classes at Eluminatus and Bridge our Home School Groups High school and Middle school classes.

As with many families with teenagers we have noticed our kids use way too much electronics, so from Aug. 25^th to Aug. 29^th we took a break from electronics to spend time just as a family. It was WONDERFUL! It’s amazing how much time electronics takes away from family time.

This Fall we are preparing for 2 trips back to Latvia to make the adoption final. David has technically been here on “bonding time” while we were approved again by the American government to adopt him specifically. Now we head back to Latvia, David & Wende, the first week of October to stand before a judge and to ask the judge to make him our son forever. Then after a 20 day waiting period, where any Latvian resident can contest the adoption, and about a 10 day paperwork chase, we’ll go back for our third trip the end of November we hope. This last trip he will get a new American passport and new birth certificate with his new name and our names on it. When we land on American soil after this trip he is officially an American citizen.

Our USCIS expires 15 months from when it was approved and we were ready way before his papers were, so we are nearing our papers expiring. If we have to get an extension, that means and updated home study and that means more money and time. Also, once a child reaches 15 years old, more medical tests are needed before they can become an American citizen. So we are praying for our 3^rd trip to be the last week of November so all we can complete everything and he can become an American Citizen before his 15^th birthday the first week of December.

We would so appreciate prays as we continue to grow as a family and for our trips back to Latvia and all that is involved with each of these trips. While we do not think anyone will prevent us from making him our son forever, that is always in the back of our minds.  We would also appreciate prayers for good flights and quick trips and a favorable judge. With the holidays looming taking two trips to Eastern Europe between the first week in October & the last week of November is a lot to do.

Lastly we would appreciate prayers for the remaining funding that we need. We still need to raise about $10,000 for 4 round trips tickets, about 10 nights stay and $4000+ lawyer’s fees remaining, translation fees and other fees involved with the completion of this. The cost of this has been more than we thought going into it, and we can not wrap our minds around why adopting a child should be so expensive, but with so many little fees it all adds up very quickly and our adoption fund was depleted the last trip. We are looking into fundraisers for this next month to help raise the money.

We know the Lord has a plan, but He has not revealed it to us yet. If you have a heart for adoption and you feel led to donate, there is a link directly to Promise 686, where you can make a tax deductible donation to help us complete our adoption. Promise 686 doubles the first $4,000 we have donated to $8,000. Please know that just as our small adoption fees of $5 here & $25 there add up fast so do small donations of $5 and $10 add up also.

Thanks for checking in on us and please pray for us when you are able. The Lord and everyone’s prays have carried us for the last 17 months since we first laid eyes on a photo of a boy who was to become our son and we are so very thankful for that!

Blessings,

Oscar, Wende, Victoria, David, Elijah and Noah

Paypal link for direct donations:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FPTABTVSSMSWL

Mailing address of Promise 686:
Promise 686
3600 River Ferry Drive
Alpharetta, GA 30022

(*Note:  per IRS guidelines, promise686 maintains complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.)

One year ago this morning our son woke up for the first time in our home. I remember walking into the room he was sharing with Elijah for hosting and he was sitting on the bed, bed made and the clothes we had given him to sleep in were neatly folded on the bottom of his bed. I thought, “WOW! I wonder if he can teach the others this?”

This week we will celebrate Noah’s 9^th birthday, which was in May but we did not celebrate because of our trip, and Elijah’s 12^th birthday which is Wednesday. We are hoping to set all things aside and focus on only them for a few hours. I pray for these few hours’ peace to be in our home. They have given up so much in this last year we really want to make this special for them.

We are still waiting for our approval from USICS to be able to make our next trip date. It’s time to begin to think about fund raisers for our next 2 trips, but I am out of ideas, so I am praying the Lord shows us what he wants us to do. He has brought us this far, I am sure He will continue to guide us. We still have to raise about $10,000 to complete this process.

We hope you all are having a wonderful summer.

We left Riga a week ago today. So much has happened since then, so many emotions. I was still very nervous at the airport waiting. It was hard. Very hard. So much goes through your mind as you are about to leave with your child. Even though you know this is a good thing, it’s hard. They are giving up so very much to start a new life. They are leaving their country, language, friends, and so much more. Even when they have no real hope there, and you know it’s going to be a totally different life for them, it’s hard. Especially the older they are. Every time his phone rang in his pocket that day, I took a deep breathe. Honestly until we lifted off, I was not 100% sure he would not change his mind and stay.

As we loaded on the plane emotions were running high. By lift off we all had tears. Relief, joy, sadness all were a part of the tears. As I watched the Latvian country side get further & further away I questioned what we were doing and wondered how in the world we are going to be able to do this. But I felt peace and gave it all to Him. I cried for my son, for the pain he must have been feeling and the hope he now has of a future so different than he would have had. I was so thankful, and so many people went through my mind that helped us get that far. This was the Lord’s journey he sent us on, and so many came along side of us to be His hands and feet. We are so grateful for all of you. 

By the time we reached Germany I was feeling better but really wishing we did not have an over night stay. Our “plan” was not the Lord’s plan in Germany. We wanted to go “see” Frankfurt and do stuff in our few hours there. When we got on the shuttle bus and to the hotel we found out the only way (except for very expensive taxi service) to get to Frankfurt was to take the shuttle bus back to the airport, then take a train to Frankfurt then bus or train to wherever we wanted to go. I was prepared to do so, but David said no, he’d rather not, and that was fine with us.

So, we wandered to the only place close enough to go, a campground with a small restaurant. Talk about laid back & slow. I think it must have taken 2 hours total for dinner from the time we arrived to the time we finally went and found someone to bring us the check. Yet, the time we spent there was wonderful. The pressure was off that we had in Latvia. Germany, for us, became a transition place. We were not home yet, but there was no underlying fear of the phone ringing & someone saying he had to stay.

After dinner we wandered past the hotel and found a beautiful small lake. We spent about an hour just playing by the lake. Throwing rocks, trying to catch a fish with a stick. We talked about hopes & dreams. It was really a wonderful time. We ended the night with a major wrestling match on the bed and after us all landing on the floor many times laughing we decided to settle in & sleep as morning comes early and we were going HOME.

We got home about 30 minutes before the flight was due to arrive and after a few tense minutes at customs / immigration trying to get the supervisor there to understand why we had more than a 6 mos visitor visa issued in Latvia, they ended up giving us a stamp for a one year visa vs.  the 9 mos the Embassy in Riga gave us. I sure hope it does not take this long to finish all the last 2 trips, but if it does, we’re covered.  

Within 10 minutes of pulling in the driveway all 4 of our children were sopping wet from water balloons and washing the dog! What a joy to watch.

Saturday morning we went to pick up David’s surprise. Remember I said a sweet friend was giving him something he really wanted but we were not able to give him at this time. Well, meet his surprise.

She is a 3 ½ month old German Sheppard puppy who is still, 6 days later, un-named. It took 10 months for him to pick out his middle name, wonder how long it’s going to take to name his puppy? He is quickly learning responsibility and how much work a puppy really is.

We have been home now 6 days and while everything is not perfect, and there is a lot of “testing” the limits and the boundaries, we are so very grateful to finally have our son home. We have a lot of work still to do, paperwork, 2 more trips back to Riga to finish the adoption and funds to raise for those 2 more trips, yet I can 100% say he is home and I have no doubt at all this was the Lord’s plan that he be part of our family.

Some specific prayer requests.

That when limits are being tested, we react with love and patience and not frustration.

That the other 3 children here also have patience with us and not think we are being unfair as we begin to show him how to be a member of the family. Learning responsibilities and being part of a family is a very slow process.

For our USCIS I800 paperwork to be quickly approved by the American Government so we are able to make our next trip back this summer so we only have one trip to do in the fall during the school year. It will be more expensive to travel before September, but we think going as soon as possible will still be the better thing overall.

That the Lord will show us where and what we need to do to raise the remaining funds we need to complete this journey.

That David will meet others his age and begin to make friends.

For our son to come to think of us as his family. To think of us as parents and brothers & sisters.

To know that he is loved, not only by us, but by many and especially the Lord.

It’s quiet here in our apartment this morning. David is still sleeping and we are packing our few last things to come home. It’s been an amazing 17 days since we left home. We have learned a lot, prayed a lot and come to love Latvia and its people.

We will leave part of our hearts here in Latvia.

Yesterday was hard, but ended with pillow fighting and wrestling. I think it helped relieve the stress of the day.

His visit with his friends went well, and I survived by praying a lot. We knew basically where he was and could have stood out there to watch over him, but choose not to. We kept in contact by phone and texting while he was out. It’s so hard to remember he has been “on his own” since he was about 4 years old. It’s a totally different culture here and kids are very self sufficient.  In America we’d not think twice to leave him home alone while I went to the grocery store, after all, he’s going to be 15 years old in a few months, but for me here is was hard. This was normal for him, but not for us. We will be doing a lot of learning in the next few months about how to grow as a family.

I was very glad to see him come back tired and dirty, yet happy and I think he has a bit more closure. Many may not agree with our decision to let him have this short time with his friends, and all I can say is you had to be here to understand why this was important we showed him we trusted him. We were very close to where he was, he was with 3 other friends and tons of people in a public place. He was always safe.

There is so much more to say and write about what we’ve learned, this city and its people.

I have a sense of peacefulness right this minute. We are far from finished on this journey, and I am really starting to think this first part of paperwork and waiting maybe the easiest part. I am so looking forward to having our son home and spending time together as a family this summer before school starts.

Last September when we were getting one “bad” news after another about timing for this I was praying “when Lord, when will we have our son?” & I heard the Lord saying “JUNE.” I was not thrilled with His answer back then as it seemed like such a long time. I kept praying “will we be ALL done in June?” but never got an answer other than “June.”

Well, yesterday was June 1 and we have our son. If all goes well we will be flying in a few short hours to bring him home.  

I can’t wait to hug our other babies when we get home! Last night Elijah told us it went “fast” for him. I am glad. This is the longest they have ever been away from us. I am sure they have “grown” while we were gone too. Maybe not in size, but in maturity. They have been amazing on this journey with us watching us as we walked in faith. It’s been hard for them and they have given up a lot in this last year to have a new brother. I am very proud of all of them. Hopefully things will get back to “normal” at home … Hmmm or maybe our new normal…. Either way, we are a family and we will go through it together with the Lord guiding our paths.

Got to go finish packing to come HOME!

Today is officially our last day here for trip one.

There is so much I want to write about Riga and it’s wonderful people, but that will have to keep for another day. Today is a day of nerves and anticipation.

We just want to go home. So much has happened we can’t really write about here. All that is fair to say is that many things happen to “try” to keep these kids here.

Someone once told me “There is a battle in the heavenlies for these children” and she is right. We know that the Lord has brought us this far, and whatever happens in the next 24 hours until we are leaving this apartment and get on that plane, He knows and will be with us through it.

Yesterday our 14 1/2 year old son told us he wants to leave today ‘just one” (by himself) and go see friends he has not seen in a few years. And he wants to meet them immediately before our Embassy appointment to pick up his Visa. The Mama in me says NOOOOO they will try to talk you out of coming home with us. But when I take my emotions out of this, I know he needs closure too. And I also know he is used to “running” the streets of Riga by himself for many years, but, but, but, he’s our son and there are lots of people out there in this big city……

I have been battling fear since he told me of his wish to do this. Last night I asked him “are you coming back with tears in my eyes?” He looked at me like I had 3 heads and said “well where would I sleep?” Meaning if he did not come back where would he sleep. I guess that’s as close to a yes as I am going to get for now. He says he will only be gone 1 hour and promises to be back before the taxi gets here to take us to the Embassy.

Our son has great courage. If he can cross the ocean two times, the first time to stay with a family he does not even know at the age of 13 for 5 weeks in a different country,  can I not be courageous and let him go for one hour to get closure?  He is now giving up his whole life, all he has ever known to be our son and begin a new life in America.

He trusts us to love him and take care of him and never send him away. I will need to trust him for one hour and keep his promise to me.

So, I will trust him and trust Him to take care of our son.

Please pray for peace for us while we wait and peace for him as he says his good byes.

Tuesday we went to the Embassy. It was so much easier than courts! Since it was the Embassy’s first day open things seemed to be a little slow making it through security. Note to those coming. They take your iPod, cameras, cell phone. Don’t bring them, you can’t keep them with you.

After a very short wait we had our interview which consisted of us standing at a window, them taking our son’s fingerprints and asking him 2 or 3 questions. Then telling us to come back tomorrow to get his Visa.

Note to parents – they “need” to hear you are homeschooling during the hosting time until they are legal US citizens. Daina said there is a big meeting coming up. She said this is the ONLY country that allows kids to come home immediately and if we keep putting them in American schools before they are American citizens then this part of the program will close and they will not be able to come home anymore early. Think about it and plan for it. Even charter schools are not acceptable as they are public schools. Daina said if you can’t home school them (if it’s school time) then leave them here until the last trip. I am 100% sure more will be coming out about this soon for those adopting here. She was very firm on this.

We were in & out in about 30 minutes with both of our families getting done. We came back to the apartment as we had lunch plans but not until 2pm.

We caught a train to David’s old foster family’s home and had a wonderful lunch. David had “prewarned” her I was a very picky eater and may not eat much. I really did not want to hurt her feeling, but I could not eat fish soup… but she made chicken soup too! It was fun to hear about our son and that he “can” cook, not that he has for us! We had a special treat as one of his adult brothers came to visit while we were there. We had never met him before, and it was wonderful to meet him.

When David’s brother and foster mom found out we wanted to see the Baltic Sea and David had not taken us, they told him he needed to do this. He readily agreed. ??? We thought it strange at the time he agreed so easily. After lots of hugs and see you next time we headed to the train. His brother escorted us there before catching his bus. We also had our friend Paula’s son with us who was going to the Sea with us.

Well, this is where the sneaky child comes in. I thought he agreed too easy to go to the Sea when I had been asking him for a week and he kept saying nope. We gave him money to buy train tickets to the sea and he comes back with ones back to Riga. Brat! He wanted to go back home & hang out with Noah (Yuri)

It was all good. We spent several hours visiting with Paula’s son and she got to see his sweet face on Skype, and not just hear his voice. So that was worth giving up my trip to the Sea.

David and Natalija

David and Rodion

Noah William Chaffin

Sorry it’s been a few days since we updated, we’ve been “bonding!”

Saturday I could have stepped on my son’s big toes!! I was quite upset with him. I had been asking for days for him to take me to the “market” in the airplane hangers. At first he pretended to have no idea what I was talking about. Then he kept telling me another day. Finally Saturday I said, “I am going by myself.” This did not make my husband very happy to have me wandering Riga by myself, but since they were close to the movie theatre we came up with a plan to have me meet them before & after a movie to check in so they knew I was alright.

Getting to the markets was so easy, and when I got there I couldn’t believe how amazing they were. Hundreds & hundreds of little booth set up in 5 large airplane hangers, and all outside of them. Meat, vegetable, fruits, cheeses, bakeries, spices, I could not believe my nose! I was on a hunt for good cheese to make home made pizza and also some gifts to take back to our 3 children at home. Now remember, hundred of booth and they all speak Latvian or Russian and I only speak English. The only Russian word I can say “good” is french fries.  It was fun to figure out how to buy peppers, onions, strawberries, mozzarella & parmesan cheese, bread and lots of other goodies I had been wanting. The vendors very quickly figured out they could not talk to me, so most of them punched in how much on a calculator I needed to pay and showed it to me and I handed them the lats. Prices were pretty good except for the $8+ I spent on strawberries. Yikes! Did not expect that high of a price, but I realized that we are in Eastern Europe in May and strawberries don’t grow at Adams Farm just down the road.

When I went to check in and  I saw my son, I got real close to his ear and hissed at him, “I can’t believe you didn’t take me there days ago.” He just smiled. He knew I would spend hours there and what 14 year old boy wants to spend hours walking around a market with thousands of other people. Not mine who hates crowds. He got a movie out of it and lots of fresh cheese, veggies & fruits. Sneaky child!!!!

Sunday David & I stayed in and Oscar went to the church down the road. Oscar said the church was very much like ours, except it was all in Russian. He said he got to sing Revelation Song in Russian. He sat with a friend of ours here who translated. Church was 2 hours long, so maybe that’s why our son avoids church if he can….. working on that issue.  We had hoped to see David’s previous foster mom & foster brothers, but Oscar could not find them in church. Shortly after he got back to the apartment, we got a phone call from them. She wanted to come visit. We had been negotiating with David that we wanted to go to a few museums, he wanted to stay here and play computer games & listen to music. He had no interest in the Art museums in Riga!

So, we told Natalia to come on over. She speaks very little English, but tried real hard. Within about 10 minutes of being here we were walking out the door. She wanted to show us “her” Riga.  It was hilarious to see our son telling her “No” he was not going. She had been his foster mom for 2 years, and she was not one to take no for an answer from him. I still have no idea how she gets him to do what she wants, but from the moment she arrived, she took charge and he was doing what he was told. For about 4 hours we walked the Riga streets and saw Riga we would never have seen with “our” 14 yr old tour guide. It was lots of fun. We got a lot of pictures because when she told him to go stand for a picture, he did vs. scowling at me when I tried to take his picture. J

My little enterprising son quickly got tired of translating between us and his foster mom about what we were seeing in Riga so he told me he needed translator fees. (He knew we paid a translator for courts.) I gave him all the change I had in my pocket and told him we’d get him ice cream too. He got about 3 Lats ($6.00) and ice cream out of the deal, and he worked on a lot of English in a few hours.  I can be a sneaky mom too. $6 was cheap compared to all the English words he learned while walking around when he was explaining stuff to us, and he also learned more of Latvian history while explaining what she was telling to us. I’d call that 4 hours of home schooling on the Riga streets!!

We have 4 days to go before we can leave. We are still praying no one goes to the courts and tries to keep us here. I really do not like plane take offs & landings, but I can’t wait for our plane to take off from the Riga airport on Thursday afternoon with our son with us. Then, I will breathe a big sigh of relief.

David, Arturs and Natalia

Roof line in Riga

Meet our son!

Today was court. All went well there. We actually went with another family that is here and they had court directly after us. It was a tad bit nerve wracking, and watching him sign papers saying “yes” he wanted to be adopted was harder than I thought. It was bitter sweet for us because even though we know this is what we all want, we know it is so very hard for him too.

We had to officially extend our “bonding” time simply because the Embassy is closed until May 31^st. So we either sent him back to the foster home (NOT) or extended bonding time until the 31^st.  He is technically “ours” now, but we officially get him on May 31^st. We have 2 days back to back Embassy appointments and then we get to leave on June 2^nd and are back home June 3^rd.

We still have a 30 day appeal period where any family member can appeal this courts decision to take him with us to America. We are praying that does not happen in the next 6 days, but it’s a possibility we are facing.  

After court, we went to Lido and ate well. Oscar was all set to go ice skating with him but the rink was closed. L Then we took a bus and saw the country side for a little bit.

This is short as he is “patiently” waiting for the computer back. Tonight no family movie, I promised him computer so he can chat with friends as long as he’d like since it’s Friday night. (Plus I slept very little last night so I’m heading to bed.)

Our children back home are starting to feel the effects of us being gone so long. Our 9 year old did not have as many play dates set up, and he has been home more than the other 2 and he’s getting very “whiny” on Skype and wanting us to come home. I’d come today if we could, but we can’t leave for 6 more days….

No camera’s Ugh!!! We decided to try to put the worry out of our mind and head out for a fun day at the water park outside of Riga. We took the train for the first time. I am continually amazed at our son and his ability to get anywhere. He knows the trains, the buses (we have not taken one yet) and he know the streets. The only thing he has not been able to find was a museum he really wanted to go to on Saturday. When we got back to the apartment and checked the map, we had walked within feet of it; it was just tucked into a side street.

When we got to the water park Tuesday, he literally “couldn’t wait” for us to hurry and get there. We went to Hesburger right outside of the park and ate and I barely had time to finish my burger before he was ready to go. We walked in and there is a BIG sign no camera’s (of course not in English either.) I was so, so disappointed because I wanted to capture the joy on his face. It really is time to let him just be a child, and this was the place to be it!

We bought all day passes, at his request. He made it about 3 ½ hours and was ready to go. Hint to others coming after us. All days passes seems to mean so much to them vs. 2 hours or 4 hours. You will probably not spend more than 4 hours, unless you have a lot of children with you and the lines are long. But for some reason this “all day” was very important and it was only a few dollars more than 4 hours.

We got home tired and happy. For the fourth night we used my laptop to watch a movie and snuggle in together. This one was a comedy we had not seen. I think we spent more time pausing it to work on vocabulary words he heard in the movie. It’s a very fine line watching movies with him. He is way beyond American teens in what he has seen, but we do not want to continue that level of exposure. He does not like the “kid” stuff, so we are trying to find movies he will enjoy, but that are not inappropriate either. Some of the things in this movie that I thought would go “over his head” not being his first language, he caught onto and wanted explained. That’s when I said “you’re the Dad you explain.” Just trying to find a way to explain the word “slang” was funny.

Lots of giggling going on here. And that’s good.

We are still praying for our “issue” here and for the phone to NOT ring and they tell us he has to go back. We see the social worker Wed. at 2pm local time (7am EDT) for our first visit. We are hoping she will find us a happy bonded family and tell this to the courts this Friday, so we can be granted the ability to bring him home.

Praying for the Lords will.

Sunday we spent our day in Old Riga again. We got up early and went to a beautiful church for services. Granted it was ALL in Russian, but that did not matter, it was beautiful. In the church everyone stood, and it was very formal. Women had their heads covered and men could not even put their hands in their pockets. I so wanted to take pictures of the walls and ceiling as they were wonderful, but no camera’s allowed during service.

We then went back to the apartment to change and eat. Then we headed to the paddle boats. I waited while the “men” had fun on the river. To see the joy on our son’s face just being on the paddle boat was so wonderful.

Monday it rained so we decided to stay in and hang out. D does not like to go all the time anyway, so we told him on rainy days we’d stay in. (we walk everywhere so it’s a good idea anyway.) We even FINALLY got his middle name decided on. We have been talking about this since last summer, and he could never make a decision. I’ll reveal it after court on Friday.

Monday it literally “rained” on our adoption. Being fair to him, I will not go into details here, but we would appreciate prayers. There is something happening here that could stop this completely right now. That is not what we want or what he wants, but we have absolutely no control over this. It has put a huge cloud over everything, waiting for the phone to ring and them to tell us he has to go back to foster home and we have to wait more. If this thing happened, we think in the end we will still be able to adopt him, but we’d have to wait many more months, and he’d not be able to come to America with us in 8 days. We are just not sure.

We have social worker visit on Wednesday and court on Friday. On Friday the “plan” is they will grant us the right to take him home and continue bonding with him while we finish up more American paperwork and then we’d come back in a few months for the 2^nd out of 3 trips.  We are hoping if we make it through court on Friday and they grant us the right to bring him home, then even if this thing happened, they will still let us have him while they’d sort this issue out in court (if it comes to that.)

We really just do not know. All we can do is pray. We believe the Lord has brought us here, to this child, at this time, knowing the outcome. All we can do is trust Him that He sees the whole picture, we do not. Does that mean it’s easy? Nope, but none of this process has been easy, except for one thing. That one thing that has been easy is loving our son. In our hearts he is ours, even if we do not have a piece of paper showing this, yet….

Saturday we spent the afternoon walking around the city. The buildings are such a contrast, some so old and tumbling down and others beautifully ornate, with carvings and sculptures.  David tried and tried to find a museum he wanted to show us, but we walked up & down many, many streets and he could not find it. (Later we found out we were within feet of it.)  The streets are amazing, what I would call cobblestone. Hard on the knees and ankles, but beautiful to look at. The cars race up & down the streets at amazing speeds for small spaces.  The smells and sights are overwhelming at time. The fashion, oh our daughter would LOVE it here. Pretty much anything goes. Yet, most people are in muted colors. Blacks, whites, and gray seem to be favorites. Only a few do we see in bright colors.

The best part, he slept soundly all night long.

Friday morning… court day. We set 3 alarm clocks. Yes, after sleeping to noon the previous day, we wanted to be sure we got up. After finding one on the internet we found one on my cell phone and one on my iPod.

We spent the rest of the day settling in. It took only a very short time for the shy son to leave and the son we knew was back. After a quick trip to the market, we all settled in for the night. Come to find out, he was tired too. While I was up wondering if he was sleeping well the night before, he had been laying there awake too.

It’s Sunday already!! How that happened from Wednesday when we arrived I have no idea. I finally got the computer to myself so I want to record so much before I forget it all.

I can’t say I slept good that night. I lay there awake wondering what he was thinking & doing. If he was sleeping, or is he was as nervous as we were. And WHEN we’d see him. All we knew is we’d be picked up at 815am and taken to court to sit in front of 3 people who would question us to see if they thought we’d be good parents for him…. Needless to say it was a LONG night…..

Well, it seems that D is sick too. We called him and he is in bed asleep at 830pm. Very unusual for him. He apparently has been sick for several days and that’s why he has not been on the computer. We will not be able to actually see him until Friday after court, even though we’re there on Wednesday.

On the bright side, my ears are feeling much better and the medicine is more agreeable with me now! And we’re almost done packing (for the 4th or 5th time) We’re trying to get everything done so we can have a “calm” day tomorrow when my mom arrives to settle in.

The night before D got here for hosting last summer we spent the night in the ER with E getting stitches in his head from a pool accident, so we’re hoping tomorow we will not have such events!!

We finally connected with the person who we are renting an apartment from and he is actually going to come to the airport and pick us up. YEAH! We will feel much more comfortable with this than taking a taxi, to an unknow place, for an unkown amount of money.

We will be in the air in less than 48 hours!

Blessings

72 hours until flying! And guess where I spent this a.m.? At the doctors. I have a very painful ear infection. With 3 flights ahead of me Tuesday, I have been debating since last Wednesday about going to the doctors, but last night it was very clear it was time to go. With list and lists of stuff to be done today, the Lord blessed me and I was in & out in less than 20 minutes!! Unheard of in that doctors office!

I have not taken one of these meds before and within minutes of taking it, (at the pharmancy) it was upsetting my stomach. Hoping this gets better or it will be a long 5 days!

N, our 9 yr old is getting to be very clingy and upset as the time gets closer. We are hoping he will settle in today as he helps get us ready. It’s just getting very real to him the amount of time we will be gone.  We have heard Skype can make it better, or worse, depending. We hope it will help him feel more secure talking to us from over there.

D, our son we are going to get, has gotten strangely quite and not been on Skype in 2 days. We know millions of things must be going through his mind right now with the becoming more “real” each day. It’s a lot for a 14 yr old to handle. If he does not come back to Skype tomorrow we’ll call him to talk. Or, it could be he’s grounded again as he was supposed to get his final grades for 8th grade yesterday. 🙂  And he let me know they were “not going to be good.” It’s been a tough year all around, and he has moved schools 3 times this year. I have told him to not worry, and we will work on all that he needs help in when he is home.

Home, I really like that word!! We are looking forward to 2 months of “Peaceful Family life.” Hehe, anyone who knows us knows we are not a very quiet and peaceful family, but a very active one. We are hoping to take the next 2 months to really devote to our family and grow together.

Off to the lists and check a few more items off!

Blessings

There is something my son has been asking for since last summer when we first hosted him. We have told him that we would really love to give him this gift, but for now, it’s just not possible. We told him to pray about it and if the Lord really wants him to have this gift, then the Lord will find a way to provide it for him.

We want him to learn that the Lord cares about our needs and wants too. He may not always give us all our wants, be He does care about them.

Today I got a phone call from a friend. Guess what she is giving my son?? The very thing that we could not provide, but she can. 

Curious? Well, I can’t tell you!! I have to tell him first and I am not sure if I can wait 23 days until we are home to tell him, so I may tell him once we get there.

Please pray that the Lord watches over this “gift” in the next 23 days until it can be given to our son when he gets home.

I’ll let you know what it is if I can’t keep this wonderful secret that long. I am terrible at Christmas keeping secrets! I know the Lord will let me know if it’s the right time to tell our son about this. Maybe it will help make his huge transition just a little bit easier for him.

We are so very grateful to her for providing this for him!

6 days until we fly!

Yesterday morning I read this :

On this day, God wants you to know

… that how bad things may look right now means nothing, – it’s how good they can be with God’s help that counts. In life you can absolutely count on one thing, – everything can turn around in one day, in one minute sometimes. Don’t you dare to give up, – you might be a moment away from a windfall.

We just got an email that the long awaited paper is “on the move”.

How it’s moving I have no idea. I wish I was there to hand carry it.It should arrive today or Monday and then we wait some more.

Please pray with me that the Ministry immediately issues our referral and we can confirm dates to go in this very small window of time this month.I talked to our son last night and he is very ready for us to come. I had to explain it may not be as soon as we have been being told due to the Embassy closing & vacation of our attorney.

I am not a patient waiter. Just in case you have not noticed that from my blog. So, I “needed” to be doing something with all the days of waiting. Last night I looked at his bed, where I had been storing everything for our trip and decided I was going to make my first attempt at packing everything.My plan was one suitcase for everyone’s clothes and one for all the gifts and donations and personal items we need to bring. Ha! I was not even full in the suitcase and it weighed 68 lbs. OUCH! Took some out and still over the 50lbs limit, then took more and still over by 2 lbs.  

And if it is soon, we will get maybe 7-8 days notice probably so I need to be ready.

Well, we are still waiting… I could cry and complain like I did to the Lord, but He has heard it all through my tears today. There is nothing to do but continue to surrender it to Him.

We have been told due to “issues” like the paper still not being where it needs to be, and the Embassy moving and being closed for 10 days and our Lawyer taking a vacation for 15 days after that, there is a very real chance that we will have a 6 more week wait at this point before we can go. He knows this.

He also knows there is a very slim chance that we can fit in a few day window, IF IF IF, everything happens within the next couple days. That would take numerous things going like”clock work” and so far that has not happened at all with this process. It would for sure be His miracle if it happened in that small time period.

He is in the miracle business, not us. So we wait, and surrender it to Him. Trying to leave the frustration & bitterness behind and focus on the future and the joy that is to come.

I am trying to focus my Mama’s heart on the future and not the pain of waiting right now. I simply want to wrap my arms around him & hug him and tell him how much I love him.

But for now, that will have to wait for His timing.

For today I will choose to rejoice knowing He loves him far more than I can imagine and has a wonderful plan that is unfolding one day at a time.

We are still waiting…….

In the meantime I have lists & lists that we are making and getting stuff for, so we are ready when He is ready to send us.

My mom is finally home from the hospital and recovering slowly. She is weak from 2+ weeks in the hospital, but getting stronger each day.

Thank you for your prayers.

We continue to wait for Him and His perfect timing.

Blessings

It has been so very crazy here that I realized that I never posted BIG THANK YOU to all those who were involved in the spaghetti dinner.

From the band who generously offered to play, to the church for allowing us to use their building, to the ladies who planned every step of the day and stood all evening to make it happen so wonderfully, to the children / teenagers who spent their night serving others, literally serving by serving,  to the people who donated food, money and auctions items, to the people who came to eat, share fellowship, listen to the band and bid on auction items and to all those who prayed for us and this special night that the Lord would be glorified through all of it.

Not everyone is been called to adopt, but everyone is called to do “something.” Everyone who had any part at all in this wonderful night was doing the part that the Lord called them to do. Thank you seems so inadequate to say, yet it is with overflowing hearts we say it.

Recently someone posted this on their blog. “It’s about stepping out, not planning out.”

This is so true. This journey has been about stepping out and trusting Him, not ourselves. Why He called us, we have no idea. Yet we know with certainty He did, and we are obeying.

We were hoping to tell everyone at the dinner we had travel dates. The day before the dinner we got word a very import piece of paper was never done, and they had no idea how long it would take. 3 days after the dinner, we got a call and said “how soon can you come?” and we were given tentative dates to be confirmed “the next day.”
Well, 8 days later we still do not know if we are going those dates which are only 10 days from today.

Our complete plan for our home, animals and children has been turned upside down because my mother has been in the hospital for 2+ weeks. We are scrambling to figure out other plans. Yet, we have peace knowing that He knows this and knew this was happening. Maybe this is why we got dates, that maybe aren’t “true dates,” to get us moving to figure plan B out. We really do not know why we were given dates and then 8 days later we still wait. Maybe it was to give our son “hope” that we are coming soon because we shared this with him.

All we know is we can not see the end of this journey. Only He can, and we have to trust that everything is happening for His purpose. So if we travel in 10 day or 20 we trust Him that it will be the “perfect time” for His purpose.

Throughout this journey the only consistent thing is that we KNOW He is with us every step of the way. Our faith, and the faith of our children has grown and stretched to uncomfortable proportions at times, yet when we have our son home, we will look back and see how much we all have grown. Someday when we look back we maybe able to say Ah Ha! that’s why that happened that way. But, if not, that’s okay to, we have faith He knows why.

THANK YOU for walking this journey with us. Thank you for doing the part the Lord has called you to do.

Please continue to pray for us. We hope to know any day when we will go and if this so very important piece of paper was obtained today and sent to the right place, the right person who can give us the go ahead to go bring our son home.

Blessings,

Oscar & Wende

We have tentative travel dates and they are SOON. But we can not book plane tickets until we have one piece of paper and we may not get that piece of paper until next Wednesday or Thursday and that would put us flying about 8 or 9 days later.  But that is okay as we know He is in charge and working all things for His Glory.We are still waiting also on our papers from Promise 686 but did get this address for that some have asked for. I will post at bottom.

They also have a way to do it Paypal. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FPTABTVSSMSWL . This should take you to a page designated for us. If not, once you are logged into Paypal be sure, before you confirm, that you click on the small button that says add special instructions to the seller and enter our names. If you do not enter our names, then it will not go to us, but into a general fund.

Please pray for us as we wait on the Lord. We have had to make Plan B for child care and animals as my mom is in hospital and very ill and can not come stay with the kids as we had planned. If any Grandma’s want to come stay we’d love to have you and keep all the kids in one place!!

If you mail a check please be sure to put our names in the memo line so it gets credited to our fund.  Thank you.Promise686, Inc. 3600 River Ferry Drive, Alpharetta, GA 30022

Most of all, please pray for us and D while we are waiting.

We will let you know when we know!!

Have a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend.

I walked in the door today hearing our coordinators voice on the answering machine leaving a message. I ran for the phone anticipating good news. Any day we are expecting our referral. It was NOT the news we have been waiting for.

Paperwork snag there. Someone forgot to do something…. so now we wait.

All we can do is pray this gets taken care of very quickly. Hosting payment deadline coming up May 1^st. We are hoping to not host, but that he will be here forever by hosting dates.

A little overwhelming here. Feeling very “attacked.”

My mom in ICU, getting new roof, gutters and siding due to hail the size of baseballs and now paperwork snags….

Yet we know the One who has it all under control.

Nothing we can do except pray and wait on Him. He is not surprised by any of this.

We have had some questions on Promise 686. We have not received all the paperwork yet, but I will share what I do know. Promise 686 is a group that provides matching grants. We have been approved for a matching grant up to $4,000. What this means is anyone donating, in our name, the same amount they donate, dollar for dollar will be matched by this group. If we raise more than $4,000 that is okay. We have about 20K left in expenses. They just will only match up to the $4,000. 100% of this money will go to us, up to the maximum of our adoption expenses.

If we happend to raise more than we need, it goes into a general fund for others who will get a grant after us. Our agency also takes donations, BUT they will not match it. Promise 686 will!!

I do not have the address yet to mail donations to, I am told it will take up to 2 weeks to get all the paperwork. But I have been told that a check can be made out to Promises 686 with our name in the memo line and that it can be given to us and then once we have all the paperwork, it is fine that we forward it to them. They will then send the person who donated a tax deductible receipt. They are a 501c agency.

If the donation is not desginated to us in the memo line, then it will be placed into a general fund.

I will post the address directly to Promise 686 once I receive it hopefuly early next week if you would like to send it to them directly.

This is their website if you would like more information about them.

http://www.promise686.org/

We are very blessed that we have been approved for this.

It will help us, help Him, help him.

It is official.

We have been very blessed to be approved by Promise 686 for a Matching Grant. 

All the money we can raise or that is donated will be matched dollar for dollar by this organization up to a certain limit.

Thank you Lord for this blessing!

Psalm 68:6

Today, when I was feeling blue and wondering “What in the world have we got our family into?” the Lord sent someone to me.

He told them to remind me that this is His journey, we are only His hands and feet and it is for His glory. We are just to listen & obey. This person had no idea what I was struggling with today, but He did.

And He reminded me, through this person,  this is about Him not us, it is for His glory, not ours. He has a plan, far better than anything I could ever imagine.

Still always amazed that He knows our every thought and He is always “right on time” with answers!

Thank you “A” for telling me today what the Lord laid on your heart and praying for us!

We are just hanging out waiting…. Our Dossier has been in country for 13 days. First translation then onto courts for approval. A two month process we’re told…..

We have not gotten to talk to D much in the last week, no computer allowed…  on his end… 🙁  Calling his cellphone is quite expensive on our end, when we are saving every penny, so we are checking in every few days with him for just a few minutes. A huge change to being able to reach out on Skype pretty much anytime we wanted to to tell him something. It really makes me even more thankful for the chance we’d had for months to talk to him most every day whenever we wanted.  

His foster brother is leaving to be with his new family in 10 days. I am sure there is a huge amount of anticipation as well as nervousness with the boys.  I am so thankful that his foster brothers’ family will get to see D and encourage him.

V & E are at DNOW all weekend. N is having a ball being the “only” child. We spent the day getting some good sale deals trying to restock our shelves here at home. We’ve also decided to begin to gather things we know we will need for our trip as we find them at good prices. Planning for several weeks in a different country and what we may need is interesting. We have been getting lists from those who have gone before us and they are very helpful.

Please pray that our Dossier is at the end of the translation process and that the courts approve our request to be his family. There are no guarantees that they will approve us.

Praying the Lord is watching over all the children who are waiting to come “home.”

Reading through old emails from last July today I found this that NHFC had posted.  Another hosting season is coming. Will you consider being Jesus’ hands & feet for 5 weeks? To look at hosting picts you simply need to fill out a short form. This is not to gather your private information, but protect the children. There are many ways to help host, sponsor, and pray!

http://www.newhorizonsforchildren.org/

Who will cry for the orphan boy who is lonely all his years
Who will cry for the orphan girl whose eyes have run out of tears
Who will give an orphan child the things they really need
Like home and love and family, yes who will hear and heed
Who will love an orphan child, the Bible says we should
Who will give an orphan child a loving home for good
Who will love an orphan child, the Bible says we must
Who will give an orphan child a sense of belonging and trust
We live in a culture that has it all, but tells us we need more
Will orphans without home or love ever see our door
What use is faith that fails to love the orphans as we should
God gave us wealth so we could give an orphan a home for good
What use is faith that says to a child who desperately needs a home
“Go in peace, be warmed and filled”, but then leaves her all alone
How can I tell an orphan child of a God who loves them so
They’ll never understand God’s love, if my love they don’t know
How can I tell them Jesus died to take away their sin
They won’t care that Jesus died when they are dying within
God said we’re all orphans here, and sent Jesus to pave the way
And if we accept His gift of love, we’re a Child of God today
Adoption is God’s proof of love according to His Word
Adoption is the word of love the orphan has never heard
Adoption is God’s gift of love, the love that we all need
Adoption is the orphans cry, but who will hear and heed
Who will cry for the orphan child, it’s something they cannot do
But, who will cry for the orphan child? If they can’t, will you?

There is nothing more I can say than in the title. He is FREE!

The Lord has worked it all out in His time.

Peace came, we gave him to Him and He gave him back to us.

This time the tears were of joy. I had to pull off the road I was crying so hard when I got the phone call.  What a difference a few days can make.

Our papers were all ready. The Lord provided the money for the next step LAST NIGHT and today our papers are on the way as they have been ready and waiting for Him.

The journey is far from over. Please continue to pray with us as we walk this path the Lord has put us on. We have far to go and much to do before our first trip. We still have to get their government approval.

What an awesome Lord we serve!

Today a strange sense of calm and peace has come over us and the children.  We spent much time this weekend talking about “what if” and what will we do “if”…. We talked about many other families who have walked this road before us and had their paths changed, even in the last week, and the faith that they have had to continue to follow the Lord, “no matter what.” About how they followed the Lord, no matter where the Lord lead them, and what would we do “if” the Lord does not lead where we thought he was. We asked the children to pray about what “if” and if they will still be open to the Lords leading somewhere else.

We got some information today, and usually I would be frantic to find out more, why, what, when ….. but today, it’s okay. I am just leaving it in the Lord’s hands, knowing He is walking with us and there is NOTHING we can do except choose to follow him or walk away.

Today, we are choosing to have FAITH and follow Him. Where he is leading us, we honestly do not know anymore, but we all trust Him and have decided to follow. Do we still want with all our hearts our son to come home forever soon? YES! Yet, we also know and have now accepted that may never happen. Does it mean we will walk away from him if that happens? No, just that our role may be different in his life than we had hoped.

Thus, a strange sense of peace and calm has come to our home. One that has not been here in over 7 months. We know it will be “okay” and He is on this journey with us. He will heal our hearts if they are broken, and help us move forward on a new path He may create for us. We believe very soon we will have the answers we have been seeking and the door will be closed, or be thrown wide open. Then we will know where He is leading.

Please continue to pray for us and our son. We believe answers are coming and all our hearts will never be the same.

We had an awesome day today with 22 middle schoolers rock climbing. As I reflect on today, several things come to mind.

Many of them were afraid as they got higher, but with us below cheering them, they continued to climb. They had to be quiet and LISTEN to US, and they found courage to go on.

Many “lost their way” on the path up, but with us below, encouraging and calling out guidance to them, they looked up and found their way towards the top again. They had to LISTEN and LOOK.

Many were ready to give up, their arms hurt, their fingers & toes cramping, BUT they had the determination to finish the task. They looked UP not down. They kept going. Many times they stopped, evaluated the best route, BUT KEPT CLIMBING. They had to pull from deep down inside themselves, when they wanted to quit, and find the strength to KEEP GOING.

Many were afraid when they got to the top … now what… “how do I get down?” They had to hold on, lean back and TRUST us to get them down again.

Seems like there are some things I learned from them today that I can apply to our situation. We need to keep our eyes up, ears open, and listen, BUT keep CLIMBING! And trust Him to get us where we need to go.

It’s been 3 weeks since we were told some one would come talk to our son and see what he wants. We sent a request for an update today to our coordinator and the lawyer basically said there is nothing she can do to “make” the courts go talk to our son, the first step to finish making him free.

We KNOW the Lord has a plan in all this, but the waiting is sooo hard. 2 other families got travel dates today (one of which is his foster brother) and another family we know met their daughter today. It’s so hard as we are happy for them, but crying inside for us.

As hard as this is for us to wait, I can not imagine how powerless he feels each day wanting to be here, but not being able to be.

So another night comes to a close that I can not tuck my son in bed and tell him how much I love him.

We have missed 14 years, 2 months & 11 days already of him growing up…. how much longer will he have to wait to share his life here with us?

It’s been 7 months and 18 days since we have been walking this path. It’s rocky, it’s uphill and it has taken so many twists and turns we never expected. There has always been a door down the path. We can see it, it is left slightly ajar. As we have been walking this path it seems like the door never gets any closer. Somedays we can see a ray of light coming through it as it opens a little. Other days, all we see is black from the little sliver it is open.

We stand before it now, with branches in the path to the left and right of us. The door, is right in front of us now, still slightly open, but not far. We have been standing here for days now asking, “Which way do we go? Is the door in front of us the one we are supposed to be walking through? Or is this door closing and we need to follow another one of the paths?” We are trying very hard to listen to Him. Not to others around us, many who are saying take another path.

We have been praying, “PLEASE open the door so wide that there is no doubt You want us to keep walking this path, or PLEASE close it so tight that we have no doubt that You want us to walk another path.”

We wait, but we hear nothing yet… just the stillness and quiet of the woods. While we wait, we draw closer to Him. Looking for answers. We do not want to walk this path alone. We do not want to go through a door that is not for us, yet sometimes we want so bad to just shove it open and run through it. Our hearts are saying go, but we hear nothing…. so we wait… and wonder…which way… each day drags into the next and we keep praying, but we hear nothing… there are no road signs, no breeze from one way stronger than the others, no tell tale hint of solution. Only stillness and quiet.

Are we sorry we are on this path. Nope! Do we still want what we have been praying for? YES! with all our hearts. Do we know if that is His plan… no we don’t. So we keep waiting, and praying and loving him while we wait on Him to make His plan clear to us. I hope someday we will understand why this has been so hard, why it has taken so long, and why there is nothing but silence now. But for today we do not. All we can do for today is wait, and trust and love.

Please pray with us for the door. Pray for it to swing so far open that we have no doubts as to what He is asking from us. Or that He closes it completely and then shows us what path to take then. We believe He sent us down this path, we just do not know where it He is leading us.

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ⁸ I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.Revelation 3: 7b – 8

My heart is hurting. Things are not easy and we just got more “discouraging news.” Things may never work out the way we hoped and believed they would.

I found this on a blog I follow and it totally sums up how I am feeling at this moment. I hope she does not mind me sharing… Thank you Ann for your words of wisdom weeks ago that I only saw today.

Lord,

I believe that Your timing is perfect.

I believe that Your wisdom is unquestionable.

I believe that You are our comfort in trials of many kinds.

I believe that You are trustworthy and always to be praised.

I believe that You are at this very moment working out Your purposes.

I believe that You move mountains, walk on water, and lead your people through deserts.

I believe that You will carry out a work to completion in my life and the life of others.

I believe all these things.

But tonight, Lord, I wish things were the way we thought they would be.

Day 5 without our son here. We are waiting for our lawyer to return from vacation. She has been on vacation since December. We have “heard” but we can not confirm for truth that we maybe one giant step closer to bringing him home. If so, we immediately need to have $ to send our papers to the courts.

Our son’s heart is hurting ….. he is in limbo. This is hard for anyone, especially a 14 year old. We are praying the Lord wraps His hands around him and helps his hurting heart.

We thank You Lord for 34 days with our son. We place him in Your hands. We know you have a plan for him. We pray we are a part of it and You bring him back to us very soon. Please Lord, be with the court workers in country and move their hearts and hands to help expedite this process to bring him back home very soon.
Our hearts are broken and our family has a huge hole in it when he is not here. 

Our time with our son here is coming to and end. We have 2 days left. I have lots to share and record for the future, but haven’t posted because we have been trying to make every minute count since we do not know when we’ll see him again. It’s been so wonderful actually being able to talk to him this time about the adoption. He wants to be here, but of course is sad at the thought of leaving his country. We have assured him he will return to there one day.

We pray each day for the Lord to move the mountain so we can bring him home soon. He needs to be here and we so need him here. Please Lord bring our son back to us soon.

Thank you everyone for your prayers for the children. Yesterday at 10:45pm Finland time the strike ended on Finnair. We are told that it will take 3 days for the airline to get back to normal, just in time for the kids to get on the plane.The Lord worked this out as we working with the hosting organization as it’s hands & feet and could not come up with a plan B, C or D to move 77 kids and chaperones to JFK when they needed to be there in the criteria the courts had given us.

This is an amazing journey we are on. One that the Lord has placed in front of us and asked us to walk. Our trust is in Him in the good times and terrifying times.If all goes as planned our “son” will be back in our arms at 10:10pm Monday night!

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

We have just been told that the 70+ orphan Children from Latvia coming to America to be hosted for Christmas may not be coming because of an airline strike.

All the children are booked on Finnair which is on strike and all talks have apparently broken down.No flight are operating from Riga to Helsinki then onto JFK where all 70+ children and numerous chaperones will make connecting flight the evening of Monday Dec. 13th.We desperately need the Lord to intervene in this or maybe touch the hearts of another airline to make a special flight to pick these children up to bring them to JFK in America.

They said no, he can not stay longer. 

We have 34 days to love him and have him here. These days are a gift we will enjoy to the fullest.

Then we have to put him on a plane and send him back.

All we can do is pray and wait on the Lord to move these mountains to have him home forever.

Proverbs 3: 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding

We were told today that on December first our lawyer is meeting with the courts to discuss some things and she will inquire on that day for an answer to if he can stay longer after hosting as we requested.

We have been told they said no at first, but are still considering. Please pray with us that if it’s the Lord’s will, those in charge will open their hearts and the way will be made for this to happen.

Maybe, if nothing else, the judge will inquire as to WHY this process is taking so long and help things move along quicker. Ultimately we just would like our son home as soon as possible forever.

In 21 days we will see him again. We are so thankful for this and for each moment we will be able to spend with him in those 34 days.

We began a Bible trivia game with our kids here at home tonight and have invited him to play in Skype. We’re not sure if he will play, but if he does, it will be fun to try to decode his answer in another language!

We have so much to be thankful for always, and this week helps us remember that.

Well, it’s 25 days until 235 children arrive in America for Christmas.

That’s 235 young minds learning the love of a family and Christ! What a wonderfully blessed thing to happen!

Can you imagine if these 235 children are blessed how much more blessed all the families who are hosting these children will be. Please pray for these families and children as they get ready for a wonderful adventure in Christ’s love!

On the home front, nothing new…. we still have no word from the courts if they are going to allow him to remain in America after hosting for the year. While we know our Lord can accomplish anything, we have no idea if the courts are going to allow this. Waiting and praying.

Post by WHO  http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide_rates/en/

Suicide rates per 100,000 by country, year and sex
2007 male 34.7 % per 100,000 and female 7.7% per 100,000

That’s 34,700 men and boys who choose suicide rather than hope. How many more are unreported? 

We do not want our son to be one of these. We pray we get him home for good soon.

In December he will turn 14 years old, 5000 miles away. Last summer when he stayed with us for 5 weeks and the Lord led us to adopt him, we prayed that he would be here with us for his birthday in America. That will not happen this year.If you would like to send a birthday card to him and let him know you are praying for him we’d love to gather some cards and we will send them to him to open on his birthday. We will mail these cards on November 15th to reach him by his birthday. He can read English fairly well, but please print. If your children would like to draw a card that would be wonderful too! Many children have told me they are praying for him. How wonderful for them to see the Lord at work!
You can mail a card to him at our address    921 Sid Hunter Road, Senoia, GA 30276
Thank you for helping us show him the love of the Lord and that many are praying for him.

We just got word that he WILL be allowed to come for the Christmas hosting program. 

No word yet on the year hosting, BUT today 34 days sounds wonderful to us after not knowing if he’d be able to come at all. Thank you Lord!!!

We know the judge has approved the request that was made to move our son to a new foster home. We pray that this decision was made with the Lord guiding the judge. We have already seen some concerning things happen there, but we continue to trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding.

We pray that our son will be allowed to come home for 34 days at Christmas with the hosting program. There are some concerns that the new foster family will not allow this, but we are leaving this in the Lords hands to work out for the best for our son. 

We continue to pray and reach out to him daily to tell him how much we want & love him.

Praying for our boy today and his foster brother as the courts hear their cases on moving foster homes. Praying the Lord’s will to be done.  We miss him so much and hope that he will be able to come home for Christmas. It will be the best present just to have him home again.

Well after a week of playing phone tag we finally had a wonderful 1 1/2+ hours conversation with our son. Now, computers, puppies, Advent, Russian Bibles and no school for a week dominated our conversation, but it was great to have a lighthearted conversation and we were blessed that he called when Oscar was home so he got to chat too! Their main conversation seemed to be about girls whenever I left the room, but stopped each time I came back into the room. Hmmmmm…. I guess when you are almost 14 , girls, computers & dogs are top priority!

Thank you Lord for the technology to be able to stay connected with our son 5000 miles away!

We called our son today at 4pm his time. He was asleep still!!

No, not sick, he had stayed up to 3am playing video games on the computer he is now being allowed to use….. unsupervised……in his bedroom……and of course he did not want to talk… he was too tired… sigh, deep breath… Oh, this is going to be such a hard habit to break.

If anyone is thinking about year end taxes already and looking for some place to make a donation to help reduce their tax liability, our adoption agency is a 501c agency.  If you donate To An Open Door Adoption, and send a separate note in the envelope with our names (not written on the check or money order) specifying that it’s for our adoption, they will send you a tax receipt and notify us we have money in our account that can be used towards our adoption fees.  If you would like to hear more about this, please contact An Open Door or us.  Their information is on the side bar, An Open Door Adoption.

Thank you for considering helping us bring our son home.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress    James 1:27a

We found out today that our USCIS I800a was approved. This is the last of the U.S. paperwork that we need to be done.  When we get the letter actually in our hands in the next few days, then we can take all our documents to Atlanta for apostilling. 

Once we have it there and translated, it simply waits for the courts to tell us he’s free. We need to have it there so when he’s free we can immediately file.  

From the proceeds of our yard sale we have been able to pay for all his visa, medical ins, chaperone fees and plane fare from New Horizons for returning at Christmas, plus a large chunk towards our “mandatory adoption donation” to New Horizons. Each family that adopts a child NHFC finds has to pay this fee to help the program continue in the future.  

You may wonder, WHY spend the $ to bring him back for 4 weeks at Christmas. WHY add to the already $+ adoption costs.  

Well, it’s very simple, he’s our son and we can’t imagine not having him here at Christmas. I’ve actually been praying all 7 of our children will be with us on Christmas Day. What a wonderful way to celebrate the Lord’s birthday than with all 7 of our children.  

We have been very blessed by some friends who have volunteered to help us have a spaghetti dinner in March. We are hoping to raise some funds for our airfare to travel, 2+ weeks in an apartment or hotel and ground transportation costs for our first trip. We had a 3 hour meeting last night to start planning. It sounds so overwhelming, but I trust the Lord will help us in this so we can bring him home. 

 Please join us in praying for our son and the courts and their workers.

WOW! What a week it has been. Last Saturday we had a HUGE yard sale in our church fellowship hall. Then friends & family armed with trucks, jeeps, and minivans moved 10 loads of stuff left to a fellow adopters garage and I did it all over again today, but on a much smaller scale. Only had about 1/2 the stuff actually out of boxes since the rest of the family was camping. BUT between the two sales we made $1,824.30! With Oscar’s matching program at Cooper we had $1,500 left for the year they would match, so we can use this towards New Horizons fees so actual proceeds towards bringing our son home is $3,324.30!

Thank you Lord….. Now I have to sleep……

We completed our biometrics for Homeland security today. The last step we had to get approval for in the US before we can send our documents to overseas.

Unfortunately, yesterday we were given some very discouraging news about time frames to get our son home. Since I have not shared this with him, I can not post here yet, but please pray that our Lord can move these mountains in Latvia and bring our son home sooner than they courts are saying. We feel as if we have been kicked in the chest it hurts so much.We have also requested that he be allowed to remain in America after hosting this Christmas until the courts need him to return. We are told this is NOT very likely, but we serve a powerful God who can make all things possible. Please pray the courts will look favorably on this and see the benefit it will do all of us if he is allowed to remain with our family during this LONG wait we are told we will have.

We are showing up for the fight, but it is the Lord’s fight. We’re just the army behind him watching.

2 Chronicles 20:15-17

15 He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and  Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. 17 You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.’ ”

We got our USCIS biometrics appointment on Friday. Can’t figure it out. Oscar’s appointment is Friday and mine is Monday. Strange. Please pray that they will also do mine on Friday, we will all go together. I REALLY do not want to make 2 trips to Atlanta to do this.

Well, I cheated. No one ever said I was a good waiter! Nothing in mail today from USCIS so someone suggest I simply call & ask when our appointment was. Took me all of about 2 mintues to decide!

We’re waiting on our son to call “in his time” so I HAD to DO something!!

Our appointment is Oct 18th. 13 days… I LOVE when I can see “a light at the end of the tunnel.”  Now if only we’d have a date to shoot for in the courts to clear him (in 2 cities). Needs to be a few months out, fine, but tell me when so I can have a “light at the end of this tunnel too.” Well, really don’t want a few months out, want it NOW, but some date is better than no date at all!

We are waiting…… for a call to say “hello” from 5000 miles away…. for word from the courts that we can proceed, that he is now legally free…. for a piece of paper from USCIS that says we can get our biometric fingerprints done…for the Lord to tell us “YES” (very loudly) that we are walking the path He wants us on…. for our son to come home so we can wrap our arms around him again…. Sometimes waiting is so very hard.

We got our first letter from USCIS today. Saying they accepted our money. We already knew that… they cashed our check last week. BUT it’s a start…. hoping to get a letter for fingerprinting appointment in Atlanta soon!

It’s been a year since I’ve posted. Can’t believe it’s been that long! So much has happened in that year. We have a new son….. and he’s almost 14 years old and he lives 5000 miles away right now!  Now, if that hasn’t made you wonder what we’ve been up to, nothing probably will.

Last Spring the Lord led us to host a child through New Horizons for Children.  http://www.newhorizonsforchildren.org/  We have been following this program for about 3 years. But this year, the Lord made it CLEAR he wanted us to participate. He even provide the funds in the way of a Christmas gift. Our son had a scholarship on him and the exact difference was what we had set aside for a family vacation from a Christmas gift we had been given. This person has no idea that they played such a big part in bringing our son into our lives and providing what the Lord was asking us to do.  He arrived on June 25th about 12midnight.  Within 3 days I knew he would always be a member of our family. He lived with us for 5 weeks, so long, but not nearly long enough. Every one of us in our family came independently to the conclusion that we wanted him with us forever. When he left on August 1st our hearts were broken. It has been a long journey since then, but we believe the Lord is asking us to Trust him and He will bring our son home in His timing. More later.

Meet our son!