Shhhh – Can you keep a secret?

I am glad Brady and Madison don’t check this blog! I just have to share something Justin and I are getting them for Christmas. A few months ago I got an email that had a link to this website called Adopted From Russia (http://www.adoptedfromrussia.com/index.html). It has cute things that you can purchase. Justin, Brady, Madison, and I want to learn some basic Russian which is very difficult to do. My thought is, what a better way to learn than through toys? We are getting Madison the talking doll, Kukla. "Kukla" means "doll" in the Russian language. Kukla says five phrases in Russian language - starting with "Privet" (Hello) and continuing with "Ulybnis' " (Give me a Smile). Push her tummy, and you will hear her say "Ya Tebya Lyublyu" (I Love You), followed by "Davai Druzhit'" (Let's Be Friends) and, finally, "Poeegrai So Mnoi" (Play with Me). We are also getting her a copy of Goldilocks and the Three Bears that has both the English and Russian text on the same page.

For Brady, we chose a talking toy Cheburashka which is Russia's most famous and loved cartoon character. Cheburashka, speaks about 20 Russian phrases in a cute childish voice. We are also getting a DVD of the Cheburashka series that we can watch in English or in Russian with English subtitles. We think this will be a great thing to bring along with us whenever we finally get to make the trip back from Russia with our little one!

I wanted to get more books. I have a weakness for children’s books and this is a genre I have never even thought of before. But Justin and I have agreed that we will not go overboard with Christmas this year so I opted not to spend any more money…. Plus I still have to get nesting dolls for them right?!?! :o)

Awareness Video

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. I thought in honor of this month I would try to find things to share that would help me explain the answer to the question that people often ask. Why do you want to adopt? It seems like such a simple question, but the answer is very complex on many levels - and definitly not easy to put into words.

An Adoption Story - The Richt Family

Song to Share

I am not for sure what it is about this song that keeps it stuck in my head but I thought I would just share it for the day's entry. Chris Sligh was a finalist on American Idol's 6th season. He has written this song which is currently doing very well on the Christian music charts. I think if we all emptied ourself of even a portion of our selfishness and pride that we would be amazed at the results. Have a great weekend everyone!

Chris Sligh - Empty Me
From the album Running Back To You

I’ve had just enough
Of the spotlight when it burns bright
To see how it gets in the blood
I’ve tasted my share
Of the sweet life and the wild ride
And found a little is not quite enough
I know how I can stray
And how fast my heart could change

Chorus:
Empty me of the selfishness inside
Every vain ambition and the poison of my pride
And any foolish thing my heart holds onto
Lord, empty me of me so I can be filled with You

I’ve seen just enough
Of the quick buys of the best lies
To know how prodigals can be drawn away
I know how I can stray
And how fast my heart could change

Chorus:

‘Cause everything is a lesser thing
Compared to You, compared to You
‘Cause everything is a lesser thing
Compared to You, so I surrender all

Chorus:

Next…

So our packet arrived safe and sound. Wouldn’t you know we were missing a couple of things? Luckily they do not have to be notarized or certified so I will be able to put them in mail tomorrow. And of course our next payment is due with those documents and we didn’t send the check. Here is the information CHI sent as to what we should expect… “We send packages to Russia 2 times a week, Wednesday and Friday. Yours will go whichever day they are ready. It typically takes about 2 days to get there. They will get translated. Depending on how many families’ registration packets are there, it could take anywhere between 1-4 weeks. They are not just translating; they are reviewing your request to send your paperwork to the best region for you. Once you are assigned a Region, I will let you know and you will start working on the region specific documents. For now, I will review your documents and add mine. Mine do need to be Apostiled in the state of MO, so I will be sending them to our Secretary of States office on Tuesday (Nov 11 - Ummm this is Veteran's Day I better email them!). We send to SOS once a week. I will get them back on Thursday (Nov 13). If everything is in order and OK, I will send your documents out on next Friday (Nov 14)."

At this point they say the first trimester of the paperwork pregnancy is complete.

Off they go - another small step

This afternoon Justin and I drove our registration documents to Springfield. I cannot tell you the number of times I checked our folder to make sure I had everything on the checklist I was given. I was driving myself crazy! It was great that Justin was able to drive down with me. They still have one field of corn left to harvest, and he had to leave my dad and Lisle to handle the work while he was gone. Nothing usually gets in the way of harvest progress so you can tell how important this is to the both of us. He wants to be involved the entire step of the way. We found the building (Secretary of State Index Department) easily and did not have to wait in line. The lady saw our stack of papers and said, ummm this is going to take awhile. We weren’t for sure what that meant. Awhile like 5 minutes or awhile like 2 hours? She was off with our papers before we could even ask. My anxiety increased having our documents out of my sight. She returned in about 30 minutes with a fancy sheet with a gold seal attached to each of our documents. It costs $2 per document to have them Apostilled. This time we had 30 documents. There will be more in the future I am sure. So once again I had to verify that she had given us back every single piece of paper. The post office was about 2 blocks down the road so we decided to go ahead and express mail the packet to Children’s Hope so it will arrive before noon tomorrow. I had to check the folder two more times before sealing the envelope. I was becoming compulsive. What if we forgot one??? Sealing that envelope and leaving it behind was rough. There was a lot of hard word put into those silly papers. These papers are going to be representing Justin, Brady, Madison, and I in Russia. This will be the first impression the Russian folks have of the Overstreet family. YIKES!!! No pressure right?!?!? I will anxiously await an email from Pam Bischoff, our program coordinator with CHI, verifying that she has the documents and that everything is there that she needs. I will update this blog with what comes next after this. I THINK I know, but I am going to ask one more time just to make sure the procedures haven’t changed in the last 24 hours. Which believe me is quite possible.

Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

New vocabulary word

We finally have all of our registration documents gathered and notorized. This past week I worked frantically to get all of them together. I found out that the newest checklist required one additional marriage certificate so I had to get another copy of ours. I was worried that I would have to drive to Rock Island to get them. Now, because of good old credit cards you can request them over the phone and make payment that way. I was quite relieved. Now Justin and I need to make a trip to Springfield to have the documents apostilled.

Apostille is a French word which means a certification. It is commonly used in English to refer to the legalization of a document for international use under the terms of the 1961 Hague Convention (I'll let you research that one on your own). The Apostille is done by the Secretary of State in the state where the document originated. It basically means that the Secretary of State acknowledges/verifies that the person notarizing your paper is a true notary and that they are currently commissioned with the state.

I am very antsy to get this done. Perhaps Wednesday afternoon we will be making the trip.

Halloween Recap

Madison was excited that Ariel, the ladybug, got to go trick-or-treating with she and Brady on Friday night.


On Saturday, the kids got to put their costumes on again and go to their cousins' birthday party. Brady was an apple bobbing pro.