Well now we continue to do what I am horrible at and what international adoption is completely centered around… continued waiting. Our packet of papers arrived at CHI on Monday morning. Pam finished reviewing them today. Fortunately everything is in good enough order to go into tomorrow’s mailing. All of the documents will be going to Moscow for translation before being sent on to Vladivostock. There are a couple of papers that we are redoing just in case they ask. There is a date on one of the forms that may be questionable. The state police reports aren’t notarized the exact way they usually are I guess. And the search on the sex offender data base needs to be redone. Again there may be nothing wrong with the current forms, but just as a precaution we will get them redone and have them on hand in the event anything is mentioned about them.
So we wait………..
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Book Tag
Amy tagged me in a game to see what everyone is reading. I am usually not good about keeping this sort of stuff going, but I didn’t want to be the spoiler of the fun.
The rules:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!
6. Tag five (or more) other people to do the same!
Here's my read: from Adoption Parenting
"Many adopted children carry with them scars of their history that unconditional love alone cannot fix, heal, or remove. I’ve learned as a parent that sometimes love is simply not the answer to helping my child. I could not love the anxiety out of my daughter. I could not love the fear out of her, I could not love the fear out of her, I could not love the trauma out of her. Sometimes loving out children will mean difficult choices and painful decisions.”
Now my turn to tag...
1) Heather
2) Pitman's (maybe this will spur you to get back to the blog - lol)
3) Debbie
4) Joel and Clarion
5) Julie (perhaps a little distraction for you)
The rules:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!
6. Tag five (or more) other people to do the same!
Here's my read: from Adoption Parenting
"Many adopted children carry with them scars of their history that unconditional love alone cannot fix, heal, or remove. I’ve learned as a parent that sometimes love is simply not the answer to helping my child. I could not love the anxiety out of my daughter. I could not love the fear out of her, I could not love the fear out of her, I could not love the trauma out of her. Sometimes loving out children will mean difficult choices and painful decisions.”
Now my turn to tag...
1) Heather
2) Pitman's (maybe this will spur you to get back to the blog - lol)
3) Debbie
4) Joel and Clarion
5) Julie (perhaps a little distraction for you)
Friday, January 23, 2009
Happy Friday Everyone
I am quite happy it is Friday. For some reason I have been completely exhausted this week. I am ready for the weekend! Today has been a good day. Justin and I got all of our medical papers completed and notarized. He took 33 documents including the court petition and Blake’s medical information that came from Vlad to Springfield today to be apostilled and will mail them to CHI. Until we get word that we have to redo something, that should complete every document that has been requested. So we have 3 months from today before anything expires. We’ll see what happens.
I found this interesting and timely… I have a daily calendar in my office at work – this one is based on Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. I have always been horrible about using or reading any type of daily calendar. So typically every 3rd of 4th day I remember to turn it to the current day’s date. And here is what it says for January 23rd. “Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life. Wonderful changes are going to happen in your life as you begin to live it on purpose.” It then has the following scripture, “God says, I know what I am planning for you… I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. (Jeremiah 29:11 NVC)”
Tonight Justin and I are headed to Peoria for Winter Jam ’09 concert. I am super excited for the distraction. Brady and Madison will be off to be spoiled by my aunts and grandma so they are excited as well. Have a great evening!
Can't wait to to see this little guy!!
Update: We are celebrating today! Another small step. Two days after receiving the court petition we received Blake's medical form from Vlad. From what we gather this is the document that everyone scared us about that has to go to Moscow, MOE, Baby Home etc... before it is released to us. Our agency said the wait for this varies dramatically and that they have a family that has been waiting since November to get it. We are absolutely blessed. I am almost in tears over how lucky we are to have this document so soon. One more giant step toward getting Blake home! Praise God!
I found this interesting and timely… I have a daily calendar in my office at work – this one is based on Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. I have always been horrible about using or reading any type of daily calendar. So typically every 3rd of 4th day I remember to turn it to the current day’s date. And here is what it says for January 23rd. “Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life. Wonderful changes are going to happen in your life as you begin to live it on purpose.” It then has the following scripture, “God says, I know what I am planning for you… I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. (Jeremiah 29:11 NVC)”
Tonight Justin and I are headed to Peoria for Winter Jam ’09 concert. I am super excited for the distraction. Brady and Madison will be off to be spoiled by my aunts and grandma so they are excited as well. Have a great evening!
Can't wait to to see this little guy!!
Update: We are celebrating today! Another small step. Two days after receiving the court petition we received Blake's medical form from Vlad. From what we gather this is the document that everyone scared us about that has to go to Moscow, MOE, Baby Home etc... before it is released to us. Our agency said the wait for this varies dramatically and that they have a family that has been waiting since November to get it. We are absolutely blessed. I am almost in tears over how lucky we are to have this document so soon. One more giant step toward getting Blake home! Praise God!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Brady says…
So tucking Brady in tonight he asks, “Mom, do you think someone else went to try to adopt Blake and decided not to?” My reply, “Ummmm – no not really.” (very nonchalant and noncommittal) Brady then says, “Good, I think the Lord made it that way. I just can’t wait to squeeze that little guy and hear him say Oye!!!” He then began laughing and we talked again about all of the cool things Blake will have to discover. I figured it was time to bring the conversation to an end when he pointed out that Blake would think his silver caps in his mouth (darn cavities) were cool too. I thought at that point he was trying to prolong bedtime!
Yesterday we received one of the documents we are waiting for from Vlad. It is the court petition. There is one more document to come. I haven’t quite got a complete understanding of what this last one is exactly, but from what I gather it is the document that prolongs everything. I am hoping to fully understand what exactly it is and I’ll let you know. Also yesterday we did some shopping. We bought wooden blinds for Blake’s room and found some amazing deals on some clothes. I felt like we were jinxing ourselves by shopping – I mean we don’t even know if we will return when it is still cold outside or not. Justin convinced me that it didn’t matter. If it turns out that we don’t need these things then we will have them to give to a family that is need of winter clothing next year. I did want to buy a heavy coat. I figured if we waited much longer then there wouldn’t be much to choose from unless I ordered it online. We decided to go with one of the winter coats that has two liners zipped together. Then we can separate them into two spring jackets as well. The four of us had a good time. Of course it didn’t help at all with our anxiety – but I am realizing that not much is going to help until our flight lands back in Vlad!
Tonight I would like to remind you to take a moment if you haven’t already done so to pray for our new president Barack Obama. No matter what our political or religious views are, we need to hope and pray that we can all rally behind change that can positively impact our country and the world. We also wanted to let Denny Overstreet know that we are thinking of him as he prepares for back surgery tomorrow. We hope all goes according to plan and he is back on track in no time!
We are expecting a heat wave tomorrow – a high of 37 degrees. Yahoooo!
Yesterday we received one of the documents we are waiting for from Vlad. It is the court petition. There is one more document to come. I haven’t quite got a complete understanding of what this last one is exactly, but from what I gather it is the document that prolongs everything. I am hoping to fully understand what exactly it is and I’ll let you know. Also yesterday we did some shopping. We bought wooden blinds for Blake’s room and found some amazing deals on some clothes. I felt like we were jinxing ourselves by shopping – I mean we don’t even know if we will return when it is still cold outside or not. Justin convinced me that it didn’t matter. If it turns out that we don’t need these things then we will have them to give to a family that is need of winter clothing next year. I did want to buy a heavy coat. I figured if we waited much longer then there wouldn’t be much to choose from unless I ordered it online. We decided to go with one of the winter coats that has two liners zipped together. Then we can separate them into two spring jackets as well. The four of us had a good time. Of course it didn’t help at all with our anxiety – but I am realizing that not much is going to help until our flight lands back in Vlad!
Tonight I would like to remind you to take a moment if you haven’t already done so to pray for our new president Barack Obama. No matter what our political or religious views are, we need to hope and pray that we can all rally behind change that can positively impact our country and the world. We also wanted to let Denny Overstreet know that we are thinking of him as he prepares for back surgery tomorrow. We hope all goes according to plan and he is back on track in no time!
We are expecting a heat wave tomorrow – a high of 37 degrees. Yahoooo!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Keeping it real.
One of the scriptures at church today will be where I pull strength from this week. It is in Philippians 2:14 which was written by Paul while in prison, and it reads “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” I wrote just a few days ago about ‘the buzz’ being contagious. Well just as goodness is contagious so is negativity. Justin and I have felt like a little black cloud has slowly begun to form over us. Our hearts are aching to hold Blake. Brady and Madison speak about him as if he has always been a part of our family. They were dividing up pictures of animals they got from a magazine and they were making three piles. They decided that the snake couldn’t go into Blake’s pile because it might scare him. I typically see little acts like that and just smile at how sweet they are. Today I see those things and my heart hurts. To top it off we know that our wait has possibly only just begun. The realists in us keeps trying to convince each other that we could be MONTHS away from going back to Vlad. The dreamers in us tries to allow ourselves to believe that we will hear good news within a couple of weeks and be making arrangements for our return. We have had couples warn us that months two and three are so much harder than the first month. I completely agree.
So for now, I am going to be deliberate about keeping the negative thoughts from squashing our hopes. I am going to try to blow that little black cloud back to where it came from. I am going to take Paul’s advice and try to do everything without complaining or arguing. It is so very tempting for Justin and I to try to take control of this situation. We HAVE to remember that when we don’t surrender our will to God’s we always mess things up!
Tomorrow is a holiday so there is no school and I do not have to go to work. We will pick up the notarized report from the psychologist and a copy of his license to practice. Then we will head to the hospital to have blood drawn to make sure we haven’t contracted any crazy disease since the last time we had our blood tests – remember those results can only be 3 months old or you have to redo it in order to get a court date!! So hopefully by keeping busy we can prevent some of the negativity from seeping in.
So for now, I am going to be deliberate about keeping the negative thoughts from squashing our hopes. I am going to try to blow that little black cloud back to where it came from. I am going to take Paul’s advice and try to do everything without complaining or arguing. It is so very tempting for Justin and I to try to take control of this situation. We HAVE to remember that when we don’t surrender our will to God’s we always mess things up!
Tomorrow is a holiday so there is no school and I do not have to go to work. We will pick up the notarized report from the psychologist and a copy of his license to practice. Then we will head to the hospital to have blood drawn to make sure we haven’t contracted any crazy disease since the last time we had our blood tests – remember those results can only be 3 months old or you have to redo it in order to get a court date!! So hopefully by keeping busy we can prevent some of the negativity from seeping in.
Friday, January 16, 2009
A few random updates for you…
Justin and I had our psychological evaluation yesterday and we are pleased to announce that not only are we not criminals, but we are not crazy either! Whewww – another relief. The appointment was about two hours long and we spoke about everything under the sun. The counselor’s conclusion was that he saw absolutely no reason we should not move forward with our adoption and had no concerns. IF he had to diagnosis us with some ‘tendencies’ he would say that Justin and I could run the risk of being anxious, controlling, and perfectionists. Hmmmmmm wonder how he came to that conclusion!?!? :o) Luckily he felt that we keep everything well balanced. Check that one off the list!
We also mailed out some photos and a card for Blake and some stickers for his group. These actually have to go to our agency in St. Louis and they put it in their mailing. They mail things out on Wednesday and Friday of each week. Then I believe it will go to our agency rep in Vlad who will then deliver it to the baby home when they are there for business. Not for sure of the exact process but needless to say it isn’t the speediest procedure.
Justin and I also worked on our album for court. We have to show pictures documenting that we actually were in Russia and really did visit Blake. It was fun going through our pictures for the billionth time but they are getting harder and harder to look at as the days go by. I think we are pretty happy with the book we have made. We will order it this weekend probably and have it here within 5 days.
We also hung up the letters in Blake’s room that Justin painted. It is funny because those of you that know Justin know that he is quite the handyman and a perfectionist about having things done right. Well much to my surprise he suggested hot gluing the letters to the wall. Now this is something I would suggest – not our man with the golden hands. He would normally want drywall anchors and a level and blah blah blah to put these up. They look cute on the wall above Blake’s bed (see above). Still no window treatments, but we’re working on that one.
As many of you know it has been so cold the past two days school has been cancelled. Monday is a holiday as well so Brady and Madison are loving this mini vacation. We hope to have some sort of update next week as to whether or not our Vlad documents are ready to be sent to us. Any news is good news so we’ll see what happens.
~Keep warm everyone!
(Pitman family if you read this entry, we are all dying for an update! We know that you are tired and busy, but we can’t wait to hear how you are all adjusting. We want to see pictures too! No pressure or anything!!)
We also mailed out some photos and a card for Blake and some stickers for his group. These actually have to go to our agency in St. Louis and they put it in their mailing. They mail things out on Wednesday and Friday of each week. Then I believe it will go to our agency rep in Vlad who will then deliver it to the baby home when they are there for business. Not for sure of the exact process but needless to say it isn’t the speediest procedure.
Justin and I also worked on our album for court. We have to show pictures documenting that we actually were in Russia and really did visit Blake. It was fun going through our pictures for the billionth time but they are getting harder and harder to look at as the days go by. I think we are pretty happy with the book we have made. We will order it this weekend probably and have it here within 5 days.
We also hung up the letters in Blake’s room that Justin painted. It is funny because those of you that know Justin know that he is quite the handyman and a perfectionist about having things done right. Well much to my surprise he suggested hot gluing the letters to the wall. Now this is something I would suggest – not our man with the golden hands. He would normally want drywall anchors and a level and blah blah blah to put these up. They look cute on the wall above Blake’s bed (see above). Still no window treatments, but we’re working on that one.
As many of you know it has been so cold the past two days school has been cancelled. Monday is a holiday as well so Brady and Madison are loving this mini vacation. We hope to have some sort of update next week as to whether or not our Vlad documents are ready to be sent to us. Any news is good news so we’ll see what happens.
~Keep warm everyone!
(Pitman family if you read this entry, we are all dying for an update! We know that you are tired and busy, but we can’t wait to hear how you are all adjusting. We want to see pictures too! No pressure or anything!!)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The Buzz
The buzz is contagious. I can’t explain it, but I know some of you reading this will completely understand. Monday night we received our letter from the state police stating that neither Justin nor I have a record. Yeah – no surprises! We have our psychological evaluation this week. This all feels like progress. And then to top it off the folks in Vlad are back to work. I wasn’t for sure how fast after their holiday celebrations they would return to work. We were told by our agency to be cautious and that there may be no activity on the adoption scene until the end of the month. Well thanks to my new blogger friend Amy, I learned that the MOE was already back in business. I have been reading a blog of a family that is there for trip number one on their second adoption, and I have heard there is a family there for court as well. In addition, our agency rep in St. Louis told us that CHI has their documents done. We should have ours completed and sent before the end of the month so she is emailing Irina to see where the Vlad documents are. I don’t expect at all to get any answers, but it is still great to keep our name out there. I can only imagine how those that traveled before we did are feeling about their wait. I normally try not to allow myself to get my hopes up so that I am not set up for disappointment. But for today, I am throwing caution to the wind and basking in the glory knowing that God is good and that His timing will be impeccable. I feel that things are moving in the right direction... for today anyway.
The downside for some though is that the ‘nesting’ instinct is also kicking in. Justin and I are on a nonstop run. We have so much we want to get done before traveling and yet we want to travel tomorrow. My poor techies at work (I love our department) - I bet they are just wondering what on earth has gotten in to me. I have an overwhelming need to get things done RIGHT NOW. They may say this is how I always am, but…. :o)
I seriously am just filled with joy today. Joy of knowing that we have been faithful to God’s calling. Joy of knowing that Brady and Madison are so loving and ready to share their lives with Blake. Joy that Blake is a perfect fit to our family. And joy of knowing that through the trials ahead we have the support of so many family and friends. We will get through this and be so forever grateful to have Blake home.
God is good!
The downside for some though is that the ‘nesting’ instinct is also kicking in. Justin and I are on a nonstop run. We have so much we want to get done before traveling and yet we want to travel tomorrow. My poor techies at work (I love our department) - I bet they are just wondering what on earth has gotten in to me. I have an overwhelming need to get things done RIGHT NOW. They may say this is how I always am, but…. :o)
I seriously am just filled with joy today. Joy of knowing that we have been faithful to God’s calling. Joy of knowing that Brady and Madison are so loving and ready to share their lives with Blake. Joy that Blake is a perfect fit to our family. And joy of knowing that through the trials ahead we have the support of so many family and friends. We will get through this and be so forever grateful to have Blake home.
God is good!
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