Input needed – another amazing opportunity

This is gonna be short and to the point cause my cold medicine is making me super sleepy. Just as I was getting ready to shut down the computer tonight an email came into my inbox from Nancy. She and her husband are adopting their second son from Russia and they are traveling in a couple of weeks. Nathan, their first son was adopted from Vlad as well. It turns out that he was in the Artem baby home when he was there. So when they go in a couple of weeks they are taking Nathan back for a visit. She has so kindly offered to do something for Blake while she is there.

This is where Justin and I need some advice, input, thoughts etc… We know that the baby homes are cautious about favoritism or letting the children have their OWN belongings. Most everything is community property. We of course could send more pictures, but he has two albums now. So here are our questions?

What, if anything should we send? Remembering also that they will have limited space in their luggage.
What could we send for the whole group?
What will help him remember us or comfort him in knowing that we are coming back?

We are at a loss here. We don’t want to miss this amazing opportunity. What if we don’t get the call for another 2 months or so? I would hate to think that we passed up this chance to make contact with him in some way. He is only 3 and doesn’t know any English so that limits our ideas as well.

HELP! Any ideas are welcome. If you prefer you can email us directly at jnhoverstreet@yahoo.com

Nancy – Thank you so much for your offer! Your kindness means a great deal to us.

Grateful for Amy!

So as most of you know Justin and I have been praying that our blogger friend Amy would get the opportunity to see Blake while she was in Vlad. The icing on the cake would be her getting pictures of him to share with us. Well sure enough our prayers were answered. Amy emailed us at about 1:00 a.m. this morning and was able to share 4 pictures of our precious son. Here is what she shared about the visit….

First... breathe! I know you are super excited - and you should be! I got to see Blake today! WHAT A SWEETHEART he is! I totally know why you fell head over heels for him.

The director of the Baby Home was there today - so we asked her permission and first she said "sure I will give him the book" but my AWESOME translator said "she would like to take a picture of him for the mom" - and she said YES!!! So we went up to the visiting room and waited for a couple minutes. It was VERY busy at the orphanage today - lots of workers coming and going. A couple minutes later the Director herself brought Blake in! He was all smiles.

I didn't want to confuse him - so I had my translator say "she is a friend of your mama". And I showed him your book. INSTANTLY he knew himself, and ------ drum roll, first he saw a picture of Justin and said "papa!" and then he saw a picture of Heather and said "mama!". It's hard not to cry when I type this because he is really such a sweet boy!! I pointed to your house and he said "dom" and of Annie (that is our dog) and he said "sabaka" - and then we looked at the pictures of Brady and Madison and I explained "sistrah and braot". Such big smiles.

Justin and I are so thankful that Amy could be our messenger. She is such a sweet and caring person. It may not seem like that big of a deal to some of you – so what she just delivered the album and took some pictures you may think. Ohhh - on the contrary! When you visit the orphanage your anxiety level is heightened. You feel you are under a microscope. You don’t understand what is being said around you and you NEVER want to offend anyone or their rules, procedures, and routines. So the fact that Amy stepped even further outside her comfort zone to do this for us is admirable. In addition, we believe with all of our heart that in some way seeing the pictures in the album will help Blake have a bit of peace knowing that we will return.

It is a very joyous day for us, but I have to admit that there is a bittersweet bit to the whole situation. One is my heart just broke with how much bigger he looks. He is growing up and we are missing out on these precious days. Two, I can’t help but to wonder how much he understands the concept of mama and papa. After all they call all caregivers mama. I hope that by the look in his eyes I can let myself believe he understands that our relationship is going to be much different and special. Thirdly, the lil guy needs a haircut! I can’t wait until the first time we get to give him a bubble bath and shampoo his hair and let him feel completely pampered. I long for that moment each and every day. But for today, I am going to relish in the joy that Amy’s message and pictures bring. I wish I could share the pictures with you, but of course I can’t. I thought perhaps just a teaser photo would be ok.

In this picture you can see the signature blue tights they put on the children and the ever so recognizable brown couch that anyone who goes to this baby home will always remember. He has our album/book in his lap and is looking at the pictures of his bedroom. I hope he liked them! :o)

Phone calls can be dangerous

Today CHI emailed out their weekly update. In it there was a statement that if your homestudy agency was on ‘the list’ a couple of weeks ago to let them know. CHI has been able to make contacts in Russia that can get the details of what reports are missing or delinquent. So I emailed our rep and reminded her that our agency was on that list. Things are still unclear about how each region and/or person will handle that list. It is believed to have more of an impact on those waiting for a referral than those that have already accepted one. I am erring on the side of being more safe than sorry and am trying to help get Lifelink off that list. So anyway a couple of hours after sending the email I am sitting in my office at work and just finishing up a conversation with Pam H. (our data manager and a good friend) who begins to walk out the door when my cell phone rings. The caller ID reads “Children’s Hope International”. Literally my heart skips a beat, I feel my face getting hot, and I start shaking. As soon as I said hello I remembered the email I sent and realized she was just calling about that and not what I was hoping for. We then decided that CHI would only call for very important things because my heart just can’t take it! :o) When I was off the phone Pam peaked her head around the corner of my office and asked how things were. She said that my face turned instantly to the color of my shirt which was a fuchsia color!
----
So as I was typing this entry I got the pleasure of chatting with Amy online. Amy had court today in Vlad and was finished in a record 30 minutes! She is now a first time Mommy and just has 10 more days to wait until she has full custody of Little T. As you may remember she has graciously agreed to hand deliver our photo album to Blake and try to get a picture for us. Well yesterday during her visit he was sleeping. I can’t really explain why, but when she typed that he was sleeping my heart just bleed. I can just picture his cute little legs curled up to his chest asleep on the pillow and blanket we left behind. (I know they probably aren't letting him use those, but I will let the picture stick in my head anyway). So Amy said that she is going to be able to see him first on her next visit so that he won’t be napping. She asked the caregivers if it was going to be ok for her to take some pictures and they said Da, Da. That is yes!!!! I don’t believe she will make it to Artyem tomorrow, but soon - very soon!

3 Months and 17 Years

Today is March 8th and that means three months have passed since meeting Blake. Each day the wait gets harder, but also with each passing day I know we are a bit closer to bringing him home.

March 8th has been a special day for me for many years. It actually marks the day that Justin and I started to date. Yes, that is right! March 8th, 1992 the end of my freshman year of high school (his sophomore year) he gave me his class ring and we have been dating/married since that day without one single silly breakup or anything. So when I say that he is my best friend, I absolutely mean it. We essentially grew up together and today marks 17 years since we began our journey. That is amazing - it is more than half of our lives spent together. I do need to remind him that on that very night, he snuck down to my house after midnight and threw rocks – not individual rocks but a handful of rocks at my window. My parents both yelled upstairs at me and wanted to know what the horrific noise was. I just sat in my bed with my mouth closed wondering what on earth he was thinking! After diving into our lilac bush he made a clean getaway. :o)

UPDATE: Amy was able to see her daughter yesterday! What a special day for them. She is still holding out hope that she will get to hand deliver our album to Blake. No luck during the first visit but perhaps on visit number two. Amy is preparing for court. Take a look at her blog if you want to keep up with her story. An exciting time for she and Little T!

Every little bit counts.

Well I am happy that we got the smallest of updates yesterday. It isn’t much, but let me tell you I was so relieved to hear ANYTHING. It appears that all of our documents are at the guardianship office waiting for a positive conclusion. According to the email we received, the guardianship office is also working with another local guardianship office regarding bio father's documents (his parental rights were terminated). Once they have all documents - they will sign positive conclusion. And once our agency rep has the positive conclusion - she will be able to submit documents to court.

Do we know how long that usually takes? No. But for now that is ok. At least we know where our precious paperwork is. It is funny how those documents represent everything about you and hold the key to so many important pieces of your life.

Last night I finally got a little bit of a timeline put on the right hand side of the blog. I know that is the first thing I look at when I visit other adopting families’ blogs. I wanted to do the same for our readers that want to compare timelines. Really I have to admit that in the grand scheme of things we have been so fortunate with how our process has moved along. I just pray that now isn’t the time that it stalls out on us. For those that are reading our blog and are contemplating adoption (thank you for emailing me by the way – I love to hear how our blog is helping others – makes it all worthwhile) please know upfront that the waits are just getting longer and longer for international adoption. That has nothing to do with there being fewer orphans – cause there are just as many children needing homes. It has everything to do with governments, politics, and policies that negatively impact the process. Don’t let this discourage you, but know that you will want to be prepared from the beginning and start right away to get the ball rolling at least. It will be soooo worth it in the end!

Distractions

Time sure is interesting. It amazes me on one hand it is inching by. Each day seems like an eternity and like we will never make our way back to Russia. On the other hand the days are flying by. With each day Brady, Madison, and Blake get older. I find myself wishing the days would go by so fast so that we could get back to Russia, and then I am mad at myself for wishing that the days go by fast. Quite confusing actually.

So what helps a lot is 'Brady & Maddie distractions'. They do help time fly, but we enjoy each moment we can with them. This week it seems the favorite activity is cooking.

Here is Brady cooking turkey burgers. He was quite proud of himself.


Here are the chefs making cake for our small group meeting on Sunday night. They decided to add blue food coloring to yellow cake mix and guess what they got…. green cake. Brady then decided to make black frosting and call them swamp cakes.


Then Monday night we made cupcakes for Madison to take to school. She really loves anything chocolate. Wonder where she gets that?


This is clean up – a relaxing bubble bath before bedtime.


I love the artistic contrast here - Snow white clean bubbles vs. Chocolatey brown chubby cheeks :-)

A little bit of ‘us’ is heading to Vlad

I have been meaning to blog about this for several days. We are so excited for the upcoming days. Our blogger friend Amy is leaving for Vlad on Wednesday of this week to be reunited with her daughter. Her daughter is in Artyem baby home with Blake. She has graciously agreed to hand deliver an album we made for him. She is going to see if they will allow her to take some pictures to email to us. Just knowing that she is going to be able to report back how things are going in Artyem brings us a bit of peace. We are praying for her safe travels, for a smooth court process, and a great bonding time with her and Little T. Justin and I are also praying that she gets to personally hand deliver our album to Blake and reassure him that MaMa and PaPa will be coming back for him. So we are essentially going to be Amy ‘stalkers’ for the next month – lol!

Justin and I are a bit more relaxed than we were a week ago. We have been in touch with some very fortunate families that have traveled a week after us and in January, and they already have a court date or know the day their paperwork goes in front of their judge. It is hard not to get a bit anxious knowing that we still have no information – but that is typical for this process. As most of you know Justin is a grain farmer, so with each passing day we get closer and closer to the planting season. It will be ummmm…. shall we say interesting… if we are called to Russia in April. I guess in the end everything will fall into place and God’s plan will be revealed.

Until then we will live vicariously through Amy!