No Info until Tomorrow

After clicking send/receieve all morning, I finally emailed the agency here to see if they had heard anything about our coordinators meeting with the judge.

The reply: "She wrote and said that she will not have any information until tomorrow."

OK..it would have been nice to know that, thank you very much.

I'm a little bit worried...why didn't the judge give her a decision while she was there meeting with her? I sure hope everything is all right. I'm not usually a worrier, but I can't help it!

Just gotta trust...I know.

Quick Update

Tuesday, our coordinator got a call from the Judge's assistant and she said that, rather than meeting with her (the assistant) on Wednesday, the judge would like to meet with her in person next Monday (our Sunday night) to review our cases (us and the Nine's.) 

I'm not sure if we should be nervous, or what.  We are the "pioneers" of the special needs program in which our agency is partnering with Reece's Rainbow, in this region.  We're the first two families to come through who are adopting kids with DS in a while, I think.  There are a bunch coming soon, but we are the first. And we both have larger families than they are used to.  So I think the judge is being a bit more thorough than usual.

I e-mailed our coordinator and asked if this was unusual, and her reply was,

"Hope the judge wants to see me because she needs to hear on the documents (the ones that she asked for last week) and choose the court date upon the information received and accordingly to her schedule."

Hope so, too. 

HOPE SO, TOO!!!!!

We pray that we'll find good news in our inbox Monday morning.

Looks like the families who are adopting from Region 1 (see posts below) have been told that the judge needs a week to think things over.  We'll keep praying for her heart to change during this time.

Tonight is the Night

Kirill, Baby J and Eva's futures lie completely in a decision made by one person, as we sleep tonight.  Read Julia's blog post to help you get the feel for how much all of our prayers are needed.

Prayers for Region 1

There are four families in Anya's country, in Region 1,(Anya is in Region 2)  who are the very first families to attempt to adopt kids with Down Syndrome in this region.  The judge is not supportive of international adoptions at all since an incident last year when a lady sent her adopted son back to this country on an airplane.   These families have been working on trying to bring their children home for a year and a half.  The Moreno's got word that the committee will not assign them a date for their first trip until they learn that the other two families (the Hooks, the Davis'   and one other family who is not through RR) adoptions have worked out. It's a very volatile situation.  Their coordinator is meeting with the judge Wednesday (our Tuesday night) to plead with her to assign the first two families their court date. 

They need a miracle to take place.  We've seen mountains move for other families who have been at critical points like this.  I just want to help spread the word so that lots of people can be praying for this judge's heart to soften during their meeting Wednesday. It also happens to be the day that our coordinator is going to be meeting with our judge's assistant, hoping she'll assign us our court date with what she is given.  So this day (or night, for us)  is kinda important to our family, as well! 

I know that our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and that he is a God of miracles. Please join us in praying that mountains will move so that, not only will these children get to come to loving families, but many more will follow suit.

Setback Number Five-Million Katrillion

Found out today that the judge who has been assigned to our case wants a homestudy update and an updated letter from our CPA before she'll assign us a date. These documents are only six months old. *sigh*

This will take a couple of weeks to have done, notarized, appostilled, and FedExed. Our coordinator is hoping when they meet in a week (on the 26th) for an update, if she shows them a copy of the documents, they will assign a date even though they aren't all official yet. We can only hope.

This is just the way it goes. Nothing can ever be easy! But, hey! Look at the bright side: other than the fact that this is another 200 bucks to fork out, we need to be grateful because these are easy things to obtain. Our social worker and CPA are in town and can whip these up fast.

OK...bright side, bright side, bright side. Life is good. :)

My Smile Today

During my pity party today, I whipped out my cell phone so I could soak in  a little Anya cuteness on video for a few minutes. Here's one that shows her funny personality. If she could speak English, I think she would have said,  "Hey I'm really just enjoying my coloring here. But I'll humour you anyway..."

Submitted

Our dossier was submitted as we slept last night! The judge will now go over it with a fine-toothed comb and hopefully assign a date for us to come see her. Yeah!

Monday is Big!

Our coordinator in country had all our documents notarized today and is planning to submit them to the court on Monday!  We should hear of our court date later in the week.  We're so excited to finally know when we are going. We've been in limbo long enough!

Our coordinator emailed me today and told me that we forgot to send our pictures of us with Anya when we were there for the first trip. That is part of the requirements for the court dossier.  Woops! I was under the impression we were supposed to bring them when we come.  So I went through them and emailed her some. I still have to print them here, have them notarized and apostilled and sent to her ASAP. She said she would just submit the ones I e-mail her for now.  Ugh! One more trip to the State Capitol. 

This is one of the eight that the judge will see. (This is us looking at our family photos together.)  I included 3 of Anya with me, 4 of her with Jeremy and one with the three of us together.  The judge wants evidence that we spent lots of time getting to know Anya before we officially committed to proceeding with the adoption. 

We're getting there. 

I wish we could breathe a sigh of relief now, but we really can't until we are on an airplane with her, headed home.  At any moment, some parent could send their adopted child back, or some big story could hit the news about someone abusing their adopted child from Anya's country, and everything could come to a screeching halt.  This is what happened this time last year there.

It does absolutely no good to sit and worry about it, though.  I'm so glad we just don't have time to sit and dwell on the unknown. In the meantime, we'll just keep doing what we are told and getting ready for our new addition.  The kids are getting so excited. They pray for her in every prayer and say things like, "Anya is going to love this" whenever we do something fun.  It makes Jeremy and I smile.  We are so excited for our "missing piece" to come and join us. 

I hope to have news of a date next week!  Thank you for your prayers.  We feel them.

Stalking the Fed Ex Website

OK, I've now checked the FedEx site 4 times today, trying to figure out where our documents are. I was thinking all day they were stuck in Delaware, but I looked up the code and Koeln, DE is actually Cologne, Germany! They left that location on Sunday...so maybe just maybe they will be in Anya's city tomorrow??... It's so hard not to be antsy! We could possibly be submitted Thursday, but we'll just plan on next week so we're not disappointed. Come on Fed Ex airplanes...fly faster! We need to go get our girl.

A BIG HOLLA for Reece's Rainbow!



Matthew I- what a cute little monkey. 

 Here's something that may surprise you:  There is no shortage of moms and dads who are more than willing to bring a child listed on Reece's Rainbow into their families. Nope, that's not a problem at all.

The problem is the amount of money it takes to do it.  It's just too big of a mountain for people to climb to raise anywhere from $24,000 to $38,000. 

So Reece's Rainbow has a grant fund set up for each of the children who are listed.  People donate money to these grants to help make those mountains a little smaller.

Each year, Reece's Rainbow has a huge fundraiser called the Angel Tree during the holidays to raise funds for the children who are in need of families, who have Down Syndrome. The results just came in for the 2010 Angel Tree.  They are AMAZING!  Way to go, everyone!




Celine
Facing the institution soon.  Has a large grant!



• Over $305,000 in grant donations raised (this is nearly QUADRUPLE what we raised in 2009)
• 2000 ornaments purchased (DOUBLE from 2009)
• A New Year Miracle Gift of $50,000 made it possible for every child to meet their $1000 Angel Tree goal for the FIRST TIME in our history
• (30) children found their "forever families" between Nov 1 and Dec 31

Smiley, happy Sonya. 
Five years old and wants out of this crib!

Go HERE to see all the cuties who were on the Angel Tree.  Most of them are in decent places for the time being, but if families don't come for these kids, every single one of them will be transferred from their baby homes to institutions, usually by the time they are six.  Many of them will die there.  Not when they get old, but within the first year.  These are children of Heavenly Father who were put on this earth for a purpose.  They will bring incredible joy to a family, as well as everyone who will ever know them.  They just need a way to get there.    

Beautiful Kathleen.
Looks like Anya when she was younger, I think.

Not every family is meant to adopt. But we all have the opportunity to serve these children by making it possible for someone else to, either by donating to a waiting child's fund  or by helping a family who has already committed to bring one home, like the Nine's, the Stewart's, or the Tam's. (Three of our friends who still have a ways to go.  The Stewart's little Ian is in Anya's groupa.)

What if this was one of your kids?  You would do everything in your power to get them out of this situation as fast as you possibly could. 

They don't have someone fighting for them.  Reece's Rainbow is their only voice.  Their only way out of a horrible situation.

Hopefully some day, parents in these countries will value people with special needs and they will have have the emotional, educational and financial support they need to keep their special babies when they are born. 

But in the meantime... these children suffer.



Kyle. Cute as a button.
Lives in an orphanage in Anya's city,
but is facing the institution any day.



We can't just pretend this doesn't exist. It does.  It's very, very real.  Not a single one of our brothers and sisters deserve this kind of life.  They were blessed to be born, unlike the 90% of the children who's parents learn their unborn child has DS here in the U.S.   Someone has to be their voice.

Help provide a life for one of these special children.  Donate today!

Important Instructions

Dear wonderful friends and family members who have offered to take our children while we are in Eastern Europe for the second and third times:

In an effort to prepare you for the adventure of having our ever-so-happy but adventurous 20-month-old Eli in your home, and ensure that we will still be friends, I have been collecting a few pictures the past several months, and will now give you some specific directions that are very important to follow.

You may want to keep notes.

How to Eli-Proof your Home

#1  Keep your pantry door locked at all times.  If you do not have a lock on your pantry door, you may want to consider installing one, or putting one of those white things on the doorknob.

#2  Make sure nothing of importance is on your desk.

#3 Barricade any area where you will be mopping the floor.

unless you want little footprints all over.  

Or help, of course.

#4  Use a bungee chord to tie all the kitchen chairs together to prevent him from climbing on the table.

#5 Eli's favorite spot is the kitchen counter. If you have bar stools at your counter, I'm sorry.

You'll have to hide them in a locked closet or another room for the time being.

If your bar stools are attached, go back to #3 for directions on keeping Eli out of the kitchen.

If there's no way to barricade your kitchen off, I'm really sorry.

For example, here we have The Eli-ster exploring whatever looked interesting on the counter just today.

Same spot, this evening.

Guilty, once again.

#6 Keep your trash and recycle bins locked away.

Or, if you're like us, you can just put them on top of the counter about ten times every day.

#7 Never, I repeat NEVER leave butter, shortening, or anything gooey or creamy
within reach of his little hands.

As you can see by the blurriness of this picture, it will shake you right up.

#8 If you don't have child-proof thingies on your cabinets, connect the knobs with rubber bands.

#9 Finally, if you notice that it's a little quiet in your house, you may want to hunt the boy down. 

In most cases, he is getting away with somethin'.

If, after reading this, you would like to back out of your offer, please know that we understand and will think nothing less of you as our friend or family member. 

We don't know what in the heck we'll do, but really, it's OK.

My seventy-year-old mother is still recovering from her four days of Eli in November.

She has asked me several time how on earth we are going to survive this next year, with another "toddler" in the home.

That is a very good question, Mom. 

And the answer is...

we have no idea.

Oh, and one more thing. 

#10 Put your plants up.  He pulls the leaves off and excavates the dirt.

(Notice the clothes are the same as several of the pics above.  All in a day's work, my friends.)

Help our Friends!!

During this whole adoption process, I've made some great friends who are also adopting through Reece's Rainbow.  The one whom I have almost daily contact with is Katrina Nine, who is adopting the cutest little redheaded boy that couldn't look more like her if he she had him herself!  Can  you believe she and her hubby have six kids and none of them got her gorgeous red hair? When Katrina saw little "Ivan" on Reece's Rainbow nearly a year ago, she sent a text with his picture to her husband. 


He took one look and replied, "He looks like he could be ours."  The rest is history (or at least history in the making!)

The Nines are with the same agency as us and little Vahnya is in an orphanage that is near Anya's.  They went to meet him the week before we met Anya.  We have been at the same point all the way through the process.  They had to wait through the same delays and everything.  Katrina and I don't know how we could have made it this far without each other to vent to, rejoice with, or just express our feelings of the day, which can change on a dime. ;)

The Nines have a lot of money to raise in order to pay for their final two trips.  They are in much greater need than we are.  I would love it if you would hop on over to their blog and help them!   Now is your chance to get that iPod Touch that your child wanted for Christmas and you couldn't justify buying! :) They are giving one away to one of their lucky donors this month.

Even ten bucks will help.  Anything!  Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!