Day Two

Today was our second visit to see Little Man. This time we made a before-lunch visit. As we arrived, we saw several smaller children coming inside from playing. They were all bundled up in their snow suits and were so cute! We went inside and Little Man came in to play with us.

Our facilitator went and got Little Man's snow suit so we could enjoy some outside time. Today it was sunny and nice, still cold but very nice. Little Man really enjoyed the teeter totter and the swing. He also loved to see the cars driving by outside the fence of the playground. There was also a snowman outside built by some of the other children.

Once we came back inside, we did a little story reading, more playing with the music playing toy and we attempted to play the harmonica a little bit. Little Man will need a more practice with the harmonica... He spent most of the time with it between his teeth, but we did manage to make a few sounds come out of it.

Tomorrow will be a big day for us, as the custody worker will be there to observe us. Please pray that this goes well for us.

The Beginning

Where do I even begin???

We woke up this morning around 8 and had a couple hours to get ready. We made breakfast in our room and ate while I worked on a blog post. Before we knew it, it was time to go. Our translator and facilitator walked in just as we were walking down the sidewalk. We were happy to see that we wouldn't be delayed by the snow this morning.

We all piled in the car and headed to the city to get permission from the government to go visit Little Man. The meeting took place in a tiny little shared office. It was a little intimidating answering the questions about why we wanted to adopt, why international, why special needs, etc. We must have done well, because before we knew it, we had signed and were on the way out the door!

We had a lot of time left before we could go out to visit the orphanage, so we all went to lunch. Drew had chicken and potatoes, and I had beef stroganoff. Everything was delicious. (Side Note: I just asked Drew if his lunch was good. His response was, "Yeah! I even ate the vegetables." My husband eats like a child.) After lunch, we still had time to kill, so we did a little souvenir shopping and went to take a picture at the highest point in the city. It was cold and a little overcast today, but still so beautiful.

Finally, it was time to go! We drove for what seemed like forever. The baby home where he lives is back towards the airport. We then turned and drove down a ton of back roads until, finally, there it was. "This is the orphanage," our translator said. Just like that, we were looking at our son's home.

We walked into the building and put on the obligatory shoe covers. We met in a second floor play room. We sat down and the orphanage doctor came in to tell us everything they know about Little Man's history. We were sitting there talking, and all of a sudden he was walking in. He was holding the hand of one of the workers, and greeted the doctor with smiles. She talked to us and to him for a little while longer, and then she left.

We weren't sure what to expect, but that was the room where we stayed for the rest of the visit. The translator and coordinator were in there for most of the visit as well, which was a little weird, but we ended up pretty much forgetting they were there.

Our Little Man is PERFECT. He is adorable and full of life. He will definitely keep us on our toes! We played with little toys and laughed and giggled together for the whole visit. We had a little flying toy, which was actually free in a Sonic kid's meal. He really liked it and wanted to put it back together all by himself. His dexterity and coordination really are pretty good, and he was very determined to figure everything out. We laughed because the last people who were enjoying this toy were the adult members of our church couples' group!

We also brought a light up ball along, which he liked to throw. As well as a little motor cycle that would propel itself for a little ways.  His real favorite of the afternoon though, was this little music toy that Drew's mom sent for him! He pressed the button over and over again, alternating between examining the light and holding it up to his ear. We also got him to start the music and then dance around. Again I say...adorable!

Love that head back laugh!

He engaged with us pretty well. He eventually agreed to sit on each of our laps for a little while. And we even got to see his stubborn streak a couple times. Once, as the coordinator went to put up one of the toys, and he called out to her patting his chest and telling her several times, "Mine!" He let it go pretty quickly though. He is definitely well cared-for at the baby home, which is such a blessing. He will do SO well once he is home and in a family. He also listens very well and helped to gather the toys together at the end. The caregiver that came to get him had him "blow kisses" as they left.

My sweet boys

I really don't know how to describe the emotions of the day. Overwhelming. Exhilarating. Blessed. Joyful. Sweet. I smiled so much on the car ride back that my cheeks were hurting. We still have a ways to go in this process, but God is already blessing our hearts so much. We cannot wait to see how God will use our Little Man to bless so many other lives as he has already blessed ours.

As we were getting dropped off back at the hotel, Drew joked, "Is it too soon to go back?" The girls laughed at him and replied that we will leave again at 9:30 tomorrow morning.

Until tomorrow, sweet boy. We will be thinking of you all night. There are people the world over that love you already and are praying for you.

The Whirlwind

Well, it has definitely been a whirlwind couple of days! We spent Wednesday getting all of the remaining supplies together and then packed up and drove down to visit family for Thanksgiving. We stayed through the celebration and left town around 6pm to head back home. We gathered and packed most of our stuff that night, and then spent Friday putting the last remaining items together. Oh, and Drew also had to do some work and I sewed a little blanket for Little Man. We doubt he will get to keep it, but we figure it's worth a shot. I used a little fleece blanket I got from the dollar store for, big surprise, $1, and paired it with some scrap fabric I received from my Grandmother last Christmas.

Ain't no party like a dachshund party!

I am so grateful for all of these people!

Our flight didn't leave until Friday evening, so we had plenty of time to make it up to the airport stress free. We also had to say our goodbyes to Sherlock. Drew's mom and her husband took us to get dinner and then dropped us off at the airport. Before we knew it, we were check in and waiting for our flight to visit Little Man!

The flights were really smooth. The first flight was pretty short. Drew stayed awake the whole time and I dozed for most of it. The second flight was the long leg, and they did a great job. Granted, some of our enthusiasm may be due to the fact that we had 3 seats to ourselves. Lots of people had the whole middle row to themselves and managed to lay across all three seats. From what we have heard, we think the service was pretty typical. On these international flights, they are constantly offering beverage service. They also served us two meals (a really late night dinner and breakfast). We both had bibimbap for dinner and pancakes for breakfast. The meals were pretty good considering it's airplane food. The last leg of our flight was equally as uneventful as the first. We landed and collected our baggage without trouble in Little Man's country, and we were then picked up by our facilitator and translator.

These two ladies were really nice, and talked to us the whole way in to the hotel. They dropped us off at the hotel, made sure we were situated, and made plans to pick us up the next morning at 10:30. After they left, we found our room and settled in a little. We were really tried, but it was still mid-afternoon, so we opted for a walk to help keep us occupied. We walked down to the beach, which is less than half a mile from our hotel. There were lots of other people milling around at the beach, including a dog in a snow suit!!

After the beach we looped around to the market to pick up water and a couple snacks. Once we were back in our room we spent a couple more hours unpacking, organizing all of our donations and gifts, and then figured out how to find the tv channels in English. It was finally 6 o'clock, and we opted to have our first meal in country at the hotel restaurant. The prices weren't bad and adopting families also get 20% off at the restaurant. We finished our meal and then came back and crashed from 7:30 pm until 8:00 am!

Travel Dates

Where do I even begin?!

After a long few weeks of maybes and possiblies (yes, I made up that word), we have travel dates! We received the email at 7:00am this morning, and we will be leaving on Friday! In two days!! I feel like the little boy in the YouTube video after going to the dentist: "Is this real life?" (Search "David after the Dentist" on YouTube, if you have never seen the video.)

I am going to keep this short because we have so much to do to get ready! We are packing for our trip to see Little Man and we are also packing to go spend the night at my parents' house for Thanksgiving tonight! Due to the delay of our approval, we don't have a ton of time to gather together donations for the orphanage and gifts for the workers and our facilitator and translator. I bet you can guess what I will be shopping for today! My mom has graciously offered to donate some children's toothbrushes and toothpaste samples from her office, and my friend Erica is going to keep me company this afternoon as I go to get the rest of our necessities. We are so excited to be celebrating during the next few days with our families.

You guys, WE ARE GOING TO MEET OUR SON!

We will be updating with stories and photos as often as possible during our trip. We are so excited to be following this course on which God has placed us, and we can't wait to see what blessings are still to come!

Control

Don't worry, all! We have not forgotten the blog!

We've been waiting for some real news before we post, and had a couple delays from our expectations. Basically, we (mostly me) have been learning a lot about letting go of control and accepting God's plan and timing. Seems I need a lot of reminders about this!

To let you know where we are: Our paperwork is in country and registered, and we are just waiting on official word of travel dates. Saying that my emotions are high at this point, is a definite understatement! I was talking to Drew on the phone tonight (he left today for a business conference), and he was telling me that everyone there already knows all about the adoption. We both just chuckled over his statement. When people ask us about what is going on in our lives right now, this adoption and meeting our son are definitely the primary focus for both of us! We may not be able to post pictures of him on the blog yet, but it is guaranteed that everyone we see in person is forced to admire the pictures we have of our Little Man.

It's so funny how God works. This time last year, we would have said we probably wouldn't be having kids for a few more years. Now, we are about 6 months into this calling, and He is constantly having to slow me down! I suppose I always have been passionate when it comes to my family. Even Drew, who is almost always calm and easy-going, has started to catch the anxious bug. I know it will be hard to leave him there after our first trip, but we both feel so ready to meet our boy and make this thing more real.

And now, as has become the norm, I will wrap up with some pictures to show how we have been spending our time.

We have been doing some recreational reading. (These are the last two books I completed.)

We celebrated our little guy's third birthday with wonderful friends!

  

We can't wait to celebrate your next birthday with you, Little Man! 

And here is a photo set that sums up our feelings about waiting.

 

We hope to post again soon with more news! Keep checking back!

Also, if any of our readers have any questions, we would love to do our best to answer them! Just leave a comment on this post, or send us a text or Facebook message, and include your question.

Progress

We made some real progress this past week! Here is the week in photos. Stay tuned until the end, and I will fill in the gaps with words.

One day last week, I spilled coffee all over my shirt --> right as I walked into the office. Good thing I had on a sweater to button up...

I've been goofing around making a playlist for Little Man's musical enjoyment and education. So far, he has a lot of his grandfather's favorites. We are taking suggestions.

We finished the online portion of our parent training! Phew!

Drew had all of our documents apostilled (which is the fancy way of saying our notary stamps basically have to be re-notarized by the state). Everything is in the mail to our agency, so we're just waiting on trip one dates!

We hit 2000 pageviews last week! Woohoo!

 The next two are not very clear pictures -- camera phones have limits. Sorry.

We went to watch one of our favorite college students perform in a University-wide talent show this past weekend! In this act, Landon played guitar while his friend performed a comedic improv song.

In this act, he sang and played a song on acoustic guitar. Landon has amazing talent! He was one of only two freshmen chosen to perform.

We were lucky to have Landon's family stay at our house while they visited for the weekend and went to see the performance. Landon's younger brother, Grayson, made himself quite comfortable! (As it should be.) We just love this family and feel blessed to be able to offer them a place to stay!

So to fill in some little details: If you gathered from the fourth photo, we are getting VERY close to finding out when our first trip will be to meet our son! As soon as we have dates, you can bet your bottom dollar we will be telling everyone we see! [Two points if you can name the bottom dollar reference. (note: points have no monetary value and are non-redeemable)]

We will be taking orphange donations with us on our first trip, so keep a lookout for a post on what they need most! On a similar note, I have finally worked out descriptions of most of our costs for this process. Click on "The Costs" tab at the top to see an estimate of all our fees, the money we have raised thus far, and our remaining fundraising needs!