6/28 - They're Here!!!

We still can't believe the months of waiting are FINALLY over!!! We were up until about 1:00 a.m.the night before making our poster (we had to make it good...wanted to make a good impression you know!) and just unable to sleep due to excitement and nerves!! We got up early yesterday and finished our cleaning. Looking back on it, it's kinda funny...we spent hours and hours cleaning and those kids could care less!! We had lots of nervous energy to burn off so I guess cleaning was a good way to do it!

Rob and I were among the first to arrive at the airport. I had packed our bag of necessities...the sick bags, camera, toys, Latvian phrase book, welcome poster, etc. We were good to go!! It was such a weird feeling though when we pulled out of the driveway for the drive to the airport. We had been planning for so long it was so strange that this moment had actually arrived. Almost like it wasn't real.

The kids' flight was about 2 hours late but the wait actually wasn't that bad because we were so excited. We enjoyed hanging out with the other host families and chatting about our planned activities with the children. We also witnessed another group of children from another hosting organization (from Russia and Latvia) as they arrived and were united with their host families. That was fun to watch the reactions of those children and their host families.

When our children finally arrived, we immediately picked out Olegs and Kristine and waved to them to come over. Kristine had the biggest smile on her face from the very beginning and Olegs was much more serious. When we got to the car, they called it "super car" (everything is "super" or "beautiful"). We asked them if they needed a "throw up" bag for the drive home and thankfully they said no. WHEW!!! Then on the way home Kristine was singing to the songs on the radio. She said she likes Britney Spears, Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, etc. She showed us her Latvian teen magazine which is similar to the ones here in the U.S. Olegs was much more quiet, but smiled at us with the cutest smile that would melt your heart. On the drive home, they "ooh'd and aah'd" about various trucks and motorcycles we passed.

We attempted to ask them if they were hungry or tired and of course, butchered their language. Luckily, I was able to point to words in my Latvian phrase book and they would tell me the correct way to pronounce them. When we got home, we were able to piece together that they wanted bacon and eggs so of course we made it for them at 10:00 at night.

We gave them the tour of the house and introduced them to Grandmother who gave them both big hugs and kisses. They were such sweeties and hugged and kissed her back even though they'd never seen her before in their lives. We knew instantly that these were two special children. They are even more beautiful than their pictures and are so well mannered. We're told that will change though as the days progress.

6/26 - Weekly Recap and Last Minute Prep

Late last week we received our FBI fingerprinting appointment letters. This is the next step after filing the I-600A form. Our appointments are now scheduled for July 14th. One bit of good news is that Grandmother won't have to have her prints done after all. It seems that people over 70 are exempt from the FBI fingerprinting requirement. It's nice that they had the sense to realize that a 97-year old woman is not a threat!!

As you can imagine, Rob and I are beside ourselves with extreme excitement mixed with a little nervousness. The kids will be arriving on Tuesday so this weekend we did some last minute shopping. We aren't exactly sure what sizes Olegs and Kristine are so we only bought a couple of clothing items like socks, underwear and some cute pajamas for the first night. We bought other things too like bed linens and toothbrushes, hairbrushes & combs, etc. We also made sure to pick up some stickers and markers so we can make a fancy welcome poster to take with us to the airport. We're taking some toys with us to the airport to give to them right away too. Rob picked out a soccer ball for Olegs and I found a cute plush bear (the kind you can write on and wash off....those markers better wash off :-)) for Kristine. We had a couple of Target gift cards given to us by some of our good friends (thank you SO much guys!!).

The next stop was the grocery store. We were fortunate to have a Publix gift card donated to us as well (you know who you are...thank you!!!). I went through each aisle looking at almost every single product wondering if they might like it. After hearing from other adoptive parents, we know that fruit will be a big hit so I bought lots of bananas, grapes, etc. We were told not to be alarmed if we give them an apple and they eat the entire core!! I'm glad they warned us about that because I would DEFINITELY be alarmed!!! HA! We also got chicken and pork chops to cook out on the grill. From what we've heard it sounds like we'll be safe if we just don't use too many strong spices or heavy sauces. I also got some fruit rollups and frozen fruit pops which I hope they'll like. We'll go back again when they're here so they can pick out some things they like.

I feel so excited...it brings back the days when I believed in Santa and couldn't wait until Christmas morning (that is, until my sweet older sister crushed my dreams by telling me the truth when I was 8-years old....I've long since forgiven her but it's still fun give her a hard time about it!! :-)). As Rob and I have said many times, we're just gonna take things as they come. Our only real plan is to have lots of fun, love on these two little people and savor the next four weeks.

6/17 - Garage Sale & The Disappearing Shoe Mystery!

Today's sale was a big success and we made a little over $400 this time. We had more help this time around so things ran much smoother. A special thanks goes out to Grandmother's caregiver, Cheryl, who baked the muffins and brownies and helped us the day of the sale. Just when things seemed overwhelming, she came to our rescue to help with the set up (we had SO much stuff!!), collect money from customers, etc. At one point, there were cars parked up and down our street. Hopefully, our neighbors weren't too annoyed. Once again, we met some really nice people and neighbors we hadn't met before. One lady was there with her family and was excited about our plans. It turned out that all of her children were adopted. Many people wanted to know more about our plans so we were once again able to share information about the hosting program. We're hoping that as more and more people hear about it, they'll also want to host and possibly adopt.

Overall, things went smoothly but we did have a mystery as we were arranging the shoes to sell. We found that some of them didn't have mates. This seemed odd until I remembered that our cat, Mario, likes to EAT shoes!! I think he considers them prey for some strange reason. At our last sale, he hunted down a cute red and blue Speedo flip flop that had been donated for the sale. He gnawed on the wide plastic strap across the top until he had almost chewed through it completely. He kept taking his shoe prey into the woods so he could finish his "meal" and each time I had to chase him down to get the shoe back.

This time around, Mario stalked and devoured a brown leather sandal. All day, we couldn't find the mate to that pair of shoes. Later that evening, we found the sandal carcass under our car in the driveway. Of course, by then Mario was nowhere to be found. Maybe next time, we'll plan to have someone help guard the shoe section just to keep Mario away from the shoes!

6/15 - Home Study Almost Complete!

We had our third and final home study visit last night. We owe our social worker a couple more items of paperwork and then we’re DONE with that!! [WOOHOO!!...happy dance happening here!]. The next step will be for her to write her formal report. She said that process will take a couple of weeks after we provide her with the remaining paperwork she needs. She’s already assured us that we’re approved so that’s a huge relief. We always felt we would be but you never know.

Now we’re gearing up for Saturday’s garage sale/bake sale. It’s gonna be a lot of work but it should be fun. We have even more donated items to sell this time around so it should be a big success. Thank you to all of you who donated stuff!! The challenge has been to find enough tables to display everything. Thanks once again to those of you who loaned us tables. We still needed additional tables so we found a place where we can rent them pretty cheap so now that’s taken care of. Please think positive thoughts for good weather and lots of customers on Saturday!! :-)

6/9 - A Special Thank You to Someone Out There!

God has continued to bless us as we've worked to raise funds for the hosting fees and adoption-related expenses. In addition to our garage sale and Mary Kay fundraisers, we've had a couple of large monetary donations come in from out of the blue. This is a special day for us as we were just informed that an anonymous donor will be covering the remaining expenses for the hosting!! WOW!! We have no idea who the donor is and would love to let them know personally how much this means to us. This is a HUGE blessing!! The hosting fees are now completely paid for so we can focus on raising money for the adoption-related expenses (fyi, this means that Simple Obedience will no longer be accepting donations on our behalf since they are a hosting ministry only and not assisting us with the adoption phase of this). We plan to adopt independently without an adoption agency...basically, cutting out the "middle man." Thankfully, we have met many other adoptive parents who have adopted this way and they have contacts in Latvia (e.g., attorneys, translators, etc.) who can help us with the court proceedings. Adopting independently will save us a lot of money.

So, whoever you are, if you happen to see this, just know that your gift means so much to us and we pray that you will be richly blessed for your kindness and generosity!!

6/8 - Next Garage/Bake Sale on June 17th

Well, we've set the date for our next garage sale/bake sale fundraiser. The money raised this time will go towards the balance due for our home study ($600) and towards the fees associated with filing our I-600A ($755). We've scheduled this sale for Saturday, June 17th, so please think positive thoughts for a successful event and start praying for good weather. Once again, we have a garage crammed full of donated items to sell. We have kids' toys, kitchen items, books, clothing, furniture, tools, etc. Thanks SO much to those of you who donated stuff!! Since the baked goods were such a hit last time, we're gonna have a larger variety of muffins, brownies, banana bread, etc. Like last time, I'll be taking orders for my homemade banana bread ($15/loaf) and monster chip cookies ($10/dozen) for anyone who wants more than just a slice or individual cookie.

SPECIAL NOTE: We're in need of more tables to display things for the sale. If any of you have tables you can loan us, please let me know.

Next item on the agenda will be our third home study visit with our social worker next week. It will be a good feeling to have that completed. Then the kids will be here in 2 1/2 weeks! YIKES!!!

6/4 - Proud Parents (off topic)

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with adoption but I just can't help myself. Those of you with children know how important it is to capture those "firsts" as they occur. Well, our 6-month old "son", Winston, went for his first swim this weekend in our friends', Chris and Laura's, new pool...(sorry folks, but you'll just have to put up with us bragging about our "furry" children until we have human ones to brag about :-)). There were a couple of scary moments when Winston first jumped into the deeper water because he quickly sank like a cinder block. I was almost to the point of freaking out when luckily, his instincts kicked in and he was able to bring himself to the surface.

It was just neat to see our little boy progress from being frightened of the water to loving it so much he didn't wanna get out. We finally borrowed their dog's swim vest so we could relax and know he'd stay afloat and not get too tired and drown himself. Yes, our hearts swelled with pride as we watched our boy learn how to swim! He had a blast and we did too!