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!

5/31 - Home Study Part Deux

Tonight we completed our 2nd home study visit with our social worker. Only one more visit to go and she'll be able to finalize her report!! Today she interviewed Rob and me separately and it was more like an informal conversation than a tense interview. She said that we had been so thorough in our answers on our autobiographical form that she already feels comfortable approving us. She is just the nicest person you'd ever hope to meet. We can't help but feel God's hand in all of this. Throughout this entire process, it's as if He's directing our path and putting us in touch with the right people.

We only have a couple more documents to turn in to our social worker and those are the septic tank inspection letter, our certificate of completion for our online adoption course and Grandmother's medical report form (still haven't heard if her doctor’s office is gonna try to charge $25 to fill out that form....THE NERVE!!! I'm holding out hope that it will miraculously arrive in the mail. We'll see). We meet with our social worker again in two weeks and then we can cross the home study off the list. WOOHOO!!

This week we're also submitting our I-600A form which is required by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service in order for us to be approved by the U.S. government to adopt children internationally and bring them back to the U.S. The fee for that is $755.00 ($545 application fee plus $70 per person for FBI fingerprints) so "ker-ching" [that’s the sound of more money flying out the window].

After sending in the I-600A, we’ll receive a letter in a few weeks telling us the day of our FBI fingerprinting appointment. Every person living in our household will have to be fingerprinted so that means Grandmother too. Not sure how that will work just yet. On long outings we usually take her wheelchair which makes things easier in some ways but more difficult in others. I'm not the best at navigating that contraption and have even come close to dumping my poor Grandmother out onto the pavement whenever there's the slightest bump in our path. A lot of it I’m sure is my fault because I walk really fast and push her a million miles an hour. I admit I need to work on that, but it's partly the chair's fault too. Even the tiniest pebble in our path will jam the wheels, causing the chair to come to an abrupt stop while I'm pushing her at warp speed. Not a good situation. Grandmother is a good sport though and just goes along for the ride, however bumpy it may be. :-)

Yesterday, we scheduled dental appointments in July for Rob, me, Olegs and Kristine to get our teeth cleaned. One thing we learned about Latvia is that most dental offices don’t use novocaine. Can you imagine getting a filling without novocaine??!! Since the kids are most likely frightened of the dentist, we thought it would be a good idea if we all went together so they could see us get our teeth cleaned first. They’ll probably need a filling or two so we’ll have to coordinate a translator to explain to them that things are much different here and it won’t be painful. Luckily, our dentist, Dr. Stephen Hutchins in Canton, is extremely gentle so his fillings are never painful at all. If you live in our area and need a good dentist, he is WONDERFUL! Once the kids learn about laughing gas, I have a feeling they’ll be wanting to go to the dentist every day. I know I love that stuff. I even tried to schedule an appointment for a “laughing gas treatment” but unfortunately they wouldn’t help me out with that. Oh well. LOL!

5/28 - Still Pluggin' Away

Things are quiet this afternoon. Winston is asleep at my feet, Grandmother is doing her laps back and forth on the porch and Rob is downstairs on the couch recuperating from a softball injury he sustained during last Monday night’s game. Seems he got a little overzealous in an attempt to make one of his diving plays and wound up hitting the rock hard Georgia clay on his way down, cracking his rib in the process. So needless to say he’s been in some intense pain for the last few days, so it’s good that we have this long holiday weekend for him to get some much needed rest. He just had to go through one of those realizations that we all must experience at some point. Even though we may feel in our hearts and minds that we can play sports like 20-year-olds, our bodies will always let us know otherwise. In my case, it's usually bruises sustained from bumping into furniture or tripping down stairs. Not much you can do except pick yourself up, hold your head up high, put a smile on your face and keep on moving forward through this journey called life.

Last week, we turned in our money to cover the airfare for Olegs’ & Kristine’s trip from Latvia, which came to about $2,300.00. The total fee to host them is $3,120.00 so airfare makes up the bulk of the hosting fees. The children now know that they are coming and have most likely seen a picture of us. We can’t help but wonder what they must be thinking about taking this huge trip to the United States. We’re allowed to write to them now, so Rob and I plan to send them a letter and some fun pictures of us with the animals. One of our friends let us borrow her Latvian picture dictionary so we could make flash cards to help the children with their English. We also found out about a neat website where you can actually listen to the pronunciation of Latvian words. In addition to the flash cards, we’re gonna also stock up on post-it notes so we can label things around the house.

This Wednesday we’ll have our second home study visit from our social worker. During this meeting, she’s supposed to interview Rob and me separately just to talk more about our individual backgrounds and our plans for raising our children. Thankfully, our social worker is a super nice person and we have nothing to hide so we’re not concerned. We’re still working on gathering some more of the paperwork she’ll need. Rob and I already got our medical reports completed, but now we're waiting for Grandmother's doctor to complete hers. I dropped Grandmother’s form off at her doctor’s office last week and they had the nerve to tell me that their office charges $25.00 to fill out a form!!!! I’m hoping they’ll find it in their hearts to waive this fee. The lady who handles the form processing is gonna see what she can do to help us out. Then there are the employment letters we need to get. I have to get one from my company and then Rob will have to have our accountant do one for him since he is self-employed. They just have to say how long we've been at our jobs, what our positions are and how much we make. These things aren’t necessarily difficult. It just takes time to gather certain documents.

In the next couple of weeks we’re gonna get back to focusing on our fundraising efforts. Our garage is overflowing with items we plan to sell at our next garage sale. Looks like our next garage/bake sale fundraiser will be on June 10th or 17th. We'll post the exact date once we know for sure. I think we’ve sufficiently recovered from the last sale so we’re ready to do it again. So many of you have already donated items for us to sell and still more of you have said you’ll be dropping things off!! We can’t thank you enough!! We'll be needing a bunch of tables this time, so if any of you have tables you wouldn't mind loaning us for the sale, please let us know. Also, I can’t forget to thank those of you who placed Mary Kay orders this past week so we can continue to add those profits to our adoption fund.

That’s about it for now. Hope you all enjoy the beautiful Memorial Day weekend and don't forget to fly your flags tomorrow in support of our veterans!

5/17 - Adoption Home Study Under Way

This evening we had our first adoption home study visit by our social worker. This is the first of three visits she'll make to our house before she writes her report. We were instantly put at ease when we met her as she turned out to be the most friendly and kind person. We had imagined some big rough and tough woman that was gonna tell us we were doing everything wrong. We got exactly the opposite!! She went out of her way to make us feel at ease. We'd spent days and days cleaning like mad so we'd be prepared for her to look in every nook and cranny of our house. She just did a walk through and thankfully didn't need to look through our drawers and cabinets. We were prepared just in case though.

The animals acted up a little bit as usual. I guess it's good practice for dealing with misbehaving kids, right? Midnight, our dear sweet Midnight, was his usual annoying self and jumped on the table and strolled right across the papers we were reviewing with the social worker. Ugghh! That was when we found out the social worker is allergic to cats...[sigh]!! We locked Midnight away upstairs for some much needed quiet time so we could continue with our discussion. Next, there was Winston, our black lab puppy, who barked and whined for attention every few minutes which was mildy distracting while it lasted. Then there was Mickey, our drama king, who appeared a couple of times to let out a bloodcurdling death howl which is his way of communicating that he's starving to death. Don't feel sorry for him though...he always thinks he's dying from starvation even though he has an endless supply of food. I guess our most well behaved feline "child" was Maverick who didn't make a sound. That's only because he's scared to death of anything and everything and was probably hiding under Grandmother's bed.

We introduced the social worker to Grandmother who immediately began telling her "cat suit" story before introducing the poor woman to her talking prayer doll, the Precious Moments angel doll that says a prayer when you press her belly. It's actually a sweet doll but the sweetness wears off when you hear it TWENTY GAZILLION times a day!! Whenever Grandmother gets out the doll to pray with people, Rob and I affectionately refer to it as getting "prayer dolled." Rob and I have been prayer dolled many, many times...so much that we now disappear faster than David Copperfield whenever anyone even goes near that doll or the two other prayer dolls she has. Yes folks, she has an entire prayer doll family!!! We are all for the idea of praying, but can't we just do it without all the dolls? Dolls and clowns have always kind of creeped me out anyway. LOL! Grandmother chatted and chatted with the social worker and fell in love with her...that's a good thing except now she thinks the social worker is a new friend who's gonna start coming over all the time to visit with her. What do I know? Maybe she will.

Tonight's meeting was basically an orientation to go over the documents we've already submitted and to discuss the additional documents we'll need to provide. Basically, so far we've had to provide copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, medical reports, various releases for background checks and a down payment of $600 (1/2 of the home study fee). Among the items we still need to gather are reference letters from our family members, pet vaccination records, employment verification letters, financial forms, etc. We'll also need to take an online adoption preparation course which shouldn't be too bad.

It's just such a relief to know that the home study is nothing to worry about now. Many times the pictures we create in our minds turn out to be ten times worse than the actual experience. Luckily, that appears to be the case with the home study. Our next meeting is in a couple of weeks so we'll keep you posted.

Another bit of good news is that I got my time off from work approved and I didn't even have to resort to crying. :-) Thankfully, my managers were extremely accommodating. I'll be taking about 15 days off during the hosting and will work 1-2 days per week depending on the week. Rob will be able to be with the kids on the days I have to work and then a couple of the other host families have volunteered to act as backups if we get in a bind. It's a good feeling to have that covered now too.

It's so exciting that everything is actually coming together. We expect there to be glitches along the way as we move towards the adoption phase of this, but so far things are moving so smoothly that it's a little scary. No, I take that back, it's not scary. More like divine intervention at work behind the scenes.

5/14 - A Mother's Day to Remember

Do you ever have those days where you wish you could suspend time and live in a moment forever? Today we celebrated Mother's Day by taking Grandmother to brunch at Red Top Mountain lodge. That's become one of her favorite places and Rob and I have been so busy lately that it's been far too long since we've taken her there.

Today we decided to put everything else aside and just spend the day with Grandmother. At brunch we enjoyed a smorgasbord of omelets, waffles, pork tenderloin, ham, stuffed chicken breast, various vegetables and a vast selection of desserts until we were so stuffed we could hardly move.

We were able to muster up enough strength after our meal to take a stroll on the trail that winds down by Lake Allatoona. It's a beautiful scene and it's always fun to greet the many puppies and their owners along the way. We weren't brave enough to bring ours on this outing because he's too much of a handful right now but someday soon we'll give it a try.

We spotted an empty bench right down by the lake's edge and stopped there to take a rest. Grandmother was so sweet as she took everything in. The wind was blowing through her hair and the sun was shining on her face as she just smiled and breathed in the fresh air. We chuckled as we watched a little boy fishing on the bank and splashing around so much that we knew all the fish were long gone, but he kept on trying nevertheless. Then there were the pair of geese honking loudly as they swam across the glistening lake. It was just special to see things through her eyes. She was just so thankful to be there and we were so glad that we had the opportunity to bring her. That moment just reminded us how important it is to stop and enjoy the beautiful world around us. Sometimes we get so busy that we spend all of our time rushing to be places and get things done. Grandmother is constantly saying how there is beauty all around us if we could just stop and enjoy it. She's so right!

I hope all of you mothers had a special day today too. I look forward to joining your ranks very soon!

5/12 - Orientation & Mini Home Study Done!

We’ve had a few things happen this past week. Last weekend we finished our hosting orientation meetings and missions training. We had to attend missions training because hosting is actually considered a mission. It’s good that we got that extra training under our belts because it’s required if we ever decide to travel to Latvia with one of the mission teams to help select children for a future hosting. That’s way down the road though. Right now, we’re getting ready for Olegs and Kristine who will be here June 27th!! Oh, we found out that they both had birthdays recently so they are each 11-years old now.

Yesterday morning, we had our carpet installed in the basement so that was a big accomplishment. We still need to paint the baseboards and doors but once that's done it'll be perfect. It's great to now have some extra living space we'll be able to utilize with kids in the house.

We had our mini home study (the one for the hosting) last night which was pretty painless. The social worker was very nice, asked us a few questions and took pictures of various rooms of the house. Of course, our animals always have to make themselves the center of attention so last night’s star of the evening was our cat, Midnight. The art of being annoying is his specialty. He repeatedly jumped on the social worker and put his tail in her face so she’d have to stop our interview every few seconds to shoo the dummy away!! She seemed to take it all in stride though. Next we took the social worker out on our back deck so she could see our backyard. As we were coming back inside, Mario, our outside cat, got his share of attention by plopping himself in front of the door as we were trying to go back inside. That was much easier to ignore. We simply stepped over his fat belly and kept going.

We also introduced the social worker to Grandmother who gave her the tour of her room, telling her the life history of each and every family member whose pictures are displayed on her bookcase. Those of you who know Grandmother know that she can tell those never ending stories that have many tangents which never seem to relate back to the original story…just one of her many endearing traits. Rob and I chuckled when the social worker asked Grandmother if she was excited about the children coming. Grandmother thought she was asking about her children at which point she guided her over to my dad’s picture and began to tell the story of her younger days when she was raising her son. Oh and she just had to tell her favorite story about how she's waiting for us to get her a cat suit so she can become one of the cats. Don't ask! That's actually her version of a joke but you should see the puzzled looks on people's faces when she tells that one. Too funny!

5/2 - Things Are Moving Right Along

Well, we sent in our initial home study paperwork last week and had been waiting to hear from the home study agency to find out the next steps. Yesterday, we got a call from them telling us the name of the social worker assigned to do our home study. YIKES!! Now the panic is setting in!!! We've gotta get our house in tip top shape and SOON!! We're shifting gears now to work on painting the basement and having carpet installed down there so we'll have more living space. Oh yeah, we still need to get beds for the children!!

We also had our first hosting orientation meetings this week and got to meet some of the other host families. It's neat to hear about the paths that others traveled to arrive at the same place we did. Who knows...maybe some of us will wind up traveling to Latvia together for adoption court dates. That would be too cool! I can't think too far ahead though or I get stressed, so back to our projects at hand. I need to remember we're focusing on the hosting right now.

We learned all kinds of interesting tidbits about the children like some will speak Latvian, others will speak Russian or both. Many of them get car sick when riding in cars, so we'll need to have baggies on hand for them when driving around. They probably won't like our fast food, but most love chicken cooked just about any way. Families who hosted before told us to have lots of fruit on hand because the children will eat it by the pound since they don't get much fruit in Latvia. Most of the children only own two outfits: a dress outfit and a play outfit. We'll need to be careful not to go overboard and buy them too many things while they're here. We will, of course, get them a couple of outfits and some toys but if we do too much it gives them the wrong impression that this is what America is all about. We were reminded that the purpose of this program is to give them the sense of what it's like to live in a Christian family and to basically, love them unconditionally.

This week, we're also sending away for our vital records (apostilled birth/marriage certificates) from Florida to be used in our dossier. I'm told that those documents won't expire so that's one thing we can do now and cross off the list. Many things expire within a year so we have to wait until we're absolutely positive we're adopting to do those things. We're so thankful to have met new friends who have already traveled this path before us. All of the adoptive parents we've met have offered so much valuable advice and they're all so eager to help guide us through the maze of paperwork and red tape. Rob and I have no doubt that divine intervention guided us towards hosting and adoption.

It's starting to hit us that the children will be here before we know it. Now that it's May, that means they'll be here next month!! YIKES!! Now I need to figure out how I'm gonna tell my boss I need to take a big chunk of vacation soon. We'll worry about that later. :-)

4/29 - Garage Sale Success!

Well, today's garage & bake sale was a resounding success!! We raised a significant amount of money that will go a long way towards our hosting expenses. The more we shared about the Simple Obedience Orphan Hosting program and the children we'll be hosting, the more people wanted to help. So many people told us to "keep the change'' and gave donations in addition to their purchases. One sweet lady emptied all of the change from her purse and placed a huge handful of coins in my hand. Others wanted to know more about the hosting program which we hope will result in more hosting families down the road.

When the day began, we were faced with a dark sky full of menacing rain clouds that tried their hardest to dump rain on us. As the morning progressed, however, the sun overtook the clouds and it turned out to be the most perfect day. There were a couple of times that Rob had to leave so I was left manning the fort all by my lonesome. It seemed like as soon as he'd leave, a caravan of cars would pull up. Each car would be packed to the gills with kids and they all just had to run wild around our tables and rearrange everything [sigh]. It was a little nervewracking but I survived. For the most part, I let it slide but there was one little brat who thought she'd amuse herself by squishing her dirty little fingers into my cake slices!!! Let's just say she won't be doing that again. Of course, when Rob showed back up they were long gone.

My bake sale portion of this fundraiser was more of an experiment. I had no idea whether anyone would buy my baked goods. I figured if no one bought them, we'd just have to eat them ourselves, which I must admit a small part of me actually preferred. We were totally surprised when we kept having to refill the table with more muffins, brownies and cake slices and eventually sold out of brownies.

Today was an exhausting day and Rob and I both survived it on about 4 1/2 hours sleep. It will be an early to bed night for us and I just pray I can move when I get out of bed in the morning. I already feel like every muscle in my body has been stretched, pulled and twisted in every possible direction. My poor delicate and rarely used muscles aren't too pleased with me right now for making them lift and move stuff for the entire day. Oh the joys of getting old.

I can't close out this post without thanking all of you who helped us make today's sale a success by donating items for us to sell, loaning us tables, donating your time to help price things, make signs, etc. and keeping us in your prayers. We couldn't have done this without you!

4/18 - From Home Study to Dossier

Even though we're only hosting children at this point, we decided to go ahead and get our "full" home study started since we know we'll be adopting soon. We will also be having a "mini" home study done for the hosting. A home study is basically a study of the prospective adoptive family and their home, life experiences, health, lifestyle, extended family, attitudes, support system, values, beliefs, and other factors relating to the prospective adoption. This information is then summarized in what is called a home study report.

We received our initial packet from the home study agency, so we're currently filling out the preliminary paperwork they require to get the home study process started. The hardest form so far, at least for me, is the autobiographical form. Those questions dig deep and require a lot of introspection to answer. We're trying to answer everything as honestly as possible but of course, in the back of our minds we're wondering what the agency wants to hear. Some of the questions are a little frustrating because it seems like they ask the same things over and over.

A caseworker will have to visit our house and check out our living space. I'm told that this is nothing to worry about, that they WANT to approve people and help get these children into loving homes. Still, I have nightmares of our cat coughing up a hairball in front of the caseworker or Winston jumping up and knocking her over. You know that kind of stuff always happens when you have company!!! We also have a crazed possum that comes out of our woods at odd times and roots around our backyard. What if he shows up??!!!

Rob and I have pretty much decided that we're gonna be as open and honest as possible in all of our answers to interview questions. As much of a pain as the paperwork and interviews are, we realize that it's important to go through this process because these people need to make sure we're a good family. We also need to work through the issues of how we'll raise the children, how we'll keep them connected to their Latvian culture, etc. The bottom line is that we all want what's best for the children. This whole matter is in God's hands anyway so He will have to work out the details.

The home study will become part of the dossier, which is the packet of documents a foreign government (Latvia in our case) requires in order to process the adoption of a child in that country's legal system. Foreign governments are very particular about the format of these documents and require that all documents submitted be notarized and apostilled. An apostille is a special seal applied by an authority (in our case, Georgia Secretary of State) to certify that a document is a true copy of an original. It's their way of protecting against forgeries.

Part of the paperwork portion involves gathering documents such as birth/marriage certificates. These documents are required for both the home study and dossier. However, the ones for the dossier must be apostilled before submitting them to Latvia. In our case, we can order apostilled certificates directly from Florida's Department of Health (we were born/married in Florida so those docs have to be apostilled there). This will save us that extra step of getting certified copies apostilled later.

Once we know for sure who we'll be adopting from Latvia, we will make contact with a Latvian attorney and begin compiling the documents required by Latvia. Of course, they'll require background checks on all the inhabitants of our house, which includes my 97-year old (no that's not a typo) Grandmother who lives with us. Yeah, like she's a criminal!! She actually thinks it's funny that she has to be fingerprinted and go through the background check just like us. She's one tough cookie and can take you out with her walker if she has to, but luckily she's no criminal.

4/17 - Fundraising and More Fundraising

Right now we're focusing on raising funds to cover the hosting fee ($3,120.00) and home study fee ($1,200.00). Once the children have come and gone, we'll know more about whether we'll be able to adopt them. What's awesome about the Simple Obedience Orphan Hosting program is that they don't profit at all from the hostings. Their fees are comprised of the airfare costs for the children and the cost of a small insurance policy to cover medical emergencies. The only additional funds we'll need to raise in connection with the hosting will be for food, clothing and medical exams for the children.

Here's a brief overview of some of the fundraising projects we have going on right now. You may find these helpful in your adoption fundraising. We're open to new creative fundraising ideas, so let us know if you have any you wish to share:

• Mary Kay Sales - I started using Mary Kay products myself recently and liked them so much I decided to become a consultant. I'm not doing parties and classes though, at least not right now. Most people I know (myself included) are extremely busy and don't have time for that stuff. I've had success by loaning out my testers for people to try in the comfort of their homes and by passing out books and taking orders through my Mary Kay website. All profits from my sales are going towards our hosting/adoption expenses.
• Garage Sales/Bake Sales - Our first garage/bake sale will take place on 4/29 so I'll report back to let you know how that goes. We've been spending the last few weekends sorting and pricing items. Thanks SO much to all of you who donated items for us to sell and offered to loan us tables. It's so sweet to see the children who want to help with this too. Many have gone through their rooms looking for items to donate and brought us clothes and toys. So far the bake sale items will consist of various muffins, brownies and cake slices. I'll be baking my little heart out next week.
• Selling items on eBay - We've gone through every inch of our house to pull items we can sell on eBay. There are some items that are a little too nice to sell at the garage sale so eBay is a good alternative. It's amazing what people will buy!! I'm learning a lot and may venture out to locate cheap items at neighborhood yard sales so I can turn around and sell them for a profit. It sounds good in theory, but I'll keep you posted on how successful it really turns out to be.

We can't thank our friends and family enough for their support. Whether you've donated items for our garage sale, made a cash/gift card donation, bought Mary Kay or just kept us in your prayers, we are so blessed to have you in our lives and can't wait for you to meet these children who will benefit most from your kindness and generosity.

4/11 - Our Little Winston

Just look at that innocent little face. Excuse me while I veer off topic for a moment to introduce our newest baby, Winston (affectionately known as "pup pups"). We adopted Winston a couple of months ago and he is the sweetest dog on the planet and also a complete spaz! He's gradually learning how he's supposed to act in public but it seems we can't go anywhere without having an incident. First of all, he's 4 1/2 months old and almost 50 lbs. so our "walks" mostly consist of him dragging me wherever he wants to go. He does the typical embarrassing puppy stuff. Last week we had to leave the park in shame after he took it upon himself to do his business right smack in the middle of the jogging track. That was after he tried to kiss a couple of young children, bopped them in the face with his nose, and sent them running to their parents in tears. Needless to say we couldn't leave fast enough. We got him a new collar and have been taking him on frequent walks in the neighborhood so he is actually getting better. Winston has four feline brothers (Maverick, Midnight, Mickey and Mario) who love to gang up on him as a constant reminder that the felines rule this household. Too funny!

4/10 - Our Journey Begins

Welcome to our "blog"....(is it me, or is that a really strange word?) Anyway, we've created this site so that we can share our adoption journey and keep everyone informed of the latest news and perhaps help those of you considering adoption yourselves. We have no idea how long this journey will take, what twists and turns are ahead, but we're excited nevertheless. One thing we've learned overwhelmingly up to this point is that patience is key and our faith will guide us each step of the way.

Our journey will officially begin this summer when we host two 10-year old orphans (Olegs and Kristine) from Latvia. Unfortunately, we can't post their pictures here because posting them on the web is illegal and could jeopardize the hosting program. Just trust us when we say they are adorable. We hope to be the right forever family for these children but understand that everything is in God's hands. We're trusting that what is meant to be will happen.