Wow, the past few weeks of our life have been complete whirlwind. One week after our referral we were given the news that we would be on a plane headed to Russia in 14 days!! So we became "busy-bees" purchasing flights, ordering visas (that we received 1 day before we left - whew!!), obtaining all items needed for travel, etc. - Then on March 23rd we headed out overseas to make our first of three trips to Russia to complete the adoption process. This first trip was to meet our "babies" and officially accept the referral (as if there was ever any doubt) on paper.
First, I have to say that it is a looong flight to get to our final destination in Russia. It took a total of 3 flights and 1.5 days to get there. Please don't take this for complaining though, it is 110% worth it and we will do whatever it takes to bring them home! The airlines were great. Our agency's facilitators met us at the airport and took care of us the whole trip. They were absolutely wonderful! First day we arrived, we got settled in our apartment and caught up on some much needed rest.
The second day we had our interview, and then we got to go meet our children for the very first time!!!! We made our journey to the orphanage and had our first visitation time. They brought in our sweet little girl and she came right over to us - we were sitting on the floor - and she plopped right into my lap and began tossing a ball back and forth to Dean. This little girl is absolutely adorable. So sweet and precious, yet has a little hit of spitfire in her personality too... Needless to say - our hearts are completely overjoyed!
Then about fifteen minutes later they brought in our little boy. This little guy has a smile that would light up any room anywhere. We have never seen such a beautiful, bright, genuine smile. He just grinned from ear to ear and was so full of energy. He is such a sweet thing, and so excited and full of life. He had such a blast playing with us, and his big beautiful smile was present the whole time. What adorable children they are!!!
What completely melted our hearts was at the end of the first visit when then one of the facilitators must have told our little boy to give us a hug goodbye....he happily ran over to Dean, gave him a big hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then he ran over to me and did the same. How precious!!!
Throughout our first week in Russia, we got to visit with the children several times and each visit went great. The children are happy, healthy, and it is easy to see that the caretakers really care about the children and take good care of them. The first trip went by so fast and we were sad to have to come home. However we are trying to make the time go by fast by staying focused on doing whatever the next steps are to complete the process.
We feel so blessed and thankful to have the opportunity to be the parents of these children. We know that the transition and that parenting in general will take much energy, work, will have some rough moments, but we are so ready, so excited, and absolutely cannot wait to bring these little ones home to love them, be their parents, and make them a part of our family forever.
So what is next? We are getting together some additional paperwork that is now needed after our first trip so we can get a court date. We are hoping that in the next month or two we will return to Russia for our court date, get to see our "babies" again, and prayerfully get a "yes" from the judge. We are hoping that by mid-to-end of summer the whole process will be complete and we will be able to bring these two beautiful children home.
Sorry but we cannot post any pictures of them or mention their names just yet for sake of confidentiality until they are legally our children. Also sorry for the long delay in updating our post. As soon as we returned home, we were so busy playing "catch up" at work and getting the ball rolling on our needed paperwork that we got a little behind on managing our emails and blog. -- We do have to give a huge THANK YOU to all of our friends and family who are giving us so much support and encouragement. So many people are praying for us and these precious little ones. If they only knew that they are already loved by so many friends and family who cannot wait to meet them and who are praying their way home....
On behalf of our "babies" - Thank you for all of your support, encouragement, and prayers!!! May you be blessed for your kindness!
