Trip to Austin

The committee will not issue our travel dates until they have our revised papers in hand, noterized and apostilled..So we got all documents ready on Thursday and on Friday morning I made a quick road trip to Austin to get them apostilled. To be honest, I really didn't mind going..It is a nice drive and I got to listen to whatever I wanted to as loudly as I wanted to=) Oh how I love my IPOD..everything from Chris Tomlin to LadyGaGa!   I hadn't planned on blogging on my little road trip to Austin. But something really cool happened on that trip so I wanted to share...After only a couple of wrong turns I found the building I was looking for in the middle of downtown Austin. Now, parking...as I drove in front of the building there was one parking spot left.. I took it..but it is metered parking.. I never carry cash so I never have change..I got out of my car and looked at the meter hoping it would have left over time...no such luck..so I got back in my car and started digging for change.. I found a bunch of pennies and one quarter..One quaurter gets you 15 min... not bad..but I wasn't sure how long the apostilling process would take.. My options.. leave, try to find a bank in a city I am not familiar with and lose my spot.. or stay and pray! On  a side note I have had my share of tickets for expired parking meters..So, I just prayed and decided to go for it.. When I went to put my only quarter in the meter it read that I had 44 min.! Call it what you will.. I call it God! So I added my one quarter to it and continued on my mission! This was just another reminder that God is all over this adoption!

We Got the "Call"!!!

Today we recieved our referral! They say it comes when you least expect it. I don't even know where to start with my story I'm so excited... This whole time I thought if I was going to hear anything that it would be in the morning because by the time it is 9:00am here it is 5:00pm in Russia.  I also thought it would be a phone call....well...not so much.. how about an email sent at 3:19 in the afternoon! So today was my work day which makes for a crazy day in itself. As soon as I got the girls picked up, it was home to change into our swimsuits, pack up dinner, and head out to Hawaiian Falls for the end of the season soccer party...For whatever reason I decided to check my email one more time before leaving. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read the subject line... "possible referral".... In that moment I froze.. my hands began shaking.. I had thought about this moment many times..what would I do if I was at work and Michael was at work etc. etc. Luckily Michael was home on a work call ...he quickly got off the phone and we read the email together and as we scrolled down the page and saw the picture I just began crying because I knew I was looking at my son. He is beautiful! Brown hair, brown eyes and perfect for us=) It's crazy how I can take just one look at this total stranger and fall so quickly in love... He will be two in June!
We finally told the girls later in the evening and they are both very excited... we are hoping to travel soon! We do have to redo a few papers since he is a few months older than what we had originally requested.. Looks like I will be driving to Austin soon to get papers apostilled... not waiting on the mail this time... just get me to Russia ASAP so I can kiss those sweet cheeks.... FYI...we can't post pictures until he is legally ours=( Thank you Lord!!!

A Box?

This evening while I was cooking dinner, the girls got this box out of the garage..They got out their markers, crayons, scissors and glue (I made them put the glue away=)) They spent probably 30 minutes decorating it and then at least 1 hour playing in it... It was a spaceship, boat, and a car. I love their creativity!

Play Ball!

On Tuesday night we went to the Rangers game. The girls were actually really excited!

Kennedy was really interested in the game.. she wanted to know all the rules etc.. Mika.. well she really didn't care what was going on.. she had more fun taking pictures of the "football players" with my camera! Silly girl!

Documents Accepted!

We got some good news today. Our documents were accepted by the committee! This means that they approve us to adopt a child from their country and best of all I don't have to redo any paperwork....yea! They did not have a baby for us though.. so the waiting continues...

No News

For anyone keeping count besides me... May 12th came and went with no news from my agency. Being the very patient person that I am (ha ha) I emailed them at 8:30am on the 12th to see what I could find out. I know it was early but I figured if I hadn't heard anything I probabably wouldn't since it was already 5:30pm in Russia. She told me that because of the holidays in Russia they had not looked at our file yet=( So, it isn't exactly "no"..yet...
I don't usually work on Wed., just Tuesdays and Thursdays...but this month I had to work an extra day and I am glad it was on Wed, the 12th.. it kept my mind busy!
When I am stressed.. I like to clean (it's better than eating right?)..So in between patients I cleaned and organized my therapy room! It somehow makes me feel better... next is my house! I know God has the perfect little boy for us out there...His timing IS perfect.. I know all this..but it doesn't make the waiting easy..Working on connecting head knowledge to the heart=) Have a happy weekend!

Adoption Update

Right now we are waiting.. Our paperwork was filed on April 26th and the committe has 10 days to "review" our paperwork.. now, it is my understanding that at the end of that 10 days if they have a child for us they will call... if not then we wait until they do find us a child..This has been the longest 10 days of my life... it doesn't end until May 12th! The 10 days doesn't count weekends or holidays and Russia had a holiday last Monday and another one this Monday...But on Saturday I did get our Immigration paperwork in the mail! Our fingerprints were clear!! It says that "It has been determined that you are able to furnish proper care to an orphan" etc. etc. etc... This is a very important piece of paper..without it we would not be able to move forward in our adoption process or  get a court date..I have read several blogs where people have had to wait, wait, wait, because of this little piece of paper... Thank you Lord that it only took 4 weeks and not months!! It says our fingerprints will expire on 7/8/11...praying I have my baby by then=)

We Love Camping!

This last weekend we went camping in Daingerfield, Texas with my sister and her family. We always have the best time with them! We spend the weekend hiking, biking, laughing, eating, and sitting around the campfire solving the worlds problems!

Saturday

Kennedy stayed on her bike the entire weekend!

Mika and Jake loved playing games.

On Saturday afternoon we drove into Jefferson for lunch and a little bit of antique shopping. Once we got there we found out they were doing a Civil War re-enactment, so everyone was dresssed for the era.

Kennedy and Shelby with some random people I stopped.. I couldn't convince Mika and Jake to get in the picture!

My sweet girls in the General Store-the closest we got to an antique store that day!

Later that day... hiking.. in flip flops with a blanket...can you tell she is tired?

Down time with mommy

Best part of camping-SMORES!

On Sunday we took the kids to the park and found out that you could buy a cain pole and worms for like $5 dollars... so we went fishing too!