We Are Going to Meet Our Son Tomorrow!!!

The day I have been waiting for is so close I can't stand it! This evening we will pick up Quinton's referral for adoption and then take an 8 hour train ride to his region. We should hopefully be there in time for the morning visitation hours. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve! I just can't wait to get my hands on him! I just hope that my expectations don't get the best of me. I have been loving him for 8 months, but he has no idea who I am. He is not used to being hugged and kissed on and I know that it will take time for him to get used to us. I am trying my hardest to prepare my heart for this. I want him to love me as much as I already love him. I can't wait to look into his eyes and tell him how much he means to me and that we will never ever leave him.

 Although adopting is a long process, it is instantaneous in a way. Today, Brian and I are a family of 2, tomorrow we will be a family of 3. There were no ultrasounds or growing tummies to remind us that a baby was on its way-not really even any shopping for baby stuff. We did not paint a nursery for him or pick out a crib. We did not spend lots of money on toys and cute clothes (this took complete self control because I was dying to do all of this). We picked up extra work and saved and fundraised up until two days before we left to come get him. Tomorrow our story will come alive. What has been a dream, a very surreal dream, will become a reality and we can't wait.

Besides the SDA appointment, nothing new really went on, but I will leave you with the story and a few pictures of what happens when you try and order pizza for lunch:
We went to a pizza place for lunch yesterday that several people had recommended. We walked in and both of us just kinda looked at each other. Brian walked up to the counter and asked if the cashier spoke any english. She said that she did speak a little, but did not look confident. Brian said "cheese pizza?". She shook her head and said "yes, 4 cheese pizza?" We looked at each other and our eyes lit up because she knew what we were talking about. We did not intend to order 4 cheese pizza, but we were sure we were getting something semi-normal. We ordered two Coke Lights (that's their version of Diet Coke) and sat down to wait. Within 10 minutes, the pizza came out and this is what it looked like (well, the whole thing was there. I took the picture after we had both taken a piece.):

The picture definitely does not do it justice. There was so much grease on that thing that I had to use all of my napkins to soak up one piece. I was not sure I even wanted to try it because as you can tell, their 4 cheese is obviously not the same as American 4 cheese. I still don't know what those big chunks of cheese were, but I didn't eat mine. Brian looked at me and said "you first". So I did. I tasted it first and it was actually ok. I ate a piece but then I was done. No more for me. We have had so many unique experiences and we have only been here for going on 4 days and I am sure we will have many more to come. Here are some pictures from the pizza place. How would you like to try an order from a menu that looked like this?

As we were leaving, I picked up a menu off of the table and guess what?...They had english translations!

Update: We just got a phone call from our driver. He is taking us to pick up Quinton's referral, but there will not be any officials in his region to "accept us" :( Don't ask, I have no ideal what this means. What I do know is that the plans now are for us to leave on Sunday and see him on Monday. It is really not a huge deal in the scheme of things. Just a few more days.

TGIFridays and SDA

Last night we had the opportunity to meet up with some other American families at TGIFridays. It was so nice because they had English menus and an English speaking waiter. I met several Reece's Rainbow families (I got to meet Mia, Gabe, and Levi! It was so exciting to see their sweet faces in person) as well as a lady who had just adopted her daughter from Quinton's orphanage. She was able to tell me all about the judges, social workers, facilitators, and nannies. She thinks that Quinton was in her daughter's group, but it was hard to tell since his picture is over a year old. If she was correct though, there are 17 kids in his group. She was also able to tell me about some of the judges. There is one very young blonde headed judge who is brand new. She heard their court case in only one week! That is really fast compared to other families who have encountered "my way or the highway" judges. So, please let's start praying now for a kind hearted judge. We would love to be home with Quinton as quickly as possible.

Today we went to the SDA to accept Quinton's referral for adoption. They showed us his baby picture which they said they would allow us to trade after the adoption is finalized! They told us a little bit about his family and medical history. I have to admit, I was teary-eyed almost the whole time. Just seeing another picture of him did me in the first time. Then when she told us about his family, it broke my heart. He was the second born child in a very well to do family with plenty of money. Since he was born with Down Syndrome, his parents signed abandonment papers immediately. I knew that his parents had given him up-otherwise he would not be at the orphanage, but for some reason, the word abandoned just pierced my heart. How could anyone abandon their child? It breaks my heart that his parents would essentially throw him away, but once I get past the sadness and anger, I know I will always have a place in my heart for the people who blessed me with my first child.

We did learn a bit about his medical history, but the way it was translated was unclear. We were told his first and last name which we cannot share until the adoption is finalized. He was 51 centimeters (21 inches) long and somewhere around 3 kilograms (6.6lbs). He has dermatitis (dry skin), a problem with one of his ears, something about his navel, and an open oval window (a hole in his heart). We have been told by several families that medical conditions are often overdiagnosed and not to be alarmed. We will take him to see a pediatrician and a cardiologist when we get back to the US and go from there. They asked us if we would like to see the files of any other children. I shook my head no and smiled. The lady did not need an interpreter for that. It was short and sweet. We will pick up his referral for adoption tomorrow between 4 and 5:00 and then head to his region to visit him on Friday. According to people who have been to his region recently, the internet connection is not good. We will do our best to update as we can. Thanks for all the prayers and keep them coming :)

We Made It!

We made it safe and sound. We are in the capital city of the country that I cannot name and will most likely be here until Thursday, at which point we will take a train to Quinton's region. If all goes according to plans we should be able to meet him on Friday!

We have learned so much already, but some things will have to wait for a post when I return home, but here are just a few things:
1. Just because there are 1,000 people in McDonalds does not mean that they employees will stop mopping...who cares if someone falls and breaks their back?
2. There is really no such thing as personal space. I don't speak Russian or Ukranian, but apparently it is not customary to say excuse me when you bump into someone.
3. If you ask someone where the bathroom is in english, they will laugh at you. No-really they will, but the truth is that it is very scary being a foreigner in a country where no one can understand a word you say.
4. We are blessed beyond words. The Lord has been amazing! He has perfect timing and provided for us every step of the way.

Only 1week prior to leaving the USA, we were sitll $6500 short. After a fundraiser and 2 very generous donations by family members, we were only short by $3250. Then a young lady in California held a yard sale to benefit  both our adoption and another adopting family. We were down to about $3,000. The night before we were ready to leave, another Reece's Rainbow family sent us an email wanting to share thier blessings and made a sizeable donation as well. I should point out that we have never even met these people before. We only know each other through emails and blogs and Reece's Rainbow. So, we were only down to needing $1,000 to be fully funded. We had accepeted a gracious loan from a family member to cover the remaining needs. I kid you not-50 minutes before we were to board the plane, a very special friend called and told me that she and her husband really felt that the Lord had called them to bless us and cover our remaining needs! 50 minutes until we left! God is so good. Oh, and I almost forgot, another sweet, sweet couple at our church sent us off with $100 and said they wanted us to have a little something extra. Thanks you them, we are going to meet some other adopting famililes in the capital tonight for dinner at TGIFridays! They have American menus and English speaking waiters. Yay!

There are so many people who have given sacrificially and our church, friends, and family have held us up in prayer. We cannot thank you all enough. Keep the prayers coming. We have had a nice ease into the culture here. We are in an apartment with internet, hot running water, an oven, and a television. We were met at the airport by Niko who stayed with us the majority of the day yesterday to show us our apartment and take us shopping. It was nice to have someone here to help us out. Pretty soon we will be traveling to Quinton's region and after the first meeting with the orphanage director, we are pretty much on our own and will have to rely heavily on charades to get us what we need.

This is the view from our porch/balcony thingy



I will leave you guys with a couple of "cultural" experiences we have had thus far:

1) How to make instant oatmeal without a microwave: Ok, you really don't think about modern conveniences at home until you don't have them. We woke up this morning and decided to have oatmeal (for Brian) and grits (for me) for breakfast. Well, the stove is a gas stove and you have to light it to get it started. Brian happened to have a zippo lighter with him so he lit the stove. We are not supposed to drink the water here so I was not sure about washing pots with it, but they needed to be washed so I used tap water to wash the pots. Then I boiled bottled water in one of the pots I had just washed and then used that clean and boiled water to wash the pots I would use to cook. I am probably being way over cautious, but I do NOT want any stomach issues while I am here. Back to the story-So, I get the water boiling and I try to move the pot off the burner to add the oatmeal to the hot water and the handles are hot. Guess what? No pot holders :) So I grab some paper towels and bunch them up to protect my hand from the hot handles. Let's just say that I am not used to a gas stove. Yes-I definitely did catch the paper towel on fire! I jumped around and screamed a little before I came to my senses and threw it in the sink and put out the fire. Note to self-turn off the gas burner next time and you can aviod any future fires. A good 30 minutes later, we sat down to our gourmet not-so-instant breakfast. What can I say? We are learning.

2) I did a really, really stupid thing while we were packing for our trip. We were just about packed and just had toiletries left to pack. We were running out of time and space. I knew I was carrying on a book bag as my personal item and I made sure to pack all of my travel stuff in those clear conatiners. I was obviously not thinking when I decided to pack the other tioletries in my carry on duffle bag! I still don't know what I was thinking? So without even thinking about it, I put my bags on the conveyer belt at security and they call for a security check. The guy comes out and takes my bag and as soon as the touches the zipper, I realize what I have done. I packed all the liquids in my carry-on and they have to be checked. We had to board our plane in 30 minutes and it took us at least 45 minutes to get through that line. There was nothing to do except call it a loss. We had to throw out a brand new bottle of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, and Brian's shaving cream. Not a big deal in the scheme of things. So here comes the cultural part. We go to the market with Niko to get a few things and Brian picks up some shaving cream that looks like the stuff he uses at home. Haha-not so much. He came out of the bathroom this morning after shaving and I could not stop laughing. He said his face was freezing like ice and burning like fire all at the same time! It was pretty funny. Things here are not as they appear ;)

If you made it all the way through this post, thank you so much for following along and for surrounding us with your thoughts and prayers. We love and miss you guys!

Winners!!!

Our final fundraiser ended at 9:00 last night. Some people had a hard time leaving comments on the blog for some reason, so I had a list of people who donated, sent to me. Every person was assigned numbers based on their donation. Here is the list:

Melanie J (#’s 1-11)

Jeff J (#’s 12-22)

Amy A (#’s 23-33)

Angie Mc (#’s 34-44)

Steven B  (#’s 45-55)

Stacie O (#’s 56-67)

Amanda G (#’s 68-78)

Lee Q (#’s 79-89)

Anne Q (#’s 90-100)

Leah H (#’s 101-155)

Whitney Pa (#’s 156-167)

Whitney Pl (#’s 168-173)

Aeryn W (#’s 174)

Tara A (#’s 175-230)

Catie P (#’s 231)

Becca (#’s 232-234)

Traci W (#’s 235)

Cindy B (#’s 236-237)

Julie W (#’s 238-265)

Cheri from RR (#’s 266-276)

Christina S  (#’s 277-282)

Heather S (# 283)

Taylor S (# 284)

Crystal B (#’s 285-295)

Christy B (#’s 296-312)

Ristow family (#’s 313-315)

Wheatons (#’s 316-370)

Matthew M. (#’s 371-426)

Beth H (#’s 427-431)           

Heather M (#’s 432-436)

Debbie K (#’s 437-438)

Shante (#’s 439-445)

Desiree  (#’s 446-450)

Mischel Z (#’s 451-461)

I used random.org to generate 14 winning numbers (I added 3 stationary sets made by Anna Gregg that are not pictured-thanks Anna!) Here are the winning numbers:

For the Target gift card:

#409-Matthew Markland

For the Best Buy gift card:

#226-Tara Austin

For the Father's Day package:

#210-Tara Austin

For the 31 purse/pouch/key ring:

#359-Kathy Wheaton

For the 3 prints:

#134-Leah Hardwick

For a pink baby blanket:

#35-Angie McGee

For the 2nd pink baby blanket:

#311-Christy Brown

For the blue baby blanket:

#186 Tara Austin

For the picnic basket:

#22-Jeff Jarvis

For the Bob Timberlake print:

#202-Tara Austin

For the Pizza Hut coupons:

#325-Kathy Wheaton

For stationary set #1

#165-Whitney Parchment

For stationary set #2:

#145-Leah Hardwick

For stationary set #3:

#332-Kathy Wheaton

Congratulations to all of the winners and a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated! We raised enough for one of our plane tickets back to the United States! You guys are the best! Winners will be contacted via facebook and/or email :)

Oh, and by the way...we leave tomorrow!!!

Giftcard Giveaway and More! Last Fundraiser Before We Travel!

We travel in 8 days and we are still short about $6500. We have had some items donated to us by friends and family so we are going to try a giveaway to help raise remaining funds. Here's how it works:
Anyone who donates will be entered to win one of the prizes pictured below. The number of entries you receive is based on your donation (see below). You can also earn a free entry for sharing our fundraiser on Facebook, Twitter, or on you blog. To donate, just click on the donate button at the top-right hand side of this page. You must leave me a comment at the end of this blog entry letting me know how many entries you donated for and if you shared on your Facebook, Twitter, or on your blog. Remember that when you donate through Reeces Rainbow, all donations are tax deductible :) The giveaway will end on June 10th at 9:00pm. Names will be drawn for prizes in the order the prizes are pictured below. Winners will be contacted by email and arrangements will be made to receive your prizes. You can win more than once, so the more entries, the better :)

1 entry-$3
2 entries-$5
5 entries-$10
11 entries-$20
27 entries-$50
55 entries-$100


Please know that I hate asking for anything, but here we are at the end of our journey. We are leaving to go get our baby boy-the one that God hand picked for us. How incredible is that? You may or may not know that Brian and I have struggled with infertility for several years now and I could never understand why. I still don't understand completely, but what I do understand is that our God is almighty and He has a plan for us. He has provided every step of the way. We are going to rescue one of His orphans. I can't wait to bring him home-for him to feel the tenderness of a kiss from his mommy and the joy of a piggyback ride from his daddy. Please, if you can, donate, share, pray.

(Sorry about the pics. I had to take them with my phone)

$50 gift card to Target

$50 gift card to Best Buy

Father's Day Package- includes a portable grill (the box is a little beat up, but the grill is new) along with a $50 gift card to Lowes,  2 coupons for $10 off a purchase of $25 at Dick's Sporting Goods, and the oversized camping chair pictured below

this oversized camping chair is part of the father's day package pictured above

Thirty-One purse, pouch and key ring (I want this one for myself!) donated by Michelle Frye

Interested in other Thirty-One products? Contact Michelle.

These beautiful prints are by local artist Elaina Herderlite. The giveaway is for all 3 prints. Check out her etsy shop for more of her work.

My mother in law made these beautiful baby blankets and these pictures do not do them justice. There are 2 available in pink and 1 in blue. 3 winners will be chosen and receive one blanket apiece.

Picnic basket donated by Hope Second Advent Christian Church-stuffed full with the following items: bottled water, sprite, candle, wet wipes, crackers, stationary, crossword puzzle, and 2 flashlights!

 Bob Timberlake print-is number 961 of only 1,000

6 coupons for free Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas. 2 coupons are marked for Concord stores, the other 4 are not marked and can be used anywhere.

Don't forget to leave a comment so I can enter you for one of these great prizes! Thanks again!

SDA Appointment!

Today was the day! We got our appointment with the State Department of Adoptions in Quinton's country. Our appointment is on June 15th @ 11:00. They are 7 hours ahead of  is 4:00 am Eastern Daylight Time. We are encouraged to travel 3 days before our appointment in order to give ourselves plenty of time and avoid missing our appointment due to any delays for whatever reason. So, we will be leaving in less than 2 weeks! There is so much to do between now and then. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now, but God has been so faithful thus far and I know that He will see us through. As always-thank you for your support. It means the world to us :)

Updates-We Should Be Traveling Soon!

So, a lot has happened since my last entry. Unfortunately between what feels like a million IEP meetings, lesson plans and life in general, there has not been enough time in the day to write. All excuses aside though, here's where we are: After the UPS man delivered our rejected papers, Brian's sergeant graciously allowed him the day off and we got in the car and took a road trip to Raleigh to get the papers corrected. We were in and out of the office in about an hour and on our way to FedEx to send our dossier off. We did mail a few papers for another family, but altogether it weighed almost 2 pounds! Anybody want to know how much it costs to priority mail some papers across the world? $167! So, we mailed our papers and they arrived safely 5 days later (thanks to a lovely 2 day delay for a holiday). We were submitted on May 12th and are now waiting on an appointment with the SDA in Quinton's country. Just yesterday, 2 families who submitted the same day as us received their appointment date, so we should not be far behind. Their appointments are on June 9th. Even if we do not receive a date until next week, we should be there by mid-June. I sat and watched another family's homecoming video today and just balled. I am still in awe that God has called us across the world to rescue one of His orphans. I feel so incredibly honored to be able to be His hands and feet. I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the love and support from our church, friends, and family. We have been incredibly blessed. There is an amazing story about how we came about adopting Quinton. It is too long for today, but I hope to share it soon. All I can say is that God had His hand in it all. We are lacking somewhere around $6500 give or take a bit, but we will get there. God has provided every bit we have needed thus far and He will see us through. Thanks again (and a huge shout out to Leah Hardwick, Hope Church of Charlotte, our family, and the Jarvis'-we love you guys!). Hopefully next time I blog, it will be to share our travel date :)