Refreshed and Renewed

With all the "business" and emotion of preparing for this adoption I hadn't realized how long it had been since Willem and I were able to have some real fun! Vegas was the perfect get away for us. Luxurious hotel room, fun shows, great food and fun nights with friends. We danced, shopped and just got to enjoy hanging out with each other.

As we wait for our travel date we are just sitting back and enjoying the holiday season. We pray all of you have a safe and happy holiday!

DOSSIER'S AWAY!!!

It may not seem like a big deal but trust me it is! It's in the mail and will be at our agency's office tomorrow by noon. They will go through it, make sure everything is there then mail it off to Russia for translating. Then assuming everything is okay with what they see we will get our travel dates!!!

The dossier turned out to be 90 documents and most of those are multiple pages. Every document had to be notarized and every document had to be apostilled at the office for the Louisiana Secretary of State. I drove it to Baton Rouge yesterday to have that done and waited 3 hours for it then came home. (I got a little shopping in, I love the Perkins Row shopping area by the way...Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters in one spot...can't beat that.)

Anyways, it's like a huge weight is lifted and we now can breathe a little easier. To celebrate Willem and I are going to Las Vegas with our good friends the Burns this weekend. (It was planned ahead of time but the timing couldn't be better!)

Hope everyone is having a great week!

The New Kids' Bathroom

The other major problem was that there was no other bathroom on the second floor that was not an ensuite. Our guests would have to go downstairs or through the girls or our bedroom to use the bathroom. We dealt with it for a while but after Derek's arrival and the future arrival of our little Russian we realized something had to be done.
I wanted another bathroom added. Willem put his foot down and said 3.5 baths for one house is plenty. Not wanting to be in charge of cleaning five toilets I conceded....So we devised a plan. We would close off access to the bathroom that once was the girls and create an access to it from the hallway. (Savannah's tea parties and constant concoctions of what she called "perfume" was getting out of hand anyways.)
Knowing this bathroom would be used by four kiddos we tried to design it for high traffic and multiple functions going on at once. We put in high wainscotting to keep my walls from being marked and nicked from all the munchkins. The sink was something I had my eye on for some time now. We tried to find a vintage one that would function the same but no luck, so we splurged on this one from Kohler. It is actually considered a laundry utility sink. I really wanted the bigger version that allowed for three faucets but space wouldn't allow it and our budget wouldn't either! In any event I love it and I really love seeing the kids lined up brushing their teeth.

The other wall pictured here is not finished yet. We have a carpenter building us a countertop to fit underneath that light. We also have a mirror to hang above that allowing the girls to have a counterspace to put on make up and to style hair. The lockers are vintage pool lockers we found on Ebay and assembled. It stores towels, hair accessories, cleaning supplies, etc... Each kid has a cubby as well. One day we will paint those lockers a cooler color...we ran out of steam and decided it would be a project for next year some time.

The other portion is your typical bath area with tub and toilet. The tub was a terrible beige color and we had it coated in place and now it is a beautiful white. It was very cheap to do and I highly recommend it.

So there is the bathroom. It is amazing how much cleaner it stays now that it is "open" to the public. The girls used it before to play kitchen and science experiments! Now they know they can't get away with it so they don't bother trying.

NEW ROOMS!

They cleaned! Maddy did it without me asking! Savannah did it because she saw her sister do it and felt guilty. :)

Here are pics of Madelynn's room. I wanted something a little sophisticated but still fun. She loves blue and initially wanted her room blue but I decided to go with a gray and lots of blue accents. I love this space. We still have to work out places for some of her stuff and we hope to put a window seat under the big window but for now it is mostly finished.

Next up Savannah's! Savannah wanted a pink room but again I decided I was sick of renovating and painting so a neutral white with pink accents was what we went with for her. She also begged for a chandelier so we got her one. Savannah has an eye for fashion and loves anything associated with it. I got her a dress form and wanted her to have a long table so that in the future she may be able to do some sewing in here. She also wanted some Paris accents so there are a few of those. It is definately a girly room without being over the top.

I still have plans for additions to both the girls bedding. I have all the fabric to make a quilt for each but simply have not had the time. For now they are doing fine with what they have.

Now for lounge room and a pic of their massive closet...

The lounge room will soon be getting an upgrade of a flat screen to go in that recessed space where the tv is now. It'll give them more floor space and clean things up a bit. The Christmas tree makes things a little tight too for now but they love it.

The closet isn't the cleanest but I can't expect too much...

Hope you like it...I'll post pics of the bathroom tomorrow.

Girls' Bedroom Suite

One of the things we wanted to do before bringing our adopted son home was get some much needed renovations done on the inside of the house.

Our girls are polar opposites. One likes pink and everything girly, the other loves blue and sports and asks for boy toys for Christmas. We always wanted the girls to share a room and to be close. They have shared ever since Savannah moved into a big girl bed. But, as they have gotten older we were finding it harder to mesh their very different tastes.

When we moved into this house there was a huge room the same size as our master that had an ensuite bath. At the time it was the best room for the girls. We quickly found however that bigger is not always better. While they had tons of room for their things, they also had room to make huge messes. They would manage to fling socks, toys, clothes all across the room and then the inevitable "I didn't make that mess, my sister did!" response would bellow down the hall.

We decided we wanted the girls to each have their own room but we still wanted them to have to share a space of some kind. We also didn't want their rooms to be huge. Just enough space to study and sleep and have some personal space. They end up sharing toys and they like to watch movies together so we wanted them to have a "play" area that would be shared. So we divided the space into three smaller rooms. The bathroom we will get to in another post. Anyways, here is the floor plan we came up with.

The girls room is accessible through a room we call the lounge room that is off of the main hallway. They have a TV in there, a couple of mini couches that fold out into mini beds and a bookcase/storage unit where they house their toys and books. When they have sleepovers they pile into this room. I wish it could be a little bigger but it is what it is.

This room also gives access to their huge walk in closet that they share.

Construction began on July 5th and they moved into their rooms around Aug. 15. Their rooms were not decorated by then but liveable. Here are a couple of pics of us in mid construction. I'll post pics of the girls individual rooms later (need to clean them up and get some pics).
By the way, the girls are writing scripture on the "bones" of their room. They also ended up drawing smiley faces and something about a peanut....Everything turns into a game with them.

the dossier...i'm tired just thinking about it

November 2nd...that was the day we got our referral. It has been a whirlwind since then complete with lots of highs and lots of lows...

First we were elated. How exciting a beautiful little boy and it is all happening way faster than we anticipated. The kids couldn't wait to tell their friends and classmates. We couldn't either for that matter. Maxim's name is always on our kids lips. Derek asks about him daily and asks when can we go get him. He is in our kids' bedtime prayer time and Savannah always prays he has a good meal when we ask God to bless our dinner. It is very sweet. The girls realize it isn't a sure thing that Maxim will be "the one" but we all decided even if he isn't the one he will be one prayed for little boy.

Then there were doubts...Should we accept this referral? Will he have medical issues we can't handle? Will he have severe attachment problems? Should we have a little boy so close in age to our biological son? How will we know until we meet him? And worse case, can we have the strength to make the best decision for our family and possibly turn down this referral after we meet him?

Then there were moments of acceptance....God has put us on this path and it is our job to have Faith that He will see it through. We know that we don't have all the answers but He does. Adoption is a huge leap of faith. This is where we are...today. We will likely go back and forth but ultimately I know that God has us in His hands and he will be with us through it all. Friends, just remind me of this fact if I start doubting again. :)

Emotional roller coaster aside we have been pushing forward. Our dossier is mostly complete. We are waiting on a few documents from our home study agency and then we will have it on its way to our agency and then Russia hopefully by the end of next week.

For those of you who are wondering a dossier (for adoption purposes) is a super duper report of every aspect of our lives. We have documents in there like passport copies, marriage certificates, home deeds, financial reports, bank statements, pictures, police records, doctor's evaluations, and the list goes on and on! And every one of those documents has to be notarized and then apostilled by the secretary of state for Louisiana. It is a huge undertaking and sometimes takes months to put together. We were asked to put it together in a little over a month at the busiest time of the year.

I am told our document collecting has gone very smoothly compared to some families. As annoying as some of it is I have to admit it wasn't that bad. We could not have done this in this time frame if it hadn't have been for a couple of great friends and notaries. Jim Welch and Marti Thomas...you are our heroes. Sorry for the cramped hands and the crazy amount of signatures. Please know that you were a huge blessing to us. We would have gone broke paying for notaries and for you guys to travel to our doctor's offices, police stations and banks to notarize documents on the spot free of charge is amazing and we will always be grateful.

UPDATE on our "WAIT"!!!!

Did I mention that we were going to have to start waiting again? Yeah, scratch that!
On Friday we sent an email to our agency to alert them we were switching programs. On Wednesday I called in to follow up and got all the information required to make the switch. It was a long conversation and I was exhausted so I decided to take a nap. Two hours later my phone rang. It was my program director on the phone and she said she had something to discuss with me. Turns out she had a referral for us already!!! People wait for these for months, years sometimes. We waited two hours!!
I was floored! She began to describe to me a little boy, age 3. He was surrendered at birth and has lived in an orphanage his whole life. She then began to go over his medical history. He was seemingly healthy and so she decided to send me the information she had including a picture. She also added that if we chose to pursue him we could travel as soon as we get our paperwork in order which she estimates to be..... JANUARY!!!!
A picture was all it took. I took one look at him and melted. I was amazed at how seeing just an image can make your heart jump and everything feel like it was all meant to be.
He is beautiful. Blond hair, piercing blue eyes, pouty lips. I was taken back because he really looks a lot like Savannah and resembles Willem as a little boy. I cried, called Willem and we just marveled at how crazy this all was. By the way his name is Maxim! We love the name and plan to keep it.
We are now gathering the necessary documents to complete our dossier. Upon completion we will be traveling to Kirov, Russia to meet the little guy. We officially accept him upon our first meeting but Willem and I feel a real connection to him and feel like God has chosen him for us.
We can't show his picture just yet but as soon as we meet him we will post away!
Thank you for the prayers that have been lifted so far for our adoption. I had no idea we would be moving this fast. Please begin to pray for Maxim. For health and for his heart to be prepared to make the huge adjustment that is about to happen in his life. Also pray for our family. We have big adjustments ahead as well!

A New Kind of Waiting

We are still here... My apologies for the big gaps in my online presence. We have been busy busy...who isn't right? Our home has been under major renovations which I will post more about but for now the topic du jour is our adoption...

We got an email Tuesday saying that although our agency has been accredited, Moldova has decided they need more documents from our agency before they can have the meeting to discuss the new requirements for US/Moldova adoptions. This is the meeting we have been waiting on since February to decide if we will proceed with Moldova as our country. Our agency currently has three families that have already been given referrals (assigned a child) in Moldova and they have no date as of yet when these families will be united with their child. So what does this all mean?

It means more waiting. And it proves to us that Moldova has thus far not had their stuff together enough to make the guidelines clear from the start. Our agency has no real idea of when this is all gonna get cleared up and for the first time they have made a suggestion for us to move on if we are ready.
Our dilemma has been do we wait or switch. At this point we have waited 8 months and have no real idea of how much longer we will wait to only then have another decision to make based off of the country requirements.

So it is with mixed emotions that we are letting our friends know that we have decided to switch countries to Russia. My heart is very sad for those kids in Moldova that are going to sit in orphanages for who knows how long because of this stuff. However we came into this wanting to adopt…we didn’t even know Moldova was an option. We were confident that the timing was right then and therefore we are proceeding with what we set out to do…add to our family. We believe this timing delay is in God’s plan and it will reveal itself at some point.

We are very excited to be moving in a forward motion again! Soon our little guy will be home.

Please begin to pray for our son. We have focused so much on this decision that I am eager to shift gears and just ask God to begin really preparing his heart and mind for what is to come. We are praying for a smooth transition for him into our family but more importantly for protection from any more detriment he could endure from being institutionalized or in a less than optimal living situation.

moldova

I'm learning that most adoptions are not without their hurdles to overcome. Ours is no exception. Our first hurdle is named Moldova....

I haven't elaborated on why we chose Moldova as our country of choice. Moldova is a little country nestled between the Ukraine and Romania in Eastern Europe. It was once part of the Soviet Union. With the fall of communism Moldova gained its independence. It was left, however, with very little economic structure and it seams to have never recovered. It currently is the poorest country in Eastern Europe with 80% living below the poverty line.
There is so little work in the country that mothers and fathers are forced to leave the country in a hope to find work elsewhere and send money back to their families. Children are often given up to the state or left with elderly grandparents or neighbors. Sadly parents rarely are able to return leaving the children orphaned. I had the opportunity to visit the Ukraine on a mission trip in 2005. I was able to help out with a summer camp for orphans there in the Ukraine. I fell in love with the kids and was fascinated with the culture. I was also amazed at the effect Communism had on the status of the people today. Moldova is very similar in culture and situation and seemingly easier to adopt from than the Ukraine. Our church also has a strong connection with this small country that many don't even know about. We support a missionary there as well as have mission trips to Moldova every couple of years.

Knowing all this about Moldova made it an easy choice for us as a country to adopt from. We felt a heart tug towards it. It seemed as soon as we made this country choice we came across websites discussing the need in Moldova for adoption or the tragedy of the sex trafficking that goes on there. All of this broke our heart more and made us certain Moldova was the right country, until a month ago....

In February several laws were changed in Moldova regarding adoption. One of those changes pertains to the in country time (the stay in country while you meet your child). Initially it was two trips of 7-10 days which fit in perfect with us. However rumors began circulating that the stay would now be 30 days! Not so good! We stressed and thought that we should change countries at that time. Within the next couple of weeks we were amazed at how God made that obstacle disappear. We met a missionary from Moldova and made quick friends. He runs a missionary training college of sorts in the capital city of Moldova. Over dinner we explained our issues and he eagerly offered up a solution. He offered for us to stay in an apartment at the missionary triaining center with our children for that possible month's stay. He could arrange for us to have Christian caregivers for the kids on days we needed to be at the orphanage. It is a gated college with working plumbing and electricity. He even offered an office for Willem to be able to run his business from Moldova complete with wifi. ISN'T GOD AMAZING!!! The chances of this guy happening to be in Lafayette from Moldova right in the midst of this difficult time for us and for us to hit it off right away....It wasn't chance it was God showing us He was there in the midst.

We decided we'd stick it out with Moldova regardless of the in country stay. However a couple of weeks ago we were told by our agency that adoptions have been put on hold from Moldova. Moldova will not be processing any more until they have re-accredited our agency. (No other agencies are accredited at this point either) They are saying this should happen at the end of summer but it could be longer. We are therefore frustrated and confused.

It has stopped us in our tracks and we have to decide if we are going to wait it out for Moldova, a country we have already grown to love, or switch to another. We feel like God has a son for us out there somewhere and we are so confused as to how to get to him. Does he live in Moldova? Is he maybe not ready for us and we need to wait a while longer? Or is God trying to show us that he does not live in Moldova and we need to switch gears? It's a difficult decision that keeps us up at night.

So friends please pray for us. Pray that we hear God's wisdom. Pray for the kids in Moldova so that adoptions open up again soon so that they may find forever families. And please pray that the path between our son and us starts to come together....

Airstream Adventures

I promised to show some of the projects we've been working on over the past year. One of our biggest time drains has been our Airstream Argosy travel trailer...

It was a bit of an impulse buy. We wanted a way to go camping as a family. We tried the tent thing in the past but the weather here is not exactly pleasant for camping most of the time. Initially we thought about a pop up camper. I started pouring over craigslist and found this adorable Airstream that was not very expensive.... $3000. We've always wanted to fix up an Airstream so we were super excited about it. We never realized we could get into an Airstream for so cheap... HA! The thing is you can't get into an Airstream for so cheap...We have spent at least another $3000 fixing her up and countless arguments over how it should be done. I admittedly geeked out and joined the airstream forums. I wanted it restored to its original glory. Willem just wanted to get it campable so we could use it. It isn't pristine but we did take a year to get it ready. So we have now taken it out a few times and are getting used to RVing...

I failed to take a lot of before pics, but they all generally looked the same. Ours is a 1974 28 foot. Here is an ad for the 1978 models. As you can see they are not the shiny silver aluminum ones. Argosies are painted but they were used to test lots of cool options that are now on current models, most noteably the wrap around front windows which we love.

Ours had been used as a hunting camp and was basically trashed. It was overwhelming as we began to restore it so I think that's why we forgot pictures...just too much to do.

The first order of business was to replace all cushions and upholstery. We were not about to sleep on 30 something year old cushions slept on by hunters. That dome part in the front was also orange so we spray painted it white. The curtains I made and we bought new foam mattresses that I covered. This bed makes out into a queen size and this is where Willem and I sleep.

Here is the kids bedroom area. I wanted it to be fun and playful. We added the bunk above and the bottom is a full that makes into a couch when we aren't sleeping. We usually leave it as a bed for now.

While I was busy making it look pretty on the inside Willem had the ridiculous task of making the thing water tight. It leaked in several places. He also was busy getting the plumbing replaced and putting in the new bamboo floor. We added a new air conditioning unit, had some welding done on the frame to reinforce it as well as added new brakes and tires. It took forever and we chose to stop at the bathroom. We got it to a point where we can use the facilities but next year's project is to make it pretty which unfortunately will mean pulling it all out.

So far we've taken it to Chicot State park and to Galveston. We hope to do more with it this fall. We are also getting it well stocked and hoping to buy a generator for it in the event we need to pull out of here for a hurricane this season.

Here are a couple more pics for you to check out....In the interest of space I'll make them smaller but feel free to click on them for an enlarged view.

Bye for now...

why adopt

We are still here....We are progressing through our home study. Our visits have been completed, our paperwork is almost completely gathered. We now are waiting on our FBI criminal history to arrive in the mail. The next step is to submit a formal request to Citizen Immigration Services to adopt internationally. Some moms have growing bellies...I have a growing binder or paperwork.

Now that summer has arrived I have a little more time to sit down and write so I thought I'd address the questions we get most often about our adoption.

As we have told friends and family about our desire to adopt we often get one of two responses. Excitement or the strange look of why?

The answer to that question is I'm not sure why but I know several thing for certain...

I've always had a desire to adopt. In the early 90s I remember seeing many newsline type shows reporting on the conditions of orphanages in Romania. I will never forget seeing those kids rocking themselves to sleep and banging their heads against their cribs. It totally broke my heart. I remember thinking to myself that I would take one. Of course I wasn't old enough but I knew I could do it. I had always been a babysitter... I have 20 first cousins and I'm older than all but one of those. I was often asked to keep an eye on or babysit all of those at some point in time. I was responsible I could do it....
It got me thinking and I have always looked at children in bad situations and asked myself "Could I love that kid as my own?" and most of the time I concluded that I could. I then began to question this desire I had and wondered why I had it. I began to convince myself that maybe God was preparing me. Maybe I was not able to have children and this was his way of bracing me for it. I even went so far as to warn my husband about this premonition I had. He was fine with adoption and even liked the idea.
Obviously I was able to have children. It was even easy and I still am able to have kids. So, I could have more or I could act on this somewhat unique desire...
Which leads me to my next reason...

God calls us to it.... Not everyone is called to adopt but it clearly says in His word "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress... James 1:27" I know that this doesn't mean we are all to run out and adopt but God has given me the desire and therefore I should. Kids need parents and we want and are blessed enough to be able to provide for another so we should. Let me re emphasize that....God has blessed us as a family beyond measure. He has done so much for us that honestly I feel like I have more to give and this seems like a great way to do it.

We want a big family... Willem and I have always wanted a big family. At this point in my life, I am not that into the whole pregnancy thing. I've been there done that. Same goes for babyhood. We cherished it for our three but we are happy to be done with midnight feedings, bottles and soon to be diapers! We want our kids to have each other, to depend on as they grow older. We want lots of grandkids and big Christmas dinners... Adoption fits the bill and we get the bonus of picking the age and sex of our child...perfect!

So there you go...a little explanation of this journey we are on.....

Hope everyone out there has had a great Memorial Day weekend...

Home Study Meeting #1 Done

We had our first home study meeting Friday. It went great! We felt like we were having coffee with a friend. She asked us questions about our motivation for adopting, how we met, what our marriage and family life is like. It was surprisingly pleasant. We received a lot of places for resources and education and got our questions answered. Our next meeting is at the end of the month and she'll meet with us individually as well as spend some time with the kids. Till then we have lots of paperwork to gather, including a FBI background check. So we'll be off to the jail house to get our fingerprints taken....uh...yay! That's it for now. We needed a recent pic of our family to put in our file. Here's how it came out.

Have a great week!

Blog Resurrected and Big News

This is what happens when you have three kids and a house you plan to totally remodel.....A blog that doesn't get updated for two years!

We have done some renovations to the house in the last two years as well as restore a 1974 Airstream. I will post pics and a brief description of those projects in a few days. However, I have no doubt our house reno's will not keep my blogging current. I do have an alterior motive for this blog. We plan to use it to update our friends and family of our upcoming journey...

Drumroll please....

We're Adopting! We've talked about it as long as we've been married but now seemed like the time. Four kids was always our goal. I thought for a while we'd stop at three but I have a feeling now that we are outnumbered one more is not going to be as big a transition. What's one more right? Our goal is to adopt a little boy around the age of 4. We're hoping to fill that gap between Derek (age 2) and Savannah (age 6). Two boys and two girls seems perfect.

A social worker will be here tomorrow morning to start our homestudy and we've decided to do an international adoption. Our country of choice is Moldova. Why Moldova? Well to be completely honest Moldova fits all of our requirements. They have children that are in the age range we are looking for and they have a relatively short in country stay time. Also Moldova allows for us to get a child in less time than some of the other countries. That being said this is still a really long process. We are anticipating it to take about 18 months. I will post more about the process in a few days.

Our kids are psyched and love the idea of being able to pick the age and sex of the child. Instant brother! The girls, especially Maddy, are already figuring out the sports and things they want to teach him. We are trying to not speak about it daily as 18 months for them will seem like an eternity but we too are having a hard time not talking about it.

For Willem and I, we are busy gathering paperwork and figuring out funding. We are very excited. At the same time we have a heavy heart. We really feel like the Lord wants us to do this and therefore he has a little guy out there for us. And, here's the kicker, he's alive...somewhere...in an orphanage being raised by someone who is not us. So if we can ask anything of our friends and family it is that you pray. Pray that our little boy is doing well, thriving where he is and has a sense that his situation is not forever. We're coming!