Happy 1st Birthday James!

Oh baby boy how we wish you could be here with us to celebrate your birthday! We love you so much and pray that you got a lot of extra loving today!!!! You are so loved by so many already and we are ready to bring you HOME!!

Court Date!!!

We received the court date call today!! We will be standing in front of the Russian judge on July 17th.....yep we leave 5 WEEKS from now. Not what we expected (we expected much sooner) but we are so excited and blessed to be on the books!!!!! Visa applications in process, flights are booked...finally, yes that's what I did ALL day....minus a trip to the pediatric dentist...Hannah chipped a tooth. Ouch. But it is booked and we'll be getting our hotel arrangements this weekend! Its looking like we'll be bringing James home the end if August now. Please keep the prayers coming!!! Pray for safe travel and a 'Da' (Yes!) from the judge!
To be continued..... :)

Delay update...

We finally got some good news from Russia. James' paperwork is complete. Our dossier will be in the hands of one lucky Russian judge next Thursday so we should hear something by the end of the following week...hopefully. Not the timeline we wanted but guess what? We aren't in charge...God is!

Delays...

So found out yesterday there is a delay in James' paperwork on the orphanage end. Agency said they should have it by the end of May. Only then we could get a court date. So now we are looking at mid June for court IF the paperwork can get completed. Please pray that is does!! And while your at it...pray it gets done sooner!! The lady we travelled with got her date yesterday so this was disappointing news that we have to wait a few weeks longer. Yesterday stunk, but our time will come...
Enjoy a few pics of Hannah from my iPhone! She's just growing up too fast!!

What's in a name, Friend's for Adoption, Easter, Gymnastics, and more!

Well hello blogland! It's been awhile since I've really done any updating. 

First off in adoption news, or no news for that matter, it's now been 4 weeks since we've held our sweet boy in our arms.  We miss him SO MUCH!!! We so badly want to get back to Moscow ASAP! We hear things like 6-8 for a court date in 'normal times', well it's not normal times and some people are waiting up to 12 weeks for a courtdate. So we wait. and wait.  It is encouraging to hear of families getting dates and that they are moving along and picking up speed!  I've been able to make contact with other fellow AAC clients.  They are in various stages of the process, but some are a couple and few more weeks ahead of us.  This is great because we can gage when we'll get a date off their dates.   One thing that just keeps us going is that we have a referral and have met him. Every day that passes is one more day closer to being reunited with James!

Yep his name is James Matthew.  We never could decide on a boy name prior to getting his referral. After we saw his video we both knew that was his name. He just looks like a James and, ever better, he is named after Caleb's father.  We are getting his room finished slowly. I just hung up this verse today. Not sure if it'll stay though.  We apparently have pretty textured walls, so it doesn't stick that great.  I hope it stays up because I love it!

We had a great Easter! We went to Church then spent the afternoon at the Crocker's.  Hannah was definitely more into Egg hunting this year.  She had so much fun with her cousin's as usual.  Here are a few pics from that beautiful day!

Her smile just melts my heart!

My sweet girl

Digging into her loot

I love this pic ;)

Hunting!

LOL I have no idea...

 Last week we started Hannah in a gymnastics class.  She LOVED it! It was so much fun and she loved every station they took her too.  We'll go once a week now.  She looks like such a BIG girl in her leotard!

So a couple weeks before we left on trip 1, I was on the F*cebook FRUA page and noticed a girl had posted that she was about to leave on trip 1 as well. We both messaged each other at the same time.  It was so funny.  We got to 'talking' and became instant friends.  Let me tell you her story is AMAZING!!!  Her and her husband are bringing home THREE...3!!... children ages 4 and under. Sibling group! How amazing is our God?!?  Not many people could, or would, take on this amazing journey.  I'm so excited for Kelsey and Jay! Here is her blog (CLICK HERE). She took a hiatus from it for awhile but she is beginning to update it again. Anyways, immediately we decided to become each other 'Friends For Adoption' buddy.  This a buddy system in which we send a cheap, but fun, gift to each other every month.  This is what was waiting for me when I got back from Russia.

Matryoshka measuring cups!! they look so cute in the little window in my kitchen.  Love them!  You'll have to check her blog out to see I what I got her. Hint: it's hanging in the girl's room!

Well I guess that's all that's going on around here for now!! Hopefully I'll be posting about a courtdate soon!! Keep us in your prayers!!

It's that time of the year!

Bluebonnets!! Here are my favorite pics out of MANY!!

Day 6- 2nd and 3rd visits

Today was another great day!! We headed over to the orphange at 930 this morning. We went to the same room as before and they brought our boy to us right away.  He seemed to remember us as he came right to us and started looking for his toys. ;) He really warmed up to us this morning we got  many smiles from him and played on the floor most the time.  He showed us how he can roll over and army crawl.  We counted 8 teeth! 4 on top and 4 bottom.  He was starting to make really funny faces at us and we really started to see his personality! It was a great morning visit! After our visit we met with the orphanage head doctor and went over a few things then headed out to lunch.  We went to a nearby mall that was quite odd. It was more of a 'mall' of a L@we'e type store, many kiosk-like stores, and a Walm@rt-like store. But there was a Starbucks that we found snacks and drinks in. Yep tastes the same in Russia!
We headed back to the baby home at 2.  They brought him in shortly after we got there and he really started hamming it up for us!  We got lots of smiles, giggles, babbling, even said 'dada'.   We really had a great visit with him.  It was sooooo hard to leave him.  We just pray that it'll be  a sooner rather than later court date.  We are hoping for 8 weeks, but may be around 12 weeks before we can return for court. 
We are all packed up now and ready to head back to the states tomorrow.  We are so so ready to scoop up Hannah and give her all our lovin.  We miss her so much.  Hopefully our flights will go as planned tomorrow!
paka paka for the last time from Russia...for now ;)

Day 5- Metcha Day-March 22, 2011

Ok late post, but we were busy today!! Today was a great day. We woke, got ready, and ate a yummy hot breakfast at the hotel, then we waited, and waited. At noon we met the other adopting mom, who's with our agency and who's child is in the same groupa as our little man, and our translator and walked over to the MOE. We had to wait a little longer as there were two other couples in front of us. Finally it was our turn! We went back into the same room, with the same lady's we met on Monday. The asked us nothing and just slid over a paper with our son's picture on it. Oh my heart melted and jumped for joy all at the same time. Our translator read us some info (most of which we already knew) and then were asked if we wanted to meet him. Da da!! (yes yes!!). We then waited on the other adopting mom for her appointment and we were off to the orphanage!!
We drove maybe 30 minutes or so to the orphanage through Moscow's crazy traffic....although our coordinator stated it wasn't bad today (really?!). We arrived to a very clean, well kept building, surrounded by a wall that was fun and colorful. We walked in and we're quickly ushered up to what appeared to be a physical therapy room. We were told that the Ministry of Health (I think) was there and that apparently aren't fond of foreigners, so we were unable to meet with the head doctor today. Olga instead got baby J's files and went over it with us. We learned some really interesting information about his heritage and a little about his health. We will get to meet with the doctor tomorrow to go over his info again and have the ability to ask questions. Then we waited and waited (shocked right?) as the groupa was napping and then eating. Finally about 230 they brought him in first. Oh my gosh, we are more in love with him now than ever!! He was so sweet!! He came to me looking a little unsure at first, but warmed up very quickly. He was quite solemn and his eyes were watery with a crusty nose as if he may be fighting off a cold. But boy is he a snuggler! And a chunk!! This boy is not missing any meals!! I seriously think he weighs within a few pounds of Hannah! I held him for awhile, tried to sit...nope he wanted me to stand, he let out a sailor-like burp (haha) then Caleb took him. He went right to him! (they warn us that they may be quite fearful of men as they see very little men in the baby home) but he was so sweet with his daddy. You can tell he was just taking it all in. At one point he spit up a bit and I was wiping off his face and he puckered that bottom lip out so far...omgosh it was so sad and cute! Shortly after he arrived his little groupa buddy showed up with a set up lungs on her! He looked very concerned about her. It was sweet. They took her to a different room, but he kept looking that direction when he heard her cries. Our visit was very short but so so sweet. At 3 they came back in to get him. Our visit was shortened do to the officials that were there. So we left, it was hard. Our driver took us to this incredible cathedral near the baby home. It was magnificent!! Inside, the walls and ceiling (tall, tall ceilings!) were painted so eloquently and the gold accents were incredible. We then headed back to the hotel. We FaceTime'd with our family and rested a bit. We then walked down the block to this fabulous pizza place that was soooo good! And the best was it was cheap! Have I mentioned that Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world??
So today was a great day!!! We are so in love with him! It's going to be hard to leave him tomorrow, but it's just part of it. We'll get to visit with him twice. We'll be back in a couple months for court and will get to visit with him then as well. This process is hard, but so is pregnancy!, and IT IS SO WORTH IT!!!!
So no pics today. As most know we can not post pics publicly until trip 3, after the 30 day waiting period post court.
Paka paka!!!