For real

Wow,  I am sitting here trying to sleep when hundreds of memories and thoughts are flying through my mind. Please excuse any typos as I am typing this blog post from my phone somewhere over the Atlantic.

The last couple of days have been a ball of emotion for me.  It is very difficult to put into words the emotions that I am feeling, but I will do my best. I know that our last post was quite a while ago but honestly life has been a whirlwind!   we are right in the middle of the busiest spring of our lives. We have both boys playing soccer and all four kids in baseball this spring. This coupled with finding the new normal and family balance has kept us very busy.

As the two of us sit here (well I am sitting and he is streatched out arcoss me and the open seat between us!) I can not help but to think back to December 15, 2012. That was the night that we first met him. He was exausted. He had just flown on an airplane for the first time, and did it without really knowing anyone he was with, or where he was going to spend 4 weeks (well 5 weeks in our case due to the chicken pox) with a family that he had only been given a few pictures of and a short letter introducing us to him. Could you do that at the age of 12?  He was a brave young man.

I can still see him standing in front of us with his stocking cap on at the St. Louis airport. We had started this blog with the goal of it being that someone would read about this awesome young man and that one of you would adopt him!  Little did we know at that time that God had other plans in store.

This journey has had many high points and many low points as well. Adoption is not always a rosey picture. There are oten situations that arise that we have to work through and grow from.  All of hard times are worth it when I see my 4 kids playing together, laughing and smiling. 

I would have never thought that as we were at the airport this morning (or yesterday morning) whenever we left that my little girl that is 5 today (Happy Bitrthday Lexie) would be so sad that she didn't get to come with us for this second trip, and that the other 2 would be wanting to come back on trip 3. If you didn't realize yes we get to come back again for 7 days sometime shortly after trip 2 (our current trip. On trip 3 he will have a medical exam as well as his visa interview!

Some of you are probably wondering what we are doing on this trip. Well simply put we are going to court. It seems like a lot of work just to go to court, but I do believe that in this adoption process they are putting the children first.  Even thought we have had the opportunity to be his mom and dad for the last 4 months the adoption is not final until after this court appearance on Wednesday afternoon (wednesday morning at 6:30 amfor all of you in central time zone). There is actually a 21 day appeals periodafter the hearing as well.  Back to this trip. We left our house Sunday morning @ 9:30 am and should arrive in our hotel room around 3 in the afternoon on Monday. We will rest and recover on Tuesday, and be picked up on Wednesday by our lawyer and head to court which is about an hour and a half drive from where we are staying.   We will then head to the airport at 4 am or so Thursday morning and begin our trip home landing in Springfield at 6 or so that night.

It is going to be a very happy Easter at our house rejoicing with all that God has done and continued to do with our family through this amazing journey.  Thinking back to seeing the little boy that was standing in front of us who has since told us he really only knew 2 or 3 English words, to now having him as my son and being able to carry on conversations with him and watching him grow into a fine young man has been amazing. I am so thankful that we listened to God's calling for us to host even. It has changed our lives forever. One night Linda and I were talking to him and asked, "Even if you would not have been adopted would the hosting program have changed your life?" And he quickly said yes that the hosting program is a good thing.

Did you know that there are several hosting options out there.  I believe there is still time to sign up through New Horizons.  There is even a local organization in Rochester, IL for all of you in central Illinois (I can get you the information just ask). 

Well at this point we are now over Ireland about an hour and a half from Frankfurt. It is about time for Lexies favorite part of the flight, the hot moist towelet that they hand out before the meals.  Thank you all so much for your prayers. So far so good!  Looking forward to being all back together as a family Thursday night!

Since we have been home!

Flash back 4 weeks!!!

I hope all of you had a great Christmas.  Our Christmas was very fast.  I have to say I am glad it is over.  It felt like we landed and then I started running.  We have been home 2 weeks and 2 days.  It feels like we have been home months because of everything we have crammed in.  We are EXHAUSTED!  Some of us are struggling with a cold but we are doing really well adoption wise.  J is doing great.  We are so thankful for this little man.  We are so thankful to all of you who helped us get here.  The next few weeks we have paper work that has to be done, we have our first home visit (went very well), and we are starting school.  I am excited to get started with school and I think Mr. man is as well.  We are also getting ready to start some extra curricular activities.  I can't wait till soccer season.  I hope he doesn't mind a cheering Dad, Mom, and siblings on the sidelines:)  Everyday I am so overwhelmed with the responsibility God has in trusted us with.  I am so thankful that I get to be his Mommy.  My heart feels like it is going to burst several times throughout the day.  All of these wonderful moments.


Fast Forward to Today!!!

So now we have been home almost 2 months as you can tell life has been so busy that I haven't had any time to finish this blog.   So tonight I am wide awake praying and reflecting on the past year.  Last January we were starting our home study to start this journey.  Now here we are living out this dream.  Our days are filled with school, chores, and lots of talking.  I hear "Mom whats this?"  all day long.  There are moments where I am able to spend hours just talking and explaining all the new things and other times when I have to give a short answer and keep moving.  I think J could spend a whole day in Walmart just looking at everything.  You can only imagine how long a quick trip to Walmart can take when you have to explain how everything works.  Reading stories once took 30 min now can take hours of translation and conversation.  I am always learning something new about him.  School has been going very well.  He has a great attitude about learning new things.  We have had a great time over the past month.  Some of his favorite things have been Rosetta stone, Art, Bible, writing, and learning games.  His favorite day of creation is day 5 because that is when God made fish!  He loves to go fishing.  My favorite things is hearing him roll his Rrrrrrr's, seeing his face when he understand something, Finding out what catches his attention, and seeing his face light up when being praised.  He is doing so well!  I am so thankful to get to experience this.  My words do it no justice.  When I grade his work and say you did great the grin and sparkle in his eyes just melts my heart.  We are growing closer as a family.  We have had lots of laughter and a few tears.  We have tried to keep life low key since Christmas but if you know us you know we don't sit for very long.  Since we bought this house we have always said that we needed to build a wall to give more privacy to our shower.  The weather man called for a big snow storm so while we were out stocking up on some essentials we grabbed some supplies.  While we were snowed in the boys built a wall.  The boys loved it.  Ryan had them measuring and cutting the wood.  They got to use real power tools.  The boys told me that they need their own drills.  LOL We have also been able to play in the snow when it hasn't been freezing.  The kids spent all afternoon building a snow house one day.

 It was amazing.  We had so much fun.  We also took the 3 older kids to a Christian concert.  They had 10 different bands playing all kinds of music.  J loved the lights and had never been to a concert before.  Afterwards we were able to get autographs and pictures with the musicians.  One band was from Russia and were able to talk with J in a different language.  Who would of thought.  I am so thankful to God for putting the right people in his path.  I pray all the time for our children s relationship with Christ.  I am not sure what J believes but hearing him pray and read Gods word warms my soul. He has shared with us that he prayed to God for the first time after our first hosting. He prayed that our family would come and adopt  him.  I tell him all the time "I don't know what God has planned for you but I can't wait to see.  God has a plan for you."  He gives me this smile and says "MOM......"  Oh I have a feeling I will be getting that "MOM....."  many more times.

All of the kids are adjusting well.  I am sure we are making mistakes!   No parent has a child and says I am out to ruin their life.  We are trying our best and seeking Gods guidance daily if not hourly.  Each kid has had their moments of adjustment along with Ryan and I.  I am so proud of all of our children. They are all learning priceless lessons in life.   Ryan and I are dealing with  the exhaustion of constant full time parenting.  There have been nights where we finally get all the kids to bed and we just go to bed because we are too tired to even talk.  If you know me you know that I love to talk but currently I am spent.  Maybe that's why this blog post has taken so long to write.   Since being home we have had paper work to do for the adoption itself and also for insurance. Ryan busted out all of the adoption paper work.  I am so thankful that he took care of that.   Please pray that the insurance for J gets straightened out.  The Insurance company does not like the wording in the translated papers and have not allowed J to be added to our plan.  I have spent 3 days trying to get somewhere with no resolution yet. We have submitted his info to the insurance twice each time takes days for processing.  We are currently waiting/praying for approval.    On a good note we got our final I-800 approval and our 2nd travel dates!  Ryan and J will travel a day to spend 2 days in country and then travel home.  I have a feeling they will be exhausted when they get home.   It looks like our 3rd trip could be this summer.

I am sure I am leaving out great fabulous life changing moments.  I wish I were a better writer and could express how amazing this journey has been.   I guess you all just need to adopt so that you can experience it.  I know a great hosting program and could arrange a translator.  Wink wink...  ( I know that adoption is not for everyone) ( I also know so many who would give everything for their adoption to have worked out)  Adoption can be a difficult road but so rewarding.  I am in awe....  of God and how he arranged this.

A friend called the other day to check on me and I told her we were doing great.  She said no really how are you doing?  Are you having any problems? What about the kids are they starting to fight?  I laughed and said we are doing great yes the kids are fighting off and on.  Yes J is testing us.  Yes we are doing great we are becoming a FAMILY.  This is real life and even though it is different and new we are starting to find our new normal.  I love that J is leaving dirty clothes on the floor, going through cabinets for food, grabbing a drink instead of asking.  I am glad that the kids are having little sibling disagreements.  This needs to happen.  I am glad that he is asking me why do I have to go to bed.  We are getting to be parents and I LOVE it.  My house is loud and crazy and we are doing this!  Every day I am so thankful to God for allowing us to take this journey.  I also thank all of you for helping us bring him home.  I couldn't imagine my life any different.   

Some favorite moments:

Taking him to Menards.  We walked in and he gasped and said Mom they have everything.  Then he looked at toilets and said wow this one is $100.  Then he saw one for $300.  Mom this is a lot of money....

Dipping cookies in milk. J "I do what ?" Me " Put your cookie in the milk for about 10 sec." J "Why"  Me "it's good"  J " 1, 2, 3, ... MOM this is yummy!"  Next day Me " what would you like for breakfast?"  J " cookies and milk 10 seconds!"  Me "NO!"

Letting him paint the new wall that he helped build.  " Mom why are we coloring this?"  

Taking him to pick out his new bike.  After ridding he is quick to clean it up and keep it perfect.  

Building forts.  The other day I flipped the couches over to clean and then let the kids build forts.  I was begged to let them sleep in the forts for the night.  

Hockey rink! AKA broken swimming pool.   We got hit by a bad storm right before we left for our first trip.  The wind took our trampoline through our pool and into the garage.  It also took out a window busted up the corner of the house and messed up the roofs on our out buildings.  We ran out of time getting everything taken down before we left.  So our pool is still up and has water in it.  Now that everything is frozen we thought well lets let them "Skate"  Now everyday we are asked when can we "skate"?   This kiddo loves the ice and all of this snow.