Watch Extreme Home Makeover Tonight!

Tonight's episode of Extreme Home Makeover features a family originally from our small town in East Texas. They now live about an hour away. They have adopted several special needs children from Kazahkstan. Here is a link to a report about the show and the family.

House Update and Adoption News (not good)

Do you want the good news or the bad news first??

Ok, I'll start with the bad news and end up with good news.

We received an e-mail from our agency on Friday evening letting us know that our casemanager is on her way to Russia to hand deliver a document to the Ministry of Justice which they had requested be done before our agency can complete accreditation. Yes, I said the MOJ!? Yes, we were waiting on the last signature, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. What is going on? I don't know. This is Russian Adoption after all and you just never know what is going to come next. OUr casemanager is from Russia, so while she is there she will visit her family who she hasn't seen in 3 years. She'll also meet with the Moscow and St. Pete in-country staff while she is there.

That's all I know right now. I'm not feeling very cheerful about this news. Nope, not cheerful at all.

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Ok, now onto the house update. All the sheetrock is up and is taped and mudding is done. From what I understand, they'll begin the texturing this week. I didn't realize they had to do the mud two coats so they were applying that today. It's looking good, though.

The vinyl is almost finished, finally! I guess they're about 3/4 of the way through. Once they finally get finished with the vinyl bits (there's not much at all, they guy is just sooooo slow!). And once it quits raining and snowing the bricks can get started!

We went and ordered our countertops this morning for the kitchen and baths. My big bathtub was delivered on Friday, but I can't see it since it's all wrapped up in the box and has saran wrap stuff all around it.

Not Us

Again.

Sigh....

Order #69: Adoption Center of Washington (USA)
Order #70: Global Adoption Services, Inc. (USA)
Order #71: Dove Adoptions International, Inc. (USA)
Order #72: Hand in Hand (USA)
Order #73: Diaconal Services of the Evangelical Church of the Rhein-Necker Region (Germany)

Heritage Day

D and our Casemanager, Irina

Last weekend we attended the Heritage Day event at our agency, Buckner International Adoptions in Dallas. You can click here to read an article and see a pic of D!

It was a really neat day. This is the first year they've combined all the countries together, we usually have our Russian Culture Day event and the other countries and domestic adoption do their own thing. It was at our Russian Culture Day on February 4, 2006 that we learned Viktoria's referral was on its way. We didn't attend last year, we just didn't have the heart.

D in "Ethiopia" making a bracelet and coloring a picture of the Ethiopian flag.

We had a little "passport" and we visited Russia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, the US and China. In each "country" we had a snack of that country's food and did a craft.

I was surprised how much emotion (aka tears) I would shed on this day. It started while we were visiting "Russia" when they turned on the Russian music, it just brought me right back to that playroom in Ulyanovsk. The tears threatened, but they didn't come. But during the last segment of the day, a Christian recording artist named Susan Gray gave a little mini-concert. She herself was a foster child and she grew up to adopt a daughter domestically only to have the birth-mother decide she wanted her child back after 4 months of the baby living with them. Finally about a year later everything was signed, sealed and the daughter was fully theirs. But they had a lot of emotional turmoil before it was finished. {I understand this was a private adoption about 12 years ago, so I'm sure this probably wouldn't happen today} Anyhow, during her second song my tears just began to pour. The next song too. While I had been taking D to the bathroom before the concert, Hubby had spoken to her a bit and told her a little of our story. When she saw me with my fountain of tears during the concert, I'm sure she could see more of what we'd been through. Afterward, she pulled me aside and gave me so much encouragement. The main point was that "God does not make a promise He does not intend to keep! The baby that did not come home was not your child. But that doesn't mean that your child is not ready now or soon." The child we will bring home to be our daughter was most likely not even born yet when we received Vika's referral in February of 2006.

The song that made me tear up so much is Hold On. The first half of the song I could picture our child waiting in the orphanage for us. The second half of the song was speaking to me as a waiting mommy.

Here are the lyrics:

HOLD ON
"I've seen the way you cry at night
in the silence of your room. Seen you hold your pillow tight
when no one's watching you.
Heard you cry out for protection
like an orphan left alone.
Well your cries have reached heaven
and I want you to

Hold on
I can hear you
You're not alone, no, no, no,
And through the storm
I'll be with you
Keep the faith and hold on.

You've heard me called the great defender
to those who feel afraid
You've heard that I will never leave you
But you feel I'm far away
You've been waiting for your answer
And believing in my name
Well I've spoken to the Father
And your answer's on its way
But until that day . . .

Hold on
I can hear you
You're not alone, no, no, no,
And through the storm
I'll be with you
Keep the faith and hold on.

I was with you through the fire
I'll be with you in the rain
And I know that you are tired
But you've come so far so please
Don't turn away

Hold on
I can hear you
You're not alone, no, no, no,
And through the storm
I'll be with you
Keep the faith and hold on.

It wasn't all tears and emotions. There was lots of fun too. I was so excited to see my friend KK from Kansas who has been waiting for a referral from St. Pete for as long as we've been waiting for Vika's court date and now this new adoption. It was awesome to see all the little ones who came home from China this past summer. LiLi's mom was also very encouraging to me, so if you're reading this, M - thanks for your words as we were leaving.

One of the really neat things was the Chinese dragon dance. D also had her picture made with Mr. President in the US adoption zone.

Adoption Related Post - can you believe it??

It's not any news of our own to share but still good news nonetheless.

Rainy has a wonderful video on her website. If you've never seen Rainy's photography, you'll just be beside yourself wishing you lived in Atlanta so she could photograph your child!!

PENNY AND CHRIS have a courtdate! Yay!!! I've felt a special connection with Penny and Chris since they're also in the ministry (part of the club ;o) They've also waited so, so long. It does my heart good to hear that children are FINALLY coming home!

Also, since I've been out of the blog loop for a while with no internet access at home, I totally missed that CARRIE AND MICHAEL have ALREADY been to Russia to meet their soon to be son! They were there over Christmas and are now re-doing documents and waiting for the wonderful news of a court date! I've felt especially connected to them as well being part of the ministry family club.

The Kouri's had a successful courtdate and Julie is staying there solo as she awaits the 10 day appeal period to bring Creed home. It sounds as if Creed is learning daily that she's his mama, and brrrrrrr it looks cold!