Dreaming

Dreaming of the time when I can hold my sweet girl again.  Wondering how much she has changed.  Is she walking now on her own?  Did she get more teeth?  Oh how long the days are, just waiting for her to be here with us.  Do you think she will remember us?  I have my doubts, I'm praying that the orphanage has shown her our pictures that we left with her.  Pray that God has given her a heart of rememberance of us.

Hard Work

Saturday was a day of work around here.  We have a yard that has been calling to us, please give me mulch!  We have ignored its plea for 2+ years, and we finally gave in to it.  Really the only reason we gave in is because every time the dogs went out to do their business they would come in all muddy.  It was time to get our hands callaused and our backs to an aching.  We had delivered 25 yards of mulch.  That is a huge amount, and we got it done in one day.  It is really nice to have Tyler and Austin able to do a lot, Trevor was gone at a soccer tourny, not that he could of helped anyway with his arm still in a cast.  Andrew helped a lot also.  I am glad it is over with, and a couple of Advil later I was feeling pretty good.

Tyler, Andrew and I will be leaving to go and visit a couple of Colleges in Michigan and Ohio this week since it is Spring Break.  On Thursday we will go to the farm, it is Spring Youth Turkey Hunting and Andrew, Trevor and Austin will have their chance to shoot a Turkey.

Killer icicles

I found this today. This is what we faced in St. Petersburg while we were there. We took pictures of the men working on the roofs. There were not very many warnings to indicate they were working. It is very dangerous.

Killer icicles terrorise Russians - Yahoo! News

So Much Happening

This last week has been very busy, but what else is new?

Saturday:  AWANA Games Day.  I was the coach again this year, we ended up not doing too good, we took home 3rd for both teams.  Our morning team had 13 points in disqualifications and that hurt us sooo much.  I guess I will be coaching again next year.  Andrew on the other hand for the boys had a terrific day.  He excelled at all of his events and I was so proud of him and his hard work.

Monday - I sent in our Visa Application.  We should get that back next week.  I also went to the DuPage County again to get an updated copy of our Marriage License.  The one we had on file in Russia was about to expire, it needs to be less than a year old for our court date.  When I got home, in the mail was our "FBI FINGERPRINTING RESULTS".  YAHOO!!!!  AMEN!!!!  Now I think we have everything we need.  That is until the Judge comes back from Vacation and gives us more forms that she may want.  Who knows?  We are just thrilled that we will be going.
On Monday night, Tyler was inducted into the National Honor Society.  This is a huge honor for him, and we are so proud of him.

Tuesday - went downtown to get the marriage license apistilled.  Sent it off to our agency.

The group of kids that were recieved into NHS

Yes, Tyler is taller than Tom now!

I thought this was so pretty

It is on top of the bus stop in Downtown Chicago

So our schedule looks like this:
April 9 we leave
Aril 10 arrive
April 11 - we will visit the Hermitage Museum
April 12-13 hopefully be able to see our daughter
April 14 Court
April 15, come home
We will not know when we can go back to pick up our daughter until court.  They will officially give us the date then.  In the adoption world this is known as "GOTCHA DAY".  When that happens, Tyler and I will travel to go get her and do all of our necessary documents and embassy forms, we will have to travel to Moscow for that trip.  It will take about a week to get all the forms and embassy items done.

News At Last

As I was sitting here searching my way around Travel Football Leagues for Trevor an E Mail came in with our date for court:
April 14 we have court!  Is it much later than I wanted, YES, is it great to finally know now when we will be traveling, YES!

Sarah said it best in the last post, well now the weather should be a little nicer!

Tom and I want to go a few days before and do some sightseeing that we didn't get to do on the first trip.  Areas we want to see are:
Hermitage Museum
Winter Palace
St. Isaacs Cathedral - we can climb to the top and look out.
Shopping (well maybe just I want to do that)
walk along the canals and see some beautiful bridges

So now the fun begins to gather and collect the necessary paperwork.  It is a good feeling to be doing something useful with the time.

Bummer News

Today while I was out with Tom, we received a phone call from our agency.  She stated that the judge in charge of our case is out of the office until April 5!!!!  What, does, that, mean, Uggghhh.  Does that mean that I won't get a date until she comes back?  Does that mean someone else can schedule the court date right after April 5?  It has been over 5 weeks since we signed the paperwork, I really thought, hoped, prayed that we would of been back for court next week, and bringing our baby girl home in the first week of April.  It is a crazy ride we are on, and I hope we find out more information soon.  Pray, Pray Pray for us that our court date comes soon. 

Nothing Yet

No phone call, no email yet.  I did call our agency yesterday just to "check" what was happening, and she had no news either. We are anxiously waiting for some news of a court date.

We had all of the carpets cleaned in our whole house yesterday, boy was that a big job.  Tom wanted all of the furniture our of the rooms, so that they could do a good job, boy was that a lot of work.  We moved Trevor and Andrew into their new room, and Tyler also.  The boys were excited to be sharing a room until Trevor was up about 1 hour after going to bed throwing up.  He was soooo sick that guy, he was throwing up about every 30 minutes, then at about 1:30 am he went to every hour.  I was exhausted, he slept on the floor of the bathroom, and I slept in his new bed.  It was comfy for all of 45 minutes that I actually slept!

Nothing else is new, so please pray for us that we will get the phone call.  Ring, Phone, Ring.

Registry and Turnabout

Tonight was a very busy night.  Tom and David are both gone at the farm to do work there with other guys, and Austin and Jacob went to help also.  While they were gone, Kelly and I made a date to go out.  Kelly helped me to register for items for a shower she is going to throw for me on May 8.  Well today as we were at Buy Buy Baby, the lady (who by the way had a full beard) asked if she could help us and we said yes we would like to register for a baby registry, she looked at us kinda funny and I continued to fill in the application and she asked us when are you do, I said, well we are adopting so we don't know the exact date of arrival.  She was a little shocked and looked at us again and I know she was thinking, oh boy, here we have a "couple" and kinda acted funny.  Kelly and I just laughed because we do so much together, that I think people sometimes wonder about us.  So what does that have to do with Turnabout, well during our registry, Tyler called and he was getting ready for turnabout and we needed to take pictures.  Kelly and I left the store and went to the place where there were about 30 kids in the group and all of their parents.  Kelly and I walked in together, and once again we saw many people with "the look" and we just laugh because it seems so funny to us.  Tyler looked very handsome, and his date was a good friend of his.  After the picture taking session, Kelly and I went to dinner at Claim Jumpers, it was delicious.  Everything was great, we then headed back to Buy Buy Baby, to try and complete the registry, but alas we could not finish.  There is soooooo much to look at and everything has changed so much in regards to car seats, strollers, toys, bottles and everything.  We will have to go back again when there is more time to finish the store.

Tyler with Jessica

Jessica, Tyler and Teague

My firstborn, man what happened to that baby who was just born yesterday right?

Room Painted

Yeah, I can finally tell you all that her room is painted, it is the perfect shade of pink (of course).  I also had our painter add stripes to the wall in a glaze/shine that looks absolutely perfect.  We are getting the carpets done next week on Tuesday, then we will put the crib together and put the furniture back in the room.  The weather is starting to get better, and I am anxiously awaiting the phone to ring.  I am expecting perhaps next week for the phone to ring and the hustle and bustle to get the visas done.

Everyone is doing really good here, Tyler likes his new job, he also had an interview at Menards, Tom hopes he takes this job so he can get a discount.  Austin is continuing to do well at Marmion, and he is doing the flight club also.  Trevor well he is BORED!!!!  Andrew is as charming as ever.

Bronson (our painter) doing the stripes

I LOVE IT!!!!

Blanket

My mom has given our daughter a beautiful hand made blanket.  She has made one for each of the boys when I was pregnant with them.  She of course made this one while I was paperwork pregnant and made it in pink and it is the perfect shade to match her room.  It is absolutely gorgeous and very soft.  Thank you so much mom for this wonderful heirloom gift she will use.