We are H O M E !!!!!!

It has been an amazing and long six weeks.  What a wonderful feeling it was to step back on familiar soil.  We want to thank everybody who has helped us along the way, none of this would have been possible without your help and prayers!  We owe a special debt of gratitude to our dear friends Chris and Mandy for opening their home to us in Warsaw.  We will never forget their generosity and everyone would be blessed to have friends like them.

We would like to thank everyone who came to the airport.  Kim's parents came a few days early and helped with some projects around the house.  We feel really blessed to have friends like the Sieferman family, the Havenor family, the Wornica family and the Burgess family.  It was great for the kids to see that there are alot of people who care for and love them.  Thank you to the Murray family for the wonderful balloons waiting for us as we pulled into our driveway for the first time as a family of eight!!

We would also like to thank Kim's sister Sandy who was in Poland for the last couple of weeks to help Kim with the kids. 

We will post more about our time in Poland soon.  We just wanted to let everyone know that we are all home and starting to groove into our new normal.

Until next time....

"8"

8.......A nice even number.  On Thursday at 12:03pm Poland time we "officially" became a family of eight!  The last few weeks have been amazing.  The children are beautiful, smart, funny and long for the security and love that a family can provide. 

We will receive the finalized decree in early June, so until then we won't post any family pictures. 

Poland is a beautiful country with a great mix of old world Europe and pristine countryside.  The people are very nice and helpful.  We have made some great friendships and will cherish our time and experiences for the rest of our lives.

Sorry to keep this update short.  Until next time....

We're leaving on a jet plane......

We have our court and travel dates in hand (insert happy dance)!!  We will be leaving soon to finally meet our precious children.

Of course with these dates comes the flurry of things that need to be done.  It is a little overwhelming, but really quite exciting.  We have enjoyed watching others go before us and lived vicariously through them as they started the next chapters in their own adoption adventures. 

Since we will be in country for a fairly long period of time, we really need to figure out what is worth packing and what we can leave at home.  We do not want to have to pay for an extra bag, so if anyone has any proven packing lists or creative ideas, please share! 

We will be posting occasionally while we are in country, but that all depends on our internet accessibility.  If we have access to the world wide web, then we will post updates about our days, joys, and struggles.  We always appreciated hearing about the bad as much as the good.  We knew going into this that adoption is not all butterflies and rainbows.

Please continue to pray for us.  Pray especially for our four kiddos in Poland.  We pray that they will have open hearts and minds about this adoption.

Until next time....

Waiting Children

I wanted to take a moment and write about something very dear to our hearts...children waiting to be adopted.  I know you may say that is all orphans, and you would be correct, but I am referring to is a group that continues to grow on what seems like a daily basis.  The waiting children I am talking about have passed the infant stage and now face a life of growing up in an orphanage without knowing the love and care of a family.  Can you put yourself in that scenario?  Imagine never having those whom you love most in your life...ever.

There are varying degrees of special needs that some of these children deal with.  Some are severe and need special medical and long term care.  This does not make them any less worth of someones love.  Some special needs are easily dealt with in a country like ours where medical treatments, therapies, and surgeries to correct these are performed on a regular basis.  And one special need that really speaks to me is....age.  That's right imagine you are 6 or 7 and are considered old????  Two of the four children (sibling groups are considered special needs in some cases) we are adopting would be considered old on that scale.  It is extremely difficult for me to look back upon my childhood and think that at the age of nine I was looking at a life where I would be providing and struggling to defend myself for the rest of my years.  Older children do bring memories and hurt with them, but they also have a greater need for love to help deal (not fix) that hurt, and in many cases they are eager to help and bond with their new families.

We also see a number of siblings available from certain countries, and the obstacle to them being adopted is that they should be kept together and not separated.  This is something we strongly support, if a family can support more than one child.  Having someone to go through this process with is of great help to a child.  We have spoken to many families who have adopted siblings and they agree that they have a built in support structure and in some cases helps them with the transition into their new family. 

I would like to reach out to any of you who have ever thought about adopting and let you know that it does not have to take years to be matched with a child (or two).  So many kids throughout the world are waiting for folks like you and I too answer the call and say YES!  We had no idea how we would do this when we started discussing the process more than three years ago.  Technology is a wonderful thing and there are so many resources at your finger tips.  We have also encountered so many wonderful families who have adopted and who have been supportive and encouraging throughout this crazy process.  The point is you will not be alone.  Many, many people will have your back, be willing to pray and help when you need it most.

If you are interested in learning more about available waiting children please contact us or anyone you know adopting.  Our agency (who rocks!!) updates a list of available children on a regular basis and we would be happy to put you in touch with them.  If you can keep these kids in your thoughts and prayers, they need them more than you and I could ever imagine.

Who doesn't love owls????

Especially when they benefit adoption!  We are the featured family on Owls for Orphans.  This amazing mom started this site to help families in the adoption process raise money so they can become forever families!  25% of sales from now until April 5th will go toward our adoption.

Link to the Owls for Orphans website

They have touched so many families.  Easter is right around the corner and these handmade creations would make a very special and unique gift for your loved one(s).  They also have an Etsy boutique and you can follow them on Facebook:

Link to Etsy Boutique

Follow them on Facebook

Thank you Amy for your support of our adoption adventure!

Waiting is hard.....

It really is.  I'm not complaining, just stating that it is hard waiting to meet our children for the first time.  We did receive some new videos that we have watched almost non stop!  It is so great to see how they are doing and see some of their personalities displayed.  They are all doing well and hopefully soon we will be together!

We have a friend who is hosting a fundraising dinner for us tonight, and we are so thankful for her and all of the work she has out into it.  Thank you Natasha!  We will have one last fundraiser starting on Monday, but I will wait until then to post about it.

Please pray that we will receive that call soon with travel dates, we so want to be with our children!  God Bless you all!!

Until next time.....

No More Paperwork...

We have signed, notarized, apostilled and overnighted our last pieces of paperwork!  So all we need now are official travel dates.  It was over a year ago when we started the process to bring our four children home and at times it has seemed that time has stood still or it feels like we are at warp speed. 

When we were trying to piece out how we were going to do this all, the financial and administrative requirements were equally daunting tasks.  I'll focus on the paperwork side.  We had what seemed like piles of paper we needed to fill out and then gather an even larger pile of papers to have notarized, signed, photocopied, etc.  It took a lot just to wrap our heads around this.  For anyone new, or just thinking about the process, it really isn't that bad.  Once we broke it out into what was needed now, later and much later, we were able to tackle what needed to be done and get it out quickly.

Our home study took longer than we had hoped, but it was all part of God's timing and not ours.  In the beginning I think we were more stressed about the home study visit and interview than anything else.  We worried for nothing.  Our social worker told us that she was here to help, not to add any obstacles.

One of the things you may encounter in the process are people who really don't care that you are adopting.  I am a big believer in the term "kill them with kindness".  We have had people who when we have gotten items notarized or apostilled act like we are burdening them with our request.  Hello???  This is your job!  We try to be nice, to smile, and of course say thank you.  Sometimes, deep in the back of our minds, we imagine hitting them upside the head with the book full of papers we just had them notarize ;)...just kidding.

It may seem like all you do is paperwork, but then you get these little nuggets of info about the kids sometimes, or like us you stalk other peoples blogs and live through them as they journey to get their children.  All while waiting for the day your referral finally comes....

What a glorious day it was this Christmas Eve when we received the official referrals for our kids!!  I remember coming home and seeing Kim in tears as she was printing the 3,298 pages, lol.  Seriously at this point we knew we were getting much closer and we could not have asked for a better gift.  Our agency jokes that since we are adopting four we are the first family to have their own filing cabinet.

We are prepping for travel by gathering things for the kids to do (coloring, drawing, puzzles, etc.), looking for inexpensive backpacks for them to travel home with, and final home preparations (I'm sure there will be more) as we prepare to be a family of eight.

Thank you all for following along, praying, supporting and encouraging us through this process.  Please continue to pray for us and all those in the process and especially for the children here and around the world waiting for families.  God Bless you all!!

Until next time....