He KNOWS!!!!

We have talked to V*ktor!  Actually, we have talked to him several times since last Monday morning. We finally were able to do a phone call. Brian was already at work, but it was me, Bec (his roommate's mom), cousin N, V and his roommate Jur@.  At first, they wouldn't put us on speaker and weren't really saying much. We realized they had been in a school assembly and we were going to get them in trouble for being on the phone - oops!  Jur@ was the first one to hear that they were being adopted, and he said "Really????"  It's amazing how ONE word can convey relief, hope, excitement, love, and a sense that a GIANT weight had lifted off this boy's chest.  As soon as the assembly was over (which was about 5 minutes), they started asking questions and talking to us.  Cousin N told V*ktor about how it would be a while, then we would come there and go to court. She was explaining how the court would ask him if he wanted to be adopted, and he responded "YES YES! Tell them I say YES!... and tell them Jur@ said YES, too!"  It is soooooo exciting that he knows we are coming for him and he will HAVE his forever family!
For the first few days after we told him, he would call and ask "You come tomorrow?"  At first, I thought that it was one of those things where you hear this amazing wonderful news and your ears turn off to miss the details (that it's going to be several months, that we're trying to get there as soon as we can)...   Then, I realized he was actually just confirming that we are still coming. I think that he is so excited about it that he just keeps wanting to make sure it's real and that we will go get him.  Breaks my heart to hear him asking me to come tomorrow because I wish I COULD!!!  Since then, just a 2-3 minute phone call every day or 2 seems to make him happy :)
Yesterday was pretty funny... Jur@ called Bec and was telling her how V*ktor was down at the discotech (at 10:30PM Ukraine time).  He let her go on for a minute wondering what in the world that was all about until he told her that it was apparently a big festival day. They all got to go eat all the food they wanted and run free for the evening. Jur@ was home with a stomachache since he ate too much... So, all the orphanage children (including my son) were at the discotech late last night. allllllllllrighty then! :)
We have a fun, silly thing going on right now... Remember Ned? The scarecrow from the garage sale?  Well, J had a fantastic vision... My Mom's group took some of the garage sale leftovers and made a few more :)

These lovely friends have been showing up on porches and yards across town for the last few days :)  Each person gets to enjoy it for awhile then tell us where to move it. It's very funny! They come with a note telling a little about V*ktor and our family. If the recipient wants to donate, they can and it is very much appreciated.  Mostly, it's about having fun and spreading the word :)  We have an awesome community here, and it has been amazing the support we have received!
Coming up on September 29th is the 5K Walk/Run starting at the Unadilla Park 8AM (registration at 7:30).  You can still register up until racetime, but I'd love to have them ahead of time if at all possible! It would help with my sanity- what little I have.  So, get signed up if you want to walk, run, or ride along on a truck and heckle (haha, just kidding, that was for you D K).
Thank you ALL for your awesome support, prayers, and love for us and our sweet boy!

Donations accepted here (non tax-deductible available for current expenses)
http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=7124&url=bringviktorhome

He Can Move a Mountain - HALFWAY THERE!

WOW! Blessings abound!  What an amazing week!  All week, countless people poured out their love for us and for V*ktor by donating their garage sale items and their precious time to help sort through it all.  I tried to keep a list of all the wonderful people donating their belongings to our cause, and I came up with 25.  I know that there were many more than that who dropped things off when I wasn't even around!
I have to say that my Mommy group is OUT of this world!  You see, this last week (before planning the garage sale) I had already taken a job that kept me busy for 10 1/2 hours during the day all week. So, I was only able to work on the garage sale at night. My Mommy friends helped in all the planning, made all the signs for the sale, put up fliers, prayed for us, and donated their own items. As if that wasn't enough, when I was unavailable all day Friday, they went to the store and spent SIX HOURS cleaning, organizing, accepting donations, and making some sales to people who walked in. So, when I arrived on Friday night, everything that had already arrived was ready to go !  They are truly an amazing group of unselfish, wonderful, giving people who I am blessed to have as my friends :)
I met Brian and the kids at the store Friday night and we brought over everything that had been in our garage. We started getting the extra stuff all organized, putting out the Tshirts, and trying to remember what else we needed to do!  My friend Mary from about an hour away, who is also adopting from Ukraine, came down with her kids to help as well :)  She arrived after 9, put her kids to bed at our house with Brian, then she and I headed back to the store to unload all the stuff she had brought along!  We got back around midnight, printed out some things, and got a little bit of sleep!
Yesterday was truly a miraculous, blessed day! We had soooooooooooooo much support from our community, church, family, and friends.  I really wish I had a way to personally thank everyone who was a part of it. Mary and I arrived at 6:45 and got to work.  Brian came later once all the kids woke up.  My Mommy friends were back out to help with the sale that morning about the time it got really busy. Another friend's daughter wanted to make brownies. A and Mary's daughter Kelly sat out front to sell pop and brownies. They would get soooooo tickled when someone walking by just gave them a donation and didn't want anything to eat or drink.  When another kid joined them and they ran out of brownies, she ran across the street to the grocery store to buy a box of brownies!  LOL!  It worked:) They kept selling!
A few moments really stood out to me - the three ladies who came in to buy 3 hats and gave $50 - the lady with tears in her eyes as she dropped off donation items and said how wonderful this was - the lady who came in and wanted a T-shirt but wasn't sure if she had enough... We said it was close enough, but she continued to count out quarters for the last dollar to $17.  Then, as she slipped out the door, she handed me a sealed envelope... with $100 in it. - the couple who really wanted the beautiful rug, but wondered if $40 was "too cheap" for it. (We gladly sold it to them and felt so blessed!) - my sweet son A and all the other kids who worked so tirelessly and were very good all day wanting to do their part to bring V home...             Just the overall emotionally, mentally, physically exhausting process that was so worth every second.  All the local shoppers came in excited about the cause of bringing V*ktor home.  The out-of-towners were interested to hear all about it, too! There were many people who just stopped in to make a donation and didn't even look at the sale. Others gave much more than an item was worth. Some truly had a need for something and maybe wouldn't have been able to get it if we had things priced above their budgets.  It was just a day of blessings for everyone!

We had a lot of laughs, too :)  My favorite was the leisure pants.  Apparently, my friend J said to just donate the leisure suit pants to Goodwill because nobody would buy them.  I said it's almost Halloween! They'll sell!  She didn't believe me :)  So, at around 4pm when they still hadn't sold, it was a little slow... We decided to make it a featured item and put a sign on it that it was an auction. Got some laughs but no bids. So, the pants (and a few other pieces of clothing) were made into "Scarecrow Ned." The kids loved it! Brian said that if he didn't sell, we were putting him on J's porch - lol!  No worries, Ned sold!  Though now, J has an awesome idea for another fundraiser with some of the leftover clothes :)  Stay tuned.
At the end of the day, at 5:29, I FINALLY let A go "shopping."  He had asked all day about getting to look for things he could have.  It was very cute :) Even given free reign, he didn't go too crazy, just got some things he wanted and a few things for B (since she was with Grandpa).  The kids had been sooooooo awesome that we went to give them dinner and ice cream treats :) Brian took them all to our house to watch a movie while Mary and I went back to load up her van with as many leftovers as possible for her to use at her fundraiser garage sale.  I figure that people donated the items to help with adoption of an orphan so what better way to use them!  Since we have homestudy appointments near her twice this week, we can haul a lot more up there, too!  We still have some cleaning and packing up to do, but it was a huge success!
Did I say huge success? I meant phenomenal, stupendous, unimaginable, mind-boggling!!!!  God provided in such an amazing way!  Including profits from our Tshirt sales, we made almost $2000 yesterday towards V*ktor's adoption!  Then, today, we were invited to the Ukrainian church to tell them about our adoption.  At the end of the service, we went up to tell them about New Horizons and Viktor (who a lot of them met).  The church gave us $1500!!!  I did the math, and, including the adoption assistance we will get from Brian's work, we are over halfway to having all that we need to bring Viktor home :)

HALFWAY THERE! 

Today is September 9th - just a little over a month since we started the adoption process.  WOW!

Saxophones and Sacks of Phones

Our garage sale has had many donations already, and others are bringing more tomorrow! We are TRULY blessed with many wonderful people all wanting to help us bring V*ktor home. This is going to be a great sale with something for everyone!  I have been down there with some awesome friends tonight taking donations and organizing to get ready for Saturday. I am sooooooooo thankful for these ladies (and my poor husband trying to rig up hanging racks for the clothes). I honestly was at a loss of even how to start organizing something this large. They jumped in and went right to work organizing everything, and it's really looking good!
Last week, a friend told me at church that she had saxophones to donate for the sale.  Later that day, I told Brian that they were giving us saxophones for the garage sale. He said, "Sacks of phones?"  I busted out laughing, because I HAVE a paper sack full of old phones for sale. So, our garage sale has "everything from Saxophones to Sacks of Phones!!!"  LOL  I see a poster coming on...
We have been receiving quick messages every day from V*ktor.  We have sent a few videos, and he has sent a few videos.  I know he has been really busy with school starting, and the time zone difference doesn't help in trying to coordinate a time for us to talk.  We get lots of "I miss you. I love you." messages, and we are definitely missing him, too! He asked if we would adopt him or if he could come back, and that has been hard knowing how badly he wants to return and doesn't know that we are doing our best to get him back here!  At this point, we said we want to see him again and are working on making that happen. We had hoped that the interview team would be going back to his orphanage so that they could tell him about our permanent plans!  Unfortunately, we just learned that they are not going there this time, so they won't be able to tell him!  So, right now, we are working on setting up a conference call.  Cousin N has agreed to be our translator :)  Yaaaa!
I had hoped to have more news when writing this post, but just wanted to at least do a quick update.
Look for more updates in the next few days if we can get that conference call!

Donations for the garage sale will be taken tomorrow at Hometown Variety from 6-8PM.
T-shirts will be here on Saturday for the garage sale!  So, come on down to check out the garage sale and get your t-shirt :)  You can also turn in your 5K registration there if you want!
We can't say thank you enough to all of you awesome people, your support, and your powerful prayers!

B's first day of preschool :)