WE HAVE A TRAVEL DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  WE HAVE A DATE! WE HAVE A DATE! WE HAVE A DATE!

Can you tell I'm a little excited? :)  We had a wonderful Christmas here with my family in TN!  We woke up Christmas Eve to an AWESOME Christmas present of our travel date to Ukr*ine!!!! Because of the timing, we have a full 5 weeks notice.  This is a huge relief because a lot of times people get less than 2 weeks notice.  I know in the end God has the plans under control, but He has blessed us in allowing me extra time so I'm not quite so stressed about it!  There are still lots of details about travel and everything to work through.  Yesterday, cousin N got to help us tell V (on the phone) when we will be there!  Even though we had been telling him we would be coming after Christmas, he was still pretty excited about having exact date (as were we) :) 

It was a fast, busy day with all the cousins and family.  The kids are so blessed with many people who love to spoil them on Christmas with lots of fun toys! The day started with Mom in the hall banging pots and pans together loudly! ------ When Dad was a kid, he and his 4 siblings apparently got up at the crack of dawn every year and woke my grandparents up playing with their toys.  After they were mostly grown, my grandfather came home from 3rd shift one Christmas morning.  Since they were still sleeping, he grabbed pots and pans and started banging them together running through the house to wake them up.  When I was a kid, my Dad told us the story, and, of course, we wanted to start a tradition.  Thus, we have been waking up on Christmas Day to someone banging pots and pans for almost 30 years now :)--------  A was really excited that he got his MP3 player. He has been wanting one since he saw V's (that he got for his birthday here this summer).  B got her "Stomp**z houseshoes!"  We had a yummy breakfast cooked by Aunt M! Then, we headed next door to Nana PJ and Papa G's.  Santa visited over there, and the kids all LOVED that!  It was a great afternoon spending time with family, watching kids play, eating great food, and catching up with each other. 

I LOVE this picture.  It's my grandparents with their 11 great grandchildren (okay, so one is photoshopped because she got there right after three of the others left).  In about 3 months, the 11 kids will be 14 through adoption.  My cousin J and his wife N are adopting twin girls from L*tvia, and we are adopting V!  That will even it up at 7 boys and 7 girls!



After a great day next door to Mom's, we headed to my Aunt A's house to visit my Dad's family.  Almost everyone was there, and we had a good visit. B and C were REALLY tired, though, and slept practically the whole time we were there!  We had a very blessed Christmas and hope you did as well!
We are REALLY thankful for Brian's parents!  Apparently our pipes froze yesterday (guess I shouldn't have turned the heat down so low when we left :( ) They spent almost 4 hours at our house getting them unfrozen.  I feel awful that they spent their Christmas doing that, but at the same time we are so blessed that they were willing and able to do it for us.  Today we're just enjoying a low-key day at Mom's house playing with Christmas toys and games!  Maybe we'll venture out later to see about sales on comfy snowboots for C and me.  (I got Brian some for Christmas.)  Looks like we'll need them soon!

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  Luke 2: 10-12

Waiting and waiting and waiting - and a cool tree topper

I think I spoke too soon about this waiting going fast.  I read my last blog how I thought this would go quickly because of the holidays and everything. Well, now that I have nothing to do except wait.... it's slowed down considerably! The 3 days between phone calls seems longer and longer!  I sometimes forget that people don't know what's next in the process. Of course, half the time even I don't know or can't remember what's next!!  I thought I'd take a minute to break down what is going to be involved in our trip to Ukr*ine.
Sometime in the next 2 weeks (REALLY hoping sooner rather than later), we will get a call or email telling us what date we will be expected in Ukr*ine for an appointment.  At that point, we will book plane tickets and make our final childcare arrangements, preparations for the trip, etc.  We anticipate the appointment will be in mid to late January.  We are hoping for January 21st :)
2 days before our appointment, Brian, C, and I will travel to Ukr*ine.  We will go to our appointment first thing in the morning on the date given. Then, we wait for a day until we get our official papers.  Once we have that, we get on an overnight train (that will be 14-15 hours) that will take us to V*ktor's city.  The next day (or really when we arrive off the train), we go to the local court in order to get our permission to see him.  After a few days of paperwork, we wait.  We pray that the wait will be short.  It can be anywhere from 1 1/2 weeks to 3 1/2 weeks.  During that time, we are not "doing" anything, but we can see V*ktor every day :)  Some people go home for this waiting period, but that is a lot more expense in airfare, so we are staying.
At the end of that wait, we go to court and the adoption is official! Brian will go home the next day.  There is a 10 day wait at that point (which again some people go home for this). Then, it is finalized, and V*ktor can come with me!  We will catch a train back to Ki*v where we will visit the Emb&ssy for birth certificate, visa, etc.  About a week later, V*ktor, C, and I will COME HOME!!!!!!!!!!
I hope that has shed some light on the process as it will unfold!

In the past few weeks, we had Thanksgiving at Grandpa's, I did some Christmas shopping (and finished), we decorated our tree, saw Santa, watched several high school basketball games, had lots of Christmas program practices (I'm directing the program at church again this year), and pretty well kept ourselves busy :)

Four score and... okay, about 17 years ago... We lost the angel for the tree. Mom graduated from college that day, and seeing how she had spent many years working towards it, we put her diploma atop the tree.  There began a new tradition of choosing something different to top the tree each year.  We usually try to pick an object that represents something meaningful that happened that year.  When Brian and I got married it was my veil.  When Megs got married, we put my bouquet up there, when Dad died, we put his hat, when C was born, we put her hairbow, etc.  This year, we, of course needed something to represent V*ktor.  Everyone agreed on the beautiful towel he hand-embroidered for us :)   I uploaded this picture so he could see it when he had access to the computer.  Though I tried to explain, I'm pretty sure he was quite confused.  I asked if he had seen the pictures and he just said, "no make sense."  LOL!  Not sure if Santa didnt' make sense or the crazy Americans who put a towel on top of a tree...  Ahhh, he'll understand soon enough :)



 

I'm not going to spend much time or detail talking about this, but I do ask your continued prayers for V*ktor's spirits.  We cannot WAIT to get him home!  Pray that we find out our date very very soon.

 

Not sure if anyone is still reading my blogs since I didn't update for so long!  I'll try not to let it get so spread out next time between entries :)  MERRY CHRISTMAS!