Ted and I will be heading to Moscow on September 9th to receive the official referral for our daughter. We are on cloud nine!!! We are so thankful and can't wait to get her in our arms.
Please continue to pray for every wall and barrier to be destroyed and that our path is clear. Still a ways to go before we bring her home but this first trip is a major first step!!
Woo hoo!!!!!
8.30.2012
8.28.2012
Delay
A little bit of bad news from Russia today. Our travel dates are delayed. The team is hopeful that we should get them by the end of the week however. And we still have the referral for our little girl. So just a little more waiting. Story of the adoption!!!
8.22.2012
Good news!
We got some good news today from Russia! Our documents were accepted and our referral for the little nine month old girl in Moscow is now official since she came off the registry today. That means we are on our way folks!!! We are all on cloud nine and could not be happier. We should get travel dates from the Department of Education (in Moscow) early next week, but we could be holding our little girl as soon as the week of September 10.
Thank you to everyone out there who called, e-mailed, visited and prayed for us and for her. Please continue to pray that the road is smooth and that all barriers are removed. We truly feel the Lord's presence over this adoption and are just praying that she is the daughter we have been praying about for the past two years.
For all those DeSoto girls who read this, I have been singing in my head the blessing we would sing on Sundays before lunch: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . . ." Woo hoo!!!!!
Thank you to everyone out there who called, e-mailed, visited and prayed for us and for her. Please continue to pray that the road is smooth and that all barriers are removed. We truly feel the Lord's presence over this adoption and are just praying that she is the daughter we have been praying about for the past two years.
For all those DeSoto girls who read this, I have been singing in my head the blessing we would sing on Sundays before lunch: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . . ." Woo hoo!!!!!
8.13.2012
Glasses
My baby got glasses. Still the cutest boy on the block. Really reminds me of his daddy even more!
8.06.2012
August 22
Our little angel (or the one we are praying is our little angel) rolls off the Russian-only registry on August 22nd. We are praying that no Russians step in and express interest in her so we can travel over to Moscow and meet her sometime after Labor Day. Everything is going so smoothly ever since we switched that I am waiting for something terrible to happen. Is that bad? I think that I am trying to guard my heart, but so much of me wants this little girl to be ours. Please pray that there are no barriers and that things continue on this course. God has definitely had His hand all over this path and I am so thankful!
I don't know much more about our little angel. As I may or may not have discussed on here, another one of the differences in going with Moscow is that the referral is "blind." That means that we travel over to Russia without any real information or a picture. Once we get there and meet her, we get her entire medical file (as well as any other information they may have on her such as information about her birth parents, circumstances of her abandonment, etc.) At first this whole blind referral was a little scary to me, but I have so much peace and so much less anxiety than I had before that it does not bother me at all anymore. I feel confident that this agency would not refer a child that we could not handle. They have a Russian pediatrician in Moscow who refers the children from them - a woman who has been in the orphanages and has been evaluating these children since the day they came into the orphanage. They have not had a referral rejected from this pediatrician in over 3 years. Pretty good in the adoption world.
So that is where we starnd right now. On August 22, our Russian adoption team will put in a DOE for her on our behalf, telling the Russian government of our intent to adopt her. At that point, we will get our travel dates shortly thereafter - usually around 2-3 weeks afterwards. I am thankful that I have so much stuff going on in these next 16 days - picking up Ward from camp tomorrow, back-to-school get-togethers, haircuts, doctor's appointments, and school starting on the 14th (1st grade and 2nd grade!), just to name a few. I will post if I hear anything else! Keep us in your prayers!
I don't know much more about our little angel. As I may or may not have discussed on here, another one of the differences in going with Moscow is that the referral is "blind." That means that we travel over to Russia without any real information or a picture. Once we get there and meet her, we get her entire medical file (as well as any other information they may have on her such as information about her birth parents, circumstances of her abandonment, etc.) At first this whole blind referral was a little scary to me, but I have so much peace and so much less anxiety than I had before that it does not bother me at all anymore. I feel confident that this agency would not refer a child that we could not handle. They have a Russian pediatrician in Moscow who refers the children from them - a woman who has been in the orphanages and has been evaluating these children since the day they came into the orphanage. They have not had a referral rejected from this pediatrician in over 3 years. Pretty good in the adoption world.
So that is where we starnd right now. On August 22, our Russian adoption team will put in a DOE for her on our behalf, telling the Russian government of our intent to adopt her. At that point, we will get our travel dates shortly thereafter - usually around 2-3 weeks afterwards. I am thankful that I have so much stuff going on in these next 16 days - picking up Ward from camp tomorrow, back-to-school get-togethers, haircuts, doctor's appointments, and school starting on the 14th (1st grade and 2nd grade!), just to name a few. I will post if I hear anything else! Keep us in your prayers!
7.30.2012
Oh Alpine!
Here are some more Alpine pictures that we found on the website showing Ward having a great time! So much fun to see.
Canonball!!!!
at store . . . he must be loving that bandana!!
His counselor, Reed, throwing him in the pool
the cabin on Day 1 (they get a real picture in their Sunday whites too)
Crazy Horse
That is the name of Ward's cabin at Alpine. To say that he was excited when we drove up to Mentone and dropped him off would be an understatement. When we got out of the car and walked into his cabin he never looked back. He was in heaven.
There are 4 campers and 2 counselors in his cabin. He knew 2 of the boys already. One a friend from Bham and the other is his friend Eliot from Memphis. His counselors were outstanding young men - an Ole Miss boy and the other is a Jeffersonian scholar at UVA. Not so shabby. I know that he will be taken care of and loved by these young men.
When we were leaving I was trying to get him to get down from his bunk to give me a hug and kiss (which I eventually got) but he screamed out "Bye Mom. I won't miss you!" Made a mother proud. At least I don't have to worry about homesickness!
I still can't believe that he is going to be away from us for a full 10 days. This weekend was kinda nice to have a little quiet but by this morning I was full-on missing him and his sweet face. But just knowing how much fun he is having (and seeing some of that fun though pictures on Alpine's website) it makes me happy. I loved camp so much and I feel like it is so much a part of me. I can't wait for him to have those experiences that I did. Something about that mountain changes people . . . he will definitely come back a more independent boy, but I hope that other things will start changing in his young heart as well. I can't wait to see it all!
There are 4 campers and 2 counselors in his cabin. He knew 2 of the boys already. One a friend from Bham and the other is his friend Eliot from Memphis. His counselors were outstanding young men - an Ole Miss boy and the other is a Jeffersonian scholar at UVA. Not so shabby. I know that he will be taken care of and loved by these young men.
When we were leaving I was trying to get him to get down from his bunk to give me a hug and kiss (which I eventually got) but he screamed out "Bye Mom. I won't miss you!" Made a mother proud. At least I don't have to worry about homesickness!
I still can't believe that he is going to be away from us for a full 10 days. This weekend was kinda nice to have a little quiet but by this morning I was full-on missing him and his sweet face. But just knowing how much fun he is having (and seeing some of that fun though pictures on Alpine's website) it makes me happy. I loved camp so much and I feel like it is so much a part of me. I can't wait for him to have those experiences that I did. Something about that mountain changes people . . . he will definitely come back a more independent boy, but I hope that other things will start changing in his young heart as well. I can't wait to see it all!
7.29.2012
From Vlad to Moscow
The story all began almost three (it was 2 when I started this post but life was very busy last week) weeks ago - on July 11 - the day after I heard the bad news about the latest child in Russia that we would not be meeting. After some tears the day before (and some really pretty flowers from my sweet and patient husband), I was pulling it together. A part of me just knew that the news would not be good - I was kinda getting used to it. But I was getting ready to go out with my tennis team to celecrate our state win and I was burning some time on Facebook. For some reason I decided to send a FB message to a woman who lives in my neighborhood who adopted twins from Russia about 4 years ago. I had only met her a couple of times, but she and her husband had a long struggle adopting and I thought that I would just tell her our latest frustration. After I sent it, I headed out to dinner with the tennis girls and really didn't think another thing about it.
While I was at dinner my phone started blowing up. First, it was a response to the FB message I sent right before I went to dinner. The first was the typical "I'm so sorry, hang in there, and the like." But then, about 30 minutes later, I got a"Please call me ASAP." And then another one like that. And then she started calling my cell phone (which she had to get my number from a friend we have in common). I didn't answer since I was with a big group, and it was too late when I got home to call her. But she had left a message on our home phone telling me that after she got my FB message she contacted her adoption agency and they had a 9 month old healthy girl that MAY be available in August. There was one family deciding whether to take her or a boy. BUT she is in Moscow and we are in Vlad. And with a different agency.
In the morning (Thursday 7/12) I talked to Ted and called her back. We decided that I should call the other agency and check it out. It seemed to good to be true. You NEVER hear about a healthy 9 month old girl. It just doesn't happen. And this agency didn't have a family for her? We have been waiting for almost a year and have been #1 in line since February. But maybe God was telling us something. Maybe, just maybe our child wasn't waiting for us in an orphanage in Vlad, but maye she was in an orphanage in Moscow. And maybe I needed to trust and follow where He was leading me.
So I called the new agency and it all checked out. I then made a difficult phone call to the current agency and told them what was going on that we were considering switching agencies. Of course they wanted us to do what was best for our family, but they too thought it was too good to be true. And they had heard that Moscow wasn't processing adoptions (not true by the way). They were being cautious. We were too and needed to do some more due diligence. But at this point, another family still had priority over us. The baby might not even be available for us . . . if we decided to switch.
Late that afternoon, I was scarmbling to get food for the kids, pick up the babysitter, and get downtown to a recruiting event for Ted's law firm. I was in line at Chick-Fil-A and my phone rang. I looked down and it was a call from Michigan - the new agency. The family had decided to wait for a boy, and if we wanted to switch (a BIG process) we would be first in line for the healthy 9 month old girl. WHAT? This was too much for me to process. After all our wait and heartbreak. But we couldn't even talk because of the recruiting event.
So after a grueling night and next day of prayers, tears, doubting, and talking, Ted and I decided to take the risk. And the risk is big. The entire year long wait in Vlad is erased. Gone. Like it never happened. I had to re-do ALL our documents for our dossier in record time. It took me about 2 months to do it the last time. This time I finished it all in 3 1/2 days. On Thursday, July 19 I drove to Montgomery and went to the Secretary of State and got all the documents apostilled myself. Then I found a hole-in-the-wall FedEx and priority overnighted the documents to our new agency. She got them to Moscow on Monday, July 23rd and they were translated in ONE week!!! (It took one month with our old agency!). And this Monday, tomorrow, the team in Moscow is submitting our dossier for Registration in Moscow. If all goes as planned, I should have a lot more information at the end of this week. And we may be headed to Moscow in August. Unreal. Praise the Lord!!!
While I was at dinner my phone started blowing up. First, it was a response to the FB message I sent right before I went to dinner. The first was the typical "I'm so sorry, hang in there, and the like." But then, about 30 minutes later, I got a"Please call me ASAP." And then another one like that. And then she started calling my cell phone (which she had to get my number from a friend we have in common). I didn't answer since I was with a big group, and it was too late when I got home to call her. But she had left a message on our home phone telling me that after she got my FB message she contacted her adoption agency and they had a 9 month old healthy girl that MAY be available in August. There was one family deciding whether to take her or a boy. BUT she is in Moscow and we are in Vlad. And with a different agency.
In the morning (Thursday 7/12) I talked to Ted and called her back. We decided that I should call the other agency and check it out. It seemed to good to be true. You NEVER hear about a healthy 9 month old girl. It just doesn't happen. And this agency didn't have a family for her? We have been waiting for almost a year and have been #1 in line since February. But maybe God was telling us something. Maybe, just maybe our child wasn't waiting for us in an orphanage in Vlad, but maye she was in an orphanage in Moscow. And maybe I needed to trust and follow where He was leading me.
So I called the new agency and it all checked out. I then made a difficult phone call to the current agency and told them what was going on that we were considering switching agencies. Of course they wanted us to do what was best for our family, but they too thought it was too good to be true. And they had heard that Moscow wasn't processing adoptions (not true by the way). They were being cautious. We were too and needed to do some more due diligence. But at this point, another family still had priority over us. The baby might not even be available for us . . . if we decided to switch.
Late that afternoon, I was scarmbling to get food for the kids, pick up the babysitter, and get downtown to a recruiting event for Ted's law firm. I was in line at Chick-Fil-A and my phone rang. I looked down and it was a call from Michigan - the new agency. The family had decided to wait for a boy, and if we wanted to switch (a BIG process) we would be first in line for the healthy 9 month old girl. WHAT? This was too much for me to process. After all our wait and heartbreak. But we couldn't even talk because of the recruiting event.
So after a grueling night and next day of prayers, tears, doubting, and talking, Ted and I decided to take the risk. And the risk is big. The entire year long wait in Vlad is erased. Gone. Like it never happened. I had to re-do ALL our documents for our dossier in record time. It took me about 2 months to do it the last time. This time I finished it all in 3 1/2 days. On Thursday, July 19 I drove to Montgomery and went to the Secretary of State and got all the documents apostilled myself. Then I found a hole-in-the-wall FedEx and priority overnighted the documents to our new agency. She got them to Moscow on Monday, July 23rd and they were translated in ONE week!!! (It took one month with our old agency!). And this Monday, tomorrow, the team in Moscow is submitting our dossier for Registration in Moscow. If all goes as planned, I should have a lot more information at the end of this week. And we may be headed to Moscow in August. Unreal. Praise the Lord!!!
7.24.2012
Lots to Report
A lot has happened at the Holt household since I last wrote anything on this blog. Sorry that I have not been keeping it very updated, but I will try to report all that has gone on:
1. House addition - coming along nicely. I think that they will be done in 2-3 weeks and we will be moved in. The hardwood floors are being put in today. This is a long, skinky process so we will probably spend some nights with my parents in the upcoming days. The kids will love that. It is really looking amazing and I can't believe that it is actually my house. We are going to live on the porch and will be able to enjoy it right in time for football season! Roll Tide!
2. Kids - everyone is great. Ward is gearing up for Camp Alpine. He leaves on Saturday and will be gone for 10 days. He has not even batted an eyelid about being away from us for so long and I hope that it stays that way. Ann Park turned 6 on Friday and had a great day. She is waiting to have her party (roller skating!) once school starts back so all her friends can come. We did have her best friend over to swim, get their nails done, and even go get her favorite meal - spaghetti and meatballs at Brio! They had a great time. Sam is just chugging along. Still working on his attitude and his extreme attachment to me. I am so glad that i signed him up for school 5 days a week (9-1) next year. He is so ready to get out of the house every day!
3. Adtoption - This is where the big news is and what has kept me off the computer these last few weeks. After the disappintment of losing another child, we made a change. But the cool thing is how it all happened. I am going to put that in another post. It deserves it. Long story short is that we switched agencies and are now going to get our little girl from Moscow. How did it all happen? Stay tuned . . . .
1. House addition - coming along nicely. I think that they will be done in 2-3 weeks and we will be moved in. The hardwood floors are being put in today. This is a long, skinky process so we will probably spend some nights with my parents in the upcoming days. The kids will love that. It is really looking amazing and I can't believe that it is actually my house. We are going to live on the porch and will be able to enjoy it right in time for football season! Roll Tide!
2. Kids - everyone is great. Ward is gearing up for Camp Alpine. He leaves on Saturday and will be gone for 10 days. He has not even batted an eyelid about being away from us for so long and I hope that it stays that way. Ann Park turned 6 on Friday and had a great day. She is waiting to have her party (roller skating!) once school starts back so all her friends can come. We did have her best friend over to swim, get their nails done, and even go get her favorite meal - spaghetti and meatballs at Brio! They had a great time. Sam is just chugging along. Still working on his attitude and his extreme attachment to me. I am so glad that i signed him up for school 5 days a week (9-1) next year. He is so ready to get out of the house every day!
3. Adtoption - This is where the big news is and what has kept me off the computer these last few weeks. After the disappintment of losing another child, we made a change. But the cool thing is how it all happened. I am going to put that in another post. It deserves it. Long story short is that we switched agencies and are now going to get our little girl from Moscow. How did it all happen? Stay tuned . . . .
7.10.2012
Not a good day
The news from Russia was not good today. The two girls who rolled off the registry at the end of June/beginning of July are tagged by Russians for adoption. There are no other girls meeting our requirements rolling off this month and we don't know about the next.
So more waiting. And a little more crying too.
So more waiting. And a little more crying too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
