2 weeks and counting...where this all started

We leave in two weeks...the morning of June 13th. Please pray. We will step foot on our little loves home soil the day of his 3rd birthday. Didn't they know I wanted to be with him on his birthday?? Darn. Oh well. It will be quite the celebration when we see him for the first time anyway. Can't imagine that moment!!!

For those of you just coming to our blog for the first time, I thought I would update you on where this whole adoption started.

Several years ago Dan had a great trip to Haiti with Feed My Starving Children. (www.FMSC.org) We have had a special heart for the people of Haiti since then. When the quake hit in January, we were aching for the Haitains. We both were feeling called to adopt from Haiti. Dan went full speed ahead. I was glad. I was busy and unable to get to the paperwork. We were hoping to adopt a little girl, under 2, from the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's order). We were looking for a little girl who wouldn't tromp over our Ricky (who is 3 1/2 with Down syndrome)in size or development. That was most important to us.

Throughout the early stages I was wrestling with the adoption. For every pro I found a con, and every con I found a pro, but I wasn't able to tip the scale one way or another. My spiritual director told me she felt I needed time, I was obviously not ready. Dan was a little disappointed, but quite honestly, the possibilities of getting a little one from Haiti were looking a little dismal. (By the way, we each took a trip, separately to Haiti in the month of March which was amazing!)

About a week after "putting things on hold" Lizzy went on www.ReecesRainbow.com We have been on this site before and had those longing pains for these kids and it was never the right time. It had been a while though. The moment I looked at that page--I HAD COMPLETE PEACE! Every worry, concern, question and "con" just melted away. I knew it was right!! Dan was a little surprised. I think because it was a big change--a sweet little orphaned,impoverished girl with beautiful dark skin from Haiti, and now a little one with fair Eastern European skin, with Down syndrome from an orphanage. Wow--where did that come from? He was an easy sell.

Jimmy found "Ross"--real name Stanislav--on the site and that was pretty much it! He is such a doll, of course they all are. I could not have chosen...it would have been too hard. I intentionally only got approval for one child because I knew myself enough to know that I would come home with as many as we were approved for...that would not be good right now. I can't tell you how hard that is though. I know I will want to go back.

Kids in these orphanages with special needs are sent to mental institutions at age 4. They "live" out the rest of there life there. Of course, they say that 80% die within the first year from neglect and poverty. I want to cry every time I think of this. I'm not sure how I will react to know that I only "rescued" one of these little gifts from God, and left so many behind.

Please feel free to pass this blog around. If anyone has any interest in adopting a little love with special needs---please trust me---your lives will be rich with JOY! They just do something to you that I can't explain. We all feel it!

Please pray for us as we prepare for a long trip with a small part of our gang (Ricky and Lizzy). Please pray for hearts to long for these little ones. Please pray for the orphanage workers and their families, that the workers want the best for these little loves and treat them with dignity. Please pray for all of the judges, court workers and officials who oversee and rule on these cases.

Thanks!!

We got our appointment!!!

Our appointment in Stass' home country is Tuesdsay, June 15th!!!! We will likely leave on June 12th. Trying to figure out airfare...Please pray.

Gretchen

I want Emory...but we can't...can you?

Click on him to learn more!


Grab This!

We have a date.....sort of!!!!!!

I heard from my facilitator. She said that we have a date, but she won't know for sure until she goes in on Tuesday to get it (Monday is a holiday--Holy Trinity). She said it is the 14th or 15th of June.

So... not as quick as I would have hoped, but not bad. I would love to be back with our little sweetie by the end of June or very early (!!!) July. I'm so, so excited!!!! We all are.

My Jenny, 11 years old and adopted from Guatemala, asks when I wake her every morning, and she is still 1/2 asleep in bed, "when are we getting him?" I can finally tell her "We have a date, sort of...."

Yeah!!
Gretchen

Bummer news

Well, my facilitator did contact me today, but not with the news I had hoped for. She said they did not have our date yet. Apparently the person who schedules those invites in the country was on vacation so things got behind. Now they are working on dossiers received on April 22-23. We submitted on May 6th. It isn't quite as bad as it sounds because there was a long weekend in there plus another weekend---but still---bummer!!!!

Me and patience don't go well together! In order to go when we had hoped, Lizzy would miss almost 2 weeks of the end of school--not ideal but doable. In actuality, it is best that she finishes with everyone else so perhaps that is the blessing (?)

I will trust that God's timing is just a little better than ours. It isn't that common that you are told to call the adoption department, but our facilitator was told to call on Thursday or Friday and she would be told if they had our date yet...so I will try really, really hard not to anticipate anything on Thursday or Friday.

Please pray that all goes smoothly for us. Please pray that our sweet little guy is well cared for today. Pray he feels love. Pray for his caretakers and their families. Pray for our facilitator and her family.

We just want so badly to hold him...he looks so sweet and squish-able.

Gretchen

Come ooooon Tuesday....hurry up!

On Tuesday, our facilitator will travel into the city to find out whether they have our appointment date set. That would be when we would travel. We would leave a couple of days before that appointment date. They told her they would have a date set within two weeks and Tuesday will be 12 days. Close enough, right?? I'm very eager. It's finally coming up and I have so much going on, so I think I can make it two more days.

We really would like this volcano to just settle down...us and everyone else!!!

Stay tuned!!! And pray for Ricky. She started a bug that has him coughing and wheezing. Started nebbing him right away in the hopes of keeping him from getting worse. My poor little bug. He is so cute!

Gretchen

Dossier submitted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Indeed...it is in their hands!! Oh yeah! Now, let's keep praying that everything is correct and we don't find out two weeks from now that a document is "not quite right." Please dear Lord....but...Thy will be done.

Maybe traveling in 4 weeks if all goes as well as we would like it to!
I will take any helpful hints from any Eastern European travelers, please!!!!

Gretchen

What is in a name?

Well, when we first learned our little guys name, we thought we would change it. We toyed around with a few different name and nothing was sounding right. It came to me one morning...Tommy...that is it. Everyone woke up and I told them it doesn't matter whether they like it or not, this isn't a democracy.He was Tommy for a full day. Well, nightfall came and we gathered for family prayer: "Dear God, please be with our sweet little Tommy. Tommy? He's not a Tommy!" We all shrugged our nose in agreement. After passing out ballots and email polling people.....we gave up. Actually, we didn't give up. I believe we were just struggling because we were supposed to just keep his name all along.

Introducing, for those of you who don't know....STANISLAV. That is his name...and that shall be his name. I love it now. It is endearing. We first chuckled and now it makes me melt. I'm told the nickname there would be "Stass" or "Stassu" (pronounce "Stosh" our "Stoshoo." ) So it is.

My thinking....the sweetie pie is an orphan. He has owned no-thing. He was given a name, and I'm not taking it from. I don't want to confuse our precious boy...who might be just a little confused soon, already. His life is going to change dramatically very soon. I'm in no way saying that it is wrong to change a name. This is just where I am lead on this one and we all seem to feel the same. The funny thing is we all started with a chuckle and a long search for the right name and we ended up back where we started...just happier. We still chuckle at it though!!

Bobby, Lizzy, Jimmy, Charlie, Jenny, Maggie, Ricky and Stass!!!! (okay....maybe Stassy!)

As for the above picture...I got a couple umbrella strollers for our trip. I got clips to attached them. Lizzy strapped Stass (via photo) into the adjoining seat from Ricky. Ricky fed him chips and smiled at him. Then out came the tongue. The very first time he saw this picture of Stass --he stuck his tongue out. He did it every time he looked at the picture. I didn't catch on right away and finally realized it is because Stass' tongue (silly me) is sticking out. He definitely needs to have a speech therapist get their hands on him. He seems to need a good deal of oral-motor therapy.

Dossier update

Our dossier did indeed make it to Eastern Europe on Tuesday and our facilitator was checking her translations and getting them notarized yesterday, on Friday. She said that Monday and Tuesday are holidays (Labor Day) so she would submit our documents on Wednesday (May 5th). Yay! Best scenario--we would have our appointment over there 4 weeks from that day. Will see---anything can happen!

Please pray!!

Did you know that St. Thomas More is the patron saint of large families, orphaned children, court workers, lawyers and judges!! He's my prayer warrior (as well as all of you!) Thanks!

Gretchen