We are at an internet cafe while Olig is picking up our paperwork from the consult meeting.
The consult said no almost as soon as we walked in the door. We were expecting to be interviewed, but they only asked one question, why we wanted to adopt.
Our translator believes they were scared to make the decision because they didn't want to get in trouble with higher authorities, even though they have the power to make the decision.
We can appeal their decision, which the consult told us to do. The consult also told us not to be disappointed, that they think the higher court will be on our side.
Olig will be making some phone calls to see if in fact the court would be in our favor and it will be worth our time to appeal their decision.
Right now our hearts our quavering, but we are yet to give up on this little boy until they make us.
That's all we know right now.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Brief Update
As you have probably figured out, we are in the middle of no where with no internet. After trying a few other places we finally found an internet cafe thanks to a very nice taxi driver!
Wednesday: We left Kiev at 6am after only a few hours of sleep, partly due to Cavin, partly due to all of the emotions we were feeling facing the day. It was a long drive, crammed into a Euro car with all of our luggage! We were thankful Cavin slept most of the way (until he wouldn't sleep Wednesday night!).
Once we got to the town where the orphanage is located we had to wait for our facilitator Olig to go over our paper work with the social worker in charge of our little boy. It felt like it took forever! While we waited Cavin played in the grass for a while, which was nice for him as it was the first time he got to play outside since arriving in Ukraine.
We then finally travelled to the orphanage where we were interviewed by the orphanage director and the social worker. At the start of the interview the orphanage director was not smiling at all, so it was hard to get a read on her. Then after our interview we were able to ask more questions about the child, such as why he is at the orphanage and how long he has been there, his health history and so forth.
As we were concluding, I saw a little boy walk across the hallway, and then come walking towards us. My heart lept into my throat. This was the moment we had been waiting for, for so long. He walked in holding the hand of the lady who works with him the most, with a timid smile on his face. Then he walked straight over to me and wrapped his arms around my neck. As tears streamed down my face I fought for control of my emotions. My heart immediately fell in love with this precious boy, and I felt many of the same emotions I felt when I held Cavin for the first time.
We were able to spend a few minutes getting to know him before Olig brought Cavin back in. We were both nervous on how the boys would react to each other. Cavin did not fuss with jealousy at another little boy being cuddled up beside me and our little boy instantly took to Cavin, smiling, touching his face and hair, and giving him hugs. It melted our hearts, and I found myself again with tears coursing down my cheeks, fighting back a wave of emotions.
We were able to stay and play with our child for over an hour. It was so fun to watch him play, to play with him, and to see how he interacted with Cavin. He called Cavin his poopiska (I have no idea how to spell this), our translator was unsure how to translate the term, but she said it is like a chubby baby doll.
We were teaching the little boy to call us by our first names, but while playing hide and seek, the little boy told his papa to close his eyes and not peak or he would tell everyone! This one for sure brought Matt to tears, and of course, I was still crying!
After leaving we ate some dinner and got checked into our hotel, which surpised us with how nice it is considering the area we are in. Thankful, to be sure.
Thursday: Visiting hours are from 10-12 in the morning, so we walked to the orphange, which is about a 20 minute walk, to visit with our little boy again. He was ready to meet us, giving us both hugs, calling us mama and papi. Today Cavin was his baby! Some other little boys came by the room we were playing in and ours excitedly told them "this is my parents, and this is my baby!" When they tried touching Cavin he told them not to touch his baby. He is already protective of Cavin, and Cavin is of course already trying to keep up and do everything he does! Too cute.
This little boy is very smart, very talkative and loving, and just precious! Definitely all boy as well, with lots of energy!
Update on Permission to Adopt:
Today while we visited with this little boy Olig traveled to speak with the officials about them granting us permission to adopt this little boy. They didn't say no, but again, didn't say yes yet. Tomorrow morning, Friday, we leave here at 6 to travel for a consult meeting with a group of regional officials at 8am. They will drill us with questions and will then be making the decision on if we can adopt this boy or not. They could make a decision tomorrow while at the consult, or they could take time to think about it.
**Typically when you receive a referral, you are receiving permission to adopt the child you have been referred to. However, the child we picked is in a special situation, so we are having to seek permission to adopt him.
This little boy is ours, whether they give us permission to adopt him or not. If they say no, our hearts will be broken, as I am sure this little boy's will be as well.
HUGE PRAYER REQUEST:
The decision on whether or not we will be able to adopt this boy will be made tomorrow. This is the last step of the process of asking for permission.
The meeting begins at 8am here, which is midnight for you all, since we are 8 hours ahead of you.
If there is any time we would ask to be covered in prayers, this would be the time.
Please pray for God to move in the hearts of the officials who will be gathered for the consult, that they may realize that this little boy needs a family, and we are already love him to pieces.
Please pray for Matt and I to have wisdom in answering the questions, and that they may clearly see our hearts in this.
Please pray for Cavin. Pray that he sleeps tonight so he can be in a good mood during the meeting.
We thank you all in advance for covering us with prayer. We are so blessed to have friends and family like all of you in our lives, who we know will read this and begin covering us and the officials of this consult with prayer.
Wednesday: We left Kiev at 6am after only a few hours of sleep, partly due to Cavin, partly due to all of the emotions we were feeling facing the day. It was a long drive, crammed into a Euro car with all of our luggage! We were thankful Cavin slept most of the way (until he wouldn't sleep Wednesday night!).
Once we got to the town where the orphanage is located we had to wait for our facilitator Olig to go over our paper work with the social worker in charge of our little boy. It felt like it took forever! While we waited Cavin played in the grass for a while, which was nice for him as it was the first time he got to play outside since arriving in Ukraine.
We then finally travelled to the orphanage where we were interviewed by the orphanage director and the social worker. At the start of the interview the orphanage director was not smiling at all, so it was hard to get a read on her. Then after our interview we were able to ask more questions about the child, such as why he is at the orphanage and how long he has been there, his health history and so forth.
As we were concluding, I saw a little boy walk across the hallway, and then come walking towards us. My heart lept into my throat. This was the moment we had been waiting for, for so long. He walked in holding the hand of the lady who works with him the most, with a timid smile on his face. Then he walked straight over to me and wrapped his arms around my neck. As tears streamed down my face I fought for control of my emotions. My heart immediately fell in love with this precious boy, and I felt many of the same emotions I felt when I held Cavin for the first time.
We were able to spend a few minutes getting to know him before Olig brought Cavin back in. We were both nervous on how the boys would react to each other. Cavin did not fuss with jealousy at another little boy being cuddled up beside me and our little boy instantly took to Cavin, smiling, touching his face and hair, and giving him hugs. It melted our hearts, and I found myself again with tears coursing down my cheeks, fighting back a wave of emotions.
We were able to stay and play with our child for over an hour. It was so fun to watch him play, to play with him, and to see how he interacted with Cavin. He called Cavin his poopiska (I have no idea how to spell this), our translator was unsure how to translate the term, but she said it is like a chubby baby doll.
We were teaching the little boy to call us by our first names, but while playing hide and seek, the little boy told his papa to close his eyes and not peak or he would tell everyone! This one for sure brought Matt to tears, and of course, I was still crying!
After leaving we ate some dinner and got checked into our hotel, which surpised us with how nice it is considering the area we are in. Thankful, to be sure.
Thursday: Visiting hours are from 10-12 in the morning, so we walked to the orphange, which is about a 20 minute walk, to visit with our little boy again. He was ready to meet us, giving us both hugs, calling us mama and papi. Today Cavin was his baby! Some other little boys came by the room we were playing in and ours excitedly told them "this is my parents, and this is my baby!" When they tried touching Cavin he told them not to touch his baby. He is already protective of Cavin, and Cavin is of course already trying to keep up and do everything he does! Too cute.
This little boy is very smart, very talkative and loving, and just precious! Definitely all boy as well, with lots of energy!
Update on Permission to Adopt:
Today while we visited with this little boy Olig traveled to speak with the officials about them granting us permission to adopt this little boy. They didn't say no, but again, didn't say yes yet. Tomorrow morning, Friday, we leave here at 6 to travel for a consult meeting with a group of regional officials at 8am. They will drill us with questions and will then be making the decision on if we can adopt this boy or not. They could make a decision tomorrow while at the consult, or they could take time to think about it.
**Typically when you receive a referral, you are receiving permission to adopt the child you have been referred to. However, the child we picked is in a special situation, so we are having to seek permission to adopt him.
This little boy is ours, whether they give us permission to adopt him or not. If they say no, our hearts will be broken, as I am sure this little boy's will be as well.
HUGE PRAYER REQUEST:
The decision on whether or not we will be able to adopt this boy will be made tomorrow. This is the last step of the process of asking for permission.
The meeting begins at 8am here, which is midnight for you all, since we are 8 hours ahead of you.
If there is any time we would ask to be covered in prayers, this would be the time.
Please pray for God to move in the hearts of the officials who will be gathered for the consult, that they may realize that this little boy needs a family, and we are already love him to pieces.
Please pray for Matt and I to have wisdom in answering the questions, and that they may clearly see our hearts in this.
Please pray for Cavin. Pray that he sleeps tonight so he can be in a good mood during the meeting.
We thank you all in advance for covering us with prayer. We are so blessed to have friends and family like all of you in our lives, who we know will read this and begin covering us and the officials of this consult with prayer.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Official Referral!
We went this evening to pick up our official referral paper! Tomorrow morning our translator will pick us up at 6am and we will drive to the orphanage to meet our child! After meeting the child, we will accept or not accept the referral. If we accept the referral, then they will begin the process of deciding if they will allow us to adopt this child or not. We asked our facilitator here, realistically, what are the chances of them giving us permission to adopt this child, and he said we have a 50/50 chance. It could take them anywhere from a day to a week to make this decision.
Once they give us permission to adopt this child, then we will begin the process of getting the paperwork together to get a court date.
Prayer Requests:
-Pray for safety as we travel to the orphanage.
-Pray for us and the little boy as we meet. Pray that our hearts would be opened to each other!
-Pray for the officials who are in charge of making the decision on whether or not we are allowed to adopt this child. Pray that that God would move in their hearts to allow us to give this family a home and the love of a very large family! And pray that they would make this decision quickly!
Some thoughts on my heart, and that Matt and I have been discussing while here:
We had this verse made to hang in Cavin's room, as it means so much to Matt and I. We feel we have been in so many situations, the triplets, my difficult pregnancy with Cavin, and now this adoption, where this verse is the truth of our hearts.
"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Exodus 14:14
Moses speaks this verse in the book of Exodus, right after the 10 plagues, Pharaoh demands for Israel to leave his country. Israel, with rejoicing walks out of Egypt as free men. After the Israelites were gone, Pharaoah changes his mind and decides he doesn't want to let them go free. So Pharaoh gathers his army and goes after them. As Pharaoh and his army approached, Israel saw them and became terrified and began crying out to the Lord. They begin asking the Lord why he had brought them this far only to be taken back. Moses then tells the Israelite people, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."
We are once again in a place where we can do nothing but pray and beseech God to move on our behalf. It may sound strange, but I love being in this place, where I can do nothing, and God can do anything and everything. Although it is a place we should be everyday in our lives, for most of us, we only truly rely on God in the big situations or when we have no other choice because we can literally do nothing.
Yet at the same time we wonder why God doesn't move and work as he did in the Bible. We wonder why he no longer performs miracles and no longer speaks to his people. But in reality, God continues to do those things, WHEN WE LET HIM. But most people never give God enough control to LET him work in mighty ways in their life, or to hear him speak.
The truth is, if you do not see God working in your life, it is because you are not allowing Him to work by giving him control to do so. You are not taking steps of faith beyond your control, or your ability to do things. If you want to see God work, then you need to take steps of faith beyond your control, steps that are impossible without God intervening and working on your behalf.
For some, this may be scary, but for me, I love the adventure, the thrill of the ride. Like I said earlier, it may be strange, but I love being in a place beyond my control, because in that place not only can I see the might of God as he works and moves, but I am closest to him when I am most dependent on him.
So Begins the Climb!!
As we were looking through files yesterday we were literally heartbroken over the number of files there were. They literally had binders full of them, and that wasn't even all of the orphans, just the most "healthy" ones. We only found two children who met our health criteria (mostly healthy), maybe three. They were all older than we wanted, we wanted 2 or 3, these children were 4 and 5. But all of the two and three year olds had major health issues or deformities, or were HIV positive. There was really only one little boy who we felt really met what we were looking for, and who's picture we "clicked" with. He is a completely healthy, adorable 5 year old boy, blond hair, a sweet smile and freckles. =)
However, as I stated in our blog yesterday, there was, and still is, a mountain standing between us and permission to adopt this little boy. We prayed, and we asked God to move in our favor, and He has! This mountain has not been removed, but we have been given permission to start the climb, which is definitely answered prayer!
So we will go today to sign papers at the SDA to receive our official referral for this little boy. Then tomorrow morning we will travel to the orphange to meet him!!
We are so thankful for you all and we are honored that you have sacrificed your time to pray on our behalf. We pray that God will use our journey to encourage and inspire you, and help you grow closer in your own walk with Him.
Please continue to lift us up in prayer! Please pray that we will be liked by those at the orphanage, especially this little boy, and that we will be given permission to adopt him!
However, as I stated in our blog yesterday, there was, and still is, a mountain standing between us and permission to adopt this little boy. We prayed, and we asked God to move in our favor, and He has! This mountain has not been removed, but we have been given permission to start the climb, which is definitely answered prayer!
So we will go today to sign papers at the SDA to receive our official referral for this little boy. Then tomorrow morning we will travel to the orphange to meet him!!
We are so thankful for you all and we are honored that you have sacrificed your time to pray on our behalf. We pray that God will use our journey to encourage and inspire you, and help you grow closer in your own walk with Him.
Please continue to lift us up in prayer! Please pray that we will be liked by those at the orphanage, especially this little boy, and that we will be given permission to adopt him!
Monday, December 6, 2010
First SDA Appointment
Well, we are still without an official referral. I am unable to give many details, but we have a little boy we are wanting, but there is a major mountain standing in the way. Not impossible to get over, but very rare. So if you could be praying specifically for Ukrainian officials who are making decisions on behalf of our case, we would definitely appreciate it.
Prayer is powerful, and we ask that you all join with us in asking God to move in our favor on this matter.
We are praying to hear their decision today. We will keep you posted as we know more.
"The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective..." James 5:16
Prayer is powerful, and we ask that you all join with us in asking God to move in our favor on this matter.
We are praying to hear their decision today. We will keep you posted as we know more.
"The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective..." James 5:16
Appointment Day!!
Neither Matt nor I slept well last night. I couldn't get to sleep, and Matt was up at 4, unable to go back to sleep. I woke up at 6 and we have been wide awake since.
We brought a blow up bed (air mattress with sides) for Cavin to sleep in, but the only place in our room to put it is next to a window, which produces a very cold draft, which makes it too cold for Cavin to sleep. So he slept with us most of the night. We are going to have to come up with a better solution for tonight!
We are feeling a mix of emotions this morning, but we are mostly excited to finally pick a referral. We have been waiting months, even years for this moment and we can hardly believe it is finally here!
If you are up this early, please be praying for us as we go to our appointment (4-5am Saint Louis time)!! We will update with news as soon as we can!
We brought a blow up bed (air mattress with sides) for Cavin to sleep in, but the only place in our room to put it is next to a window, which produces a very cold draft, which makes it too cold for Cavin to sleep. So he slept with us most of the night. We are going to have to come up with a better solution for tonight!
We are feeling a mix of emotions this morning, but we are mostly excited to finally pick a referral. We have been waiting months, even years for this moment and we can hardly believe it is finally here!
If you are up this early, please be praying for us as we go to our appointment (4-5am Saint Louis time)!! We will update with news as soon as we can!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
A Blah Kinda Day!
We were up at 3am this morning with a wide awake baby! Gotta love jet lag! We finally got Cavin back to sleep around 9am and we all slept until 1! It was much needed sleep! We decided to bundle up and go for a walk, to help us stay awake, so we walked around downtown Kiev for about an hour or so. We didn't really bring a stroller, so it is hard to do much, not to mention its freezing cold here, so we felt bad keeping Cavin out in the cold for too long, even if he was all bundled up.
Once we got back to our apartment we lounged around some more until we were ready to go eat some dinner. We went to a restaurant across the street that Yuri recommended. We both had a pizza and I had some delicious coffee. I don't know what they do differently in Europe, but their coffee is so much better!! For me to drink coffee in the States I have to add a lot of creamer, sugar or some kind of flavoring. But here, I can drink a plain cappuccino and love it!
There isn't much to look at in Kiev, you can definitely tell they were part of Russia and a communist country. The wierdest thing to me was that they have malls underground. They don't have many cross walks across the street, you cross under the street, and the underground crosswalk will also be lined with stores. Very interesting!
We are so excited for tomorrow! It has been even harder to be in Kiev and still be waiting! We have been praying continually for God's hand to be evident in our appointment with the SDA tomorrow. What we are dreading the most is seeing the thousands of files of these children who need homes, and only being able to choose one. We thought they would give us a small selection of files to look through, but Yuri said they will show us all of the files of orphans in Ukraine who are under the age of 6. So we will literally see thousands of files of orphans tomorrow. It will be heartbreaking for sure. We are a little nervous and scared, but we completely trust that God has the perfect child for us!
Again, our appointment is at 12 noon tomorrow, which is 4am Saint Louis time. We covet your prayers and ask that you continue to intercede on our behalf, for God to reveal to us the child He has for us, and for God to move in mighty ways through our adoption process. We thank you in advance for praying with us.
Now to try and get some sleep...
Once we got back to our apartment we lounged around some more until we were ready to go eat some dinner. We went to a restaurant across the street that Yuri recommended. We both had a pizza and I had some delicious coffee. I don't know what they do differently in Europe, but their coffee is so much better!! For me to drink coffee in the States I have to add a lot of creamer, sugar or some kind of flavoring. But here, I can drink a plain cappuccino and love it!
There isn't much to look at in Kiev, you can definitely tell they were part of Russia and a communist country. The wierdest thing to me was that they have malls underground. They don't have many cross walks across the street, you cross under the street, and the underground crosswalk will also be lined with stores. Very interesting!
We are so excited for tomorrow! It has been even harder to be in Kiev and still be waiting! We have been praying continually for God's hand to be evident in our appointment with the SDA tomorrow. What we are dreading the most is seeing the thousands of files of these children who need homes, and only being able to choose one. We thought they would give us a small selection of files to look through, but Yuri said they will show us all of the files of orphans in Ukraine who are under the age of 6. So we will literally see thousands of files of orphans tomorrow. It will be heartbreaking for sure. We are a little nervous and scared, but we completely trust that God has the perfect child for us!
Again, our appointment is at 12 noon tomorrow, which is 4am Saint Louis time. We covet your prayers and ask that you continue to intercede on our behalf, for God to reveal to us the child He has for us, and for God to move in mighty ways through our adoption process. We thank you in advance for praying with us.
Now to try and get some sleep...
Saturday, December 4, 2010
We Made It!!
We made it safe and sound to Kiev!
The 8.5 hour flight from Charlotte to Munich was rough. We were stuck in the middle aisle of three seats, with a super tall guy in the third seat, which left us little room to move! Cavin did amazing, especially considering that he was on one of our laps almost the entire time! We were hoping he would sleep most of the flight, but he only slept the last two hours of the flight, meaning we didn't get much sleep either!
Our layover in Munich was long. Much too long. We did finally get Cavin to go back to sleep in his stroller so w were able to stretch out on the benches and get an hour or so nap as well. I loved hearing German everywhere, it made me miss Vienna all the more! It was fun to try and understand what they were saying and remember the little we had learned while living in Vienna. To top it off, we got some yummy German food for dinner! It totally made our day, well at least mine! Did I mention Munich had almost a foot of snow on the ground?
The flight from Munich to Kiev was pretty uneventful. We did have an extra seat which made it nice for Cavin to be able to move around more. I think both Matt and I dozed off and on throughout the flight. In typical Cavin fashion, he fell asleep as we were descending to land. A highlight of this flight was the views we had of the Alps, they were snow capped and beautiful!
We made it through customs just fine, no one even stopped us and it was really nice not to have to deal with that hassle and just be able to walk on through. Thankful for God's blessing there for sure! Yuri, our facilitator here in Ukraine met us and drove us to the apartment he had found for us. The apartment is fully furnished and is nice enough. We dropped our stuff off and ventured to exchange some money and get some groceries.
Once we got back we sat down with Yuri to discuss what we are wanting in our referral. We began talking about some of the medical conditions kids have, and how hard it is to find a healthy child without a serious medical condition under the age of 6. I loved how Yuri said, "I'm not trying to scare you..." when that is just what he did!
We know God is going to provide the perfect child for us, but the idea of sorting through THOUSANDS of files Monday afternoon, trying to sort through and decipher medical conditions, is most definitely scary. We are nervous for sure, but are so thankful God provided Yuri, a Christian man with over 10 years of experience in Ukrainian adoptions, to be our facilitator! We are totally going to be relying on him to help us sort through the files and find us a referral that meets our needs.
Yuri said most times a family will not find their child with their first SDA appointment, but that it takes most families two appointments (we are allowed 3 total) with the SDA to receive the referral to their child. To get a second appointment is easy, it would just add up to another week onto our stay here.
HUGE PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray that there will be a healthy little boy (3ish) for us to be referred to on Monday!! We really don't want the time delay of a second SDA appointment and all that would entail.
Our appointment with the SDA is on Monday, December 6 at Noon, which would be 4am Saint Louis time..
In the meantime, please pray that we can adjust well to the 8 hour time change and get a good nights rest tonight!!
The 8.5 hour flight from Charlotte to Munich was rough. We were stuck in the middle aisle of three seats, with a super tall guy in the third seat, which left us little room to move! Cavin did amazing, especially considering that he was on one of our laps almost the entire time! We were hoping he would sleep most of the flight, but he only slept the last two hours of the flight, meaning we didn't get much sleep either!
Our layover in Munich was long. Much too long. We did finally get Cavin to go back to sleep in his stroller so w were able to stretch out on the benches and get an hour or so nap as well. I loved hearing German everywhere, it made me miss Vienna all the more! It was fun to try and understand what they were saying and remember the little we had learned while living in Vienna. To top it off, we got some yummy German food for dinner! It totally made our day, well at least mine! Did I mention Munich had almost a foot of snow on the ground?
The flight from Munich to Kiev was pretty uneventful. We did have an extra seat which made it nice for Cavin to be able to move around more. I think both Matt and I dozed off and on throughout the flight. In typical Cavin fashion, he fell asleep as we were descending to land. A highlight of this flight was the views we had of the Alps, they were snow capped and beautiful!
We made it through customs just fine, no one even stopped us and it was really nice not to have to deal with that hassle and just be able to walk on through. Thankful for God's blessing there for sure! Yuri, our facilitator here in Ukraine met us and drove us to the apartment he had found for us. The apartment is fully furnished and is nice enough. We dropped our stuff off and ventured to exchange some money and get some groceries.
Once we got back we sat down with Yuri to discuss what we are wanting in our referral. We began talking about some of the medical conditions kids have, and how hard it is to find a healthy child without a serious medical condition under the age of 6. I loved how Yuri said, "I'm not trying to scare you..." when that is just what he did!
We know God is going to provide the perfect child for us, but the idea of sorting through THOUSANDS of files Monday afternoon, trying to sort through and decipher medical conditions, is most definitely scary. We are nervous for sure, but are so thankful God provided Yuri, a Christian man with over 10 years of experience in Ukrainian adoptions, to be our facilitator! We are totally going to be relying on him to help us sort through the files and find us a referral that meets our needs.
Yuri said most times a family will not find their child with their first SDA appointment, but that it takes most families two appointments (we are allowed 3 total) with the SDA to receive the referral to their child. To get a second appointment is easy, it would just add up to another week onto our stay here.
HUGE PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray that there will be a healthy little boy (3ish) for us to be referred to on Monday!! We really don't want the time delay of a second SDA appointment and all that would entail.
Our appointment with the SDA is on Monday, December 6 at Noon, which would be 4am Saint Louis time..
In the meantime, please pray that we can adjust well to the 8 hour time change and get a good nights rest tonight!!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Charlotte, North Carolina
We are sitting in Charlotte, waiting to board the plane to Munich, Germany. Cavin did great on our flight from Saint Louis to here! We were hoping he would nap, which he did, but he didn't fall asleep until the captain made the "we're beginning our descent into Charlotte" announcement. Typical of Cavin, always falling asleep just as we're almost at our destination!
We were hoping there would be an extra seat somewhere that we could snag, since the bassinet was already reserved, but its a full flight. So we will be holding Cavin all 8 hours of the flight. We are just praying he sleeps so we can get some rest.
"Pray continually..." 2 Thessalonians 5:17
We were hoping there would be an extra seat somewhere that we could snag, since the bassinet was already reserved, but its a full flight. So we will be holding Cavin all 8 hours of the flight. We are just praying he sleeps so we can get some rest.
"Pray continually..." 2 Thessalonians 5:17
1:16
As I begin to type this it is 1:16am, and we are just getting to bed, yet I find myself wide awake with anticipation and excitement. I have not finished the busy books, I have 8 pages finished for each book, plus front and back covers, but I have not stitched the pages together yet. I was planning on using the sewing machine to put the pages together, but my bobbin turned into a huge knot, and in the process of trying to fix it, I believe I made it worse. Where is my Grandma Grubb when I need her sewing expertise? She is the one who taught me how to sew, and I have really enjoyed doing this project, with the little bit of sewing I remember from my childhood! After checking what TSA allows, I decided to call it a night and stitch Cavin's book together as we fly and sit and wait in airports. I can finish Rance's once we're in Ukraine in our downtime.
This evening amongst our packing chaos we rearranged Cavin's room to add the toddler bed we are borrowing from friends. It may sound wierd, but seeing that little bed set up and ready to be used brought tears of joy to my eyes and flooded my heart with love. We are finally going to get our son!! We are so close to being able to tuck this little boy into bed, probably for the first time in his life, give him hugs and kisses, pray with him, and tell him how unperfectly loved he is by his family, and how perfectly loved he is by his Savior!
We fly out of Saint Louis today at 12:50 and have our first layover in Charlotte. We only have an hour and a half layover, which will be cutting it close with our next flight being an international flight. We will for sure have to switch terminals, we are just praying we won't have to go through security again. Next up is our transatlantic flight to Munich, Germany, which is an 8 hour flight. As most of this flight will be overnight, we are praying Cavin sleeps and we can also get some sleep! We have a 5 hour layover in Munich, which will be tough beings we will be jet lagging, but thankful for the extra time in case our previous flights met any delays. Finally we arrive in Kiev Saturday afternoon at 4:20pm, which would be 8:20am Saint Louis time.
We have a long journey ahead of us, but we are so excited!!!! We covet your prayers, and will do our best to keep you updated as often as possible!
Now to attempt to get some sleep amidst our excitement!
This evening amongst our packing chaos we rearranged Cavin's room to add the toddler bed we are borrowing from friends. It may sound wierd, but seeing that little bed set up and ready to be used brought tears of joy to my eyes and flooded my heart with love. We are finally going to get our son!! We are so close to being able to tuck this little boy into bed, probably for the first time in his life, give him hugs and kisses, pray with him, and tell him how unperfectly loved he is by his family, and how perfectly loved he is by his Savior!
We fly out of Saint Louis today at 12:50 and have our first layover in Charlotte. We only have an hour and a half layover, which will be cutting it close with our next flight being an international flight. We will for sure have to switch terminals, we are just praying we won't have to go through security again. Next up is our transatlantic flight to Munich, Germany, which is an 8 hour flight. As most of this flight will be overnight, we are praying Cavin sleeps and we can also get some sleep! We have a 5 hour layover in Munich, which will be tough beings we will be jet lagging, but thankful for the extra time in case our previous flights met any delays. Finally we arrive in Kiev Saturday afternoon at 4:20pm, which would be 8:20am Saint Louis time.
We have a long journey ahead of us, but we are so excited!!!! We covet your prayers, and will do our best to keep you updated as often as possible!
Now to attempt to get some sleep amidst our excitement!
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