Thanks and Giving

We were truly blessed with a bountiful Thanksgiving this year. We spent the holidays with both the Lydic and Gipson families; eating great food and way too much of it! The boys are on Chad and my mind's more than ever. We were truly hoping to be in Russia by now visiting with the boys. Last week our coordinator in the region of Russia we are adopting from emailed our agency to let us know we unfortunately will not be able to travel for our first visit until early 2011. We were terribly disappointed to have yet another bump in our path. After we had a few days to process through the news, we realized that we had forgotten a very important thing. This was that we are not in control of how our journey unfolds. This has been determined by God and we must continue to put our faith in Him that things will come together exactly when and where he feels they must. So, we took a deep breath and realized the importance of recognizing the joy of this time of the year and how important it is that we be available to celebrate with our girls. Callie asked last night about the magic of Santa Claus, and if he disappears back up the chimney if the dogs see him. She was concerned our Great Dane would scare him away with her lumbering size. Apparently, Callie saw fit to let everyone at church know she would like a kitty for Christmas; we will have to disappoint her in this regard. However, I am sure she will be well taken care of in the gift department with all of her grandparents, aunts, and uncles! We have been fortunate to be able to refinance our home in Cameron to assist in paying for our adoption expenses. We were reluctant to have to seek loans for our adoption as we have saved and fundraised for all monies thus far. Refinancing made the most financial sense from an interest rate point of view. Security Savings Bank has been such a wonderful institution to work with; they truly embrace their motto.. part of your community, part of your life. Our loan officer saw my determination and passion, that's for sure! We continue to stay busy as most people this time of the year. Chad and I continue to coach Samantha's sixth grade basketball team. I think the girls are having fun and it is nice to see them begin to progress in their fundamental skills. If they start to set picks during their offense, I will be one happy coach! Yesterday I spoke with my friend Anna D. about starting up our club volleyball program in the next two months. I know coaching takes a lot of time, but I do enjoy the kids and seeing how athletics helps instill important life skills. I am hoping Anna and I can find a coach so I may step into more of a role as the director of the program. Callie has her first Christmas program at school this week; they are including the Pre-K for the first time this year. This past weekend we went shopping for the girls' Christmas dresses. Callie is very opinionated already regarding what type of dress she wants to wear! She definitely knows what she likes. Now that Callie is five, she feels an adjustment in her bedtime is appropriate. After some discussion, she determined a bedtime of 8:29 instead of 8:30 was fair. Sam has happily agreed with the arrangement, although she has a huge grin on her face every time we talk about it! Samantha is a great big sister for Callie (most of the time), and I think Callie will enjoy having the new role of big sister soon. We hope everyone enjoys the holiday season. I will be posting fun videos on Facebook soon, so check them out.

Adoption pregnancy

This week I have been thinking about our upcoming events with our adoption. In many ways, the emotions I have been experiencing are very similar to my feelings during the last few weeks of pregnancy with the girls. For those women whom have been pregnant maybe you can relate. I'm just ready to be done with the process, but anxious about returning home from Russia with the boys. The whole thought process can be quite overwhelming if I think about it too much! The differences would be that with the girls I was able to slowly learn about their little personalities, and to meet their needs was fairly easy. You know, change their diaper, feed them, rock them. When we come home with our little guys they will already have their personalities formed. Their wants and needs will be so much more beyond eat, sleep, and use the bathroom! I am confident between Chad and myself we will parent the boys and be successful as we have been with Sam and Callie. I am also sure that there will be times we struggle as parenting is a wondrous and challenging task. As I longingly look at items for the boys while shopping, I am reminded to slow down and appreciate our family RIGHT NOW and take a deep breath as we prepare to make some big changes.

Applebee's fundraiser results

I wanted to thank everyone who purchased tickets or donated to our Applebee's flapjack fundraiser which we held on October 9th. We raised just under $900 towards our continuing adoption costs. The manager at Applebee's was tremendously helpful and everything went very smoothly. Once again, our family and friends came together to help us execute a successful fundraiser. Some of my current and prior children and families I have worked with in therapy attended the event. Seeing all of the people there really warmed my heart and helped me think about the wonderful community we will bring our boys home to so that they may grow and thrive. As of this date, we have raised via fundraising and saved about fifteen thousand dollars. Our agency has informed us that the in region coordinator expects the Ministry of Education to send our letter of invitation to travel to see the boys in late November. We would be more than happy to give up a turkey dinner to spend Thanksgiving with our boys! Please keep us in our prayers as we continue in our journey to Russia.
Many exciting things continue to happen in our families. My grandfather and father participated in the Honor Flight earlier this month. My 85 year old grandfather remained awake from 4am when they left until 11pm when they returned! Both my dad and grandpa had an amazing time sightseeing in Washington D.C. My dad's birthday is this week, and my grandpa will turn 86 in two weeks. Callie is the next to celebrate her 5th birthday on November 17th! Jessica and Matt continue to work on their wedding plans. Jessica is currently in training for her new position as a foster care caseworker. Matt was recently given a promotion in his job, which they are both very excited about as they look for their first apartment together.
Tonight I began searching online for warm boots for our trip. The orphanage is in Siberia and it will be quite cold with a lot of snow on the ground. I want to find something warm that is fashionable so I can wear here at home for work. We have also begun to accumulate items to take with us on our trip to donate to the orphanage. Today I walked by the preschool at the university and the children were playing outside. I stopped and watched several little boys driving the small cars around the playground and I became teary-eyed as I thought how close we are to meeting our boys. I have felt many of the same emotions I did when I was pregnant with Sam and Callie. We have looked at the pictures of the boys since last January, and our "pregnancy" is definitely "overdue"! I hope the next time I post I will have more exciting news to share!

We are close now!

Since my last post, we have been busier than ever with our everyday lives and adoption preparations. Samantha and Callie began school, with Sam being at the junior high building and Callie at Pre-K in Alexis. Callie has been pretty tired by the early evening! It shocks me to think Callie will be turning 5 in November! Sam has some pretty exciting news to share; we have begun using a new insulin pump which allows her to not give herself insulin injections several times per day. With this pump there is a pod attached to her body which administers the insulin. The best part is that there are no tubes attached to her body and the system is as close to painless as can be. I am so proud of how she is learning to take care of her diabetes. This semester at WIU I have taken over as the undergraduate adviser which I have enjoyed as I am able to work more closely with the students. I am currently teaching two courses as well, and supervising in the clinic. I miss having a full caseload of families personally, but enjoy seeing the students be successful as students and clinicians. I continue to work with a few families as I don't think I will ever stop being a therapist myself! Chad continues to work very steadily thanks to the good weather. Sometimes we wish he had a whole weekend off but that extra day on the paycheck can make a big difference too! Now to the adoption update....
We received very EXCITING news last week. Our dossier has been received in our region in Russia. The coordinator there has contacted our agency to let us know the boys are definitely still available for adoption and we will be traveling soon. The coordinator is working on acquiring firm travel dates for us. In a lot of ways the reality of our much anticipated plans is setting in for us. I find myself thinking about things like "next time I do this we will have the boys" quite a bit. We continue to hope to have the boys home for Christmas. Our fundraising efforts continue as well. Our local Applebees in Galesburg has agreed to allow us to hold a "Flapjack Fundraiser" on Saturday, October 9th from 8-10am. We are selling tickets for $5 each which includes pancakes, bacon, and juice/coffee. We will be able to keep $4 of every ticket sold. We are very thankful for Applebee's commitment to their community. We are also hoping to be chosen as a grant recipient next month as we are being reviewed by one of the granting agencies we applied to a few months ago. Finally, Chad and I have made an appointment with our bank to see about additional financing options we may have to complete our adoption. We are a bit overwhelmed at the amount of money we will need easy access to during our trips. I cannot imagine traveling to a foreign country with so much money! It is good to know we have a great agency of people in case we hit a problem while we are in Russia. It is also a relief to know we have a wealth of friends of family supporting us here in the US as we travel. I would like to end this post with an experience I had last week. I have been waking up Chad in the middle of the night as I have been talking in my sleep. We determined I must be feeling anxious or stress from the lack of control I have over our adoption process. Chad encouraged me to have faith as this will come together for us. Since he told me to "have faith" I have slept soundly (no 3am talking in sleep) which he greatly appreciates!

Results of our FINAL adoption fundraiser yard sale

This past Friday we held our final yard sale in Galesburg. Once again, our family and friends came through to help us out. Our friend Marlene Johnson allowed us to use her garage for our sale. My mom packed up and helped haul items to Marlene's. My friend Angi loaned her folding tables. My sister Jessica got up at 6am on her day off from work to help me run the yard sale. It was a very HOT day, but we earned $350 for the day's efforts. It is a comfort to see our total inch towards our next goal. Tomorrow I will travel to Springfield to apostille all of the necessary documents. On August 1 I will send our first dossier to our agency with our check for $6000. They will review our documents to make sure everything is in order, translate them, and forward our dossier to Russia! It is exciting to be able to cross items off of our list! While we await for our official referral of the boys, we will continue to work hard to save for our first trip to Russia. We will need to cover our expenses for travel (flights alone will be about 3200) and then pay the agency fees for that portion of the process ($6000). We have applied for two grants so far and have heard back from one that we did not meet the criteria for their program. I am completing a third grant application and hope to send that one out soon. Chad and I are considering our options for adoption loans as I don't think we will have much time in the next few months to complete new fundraisers. We will continue to collect aluminum cans. We are waiting for the price of aluminum to go up; right now it is at 35 cents per pound. We would like for it to get closer to 50 cents per pound again and then we will haul our bags and bags of crushed cans to the recycling center. Currently the girls are enjoying some time with their dad. I am trying to keep my days busy since I am "flying solo". I have been continuing with my private speech therapy practice and exercising. We started painting our fence as well. Chad bought me a spray paint gun but it is no longer working so I am doing it "Tom Sawyer style" with the paint brush. We will go on a short weekend vacation to Des Moines before school starts. I return to campus on August 17th, and the girls go back the following week. Callie will attend preschool at United this school year. She is so EXCITED to ride the bus with Sam. Chad has been working six days a week; he has worked more this summer than last and we are thrilled about it. He thinks his crew will be working well into December. Summers really do fly by, don't they? Thanks again to everyone who continues to keep us in your thoughts.

I know, another yard sale.... but we have so far to go!

I know, I know, we are going to give it another round now.... I have been talking about yard sales for months and didn't we just have one? Our sale of July 4th was immensely successful. But, we still have a LOT of really nice items as well. So, if anyone continues to have items you would like to get rid of, we will have a sale on Friday July 23rd in Galesburg. We are finalizing our items for our dossier. Our social worker should be mailing our FINALIZED home study tomorrow. Although we have already received one denial for a grant, I am hopeful that the other two grants we are applying for will possibly see fit to offer us some money. Either way, we are committed to completing our adoption. Chad and I enjoyed the beautiful day today by completing yard work. There is something to be said about completing something which takes manual labor; I think it is seeing your hard work come to fruition. We shoveled gravel into our driveway to help even it out. It was hard work! However, after we were done, it looked so much better. The best part was not having to drive around the "potholes" when we pull into our driveway. We then attacked the fence and tested out our new paint sprayer. I hope to complete painting in the next two weeks. Keeping busy helps us not think so much about how difficult it is to wait for things to move along with the adoption. And of course, the girls help with that too! My next post may provide further details regarding when we will travel to Russia! Thanks again to everyone for your support!

One Amazing Day

I can not believe I have been blogging for six months! I have many things to share as today has been full of nice surprises. First off, here is an update of our fundraising efforts. This past weekend we held our yard sale on Cameron Days. We made a little over $800 on Saturday and Sunday. I am so appreciative of our family and friends whom donated items to our cause. We had so many items to price and place onto tables neatly and I think it really paid off. Amanda and Chad Maleug came by Saturday morning and helped set up. Jessica met me early Saturday to get things rolling; her Goodwill experience was a big asset in helping me price unusual items. Jaimey and my mom also came by to help set things up. Jaimey hung out with Chad and I most of the day on the 4th at our sale. Although we sold a LOT of items, we still have many items left. Chad and I decided we would take some of the more desirable items to a friends' house in Galesburg for a yard sale there to see if we can sell more items. Once we do that we will probably donate the items to our different charities locally. We were so tired at the end of the day! We spent the 5th lounging around in the morning and then went to Chad's parents in Little York to swim in the afternoon. Today I returned to work at WIU feeling exhausted. I became reenergized upon receipt of an email from Susan our social worker. She had received an email from DCFS asking her to add additional information to our homestudy. She completed the requested information and faxed it back. Susan felt this was a sure sign our homestudy will be approved by DCFS very soon! I am excited to be able to submit our homestudy with our grant applications. This afternoon we were blessed to receive a wonderful donation from a family. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to this family as they saw our need and felt strongly enough to support our adoption to make such a contribution. I do believe that God is leading us on this journey and it has been difficult for me to not question the direction we are following. Giving it up to God can be such a challenge for a Type A personality! We received a much anticipated phone call this evening as I prepared dinner. Dr. Ladage from Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis called me to provide us with a consultation on the medical records we have received for the boys. I had been nervous to hear her opinion, as I knew it could include negativity about the medical history. Fortunately, Dr. Ladage stated that she did not see any diagnoses that caused her to become alarmed. She gave me specific ideas to use when we visit with the boys to acquire further information for her. When we are visiting the boys in the orphanage she will consult with us again as we will receive their full medical history. Once we return with the boys she can complete a full evaluation of their development as she is an international adoption pediatrician. It is nice to know that we are linked with professionals whom can provide us with support when we are in Russia. We hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Thanks again for all of the prayers and support!