News from a land far, far away…

We are celebrating great news from Latvia today.  Some of you may know that we had decided to adopt A while he was here this summer with us for hosting.  Well soon after he left to return to Riga at the end of hosting things became not so clear and we had put the adoption process on hold and have been praying fiercely about the situation.  A dear friend of ours that has walked this process with us since last summer is in Riga to finalize her sons adoption and she spent some time at a Christian summer camp where A is at this week.  Well last night he came up to her and asked her to pass a message to us (I'm thinking God put her there for this purpose!).  He said YES and wants us to start the paperwork to bring him home forever!!!  Pray us through this peeps, we aren't out of the woods yet but we are going to move forward in faith that we are showing him love and what its like to have someone stand by you even when things are tough. 
Let the fundraising begin!!!

Headed Back to Latvia

Tomorrow Danny and Grace will board a plane and make the long flight back to Latvia in order to arrive for court on Tuesday to finalize her adoption with us.  It’s been a wonderful three months with her and we are happy to be making her a part of our family “official”.  She’s dreading the trip and is coming up with every excuse she can to avoid going back so I guess that’s a great indication that she wants to stay! LOL

Anyway, we are still raising funds for this trip as well as the final trip that should come in the next 4-6 weeks that will make her an American citizen.  We have a Charity Project page set up if you would like to make a donation towards our adoption expenses.  You can find that page here

http://www.acharityproject.com/f/BringingViktoriaHome

Pray for safe travels for them and for me as I take on single parenting for the next five days please!

We are also counting down the days until Arturs arrives to spend the summer with us.  Just 28 days until he will be here!!!  We are wanting to build a bunk bed for him and Sean to share so if anyone has any skills and time they want to share I’ll buy the supplies and cook for you too

Thanks everyone for supporting us in this wild and crazy journey of adoption and hosting that God has put us on!  We feel blessed to be on it.

6 weeks into our new “NORM”

And life is good. Actually life is GREAT.  The kids are all getting along really well.  Baseball is in full swing.  Grace (FYI, Vica has decided to go by her new middle name) is learning English quickly.  She’s made a few good friends and absolutely loves church.  In fact, last week she accepted Christ as her savior after watching a video on facebook of one of her fellow Lat friends that is also now adopted being baptized.  I also turned 34 this week.  I had a wonderful birthday and was so happy with the surprise cupcakes and cards and pampering my kids gave to me as well as a night out with Danny for dinner.  A dear friend spent the day helping the kids with their creations and babysat for us that night.  Too bad we can’t have birthdays twice a year

We should have our 2nd court dates soon which will finalize the adoption with Latvia.  Grace and Danny will both be making this trip.  It’s probably going to be between $3800-$4000 in air fare plus another $5000 in court fees.  We do not have any fundraisers planned at the moment since everyone’s lives, not just ours, are so busy.  I do hope to be able to have a yard sale in the next few weeks that will hopefully make some money as well as clear out our garage.  Fundraising takes a whole lot of work and is tiring so we just can’t do it right now but if you would like to contribute to our 2nd court there is a paypal button on the right side of our blog that you can donate with your paypal account or credit card.

I’m also still doing my mongramming/applique business which helps our adoption funding as well so if you have a need for a personalized t-shirt or kids birthday shirt, towel, bride/groom towels, or baby gifts please let me know.  You can view my page on facebook by search Scrapberry Designs or clicking this link https://www.facebook.com/scrapberrycreates

Here are a few photos we’ve snapped over the past few weeks:

My heart is full <3

We are home and adjusting

Once again I am sorry it’s been a while since I’ve updated but as you know, life happens (especially with kids).  We came home a week Saturday with our new daughter and things continue to go amazingly well.  Vica and the boys are doing great together.  She’s really stepped into her role as big sister and is loving every minute of it.  Her only real issues that we have realized at this point are the way that she wants to hug and love EVERYBODY and her being overstimulated with too many people and things going on around her but this is to be expected.

We came home to my mom being in the hospital here for problems with her foot.  She had actually flown here from her home in Florida to help with the boys while we were gone and then ended up hospitalized .  She is fortunately okay and came home on Tuesday. We also have had family come in to visit for the past few days so things have been a little busier than normal. I also started back to work last week too so we are all working on adjusting to our new life and schedule as a family.  This week we add homeschooling into the mix.

I read up on the idea of cocooning on another adoption friends blog and I think we are going to be doing a modified version of that with Vica for a while so she can learn the difference of liking other people versus loving and hugging every body she meets and that those feelings are more so for your family and also to help her ease into life in Amercia and to try to avoid some of those over stimulating factors.

On another note: Friends, I need you to be patient with me right now.  My life was busy before and it’s a little busier now and my kids are my first priority.  If I don’t answer your phone calls it’s because I’m corralling four children into the car or getting kids to baseball practice or doing homework or talking to someone that has knocked on the front door or trying to run a business while potty training a toddler while translating for a teenager that is brand new to our life.  I love my life and all of it’s craziness and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world but sometimes it’s hard for others to not take it personal that I just don’t have the extra time.  Just please be understanding that I am really limited right now and DO NOT take it personal.  IT’S NOT YOU.   If you send me an email I will do my best to get back to you in a reasonable time.  I know some of my friends are feeling neglected so I just wanted to explain this to everyone.  We just need some time right now.

Here are a few more photos

 

Paldies friends and for now, ata!!!

Day 20 in Riga

Yes, that is how long we have been here now. It's been a long journey to get here and now a long time spent here. The good news is that we only have 8 more days until we can come home so we are trying to put aside the homesickness and enjoy what is left.

Yesterday we went with another family that is here adopting to St Peters Cathedral and rode the elevator up to the top of the tower where you can step out and see all around Riga. It was beautiful.









Then on our walk back to catch the bus we noticed something going on at the Freedom Monument. There were soldiers standing at attention and their military band was ready to play too so we asked and found out that yesterday was the anniversary of Latvia and Estonia's freedom and both presidents were coming. So we stayed and watched as the cavalcade pulled in and the soldiers marched up to the presidents and gave them both a beautiful wreath which they layed at the freedom monument. It was really a neat thing to witness. I mean I've never even seen our president in person and here I saw the president of two different countries. It was cool. Danny even took a little video clip of it which I'm posting below.

We then invited the other family back to the apartment to have dinner with us and let the kids watch Rio. It was nice to spend time with someone else over here that we can talk to and relate to what we are going through.

As for Vica, truly I have nothing but wonderful things to say. She is mild mannered, she likes helping out, she has been great with the 4 year old twins we've been hanging out with, she jokes with us and has a great sense of humor and she likes to give hugs and tell us she loves us. And she is your typical teen who is attached to her phone and can go through some credits from texting in no time flat :) But, when we tell her it's time to put the phone up she is so good at listening and not giving attitude. I realize that things may change some when we get home but all in all I think we are going to have it pretty easy with her.

Update

Good Saturday morning friends!

Things are going wonderful here with Vica. We are really enjoying getting to know each other and at the same time doing lots of sight seeing here in Riga so we are staying pretty busy. In the past few days we have been to Old Riga twice. Thursday we walked around just taking it all in. We also visited the Occupational Museum of Latvia which Danny really enjoyed since he is into history. Then we went to a mall called Galleria Center and walked around learning what things Vica likes though we don't think she understands the shopping concept so mom is going to have to work on that bit ;)













Friday the social worker from orphan court came for a home visit. Vica told them that this is her dream come true. She really is such an easy going and pleasant child. She doesn't ask for much and always wants to help. She told me yesterday that if Matthew and Chase do not know how to make their beds then she will teach them :) Danny and I are taking bets on whether she will get them to start picking up, making beds, etc or if they will sway her to stop doing it lol. She plays a really cool instrument called the Korkle, it's like a harp that lays on your lap. But she also wants to learn the piano. We also went back to Old Riga yesterday morning before the social worker came. A fellow adoptive Latvian momma, friend, and now co-worker with New Horizons was here interviewing kids for summer hosting so we met up with her for a little chatting time. It was great to meet Stephanie in person. Then last night we took a cab to Lido's to have dinner with the Walker family. They are adopting adorable 4 year old twins. Lido's is a really nice buffet style restaurant and the food is just delicious. There are lots of recreation things to do outside too but most of that is shut down right now since it's so cold out.

This is Vica, Stephanie, and Me. Horrible picture of me but the only one I got so whatever :)

Vica at Lido's

My daughter is a texting queen too :)

So today we are doing laundry and then I think going to see a movie later this afternoon. They show the movies here in English with Latvian subtitles.

Have a great day everyone!

He has turned our mourning into dancing

I haven't blogged in a few days because there has been a lot of stuff going on with us. The girls were told by their one of their teachers on Friday that if they did not come home with us to America that she would be their guardian. Of course this is one of the only people to ever show them attention so it was a dream come true to them. They became very difficult with us at that point because we were fighting for them. Being defiant, and rude and saying very bad things and just refusing to listen because they felt threatened by our desire to fight for them tooth and nail. This weekend was a nightmare and heartbreaking all at the same time. We were very sad to see these things happening but know it was their defenses coming out. It's tragic for these children really.  They live in a broken system where too much power is given to young children that are incapable of making life long decisions.  Today our attorney came and picked them with us up and took them back to the orphanage where they didn't give us a second glance or even say good bye. It was heart wrenching but it we know that God has gone before us and this was all a part of His plan. In that we are finding a little peace.

The attorney that works for us here in Latvia has been amazing to say the least. She works her tail off for these families. I am sure the woman must not sleep. As soon as I spoke to her yesterday that this wasn't going to work out she said "I know the perfect child for you. I have spoke with this girl and she very much wants a family". Danny and I were open to meeting her because God set us on this journey to care for orphans and that is what we are going to do. This girl is in foster home and the foster mom says she is a very sweet, kind girl that likes to help with cooking and cleaning and help with the small children. Our boys don't even want to do that :) Could this be real?

So we left the orphanage and went to meet Viktoria (Vika). All I can say is WOW! In the first five second this sweet child showed us more love and affection that we saw all summer long. She calls out "MOM! DAD!" and gives us big, strong hugs. The foster mom served us a wonderful spread of fruits, crackers, and tea and Vika wanted to fix everything for us. She was very inquisitive about our life at home and what it will be like for her and asked about the boys and if they will like her. Danny and I are just shocked at the difference in behavior and honestly feel relieved. This child gave us another big hug when we left and looked us both in the eye and said I LOVE YOU! It was so sweet :) Vika is 13 years old and was tickled to know that she will be the only daughter in the house. LOL. Oh, and she likes pink! Yeah!!!

The courts worked super fast to get us a referral on her and court dates set. Ordinarily they require you to spend three weeks in country with the child for a bonding period but they have agreed to shorten it to just two weeks since we've been through such a fiasco and need to get back to work. So we are going to be here a little longer than originally planned but it's all working out for the better.

Back to court tomorrow morning but in the mean time let us introduce Vika to you.