August 27, 2010

On this day 3 years ago Chris and I sat in a court room in Ukraine in hopes of officially becoming Milana's parents. The judge talked a lot and asked a lot of questions. He went over our entire dossier while we sat and listened to him speak in a language quite foreign to us. Our facillitator translated and told us when and how to answer when he asked questions of us.

Before rendering his decision the judge went back to his office. Eventually we were called back and given the good news that he would allow us to be Milana's parents.

And so began the ten day waiting period....

Just thought I'd stick a fairly recent picture of Milana on here.

I really love this picture of her. It shows off her wild and crazy side. Wait..is there another side??

We Have Travel Dates!!!

Four weeks ago our dossier was submitted in our children's country. We waited anxiously for travel dates. About a week and a half ago we had heard that we most likely wouldn't get our travel dates until sometime in September because the government was on vacation for the rest of the month. Regardless I continued to check my email in hopes that there might be something. I checked EVERY day SEVERAL times a day. (Wouldn't you)?

Last Friday life got a little more hectic than usual. Checking emails was not an option. The thought of travel was so far from my mind. Flash forward to yesterday. It was a teacher workday. After spending six hours in trainings my team and I decided to head to Panara for something to eat. As the car turned out of the school parking lot I realized I had tons of emails. I started deleting emails and then screamed. I had a travel date. There in my inbox was an email from Shelley - gosh I love that Shelley. Talk about a wonderful surprise! Our travel dates came when I was least expecting them. I love it!

So...in a month I will finally get to meet our two newest little ones. If you have adopted before then you know how excited I am! The thought of finally getting to hold them, play with them, snuggle them, love on them is just so amazing. I start to tear up just thinking about getting to meet them. If only I could bring them home at the end of this trip. Sigh :(  That is not how things work in their country. I understand that. It stinks a big one though. For now I will just be happy knowing that I get to meet and hold and love on my babies! Feeling so very grateful :)

Family Fun At The Beach

Cards For A Cause Fundraiser

We have been given a wonderful opportunity to fundraise for our adoption. We will be selling these beautiful handcrafted greeting cards in order to help raise money to bring Danny & Riley home. At this time we will only be selling them locally as it is a bit expensive to ship them. If you live in the Raleigh/Durham area and are interested in purchasing one or more of these sets of cards please let me know.

The cards are just $30 for a box of 30 cards. Box 1 contains 30 handmade all occasion, individually designed and embellished greeting cards and coordinating envelopes in a keepsake box. Box 2 contains 30 handcrafted and novelty cards for kids, with matching envelopes and funky stickers. These cards come in a convenient magnetic storage box.

Feel free to share this information with your friends and family. The more boxes we sell the more money we raise to bring our little ones home!

Thank you so much for your support :)