DONE!

I finally finished up our adoption video. I'm sorry it took so long (we've been just a LITTLE busy around here! lol), but here it is.... the adoption story of Pavel Micah Spencer.

The last post :)

Now that our adoption journey is officially over, its really time for this... the last post. :)

How do I come up with the words to sum up our entire adoption process? To thank those who need thanking for the many many prayers, the dedication of following along on this blog, and the much needed emotion, spiritual and financial support? To close out this chapter as we open a new one... life with our little boy... Each and every one of you know who you are. Please know how grateful we are to you for the part that you have played in this little one's life.

"Father God, You are good. I am humbled at Your feet in awe of the great things You have done. Thank You for Your provision, Your faithfulness, Your lovingkindness and mercy towards us. May this journey be light to others. A testament of Your goodness. An encouragement for adopting families, a hope for parents of children with Down syndrome and a witness to those who don't know You. I pray that many more children would be rescued and that families would feel strengthened and encouraged that they too can do this. Thank You God that no matter what the world says about us, You have called us by name, adopted us as Your own, and loved us with a perfect, unconditional Love. And now we ask that you would take this boy and mold him into a man of God after Your own heart. May his life always point to You. In Jesus' name. Amen."

To follow Micah's new life as a Spencer, you can check out my personal blog:

www.manysidesofamy.blogspot.com

Languages

Today was Micah's second Sunday as a celebrity at our wonderful church. :) Everyone has welcomed him with open arms... and he welcomes them right back with open arms and a great big hug himself!! :) (So much for the not letting people hug or hold our adopted child for a few weeks so as to prevent attachment issues at home. This kid knows who his mom and dad are... and he's got a gift to love on people that we just have to let him walk in!)

Anyway, our dear friends the Mahys just got back from a missions trip to an orphanage in Ukraine. (Thanks again guys for bringing us home a flag!!!) Craig got to meet Micah this morning and was asking how his English was coming. I told him I'm pretty sure he's understanding quite a bit but is still not speaking any English (hey, its only been two weeks), but he wasn't speaking any Russian their either for that matter.

So Craig began speaking some Russian to Micah and his face just lit up!! It was the sweetest thing! He said something to him and Micah pointed to his nose... Craig started laughing and said that he had asked Micah if he knew where his nose was!! They had told us in the orphanage that he knew his body parts, but we'd never seen him asked... and I'd never seen him so confident in "answering" something spoken to him! They did mouth and eyes as well but we all needed to keep moving along (had to get the other kids into class).

I'm sure it felt so good to him to hear some native tongue! :) And on a side note, he's doing AWESOME with sign language as well. He's already learned "eat", "more" and "all done". (And I don't even have to sign those to him to get him to do it. I can say "Micah say more" and he will just sign it.)

So proud of my little boy and so happy for him for that little blessing this morning. Just had to share. :)

Orphans Deserve Better Campaign

The head of our orphan ministry at church, Greg, brought this to my attention via email...

its concerning the movie coming out "Orphan". I encourage you to look around this site a little, but if nothing else I URGE you to sign the petition asking Warner Brothers to counter act their poor portrayal of orphans by "giving back" a portion of their proceeds to orphan care.

Click here to sign the petition- it literally only takes a couple of seconds. And how great if we could get a ton of names on this petition! I also encourage you to pass along this email to friends and family who's lives have been touched by the command of James 1:27.

Thanks!!!

Pictures

Mr Micah!:

First ride on the mower (he looks way more nervous than he really was!):

Daddy's babies:

All my kiddo's!!:

Ugh! Sisters!:

The whole family on the 4th of July!:

More to come of Micah's first trip to the zoo!

Some homecoming pics!!

Thanks to my friend Katrina for snapping these for us!! My camera was in Jake's luggage so he could take pics in Ukraine, so all we have is a DVD (which I'm not sure I'm technologically advanced enough to put into a post). So anyone else who took pictures, could you please email me some? Thank you!!!

We're alive

Sorry for the lack of updates the last couple of days.... we are alive and doing well!!!

Micah is doing awesome and adjusting so much better than we could have anticipated. We were "prepared" for the worst and of course hoping for the best... but I feel the scale has absolutely tipped on the "best" side. :) If anyone is having any trouble adjusting, its Abby... she's not really sure how she feels about him getting all of this attention, but we've been trying our best to balance it and give her lots of the snuggles she needs. Every now and then she'll cop a little attitude with him, but she is a two year old Spencer girl!!!

He's having a hard time adjusting to the time change, which therefore means Jake and I aren't getting much sleep either... kinda feels like there's a new baby in the house... oh wait. :) And he's been a little fussy in the afternoons (which stinks because that's when family has been coming over to visit him), but if anyone is up for a 7am visit, you'll find a very bubbly little boy! lol!

Food has been a bit of a challenge too. When we find something he likes, he can't get enough of it- to the point of over filling up. But its finding something he likes that's the hard part. He's got a LOT of mouth issues (rotten sensitive teeth, chewed up blistery tongue issues, chapped lips, and some seriously funky fish/onion breath that we can't get to go away) but I'm hoping some visits to the pediatrician and dentist will help with all of that.

He's so much more of a baby than I pictured him to be when he came home... he fusses and makes really pitiful frown faces when he needs attention and he really loves to be held (with BOTH arms- he'll put your arms in place if you don't hold him with both, its ADORABLE), to comfort himself he sucks on his tongue making this clicking noise.... and I know that its because he never had a mommy to nurse on or a passy to comfort him and apparently never learned to suck his fingers... so he just sucks his own tongue. It breaks my heart.

Today he had his first ride on the lawn mower with Daddy and LOVED it. He also had his first home haircut- he and Jake both got buzzed. :) He met his cousin Jackson, who much to our surprise was bigger than him (at 20 months younger!) but was a little out of it because he had just gotten up from a nap, but I'm sure it won't be long before they're good buddies.

The girls are still having a hard time adjusting to calling him Micah instead of Pavel. Emily has just resorted to calling him "me and Ashy's brover". But it sounds similar enough to Pasha, I think he's already getting used to Micah. And I think it fits him.

He's such a cutie little boy. I can't believe he's finally home and the journey is over. Tomorrow Jake will start back at work at the church and the real journey will begin. :) Being home with 4 kids between the ages of 2 1/2 and 5. And in 3 1/2 months baby Mabry will be here as well. Its exciting to me. :) I'm honored to be Mommy to each of these incredible kids. And feel like the little boy sleeping around the corner was always mine, but I'm just now getting to take care of him. Please pray for peace, structure and "flow" in our house this week as we all go through a period of adjustment. I'm still prepared for whatever may come, but anticipating an equally "on the best side" coming week.

(PS. I promise to post more pictures soon!!! Stay tuned!!)

They're Home :)

My boys are home safe and sound and all that I can say is that it feels good to be a whole family. :)

After a very joyous airport homecoming, Micah fell asleep in the van on the way home... we brought him in, laid him on the chair and this is where has stayed. :) I suppose he'll have to take a tour of his new home in the morning. This is one pooped out little boy.

But all is well, I hope to post more pictures tomorrow. For now, I'm going to sleep GOOD tonight with my family all under one roof. :)

In one hour

Jake and Micah will be getting on a plane to come HOME. Just had to say that. :)

PRAYER WORKS!!

I am SO EXCITED to announce that Micah had a NEGATIVE tb test and that Jake is holding his visa IN his hands, and that they have a flight out first thing in the morning!!!!!!!!!!

For those who want to help us welcome them home at the airport tomorrow, email me at
spencerchics{at}yahoo{dot}com!

Praise the Lord for the great things He has done!! Thank you to everyone who prayed! (And thanks to my sweet nursing friends who prayed through the night! lol) ;) God is good and He hears the petitions of His children!!!

Now lets pray them home safely!!

PRAYER NEEDED

Ok well thats all the info I'm gonna have for today... its bedtime there so I won't be talking to Jake anymore and won't know anything new until tomorrow morning.

Here is what we all need to be agreeing for in prayer together:

~That the scope goes smoothly and the results are NEGATIVE
(its at 8am their time, midnight here)

~That the negative results come QUICKLY
(supposed to be in by noon there, 3am here)

~That they are able to rush over to the Embassy before it closes to get his Visa
(the embassy closes by 2pm, 5am here)

If everything doesn't happen on time, it will be Tuesday before they get it because Monday is a Ukrainian holiday.

Thank you for standing in the gap with us to bring them home so our family can be whole!

Scratch that

He did NOT have the scope today, its scheduled for first thing in the morning. They heard back from the CDC too late in the day on Wednesday to do it this morning. But once he has the test, they can get the results by noon and the visa by 2pm. Still not sure about flights...

Please pray...

Update

Jake has internet in his apartment now, but its an internet card, so its very slow and he is paying for minutes, so we're only able to briefly talk.

As far as I know, Micah did have the test this morning, and I'm assuming it all went fine because all that Jake said was that they will be getting his visa tomorrow. But not until 2pm their time and the flight that our travel agent had set was going to leave out at 6:30am.

So right now we're waiting to hear from the travel agent on if she can get a later flight out Friday. We were told yesterday that she couldn't even get a flight on Saturday... so right now I'm doing everything I can from here to figure out this flight stuff and GET THEM HOME already.

We'll do whatever it takes and pay whatever it costs to get them home quickly. So ready for this to be over. I'll update again in a little bit when I have more information.

FINALLY

an update. :) You know, sometimes ya just gotta take matters into your own hands.

Jake emailed me early this morning to say that they had STILL not heard anything from the CDC. And our facilitator Yulia was suggesting that I call from here to try to get something moving. Finally, a job! :) I can do that.

So after an hour and half on the phone talking to lots of different people... multiple emails and phone calls back and forth, here's the scoop:

They want him to do one day of testing. Then they can get on a plane Friday (if they can get a flight out). I'm so bummed for Micah that he has to take this test, but at least its only one day and not three. The test requires withdrawing mucus from his lungs via a tube down his nose. NOT a fun thing.

He's clearly not symptomatic and again, we know he was tested before, so there really is no concern that it will be positive. For more info on TB click here. Even if he has latent TB, he is NOT contagious and CAN come home. He'd just be on some antibiotics for about 9 months.

I hope this all makes sense, I'm a little frazzled from my morning. :) THANK YOU to everyone who's been praying for me and for our family. The saying is SO true "Every adoption is a miracle." More news tomorrow after the testing is over. Until then...

No word yet

There is no word yet on rather or not the CDC is going to accept their request to leave. Though it is evening on Monday there... its still morning here in the states so it's likely they haven't even seen the email yet.

PLEASE PRAY that they will accept the testing that was done at the orphanage and let them leave. Jake said our facilitator was a little more optimistic about it today. She also said the testing will NOT be fun for him (painful even?) so we really hope this will not have to happen. I'll update when I hear something.

7 months ago tonight

my husband called me from a youth leaders conference to say that God had confirmed in his heart what He had already spoken in mine.

7 months ago tonight I emailed Andrea from RR to tell her that we absolutely wanted to be "matched" with Pavel and Oleg.

7 months ago tonight a very excited Andrea emailed back extra pictures of my boys and gave me a rundown of the first few steps.

7 months ago tonight their RR profiles changed to say "My forever family found me"

7 months ago tonight I called my mom and most of my friends in tears of joy that we were really going to do this.

7 months ago tonight the life of a little Ukrainian orphan would change forever and he wouldn't even know it.

TONIGHT he's sleeping safely in his Daddy's arms.

God IS good isn't He?

Happy Fathers Day Jake!

My amazing husband is spending his first Father's Day having a SON with just his boy. :) I'm sure its a difficult day and doesn't so much feel like a Fathers Day at all, but we will celebrate with him when gets home as well... our princesses will do their best to make Daddy feel like a king. :)

I talked to him this morning and he said they are doing fine. Just hanging around Kiev! Due to some good hygiene and skin care, Micah's skin is totally clearing up! Praise the Lord. His face is totally clear and the big rough patch on his elbow is 3/4 of the way gone, Jake said. :) Micah loves showers, walking around town and watching Bugs Bunny. :) And he HATES having his teeth brushed... in fact its been unsuccessful at all so far. But Jake figured out he'll let him wipe the front of his teeth when he cleans his face. Jake bought some toys from the huge toy store around the corner and those have been keeping him busy in the apartment. (Jake also said he likes this apartment the best out of any of the ones he's stayed at there.)

It was fun to see my boys today. I missed them yesterday and was sad all day. :( Micah looks so adorable in the little clothes I sent and looks so happy and content. He smiled almost the whole time we talked today and periodically he would stand up in the booth and and let out a very caveman, very contented "UUHHHG!!!" Jake would hold him close and tell him "Shhh" and Micah would just grin at him. I don't even think Jake notices, but its funny to me how many times Jake kisses Micah in the course of one conversation. :) Watching their relationship is just the most precious thing. What an amazing Daddy. What an amazing boy.

Please pray for a good report tomorrow. We're really hoping the CDC accepts this email from the Doctors there and that they'll give them special consideration and let them leave. If not, the testing begins tomorrow. While one more week there isn't the end of the world... our family is SO ready to be together.

A few more days :(

Well, there was a little hang up... well I guess kind of a big hang up...

We found out while we were there for the first trip that Micah's mom was TB positive... Micah is NOT, but to my understanding of the way Ukraine does things, the medical files will say that the child has whatever the mother had (regardless of if they really do or not). So because his file says that he is TB positive, the CDC is not allowing them to come home until he has been tested there. Its basically 3 days of testing. The doctors have written a thorough email to the CDC requesting special permission for him to leave, but everyone is telling Jake that will probably not fly. If it does, they would accept it on Monday and they could fly home then. If not, they'll start the testing and he can come home Thursday.

Either way, it won't be tomorrow for SURE. :( Zack will be coming back because he has to work Monday though.

Oh and after sitting for 3 hours at the medical place, they got back in the car and Micah threw up all over Jake and all over their drivers car. :( He didn't say for sure... but if you've ever ridden around in Kiev... I'm guessing he got carsick.

All in all, Jake sounded in good spirits. At this point it was almost comical to him... so many things have gone wrong on this trip! Thankfully nothing major, but just enough to make this a pretty crazy adventure.

GOTCHA DAY!!

Our sweet boy is free! Forever! Praise be to God!!!

Jake picked him up from the orphanage today and went through all of the "release procedures"... they're all back at the apartment now. We were able to talk on Skype today... what a strange thing to introduce your children to one another through Skype! He was laughing at the laptop and thought it was really fun! I was wondering how the girls would react actually seeing daddy holding this little boy, but they were thrilled and it was wonderful! He and Abby kept blowing kisses at one another! Can I just tell you that I don't think my heart could BE any more full!!!

Jake got to the orphanage at 11:00am, so Micah had one last meal there for lunch. At which point they explained to Jake that he doesn't eat solid foods... which really throws us for a loop! We saw him eat some pretty mushy food while he was there but would never have figured that his group being 3 and 4 year olds would ONLY eat mush (basically).

Once he was back at the apartment, he tried giving him a sippy cup and he didn't know what to do with it (which wasn't much of a surprise). He drank the whole thing once they took the stopper out, but as of our conversation, he couldn't drink it with it in.

He took a nap with Jake just fine. I thought that was so sweet. :) So now they are waiting to get on the overnight train tonight. That ought to be interesting. :) I'm hoping he's able to update me tomorrow once in Kiev, but I'm not sure if they'll have internet or not. I might not hear from them again until Saturday when they are in Germany. Please continue to lift them up!

For those who were thinking about meeting us at the airport Saturday to welcome them home, please email me for details at spencerchics{at}yahoo{dot}com.

TWO DAYS UNTIL MY BOYS ARE HOME!!

In other news....

So long as we can convince our other kids... we've decided to go with Micah. :) (You can read about my inner debate by clicking here. :)) It'll be hard at first I think to get used to calling him that, but ultimately thats what we want to call him. And now is definitely the time if we are going to start calling him something else... so Micah it is. For the girls' sake, we will probably say Pavel Micah to get them used to it. And for him, Jake said he will be calling him Pasha Micah to get HIM used to it. :) And if you see me somewhere and you call him Pavel to me... don't feel bad, I'll be doing it for a little while too! But I do love the name Micah. I will always think of my verse (Micah 4:9). And I think Micah and Mabry sound so stinkin' cute together!!!

Good news/ bad news

First the bad. Jake got REALLY sick. :( He was throwing up all night last night and couldn't keep anything down. He said he's got body aches and stuff too so I'm still not sure if its something he ate or a bug. After a long night of throwing up and no sleep, the driver had to pick him up at 7:30am to run around doing more paperwork... for 4 hours. :( Bless his heart I feel so bad for him. But as of this evening he was keeping down Sprite and was gonna try some toast or a banana. Please pray that it was just something he ate and that no one around him (mostly Zack and Pavel!) don't get sick.

The good news is that they got their bags! Yay! Finally! I'm sure its got to feel so good to have their own stuff again. :)

The plan is still for them to get our boy on Thursday (Gotcha day!!) and head to Kiev for some appointments there and come home Saturday. I'm counting down the days.....

Update on Jake

Just talked with Jake again. He said they are doing well... but they still don't have their luggage and won't now until Tuesday. So they had to go buy some clothes and a few more toiletries.

They had a good visit with Pavel Micah today. Here are some pics and a video. Oh how I miss my boy!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Going Public

Now that our little boy is officially a Spencer and safe in his daddy's arms, there are a few thing that we can now share on this blog that we were previously keeping under wraps for the "safety" of our adoption, so to speak.

One- our little boy is in Ukraine! A lot of you probably already knew that, but it wasn't something we could make public knowledge... we opted to share his name and picture instead of his country.

Two- I hope you're sitting down... Pavel is going to be a big brother! I am 22 weeks pregnant with our fourth, yes FOURTH, little girl. :) So for those who have been following our journey for a while, you'll remember that we first commited to adopting two little boys... Pavel and a sweet little guy named Oleg. And when Oleg was transfered to live with a Ukrainian priest, we were completely heartbroken. And a little confused because we really felt that God had spoken to us that He was bringing two children into our family. But just a couple short weeks later I started feeling VERY sick and thats when we found out that we were adding two children after all, but one was coming from my belly. :) Completely a surprise!! That's also why we "dropped" the subject of adopting a second child in Oleg's place. We knew at that point that it would simply be too much for us at this time. But Spencer baby #5 is doing well and is very healthy. :) We've decided to name her Mabry Ruth (Mabry is my grandmother's maiden name, and Ruth goes back 3 or 4 generations on Jake's side of the family).

Three- we were updating my private blog a little just while we were gone on our first trip. But now that everything is done, I'm going to copy and "postdate" those posts to this blog. Though we couldn't let the whole world know the details at the time, I feel its only right that all of our journey updates be in one place now. So feel free to go back and look over previous (but new) posts about our first trip to Ukraine!

Their first full day

I just talked with Jake (what in the world did we do before Skype!?) and all is well. He and Zack made it down to their region- he saw Pavel all day today. :) They ran around doing some paperwork for his passport and stuff. Jake said he loved the car ride. :) When they first got him from the orphanage it was the middle of his naptime, so they had to wake him up and bring him down to Jake... he said he smiled so big to see him but that he was really out of it. That his eyes were kinda half mass but he would look over at Jake and be so happy. At one point in the car, he started to fall asleep again so he climbed up in Jakes lap (remember, no car seats there... I think that would have been really hard for me to deal with!!) and laid his head on Jake's shoulder and closed his eyes. I'm so glad they have each other again!!!

Their luggage should be on its way soon. It was apparently never really lost, but just didn't make the connecting flight that Jake and Zack made it to, so it came on a later flight that arrived after their train had left. But through many phone calls between facilitators and interpreters, somehow their address was given and it should arrive at their apartment as soon as today or tomorrow. Please keep praying it arrives quickly!

They all decided that because of the running around that needs to be done, that it would be best for Pavel to stay at the orphanage on his normal routine until Thursday. (And of course he'll be visiting him as much as he can until then.) Then Thursday night they'll head back to the capital for all the stuff that needs to be done before they get on the plane Saturday... to come home!!

I'm missing my little boy SO much. Way more than I anticipated actually. But knowing he's with his daddy now helps a lot. And I'm missing my hubby too. :) Its weird that all the girls in our family are on one continent and the boys are on another. Please keep lifting us up to the One who's watching ALL of us until we are all together again.

They made it!

Well, praise the Lord, Jake and Zack made it to their destination! The connecting flight ended up being slightly delayed so they were able to rush from one flight to the next! He just emailed me from the train station to say that they made it safely and are getting on the train in a couple hours. :)

But more prayers are still needed- their luggage wasn't as lucky as they were. :( All he said was that its being shipped to them in the next couple of days. And I don't know about Zack, but I know Jake didn't pack any extra clothes in his backpack. So now they need prayers that their bags arrive quickly!!!

God is so good and I love that he answers even the smallest of prayers. They would have been fine even if they didn't make it on time and had to wait another day to go to the region, but we prayed... and He honored it. Thanks to everyone who lifted them up! And thank you Lord for answering!

Please pray

***Update- The website says their flight landed almost an hour ago. Which means they most likely missed the connecting flight. There was only one other flight I saw listed last night that would get them there in time for the train. And I still haven't heard from them. Will let you know what happens. Thanks for the prayers!!!***

Jake's flight from the US was delayed significantly tonight. He and Zack sat ON the plane for 5 1/2 hours waiting to leave for Europe but were grounded due to bad weather. And here's the catch- their first layover in Europe was 5 hours, so as it stands right now, their plane lands the same time their next flight is scheduled to leave. So IF they can make up some time in the air (and thats what we need to be praying for), then they can catch the next flight, make it to Pavel's country, and get on the overnight train to the region by the next morning as planned. If they don't make the next flight, they won't make the train and will have to take the one the following night and won't get to the region until Saturday morning. :( And every day matters so that they can do what needs to be done and get home when they planned to.

So please pray if you are reading this in the next 8 hours. :) I will update in the morning when I hear from Jake if they made it or not. And if I don't hear anything... we'll just keep praying anyway!

One of my favorite pics

I just had to share this. Of the 4 bzillion pictures of have of Jake and Pavel together, this has got to be one of my favorites. I hate that you can't see Jake's face but the look on Pavel's says it all. :) One of those "you feel SO good" hugs. And he would hold Jake like this for like 5 minutes!

This is what tells me that these two are going to JUST fine together next week. :) Don't forget to pray for Jake and Zack in the morning. They fly out at 8:30am. Thank you!!

Going back...

Jake leaves Wednesday to head back to eastern Europe. Our good friend/previous youth kid :) Zack Boone is going with him. They will leave out early Wednesday morning, arrive Thursday and take a train down to Pavel's region overnight and get there Friday. Please pray for all of their travels: that they arrive safely, that their baggage arrives in the same place and that the jetlag going back isn't too bad. Our 10 days of appeals is up on Thursday so come this Friday... he's OURS!! For those who don't know, the day that adopted kids come out of the orphanage is dubbed "Gotcha Day". I'm not sure exactly if Friday will be "Gotcha Day" or not, but just the fact that its THIS close kind of makes me lose my breath!

I'm SO ready for our little boy to be home! If all goes well and as planned, they should get back to Nashville on Saturday the 20th... the day before Fathers Day! Wouldn't that be cool? :) I've been finishing up his room today and we decided a while back that he and Abby would definitely share. So she's actually moving in to her new room tonight even though her new roommate isn't there yet. :) I need to take pictures and post some... the room is looking so sweet. The room is painted yellow- Pavel Micah's bedding is blue with elephants and Abby's is pink with birds. If you browse the baby aisles at Target much, you'll see it there. :)

I've washed all of his laundry and I'm picking which clothes to send with Jake. I still can't decide if he's a 2T or 3T so I'm sending both. (I know you guys think I'm hilarious, but these things matter!!) He LOVES hats, so I need to make a trip to Old Navy tomorrow to see if they have any... I only found 1 in his size at Target. He was also pretty obsessed with Jake's backpack, so I bought him the cutest little backpack to carry around his stuff that's blue with green trim and has a little airplane on the front! Its adorable!! I am absolutely in heaven buying all this boy stuff. Little boy Elmo underwear just have to be the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life!

I'm not sure how much time Jake will have to post... actually, he probably won't at all. :) But I'll post every time I hear from him. Two weeks from today our family will be TOGETHER!!! Aaahh!!

Happy Birthday!!!

(Four months old)

(Almost four years old)

Today, our sweet boy is turning 4 years old! Oh how I wish I could be there today to hug him, hold him, and sing happy birthday to my son. And I can see his little face looking up at me, squinting a little smile, and saying "Ugg" as only he can do. :)

I also have an announcement to make. I think it is no small coincidence but rather a gift from the Lord... as of last night, our goal of $24,000 for this adoption was reached!!!! What an incredible birthday gift that each and every person who contributed gave to our little boy. I am completely overwhelmed!

He is four years old today. On the day he was born, he was Borisov Pavel Viacheslovovich. Today he is Pavel Micah Spencer. On the day he was born, he was unwanted. Today he has a family who loves him deeply. His birth father was ashamed. His adoptive father couldn't be more proud. His birth mother left him at the hospital. His adoptive mother is yearning to bring him home. His birth parents told his extended family that he died. His new extended family pulled together to raise TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS so that he could live.

Happy birthday buddy. You are loved more than you will ever know.

Abundance

Jake and I were talking about it and have decided to set up an account for Pavel Micah and anything above and beyond that is donated, we will set aside for him. Be it for additional therapy, classes, medical expences, or even just to save for adulthood. But we felt we should let you all know that this is what we've decided to do with it.

I know I've said it before, but my gratefulness is beyond words. I am truly humbled. The overwhelming support fincancially and prayerfully literally brought us to where we are today. I knew at the beginning of this that God would provide but what a lesson I've learned in what that REALLY means. There really are no words... But we can only pray that God will bless each and every one of you back ten fold. Thank you for being His hands.

Home sweet home

Hi all, just wanted to let you know that we made it home safe and sound last night. We can't thank you all enough for your prayers.

The flights were all fine... there were a couple little hang ups because we switched our return flight from the 6th to the 2nd (and very last minute) but it all worked out fine. And our flight from Charlotte to Nashville was supposed to be way delayed because of some maintanance issues, but it ended up leaving and arriving on time as well.

It was SOOO good to see our babies last night. :) Its wonderful to be home. I just can't express... :) We slept like rocks last night (Jake still is) but I woke up this morning around 6 and couldn't go back to sleep. Don't think its a jetlag issue, I just couldn't stop thinking about all I want to do around here to get ready for my little boy to come home. :) The girls are still sleeping as well so I thought I'd steal away a few minutes to update the blog. Abby is in there making her precious noises now actually...

I have so much in my heart and in my head that I want to share. But for now, we are here, we are safe, and we are blessed. Love to you all...

Court

We just got back from our court appointment and it went great!!! Pavel Micah Spencer was just declared our son! It went so fast- 10 or 15 minutes maybe. And we were asked just a few questions, the answer to most of which he had right in front of him but was verifying information.

Our interpreter is just awesome, she made the whole thing so much less stressful. We really love her. When it was over, we all hugged and there were lots of translated congratulations. :) We said our goodbye's to Svetlana our facilitator/orphanage lawyer (who has also been GREAT) and she gave Jake some quick information about his return.

I wish I could write more but we only have a couple of hours to pack up, clean up our apartment and run to the market before our driver gets here to take us to the airport. Please pray for our travels, that all of our flights would be safe! We leave Odesa at 7:00 and arrive in Kiev one hour later. Then we're basically staying at the airport until our flight leaves at 6:30 in the morning. Then on to Munich Germany, Charlotte NC, and Nashville!! :)

(Oh and the performance was adorable this morning!! Pavel Micah sat with us and was every bit what you would expect from a 3 year old little boy who's TRYING to be good through an hour and a half performance. :) But I got tons of pictures and video that I'll share when we get home!)

Prayer Requests

Ok all you prayer warriors, we need your prayers for lots of different things!

1) Jake's grandmother might be having a surgery this week. Without going into too many details, she could use some prayer for Divine intervention and for all that goes along with having this surgery.

2.) My dad's having some problems and has been back in and out of the hospital the last couple of days. Again, without too many details, please just pray that the Dr's would have wisdom, do what needs to be done, and that Dad would be as pain free as possible.

3.) Diane is probably driving up to see her mom on Wednesday and is helping juggle the girls before she goes, working and trying to get herself ready to go out of town. Pray for her strength through the next few days!

4.) My mom has got her own medical issues on top of taking care of Dad, work and the girls. Please pray for endurance for this week as well.

5.) The girls are doing great and have truly been covered by the Lord while we have been gone, but please continue to lift them up. That their little hearts would be sealed and that they would not be anxious for anything but know that they are safe and Mommy and Daddy are coming home soon.

6.) Pray for Pavel Micah as we have our last two days with him. Pray that he would not be confused that we aren't there anymore but that the time would go quickly. That God would speak to him and he would know that we are coming back for him soon.

7.) We are hoping and praying to leave Odesa on Monday night, take a small flight to Kiev, and then fly out from there early Tuesday morning, so please pray for our safety for all of those flights.

8.) Please pray for court on Monday. We expect that it will go quickly, but it IS a holiday so we're praying it doesn't get bumped. Especially because the judge will be out of town the rest of that week. Things move pretty quickly for adoptions of children with special needs, and we have an awesome team working for us, but nonetheless. We need prayer! We need to get home to our babies.

9.) Pray that the paperwork all plays out smoothly. Its a little difficult that I'm not coming back after court appeals are over, and we need to be sure to have all paperwork layed out correctly before we go. Pray specifically that nothing is overlooked and that everything that needs to be done, signed, notarized, etc. gets done.

Thank you all so much. I'm actually tearing up right now knowing what an amazing group of people are going to be reading this and that you all WILL pray. I can't thank you enough. What would we do without you?

Just for fun

The other day I tried to catch our little greeting on video. This is what we see every single day, twice a day. And his joy to see us only gets bigger and bigger, like we're long lost friends of his. :) We are truly BLESSED that he has connected with us so well... after this part we take him outside and for the first 5 or 10 minutes we're there he just holds Jake close and smiles that big smile as if to say "I've missed you so much... since lunchtime!" :)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Court date!!!

We just found out tonight that our court is set for Monday at noon!!! I'm so excited right now!!!

Our translator and her husband invited us to their house for dinner tonight with another adopting family... and it was such a nice evening! They were such sweet people and the food was wonderful! So nice to get a cook home cooked meal- she had sausages and potatoes with salad and bread. And we had ice cream and fruit for desert. They shared about their ministries here and we shared a lot about our youth ministry at home. These people have such a big heart for orphans and even just for the poor children of their community. And it was fun to get to know this other family- Marsha and she had four of her kids with her... her husband is back in the states with their other children for a bit. Her kids were all so well behaved and sweet... we were very impressed. :) And they are Texans! So they've GOT to be good people. ;) Anyway, we were so glad to be there especially since we weren't able to make it to our last dinner invitation from Marsha. Alyona and her husband walked us home and helped us with some little details that needed worked out (like they installed a new door on our apartment building so now we can't get in without a code which we don't know and couldn't find out because we don't speak Russian... stuff like that :)) They are such a sweet couple and I wish we could spend more time with them; I could see us all being very good friends.

So PRAISE THE LORD for our court date... only two more Groundhog Days left! :) And Monday is National Children's Day so the children at the orphanage are doing a performance which the director invited us to, at 10am. We still aren't sure if Pavel Micah is in it yet or not, but nonetheless we are looking forward to seeing this little play and then heading to court. I will try to tape as much of the performance as I can, and if so, I'll post it. But for now, please pray for Monday!!!

He knows.

Well, today is another beach day for Pavel Micah so we have no plans and not much to do until 4:00. I just finished a bowl of cheerios that we bought at the store last night and even though the milk came in a carton that was not previously COLD which was a little concerning... it was actually pretty good. :) Jake is sleeping in (I know, who Jake?! lol) and I'm sitting here checking email and reading blogs and reflecting on our lives at the moment. I am IN Ukraine. Adopting. I'm 26. And I'm pregnant. With our FOURTH daughter. My mom said in an email the other day not to worry about the kids at home, just to worry about my two babies here. :) And it really hit me- two of my FIVE kids are right here with me. I don't know either of them very well yet, but they are both IN my heart every bit as much as my other three.

Part of me wonders, "how did I get here?". And the other part laughs because its a silly question. The Lord has brought us here. HE CHOSE Pavel for us. He chose every one of our kids. He knew Ashley long before we were in the delivery room thinking I was about to give birth to a Jordan Elliot. He knew. And He knew Emily long before we brought her home and that little peanut STOLE my heart and I was immediately wrapped around her little finger forever. He knew. :) He knew that Abby had three chromosomes long before WE knew we'd have three kids in 4 years. He knew it would rock my world and I'd learn things and meet people and go places I never would have otherwise. He knew. He knew that when I was 37 weeks pregnant with Emily a little boy was born on the other side of the world who's mommy would give him up because SHE didn't know and that almost exactly four years later, he would become a Spencer. He knew. He knew that this baby in my womb was coming and was a girl long before we signed up to adopt two little boys with Ds.

I love that my life is in His hands. May it never be any other way. And its because I know that He knows... that I have faith, that I have strength, that I TRUST that everything is working out according to His purpose.

I still don't know a court date. I still don't know what we're going to call Pavel. I still don't know what we're going to name this baby. I still don't know when we're coming home. I still don't know if this whole adoption is going to fall through. I still don't really know if this baby has Ds too. I don't know if my kids will follow Christ as adults and I don't know if I'm guarentee'd tomorrow.

But He knows. :) And you know what? That's enough for me.

Downtown Odesa

We had such a fun time downtown yesterday. Its true what my RR friends say about the orphanage visits... they are truly like the movie "Groundhog Day". Every day is the same. Its almost freaky.

But a little walking around and sightseeing in this part of town did us good. We had some good food, enjoyed walking around and people watching, doing a little shopping, and touring some sights. We went to the Wax museum, walked through the Archaeological museum, walked the long pier thingy to the Black Sea (though this area wasn't beaches, it was all ports and boats and boy stuff. :)) And we saw the famous Potemkin Stairs, lots of statues, and many many street vendors. I had my first experience with a Turkish Toilet (aka Squatty Potty). Yikes.

There was even this one area that had all these cute little old men having some sort of chess and domino's tournament! My Papaw would have LOVED it! :)

Odesa has TONS of beautiful gardens and fountains and parks. (One would be PERFECT for weddings... Jodie, you and I could make a lot of money here! :)) And lots of upscale shops and outdoor cafe's. This was such a fun city, we both said we would come down here all the time if we lived here. It was such a nice little get away for both of us. WE {HEART} ODESA! :)

Some Mommy Love

Not much new to update. We still don't have a court date and are kinda frustrated we haven't heard anything yet. Please pray we get one soon. We're so ready to move to the next step in this process.

Since today was Pavel Micah's (I guess that's what we'll call him for now :)) beach day, we took the opportunity to walk around downtown Odesa. (But that's another post... we had a great time, had some good food and saw some fun sights. I'll post pictures tomorrow.)

But today I wanted to share some pics of me and my little boy. We've had a few sweet bonding moments the last couple of days... He's figured out that its really fun when Mommy holds you close and gives kisses and sings. :) But thats what Mommy's are for. I've been singing the "So let the sun shine in, face it with a grin..." song and he really likes it. :) He smiles so big when I hold him and sing it.






He played around a bigger group of kids today while we were on the playground, and seeing him next to some of those boys put in perspective for me what a little guy he really still is. He looked so "baby" pushing around on his car while they zoomed around him on bikes. It made my heart pull to him even more and you know, I don't NEED anymore reasons to be head over heals for this kid!!

Tomorrow I'll try to have some pics from our sightseeing day.

Praying for court

Today marked one week that we've been visiting our little guy. And what a wonderful week of firsts it has been. :) Its hard at times to keep a busy busy little four year old guy occupied for 4 hours a day but we have loved every minute of it and are SO ready get him out of there!!!

We still have heard no word about a court date. Please be in prayer that the paperwork moves quickly, that we hear something soon, and that what we hear is that court comes quickly!! :)

The quicker all of this moves, the sooner we can get back to our little girls at home and the sooner Jake can get back here to bring home our little Pavel!!!

Names

Though Pavel's new legal name has already been chosen and is on paper "Pavel Micah Spencer", we still are having a hard time deciding what to call him.

He doesn't really answer to anything. He is called such a wide array of names here. Mostly Barusah and Pasha, but a lot of times its some version of one of the two. I don't know if he's confused... or just too busy to respond (which is very possible :)) but in the few days that we've spent with him- he answers to NONE of them from us.

So basically we feel like we have an opportunity here to call him whatever we want. But we feel sort of torn... Pavel is how we've always known him, but now seeing him, he doesn't really feel like a Pavel. And I may have already said this, I don't remember, but in their language, Micah means T-shirt. So the people here think it's HILARIOUS that we are making his middle name Micah. We tried to explain that it is a book of the Bible, but they didn't really seem to get it or care. Just thought it was really funny. They kept saying "Michael?" and we would say, "No, MICAH" and they would look at each other and laugh. (Which... I guess I would too. :))

Being a 'special' kid, I want to make things as easy as possible for him. And if telling people his name is Pavel later as a bigger kid or adult causes people to say "what is it?" or "how do you spell that?" or causes any confusion at all, I would just as soon name him Micah. Pavel isn't exactly a common name. And I know if we called him Micah it would be a constant reminder to me of the mandate the Lord put in my heart to pursue this little boy on the other side of the world. But its also hard because I feel like our families, our friends, and mostly our KIDS know him as Pavel and to change that might be confusing.

So this is all just stuff we're talking about and thinking about. We haven't really made any final decisions yet, just kinda letting things play out and knowing that God knows what we will call him in the end. But I felt like I should address it on the blog because we've had a lot of people ask over time if we were going to change it.

We also have been trying to use all this spare time to think through a name for this little girl in my belly. :) Not having a ton of luck there either, but we do have a couple of thoughts that we're discussing. (Jake said last night that if we end up deciding on Micah, that we should call the baby "Jeans". Haha, very funny Babe. ;))

Seriously though, in the end, we just want to be sure that no matter what, we step out of the way and let God... well, just let God. :)

Notes

These are some (most actually) of the notes I took from the meeting with the orphanage on Wednesday. This was all interpreted to me, and very quickly. I was jotting down notes as quickly as I could, but wanted to type it all up while it was still fresh in my head. Some interesting (and some very sad) information, but I'm a details person, so I thought I would share. :)

Name: Borislov Pavel (last name first)
Birthdate: June 4, 2005
Birth mother born 1967, birth father born 1957
(We are still waiting to find out his birthweight, length and parent's nationality but we believe they were both full Ukrainian)
They were married, they did not know he had Ds until he was born at the maternity house. They were very upset and embarrassed. They blamed the doctors saying that they would have had an abortion if they had known. They told all family members that he died in the hospital. The mother showed no remorse and never came back to the hospital, but the father would stop by to drop off money for him (I'm assuming for his hospital bills). After a short while he stopped coming and their lawyer would drop the money off. They both signed papers to release him for adoption as soon as he was born. There is no contact info for either of them but only a phone number for their lawyer.

He was taken to Odesa Orphanage #3 at 4 months old and has been there ever since. He has been sick and hospitalized many times, fighting colds, the flu, bronchitis, laryngitis, pneumonia twice, and an ear infection in one ear. He has also had the chicken pox. When he was 12 months, he ran such a high fever in the hospital that he had a seizure but was tested and does not have epilepsy- it was an isolated event due to the fever. It was the only time he as ever seized. He was last hospitalized on Sept. 08 for a cold.

He was born with a small hole in his heart, known as an oval window, but was rechecked in Jan. 09 and the hole is much smaller. It is believed to be closing. He may be far sighted and is suggested to see an eye doctor before he turns five. He's had many vaccinations and was also tested for HIV, cyphalis (sp?), and hepatitis. All tests were negative.

They are saying he has dermatitis. They are systematically withholding different foods- currently apples, candy and any juices. He is on 4 different medications , oral and topical, to fix the problem. (Besides his rashy cheeks, Jake and I saw two different rashes today, one on his elbow and one on the back of his leg. Not sure about those but I have a good feeling some good, frequent face washings and some Aquafore will clear his cheeks right up. :))

He likes to play drums, can stack circles (those donut shaped toys on the stick) and knows many parts of the body. He follows basic instruction and though his speech development is delayed, he understands quite a bit.


That was about it. We shared pictures of the girls and the doctor was glad to see the picture of Abby with red, dry cheeks. I think this made her feel more confident that we know what we're dealing with and can handle it. :) They told us he is a sweet boy and well loved by all in the orphanage. Even the caregivers from other groups call out to him as we pass. During our visits, some who are off duty and are leaving for the day will come out to say goodbye to him before they go. I think they are all so happy he has found a family but are also sad to see him go. No doubt he has left an impression and this sweet little boy will not be soon forgotten.

Video of Pavel!!

But first an update- every thing is going so smoothly here, we feel so blessed! Its always difficult spending long periods of time in a country where you don't speak the language but seeing our little boy each day makes it all melt away.

He is absolutely a gift from the Lord. He LOVES his daddy, the two of them have already formed a very special bond. It breaks my heart to know that this little guy has never had the affection and security of being held in a daddy's arms... but now he's soaking in every minute of it. And thought he doesn't run to me as quickly, we do play together and have fun, and when he and Jake walk to the next thing, he always checks to be sure I'm behind them, which I think is sweet. We sang to him yesterday and he really seemed to like it. This little man has quite a lot of energy but while we sat and sang songs like "itsy bitsy spider" and "abc's" he sat still for about 10 minutes looking through his photo album of our family and occasionally humming along! Just precious.

We are still waiting on a court date, not sure how long until we find out. But we have a feeling the trip will be much shorter than the three weeks we planned for. Please pray for a quick court date so we can get home to our girls, then get back to Pavel and bring him home!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but here is a video I was able to create... enjoy!!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pipes and phones

***Update #2: We got our translator on the phone and they called out someone to fix our pipes. He's here now and is almost done. Its fixed! Yay, we have water again!***

***Update: We got our phone working, YAY!! Yulia emailed us right back and had the code to reactivate the other chip inside the phone. But by the time we fixed it, had our afternoon visit with Pavel, bought a REAL phone card, it was too late to get together with the other family for dinner. And we still don't have their number to say we aren't coming, so we hate that but... we tried. :( Also the man who sold us the phone card smiled at us when he heard us speak and in a Ukrainian accented english said "what city are you from in America?" We told him Nashville and he said "I'm from philadelphia"! So we talked for a second and he let us pay in Dollars which was awesome, and we told him we'd come back and see him if we needed another card on our trip. But PRAISE THE LORD our phone is back to normal!!!***

Today has been, um, interesting. :) We woke up this morning to a kitchen floor half flooded with water. The pipes under the kitchen sink have sprung a leak. We got one of the women who sit out front (there isn't exactly a 'front desk' here :)) to come look at it and tried to ask if we could get it fixed. Jake found the main knobby thingy that turns all the water OFF, but now we think she thinks that fixed it and we're not sure she's going to have anyone look at it now. We'll have to get our translator to get this all worked out later.

Then on our way home from our morning visit with Pavel/Micah/Berusa/Pasha/Berushi/Pashka (no wonder this poor kid doesn't respond to anything!!) we tried to stop and get a phone card. Something we've been meaning to do since we got to Odesa. Actually, we really needed it because we were invited to dinner by another American family adopting, along with another American family adopting and our translator (who is also theirs) and her husband. Anyway, I told them we would call them back, hense, needing the phonecard.

ANYWAY, we went into this store to buy one and asked the man if he spoke any english, he said he did and said enough back to be pretty convincing that we all understood one another, and asked to see our phone (we assumed so that he could see which kind of card we needed). After we paid 25 grivna's (which is only like $3.50) he handed us our phone back along with this little plastic case. We asked how many minutes that gave us and he rattled something off that we didn't really understand but it sounded like he was saying 'plenty of minutes if you're just making local calls', and we left. When we got home we realized he changed a chip INSIDE the phone and now we have a whole different service! Crap! The only numbers we have written down are Nikoly (the driver from Kiev) and Bridgitte- everyone elses were IN the phone and no longer there! But we can't even call those two numbers, it says something in Russian we can't understand, and we're PRETTY sure our phone number isn't even the same, so no one can call us! This is not good.

So I've emailed Yulia and explained the whole thing to her and we're hoping she can email us back with some kind of instructions on how to get this fixed. We would take it back to the same man and have him change it back, but to put the old chip back in and activate it requires a four digit code and who the heck knows what that is.

So please pray that this phone situation gets resolved quickly!! We are meeting our driver back at the orphanage at 6 tonight, so if all else fails we can try to explain the situation to her in spanish (she speaks no english either, but we communicate mostly in our broken spanish!) and she will call Alyona (our interpreter) for us. We are both so frustrated and wish we had just waited for our driver to help us buy one. Oh well, though! Live and learn!!!

I do have to say that the redeeming highlight of this whole day was our visit with Pavel. He was already out on the playground with his group when we got there, and when he saw us coming, he RAN all the way to us with both arms in the air and Jake scooped him up and they held each other for about 10 minutes straight. As soon as Jake picked him up I tried to show the caretakers our little red form saying we could visit him, but they smiled and shook their heads no and waved us away as if to say 'don't worry about it'. Which I thought was kinda cool. Anyway, we had a great two hours with him, he stopped every little while to hold Jake and snuggle with him. When Jake picks him up he smiles SO big and presses his cheek against Jakes. Its just the sweetest sight and everyone who's around to see them can feel it. :)

Today's visit

Can I first just say that I LOVE having internet in our apartment! :) The first picture is looking out from our apartment front door... and the second one is me... in front of our apartment front door. :) And yes, everyone here knows I'm pregnant, there's NO hiding it anymore. But everyone has said its totally fine and not a big deal at all. Praise the Lord!

Today went really well! It was a VERY tiring day, but a great one. We first went to the notary's office to sign some paperwork. We officially naming him Pavel Micah Spencer. :) We were waiting until we got here to decide for sure what we might call him... we had heard that the nickname for Pavel is Pasha, and that is a 'nickname' for him at the orphanage but he more often is called (and responds to) Berusa or Berusic (like bear-U-sah or bear-U-sick). Which is basically his last name shortened.

He was wearing yet another cute hat today (this is the third one we've seen) and he really loves them. This one was more like a baseball hat. If you take it off or twist it, he uses those bear paws to adjust it tight. This kid is definitely meant to be one of Jake's kids. :) My camera battery died as soon as I got there, but since I got over 100 pictures yesterday, I figured it was fine. :)

Our visiting hours are between 10-12am and then again from 4-6pm. (So that he can eat lunch, nap, and have "second lunch" during the in between times. So we decided that since we are paying the driver PER trip, that we'd have her drop us off at the orphanage at 10am and not pick us up until 6... then we would walk around that part of town during those middle four hours. Well, that proved to be one of the most exhausting 4 hour periods of our lives. :) We walked and walked and walked and walked. Mostly because there weren't a ton of places to just sit, and also because we knew of this big grocery store which felt not far (by car) and walked all the way to it and back. And during our walking, we found a wonderful thing- never have the golden arches of McDonalds looked SO wonderful! We haven't really had many opportunities to try out some good Ukrainian cuisine (I think mostly because we don't really know the "good" places to go and what to order there... everything we've seen in the tiny places we've passed doesn't look too appetizing. So we've basically been living on trail mix and granola bars (that we brought with us) and buying fruit, chips, crackers, juice and coke from the store. So we haven't actually had a MEAL since we ate at TGI Fridays in Kiev. We're pathetic, I know. :)

Anyway once we got back, the afternoon visit was SO nice. He wasn't quite all the way awake from his nap and sat with us for quite a while looking through the photo album of our family that we brought for him. We pointed to "Papi" (what the caregivers call him) and to mommy, and to each of the girls. He seems to go point to the pictures of Ashley a lot, which I think is fun. The rest of the time we just walked around the grounds outside and occasionally we'd have to stop so he could snuggle with Jake. He wraps those little hands around Jakes neck and holds on so tight. Its absolutely the sweetest thing. And Jake will kind of "mmmm" hum when they hug and he LOVES it. Then he touches Jakes face and thinks for a bit and squeezes him some more. (He definitely is in need of a father figure.) Then he gets down and holds Jake's hand to lead him around. He's not as affectionate with me at all yet, we mostly play tickle games and say "ugg" back and forth to each other, but when he holds Jake's hand he almost always turns around to be sure I'm following them. :) I know my one on one time with him will come when we get home, and its so important to me that he fill this need he has with Jake right now. Also I think it will help so much having that bond for when Jake comes back to get him.

We are pretty exhausted tonight... sore and our feet are KILLING us, but it was a good day. Tomorrow we won't see him until 4 because in the morning he's making his twice weekly trip to the beach. :) They told us he loves it and is the first one to the water! Again... this is meant to be our child. :) I think we'll check out the area around our apartment tomorrow and try to rest a little. We'll update more soon.

The blessings continue...

Ok, wow, where to start!? (And better yet, how to keep it concise!?)

The train ride was great. Again, more trouble sleeping (though after today, not having the chance to nap, I think all our jetlat troubles are behind us), but nonetheless a safe uneventful trip.

Our whole "facilitating team" (? :)) is GREAT! McKenna, we've been with Svetlana, Alyona, and actually Yuri's WIFE :) all day. And all three of them have been amazing. And they were SO excited to see pictures of your family! Lots of high pitched russian squeeling! :)

Our apartment is nice... it has its own wireless internet in the livingroom PRAISE THE LORD! I was afraid any updates from here would be difficult, but this is GREAT. We were able to skype the kids for the first time today and it was so good to see them. :) This apartment is not as clean as the last one but much bigger. I think I'm gonna find some cleaning gloves and go to work! I guess we got spoiled from the last apartment.

Even being a private blog, I'm nervous to go into too many details about the day until this thing is over, but suffice to say, we were VERY blessed with MANY wonderful opportunities... I was able to catch some pictures for some friends of other kids who will be coming home soon ;)we had a great meeting with the orphanage, and found out lots about his history. AND we got to spend LOTS of time with our little boy!!!

He is... wow, how to explain Pavel?! He's boy to the bone, LOVES throwing balls (and toys), runs just as fast as his little legs will take him, and has more energy than he knows what to do with so he just keeps very busy! The first time we saw him, he smiled at me and backed into me to sit in my lap!! Then I got my little hug and he was off! He has really connected with Jake, though, which was sooo precious to see. He loves his gottee and wanted to touch Jake's face a lot.

He's not talking... at all really, but the staff said that he understands quite a bit. All he said when we were with him was "ugg". :) We aren't really sure what that meant, but assumed it covered a lot of things, lol!

Well here are some pictures from our day today... I've got video too that I'll try to post tomorrow but I'm running out of battery for now.

Our sweet boy...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

SDA, Kyiv and ZZZ...

As I write this, I am one very blessed (very TIRED) woman!

Today I sat in a little office with my husband and two Ukrainian women and we looked at the file of a little boy named Pavel. :) We were asked a few simple questions and we told a brief story of who we are and how we came to be here. We were told that this little boy’s parents didn’t feel that they could take care of him when they had him at ages 45 and 35. So they have signed papers saying they don’t want him and will willingly give him over for adoption. We felt such favor from the Lord in that room… the woman said that she was grateful that we wanted him and admitted that it is difficult to find families for children with Down syndrome in their country. She understood that we were fully aware of all that is associated with Ds and absolutely wanted to make him our own. And she said that she wanted to speed this process along because she understood that we needed to get home to our other children. We all thanked each other once more and left. And in that 10 minute period, we became one huge step closer to our lives changing forever. :) We are to go back this afternoon to finalize what happened this morning and then we are getting on a train tonight to travel the 8 hours or so to meet our little boy for the very first time!

I don’t think that this morning could have gone any smoother. Everything happened so quickly and so effortlessly. We are SO blessed to have our amazing facilitator. She has been absolutely wonderful. And we have been so blessed that this process has been so smooth this far.

Psa 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. (2) He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. (3) He has put a new song in my mouth; Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD. (4) Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. (5) Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

Please pray with us that:

~Our meeting this afternoon would go well

~For safety for on train ride to Odessa

~We could recover from the jet lag which is still pretty bad for both of us

~That God would give us wisdom, favor and that we would shine the love of Christ where ever we go

~For our first meeting with Pavel

And now, a few pictures!! (Uploading takes forever, so I will try to post more later.) We very much enjoyed our time in the beautiful city of Kyiv. And our apartment was very cozy… we hope the next one is as nice. We had a lot of fun walking around downtown… here are some of my random observations and thoughts about this city: 1) I never knew what “underground sidewalks” meant until we got here. I think more cities in America should do this. 2) I am very curious to know what would warrant a parking ticket in this city. Cars are parked anywhere and everywhere… the street, the sidewalks, absolutely anywhere. 3.) What they say about exact change is true. People get VERY irritated if you don’t have exact bills, but coins don’t matter as much. 4.) Don’t be too proud to bust out the translation guide when trying to buy some conditioner. You may accidentally buy MORE shampoo. 5.) Hallways of buildings can be very misleading. You can walk through a hall way and feel like the building is going to cave in at any minute… only to walk into a room and it looks like it was built 5 years ago. 6.) Birds are EVERYwhere, but I have only seen 2 bugs since we got here. I’m wondering if the two are related… 7.) If you are a woman in your 20’s, you must own skinny jeans, some shiny pumps and have bangs that are cut straight across. 8.) We saw a couple of different women pulling their strollers instead of pushing them. Don’t know if that was just a coincidence or if that is common here. 9.) Everyone walks in front of cars and I’m curious to know how many people die a year from being hit by a car on the street. 10.) There are little chunks of white fluffy stuff that floats through the air everywhere. It looks like cotton almost but we think its from the tree's. Anyway, its all over the place and looks kind of pretty but its really annoying when it floats into your face. 11.) Taxi’s are terrifying. They must be exempt from all traffic laws. Exhaustion, leftover nerves from an important appointment, car sickness and a little touch of morning sickness do NOT mix in the back of a taxi!

I guess that’s all for now. We love you ALL and will update again from Odessa!!

Our kitchen

Thanks Wes and D'Arcy for the bag, it doubles as a great entertainment center! :)

Another of the apartment.

The view of Kyiv from our window, we're on the top floor!

Before we left the Nashville airport... so ready to go!!
(Sorry these were random pics... I'm running out of battery now and trying to grab pics quickly! Will post better ones soon I promise! :))