Hello from Ukraine!

We're here! I'm sitting in a little cafe not far from our apartment, SO thankful to have an internet connection!!!

Our flights went well, thanks to all who prayed! The 8 hour flight from DC to Frankfurt when by in no time and we were able to sleep which was nice. We cleared passport stuff and customs in Kiev with no problems what so ever and a man from Yulia's team picked us up and took us to our apartment. He was so very helpful and really friendly.

I still can't believe we're really here... we slept more hours in a row than we've ever slept in our lives!! But we are doing good and ready to go for our SDA appointment in the morning! Today we're going to do a little more sight seeing on our street (sorry, I don't know the name of it for those who have been here... but I will find out) :) Its beautiful with pretty sidewalks and tree's and lots of upscale shops... I'm really looking forward to walking around more today.

I thought I would feel more adventurous when it came to the food, but I have to say I think we're planning on checking out the TGI friday's for dinner! lol :)

Will try to update more later... and post some pictures... but we weren't sure we were going to find internet when we first left the apartment. This was a pleasant surprise!

Thanks again to all who are lifting us up in prayer... your prayers are definitley felt! Blessings to all back home....

Leaving on a jet plane

24 hours from RIGHT now, I'm going to be on a plane. And the thought that keeps coming to mind is: "Didn't we just decide to adopt like, yesterday?!" I've been very reminiscent the last couple days of the moment we made the decision. The moment the Lord spoke to me... the moment the Lord confirmed it to Jake... the moment I emailed Andrea to say, "Save them for me." I'm telling you it all feels like yesterday. My brain has already forgotten the paperwork, the frustrations of homestudys and medical forms and notary certifications. Blessed forgetfulness. :)

And you know, I don't feel nervous at all. Not even a little. I'm completely at peace and looking forward to my first journey over sea's. A little unexpected getaway with just my husband... and an introduction to a little boy who will be ours for the rest of our lives.

I've been thinking too about how the world must look at this as foolishness. To bring home a little one with special needs. I can almost hear peoples thoughts... "Do they know what they're getting in to?" Yes. We do. "Can they handle it?" Yes. Because God called us to do this and He will give us the strength. "Will this affect their other kids?" I sure hope so. I hope they grow up with more patience, more love, and a better understanding that everyone needs to be loved and accepted no matter what the world says about them. And they are getting the gift of an intimate experience of what Christ has done for us. Adopted us as His own. Taken us under His wing and called us His beloved.

I'm going to try to take it easy today and enjoy the day with my kids. Maybe we'll get some ice cream and go to the park.

This is my last post before we leave, I'm turning OFF my computer today. But I will check email one last time before bed. And the next post... will likely be from Europe! If you think of us, say a prayer for our flight tomorrow. :)

A wonderful gift!

Someone (knowing them, they'd want to remain anonymous) has decided to bless us with the gift of Molly Maids coming and cleaning our house!!! What a BLESSING!

We were given the option to have it done at any point in this whole travel process... before we go, while we're gone, after we get home, or whatever. And it might sound strange to some, but I decided to have it done before we go. They're coming tomorrow afternoon! I just want to SEE my house immaculately clean... before I go. You moms will understand... there's just something about seeing and knowing that your house is clean before you go out of town. Yes, my kids will probably destroy the house while we are gone (despite the inevitable efforts from my mom, MIL, and friends to keep it clean ;)), but even if it is a mess when we get back, I really don't mind. Just having that peace of mind before we go will be such a blessing to me. And I don't have to spend the time cleaning it myself! Why is it two maids can come into your house and clean the whole thing in a an hour and a half, but for me to do the exact same work, it takes hours on end? Its because I would want to organize all the toys in the house, weed out old lotion bottles from my bathroom, and do 400 loads of laundry WHILE I'm cleaning. Lol!

Anyway, I'm completely thrilled about this and just had to share. And Friday- I get to lay out all my clothes, take my time packing, and enjoy looking around at my clean baseboards. I can take a bath in a CLEAN bathtub. I can walk across the kitchen to get a drink without getting crumbs stuck to my feet. THAT to a mom... is GOOD STUFF.

We leave in 3 days!!!

Fundraising Goals

I know its on the sidebar, but I just needed to make this announcement:

We only have $1,768 left to raise!! We have raised a total of $22,231 for this adoption!! GLORY BE TO GOD!

Jake and I are SO humbled and grateful to EVERY PERSON who has donated. From the largest donation to the smallest, God has used each of you as HIS hands to provide for us, and for our little boy. I can't stress it enough, because of Christ in you, OUR LITTLE BOY IS COMING HOME!! I'm sitting here crying as I type this because I am so in awe of the great things God has done.

Thank you to everyone who showed up for our fundraisers, thank you to everyone who donated through our Church, who mailed us checks, thanks to ALL of the people who have never even met our family but came across our blog and donated. There have been so many people who've donated $5 and $10 through paypal the last couple of weeks, and WOW does it add up! THANK YOU!

And I feel like it should be another post all together, but I want to continue to thank everyone who is following our blog and PRAYING us through this adoption. We need your prayers now more than ever.

We leave in 4 days!!!

Cleaning and calendars= Adoption nesting :)

This house has been a flurry of activity the last few days! Cleaning out closets, cabnets, painting rooms, I want this house to be CLEAN when we leave!

The countdown continues... my kids are even counting down. They are SO excited that we are leaving to meet "brover" but I don't think it's set in for them yet that this also means we will be GONE for 3 weeks. They just think it'll be a few fun days with Nana, Grandma, and some friends. I'm praying that the time flies for them and that that is exactly how it's remembered- just a few fun days!

I'm making them little count down calendars (I'll try to post pics if I have time to take some!) ... counting down the days until we leave, and then for them to count down the days until we come home. And each day even says who they are 'staying' with right then. My kids are such planners (I wonder where they get it ;)) and do so much better when they know what to expect. I'm hoping this will help with that a lot. And hopefully make a fun little momento to look back at and remember. If only someone in that orphanage could make a little calendar for Pavel....

The 10 Day Post :)

I think this little poem of sorts is becoming a '10 days away from traveling' ritual among RR folk. :) I've read it 100 times over and it STILL makes me tear up.

10 days away... and I'm wondering...
I wonder...when it was 10 days before I met God and He adopted me, was HE this excited?

I wonder if His stomach did flips and He got tears in His eyes when He thought about holding me for the first time.

I wonder if His heart ached when He thought about my life without Him as my Daddy.

I wonder if it grieved Him to know that I was living as an orphan and had no hope of a future without Him.

I wonder if He was as okay with paying my ransom as I am with paying our boys'.

I wonder if, for Him, there was no cost too high, no sacrifice too great.

I wonder...by Chris and Mary Malone

Also, I need to let you all know that we've decided not to make this blog private. We will leave it public and only share some very basic information until we get home. For the safety and security of our ourselves, our adoption proceedings, and our little boy. I will warn you that the postings may be few and far between, but we are so thankful for everyone who follows along with us and still covet your prayers. We are honored to have you join us as we walk this final leg of our journey!!

We got a date!!!!

Our appointment in eastern Europe is MAY 19TH!!!!

We're leaving in A WEEK AND A HALF!!!!

Please pray that we can pull everything together in time and that God would give me His peace and ease my nerves! I have SO much to think about!

Gift that gave again!

**Update- It keeps getting better!! Click here!***

Those following our blog know that "Katrina from TN" was the name drawn from the hat for the Honeybaked Ham give away. Well Katrina is a new friend of mine who is in our church small group (we call them "cheers" groups).

Well bless her heart, Katrina decided to turn around and re-give away the gift certificate on her own blog! It just ended, and she raised more than I did with our two give away's combined!!!!

Click here to check out her blog and see how much she raised for our little boy! (Scroll to the end of the post) And look at those cute tickets she made!!! Hang on to those for me Katrina, I'd love to put those in his scrapbook!!! :D

When we first committed to this adoption and knew how MUCH money there was to raise... Jake and I said to each other that if God had called us to this, that He would bring in the money. And here we are, 5 months later, standing in awe that God would have brought in THIS much money... so much of it from total strangers!!! That is nothing less than GOD at work.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, may God use this adoption story for HIS glory alone!!! Great is the name of the Lord and greatly to be praised!!!!

Why two trips

I've had a few people ask me recently why we have to make two separate trips, so I'm going to give the most basic explanation I can (to the best of my understanding):

The first trip we will go, have an appointment in the capitol city, and officially "choose" our son (even though we technically already have) from their government paperwork. Then we will travel to his region and visit with him for about two weeks. Then we have court again (along with a lot of paperwork mixed into all of this)... then there are about two weeks of court appeals when we have chosen to come home (because that's a LONG time away from our little ones). :) Once that period is over, Jake will go back with a friend (I will stay here with the girls) and Pavel should basically be ours once he gets there. Then he waits a week or two for paperwork and passports to clear, then they can come home!!! So from the time that we leave for the first trip, we're looking at a 7 week (or so) process.

This is the way its done in a lot of countries in that area, from what I understand. Again, a lot of that could vary, and this is all what I have picked up from my dear RR friends who have gone before me. :) (Anyone please feel free to set me straight on anything I may have gotten wrong!)

But I hope that helps our friends and family to understand a bit better how this process will work. I can't say enough how much we appreciate all of your prayers... I hope to update in the next few days with our first travel date! Whoo hoo!!

Parent's Night Out Pictures

As promised! (Thx Brian for the pics!)

Thanks to my RR yahoo group for the craft idea's... we ended up doing a picture of Pavel with a foamy frame that said "Pray for Pavel" (except I think one little girl put, "YOU ARE SO COOL" instead, which hey, thats great too!) and there is a magnet on the back so they can put them on the fridge and remember to pray for our little boy! They all seemed to have fun with it... I think even a couple of our helpers made one to keep! ;)

Approved!!

I just got an update that our Dossier has been APPROVED and now we are waiting on a travel date! YAYYYYY!!!!! *Doing a happy dance!!!!*

Ok I have two very specific prayer requests:

1.) Pray that God would orchestrate our travel date and that it would be no sooner or no later than HE wants it to be. That it would be in His perfect timing.

2.) Pray that He would perform a miracle and we would have the rest of the funds we need. I know it is a large chunk of money that we have left to raise but Jake and I are TRUSTING that God will bring it in. Again in His perfect timing.

Hopefully I can post again soon with our appointment date!!!!

Dossier Submitted!

I just got an email from my facilitator that our Dossier was submitted today, WHOO HOO!!! I'm so excited I don't even know what to do with myself!

And we've officially been moved to the "traveling soon" status on RR! So funny and I don't know why but that makes it feel more official. Its really happening! In just a few short months we will be in the "Already HOME!"

I gotta go clean something!!!

A fun night

Just wanted to report that we had a GREAT night last night! We had 17 kiddo's dropped off and we had SO much fun with them! I was very impressed with how good all of the kids were and our awesome friends and family were such a huge help... playing with kids, baking cookies and rocking babies...

We did get a few pictures (thanks to our friends the Baileys :)) that I will try to post soon.

And we raised a total of $440 to bring Pavel home, yay!!!

Thanks again to everyone who helped and to everyone who brought their children out and donated. We are so thankful to all of you!!!

A little hitch *update*

My little document arrived safe and sound in eastern Europe today, thanks to those who helped me pray it along! My facilitator was somewhat surprised that 3 days after emailing me with an issue, it was resolved and in her hands. :) She doesn't know who she's dealing with!! *insert evil laugh* ;)

So it looks like we should still be able to have our paperwork submitted to the government on Monday! Whoo hoo! And after that... you guess it, we wait. But what are we waiting for, you ask? A TRAVEL DATE! Aaahh!!!

Ok seriously, I'm in a goofy mood right now, but just typing the words 'travel date' brought physical tears to my eyes! Oh my goodness!!!

What a very surreal journey this is. My brain can't even compute that it is almost to the point of us GOING there and SEEING him. (Ok again with the tears!)

I need to go get some rest for our big fundraiser tomorrow night. I will update soon to let you know how that goes! Pray that families are mysteriously drawn from all over and we raise hundreds of dollars! We need it!!!

And the winner is....

The Prize...

The jar of entries...


The drawing...

And the winner IS....

********Katrina from Tennessee!!!!********

Congratulations Katrina!!! Yay!!!!

Thank you SOO much to everyone who entered. We had entries from as far away as Washington State and Florida!! And you all helped us raise another $115 for our adoption! Every DOLLAR helps to bring home our little boy.

And I'd like to thank my special assitant's Ashley and Emily for helping with the drawing today. :) I wish I had a webcam to do it live... or even a camera (both much needed before we leave to get Pavel!!) but I figured the camera on my phone was better than nothing... sorry for the blurry pics! :)

Give Away Reminder

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter for the Honeybaked Ham Co. Gift Certificate Give Away!! Only three people have entered, so get your entry in today!!! Every $5 you donate through the Chip-in link on the right puts another ticket in the hat with your name on it!!!

For more info click here, or if you have any questions at all feel free to email me at spencerchics@yahoo.com.

Please help us raise the money we need to bring home our little boy!!!

A little hitch

Found out this morning that I need to resend another document to eastern Europe... shouldn't be a big deal, I think I can get it, apostille it, and mail it today... but please pray that there are no hang ups and it can get out of the US today. If I mail it today and it gets there by thursday, it should be fine and everything will still be submitted the 27th. I'll letcha know! :)

Parent's Night Out

Ok, so, I was really hoping to get way more registrations for our Parent's Night Out fundraiser THIS Friday night (for more info click here) today at church, but we only had a couple of sign-ups.

SO THERE IS STILL LOTS MORE ROOM TO SIGN UP YOUR KIDDOS AND HELP US BRING PAVEL HOME!!!

Please email me at spencerchics@yahoo.com so that I can know how much pizza to get. We have LOTS of friends and family volunteering to help us babysit, and just a few kids signed up, so there is plenty of room for you!!! Don't miss this great chance to have a night out while your child(ren) enjoy games and crafts... and DINNER FOR THEM IS INCLUDED! If you'd like to sign your kids up or have any questions at all, email me today!! ;)

And tell your friends!!!!!!!

YARDSALE UPDATE

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

The Harpers had their yardsale yesterday and raised $1686.70 to BRING PAVEL HOME!!!

'Thank you' doesn't even cover how amazed, humbled, grateful, and blessed we are to have friends like you. I can't wait to see our families together when we bring our SON home. :) Sid, Wendy, Lacey, Sydnie, Baylie, Jojo, Tate, Emmy, and Kenlie... and the rest of the Harper clan... we are blessed to call you friends. And the next question is... how are we going to get together you so you can meet him in a few months?! :D

Reminder for those in Texas

Just a reminder for anyone in the Midland/Odessa/Lubbock area that our friend's, the Harpers, are having an adoption fundraiser yardsale THIS saturday, the 18th... so if you are in the area, head on over! This yardsale is for OUR PAVEL! What a BLESSING.

For more info, you can go to their blog by clicking here. For directions, I'm sure you could post a comment to them with your email address and they will get back with you. Wish we could be there ourselves!!!

Update

Our dossier successfully arrived at its destination! And our facilitator said that everything looks good and it will be submitted April 27th! Exciting. :)

Not sure yet where that puts us for a travel date, but should definitely give us a little more time for fundraising... which is a good thing!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers. Please continue to pray for God's perfect timing, that the funds would be there when we need it, and that I would have the strength to continue to get our house in order.

Much love!

Wow...

... that little package is moving FAST! Its already in France!! Go little Dossier, Go!!

Personal Matters

Ok this is your disclaimer: This is me pouring my heart out. When I write on my blogs, I don't see it as pouring my heart out to the world, its more like journaling. I remember reading adoption blogs long before we ever committed to adopting (or even considered it!) and remember how cool it was to see the vulnerability and the 'realness' in peoples lives and to understand what its really like adopting. Now going through this myself, yes, I'm using this as a resource for fundraising and raising Ds awareness, but there's so much more than that to me. This is an outlet for me to write. To bring some perspective myself, to look back at how far God has brought us (I encourage you to look back over older posts as well), and to bring encouragement and maybe even understanding to those reading. This is our journey. I'm honored that you are reading along.

There are moments (and they grow more and more in frequency and strength) when almost hurts to look at Pavel's picture. I feel that I have walked down a road with him and he doesn't even know it. I first met him on RR sometime last fall... his picture along side his buddy Oleg. I thought he was cute (and Oleg too) and felt compelled to pray for them, nothing more. So I prayed. And prayed. And put them on the wallpaper of my computer. :) I felt this draw but honestly tried to ignore it. Then it became almost a game. I teased that I wanted to adopt them to my husband. I would send him pictures and scriptures. Somehow in my subconscious, if I made light of it, then that's all it would be. Amy being goofy about these two boys. Then in November, my world fell apart. I very clearly heard from the Lord that WE were supposed to adopt them. Which kind of excited me but kind of horrified me at the same time.

Then when we found out that Oleg was transferred, I was so confused. And so heartbroken. Part of me wanted to scrap the whole thing and hide. The other part of me wanted to fight for Pavel with a vengeance! He still needed us! I was more determined than ever!

When my friend was getting her child from the same orphanage last month, and was able to get a picture and video, it took things to a whole new level of difficult. He was real. And waiting there completely unaware of his future... either being transferred to a mental institution which is worse than any nightmare or... a family in America. A mommy and daddy. He doesn't even know what that is. He only knows the world he's lived in for the last 3 years.

Every day my mind pictures him with us. When we go to church. When we get up in the morning. Bathtime. Taking Abby to therapy. I imagine doing his laundry. Brushing his hair. I feel like he's here now. We're so ready for him. The girls ask me all the time... "When is Paaaah-bel coming?" (You know in that same tone as "Are we theeeeere yet?" :) They too are tired of hearing about it and just want to see him. They want to play with him. They ask to see his picture periodically. And they grin. When I see it I cry. I feel physical pressure in my chest because I want to be done. I want to hold him and kiss him. How can you look at a picture and feel such a STRONG motherly love for a child you've never met?

Right now it looks like we will travel mid-late May. But God is good and has given me lots of distractions for now. I'm trying to balance anticipation for him with understanding that it will still be a while. But I'm afraid that it will only get harder as we get closer. In the last month of each of my pregnancies, I didn't know how my stomach could possibly get any bigger without popping! That's how my heart feels.

Dossier is outta here!!

Our dossier has officially been mailed and is on its way to eastern Europe! I can't believe its actually GONE and out of my hands!

It was a CRAZY day... hit a few 'bumps' that I didn't expect, but 7 hours, 90 miles and $240 later, my dossier is gone!! This is a day I will never forget. :)

Please join us in praying this thing across the Atlantic! I'll keep you updated!