Cousins Anxiously Await For Their New Cousins

Tonight, Karen (my sister-in-law) asked me to babysit our neices, Nicole(11) and Christina(7) and our nephew, Billy(9). So I spent the evening with them, chauffering the girls back and forth to their dance classes and then out to McDonalds for some ice cream. It was a fun evening with them as always and I'm finding out how inquisitive they are in regards to their soon to be cousins. They want to know as much about them as possible. Billy is hoping for a boy cousin so he would have another boy in the family to play with. Nicole, I think in someways she would like to have a female cousin her own age to pal around with although I know she would be quite happy with another baby in the family. Christina, I think wants to have a girl cousin to play with.



As we were driving in the car to dance class, they were helping me think of names to name our children. Boy did we all have fun with that one. That kept them busy for a while. I told them that we'll have to select 2 boys names (incase we adopt 2 boys) and 2 girls names (incase we adopt 2 girls). Some of the names they suggested that I liked were Robert Jr., Joshua, Dean, Austin, Daniel, Luke, Alex, Aaron. Some of the girl names that they suggested that I liked were Macy, Emily, Olivia, Emma, Cassandra, Melody, Britney, and Lily. Well they named a lot more, however, there are too many to list.



I explained to them that even though their new cousins might be talking...that they won't be able to understand them at first because they'll be speaking either Russian or Ukrainian. I explained to be patient with them because it will be just as frustrating for you to understand them as it will be for them to understand you in the beginning. I gave them an example and by having a conversation with Nicole by me replying to her question in a language she couldn't understand. She looked at me like I had lost my mind and was frustrated that I didn't respond to her question in English. Then she asked me to answer her again and again I replied in another language that she didn't understand. The whole time Nicole and I were conversing, Billy and Christina were intently listening to our conversation with a smerk on their faces in the back seat of the car. I finally told them in English of course, that is what could happen upon their arrival home until they learn the language. I told the kids that they are going to be just as frustrated as you to understand you as you will be with trying to understand them. So if they don't understand you, help them learn English by being patient with them and teaching them slowly.



All in all, it was a fun night and I'm realizing more and more how grown up Nicole, Billy and Christina have become. I enjoyed their company tonight very much and am happy to see how interested and anxious they are in regards to their soon to be new cousins.

Everything is coming together

I am so excited! We've gotten so much accomplished in the last week. All of our documents have been completed that we needed to get updated. HORRAY!! We received our statewide criminal clearance letters, agency license and doctors forms from our physical. I broke down in tears of joy when I was on the phone with the doctors office and I heard the good news that our doctors forms were completed. OH, how relieved and thankful to God we are for our paperwork being completed. Thank you for all of your prayers. We now have to get the paperwork notarized and apositilled by the state in Trenton, NJ and then sent to Ukraine to get our paperwork translated and then submitted with the rest of our paperwork before we have our appointment on July 26th. Now you can understand why we were getting concerned about getting our paperwork being completed.



We also finished painting our 4th bedroom and laid the carpeting. Now we can concentrate on fixing up our children's rooms.The plumber and Robert finished renovating our shower and surround in our bathroom. Robert and I also attended a CPR & Choking class for infants and children. This class was better than any other CPR class that I've had in the past. It provided a lot of hands on practice for an extended period of time, just like if you were in a real situation. I would recommend it to anyone. It was through Virtua Healthcare in Voorhees, NJ. They have all sorts of classes that you can take. Here is their website if you are interested in checking into it more https://physicianlocator.virtua.org/sfnasp/servicesearch.asp

Robert's Locks of Love

About a year and a half ago Robert started growing his hair to donate to Locks of Love Foundation www.locksoflove.org where they receive donated hair to make into wigs for children that have cancer. Yes, today was the big day to get his hair cut....WHOOO, WHOOO!! Robert donated 10 inches of his spiral brown curls and is happy to have his clean cut look back. And so am I!!! Now I have my BIG HUNK of a MAN back!! YIPPIE!!=)



This was the first time that Robert has grown his hair past a few inches, that so many of his family members gave him such a hard time about it. Everytime he saw them they told him who he looked like. One day they called him a Mountain Man, another day it was, a Rebel, another day it was Antonio Banderez, another was Sean Claude Vandam and the list goes on. Even though I wasn't fond of the idea of Robert growing his hair long in the beginning, I supported his efforts. I kept imagining the look of surprise and gratefulness on the child's face who receives their first wig and what a difference that wig will make in that child's self esteem and confidence. I know I would be excited if that were me receiving my first wig.



It's funny how people judge you by the way you look. We moved into a different home last year and around that time Robert's hair had already grown about 5-6 inches. Well our new neighbors seemed to keep their distance from Robert. In a conversation that I had with both our neighbor and her daughter she told me that she donated her hair that she recently got cut off to Locks of Love. Of course I immediately responded and said that is what Robert is doing. Both her and her daughter looked at each other with a sigh of relief and said in a surprised tone "OOOOOOOHHH"!!...now it all made sense to them......Their "new" neighbor was NOT a crazed maniac after all.



Long or short hair, my babez heart is still the same one I fell in love with...a generous giving man who has a heart for others...even if he has never met the person.

Preparing for our Babies

Robert and I have been actively preparing for our trip to Ukraine and getting the house ready for our new additions to our family. We are in the process of renovating our walk-up attic into a 4th bedroom, which will be our guest bedroom. I gave the attic two coats of primer paint and one coat of a sage green.



I still have to finish the other half of the attic with the green and then we can rug it this weekend and set it up as a bedroom. Once we do that we can move some of the bedroom furniture in the two kids rooms into the guest room where it belongs and then finish off our kids bedrooms. Robert put up some trim molding in the attic after I painted it, which really gave the walls a finished look. Our bathroom is also under renovations right now until the plumber shows up next week to finish the job. I have also been busy working on our little boys' afghan. I am about half way done. Our little girls' afghan I finished last year (which was my first afghan I ever made...thanks to Mama Sherry teaching me). Robert got a book on London that had some maps and hotel reviews in it, which was nice to see how close the underground transportation is to the hotels we are looking into. We will be reserving our hotel probably sometime tomorrow...so that will be done. I've also been reading the book "Supernanny" that my mom gave us for our anniversary. Another thing we've been doing to prepare for our trip is to record on our DVD player movies and sitcoms off of the television so we will have some English TV shows to watch when we have some free time....which there is a lot of from what we hear when we are not visiting the children. I'm sure we won't be just watching tv during our free time, that is why we're bringing some travel games, cards, books, crotcheting & cross stitch projects to do as well as journaling to keep you all informed as well as to create a memory book for our children. We did receive one of our documents that we had to update which was our adoption agency license. We are now waiting on our statewide criminal clearance letters (which we should receive either this week or next week) and our doctors forms from our physicals we had in March (which should be done real soon as well)...I HOPE. We still have to send all of our updated documents up to Trenton, NJ to get them apositilled and then sent to Ukraine to be translated and submitted with the rest of our documents BEFORE we have our appointment at the NAC. Please pray and believe with us that our paperwork is done correctly and SOON so we can send them off to Ukraine before we leave in July. I know I must sound like I'm getting a little on the nervous side about our paperwork and all, however, I have to cast my cares daily over unto the Lord regarding all of this....because the victory is ours because the battle is HIS...not mine. Yeah....as you can tell...I have to keep telling myself that and speaking it forth, because yes, that is the only thing right now that concerns me is our paperwork. This whole adoption has been in God's hands since day one and we have truely had Supernatural Favor in all of the process so far, so I just trust that the Lord will complete His good work exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask or think and we thank God for His goodness and mercy towards us and our family and friends each and every day of our lives.

Our Adoption Timeline

Here is our timeline from beginning to our appointment date:



Decided to adopt - March 2004



Homestudy Meeting with AFTH (www.adoptionsfromtheheart.org)- May 28, 2004



Parenting the Adopted Child Classes - June 21, 22 & 29



Home Visitation Interview - July 21, 2004



Changed Countries - from Kazakhstan to Ukraine - August 4, 2004



Decided to switch to Independent Adoption (www.Ukrainianangels.org) - Aug 9, 2004



Recieved Final Homestudy Reports from AFTH -September 3, 2004



Sent documents to INS for fingerprinting appt. & approval -September 4th, 2004



Fingerprinted at INS in Philly - September 22, 2004



Recieved approval from INS (2 children-YIPPIE) - November 15, 2004



Sent our Dossier documents to Ukraine - Nov. 21, 2004



Dossier was Submitted to the NAC - Feb. 8, 2005



Dossier was approved & registered at the NAC - Feb.21, 2005



Received Approval letter & Registration # from the NAC - March 18, 2005



Sent Appt. Request Letter to Ukraine - March 21, 2005



Appt. Request Letter Submitted to NAC - March 29, 2005



Appt. Letter from NAC written on - 4/6/05



Appt. Letter received via Fed Ex.- 4/25/05



Our Appointment Date at Ukraine National Adoption Center - July 26, 2005

Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's out there!

We had a wonderful time today spending Mother's day with our Moms and family. We are both truely blessed with two beautiful mothers, Mama Sherry (my mom) and Mama Maria (Robert's mom). We are both very close with our moms and have a wonderful relationship with them. The two women that have influenced our lives the most and molded us into the people we are today. The two people that would do anything for us to help us suceed at anything that we set out to do....the person who picked us up when we fell....the person who kissed our booo boos, wiped our tears away and turned our frowns upside. We thank God for both of our mothers and would like to say........For all the times you stood by us, For all the truth that you helped us see, For all the joy you brought to our lives, For all the wrong that you made right, For every dream you made come true, For all the LOVE we have for you.......We're grateful for each day, Because we LOVE you both so very much. Ok....Ok....I'll stop singing. Yes, we truely love our moms dearly and I believe that if I can be half of a mother as both of our moms have been to us, I know I will be a great mom to our children. Duet. 5:16 - Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Our 5 Year Wedding Anniversary!!

Wow! It's hard to believe it's been 5 years since Robert and I have been married. Time flies when you are having fun. We will be going out to dinner tomorrow evening and next weekend we will be going away for the weekend with my mom, my brother David and my sister, Marli to Lancaster, PA (amish & quilt country) to have a combined anniversary weekend and to celebrate my mom's birthday. David & I wanted to do something special for my mom's birthday so we are going to a bed and breakfast in Bird-in-Hand, PA and spend the weekend going in and out of true amish(on their farms) quilt shops. It should be a fun weekend. We'll see how Robert and David deal with all the quilt shops that we will be going to. It should be interesting anyways.