Horse Country?

I was on my way home from babysitting today when I saw this amazing sight. Horses tethered to trees in front of McDonalds! I whipped out my new iphone and snapped this picture, it was taken 15 miles west from where we live and we are very close to the ocean. Crazy!

Another SBP gift!

I got my last gift from my SBP today in the mail, very unexpectedly may I add. My sweet SBP sent me many lovely gifts and for a Mom who just brought her children home from Russia, that was no easy task. Thank you Jane! I love the soft and huggable dolphin puppets. I know our little ones will love them when they come home. Thank you for your encouraging words in your cards, I appreciate it so much. Your children are so cute and I am so happy for you that you finally have them home. I'll be keeping up with your blog and praying for a continued smooth transition with your children.

One year ago today...

It was exactly one year ago today that we got our first referrals. We lost them 6 months later. It doesn't seem that long ago. Our little boy's name was Roman, he had blond hair and greenish eyes and the cutest, biggest smile. Our little girl's name was Vladislava, she had reddish hair, blue eyes and a sweet, shy smile. They were so happy in the photographs and I can only pray that they are happy, healthy and loved in their new families.
I'm praying that the next referrals we receive will be ours forever.

SBPs Revealed!

Hey everyone, sorry I'm late with this post. I hope you all enjoyed this round of SBPs, I sure did!
Thank you Jane for your gifts! I'm addicted to the scent of that Relax Aromatherapy stuff you sent me and of course you know how much I love Bit O' Honey! Thanks again for blessing me!

Now on to the reveal....

Kim, your SBP was Robin!
Allison, your SBP was Kim!
Marie, your SBP was Allison!
Debbie, your SBP was Marie!
Melissa, your SBP was Debbie!
Robin, your SBP was Melissa!

I'm an Idiot!

Surely this isn't a surprise to most of you.
Yesterday I sent off our last batch of updated documents to be apostilled. What a relief to have them all done! I was confident that they were all notarized correctly and that we would get them all back apostilled.
This morning I awoke from a bad dream, I dreamt I was sending off our documents to be apostilled. They were sealed and on their way when I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to send a check with the documents! I awoke with a start only to realize that my dream was reality! I really did forget to send a check with the documents and boy am I mad! So, unless I can sweet talk the ladies up in Tallahassee on Monday to not send our paperwork back and allow me to overnight them a check, then it will be the third time in a row that we get our documents back with out apostilles. That's about $77 total in money that went right down the drain! GRRRRRRRR! I'm Grumpy!

Better News

I sent an e-mail to my FC today to let her know that our apostilled docs did arrive in Kras today-YAY! I also asked her if she had any news on Putin dissolving the government. Here is her reply:
"I talked with Kate and she said that the dissolving was not of the whole
government, just people within Putin's cabinet. He let them go so that
he can have better freedom with the upcoming elections. The Parliament
is still intact and it is not becoming a dictatorship. I know that it
can seem alarming, but we do not think it will effect adoptions. It's
just how the Russian government works. We will let you know if we
receive any more information."
Encouraging news but please continue to pray.

Lord Have Mercy!

REPORTS THAT PUTIN HAS DISSOLVED THE GOVERNMENT

What could this possibly mean for all of us adopting in Russia? It doesn't sound promising. Let us all be on our knees in prayer today.

Cool Find!

Debbie, you may have already posted on this since you always find the "new finds" first but I got an e-mail from our AWAA yahoo chat group, specifically from Karin, about a Russian printed stroller she found. I guess it has little matrouschkas on the inside of the stroller. For all of you adopting from Russia and have not yet purchased a stroller, this one might be the one for you. FYI, it's crazy expensive! If my sweet mother hadn't already had bought us a double stroller for our kids a year ago and we could afford it, I'd get this one!

Road Trip!

Can you guess where we went? I'll give you three guesses, the first two don't count!












Yesterday at about 3:30 pm Chris and I made a last minute decision to drive 5 1/2 hours to Tallahassee. I threw some stuff in a bag and we were on the road by 4:20. We wanted to really try to make the deadline, not expecting anything but doing our best to make it happen. Well, the Lord made our trip prosperous because at 8:15 this morning our documents were apostilled and we were on our way to Kinkos/Fed-Ex to make copies and send them directly to Krasnoyarsk, Russia. They should be there by Monday. We are not sure if we made the deadline since all we were told was to try to get the documents in by the beginning of September. Does the beginning of the second week of September count? I'm just glad that it's done. We know that whatever happens, God is in control.

Expectations

Sitting here praying and thinking about our adoption, I have come to understand why I'm upset and angry. It's all about expectations. I should have learned by now not to expect anything in our adoption. It's been 2 years now and we've gotten nowhere. When I was told by our FC that if we could make this deadline of the beginning of September that we would get our referrals, I expected we would. I also began expecting that we would be able to have them home for the holidays. How foolish of me! If only I could remember not to expect anything and to just take everything we are told with a grain of salt, I would not be so upset right now. My husband has learned to do this very well. He's not expecting that we will be traveling to Russia someday until we are flying in the airplane. After so many disappointments you'd think I'd join him in his lack of expectations. So, some adoption advice for those of you starting your adoption: Do NOT expect anything and you'll have an enjoyable adoption. As for me, I'm turning over a new leaf. I, from this point on am not going to expect anything from our adoption and will not be excited about anything until I'm on the plane with my kids headed home. I feel better already.

Down In The Dumps!

My doorbell rang 30 minutes ago and I was so excited because I was hoping it was my Fed-Ex package coming back with all our documents apostilled. It was my Fed-Ex package and as I excitedly ripped into it, I found that NONE of the documents were apostilled!! The letter attached said they were notarized incorrectly which is extremely vague and I won't be able to find out more from them about the problem(s) until Tuesday because of the freakin' holiday! Can you feel my aggravation! I am so p.o'd right now! It seems like we can never catch a break! I know it's all about God's timing but why can't His timing not line up with ours for once! Will this adoption never end? Will we ever be parents to 2 precious children from Russia? I wonder if this was ever God's plan for us sometimes. I just want to scream right now!