We are complete!

The boys are home!!! We left to pick up the boys November 29 and picked the boys up from the institutions on December 1st! We were in country until December 11th and the boys met their siblings on December 12th. The boys did pretty well on the plane ride, but the airport is a different story. They must not have been use to walking so much and being around so many people, but we made it home safely! Adjusting has been very interesting, with having four bio children at home and adding two older kids who have never had a family has made this transition difficult. Not impossible but difficult.

It has taken me a while to update simply because we started home school and doctors appointments. Life is busy, but enjoying every day. Ryan is starting to speak some English words and Roman is allowing hugs. I will try to update my blog more often.

Adoption is a long, stressful road and the transition isn't pretty but so worth it!!
This is our vehicle now, every seat is full.

Missing my boys

It has been 9 weeks since we left Roman, and 8 week since we left Ryan! Gosh time is not going by fast enough!! Not a days goes by that my boys are not on my mind. We are slowly adding more and more clothing to their closet, which I am not sure if it will fit them or not but it makes me feel better buying it now so I feel like I am not leaving them out. I wonder if they remember us or if we have been labeled as such another person to walk in and out of their life. Which thinking of that makes me sad, if they only new and understood what we are here doing, working to bring them home. As far as paper work goes we are done with all the paper work for our part unless the judge decides they need more items. So basically we are just waiting to get assigned a judge which will then assign a court date. Unfortunately we are stuck for now since the boys country "shuts down" for summer break. Which of course makes the process seem so much longer :( 


They kids are also anxious to have their brothers home, they ask almost every day when they will be coming home. Which doesn't help me since I already stock my email all day every day except on weekends. Time please speed up!!!!! Sincerely an impatient mama

Update

Ok so it has been over a month since my last post, a lot has been going on!! So we traveled to Europe to meet our SONS!! Yes you read right we are adopting two boys! Yes they both have down syndrome and are both in double digits age wise. These boys have my heart just like my bio children do. Our little guy Roman is the newest addition he will be 11 in September, yet he is so small and doesn't know how to feed himself or chew. His mental institution social worker said that when he was transferred there 2 years ago he was still being bottle fed!! Can you imagine at 7 years old still drinking out of a bottle? So the fact that he is being spook feed is a big accomplishment. I was able to feed him and it was very hard for me because I was told they feed them fast so when I started feeding him I was taking my time because I didn't want him to gag and get as much food as possible,  it he was not use to that so he was getting impatient so he hit my hand so I would hurry up. I didn't change my speed in his feeding and he eventually got it, that it's ok for him to take his time while eating. I'm sure that day his tummy felt more full and stayed that way longer then other days. He also started showing me towards our last visit that he remembered us!! We would play catch with everyday and count 1, 2,3 then trow it. He would sit on my lap and I would hold his hands so he could throw the ball to my husband. We'll on the 4th visit he cam and stood I front of me and put his hands out to catch!!!!!! I nearly cried when he did that, that was the first time HE initiated catch!!! Usually at the end of our visit a worker would come in and take him away and he was fine just leaving is, nut on our last visit the worker came in and he did not want to go!!! He held on to me tighter and would giggle, then my husband got him to say "see you later" and he did the same thing!!! It was so hard leaving him there! But we had to go to see our other son! Ryan is very opposite of Roman, he is silly interacts   With everyone, feeds himself, expresses emotion, shows interest! He is an older version of our bio son!! He loves cars! The first day he met us he was asking us to take him in a car! Our visits with him were harder simply because he would ask if he was going to leave with us everyday! One day he actually cried at the gate as we left. His social worker said its because he is not use to one on one attention, I like to believe its because he likes our company. All the children would say we are his mommy and daddy but I don't think he understood what that was, he didn't call us mommy and daddy but I'm ok withy that. He has never had a family and  I don't expect him to call us mommy and daddy after just 5 days of meeting us. That is something we have earn! When we bring both boys hoe, we will show them what a family is what mommy and daddy are. Now we are home finishing up the last bit of paper work that is needed for court. Of course now this wait is harder because we have spent time with our boys and we miss them everyday. So I am using shopping as my therapy. I buy the boys something almost every day. So far I have started buying them clothes, they have 10 shorts so far and 2 pairs of shoes. I just hope they fit them when we bring them home. We are all so excited to have our boys home, we pray it will be before this Christmas!

Travel Dates!

The moment we have waited for over a year for will be here in 11 days!!! We leave for Eastern Europe in 11 days to finally meet our son.  I am excited, nervous, anxious and scared all at once. I have so many thoughts running while that it's almost overwhelming! But I can't wait to finally hug him and see his beautiful smile! We will be in country for almost 2 weeks, I will try and update as much as possible while we as there. I think the hardest part will be having to say see you later to him and hope he knows we will be coming back to bring him home. I have a bag full of things to do with him while we are there, I also have some stuffed animals for him and a photo album that we can hopefully leave with him. My 6 year old asks me almost everyday "are you going to get brother tomorrow?" And I have to say "no baby maybe by Christmas he will be home." We all feel like this is taking so long, but we know that it's all in HIS time. For now we must be patient and trust in HIM.

In time

We received verbal referral almost three weeks, which means our dossier has been approved and we are just waiting on the minster of justice to sign it and issue our first set of travel dates!! It usually take three weeks for this to happen and this Wednesday will be 3 weeks!!!This wait is  killing me, last year on Easter is when we knew "Kyle" had to be a part of our family!! That was one year ago and we have yet to meet this little boy that has our heart. Hopefully by mid to end of May we will be in Europe holding him for the very first time!!!!!! Everything we do already involves him, this weekend we went to Seaworld and we talked about our little guy the whole time an we got him a souvenir for when he come homes. It wouldn't feel right if we hadn't done that, he is our son even if he isn't here. Its like when you are pregnant you start buying items for your baby to have once they make there arrival in this world, its no different to me. I buy things for him every chance I  have so he can have things he hasn't had in his 10 years of life. I know it's all material items, but he already has my heart! So i have started packing a bag with items I plan on taking on our first trip for him to play with and we will hopefully get to leave him a photo album with pictures of his family and new home. Once we visit him we have to leave him and come home for 4-6 months while our adoption is finalized, so we leave him to photo album in the mean time, then we will travel one last time to bring him home! This can't happen soon enough. I know this is all in Gods time, but the wait is still very hard.

Coming together

A lot has happened since my last update. Ryan "Kyle" on RR turned double digits this month!! I also had a birthday this month. Lots of sick kids and parents this month with this weird weather. So our deadline to submit our dossier was this month an we were still short around $1200, but a anonymous donor donated the full $5500 to our adoption agency which we needed to submit our dossier!!!! Praise The Lord!!!! We are still in shock over this and are happy to say our dossier is in Eastern Europe going through translation and will hopefully be officially submitted this upcoming week. Once it is submitted we wait for approval then referral and travel dates. So hopefully by the beginning of this summer we will finally meet our son!! It has been one year since I saw his picture and felt the instant attachment and need to bring him home. It's incredible to think one year ago I inquired about him and received his medical information and pictures and cried every day thinking about this little boy who had just turned 9 living in a institute all his life, this little boy who had yet to experience the love of a family. Here we are now, one year later and he has spent his 10th birthday in that institution, which will be his last birthday there!!! How I wish he knew he has a family doing whatever is necessary to bring him home. Soon we will get to hold him and tell him just how much we love him and have prayed for him and are so happy to call him our son. Every day I think about the moment I get to see him, hold him, hug him, and bring him home to his brother and sisters. Our daughter who is 6 talks about him every day almost has if she knew him from birth, everything includes him!! Brings joy to my heart knowing they think of him as their brother. Soon Ryan you will be right here with us and all this will be a blur all the pain and sadness you have endured will be in the past. I know whatever you have gone through will be unforgettable but we will do our best to love you and help you move forward in our family. We are ready son!!!

USCIS!!!

We received an amazing email that said our USCIS application was approved!!! Which means that once we get that in the mail we will send it to the state capital to get apostilled the we can send it to our adoption agency. Which will then send it to Europe with the rest of our dossier! Unfortunately it's not that easy, in order for us to submit our dossier we have to send $5500!! In December we were given a 3 month extension to finish our dossier, which will expire in March. If we don't have our dossier in country by March we will be forced to release our son and our adoption journey will end, and our son will be stuck an orphan! Just the thought of that makes me suck to my stomach. We are so close!  I hear a song on the radio almost every day and it keeps me going "Don't quit don't give in you're an overcomes!"  By Mandisa Overcomer. I'm staying in this until the final round!