What a ski week!!!

We are back from Christmas town, or should I say, Whistler, Canada, and I experienced more snow than Santa gets in the North pole. It snowed everyday and there was fresh powder for all the ski hounds like never before. I enjoy the snow, but when I can't see two feet in front of me, I have a hard time navigating down a steep slope on skies. At times, it was like skiing by braille, "oh I didn't see that mogul in front of me or that skier dressed in white on this snowy mountain." Sorry, but you really shouldn't wear white in a snowstorm! Scott and Luke didn't care at all, so what, a lot of snow is great, and I couldn't get Luke out of tree skiing. He loves to go into the trees and ski, so they both popped into the forest and I prayed down below both of them will pop out at the bottom. I like groomed runs and going down at a nice speed, they like bumps and trees, so we try to find both that satisfies our needs. At the end of each day, we were one tired family, but in the morning we would wake up and do it all again. Yesterday on our long trip home, even Luke said his little legs were hurting, imagine that!

To help us relax on our vacation, (yes, I'm being facetious) we got a call from America World telling us we have a court date. We were overjoyed to finally get this news, but we were told we may have to go on April 3rd. So, here we are in Canada, riding a lift to one of the top peaks, Scott's phone buzzes, he looks at the number and I said, it's our adoption agency we need to call them at the top. We get off the lift and go over to a snowy little hut and call Kristen, and she says, can you get your visa asap, you are going to Russia soon. First, the joy, then the oh my gosh, we can't send out our passport from Canada, how will we get out? So, after a few days of waiting to find out when we will actually we travelling, AW told us to stay put, enjoy the rest of your vacation because it looks like we will be leaving April 7th!!!!!!!!!!!!

We probably would not have gone skiing if we would have know this was coming so quickly. Before we left, I probably drove Christi crazy asking her a million times if she thought we would get called soon. She told us (in her best judgment) to go and have fun that we probably wouldn't hear anything until we got back, but we did hear and we are so much praising God for this wonderful news! Look out little one we are coming to get you and bring you home! I still can't believe this is finally happening.

No News is Good News?

Maybe in the real world "no news is good news", but in the adoption world that saying isn't true. We haven't heard from Russia concerning our court date and that is what we are waiting for now. We should get a two week notice because we need time to get our visas. We are still hopeful that we will go in April!

Last Saturday some of my friends give us a baby (little girl) shower, and it was the first time since all this started I was actually able to celebrate our adoption. I had no paperwork to think about or wondering when we were going on trip one, so this day allowed me to share, celebrate and rejoice with others. You may think, well that's weird, haven't you been celebrating, well no, because most of time my thougths and busyness are tied up in all the stuff you need to do for an international adoption, and that really gets in your way of the essence of this wonderful event. So, during the party I was able to laugh, cry and be happy that soon Hannah will be coming home. Thanks everyone who came to hear our stories and share in our joy. I can't wait until I can introduce her to all of you!

I also share in the joy of many other families that are in my chat group online that are travelling to Russia on trip one or trip two. My friend Karen (who I have never met, but hope to someday) is in the same region we are in and went to Voronezh two weeks after we did, so we are both waiting to hear about trip two. It's great to have someone in the same region so we can share information, but what is even greater is seeing movement in Russia and children going home to their forever families. We are waiting Lord in your perfect timing!

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

A New Paperwork low

Well, if it can actually happen, it did with me yesterday. I hit rock bottom with re-doing paperwork. It has to be beyond perfect and I'm trying to make sure that is happening, but obiviously that is not happening. So, I'm running around yesterday getting things notarized, and seeing the sites in Annapolis again from the state office who seals my documents. I know them, and they know me by now. I feel like I should have lunch with them sometime. Christi gave me good advice yesterday, always expect the worst and then it won't be so bad. Well, anyone who knows me knows, I am the glass half full type of person. My lows aren't too bad and seldom happen, and I'm thankful for that. For someone like me to expect the worst, well it's not how God designed me to be, so that's a hard place to go, but going through this journey of adoption has opened many emotions that I didn't know existed. There is not one person who has adopted that hasn't mention the endless paper trail, so as I march in the trenches of wasted trees please recall that alone I am not. We have our moments of "That is Enough," and perhaps we have an adult temper tantrum, and then God grants us a brand new day! See the glass is half full!

Your love oh Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness stretches to the sky........

To ski or not to ski......

Well, that was the question over the past few days because we were not sure if during Luke's spring break we would be skiing or in Russia. We would rather be in Russia, but it doesn't look like we will hear anything until the end of March which translates to leaving sometime in April. So, we are going skiing in Whistler, which we usually go every year, but this year we were prepared not to go. We made the plans long before we knew about our first trip to Russia. Scott and I love to ski and now Luke has become a very good skier, and now he waits for me to catch up to him on the mountain and I don't like that, but I knew the day was coming (so soon?). Skiing is my favorite vacation and we have a blast! We go on horse-drawn sleigh rides, have dinners in teepee's, go tubing, sit in a outside hot tub while it's 20 degrees outside and snowing, go to ranches and sing cowboys songs,and attend church service outside on the mountain while sitting in a twenty passenger sleigh. I remember last year we were on the mountain looking for bear cubs because someone told us they were out(what were we thinking). Eveyone knows where there's baby cubs, the mommy's not far away! Anyway, its fun and I glad we are going, but still wish we were going to Russia instead. I wonder if Hannah will like to ski. I think she will experience it one way or another in this skiing family.

I had some paperwork returned to do-over, boy, I hate do-overs, but I have sent them back and hopefully that is all. We have Hannah's room all ready for her. It is painted pink and yellow with a quilted bedspread of flowers and butterflies. I have been buying her clothes and now they are hanging up in her closet ready for her to wear. A friend of mine got Hannah two coats (a great deal this time of year)which I will take to Russia. One is white with furry trim and one is purple and sparkles. I never really thought a lot about all the cute little girl clothes, but right now I am having fun buying them.

Some friend of ours are having a shower for us next week, and I'm so grateful for this kindness. It has been a long road and I wish to celebrate this wonderful moment with everyone. Some folks have said to me or Scott, you will be changing her life to such a better life, but what I want everyone to know, she is changing our life forever too. God personally picked out Hannah for us and we are the lucky ones.

I am done with my paperwork

As many of you know, I have been struggling to complete our paperwork for trip two. After many doctor's visits, fingerprinting (again), test results etc...I got it done yesterday. I finally had all the necessary documents ready, and early yesterday I started out knowing I wanted to complete this task. I went to get things notarized first and then to the county seal place, and last but not least, I headed down to our state capital to get the Maryland State Seal on all our documents. The last thing I did was FedEx all those documents off to America World, so they can send them to Russia for tranlation. To give you an idea how many documents we are talking here, at last count I was way over 100 sheets of paper and then I had to make four books of that 100 sheets of documents. How much fun! I was still nursing my flu, so I came home for a little nap before Luke got home from school. I thank God for helping me through that day knowing I wanted so much to get all of that done.

We are still waiting for a court date which will be set by the judge in Russia, so it depends on his/her schedule as to when we will leave. We are hoping soon!