Merry Christmas!

We've made it through Christmas and what a wonderful Christmas it was!! There were times that I was sad that our Viktorija could not be with us to celebrate but mostly I am getting excited that we are getting ever closer to bringing her home. They allowed me to put together a little care package to send to her which I loved....finally contact with her. I picked out some very cute mittens and matching hat, coloring book and crayons, and a cross necklace, but my favorite was a photo album filled with pictures of her soon to be family. She will be able to see all of our faces before we meet her. I'm hoping it will make it less scary for her.

Dec 14 our paperwork went out to USCIS so it has been almost 2 weeks. Once we have our approval we will be moving quickly! We've also been told that our coordinators in Lithuania, the Family Law Center, thinks we should stay in Siauliai where Viktorija is living and not in Vilnius where I thought we had to stay. But they are uncertain if they can find a place big enough to accommodate us all. Uh oh! The good news is that B is working with his friends in Lithuania to help us find a place.

I have been thinking a lot about how far we have come. The adoption road is scary and bumpy and frustrating, but God helped us through all of it! He just kept asking us to trust Him. Now that we are nearing the end of waiting, I can look back and see all the things God has used in our life to lead us and help us along the way. One of the scariest part was financial...how were we going to come up with money? We had learned from Broderick's mission trips to Lithuania that money should never stop you from what God is calling you to do. So we stepped out on faith. We have been humbled by some amazing people who have generously given to us to lighten the load and help us bring our daughter home. It brings me to tears thinking about these wonderful people and I can't come up with the words to express how I (we) feel. I wish there was a word, a very special word, that could be used to tell them that what they have done for our family is priceless and will never be forgotten. Adoption has taught me trust, patience, courage, humility, gratitude and just how much love is surrounding us.

We are getting closer....slowly.

Well the paperwork has come. We know a little more about her family, but nothing else was new. We have sent our acceptance of the referral to Lithuania and are now wading through more endless paperwork for our government so we can bring her home. It's amazing to me how much paperwork is needed for an adoption. I feel I am writing the same things over and over again. They make it so difficult and every time I think I'm done, my social worker emails that something else needs to be done. Very frustrating!!  As I understand it, we have a form for the US to fill out and that approval can take 8-12 weeks and then once we have that we can ask for a court date in Lithuania and that can be 2-4 weeks out....so March. We were really hoping to be bringing her home this year, but I feel so much better having an idea of how much longer. The other great news is that they will start preparing her for our arrival and telling her about us. We are putting together a photo album so she can start to see pictures of her parents, brothers, house, room and extended family. I am so excited to be able to send this (and a few gifts) to her!! Our families are so excited too! Praying that the next several weeks go by quickly and with no more surprises of more paperwork needed.

1 week and still no news

I know they said 2 - 4 weeks before paperwork would come, but I was really hoping and praying for it to come earlier. Been keeping busy getting her bed and room ready. Bought some cute yarn to knit her a sweater. Just trying to stay busy. The first week went by so quickly as I was excitedly telling everyone the news. Now everything is moving in slow mode...bleh!

Ethan has been talking a lot about his sister today. I think he's really getting excited. He told me today that she could sit in his lap on the plane ride home because she might be scared to sit by herself. Brought tears to my eyes. The older boys have started to ask questions too. Mostly about the trip to Lithuania. Harry asked today if I thought Tori would be a Michigan fan or a State fan. The things kids think about...makes me laugh!

Girls are fun!

Today I got to go shopping with my mom and it was all about cute girl stuff! We bought an adorable jumper with a matching outfit for an itty bitty baby. I sure hope it fits, but it was just too cute to pass up. We also got a couple of patterns and some cute material to make some clothes. Fun! Today I am also going to get her room painted as well as the 4 poster bed I picked up on craigslist (what a steal that was!). It's so exciting to get ready for Viktorija to come home. I think I'm nesting!

 I also got a surprise in my email of some new pictures of her. Sooo cute! She has the sweetest smile. I'm imagining that her smile is because she was told that she has a family who wants to adopt her...I'm not sure what she has been told if anything.  It's so nice to have a face and a name to put with the love I have had for a daughter for over 2 years now.

God has answered our prayers!

What a wonderful day it is! My cheeks hurt from smiling so much and tears of happiness seem to be constantly brimming my eyes. We received the call today from our social worker at 9:30am that Lithuania has chosen us to be Viktorija's family!  Praise be to God! I drove up to Broderick's work to tell him in person. Unfortunately he had to get on a conference call right away, so we haven't had a chance to really celebrate together.  We will be celebrating tonight!! The boys are excited too, well as excited as boys can get about this kind of stuff. Now we wait for more paperwork to be completed. They told us 2 to 4 weeks to get the "official referral."  Then we send our acceptance letter (and more money of course) and they will set up our court date. I just can't find the words..... I am so happy and I just can't wait to bring her home!

Over these last few weeks I have been so humbled and over whelmed by the number of people praying for us and our adoption journey! Word has spread (partially thanks to facebook) and so many have come up to us telling us how happy they are for us and that they are praying for us. It truly has been felt! I know that the rest of our journey will continue to be surrounded by prayer as well. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts! I look forward to sharing with all of you our journey in bringing Viktorija home!

October has been CRAZY!

October started with a request from Lithuania that we consider a child on their "Special Needs" list. We received   information on a sweet little 4 year old girl. We reviewed her history and went over her medical information with our pediatrician. Then we prayed...alot and came to the conclusion that this was the little girl God has chosen for us! We were so excited and then I received a crushing call from our social worker. Turns out that the little girl was sent to all agencies adopting from Lithuania and we had to write up the best letter we could as quickly as we could to the Adoption Services of Lithuania. AS would then take all interested parties and decide who would be the best match for her. Apparently this is how it works for children on the "special needs" list, but our social worker didn't know when she sent us the original email. Grrrr! But this is what we had to do. We spent hours pouring over our letter including everything we thought they would want to know about our resources for her, our involvement in the Lithuanian community, we had our pastor write a beautiful referral letter for us as well as one from a pastor that B knows in Lithuania. We then had it translated by friends of ours so we were confident it said what we wanted it to and that nothing would be lost in the translation. Now we wait. AS is meeting next week, the week of Oct 24 and we should know sometime after the 31st.

Another piece of good news is that we were approved for our adoption loan. Yea!!  Now when the referral comes through we will be ready to make the next step. I know this is all in God's hands and I find comfort in that fact. I still continue to pray that we are chosen, but I know in the end, God knows who my daughter is and will help us bring her home.  I hope to be posting some GREAT news in November!

How fast and slow a year can go!

I can't believe that I started this blog almost 1 year ago. This year seems to have flown by. The boys are growing up so fast. But when I think about how long I have been waiting for my daughter the year seems to have dragged along. It's been over 2 years since we applied to become adoptive parents. A friend told me that someday I will look back and it won't seem so long. I pray that is true. I hope that I will be able to post some more progress soon! Until then I pray...

Another update

We got another update from our social worker....22 spots. We've moved up 22 spots to 133. I was really hoping (of course) for a bigger number, but it's movement. So far we've moved 116 spots in about 18 months, so if we move at the same rate it will be at least another 18 months. *sigh* I'm praying for a miracle!! I really don't want to wait another year and a half for my daughter to come home. Nor do I want to pay to have all our paperwork renewed next September. So I'm praying....hard that my daughter will come home by next summer.  I am thankful for the progress, but long for the day that I'm posting about my travels to Lithuania or her adjustment to her new family.  God can do BIG things, I will continue to have faith that he knows the best time, but praying that that time is soon!

Sneaks up on me

It's funny how some days I can be so busy and only think about our daughter during my prayers and other days, like today, that hits me like a run-a-way train and I can't think of anything else.  I miss her and I haven't even met her. I love her and I haven't even met her. I worry about her and I haven't even met her. I just wish the waiting would end! I would love to have a face to kiss, a voice to hear, a body to hug, a person to pour all this love I feel into. I know God has all of this in His hands and I trust, but it hurts sometimes.  I wonder why...why do we need to wait so long? What am I learning or suppose to learn from waiting? What is the big picture that I am missing that means I need to wait so long to bring my daughter home. Someone asked me if a time will come that it will be too long, too late. The thought broke my heart! I know she meant well, but the thought of giving up bringing my daughter home, the little girl that I love was a thought that never crossed my mind and it hurt to think about it. I still pray that it will be this year, but if not, I will continue to wait and pray.

First update for 2011

I thought 3 months was a long time to wait for an update, but 4 and a half months was almost unbearable!! But news has finally come. And we've jumped all the way up to 155. I'm so grateful. It's still a big number, but it was a big jump too. I've been memorizing the following verse to help me get through this wait and everything else going on in life:

Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel. Philipians 4:6-7

We continue to pray for the arrival of our daughter. Her brother Ethan has been talking about when she will get here. We have been talking about having her share a room with Ethan until she gets adjusted. I thought that putting her in a room by herself might be too scary. Ethan now wants to paint one of his walls pink for his sister. It warms my heart how excited he is to meet her.