God's Perfect Timing!

Today was an important day. I went to the bank to make a deposit and transfer our final payment to our adoption agency. I was hoping the manager who helped me with the previous payment (just before our first trip) would be working. Instead, I learned that she had been transferred to another branch 15 minutes away. I could have had the new manager help me, but I really felt like I was supposed to have the other one do it, and so I drove the 15 minutes just to find her. When I walked in, she threw her hands up and said "Emily! I just mailed you a packet today! I'm so glad you're here!" She had been trying to reach me concerning some documents that needed signed for our "Journey to Hope" account. Had she not reached me, she would have had to put a freeze on our money -- praise God that I listened and went to that branch! She was also able to help me with several other things that we needed to do to prepare to travel again and gave me a big hug with tears in her eyes when I left. It was such a neat thing to see how Hope's story is touching people. She asked me to come back when she's home, which I will do eventually, that is, after we visit the County Clerk, the Auditor's office, the ladies at Kroger's deli, etc., lol. So many people want to meet this special, long awaited beautiful little girl who will soon be ours!! :)

We Are Bringing Her Home!

Almost three years ago, we made a decision to adopt a little girl from Russia. Next month, we will finally bring that little girl home! We received the call yesterday with our court date and have been making arrangements all day! While we are not able to share all the details at this time, we can say that she will be home before Thanksgiving! Thanks to everyone who has supported us, prayed for us, believed in us, encouraged us and loved us through this process and through the years of infertility and loss before we started our Journey to Hope! There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel!

To those of you who helped with the garage sale fundraiser we did last weekend, we raised almost $2,000, which will pay for two of our airline tickets. Praise God! We are praying that some of the grants we have applied for will come through as well. Please continue to pray for provision and protection as we go through the final steps to complete the adoption process and bring Hope home from Russia. We'll post updates as soon as we can!

HOPE IS COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Journey to Hope Fall 2011 Garage Sale/Fundraiser

After 2 1/2 years, the Journey to Hope is almost over! We finally traveled to Russia in August where we met and officially "accepted" our little girl. We are now waiting for our court date and expect to go back again sometime before the end of the year to bring her home, which means our greatest adoption expenses are yet to come!

With this in mind, October 7th-9th is Milford's Annual Fall City-Wide Yard Sale weekend and we are having another garage sale/fundraiser! This will be our fourth and final garage sale since we began the international adoption process in the spring of 2009. We have started collecting donated items and already have a garage and basement full of things to sell, but we still need your help!

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Spread the word to your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers and/or bring a friend and come buy some stuff yourself! Or, if you have items you wish to donate, please contact us. We are trying to gather as much "stuff" to sell as possible and make this our biggest and best garage sale/fundraiser yet! As always, all proceeds will go to the Journey to Hope adoption fund, to be used specifically towards our "second trip" travel/adoption expenses.

Here are some of the items we have collected so far and will be selling at the garage sale:

Brand new (never used) Jenny Lind crib & matching changing table
Additional gently used Jenny Lind cribs
Like new girl's Graco pack-n-play w/accessories
Gently used diaper champ diaper disposal system
Gently used Graco stroller
Baby Trend adjustable high chair
Infant/toddler booster seat
Infant bath seats
Infant/toddler safety supplies
Gently used Baby Trend infant backpack (for hiking)
Gently used pull behind Schwinn bike trailer (seats two children)
Kid sized comfy chair
Used outdoor playset with slide
Used outdoor playhouse
Step 2 Basketball hoop
Gently used crib bedding sets (girls and boys)
Diaper bags & accessories
Baby bottles, sippy cups, utensils, etc.
Baby, toddler and children's clothes (including preteens)
Baby, toddler and children's toys, books & games
Twin size futon w/mattress (black)
Matching foot rests/storage boxes (black)
Blue, green & red plaid loveseat
Twin & full bedding sets
Decorative pillows
Household & kitchen items
Aquarium & accessories
Computer scanner, printer accessories & supplies
Linksys router (wired)
Decorative photo frames & jewelry boxes
Decorative chandelier
10 piece reversable grill set
Propane Heater
Extension Ladder
CD's/Videos
Luggage
Antiques
Baskets
Crafts
Tools
And more!!!!!

If you are unable to attend the garage sale/fundraiser, but would still like a way to help, please visit one of our online stores and make a purchase or click the PayPal link below to donate online:

Just Love Coffee Roasters

Usborne Books & More

PayPal

Thank you to everyone that has invested in our Journey to Hope and helped us get this far on our adoption journey. We are almost there! Please help us finish strong and finally bring Hope home from Russia this year!

Garage Sale/Fundraiser for Hope

We are planning on doing one last garage sale/fundraiser for Hope in late September or early October (actual date TBA). A lot of people use Labor Day weekend as a final chance to get organized for the winter and get rid of stuff in anticipation of all the stuff that gets accumulated at Christmas. As you clean out your garage, basement and/or storage this weekend, would you consider donating your old stuff to our fall garage sale/fundraiser for Hope instead of taking it to Goodwill this year? It will be our last one before she is finally home!

More details to follow. Thanks for helping us bring Hope home from Russia. If all goes well, she will be home by Christmas!! :)

We're Back!

We are back!! We got home late Sunday afternoon, ate dinner and pretty much went to bed when Benjamin did. We were still pretty jetlagged yesterday and today and have been trying to go to bed early to help us catch up. We were not nearly this jetlagged traveling to Russia, but for some reason, it has been much worse returning to our own time zone! Our trip to Russia was pretty much amazing all the way around. God sent us all kinds of wonderful signs to show us His hand on Hope's life and this process. We will share some of those special details later ...

As for Hope, she is an adorable 2 1/2 year old with a big beautiful smile that will absolutely melt your heart! She is very affectionate, sweet, funny, smart, independent, focused and determined. And she likes everything to be neat, organized and in it's place! She will fit well into our family, lol! She is so precious and reminds us so much of her big brother, Benjamin. We wish we could share her photo with you, but we have been instructed not to post photos or any specific details about her identity on the internet until after the adoption is complete (and some details, like her medical and family history, can never be shared). That means we cannot share her photo by email either. If we see you in person, we will be happy to show you a picture. She is absolutely beautiful and precious!

She only has a few words, but she does speak Russian. She understands most of what is said to her, so we will need to know some words. We learned quite a few words and phrases while we were there and we were able to communicate with her quite well. I am amazed how God helped us and gave us what we needed when we needed it. But we really don't need to be fluent. As long as we know a little bit of Russian, we can help her learn her new language. Getting to know her as we did last week, she will have no trouble learning! She is a very smart little girl!

When we go back depends on the paperwork and the Russian courts. I personally feel that I should be awarded a masters degree for all the work that goes into this process! Regardless, I will be off the radar for a few weeks while I work hard at completing all of the remaining requirements. Please pray for strength, steadfastness, and expediency in the coming weeks as we do all the work that needs to be done to bring her home. And especially pray for Hope, who will be missing us very much while she is waiting. They will do a good job of explaining to her why we are not there, but it was really hard to leave her behind knowing she would not fully understand why we were gone. She is in a good place where they have and will continue to take good care of her. Still, leaving her there was very hard to do.

A few sweet stories we wanted to share before we go ...

When she walked into the orphanage director's room and we saw her face for the first time, she ran to Chad and threw her arms around him. We were told this is very rare as children in orphanages rarely see men. We felt it was a beautiful sign that she would be her daddy's girl. She gave him many, many hugs in the days that followed, but this one was a super special start to their relationship!

At the end of our first visit, her friends came out to the playground and she ran to them saying (in Russian) over and over again, "Mama and Papa came to me!" It was the last thing she said that day and it melted our hearts!

Before we left for Russia, we made a photo book of pictures of the three of us to give her. When we showed her Benjamin's picture (below) and told her that she has a big brother, she kissed it. The rest of the week, she would say "bye-shy-ah brot" (which means big brother) over and over. She loves him already and was so proud to show is picture (and ours) to her little friends and caregivers!


We will be happy to share more stories about Hope when we see you in person. Until then, thank you so much for all of your prayers and support throughout this long process. It has been felt and appreciated so much!!!

To Russia With Love!

Passports, check. Visas, check. Gift for Hope, check. Everything is just about packed and ready to go. Our passports and visas finally made it here yesterday. Our wonderful neighbor and friend literally chased the Fedex truck down the street for us so she could sign for it (we were at the sheriff's office getting fingerprinted for our dossier and missed the delivery) -- now that's friendship! :) So, we are all set to leave for Russia today and just about 24 hours from now, we will be checking into our hotel! We are still in awe at the events of the last 7 days. It seems so surreal. God has been truly gracious to us through all of you! And, while you are sleeping Sunday night, we'll be meeting Hope for the first time (it will be Monday morning there). Thanks again to everyone who helped us get ready with just one week's notice! We will post an update soon!

Thank you!

We just wanted to let everyone know that we now have everything on our needs list met -- God provided ALL of it in under 4 hours yesterday! A huge THANK YOU to everyone who responded! We are in awe at how the Lord is bringing together all the details and using each of you to help. We will keep posting updates on our blog over the coming days. This time next week, we will finally be face-to-face with our little girl!!!

PS - We can still use frequent flyer miles and hotel rewards for our second trip, which will likely take place in 2-3 months, so if you have any that you wish to donate, please let us know!