Name Trouble

I have names picked out for all the kids.  Everyone has middle names chosen too, except for Keith.  My boys have convinced my husband on the middle name of Vladimir.  I really am not sold on it.  It is nothing like the names of any of our other kids either.  The problem is that nothing is clicking with "Keith".  Our boys already have many of the names that seem they would go best with it.  I had an uncle who passed away before I was born named "Keith Michael".  The problem with that is that we already gave "Michael" to Cody as his middle name.  If I can get his name ironed out then I will announce all of their names. 

Anyone have any ideas?  Keith Vladimir doesn't sound bad, I'm just not sure of it.  If you have any great ideas, then I'd appreciate it if you'd share them!

Feeling a Little More Real

It is 2:30 am and I just finished ordering things to prepare for our soon to arrive children.  Earlier today, I bought and packed some things in a bag for Brent to give to Keith's "Baba" that comes to spend time with him through a ministry there.  I'm hoping that if she uses it, then it will help him now and with the up coming transition.  I also purchased the photo albums that I will be preparing later this week. 

Tonight I ordered two cribs.   Keith and Paula will both need one when they arrive home.  There are twin size beds in the rooms now, but they aren't ready for them.  We are not sure if either one even sits independently, but we know that neither is mobile.  So, even at ages 4 and 5 years old, they will both be in need of cribs. 

I also ordered two of the small pack'n plays.  Keith and Paula will need places to be where they won't get too much attention as they adjust and since they are neither one mobile.  I'm trying to keep reminding my kids here at home that the kids coming aren't use to constant attention and that we will have to be careful not to overstimulate them.  I am however preparing places and ways for them to be a part of the household even if they can't stand any more "touch".  Julianne has had her current pack'n play as a play pen for her entire time home (going on 3 years!), but is in no way willing to give it up.  She gathers everything that she wants up and puts it in there (it is where ALL the combs in the house land!).  She then uses a chair to climb in it, or gets someone to put her in with her ingenius nonverbal bossiness, and plays with everything before she throws it out.  lol

Then I ordered 3 high chairs.  Keith and Paula will be in need of these as well.  Since I don't know if they even sit independently yet, these are especially important.  They are also important bc they will be exploring different textures and foods.  Julianne loves to do that in her high chair.   She also likes to take us there to nonverbally boss us around.  Even the dumbest of people know what she wants if taken to a high chair, so we have no excuse there!  lol  You notice that I said 3 high chairs, even though only 2 kids coming home should be in need of them.  The third one is for Julianne.  She has had her current one since arriving home and it is DONE.  She rocks in it and sits backward in it.  It is nearing its last leg!  A new one is on the way, so I pray it holds out!  These are on the ones on the way.  :)

Christmas Pictures

 There really hasn't been any more news since the verbal referral.  The written referral should be soon and then we will be given a date for Brent to travel.  We are praying that it is just a few weeks away!  This is all I have to offer while we wait. 

Keith

Here are a couple pictures we have of our tiny Keith.

Keith is 4 years old, so he is the youngest of the five we are bringing home.  Keith is in an orphanage where all of the children are tiny and malnourished.  Though he is 4 years old, he weighs only 11 pounds.  We are praying that God helps us get all of them home quickly, but we feel even more urgency with tiny Keith.  We are so thankful that God put him in our path and worked our Christmas miracle to get us our verbal referral.

I was so frustrated along the way at some of the delays.  Once I saw Keith and realized what God had planned, I realized that each delay kept us from getting too far ahead. If we had been further along, then we wouldn't have been able to add Keith to our adoption.  God is amazing!

Please pray for Keith and for our process to begin to move quickly.  We should have a travel date for trip #1 soon, so check back.  Now that things are moving along, I'm going to try to do better about updating the blog.  :)

Update on Where Things are and WHO is coming home

Well, I've been kind of quiet for a while.  Our 13th child, Cody, got home at the end of July.  We have been busy doing lots of things since he arrived and keeping up with all the adoption paperwork. 

Right about the time that we were ready to submit our dossier, we realized that God wanted us to add a 5th child to our adoption.  We prayed about "who" that should be.  It made sense for it to be a girl because of rooming situations, but we knew He wanted it to be a certain tiny boy.  We figured out the rooming and added Keith to our adoption.  The USCIS approval was easy to switch because our homestudy had approved us for more than 4. 

We submitted the dossier and were so excited to get a verbal approval.  The problem is that we were told in order to have a chance of getting it for Keith too we would have to do MORE paperwork.  We had our social worker write up a specific approval for Keith and his needs as well as something stating that our two oldest daughters (adult ages, but with special needs that will mean they live with us forever and in Eastern Europe they would be in a mental institution) do NOT take care of the children.  We got that all done easily, apostilled, and someone travelling hand delivered it for us. 

This past Friday (more than a month after we had originally expected our verbal referral) we did get the verbal referral for all FIVE children.  We are so relieved and are PRAISING GOD for working it all out for us.  Here are our FIVE.  :)  I'll tell you a little more about Keith in the next post.  :)

Dossier is ON ITS WAY!

We mailed the dossier off yesterday.  It is on its way to Eastern Europe.  Pray that everything moves quickly from here on out and that Brent can head over soon for trip one.  We are so excited to have one more thing out of the way.  We are very ready to bring them home and we still have many months left to wait.  Please pray for speedy quick steps of the process.

A Day Full of Good News

Its been a while since I posted again.  The waiting was getting the best of me!  We found out that Cody's come home date was to be delayed and that his worker hadn't even applied for the travel approval until this past Monday.  Then came some crazy question with fingerprinting our 16 year old that made me have a slight tantrum, but got worked out. 

TODAY was good news day!  First, I called USCIS to see if we had an officer assigned.  I found out that we did have an officer assigned and that our I800-A was APPROVED yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We should receive that by mail some time next week!  All we have to wait for now is the FBI clearance to come back from WV where the "ink" fingerprints had to be sent.  :) 

Then I got a call from Cody's worker.  OUR NEW DATE LOOKS TO BE THE 27TH OF JULY!  That is a week later than we had hoped, but it is still a date.  She was asking about airport questions and where nearby hotels would be.  :)  That made it seem much more real!  That means that since this is being written after the date already changed to the 15th, then I should be holding my little boy in 12 days!!  Say a prayer that the travel approval comes back quickly so that we can get things booked and that there aren't any more delays. 

I really needed this good news day!