We have our date in Eastern Europe

Good Morning Everyone!

We just received notice that our appointment in Jenny's birth country is on Nov. 22. We are so excited. It is sort of hard to believe that we have made it to this point in such a short period of time. Our two other children who came home to us through international adoptions took nearly a year for each one.

I know Jenny has no idea how her life is going to change in just a few short weeks, but we can't wait to meet her and shower her in hugs and kisses.

We will update as we get our travel plans together.

The Waiting Game

So what do you do when you are in the middle of the adoption process and waiting for clearance to travel?  Well if you are us, you go get travel luggage that will be appropriate not only for international plane travel, but also for a 12 hour, in-country train ride and whatever other local travel we have to do.  At the advice of many parents who have gone before us we purchased some duffle bag luggage that looks like this.

Because vehicles are on the small side over there, flexible luggage is really helpful.  The neat thing is they have handles, wheels and backpack straps for carrying.  We've already started loading them up with things for our little darling and travel in general.  These babies will be filled to the brim before you know it, so when that long awaited call comes, we'll be ready to go!  With the backpack straps, we'll be like a couple back packers across Europe.  We got some of the other items on the recommended travel list too.  It was a big shopping day and we feel a little bit closer to being ready to go.

SUBMITTED

We found out this morning that our dossier was submitted yesterday. We are so excited. We can not wait to get Jenny home. Now we wait to find out our travel date. Needless to say, this is a great start to our weekend.

The eagle (dossier) has landed

Another busy but important week. We received notification Tuesday that our dossier has arrived in country. Now the wait to see if it is all acceptable. If all is well, it will be submitted and then we wait to receive an SDA date. In the meantime we will begin preparing for the first trip phase. Thanks to God and all your prayers!

The Holy Spirit and Paris

What do these two things have to do with each other you might ask?  Here is the answer.  The first has to do with our son's confirmation, and the second is where our dossier is, en route to Eastern Europe!  Go Fed Ex go!

Our son Joshua was confirmed today in a beautiful ceremony.  After studying for several months, and dutifully reading several books on the life of Christ and the early church, he was confirmed today by Cardinal Egan, former Archbishop of New York.


It was a beautiful fall day, and we had a wonderful brunch afterward which you can see if you view the full album.

On another recent beautiful fall day we held a fundraiser at our community day that looked something like this.

From Hardscrabble Fundraiser

It was an enjoyable chance to visit with neighbors and talk about the wonderful work of Reece's Rainbow, but we barely covered the cost of our table and supplies. ;-(

We'll keep you posted on the ongoing travels of our dossier across Europe.  ;-)