More Exciting News!!

We have a new baby in our family as of last Wednesday afternoon. My sister had her first baby, a little boy, and he is the most adorable thing. Troy Palmer was born on Jan. 20th and was 8 lbs 0 oz, 20 3/4 inches. He has dark brown hair and the darkest blue eyes I've ever seen. I love you sweet baby boy and I'm so glad you're finally here!! I can't wait to spoil you like crazy, that's what aunts are here for, right?

Preparing Myself for the Cold

Today I checked our forecast for the first few days of our trip. I was pleasantly surprised that weather.com said it should be nearing the 30's while we're there. I can handle the 30's, no problem. We even had a few days in the 20's this year. The crazy thing is that I checked today's temp and it said it was 9 degrees in Kaliningrad and it was 78 deg today in Houston. What a major difference, yesterday it was 82 here. I am definitely a warm weather girl, but I'm getting exciting to experience the cold and maybe a little snow. I've got my long johns, hat, scarf, gloves, and a warm down coat, I don't think I'm forgetting anything. Ahhhhh, I can't believe it, just 6 more days until we leave!!

Special Friendships

Well, she's been posting about me on her blog lately so I thought I'd post a little something about her on mine. Isn't it just amazing how God brings the most perfect people into our lives at the most perfect time. I have met two amazing women through this process and know they will be lifelong friends. Even though I have never met either one of them they have both become such special people in my life. One, Missi, I look to as kinda a big sis. One that knows this adoption thing in and out and is, I think, living vicariously through me on my journey now. She's someone I can't wait to share news with because I know she's probably as excited as I am. If she could, she'd go get another baby tomorrow. I love her sweet loving heart. The other, Carrie, has been my go to girl. She adopted her sweet baby from Kaliningrad about a year and a half ago and we met through, I think, the Kgrad yahoo group. The first time we talked on the phone I knew she'd be someone I could just have a ball with. She's so fun and positive and everytime I talk to her I'm more and more excited about what life has in store for me. She's helped me with everything from hotels to doctors to phone cards, you name it, if I've got a question she's my girl. So, thank you God for puting these two wonderful people in my life and thank you Missi and Carrie for being such precious friends!!

Had to Start Shopping

Well, it didn't take me long after getting our travel dates for me to get busy buying some girly clothes. I looked in her closet and realized I had Houston weather on the brain everytime I picked up a little outfit for her. On the timeline we're on, it looks like we'll get to bring our little angel home the last week of March or first week in April. Maybe dresses and bubble outfits will work in Houston then, but not Russia. I realized I didn't have one cool weather outfit so I went to it. I found her the cutest outfits to wear on our cool days with her in Russia. I found them all on ebay. I'm so glad I found ebay before I have a little girl. I got the cutest things for the best prices, unbelievable prices really. Can you tell I'm loving all this pink!!

Photobook for Russia

Click here to view this photo book larger

This is the photobook I made on Shutterfly for us to take with us to Russia. I want to leave it with our little girl until we get to take her home so she'll have something to remember us by while we're gone. I've labeled each page in English and printed out the Russian translation from google translator to paste underneath. I love google translate, it's so easy. I hope her caregivers will read it to her during that time. I loved getting to finally make a girly photobook, so fun!!

My Most EXCITING post yet!!!

Yay, I finally get to write the "we got the call" post!! After a year and a half the day finally came when we learned the name of our precious little girl. We got a call from our agency a week before Christmas that they had a referral of little girl for us to meet. I'll never forget that day. Of course for some reason my cell phone was messing up that day and going straight to voice mail, it wouldn't ring so I was super bummed when I realized I had missed a call from our agency. When I heard the voice mail, it was our director with the sweetest message, but not stating any details, just asking us to call her back. I got a little butterfly in my stomach and thought it had to be "the call" because if it was just a paperwork issue someone from the office would have called. Of course when I heard the message it was too late for me to call back so needless to say I didn't sleep at all that night. The next morning I called and left her a message and then had to wait. In the meantime I got an email from another family using our agency and they said they too got a call from our director, but it was just to say Russia would be shutting down for their upcoming holiday and to not expect to hear anything until around the 15th of Jan. so I thought that must be it. Thankfully that wasn't it at all, she was calling to give us the most wonderful Christmas news we could ever receive. We learned her beautiful name, her birth month and year and some medical information. We took what medical information we had to the doctors at Texas Children's Hospital, who are wonderful by the way, and met with them the following Tuesday. We signed a letter on Christmas Eve day requesting a meeting with the MOE and to meet this little girl. She is our little Christmas Miracle, we couldn't have asked for a better present or a bigger answer to prayer. Now that I know who she is and have seen her sweet face, the days are going so slow. I thought the waiting before was hard, but this is terrible. Now, I know her and know she is suppose to be ours and I just can't wait to meet her and bring her home. Everytime I hear the new song by Carrie Underwood, "Temporary Home", I start to cry. I think of her and see her sweet face in my mind. She's just in her temporary home now and we are going to bring her to her forever home very soon.

The Travel Dates
Since we got our referral so close to the long Russian holiday we had to wait to hear about travel dates until they got back this week. Yesterday we got a call from our agency with an appointment date of February 1st to meet with the MOE. We are using airline miles, thankfully, what a blessing, so we have a kind of crazy flight schedule, but actually a pretty cool one. We fly out of Houston Friday night Jan. 29th and land in Frankfurt, Germany Saturday morning. This was the only route we could take using our miles, which is actually really cool because Germany is the only country in Europe where we have friends. They live about 30 miles from Frankfurt and we will be able to spend the day with them and have a place to stay that night. We haven't seen them in about 9 years so we are super excited about this extra perk!! We fly from Frankfurt to Moscow and then Moscow to Kaliningrad on Sunday the 31st. We get into Kaliningrad at 5:20pm, so we'll have had plenty of time to adjust to the time change over the weekend and get a good dinner and a good nights rest before we meet with the MOE on Monday. On the way home we get to make the whole trip in one day which is a little nicer. I know I'll be missing my angel boys terribly and would hate to have to take 2 days getting home to them. Now I can start the countdown to meeting our Christmas Miracle, our little girl!!

For Waiting Parents Like Us

I wanted to share something I've been doing that a friend of mine who adopted from China 6 years ago did for her daughter. Of course I pray for the safety and health of our little one every day, but my friend shared with me that she would also pray that her daughter would see her new Mommy and Daddy in her dreams and when the day came for them to finally meet she wouldn't be scared because she would remember them from her dreams. So I added that to my prayer list, that our little girl would know us when we meet her and remember us from her dreams. I also shared this with a family friend who started this process of adopting a little girl around the same time we did. She is in Ethiopia now getting ready to bring home her 8 month old daughter. Her mother texted my Mom today and wrote, "I know our prayers for E to see her mothers face in her dreams were answered." What a blessing!! Just thought I would share, I'm so glad my friend shared it with me.

I Need Some Help,Can't Decide

On the left side of the blog, under our Easter picture, I've added a poll and would love any one's opinion. I want to put up a wall quote in her room and can't decide which one. I thought this would be a fun way to help me choose, so please vote and help me pick which one to use.

Court Package....Check

I got our last document back from being apostilled in Austin so our court documents are finally ready!!! I'm so glad our agency had us start on this when they did. It really did take a while to get all the paperwork together. What I thought would take about 2 weeks to put together ended up taking about 6 weeks, but it's ready now. Now we just need our referral, our little girl. I'm praying for you little one, everyday, and will continue to until you are finally safe in our arms. On our way home tonight we were all in the car laughing and singing to the radio and Eddie said, "I think we've got one pretty cool family" and Austin said, "yeah, we're just missing one thing, our baby sister, then it will be really cool." My heart melted. Anyway here's the stack of documents.

I just got an email from our HS social worker checking in on us. She is always so supportive and helpful. This time she just wrote to say she was so excited we were getting closer and ready to help with whatever the next step may be. We will need a HS addendum for sure. I'm actually glad we have to do that. I so value her advice and opinion, I'm looking forward to that meeting. In this uncertain world of adoption, it's so reassuring to know you have support. I'm thankful God put her in our lives, she is a true blessing.