Winter fun

Since we refuse to lose faith in the future of our adoption, we choose to focus on some really positive things in our life.  Like Christmas. And snow.

We had a wonderful, if low key, Christmas!  We cooked all of our favorite foods, only to remember that we know no one up here to share them with, so here it is almost a week later and we haven't cooked again since!  A spiral ham Christmas Eve, a ham and cheese strata and sticky buns for Christmas morning, then a full turkey dinner with Dave's famous Lewis Stuffing.  How fortunate we are to have full bellies.

Noah and Audrey baked and decorated a birthday cake for baby Jesus and after dinner on Christmas Eve we all sung Happy Birthday to baby Jesus and blew out the candles.  Actually, we sung and blew out candles about 5 times, but who was counting.

Jesus's birthday cake

We also got to video chat with Grammy, Bubba and Pap Pap (Tiffany's mom, and grandparents).  Noah and Audrey sang and danced to Noah's preschool Christmas pagent music and the kids opened their presents that had been delivered earlier in the week.  It was a first for us, and everyone enjoyed some face time for Christmas since we are so far away this year.

Audrey spent hours coloring and playing with the Wiggles toy from Bubba!

Christmas day was one of extreme calm and relaxation.  We love hearing about others' Christmas traditions, and our sister in law, Keala shared that her family takes all day to open presents.  It isn't the main event, but something that happens between the conversation, eating and naps!  We loved that idea and though we knew it would test the kids' patience, we decided to stretch out Christmas morning merriment for a little bit.
To our great surprise, the kids were just fine as we leisurely opened presents.  We started at 8 am, and opened and played with each present before going onto the next.  We didn't have tons of presents, but the fun lasted until after 1 pm!  They even went down for naps with each of them still having one more present under the tree.  It really was nice to enjoy everything as we opened it and we definitely plan to keep that a part of our celebration in the future.

2012 Family Tree (a 10 footer!)

The boys set up the kids' new tents

Christmas day naps in the tents

Audrey is ready to babysit now!  About time she gets a job ;-)

Audrey and puppy help make Christmas dinner.  They stayed in jammies all day!

The boys wear their matching shirts.

Daddy's girl

We also had our first winter storm in Boston!  We ended up with only 2ish inches of snow since we are so close to the coast, but the kids loved it anyway. Mommy and Daddy loved waking up to see that our new community shovels the walks and driveways for you! Woo hoo!! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Noah "shoveling"

Nothing cuter than little ones in snow suits! 

Sleddin' fool

Noah sleds with his tongue out in tribute to his froggy hat. 

Surprisingly Audrey pulled her own weight on the sled hill.

Snow Slide!

Someone wasn't happy to come inside! Thanks for her snow suit, Grammy! She loved it!

The Big Question

Right now there is much hub bub over a bill that Russia proposed, then subsequently passed in both houses to ban the adoption of Russian children to American families.  All it needs is Putin's signature and boom, it is done.

The bill is a political retaliation based on a humanitarian sanction that the US put on some shady Russian "officials."

We are waiting each day, each hour, each minute for news of what might be happening as we continue to pray for all of the children who are getting caught int his political crossfire.

As we pray and cry and pray some more, the ethnocentric and hateful comments that Americans are putting out there about how this is a good thing and how we should just "Buy American" need to be addressed.

We have gotten the question MANY times about why we looked into international adoption and not that of a domestic adoption.  For 99% of our friends and family, it is a question asked with no malice.  A question of mere curiosity, rather than of judgement.

So... Why International?  There are so many kids in our own country that need homes.
We totally agree, there are way too many kids in America that need homes.  We always thought we would adopt domestically when our bio kids were just a tad older.  However, the precious little girl Edena pulled us into the international adoption process and the more we learn the more we cannot turn our backs on these kids in Eastern Europe.  The American foster system is by far not perfect.  Yet learning of the conditions (ranging from sub-par to inhumane) in Eastern European orphanages, we know these kids desperately need homes , too and their prospects of a future without getting adopted is terribly bleak.  Most of these children will either end up in adult mental institutions by the age of 6 (those with special needs) or age out of the orphanage system at the age of 15 with no career training, no money, and nowhere to turn.  Many turn to drugs and prostitution.  For males, the stats of the # who are dead within just a few years is sickening.

There is no place for children with special needs in Eastern Europe.  Between the ages of 4 and 6, they will be sent to adult mental institutions.  Think of your favorite little 4 year old. Then think of him/her neglected, starved, relegated to his/her crib for 20 hours a day, in a pool of their own filth.  We are talking about diaper changes 1x a day here.  They are not fed milk as babies, but instead a jelly water, fed through bottles where giant holes have been slashed in the nipples so the liquid oozes out of them.  Children lap up the liquid as it gushes all over them; with no hope of a change of clothes to relieve them of the moisture that undoubtedly spills over to their jammies.   The picture is bleak.

Then imagine being a 15 year old.  Turned out on the street with $40 and 2 changes of clothes and your toothbrush.  No friends on the outside, no family to help with that first month's rent and security deposit.  How many of us would have made it after high school or college with NO help from our family or friends. No one to proof that resume? Who would you even put as a reference? Oh, and these kids can't apply for medicare or welfare to end up on the public dole, as they have the label of Orphan on any papers they may have which disqualifies them for many public services.  This is for those, mind you, that got "lucky" and did not end up in the mental institutions.  What job can they do?  Sell drugs or sell themselves is the answer for most.

We would LOVE to see ALL kids end up with homes.  Heck, we may even continue to adopt!  We don't believe that a child's birthplace makes him or her any more deserving of a home; God doesn't see any child as having more worth than another.  We trust God has great plans for folks, and we follow where we feel Him leading.

For those feeling led to adopt domestically, WOOO HOOO!!!  We will pray with you and support you in that decision 100%!  We will help you fundraise, hook you up with a social worker, etc! We can't wait!

Now you are more than welcome to disagree with us, but do not judge us based on our decision.  Instead of spewing hatriolic speech such as "You shouldn't have to buy a child," or "The bible says to Take care of your own" (aside: please show us that verse!), etc., why not just say "We probably would have chosen to adopt domestically, but all children need homes, so kudos to you for making the decision that works best for your family?"  Then we are all winners!

And if you do start spewing ignorant, intolerant, close minded talk such as that, we are going to get saucy and ask how many kids YOU have adopted from the US.   If your answer is none, you can just close that pie hole  ;-)

Once our eyes are opened we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know and holds us responsible to act.  ~ Prov. 24:12

Three Days of Rain

We are in Boston!!

And Boston has given us the pretty awesome gift of 3 days of rain!  For those of you who may not know, we LOVE rainy days. As soon as Noah and Audrey hear that pitter patter of rain on the roof or windows, they rush to the kitchen for chai or hot chocolate and we all sit in front of the windows and watch the rain.  It gives us an excuse to cuddle up, maybe watch a little show together, and delay all the crazy errands that I am sure we have to run.  If it is a warm rainy day, it also means a great excuse to don our wellies and raincoats and go puddle jumping! In short, while everyone else dislikes the rain, we consider it a little secret gift from God.

These three days of rain have given us some great time to relax and do a little unpacking, too.  The move went very well.  The truck was loaded on Thursday, we drove up Friday, and all of our things were delivered on Saturday.  By Saturday night, the kids' rooms were all unpacked and set up and most of the playroom, too!

Dave had been up to the house and stayed there the week before the move, so he already had our stockings hung, the Christmas tree selected and put up, and the majority of our Christmas decor (those things not needing to sit on furniture) was out and about. So when we walked in on Friday night, we were just about all set for Christmas!  What a fun treat!

2012 Lewis family tree and stockings! (yes there are 5!)

Now, on Tuesday, we still have a bit more unpacking to do, but since we are only in this home for 6ish months, we are in the process of figuring out what can just stay packed.

On Monday, we got to experience the best thing about Dave's new job and our move to Boston.  Dave was home by 6 pm and we all got to have dinner together!  I know it sounds like a little thing, but for a family that hasn't had that in years, it was pretty awesome. It was also early enough that we got to make our annual Christmas houses before bed.  Bonus!

Best Buds decorating their Christmas houses

Final Christmas houses:  Noah on Left and Audrey on Right

The kids love the new house, which is greatly helped by the fact that Noah's room has a little den off the side of it.  Noah has claimed that for his personal play room and disappears for over an hour at a time just having fun in his new space.  I am sure that eventually it will just be one more place that Mommy needs to play referee, but for now, the newness is keeping them busy.

That's the update, folks.  So far, so good in Boston! 

Belated Thankfulness

Thanksgiving was our first holiday in Boston!

We arrived on Tuesday night and were planning to stay with Dave in the Inn where he stays.  Well turns out his not so nice neighbors didn't like kids, and made it well known to us, so we headed to our usual hotel the next day. Let me tell you, there is no place like hotel for the holidays! Housekeeping? Yes, please!

We had a really low key Thanksgiving.  We visited a cool park and took a walk around a beautiful local lake.  The kids LOVED playing in the sand in November and we are so thankful that is so much access to water up there!  We then did take out from Cracker Barrel and pigged out in our hotel room.  Great homey meal, and no work.  Love.  Then ego disaster hit.  Noah wanted to go swimming in the pool at the hotel.  Nothing like gorging on turkey and then getting into a bathing suit!  But we did it and the kids had a blast.

The day after Thanksgiving, Dave's office does a program for kids. The way Dave explained it was that they had breakfast and Santa.  So we boarded the commuter rail and took the kids down town, up 37 flights in an elevator, and into Dave's new office.  Dave did not do this program justice in his description!  They had breakfast, but they also had a whole morning of activities planned.  There was bowling in the hallway, a conference room for coloring and ornament making, an awesome photo ooth with multiple backgrounds and tons of props, lava lamp making, storytime, a Christmas Carol sing-a-long, a huge office scavenger hunt and more!  Santa makes his arrival close to 11:30, the kids sit on his lap, and then the day is done for all of the workers!  We all headed out to lunch in the city, and took the train back to the hotel.  The kids loved it, to say the least.

The rest of the weekend was filled with Christmas themed activities.  We visited a giant Bass Pro Shop, saw Santa, sharks and fish and played in lots of tents.  It was an awesome store, but is situated right outside of Gillette Stadium (blech). 

We also experienced an awesome Christmas Village and a cool music lazer show at a furniture store in Boston.  http://www.jordans.com/Attractions/Enchanted-Village.aspx
The village was awesome, and it even snowed inside.  The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever!  Mommy and Daddy also thought it was pretty cool that as soon as you walk into this giant store, there is a huge display about adoption!  There are binders to check out profiles of various kids, tons of resources for grants, information, etc. and they even have special adoption videos playing throughout the store!  Though we didn't get to check out the furniture, I have a funny feeling that if we need furniture, this will be our first stop!  Definitely going to support these folks! And yes, there may have been a few tears shed as we were so touched by their support of adoptions!




We also had the chance to see a really spiritual light display at La Salette Shrine outside of Providence.  The lights were beautiful and plentiful, but the best thing was the focus put on Jesus and scripture.  Not only was the nativity represented, but also the stations of the cross, Jesus' tomb, and they even had a cool alphabet display that used all kinds of scripture.  The alphabet was Noah's favorite feature.  Of course, we picked the coldest night of the year thus far to visit, and didn't get to enjoy the carousel, the trolley ride or the hay ride, but it was still a special experience.  Nice to know we have lots of places to go to entertain any future holiday visitors. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGadihjazQk

Though we missed our  traditional Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh surrounded by our families, we enjoyed our time together as a little family exploring our new surroundings. We are so very thankful for so much and having some downtime together as a family is pretty high up on that list!

Going the Distance

We admit it. We are crazy!

The day that we decided to adopt from Eastern Europe was also the day that we decided that Dave would apply to a job in Boston. Would it be crazy to do both concurrently?  Yes.  Was it impossible? No.  Are we just THAT good that we could pull it off?  YES!  We just needed to keep our home through the adoption process, and then we would be fine.

When Dave and I first started dating in 2003, we were 5 hours away from one another at our respective colleges.  In 2004 when I moved out to the Philly burbs and Dave was still at school, we were 6 hours apart.  Every other weekend or so, we would log the miles to see each other, desperate just to see each other's smiles!

Since September, Dave has been in Boston working M-Th, driving back to Philly on Thursday evening, and driving back to Boston on Sunday afternoon.  He has been living in a dinky little room at a family run inn, eating the individual servings of left overs I so lovingly pack up for him each week, and talking to Noah and Audrey once or twice a week over video chat.

Once a month, I will venture up to the great north.  6+ hours with 2 kids in a minivan is not my idea of a perfect day, but having our whole family together, even if it is just for a brief weekend rendezvous, is just plain awesome.

As we get ready to move up to Boston and reunite as a family, I can't help but to think how lucky we are to have had this experience of distance.  I LOVE the fact that each week, we get to prove to each other how much we mean to one another.  I love that ours isn't just a marriage of convenience, of rhythm, or even ease. We make the effort to truly enjoy each other and strengthen our marriage and family.  I love that Noah and Audrey get to see that and experience it first hand.

I also think of how much of a pain this adoption process is, and we haven't even made the 10+ hour flight to Eastern Europe once, let alone 3 times!!  I think this situation falls into the same category!

To us, it proves that our family is worth it. Again and again and again until we are ALL finally together, we will go the distance!

Drumroll Please......

It's a  BOY!!!

We are so thrilled to announce that we have committed to a fantastic little boy named "Hudson" (Hudson is his adoption alias) in Eastern Europe and we couldn't be happier.

http://reecesrainbow.org/38638/sponsorlewis-2

Hudson is so super cute!    Want to know a little more about him? Great, because I was going to tell you anyway. What mom can resist the urge to brag about her kiddo??

He turned 2 in October 2012.  Since we didn't know the exact date, we celebrated with cupcakes, candles and singing Happy Birthday on Oct. 31.  

He has big beautiful gray eyes, and the cutest little gap in his teeth. 

He has some physical delays.  Hudson isn't walking yet, but Noah assures me that he will teach him and the doctors can help.  

He has a few more needs than he we were planning to take on, but God has really worked on our hearts the past month.  Dave, in particular, was drawn to this little guy from the get go.  Once nervous about all special needs, Dave was the one to step up to the plate and assure us that whatever Hudson needed, we could provide. We couldn't think of anyone we knew that could handle his needs better, so why were we so afraid?  God would not put him on our hearts if He didn't have a plan.  To see Dave's heart mold to God's calling was amazing.  To hear Dave fighting for Hudson when I only wanted to take the easy path in this process was inspiring.  I have honestly never been so proud of my husband. He is truly standing up for the orphan. He is an awesome man of God and I have never found it so easy to submit and follow him.

After much hmming and hahhhing, it just comes down to this:  He needs us.

And we are pretty certain we need him right back!

Surprises!

I think it is fair to say we have had some challenges in this whole process. However, we prefer to call them surprises!  At least with surprises, there is a possibility that they might be positive things.

One of the most surprising things to us is the people in our lives, both old and new.

We were very surprised to receive some prickly reactions to our news of our adoption plans from folks who were very close to us, even devout Christians! We continue to pray for those relationships, that they not be strained and that those folks can love our new child just as they love our current children.

Most of all, I have been so surprised by how close this process draws you to such a vast array of people.

We have seen our relationships with several of our old friends grow deeper and stronger.  Women that I always thought were pretty cool have opened up and shared their unorthodox journeys to motherhood with me.  They were some of the first folks with whom we shared the sad surprise about E being adopted by another family and to see their outpouring of sympathy, prayers and cupcakes for us was truly heartwarming, as many had been there before in their own ways.  I am so grateful that before we leave PA, we are having the chance to forge these deeper bonds that will withstand a 5 state move!

Also surprising has been the amazing families we have met who are also in the process of adopting from Eastern Europe.  These families are from all over the country, some with no kids of their own, some with many, many kids of their own.  Some families are Christian, some are not.  But regardless of how we all differ, we all share broken hearts for these kiddos and are passionate about doing our share to help as much as we can.  We have supported fundraisers, donated items to others' auctions, answered and asked three bajillion questions about the process and country.  Though we may never meet these families in person, their support through the process is incredible and we are inspired every day by their stories!

One particular couple includes one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen outside of the airbrushed models and actresses of Hollywood.  They are choosing to forgo our society's standard model of get married, buy a house, and have a baby and instead have chosen to adopt a 12 year old boy to start their family.  They know there is lots of time for babies, but not too much time left for their J.  How cool is that!?!? I can only imagine how weird some of their other newlywed friends must think they are, but they simply recognize it as a good thing to do.  How inspiring!

Another family with the demands of full time jobs, 18 month old twins and all of life's other stresses has made it their mission to learn just about EVERYTHING about the adoption process and the agency many of us are using all in the hopes of sharing it with others.  She spends countless hours answering questions for everyone and is the official go-to woman of our group.  She has calmed, informed and inspired just about everyone in our little community, all of this while trying to juggle her family and FOUR trips to Eastern Europe to finally welcome her daughter!  After a conversation with her, I feel like I can do anything!

There are also 2 families that are adopting in our region. One has brought their son home and the other is preparing for court to fight for their daughter.  They have been constant support, guidance and shared excitement.  They are amazing prayer warriors and it is their goal to support those adopting from our region. Oh how we would all celebrate to see that orphanage cleared out! Their faith and love of God is truly awesome and we hope we can possess just a fraction of that faith.

We went into this process looking to add a child to our family.

We will leave this process with a whole lot more!

Thanks, God for your surprises!

Pink or Blue

Much to the chagrin of others, with each pregnancy, we decided to wait until the baby was born to find out the sex of the baby.  We loved the surprise!   We loved the delicious anticipation as labor pains got well, painful!  We loved not being tempted to  buy every cute baby girl or boy thing in the stores b/c they were so tiny and cute.

Not everyone loved our choice and many folks gave us a hard time about it.  The biggest gripe we received was about the preparations for a baby. They asked us how we could plan for a child if we didn't know the sex and how they had to know because they wanted to be prepared.

As far as we were concerned the needs of a baby were the same regardless of the sex. We had neutral clothes for the first few months and we knew the gender specific clothes would come pouring in after the baby bad been born. We even had a cool nursery that didn't rely on yellow or green, but a stylish combo of teal, cream and black with multi-colored accents.

When we started the adoption process for E, we were preparing for a girl and even joked that this is the first time that our family and friends would know the sex of our future child before we brought her home forever. 

Now we are considering two children to bring into our family, a boy and a girl.   We are so attached to them both and even looked into the possibility to bring them both home. Due to their geographic locations in the country, that is not a possibility, so we will have to decide, pink or blue.

Luckily, we know that we can meet the needs of either a boy or a girl and we feel prepared for either.  And in the mean time, we once again make our family and friends wait for the big announcement of pink of blue!

It All Started With Some Shoes....

We are very quickly learning the differences between girls and boys.  One is their choices in clothing, or lack thereof.

Noah is 3.5 now and still has no interest in what he wears.  I tried to let him pick out his outfit for his first school pictures and he ended up with a shirt that was too big and pants that were too short.  Perhaps picture day wasn't the ideal time to experiment with his clothing choosing abilities.

However, Audrey, has style!  And it all started with these shoes!
We are so blessed to have so many awesome folks in our lives that have supplied lots of girl clothes to us!  My brother passed down these super cute shoes from his super cute daughter, and while it might not be what I would have purchased, I was very appreciative.

Audrey discovered them one day in a box of hand-me-downs and immediately plopped down and began screeching to have them placed upon her dainty feet.  Too bad her feet were size 3 and the shoes were size 5. She didn't care. Now, E.V.E.R.Y D.A.Y we must put on the sparkle shoes and not take them off until the very last possible second before nap or bath.

It didn't end there.  She discovered a pair of pink corduroy pants from a darling whose name begins with N. Though the pants were cute, it was the attached shiny pink belt that made all of the difference.  She will now dig into the washer, dryer, hamper, wherever and find those pants.  Immediately the screaming begins and will not end until the pants are on her body.  Operation midnight laundry has commenced so they will be clean enough if she finds them the next day (and she will!)  I thought the solution might just be putting them higher up in her dresser. But she and Noah speak a magical language that only they can understand and Audrey convinces him to get the pants from the very top drawers of the dresser.  They are in cahoots against mommy already!

Her newest obsession:  Her cupcake hat.  I quickly examined it at Target, as I thought it might look a bit small.  I made the mistake of trying it on her head.  Fortunately she did need a winter hat because there it has remained.  For the first day, she didn't even let me cut off the tag off or the mittens that were attached.


As I wasn't particularly a "girly girl" growing up (in fact, I was just the opposite!), I had no idea this would come this early!

The Post We Have Been Dreading....

3 weeks ago we got "The Call."

Well, actually it was an email. It informed us that a couple from her native land will be adopting our sweet E.  Our world feels just shattered.   Perhaps it is hard to imagine how our souls could be so crushed upon receiving this news.  Logically, I agree and keep trying to tell myself that we had no official claim on her and we hadn't even met her.  But in our hearts, she was our daughter and a huge part of our daily lives already.

We had upgraded to the minivan (breaking our unofficial wedding vows to NEVER own a minivan) and Noah quickly claimed the middle row of seats for him and E, relegating Audrey to the rear row.  Each dinner prayer and bedtime prayer by Noah always ends with "And thank you for our new sister E, thank you she is far away in Eastern Europe, and Thank you for helping us bring her home. In your name we pray, Amen!"  We had her clothes (and clothes for the rest of the family) picked out for her welcome home family photo shoot. We had even started arranging her future marriage. 

It is with extremely heavy hearts that we celebrate her finding a family. She will be an orphan no more, and that is what truly matters!

So what now?

Our future child may have changed, but some things haven't changed:

We still have the capacity to love the stuffin' out of a child.
We still are a great family and can provide for a child.
We still have a heart for God's children in need of homes.


What we believe also hasn't faltered:

We believe that God nudged us to this particular child and this particular region of Eastern Europe for a reason.
We believe that God has been blessing us through this process with an amazingly supportive community, successful fundraising and even God's perfect timing. 
We believe that God tells us we are doing the right thing in His word.
 

So now we journey forth.  We wait to see what child God has in store for us and we have faith in His plans and trust in His perfect love for us!!  We never got to handpick our biological children, and God always did a pretty good job there, so we know He will do the same for us now!


And through this all, 2 children will end up with homes!  Praise be to God!

The Others

First Day of school!

 Though it may seem that we are so involved with what is going on with Baby E on the other side of the world, that we forget to update on what is going on with Audrey and Noah, fret not!    They are still getting mucho amounts of love, affection and goodies (after they eat their well balanced meals, of course!)

Mr. Noah- 
Noah started preschool on Sept. 4 and is loving every second. Miss Joy and Miss Susie are his teachers and he is in the Wolf classroom.  We went for a new family orientation and Noah had the choice to stay with his teachers and play in the classroom with his new mates, or to go with us and listen to some lady talk.  We were thrilled when (without bribery, mind you) he chose to stay and play. 

Though he doesn't give us a ton of details each day, we have gleaned that there are monkey bars, lots of books and even some painting.  He will also proclaim that his favorite thing to do there is eat snack.  Obviously taking after his mommy and daddy with that one!

Noah and Daddy head off to the daily grind of school and work respectively.

First day of drop off

Noah posing in front of his classroom

The gals are ready to head off for some quality girl time!

She has loved playing in the water this summer!  A very direct contrast to her
aqua-phobe brother!

Girly:
Audrey has been growing oh so cute and cuddly lately.  She is managing to annoy Noah and push his buttons just as much as he pushes her's.  It makes us proud that she can hold her own, as all little sisters should.  She still digs all of Noah's monster trucks, cars, trains, etc. , but has also taken a liking to baby dolls.  We were amazed at how well versed she was at feeding it with spoons and sippy cups, brushing its hair, and trying to change its diaper.  It is really amazing what they pick up from their parents! 

She loves twirly skirts and accessories now.  Which is
great considering she has a crazy mullet and beautiful curls that tend to
resemble an early '90's Jaromir Jagr when she is all sweaty :-)

A New Story

Today we heard a new story about "E", a story marked by God's amazing fingerprints.  As if we needed more proof of His love for us and His presence and blessing in this process!

A family that we have met through the online network of families adopting through RR contacted us.  After a while you forget which person is adopting which kid, you just know you are all in this together and you support everyone.  We have always felt that this family had a fantastic story.  They sent their paperwork to commit to their chosen child.  However, just hours before another family submitted their paper work as well for the same child! I am sure they were crushed!  God's plan prevailed and the other family halted their adoption process, and this family was able to commit to their little boy.


How does this story connect to our precious "E?"  Well, in the time when they thought they had lost their chance to adopt their son, the agencies were suggesting 2 other waiting children for them.  One was "E!"  I will let you read the rest straight from the message we received!

"Judy emailed me a picture of a beautiful little girl...named 'Edena.' She wasn't listed on RR yet. Can I just say she's is soooo cute!! We both felt strongly that we were not supposed to commit to her- but I have to tell you, it was hard! We were ready for answers from God after SEVERAL months of this and we have 3 little boys and would LOVE to have a daughter....but neither of us had peace. So we decided that our role in E's life was to pray that her forever family would come. I am SO excited that you are her forever family!!!"

The thought that E had been placed on a silver platter in front of a super duper adoptive family and she was not snatched up gives us strength to keep going through this process,  believing that God knows (and knew all along!) that we were meant to be her family!  

And the thought that this family has been praying for us to come along and bring her home for all of this time makes this whole story even sweeter!

Reality Check

As we were in the process of completing our home study, there is an amazing woman (and an even more amazing Christian!) who  was adopting from the same region and was a few steps ahead of us. She had just returned from her first visit and had blogged every detail. What a Godsend.

Being a natural born planner, the uncertainty of EVERYTHING in the process is ridiculously hard to swallow.  Her blog entries have given me a little glimpse of what to expect during our first trip to visit E. Though I had hoped that details such as these would fill in the gaps in my mental picture, I find myself calmed and also panicked at the same time.

In one particular blog entry, she spoke about her first experience giving her son a bottle at the orphanage. The caretaker had urged her to put the bib on the baby.  When the baby was tilted back and the bottle given to him, it gushed out and the child quickly lapped up each every bit he could as it continued to pour out and all over him.  The bottle was quickly taken away, with the boy having had perhaps 1/4 of the bottle end up in his mouth.  Upon inspecting the nipple, it had been cut. Confirming her suspicions of the awful circumstances surrounding feeding time in orphanages.

We had learned through our classes that caretakers have many children to feed and a short time to do it.  They line up the babies in their chairs or cribs and go down the line sticking a bottle in each of their mouths.  When they get to the end of the line, they go back to the start and remove the bottles.  It just sounds so horrific to think of these little ones speed eating with a huge hole in the nipple so it spills out in massive torrents.  We liked to think that perhaps our orphanage was different and maybe E got to drink a bottle on her time, digesting well and maybe even had some time to be held or cuddled.


It broke our hearts to learn that E's orphanage was no exception.

We keep thinking of the HOURS and HOURS we spent feeding our children.  The hours spent holding, cuddling, burping, cuddling some more.  E has never had that, and due to no fault of her own. The paperwork cannot be done fast enough as we physically ache to go and bring her home.

It breaks our hearts even more thinking of all of those children who are not coming to a loving home anytime soon.

If you are praying for us, thank you.  Would it be too much to ask that you send up some extra prayers for all of the children living in institutions who may not find families??

God is in the details!

Today, I had jury duty. 

I have no problem serving my civic duty, but since the kids were scheduled to be at the child care center at Dave's work, I thought it would be the perfect day to go to Harrisburg and get our dossier apostilled.

We didn't get some of the required documents the night before and I was actually called in to jury duty  (sometimes they excuse you the night before), so there went my plans for the day.

So I woke up, trudged down to the courthouse and as soon as I sat down, we got a call from our social worker saying all of the documents were at my doorstep.  This didn't do me much good as I was sitting in the jury room.

At 10:35 am, the court official informed us that they needed 45 people to head up to the court room.  There were only 52 people in the room.  When they called the 45th number, I immediately started crying.  I wasn't called!  There was nothing they could do with the 7 remaining jurors, so I knew I would be let out!  2 of the women next to me that were also left immediately asked if I needed a tissue and if I was ok.  I told them about E.

So then there are 3 women bawling and we had an awesome, God-filled conversation about our adoption. They waited until all of the called jurors left the room and then the court staff dismissed us.   The remaining folks rushed me to the front of the line so I could be scanned out.  Before I could dash out, one of the sweet older women took my shoulders, looked me square in the eye and told me that her parents had adopted her.  Though she probably gave them some grief about being adopted when she was a spring chickadee (her words, not mine), she now realizes the amazing feat of love adoption is.  She then hugged me with all of her 72 year old might.

I cried. And then I dashed out of the courthouse.

I sped home, got the documents in order, and made my way to Harrisburg.  By 2 pm, all of my documents were apostilled. At 2:15 pm, I realized that I totally forgot to feed the parking meter in my rush, and found no ticket on my car when I returned!  By 4 pm, I was home and the documents were nestled into their Fed Ex envelope, en route to the agency.

What are the odds of me not being picked for jury duty?   What are the odds that one of the 7 of us not picked would have such a powerful adoption story? What are the odds that parked RIGHT IN FRONT of the state capitol with state cops EVERYWHERE I would not get a ticket??

That is God.  And I truly believe He is in the details of our lives! And more importantly, yours too!

The Process

The process, while not hard per se, seems never ending right now! 

For some reason, it was much easier to be patient during pregnancy than it is through this process.  Perhaps it was the fact that we knew our children were in a safe place, well cared for and nourished.  Perhaps it was that we wouldn't miss a single moment of their lives on the outside.

As we speak to folks and tell them about this major step out in faith upon which we are embarking, it is amazing how everyone seems to know someone who has adopted or share a story of their own.  The guy who ran the UPS store where we did our home study finger printing had adopted from Russia, a few folks at Dave's new company have adopted, and even a few of my bosses have nieces and nephews through adoption.  It is amazing to see how prevalent adoption is, yet how much of a stigma there still can be about it, not to mention how many orphans still desperately need families.

As we go through this process, we through out terms like USCIS and apostilled, and even though someone might have a friend of a friend who adopted, we still might be speaking Greek to them. We thought we should outline our process to clarify. It is different in ever country and even in different regions of the same country.

Of course, we are also outlining this just in case adoption has ever been on the hearts and minds of anyone else that might be reading it, and we would love to share information to encourage others as they make the big decision!

Step 1:  The Home Study
 Our home study began on May 25 when we signed with the agency and committed to E on RR.  There were in-home visits with included a house tour (making sure everything was safe, clean, enough space and proper exits, fire extinguishers, etc.), individual interviews for Dave and I regarding our family and background, joint interviews with questions geared to our parenting styles, beliefs and values, conflict style, and also general observation as we interacted with our children.  This part of the process also includes lots of paper work.  Birth certificates, marriage licenses, medical forms, abuse and criminal clearances, etc. must all be gathered.  This process takes approx 2-3 months.

Step 2:  USICS Approval
After the home study is complete, we can move into more paperwork. YAY!  We fill out some forms for the US Government, attach our home study, get finger printed (again!) and wait for approval from US Customs.

Step 3.  Registration Dossier Compilation
(Step 2 and 3 can be done concurrently for our region)
Once the approved home study is received, we can fill out a bunch more paper work, get it approved by our agency, get it notarized and then apostilled.  This less-than-awesome part of the process involves taking our notarized documents to Harrisburg get more officials to verify the dates, signatures, etc.  Fun, huh?  Then we send this to our agency who sends it to E's courts in her country!

Step 4.  Travel Dates for trip 1
Once E's region receives our Registration Dossier, they will send us travel dates!  They tell us when to be there and by golly, we will be there!    During this time, we will also be working on our Court Dossier, more papers to be gathered, notarized and another trip to PA's 4th largest city to get the apostilled.

Step 5: Trip 1
YAY! If we make it to this step, we will actually get to meet our daughter!  This will hopefully  be less than 3 months after the home study is complete.  We are moving as fast as possible to bring her home.  We will fly into a major city then drive to her region.  We will visit meet the orphanage director, her caretaker and get to visit up to 2 times a day with her.  Then we hope to have our court paper work to take to the court there to keep the process moving!

Step 6:  Trip 2 and Court
After we submit our court documents, we will receive a court date.  We will then go back for our medical exams and our court hearing.  There is a 30 day wait between the court date and the time you can take the child.  There is a chance that this 30 day wait could be waived and we could get to bring our little lady home at the second trip!  This would be so huge!!  If court goes well, they will declare the child ours!  If we have to wait, we will come home and wait.

Step 7:  Trip 3 (potential)
If the wait is not waived, I will head back solo and pick her up in her region, take her to the major city and take her through all of her processing! Then we get to bring her home for good.  For keeps! Forever and ever! AMEN!


Whew!  That was a long one, folks!  And that was only writing it. Living it is going to be so much harder.  Please pray for us as we  move along these step.  Each one involves an amazing amount of time, energy, patience and money, all of which are wearing thin!  We are so fortunate to have an amazing community of family, friends and even online supporters to help us through. Oh, and God is on our side through all of this.  We know that without a doubt!

If it's on the internet.....

It must be true!! 

Here it is folks, the big news on the Lewis front.

http://reecesrainbow.org/38638/sponsorlewis-2

We have decided to adopt a sweet little girl from Eastern Europe!  We'll call her E for now, as we haven't decided what her official name will be!

This is huge!  We enjoyed living the cushy, safe, comfortable suburban life since we were married 5 years ago.  But, we've had enough now.  Now it is time to do something big. Something good.  Something scary. Something that God tells us in His word that we should do.

We had a friend who was thinking of starting a journey on an international adoption and in response to a naysayer, she listed all of the things she had going for her:  Solid faith, strong marriage, healthy lifestyle, the ability to stay at home with her kids, steady employment for her husband, supportive family and friends, etc.  She then asked said naysayer, "If we aren't prime candidates, who is?"

That stuck with us.  We have an amazing life!  Are we millionaires vacationing on our own tropical island?  No.  But do our blessings abound?  YES! We have been so blessed in really, just about every way possible and why shouldn't we bring a child into our home to be a part of this?  We love kids and always wanted a large family, so why not help give a child a future that she wouldn't otherwise have? And really folks, who wouldn't want to be a Lewis?!

Those were just some of our reasons.

One of the biggest reasons was E herself.  Having seen her picture on RR, I eagerly tried to get my friend to adopt her.  She was born in March 2011, just like Audrey.  Audrey and E both had dark hair and eyes and I just knew they would be best friends (besties, BFF's, whatever the new lingo is). When my friend chuckled and continued to show me other children that she had been considering, my heart sank a bit. How could she not see just how amazing this little girl was?

Then it sank lower, and lower.  The thought of life without Audrey's best friend, her "fake" twin just sent me on a crying fit.  The fit lasted over a week. I couldn't do anything at home without thinking what it would be like to have 2 little brown haired girls toddling around in cute dresses and uttering cute phrases.  2 girls to take prom dress shopping.  2 little girls to send away to college (YIKES!) God was screaming to me that this little girl was meant to be in our family.

When Dave and I talked, his first response was, "It's a great idea, too bad we can't afford it right now."  Lucky for him, I have our family budget spreadsheet forecast out until 2018 (totally not exaggerating here) and I showed him that with a few lifestyle changes, some tapping into his work adoption assistance benefit, and some support of friends and family through fundraisers, perhaps she isn't out of reach after all! It would take a lot of sacrifice, but heck, Jesus died for us, surely we can pull our belts tighter and have some uncomfortable conversations with friends asking to support her grant! This may be the first time we get to truly sacrifice for our kids; we get to really rely on God to make this happen!

We decided to wait 6 months.  After seeing me crying (again) the next day, Dave suggested waiting a few weeks instead. Then the next day (surprise- another day of crying over her beautiful little picture!), we decided to call the agency the next morning.  After hearing about the number of inquiries she had had, we got all the paper work from our adoption agency, RR (the partner) and our home study agency filled out in 1 day and overnighted everything.

The next day, we saw her on the My Family Found Me page on RR.  What an amazing feeling!

Now the fun begins! We prepare for mountains of paperwork, physical exams, psychiatric exams, home study evaluations, finger prints, a dossier and a few (3 to be exact) trips to Eastern Europe. A short 8-10 months later, she will be ours.

And I am still crying!  Go figure :-)

Why is it that....

You get your house all ready to sell and in the process fall in love with it again??

The past 4 days have been spent sawing, nailing, trimming, priming, painting, steaming and even power washing.  Our perfect, out of our dreams finished basement is officially finished and we will be leaving it asap. Awesome, right?

We can finally say that the house is ready for the market.  We can also say that we are old and in pain from it all!

We have also decided that we are too old to have all of our friends load up our moving truck for the low low price of free pizza and beer.    If you are a fan of How I Met Your Mother, you may recall the episode where they made a list of things they are too old for.  This tops ours!    For the first time ever we will be hiring movers thanks to the fact that Dave's new company will foot the bill.

You are welcome friends, very welcome :-)

Now bring on the buyers!

Boston or Bust!

As of Sept. 5, 2012, Dave will officially  be an employee of Atlantic Trust, located in Boston, MA.

After 3+ years of killing himself with 80 hour work weeks, he will finally be able to relax a bit in the evenings as he won't be slaving from home.

What is this transition going to look like for us?
Dave will continue to work at SEI until the day after labor day.  This ensures he keeps his SEI benefits for the whole month of September! 
Our house is going on the market on Tuesday and we are hoping for a quick sell. Luckily the real estate market is booming, right?  UGH!  Prayers in this area would be greatly appreciated!

We will head to Boston in August to house hunt a bit, though the first priority will be to find Dave a short term corporate place to house him as a long term commuter until our house sells and we are able to all join him in Boston.  The kids and I will be here in Sanatoga until the end of Sept. at the very least.  Dave' new boss has allowed him to work from home 1 day a week to be able to commute back and forth and spend weekends with us.  Moral of this story:  Be prepared for needy phone calls and lots of playdates in Sept.  We will be a lonely crew!

We will start bonafide house hunting in Boston once we have an offer on or at least some serious interest in our house.  We are checking out neighborhoods and schools, but no sense in falling in love with a house that we can't put an offer on until this one sells.

So, that is the plan!  Crazy!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, we WILL NOT be living in Foxborough! 

She is making raspberry sounds in this picture.  Just as all good Steelers fans should do when discussing the Patriots!

Go Steelers!

Long time, no blog

We thought we should check in just in case you were getting ready to file a missing persons report.  We are, in fact, alive and well.  Just busy- because really, who isn't these days?

So just what have we been up to?  Contemplating many big things, that is what!  Dave has been working 80+ hours a week (and that is a good week!).  While we were always ok with him having to work a bit in the evenings, as it allowed me to get some of my work done, staying up until 2, 3, even 4 am working can no longer be classified as working a little bit.  Nor is it fun.  Or healthy.

When his favorite clients approached him with a chance to interview for a position at their company, Dave's curiosity was peaked.  It was even more peaked as he received emails at 3:59 each Friday with reminders that their company closes early on Fridays in the summer.  They have since altered the job description to his exact skill set and have increased it's level of responsibility.  This week, he goes to interview (read:  be wined, dined and entertained by the Red Sox) and then we await their official offer.  Since he has already met all of the people he is interviewing with, he isn't that nervous.  Plus, the HR rep has already told him that this interview is merely procedural.

Oh, perhaps I should mention that this is Boston!

Realtors have been called, moving companies have quoted and once we receive and negotiate an official offer, we may get to make the good ol' Pros & Cons list and make the big decision.  Eeeek!

At least we love Tom Brady and the Patriots.....NOT!

Aside from planning major life changes we have been doing some fun things.

We welcomed Dave home for a three day Memorial day weekend with lots and hugs and kisses...after pelting him relentlessly with marshmallows, of course.

We got an indoor pool.

I spent a week in Greensburg with the kids, visiting all of the grandparents and great grandparents.  The kids also learned croquet!

Dave and I celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss.

Grammy came out to visit and we picked more fruit!  Blueberries and cherries are a big hit in this household!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Noah explains what to look for in a strawberry.

Our favorite time of year is here: Pick You Own season at Weaver's Orchard! Strawberry picking opened on May 19th, and by golly we were there by 10 am.  We were not going to miss the prime berries of opening day.

Noah never liked strawberries as a baby, which was fine as they gave him a nasty rash. But like 99% of kids, he now loves them and could eat them at every meal if we would let him.  He was thrilled to go strawberry picking and we were excited because this would be the first year he would be old enough to really get in on the action and pick his very own berries.

Audrey is also a big fan of strawberries.  But that isn't saying much as we dare you to find a food she doesn't gobble down in milliseconds.  She has become so independent since she started walking and we knew that she would love the ability to go and chow down on as many strawberries as she liked while we picked.  She slept in the car on the way to the orchard and was ready and raring to go when we arrived.

We were very impressed with Weaver's organization.  We were the very first folks to pick our area thanks to their well run system.  Noah did a great job obeying and picking only in our assigned row.  He held his own cardboard box and was very patient and picked only red and healthy looking berries.

Yeah, we couldn't really hid the fact that she had indulged in a few before paying!
Caught her red handed!

Audrey followed Noah and proceeded to taste test the majority of the berries that Noah put in his box.  We had thought of putting her in some cute white summer outfit and luckily thought better before we committed to her clothes for the day.  She was a cute little strawberry mess.

We filled up both cartons in less than a half hour.  So we spent the rest of the morning hanging out with the chickens, goats and duck at the petting zoo and playground area.  We are eagerly counting down the days until blueberry, peach and apple seasons arrive!

On the agenda for tonight:  Chocolate covered strawberry dipping (and eating) sessions with the kids!

Daddy and Noah showcasing their prime picks.

Our loot of the day!

The Big 3-0!

Dave is officially old now--just like me!

We kicked off our celebration on Friday night when Dave got home from work. We knew Saturday (the big day!)  would be long and tiresome and we wanted Dave to be rested when he had his birthday treat.  We had made comments about Noah and I making him a cake, but we actually hired our friend Faith to make his favorite cupcakes!

(Note-  Dave is NOT a sweet person. I mean, personality wise he is, but he just doesn't dig a lot of desserts.  I kept trying to get him to try Faith's cupcakes after our MOPS fundraiser and he wasn't interested regardless of how many times I told him how amazing this cake and frosting was.   Then when we got them for Noah and Audrey's birthday party, he started wolfing down 3 or 4 a day!  Yeah, he is hooked!)

On Saturday morning, Noah decided to give Dave a very special start to the day by sleeping in until 9:30!  Then we were off to Dorney Park.  We had wanted to go there for a long time, as Noah has a real love for Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang. In short, this place was Noah's Disney world!  He was in heaven.  He hugged just about everything Snoopy related.  We rode the rides, we saw the show and stalked the characters.

Even Audrey was a trooper.  They had this amazing Family Care Center, so diaper changes, nursing, even milk storage was super easy.  They did a really great job.

We pretty much stayed in Planet Snoopy and did the same 7 or so rides, some with all four of us.

At the end of the day, Dave felt young at heart.  He also felt old in the knees, back, etc.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Just like Noah's birthday, we had to do the candles about 10 times!

This was such a sweet moment.  Noah truly loves Snoopy!

Every Snoopy we saw got a hug!

Ad did Peppermint Patty, Charlie, Linus, Lucy.  Franklin only got a high-five, though.

Noah loved the truck ride, too!

Noah claims his souvenir.

Audrey approves of Noah's choice. 

Noah made a new friend on the helicopters.  Not so sure at first.

Didn't take him long to warm up to the older woman!

Noah loved the waterfall.  And it was nice and cool, so we were happy to oblige.

Audrey wants Snoopy's cookie.  Go figure!

Even the benches were Snoopy-ized.

He loved riding the helicopters.

Audrey held up beautifully!  At 8:30 pm we called it a night, but both kids could have gone longer!