A Letter to Sydney and Sarah

My dear Sweet Sydney and Sarah,

Tomorrow you will meet your daddy!
And two of your sisters.
Tomorrow you will know what it is to be loved,
Unconditionally loved forever!

Tonight is the last night you will ever go to bed not knowing the love of your family.  Tomorrow your turn comes.  It's your turn to be loved.  It's your turn to have a family.  It's your turn to be set free.

You have been chosen,

You are worthy,

You are important,

You are not invisible!

You are sisters,

You are daughters,

You are granddaughters and great granddaughters,

You are children of the most high King!

Never again will you be alone, 

Or cold,

Or hungry,

Or cry silent tears from your crib!

I cannot wait to hold you in my arms,

And breathe in your sweet essence.

I cannot wait to kiss your little cheeks,

And whisper words of love in your ear.

Daddy and I love you so much!

Wesley, Kayla, Holly and Jason love you!

Rachel, Michael, Matthew and Justin love you!

And God loves you so much more!!!

Hold on for one more night,

We will be there tomorrow.

One more sleep,

Love comes in the morning!

As I have written once before:  From the beginning of time, God planned your path to us.  He orchestrated these events perfectly for you to be in our family.  He promised to not leave you as orphans and we obediently let Him use our hands and feet to make that happen.  God is so good to us!

Daddy and I promise to do our best for you.  We'll teach you, we'll love you, feed you and clothe you.  We'll comfort you, play with you, care for you, and tell you about our Heavenly Father.  Tomorrow is the first of many firsts and the last of many things!  You will never be alone again!  We love you both more than words can express.  As much as I wanted to be there with daddy, I had to stay back to care for your brothers.  I am sending you my love through daddy, Holly and Rachel and I pray you can feel it.  I love you, Sarah and Sydney!
  
All my love,

Mommy

Day 4, "All Aboard" and new pictures of our girls!!!

Jeff, Holly and Rachel are now on the overnight train for a 14-hour ride down to the city that our little girls are in!  They should arrive in the city around 7:30am local time and will be holding our sweet girls sometime before noon their time tomorrow, which is 4:00am our time,  CDT.

WOW!  Just wow!  My stomach is in knots. Our girls are about to be held by FAMILY!  Family that will never leave them.  Family that loves them unconditionally.  Their very own family!!!


Please pray for safe travels and rest on the train.  Please pray for "Jaclyn and Harper," that they will be at ease and feel no anxiety meeting their daddy and sisters for the very first time tomorrow.  It is doubtful that the girls have EVER had a visitor so this will be a very new experience for them for sure!


We have been blessed with more pictures of the girls!!!  These were taken last year when they were two years old.  Amazing!!  They are now 3 1/2 years old, so it will be neat to see how they have grown and changed from when these pictures were taken.  Enjoy!!!

"Harper" - age 2

"Jaclyn" - age 2

Day 3...SDA!

This morning at 9:00am local time (1:00am our time), Jeff met with the adoption authorities.  I was home praying because I could not sleep knowing Jeff was at a very important appointment.  At 2:30am our time, I could not stand it any longer so I called my husband to see how his appointment went.   He was traveling to the train station with his wonderful driver, Nikko, to buy train tickets!!!  and that can only mean one thing...Jeff got the referral to adopt our girls!!!!!  Praise God!!!!!

I even got to talk to Nikko on the phone for just a second and he assured me that all was going well and that our translator in-region, Sasha, will take good care of my family during the in-region adoption process!  What a treat to finally get to visit with Nikko!

The adoption authorities always have the childrens' baby pictures in their file and will almost never, not on your life, not even if you beg, sometimes trade them for a more recent picture if you have one.  We happen to have one pretty recent, but very blurry, picture of each of the girls.  I used our Picasa program to re-touch the pictures as best I could to try to take out some of the blurriness and printed off two little, a-little-less-blurry, wallet-sized pictures that Jeff could ask to trade with.  He asked and they agreed to trade!!!!!!  What a direct answer to a specific prayer!  Thank You, Father!!

Look at my babies!!!!!!

"Jaclyn"

 

"Harper"

These are the very first clear pictures we have ever seen of our girls.  WOW!!!  Look at them!  Sweet pictures of baby perfection if you ask this momma!  I cannot wait to hold them and show them what a mommies love is all about.  Jeff will get to meet and hold our precious girls on Friday!  What a day that will be!!!

We have picked out the girls names but that deserves a post all of it's own.  Soon, I promise! 

Below are a few pictures outside the 'Adoption Authority' building:

Church across the street from the 'Adoption Authority' building

Soaking wet from the downpour of rain yesterday!

Day 2, Trip 1

Jeff and the girls had a wonderful day of sight seeing and visiting with fellow Reece's Rainbow friends.  They first went to buy groceries...funny how very American some of those items look!  Then they walked around town looking at all the sights but it started raining very hard so they headed back to the apartment.   For supper, they met up with another Reece's Rainbow family,  Andrew and Aislinn Weiman, who are adopting precious Stacie.   Jeff and the girls said it was such a joy getting to visit and share testimonies with another family on this same journey.  What a blessing to get to meet them!

Here are some pictures of their apartment, which is very modern and well kept.  I'm just glad they have fast internet so we can Skype!!!!  Enjoy the pics! 

Their apartment building they are staying in while in the Capital city

Looking out from inside their apartment

Living room

Kitchen

Bed where Holly and Rachel sleep...Poor Jeff is on the couch!

Groceries

Rachel eating groceries :-)

Holly and Rachel in the kitchen

Sink and tiny microwave

Tomorrow, Jeff will meet with the adoption authorities at 9:00am his time, 1:00AM our time...we are 8 hours behind them, and receive the girls' medical histories and get to see their pictures.  I'm praying the authorities will give Jeff some of those pictures to keep or at least let him take pictures of the pictures.  Feel free to agree and pray with me.  It would be so sweet to have baby pictures of them!

Day 1, trip 1

Jeff and the girls arrived in-country today at 4:15 local time right on time with no hang-ups!!!  Praise God for getting them there safely!  As soon as they arrived at their apartment, we Skyped!  It was so nice to see them and hear their voices.  They were all extremely tired after their 25 hour trek around the globe and were ready to grab a bite to eat and rest.  Holly forgot and brushed her teeth with the local water.  She did not swallow any so we'll see in a day or so if her tummy will be affected.  

Below are some pictures of their journey:

 Newark!  Last stop before leaving our great nation!

Holly and Rachel on the plane to Munich, Germany

Looking towards the front of the plane going to Munich

Munich!  Waiting to board the last flight to the country our girls are in.

Yeah!  They are in the Capital City driving to their apartment!!!

Still driving....

And more driving...

Home away from Home in the Capital City!  This is their apartment building for the next 2-3 days.

Tomorrow should be a fun day of sight seeing and running around the capital city, so hopefully I'll be able to share pictures of their adventures soon.


That's all for today.  Short and sweet!

They're off!

Jeff, Holly and Rachel left for our girls' country early this morning.  Tears were shed...on my part...hugs were given tighter that usual and good-by's lingered long past the designated time to leave.  It's tough watching your family leave!

Rest did not come for any of us last night so I pray Jeff and the girls can sleep on the plane.  It will be a 25 hour journey so there *should* be plenty of time to rest.  They will arrive in-country tomorrow afternoon late, grab a bite to eat, buy some groceries and head to the apartment for some much needed rest.

Tuesday will be a day of leisure and hopefully some sight seeing.  Jeff will meet with the official adoption authorities on Wed at 9:00am and receive the official referral to adopt our girls.  He'll pick up the official paperwork either later that afternoon or the next day then they will hop on an overnight train and arrive in the city our girls are in about 13 hours later.

They should be able to meet our girls either late Thursday or early Friday, depending on when they get the referral paperwork and catch the overnight train.  What a wonderful day that will be when daddy meets daughters, sisters meet sisters!  Our girls will see love!  They will feel love, unconditional love, for the very first time in their lives.  Oh, how I cannot wait to wrap MY arms around them!!!!

Feeling unconditional love can be confusing and scary if you have never felt it before.  I pray and believe that our girls will have NO FEAR!  I pray they will only feel comfortable and at ease when they meet their daddy and sisters.

Guess what is happening on Aug. 3, 2011??

That is our SDA appointment day!  Yep, we finally received our date!!!!!  What we once thought would be at least a three MONTH wait has graciously been turned into a three WEEK wait!  Doesn't God just blow your mind some times?!?

The SDA appointment is the appointment where the government of the country our girls are in gives us the official referral to adopt them!  That means Jeff will get to meet our sweet daughters Aug. 5!  What a day that will be!!!!!!!!!!


Our baby girls don't know it yet, but they are about to be set free.


Free to have a mommy,
Free to have a daddy,
Free to have brothers, and sisters,
Grandma's and Grandpa's,
Great-Grandma's, aunts, uncles and cousins!


Our girls don't know it yet,
But they are loved unconditionally,
They are CHOSEN,
They are WORTHY,
They are DESERVING!


Soon they will know the love of their mommy,
And the safety of their daddy's arms,
Complete with tender hugs, 
And sweet angel kisses,
They will know what LOVE is!!!

Week of many firsts...

Michael and Matthew have been home for 6 1/2 months.  They are doing so well and are still experiencing many firsts:

The boys have looked out our dining room windows a million times while eating, but this was the first time they had all crawled over, stood up and looked out all on their very own.

We have purposely kept visitors very limited for this first 6 months while the boys were getting used to us and bonding.  We are slowly letting more and more friends and family come over to meet Matthew and Michael and this was my grandmother and Aunt Kathy's first visit.

Meemaw made Matthew and Michael their very own quilts like she has done for all the great-grandkids!  They're gorgous, Meemaw!!!

Meemaw and Matthew sitting on his quilt that she made especially for him.

Justin started walking!

Swinging out back in their very own swing for the first time!

My mom and dad got to run down and meet Michael and Matthew for the first time.

First Christmas in July with my parents and niece and nephew, Brianne and Paul.

First kiss!!!

Justin has learned how to give kisses!

 

We cannot wait for our girls to get home and for them to experience their very own 'firsts' as well.  Please continue to pray they are safe and cared for while they wait for us to come for them.  It won't be long, baby girls.  We're coming as soon as we can!

God is moving!

Concerning our adoption:

While we are praying...

God is LISTENING!

While we are waiting...

God is MOVING!

Mountains are literally being washed away as we wait...and pray.

God is so good!

ALWAYS!!!!

We just received the news that a vote taken today in the country our girls are from is going to allow travel dates to be given to those families who are already submitted.
  
That would be US!!!
 
They will also continue to allow the adoption of kids age 5 and over as well as children of any age with a diagnosis that is on their current 'special needs list' while they restructure their adoption program instead of completely shutting the program down during the change. 

Keep praising God and thanking Him for all He has, and is, and will continue to do.

 More info to come as it comes to me but it appears as if our '3-month-wait' will be made significantly shorter very soon!

Hang on baby girls.  We're coming!

20 years ago, on June 28th...

...our first baby girl was born!  

Happy Birthday Kayla!! 

We love you so much, more than words can ever say.  We are so grateful God gave you to us and what an honor it is to be your mom and dad!