Day 9...Great visits and a little hug from Sydney!

The visits with Sydney and Sarah continue to be such a joy! Today, Jeff got a little surprise in the form of a tiny little hug from Sydney.  What a sweet treasure to get!!!!!  


Sydney was said to have a cough again today so she had to play indoors.  We are grateful she did not seem sick with fever nor did she cough during the visit.  

Enjoy the video!
*scroll down and pause my playlist so you can here the video* 

Sarah, daddy, Holly and Rachel continue to enjoy their visits outside!!!

Day 8...New pics!

Jeff, Holly and Rachel had a nice visit with the girls this morning.  Sydney was said to have a cough so she had to play inside, but at least they let her come play.  She never did cough while she was with Jeff so that is good.  Maybe it was more of a 'swallowed-the-wrong-way' type of cough that the nannies heard.  We'll see how she is doing tomorrow.

Sydney playing inside

 Sarah playing outside

And some fun pictures from around town.

 

Thank you all so much for your prayers!   We should be assigned a judge either Tuesday or Wednesday and our facilitator will ask for a pre-trial meeting to see if he/she will hear our case.  Jeff and I fully believe they will agree to hear our case and that there will be no more hiccups in our adoption process.  God has this!


I'll update as soon as I know more.

Day 7...PRAYERS PLEASE!

As many of you know, Jeff and I are adopting in somewhat of an unusual manner.  Jeff is adopting as a Married Individual with my full and absolute consent and encouragement.  I will adopt the girls once they arrive in the US.  The country we are adopting from allows for this type of adoption by law, as does the USA.  We adopted Matthew and Michael this way with no problems.  Praise God!


However, if a judge in their country does not agree with the law, he/she can refuse to hear the case and well...I don't want to think about what will happen then. 

We received word from our facilitator that this may happen in our case.  PLEASE, join Jeff and I in storming Heaven with prayer that the judges heart will be softened, that he/she will agree to hear our case and that he/she will allow Jeff to adopt the girls so that I can adopt them once they arrive in the US.  We should hear within a few days if the judge will allow our adoption to continue and then hear our case in court.


Our girls will be transferred to an adult mental institution if we are not allowed to adopt them; Sydney in Jan, and Saran in March.  We cannot even fathom this.  Jeff and I are believing and praying they will come home to us.  Thank you for standing in agreement with us and praying along side us on this journey.

Sarah and Sydney

  

John 14:18

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you"

New pictures....and a VIDEO!....Day 6!

The visits with Sydney and Sarah continue to go very well.  Jeff, Holly and Rachel get to visit the girls one time a day anytime between the hours of 9-11:00am for 1 to 1 1/2 hours each day,  M-S.  There are no visits on Sunday.  This is what Jeff said about today's visit:
 
"What a great visit we had today with the girls!  The workers let us take them outside and play and they seemed to love it.  The weather was beautiful.  The girls are so sweet and affectionate towards each other.  We can definitely  tell that they know each other very well.  We took Sydney out first then the worker brought Sarah out after about 5 minutes.  When Sarah saw Sydney she gave her a big hug and they both smiled.  They really are precious. Sarah is already putting her arms up for us to hold her. She likes to be held and talked to. Sydney is a little more reserved.  Sydney is also very independent. She wants to do everything for herself -- and she does quite well."

**Scroll down and pause my Playlist first so you can hear the video**

Enjoy the pics!

Sarah

Sisters!

Sydney

Today is Justin's 2nd 'Heart-aversary'

Two years ago today, we handed over our 3-month old baby to the man who would rebuild his tiny heart, Dr. Charles Fraser at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston, Texas.  That is not a moment in time I will ever forget.  Not knowing if we would ever see our baby alive again on this side of Heaven is something no parent should ever have to experience.  

 The whole process was gut-wrenching to say the least, yet, we had a peace that must have been Divinely given because we gladly handed Justin over to the surgical team.  We knew that Justin's time on this Earth was coming to an end if the surgeon did not act quickly, and by the grace of God, He performed miracles that day through the hands of Dr. Fraser!  What an answer to prayer.  We prayed for Justin to be healed...and he was!  No, not divinely, but God moved through the surgeons hands for 8 hours that day and Justin was healed none the less!

Justin had a Complete AV Canal defect, which for him meant that he had no triscuspid valve, no mitral valve, no septum seperating the left side of the heart from the right side as well as two secondary holes that had to be repaired.  He did have a singular central malfunctioning valve and the surgeon was able to rebuild all the missing structures with Justin's own tissue from the pericardial sac that surrounds his heart, and parts from the central malfunctioning valve...along with "hundreds and hundreds" of stitches.  Amazing!

The pictures below were taken in the surgical ICU just moments before the surgical team came for Justin.  (The camera date is off by one day)

Today, Justin's heart continues to function fantastically.  He is still on one heart med and daily oxygen for low sats, but we expect him to go off these last two things very soon. He only see the cardiologist once every six months now and that will soon be bumped out to once every year. 

Today, Justin is a very active little boy full of energy and life.

I just love how God worked this day today.  Not only are we giving thanks for Justin's 2nd Heart Anniversary, today was full of joy as Jeff, Holly and Rachel met Sydney and Sarah for the very first time.  Perfect timing once again!!!


We are so grateful to have Justin here with us and thank God for blessing us with not only him, but all our children!!!!

Meeting Sarah and Sydney for the first time!!!!!, Day 5 of trip 1

Jeff, Rachel and Holly met Sydney and Sarah this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They appear to be healthy and doing well.  Sydney is walking everywhere and Sarah is taking steps!  Both girls seemed very comfortable and showed no fear of meeting everyone!  Praise God!!!!    

Enjoy the pics!!!

Sarah

Sarah and Daddy

Sarah

Sydney

Sydney

Sydney

Sydney

Sarah and Sydney playing together

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!