Look Whose Coming HOME!!!

We are coming HOME!!!!!!

God certainly showed up BIG!  ALL the sputum tests were negative!!!  Jeff, Holly, Jason, Sydney and Sarah are FREE to come HOME!!!   We'll work on flights today and we are praying something will open up for in the morning.  If not, we do have seats set aside for Friday if nothing else comes open. 

Last sputum test is in 1 hr

Please say a prayer as Sarah goes in for her last sputum test in 1 hour at 7:00am her time, 11:00pm CDT.  These tests must be negative for her to be allowed to come to America. 


They will release the test results at noon their time, 4:00am CDT tonight, and I will post as soon as I know.

Below are a few pictures of Sarah, Mommy and Daddy Skyping this morning.

Isaiah 41:10
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

Day 2 of Sputum testing

All went well.  Miss Sarah is one smart cookie!  As soon as they pulled up to the clinic, Sarah KNEW where they were and what they were there for!  She showed that loud and clear!

Jeff was again allowed to hold her during the procedure so he held her little arms and legs still while their driver, Eugene, held her head.  The Dr was able to get a good-sized sample and that was it!  Tomorrow will be a repeat of today and they will get the results at NOON instead of 2:00 on Wed.  Jeff will then have his final Embassy appt at 2:00 to get the girls' Visa's and they will hop on the 5:35am flight HOME Thursday morning!

Well...that is the plan anyway.  

I'm going to call Eldon, our travel agent, today to see if he can get 5 seats together on short notice and place them on 24 hr hold until we get the final sputum test results Wed. 


So that is our two prayer requests: 
1. That Sarah's tests will all be neg and,
2. That Eldon can get 5 seats together for the flight home for Thursday!

Day 1 of sputum testing

Jeff said the first sputum test went very quick and Sarah tolerated the procedure well.  Jeff as allowed to hold her in his arms while they inserted the nasal probe and drew the sample.  There will be a repeat of today on Tuesday and Wednesday and then around 2:00pm Wed, we should get the final results.  All neg...and they will fly HOME Thursday!!!  The final Embassy appt will be Wed afternoon and the girls will be issued their USA Visa's.


Praise the Lord!


We are praying for and believing this is exactly how it will happen and everyone can sleep in their own beds Thursday night!

Gotcha Day Pics

Here are some pictures from Gotcha Day,  8-30-11.  Today was the original day that Sydney and Sarah were supposed to arrive home.  Soon.  Very soon!  They will be home.

In the mean time, enjoy the pics!

On their way out!

Signing the final papers

Sydney's first ride in a car!  No car seats required here!!

Sarah looking out at her new world

Sydney looking out at her new world. 

A little snag needs BIG-TIME prayers to get our girls home

Jeff just called and said they will not be coming home this week.  Devastated is not a strong enough word.

The girls had their medical check-up today and evidently Sarah's medical history says she tested + for TB at some point. The Embassy Dr. refused to sign off on her medical exam and will not let her come home.  Sarah has no symptoms what-so-ever but the Dr. ordered a chest x-ray anyway and believes she saw a gray spot so now Sarah has to go through a 3-day sputum testing starting on Monday.   Jeff will be in Ukraine with the kids for at least another week.

If they still refuse to let her come home after the 3-day sputum testing, we are facing months of treatment in Ukraine before they will let her come home.  

**Please pray that the positive test is just a normal reaction to Sarah's TB vaccination and that the 3-day sputum testing will be negative.  All children in Ukraine receive the TB vaccination and it is our understanding from what we have researched and have been told by US doctors, that many people who have received the TB vaccination will test positive via the PPD TB test since they now have the TB antibodies in their systems but they do not have active TB.


**Please pray that we do not face months of treatment in Ukraine.  We knew Jeff would use up all his vacation time and a couple of weeks of FMLA without pay for this adoption so we planned ahead and budgeted for that.   However, if he has to stay much longer, we will literally run out of money since he is the sole breadwinner in our family.

Thank you all for holding us up in prayer during this!!

GOTCHA!!!!!

Today is GOTCHA DAY!!!!!!!  

The girls are FREE!!!!!!!  

Praise GOD!!!!!!!

I'll post pictures and details as soon as I get them.

Last day... First day.

My dear Sydney and Sarah:

Today is Monday.  

 It's not like ANY other Monday.  

 It's the last! 

 The last Monday,

 The last DAY,

 That you will be alone.

EVER!

Today is Monday.

The last day you will spend at the orphanage,

To not get kissed good morning or good night.

The last day to not be told "I love you" everyday,

And how important and wanted you are.

The last day to wonder if we are coming back,
Or not.

Praise GOD there is a tomorrow!!!

 Tomorrow is Tuesday.

It's not like ANY other Tuesday.

It's the FIRST!

 The first Tuesday,

 The first DAY,

 That you will not be alone again.

EVER!

Tomorrow is Tuesday.

The first day you will spend loved beyond measure,

To get kissed good morning and good night.

The first day to be told "I love you" every day,

And how important and wanted you are.

The first day to KNOW we are coming back.

TO STAY!

Today is Monday.

Tomorrow is Tuesday.

Praise God for Tomorrow!!!

Arrived safe and sound and got to meet a pilot...Day 2, trip 2

Jeff, Holly and Jason made it safe and sound to the capital city.  They will stay there tonight and travel to the girls' region on the overnight train tomorrow night and arrive in the city our girls are in Tuesday morning.  LOTS of traveling for sure to get to Sarah and Sydney, but oh, sooooooooo worth it!


Jason had an especially fun time on all the flights.  He is currently in pilot training and doing lots of online flight simulator training right now.  He knows so much about flying planes and everything that goes along with general aviation.  He took lots of paperwork with him on the plane and kept up with every leg of the flight, giving Jeff the play-by-play, aviation style.  


There was a man sitting across the isle from Jeff who kept looking over at Jason every time he was talking to Jeff about the logistics of the flight.  Turns out, this man was a professional pilot just getting back from a long stretch of flying in Alaska.  He was VERY impressed with Jason's aviation knowledge and talked to Jeff about how refreshing it was to hear Jason's passion as he talked!  

Jason is 13!  

Way to go, Jason!  Keep up the hard work and you'll be flying before you know it!!

Trip 2 has begun!

Our original flight was scheduled to be in Newark, NJ around 3:00pm today but Lady Irene has come to town so we had to scramble to try to get different flights yesterday.  Eldon, our travel agent, was not too sure that he could find three seats on such short notice, as Jeff needed to be on a plane to EE in less than 24 hours.  

After doing an extensive search with no results, Eldon did one more search and he said 4 seats "miraculously opened up right before my eyes"  and was able to book 3 of them for our crew.  This new flight plan did not go through the Eastern seaboard, all 3 seats were sitting together and one was on the isle...which is GREAT for my 6'5" husband to stretch out his legs!  Isn't God so amazing!!!  AND, the new flights were cheaper than the original....GO GOD!


So off to EE to get our daughters we go!!!!!


Sydney and Sarah should be in their Daddy's arms TUESDAY!!!  That day is affectionately called "Gotcha Day" in the adoption world because it is the official day we get to take custody of our girls.  GOTCHA!


Then, the girls will arrive HOME on Sept. 3 and be welcomed into *my* arms for the very first time!  I cannot wait!!!!!

Two words......Hurricane Irene!

Jeff is scheduled to fly out of here Saturday morning and arrive in Newark, NJ Saturday around noon on his way to EE to get Sydney and Sarah.  Hurricane Irene has other plans for travelers evidently.  We are having to cancel our flights and who knows when he will be able to fly out.  I'll call our travel agent, Eldon, in the morning and see what he can do to get Jeff around this hurricane.  

This just stinks!!!!


Please pray our travel agent can come up with another route to get Jeff to Eastern Europe.  He has to be over there by Tuesday because that is the day he can legally take custody of our girls and it takes about 36 hours of travel to get to the city our girls are in.


Ok, leaving this in God's hands now!

There are Two Less Orphans in this world today!!!!!!

The judge said YES!  

Introducing:   

OUR DAUGHTERS 

Sarah June

 Sydney Grace

SISTERS!

Sydney and Sarah playing with the blankets their Great-Grandmother June made!

We picked the name Sarah June after my mom and my grandma...June!  We picked the name Sydney Grace because we just love that name!  Two perfectly beautiful names for two perfectly beautiful little girls!!!

Thank you all so much for holding us up in prayer!  God certainly moved mountains for our family and we will forever be grateful.  God is so incredibly good!!  


After the 10-day wait is over and the US Embassy visits are completed, Sarah and Sydney will be coming HOME.  They will arrive in *MY* arms Sept. 2!!!  

Oh, how I cannot wait to hold my girls!!!!

Court is tomorrow...please say a prayer for us.

In 24 hours, Jeff will stand before a judge and ask to be allowed to adopt Sydney and Sarah.  Please pray that the judge will agree and let the girls become a part of our family.  The exact time of court will be 9:30am in-country time which is 1:30am my time, CDT, early Friday morning, Aug 19.  

We love Sarah and Sydney so much.  

Is today Groundhog Day?...day 15!

I'm just kidding, but if you have ever been through an international adoption, you know exactly what I am talking about!!  There comes a point after about two weeks in-country where the days start to run together and look something like the movie "Groundhog Day".  That is not saying that each visit is becoming mundane...no, not at all....each visit is still very special and priceless.  It's just the day-to-day routine becomes very similar to the one before it and the one coming next.  But, oh, what a blessing each visit is!!  Getting tiny little hugs, grins from ear-to-ear under chopped-off bangs,  blown kisses, and sad faces when each visit is over.  Priceless indeed!

Sydney

Sarah

 

Daddy with Sydney

Big sisters having fun being silly

Little sisters having fun being silly

The orphanage does not allow visitors on Sunday, so Jeff, Rachel and Holly took the opportunity to run down to The Sea of Az*v, which is about 1.5 hours away.  This sea is a part of the Bl*ck sea and is the most shallow sea in the world with the deepest depth being only 46 feet.  The water is very murky and full of industrial runoff so swimming is highly discouraged.  The girls found LOTS of sea shells and had a wonderful time walking the beach and seeing the sights. 

Eating dinner after visiting The Sea

Until Jeff gets through court on Friday and the girls are legally ours, it is advised not to reveal on this public blog exactly where everyone is.  It just protects the girls' identity until they become full-fledged Hannons!  That is why I never name the girls country, or their city, or even "The Sea" that they visited.  Thanks for understanding.

Settling in...and a bang trim!....Day 12

The daily visits to the orphanage are going very, very well.  Everybody looks forward to the visits each day.  Sarah and Sydney are full of energy and love to play together.  They get so excited when they see Jeff, Rachel and Holly coming for them and they get really sad when it is time for their visit to be over.  Bonding already!!!!  What an answer to prayer!!!

Somebody was given a little bang trim overnight :-0    I'm sure the nannies were just trying to be sweet and freshen up Sydney's hairstyle.  It's the thought that counts...right?!?

Bangs grow back!

We have a court date!!!.....day 10

Yep, you read that right. God moved that big ol' mountain and paved the way for a quick court date to boot! August 19th at 10:00am...Court is in session!

We were assigned a judge yesterday and she took all day today to review our case and make sure all of our paperwork was in order. It was. Then around 8:00pm local time today, she had her assistant call our facilitator to give us the good news about court. Our facilitator was "shocked" that the judge would even agree to hear our case and double "shocked" that our court date was scheduled in just 10 days instead of the usual 3-6 weeks! Amazing! I LOVE it when God shows off!!!


Jeff and the girls will stay in-country until court and then come home during the 10-day wait. (There is a 10 day waiting period after court to give time to protest the courts decision) Please pray nobody contests the decision. Sarah and Sydney need to come home to us. They have waited almost 4 years for a family. NOBODY has ever came to visit them, not once, in almost 4 years.... until Jeff, Holly and Rachel came Aug. 5th.


Please pray the judge and prosecutor will agree to let us be Sarah and Sydney's mommy and daddy. We would be so honored to call them our daughters! They already are in our heart.


Here are some pictures from today's visit. Sydney's cough is gone so she was allowed to play outside. Jeff did not know it is a BIG no-no to let children sit directly on the ground in this particular country because it is believed sickness will come.   Oops!  One of the nannies ran over to him with a blanket and told him to have the girls sit on it instead. Lesson learned!  Sure hope Sydney's cough doesn't return tomorrow ;-)  All of the pictures below were taken right before the nanny gave Jeff the blanket.

Enjoy!!!

The orphanage