Life With Logan.....: May 2009

Legacy of an Adopted Child

"Once there were two women, who barely knew each other. One is in your heart forever, the other you'll call mother. Two different lives, shaped to make yours one. One became your guiding star, the other became your sun. The first gave you life, and the second taught you how to live it. The first gave you a need for love, and the second was there to give it. One gave you nationality, the other gave you a name. One gave you the seed of talent, the other gave you an aim. One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears. One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears. One gave you a family, it was what God intended for her to do. The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you. And now you ask me, through your tears, the age old question through the years. Heredity or environment....which are you a product of? Neither my darling...neither, just two different kinds of love". - Unknown

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Please Pray

We just wanted to let everyone know what has been going on with our adoption lately. Tuesday night, we received a phone call from our caseworker at Gladney with some sad news. Alex's birth mother has come back for him. Because this is now occurring and most court systems will do what they can to keep parents and children together, Alex is no longer available for international adoption. We are of course devastated becuase we have come so close to getting him, but anyone who knows anything about adoption knows that nothing is final until it is final. This of course does not happen often (Gladney told us we are only the second case in 15 years that they have had this happen to), but it does happen and it is now just a part of our story. There is nothing anyone could have done to prevent this or to know that this was going to happen. Alex had been in the orphange for about 18 months and his mother never once tried to get him back. Everyone who we have been working with at Gladney and in Russia is heartbroken over what is happening to us and doing all they in making us a priority to find a new referral. Even though we are "grieving" right now and are shocked that this has happened to us, deep down we know and believe that EVERYTHING happens for a reason (as we have said all along). There was a reason Alex was brought into our life for this short time - to show us the love that a parent can have for a child. There was a reason that there was a hold up with sending our final paperwork to Russia for our court date - we weren't meant to be Alex's parents and God has bigger and better plans for us. There is a reason he has been taken away from us - to make us stronger, to bring us closer together as we are going through all of this and to never give up on our journey to our child. We know that many (or probably all) of you who are reading this have already fallen in love with Alex, as we have, but there is another child out there that is meant for us and for you to love. We will definitely keep you all posted as things change or as we hear news. Right now, we just ask for your continued prayers and support (as you have given us all along) and some "private time" as we continue to get through this ourselves. We love you all!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Poison Ivy, Funeral, Shower, Room, Still no news

As you can tell by the title of this post it has been a busy couple of weeks. Per our last post, we were still waiting for our paperwork. And that is where we still stand...but we are a little further along. We received our homestudy update in the mail yesterday. We were excited because that meant we were one step closer to sending everything off. After talking with our agency, we decided it would be faster if we drove the documents to Richmond ourselves to be authenticated (one final seal) and then just send the documents directly to them. So, we were ready to do that on Wednesday, when we received an email to wait because the salaries that they had in our homestudy report didn't match our employer letters. SOOOO....we have to wait for them to fix it, send us a new one and then go to Richmond to get them authenticated. Needless to say, we are a little frustrated and growing impatient. But, as we have said all along, there is a reason for everything and our trip to get our son will happen at the perfect time.
Amidst all of this chaos, Dennis got poison ivy, Nicole went to Texas for Grandmother Hall's funeral, now Nicole has poison ivy and Mary Ellen (Dennis' mom) threw us a wonderful shower on Saturday. Alex got some cute stuff to add to his room....which we are ALMOST done with. The only thing we have left to do is stain the glider and cover the cushions and then it will be done. So, in some ways we are progressing, but still not fast enough in our eyes. We will keep everyone posted as we hear more news. Enjoy the photos of Alex's room and the shower :)