Summertime....

Hi friends & family! Just a quick little update to answer the question "Have you heard anything?". Answer = nothing since our last post! With the timeline we were given, we are assuming that our package is in Russia now and being translated. We emailed Gladney asking if we could get an update on "lil man". We look at his pictures every day and wonder how he has changed since we last saw him. We know a lot of changes occur in the first year and we don't want to miss too many of those milestones! We miss him SO MUCH and can't wait to bring him home!

We also want to thank those of you who have offered to share/give your baby items to us for lil man. Thank you Nicole Ryder for the car seat, Gina for the baby carrier/clothes (all the way from Hawaii) and many more who will be passing down clothes! We definitely appreciate it and know that every little bit helps.

We hope you had fun voting for your favorite name for "lil man". As you see, Logan is the name of choice for most. So, you will have to wait until he is on US soil to see if your vote is what we have decided to name our "lil man"!!

We have been enjoying the summer. These past few weekends have been quite busy - we had a business conference in DC, but got a chance to see the new Gaskill family - yes, Cristin delivered her twins EARLY, and they are doing WONDERFUL!!! It was amazing to see those tiny little lives - just precious. We will be going back to NOVA for the next couple of weekends for Carpenter-King wedding events. Definitely looking forward to celebrating them! And just getting little things done around the house now to make it a smooth transition when we are home for good with our new family.

Lastly, you may have noticed a new addition to the blog titled "Bring lil man home". This is a neat "widget" that I came across while looking on MANY other adoption blogs. Most people have posted it on their blog as a way to help offset the costs of international adoptions. So, why are we posting it, you may ask - for the most part, we have MOST of the money that we need for our final trip (I say most, because we did have to use some of what we had been saving for our unexpected trip for referral #2 and we are saving again now). But, the main reason we are posting it is to help with the donations that we will be asked to give to the baby home. We may be asked to bring shoes, diapers, formula, really ANYTHING. All along our adoption journey, so many people have asked how they can help or let them know if there is anything they can do. I can't express the feeling you get when you walk into a baby home and see all of those children looking up and smiling at you. You want to help ALL of them, but know that right now, you are only there for one. So, this is a way YOU can help - by "chipping in" from our blog. We don't have a certain amount that we are trying to raise and it will only be up until August 15. All payments are done through PayPal and if you don't have an account it is easy to sign up for one! So, if you feel inclined, "chip in" as little or as much as you can. We thank you in advance for your donation and know that a day doesn't go by that we don't thank God for the friends and family he has placed in our lives who support us through their prayers, words of encouragement and relationships. We love you all

It's in the mail....

Hello!!! We are back from a relaxing time at the beach with Dennis' family. We had a great time and got plenty of sun!! We also have some good news to report....our package for court was mailed out on FRIDAY!!!! This is the furthest that we have gotten in the entire adoption process and it just means we are one step closer to bringing our "lil man" home. An estimated time line is: it takes about 1 week to get to Russia, then about 7-10 days to translate before it is taken to Kaluga. Then we wait for when the judge is available to see us. For some reason, as I (Nicole) am writing this it is really hitting me that we will have the child we have always dreamed of in our arms soon. I have known it all along, but it just feels more real now - I don't know how to explain it. Anyways, if "lil man" ever reads this one day, we just want to let him know:

Daddy and Mommy love you so much. We can't wait to have you in our arms again and bring you home. You have no idea how many people can't wait to meet you. You are going to receive so much love from your family and friends and especially your parents. We miss you so much and can't wait to see you again. We just found out that our paperwork is in its way to Russia - which means we are one step closer to you. We just want to let you know that even though you may be scared, leaving the people and places you have known, we promise to take care of you. We promise to be the best parents we can. We promise to give you everything you need. We promise to teach you values and morals to help you grow into a strong young man. We promise to always be there for you. We promise to have fun together as a family. We promise to always support you. But, most of all we promise to love you, no matter what. We love and miss you more each day, lil man!!!

Love, Daddy & Mommy

Off to the BEACH

Hi everyone! We hope you are all enjoying your summer and had a nice 4th of July. We are getting ready to head to the Jersey Shore (Wildwood, NJ) to spend a few days with Dennis' family. We are looking forward to a few days away and just relaxing together!

Just wanted to let you all know that our paperwork is at Gladney and as of Tuesday, they were looking through it and making sure it was ready to be sent to Russia. Remember - we are praying for travel dates at the beginning of August or after September so that we can be here for Ryan & Michelle's wedding - we of course would rather go in August so we can have him at the wedding!!

It looks like a lot of people have put in their votes for what we should name "lil man". The survey program I used only let me put it up for a certain number of days, so if you haven't voted and want to, make sure you vote in the next couple of days. And you will have to wait until we bring him home to find out!! Sorry to keep you in suspense....but it is kind of fun :) Also, today "lil man" is 9 months old!!!! Hope we don't miss too many more "celebrations". Talk to you all soon!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Hi everyone. Well it's been 10 days now since we've left our "lil man" and we miss him terribly. But, we have been busy getting all of our paperwork ready to go to Russia. We had everything pretty much ready, except we were waiting for our police clearance letters to come in the mail (Dennis and I still have NO police record in case you were wondering...ha ha ha) and for them to change a couple of sentences in our homestudy report that were originally for Alex that we didn't need anymore.

So, our police clearance letters came in the mail yesterday and our homestudy agency is overnighting our updated report so we will receive it tomorrow (Thursday). Then we are off to Richmond to get all of our notarized documents apostilled and then FedEx that paperwork to Gladney so they can add it to our package to send to Russia. Then we are both off the rest of the weekend to relax and enjoy the holiday and celebrating the good ol' USofA!

We have also been asked why we keep calling this new referral "lil man" - that is because we are keeping his name a SECRET until we bring him home! So, for fun, we have added a poll in the top right corner of our blog for you to vote what you think we should name him. We both have our favorites, but we thought we would let others, who want, to have some input....so make sure you get your vote in and stay tuned to see if your vote is the name we choose!

So, here is what we need to pray for now - 1) that our paperwork gets to Russia ASAP and translated quickly 2) that "lil man" continues to stay healthy and grow every day we are away from him 3) that we receive a court date soon, so that we are home before Ryan & Michelle's wedding in September 4) we use this "free time" wisely to prepare for our trip, enjoy each other and prepare for the new addition to our family. We have the room pretty much ready to go - I'm still looking for a cherry changing table, a baby carrier, 9-12 months clothing and other infant items - so, if you hear/know of anyone looking to get rid of baby items PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!! I've been a "craigslist stalker" lately and just purchased a BRAND NEW Diaper Genie for $15! I'm all about SMART SHOPPING :) We hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend. Love you all and talk to you soon!