Let the countdown begin

Well, we are definitely in countdown mode! We've been accomplishing a little each day, which we are hoping will alleviate some of the stress as we get closer. We spoke to the agency that issues our visas and they will be ready to mail to us on August 31- so we will receive them in PLENTY of time! We have lil man's suitcase packed just in case they waive the 10 days (if they don't we will just leave his suitcase over there for when we return). We had to make a small change on lil man's ticket - we were originally told to put his Russian name on his ticket because that is the name that would be on his passport. But, after talking with other adoptive parents, the name on their passport is their new name given by the parents. So, Nicole was on the phone with United last night for 1 hour for them to make the change. But, it's fixed and we are sorry that the lovely agent from United knows lil man's name before all of our family and friends. But you will soon ALL know his name :) Thanks for playing along with us....

Nicole returns to work on Thursday. So, she's counting down the days of summer that are left. Today her Mom is coming down for some shopping and Wednesday she has an appointment to visit a pediatrician and maybe 1 more time at the pool! But, it should be a good year and it will be fun to bring lil man to all of the high school games and events!

The donations continue to come in for the orphanage (via checks and PayPal). Thank you again to one and all and we will let you know what we will be asked to give the orphanage. You still have until September 4th if you want to help.

We will continue to keep you posted on everything that is going on. We hope you and your families are doing well. Love you and thanks again for everything you all have done for us.

Flights booked......CHECK

Hi everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your last few days of summer! Not much to update, but we have sent off our visa applications (hoping to receive them in PLENTY of time) and flights are booked!!! Those are both HUGH items to cross off of our list. Now we can focus on our packing lists and preparing for court. Some of our wonderful adoption family friends have given us suggestions on what to expect - THANKS!!

Also, a BIG thank you to the Schaar's for their donation. There's still time if you want to help "lil man's" friends at the orphanage :)

We'll be in touch as we get closer to our trip and receive more details. For now, Nicole needs to get her mind into school-mode and start lesson planning!! Thanks to everyone for your kind emails and words of encouragement. Love to you all.

Lots to do.....

After the exciting news of our court date sank in yesterday, our minds started racing with everything we have to do before we leave. First, we found out our travel dates. We will be leaving for court in Russia on September 11, arriving in Moscow September 12, completing our 8 doctor medical review, court in Kaluga on September 15 and assuming that the 10 day wait will not be waived, we will return home on September 16. We figured it would be better for us to come home during the 10 days so we could both work and save our leave. During our first trip from the 11th - 16th, we will be able to see "lil man" a couple of times, but will not be coming home with him yet. Then we will leave to go back and get OUR SON on September 27 and return October 9. When we return for this trip, we will pick up "lil man" and he will be with us the rest of our stay in Russia. I'm sure there will be more details as we get closer, but that's what we are expecting in a nutshell. Our goal this weekend is to book our flights and send off for our visas (we are going to make sure that we receive them earlier than the DAY we leave - that was too stressful last time).

Nicole starts back to school on August 27. Then we have Ryan & Michelle's wedding. Then school starts - Nicole will be there for the first 3 days, then we will leave for the first trip. We will both return back to work from September 18-25. Then be off for the 2nd trip. Nicole is going to take off the entire month of October and start back to work in November and Dennis is going to take off 2 weeks in October. At least that is our plan for now :)

Thanks to Gina and Lila for their donations! I have also received questions about sending us a check instead of PayPal and that is fine too. Just email me if you would like to do that and need our address. The new deadline is September 4 and ever little bit will help!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, we still have a lot to go through and finalize our adoption of "lil man", but know that everything will work out. We just realized last night that we started this journey exactly 2 years ago. In a way, I can't believe it has been this long, but it is also a blur with everything we have been doing and have gone through over these past 2 years. It's hard to explain, but it's a great feeling to know that the end is getting closer and we will soon be a family - GOD IS GOOD!!!!

We got a DATE!!!!

Yes, you read it right!!! We got a call this morning with a court date of SEPTEMBER 15!! That is all the details we have now, but they will be emailing us with specific travel dates. The good thing is we will be here for the Ryan & Michelle's wedding - the bad thing is "lil man" won't be here for the wedding!!! That's OK...he'll be here for every other celebration in our families for the rest of his life :) We will keep you posted as we get more information, but we just wanted to share that exciting news with you all!

I have also extended the deadline for those of you who would like to donate to the orphanage. Now that we know when we are traveling, we can extend the deadline a little more. Thanks again to Wendi, Erinn and the Bruce's for their generous donations! We know there's got to be more of you out there who would like to help "lil man's" friends!!!!

Thanks for your prayers and support. Love you all.

Where is the time going?!??

Hey everyone! Hope all is well with you and your families! Can you believe it is August already??? Time is just FLYING by!

Anyways, just wanted to answer the famous question "HAVE YOU HEARD ANYTHING YET" with our famous answer of "NO STILL WAITING". But, the waiting is definitely starting to wear on us - it's been almost 2 months since we've seen "lil man" - it's killing us! He will be 10 months on Saturday - we've missed 2 whole months of his life since we've last seen him!!!! But, we know that just means we will cherish every day we have with him once he is ours forever, knowing what it was like to miss him!

Last night, we started going through our packing list of what we have, what we still need to buy and even pulled out the suitcases and put them in his room. We have a lot of things, we just need to get some "essentials" for once we have lil man with us (bottles, formula, toiletries, medicines, bibs, etc).

Also, remember if you wanted to donate to the fund for the items we are giving to the baby home, you must do so by August 15! Thanks to Wendi who made a donation (we are excited to give something to the baby home for your daughter you are waiting to meet) and to Erinn for the items you are donating! You don't know how much they will be appreciated!

We also received a package from our agency the other day with the documents we will need to take to the US Embassy. That was kind of exciting because it was something new and it is EXTREMELY specific (documents must be in the order listed and exactly what is listed). So, we are making sure we have EVERYTHING they ask for so there are no hold ups.

I guess that's about it from us....just trying to keep ourselves busy and prepared because we know once we get the call it's such a whirlwind trying to get everything together! Love you all and we'll continue to keep you posted!!!

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!

Home Sweet Home

Hey everyone. Just wanted to let you all know we are back home. We arrived at Dulles on Sunday 1 hour earlier than we were supposed to and getting our luggage and going through customs was a breeze (much quicker than last time). Then we enjoyed a Father's Day dinner with our families and shared details from our trip. We drove home Monday morning and both went back to work - Nicole is officially on SUMMER VACATION!!!! YEA :) So, what's next - we get our paperwork over to Russia ASAP and wait for a court date. We are hoping it is before the end of the summer - but remember - we aren't in control - just along for the ride! We hope you are all doing well and hope to see/talk to you soon. Love you all!