Thankful Thursday!

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners
who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

We are incredibly thankful for all the blessings that continue to be showered upon us.  This will be my last Thankful Thursday post until we get Dariya home sometime in July.  Thankful that you follow our journey, our bloggy friends are wonderful friends!

~Visits from family who spoil us beyond reason!  Seriously was like Christmas around here!  Alayna is STILL calling "OOODEE"  for Aunt Trudy! Thankful they made it back to England safely!

~A great end of the year conference at Alayna's school.  She is a rock star!  But, we kinda already knew that ;)

~New contacts and glasses that came in before we leave!  Yahoo I can see clearly now...(ah you know the rest)

~A week with no therapies so we can enjoy lots of family time before we leave on Tuesday.

~Picnics with daddy.  Of course the lunchbox snatcher strikes again...I pack it and she unpacks it and starts eating.




~Sweet friends who send adapters/converters for EE (Thanks Molly!)



What are you thankful for this week?

Pull on your heartstrings

Cousins play ring around the rosie

We had an awesome 10 days with Jason's family.  Unfortunately, as all vacations end this one had to come to an end too.  It was so hard for us all to say goodbye.   Aidan struggles with goodbyes terribly.  Just being at the airport brought tears to both Jason and I knowing we are leaving Aidan and Alayna next week.

We knew we would probably get the news of our travel date to EE while they were here but, didn't realize it would be so quickly! 
I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the past week trying to get everything organized and ready to go a week from now!

For example, I made a really nice photo book online at Walmart to take with us to show the judge and the orphanage director etc.  We went and picked up a few items and the book and some other pictures we need for the trip and promptly lost them BEFORE getting in the car!  Are you kidding me???

 Jason thought he handed them to me and I couldn't remember having them.  The sweet folks at Walmart I am sure are having a good laugh at the senile, young couple that they watched on video get the pics to the parking lot but never to be heard from again.    UGH, praying the second copy gets here before we travel.

So if you see me this week and I look harried or don't speak please disregard.  My brain is so full it is about to pop!

Here are a few pics of the fun we had with our family while they were here.

Please be praying for us as we organize and get prepared to meet Dariya. 

Please pray for Aidan and Alayna that they will do ok for my parents while we are gone. 

We will continue blogging along our journey to bring Dariya home.  Hope you will be following us and praying for us.

Silly Trudy dresses up like the UPS man!

Barbque Memorial weeekend

We LOVE Aunt Trudy, she showed Alayna how to put on lipgloss!

All smiles with Nannie

Jason's mom, brother and sister

One last picture before they head to the airport

I don't understand...

I have had a lot of questions lately about what the process will be once we are over in EE (Eastern Europe, sorry can't divulge her exact location online until after we are home).   So here is a brief rundown of what life will look life for us.

June 7th we fly out of here and will land in Dariya's country on June 8th (capital city).  June 9th at 11 am (3am central time) we will have our SDA appointment.  This is the State department for adoptions in Dariya's country.  At this appointment will be shown her file, gain a little information about her and officially sign the referral that we are accepting her & hopefully get to trade our picture for a baby picture of her.
On June 10th at 5pm (9 am central) we will pick up our paperwork allowing us to go into Dariya's region and visit her at the orphanage.  As the 10th is a Friday we will probably stay in the capital city until Sunday afternoon./evening and then head the couple hours south to her city. 
Monday morning (more than likely) we will go to the orphanage and meet the director, get information about Dariya (hopefully medical and background info) then meet her for the first time.

 After that we have more paperwork chasing to do.  We will be waiting for a court date in her region (that will officially make us her parents) this court date is taking 2-3 weeks after SDA appointment (prayers for a quick court date).  During the wait for court we will visit Dairya every day as much as the director allows. 
Once we have court Jason is flying home (I might stay or might come home with him), we are weighing our options and prices as the airfare is VERY expensive in the summer (our one way tickets over were $1500).  Jason may return with me or I might stay or return alone to pick her up.

After court there is a 10 day waiting period for Dariya's birth family to object to this adoption.  After the 10 day wait we will be given our "gotcha day" (the day we spring her from the orphanage forever).  We will have to travel to wherever she was born and get her birth certificate and do lots more paperwork chasing while in country. 
Last stop is at the US embassy for a medical for her, getting her visa and passport then once cleared we can fly home.
The overall scenario looks something like this June 9th SDA appointment.
Meet Dariya June 13
Have court in region June 29th (total guess) 10 day wait starts
July 11 gotcha day (total guess)
July 22nd fly home forever! (total guess)

We are praying to have internet over there so we can blog and keep everyone up to date with what is going on.

We ask that you be praying about our travels, transitions for the kids being home with my parents and after Dariya comes home, for court dates to be asap, us to be in country a short amount of time, and for Dariya's transition here.

God has carried us through this adoption in 5 months from the start we should have our girl home.

Thank you for following our journey and holding us up in prayer.

Thankful Thursday

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

So much to be thankful for...

~Our SDA appointment is JUNE 9TH!!!!  We leave for EE on June 7th!

~The great blessings on EE adoptions this week.  The supreme court overturning the earlier ruling and Kirill Davis getting to come home with his family, Judd Hartman given to his family out of an institution, and Anya is now home!

~Fun times with visiting family.  That Jason and family missed the Joplin tornado by an hour and are safe.

~A great year in 2nd grade for Aidan.  They ended the year with Camp Learned a Lot, had tents instead of desks all week and had a family picnic on the last day.  Half day of school today for Aidan then SUMMER! (You know where to find us....at the pool!)

~Sweet photography friends who capture pics like this...and one very sweet little girl who loves her daddy to the moon. 

At church loving on daddy!  Thanks Kerry

What are you thankful for this week?  Share!

Enjoying the British Invasion

Val (Mum)

Garry and Trudy

Jason's mother, brother, Garry and sister in law, Trudy flew in from England this weekend to stay until Memorial day.  They are spoiling the kids rotten and Aidan and Alayna are loving every minute of it.  Trudy has outdone herself with bringing Star Wars Legos and assembling them with Aidan.  Bringing toys for Alayna and playing on the trampoline with the kids.  She will need a holiday when she gets home just to recover!

Jason took Garry and Trudy down to the Buffalo River to go on a rafting trip.  Hoping they don't run into any bad weather!

Aunt Trudy makes Alayna giggle!  And we finally got our safety net up!

Alayna showing off her pretty dress Nannie brought her!

Thankful Thursday

A grateful heart is one that finds the countless blessings of God in the seemingly mundane everyday life.

Anonymous

~Our All for Dariya golf tournament and dinner and silent auction being such a HUGE success.  We are fully funded, meaning between our savings and the donations from our iPad giveaway and All for Dariya day we pray that we have enough to cover Dariya's adoption, (as long as gas prices don't keep rising! =)

~The people that surrounded us and helped us pull off the All for Dariya day!  People we didn't even know came and served dinner!  The people that attended the golf, and/or dinner, our prayer warriors and those that donated to Dairya's fund have blessed us beyond measure.  Thank you hardly seems enough for all the people who have helped us bring Dariya home.

~Aidan was such a trooper all day on Saturday, it was a LONG day for an 8 year old (and this 42 year old LOL) being out at the golf course all day (in 50 degree weather) and then going straight to the dinner and auction until late evening.  He was a blessing and didn't complain once.  He helped where needed and was a delight.

~Alayna's giggle and silliness!

Do you like my hat?

~Beautifully sunny, spring days where we can play at the park and meet daddy for lunch.

~Alayna had her final transition meeting with her early education team that comes to the house, as she only has 6 months left in early intervention before going on to preschool in the fall.  Her report that will be shared with the school was awesome.   

What are you thankful for this week?  Please share one or two things...

Sunny spring day suprises...

Today is a beautiful spring day so Alayna and I packed our lunch to head off to the park. 

As I went upstairs to drop a load of laundry off I came down to find this...

she decided to unpack the lunch and dig in... Pack the lunch take 2, then off to the park.

We chased our shadows for a while until we gave up trying to catch it!

Went up and down the slide, went on the swings, and watched all the other kids running around.  The best part of the day was...

meeting the cutest UPS man ever!   Oh how we love our lunch dates with daddy!