Day 2 Visit and History Lesson

We had a very long, but fun and educational day today! Of course, we started at the orphanage and saw our angel! She was in a great mood and responds very well to anyone that will feed her! So they give the bag of pretzels to me and I am her new best friend! They are trying to teach her to say mama and dada, but since I can't understand and she can't really talk that part is not going as well! No hard feelings, I really wasn't expecting her to start depending on us for much! That will take time! Plus there is going to be such a gap between this time and next time, I will be super happy of she recognizes us then! So after feeding her lunch our translator/attendant took us into the mountain where there is a Church built in 1012. It has 2 additions onto it. One in the 1200's and one in the 1700's. The painting inside is incredible and it is beyond intersting to see how the artist viewed Jesus and the saints at that time. Wow. I bought a book so I can show everybody! Then we went to the history museum and saw things they have been finding in graves as they built modern buildings. Some of these things were from 6,000+ years ago. It was incredible that these things have been saved. They had a collection of pure gold bowls and glasses that had been buried with a king that, she said, travels around the globe because it was such a rare find! It really was neat and I am not that much into museums!!!

We returned to the orphanage to visit for the afternoon and played in the tiny room for awhile, then we were able to go outside again! I will probably sound like I am repeating myself everyday, but this is the routine. It was nice, she gave us hugs and kisses when we left and made me feel even more guilty that when Friday comes we are going to have to leave her there. 

We ate dinner at Leo's pizza again because it is the only place right next to the hotel. We haven't tried the hotel restaurant yet, maybe tomorrow! We then headed out to the mall to check that out! I got a couple of things I can't mention because they may be for people reading this:) 

I am hoping tomorrow we can go back downtown for some souvenir shopping! Thank you so much for all the love and prayers you are sending this way! I find such comfort in them!!  Until tomorrow.....

The snail house is used for a daycare or preschool. Matt knows more of the history but he fell asleep already so I will have to update later!

Half way? - Day 3

What? Half way through the week? We had a great day today! The morning was beautiful and we spent it outside. Did I mention how much she loves to swing... I mean like 30 minutes at a time! At least, right now, we have nothing better to do than swing!! She had lots of her friends out today with us. It is so interesting to watch the children together. They compete for everything, from toys to food! So, it may take awhile to teach her that she will no longer need to do that when we eventually get to take her home!

We spent a little time souvenir shopping today. There is not the abundance of souvenir shops here, so it has been a little difficult to find what we want. Apparently, B is very known for rose (oil, lotion, perfume, everything!) however, pure rose oil is VERY expensive! We have found a few things for the kids and I am trying to find things to give N over the years. Things are not as cheap as you would think so I am having trouble here also! But I have found a few small things. 

In the afternoon we went back to the orphanage and visited again. However, it was raining so going outside was not an option. This is horrible, because the room we get to visit in is TINY!! Like maybe 6'x8'. It the size of a nice bathroom, with a bench and a small table and a few chairs. So not much room to do anything. Ugh. We ended up going up and down stairs and chasing her through the hallway. 

I really hope and pray the weather is better tomorrow! I think we get to sign the papers verifying that we accept Natalie as our daughter! That will be so exciting!!! It will be so so hard to leave her here on Friday! Not thinking about it yet!

OMG. Forgot to tell about something I saw for the first time! Remember that I am easily amused! Apparently, a hundred or so years ago someone brought 100 Redwood Trees to B and planted them and they have continued to grow in the mountain!

I know you are jealous!

Here are some pictures from today!

Oh and look what I finally found! Maybe not one every corner, but at least on one!!!

The BIG Day! -Day 1

I'm glad I didn't know what I was expecting today, because I could never have been right! So I left my mind open to pretty much any and every scenario! So here is how it went down…

Somewhat nervous of the unknown, was how it started. We met out translator at our hotel and she took us to the orphanage. We walk almost everywhere. (Many blisters!) She introduced us and we were taken to a VERY small room with some old mostly broken toys. They talked to us a minute about her physical history and development. They say she is practically perfect in every way. This is expected as they don't really want us to know anything that might be wrong. We will get her thoroughly checked once home! Then they brought her in. As a normal three year old she saw toys and we didn't exist!! LOL But once we started showing her some things and giving her food (who doesn't like someone with food!) she started warming up! It was beautiful out so we went outside for quite a while and played. She loves to swing. She let us hold her and she seemed to enjoy herself. Once back inside they brought her lunch and the caregiver helped me help her eat! That was great!! Then it was her nap time so we went to eat lunch.

In the afternoon we went back and had to stay inside because the weather turned. The room was so tiny that we lasted for about an hour in there and she got sick of it. She did however discover my phone and enjoyed the baby app i have on there for about 30 minutes. She also enjoyed the link blocks they had. Then we chased her around halls and stairs for about an hour. I can't say that was my favorite part. By that time her primary caregiver was with us so we didn't exist again! No food for bribing her to like us!! LOL

Adoption is such a hard thing. We are SO SO excited to have her and give her every opportunity to thrive (and she will). And at the same time, she loves the ladies so much that take care of her now. They are going to be so sad to part each other. They, of course, want her to have an amazing life, even if they are sad for her to leave them. She will not be able to understand why we are taking her away from the only home she has ever known. We can only pray for her and for us. That we may form quick bonds and that we can comfort her. I don't even want to think about how we will get her back to the US. We have a couple of months before we cross that bridge (or ocean)!

Here are your pictures of Day 1!

If you have food I will go anywhere!

We see kids all over with this rolling toy

more food

and more food

They must have thought she was going to freeze. It was 65 and she had on a winter coat two layers of clothes and a hat!

stylin

she thought I needed food (evidently she did not notice that I did not!

Our hotel (girls wanted a picture. We are in one of the towers so our room is like a triangle!)

Anyone there? 

did not take much to get her addicted!

Don't even try to take this away!!!!

A promise is a promise

I promised so many people that I would post everyday. We get to meet N tomorrow!! Less than 24 hours! I can't even get my arms around that! What an incredibly gracious God we have to get us this far! And a ton of support, that He has brought into our lives. It is so overwhelming. Thank you doesn't touch it!

Now I will focus on what we did today…

I slept for 15 hours last night, after being up for 24 straight hours to get here. I knew I was exhausted, but geez! Luckily when I got up it was 8 am here and I was ready to go for the day! Good thing to because the first thing we did was go on a walking tour of the city! It was so interesting and really was a crash course on the history of the country and a chance to see places that we probably would not have seen. We also saw many places to shop along the way, so we now know where to go back to later this week. They have a mineral spring here that they have built a collecting system around, so water flows 24/7 and people just bring their jugs down and fill up. It is, obviously, as pure of water as you can get so they collect it, take it home, cool it down, and drink it. No water filtrations or anything. It has no smell, and just taste fresh… but is quite warm if you try to drink it straight out of the spickit. There are many churches, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish, so it is quite a diverse city. The history is so rich, the city is built in layers, kind of. The things the Romans built are pretty low. As a matter of fact, they have been slowly uncovering it since they built their metro. Then a layer of the Ottomans, and a layer of the Russians, until todays modern buildings.

We ate breakfast at our hotel, where they have a VERY nice buffet set up. I thought the food was wonderful…. Matt was afraid he may not eat for a week! LOL We ate lunch at a very cute little restaurant that was authentic and this time we both thought the food was great! We both had different chicken dishes.

Here are some pictures…

What the????

There are lions everywhere

Mosque

Such neat architecture. Needed pic of it!

More things with lions

Old Church, unused now

Roman Ruins

More Roman Ruins

McD's EVERYWHERE!

Old Bath House, being renovated

Mineral water spring

Government building

Government building

Roman Highway between Constantinople to  somewhere (I can't remember)

Remnants of Roman wall that enclosed the city

Where the President is

Oldest building in city, old mosque turned museum

Tradition to have these little bracelets and hang on first trees to bloom

Russian Church under renovation

Cathedral- the inside was BEAUTIFUL!

More Cathedral

This guy….ya

Lunch

Into the Great Unknown

The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1 NIV)

Who ever thought this day would get here? Certainly not me! To think we have been waiting and filling out paperwork, and sending money for over a year now! Wow. We have been through so much in this year. And now the day is here, we finally leave to meet our angel! I don't know if I can fully get my arms around it. What will she look like now? We haven't seen a picture of her except what they gave us a year ago! Will she warm up to us while we are there? I mean, we do have phones and in one of the videos that is how they were getting her to walk, so I guess we have that going for us! How hard is it going to be to leave her there after spending a week with her? I'm not even going there yet! 

None of this even touches my fears of leaving my country to go to a part of the world that hasn't exactly been peaceful! Luckily where we are going is safe, but it is strange to think how close we will be to where it is not safe!

Will we get in the right lines at the airports? Will people in the other countries be able to communicate with us? We will have a translator with us when we visit N, but not when we explore the city. 

I want to thank everyone for praying for us as we take this epic trip! I will have plenty of time to spend in prayer also as I know only God has control of this! We are only trying to follow where he is leading us. The verse I used in this post will be repeated over and over in my head as I get myself on the airplane to fly over an entire ocean to meet a daughter that was born over 3 years ago! But God knew, this was always His plan! And this is His timing! 

I will post daily to let you know everything we do! And I hope to have pictures Monday! Luckily we will be 6 hours ahead of you all so you will get photos early!!

God bless you all and thank you for all the support you have given us over this last year! We are almost there!!

The Perfect Plan

Gods plan is something that we, as humans, question constantly. It is perfect and it is all done in His timing. We are reminded pretty regularly as obedient Christ followers that it is not our job to assume or to make our own plan. I always imagined bringing N home and getting pictures with the family. Celebrating together and introducing her to everyone. That was suppose to include Bobby. He was our inspiration from the start. It is because of him I know there is a better life for her than an institution. I don't want to act like I did not know this was a possibility, but at the same time I thought I knew the plan. However, Gods plan is bigger than me. Bobby always told me he was an Angel, and he is. He told me how much he loves Jesus and now he has got to meet Him. He always told me when he died he will be our guardian and now he will fulfil that promise. Two weeks before we go to meet our N for the first time. I have no doubt about this, God has called him to be our guardian angel. Not just Matt and I as we travel, but also as we start our new family journey. The thing is Bobby is everyone's angel. His love was limitless on Earth and now reaches from Heaven to every life he ever touched. And there are more than can be counted because he didn't know a stranger! My tears are not for a life lost, because there was no lose. My tears are of gratitude that I was blessed enough to have known Bobby. To have hugged and kissed him. To have been one of his "sweetie pies". There will never be a greater distinction. 

Here we GOOOOOO!

I have waited a couple of days to post this because I have been answering so many questions on Facebook and such. It has given me more direction for posting  in the blog and has given me time to come up with the best way to express my feelings!! Everyone now knows, WE. HAVE. TRAVEL. DATES. The plane tickets are purchased, the hotel room is reserved, some gifts for the orphanage are bought. This is happening! OMG, it is so real now. There really is a little girl, and she really does need us to come save her and we really are going to do just that! And our lives really are going to totally change. For the better. We have a great God and He has not led us here to forsake us. This is for real! 

On a more somber note. I have talked about Uncle Bobby when I first started this blog. He has shown me I can do this. I can handle this. Grandma did it for 64 years and I can do it to! Grandma will still be here to help me get started. However, the possibility of Bobby being here is looking dimmer all the time. Because of Bobby I know there is a light in Down Syndrome kids that no other human being possesses. I know there is a faith in Down Syndrome kids that never questions our great God and His great plan to bring us to His side. I am not negligent of the temper or the potential for hard times. But I am hopeful to find a strength I didn't know we had. I am hopeful that, even if Bobby doesn't ever meet Natalie, he will surely be just as much her angel as he will be ours. He promised and he said Jeaus verified this to him. Who am I to doubt? 

We have most of the things we need. And we have resources that we are very grateful for. The total cost for this adoption is going to be around $35,000.00. We got about $1000 from our garage sale and Amy Mansur did a fundraiser for us and we got about $300! Jenny Voigt did a fundraiser for us and I was able to get some Christmas presents so that we could save some money! We have gotten a couple of random donations that we have been so thankful for. And we still have a ton of shoes to get rid of and collect money for!

I want you to know that we also have a link. It is https://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/help-us-go-get-natalie/118494

This is for traveling and supplies! There are several things we will need for Natalie. Medical costs, a bed, a stroller, clothes, etc. the list is long! I am excited to provide more for her than she could have dreamed of in an orphanage. And if you are moved to help in any way I just want to give you that opportunity. For Amy, Jenny, Heather, Susan, and anyone else that has provided support or will provide support I am going to make a blanket that has everyone's name sewn into it. Pictures to come:) But I want Natalie to know that bringing her home isn't something that just Matt and I did, but rather something we did as God's family, together. To make one less orphan!!