Odds and Ends

It's final, today we picked up the babies passports and visa's. They are officially ready to go!!!
Here are some photo's from the last few days.
Today we walked to Red Square and spent time walking around. We went into the big big mall and could hardly afford to even look at the stores. The first childrens store we went into was Armani....... I really like a pair of shoes for Varvara but they were just a little over my price limit. They were $300 and then we were going to buy my niece a pair of fur boot for christmas and well those were over our price limit too, $600!!! Then after that we went into another store so my mom could buy a scarf for a women she works with..... $433 for the scarf. After that we decided we were window shoppers. I though about asking "Where is you Walmart, I can pick up a shirt for around $5"  I did manage to find one thing in  cute little store, it was a pair of barrettes for Varvara. I will get a photo tomorrow with them in her hair.
So as for the drama of the day, we were pick pocketed by some punk kid. He did get away with my money but not my wallet. I was walking in front of my mom and she had a group of young kids behind her maybe between the ages of 14-16 and when i turned around I notice they were really close to my mom. I approached the young man and he hid in the middle of about 8 girls so I plucked him out of the middle. I started yelling at him "You took somthing! Did you take something?!" at this time I notice none of the girls were helping him out so I grabbed him and told him "Give me it back!, Give me what you took!" He then handed me my wallet unfortunaltally he had taken the money out and when he saw me look in the wallet he took off.. I almost grabbed him but I had gloves on and he slipped out. Lucky for him I did open a can of you know what!!! I was glad I did let go because my wallet had two credit cards in it. And lucky for us there was only about $300 total in it the rest of my money was in the apartment.
Anyway everything else is going great. The babies are doing awesome. Varvara is starting to see what she can get away with. She has been throwing things at the computer and hitting it if it is open and when I tell her "(no) Nyet" she laughs. So I have been putter her in the baby bed which is about 3 feet away from me. She usually cries but stops quickly. Matvey is just this cute little guy who loves to be held and he loves being in the baby wrap.  He was in it for four hours today as we walked around Moscow and even when we got in the street fight LOL!!

Here are some photo's from the last few days adn I will try and get videos downloaded (they take hours to do and they should only take about a minute) I promise I will work on them.



Inside the Kremlin, four monts ago Jason and I were
standing in this same spot. See the star on top
of the clock tower?

Exit out of the middle of Red Square

Us standing in front of Saint Basil. We did go all the way up because there
was contruction going on. I think they were getting ready for Christmas.

Lunch at Chili's

"Ooooo I think I like Chili's"

This was a beautiful little church.


Matvey really isn't sad here this is just how he looks in almost
every photo. The flash is just too bright.

Varya's first sucker. And yes Amy H. they are all organic with
cane sugar. ;) and she loved it!

Matvey and Varvara are super good sleepers. The sleep 11 hours with
out waking up. 9:00 is movie time for me and mom :) 


Grandma and Matvey hanging out.



Videos tomorrow I promise!
It's movie time!

Posted in: on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at at 1:06 PM 2 comments  

Toe Joes

The sweetest things ever and I have such a sweet story to go along with them.

Matvey's

I absolutly love baby toes, we call them "toe joes"
Toe Joes deserved to be kissed
They need lotion rubbed all over them just before you play peek a boo with them. But you must understand in the orphanage Toe Joes rarely see the light of day, not even outside of a shoe :(
It is so bad that the first time I took Varvara's shoe off she cried big crocodile tears.
But not on this day!
On this day when Varvara saw me playing peek a boo with Matveys little teeny tiny feet her eyes lit up.
Yep, these eye's
Dark brown almond shaped eyes, they melt your heart each time you look into them.



Varvara proceeded to take off her socks with delight. She laughed as she wiggled her toe joes.
She did not let me touch them at first.
Not one little rub, no lotion and of course no peek a boo.
But today
Her toe joes felt the joy of lotion
the joy of peek a boo
and the joy of love.
Baby Toe Joes deserve all these things
and now......
Varvara's toe joes are bare as can be. Now she likes to take off her own socks and shoes to set her
toe joes free!

Varvara wears size 4 shoe :)


Posted in: on Sunday, November 13, 2011 at at 3:01 AM 0 comments  

Hanging Loose

Mom and I are having fun getting to know the babies. Funny thing is they seem like they have been mine forever. They both are doing very well. Matvey has really started to show his personality. I guess you could say he was in culture shock ;) He is so silly and talks and talks and talks... he's like his mama. Varvar is the sweetest little thing. She loves to be held, and is very affectionate. This morning while i zipped up her jacket she leaned over and kissed me (melt my heart). She has been letting me rock her to sleep everynight. Today we headed out to the streets we are staying in a beautiful area of Moscow. Here are just a couple of pics while we were out and about today. We will take many more we still have 6 days left. Videos are being down loaded right now so give me a bit and I will post them back on this post at the bottom. for some reason they are taking a bit to download.
Enjoy!


NIGHT VIEW FROM OUR APARTMENT

MOM AND VARVARA IN FRONT OF THE EMBASSY. THERE IS JUST SOMETHING ABOUT SEEING
THAT AMERICAN FLAG WAVING.

RIGHT OF PASSAGE

NOT SURE WHAT THIS BUILDING IS BUT IT IS
BEAUTIFUL.

ATTEMPT OF SELF PORTRAIT :)

MATVEY HAD MCDONALDS TOO!

VIDEOS!!!!



Posted in: on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at at 11:27 AM 3 comments  

VIDEOS and day one

I have lots more but here is a start.

Although I am running on little sleep things are going well.  Of course I have one big prayer request. Due to communication we did not have one of our documents for the US Embassy so Jason had to express mail it yesterday. It is expected Monday in Moscow....... please pray it makes it here. Our flights are scheduled for Friday 18th. It will cost $600 to change them and another $165 for each additional night in the apartment.

Today Varvara and Matvey woke up around 8:00.Varvara slept well but so much for Matvey. He never came to a full wake but he got on he gets up and rocks about every 30 minutes or bangs his head on the bed :( , his own little way to get comfort.  Each time he started I rolled him on his back and rubbed his belly, and he soon would be sleeping again. It has been the same for nap time, poor little guy never fully stays asleep. As for our day,we ate breakfast and headed out on the town. The weather is not too cold and the fresh air felt so good. We went to the market and got some food. It was in a nice indoor mall but instead of looking we decided to head back since the kiddos needed lunch and clean diapers. :)
And I am still so tired. Hopefully the next couple of days I will catch up on rest. So far Varya has been very easy and so happy to just be hanging out. As I type this she is sitting on the bed playing with her doll, she has been doing it for 2 hours, LOL!! She is super content with anything you give her. And did I tell you how smart she is. She knows all the hand gestures to "Patty Cake Patty Cake", so cute. Matvey is getting more and more comfortable with me. He has only cried a few times but I think it was because he his mouth with a toy. :(  Ok I am off to play with the babies.

MORE! ENJOY!



Posted in: on Thursday, November 10, 2011 at at 8:12 AM 0 comments  

GOTCHA!!!!!

So  I know the only stinkin thing you want to see it photos and videos. I know this because that's all I want to see when I go to a "Gotcha Day" blog post :)
Stories soon to come.
As for now, I have our babies and it wasn't until 9o'clock that I could sit and enjoy them. I don't know what I would of done without my mom. She has been a saving grace. Hoping tomorrow we can head out and see the city. She deserves it.

What do you mean were going home? What is home?



Yeah Matvey it's Gotcha Day! We are free!!!


And the best part is we get to hang together for the rest of our lives

Really? Seriously?



First bath.... wasn't in the plans but Varvara has a cold and I changed a dirty
diaper 4x in 1.5 hours. YULK and Stinky she needed a bath. She cried at the begining and
when I washed her hair but other than that she liked it.
Oh and she loves to brush her hair. She was brushing it as she layed in bed.
She layed down from 8-9:30 and didn't fall asleep until I rocked her. She is so
sweet.
and as for Matvey.... What can I say? he has the most gentle spirit. He played in bed and then just layed down and went to sleep. Our hotel in Tver is just one big bed. I will post photos tomorrow so you can see it. The play area is the bed.  Oh as for the bruse that will show up by tomorrow right in the middle of his forhead... don't ask if he was unsupervised on the super bed.

The bright lights from the camera make him look like this. He says "It's too bright and you have taken enough!!"

I will tell you about gotcha day tomorrow right now I am running on about 6 hours sleep since Monday and of course no time to eat today so by time it was dinner time I didn't feel good enough to eat more than a few bites of rice and of course COKE!!


Irena, Varvara's doctor, Me, Varvara, Orphanage director and of course Boris :)

They all said good bye and off we went. Sorry no great gotcha day photos. We were in a rush and Boris almost
didn't let me take this photo and I was not happy with him. He was rushing me as I was rushing Varya to get her snow
pants and coat on. She wanted to do it herself but Boris kept sayng we have to go right now. We had 1 and half hours to
take a 2.25 hour trip. We made it in 1.5 hours.
Same for Matvey, not many photos. I am disappointed but it is what it is. We were at his orphanage for about 15 minutes adn off we went. He doctor did come and say good bye, she hugged adn kissed me and wished us luck. His nanny was holding back tears as she kissed his hand goodbye.


So I promise videos and more photos tomorrow. Right now I am sitting in the dark as our two little blessings sleep and ...... SNORE! oh no! I guess no sleep again.
I will go try and work on videos.
Sorry for mispelled words I am typing in the dark and when you spell check in Russia every word is spelt wrong.









Posted in: on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at at 1:50 PM 3 comments  

For all the World to Hear

God has been telling me all long that our journey is not about us there is so much more in store. I believe it is more than my human side can comprehend. He has also told me to share everything, not just the big stuff but the little stuff too. So I can not get on a plane without sharing with all of you what happened to me last night. I will have to go back just a bit over the past week or so. I had posted long long ago that God had made a promise to me and it was that we would have all the money we needed when we needed it and not to worry about loans and debt and to tell you the truth it took me  along time to believe it. Way back in our journey I started to see that God really does hold true to His promises not just about the money end. So we were fully funded in April after our benefit concert. We were fully funded to bring Varvara home; remember we didn't commit to Matvey until Mothers day; we would need another 13k to bring him home. So after we committed to him we started fundraising again. We raised what we needed in just a couple of months. Fully funded again and trust me it felt so good, I was so humbled by Gods love. Little did I know it is so much more love than we know or can even understand. Sorry this is long but the details are important for you to see the whole picture. After our first trip and spending more than we thought on transportation and finding out our medical exams would cost us and extra $300 a piece I knew we would be short and also we had three trips not 2 and that adds another $1000. So needless to say we were short by $2000. So I prayed and posted on my blog our needs. God said if you don't ask then they won't know. My complaint to God was "I am tired of asking. I know people will think we are just asking for money. I don't want to ask anymore." It wasn't that I didn't trust God, I just didn't like his ways. Its tough being obedient and doing things that you are so uncomfortable with. I didn't want to ask for more money. Everyone has been so generous and I just could see how me asking for $2000 could be right. Seriously I was feeling selfish we already were blessed with $53,000 how could I possibly ask for more. It didn't feel right. I had read once that if you are going to adopt you need to expect to go into some debt, but it is all worth it to help and child and give them a family. That statement has always stuck into my mind. I thought we can not possibly get all the money we have to at least have some debt but all the while I could here Gods small voice, the promise he told me May 2010, "I will supply all you need, no loans no debt" I had shared that with my husband before we even began this journey. I don't think he ever really believed me until............ last night.
As I was building with legos and watching Mrs. Doubtfire with Keegan and I heard a knock at the door, it was not real late but too late for company to come over I figured it was someone coming to get eggs. I went to the door and a friend of mine was standing with a smile on her face. Now this isn't unusual she always seems to have a smile on her face. She has a way of lighting up a room when she enters; there is an energy about her that I just adore. She starts rambling about not having my phone number and she called but couldn't get ahold of me so she just came over. The funny thing is we have known each other for years and we are far more than acquaintances but never has she just stopped by. She proceeds to pull out her checkbook from her purse, instantly I feel the thoughts coming in "you don't deserve this, she doesn't need to give you this." My friend proceeded to tell me that her husband her talked, prayed and decided they wanted to help. The check was for the amount we needed....$2000. The tears welled up and I didn't have the right words to thank her. She didn't know that inside I was on my knees thanking our God. It was just an hour or so before she came to the door that I had talked with God and with peace in my heart I said "$2000 that's not bad for debt, we will find a way to pay it off but if you don't want us to have the debt God you will have to work that out yourself because I am not asking for any more money, i am done!"  Sometimes I like to think i have all the control in my life and the control of God in my life like I can make things happen by my will. I know you would think I would be over that but it takes many many times to learn my lessons.  So again God has showed me that His Will will be done, no matter if we loose faith and give up. Thank God He never gives up. Thank God his words are true and unchanging.
Thanks for reading and share the news.... Miracles still happen! :)  I am off to the airport in a few hours see you on the other side of the pond!

Posted in: on Monday, November 7, 2011 at at 9:18 AM 1 comments  

Details Details!!

Just a few more days and we will be off for our final trip. I can hardly believe the journey we have been on over the past year and half. Thank you, to all of you who supported our journey emotionally, prayerfully and financially. Thank you for being part of it we would not be where we were at if it weren't for you. Well, actually we would but God would of had to move someone else's heart. ;) We will be able to accept donations through Reece's Rainbow up to the point when we return home with the babies. We did not have enough money for our trip and necessary payments to our agence but we charged over 2K for our flights so we can manage with the cash we have. So if you feel led to help us with the end finances we would be so grateful and if not that's OK too, no matter what I will be getting on a plane on Monday at 6:00 and flying over the North Pole to our babies.
Flight details: this is for my friend Connie :)
Flying Lufthansa
Monday November 8th. Flight # 443 leaves Detroit at 6:20, we arrive in Germany and change over to flight 1446. We will arrive in Moscow on Tuesday at 5:20pm.

Most important details which I will post again near the end of our trip. Our flights to HOME!
Flying United
Flight 965Russia to Washington then change to flight 3786 Washington to Detroit. We arrive home Friday November 18th at 6:30pm. We would love to see you there. My family will be meeting us on the bottom floor where you pick up luggage. We will be in the North Terminal. It will be domestic not International arrival. Not sure if it makes a difference where you pick up luggage.

Here is what will happen for the week.
Tuesday night mom and I will sight see. Although it will be late we will still head out to Red Square and dinner.
Wednesday we will head out to Kashin where Varya is and pick her up. OHHH!!! Yes that was no typo, PICK HER UP!!! Then we will head to Tver to pickup Matvey.
Thursday we will start passport process. We will hang out in Tver until we receive their passports probably Monday.
On Monday we will go to Moscow where we will stay for the week. We will do medical exit exams at the clinic and start US Embassy work.
Tuesday or Wednesday morning we will finish up and receive the babies visa's from the Embassy.
So that leaves Thursday to relax before flying home Friday afternoon. Hoping to go to the zoo with the babies.

We will talk to you on the other side of the world. God Bless!

Posted in: on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at at 6:53 PM 0 comments  

Dang sick and tired

So most of you who have followed our journey know that this has been a path God has lead us on for the past year. You also know that the Lord said we would be fully funded with no debt acquired. If you don't believe in the leading of the Holy Spirit you can keep criticism to yourself. Anyways its been a long road with many ups and downs. God has supplied every dollar we need. It has been difficult to trust God with this matter because I know how precious money is to people and unfortunately sometimes we think it is more powerful than God himself. So let me get to the point right now we are having a dispute with our agency, they say on our next trip we owe our facilitators $880. It is in our fee schedule but it states in our schedule that it is for the expenses of our first and second trip to and from the airport and the fee for all the paperwork for the embassy and the clinic. Our agency is now saying it is not for both trips and we owe it. We were never truly fully funded but I was tired of fundraising I was tired of asking for money. We still needed $1000 for the kids flights. Also we have had to pay double in transportation because Varvara's orphanage is 2.5hours outside of the city, so it added $700 to our fees.I am telling you all of this because there have still been some people asking to donate and I have been telling them we are fine. The truth is we are not fine. Yes, we can charge these fees on a credit card but truly it is the last thing we can afford is another credit card payment.  If we have to we will take a cash advance for the last $2000 but it makes me sick to think of doing it. There have been so many of you who have helped and so many of you who blog. So I am hoping for some help. I am scraping every dollar together just to need less.  I totally understand money is precious to many and of course I understand we all need it but this is the end. No matter what we will bring our babies hom,e no matter if we receive another dollar or not. So if you feel lead to donate believe me it will bring me to my knees but if not please pray for us and the end of this journey. As always we are humbled by your love and support. As I prayed today I could here the Holy Spirit say if you don't ask they won't know. So here I am asking once again. Its all tax deductable through Reece's Rainbow click on the babies photo on the side bar to get to our family grant page. Thank you and many blessings. At this point I am sure you understand every dollar counts even if it is just $5.

Posted in: on Thursday, October 27, 2011 at at 7:17 PM 2 comments  

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