We Have Dates!!!

We received our dates yesterday morning!!!   We are so excited and we have sooooo much to do.  So much that I don't even know where to begin!

We witnessed a miracle Sunday night and I just have to give God a huge THANK YOU for making my daughter well enough to have her ear tubes placed on Monday morning.  She was literally coughing every breath up until Sunday night.  I prayed for a miracle and after midnight, she did not cough a single time.  I took her to the clinic, her lungs sounded clear so they performed the procedure.  Praise GOD.  I left the surgery clinic completely at peace with everything. 

We got our email yesterday morning with our date to be in "Finn's" country.  We were so excited!  In fact, we were so excited that we locked ourselves out of our house for a few hours! haha.  Not a great scenario.  We called the locksmith and they said it would cost 80 Euro to let us back in.  No thanks.  So I called my friend, Ashley, and hung out at her house until our landlord came home.  Thanks, Ashley!!  Once we made it back into our home, we started dissecting the emails and instructions.   Then, the speech therapist came over for our Little G and she is so impressed with her improvement since the ear tubes were placed on Monday!  She is trying to speak and it's so obvious that she can hear better.  She can respond to a whisper now.  So happy for her and relieved! 

I feel great about the plans that we have made for our daughters.  Big G is excited and looking forward to the plans we have made for her.  I have divided up our time away into sections for her so that she can stay with different people and hopefully that will help the time go by fast!  I have also made goodie bags for her so that she can receive one each day that we are away.  The first goodie bag contains an empty photo album for her to fill, a knock knock joke, and 1 picture of us.  The rest of the goodie bags contain a happy, a photo, and a knock knock joke.  I also recorded an audio book of Judy Moody for her to listen to at night.  I want to do a few more but my allergies are kicking me right now.  Hopefully I can record more soon!  For Little G, I have recorded her favorite songs that she loves for me to sing and read her favorite books.  I will put them on a CD for my mom so that she can play them in the car or at home.   I plan to sleep with a blanket and give that blanket to her when I drop her off at my mom's house.  Hopefully that will soothe her at night.  I made her a photo album to look at and I also made Finn one so that he can get to know his new family during our visits!  On the 10 day wait, I plan to do the same with him with the blanket idea.  Chris and I will sleep with a blanket and leave it with him on the 10 day wait (if the nannies will allow it), so that he won't forget us.   I know that our children will be well cared for and that's a HUGE relief! 

God has brought us to this place and we know that He will work everything out.  It is amazing how God has worked out the kinks for us!!!

We received a $5000 interest free loan from Temple Baptist Church!!  Praise God!
We received a $2500 adoption GRANT from Gift of Adoption!!  To God be the Glory!!

Please pray that our airfare is worked out perfectly.  We will be all over the place in a very short period of time.  It will be madness but I trust that God will work it out perfectly!

We have some t-shirts still available for purchase if anyone is interested!  M, L, and XL are available for $20!  Our blog is printed onto the shirt.  We plan to keep our blog open and share adopting families and orphans who are in need on our blog.  We also plan to blog about our new life with "Finn".  We are so excited to share this new chapter of our lives with y'all!  Thank you so much for your support and prayers!

We will keep y'all updated!!!  Love and Hugs!!!!!

Almost there!

Please Pray!!

WOW. We are literally waiting day to day for an invitation to "Finn's" country. Every day brings hope that we will receive an email from our stateside helper saying that we have a date. We are so excited to be able to put our plans into action and we can't wait to meet him, love on him, and bring him home. HOME. Just that word brings tears to my eyes.

Мы идем к своему новому дому, сын мой.

I need you to send some serious prayers up for us this weekend. My little G needs to have tubes placed in her ears. She has been dealing with speech and walking delays and it has finally been determined that it is her ears causing the delays. The doctor said that she can't get on an airplane without tubes in her ears due to the amount of fluid she has. I believe he's probably worried about a rupture happening and so he scheduled an emergency tube placement for Monday. Yesterday morning, Garridee woke up very congested and if it moves to her lungs, they will not place the tubes. WE NEED THESE TUBES ASAP!! Please, please pray that she will be well enough on Monday morning to have this procedure done. She is currently on an antibiotic and nose drops so hopefully that, along with prayer, will help!! Once we receive a travel date, it's permanent, and there's nothing we can do to change it. We have to be travel ready and it's looking like we will have a 2 week notice before having to be in his country. The doctor said that once she has the tubes, she's ready to go. So please pray!

Day to Day! If we get a date tomorrow, we could actually meet him in 2 1/2 weeks! Can't wait!!!

Why??

I REALLY didn't want to go private with our blog but we have no choice right now.  We need to keep a low profile since we are so close.  I can't really say why, especially here.  Just please pray that we can get our boy home.  Hopefully we will get a travel date this week and can get over there ASAP.

Thank you for hanging in there with us!!  Your support means so much!

It's Quite Possible....

It's quite possible that we will receive our travel dates this week!  Pray hard!! 

If we don't receive dates this week, we will be in the next group...

All in God's timing!!

***AN UPDATE***

Nothing yet as of 3/14.  From here on out, we just wait daily for news on a travel date.  I'll let you know as soon as we get one!

My Dream

What a crazy week!  The hubby had to take a quick trip to the states for a week and the girls and I remained in Germany.  A week is nothing to us.  Chris has been gone for a solid year before...but for some reason, this week was extremely difficult on all of us.  It was so long and tiring.  Both girls did not sleep well, so neither did I. 

After a sleepless night, I was finally able to take a nap on the couch while the baby was taking her nap.  I.Passed.Out. and I rarely ever take a nap.  It was the best nap ever because  I dreamt of "Finn".

But that scares me...

I have guarded my heart and I'm trying to not set myself up for heartache.  I don't want to romanticize my first meeting with "Finn".  I want to go in there with no expectations but that is so difficult.  The closer we get, the more I fall for that little boy.

In my dream, it went exactly as I would love for our first meeting to go.  The nanny brought him to me and I reached my arms out for him and he leaned his small little body towards me to the point that he actually dove into my arms.  I felt the weight of his little body as he wrapped his little arms around my neck.  I remember peering into his sweet little almond shaped brown eyes and kissing those precious little round cheeks.  He felt so wonderful in my arms.  An instant love.  The kind of love that a mother feels the moment that her newborn baby is placed in her arms after a long, hard labor.  He is my son and I felt it.  He is mine.

And that was all. 

I have been praying that God will plant us in "Finn's" heart and that he will know us when we are finally able to meet him.  I believe God can do this.  My God can do anything!  Can you please join me in praying that our "Finn" will know us and that he will come to us willingly?  That he will feel safe with us and know that our love is real?   Your prayers mean everything to us. 

Thank you, God, for allowing me to have such a sweet dream.  You know what I need, exactly when I need it!

To our son, we are coming for you!  We are waiting on the invitation to be issued!  We can't wait to meet you and I pray that we will make YOUR dreams come true!

And The Winner Is!!!!!

First, thank you!!!! We raised $3,340.00!!!

After PayPal fees, each family will receive $1044.10!

This is an amazing blessing!

All winners will be contacted via email...

And the winners are....

Giveaway #1 - 3 winners

-Amazon Kindle Touch -- Larry and Dawn A.
-$20.00 Amazon Gift Card -- Tracey C.
-$20.00 Amazon Gift Card -- Michelle Helf.

Giveaway #2 - 2 winners

-$500.00 -- Michelle Hol.
-$50.00 Visa Gift Card -- Josh & Holly R.

Giveaway #3 - 3 winners

-Tom Cruise Autograph -- Charles S.
-The Parable of Lily by Liz Curtiz Higgs (autographed book) -- Karyn R.
-The Art of Manliness and Manvotionals by Brett McKay (autographed books) -- Sabrina L.

Giveaway #4 - 2 winners

-Oreck Vacuum -- Rosemary M.
-Oreck Rechargeable Sweeper -- Ashley and Evan O.

Giveaway #5 - 1 winner

-Solo Web Design - Gretchen S.

Giveaway #6 - 16 winners

-hand-made pillowcases -- Jessica L.
-8 - 12x12 scrapbook pages -- Karyn R.
-Handmade Cloth Doll -- Jessica L.
-St. Paddy's day tutu - Karyn R.
-Little Miss Tutu Cute $20 gift certificate (there are 5 of these available) - Bri. T, Laurie L, Diane McE, Kathy L, Laurie, L.
-Photo Prints by Jason Thomas -- Karyn R.
-children's white bracelet -- Jessica L.
-sterling silver bracelet with name -- Katie E.
-Adoption wooden sign -- Dawn S.
-"Love the Life you Live" wooden sign - Janee & Michael K.
-Deployment Magnet Set - Jessica L.
-Vintage Star Magnet Set -- Rosanna R.

Giveaway #7 - 5 winners

-Tastefully Simple "It's Got It All" Sampler -- Josh & Holly R.
-Scentsy Plug-in with Scent - Ashley and Evan O.
-$31 gift certificate to Thirty-One Gifts - Shelby Go.
-$100 Pampered Chef Gift Certificate - Nora Mc.
-Juice Plus+ 30 days kit - Lindsey Rh.

Giveaway #8 - KMC ONLY - 4 winners

-Cupcakes by Renee -Amanda & Randy M.
-Chocolate covered strawberries by Missy McGrath - Holly & Josh R.
-Quilted Purse -- Julia H.
-2 bucket style purses - Michelle Hol. and Doug & Val S.

Thank you, again, for your support!  God bless y'all!!!!
-The Jepsons
-The Solomons
-The Clarks

And a special thanks goes to Lura Jepson for doing such an awesome job at managing this giveaway!