Sisters

What is the meaning of a sister? Our daughter Lacey has been asking us to find her a sister since she was about 5. She didn't think it was fair that she was the only girl in our family. Of course, I don't count because I'm a "mom girl". I am blessed to have 2 sisters and they are my best friends and confidants. I don't know what I would have done without them by my side. So I sympathize with Lacey and have made efforts for her to have close relationships with her girl cousins and we even had exchange student girls but it just hasn't been the same. As our adoption journey has lasted 6 years Lacey has been frustrated and sad that we haven't been able to get Galina home. You see she was at the airport when Galina arrived 6 years ago and there was no doubt in Lacey's 15 year old mind that Galina was her sister. Lacey went shopping this past weekend and found some awesome sales. She is my shopping girl. She called me and asked while she was in the checkout if I wanted her to go back and pick up a swim suit for Tanya and Galina. I told her to go for it. When she went back up to the cashier he teased her about having 3 suits and she said "The other ones are for her sisters". She called me all choked up because it really hit her that this time her dream of having sisters is really going to happen!!

The Girls Room

I ordered the bedding for our girls room today. I got everything cleaned and organized this past week in their room and can't wait for them to come home!

Christina's Shower

I have been blessed to have a new daughter that I absolutely love. Christina will be blessing Mark and I with our first grandchild in 7 weeks. We had the opportunity to spend this past weekend with her. Christina flew up to Michigan from Orlando where her and our oldest son Gabe live. We had a baby shower for baby Cash Aaron on Saturday and then spent time with Christina and had her all to ourselves. I took her to the airport tonight and her flight was delayed. As we were waiting we were talking to another woman and she said, "Boy, you guys are lucky you get along so well". I am counting my blessings tonight because Mark and I both feel very blessed that our son chose a young woman that fits into our family so well and is so easy for us to love.

MFA

Our dossier arrived today at 2:22 a.m. (our time) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Astana.

Connections

Why Kazakhstan? For the past 11 years God has woven a beautiful tapestry for our family with Kazakhstan. It started one January when I was feeling stagnant in my Christian walk. I fasted and prayed that God would bring something into my life that would give me a jump start. A week later I was invited by a group from the church that I grew up in to go on a medical mission trip to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. I went on this mission trip in August of 1998 and it changed my life! On this trip I was able to cuddle and love on a little abandoned baby at the hospital that subsequently was adopted by a family in Florida. This little one named Karina planted the seed in my heart to adopt an orphan from Kazakhstan. In October of 1998 my sister and her husband felt called to missions. They tried to go to South America but I just laughed at them and said "You're going to Kazakhstan". They ended up in Seryegevka, Kazakhstan and have been living there for 6+ years now. Over the past 11 years our family has organized and hosted 3 groups of students from the Kaz American English school in Karaganda. We have a Kazak exchanged student daughter that lived with us from 2000-2001 that we have kept in contact with that is blessing us with a granddaughter in late August. She currently lives in Almaty, Kazakhstan. In 2003 we hosted a 7 year old from Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan through a program called Kidsave. We fell in love with Galina and have pursued adopting her and her siblings since her visit. We currently have a beautiful 17 year old young lady from Atbasar, Kazakhstan that we are sponsoring so she can live in a safe home and attend school. Mark and I have gone together to Kazakhstan to my sister's village once to help with a project and I have returned to her village 3 other times to help with humanitarian aid and the last time to start teen small groups in their church. We have a friend from our church that married an American that is from Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. We have fallen in love with the people and culture of Kazakhstan and claim many people on the "other side of the world" as family.

OK, there is no such place as Frankfurt, DE so maybe that means our dossier is in Frankfurt, Germany. That's what I'm going to believe since that's closer to Astana and it's been there all day without moving. And believe me I've checked numerous times.

Details

Sometimes we get so caught up in details. International adoption really brings out my insecurities. We were excited on Tuesday when we were told that our dossier had been approved and was on it's way to Astana. Since then I have been checking our FedEx account several time a day to track it. It hasn't shown up. I have imagined that our precious packet of documents has been sitting on someone's desk hidden under other things. Don't they know we're in a hurry????? Finally, today I emailed our ever so patient agency director and asked her if our dossier was in transit. She very graciously sent me a tracking number. I keep telling myself that "it's in God's hands" and then I try to take it back and start to worry. What am I thinking/doing??? Currently our dossier is in Frankfurt, DE and expected to arrive in Astana on June 9th. Yeah, we are getting there step by step.