Just some tidbits...

Garin was an ANGEL today - smiling, laughing, playful and very compliant! In spite of the dreary rain, cold temps and long list of tedious errands, it was a day of joy thanks to him. I'm so thankful for good days when Karl is on a mission. It makes it easier to go it alone for a few more days. I had hoped to get an opening at the base day care for tomorrow, but they're full. After today, that doesn't seem so bad.

We got the education report paperwork delivered to the home study agency, and our caseworker has already signed it, faxed it and mailed it to our new agency! She said the other papers, which I don't think are necessary to register our dossier, will be faxed and mailed on Wednesday. We should be good to go on April 8th if there are no more surprises between now and then!

Garin and I also went to our Christian bookstore to find the book for the new women's Bible study that will be at my house on Wednesdays. They didn't have it, so we went to the mall and ordered it from Waldenbooks. They ship free to your house if you order it there. While there, we got Garin's hair cut (screams again...ugh) and grabbed him some Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I waited until I got home to eat.

We had to run to Smyrna, too, to pick up our Angel Food. Dummy me, in all the excitement this weekend over Karl's mission Saturday morning and the adoption paperwork, totally forgot Saturday was the pick-up. Thankfully, my buddy Kate coordinates it. She saved it for me because she knew something weird must have happened. (They normally donate unclaimed food to local soup kitchens.) Kate is the wife of a C-130 pilot with the Delaware National Guard, a realtor and the mother of four children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. She, of all people, knows what it means to have too many things going through your head to remember them all!

I'm about to sit down to watch Dancing With the Stars, as soon as I take the trash to the curb. I'm waiting for it to get behind, so I can fast-forward through the commercials. Hope everyone has a great night!

Look familiar???

This reminds me of that photo of me in Daddy's boots when I was not much older than this. Guess every kids loves to wear his/her parents' shoes.

Saturday Night Live...

***This blog has been edited at the request of my family.*** ;o)

All is quiet here at the Heinrich household tonight. Our little escape artist monkey has made several attempts to unlock doors and sneak out of the house this week, not to mention all of the things he's climbed. This week has worn me out, and I'm glad for the fresh start tomorrow morning!

Karl left on a mission this morning, and we miss him so much already. It's amazing, though, how much more I accomplish at night when I'm on my own after Garin goes to bed! It's been a productive evening.

Please keep Karl in your prayers this week. As you know, there is a lot going on right now over in "Southwest Asia," and it seems that tensions are running high. He will be doing a good bit of downrange flying before he comes home, so please just remember to pray for his protection. Oh, and some prayers for patience might come in handy too! Some of you have heard my stories of the annoying flight surgeon who thinks he is the condescending host of some twisted TV quiz show. Anyway, Karl found out this morning that this guy needs to fulfill his flying requirements and is going to be on his mission! I told him to just remember that he is the commander, and if the guy gets annoying, he can tell him to sit down, shut up and obey orders. Hopefully it won't come to that. But, seriously, pray for Karl.

Other than that, things are about the usual. Hope you're all enjoying a wonderful weekend!

AWESOME!

This video debuted at #2 on this week's GAC Top 20 Countdown! It does my heart good to know that the American public still appreciates an old hymn that much. This is beautiful! I can't help but think about Papaw Risinger and singing this at his funeral.

Latest News on the Adoption

We received a big info packet from the new agency yesterday that contained lots of good stuff about adopting through them. It also contained an "Adoption Education Agreement" that has to be signed by us and by the home study caseworker, saying that we have completed their education requirements of at least 12 hours of reading and/or coursework related to adoption preparation, multicultural families, attachment issues, grief and loss in adoption and adoptive parenting and discipline. Fortunately we have way overachieved in this area, so all we need is a signature. Our caseworker emailed today and said that the Hague Treaty requires that this be in our file prior to dossier registration. We will have it to her next week, so if I understand correctly (which I often don't), we should be able to have our dossier registered on April 8.

Garin has gone from my little angel to a bundle of crazy mischief. Zero concept of danger. Thank God for His angels that keep these little ones alive!

Happy Birthday to Karl!

As usual, I didn't feel much like blogging right after Matt left on Monday. It was a great 10 days of fun together, plus doctor appointments and shopping. He is one great kid, if I do say so myself, and he is amazing with his little brother.

Yesterday was Karl's birthday (32 years young!), and we celebrated with presents and cards at lunch. We gave him a digital photo frame for his desk at work. I figure this way he can still have 1000 pictures of us on display without covering the entire wall of his office the way he does now. It's almost embarrassing (although very touching) to walk in and see the shrine to the family. ;o)


For dinner, Karl wanted Italian food at La Fontana. We had a great time! Garin flirted shamelessly with the waitress and welcomed every diner who walked past us with a hearty hello, all while making an incredible mess of his penne and meatballs. Karl had his traditional baked ziti. I, on the other hand, foolishly thought that linguine with clam sauce would somehow contain fewer calories than the tortellini alla ludovico that I usually order. WRONG! The cream sauce was thick and rich and absolutely delicious, full of whole clams and crab meat, but my poor stomach has forgotten how to process that kind of food. To top it all off, Karl's birthday "cake" was cheesecake - his favorite - from the Cheesecake Factory. I couldn't let him eat alone on his birthday. I still feel nasty this morning. Thankfully, at least so far, the scale isn't showing my indulgence this morning.

We still have no word on our dossier. I emailed our caseworker on Monday but haven't heard back from her. I am finding this to be the rule rather than the exception, which is frustrating, but it seems that they are working hard on our case. They just aren't as good as Buckner was about keeping us informed of the progress. We are so eager to know our dossier has been registered and to get a referral. My feeling is that they didn't get it registered yesterday and that we are looking at April 8th at the soonest. The closer we get, the more difficult patience becomes, but we try to remember that it won't be long compared to the year we've been waiting already.

Another family whose blog I read is currently in Russia for a referral and has been offered two very ill children. Although they desperately want to adopt, they recognize that these children are too much for their family to handle and had to turn them down. They are hoping to be offered a third child today, but there are no guarantees after turning two down. They had asked for correctable, mild medical conditions and were instead offered a child who is dying with Hepatitis C and then another who is severely paralyzed and has heart problems. I can't imagine the roller coaster of hope and despair they are on this week. Please keep them in your prayers today, that they will receive another referral for a child that they are prepared to care for.

More Messy Chocolate Bunny

The photos tell the whole story....





BATHTIME!!!!!!

Chocolate Bunnies

What instinct is it that causes us all to go straight for the ears of a chocolate bunny???

The boys each got a bunny for Easter. Matt got right into his, ears first. Garin needed no coaxing to open his, although he did need some help getting the box open. He ripped off the foil wrapper and *presto*....off with his ears! He knew just what to do with his first chocolate bunny. These are some clean pics before the chocolate was everywhere:

HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!!!

I hope you all have had a praise-filled morning worshipping our Risen Savior! We love you and are so thankful that He has put you into our lives!

Easter Eggs

Garin's first egg-dying experience was less than thrilling for him, but Matt and I had fun! Garin was much more interested in drawing with crayons on the newspaper we had put down to catch drips. Crayons seem to be one of his favorites these days (coloring with them and breaking them); I'm just praying he doesn't get too creative and start redecorating the walls or furniture.

Several of these pictures are alike, but I couldn't pick my favorite, so you get them all.

Getting Started

Garin preferred coloring to dying eggs.

But breaking crayons is even more fun!

Daddy is off to fly the simulator.

The finished product (The orange egg has the names of all six of us; we wish all six were here today.)

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

It's been a fun and rather lazy day for the boys and me. We had a late night and slept a little later than usual this morning. Karl, Matt and I stayed up until almost midnight playing blackjack and then the left, right, center dice game. Of course, there was no money involved, but we had fun! Matt wanted to stay up and talk, so I went to his room with him and lay on D's bed while we talked for about an hour. We finally hit the wall about 1 am, and I went on to bed.

Today was spent hanging around the house until about 3:30, when we went to pick Matt's new eyeglasses. Karl met us there after his annual physical, and when we got done, he took Matt kite shopping. It's been so windy here the last few days....okay, so basically it's been windy since September. Matt's been talking about getting a kite, so they went shopping for one while Garin and I headed home to finish up with dinner preparations. Karl and Matt have been in our backyard flying that kite for the last 45 minutes. Garin and I played for awhile, too, but with a cold and without a nap, Garin's patience ran out, and we headed back inside.

Here are some pics of the fun. It's a chilly but gorgeous day! I couldn't help but miss D and K and think about how much fun it would be if they were here, too. I look forward to having four kids laughing and chasing kites together.

Family Photos!

(Interestingly...frustratingly...Dad noticed last night that Garin's nose

is running in this photo. We had completely missed that before because

we hadn't seen the photo full-size. Guess we'll have to get busy with

Photoshop!)

It's been a great day! With all of my boys slightly under the weather with colds, everyone stayed home and rested this morning. They all seem to be feeling better this afternoon, and we ran to the mall for up-to-date family portraits. Then we met our frequent dinner companions, Josh and Kim and their two boys, at Uno's for supper. Garin's bath when we got home was a family affair. He loves for Matt to splash with him. Then Matt and I had one of our famous tickle fights! He may be 6'2" and 130 lbs. of solid muscle, but he is still ticklish enough that I can take him every time. Who knows how much longer that will last, but it was a good workout for me! Hope you enjoy the new pics!

I Sold Out :o(

I'm officially a suburban housewife...a soccer mom. I have sworn for all of the almost-sixteen years of my oldest son's life that I would not drive a minivan. Not that there is anything wrong with driving a minivan or anything wrong with the driver of one. It was just a personal preference, a desire to somehow remain "with it" while still fulfilling the wonderful, joyous obligations of motherhood. But the time has come, and I caved. Karl has been talking about buying a minivan for months. The conversations began when we started trying to figure out how we could manage a family of six with our SUV. I am still in love with that 2004 Mercury Mountaineer and managed to keep Karl from selling it for quite some time, but I lost the battle today. The selling point for me was the navigation system. I sold my soul for GPS. After my adventure to Harrisburg on Friday, the desire for GPS was too strong to fight.

Truthfully, I LOVE the car from the inside: leather seats, DVD system, definitely lots more room for the family. I even like the burgundy color of the exterior, but it's a minivan. I'll get used to it. Who knows? Maybe I'll even learn to embrace the idea, but it will take me awhile. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the features and remember why we bought it. I think in the long run, we'll be very glad we did.

We got a great deal on the van and a great trade-in, and our car payment won't change more than a few cents.

In other news, we did some fun shopping for Matt and Garin this afternoon and have a very busy day planned for tomorrow. We are going to Rehoboth Beach (never made it past the Dover mall today) in an effort to find the perfect running shoe for Matt, and then we're all going to run/walk/ride in stroller in the monthly 5K Warrior Run here on base at 3 pm. Tomorrow night is an early praise team rehearsal this week, as our Holy Thursday service is in our usual practice time.

Hope you've all had a blessed day!!!

Brotherhood...

There is something special about the bond between brothers. Even when they aren't together everyday, the connection they share is different from what they have with anyone else, and it is certainly a blessing that fills the heart of this mom to overflowing.

Garin was excited to see Matt and spent the entire evening shadowing him and climbing all over him. They laughed and "talked" and got plenty of wrestling in. At one point, Matt was out of Garin's sight for all of a minute, and Garin was searching the house, saying, "Is he? Is he?" which is his version of "Where is he?" When he found him, he inhaled sharply, ran to him, put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Awwww." Then he climbed into his lap. It was precious!

In these photos, Garin was trying to sneak out of the kitchen with his "na" (banana), and Matt was having fun trying to keep him in.

Praise God, It Worked!

After a very long day, the last few documents for our dossier are on their way to our agency via FedEx! We all went to the base legal office at 8:30 am to sign the last couple of forms that had been rewritten to meet the new standards in St. Petersburg. Garin and I then went to the Secretary of State office in town, dropped off the documents to be apostilled and headed home. Within minutes of walking in the door, we heard our home study caseworker knocking at the door with the forms her agency had to redo, so Garin and I then headed off to Harrisburg, PA, to have those apostilled. (Unfortunately, all documents must be apostilled in the state in which the notary is licensed. In our case, because our agency's home office is in PA, their documents have to go there.)

Karl picked up the documents in Dover on his lunch hour and sent them off.

After three hours in the car, Garin and I arrived in Harrisburg to find it a much larger and busier town than I had anticipated! I drove around several blocks before finding parking near the State complex that wasn't dedicated to State employees. We ended up finding street parking that was three blocks away. When I went to load the meter with quarters, I discovered I had only one! I dropped it in the slot, hoping for 30 minutes....no such luck. The meter read "10". I searched the car, under the seats, my purse...everywhere. I then started praying for quarters from heaven. Truly, I asked God for quarters! None materialized, so off we went, praying instead that we would not come back to find a parking ticket.

We power-walked the three blocks and quickly discovered that the town was not meant for strollers. I carried the stroller with Garin in it up the big fancy steps into the building because we could find no ramp. I won't even go into the sidewalk issues. I can't believe that they haven't been sued for lack of compliance to ADA. Or maybe they have.

Thankfully, the apostille folks are very efficient. I no sooner wrote the check and sat down than they brought the finalized documents out to me. It seriously took less than two minutes.

Then off we sprinted to get to the car before the meter reader. And I kid you not....When we came flying around the corner, he was standing at the car in front of ours, putting a parking ticket under the windshield. Just as we passed him and got to our car, he walked back toward us. Whew! And we were 11 minutes over! I was so thankful for the nick of time!

I had written the names and addresses of two FedEx locations before I left home. I knew there was no hope of finding them and decided to wait and look in the next town. As we headed back to the interstate, there was a big sign for the exit to "Paxton St." which just happened to be the street the FedEx Kinko's was on! We hopped off and found it two blocks later!!! It felt so good to get everything in the mail and out of our hands!

Garin and I celebrated at the Starbucks next door: a diaper change and strawberries and cream frapuccino for him, a potty break and iced decaf sugar-free hazelnut non-fat latte for me. Then off we headed toward home. It took us almost four hours to get home, thanks to Friday rush hour traffic, but we did it!!!

Our documents will be in Michigan on Monday and hopefully in the mail to Russia on Tuesday. And then there will hopefully be enough time to translate them and register them the following Tuesday. That is our prayer, anyway.

I frequent several blogs of Russia adoptive parents, several of whom are in the midst of the dossier and travel process. One of these families had their documents registered on Feb. 26 and got an invitation to travel yesterday!!! They leave next Friday, March 21!!! We can only hope for such a quick turnaround. I'm starting to get a little bit scared.....in the best possible way!

Moving Along...

Just a quick note to let you all know that we got the approval on our last piece of paperwork needed to register our dossier in Russia, so we have a busy day tomorrow! We will get that page notarized, I will drop everything off at the State office to be apostilled and then hit the road to Harrisburg, PA, to have the last piece of our home study agency's paperwork apostilled. I will fedex it from PA and head home. Karl will pick up the apostilled papers here in DE and fedex them tomorrow afternoon. So, if all goes according to plan (haha...as if!), everything will be at the agency Monday and can hopefully be sent to Russia on Tuesday. There is at least a chance, then, that our documents can be registered the following Tuesday. PRAY!!! :o)

In love with all things "Daddy"

While I'm pleased to report that Mommy is still the panacea for pain and the arms of comfort, I'm also happy to announce that Daddy has, while we weren't looking, slowly risen to hero status in the eyes of a certain little boy in our household. Garin has recently taken on a very healthy toddler interest in the rituals and practices of male-dom and wan ts to be like and do things like Daddy. So fun to watch! Karl (finally) broke down and bought a new flight cap, as his was not in prime condition. The old one was passed to Garin, who wears it periodically throughout the day....not always right-side-out or straight, but he wears it. He loves to steal any hat or sunglasses Daddy wears as soon as he gets in the door.

Karl had survival training yesterday and came home in camo face paint and wearing a black stocking cap. Garin was fascinated and immediately took off with the cap. We had been worried that he might be afraid of Karl, but his reaction was quite the opposite, thankfully.


"Howdy Ma'am"


Note the crossed fingers on both hands. For some reason, he seems to enjoy doing this....a LOT. It seems like it's a way for him to occupy his hands when his mind is busy. Proof positive that he's been dipped in my family's gene pool.


Best Buddies


"See? See?" As soon as the flash goes off, Garin is always at my feet asking to see the picture. This is why you see so many close-ups from above.

WAIVER!!!

Praise God! We are back on the road toward meeting our children!

We got the call this afternoon that the Executive Director at AAI granted our waiver. They will be able to register our documents very soon - probably on Karl's birthday, March 25! We will likely travel in April or May to meet the kids, assuming no major road blocks present themselves.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

No News...

....is good news???

We hope so.

It's 5:10pm Eastern Time, and we still haven't heard from anyone at the agency. If they did, in fact, have their meeting today, they haven't notified us of a decision. Of course, we're going through the possibilities in our minds: a) The waiver is granted, and they're going through the paperwork to decide what our next step will be before calling; b) The decision isn't made yet; or c) The decision is "no," and they didn't want to call and let us know today (which doesn't seem likely, as it seems they'd want to go ahead and be rid of us in that case). There are several other options, but I won't go through them all. No matter what the maybes are, we are still waiting. God is allowing us to practice patience! ;o)

I'll post as soon as we hear anything.

Love In Every Language

First of all, I must apologize for all of the back-to-back videos. I have not been up all night scouring youtube clips to fill the blog, but I realized this morning that this video has been on my myspace page (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=167899601) for a long time, and I never put it on here. It is a beautiful video by a couple who adopted a precious little one from Russia. (You might need Kleenex.)

"Who Am I?" by Casting Crowns

The Lord of all the earth knows my name, my hurt. He knows my children, present and future. He knows every child who longs for a family, and He knows YOU.

The God of the Universe, who can command the ocean to be still, cares enough to calm our inner storms.

Wow....

"Walk by Faith" ~ Jeremy Camp

Jeremy Camp wrote this song on his honeymoon. His bride had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer prior to their wedding, and the future was uncertain. She went to heaven a few months later at the age of 21. I can't imagine the faith it took to go on.

"Beshert"

Beshert is a Jewish word that means "fated" or "destined". My Jewish friend, Penny, told me last Thursday that this word describes the adoption of our future children. I agree, and I have thought about that conversation several times this weekend.

Thanks to all of you who continue to pray with us. Please pray earnestly that God's will might be accomplished tomorrow. The decision regarding our ability to go forward with the partnering agency will be made sometime tomorrow. We desperately want our children home soon, and we are praying that this will be yet another obstacle that God removes from our path. At the same time, we know that He has led through this past year of waiting and working toward this adoption, and we will accept whatever decision is made with the peace of knowing that He is in control and will guide us on.

Karl's mission that was to leave tomorrow has been cancelled, so he is now scheduled for a week of annual training that will keep him home for at least a few more days. If the agency does waive their birth-order policy for us, this will make us both available for the agency and to put together any paperwork that needs signatures. If not, it will allow us to regroup together. Either way, I see it as a good thing, even though Karl would certainly like to have flown. Again....God has His plan.

It seemed as if the theme of today's worship was meant just for us. It was about endurance and persevering through those times in life where the pressures and trials make us want to quit. Not that Karl and I wanted to quit on our children. We committed ourselves to them and to God's call, and quitting is not an option, but I'd be lying if I said we never wondered what on earth we're doing sometimes. We have no question about the kids or about adoption, but it is definitely not an easy way to build a family, at least not Russian adoption.

Mom made the comment last week that I had to write a book about our experiences when it was all over, and I told her that I couldn't do that because no one who read it would ever consider adoption again. I was half-joking, and I actually plan to write about this faith journey eventually, but it isn't a neat little story in a pretty little package. But you know, none of our lives are. That is why we each of us is a little miracle story....thanks to the grace of God.

Two of the songs we sang in worship today, "Who Am I?" by Casting Crowns and "Walk By Faith" by Jeremy Camp were especially meaningful to me. I encourage you to take a moment to listen to them, especially if you don't already know them. I will post them shortly. God's blessings on you all...

Life Sure Is Interesting..

Yesterday, we learned that things were moving quickly. Our dossier had been handed to the new agency's people in St. Pete and would be ready to register as soon as our final few documents got there and translated. We were hoping for them to be registered on Karl's birthday, March 25, which is one of the two registration days allowed in March. We also got word that our final document from our home study agency would be here on Tuesday. Yay!

Well, in the way to which we have grown accustomed, the euphoric day was followed by a disappointing one today.

This afternoon, I heard from the new agency that they have a policy that they do not adopt out of birth order. In other words, adopted children must be younger than the youngest child in the home. The caseworker and Director of European Adoptions will be meeting next week with the Executive Director to explain our situation and request a waiver.

Although this is upsetting news, we know that God is in control. If this door is closed, we will go back to waiting for Buckner's accreditation to come through, but we hope that the waiver will come. We can wait, even though we don't want to, but we do not want our children to have to wait any longer for a family.

Please pray with us that God will touch the heart of the Executive Director and that He will give the caseworker and Eastern European Director the right words with which to convince her. But above all, please pray that God's will be done.

UPDATE: The caseworker has asked me to put our "moving story" in writing, sharing about how God has brought so many things together to make this adoption happen, so she can share it with the Executive Director. I told her that asking me to write was like asking me to breathe! I promised it by Monday.

We have been so blessed by Irina, our wonderful Buckner caseworker. She is such a kind, understanding (and very hard-working!) woman. She will be traveling to some meetings with the St. Petersburg staff of the new agency next week and will hopefully see our kids! Please pray for her as well.

On top of that, Karl has been assigned a mission for next week. Good news for him! Garin and I will hang around here, try to get this adoption on the road as fast as possible, and get the house ready for Big Brother's arrival next Saturday!!!!!

That Little-Boy Smell

Ahhhh....there is something so invigorating, and at the same time so revolting, about that earthy, almost sulfuric smell little boys bring inside from an afternoon of play!

After a trying morning spent listening to whining and fighting an incessant battle of wills, I took Garin straight from his bed after naptime and out the back door, where we put on his shoes and socks and played for an hour. It's so easy, as your children get older, to forget the sheer joy that comes from sitting in a pile of sand, teaching a little one what a rock is and why he shouldn't eat it and then watching as he proceeds to try to bury every pebble he can find under the pile.

Or trying to get sand out of his eyes while explaining that we don't sweep a handful of sand into the wind.

Or walking the length of the retaining wall at least twenty times, trying to stay close enough to catch him should he fall but not so close that he knows what you're up to and tries to push you away.

Or laughing hard together when the wind manages enough strength to blow him over.

Or celebrating the absolute magnificence of a week-old pair of new shoes which suddenly look worn, thanks to their first significant scuffing and dirt bath.

And for me today, it was the victorious feeling that I am a success in life, if only because my barely-two-year-old counted to three! Over and over he counted, once he figured it out. And, no, he wasn't counting apples or blocks. He was counting horseshoes - dirty, rusty, heavy horseshoes - as he tossed them out of the weed-infested horseshoe pit in our backyard and then back in again. Horseshoe Number Four was completely ignored, but I didn't mind, and I doubt it did either. "UNG! DOO! DREE!"....over and over. And silly me, fighting back tears and saying, "YAY! YAY! YAY!"

Playtime ended when he decided it was time to wander and didn't want to come back to me. When he reached the driveway, I went after him and took his hand, but in another wonderful display of toddler development, he jerked his hand away......and landed face down on the concrete. We came in and cleaned up the scraped tips of his nose and chin and the little cut on his lip, and with a few kisses and some juice, all was well again. Another privilege of motherhood, come to think of it: the ability to comfort and to turn this upside-down world right again for at least that one little soul.

Giddy-up

The doorbell rang at 9:00 this morning, and Garin made a bee-line to the front door to welcome our visitor. What he found instead was a big box from Grandma and Grandpa! I think the photos below capture his reaction better than any attempt I might make at explanation:


Oooooooohhhhhh........


MINE!!!

A new "night-night" for the boy who loves all things soft! He was actually so excited about the afghan Grandma made that I couldn't draw his attention back to the box. I finally coaxed him into looking further and he found.....

The stick horse that Grandma made!!! And off he went......

YEE-HAWWW!

Mom, I think it's a winner! Thanks for taking the time to make those for him! They'll be lifelong keepsakes.