More House Pics

Den:
Gameroom/Playroom:
More gameroom/playroom:
Great room/kitchen from upstairs:
Entryway from upstairs:

Almost Done Moving In....

I've had a few requests for pictures of the new house with furniture in it, so here they are! Keep in mind that I'm not done decorating, and there is nothing on the walls yet. I'm hoping to take care of that this week, so we can have a more attractive Thanksgiving (haha).


From the front:

From the back (you can't see it, but we actually have regulation horseshoe pits!):

My dream kitchen (from great room):
The dining room (from great room):
The great room (from kitchen):

Adoption Developments

We have now begun the process of preparing our dossier to be sent to Russia for translation and registration. As we look at the dossier requirements and the regulations of the Russian government, the elation of another step behind us has quickly given way to the worries that accompany the next phase of the adoption. We are finding this to be the pattern. Concerns, roadblocks and feelings of helplessness are worked through as we accomplish each step. We begin to feel comfortable and confident about the adoption as we overcome them and then experience utter joy and elation as we pass another test and move on to the next phase, only to find a whole new set of issues to deal with. It is disappointing to move from the highs to the uncertainty again, but we know that God is in control and is guiding this process from start to finish. This is where faith is exercised and God is glorified, and that is always exciting! If everything went smoothly at all times, I am quite sure we'd get comfortable and cocky and forget to see God in the details.

If you are praying with us through this journey, please pray specifically for these things now:

- that the Russian gov't will grant accreditation to Buckner in December, as expected.

- that God will make a way for us to meet the requirements for the dossier with minimal headaches and without any time delays to draw out the process.

- that God will provide the right words, doctors, translators and judge for our case. Because of an unnecessary medical decision that was made years ago for prophylactic treatment of one of our family members in order to prevent any possible future issue, it is crucial that each of these people understand the situation, the reason for treatment and the fact that there was not and has never been evidence of disease. It all comes down to wording, how that wording is translated into Russian and how it is understood by the judge.

- that God will continue to encourage us with His promises, His Word and His signs that we are following the path He has laid out for us.

We move forward with confidence, knowing that Buckner has confidence in us. More importantly, WE KNOW THAT GOD CAN DO ALL THINGS AND THAT HE WILL ACCOMPLISH HIS PURPOSE, AND WE GO FORWARD IN FAITH THAT HE IS IN COMPLETE CONTROL!

The Blessings Flow!

I had the amazing opportunity to speak today with Becky, the foster mother in the family who hosted D and K on their visit to the U.S. in 2005!!! She and her family are already a blessing to us, and we are so excited about getting to know them more in the months and years to come! Becky had some wonderful things to share about our kids, and I am more eager than ever to be their mom.

Until we are officially matched with D and K, we cannot get their background information, but Becky was able to share her observations with me. She shares our belief that these kids were part of a family in the crucial bonding years, which is wonderful news for being able to bond with them when they join our family. She said that they function very well in a family situation and seem comfortable just being themselves. She said that her Russian neighbors told her that both kids had very good speech, grammar and pronunciation of the Russian language, which also indicates that they were not in an institution while they were learning language skills. Both children are very intellectual and good readers. D loves to draw and play soccer. Becky says he is immature in a most wonderful way, as in he is innocent, playful and not at all street smart. She feels that he has been watched out for and protected. He loves America and wanted to stay so badly. K really receives love well and will try any food she's offered. Doctors aren't sure just what is wrong with her knee, but they believe it my involve blood flow issues and that she may be healed with a knee replacement. Another option is arthritis, but either way, it doesn't slow her down. Becky also said that they did deal with the common issue of hoarding, which is typical of institutionalized children, but she said that their institutional behaviors were much milder than those of the other children her family has hosted.

On to other blessings/prayer requests....I received this email from Irina today. Please pray fervently!

Dear Buckner Families,
We covet your prayers! We heard from our Director in Moscow feedback after she met with officials at the Ministry of Education today, that there is a strong possibility for Buckner to be reaccredited in the December group. Our paperwork has been signed off by three ministries so far! We are still waiting on some final approvals, including one from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was the cause of recent delays with the other agency's accreditation process.
Please pray specifically that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has resolved their review process and will sign off on Buckner's paperwork without delay and that all the final approvals will be in place by December. Please pray that Buckner is in the next group of agencies to be reaccredited. We need your prayers as never before!It would be a wonderful Christmas gift to all the waiting families, children, and Buckner. Please join us in praying!
The Buckner International Adoption Team.

Home Study Approval!

Our local caseworker and the Buckner Adoption staff had a conference about us today, and our home study has been officially approved by Buckner! This means that we will start getting our dossier together and that we will be able to get an official referral for the kids as soon as accreditation is complete! Another huge milestone behind us!

New Information on the Scott Family

I got an email this morning from Shauna, and the news is worse than I expected. Apparently, JT had been having leg pain for awhile, and the doctors thought it was growing pains. This week, he was having trouble breathing while sleeping, so Shauna took him to the hospital. One lung was collapsed and filled with bloody fluid, and the other was half-full of fluid. He has several malignant masses on his lungs. The doctors said it was a form of bone cancer in his leg that has now traveled to his groin and lungs. It is Stage 4, but they are praying for a miracle. The doctor reminded them that children have recovered from Stage 4 cancer before. JT has had three surgeries this week already, and he will start chemotherapy tomorrow.

Shauna's mother just passed away in September, and she is still struggling to get over the depression she has suffered since Hurricane Katrina wiped out their possessions. Please pray for them.

Prayer Request

Please keep the Scott family in your prayers. Some of you may remember that Shauna Scott worked with me last year on the craft show. They were previously stationed at Keesler AFB in Mississippi and lost almost everything in Hurricane Katrina. She has had a hard time since they moved here, and her husband commutes several hours to a base in VA, only coming home on weekends. Her 15-year-old son has been having leg pains, from what I understand, for quite some time, and the doctors were telling her it was growing pains. They finally got someone to dig a little deeper and got horrible news. He has Stage 4 cancer. I do not yet know what kind - leukemia? something in the bone? I don't have a medical background and can only guess. I tried to call Shauna, but she was at the hospital. I left a message with her husband and hope to hear from her when she has the time and energy to call. This news makes me literally nauseous. In addition to the gravity of the situation, having a 15-year-old son myself makes it all a bit too close to home. Just please pray that God will give them strength, peace and healing.

Sunday at the Shore

I love the footprints behind them!

Garin had a great time chasing the seagulls.

Time to Regroup

After several very busy weeks, Karl, Garin and I are enjoying a lazy day at home before Karl leaves tomorrow on his first mission since the deployment. We dropped of Becky and Jonny at the airport last night, and they are safely back home. It was a difficult goodbye for me. I told Karl that the more children you allow into your heart, the more heartache you face. Of course, you also face many times more joy as well!

I will post some photos from their visit. Garin is very fond of his Halloween costume and asks to wear it almost every day. Sometimes he gets his wish, as evidenced by these pics. Becky and Jonny saw the ocean for the first time on Sunday. It was so cool to watch her excitement and joy as she stood on the shore and watched the waves roll in. It was high tide, and the waves were breaking right up at the shore. A couple of times, they surprised us, and everyone but Garin managed to get their feet, shoes and pantlegs completely soaked. Brrrrr! We also got some salt water taffy on the boardwalk for the ride home. It was a great day!

One More Box Checked

As of this morning, our home study is complete! We had our home safety inspection and had the opportunity to read the draft of our home study report. The draft was faxed to Irina, our Buckner caseworker, as soon as our home study caseworker got back to the office. Once Irina looks it over, the final draft will be signed and notarized by the home study agency and will be sent to Buckner. Once Buckner receives it, there will be a conference call to discuss our case, and hopefully an official referral will soon follow. It is very possible that we could have one (or should I say two!) more amazing things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! Keep on praying!

Also keep praying that Buckner's accreditation will come through soon. God has proven to us over and over again how perfect His timing is, so we are trusting Him to bring everything together just as it should be.

We are having a wonderful visit with my daughter-of-the-heart, Becky, and her son, Johnny, who flew up on Monday from St. Louis and will be here until this Monday. It is so good to be together again for awhile! The boys are only 2 months apart in age and are behaving like brothers - playing hard and fighting hard. I am thanking God He didn't give me twins!

This house is incredible, and we are so blessed to be here. Karl had a good mid-year performance review at work and got some great feedback. He deserves it, and I'm so glad he is back in the squadron again. We did learn that we will definitely be here until the summer of 2009. The AF changed the time on station for most everyone to 4 years from the 3 years it was before. We had thought that we might get around that because he is up for Major, but the squadron needs its more experienced pilots badly. Most of the pilots we have now are young and not yet qualified to be Aircraft Commanders or Instructor Pilots. This is good news and bad news for us, depending on how you look at it. But we're okay with it, and as always, God knows His plans for us!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I'll be back soon!

The Gift of Giving

We have been given an amazing opportunity to send gifts to D and K, which will be delivered by a missions group to their orphanages. Last night, we went to the mall and bought a watch for D and a purse and necklace for K. We cannot, for obvious reasons, tell them that we want to be their family or that we're trying to adopt them, but we can let them know that they are loved and hopefully encourage them. Our notes to them will go something like this:

"Dear D/K,

Every night when we go to bed in the USA and know that you are just waking up to start your day in Russia, we pray for you. We ask God to bless you and give you strength for the day ahead. We ask Him to protect you and let you feel His love. We hope that each time you see this watch/necklace, it will remind you of the many people who love you and pray for you and of Jesus, who is always with you. He has a beautiful plan for your life. You are so special.

Love....."

I am going to take pictures of the gifts before we send them, and someday soon I will show those photos to D and K to remind them that we loved them long before they knew who we were.

I am insanely busy with the craft show and the move both coming up next week. Please keep us in your prayers. We are excited but also very stressed. As of last night, the craft show nightmares have begun. Actually, that's progress. Last year, they started much earlier!

APPROVED!!!!!!!!!

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!!!!!! Another major hurdle behind us.

We received a phone call today from the home study case worker, who informed us that our home study will say that we are "approved for the adoption of a sibling group, ages 10-15." She will do the home safety inspection as soon as we move into the new house and will have the final home study in the mail to Buckner within a couple of days for them to decide about giving us the official referral for D and K.

We must not stop praying, though. Please continue to ask God to guide the Russian officials to complete Buckner's reaccreditation, so that we may go meet our children and bring them home. The expectation and hope is that the accreditation will be complete by mid to late November. Also, please pray for all those who will make decisions about our specific case, that they will be compassionate and speedy. Most of all, keep praying for D and K, that God will continue to guide and protect them and that He will reassure their hearts constantly that they are loved and wanted, even though they cannot know about us yet!

There is no adequate outlet for the joy we feel with each small victory on this journey. We jump, we scream, we dance, we cry, we laugh, we scream some more, and we hug until we are afraid of crushing our ribs, but we are still bubbling over and cannot express it well enough!

Thank you all for your prayers and support!!!

A Most Miraculous Week

For those who haven't heard, we reached the end of our patience with base housing. The completion of our home study was waiting solely on our getting into the new house, and the powers that be were not giving us any indication of how much longer we would be delayed. We went for a drive and came across this beautiful home for rent for only slightly more than what we are paying here! We move in a couple of weeks.

Even more wonderful for us was the package we received in the mail today from Buckner, which contained almost 2 hours of video of D and K from the summer of 2005, when they were here in the U.S. with the Angels from Abroad program!!!!! We are soaking it up, absorbing every expression, every word and every smile from these two children who have taken up residence in our hearts. If I can find a way to put some of this video on the blog later, I will try to share it with you!

HE'S HOME!!!

Two very happy fellas!

The whole gang at Red, Hot & Blue.

It was an amazing day! I can't wait to share more, but for now, these photos will prove that he really is home!!!

HE'S HOME!!!

Wow! The day was magical: the church van "finding" me as soon as I turned onto 301 and following me the last hour to the airport, the way our group reached out to and bonded with the others who were waiting, our group's determination to stay long after Karl came out to make sure that every returning military member was greeted with signs, waving flags and shouts of "welcome home" and "thank you," the smiles that we received in return, a fun lunch with our church friends

Preparations...

We hung the welcome home banner this afternoon! Tomorrow morning, we'll put out the flag, gather our posters, flags and camera and head to the airport! Karl is outprocessed, all checked in for his flight and just waiting for them to start boarding!!!

Less than a Day!

This time tomorrow, I will have my husband home again!!! I cannot express the excitement, nor can I explain how much I am blessed by our church family! At last count, I believe there are at least 10 people from our church who are riding the church van to welcome Karl home. It is an almost 2-hour trip one-way. They are making signs and bringing flags, and we are all going to share lunch on the way home. I could never have imagined such an outpouring of love, and I am so thankful and eager to share this wonderful occasion with them!

On another note, please read today's blog on http://www.bucknerprez.typepad.com/ . Our dear friend, Dr. Hall, is in Russia this week. Please take special note of his call to prayer regarding accreditation. It is so close, and it would be incredible, not only for us but for many other waiting children and families, if the process could be completed quickly! Sometimes the red tape seems to drag on forever, but they are adding agencies to the list frequently, and I pray Buckner is next!

We'll keep you posted on the exciting developments that God is working in our lives!!!

3 Days to Go!!!!

We are in the midst of last-minute preparations for Karl's return! I want everything to be as close to perfect as possible, so he doesn't feel like he has to come home and go to work around the house. I'm mowing, washing the car, replacing our petunias and snapdragon with pansies and ornamental cabbages, getting everything caught up for the craft show and getting the house in shape. It's so exciting to be planning and shopping for family dinners again and to know that I am doing all of our weekly activities alone for the last time before he gets home. I'll try to keep you all posted on his return, but I can't promise I'll be spending a lot of time with my computer.

I sent an email to some in our church who have been very supportive of us all during this deployment with their prayers, phone calls, emails and offers of help. I told them that I know Baltimore is a long way, and I certainly don't expect them to go to the airport to greet Karl, but I wanted to extend the invitation to them anyway. I wanted them to know that they were welcome there if it was something they wanted to do. I truly did not expect them to go, as it is a work day and a long drive. I was wonderfully surprised to learn that the pastor is driving the church van and several people are going with her - even taking vacation from work - to be there with me to welcome Karl home! We are so blessed by our church family! It will be a special day, and we will have some special photos to share, thanks to their presence.

Catching Up...

It's been a wonderful week of catching up with old friends and spending time with family! Garin and I spent several days in Illinois with Matt and got to watch him march in the band and run cross country. We also spent time with some very special friends who feel like family. It felt so good to be back there and to realize that some friendships don't change, regardless of the distance between us.

This weekend was my 20-year high school reunion in Texas! I still cannot accept the fact that I've been out of school longer than I was in it, but I had a great time and the best possible date to fill in for my husband at our dinner: my sister, Marci, who graduated one year behind me and knew everyone too. I expected that people would look older, heavier, worn and weathered; it's been 20 years, for heaven's sake! But I was just so impressed and amazed at how great everyone looked!!! We decided that our class has definitely aged well; we were all looking pretty hot for almost-40. Yay for us! It's amazing how much and how little things change with people. I will probably blog about that in the near future, as it was an eye-opening and thought-provoking experience, but I haven't processed my thoughts yet and don't even feel like it tonight. I have, however, attached some photos from the week.

Karl has his official orders to return home and will be back where he belongs in approximately 8 days!!!!!!!!!!!! Please pray for his safety as he flies back.

One more thing....

Karl is up for a promotion to the rank of Major, and the promotion board will be reviewing his performance reviews, etc., in the next two weeks. They take two weeks to look over all of the candidates Air Force wide and choose the ones they want to promote based on how many slots there are available. Please keep the board in your prayers these next two weeks, as their decision has a major (pun intended) effect on our future. We won't know if he made it for a couple of months, but we will let you know when we get the good news! ;-) Thanks!