Letter to Baby A

My sweet baby boy it seems like it has taken forever to get to this point in the adoption but at the same time I feels like everything has gone by so fast. Our dossier has arrived in Eastern Europe so it is just a matter of time to get it translated and submitted to your country so they can invite us to come meet you. I can not wait to hold you for the first time and tell you I am your Momma and that I loved for from the moment I saw your picture.

I want you to know you are loved and wanted. Your big sister Kenya tells everyone about you she can not wait to have you home! Your brother Judah says Bubba every time he sees your picture. I pray y'all will always be best friends. 

Your Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins can't wait to meet you. Our family always talks about you, about how excited they are to meet you! Our friends can't wait to love on you too!

 We can not wait to bring you home and introduce you to your family you are going to love them sweet boy. Thinking about bringing you home floods me with so many emotions. I am so excited to get to be your Mom and do whatever I can to take care of you. I can't wait to read to you and play cars with you. I can't wait to take you to the museum and the Zoo. I can't wait to tell you all about our great God and savior Jesus Christ! I can't wait to tell you that God is the only who formed you in your Mothers womb and that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. I am sad to tell you how your story started but I will tell you one thing sweet boy we will always assume the best about your birth parents. I am not sure why they didn't take you home from the hospital and do whatever they could to take care of you but Anton we will trust in God's sovereignty and now that he will use all of these things in your life for His glory and your good. I am so sad when I read about how hard your life was for the first ten months but I am blessed beyond works when I read how well you are being taken care of. 

Baby A you have a nanny that is with you twenty four hours a day seven days a week. She is the only Momma you have ever know and she loves you so much. She lives at the hospital with you and you are her pride and joy I am sure of it. She watches you so closely and makes sure they you don't get any unnecessary new boo boo's. You are very attached to her and you really only want to eat and go to sleep for her. It breaks my heart to think about taking you away from her. I know it is going to be so hard on both of you. I hate that for you and for her. I hope to always keep in contact with her and give her update on you as you grow up and Lord willing one day I would love for y'all to meet again.

Baby A the hospital you are in has taken such good care of you! I am so thankful for them. They love you and I know that they are excited for you to have a family but they will be a little sad when you leave them. We will send them pictures and tell them how you are doing as you grow up! 

There are so many people all over the world who love you more then you will ever know. They can't wait to see you come home to your family. There have been so many people praying for you and helping raise money for your adoption. 

Our church family has been amazing. They helped us raise money for your adoption and they are all looking forward to loving on you. 

My sweet boy I know you will have a lot of changes coming up in your life soon but I want you to know your Daddy and I are going to do whatever we can to make it easier on you. We love you sweet baby boy you are  a special special part of our family! 

Love,

 Your Momma! 

Exciting Stuff!!!

Today was a big day in our adoption journey, we mailed off our USCIS (immigration) paperwork. I am so super excited about this because once we get our clearance back and get all of our dossier paperwork done we can take it all to get appostilled and then will be ready to send it to our agency for a final check then it will be off to Eastern Europe.   We still wont really know a time line until after our paperwork gets to Eastern Europe and we get a travel date. We could be traveling as soon as August but we wont know for sure for awhile. I miss that sweet boy more and more each day and I can not wait to hold him and love on him!

Me about to mail our USCIS paperwork off! Sorry for the extreme close up but I zoomed in so you wouldn't see our address :)

Two of my kiddos and I on Mother's Day. I can't wait until next year when I can take a picture with three of my children. It just blows me away to think next year will be Baby A's first Mother's Day ever that he will (officially) have a mom and I get to be that mom! I am so thankful for his nanny though because she is his momma right now. It really does break my heart to think about taking him away from her. They love each other so much. Maybe, Lord willing, we can still keep in touch after we adopt him.

 Laura from Laurel Creek Designs  made the most beautiful necklace and earrings for Baby A's other adoption fundraising blog. The necklace and earrings were inspired by Melody, Madison and Baby A's stories. I fell in love with this jewelry and I really wanted it. I was so thankful that she made them to bid off to bring our boy home and I was trying to be excited for whoever won :) Well it turns out that her mother won the bid so I thought that was really neat. You will never believe what happened next. She sent me the necklace and earrings as a Mother's Day gift, I couldn't believe it! I was so super excited! They came in the most beautiful shadow box with a beautifully written note talking about why she wanted me to have them and the story behind the jewelry. I am really still blown away that she did this. I love them so much and I think of Melody, Madison and Baby A every time I wear them! Thank you again Laura, I really do love them!  

The kids were also super excited, but not about the necklace, but about what it was packed in. 

They had an all out war with the paper from inside the box

 (just so you know my kids don't normally dress like this ha) 

Judah getting ready to nail Kenya.

She is such a good big sister and is making it a little easier for him.

He got her! 

I'm pretty sure pay back was sweet!

He is laughing so hard right here he looks like he is crying.

And the after math... 

Don't forget about the Thirty- One Gifts fundraiser that is going on for Baby A it will only last for 5 more days. Click here for details!

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day!

 I will try to keep y'all posted on the progress but for now I will just be getting everything ready for the dossier so if this blog is quiet for awhile just know I am filling out paper after paper after paper after paper :)

update and a letter to Baby A #2

I am so excited to say we got our completed home study in the mail on Saturday and I will be mailing that and our USCIS paper work off first thing Monday morning! I will spend the next two weeks getting everything together for our dossier. I am hoping to get it all done this week but I know sometimes my goals are a little crazy so we shall see. Those are the only updates I have for today.

And now a letter to my sweet boy.

Dear Baby A, 

 Today is Mother's Day. It is a day where we celebrate Mother's. Sometimes I get a little crazy and want Jason to go all out for Mother's Day but not this year I just wanted to chill with my family. Jason made today very special by letting me decide what I wanted to to today. He took care of the kids and cleaned the house so I could rest. I really enjoyed today but I will admit the whole day I felt like I was missing a few of my kids.

One thing you don't know quite yet but you will soon is you have a family all the way on the other side of the world who can't wait to bring you home. You have a big sister Kenya and she talks about you all the time. If we have friends come over she loves to tell them we have 5 kids in our family then she names them all Kenya, Melody, Madison, Judah and Baby A. She tells them all about you and how she is going to touch you gently. She can't wait for you to come home. You also have two big sisters Melody and Madison they were born on November 11th 2008. They were the most beautiful twin girls but God chose to bring them home to heaven after they had lived on this Earth for an hour. We know that God was glorified through their lives and we are so glad God chose us to be their parents. In fact God used their lives to change our hearts and cause us to long to care for a child with a special medical need. So you can kinda say part of the reason we found you is because God allowed us to be their parents first. You also have a brother who is around the same age as you. He is too little to understand that you are coming home to us but we show him your picture and he says "Bubba" it is so cute! We are teaching him to touch things gently so that when you get here he will be careful with his Bubba. You have lots of amazing Grandparents and Aunt's, Uncle's and cousins who can't wait to meet you! 

Today was a great day but it made me miss you a lot. I can't wait for the day I can whisper in you ear I am your Momma and I love you and I wanted you from the second I saw you. You are loved sweet boy I can't wait to tell you how loved you are. 

We are getting closer to being about to come see you. We wont know for sure when we will meet for the first time for a few more months but I can't wait for that day! Your Daddy is also very excited about meeting you. We talk about you all the time! 

I can't wait to tell you about our great God and savior. And how He is the one who formed you in your Mother's womb. I can't wait to tell you that you are fearfully and wonderfully made and God can use your life for His glory if you will trust in Him. Your life might not always be easy sweet boy but I will tell you God is amazingly faithful.

 I can't wait to sing to you and read books to you. I can't wait until you can go on family walks with us. I can't wait to kiss your sweet face everyday and tell you how loved you are! I can't wait to see Jason hold you for the first time! I can't wait until we step foot on the airplane and know that you are really really going home with us and I can't wait for you to meet Judah and Kenya.

You are very very loved sweet boy! 

I am so thankful for how well you are being taken care of! It is so hard to be away from you but knowing you are in such good hands makes it a little easier. 

Baby A I LOVE YOU and we will be coming for you as soon as we can! 

Love, 

 Your Mommy!