We are here!

We made it!!!

We flew out Friday at 1:30PM and arrived in Eastern Europe at 4:30PM (9:30AM YOUR time, we are 7 hours ahead of you) Saturday. Our driver Nicco Picked us up and drove us to our apartment. I was pretty wiped out so we stayed put for the evening.

I went to bed at 11:30pm (4:30 your time) and had a great night of sleep. We woke up about 9AM, got ready and headed out for McDonalds.

We did a ton of walking today. The weather is great, 24c, which would be around 70 degrees.

There is a huge festival going on. I heard it is a celebration of this city's Birthday.
There are live concerts, rides, balloons. SO fun seeing all the people everywhere.

I absolutely LOVE it here!! I love seeing the different culture, hearing the language, seeing the different styles.
It's really funny, all the little boys I see look so much like my Gabe and Levi :)

Tomorrow at 9AM we have our SDA appointment. This will be where we hear all the information they have on our boys like why they are at the orphanage and their medical.
It is also where we will get our referral for the boys so we can then get a court date.
We will get the referral papers Tuesday and board our train Tuesday night to make the 12 hour trip to our boys region.
Wednesday morning when we arrive we will be taken to the orphanage where....

We will meet our boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know you are all dying to see pics so here you go!!!
These are a mixture of Genesis' pics and mine. And yes, it is killing me that I can't edit mine. Never before have I posted my pics straight out of camera. Count yourself lucky;)













I was hoping to sleep on the 9 hour flight from NC to Germany but no such luck. We were all pretty tired after that flight and had a 5 hour layover before flying the last 2 hours to EE


We needed coffee bad


Unfortunately it would take 10x this cup to do the job


Lunch/breakfast not really sure at this point what time our bodies think it is. Guy and Genesis got this pancake wrap with sweet cheese. Looks way better than it taste


Hello *K



Our apartment












View from the balcony






At night


My dinner last night


Fireworks!!! The view from our balcony





Our walk around the city


COFFEE!!!


The McDonalds did taste different but wasn't bad. It wasn't too expensive, I actually think it was cheaper than ours. We got 2 whole meals, 1 chicken sandwich and a coffee for under $12.






Found the electronic store to get a card reader for Genesis camera card


iPad 2 Just released


Sound close to what you spent Tim and Lisa???


Jude and Zane, Kung Fu Panda is here too!!!!!!!!!!!!


The beach






Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging hello's! We treasure each one.

A HUGE Thank you to my sister and bro, Kara and Stefen for watching my kids and helping them with this transition.
Kara even made a blog that is a day to day of the boys at home. What a gift.

Buckle up!

It's almost 2AM. We leave in almost 6 hours to head to the airport.

I am excited, anxious, and sad all at the same time.



Excited to FINALLY hug my new babies.

Anxious because I didn't get my list of things to do done.

And sad leaving my Jude & Zane for so long.

*For those that are wondering, we are bringing our daughter Genesis with us, and our boys who are 6 & 4 will be staying with family. They really encourage you to not bring young children with you as some of the days can be painfully long and tiring with lots of running around, literally, and no time to stop to eat or rest.
Genesis is 11 and very mature for her age and we knew that she could handle the trip. She also has a big heart for orphans and the poor so we felt this trip would be life changing for her and will be a foundation for the calling God has on her life.*


I have a feeling this month is going to be one big roller coaster. Good thing I really like coasters.

Thank you all SO VERY MUCH for all your support & prayers.



Now buckle up..... this is gonna be an incredible ride!!

2 short days!

*This is a t-shirt I designed for my boys to wear home*




I honestly cannot believe we are at THIS very moment in our adoption journey. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited. YES, I am.

BUT, mostly the feeling is incredibly surreal. I have so many emotions going on that sometimes I can't think straight. SO much to do. Packing, cleaning the house, getting the house ready for 2 little boys, photo shoots, researching the country that we are going to, preparing to leave behind my Zane and Jude......so much.

When we moved here to FL from TN 6 months ago, we hit the ground running!
November we moved into our home, my sister got married, Thanksgiving, and I had MANY photo shoots.

I knew that as soon as we moved I wanted to begin the process of our adoption and on December 15th we committed to Gabe (a few weeks later we added Levi). It has been a whirlwind of activity ever since.
I continued to book photo shoots to raise money. We had lots of fund raisers including Chick-Fil-A, T-Shirt sales, Bowl-A-Thon, BBQ Dinners, Yard sale, auctions, Lori Annes, Adoption journals...to name a few.
Couple that with the hundreds of legal forms to fill out and you have yourself a busy few months!

I know everyone's adoption journeys are different with many highs and lows, but I will say honestly that this process was FAR easier than I ever imagined!!
And super FAST!!
I have a long list of times throughout this process that had God's name written all over it. I hope to blog about that soon.

So here we are. Boarding a plane in two days to fly to EE. We have our SDA appointment on Monday at 9AM their time (they are 7 hours ahead of us). We will hopefully be meeting our boys that Wednesday.

I hope to be able to keep up with this blog and fill you in on everything step by step. Of course there will also be lots of photo's and video's, internet service willing.

Thank each one of you that got us to this place in our adoption journey and helped make a lifelong dream of mine, and a command of the Father, a reality. We love you!

The Amazing Race

Have you ever seen the reality show "Amazing Race"

I knew I would never be a good candidate for that show. I am direction impaired.

Ask my dad about "the tree" sometime. It was the beginning of my diagnosis.

I also don't have a lot of patience.

But after these last 5 months I feel like I am starring on the show.



And guess what? We are approaching the finish line!

Guy and I are running as hard and fast as we can.



We can see the finish line.

We hear Phil saying,

*Insert crowd cheering on the sidelines*


"5 months, hundreds of pieces of paperwork, hours of prayer and fasting, hard work, sacrifices, fund-raising....Guy and Lindy, you are the official winners of the Amazing Race to Gabe and Levi!!

Our plane tickets are booked. We board our plane in 12 days!!! We will be hugging our boys in 2 weeks. I can hardly believe it.

There are so many emotions right now.

Excitement to meet my boys. Getting the long list of things to do done. Not wanting to leave my 2 boys behind for the weeks we are gone. Soon we will be a family of seven with 2 special needs sons.......

For all of you adopting parents out there, you can just mark the last month of waiting off your calculations because it totally FLY'S by! Trust me.

Two Words ___________ _____________

Wednesday, May 4th, we got the long awaited phone call that we have our SDA appointment in EE!!! It will be Monday, May 30th at 9:00AM.

Instant excitement. Instant relief. Instant reality that we still had $5,000 to raise in 3 short weeks.

As I called and texted the family, I found myself beginning to freak out about how in the world I could raise the $5,000 we needed in such a short time.

I logged in to Facebook to make our announcement and the very top comment on my wall was this:

Imagine Jesus saying this to you about today - "I will equip you as you go, so that you can handle whatever comes your way. Trust me to supply what you need when you need it."

Throughout this whole adoption process God has spoken to me so clearly at different times. Just when I've needed it.
It made me think of all the times in life that I asked, no, begged God to talk to me and never really felt like I got answers.
Now in the last year I have heard Him more than ever.

Maybe it has something to with finally being at a place where I am listening. A place where I have said this life is not mine, it's not "All about me". God, whatever you want, however you want. Use me.

"I will equip you as you go, so that you can handle whatever comes your way. Trust me to supply what you need when you need it."

That evening I received an email. Someone anonymously donated $4,000 to our Reece's Rainbow account.

Seriously God. You are amazing.

Guy and I sat down to calculate where we were at with funds. We had several donations that had come in including a $300.00 check from Lori Anne's fundraiser.

The result?

Two words:

FULLY FUNDED!!!!!!

"Trust me to supply what you need when you need it"

THANK YOU, each and every one of you that donated in some way, big or small.

This was never about giving money to Lindy or Guy. This wasn't about giving us money so we could simply grow our family. No, this was bigger than that.

It was about this:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27

Adoption is at the heart of God.

In Russell Moore's Book "Adopted for Life" it says

"The scriptures tell us there are unseen beings around us who would rather we not think about who we are in Christ.

They would rather we find our identity, our inheritance, and our mission according to what we can see and verify as ours - according to what the Bible calls "the flesh"- rather than according to the veiled rhythms of the spirit of life.

That's why adoption isn't charity - it's war.

Adoption is not just about couples who want children - or who want more children.

Adoption is about an entire culture within our churches, a culture that sees adoption as part of our Great Commission mandate and as a sign as the gospel itself."



Off to start our packing list and practice some Russian

Grass is Greener on the other side

The other day my 11 year old, Genesis, said, "Mom, if we had nice green grass in our yard I would play outside more".



If you know Genesis you know that she is not like her tomboy mother was at her age.
I loved to be outside playing with my older brother, making guns out of sticks, building forts, and cooking up some yummy mud pies.

Genesis, not so much. She is all girl.

The truth is. No matter how lush our grass is, she still would not choose to go outside. It's just not her thing.

I had that "grass is greener on the other side" thinking all the time. And still do sometimes if I'm not careful.

I would walk into someone else's clean home and think, "If I had a house like this then I could have a better family".

Why is it that when someone else does the work, it seems SO much better.

Someone else can make me a sandwich the exact same way I would, and yet it taste far better since they made it. Why is that???

I digress

I would think things like, "If I had her looks I would be more out going, if I had that talent I could do more for God, if I had more money I would help others...."

Last year one of the things God taught me is Don't Wait for the If

I grew up in church and learned that it is better to give than receive.

But when it came to finances I would always say that all I wanted was to make enough money to provide for my family comfortably and have some left over so I could then bless others.

The problem is defining comfortable. But that's a whole other blog for another day.

God finally got ahold of my heart and changed my thinking. I stopped longing for the neighbors house. The nice cars, the great paying job, dressing my kids in the cutest clothes. And even stopped waiting for "enough".

The moment I decided that we actually had more than enough, and decided to start giving now, my life has changed.

Now I am not into prosperity teaching. I don't believe that we give to receive.
But God is so awesome that He does bless us.

No, we didn't all the sudden receive a nice car or get a six digit salary.

We are blessed with contentment.

Blessed with a wonderful family.

Blessed to be adding two amazing little boys to our family.

Blessed to really start to Know God.

Blessed to be happy living on our side of the fence.

The grass may not be greener, but the mud pies are incredible.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and he wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him.

An angel hears his plea and appears to him. "Sorry, but you can't
take your wealth with you." The man implores the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules.

The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him. The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure gold bars and places it beside his bed.

Soon afterward the man dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven to
greet St.Peter. St.Peter seeing the suitcase says, "Hold on, you
can't bring that in here!"

But, the man explains to St.Peter that he has permission and asks him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St.Peter checks and comes back saying, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through."

St. Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims,

"You brought pavement?!!!"