Whew…. Finally getting a chance to update!!

Our last few weeks has been so busy.  I can’t believe how many things need to be done before school starts NEXT week!  Ahhhh…  So I will give you a rundown on what’s up at our house.

On the adoption front:  Our I800-a should be approved in the next day or two.  We have the same officer as we did previously.  Officer L is AWESOME and she even has visited our blog to see Landon and Evelyn.  She said that it was nice to see as typically they only deal with the paperwork and don’t get to see the faces attached with all those papers.  That was cool.  So as soon as we get that approval, it will be sent to the US Embassy in Sofia.  Then we will have a Visa appointment that our AWESOME attorney – Toni will attend for us.  We will then be issued an Article 5 letter and then I believe our documents will be sent to court, where they will sit until at least September 1st.  Courts in Bulgaria are closed until September 1st and have been since mid July.  Nice vacation huh??   So my best guess is that we will travel end of October to pick up the kids.  SUPER EXCITED about that!!!!  We still have a lot of money to raise, so if you are looking for something to do with a couple buckets of money, we have a chip in on our side bar or our Family Sponsorship Account with Reece’s Rainbow!

Home Front:  Tomorrow we are having two of these delivered: (well since I am late in getting this posted, this was actually today and I will get pictures up tomorrow!!)

and set up in each of the kids rooms.  We have been blessed beyond belief to be gifted these beds.  Some gracious people who shall remain nameless have been so kind as to purchase these for our family.  Also, the man that made them gave us a huge discount as well for our adoption.  He is coming to our house tomorrow to set them up.  We are super excited to have these beautiful beds in our home.  Praise GOD!!!

Today we were also gifted two full size mattresses for them.  I can’t tell you what a God thing that was.  I can tell you though it was an answer to prayer for sure. 

We painted these rooms this weekend and I will be taking pictures tomorrow of the empty rooms as well as with the beds so stay tuned.

The kids:   We are getting ready for school that starts AUGUST 15th!!  UGH!!  I am not quite ready for summer to be over and for ALL my kids to be in school!  Makes me sad in fact.  I will be alone here at home on the days I have off work. It will be strange, but I am assuming that I will get a lot accomplished for the first few weeks and then I might be a little bored.  We’ll see.

Josie will be in second grade, Katie in first and Owen in Kindergarten.  Jake will have another year of full time preschool.  We have all the backpacks packed and ready for the meet and greet with the teachers on Monday.  Here they are, sitting at the ready and I have caught the kids sitting and staring at them since I have told them they are grounded if the even so much as think about touching them to please keep their hands off the school supplies. 

Our summer:  At the beginning of the summer, we purchased a pool pass for our family.  This is the first time we have done this, however with 6 of us at $3.00 each every time we go, it adds up.  We weren’t sure we would get our money’s worth, but boy we were wrong.  We were at the pool nearly EVERY SINGLE DAY this summer.  We spent the days of 100 to 103 weather we spent having fun in the water!  I must say it’s the best money we spent and we made some wonderful memories there this summer.  I must say as well, that it has been much easier taking all 4 kids to the pool than it has been having them at home.  Not nearly as much fighting and they got some serious exercise there.  Here are some pictures from our time at the pool.

Stay tuned for summer part 2 post in the next couple days!!!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Landon!!

Today is Landon’s birthday!  He turns 6 years old today.  This day he has always spent in the orphanage…..but it’s his LAST birthday behind those walls.  I am so sad that I can’t be there with him to let him enjoy some cake and ice cream and give him presents to open.  I love that boy.  I miss him like crazy and it breaks my heart that he is spending this birthday there and not here with the family that will love him forever.

Birthdays with Jacob and now Landon and Evelyn always bring me to a different place than they do with my biological kids.  It gets me thinking about their “other” family… the family who didn’t think they could care for them.. mostly their mothers.  Do they think about them on these days?  Does she remember that 6 years ago she was in a hospital so happy and elated to finally be delivering this baby?  Or has she blocked this from her mind because it didn’t turn out quite as she had hoped?  Did she feel shattered at the thought that her little one was not “perfect” like she had hoped?  Does she just more than anything want to forget this day ever even existed?  I wonder.

I am glad!  I am glad she chose to give her child life… I am sad that she didn’t think she had the strength to care for her child, but rather she entrusted someone else to care for him until we could come and bring him to our family.  I am happy she did that!  He was meant to be our son from the beginning.. God knew that!  He knew that we would see him and fall in love with that glimmer in his eyes.  He put this into motion more years ago than I can count!  He knew! 

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!  This year we will celebrate on your 1/2 birthday because by the Grace of God you will be home in our arms by then!  Today we will celebrate your birth here with cake and we’ll sing to you while each of us blows out one candle on your cake!  Knowing that when you are here, you will celebrate a lifetime of birthdays blowing out your own candles surrounded by the love of your ENTIRE family who already love you more than life itself!! 

Sorry for the absence!!

So I got home almost a week ago.  My flight from Chicago was delayed so instead of arriving in Des Moines at 6:30 pm, my flight didn’t get in until almost 8 pm, so then we drove home and I got to snuggle the kids for about 15 minutes and we all headed to bed.  I had to work the next morning and the kids had daycare.  Needless to say, jet lag reared it’s ugly head and I was wide awake and starving at 2:30 am.  Nice. 

Worked Monday mostly in a fog really, but got through the day.  We had a nice 4th of July.  Parade in Charles City and then back to Grundy for swimming and fireworks in Reinbeck.  Here are a couple pictures from the parade that morning.

Loving the firetrucks and sirens!!!

On a quick break from candy gathering!  LOL

I have been trying to catch up on housework, though Joe did an excellent job while I was gone… dishes and laundry stayed caught up while I was gone so that was the biggest thing. 

Been to the pool a few days and this weekend is Felix Grundy Celebration here in town.  We’ll be going to the parade this afternoon and to the pool for a few hours before the parade. 

I have been keeping busy….. have to or I get all emotional that two of my children are 1/2 way around the world and I miss the heck out of them.  I will be so happy when they are here with us and our family can start to function with 6 kids.  Many people have asked about ages.. when they come home they will be 8, 7, 6, 5, 5 and 4….  so yes, they are close, but I think that will be great for the new ones to just fit right in the mix and learn from the other ones. 

That’s it for today.  I will be posting more… about our process, our busy life and mostly about our kids… here and in Bulgaria!!

Vratsa Bulgaria

This is where I am right now…. in Hotel Hemus in Vratsa Bulgaria.  It’s a great hotel.. very nice and pretty cheap compared to American standards.  It’s 55 leva a night which translates to $35 USD per night and that includes breakfast. 

The breakfast is good… it was particularly good the first day here when we went to eat at the buffet breakfast BEFORE the about 20 high school aged boys that are staying here too.  I believe they are wrestlers and I am not sure what they are doing, however they eat A LOT and sometimes when we get down there, there isn’t much left, but we make due with some bread and maybe an egg or two!  LOL

There is a beautiful square out in front of the hotel… no cars… just walking… then across the little street is blocks and blocks of shops.  Just stores, café’s and restaurants.  No cars, only for people walking and it is really nice. 

There are mountains all around here with these beautiful rock cliffs on the sides of them!  Here are some pictures as I ventured around the city yesterday.  It’s a city of about 65,000 people so it’s not at all the size of Sofia (2 million or a bit more) but it’s so pretty here. 

Evelyn–Trip 1, Visits 3, 4 & 5

I am sorry I didn’t blog yesterday… I went out exploring the city (photo’s on my blog post tonight).  Then Phillip and I had great pizza for dinner. 

So here is a recap and a couple of photos from my visit with her yesterday and this morning.  Our visits are kind of like groundhogs day really.  We are in the same small room with the same toys each time.  She does good for about an hour and a half then she gets anxious to go back to her group.  We have been staying about 1 1/2 hours in the morning. I don’t want to push her to much.  She is hesitant to warm up to me too much though when we are together she wants to sit on my lap at times when she’s not perusing a book.  She’s not super active and is content for the most part to sit and look at a book or throw things on the floor!  LOL 

She definitely prefers her caregivers to me.  They must all be familiar to her because it’s someone different every day that brings her to us.  We have not been allowed to go up to her groupa and other than the first day, we haven’t seen any other children at all.  They run a very tight ship at this orphanage.  It’s ok with me… it seems the kids are safe. 

We play with the same books every day which I know she’d like me to read to her, but since they are in Bulgarian, I make up words to go with the pictures and she seems content with that.  I swear that this morning she said OK to me…..(Phillip heard it too) as I put her down to get something.  Probably a fluke, but not positive.  I have told her in English to do certain things and she’s done them about 1/2 of the time.  Like help mommy clean up… do you want to go?…… do you want to sit on my lap??… I asked her if she spoke English and she said “nay”.  It was too cute. 

On this mornings visit we took her to get her Visa/Passport pictures taken.  It was funny because I thought the whole way there in the car, I didn’t bring candy to bribe her like we had to with Landon.  Turns out, she didn’t need it.  The woman took two pictures and the first one she turned away just as the flash went off.. the second one was perfect.  That was that.  Phillip had actually walked back to the car to get something he forgot and in that short time the pictures were done.  They printed them out right then and that was that!  We went back to the orphanage and played for about 1/2 hour and our visit was over.  I have 4 more visits with her.  This afternoon, two tomorrow and then Friday morning will be my last visit as we will be driving back to Sofia in the afternoon. 

Here are some pictures of her from yesterday and today… yes she is in the same outfit.. yellow yesterday a.m. and green yesterday afternoon and this morning.. same exact outfit, just different colors.  LOL

There is also one with her shirt off.  Past days, she’s had a onesie on under her shirt and shorts so I didn’t want to take it off, but today she just had an undershirt.  You can see how skinny she is.  We’ll take care of that when we get home.  Anyone know anything about the indention on her chest??  Indication of anything???  I don’t know for sure.  I didn’t get a picture of her back, but her spine sticks out of her skin too.. not open, but you can see her entire spine with her shirt off.

Evelyn and Phillip in the background!  She’s coloring…. this is just before she bit off a big bite of green crayon!!

Playing with my music toy!!!

They put a bow in her hair in the afternoon yesterday!  So cute!

Hey.. get that camera out of my face.. don’t you have enough pictures??

Her TINY foot.. I am guessing a size 3 or 4 infants will fit her fine.  She’ll be 4 in August.

Look at that beautiful profile picture!  Stunning!!!

This is as much of a smile as we’ve gotten so far.  I will take it!!!

She’s so skinny!!  Goodness!!!

You can see all her ribs.  They say she just has trouble gaining weight just like Jacob does.  We’ll be getting Thyroid tests and Cardio appointments the minute we get home.

Here is a better look at that indention on her chest.  Any ideas?  Or are just some kids like this???  When she breaths that part goes in even further!!!!! But leaves me with …..why????

Medical Info

Well there is some to share about Evelyn and her medical info.  It’s not anything too surprising.  She has some issues with her thyroid, her heart, and the fact that she has difficulty gaining weight.  She’s just a little bit of a thing and maybe weighs 20 lbs or a little more.  She’s somewhat active but I can see she doesn’t have a lot of energy.  She enjoys just sitting and watching. 

The director said she was just to the dr in March for a check up for her heart and has to go back in 6 months.  I am skeptical when she says that the drs have said she doesn’t require surgery.  I don’t doubt they have said it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that she will need surgery.  She has an ASD that has went unrepaired and I think its causing her stay so tiny and not to gain weight.  I guess we won’t know for sure until we get her home.  She’s also is having issues with her thyroid but isn’t on medication for it a far as I know, which could explain the lack of weight gain.  

She’s been tested for the genetic condition that has left two of her siblings deceased, but from what the dr said she does not have this condition.  We will have to have her tested again when she gets home.  I think it might be something we can treat in the US, but I will have to do some further investigating.  It’s called alpha 1 anti-trypsin deficiency .. she’s been sick with frequent UTI’s and respiratory issues so I am also skeptical if she’s been tested correctly for this as well.  But the respiratory could be from the untreated issue with her heart as well.  Right now it’s just a guessing game and we will just have to wait until we get her home. 

She seems ok, but she has some definite things we need to check out the minute we get home.  She also will need to visit a dentist and an ENT very first off when we get home.  I don’t think she hears really well and her ears and mouth smell of decay.  I looked in her mouth and her teeth seem ok, but the smell was coming from her ears actually so I am not sure what is going on in there.  It was the same smell though that I smelled at Tacuda Hospital when I was holding “little” 14 year old Faith.  So judging from that, it can’t be good whatever it is. 

EVELYN–Day 1 Visit 1

My day started at 7:00 am.  I was awake a bit before that, but didn’t get out of bed until then.  It was a shower, dressed and a quick check of FB and email before I had to meet Phillip for breakfast at 8:30 am.  The hotel we are staying at is really nice and breakfast was good.  I will post pictures of the hotel and some of the city views later today, but I will get to the good stuff now. 

We left for the orphanage at about 9:00 and it was a short drive.  We arrived early, but went in.  The orphanage is very large.  It’s like three buildings all in one. It reminded me of Jacob’s orphanage in Ukraine only bigger.  Gated all the way around and very nice clean grounds.  We walked in and were greeted by a doorman.  Phillip told him what we were there for and a few minutes later we were greeted by the director.  She seemed very nice, but a little reserved.  I asked a bunch of questions about Evelyn.. heart stuff, health stuff etc.  Nothing, for the most part that I didn’t already know.  Then I showed her some new photos of Chrissie Davis… Denise had sent me some to take to the orphanage to show how good Chrissie was doing!  She was so happy to get them and showed me a picture of Chrissie when she was still at the orphanage. 

Then the director said we could come outside and meet Evelyn.  I walked out of the office and down the hall…. there she was… standing with her caregiver.  Oh goodness… she was adorable and so tiny for almost 4 years old.  I will post more about her health issues later, but for now… here are her pictures from our first visit.

I am not quite sure about you and that camera!!!!  But isn’t she a beauty?

Love her already!!!!!  She likes my glasses too, just like Landon!!

Look at my LONG eyelashes!!!!!

Wanna play??  Come on.. I will show you the GOOD stuff!!!

Yep, the GOOD stuff… here is a swing… I like to swing, but not too high!

 

Such a pretty girl!!!!!

Oh look at those eyes!!!!!  So pretty!!!!

 

Yep, I think she is ok.. I think I will sit on her lap for a little while…. this was how we spent the last 20 minutes of my visit.  She was done running around (though she isn’t nearly as active as Landon) and she wanted to sit and play with my camera.  She was amazed by the pictures in there.  All-in-All it was a great visit.. great first visit with my girl!!!!

A few pictures of our day!

I wanted to take many many more pictures, but it was sooo hot today and we were so tired this is all I managed to get taken….

 

My favorite butter of all time!!  LOL

Hungarian Pancakes –with chicken inside and veges!  YUMMY… this was Michelle’s meal!

Olya had the Goulosh Soup – looked good too!!!!!

I had the mushroom and cheese omelet with fries!  It was good!!!!