Day two with Amanda

Amanda went to bed without complaint, even though she refused to eat dinner, but waking up in a strange place was hard on her, she was scared. We cuddled with her, made her oatmeal and hoped she would eat it, no, she did not want it at all. She drank a sip of juice.

We changed her and tried to feed her more food, she refused, turning her head away and pouting. More cuddling and getting her dresses. She is a tiny girl, very fine-boned, but not bone skinny, though I am sure she will get a little chubbier once home. We were getting worried about her not eating though.

We went to breakfast and tried to feed her pineapple yogurt, and that she did eat, she did well sitting up in a high chair and ate the whole thing plus half of another. We tried some cereal, she gagged on it, and juice, she drank a few sips from a spoon and stopped. At least we know she will eat yogurt. Now to find more things, we know she can't live off of it, but she needs calories.She definitely has the rocking thing going, and has a raspy breathing she does along with it, other times she says mama ma, or other vocalizations. She is very vocal. She can pull to a stand, will walk a little with us, and hates shoes. She is beginning to smile at us, but it is hesitant. We are still strangers to her, with time we know she will be OK.

Amanda loves the mirror, she had a great time looking at herself , I thought these pictures were precious of her. She is such a quiet little girl in many ways, but she is not shut down, she just seems confused. She has a cute voice, and the prettiest little hands ever. It struck us that there was no single crease across the palms, no missing finger bones, she has an artists hands.

She is settling down for a nap, the orphanage staff said she hates to nap, but I think she is a little stressed, so she needs more sleep. We noticed she has terrible teeth, she grinds them and they are yellow and her gums do not look very good. We will get her to a dentist ASAP.

She has an abundance of waxy build up in her ears, we did not bring anything to clean them out, so that will have to wait until we get home. We need to shop, but it is still raining, I think Tom will need to brave the walk alone again, at least now he knows exactly where the store is. I have yet to walk out and about.

She looks like she is praying, we hope she is saying "Dear God, thank you for sending me a family" we are thanking God for her, and tomorrow at 2 PM Estonia time, she will become our eighth child and fourth daughter.

We have Amanda with us

We are so grateful to Igor for taking us to the orphanage to see Amanda. I packed her duds because I had a feeling "going to see" meant taking her with us, and it did. She was so scared when I removed her clothes to dress her in the things we brought, and she clung to me for dear life as we exited the orphanage. The car terrified her, she began to cry as we left, but mama rubbed her head and soothed her. Once we got in the room, she began to relax and now she is playing with keys. She loves throwing things too, oh boy, so does Kara, can we say here and now that my house will never be clean again!

They were feeding her when we got there, she was eating from a spoon, very soft foods, but she ate them! I brought bottles too! So far she won't drink from a cup or a bottle though, probably wants juice. They told us she will not drink milk and really likes sweets. That combined with teeth gnashing may mean some major dental issues, Well, she will see her doctors when she gets home.

Tongue thrusting is more than an issue for her, she has a tongue Gene Simmons would envy, she can lick the bottom of her chin with it.

Tom will go to the store after the rain stops, it is pouring here, and on their holiday! Kind of sad for them, but maybe tomorrow will be better, the bonfires are tomorrow, we were hoping to go.

Amanda vocalizes a lot, babababa, mamama and some other fun sounds. She also makes a wheezy noise that at first is alarming, but is seems to be a verbal game she plays. Again with the doctor, they can listen. We expected to see a scar on her chest from her heart repair, but they must have repaired it through her femoral artery.

I don't think we need to say that she is adorable, because she sure is. She crawls a way I have not seen in a long time, kind of a butt-scoot crawl. We will upload a video later.

We are so happy, she is finally with us, she is all we dreamed she would be and more. Please pray all goes well in court Wednesday, because this angel needs to go home with mommy and daddy!

We are here

The view from our apartment window and from the plane on the way here.

Whew, long flights are exhausting.

We had Jelena ( pronounced Yelena) here at Romeo apartments call Igor for us, he did not answer. She was uncertain whether we could pickup or even meet Amanda because tomorrow and Tuesday are a national holidays here in Estonia, you can read about it below. I am so tired that I can't see straight, I think Tom already fell asleep. This will be short.

6/21/2008 - 6/22/2008 Midsummer's Night
Countrywide, Estonia Celebrated throughout Estonia, Midsummer's Night is the celebration of the Summer Solstice which marks the longest day of the year. It is an ancient practice which dates back to pre-Christian times and has many rituals that are closely associated with nature and the hope for a good harvest in the autumn. It is a time to be with friends, family and loved ones and is usually celebrated with a big meal during the day before heading out to one of the many public parties which involve traditional dances and more eating, drinking and singing. Bonfires are also lit which is a ritual that links back to the old tradition of cleansing and warding off evil spirits

At the airport heading out!

We're sitting at the airport in Tucson waiting to board our plane. Meghan was a little upset that she wasn't coming with us, she even packed the backpack she took to Ukraine!

We called home and Fred said she was doing fine, watching Ratatouille! Fred fed Kara breakfast, he didn't realize she was already feeding herself!

This is Tom writing this as I dictate.

We're a little stressed right now, but once we are in Estonia we should be fine...especially after we meet Amanda.

Please pray for us while we travel and for our children who stayed home.

On our way today!

We are leaving at 10:30 for the airport, wow, by Sunday we will be in Estonia, after all this time, well 9 1/2 months, we are on our way.

One more thing

I am sure looking forward to sharing new pictures of Amanda with our blog readers, I know I can't wait to see her, hold her, and take NEW PICTURES!! LOL

Crazy busy

I hope Amanda is ready for desert living,

poor baby, she is used to cooler weather

We are getting everything ready to leave Saturday at 9:00. Our sons are moving in, Brian and Marcus will live here, and the other s will help with the youngest two, Meghan and Kara. Julia will be helping as well. Mom is a little nervous at the prospect of leaving her family behind, especially the little girls.

I can hardly believe this day is here; I feel like pinching myself and as sleepless nights rush forward to our travel date, I can hardly contain my excitement and my trepidation, we have only adopted once before, and it went awry, thank goodness we came home with Kara, but not without loss and heartache. Our joy at seeing her change and grow replaces the sadness and the regret, but we will never forget why we traveled to Ukraine in the first place.

So now it is 6 months since we adopted Kara and we will soon be on our way to adopt her little sister. Both of us are so excited about seeing Amanda, the thrill of the first meeting, and the worry if she will like us as much as we do her. We love her little face, but we do not know her yet, nor she us. Still it will be no different from meeting Kara who was an unknown child! We knew immediately she was supposed to be our daughter, we already know this about Amanda!

Back to packing and rechecking documents for the 20th time.

For Alice

http://specialchildren.about.com/od/needinspiration/ig/Notes-of-Encouragement/ is where I got each of the inspirations. I put the border around them. LOL

Love these, and needed them tonight!

Some news

Things happen, sometimes when we count on something or someone they let us down, and we are worried that we will be by the agency we applied for a grant with.

Since we got our travel date more than three weeks ago, I called them 3 times; never got a reply to the messages I left. I emailed them three times, got a return email to me with no reply, I was asking if they received our application because the check I wrote for the application fee had not cleared yet.

I finally got an email yesterday, Friday the 13, and our 30Th wedding anniversary (yesterday was a strange day, with highs and lows) the reply was not encouraging and I have nervous flutters in my belly. The agency helped us when we adopted from Ukraine, they were so helpful and kind and we were very grateful to them. The grant was a Godsend and came to us just in the nick of time, since we left for Ukraine with only a week to prepare, the agency had to vote early whether to give us a grant or not, thankfully they said yes!

Their email on Friday said when they were meeting and that we would know if we got the grant on June 20, we leave for Estonia on June 21, so I do not think that is going to help us, do you? I emailed back thanking them for considering us, because let's face it, they did not have to. I mentioned that we were leaving the day after and they emailed back that we would have to wait.

There are 60 other applicants this term to the agency. Sixty is an awful lot of couples hoping this agency will help them. I know the struggles so many adoptive families face with the financial aspect of adoption, especially if like us; they are adopting two so close to one another.

So of course I am thinking that since they helped us already in November, the chances of them doing this for us again are pretty slim. I do not want to think negatively at all, but realistically I can see we are at a disadvantage here.

I have spent so many days praying that the grant would come through, and I felt that it would, and it COULD still, but I have no way of counting on it.

I was not going to put this in our blog, but decided that all of the difficulties of adopting should be included in it. Finances are one of the main reasons couples give up on adoption, and it is the children who suffer, but God knows us, and knows we will not give up and we will remain steadfast in our commitment to adopt Amanda. We have purchased our airline tickets, we have our hotel reservation and deposit paid, and we have a court date; we will get everything else we need before we leave next Saturday!

If you could pray with us this next week we would appreciate it.