Our Trip to Meet Our Son

I was going to post before now but I have been so tired, it was a really big trip.
We have meet the cutest little boy, with the most adorable smile, and we can't wait till he comes home.

The first day we arrived in Vladivostok we met up with Rachael and Durham (not forgetting gorgeous Olive) from Living hope Vladivostok, for a traditional Russian BBQ.  They work with street children, among lots of other things.   This was a real high light for us, we can't wait to go back.

Some other things:

• We meet some great people at different stages of an adoption process and got to celebrate with them.
• Saw the biggest "road kill" we have ever seen!  Two horses.  
• Got to enjoy Russia in a warm climate, next trip it will be covered in snow.
• Saw Road rage at its finest, quite a novelty haha
• Was able to travel over the new bridges in Vlad, that were built for the Apec summit
• Saw all the excitement building getting everything ready for the summit, helicopters, more police than I have ever seen in one place.
• And the best part, was we fell in love with a gorgeous wee boy.  My husband has turned to mush, and it is all he talks about.  Good sign I say.

I wish I could share our little boys picture with you, but I am not allowed till he is home, so these will have to do for now.

Little Mr V

Living Hope Vladivostok, by the river

Living Hope

Some of the kids, Rachael and Rachael

BBQ by the river.  

Outside the orphanage

About to meet our son

One of the gorgeous churches

Fruit market outside orphanage

Lovely families celebrating passing court

Typical traffic in Vlad

View of the new bridge

Yes we got to drive it

Outside the Vlad Inn, the main place adoptive families stay

The park at the Inn that will be covered in snow next trip

Our goodbye dinner

We're Here

Here is just a quick update on our trip.  We arrived to our hotel at about 3 pm, and then at 6pm, we went to have a Russian style BBQ at Living Hope Vladivostok.  It was great meeting all the kids, and a neat kiwi family that are staying there with their three children, helping at living hope for a month.

Bit disappointing we don't get to meet the child today, not sure why, but tomorrow is the day.

It is surreal being back, mixed bag of emotions really.  The good thing is, because this is the second trip, we are very relaxed and know where everything thing is and how things are mostly done.  We have meet three other couples at the hotel who are either meeting there children, going to court and one that is getting her wee boy today.  Very exciting.

Nearly There :)

Well, after a chaotic few weeks, we are nearly ready to go.  We have had lawyers, flights, ballet exams, our son rushed to hospital, husband sick, on top of trying to get ready to go, aahhh.
I hate leaving my kids so much, it's particularly hard with the little one, expecially when she asked me today if I will come back, poor little thing.

Things I am excited about:

Meeting this new little person
Catching up with the 4 families who are traveling at the same time as us and staying at the same hotel.
Hopefully some relaxing involved??
Getting this process started again.
Seeing Rachael, Durham and Olive from   http://www.livinghope.org.nz/

So it is 12 hours to go before we travel to Auckland to begin a new journey, hopefully I will be able to post while we are there.

I came across this post by an adoptive mum, and it made me laugh because of how true it is!
http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2012/08/21/the-truth-about-adoption-one-year-later

Off To Russia!!!

It is hard to believe it has been nearly 10 months since we did trip one to Russia.  We are really excited to say we have had a referral come through, and we are leaving in less than two weeks to go and meet ????.  If you don't know what a referral is, it is a child/children that have been matched to your family for adoption.  

Timeline from now:

August 2012 trip one to meet the 'referral'

Lots of waiting

Trip two to go to court and be granted custody, fingers crossed

30 days later, trip 3 to pick up and bring them home.

This has been a long journey for our family, we are hopeful this time it will happen.

Adoption Vladivostok "2nd time lucky"?

Well, ALL and I do mean ALL of our adoption paper work is expiring this month in Russia, so we have started at the beginning with it all, getting all the documents ready, notarizing, and of course hoping they arrive on time.  We have adopted from China before, but paper work for a Russian adoption is a whole other story.  

It feels surreal being back at the beginning of the process again.  It has been nearly a whole year since we meet the boys we were meant to adopt, and then lost.  Hard to believe where the time has gone.   We are hoping to hear good news soon, have been saying that for a while now.  We are in a really good place, but it is hard waiting, it has been soooo long, and we are really excited to be adopting again.  So many families who were a few months behind us in the process have returned with their children, and we are still patiently waiting :).   I love seeing all those gorgeous kids coming home to their families, and watching them blossom after only a month or two.  This was our little girl when we meet her and then a month later.  So love seeing their little personalities coming out.

Fiji mission trip

Our oldest son just returned on Saturday morning, from a two week trip to Fiji, helping the people on the Island of Labasa.  We missed him so much, but it was so great for him to be able to go.  He has wanted to do a mission trip for a while now.  It was such an experience for him, even got totally bitten by 'bed bugs'!!

My gorgeous boy 

The kids club help helped with.  

Jackson at one of the churches they helped in.

This is his feet after a night with bed bugs

He was invited to a kava ceremony

coconuts

Helping to local villages by planting watermelons

One of the horrible insects found while planting!
Very poisonous apparently

*** Jasmine ***

This week has been an eventful week.  Our oldest son is on a mission trip to Fiji for two weeks, helping in Villages etc, quite a huge deal for him and us.  This week has been also about little miss Jasmine.   We finally managed to have her birthday party, after waiting patiently for the movie to come out at the cinema.  Lots of fun was had but all her little girlfriends.

And two days ago, we again enjoyed reminiscing about the first time, 8 years ago (hard to believe) we first saw our daughters little face.  It was the date she was allocated to our family and we were given her photos.