New Pics!
The girls are doing soooooooo great! What a massive blessing they are to our family! Look how much they have changed in just 2 months!
Airport Pictures!!
My fabulous sister-in-law Jennifer came to the airport in the middle of the night to greet us. She took these fabulous homecoming pictures!!
Fun Pics of Novosibirsk
I just had to share these fun pics of Novosibirsk.
This little fence in the park next to Lenin Square surrounds a small fountain in the warmer months. If you can't tell, click on the pic to make it bigger, it is covered in locks. Couples when they get married place a lock on the fence and then throw away the key representing their commitment to eachother. :)
This little fence in the park next to Lenin Square surrounds a small fountain in the warmer months. If you can't tell, click on the pic to make it bigger, it is covered in locks. Couples when they get married place a lock on the fence and then throw away the key representing their commitment to eachother. :)
In Novosibirsk, they do not shovel any of the sidewalks, parking lots or anything but the streets. So strollers are impossible. Instead you find these all over town. Parents pull their children in sleds! There are a wide variety of pull or push sleds just like there are a wide variety of strollers here. Super fun way to get around town.
This was our room this time at the Sibir. We decided to upgrade to the 2 room suite since we would have the girls with us. It was soooooooooooooo much nicer then their tiny rooms and we got a great deal on it. It was very cute and having the extra space was a life-saver!
CNN
My cute girls on CNN! We were interviewed in Moscow.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2013/01/25/pkg-black-russia-adoption-ban.cnn
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2013/01/25/pkg-black-russia-adoption-ban.cnn
Day 7: Flying home (cont)
The flight home was LONG. The girls did great (better then the moms). There is nothing more exhausting then 15 hours on a plane!
Day 7: Homeward bound!
We made it through Russian immigration! We have sailed through every obstacle! We have angels at our side. Even little things have fallen into place.
For example, at the airport, the girls both had bad diarrhea and before we even got on our flight, we had gone through all the baby wipes. We still had hours and hours to go with no baby wipes! What were we to do? The out of the blue, a little old lady who does not speak any English suddenly handed Melinda a package of baby wipes. How did she know? Why did she have baby wipes? Obviously she was an angel on earth. We have had lots of these angels (both seen and unseen) on our journey. Thank you to all of them! Thank you to those who prayed for us, contributed financially, helped put on fundraisers, spread the word about our girls, and more! We very literally could not have done this adoption alone. Impossible. But with God and His angels, ANYTHING is possible. You have been part of a miracle! And there are two little girls who are ORPHANS NO MORE!!
A special thank you to the Reeces Rainbow family! www.reecesrainbow.org Without them we would have never found our girls. Without them we would have never had the funds to adopt them. Without them, we would not have had the courage, support and knowlege to complete this journey. Thank you!
A special thank you to WACAP, our adoption agency www.wacap.org. They are putting special needs orphans first and creating families and miracles every day!
And most of all thank you to those who supported our adoption and were encouraging to us. We had so many people be discouraging and try to tear us down. It is because of the love and support of dear friends and family members who believed in us that we were able to follow the Lord's call and adopt these divine girls!
They are HUGE blessings in our lives. They have the most amazing personalities and are such adorable additions! We cannot imagine our family without them now. As a good friend once said, children with Down Syndrome are the sprinkles on the cupcake of life.
For example, at the airport, the girls both had bad diarrhea and before we even got on our flight, we had gone through all the baby wipes. We still had hours and hours to go with no baby wipes! What were we to do? The out of the blue, a little old lady who does not speak any English suddenly handed Melinda a package of baby wipes. How did she know? Why did she have baby wipes? Obviously she was an angel on earth. We have had lots of these angels (both seen and unseen) on our journey. Thank you to all of them! Thank you to those who prayed for us, contributed financially, helped put on fundraisers, spread the word about our girls, and more! We very literally could not have done this adoption alone. Impossible. But with God and His angels, ANYTHING is possible. You have been part of a miracle! And there are two little girls who are ORPHANS NO MORE!!
A special thank you to the Reeces Rainbow family! www.reecesrainbow.org Without them we would have never found our girls. Without them we would have never had the funds to adopt them. Without them, we would not have had the courage, support and knowlege to complete this journey. Thank you!
A special thank you to WACAP, our adoption agency www.wacap.org. They are putting special needs orphans first and creating families and miracles every day!
And most of all thank you to those who supported our adoption and were encouraging to us. We had so many people be discouraging and try to tear us down. It is because of the love and support of dear friends and family members who believed in us that we were able to follow the Lord's call and adopt these divine girls!
They are HUGE blessings in our lives. They have the most amazing personalities and are such adorable additions! We cannot imagine our family without them now. As a good friend once said, children with Down Syndrome are the sprinkles on the cupcake of life.
Day 6: Embassy Appointment
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics today. We spent most of the day in the embassy and they take your camera from you as you enter. But what an AMAZING day it was! When we got through embassy security we found ourselves in a room with 12 other adoptive families. We had all made it! We were also told that 5 had made it the day before. It was such a happy celebatory group! We congratulated each other and hugged each other's children. We all traveled on a wing and a prayer, not knowing if we would be able to get our children due to the adoption ban. And we did! We did it! Even though most were discouraging and telling us not to travel, we did it! Even the US Ambassador was shocked and told us that they did not think any of us would make it that far. Sadly, many did not. We were also told that several families were stuck in their regions unable to get the necessary paperwork.
The embassy staff was wonderful and the US Ambassador took time to speak with each family. They handled the sudden influx of family with efficiency and compassion.
It was so nice to be in a room with Americans again. So nice to be in a place of joy!
We only have one step left now, Russian immigration. If we can make it through that, we will be home free.
The embassy staff was wonderful and the US Ambassador took time to speak with each family. They handled the sudden influx of family with efficiency and compassion.
It was so nice to be in a room with Americans again. So nice to be in a place of joy!
We only have one step left now, Russian immigration. If we can make it through that, we will be home free.
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