highlights of the last 36 hours…

I’m not even sure I can begin to put into words the unbelievable emotions and craziness of the last 36 hours. I honestly didn’t even know that so much could happen in less than a 2 day span.

It began with the big snowfall of 2010. We woke up at 6:00am on Friday morning. Steve immediately went outside to shovel the foot of snow that had dumped onto our driveway, so we could get our luggage out of the house.

Our friends, Eric and Adrianne, picked us up at 7:00am. We loaded up in their car and began to head to the airport…or so we thought. Before we could drive anywhere, our tires began spinning in the snow and the car wouldn’t move.

So Eric and Steve got out and pushed the car. We would go about 5 feet forward then get stuck. Over and over. Finally, Eric took the wheel and I got out in the freezing cold to help Steve push. Once the car got moving we all jumped in and headed to the airport….or so we thought.

In order to get on the highway, we had to up an unplowed hill. You guessed it, tires spun again, and the car stopped moving. So, Steve and I got out and began to push.

Picture this scene – Steve and I running in place behind a car, up the highway. I was pushing with all my might – screaming out loud, “this is not going to be what stops us!!” We got the car going and started sprinting beside the car, opened the doors and jumped in. The four of us just laughed and cried in disbelief.

We got to the airport on time, walked to the gate, saw our plane, prepared to board, only to find out that our pilot was missing. We waited and waited. Finally they announced that they located the pilot. Yay! We can finally leave…or so we thought.

30 minutes later, while we were sitting IN the plane, they announced over the cockpit intercom that the lost pilot simply decided to go home. Everyone began grumbling and we de-boarded.

A new pilot finally showed up, 2½ hours later. We were so grateful that we had a 4 hour layover in Chicago because there were many people in our plane that missed their connecting flights. We sprinted through Chicago O’Hare and before we knew it, we were in the air, heading to Germany.

We made it to Frankfurt with little time to spare, then it was off to St. Petersburg. After going through customs in Russia, we met our facilitators, exchanged our money, then drove to our apartment for the night.

We decided to stay inside, repack our bags and eat some the snacks we brought with us. We had plenty of time and were looking forward to a nice, relaxing evening…until the power went out. Seriously.

After about an hour, our host showed up, got our power back on and we began to repack, only to discover that our brand new luggage somehow broke on the flight. So we hovered over it for several hours before finally giving up.

We were so tired we decided to just lay down. We were given simple instructions, to be outside the next morning, with our luggage, by 7:15am sharp, so we wouldn’t be late for our doctors appointments.

By 8:30pm we both fell into a deep sleep. By 12:30am we were both wide awake. So much for getting our body clocks on schedule J

Steve and I just laid in bed, chatted for a while and tried to relax. A few hours later we both drifted back into a deep sleep. So deep, that we were awakened at 7:30am, to the sound of our doorbell ringing.

For some strange reason our alarm clock never went off! When we awoke, we were instantly in panic mode, not even realizing we had fallen back asleep.

Thankfully we showered and packed the night before, so we quickly threw our pajamas in our book bags, changed clothes, and ran our luggage downstairs all in 2 frantic minutes. Not the way we were hoping to start the morning!

As we sped through the streets of St. Petersburg, I was applying makeup and putting on deodorant J It was so crazy! We arrived at the hospital 30 minutes late, but thankfully it didn’t seem to mess anything up. The doctors were all very kind and professional.

The hospital halls were lined with doors. Each door represented a different specialist. We went from room to room, having a different doctor administer a different test.

The first one examined our x-rays to check our lungs. She asked Steve if he had been deep sea diving or mountain climbing because his lungs looked a little cloudy.

We then had our blood drawn, were interviewed by a psychologist, had our reflexes tested by a neurologist, followed by an exam of 3 doctors who asked us questions about cancer. That room was by far the most awkward, I will spare the details…

The whole process was smooth and easy. As we were leaving, I showed the main doctor the picture book of our little man, made by a good friend of mine. She immediately began to get teary, then said, “he look like Papa.” We smiled.

As we headed on our 4 hour journey to Pskov our translator told us “Next, we will go to orphanage to see your son.” What?? This was an absolute surprise. We didn’t think we would get to see him until Wednesday!

We arrived at our host’s home, dropped off our bags, and quickly jumped back in the car for a 1 hour drive to the orphanage. Our hearts were pounding. We hadn’t quite prepared ourselves to see our son today. After the craziness of the past 24 hours, I wasn’t sure how much more I could handle.

As we pulled up to the big yellow building, my heart started to bubble with giddiness. We walked up the stairs and waited in a room. Steve peeked around the door and saw him coming from a distance. I was holding the video camera while Steve was kneeling down with his arms out ready for him.

Our little man walked in and right into Steve’s embrace. He was a bit curious at first and then it was as if the memories of 4 months ago began to come back to his little mind. A smile spread across his cute little face and he pressed his cheek against Steve’s.

Then he came to me and I just held him in my arms and showered him with kisses. He was a bit taller since the last time we saw him and his hair has grown out into a nice little euro-mullet J

It was a moment that I will never forget. It seemed so surreal. All this time, with all of the ups and downs of this journey, I was finally able to enjoy this moment, knowing that this was the beginning of our final leg of the adoption process. Our translator began tearing up at our reunion.

We moved into the playroom. All it took was one lift above the head by papa and out came the laugh that we so vividly remembered. Only this time, it was even louder and full of more joy.

Steve and I took turns holding him and hugging him. We learned some new words in Russian like “I love you” and “good boy”. We kissed him all over his little cheeks.

An hour later his caretaker came into the room. She seemed very kind. In Russian she told him, “D it is time to go.” Our little man began to shake his head “No”, walked backwards, then sat down on the ground. He didn’t want to leave us.

It melted my heart. But knowing that I will see him tomorrow, I went over to him, picked him up, hugged him and said “paka paka” (goodbye), then handed him to the caregiver.

Our hearts are filled with so many emotions right now. We are so overwhelmed by the amazing surprise of getting to see our little man and to know that we will get to see him tomorrow and the next day as well.

That was such an unexpected blessing, especially for Steve since he is leaving on Friday and only thought he would get to see D once before returning several days later.

We are tired and still trying to process all of the events of the last 2 days. We are nervous about the court appointment. We’re even more nervous thinking about what it is going to be like to have full time care of our little boy. Where is the instruction manual? J

But, more than the nerves, I am so excited about finally getting to live life with our son. I can’t wait to watch him eat his first meal with us, watch him see the outside world, watch him wake up and see his face as he realizes mommy and daddy are still here. No more paka paka.

I know this entry was long, but we thank you for journeying with us. We need your prayers now more than ever, because we truly feel that the enemy is doing whatever he can to distract and discourage us from this adoption.

But, we believe God is going before us and preparing the way, even amidst all the obstacles. We covet your prayers and are grateful to know we have such a strong support of people in our lives who are counting down the days until the Garcia FAMILY comes home for good!

Updates:

• for daily updates follow us on: twitter.com/goingtorussia

Prayer Requests:

• For another good day with D tomorrow
• For a good nights sleep
• For our court appointment on Thursday, that we would find favor in the judge’s eyes.

Until next Monday, love Kate & Steve

Not The News We Were Hoping For…

Well, this isn’t the type of blog that I thought I would be writing today. This past week has been a very frustrating one, to say the least. In last week’s blog, I wrote a line in my facebook status that read – “Where is the visa invitation? What if it never comes?” Well, it never came.

It’s truly difficult to try to explain the complicated nature of the world of visas and international travel, especially when it comes to adoptions. In fact, I don’t even understand it fully myself and I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around it for the last week. What we do know is that in order to adopt from Russia, you need a special invitation, which we never received.

How does that affect us? Well, Steve and I are still both going to leave for Russia on February 6th. We still have our court hearing on February 11th. That’s the good news. The bad news is that on February 12th, Steve is going to travel back to the U.S. by himself, in order to obtain the documents we need to bring our little man home.

Assuming our invitation comes, Steve will then turn around and come back to Russia a few days later with the new documents we need. Again, this is very much simplifying the actual scenario, but to not bore you or overwhelm you with details, we are keeping this explanation as simple as possible.

We have researched a thousand other options that didn’t require Steve to have to return to the U.S. But after a lot of work and energy, we have come to accept this new plan as our only option. In the end, there was nothing we could have done to prevent this and nothing we can do to change it. It just is.

It’s been very difficult for Steve and I to come to terms with this. For one thing, this “bump” in the journey is costing us about an extra $2000 that we did not originally budget for. But, even more than the finances, our dreams of what this month was going to look like have been significantly changed.

Although we are still absolutely grateful and excited that we will be bringing our little man home at the beginning of March, our hearts ache over the fact that while I am visiting our little guy in the orphanage during the 10 days of waiting after court, Steve will be on an airplane, coming back home, waiting on paperwork, only to get back on the airplane and come back to Russia.

We are still trying to understand why it had to be this way. My prayer for all of last week was “God, you can move mountains, I believe You can also move paperwork.” And I still believe that. But sometimes His plans don’t always look like the way I picture them. “His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts.”

So, we are approaching this Saturday with mixed emotions. On one hand, we are so excited. This is the day we have been anticipating for 2 years – the day when we are finally reunited with our son. The day that I will be able to look into my little man’s eyes and say, “I’m not going to have to leave you anymore.”

On the other hand, Steve is going to have to leave him one more time. And that breaks our hearts. We know the end is in sight, but through this ordeal, we have been reminded that there are no guarantees on this journey. There are still many details and significant steps left in the process, including our medical exam, pleading our case before a judge, waiting 10 days, and completing paperwork in Moscow.

Although what happened this week is considered a “fluke”, we have been reminded of how out of control we truly are in this process. So we ask you to join us on our knees, as we cry out to God to protect us, to protect the rest of this process and to protect our little man.

We truly covet your prayers and your encouragement. We are tired, weary, and completely at the end of ourselves. We are asking God to revive our hearts and souls, to give us the perseverance to keep holding on, and to give us the strength to face any more obstacles that may come our way. Ultimately, our hope is that God would receive all glory on that joyous day when we walk out of the orphanage with our son in our arms.

This is our story. This is our song. This is our journey of following God’s leading in our lives to a big, yellow building in a small village in Russia. A yellow building that holds countless children who live their lives each day not knowing the love of a mommy or daddy. A yellow building that holds the one we call our son.

Thank you for your prayers. We need them now more than ever. We hope to keep you updated through TWITTER and our blog.

Updates (Here is our tentative schedule):

• Feb. 6th: leave for Russia
• Feb. 7th: arrive in St. Petersburg
• Feb. 8th: medical exams in St. Petersburg
• Feb. 9th: travel to our region
• Feb. 10th: see our little man for the first time
• Feb. 11th: court
• Feb. 12th: Steve will travel back to the US. I will stay in Russia
• Feb. 13-21st: I will visit our little man on the weekdays. Steve will hopefully be retreving the documents needed to bring our little man home
• Feb. 21st: Steve will come back to Russia
• Feb. 22nd: Our little man will say goodbye to his friends and caretakers and hello to a whole new world
• Feb. 23-25: We will stay in our region, finishing up paperwork
• Feb. 25th (evening): travel to Moscow
• Feb. 26-March 3: paperwork at the US Embassy
• March 4th: The Garcia FAMILY comes home

This is the general breakdown. As you pray, ask for protection and no more snags in the process. We are praying for confidence, strength and wisdom.

Hope to update again next Monday…from Russia. Love, Kate & Steve

My Status

If you have a facebook account, you know that when you update your status, you are suppose to be writing “what’s on your mind?” Well, today I stared blankly at that little status update window and thought to myself, “what would it really look like if I filled in this blank honestly?” Maybe something like this: (read as fast as possible)

As my mind raced faster than ever, I asked the Lord to quiet me with His love. Deep breath. He brought to my mind and heart this verse, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which TRANSCENDS ALL UNDERSTANDING will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7. Another deep breath. Thank you, Jesus.

It can be very easy, in this process, to be so entrenched in the details that I forget the gift at the end of this journey. My son. This precious little boy who has stolen my heart, captured my mind and has motivated me to be the detail-oriented person that I am usually not.

This past week has been so full of planning and nervousness. I have come face to face with some of the deepest parts of my heart. I have been bringing my nervousness and fears before God and asking Him to show me what those fears really mean. In a voice that I cannot hear audibly, but one that prompts my soul, I hear Him ask, “Do you trust me? Do you really trust me?” I had to hand over to Him some of the areas of this journey that I have grasped tightly with my own hands.

Last night was the last big worship time we would have with our students before we leave for Russia. At the end of the evening, some of the youth staff came up front and said they wanted to pray for us before we left. They wanted to pray as a family, as a community.

We shared our hearts with them and gave some specific ways to pray. Then we moved all of the chairs out of the way, and sat in the middle of a huge sea of high school students. They surrounded us and began to pray. It was a beautiful moment, given to us by God. One that will forever be seared in my memory.

After the prayer, many students embraced us with hugs and encouragement. One of these students was a 16 year old girl, who just 2 years ago was adopted from Eastern Europe. She lived in an orphanage most of her life and she came up to me with tears streaming down her face. She wept in my arms, as I wept in hers. Moments later, as we were still hugging, another girl who was adopted from Africa 2 years ago as a 16 year old, joined our embrace. We all cried together.

The connection felt in that moment was one that was indescribable. For me, it was a full redemptive moment. A moment that explained so much. For without our journey down this road of adoption, my heart would never have been so compassionate for these girls. And these girls’ lives have been a gift to me, as I see first-hand the life changing impact adoption can have on a person’s life. I am humbled that He has allowed us to walk down this road.

Thank you for your constant prayers and encouragement. We need your prayers now more than ever. This is where the real fun begins!

Updates:

• The major dates that we know are that we are leaving on Feb. 6^th. Our court date is Feb. 11^th.
• We then will stay in Russia for a mandatory 10 day waiting period. We will get to visit him every day in the orphanage.
• On Feb. 22^nd, we will be able to bust him out.
• Feb. 25^th in the evening, we will travel on an overnight train to Moscow. We will arrive in Moscow Feb. 26^th.
• We will do paperwork at the US Embassy in Moscow Feb. 26-March 3^rd. And we will come home March 4^th.
• This is all subject to change, but this is what we know as of now.

Prayer Requests:

• For strength and organization as we spend these next 2 weeks preparing for our final trip to Russia
• For our little boy, that he would somehow know we are coming for him

Until next Monday, love Kate & Steve

News Flash

Wednesday morning began as any other. I woke up, took a shower, spent some time reading the Bible, called my mom, ate my apples with peanut butter and started on my day. I was hoping to get a call from our adoption agency regarding a court date, but I wasn’t expecting to hear anything until Friday.

It was a special day for me because a good friend and I were going to have lunch and go shopping. She is a friend from my church who I met through the adoption process. She and her husband adopted a little girl from Russia about 10 years ago and they have been a tremendous support to us through this journey. One of her stand-out memories of their adoption process was buying gifts for the different people who helped them out while they were in Russia and so she wanted to have a part in going shopping with me and buying gifts for those who will help us in Russia.

As I was leaving her house, my phone rang, but I didn’t answer it. When I got in the car to leave, I looked to see who had called. It was our adoption agency. At first I was nervous because it seemed too early to hear anything. I was afraid I would hear something like, “Kate, the judge would like to see some more paperwork before she sets a court date…”

So, I took a deep breath and called back. I heard, “Hello, Kate. Well, are you sitting down?”

“Yes,” I said, as my voice already started shaking just hearing her tone.

“Well, we have a court hearing scheduled for your son…” I started laughing, cautiously, because I still was unsure of when the court hearing would be. There was so much riding on the date because basically any date after Feb. 14^th,  would require us to redo our entire home study, which would include a big chunk of money and a whole lot of time.

But, we also know that in our region, they only schedule court dates on Thursdays, so the only possibilities of a court date where we wouldn’t have to redo our home study would have either been February 4^th or February 11^th. It just seemed so unlikely that it would be either of those days, so I had my mind and heart somewhat adjusted to the expectation that we were going to have to redo our home study.

But either way, a court date is a court date and I was so excited! And she asked, “would you like to know when your court is scheduled?”

“Yes!”

“February 11^th – which means you will not have to redo your home study.”

I started laughing and screaming while apologizing for being so loud. I was trying to take deep breaths, but every breath I took ended up in either a scream or laughter. She let me know that she would be sending me an email in the next couple of days with the trip schedule and all that we would need to get in order before we leave. We hung up the phone and I just couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face. I got home and Steve and I jumped up and down and celebrated. It was an amazingly wonderful day. A day that I never thought would actually come.

It was so beautiful because the day before, I got a call from a dear friend who said, “I want you to know that I am fasting and praying for you and for the judge and the process today and tomorrow.” Steve was with a good friend that day who also prayed for us. And when I was in my small group the night before, the women decided to take every hour through the night to pray for the judge, the facilitator and all of the people and details involved in the decision. It was an overwhelming and humbling experience to sit there among this group of 15 women and feel the love and support and desperation on our behalf.

We had come to the place in this journey where we realized that there is absolutely nothing we can do except to plead with the One who holds the keys to our journey. For whatever reason, He has chosen to grant us favor in taking the next step towards becoming a family. We are so grateful.

Every morning I wake up with thoughts of our little man. I picture him in his little room, playing in his new home. I picture him eating ice cream for the first time. I picture our trip home together. I picture him meeting his grandmas and grandpas. I picture the little things of life together. We are so excited and grateful to be in this new phase of the journey. It is crazy and exciting with lots of work and details, but it is so fun knowing how close we are to the finish line.

My heart is overflowing. God is good and He is faithful. Thank you for journeying with us. We have been overwhelmed with the love, support, encouragement and perseverance that you have had as you have walked this path with us.  We can’t wait to share more blog updates from Russia in less than a month!!

Updates:

• we are leaving for Russia on February 6th!!!
• we just need to secure our visas, complete a few more documents and do some doctor visits

Prayer Requests:

• for our little boy’s heart, that it would begin getting ready for our return
• for these next few weeks as we complete all of the necessary requirements to make our trip as smooth as possible

Here we go!!! Thanks so much for your prayers and support. Until next Monday, love Kate & Steve.