The hopes of this day a year ago

A year ago today we were preparing for court in Ukraine....A long awaited, monumental day in our adoption journey!

It's so great to be able to see the hopes of last year being fulfilled today....

 "Tomorrow.. ( taken from last years post on this day)

We will stand before a judge and petition to make official what we already feel in our hearts.....

that this little angel is our daughter...

that she is meant to be part of our family forever...

that she will be loved....

that she will be taught.....

that she will have opportunities to grow and the potential to be great....

that she will be able to let her light shine to the world....

Tomorrow is the day....

we will plead our case to a judge in a foreign country

who doesn't speak our language,

we will plead with her that this child is worthy of the life we can offer her,

that this child deserves to be saved and to live outside an institution

and we will pray that what is in our hearts and the spirit that has led us to this point

will transcend all language and cultural barriers and that this judge will KNOW

that it is not coincidence that we are here at this time

it is a miracle that was meant for this one little girl, a miracle that has been in the works long before now

Tomorrow is the day we will find out when we can take this sweet girl from behind these orphanage walls

and show her to the world

we will find out when we can take her across the ocean

to a world she has only dreamed of

to a family she has never known

to joy and happiness she never knew she deserved

We have had a nice Sabbath day here fasting and praying for our court tomorrow and we have felt such peace. We were able to attend church today and have some neat experiences there. Tonight one of the facilitators called to check on us and told us to be prepared to answer the question "why do you want to adopt a child with special needs from here?" We have so many answers we could give to that question, and we will pray that we are prompted tomorrow which one(s) to give that will speak from our hearts.

We don’t know exactly what the future will hold, but we are certain that this is one of the best decisions we  have ever made!

Tomorrow is the day we hope to make this little sweetheart an orphan no more!"

***Remember to enter the ipad giveaway for Susan***

Meeting Mia

What a day it was a year ago today!

It was just as magical and memorable as each birth of our other daughters as we watched Mia and marveled at each move she made!

(Some details we couldn't share a year ago because they involved the ABC news story)We were planning to take the overnight train and our facilitator as well as the ABC news crew were going to be there in Donetsk when we arrived. Not only was I nervous and anxious to meet our girl, but I had to be prepared to be filmed by a national news crew after traveling through the night on a train and no time for showering....AGHHHH! 

When we got off the train we were whisked off with our faciltator to find our apartment. When we got there, the room wasn't ready so we had to take all of our gear to another room and TRY to freshen up a little in about 20 minutes. Then we were picked back up by our driver and taken to the hotel where Abbie and Sarah (the ABC coorespondant and producer) were waiting for us. We had talked with these two great ladies for months by phone and email but this was the first time we would meet them....in a strange land with no shower and very little sleep ha ha! 

We met them, along with our facilitator Angelina and the RR facilitator Serge, and the craziness began and the cameras started rolling. We all piled into this HOT van and ran around town meeting with officials and signing papers to make it possible to meet our girl. Kris was super sick (probably a combo of nerves and car sickness) and suddenly they said it was time to go to the orphanage and meet Mia (the rest of the details are HERE)

A year ago May 19, 2011

Today May 19, 2012

(From the blog a year ago )

"Finally figured out how to make video work from the laptop. Here is yesterday's meeting!

The sound right at the first is us crying...it was all I could do not to run over and scoop her up but we wanted to give her space and not scare her!

When she gets up from the table it is because the ladies were telling her to get up and dance for us. She went over to the dance floor but then got a little nervous.

The first thing Kris said when she came in was "oh she is so pretty"."

Video of Mia today

Remember to enter the "Mia's Miracle Continues Ipad Giveaway"