Ansel Adams or Eric?



Eric

Eric is 13 and is my go to man for any computer questions or problems, He is very creative and takes excellent pictures. Here are a few he took in the backyard recently.  

  



Frozen Trees

                                  

Stares, Questions and my Lesson of the day

Laura's right leg is short, she's in a cast and she uses a walker to get around.  Yes, we get noticed wherever we go. Most people are very friendly to us, say hello and are great about opening doors for us. Sometimes though, we get stares and sometimes we get questions, simple questions and sometimes
 downright annoying and even rude questions. Anyone with a physical disability has faced all of these challenges.

Before Laura's surgery, she walked by using her left knee and the tippy top of her smaller right foot. Boy would we get some stares then! I always felt like people were thinking, why is she so short or why are they letting her walk that way? Now that she uses a walker the stares seem more sympathetic. Older people are especially apt to smile and talk with her now.

I have taught Laura to say, "Jesus loves you!" to anyone who smiles within ear shot or gets down close to talk to her. Our reactions to this, range from a smile to a short conversation. Today we met a couple in the elevator at the Courthouse and I think we made their day. The man was about my age and was in a wheelchair. I got the impression he may have been wounded while serving in the military. Laura told him "Jesus loves you!" and he said, "Yes, he does and he loves you too little one." It was so sweet to see him and his wife smile and say how sweet Laura was.

We also had an awesome experience on Sunday when Larissa, Laura and I went to deliver a flower arrangement at the local Assisted Living Home. I let Laura hand out flowers to the rest of the residents on both floors and we had such a wonderful time putting smiles on many faces. Nothing cuter or funnier then a little girl running her walker up to a little old Lady, also in a walker and handing her a flower. You should have seen how surprised these Ladies and Gentlemen were.

Now for my lesson of the day. I mentioned getting stares and some rude questions. Over time I am learning how to deal with stares and questions. Some days I do better than others. Today's lesson started about 6 weeks ago. I was out grocery shopping and ended up with what I'll call a "Rude bagger Lady" On that day, the bagger walked with me to my car and placed the groceries in my SUV while I pushed Laura in her stroller. The bagger asked me three times, "What's wrong with her leg?" I ignored the bagger and said nothing as I put Laura in her car seat thinking the whole time how rude she was and that there is nothing "wrong" with Laura just something different and it was none of her business etc....don't feel like talking to you in the parking lot!

So today guess what? I get that same bagger again! I didn't even realize it until we were walking out and I'm thinking, great, don't feel like this today. So I open up the back of my trunk which is parked in a handicap spot this time and there is Laura's walker. So I take a deep breath waiting for questions. This time she asked me if my daughter had a disability. So I answer real quick and positive with, "Well she's in a cast right now and  she'll be fitted for a prosthetic and will be walking soon." Before I even got to prepare myself for question number two the Lady proceeds to tell me how she had cancer as a child and how her parents took such good care of her, and although she now has some physical challenges she is doing well. She went on to tell me more and talked about how much her Dad has done for her and taught her ways to overcome her challenges etc.

Wow, so I learned something today. I learned that sometimes things aren't as they seem and I can learn from a situation like this to not prejudge someone's questions. 

6 more days until her cast comes off!

Gotcha Day! October 28,2010

Week 4

Adoption Bonding Pictures

We finally met our Laura Faith on July 4, 2010. 

We traveled for two days with a long layover in Russia and then went straight to the Baby House to meet Laura for the first time. Words can not express the joy I felt to actually see and hold Laura for the first time.

I couldn't help myself. I shed some tears of joy. Our journey had been so long and here I was, finally holding Laura in my arms.

When we first walked in the room I saw Laura sitting in a chair. We were told we'd meet another child as well as Laura so I had expected to see a different child first. It actually took me a couple seconds to realize it was indeed Laura in the chair. Her hair was so short I didn't recognize her until I looked into her big beautiful brown eyes. We gave her a purple puppy and they placed her in my lap and Patrick took our first picture together.

Our first visit was over before we knew it. We only

had about 15 minutes together.

Laura was very quiet and I was happy she didn't cry. 
They had told her that her parents were coming and she seemed ok with the fact that we were them! 

The next day we found out that she had told everyone that we came for her and that she had one Papa and one Mama! You bet I cried when I heard this.

Papa held Laura and counted with her in Russian.
She seemed to open up with him right away. The
children don't see many men at the orphange so Patrick really stood out.

Notice his unshaven face too. Later in the week Laura told us that Papa felt like a porcuping! Lol!





                                          July 5

Day 2

Looking at our family photo album

                                                             Laura started to warm up to us


Day 3

On day 3 both Patrick and I realized we loved this precious little girl.
We really started to connect with her and start to know who she
really was not just the idea we had in our heads. This is the day we
both fell in love with our Laura.

                                                                  Laura w/our wonderful interpreter, Olya                                                                         

 



                                                        





 













                                                                                                                                                          















Day 6



Let's go Mama





Walking to the photo studio to get Laura's passport picture taken.


                                                                       Day 7

Our Adoption Story Part 2

• Paperwork - started April 2009
• Starting A Business aka Fundraising  - April 2009
• Home Study - completed May 2009
• More Paperwork
• Fundraiser - Sept 2009                       
• Submitting our Dossier - Dec 2009
• Road Blocks
• Time
• More Time
• Even More Time
• Tears
• Waiting
• More Waiting
• Even More Waiting
• Finally Meeting Our Daughter- July 4, 2010
• Court Day - July 27, 2010
• More Waiting - 12 long weeks   
• Gotcha Day - Oct 28,2010
• Home - Nov 4, 2010                                

Wish I could continue my story and say everything   

 went perfectly and before we knew it Our daughter

 was home. Well the good news is she is indeed

 home now! It just took a very long time to get her

 home. We had a zillion "speed bumps" along the

 way and it seems it took forever.

One day when I was particularly down I asked God

for a sign. I asked for a sign that he was working out the details. I needed to know it would all work out. We would have a happy ending. I know God loves me and I am convinced he has a great sense of humor because that very day, God sent me this sign.

God also sent me this song.

Our Adoption Story Part 1

For a few years Patrick and I joked about adoption. We talked about adopting a little girl one day but never really seriously. Back in 2006 my heart was moved when I read a magazine article about some little girls adopted from China. After reading the article, I left the magazine open on the kitchen table hoping hubby would read it and see if he said anything. Again, we joked but nothing serious ever came of it. Little did I know that the adoption article came out around the same time a little baby girl with a shock of dark hair and big beautiful brown eyes was born.

Fast forward to the summer of 2008. We moved to VA that summer and found a wonderful church just down the street. Many of the members had children who'd been adopted, mostly from China. One Sunday, a small group introduced themselves at the front of the church. In this particular group 3 of the 5 families had an adopted child. I elbowed Patrick and told him we should join this group.  I bet you can probably guess what happened next.... I'll tell you anyway....

On September 27, 2008 I went to a Women's retreat. The retreat was based on organization and decluttering your life. I learned some helpful tools but also realized that God was tugging at my heart again about something else. My life at the time was filled w/ stuff and things. I felt like God was asking me what I was doing with my life, where was I going etc. I was a couple years away from the big 4-0 and maybe now was a good time to adopt. What was I waiting for?

For the next week I asked God to show me signs if we should adopt a child. I asked God to either remove the longing in my heart for a little girl or to put the tug to adopt on my husband's heart. All week I heard stories about adoption and everywhere I turned  God put people in our lives that had adopted. Later that week, Patrick spoke wonderful words to my ears. "Honey, maybe we should look into adopting." he said.
Little did I know, there was a beautiful little girl w/ dark hair and big beautiful brown eyes about to celebrate her second birthday, who was asking the director of her Baby House to please send her a Mama and a Papa of her very own.

Finances. Yup, we were broke. Well, not actually broke, let's just say our money was extremely tied up in houses, investments etc. So we took a leap of faith and decided to start the adoption process anyway. After all, if most of us waited until we had money for children, perhaps many of us wouldn't ever have any children at all, adopted or biological! So we researched and found a Chinese agency and we put one of our properties on the market for sale to help us pay down some debt and help pay for as much of the adoption as possible. The next few months were very tough! The house we wanted to sell, ended up being on the market for many, many months. We had no renters and an empty house for sale. Would we ever sell it? If God wanted us to adopt why was he making it so darn difficult? The adoption was on hold. To make matters worse business was slow and I lost my part-time job at a local florist. So here we were, paying two mortgages and paying for groceries on our credit card. Why was this so difficult? Oh, God and I had some words. I was mad! But little did we know, our house wasn't selling for a very special reason. You see, if our house had sold we would have been farther along on our paperwork with China. But little did we know, our daughter wasn't in China!

 April 2009. At long last our rental property sold! We found out we'd be closing in late April. We re-started the adoption process! But wait a minute, hold on folks, not so fast! Our daughter wasn't in China remember? So what changed? Janine B that's what. Janine, an acquaintance from church knew we wanted to adopt and on the morning of April 22 I opened an e-mail that changed our life forever! Janine sent me a picture of a beautiful little girl with dark hair and big beautiful brown eyes. She had seen the girl's picture on Rainbow kids, a website dedicated to helping orphans with special needs find their forever families,Janine thought she looked like us. I opened up the e-mail and instantly fell in love. This is the one I've been waiting for. This is her! I think this is why we had the delay on the property selling, I thought. I wanted to jump on a plane that very second and go get this girl! But wait, we had just filled out a zillion pages w/ a different adoption agency and we sent them a big check. Would we get our money back? What would Patrick say? All these thoughts ran through my mind and so I took a big deep breath and thought if it is meant to be, it will happen. I read the girls info and stared at her beautiful eyes, I touched my hand to the computer screen and cried. I read she had something called limb difference of her right leg. I wanted to know more but first I e-mailed the picture to Hubby and then I picked up the phone and called him.

"Lara"

"Are you sure about this Amy?" Patrick asked. You better believe I was sure! Look at this beautiful face! Patrick reluctantly said I should learn more. He wasn't thrilled with the possibility of changing agencies but agreed I could at least inquire about this girl they called "Lara". 

I picked up the phone and I called Janine to thank her for sending the picture and then I called the agency. There was very little info they could offer me but w/ some initial paperwork they promised they would send  all the information they had and some additional pictures of "Lara".

It took two days until I had more info. I prayed during this time and asked God to please let us be her parents. I knew she had something called limb difference and was told her right leg was shorter then her left. Basically this is all I knew. I did some research but really didn't understand or know what her leg looked like. How did she walk? I thought.

On Friday  I finally got what I was waiting for, an e-mail with more information and pictures. They sent us a picture from when she was a newborn and one taken at about 18 months. The picture quality wasn't great but I finally I could see what her right leg looked like and truth be known, I was scared.  I was really, really scared. Her right leg was so short and her foot curved out. What can we do to help her? Can I do this? What will Patrick say? Is this too much? Is she in a wheelchair? How does she move? Can we get her a prosthetic? Is anything else wrong? What will the boys think? So may questions, not a lot of answers. All I knew for sure was she was beautiful and I felt such a strong connection and love? Could it be love I already felt for this beautiful girl? I called my sister, Amanda and she spoke some words of wisdom to me. We talked alot those days and Amanda was such an encouragement as well as our Mom too.

I wanted to show Patrick her pictures in person that night. We had a long discussion and agreed we would try to adopt her. My wonderful hubby was on board. Oh how I love him! The next morning we called the agency and told them we did indeed want to pursue "Lara's" adoption. 

And so the paper chase began....



Janine B. and Laura