Good evening Latvia!!!!!!!!

Well, we made it to Riga, Latvia right on time. Our driver from the apartment was a little late and me being completely sleep deprived - started to panic. I forgot to get the phone number. But he finally arrived!

We left on schedule from Springfield. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. To watch my kids get smaller and smaller as I went down the corridor and knowing we were all struggling was a bit much. By the time I got on the plane, I was okay but I can't say that for Ethan. As I said, he is the one struggling the most with the separation. But he eventually got something to eat and got busy. Distraction generally works.

We had a fairly uneventful trip to Chicago. Joe took his dramamine and did awesome. I was fine until we were about to land and the plane tipped back and forth. But we survived! Our layover wasn't too bad. We left Chicago to Frankfurt and did our best to sleep but in the 8 hr flight, I slept about 1 1/2 hours and Joe... Not at all!!!! We had a 4 hour layover in Frankfurt, where Joe met some gentlemen that are evangelists in Latvia. We sat with them chatting the time away. We even shared our jerky with them. hehe Our final part of the trip was just 2 hrs long but it was the most uncomfortable and I was so antsy!!! When we flew over the Baltic Sea, I looked at Joe and we both realized we are in the same town/country as our daughter.

Getting our apartment was quite experience as well. Apparently, I misuderstood the lady and thought they would take a Credit card! They don't and we don't have the total amount in our checking account. We skyped a friend and she is helping us out. We paid her through paypal and she put the money in our account so that is available in our checking account!!


Joe and I walked accross the street to the gas station. We got a gallon of bottled water, some chips and sandwiches for dinner.

Tomorrow we meet Daina at 12:30 to go meet Liga. it was supposed to be at 10:30 but the court rescheduled. We will go shopping for groceries afterwards!!!!

Can't wait to tell you about our time with Liga and her foster family!!! Until then...

we`re leaving...

Well, all the gifts are bought, the bags are packed and everything is ready to head out. Except my heart! I`m just not ready to leave the kids. Yesterday someone said that it was a good time to cut the apron strings. I might be but my heart is completely ready to revolt!

We will leave our house around 7:30, stop off at Casey`s for some donuts & coffee and then be on our way to airport in SPringfield. Our plan takes off at 10:36am but we wanted to have plenty of time to get checked in & use the restromm and say goodbye or see ya later!

We will arrive in Riga, Latvia on Wednesday @ 2:05pm. Our apartment has arranged for a driver to pick us up & take us to the apartment. We will get all the paperwork arranged & then head to the bank to exchange some money. Who knows what will happen after that but we now know that we will officially meet Liga on Thursday morning @ 10:30. I don`t know how long we will be there but I`ll be sure to keep you posted. Then we will have our court appointment on Friday.

Keep praying for our first meeting. There will be a representative from the Orphan court there as well.

Well, thats all for now. My tummy is not happy either & nerves have turned to a yucky nauseous feeling. I want to go to bed but to do so cuts our time together as a family.

Until next post... Good night! I`ll catch you on the other side of the pond!

More paperwork? Seriously?

Well, we only have one more week until we leave. Yesterday we got an email saying that we needed a Power of Attorney for our lawyer in Latvia. It needed to be signed & Apostilled, as well as a Monitoring Agreement. The Mon. Ag. is a piece of paper that is communication between our Home Study Agency & the orphan court - the HS agency is verifying that they have approved us for said child & that they are in agreement of us having her come home with us after the 1st trip for "bonding". It`s a really important paper that we had already done months & months ago but had Meggie`s name on it. So we went to Springfield to pick up the Mon Ag & take all 4 pieces of paper to the Secretary of States office & have them all APostilled (authenticated). We had a few things to get in town & made a "date" of it with our kids. They love Olive Garden & it`s been over a year since we went last. Still yummy food!

We are thankful for an awesome HS agency & Adoption agency that keeps us on our toes & go the extra mile even whenn it`s not convenient. We are truly blessed.

We also got Liga`s sizes. Whew! I was getting worried about what to pack exactly.. Now I have to buy a pair of tennis shoe because she`s got bigger feet than I figured. CLothes we`re doing good. We also got a few more pics of her in the fall, apparently a few of them were at church or something dressyish!

Well, lots to do still. I had 6 lists & narrowed it down to 2 but after visiting with the Tucker`s it went up to 3 again. Oh well, Good stuff!

Until next time!

10 More days!!!!

We are doing are best to getting everything ready to head out of here in 10 days!

**Airline tickets purchased - check!
**Apartment in Riga secured - check!
**Hotel booked in Frankfurt, Germany - check!
**Liga`s suitcase packed - check!
**Suitcases borrowed & ready to be filled w/ our clothes - check!

There`s still all the little things that need to be done & those are the things that could possibly make me crazy before Feb. 15th! We spent some time with our friends, the Tucker`s last night. They were such a huge help. Joe & Tim went on google earth & went on a virtual tour of Riga, particularily Old Town Riga. They gave us a map and plenty of tips. SOme were funny, like Joe shouldn`t wear khaki pants, men only wear dark colored pants & he`ll stick out like a tourist. Only take the "Red Cabs" they are the most trust worthy. When exchanging money at the bank pull #4.

Everytime I think about meeting Liga, several things happen: 1st - I get a ginormous smile and get super excited. The 2nd reaction - nerves! I have prayed specifically for this young girl for nearly 4 months. I know God has worked out the "quirks" and that everything will be okay but I still get nervous about if she`ll do what Meggie did! I know that these nerve are not from God, rather the devil. He tries to steal & destroy our happiness, joy, excitement and PEACE! I also think alot about communication. Liga has only one year of English, which equals about 2-3 weeks living here. I have been praying alot about the transition. Praying that her young heart will be able to understand the magnitude of all thats happening.

Well, in 10 days we will be leaving. In 12 days we will meet her. OMGoodness!

WE'RE GOING TO LATVIA - BABY!!!!!!!!!!!

In the middle of the night we had our alarms go off to put more wood on the fire. Joe shot out of bed and said was that Cathy? Too funny! No, it was just an annoying alarm.

But every morning like clockwork I check email. I didn't figure I'd see anything from Cathy because the next big news would be travel dates and she usually calls with BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!! BUT... the first message was from Cathy and in bold letters it said, "TRAVEL DATES!!!"

We will be leaving Springfield, MO on Feb. 15th and returning to Springfield on March 13th @ 6:20 pm. We have an overnight layover in Frankfurt, Germany on the way home. Oh well, kinda excited, plus it's another stamp on the passport!!!

As the news has settled on my brain and heart, I have had a huge range of emotions. Excitement accompained by tears, scared about where the money will come from, sad to be away from Keegan, Micah & Ethan for 26 days, nervous if Liga will want us, excited all over again. All of this is a mixture of random thoughts of all the stuff that has to be done to leave: bills, prescriptions, medical release forms for my kiddos, packing, gifts, ....................

I have been busy the last couple weeks getting things started. I had already spoken with the travel agency, so when I called today to book tickets, most of the groundwork had been done. I have booked our apartment that we will stay in. What is so cool about our apartment is the Tucker's stayed in the same one, a year ago when they went to Latvia to get their girls. My work has had me training another girl to make/decorate cakes in my absense and today I was so excited to finally give them our dates. I am getting funds rearranged from our IRA's and we are getting our taxes done immediately to have those funds available while traveling.

Here is our timeline:
Feb 15 - Leave Springfield for Riga, Latvia
Feb 16 - Arrive in Riga, Latvia
Feb 17 - Meet Liga
Feb 18 - 1st Orphan Court
Mar 8 - 2nd Orphan Court
Mar 10 - Visa Interview
Mar 11 - Get Liga's Visitor's Visa
Mar 12 - Fly out of Riga, Latvia
Mar 13 - Fly out of Frankfurt, Germany
Mar 13 - Arrive in Springfield with our daughter @ 6:20 p.m.

Please continue to pray for her young heart. She should be finding out this week.
Pray for the finances; we have stepped out on faith and praying that God will provide down to the penny. We are still short but know God will provide.

More news but not a big deal!

Gotta a phone call from Cathy...SHe spoke with Daina, the lawyer. Daina rec`d the acceptance and is speaking with the ministry and letting them know we can travel after the 12th. She then said that if the Riga court is "moving" we could actually travel in February. But she also said that for sure we have to stay 3 weeks. Thats awesome because months ago she said 3-4 weeks. Now we will probably arrive 2 days before court and depending pon court & ability to get Liga`s VISA, we may have to stay a couple days after! So...it`ll still be close to 4 but it`s not closer to 5!! :)

We are currently $5,000 (ish) short on coming up with fees & travel expenses! We are getting our taxes done this week and hopefully we are gwtting a great tax return. Well, we were planning on getting the taxes done but in MO there is a BLIZZARD and we are expecting 15-20 inches of snow. We currently have around 12 and the snow is still coming down hard!

Please pray:
** for the courts to get us in quickly.
** that the remaining funds become available.

Thanks for following!

WE GOT A REFERRAL - AGAIN!!!!

I know that doesn`t make sense and I`m not sure I can even explain it. But apparently our referral we accepted in November was accepted but they also need a formal acceptance. So, I guess thats what we did again today! Although it`s no fun to repeat things, this email came with the promise of a quick Letter of Invitation & Travel Dates. We also had to state when we could travel. Because of a prior committment we said that we could travel anytime after February 12th. I`d be okay hopping on a plane on the 13th!

So, thats the news for today! She will be finding out really soon & we will be getting our travel plans lined out. I spoke with our travel agent & got the low-down on ticket prices from the 13th on... Just about the same price & we still get to spend the night in Frankfurt, Germany! Which right now I think is awesome, we`ll see how I feel about it when I`m ready to get home to our other three kiddos.

Until next time....