Day 3 after referral: Yes, I do tend to confuse people

My sister, mom, all the kids and I were headed to the waterworks at the Anderson YMCA....great place to hang out (just sayin') and I had to mail off some court documents. I wanted to documents to go from here to Columbia and then from Columbia, straight to Virginia. To do this I would need to pay for 2 mailings and place an envelope inside the first envelope. This was obviously confusing, so I spent over 20 minutes trying to explain why I was being so difficult. I just didn't want to waste the time having the documents mailed back to me and then me having to turn around and mail them off again to Virginia.

Anyway, I have a headache today, BUT the online auction begins in 1.5 hours. Go to facebook and search for "Joy the the Heart Gifts", click "like" and the items will be on the site at 6 pm. To bid, comment on the photos! All proceeds are going to our adoption! What can I say, my sister is awesome for hosting this!

Day 2 after referral

Today was a lot like yesterday, I got up early because I couldn't sleep. I had so much on my mind that I kept waking up throughout the night thinking about which papers still needed to be filled out, the kids schedule while we are gone and the list goes on! I was able to spend most of the morning with my amazingly talented seamstress mother who is making Baby A the most beautiful blanket. She embroidered Russian stacking dolls on quilt blocks....adorable! She has made all 3 of my children a baby blanket, so of course our Russian baby had to have one as well. We were able to go ahead with the court documents, which means trip 2 will be sooner than expected and Baby A will be home, where she belongs! I will have the remaining documents mailed off tomorrow to be apostilized in the morning and then I might get to breathe.......Nope, not yet! Please, if you haven't already heard, my sister is hosting a facebook auction tomorrow night thru Friday evening. Her items are adorable, things from purses to clipboards! So go to facebook and search for Joy to the Heart Gifts and check it out!

Baby A's Sweet blanket from her nanny!

Day 1 after referral

For the next few weeks I am going to try and blog about every part of this adoption process as it gets more intense with every second. My morning began at 7 am, at my computer, filling out and printing off papers. I am getting pretty good at my signature these days! I have sent off a few faxes today, paid and mailed off our check for our foreign fees. Now I am sitting here waiting on my conference call with a doctor from NC who will be looking over all of Baby A's info and viewing her picture. We are praying for good news and that our daughter is and will continue to be a healthy little girl! My hands are shaking as I type, I am a nervous wreck. I am meeting with the doctor alone because my tree climbing hubby is literally, "up a tree". Here we go!!!!

The Whirlwind Begins!

After a rather sad and crazy weekend, we thought that Monday held much more of the same craziness....boy were we wrong! While the craziness is still in existence, the mood has changed from solemn to overjoyed!!! We received a call today at 1:27 pm from our adoption coordinator saying that we had been matched with a child!!!! The conversation went much like this:

Me: "hello"

J: "Hello Morgan, how are you?"

Me: "I'm good......(hesitant voice)"

J: "Well, Morgan are you sitting down?"

Me: "Um, no, should I be?"

J: "Yeah, you might want to"

Me: "Oh boy!"

So J proceeded to tell me that our daughter is beautiful and healthy! We know about her background, her health, ect. We are overjoyed and a bit overwhelmed! If all goes as planned, we could be leaving mid-July to go to Russia for our first trip. On trip 1, we will meet her and bond with this baby A! Can I just say that God is amazing, and He continues to be faithful even in these times of doubt and uncertainty!

Our next fundraiser will be right before we leave for Russia!!! July 16th at 5:30 pm at the Livery Stable in Abbeville!!!!!! Join us for Bluegrass Extravaganza!!! BBQ plates will be for sale, $6.50 and there will be silent auctions and drawings for some pretty awesome items like gift cards, and dinners at local restaurants!!! Check us out on Facebook!!!!!!

The first 3 weeks of Summer

These past 3 weeks have been a whirlwind for us Hanna's! The first week of summer consisted of getting the house cleaned and taking the boys to baseball camp in Abbeville. They enjoyed it but rather that clean the house, I made a bigger mess. Isn't that the way it always goes? I cleaned out closets, began painting, decided to pull the twin beds out of storage, rearranged.....the list goes on and on. Week 2 was great, we spent the week at the Gulf with my family! We haven't been to the beach since Campbell was born, so to be able to hang out with our loved ones and watch CG experience the beach for the first real time was awesome!

Adoption things are beginning to speed up. We received numerous emails last week saying we needed to being paperchase number 2! For those of you who don't know what that means, basically we are beginning to gather the documents we will be taking to court in Russia. We are excited and scared out of our minds!!!! We still have a ton of money to raise, but God has already provided over $12,000, and there is no doubt in my mind that He will continue to bless this process. We have another event planned for July 16 in Abbeville at the Livery Stable. It is a BBQ and Bluegrass night featuring 2 awesome groups! One is a group my father in law plays mandolin in and the other features the amazing Thomas Richardson of Greenwood, SC. Tickets for the BBQ plates are $6.50 and donations will be accepted as well. All proceeds go towards our adoption, so please purchase a plate!!!!! Remember that every little bit helps!!!!