I'm leaving my cape behind!

I am not superman, superwoman or supermom.....I do not wear the "S" on my chest.

I cannot breathe under water, nor can I fly to the highest heights. In fact, just the thought of me leaping a building in a single bound makes me flinch a little!

I am trying to figure out who placed the expectation on me that I had to do all those things and more?

I cannot be your best friend or listen to all of your troubles.....I can love you but that must be enough.

I am completely human and I make numerous mistakes, but don't use my weaknesses against me.

I cry, I scream, I worry and I am always afraid of what other people will think.

All I want to do is love my family, raise them up to KNOW God, not just "know" Him. They are my number one priority aside from my relationship with God. It is my job to protect them, to love and hug and kiss them, to praise them for their successes, and hold them when they fail. I am theirs, I am their mother.

I will probably learn more from them than they will ever learn from me and that's ok. So, don't ever label me, I am not superman.....I am simply my kids mom!

27 days until Russia!!!!

Count down is ON!!! 30

30 days until we fly!

We have been busy scheduling flights, sending off for visas, going back and forth to the bank, getting bloodwork results and renewing our fingerprints. Curt just asked me what I am going to do with all my spare time when we get home from Russia....I said, take care of 4 children! Super excited about that!!!!

We booked our flights using this amazing company. We are flying British Airlines and will go through London......I am excited to go back to London. We won't get out of the airport, but still, I am looking forward to being back across the pond!

The count down is officially on....pictures of our links coming soon.

Right now I am really tired, and so I am headed to bed. Goodnight and Goooooo Tigers!

COURT DATE

Today it finally happened! We got our court date around 12:05 pm. We couldn't be more excited about adding another Hanna to our group of 5. As soon as I received the email I began texting and calling to let our family and friends know. We still have 4 weeks to prepare for our trip BUT with 3 kids, those weeks will fly by, especially with Christmas shopping and decorating. We have made our trips to the doctor's offices this afternoon, gotten all of our info gathered for our visas, written our FINAL check to AWA, and are now looking a flights. We still have a few more documents to gather, but all of our embassy documents are ready, which is good. Our itinerary looks like this:

11/16 Leave for Moscow

11/17 Arrive in Moscow

11/18 Moscow medicals

11/18 overnight flight to Krasnoyarsk

11/19 Arrive in Krasnoyarsk

11/21 visit orphanage...YAY!!!

11/22 COURT DATE!

10 day waiting period

12/7 Fly back to Moscow as a family

12/8 Child medical exam and embassy

12/9 Receive child's visa

12/12-13 Apply to Russian Consulate

12/14 Return HOME!

Almost there

Our documents are officially in a plane on the way to Krasnoyarsk from Moscow. Our coordinator was very surprised that they arrived and processed so quickly, but when God is in control, crazy things can happen. Here at home we are in the planning phase of getting ready for A to come home. I am getting lesson plans finished, my mom is busy making clothes for me to pack (did I mention that her suitcase is already FULL???). This afternoon I am going through possible court questions and answering each of them in detail. We have to study these, and I am oh so nervous about being put on the spot. I am not good with words unless they have been laid in front of me ahead of time to study. All of our physicals and bloodwork has been completed, and our entire life in paper form is in the hands of someone in Russia.

Our court date is looking like Nov. 15, which puts us leaving around Nov. 9 and returning home Dec. 4. That is a long time to be away from our sweet blondes BUT, we have committed to this and when we commit, we don't back out! A needs us to be there for her, spending time with her, and I know our 3 here at home will be in GREAT hands! We are so thankful for family who is willing to go the extra mile for us during this time. Also, can I just say that we have a wonderful adoption family in this cyberworld.....a couple of folks adopted their little girl last week and she ended up being in the same orphanage as our A. They sent us pictures of our sweet gal.......she has grown and thankfully, her hair has grown out too! Let's see, my to do list is growing by the minute:

Christmas shopping before we leave (for 4 kids)

Put up Christmas tree and decorations....yes I am one of those early decorators!

Complete lesson plans through February

Pack, pray, pack and pray some more!

Still holding our breath

Last night was another sleepless night! With the kids tossing and turning and my mind going over and over the days events, I was a wreck! I am doing better, I feel terrible, but I am doing better mood wise. We did receive an update today from our coordinator (I demanded daily updates, so I am pretty proud of that) an encouraging one! The 15th of November is still available, no other agency got it today and our documents are being presented next week! I am trying to remain positive but not get my hopes up since we have been let down FOUR times before. All of our documents are in the mail and will arrive on Friday and some on Monday.

I am looking forward to a restful evening at home tonight with a cup of coffee and SURVIVOR!!! Curt will be home late Friday evening from NY, so I am pretty much exhausted right now after dealing with all the adoption paperwork yesterday, BUT, things are looking up!!! I was reminded today by a fellow teacher that since we won't arrive home from Russia until after the 1st of December, that I better get some Santa Claus out of the way....hum, didn't even think about that! I guess I will also be browsing children's toys and clothes tonight as well! Happy Wednesday everyone!

Sometimes I wanna SCREAM!!!

After the most stressful 24 hours of my life...I think anyway, I am finally at home, drinking my coffee, helping my oldest with homework and fussing at the laughter in the other room (not because they are laughing but because they are supposed to be asleep). I went in to school this morning for duty and left at 8 am to head out to FIX the mess that our agency created over the weekend. I went to the notary, AGAIN, I went to the doctor's office and then to another notary. I was feeling really good about myself and the trip and then IT happened! Yet again, our agency....tsk, tsk, tsk! Our homestudy lady J was very much on top of things and had all of our documents ready. I headed to Greenville to meet her. What I didn't know is that our adoption coordinator hadn't really looked over the documents very well and there was an issue with the papers. So, J calls me in a panic and apologizes that she won't be able to get the documents to me in time to go to Columbia because she had court with another family. My mother, the kids and I drove to Greenville and then headed to Columbia. If I was only missing 2 documents, I sure as heck was going to get as much accomplished as possible. I went to vital records and got the birth certificates for the kids, then went to the Sect. of State and had everything apostilled. At around 4:30pm, the DHL van had to be tracked down so my documents could make it out this evening. Thank goodness for my mom and aunt because they are going to get the other documents and mail them off tomorrow!!! Now, I am taking deep breaths and praying that this is the LAST holdup we will have in this process. November 15 is looking like our court date which would put us leaving around Nov 8th! Not soon, BUT at least its a reasonable date!

Not the best day

Yesterday's blog was full of hope and me being all spunky and positive. That's what I get for eating butterflies.......! Our coordinator always seems to email me bad news at the END of the day and her caption always reads "Could be good news and some bad news"! I will wait until this adoption is finalized to tell how I really feel about the lack of communication we have had during this entire process. I will do my best to handle this part with grace, we will see how that goes. Looks like I have yet more paperwork to complete....funny how we JUST found out about it today! I have been working diligently this evening and thanks to my mom, brother and sis in law for watching the kids, I was able to get a lot done. My plan is to have EVERYTHING in the mail to Russia tomorrow. Sometimes you just have to take things into your own hands. I realize that there is a reason for everything.......right now, I am waiting for the fog to clear.

Please keep Curt's uncle and his family in your prayers. He is in Texas battling leukemia and the family has been called in. So much hurt and pain in this world!!!!

Could this FINALLY be the week?

We have been away from sweet "A" for 9 weeks now.....to us that seems like an eternity! We have been waiting on a court date for close to 6 weeks, I will not comment on how that makes me feel! (deep breaths) We have been emailing and phoning our coordinator daily....yes DAILY, for updates. So, after all this waiting, and waiting and waiting some more, THIS Wednesday could be our day. We should FINALLY know our court date, and be able to plan to bring our sweet daughter home. The kids are so anxious to have her here. They have been counting down the days until October and now that it is finally here, Russia is all they talk about!!! We are trying to stay busy and with 3 active kids, that is very easy to do. We have requested to be home from Russia by Thanksgiving....we cannot emphasize that enough! Thanksgiving is just a very important family holiday for us. From the family gatherings to the shopping and putting up our Christmas decorations, we just LOVE Thanksgiving and want to be able to spend this time together giving thanks for our new blessing from God!!! I have several prayer requests for all of you in the blogging world:

The Via's who are in Uganda right now adopting their precious daughter!

A dear friend ,who we have come to love while on this adoption journey, whose cancer may have come back

My husband as he continues to lead our family and church

On a much more juvenile note.....CLEMSON rocks and well......CHICKEN curse!!!!

Night Ya'll!