Kristina... Her Gotcha Day

Okay, I know you are beginning to get the picture when I pick colors to write with! I am having a tough day today. No, it does not having anything to do with our adoption. Actually, kinda scary when I wrote that...Weird. Anyway, I wanted to focus on something positive...so I will tell about our daughter's arrival into our world.

Some of you may know it, so you can speed read. Our desire to adopt started many years ago. I had always wanted a little Ukrainian "Annamaria" after my mother and grandmother. I had to have her! So we started the process, then got cold feet. Don't ask me why? Anyway, we finally found all the agencies that we needed and started on our dossier. Then there was the mess with the post adoption reports in Ukraine and they stopped accepting dossiers. Great! Guess that was God telling me NO! Okay, got it. Weird feeling though!

Well, shortly there after I started deleting my Ukraine favorites on my computer. And I came across this website. http://www.untilallhavehomes.org/ Had no clue how that got on my computer. It is a special needs website. Well, that was okay because Dan and I were working in a group home when we met. We had talked about adopting special needs even before we were married. It was just a right fit for us. Anyway, looked on the site...asked about a little girl with a heart condition. That wasn't right for us. Then there was this little girl...she just was it. She was three years and three months old. My goodness. Emailed Dan right away and asked him what he thought. Then of course I asked my mom what she thought. Dan said yes. My mom said that she would pray. So, I inquired about her. I was so nervous! Felt so nauseous!! Funny, cause that happened at ever step we took towards adopting her. (oh cried lots too!)

Anyway, I was put in touch with the woman handling the adoptions. Scary...nervous, wanted to throw up. She gave me lots of info. She asked if we could handle her CF. For some reason we said , sure no problem. I had done lots of research before we wanted to adopt her. The hospital I worked at, is nationally accredited with the CF foundation. Cool beans! Natural fit! So off we went.

Kristina was not legally available for adoption. Okay, well we would wait..I didn't care how long we wanted her. A few months went by and we were asked if we wanted to "look" at any other children. Saw the cutest kids with Downs Syndrome. My husband fell in love with one. (He has since been adopted) We decided to proceed with this little boy. He was adorable..something about his face. Well, we were moving along, then there was a glitch in his paperwork. It was tied up.

Okay, a few weeks pass and we were asked about a sibling set. Well, maybe these children are who we were supposed to adopt. God knew and we were taking the steps towards adopting. Not that we fickle...just going along. The paperwork was going so smooth, and I kept thinking is this right? Can I really handle two at the same time? We kept praying, and my mom kept praying for God's heart and hand to come home to us. Everything was going great. Then came the glitch..waiting for it weren't you? There was one more report..the person was sick and it would be done the next day. Well, no problem..it was just one more day. (They got parents, by the way!) God is so good!!

My husband was getting good at getting the feeling there was an email. I thought he was nuts! And sure enough, we got an email that said she was legally free for adoption and did we still want her? Um... YES!! So, then we had to wait a little longer...families were ahead of us, okay. Then we got the travel date. Now , remember I was still wanting to throw up! So, we got our tickets and such and we were on our way. I wanted to throw up so bad on the way to the airport! My friend told me to eat a banana. I did and begged God to give me peace. The plane rides were just fine. Too crunched for my hubby's knees..but okay for me! :)

We landed in Europe...guess what, I forgot the piece of paper that had all of our important phone numbers. There was a nice guy with his family that said they could take us to a hotel until we figured out where we needed to be...and after that our journey continued... More some other day.

Better go, Kristina is not happy because she can not go outside...it is very windy!!! And the cold kinda bit right through you...still kinda careful on what she is breathing in. So, I am going to put her to work! Get her mind off of her troubles! Here goes.