IT'S A BOY!!!

We received a beautiful gift today from Ben's orphanage: his baby picture!  The earliest picture we had of him up to this point is where he is around 2.  I so wanted to see what he looked like as a newborn.  And now the Lord blessed us with this picture!  He is about 1 month old:

Just thought this was interesting:  
This is Jonah at about 7 mths old. Look alike?

SO MUCH TO TELL!

We have been in country since 7-9.  We met Benjamin on that very first day and visited every day from 7-9 until 7-14, most days twice a day.  We played lots of ball catch, lots of tickling, eating snacks together, etc, but most importantly we starting the bonding process through all of those activities.

On Friday, 7-15, we had our court hearing at 1 p.m.  I wasn't even that nervous, I truly felt God's peace through out the entire proceeding.  At the end of the hearing, the judge announced she would give us her decision in one hour!  This is unheard of.  We were fully expecting to have to wait until Monday at 3 for her decision.  Reda and Silva were both very excited about this.  

So at 3 p.m. on 7-15, the decision came:  Benjamin Kostas (his birth name is finally revealed!) is our officially our son.  We were also granted an urgent decision which means we do NOT have to come back in 30 days to bring Ben home.  As soon as his VISA is ready, we can fly home!  God truly answered all our prayers about the court hearing above and beyond what we expected!

Something I will never forget:

Benjamin arrived at the orphanage as a baby on 7-15-2010.  He left the orphanage as OUR SON on 7-15-2016, exactly 6 years to the date!  Reda even shared this amazing fact with the judge as part of her argument that it is time for this boy to have his family!  I believe this "coincidence" was a gift from the Lord, showing me that this was truly meant to be.

This is the first time I met Ben on 7-9.  I could hardly believe I was finally meeting this boy I have only seen in photos and videos over the past 18 months.

Playtime at the orphanage.  On this day, Ben was wearing a Christmas shirt??!!

We arrive at orphanage after the hearing to pick up Ben and bring him "home" to our apartment.  Orphan no more!!!!  In this photo, we are telling him he is ours forever!  Very emotional.  Moments I will never forget for the rest of my life.  What a privilege we have in being part of this!

Sightseeing with Ben!  Let the fun begin!

THE REALLY HARD PART

Over these past 18 months of this adoption process, it was always in the back of my mind that going to get Benjamin would mean having to be away from our other 4 kiddos for probably 3 weeks.  But it was always just an far-off plan.  Well, now it is reality.  Andrew and I leave tomorrow.  

We are all packed.  Jonah is packed and ready to stay by Aunt Jane.  The other kids have their master calendar to help them navigate these next 19 days.  My parents and other sisters are ready to help wherever needed.  We truly could not being doing this without all everyone's help.  We are so grateful.

But on this night before, this is the really hard part.  Getting ready to say good bye to our 4 children knowing life will be completely different when we are all back together again- there are just a lot of emotions for me tonight: 

I am feeling guilty for leaving our kids, guilty for changing their lives so much.

I am feeling super excited and happy to finally meet Benjamin and welcome him to our family.

I am feeling nervous he may not like us.  I am nervous about the adjustment process for all of us.

I am scared about our travel- I am more of a homebody so overseas travel is really stepping out of my comfort zone!

I am trying to savor each moment because it is such a privilege to be part of this story!  God is doing amazing things for this precious little boy, and I am thrilled to be able to watch God at work.  

Like I said, my emotions are all over the place- it might not be the greatest night of sleep for me.  Hopefully I remember to pray and give these anxious thoughts to the Lord.  

So time to try and get some sleep..and pray.

A PLACE TO CALL HIS OWN

The bedroom is all ready!  Are we?  

At the orphanage, Benjamin has been sharing a room with 8 other children.  Now he will share his bedroom with his brother Jonah.  

We had hoped to transition Jonah from crib to bed during the month of July, thinking we would be traveling at the earliest in August.  Then everything went so quicker than we ever hoped, so the transition will have to happen when we get home with Ben.  

Just one of many transitions that will be happening when we get home!

WHERE ARE WE????

On Tuesday morning, 7-5, Silva asked to see our apartment confirmation.  The next email from her was another "Emergency!"  This time the emergency was that we needed to cancel our apartment booking.  The place we had rented was in a very unsafe area of the city.

You might be asking why would 2 Americans, who can't speak the language of the country we are going to,  parents of 4 children already, and parents of a soon to be adopted child who needs to come and live in this apartment with us- why would we rent an apartment in an unsafe area?  

ANSWER: Because we didn't think we were in that area.  We thought we were on another street.  

Before we booked, we ran the address past Silva who said it was a good area.  When we got our confirmation, there was a map with a little bubble showing that street location.

Only after Silva looked at our confirmation on Tuesday, did she notice in small print another street name that indicated where this particular apartment was.  

Not to be over obsessed with map bubbles, but the map didn't indicate this other street.  It showed our apartment to be on "Street A" in safe area.  The fine print indicated a "Street B" in unsafe area.

And again, not knowing this other language, we didn't catch this second street name, we thought this word was referring to the name of the particular apartment we were renting.  I know.  As I am typing this, I see we sound like very dumb American tourists!

Very thankful Silva caught this before we put ourselves in not a nice place.  We were able to find another apartment in the original SAFE area we thought we were in.

Good news: The property owner did offer a partial refund which is nice because it was a nonrefundable reservation.  

Of course, because we feel a bit mislead by the booking, we think a full refund wouldn't be totally unreasonable to expect.  

The bad news is we are not 100% sure the partial refund will ever be seen.  When we requested the refund, the property owner wanted our bank info to transfer the money to- that was a red flag!!!!!  Yikes, anyway we are working through Paypal to get the refund and have asked our credit card to help us dispute the charge.  We are praying the Lord will help this mistake of ours be resolved.  I would like to not pay for an apartment that we never use.  I think we could probably find other ways to better spend that money :) 

So lesson learned?  I don't know, don't trust map bubbles? :)   

No, I don't really know what lesson we take from this except always try to know where you are...

Or maybe better yet, always remember none of us ever really have much of a clue where we are in life. It is only by God's grace we get where we need to be.

Expect the unexpected, right?

THE LOGISTICS OF LEAVING 4 KIDS HOME!

Above, this is the calendar we have prepared to tell each kid what they have to do that day and where they need to be.  I am sure we forgot something important...

but I guess the most important thing is that Andrew and I get ourselves to Benjamin!  Everything else can be dealt with when we get back home.

And this is a shout out to all moms- I know you will understand.  Even though I put weekly cleaning on the above calendar, the bottom line is I want the house cleaned for when we come home.  I guess it doesn't really matter what it looks like while I am gone.  What I don't know won't hurt me, right?!

CRAZY BUT AMAZING

Here is how the past few days have went for us:

Monday, 6-27  Reda submitted our documentation to the Court.  Waiting on judge assignment and hearing date.  Court has 14 days to respond, usually responds quicker.  Silva tells us to pray for court date in late July or early August.

Tuesday, 6-28 This is the email from Silva that Cathy calls us about early Tuesday morning:

Good morning family and Cathy, Please wake up and start planning and packing for your trip to Lithuania. 

Reda got notes from the Judge;s assistant...  We still have to wait until we will learn when the Judge exactly leaves for her summer vacation ( July 25 or 27), but Reda was tolled by the secretary that for sure the court date be assigned before the Judge leaves on vacation.  We are waiting for the written note. If the court hearing will be set by the Judge for July 19 or 20 or 21 we will be advising you to arrive to Vilnius on July 13 or 14 or 15.

We were absolutely thrilled!!!  Court could be as early as 7-19!!!!

Wednesday, 6-29, 2:50 A.M Our time  I woke up during the night to the ding of my cell phone letting me know an email from Silva came in.  Here is what I saw when I first  opened it up:

EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY

I panicked thinking something had happened to Benjamin or that everything had fallen through with case.  Then I read on:

I just heard from Reda that the Judge assigned the court hearing date and time.

It is 2016 July 15 at 1. p.m. 

So family shall arrive to Lithuania on July 9.

We then have big chances that on Monday July 18 we will get the court decision and be able to proceed with final steps. 

We will then be planning Embassy appointment for July 20 or 21 and planning that family may leave Lithuanian July 23 or 26 .

As always no promises. So you need to look for the flights and get tickets. 

I ran to wake up Andrew.  It reminded me of when my labor started with Stephen in the middle of the night, and I elbowed Andrew in the back telling him it was time!

We were soooo excited but also totally shocked.  We would be leaving in 9 days!!!!!  

We got up at 3 a.m. and booked an apartment in country for 17 days.  Later that day, we booked our flight.  And we sent a payment to Open Door that was due 2 weeks before our travel date.  Talk about an expensive day!!!!   

But these dates are beyond our dreams of what we were hoping for.  God is good!!!!!

So the countdown begins:  Next week at this time we will just be flying out of Chicago on our way to see our son.

We arrive in country Saturday afternoon, 7-9.  We may even be able to meet Benjamin that day or on Sunday!!!!

Now that is crazy but amazing!