Trip One

It's official: three little boys across the ocean have our hearts. 

On June 18th we left from Chicago to make the trip overseas to meet our precious sons. Total travel time from Chicago to the capital city in their country was about 12-13 hours. The flights were smooth and uneventful - exactly the way they should be. We were relieved to have our own little personal televisions on the long flights, which helped pass the time as we watched movies and dozed off on the long leg of the flight (about 9 hours). This was a blessing as it was a major source of anxiety for me (Mary), but the time we boarded the flights my mind was at ease. Praise God for that!

Here we go!

We arrived on June 19th in country and were picked up at the airport by our agency representative and translator. He took us to our apartment, then helped us exchange money and showed us around the pedestrian district so we knew where we could find the grocery store and a restaurant to eat dinner. He left us then, confirming plans to pick us up the following morning. After being up for over 24 hours and eating only airplane food, we were tired and hungry so enjoyed an early dinner and went to bed around 6:30 pm local time. While we were so excited and anxious in anticipation of meeting our sons the next day, the travel had left us so exhausted that we had no trouble falling asleep. We ended up waking up at about 2:30 in the morning and laid there chatting about the reality that we would be meeting our kids that day! Good news is that the only real "jet lag" issue we had was the early bed time/wake time our first day; we adjusted quickly overall and didn't have any problems with the 7 hour time difference. 

On June 20th, our guide picked us up around 7:30 am and off we went to the boys' home town. It was about 3 hours from the capital and we chatted with our translator the whole time - talking about the process, the country, the traditions, etc. We arrived to the social services office just before 11:00 am and met the social worker, who told us the boys were on their way! We anxiously waited and soon saw them through the doors. It happened very fast - Scott said, "oh, there they are!" and next thing we knew we were looking our kids in the eyes. The first meeting was sweet. The two older boys shyly gave us hugs, while the youngest clung to his caregiver and checked us out from afar. It was a moment we will certainly never forget as we were finally able to hold them in our arms. Our hearts melted as we left the office and began walking to the park - the boys immediately took our hands and were looking up at us, anxious to check out their Mom and Dad. 

From there, we went to a park and played with them for an hour or two, then had lunch together. The boys were excited to interact with us and we loved watching them play. It was so fun to witness their relationship as brothers. The love they have for each other is very apparent and we are so thankful for the bond they share. Their caregivers have done an incredible job of keeping them close. After lunch, they went home and we headed to the hotel to check in; we spent the afternoon getting settled, then had dinner with our guide. We were thankful to have such a comfortable and nice hotel, with a restaurant right on the property that we could enjoy.  

The next two days, we met the boys in the morning, took them to a park and to lunch, then got to play some more before they returned home and us to our hotel. We got to spent 5 hours with them each day and loved playing with them (despite the 90+ degree weather!). On the way back to the meeting place every day, we would stop and get ice cream or slushies for the kids and it was fun to take our time exploring the city, parks, and the pedestrian district in their home town. As the week went on, the boys continued to get more and more comfortable with us and we loved learning their personalities. It is amazing how much you can learn about people, even when you do not speak the same language. Our translator/guide was wonderful and truly helped us to foster those bonds and break through the language barrier to do so. It was also fun to share photo books with them that we had made - photos of us, their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, along with photos of the house, church, school, nearby pool and playground, etc. As the translator read the books to them, the boys were intently listening and excited to see their new home (especially their dog and the nearby playground). We spent the evenings having dinner with our guide - we talked a lot about the country and their history/traditions, had him outline some key phrases for us in the boys' language, and were introduced to some of the foods their country is known for. We loved this time with our guide and the information he shared with us was invaluable.  

The final day with the boys (Thursday) was heartbreaking, as we expected. We got to spend three hours with them that day and followed a similar routine - took them to the park and to get slushies after playing. We were able to give them their quilts that day that Grandma Eckert had made with lots of love. The quilts were beautiful and Grandma had even personalized them with their names before we left. They were excited to receive those and it was such a special gift to be able to give them to keep during the wait between trips. We hugged them extra tight and told them how much we love them and would miss them the next few months. We said tearful goodbyes to the social worker and their caregivers as we felt immediately attached to them as well; it is undeniably apparent how well they care for our children. 

We left their city and headed back to the capital. The ride home was somber and quiet as we were slowly processing the events of the past 4 days. We got back to the capital city and enjoyed dinner just the two of us, including some ice cream to drown our sorrows :). On Friday, we had one appointment to sign some legal paperwork, then spent the rest of the day touring the capital city and packing everything up to head home. A two hour free walking tour of the city was very interesting and we loved learning more about the history of the country. We walked up and down their pedestrian district several times and soaked up the time talking about our sons and the plans we have to prepare for their homecoming. Despite the heartbreak of leaving our boys, we enjoyed Friday to regroup and reconnect after such an emotional and life-changing week. 

Yum!

On Saturday, our guide picked us up and took us to the airport. We said another tearful goodbye to him as we got very attached to him throughout the week - it isn't every day someone assists you with meeting your children and walks with you through such an eventful time! We had about 12-13 hours travel time on the way home and again had uneventful flights. A very tired drive home from Chicago included multiple driver changes and some intense singing to Beyonce' to stay awake, haha! We arrived safely home around 2 am on Sunday morning. 

We've spent the last week watching and re-watching the videos we took, looking at the photos over and over, and sharing the events of the week with family and friends. 

We cannot praise God enough for the incredible blessings of the week. Our children are safe and healthy. The boys were open to meeting us and began to attach to us as the week progressed. Their caregivers are absolutely amazing and have prepared/will continue to prepare our sons for adoption and the transition. Their caregivers happily answered our countless questions about the boys and their personalities/health/etc. Our travel was unbelievably smooth. Accommodations were nice and safe. Our guide was helpful, kind, and very easy to talk to. The financing came together for the trip. We could go on and on about the ways we have been blessed and as we have leaned on faith through our entire adoption journey (and fertility journey that preceded it), there is no question about God's hand in this adventure. We met our boys and in that instant, the ups and downs of the last 4+ years immediately came into focus. We knew that it had all led up to these three precious boys and we feel that our greatest blessing is that He has chosen us to be their parents. 

The next few months will be full of preparation for them to come home as the legal process takes its course. We are completing the additional paperwork on our end as our agency represents us in country to complete the adoption. We anticipate the process taking 4-5 months and we look forward to returning this fall to bring the boys home. 

We appreciate all of your prayers through this journey. Our prayer requests for the next few months are that the boys' hearts would be prepared for the transition to come home. There will be so much for them to process and understand as we transition home and we pray for them to begin that processing now. We pray for their caregivers as we anticipate this transition will not be easy for them either. We pray for the legal process to go smoothly and without delay, and for our hearts and home to begin preparing to officially become a family of five. We pray that we can all move through this wait time and stay focused as we feel our hearts are halfway across the world. 

Thank you for being on this adventure with us. It is such an awesome feeling to be sharing this post with you - we have finally met our children!! Thank you for your continued prayers for our sons and our family and we will continue to keep you updated on the process as it unfolds. 

Love,
Scott and Mary

And Then Friday Happened.

So last week, we were talking about how we needed to write a blog post. We really didn't have anything to say, but at least wanted to say "yep, still waiting." And we procrastinated. And then Friday happened. Friday, May 27th. Suddenly, we did have something to say - a little something(s) that will change our lives forever.

You know how sometimes you get something in your mind and you just latch onto it like it's written in stone? Well, for us, it was that THE call would come on a Tuesday. Our friends received their call on a Tuesday. We had other communications that had come from our agency on a Tuesday. Tuesday it was. Tuesday it would be. Note that the basis for this thought is shaky at best, but you know, you hang on to what you can during the wait. So Tuesday came, and Tuesday went, week after week. We always have our phones with us, but we held them extra close on Tuesdays. After another disappointing Tuesday last week, we decided to just look forward to Scott's last day of school/beginning of summer break on Thursday, then Memorial Day Weekend to enjoy time with family. And then, as noted above, Friday happened. Beautiful, glorious, wonderful FRIDAY.

I was spending my Friday running an interview day at work (which was quite successful, by the way), and Scott was enjoying his first full day of summer break building Adirondack chairs with his besties (they love when I call them that). I was daydreaming as my last interview was happening in the room next door and my FitBit vibrated signaling a call. I looked down to see a number I didn't recognize... ugh... telemarketer. Begrudgingly, I answered.

L: "Mary? This is Lydia" (Program Director for our agency)

Oh my gosh. It's LYDIA??? Lydia only calls for one reason. LYDIA ONLY CALLS UNANNOUNCED FOR ONE REASON. 

Me: "Yeah?!????? OH MY GOSH!!!!  LYDIA! OH MY GOSH!!!"

L: "Are you by a computer and are you with Scott?"

Me: "*sob* No ... to... both.... can *sniff* we call Scott??"

L: "Give me his number and we'll conference call"

Next thing I know, I hear Scott join the call and Lydia shares the most wonderful news with us. She said she hoped we had thought of some boy names as we had been matched with three little guys across the ocean. The call was brief as I was crying, she was crying... it was a whole mess. So she said she'd email the referral to us, we should take the weekend to read, discuss, celebrate, etc., and then we'd touch base on Tuesday. And just like that, our lives were changed. With one 7-minute phone call.

SO! Now that I've painted the scene, let's get down to business!

Our boys are beautiful. We are reading and re-reading the information we have about them just to soak up every last drop. We're so anxious to get more information on them as the process moves forward. We hope to travel to meet them as soon as possible. We anticipate getting those dates in the next week!

You might be wondering a few things - what country they're from, what they look like, ages, etc. We appreciate, so much, your interest in our sons and we excitedly share all we can - but there is a lot of information that we're just not permitted to post on any electronic media. It's for the protection of the kids and the adoption process, so we will have to wait on a lot of those details for now. Don't worry, when they come home, we'll bombard your news feed :). You may see us share a thing or two from our agency that gives more information through that avenue rather than directly linking us to the details.

So now what? Now we wait for dates to travel to meet the boys. We fill out some paperwork to get the process started and enjoy the time celebrating with our family and friends. We will travel to meet them and be with them for about a week. After that, we'll come home and return 4-6 months later to bring them home forever.

We truly couldn't be more thrilled. We're nervous, anxious, overwhelmed, and excited in every way you could possibly think of. It's been an incredible 6 days sharing this news with our family and friends and we are so excited to have everyone along for the rest of this journey. It's been an adventure so far and we know it is just beginning.

Here are some fun pictures we took over the weekend as we celebrated with our families! One of the things we've been most excited about is making our parents Grandparents again, making our siblings Aunts/Uncles, and adding cousins to the crew... what a joyful weekend full of screams, tears of joy, and lots and lots of love! It was a weekend we will never forget - we've waited a long time to share news like this with our families and it was so exciting to get to finally surprise them!!

Ready to surprise everyone!!

We had boxes filled with goodies from our sons' home country and a balloon ready to pop out with the news!

So excited to share the news!!!!

With Grandma and Grandpa DeArmond

Aunt Stef, Uncle Jeff, Cousins Leah, Trevor, and Mya!

Ready for the Eckert reveal - "pool toys for the kids" haha :) 

With Grandma and Grandpa Eckert

Aunt Sarah, Uncle Larry, and cousin David toasting the newest family members!

Such a fun night!!!

We cannot thank everyone enough for the incredible love and support you've shown us through this journey. As we type this, we're receiving messages and comments on Facebook, emails, texts, and calls. We truly feel like you all have prayed and loved our family home. Our prayer request now is that our sons' hearts and ours are prepared to become a family of 5. We pray for a seamless process over the next 6ish months to bring them home, and that the transition is smooth. We are so thankful for our amazing village and cannot wait for the rest of this adventure to unfold. 

Love, 
Mary, Scott, and the three newest DeArmonds

November Update

Hello all!  It has been a couple months since we last updated this, so we thought that we would let you know what has been going on with the adoption.  Things have calmed down recently as the paperwork has been completed and we wait for our referral. We are enjoying the increase in down time and have been making the most of this time before our children come home.

We don't have much to say in terms of updates on our process and at this point it's basically a waiting game.  It has been fun, however, to connect with other couples working with our agency who are further along in the process than we are.  This past Friday night we actually got to meet some friends at the airport as they were bringing their new children home from the same country we will be adopting from!  It was incredibly powerful to experience this, and we are so excited to someday share that moment with our friends and family.  We are thankful for the wonderful community we have through our adoption agency and are grateful for the lifelong friendships we have built.

This past month, we sold our last MudLove bracelet, bringing our total up to 600!  That number is a little crazy and we have been blown away by all of you buying these.  Thank you so much!  The amount of money we raised by selling these more than covers two round-trip plane tickets to Eastern Europe, so this is a big deal.  Your generosity continues to amaze us!

During our Trivia Night/Silent Auction this past March, some friends surprised us with shirts that they had designed for our adoption.  Many of you have asked about these and whether or not they were available for purchase.  We have decided that we would like make them available for those who are interested.

If you would like to order one, we have two design options to choose from (see picture below).  Thank you to our dear friends for both of these designs!  Shirts can be ordered by clicking here and completing the form.  We will be taking orders until 11/23 and we will be placing the order shortly thereafter.  The cost is $15 per shirt, with an extra $5 if you would like it shipped.  (Note to Berne and St. Louis residents: we will be in town over the holidays and can deliver your shirts to you at that time to save you the shipping costs.  If you live in the Indy area, we will deliver them to you as well.)  If you are interested in ordering more than one shirt, you will need to fill out a separate form for each shirt.  Payment will need to be received by 11/23 in order for your shirt(s) to be ordered.

On the gray shirt, the heart is located over the capital of our children's birth country.  On the green shirt, the funny looking word underneath the word "Home" is the word for home in our children's native language.

Thank you all for continuing to check in with us regarding our adoption process.  We love the questions, and never get tired of telling people all about it!  Your support and encouragement makes this wait easier to bear.

Love,

Scott and Mary

August 7th

Hi All!

We are comin' at ya with an exciting update! As we previously posted, we submitted our dossier to our adoption agency on June 16th (Happy 30th birthday to Scott on that day, too!). They told us that it would be sent to Eastern Europe and we should expect to be on the registry in country in approximately 8 weeks. What does it mean to be on the registry? That means that the dossier is officially translated, reviewed, and approved - live and available to be matched with an orphan(s). As a matter of routine, they do not notify us when we're registered. It is kind of the "no news is good news" type of thing for the 2-3 months following the dossier being submitted. They said they would notify us if it was missing anything or hit any snags, but otherwise we were to assume it was registered around 8 weeks following submission.

They also told us that if we asked about it being registered, they would be able to ask the agency overseas and find out the date we were registered. We knew from approximately day 1 of this process that we would be asking :). We  Mary knew that  we  she would need to know the date for our her sanity.

So we Mary decided to wait until it had been ten weeks and then ask for the long-awaited confirmation that we were registered! 10 weeks was this past Tuesday and our agency was able to get a response from overseas in record time... and... drumroll please... 

AUGUST 7th!!! 

Our dossier was translated, approved, and went "live" on August 7th! WAHOO!!!

This is significant for a lot of reasons: 
1. There were no hiccups with our paperwork and all was in order and complete
2. There were no delays with translation or review
3. We are able to be matched with our children AT ANY TIME!!!
4. See #3
5. #3 is really important. 

So, what is next? Now, we wait. We officially wait for that beautiful day when we receive a phone call notifying us that we've been matched to our children. While the wait is arguably the most difficult part of this process, we are relieved to be to this point. We've had a long road to have a family and this wait feels incredible because even though we don't know how long it will be, we are confident that this wait will result in meeting the children we know God has planned for us. 

In the meantime, we're doing a lot of continuing education - books, podcasts, etc. - and becoming as prepared as possible to be parents. We are also enjoying this time together and with Leo as we know these will be the last handful of months that it's "just the three of us."

Common question: How long? We do not know how long the wait will be. Average wait time from now to a match is around a year. So, we will see! We told ourselves from the beginning that this wait would be at least a year, so we are working on being mentally and emotionally prepared for this time (though it is a daily decision to practice that patience we have been taught over the years!).

Before long, we will work to post a timeline of what the process has looked like so far. We are thankful that people have been encouraged to consider adoption through our story and have asked what the total timeline looks like - we will plan on posting that soon as this post is getting a little long already :). 

We are excited to add August 7th to the list of exciting days on this journey to adopt! 

Thank you again for all of your incredible love and support. 

Scott and Mary

Garage Sale

Hi All, 

Thanks again for checking in! We wanted to write another update since we had a hugely successful weekend in regards to fundraising. 

Garage Sale!

When we started brainstorming fundraising options late 2014/early 2015 with our families, the idea of a spring or summer garage sale came up and we decided it would be a great option! When the dust settled from all the paperwork and getting our dossier off to Eastern Europe, we finally felt ready to tackle this next event. We set a date and then put a message out to our family and friends on facebook asking if anyone had anything they planned to get rid of and would like to donate to the sale. We were, once again, overwhelmed by the response! Next thing we knew, our garage was literally packed to the brim with donations of furniture, clothing, home decor, kitchen stuff, etc.  Once we started organizing it all, the items continued to pour in and our garage and living room were like a tetris game - precisely packed with the makings of one EPIC garage sale. Thank goodness the "Hoarders" tv crew wasn't around... we would have made an appearance for sure. 

Driveway Side 1

Driveway Side 2

  

Aisle 1

We worked every night for a week organizing all of the items into categories. We even put a few of the bigger items on Craig's List before the sale as we ran out of room to store everything, even for just a few days. Folks, we cannot explain to you how much stuff we had - it. was. incredible. A couple of days before the sale, some friends and family came over to help us put prices on everything. We also borrowed tables, bins, clothing rods, etc. from friends and family - this was truly a team effort! Finally Friday was upon us and we woke up ready to go at 5:30 am. We put up signs all over the area directing people to the sale and started setting up the sale out in the driveway and yard. Mary was a little stressed at first because honestly, it didn't look like it would all fit in the driveway, garage, and yard. BUT, we made it! We created a couple of aisles and everything. 

Aisle 2

The sale was awesome. We had a steady stream of shoppers for two days straight. We had people we didn't even know making donations to the adoption without even purchasing a thing from the sale - humbled is an understatement. We are so grateful to everyone who came out. We had family and friends there to help and keep us company both days, people who drove from all over central Indiana to come and show their support, and lots of phone calls and messages anxiously awaiting updates. Like every step of this process, it has been the most overwhelming and incredible thing to see the support and encouragement for our family and for orphans across the world. We are so blessed to have such a team with us on this journey. Thank you so much!!

David and Grandma modeling a sale item and being cashiers!

The garage sale raised over $1,900. WHAT? Yes. Incredible. The cost of adopting can feel huge, but we take it one step at a time and it has all come together and been such an awesome blessing. An average round trip plane ticket to Eastern Europe is about $1500-$1800, so the garage sale will pay for one of our tickets, plus a good chunk of another. Or, another way to look at it, a one way flight from Eastern Europe to America is around $900, so the garage sale paid for two children to come home when we are matched!!

Another awesome weekend in our journey to a family!

Thank you for all of your incredible support!

Lots of love and gratitude, 
Mary and Scott

Love Crosses Oceans... and so does our dossier!!!

Hello everyone!

Well, today is the day we've been waiting for since we started this journey (besides, of course, the day we are matched to our children and bring them home). 

Our dossier is heading across the ocean this week!! 

Hallelujah! We are so excited and THRILLED to be sharing this news!!!

As we described in our last post, we received our USCIS approval over Memorial Day weekend and have been waiting on one final document from the FBI to come in the mail to finish our dossier. Well, I saw that beautiful little envelope peeking out of the stack of mail this past Thursday and there it was! We immediately called our agency to let them know we had everything back, including notaries and apostilles, and were ready to rock and roll! Our program director at the agency met with us today to go over everything and we were given a green light!! 

We got our last document!!!

Here are what the next steps look like:

Our program director reviewed our paperwork today and confirmed we have all we need. She will request a signed agreement from our agency in Eastern Europe today. (Sidenote: We have two adoption agencies - one that represents us here with the U.S. and one that represents us in the country we are adopting from). This agreement allows the other agency to represent us in that country. They will send back the signed agreement within 48 hours and then our dossier will be shipped to Eastern Europe (EE). Once in EE, they will translate our entire dossier and check again for anything that is missing. Once it is translated and all in order, our dossier will be registered with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) in EE. The MOJ are who govern adoptions in EE and are in charge of matching adoptive families with orphans. Once we are on the registry, we could be matched to our children at any time. When we are matched, we'll travel within a month to EE to meet our children. We will then come home after being there for 1-2 weeks and fly back to bring them home approximately 4-6 months later, once the entire legal process has run its course in EE.

Average wait time from the time we drop our dossier off with our agency (which was today) to the time of a match is currently running 15.3 months. It may be longer, may be shorter, but that is their average right now.

Two original sets, a copy, and a digital copy of our dossier. Mary and Scott in paper form :)

So, to put it briefly: Now, we wait. All of our paperwork is completed and on its way... we just anxiously wait to be matched to our sweet little ones. 

Love crosses oceans

We appreciate the incredible support and encouragement we have received beyond words. From the encouraging messages, the financial support, attendance at our trivia night, mudlove bracelets, etc. - it has all truly meant the world to us. We have the most amazing team with us on this journey and we cannot say thank you enough! We are so blessed to share this exciting milestone with you!

Love, 
Scott and Mary

USCIS Approval!

Hello! We hope you're having a relaxing and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. 

We have a BIG news to share with everyone and are thrilled to have such a significant update... 

OUR APPROVAL FROM THE USCIS HAS ARRIVED!!! 

That's right... I'll say it again... 

OUR APPROVAL FROM THE USCIS HAS ARRIVED!!!

On Friday, we received our approval in the mail and are ECSTATIC! This approval is the last (and most important) piece of our dossier and we've been waiting for weeks for this short little piece of mail to show up in our mailbox. 

Yes, I took a picture of the approval. :) YAYAYAY!!!

The USCIS approval is, in short, the U.S. government deeming us suitable to adopt up to three children from Eastern Europe. It's a bit of a process to obtain this approval. You have to have a completed home study, then you submit the application to the government, then they send you an appointment time to go have more fingerprints done at the USCIS office (think BMV type of place with armed guards and metal detectors... including grumpy people and few smiles), then you wait for the approval letter to come. This can take anywhere from 1-4 months, so while we knew the approval could come at any time, we didn't really have a good idea of when that would be. We submitted the application on 4/4, had our appointment for fingerprints a couple weeks later, and got the approval letter on 5/22. We are so thankful to have been on the shorter end of the approximate time frame! Like we said in our last post, obtaining this approval is one of the last steps to getting our dossier across the ocean, so we're excited to be one step closer to that day!

While we've been waiting on our USCIS approval, we've been busy preparing the rest of our dossier, which includes a lot of additional paperwork, medical approvals, education documentation, etc. We have everything ready to go now that we have our USCIS approval, so we're ready for the final steps of preparing our dossier. This will include having everything notarized and apostilled. Both of those steps should just take a couple of days, then we just have to check off our final FBI background checks and it'll all be mailed to Eastern Europe. Once the dossier is in Eastern Europe, it'll take approximately 8 weeks to be translated, then we'll go on the registry in that country to be matched with our children. 

Organizing dossier paperwork.

The last handful of weeks have been exciting in more ways than just approvals and paperwork mania. We completed our adoption education and also attended an open house with our adoption agency for families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from our country in Eastern Europe. 

The adoption education was super helpful and interesting for us. We loved hearing from other adoptive families about their journeys and the trials and triumphs during their children's first months of life in the U.S. We learned a lot about what to focus on and what unique needs our children will have being that they will come from another country, culture, and environment. We learned techniques for parenting that we will carry with us and work to implement with our children. We know we still have a lot to learn, but are thankful for the education we have been provided from our agency and are anxious to keep learning more. We plan to re-read the information our agency gave us at least once, and also take suggestions and read recommendations from family friends of us ours that have adopted internationally. 

The open house that our adoption agency hosted was for all families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from the country we have chosen in Eastern Europe. We were nervous to go as we really didn't know anyone, but were very excited to connect with others along this journey. It was the BEST day! We got there and immediately sat down with a family that we spent the rest of the afternoon talking with. They brought two of their five children (boy/girl siblings) home about nine months ago and we absolutely loved hearing all about their journey. We pummeled them with questions for two hours straight :). We talked with their kids, as well as several other children who have come home, over the course of the afternoon. We asked everything from how the children were handling the transition emotionally, physically, etc., to how the food was when they traveled. The couple we talked with were so willing to address every anxiety we had and so joyfully shared their adoption story. We learned about the discrimination against the children that this couple witnessed first-hand when visiting and picking their children up to come home. We learned about the language barriers (we were so impressed that in nine months of being home, the children spoke nearly perfect English), the educational differences, the social difficulties, etc. 
We left feeling so encouraged and (we didn't even know this was possible) even MORE sure this is the absolute definite path we are meant to be on. We know our children are chosen and we cannot wait to be united with them as a family. We are looking forward to going to an open house in the future and introducing our children to a nervous couple embarking on this journey. 

Thank you for walking this journey with us. It is so exciting to share these updates with an incredible team of supporters - we are so blessed and so thankful!

Love,
Scott and Mary