Home Called Grace

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten, from the Father, full of grace and truth."  John 1:14

Today is the first of many "anniversary's" of Rebekah's adoption.  Life was really crazy last year as everything was taking place, and I wasn't able to share as much as I would have liked.  I thought I'd reflect a little today on what transpired one year ago and try to remember as much as possible.  I just don't want to forget!  This may get long, so don't feel like you have to read it all.  But, here are some details of how our adoption began just one year ago today...  

It was a rainy, bleak day.  I was headed to our church for a women's Christmas tour of homes.  It had been a week since we had first heard the news that we had been matched with a little girl.  We had hardly told a soul that anything had transpired.  We were waiting to see if our agency could gather any more information on this "referral" before deciding for sure to travel to Russia.  As much as we wanted to share that we might be traveling (especially since we found out right before Thanksgiving), we wanted to wait until everything was definite.  It was hard enough for us to wait and would have been much harder to have all our family waiting, as well.

We initially found out about Rebekah the Tuesday of the week of Thanksgiving.  We had requested a little more information about her before making the final decision to travel and were waiting to hear back.  Our agency was closed over Thanksgiving and the Russia liaison was on vacation until the following Tuesday.  I finally talked with her late that Tuesday afternoon and she told me that they were unable to get anymore information.  She wanted to know if we desired to travel anyways or wait on another referral.  I told her we were ready!  She made me wait to talk to Zac and told me to call her in the morning.  I left her a message early that Wednesday morning (saying YES, of course), and proceeded to church.  I thought it might help keep my mind off of everything and make the waiting easier.

I kept my phone close and realized towards the end of the morning that I had a missed call from Anna.  Our group had just arrived at the last home on the tour of homes, so I sat outside on a large porch and called her back.  She informed me that she had our travel dates ready and we needed to leave in a week and a half!!!!!  I could not believe it was all happening so fast after waiting and waiting and waiting.  I knew I had to leave and get home and get busy, so I found someone to take me back to the church to get my car.

We had so much that needed to get done immediately - plane tickets bought, visa applications completed and sent off, but those had to wait because first we HAD to call our families.  The news just could not wait another minute, so I drove to Zac's work and we went to a private room and made the first of many calls.  Of all the wonderful things we got to do that day, calling our families and telling our friends was the best part.

We wanted to call Zac's family first so he could be a part of telling them the good news.  We called Zac's mom and dad who were both home for lunch, and started the conversation with "It's a girl!!".  They were so thrilled and cried and couldn't believe how fast we were leaving.  We then called Aunt Amy and the second we told her the news she sobbed for at least a solid minute before ever saying a word.  I will never forget that!  She then told us how she had prayed we would hear something before Thanksgiving - she didn't know it at the time, but her prayers had been answered.  Aunt Natalie was next on the list and she couldn't believe it at first and then was SO excited that it was a girl!!  I remember her saying over and over, "it's a girl, I can't believe it's a girl."

About an hour had gone by and Zac needed to get back to work.  I went home and then proceeded to call my family.  I called my mom first, who was at work.  I told her she might want to go somewhere private cause I had some big news.  I remember she just laughed and laughed from joy!  I then called my dad at work and he was just as delighted!  He told me that he knew all along that it was going to be a girl - I couldn't believe that because he had never shared it with me before.  He had also asked my mom the night before if she had talked to me because he just had a feeling that we had some news.  Amazing!  Aunt Jen was at work so I had to leave her a message, but when I finally talked to her she cried and couldn't believe it was a girl either!!  We immediately started talking about names.  :)  It was so fun to surprise everyone by this news and the news that it was a girl.  That is what made sharing the news even more exciting - despite all our plans, God had something even better in mind!

The rest of the day was filled with applying for our visas and then rushing to get them to the post office in time to have them over-nighted.  After Zac came home we sat down and began the long process of researching plane tickets.  We also shared our news through email and F@cebook, and it was wonderful and humbling to receive so much excitement!

It was one of the most wonderfully exciting days we have ever had.  After two+ years of waiting and just when we had begun to give up hope of traveling to Russia before the end of the year (or really, ever!), God finally said "yes" to our prayers.  It was so sweet of the Lord to give us this gift right before Christmas, and it is a day we will never forget!

Today was Orphan Sunday and our church allowed several families who have adopted to share their testimonies to Sunday school classes.  We enjoyed the opportunity to speak to a young married class for about an hour and share some of our journey to Rebekah.

Our friend from college, Heather, is a wonderful photographer.  When we got home from Russia, Heather offered to take some family pictures as an adoption gift.  At the time she lived in Charlotte, so when we traveled to Charlotte this summer to see Zac's sister we were thinking of doing them then.  However, it didn't work out for either of us, and I'm so glad we waited!  Last Thursday, Heather came to town and we went to a park by our home to take some pictures.  Rebekah did great with Heather and really responded well to her directions.  If we had done them in June, it probably would have been harder for Rebekah b/c she was still learning English and still getting used to us and new people. 

Heather sent me a link to a few of the pictures she took, and they are amazing!!  Rebekah has such a pretty smile, but it has been hard to capture on camera.  Heather was able to capture our girl so beautifully.  We will be forever grateful for such a precious gift.  Heather now lives in Birmingham, so if you live nearby you should look her up the next time you need family pictures.  Heather is also working towards donating her services to other adoptive families, which is going to be such a blessing to many people! 

Here is a link to the pictures on her blog.  Enjoy!!

At Tiger Walk for the first time.



Ready to watch the game with her chair!

Over Labor Day, we were invited to stay with Zac's oldest sister and her family at Hilton Head, SC.  It was a wonderful long weekend, with the highlight being able to show Rebekah the ocean for the first time.  She loved it!  The first night we went, the beach was really long and flat and Rebekah just took off running.  At one point she even put her heads over her head and started clapping.  I've never seen her do that before - It was precious.  She had no fear of the water and splashed and jumped and laughed as hard as she could.  We enjoyed playing in the sand and the ocean, the pool, and going out to eat at night.  It was a wonderful trip.










Zac's sister took some pictures of us and Rebekah and they turned out beautiful!!

There are a lot of things to catch up on, but instead of back-tracking I'm just going to move forward and hope I can get around to catching up one day.

Last Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch about 20 minutes away in a neighboring city.  It was a lot of fun.  We first rode a tractor hay ride that took us to the pumpkin patch field and a barn.  Rebekah didn't really think much about it either way.  She just sat back and enjoyed the ride! 

When we got to the field of pumpkins, she wasn't so sure about it.  She didn't like walking around on the lumpy ground with all the tangled vines and long grass.  So, it was up to us to choose the pumpkin.  I was beginning to think this was all going to be a big bust, but thankfully they had a barn with several animals and it saved the day!  She got to feed a baby calf, a goat, look at some chickens, pet horses, and then hold baby rabbits.  Her favorite was the rabbits!  Then, we also got to play with some corn kernels. 

It was a fun little family adventure.  Here are a few pictures!

It has been a while since I last blogged and there are many things to catch up on.  I realized that I had started a blog post about a month ago and just completely forgot to post it.  We had our first post-placement visit at the end of September.  It is hard to believe it is already time to complete our first report.  Here is the original post: 

Russia requires that we complete four post-placement reports over the course of the next three years.  If we were to not comply to this, both of our agencies (Children's H@pe and Lif@line) and in turn other families would be affected negatively.  Russia is very strict about this issue and if agencies and couples don't comply they won't work with those agencies until the issue is resolved.  We certainly don't want to be the cause of that, so we are happy to submit these reports.

Our social worker from Lif@line came to our house at the very end of August to meet Rebekah and talk to us about the past five months.  Rebekah was wonderful!  She had a great day and was so good during the visit.  Our social worker was really pleased with Rebekah's overall development and her bonding.  She was even more impressed with her language.  I knew Rebekah was saying a lot of words, but I had never written down these words and counted how many she could say.  Amy really encouraged me to do that and it didn't take long to get to over 200 words.  At this point I have quit counting because I'm not really sure I could write them all down.  She may be saying close to 300, which is amazing!!  It seems especially amazing because she was not speaking when she came home. 

We are so thankful for all of her progress in so many areas.  We know the Lord is working a miracle in her life and it is so amazing to get to have a front row seat to all He is doing in her.  

We had a great birthday party for Rebekah! It was a very special day and a continued celebration of God's faithfulness in all three of our lives. We were just overcome with thankfulness for the gift of Rebekah and how far she has come. Happy third Birthday, Rebekah Grace!

Here are a few pictures from the day. Enjoy!