An Arrival Shower and More

First things first, we were greeted at the airport by our church family, there many pictures taken and videos. I would love to have those if possible. So those of you that were there, if you could send me those pictures and videos we would love to have them. I will post what I do have.

The family that made this, had the wrong arrival info, but we loved the thought and effort, they are dear to us!

When we got to the cars that day, there was a Bald Eagle soaring right over us...it was there for awhile, a symbol of freedom, that God sent to welcome our little Max home! God is awesome!!!!

An Arrival Shower

Our Church family gave us an "Arrival" shower, we are truly blessed to be a part of this body of believers. First, they told us, as our church family...that they are there for us, that they will help us and pray for us!! I do not take my church family for granted, they are an amazing bunch. But that is what we do in this family, we are there for each other, we help and pray, we bear each others burdens! The way God meant it to be!

So the way they delivered that support to us did surprise me, the shower surprised me, but the love and support of our church did not. I know this family very well, I know they will be there for us, we will be there for them. Words alone can not express how Bill and I feel, we truly do love this church family, more than they know.

A Few More Pictures

This picture was taken in Kiev, before we left, but I have not had a chance to share it yet, he loved watching the front loader go!!

Max with his brothers, Bryan and Brady!

Getting ready to eat BBQ'd Ribs.......YUM!!

Max, his brothers, his sister Sarah, and his Grandma!

One more with Grandma!!

Thank you all!

God Bless,

Bill and Sheri

Home, jet lag and the first Sunday

We are home!!!! We arrived at Seatac Airport and was greeted by 20 or so members of our church including our Pastor and his family. After many hugs, pictures and videos we loaded up and went to lunch at Azteca for some normal Mexican food. After that we headed home to start unpacking and then the jet lag set in. Saturday was a day of only doing what needed to be done and a BBQ at friends, but a early night since we were all tired.

Max has been doing great, he has also been effected by the jet lag since he slept very little on the trip home. So he will just pass out on us for a few hours and then be back awake. But when it is time for bed he is ready. He has his own toddler bed (thank you Potvins) that he mostly sleeps in, he is a busy sleeper so sometimes he ends up on the floor and we put him back in bed. He truly understands that this is his home and he has his own stuff.

Sunday, Max and mom stayed home in the morning, but were at the evening service. Our church family was glad to finally meet Max. We had an ice cream social after church and ALL the girls were around him (he enjoys the attention). We are grateful to our church family and the support they have given us during our journey to bring Max home. We will post a more detailed timeline of the last weekend and pictures later.

Thank you, Bill

I Cried...

We had our appointment at the Embassy this morning, when I saw our flag....I cried....I really cried. I guess I have been gone too long. It is worth it to get our son Max, it has not been always easy, but God has been so good. We saw other Americans there, they are adopting also. It was so good to be able to speak English all morning long and to have everyone else speaking english also. It was a sweet sound.
It was neat, to be on American soil...the other Americans were the same, they got here in Ukraine the same time we did, they have been here just as long. She almost cried, they said it was wonderful to be on American soil. We have made several new friends in Ukraine, many are American families all adopting, several are American Missionaries, working a mission at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Odessa, we love these people, they are in our hearts and prayers, we love their church family also, they were very good to us, we enjoyed the fellowship there, the church services, it was great and we will miss them all, many thanks to Lighthouse Baptist Church, we truly enjoyed our time in Odessa.......But we do miss home, we miss our children, Bryan, Brady and Sarah. we miss my mom, she is at our home with our children waiting for us. We miss our church family so much, we miss the services and time of worship, the preaching, we miss the fellowship. We are so ready to come home.

We would love to see our church family at the airport.....so.....we are inviting you to come and Welcome Max Home. You can get the arrival info from pastor.

There are many that have been praying for us, praying that Max's medical appointment goes well, thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray. His medical will be in the morning.

REALITY

Webster’s 1828 defines REALITY as: Actual being or existence of anything; truth; fact; in distinction from mere appearance. Something intrinsically important, not merely matter of show.

In this adoption journey that started over 9 months ago, we have gone from not thinking about trying to adopt again, to saying that maybe someday we will look into it again, to a time where God placed in our hearts a desire to adopt a certain little boy from Eastern Europe that has Down Syndrome.

During this time we have had many days when we were not sure it was going to happen. There were times of discouragement, times of frustration, times of encouragement from many friends, but through all of this was a knowledge that we could not do this on our own but only through the strength of God and in his timing.

Then came the day that we boarded a plane to fly almost half way around the world to start the in-country process, but it still seemed surreal to us. After we had our SDA appointment we left for the region he was in the next night. Our first day (Saturday) there was very discouraging, we had a place to stay for only one day and they were not sure when they could get us place after that. God then showed us He was still in control, we called the missionary here that we knew of and they were able to put us up for a couple of days and then on Monday with one phone call, we had an apartment for a month. Since then, we have seen may things that God has done to make this adoption process a reality.

Then on July 22^nd 2011, it became a REALITY!!! Max became our son and he is quietly sleeping on the couch right now. It is no longer, is it going to happen or this is very surreal to us. It is now a REALITY that God has placed in our care this little boy to Love for the rest of our lives. God’s word tells us in Matthew 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Once more, we have been shown that when it comes to God, He can make what we think is almost an impossibility to be a REALITY in His power and timing. We have and will continue to Praise God for His goodness, mercy and grace He has bestowed upon us with our new son Max.

City by the Sea & Max