Moving Mountains

So this is my 3rd post for the day. I better do it while I can and while I have it fresh in my memory. Today started with meeting all the new kiddos that people have adopted down in the Silk Road Hotel Breakfast Buffet. Besides, us, the Reids, and the Halloways, Kevin and Ashley adopted Isabella, and another couple had a little boy. I'll have to get pics and post tomorrow.
On the Road again!
We then went to the Beta store and did some shopping! There is a North Face store there and you can buy what normally cost 300 in the states for 50 dollars. No textile or shipping fees or American mark up. John had a good day there:)

Then we took a trip to the mountains!! Adopting is like moving mountains!! You would not believe the details and the things that have to happen in order for this to happen. The hard labor of love involved, as well as the heartaches, worry, court hearings, proper legal foreign documents, US homeland security paperwork!! We just got done filling out our final paperwork for the embassy, hopefully, all will go smoothly, and we will leave after our 3:30 Embassy appt in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday the 27th for Almaty! Please pray for us during these times:)
Family minus 1 & furbabies
Phoebe's first hiking trip!

Phoebe's adoption was an incredible miracle, and on hearing her story we knew that only God's hand was involved. I loved Momto2Angels quote on her blogspot about how children brought home across the miles is absolutely Incredible and a work of God!
Looking at the Kyrgyz mountains reminded me that we are just a moment in eternity and a work of God's hands. We had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of our children's homeland.
Gorge"ous" View
Our Happy Families!

We are all pretty tired, tomorrow we are taking a down day and hopefully get some naptime in as well as get some Kyrgyz goods to take home. And we get to visit with some friends from home!

Our 2 Children

Wow, we can't believe in less than a year we were a family of us and 2 dogs. What a difference 8 months can make!! And our children are 8 months apart. Life couldn't be sweeter. I couldn't resist putting up these pics of the babies shortly after pick up, can you believe the resemblance? What a work of God's Hands!!
Phoebe March 2008
Michael July 2007-at the same age!


Then, I just had to add more of our mischievous daughter. John said she rolled across the hotel room floor, crawled to her toys, and had him on his toes while I went to the orphanage with Dianne and her Dad! It's amazing someone so tiny can move so much. She likes to do flips while we are changing her, nice for when she is messy!!
Little Trouble!
Going for the edge!

I also had to share our son's Easter away from us!! But he is in a welled loved family with well loved friends. I can't wait until next year when we are all together:)
The Stahl plus Michael family!

Gotcha Day Details

Our new baby!!

I promised more info on Gotcha Day so here is. 2 weeks ago the Kyrgyz Parliament decided that they were going to have a new national holiday, and of course it fell on our Gotcha day! They call it Revolution Day, it was a day they had a peaceful protest to oust the president in 2005. So we were still able to get our girl, but we didn't get to leave until 10:30 am. It was a beautiful 68 degree day and the sun was out!! It only took about 50 minutes to get to the orphanage and we were relatively unbothered by the drive, it was the same driver we had for Michael. That was really special for us:) We met with the orphanage director, and with no further ado got to meet our baby for the first time!! Of course, it was about noon at that time and the little one was eating!!! They kicked me out for a few minutes as she was getting too distracted to finish when she saw me. Poor John had to wait outside, they only let me in first!! The Hallaways were with us and took some wonderful photos for us, and it got them nervous for their turn but also really excited. Anyway, after a few minutes she was done and we finally got to hold her!! She is a peanut. She drowns in 3-6 month clothes so having that same experience with Michael I brought her 3 month clothes:) I got to dress her with the help of her caretaker, she cried and I felt so bad. I was worried at first that she wasn't going to take to us but alas, just like Michael she doesn't like to get dressed, especially in long sleeves. We got to have a look at some of the other babies, and then it was off. It was great, we met John and his wife Julie, Canadians who work with orphans in Kyrgyzstan and readily offer assistance to us adoptive parents. They are wonderful people with wonderful hearts and it was quite an honor. We wished we could have spent more time with them but we needed to pick up Vayla, their daughter. We said goodbye to the orphanage director who thought Michael was our biological child, we were proud to tell her that Michael was also from Kyrgyzstan!
We went to the orphanage where Vayla was, it was out in the country. As soon as we pulled up, she went running to meet them with tears!!! She had been waiting for almost 2 years to be adopted and she was so afraid she never would be. It was so incredibly wonderful to watch her, she has a very kind heart, upon leaving she ran to get her blanket she had been given by the Hallaways and went to give it to her teacher. The teacher came to see her off and there tears in his eyes, another tear jerker!!!
Then it was off to the hotel again, we didn't get back until almost 3 and had a bite to eat.
Then it was Dianne's turn!! Her baby was at the orphanage Michael was at and I asked if I could go and see his caregivers and show pictures of how he was doing! I was blessed with a Yes answer!! I was so happy. Watching Dianne pick up Julia brought back wonderful memories of that day back in July, and it was really an honor to watch her get her daughter!! Her daughter was in the same area Michael was in and it was really neat to see it in the light where I wasn't so distracted, to take pictures of his empty crib, and talk to his caregivers. They were sooo delighted to see pictures of him and how his club foot was healed. It made me cry and made them happy. It has been such a privilege to be an adoptive mother. John has been so proud all day!! All of our families are so greatful to God for his provision in granting us these very, very special children.
We went back and celebrated by ordering 3 pizzas, at the tune of 8 American dollars!
The Kyrgyz Babes!
Celebrate Good Times!!

We've got Phoebe Rachel!!

Wow, it's been quite a day!!! We left at 10:30 this morning and didn't get back to the hotel until 6:45 pm. We'll tell you more later but for now here is our girl!!!
She is incredibly strong, can crawl(Michael look out), roll over and even babbles!!!! She is so precious!!! We are glad & incredibly blessed that she's ours!!! We Gotcha Babe!!!We'll write more later but for now enjoy:)
Our happy girl!!
Mmmmm, toys!!!
Look out I'm trouble!!
I have a Mommy!!
Sleep at last!

Happy Easter from Bishkek!

So we finally made it to Kyrgyzstan at 220 am. That flight from Istanbul to Bishkek seemed to stretch on forever. It was about 24 hours travel time altogether with layovers. We saw the coolest film on that leg called August Rush!! It was so appropriate for our trip to pick up our Phoebe. High on the recommended list, it just made our trip here more special. About a child looking for his family and how he orchestrates it into being, really, take a look!!
We were pleasantly surprised to see our facilitator waiting for us at the airport, it was so good to see her again, catch up with her, and find out more about Phoebe.

It's beautiful Easter weather here, 70 degress F sunny skies and we walked the town as well as went to the Beta store for our baby supplies, baby wipes, diapers, bottled water, and some snack food for us. It's not a far walk from here compared to the snowy, cold weather we left and we were sweating up a storm.

It is now less than 12 hours to pick up Miss PC. We are pretty tired but have to say it's been a blessing to not have responsibilities or lists to get done for the past day. We didn't realize that it took so much to be a parent, until you don't have the baby with you. We still miss Michael terribly but love the fact that he slept the first night without difficulty at the Stahls. That is a huge relief. It's our little 4 lb dog that is having issues adjusting...
For now, just enjoy our pics of Easter Sunday, reflecting on all Jesus did for us and thanking God for the gift of life!!!

John's hand compared to Kyrgyz's finest athlete, I think he's pretty close!
Travel trio at Parliament
Changing of the Guard
Scott said changing of the babies!!
Eating at a traditional Kyrgyz restaurant in the traditional manner, it's been great to have travelling buddies!!

Off to Kyrgyzstan!!!

Ready, Set, Crawl to Kyrgyzstan!
One last pic as a family of 3(minus the 2 puppies)
Here at Starbucks, Istanbul
Trio Rendezvous

March 22, 2007

So here we sit at Starbucks at the Istanbul airport. We are waiting to rendezvous with our last family of the travelling trio. The Hallaways met up with us in Minneapolis and are transferring their luggage. Apparently their airport wouldn’t let them check their bags all the way through… The Reids are coming from London and we haven’t met them yet. We have a 4 hour layover until we get on our flight to Bishkek. I forgot that these airports actually had a water closet, you think you going into one and then it opens up into a bigger bathroom, kind of like a hidden room. I love these gems of travel.
It’s unbelievable how fast time went in the last 2 weeks. It was good and bad. Good that the extra week didn’t seem like anything, bad in that resulted in about 3 hours sleep in the last 48 hours before take off. All the things I wanted to get done didn’t get done, but spending time with Michael was the best thing for me and him. We were rewarded with his first crawling steps the day before we left!!! John was soo proud It’ll make it much busier for Terry and crew but hopefully that will keep his mind off where his parents have gone for a couple of weeks.
This is a bittersweet time for us, it seems like such a long time to be gone from someone who has taken over our hearts in the last 7 1/2 months but yet so exciting to add addition to our household. Of course John and I had our usual get to the airport in a blizzard, but once we got all settled in and waiting for our flight, the tears flowed easily. I just had to put him quickly in his car seat and walk away quickly so he wouldn’t see mommy totally fall apart. John was fine until we sat down in Chili’s. We know this will be best for all involved, but I keep thinking I’m missing something when we go through the day…we have the most wonderful family taking care of them, Michael and our 2 papillons, and our first report was that Michael wasn’t quite missing us yet, thanks to all of you who are praying for him and us during this time I’ll write more once we get to Bishkek!!
Leaving in a snowstorm...

Puppies Loaded!
Kiss for Mommy:)
Bye, Bye Daddy!

Parents AGAIN!!!

I just got an email from my faciliator, 1345 CST, 6 Mar 2008 I found out that we are now decreed as the proud parents of a baby girl!!!! Can we say, whew!!! It's been a long wait for this one compared to Michael and we weren't too sure we would be able to complete the adoption. But God said YES!!! We are so happy and relieved. Now the official countdown can begin!! In about 2 weeks we head off to Kyrgyzstan to bring our little PC home. Precious child also now known as Phoebe Rachel Collingham will be in ours soon!! We can hardly wait!!

Phoebe is named after the patron in Romans 16:1 who ministered to many and delivered the book itself from Paul. It was not an easy time in that day, and most likely would have involved a bit of risk. Her name in the Greek means, "bright shining sun." Rachel is a well known woman from the old testament and was well loved by Jacob. Her name in Hebrew means "innocent as a lamb."

She is indeed a little beauty and her photo debut will be saved for our "gotcha" day. She and Michael will be a beautiful pair of Krygyzstan "twins." Many thanks to all who have supported us to get to this day, we are eternally grateful.