Soon Little Man, Mommy will be back soon

 I am so excited to be sharing our final day with you ! It has been exactly one month since we last visited Owen. I can not believe it has gone by so fast ! If it keeps up at this rate we should be back there in no time at all ;)

Best french toast, ever !

This morning was our final day in country. The next morning we would leave our apartment really early in the morning. So we got up and got ready. We had brunch with our attorney and our translator. Before we left our agency gave us a "travel guide" and in this travel guide strongly suggested that we try the french toast. I had been looking forward to it all week ! But as we were sitting there I noticed they had waffles on the menu. I seriously love me some IHOP waffles and made a quick decision to get that instead. My husband, attorney and translator all got the french toast. Have you ever had a moment where you are the odd man out and instantly regret your choice? That was me. And being the awesome wife I am made my husband share with me. Im just going to say this right now... we will be going back there on trip two. And I will be ordering myself the french toast...or maybe two ya know to make up for lost time ;) Our attorney let us know that in his opinion he feels like it would be around March that we would be invited back for our pick up trip.

We left our brunch and went over to the Ministry of Justice. This was so that we could officially register with Owen. This means that no one else can look at his file or adopt him before we come back- internationally or domestically. This does not however include his biological parents. They can come back at any time up until the court decree is in our hands and take him home. This is extremely unlikely given that he is almost 5 and has lived his entire life in the orphanage, but it is possible. This is why our agency requests that adoptive parents, even ones with their child on hold, not post the child's photo on any social media. It really is to protect the child and the parents. So while I know that everyone would like to see his face, we are respecting everyone involved and not posting him. He is super cute though ! ;)

The Big one is with Owen <3

Our translator dropped us off at the orphanage and we were able to spend about an hour alone with him. It was during a shift change at the orphanage so we said goodbye to the day caregivers and told them we would be back next year. We sat and talked with Owen and gave him his bear. His face lit up like a Christmas tree when we handed it to him ! He spent a good 10 minutes just hugging it. We let him know he could hold it anytime he missed us and that it would remind him that we would be coming back. He didn't understand why he wasn't leaving with us but all we could say was that it wasn't time yet. They celebrate Christmas in January over there so we told him that after Christmas we would be coming back. It was the best way we knew how to describe the wait time.

He was so snugly ! He kept wanting to hug and kiss us and be near us. We also brought some chocolate and cookies for him and his friends to enjoy. And boy did they ever. Next time we will bring a little more ! ha ha !

I'm starting to realize that once we go home, my heart will literally be on two separate ends of the earth. We are 6,612 apart. It is going to be so hard to do life, and not have him home with us. Even though we have been in the process for over a year, and we have loved him from the beginning that love gets so much deeper after we've just spent a week with him every single day.

While I have had a lot of emotions over this week. Fear. Sadness. Happiness. Joy. Excitement. I cant help but feel an overwhelming amount of fear right now. I am scared. We have just 4 months to come up with the remaining amount of money. Because at the end of the day even if they were to tell us two weeks from now that we could come back and take him home, we dont have the money yet. Adoption is a lot of things, and one of those things is expensive. We have just a few fees left, but they are pretty big fees. I am worried that we will not come up with the money in time. I do not want him to wait a minute longer than he needs to. It would not be fair. We have applied for a few grants, we have some fundraisers lined up, and Tony is planning to work as much over time as he can. I also have just started a part time job helping a friend during the week. I plan to look into a few more opportunities to earn the money and I just hope that all of these little things will add up and we will not have any financial delays. I am trying to keep faith that everything will work out when it needs to. But I am a worrier by nature, its just the way I am.

I am so excited to go home to my babies ! I have missed them so much over this week !

 

My Sweet Ethan ! He was so excited to have us back home ! 

 Little miss Ashlyn couldn't wait for daddy to hold her ! ;)

Remaining Adoption Fees:

 Final international fee: ($2,000) Hosting-will include apartment, translator and transportation: ($4600) Post placement fees: ($1400) Visa for Owen to come home: ($325)--almost covered-- Estimated expenses for airfare and in country expenses:  about $4500