LOA!!!!

We finally received approval from China to adopt Milo Yang! This is such a huge step! We're thrilled!! We just have a few more little steps to go through until we can travel to China and bring him home! It looks like we'll most likely be getting him around March 17th! We are SO excited!
We should be getting our LOA from our agency tomorrow! To add to our LOA excitement, the simply amazing company Sevenly has offered to give $7 from every purchase this week to Reece's Rainbow families that are nearly ready to travel!!! We are included in this category, and I'm speechless! I just can't believe the love! In case you've never heard of Sevenly, here is a blurb about their company from their website, "In January of 2011, two young Entrepreneurs Dale Partridge and Aaron Chavez got together with the mission of leading a generation toward generosity. With a belief that people mattered, they began a journey to change the world. On June 13, 2011, Sevenly was born. By creating weekly cause campaigns where customers could purchase products that gave $7 to a weekly charity, Sevenly successfully unlocked not only a way to crowd-fund for causes, but to drive massive social awareness as well."
They have super cute stuff for sale on their website, so please go shopping! Here is a link that tells about this week's charity.
Such an exciting week!

The Law

One year ago today, the Dima Yakovlev law was signed by President Putin. One year ago today, my life was turned upside down. One year ago today was awful.
Though it's nearly impossible to find too many who still care here in the United States, there are still many Russians fighting for these kids. We have been involved in several different new stories this last week! It's been exciting and surreal to see our faces on picket line posters and Russian news articles! Here are links to several, though not all, of the stories. Crazy!

Here's a link to an article about the Christmas movie we made. Our picture may or may not be at the top of that article ;)

Here's a link to the picket.

This is an article about my friend sending hats to her daughter and her friends in the orphanage.

Here's an open letter to our children in a Russian paper.

We have also been emailing Julia with The Downside Up. It's an amazing organization in Russia that is working to change the perception people have of individuals with Down syndrome. They're doing such important work, and she'd like to use our story in an article she's writing.

I'm so thankful to the Russians who realize the children who still haven't been adopted (most of whom have disabilities) should be allowed to go home to their families. During this time when the Russian government is pardoning so many, please continue to pray they have mercy on these children who were promised families!! Here's one more article:

This is about including children in the pardon.

One Year Ago...

One year ago today, Quin and I met the most beautiful, intelligent, trusting, loving, and brave soul we've ever had the privilege to meet. We love our Dasha girl so much words don't do it justice. We will love her forever. She has a piece of our hearts with her, and none of us will be whole again. Happy one year metcha day, Dasha Meg!
A friend made a video of several families caught in this awful ban. Click here for the link (we are at the very end). Hope you enjoy!

Two Things

1) Our dossier has been reviewed! Wahoo! LOA should be coming SOON!!

2) We chose a name for our guy! We're going with Milo :)

I Am Slowly Going Crazy, Crazy Going Slowly Am I!

Well, things are moving along in our little guy's adoption, just not at the rate I'd like. It is normal and typical and nothing to be worried about, I just am really sick of waiting. A few other moms have traveled to his orphanage after their own gotcha days (you have to travel to his city to apply for a passport, so they go visit the orphanage while they're there) and have gotten some precious photos of our guy. It's always really, really exciting to get the pictures, but then I always get really, really anxious. His orphanage doesn't have the money to pay for heat. He is bundled up, but I can't even imagine. It worries me so! He also looks very puffy to me. The other thing that strikes me is just how dang boring it must be for him! I don't think he can sit up, so he just lays all day long in his crib. He is staring at his hand in several of the pictures. Not the most engaging of circumstances, to say the least! In short, it feels like some sort of torture to see him in pictures and not be able to go get him. Our dossier has been out of translation for a few weeks, so we should be reviewed in no time! That means we are getting close to having our LOA, or letter of approval! Once we have that, things start to pick up! We have a few more steps to complete after LOA, then we'll have travel approval!! I'm hoping to travel in March. Although it feels forever away right now, I know the time will fly. I have lots to get done and prepare before he arrives home, so I'll stay busy!

Here's our guy from a day and a half ago! Such a handsome fella! One of the grandmother's of a little girl who was at our guy's same orphanage worked with her church group for months making tons of beautiful quilts. Our guy was SO, SO lucky to receive one! I love it! It made me cry to think of a tangible piece of love being placed to blanket him and keep him warm!!

December has been hard on me. Opening the Christmas closet and decorating the house has been very difficult this year. It's because last December was big for us. We had no clue a ban was coming, and we were blissfully excited and thrilled to be traveling soon. We knew Dasha would be home for Christmas 2013, and I was so excited last year thinking how we'd have another stocking this year. I was literally sobbing while hanging the stockings this year. Hers is missing. We got word we could travel to Russia on December 7th, 2012. One year ago tomorrow. Oh, the pain is great. We met Dasha on December 20th. While in Russia, we bought lots of Christmas/New Years souvenirs. Several matryoshka ornaments, several Grandfather Frost figurines, etc. As we carefully unwrapped them all this year, I cried and cried and cried. Such an empty, crushing feeling. I miss Dasha so much it physically hurts me. Don't get me wrong; I have come to a new place of peace (per my last post), but sometimes the pain of it all just comes crashing down.

Our ECHR case is finally progressing, so that's good news! It's been communicated to the Russian Federation, and they have until February 28th to respond. I honestly don't know how this is all going to pan out, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to give a voice to the orphans left in this mess. I honestly still believe there needs to be some sort of special needs amendment to the adoption ban. Of all the children with special needs who had met potential American parents, only a couple (two or three) have found other homes. I know things will change in Russia, but change is slow. In the meantime, I hope they have compassion for the children stuck in institutions with virtually no hope of finding Russian families. Regardless, I have to remain hopeful that the ECHR will give us a positive ruling. I have to have hope, because what else is there if there is no hope?