The other side of the world... day 35... yep, another post for today!

I’m all packed.  I have a duffle bag of toys to take to the orphanage tomorrow when I go to bust out the boy child.  I have a duffle, a “carry on” and a big suitcase (thank you Carrie R!!).  Then of course, there’s the infamous stroller… but it will have the infamous Ukrainian/American boy in it!! 

Cathy & Tully got to take Marina out for a bit tonight, we all went to the mall.  I’ll let you read all about it on their blog though Saving Marina.  hehe

After they took Marina back, Cathy & I had pizza at our favorite little place in the mall.  Then we looked around a little bit and headed home.  She is packing as I type.  I’m staying out of the way! hehe  Tomorrow while they go to their morning visit, I’ll clean things a bit.  I’m skipping the “visit” in the morning since it’s his last morning there.  Wow… how strange is that? 

Tonight is the last night that Timothy will be in his little orphan bed.  Thank you God. 

I wrote an email to the RR group earlier about this next part.  I was thinking today about this journey that God sent us on.  We have had some major obstacles thrown our way throughout the whole process.  Just when I would think that maybe we were on the wrong path, God worked things out for us.  It’s been SO hard on my family at home.  For that I am so sorry.  I’ll be making it up to everyone for months once I’m home! 

There are things that we knew to expect in our journey, the paperwork, the waiting, the cost (both in money and emotions), court, passports… well, you get the idea.  hehe   

I have learned though that there are things that no one told us.  The friends that we’d leave here when we go home.  The people who have been an important part of our journey.  One of them is my driver, Roman.  He is such a nice, God loving man.  A lot of people don’t get the chance to have the same driver every day, sometimes twice a day to take them to the baby house.  He has also been our driver for our various other errands.  He is the one that was there when Marina couldn’t be to help me to get Timothy’s new Birth Certificate.  He was as happy and excited when we walked out of that building with that piece of paper as *I* was!  We have learned each other’s languages in our travels.  He has done much better with learning English than I have with Russian though.  LOL We have laughed.  Oh, the sense of humor that he has!  We even have a silly little joke.  Tomorrow he will take us to the train station, and be one of the last people that we’ll see from our time here.  I will miss him.  I hope that we can stay in touch through Facebook.  I am so thankful for technology.   

Another person that has been SO important to us is our facilitator/translator/friend Marina.  She is so wonderful at her job.  She finds ways to get things done even if they might seem impossible.  She has a love for the children & for God that is SO obvious.  She works so hard for us, the families.  It’s been so wonderful to spend time with her in our travelling around getting the paperwork, etc.  We learned so much about her, and she shared herself with us.  Today when we had to say our good byes, I hugged her and kissed her cheek and thanked her for what she does for the children, and the families, and for us, for Timothy.  I will miss her.  When we parted we were all crying.  LOL   She is such a special part of our story. 

Those are the things that no one mentions.  The ties that we form with the people.  The people who are in our lives for really just a moment but without whom we wouldn’t have our happy ending.

Thinking about leaving on Saturday is so exciting.  I get to finally go home… I finally get to hug & kiss & totally embarrass my other children in the airport when we arrive by crying all over them.  I get to finally introduce them to their new brother and him to them.  I’ll get to see my Mom who I have missed SO much!  And then of course there’s John… it’s only been three weeks since I saw him but that’s the longest we’ve been apart in 10 years! 

But, then there are more good byes… leaving the people who have really become my surrogate family.  We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve cooked, we’ve lugged things home from the store(hehe), we have been there together for court, for the waiting, for the other appointments, we’ve been crammed into the backseats of cars that will never be the same… 

God knew what He was doing when He set our timelines for this adventure.  He knew that I would need friends.  He knew from the beginning that we would be a good fit.  I am so grateful that He gave us Cathy, Tully, Evan, & Marina Bachman to share our journey.  It would never have been the same without them.  We will share the end of this part of our journeys together.  Taking our wonderful new children out into the world.  We will share thier first train ride, and our time in the “big” city, and our Embassy visits.  On Saturday, we will have to say our “good bye for now”.   I know that it’s not really good bye, but this time together will never be repeated (and for the record, I am NOT coming back with you Cathy! hehe).  This has been the most special time of our journey, and the most trying.  I’m so so so thankful that I was able to share it with the Bachmans. 

Thank you God for friends.  Thank you for Roman, and Marina, and all the others who have worked so hard to help us bring Timothy home.  Thank you for all of my new RR friends, family really.  You know that without them, we literally would not be where we are.  Thank you for our family and friends at home who are literally praying us home.