A few weeks ago Caleb and I headed out on a bit of travel to probably the 2 most extreme weather places : Florida and Colorado.

We went from Michigan – down to Florida and then headed to the Colorado mountains.  We met with dear, dear friends and had a most blessed time with my two brothers and their families.  

Let me tell you, travelling with a child/children isn’t always the easiest.  But one thing that for sure is true, especially after this trip, is that people bend over backwards to be friendly with you if Caleb is by your side.  Those big brown eyes, dimples and slight accent wooed people everywhere we went on this trip.  So fun

We splashed in huge waves in Lake Worth, poked and prodded the loads of jelly fish and man of wars that washed to shore, explored the huge sand sculptures in West Palm Beach, made big splashes on the roof top pool at a close friend’s apartment, toured a Trauma Hawk, took a boat to Peanut Island and collected too many shells to count, explored the kids park on the Intercoastal 2 blocks from our friend’s place (coolest spider web climbing thing ever), morning runs in 80 degree weather, peppering the pool cleaner man about every aspect of his job, excellent Thai food with a Thai chef who spoke with Romanian, sleeping with windows open every morning, waking up each morning to sunshine pouring through, fellowship and donut making with dearly missed friends, riding in a new, black Dodge charger with illegal tinting (Caleb felt he was a police officer – loved it!!), being invited to sit in the cockpit of a plane and speaking to the whole plane on through the intercom, Caleb meeting his Uncle Kyle and Aunt Vas,   snowboard lessons and much laughter with Caleb and his Aunt and Uncle, beautiful snow covered mountains and sunshine everywhere, being introduced to Uncle Kyle’s favorite cartoons, meeting my niece/Caleb’s youngest cousin, day spent with my other brother and his wife (they just flew in from Zambia), fun shopping with my sisters-in law, pinball craziness with Caleb and his Uncles in Fort Collins, snowflake artwork, cookie making and decorating, incredible time of worship and planning with teams that minister from Denver to Marghita each summer and on/off during the year, coffee with a friend i usually only see in Marghita, unexpected hope, unexpected leading from the Lord for Caleb and I.

I am so thankful that we were able to pull this trip of.  So thankful.

Living here among the woods and lakes of Southeastern Michigan means, among other things, that you will participate (whether you like it or not) in the opening of Buck Season.  Starting early in the morning, last Tuesday, gunshots….all day long.  Following my Dad’s advice, I decided to contain my running only within our little roads near our house.  There are hunters everywhere in the woods on the nearby roads.  Nope, Kels does not want to be mistaken for a white tailed deer.  No thank you.

Anyhow, the deal is this.  There’s a really popular deer processing place just down the road from us.   For the first 2 opening days of Buck season they pull out the white tents, put up balloons everywhere, sold homemade pulled pork sandwiches, brought in a car dealership and even had a local radio station broadcasting on site.  All of this is done to highlight the “buck pole.”  It’s the main attraction.  Once you’ve shot your buck, you bring it to this place, they gut it and then hang it up on the buck pole for all to see and admire.  And yes, of course I took Caleb.  In fact, he could barely wait to get over there.  I kind of went back and forth between being totally grossed out to making fun of the tongues hanging out of every buck’s mouth.  Ha!

Caleb though it was cool…really cool.  And he wanted to make sure everyone could see pictures from the day.  Here ya go!

         

Dani, Anton, Cristi si Laz - vedeti limba lui???

Anyhow, here are 2 new songs lately that have made me glad for dealing with the tract or treat interviews…

Rise 

Restless

Oh, and when they busted out this one ( I couldn’t believe they played it actually)…Caleb was ready to escape out of the car because his Mama was singing so loud

Step by Step

The days are flying by.  At the end of each week I look around trying to figure out where all of the days go.  Just seems like I can’t catch my breath!  Homeschooling Caleb takes up the majority of each day and he is also taking swimming lesson 2X per week.  The closest lessons are 30 minutes away so once school is over on Tuesdays and Thursdays the rest of the afternoon/evening is spent just getting to swim lessons and back.  Friday mornings are spent at the homeschool co-op (which has been a huge blessing for Caleb and his need for friends!) and then when we get home we have to do the normal school day as well.  We’ve been running around trying to work in visits to my Grandpa (who is not doing well whatsoever right now – seriously, how many heart attacks can you have per month??), my younger sister and her family, as well as quite a few days babysitting for my nephew who is close by.  The other week I was able to babysit 4 days for the pastor of student ministries at the church my Dad works at, as they were headed to a conference.  It actually was really awesome to be in the position to go and serve them this way.  Anyway, the days are really full and, like I said, flying by.  Caleb and I were in Bloomington for a week and it was such an encouraging, moving, intense time.  More than encouraging…I don’t even know which word you could use for it.  An encouragement that just speaks to the very core of your spirit.  You know?  So many people there who care so deeply for Caleb and I, and just as much so for the work that God is doing in Romania.  I am super lame and left my camera in the trunk of my car in Marghita.

Yup.  Lame.

Thankfully Black Friday is quickly approaching and Kels has been scouting new cameras and I am ready to snatch one up!  (The camera I left in the trunk of my car is super broken anyhow so…)  The reason why I’m telling you this is because I don’t have any photos from the time in Bloomington.  But, very dear friends of mine do – and they posted a few on their blog.  So check it out here, if you’re interested.  Just scroll down a bit…   http://chrisandanne.wordpress.com/     

Yesterday was a pretty special day for me, personally.  I ran a 5K.  I was pumped.  I’m not a runner.  I’m really slow, always have been.  Last spring, though, I downloaded this program called “couch to 5K” because I was so bored with my exercise DVDs.  I remember hating running so much back then that I gave out at like 3 minutes, ha ha ha!  So to finally run one, in a much better time than what I thought I’d do (I had prepared myself for the worse )…it just was a great feeling of accomplishment.  I’ve worked really hard all these months to do it, you know?  And, I kind of liked it.  What I did not like were the extremely long, winding hills that the course followed for the first 1.5 miles – the freezing wind in my face making my eyes water like crazy – and the fact that my lungs hurt so bad from breathing the cold air.  Yup, it was cold.  Seeing the random guy in the skin tight, spandex yellow and orange flame running pants…oh my word, HILARIOUS!   Still makes me laugh thinking about them!

Part of the Budapest half marathon in September is a relay run of 8K and 13K.  I joked with a friend in the summer for her to get ready for the 8 and I’d do the 13.  I think, actually, it might be fun to work up to a 13.  For some reason, I seem to hit my groove always at the end of my runs.  Why is that?  Seriously, by the end of the 5K I finally felt that I was ready to run the 5K.  Anyhow, this was more information than necessary.

Today, after church, Caleb and I headed to a salon/spa in a nearby small town for free haircuts in exchange for a bag of food to be given to the local food pantry.  I am SO THANKFUL for God providing this opportunity for us both to get haircuts that I could afford.  Haircuts here – wow, had totally forgotten.  $11 for a kid (at the cheapest place) plus tip?  Yikes!  Anyhow, I was just really grateful.

And yesterday, for a toy donation and food donatio,n to another food pantry, you got to drive around on the MIS.  Since it’s just down the road a few miles from my parents’ house, Caleb and I jumped in the car and rushed down there.  We got free Nascar hats, programs and a bumper sticker.  Seriously, it was awesome.  You could even drive way up on the bank…I was too scared to but other cars were taking full advantage of the opportunity.

Oh, and, last Wednesday I was able to speak to the teens at  http://xlr8yourlife.org/

Definitely powerful to be a part of their Body of Christ and to share and challenge them with some of the things that God has shared and challenged me, especially, since beginning to work at the state orphanage.

Okay, I think that’s it for the update for now.  :)

Now, if I may go on a slight tangent here.  Me – accent?  Both my Mom and Dad agree with the Amish ladies.  And, when having lunch with the staff at the church my Dad works at, last week, there were comments saying the same thing.

So what is it?  Romanian?  Swedish?  I have a feeling that it’s the latter….

Anyhow, Caleb took a short video from the pumpkin patch.  Enjoy

Let’s see, what else has rocked his little Marghita world since coming here? Hmmmm….

1. Drinking Fountains
2. Chasing and Screaming at geese to fly away (the nearby campground/lake has a bunch)
3. Picking up Pop and Beer cans, on our walks, so he can get the 10Cent refund for them at the store. You should see his collection in the garage – this kid can spy a beer can in the long grass from far away. (His Grandpa got him hooked on this money maker.)
4. My parents’ Brita water filter that sits on the bottom shelf of the fridge. It has a spout and it’s cold, obviously. My kid is drinking more water than what his body knows what to do with, all b/c he has cold water that he can get without help anytime he wants it. (We fill up 5 Litre bottles at a water filter at our team’s house, then carry them up to our apartment. Super heavy and he can’t pour them himself.)
5. Violin Lessons. The smile on Caleb’s face, when we rented his violin, couldn’t be erased for hours afterwards. My Dad is teaching him – so special time for them both!
6. Yard work with Grandpa! Using the garden tools to cut down the sunflowers my Dad planted along the driveway (and I think this afternoon they are going to tackle the apple trees out back.) Caleb ate so many of the seeds out of the heads, before they were dry, that my Dad had to put them up high so he’ll have a few seeds left to plant next summer
7. The grocery store bag carasel at Meijer. You know, you check out and they have like a 5 or 6 bag round dispenser thing. So after they fill up 1 bag they just give it a turn and the bag comes to you and then they have an empty bag in front of them? I know, hilarious! You should have been there when Caleb discovered this and let the cashier, as well as everyone else in line know, just how cool the turning bag thing was. I think it probably made her career as a cashier, ha!
8. Kids Church. My Dad’s church has a fancy shmancy kids program. He loves it. He wants to go everyday. He wishes we could stay for all 3 services just so he could go all 3 times.
9. Quiznos. It’s right next to our homeschool co-op. So after we finish on Fridays, he and I head over. Caleb LOVES their sandwiches. And, with their killer coupons online, he and I can get drinks, 2 sandwiches (and sometimes even a cookie) for $6. You can’t beat that!
10. Library. Oh the Addison library: http://g.co/maps/ezgx7 . Caleb had never been in a library before this one. It’s located in a very small town about 15 minutes from my parents’ house. (Closest one to us.) It’s the smallest library I have ever been in…but to Caleb. Oh my! The first time we walked in he yells out “I’VE NEVER SEEN SO MANY BOOKS IN MY WHOLE LIFE MAMA!!” I think the guy who works there was pretty pumped about that I did explain to him later why Caleb was so impressed with the tiny library and he gave him a library button for it being his first time in one. We head over there pretty often and I’ve been ordering in random books for our homeschool needs, and some fun stuff I’ve been doing on the side. And, heck yes, this library has a subscription to just about every magazine I wish I could purchase but don’t want to spend money on. So, needless to say, we’ve been wearing that little, 1 roomed library out!
11. Aunts, Uncles and Cousins! Seeing Caleb play with his little boy cousins is just about the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Seeing his Aunts and Uncles interact with him and introduce him to new activities and toys. Equally awesome!
12. Learning to read with Grandma. My Mom taught 1st grade forever and then taught 4th grade forever. Then she retired in June. Perfect timing for Caleb and I to show up in September so that Grandma doesn’t miss teaching so much. She’s taken over the reading portion of Caleb’s homeschool curriculum and they work on it for about 1.5 hours per day. Caleb L-O-V-E-S it. “Mama, it would have been better if Grandma was my teacher for everything instead of you.” He can barely wait for his reading time. It’s like a candy reward for him once he’s finished all the other subjects with me. It’s been so fun to see them together, working on reading!
13. Halloween. Oh good gracious, we are here for Halloween. This, I could have done without. Unfortunately, it is impossible to ignore it when you live here. So, why not, we’re all in. Sigh. I secretly hate and love it all together. The love part comes with seeing how pumped up Caleb gets dressing up in his costume. For him, this is Halloween. He has NO idea what is going to happen. He has no idea about the candy, whatsoever. He knows how to say trick or treat. And he knows that the fire station is having an open house on Halloween which we are going to. Do I really want him to learn about the candy overload? Yikes! That’s where the hate rolls in. But seriously, you all should see him in his costume. He wore it for about 2 weeks straight, after we bought it, because he loves it that much. We rolled on over to the Goodwill, about 30 minutes away, and scored a REALLY nice Fireman costume (hat and coat) for the smokin’ price of $4 and some odd cents. Then, a local business was going out of sale, so we bought (for $1 or 50 cents – I don’t remember) a fake beard and mustache. He’ll wear his Swedish mud pants, his rubber boots, borrow a flashlight from Grandpa and he’s all set. He’s so freakin’ cute in his fireman coat and hat. It’s really nice quality, too. Someone invested some cash in it at one point!
14. Swimming lessons! He jumped off the diving block in the deep end yesterday. Yes, I teared up big time. Seeing his courage grow through these lessons has been so special for me. I’m going to video some on Tuesday, his next lesson.
15. Hot Wheels at Meijer for $1. Do you know how much they sell Hot Wheels for in Romania? Like $6-$10 a PIECE. Yeah, we never buy them, ever. My Dad sends them to Caleb periodically in the mail and has always told him “Just wait till you come here Caleb and you can pick out your own for just $1 a piece.” Needless to say, the amount of pop/beer can in the garage have a purpose
16. English. “Mama, it’s so nice here. Everyone speaks English!” This one made me laugh….
17. A little store, just down the road, with fresh doughnuts everyday. http://www.flavorfruitfarm.com/ I went to this place every summer growing up and before they made doughnuts About once a week we head over and he scours the case very carefully before picking. His choice 2 weeks ago – a massive cinnamon bun with bacon on top. Calm yourselves down, Swedes, I know you’re probably getting pretty upset about that combo. The thing is, it’s kind of the thing right now. Been seeing it in a lot of magazines. Bacon on pastry items. Anyhow, he LOVED it.
18. The Detroit Tigers. Caleb had never seen baseball before and now he is a die hard fan. Thanks to the fact that my parents are die hard fans and the Tigers were advancing through the play offs…almost every single night solid when we arrived. Caleb has become extremely possessive over the Tigers and their wins. And Texas? Don’t even mention Texas to Caleb. It’ll set him off and it’s just not worth it. How in the world, in those 2 weeks, did he become such a Tigers fan?
19. Animals. Coming to my parents’ home, pretty isolated here in these woods, I had forgotten how much wildlife there is. Or rather, I didn’t realize how little wildlife we have in Marghita. The heron, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, array of birds…Caleb is in awe. My parents have a huge window in the kitchen, that looks down a hill to the creek and woods. Caleb is transfixed by all the wildlife he sees! And, super sad with all the deer that have been hit on the sides of the roads
20. Gym class. At Caleb’s Friday homeschool co-op they have Gym class. He is beside himself with it. That you get all sweaty, running around and playing games with the other kids. How much cooler can school get? And plus, it lets him use the drinking fountain double. It’s a win, win situation for Caleb!!

Whew, that was a lot. Just what has popped into my head here while sitting down. Thanks for your patience in waiting for an update from us!

1. My good friend, Helena, showed up at our apartment door this morning just as I was wondering how many trips it was going to take to walk the 4 bags of trash and 4 carry-ons down our stairs.  I had said goodbye to her yesterday, but, I didn’t realize she didn’t say goodbye to Caleb.  He was happy and I was really thankful that God had her come over right at that time as well.  One trip down the stairs was all it took, thanks to her help!

2. I was able to have time to say goodbye to Maria, Lars and Madelen this morning.  Or rather, I had time to say goodbye to them, which I wasn’t sure I would have.  Madelen is leaving-leaving Marghita and her fiancee came to pick her up and take her back to Sweden  Madelen, Maria and I have always leaned heavily on each other’s prayer support in our lives.  They are very special to me and I eagerly look forward to seeing them in a few months when Caleb and I head to Madelen’s wedding.

3. Some of the staff from FCE actually came out to the car, as we were driving away, to say goodbye to Caleb and I.  Wow, this really took me by surprise.  I think that it can be easy to overlook what a huge thing God has done with Caleb’s adoption when you’re just in travel/planning/packing/cleaning/get there on time mode.  Which, is what I’ve been for the past month.  Plus, I just don’t enjoy being the center of attention so if I pretend us leaving is ‘normal’ then everyone else does, too, right?  Ummm, or not  After 7 years God has made a way for me to bring my son WITH me.  As in, his adoption is DONE, as in his name is CHANGED as in ___________________.  You know?  Oh Jesus, thank You.  Seeing all of the office staff this morning, greeting us as we left, reminded me of what a miracle God has done in my life and Caleb’s.

4.  I needed to make the train on time and I needed to get our massive luggage up the steep steps.  Take it away Katie and Courtney!  Two great friends whose backs are going to be hurting tonight, I’m afraid.  We made it to the train station with 15 minutes to spare, bought the tickets and got all of the luggage up the steep steps to the platform with 5 minutes to spare.  And, a really nice man carried Caleb’s carry on suitcase for him!  Then came time to get it up onto the train – I’m telling you, these steps are difficult without luggage.  We pushed Caleb up and then, once I was up, Katie and Court shoved the 50lb. bags while I pulled.  We DID IT!!  I’m so thankful for them, and for the very sweet gifts their boys (some of Caleb’s closest friends) made for him to open up on the train and plane!

5.  Now that the luggage was up on the train, how the heck was I going to get it up onto the overhead racks??  In steps in super nice guys #2 and he took ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE and put it up for us.  Only the heaviest one did we leave down.  He wouldn’t even let me lift up the smaller bags – he had to do it all!  Then the old lady across from us moved her bags so that Caleb could have a free seat to put his activity bag on.  She was so cute with him.  When he beat me in go fish she gave him a firm handshake and starting laughing.  And, there was a little Chinese boy on the train as well.  He pretty much watched us, laughed with us for the entire train ride because he thought Caleb’s toys were so cool.

6.  When it was 15 minutes before our train stop I started pulling our luggage down to set it at the end of the train, by the door.  See, you only get 2 minutes when the train stops before it starts again.  It can be stressful with luggage and these trains!  Nice guy #2 sees what I’m doing, makes me stop, and takes all of the luggage down for me and carries it to the end of the train.  Then, 5 minutes before the stop, #2 gets his seat mate : “Nice guy #3″ to come and wait by the luggage where Caleb and I were.  Oh, I could have started crying.  They decided to get all of our luggage off from the train for us.  I said “HALLELUJAH!!” and we all laughed.  As soon as the train stopped they did a mad dash and in like 30 seconds all of the bags were down.

7. The place we are staying at the for the night has an airport pick up service.  Within a few minutes they picked us up, and we found out, the driver spoke Romanian.  When he saw how much luggage we had he called the reception and they changed our room to the lower floor, outside entrance room (which is much larger, actually!).  They also did not charge us for 2 people for the pick up service, nor did they charge us extra for the bigger room, and they are only going to charge us for 1 person for the airport drop off service tomorrow.  And, they had a printer and I got to print out boarding passes.  And they had pull down shades, on the outside of the windows, so Caleb fell asleep super fast tonight.

8. I love Budapest.  It’s beautiful, really.  I have the grumpiest child on the face of the planet today.  And because Budapest is so awesome, his grumpiness kind of went away every 5 minutes, before coming back 5 minutes later.  He’s coming down with a bad cold and he’s mad about leaving his friends for so long and Budapest is brand new and he’s stressed out and his stomach is going crazy….anyhow, Caleb wasn’t such a happy camper today  But, he loved the castle in Budapest and he loved riding the Metro and he even did okay at one of my favorite restaurants tonight – we went super early and ate supper there.  I didn’t think we could pull it off but he held up!  Yay Caleb!  And, there was a random – very poorly put together – everyone wearing the same “Shakira” t-shirt, flash mob today in the center of Budapest.  While I thought it was lame, he thought it was great!  Ha!

And, that’s our trip so far.  Time to repack the bags for the airport and shift some weight around!

Please, if you don’t mind, pray for us as I have to wake Caleb up at 4:30am tomorrow and he isn’t feeling good.  Thanks!!

1. Caleb’s first time in an airport, checking in, airport security, waiting at a gate, boarding a plane and flying, getting complimentary peanuts.  Each of these had their own moments, as I’m sure you can imagine.  Ha!  I don’t have any photos but I do have video.  Hoping to post a short clip of him and the plane in the next couple of days.  Just get ready for the word “gorgeous.”  ”This plane is SO GORGEOUS Mama.”  Where the heck has he heard that word so often that it’s now a part of his vocab?  Hilarious!

2.  First time meeting Sarah, another CTEN missionary, and getting to spend time with all of her beautiful, abandoned babies that she works with.  And, first time meeting Amy, another friend that I met through CTEN but have never officially in person met.  Loved both of these ‘meets’!

3. First time in a Bucuresti taxi.  That taxi driver tried his hardest to screw me over – no way.  Does he know who he is dealing with?  You don’t have change?  Yeah, I’m sorry, but then I guess you aren’t getting paid.  I took him down, let me tell you.  I might not be from the ‘big city’ but you try to pull that kind of crap on me then you’d better be ready for the wrath of Kelsey to be released.  Thanks to the state orphanage kids, I have a few phrases and words up my sleeve that I was able to bust out! Ha!  Actually, in all seriousness, I have to tell you what happened.  It was honestly a miracle, or else my eyes played tricks on me.  You can decide for yourself.  The taxi took us from our hotel to the US Embassy.  Because I didn’t have any cash on me I had him, first, stop at the nearby mall so that I could run and pull out cash from the ATM there.  ATMs only give you the largest bill for what you’re pulling out.  So, the bill I got was equivalent to $30.  When we got to the Embassy the charge was only $5.  The hotel front desk people told me it would be at least $10, that’s why I thought giving a $30 wouldn’t be a big deal change wise.  The taxi driver told me that in no way, shape or form would he give me change for the $30 – I just had to give him the $30 and be done with it.  Heck no!  I looked in my wallet and all I had was 11 RON in change – and I need 14 RON.  I shoved it back in and told the taxi driver, in a few choice words, that either he gives me change for the 100RON bill or he only would get 11RON.  I went to pull out the 11 RON to give it to him and, I’m not kidding, there were an extra 3 bills there making the total exactly 14 RON.  I could have cried in joy, except then the taxi driver would have seen me go soft after being so hard with him so I told the tears to stop

4.  First time in the new fancy, shmancy US Embassy in, or rather just on the outskirts of, Bucuresti.  As in 1 week new, new.

5. First time going through the visa process as a Romanian, since Caleb was the applicant.  This was an interesting experience.  Inside the visa building it was so high tech and brand new…so strange to see everything like that.  Some of the people working were kind, others were quite rude to be honest.  You are granted an electronic number and then you must wait for the screen on the wall, with the computerized voice, to announce your number and which cubicle to report to.  We had to do this twice.  The first to turn in all of his papers and the second time to meet with an actual American, Embassy employee.  That poor guy, his Romanian was s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g.  He thought I was Romanian and it was just a mess, for him.  I finally switched to English and he was quite relieved  Our situation took him by surprise, in a really good way.  He was really curious about how long and why I live here and then how the adoption happened.  Didn’t have so much to do with the actual visa but he just kept saying, while smiling, “This is not the situation I usual deal with every day.” “He looks like a pretty neat kid.”  Yup, he is!  ”Well you can go and speak with the courier service about getting your son’s passport delivered.”

When do I know if he was granted a visa and for how long?

“Oh!  The visa’s already been approved.  For 60 months, is that okay?  If he was an adult I could give him 10 years but children are only allowed 5.”

YES!  Praise JESUS!  Oh my goodness, thank you so much!

I don’t think he quite knew what to do with that bit of an outburst….hahaha.

6. First time hearing so much French, outside of what I had to study/sing while at IU.  We stayed in the French district of Bucuresti.  I thought this was just a name for some reason or other, until parents walked their children to school and back each morning.  They cut through the hotel’s parking lot to get to the school just around the corner.  We happened to be outside at each time, it seemed.  So much French, so fun!  Okay, not that I think the French language is fun to speak.  But, it was really fun to hear all of those little kids speaking it.  And, Caleb loved it, too!

7. First time seeing a Chinese and African American baby in a Romanian, abandoned babies ward.

8. First time using WiFi at McDonalds. (Stopped there on the way home from the airport.)  You know, it didn’t work.  I had to grab from someone who lived near McDonalds instead.  And, McDonalds only had 1 outlet to plug my computer in.  So thankful for that 1 outlet since my battery died on me but still, only 1?  And first time meeting two of the state orphanage girls, one whom I’m really close to, at McD to use the internet to Skype with someone she is close to.  Note to self:  McD is super loud and their internet didn’t work anyhow.  Find another WiFi connection in Oradea next time!  Honestly though, it was so worth it.  She was SO happy to speak with this person.  When these kids open themselves up, even if it seems the tiniest bit to us, it means the world to them.  It is such a HUGE deal that she lets people into her life at all.  It took her a few minutes to start talking but she did and to be there to help her with that was such an honor.  I really love that God allows me to work with these children/teens and witness them moving, sometimes in very small steps, forward in their lives.

9. First time getting super duper lost in Oradea.  It was dark, I was exhausted.  Caleb was a wreck in the back seat – so tired.  I never get lost in Oradea, but it was my own, stupid fault. I thought I could take some back roads to get them back to their orphanage faster than the main road, which was kind of out of the way from where we were.  I ended up so lost and it took forever to get them home.  The girls definitely enjoyed making fun of me for the fact that I didn’t know where we were going  And they did, like every 2 seconds.

10.  First time buying plane tickets for TWO to the States. HA! YES! YAHOO!  Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Cracked Pots at ECC, and the other adoption, financial donors for making these plane tickets possible!  Actually, thank You Jesus for placing this burden to raise the money on their hearts…and for giving them the resources to make the giving possible!!  We fly on Wednesday.

Okay, enough for now.  Hopefully I’ll get the video posted soon of Caleb on the airplane!

PS. I forgot to add a very important “first” that happened in Bucuresti : Caleb’s 1st trip to IKEA.  He didn’t care at all while his Mama, on the other hand, was super pumped to get a new, plastic shower curtain for a great price.  He did, though, love the ball pit in the kids’ play area.  We only discovered it on our way out (been a few years since I’ve been to an IKEA and I forgot that it was there) so I let him play in it for about 20 minutes.  He loved that!  I left little Sweden (aka Marghita) and I guess I still couldn’t stay away from the culture in some form or other, HA!  No, really, I needed a shower curtain.  For real.  The Lightening McQueen one, the one my Mom gave us 5 years ago, needed to be laid to rest.  Seriously.  Now we have fish monster things – matches the green we painted the bathroom a few years ago so it was a great find! Yay!

This week, I went to Debrecen again.  Only this time, Caleb CAME WITH!  Yes, that’s right, it was time to give his brand spankin’ new passport a good old trial run.  A close friend came with us and we both had a lot of fun listening to Caleb’s endless questions about what it meant to go to a different country, as well as his thoughts on the border crossings.

Everything went smoothly and we all enjoyed our time there…yup, a whole heck of a lot.  I checked out some sale racks, while Caleb checked out a drag racer on display at the mall.  Then we ate some very yummy Italian food and headed off to the zoo.  A very special day and Caleb was so happy the entire day.  He’s been having a not so great time as of late so it was a huge blessing for me to see him so happy and enjoying himself!

A few pictures….

Caleb’s passport took exactly 2 weeks to be finished and we picked it up on Tuesday.  YAY!  As soon as it was in my hand I rushed off to the bank, just down the street from the passport office, and paid the USA Embassy fees for a visa interview.  In order to submit your online application, you must have, first, paid this fee through a bank transfer.

Many of you have wondered why I need to apply for a tourist visa for Caleb.  Or, why isn’t he automatically a citizen now that he’s adopted?

1.  A few years back the US changed their law concerning international adoptions and citizenship.  The law now states that if you knew the child before adoption, then the child is not eligible for citizenship until two years after the first date of legal custody.  Simply put – Caleb will get citizenship in 2 years and cannot get citizenship now.

2. Due to this law, if the adoptive parents wish to travel with their child, if the child’s adoption falls under this law, before the two years have passed then their only option is to apply for a tourist visa.

Does that help clear things up now for all of you?  Basically, if I want to travel to the States with Caleb, now, we can only apply for a tourist visa and, pray, that he is granted one.

I have some friends who have adopted, as I just have, since this law changed.  They were all granted 5 year tourist visas for their children.  I have peace of heart/mind that Caleb will, most likely, be granted the same.

Once I paid the bank fee, Caleb and I rushed back to Marghita and I immediately began filling out the visa application form online.  Whew, was that a stressful 20 minutes!  The questions were extremely lengthy and were trying to trick you as well (in order to catch people wanting to go to the States for unlawful activities.)  If you do not fill out the application within 20 minutes you must start all over again.  As a native English speaker I think I probably finished in exactly 20 minutes.  I can’t imagine doing that, as most people applying for visas of this type do, with English being my 2nd language.

After filling out the form I was then allowed to call the visa call center in order to schedule Caleb’s visa interview.  Oh. my. goodness.  awful.  Once we have the visa in hand I will be documenting how unprofessional that 1.5 hours was and sending a letter to the ambassador.  Absolutely unacceptable.  It takes a lot for me to get really, really angry.  For me to get to that point while working with the US Embassy???  Seriously, I just don’t understand why they’ve created this visa appointment system the way they have.

We were granted Caleb’s interview date – for a week after I had planned to already be in the States.  This really disappointed me….and I can’t exactly explain why it anchored me so low.  I applied to the emergency interview office, in hopes to get an earlier date, and they denied my request.  See, the Embassy is MOVING.  Of course they are, the week I needed a date they are moving.  It kind of seems fitting to end Caleb’s process, to this point at least, with something like this so that it fits in with the past 7 years.  As my pastoral care from CTEN told me once, regarding this adoption, “This is so messed up that it can only BE GOD.”  I love that sentence and it so perfectly describes this all.  I am trusting in the interview date we have been granted, the 21st of September, and that it is later than what I had hoped for only because it is more perfectly timed in God’s plans (even if He chooses to never reveal those reasons to me.)  God is so restoring and He has really done that in my Spirit this week.  The anchor has been lifted and I am busily tying up loose ends so that we can leave almost immediately after receiving the visa.  My hope is that we can leave on the 24th or 25th of September.

I had hoped to pay forward all of my bills this week, through February, but my bank shut down my account and blocked my ATM card.  Fantastical!  Ha!  The airline tickets I bought, for when Caleb and I fly down to his visa interview, for some reason flagged the fraud people at my bank.  I called them, and my Dad spoke to them twice as well, and every person said “There is nothing flagged on her account.”  ”The fraud hotline sees no problems with her account.”

The next day, my ATM card doesn’t work anymore.  Uh oh, not good.  Just getting my car set before I leave is $1000 itself.  (It’s 2 year inspection is due and I needed to buy many parts in order to get it set for it to pass…and I have to pay all my car insurance up front for the year since I won’t be here to pay it monthly.)  So my ATM card not working = not good.  I called the bank yesterday and, lo and behold!, the fraud people DID block my account.  That’s so interesting (slight sarcasm) since my Dad and I spoke to THREE people at Key Bank (2 at the Fraud center, 1 at a local branch) and they all denied any type of fraud flagging on my account.  I cannot WAIT to be done with Key Bank in general.  Too many complications over the years and too many additional fees added each year.  Sorry, digressing…

Praise God, though, that my ATM card is now back to normal and behaving like it should when I stick in the machine  I spent quite a bit of time yesterday figuring out how I could transfer money to one of my Swedish friends’ accounts so that they could then pull it out and give it to me, here.  Glad I don’t have to go that route, after all.  It would have been quite pricey and a bit complicated.

So, the moral of the story is: We hope to fly to the States around the 24th or 25th of September.  We, or this Mama here , would really appreciate your prayers for our trip down to the Embassy in Bucuresti.  We’ll leave on the 20th and return on the 22nd.  Our appointment is at 9:30am on the 21st.

Hoping tomorrow to put up some pictures from Caleb’s first trip out of the country, to Hungary.  I wanted to do a trial run with this passport and that’s all he needs to travel within the EU.  Check back in tomorrow

Many of you have printed off pictures of Alex, posted them at your work and at home as reminders to pray for his forever family.  You have been consistently supportive, from far away, in his life and in the possibility of a family for him.  This huge change in his life is a bigger blessing than I think he might ever realize.  But, the thing is, I know that YOU realize this.  The miracle of a family for Alex is something that, those of you who fought through prayer for him, you can understand and be overwhelmed with joy for!!

A few pictures from last Thursday…his moving day

We celebrated with a fika, in Alex's honor, in the park before he left to go with his family. Alex and his best buddies!

Alex enjoying his special Fika with his friends before leaving to move in with his family!

Alex sitting on his bed in his bedroom at his family's home. Began playing with his new brother straight away!!

Alex very happy to be in the arms of his new Mama!