100% WANTED and LOVED!

****You know when you hear songs on the radio and you hum along, but they don't really have any meaning?  Then one day out of the blue, you completely get the song and the message coming across loud and clear. That is exactly what happened when I heard Dara Maclean's song "Wanted".  Please take a moment and listen to the words of this song.  This trip and this adoption have made the words to this song come to life.  Our Warrior is WANTED and has been wanted and loved by God since before he was born.  May he always know he is wanted by our family, but more importantly wanted by God and loved unconditionally!****

Our day began with our normal morning routine of breakfast and getting ready for the day.  Our lawyer picked us up promptly at 10:15AM (Latvi@n time) and drove us to our 2nd orphan court hearing.  Our little Warrior was happily singing on the ride there.  His happy-go-lucky demeanor quickly changed once we were in the court building and his orphanage director walked in.  He wouldn't even make eye contact with her.  She could tell he was scared she was coming to take him back to the orphanage.  Once everyone had arrived at court, Warrior and I were taken in to the room to talk to the court ladies along with his orphanage director.  Matt and our other children waited in the hall.  He was not happy to be in the room, and I could tell he was uncomfortable.  He was answering, "NO" to everything they were asking.  While I don't speak Latvi@n, I was able to pick up on a few things they were asking.  He told them "NO" to coming to America and he said he didn't want his mama and he didn't want to go back to the orphanage or to his home in Rig@.  I could tell he was tired of all of the questioning.  Once they realized he had enough, they welcomed Matt and our translator into the room.  They proceeded to question us for about 30 minutes about when we were going to start school with our children, how Warrior's behavior had been for the past few weeks, how our children felt about him and how we were feeling about going home.  Once the ladies of the court approved us to travel home with our Warrior, you could tell he was happy.  He seemed relieved to know he was going to be riding back with us in our car rather than his orphanage director's car.

Our next stop was the US Embassy for our interview to get his visitor's visa.  Since the embassy was closed for lunch, our lawyer drove us to a mall so we could have lunch.  After lunch, we found a bookstore and did some quick shopping before meeting back up with our lawyer to head to the embassy.  Once at the embassy, we went through two security check points and sat in a room waiting to be interviewed.  Not knowing what to expect, I think we were all a little nervous.  Our older girls were full of questions we couldn't answer because it was all new to us as well.  Finally, a very friendly US Embassy employee grabbed a chair and sat down with us in the lobby. He started making small talk about where we were from, if we liked the Atlanta Braves and what we had done while in Latvi@.  I think he spoke to us for maybe 10 minutes before letting us know our Warrior's visa would be ready to pick up tomorrow.  I think Matt and I were pretty shocked at how easy the process was.  Our lawyer drove us back to our apartment and we hugged goodbye.  It was a feeling of relief to be done with the legal aspect of trip one!

During our court hearing, we learned a few new things about his mother and family which we had not been told before.  We learned he had an older brother who was under the care of a legal guardian (meaning he can't be adopted) and is a very good football player (Latvi@n soccer).  The hard part for Matt and I was learning his mother who had abandoned him at the hospital had passed away this year (some of this information conflicted with what we had previously been told).  Knowing this fact just about ripped my heart out.  Anyone who knows me knows how sensitive I am and how I can cry at the drop of a hat.  Well, that is just about what happened.  I was crying along with the orphanage director.  As if this wasn't enough, once we got home, we started reading over some of the paperwork from the court.  We learned 5 other families had shown interest in adopting him, but chose not to because of his health issues.  WHY???  Why did my son get looked over by so many families?  Why did he have to stay without a family for so long? The answer is simple.  Our special Warrior is OUR blessing from God.  God chose us to be his parents and his family and for that I am so thankful!!!  While the pain in my heart hurts for him for things he doesn't yet know, I'm so blessed to be able to take him home and show him the same love our God has shown to me.

As I finish washing and hanging the last of our loads of laundry, I'm reminded how adoption is an amazing example of our own adoption into Christ's family.  When I get frustrated with our Warrior and all of his bad behaviors, Christ gently reminds me of how He loves me unconditionally despite my many flaws.  It is physically hard for my flesh to love someone and give love to someone who bites me, pinches me and lashes out at me for no reason.  But, since I am filled with Christ's love, I am able to give His love to this special little boy despite what he does to me.

Please continue to pray for our family especially as we travel on Friday to bring our Warrior home!  Matt and I would like to thank all of our readers who are faithful to keep up with our journey.

Trip 1 - Day 16 - Old Rig@

This morning, I returned the rental car to the airport.  Rachel and Warrior rode with me.  It was raining here, so traffic was blocked up in some areas.  We dropped the car off and took a taxi back to the apartment. 

Later we all went out for lunch.  After we ate, we split up and Kristie and the girls went shopping for a few souvenirs.  The boys and I went to the trampoline park and then back to the apartment.

After dinner, Rachel, Rebekah and I had a tour of Old Rig@ with missionary and artist Chuck Kelley.  He focused on the historical aspects of Rig@, from the founding of the city all the way up to recent history: the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.  We learned so much from him, and I hope to write much of it down in a future post.  For now, here are the photo highlights.

Tomorrow is our second court hearing, and then it's off to the US Embassy for Warrior's visa interview.

Walking in Riga Park.  According to Chuck, the park gets better every year.  Rig@ns are no longer under Soviet control and this park is a source of pride for them.

This statue was made to mock the last Swedish king who lost control of the region to the Russians.

The barracks built by the Russians, later occupied by the Nazis.  Today, this is dignitary housing for people such as the US and Chinese ambassadors, to name a few.

This monument was built in memory of eight L@tvians who were shot in the public park by the KGB in 1991.

The white castle looking building was the former Presidential Palace.  It burned six weeks ago and is being restored.  It had been under renovation for a year, so the president was not living there at the time.

House of the Blackbeards built by the Germans.  Destroyed in WWII and recently restored.  The president currently resides here.

View from the top of the Gutenburg hotel.

I think these girls have learned a lot on this trip...

Kristie finally found the honey store!

Trip 1 - Day 15 - Jurmala Beach

We still had the car for today, so I was able to drive our Warrior and Rebekah to Warrior's follow-up appointment this morning on the outskirts of Rig@.  We arrived a little bit early, and we were able to meet with his doctor right away.  The doctor spoke English, so we didn't need the help of the translator for this visit.  This doctor had been seeing Warrior for a couple of years.  While we were talking, she was finishing a document in English for us to take that had all of his medical history since birth.  She was excited that Warrior was coming to America.  He told her he was scared of flying.  When we wrapped up, she said goodbye to us and wished us all the best.

When we arrived back at the apartment, we all piled into the car and drove to Jurmala.  This is a beach city just to the west of Rig@ along the Gulf of Rig@.  It reminded me of St. Simons Island, Georgia.  We found a beach access spot and parked and walked along a sandy path to the beach.  As we approached the beach, and Warrior saw the water for the first time, he dropped his pants and started running to the water!  Apparently, he's never been to the beach before!  The water was cold, and the beach air was hot.  But, this didn't stop all five kids from playing and swimming in the wave-less water.  We ate our lunch that we had packed on the beach and made it back to the car a couple of hours later.

On the ride back to the apartment, we detoured and went out of our way to drive by Warrior's orphanage (also in Jurmala).  The other kids and I didn't get to see it when Kristie visited a couple of weeks ago.  His orphanage is in a very small town that has just a few cross streets.  No stoplights or stores.  As we approached it, Warrior's demeanor changed as if he knew exactly where we were going.  We slowly drove by it, and we saw a young boy and girl across the street on the playground unsupervised.  Warrior looked upset as if he wanted to go in. Perhaps he misses his friends there.  As we drove away, he was fine.  After a few minutes, he was singing and playing again in the car.

We made it back to the apartment and got cleaned up.  We headed back out to a pizza place near Freedom Monument in Old Rig@.  

Jūrmala (Latvian: [juːrmala] "seaside"; German: Riga-Strand, Baltische Riviera) is a city in Latvia, about 25 kilometers west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching 32 kilometres (20 mi) and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a 33 km stretch of white-sand beach, and a population of 55,580, making it the fifth largest city in Latvia.

While Latvia was a part of the Soviet Union, Jūrmala was a favorite holiday-resort and tourist destination for high-level Communist Party officials, particularly Leonid Brezhnev and Nikita Khrushchev. Although many amenities such as beach-houses and concrete hotels remain, some have fallen into disrepair. Jūrmala remains a tourist attraction with long beaches facing the Gulf of Riga and romantic wooden houses in the Art Nouveau style.  (Wikipedia)

Warrior's Doctor's Office

Jurmala Beach

Seth playing in the Gulf of Riga

The playground across the street from the orphanage.

Leaving Jurmala.  This sign is very symbolic of this adoption journey that we're on.

Seth with his "spikey hair" - on the way to eating pizza this evening.

Angry Birds pizza

Rachel waiting for her pica!

Trip 1 - Day 14 - Cecis

Cesis Castle

Today is the last day of the ships.  So, there are still a lot of people in the city.  We had been wanting to rent a car to get away from the city.  I spent some time looking online and calling around for available rental cars.  Many places in the city and at the airport didn't have any cars or vans available.  When I was almost ready to give up my search, I finally found a place at the airport that had a car big enough to seat seven that was actually available!  So my sidekick, Rachel, and I called a taxi cab and rode to the airport.  Our cab driver didn't make any conversation with us, and we could only get him to give us one-word answers to our conversational questions.  So within the hour, Rachel and I were back at the apartment with the car.  After a quick lunch, we were off to Cecis to find the medieval castle.

Cecis is a beautiful town a little over an hour east of Rig@.  The drive out to Cecis was spectacular.  It was great to be away from all of the people and the hustle and bustle of the city.  After finding the castle, we paid 4 Lats total and got to tour the ruins of this piece of history.  With our admission fee, the kids received an actual lit lantern to carry through the dark stairways of the old castle.  We spent a little over an hour climbing to the tops of the ruins and taking pictures.  There were very few people there today, and the weather couldn't have been any better.

After leaving Cesis Castle, we drove to another castle ruins near the town of Straupe, L@tvia.  We finally made it back to the apartment around 6 PM and cooked a spaghetti dinner.  It was a mostly a good day with Warrior: a few minor issues here and there.  He is learning more English words and phrases... things like "excuse me", "thank you", "that's ok".

Cēsis Castle (German: Wenden) is a Livonian castle situated in Cēsis, Latvia. Its ruins are some of the most majestic castle ruins in the Baltic states. Once the most important castle of the Livonian Order, it was the official residence for the masters of the order.  It was partly destroyed during the Great Northern War.

German crusaders known as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword began construction of the castle (Wenden) near the hill fort in 1209. When the castle was enlarged and fortified, it served as the residence for the Order's Master from 1237 until 1561, with periodic interruptions. In 1577, during the Livonian War, the garrison destroyed the castle to prevent it from falling into the control of Ivan the Terrible, who was decisively defeated in the Battle of Wenden (1578).

After World War I, the house of the owners of the Cesis manor and its adjacent territory, which was in the possession of the Sievers family, was dispossessed and transferred to the army of Latvia. The ruins of the Cesis Castle were placed under the guide of the city of Cesis and were opened to public. In 1925, ruins of the castle which were deemed an outstanding model of Cesis architecture of the Middle Ages were given the status of protected monument.  (Wikipedia)

Our rental car.  Yes, it does hold seven comfortably.

View of the country-side on the way to Cesis.

Cesis castle

The kids at the front of Cesis Castle.

View from an opening in the castle.

Seth at the top of the castle.

Sarah at a lookout

Rachel with her lantern

Rebekah was loving every minute of this adventure!  We even caught her wall-climbing!

Seth with his lantern

View from the top of the castle

Lielstraupe Castle, Straupe, L@tvia