Another week has come and gone, and we are very happy about that. We are closer to going home! We really miss America and appreciate our country and miss our friends and family.
It has been a blessing though to be here in Latvia for this time. It is good for us to get to know Latvia and where he has lived for 15 years. and for us to experience what it feels like to not be able to communicate with anybody because that is what he is about to live in, and that is not fun.
This week we have gone back to the beach, which we all in enjoy. it is only a 20 minute train ride. so wish I lived that close to the beach. We enjoy the beach because it is a place all of the children enjoy spending the day. we took lots of snacks and bottled waters this time and stayed a little longer. playing in the water, riding the paddle boats, and digging in the sand doesn't require talking and that is really nice. Mitchell also likes to jump on the trampoline that is on the beach. how cool is that, I love the beach here.
at the end of our day at the beach Mitchell sat on my towel with me and scoops up a little sand and tosses it on my leg, well those of you that know me well know that is just the beginning of a war. so I threw some back on him and then he threw more and then it is on...huge sand war. I was covered in sand and so was he, and then we are running all over the beach throwing sand. fun at the time and then 2 seconds after the war is over, its ok I'm ready to go:) I hate to be covered in sand. It was a lot of fun and lots of family bonding at the beach. Him and Matthew love to splash everyone and team up with each other to annoy me and the girls.
We also visited the Riga Zoo this week, lots of fun. I hadn't put that on our things to do list, because I thought they wouldn't want to go...you know being teenagers. but we got bored enough to head to the zoo for the day. and you know I always say this and the day at the zoo proves it...teenagers are just toddlers in bigger bodies. they had a lot of fun. I heard "mom come here and look" all day from all 4 of them. Matthew sticks his map through a slit in the door of the monkey cage and a little monkey grabs it and runs with it. it was so funny because then the daddy monkey charges Matthew and slams into the glass right in front of Matthew, I got it all on video. we all stood there and laughed forever. not a dull moment.
The days do seem to drag, I miss things like my car, Costco, we walk a block to the grocery store and everything here is sold in very small amounts. We are a big family and we have to be able to carry what we buy. So we all carry a bag home, which is not a lot of groceries for a family this big. Then we carry them up 4 flights of very steep spiral stair way to our apartment. Then put them away in a tiny refrigerator. The cost of food over here is killing us. Tony finally found a bottle of mustard this week, and it was about 3 Lats which is about 6 Dollars, and the bottle was tiny. So of course he has not had mustard on his sandwiches. Every thing is packaged small and cost at least twice as much here. We have run out of all the supplies that I had packed, and now are having to purchase even more at the store. So the funds are running out fast.
Mitchell and I work on an English lesson everyday, and he does very good with it. He doesn't think so and gets very discouraged. But he learns it very fast. He is always the one that ask to do our lesson, I wait until he is ready because it just goes well that way. So somewhere in our day he will say mom you teach me english now. and we sit at the kitchen table and go over at least 3 lessons and review games each day. I know it has to be very difficult and scary to know you have to learn a whole new language to be able to talk to your family.
Mitchell is very ready to be an American. He wants to learn English and told me he doesn't want to speak Latvian anymore. Which I don't agree with I want him to keep his Latvian and Russian language. He is very through with this country, breaks my heart that he wants to bury everything about it. We visited a Latvian museum this week about this countries' history and it was amazing what all happened here during WWII. to actually see a yellow star that the Jews wore, was unreal. What a chance for the kids to see first hand things from this war that we can't see in America. But he was not a happy guy that day and didn't want to walk around and see Latvian History. I hope one day he can with God's help overcome these feelings he has for his past and his country.
This week I ask him if he was going to miss Latvia when he gets to America and he said "no miss Latvia". He said he has only lived here 15 years. I said that is a long time, he said no, I will live in America longer. He said he will be an American forever. He said that people in America know God and people that know God are happier people. My fellow American Christian people, do you hear that...I think this is another lesson for us all from Mitchell. People that know God are happier people...let's not forget that. because what I see in America is that is changing. hold on to the God we serve and the JOY He brings into our life because it reaches the world and changes lives.
Mitchell is a very loving child. He hugs and puts his arm around us all day. He is so very happy to finally have a family and he tells me everyday. He is starving for love and affection. Our Social worker also visited the last time this week, and Mitchell had the idea to show her all of our pictures in my computer so he could tell her how things were going. he sat with my computer and the poor lady had to look at over 300 pictures. I looked at him as he clicked through the pictures with the biggest smile on his face you have ever seen. He so enjoyed showing her his family and all we have been doing. after the pictures Tony and I had to sign a form that stated that after our stay here with him we wanted to pursue the adoption, Mitchell asked the lady what the forms was (of course in Latvian) and she explained it to him. We both signed it and passed it back to her and when he looked down at the paper with our signature on it his face turn a little red and his eyes looked like he could cry. That moment made it a little more real for all of us. This coming week will be even more real. Monday Mitchell will go to court and have to write a statement that he wants to be adopted by our family and he will sign. and then on Tuesday we have court that will give us permission to bring him to America while we finalize the adoption. Those two days will be two days he has waited a long time for, and I can't wait.
This week for the most part has been the most wonderful experience of my life, but at the same time has been the hardest challenges I have ever been through. Our family has been challenged physically, mentally, financially, emotionally and spiritually like we have never experienced. But we always, no matter what the day holds, say this is where God has us, no doubt in any of our minds that this journey is of God and that is what always brings us through. We hold on to God and trust Him fully.
Mitchell is an amazing child. God has a plan and purpose for all of this. I can't tell you how much I love this child. Saturday night he and I sat down to discuss his middle name. We need to finish a paper that has his new name on it before we leave. He grabbed my computer and wrote, today I am born and you are my mom, and I want you to name me. That right there is worth it all. It just melted my heart. He is precious, and all of the challenges on this journey are nothing compared to the blessing of having him be our son.
I can not express to you guys how much we love this child. He is just precious. An absolute God sent to our family. This week has been so wonderful, full of family time. I have many times said it is crazy we have to stay in Latvia so long when we already had him for 4 weeks in America, they know he has bonded with our family. But now I am so thankful for this time. Because we are isolated from our normal world, with no distractions of all the things our family is involved in in America, I am thankful for this time of just spending it together. It is different than when we hosted, we never treated him like a visitor in our home when he was there but it is still different because he is our child now.
This week has been packed with lots of fun things but we still have moments of feeling trapped in this apartment and being seriously bored...six of us going, what do you want to do, I don't know what do you want to do, I don't know what do you want to do...about an hour of that every afternoon...
some of my observations of Riga, Latvia...It is almost like Brooklyn, reminds me so much of Brooklyn, but with more historical buildings. but the buildings are full of graffiti are so much like Brooklyn. I feel safer walking down the streets here than I did in Brooklyn. People you pass even at night, just don't seem as though they would bother anyone. They are not friendly don't smile or wave or even make eye contact, but they don't bother each other. I have seen more than I did in Brooklyn. I have seen teens drinking, a man rolling his own smoke in the park in open day light, one night we saw a meth addict he didn't have a shirt on and was just freaking out, very skinny (that was very sad) we enjoy all of the musicians on the street we will stand and listen to them a lot and throw money in their case I actually wish we had that in America it is nice to walk around and hear music playing and all of them are very good. The people here are a lot skinner than in America I guess from all this walking all day and there isn't as much fast food, Only Mcdonalds. They are very beautiful I am in a world of beautiful blue eyes everywhere. The women are always dressed up, skirts and heels. There are those that Mallory and I have about arrested for Fashion NO NOs... We have pictures!! Mallory and I have had fun looking at the world of fashion wee woos. I'm talking plaid and plaid together...leopard print and flowers...She and I are dying over here. but for the most part everyone here is very helpful and very nice, and most of them try to help communicate in English with you. Gives me a whole new look at the Hispanic community in America and how we treat them.
Back to my Mitchell, We have been working on English just about every afternoon, he and I will sit down with a book we bought here that has English and Latvian. He is doing so well, but doesn't think he does. He has had a couple days of feeling down about learning English. I am sure to him it feels overwhelming. He wants to learn it now, and doesn't want to wait. He tells me everyday he wants to talk to me but can't. It breaks my heart. Please pray for him, that English will come very easy and fast for him.
One day I told him we wanted to go back to the Bookstore and get him some books in Latvian so he can have them to read when school starts back. and he told me no, he said he was American now, no more Latvian books. I told him he was an American that spoke Latvian and we needed some Latvian books to read for school. he just smiled. He is very ready to go home, he tells me that every day. He says "Go home to America". He is so ready to leave Latvia, said it is full of bad people.
We enjoyed the baltic Sea, that was a great day. It took us 20 minutes on the train to get there. The sand is so soft and beautiful, Mallory figured out why, she said the tide doesn't come in...I was like oh yeah, so the sand is just so beautiful. They had volleyball nets out, cabanas, snack bars, trampolines, playground. It is great when the tide don't come in. We took a huge paddle boat out in the water and that was a lot of fun. Mitchell jumps off the paddle boat and of course Morgan goes right behind him. The current pulls her out further from the boat and she can't swim hard enough to get back. Mitchell was amazing he swam to her and stayed with her as we paddled back over closer to her, I heard him telling her, "Morgan, don't stress, it is ok, don't stress" I love how he cares for the other three. many times he will ask them if they are ok. like after him and Matthew swam and then got back on the boat he went over to Matthew and said you ok? He is so very loving.
We have also been to see Superman, went shopping, went to a fun park at our favorite Latvian restaurant, Mitchell wanted all of us to ride the swings together, that was fun. And then on Saturday we were invited to go to a 4th of July Celebration at the US Embassy. It was so very cool to be at the embassy, we have never been to an American Embassy before, what an experience. We were very excited about that and even teared up when we got there and saw America flags and Patriotic music. It was beautiful and made us very home sick. They even had old America cars lined up. Mitchell says I like that one, I turned and looked and you wouldn't believe it but it was a 66 Mustang, how ironic. I said well we had one but we sold it. If I had to do it over again I wouldn't change a thing. It was well worth selling that car. It was funny though what they had there to represent America, as we walked around to all of the tents they had hotdogs, Mcdonalds, pizza, and I guess this was suppose to be a banana split but it was one scoop of Ice Cream and a banana laying beside it and a little chocolate syrup swirled on top. So, our 4th of July cookout was McDonalds...yuck, We are ready for a real 4th of July cookout, We miss America!
our week ended with our very first Sunday morning at church. It was just so unreal, I thought I feel like I was just at Freewater Church up in front of everyone talking about how we were getting close to going and getting our son, to now getting to go to church with our son. The picture above is our Sunday morning picture. We took the train about a 30 minute ride to church and then a short walk. It was a very big church. The people were very friendly and helped us get to the English section. They had earphones for English translation. Beautiful worship, and a wonderful message, several got saved. I really enjoyed being there, I love to worship in other countries and feel God's presence. We know he is every where but to feel it is an eye opening experience, I think so many people in America think that their church and their ministry is what it is all about, and it isn't God is so much bigger than just your world. It is a shocker to some but God's kingdom doesn't revolve around you...sorry had to throw that in. It is good to get out of the country and worship with other Christians around the world because they will put Americans to shame. Church was 2 and half hours and no one was in a hurry to leave. It was just beautiful.
Mitchell had asked me for a Bible some time back and I couldn't find one, so I told him when we were in Latvia we would find him one. As we were leaving the service I asked an usher where I could get a latvian Bible, and he said they had a bookstore. So we bought Mitchell his first Bible and he was so very happy. I think that was the best Bible Tony and I have ever given away. How we take for granted to have a Bible of our very own.
I guess I have to say my favorite moment of the week was when Mitchell took our picture with my phone and posted it on my facebook page and said with it I love my mom.
We still have 2 more weeks...another Social worker visit, one more court time and a couple visa appointments. Looking forward to completing this a coming home.
Please continue to pray for our family. Love you all!
