Going backwards...part three Leonid

OK Sorry been a little crazy here with Christmas and colds. Kaeden, Savannah and I all have pretty bad colds and both of them are very high maintenance when they are sick!

This was my Christmas gift from Jared, a blanket with all 5 kids pictures!

Anyway I left off with us sending Masha back to her country after she had been with us for three weeks. You may be thinking three weeks is not alot of time but having her 24/7 for that time we really got to know her pretty well. We knew leaving that airport in North Carolina that we wanted her to be our daughter, Ashlyn was crying because she had to leave. We didn't know for sure if she really wanted to live in America but one of the chaperone's that was with her called me while on their layover in Detroit to see what we were thinking because Masha was acting sad and was very quiet which is not her personality, shes very chatty! lol Masha was afraid we didn't want her so I explained that yes we wanted her and we would come for her as soon as we could. Before the kids left to fly home all the host families and kids were hanging around at the airport waiting and the husband of the lady who originally posted on facebook about their being a kid still needing a host family was there with their host child who they just adopted earlier this month! Anyway they had 8 children at the time and were going back for two more and meeting and talking to him is what I think really opened Jared up to the idea of us adopting two kids this trip. As soon as we got on the road back to TX I started looking at Reece's Rainbow again and doing some detective work to try to find out which kids were in the same part of the country as Masha!

I messaged a couple of mama's that I knew had adopted from that area before one of them being the original person I have mentioned before and both of the them mentioned a few kids that were in the age group we were looking to adopt but they both mentioned a little blonde boy and how sweet and cute he was. They both sent me pictures they had taken of him months before and crazily enough they both sent me pictures of the same child, Leonid! None of us even realized at that point he was listed on Reece's Rainbow already, So I show Jared his pictures and the photos of a couple of other kids but I knew who I was smitten with. I thought he resembled Jared as a child:) Both ladies had been telling me about him and I was already thinking of committing to adopt him when a few nights later one of the ladies posted his Reece's Rainbow profile pic on our facebook group. I saw her post and messaged her telling her I did not even know he was listed thru RR yet and we were thinking of adopting him. That same week we emailed the ladies at RR to commit to Leonid.

So you see the same person who posted about Masha needing a host family is also married to the guy who I believe showed my hubby it is OK to adopt two at a time and the same lady who emailed me pics of Leonid before we knew he was even listed with Reece's Rainbow. I think that is too crazy to just be coincidence I believe that is all part of God's plan. There were even more along the way too, how wild is it that at a friends house she happens to invite one of her friends over who is native to the city where Masha is AND she knows the chaperon who came with the kids?! Or what about the first lady who originally posted about the hosting having a friend who was in the process of adopting from the orphanage where Masha lives who is originally from the town next to my hometown. His family still lives here and I have since met his sister in law who generously came to help at our car wash and gave me a bunch of hand me downs for the boys! Also all during Masha's stay with us we met several Russian speakers throughout our travels both here close to home and on the way to North Carolina. Since we have committed to both kids we have had lots of friends and strangers help which we are sooo sooo very grateful for! Everything is ready and waiting for the kids to get here we just need a few more pieces of paperwork and in January we will be submitting our dossier to their country. Hopefully they will invite us to travel to meet the kids mid February. We are over half way funded now for the adoption!!! Only need about $13,000 give or take a little to be fully funded! If you are looking for a tax deduction this year please consider donating to our grant account through Reece's Rainbow it is 100% tax deductible and will be used for adoption related expenses.

We are so very excited to go get the kids and bring them home, I even have a bag "packed" lol. No its not actually packed but it has items in it I have been buying a little at a time that I know we will need on the trip. Stuff like long underwear(it's cold over there), flannel PJ's, tights to wear under my jeans, a hat, gloves, scarf, travel size toiletries, the small bottles of maple syrup from cracker barrel! lol YES I said maple syrup I'm bringing some with me:)

here is my bag:)