We are at our final evening as a family of three! It is hard to believe we are already here, after so many years of waiting, disappointment, sorrow, joy, and excitement. We look forward to seeing what God has in store for us!
The last few days have been filled with getting first outfits together, scoping the lay of the land, multiple grocery runs, plenty of stress, high emotions, and physical tiredness.
But now, in less than 24 hours, we are looking forward to seeing God’s additions to our family! Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support! Our next update will be as a family of 7!
We know a picture speaks a thousand words, but due to the Brazilian process, the adoption won’t be legally binding and official until the end of September. Because of this we are unable to share photos, but we will be taking plenty and will look forward to dumping them when the time is right!
First Few Days
We are thankful to share that we have arrived in Curitiba! We were blessed to get upgraded on the long flight due to an extremely full flight. This was a wonderful surprise and allowed us to get more rest than would be otherwise possible.
Yesterday was spent getting unpacked in our apartment, trying to get our bearing some, figuring out how to exchange money, and trying to locate a grocery store (which we did find, but it was closed due to construction).
Today we have gotten some help to do a bigger grocery run and still need to get some clothing and other necessities for our kids. We are thankful that the landlady has been extremely gracious and helpful. In an interesting turn of events, we are actually communicating with her in German since her German is far better than her English. Thankfully the Lord has prepared us for that :). We have heard and are also finding that English is not spoken very often at all in Curitiba. This is putting our limited Portuguese skills to the test, but here too the Lord has prepared us by having lived overseas for many years. During this time we have learned the art of communicating even when words aren’t understandable! And this is a great warm up for communicating with our kids and getting our Portuguese up and running!
Underway and Some Odds and Ends
We successfully made it out of our house and to the airport! We got our workout in on one of the hottest days with 7 bags (5 checked), bus drivers who don’t like to wait, a broken elevator, and other passengers deciding to use the exact same SBahn entrance we are struggle to fit ourselves into. But we are now awaiting our 7pm flight to Zurich and are excited!
Adoptions are journeys in which we usually focus on everything that is gained – a new family, new siblings, new home, new opportunities, etc. All these things are true and well worth celebrating. However, we often fail to realize that all adoption stories begin with tremendous loss. It involves loss of birth families, but also moves on to include loss of friends developed in an orphanage, loss of identity known so far, loss of country, culture, and even sometimes language. Although in the long run the gains do outweigh the losses, in the short term it is a lot to be hit with, especially at a young age.
We were reminded of this during our final video call last night with our kids. They were thrilled it meet Elijah with one commenting that they always wanted a brother like Elijah and another being excited that the boys now outnumber the girls. They were even more excited to learn that we are meeting them on Monday – until last night they didn’t know when we were coming. But amidst the excitement and joy, the realization also hit one of them that this meant they were about to lose all their friends. That definitely lead to some serious emotions as yet another loss was piled onto a life already experiencing more than most. These are the moments we realize that these stories of, Lord willing, joy and happiness, are paved with stones of hurt and pain. We are thankful we serve a God who enters into our pain through the work of Jesus Christ, the One able to perfectly empathize with us because of His sufferings. Pray with us that even while the emotions of joy are there for all of us, we can also handle well, make space for, and comfort the pain that is also present – it is a weird place to be, having some of the greatest and hardest news hitting simultaneously…especially for someone so young.
We look forward to updating you along the way! Thank you for your prayers!
Mile Markers
We are closing in rapidly on travel! The preparations around the house have been keeping us incredibly busy as we try to get everything organized and set. We continue to be so thankful for your prayers and would love to ask you to continue praying for us and our kids! To help with that, we wanted to share some upcoming mile markers, a few important dates.
Today, August 26th – we have our final video call with our kids. We will get to introduce them to Elijah and vice versa. In addition, we will be able to show them around the house and we hope that by this call they will know exactly when we will be coming to meet them.
Tomorrow, August 27th – we take an evening flight going from Munich to Zurich to São Paulo and finally ending in Curitiba. We will arrive mid morning on Thursday, August 28th.
Monday, September 1st – we will meet our kids face to face and bring them to the apartment we are renting.
September 9th – we will transition to a house for the remainder of our time in Curitiba. Moving mid stay was not our first choice, but last minute bookings meant not being able to get a single place for the whole time that was the right size and location.
September 12th – Elijah turns 10!
October 3rd-4th – final court hearing to make the adoption official, at this stage we will be legally parents to our four additional kids.
October 8th – we will head to Rio de Janeiro to double check things with the German consulate and prepare to travel home.
October 14th-16th – somewhere in this time frame we will board our return flight, the exact date awaits the official adoption decree and the issuing of passports.
Thank you so much for praying with us and for us! We are so thankful for your huge part in how God is building our family!
Speaking of building, we are thankful to report that, at long last, the bed is finally and fully built!
Next Ministry Steps
The newest Stannard Snapshot has arrived and it contains some updates on future ministry steps! So sit back and take a 10 minute break!
First Contact
This evening we had our first scheduled video conference call. We were expecting this to just be with the social worker in Brazil to answer questions related to routines, schedules, etc. However, in an unexpected twist, because our travel date is so close, the social worker decided to have our children present from the very first call. Talking with our children was definitely a surprise! It was wonderful to see their personalities somewhat and to hear their questions. They even asked the social workers how to say we love you in English.
Pray for all of us as we make this transition! There are a lot of questions they have and many curious hopes and expectations (like do we all get a computer, individual room, etc.). We are all excited, nervous, and unsure all at once! But thankfully the Lord is the One who brought us all together and we trust He will guide us through the attachment and bonding period!
Breaking the News
Many of you have asked us about whether our kids know about us and the adoption. We are thankful to share with you that we were informed that today they heard the news for the first time. As a part of hearing the news they also received photo books in order to get to know us somewhat. They have also been told where we live and are preparing for life in Germany. The social worker kindly let us know that they said it doesn’t matter where they live, the important thing is that they now have parents.
Officially Set!
We are rejoicing at the Lord’s kindness and rapid answering of our prayers! Despite a good bit of back and forth over the weekend trying to get everything up to the quality control standards for the visa, we were blessed to not be held up as long as it might have been (officially 10 business days after quality control is finished). We are thankful to now have visas on hand and so we are officially ready to go!
We are now working as rapidly as possible to arrange accommodations. We have found something from September 8th to October 8th, but we now need to find something from August 28th to September 8th. Unfortunately this means we will have to also make a move about a week after getting our kids, but we are thankful for what the Lord is providing already. Please pray for the final piece to fall into place and also for wisdom as we try to book something for Rio de Janeiro October 8th-13th/14th.
Crunch Time
An adoption without stress, excitement, and many things happening in an unideal fashion simply wouldn’t be the full experience! We should know not to expect anything less at this stage!
After the news on Wednesday about the appointment date of September 1st, we began moving as quickly as possible to get things into place given the extremely tight turn around. We immediately ran into an issue with securing a tourist visa for Brazil. In the first place, we discovered that the online application required a notarized document for Elijah’s application, giving him authorization from both parents to have a visa. This proved problematic since notaries in Germany are only available on appointment basis and Friday was a public holiday (which meant Monday would be the first chance to ask for one). Thankfully the Lord provided a solution to this via Lifeline and we were able to submit the application near midnight on Thursday in Germany (which thankfully fell within the working hours in both the USA and Brazil).
We are still not out of the clear. Though the applications and documents have all been submitted, the listed approval time is 10 business days, which would be the day after we are scheduled to fly out. Furthermore, we have already had a request for further documentation for Elijah’s birth certificate. One of the added challenges of adoption is that paperwork is often not in standard formats. We have often run into issues with Elijah’s birth certificate as it only lists his birth name, not his adopted name. This often means producing other documents such as the adoption certificate which lists both the birth name and the adoption name and then talking the official into using the two together as the birth certificate. Because this is an online system, there is no ability to talk or even write an explanation. But, all possible additional documents have now been uploaded. Please pray for grace that whoever is looking at these will accept them and give us a speedy response. We really need everything to fall into place and very rapidly.
Plane tickets have been booked for August 27th and we are working to secure accommodations. It is a bit nerve wracking to do this without visas already on hand and we are praying and trusting that the Lord will bring everything in place in sufficient time. Just when we thought we had learned plenty of lessons about patience, trust, and the Lord’s faithful provisions, we are given more opportunities to relearn these things!
We appreciate your prayers and will continue to keep you updated! The clock is ticking, which is both exciting and throwing everything into a frantic whirlwind of activity!
Preparing for Take Off!
After much waiting, hoping, and praying, we finally got the official first appointment day scheduled today! We will meet our children on September 1st, which is right around the corner! We are certainly very excited, but now needing to kick everything into hyper-speed in order to get travel arrangements made in roughly 2 weeks so that we can arrive several days in advance to get settled and past jetlag.
We rejoice in getting this news (that we hoped would arrive last week) even with the tight turn around! We are also thankful that Michelle’s passport arrived and so everything is now set on the official front. Please pray for us as we are preparing and trying to get everything settled – pray that we will find the right location to stay and reasonable prices both for that and for airfare!
