The first and last post adoption update.

Hello everyone. I want to start this post with a quick overview of this blog and its intended purpose. If you are just now finding this blog I encourage you to start at the oldest post in late 2008. The first post starts with our arrival in Lithuania to meet a young girl named Lina that we had been trying to adopt for the past year. We had tons of questions about Lithuanian life and what we would do and eat while we were there. We searched the internet and learned some tips from tourist websites and we were as prepared as we could be without ever having been to eastern Europe. We knew that there were other people in the world who were adopting from Lithuania and that a lot of the questions we had and worries about meeting a Lithuanian orphan others were having as well. So I attempted to provide details that some might find uninteresting but if you are adopting you may very well find yourself in a similar situation. We were also keeping our families up to date on what was happening. So that was the intended purpose of this blog. The trade off in doing this was privacy. Primarily the privacy of Lina and eventually Audrone and Kornelija. Some have requested that we update how the girls are doing and I will briefly for closure to this blog. If you have already read the entire story you know that our first trip and attempt to adopt Lina ended in tragedy but it ultimately was a big part of the reason we were able to adopt Audrone and Kornelija. This is a story that I hope people will find helpful, inspiring, and that it will serve as a small signal mirror reflecting Gods glory.

Update: 1.5 years after our arrival home to our small town of Lynden Washington.

First of all, both girls are really doing great. We arrived home and school was just starting here. They both wanted to go much sooner than we expected. Kornelija didn't really speak any English but on the first day of 4th grade she had 4 new best friends. Of course it was helpful that one of them was a family friend from church. She has been going strong ever since. 10th grade was a little more interesting. American high school has a culture all its own. Audra is beautiful and strong. She isn't a flashy hair and make up girl. She was also shocked by the poor behavior that the teaching staff put up with here. She would come home and ask me why they let them wear pajamas to school and what the heck is a cheerleader? But the second week of school she joined the soccer team and she loves to play. My work schedule allowed me to make almost all her home games. The girls on the team readily accepted her because she didn't allow anyone to push her around. On the one hand I was proud of her for standing up for herself but on the other hand there were a few tense moments where I thought she might just beat the crap out of her opponent. But, in soccer and in darn near every other situation she has come up against she has proven to make very good decisions and has earned our trust. Kornelija on the other hand is what I call my purse girl. She loves to shop with Michele and fix here hair in different ways. She also can talk a mile a minute now. I usually get a report on the events of the day when I get home from work. This report used to even include all the events from Audra's day as well. But, as you can imaging that didn't always sit well with Audra. They have been able to keep in touch with some of their friends on Skype and I think it has been good for them. We sent some Christmas presents to some of their friends back in Lithuania and they have even had some contact with remaining family members. So, there you go. We are loving being a family and we thank God for bringing us together.