Christmas hosting

For anyone following this blog but not our family mission blog, you can read all about our time with Sergeis during our mission trip to Latvia at www.thehelffamily.blogspot.com.

We are bringing Sergeis here again this Christmas as we await our adoption process to begin. There is a little "hiccup" in the process but when this gets straightened out (no timetable, unfortunately) we will begin the long process of bringing Sergeis home forever! We are so excited to be able to say that! In the meantime, we will have him here for Christmas to be able to bond even further with him as a family. Please pray for our time together. Sergeis has a lot of hurts that express themselves in a wide array of emotions from time to time. We made a breakthrough last year with him but I'm sure we will have to start over again this year. Pray for all aspects involved in bringing him here--emotional, financial, logistical, etc etc. :)

Thanks for your continued support and interest in our hosting missions!!

Brooke and family! :)

This summer

We've decided not to bring Sergeis here this summer for various reasons. It was not an easy decision and one that we're still unsure of actually. But we have so much going on right now and there's a lot of uncertainty about the next few months for us. One thing is Craig's job is sort of up in the air. They thought they would have work up until the next phase of the census began but apparently it is getting done faster than they thought and we are sort of going week to week right now on how much work he will have. Please pray for his job situation.
But we have been able to keep in contact with Sergeis through the internet and are now working on being able to video chat with him via Skype. We have been able to talk to one of his friends in his orphanage and it's really neat. We are trying to get sergeis to get a profile and user name so he can talk to us. He said he will so now we wait! :) It will be exciting to see his face as we talk with him!
The last phone conversation we had with him, he requested that we mail him his scooter that we got him for Christmas. I'm sure that will cost an arm and a leg! Soon, I will go to the post office to figure out how much it will be and then make preparations to send that along with some other little things for him and a few of the other kids there.
Just wanted to give an update on how things are going with us.

Thanks for praying!!
Brooke

Communication

Well communication with Sergeis has been off and on. Usually we get one or two word emails from him. But one day last week (we assume his friends must have not been around...) he began writing us like crazy!! He asked how everyone was, said he loves us numerous times, said he wants to come back to America, and said he misses us. It was really wonderful!!
We have been trying to call him since Sunday and no one ever answers the phone. I know it's the right number because a friend has used it to call there and has actually talked to a person!! But so far, we haven't had any luck. Sergeis' 11th birthday was sunday and I was so upset that we couldn't talk to him on the phone. I cried and cried. I want so bad for him to really know and understand that we love him.
Please pray for Craig to get a job. As soon as he does (assuming it's a job that puts us above poverty level) we will begin our homestudy to adopt Sergeis. We are praying that if it is not God's will for him to be our son that He will shut the door to adoption. Until then, we feel like we should move forward with adoption. We love him so much! The kids really miss him. Addie still asks, "Where's Kergay?" every few hours. Eileen asked me if we could please adopt him. I explained to her that we would try but there are so many things to be done to complete an adoption. I told her all the processes, including that someone had to come to our house to make sure it is clean and safe. She immediately got up and started mopping the kitchen floor!! :) Silly girl!
Thank you for all of your prayers!
Brooke

On the way back to Latvia

Sergeis should be getting into Riga anytime now. Then he will have a drive or train ride (not sure which one) back to Liepaja.
The whole way to the airport yesterday he kept saying how he didn't want to go to Latvia and he wanted to stay here. Once we got to the airport, however, he was having too much fun reuniting with friends to be with us very much. :) We expected that, but it was still a little hurtful. He really didn't want to hug us or anything. Eileen was crying when it was time for him to leave and went to give him another hug--he didn't want that either but she did it anyways.
Getting in the car last night, Addie kept asking for "Kergay" and then again when it was bedtime. This morning, Eileen said "It's not the same without Sergeis here in the morning."
It's a lot quieter, that's for sure.
We are trying to settle back into "normal" and get ready for school again on Monday.
Please keep praying for God's direction in our lives and for Sergeis.

Brooke

Thursday :(

Sergeis will be going home on Thursday. 2 more days. Wow.

I can't believe the time is already here for him to leave. We have so much enjoyed having him in our family.
We are packing his suitcase today and trying to figure out how much stuff we can fit into it...a hard job considering he has been here through Christmas and his early birthday party. I am trying to talk him into leaving stuff here for when he comes back to visit but he doesn't want to leave anything. I told him we can't fit everything and I would have to mail some stuff. He was okay with that. But I don't know how much I'll mail over there. It costs a fortune and I don't want to have to buy everything all over again when he comes back to visit. HOpefully we will be able to have him come back in the summer. We will see how God provides!

Brooke

Pictures

I forgot to take the camera with us iceskating. :( Bad Mom! But there was a couple there taking lots of pictures of their family so I wrote down my email address and asked if they would take some pictures of us and of Sergeis and email them to me and they said of course! I explained who Sergeis was and they were very excited to hear about this because they adopted their youngest daughter from China! Hopefully I will have those pictures soon to post on here!

Also it rained Friday so no driving range. However yesterday, Craig and Sergeis went to get hair cuts and then to the driving range. I have pics of that but they aren't downloaded yet onto the computer. Hopefully we will do that soon.

Sometime this week (not sure when yet) we will be celebrating Sergeis' birthday early. His birthday is on the 25th of this month and he will be back in Latvia. We wanted to celebrate with him before he leaves.

Tomorrow, he has his dentist appointment and hopefully Wednesday he can get his eyes checked.

We got into a very minor car accident on the way home from iceskating Friday--scared me to death though because I'm still traumatized by the car accident when Addie was born. But everyone is fine and the car is not too bad off. Sergeis thought it was the coolest thing in the world! He said, "Cool, Mommy! Car broken!" "Cool, Mommy--3 police!" "Cool, Mommy, other lady who boom pays to fix car!" Since it was not our fault, the other lady's insurance has to pay to fix it. When trying to explain it to Sergeis, I think he thought she will be paying us a lot of money to fix it and we get to keep whatever is left over! I had to re-explain (if that's even a word) that she doesn't pay us, she pays the person who fixes it, which I know is still not exactly accurate but I'm not sure how to explain insurance companies to him! :)

We are still having a blast. The kids still adore him, even after their typical sibling rivalry stuff that goes on. Addie can't stand for him to be out of her sight. She starts calling, "Ker-gay!!" over and over again if she can't see him.

Please continue praying for us as we try to makes decisions over the next week and a half. Also please pray for Craig to find a job soon!

Brooke

Happy New Year!

Sergeis does not understand why we stayed up so late last night! :)

This Christmas season has been wonderful. Of course, we have had some issues but he is a very teachable boy and we have been having lots of fun.
He spoke with a chaperone today (we have to check in every so often) and he told her he is "very very very very very" happy with our family and that he wants to stay with us forever. Please pray for us as we seek God's will for our family and for Sergeis.
Tomorrow we will be going ice skating and then Sergeis, Craig and Jack will be going to the driving range. I will post more pictures soon!

Brooke