Rowen's "First Bath" from Mommy!

January 22, 2014

Rowen's first "bath" from Mommy!

              He is not thrilled with the sprayer.  Once I turned it off he was happy to sit and play:)

                                                 All clean and in new clothes!

                                                          Sweet baby is sleepy:)

                                                 He makes the funniest faces!

                                      One of my favorite shots so far!  He is sooo cute!

He Is With Us At The Hotel!

January 20, 2014

 Saying Good-Bye to his foster parents:(  His foster mom and i both cried as they walked away.

                                            We are so happy to finally have our boy!

                                               This shot shows how tiny he really is!

                                                        Daddy's mini-me!

He was not thrilled that Mommy wanted to try new clothes on.  He is 4 and these are 2t and roomy:)

Oh The Food!

We are enjoying the different foods here very much!  Eating out is much less expensive than

   it is back in the U.S. which was a welcomed surprise for us!  We love to eat out 

  so we are taking advantage of the fact that we do not have all the kids with us!

                                                     Sex on the Beach anyone?

                     Bill drinking a flaming Absinthe through a straw!  It literally came with a lighter!

                                                    The shrimp still have eyes!

                                                    BBQ Pork Ribs.  Delicious!

                                 This was a crawfish on squid made with cuttlefish ink!

                      Bill looks like he has terrible teeth, but it is just the cuttlefish ink from his meal!

     The view from The Panorama Resteraunt in Krag.  Gorgeous view, great food, better prices!
                               I think our total was like $25 with tip for a fabulous meal!

 Even McDonald's is better here!  Salad instead of fries and great buns!  The bread here is spectacular!

                                 Beet salad; not my favorite but the carrot flower was cool:)

                                     Sausage platter.  Sausages are another popular dish.

               This was stuffed chicken breasts in a tomato sauce with little bitty potatoes.  Delicious!

Our Second Visit

January 18, 2014

                             Our first outing with our little guy was so much fun; He loves car rides!

                                                  The Serbian countryside is so beautiful!

                                                        A view on the way to the city.

 Foster Dad, Rowen and Bill.  This is one of my favorite photos;  it is almost like the father of the bride handing her over to her new husband.  It was like he was giving Bill his blessing as he handed him Rowen.
                                                                          So sweet.

           This is a monument remembering the 1500 children and teachers who were assassinated in 1989
                 by the Germans.  The monument shows faces and hands of the murdered.  So sad.

                      He loves the swing!  Daddy will be putting a couple swings up in the trees this year!

Our Foster Family

 Technically they were Rowen's foster parents but they instantly became like family to us!  The hospitality they showed us was incredible; I wish we could bring them home with us too!  Because of these people we will definately be returning to Serbia!  I cannot imagine never seeing them again.  We spent most of 3 days with them playing charades trying to communicate with our very limited Serbian language skills and a basic conversation book.  You should have seen Bill trying to tell them he drove a forklift as part of his job.  Foster mom went and got him a fork and was so proud that he was able to tell her something:)  Another time we were making plans for the day and Bill says "da" yes.  I asked him if he knew what they said and he says yeah Rowen is going to sleep here and you and I are going to the park!  I laughed so hard because they were saying Rowen can skip his nap and we can take him to the park!  Everyone enjoyed how hard Bill worked to try to learn some of the language, the mistakes made the effort even more memorable!  I cannot express how much we came to love these people in the few days we were here.  We share a love for the same little boy that created a bond between us that is unexplainable.  We will return to Serbia!

Meeting Our Son!

                                                                             January 17, 2014
                                    Funny how you don't know part of your family is missing until you find him!

                                              That is how we felt meeting this precious little person;
                                                  kind of like the "where have you been all my life?"
                                                      and how did we ever survive without him?!

He is absolutely perfect for us!  He is so tiny and sweet.  The size of a 2 year old maybe; he is still spoon fed, takes a bottle and doesn't walk by himself.  We are so happy that he is such a baby yet!  Because that means we didn't really miss so much of his life!  We are going to get to experience so many of his firsts and we are going to be the ones there cheering him on!  God knows what he is doing ALL the time, even in Serbian orphanages!

Our ministry appointment

                                                                                 January 16, 2014
We had our ministry appointment today and heard all kinds of good stuff about our new little guy! We leave at 8am tomorrow morning(so 1am at home) to drive to his foster home to meet him finally! His foster Mom says he has never cried once in the 11 months she has had him! We got more pictures too; I wish I could share! Believe me when I say he is sooo cute! Foster mom says he likes to be held and cuddled. There is no shortage of willing cuddlers at our house!  

                                           We will get to use all these cute little things very soon!

Mary's Place

We are staying at Mary's Place in Belgrade.  Mary genorously offers her beautiful flat at a great price for adopting families!  Did I mention it is gorgeous and has everything you may need while in country?  We are so blessed to have been able to stay here and save some money and have plenty of room to spread out during this 3 week process:)