The wait continues

We had to update our medicals a couple of weeks ago because they were more than a year old and fill out some additional papers. Our end of the paperwork has been submitted for final review by Children Home and Family Services and we are now awaiting our official acceptance and refferal from them for our son Anthony. Our official wait time, which is 4 - 6 months, does not begin until we receive our acceptance. We're still looking to travel from late January to early March.
We're sending out a letter to James' foster family this week to let them know we will be there again so we can set up a reunion between them and James. We are so looking forward to that.

In loving memory of Aunt Connie

We ask you all to pray for Rachael's Aunt Connie who passed away suddenly on 8/21/09. She will be missed.

Facebook | James Grabowski: Anthony Jooahn Grabowski

Facebook James Grabowski: Anthony Jooahn Grabowski

Anthony Jooahn Grabowski

Rachael and I would like to announce that we have been blessed again with our second son. James has a little (BIG) brother. Anthony Jooahn Grabowski. He was born on October 4, 2008 and weighed in @ 7.3 lbs. He is now 10 months old and weighs 23 lbs. It is truly a blessing and very exciting. We will most likely be leaving in January.

I will post some pictures soon.... if your on Facebook look us up.

North End Juniors All Star Team

Andrew's North End Juniors All Star team won the CT championship last week but were unable to advance in the eastern regionals this weekend in New Jersey. I just want to congratulate Andrew and his team on their accomplishment and let him know how proud we are of him. Be proud of what you've done!

Happy Birthday James

James will be 2 years old tomorrow. He is talking good and repeating words. It has been a great and unforgettable year and I am looking forward to the terrible 2's. BRING IT ON James. :)

We also have our approval to adopt again and have been looking at the waiting child lists from a couple of agency's that work with South Korea. There are some agency's that have waiting child lists from South Korea that we can't work with because they are assigned certain states by the agency in Korea. Please keeps us in your prayers during this process. It's definitely not as easy as it was when we adopted James.

We have another new niece. Maya Grace Macero welcome to our growing family and congratulations to Matt, Suzanne, and Adam. We love you.

One year ago we held our son for the 1st time

We can't believe it's been a year. I still remember walking through that door at Holt and James being right there held by his foster mother.... we got a smile out of him right away and she handed James to Rachael. WOW!!!

Look back in our posts from last year at this time to the right to see what I wrote.... it was a very special moment. The video from that day is on the right.

Fingerprinted again!

Another step forward towards our next adoption. Today we were fingerprinted in New Rochelle, NY for our I-600A application. We should have our approval within a few weeks and then the search is on!

James is starting to repeat everything. He says a lot of the kids names now. Noah, Betha, Dom, Jamma (Jana). He also says rain, gramma, mommy, daddy, Nana. When we go to church he says JeJe for Jesus. He say monya for banana and when you ask him to say please he says P. O. or B. O.
I have no idea where that came from.

3 years waiting

Today is our 3 year anniversary of being logged into China for adoption. It is still amazing to us how this could take so long. China has referred children to those logged in as of 3/14/2006. In June of 2008 they had referred up to 1/20/06, that's less than 2 months in the entire year.

We now estimate it could take another year to 18 months before we will get the call for Hannah. With that in mind Rachael and I have decided to renew our paperwork for South Korea and keep our eyes on the waiting child lists. Adopting James was such a wonderful experience we feel that is what we need to do and give the rest to God. We will continue moving forward and if China does happen so be it and if it doesn't it just wasn't meant to be.

We are visiting Wide Horizons for Children next week in Massachusetts. They are the agency whom helped us to adopt James along with Catholic Charities. We just want to thank them in person.

Something special

After searching for a while on the Internet and a whole year after Rachael's brother Anthony passed away we have finally found his daughters and their mother Krista. They have been living in Japan for five years. Both Rachael and Krista are happy to have talked and we will get to see the girls and their little brother this summer when they come to the states to visit. We can't wait...

Dad's 80th Birthday

Tommorow on March 19, Dad will be celebrating his 80th birthday. Last Saturday's surprise birthday party was a success and everyone had a great time. It was great seeing dad's side of the family because we don't get to see them as much as we would like to.

God bless you Dad and happy birthday!

Adoption is final

We weren't sure it was gonna happen yesterday with a foot of snow outside but it did. James was giddy from the moment he woke up like he new it was a special day. It was even more special because some of his cousins had the day off from school and were able to make it thanks to four wheel drive :)

After an hour and a half wait we were called in to the court where James continued to run around and be silly. Judge Ganim let him slam the gavel down to finalize the adoption. It was very special and adorable.

Here is a link to the video..... enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru29UZKSvHo

Adoption Day

On March 2, 2009 James' adoption will be finalized at Bridgeport's Probate court. This is the final step in James adoption. Over the past 8 months we have had post placement visits in our home, doctors visits, letters to write and photos to send to Korea which is all part of the process of adoption from Korea. James will not only become an American citizen on March 2, but he will also be officially our son. :)

We have been forever blessed by God.

Diocese of Bridgeport 2009 video

We've made it on the 2009 Living Our Faith Appeal video. If you click on the link below it will bring you to the page. We are in the very beginning of the video....... 10 seconds of fame. There is also a picture of Rachael and James in the Bishops Annual Appeal newsletter.

http://www.bridgeportdiocese.com/external-aba.shtmllcome.shtml

2008

It started in January as an unknown future for our family. I was driving home from the casino when I received a call asking me if Rachael and I would be interested in adopting a child with special needs. It was something we had already discussed we just didn't know our path until it was right in front of us. Three weeks later we weren't going to China for a girl but we were headed to South Korea for a boy. Our lives have been changed forever.

A mountain of paperwork, online courses, nervous and exciting nights followed.

In March we were struck by tragedy when Rachael's brother Anthony passed away. He was very excited about James' arrival. Please continue to pray for him.

A baby shower, acceptance of paperwork, and a 14 hour plane ride later and we were in Korea. We were a day ahead and on the other side of the world.

6 days later we were on our way home with our son and a whole new world sitting in my lap. It was now time to plan a birthday party and baptism.

The next six months are a blur with a thousands of pictures, plenty of video, and a lot of fun. By the way the only special need James has is has an enormous appetite. :)

We have a new niece Samantha and a new cousin Arianna.

Andrew won his second little league championship in a row.

Gasoline went mysteriously down to $1.65 from close to $4.50.

We have our first black president.

Suzanne and Matt are having another baby.... woohoo.

I think everyone in America lost at least half of their retirement savings if they were fortunate to have one, while the CEO's of these major companies get multi-million dollar bonuses for running their companies into the ground.

Goodbye 2008. It is a year we will never forget.

Thank you Heavenly Father for the blessings you have given us and for answering our prayers.

Christmas is coming

We took James for some photos at the Milford Mall last week and we introduced him to a guy named Santa. He is not a big fan! We tried to get him to take a picture but there was no way it was happening. I hope Santa understands.

We also want to update everyone on China. It has not changed much. The CCAA has sent out referrals for those logged in up to 2/23/06 and as many of you know our log in date is May 31, 2006. It sounds like its right around the corner but last year at this time they had just gotten into January 2006 which means they didn't even complete 2 full months in one year. We feel that if they stay at this pace we will not receive a referral until mid 2010. On the bright side we have James to keep us busy. :)

James' Baptism

We were blessed with a beautiful day today for James' christening. Here are some pictures.

Halloween and more...

James wore his costume three times this year. We celebrated our friends 1st birthday @ Beardsley Park's boo at the zoo. The line was crazy to get into the park but what a bunch of cute kids dressed up in their halloween costumes and it turned out to be a nice warm day.

Halloween was a lot of fun with James and the triplets doing their first trick or treating.

Pumpkin Patch

We took James to our friends Halloween outdoor movie night on Saturday and to Jones Tree Farm on Sunday for some pumpkin picking.

Happy Birthday

We have a triple header birthday on Monday, October 6. Sophia, Doris, and my mother-in law Anna will all celebrate their birthday. Here are some photos from Sophia's party on Saturday.



We also want to welcome our newest family member Samantha. Congratulations Stephanie, Cheyne, Joey, & Doris.