Sweet Home Alabama

We made it!
Thanks, I am very sure, to much prayer on our behalf, no flights we canceled and we are not spending Christmas in an airport!
We had a long (25 hour) travel day. I was a complete mess; the last two days before we left I only slept about 4 hours each night, and I can't sleep on planes. I felt like a walking dead person and poor Sam had to take care of Robi and me. We didn't think about actually have to really go through immigration... since we had an immigrant with us! Then one of our bags was lost, so it was 3 hours after our flight landed that we finally left the airport. Mom and Dad were there to meet us with an awesome American flag, which Robi loved. Mom cried and Robi had fun playing with them in the airport.
We went to sleep around 8:30 and were all wide awake by 3:45am... hard to get over jetlag with a 3 year old! Thankfully we all felt rested... I have been super hyper all day! By 6:30 this morning I had baked a quiche, had breakfast with my boys, unpacked our 4 suitcases, done a load of laundry and bathed Robi!
Robi and I went out early to find a present for Sam and to meet Johanna, Bruce and Baby George, who Robi loves and adores. he kissed and hugged George 10 times! So sweet. Then we visited with my grandparents, parents, and sisters and had a great time. It's fun that Robi is an exravert... he loves new people!
We came home around noon and Robi is sound asleep. Hopefully tonight we will go to the candlelight service at church and then have dinner with the family. I LOVE BEING HOME!
And now... (drumroll) introducing Robi McLure!!!!!

Coming home!

Everything has been done to finish the adoption, by the Hungarian government and the American Embassy. Praise the Lord! We are so happy:)We think we had several near misses along the way, all of which George skillfully conquered. (Well, GOD of course, through George!) George cracks us up. He told us "I am pushy, you know?" Thank goodness!
Our flight is supposed to leave at 6:50 am tomorrow. The weather in Europe has been awful, and as a result flying has been a nightmare for a lot of people. PLEASE pray for good weather and no mechanical difficulties tomorrow. We would really love to be home for Christmas.
We think Robi is excited to fly. We've been talking about it a lot, and he talks about flying in an airplane to Alabama a lot. But even if all goes exactly well tomorrow we have a 20 hour day of traveling, so please pray for him, especially that he will sleep on the big flight.
I'm DYING to put up pictures, but Sam won't let me until we get home. (George asked us to wait until we get home... that's what I get for asking permission, darn it!)But as soon as I can after we land I will put up some pics and hopefully some videos also. And a lot of you will hopefully meet him in the near future anyway.
We are so thankful for this whole experience. Everyone we've worked with - from our first conversation with Jana at Lifeline, to our last meeting with George - has been kind, professional, and really above our expectations.
CANNOT WAIT to be home...
more later:)

Celebrating Christmas

Enormous Christmas Tree at WestEnd Mall

“But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have brought near by the blood of Christ.” Eph.  2:13

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Gal. 4:4-5

I was sad a few days ago because I felt like we were missing out on celebrating Christmas. We were watching the Youtube video of the Hallelujah chorus being sung at Macy’s and it made me miss the Christmas Cantata at church and hearing Christmas music everywhere, and Christmas sermons at my church, and decorating and parties, and making cookies with my sisters. 

But then I remembered that we are celebrating Christmas… that’s why we came to get Robi. We are adopting him, because God adopted us. We want to be like our Heavenly Father in whatever little way we can. We want this little boy who was outside the covenant of a Christian family, to be inside, and to hear about Christmas every day for his whole life. 

So celebrating Christmas for us (this year) looks more like playing with trains, and racecars that sound like dying dinosaurs, getting shots, and passports, and teaching English. And rejoicing to hear Robi say “King Jesus” because now he will have the opportunity to know this King who offers him a better adoption and an inheritance as a son. What perfect timing!

“You’ve heard it told, you think it’s odd

The whole thing fraught with complications

The play begins with Baby God and all his blessed implications

But it’s true: kingdoms and crowns

The God who came down to find you…”

Sara Groves

We have had 3 nice and uneventful days since Sam came back. We were both very excited to see him. Robi, as expected, will not let Sam go more than 6 feet away from him. It is very, very cold and Sam and I have been wracking our brains about what to do with Robi all day... we went on a tour of Parliament (which scared Robi), wandered around West End mall (the biggest mall in Eastern Europe), and tried to go for a few walks but we are all miserable outside. I am sitting here trying to decide if it's worse for everyone to be hungry or to walk to the grocery store! Brr! I'm leaning towards hungry!
We hate to have the attitude of just making it through each day until we get home (I hate that feeling that I am wishing my whole life away, waiting for the next part) but we really are. Sam is doing better (since he got a whole week at home!) but I am just counting the hours until we go home. However, we are glad for unrushed time to get know and play with Robi with no obligations to anyone else. That is very handy. I think we are going to go home with a stronger than usual relationship thatnks to the requirements of the Hungarian Governement! And that is the point of this time... to get to know your child and help them to feel secure with you.
Robi is still learning English like crazy... he can easily count to ten, and almost to 20. His ABC song is coming along, and Sam has taught him his first Bible verse "Trust in the Lord", and also to say "King Jesus." He was singing the Hallelujah chorus all day yesterday. He says "down please" and "calm down" although he doesn't really know what they mean and says them whenever he wants anything!
Tomorrow we are leaving at 5:30 in the morning to go to Eger (where Robi was born) to get "the decision." That sounds very ominous (since "the decision" is whether or not we get to keep Robi!), but George assures us that the decision is already made, and that all the people involved are very pleased with how Robi, Sam and I are doing together. On Monday we have another early trip to somewhere a few hours away (we never know where we are going!) to get a new, official copy of Ro's birth certificate. Then we will race back to Budapest to get everything translated and get going with a visa and passport for Robi. This is the part where things could get hung up... George is pulling some strings to get this process expadicted for us so we can hopefully make our flight early Thursday. We are getting to go home (if all goes well) probably a week sooner than normal, since everyone has been sweet about trying to get us home for Christmas.
And that's about all for now!
Merry Christmas!

Sam is supposed to be on a plane from ATL to Paris in 30 minutes, and I am so excited that I can't sleep. Which is stupid because I didn't sleep at all last night! So i am listening to Robi snore and praying about the weather. 

Today it snowed and snowed and snowed. I sat feeling very helpless in the hotel for half the morning (thinking I couldn't take Robi out in the bad weather without Sam), then remembered that I used to be a fairly functional, independent, adventuresome person before I got married and had a 3 year old. I flew across the ocean by myself at 14 for gosh sake! So I bundled Robi up and bundled myself up and decided to learn the tram and go on a tour of Parliament. I thought it was probably a bad idea to take my crazy 3 year old on a guided hour long tour, but I wanted to go and he can say the word "Parliament" (which makes him very mature) so off we went. Robi had a blast on "Thomas" and it was very easy to get there (except for the darn stroller). It was snowing so much! We walked all the way around Parliament, Robi agreed that it was beautiful, and we discovered that there were no more tickets for the day! Boo! So we played in the snow and took pictures and went on another ride on "Thomas".  It was a nice way to pass a few hours at least. I'm still determined to take Robi on a tour, even though he won't remember. 

One of the best and most funny parts of this adventure is learning a language from a 3 year old. When I studied French I learned your standard: 

"My name is Mary Beth."

"I have 4 sisters and one brother."

"I would like some bread please. "

I can read a menu, say "un" and "une" and know lots of nouns.

My Hungarian, on the other hand, consists of:

"I need to/ Do you need to pee?"

"I need to/ Do you need to poo?"

"Yes"

"No"

Hungry

Thirsty

"Not allowed!"

Scared/ not scared

Hurt/not hurt

School

Slowly!

Come here

Train

Car

Stop!

I also know a few numbers, although not in the right order! Robi's English counting is already better than his Hungarian counting.

Tonight I ordered sushi in, watched some tv, played trains, and spent a couple of hours trying to get Ro to fall asleep. He might understand that Sam is coming back... maybe he is as excited as I am. But I doubt it. 

Hopefully, the next time I blog Sam will be here and there will be great rejoicing. And maybe a tour of Parliament.

Much Love!

Robi hiding... I am sneaky!

Pictures of Budapest

Today was absolutely beautiful. It was supposed to be 40 and raining (according to weather.com) but it felt more like 50, completely clear, with beautiful sunshine. I even took Robi's coat off while he ran around in a wonderful playground he found. Yesterday we went to the zoo... i'll have to try to remember to post some crazy pictures of gorillas. Robi loved the baby gorilla. A lot. Today we had a slow start, got pizza for lunch, wandered over to show Andrea the big market hall, stopped for coffee on the way, found a playground, walked across the Danube on a beautiful bridge and did some grocery shopping. Ro and Andrea crashed when we got home and I cooked an early dinner. We got some good skype time with Sam. Robi was asleep at first, so Sam and I caught up and booked Robi's flight home. Robi woke up and got to "play" with Sam for 45 minutes or so, which was really good. He fell to pieces when we hung up the phone though... it was absolutely heart-breaking. He is really, really having a hard time. (I am always trying to balance telling our precious family and friends the "real deal", and not gossiping about Ro... so today I am leaning towards intentionally vague... just pray for him! Poor little guy.)

We have made it 4 whole days without Sam (2 with Andrea:)) and hopefully only have 4 whole more days to go. 

It's so dissappointing (although reasonable) that we can't post pics of Robi... but here are a few of the places we went with Robi today.

One of the beautiful bridges of Budapest

I love castles!

View of the Danube and the city

Robi's awesome find!

Travels...

After much drama, bad weather, canceled flights, layovers, missing cabs, and long, long travel days, Sam has made it home and Andrea has made it to us. We are so thankful! Andrea and Robi are sleeping and I think Sam is taking a nap:) I am so jealous that he is home.
Robi is having a hard time with Sam being gone. It is so sad to me. He acts silly and nonchalant when people try to explain where Apa is, but he can't fool his Anya! We're having lots of problems that are not typical. I am reminding myself all day long, that in a few months he will barely remember this (hopefully!) because I hate, hate, hate to see him upset and disoriented! Every time we walk into the room or to breakfast downstairs, he looks for Apa:( Poor guy!
We had a few successes though in the last few days... we made it to the grocery store for one! I love visiting other countries... it's wonderful and there are many wonderful things... but we are sure darn efficient in the U.S.A. and I always miss it! I was laughing (and praying for help) at how ridiculous getting groceries is. We walked in the cold, cold and the snow, under the interstate to the cramped little grocery store. Thankfully we found everything we needed and waited in the scariest long line I have ever seen. One reason it was scary was the whole wait was lined with hundreds of desirable chocolate items, all within Robi's reach. I thought we were doomed. However, God and Robi surprised me- Robi obeyed perfectly: did not touch, did not scream, and did not kick people or things (he likes to kick when he is bored in his stroller). I was so happy. Then we made it home which was tricky because I had to carry all the groceries, and Robi in his stroller, up and down lots of stairs to cross under the interstate. Oh how thankful I am for cars, heaters, and Publix!
Another success was that Robi counted to ten (in English!) by himself! I made a huge fuss over him, so he did it three more times, then dropped to his knees, pulled his shirt over his head, and yelled "Goal!": a trick Apa taught him. Apparently it's a good way to celebrate soccer and counting lessons.
We went to church today. Sort of. We went to nursery today. Robi was sweet to the children, even the mean ones, and shared his toys. He told the teacher he likes English. I am so glad! Sometimes I feel like we are just giving him a migraine! I think he loves seeing other people and getting a break from English and me! I would want a break from me too, after 24/7 for 3 weeks!
Tomorrow Andrea and I are planning an excursion to the zoo and a castle. We are hoping to keep Ro busy with fun things until Apa comes back. (Ok, who am I kidding... we are keeping ME busy until Sam comes back!) We miss him so much!
That's all folks!