Family Picture after Snowball Fight

A Christmas to Remember

Today was an emotional day for us. We would like to introduce you to our new triplets. The judge presided over the case of the three children and when he read his decision about Paula and me being their parents and that their last names were all changed to Chapman, we all cried. He could have imposed a 6 month waiting period but praise the Lord he did not. He did give us a 20 day waiting period. We were hoping for a 15 day period. It was upsetting to hear about how the children were taken from their family over a year ago by the police and that their entire family is extremely poor and uable to take care of their children. Their mother's sister has two children and her rights to see her children have been terminated as well. After court, we went out with all of the children for lunch and had our picture taken in front of a Christmas tree. They were very excited about getting out of the orphanage. Tomorrow, we have been asked to attend a play with the children by the orphanage director. Please pray for the next 20 days to quickly pass. We can see the children each day but it is uncertain if we can keep them with us all of the time until the 20 days passes. Love, all of us.

Merry Christmas from the Chapman's

Christmas Eve

We cannot believe that tomorrow is the big day. We will be at court at 10 am. Please be praying for us. We will try to put up a photo after court. Our plan is to take all of the children out for lunch after court since they will not be present before the judge because of their age. It has been below freezing for days and started snowing again today. The trees are frozen like Narnia. This will be our first White Christmas and definately one to remember. Chapman's

Friday, Dec. 21, 2007

We took Jon for his first visit to a McDonald's for lunch. His favorite food seems to be French Fries. We spent the morning with all 3 children and played duck, duck goose with them. We are currently 8 hours ahead of Central time (best time to call is noon until 3 pm Central time) and if you would like to give us a call at our apartment the number is 011-373-22-75-48-27. An international calling card would be the best way to reach us and are available at Sam's Club. We asked Jon about his birthday through a translator and he said that he did not have one. We told him that it was December 8th. Most internet connections are very slow (dial up) so posting pictures may not happen. We hope the next few weeks flies by. We love and miss you guys. We are enjoying spending time with our children. It is amazing that we are here with them and How awesome God is and How blessed that we are to be involved in His plan. Love, Mark,Paula,Rylan,Jon,Adriana,And adrian

Moldovan Culture

We've had two more days with the kids and they are teaching us Romanian and we are teaching them some English with flash cards that Paula brought with us. We continue to learn about the children and it brings to mind the tragedy that effects most of the children that are in orphanages around the world. Jon, the oldest boy, was picked up by the police in his village two years ago (at 6-7 yrs old) because he was found begging for food. We asked him about the scars on his scalp and he said that he got these at his home but now he did not have a home. We assured him that now he had one. Today, we took him to a restaurant (his first ever visit to a restaurant ) for soup and pizza (he is a very good eater). The two younger children seem to have been more sheltered at their current orphange. It is more loving, cleaner and they receive more one on one attention. We gave them some clothes that we brought for them and they were very excited. Adraina starting crying since this was her second set of clothes that she now has in her wardrobe. They refer to us as their mama and dada and love being held and being carried on our backs. Rylan is loving being a big brother and Adriana enjoys giving him kisses on the cheek. Adrian will be our wild child, like Rylan, he loves to run around and plays hard. Thanks for all of the blog comments since this is our rare touch with the you guys that know so much about our story. One last comment, the orphange director at Jon's orphange, was not excited about children being adopted to the US but has seen our afffection for him and gave her approval to the court that was needed to proceed for the Christmas adoption court date. She liked us so much that she invited us to a Christmas concert in downtown Chisinau. Next year is the year of the "Rat" and we got to see him and Santa dancing on stage together. Santa is much slimmer here, it looks like he has a size 32 waist. We will try to update the blog site every two days since getting to a computer has its challenges. Thanks and we love you all, MC, PC, RC, JC, AC, & AC.

First and Second Day with Jon, Adrian & Adriana

On Monday, we met the children for the first time. They are located in two different orphanages so we have to pick up Jon (9 yrs) and drive to meet the younger children. We were introduced to Jon by the director saying do you like this boy as your brother and this man and woman as your papa and mama? And Jon said yes. Of course we were crying during the translation and he came over and hugged us. We then went over to the other orphange and met Adriana and Adrian. They told them that we were mama and papa and Adriana (6 yrs) said we go home tomorrow. The sad thing is that Jon knew he had a brother and sister but could not remember them due to not seeing them for over a year. Jon is very shy but loves to play with a ball that we brought for him. He enjoys looking at the english flash cards we brought with us. Adriana is like Paula. She is the life of the party and wants to get everyone in the camera for picures. She also enjoys talking to anyone that is on the phone. She is very lovable and wants to give her brother (Rylan) and mama and papa kisses. Today, she enjoyed riding on Rylan's back. Adrian (4 yrs) wants to sit in our lap and will not let go of the Matchbox car we brought for him. From a Fisher Price toy that teaches english, he has learned the word bye bye and says it all the time. When we were leaving the first day, he would not hug us by and cried big tears because we were leaving. Fortunately, we brought a lot of warm clothes because there is about a foot of snow on the ground. Here they view snow plows as being for sissy Americans and drive on the hard packed ice. It makes for an enjoyable cab ride since seatbelts are optional or not available. As of tonight, our court date is set for Dec. 25th at 10 am (Moldova). As we all know, this could change without notice. Please keep us and the process in your prayers. We have seen God work many details out for us and it is too many to mention. More to follow. Mark, Paula, Adrian, Jon, Adriana & Rylan

Traveling to Moldova

Hello friends,
We are almost there. We have been traveling for two days and We are leaving in about an hour to go to Moldova. We all three woke up at 4:30 in the morning.(8:00 p.m. central) We are all excited and keep wandering what the kids reaction will be tommorrow when we see them for the first time ever. It is very cold over here, not what us Alabamains are used to. We hope to update tommorrow after our visit. Keep on praying!
Mark, Paula, and Rylan

Dear friends,
It almost does not seem real. Praise the LORD!! We are so excited to be traveling to bring the children that God has for us.
Thanks for visiting our blog to read about the adoption of Jon (9), Adriana (6) and Adrian (4). We have completed all of the paperwork on this side of the pond and we're traveling over to Moldova on December 14th to bring these children into our family. Please keep us in your prayers and we will attempt to keep this updated when possible. We are going to be in the capital city but that is no guarentee we will have internet connection all the time.