Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Today...

There are no words to explain what happened today.  We met our son.  God, in His infinite grace and wisdom, chose us as a family for the most precious little boy and after holding this perfect gift in our arms, we are humbled beyond words.

Today we are so grateful that we listened to the sweet voice of our Lord and stepped out in faith and obedience.  Today, we have absolutely fallen in love.  Today, the language was no barrier.  Today, Down Syndrome was the furthest concern from our mind.  Today, we met Ivan..."Vanya"

We think he is pretty adorable! 
 It seemed surreal to take this photo!
 What a handsome boy!
 I have 2 favorites of the afternoon and this is one of them...he was giving Derek a kiss!
 My other favorite...just no words!
 Blowing raspberries:)
 He is just so very sweet...
and quite a cuddlebug!

We are still processing a lot.  I will say that he is so sweet and we are just in love with him as if he has always been ours.  I have no doubt that he is going to be loved by so many.  He has just stolen our hearts.  We cannot wait for his sisters and brother to meet him!

We also got to ask lots of questions and got a lot of information today...still trying to absorb all of that and will maybe share more later.  We know that his heart will need to be checked when we bring him home. We also know that he seems fairly healthy.  He does not eat from a bottle.  His caregivers said he is very calm and loves to eat.  We were told he has received some therapy as well.  I cannot express how grateful we were to see him not extremely malnourished.  His birthday is Sep. 28...he will turn 2 and right now he is around 20 lbs...about the same size as Stella.  He cannot sit up yet and tomorrow we hope to be able to play more on the floor.  He loved playing with my hair and as you can see from the pics, he loved kissing his daddy:)

I will leave you with this video...I will tell you it is long but so very worth every second:)  There are some really sweet moments around the 5 and 7 minute marks.  We will leave our hotel at 9:30 in the morning to go and spend a couple of hours with him. 

Thank you for your prayers!!!  We can't even begin to tell you how God has heard them and answered!  Seriously you all...so many things that people were praying have been answered.  More on all of that later.  For now, we hope you enjoy "meeting" Ivan or "Vanya" as he has been called by his caregivers...



28 comments:

A Beatin' Heart said...

I am in tears! He is such a doll! Praying for your guys and so overjoyed! We love you so much!

April said...

beautiful Kramer family :)

Anonymous said...

I have Emily this afternoon after VBS for a while to play. We watched together and I got video of her watching. Pretty amazing! Just precious!!!! She was excited. She is totally having fun and the kids are all doing great!
Mandi

Rebekah Baker said...

I cannot quit smiling! That was so completely precious. He is precious and perfect. I can't wait to meet him. Caroline watched the video with me and she is already in love with Ivan too! love and praying for you guys!

Anonymous said...

He is so precious! and the video is precious---you can see the love in his face--it's like he knows you are his family! So thankful for God's call on your hearts!!! Paige Okelley

Unknown said...

i loved every single beautiful minute! thankyou so much for sharing it! x

Priscilla said...

He is so sweet - can't wait to meet him! We are so happy for you guys.
Priscilla

Joy Gallagher said...

Ivan is precious! We loved watching your first moments with him. He is so sweet and mellow-loved all the pictures too. Karen the way he snuggled into your arms...like he'd always been there. Rejoicing with you!

Gretchen said...

Glad to see you've arrived safe and sound. Sweet Ivan looks so cozy hangin' out with his mama & daddy.

Anonymous said...

How precious. Had to pause it and get some Kleenex in the middle. So excited for you guys and for Ivan to meet his family! -Holly Stevenson

amyl4 said...

He's beautiful!

Julia said...

OH YOU ARE SO RIGHT - HE IS CUTE..... PRECIOUS...SO HAPPY FOR YOU GUYS!!! Our little guy was Ivan/Vanya too... So was every other child in his institute... if they weren't named Vanya - they were Sasha... We kept Vanya as his middle name despite the fact that it truly is a John Doe name.... It was HIS! LOL!

Sharon Beaird said...

Johnathan, Jenny, Kevin and I were all in tears at work today when we saw this. Johnathan happened to have his FB open and saw it. No words for how precious this is. Thanks for taking us along w/you on this incredible journey. I bet your faces hurt from smiling so much.

Lu, Poppies Blooming said...

He's absolutely beautiful! AND when you aren't in the midst of all of this I hope you will allow me to use that photo of him touching his daddy's chin for some RR things! :) That one is so precious!

Blessings,

Lu
lucille@reecesrainbow.org

Anonymous said...

I am a hot mess from crying! I LOVE this video. What a beautiful picture of the gospel. We can't wait to hold him and tell him we love him ourselves. Praying for the rest of the journey.

Tanya G

patsy said...

oh my...i am sooo happy for you both. he is just beautiful. i was already in tears from the precious pictures and then the video, well i am a happy, crying mess :) thank you so much for sharing your first meeting, i have been anxiously awaiting it! there truly are no words to express how excited and happy i am for you and derek. and ivan looks like he is as much of a love bug as miss maggie :) can't wait till they get to meet and love on each other!

Kolby said...

WOW!! This was so amazing!! He seemed so comfortable with you two...it's like he already knew you. I just love this video. It's so beautiful and such a picture of Christ's love for us! Definitely brought tears to my eyes.

Anonymous said...

Watched tonight with Heather and Hannah. Amazing! Hannah says, "I think you are holding Ivan right now. I love you guys a lot." Heather says, "Blubber Blubber, cry cry tears tears....." and David says ME TOO! We love you guys and miss you. Can't wait to meet him ourselves!

Anonymous said...

I'm a sobbing mess! What a sweet, precious boy the Lord has given you! You can see in his face he knows you are his mommy and daddy. Will continue to pray over your trip and your precious time with Ivan. Love Blaine and Sammie Peterson

Carol said...

He is so sweet. Thank you for sharing. Very happy for you. :)

Renee said...

So happy for you all...so worth the wait, the not knowing...You are truly blessed...What an awesome God we serve!

Anonymous said...

I was deeply moved by the video. Ivan is a blessing! Praying for safe travels and that God will continue to bless your family.

Lorenzo

Derek Chirch said...

So cool!

ahomeforivan@yahoo.com said...

I just left R***** on Friday after my first visit with my Ivan. We're almost on the same schedule! I think I even recognize Vita's voice on your video. Your Ivan is adorable, absolutely precious!

Best to you on your journey,
Min-aha

Anonymous said...

Beautiful video....I could watch it for hours! Ivan is so precious!! Thank you for sharing your journey!
God bless you!
Ashleigh

Lindsay George said...

Oh I am crying!!! A lot!!! He is a dolll... ohhh sweet Ivan I can't wait to meet you!!!! I am so excited for yall!!!

Lauren Sledge said...

Oh wow i am in tears right now as i am typing this! Such a sweet little boy, I cant express how happy I am for you guys! I love you guys and ya'll are always in my prayers! Safe travels!

Noahs Dad said...

AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME!!!!! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!

Our son Noah was born with down syndrome on Dec 15, 2010. It's been a wonderful journey!

We post a daily one minute video of our son to show the world what having a son with down syndrome is like (spoiler alert - it's much more normal then un-normal)

You can check it out at http://noahsdad.com !

I can't wait to get to know more about your journey!