We're off to Rio de Janeiro!!!!

Outside our appt in Curitiba at night time....

Well we're leaving in about an hour to begin our journey to Rio............The last leg of the trip.
We finished up all of our paperwork here in Curitiba and had yet another good bye~ to Lino our favorite Brazilian man! He was so wonderful at helping us with everything while in Brazil. The process went smoothly and we have had no problems completing our paperwork. Went to go take one picture of Lino (Tio Lino~ Uncle Lino~ He has become!) and my batteries died :( urgh...
Yesterday we had to say good bye to the Cochran Family.............another sad good bye! We are so grateful and praise God for allowing us to have them along our journey. We are praying for their permanent visa's to come so they can get their adoption of Lindsay, Jenna and Ben started. They have been waiting for their perm. visa's now for 16months :( Please pray for this process to speed up so they can return to the USA asap with their new family.

Mary, Donei and Mike

We have to be at the US Consulate in Rio tomorrow morning by 7:15am for our interview :( Pretty early especially because we don't arrive in Rio until 10pm tonight and by the time we check into our place and get somewhat settled, we have to be on our way to consulate by 6:30am........
We have been told that we probably won't have internet connection in our place (its actually an appt) so we will have to go to those Internet Cafe` places. We'll do our best to stay connected but just so you all know it may not be as easy to stay in touch these next 5 days.
We are getting excited to start the journey and looking forward to some "Welcome Home" and "Hello's" from family & friends. It will be a nice change from all these painful good byes this last week!
Love you all!!!

walking to the bus station to see the Cochran's off

No tears yet....doing pretty good.....:)

Okay...so now the tears start flowing..........

Train ride through the mountains in Brazil

It's hard to believe we will be home in one week from today!
Excited to get planted firmly as a family instead of bouncing around Brazil but at the same time I'm very sad to be leaving in so many ways.
Friday we got everything done for Donei's physical, shots and passport so that took care of most of the paperwork we needed to do in Curitiba. Lino will be wrapping at the paperwork up today and meeting with us later to give us the paperwork to take to Rio. Our flight to Rio (which will be Donei's first plane ride) leaves on Tuesday evening and is about a hour and a half flight. A good  "break him in" flight before the biggie.......The International flight from Rio to Charlotte is around 10hours I think.
Mike and Mary came in on Saturday to Curitiba but what was suppose to be a 4 hour car trip turned into much more than they bargained for! We expected them around noon on Saturday but instead received a phone call from Mary explaining they would be much later than expected........
Along the way the police will randomly pull cars over to inspect, check, whatever~ Well at that moment in time, they were the ones who got pulled over for inspection. They searched their car, made them empty all their luggage to search it, wanted to see all their paperwork about their kids and the car. After about an hour of sitting there the police came out and asked Mike to come with him. Another hour later they were cleaning out their car with their personal belongings because they were impounding their car!!!! Here apparently their was a tax of some sort that had not been paid for the last two years that Mike and Mary had no idea about so they impounded their car! So here they are 3 hours from CLM with 3 children and no car! They had to take the bus then to Curitiba and figure out how to deal with getting this resolved. They have to pay around $R1000 to get their car back. They are attempting to take care of this issue this morning and hopefully be able to take the bus back to where their car is. Aye yie yie! We feel so bad for them............BUT the good news is that we got to spend our last days with the Cochran's before leaving Brazil. We went to "Outback Steak House" on Saturday night.................YUM!!! Sure beats beans and rice! :))

Looking forward to seeing everyone back home next week...........Please continue to pray for us and the adjustment for Donei as he leaves his country.

On the next part of the journey...first step to heading home...

Well we have had a lot of things going on lately here the last few days and just not able to catch the blog site up.

Tuesday Night~ Saying good bye to CLM :(

      We spent Tuesday night by taking out a few of  Donei's friends to dinner in the colony then returned to CLM  for a farewell party for Donei. We had banana split sundae's and we all received presents from the family at CLM. It was SO hard! I still haven't re-cooperated from the good byes. It was really hard for me as his mother to see him struggling..........I had to remove myself from inside and go cry outside. Donei was having a hard time.......its all he's ever known and everyone he's ever been family with. Rumolo ripped my heart out at one point (Donei's closest buddy). He was sobbing hugging Donei.

The reality of it all has hit home for Donei, and although I feel this is what he wants, think about how hard it would be to just pick up and change your life 100%~ New country, new family, new language, new everything. Please pray for Donei and us as we begin the journey home.
At the end of that night it was time to say good bye to Luana...........as I'm typing this out now I'm having a hard time "remembering" the moment without tearing up. She has been protecting her heart I'm pretty sure since the girls left a few weeks ago so she hasn't been around us much, but that was okay because we appeared to be doing the same. But I went into the dinning area and we did our last hug. I was crying, she was crying. Before she left I slid on her wrist my bracelet that has Psalms 37:4 on it "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will fulfill the desires of your heart."
Its always been my favorite scripture and I hope one day my hearts desire to hold Luana again as MY child will happen. I sure don't understand all this with Luana, but again, just trusting God.
We left CLM Wed. at noon to get our bus we took to Curitiba where we will now be until next Tuesday.
We are living in a "flat" in Curitiba downtown area where we will finish some more paperwork.
Tomorrow we have appts for Donei to get one more shot, his physical, and then apply for his passport. Once he arrives in the USA he will automatically become a US citizen. He will then have dual citizenship with Brazil and USA. How cool is that! He will never have to get a Brazilian visa :))

Today we went sightseeing in Curitiba on a Train ride through the mountains. We were told by several people it was a must~ and it was! One of those breathtaking adventures I'm so glad we went to see. It last for 4 hours and they had a bilingual guide and served snacks and drinks constantly. We had a great time together the three of us. You then have to take a bus back to Curitiba which then was another 1 1/2hour. So it was a long day. Mike and Mary Cochran will be coming to Curitiba on Saturday for the weekend with us to do our last time together before we leave for Rio on Aug 31st.............Looking forward to seeing them~ We have missed them so much already since leaving CLM where they were our neighbors.
Love you all and missing home (a little)....... :)

The "Official" day..........Donei Michael Gouge

Picture with the Judge who did our court hearing

These days are getting away from me and I realize I haven't written on our blog for a few days..........

Donei is now "officially" our son by Brazilian requirements and we signed papers after our court hearing yesterday to make him now Donei Michael Gouge :))
Happy Day for Steve and I! It was a long year and a half and we have called him our son for the last 16 months.
We are packing up here at CLM today and getting ready to leave for Curitiba by bus tomorrow around noon. The bus will be around 4-5 hours traveling until we reach our destination. We will be in Curitiba until next Tuesday the 31st~
Mike and Mary will be coming to Curitiba on Saturday to Sunday to hang with us one last time until we have to say good bye to the Cochran's. Not looking forward to saying good bye to them because we don't know when the next time we will see them will be~ :(

Outside the courthouse after the papers were signed

Saying good bye to Donei's good friends Alex & Rosana

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Alex, Donei and Rosana

Tonight we are taking out Rumolo and Aline for dinner with us. They are Donei's closest friends here and we thought it would be nice to have one last dinner with him to say good bye.

Update~ My email (Tammy's) has NOT been working for the past few weeks and we can't seem to fix it, so if you want to email me try this email tammy.gouge@yahoo.com

Too Precious........
So I'm inside making dinner and the basketball court is right outside our back door (that is the house we are staying in here at CLM, the green one). Donei came in to get our camera to do some video recording with Rumolo......having fun and being silly~
So Steve goes outside to watch them playing around and Donei decides to give his dad a
"This is for my Dad" basketball dunk.............I heard this from the kitchen and about started to cry...it touched me. So when Steve came in to tell me about it, I told him I already heard and saw the whole thing and how it was very touching to me. He said he about got choked up too with emotion...............Maybe Cleveland's next LeBron??? :)

Went into the city yesterday to have just some time with us and Donei~ We needed to go shopping for some gifts again (we keep thinking of more people that we should have Donei buy for).
Rumolo~ One of Donei's closest friend (WHO NEEDS A FAMILY!!! HINT HINT) is turning 15 next week and Donei wanted to buy him a present, so we bought Romulo a basketball that Donei can give him.
He also wanted to buy Aline (I think she is 16-17years old) and present just because they are good friends.
He isn't a good shopper but I think he is getting use to shopping more~ He's never really had the opportunity to shop before so its all new to him. It was a fun day in the city for us.
He showed us around town where he has played soccer, we tried to find his place of employment he worked at for a few months but they moved recently and couldn't find it.
We had to do some errands while in town for the adoption paperwork then we had dinner at "Royale" his favorite place to eat.
Then he needed a hair cut and wanted to go to his friends Andrea and Victors Hair shop so we stopped by there. No appts around here needed! You just show up at their house and they have little salons in the front of their houses. They are good friends of Donei's from church. Very nice couple!
Donei wanted to go all out and get a "design" shaved into his hair so it turned into a two hour hair cut! Didn't matter though we had a great time with his friends and just being together.
I kept teasing Donei before we went that he should get "I LOVE MY MOM" shaved into his head........Didn't work! :(

Victor & Andreia  with Donei

He's a funny boy!!!

Happy Birthday Luana................She turned 9 years old today!

Donei with his friend Clayton

We are down to our last week here at CLM............Our final court hearing is scheduled for next Monday the 23rd and we will have to be in Curitiba (4 hours away) on the 24th. Going to Curitiba next week will begin our slow journey home. We will have to stay in Curitiba for 7 days until we leave for Rio on the 31st. In Rio we have to receive Donie's visa from the consulate which is scheduled on Sept. 1st to get things going and then we will pick it up on Sept 3rd. We leave for home on Sept 5th and will be arriving in Cleveland on Sept 6th @ 930am.
Wow! Hard to fathom what the next few weeks will look like.

Today is little Luana's birthday.............:(


Here at CLM because there are so many birthdays with all these kids, missionaries, etc.....they usually group several birthdays together and always celebrate on Sundays big dinner day (they prepare meat on Sundays).
So on Saturday Mary Cochran and I spent the afternoon in the kitchen preparing a very large cake made from scratch! We had to bake 4 (four) 9X13 pans to make the cake large enough to serve over 50 people.
The birthday was for not only Luana but for Lindsay Cochran also.
We had a good time making the cake and Mike Cochran added such a beautiful touch with his creative decorating help! That man has so many talents we still continue to see come out!!!!!
Sunday was I admit an emotional day for me as we celebrated Luana's birthday. I was hoping to celebrate her birthday as being part of our family this year................I was holding it together pretty good until Mary Cochran was asked to pray for the girls...........of course Mary & I both are very emotional and Mary started to break down which caused me to break down.............Mary loves Luana so much and she wants to see Luana in our family just as much as we do........that way like Donei~ she will always be in their lives. I came back to the house to lay down for awhile because now I have a "crying headache" .......I had a lot of those this last year! :))
Awhile longer Steve walks in with Luana and she comes into the bedroom and gets in bed with me and we cuddled for at least 45min............It felt so good holding her in my arms.........

Things are going beautifully with Donei and its just amazing how much we have bonded as a family~ He is so much like his Dad its not even funny! Same sense of humor (sorry to some who are rolling their eyes!) :))
A lot of the same "likes" in life. God has truly blessed US with a wonderful son.
I was writing in my journal the other day and reflecting about our journey that started over a year ago~
When I lay all the facts out about everything is sure doesn't measure up with what you would "think" things should be like~ That is the beauty of what God's plans look like so many times~ My loosing you?
For instance~ We visited CLM last year for two weeks. I really didn't have much one on one with Donei at all, Donei and Steve spent more time together working around CLM. It was that very thing that blessed me and started my love for Donei. I watched them interact together, work alongside together, I had pictured them THEN as father and son. That blessed me to watch that~ So we leave CLM in April 2009 with NO contact with Donei (or Luana) for over a year................We only lived through Mike and Mary for emails, pictures, stories, etc......we sent gifts and letters again through Mike and Mary........yet we longed for these kids, cried (mostly me!) for these kids, worked hard to prepare for these kids. So how would anyone be able to feel so in love with a child they really only knew for 2 weeks?
I am in awe at what the Lord has done in our lives! We will never be the same! Why am I so amazed at what God has done in my family? I know he is the Lord of ALL creation and he is in the "Heart Business," yet I stand amazed at how he has brought our family together. GOD has been preparing our hearts for over a year~ Preparing our hearts for becoming a family, He united our hearts as a mother/son as a father/son and sisters/brother and as ONE FAMILY~
When I was writing all this in my journal I even stopped to ask myself~ Do you really love him as much as your daughters or am I just living in a fairy tale? I made myself stop and just feel my heart................I said, "Alyssa" and I felt my love for Alyssa in my heart..........I said, "Stephanie" and again I felt my love for Stephanie in my heart......I then said, "Donei" and my heart felt exactly the same feeling.................He is my son!
I believe every time I cried and prayed for him these last 15 months since I last saw him, that God was taking my tears and pouring them back into my heart to fill my heart with love for him. It is only from God~ who can duplicate this supernatural kind of love~
Yes, we are in the honeymoon stage of life right now (as people need to remind us of this all the time.......why?) but you know what~ I am going to praise God for where we are now and enjoy every moment!

My boy loves driving the tractor around the farm......we keep joking about how instead of a car for his 16th birthday we're gonna buy him a tractor!

 

 

Maria Joanna (18years old) with Steve. Maria has been washing our clothes for us while at CLM.

Fathers Day Coffee Mug that says "Super Pai" which means Super Dad in Portuguese

 Celebrating Fathers Day In Brazil (Aug 8th) at the Pizzaria while traveling to the Waterfalls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast at the Hotel in The Foz (Waterfalls)

The Primo's at the Bird Park near the Foz

My dear sweet friend Mary and me~ Who I am going to miss dearly when we leave :(

My handsome son looking all "cool" with this bird until it came towards him! :)

Not to be confused with "Big Mama's House!"

My beautiful daughters......who we miss dearly

Walking in Brazil........looking out over the hills

Little Lu on our walk......

OK, this is Steve, I was told that it was my turn to write a little something on the blog so you have to listen to me...sorry.
We had a very successful day today in Brazil. We were able to get everything accomplished that we set out to do which is not an easy thing here. Most of the time your appointments are canceled or lost and no one tells you until you drive there...I love that part!!!!
We got Donei's blood work done, chest x- ray, visit with the psychologist, first visit back to the case worker, lunch with the Cochran's and we even had time to stop at the candy store in  Guarapuava . We joked that if we were gambling folks we should buy a lottery ticket because it was our lucky day. I will most likely have to hide the candy that we bought because Donei will eat it all. We got his favorite candy and he told me last time that once he starts....he can't stop. He already ate the cookies that he bought for me on the way home from the city. We both have the same problem, we have a sweet tooth. He and I have spent many a night in front of the fridge downing cookies and milk. That seems to be one among many of the things we love to do together....that's my boy!
We are going to take an adult break tonight and go into the colony with just Mike and Mary to a German owned restaurant. We were going to do this last Friday but changed our plans when Donei's younger brother Andy, came into town to visit and say goodbye. We are looking forward to some adult time with Mike and Mary since we have not had any time away since we arrived. For those of you that do not have kids must think that I am awful and for those of you that do have kids.....need I say more?
We have missed so very much not having Alyssa and Steph here. They have played a important part of this journey and we have had to adjust to them not being here. It took Donei only about 10 seconds to rearrange the girls old room and make it his room. Bigger bed, more space, large screen TV....it's all true except the TV part. He already acts like a little brother. We all are looking forward to seeing the girls again and I am counting down the days.
Poor Alyssa, she is having a hard time being back home. She feels like she is torn between two world, Brazil and Ohio. I know exactly what she is going through because Tammy and I have experienced it and those of you that have come to CLM more than likely  have experienced it. This place has a way of calling you back and if you don't believe me, guess where I am writing this blog from......
Oh those Cochran kids....Last night we had them over to make a card and have a cake so that when Mike and Mary came home from celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary, we would give them a surprise party. I am not sure why but these times always turn into a food fight and I get the worst of it. I decided to get out the face paint and do some hearts on the girls. They had a different idea so Jenna and Lindsay worked their masterpiece on my face. I have learned to just let those two have their way because if I don't, it only will be worse for me. I will have Tammy post the pics of my face and you can be the judge if it is a masterpiece. Don't tell them but I do love them very much!
We just had a new team arrive here from Columbus Ohio to work around CLM. We met them yesterday and they are a great bunch of folks. I told them to be cautious because if they are not careful they just might fall in love with about 30 kids and again, if you don't believe me....guess where I am writing this blog from.
I do understand that we are not all called to adopt but I would encourage everyone to think and pray about making a visit trip to CLM. The journey that we started over 1 1/2 years ago has changed our family in so many wonderful ways and I would think that we all have a little room for change in our lives. The big picture is that we are looking forward to what the future had in store and seeing how God will use this in others.
Thanks for putting up with me this time. Tam will probably be back on the next posting.

Tammy, Lindsay and Jenna Cochran

Making Happy Anniversary sign for Mike and Mary

Jenna & Lindsay decided to face paint on Steve

The finished project by Jenna & Lindsay

Ben and Donei

Cutting of the cake ........

Happy Anniversary Mike & Mary with their three muskateers

Wedding toast....with Milk! :)

Donei with his psychologist Lenita....saying good bye

Day 26

Oi!
Just another day at CLM..........I can't believe we have been here for 26 days now! Not much going on this week after returning back from the "Foz" waterfalls. Yesterday we had the Cochran children over for dinner while Mike & Mary went out for dinner to celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary! When they came back we had a cake the kids had picked out to then celebrate with the kids. It was cute because the kids really haven't had much to do with weddings so we had Mike & Mary do some of the American customs that are done at a wedding. Cutting the cake, toasting (with milk!), feeding each other the cake and banging on the glasses for them to kiss. It was cute............but I don't think the Cochran kids liked seeing their mom and dad kiss.......typical! :)
We are getting ready to leave for the city today to get Donei's blood work done, Chest x-ray, visit with his psychologist, and attempt our 1st home study with the social worker ...again.
We miss the girls and so do all the kids at CLM. Some of the older teens here at CLM are now friends with Alyssa and Steph on facebook so they will always be able to communicate with them.
I was "thinking" maybe I was starting to loose some weight since we've been here (since I am no longer STRESS eating) but then when someone made the comment about how clothes GROW here and don't shrink I figured out why my clothes felt looser :(  Clothes are washed by hand here at CLM and hung up to dry outside on the lines. Darn it! I was really excited to feel like I was loosing weight!
We have had Maria Joanna washing our clothes to make some money. She is 18years old and has been at CLM for maybe around 10 years. She is a sweetie but a tough girl! I tried to arm wrestle her~ My wrist still hurts!
Its getting harder to get on the computer now since Donei has taken a liking to using the computer at night, so I have Steve who is on it all morning and then Donei who is on it all night. But thats okay.......I'll find time to blog.
Love you all!!!!!

We're back at CLM! Sorry I didn't post any blogs..............it was a busy active few days at the Iguassu Falls. We had a great time and what an awesome sight of one of God's miraculous creations. The Iguassu Falls borders 3 countries. Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. We only went on the Brazil side because we are not allowed to leave Brasil with Donei right now during our guardianship with him. Just warning you now our camera was not acting right so these pictures posted today are out of desperation to post some pictures...will get some more for later. Alyssa's camera took some really nice pictures but since she left I can't download them and & I am not very good at figuring out how to get them off her facebook!!!! You can't imagine how long this posting on this blog takes me! I'm just not very fast or knowledgeable with computers and all!
Our hotel was over all very nice. The girls had their own room while Steve, Donei and myself had another room. Steve has come down with a cold/chest congestion so he was coughing a lot and of course snoring the first night. When we woke up Donei said, "Dad! You make a lot of noise when you sleep!"  So yesterday when we were doing some shopping Donei found some ear muffs and said he needed to buy them for when he sleeps because Steve is so noisy. He's a funny boy~ Just like his dad! :)

On the bus to the falls with the Cochran bunch and Alyssa

So Tuesday (yesterday? loosing track of time!) was the dreaded day to put the girls on the plane to come back home. They are within minutes actually now of arriving back at the states. There was lots of tears saying goodbye. The girls are really sad they will not been seeing the Cochran kids again for quite awhile. It was a long ride back to CLM~
We have so many cute and funny stories that we are creating that will always be remembered from our Brazil journey. One of the continuing jokes since the first week is about the movie "Big Mama's House"
Steve started imitating "big mama's" voice and talking like the character and Donei and the kids have kept the imitation going EVERYDAY! Someone always starts the "Big Mama's" voice and then everyone chimes in.
Alyssa has this huge long name that the kids all call her which I can't even type but its about 5 words long in portuguese ~ Something like Alyssa, charnisha, fafisha, etc.......The word Charnisha means "carcus" and the other word means "weiner dog"

The house is really quiet now with the girls gone.........We have only around 12 days left until our court hearing at the courthouse where Donei becomes ours LEGALLY~ We have to sit in a court room with microphones and all asked questions concerning our adoption. I've heard they call each one of us in separately. They will ask Donei if he wants to be adopted by our family, they will ask Steve and I if we want to adopt him also. The judge is a very young christian man and seems very nice. The judge and his wife came on Saturday to the orphanage to visit. I guess they do this a lot!
Believe me we WANT to tell the judge how much we want our little Lu, and maybe we will be able to during this hearing, but for right now she has to follow the Brazilian laws of liberation and placement. We sure don't want to risk making them mad at us and not allowing us to have her. Our flesh wants to scream out and beg them for her, but we have to continue to trust God~ He knows, he has it already planned out with Luana and her life. God loves Luana more than anyone in this world and promises to watch over her and protect her. We will just continue to pray that she is ours...................

Welcome home Alyssa and Stephanie! Thank you friends and family who are taking care of our girls back home!

Last family photo for awhile....having to say good bye for awhile...

Cant wait until we can take pictures of the "Primo's" again (cousins) back in the States or back at CLM soon......