Going private

Since we will be traveling soon, I will be making my blog private while we are gone. If you want an invite to our blog, please send me an email or put your email address in the comments section. I will probably make it private in about a week or so.

I am going to delete the replies after I get your email address, just to prevent you from being spammed. :)

Received our SDA appt!!!

We received our SDA appt for later in the month. We will be leaving in a couple weeks. I still have to book our plane tickets and so much more to do before we leave.

I am so very excited, we will be meeting our little girl soon.

sigh!

I was trying to think of a title, and that is how I feel right now.

We are waiting to receive our travel dates and they still haven't come. I was expecting them sometime this week, like by yesterday, just going by other adoptive family's timelines. Well, I guess I should not have been doing all that expecting, because it is just a huge let down.

Please pray they will come soon. We are so ready to go and meet our baby girl.

Dreams

I have been thinking of nothing but our little girl. All day, all night. When I am awake at night, I think and pray for her. I have even been dreaming about her.

I had the strangest dream the other night. I went to pick her up at the orphanage, but since they weren't supposed to know that I know about her, it was all hush hush. I wasn't even supposed to be there. They wouldn't tell me which room she was in. And they asked me all kinds of questions about her, like her hair color, name, eye color. After that, I had to go search for her. I was afraid I wouldn't know which child she was, since the picture I have is old.

As I was walking down the hall trying to find her, they turned out all the lights. It was so dark, and I couldn't see where I was going. They were telling me they were going to call the police, so I knew I had to find her fast.

I went into this room. It was so bright in there. And there were two children in cribs. The first child looked more like her, with blond hair, but I knew it wasn't her. It was the other child. She looked so different though. She had very dark hair. And the funny thing was, she had hair all over her face. But, I still wanted her. I picked her up and fell instantly in love with her.

Then I woke up. Very strange. Not sure why I had that dream, probably what I ate the night before. :)

I just can not wait to go meet her. I think we will be leaving in about 3 weeks! I cannot believe it. I hope we are ready. But, of course, if we aren't, it won't matter. We are still going.

Still here

We are still here. We have all been sick for the last 2 weeks, so I haven't been on here much.  We are still waiting on our travel dates. I am expecting them to come sometime next week. It won't be long and we will be going to get our little girl. I am both excited and nervous about it. Mostly excited, but just a little nervous because we are taking our children with us and I don't know how they will do on the flight. And I just learned that the town we are going to only has a grocery store, nothing else. Hmmm, it may be a very long trip, but we will make the best of it and enjoy it.

This week I have been working on going through all of Malika's old clothes to see what I have for Priscilla and what I need. I am very surprised at how many clothes have stains on it. Now, why in the world would I have saved all those stained clothes?

I wrote that yesterday, if it takes me this long to write one post, I wonder how long it will take me when I have more children. :)

Yesterday, I was reading a blog about an 11 year old little girl who raised $30,000 in ONE WEEK! to bring home an orphan. Can you believe it? Just one week! And she was only 11. Now she is raising money again for another child. I just think this is so amazing. She wrote a blog post about it on her mom's site and said she cries when she thinks of this little girl, who is 5 and will be sent to a mental institution. Her sister is 5 ( who was also adopted) and she can't imagine her being in a mental institution. I just can't believe all that she has done at only 11 years old. Most children I know at that age are more consumed with their own life than those around them. I'm not judging those kids, I was that way too. I just know that I want my children to be like this little girl. I want them to know there is a whole other world out there, and it isn't all about the here and the now.

I laid awake in bed last night just thinking about our little girl. I am just so excited we will be bringing her home soon. I also was thinking about the awfulness of a child going to a mental institution. I read this excerpt from another blog about what it is like when a child leaves their baby orphanage for the mental institution :

 One morning a child wakes up in the only home they have ever known, a baby house, or orphanage for children from birth to age four or five. The child is dressed by their caregivers for the last time, put on a bus and driven out in the countryside to a hidden mental institution for children and adults. I have heard that sometimes they shave their heads when they arrive so that they do not have to deal with their hair. The child is placed in a room with lots of other kids all the way up to teenagers and even adults. There are no toys, no books, no baby dolls, no toy trucks or trains, no TV, NOTHING. There is probably one caregiver for every 20-30 children. Sometimes the children are tied to their beds so that no one has to supervise them. No one really talks to them and no one shows them any affection at all. Their only interaction is usually with the other special needs children who have varying degrees of needs from very mild CP to profound mental delays. Whatever they knew when they arrived at the institution they quickly lose. They begin to rock back and forth to give themselves some sort of stimulation. Some children claw at their own skin and eyes. Many will die from a lack of nutrition, medical care, neglect, human touch and love.


I have just been haunted with these images in my head. I imagined my children having to go. It would have been a very real thing for Priscilla in two years. I am so grateful that they won't have to go. I am so glad that we are able to rescue her before this would have become a reality. But, it is still a very real future and daily life for many other children. There are 163 million orphans in the world! 163 MILLION!! We are saving one, but what of the others. 


What can you do? Don't just sit there and do nothing. There is so much to be done. Pray that God will show you. 

We were submitted!!!

Our dossier was submitted today!!!

Now we are waiting for our travel dates, we will probably receive them in about 2 weeks and be traveling to get our little one in about a month.

patiently waiting

Our dossier arrived in country today!! Yay!! We are getting closer.

I have resigned myself to just be patient and wait. I can't really do much else anyway. I think I will go crazy if I try to count down the days anyway.

So, instead of checking my email, my blog and every other source of information 15 times a day, I will just enjoy my children. Soon, our life will be completely different and probably a whole lot busier, so I am going to try to just enjoy the season I am in.

Please keep praying though,

1. For Priscilla to be safe and healthy and well taken care of.
2. That she has a caretaker now that she has bonded with, someone who loves her and cares for her like their daughter (yes, this will be harder for her to leave, but easier for her to attach, since she will already know what love is)
3. For our dossier to be translated and submitted soon.
4. That everything will fall into place so we can go rescue our little beauty soon.

Dossier

Well, our dossier was NOT delivered friday. The UPS tracking now says it will be delivered on monday. I'm thinking it is because of the weekend, and when they say monday, maybe they mean their time? I am hoping anyway.

The night after I mailed our dossier I was up all night, and every time I woke, I thought of "Castaway", you know the movie with Tom Hanks and he is on an island because his FedEx plane went down. Anyway, that is probably silly. But, I kept thinking about how there could have been a dossier on that plane. And what if the same thing happened to ours. :) Funny, I know. But, all I could think of was "how in the world am I going to do this again", somebody would seriously have to come take care of my kids, just so I don't go insane.

Since starting this journey, I have had so many times where the Lord has reminded me that He is in complete control, and that no matter how hard I try to make it happen in my own time, it just won't , because He already has the day and time mapped out.  My heart keeps screaming, "but, Lord, can't you just give me an idea of the time. Maybe just the week?" Aghh, it is just so hard to wait. If I weren't waiting for a child, who is living and breathing and all by herself, it would be so much easier. All I can do, is pray.

Since our dossier won't make it there until monday, I don't think there will be enough time to translate and have it submitted this week. So, we are praying for the following week.

Dossier is in route!!!

I am happy to say that the last 5 months of my life is sitting in an envelope on it's way to Priscilla's country. Woohoo!

Wow, it has been quite a journey getting here. Many, many tears and prayers have gone into this.

If you wonder what in the world we have been working on so hard for the last few months, maybe this will give you a glimpse.

I didn't count all of them, but I do know there is well over 100 pages and 33 documents. Some have been quite easy, and others have been extremely difficult. Many times (like last week) I wanted to give up so bad, because it is taking every ounce of patience and endurance I have had to get all of these papers together. 

So, today I received my last apostilled papers for this dossier. You would think that the sending part would be the easy part, but it didn't go that way. 

I took everything to FedEx. I had both kids with me, I put Justus in the stroller, so he wouldn't run off. I am trying to push the stroller with one hand, while holding onto my folder with our dossier in it and my planner that has the address in the other hand and trying to open the door with my third hand. :) Then I drop everything, and the folder falls on the ground and all of the papers fall out (now that I am thinking about it, I think it happened in slow motion).  Luckily, it was still in an order that I could pull it together. Whew!

After, I finally manage to get the door open, I see 2 employees just watching me. Like they couldn't help. 

Then, I went to mail them. First she said she doesn't know the city I am mailing to. I told her I mailed with them before to the same address. Then she says "I'm not sure where this will end up". Yeah, talk about being uneasy. Anyway, when she finally finds the city, she says it won't get there until the 15th. I said no that won't do. So, she laughs at me. Made me mad, so I took my papers and took them to UPS. 

They were wonderful, so friendly. And they are going to be there on the 11th. Thank you Jesus!

This is the so, so helpful and wonderful lady at the UPS store. She didn't even think I was crazy when I wanted to take a picture. The picture is bad. Right before I took it, she was smiling. Oh well.

I didn't think I would cry, but I did. I guess it was just that I have put so much into this. After we mailed this, we went to Walmart to pick up Malika's new glasses. On the way, I was thinking about it, and the thought occurred to me, we are trading paper for a real live baby girl. Yes, in reality it is more than paper, but the truth is, it is just paper. Our dossier is paper, and money is paper. 

I know we aren't done, but I would do it all over and over again just to give life to our sweet little girl.

Here is a picture of Malika with her new glasses. Isn't she beautiful.

Please continue to pray with us, our journey is only half over. 

• Pray that our dossier will be translated quickly and submitted next week. 
• Pray that they will send us our travel dates soon.
• Pray that all will go smoothly.
• Pray that Priscilla will stay healthy and bond easily and quickly.

Crazy week

This has been one of the most stressful weeks. I don't really have the heart to go into detail on everything we have gone through this week, I'm just plain too tired to.

Our dossier did not make it into the mail this week, at least not headed for Eastern Europe. Maybe next week. Several of our documents, I was sure were good, were rejected by the team that checks all of our paperwork.

We had a water leak, actually it has been going on for quite some time. We paid someone to fix it in October, and found out this week that it is still leaking. And on top of that, the wall is rotten, moldy and ants have made it their home.

These are not the only stresses I have been dealing with this week, but they are the only ones I am at liberty to share on my blog.

Anyway, it has been a very trying week. But the Lord is good, because last night I had a beautiful dream of our sweet little girl. God knows, I really needed that. I had a much better day today, thinking of her sweet little face and smile.

I am confident we will bring her home, I'm just not sure when. Please be praying with us that all of our paperwork will come together so that we can for sure send it next week.

Our Day

I took pictures today to kind of document our day. It was a bit of a whirlwind day, the pictures make it look a little dreamy, but it definitely wasn't (other than our wonderful approval from immigration, yay!) Anyway, first on the list of things to do today, clean the bathroom. Be thankful, I didn't take pictures of that. It was gross! No matter how hard I try, black mold keeps coming back in the toilet.

Anyway, the kids were at eachother all day, the pictures don't show that. One day, I will look at the pictures and only remember the good times. Then when my children have children and ask me if their children are like they were, I will say "no, you were perfect angels, just look at these pictures". Ok, it sounds funny in my head anyway, because my mom does that. :) ( of course, I think she thinks my kids are perfect angels too)

We made heart placemats for Valentines Day. The kids loved it, and were so proud when they could use them for snack and dinner. 

 Justus tried to eat his. I think he is doing some major teething lately, because he is chewing on everything. 

This actually was a peaceful moment this morning. They were playing with babies together. 

Until... Justus decided he needed to do something more "manly" like fix something. 

 After nap, we made strawberry banana mufiins. 

Malika wanted to wear her apron and she insisted I wear mine too. We need matching girly frilly ones. 

Justus, of course, had to unroll all of the paper towels. 

Our strawberry banana muffins. Mmmm, with a glass of milk, these were heavenly. I could have eaten all of them. (Josh just had one and said they were good, but he expected sweeter, well, they are healthy muffins and I haven't had sweets in a while, so I thought they were wonderful)

Strawberry Banana Muffins

1 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. white flour

1 t baking soda

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t salt

3 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 c sucanat (natural sweetener, but you could probably use regular white)

1 egg

1/3 c. butter, melted

1 cup chopped strawberries (I used frozen)

Prehat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In another bowl, beat bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Add strawberries. Pour into lined or greased muffin cups. 

Optional crumb topping (this would probably make it sweeter, I forgot to do this, but thought they were great without it). 

Mix together 1/4 c. sucanat or sugar, 2 T flour, 1/8 t cinnamon, 1 T cold butter, until it resembles course cornmeal. Sprinkle over muffins. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until center comes out clean. 

Our Golden ticket!!!!

Oh my gosh, we just received our I-171H in the mail. I am so excited, I can't even think straight. I'm trying to figure out how to get everything finished to mail our dossier by this weekend.

Thank you Jesus.

Just an update

I haven't written on here in so long, because there isn't much to say. We are still waiting for our approval from immigration. I am hoping it will come this week. I called immigration last week, just because I am so anxious. They said our case has been assigned an officer. This is a good thing. But, each officer has about 80 cases on their desk at one time. I am still pretty confident it will come soon. The days have been dragging by while we wait though.

After we receive the paper, we have to get our homestudy, then send the rest of our documents to be apostilled. After that, we send our dossier to Priscilla's country! Yay! We are almost there.

We have been quite busy with things at home lately. I have thought and thought of ideas of things to write on here, but none have played out well enough to post. Tomorrow, I will take pictures of our day, and post them though, just so you can see that I don't spend my ENTIRE day by the mail box. :)

Twin stuff

Our first twin thing! I made matching bibs for Justus and Priscilla. Of course, Justus already used his and it is dirty. 

Down Syndrome Dancers - Awesome video

I love this video, so I had to share it. I smiled and cried happy tears watching it.

Aghh! I'm going crazy

Lets just say, I am probably one of the least patient people. I really am going crazy with all of this waiting. I am reading blog after blog of people going to get their babies or submitting their paperwork soon, and it is making me even MORE crazy. Why do I do it?  Even though we only started this 5 months ago, it feels like an eternity.

I have been trying to get our social worker to send me our final copy of the home study to send ahead to Priscilla's country for translation and haven't had much success with that, so that means it will be pushed back more.

It seems everything I try to do to make it go faster only fails. Our fingerprint appointment is next week, but sometimes they take walk-ins, so I've been thinking we could try to do that, but then it snowed and we have been snowed in.

I keep playing it out in my head, "next week we get fingerprinted, then 2-3 weeks later approved, then we...", oh, if only it really were in my hands. But then, I am reminded of Proverbs 16:9 "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps".

Really and truly, I just have to resign myself to just trust in the Lord and that He knows exactly when this is all supposed to take place and it WILL take place in his timing. 

I just want to go get our baby. I wanted to go yesterday. She will be 18 months this week and I am missing out on so much with her.

Please pray with me for our sweet little one, pray that she is safe and healthy and well cared for. Pray that immigration will be quick and all will go smooth to bring her home.

accepting

Priscilla's country is accepting dossiers on February 10th! I am so excited about this, we are getting closer. Please pray that immigration will be quick so that we can send our dossier (this is the huge packet of documents we have been working on) soon. After we send it, it has to be translated, then submitted to the SDA (state department of adoption). Then we will be given a travel date, about 3 weeks after submission.

Yay! This is getting more real, and definitely closer. I have a picture of Priscilla right by the computer, so whenever I am on her, I keep looking at her sweet face to remind myself she is real and that this really is happening.

Board book

I wanted to make some board books to take with us to get Priscilla. Some for the kids on the plane and one for Priscilla to look at of our family. I looked into getting them made, but they seemed pretty expensive, so I googled how to make them and came upon two different websites and made up my own, you can check them out here and here. I thought it was so neat, so Malika and I made one. It is far from perfect, but turned out cute. I will do things a little bit different for the next couple, but will definitely make more. 

If you live near me and want to come make some, let me know. It would be fun to have a book making day. 

fingerprint date!!

We got our fingerprint date from immigration. It is going to be scheduled for the 18th. Yay!! I'm so excited, we are moving forward. Hopefully it won't take long to be approved through USCIS after this. We could be submitting our dossier next month. Pray it all goes smoothly and quickly.

A family is in need of your help...

to bring their little girls home. The Lane family has been in the process to rescue two little girls from a life without love, but they desperately need help bringing their two precious little ones home. They already have their travel dates and they know they are going. But it is all in faith, because right now they only have the money to get over there.

We have been completely blessed by all of our friends, so I just wanted to send this out to ask you to pray about giving to help them. Every little bit will count, so please pass this on.

You can go here, if you would like to donate.

What we've been up to

I've been sitting here for about 30 minutes trying to figure out what to write, but I can't think of much, so I will just write the random things that have been happening in my life (at least the things that I don't care if the whole world knows).

Lately, I have been feeling very stuffed in our house, so I have been looking for houses. We even went out with a realtor last friday. We found a house that we LOVED, we really didn't expect this to happen. When I saw the house online, I didn't really even like it, and thought I would hate it even more in person, but that didn't happen. It has been torture for both Josh and me, because we really wanted this house and could possibly make it work. Anyway, long story short, we have been praying about it, and both of us know this isn't really the time to be buying a new house. It is hard, because we both love this house and could see it as our forever home and we could have many children there, but we also know that we would be walking out on our own if we did it. I know that if we wanted to, we could make it work and get that house, but I also know that I would regret it.

So, we took down our Christmas tree, and what do you know, it isn't quite so stuffed in our house. :)

The other day, Malika said something so funny, I'm still not sure what she meant. She said her sister was going to get in a bubble and come over here and we would pop it and she would live here. She's so funny. I made her repeat it twice, because it just didn't make sense. Since then, she has heard me say this to others, and she thinks it is so funny. Now she tells me Lilly (her baby doll) said the same thing. The things she comes up with.

I have been checking our mail everyday waiting for our fingerprint appointments from immigration. So far, nothing has come. Hopefully this week. Please be praying with us, that this part of our process would go very quickly. We are almost done. I only have one paper to redo and then waiting on immigration and we can send our dossier. It's starting to feel more real.

We are so amazed and surprised at how much money people have donated. If you were one of those, thank you so much. We are so grateful. People have been so giving and supportive. I really expected more people to question us, but really other than the couple in the beginning, everyone has been extremely supportive. I'm still in shock that we have the money and that this really IS happening. And that I really did hear the Lord about the finances. I mean, I thought I did, but money is such a huge thing today, that I thought we would be having to do many fundraisers for the money to come in. But, now I know when God says $25,000 is like 25 cents to Him, He means it. If I had just truly believed Him in the beginning, I could have saved myself the time trying to come up with fundraisers. :)

Her last Christmas

Today has been a hard day, and even as I write the title to this post, tears are coming. I have been reading others blog posts, some of who have brought their children home, or are now meeting their children, and some bringing their babies home this week. I am so beyond happy for them, but it grieves my heart to know that my sweet little baby is all alone this weekend, she doesn't even know we are coming for her. It is the weekend, I have heard that on the weekends the children sometimes stay in their cribs all day. Did anyone even tell her it was Christmas?

Well, baby girl, this is your last Christmas you will be spending by yourself. Next year, you will have a family. You will have a brother and a sister who already love you, pray for you and include you in their days. You will have a Grammy and Poppy, who are just as excited for you to come home as we are. You will have 2 cats that you can chase around. You will have a home that you can run and play, and be free to be whomever you want to be. You will have enough food to eat that your belly will never ache with hunger again. You will have more than enough arms to hold you. You will never have to live your days in a crib again. We wait for the day to meet you, and pray that it will be soon.

We love you.

Good news on the vote

This is from Andrea Roberts, founder of Reece's Rainbow


The vote did not even happen yesterday.  And it won't happen before the new year.  And when it does happen, it will be a vote to go Hague, not for moratorium or anything else.  This is what our team has known and told us all along, and what we fully expected.

Reece's Rainbow is prepared with a Hague accredited partner (one we already work with and trust) to continue adoptions without interruption in the country, with our same amazing team of helpers and facilitators who have built this program from the ground up. 




We are just trusting and having faith in God that we will still be able to bring our little girl home in the spring. 

Please be praying with us for these things:

1. That immigration will be very quick

2. That the Lord will keep our little girl safe, and that she will have a bond with at least one care taker

3. That nothing will stop us from bringing her home as soon as possible


Thank you to all of you who have been praying. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Home Study and the Vote

Our Home Study is done!!!! I am so relieved. It is being overnighted to immigration, so should be there tomorrow.

I found out that the vote is going to be wednesday, just before noon. So, that would be tuesday, US time. Please, please pray that it will not get passed. Or that it would not get voted on. The way it is written up right now, if it is passed, it will halt ALL adoptions. We would not be allowed to adopt, if they pass it, so please pray.

Is this your little girl

I just know somebody is out there that has been thinking about Leeza. She needs a mommy and daddy more than she even knows. She needs someone to take her home and love her and teach her and be patient with her.

Are you that someone? Will you rescue this sweet little girl?

Even if you know she in not your child, please go donate here so it will be that much easier for her family to take her home. Many people have the heart to adopt, but the cost of it turns them away. Please don't let this sweet little angel fall through the cracks. Let's help her find a home.

Another blogger has this great idea for a Christmas gift, please go read about it. I think it is one of the best ideas for a Christmas gift. You will be blessing both, the person you give the gift to, plus a Reece's Rainbow child.

Will you pass this on? I just know someone out there wants to be Leeza's forever family.

yay! Look at our funds

God has completely blessed us. This past sunday we went to a church I used to go to, to share our adoption story and take a church group picture and individual family pictures.

Wow! We are completely blown away by their generosity. The church gave us $3,000 and one family gave $2,000. Plus, a 6 year old little boy wanted to give us all of the change he and his siblings had been saving for a vacation. And it wasn't just a little bit of change, it was two huge jars full of change. We haven't counted it yet, but it looks like several hundred dollars. What an amazing family, to teach their children to be so selfless. It is hard to take all of the money this little boy had been saving, but I think of the selfless widow and want his life to be blessed with more than a vacation could ever do. He is helping to bring home a little girl and give her a mommy and daddy. I hope that I could teach my children to be as selfless as this little boy is.

They also prayed for us, it was so wonderful. The words they prayed felt like they came straight from God's lips. One man prayed for all of the officials, and anyone in power. He went through each one and named them off. All I can say is, I had chills. Another lady told me after that while he prayed, she saw angels standing in between each of those people. Brings tears to my eyes now, just thinking about it. "If God is for us, who can be against us".

Thank you NHCC for all that you have blessed us with. With your generosity, we will not have much left to raise. I am hoping to be able to raise money for another child when we have the money we need.

Slipper Drawing

The slipper drawing was yesterday. Here is the link to the video of the drawing.

The winners are:

Picture Frame - Patricia Ohler

Gift basket from bath and body works - Mike Young

gift card for Outback - Patricia Ohler ( since she won twice, she entered this back in and Becky Gordon won the second time)

Thank you to everyone who donated. We have 38 pairs of slippers to send to the orphanage. 

What about them?

It is so amazing all that God has done in our lives, in just the last few months. Wow! Just thinking back this time last year, I never would have expected that this is where we would be, even just 6 months ago.

God has changed ME a ton.

Not just me, God has changed Josh too. Just the other night when we were having our family worship time, Josh prayed for our 3 kids! It just makes me so happy that he already thinks of Priscilla as ours. I do, but to hear it from him, confirms everything I feel.

I can't even begin to say all that God has changed in me, maybe it is more of an attitude toward life than anything else. I know for sure that I feel I have a hope and a future now, or more, that I can kind of see what the future holds. I have a vision. The scripture that says "people without a vision perish" is so true. When I have something to hope for and hold on to, something to look forward to, I continue to press in, because I can see what is waiting for me around the corner.

I think about our sweet little baby girl sitting in an orphanage. She doesn't even know we are coming for her. Does she have something to look forward to? What about all of the other orphans. What about the ones who have already been transferred to the mental institution. Is that the reason 90% of them die within the first year? Because they have no vision. No hope for their future.

I hope that some of you reading this, will also catch the vision and be a father to the fatherless and  hope to the hopeless.

If you want to adopt, and think that you can't because of the money. There is a tax credit right now for over $13,000 per child. You can read about it here. And God will provide if you take the step forward. We are a testament to that, as are the many other families adopting through Reece's Rainbow. I know that adoption is the heart of the Father, and He will do all He can to see these little ones into a family. So pray about it, and then pray some more. :)

Is this your little girl? This little girl has captured my heart. She needs a mommy and daddy to love her, and color with her, teach her to swing, and  kiss her goodnight. She is 3 years old, and could be transferred to a mental institution, please don't let that happen. 

Or what about this little girl. Isn't she a sweety?  She has arthrogryposis. Most children with this condition are only affected physically. She needs someone to tell her she is beautiful and that she can do and be anything. Will you be that someone?

Look at this sweet face. He also has arthrogryposis. He deserves a mommy and daddy. Is Igor your son?

These next little girls are in the same orphanage, so they can be adopted together. Aren't they just beautiful. They have HIV, in their country, people with HIV have no place. When they turn 16, they are out of the orphanage like other children, but they will not be able to get a job. So, most likely they will turn to prostitution. I saw the second little girl on another blog, she said this orphanage is overrun and they have no room for the children, but the mental institution has room. It just makes me sick to think of them having to go to a mental instituion. Will you step forward and adopt one of these beauties?

This little girl has a special place in my heart. She is in the same orphanage as Priscilla, so I will most likely meet her, and maybe hold her and love on her. I want to take her home too. She has down syndrome like Priscilla does, but she also has Fetal Alchohol Syndrome. 

Is this your baby?

I could go on and on, but that is what Reece's Rainbow is for. :)

Eric Ludy - Depraved Indifference

This is long, but if you have time, watch it. I am in tears now.

This week is the week that our home study is supposed to be complete. I'm really hoping to hear about it soon. I think I am starting to annoy our social worker, I have emailed several times to find out how it was going.

Things have slowed down so much, with the adoption part of my life, anyway. Yesterday, I mailed off a packet of papers to get apostilled. I sent it through FedEx, just to make sure it actually got where it was supposed to go. It costs $20, and that is only one way. I still have to pay for them to come back here. Oh well, God has provided all of our finances so far, and I'm pretty confident He will provide all that we need.

I was trying to think of a good idea for another fundraiser. I was hoping to raise at least $15,000 by the end of the year. We will have close to it, we have almost $13,000 right now. I thought about doing a raffle for a Kindle, but I'm not sure if we would even cover the cost of the Kindle. Anyway, I think a raffle would be a great idea, if I had somewhere to sell tickets. So, if any of you have any ideas, please pass them my way. We don't have access to a building, so we can't do a fundraiser that involves a place.

We haven't heard anything about Priscilla, so I hope that is a good sign. :) Oh, how I wish we could see new pictures or hear something, anything. I get jealous when I see that others have new pictures or videos of their children. I have met through email 3 families who have adopted from her orphanage. I think from Reeces Rainbow, that is all that have. So many families are traveling now or will be soon to get their children, but no one going to her orphanage. So, there isn't really a way for me to find out how she is doing. It is so hard.

Here are some pictures of the kids, and a little of what we have been up to.

Yesterday, we decided to get adventurous and paint on the floor, on paper, of course. Justus painted on the paper, and the walls, and himself, well, just about everywhere. I don't know if we will be doing this again, anytime soon. :)

Look at those cute little chubby legs. I couldn't resist a picture of them. 

Malika was very neat, and only painted on herself. 

Yesterday we didn't paint enough, so today, Malika and I tried to do a painting with the salad spinner and a paper plate. She had so much fun (can't you tell by her smile). Sadly to say though, the paintings didn't come out so well.