The Road Less Traveled....How beautiful.

We have just received our Verbal referral!

2012-01-18T12:27:00.009-05:00

Hi Everyone, Thank you for praying. We received news today from our attorney that our children's country has given us their verbal referral. They have reviewed our dossier and have agreed after review that our file is complete and qualifies to be a match for these children. We now continue to pray that we will receive a written referral as quickly as possible. Once we have the written we are allowed to make travel plans to go see our children for the first time. Thank you everyone. All of you are with us in this journey and as soon as I receive that written referral , I will start packing. You are all coming with me since I will continue to keep my blog open and will share with you the joy of meeting these 4 precious children. I have included some pictures of them. It is the only pictures I have but thought you may appreciate them as we have.

Where are we in the adoption process?

2012-01-16T07:34:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone, I felt it was very important to update you and let you know where we are in the process of bringing home these precious children. We have submitted all of our paperwork needed to their country. We had many forms besides our home study, medical exams, employment, criminal background checks with 3 sets of fingerprints, references, marriage/birth certificates and of course our I-800a (approval from our country that we are suitable parents to adopt). This collection of papers are called our dossier. Dossier is a collection of papers or file containing detailed information of a person, in our case our family.
Once we had each form notarized we went to our capitol city and had them apostilled. This was to certify to our children's country that our notarized papers were truly notarized by a person who had the right to do so. Anyways, as you can see it is a process and then once it arrives to their country it will be translated and again officially stamped, notarized in order that an official legal file is held to the proper officers of adoption requirements. They will then review it and let our attorney know if we are elligible to adopt from their country and if they allow us to persue adopting these particular children.
So what do we need now....PRAYERS and PRAYERS please Pray because that huge dossier has been officially handed and will be read this week. We are waiting for a verbal referral stating that they have reviewed and we have been officially matched with these children. If they review the file and we have missed anything it would cost more money and most of all delays. These children cannot wait they need your prayers. We need your prayers that the officers will review with a speedy quickness and understand the urgency that these children have in having a family. I have included a poll on the side this way as we feel down, we can look over and think of all of you who have prayed and are praying for us and these 4 precious babies who are true ORPHANS. These 4 Orphans had no one even thinking of them, now they should have thousands (all of you my dear readers and friends) praying for them all the way to freedom. May our Father Bless Each and everyone of You.

Goodbye 2011 and welcoming 2012

2012-01-02T09:05:00.012-05:00

Happy New Year Everone!

Hi Everyone, These are a few pictures that I just wanted to post. 2011 was one year that we did not adopt any new children. It was a year that many of our children started school. We had 7 children start school for the first time!! We wish we had traveled more but that was not possible. It was definitely a year that we stayed home other then local trips to the lake, beach and parks. It was a year of adjustments for Ian, Ellia and Benjamin where they had "first" of everything. These are children who had never celebrated birthdays or holidays. In 2011 they received their first Easter baskets and egg hunt. They watched fireworks for the first time dressing in their red, white and blue. Even though we were not able to go door to door dressed in halloween costumes, they were able to carve pumpkins and dress up in costumes going room to room making each other laugh. They loved dressing up pretending to be this and that. Thanksgiving was wonderful, the children sat at the table dressed as Indians ( with their head gear made at school). Yes, 2 turkeys were needed and there were very little leftovers. Christmas for us was celebrated with so much joy because the children did remember it from the previous year. The moment the tree went up, Ian especially started jumping with such joy saying he knows "Christmas". I can tell you he did not have that connection until the tree went up. This was his 2nd year celebrating Christmas even though he was now 6 years old! I had to work on New Years Day so our New Years Eve "party" was celebrated from 7pm to 9pm. Angelina (6 years old) said it was the "best New Years party she had ever been to." How cute! Sorry about so many double pictures, with some more time I will go back and edit.

Let me introduce you to the 2 boys we are adopting.

2011-12-10T18:49:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone, Ok so I have showed you the girls now let me introduce you to these two adorable orphans who do not know they have a family praying every day to bring them home. One day with a little more time, I will explain how it came about that we were to adopt 4. It is a truly amazing how it happened but until it is final we will not be able to say. This is for the safety and well being of the children waiting.

This is our adorable prince who we pray to bring home soon. He does not have down syndrome but he does have hydrocephalus and cerebral palsey. He is 4 and weighs 23 pounds. We do not know anything other then that but we do know he has not had any medical attention for his hydrocephalus.

Here is another adorable prince who for a very long time, caught our attention. There was something very special about this child that my husband and I could not explain. We waited and prayed for so long that a family would claim him as their child but no one ever did. This little boy was transferred to a different institution because he aged out of his baby house orphanage but from what we hear he is not progressing. He is 6 years old and scoots on his bottom unable to walk on his own. The pictures we see he seems to be holding on with one hand. He does have down syndrome and his seriousness reminds us of our Noah.

We received our I800a approval and our dossier is completed.

2011-12-10T18:09:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone, Thank you for praying for us. We received approval from our country to adopt from a Hague country and we have completed our dossier! On Tuesday it will travel to a friends house who will pack it away in her suitcase. This mom is adopting in the same country and she will hand it to our attorney. We will then wait for the date to travel. I can not tell you how confident I am that we were only able to complete this dossier because you were praying. As the last required document was obtained, I broke down and cried. Adoption is not new to us but these children are. I think that just like the birth of a child, each adoption is unique and special. We as a family pray and talk about the children. We grow to love them many months before we even physically meet them. Our children do not see my belly grow and don't get to feel the baby kicking but they look at their pictures and help us to prepare for their arrival. Come to our house and ask the kids who these children are....they will tell you that these are their brothers and sisters who are coming. Our kids will even tell you the names that they want. Our children are very much in tune with these children coming, getting the I-800a and dossier completed was a joyful day in our home. Thank you for praying, please continue.

We are working very hard to bring them home.

2011-11-22T10:43:00.004-05:00

This is our other princess that we are praying to come home. She is 15 years old (the picture in yellow clothes is recent).

Dear Everyone, Please be patient with my lack of blogging. We are working very hard at submitting and doing all the paperwork. Where are we now? Our homestudy is complete and we are assembling our dossier. We have also submitted our request to the USCIS. Please pray very hard because sometimes the paperwork and hoops seem endless. It is worth every penny and labor I know this with all my heart. I need to only look in my current children's eyes and see.
People ask "why do you do this?" some say "This is not your problem, let God take care of it." People this is our problem....God never intended the children to be unwanted and left alone because they could not fit into a persons life....because they don't talk, walk or look like that person. We must take care of those who cannot care for themselves. We must pray for those who are doing and come across obstacles. We must support those organizations that bring these orphans pictures to light such as Reeces Rainbow.
Please pray that every day, I am able to get at least one paper done for our dossier, please pray that I will have these childrens' medical doctors lined up for their care and a plan, as you know they are in starving mode and they will need medical attention as soon as they arrive. Please pray that all those involved with our process does not run into obstacles.

We are expecting...via Adoption that is!! Yes!!

2011-09-13T13:29:00.002-04:00

Here is our little princess. She is in Eastern Europe. She has been bedridden for 10 years. This is her Reeces Rainbow name Lilliana but we will need to agree on a name and so far we have rounded them down to 7 names.
Anyways, Liliiana is 11 years old and weighs only 10 pounds. Another mom adopting gave us the measurements and it was heartbreaking. Our home study is complete but we still have a lot to do. Today, was a big day since it is our first day on the commitment page of Reeces Rainbow.

One year after our Adoption

2011-09-10T11:00:00.008-04:00

It has been one year since Ian Benjamin and Ellia have been adopted. They arrived to the US in October 2010. It has been 2 years since Nicholas Oksana and Noah have been home. They arrived Sept 11, 2009 a day that means so much to all of us and for the USA. I remember bringing Nicholas, Oksana and Noah through customs/immigration office at the airport. They had sent us to a big room where many people were waiting to be cleared before passing through customs. The officer there called each child by name. "Nicholas Josiah Brown?" yes I said, he is in this car seat. "Nicholas, congratulations you are now an American Citizen" he said with a smile as he stamped Nicholas' passport. He then called Oksana and Noah who were in a stroller and did the same thing. How special this was. How I will never forget the feeling of the entire experience to bring them home the work, the travel, the tears, the wait and now the final opening of the embassy files for each of our children who were once left in an orphanage and forgotten. I wish you could have been there as this officer's eyes gleamed with feelings, he took it very seriously to be able to look at these children one by one and say those words. What would these words mean? It meant new hopes and dreams, a new life of opportunities. A promise and an acceptance of a country to accept and believe that even a child with down syndrome or other disabilities make our nation a wonderful place. I believe just as many people have changed and helped our children reach new strides such as their doctors, teachers so have our children touched them and others every day. Our children and other children with disabilities remind all of us that human life is precious and that we should all realize how much joy we can get from helping each other succeed. Each one of us have abilities even our citizens with special needs to lift others from the down times in our lives. These down times can be due to physical, emotional or even spiritual ruts. Think of when you have walked in a store or hospital and seen someone struggling to walk...how did it make you feel? Didn't you for that 2 seconds feel a sudden standstill? I hope this all makes sense. Our children have been wonderful citizens and I know that given the right tools, and opportunities they will touch many lives. They did not know what the officer meant at that time, but I did and I am grateful for them.

3 Months home now...

2011-01-05T07:42:00.020-05:00

Winter wonderland!!

Christmas Day 2010: We had so much fun. The children stayed in PJ's all day. By the end of the day they were exhausted!!

Doctor visits: Emma goes to support her brothers and sisters.
She told them that she would hold their hand. You can see how thin Ian is. I hope a year from now we will see a big difference.

Bedtime stories.

At the museum we had each of the older kids pick a younger partner and that worked out wonderful. It allowed us to go around and spend time with each child without worry that the little ones were going to run off. The big kids for the most part agreed on who their smaller partner was going to be.

Family trip to the museum.

Emma waiting for the eye doctor.

Well, this blog has not been updated since we arrived and mostly because our days seemed to have flown by. I also loved our arrival home picture that I just could not give it up and lose it further down on my blog. LOL

Our past 3 months have been filled with enrolling Noah, Oksana and Nicholas in school, family trips to the museums and doctor appointments for our new little ones. We also had to catch up with eye and dental visits for the rest of the kids. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New years celebrations along with our big snow storm that made our farm a winter wonderland. So much that now looking back it seems as if it has been a year since I have written and updated.

Oksana is our 3 year old and I wanted to wait until I returned from Ukraine to send her to her special pre-K class so that I could meet with the teachers. Noah is 5 and he is also in Pre-K so he was returning again this year. Nicholas is 3 and 1/2 and he now attends school with wrap around services of PT OT 2 days a week. Last year Nicholas was so delayed that when we adopted him he was unable to roll over, sit up and even had a difficult time holding his head up. In august he was evaluated and said to be at a 12-month development level. That seemed amazing since that was exactly how long he had been in our family. It was as if he was born once he arrived in our family!!! If you remember we had met him in July/August in 2009 at the orphanage and he was 2 years 3 months weighing in at only 12 pounds!!
So once we had them 3 enrolled in going to school...we had to get the doctor visits started with Benjamin, Ian and Ellia. It has been 3 months and we have made lots of tracks seeing different specialties so as to make a plan of care for them (concerning medical). Overall the children are healthy but Ellia and Ian are very underweight and both will need their cleft palates repaired. We have also cleared Benjamin from any heart defect! We were told that he was originally diagnosed with a heart defect but nothing other then a PFO!! Yahoo. Ian's cleft palate that was repaired in Ukraine had come apart in 3 parts so the cleft palate team has said that his repair will be a little more difficult. What I thought was a loose tooth is actually hi upper jaw that is loose. He is a happy boy and eats by bringing food from the sides of his mouth. He loves pasta with meat sauce!! Ian is 5 but is weighed in at his firts doctor appointment as a 2 year old. Ellia is 3 and weighed as much as a 7 month old. Her cleft palate was not previously repaired so it will be straight forward. We have also found out that Ellia needs to be followed by nephrology for some mystery markings on her kidneys. Her kidney function tests are good now but her urine showing moderate amounts of protein and blood along with abnormal Ultra sound has her being followed by nephrology. We are hopeful and thankful that she is now able to at least be treated by a terrific medical team. Both children were also treated successfully for giardia upon their arrival. Many of these children in the orphanage hang on but it is just a matter of time before many of them pass away especially when they are transferred to an institution. Do we regret adopting these children because we have had to adjust our lives to meet their needs...No way! We have given them the basics of care and they have given us so much more. I hold these children and thank God so many times a day. I thank our Father for blessing me with these children. They have enriched our lives that you cannot imagine. Their smiles and joy fills the house. One year makes such a difference and I know that in one year I will look back and see so much progress in these children's lives. Enjoy the pictures from the past 3 months.

Oct 8 2010 Arrival Home

2010-10-28T08:13:00.002-04:00

How exciting it was to get off that plane!! I just knew that we would have an awesome welcome home party waiting for us. I could not wait to see Steven and the kids. We did it, we did it is all I kept saying to Ian, Ellia and Benjamin. The funny part was some passengers on the plane said, "wow, you have your hands full", little did they know, hehhe.
Once I had the kids in their stroller...I pulled out their American and Ukraine flags and handed it to them. I actually quickly showed them how to wave the flags and they got it quickly. So as we came around the corner...I could see lots of little kids through the frosted glass and I said Ian Run, Run and we Ran as fast as we could around the corner!!
We were surrounded with so many hugs, cheers and kisses. They loved it. We managed to take this picture quickly.

Blog catch-up: Almost Home

2010-10-22T08:16:00.008-04:00

On Oct 6th after Gotcha Day, I brought the kids back to the apartment to get them dinner and maybe give them a bath before the train ride. Well, no that didn't work out...the bath part. It started to get to cold and I was a little afraid of letting them go outside and yes "catching a cold". LOL I laugh because I could hear my mom say that. Benjamin already knew the apartment and my rules of "no touch" the TV antennas, stove, fridge and computer (that was not even mine). He was very happy to tell them what not to touch. Even though he could not say words his facial expression said it all. He also did the one finger "no, no" when Ian and Ellia were touching the computer. Earlier this morning, I had cleaned and packed all my bags for the train to Kiev. I made sure to make a "snack bag" and "diaper bag". I was going to keep them awake until we arrived to the train. Our train would depart around 2230. We would arrive in Kiev at 0630 the next day. At 2130 our taxi drivers (yes we needed 2 cars because of luggage and kids) arrived. They were terrific helping bring down all the luggage. We had experience with this elevator stopping 3 times already so we did not want that to happen with the children. Being on the 8th floor did not make it easy either.
I included some pictures of the kids at the apartment.

Not sure if I mentioned that there was no washing machine in the apartment. It was hand washing and line drying all the time. I did hang my pants on the line outside (just off the porch) and somehow they flew off the line down 8 floors!! Ugh I was so upset but they must have been picked up because they were no longer there when I went to go get them a couple hours later. Funny. Here are some pictures of the apartment too.

We have been home for 11 days now: Time to catch up on this blog

2010-10-21T11:29:00.005-04:00

Sept 6 was Gotcha Day for Ian and Ellia. Translation for those who have not adopted....The day you free the kids out of the orphanage. It is a day mixed with emotion. You are excited, nervous and exhausted by this time. Tons of trips have been made, you are down to the last money saved, your planning your return trip and finalizing it (it was Eldon from Golden Rule Travel for us...thank you Eldon). Your traveling to buy train tickets and hoping there will be train tickets to get back into Kiev, you are emailing the embassy to make appointments for the children's medicals and visas. So many things to do but you are so excited because you know you are just a few days short of heading back home to the USA with your children. Part of you is also fearing the plane and layover. You hope it will not be to stressful on the children...you hope they don't have any GI problems ( diarrhea...hate to be blunt but it was on my mind). Those toilet rooms are so small. But even with all those thoughts and things to do Gotcha Day is a celebration for both you the child and the orphanage. I picked out the nicest clothes I had with me and stopped by the store with our facilitator to buy some bananas for the children left behind, some chocolate and treats for the orphanage nannies and some small gifts for the nurses and doctor at the orphanage. In regards to Benjamin's we bought some champagne for his nannies (they really wanted to celebrate....and they deserved it for taking such good care of these kids). We had a Gotcha Day Oct 1st for him. Here are some pictures.

Getting ready to fly back to get our children.

2010-09-25T09:19:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures that we left on the children's cubbies their at the orphanages before heading back to the USA.

Oh I have so many mixed feelings!! I knew I had to come home and am very happy I did return back to the US during the 10 day wait. Steven and I had been gone for month and seeing the children after that much time was amazing. They looked as if they had grown and were so excited jumping up and down happy to see us. They understood that we did not have their new siblings yet. So what do you do when you have 10 days at home well, for me it was enrolling Elijah back in school. It was enrolling Oksana and Noah in their pre-K school so in other words more paperwork! I also had 2 doctor appointments since Noah and Nicholas had a cold and were miserable with snotty noses and all that comes with it. We also spent time grocery shopping and going to the park and yes laundry catch up. Anyways it was a filled 10 days. Today is Saturday and I leave tomorrow. I am both sad to leave everyone here, nervous and already lonely going by myself (due to the cost and time we are not able to bring my daughter with me :() But excited to go get my 3 babies who are waiting to get out of the orphanage. We left Benjamin, Ian and Ellia pictures on their coat cubby and we had them reassure them that we would be back. Ian was told that Pappa had to go put his bed together and paint his room so he would not return to get him but momma would.

So today I will finish packing. Please I ask all of you to please pray for me in this journey. My mom has total confidence in me that I can do this and I know I can but it is with the belief that I am in other people's prayers. Please also pass ou mission on to others. We are still in need of the funds to bring home our 3 children. We received a quote that it would be 1600.00 for their plane tickets. Our FSP is not close to that. The biggest reason I am going alone is because of the cost of bringing my daughter. Her passport cost and plane ticket would be too much and we just do not have it. We brought our son Elijah and are happy that he did go. It was important for the judge to see that our oldest son was happy and in agreement of this adoption. It was so hard for me to tell Madeline she could not go. She cried but understood we would have had to expedite her passport and that along with her ticket would be too much money for us right now. Please pray that she will be okay and not be so hurt by this.

Court Today

2010-09-13T12:56:00.003-04:00

Hello Everyone we just arrived home. We are so excited to tell you that the court has said YES!! We are Ian, Benjamin's and Ellia's mom and dad!!!
We are SOOOOOO excited. I couldn't stop crying when the judge said the verdict. The tears started coming when each witness, social worker and prosecuter said yes and they were in favor (one by one) then the judge told us to stand and she said yes.
It was the greatest feeling! Thank you God!
We are getting ready to leave on the train back to the capitol. We will be going home where I will wait less then 2 weeks then come back to finish up the visa and passport work to bring our 3 new children home. I am not staying because I need to get my children at home settled and prepared for me to leave for another 10 days. It would be to long for me to stay. We have been here 1 month already and I miss all the kids at home so much. I need to go home and prayfully have a couple of yard sales to raise the last of the funds needed. God has helped us this entire trip..We have faith.

Sick

2010-09-12T13:02:00.002-04:00

We had not posted in awhile because in a nut shell...my son and I were sick. My son Elijah had very bad GI symptoms lasting 5 days. We went to the pharmacy and bought him electrolyte replacement. Just as he was starting with GI....I was starting with an awful cold/flu. I had the ache ache body, low grade fever, sore throat it then turned into runny nose, cough (non-ending). Today is Sunday and I feel back to myself. We visited the children but were very careful visiting only one orphanage a day...avoiding all the kisses that I wanted to give. There was actually one day that Steven and Eljah had to go to the orphanage by themselves.

Anyways today being Sunday...I feel great but am so nervous for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Monday and it is our court day!!! Please pray for us.

It has been awhile since I posted. A thank you note

2010-09-12T12:45:00.003-04:00

We are going on 28 days of being here!! Can you believe it. We miss all the kids at home. My parents and my 2 dearest friends have held up the fort while we have been gone. I know they have changed their everyday routines to give us this time to travel and become parents to these 3 orphans. I thank them. Thanks mom, dad, Nese, Stephanie, and kids at home. I also want to thank those who have donated to help us through. Yes, the truth is when we return home we still have to raise money to help pay for the children's return flights home and US embassey money needed so the 265 in our FSP will help. We thank you for those who donated. We have used 50 dollars of that money to help pay one of our nights in the apartment...thank you. Thank you also for everyone's lovely comments left on this blog...it has lifted us.

More pictures of Benjamin's

2010-09-03T12:03:00.001-04:00

Benjamin: A picture or two says a thousand words.

2010-09-03T11:40:00.002-04:00

Friday: We were busy today traveling to 2 orphanages in 2 different locations. The first one we needed a taxi there and home. The round trip by taxi when calculated came out to be $15.50 and it was 30 minute drive (going very fast) from our apartment. We visited with Benjamin for 2 hours and it was great. When we arrived he was finishing some bread and he came towards me as soon as the staff told him he could get up from his seat. He immediatly gave me a hug and I kissed him. We then went outside to meet Steven and Elijah who were trying to get the camcorder ready. I know he is almost 5 but I picked him up like a toddler and walked around with him. He just clung on loving the attention. I am not kidding it felt exactly as if he had been missing for so long and we just found him. We then played with playdough for sometime. At 12pm it was time for him to get ready to go on and with cues from the staff he gave me us a kiss again and again. I just adore him!
At 12pm the taxi was waiting and it dropped us next to our house and we went to the mall. We had something to eat and went back to the apartment. At 3pm we walked to the bus and took a bus and then a van (the trip took and hour) and we go visit Ian and Ellia. Ian was so happy with his new toy. It plays the piano and he stayed content the entire time. He also loved the honey wafers. Today was the first day I was able to really see Ellia's cleft palate (hope I spelled that correct). We knew she had it but it wasn't until she was laying down on my lap (pretending to be a baby) and laughing that I was able to see it. She eats everything and once we arrive the same doctor who will help with reconstructing Ian's nose and palate...will also do Ellia's.

Thursday: We meet Benjamin!!

2010-09-02T13:13:00.003-04:00

We were picked up early and off we went to meet his social worker and get some more paperwork. We then drove to the orphanage to meet the director and some staff who remembered us. They spent some time peeking at Noah's pictures. They loved seeing how in 1 year he had changed. Noah had been put on the bus to go to the institution for life but we had arrived just in time. They now could look at his pictures and see that God had other plans for him. After they looked at the pictures they had wet eyes and said through the translator. "let me tell you about Artyom" We will be naming him Benjamin. and then she continued "he is a gentle boy and loved my so many here in the orphanage" We knew he must be because he had not yet been sent away...they had been hoping a family would come for him. "He loves to dress up and play in the children's performances". We could tell this boy was special last year when we first met him...how Blessed we felt to be able to return and get him. This child has a purpose and being in an institution for the rest of his life was not it.
After she updated us on his medical and social history....the door opened and there he was in his pajamas and tights with white shoes looking as if he had just woken up. His hand was being held by his nanny who had him sit on her lap. I looked at him and let them tell him that this was his "Mama and Papa" the nurse then put him down and he was encouraged to not be shy but to come to us and say hello. He was a doll. He came right up with a big smile but still a little shy. There was no doubt he remembered us. Steven picked him up and Benjamin laid his head on Steven's chest smiling. When I looked up the nanny's eyes were tearing...now I knew why she had that hankie in her hand. She without a doubt cared very much about this boy. I then had to tell Steven that it was my turn to hold him! I held him and kept pointing to myself saying "Mama" and then on his own he said "Mama" touching my chest as if he clearly understood what my name would be. I just wonder if he knew what a "mama and Papa" is. I wondered if he thought "wow, I have seen other children with mamas and papas is this my own?" Benjamin has seen many parents go to adopt and he has always waved and welcomed them to the orphanage as they loved on their new little ones...now it was his turn. I wish I had pictures but didn't want to take out my camera because I think it was a little emotional for everyone. We will see him tomorrw and of course I will take pictures. After we left him...we went to do more paperwork then get a bite to eat then off to take 2 buses to see Ellia and Ian who we had not seen since Monday. We made sure for our facilitator to tell him that we would be back. He was not upset when we arrived but instead very happy.

Wednesday

2010-09-02T13:04:00.002-04:00

So Wednesday came around and at 4pm we received what we needed (documents and official referral for Benjamin). Back on the train for 6 hours. This time we sat in first class ( I think that is what they called it) and they showed something similiar to the sitcom "Scrubs" only it was in Russian. Everyone would just break out laughing and sometimes you couldn't help laugh because everyone else was laughing and they seemed as if they were having a great time. Some parts were funny and you didn't need to speak Russian you could just figure it out but oh how I wish they had it in English the time would have flown by. I just read again and quickly finished my book.
The name of the book is Reckless Faith by Beth G (can't remember her last name). It was really a good book that shares her memoirs on her leap of faith in opening an orphanage in Mexico.
The train arrived back in our children's city at 12pm or so and the taxi was waiting. It was around 1am before we went to bed. I knew that when I woke up that the day to see Benjamin after a year would be here.

Almost forgot about Sunday Night

2010-09-02T12:55:00.002-04:00

Let me stick this in here. I almost forgot that Sunday night Steven and Elijah went to a basketball game. They were given free tickets by our friend Nicholas who's friends play ball. The game was Ukraine vs England. Ukraine won and Steven and Nicholas feel that it was because they cheered and got the Ukrainian fans going and into the game. I guess they usually clap but are not very loud even during a game. Everytime Steven would yell something in English the fans around him would also yell. Guess what they made it to National TV! The camera focused and there they were.

Monday and Tuesday

2010-09-02T12:21:00.003-04:00

Paperwork and Paperwork. We drove in the taxi for hours from Notary to social worker
and went to go buy some groceries. We were also told to be ready at 5:45am for the taxi to pick us up and take us to the capitol where our second SDA appointment would be. This is what what we need in order to have an official referral for Benjamin. I could hardly believe it. I figured we would see the SDA at 1pm Tuesday and take the train back that evening. There was a possibility that Wednesday we would see Benjamin...so I thought.

Tuesday: At 6:15am there was no taxi but we called our facilitator and she quickly hung up and called the taxi driver..I think he overslept. "wait in the corner, he will be right there". 17 minutes later a screeching car comes to a skid. "So Sorry he said, lets go teh train will leave in a few minutes". Ok I know I live in NC and I thought how cool would it be to ride in Nascar. Not anymore. I experienced it here but with no helmet and no seat belt. I must have said Mama Mia a million times and I must have may the sign of the cross at least 10 times. He drove through red lights and the police was right there!! I pointed as we went flying by but he said "Corachon" which means "OK". At one point I was putting on my seat belt and he said that I didn't need it and he smiled almost in a laughing manner. Silly me..We are only going 90 miles an hour in a matchbox size car passing huge trucks. Well, we made it to the train. He parked on the sidewalk and said "hurry, hurry" this running does not work in flip flops but we made it. The train had 2 benched seats one on each side facing each other and a small table in the middle. This was similiar to the night train but the bench seats were not beds and there was no bunk beds on top. The train was 0645 to 1240pm.
There was the 3 of us and this girl maybe in her 20's. She slept curled up most of the time and would awake...have tea and a snickers bar and return to sleep. I just read a book but before I knew it I fell asleep too. The train stops and people do hop off to smoke and then hop back on. When we arrived at the capitol city...our taxi driver said it was to early for the SDA so it was better to just go walk around for another 2 hours.
We were finally hurried in to sit down and talk about Benjamin. He has lived in the orphanage all 4 years and was given up immediatly after his birth because of his diagnosis being conformed. "He has Down Syndrome". His mom was very young and single so placing him in the orphanage was what she felt was best for her and for him. Here he was adorable. We will be able to have his only baby picture once he is adopted.
Since it was already 4pm we would be unable to sign papers and get the papers needed to enter into his orphanage so staying in the capitol until Wednesday is what we would have to do. I hate that we have to pay another 60 dollars but there is no other choice. Adoption teaches you patience right from the very beginning. The apartment was very clean and it is the first one that had internet...but guess what my computer had no cord and it was dead. Just my luck!!

Sunday

2010-09-02T12:02:00.002-04:00

I told myself that this trip would be different with blogging. I told myself that everyday I would write but it doesn't help when you leave to go to back to the Capitol city and you forget your computer's cord to charge it.

Sunday: we found out at 10am that Ian and Ellias orphanage allows visitors on Sunday so even though we would be late...we wanted to at least see them. It was 11am by the time the van dropped us off outside the gates. When we arrived we heard all the kids screaming again Mama and Ian was sitting on the bench looking up but with eyes that were wet and cheeks that showed the salty tears dried up all down his face. The nannies told us he didn't want to go inside because he told them that Mama and Papa were coming but given the time...(we usually arrive at 0950 and it was now 11:05) the nannies figured we were not. Ian refused to go inside and sat firmly on the bench. My heart just broke. I also saw his ear red so not sure if he got in trouble for being adament about not going inside. Poor baby.
Ellia was also happy to see us but I don't think she figured out what time we arrive. Every day the kids seem happier and happier.

Sat and Sunday

2010-08-29T07:13:00.006-04:00

Hi Everyone,

We have been visiting the kids everyday while our facilitator has been doing some of the needed paperwork. We take 2 buses in the morning to get to the orphanages. One bus is more like a van and as long as the door closes your in. I am not kidding you will see a small van pass by and people smooched up against the glass. My husband turns to me and says....You think we can squish in ?? You also do an honour system with paying for the bus. You just tap the person in front of you and pass up the money. You will see the money going from the back of the bus to the front and then if someone needs change you just keep passing it back until it falls in the right person's hands. It is actually funny that no one pockets the money. Sometimes there are older women and they get on the bus...I motion quietly to Steven and he offers his seat to the older lady. Not one will sit down. I guess that is why I see no young men ask these older women as they get on the bus if they want their seat. I think these older women are very tough and strong.
Everyday we stop at the corner store and buy cookies (they usually are not chocolate) but this time I decided to give the kids a special treat... Chocolate cookies! Yahoo right?? NOT! let's just say never again. First of all the kids in these 2 groups (classrooms) of the orphanage had chocolate all over their mouths and hands but the worst part was poor Ellia broke out in some hives! It was not bad but still I felt horrible. Great job Jenny! She had the hives on her theighs and stomach. Let me just stick to the good old Maria crackers.
After our visit on Saturday, we went to the park in the center. Elijah had so much fun. I will download some pictures later. I will post some more of the kids. I love Black and white pictures and I will post them too.
Today is Sunday and it is gray here but warm. We are getting ready to go to the apartment and I think we might go see a basketball game but just not sure. Nicholas is an American and he lives here. He is 28 or so and married. Last year we met him and over the year have all kept contact. He is the one who showed us around the center yesterday. He has lived here with his wife for a few years now so he really knows how to get around and speak.

Thurs and Fri Visits with the children.

2010-08-27T08:07:00.007-04:00

I am at the mall now updating this blog. We come here after our morning visits with the children. Every morning we arrive and hand in our passports to the orphanage and then we go get the kids. Yesterday we went to the children's shop and bought some toys. We must have stayed in the toy store for over an hour trying to figure out what would be best to buy. We bought pots and pans (play dishes), more coloring books, and an ABC (leap frog type of toy) but in Russian. We also bought some floor puzzles and a blanket to put on the ground. We always bring the other children cookies and give them to the Nannies to pass around. It is so difficult to see so many beautiful children coming around you and knowing that when most of them grow up...many will be homeless on the street and some sent to institutions. Right now though they are smiling and so happy to watch the staff open the cookies that we brought. We will do this everyday because this is all we can offer all these children right now.
It is so funny, the moment we enter the orphanage gates...the children who are playing outside stop what they are doing and run up to Ian jumping up and down and pointing telling him "Mama, Papa, Mama, Papa!!" He gets this big big smile and you could see how he just became "the most popular boy in his group". He knows it too. Ok everyone reading this if you have been thinking of adopting...do it...there are so many kids who need you.

Wed morning: We are here

2010-08-27T07:18:00.002-04:00

Ok I know the suspense is getting to you but I really wanted those who are reading about this journey to really experience what we are.
So Wed am as the train arrived, we were met there by our new taxi driver. He was a young man who spoke no English at all. Niko shook hands with Serge the taxi driver and off we went to the children's protective services to go get our paperwork and the social worker. We all squeezed in the car...it was a 4 passenger car (that includes driver) and it was 6 of us and tons of luggage. The back end of the car pratically dragged but this was custom and as long as everyone sat on everyone's lap and the doors closed that was all that mattered. The worst part was the back passenger windows did not roll down and their was no AC! It was all good though because...we are going straight to the orphanage! Yahoo! It would only be an hour or so until we were able to hug our children and see them after a year.

So once we arrived to the orphanage the doctor sat down and told us about each child. Each child's folder was old and all documentation was hand written, not one empty spot on those papers. I guess 4 years of living in the orphanage there has got to be alot of writing. Ian's folder was 4 inches thick and Ellia's was half of that. Niko did his best translating and in a nut shell....the children have been at the orphanage since they were born and no one has ever visited them. They are very particular about documenting the times a parent or relative visits and both these children had no recorded visits EVER. In regards to medical honestly there was not much that can be understood and as we have learned from our previous children...it is important to get a pediatrician who is familiar with international adoptions because you basically arrive to the USA with very little info other then gestation age and Apgar scores. Does it really matter anyways?? Would I change my mind at this point? No not at all. Even if they told us that there was a possibility that one of these children would probably pass away soon....I would say what I said last year when they said that about Nicholas...ok then he will die with a mom and dad. He will not die alone. These children need a chance of living they all need someone who will love them unconditionally...through good and bad, sickness and health and life and death. That is why we are here. Anyways returning back to Wed.
As the doctor was talking...their was a knock and turning of the door knob....I knew it had to be one of the children...I knew it and who was it? Ian!! He came in holding the nanny's hand very shy but with an excited look on his face. I just went to my knees so I could look straight at him and said hello and cupped his face in my hands kissing him on the forehead. They then translated that this was Momma and Papa and brother. He had such a cute smile...I think he remembered us from last year just by the way he looked at us. He then stood next to the doctor as she finished talking about him and he understood everything she said. I wish i could speak Russian. I wish I had a Russian friend at home. Ian then came and sat on my lap as we started to discuss Ellia. The knock on the door again and here was little Ellia!! She saw all of us in the room, and she covered her eyes but peaked through them (she is extremely shy). I felt as if she had not grown at all in one year and she was so tiny. Steven got up and picked her up. It didn't take long before she was playing with his go-tee.(hope I spelled that right). How can I tell you what I was feeling? I am so glad that I had no eye makeup on because if I did....well I would have had it all smudged. I could not stop tearing. To be here, one year later and to come back to get these children who stared at me last year as I loved on Oksana and Nicholas and who called me Mama as I walked by them...is amazing. Without God we could not have done this. If you honestly let God help you take care of these orphans....He will.
At this meeting we set up times to visit everyday except Sundays. We did not take pictures on that first meeting but we knew tomorrow we would return.

So here are the pictures of the next visit. We play with them outside.

The train Trip Tueday night to Wed Am

2010-08-26T07:41:00.005-04:00

Here are the train pictures; I was having a tough time putting the video up.

Tuesday night: The call

2010-08-25T07:13:00.001-04:00

So as you have seen and read below, Tuesday was a very busy walking day. My hair was a mess (the sweater I was wearing in my head didn't help either). We headed back to the apartment and as I was just about to fall asleep...we got the call we had been waiting for. "Steven Jenny get ready I will be there in less than 2 hours, the train leaves at 11pm tonight we have to be at the train station aound 10p to get the tickets" Oh my, we all took turns taking a shower eating, cleaning the apartment and packing. You could not even tell we were tired. We drank all the juice and had some bread and butter knowing we would probably get hungry on the train. The train would leave the capitol at 11pm and arrive at our childrens hometown at 7am. Our taxi driver, translator uncle Niko said he would also be going with us. He said "We are going to pick up teh social worker first and then go to the orphanage to meet the kids". We are going to see the kids on Wednesday!! Yahooo Yahooo. We were running around talking so excited when finally the door bell rang. It was Uncle Niko "ready, lets go". Well, we were not that ready so he helped us zipper the suitcases and carry them where our taxi driver was waiting for us. Off to the train station! The train station was very busy...so many people. I tried to post a video but it was dark Here are some pictures.

Tuesday: Touring and waiting

2010-08-24T06:10:00.003-04:00

We knew that there was a possibility of leaving the capitol on Wednesday so I wanted to make sure that we really stopped being in "waiting mode" and get in gear of "touring mode". So I googled some things to do and wrote them down. We started with going to drink some coffee (ugh told you about that coffee addiction). Then we went to the Church next to our apartment. We had heard the bells ring everyday but were not sure if we would be allowed. Well, as long as women and men are not wearing shorts and women have their heads covered you are allowed. We spent 1 hour at the church because we arrived and they were having a "service'. Next thing we knew we were getting water poured on our heads and drinking water and also having Holy oil made in the sign of the Cross. I really enjoyed the time of praying and even though I did not understand their singing chanting hymns, it was beautiful. The sisters of the Church made us feel very welcomed.
After the service we went to see the "caves" it is the Holiest place where Monks are buried. It was a place I googled and showed the taxi driver. He dropped us off and we walked around. It was Independence Day here so not only are the Churches crouded but there are many flee market set-ups outside. We walked around and eventually took a taxi back to the apartment. It was a lovely day. To Debbie my friend who has been waiting for her shot glass: I finally found one with the country written on it!!.
Here are pictures.

We went to have some food at the local restaurant. It was delicious. All this food that you see was 16 dollars (by the time you convert it). Elijah loved the chicken Kiev.

Here are some pictures of us at the coffee shop, Elijah and a car he would like.

Monday:

2010-08-23T05:59:00.005-04:00

So last night I could not sleep. I tossed and turned and even went to the window a few times. The breeze was so nice. The sky was clear with a few stars, the street light was not far from the window the crickets were so loud but peaceful. I looked at a few couples walking by, they didn't even notice much because they were so in love giggling, holding hands and walking in step. There were cars driving by but not as fast as they usually do. The city was asleep. Why couldn't I go to sleep?? Well, I just could not stop thinking about the kids at home wondering if they were ok. I was wondering if my mom remembered that Noah was lactose intolerant...if she didn't she would soon find out. I wondered if Nicholas even knew we were gone. My mind would then go to the children here waiting...did they know we were here? We know the orphanages have been told that we are in the country but did they tell the children? I returned back to bed and wondered if I should get up and take a shower...the water had been off the day before for 5 hours and I knew from my trip to the kitchen it was on right now. I looked at the time and it was only 2 am. so I returned back to bed and decided to just pray and send all my worries to God. I worry the longer we are in the capitol city the more it will cost but besides ice cream (it is a dollar) we do not do much. Every time I come here to the cafe it does cost about 5-6 dollars so we will only come here once a day to update everyone. I love to get emails from the kids but I always wish they were longer emails. Hint Claudia please write more rather then "we are all good mom". I am currently reading 3 books at the same time. 2 of them are journey books with the Lord and the last one is about a couple who started an orphanage. I am learning one common theme in all of them.... His timing is always perfect! God loves each and everyone of us especially the orphans and He is with us in this journey. Wednesday will arrive soon and we just have to be patient. I will bring the books to the cafe next time and write them here in case any of you are interested. Well, yesterday we walked around the city again and so I am posting some more pictures. It is a beautiful city. Remember I said before that the women seem to have jumped out of a magazine...well yesterday we were watching a commercial being made. It was some fur coat commercial and the women were in a red car". I will try to post the video.

Today is Sunday...what do we do to pass time.

2010-08-22T08:01:00.005-04:00

Well, Here we are at the cafe again. Our apartment still has no internet but since we are hopefully leaving Wed who needs it right? Hope they do not charge us as an apartment with Internet access. We also had no water for 5 hours ( no warning but since I was familiar with this happening last year....I was prepared with hand sinitizer and wipes). There is no AC either but that is not to bad since there is a fan and the nights cool off. So much for kicking the coffee habit....expresso is what they serve here and it is good :). Anyways, so what do we do to pass time? Well, we watched the Discovery channel Bridezillas, Scrap racers, and Animal cops all these are in English. Elijah was very happy to see Shark week and SpongeBob. I read and Steven plays games on his Blackberry. If it is not to hot or raining like yesterday we went walking for sightseeing. There are so many clothing and shoe stores...it is unreal. Everyone in the capitol seems to have fashion as a priority. The women seem to have jumped out of a Cosmopolitan or Vogue Magazine. Beautiful people and so thin. Steven and Elijah also love seeing the cars. They are awesome to look at but other then one or two I just can't get into it like the boys do. Steven also loves watches and he saw one for sale...10,000 dollars!! yes, once you converted the money that was how much it cost in dollars. Why ?? Why would anyone spend this much when their are human beings (children) sitting waiting for the basics? Oh my, let me get off my soap box! I will not judge, who knows maybe the person who buys that watch will donated double that to a good cause. Right? Well, here are some pictures of our walking tour around the city. We can't wait to go see our kids but for now we are just learning about their country. It is a beautiful country with so much potential. Here is some pictures of the open market we went to.
Pictures of the open market. Steven said that was a picture of him back in the day (NOT)!

Yes we are here!

2010-08-21T05:47:00.006-04:00

Well, we would have written sooner but we do not have any internet access in the apartment. They have tried changing modems but still no luck and with the holidays coming I am sure walking to the cafe will be our only way to connect. So let me back track. We missed our first plane and had to wait until the next flight out of NC which instead of 2:30pm it was 5:30pm (not bad). Thank you to Golden Rule travel for helping us. We had a wonderful flight to Washington other than being separated (all 3 of us sat in different areas of the plane. Steven sat down to a Pilot who had also adopted 2 children so they got along great, Elijah sat next to a mom who apologized to him about the baby kicking him (he said she almost feel out when he said, "that's ok, I have 13 brothers and sisters" LOL I sat next to Adam a UNC student (sorry I know I talked your ear off about Reeces Rainbow and adoption). Once we arrived to Washington we only had a 2 hour wait then off to Munich Germany! The flight was LONG and by this time I was tired. They do serve alot of food and I do love flying Lufthansa the flight crew are always nice. We then took the next plane to our capitol city. Our taxi was waiting. It was Uncle Niko. It was so nice to see him after a year. We went to the apartment after exchanging money and buying some bread and cheese. We went to the apartment and slept..slept and slept. Then next day Thursday we went to the SDA where we met the Clarks. They had just finished their appointment and we were next. They took down our information and we were given an appointment to return the next day to pick up the referrals 2 of the 3. The plan is to start the process on 2 of the 3 children and then add the 3rd so that all can be combined in one court date. Well, anyways Friday after picking up the 2 children's paperwork we drove around the city. Our taxi driver has a son who does break dancing and hip-hop dancing (he has his own studio). We went there so that Steven who also danced (back in the day) could exchange some music and see the studio. Elijah enjoyed it but I think Steven had the most fun. Niko's son is Alex (Sasha here). Well, here are some pictures. So what do we do now. Now we have to wait until the holidays go by (Sun, Mon, Tues) and then we pray that our piece of dossier (one paper that the SDA required for us in particular) arrives so that we can have permission to proceed from here. Thank you to our awesome social worker who has helped get this paper for us, my awesome friends Stephanie and Nese who have made the phone calls needed besides keeping all my kids and thanks to Claudia my daughter who has emailed me to keep me updated of when to expect the paper to arrive. Please please pray for these wonderful people in our lives. Without them these kids would sit this Christmas with no presents, tree, mom and dad. Here are some pictures.

If you can donate...please do.

2010-08-15T08:29:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone,

This is something I do not like to do and that is ask for any donations but I have to put my feelings aside and ask. Please do not give if you are in anyway struggling financially, prayers are just as important so please just pray that God will ease the way and put those who are able to help on our path. Adoption is a commitment from the beginning and saving money has been our goal. I have worked a second job during this commitment time in order to raise the money needed. We have also shared our story with many people. It is not easy to raise funds for an adoption (as many of my RR families are very aware of). I think when you have a large family it is even tougher. I think you get forgotten at church,family and work and people just assume you do not need any help financially because "you have done this before". Yikes, Exactly, why we do need help. We know we have the ability, patience, love and knowledge of special needs to help these children but our love and work does not end there. These children require many doctor visits when they arrive to the US and even though we are blessed with health insurance there are still co-payments etc. and time off from work in order to help the kids get situated. Ian will require facial reconstruction. As you can imagine that will not be easy for him but.... he will have a mom and dad to support him through all of it. He will have a life outside of the institution. If you are able to donate please click on the button on the right where our children are profiled (it will be tax deductable through Reeces Rainbow). Please pass the word. We appreciate it. Our goal would be to raise enough money for the children's visas/passports/embassey exams and travel home. God Bless.

We have our travel Date!!

2010-08-05T18:35:00.002-04:00

This morning I woke up knowing very well it was Thursday. Thursdays are the days that families get submitted to the SDA. I figured maybe as they were submitting families they may just give our facilitator some hint of information about us. Well, I waited to hear from Nancy (our state side coordinator), I peaked over to our FSP to see if it still had $25...I think we all do this once in a while. I love seeing the 25 it is so much better than the zero. It means so much. Anyways, that is when I saw THE DATE. What did I do?? Scream of course! Yelling my husband's name and some of the oldest kids names. When they came into the den I was jumping up and down and they joined in. I didn't know what to do so I called my mother :)) Anyways, It has been a combination of making travel/flight plans, making sure to switch doctor appointments for the kids and a lot of walking back and forth kissing all the kids and thanking the Lord many many times. At one point I was crying just feeling blessed that God has given us so many beautiful gifts and here he was blessing us again. I felt as if we didn't deserve it. Thank you God.
We have 10 days to get ready.

Yahoo ! Our dossier was submitted today .

2010-07-22T12:59:00.004-04:00

Well, I just received notice from our awesome facilitator who told me that our dossier has been translated and submitted to the SDA. There was a little problem :( though, one of the children listed on our CSP was left out. It might have been during the translation of our paperwork. We have been approved for 3 special needs children and we need to hurry up and make sure that all 3 children are listed. We now wait for a travel date. This travel date will confirm that the SDA has reviewed our paperwork and has invited us to their country with the idea of adopting their wonderful children. Are we excited??? YOU BET we are. Please pray for us that the little glitch in the CSP gets ironed out quickly so that one of our children do not get left to go to the institution. We are adopting a 3 year old and 2 boys ready to be 5. All three children are at high risk for being transferred to an institution.

Here is a picture of our other son we are praying to adopt. His name Benjamin.

Dossier arrived in less than 48 hours.

2010-07-21T21:53:00.006-04:00

Last year our dossier had been held up in customs all because Of the mistake of the shipping site requiring a price to be placed on the package of documents. Our sweet facilitator had to pay an equivalent of 80 dollars to remove it. We paid her back right away but the stress of being on the phone with the DHL customer service people and the ship site people was to much for me. Well, anyways fast forward to this year. I drove around to several places and found that shipping my package from Staples at their UPS section would be the best. To send those documents it cost 155.00 but they guaranteed that it would arrive in 48 hours. Guess what? They stayed true to their word. It was awesome to receive and email saying our package of documents had arrived. I did try Fed Ex but was so disappointed with the girl on the counter who insisted that she would describe the package as a "binder". I asked her to please just write "documents" and explained what happened last year. The moment she said no...I walked out. Sorry Fed Ex but there was no way I would get burned twice besides it was more expensive and their guaranteed date for delivery was longer. Anyways, thank you UPS.
My documents did have a picture of Mother Theresa taped to the binder...I just felt that it would also help and it did.
So now we wait for our documents to get submitted. Last Thursday some of our wonderful families from Reeces Rainbow were submitted while ours was still being translated so maybe tomorrow ( Thursday ) ours will be.

Here is a picture of our little princess we hope to adopt. Her new name will be Eellia Gianna we are just stuck on how to spell it. It would be pronounced Long E on her first name. I will take any advice on how to spell it. Steven chose the middle name.

Trying to get the dossier together.

2010-06-16T08:26:00.003-04:00

Well, Yesterday was a combination of doing housework caught up and doing my dossier. I am happy to say that I did get some of both completed. The baby's room is all done. Floor is washed and it looks great. I was able to get 2 papers notarized and asked my mom to pick up certified copies of our marriage certificate. The 171-H has not arrived yet but we heard that it would be mailed the end of this week. It would be great if I could have my entire dossier completed before it arrived. The kids are so excited especially the 2 oldest. My daughter wanted to buy clothes for them but I cannot remember what size they are.
We have been thinking of names and we are very sure of one name being Ian Reece that would be Maxim's new name. Here is a picture of him at the orphanage. He always wears this hat.

We are adopting again! 2010

2010-06-14T08:50:00.004-04:00

Well, Our last adoption was finalized one year ago (August). We left Ukraine with many different feelings, one of those was sadness that we would not see these kids left behind again. We were sad that we would not see Ukraine again. We had become attached to this country because it was our new children's first home. Yes, the entire process of adoption was draining. We went into a land that we did not know the language. We were not sure if we would be rejected once we arrived. Steven was very nervous about going international. The Virgin Islands, Jamaica and Aruba was as far as Steven had gone. I having traveled to Portugal so many times as a child and traveling to Yugoslavia at 17 (for a pilgrimage) was less fearful of traveling internationally. There were initially so much fear but through it was hope. The hope came like slivers of light that would shine through our doubt. We knew this was God's plan.
So how did we make this decision to return? Well, once we were settled in there were 3 children that frequently came to mind. These 3 children were older and their potential for transfer was great and it still is until we return. Why these 3 children? It is amazing how you can look at a child and have a connection. So the race has started to do the paper chase all over again. Are we happy Yes. Are our children happy..Yes. They are so excited. Our son Elijah would like to travel with us again.
So here goes we have a very short time to raise the money and get our paperwork done.

Some of the wonderful people we met along our walk to the orphanage.

2010-02-18T08:48:00.005-05:00

Here is a picture of a man who sat almost every morning outside the apartment. Every morning we would smile and I think he enjoyed the company of sitting on the bench.
This is a picture of one of the staff nurses at the orphanage. She actually spoke some English. I think she had a "crush" on Steven. She would always find him and then giggle. I thought it was so cute. We need to send her this picture because she had told us she wanted a copy. The other picture is of a sweet sweet older lady who we adored. We met her during our walk to the orphanage. She sold pears that fell off her tree. We would give her 25 cents and she would want to give us 6-7 pears. We would only take 2-4 since many were rotten. She would be very offended if you did not take any. She was so sweet after a few times she would "save" some of the better looking pears for us. She looked forward to us passing by and saying hello. The problem was she would talk to us in Russian and we could not understand a word. One day we put the translator on the phone to tell her that we did not understand Russian and tell her why we walked past her house everyday. She said she knew we were headed to the orphanage. On the last day there we bought her a small gift basket and showed her the children. It was very hard for her to understand why we chose these special needs children as oppose to typical children. She felt as if it would be a "burden" but I think she could see by our smiles how happy and blessed we felt. She asked us to write to her but our translator had to remind her that we could not write in Russian. God Bless her. I hope she kept warm this cold winter.

Our walk to the orphanage-

2010-02-18T08:29:00.004-05:00

These are pictures of the apartments, inside they actually looked nice but there was not much the people can do about the outside since it was government owned. The small little "snack shops" were very convenient. They would be seen frequently. You could buy beer for 25-50cents at the most. It was more expensive to buy Pepsi or Coke. The house pictured below was very cute but no running water.

Some more pictures to capture the moments

2010-02-16T22:48:00.002-05:00

Some pictures of the children during our first visits.

2010-02-16T22:09:00.008-05:00

We visited our children the very next day. We would actually walk to the first orphanage to see Oksana and Nicholas which took about 40 minutes then we would visit Noah. His was a little further so we had to take a taxi. We visited them every day. Claudia and Elijah ( 12 and 11) truly enjoyed visiting. I think it gave them a true understanding of our children's way of life. It also hopefully inspired them to be open later in their grown life to adopt or do mission work.

Ok Now I really have to Update this Blog!

2010-02-16T17:30:00.003-05:00

Can I do this in one night? No! I really will have to make this my goal this week. Mmmmmm...I am now wishing I wrote something every night.
There are so many new pictures of the kids that have to be added but before I do that I would like to add a few more pictures of Ukraine. So tonight I will start this project (once all the kids are in bed). I also need to add a new family picture on the top with all our kids. So please check back tomorrow and we will see just how far I have gotten on this blog.

Slowly catching up on my blog.

2009-11-05T08:56:00.002-05:00

With 8 kids off to school and the babies still asleep, I decided to sit down and quickly add more to our blog. My kids look at the blog often and have asked me to add more pictures so that they can show their friends. I know for Elijah and Claudia this has been an awesome experience one that I pray will encourage them when older to do ministry work for children. At this point in our blog we have arrived at our children's city. We went to our new apartment, dropped off our luggage and went to the 2 orphanages where we met the orphanage doctor and they reviewed their medical records with us. The staff was then called to bring the children. The first one we saw was Nicholas (Danylo). He was tiny and so adorable (the nurse was with him). Here he was in person. I can tell you there was not one dry eye in that room. I could not stop looking at him. The staff then gave their input on his feeding and activity. After they left with Nicholas, Oksana(Annie) came in with another staff member. She looked at us and Steven reached out to hold her. She sat on Steven's lap and we could not stop smiling. We did not take any pictures so as not to stress them on the first day. We were told to come visit in the morning everyday 10-11am. We could not wait. We were then off to the second orphanage to meet Noah (Jack).
This was a 30 minute drive and again we sat with a doctor who told us about Noah. We were very welcomed there. Everyone there was so happy since it had only been hours before that his traveling to the institution had been stopped. Many smiled as they recounted the strory through the translator. Noah then came in with a staff member who also told us his developmental milestones. Noah watched us but when we approached him he was scared and scooted on his bottom backwards away from us towards the staff menber. He was 4 so his behavior was very appropiate. We would see him everyday and slowly he would come to know us. We were so happy to see him and it was okay to not get it in return.

In Kiev

2009-11-05T08:11:00.003-05:00

After our SDA appointment we waited in this very nice apartment. At this point we were either going on the night train to our children's city or we would leave in the morning. It was about 3pm now so we rested in our apartment until we heard from our facilitator. As soon as the fax arrived to the SDA giving us an "entry pass", Yulia called us and told us they were going to get our night train passes to go to Dnepropetrovsk. At 10pm we were picked by our driver and brought to the train station. It was 11pm when we departed and we arrived at 7am. I wish I had pictures of the inside cabin. It had 2 bunk beds on each side and a small table with a flower, bottled water, and some wafers. It had a large window with a shade. The cabin was approx 8' by 8' in size. The 4 of us were tired so I think we all slept at least 5 hours. The ride was smooth, but when it would come to a stop we would wake up. People were going to work in the morning we could see other people with their lunch boxes also waiting to get on the train. We felt safe on the train. In the morning they served black coffee/tea for 25 cents. When we got off the train our new driver and facilitator were waiting for us. They took us to our new apartment.

Here we are in Kiev- waiting for our SDA appointment.

2009-11-05T07:51:00.002-05:00

We were very tired by this point. We had been traveling for over 17 hours and had not slept for a day. We arrived just in time for our scheduled August 3rd appointment. Thank you God. This statue is a from a movie that was filmed here. We were told the name and forgot to write it down. If anyone knows please leave the name on the comments. The SDA appointment was very basic. Yulia translated for us and the lady at the SDA pulled our kids files out and read their history and explained why their parents had chosen to not take them home after birth. Once the parents were given the diagnosis of down syndrome the parents decided that it was not a commitment they could take. They had wanted them to be adopted and had agreed to name change. This was a very emotional time...I think seeing their files in front of us with their 2x2 picture made this very real. These children have no family. Once we accepted the official referral that is when the phone calls where made to the directors of the orphanages in order to give us permission to enter.

where to start....updates to bring us to today

2009-09-24T19:47:00.004-04:00

Elijah and Steven tried out the chair and loved it. Steven said the chair alone helped calm his nerves and could we get one....mmmm No.... beyond our price range..

Our flight there was not bad at all. Once we were actually on the plane I should say. We were to leave earlier but we missed our initial small flight to Charlotte NC and had to wait for the next plane out. The flight to Germany was long but having their own movie screen kept the kids busy.Claudia is 12 and Elijah 11. I wanted to bring them for the experience of another country and to give them the understanding of where their brothers and sister came from. I am hoping it will leave a great impression on them.

Hello Everyone,

I have not written since being in Ukraine. This will take time to back track yikes! Why blog in the first place? The reason being I think it is important for many reasons..testimony to God's work, hope and information for others in the process of adoption, memories for my children, venting and thinking outloud as situations happen and because I know how it feels to read other people's blogs. It is an awesome experience to know you are not alone through the good and the bad. I know in my heart that there are prayer warriors who also read the blogs and it is their simple words of "praying here" that get you going.

I think it will be easier if I post some pictures and explain them as I go along.

2009-08-07T13:59:00.001-04:00

The picture below is Jack. He was a half in hour in route to the institution for 4-7 year olds. It would have been to difficult for us to adopt him once he entered those doors. The director called and the bus turned around as soon as she got notice we were in country and accepted his referral. Praise the Lord!

2009-08-07T13:50:00.003-04:00

The picture below is Annie, she had fallen and left a bruise on her head. This other picture is Danylo he is 12 pounds and has a chest cold right now.

2009-08-07T13:45:00.001-04:00

We Made it Here!

2009-08-07T13:28:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone, We arrived on Monday and today is Friday. Sorry about the long wait. It was tough to get internet and with visiting the 3 children everyday, we have not made it to the cafe. Here are some pictures of our kids.

We have our travel date!!

2009-07-17T10:35:00.003-04:00

It was amazing to arrive home yesterday check our emails and see the wonderful news.
Our facilitator said our first appointment with the SDA will be August 3rd!! In the mail was our children's (Claudia and Elijah) passports! They are so excited to be traveling with us. They are the 2 oldest so they will be a great help especially when we travel home. This week 7 of our kids are at Bible Camp. They will be back Saturday for a week prior to leaving again for camp. They are loving camp. We have used the time with the 4 youngest to prepare them for us leaving and to also spend alone time with them.

We are so Thankful. What a beautiful Award.

2009-07-10T11:27:00.008-04:00

Hello Everyone,

As I sit here writing to you about accepting this truly wonderful award, my 3 youngest are beside me asking me what I am doing. I explain I am saying "thank you to a wonderful lady who gave mommy a hug". To me this award is a hug. The kids smile and say "I want a hug" and I give them all a hug and they say thank you. They then quickly jumped off the couch and went about playing doing what kids are suppose to do. They are playing and singing with no worries. This is what I hope and pray for with Danylo, Annie and Jack. These children in the orphanage do not know that, they are facing the mental institution. They do not know that it is already set up for them to be transferred if no family comes to pick them up. Even the best mental institutions are just that. These children do not know what lies before them but we do. We know and cannot pretend that we don't. As I look through my blog and many of my friend's blog's I see pictures of families doing simple things together, cooking, playing, laughing and growing together. This is what every child deserves ......a family. These children in these instiitutions will not have the experiences of doing even the basics of a family....the unlimited hugs and kisses, the mom and dad who are with a camera in hand ready to take pictures of their every achievements big and small, the unconditional love, the teaching of who God is and how special they are to Him. Yes, these children will have food and clothes and they will have the smiles from staff who have become close to them but at the end of the day the staff will go home to their own families and the children stay. We are now less than 3 weeks away from meeting our children for the first time. They do not know we even exist. They will probably be distant but that is okay because they will come home. They will have that mom and dad taking pictures of their every achievement. They will be having the unlimited hugs and smiles, the car rides to the store, the visits to the beach, the laughs of their brothers and sisters who just adore them. They will have a family to come to. I accept this award as a hug. It is a hug to remind me that this is not just MY dream but the dream and hopes of our Lord for every one of His children. Our Father adopted us, He sent Jesus to come and get us and save us from our own institutions. God expects and tells us to do the same "unto the least." God Bless You and thank you Ms Lu for the wonderful Hug.

The dossier has arrived to our children's country.

2009-06-29T18:50:00.003-04:00

We are patiently waiting to get an invitation to arrive at our children's country. I am praying that our dossier can be submitted soon so that I can buy the plane tickets. Our 11 year old son Elijah has asked us to let him go with us. He has been very excited about this adoption. The cost of his travel ticket made me think No at first but my husband has stated that he would love to have his company back to the US since he will be leaving before me and I will be staying for the 10 day waiting period. I could tell that this was very important to both of them. My 12 year old daughter Claudia will be going along with my best friend also a nurse to meet me towards the end of the adoption trip to help me bring the children home. Claudia is very responsible and I know shhe will be a great help especially when we take our short flight from Boston to NC.

With all this in mind, I went to get their passports and they had expired a year ago!! So off we went to the post office and went to get them their passports. I am hoping they arrive on time. I am thinking it will be easy since I sent back their old ones. We all went to the post office and then we all went to Kmart ...I hadn't been there in years. The kids favorite part was the mini merry-go-round . I remember those as a child. It was worth the 50 cents just to see their smiling faces.

We have been approved and our sending in the paperwork.

2009-06-10T12:31:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

We just arrived from Claudia's 5th grade graduation how sweet it was to see these kids so proud. They had the graduates baby/toddler pictures put into a slide show. I could not help but tear up. It was so adorable to see how much these kids have grown . We then came home to a message from our social worker. How awesome was this. She said the INS has also approved us for the adoption of our 3 children in Eastern Europe!! We are so excited. I listened to the message 2 times but still had to call and speak to our social worker and hear from her directly. She told us that they will send our letter and off we will go to get it apostilled. I will post some pictures later tonight.

Now I am on my way to get the kitchen decorated for our last day of school/promotion to new grade party. Today is the last day of school for all 8 of them. I am actually happy to have them home. Everyday now will feel like the weekend.

I wanted to also say thankyou for the donation to our adoption our FSP went up from 350 to 425!! Yahoo. Thank you.

The warm weather is here and the Bees are buzzing Happy Birthday Emma!.

2009-04-24T09:03:00.017-04:00

She did it !! She blew out her 3 candles!! The other young ones where great in not blowing it out for her. We had to explain it to Andrew and Angelina and they understood.

Emma celebrated her 3rd Birthday this month. We had a party before my parents left. Here are the kids singing Happy Birthday for the 3rd time because Emma kept saying "Do it again!" Some kids were done and wanted the cake instead. Happy Birthday Sweety!! I love you!

Here is our Drake named Daffy. He is going to be a daddy soon. Steven did not expect this !! It was so funny I said, Sweepy do you like Daddy's sign? The answer .....yes, maybe a little to much!!

Here is Sweepy. She walks around freely sometimes and she came around from the back of the house to see what sign Daddy was putting up. She loves being around the family. It looks like she likes the sign and approves.

This is a duplicate. I was trying to delete it but I am not very good at this part yet. I will let you know having Sweepy is like having a family dog.

This flag was perfect for our house!! I just love diary cows. This is one of our Roosters. My husband named him Flavor Flave. Hmmm. OK then. Anyways, he comes to the back porch ....eats the cat food and crows. He is actually good, we did have to get rid of one turkey who chased any visitors who got out of their car. He would usually walk not run around the car but with his feathers open he was very intimidating. He was like a watch dog but became a little to dangerous when we could not predict what he would do if he did catch up to the person running around their cars trying to avoid him. Many learned to call or beep to get Steven to go outside and shoo him away. Sometimes he was stubborn with Steven also. It did bring lots of laughs even from those being chased. We have a new Tom Turkey now but Flaver Flav here keeps him in check. The kids love reading the blog and especially love the music. Here they are in the kitchen looking at it. Hi Kids!!

The kids love taking the bus and it took them some work on convincing us that they would behave on the bus and listen to their bus driver. I can tell you with 7 siblings on the bus....you cannot get away with much because one will usually come through the door and tell on you. There are so many times I wish parents could ride on the bus so that the bus drivers would not have to drive and watch a bus load of kids but someone must have spoiled it for the rest of us because they do not allow it except for pre-elementary. Early morning hours we have a visitor in the pond. My husband has named him George. He loves to go fishing and usually is by himself.

Hello Everyone,

Hope everyone is doing great. It has been so wonderful reading all of our families' (Reeces Rainbow) journeys towards bringing all these wonderful children home. If you are not familiar with RR please click on some of the blogs on the right or go to the RR site and go under "sponsor adopting families" to read these stories. If you are moved to donate please do so whether it is for our adoption or any of our ( RR families') adoption. Right now, I do want to thank 2 beautiful woman who I have never met/or talked to but have donated to our FSP. Thank you so so much!! I have your names and pray for you often. One day not expecting to see a change I looked at our FSP..... it went from 0 to 300 dollars. Wow! I started to cry thinking maybe it was a mistake so I inquired about it and we were not familiar at all with the names but it was no mistake it was a gift for Danylo and Annie. We did not know them but they donated...we are so grateful to you and we hope that you are reading this. We also thank my brother Stephen who sent us 50.00 (Thank you Steven, I know you are reading this love you).

Where are we? I often ask myself OK what's next. It seems that the simple things such as getting our birth certificates ordered have had its hurdles. We were wondering why it seemed to be taking so long but after calling the vital stats agency there ad of getting our certificates in 3 business days where "misunderstood" it was actually 30 Business days and they blamed it on "Massachusetts". I did ask them to please modify their ad so that people would not be misled and did ask to have the manager call but still have not heard from them. It cost us 240.00 and still did not have the extra certified copies of our marriage and birth certificates. Anyways, the good news we had our family ( thank you mom and dad )back in Massachusetts obtain them for us. I guess we will have lots of copies!! So if you are even thinking of adopting please Lesson #1 make sure you have 2 certified copies of marriage and birth certificates before you even start. This had also held us back with getting our passports so we had to expedite them in other words double that cost. It cost us 400.00 but again waiting six-eight weeks would just be to long for us since we needed the numbers for our dossier. I hope this helps anyone who is new to international adoption. Lesson #2 Please get your passports way ahead of time before moving on to the next step.

In regards to our dossier we have been blessed with this wonderful woman named Phyllis. I feel that the day I walked in that office to notarize my first paper it was a blessing from God. I then hesitantly told her that "there were lots of papers that would have to be notarized and would she mind us coming to her?" without any rolling of eyes of bad karma she so angel like said sure "I will be here". I know she doesn't know about my blog and for sure does not know that I have written about her...but I have a favor to ask from you....could you please say a prayer that God blesses her because it is people like this that I believe God has placed along our journey to help us keep going on. Her smile alone gives us hope. By the way, she did not accept any money for her services but I told Steven that at the end of all this I will bring the children in to see her and bring her a gift card from them.

We have a goal that all our paperwork will be sent in by June 1st please pray for this also. I know God wants us to be very specific in our prayers.( Thank you God love you!) We have a wonderful social worker who has given us the hope and always makes me feel better after only talking to her for a short time. I know that my fears come out but she with her upbeat, hopeful, professionalism attitude eases my anxiety. Lesson # 3 pray to find good people who you can "vent to" without being criticized.

All of the children are doing well. They are very glad to not have to wear winter jackets to school. They are having a hard time in getting their homework done first THEN going outside. The weather is getting warmer so I don't blame them.... but what happens is they go outside ....then they are to tired to do any required reading or studying . Some have started doing their homework on the bus and I don't mind as long as their writing is neat. I know I would get sick but they're kids. I have included some pictures of the farm and kids. By the way we had a wonderful Easter. I misplaced the cable to my camera so cannot download the pictures from Easter other then the ones Steven took on his phone.

This month in April was not only Emma's 3rd Birthday but also Thomas 3rd year anniversary of his passing to be with Jesus. Thomas was a very special boy who lived with us for almost a year. He was in foster care not because he was neglected/abused but because of his complexity in his medical care. His parents wanted him to live in a family environment with the short life he had left. They felt that he was blessed having us but oh...... if only they knew how much Thomas blessed our family. He will forever be engraved in our hearts. He taught us to be better people and to love simple life and the gift that is given to us everyday LIFE. His parents and family will never be forgotten.

Families who are interested in doing Foster care must realize that the number one goal is reunification of the parents and child. We become caretakers of the children and become their parents until they can go back home. If a plan cannot be established or if the parents relinquish their rights .... we then are first in line to adopt them if it is our choice and the child's choice. I do suggest wholeheartedly to never put their biological parents down. As adoptive and foster parents we must be very careful in our words especially when talking about their biological parents. We must instead let these kids know that "they made bad choices" and encourage these children to forgive so that they do not harbor anger. I know that this could be a blog post in itself but I just felt it was so important to mention.

Tuesday's funny pictures.

2009-03-24T12:57:00.007-04:00

Poor Elijah he (well his behind) was stuck in the bucket. All the kids and Steven were feeding the animals when we heard Elijah scream "Dad, help I am stuck" Everyone burst out laughing!! It was just so funny because the look on his face. Well, let's just say it was a "got to have it picture" before dad saved him. We love you Elijah.

Angelina isn't that crazy about the trampoline she will jump for about 5 minutes and then want out. The younger two can stay in there for an hour. I bought it used and can tell you it was worth every penny. The net does fall off a few times but Steven fixes it quickly. That net has saved lives.

Andrew and that static..The kids love his hair.

Somehow the trampoline had static that day. Here is Emma and her hair.

Hello Everyone,

I hope all of you are doing well today. I actually have my apron on and am in between cleaning rooms....I wanted to take a quick break and post these pictures. My husband has his camera phone with him at all times and he will catch these pictures of the kids/and or animals and then email them to me. I wanted too share them with you in hopes it will make you smile.

2009-03-20T06:41:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone. I went to bed late reviewing all the stuff (paperwork) that still has to be done before our deadline. As with many adopting parents your initial list is overwhelming never mind the anxiety to raise the funds. I can only look at one to two things on that list and focus on them until done. Somehow it is never easy. Sometimes you feel that something will only take you an hour at the most but ends up taking you 2 days because of the snags along the way.
Yesterday, we also worked on touching base with our family and securing our children's placement during our travel.....we needed to make sure that each child would be safe and very well taken care of while we are gone. Our children are actually very excited about bringing home the children.
I have decided to place a few "waiting children" Pictures on the side in hopes that someone reading my blog might get that feeling....Many of the readers are already adopting and I understand that but I am thinking some of you may have come upon the blog by accident and who knows God works in mysterious way :)

We will not be able to adopt Josh....

2009-03-19T06:11:00.002-04:00

I wanted to let you know that Josh will not be the child that we bring home with Danylo and Annie. It was a misunderstanding in regards to what region he was located in. We needed to find a child who would be in the same house as our other 2 or at least very close by. This is important for travel times, court dates and cost. I pray that if Josh has touched your heart...please contact Reeces Rainbow asap so you may adopt him. We were given a picture of a few other children and it was very hard to "choose" They are all very beautiful but we wanted one who was older. As mentioned earlier, it was important to us because these children are getting closer to being transferred out of the baby house. We picked a little boy named "Jack". Again, we leave this all in God's hands. After adopting 9 kids....I never ask God why because He knows . I trust Him just as these children trust us . We say to them :

"Hi, We are going to be your new Mommy and Daddy" they smile, accept and trust us. How can we as adults not trust God?

I wanted you to know that Russellt the boy who I have had as "child of the Month" (by the way that was January... He now has a forever family!!! Yahoo!! One child at a time.

Long overdue blog!

2009-02-27T15:34:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone,

First I need to say that we have decided (after much prayer and talking it over) that we will be adding an older child to our adoption plans!! His name will be "Noah Thomas".

It was Russell (little boy pictured on the left...listed as Child of the month by the way that was January) who touched us and made me realize that I cannot leave that orphanage with 2 babies and leave behind an older child who may never be adopted. You may be wondering..well, why didn't you adopt Russell then? We did not adopt Russell because of cost and longer travel time since he is not close to Danylo and Annie's ophanage. We wanted to do best for all the children involved including those who will be here while we travel to bring home the children. We could not stay any longer and knew that would be the case with Russell.

The little boy we chose is 5 now his American name given is "Josh" real names are not given to protect the child's privacy. Danylo and Annie will both be 2 by July. Our children are very excited about the children but I have to admit the girl's are excited about the toddlers and the boy's are excited about Josh.

2009-01-04T15:46:00.005-05:00

Looking out the front door...

Dad put the Christmas lights up!!

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any donations are greatly appreciated. All are tax deductable when made to Reeces Rainbow. Please place Danylo and Annie's names under comment if donating through paypal.

2009-01-04T15:22:00.002-05:00

Claudia and Nideya
Our trip to Boston Quincy Market Place

Angelina in line to ride the cars.

2009-01-04T15:14:00.002-05:00

Taking a break while feeding the cats? Madeline, Daddy and Elijah

Our Family day at the Aquarium: Franklin, Elijah, Claudia and Emma.

2009-01-04T14:48:00.001-05:00

Emma loves to give Andrew hugs. They are 6 months apart

Getting ready for first day of school.

Andrew says LOOK!

2009-01-04T14:43:00.001-05:00

Sweepy ( our family cow) had just delivered It's A Boy!!

2009-01-04T14:38:00.001-05:00

Dad with Babe the pig. We have Tamworth they are reddish in color.

2009-01-04T14:36:00.000-05:00

Angelina and Noel helping mom feed our sheep and llama (Molly)

2009-01-04T14:29:00.002-05:00

Emma at the beach. Emma came to live with us when she was 3 weeks old (from foster care). Her adoption was finalized 22 months later.

Andrew loves taking pictures. He loves cars and trucks. The youngest in the family.

James and Noel at the beach.

2009-01-04T14:20:00.001-05:00

June 2008

Andrew, Angelina, Noel and Emma

2009-01-04T14:11:00.000-05:00

Our family Day at the Amusement Park.

2009-01-04T14:07:00.000-05:00

Madeline, James Franklin and Nideya watching the sheep get sheered

2009-01-04T13:58:00.000-05:00

Getting our sheep sheared.

2009-01-04T13:54:00.001-05:00

Dad and Allan trying to be cool. Our trip to Massachusetts.

2009-01-04T13:51:00.000-05:00

The boys James, Franklin and Samuel in the Club house

2009-01-04T13:48:00.000-05:00

2009-01-04T13:44:00.001-05:00

Elijah loves collecting bracelets. He has about 34.

2009-01-04T13:40:00.002-05:00

2009-01-04T13:36:00.000-05:00

2009-01-04T13:33:00.000-05:00

Pictures from 2008

2009-01-04T13:13:00.002-05:00

It was a busy and beautiful year. I was home both Christmas and New Years Day. As a nurse, this happens rarely. I have posted pictures.

It has been a busy week.

2008-12-16T07:44:00.010-05:00

I wanted to try to post every Monday but given that we have so much going on I was unable to sit down and find time to write. As you have seen , I have Reece's Rainbow web link in our family blog not only because I believe in all that it stands for but also because we are working on bringing 2 of RR children here to the US. They will be 2 when they come home and are currently in the orphanage. They have down syndrome and for that reason are on that website. Reece's Rainbow is an awesome ministry who works at bringing children and families together. They have prevented many children from going into the "institutions" (this is what happens when they turn 4) . They have brought these children from the walls in an orphanage to the homes of families who love them and show them the world. These children once in the US can be followed by cardiologists and therapists to improve their lives. These children with down syndrome have a purpose and I believe it is to remind us to live simple, enjoy life and be happy with how God has made you. You will find our angels pictures under "adopting families". As you can imagine getting our paperwork and documents together take time. My husband and I are anxious because they are in another country in an orphange (very different from what we are accostomed to with our other adoptions).

It is difficult for me to talk to much about it only because we are at the beginning stages and as with any adoption there are so many steps. During these times you remain hopeful and try to do something (in relation to the adoption) everyday. I make sure that every night I can look at their picture pray saying Thank you God for letting me have completed this and this in relation to the adoption. With any family but especially a large family, you have to balance many things throughout the day so I try not to be focused on only one thing/goals/dreams. I do pray that God make obvious to me what I need to to that day to accomplish our goals. The key for us is staying balanced and not being to rigid because you never know if your plans for the day will change quickly. You never know if one child needs you to make chicken soup because they are sick or if one of them says "oh mom my project is due tomorrow". We do balance work and play.

This past week we brought the children to the Rodeo for the first time. The tickets had been dropped off by another family who had adopted our 2 year old's (Emma) half sibling. It was a way of letting the children get to know each other. The older children know this is Emma's half bilogical brother and have told us that since Emma was their sister then that would make him their brother also. They are right!! I think they really enjoy having extended families. Anyways the children loved the Rodeo and said next time they want to wear boots and cowgirl/boy hats.

Our other adventure this week was bringing our draft horse to the vet. Moses did not seem to be holding his weight like the other horses. Moses is our Black Percheron he is about 20 years old. I honestly had bought Moses less than a year ago (was told that he was 8 years old!!!). I am so embarrassed to tell you that but I promised you that I would let you know my farm learning experiences as I went along. The vet was able to look at his teeth and determine that we had been "told a little lie". But the vet reassured us that he can still live to be 30 and given that he is a calm horse ...it was not so bad. This vet knows us well and is just a funny down to earth person who cherishes in teaching us as we go along. The vet agreed Moses had lost a lot of weight in such a short time. He decided he would do a quick exam and listen to his heart and lungs then check his mouth for any obvious problems. He diagnosed Moses with respiratory allergies possibly d/t the hay dust. He recommended buying better quality hay and taught us how to identify hay that has not gotten moistened in the bundling process. He also taught us to look at the hay and be able to tell when it had been cut. The vet filed his teeth and asked that we start Beet Pulp in addition to his sweet feed. The plan will be following up in 30 days. I have included some pictures. Well, talk to you soon. Keep us in your prayers and please pray for our angels.

Our Family in Brief.....

2008-12-08T07:41:00.003-05:00

Hello,

Welcome. My name is Jenny and my husband is Steven. We are parents to 12 children. I was a teen mom and have an 18 year old son. Steven and I gave birth to 2 children who are 12 and 10. Our family grew when we adopted 9 beautiful children ages 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2 1/2 and 2. Children have always been our life. We were foster parents to 4 wonderful children including our very much loved Thomas who will always be "our son" , he is in Heaven. Blessed are his biological parents who gave us the title of being his parents also. Thomas went to be with Jesus at the age of 2 years 3 months after his life long illness. We wait for the day to hug and kiss him again. We live on a 20 acre farm. Originally from the city/suburbs of Boston to our farm in the Carolinas . Come and see our journey as we mention our everyday lives of a large family, our adoption journeys past and present , why we promise to always have an open door to children and our farm adventures as we learn new things along the way.

This is my first post I will add as frequently as I can.