Family 2013

Family 2013
Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Pay it Forward :) & When God shuts a door he may open a window ....

All of these BEAUTIFUL children below, all 7 of them have benefited from YOUR generous donations to our USCIS fund. I have spread the love thru all of these Reeces Rainbow children! I chose children with Down Syndrome dear to my heart :) a sweet child with HIV in Benji's and Taiya's old orphanage, a child with CP (preston) that my daughter loves, and Oleg , a child that my friend was commited to but due to something that cannot be helped they can not adopt right now.
 Oleg is in real DANGER of being sent to the institution :( So from the very bottom of my heart THANK YOU SO MUCH!
 Charity :) this beauty with Down Syndrome lost her family, right at the same time we let Baby Anna go . Charity's NEW family hasnt found her ...yet! 
 Beautiful Drake is in (20) where Taiya was and he is HIV + and so handsome!
 Sweet Oscar has Down syndrome and is just too cute!
 Sweet sweet Preston! He is 4 and will spend the rest of his life in a bed if not adopted :( My Bug loves him. He has CP and so needs a chance at a life ! If you purchase a pillow case dress (on the left) the proceeds goes to Preston!
 Handsome tiny little Oleg :) he is in REAL DANGER of being sent to an institution ! He has a large grant of close to $4000 and I know we can find his mama !!
Sweet little Turner , He is a handsome little dude who needs a heart operation NOW. He has Down syndrome and must find a family quickly so he can get well and have  a wonderful life !
Last but not least. My favorite. My little Zara :) I have loved this baby since I first laid eyes on her in December. She had Down Syndrome and has been very sick with heart issues and a few others things. She has been in the hospital for a long while but is at the orphanage now trying to heal. She needs a family. If the Lord leads us in her direction at some point...well . I will be a happy mama ! I just love her and see Taiya in her :) If her family finds her first then I will be sooo happy for her!

Each of you friends who donated to help us, helped each of these children :) xoxoxo

Ok.

never stop trusting the Lord has a plan. We have a situation to adopt that we are looking into. This is our window :) I will keep you updated. You wont believe it when I can share !

Pray for us? Please ask the Lord to allow us to parent this child IF he believes we can care for this child. If this is HIS plan. Pray for the parents to hear the Lords plans for the child and for their hearts to heal.


Pray for Baby Annas family who is meeting her right now!
Pray for my dear friend K- who had to make a heart breaking decision to not proceed with their adoption . I know her heart is hurting and I want her to know, we all are praying for them.
 My guatemalan Princesa :) and sweet Taiya !

My handsome sweet boy :):)

Hugs!!!
xoxox

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fair day catch up :)

 Gotta love your local fair! We try to go every year since its usually cool out and not torture walking around in the hot sun :) sweaty hot kids is NOT fun.
We love seeing all the animals and the kids ride a couple rides each , we have one meal there and just enjoy the day.
 Taiya gave this cute little Chi and very special Taiya kiss :)




 Gave up trying to get a perfect shot. They were just too excited . They're still pretty cute :)
 My beautiful cowgirl :)
 My cheeky Mayan princesa
 My spicey Ethiopian beauty :)
 My handsome,growing up too fast 12 year old first baby :)
Our sweet handsome little guy :)

 Taiya was NOT a fan of the hat :(
Cant argue with the shirt :) Thanks Tami !

I promise to get caught up with pictures soon! this batch was from February.  When I look at Benji and Taiyas picture I cant believe these sweet children have only been in our family since October! They have just blown our minds with how well they have adjusted and learned about life in a family. And Taiya well she is just such an amazing survivor ! She has hit milestones we didnt think she would hit for a year!
OH!
Taiya can say "up" "out" "num-num" (food) and mom-mom ! And she LOVES to pucker up for kisses !

Things are good :)
Baby Anna will be meeting her new family early next week and be on her way home in another few weeks after that. What a lucky little girl she will be :) AND what a blessed family she will have. I pray for her birthmom too. I know how much she wants her little girl to be adopted but I can only imagine how much her heart will break too :(  so bittersweet.

REMEMBER !! If you donated to our USCIS fund I will refund your money if you would like . If not I will be paypal-ing the full amount to Reeces Rainbow by saturday. If I dont hear from you, I will assume you would like the money to be forwarded on to another child :) it will still help bring a baby home !

HUGS!!!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

The post I NEVER thought I would write :(

Im just going to jump right to it. If you are on Reeces Rainbow.org or facebook with me- well you know my heartbreak.

If not here goes-

I started to feel very uneasy about our adoption of Baby Anna about a month ago but I pushed the feelings away. I was becoming more and more uneasy and not sure why. It is not that I am "overwhelmed" or "need to focus on my kids at home" or that its "time to spend money on the kids I have" nope. nada. So please, dont go there.
I prayed and prayed and slowly the answer was coming to me. I have NEVER felt this way thru our 4 adoptions. Never. I would ache to get to my babies. I would always say it would be ok. The money will come. They are meant to be ours. '
But as time passed those feelings were not there :( Baby Anna is beautiful and perfect and I know she would have been a beautiful member of our family.
After praying and soul searching and confiding in my husband and a very good friend, I had my answer.

I was not meant to be Baby Anna's mama. I am just a part of her journey to her forever family. I cried. My heart broke. And we let her go...........
I cried. Boo cried. It hurt so so bad . But it has never been about me. Its about the children who desperately need to be rescued. It about bringing Glory to God.

I never ever thought I could do this. It is awful and sad and so wrong to walk away from a child. Where does it say its ok to leave an orphan behind in the bible? :(
But-

Less than 24 hours later her new family found her. The Hagler family have 2 bio boys and are adopting a little boy with Down syndrome from the same orphanage that baby anna is in. She will be a princess in her new family and be loved SO MUCH. They are traveling early next week. She will be a daughter very soon. Baby Anna we will always love you and cant wait to watch you blossom in your new family !

Was that a sign? Maybe. I have to believe it was. I have to .

I know we will adopt again, maybe soon, maybe next year. This wasnt planned but the Lord has a way of knowing the right path for all of us. I have to trust HIM even when I dont understand.


For everyone that so kindly donated to our adoption, thank you!
If you donated to Reeces Rainbow all the money went straight to baby anna.

If you donated via my chip in or check let me know if you would like your donation returned. I will happily.

If you would like your donation to go to baby anna or another child on RR just let me know and I will paypal it to andrea at RR.

If you mailed a check, I havent cashed them. Would you like it forwarded to RR or torn up ? Let me know.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. This was a very heart breaking thing to do. Something I suffered over and am still so sad about. Our journey is not over and Baby Anna's life is about to really begin ! GOD is so good.

My email -  octpumpkinatmsndotcom :)
Hugs!
xoxo

Saturday, March 12, 2011

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY TAIYA! And ALOT of sister silliness !

Happy Birthday Sweet Taiya !

Can you believe our sweet baby is 5? I am blown away and so THANKFUL she is home with her family. How pretty is she? You can just see the sparkle in her eyes and the pink in her chubby cheeks!
We had a nice family party for her and she enjoyed herself :)

We had our appointment w the endocrinologist. What a waste :( it took an hour to drive there, my dh took time off work , we went with all 8 of us , waited an hour for a 10 min appt! Only to be told that one of her counts is high indicating a low thyroid and the other count is low indicating a high thyroid. ( I may have that backward? but you get the idea) All to say we need another bloodtest ! Oh well..what can you do? I wish they would have asked for another blood test before we came, so we could get a diagnosis :(  I hate taking her for blood. This will be the 4th time ;(

Ok. In case you ever wondered how SILLY life can get with a 2 yr old, a 4 yr old and a newly 5 yr old  set of sisters, well let me tell ya. Trying to get a picture when one of them has the giggles in nutty! I tried to get a shot of the 3 little girls in their new dresses Buka bought for them and it was hillarious! I decided to share the effort  with ya'll. Good thing Benji wasnt in on it too....then it really gets crazy :)


Here Boo is trying to NOT LAUGH. Taiya in calm so far.......


Wait a minute...now Taiya is getting into it!




Baby congratulating Taiya on being so funny :)




Taiya is wondering if I'm finally done :)   Yes baby. I'm done ;)
 btw look at that chunky little leg ! How awesome is that?

Taiya had a great birthday party, loved opening presents and tasting some cake. Mama is just happy she is HERE alive and blossoming :) Oh how I love this little baby girl!

~If you could pray for the children of Ethiopia and the people who are in power. Please pray for kind words to be spoken and hearts to be opened.And for those who have evil in their hearts to be exposed.  Leaving 90% of children who COULD find a family in poverty and orphaned is NOT the answer. So many children would fall thru the cracks. Stopping corruption is VERY important but there has to be a better way. My heart breaks for all the families in process and all the children who would be hurt.

~If you could also pray for The Lord to show us his Grace and help us to somehow find the right path to take? The Lord knows the issue, I am being vague I know but we truly could use the prayers right now for guidance and peace.

Hugs !
"...Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know, and holds us responsible to ACT..." Proverbs 24:12

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -(Mahatma Gandhi)