I Love you more than Cookies !

Long time no posts eh?

2011-07-22T09:29:00.000-05:00

Wow. I cant believe it has been over 2 months since I have blogged! That is crazy. And , well, our life has been crazy. We have gone thru some really hard, emotionally draining, soul searching, life evaluating things in the first half of this year and I had to process. And find my "new" normal. Emotionally and spiritually.
I have to admit I have struggled. Badly. Still struggling a bit spiritually I am ashamed to admit.
I do think I am about ready to share. I feel I can 'own' our journey now and no longer feel worried or sad over sharing.

So its coming :) Hang in just a bit k?

btw~All kids are doing wonderful. Everyone is healthy , so no worries there :)

HUGS~

Their families found them!

2011-04-20T10:11:00.000-05:00

These sweetie is going home !! Look how cute she is ???

Little Turner will come home and have the surgery he so needs with the love of a family :)

Sweet Zara :) oh how I love her. Her family found her ! She will be a FIRST CHILD ! How awesome is that?

~Its been a b.a.d. month or so for us. Lots of disappointments, hard decisions and loss :( A blog post coming soon to share. Can you pray for some guidance for us? We KNOW all has been the Lords plan, and we trust. Sometimes its just hard to be strong ya know? We will get thru it :)

"If the Lord leads you to it, He WILL lead you thru it "

Hugs :)

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

2011-03-30T22:19:00.003-05:00

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

Fair day catch up :)

2011-03-24T15:10:00.000-05:00

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!!!

The post I NEVER thought I would write :(

2011-03-19T15:41:00.001-05:00

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

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

2011-03-12T15:09:00.001-06:00

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 !

H. Pylori :( and Tick bites, Families Needed !

2011-02-23T11:50:00.000-06:00

H. Pylori bacteria :( this is the medication I have been giving to the 3 little kids for about 5 weeks now. 2 times a day. Its a joy. Taiya is very tricky , because if she gets a taste of 2 of the medications she quickly spits the whole mess out :( then we have to try again. So I try to disguise it in applesauce or yogurt with some sugar on top :) To read about the H.Pylori joy click here we still have another 3 weeks worth of meds to go....

This is exactly what I needed. I found a nasty DEER TICK on my side 2 weeks ago. We live in the country but I have never seen a Deer tick around here before. It was not the normal passive brown tick...this little sucker was not going to be removed! He was digging into my side and it hurt! After removing it, it throbbed and by day 2...you can see the inflammation and infection setting in. I felt icky too :( A few folks said "no big deal don't worry" and many others said "get to a Dr" so After trusting myself, and calling the Dr...I went to a walk in clinic.
The Dr there said Lyme disease risks aside- I clearly had Cellulitis starting ! That explained why it looked so infected and I felt like I had a fever starting :( so I opted for the 2 weeks of antibiotics . Sheesh! never a dull moment ;)

Taiya has her apt for her thyroid issues next Monday. Fingers crossed they find a solution easily for our little one.

ARE YOU MY MAMA ??

This little boy is Preston. He is 4 years old and at GREAT RISK of being moved to an institution for disabled children :( He has CP most likely. Sadly his picture doesn't show any of his personality..but his mama has to be able to look PAST his bad picture and save him. My Giana loves this little guy and is having a bake sale this weekend to try to raise money for his grant and her plane ticket to Baby Anna's country with us. :):)

OK. This is Lauren :):) She will turn 4 in March. I love this little beauty! She is in Baby Anna's baby house and she is HIV +
I would LOVE to scoop her up ! She will make a beautiful daughter :):) Is she your little girl??

This little cherub is Ilya :) his birthday is June 2006 :) what a sweet little face he has ! He has Down syndrome and needs his mama so bad !!! He also has a nice size grant and single moms are welcome!

Go to www.reecesrainbow.org to find out more about these little cuties !

Thank you to everyone who has donated or purchased a dress :) We are only about $200 away from our goal to cover our USCIS FEES! Don't forget you don't have to buy a dress, you can purchase just socks or a doll dress with free shipping !! Every $1 is a blessing.

I have an surprise too !! We have decided on Baby Anna's new name :) Its coming next...... any guesses ??
Hugs !!

Cuteness! Pillow case Dresses & MATCHING doll dresses w/bows and socks OhMY!

2011-02-14T10:41:00.003-06:00

Brown with flowers

Pink with butterflies

Green with ladybugs

Salmon pink with brown/blue cirles

BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL DRESSES and

OPTIONAL MATCHING DOLL DRESS !

Optional matching socks with either ribbon or bead trim !!

beads close up , they will match your fabric choice

Optional bow to match dress choice :)

SOCKS, BOWS AND DOLL DRESSES SHIP FREE !!!!

My friend Jessica is donating all materials and time to make some ADORABLE girls dresses and matching doll dresses. You can also buy matching hair bows or socks ! The socks are either beaded or ribbon topped :):) Jess's sister in law is donating her time to make beautiful hair bows to match !can you say LOVE !
Once you order Jess will make your dress in either size -
18 month
3T
5/6
remember these dresses are very adjustable so pick a size close to what your child wears and you can easily size up or down :)

socks come in sz-
24 months
6-10 shoe sz

I have had these cute socks on my girls from infant (6 months) all the way up to Bug in a sz 2 shoe. They wash wonderful and are SO CUTE! Jess's SIL's bow company MadeByMe Bowtique.

Dresses and accessories are on a donation basis :):) Remember this is a non-profit endeavor. ALL FUNDS will go to bring home Baby Anna :)

Minimum donations listed below:

$15- Girls dress

$5- doll dress

$3- ribbon socks

$5- beaded socks

$4- hair bows

(can you BELIEVE these prices??? Thank you SOOOO MUCH JESS !)

Please fee free to repost and share on Facebook :)

Please use the chip-in on the left sidebar, under the picture of the dresses (saving baby Anna) . When you pay w pay pal please leave the fabric choice, dress sz, and any accessories you would like in the "note to seller box" if you would like to send a check, email me at octpumpkin@msn.com and I will hook ya up ;)

Shipping with be $5.00 flat fee NO matter how many items you buy and the bows will ship separate from Jess's sister in law (no extra shipping fee) who has a beautiful bow business .

We are continually blown away by the kindness and good wishes from people who (in most cases) we have NEVER EVEN MET ! Kind people who pray for our children, and support us in walking this walk led by faith :):) THANK YOU TO EACH OF YOU.

Taiya thanks you too, for helping us to bring home her new baby sister !!

(Picture of baby Anna from the Reeces Rainbow angel tree drive)

Thank you to each of you who have donated to help us cover our United States Customs and Immigration Fees (uscis) xoxoxo

HUGS!!

Seriously ? Why ? This is why pictures :)

2011-02-04T20:44:00.000-06:00

Why does it cost that much?
Thats been the question of the day lately. People can not fathom WHY it should be so expensive to adopt children, who are not considered worthy in their own society due to their special needs. These children are destined to a mental institution and rarely will they live long enough to see adulthood, so really they should be HAPPY we are adopting them, right? Like maybe it should be free ? Umm, nice try ;)

looking out the window at the tree guys cutting down a tree ;)
I am sure they love to see the children find homes.

But every step of the process has a cost. Homestudy can be anywhere from hundreds for an update like ours this time, to $1000's then, notary fees for about 23 documents, to mailing the documents to the capitol for a Apostille stamps , at $10 per documents, $20 per marriage license x's 2 and mailing fees of either 4.95 both ways(scary without tracking) or 18.95 for expedited shipping and tracking, which is x's 2 to mail them back to you. Next you have to pay for new birth certificates, and marriage licenses, and Dr appts and tests ;) also you have to fax each paper to your stateside helper to be sure everything is good to go , which if you are like me , without a fax machine costs $2 for the first page and $1 for each page after :) Then comes the USCIS fee which is now $720 for the first child plus $80 per adult to be fingerprinted, finally to ship off ALL the documents to your childs Country in Europe is a jaw dropping $150 ! Plus now we have to send the translations fees over with the documents which is around $500 (somewhere in there, cant remember exactly right now)
Sooo you can see that before you even LEAVE the country the costs add up :(
Most folks in the adoption world know these fees are just part of the "ransom" to rescue our childrens lives back for them.And we will bow our heads and ask for help all in the name of saving our child and making Jesus happy :):) But add in , well life , and things can get tight :(

So I will be doing a couple little giveaways (bowing my head ) to try to raise our USCIS fees which I learned have gone up to $720 per child :(
plus of course, the $80 x 2 for fingerprints.
So for the folks that didnt know, this is why many adoptive families are struggling to raise money thru the whole process. It does take a bite out of your monthly budget...it is a ransom that is SO WORTH paying . It just takes a bit of creative financing sometimes ;) this is one of those times.

my sweet Bug painted a picture with "PRESTON 17 " 's picture and raffled it off to raise money for this sweet little boy she loves on Reeces Rainbow. We are raising kids who have a heart for those less fortunate , they are learning ..guess what? IT AIN'T all about YOU. :)

I have added a "chip in" button on the right sidebar. If you feel led to donate to our 'United States Customs and Immigration fund' we would be so very blessed and humbled :) Unfortunatley we are short the funds to apply right now . This sucks. But jumping right in to save baby Anna was faith and we knew it was going to be hard to come up with so much money again so quickly.
It is SO worth it. We cant wait to hold our new baby girl in our arms and watch her hit each new milestone just like sweet Taiya :) And you get to be a part of it too ! Each of you who follow my little blog are part of this amazing process . And we are so very thankful for each of you :)
So check back next week for some goodies to bid on :)
Now for the cuteness you really came here for
;) oh yeah...I know you just want pictures lol ;)

Look at my plump little Taiya! She is just blossoming !

and she is pretty cool to sleep next to as you can see :) Both Baby girl and Boo sneak in Taiya's crib drawn in by her gently sweetness.

Ok , NOT sure what Taiya was doing here :)

So. That is why is costs so much . That is why we cant go to lunch at pizza hut for a playdate.
And, THAT is why it is all so worth it :)
Hugs !!!

2 Less Orphans BABY ! Gods plans..

2011-01-19T21:57:00.000-06:00

Look to the right side bar.
See Gavin's button? Gavin is on his way to a very remote "mental institution" for children 4- 25 :(
Gavin has always had my heart. Gavin has Down Syndrome and is in the same orphanage has our babies Taiya and Benji. ACTUALLY- Gavin is in THE SAME LAYING DOWN ROOM
AS OUR TAIYA WAS :( I saw him, looked into his eyes. At the time he was familiar to me, but I didn't place him as Gavin. We all thought Gavin was higher functioning and in a good room . He is 6 and his time has run out . A baby. Like my baby. Going to a horrible lonely place...to die. Alone.

Oh wait a minute !!
NO HE'S NOT ! ;)

My sweet friend Lindy and her hubby (and her awesome , sweet kiddos , Genesis, Jude and Zane:) have stepped forward to adopt Gavin ! This baby boy who has sensory issues, is very small for his age, doesn't walk, talk or do much, will HAVE A MAMA AND A PAPA !! Oh baby boy your life is about to change in an amazing way !! Hang on sweet boy !!

But That wasn't enough.

They have also stepped up to adopt the last child at Orphanage 20 with Down syndrome who is eligible for adoption.( Sadly many parents never release their parental rights and the children are given a life sentence of orphanages and mental institutions :(

Sweet Tristan !!

He is 5 and .......he is now in Benji's old room !!! He filled Benji's spot when he left ! How amazing and so like GOD to weave this whole thing to mirror our adoption, and bring our home school friend back from Tennessee where they had moved for a year or so , to Florida not only to our rural town but 5 minutes from our house !!
I sit in awe when I look back at the road the Lord paves for us and just waits while we walk it :)

This is Lindy's blog - visit and say hello :)

2 beautiful children have found their families and they are going to be my neighbors !! Oh yes I am so flipping happy for my friend, these beautiful boys and me :) heehee :)

Btw- the family adopting Benji's best friend , was a childhood friend of my friend Lindy! I asked her to cross post Sasha's picture on face book and BAM ! Another mama found her child ! Be still my heart. Seriously Crazy !!
Can you see my smile ????

Btw- Benji is now only flushing the toilet about 4 times after using the potty or not using the potty ;) versus the 152 times he was flushing :)

Some cuteness just cause it would be wrong NOT to share :)

My beautiful strong survivor :)

My 3 little sweeties :) look at Taiyas face how full of life !

Oh how I love my Ethiopian sweetie :):)

Hugs !!

Sisters love :)

2011-01-17T11:42:00.000-06:00

My teeny Baby girl has finally learned how to climb out of her crib :( well where do you think she goes?

IN TAIYA'S CRIB!

How stinkin cute is that? I have found them cuddled together the last few nights :) I love that Baby girl sees Taiya as her "baby sister" even though Taiya will be 5 (gasp!) next month and Baby girl is only 2 :)
I gotta say with a champion like Baby girl on her side, Taiya has nothing to worry about in life :):)
Baby girl is one tough little Ethiopian ;)

Hugs !!!

Thank you from Baby Anna & BF finds a home !!

2011-01-11T11:29:00.001-06:00

Thank you , to everyone who prayed for, and gave our baby Anna a birthday gift :) Her grant has grown by $200 ! That is 200 steps closer to bringing her home :)

AND IN BIG NEWS-

Remember this sweetie? This is Benji's best friend since they were little babies. Truly they were more like brothers. In the insecure world of an orphanage these 2 little boys formed a bond and cared for each other. They were constantly hugging or holding hands. It was so sweet and broke our hearts at the same time. We vowed to find a way to have "sasha" listed on Reeces Rainbow and work so very hard to find him a family of his own. At the time we couldnt bring him home since we werent approved for 3 children :(
Well just a few weeks ago after many emails to Andrea ;) finally Sasha was on Reeces Rainbow ! I worked hard to advocate for him and asked friends to cross post, AND IT WORKED ! His family has found him just in time !! This tiny boy is 6 and was destined to the institution very very soon :(
We couldnt be his family at this time, since we are commited to Baby Anna and they are in two different cities far apart. Yes we would have gone back for him if he didnt find a family, but we couldnt bear to see this sweet little boy step one foot into a dark scary institution. He may not have survived it .
He will be a big brother to a beautiful little boy. His soon to be family is in the military so he will have a very exciting life :):)

Sasha we love you and are so happy for you !! We are praying we will be able to get the boys together so they can continue the bond they have .

hugs !!!!

The Best Gift-Drum roll please .....

2011-01-04T22:09:00.000-06:00

You know what they say - " it's better to give than to receive "
I believe that's true .
What about giving a gift that keeps on giving ?
That's pretty cool too right ?
How about putting others before yourself ? Great rule to live by.

And one of my favorites is the plan to "Live your life storing up Godly treasure Not Worldly treasures ." another important lesson to live by.
(I have a point I promise :)

Meet Sweet Baby Anna -

Today is her birthday . She is turning 3.
She lives in an orphanage in Europe. Do you think anyone is bringing her a little cake or a cute little hat? Maybe a soft teddy bear ? Most likely not. It will be like every other day. Day in and Day out.
Her birthmother is very young and adores her. But she can't care for her :( why ? Because Anna has Down syndrome . Her mom will lose her apartment ,her job and maybe some friends and family . She most likely will not get married . Her society will punish her because she loves her child with special needs.So Anna is alone . In an orphanage for another year , then she will be sent to a mental institution. But for now her birth mom prays and begs everyone to find her baby a home. Someone to take her out of this place and love her. Cherish her. Like she does a few days a month when she visits Anna. You see her birthmom loves her and is standing by trying to do the right thing for her baby .She is trying hard to give her the gift of a life.

What would Anna and her birthmom like MOST for Annas 3rd birthday ?
A loving forever family ! A chance at a wonderful life.
Guess what ??

They are going to get their wish !!!

Baby Anna will be our daughter !!

We saw the desperate need . We heard the cries. We are willing to work hard , pray harder and make it happen.
Why?
Because NO child should live and die in an orphanage.

We know it will be a bit tricky to do this all over again so quickly . But we have to. Saving another life and giving peace to Anna's birth mom is worth it .Having another beautiful daughter is worth it ! And oh my !! The gifts we receive in love and joy - so worth it !
Making Jesus smile by saving his children? Yup. SO worth it.

Can you help us celebrate Annas birthday today? Can you make A donation to her grant fund for her birthday to help us bring her home quickly ?? thank you all !! xoxo
Click here to peek at our bio :) and donate a gift to baby Anna .
Hugs !!!

More cuteness

2011-01-03T23:15:00.001-06:00

found these pics I had forgot to post from October. HUGE thank you to sweet Tisha for the cutie pootie outfits on both kiddos :) we love them.
Hugs !

Merry Christmas and awesome gifts :)

2010-12-28T23:09:00.000-06:00

My cute babies in their new Christmas Eve pjs . LOOK at Taya ! She was cracking Baby girl up by being cheeky :)

My beautiful family :) THIS is what life is about. Not "things" .
We sacrafice alot , but boy is it worth it :)

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL BLESSED HOLIDAY celebrating FATHER GOD and his HOLY SON :)

What a miracle to have our new babies home, to celebrate, to rejoice that they are alive ! When I think of all those children left behind in Tayas old room. Oh my word. My heart breaks for them. So much potential so much life left to live-but no chance...
Please Pray for all the orphans left behind. Let people know these children CAN be so much more. We cant forget. We dont want to. And we need your help to make people wake up and notice . Look at Taya, so much potential left lying in a crib . She is blowing our socks off each day !
Thank you to Kristen :) the awesome formula she has sent helped Taya to gain 3 pds ! And Tisha, what an angel you are to us :
Many a gift or 2 arrived for Benji and Taiya from kind folks :) thank to all of you !

We have a more to share soon :) many more pictures coming too !

Hugs !!

Taiya our MIRACLE BABY :) Taking her FIRST STEPS!

2010-12-07T14:39:00.000-06:00

Can you believe my baby is taking her first steps at 4 1/2 years old ??? AND only home 6 weeks! She has gone from a beautiful baby who just hung out in a peaceful daze...to a baby who TRIES to interact, seeks out love and interaction and is TAKING HER FIRST STEPS!

A longer post is coming with lots of pictures very soon :)

Hugs!!

Happy Thanksgiving Pictures :) OUR forever families FOUND us !!

2010-11-27T12:18:00.000-06:00

I hope this post finds you all happy and thankful for all God has made possible in your lives :) I hope you if you entered the crazy world of BLACK FRIDAY , you enjoyed yourself ! Me? no way! I am an amazon shopper all the way ;)

~I am so thankful for Tisha and all the kind folks she has touched. We received our first couple boxes of goodies ! Some awesome formula for Taya, Nutren high calorie. She loves it. Thank you so much Kristen! And 2 cases of diaper wipes ! WOOT WOOT!! What a huge blessing this is :) Tisha has raised almost $775 for our diaper and formula needs ! Holy smokes ! You can check out her blog a couple posts down, she is awesome and the mama to 5 beautiful kiddos.

I found myself thinking back over the last 1 1/2 years and I am just amazed at how low we found ourselves at one point, and how faith and listening to God's whispers can open your mind and bring you to a place your NEVER thought you would be , and amazingly it is MUCH BETTER PLACE to be :) Plus 2 new children we never thought we would have. I wish I could share so much of the things that rocked our world with ya, but not yet....we are so thankful for the ability to be OPEN to God's plan, even when we didnt think it was our plan ! God chuckles I bet, when we resist, and come up with SO many reasons why we shouldnt / couldnt do what he asks...knowing along that it is right and good . His plan is to better us and bring him Glory. HOW can that be wrong?

SO thankful these little beauties are going to be going home to forever families very soon !! Thank you for your prayers for them :)
Dont forget to peek & click on the left-at all the Orphans still waiting on the Christmas angel tree for Reeces Rainbow :) donate to help a family pay the ransom for each little love.

SWEET Martin finally will be rescued ! I have advocated for him many times, and sadly he was sent to the mental institution recently. BUT his family has finally found him and will be rescuing this beautiful little boy !!

Remember Monroe ? His mommy and daddy are in EE RIGHT NOW, finalizing his adoption !! They worked super fast to rescue him and will be bringing him AND a new sister home to Florida :)

Beautiful sweet toby :) oh how I love this little beauty ! He has lost several families which I know broke their hearts, but again he has been found :) Praying this little one goes home to his forever familiy this time :)

Thanksgiving :) so thankful for my newest children being home safe and sound and just blossoming ! Thankful Taya is ALIVE and happy.

My pumpkin and I together 23 years ! gulp....how old are we ? Lol..

My sweet sister and her new nephew and niece :)

GOTTA love matching dresses :)

My sister and her boyfriend Ry

My sweet big boy :)

My girl :)

Papi and Boo :)

My mom "booka" has Benji says :)

Thanksgiving dinner Taya style :) everything we had blended up !

Bug was in charge of the table :)

Hugs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keeping it R.E.A.L ~ and pictures!

2010-11-24T11:34:00.001-06:00

oK. First you know I love adoption and love and cherish ALL my kiddos. But well, there is an adjustment period...either with an infant or a 5 year old :) throw in a language barrier and being a very busy boy and well ..you have some trying moments :)

Taya is doing amazing and is blossoming before our eyes. But along with all the blossoming, we have had some harder moments. in the beginning she is very delayed. I was generous when I stated she was at an 18 month old level :( It was more just being in love with her, I didn't want to admit how delayed she was. But it was more like 6-8 month old. She couldn't hold a bottle, crawl or walk, or talk. She is 4 1/2 yrs old. She weighed 21 #s. It was like picking up and carrying 20 #s of newborn baby. NO muscle tone at all. Floppy. She didn't really interact unless pushed too, then she would be interested but in a very slow calm way. She did like to be held and music would engage her. She was pretty much non-verbal except for a growl or loud scream like shriek when upset or angry mostly at mealtimes. It could be draining :( But she slept like a champ :) And is very sweet natured and learning to be loved and smile when we smile at her :) She has learned to sign "more" for food so less growling .She is our little flower. And I wouldn't change a thing :)

Benji is very outgoing and loves to give hugs and be hugged. to everyone, so boundaries are being learned. He talks up a storm , in Russian ;) Language is a bit of a problem. His issues are more physical , as in he is a ball of motion, and to correct him takes a bit of charades and lots of patience. He is OBSESSED with food. It can be irksome :( (being honest) when you are cooking and he keeps coming up and kissing your leg and looking at you with doe eyes, hoping to get some of the food before meal time.He eats 3 good meals a day with several healthy snacks so he isn't hungry, he just thinks he is. I know he is working a system he has survived on, so I get it but sometimes it bugs me. He eats every meal like the house is on fire !I try to give him a bit less, so I can give him seconds when he is done so he doesnt think everyone has food and his plate is empty. Or a piece of bread or fruit. And if you aren't watching closely he will steal food off anyone plate he can reach! That's fun at mealtime :) So when he does I make him put back whatever I can pull out of his mouth, and try to explain "his plate, his food" "Boos plate, Boos food" it is getting better but still happened this morning. I was feeding Taya, and turned to see Benji with my breakfast sandwich shoved ALL in his mouth under the table :(
~He will eat dog food and bird seed. He knows he shouldn't since he takes it and goes behind things to eat it :(
~He has to be supervised at all times, which is normal considering he is learning to make choices and learn what is off limits.
~He will knock over or throw just about anything if excited so we have to be careful to end, wild play before it gets out of hand.
~He sleeps well and is potty trained thru the day :):)
~He wakes up EARLY and will climb the baby gates and get into mischief so we are working on a new system.
~He is sweet and gently with everyone and has a sweet heart :)

While I was blogging this, Benji took his bathing suit off-and pooped in the baby pool :( oye... everyone outta da pool :)

Just want you to know every child will come home with different things that will require adjustments so don't be freaked out :) this too shall pass ;)

AMAZING DADDY WHO LISTENED TO GOD'S WHISPERS EVEN THOUGH HE DIDN'T THINK WE NEEDED MORE KIDS ;) more kids are like dessert !! Never enough :):)

And MOST IMPORTANT my kids all love each other :):)

Hugs!

Bugs Blog :)

2010-11-24T10:32:00.000-06:00

My oldest daughter Bug, and her friend have a heart for orphans too :) Bug begged me to let her start a blog advocating for children on Reeces Rainbow , so with my help she has a blog. This mama is very proud of her heart :) I know the children with BIG HEARTS for others will change the world for these children who are alone. Can you check it out and please give her some support and sign on to follow? It would give her a thrill to know folks are reading .

Hugs!

From one child to another CLICK IT :)

Cardiologist Appointment update :) & our need to act

2010-11-22T10:57:00.001-06:00

When we met the doctors at the kids orphanage, both Doctors stated that each of the children had a heart condition. Now what the actual conditions were, I have NO idea. With the language barrier, and different medical jargon..what we learned was Taya had a weak heart muscle and at one time an "extra stomach like organ" in her heart which had corrected itself over time, but they could not remove the diagnosis for 5 years. And a heart murmur. Seriously :( oye. So my little girl when from a low stimulation environment to an EVEN LOWER stimulation room :( my baby was in a crib for 6 hours of naps a day, plus bedtime from 8 pm -8am at which time she was moved from her crib to a slightly larger crib with another child in it .
Can you imagine this boring life for a child????

Benji's records indicated he had an extra valve in his heart which prevented him from running or exercising.Also a heart murmur. We were told not to let him run or breath hard :( His groupa was very sweet and the kids were very well cared for, but like most kids in orphanages, outside time was limited.

Our Cardiologist, was very kind and was born in India and spoke some Russian ! Very cool. After several tests, his conclusion is-

BOTH CHILDREN HAVE VERY HEALTHY HEARTS!!! Benji has a silent murmur which is nothing to worry about and sweet Taya's heart is FINE !
I am so happy for the kids, and yet so sad to think of all Taya has missed out on in her life, and all things she could have smiled over, if she had just been given a chance. HOW MANY of the children in the "laying down room" could actually be healthy children if given a chance? How many have mis-diagnoses ?? How many are withering away , as a form of neglect not a medical condition?? :(:(

Now after time home, to reflect , and after my anger and sadness over Taya's room as melted a bit , I realize that the caregivers are doing their best with the little bit they are given. I don't think any of them have any idea what these children can really do. Sadly there is a HUGE lack of education both in the institutions and in society about children with special needs. The caregivers in these rooms are given the least funds to care for the children. I only saw one lady being harsh with a couple children :( a couple ladies seemed happy, the rest seemed to be kind ,if a bit detached. Which is probably from working in such a depressing room with many moaning , crying children, and such sad surroundings. I think it will take many years and much money to change things for these children. But maybe each time they see a family come for these beautiful kids, it will open their minds and they will learn these kids have so much potential!

We have to keep advocating for these kids. I can not forget their faces and I DO NOT WANT TO. I want to be changed forever.I want to feel sad when I think of the child with their little arms tied to their crib, crying to be freed, I want to feel sad for all the children banging their heads against the bars of the cribs for stimulation :( I want to remember the smells (as hard as they were) I want to know that my children are lucky, and so many are not. I want to work for "the least of these" to make a difference in their lives. God calls us to care for the "widows and orphans" . Each of us if Christian or human :) has a responsibility to help those less fortunate than ourselves. If adoption is not right for you, that is OK. But you can help another family..by donating $5, $10 or more to their adoption costs. OR you can pick a child from Reece's Rainbow.org that you love and donate to that child's grant fund every month to help THAT CHILD FIND A FAMILY. $10 can make a difference when paid forward :) by many families.

This is Anastasia 3G she is in Eastern Europe and I have signed up to be her Christmas Warrior. I am commited to trying to raise money for her grant fund so her family will not have such a large ransom to rescue her. She is 5 years old and facing a very scary mental institution very soon :(:( help me, to help her please??
Click on the link below and you will find her picture almost to the bottom of the page on the right. If you click on a childs name it will take you to a paypal link to donate. Please consider a small amount :)

CLICK here to pick your very own Christmas angel
, from the many orphans just waiting for a mommy :) donate any amount you feel OK with. Pray for these children, blog about them, print out their pictures and share it with friends and families. YOU NEVER know when you will show a mommy their CHILD'S PICTURE :):) they didn't know was out there. it has happened to me, several times and it is AWESOME.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers ! Pictures next time, Sorry, my husband has changed his password and I can not access my pictures :( :(
HUGS!

More pictures, ER visit and friends :)

2010-11-14T15:15:00.000-06:00

I have to say one of the BEST side effect of adoption, is the amazing friends you make along the way. Not just fly by friends although there are some that are in your life for a brief amount of time but also friends that you really bond with and who care about your life , your kids and your journeys. These friends really get who you are :) These friends rejoice when you move forward and are sad with you when your "process" hits a snag.They know what a dossier is and HOW to say it ;) They totally get why you would travel across oceans, to foreign countries to adopt another child. Even a child (or 2) that have special needs. Even a child who has lived all their life in an institutional orphanage system. They understand why you would adopt another child when you were only planning on 1. They understand adoption isn't to make us feel good, its about bringing glory to God and giving a child a family. They understand the amazing amount of prayers that were offered for clarity and the courage to step out and say YES -to save this child the serious emotional damage and suffering that being transferred to a mental institution for older boys , would have caused this sweet loving little boy. Even if for only a few months , his ready smile and quick hugs likely would have been gone. His heart would have been broken and he would have lost his trust. We couldn't let that happen. And man are we the lucky ones :)
I want to thank ALL of you out there who have prayed for us, followed our journeys, and supported our adoption efforts, called me when Taya was in the hospital ;) Text'd me to be sure we were OK,emailed me to check in, keep up with me and all my pictures on FB ;) and sent sweet gifts and an amazing car seat :)And all of you who have felt led to donate to Reece's Rainbow to help another child find a home-you rock ! Just reading my blog lets me know you all "get it" and that means so much. And all of you who have felt led to donate $5 to Tisha's blog to help off set the costs of diapers, goats milk, formula and pull ups :) Truly you all are the BEST.
OK enough mush ;)

Taya the first night home sleeping next to my bed. Bug actually slept with her down there :)

Had to take my sweet baby to the ER shortly after we were home. She was constipated again and her tummy was super bloated. Some sweet friends on FB shared with me their concerns for her large tummy.and after consulting with Kendra :) I called the Dr who wanted her to go to the ER. After 3 xrays and a bit of "cleaning out" they ruled out a blockage but said she is major backed up :( so we made an appt for the GI Dr (last post)

My sweet baby's thumb :( Her tummy was hurting her so much she was chewing/sucking it raw! It is almost cleared up now :) If she doesn't go potty after 3 days , a gentle glycerin supp. was prescribed while we try to find out whats going on. She is on miralax , 1/2 a cap in 4oz of bottle 2 times a day but still she doesn't go often.

swollen tummy. It was wider then her hips. and tight like a balloon.

Bathing beauties :) Our house doesn't have a tub, weird with 3 bathrooms right? So to keep taya safe I put her in a laundry basket. Tried a baby tub but she tries to inhale the water! This way very little water is in with her.

Just a cutie :) LOVE her in headbands and bows but dang it she pulls them out if she knows I put it in. So it is a mission of secrecy and distraction to get it in there. I know, she doesn't NEED THE BOW, but ....
I do ! LOL.

Cardiologist appointment for both Benji and Taya 11/18 :) pray they are OK. Dr thinks Taya has a murmur, and Benji's Dr report in EE, stated he had a heart condition so we will see.

Taya goes for her b. enema procedure 12/1 I am praying the blood work comes back and shows something that will allow us to avoid this , but if we have to I know it will be to help her. And I just want her tummy to feel better :)

oh and BTW TAYA IS CRAWLING ACROSS THE LIVING ROOM NOW ~!!!!!!!~ SO proud of my girl :):) Yup at 4 1/2 she is crawling :):) smart girl!

Hugs!

Taya's GI appointment

2010-11-09T16:37:00.001-06:00

We had Taya's GI appointment today. The doctor was great with her. A small funny-while the nurse was taking her weight and height she asks me all serious "Is there a chance your daughter has Down syndrome?" ME- " ummm no." heehee..just kidding. I said yes :)
Anyway the doctor has decided to test Taya for Hirsprungs syndrome, Celiac disease, and thyroid issues. It will require blood tests, x-ray of the colon and a B. enema . Then we will go from there. I read up on Hirspungs and Celiac and she has almost all the symptoms of Celiac and Hirspungs really only has constipation as a symptom that I could find, so the testing is needed. So hope it isn't serious, and my little baby can start to feel better .

Hugs !!

LOTS OF pictures :)

2010-11-08T15:02:00.000-06:00

View out our 3rd apartments window. View was pretty but the apartment was kinda ..yuck.

First bath :):) Taya LOVED the water !

Taya looking a bit dazed....but oh so cute. Sweet Benji. He has been so amazing thru this all. So loving and trusting.

The night before we left to the airport for the first time, I found Taya laying like this just staring under the couch. Later is when the vomiting started.

When I first put Taya in her hospital crib with her monkey she slowing reached for him and just held his hand.

After 24 hours of fluids and antibiotics I was able to get her to sit up propped against the rail.

Daddy managed to get in one time long enough to give me a change of clothes for me and Taya and more diapers.Benji stayed down in the car with Yulia :)

A rare cuddle . When she was hooked up I couldn't really hold her, the lines were too short so I spent as much time holding her hands thru the rails with my chair next to her.

Looking SO much better. This is the night before we were to be picked up at 2am to head to the airport to try it again ;) I was able to get her to drink about half of bowl of a creamy soup broth by little drops. That was the first time she had eaten any food since before she started vomiting, Thursday I think. Doesn't she look so sweet and fragile in the big high chair?

My little fragile baby. Thank the Lord, she was a fighter and hung on until we could bring her home.I know the Lord watched over her. She was so close to passing away , just like her little friend Anne-Marie. I was so crushed to learn she had died before we came. I planned to hug her and let her know so many people were praying for her, and let her caregivers know we were trying to find her a mama and a papa . She is safe with Jesus now.

Look how cute she is ?? This is her going home outfit since the dress I bought was HUGE on her. This is an 18 month outfit with a onesie under it and tights :) The hat is by Maryann Shrum :)

My favorite shoot. Taken on the plane waving* PAKA PAKA to EE :) *bye bye

Cutie !

Babies sleeping peacefully and dreaming I hope, of all the exciting things that will be ahead for them in the next chapter of their lives. We are so blessed and proud to be their parents! What if....we hadn't listened to the whispers in our hearts? What if I had listened to ALL the NO'S my husband gave me, and gave up?What if I said your right, it is too much, it is nuts, its not for us. What if I listened to others who thought it was crazy to adopt a child with Down syndrome especially 2 ! What if my husband had dug his heels in and thought of himself only? What if we decided 2 more kids would take Christmas gifts and extra goodies away from us and our kids at home? What if we hadn't listened to the signs GOD was showing us? what if we hadn't come in time ?

The what if is simple. Taya may be in Jesus' arms now. Benji would have been transferred to a home for invalid boys. A mental institution to you and me. He may or may not have made it to today. And we would have missed out on an amazing journey the Lord planned for us long ago. We would have missed meeting and loving our new friends at the church. We would have missed experiencing another way the Lord protected us. We would have missed seeing the orphans in distress with our own eyes. We would have missed seeing very poor people trying hard to do the best they can with so little. We would have missed out on these 2 amazing little children who love unconditionally even after so many have let them down. We would have regretted it for the rest of our lives.

The walk of shame, and AMAZING friends :)

2010-11-06T15:10:00.001-05:00

We are so humbled to share a huge gift that our sweet friend Tisha has given our family. I met Tisha thru our adoption of Baby girl. We used the same agency for Ethiopia. She has 3 beautiful little boys and beautiful twin girls :) She has decided to help us out by asking for small donations to make a big difference in our diaper and formula costs. We are stunned and humbled by her sweet heart. She also has a heart for orphans and understands the costs once home, can be staggering especially with a special needs little one like sweet Taya :) please check out her blog to read or if you feel moved to please re post. Thank you to all our friends for your thoughts and prayers :):) Bottom line-we are all saving orphans one child at a time. Or well 2 at a time :)
Tisha's blog :)

After we had custody of the children, Taya was sick with a cold and seemed more reserved and sorta out of it. We had our Embassy apt and the Dr. apt and the Dr cleared her as fine ? That night we took the train back to the capitol city. Oh my. The train from hell ;) my husband thought it couldn't be worse to be dragged BEHIND the train. It is bumpy and creaky and hot and smells like fuel...I am sure we hit a few locals or large animals the way the train slammed forward then creaked to the side quickly! Seriously sucked. We did have a first class car, which gave us 2 small cots and a normal , although metal freezing cold toilet :) Oh and my sweet Benji didn't sleep a wink-which means mama didn't sleep. He was terrified, and kept patting my face saying "mama kaca" which mean -potty.again.and again. :) Taya slept fine :) even rolled off after one big lurch and landed on the floor. ASLEEP! :(

~We had a horrible apartment in the capitol , the bed smelled like mildew and felt like laying on wet lumpy cotton balls. Gross. And all the outlets were hanging out of the walls which thrilled Benji :( 220 volts ..dangerous.
~We woke up at 2am to head to the airport at 3. As soon I as woke Taya up I realized she had vomited in her sleep. Quick change, a bit of ibuprofen and tried to give her a bottle of apple juice/water. She drank about 3 oz which thrilled me since she didn't take one the night before. Quickly she vomited it up. ALL OVER US BOTH. Change again. Threw my pj's away. Well the vomiting continued for the next hour. We got in the car w Nicko and told him. He said "it will be fine" luckily she didn't vomit in his car :) got to the airport and waiting in the LONG SLOW line to check in, she vomited about 4 times...no one even noticed or offered a paper towel :( even the workers walked by. My hubby gave me his coat to keep the vomit off me and clean Taya up. She was in the Ergo front carrier, so it was tricky NOT to wear it. Each time she vomited, my heart sank and the dread became thicker. I was getting scared. Scared for my baby who I could tell was in trouble. Scared to be so far from home with a sick baby. Scared knowing in my gut, that we were not going home today. Scared for my kids at home, who were so excited we were coming home.
~Long story short we make it on the plane and Taya is lethargic and now vomiting bile or just gagging. The flight attendant asks if she is OK? I said she is dehydrating I think, and might need electrolytes. Taya gagged again, nothing comes out. A nice flight attendant asks if we want some coke and salt to drip on her tongue...the other flight attendant comes back and says

" I have talked to the captain and due to the small size of your child and her illness which could infect all our other passengers he thinks it would be best if you departed the plane at this time"

I am stunned and scared. She is saying what I am thinking. Oh my word. Please Lord let my baby be OK ! I am freaking out too afraid my husband is going to be mad. He has to go to work. But I know he is scared for Taya too. We don't even say a word to each other, just gather up the kids and walk THE WALK OF SHAME...off the plane with my very sick vomiting baby, covered in vomit myself, with a little boy who is stealing all the in flight magazines, while everyone stares, worried about their OWN health. not.fun.
~They walk us out of the terminal where a Dr from the airport is waiting. She tells us that Taya is fine, no temperature and she can ride the plane. What?? She is clearly very sick. And our plane has left! I lost it now. I start to cry. Hard.

~Then the young lady who speaks no English walks us back thru the airport to the front door where we came in. Are ya kidding? Now what? I ask for a taxi to a hospital and they say there are no hospitals in the capital city. Seriously?
~The serious situation we are in, sinks in. I start to cry the ugly cry. I am so scared for my baby. So scared to have her treated here where no one blinks at a 4 1/2 little girl who weighs 21 pds and can not walk. Where 2 doctors say she is fine. Fine?Really?
~I have no phone numbers they are in my luggage which the airline cant find...
~I scan my iPhone and find Nancy's number in Florida. I risk it and call her :) love her! She answers ! She gives me all the facilitators numbers and a hug over the phone :)
~I call Marina who is a doll, she answers and goes into action. She says do not worry we will get you to a Dr asap.
~Nicko comes back for us in 1 1/2 hours and takes us to a clinic for foreigners. We have to wait until 9:30 for a Dr. They decided she should be hospitalized. They do not speak English so Nicko translates. It is scary. I am numb. Taya is laying on the table like a zombie in and out of it. Her eyes are rolling around and her lips are chapped and dry. No cute tongue clicking :( we head to the hospital for foreigners IN THE CAPITAL btw. Very nice place, clean, new and not crowded. Everyone pays in cash so it isn't busy. After a bit we are admitted. For a 3 day stay.

~Diagnoses is bacterial infection, severe dehydration, severe constipation and inflamed organs. Not sure what the last one was? They were very nice and I even had one nurse who spoke English :) My husband and Benji could not visit, so it was lonely and surreal to be away from my husband when our baby was so sick. Taya was on IV fluids constantly and antibiotics. She had an enema to clear her out :( She would not eat or drink at all.

~Yulia came to visit us and Marina and Serge called and made sure the doctors knew to take very good care of Taya and that we were comfortable. The facilitators were AMAZING. Truly made us feel so much safer. Yulia would speak to the nurses for me which helped so much.
~ Nicko put Michael and Benji in another apartment. It wasn't very nice, but hey we hoped they wouldn't be there long, so they made due. Daddy did a great job parenting all alone.

~After 3 days we were picked up at 2am to go to the airport. We got to travel with Ashley's hubby to the airport. Super nice guy :) Our hospital stay cost us *8500 grivna which isn't too bad for 3 days :) but that was the last of our money :(

~When we finally sat down on the plane heading to Germany on the 20th we were so afraid to move for fear of jinxing it Lol :) Taya and Benji did AMAZING on the flights, they mostly slept or stared at Cars the movie while it played on the in flight screen. Taya was still dehydrated a bit, the Dr wanted her to stay longer but I knew we needed to get her HOME. So armed with packets of electrolytes, and an antibiotic and a dropper we made it. She refused all drink so every 15 Min's or so I would slowly put a full dropper full in her mouth little by little. She had a close call at one point , she started gagging after a long nap so I pushed fluids for about a half hour then she was better.

~She is drinking her bottles and eating baby food or blended foods wonderfully now :) Gretchen was sweet and sent me a Rival mini food processor. LOVE IT. I blend a lot of the foods the kids are eating for Taya then add a jar of baby food or fruits. I put a whole breakfast oat round with cream cheese and jelly, piece of apple and yogurt then blend. Yum :)

If you read all that whew ! Thank you :) now enjoy the pictures .
shoot-all my pictures are on my hubbys computer. I will add more later these are from when we first arrived at the hospital from my iPhone.

HUGS !!

My 6 little beauties :)

2010-10-30T11:11:00.000-05:00

From left~
Baby girl-2 yrs
Bug- 9 yrs
Peanut-almost 12
Taya-4 1/2
Boo-4
Benji- 5

= A VERY HAPPY MAMA :)

Catch up

2010-10-27T22:54:00.000-05:00

Our view out the window from our room at the church.

The church home we were blessed to stay with. They were so kind and just funny and wonderful :)

This little sweetie stole my heart the last few days. She is in Benji's OLD groupa ;) and I thought she was a boy, due to the clothes and hair until I started playing with her close up on this day and realized she is a GIRL FULL of smiles and joy :) She stole my heart. Not sure if she has CP or what, but she is so sweet and loving. A caregive took her back to the room while we were playing and she began to cry really hard. Broke my heart. So I walked right in, and went up and dried her tears and rubbed her cheek. What a beauty. Then a sweet nurse brought me an apple to give her and she calmed down :) She deserves a family. I wonder if she is adoptable? I will try to find out. so very sweet.

Tayas old room :( way too many cribs with little orphans in them. How I wish I could make them ALL understand they are valuable and loved and should never ever give up. How can we do that? I had to walk away and not even pick them up....I made no difference in their lives. I couldnt. And it makes me sick.

Benji and his BFF sharing a last hug. How we loved this little guy.

My sweet girl when we first arrived back at the church. She was having a major flipping backward meltdown so I plopped her right down on the floor :)

Benji entering our room at the church :) Home away from home !

Taya starting to look a bit tired. Although she was thrilled with her ball and monkey :)

This is another one of the little cutie. Look at those eyes! Beautiful child who deserves a family. She is lucky to be in Benjis old groupa , they are kind and take great care of the kids-but what happens when it is time to be transfered? To an institution? How long will she last?

This is us at the sda, Serge took it for us. If I posted it already, sorry. Wanted you to see what it looks like. No biggie at all. Actually the lady we had never even spoke to us or really looked at us.

I am so behind I dont know if I should just keep going in order or for those of you that arent facebook friends, share the bumps we had? For now I will just go in order , because cute pics make everything better :)

The kids are doing AMAZING. TRULY, I know it may be a honeymoon phase but so far things are just so smooth I am shocked :) heehee. Really I look at my 6 kiddos and just smile :) THIS is what my life is supposed to be. Taking care of my littles :) I love seeing my 3 (hopefully 4) small ones running and playing together . Love making 3 breakfast plates and a few jars of baby food then big kid food . Happy mama :)

Next post- being removed from the airplane (nice) and rushing to a clinic then the hospital for a 3 day stay for my very sick baby :( so very scary.
Hugs!!

Free Baby FREE :)

2010-10-24T23:47:00.000-05:00

Some seriously happy, giddy parents of 6 !!

This is the amazing beautiful room that we received our new birth certificate for Taya. The sweet lady played music and presented her new bc to us :) it was so sweet and touching.

Benji's favorite caregiver and his best friend :)

Bundled up and walking out to a life with a forever family :)

Taya was NOT happy to be changed :( she wanted me to hold

her.

Mama and Taya in the car finally and never to see that HOT SAD, ROOM again! She was highly stressed and was doing alot of clicking and rocking. She worked herself up a bit getting changed . My heart broke walking out and past all the kids in her room I would never see again. I felt so sick and defeated like I had let them down by just walking out of their lives....and leaving them there. To fight to matter to someone everyday. To fight to survive , to fight to smile. To fight to be loved.

Hugs.

I won!

2010-10-23T10:51:00.000-05:00

The worst blogger ever award that is ;) thank you Jodi and Gretchen,you meanies :)

I know my blogging has well....sucked. I admit it :) but its not as easy as you think to keep up, with sketchy internet moving from trains to apartments then hospitals then planes then home to a flood. Yup that ALL happened , got alot to catch you up on :)

Right now Taya seems to be having an allergic reaction to something so more later, see told ya I am hopping!

Proud mama and Papa

2010-10-13T00:24:00.000-05:00

Of 6 kiddos ! We became Benji's and Taya's official parents on October 12 ! SO happy. Our 10 day waiting period was waived, so we ran like crazy ALL DAY yesterday to finish every piece of paper so we can spring the kids today, and take the train to Kyiv tonite :):)
What an amazing journey. oh AND Benji's best friend IS adoptable ! His only sn is mild mental delay :) Marina promised me she would get him on Reeces Rainbow and I promised to advocate like crazy for this little sweetie and find him a family of his own!! He is an amazing little boy :)

Hugs!!

Cheeky kids :)

2010-10-10T12:55:00.000-05:00

Looks like our boy is left handed . That is a first for our family. As soon as I handed him the pen and notebook he was thrilled ! He picked it up right and after a bit of practice was scribbling away :)

We also bought some playdoh to spice things up a bit :) He loved to cut it into pieces. It was fun for about 20 mins until that evil little laugh came out and he started shoving it in his mouth! eek ;) we put it away after that ...

How beautiful is this little boy of ours ?? We are so in love with him. (that is Taya's blankie btw)

Love my little Taya baby :) I HATE sitting in this dingy room , sweating, but HAPPILY endure to spend some quality with my baby girl :) She smiles when she sees us and reaches for me ! Makes it all worth it , to give her a bright spot in her day out of the crib. She eats potatoes, beets and some odd blended food each meal. She doesnt chew yet or drink from a cup, but thats ok..we will take it slow and like a new baby she will learn everything in time. She has had a bit of bad luck but God has been watching her and keeping her safe :)

Notice the fire/burn marks on the wall behind me? oye. That is scary to think about.

Benji lovs to open the little backpack bags and discover the toys of the day :)

I would love to buy crib toys for all the kids in Tayas group. I dont know if they would use them but it would be so wonderful for the children. They have nothing in their cribs to occupy them all day.....

Mama sweating on the lumpy , old couch. Wish we could buy them a new one ....I had to crack a window!

Beets :) yummy. She actually seems to like them. The mystery blended food -not so much.

COURT DATE IS TUESDAY !!!!! :):) SO happy.

Hugs!

Leaving friends behind~ and cuteness

2010-10-08T13:14:00.000-05:00

(Notice benji is grabbing his hand and telling him he has to go back to the room :)

This little guy has stolen our hearts. ALL the children here deserve mommys and daddys of their own, but this little guy along with a certain little girl (ahem :) have the biggest hearts and their ache for a family is so hard to bear. This little guy is so sweet and loving, blows kisses , talks up a storm and is our Benji's best friend since they were babys. It breaks my heart to think of the loss he will feel when both his best friends are gone :( you see the little girl we love is Stacey , Jenny's little one. She will be going home very soon too. He will be without his best friends. If we were approved for 3 , I betcha we would be scooping him up. He is a doll. I dont think he has Ds..he is crossed eyed at times and very thin but just beautiful and sweet. Pray for him, please. He is very calm , follows directions and just loves to steal hugs :) Hoping he can find a family thru Reeces Rainbow. I have to email andrea and see if that is possible.
ok-taya and benji cuteness...

here benji is showing me a "triangle" for the roof of a doghouse in his book ! Smart boy :)

stealing kisses from my sweet taya baby :)

cheeky girl :) she loves when i kiss in her ears :)

hugs!!!

Still here , and baby its cold outside !

2010-10-07T13:16:00.000-05:00

Its a bit nippy outside :) 40 with a wind blowing. Father Andrew worries we are cold and keeps bringing me a coat :) Silly me didnt pack for 40 degree weather! Sarah, remember how HOT we were in Kyiv?

Nice visit with Benji yesterday and today. There is a little boy in his group that he is best friends with since baby's I am told. He is so precious. Not sure he has Ds , the only thing I notice is he has crossed eyes at times. He LOVES MY HUBBY! Runs past me to hug him :) Then he comes back to me ;) He desperately needs a mama and papa of his own. He talks well (not that I can understand him :) and walks and runs. he is tiny and thinner then Benji but just beautiful inside and out :) He isnt on Reeces Rainbow, but I hope he can be. I feel so sad to think of him being left here without his lifelong friend/brother :(
Benji is good for almost the whole visit then he gets a bit stir crazy and tries to living things up :) He jumps on the little end table and tried to pull the mirror off the wall-then laughed like crazy when I snatched him down ..next he grabbed a potted plant off the window ledge (they love potted plants here, its nice) and I grabbed it just in time, but a bunch of dirt fell out! I was trying to scoop it up quick-the only grumpy lady happened to be working today, and I knew she would scold him. We will work on some boundaries once home-he is such a sweet boy, and he listens very well to his caregivers. Just a healthy little boy :)

Taya is doing good. She is learning new things each day-so we know she is capable of growing and blossoming. She has learned to make kissing sounds, turn on her baby einstein music toy, and to bounce her leg to the rhythmn of my iphone. Oh the iphone she LOVES. You have to pry it out of her hand :) she lays her face of the screen and just zones out the the music. She has so much potential and she will be ok :):)
She had a new pj on today, it was size 18-24 and fit her little feet much better. I was able to feed her again-wow can she put the food away! I really doubt they normally feed her 2 bowls of food plus a bottle of hot tea, or she wouldnt be this small, or maybe its the quality of the food?I dont know, but she ate all I fed her , nice and neatly then a big BURP! It makes us happy to know she is going down for her nap with a full tummy. She is sad when we give her back which is nice and not nice ya know? I just want to take her out, but we have to wait. I shouldnt complain, I have only been away from my kids for 2 weeks. SO MANY families have been stuck away for so much longer.
Interpol may be in monday, which means we may have court monday. Lots of maybes. I will let you know :)

The church is a nice homey place to be. They take very good care of us. Father Andrew took us site seeing yesterday and it was a lot of fun. He made us hike up a steep hill to see out over the river. It was worth it but I did think I was going to roll down it and die ;) (Gretchen did you hike up there ?)

Still looking for anne-marie or gavin and alexander...havent seen any kids but a few little typical toddlers outside. It is too cold for them to bring most kids out.
Thanks for following our journey, its nice to know we arent alone :)
LOVE MY KIDDOS !!!!MISS YOU GUYS!!!

HUGS!! See that GIANT hill behind Father and Sister?? That is where we hiked. Oye :)

Taya and her blankie :) Benji in his parka ;)

2010-10-05T13:37:00.000-05:00

We gave Taya her blankie today. She kept taking her too cute tongue out and feeling it . So sweet. She has a tongue that would make Gene Simmons envious ;) Then she would stroke the minkie fabric with her little bent fingers :) Oh so sweet. She loves my iphone, she rests herr face on the phone and just listens to the music. She walked to us today again, holding her caregivers hand but she did it :)

Benji ran and greeted us with cheers of "mama , papa!" He was wearing a tshirt, a turtleneck, and a sherpa parka inside :) he was very sweet today, no table tossing :) we played with a sticker book and looked at magazines.

So tired of hanging out in this dingy room, listening to little ones cry :( These children ALL DESERVE to have mommys coming for them. They need hope and love .

Hugs!

Interpool...oye and more smiles

2010-10-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

We have court on thursday IF our interpool clearance comes in. If so we should be on our way home next week :)
Kids are awesome. Taya is a doll. Benji is all boy with lots of hugs thrown in. He was pitching tables again today, so daddy put them on top of the lockers :) Then he settled down to play bubbles and trucks. It is hard to leave them each day. Taya cries, which breaks my heart. I have peeked in her room. I see SOME of what she sees and hears. Breaks my heart.
cold here. 41 tonite. and we have sore throats again :( bummer. We are staying at the catholic church and they spoil us. Truly they are so very kind, Perfect place to be when we are following Gods plan.
Hugs!!
** ps. love you kids! miss you all so much. thanks to granma nana and papop and aunt mem :):)

Sunday :) Mama got to feed Taya!

2010-10-03T14:06:00.000-05:00

She ate a whole bowl of potatoes , beets and some strained chicken maybe ? then a BIG burp :)

She was happy today and still in the same pj ;) You should see the hole in the nipple of the bottle...big. It made me nervous she kept gagging. They finally took it away from me ;)
She is wearing a sz 18 month carters sleeper with 2 other outfits under it, at 4 1/2 yrs old. She is an itty bitty :)

Please pray for all these children. They all deserve loving families. The children in her group break my heart. They NEED homes. That is all I can say for now .
Anne-Maria is my mission this week :) I will squeeze her !
we are having the best time here. it is cold 41 last night but nice :)

Hugs!

Friday - Saturday visits :)

2010-10-02T13:26:00.000-05:00

The nurses were so proud to bring Taya out to me walking holding their hands ! She was pretty slow at it, but we are so happy for her! She smiled big when she saw us, or maybe because mama was clapping and cheering for her ;)

Love my sweet Taya baby :)

Gotta love the outfit :) she has on 3 pj outfits and booties tied to keep her feet warm.

Happy girl :)
OK what you have all been WAITING FOR ........
BIG BOW BABY ! The nurses laughed and laughed and kept bringing people to see her then they would give us a thumbs up !

Bianca made this big bow for Anne-Marie and I will get it on her , I promise ! But I borrowed it for Taya as the headband I brought her kept slipping up her little flat her :(

Benji running out to hug Papa & Mama :) The nurses tell him to do it , I know but he is very sweet the whole visit. Loves to hug and play wild. You should see him throw a ball ! He also split out the open door today and laughed while I ran like heck to catch him before we were chewed out by the grumpy lady ;)

Looking at his photo album with papa. He loves to point and have us tell him the names of his family. When he see's daddys pictures he rubs daddys head and says dada :)

Visits today were wonderful. Benji has a cold which mama has caught, but its worth it to kiss his sweet face. Yesterday the visit with Taya was very upsetting to me, she was really out of it, why I am not sure but her eyes kept rolling up and she would space out....maybe over tired? Dont know. When I brought her back I saw some children doing institutional behaviors :( and it really just rocked me to the core. To read it is one thing, to see it...much much different. I had a long talk with God in church yesterday and a good cry, then a sign in church, Andrew read in english.. matthew 18.. and I know we are here and seeing all this because it is HIS plan. It should hurt our hearts. we have to see it.
I was going to ask today what was up with Taya but she was bright and happy and really interacting well :) She is such a little bitty. Remember she is 4 years and 7 months old . My sweet Taya baby is going to be ok. If you are considering adoption-DO IT NOW. There are so many children here who need real mommys and daddys. They need love. They need us.

hugs!!!
Jodi- I havent connected with Alexander yet, its complicated, I had tried and will try again and be sure to pass on the goodies and get a picture for you , I promise.
Gretchen-love love the church and all the people here. The are so sweet and kind. They were worried because we miss lunch each day, they had a translator tell us we must come and get food whenever we get back and make ourselves at home. Do not miss a meal because we are busy :) so kind.

Friday morning

2010-10-01T07:34:00.001-05:00

Went to visit the kiddos this morning. Boy did the temperature change, from hot to windy raining yesterday to chilly this morning.Benji came right and out and gave us hugs :) he went right into my big bag looking for his backpack of toys, smart boy! He unzipped and pulled them all out. Then he was looking at the photo album and when he saw daddy he went over and patted his leg and said "dada" to me :) Dada in his language really means man, or uncle but hey we are happy with it ! Well once he got a hold of my iPhone that was it. I showed him the video's of "Yo gabba gabba" and he was laughing then acting out all there moves :) When I put the music on he danced and danced and kept running back to his groupa to show the other kids , one little girl bless her heart , about attacked him to take it-luckily a nurse grabbed her up. Now I know who left the big scratches on his neck ;)
Taya. Oh sweet little Taya. This little one is a teeny thing. No way does she resemble a 4 1/2 yr old. She is a bitty baby :) She smiled so big when I said hi to her, and instantly leaned in for kisses. Love these kids ! So sweet , even though life has been quite unfair to them, it seems their caregivers have loved them. She loves daddys beard, and just stares off running her fingers up and down. She loves to clap (thanks Lizzy :) and loves her baby einstein toy. Oh, and eating the nose off of Benji's monkey. It was a sweet visit then time for her lunch. We have to visit the children seperately for now, so they each only get an hour. We saw Anastasia (Jenny's little one) and she is as cute as ever with pigtails. With the icky weather we havent seen any other kids yet.
Ran more paperwork around, went to the store (gretchen it was the walmart place) now home for coffee , a quick break then back to see the babies :) We are so blessed to be able to come here and experience this culture, and hug our babies :)

first hugs :) her eyes arent really that crossed, sorry internet slow more later :)

Hugs!

Tuesday -Thursday :)

2010-09-30T12:15:00.000-05:00

Wow. What a whirlwind this trip has been. Ok we went to the sda on tuesday, with the warning that they may not give us the referrals for both children on the same day. which meant either a day delay or having to take the train out to the children's city to accept one child, then go back to the sda and do it again
:( well luck was on our side and Serge works miracles so they did give us both referrals! But they mentioned that there was a problem with Benji's paperwork, and if it can be fixed they will fix it quickly but if it cant......well then he will be unadoptable! My heart stopped . Not just for us, but for HIM he would live out his life in a very scary place-then cementary (that is exactly how it was explained to me )
2nd lucky break was the paperwork was fixable and cars zoomed all over the city to make it happen ! Amazing folks who work so very hard. From Andrea all the way across the ocean to this team. Dedication.
Wednesday we picked up our referral packet with Lacey and her hubby, after having lunch with Becky and her hubby :) So cool to meet so many Reeces Rainbow families bringing home kiddos I have prayed over and advocated for . We took the train wednesday night, thank goodness for Nicko , I wouldnt want to navigate that train station alone..busy busy and people move FAST. Our train car was nice , sleep a few hours but was up for most of the trip.Very loud, rumbling and shakey. Michael took motion sickness meds which were a life saver for him.
Thursday- Bright and early we were met by Fr. Andrew picking us up. From there we dropped our luggage off and zoomed to the orphanage for an 8:30 meeting with the director. She was very sweet and started to cry at the end . She said we made her so happy adopting children with Down syndrome when we have all healthy children because she believes they are angels of love and see's that we do to. It was so nice to see she loves the kids and is so happy to see them go to families.
After our chat, we ran (seriously, have you seen how fast Marina walks? :) to see BENJI!! My sweet boy peeked out of his room and waved at us, then they told him "mama" and he walked right up to me and wrapped his teeny arms around me. OH MELT MY HEART ! We are so in love. He is tiny, more like a 2-3 yr old. I kissed his cheeks and he smiled and closed his eyes, then leaned in for more kisses. What a sweet baby. The head doctor and the caregiver said he is the most loving special sensitive boy there and they all love him so much. They are so happy he is going home to a family . I gave him his stuffed monkey, he sat it down on the floor and when it fell over he scolded it and sat it back up then patted its head. Too cute. I brought a tiny backpack with little toys, and he quickly unzipped it and sat to play with the cars. When he was done he put them all back in and zipped it up. I left a little plane with him, the cargivers said they would remind him mama and papa gave it to him and are coming back soon.
Then after goodbyes (paka!) we ran thru the rain to Taya's baby house. She was squeaking and fussing when they brought her out, and they said she doesnt like strangers.I could tell her nurse didnt want to let her go, but slowly gave her to me, and as soon as I gave her a baby einstein toy that plays music she smiled and giggled and just played it over and over. Oh she loves kisses on her neck. She laughs then waits for me to do it again :) She is small also, both the kids hair is cut really short :(
But they look healthy just tiny. Benji seems to be developing well but Taya is delayed. I would guess more like a 18 month old then a 4 year old. I was right they did think she had a heart condition at one point but she was cleared of it, due to the rules here they can not remove it from her chart for 4-5 yrs so she is stuck in a low activity /low stimulation group. Its ok I know she will just blossom at home with her siblings. AND Mama and Daddys kisses :)
After quick visits we spent the rest of the day running all over the city doing paperwork. Marina is an amazing little firecracker. She works so very hard, I am in awe of her energy. By 5:30 we were almost falling asleep in the car , so after the last paper was notarized we all went to dinner at a local place and the food was delicious!
Shower and bed for us now. Tried to skype with the kids, but alas the computer isnt on ....again :(
Love you guys! Miss you!! You will love your new baby brother and sister !
pictures later.
Hugs!

BECKY

2010-09-28T14:28:00.002-05:00

Hey fb me or email me, so i can get your phone number here in EE. I tried to email you but your addy didnt work for some reason.
Maria :)

Monday's Adventures

2010-09-28T08:34:00.000-05:00

We seriously slept in on monday. We woke up around 12 :) gotta love that! We made some yummy ;P turkish coffee had a slice of ham and cheese on on bread and breakfast was done. Sarah called after their SDA appt and we met up for some adventures! What a blast to have another couple here to have fun with. We walked all around, saw so many cool things, all the neat churches, Saint Sofia, Saint Michael, and ? There is another big one right next to the sda office . Really amazing to see these beautiful churches that have stood strong against so much destruction around them.
At the square we had a gentleman named Richard come up and aks Greg, if we lost. He was a film producer from Canada that has been coming to this country for 10 years. What an amazing guy, with a wealth of history and stories to tell. He gave us a walking tour that lasted several hours and was very cool. He was such a gentleman he wouldnt even let us pay him or give him a tip ! He said he enjoyed the day and the beer so all is well. Amazing man. Let me tell ya though, this is one HILLY city! We stopped and had a water break, bought a beer for Richard then we were off again. The only time we got a bit nervous was when Richard wanted to put us in a car with any regular dude who was willing to drive us since that is so much cheaper. I appreciate that is how the locals do it, but us Americans would rather pay a few more bucks and be alive thank you very much. Sarah and I were much happier in a real cab :) which was very cheap btw. We ate dinner at a local cuisine resturant across from the TGIF and it was delicious. 2 full dinners for $11.00
~oh we met Masha and Autumn with their parents ! What a dollbaby that masha (mallory and peach) Is ! I could have scooped her up and just hugged her all day.
After that we walked with sarah and gregg and Lacey and her hubby to a toy store then thru the underground walk ways which are neat. Then home (in the dark ;) and fell into bed by 9 right after we skyped with the kiddos :) LOVE YOU GUYS!

Ok, had our SDA appt this morning. Next blog...I will leave you will this there were Surprises, scares, oh my.

saying goodbye to our 2 oldest kiddos. Yes it was hard and there were some tears. Love you guys!

Meeting my amiga Angie in Chicago was such a treat ! Love ya!

This is us after the awful fligh to germany. we felt as bad as we looked :(

our apartment its small but cute and NO BUGS :)

see the little teeny window washers waaaaay up there !

us in the square I believe there are underground stores under the dome.

HUGS!

Made it here !

2010-09-26T10:51:00.000-05:00

**Just skyped with our kids and parents ! How wonderful to see my babies ! I love you guys so much and miss you !!

We had our bags packed and ready to go. I climb into to bed to realize I didnt pull our passports out yet. Jump up at 1 am..to look for them and cant find them ! So my luck right? Finally after searching I found the whole passport folder right where it should have been. DUH! In my sleep deprived state I missed them :)back to bed at 2 just to get up at 5am.
Up early and off to the airport :) check in was a breeze. First flight to chicago a breeze. Slept and was ready to meet my amiga Angie Hill :):) we met in Guatemala while adopting Boo and she was adopting reyna :) super nice hugging her again. Thank you for taking time to come and see me !! love ya!

Then we got to our flight with Lufthansa . Well let the nightmare begin !! Lets just say, just because you have a uniform on doesnt mean you get to make up rules! I will share more later on that, but I will say he made us almost miss our flight! We were actually the last one on ;( The nightmare didnt end there as the flight was the most cramped ,uncomfortable and sweaty (ick) flight I have ever been on. 9 hours of misery. DIDNT SLEEP A WINK. We were so miserable. Lacey and Sarah were on our flight too, and they can back me up on this. It was awful.
Layover in Germany was fine. Boring but fine. Flight out was wonderful. Soft seats, leg room, air conditioning ! We all fell asleep shortly after take off :)
We are in our Eastern European country now. Niko met us at the airport. We had another weird do to or not to do thing cme up in the airport, that we have to double check...I think we were given the wrong info, but need to make sure. Oye. Keeps ya hopping !
The city is really nice with lots of trees and old buildings, and fancy buildings. Lots of folks walking around. Our apartment is really quaint with lots of open windows, lace curtains and wood floors. Very sweet. hit a grocery store for some goodies. that was fun ! Trying to match up the animals or pictures on the package to what might be inside :)
SDA appt (where we see the kids files and commit to meet them) is tuesday . After that we should be on a train to the region where our kiddos are to meet them , Wednesday night. I think we are going to meet some Reeces Rainbow families for lunch or dinner tomorrow. There are several of us here which is so fun!

HUGS!!

We are OUTTA HERE !

2010-09-24T17:40:00.000-05:00

I hope to blog while we are gone in Eastern Europe PICKING UP OUR NEW BABIES !!!!

Taya and Benji wont know what to do with so many kisses and squeezes :):)

I ask for your prayers, for my heart ..leaving my children is SO VERY HARD. And for my flights, we have a flight to chicago, then germany, next ...a Country in Eastern Europe ;)
And pray for my children to be ok with mama and daddy gone :)

"We will not leave you as orphans"

I will post if i can on facebook and blog :)

HUGS!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENJI :)

2010-08-23T09:53:00.000-05:00

August 23-

Our sweet Benji is spending HIS LAST birthday without a family, in an orphanage as a statistic :( :( one of the forgotten/hidden away in his birth country. Here at home many miles away, his new reality is waiting for him. We will celebrate big time once he is home in our arms :) We love you sweetie.

We have so many things to be thankful for. We cant forget that.

Hugs!

Paperwork made it !

2010-08-19T14:33:00.000-05:00

OUR PAPERWORK MADE IT ON TIME ! (yes I am screaming :)

so happy. Now we wait about 3 weeks to find out our date to be in Eastern Europe. And that date will be about 3 weeks from there..so we are about 5-6 weeks away from

HOLDING OUR NEW BABIES !!

So blessed to be on this journey and following God's plan for our lives. We listened. We are blessed :)

HUGS!

Getting closer :) & needing mama's

2010-08-16T20:42:00.000-05:00

I think there is room in their for a couple more kiddos no? :)

Well who doesn't LOVE the stress and emotional ups and downs of the "paper-chase" ?
oye. As soon as you think you are done, some NEW twists, rules, changes or oopsies :( and you are scrambling once again t make a deadline that is truly important to YOU, but most folks don't get it :(
We thought we were done with our dossier. Well a day or 2 after we mailed it, an error was caught and the rush was on to quickly add Benji's name, re-notarize and mail off to have put with our dossier...to the tune of $111.00 :) for.one.paper.
Then 2 weeks later turns out a couple dates don't match on another paper :( well we missed being submitted Thursday, did I mention Our countries court system only accepts dossiers on Thursday's ..so another mad dash on the "TAX-FREE WEEKEND" (does everywhere have that? no taxes on clothing to celebrate school starting?) well the darn lease excerpt paper had to be redone..and the notary that our leasing agent used, REFUSED. YES REFUSED, TO STOP SHOPPING TO NOTARIZE OUR PAPER. (even though our agent offered to drive and meet her in the parking lot!)
The *itch , ummm, Notary said she didn't know anything about "orphans suffering & needing to come home" but she DID know that she had coupons and she wasn't going to ruin her day, notarizing a paper !!! SERIOUSLY.SHE.SAID.THAT.
(Then she left off an important piece of info when she DID sign them. Who does that?!)

Well after being on the edge of my seat all day we got it at 3:45 , rushed to UPS but they were closed :(:( (sniff )

So today I was at UPS when they opened and mailed this paper out again, with a kiss and a pray ;) this little document HAS to make it to EE, by Wednesday, so we can be submitted for a court date by THURSDAY :) then we should hear about a court date , about 3 weeks from then and should HAVE TO BE in EE for court about 8-30 days from there !!!!! We are getting SO CLOSE!!

~Our fundraiser, brought in more then we hoped, enough to cover 1 of the kiddos visas :) we made $320 !!!! Thank you so much to everyone who supported us, and prayed for us :)

~Mama has needed Retail therapy..just a bit. Only for needed items , promise ;)

~Since we are missing traveling in August, we will be able to keep Baby girls and Boo's court date for their re adoption !!!! YAY!!! It will be AUGUST 27TH !!

~AND, we will be able to attend the TOBY KEITH CONCERT we bought tickets for months ago!!!! SO excited :) This mama needs some stress relief ;)

~bummed to miss the AGCI family picnic in Tennessee :( sooo wanted to meet my peeps in person. Next year. For sure :)

WE STILL NEED A FAMILY !

All kiddos on reecesrainbow.org

"danil" & "Masha"

Danil has Ds and is beautiful!
Masha has Sn's maybe FAS, but she is beautiful
and a family has met her recently and loved her.She is tiny, and in a VERY poor orphanage :( very poor.

MAX & LENA :) twins!! They have HIV + and are developing normally, & are loving & walking.

This is Toby :)

oh.my.word. He has to find a family NOW, or I may be going back for him !!

Would you look at those big blue eyes and long eyelashes? AND he is under a 1 year old! He has Down syndrome, and will thrive at home with a family ! :)

Pray for these children. Share them with your friends and family.

Be their voice. Don't turn away. They need us to care.

HUGS! :)

BUY for you - HELP TAYA & BENJI :):) & FAMILIES FOUND US

2010-08-02T17:47:00.001-05:00

OUR GOAL IS ONLY 50 PIECES :) I AM HOPING TO MAKE ENOUGH TO COVER EITHER A NEW CAR SEAT OR PART OF THE KIDS VISA'S - Not greedy ;)

please take a look at Sarah's etsy shop. She makes some beautiful pieces and they come in a pretty little organza bag perfect for giving. Think teachers gifts, church gifts, friends, nurses , daycare workers etc...her items cover everyone :) just put taya in the comment box on etsy before you commit to buy :):) thats it. only today !!!!!!!
And you can feel good knowing your purchase donates $5 to our grant fund to help bring our babies home. A home they truly need. We have cut back and saved like crazy to make this happen in a short time frame. Our babies do not need to stay in that orphanage one day longer then we can help it. Cable ? GONE. Dinners out? NADA. Target shopping ? NOPE ;(
And you know what? IT IS ALL OK :):) We are so happy to save every penny to save our kiddos. The joy of knowing 2 children of God are going to be spared a scary life in a mental institution, locked away because they are "different" is SO WORTH IT.
We aren't asking for a hand out, just plan some of your holiday shopping a bit early, and help save a child ?
every penny we do not need will be donated BACK to a child on REECE'S RAINBOW.ORG to help them find their family .
PAY IT FORWARD :) its a beautiful thing.

okey dokey? :)

These amazing kiddos have families coming for them very soon;) Prayers do work !

Theo, his mama is there now here is her blog~CLICK HERE

darya

Lucy in mexico :) MONROE :) coming home close to me in Florida !

SNIFF......

SADLY~ Brady has been transferred to a very scary not good, institution :( It is a very poor place where small children are housed with young men up to the age of 18 :( mentally ill men. Some with down syndrome. AWFUL. He can be saved if someone steps up to adopt him. My friend Jodi desperately wants to save him. But sadly money stands in the way. Can you pray for them ? Can you pray for him? What a scary reality this little boy has woken up to. He is tiny and only 6.

hugs !!

New picture! Mark your calendar for MONDAY!!

2010-07-30T21:17:00.000-05:00

My friend Heather sent me this picture that actually isnt new , new but had been on the Reeces Rainbow.org website for a short time. It show our beautiful little guy with a black eye :( so my talented friend touched it up a bit. MUCH better :)

I can not wait to kiss this little face, and tell him everything will be OK.

~We have a SUPER gift from Sarah ! She has offered to do a fundraiser for us! All items on her ETSY SITE will benefit Taya and Benji MONDAY!! Any items except the custom pieces, when bought on MONDAY AUG 2 she will donate $5.00 to our family grant fund thru RR. ALL you have to do is buy some pretty jewlery for YOU, put our name or Taya's name in the message to seller to when you pay w paypal ;)

~ALL her items are under $16 most are 7.99-11.00 for a beautiful handmade glass tile necklace ! please consider buying Christmas gifts for teachers, friends or yourself :)

go see how awesome her stuff is, and plan to shop on MONDAY !! sarah's shop is here !

There are MANY MORE to chose from :)

THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for all you kind emails and your support :)

hugs!!

OMGOSH! drumroll please................

2010-07-27T00:18:00.002-05:00

Introducing...........................

BENJIMAN REECE FALVO :)

Please share our joy and God's blessings for our family! Our sweet Benji :)
AHHH!!!! Happy dance ;)

(and the fact that a beautiful little boy will have a family , and a future that doesnt hold a scary mental institution)

We are beyond proud and excited to share our news! We will be bringing home 2 yes 2 little ones from the orphanage!!!!
We received our I171H finally, after contacting sentors and our congress woman :) while waiting we were praying over adding another child to our family, it seems with SO many needing homes it would be wrong (for us) to NOT save another child when we could. You see to add another child from the same orphange is only a little bit more. Yes we would have to fundraise and pinch more pennies but if that is what God wants us to do, how could we not listen?? How could we turn away?

Remember a few posts back I advocated for Russell and Anne-marie? Russell had a family in process for over just over 15 months but they were unable to finish and he was being sent to the MENTAL INSTITUTION very very soon. He is turning 6 on August 23. Anne-Marie also needs a family quickly for her sake, but she does have another year before she will be sent away. Russell (his reeces rainbow name) did not. He had less then a month. Time was ticking.....quickly. If it was God's plan we would be ready and he would still need us. My friend gretchen met him and fell in love with him, and shared so many wonderful stories..I too was fallen in love ! Well...

He was needing us. We were needing him.We were ready to help him. He will bless us !
*** We are having another son !!!!!!! We are going to have 2 new kiddos !! Holy smokes.***

We are so excited for our family but feel much sadness for the Montilones who had hoped to be his family. I know this is a very sad time for them, and I ask if you could pray for peace for their family . This has been very hard for them and I know they could use prayers for healing. The thing to celebrate is a little boy finding a family. It isnt about us, but his future :) And I believe God has a plan for us all and I wish them the very best.

Benjiman Reece Falvo, the beautiful son we didnt know we would be blessed to have !

Yes, the Reece, is in honor of Andrea's beautiful son and the wonderful work of Reeces Rainbow.org ;)

Hugs !!

for cathy, and anyone who would like to email me ~
Octpumpkin@msn.com

Outta sight, outta mind :)

2010-07-20T22:16:00.000-05:00

No, not really. Sadly my camera is broke :( my little video production crew aka, Peanut and Bug dropped it and broke the lens ! Yikes. Then I somehow got a really cool virus :( on my computer, so i havent been uploading pictures from my iphone for fear of losing them. So no pictures = No blogging.

I know ...boohiss.

In adopting news, we are almost done with our dossier, but sadly USCIS has changed their lovely process since we adopted in 2009, now everything goes to a "central location" where it is broke down between hague vs non hague. It is under Homeland Security and they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay backed up and seriously NOT motivated. At all. Now there are exceptions, my friend Marianne who is adopting sweet darya (sidebar) had her fingerprints taken the week after me, and her caseworker turned her case around and mailed her I171H in less then a week !! My lovely cw will not return a call or an email, lost a paper we needed and instead of calling/emailing me to tell me he mailed me a stock letter which took a week to GET HERE !~!! aahh! I had a copy so i overnighted it to him. He tells "well thats great but it takes a week or 2 for me to get things from the mailroom" DUDE!! We are saving a child from an institution while she is living in a less then ideal situation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know you are busy but could you please please make this a priority? You have everything you need to approve us !

Do you hear that ?

crickets ............

He just didnt care. So we wait. Going on 8 weeks now . We had our fp taken the 1st of july. Last 2 adoptions from mailing application to approval in mailbox, 5 1/2 weeks and 6 weeks. Oye.

Hugs!

New Taya picture!

2010-07-07T09:48:00.000-05:00

Seriously? Is there anything cuter then a bonnet on a smiling baby? I LOVE knowing how much love and stimulation Taya and all her friends received from Gretchen and her family. What a gift for these kids to know they are valued and loved. To feel the love of Jesus thru this kind family :)

Mama's coming little one. Hang in there.

~Well we hoped to travel in August but alas in the world of IA , you never know whats around the corner :( We are so close to being done with our dossier and now there is another change with some paperwork , and we have to have it re-done. Not huge but a hassle. Also it turns out that Taya's country closes for 2 weeks in July, so no dossier can be processed :( When it opens back up..you guessed, backlog ! So we are still praying for August but sadly it just may not be. Dang it.
~Upside, flights are much cheaper in September :)
~Downside, well you know what those are !

Hugs !

The Winner is~~

2010-07-03T13:02:00.001-05:00

**CHERYL F :):) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Since we have had so much support on our fundraiser, I wanted to give back a bit more, so we picked a runner up for a 147 million orphan t shirt / from gwen's charity :) that she was kind enough to donate ~~~
the
WINNER IS ~
RENEE :) NOAH'S MAMA!! CONGRATULATIONS !!!

email me girls :)

147 millions orphans~ ONE AT A TIME~COOL SHIRT/SAVE A CHILD

2010-07-02T10:04:00.000-05:00

hey guys !! I know you are out there , even if ya dont comment :) I see you ;)

~This holiday weekend if you buy the above shirt from my fundraiser at ~
http://www.adoptionbug.com/savingtaya/

ALL PROCEEDS will go to our fundraiser to bring TAYA HOME!! Not a percent, BUT ALL !!! That could truly help us to bring home Taya , AND if we have any extra it will go to the orphanage & Anne Maries grant to help her :) Shirts are fitted or relaxed fit and great quality.

Please consider a t-shirt that will bring awareness to orphans everywhere and help us to save our little "one" :)

Here's some cuteness to get ya thru your holiday weekend :) Have a wonderful , safe 4th of July !!

Kiddos, at their VBS concert.

"Do not withhold any good thing from those who deserve it when it is in your power to help them"

Proverbs 3:27

"With GOD nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37)

(John 14:18)

HUGS !!!

USCIS here we come ! Free drawing! Needing a mommy

2010-06-30T22:23:00.000-05:00

IVAN :) This brown eyed beauty has CP and will thrive at home with a loving family and treatments that are so easy to come by in our country.

monroe

SWEET!! He is about to age out of his baby house, and his Dr. is so very sad to see him sent to the mental institution where he will live a short life in a crib fed once or twice a day until he passes :( his Dr cried to a missionary worker to PLEASE FIND HIM A FAMILY TO SAVE HIS LIFE.

SO sad but true. Orphans live lives we DON'T want to think about. But we HAVE to . We have to do what GOD knows we can to HELP.

~In the past , well past adoptions that is, we have always waited until our scheduled appointments to head down to have our fingerprint apt. But I have learned that you can walk in, with your apt letter and they WILL TAKE YOU :) way cool. So we are heading down to get them done baby !! One more thing off our "to do" list to bring teeny Taya home :)
If you follow me on FB you know we had some set backs this week when it comes to notary stamps :( but slowly by weeks end we should be back on track!! I couldn't believe the FDLE clearances came back with a notary stamp that expired in a couple months ! Well that wont work :)
FREE DRAWING :)
~Don't forget you can scroll down a couple posts, to see the link for our adoption store front. Get yourself a cool adoption related t-shirt for Guatemala, Ethiopia or Ukraine. Or a faith or orphan based shirt , and if you re post our link on fb or your blog by this weekend, you will be entered in the drawing to win a free tshirt of your choice from our storefront !!
THEY ALL NEED A FAMILY :)
~This little guy is beautiful and he needs a family. How stinking cute is this little beauty?? He is healthy but does have HIV. which in OUR country is NOT a big deal. This beautiful boy deserves a family and a LIFE. Are you his mommy? Would he be a perfect fit in YOUR family? Think about these kids. Pray for them. Please.
:)

http://www.reecesrainbow.org/

~God is working miracles everyday. Don't forget that :)
~We may have something to share, God willing, soon. Could you say a pray for us? God knows what its for I bet :)

Hugs to all!!!

Do what YOU can for orphans everywhere, here in America, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Haiti, Eastern Europe, Uganda , anywhere a child suffers.

Baby massage :)

2010-06-26T18:16:00.001-05:00

I was so excited to see my beautiful teeny Taya baby getting some yummy baby massage with sweet smelling lotions and baby powder!! What a gift Gretchen is to all these children who are just aching for some touch and stimulation :)

Can you believe my little one is 4 1/2 years old? Life in institutions is hard on little bodies :(

Here is sweet Anne-Marie :) she desperately needs a mama & daddy ! Look how happy she is and how she is trying to interact . All it takes is someone to love these kids and show them some attention :) What child DOESN'T deserve that?

~Thank you to everyone for your support with our fundraiser!! You guys are awesome, we have had such wonderful response , I am just humbled once again. Thank you so much!!! Remember you can still get in on the giveaway, just post the link to my storefront on your blogs /face book/twitter or email it to friends :) post a comment either here or on face book, each time enters you for a chance to win a shirt from my storefront :)

~Have a wonderful happy weekend :):)

T-shirt fundraiser GIVEAWAY for Taya -guatemala , ethiopia and ukraine :)

2010-06-24T22:38:00.003-05:00

hey everyone !! I finally have my adoption fundraiser ready to help us with the last of our funds to
"SAVE TAYA-MARIA" :) our beautiful daughter to be who is stuck in an orphanage in Eastern Europe waiting on her mama and daddy.

Our t-shirts reflect all our feelings for saving the orphan child and some are specific to countries -
GUATEMALA, ETHIOPIA, AND UKRAINE :) We also have one or two shirts that are just colorful with HOPE/LOVE/FAITH themes. sizes for men/ladies/children.
ALL are under $25 most are $16-20

Please take a look and share with anyone that would be interested and on your blogs or facebook.
ok for the giveaway~
GO to our store front , follow this link-

http://www.adoptionbug.com/savingtaya/

post our storefront link on facebook/twitter/and your blog. for each time you post and share the link, leave me a comment. I will put your name in the drawing for a shirt of your choice for each time you post our fundraiser in the next week :) the giveaway will end 7/2/10 and we will draw the one winner on Saturday the 3rd. Thank you so much in advance ;) ETHIOPIA

GUATEMALA

This is just a sneek peek :) there are several other designs available too !! They are BEAUTIFUL !! AND, they will help to give an orphan a LIFE and a family :) Not everyone is called to adopt, and that is ok. BUT God does call everyone to HELP the orphaned child. So please help us save Taya :) (and get a couple cool shirts in the process :)

I was just over the top excited , to receive an IN PERSON report from my friend gretchen who is adopting sweet little Ross right now from Taya's orphanage. If you click on his button on my right sidebar, it will take you to his FSP page w/ Reeces Rainbow and his family blog is there. GO PEEK !! you will see

SEVERAL PICTURES OF MY TAYA!!!!! You will even she Gretchen kissing on my sweet taya baby !! Oh how happy that made me :)
Gretchen has said that Taya is so sweet and giggley and loves to give kisses and hugs ;) She said she is TINY and oh so fragile. Mama can NOT wait to get my baby home !!

URGENT FAMILIES needed for these lil guys !

2010-06-20T18:04:00.000-05:00

Hey guys !! I know ya'll will help me get the word out for these 2 sweet little boys, their time is running out in the baby house orphanages :( they are both ABOUT 6 MONTHS from being sent to the Institution :( THEY NEED A FAMILY.

~The first little guy with the beautiful platinum hair and blue eyes is Russel :) he has down syndrome but is very high functioning and so handsome!! he is in my Taya's orphanage and a friend of mine met him! She played with him for a while before a worker shooed him away :( she said he was talking (in russian :) , and was walking and running ! He came over to their blanket and called her soon to be son by name , and sat down to play cars and trucks with them on the blanket. She said he was sweet, and very friendly and played nicely !! He is even more beautiful in person she said. He is 5 and his time is running out. A family had him on hold for 1 year but never completed the adoption :( PLEASE PLEASE CONSIDER RUSSEL :):) LITTLE BOYS ARE THE BEST !!!
Russel has a large grant too!! email me or check him out at
http://www.reecesrainbow.org/ you can email andrea from the site with questions, if he isnt meant to be your son will you help me advocate for him?
~Next is monroe who is also 5. His doctor at the orphanage told a visting missionary that he desperately NEEDS A FAMILY in 6 months...or he will be "sent to the institution where he will be placed in a crib in a dark room and HARDLY FED, a slow death." The dr. was crying by the time she was done begging them to find him a family :( Monroe is friendly and sweet but has cerebral palsy, and can not walk at this time. Please please help me find him a mommy and daddy !!! He just had a HUGE GRANT of $6000 given by a benefactor with a heart of gold!!!! That makes his adoption much more affordable for his family !!!!

please please help me find these boys a family before the un-thinkable happens to them ...

Hugs!!

Stand up for Orphans :) , Taya update, Baby Girl cuteness!

2010-06-17T19:40:00.002-05:00

Oh my little cheeky, messy, beautiful , messy (did I say messy?) baby girl !! This child plays hard and SERIOUS. Each time we head outside I just give in and strip her down. Within minutes of being outside she is COVERED in dirt and usually wet from the kiddie pool and eating cherry tomatoes ;) I lost the fight to keep her clean and pretty outside ;) A quick shower , a bottle , her blankie and she is asleep.

My friend Gretchen is now in Taya's country and at her orphanage!! She is bringing home her little cutie Ross.Click on his button on my blog on the right side. She offered to bring a sweet gift from mama to Taya :) I had a minky blankie made for her , just like I brought for Baby Girl when we traveled to Ethiopia. I am ACHING for a Taya siting :) Oh I need to know my girl is doing OK...We have sent in our USCIS application, and have most of our dossier done except the doctor letters ! Yippee!! Getting so close. We are hoping to be able to mail off our dossier in July, then travel in AUGUST !! OH how thrilled we will be to break our girl out of the orphanage :):)

~My friend Kristin is now at Taya's orphanage and she is bringing home her BEAUTIFUL daughter Nadia :) she passed court AND the 10 day wait was waived so they are going to be home by next week!! Check out their blog here for some beautiful baby pictures :) Nadia has the brightest blue eyes and the sweetest smile.

Some sweet children who still need a mama & a daddy :)
~Brady on the top left, is in real danger of being sent to the institution very soon. In his region, HE CAN NOT be adopted out of the institution. It means a death sentence for him. Is he your son? Can you spread the word for him? Maybe donate a few dollars to his grant to help another family who feels led to adopt him to bring him home :)
~Next we have Darya. Isn't she a beauty? She is being well cared for and is HIV positive. This little girl will blossom once she is home :) Is she your little girl?
~Last we have Martin , oh how I love this little guy. He reminds me of my son at that age, so sweet and fragile :) He has down syndrome and needs a family quickly. He had a heart condition that has healed on its own!! That is awesome news for him ! Could you love him? Could he be your little boy?
Check out all the beautiful kids on
www.reecesrainbow.org :)

This was our harvest the last few days :) man o man that was a lot of tomatoes all at once! I was at a loss as to what to do , so I went ahead and just chopped and froze them to use in sauces ,soups and salsa later :)
Need some ? ;)

~we have been praying for all the people of Guatemala. They have had terrible luck with weather, rain , mudslides and volcano eruptions :( please consider a donation to Mayan families or another hands on group. These kind people have so little to start with, they have lost everything.

~Hugs :)

Random iphone shots~

2010-06-09T12:42:00.001-05:00

I love my babies. Have I said that lately? They are just so perfect and full of love. For each other and everyone else. I can NOT imagine my life without my babies :) ADOPTION ROCKS!!

~We found Boo napping in her room the other day, all decked out with her glasses and bracelets ;)
~Boo and Baby girl love to hold hands in the car. It is so sweet , they kill me !! Bug switched seat so they can now have their carseats side by side so it is easy to love on each other :)
~Baby girl is finally saying a couple words...and has started kissing EVERYONE it is so cute. Heck I will take kisses all . day. long.
~Boo asks me each time we go in the car "are we going to pick up my new sister Taya now?"
be still my heart :) I love that the kids cant wait to rescue Taya too !

Mama misses you sweet Taya...we are coming as soon as we can :)

Hugs !!!

Need a Bow? Want a Bow? Bows for Taya !

2010-06-01T09:40:00.000-05:00

Grab This!If you have a blog would you be kind enough to get the word out about our sweet Taya? if you click on the
"grab this" and copy the code you can put her button on your sidebar. It helps spread the word about orphans many folks dont know about. Which is ALWAYS a good thing!

~My friend Bianca who has a HUGE heart for children with Down syndrome and for Orphans, has made a blog called "Bows for Taya" she makes beautiful bows, loves to make custom bows and is donating ALL her proceeds to help us bring Taya home ! How kind is that? We are humbled :) please spread the word and check it out .
BOWS FOR TAYA :)

Hope everyone had an awesome 3 day weekend. We are still waiting for our homestudy draft, praying it comes in this week so we can file our application with USCIS :)

~Had our last tenant move out without notice (sound familiar?) and left me with 3 gas bills, 3 water bills, many garbage bills and 3 months rent NOT paid! She was supporting her family and her elderly dad, her hubby couldn t find work, and was sick. So me being the WAY TO NICE landlord was letting her wait until her income tax check came in to catch up and pay me. WELL.... She stood on her front porch 2 weeks ago and PROMISED to pay me in FULL on the 26th. Guess what??

THEY MOVED OUT THE VERY NEXT DAY AFTER TALKING TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yup. made me look like quite the fool :(

We need EVERY PENNY to bring Taya home quickly. This really rocked my faith in people. I feel quite betrayed , to have treated them with respect and to be screwed over so bad...sucks :(

~Have a wonderful day !!!!!!
~HAPPY BIRTHDAY POP-PA !!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU :) :) :)

Happy Birthday Boo !

2010-05-26T22:47:00.000-05:00

well folks my sweet lil mayan princesa has turned.......

*********4*********

What a journey this has been :)

Our Boo brought us a crash course in International adoption, and truly having things to deal with that are
out of your control ! Big time.
If you know anyone who went thru a Guatemalan adoption, they will tell you...they probably suffer from
PTSD :)
The mere mention of PGN....causes my breathing to quicken and my knees to weaken. Worth it ? Yes. Fun ...not all of it ;)

My sweet Amiga Angie sent me this reminder photo for Boo's 4th birthday.

It is Angie and I in guatemala at the westin hotel, poolside in 2006 . Our babes were teeny...I think 3 months old !!! Good times :) Brought home our baby girl and made a friend for life. Love ya.

Happy Birthday Boo baby...we love you more than anything ! A sweeter , kinder little girl there isnt :)

He needs a CHANCE to LIVE

2010-05-21T17:02:00.001-05:00

Grab This!

GO TO ~REECES RAINBOW.ORG...

Serious thoughts~cuteness and a goodbye

2010-05-19T11:37:00.004-05:00

Wanted to share some serious cheekiness (is that a word?) with y'all. How cute are they?

I bought the girls these matching dresses on Etsy. Oh my how sweet are they?? I loved them so much I went back and bought another set (different dress) they are so stinking cute!!

Bug's new haircut. She wanted something different ;) when you have curls, blow drying it straight IS different ! We will see how long this lasts :)

~Dossier work in under way !! Kinda excited, it looks like the paperwork for this adoption is MUCH EASIER then past dossiers :) YAY!!! Have apt tonite with my sis to borrow her computer and take a bunch to the notary.
~Waiting on my HS copy to review.....come on come on !!

~Had a really odd conversation last week. Thru the course of an hour or so I listened to some strange, not sure what the response they wanted, kind of comments.
Things commented to me ;)

~Is she yours?
~Ethiopia ? Well that's strange Why there ?
~Is it like Russia? My cousin has a child from there. He cost a fortune and he is crazy.
~How much does it cost?
~very sarcastically...WOW, What a deal !
~Your adopting again ? oh, wow.why?
~My foster child was terrified of her social worker, because she was black.

~"I could never saddle my child with a special needs or down syndrome sibling, it wouldn't be fair to her"
~~I dont think we are saddling our children with anything but love btw...~~

Fun times :)

I left feeling irked but not really upset, just off . I answered politely each time, just enough to put it out there but not enough to share my business ya know? They arent bad people, just not adoption minded i guess. The irked feeling stayed with me for a few days. And finally IT hit me.
BAM!!
THEY JUST DON'T GET IT! REALLY. Do not GET IT. PERIOD.
They dont understand WHY we have a heart for this. They say they do, but do they really?
Why do we scrimp and save and go without things we do to pay for another adoption. Now a down syndrome child? :) :)
ADOPTION IS NOT ABOUT US. Adoption is NOT to bring glory to US OR OUR FAMILIES. It should not be to GLORIFY you or your family. It is not to make you feel better or look better. It WILL bring you joy but that comes later ;)
Get ready for it...........

***IT IS TO BRING GLORY TO ....GOD
IT IS TO BRING GLORY TO THE .."LEAST OF THESE"
The orphans. The little children.The forgotten and forsaken.

not us.

They had no idea what it means to step out and fight for an orphan. Maybe they think it should be easy and make you feel good, or why bother??? maybe I'm being too sensitive. maybe or maybe not?

**Especially a SPECIAL NEEDS adoption. This is not about doing what is "comfortable" for us. This is kinda crazy ;) Way outta our comfort range lol. What seems COOL to our society. It is about following the word of the Lord. Now that we know these orphans are hurting and are slowly dying waiting for a family, We have to act. God wants us to. He knows if we do nothing. HUGE.

~ These children do not have a waiting list of families praying to PICKED to be their mom and dad. They sit sometimes for years WAITING for someone to WANT THEM :( someone to PICK THEM.
~It doesn't mean everyone can or will adopt, but they should pray for and be supportive of families that are stepping out and bringing a child into their families.
NOT critical :(

Adoption is beautiful and hard and SO worth it :) It doesn't matter where your child comes from, if they are an orphan and you hear the cry, it is beautiful.

Off my soapbox now :)

~Please pray for sweet Chrissie. She has gone home to be with Jesus. I am so very sad for her family. This baby fought so hard and had so many people praying for her. This just breaks my heart :( goodbye sweet girl. click here....

hugs.

Powerful~

2010-05-13T08:47:00.000-05:00

"...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

As Christians is it our duty to GOD to act? Would Jesus turn away from children in need? Should we?

Back on the train~

2010-05-12T10:12:00.001-05:00

The adoption train that is :) Homestudy meeting done, dr appt (ugh!) done. Lab work still needed, hiv test, tb chest xray and drug test. They should give ya drugs with the dossier packets ;)
Letters are getting picked up tonite. Dossier is being started...
WHAT WAS I THINKING?? ~~am i crazy?~~
Ok..dont answer that.

~All of it is worth it. I know that. Been thru it 2x's so this SHOULD be a breeze.
This is a mission. A RESCUE MISSION. TRULY. We are saving a childs life.
deep breaths...time MUST be on our side.

~I was reading thru our dossier info last night and it stated there IS a risk that a child who is 4 (Taya is 4 1/2) could be transferred to an INSTITUTION mid adoption ! Oh my word. Her little heart would break! Her life now isnt sweet and comfy by any means, but to be moved from the only "home" she has ever known to a cold , dark internat with busy, uncaring strangers, with scary noises and smells, in a cold empty crib alone. What would that do to a child?? our child.
~We have been asked if there is anything you can do to help. Humbling. This time around we will need to do some fundraising. This wasnt planned (well GOD knew :) and the funds arent all there. I have put a chipin, on the side. IF you feel led to help we are grateful and humbled. I have linked the chipin to Reeces Rainbow so you will be able to deduct your donation from your taxes. Cool right?
If you prefer to send a check, just email me :) this is so wierd...asking for help ...

~The kids are excited about their new sister ! Makes this mama so happy :)
Boo isnt sure TAYA should touch her toys yet, but she is THINKING about sharing LOL.

Our girl :) she needs some serious hugs and kisses and B.O.W.S ! and some sweet Florida sunshine on her face.

~ANNE MARIE is in Taya's orphanage too. She is 4 1/2 also and NOT valued or cared for as well as Taya. It breaks my heart. My hubby thinks bringing home 2 kiddos at once ( I asked !) is too much. He may be right. But oh this baby needs a mama!!! Can you help me find one for her ???

look at her little bow lips??? Oh they need to be kissed !!

~Happy Wednesday to everyone :)

GOD KNEW~

2010-05-04T22:19:00.003-05:00

just took us a bit to catch on :)

INTRODUCING

TAYA !!!!!

(My dream baby :)

She will be our newest daughter !

I am freaking out ! She has wrapped her little hands around my heart since late last year. I have felt a huge connection to her. While I was trying to find her a home, GOD was working on my hubby and making it clear WHERE her real home WAS. WITH US !!!!!!!!!! I swear I screamed when my hubby said lets go get her !

There is a story and background I will share with ya'll in another post, but for now share my joy for this amazing beautiful child of GOD who will very soon know the love of her mama!!!!

GO HERE , to see our family sponsor page :) if you felt inclined to donate to help us bring her home, it is tax-deductible and we would be so very humbled...

All orphans are my passion.I will continue to advocate for these kids. So far I have touched the adoption of 4 kiddos!!! Timothy, Taya :) and 2 other little ones who's mama will come forward soon. God is so awesome and amazing to use me this way. I am honored.

I chuckle thinking about how the LORD works these things out :) all for his glory!!!

Btw~ time is not on our side here. Taya turned 4 at the beginning of the year. She is on borrowed time , before she could be sent to the institution (internet) for the mentally INSANE. Not just children are housed in this awful , dark place but teens and adults. WITH BABIES. oH. MY.WORD. We have to get our paperwork and funds in order asap!

Pray for us :) :)

Please go to reeces rainbow site and check out all the kiddos who truly NEED YOU !

Cats outta the bag...

2010-05-04T00:17:00.003-05:00

If you are my fb friend you know our AMAZING NEWS :) if not....stay tuned.

We did it !!!

2010-04-25T09:52:00.000-05:00

Timothy's family found him!!!!!!!!!
One more sweet orphan will be an orphan NO MORE!!!
He will know the love of a family, the tenderness of a mommy, and the joy of being a daddy's boy :):)
THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HELPED SPREAD THE WORD.
Timothy is going home to Mel DelLanos and her family. Mel and I went to high school together then lost touch and recently she "friended" me on face book. Right at the time I was advocating for Timothy. Coincidence? NO. GOD-INCIDENCE ;)

She fell in love with him and prayed and prayed. They have never adopted before, let alone a child with a special need. Finally GOD gave them the courage to put their fears aside. This isn't about them after all, it is GOD's plan for this little child ! Oh how they will be rewarded !!

One year anniversary ! (and what the heck is w/ blogger ?)

2010-04-12T11:09:00.000-05:00

The very last time we stood outside the famous gates :) We loved our time in Ethiopia, the people the sights and sounds were awesome.

Baby girl with favorite special mother. Watching the tender goodbye, was heartbreaking :( I could see how much see loved my baby girl, and I ached for her having to let her go. The love they show the children is just so unselfish and amazing.

~Ok. this is so freakin maddening! Blogger changed their format and I cant get my pictures to move or let me add text in between :( what the heck???
~anywhoo, the next picture was baby girl seeing the doctor at Hannahs Hope before we left, if you remember she came home with that awful rattling. Doctor was super nice.

~Next picture was saying goodbye to our favorite guy at agci :) he loved baby girl and would hold her every chance he got.
~Almaz who is such an amazing lady !
~Meeting her siblings for the first time ! Yup, it was love at first site for all of them :)

~hmm, I had pictures of my son and hubby but they are gone. frustrating....

So happy to see so many families going back to Ethiopia again for another amazing child!!!! I wonder what GOD has planned for our family.........hmmmmmm.......

Our Winners & some cuteness

2010-03-18T12:13:00.007-05:00

Bug doing the honors :) Yes baby girl is on the table watching. Sorry 4th kiddos get away with ALOT !

We have 2 winners !! I know surprise :) :) Gwen from 147 million orphans sent me a couple t-shirts too so I threw one into this give away !!!

LINDY ~A mama who is dreaming of adoption :):)

ALEX~A mama with a heart for orphans and children :)

Lindy & Alex thank you so much for your donations!!

Lindy Send me an email and I will forward your info to Kelly and she will let you pick your size t-shirt from her AWESOME ORGANIZATION !! I have to buy me one of her cool t-shirts :) I want one too lol!

Alex send me a email with your address and I will send you out your awesome

t shirt from Gwen's organization !!! How cool, ya' ll helped a little guy and won cool t-shirts :) thank you to all who donated !!!!!

Now for some cuteness :) In our new rental house we dont have a tub :( 3 bathrooms and no tub, go figure, so Baby Girl gets a little sink bath !! She loves it! (cookie was just hanging making sure it went ok)

Strikin a pose :) she is so cheeky!!

This is how Baby girl goes to bed now , LAYERED to prevent a NAKED BABY in the morning !!

Showing off her little hair pretty :) She LOVES her hair bows, if they slip off she will bring it to me and tell me (without words :) to put it back in ! Too cute :)

This is the situation I woke to a couple weeks ago :) a disgruntled baby girl with no clothes or diaper. AH!! That could HAVE been ugly ;) so now we layer so she cant get the zippers and snaps open, so far so good.

~We all woke this morning with colds. AGAIN. Starting to dream of warmer weather ! Never thought I would say that LOL! Too much cold this year :)

~Have a wonderful Thursday :) :)

We have a winner

2010-03-17T21:45:00.003-05:00

yup. we have a winner. Bug and Baby girl drew the lucky winner.

huge thank you to all who donated including the 2 folks who chose to remain nameless :)

Winner will be announced tomorrow ..we have been under the weather a bit here. Gotta find my camera cord :)

Dirt and donations ~

2010-03-16T17:08:00.006-05:00

This is the "dont you warn me not to eat dirt look"

I will eat whatever I want ! (clearly)

Smiling with joy at being cheeky and eating it anyway !!

Then going in for some more tasty , crunchy driveway dirt !

Baby girl is being naughty. Yes naughty. Everytime we are outside , she has to be watched closely because she will play with ANTS and EAT DIRT. Yes dirt:( I am not talking about your normal toddler "tasting the sand " in the sandbox eating. I mean picking up a small handful and putting it in her mouth to the best of her ability , then licking the rest off her hand ! Then going back for another big handful ..ick ! It is kinda odd considering she hardly eats ANY real food, but dirt ..yum. Any ideas?

Boo comes to her rescue to save her from herself and takes her for a ride on the plasma car :)

~HUGE THANK YOU FOR DONATIONS TO TIMOTHY~

LINDY :)

TISHA :)

TERRY :)

ALEX :)

Thank you guys so much ! honestly every $$ truly helps to bring him home!!

Tomorrow is our drawing for the beautiful T-shirt from Kellys organization ORDINARY HERO !!! Go check out the amazing things she is doing as an

"ordinary person" just like you and me :)

All it takes is $10 for a chance :) to be a HERO to a child. Timmy.

PLEASE ?? Can you help ?

******HUGE CONGRATULATIONS GO OUT TO THE GOSSETT FAMILY :) *****

Beautiful Isla was born to her amazingly strong, mommy Autumn very healthy !!

Sisters :) , thank you's, changes, Families needed!

2010-03-12T11:50:00.009-06:00

Kelly , Kristi's sister has been kind enough to donate a tshirt from her organization , ORDINARY HERO , like the one Kristi is modeling :) . for every $10 donation you make to Timothy's grant fund using the chip in, you will get ONE chance to win. leave a comment with the $ amount and you will be entered for a chance to win :) YOU HAVE TO LEAVE ME A COMMENT, because ALL the personal info goes straight to Reece's rainbow, so I only see the amount go up, not who donates :) on the 16th Tuesday, at 9pm I will have my kids pull a name out of a bowl with each $10 donation in it for a chance :) $20 is 2 chances, etc. We will be doing another fun giveaway after that one...stay tuned !!
How cool would it be to win one of these awesome shirts and help a WONDERFUL LITTLE BOY!!!! COME ON GUYS :) DON'T FAIL ME NOW :) Its only $10.....teeny tiny amount in the course of a day :)

Is there anything sweeter then seeing your kids love each other ? Baby girl and Boo are so sweet together. Bug is a wonderful big sis. I have to get a video of Baby Girl kissing on Boo, it is the sweetest thing :)

We hit the local fair last week and it was FREEZING ! Only about 47 but with the wind....chiiiiilllly :) I like the fairs but some of those carni folks, are a

bit creepy :(

~BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO MICHELLE AND MICHAEL FOR THE REFERRAL OF THEIR NEW BABY BOY :) :)

Ok BIG THANK YOU'S for donations to Timothy's grant fund

GO OUT TO~

Marilyn

~ Gaby

~Kristi J

~Leslie B

~anonymous X 2

your magnets will be on there way soon. I have to get them out of a box , so bear with me ;)

I know we can get to $350 !! You guys are awesome. If everyone who has a heart for orphans, donates just $10....well , that's alot of money LOL!! PLEASE spread the word and remember every little bit DOES HELP :) :)

~Ethiopia has big changes in store. I guess a lot still has to be ironed out, but it looks like they are requiring families to make 2 trips :( this has its ups and downs,, it will be more expensive (flights to Ethiopia ain't cheap :) and leaving your baby/child behind IS VERY HARD. we learned that while adopting Boo from Guatemala. It hurts. But the good, is you will get a chance to spend time with your child that you would have missed out on. And meeting an older child , it will give you some time to get to know them just a bit. I am still unclear on the WHY of it all. Anyone have any ideas?

finding families one child at a time :)

This is sweet Lucy. She is waiting for her forever family in Mexico. They take very good care of the kids there. She has down syndrome :)

MAX & LERA :)

Ok how stinkin cute are these TWINS !!! Oh I want them :) lol. They are 18 months old and developing on target :) They are loving and sweet.
How cute??? They are in Eastern Europe and total costs with travel are under $24,000. Oh these beautiful babies need a mama and a daddy !! They DONOT have down syndrome. But sadly they are both HIV + ok dont turn away. HIV is so treatable now. These babies have a long life ahead of them with treatment HERE in the states. Visit project hopeful.org to learn more about raising kiddos with HIV. They are on the Reeces Rainbow site under "OTHER ANGELS" SIBLINGS :) GO take a peek and donate or pray over them. Hiv makes them special needs, so they need our help:)
HIV ,It is not the scary condition it used to be.

ok, thats it for now. bye:)

Leave your name :) ALL girls & GOODIES COMING

2010-03-05T23:41:00.003-06:00

sweet taya lost her family :( i know they are heartbroken. I love this child. I so wish she didnt have to wait a minute longer. Where is her mama?? She is 3 now, talking and doing wonderful.healthy!!!

ok. cordelia !! I love her too!! She is 2 walking , talking and a favorite!! She is very high functioning , possible mosiac ds, how awesome !!! She needs a mama!!

and my other true favorite, anastasia :) what a beauty she is ! How can no one step out and make her their daughter ???? She is beautiful, kind , talking and walking :)

you guys are awesome !!!!!!!!! 5 donations already :) but, I dont know from who ! AH ! all info is going to RR. so, if you would love your magnets sent out, leave me a comment or send me an email and i will mail it off to you !!

oK, WE HAVE TSHIRTS COMING !! Kelly, Kristi's awesome sister was kind enough to donate a t shirt from her org, for our fundraiser for Timothy :) and ...

147 million.com Gwen and suzanne were kind enough to also send me some goodies for a lucky winner or two :) i will get this up and going soon!!

We can find these babies homes !!!
Have a great weekend !!

MUST watch for DADS on the fence...(or under it!)

2010-03-03T09:30:00.002-06:00

I borrowed this from the Gwens blog , Oatsvall team. I just thought it was so awesome it needed to be shared :)

Gwens blog is ~here :) :)

WHERE'S my mommy??

2010-03-01T10:38:00.005-06:00

Look how sweet this baby is!! He is 3 years old and living in an orphanage in Eastern E urope. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. He walks and is very lovable. Yes , has down syndrome. But by looking at him he seems to be very healthy and beautiful :) when he turns 4 he will be on borrowed time, before he is sent to an institution :( (check out my facebook page, for a short video of life in an EE institution)
WE can help him find a family!!!!! Print his picture out and pass it out to EVERYONE you know , at church, at work, in your neighborhood. SOMEWHERE his mommy is right now, hoping to find him. Please donate to his grant fund. Adoption is costly (right?) and if we can make it a bit easier for his family , they will step up !!

~I am going to put a chip in button up too. For everyone who donates $15 , I will send you an adoption magnet !! If you donate $21 I will send you 2 :) :) I have about 20 magnets so lets go !!!
~If you can only donate $5 or $10 PLEASE DO !!!! I will post everyones names to my blog that donate, and GOD AND TIMOTHY , and I will THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!
~ALL the monies go directly to RR , not me :)
please spread the word and link my blog on your blog or facebook. NOT for me ;) FOR THIS SWEET LITTLE BOY, who wants someone to hug him and kiss him and change his world forever.

Baby Girl is back :)

2010-02-28T13:56:00.003-06:00

HELLO?? Are you guys still out there ??
how cute is she?? She loves to just wake up and put a fancy dress on.

This was my poor baby girl :( she was running a fever and so puny. I just carried her in the sling all day long. It made packing boxes a bit more challenging but hey, I loved it.

My cutie with her new bow :)

Look at this face?? Oh how we love her!!Can you imagine her without a mama? Me either. I cant stand to think about her growing up without a family due to poverty. So many kids need families...so sad.

Can you see her curls? I know not the best shot, but they are getting so long!! I cant believe it , when i wash her hair HOW LONG it is. Crazy :)

~This month on 3/21/10 is "DOWN SYNDROME AWARENESS DAY" I am going to be sharing with you guys some amazing families and beautiful kids that still need mamas.

~I have also picked a beautiful little boy to sponsor and am thinking of ideas to raise some money for his grant fund to make bringing him HOME easier for a prospective family.

If you have any ideas of things /products we could raffle off I WOULD BE SO GRATEFUL!!

~I am going to put his picture and a chip in up later on :)

~I am off to read for a bit while baby girl naps.

ENJOY YOUR BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY !!!!!!!!!!!!

More CHILDREN FOUND THEIR MAMA'S !!

2010-02-24T23:16:00.004-06:00

MINA :) LOOK AT THOSE EYES! SHE HAS ONE LUCKY MAMA & DADDY AND A BIG SIS!!

ANNA:) OH WHAT A STINKER SHE IS ! HOW CAN YOU NOT WHAT TO JUST SQUEEZE HER!!
HER FAMILY IS GOING TO GET A WHOLE LOT OF SQUEEZES IN ;)

TOO CUTE!! THIS ZHENYA'S NEW PIC :) LUCKY FAMILY!

SWEET ALEC'S NEW PICTURE !! LOOK HOW HE HAS GROWN!

MARLEY'S FAMILY FOUND HER TOO !!!

SWEET LERA. OH LERA WAS SO SO CLOSE TO LIVING A VERY SAD LIFE IN AN INSTITUTION. TIED IN HER CRIB. CAN YOU IMAGINE??

BUT.........

HER FAMILY FOUND HER JUST IN TIME.

~ THE REECE'S RAINBOW FAMILY ALSO COLLECTED A $10,000 grant TOWARDS HER ADOPTION COSTS. JUST AMAZING.

AND THEN WE HAVE SWEET IVY :) :) SHE IS HIGH FUNCTIONING AND SHE IS GOING HOME!!!!!

So happy for all of these babies :)

~pics on baby girl and the kiddos coming soon promise!!

Miracles DO HAPPEN ~ Their families found THEM!

2010-02-21T10:47:00.004-06:00

TAYA :) :)

ZHENYA :)

DAVID :)

SWEET DENNIS ( LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS IN
HIS NEW PICTURE !! )

DENNIS IN HIS OLD PICTURE :(

ALEC !!!!!!!!

These beautiful amazing children were headed to an internat (institution) for the INSANE. They would have been bed/crib bound and surrounded with mentally insane adults and children with special needs who have gone insane out of neglect... for the REST OF THEIR SHORT LIVES.

NOT ANYMORE :) :) :) !!!!!!!!! GOD heard our prayers and a family came forward for dennis, alec, and zhenya!!!! Little david is heading to a different lucky family :) Taya is going home to an amazing family with 4 siblings and many pets :) I SO loved this little girl and this just makes me cry , I am so happy for her.

I cant wait to see how these babies flourish and thrive with love of a family.

Thank you to everyone who prayed over them and talked about them to friends and families. You validated their lives. They mean something.

They and all the orphans in this world should not be forgotten. Even if they are locked away behind cold walls of institutions and sad orphanages :(

~REECES RAINBOW.ORG IS THE SITE THAT ADVOCATES FOR THESE AMAZING KIDS. ANDREA (THE FOUNDER) IS FEATURED IN THIS WEEKS PEOPLE MAGAZINE UNDER "HEREOS" PICK IT UP AND MEET AN AMAZING LADY :)

I will be updating soon, I have been a bad blogger. We just completed moving into our new house and we have been crazy busy. I know you want to see some new pictures of the kiddos ;)

Today I am in pain, my compressed discs are pinched from lifting too many dang boxes :(

ouchy !! Off to next a nap and a muscle relaxer ;0)

Life with beautiful Babies :)

2010-01-20T09:06:00.006-06:00

This is what happens when your turn your back for 1 second to grab clean towels, when you live with a water baby!!! Somehow she scaled the tub , clothes and all :) She was sitting there happy as a baby clam !!

Boo was worried for her...."Mama Baby girl do something bad !"

Late one night I am doing laundry ( seriously, is it ever done?) I open the dryer and am shocked. What the heck is that ?? Turns out Boo had decided the dryer was her OVEN!! She was baking muffins for her party :) :)

Beautiful baby girl is 30 degree weather !!!

Did you buy your plasma car yet ?? You need to ;) Baby girl zips all around on hers now with the big kids!!

This is our new "squinty face" She does it over and over and we just crack up !!

Gotta love a baby with a big flower headband :)

Boo with her pretty headband too !

Serious fun !! Baby girl runs to the dune buggy to ride in it everyday :) This baby is a dare devil !!

~What a horrible situation in Haiti !! It just breaks your heart. What have you done to help out a bit? Pray? Donate? I think it is awesome you can even text and donate just $10 !! If everyone donates just $10 ?? Wow. That adds up fast :)

~I feel so bad for all the families who are in the process of adopting from Haiti , how scary and frustrating to have your child in the middle of a natural disaster. I pray all these children in process can come home to their waiting families NOW. A family in a nearby town, flew to Haiti the day after the earthquake and managed to find their 2 children and fly home with them!! Not sure HOW they managed it ..but they are home safe in Florida :)

~Can you please help spread the word about Reece's Rainbow's kids? My last post shows some beautiful baby boys who are in desperate of families. Their are so many kids on their site who have special needs , CP, BLIND, SPINA BIFIDA, DOWNS, CLUB FEET ETC. They all will just thrive in a family :) Many have grants too that help with costs. Some are only $22,000 with travel, then minus grants .

~HAVE A WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY !!! :)

Finding homes , Spreading the word !

2010-01-19T22:44:00.004-06:00

ALEC :)

ZHENYA :)

DENNIS *URGENT NEED* (the blue dots are medicine)

Reece's Rainbow contact Andrea

URGENT NEED !!!!!!!
LETS ALL SPREAD THE WORD PLEASE FOR THIS SWEET LITTLE BOY!!!

DENNIS born 3/18/2006

HE HAS A $5000 GRANT !!!!

This little guy lost his family at the 11th hour and DESPERATLY needs a USCIS ready family to step forward quickly to SAVE HIM. He is struggling with rickets and a heart condition that can be treated. He has blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. He is in a very very poor orphanage and once he turns 4....he is transferred to a very poor institution that HE CANT BE ADOPTED OUT OF. It has a VERY high mortality rate :( This babies family has to be out there somewhere...can we find them ??

zhenya BORN 1/2007

GRANT OF $1600 !!!!

This beautiful blonde baby is strong, happy and doing great. He does have an oval window and a cataract in his right eye. Remember this orphanage is very poor but they love the kids, he will thrive once he is home with the love of a mama :) :) Cant you imagine just snuggling with this little baby ??
ALL 3 OF THESE LITTLE GUYS CAN BE ADOPTED TOGETHER FOR A VERY SMALL ADDITIONAL FEE :)

Alec born June 2, 2006

GRANT $$5000 !!!!

ALEC is healthy without a heart condition. He does have rickets , which a healthy diet and lots of vitamin D and sunshine will help !! Also cryptorchidism, which may require surgery, he would have to see a doctor to be sure. He can thrive in a family. This orphanage is very poor...and the institution that children are sent to at 4, is even poorer and many children die soon after arrival :( can we help this baby find his family???

IF ONE OR MORE OF THESE CHILDREN ARE ADOPTED TOGETHER , THEIR GRANTS CAN BE COMBINED !!! ya gotta love that :) :)

Reece's Rainbow~ TIME IS RUNNING OUT

2010-01-08T11:22:00.008-06:00

We have to stand up an advocate for this beautiful child! Look at this sweet face and those soulful eyes....he NEEDS A FAMILY!! Do you know someone who would love this child? Are you that family? No ? Thats ok, lets just help spread the word to save him from a life locked in a crib or in a room with MANY truly sick children and adults locked away forever .....until he dies. Most likely in the first 12 months after his transfer ! He may not see the age of 6. He will never know a mommy's love ;( or what it feels like to be born in a mommys heart, and cherished.

THIS CHILD LIVES IN A REGION (in russia) THAT DOES NOT ALLOW CHILDREN TO BE ADOPTED OUT OF THE INSTITUTION AFTER TRANSFER. IT IS A LIFE SENTENCE FOR THEM :(

Reece's Rainbow: "Martin is a beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed boy who was born with Tetralogy of Fallot(valve issues w/heart). He has an astigmatism and an umbilical hernia (common in children with DS). He is facing the institution next year, and he needs to get home to a family who can provide him with surgery to correct his heart condition. Please consider Martin for your son! He is described as a cheerful and playful boy!"