A letter to warm your soul.....

Thank you cards and handwritten letters are priceless. My heart breaks daily as I think about the girls staying there any longer than they have too. I wanted to share this beautiful letter and card I received form my girls.

I have only the translation emailed to me by Dima. I choose to keep that personal to myself. None the less, they are missing home and we miss them.

On Slow down......for now

We have had nothing but a slew of things hit all at once. Seems that We need to take a step back and breath right now. The cost of this and that has been unreal. I thought we would be able to use alot of our documents on the Ukrainian dossier. We could however, alot had to be updated and new certificates. That was more than I had anticipated it being. The new certificates and background check was needed for that and my updated home study.

The cost of our new updated home study and the I-600 fees have to be paid before we can do anything at all. Honestly, we do not have it right now. So, we have decided to continue to raise our money like we have been and then, we can resume. We have requested assistance grants/loans from several organizations but have not heard anything from them. Our agency has been wonderful and supportive at helping us. We have to keep in our mind that our needs must come before our desires.

Meanwhile, I will continue to make bracelets, necklaces, collect old cell phones and sell items we don't use to help raise the money needed to get the home study completed and our 1-600 filed. What God intends for us to have, he will give us. Please continue to pray for all our children.

Where to now?

Friends,
This is to let you know that we are completely sane! Yes, we want 6 kids........Yes, our 2 boys, 2 Ethiopians girls and 2 Ukrainian girls. During this past summer, we hosted these sweethearts and fell deeply in love with them. Most people have no idea about this part, but it is important for us to share.

During the late spring, we were really at a stand still waiting for information about Emili and Abigail....Not knowing if we would even be able to continue on, if the country was going to close or what......That lead us to not really knowing which direction to go. We listened to God and these little ones fell right into our laps. It had became more and more apparent as to what Gods plans were to us. We were intended to be their forever family.....But how? We have paid out of pocket our entire Ethiopian Adoption for one child and our church family helped along with Show Hope Grant to pay for 1/2 the second child. Now, here we stand again. Wondering, how am I going to afford another adoption?

I have friends who are helping from all angles and doing us favors to help off set the cost. Still, I sit wondering and worrying about how can I get them home to me. Nothing is free. The last adoption we have sold everything not in use, a car, jewelry, ATV, 3 TV's, Oak table and chair set, Video games and systems and had fundraisers. Now, what is next? God has plans and I know it but it seems very cloudy now as to what they are. I have applied to 3 agencies about assistance in the way of grants. I am waiting to hear from them. I ask for you to pray for the Lords will to be done.

I am working on some more fundraiser ideas.

Some people's kids??

        Well obviously, not everyone is concerned about the weather.......Some peoples kids....... :-)

We are very thankful to Marko and Lori Horb for opening their homes to our girls for the night and allowing them to call us. Marko was very kind to interpret to the girls everything that we wanted to make sure they understood. It was important for us to make sure, even though Anya is good at speaking English, that they understood things that were very important. He explained many things to them and we are so thankful for his help. 

I also received these pictures of the girls having fun on the beach before leaving Boston.

Everything has been clear so far for their trip to Kiev. Karen Medve, Maggie Scobie and Pat Throup had kept us updated on everything going on with the weather and making sure that they were safe.

Now, yes we have decided, as did they....they fit beautifully in our family. Yes, you heard right. God gives you what he wants for you to have.....That is our Motto!

                                           Yeah.........EVEN SUPERMAN WAS ADOPTED!

Deep seeded worry and fear.....

Our girls are traveling and unknowing what to expect with the upcoming weather. We have prayed to our Lord to keep our angels safe with his. ABC news had this to say in their press release.......

Hurricane Irene's fury is growing and the National Hurricane Center warned today that the storm could be upgraded from its current level of Category 3 to a more ominous Category 4 by Thursday.

The core of the hurricane is expected to move across the southeastern and central Bahamas tonight, with maximum winds near 120 mph.

As the storm clears the island and continues over the warm water of the Atlantic, its wind speed is expected to strengthen and the size of the storm could increase, the Hurricane Center predicted.

"Warm water is essentially like their fuel. It helps them strengthen and it's got plenty of that ahead of it, at least in the next few days," said John Cangialosi, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

The threshold for a category 4 is wind speeds of at least 131 mph.

Forecasters predict Irene could hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Saturday, move up to the mid-Atlantic region including Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey late Saturday or early Sunday, and hit New England late Sunday.

All good things come to a end......at least for now

This morning marks the end of our host visit. I have learned so many things about living, loving and giving. You often find yourself as a parent forgetting things about yourself that are long buried through the sandstorms of life.I had forgotten the deep pain of loving and letting go. I forgotten the feelings of loneliness when you feel as though your it. This morning, I remembered all those things. We watched our little freckled face girls walk down the ramp to their seat, only to return being escorted by the flight attendant back to see us one last time before the flight left.

What a painful thing. As parents, you can kiss bruises, clean and dress cuts, nurse them when they are ill but there is nothing you can do about a broken heart. That is the most helpless feeling and there is no way to explain that. All I can do is hold them close, remind them that it will be fine and that we love them. I felt as heartbroken as they did. We cried with them and everyone else did too. The flight attendants, gate workers and other passengers were crying.

We lived, we loved, we laughed and now we let go. We have trust that God will keep them safe and protect them. We trust that every night, they will be tucked in by angels and kept warm be his shaw. We trust that his host of angels will stand watch until our return. We trust that our Lord will remind them daily, they are wanted and they are loved.

The last family night outing

We decided on Cracker Barrel, simply because they have a variety of home cooking from fried chicken to soup beans and corn bread.

This is a really neat restaurant that is truly southern. From the rocking chairs on the front porch to the cozy fireplace in the middle eating area.

                     To mind boggling games with multiple colored golf tee's the measure your IQ level

Then, the meal.......

We are in the car, loading up to drop Luke off at Karate tonight. Then, we head to the house. Gotta rest! Morning comes early and these girls don't do morning very good at all.