the last week of 2010

Ok, so here it is just a few more days left of 2010 and I look back on the year, as a family we've had a good year, and alot of changes. Lauren's last 1st day of school, the last time Shanna and Lauren attend school together, possible our last year with Lauren here at home for the holidays as she has hopes to join the US Coast Guard after graduation in June. YES I am focused on what WE may not have instead of what I wish we already had. IT WILL HOPEFULLY be the last holiday Elijah will not be home. The last one he will not know the love of a FAMILY, the joy of waking up to a mama and daddy everyday forever.
So now as we start the New YEAR, prayerful the year of Elijah's homecoming it is with gladness that 2010 comes to a close as we see what 2011 will offer our family.
Lauren A grown daughter in the Coast Guard, and possibly married!
Ethan becoming an adult another Coxwell man, starting his last year of high school
Shanna turning 15, learners permit and 2nd year in high school
Alina, 11 home 4 years last year of elementary school...
And GOD willing Elijah turning 5 at home with his family.
God Bless every one in there new year..

Our Miracle...

Ok so with alot of prayer and discussion we have made the decision on who we are going to adopt. He is very close to my heart but not location. The little guy whom we well be anouncing once the ball is officially rolling will be named Elijah Daniel. Elijah a name we love means, the "Lord" is my God. Daniel for his Daddy means God is my judge. He is currently in an orphanage in Eastern Europe and that is all we can say about his location. He is 4 1/2 years old, and was blessed with an extra chromosone. He is a beautiful miracle with Down syndrome.
With God's guidance Dan an I feel this is the child that has meant to be ours all along we just were not listening to HIM. Through HIM doors will open and we well bring home our miracle boy.
Merry Christmas to All,God Bless

HE found a family :)

This is Vadim.. HE is a beautiful 4 year old who I absolutely LOVE who currently lives in a orphanage in Eastern Europe. He has a family. The Dull family had previously commited to little boy named Joel from the same country as Vadim,however Joel was adopted by a family from that country, that left the Dull family missing a little boy and one VERY special little boy with out a family. BUT not anymore. Hopefully they will all be together by the end of the year. Vadim will have a Mommy, Daddy, a big sister Josie, a little brother Josiah and a baby sister Jordan... Congratulations to all!!

Congratulations Nalle family

Today Aaron Vanya Nalle is no longer an ophan he has his parents, Julia and Rob Nalle and two older brothers Ben and Elijah Congratulations.

Just over a year ago..

It was just over a year ago I discovered a wonderful "place" called Reeces Rainbow(RR), it is a listing and advocating organization set up by a wonderful woman Andrea Roberts. It was in honor of her son Reece who is now 8 but was born chromosonally enhanced with an extra 21 chromosone. Officially he was born with Down syndrome and to honor him she now advocates for children with Down syndrome and other special needs around the world.
Started 4 years ago Reeses Rainbow has brought over 350 children to their forever families. RR isnt an adoption agency they truely do this out of love, It is a totally volunteer group of women who work with family adopting through an adoption agency or independantly with the help of foreign facilitators.
Upon finding RR I found a little boy who had just turned 3, AND was in need of a forever family. We commited to be his family, and well things didnt work out and had to let him go, so now fast forward on year, he is now 4 and I still look at his pictures daily and pray for him to come home to his forever family whether that be here to us or another family that will love him as much. I have his picture on a collage with other RR kiddos on my bedroom mirror, fridge.
Daniel has said if the Lord opens the doors for us to financially commit to him again he will be on board. So I pray GODS will, will be done but hope His will is for the little guy to be part of our family.
PLEASE PRAY with us for all the angels On RR and for us if it is Gods plan for this little guy to be part of our family..

Time flys

Well havent I been bad the last month about not posting. I didnt realize it had been a month since my last post, but we've been busy as a family. We went on a vacation to Virginia over the 4th of July. When we came home Lauren who was scheduled to have her gallbladder out the 29th of july but she had an attack and ended up having it out 2 weeks early, Shanna had band camp at the high school for 2 weeks and so now it is the 1st week of August. Ethan starts school next Monday the 9th and the girls start the 23rd. Lauren will be a senior, Ehtan a junior, Shanna a freshman and ALina will be in 4th grade.
WOW where has the time gone!
Daniel and I are doing well, just busy with the kids, I cant help but wonder what it will be like to have another little on in the house with all the ongoings of the older kids, but I have no doubt that God has a desire for us to adopt again, just gotta wait... Patience is not something I am known to have. But as time has gone so quickly as it has the year that Daniel wants will be over and we will be in the process ... GOD willing.

And so we will wait.. and SPENCERS NEW BUTTON

After much discussion and tears, Dan and I have decided to wait 1 year to move forward with adoption. He finally admitted he wasnt totally ready yet. I ask him to give me an idea of how long he wanted, he said 1 year...

So for the next year I will advocate for my sweeties.. first is Spencer his birthday is next week he will be 4, he really needs a mommy and a daddy... PLease consider him.

advocating and patiently waiting.

Confused about Gods WILL

Have you ever felt so drawn to do something that when things dont work out you get more frustated and question our LORD. And then you get and AHA moment and realize that maybe you were not hearing what HE was REALLY trying to tell you just what you wanted to hear...
Well I am at that point for the last 10 months I knew or at least I thought I knew what we(my family and I) were supposed to do, who my GOD was leading me to. That he would come home and we would begin life with "Shawn" as our son, brother. Now I sit and wonder if as I look at another's photos with such and intense feeling and wonder...
There is a boy who has CEREBRAL PALSY same as my daughter Alina, he has my daughters begging my husband to say yes to him.. And there is a little boy with Down syndrome that I keep looking at and wondering why am I so drawn to him, what about Shawn, what do I do? My mothering instincts say bring them all home, But the voice of reason MY HUSBAND DAN, will only agree to one..
And then I am reminded by a song by christian artist Twila Paris..

This is no time to fear
This is a time of faith and determination
Don't lose the vision here, carried away by the motion
Hold on to all that you hide in your heart
There is one thing that has always been true
It holds the world together

God is in control
We believe that His children will not be forsaken
God is in control
We will choose to remember and never be shaken
There is no power above or beside HIM, we know
OH, God is in control, Oh God is in control

No matter how the deception may fly
There is one thing that has always been true
And it will be true foreverGod is in control
We believe that His children will not be forsaken
God is in control
We will choose to remember and never be shaken
There is no power above or beside HIM, we know
OH, God is in control, Oh God is in control

Oh He has never let you down
Why start to worry now? Why start to worry now?
He is still the Lord of all we see
He is still the loving Father wathching over you and me
Watching over you, watching over me
Watching over everything
Watching over you, watching over me
Every little sparrow, every little key, every little key

God is in control
We believe that His children will not be forsaken
God is in control
We will choose to remember and never be shaken
There is no power above or beside HIM, we know
OH, God is in control, Oh God is in control



This is the song that has to keep me moving forward and when my LORD shows me that it is the time to commit to which boy is to be my son, then I will be until then I must remember.. GOD is in CONTROL

Spencer..

I am officially a prayer warrior for a beautiful boy, Spencer. Spencer is almost 4 years old, he is currently in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, he was born with an extra special chromosone that makes him blessed to be born with Down syndrome. Spencer is waiting for his mommy and daddy to find him and rescue him from the inevitible institution he will be sent. He has such a sweet face how can we let that happen. So now my mission is to advocate for this adorable boy until he gets a family and then to continue to pray for them until he is in MAMA's arms!!




Spencer (35)
Boy, Born July 7, 2006

This blonde haired boy is ready to come home! He is almost 4 and will be facing the institution this year. He is HEALTHY, with no noted heart conditions.

I have $275 in my grant fund towards the cost of my adoption

Welcome home Enskats..

The Enskats are a family from Reeces Rainbow who have just added three beautiful kiddos to their family and aare now home following a rough trip . They already had 3 bio kiddos at home, Hannah,Abby, and Michael and are now home with Nina 3, Varvara almost 3, and Timofey 2 1/2, all three are from the same orphanage where Shawn is they all have Down syndrome and Timofey had leukemia also.What a wonderful blessing they have added to their family, CONGRATULATIONS Michelle and Noah.

The Big QUESTION

Ok the big question will we or wont we adopt? I wish I had the answer to this but it is still in the hands of our LORD! Daniel has some reservations about adopting b/c some of the things we are dealing with in regards to Alina home 3 plus years from Stavrpol Russia.
I have turned to prayer multiple times a day and have asked my Lord to work his will, close doors that are ment to be closed and open doors that are meant to be opened.
Please pray with us and for us for clarification and Lords will for us and the little boy I have completely and totally fallin in love with!

NEW Button !!

I just wanted to say I love the new button for Sasha, Vera and Niko. They are all five and they are in the orphanage were shawn is. I am so happy for Amy and her family that they have been able to commit to these beautiful kiddos. Congratulations to the Land family, I look forward to following the journey to bring them home!

GRRR. Frustrated with timing coping

I have been praying about one beautiful little guy in Eastern Europe since September, that is when we had originally commited to Shawn. But due to issues with our previous house and landlords we had to move and that was going to work out with the homestudy and everything. Well we moved 6 weeks ago and we had hoped to be able to recommit to Shawn by the end of March since then we have had to put a fuel pump on my truck and replace all four of the tires on
Dan's truck and now we need to have more work done on Dans truck something with the rear axel and some grease getting on the break rotor.
I know as a Christian I am not suppose to questions Gods timing, But It is so hard to do when my heart wants this little guy home like yesterday!!
Will it happen? Why did God place this beautiful boy so heavily on my heart and then keep him at a distance for so long? I know I should relax and let things happen in Gods timing but it seems so wrong for a little boy to be without a family when there is a family who wants him, who has the resources to raise him but just lacks the money to get him home.... All I can continue to do is to pray things will work out for us to come up with the money when the time is right for God...
Please Pray with us and for us

Prayers...

I am requesting prayers be sent upward in the name of my sister in law Kim.

She is fighting breast cancer for the third time in less than 5 years. It has metatisized and not sure if the hormone therapy is gonna work, she may be looking at starting chemo again.

Please say many many prayers for her, she is a great lady.

Family not understanding...

First I want to say I truely love all my extended family. But I dont undertstand why they feel necessary to question my and my husbands decisions for our immediate family.
It was so with my first adoption of Alina, certain unnamed family members felt they had the right to say they did not feel that adoption was in the best interest of my biological kids and felt I should not adopt. Alina has been home three years and had blended into our family as if she has been here her entire life. So as of now this family member has never met Alina and that person is missing out on a wonderful little girl.
So back to the present day we are wanting to adopt again, and now the family(different members than previously) are asking why? Why adopt? Why this child? Why someone not in the US. I just can say I feel this is the way I feel that God is leading me. He led me to Alina and he has led me to Shawn.
The bible states we are to take care of the widows and the orphans yet when someone feels called to be blessed others have to voice their opinion.
I am not trying to be ugly, I am just trying to understand. I am not able to help the way I feel ,I truely believe that the Lord is saying what way I am to go for my children, I must have faith and trust I am doing what He leads me to not what I am choosing to do. Basically I love my family all, if you have words of support or encouragement bless us, if you have word that are questioning and hurtful, please keep them to yourself, I do not mean to sound ugly, but I also do not need to be questioned about my choices or have hurtful things said about me.
Any new child by birth or adoption is a blessing from the Lord, let us choose how we to bring them into our family

Family Weekend

If you have or have had teenagers you will understand this post.. if not your turn will come.

I have three. We went camping last night, my husband and his brothers have some land where they have hunted for years. We took all three girls and our son up there yesterday it was pretty uneventful.

I got to spend the evening with them by the campfire and they talked and teased. It doesn't happen often, it was nice. My girls are all kinda girly girls, oldest and youngest TOTALLY girly, Shanna can be but can get dirty and be ok with that too! She went with Dan and Ethan to the woods in full camo gear and they attempted to hunt. I say attempted as the Turkeys didnt cooperate but, Shanna and Dan got back up this morning and still no turkeys just a beautiful sunrise.. a teenager woke up to see the sunrise. WOW! I really enjoyed the time with the family and want to hold on to these moments as long as possible the older three are all so close to being on their own and theses moments will be just memories... Thank you God for these wonderful kids whom I have been blessed to share my time with.

In all of this time with the kids I couldn't help but think of a Shawny across the globe and praying to get him here and have him be part of this AWESOME family. I will have to have FAITH and trust in the LORD that things will happen as he wants not when I want. Please Lord give me strength to follow you and not question.

The family

My family is amazing. I have a wonderful husband Daniel, we have been married almost 1 year. What a year it has been, but that is another post! We have 4 great kids between us. I have 3 girls, two are biological, 1 adopted from Russia. Lauren 16, Shanna 14, and Alina 11(my Russian princess). Dan has one bio son Ethan, 16. We have a houseful when all are with us, the girls are all loud and outgoing, Ethan seems to balance them out he is quiet, reserved, a thinker!(Alot like his dad). Two dogs,(Kiya a bischon frise, Layla a terrier corgi pound puppy) and a cat Chole.

We have a wonderful extended family who has blessed us in more ways than even they know! One would think this was enough.

After I adopted Alina I truely felt my family was going to be just the four of us, my girls and I.

I always said God would have to place THE MAN right in front of me. Well he did. Dan and I met in 2008 and married in 2009. Ok so with 4 kids the family is complete. Or so one would think, but I have this nagging tug at my heart strings(same one that I had 4 years ago when the journey to get Alina began).

Ok so yeah we have 4 kids over half way of being empty nesters....BUT OK GOD are you trying to tell us something is what I keep asking? Forget about it is not going away. We have began to seriously look into a adoption. Dont worry no babies, or girls! We are looking into adopting a preschool boy from Eastern Europe. This is going to be about the journey of our family and to see if the little guy we have fondly been calling Shawn will become a member of the family...Only GOD knows the answer to this time will tell.