Heart break and questions

It has been a week of heartbreak, questions answered, and questions posed.
We have decided to release Spencer and hope..
Hope we made te right decision for him and for us.
We have alot going on right now in our lives as a family, some of which will make it difficult to travel to Spencer country to get him.
Fundraising has been very difficult,almost impossible and by releasing Spencer now we hope he will have his grant grow by going on the angel tree for another year.
This blog will change the way it looks to reflect that we now will not be Spencers family, two little boys we have loved from afar.. that we will never hold never tuck into bed.
One has found his forever family, the other we pray Lord will watch over and he will send his forever family.
We are still very much want to adopt but we will wait until the Lord points us into the direction we should go.
But if we are not to adopt we will enjoy our life as it is now and wait for the birth of our grandaughter in Feb.2012

5 generations.. and adding

My family is blessed in many ways, one way that is special is we still have 5 generations living. My grandmother, Mary, is 101 years old, unfortunatly my father has passed away, but my aunt is still alive. Then there is my generation and then my kids. I have several cousins who have made her a great great grandma. But my oldest daughter is going to be adding to that. Lauren is pregnant with our first grandchild(a girl that will be named Bethany), and is due in February that will make my granddaughter another great great grand for my grandmother Mary.
When we bring Elijah home he will be the youngest of our children. He will also either be an uncle or very close to becoming one depending on when we can get him home! An uncle at 5.. he will have alot of people to love!

PRAYER and the ransom

Prayer is amazing. I was started to get discouraged with the lack of funds for our adoption. I have been praying and I know others have been also, Thank you!
I have been open about the adoption but not about the lack of funds, that is changing. WE need help. Spencer is now 5 years old! Thats nothing big in our society in his country that means he is now at the age where they transfer him to a mental instution where if not adopted he spedns the rest of his life! Not something I want to happen!
Spencer is my son, not legally yet but very much emotionally! If some one take your child you do what ever is in your power o get thim back including paying his ransom. This is what we have to do!
Please if you can help us pay his ransom, every little bit helps.

Homestudy update..check

We moved and have had our homestudy update complete, now we are waiting to get it back from our social worker so we can send it in to immigration and ger our final immigration approval. We have been working on redoing paperwork that needed address correction and had to be reredone due to getting to close to expire we are hoping and praying we are able to travel during november or december timeframe.. only one thing stands in the way... Money, I am sure the Lord will provide when we truely need it. I gotta have faith that Elijah(Spencer) will be home soon!

Faith moves mountains..

We have been on the road to this adoption much longer than I wish, Elijah had another birthday, by himself in his country. Lord willing he will not have another birthday or Christmas without the LOVE of his earthly family. Our heavenly father is with him and will be until we can be that is the only thing that has kept me from totally loosing my mind. I have to remember in Gods time not mine. A beautiful boy, who prayfully will be part of our family, waits and wonders what is out there for him. God knows, we are coming Elijah... God be with you until we can hold you in our arms.

ive been really bad..

So I signed into my blog today and realized I havent posted in two months, I didnt think it had been so long. It has been a crazy couple of months but quiet on the adoption front.
Lauren turned 18 on May 25th. Graduated on June 4, married on June 5. found out she was pregnant mid June.
If that wasnt enough we moved the 3rd week of June the same week Alina went to camp and the week before Shanna went to spend the summer with my girlfriend Jodi.
So we are now settled into our new home and are beginning to focus on redoing adopion paperwork that needs to be changed b/c of the move.
I am trying to stay positive and hope that we may be able to be in elijahs country in the early fall.
This is so frustrating things keep happening to prevent or slow this adoption down but I dont think God would open doors just to close them I think someone who doesnt want to see my precious boy in a family of people who love him.
so I ask for your prayers for our family but mostly for Elijah.

Congrats to the COX family... they are in country and have met Mia..

The Cox family, Kecia and Kris, are traveling to bring adopt their daughter, Kareen/Mia. She is 4 years old and is the same orphanage as Elijah. It is nice to see that the kids are taken care of. Mia has a beautiful smile. I hope they dont mind I am sharing one picture of their beautiful daughter.
Mia will be there 4th daughter, she has 2 older sisters, Krya and Adrie and a sister who is almost her twin, Bree.

My journey through motherhood comes full circle and begins again...

We are three weeks away from Laurens graduation, she will walk across the stage at the civic center and then reality starts.. no longer protected by school.
The very next day if graduation is not enough she starts her life outside of my home she will always be my daughter but she will be Daniels wife.
24 hours apart she closes a door and opens one. The door to the past which has been part of her life for the last 13 year. The door to her future opens as she walks down the aisle to begin life as a wife.
I have been a mother for 18 years. It has been the most rewarding, yet hardest part of my life. I have been a referee, taxi driver, short order cook, teacher, nurse, judge and friend. Lauren was the first to call me "mama". I remember wanting to here that word come out of her mouth.
After Lauren, Shanna followed 3 years later. It took 11 more years before Alina came home, her adoption took 16 months from our first commitment until we walked off the airplane at Tampa International.
A marriage to by best friend blessed me with my first son, Ethan is quiet, shy but has a wonderful smile. He is just a year behind Lauren and then he starts his life as an adult.
We commited to Elijah is January, he will be 5 in July. We will almost be starting over again. We are well into the thick of adoption paperwork hoping to travel this summer. I will get to walk my youngest son into school for the first time in the fall then follow his journey as I have the girls before him.
Motherhood is a journey I have been blessed to be part..
All because of MY LORD it has been possible.

We're making progress.

We are finally making progress on our paperwork FINALLY! Homestudy Check!
Working on our paperwork for our dossier!God willing we will travel to get Elijah in the early summer.
Please pray!

Alina..Broken barriers | doors, young, school - Santa Rosa Press Gazette

this article is about the hurdles she has overcom since coming home!Broken barriers | doors, young, school - Santa Rosa Press Gazette

A finalist

Alina when came home at 8 yrs old we put her in 1st grade, she had never even been in a classroom setting and could barely write her name in Russian, she could not read in any language. We were told she was not capable of learning and would probably never live indepentantly.
Fast forward to today, she is on grade level and has was nominated by her
teacher for a national award for children in ESE classes, basically children overcoming adversities and learning to read. She has graduated out of her reading class and only has ESE classes for math. Well, we found out she is a finalist and if she wins there is a $1200 award.Im not sure how many"finalist" there are but her teacher said she has a very good chance. She wants to give money for Elijahs adoption but we told her that was her money. So if she is actually chosen she will be getting a 3 wheeled bicycle she can ride b/c she cannot balance a 2 wheeler b/c her CP.
SO if anyone tells you your child cant or wont be able to do something, while you are in country adopting dont listen to them. Alina is a perfect example of what happens once they are given a chance to learn.

Adoption.. a total leap of faith...

My husband and I have 4 kids, between us. Why on earth do we want to adopt again, I keep getting asked this by well meaning friends, family, and coworker. The only answer is because God has guided us to this. I have faith it will be as he wants.
I want Elijah home, yesterday. But a mound of paperwork and a HUGE amount of money is what is in the way, the paperwork is underway. The funding .. now that is something I am working on but not gaining as much ground as I wish I was. BUT.. As we found out with Alinas adoption it will happen in His time, when and how He wants.
Literally the week before I was to go get Alina, the funding I had worked out fell though...Amazingly, things worked out and she has now been home for four years.
WhenI got the initial itch to adopt again, Dan was no where near there. Adopting a child with Down Syndrome... never though he would even consider..
We haave how commited to the most beautiful boy in the world and he has Down syndrome. When the Lord made Daniel ready, I knew he was truely in control of this.. In HIS time, Have Faith..
Thank you Lord for guiding this journey ..

Prayer for fellow RR families..

So this week has been full of lots of things for many families, several families have sent the massive dossiers over to the countries including the family who will be going to get their daughter Kareen.

Please pray their dossier is translated and submitted in a timely manner.
She is in the same orphanage as Elijah.

The Davis family went to court to bring their son home, this was their second trip to his country,their adoption was denied. They are the first family to try and adopt a child from this region with Down syndrome.. it was felt he is better off in an orphange than with a family. They plan to appeal the judge said the will support it, the procesutor was against it. This is bad news not only for this family but for 2 others who are shortly behind in their journeys to bring their girls home both also have down syndrome. I ask every one to pray, pray that all involved realize NO child deserves to be in an orphanage, they all need families, but when a family has stepped forward to bring one child home just to be told no ONLY because the child was born with Down Syndrome this is sad.
Another family realised the child they were commited to was not meant to be their daughter so they released her and in the same week another family committing to her just as they are to travel to met their son in the same orphanage...
Whoever doubts their is a God just needs to become involved in an international adoption, it is truely a rollercoaster ride but for someone with faith it is a rewarding ride..
Prayers to all in process..

Homestudy check... Dossier document gathering full force

Well we have completed the steps for our homestudy, our social worker, now just has to write it up.. YEAH ! We are now in the docuement gathering stage..
and fundraising stage.. this is the challenging part alot of people are supportive emotionally just not financially..SO Please pray that things work out for us.
Elijahs country is expected to undergo alot of changes we're just not sure when, hopefully AFTER we get him home, were shooting for Summer, earlier is better than later.
Please please pray we get this little guy home!!

A birthday and anniversary... ON THE SAME DAY..

Imagine leaving everything you've ever known going with someone you have only spent 15 hours with, who doesnt speak your language then traveling half way around the world where NOTHING is familiar, the sights, sounds, smells none of it...
Well this is what happened to Alina on her 8th birthday... four years ago.. She became my daughter, she walked out of the orphanage and her world was totally transformed. SO we celebrate her birhtday and we celebrate her GOTCHA daty this week, and today is 4 years ago we flew from Moscow to Atlanta to Tampa and she became an American Citizen.
GOD has blessed us with the addition of her to our family. The changes in her have been so amazing to see. She came home at eight years old, 44 inches and 40 pounds, now shes 4 10 and weights 65 pounds, she could not read or write in any language she now will sit down with a chapter book and be done with in a few hours, GOD has been so good to us, THANK YOU LORD.
This was then..

And NOW...

Moving along... homestudy visit is less than 2 weeks!

Spencer...or soon to be Elijah is soon to be one step closer to being out son.
OUR homestudy visit is less than 2 weeks away, scheduled for the weekend of March 12-13. We dont have his room fixed up yet but we know which room is going to be his.
With Lauren getting married in June and leaving for boot camp by the end of June, Eth will move into her room and we will put Elijah in what is now Eths room which is closest room to Dan and I.
With the homestudy done we can the work on the dossier. We are hoping to be in his country mid Summer, but WE have serious fund raising to do before we can get over there... Its all in GODS hands, please pray for us.
in the meantime I look at this beautiful face everyday.
.

Are you Vera's family?

This beautiful soon to be 6 year old, had a family, but for some reason only know to them and God they backed out after meeting this angel. She need a family.. Is it you?

Several families whom have met this beautiful girl are very strongly advocating for her family...
She has Cerebral Palsy like Alina,she is capable of so much more than she will have the opportunity for in her country and in the instutition she is facing.

http://iknowyouroutthereimjustwaiting.blogspot.com

147 million orphans, making a difference...before its to late

This was copied from my friend Michelle's blog...
(In June 2010 she added three special angels to her family from Elijah's country)
Once upon a time there was a wise man
who used to go to the ocean to do his
writing. He had a habit of walking on the
beach before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore.
As he looked down the beach, he saw a
human figure moving like a dancer. He
smiled to himself to think of someone
who would dance to the day.

So he began to walk faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he saw that it was a
young man and the young man wasn't
dancing, but instead he was reaching
down to the shore, picking up something
and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out,
"Good morning! What are you doing?"

The young man paused, looked up and replied,
"Throwing starfish in the ocean."

"I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"

"The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die."

"But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!"

The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean, past the breaking waves and said -

"It made a difference to that one."

If his family had came in time they could have made a difference to this one.. but unfortunately it wasnt to be, He has his wings and is free from all pain, he is with THE HEAVENLY FATHER...bless you Dante

Were official..

We have officially committed to the most adorable 4 1/2 year old. We no longer have to be prayer warriors for Spencer.. We're gonna be his family... we are going to name him Elijah!

This says it all...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wonderful Saturday with Happiness

It totally amazes me how happy this child can be, she always has a beautiful smile on her face she is wonderful. She has been home almost 4 years, what a blessing she has been! She is gowing into a beautiful young lady. I have been able to spend most of the weekend with just her. Dan and Shanna are in Alabama hunting, Lauren has been with her fiance Daniel.
We are blessed to be 30 minutes from the beautiful Gulf Island National Seashore Park outside of Pensacola beach. The Beach is beautiful even in January.

Another RR angel is with the angels...

This was written by a daughter of a fellow RR group member in honor of Sandra a sweet cherub baby blessed with the Extra Chromosone who has gone to our Lord

In the night sky a lost star was born
Unfortunately in an era when love was worn
She waited her turn to finally shine
But was only shown one bright line
HE gave her the choice to choose her light
And she accepted at last one fine night

The cold world lost another soul
And sweet Sandra had to pay the toll
HE told her she had one task to take on
To shine her brightest when the world turned dawn
The lost star was no more lost, but now found
In a paradise of love, with love's only sound

Our after New year is better...

Without going into details that can not be released yet.. our Family will be growing... but ya gotta come back for the details once we can release the info...God is so good