Prayers Needed

I wrote the other day about my friend Catherine you can read her blog here and her newly brought home daughter Victoria.  Vicotria is still in the hospital.  They were planning to insert an NG tube tonight as she was still losing weight.  They have started a chromosone study and are testing for celiac along with all the other usual tests.  She did have an MRI and Victoria's brain showed shrinkage from malnutrition.  She is also starting some therapy by bracing for her hands and ortho is looking at her legs to get some sort of brace to help her legs.

The doctor said that if Victoria had been adopted two months later, it would have been too late.

Please pray for the Lord's hand to be layed upon her and for her little body to gain strength and begin healing.

Help For a Friend

July 5th ends our ten day wait, as such we are traveling this coming weekend. This is all a blur, it is happening so fast. After seeing what my friend Catherine is going through with her little girl ... I am more than eager to get our children home.

You can read about their journey here  We are praying they will not have any medical issues requiring hospitalization.  They need help, if you are in Atlanta, she needs physical help with family responsibilities and I am sure a visitor would encourage her spirits.  They could also use financial help. A chipIn has been established to help their family. Please give if you can and pray either way. Donations to the family can be made ... here

Orphans no more!!!!!!

Seth, Sammy and Gloria are orphans no more!!!!!!  

Praise the Lord, He heard our prayers and answered yes!

Court went well, it was very easy and fast.  Having Noah with us was definitely an asset ;)  There were questions about our motives, family, finances, home and community.  The judge did ask if we were Chrisitans, praise God, that He received the glory and the jusdge saw that it was the love of Christ coming for these chldren, not just some crazy Americans!  The judge praised the U.S.A.for allowing it's citizens to adopt special needs kiddos.

We had a really quick visit with the kiddos this morning before court, and I know y'all want to see some pictures .... so with out further ado ...

At the hotel ...

Outside the orphanage

 

Mommy and Gloria

Sammy with his shades

 

Seth ... 

Just a swingin'

We're herrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!!

It was a long travel day, we flew to Frankfurt.  Little Man did great on the flight.  He slept a good bit of time which allowed me to make a to do list.  OH BOY!! I have a lot to do when I get home.

I love these little bassinets they give you for the babies to sleep in while we are in flight.

I have always wanted to go to Germany and now I can say I've been there.

We caught our connection to Big K.  Our driver, Nicolai and our friend Anya met us at the airport.  We drove to Little K, stopping along the way to have a bite to eat and to see the storks.  This is a huge stork nest and there are dozens of little birds that live on the bottom side of the next.  This daddy bird was watching us.  There were a few babies, but we missed them on a still shot.

Tomorrow is a big day and to say I am nervous is putting it lightly.  We know that God has this in the palm of His hand and that His plan is perfect.

In just a few short hours

I it amazing how fast our court date came and in just a few short hours we begin the long journey to the children.  We have a very fast travel schedule this trip, please pray for everything to go perfectly.

Please pray for the children - all of them - the ones we are leaving, the one we are taking and the ones we are going to see.  Please pray for peaceful hearts, content spirits and obedient behavior for the ones that we are leaving here.  Please pray for Little Man to do well on the plane and that his ears would not bother him.  Please pray for Seth, Sammy and Gloria to receive us well.

If all goes as planned we will get to see them right before court and should be able to spend 2 hours at the orphanage.  Please pray that the judge finds us fit to raise Seth, Sammy and Gloria.  Please pray that God will be seen through our court hearing.  We will be in court Friday at 5AM Central Time.

Thank you to all of you that are helping us bring Seth, Sammy and Gloria home. 

Thank you to my sister and my sweet friend for keeping my the kiddos while we make the second stage of this journey.  Please pray for them as they keep the children.  Without them, we could not do this.

If you have a scripture to leave for us in comments, we would love to have scripture to pray through our journey.

iPad2 Giveaway - A Plea for Help

We are giving away an iPad2!!

We are sending our a plea for a bit of financial help... bringing home three kiddos is expensive (but they are worth every.single.cent.!)  our court date is just around the corner and we traveling again SOON!!!!  We would like to raise 5800.00 to help cover our final travel expenses.   If you can help us, we would be so very grateful.  If you would like to see where the money is going, there is a bar on the left called adoption costs that details monies spent and estimates our upcoming expenses. 

iPad2 with Wi-Fi

If you would like something besides and iPad2 from the Apple Store, a $500.00 Gift Card can be substituted.

If this fundraiser does not generate enough funds to cover the cost of the iPad (tax & Shipping), we will split the fundraiser proceeds 50/50 with the recipient.



You will receive the following number of entries 

$10=1

$20=3

$50=10
$100=55
$500 = 200
$1000 = 500

Sharing on FB, Twitter or your blog will get you an entry.  Just leave a comment below telling us where you shared this fundraiser and your name will be entered.

This is NOT tax deductible, this is going directly to our PayPal. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation, you can click the button on the right and that will allow you to donate through RR.




Thank you friends!

Court Date

Our court date is THIS FRIDAY >>> We are in the US ... please pray that we can work out flights.  The travel agency does not open for another hour, it's gonna be a long hour. 

WOOO HOOOO!!!! We never thought court would be this week, but praise God!!!!

Furniture for sale

We are selling this furniture to help raise additional funds and to make room for our new kiddos!

Beautiful furniture with ornate carvings.

Solid Wood Bookcase - $550.00 obo
98" wide X 71" tall X 27" deep

 

...Solid Wood Whiskey Cabinet - $250.00 obo
40 1/2" wide X 48" tall X 18" deep

The bookcase/bookshelf is very heavy. It will take two men to move it.

Details!!!

We had a wonderful trip. 

Wonderful, amazing, God led and God ordained. 

There is really not another way to describe our experiences.  We met the children on our 7th day in country.  Sadly, we only got two visits with them before we left.  We anticpate a court date shortly and will be traveling back to complete court and then again to complete the rest of the adoption. 

We are very sure that ALL THREE of these children are meant to be added to our family.  We prayed and layed our hearts out to the Lord.  We asked for a very clear word.  Our facilitator had to drop us off at the orphanage and go pick up the local adoption worker.  We had a chance to walk the grounds of the orphanage with our friend Catherine.  While walking the grounds, we came across Blue Bonnets.  We were with our friend and I told them to wait, I had to go take a picture of our state flower.  I walked to the flower to take it's picture and the Lord's word was made abundantly clear.  The Blue Bonnets had 9 flowering stems.  We needed no further confirmation and knew we were there to adopt all three children.

Our facilitator arrive back with the local adoption worker and we proceded to the orphanage director's office.  We met the director, sat at the table and then the orphanage doctor arrived.  She brought the children's medical records.  We started with Gloria's records first.  Our facilirator translated for us, we asked questions and our questions were answered where there were answers to be given.  Some things are just unknown.

Before we finished hearing Gloria's medial information, she was brought in by her caretaker.  She is a happy and beautiful girl.

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting each other - she had no hesitation coming into my arms.

She met her daddy ... look at them ... is your heart melting yet?!?

 Then the babies met   ...

if your heart is not melting now .... just wait ....

Samuel was brought in next.  We kinda expected to meet each child individually.  But that did not happen, they were brought in in rapid succession as we were still reviewing medical records.  We were very thankful that Catherine was with us and that her hobby is photography.  By the end of the meeting the room was full!!!!

Our first glimpse at Samuel.  He is soooo tiny.  He has the greatest smile, his whole face smiles.  When you tell him to look at the camera to take his picture, his whole mouth opens and smiles while he closes his eyes.  He is just precious.

Samuel loved stretching this slinky and played with all the toys. 

He really liked this little dump truck and this is his classic eyes closed for the camera pose.

Is your heart on the floor yet? Oh my. 

I cannot even put into words what this picture does to me.

Last but not least they brought us Seth.  Seth is so handsome and when he smiles his eyes melt my heart.  Catherine has spent much time at the orphanage and had given us a little insight into Seth.  He is fearfully and wonderfully made and we are glad that Catherine had prepared us for our first meeting with him.  There were some very harsh and shocking comments made about him, I cannot share here, but please pray for Seth, pray hard for him until we get back to him.

Mommy talking to Seth.  Here I am trying to get him to touch my hand, so I can bring him to the table with daddy.

Here we have all the children and are still trying to take in all the medical information. The babies are playing on the floor.  Amazingly, Seth sat on my lap for quite a few minutes. 

I have a ton more pictures and a ton more story to tell, but I have children that need a drink and a snack. 

Please pray for us all.  Pray for us as we prepare our home and pray for Seth, Samuel and Gloria until we can get to them and get them home.

The van is ........ FULL!!!!!!

Introducing ...

Gloria

Seth

Samuel

We are heading for the airport very shortly.  The kids will come home next trip. 

Pray for our trip home and pray for Little Man - he is teething like crazy.

Day One and Two = 22 Hours of Travel

We started our trip on this past Tuesday at 7:30 AM Central Time.  Our pastor and dear friend took us to the airport.  We were very blessed that he was able to take us to the airport.  You see, he has been at the birth of all of my birth children, the adoption of our adopted children, he renewed our wedding vows and has also baptized one of our children. 

This is a picture from a few days before our trip.

Our first flight was just a few hours and Little Man did fantastic until the very end.  At which time, he screamed bloody murder and pulled his ears.  Sweet baby takes after his mama with sensitive ears. 

Little Man and I

It was our first Trans-Atlantic flight and it was fabulous.  We had been praying to be upgraded to first class :)  We did not get upgraded to first class but we did get a row of four side-by-side seats to our self.

Tilt your head to the right and you will see Little Man sitting in one of the extra seats.

What better than tulips to take pictures of in Holland while

walking to our next flight. 

I believe the word toilet is universal.

Little Man - passed out -
keep your eye out for his pass out pictures! 
He has been totally awesome, just fantastic!!!

Us with the view from our hotel in the background.

(I can't figure out why the orientation flipped and

 cannot get it to not flip when I load it to blogger if you
know how - leave me a comment)

We look pretty good for 22 hours of travel; a car ride, three plane rides and a taxi ride.

 A view from our hotel window.

We were very tired after traveling all that time.  We made way to our hotel and waited for a driver to bring us a phone and help us complete our first currency exchange.  We walked across the square and to the little store with the yellow lettering.  We bought cheese, olives, cold cuts and some bread.  Not fancy but it filled our hungry bellies.  To the right of the store was the currency exchange.

I will try to get days three, four and five posted soon.

Love you all ... keep praying ...

No, we did not fall off the face of the Earth!!!!

We made it to Country and are headed to region in just a few short hours.

Our appointment was great!  I cannot wait to tell all about the children. :)

Actually, everything has been great since we got here! 

I will have time for a long blog post tonight or tomorrow ... until then ...

Winners!!!! Goodie Giveaway

And the winners are ....

Sara S - Scentsy Package

Lee E - Thirty One Bad

Jackie D - Barnes and Noble Giftcard

Congratulations and thank you!!!!!

It's almost time and cleared for travel

We are on our final count down.  It is hard to believe that in a few short days we will board an airplane for a land far away.  Preparations and packing are in full swing. 

Big Boy and I went to Costco and filled two flatbeds with food and supplies. The stock was 4 weeks worth of groceries for us.  The plan was to have enough groceries for the house until a few days after we return from our first trip.  Many folks stopped us to inquire about the size of our purchase.  We were so excited to glorify the Lord with the story of why we were buying so much food.  My freezers have a dozen loaves of bread and a dozen gallons of milk. 

One week from today and we will be there WOW!!!

Little man has been sick. He had a trip to the ER, a couple trips to the pedi and a few diagnostic tests done.  He has been cleared by our pedi for travel, but will need to see a specialist when we get back.  Please keep him in your prayers.

Daddy has been sick too.  He had what he thought was an ant "bite" that turned to an abscess.  Prayers for him would also be appreciated.