Hanging out

I want to write  a really long post and tell you all about our days, the Lord's grace and provision, our fun, sickenss, broken washing machine, friends, and so on but time is so limited. 

So instead of words, here's a cute picture of  the kiddos as I prepare lunch

Oh and yes ...that is our living room complete with a play mat, a jumper, an exersaucer, a crib, a pack n play a swing and four million toys :)

We made it HOME!!!!!!!!!!

From door to door it took 22 hours to get home yesterday.  Considering the Seth, Sammy and Gloria were only one week out of an orphanage, the trip home was great.  God led us home.

We arrived at the airport with what we believed to be plenty of time ... um ... maybe for one person traveling.  Everything took forever; check-in, security screening, passport control.   By the time we got to passport control, it was past boarding time.  The passport agent was holding us up, he kept asking for more documents and Ukrainian documents .... I was like ... dude ... they are ALL Ukrainian documents ... see that Cyrillic ... US documents aren't in Cyrillic.  Ok, I didn't say that, but I thought it.  Before long a Lufthansa agent was at our booth ... they were now HOLDING the plane for us and she was hunting us down.  Boarding was complete, except for us.  She called the captain, said she found us and was trying to help get us through passport control.  The agent then went to work on our behalf and helped us figure out what the passport agent wanted.  They got us to the gate and outside where an empty bus was waiting to take us out to the plane.  We really should have missed that flight, we were more than 20 minutes late.  And the Lord protected us as we boarded the plane - there were no snide comments or evil eyes ... even from the people that had to move b/c they were in our seats. 

HOME!!!  There really is no place like home.  Thank  you God for getting us here!  Praise God with us today as we are all under one roof. 

The long awaited first pictures ... wow ... all nine of our children together!!!!

Please continue to pray for us.  We have a long road ahead, but we know the Lord is leading us and we are ready to follow Him as our family transitions.

More Milk!!!!!

Guess who is learning some signs ...

Family Life Over Here

We have had Sammy and Gloria for three days now.  I am very pleasantly surprised at how well it is going.  After reading blogs that details the challenges of the first few nights "home," I am feeling really blessed.  We are having fun getting to know the kids. 

Sammy likes curds, but not curds with prunes ;)  He likes to clean up and often finds something to put in the trash.  He has learned three signs, eat, drink and more.  He also learned how to pucker his lips for a kiss :).  He used to like bananas, he devoured them when we would take them to the orphanage and he will not touch them now.  Sammy likes milk and pediasure.  He lays right down for his nap and goes right to sleep.

Gloria is just a doll and her smiles are piercing.  She is crawling, pulling up and starting to mimic "SOOOO BIG."   She does not like bananas, but loves her bottle. 

We have been able to visit Seth each day.  At each visit he seems to be a little more into us.  We will pick him up on Monday and all the kids will be free!!!!

iPad2 Winner

iPad2 with Wi-Fi

And the winner is .....
Laura M from Houston, Texas!!!
Congratulations, Laura!!!

Thank you all for your support during our adoption.  Please continue to pray for us!

Gotcha Day

We were able to pick all of the children up and take them to finish processing our paperwork.

Seth is receiving treatment for his illness ??? They advised it would be best for him to remain at the orphanage and finish off the treatments.  As much as we hated to do this, we felt it was best as we do not have immediate access to medical care.  He should be done with his treatments on Monday and we will pick him up them.  We can still visit him twice a day, so we are planning to split up and visit with him one on one, mama in the morning and papa in the evening.

We are having so much fun.  Today I walked with Noah and Gloria, visited several shops looking for shoes and clothes for Sammy.  Sammy is sooo small.  I knew he was small and purchased two 24 month bottoms along with three 18 month bottoms.  They are all way to big.  The shorts in the gotcha pictures are a 24 month and they literally fall off of him.  I had to roll them down to keep them up.   He really needs a 12 month pants. 

And what you all have been waiting for ....

Waving PAKA!!!!!! (bye bye)

 Walking down the path.

Making a run for it!

The escape vehicle!

 She fell asleep on my chest - heart warming tears!!!!

Snoozing while we strolled!

 We were trying to "Billy Idol" him up a bit!

Mama got a little crazy and colored her hair!!!!!!

Last Day for the iPad2

Today is the LAST DAY for our iPad2 Giveaway!!

 

We are still very far from our goal.  Would you pray?  Would you share?  Are you able to donate?  At this point each ten dollar donation makes a difference.

iPad2 with Wi-Fi

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

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!

Simply Pictures

Seth, Samuel and Gloria ....

are officailly ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Unfortunately, we did not get to see them today :( as we were on a great paperchase.  We spent 7 hours in the car, driving, waiting, driving, waiting, driving .... you get the picture.  A super praise is that we completed the paperwork for each child that needed to get done.  The second praise is that we survived the drive.  Things are on target and our return date of July 16th looks promising.  Praise God!


We had to visit two regional offices.  This painting was in the hallway of one of the regional offices.

This is us looking cheesy under the pretty painting.

Believe it or not, this is the back of the regional office.  The building has business space on the first flour and the remaining floors are apartments.

A fun cobblestone street. PA peeps - not everyone has cobblestone streets.  This street reminded me of my hometown.

Our daily sleepytime shot of Little Man

I know they are not the pictures you were hoping for ... hold tight until tomorrow - I promise there will be lots of cuteness tomorrow.

Until then ... All the Best!