Cloth Diaper Drive!

I have decided to follow in the footsteps of my good friend, Debbie who adopted from Jonathan's orphanage last December, and collect cloth diapers to donate to the children left behind in Jonathan's orphanage.  So, if you have any gently used cloth diapers you would like to donate to the orphanage, please email me at contentmentathome@gmail.com and I'll send you my address. But we need to move quickly! We leave in ONE WEEK!!!  Yikes! (I'm only mildly freaking out...we'll see how I'm doing in 4 days! Ha!)

Here's the photo that inspired me to do this:



Yes, there is our son in all of his glory! But, look at what he is sitting on.  Breaks my heart. Blankets as diapers. :-(

(I cannot wait to squeeze those thighs though!!!)

  Pat and I will happily carry over any diapers anyone sends us, but I have heard that the "fancier" diapers (all-in-ones or any that has more than one piece they would have to match up) are not as easy for the nannies to use, so the simpler the better. I'm thinking pre-folds might be the best option, and maybe rubber pants?  To be honest, I'm not sure.

Thanks so much for your help to make the lives of orphans just a little bit better!!!

Memorial Day (Pictures and Videos!)

We went to the Memorial Day Parade this morning. Despite the fact that it had less than 10 things in it, it was pretty fun for Elijah's first parade!

My attempt at a family picture (minus me)... One person looking at me and smiling isn't too bad is it?

We went to the park after the parade: Swinging!

Bouncing with Mama

Getting ready to go down the slide...

Weee! Though you can't tell from the look on his face, he did have fun! He didn't really care for the tunnel slide.

She came down so fast, I couldn't get a good picture!

What she does when we tell her to smile! Little Ham!

Introducing Our Global Puzzle Fundraiser!

 As I promised in my last post, here is our puzzle fundraiser! We put together one of my favorite puzzles on Mother's Day - the Global Puzzle with 600 pieces. It is still out on a table in our living room. Amazingly, Elijah has only partially trashed it twice. :-)  Why is this puzzle my favorite? Well, as a home schooler, I like it because it is educational.  The box boasts that your geography skills increase by 472% after doing this puzzle just once. I believe it! When I did this puzzle the first time a couple of years ago, I learned where Eritrea and Djibouti are. What? You don't know? Better get a puzzle for yourself! :-) (By the way they are north of Ethiopia, south of Egypt.)



The completed puzzle!

We also plan to carefully glue this puzzle together and try to hang it on a wall in our basement. We have many puzzles glued together already of different places around the world that Pat (or Pat and I) have visited. He has done most of his traveling for work. (He's been to the UK, Argentina, Korea, Czech Republic, Peru, Mexico, Italy, Costa Rica...those are the ones I remember. LOL) I thought it would be fun to put little stickers on for every place he's visited. We have to glue it carefully because the pieces are not interlocking, as they are the shapes of the countries. Cool, huh? 

Ok, now for the fundraiser part of it.  You have the opportunity to "buy a country" or "buy a state" for just $5! What a bargain, huh???  For each state or country piece you buy at $5 a piece, we will write your name on the back of the puzzle piece (or initials as some pieces are very small). NEW DIRECTIONS for "buying a country or state"!  Please use the white RR donation button on right, almost to the top on the sidebar. All donations are tax-deductible through Reece's Rainbow's Family Sponsorship Program and 100% will go towards bringing Jonathan home. Then, please email me at contentmentathome@gmail.com with your choices of states/countries. There is a link at the top of blog, right under the header, called "Global Puzzle Fundraiser".  If you click on that, it will show all the countries/states still available. We'll try to update it everyday. If a country is taken it will have a strike out through it.  If (by chance), all the countries sell, we will add names to the back of the ocean and border pieces.  Sound fun??? I hope so. Remember, if you love a certain country or state, act FAST! First come, first serve!  Have fun!!!



If you look closely, you can see that Mali in Africa and India are flipped upside down and already have names on them!  Anna and Isaac picked out a couple of their favorite countries. :-) They donated some of their birthday money towards getting Jonathan home. God has blessed us with some great kids!

If you are on Facebook, especially if you are not part of the RR family, I would love for you to share about our fundraiser, but more importantly, to raise more prayer support for us. The fundraiser will run either until we sell all the pieces or until someone's very special first birthday. :-) Thanks for your help!

And finally, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your help and support in bringing Jonathan home. We are so very, very grateful for each and every donation.

P.S. I know at least 2 other RR families are doing puzzle fundraisers with this same puzzle. I do not mean to copy them or try to distract from their fundraisers at all. We were going to do this fundraiser with Elijah, but never needed to. We were just too slow to get it up, plus I have no idea what else to do in the short amount of time we've had to do fundraisers. I hope everyone understands this. Thanks.

Where we are at with funding

Now, isn't that a title that makes you want to read this post? :-) But, I thought I would share where we are with funding Jonathan's adoption, as a few people have asked, and maybe the rest of you are scared to ask. LOL

A little background first...last fall our church family and friends BLESSED us beyond measure by raising over $17,000 towards Elijah adoption costs. I still can't wrap my mind around it. Totally unbelievable. Needless to say, we didn't have to do anymore fundraising after that. We paid for the initial expenses out-of-pocket, but the benefit paid for all of the in-country costs and airfare with some left over.

When the Lord told us to "GO!" for Jonathan, we felt uncomfortable about asking for any help financially. We so blessed the first time and we didn't want to go back to the same "source" again - if that makes sense. (Pride too perhaps?) Plus, we can all be honest and think that the first adoption is a really neat thing, but a second one? A second child with Ds? Another child when we already have 6 and have "our hands full"?  (If I had a dollar for everytime I've heard that in the last month, we would have this adoption paid off in no time! :-))  Having my "hands full" already is something I think pray obsess worry about everyday. (My one consolation when Elijah and Rachel are going opposite directions is that at least Jonathan won't be moving yet!) But, I've felt that way every time I've been pregnant since I was expecting Isaac (he was #3). All I know is that God has called us to bring Jonathan home and somehow, some way it will work out. I forget who said it but this phrase comes to mind: "God doesn't call the equipped, He equipps the called."

So, here we are. I have put a fundraising thermometer on the sidebar of where we are at with expenses. The funds raised so far include money we have paid out of checking/savings for initial expenses, leftover money from Elijah's adoption, regular tax returns, and gifts. (I was so thrilled to see our FSP amount jump up. Thank you to whoever donated it!!!) I will be posting very soon (hopefully tomorrow) about a very fun puzzle fundraiser we will be doing to help offset some of the remaining costs. Whatever is left, we will take out a loan. I was pretty adamant about not going into debt the first time around, but now, after having seen what I've seen in the orphanage, it doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore. ALL of these precious children NEED OUT OF THERE NOW.

One more thing to add....just because this is the second adoption, unfortunately, it won't be any cheaper. The few areas that we saved money (no federal fingerprints, homestudy) on will be quickly eaten up by paying for our medicals out-of-pocket since we just had them done last July, and then of course, higher summer airfare costs.

We thank you so much for your support, whether it be prayer support, moral support or financial support. It is all deeply appreciated!

Explanation of SDA appt

In my excitement this morning, I didn't really explain what exactly "getting our SDA appt" means for those that are new to this process.

Basically, we now have a "letter of invitation" to come to EE and meet with the adoption authorities in the SDA (State Department of Adoption) on June 9th. At this meeting, we will be given info (medical, birth, siblings, etc) about Jonathan, possibly share a bit about ourselves, and then request that we be given a referral to go and meet him. The referral will be picked up the day after the SDA appt. Then, we head to his region to meet him. After we meet him, then we are asked if we want to adopt him. Very few families adopting special needs children decline after meeting their child. :-) (Those seeking a "healthy" child is a different story.) Then we start the paper chasing to file with the court and get our court date - hopefully within 2 weeks.

Since our SDA appt is on a Thursday, we pick up his referral on Friday afternoon, and won't meet him until Monday. That adds a couple days to our trip, but hey, I'll take it!  Our facilitator already tried getting us train tickets for that Friday night, but they were booked up already! So, we'll spend an extra day or two in the capital city sight-seeing, so that will be fun. (We didn't do much sight-seeing last time as it was very COLD!)

You'll remember that the SDA is undergoing some changes on June 12th/13th. I'm not sure anyone knows yet what that will look like. They may be shut down for a couple of days, weeks or months. So, getting this appointment is HUGE - HUGE - HUGE!!! God does answer prayers!!!

Our flights are booked already. Summer is obviously a much more expensive time to fly than December. But, we shouldn't have any problems with snow delays. :-) Pros and cons to everything.  We will leave on the 7th, arrive on the 8th, and meet with the SDA on the 9th. Last time, we allowed an extra day since we traveled Thanksgiving weekend with the potential for snowstorms. Hopefully, this will work out ok.

Another fun thing is that Noah's family's appt is just 2 days before ours. We might be able to meet them for supper before they leave on the LONG train ride down to Noah's region. It would be so fun to be able to meet them in person!

Sarah says I need to add more photos to my posts...so here you go! I'm not sure I've ever posted this one.
This trip will require sacrifices on many people's part and I am so grateful.  But those cheeks are totally worth it! :-) Can't wait to be kissing them!

JUNE 9TH!!!!

I was shocked to check my email just a few minutes ago and find out that we have our SDA APPT!!!  JUNE 9TH! PRAISE THE NAME OF JESUS!!!!!!!!!

I guess this is really going to happen! LOL And I think the next 2 weeks are going to be a bit busy! Holy cow!

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING for us to get an appt date. God answers prayers!!!!

More later! Gotta go start our day!  Oh and maybe start packing or booking flights or something...

Rummaging for two good causes!

If you are local, I have some great rummage sales for you to check out today and tomorrow!

First, my new friend, Juli, is having a rummage sale and bake sale to benefit her family's international adoption of a child with Down syndrome! (I still need to do a post introducing her and another very special family.  So many posts to do, so little time!) Her blog is here: http://addingbranchestoourtree.blogspot.com/  Looks like they have a lot of wonderful baked goods too! Please stop by and encourage her. If you can, please make a donation to help them bring their son home. Thanks so much! (She lives in the subdivision behind the swimming pool.) Her sale runs from 8-4 today and Saturday. Tell her I sent you. :-)

And secondly, what our faithful homeschooling group members and I have been pouring our time into the last 2 weeks, is our "Jesus Style Rummage Sale".  Everything is FREE!!! Yep, nothing priced. Take it all for free! :-) The gift of salvation Jesus gives us, we do not have to buy. He gives freely. So, we want to take this opportunity to bless others who may find themselves in need right now.  It really is such a hoot to watch people's faces as we tell them everything is free. :-)  If people are feeling led, they may contribute financially to our home school group. We use the money to run our group throughout the year. And you know what? God is faithful and has incredibly blessed us each and every time.  (You would NOT believe the amount of stuff we have.)

The sale is at our house today from 9am-4pm and Sat from 9am-1pm. Please share this info with someone who might need a little extra help right now. Or just come by, say hi and help yourself. :-) I'd love to see you!

Noah is on the news!

Noah's family was on a Seattle news station!  Awesome! Here's the link if you want to see it:

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Family-races-to-rescue-boy-with-Down-syndrome-wasting-away-122127949.html

Please pray their fundraiser this weekend "Noodles for Noah" raises the rest of the money they need for their trip. Hopefully they will hear very soon about a travel date. They were submitted on May 5th, one week before us. (That's a subtle reminder to be praying we get our travel date too. :-))

Shea's Family!

Introducing a very special family for a very special little boy...

(Ok, the beginnings of this post were saved as a draft since 1/1/11...good grief. I'm sorry this has taken so long, Liz!)



This is Shea. Shea is in Elijah's former "grouppa". I got to see him 2x/day for 3 weeks. I posted about him here when I was in EE. I can not even begin to tell you what a little honey he is. I just can not. His profile on RR is rather "scary". Here's what it says:

Boy, Born October 17, 2006


What a handsome boy!! Shea only became cleared for adoption very recently, so we are so hopeful he will find a family quickly. He is facing the institution very soon because of his age.

From his medical records: primary hydrocephaly, shunt dependent (has one in now), disorder of function of pelvic organs, paralytic clubfoot of both feet, spina bifida, mielomeningoradikulotsele. Very good and smart boy. He can speak very well, he can only sit, he is in plaster cast so he cannot stand and walk.

Shea will remain bedridden the rest of his life once he is transferred.

(I had to smile about some of this. Even though, he does/did have knee-high plaster casts on his legs, I saw him stand next to the couch where I was sitting more than once, and one time, I even saw him pushing a walker as he walked behind it!)
But all those scary terms didn't scare away his soon-to-be momma. See, God had it planned all along. His new momma is a physical therapist!  Isn't God good??? I know she can't wait to get her PT hands on him. :-)

The Kulp family will be Shea's new family!!! Click here to visit their blog. Another thing that makes their family so special is that Liz and Dan have already adopted 2 special children from China. In fact, their son, Simon, was one of the first children adopted out of China. Now, there are lots of children w/ Ds on RR. Awesome!

God has a sense of humor too. :-) Liz found out she was pregnant just a few days after they committed to bring Shea home. Hee hee. This is their first biological child. "Belly baby" as she calls him/her. I love it! She is due about the same time I was due with Noah, so I can't wait to see photos of Shea holding "belly baby".

The Kulps' SDA appt is on May 24th. I know they would appreciate you visiting their blog and encouraging them with a few comments during their travels. It gets lonely over there. Please pray for them and Shea as he meets his new family.  Also, please pray for a quick court date for them after they accept Shea's referral.

I'll leave you with a couple videos of Shea (in the red hooded sweatshirt) so you can see how mobile he is and how full of joy and life he is!  The first one is during a "party" that I had for the grouppa and brought in the tent and balls they are playing with.

This one was the same evening (Christmas Eve). You can see Shea bouncing around, lovin' the bubbles. You can hear him too. He's the only one in the grouppa that's verbal. And, verbal he is. He's a little jabber box. I wish I could have understood what he was saying. Whenever I would be walking through the city streets and hear a little one talking, I would think of him.

A little boy that joined the grouppa after we passed court, Elijah, and Shea with his huge smile.

My dearest Shea,
 
Your life is about to change so much. It may be scary to you, but don't worry, your mommy and daddy love you so much and will keep you safe. I can't wait to see you in your mommy's arms. I wanted so badly to take you home with me, but of course, I couldn't. After I met you, I told the RR family about how special you were and your momma heard my call and answered my pleas for your momma to step forward. I am SO happy! "Auntie Debbie" and I cried many tears over you. It broke our hearts as you would call out to her to be your mama. But soon, very soon, it will be your turn to call out mama and she will be able to pick you up and love on you and hold you always.
 
I know this is the family God has ordained for you all along. You will be loved by your parents and by your two (soon to be 3) siblings. God is good. It is my prayer that you will someday call Him your Lord and Savior too.
 
I love you, sweet boy!
Signed,
Alyosha's mama

Elijah's Dedication (Long...)

On May 1st, we had a VERY special day! We had Elijah dedicated to the Lord. That means we pray someday that he will make a decision to follow Christ and be baptized at that time. We also announced our adoption of Jonathan to our church family. AND, we got to hear Max (from Elijah's former country) share about his totally amazing ministry to the hopeless of that country as our "sermon" for the day. I could sit and listen to him share the stories of how God is working in mighty ways all day long. Our wonderful church family blessed Max's ministry will LOTS of money too. They are SO awesome and generous! Remember, this is the same church family that raised over $17,000 to bring Elijah home.

I'm very grateful to "Auntie Debbie" for taking photos of our party here after church. I have over 200 photos from the time church ended until everyone left our home. Awesome! But that is why it was a bit overwhelming to do this post. Don't worry, I'm not posting all of them, but here are several, telling the story as we go. (Sorry some of the photos are sideways...I don't have the time or energy to fix them.)




Our family of 8!

 

Our family with grandparents



Getting some love...this boy loves to cuddle. I love it!




He looks like such a big boy in his new outfit. Thanks Mom for the cute clothes for his special day!



How is it that I'm so blessed to be his momma?

Max, Elijah and I skyping with Elijah's birth parents!

I wasn't going to let this once in a lifetime opportunity go by of having Max, who is fluent in Russian obviously, talk with his parents and translate for us. This is the second time we've skyped with them. Their English is a ton better than my Russian, but it is still hard to communicate. It was a true, true blessing to be able to talk with them. I know they appreciated it deeply too. His mom asked about our Ds support group (how many friends he has w/ Ds) and how Elijah is doing.  I got to ask her if they had any cancer in their family (none), as well as allergies. Elijah's nose has been dripping for about 3 weeks straight, so I'm assuming he does have some sort of seasonal allergies. His mom said she had allergies to a particular plant in the spring when she was pregnant with him. Interesting, huh?
Max was generous to share his cell phone # with them, so she has contacted him a couple times to express her gratitude.

God is so good!!!

Oh, Max also told them about our adoption of Jonathan. He could explain it better than me. I wasn't sure if they would be happy or sad. Maybe happy that Elijah would not be the only child with Ds here, or maybe sad that they might think he would get less attention with a new little one here. They seemed ok about it.  They said we should contact them when we are in country and maybe we can get together if it works out. We will be in the same quarter of the country as last time, but still a long train ride away.

 

We had 2 cakes that day. Isaac's birthday was just a few days before and he shares his birthday with his buddy, Ben. So, I had a birthday cake made for them with their photo on it. :-)



Elijah's cake



Rachel wearing Pastor Dan's tie.  Too cute!

 

Elijah and Max, his godfather

Yes, we asked Max to Elijah's godfather, or sponsor. I just continue to be overwhelmed at the Lord's goodness and perfect timing and how He has woven our story together with Max's. If you've been reading here since the very beginning, you will remember that Pat and Sarah went on a mission trip last summer to minister with Max in an adult handicapped facility (mental institution). It was because of that trip that I was on RR when I saw Elijah's photo and JUST KNEW he was ours.  I just can't even process it all how this all worked out. God is amazing...

For what it's worth, Max spoke Russian to him, and Elijah didn't really want to have anything to do with him. It was pretty interesting. On the other hand, when we skyped with his bio mom, he looks at her very intently. I'm pretty sure he remembers her. This time he sat calmly on my lap for the whole conversation, and it was pretty long - maybe 30 minutes.

Elijah is just not sure about this weird guy who speaks a weird language. :-)



Elijah with both of his godparents
Auntie Debbie and Max

Debbie has played such a HUGE role in helping us bring Elijah home (including spending 2 weeks with me in a foreign country and giving up Christmas with her family), and has been so super supportive since then. We are SO grateful for Debbie and her entire family in our lives. THANK YOU!




Rebekah and Max



Anna and Max

Our neighbors just hatched chicks, so they brought them over to share their cuteness.

This precious child the Lord has given us!  We are eternally grateful!

We were submitted today!!! BIG prayer request!

Great news!!! Our dossier was submitted today!!!!!!!!!! PRAISE GOD!!! Everything went well and there were no "unpleasant surprises" as my facilitator put it. :-)  Soooo...what does this mean?  Well, we are one step closer to bringing Jonathan home. (Can you believe it's only been 6-7 weeks since we started this crazy journey the Lord has us on???  Well, crazy in our eyes, not His.)

"Ok, so when do you travel?"  Ah, there is the question of the week! Thanks so much for asking. As I've mentioned before, the SDA (State Dept of Adoptions in Jonathan's country) is undergoing a change over on June 12th/13th. No one knows YET exactly what that will look like. They could shut down, temporarily suspending all adoptions, for 2 days, 2 weeks or 3 months. Yesterday, a family was submitted for an older child with a different facilitator, and they were told the SDA is not issuing anymore travel dates, even though their dossier was submitted! YIKES!!! (I didn't go into freak-out mode - I was quite proud of myself. :-) God is in control...God is in control...breathe...God is in control!) Today, this is what our facilitator had to say after submitting our paperwork:

"The SDA was not able to clearly verify if they stopped issuing travel dates. They do say it's one of the possible scenarios but so far they said they were still handing out travel dates to families that submitted in April." 

My response to him was something like, "Ok, so we wait and pray and wait and pray some more? Make no plans, but be ready to go?"  Yep, that pretty much sums it up life when adopting from this country. LOL

This leaves LOTS of room for GOD TO WORK and bring GLORY to Himself! PLEASE join me in PRAYing that we will get a travel date/SDA appt before their changeover on June 12th or very shortly afterwards. I don't want Jonathan to wait any longer than he has to. He needs his mama and papa, he needs to get to the cardiologist to get his heart checked, and we want him home! As I said, God IS in control. He knew this was going to happen and He knows exactly how this will turn out. To Him be the Glory! Thanks for praying!

P.S. For those of you that are wondering what the timing was like for Elijah's adoption, we were submitted on Oct. 28th and our SDA appt was on Nov. 30th. Right now, the appt dates are running about 5 weeks out from submission date.

Praying for a miracle here!

Stay Tuned...

Lord willing, I should have some really great news to share tomorrow about our dossier! :-)

More good news...last week, we received word from our facilitator that Jonathan was indeed clear for international adoption right now. Because he is so young, I did have my doubts, so I was very relieved to hear that. Thanking the Lord for that news.  However, it is important to note that his referral is not "ours" until we are sitting at the little table in the SDA office with his file in our hands. He could still be adopted in his own country (slim to zero chance of that), but also by another family internationally. That was the same for Elijah too, we just didn't know it...we would have been shocked if we had not been able to adopt him. We are just a bit more prepared this time. :-)

That's all for today! :-)  Have a good one!

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there! I especially want to wish my own mother a very happy Mother's Day as well. I'm so grateful to her (and my dad) for the sacrifices they made to raise me, and most recently, to watch my children as we brought Elijah home. Thanks Mom! We couldn't have done it without you! I love you!

We had a nice, low-key day here. (I'll try to post pics later, as I still have last Sunday's photos to post...sigh...this blogging thing is hard to keep up with!) The Lord has TRULY blessed me with 6 beautiful children here with me, a few in Heaven, and one waiting in EE for us! I LOVE being a mother! There are good days and bad days of course. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I believe it is one of the Lord's highest callings!

Today, though, my heart is heavy for Elijah's birth mother. They don't celebrate Mother's Day in EE in the same form as we do. I believe they have "Woman's Day" or something in March. Anyway, I think about her and her loss of the sweet beautiful boy that is now living in our home as our son. I am SOOO grateful to her for giving him life. I am SOOO grateful to her and Elijah's father for allowing him to be adopted internationally. They could have said no. They could have chosen to just continue to visit him in the orphanage so they could see him in "real life". Now, they see him via Skype only. Most likely, she will never see him face-to-face or hold him again. I can't begin to imagine her pain and grief, but yet, her joy, knowing her son is able to grow-up in a loving family (crazy as it is) and learn and grow and reach his full God-given potential.  I just can't imagine...

Finally, please click on this link http://babynumber10.blogspot.com/2011/05/mothers-day-messagefrom-our-hearts-to.html for a beautiful Mother's Day tribute to moms of extra-special kids. Enjoy!!!

Elijah's Readoption is Complete!

Going through the "readoption" process in the US is not mandatory for the country we are adopted Elijah from. But, we decided to do it anyway for a few different reasons. We weren't in a big hurry to complete it the readoption, which in the end, gives us a "Certificate of Birth Facts", the equivalent of a US issued birth certificate.  But when we started the homestudy update process for Jonathan, we were first told that we needed to have Elijah's Cert of Birth Facts before the homestudy update could be completed! YIKES! Thankfully, after a week or two, we found out that was not the case. Whew! That would have put us back a few weeks.

We had our post-placement report visit on March 24th. After we got the report from our most awesome SW, we filed it and a bunch of other papers at the county courthouse and secured a hearing date with a judge. It ended up the end of last week on Isaac's 7th birthday. What could be better than officially getting a brother on your birthday? Star Wars Legos I suppose. :-)

All of us with the judge after our court hearing, which was really just a formality. Very easy!

After the court hearing, our paperwork was submitted to Madison. We were told it could be 6-8 weeks before the certificate came in the mail. Well, we got it on Wednesday! Only one week! Simply amazing.  That means we are completely done with Elijah's adoption paperwork. Woo hoo!!! You should have seen the papers flying in early April w/ taxes, Elijah's readoption paperwork, homestudy update paperwork, and dossier prep! Papers everywhere! Now, we are in that waiting part again. I'll have to have Sarah put the "While I'm Waiting" song back on my blog playlist. LOL

New Adoption = New Blog and a New Button

Don't worry, I'm not "moving" this blog. I just wanted to let those of you that are catching my posts via email or on google reader know that Sarah has designed a very fun, new header and background for this blog. She did a great job and is learning a bit about HTML as she goes - something I have no clue about. I'm very proud of her! We both thought we needed a new background for this new adoption.

We also have a new "button" for those of you that have your own blogs. We'd be honored if you would grab it and repost it. We would love to have as much prayer support as possible. Thanks!

"Handiwork for Noah" - Two More Days!

Noah has a very special place in our hearts around here. I shared my heart for Noah here. My 12 year old daughter, Sarah, has been faithfully crocheting and crocheting some more to help raise money to help bring Noah home. His family still needs a few thousand dollars before they travel and their dossier got submitted today!!! They should be traveling within 4-6 weeks. Hang on, Noah...your mama and papa are coming soon! :-)

Please visit her blog and take a peek. (Her blog button is to the right and down a bit under Jonathan's button.) Her good friend, Rachel, has been helping make items too. 100% of the sales go to help bring Noah home. A good share of the items she has listed are cotton fish-shaped dish cloths. These dish cloths are among my favorite ones as the cotton is very durable and the fish shape is just perfect for my hand for wiping counters or doing dishes.  Thanks so much for looking!

Umm... Who was watching Elijah?

Umm.. who was supposed to be watching Elijah this morning?

"Alright, enough with the camera!"

Sorry, bad picture, but it kinda shows his spiky hair. He would not hold still!

Mom, you may want to find a new place for the lotion... :)

"Dossier En Route"

WOOHOO!!!  God truly does work in AMAZING WAYS!!! Thank you Lord!  And with getting this dossier on it's way today, it's all about who you know, not what you know. :-) Let me explain...

As I mentioned in my last post, our dossier came together VERY quickly. The filing system I set up for myself last time and never took the time to put away had neatly put away under my desk had so many notes I left for myself that made the process incredibly smooth. The Lord's favor helped a lot too of course! From the time I got the list of dossier documents from our facilitator to today, it was about one month. It could have been quicker, but it took a bit of time to get our home study updated and approved. Our social worker, Amanda, is AWESOME!  She worked REALLY hard to get it done as quick as she did. Thank you!

So, this past Monday I got the email that our notarized home study and agency licenses were ready to be picked up the next day. (They would have happily mailed it, but I asked to pick it up to save a day or two.) I drove down to the north side of Milw to pick them up and then over to Madison to drop it off at the Secretary of State's office to have it apostilled. Again, I could have mailed it, but it takes an extra day to get out of their mail room and up to the office. Every day counts right now. I asked to be notified when they were done with the apostilles, and even asked if they could give me 2.5 hr notice before closing so I could get down there in time (they couldn't promise it). Well, Friday afternoon at 3:45pm, the phone rings and our documents are done. Yay! But they close at 4:30pm and it's a 2+ hr drive. BUMMER! I would have to wait until Monday to get them and mail them out via FedEx. If I would have gotten them on Friday, I could have saved on FedEx fees. I'll explain that more in a bit.

Ok, so after Sarah hangs up with the Sec of State office and I whine calmly expressed my sadness about not getting our documents in time, she says, "What about Luke?"  (Luke is our next door neighbors' oldest child going to college in Madison.) "Luke could pick them up and you could go down and get them from him tonight."  I'm so thankful God gave me such smart children! I get a hold of Luke, but he's on a field trip (yes, they take those in college too). He won't make it in time, so he gets a hold of a friend. This awesome friend goes to the SoS building, gets my documents, gives them to Luke, and I have all those pretty gold stars in my hands a couple hours later! ISN'T GOD GOOD?!?

But wait...it gets better!  Several weeks ago, our pastor emails us and tells us that Max is going to be visiting our church on Sunday, May 1st. YAY!! We were so excited to see him! Max is just finishing up a 2 month state-side tour raising awareness and support for his ministry in EE.

(For those of you that haven't been reading here all that long, Max is a missionary in his own country, Elijah's former country, Jonathan's country - yep, all the same country. He has an absolutely AMAZING ministry to the hopeless of this country. Absolutely AMAZING!  Pat and Sarah ministered with Max last summer on a mission trip to EE, and in part, Max is part of the reason Elijah is now our son. He has a very special place in our hearts. Plus, back in Dec when I was in-country adopting Elijah, Max traveled to pick up my dear friend, Debbie, from the airport in the capital city and brought her down to me so she could help me bring Elijah home. What a friend!)

TODAY, I gave Max my precious dossier documents to carry back to his country and deliver them to my facilitator. No FedEx costs (which have almost doubled since last fall due to fuel price increases)! Max flies back on Tuesday and they will get there at the same time as they would have with FedEx. ISN'T GOD GOOD?!? His timing is always perfect! To Him be the Glory!