Leaving Tomorrow!

We are all set! Ukraine here we come!

Today my mom and sister came to help me with last minute preparations and to visit before we leave tomorrow. They also watched the kids so that I can go and run the last of my errands. I got everything done, Praise the Lord and I feel good about leaving tomorrow.

Again, I just have to say how blessed we are that the donations still keep coming in--- two hundred dollars just today. I am amazed how the Lord continues to provide even when I am too busy to try to fund raise on my own anymore. I guess that it was Him doing the work in the first place and I was just making it my own business because I thought He couldn't do a good enough job on his own. Shame on me... what was I thinking? Well, I am here to tell you that the Lord does provide and a million thank yous go out to each and everyone of you that have given so freely of your money and prayers. I am humbled and more appreciative than you guys will ever know.

I am excited that soon Dennis will be in our arms but I have been advised not to post pictures until after court. :( This will my biggest challenge probably yet..... the temptation alone might get the best of me, but don't worry, I will post and throw in some pictures anyways.

While we are gone, please, please, please leave comments, even if you haven't before. Adam, Rachel, Caleb, Sveta, Annalyn, Julia, Anna, William, Andrew, and Jonny -- that includes you too! I already know that I will appreciate it very much! And I know they'll help me to not feel so far away.

God Bless all of you!

Getting things done

Only 8 days till we leave. I know that, and I am preparing for our departure, but I still need the occasional pinch to know that I am not dreaming. I'm not dreaming, right? :)

I have taken my deep breath and am finally over the shock, and now things are actually getting done. I've picked up our tickets, I've prepaid our bills, and I've cooked up a few casseroles so that my friend Denise doesn't have to worry about all the meals when we are gone.


I got lots of help from my girls too.

Here is Russian Cotlyeti.

Chicken pasta, and chicken enchiladas.

And Beef enchilada casserole with red sauce.

And another wonderful thing is that we have received another $250 in donations. Thank you. I can't say that enough, really. I am humbled by your generosity. Your giving hearts shine through and I just need to tell you that I appreciate how supportive all of you have been.

Everything is happening according to His plan, and I get to watch it all unfold. I hope I don't leave out to many details, so that you can feel like you are watching too!

Dennis, my sweet baby boy, only a few more days and I'll be holding you in my arms!

I thank you

Someone just signed up for Revolution Money Exchange. That is $10 more towards Dennis' adoption. I wish I knew who you were so that I could thank you personally. RME doesn't tell me who signed up just like Reece's Rainbow doesn't tell me who has donated. But I want you to know that every little bit has been noticed and is much appreciated.

Just so you know, if you have a blog you can put a link button on your page and now you will get $10 for everyone that signs up through you. You can use the money earned towards your own adoption or use the money to donate to your favorite charity or just keep the money and treat yourself to a movie.

Again, please know how thankful I am. Your generosity continues to confirm that God will provide...... he does provide. Whether the money is coming from our tax return, our savings, generous givers such as yourself, and or our own setting aside of money each month, the Lord is providing. The funds are being gathered for His glory, to bring one amazing little boy home.

As I try to understand how God provides, I am reminded that sometimes He uses us as His vessels that enable Him to do great things through us. I think that is what shining our lights is all about.

Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

Huge Blessings

You guys are so amazing! Two more people signed up for Revolution Money Exchange and we earned $20.00 for that, and then I am not certain but it looks like someone made a $50.00 donation through Reece's Rainbow. I am blown away that donations keep coming in. May God bless you guys. Thank you so much.

I am hoping to get a raffle started by the end of this week and so please make sure to check back in the next day or two.

Please get the $25 for free!

Hi Everyone! I am very excited to have found an awesome way for us to raise money for our adoption. And it is so easy and free! Can you believe it? I was quite skeptical at first, but after watching this on other people's blogs and finally signing up myself, I can say that it is legit. It is called Revolution Money Exchange.

It is a lot like Paypal, probably Paypal's up and coming rival, except that it is free. That means there are no fees. Plus you get $25 just for signing up and then $10 for everyone that clicks on your link and signs up under you. I have already earned $25 towards our adoption just for signing up, and I am asking that everyone who reads this to please consider signing up too. Remember, you will get $25 just for signing up and we will get an additional $10 because you signed up under us. Plus you will be able to exchange money without any fees with anybody else who uses Revolution Money Exchange.

The process takes only a couple of minutes and then about two days to verify the account that you want the free $25 deposited into.

Again, please consider this easy way to help us raise money for Dennis' adoption. I am also going to be starting a raffle in the next day or two that you may want to participate in and this will be an easy way to buy a ticket.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, ahead of time.



Just click here to sign up. :)

Praise the Lord!

God is so faithful! Not only did we get submitted this week, but donations keep coming in. Just in the past two or so days, we have gotten $60.00 in donations. I don't know specifically who you are, but thank you! Every little bit counts. No amount is too little. God recognizes it all...... and it all is for His glory.

Yes, Dennis will soon become our son, but in reality we are just being entrusted by God to look after his child. What a privilege. And to know that all of you are helping to bring Dennis home is such a beautiful thing to witness. Thank you again........ and not only for your donations but for all of your prayers. Prayers to bring him home. Prayers that he is not in pain. Prayers that the doctors will have wisdom to best help Dennis so that he can have the self esteem when he looks in the mirror that all of us, including myself, take for granted.

All of you, thanks for your continued support.

So what does submitted mean?

Yesterdays news means that the SDA (State Department on Adoption and Children's Rights) has accepted our dossier (adoption paperwork) to adopt from Ukraine. Now we have about 20 business days to wait and see if they accept or reject it. I am not too worried about them rejecting it because it had been looked over before it was submitted and all of our documents still have 6+ months on them. So........... in twenty days or so we should get our invitation to travel with a specific appointment date to hopefully be referred our known child--- Dennis.

At this point, I am very hopeful that he will indeed be home before his 2nd birthday now. Wouldn't that be totally awesome? I just have to keep praying. I just have to remain faithful that God will continue to work miracles on Dennis' behalf. Will you please continue to pray for little Dennis too?

I also want to take a moment and say thank you to all that have recently given to Dennis' adoption fund. We are now at $1730.00. Praise God! Isn't that fantastic? Thank you God for touching the hearts of those around us and those that have only gotten to know us through our blog. It is hard to understand how complete strangers would want to help us. By the end of it, I hope we are no longer strangers. May You bless them as they have blessed us.

This past Saturday, our church mother's group had a family picnic. To my surprise they honored my hard work and dedication for helping to start the successful mother's group over 11 years ago. It was a very special time, and I am in awe of how wonderful my church family and friends are. What made it so special was that they took up a love offering from the group and presented us with nearly $200.00 to go towards our adoption costs.

Thank you to all of the moms of MUGS (Mothers Under Grace). You guys come together to support and uplift your fellow sisters in Christ like no other group that I know. You guys rock!

As I digest all the prayers and donations that have been done on our behalf, James 1:27 pops into my mind. "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."

After this incredible week how can I worry about how the rest of our adoption is going to go? I trust that I will have Dennis in my arms very soon. And as we get closer to traveling and having to actually hand over the biggest portion of our adoption costs for facilitation fees, travel, orphanage donation, and living expenses, I have Faith that God will provide. Every week we are getting closer to having the money we need to complete this adoption. Hopefully, next week we will have our stimulus check.... and boy will that get us even closer!

Thank you again for your giving hearts.

Friends and Family

When John and I announced that we were adopting again, we knew that we wouldn't get as much enthusiasm from friends and family than if we were announcing our first child. Sad, but true...... the novelty wears off for most people after the first couple of kids and the news of an 11th child can certainly catch anyone off guard. John and I expected that, and so we were pleasantly surprised when friends and family expressed their support or at least refrained from saying anything negative.

I bring this up because I know that other people have dealt with the same issues with their family and friends. It can be very tough to get out your initial adoption news. Figuring out how you are going to tell people and how you are going to respond to their negative comments can be more stressful than the adoption itself. I know......I've been there.

But, I wanted to encourage you that your loved ones can and may just surprise you. I know my Mom did. Bless her heart. Of all people, I thought that she would have the hardest time with our decision to adopt another child, and yet she has ceased to amaze me with her genuine concern for how things are going. A week doesn't go by without her asking how things are going and if we are any closer to traveling. And to top it all off, my mom goes and does something absolutely crazy yet wonderful and selfless. She gave us a big donation to help us bring home Dennis.

Thank you Mom, from the bottom of my heart. Your act of giving us money to help cover the adoption expenses means so much to me. Not because of the money, but more because of what the money represents. To me, the money is a tangible representation of your support for us and our family. To me, it shows that you are investing in your future grandchild, my son, even before you have met him. To me, it means that you are willing to do without something so that one of God's children can have. That is so powerful Mom, and I appreciate it so much. It means so much to me to know that you fully support what I am doing. Now as a grown woman, it has also helped me to recognize the love you had for me even when you let me know that you didn't fully support what I was doing (when I was younger).

The support that we have received ever since we committed to adopt Dennis has confirmed over and over that this is God's plan for our family. Friends and Family please feel our deepest gratitude for all of your prayers, donations, and encouraging words.

Also, thank you to a certain blog friend who sent us the nicest card. Inside was a very gracious donation. You are so right---- the Lord provides. Hopefully, we will be able to show our support for the two of you someday soon in your own adoption journey.

A humble thank you

I am humbled beyond words right now. I don't know who, and I don't quite know when, but we have received $410 in donations so that we can adopt and bring home Dennis. I am in complete shock. I really didn't think anyone would help us.

It was very hard for me to even put up the donation links. I really feared being judged for having the audacity to even suggest that we are open to donations. We had opened ourselves up to comments the very first time we adopted our two girls from Russia back in 2005 by asking for donations. Even though the cost of adopting a child is tens of thousands of dollars, a few people made me feel that because we were choosing to adopt another child with our already large family, we were somehow wrong to ask for any kind of financial help because it was obvious that by us asking for donations it meant that we couldn't afford to raise another child once they were home.

Like the answer is to not adopt a child just because we can use a little help coming up with all of the upfront adoption related costs of just getting our child home. I just couldn't make sense of the hurtful thoughts and comments that people had about us and it seemed easier to just not put up the donation link. I struggled with my pride and felt the easier way out would have been to just scrimp and save, take all of our money out of savings....basically do whatever it takes to bring him home. With the falling dollar, we are still probably going to have to do that, but it is so worth it when I think about our little guy languishing in his orphanage because no one can see past his scarring. At this point we have committed to bringing our little guy home and we know that through God we will raise all of the necessary funds to adopt Dennis.

But then I was reminded of something. I was reminded that by taking this route, I was not trusting God to provide anything for this adoption. I was also assuming that everyone who knew us felt this way. I was also reminded that I was taking away the blessing from another person who may want to help out financially so that we could bring our precious son home. I was essentially being my own God, trusting only myself to provide for Dennis to come home.

Well when I checked out our donation page and saw that $410 had already been donated, I knew that the person who reminded me was right and I was terribly wrong.

I am so very thankful that someone has felt led to donate money to help out with the adoption related costs. I think we already have enough to cover Dennis's visa. That is one less expense. I wish I knew your names so that I could personally thank each and everyone of you.

Someone mentioned to us that they would like to donate something but felt more comfortable giving directly to us. Thank you so much. I may put up a fundraising tracker that includes all donations not just those given through the adoption ministry we are using. I just wanted to share with you a verse that brings me great comfort for I trust His word.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. John 14:18

Lastly, please please please keep us in your prayers. Prayer for our paperwork to be submitted without any snags, prayer for a travel date, prayer for Dennis to make it through these next few weeks or months without us, prayer for childcare for our other children while we travel to get Dennis, prayer that our SDA appt. goes well, prayer for safe travels, prayer that our trip is quick and that our 10 days our waived. I know people doubt that the last one is possible, but with God all things are possible.

Introducing Dennis

Dennis is already in my heart. John's too. God can work amazingly fast like that. I can't explain how.... I can only share how I feel.

Let me tell you a bit about him. Dennis is an incredible little boy. He is about this tall, with light blue eyes and sandy brown hair. He has amazing strength and a desire to live the life that God gave him to the fullest. I'm sure he has a tender heart, and I'm pretty sure that his smile lights up a room. He is learning to walk and probably talk, and despite the scarring that he has, he is one beautiful little boy.

He shares the same birthday as our daughter Anna. That means two birthday cakes, one vanilla and one chocolate, unless he prefers a banana cake. Because Dennis is so young, we will be able to say that we celebrated all but one birthday with him. That in itself, is so exciting to me.

Dennis most likely has sweet smelling breath, just like any baby and will probably love taking baths with his brother Jonny. Once home, Dennis will have to get used to being cuddled, and rocked, and held, and kissed. I hope he can't wait!

He will have a tough time deciding whether he is an Elmo or Wiggles fan, whether he prefers to climb the stairs or slide down, and whether he prefers raspberry kisses on his tummy or nibbles on his ear.

This little boy that will soon be joining our family is a perfectly healthy baby that is perfect in God's eyes.

If you would like to donate towards his adoption please email me privately for the link. Beyond money, please keep us in your prayers, specifically that we get a travel date to go and bring him home!