Imagine That !

Overcome

2012-02-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

We just received an email and there is one problem with our homestudy.

Our dossier was to be submitted today, but due to inconsistency in the homestudy and the update we may have to do some fixing.

We replied with an explanation, it is really simple actually.
We have 5 bedrooms, but we are using one as a school room and one as a TV room.
One paper says we have 5 bedrooms and one says we have 3.

I as usual got sick and stressed and called Jeromy.

Amazingly, I went to the Word and then called my mom to pray.

As I got off the phone with her I thought man I should turn on the radio and listen to some Jesus music.... then the song that has been stuck in my head the last three mornings popped into my head.

Please pray with us, that the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (our explanation) will see us through this with no further delays.

"We have overcome by the BLOOD OD THE LAMB and the words of our testimony, everyone overcome. "

Here it is ... I don't think there needs to be anymore words. :)

Adoption Updates

2012-02-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

Why "Our Girl"? Where are all the great pictures???

I would love nothing more than to show off our super sweet girl in pictures and share everything about her country, but due to her country's regulations we are not supposed to. Once she is home we can share a lot more. We have had such an amazing opportunity to have tons of pictures of her growing up as well as some video of her. We have had a couple of emails from people in country that have met her and every single one has said, "she is sweet".

In the last 2 second video clip she seemed a little lost and lonely, very curious about the American Visitor and she said, goodbye in English. It sounds like she is trying to learn English. :) Praise God. Every little bit will help.

Dossier

Our Dossier is in country! It arrived on Thursday.

Garage Sale

We had a great turn out for the garage sale today. Thank you to all who donated. It looks like we will do one more day of it in the spring.

Raffle

Our Raffle Winner was The Cameron Family! Congrat!
Crystal Beck Photography also threw in a surprise 2nd place winner. A free mini session- the winner was Miss Smith.

Quilt

Misty is wrapping up The Quilt. We have had a wonderful response and we are so glad that we will have something so special to give to "Our Girl".

Fees and God's provision

When we arrive in country we will give our facilitators the program fee of $9,000.
I was ~~very~~ a little bit stressed about this huge number. I tried to believe that God would provide for us.
I really could not see where that much money would come from.
I dreamed of a huge check falling from the sky, but I have felt God is teaching us in a very real way that we need to be faithful in the "little things". Being more conscientious about spending money and finding little ways to add to our account. God has also squished my pride a little bit more and allowed us to be BLESSED by our friends. I don't know about you all, but asking for or receiving money is hard for us. It is a huge blessing and very much appreciated, I think it is just pride that makes getting money a little on the strange side.
We also love tax returns. :)

All this to say WE ARE ALMOST THERE!

I

Making Lemonade

2012-02-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

So the Boise trip started off exciting ~

Got a bit stressful and felt like a waste of time ~

Kali and I sang along to a fun little song called "This is the Stuff" by Francesca Battistelli

and tried to NOT SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF

Then Jeromy worked it out to come down and save the day!!!

My Hero!

Then the trip got really fun.

We had a great time with my friend's mom.

Bummer the friend and her kids weren't able to come.

Her littles were a bit confused about why Kaly and Stacy were at grammy's house.

We went out to dinner, took all day to shop around at some craft stores.

Slept in late and took a beautiful walk by the river.

God knew I needed a little R & R

Jeromy arrived with Ayla and Gavin on Sat. eve.

love the look on Gav's face

Sunday morning we met some other dear friends for church.

Then while they went to a b-day party and work

we took a couple of hours to enjoy the sun at the coolest park ever.

Then we headed to the State Capital building.

While everyone else watched Super Bowl we checked out what was behind every open door.

We had a great time. Kaly and Ayla love exploring and every floor held a surprise.

Our only fam. photo and Gav. is "hiding"- little stinker :)

Then back to hang with our friends for the night.

Up till 2 am talking about everything I love (and hate).

Adoption, special needs, our kids, home schooling, blogging, photography, and the need to act and help stop human trafficking.

It is such a blessing that even though we have not spent time with these friends for a long time that God continues to touch our hearts in such similar ways.

They love the Lord and desire to serve him and love on people and they are just plain fun to hang with.

Our kids had a blast and it was all we could do to tear them apart.

Thank You God for seeing our need for a time of refreshment and providing it!

And to top it all off....

Our completed Dossier is in the air on its way to Eastern Europe

It should be there on the 10th! Woo Hoo!

So now we wait for a date (as long as they accept our paperwork- I am prepared for the worst just in case) and in the mean time we are prepping for a garage sale and planning for travel.

I am so excited! I cannot wait to travel.

I am nervous and I know I will get sick on the plane or be passed out from my half of a non-drowsy Dramamine, but I love to travel and I love that Jeromy and I get to go together.

Talk about a date. :)

Boise or Bust!

2012-02-04T15:09:00.000-08:00

Wednesday Night we realized

2 of our documents needed for our adoption were dated wrong

and our tax form needed to be updated.

The paperwork we sent to get the apostille was due back on Thursday or Friday and we did not want anything slowing down this process, SO Kaly and I drove to Boise.

The plan was to get the apostille on the two last docs.

My dear friend's mom lives near Boise and graciously allowed us to stay at her home.

Thursday night after arriving Jeromy called with the bad news.

Our I 171H came back with no apostille!

I emailed our facilitator in Ukraine and she said we had to copy it and notarize the copy, then The State would apostille the notarized copy.

I cried!!! Our sweet hostess offered her home if we needed to stay.

Jeromy, Ayla and Gavin are on their way with the form.

On Monday we will get it notarized here in Boise,

go to the Secretary of State to apostille it

then we will Fed Ex all of our dossier to Eastern Europe.

Kaly and I are enjoying some very relaxing time here with our best friends' grandma/mom.

Then tomorrow we get to spend the day with some very dear friends we haven't seen in years.

If we have time on Monday we hope to take the kids to the Capital Building.

Then we will caravan home and hope to be ready to get back into real life on Tuesday morning.

Thank You all for your prayers!

All things work together for the good of those that Love the Lord.

We Love Him and Trust this is All in His Hands.

Celebrate~Celebrate~Celebrate!

2012-01-28T22:54:00.000-08:00

We received our last document in the mail yesterday and even better than that, today we received confirmation from our facilitator that it is approved. YIPPEE!

Jeromy rushed our last 4 documents to the Post Office to get them to our State Capital to get certified. (to apostille)
(Does anyone know what the past tense of the word Apostille is? I found that Apostilled is not an English word. )

So we wait for them to return and then we mail our Dossier to Her Country.

The dossier will get translated and then submitted to the Government.

Once the Government gets the documents and reviews them they will give us an appointment date. It seems these appointment dates are often only a few weeks out.

We will travel to Eastern Europe and go to the Government office for the official referral. Please pray that this goes smoothly.

We will then travel to her orphanage and spend time with her and get to know her. Then we will go to court.

After court we have a mandatory 10 day waiting period (please pray that this gets waived. Some Judges will waive it, I am praying since she is a teenager that they will waive it. )

After the 10 days we can bring her HOME!

We have a long ways to go but we are getting close to the best part...Meeting her and getting to bring her HOME!

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT
For checking on us and listening to our excitement and disappointments. So excited to have so many loving friends and family to share this with.

Fabulous Fundraisers

2012-01-25T20:46:00.000-08:00

In an effort to keep our debt as low as possible we have been and are doing some fundraisers to help bring "Our Girl" home. We want to thank all of you that have supported us through sponsoring a fundraiser and or participating in a fundraiser. So far we have had a Quilt by Misty, A Scentsy "Party" by Katie and a Portrait Raffle by Crystal. Thank you so much to all of you for your hard work and generous hearts.

If you still want to participate in The Raffle or get your Name on The Quilt the time is now. We are Wrapping these up this week.

The Quilt Fundraiser works like this: A donation of any amount gets your name on a quilt square. Once "Our Girl" gets home we will give her the quilt and she will know that she is loved by you. Click on the PayPal button on the right hand side of our blog where it says "Quilt for our girl".

The Raffle for the FREE Portrait Session by crystalbeckphotography.com is also coming to an end. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. These can be purchased by sending a check to the above address. Please make sure we have your phone number so we know how to get a hold of you if you win.

We have also been collecting cans, cans and more cans as well as scrap copper. So if you are in the area and have cans or copper to donate, please give us a call and we will grab them when we are near you.

Lastly we are doing an INDOOR Garage Sale on Feb. 11th in our old house. We are simplifying and hoping to generate a few bucks. If you have any items you would like to donate just let me know. And if you like to go "garage sale-ing" and can't wait til summer this is your chance.

All funds raised go toward our Adoption Fees.

I think that about wraps it up. We are so close I can "feel it"!

Thank You ALL so much for your support!

PLEASE keep praying for us as we prepare to travel.

Input Please!

2012-01-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Please let me know what you think!

I am not usually concerned about comments

I know everyone is busy and it is time consuming to comment on lots of blogs.

But Please comment this time it will really help.

I would love to know if any of you have or do use Ad Sense

Would you recommend it?

If we used it would you be less likely to read our blog?

I would love to use it as a little way to raise funds to help bring our girl home.

Just a thought but it could help and be of no cost to our friends and family.

I would also love to know

how many of you read through Google Reader and how many actually go to our blog.

Thank You for your input!!!!

Laughing / Crying

2012-01-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up burdened to get this adoption finalized. Like really burdened.

I committed to the Lord to fast and pray. My fast was undetermined. I couldn't really put a definite on how long or what I would fast. Usually I like to have a specific commitment before the Lord. I just kept saying every time I wanted something to eat, "I want Our Girl more".

I was up early and posted this :

We are still waiting for one VERY IMPORTANT document.
The I 171 H from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. (AKA USCIS )
We NEED this to move forward with our adoption.
PLEASE PRAY with us that it comes soon. LIKE TODAY.

God continues to make a way.
When we get discouraged, God lifts us up with a drop of HOPE.

Our girl is anxious to be HOME.
We are anxious to have her with us.

Thank You for Journeying with us.

I shared on the blog, email and on Facebook our prayer request and headed off to therapy.

As we got home I checked the mail convinced the form would be there. It wasn't.

A bit disappointed I began to get our docs. together to call USCIS.
As I searched for the info. I needed, I started re-reading one of the forms we have had since the beginning of Dec.

I was thinking "this says everything we need the I 171H to say".
Then as I scoured over it I noticed at the bottom in little tiny writing it says, "I 171H form". I assumed it would have I 171H on the top in big letters and be on shiny, colorful paper, like the other documents we had received.

OH MY! I was sick ~ happy ~amazed at God ~ and amazed at my stupidity. :(
(kicking myself-beating myself up-won't change a thing-so why do I do it?)

I am so happy we have the document, but so sick that we have had it for over a month.

We know God has perfect timing. It all is so obvious in that as of now Ukraine is closed to new Dossiers until the beginning of Feb. We just got the money last night to pay for the all the up coming expenses. We just received via email today a new form we have to fill out for the dossier.

It probably wouldn't have gotten us there much sooner anyway, but I do not want to be the one holding up the process!

We received a message from our girl last night. It translates, How are you doing? When you come?
I believe she is as anxious as we are to get her home.

I emailed our I 171 H to our facilitator and promptly received her response. There are 2 errors on the document. It must be fixed. I left a message with our officer and we are now again waiting.

So again I ask, please pray we get our new and PERFECT I-171H very soon, and this time I promise I will not mistake it for an update notice.

Please pray for Our sweet girl, and that God will move mountains so we can go get her soon.

I am claiming this verse:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

Color Party!

2012-01-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

Kaly Surprised Ayla with this Color Pary!

Many of the ideas she got from the American Girls Magazine.

She worked for days ~ every spare minute :)

Party complete with mix and match accessories game.

A perfect quote from our stamp collection.


What better way to use the loft.

This little treat is a milkshake in a glass with sliced gum drops stuck to the inside.


I love my girls!

Little Bro made it in for 3.5 Minutes.

Pictures used for a coloring project.

No color party is complete without a hair time.

Roller Coaster Ride

2011-12-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

I feel like we are at the amusement park and today we are almost to the end of the long wait to get on the giant Roller-Coaster. Though we are thrilled and excited to get on this ride we know we will scream and hold tight and yell at the top of our lungs.

On July 5th we jumped in line to get on this ride called International Adoption and we have been slowly working our way through that LONG line. We have done all of our paperwork no fewer than a million times. We have had appointments and home visits and sent a million emails back and forth to Ukraine. We have prayed and cried. We have jumped up and down with excitement and slumped in feelings of despair. Some days we wonder if this is ever going to really happen and then God does what he always does and encourages us.

We still have a ways to go. Please pray that the final bits of paperwork get finished. We know it is all in God's timing and we trust that, but we know He desires us to pray. So we ask you to pray with us.

We are so close to getting buckled into this roller-coaster, so close to no turning back, so close to "keep your hands and feet in the car at all times". My stomach gets butterflies of anticipation and I get so excited I feel like I just might throw up. I can't believe we are so close and I still can't believe we are doing this. I know this is just the beginning of the ride and we have many hills and bumps and drops and curves to maneuver through. God continues to guide us and direct our paths. He continues to be our strength when we get tired and frustrated. He is our hope, we know He has a plan for our girl and we trust and pray that His Will will be done.

Thank you for your encouragement through this long line of paperwork. Thank you to all of you that are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our girl. We appreciate so much everyone's excitement and support.

I can't wait to hear that click, click, click of the wheels. To begin that climb up that steep hill ahead. The hill of the travel and the paperwork in Ukraine. I can't wait because I know once we get to the top we will begin to fly. We will fly around the curves and up and over the hills. What a thrill it is and when we finally land at the bottom ~~if we haven't peed our pants~~ I will probably yell "let's do it again".

Learning to say "?"

2011-12-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

For many years I have been learning to say "No"

Many years ago after God worked on my heart, a lot, I finally learned to say "no".

I have always been a people-pleaser and somewhat adventurous, so saying "yes" was easy for me, actually almost impossible not to say "yes".

Well after some time of learning to have boundaries and learning that if I say "yes" to one thing then it may limit me from doing other things, I finally started to get the point that I sometimes needed to say "no".

For example, at church a LONG time ago, Jeromy and I were asked to teach a teens Sunday School class.

We prayed about it together and discussed it and neither of us felt it was what we should do.
Well, normally I would have said "yes" and made a way to fulfill the commitment.

This time we said "no". We took some flack and the person that asked "jokingly" said to me, "oh so you go on a mission trip and think you've done enough for God".

I was hurt and upset, but we held our ground and did not say "yes".

Later, I was asked to teach the 5th and 6th grade class. This time I said "yes". I felt very much like this was were God wanted me. Jeromy was asked to take the college age group and he said "yes" as well.

As time went on and we settled into our Sunday School classes we both felt a sense of contentment. We truly loved teaching our classes.

I enjoyed preparing for mine though it was very challenging.

I had a kid in there that knew everything there was to know when it came to facts. Living it though was a totally different story. He challenged me to always be WELL PREPARED.

I loved all of the kids in there, but there was this one sweet kid that was extremely quiet. He sat and soaked in every word. I often thought he thought I was nuts. Sometime during the time I was teaching the class he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He totally committed his life to the Lord.

He was a boy that came from a home with a Christian mom and a dad that wasn't interested.

He became passionate about sharing his faith with his dad.

Eventually we moved to a new church and I said my sad goodbyes to the kids that were embarking on their teen years.

Later as we have kept in touch with our former church family I have seen the kids from my old class.

The boy that asked Jesus into his heart is one of the most on fire youth I have ever met. He is going to Moody Bible Institute. He has done international missions and ministers to those around him.

He is passionate about sharing the GOOD NEWS and has a huge heart for children around the world that are in desperate need.

He has big dreams and big plans and is willing to do whatever God calls him to.

(Don't worry I wont tell your secret :)

I am so thrilled that God gave me a front row seat into the life of this dear friend.

It would not have happened if I had said "Yes" for the wrong reasons. If I said "yes" to the youth class, I would have never had the chance to be his teacher and I would have never gotten to be part of this wonderful story if I had said "no" when God was nudging me.

I finally learned to say "no" and in so doing I was able to say "YES" to the very thing God had for me.

Now once again I feel like God is working in my heart. This time he is teaching me to say "Yes".

I have been reading a wonderful book called Kisses From Katie.

While in Uganda our group of 18 women went to her house for dinner.

I wish we had gone to minister to her and her neighbors instead of just eat dinner, but I know that had we not gone there I would not have known about her book or been so determined to read it. God used that visit to open my eyes to new things and I pray someday that God will spout the seeds that were planted that night at her home.

While we were there I had a brief visit with her.
She was just about ready for her book to get released, but they had not yet decided on a title.

She wanted the title "Saying Yes". I think it would have been very appropriate.

She has learned and continues to learn to say "Yes" to God, "yes" to helping those in need around her. She says "yes" to loving babies and sick people and she says "yes" to getting in the muck and mire and lending a hand even when she doesn't feel like it or even when it doesn't make sense.

Through reading this and through what I feel God has been laying on my heart I am learning I need to say "Yes".

Not "yes" to stuff and programs and busyness. Those things I am still practicing my "no's" on, but "yes" to people. "Yes" to relationships, "yes" to time with my kids, "yes" to whatever God has for us and "yes" to whomever he puts in our lives.

I want to quit putting limits on God, I want to quit trying to figure it out.

I want to, as the pastor preached on today, learn to deny ourselves and be willing to say "no" to the things of this world and "yes" to the things of God.

I have no idea what this is going to look like and I have no idea what God is doing, but I feel He is preparing our hearts to start saying "Yes"!

Jethro

2011-11-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

Before I left for Uganda I told my friend that I did not feel like God was leading us to adopt from Uganda. Though I loved the idea.

But then I got there and held these adorable mommyless little children and thought surely God was calling us to adopt. :)

Well the little guy that got my heart the most was Jethro.

He was recovering from a major burn on his stomach and needed extra holding.
As I held him the nurse came to give him his medicine.
She forced it in him as I held him, realizing he was beginning to choke, I tried to sit him up and let him catch his breath, she kept pushing in the meds.

I got pretty emotional and had to step away for a bit.
A little later I asked her what his medicine was for....
her answer... for his cough.

All I could think was maybe his cough was from aspirating his meds.

I don't know the whole story and I do not mean to criticize, at least he had opportunity to have medicine. It just seemed this little guy was not favored in this place. It seemed he was one of the least of the least. It seemed that many of the mamas didn't like him much.

As I went back each time I tried to hold him and he seemed to remember me. One afternoon as he was being fed by a volunteer he saw me and threw his hands up for me to hold him.

What fun it was to hold him. He absolutely loved my paper bead necklace and would pull on it and suck on it.

After arriving home and as I tried to process our trip I would wear my necklace and think of Jethro. I prayed for him all the time and he is the one we contacted the orphanage about adopting. Our answer was "check back in 3 months", but in my heart I knew it was "no".

It didn't really make sense to me until we heard about our girl, but even then I felt like God had to have a plan for Jethro. As my little mind works I tried to scheme up a plan like ....
bring our girl home and then start adopting Jethro.

I knew it was my plan and not God's, but I just couldn't believe that God would leave him an orphan. I felt very passionate to pray for him and I have learned that God does this in my heart so I will pray and He always has a plan.

So I prayed, and just this week I heard wonderful news!

Jethro is being adopted. A wonderful couple that loves the Lord.
A couple that has been to Uganda and met Jethro has heard the call and not only are they adopting him they are going to live in Uganda at least for a time.

I know God had this plan and He would have worked it out even without my prayers, but it is so wonderful to know a little guy and pray for a little guy and be moved by God to intercede and then get to sit back and watch a beautiful family come together.

Jethro couldn't have a better family because I know that they are the family God chose for him.

~Jethro~

God has big plans for you little guy, and like the Jethro that gave wisdom to Moses, I pray God will give you wisdom to share with those God places in your life.

You are a treasure and a joy and I pray you will be blessed all the days of your life with the love that only God can give.

My Sweet Sister!

2011-11-18T21:29:00.000-08:00

My Sweet Sister is doing a Scentsy Fundraiser
to help us bring Our Girl home.

Thank You Katie!

Here is how it works...

Go to Scentsy and click on buy from party on the right hand side. It is the Bringing Our Girl home party. This will take you to a place you can shop and find your favorite products and order on line and they can be shipped directly to you.

If you have questions or would like to check out samples Katie's contact info is 208-660-3458 or you can email her at kcorey2003@yahoo.com

Scentsy - We Make Perfect Scents!

warminghearts.scentsy.us

Hosting a Scentsy party is a fun, easy way to earn Scentsy products. Whether it’s a casual home party or a simple basket party, you’ll enjoy sharing Scentsy with friends and family, or co-workers.

These make beautiful Christmas, birthday, wedding, and even baby gifts.
Or just get one for yourself. :)

The party closes Nov. 29th so you will have time to get your gifts before Christmas.

We are so thankful for you Katie and your willingness to help us cover the costs of the adoption. We thank God for how he continues to provide all we need.

Discouragement turned to Hope!

2011-11-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

It Came! It Came! It Came!

After 5 long weeks of waiting,
our Biometric Fingerprinting Approval
arrived. We go to Spokane on Nov. 21st to get
fingerprinted.

We are almost completely finished with doing all 30 documents
for the 3rd time and we are ready to send paperwork to be apostilled, some for the second time.

Our next huge milestone will be the day we mail our dossier to U.

Please pray that we can do this with no further complications.

I have to be very honest here and say this has been a long 5 weeks.

We had no idea if we would receive another letter requesting more information from USCIS or if we would receive a denial letter or if we would get the coveted Fingerprinting appointment.

As we have been waiting we have been working on the dossier.
I have heard it was a lot of paperwork and that it had to be perfect.
Well perfect is an understatement!

As our facilitator states in her emails back to us.

"No Any corrections"

After much back and forth and multiple visits to our notary we finally got our first set of papers to Boise to get Apostilled.
We were shocked and very disappointed to find that they were returned with stamps on every page and white out on every page.

"No Any corrections"

So we started over and they are ready to mail again.

3 trips each to our doctors offices to get it all perfect.
3 visits to the assessors office to get the right person to help us and get it done.
3 sets of fingerprints because .... oh that is a long story.

We are so thrilled to be almost done with this step.

We had a lady we work with on the adoption ask us if all these complications make us think this is not what we are supposed to be doing.

We have considered it, and prayed for God's will since the day we heard about Our Girl.

My answer to her was, we are in it for the long haul. We are committed and unless God puts an immovable wall in front of us we will keep moving forward.

Our Girl is waiting for us. She has asked what is taking so long.
She has asked friends to "tell her new family Hello"
She has a family now and we will do everything we can to bring her home.

We feel that God has big plans for Our Girl and that we are part of that plan.
We feel satan is doing everything he can to discourage us, and I fall for it a lot.
He wouldn't care if God wasn't going to use this to Glorify Himself.

So we have HOPE!
Hope that we are moving forward.
Hope that we will see Our Girl soon and bring her home.
Hope that God is going to do mighty things through this adoption.
And Hope that He will be Glorified.

November

2011-11-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

November is National Adoption Awareness Month!

This month is a time to increase awareness of the needs of foster children.

This is near and dear to my heart.

Our two precious boys came to us through foster care.
We have done respite for many other amazing kids, some of which we still have contact with.

We were so blessed to work with great social workers
and have amazing support through out the entire process.

In-case you are wondering :)
There are babies, toddlers, 6 year olds, tweeners, teenagers, special needs, healthy, sweet, lovable, scared, broken, hopeful, responsible, waiting kids going to sleep tonight praying for a forever family.

Pray for these kids, pray that God will work through what seems to be irredeemable circumstances. Pray that God will move His people to stand up and fight for these precious kids.
Pray that God himself will comfort their fears and ignite their hope.

Pray that God will strengthen those He has called.
It gets hard sometimes and fears creep in.
It is easy to put it off until tomorrow, it is easy to feel like it is just too risky.

Pray for the state workers. They are people with big hearts.
They have a very hard job!
They are not perfect, but I am thankful that they do what they do so I can do what I do.

Pray for our judges.
They carry a heavy load-deciding if a child should or should not be removed from a home.
Deciding if a child should be reunited or placed for adoption.
WOW! I cannot imagine being in that seat.

Let's not allow November to pass by without remembering the kids that would love to sit at a table this Thanksgiving and truly give thanks for THEIR FAMILY.

Quilt for Our Girl!

2011-10-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

The Gift~

My friend Misty~the one I met on our mission trip to Uganda~the one I didn't really get to know until we roomed together in London~the one that is adopting two precious little boys from China~yeah that Misty.

She has come up with a beautiful idea to help bring our kids home.

She is making quilts. One for her boys and one for Our Girl.

If you would like to be part of welcoming Our Girl home you can have your name on the quilt.

A donation of any amount gets your name on a square of her quilt. When she gets home she will know she is loved by you.

Misty is donating her time and the materials to make this quilt a reality, therefor ALL proceeds will go to our adoption fund.

If you wish to take part in this beautiful gift to Our Girl that will help bring her home, please go to the side bar where you will find a Donate button through PayPal or send a check. (for checks please email me at scheelswheels@gmail.com and I will give you our address.)

I believe this is the fabric we will be using. From all I have learned about Our Girl, I think she will love it. It is sweet, colorful and fun just like her.

Let's Welcome Our Girl Home One Square at a Time!

Happy 12th Birthday Kali !

2011-10-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

Kindhearted
Artistic
Loving
Imaginative

Kali you always bring sunshine into our lives and we wish you the best birthday ever.
Enjoy your pumpkin pancakes!

Love Dad, Mom, Ayla, Gavin and Eli

Update Already!

2011-09-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to share that our USCIS officer called this morning!!!

I put off the last post for so long, not sure how much to say.
Not wanting to show my anxious heart.
I wanted to wait till it was all good news.

God has much different plans than I.
Last night when editing the last post it published.
This has happened before, but it seems He had bigger plans.

He knew you all would be praying and He wants us to share our burdens with each other.
As my good friend reminded me this morning, this way you can all be part of this journey with us.

After waiting for over a month to get an answer about paper work we got exactly what we needed/wanted.

We do need to fill out an I-600a and mail in our home study, but our officer said we do not need to send in any more paperwork. What we have is sufficient!

I know God is good all the time, but man it sure feels good to see Him working things out in this process and giving us hope that this really is His plan.

THANK YOU ALL FOR PRAYING!

2011-09-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

Over the last year God has begun to break my heart for older children waiting for families.
~~~~~~
Just before we left for Africa I had my heart broken by a 15 year old in Haiti.
Instead of laughing on her 15th birthday she cried.
She cried because she knows she is one year away from never having a family.
~~~~~~~~~~
While in Africa God showed me how even 35 year old women with children
still long for a mother.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I got home from Africa we pursued a few adoption avenues.
Nothing came through and we didn't feel led to pursue it any more.

~~~~~~~~~~

Then we got a call about a child in foster care.
I didn't even give it a thought I just said "No".
Anyone that knows me probably just fell off their chair, but it is true,
I didn't even give the social worker a chance to finish.
I called Jeromy and he was like "what".
Honestly he was a little bummed that I had said no.
I just thought we weren't ready, but then I cried the rest of the day.

This brought us to a place where we really had the talk and came to the
conclusion that we were both ready to do whatever God had for us.

~~~~~~~~~~

On July 4th, after a busy couple of days we had a day to just stay home.
I checked Google Reader and watched a video posted on a blog I follow.

The video was about institutions in Serbia.
It was horrible and again I cried all day.
That evening Kaly said, Mom why do you keep crying?
I told her a little about the video, but told her she couldn't watch it.
She said what do we do?
I said we pray, we pray that God will show us how we can help
so people do not have to go into institutions like that.

~~~~~~~~

July 5th
I checked Google Reader again. (darn blogging :)
This time there was a post from an arthrogryposis blog I follow.
It was about a girl turning 16.
She has arthrogryposis and needs a family in like a week,
otherwise her future is most likely going to be spent in an institution.
I followed the link to the post on the other blog.

I saw:
A beautiful, smiling teenage girl that just wants a family.
She wants a life outside of an institution.

I called Jeromy and he was instantly on the same page.
He came home and read the blog.
We emailed the family that was advocating for her.
They emailed us back and have been by our sides the whole journey.

~~~~~~~~~

Every step of the way we have seen God prepare the way.
We have seen Him put the right person in the right place to help us out.

We got our I-600 turned in.
It took one week from the first moment we started to the moment it landed at USCIS.
It arrived the day before her birthday.

USCIS told me U was closing adoption the next week.
I said "I know".
U hasn't closed yet.
They decided to wait until it could be a quicker transition.

~~~~~~~~~

We did all of our home study paper work and home visit.
We should have the final copy in our hands this week.
If you haven't done a home study I just have to say,
it is a lot of paperwork and training to get done in less than 2 months.
It was a bit stressful but God made a way
even with us being gone for almost 2 weeks of that time.

We have been putting together the paperwork for the U side of things.
Getting paper work notarized, Jeromy's passport, dr. appointments,
new copies of our marriage license and on and on.

I have to be honest, at times it gets very overwhelming.
I look at the list of to do's and I wait for USCIS to call back concerning some paperwork they want that doesn't exist.
Usually I am at peace knowing that if this is God's will it will be fine.

Sometimes I get sick to my stomach, see we have fallen in love with a girl,
she is no longer just an orphan. She is our daughter.
I get sick thinking that paperwork could stand in the way of us bringing her home.

I know God has brought us here.
I know God can do all things.
I just do not know what His plan is.
Is His plan to bring her to our home or does he have a plan I cannot see?

I trust he has a plan for our girl.
I know he is working in her life and he is working in ours.
Our desire is that she is here with us, but
We pray for God's will.

~~~~~~~~~

We have been so blessed by the family that was advocating for her.

1st they hosted her and gave her a chance to see what being in a family was like.
She wants that, she wants a family like theirs. She wants to come to America.
They showed her a loving family and made her feel so comfortable that she didn't want to leave.

Then they prayed and advocated for her.

They answered many of our questions, got the documents translated, connected us with a facilitator, encouraged us and then they came and stayed with us over Labor Day weekend.

They have a beautiful family and a daughter and son from the same orphanage.
The daughter translated for us when we made a video of our family and houses.
She speaks Russian and I know she will be invaluable to help us make a more comfortable transition for our girl.

Oh they even brought KVAS , Eggplant paste and candy for us to try.
They brought videos of the weeks they hosted the kids and a video from the orphanage.
They brought a cd : "Hillsong's Kiev".
Christian music in Russian.

We love all of it and both Jeromy and I cried
as we watch our girl playing games at Chucky Cheese.

Her smile is contagious.

Jeromy looked up Russian churches and stores in Spokane.
There are a couple of good options.
We want to help her stay connected to her culture and
we want to learn more about Ukraine before we go there, but mostly it just helps to feel like we are getting to know her.

Jeromy is such a proud daddy, he took the videos to work to show off to his fellow workers.
He said," I am a proud daddy, hopefully permanently".

Our kids pray for their sister every day.
Gavin talks about her a lot. He is so inspired that she walks on her knees.
We have the girls' room all figured out for 3 girls and just realized a couple of days ago the connection that their window over looks the "Three Sisters" mountain.

It all amazes me.
It is amazing that God led me to Uganda to prepare my heart for a girl in U.

It amazes me that I can still doubt and worry after all He has done.
Not always but it does creep in.

It amazes me that God has prepared the way ahead of us in so many ways.
Our girl even went back to the orphanage with Christian music in Russian.
We pray that if she doesn't know Christ as her Savior that God is working in her heart that she would very soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please pray that God will make a way when there seems to be no way.

Our Big 6 Year Old!

2011-09-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

Giggles
Animated
Verbose
Intriguing

Negotiator

Gavin's Obsessions:

Monster Trucks
Thomas the train and friends
Wii
Cars

Gavin we are so proud of you big boy!
You always amaze us with how you find joy in life despite the challenges you face.
You are intriguing to almost everyone that meets you.
You're new thing is noticing that everyone is looking at you.
You are a star everywhere we go and we are so proud of you for learning to embrace this.

Most importantly this year you have learned to pray and are learning to pray for others.
You sit through family devotions and are part of learning about Jesus.

This year we began a new tradition which I pray will always be a joy for you.
I told you your birth story and you said "say it again",
then "again" and "again" and you wanted me to tell everyone about your story.

We love your story and how God brought you to us
and how God is using you to mold us to be more like Him.

We Love You Gavin
and we pray you continue to grow in faith in Jesus Christ.

Alaska~Part 3~The Grand Finale

2011-08-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

I am sure you are sick of Alaska posts, but I just can't leave it unfinished.
So please bear with me for one more.

We just couldn't be in Alaska and not take the kids on a cruise,
so we headed off to Seward.

The day was perfect and the cruise was amazing.
We saw everything there was to see.

Humpback whales, Orca Whales, Sea Lions, a Sea Otter,
Porpoises and much more.

We had a wonderful time with exception of a bit of sea sickness.

On our way to Kenai we saw this cute little bear cub trying to catch a fish, then little brother and big momma came and told little bear it's time to go, so off they went.

The kids had a super fun time at the park.
The girls quickly became life long friends.

Gavin loved the park!
Who wouldn't love holding a sandy spoon in their mouth and playing in the hot sun?
I mean really sounds like tons of fun to me. :)

For a boy it doesn't get any better than this!

4 Wheelin' with daddy and 2 of his new favorite people.
Gavin loves Danny and David.

We took a nice quiet afternoon and went to a beautiful spot on the beach.
This little cemetery was in the woods near by.
~It is so beautiful~

Kaly in search for shells and beach glass.

We came upon a little stream full of rust.
It was so beautiful!

Oh, Ayla, you have a little mud on your pants.
And a spot on your arm and and and and :)

Free beauty treatments.
Man this reminds me of my mud bath when I was a kid.
Why is it kids love mud so much and most parents hate it?

Buddies!

These girls had so much fun!

Jeromy caught the fishing bug.

We have no pics of Jeromy and Danny's fishing trip, but yes stories they do have.
We should let Danny tell it cause he gets laughing so hard you can't help but get the giggles.

To all of our Alaska friends
We miss you and hope to see you all again soon.
Some of you we didn't get to see this time, but know you are always welcome at our home and next time we are in your neck of the woods, watch out cause your on our list. :)

Alaska part 2 ~

2011-08-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

FIRST STOP~THE POLAR BEARS

After watching the polar bears sleep for awhile we decided to head on to something else, but moments later we heard the crowd begin to stir with excitement. We figured we should head back and see the action. We thoroughly enjoyed watching one of the bears swim around in the pool and later get out and then the two of them had a little fight/play time. These bears are just so amazing and beautiful. So glad we got to see them in action.

A little family photo in front of the Bald Eagle.
We always get excited to see a Bald Eagle flying near by, so this was fun for the kids to see them close up an be able to get an idea of how large they really are.

Zoo photography is not my specialty (not that any photography is) but through the bars is not easy.
I was glad to somehow figure out how to focus on the bird and blur the bars that were between us. I could not repeat this effect but it was fun to get.

The 1st black bear of the trip!

Another of our favorite animals to visit. This "little" guy was having a great time playing with his feet. Oh my, he is cute. Why is it that when they are behind fences and bars I seem to have this crazy notion that they would be fun to go cuddle up with?

Glaciers & Girdwood

Do you see what we saw?

Not just one but 2 hearts melting in the snow!
Maybe Hallmark should use it for a card and say " you melt my heart".

Then we took the kids to one of our favorite walking spots. Just before hitting Portage Glacier there is a little turn off. I think it is called Blue Ice Trail or something to that affect. The water is very blue and it is just surreal. The picture does not even begin to capture how wonderful it is to be there.

So why is glacier ice often blue? I mean truly blue!

So the night of Jeromy's 37th birthday we took him to Double Musky, an old special favorite place. The girls loved it and we had a very nice late dinner. On the way back to our hotel we were showing the kids our old apartment and telling them all about when we lived in Girdwood. I(Stacy) saw something up on the mountain. Jeromy stopped the van and all 5 of us studied the little black spot on the mountain that we were sure was moving. All of a sudden this little guy walked across the road about 25 feet from our van. The black spot on the mountain never moved but we sure had fun watching Mr. Black Bear run under someone's porch then up the steps to the dumpster.

Before we left The Alyeska Hotel the kids had to take one last swim in the salt water pool.

The Hotel we worked at when we lived in Girdwood.

We walked behind the hotel and I told the kids about my days of leading tours back there on those trails. I have no idea why I lead any tours because I knew nothing about the area.

Our first "wild" moose. Ayla spotted a momma and baby off the side of the highway. We doubled back and came out right next to them. They still amaze me at how large they are. They are such odd looking creatures, but I think my all time favorite creature.

Next stop~Wasilla

We have some friends in Wasilla that share our heart for adoption. We love to see how their family continues to grow with special treasures and we had the opportunity to hang out with them for a very short but sweet evening.

With much anticipation we got to meet "Little Man"!
We had to get a pic of this expression.

The kids played Lava Tag and Gavin got to play too. He wheeled around to the bottom of the slides and the kids would jump on and get wheeled to a new location. This way they didn't have to touch the "lava" and they could still get away from the one that was "IT". He had a blast and his services were in high demand.

Gavin and Gavin having a blast "jumping" the big bump.
This was before big Gavin ended up with the chair on top of him. Oops!
Thank God that he didn't get hurt too badly.

It began to rain!

Then POUR!

We had a very abrupt end to our wonderful visit.
We all loaded into the vans soaking wet and said quick good byes.
Hope to see you guys again soon!

I apologize Google Readers

2011-08-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

For some reason my posts keep publishing before I am ready to publish them. I can change it on my blog but it still goes to Google Reader and stays there-before I am ready. So for those of you that use Google Reader please forgive my weird posts and multiple posts.

~ALASKA~ The 1st few days

2011-08-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

We finally had the opportunity to take the older 3 kids to Alaska. It was so fun to show them where we lived 15 years ago when we first got married. Yep, 15! Can't believe how fast it has gone by.

We picked the girls up from camp at 11am and boarded the plane at 3pm. Needless to say they were wiped out the first couple of days, but it worked out great because Jeromy was conquering a mountain and we got to sleep in. Yes, Jeromy thought it would be exciting to run over 24 miles through the mountains. (we need a Jeromy post about this run)

Here is the gang waiting for his arrival to the finish line.

The girls ran in the last little part. He is on a path, but 99.9% of the run was over the mountain, through the river and over the rocks. Everyone had scrapes and mud up to their knees.

A little refreshment and some proud kiddos.

One of the days we were there it poured all day. The rest of the days were mostly very nice.
We spent most of the rainy day at the water park. The kids had a blast!

H2Oasis

Then we hit a few more spots around Anchorage.

What kid can resist "the world's largest chocolate fall"?

Oh my!!!!

A few hours at the museum and our favorite part, the Imaginarium.
There were so many cool things to play with and check out. We could call this an edu-va-cation.

The Bubble Room

A Birthday Prayer!

2011-07-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Sweet girl,

As your birthday comes to a close today we pray a prayer for you.

We pray that this year you will see God work a mighty work in your life, that you will lean on Him and trust in Him as a daddy. We pray that God will work all things together for His glory and that part of His plan will be that you will be able to come live as a wonderful part of our family.

We pray that you will know that you are a treasure to God and that He loves you so much.

God Bless You Sweet Girl!

We beg for your prayers that the paperwork we sent to adopt Our Girl will be sufficient to meet the requirements and that we will be cleared to adopt her. God has worked already in our behalf and we trust he will continue to make a way for this to be possible.

Thank you so much to MamaPoRuski and family, you guys made it possible to get this far!