Pictures of Y and I

A big thanks again to everyone who helped us bring Y and I home just in time for Christmas! Many have sent emails checking on us and we really appreciate it. The first few months were a big period of adjustment (which is why I completely neglected this blog!) but we're happy to report that overall everything is going great! I've been meaning to start blogging again and post some updates but I just never made it to that task on my to-do list. Posting about Adeye's adoption fundraiser was a great opportunity to just jump back in and I look forward to being an active blogger in the adoption community. :-)

First let's just start with the most requested item...pictures! Below are pictures of Y and I taken about a month ago:

Check out this GREAT adoption fundraiser!

Adeye is at it again! She's doing all that she can to advocate for a sweet child who desperately needs a family. Wow, did she ever put together an amazing fundraiser! She is trying to raise as much as possible to cover the adoption expenses for Vanya (isn't he adorable!?!).



Many in the adoption community have come together to donate over 100 awesome prizes! Although, this sweet face is really all the incentive we need to try to help Vanya find a loving family and home.

So please click on over to Adeye's blog right now and make a donation in ANY amount. Then help spread the word on Facebook, Twitter or a blog. Vanya's family is out there somewhere and just a small effort on your part could be life-changing for this little boy.

HOME!!!!

After many more unforeseen obstacles we passed court on November 29th and I returned home with the children on December 23rd!!! What an amazing blessing to be home for Christmas :-) I'll post pictures later...once things are a little less chaotic and the holidays are over ;-)

Merry Christmas!!

We Have a Court Date!!!

Okay, so last week I had been working on a long post updating everyone on everything the past few weeks but got sidetracked. Then my sister had a baby (a boy!) on Sunday but developed life-threatening complications on Tuesday. Thankfully, she seems to be doing better, but please keep her in your prayers!!

So I still haven't gotten around to finishing up that post. But...we got the call today with our court date!!!!!! I don't want to give too many details here on the web, but soon we'll go to court and God willing Ivan and Yana will legally be ours :-) We'll have to return shortly for the third trip to pick them up. I *think* we will have our Christmas miracle yet!

There are so many details to work out! Those of you who have adopted know what I'm talking about. Plus this comes during the busiest time of the year-Christmas, but also the best time of the year. :-) It's not too early to put up my tree, right? I need to start crossing things off of this massive to-do list.

God also showed off in a big way by arranging it so that our friends from church (adopting two children from the same orphanage) have a court date at the same time. This is a huge blessing! Not only will we have friends to travel with, but then just I will go back to Russia to bring the children home with one of the other parents. It saves us money and will be so much easier on our children at home if at least my husband is still here with them. We are so thankful that this detail has worked out this way!

Again, I'll still try to update more later. Thanks so much to EVERYONE for helping us get to this point. A month ago this really seemed impossible! Please pray that all of the details work out wonderfully. Also, the finances are still an issue so please pray for this aspect (for our family and our friends).

Blessings,

And the winner is....

...Melissa Mambort!!!!

Melissa is a friend from church. She has had a difficult couple of weeks too. First someone stole her wallet out of her pack on her wheelchair. Then her computer died. I think the Random Number Generator at Random.org picked the perfect person to win the iPad!

We really didn't know what to expect with this fundraiser. We thought maybe we'd raise a few hundred dollars. Well with 230 wonderful people participating we raised $7565.18!!!! We are so grateful and really thanks is NOT a strong enough word!!!!

I have so much more that I want to say, but I'll save that for another post later today :-)

We pray that everyone is blessed for their generosity!

Blessings,

LAST DAY TO ENTER!!!!

All I can say is WOW! As of 8:30 AM on Friday, October 15th we've raised $6098.18 with this iPad raffle!!!! (the widget doesn't reflect cash or check donations) We have 167 entries so far-still great odds to win! When we decided to raffle off this iPad we certainly didn't know what to expect. We've have been thrilled with the response and support we have received! Oh, and the comments, notes, and well-wishes...all I can see is that it has truly been love poured out! So many of them have brought tears to my eyes. I plan on printing them all out and will save them for I and Y :-)

In just over 24 hours we'll be using a random number generator to draw the winner of the new iPad. Saturday is also a big day at our church. It is our MADD, INC event (Make A Difference Day, In the Name of Christ) where hundreds of our church members will be participating in many, many different types of service projects in our community. I think it's quite fitting that on Make A Difference Day we'll be drawing the name of one of the 167+ people who have made a big difference in our life!

Thanks again for helping us to bring our children home. :-)

iPad Raffle Details: Make a donation in any amount and your name will be entered in the drawing for a new iPad. We will draw the winner at 9 AM Saturday, October 16th. Donations can be made by paypal account or credit/debit card through this Chipin Widget.



"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12

Blessings,




If you'd like to read more about the story behind the "Pay it Forward" Ransom iPad then check out this post and this one.

$5199.27!!!

As of 9:45 PM on Wednesday, October 13th we've raised $5199.27 with 137 entries in our iPad Raffle :-) Why isn't the total a whole number? Because yesterday our nieces and nephews came over with the money from their piggy banks! How awesome is that!?! These kids want their cousins home and they mean business. They aren't just waiting around for the adults to change the world; they're starting right now on their own :-)

Guess what the friendly FedEx guy is bringing me tomorrow morning (well I don't know for sure that he'll be friendly but I'll be too excited to notice otherwise!)? Our FBI clearances!! This is the first of two big obstacles standing in the way of our Christmas miracle. Two weeks ago it looked like they wouldn't come until the beginning of November and then it would be too late to get a court date before the Russian court system closes down for their winter break. Having our children home for Christmas was impossible and this was one big reason why. There was nothing I could do about it. It was in God's hands and he decided to "show me" because I had started telling people it was impossible that it would come in time. Now...it'll be here in the morning!

So that leaves the second BIG and little obstacle...raising the rest of the money to finish this thing! It's BIG because raising another $22,800 sounds rather unheard of. Then again so was coming up with the $47,000 we've already raised/earned. Nothing is too big for God! This could also be considered a little obstacle because it could be overcome by many little donations. We don't need people to donate thousands of dollars (although I'm not stopping anyone if they feel moved to do so ;-). If people kept spreading the word and many people donated $20, $10, or even $5 we could still have the money raised by this weekend (which is pretty much when we need it to still bring the children home by Christmas).

We're so grateful for everything that has been done on our behalf already! We've also loved the kind comments and encouraging words. Prayer is very important to us and we could really use all we can get. There is a big mountain in front of us, but thankfully we serve a God who is in the mountain-moving business! :-)

Raffle Details: Simply make a donation in any amount and your name will be entered to win the new iPad. Donations can be made with a paypal account or a credit/debit card through the ChipIn widget below. We'll draw the winners name the morning of Saturday, October 16th!




Blessings,



If you'd like to read more about our adoption story and how we won this iPad then check out this post. :-)