Thank You!

Ken sent out an email to some of his coworkers the other day that asked for donations in helping us raise funds for our adoption.  It was a very hard thing for him to do because he HATES asking for help......for anything!  I told him what Andrea, the director of RR, had told me.  If you don’t ask, you won’t get help.  People may not even know what you are doing and that you may need some help.  You may just find that once they know, they will help!  The worst thing that could happen is no one would help.  Well as you can see by our family sponsorship page, they helped!  It is very humbling, to say the least, that people would be so generous in helping us bring these two kids home! I don’t think there is a way for us to find out the specific people who donated, so please accept this HUGE THANK YOU from us to everyone that donated money to Dania and Josh!  You will know what you did when Ken brings them into work for you to meet.  You will see it in their eyes that they finally have a family and are truly loved!

Again, you will never know what your generosity means to us and thank you so much!! 

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!!!

I will leave you with some meaningful words from my one of my favorite parts of a Christmas show we watch every year!

Isn't There Anyone Who Knows What 

Christmas is All About? 

The best explanation I ever heard was the one Linus gave to Charlie Brown...

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them,

Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

LUKE 2:8-14

Guess what we did???

So from the 8th of December until the 14th we have all been sick!!  And when I say All and Sick, that's what I mean.  Poor Charley started it and Ken finished it.  The only one not hit was James.  I kept him home for a few days hoping he wouldn't spread the nasty germ to his class mates.  I wanted to keep him home one more day but he was begging me to go back to school.  I think he was sick of being around sick people!!

On the 7th though is when you have to guess what Roxana and I did.  I will even give you some picture hints to help you. Hint 1:  Wee hours in the morning.  You can see Roc in the white coat with her two thumbs up!

Okay, hint 2:  We got inside where it was warm and a bomb sniffing dog went all around.

Still need more clues???

Okay, Clue 3: 

Yup, we stood in line to meet former Governor Sarah Palin and of course the First Dude.  Roxana was so excited to meet and talk with her it was crazy.  If you dont know us, you can say we are a pretty political family.  I read another families blog who is adopting through RR who met Ms. Palin also and blogged about it.  Man oh man the comments she received.  So whoever out there that doesnt like Palin or anything she stands for, you can just stop reading now.  We here at the Fritz Farm LOVE her and pretty much everything she stands for.  Of course the first thing Roc told her was that her grandpa loved her.  She got a big kick out of that!  While Roc was talking with Sarah that left me to talk to who else but Todd!  Not a problem for me!!  Roc and Grandpa were kidding me telling me that they think he may be married.  I just said, oh you mean that lady sitting next to him!  hehehe!  Hey, what happens and the Mall of America stays at the Mall of America!

All kidding aside, they were very nice to us and we even got to meet her aunt Katie and Trig!  He is sooooo cute!    Oh, and Roc was in the Star Tribune because someone their interviewed her. 

Crowds cheer as Palin arrives for book-signing: [Star Tribune, Minneapolis]

"I just really think she's inspirational," said Roxana Fritz, of Cottage Grove. The 14-year-old, who came to the mall with her mother, said she thinks Palin would be a great president -- she'd keep taxes low, drive down the national debt and do military policy right, Fritz said. "She would do a lot to help this country."

I don't think anyone was more proud of her than her grandpa!!  We had to go buy a paper for him so he could show anyone that stops by!  To Funny!!!

It was a very long morning, but we met some really fun people and got three books signed.   One for Roc, one for grandpa's Christmas present and one for our blog auction.  So if you want one be sure to check back in February for our auction!

Our Girl in Colombia

I don't know if you remember me talking about a 14 yr old girl in Colombia that we are trying to bring home.  A lot of problems are preventing us in doing so but we still consider her to be part of our family!  Anyway, she was going to be celebrating her 15th birthday along with 2 other girls.  Your 15th birthday is a big thing and they make a huge celebration out of it.  I'm glad she is in an orphanage that really takes care of these girls and gives them much opportunity to do the things one would do if they had a family.  She wanted us to fly there to celebrate with her and the other girls but unfortunately that was not an option for us!!!!  We told her we would send her a dress and shoes for the occasion and my search was on!  We found a 255.00 prom dress marked down to 40 bucks at Davids Bridal!!!  I had to do some minor repair work on the beads by sewing some back on tighter and then added a few here and there but all in all turned out great!  We just sent the dress, shoes and a note telling her to have FUN and that she was LOVED!!!
We just received this email from her letting us know how thankful she was and how happy it made her that we loved her enough to do this for her and that she loved and missed us!
What  a small price to pay to make someone feel truly loved and wanted!!!  One day she will be home!
What a BEAUTY, dont ya think?!?!?!

$1 challenge!!!!

Here's a comment I just received:

I’m holding a $1 challenge over at www.findingkirilsfamily.blogspot.com, on the countdown to Christmas. Kiril is a little boy with significant special needs who has been waiting on Reece’s Rainbow for a long time, and has been bedridden in an institution for over 6 months now. My goal is to get as many people as possible to come and donate just ONE dollar to Kiril’s RR grant, and then pass this message on to just ONE other person of their choice.

Apart from people I know well, I’m contacting 50 people whose circumstances I’m not as familiar with - so if you’re in the middle of an adoption etc, I obviously don’t expect you to donate. But *please* pass along this message, whether you can give yourself or not.

Thank you and Merry Christmas!
- Christine

I know that we are in the middle of an adoption that is costing us plenty!  And I know that we are asking for any donation amount to help us bring these two little ones home.  But if you could find it in your hearts to just give 1 dollar for Kiril that would be great!!!  Think of it,  if we all gave only 1 dollar it just may help Kiril find his forever family!!!        Thanks

James, Jerlin and Charley

James, who is now 7, knew what he wanted and wanted it badly!  Once they told him a family was coming for him he would go in every day to the orphanage office and say, "You told me my family was coming, where are they?"  The night before we got to Colombia they took the kids to where we would all be staying and James wasn't about to leave.  He said he was going to stay and wait for us to get there.  About a week after having the kids with us we went to visit the orphanage to say good bye.  James walked in to this quite hallway and yelled, "Hey chiquitinas (the name of the orphanage) Im here to visit!"  then looked at me and said that he used to live here but no more.  He left that life and has never looked back.  He looks at it as a place he was staying until his mom and dad came to bring him home.  He talkes of all the kids fighting there and of the food they got to eat at lunch time and of the kids that he lived with, that he was not very fond of. Once he was with us he was ours and we were his.  James is the most compasionate, loving little boy.  He loves our animals and is so gentel with them.  He sees a dog running on the side of the road and wonders if he is hungery!  A boy after my own heart!!!  He also loves to help tata in the garage to fix anything and everything.  He has a passion for life.  He wants to try everything there is to try.  Even with food.  He saw some black olives at one of our get togethers with friends and asked what they were.  He wanted to try them to see if he liked them.  He popped one in his mouth, tasted and tasted it.  thought about it for a little bit and decided that no, he didnt like them.  But he tried it!  Pretty good for a 7yr old if I do say so myself.  I would say without a doubt that his adjustment was the easiest!

Jerlin on the other hand was a different story.  She is now 6 and wasnt to sure of us.  Out of all the kids she was defentaly the one who took the longest to bond.  She cried every night when going to bed for about 3 weeks.  She didnt really want much to do with us.  So it made having her brothers and sisters there a huge blessing!  Even the foods we made she wasnt to sure of.  It was everything about the change that made her unsure of what was going on.  Now, one year later, things are much different.  She loves, loves, loves the attention she gets from mama and tata and her older sisters!  She is relizing that she is not going anywhere and that we are ALL a family.....forever.  And she knows that we will all be there for her through good and bad, no matter what.  She loves to show off and I would say her two favorite things are dancing and talking!!!!

Charley did not talk or smile or laugh at the orphanage and they told us this.  He has had ear infections his whole life and because of that has some hearing loss.  He has already had one surgery and is going to have another next year.  He tested positive for TB so he was on meds for 9 months.  Now that he is done with the TB meds and the ear meds he has finally started growing and gaining weight.  3 inches and 5 pounds in just the last 2 monts!  We have seen the biggest change in this little one.  He talks ALL THE TIME (even though we have a hard time understanding him), laughs, giggles and is one happy little camper!  His 2 favorite things are to take little play bugs and spiders and scare the heck out of mom and her friends!  And the other favorite thing that I think is so cute is that he has to dress like tata.  A blue flannel jacket every day like tatas and he has to wear a tie to church, just like tata!

They are all your typical little kids and love to taddle on each other.  Or when you ask who did it they all point to one of the other kids.  They love bath time, supper at the table together so they can all talk at once, playing outside on the trampoline and going to grandpas so they can have pie and ice cream for breakfast!!!!