Hello Saturday

We had nothing but free time on our hands today. We are in Kiev because we have to be at the embassy on Monday for me to sign the I600 because I wont be coming back after court. Then we will head back down to Balta right after our appointment. So today we went to a few outdoor markets and bought a children's book for Inna to have when she gets older and a bunch of veggies for dinner tonight. We found a Domino's pizza and had lunch there along with 3 guys from Egypt! Then on the drive home we stopped and had the car washed. It was pretty dirty after all the driving we did and not all of the roads were paved so the poor car needed a bath. As soon as we walked in Ginea asked if we wanted to eat. They sure do like feeding us here!!! I miss Inna and the kids where she lives but I struggle with all the feelings I have after we drive away. The kids there are so sweet and precious and I worry and wonder about them. I cant even go there right now or I will be bawling again so lets talk about something else.
Our interpol hasn't cleared yet so we are hoping by Monday, Tuesday at the latest they have some news for us.Our facilitator also knows someone on the other end of the interpol once it leaves the SDA so we are working both sides to find it and speed it along to make sure we can have court on Friday. Oh, we got stopped by the police again!!! This time for driving on the white line when pulling out of the gas station. Our facilitator J was in the back seat pretending to be American. The cop wanted Ken to walk back to his car, J kept telling Ken no, stay in the car and tell them that the embassy told you to always stay with your car! The cop was just trying to get money off of us and did not want to do it in the open in front of all of us. Then V started pleading with him to let us go, in English of course, and that we had an appointment in Kiev. The poor cop was getting pretty frustrated with the whole situation and finally let us go. V told us what he was saying to his partner once we started to drive away and she just kept laughing. At one point there were two policemen there saying to each other, what English do you remember from school, try to remember something. To funny! We have been seeing lots of Ukraine that is for sure! It has been a journey of a life time!
The pictures are from Dominos and the deliver bikes, on the way to the orphanage and the kids dressing the dog with sunglasses. The social service building in Balta, A birds eye view of Kiev and Roc and Paul playing the accordion.

Anything but GROUNDHOGS DAY!

We have been busy! We rented a car to make things go faster and smoother and they have. It has also given us the opportunity to have the flexibility to do more things and go more places. We have seen LOTS of Ukraine and it has been fun! Roc had our facilitator watch the movie Dumb & Dumber with her. If you have not seen it beware, its dumb!!! This whole trip we have now been using excerpts from the movie to explain our journey. Like when Roman from childrens services needed a ride. Our facilitator told us that it was on the way back to Kiev so we gave him a ride. 11 hours later after getting to Kiev I showed our facilitator a map and asked her since when is here (where we drove Roman to) on the way to here (Kiev)?????? Dumb & Dumber line: Hey this guy looks like he needs a ride.......PICK HIM UP!! Needless to say we are having a lot of fun. We Skype the kids every chance we get and things are going well at home, thank God!
I wish I could be posting publicly/live but as some of you know that would be taking a risk of having Inna not come home with us. We want to be flying under the radar screen as much as possible. The team of facilitators that we used last year, one particular, does not care for us and he could, would, make life pretty unbearable for us if we let him! He has already warned our facilitator and its just better this way for Inna. I would be able to go on with life with my 10 soon to be 12 kids at home in America if that is how things turned out. But if I started blogging today then Inna's chance at a family would be jeopardized. So we are blogging this way for our Inna to be able to come home with us. Wow, and he says he does it for the children?! Really??? So for now we will continue doing our posts this way and once we are home you can read all about our journey. It has been so fun meeting new people, new friends that live here. We also have met friends of our new friends from other countries that are staying and visiting with this family. What an experience for us and I am glad Roxana is getting to do all of this with us. It will be special memories for her! Okay, I'm off to check my email to see if the embassy has gotten back to us. Pakah!

Same Thing Different Day

We are back in Kiev today, drove in last night around 11. Looked all over for a place to eat but everything closes up around 10. So we just came "home" and luckily had cheese and sandwich meat ready for us as we came through the door. Found out some sad news from home from one of my friends. Her little boy was in a lawn mower accident and is going through quite a lot of surgery's. Poor guy, his name is Blake and is 3 years old. If you could I'm sure they would appreciate some prayers sent their way. We are thinking court will be in a week and then we will come home during the 10 day waiting period. Found out that Inna has 5 older siblings, one who is 10, a brother, that is in foster care here. We don't think that will cause any kind of problem though but one never knows in Ukraine. I found out Jonah has a family coming for him!!! YEAH!!!! I took out my black bag that I carry to the orphanage. I was going to clean it out and bring just enough cloths for our one day trip back to Balta. When I took it out it smelled like the orphanage. It's such a different kind of smell. I don't like it at all!!! We are going to eat and then off on our 4 hour drive back to Balta. We will have a passenger joining us back to Kiev tomorrow (yes we are turning right around once we reach Balta to get some papers to be delivered back in Kiev). It's one of the workers from childrens welfare that needs a lift to somewhere, not sure where yet but he will let us know.

Just A Day In The Life

OMG!!! We woke up bright and early to go get Inna and the orphanage doctor to go into town to get the paperwork needed for court on her health. We drove in and the same few kids come out from God only knows where to greet us before we even get out of our car. Ken went in to meet with the director again and to let the doctor know we were here and ready to drive into town. Roc saw one older boy smoking and pointed it out to me and I thought out loud, I hope that wasn't Kens cigarette that he just threw. I hoped Ken would have put it out in the ashtray! So we see Ken coming out holding Inna and I asked him what he did with his cigarette. He said he stepped on it, why? I said good, I thought that the boys picked it up to smoke it. He started laughing and asked me where did I think the boys got their cigarettes from. I said I didn't know and he then told me that the doctor gave them his when he was done with them!!!!
There is one boy here around 12 or 13 and he had a green type lizard thingy?! He kept trying to stick a leaf in its mouth to eat. Then he started flicking his head to get him to open his mouth. He kept showing it to me and one time put it down on the sidewalk by me to see and hear me scream when the stupid thing would try running away. He thought that was the funniest thing. I wanted him to be more gentle with the poor thing but that was like trying to tell my kids to stop leaving socks outside by the trampoline, it just wasn't going to happen!!! Finally one of the boys who thinks he is "in charge" came and took it from him. This boy walks around like he is so rough and tough and cool.. The kids here have a pecking order with each other. It is a orphanage of about 70 special needs. Some more severe than the others but kids none the less that have no where to fit into society so this is just one place where they are placed. I see them talking to themselves, hitting each other for something to do, throwing rocks or branches at each other. It's sad because they have NOTHING else to do! Some boys and a few, I think 2, girls play soccer. I think they only have 1 ball. Roc has been playing with them on our visits, of course she has!!! The older, cooler, boys ignore her but the younger boys are very talkative with her. Finally when the "cool" boys see how much fun the others are having with her the chime in and give her the thumbs down when she blocks their shot. The dogs here are Unbelievable!!!! I cannot believe none of the kids have gotten bit the way they are handled. The kids are so rough with them! One dog started barking at us so a boy threw a rock at him and he cried. I got angry and said nyet! Inna was going to hit one of the dogs and I grabbed her hand and yelled at her. Showing her and the others that they have to be gentle with them! Inna has listened to me along with the others so far. At least when they see me around they know they better be nice to the dogs! I brought kid sunglasses along for whoever wanted them and they were putting them on the dog! Inna is infatuated with animals! The first day she wanted to show us the puppies. She brought us to a hole with a wood cover on it for shade. She counted three puppies and asked where the others were. She then brought us way out to the field to another hole with wood cover on top. No puppies there. The boy who was afraid to take candy from us the other day was there and explaining to our facilitator that the puppies were moved to where we had just come from. But Inna was demanding to know where the other two puppies where! It shows me a few things about Inna. 1. She knows her math. 2. She is resilient and determined to get what she wants. 3. She cares about animals......the girl is going to LOVE her new home!!!! Lots of four legged kids running around! I had a rough first week here, I am not going to lie. I knew Inna was transferred and I figured it would be to a special needs orphanage but it has been hard!! What happens to these kids?? How can I NOT remember these faces that are imbedded in my mind and heart? I know a lot of parents going through this say the EXACT same thing!! It weighs heavy on my heart. I wasn't prepared for the location we are at either. We are in the middle of nowhere it seems! We wanted something to do after our visit today so we drove to Moldova! Yup, leave it to us to come up with that one! We drove on these horrible, pot holed, down to crushed rock roads. Sometimes when the road would turn into just dirt it seemed to be smoother and wasn't bad, but then parts of the road would appear and we would be back to pot hole city! The roads would sometimes get really narrow too. We came up on the border crossing and asked it we could drive through. She didn't understand us so she called her supervisor. He spoke very little English but wanted to help us. He said he didn't think we could cross the border here but he kept calling on his phone to someone or someones. We kept telling him that it was okay and we could just turn around but he said wait, wait, wait, I'll find out. He saw Roc taking a photo and yelled and shook his finger at her! He repeated himself several times to Roc and we finally told her to put the camera away! He asked us to park until he could find the answer for us and as we were waiting a guy came pulling up with camouflage on. He spoke better English and asked why we wanted to go to Moldova? We/Ken said we just thought it would be kind of fun to step foot in another country as long as we are here. He looked at us funny and said you can visit Moldova, just not at this border. He was very nice to us as all the people here have been. Ken then asked if we could at least take a photo of the "welcome to Ukraine" sign!?! They said sure! haha! To funny! They must think we are nuts! Maybe we are, I don't know? Then about 15 miles outside of Balta a stranded car along with a cop and a few older women were in the street. We stopped and rolled down are window because the cop was kind of motioning us to pull over. He started speaking really fast in Russian and we said nyet, English. He said ENGLISH???? Then he kind of laughed to himself. He said Balta??? We said yes so he just got in our car?!?!?! Ken figured that he wanted a ride to work because his car broke down but Roc and I were like, what the heck is going on here???? After he got out he said "thank you very much" in perfect English!! I bet he practiced that all the way to Balta! The poor guy, what day he was having. His car breaks down on his way to work in the middle of nowhere and the only car for miles is full of Americans who don't speak Ukrainian or Russian!!!! And we thought we were having a rough day!!! hehehehehehe! Roc and I were doing scenes from dumb and dumber all day. Hey, here is a guy that looks like he needs a lift.......pick him up.......Mock Ing, Bird Ing. Okay, you have to watch the movie! Seriously, Roc and I were funny today! Hoping for court next week we shall see how it goes. God only knows!!!
The photos are from today in no particular order. I just downloaded them and they came out this way and at the top of the post. They are from the beautiful countryside and things we saw, the cop leaving are car and the few photos Roc did happen to get at the border!

May 28

Well it has been a few days but we finally have internet connection. What can I say about the lst couple of days that do not bring tears to my eyes and make my heart sad? Well I can say our facilitator is GREAT!!! This is such a different experience from last summer. Our flight in was fine and we stayed in Amsterdam the first night. Never actually walked in Amsterdam and looked around but this time around we did just that. It was fun and interesting. A unique group of people make up the Netherlands and it is really a beautiful place. Then the following morning we were in Kiev met promptly by our facilitator and driver. We are staying with friends of our facilitator. We pay a small amount compared to if we were on our own plus their is always a home cooked meal waiting for us morning, noon and night!!!! We even had accordion music to listen to one evening before Dinner. How cool was that! We took the subway, walked and then found our bus to bring us to the WWII Museum one day which was fun and took most of the day. We decided to rent a car since we did not have to go all the way to Odessa. It was a good thing we did because I have no clue how we would have gotten to the orphanage twice a day without having to buy the actually taxi!!!!!!!! No trollies or reliable buses here!! Our facilitator made a few phone calls and sure enough, she knows someone that knows someone that has a 5 room house and would LOVE for us to stay with them! So once again, home cooked food all day long. Except this time mama got to enjoy the homemade wine they make with every meal if she chooses!!!LOL. We went to the Social Services to talk to some people there first and then came back later in the day to pick one of them up to go to the orphanage with us. The woman who came with us previously worked at the orphanage for 5 years before getting her job at Social Service. She told us a lot about the orphanage since she knew so much about it from working there. It is home to around 70 special needs kids ages 6 to 18. Some of the children are orphans, some are not. The town we are in is called Balta but we still have to drive about 1/2 hour or more to reach the orphanage. There are 3 orphanages in Balta, 2 in town and ours which is out of town.
This post will probably be long because I am going to tell you about where our girl has lived for the past 9 months.
We drove for what seemed like 1 hour on these roads that were full of pot holes like I have never seen before. I'm from Minnesota so I've seen a mean looking pot hole before but seriously, this was ridicules!!!!! Swerving back and fourth from one lane to the other, it was more like an amusement ride of some kind. We saw MANY horse and buggy's as this and walking are the main way of transportation out here in the villages. Then we turned onto a small dirt road that lead to the orphanage. Kids were outside doing different things. Once they saw the lady we were with they remembered here from working there and some of the kids came up to give her a hug and talk with her. She was very kind and really cared about these kids. She talked with them and asked how they were doing. It was a very nice thing to see. Then we went into a big room and people just started coming in to "witness" the first meeting. Our facilitator explained to them that we had met our little girl last year and played with her almost everyday. The head lady at the welfare place did ask us if we knew how special needs she was and how would we be able to take care of her and the three special needs we adopted last year. We told her that even though it does take more time bringing them to doctor or therapy appointments they are just as much or little work as our other kids. No biggie! She seemed okay with that answer. She did have more things in her file that we were not aware of but by no way would that or did that change our minds about her!!! She was ours and we were hers!
The older boys at the orphanage latched onto Ken right away. All the kids who saw us were following us.
There is no fence around this building. All the baby houses seemed to have fences around them. Where the lost boys are has a fence around it. No fence here. I'm not sure why they would need one anyway, there is NO PLACE to go! On the ride there I kept thinking what she must have been thinking driving all this way from the only home she has ever known. Were any other kids with her from her baby house or was it just her on this long journey. I was crying the whole way there on and off. Trying to tell myself its not going to help anyone with me crying! But then I would think of her all by herself and it made me sad and a little guilty that we could not get to her sooner somehow to make this not have had to happen to her. I knew she was scheduled for transfer in September but we just couldn't make it happen until now. Would she remember us? Would she remember Dani, Josh and Artem? There were a total of 6 or 7 people in the room but once our Inna walked in it felt like only her and I were in the room!!! I went down on my knees to make it easier for her and just kept saying her name over and over as I was hugging her. She looked out of sorts kind of, not the little girl I remembered with so much life and zest in her. She didn't remember us but was happy to see someone who obviously knew her. I pulled out the photo book I had from last summer with her playing with us and the kids and you could see in her eyes that it started clicking. She didn't want any other toys at that moment and just wanted to look at the photos. It then hit her, she said, through our facilitator, that she had thought where we were where did we go last year?!?! She really remembered Joshy and one of the caretakers that was in one of the photos from childrens day last year. She then got it. She pointed to me in the photo book and then touched my shoulder and said mama. She did the same for Ken then, pointed him out in the photo book and then touched his shoulder and said papa!!!! She remembered!!!! She doesn't get that she is coming home with us. She askes everyday if we will be back tomorrow. There is no one there that keeps the other kids away while we are visiting with Inna which is really okay with me. All these kids need attention and some loving! Once in a while Inna will get jealous and grab us and sit on our laps to show we are there for her, but that's her right now, its her turn to do that. She has waited far to long for a family and it's her turn now.
The kids are older, like I said, and most have issues. What exactly they are I'm not sure. I think a lot of people would just say its a place where a bunch of misfits live. But it is not that. It is so far from being that. These kids that live here don't see a lot of people. So we are something rare and special that has come through. They follow from a distance and watch. I offered one little boy candy who had been following us with Inna all day. He kept saying nyet every time. He saw the other kids take me up on my offer, but every time I asked he would shy away and said nyet. Finally after about 2 hours there I gave the last box of candy to a boy who took the box quickly to stand by a tree by himself hoping no one else would see he had the candy. They did and they all started going towards him to get some. The boy who would not take candy from me grabbed a few pieces from the boy walk away and started eating them. As he was eating and opening more to eat, he looked at me and said spasibo! If that alone does not change a person forever, I don't know what in life will! A lot of the older kids want so much to be next to us but are scared of us. The littler kids swarms us. One little boy was begging Ken that we should be his mama and papa! How can that one not change you???? Then there was the 12 year old girl who was being picked on another older girl. They both had special needs which were obvious. The way one would repeat things over and over and over and then talk to herself while the other one just laughed and laughed at her and also was talking to herself. It was just sad. So then I grabbed my hand lotion and big body spray out and had ALL the kids that were around come over to get some.....including the one girl who was being picked on. I showed them how good it smells and to rub the lotions all over. They loved it!!!
I needed a little breather so I asked Ken to try to keep their attention while I just walked to the end of the property and back. Well it was like a scene from Monty Python!!!! I would walk and knew they were following because I could here footsteps behind me. So I would stop and turn around and there was a group of about 6, 7 kids all behind a tree. So I would walk some more, stop, turn around and they would stop behind another tree!!! That was the only humor Ken and I got for the day. It was just so obvious I was not going to have any kind of breather/break!!!! So back I went to play and take pictures of the kids so they could see themselves on TV(camera) hehehehe! They loved it.
On the ride back to home I just broke down thinking what will happen to these kids? Why were they here? What would become of the kids that seemed mentally okay but maybe not physically? So many questions, so many thoughts, so many decisions. I just decided to let go and let God! I learned that long ago and now more than ever this is what I needed to do to get through this adoption. Once I get home I will do something to make a difference for these kids left behind! I am trying to connect with the people I need to connect with to make a difference.
After all the adoptions we have done I now know that I need to be doing something that will help all the kids left behind. I can no longer tell myself that I'm to busy or I have done my part. So I have started. Meeting people that will hopefully be able to help me help the kids. We are here for awhile longer and I will definitely be networking finding even more people to help me!

Waiting - May 25

Talk to the kids last night. Actually I stayed up all night searching for info on where we will be traveling to and the orphanage our little one was transferred to. The more I read the harder it was to get to sleep! So needless to say I was awake all night. It is definitely harder this time around because there are so many more kids at home telling me they miss me and when am I coming home and showing me notes and cards they made for me. Ugh, its not even been a week!!! Then I found out that when Lica was mowing she left the gate open. We have a big fenced back yard. Well there are five dogs, my 3 and the 2 brother puppies we bought grandpa from the shelter (another post). So they thought one of the puppies ran away but he was under the deck the whole time. I reminded Lica she has to check the gate so nobody gets out. We will be leaving around 3:00 to head for the region and hopefully get to give our big girl a huge HUG. I will get to wrap my arms around our little somebody that I haven't been able to do for 1 year!!! Cant wait! It wont be so hard saying good bye to the family we are staying with because I'm betting we will be back staying with them while doing embassy stuff!!

2ND DAY & APPT DAY - MAY 23, 2011

Our appointment with the SDA took only about 10 minuites! Nothing like the 2 hour appointment date we had last year. One of the head ladies that works at the SDA was walking in the hall as we were walking into the room to have a seat. She was very excited to see us again as she remembered Roc right away. Remember back in 2008, Ken and Roxana came here to try to hand in our dossier without a facilitator! This women has seen us almost every year for the last four years! She must think we are nuts or something but she gets a huge kick when she sees us again!
We are staying with a family that are good friends of our facilitator and I cannot tell you how kind they have been to us. They have three grown boys and a daughter who is 14 so Roc is in heaven. Their daughter speaks a little English but otherwise the two girls communicate by Google translate. They have been watching movies and funny videos on you-tube.
We found a few things out about our little one that we didn't know but we were not overly surprised by any of the new details. She has been transferred from where we saw her last so it will be interesting to say the least! Roc is out running around with our facilitator who is picking up homework from her daughter that is being sent by bus. We had lunch at TGIF after our appointment and then waited outside for the taxi driver that drove us to the SDA. Why were we waiting for THAT driver?........Roc left the camera in the car. So our facilitator made a call, not promising anything, to see if she could get the camera back. They found the camera but it would take a few hours because he had clients in his cab.
So that was our day today. So far so good. Kids are doing well at home as well. James wanted to know if we were done and coming home tomorrow!! He had a tough time last year with us gone so long. We promised him not this time, not that long!!!

IT'S TIME

Well the time has finally come. Three kids from two different countries are waiting for us to come bring them home! I said I wanted them all home by the end of June and it looks like that is just what is going to happen. Please pray for my kids staying behind. Family and friends holding down the fort while we are gone. And also all my four legged kids who will wonder where I am. It definitely gets harder to travel when we are leaving so many more kids at home! But SO worth it!

iPad Giveaway

Two of the cutest little twins I have ever met live in Eastern Europe, in an orphanage, waiting.
The great news is that they won't have to wait much longer!!! In just 3 weeks and 2 days they will be able to wrap those tiny little arms of theirs around there mama and papa for the first time!
As we all know, the cost of bringing these little ones home is crazy. So for the next 13 days Alex and Ray will be trying to raise some more funds to bring Max and Lena home. Please go check out their blog and read about this sweet family! They are so close and we can all help them with a donation, small or big, to show our support by clicking here. It will be two less orphans in the world and that is what this is all about!

MAX & LENA for the Darrow family–Hutto, TX

Ramon (Ray)and Amber (Alex) have been married 7 years. They are blessed with 3 biological kids. Their oldest Ian is almost 6. He is sensitive, intense and passionate about everything, and loves to take things apart and figure out how they work. Chava is almost 4. She loves gymnastics and taking careful care of her dolls, including regular diaper changes. Micah is almost 2. He loves whatever his older siblings are doing, but most of all he loves trains and helping mommy and daddy in the kitchen by stirring and tasting. Ray works in IT at Dell, Inc. Alex takes good care of the kids at home full time, and also is starting to homeschool Ian.

Ray and Alex were completely surprised when the pieces starting very quickly falling in to place to adopt. Alex had shown Ray a waiting child on RR that had caught her eye, when he surprisingly responded that they could consider adopting. After a week or two of much discussing and dreaming they formally started down the path to grow their family. They have felt a particular affinity to HIV+ kids, and look forward to bringing Max and Lena home where proper nutrition and medical care can make a world of difference in their prognosis.

5/4/11—APPT IS MAY 30

Follow the Darrow family's adoption journey on their blog at http://iveyrock.wordpress.com/

Like to WIN a DRR 300 ATV????

Well.....Remember Irina? This is her with her mama back in February.


You might remember this photo of her!
Anywho, the Allen's are bringing home another beauty. Her name is Addison. A lot of divine intervention has been happening for the Allen's to be able to bring little Addison home!
They have a awesome give away going on right now to help raise the remaining funds needed to bring their newest daughter home. Just click here to read about it.
Even if you can't give anything, please leave an encouraging comment and let them know your prayers are with them.

Something Fun

Casey Wiegand is a freelance artist. She sells the majority of her work through local galleries and her website. She loves doing commissions and loves to share her life through her blog. If you stop by you can expect pieces of her perspective on life, faith, kids, marriage...with touches of art, creative inspiration, projects and things she loves along the way.

Now meet her artwork:

Her paintings are AMAZING...

and you can find TONS of items to fit your style at her shop HERE.

Guess what! Today you will be entering to win a

$25 shop credit for one of her paintings!!!

{What a perfect Mother's Day gift for mama!}

To Enter:

1.Follow Casey Wiegand's INSPIRING blog HERE

2. Like Casey Wiegand's FB page HERE

3. Repost via twitter/blog/or facebook!

4. Follow The Shine Project

4 possible entries!

Share the Love Giveaway

Share the Love Giveaway: Bring Poppy and Esther home!

A wonderful family is working hard to bring home their two daughters from China! They are having a couple of giveaways that have some pretty amazing prizes! Some which include a Ipad 2, Nikon D90, and more! So click right HERE to head over and see all the cool prizes they have.

Want a iPad2 or Other Great Prizes???

There are a few blogs out there where you could win a iPad2. Not only could you win but you would be helping the Davis family who are appealing the judge's ruling to the Supreme Court of Moscow to bring Kirill home. Or the Taylor family bringing Alexander home. Then there is little sweet Tasha/Ember for the Senti family. And lets not forget Brian for the Burger family!
There is one more! Vanya. A little boy with a dream. A dream of a family of his own.
You would be helping these families trying so hard to raise the money to bring their children home!
Please consider helping one or all of these sweet faces get home where they belong!

Help Bring Samantha Home

Fundraiser going on to help bring Samantha home!!!! Check it out here!!! I would wish you good luck but I want to win so good luck to me! LOL!!

Auction for Brian!

Brian is a little boy that is in the same orphanage as Dani, Josh and Artem were at. How CUTE is he????!!!!!! His family is having an auction with some really cool stuff to help bring him home. You should really go check it out and place a bid on one of the items. Just click on the name Brian to do a little shopping and help bring him home!!! As most of you know it is not a lot of fun trying to come up with the money to adopt but SO worth it. Please consider helping the Burger family with a donation.

Things........

The middle of February Ken and I had the chance to go to Chicago for a Project Hopeful conference. I wanted to go to educate myself on the adoption/raising of kids that are HIV+. Not only adopting kids with HIV but HIV in general. We had a free flight, free room and someone to watch the kids! It was really educational and we met A LOT of people and some new friends. Anyone remember this sweet face???

IRINA!!! The Allen family along with other RR families were there and it was so cool to meet them and their sweet, sweet kids! It's funny how you read about these families and then finally get to meet them, in person.
Kiel and Carolyn Twietmeyer along with their kids are wonderful advocates for these kids and I hope some day I could do as great of a job as they do!

It's funny how things happen around here. It all seems to hit at once. The last three weeks we have had the cold/flu going from one person to another. Everyone seemed to get through it fine except Denis. I had made a doctor appointment for him at 4:00 but at 1:00 I rushed him into the clinic. They then sent us straight to the emergency at Children's Hospital. They worked on him trying to get his oxegen up and testing him for what seemed like everything and got him on a IV. After 4 hours they tranfered him to the U of M. They thought it would be better since the U had all his records and more info on his heart. He spent 4 days in the ICU and 2 days in his own little isolation room. After all was said and done he was diagnosed with a viral infection. He is having all his dental work done in the next three weeks and then his heart surgery this summer, which is only a few months away. Ugh, I'm really nervous about it!! He has only gained 1 1/2 pounds since being home, a whole whopping 19lbs! And he will be 5 in 8 days. And yes, he eats like a little piggy so I don't get it?!?! They had a super hero day at the hospital one day and handed out costumes for all the kids and had games and contests. Here is a picture of our little super hero!!


He looks so big because the costume was WAY to big for him so Kaylee laid in right on top of him!! hehehe! Even when is so sick he's SOOOOOO CUTE! Love that boy!
He's feeling much better and back to his normal self.

The Friday we brought Denis home my dad called and said something was wrong with Jack (his dog). So I drove the 2 1/2 hours right away to go see what was happening with my boy Jack! We brought him into the emergency vet at 11 p.m. By 12:30 they diagnosed him with having diabetes and a urinary infection. After getting a dose of insulin and some antibiotics we were on our way. I just knew in my gut that something was wrong though. He slept by me that night like he always does when I'm at his house or he is at mine but by morning he was doing worse. I told my dad that I was bringing him back home with me to my vet. He loves, loves, loves the car and I'm glad I was able to give him his last long car ride with the windows down until Roc and I got to cold and had to put them up! We laid him in my room on a comfy dog bed where he passed within the hour. I loved that dog so much. He was such a good boy! What I wasn't expecting though is that my dad would take it so hard. I mean he was always the one there for me growing up when one of our animals went on to greener pastures. But Jack was my dads buddy, his pal. They went everywhere together! I think it was one of the hardest things I had to do was when I called my dad to tell him I couldn't fix Jack. Ugh, I'm bawling now just thinking about it all. Ken and Roc drove Jack back up to grandpas to bring him home. I did make sure he had a soft dog bed, bone, lawn mower wheel which he loved to chew on and my blanket that has been around the world with me! Ken and dad were none to happy with me because of the bigger frozen hole they had to did because of the big dog bed going with Jack, but oh well!! Love you Jack and I will NEVER EVER forget the joy you brought to me, grandpa and my kids!









Here is some other things going on around here.........

Joshy is having surgery this Thursday. He is having his tonsils out, tubes in his ears, a CT scan, a brain response test and all his dental work done, which is a TON! Poor guy, I'm sure he will not be a happy camper the next few days after.

Arti is doing great! In fact he is running around and around the table as I type this. The boy has energy!

Dani is scheduled to have her first surgery before she starts school in the fall. They are not sure yet if she can see out of the eye where the hemoglobin was pushing on her eye. It has left the skin just hanging unable for her to open it very wide. She is one loud girly!!! In fact out of all the kids, she is defintely the LOUDEST!!! But she is also very, very polite. She says thank you to everything. If you wash her hands, she says thank you. If you buy groceries, she says thank you. If you pick up something off the floor, she says thank you. It is so funny and cute.

Charley will be having another surgery this month too on his ears. He has holes in his ear drums. He always seems to have infections which is causing hearing loss. After the surgery he will have a pick line for us to give him his antibiotics through. He had this after his surgery a few years ago and he did really well with it. Hoping the same is true this time around.

The other kids are doing well and are looking forward to their new siblings! Hopefully by June everyone will be home for good........unless I beg Ken to go back for more! LOL!!!

Jonah

There is a little boy that we met at the orphanage and his name is Jonah. A blogging friend who has such a way with words, is advocating for him. Julia knows first hand the outcome that awaits this little boy if his family does not go get him! Jonah is a quiet little boy. He does what he is told without hesitation....well, unless Roc is in the room. Roc went up to Jonah's room one day while she was exploring the orphanage. Jonah and another little boy were making their beds. Roc saw them and decided that what fun is making a bed when I can chase them!! So she started chasing them around the room. Jonah was laughing and having so much fun! The caretaker was telling him to keep making his bed but of course he was having way to much fun with Roc and chose getting yelled at instead! (mean Roc getting the little kids in trouble!!!) When Roc had to leave she walked out the door and Jonah ran after her. He stopped at the door to look for her but then got yelled at once again by the caretaker. We did notice that since he was more "capable" of doing chores he was expected and did more of them while the other kids were fooling around. We never saw him outside the whole time we were there! Not sure why?!
His spirit is slipping away from the years of not having the luxury of being the little boy he was meant to be!
He is very tiny, smart and a loving little boy and if someone does not chose him for their son, I'm going back for him!!! I love this little boy and he has SO much potential!!! Please search your hearts and see if Jonah is part of your family! If he is not, please donate to help his family go get him!

Who's Idea Was This Anyway???

When we adopted from 2 different regions in Eastern Europe last summer, folks told us it would be hard. But there was no way I could let Denis be transferred. This was they boy that I first was drawn to when finding RR. Who would have thought after seeing his face over 1 year prior he would be home, with us, his family?? Looking back at it though, it all seemed rather easy compared to what craziness we are going through now adopting from two countries!! Its not all the paperwork (done) or running (done), its the wondering how in the world (no pun intended) we will be at 2 places, 2 continents, at once. I'm praying it will all work itself out and we will do one right after the other.
Someone from Ingrid's (our girl in Colombia) orphanage is here in Minnesota and we are meeting up with her on Sunday! I guess her daughter lives here in the Twin Cities and she came up to spend some time with her and her new grandson! Small world! She has a letter and photos for us from Ingrid! Ingrid turned 16 last week but our paperwork was far enough along to stop the clock for her! Thank you God!!!
She just has to wait a little longer before she can come home. We have to go bring our little one home from Eastern Europe first!!!
I'm a little nervous as to what I will see when returning to EE. Our girl was transferred out of the baby house a few months ago. She thought she was going home with us last summer and was SO upset when we left. Who could blame her!?!? Will I ever be able to make it up to her? Oh how I hope so! I can not wait to grab her and hug her and kiss her sweet face!
All the kids are doing well and driving mom crazy.....just like they are supposed to! But how come its mostly mom they drive crazy and not so much tata(dad)???????

Found Searching on The Net

A 3rd Grade Boy's Take On God
This was written by an 8-year-old named Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula Vista , CA . He wrote it for his third grade homework assignment, to 'explain God.' I wonder if any of us could have done as well?


EXPLANATION OF GOD:
'One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.'


'God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.'


'God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.'


'Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista ... At least there aren't any who come to our church.'

'Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God.. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him But he was good and kind, like his father, and he told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.'


'His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road anymore.. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.'


'You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.'

'You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God!


Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach.. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.'


'If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared, in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.'


'But....you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases.


And...that's why I believe in God..'

One At A Time!