Mother's Day and A 1st Birthday!

This weekend is going to be a little bittersweet.  Sunday we will celebrate Mother's Day, I am blessed to be the mom/mum to 3 beautiful little girls. They are each unique in their own ways, and I treasure each one of them. My sweet big girl Kyah, who is sensitive and caring and keeps telling me how she can't wait til we go and get her baby brother. MyCrazy JoJo, who keeps me on my toes, she is wild and crazy, but has a huge heart! She is so snuggly and sweet, and she too is excited for baby Jaxon to share her room. And our sweet Ava...our little ray of sunshine. She is getting spunky, and turning into a toddler! She keeps us all smiling and laughing, she is quite the comedian.

We also celebrate our mothers. My mum who taught me how to be the mother that I am. I am so thankful for a mum that showed me love, taught me how to be responsible, and to care for others. I love you Mum!!

And thankyou Tammy For raising a son who has turned out to be a pretty great husband. We love you and are so thankful for you!!

As for Birthdays...

My 3 girls all have end of year birthdays...our family finishes out the year with a bang.

Kyah in September, Ava in October, Joey in November, then Savannah and I in December.

So who's birthday is in May?
Well my beautiful niece just turned 2...she has her very own holiday, Cinco de MAYA. ;) haha (at least we like to call it that) Maya is a little miracle!

AND...

Hopefully soon Maya will share her birthday month with her precious boy cousin...

Jaxon is turning ONE!

So this weekend/week (I can't be specific with dates on here) we will celebrate Mother's day, and Jaxon's 1st Birthday. We will make cupcakes, and share them with others, we will celebrate his precious life, knowing that for him it may just be another day without a mommy, or a daddy...or siblings...or cousins to share your birthday month with.

When Kyah turned one we had a celebration with family and friends...when savannah turned one, we had a Winter ONEderland celebration with family and friends, when Ava turned one we had a whole lot to celebrate!! Her Birth, and also My recovery...we celebrate these milestones, and make memories for a lifetime.

This first birthday for Jaxon sadly will be spent apart...

But Lord-willing, with the Lord's help and all of your help and support...we can celebrate together next year.

It's tough to think about him being so far away and us not being able to celebrate with him, show him love, and that he is celebrated, it just breaks my mommy heart to pieces!


I have calculated our immediate financial need to get our dossier submitted, by hopefully the first week of June (if the Home study is complete)  and in order to do this we will need about $5,000.

It will cost about $600- $800 to have all the documents apostilled.
Sending in our USCIS forms will cost about $890
FBI fingerprinting fees are $18 each, plus the cost of then posting them in the mail to get apostilled, apostille fees, and shipping back.
Sipping fees for our Dossier are going to be up there too.
Our Agency Fee to be sent when we submit our dossier will be $3500.

So as you can see, we're it's crunch time.

Our FSP stands at $150, and our Chip In is currently at $35 RED, and $194, for our puzzle fundraiser BLUE.  Our personal savings are depleting fast with all the up front costs.

Please pray with us, and consider donating $20 for Jaxon's Birthday. If all our friends just donated this small amount it would add up fast! The best birthday gift he could receive this year is coming home to his family!

I can't offer any material prizes, or incentives right now...other than the joy of knowing you helped an orphan gain a family...

Thank you all for your support, be it prayer, financial, or moral support. We appreciate it all! God has got us this far, without having to use any raised funds...now we need your help.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you wonderful mothers out there.

We will spend the day with our church family, at the park, the girls can't wait to make birthday cupcakes for Jaxon to share with our church family!

Keep Looking Up!

The Process

A lot of people ask the same questions when it comes to our adoption, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to give kind of an overview of what we will be doing, and our needs.

To adopt from the Country and region that we are adopting from the cost is roughly $40,000. You will see the total being raised on the side bar is only 35,000, that is due to us paying up front costs with savings etc. So we are trying to raise the rest. (and will still be adding to it as we go)

It also requires THREE trips. International travel is pretty expensive right now, so that contributes quite a bit to the costs.

Right now we are working on our home study, we are getting all the paperwork completed for that by this friday, we will then have our individual interviews, and the social worker will write up the home study.

We will then be preparing a ton of other paperwork for our Dossier. We have to have 4 sets total. The first and second set have a lot of the same things, the 3rd set is only a few papers, and the fourth set is one document.

We will be compiling our first set, which consists of medicals, marriage license, a whole bunch of forms signed with different agreements to have post placement visits, agree to what kind of child, etc. There are lost of forms, also a set of family pictures, fingerprints, the list goes on. This set will be completed, notarized, and then apostilled by the secretary of state. Which costs about $20 per page. (yikes!!) There are about 45 pages in the first set.

Once we have that set sent off to the country it will be translated, (another fee) and go through the channels there that will eventually get us a travel date. Our first trip is expected to be about a week long, and this is where we meet the child, begin visits, and sign the papers saying we want to adopt said child.

We then come home and send off our second set, (or if we can we will get it done with the first, since a lot of the documents are the same) we then wait for a court date. This is usually 2-3 months after the first trip, but we are hopefully if we can get the second set of papers done closely to the first that it will not be too long for a court date. The second trip is also expected to be about a week long (flight costs again, in country stay, driver fees, food etc) This is when we go to court before the judge and "plead our case" the judge decides whether or not we get to adopt the child, if it's a yes, the child is officially ours, name changes etc take place.

After the court trip there is a mandatory 30 day waiting period, after the 30 days we can go back, and get our boy. We have considered staying for the 30 days, but it would be too hard to leave the girls for that long. Also one parent may travel alone for the 3rd trip. Joey would prefer he go, instead of me by myself. I would love to go since I want to be there to bring him home. But we will see how the Lord provides. My staying would save money, and that is crucial!

SO there you have it...a big long crazy process, with a lot of bumps in the road. It will be so worth it, once we can get him home. Please pray with us, for the Lord to provide the funds we need, and for the process to go quickly and smoothly.

Keep Looking Up!

Find A Family Friday - Keegan and Juliette

I am planning on starting a new weekly post. Find A Family Fridays. These posts will include one or two children that are still in need of families to adopt them.

Keep in mind that there are ALWAYS ways you can help, even if you cannot adopt. You can advocate for these little sweeties, you can share them with others, you can donate to their funds.

You can look up the families that are already committed to bringing children home, we all appreciate any help bringing our children home.

You never know who may see these children and feel called to go get them, maybe YOU will be the one to show someone their future child?

First up I want to tell you about Keegan.

This little sweetheart is only 15 months old... He will be transferred to an ADULT mental institution if nobody comes for him. Normally this would happen when he is 4-5 years old. THIS IS URGENT!! If nobody comes for him, NOW, he will be transferred. This is imminent. His Baby house/orphanage is closing! 

Here is Ava at about 15 months old...

At 15 months, Ava had a family to love her... she could play with her big sisters. She was celebrating a big sisters birthday with a huge family gathering. She has been the center of attention for many people, she had cousins to love her, and play with. She had life! 

Imagine how Keegan would thrive with a family to love him. A mommy to cheer him on and help him learn, to nurture him, and comfort him. A Daddy to go places with, to learn those fun guy things with, to look up to. Maybe brothers and sisters to play with, cousins to visit, grandparents to dote on him. The possibilities are endless...

BUT, if nobody commits to bring him home...his life will look entirely different. This is hard to think about, but it MUST be done. We cannot look away from these needs to protect our own feelings. He needs our help. He will be put in an INSTITUTION! With grown men. There they will all sit, waiting out their days...sitting in their own filth...he may live for years in this miserable place, staring at blank walls, listening to the moans of others, no love or attention, no comfort... Or he may not survive long...the conditions may be so harsh that his little body just cannot handle it for long. This Truly is a LIFE OR DEATH situation!  

Please help us get the word out about Keegan, if you can donate that will help whoever commits to him, if not PLEASE share him with all your fb friends, twitter, email etc. EVERYWHERE! There has got to be someone out there willing to go get this precious little boy and save his life! The most important thing to do is get him out there, raise awareness for his plight. and PRAY PRAY PRAY...that somebody will come forward for him. 

He is weighing SO heavy on my heart, it just about breaks me to think of what could happen if nobody goes. I want to go get him myself, but we are already committed to Jaxon. If nobody were to go get Jaxon he will face the same fate in a few years. Who's to say Jaxon's baby house couldn't have the same thing happen..  

What if it were Ava...you saw the pictures above. WHAT IF...Ava was born in Eastern Europe...would you go get her? Would you help her all you could...? It pains me to think of the things that she would suffer, all because of that extra chromosome. My sweet sweet girl, would be left in a crib, she wouldn't have opportunity to thrive like she has. Oh the things that a loving family can do for a child. Please share this need. 

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE (said of course in the infomercial voice!) More you say...havn't you said enough, haven't you shown us enough sadness for one day, isn't that about all we can handle? 

I have to say no. There is also a sweet sweet girl weighing heavy on my heart. I just spoke of what it might be like for Ava had she been born elsewhere... let's take a look at this picture...

Meet Juliette...

Does she not look JUST like a grown up Ava!! 

Imagine for a second the scenario I painted for keegan's imminent future if no one rescues him. Now picture sweet Juliette there... she is closer to this future then we'd like to think. She is about 8-9 months older than Ava...That means she is just over two years old... 

Still young enough to experience the amazing changes and love that a family can give, young enough to hopefully not remember any bad things from her little life so far. BUT, if nobody goes for her, she has less than two years before facing the institution. 

I want to go for her SO bad! It's almost like she's ours, she looks SO much like Ava...

If she is still waiting after Jaxon is home, I would seriously consider going to get her. But I am PRAYING hard, that somebody sees her, her mommy and daddy...That somebody goes and gets her, as soon as they can! Please will you share her too. 

You can get to their pages with their information by clicking their pictures. 

Will you pray with me?

Instead of turning away, instead of saying, I can't afford to help financially, would you pray. It is FREE! it can do wonders! Would you take the next 30 days and pray for Keegan? Would you pray for Juliette? Pray that they find families! Just once a day, it won't even take more than 5 minutes of your time. Pray for  them, that God will watch over them, and that families will come forward for them. 

Will YOU take the 30 day challenge with me? 

Don't forget to pray for Jaxon too. 

Keep Looking Up!