Our First Fundraiser

Coming soon....there will be a picture of someone really special!  But you will just have to wait a little bit longer.

I'll be posting about our precious one really really soon!  As a matter of fact, I already have the post written.  I am just waiting on word that it's okay to post about it.  :)  hee hee

In the meantime, we are back to that never ending job of adoption paperwork and fundraising.  You can't really help us with the paperwork, but you can help us with the fundraising!  

  My nieces at last year's River Run for Orphans - Durango, CO

Our family is participating in the River Run for Orphans on Sept 17th, as I mentioned in a previous post.  It is a great organization that is doing alot for orphans around the world.  We are even going to have a table for Reece's Rainbow so we can tell everyone about the awesome things that are happening because of Andrea and the whole Reece's Rainbow family! 

We are so excited about that!!  

Here's my nieces and their friend, at our Reece's Rainbow table last year while we were in Ukraine.  These are some special young ladies who have a heart for helping people!

Anyway, if you would like to sponsor our family in the Run, and help us with our adoption expenses, that would be God-Awesome Amazing!!  :))  Oh and by the way, we have been offered a matching grant up to $5000.  So any amount you give would be doubled!  Isn't that so cool!?!  You can use the Chip In up on the left sidebar of the blog if you would like to help. 

Thanks so much and if you can't give anything (or even if you can), we would love it if you would pray for us.  We are trying hard to get this little one home as quickly as possible, so prayers for the process to be smooth and for us to be able to raise the money we need would be so very much appreciated!!!  

A River Run for Orphans and some news...

We are sooo excited to be able to finally announce this. 

And really, this was a bigger surprise to us than it's gonna be to ya'll.

But that is the way God works, isn't it?

When you are least expecting it....

You get super blessed!!

Well, it's not quite totally official, so I can't share who the precious little one is yet... 

But....(insert drum roll here).....       

We are ADOPTING AGAIN!!!!!! 

Yay!!!  


It's somewhat surreal, cause we weren't really planning on this.  I mean, we just came home with the girls 10 months ago!!   I know, I know... there are those of you out there who adopted last year as well and are already adopting again.  Even some of you that have already been there and back again!! Wow!!!  But we just did not think it was in the plan for our family right now.  Don't get me wrong, I knew we would eventually do it again at some point.  I just didn't think the timing was right now.

But apparently God had other plans!  Things are most definitely happening in His timing, and we would not want it any other way!

Last year at this time we were stressing hard cause our dossier had been submitted for 2 weeks and we still hadn't received our travel date.  We were so anxious to go and the waiting seemed endless... 

But eventually we got there and the time has just flown by ever since we returned home with the girls last October!! 

But anyway, back to today!!  We are waaay excited and cannot wait to share more, but in the meantime, we are trying to raise some initial funds!

Here locally, there is a really cool event called the River Run for Orphans. 

Our church and our family participated in it last year while we were in Ukraine to help raise money for our adoptions of Anna and Victoria. 

We are so very Blessed!!

Like the awesome Reece's Rainbow booth they set up? 

We are doing it again this year!  There is a 5K run and also a 1 mile run/walk (which our whole family will be participating in).  We are trying to find people who would like to sponsor us, and help us raise money for this adoption.  If you are a runner, maybe you would like to run in the 5K part and help gather sponsors for us as well! If you are not local to us and you want to help, just leave me a message and I will get in contact with you.  You can click here to go the official website, or here's a little info as well:

River Run for Orphans

Saturday, Sept. 17

Fort Lewis College

Durango, Colorado

A River of People

Creating Resources for Orphans

      8:30 Registration

     10:00 1 Mile Run/Walk

     10:30 5K Run/Walk

     11:30 Closing Ceremonies

     12:00 Concert

The Reality of Orphans around us:

•Every day 5,760 more children in the world become orphans

•By 2015 it is projected there will be 400 million orphaned children

•HIV/AIDS alone has orphaned 15 million children

•Every 2.2 seconds a child loses a parent somewhere

If you want to know more about the statistics specifically related to orphans with Down syndrome, click here.  Just do it!!  It will blow your mind!

This pic is my sweet nieces and a friend loving on little miss Madalyn last year while we were in Ukraine.  :))

If you would like to help us, please either leave a comment on the blog or you can click on Contact above and send me an email and I will get you all the information you need. 

If you do, you might get a hint at who the special little someone is.  :))

We absolutely just cannot wait to share it!!  So be sure and stay tuned...

Happy Birthday Son!

Four years ago today, we found out you had been born.  The next day, on August 19, 2007 we brought you home from hospital. 

What a beautiful precious boy you were!

Everyone fell in love with you right away.

                      An unexpected blessing.

            A beautiful little boy with a heart of gold.

              Here you are with your cousin McKenna
                            Your first Christmas

                              And at the pool

          We weren't sure it would happen until
                      the very last minute...

      but we were so happy to be celebrating your
                     first birthday with you!!!

                        Christmas with Papa

        Riding Monte...always a favorite thing to do.

                 And then, finally Adoption Day!! 

        Thank you God for the amazing blessings in
                                   our life!              
                    Thank you for our 6th son,
                           Noah Justin James

                What a handsome young man.....

                     who turns 4 years old today!!!

                  Happy Happy Birthday Justin!! 
              We love you to the moon and back!

Uh-oh.  Here it comes...         
  

 Wait...                                           

Aaaaaahh.....

...chooooo!!!

Whew!!!

                                                               

That was a big one!

Okay, I'm good now.

Listening to His Call

This is a part of my blog post from last year, August 16th, 2010.  Just thought I'd share it again.

"When I first found RR, I showed some of the pictures to Mark and told him of the situation that these children were facing. Our hearts were burdened for all these precious babies. We were so moved by what we learned and we knew we needed to do something! I would've jumped in right away to adopt, but I was afraid. Of many things... We also just didn't think an international adoption was an option for us now, or ever.... There were other reasons, too. But God was working on our hearts and after only a couple months, we knew that this was His plan for us and the other stuff didn't matter anymore. He reminded us (me especially), that my fear needed to be replaced with faith in Him. Trusting Him and stepping out of my comfort zone to follow His calling for our family."

And we are so very glad we did! 

"We are thrilled that we have turned what started as a burden in our hearts, into action! And even after this crazy ride of an international adoption comes to a stop, and we have our girls home, we will continue to try to help. We plan to stay a part of this rainbow family and continue to do whatever we can, whatever God calls us to do next! Maybe we'll get to do it again! :) :)"


Here's the original post from last year in case you want to read the whole thing:

http://bringinghomeourgirls.blogspot.com/2010/08/check-out-rr-blog.html

"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

The Many Faces of Anna

Since I did a post on the many faces of Victoria, I figured I needed to do one for Anna, too.  So here goes...

This girl is really funny. She has a very intense and outgoing personality.  She is cute as a bug, can go from happy to mad to sad in a matter of seconds, and everything she is feeling is written all over her face and body. 

She has the most beautiful eyes and she is physically pretty adept at whatever she wants to do.  She was climbing up slides and and cruising months ago, and is now starting to walk. 

She needed orthotics for flat feet, and that is what has slowed her done so far. Now that she has them, I'm sure she will progress much faster. 

 I'm pretty sure she sees herself in her own mind running instead of walking, because she tries to go so fast when she is taking steps and ends up falling down.  Funny girl.

Talk to the hand people.....

Anna's typical look.  This is what she looks like most of the time.

And this too.

Funny face

This is her eating sand face.

And her I don't want to sit still and take pictures look.

Her I'm not impressed look.

Big beautiful brown eyes

More Anna

When we first met Anna, it was very difficult to get a smile out of her.  I don't think she had had alot of reason to smile.  She is also very smart, and was pretty skeptical of who Mark and I were....these 2 strangers who were now visiting and playing with her everyday. 

Just thinking about that, I had to post these pics from the first day we met the girls.  Such sweet memories!

See what I mean about those eyes!!!

And here she is today.

She has changed so much in 9 1/2 months.  We are so very blessed!  We could not imagine our family without our little Anna Boo!