Mama Musings.....

It's a rainy dreary day here in southeast Texas. I went to buy a used stroller today I found on craigslist that I can use for Leonid aka Grayson and Kaeden or Savannah. I already had a double stroller but the back seat is small for a bigger kid so I bought a side by side double jogger. I figure with three little ones 4 years old and under I'll get lots of use out of it! Now I just need to sell my original double stroller and the matching carseat! Anyone know of somebosy who needs a double stroller? I still have a single travel system for sale too that my friend Danielle donated to us to sell! On the adoption front things are moving along, I got my background check back today so I'll be emailing it to our home study worker then mailing the actual certified one to her on Monday. We are trying to beat the winter shut down even though we know its almost impossible that we will but just in case we are trying. If we make it we could bring the kids home late Dec or early Jan. If we dont make it at least our stuff will be ready to go when the country opens up again in February to start issuing appointments. Either way its scary because everytime we hear from our missionary friend who sees Masha she tells us how much Masha wants to be here with us, and poor Leonid is stuck in a crib basically all day with very little attention given to him. As I type Kaeden and Savannah are playing on the floor next to me and Ashlyn is at a movie with my parents. Jared is out dropping off fliers for our upcoming poker tournament fundraiser. When he gets home I will be emailing all our local news stations to ask about doing a short story featuring us hoping for more exposure and donations! We have already paid for our home study and our commitment fees to Reece's Rainbow and have enough in our savings account and paypal to pay for the paperwork fees associated with submitting your dossier and getting it ready. Now the scary part is what we need...the facilitation fees $13,000; travel expenses(flights, apartment in country, driver in country, meals in country etc etc) and misc paperwork expenses and money for donations and gifts in country. So at least $25,000 is what we need, and need fast. Anyone want to buy some hair bows or soaps that I make?! How about baby clothes I have for the yard sale?! The money aspect is so scary and stressful you should see my skin...I'm breaking out so bad right now:( but we know it's going to happen in God's time not ours I'm just having issues giving it over to him! He knows our hearts and our needs and will provide for our kids to be home and loved forever.

We have a tax deductible grant fund now!!!

So we finally were listed on Reece's Rainbow today!!! Now we have a tax deductible grant fund that people can make donations to for our adoption expenses of these two adorable kids!!! Do you see that cute little blonde haired guy? His name on Reece's Rainbow is Leonid, no its not his real name I know his real name but we are not allowed to post it online. Thats our son!!! He is 3 almost 4 and has Spina Bifida, in an orphanage where he is he is stuck in a crib all day with minimal care. He needs to get home so he can be seen by doctors and have therapy so one day maybe he can walk! Masha our sweet girl is 13 and needs to be here with us helping her grow into adulthood and showing her how it feels to be loved and cared for. We are so anxious to get to their country to see them again and then bring them home to America. Our home study is in progress now and we will be starting on our dossier as soon as possible, along with all the paperwork we are fundraising for their adoption fees. Since we just completed a domestic adoption in August and another one in January of 2011 our saving are completely empty. We have sliced our budget and have been selling things around the house we dont need but we still need help to bring our kids home. Any donation you make to our account through Reece's Rainbow is tax deductible, I cant figure out how to link it to my blog but I will! lol You can go to www.reecesrainbow.org and search Williams or Leonid to find our grant and read a little blurb about our family there!

Paper Pregnancy is a real thing....

For those who have never had a physical pregnancy let me just tell you not all pregnancies are created equal, the same goes for paper pregnancies! My actually pregnancy was a hard one, I had morning sickness all day and night for a few months and even lost weight in the early months. Then Ashlyn got bigger she would kick me so hard I would yell out loud in pain and the last few weeks I could barely walk it hurt so bad. I was tiny back then and she was pretty big, the first and second trimester my doctor thought I was going to have to have a c-section at about 36 weeks because my uterus was extremely small...but I carried her to 39 weeks and delivered all 8lbs 3oz of her naturally! My two other paper pregnancies have been super easy too, we were chosen very quickly by birth moms very quickly after our home studies and both times they were due very soon after choosing us. This time is completely different on so many levels I cannot even begin to describe it. I am so emotional and hormonal its crazy. I tear up several times a day at everything! Thiking of my two kids overseas waiting...tears, a family is traveling to go meet their kids...tears, a family is struggling to fundraise...tears, Savannah stands up by herself w/o support...tears, Kaeden speaks in 5 word sentences...tears ok you get the idea!!! Well I cried in the social security office today because they would not let me apply for one for Savannah. I took her shot record and her adoption decree just like I did with Kaeden and they said I needed a birth certificate. Well I dont have it yet, it may be several months before I do. Whats the big deal? We need a birth certificate or social security number for her to finish our home study for the adoption. That and our background checks are all our social worker needs so of course this is delaying me getting to my children who need to be home. I just felt defeated and depressed so I cried. Other adoptive parents will understand me about this and the nightmare that accompanies home studies and dossiers, they really are ridiculously crazy.I just want to get all the paperwork done so I can focus on saving money and fundraising to complete our family. We still are not on new commitments on Reece's Rainbow so I still cant announce who our new son is yet but hopefully soon:) We have a 31 fundraiser starting October 1st and a yard sale planned for October 5th and 6th, a car wash Im trying to put together for the 13th and a poker tournament that night so I'm just trying to focus on what I can control and do to move things along in this process and attempting to give the rest to God. I'm not very good at that though! I'm a worrier by nature. As I am sitting here I am looking at a picture of Ashlyn and Masha from this summer at the beach and I know all of this will be worth it when they are home!

Crafting news

I did a craft/yard sale today at a local church. I thought it was going to be a good mixture of the two...well pretty much it was a yard sale! Most people shopping at yard sales are not interested in paying for crafts even though mine are inexpensive crafts! I did sell about half of my hair bows, a few glycerin soaps and bath bombs and a few bottle cap necklaces. We also had a big banner on the front of the table with the kids we are adopting photos and a short story about them. We had about $50 in donations and I handed out lots of papers with our blog address on it and a short intro about the kids and adoption. As of right now we are pretty much just waiting on our background checks to come in and a few other things so our social worker can finish our home study. I'll be sending her the last few papers needed except for the background checks this week. I wish there was a way to move faster but unfortunately there isn't. Even though I know we are actually moving pretty fast it feels like a snails pace when you know your two children are thousands of miles away from you. As soon as I am done writing this I am writing a letter to our girl that will be delivered to her next week telling her we are trying to get there as fast as we possibly can but unfortunately it will be awhile, she does not understand that we have to go through this long process! In the mean time we have an AVON fundraiser going on now, a 31 fundraiser that will be starting soon, another yard sale planned and a poker tournament we are working on! In between all that still doing our everyday normal stuff that comes with having three kids in the house and I'm in the matron of honor in a wedding that is in December so as you can imagine its just a little crazy here!!! Hopefully this week we will be listed on the new commitments section of Reece's Rainbow and we can publicly announce who the secind child we are adopting is!

Arrivals

Today my friend Nancy is flying home to Houston with her new daughter from Eastern Europe! Its not the same country we are adopting from but its one of their neighbors, her precious 3 year old has been in an orphanage since she was a few weeks old because in her native country and many eastern european countries it is not socially acceptable to have a child with special needs. They believe the state can take better care of them in an orphanage than in a family, now this is not always the reason a child is placed in an orphange. Sometimes they actually are true orphans and not just social orphans, sometimes the child has medical needs the family cannot afford and they are hoping another family will step forward to adopt their child who can provide for those needs. The reasons dont matter what does matter is that a super cute little girl who happens to have an extra chromosome is coming home today to join her family! I feel honored to get to be there and witness their first few moments as a whole family! It makes me teary eyed just thinking about it and looking to the future when I will fly home with our two new kiddos and be greeted at the same airport I am going to today by friends and family! Speaking of we need some extra prayers, we have a paperwork issue that has come up and we need it resolved now. I cant say what it is right now but just pray for our process!!! Thanks, I'm off to get dressed and get the babies dressed to head to the airport!!!

Teething babies are no fun!!!

Savannah is teething right now and having a tough time, its her her top two front teeth! You can see them under her swollen gums but they are not quite through yet. She is drooling and very grumpy and chewing on everything, including human fingers. I am trying to write some things for the adoption paperwork and its kinda hard to concentrate with her sitting next to me on the floor whining and sucking on her bib. I gave her teething tablets and her teething toys but shes just flat out mad now! She has a bit of a diva mentality! Thankfully Kaeden is at Mothers day out today for a few hours other wise he would be crying too! When one cries they both do, this is when its nice having a 9 year old to help out!!! Anyway in adoption news I am going to have my fingerprints done today for my background checks and we are having our paperwork for Reece's Rainbow notarized tomorrow and I will be sending them a check for our commitment fees for our boy! Soon after they receive everything we will be able to officially announce who he is and show his adorable face!!! I am doing a craft show at a local church this weekend so in between everything else I have been making soaps, hair bows, magnets, necklaces, bath bombs and other tihngs. Jared and Ashlyn have been using the scroll saw and making halloween and Christmas yard signs and decorations so hopefully we can sell a lot to help with our next set of fees coming up!!! I am also having an AVON party both online and here at our house as a fundraiser so if you need any AVON remember Christmas is coming up I can give you the link to the online party!!!

Giveaway results!!!

We had the drawing last night for the fishing trip and cash prizes, we used www.random.org to generate and fair and random draw. First prize went to AUT solutions, second prize went to Jeff Nerat and third went to Lyndsey Smith. Congrats everyone and thank you so very much for helping us get closer to our kiddos! We had our home study visit yesterday, it went very well. She is hoping we can have everything done to turn in for approval by November. The country we are adopting from shuts downs doing adoptions during the winter months of mid Nov-Jan. Masha of course is wanting us to come get her as soon as possible and the boy we hope to be our son has medical needs that can only be taken care of here in the US and he is about to turn 4. In most orphanages that is when they are transferred to an institution. Sometimes its just for older children but many times it is an aduly mental institution for ages 4-??? Since he cannot walk he will be put in his crib and left all day everyday. We are really praying we can get all this done fast and raise the money we need to travel as soon as possible. We need close to $20,000 fast, it sounds impossible to me but I am only human I just keep praying to God for a miracle. The faster we get both our kids home the better.

I have good news......

I have really awesome news...but I cant really share it yet!!! Sorry, but I can tell you that we found a little boy we want to adopt also who is in the same region of the country where our girl is. He is currently listed on Reece's Rainbow and thats all I can tell you right now! We are filling out all the required paperwork to be able to officially commit to him on the website and have a family sponsorship program grant set up that people can make tax deductible donations to for us to use for our adoption fees! He is very cute and we are excited about adding two kids to our family and completing it. I think 5 is enough kids for us, besides any more and I would need a van and Im not wanting to do that! Our home study visit is Saturday and them the next Saturday I am doing a craft show at a local church and that Sunday I am having an Avon party that my friend will be donating the proceeds to. So if you need avon please let me know!!!

Auctions and heartaches

http://m.facebook.com/williams.a.page?id=100004329241834&_rdr#!/events/190787547720025?__user=100004329241834 This is our auction on Facebook it ends today at ^pm central and lots of items have no bids...anyway we went to see Savannah's birth family today for the first time since she was released from the hospital after her birth. We have a private facebook page that I put pictures and updates on of her but today was the first time they have seen her in person. It was great being able to share our little chunky monkey with other people who think shes as great as we do! She enjoyed being passed around and being the center of attention for two hours, shes now passed out in her crib exhausted from her big day! On a sad note I saw a friends sad news on facebook today, she has just returned home from Eastern Europe with three kiddos they adopted and are having medical issues with one, he was near death from malnutrition and has suffered horrible physical abuse and starvation where he was. It really hurts my heart thinking of all the kids over there being mistreated because they weren't born "perfect" in fact as I read her posts about him it makes me tear up, his picture from a year ago he looked healthy and happy...the pictures now are a very sad thing to see. You see he was transferred in the last year or so from the baby house to older child orphanage for special needs kids. It is not a good place, there are kids there now who are in worse shape than this boy that have a family working desperately to get to them but they need money NOW. It just hurts me, not sure what else to say but I wish everyone could see what I have seen and hear the things I have about these kids. They are kids, kids for Gods sake that just need love.

First garage sale update

We had our first garage sale this weekend and it was pretty successful! Friday it was soooo hot, I was literally dripping sweat, I think the humidity here was at 200% seriously! We asked for things to sell from friends and had a few people respond and give us stuff, I am so very thankful to everyone who gave us things every dollar puts us that much closer to getting our girl home! The total for both days was just under $800, Saturday we did not do as well due to two things...the rain and the city of Alvin. On Friday I got a written warning from a police officer for putting out signs. Apparently they have a new ordinance that you can only have one sign and it has to be in your yard!!! We had the sale at Jared's cousin Candy's house because it is on a very busy street and it is right off the main highway through town, since her house is on a corner we got to put out two signs one on each road frontage but still it wasnt near as visible as it was Friday. I still have several large baby items left and will be continuing to beg for donations of things to sell so we can do another one in October. Between the garage sale, selling things around the house, consigning kids clothes and monetary donations we have enough money to pay for the start of our home study and the fees for some of the paperwork we will have to order and have appostilled. We still have the giveway going on that has three prizes for a $10 entry. The grand prize is a guided fishing trip in Galveston Bay for 3, second prize is $100 cash and third prize is $50 cash. You can also enter for free by sharing our blog on your facebook page or blog, you must comment and tell me where you shared it to be entered either here or on my facebook page! I also have an online auction on facebook now through the 8th of this month!!! I am hoping to hear from our girl soon, we sent a letter to her last week via a missionary that visits her orphanage so I am very anxiously checking my email to see if she has responded!!! Anyway we are doing tons of things to try to raise the necessary funds as quickly as we can we also are trying to make decorative yard signs for Halloween and Christmas as a way to make some money! We are almost done with the prototypes so stay tuned for pictures!!!