Good News!

I don't know if anyone still checks this (besides my sister - she is very loyal) but thought I would share just in case.  We received and accepted a referral for 3 little girls this week!  I can't give any more details than that right now but they are absolute darlings!  (I have never met them and they aren't officially my children yet so I'm not biased - right?)  Eric and I will make our first trip over there in about a month and then hopefully bring them home sometime in the fall.  The other kids are BEYOND excited and obviously it is all we can think about right now.  I completed and mailed off a huge stack of paperwork today and hopefully will have another stack to mail out tomorrow.  We are furiously trying to scrape together the funds for our next couple of payments so if you are reading this and have some extra cash lying around that you want to throw our way - contact me and I can set you up with a 501-c3 that you could donate to "for us".  Just kidding - kind of.  I hate fundraising!!! The kids also still have puzzle pieces that they are still trying to get sponsored.

Terrorizing the Neighbors aka Halloween

 I realized this year just how much I HATE Halloween!  The actual event itself is fun but it makes my blood boil as I buy hundreds of pieces of chocolate that I don’t even get to eat (880 this year) and rack my brain trying to come with costumes that my 10 year old boys will think are “cool” without being gory, satanic or expensive.   Charity is just as hard – I don’t want my darling daughter to look like a street walker!  Anyway – now that my little rant is over here are a few pics of last night’s romp around the ‘hood.  They had a great time and got enough candy to last for awhile.   I will be sorting through to pull out all the sticky/chewy stuff today – they all have sealants so none of that is allowed – but it looks like they will still have WAY more candy than any kid should eat in 6 months!  

 Let the sugar highs begin….

 

There goes the neighborhood....

Motley Crew

Our Egyptian Prince

Meets his Cleopatra

Every father's nightmare!

 

"Hello ladies."

Our Beautiful Bug

When 900 years you reach, look as good, you will not.

Joseph's (bat) and Jonathan's (cat) pumpkins

Michael's (spider) and Charity's (Larry the Cucumber) pumpkins.

 

Remember - Charity had that green pumpkin.  It never turned orange which she was very happy about so that her "vision" for it could be realized.

Okay – so I always have the best of intentions when it comes to this blog.  When I’m taking pictures I mentally compose entries – I just never seem to get around to actually doing anything with it. 

I commandeered my step-dad’s camera last weekend to grab some pics before our sports seasons were over. 

Michael is in his element every fall.  The kid eats, sleeps, breathes and eats again football.  He was super excited to be on a team again with his favorite coach this year.  

We spent the past three months cheering on the Cardinals and specifically "big" #80.

 

On offense Michael played center - a new position for him.  He did great, had a few bad snaps here and there but enjoyed the position and wasn't afraid of getting creamed by the other team.  He knew his mother had that fear covered.

Defense saw him on the line.  This is where my gentle giant really comes alive.  He is a very sweet kid in general but get the boy in pads and a helmet and he becomes a whole new child.  He LOVES to hit and takes great pride in every tackle credited to him.

Our season ended in a close playoff game on Sunday.  The boys were disappointed but as much as I love winning (and I really love winning) it is kind of a relief to have a little more down time in our calendar.

After two dismal seasons playing football, Joseph decided to give soccer another try this fall.  He loves all sports so we really weren't too concerned about him having a good time.  He is naturally athletic (which I can say in all modesty because he shares no genes with Eric or I) so his biggest challenge is keeping his ego in check (:  

Luckily he had (assistant) Coach Dad to keep him grounded.

The keys to Joseph's game?





1) Focus





2) Hustle





3) Throw in a little fancy footwork for good measure!

So, how did the season go?  Let's just say- the boys had a great time but Coach Don had a full head of hair at the beginning of the season....




Charity's game has always been soccer and she absolutely loves to play it.   

She broke her ankle this summer and had to sit out the first couple of games.  It has taken awhile to come back from her injury but she got 3 goals in the last 2 games and ended the season well.  It’s hard for her to choose her favorite part of the game.  Is it:

The snacks?

  

The medal?

Or the friends?

Whatever the choice - she can't wait until spring soccer starts!

So what does Jonathan do while all these games and practices are going on?  Unfortunately the answer to that is - a whole lot of sitting around and hoping that someone else's sibling will be there to play with.  He has been having some behavior issues and so part of the discipline process has been a fall season devoid of extra activities for him - bummer.

But our little charmer is absolutely impossible not to love :)

At long last I’m posting on my blog – mostly because my cousin guilted me into it. So, here you go Julie.  As we speak I should be packing to go to Ukraine.  Charity and I are leaving on Sunday to go with my neighbor to finish up their adoption.  It should be a good trip and we are all really excited.  Mostly just to get this little girl home to her family – she’s absolutely WONDERFUL and we all love her.  We had a big day in our house today and while nothing will physically change for us – it does change the dynamics in our household a bit.  We moved a year ago out of the little bitty house we were renting:

Into a bigger house to rent.  Today we signed the mortgage/purchase agreement to buy the house we’ve been living in and after 5 or so years – we are homeowners once again.  Pictures are below.  (Thanks to my friend Senda for the pics of the outside – I am blatantly stealing them!)  The house was built in the 1890’s or so and is so much fun.  Like any other old house, there will always be upgrades to do but we really love it and are very excited.

No post would be complete without at least one pic of the kids.  It’s been so long since I posted that I have tons to choose from.  This one is from the Homecoming parade in October.  The older boys were in the parade.  They all have blue hair because their little league football team was the Lions.  

The final picture is of the hand-off of our dossier by our adoption guru at the airport as it made it’s way to Bulgaria with another adoptive couple who was kind enough to hand deliver it. We are officially a waiting family.  And while we anticipate a long wait – we are VERY excited!  “Dear Lord, protect my “babies” until we can get there to bring them home.” 

Merry Christmas!

We ARE still here and I DO intend to post regularly again soon.  In the meantime - Merry Christmas from our whole clan! 

Do you know their mom and dad?

Or are you their mom and dad?  The Ukrainian government maintains a website of waiting children.  Saturday morning Eric was browsing the pictures and ran across one of the boys we know.  He also has an older brother who we spent quite a bit of time with.  We met these boys when we were hanging out at Joseph's orphanage.  They were wonderful boys - sweet, but not too sweet and good, but not too good.  They were fun to hang out with and the older one would come down to spend time in Joseph's room often - the room where his little brother slept.  He appeared to be a good influence on the younger boys and they loved playing with him.  The younger boy is 9 and his older brother is 15 years old - about to age out.  It terrifies me and makes me so sad that this sweet boy/young man is about to be denied the chance at a family.  So here is my plea - help me find these boys a home - FAST!  Please post the link and share it with anyone you know who might be able to help them.  Pray for them and let's get them home.

http://www.sirotstvy.net/ua/child_needs_family/2708.html?pg=31 

Adoption Disruptions....

I didn't intend for this to be my first post after my hiatus but I just got done reading it and thought it made some excellent points (and ranted in a constructive fashion - an art I have yet to master!)

http://minichfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/for-as-long-as-we-all-shall-live.html

Read it.  Ponder it.  Pass it on.

VBS Week

Last week was VBS at our church.  They brought in a BMX/FMX team and had all kinds of stunts each night.  The kickoff was Sunday and it has so HOT outside.  But the blow-ups were fun (our church loves blow-ups) and the tricks were pretty spectacular and hopefully it brought some new faces to our church and ultimately to their Savior.

Jonathan loves the blow-ups too.  He would play in these things 24/7 - even when it's over 90 degrees outside!

Michael loves this human wrecking ball game.  He has surprisingly good balance and didn't get beat by the 3 girls that were playing against him!

Best friends and best neighbors!

I DID NOT need anyone giving Joseph any more ideas on how to inflict bodily harm on himself (but they were super cool)!

Family fun at Summer FX - did I mention it was really hot!

"Puzzling" news...aka "Every Piece Counts"

So my darling children want to do something to help raise money to bring home their next siblings.  They have talked about a lemonade stand and an ice-cream stand.  I said no to both of those because - let's face it, I'm going to have to do most of the work and will probably watch them literally eat up all the profits.  Not too long after one of these discussions I noticed Charity and Joseph standing out by the street trying to sell their "artwork" as a fundraiser.  It simultaneously made me laugh out loud and touched/broke my heart.  They want to DO something!  That same day I was reading a new blog and saw a fundraiser that her kids were doing - I knew it was one my kids would LOVE and was something they could actually do and that hasn't been done by every adopting family we know.  So, today I ordered a 500 piece puzzle by my favorite artist.  The kids will get "sponsors" for each of the 500 pieces.  We will then write the name of the "sponsor" on the back of the puzzle piece.  The goal is for them to be able to see 500 people give a little bit (minimum of $1) to help them meet their goal.  500 people who will have a part in something bigger than themselves.  We will eventually frame the puzzle with glass on both sides so that our family - and especially the new ones will have that reminder of God's faithfulness and the kindness of our friends and family (after the adoption is over - since framing isn't cheap and one of the main goals is for them to raise some money :)!  I love this for many reasons but also because most kids can scrounge up a dollar or two and so I won't care when they hit up their friends to be a "sponsor".   This should be fun!

This will be the finished product:

July is gone :(

Which means school is just around the corner (7 days to be exact - booo!)  The kids got their "teacher" letters in the mail this week and we bought school supplies last Monday so I guess technically we are ready to go back - that being said, I'm never ready to go back. I'll drown my back to school blues by reliving some of the fun from this summer!

The 3 older kids spent a week at camp in the middle of July.  They were placed in "family" groups for the week.  They had a great week learning all about the Creation and having their lives touched by the missionary from Haiti.  (I don't have any pics of Charity yet but I'm sure she looked just as "campy" as the girls in this group!)

 Joseph loves mini-golf....

Especially when he sinks his putt!

I'm not sure what the deal with the bandanna's was but they wore them all week apparently, and have continued to sport them at home every now and then!

While the kids were at camp, I was here:

With them:

This isn't the most flattering picture of all of us but riding the bikes was one of our favorite parts of the trip so...it makes the blog!  It was a great week with some great friends and proof that we all married great men who allowed/urged us to go.

The day after we all got back it was time once again for the county fair.  

Tell me this isn't the quintessential 4-H kid picture!  On the way to the fair!

 Okay, this one is pretty good too!

Joseph and his bff - these two are so stinkin cute.  They passed the football ALL WEEK outside of the dairy barn.  Kind of annoying to people trying to pass through but it was nice for the moms - we knew exactly where to find them!

 Not a great picture but it's the only one I've got right now - and he did SUCH a good job showing his pig.  It sounds silly to those who haven't done it but it takes a lot of work to do it right.  He surprised us all with how well he did.  He really loved it and had a great time!

One of the best parts of the fair is hanging out with our cousins.  Charity is in the white shirt - I'm not sure what these crazies were discussing but my guess is - if we could implement it - it would CHANGE THE WORLD!

This might be my favorite picture of the week - Michael and Alida giving pep talks to their "girls" before going in the ring.

The week pretty much revolved around Michael but this proves that the others were all there supporting him and having a grand ol' time in the process.

It was a great couple of weeks.  VBS was last week - pics to come but for now I'm off to sleep - hoping for a fun day tomorrow and maybe a spare half hour to post some more.  I DO miss you lovely little blog.

Oh- quick what's cooking (I always forget):

We had baked potato bar tonight with homemade buttermilk biscuits.  Not sure why we were carbo-loading but boy was it good!!!