A set of twins? boy and girl?

Well, we are continuing to keep busy as we wait for 'the' call from our agency for two little boys that are waiting for a home. We are praying and waiting to hear that two little boys are available to be adopted to us. I had said to Diester last Monday evening~~"Wouldn't in be something if we got a call from our adoption agency tomorrow?" just hoping and speculating~~ Well, we did get a call from our adoption agency the next day, and our case manager had a question for us. The question of the day was: "There is a set of twins, a boy and girl that were born in July 2007, that are available for adoption, and our connection in Krasnoyarsk wanted me (the case mgr.) to verally call you and ask if you and Mark were interested in them. Would you be interested in this set of twins?" She went on to explain that we would be required to update our homestudy, and also resubmit our CIS (customs and immigration services)paperwork. Well, Diester was not home at the time, so I asked her if I could call her back. So, I got off of the phone and the girls and I started praying that we would do God's will. So, then the emotional roller coaster started for me. Wouldn't it be sweet to have a boy and girl? Twins at that? How would the sleeping arrangement work in our house? etc. etc. etc. Well, Diester got home, and was working out in the garage. I just couldn't stand it any longer (waiting for Diester to come in), so I went out in the freezing cold and explained the situation to him. Men handle things so much differently than women. He looks at me, and says, tell her no, we want boys. So much for my excitement of the possibilities. As I write this, please know that I actually had much peace when he told me that, and I am thankful that I have a decisive husband. I would have forever been wondering if we should have waited for two boys. God is good! That's the latest update~~God did hear me when I said 'wouldn't it be something if we got a call from our adoption agency'. The call that we got was confirmation that our paperwork is definitely in Krasnoyarsk. They know we exist, and they know we are looking for 2 boys. What a blessing~~YEA! It is still going to be until after the first of the year when we hear from them is what our case manager said, which is okay. The roller coaster ride was over after a short time, but there is peace knowing we are still waiting for 2 little boys, and there is another family that will be thankful that we declined this offer. BIG SMILE! ! !

Yard Sale's Over and the Remains are cleaned up~~

In light of the things I had to get rid of after redoing some rooms in the house, we decided at the last minute to have a yard sale. I say last minute because some time opened up for us, and we decided to try to make the best of it. I let some friends know that we were working on this to put any monies made toward our adoption, and boy, did we get some wonderful donations. We were open at 9:00 am on Friday morning, and then our plan was to finish on Saturday. Well, Friday turned out to be a blessing with making close to $500 in just the one day alone. (see pix) Praise be to the Lord, from whom all blessing flow! Then, on Saturday, when we woke up, it was raining. Not only did it rain for hours; but every last one of our yard sale signs (beautiful though they were~made with cardboard) came off of the sticks holding them up. So, we decided at 11:00 in the morning Saturday that it just wasn't worth the effort to try to do anything else, but to pack it up. When we opened our garage and started working towards that end, a few people did trickle in, and would look in the midst of us putting things in boxes, etc. We ended up making another $60 on Saturday between 11:00 and 1:00. What a blessing it turned out to be! We now have another $550 in our adoption fund to help with miscellaneous fees, etc. that come up here and there~~ All of this was made possible only with the donations that were so graciously donated to help us out. On our own, we might have made $50 -$60, but what a difference it makes when others pitch in. And. . . to top it off, a lady I know whose son just went through chemotherapy and radiation after having a tumor removed from the back of his head is using everything that we did not sell to go towards a yard sale they are having on September 16 & 17 to help with the outstanding bills they have from his treatments. So, for all of you who donated, please know that you are doubly blessing others! ! ! She came and got her van loaded up today for the second and final trip of items that she got from us. YEAH! ! ! Now we can have our garage space back~~OH, Diester just told me HE can have HIS garage space back~~~:-)

The Finished Living room! YEAH!

Well, here it is! The finished living room. I tried to do an 'old world' faux finish on the top part. I am happy with it, but there are definitely sections where it is obvious that I was still learning the technique. We are all enjoying it! Diester is going to hang another pix for me on the foyer wall, and then we are pretty much done. Oh, except for getting a shade for the windows! Gotta get on that!

Working While we Wait

Well, life has been busy here while we wait. I guess you could say we are gearing up. We were blessed with Diester working lots of overtime the first 1/2 of the year. We have been doing a ton of things around here, and also getting our house ready to add two little boys. The extra money has certainly been a blessing. The girls and I just finished school at the end of June, which opened up our time for many other things. That has been nice! Diester went this a.m. with a friend, and picked up the meat from an Angus cow. We got a 3/16 portion! What a blessing that will be to have! We have just finished repainting/decorating the living room~~which took FORRRRR EVER! I am going to post some pix. (Okay, only 5 pix per blog I guess, so the next blog will have the finished look.) I am really happy with it, but is was a ton of work. Glad to be done upstairs anyway! We also replaced that lattice on the back of our deck; and Diester rebuilt a bench we had that was falling apart, and it is as strong as can be. I stained a swing that we have on our patio downstairs. We have been having our downstairs family room turned into a smaller family room, and a small bedroom for Hannah. (A HUGE Thank you! ! ! to John Parker~aka our remodeler!) So, now we are starting to paint on that. She designed it, and has a HUGE closet~~bigger than any of us have in the rest of the house. It will hold everything basically as there is no room for dressers, etc. in this small bedroom. So, we got a great set of closet organizer shelving that Diester and I are in the middle of piecing together. It will be really nice once we get it in there. And, it will fit perfectly I think. God really worked that out, because we did not check the closet organizers out until after she had planned her bedroom, and the size of the closet, and it was already built. WOW! Seriously! I think Diester was surprised at how nicely it will fit too! So, she has painted her closet lavender. Next, come the baseboards. Then we will get the shelving in, and start on painting that actual bedroom portion down there. She is getting excited! What else is going on? Oh, we have about 60 tomato plants in 3 different gardens. We have sunflowers, lima beans, basil, green beans (which we need to go and pick), brussel sprouts, broccoli (if that lives) Um, what else??? I am trying to keep my flowers from dying. Oh, and we have started planting herbs. I just bought a little spearmint plant today. We can put that in our tea! ! We also have comfrey (which makes a good salve and is a healing herb), and we have lavender and yarrow! Mallory also has a little flower garden, but hasn't been too happy with it. Only the zinnias are really thriving. We have a friend (she is actually Mallory's friend and is 13 yo) who is in the hospital right now recovering from a resection surgery of her intestines. Part of her intestine started to die from Crohn's Disease. A couple of months ago, she had surgery and ended up with an ileastomy, so that they could hope to do a resectioning surgery after that. After waiting for about 2 months, they just took out about a 12 inch section of her intestine that was not functioning, and she is recovering from that. It sounds really simple to type it up, but really it has been quite intensive major surgery. She is at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and they have been great. She has been a real trooper, and I don't think in the many times that we have visited, I have ever heard her complain or whine about anything. She has counted on the Lord for her sustanance, and He has provided. What a good example! Anyway, a couple of reasons that I note this. We have spent a considerable amount of time there since Mallory and her are such good friends. And, that squirt, she told us before she went into the hospital this time that the best part of her stay the last time was when the girls visited. WOW! That was sooo nice! So, we have to go over now! ! ! (tongue in cheek-we love her and are excited to visit her) We do try to take things to do to pass the time. Mallory took her guitar yesterday, and we sang worship songs. What a precious time it was. She was actually pretty well knocked out with pain meds, but she enjoyed it all the same. Her mom and dad were singing along with us. It was quite special! Um, what else? Hannah enjoyed her trip to Florida to stay with a friend and her family down there. They went to the beach, St. Augustine's, and boated; but the thing she and the rest of the family seem to enjoy the most is: ta da: reading. They spent hours reading. Hannah told us that one time every last kid was reading in the car when they were headed someplace. They spent 2 hours in Barnes and Noble, and she read 3 books while in Florida. Now that is her type of vacation! She loves to read! Now I have nothing against reading. It makes my heart happy that she likes it sooooo much, but I had to let her know when she got back that we do more than reading around our house. hehe Vacation was over! Quite the party pooper I am, huh? Besides that, Mallory has been really 'Johnny on the spot' making dinners when I am in the middle of working on the living room. Hannah is also learning to make dinners for the family. Her specialty is more of the sweet items that I will allow in the house. :-) It is neat to be able to count on them to prepare entire meals. We have also been blessed with some wonderful neighbors in our back yard. They are great people whom we have grown to love quickly. You could say we have a ton in common, such as homeschooling, being Christians, natural healing, and eating healthy, etc. I will admit that I believe the Lord has brought them here. We even just got a gate for free(off of Freecycle~~love that when it works) that the guys went and picked up so that we could put it between our yards to make it easier to get from our yard to theirs, and visa versa. Hannah loves kids, and they have 2 little ones that Hannah is really enjoying! Great babysitting opportunities for the girls! What a blessing! I don't want to forget what a blessing the girl's 'adopted Grandpa' has been to them, and our family. He has one of our gardens in his back yard, and helps us along with that. We enjoy having him for dinner, spending time with him, and just visiting. Since the girls have no grandpa anymore, they have just loved him being in their lives, as well as Diester and I. We enjoyed lunch out with him at Red Lobster (one of my favorites) just last Sunday! That has also been a blessing! So our summer has included many of these things along with keeping up on just the normal household stuff. As you can see our lives are full. We are not sitting on our thumbs while we wait for our boys. We pray for them every night, and think about them often. I hope you are keeping them in your prayers too! Thank you! I know this is a long post. It has been a while since I have written anything, so I figured now is a good catch up time.

While we wait!

Well, today we got Hannah's passport in the mail. Yesterday we got Mallory's passport in the mail. YEAH! ! ! So, that is one more thing taken care of in this process of going to Russia~~We are excited! I am also in the middle of reading a book about adoption called 20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed and it is really informative for helping to prepare for adoption, and the emotions that go along with dealing with adopted children. The way I see it, it is very similar to things we learned when we chose to go through a parenting class. How to relate to your children, how to deal with grief, etc. A wide range of things. It has been a blessing to read. Also, I want to post a picture of our girls who have both now gotten their braces off. This is what a total of $8800 in braces looks like. I personally think they look beautiful! I'm not partial at all, huh? . . . as we wait!

What do I say about today?

I want to say "FINALLY"! or title this post "It's about time!" or "It's finally real!", but you know, those post titles are yet to be. 'It' hasn't happened yet. We haven't heard about the boys, or which boys we could get, or gotten the 'referral', or heard anything specific. The waiting continues, or maybe I should say, the waiting just started. We found out today from our case manager, Anya, that we are finally registered in Russia as of today. Okay, well in my mind I think that took quite a long time. But we are new to the adoption scene, and don't have a clue what truly to expect, so we have to take it as it comes. It is nice to know that we are finally registered. We are now on file over there officially, and the waiting begins! Praise be to the Father! I am glad our waiting has a beginning. I keep hearing it will be 6-12 months, so we have to get more focused on the little nitty gritty details of being prepared (as if we could ever be prepared for this really). ~~~~~~Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! Psalm 46:10 ~~~~~~~~

We're taking them with us! ! !

The girls, that is! ! ! Diester and I have decided to take the girls with us to Russia. YEA! ! ! I am sooooo excited! ! To have them with us, the experience of a trip to Russia, getting to meet their brothers! Doesn't that sound great? There were many issues to consider, but at this point, we need to start getting them ready to go~~passports, immigration issues, etc. OOPS~~ now we just need to convince our case manager at our adoption agency. Waiting to hear back from them!

In the midst~~

Well, as most of you have heard by now, a little boy that was adopted only last September from Russia by an American woman was put on a plane by himself and returned to Russia. Tomorrow, he turns 8 years old~~how sad that this has happened to him! Being abandoned twice~~I couldn't imagine the heartache! So, the Russian gov't is leaning toward considering stopping the adoptions to America. If people were truly in control, I might be fearful, sad, depressed, and hopeless. But, I know that my God is in control, and He knew beforehand that this precious little child of His would be abandoned, just as He has known abandonment also. The news is bad~~a little boy being abandoned! ! The atrocity of it! ! However, God is in control. We are instructed in God's word to be thankful in all situations, and I was telling God that I was thankful to Him in this situation, in spite of the repurcussions that could take place, and prevent our adoption. I wanted to make sure that I didn't let the evil one bring doom on my thoughts. It is a bit hard to always trust well~~the flesh can bring us down, and so Sunday in church as we were in quiet time, I was really struggling with this whole situation. God brought a reminder to me. John 14:1 says "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I am so thankful for His word in my life. Diester and I are believing. We know God showed us that He would protect us through this, and we are believing Him. Praise God! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~Adoptions do work, and bring children to their 'forever family'. We are believing God!

Praise the Lord!

So maybe it is a similar title to what other posts I will have are going to be titled. However, I cannot help but praise the Lord. We had sent our paperwork off last Tuesday, and it was received at our agency on Thursday. We were told that it would be reviewed either Friday or Monday. We didn't hear anything on Friday, so I was hopeful that we would for sure hear something today. We did our normal school routine today, worked out, family bible study, and then after some schoolwork, had lunch together. As were were drying dishes, I said to Hannah, I wonder if Anya has had a chance to check our dossier. I walked directly over to the computer and clicked on our e-mail. There is sat~~from Anya-- "Dossier review!" as the subject in the e-mail. Wow, the timing! So, I opened it up, and anxiously awaited the response to find out if everything was there. This is how Anya started her e-mail to us~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear Michelle and Mark, I reviewed your dossier this morning. I haven’t seen a perfect dossier in a little while. All your documents are perfect ! Great job ! All your documents look great. Thank you for your hard work on getting them done~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thank you Father for guiding us in this process. Now it is getting sent off to Russia today! ! ! WOOHOO! Can you say "Thank you God!"? I can't wait until Diester comes home today to share the good news with him. It is so exciting to be at this point in the adoption process. I have nothing else to say!

Our registration paperwork has been sent!

Next step~~I guess~~in the process. I took the paperwork to the P.O. yesterday, and we are tracking the package. It should be to our agency in NC tomorrow sometime, or so we are hoping. They need to make sure everything is a go, and then forward it to Russia. Okay, so we found out that our immigration approval paperwork is already in Russia; our homestudy is apparently already in Russia; our visa approval for the children is in Russia, and now (I'm thinking we did it kind of backwards, you could say) the registration should get to Russia. I don't know what else is needed there except time. Time to get the information to the region we are looking to adopt from. Time for them to search for the 2 boys for us in the age range we are looking for. Time for them to process everything they do in Russia, and then we should be sent a referral. It is nerve racking, but God is good, and as hard as I anticipate this waiting to be, there are so many things that we have to be thankful for. So, another step completed, and moving forward with preparing for traveling once we get the referrals. Thank you God that you have provided for us so far!

NCFA training finished. . .

This may not be a big deal to you, BUT we are totally excited to be finished with our NCFA training, and having read the Adoption Parenting book, and having that test out of the way is a blessing. Thank you Lord! Another step closer. . .

We got it! We got it!

Today as I spent time with the mothers at our homeschool co-op sharing our prayer requests, I did note that I would like to get our USCIS approval paperwork soon. I am just so anxious to get our paperwork moving to Russia. We (the moms and I) prayed about that together, and then as I got into the car with the girls to go home, I said, "Wouldn't that be neat if the immigration paperwork were in the mail today?" (According to the timeline we had been given, it would take until the end of the month, or mid-March.) So, we came home, and the mail hasn't arrived yet. No big deal. Then I had to leave @ 4:45 and didn't get home until 7:30 for a brief moment, before heading out the door again. But before we left the house, Hannah came to me, and said, "You'll never guess what we got in the mail today!" I had totally forgotten about the mail. But, I knew what it was~~I was believing God sent them today. Yes, it was the USCIS immigration paperwork. Praise God! ! ! What excitement and joy filled my heart to know we are that much closer to getting our boys! I can't wait~~ We have also joined a Yahoo group for people adopting/having adopted from Krasnoyarsk, our new region in Russia. We have heard so many good reports about the baby homes there. It is very encouraging! So, as they say, we will get our paperwork there, and then we will wait. It's hurry up, and wait! Hurry up, and wait! So we are in the hurry up mode now, getting the rest of the paperwork together!! YEAH! I love pressure. hehe I work better in pressure mode. I don't think Diester likes it though.

Practical ~~Practical

Well, here we are into the month of February, and do I have any new news about the adoption? Well, no! But I have to say that we did get a really nice additon to our home a couple of days ago. It is probably obvious with the picture I have posted that the 'addition' is not a living breathing being, but a few pieces of dead wood. I do think the 'dead' wood has been made very good use of. It was used for the new~~ta da~~table and chairs set that we have gotten recently. It is a table that can sit up to 10 people (maybe a bit on the snug side), but COZY! ! ! and we can actually keep our food on the table with our plates, drink cups, etc. instead of having to find a place elsewhere for our food, or leaving it on the stove to go back to if we wanted more. Diester now has a captain's chair to sit in, which he enjoys, and I am happy for him. And we have now eaten a time or two together at the table. ~~Funny story~~I decided to make a special breakfast the morning after we got our table/chairs set up. I wanted our first meal together at the table to be something nice. Well, I am making breakfast (pancakes with our normal eggs) and Diester gets home at around 8:10, and I invite him to eat with us [sidenote-normally he does not eat right before he goes to bed after working all night]. He is happy to join us. Well, we sit down to eat, and Diester says a blessing over our new table/chairs, and the food; AND the tow truck shows up for our van (we had a brake line go out on us the night before), so he had to leave the table and go take care of that. Then he got back, sits down to start eating, and immediately Mallory and I had to leave at 8:30 for a Dr's appt for her at 8:50. Talk about a crazy morning. So much for enjoying our first meal together! ! ! What happened there? Anyway, we are blessed to be prepared with a bigger table we can all sit at to welcome and share meals with our little guys once we get them back here. God is so good! We are bringing the table to life with our living~~

A little bump in the Road~~

I think we are starting to experience some of the bumps in the road. Oh, I don't want to come across as complaining, but it was difficult when we found out Monday that the Novosibirsk region we are supposed to be going to for our boys is moving really slowly processing adoptions, as in longer than 12 mos. VERY SAD! and confusing as that is not what we had been told. I am getting a little taste of needing to be flexible in this process. So I asked for prayers from some prayer warriors, and got many encouraging and supportive responses. And the Lord spoke to me oh so lovingly through his word about staying 'faithful as I profess', and that I can call on Him in my time of need. How reassuring to read and be reminded of how Jesus has suffered and knows the pain we are going through. (Hebrews 4:14-16) What a comfort He is! Soooo, I give it all back to the Lord, and know that it is in His timing. He will work it out. Thank you blessed friends for praying for us. We have since found out that a different region, Krasnoyarsk (try saying that 3 x's fast) has more openings for adoptions, the children are similar in the European look, and it may be easier to get 2 at one time. I guess this process is all a big shot in the dark. That is when I have to remember that God knows everything, and will take care of this so that we get the boys we are supposed to have. Proverbs 3:5 & 6 says to "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowlege him, and he will make your paths straight." (I am still trying to find out the how-to 'acknowlege' him in all I do.) Diester and I completed one of the tests that we needed to take last Saturday. We were so excited to get 76 right out of the possible 77 (okay, so I must confess that it was an open book test), but more than anything, we are just excited to get it out of the way. One more thing done. Now on to the training course. We are on day 9, finishing up a 10 day cleanse (me)/fast (Diester) tomorrow, in which we have not eaten anything for the purpose of getting rid of toxins (me), and seeking God's face regarding many different issues (Diester). It has been really hard for me this time, but because Diester is doing it with me, it has made it much easier to handle not eating a lick of food for so long. It has also really made me ponder the plight of the orphans that are never, in some cases, given enough food to eat, and how they are hungry always. You know, it even happens close to home. I found out tonight while feeding dinner to some little 2nd graders that come to our church for tutoring, and asking them what their favorite meal is that their mom fixes; that some of them have to fix their own meals. I just couldn't believe it. These kids live in a decent area of town, not wealthy, but not the slums by any stretch of the imagination, and they are at 7-8 years old, having to fix their own meals. WOWSA! Thank you to our moms for taking the time to make sure we had wonderful meals prepared for us when we came to the table! Lord, please watch over all of the children whose parents can't make their meals. AMEN!

I just love listening to this music! Enjoy! And Hannah's birthday!

So maybe I cheated a little bit. There is a blog that I follow of a woman who is just loving God in the moments of chaos, and in the moments of peace, saying yes to life, and enjoying God in the moments of her family activity. What an inspiration to me! She takes some of the neatest pictures of her children and the happenings of them. AND, on her blog, she has some of the most beautiful moving, calming music to listen to. I have enjoyed it to the point of dancing, and crying depending on the moment, or my mood. It is just lovely. I hope that as you read our blog, you will find peace, love, and joy in the walk with us, and as you listen to the music that I have found to be so peaceful on Ann VosKamp's blog. Thank you for your generous thoughts and prayers.

We are keeping on, keeping on, just like everyone really. Our 'keeping on' involves reading the adoption book quite a bit right now in our lives, and waiting for our immigration paperwork to be finalized~~shouldn't be too long from now before we get all of our paperwork together to be shipped to Russia. But in 'keeping on' we are also seeking guidance from the Lord on many things as we grow in our lives. It seems to be all about continuing to grow in our walk with our Lord. He loves us so much! Do you know that? Do you share that with others? I am still learning, but I want to definitely let my light shine for Him. And trying to enjoy all of the music along the way.

We are home from church today with not a lot of busy-ness going on the rest of the day. It is quite a change for us. So I guess you could say we are piddling around here. The girls are working on projects. I am updating the blog, and added music. WOOHOO~~

And Hannah's birthday was yesterday. She and her friend Laurel had made some delicious chocolate chip cheesecake with raspberry sauce topping to share at the sewing class yesterday. I had a taste of it, and it was REALLY good. And then some of my family was here for a chili spaghetti dinner, provided by my sister Anne. We had cake, and enjoyed being together. It was good fellowship and time spent together. Thank you God for answering my prayers! Hannah really enjoyed her day~~

Blessings that we have received!

I was reminded the other day of the fact that we received the blessing of a beautiful hand made quilt and lovely table runner at Christmastime made by, and from my mother-in-law. What a shock and a surprise! I wish I had a picture of my face as I realized what was happening as my husband opened this precious package full of love. He knew about it~~but I did not. It is a donation to us to auction off, and put towards the expense of our adoption. What a blessing to receive to help us out, made with love, to help us get our two boys home!

I have to say we had quite a bit of fun with it when I wanted to get a picture for prosperity's sake. So everyone is holding an edge of the quilt, and then Diester adds some of the cat's balls to the center, which the family starts using the quilt to catapult into the air. Then Dave (brother-in-law) adds a stuffed cat to the mix, and the cat is being catapulted into the air. What a bunch of goofs. We did have a bit of fun with it though!

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. Matthew 7:17

Is this the year? 2010?

Happy New Year to all who venture onto our blog soon! May you see your life as a blessing from the Lord, no matter what your circumstances are. We are excited to be getting things moving, and hope that this year is the year. We are hopeful that before Christmas or even sooner this year, we will have 2 new additions to our family. Please keep us in your prayers. We have gotten our passports and our fingerprinting done. Now we are awaiting immigration approval?? Diester and I are preparing for taking a test on adoption that is part of the final paperwork that is needed~~reading adoption books~~~ I really need to check and make sure of what other things we don't have together, and get those together, so that when we get the approval for the 'immigration' stuff, we are good to go. THEN we will actually be waiting~~once our paperwork gets to Russia and we are registered with them. So, in the meantime, we pray for 2 little boys that we do not know yet, and we pray that God graces us with what we need to handle the additions to our family. We know that God is in control, but sometimes it is hard to live in that understanding!