One of the BIGGEST blessings of our 1st Trip!

Grace w/Stacey (mom)

Hannah & Aaron (oldest son) playing Airsoft Guns with some friends.

Esther (youngest daughter) w/Gloria (oldest daughter) goofing off in the pool.

Margeaux (friend) , Aaron, Gloria, and Hannah

As you read the blog post below, you might notice that it was written a week ago.  I was trying to include some pictures, but struggled, and have been terribly busy since then.  I am going to try to include the pix of the girls' stay at the Oestings, but if not, I will go ahead and publish the post.  Notice there are no pix of Mallory~she was behind the camera instead of in front, but that won't again.  We are leaving tomorrow, and I think I have the settings corrected to be able to receive comments on the blog, but would appreciate someone trying to put a comment so I will know for sure.  Have to go finish packing~~~Thanks, Michelle 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today is June the 29th~~only one week until we leave again for Russia for a month. We will be gone from July 6th through the 2nd of August. And, we are getting geared up!


It is a beautiful, lovely day here! The sun is shining, our lawn is mowed, the water in our pool is not green (hehe~~it was only slightly green for a couple of days when we first took the cover off of it a couple of weeks ago), and my garden is growing nicely. The girls are sleeping in still, which they need. And I got up early this a.m., and watered our hanging baskets and the garden plants, and some other things we have planted around the yard, along with weeding; and Diester just vacuumed out the pool.

I have been really behind in taking the time to shout out another “Praise to God” about our adoption journey. Today, I want to take a moment to share with those of you who do not know, that the girls stayed with the Oesting family while we were on our first trip. We are friends with the Oestings through a Christian homeschooling co-op that we have been involved in. We just plain love that family! What more can I say? There is the mom~Stacey, the dad~ Brett, oldest son Aaron, then 3 girls, Gloria, Grace, and Esther. The plan is that our girls will also stay with them while we are gone on our second trip. I can try to describe this family, but nothing that I say will be enough to compliment the blessing that they have been to us. It was the day after we got home from our first trip that the girls shared with us everything about their time with the Oestings. The Oestings were such a blessing, and the girls had a wonderful time with them, felt totally comfortable, made many happy memories, got to sleep in a LOT later than normal at home (oh, I take that back~~they did have to get up early on the mornings they skyped with us, so there were many mornings that they didn’t get to sleep in), got along with the entire family (they are easy to get along with), and were just blessed all around. Hannah is soooo excited, and can’t wait to go back! She did not hold back in telling us as much. Mallory said that it made it easier for her (not missing us so much) since we were able to ‘skype’, but she was blessed and totally enjoyed her time there as well. She described it as being on vacation. The Oestings were so considerate to them. You know. . .have you ever gotten the feeling that your kids have more fun at someone else’s house? like they would rather live there?? Okay, so I (not Diester) was starting to have a moment of a tad bit of jealousy! It was not good, considering how very tired I was to boot. I asked the family if I could just have a moment to regroup, and I took some time to offer it up to the Lord. I am in tears as I write, because it was then that the Lord showed me that he had taken care of this part of our journey just as well as everything else he has taken care of so beautifully. We couldn’t have asked for a better situation for the girls while we were gone. It was such a blessing! And to think that I was getting jealous~~YIKES! It was just another way that God covered us, and showed me that he is taking care of all of the parts of this adoption (that I don’t try to take control of~~hehe). Praise God!

We are getting excited about going back to Russia to get the boys. We have been getting some things done around here that will help when we get the little guys home. Diester ended up taking the bunk beds down that we had put together, thinking we had their room all ready. He had altered Hannah’s loft bed, building into it a lower bed to turn it into a bunk bed set, which we were going to use for the older one~~it was so nice and sturdy! And we had gotten a toddler bed for the younger one, until he could be big enough for the bunk beds. Then we got to Russia and saw how small these dudes are, and the beds they sleep in now, and realized that we were a couple of years ahead of ourselves with the bunk beds we had set up. So, now the toddler bed will now be used for the older one (who I am going to state in here from now on as R.A.), and we got a crib for the younger one (who I am going to state in our blog as I.A. from here on out). I also took one of the twin flat sheets that were originally for the twin mattresses, cut it in half, and sewed them into 2 crib mattress sheets, and they look so cute. A big thank you to my mother-in-law seamstress/quilter/sewer extraordinaire who showed me via SKYPE how I could do it. A bunk bed would have been too big for these little guys. So, into storage (a.k.a. garage) we put the bunk beds, and the mattresses were sold so they don’t get out of shape in the meantime while we are waiting for the boys to grow. That will happen soon enough though, I am sure.


Between Craigslist, consignment shops, and garage sales (which all of us love, except our Mallory) and the gifts of some friends and family, we have gotten many needed items. We got a car seat. We have gotten a gate to use at the top of the steps, a crib and mattress, clothes galore, socks and underwear, (do you know both of them are potty trained? It is incredible!) a toy box, a wagon, a fort for the backyard. You get the idea. Things are coming together.