The word is getting out!

I am so thankful to Amy J. over at Delightful Distractions for posting about our story and fundraiser, you can go see it here.  You will also want to go check out her Etsy shop, because she has the most lovely stationary and prints ever!  And she is also going to be apart of our fundraiser, Woo Hoo!  This woman is AWESOME!!!  Not to mention she has one of the biggest hearts for the Lord, LOVE that even more!!  Our fundraiser is filling up, I'm so excited I can't wait to show you!  But you'll have to wait just a little longer, hee hee:)  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Birthday Girl

Yesterday was Madi's fifth birthday!

We made a fun cake together.

After we ate cake we all watched Tangled together, such a good movie!

Here are some fun facts about the birthday girl:)

 She has her Dad's wit.

She is gorgeous!

She has a GREAT big heart.

She is by far one of the funniest people I know.

  I absolutely adore this girl! And I want to enjoy who she is at this moment in time.    I love her so much and I am honored that God chose me to be her Mama.  She is a huge blessing in our lives and I can honestly say that when I look at her I view her as a blessing from God.  I remember when I was pregnant and we just knew she was a boy, she just had to be. 

 I am so glad that God does the choosing for us:)  Happy Birthday baby doll!

Putting it out there

So as many of you know we are adopting a little boy from Eastern Europe and we are so very excited about this!  But as many of you also know International adoption is not cheap, after all is said and done we will be paying close to $30,000.00 for our little boy, who by the way is completely worth it:)  And seriously which one of us would not pay even more to save the lives of our children? Some of you may be asking yourselves,  "Why are they adopting if they don't have the money?". Well we believe that God is calling us to bring this beautiful, precious little boy into our family and He has asked us to step out in faith.  We already know that He has gone before us and has prepared the way.  And we also believe, and know from past experiences, that when He asks you to do something the best thing to do is listen and obey.  I also believe that He wants to be glorified throughout this process and wants to see His beautiful bride, His body of believers be His hands and feet.  And what better way than to come along side fellow believers and play a part in bringing home this sweet angel.

I am in the process of setting up a fundraiser for our little guy here on my blog and am asking for your help.  If you or anyone you know of would like to help us by donating an item to our fundraiser it would be greatly appreciated. Items could be anything from gift cards, to services, or to those who sell their wares on Etsy or are just creatively gifted.  I am thinking of hosting it mid-April, so if you could let me know soon that would be awesome!!  You can email or Facebook me whatever's easier. So spread the word and let me know. I love you guys and am so thankful for all of you and I know he will be too:)

And just a side note I had to take our pay pal button down because Reece's Rainbow was having so many hits and donations that their server could not keep up! And having the donation boxes on all the blogs was too much for it to handle. Isn't that a wonderful problem to have, the situation these children are facing is being spread far and wide and people are realizing the huge need for these kids!  I LOVE IT!!!!!  Our donation box will be back soon but if you would like to donate to our adoption just click on Sergey's picture on the sidebar and it will take you to our Family Sponsor Page.  Thanks again:)

Happy Friday

So we got an unexpected blessing yesterday from Sergey's prayer warrior, who by the way is also named Danielle.  You can follow her blog here she has a huge heart for these children and has a beautiful love with designer genes herself.  She messaged me on FB with an urgent message to message her back when I was able to.  I asked her what was up and in literally 2 seconds she sent me this....

It's Sergey!!!!!!  Doesn't he look absolutely beautiful?  And he looks so healthy, that makes this mommy's heart so very happy!!!  I can't thank Danielle enough, but a very special thanks needs to go to a very special 13 year old girl named Madison.  Her parents are adopting a little boy named Josiah who also has Ds, he is absolutely adorable!  Madison messaged Danielle, saying that she knew Sergey's mommy would want to see these pics, Madison you were so very right!!  How she found them I'll never know.  But what a sweet, selfless heart this special girl has.  You can follow her sweet blog here and please go and send her a sweet message:)  I am on cloud 9 right now and cannot stop staring at his sweet face, look at those cheeks!  Oh what a happy day, I have peace in my heart at this very moment.  He looks healthy and happy, thank you God for giving us this HUGE blessing!!!

Just a few of my favorites

I am so loving these prints from Dazeychic, I love her art period!  But these are some of my favorites:)  Enjoy!

So sweet.


Love this one for Tatum and Avery's Room.



This one I really like for Sergey:)





Can't forget this one.



Love them!  She is having a Spring SALE March 21-25th, she's giving you 25% off your entire order!  Hurry on over!

A good day

Sunday was such a good family day for us, even though Ash was leaving to go out of town that evening.  That part was sad:(  We had a wonderful time fellowshipping with our church family and hearing God's word preached.  Then on our way home Ash treated us all to lunch at Red Robin, this is a very rare treat indeed to go out as a family to eat.  It's not that our kid's aren't well behaved at restaurants it's just a lot to take on sometimes.  And also the expense of eight people dining out makes these events few and far between, so they are very special to us.  There's more meaning when we do it this way, I don't know how many times our kids said thank you:)

 They were truly appreciative and knew that it was special instead of just expecting that they're going to be taken out.  Now don't get me wrong our kids are not perfect angels all the time, but it was refreshing to see their gratitude for something that is so common now days.  The meal was enjoyable, the kids were happy and well behaved even Sadie sat completely content to color.  I was completely thankful for this day, it may sound silly to the one reading this, but I was very aware at that time how very much I have been blessed.  My husband is a huge blessing from the Lord, I depend on him so much for so many things.  I am grateful for him and his love for me and our children.  He works hard to provide for us and I love that he is sensitive to our family to know when just such a treat is needed.

  I have been given six wonderful blessings, hopefully soon to be seven, and in a world where children are viewed as burdens and financial responsibilities other than what God has intended for them to be,  JOY, REWARDS, BLESSINGS, it makes my heart sick.

  I can't wait to bring Sergey home to be apart of our family. I'm completely in love with him and my heart aches that he is so far away and I have no idea what is going on in his life.  Is there someone holding him, giving him hugs and kisses (I doubt it), making sure he's had enough to eat and drink?

 My prayer for him has been that someone would come into that orphanage and love on him, that he would know what love is.  Yes this will make it harder for us when we come to get him, he would be bonded to someone already and it would be hard on us and him to separate from that person.

  So again while this is my prayer for him and yes it would be hard on us, this journey that we are on has never been about us, first and foremost it is about God and His glory.  It is about obedience to Him and stepping out in faith, absolutely blind faith!!

 We don't have all the money for this adoption and we don't have a clue about raising a child with special needs.  But I do know the God I serve and He has asked us to step out and GO!  Do I get scared sometimes, oh yeah you bet.  But I believe that if my God can create the heavens and the earth by just speaking it then He WILL give us the ability to parent this very special child.

 How can I question and put my human limits on an almighty powerful God?  His power is made perfect in our weakness and He will equip us with everything we need.  Because all things are possible with Him and this is about His glory being revealed in our hearts, in our lives, in this family, in this child, and in our church and community.  So if I question my God about what I can't see then where is my faith, that doesn't sit well with me.   So we GO!

Please join me

Please everyone pray for Tesney and her family!  They went to get their sweet little boy this week and were denied by the judge! The judge feels that little Kirill would do better in an institution than with a family who will love him. This is so horrible, my heart is breaking for them right now.  I can't imagine what they are feeling.

There is hope though.  They are going to appeal, if you would like to read more of this story you can go to her blog here.

I am also going out on a limb here and asking if anyone would like to join me this Friday, March 25th to pray and fast for them, the judge and all who will be a part in this decision making process for sweet Kirill's life.  You can do an all day fast, Sunset to Sundown, or skip one meal.  Whatever God has laid on your heart to do.

Please spread the word so that we can get as many people praying and fasting as possible for this sweet family who has stepped out in faith and obedience to God.  Thank you and God bless!

Happy Friday

Before

After

I got all of the baskets on clearance at Fred Meyer for .60 cents a piece!  This makes me so Happy!!!  I never thought my junk drawer could make me smile:)  I even open it just to look at it, I know I'm weird:)

I could choose not to move, but I refuse!

Check out our story!

Go check out our Family Sponsorship Page to see our little story.  We are very excited for this:)  

Today I sent out for my passport, another thing crossed off the list! I also called some businesses about fundraising, I got more no's than yes's but I'm persistent;)  We are trying to get donation boxes out into small businesses, if anyone is interested let me know and I will send you one.  Thank you again for all your support and prayers!

Happy Friday

I have missed doing "Happy Friday" so I need to post for this Friday even though there's only three hours left of it:)

Red Velvet Hot Chocolate, my new fave!

Sadie's new hat.

Sadie's new helmet:)

I'm loving this print "Wee Little Town", especially the little ice cream truck.  For those of you who don't know, my hubby has worked for Dreyer's Grand Ice cream, now Nestle D.S.D, for 12 1/2 years.  Ice cream is kind of a big deal in our home.  I think this would look really sweet in Sergey's(who we affectionately call Sarge) room:)

Sisters

Silly girl

Thank you for all the sweet comments about our adoption and for those of you who have donated, it is greatly appreciated.  God has been an amazing provider throughout the whole process.  For example, I had to call the records department two days ago because there was a problem with getting my birth certificate.  I talked to a very sweet lady who was determined to get the problem fixed for me.  She was able to get it all worked out, but I was thinking I was now going to have to wait that much longer for it to come in the mail.  Which would mean that I would have to wait longer to get my passport.  I kept telling myself it's all in God's perfect timing. Well as I was getting into the car to take the kid's to school this morning the UPS guy drove up and delivered them to me. Perfect timing!  I was so excited and relieved, thank you God!  We also sent out our fingerprints to the FBI as well as tons of other paperwork, things are moving right along.  We ask for your continued prayer throughout this process.  We are also trying to raise more funds and have a few fundraising ideas up our sleeves.  If anyone has any ideas we'd love to hear them!  I hope your Friday was a happy one, have a good weekend and a good night.

We have some exciting news!

So I have been missing in action for a while now and that's because I have been up to my eyeballs in paperwork...



 paperwork for this sweet little guy!

Meet the newest Farley!  His name is Sergey, he's 2 1/2 years old and he has Down Syndrome.   And we are super excited to make him apart of our family!  We just got permission a few days ago to be able to share our news with friends and family.  Those of you who read this blog know that I have posted many things about the Orphan crisis, it has been a burden on my heart for a while now.  But it wasn't until December 2010 when I first saw sweet little Cliff through Reece's Rainbow's Angel Tree Program that we seriously started praying about what we were to do.  We firmly believe the Orphan crisis is the Christian's problem and not the worlds'. We had already fallen in love with our little guy but we wanted to make sure that it was God's will for us. So while we waited for God to show us we did anything we could to help, like becoming a Prayer Warrior for Vladislav.  I pray desperately for him daily that a family will find him.

 It wasn't until February 23, 2011 that the Lord confirmed it in our hearts that we were to make Sergey apart of our family.  We contacted Reece's Rainbow immediately!  We are now in the beginning stages of our Home Study, we had our first meeting last Thursday and passed with flying colors:) We covet your prayers though, as we are not yet out of the woods.  We still have to send out paperwork to the country that Sergey is from to be matched to him.  While we are matched to him through our agency we aren't through the country he is from.  So the rush is to get out our paperwork for his country as soon as possible!  We are still waiting on certified copies of my birth certificates, my original was damaged by our family dog when I was growing up, so that I can get my passport.  Which is imperative for most of our documents.  Fingerprinting, medical exams for us and the kids, and coming up with all the funds for the adoption, phew!  Our main prayer throughout this whole adoption is for God to be glorified through it all, for less of us and a whole lot of Him!!!  He has already shown Himself in so many ways throughout this process, that we are so excited to see Him at work throughout the rest.  We are also heading into uncharted territory, we know some of what to expect, but know that there will be many changes to come.  We are also humbly asking for any help you can give financially.  International adoption is not cheap so we are asking that you would prayerfully consider giving to our adoption fund. All donations are tax deductible.  Reece's Rainbow has set up an adoption grant fund in honor of Sergey and our family.  We haven't gotten our official link with our story attached yet but it is coming soon.  But until then you can go here to donate.  Seriously we understand how tight things can be, so even if it's $2.00 it all adds up and will be greatly appreciated.  We love you guys and want everyone to be apart of this journey with us.  We want you all to see God's work in this! 

Love,

The Farley's