Only God could write this story.

*So some of you may have seen this post originally posted on May 23, 2011 and then noticed all of a sudden it was gone, well that's because I got a little excited and didn't realize that the Kelley family hadn't told all their family just yet.  I felt so bad, but Jaime was so gracious in letting me know.  They made the announcement this weekend, so it is official!  Enjoy:)

Oh my goodness I had the most wonderful weekend with my Mom.  Lots and lots of good food and talking, a good way to spend the weekend I think:)  Life is good!  So as I'm coming down off the high of the weekend today I'm doing my rounds, checking email, then Facebook and then Reece's Rainbow's "My Family Found Me" page just like I do every day and guess who I saw?

Yep that's Isaac!!  I have been praying for this little boy for a while now and am so happy to see that he is going to be with a loving family.  But I don't want to give myself any credit at all, this is ALL God and it's only a story He could write.  And I think it's important to share it.

Back in February when we were still waiting on God to confirm to us whether or not we were to adopt Sergey I felt I had to do something because the tugging on my heart was so strong and could not be ignored.  I thought if we were not meant to adopt that I could at least pray a child home, so I  had asked to be a prayer warrior through RR.  A day later they sent me this sweet little guys picture and asked me to be committed to praying for him every day until he found a family.  Which I have done like clock work, I did this post on him asking all of you to pray for him as well.

When we committed to Sergey I was overjoyed and still am:), but could not fully let that joy overwhelm me because of the little boy in pink that had completely overtaken my heart and still did not have a family.  While I have only ever seen him from a picture on my screen he is very real to me and in some way I felt like he was my responsibility, how could I knowingly leave him behind.  As I prayed for him I started to think that maybe we should adopt him.  He is in the same region as Sergey and while it's already a lot to to adopt internationally, it's only $8,250.00 to add a second child.  Mere pennies when you consider that you are helping save a life.  I spoke to Ash about adopting him and he said he would pray about it as well.  Weeks went by and I was still praying for God's will regarding V.  Ash and I had a date night and he was the first to bring him up.  He let me know that he was still praying for V.  I admit that I was excited but tried not to presume anything.  After that talk though things changed for me about V., I felt God saying that he wasn't supposed to be ours.  I didn't think I was hearing Him right.  But slowly but surely I just knew in my heart and it was hard for me accept.  He has been God's all along, not mine, and God has had a plan for him from the beginning I just didn't know what it was yet.  Fast forward a couple weeks and we are coming back from dinner and I had to know what Ash's thoughts were, we hadn't talked about V. since our last night out and I was curious.  He was not opposed to adopting him but he wasn't positive that that's what we were supposed to be doing.  I knew in my heart that it was confirmation for what I had been feeling.  I said that maybe I should do another post on him and Ash felt that maybe advocating more for him was the avenue we were to take on his behalf.  I felt horrible, like I was giving up on him and began to cry.  Ash was so great, he just held my hand and let me cry, I could tell that it was hard for him to.  

The next day I sat at my computer, staring at the screen just praying for the right words to write.  I decided to start on Facebook knowing that I am friends with a lot of RR advocates and was hoping they would share his picture.  I admit that I hesitated, I thought because he didn't have an account set up yet that maybe that would hinder his chances.  Then I thought that was silly and shared his link anyways. There were a few comments from people saying that they would be praying for him and a few shared his link on their pages.  But one comment struck me, it was from a lady named Jaime.  We knew the Kelley's from when we had been in the young married's class together back home in AZ.  She had asked in general what the process was for adoption.  I felt butterflies in my stomach, could God be answering my prayer this quickly?  I calmed down a bit and answered her reply and sent her some additional pics of V. that I had.  Jaime and I messaged back and forth, she was smitten for V.!!  I then contacted Danielle, who through Sergey we are now great friends.  She was Sergey's prayer warrior:)  I asked her who I needed to get in contact with to get V. an account.  She said she would check in on it, a little while later she said that she had gotten an account set up for him and that we could pick an Americanized name for him.  I immediately thought to ask Jaime, she knew right away that his name should be Isaac, so Isaac it was!  Over the next two weeks we have talked on the phone almost every day and  have prayed that the Lord would show them if Isaac was supposed to be their son. Jaime also needed confirmation through her husband that God was speaking to his heart as well.   This weekend was HUGE for them spiritually, they prayed and fasted for God to reveal to them His will, and He did!!!  They have been given confirmation in their hearts that this is the path God has for them.  They know that when they look at Isaac they are staring at the face of their son, God knew that Isaac would be their son before the foundation of the earth and he is already so very loved.   I am so excited for the Kelley family and selfishly excited for myself that when we make our trip out to AZ next year that I will get to visit this family, our boys will get to play together and have someone else with whom they share a very special connection in more ways than one.  I will get to hug this little boy who I have prayed and cried over for the last couple of months.  And I will get to rejoice and marvel in the miracle that God has done in his life, the lives of the Kelley family and even in my own life by just being a tiny part of this journey.  It's such a humbling experience.  Please continue to pray for the Kelley family they need our support and encouragement, here is their blog if you would like to follow along on their journey and also donate if you can:)  God is good!

Just seeing what God has done for the Kelley family and Isaac I would like to ask for prayer for another family who is also seeking God's will regarding adoption and could use our support and encouragement as well. I will share more when I am able.   God is doing a work in His people regarding the orphans, it's an exciting thing to see God moving!!!!!

I love it!

Through this blog I have made some very special friends.  One of those friends is Lori over at Morning Glories and Moon flowers, she has been a constant encouragement to me and I so appreciate her!  She has a very sweet and giving heart and recently sent me this necklace.  Sorry for the poor quality of the picture.

It is really special to me just having this sweet little reminder of Sergey:)  I feel like I see matryoshka dolls all over the place now that I have a little connection to the place where they originated.  I can't wait to visit this country and bring my little boy home.

 Lori has the sweetest etsy shop called Too Silly Sisters where she sells these adorable necklaces as well as many other pretty things.  Thank you Lori, I love my necklace!!

I think these would be sweet gifts for anyone adopting from R**sia:)  Go on over and visit her shop, she's got a few listed!

Speaking of Sergey, I thought I would share a BIG surprise that I got yesterday with all of you:)  Are you ready for this?

Isn't he the sweetest thing ever!!!!  Oh my goodness I want to go get him now, only a little bit longer my sweet boy!

*BTW for those of you who asked where the post of Isaac went I needed to take it down for the time being, everything is fine:) I appreciate your concerns and I will share more when I am able, keep the family and Isaac in your prayers!  God is so good!

11 years!

Today is our anniversary, it's been 11 awesome years!  I am so very grateful for the man God has given me and am so thankful for the very full and blessed life we have.  Ash I love you more than ever!!!!

Lots of stuff going on

Wow, what a busy week!  I never did do a post for Mother's Day, but I hope you all had a wonderful day:)  I know I did!   I really didn't get any pics on Mother's Day because most of my day was taking a very long nap and who wants to see a pic of me sleeping? But I did get a pic of the cupcake Ash got me, it was as yummy as it looks.

 The day before Mother's Day I went to the "Teddy Bear Tea with Mommy and Me" at our church.  It was so sweet, and Vil did a great job of putting everything together.  My girls loved it!

So speaking of Mothers, mine is coming for a visit this Thursday!  I'm so excited, I haven't seen my mom for a year and a half:(  We were talking last week (you know having those really AWESOME mother/daughter convos where you are so excited about what God is doing in each other's lives)  about how much we miss each other and then my mom surprised me with a call saying she was coming up.  Totally made my day! I'm excited to take her to my favorite shops and take her to this yummy restaurant, Cristiano's, I know she will love!  And get her my favorite, red velvet hot chocolate from Donna's.  To die for!

But for the most part we will hang out and talk and laugh a lot I'm sure:)

She's going to have to have a sense of humor at this funny farm.  We had some water damage to our downstairs ceiling in the den, so we had a friend come over to check it out and found out that the leak is coming from the upstairs bathroom.  So we will be having the bathroom gutted and the ceiling downstairs torn out.  So lot's of stuff is going on:)

And I wanted to thank you for your prayers, Ash was able to get the last document that we needed to finish our home study!  We are just waiting to have our next meeting with our social worker and we will be done! Hopefully sometime this week.   I can't wait, this is such an important piece of the puzzle and will help us get the rest of our paperwork sent out to Sergey's country.  We are now in the process of getting our Yard and Bake Sale together.  We are having it on June 4th, so if you would remember to keep us in your prayers that would be AWESOME!!!  We are so close to our goal!

To good not to share!

I was going to catch up on a few posts now that Blogger is semi back to normal:)  But I felt this needed to be shared.  Anthony Salem, Adeye's husband from No Greater Joy Mom, has started a blog giving a man's perspective on adoption as well as advice to men who are having a hard time with all the questions that arise with adoption.  This is huge people!!!  If you are considering adoption but your husband has questions you should have him visit Anthony's blog, No Greater Joy Dad.  Catchy title huh?:)

Also, remember this sweet face?

Well you can follow Vanya's journey along with his new family at their blog here.

And also I'm so excited to let you know that Vladislav now called Isaac(so much easier to say:) has an account that has been set up just for him!  Let's help pitch in and make it easier for a family to come forward and bring him home!  You can go here if you'd like to donate to this sweet boy:)  Please be in prayer for a family to come forward for him!

Okay so I will get back on track with my other posts tomorrow:)  Have a good weekend friends!

Happy Birthday Mr. Boo Face!

Today is Ash's birthday!

I love this guy A Lot!!!

Here's 31 reasons why:)

1.  He loves the Lord with all his heart and soul.

2.  He's the funniest person I know and is always making me laugh.

3.  He stops at the grocery store after a long day at work to get milk, and brings me home a Dr. Pepper and some chocolate:)

4.  He gave me six beautiful children and is about to bless me with a 7th.

5.  He's such a good daddy, seriously it's one of my favorite things to watch him interact with them.  Makes me fall in love with him a little more each time.

6.  His laugh, it's contagious.

7.  He smells soooo GOOD!

8.  He's still a hottie:)

9.  His passion for ministry and his desire to serve the Lord.

10.  His fearlessness in trying new foods.  Seriously he'll try anything once.  ANYTHING!!

11.  His sincere love for his family and friends.

12.  When we pray in service he reaches over and holds my hand.

13.  His adventurous personality.

14.  The fact that he still likes to spend time with me:)

15.  His lingo and funny sayings.

16.  His love for babies.  At church every time I turn around he's holding someone's baby:)  And I'm happy that it has rubbed off on our son.  Prestin is also known for cuddling with the little babies in our church:)

17.  He's so smart.

18.  The fact that he will hide in a spot for over 5 minutes for the perfect scare.  Which me and the kids are often the unfortunate victims.  Actually he doesn't even have to try with me, he could walk around the corner and startle me.  I'm an easy target.  But man you should hear the roaring laughter that follows, he lives for the moment:)

19.  The happiness and laughter he brings to our family.

20.  His thoughtfulness.

21.  The way he tears up when he is speaking to me about our children, he's so proud of them.

22.  He's an excellent problem solver.

23.  He can build anything and you better believe I have a honey do list a mile long for him:)

24.  His sense of style.  He always looks good.

25.  That he has gone with me to watch every single Harry Potter movie when it has come out in theaters even though it's not his favorite.

26.  That he's a better cook than me and that the job is available if he wants it.

27.  He's my voice of reason.

28.  He strives to look at everything in a positive way.

29.  That he still loves me when I'm not lovable at times.

30.  That he takes the time to talk with me after a long day, even when I know he's all talked out.  It means a lot.

31.  That after my salvation in Jesus Christ, he is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Happy Birthday Ash!!  I love you so very much!

I'm no wimp!

Hi friends, I just wanted to ask you to pray for us.  It seems like Satan is in full force right now trying to sabotage our efforts to get to Sergey.  We are only one document away from finishing our Home Study!  We have been trying to get some paperwork that is usually easy to obtain but for some reason it hasn't been.  It's for our financial part of the home study and my husband is the only one who has access to it, actually not anymore since his password is not working and when he reset it, it still doesn't work.  It's a long story:(  But basically my husband has to put a call in to get the paperwork sent to us, but recently my husbands work schedule jumped from a 40-50 hour work week to a 70-80 hour work week, Satan's doing I'm sure of it:(  And he just hasn't had the time.  The statement that we need comes in the mail quarterly, so I have been desperately praying everyday that it will be in our mailbox.  Once we get it, all we have to do is get the document notarized and send it off to our social worker.  I have been praying for the Lord's will in this but I have to admit it's been really hard for me to just sit and wait.  I have worked really hard to get all of these documents done as fast as possible so that Sergey doesn't have to wait any longer than he has to.   So it's been frustrating to me, and to my husband as well.   It's been out of his control the work that has fallen into his lap and he's been doing everything he can not to crumple under the weight of it all.  The paperwork has been one of the most overwhelming things I have ever done.  Sometimes it scares me as I am filling it all out.  I get so stressed about making errors and that I'm going to cause delays in our adoption.  And other times I feel so under qualified and have little understanding of what I am actually doing.  I'm sure my agency is sick of seeing emails from me asking so many questions:)  But I understand it's part of the process and I will do whatever it takes to get him, even if I need to step out of my comfort zone a little.  Sergey's worth it!  But I am definitely finding out that Adoption is not for wimps.  Please pray for us, we so need the encouragement right now.  Please pray for my husband, he's been under a lot of pressure lately.  Pray that his schedule will reach some sort of normalcy soon.  Thank you for listening to my rants:)  I also wanted to tell you why I changed the donation box on my sidebar to a ChipIn.  Through the ChipIn we are able to access the money right away when we need it.  And with the Reece's Rainbow donation box, they hold the money until we are traveling at the end of our adoption.  So this just makes more sense for us right now.  You can donate to whichever one you feel more comfortable with, we appreciate each and every donation.  I just wanted to clarify if anyone was wondering.  Thank you for your continued prayers and support for our family.

Munchies with Mom

Today I got to go to Madi's Pre-K class for Munchies with Mom:)  It was super sweet and lovingly prepared by each child for their mommies.  The teachers, Amy and Kayla as well as many helpers, did a wonderful job of putting this event together.  The attention to detail was right up this lady's alley:)  We were surprised with a lovely table setting and these lovely hats each made specifically by the children to their mommies.  Madi's was precious, I loved it!

 
Then all the children came out and sang a few songs to us.  So sweet!

Each child then said something that they loved about their mommy.  Madi said, "I love my Mom because she gives me good food!"  That is so something Madi would say, she asks me at least, AT LEAST, 40 times a day for something to eat.  They then gave us a gift of a beautiful handmade necklace that I forgot to get a picture of:(

Me and my little lady:)

We dined on blueberry muffins, chocolate covered strawberries, crackers and pretzels.

We had such a wonderful time and Madi was so proud of everything she made.  Thank you to Amy and Kayla for putting this together, it is now a very special memory for me and Madi:)

No we don't have goats.

So today I was walking through the kitchen and saw coco puffs all over the floor in our kitchen and I thought to myself that they looked a lot like goat droppings.  Welcome to the mind of Danielle Farley:)

Please excuse my messy floor, I blame it on the dog!  I can easily see dog hair and muddy paw prints, grrrr!  I give up:(  So anywho, here is the coco puff culprit.

She's no goat, but can easily be just as stubborn:)  She has not been feeling well and has been a snotty, clingy mess for the last two days.  She is very sweet when she's sick which makes it easy to love on her and want to snuggle.  But she was not really excited to have her picture taken:(  Poor girl, mommy giggled the whole time:)

Mommy's still giggling!

But I made it all better.....with sprinkles!

Sprinkles have the magic to make everything better I have found:)  Really, you should try it sometime!

Ash and Prestin made a doghouse for the messy floor maker, Zippie is his name.  They did a great job:)

Zippie didn't want his picture taken I guess.

And just so you know I kind of like Zippie.... sometimes:)  And if you want to know the reason I said yes to getting him in the first place well here ya go.

Seriously, how could you say no to that!!