I'm still alive:)

So if anybody still reads this blog I just wanted to let you know that I'm still here and continuing to work on our adoption, but I've just been taking a break from the computer for awhile.  I will continue to update about our adoption when things progress, but as of right now nothing is happening.  School just got out for our kids, so summer is just now beginning for us.  I am also watching three additional children for the summer, so needless to say my life is busier than normal.

I have been busy with lots of other things as well, like we just had a baby shower for my friend Sarah last night where I was in charge of decorations. These were the centerpieces.

I love how my little frogs turned out!

Tomorrow is Ainsley's 4th birthday, that came super fast!

My sister and brother in law come in to town on Sunday, then 4th of July, the week after that is VBS where I am in charge of the craft class, then two weeks after that Ash leaves for Youth Camp for a week.  Phew!  And in the midst of it all trying to run around getting documents apostilled and sent to Sergey's country so that we can travel by the end of July/beginning of August.  I'm just tired typing it all:)  So anyways all this to say that if you don't hear from me for awhile it's because there is a lot going on.  I love hearing from you, thank you for the kind emails and for continuing to check in and see how we're doing:)  Thank you for your prayers, we definitely need them.  Please continue to pray for Sergey, for his health and safety, and for the funds that are still needed.  If you know anyone that has $8,000.00 they want to give away then send them our way, lol:)   Hey it's possible!  Thanks again for everything, and hope to have some news to share with you all soon.  God bless!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

To an amazing husband and father.

We love you!

Just shove it!

My friend Jaime will appreciate this title:)  So to finish the homestudy I needed to take pictures of every room in the house so that Sergey's country can make sure our home is suitable and child friendly...I'm guessing.  It boggles my mind that a country who hides these children away in orphanages and mental asylums, and even outdoor sheds in some cases care what my house looks like.  But I obliged because honestly I would do anything for my son.  But I have to tell you what a job this was, I have mentally and physically hit a wall.  After the garage sale my house has been a little chaotic to say the least.  I feel like stuff is everywhere and I have been literally throwing anything and everything away.  So with my homestudy coming to an end I needed to get these pictures to them as soon as I could, but honestly there was no time to clean and make it organized like I would have liked it to be.  After a much needed call from my husband and then from my friend Jaime, the answer to my problem was to just shove it all out of the way!  And that's what I did, for example my laundry was out of control and all over my bedroom floor so after I took the picture of the little girl's room here is where that huge pile went.

And here is my clean laundry room

But here's what it looks like in the hallway, HA!

And here's a lovely shot of the little girl's room on one side

And here's the other side

I actually used these old pics of the girl's room after their beds were built:)

The room is still not decorated so it looks exactly the same minus the new baskets we bought for underneath their beds.

The only room that was completely organized and cleaned was Prestin and Sergey's room.  I have been painting, organizing and cleaning for the past two weeks.  We had moved all the kid's rooms around to make more space.  Here is what the room looked like before.

And here is what it looks like now

I still plan on getting some new bedding and curtains, but for the most part it is done.  I was able to take all of the pictures and email them to my social worker, so we are done!!!  Our meeting is this Friday at 1:00 p.m.  He will hand me our finished homestudy and I will then start getting all of our paperwork apostilled, another silly thing that Sergey's country needs.  Basically when you get your documents notarized it should be a done deal, BUT Sergey's country needs them apostilled.  An apostille is basically a fancy way of saying that an already certified document is certified.  So we're moving right along:)  Thank you Jaime for listening to me and for being sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading to give me a call, I so needed to hear those encouraging words today:)

Homestudy is finished!

We got the news that our homestudy is finished and I will be getting it this Friday!  I am so happy to be done with this part of the process.  I've been missing from this blog because I have been so busy getting documents ready to send off to Sergey's country once we get our homestudy.  I don't want to waste any time:)  Once we send everything out we will just be waiting on our fingerprint date and then for our approval from the country.  Then we will set up our travel dates to go meet Sergey, this will be our first trip, we have to make a total of two trips.  The first trip is set up for us to meet Sergey and to tell them that we want to continue with the adoption. This trip will last about 5-7 days.  The second trip will be roughly about a 2-3 months after the first trip which will last anywhere from 2-3 weeks.  And this is where we will get to bring him home!!  I am so ready to be done with the paperwork, but I understand that it's all necessary.  We are still planning on having another garage sale, because we are about $8,000.00 short so I am all ears for any ideas on how to raise the rest of the money.  Also please be in prayer for my friend Lisa, she is going to meet the little boy who started it all for me.  Little Cliff now named Joshua will be going home to his new family soon.  I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!

And I would also like to introduce to you a very sweet lady.  Anna contacted me during my fundraiser and since then we have become very good friends.  Anna is adopting little Blake who is on my sidebar.  We began talking about her desire to adopt but that her husband was still unsure.  We have prayed over him for the last few months and a few weeks ago they committed to little Blake.  I am so excited for them and hope you will hop on over to their blog and congratulate them.  I meant to write this a week ago but got behind, sorry Anna:(

Breaks my heart

This is what Sergey would have had to look forward to if we had not been led to him.  I want to get to him so badly it hurts.  Please keep us all in your prayers and donate if you can.  We are coming my sweet boy!

Our truck runneth over

We had our Garage/Bake Sale yesterday, it turned out pretty big!  We had donations coming out of our ears and were grateful for every one.  It was amazing to see how the donations all came in, totally orchestrated by God.  Like for instance one of my favorite donation stories was a week ago, last Sunday.  We had gotten home from church and were having a lazy kind of day.  Up until this point we had received a few items from some relatives of a lady at our church.  I had been praying that the Lord would continue to provide for us, but wasn't expecting anything on this quiet Sunday.  I had almost dozed off when I heard the doorbell ring.  Ash got up and answered the door, it was our neighbor from across the street.  He said that he had a bunch of VHS tapes in his garage that he was getting rid of and wanted to know if we wanted any of them.  So Ash took Tatum over to see if she saw anything.  A couple minutes later Ash was back and was telling me how they were moving and were packing a moving truck to take to Goodwill.  We had no idea they were moving, we never saw a "For Sale" sign ever.  Ash told them about our upcoming adoption and sale and they said they would gladly give us there stuff.  So we all got up and started filling our garage with tons and tons of boxes.  It was amazing and totally unexpected, I love how the Lord works everything out.  I must admit I felt heard and loved at that moment knowing that God was and is always listening.   After that the donations kept coming in from everywhere.  Almost all of them were through word of mouth, and mostly all from people I have never met but were so excited to help.  Of course our church body was a HUGE support with donations as well, we would also still be unpacking that truck if it wasn't for their help:)  There was so much stuff!!!  

We rolled into the church parking lot bright and early and were elated that it was a beautiful sunny day.  Which is  rare for Washington, but I believe there are no coincidences with God.  He picked this day for us:)  When I pulled in I noticed that by the front doors of the church was a pile of stuff as tall as I am.  I have no idea who they were from, but it brought a smile to my face.  We immediately got to work unloading stuff, setting up tables and displaying things.  As we were working people driving by saw all the commotion and stopped to look before we even had our signs up, it was great!

The bake sale part was also a tremendous hit!  The goodies were seriously flying off the table, I'm so glad Ash grabbed one of these giant cinnamon rolls.  Seriously, they are as big as dinner plates, we ate part of it for breakfast this morning.  Sooooo good:)

We appreciated our little helpers as well:)

All in all it was a great day and we were able to raise $2,304.15!!!  I think that was a pretty successful day:)  When it was over and we were loading the truck we realized that we were leaving with more stuff than we came with, so we will definitely have to do another sale.  Ash was just telling me how it was like the story in the Bible of the loaves and fishes and he is so right. We definitely filled more than 12 baskets full, try a whole DiGiorno pizza delivery truck!  God definitely answered my prayer above and beyond what I imagined, I'm feeling so grateful for His provision.  We are that much closer to bringing Sergey home!  While we will be doing another sale, my mind is racing on other ideas to raise money.  I'm thinking of doing another blog fundraiser, probably smaller in scale than the last one but still with fun prizes.  What do you think, are you all ready for round two?  If any of you have ideas for me I'd love to hear from you.  And if we do another blog fundraiser what kind of things would you like to win?  I'm all ears and eagerly waiting for your reply:)  I am so thankful for each and every one of you that continue to follow our story and are praying for us and Sergey.  It means so much to me when I read your encouraging comments, thank you from the bottom of my heart:) 

Love

The Farley's 

(missing Sadie in this picture)

And by the way this is what happens when I leave my camera laying around:)

Pillows for Davis!

I have a sweet friend, Amy is her name:)  I love her blog, her house is so beautiful, but I would have to say her heart is even more so:)  We have become friends through blogging, we have never met but I felt an immediate connection the first time we talked on the phone.  Kind of like catching up with an old friend after not talking for a while.  We have become closer over the last few weeks, you see she to is adopting from Sergey's country.  Actually from the same region as Sergey!  She and her husband were feeling the same call to adopt around the same time we were.  Before we even connected and our friendship even grew we were already growing a connection without the other even knowing.  We have since connected and have been able to encourage and support each other as we go through this emotional roller coaster ride. And we joke about how the first time we ever meet may be in another country getting our boys, wouldn't that be awesome!! Here is her little love, Davis is his name:)

Meg from the blog Whatever and Chrissie Grace have teamed up to surprise Amy with Pillows for Davis!!  Chrissie Grace is offering 25% of ALL pillow sales during the month of June to go to bring Davis home to Amy and her family!  

If you haven't seen the lovely things Chrissie Grace makes you need to head on over to her shop right this minute!  Here is a sneak peak:)

Aren't those adorable?  Chrissie Grace is incredibly talented don't you think?  You need to check out Meg's blog and see the ones she made for her girls, ADORABLE!!!  So head on over to her shop and order a pillow for Father's Day or that next baby shower you're going to.  There are so many possibilities and you'll be giving to a great cause!  You can also click on Davis' button on my sidebar and donate there if you'd like, seriously every little bit helps.  I'm so excited to see how God is going to work through this!!!