Update and an announcement

I always feel like I am repeating myself when I write these update posts because it's always about paperwork and waiting and unfortunately you're about to hear more about that.  We have been waiting for our Social Worker to send us the last of our documents so that we can get them apsotilled and overnight them to our agency. We are literally waiting for four papers so that we can officially put our claim on our son.  To explain what that means, in the U.S. no one can adopt Sergey because we have filled out the appropriate paperwork here.  But the paperwork we have desperately been trying to get to his country is the registration part of our dossier which would claim Sergey as our son in his country.  Fortunately for our sake we don't have to worry too much about people in his country wanting to adopt a child with Down syndrome, which is also unfortunately very sad:(   Today we found out from our Social Worker that his agency director is in Africa and won't be able to sign the documents until he gets back, which will hopefully be by the end of this month.  Now I know waiting a few extra weeks doesn't seem like such a big deal in the grand scheme of things, we have had to do a lot of waiting during this process so what does a few weeks matter...right?  Well the reason being is I have less than nine weeks to make the two mandatory trips of the three trips that I am required to make.  Ash will be going on the third trip by himself to bring Sergey home because I am unable to make the third trip because of this sweet little guy:)

We have had to be pretty tight lipped about our pregnancy until we had talked with the judge in Sergey's country as well as a few other reasons, all in which have turned out well.  Back in December when we found out we were pregnant, which was an unexpected surprise, we had to go through a long process of writing letters to the judge as well as providing reference letters from friends and family that we could care for a child with Sergey's needs as well as having the addition of this sweet little one.  We waited for about a month until we received a miraculous "yes" from the judge that we could move forward on our adoption but not necessarily was she approving our adoption.  So once we send out this paperwork we will be waiting for another confirmation from the judge, which will be very nerve wrecking.  But we are trusting God in all of it.  That's not to say I don't have my freak out moments occasionally:( I am due in August and the airlines have a rule that you cannot travel after 34 weeks, which really having a baby in another country doesn't sound all that appealing so I am fine with that rule.  But the more delays we have regarding paperwork and waiting on others for things shortens my travel time.  We are beyond excited for this new baby and happy to finally share the news with you all.  And we can't wait to bring Sergey home to complete our family!  Prayers are greatly appreciated!

It's spring break for my kids this week and it's been cold and rainy all week.  But today the sun peeked through for about ten minutes so I rushed out to soak it up. Pepper liked it to:)

 As I type this the gray clouds are already starting to move in and the sun is hidden again.  On Monday we went and bought some flowers to brighten up the porch a bit and to force some spring into our lives.  The kids got to help in picking out the flowers, I'm so glad they picked out some Rananculus, I love them!

And strawberries!

It's amazing what a few flowers can do to make things brighter. For the rest of spring break I think some thrifting and crafts are in order. Hope you all have a great week!

Cute, cute, cute!

My sister sent these to me a few days ago!   A set of matryoshka/babushka nesting glasses

And a set of measuring cups that nest inside of one another.

Sweet little sentiments of our little Sergey's country:)  Thank you Erin!

We celebrated Madi's 6th birthday.

Remember this?

Last night we made the White Chicken Enchiladas, Mexican Rice and for dessert Pots de creme.  OH. MY. WORD. it was so good!  Love PW's recipes they are always yummy, and the pictures and instructions are simple to understand.  Daddy got a little silly adding the whipped cream to the dessert, needless to say it was a big hit:)

Saying Goodbye... for now.

Me and Ash are heading to AZ this weekend for a funeral.  This past Monday Ash's stepdad died from a heart attack, it took us all by surprise.  We are anxious to love on our family and honor his memory.  We are at peace knowing that he is in Heaven and that we will see him again one day.  Please be in prayer for his wife Anna (Ash's mom) and Ash's little sister Shelby.  She is 15 years old and is having to deal with some very heavy stuff right now.

Today I bought this!  I can't wait to make everything in it!

I am inspired to do something like this on my kitchen wall.

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These prints have caught my eye.

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That last one makes me laugh!  HA!

So just some ideas for now, but of course I can't decide.  Which ones do you like?

It would be for this wall.

And yes my wall still looks like that, but not for long.  My sister is coming up in a month so that means projects will get done!

Prayers please!

So I have gone over this post in my thoughts time and time again.  And I have rewritten it in my head every time something has changed in our adoption process. But it has come to a point where I need to share the yucky stuff that we have been going through as of late because we are in need of prayer from friends and family.  We need you to go into battle on our behalf!   We have now come to a point in our adoption where we are having to make some tough decisions.  I can't go into specifics at the moment, believe me I WILL write that post some day, but we have basically been told by certain people that it is hopeless.  That Sergey will ruin our family, that he has no value, he is medically unadoptable and that the judge would never allow a family of our size to adopt him.  Can you imagine hearing that about your child?!  Our hearts have felt like they have exploded in our chests over and over again in the last few weeks.  Now we have not been denied this adoption, so there is still hope!  There have been so many tears shed over this, we have sought wise counsel and we have prayed like never before asking God to make it clear to us what we are to do.  We have narrowed it down to two options.  One being that we donate all the money that we have raised to Sergey's Reece's Rainbow account and hope and pray that a family will come to his rescue or we move forward and hope and pray that God will soften this judge's heart to our family.  That she will see how much we love him and want to make him a part of our family.  I believe with all my heart that my God is a God of miracles even in this day and age.  I have seen it time and time again in my life and others' and we know without a doubt that we have been called to adopt.  Our hearts are forever connected to Sergey's and in our minds whether he is ever ours or not he will forever be a Farley!  We have had to ask ourselves if this is God closing a door or asking us to continue to trust in Him  And the more we talk and pray about it we know without a doubt that we have to keep going.  We could never be at peace if we didn't try and do everything we could possibly do.  We don't want to ever have regrets, I need to hear it from the judge herself.  Not "possibly" or "she may" deny us  from other people but a "no" from the judge's lips.  So we are moving forward and praying like crazy that we get a "YES!", it can happen people I believe it with all my heart.  And if we are denied then at least we can know that we tried everything, that we were being obedient to what we felt we were being called to.  This is probably the scariest thing we have ever had to go through.  Not just for us but for Sergey, we are fighting to save a human life, our son's life.  If the judge feels like his medical issues are to extreme she may deny anyone from ever adopting him and if that happens his future is very bleak.  I believe I have made it very clear what happens to these children if they are not adopted.  I  get so sick to my stomach when I let my thoughts even go there.  I hope I have not shared more than what was needed but I hope this has helped put more into perspective of what we have been going through and more specifically how you can pray for us.  I would also like to mention that there are two other families facing the same possibility of losing their boys and they need your prayers as well.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your prayers, he needs them now more than ever. 

Paper Pregnancy

The last couple of days have been the biggest emotional roller coaster of my life!  I know I keep talking about the ups and downs of adoption but quite honestly that's just the season I'm in and this is my blog so there:)  I read this post today and I honestly couldn't say it any better.  This is exactly everything I am going through although she forgot to talk about weight gain cause there is a lot of emotional eating lol!  So read if you'd like to understand the adoption waiting insanity.  This will either help my friends understand me or steer clear, we'll just have to wait and see:)