Win a Tungsten Wedding Ring! :)

The people at Tungsten Rings has offered to help bring Kellsey home!! To thank you for donating to Kellsey's adoption, they are offering one lucky person a ring of their choice (up to $120 value*)!!





*Choose one of these great rings OR choose any other ring from their selection for $120 off the price!

To enter, simply use the chip in above! Every $5.00 donation to bring Kellsey home is another chance to win! Kennedy will choose the winner on August 13, 2009! :) Thank you for helping us bring our daughter home!!! And thank you Tungsten Rings for sponsoring this great cause!!

Help for a fellow adopter!

Jenny and her husband Steven are adopting the 3 beautiful kiddos above from Eastern Europe!! Danylo, Jack and Annie are about to meet the parents and siblings they have NO idea are waiting for them and have been loving them for a VERY long time. Jenny recently wrote this on her blog and it brought tears to my eyes.

"(My) kids smile and say "I want a hug" and I give them all a hug and they say thank you. They then quickly jumped off the couch and went about playing doing what kids are suppose to do. They are playing and singing with no worries. This is what I hope and pray for with Danylo, Annie and Jack. These children in the orphanage do not know that, they are facing the mental institution. They do not know that it is already set up for them to be transferred if no family comes to pick them up. Even the best mental institutions are just that. These children do not know what lies before them but we do. We know and cannot pretend that we don't. As I look through my blog and many of my friend's blogs I see pictures of families doing simple things together, cooking, playing, laughing and growing together. This is what every child deserves ......a family. These children in these institutions will not have the experiences of doing even the basics of a family....the unlimited hugs and kisses, the mom and dad who are with a camera in hand ready to take pictures of their every achievements big and small, the unconditional love, the teaching of who God is and how special they are to Him. Yes, these children will have food and clothes and they will have the smiles from staff who have become close to them but at the end of the day the staff will go home to their own families and the children stay. We are now less than 3 weeks away from meeting our children for the first time. They do not know we even exist. They will probably be distant but that is okay because they will come home. They will have that mom and dad taking pictures of their every achievement. They will be having the unlimited hugs and smiles, the car rides to the store, the visits to the beach, the laughs of their brothers and sisters who just adore them. They will have a family to come to."

In less than three weeks Jenny, Steven and 2 of their children will be traveling to Eastern Europe to bring home their 3 newest family members, but as the time draws near, like many families, they find themselves in a panic financially. Can you spare $5.00 today to help this family out? You can give a tax deductible donation to them through Reece's Rainbow on their family sponsorship page. You can also click on their button above to visit their family blog and learn more about this amazing family and the other children they've brought home through adoption.

Facing Life Head On

The Kayes Family has 19 children. Sixteen of them have been adopted internationally and many of them have special needs. You can read about this family here and also watch a documentary here. This family is so inspirational. Take the time to watch this, they have some amazing children!!!

Q&A #8

Congrats! When do you plan on getting to bring her home? I was wondering too, did you guys already meet your 20,000 goal? If so, that was really quick.
Hopefully sooner rather than later!!! We are still waiting on Frank's Certificate of Citizenship so he can get his passport. It's really the huge thing holding us up right now. We've raised almost $10,000 of our $20,000 goal. Watch for more fundraising efforts coming soon! :)

She is adorable! I wonder if they are sunning, the kids for Vitamin D lol hahaha my only thought. We get plenty were we are, I read that many country’s just take a Vitamin D tablet, but I’d think vitamins would be too expensive in a baby home.
LOL They could be, who knows?!

Oh my goodness she is soo cute! Is it just me or can I see your girls in her??
I totally think she looks just like my girls!!! I can't wait until I can put them ALL in matching dresses! haha

Oh Renee, that's going to make matching outfits sooooo much easier! Three kids wearing the same size clothes. You'll surely get people asking you if they are triplets ;).
I can hear it already! :)

What the heck??? It's been TWO days since you posted last? Hello, are you going through withdraws? LOL
LOL This blog has been sorely neglected I'm afraid. I'm trying to find things to say.

Do you need a recommendation for someone to facilitate your adoption on that end? If so and have not already hired a placement agency, we'd love to recommend the attorney who did ours - he funtioned as attorney, translator, tour guide and caretaker of the whole thing - and it probably saved us thousands of dollars by not having to hire a placement agency stateside. Please let me know if you'd like his name - thanks and good luck! I will continue to follow your progress!
We have a GREAT facilitator already waiting for us there, we have heard wonderful things about him... maybe it's the same person?! Thanks though, we appreciate it! :)

A couple more Kellsey pictures!

Since it's picture day on the family blog, I decided that Kellsey should have some pictures here too!! Gillian sent these to me yesterday! She was visiting Evangeline and Kellsey's groupa was playing right next to them so she snapped a few pics. First she got this one...

i wonder what Kellsey was doing here? Was she playing a game? Using her imagination? I often see Kennedy's arms in this same motion as she flies across the room. I can't wait until they fly together!

This next picture made me laugh because Gillian said she looked over once and all the kids were there playing in these cute little clothes and then she looked back and...
every last one of them were stripped down! LOL At first I thought maybe it was just Kellsey that was naked and I had a stripper on my hands! hahahaha But she assured me only hats and shoes were left! :) SO funny!

I also forgot to mention that yes, Kellsey is a chunk! Gillian said she is probably the size of a typical 3 year old (she is 2 1/2). And Kennedy is the size of a typical 3 year old... And Keeghan, well, he's the size of a 2 year old, but he's growing fast. See where I'm going with this?! LOL Ohhhh I can't WAIT to get her HOME!!!

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying family picture day! :)

Kellsey pictures!!!

My friend Gillian is in Kellsey's baby home where she got to meet her daughter Evangeline for the first time today. Evangeline is BEAUTIFUL! As soon as she is home and her blog goes public again, I will link you!! She got to snuggle Kellsey today too!!! And these pictures answered some of my questions from my earlier post. She IS getting fresh air! And she looks happy :). Does a mommy's heart good!

Gillian said she seems to be really well cared for and her section of the baby home is clean and has lots of toys! The main doctor for their group seemed to really care about the kids too. She kept telling her that Kellsey was their 'omnichka' (smart one). :) That's my girl!!!

Apparently it was "candy time" hence the dirty face! hehe I guess we'll have to start scheduling candy time around here too! (My crew would LOVE that!)







I may have more to share later! :)

Update and video... please watch

This blog has been like a ghost town lately. I hate that. I just really have nothing to say. The truth is, we are waiting. We are waiting on the stupid immigration office to print out Frank's Certificate of Citizenship and tape a picture on it and mail it to us. Something that seems so simple yet they're making it so complicated. We've been waiting for MONTHS. Once this paper is in our hands, he can get his passport, which means we can fill in the last few missing pieces of our dossier, get everything notarized and apostilled, and we can submit everything to Kellsey's country and get a court date to bring our baby girl HOME!!!

I have days when I am totally at peace with this wait. Sure I am anxious. I am fully aware that if everything in our process went smoothly, we could be in her country right now meeting our daughter. But God is on His throne and it's all in His timing. I can see His hand in every circumstance. However, I am the first to admit patience is not my best virtue, and there are days when this wait KILLS me. Days like today when I am painfully aware that we should be in Kellsey's country right now bringing our daughter HOME!

Right now I wonder what she is doing... is she happy? Healthy? Is it as hot there as it is here? Is she in a cool place? Does she get to play outside and get fresh air? Is she hungry? I may get answers to these questions soon as 2 of my friends are traveling to her baby home to finally meet their own children. They are hoping to get to see Kellsey... hold her... take some pictures of her. I made them promise they would tell her that her mommy and daddy are coming for her and that we love her. We're trying. All in God's timing.

Through the course of our adoption process, we've been asked over and over why we've chosen to adopt internationally instead of choosing a child here in the United States. I've explained that kids with special needs are not cared for in other countries like they are here... when they turn 4 or 5 (depending on the country) they are sent to institutions and basically left to die. I've explained. But do you get it? Please watch this. This is not Kellsey's country, but this is someone's daughter... turned away because she has a disability... and left... like this. Please Lord, protect our baby until we can get to her.

The marathon!

Remember the marathon I told you about? My friend Theresa ran the Boston Marathon last month (the WHOLE thing! Craziness!) and used it as an opportunity to help us bring Kellsey home! Well, I never reported back, but she raised over $1,700 for us!!! We were thrilled and SO humbled that she chose to help and love our family this way! Thank you Theresa and thank you to everyone who donated to her marathon!!! It means so much to us!!!

Another bake sale and our church!

We have seen such an outpouring of love from our church with Kellsey's adoption, both in prayer and financially. My friend Lori and the Girls of Grace decided to do another bake sale for us yesterday since the first one went SO well! Earlier in the week they asked me to come record our story so people understand WHY we are adopting. Fortunately, the awesome technical guys there were able to edit out the majority of my "ums" haha. I think they did a great job adding the pictures in!! The bake sale did EXTREMELY well too!!!! Grace Community Church ROCKS. I'm just saying. I thought you all might like to see this, even though most of you know our story already!

(Sorry some of the pictures are blurry... not too sure why!)

Approval!!!

YAY!!! We got our approval today from USCIS which basically means that the U.S. says we can adopt! WOOHOO! SO normally the next step is to submit our dossier, but in our case we need to wait till someone figures out Frank's certificate of citizenship. PLEASE pray that something happens where we can get his certificate FAST!!! We're one step closer to bringing you home, Kellsey!!!! :)