Recapping...Again...STILL...

We are still waiting...for a lot of things...still...

I am working on a crib sized baby blanket, still. I am in the process of making 20 more pins, still. I am trying to figure out how to get them out where people can see them and where we might sell the pins so that we can reach our goal, still.

I am trying to get the word out about our puzzle fundraiser, pins, prayer blankets so people will help us bring the girls home, still. I am working on a huge yard sale, still.

I am still waiting for a job, I will be going to fill out an application for a receptionist job that I qualify for, but won't know anything until after April 15th. Praying real hard for a job, still.

We just had someone donate to the girls, she purchased a few pins and donated above that, so we are in the neighborhood of $650.00 to $700.00 away from our commitment fee! Another step closer! That truly did our hearts good...so as of tonight we have a new way to view 'STILL'...

Psalm 46:10-Be still and know that I Am God. He truly is Great and has provided thus far, so we are still and we know that He is in Control. :) We'll be there for you girls, your Father has Promised!

Happy Birthday Cale!!

How's this...two post updates in one day! It's a record for me I think :) I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my youngest son, but he's no longer the baby. I just spoke to him and he is excited about his new sisters, but I didn't dare call him the big brother yet :)

I miss having him here all the time, making me laugh and saying silly things. I guess we can say that he is the reason we are adopting. I had so much fun with him having him here all the time, homeschooling him and teaching him right from wrong, I just stayed young through it all. He is goofy, like his dad and I was lucky enough to have him home with me!

Well, as much as I am proud of him, I am also melancholy as today my last teenager turns 20...so no more teens at this time. But I take great comfort in the fact that soon we will have little ones again in the house...keeping us young and making me happy! No more silent empty nest! YAHOO!!!

Well, I have to go finish email and being a housewife...HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY CALE!!!

Well I Thought...

I really thought I would just feel the way I felt when I heard from our facilitator about the country's decision to allow us to adopt the girls...just loaded with nervous energy! Right? Yeah, that's all, and then I'd want to go out and window-shop, looking for things for the twins! Yeah, that's it.

I have seen others who say they were moved to tears when they found out and such, but that didn't happen to me. Then, on Wednesday afternoon when I received a note from Andrea, it didn't say anything in the subject line, so I opened it and there was a link and the message was copied to the woman, Lu from England, who makes the blog buttons. All the note said was 'Up and running'. So I sat there and couldn't figure out what that was all about...that was probably the longest 1 minute of my life, then I clicked on the link...

And then the tears came pouring down my face and I must have cried for at least the first 5 minutes...there on the opened RR page was our beautiful twins faces and our family profile that said 'Slavka and Sandra for the Stancil Family-Manchester, CT'. It was probably the first time it wasn't surreal for me! If you were sitting here watching me type this right now you would see me crying again!

I called Tony at work and told him through my tears, and he said 'There's no crying in adoption!' which did get me laughing...he's a goof-ball like that! I still can't look at that page without tearing up! I didn't think I'd be this sappy, I just figured I would be full of nervous energy, but no, cry baby is more like it. I really have to practice not crying, I'm gonna mess those two babies up when we finally go get them...they will think I was sad or something! And going to see the officials! UGH...I hope they can discern happy tears from sad!

Well, gotta go look at my daughters again and cry some more...have a very blessed day!

They are OURS!!!

I just love saying that :D We are so excited and our love grows stronger everyday! I get up everyday and check the 'my family found me' page just to make sure this isn't really a great dream that I just woke up from...and everyday their pictures are there, and I just want to reach into the screen and squeeze them both and give them hugs and kisses! I have been waiting too long for daughters, they don't have any idea what they are in for!!!

We are about $800.00 away from promise fee...I have a couple of good friends that are helping me plan a large yard sale, complete with baked goods and maybe some lemonade (or just kool-ade, or maybe some sweet tea-we learned something while we were in Louisville)! I am now starting to plan a 6 to 10 mile walk for adoption...just trying to get a hold of people that have organized large walks like I'm thinking...we'll see ;)

I am also looking into 2 job possibilities this week, maybe at Babies R' Us and the other at Walgreen Drugstores. Please pray that I am successful! I am really getting excited at the prospect of working and being able to take care of our homestudy within the next couple of months, and then for the other expenses that we are finding in our guide book for their country. I am getting excited by the hour, I can't believe they are ours, right now it seems surreal...maybe I'll go back to see if they are still on that mffm page! Yup, they are still there! :D Did I say I'm really excited? :)

Thanks for following our blog! We hope you had a very blessed weekend!

Oh HAPPY HAPPY WEEK!!!

Well, if you have been looking at the 'my family found me' page on Reece's Rainbow, you will notice that our 'TWINS' are there! We had sent in our information to our facilitator and to Andrea, but I had not thought things would happen so fast, at least not until Monday of this week. We found out kind of by accident, someone emailed about the new page that was created and she was happy to see new commitments there including our two, Sandra and Slavka!

So my heart sank, :( I worked up the nerve to email Andrea to ask who had come forward, or was it us. She responded so quick that my stomach flipped. I told Tony I couldn't look, so he said he would...and here was her response:

YOU are the family! :)

I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!! I think my heart really sang! I have only felt that way a few times in my life, the day I was married, and everytime I found out I was expecting! I totally feel like we are pregnant, minus the sinus headaches for three months and the night sickness! We are SOOO EXCITED!!! I had so much nervous energy we took a drive and ended up looking at things for the girls! Like I didn't already create a tote of things for them, like cute magenta tops I found on clearance, Hello Kitty hot cocoa mugs, a bouquet of 'stuffed flowers' with faces, a bible memory game...and more!

I'm not sure if we can announce it on the elist until our FSP is posted, so until or unless I hear otherwise, this is the only place that we will announce that Sandra and Slavka are OURS!!!!

Now reality of the work ahead has set in...we received the guide for the country we are adopting from...and there is so much to do! I just thank God for those who have walked this path before me, their experiences will certainly be appreciated! One step at a time. And I refuse to panic about the money. There are several people we know who are nay-sayers and are really trying to make things much bleaker than it needs to be. If it is God's will, these girls, God's girls, God will see to it that every penny, dime and dollar will be there! :) AAAAAHHHHH - THEY ARE OURS!!!!!

We did find out that we cannot rename the girls the names that we chose when we adopt them, the only change will be their last names. I'm just excited to bring them into our family, I think I'm okay about not renaming, at least at first.

The information on the hows and whys of their country is really exciting, but intimidating. There is so much we will need to gather, but after following many blogs, especially 'beautifulgiftofGod', Bella and her family, I know we can do this and that it will feel amazing when it's over!

Our biggest prayer is that we can get everything done and have them here with us before Thanksgiving...What a wonderful day of Thanksgiving that will be!!

We are PRAISING our God for the opportunity to be Sandra and Slavka's mama and daddy! AAAAAHHHHHH!!! The TWINS are OURS!!!!

Well...we just keep plugging along!

Our days are filled with bad stuff like cars breaking down to exciting things like friends coming along side us and making donations to our adoption! I truly feel like life right now is a roller-coaster ride! This past week, we had someone who has become very special to us on this journey tell us that she and her husband would like to donate to our adoption. Well, I was speechless, (which doesn't happen very often) then I regained my composure and emailed back. They sent us a wonderful love offering which is allowing us to send in our Voice Of Hope fee and Family Sponsorship Page fee along with our applications. We can now concentrate on our promise fee and then our homestudy fee. Little steps, but steady steps. We also had a couple of people donate to the twins fund page which is even more encouraging to us! We really had a very blessed week from truly special people in our hearts, and God will bless you for your gracious gifts! Thank You!

Tony and I chose names for the girls the other night and we are so excited about our choices! Can't wait to share them...email me if you want to know what they are, we aren't going to share on our blog until after the facilitator and court accept us to adopt them.

I went out looking for a job this morning at temp agencies, because once I get the twins home I intend on devoting my whole being to them as a full time sahm and homeschool them, as I think that teaching them one on one is the best way to overcome their issues.

Well, the trip to the temp agencies were very unfruitful...there is truly nothing out there, so I am just praying something will open up soon, anything, even retail! I will be going out again tomorrow morning, so if you can pray for success in this, that would be great!

But as we go out on this journey, we know this...God does have a plan for us and for the girls, we just need to continue to be patient...He will provide a way for us to bring them home! :)

What I'm Doing Now...Prayer Blankets

Pink, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow with Pink Border

I am making my Prayer Blankets available for order. I started making Prayer Blankets about 10 years ago in Ashley Nichole's honor. I call them Ashley's Dream. Here are pictures of them in the colour pallet I follow.

Blue, Pink, Purple, Green, Yellow, Blue border

Green, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Pink, Green border

Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Yellow border

Small is Carseat sized $45.00
Medium is Nursery/bassinet/layette sized $55.00
Large is Crib sized $75.00

All prices include shipping unless you are out of the US. And these prices are subject to change if prices of yarn goes up astronomically. I am selling these to raise funds to bring our girls home! Yes another fundraiser :) Anything to get them home! Please email me if you are interested in one and we'll talk price then. And if you are a Reece's Rainbow family, I have special pricing for you so that it isn't so pricey...adoption fees are bad enough without having to spend a lot for something special!

I am keeping my idle hands and minds busy, so that I don't become discouraged in our journey! So, To God Be The Glory!

Have a blessed weekend! :)

Plugging Along...

Well, yesterday was a busy day for me. I went comparison shopping, found a better place to shop, visited with our friend that hosted our party, and I may have landed a temporary part-time tutoring job to teach a woman from Peru how to speak english, and she and her friend would pay me for the tutoring which will be a donation to the twins. I am beginning a very temporary pt english tutoring job starting this Saturday. I will be helping a woman learn to speak english and understand what she is reading for her citizenship exam in a couple months.

Every little bit helps, and I'm still praying for a full time job to hurry to bring the girls home, but we'll see what God has planned! Can't wait for the day that I can look back on all this and 'laugh?'...

Today, I took all of our donations to date and wrote names on the back of the puzzle pieces to begin! We had enough to write names on 80 pieces today! You can see pictures on our 'Puzzlemaniac' website. At least I feel like we are getting somewhere...not fast, but we are getting somewhere...And we are grateful for every donation! :)

Well, time to get some more house work done, enough day dreaming of the day we get to bring them home! :D Okay, I'll multitask...I'll daydream and do housework at the sametime! Sounds like a plan...

Hope you have a blessed day!