Doing More And More To Do...

Here is another seal from our state, we just had a couple of other documents apostilled and they just arrived...now if we could just hear from the foundations we applied to!

We really are still plugging along, hoping mountains will be moved for us to go forward.

We were told from someone who is going through the same thing we are that most people we know will not be the ones helping us through this, but it will be the kindness of strangers...

hmmmm...so far that is what we've seen. And those strangers that help may receive more of a blessing than those that don't.

God adopted the gentiles into his family which is a big example of what God wants of us and his plan...why is it most christians don't see that?

Oh well, enough pondering...I'm spending the next 6 hours applying on line for every seasonal job I can in that time... please pray that something (or 2) opens up for me! :)

Have a blessed and beautiful day~

Keeping Our Eyes On The Prize...

This adoption has had so many ups and downs and bumps...I feel like a milkshake! We are still plugging away, with the vision of my two girls in our arms, holding our hands through the airport on our way home...that is what I see and dream of the most! That is the 'Prize' on this journey, to be able to escort two beautiful little girls home, something my heart has wanted for a very long time!

I just sent off a couple more documents for apostilling, hoping for a quick turn around! We have also applied for two grants in the past two weeks. If you are a praying person, please pray for quick answers on those grants! They could be answers to a couple of our prayers...

I started an online fundraiser last week and finally figured out how to make it an 'event' on FaceBook. Every time I listed it, it got lost in the status/news updates...now it's an event that will be hard to ignore...I hope!

I'm having my grand opening Tupperware Party this Saturday. I sure hope I have a better turn out than I have had with my fundraiser so far...I am praying for success in this venture. It has the potential to make us pretty good money towards our adoption, as well as saving money for others!

I am open to starting an online fundraiser for you if you have the need. It's really pretty easy, it just requires participation from your friends and family! Email me kidz2luv@gmail.com and I'll explain it all out for you! I'd love to help...it'll keep me busy and out of trouble! :D

Have a great day!

I Can't Believe How Great It Feels!

I sent out my birth certificate to have it apostilled in the state I was born, Maine, last Thursday. It arrived on Friday, was apostilled and sent back out on Friday...and I received it YESTERDAY!!!

Here are the pics


























Isn't the Maine seal pretty???

We are making progress...can't wait to be done!!! Please pray for our grant applications. We know that God will provide :) But prayers sure do help!

Well, We're Still Plugging Along...

I have been spending time gathering info on grants that we may qualify for toward our adoption. So far I have three I am applying for. Hopefully we'll hear something positive. I am also trying to sell my hand made pins.

I have also, for the time being, signed up to be a Tupperware Consultant to help fund this adoption. Stay tuned, I'll be sure to post when things start heating up with parties! And yes, you guessed it, I still don't have a job :) But that's okay...

God's Will...His Bill. God will provide for this adoption, even if it's when we are about to travel...we just feel it :)

Keep tuning in, it can only keep getting better! I just ask you all to continue to pray! Thanks...

This Wait Is Over...For The Moment...

Apparently the company I applied to work for liked me but hired someone else, but...my staffing agent told me that they wanted him to keep in touch with me as they may hire me in the near future! The important thing is now I know where I stand. Time to move forward...

So, last night I went to visit a favorite cousin of mine through the years, Beth. She is very much a proponent of our adoption is now looking to do a party to help us fund-raise, as that maybe the only way for us to afford our home study and USCIS submission! Details will be shared in the future...

Beth, and her husband Kenny, threw ideas for fund-raising at me for a couple of hours last night and there were a couple of great ones! One is contacting an organization that gives grants for certain circumstances, so I am pleased to say I sent a note to them, so hopefully they will consider a grant to the twins fund! :)

Then Kenny mentioned running clubs for a walk/run for Reece's Rainbow awareness, I had never heard of running clubs, so I search for some on Google and found one here in our home town and a town over. I sent them emails asking if they would be able to help us to organize a run for the twins and to help RR!

My house work is backed up now because of this job hunt and fund-raising endeavor...but it'll be there when I'm done sending letters and emails! :D

Please, I am asking for prayer for our endeavor to fund-raise and bring our girls home...it may seem self centered, but this is their chance to have a loving home with a mommy and daddy, dog, bunny and BROTHERS...something they won't experience where they are now. Thanks! Have a great day!

Waiting...and waiting...and waiting...some more...part II

Okay, with the roller coaster ride of the day, I once again didn't hear anything from my staffing agent. So I called him at 4:30 this afternoon and left him a voicemail. Once again I don't know whether I have the job, but I am encouraged to have a wonderful husband to set things right in my mind. God really does match you up with the right mate for life. I can't thank God enough for him!

Tony told me that I have more competition this time looking for a job, and that the right job is out there for me...we will do whatever God wishes to raise awareness and raise the money to bring our princesses home, even if it means my not having a job. At least Maddie will be happy about me staying home...we have 'girl time' every morning while I eat breakfast. It's practice for when we bring the girls home! :)

Anywho...hopefully tomorrow's update will bring great news...don't worry girls, God will make a way! :D

Patiently Waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

So, I said hopefully next time I blogged I'd have news of a job, but I'm still playing the waiting game. A friend told me I've been waiting so long, I must be an expert...I think she's right! :) I told her I am going to write a book about waiting and invite many Reece's Rainbow families to send me their stories of waiting...might make the best seller list, maybe...

So, today is an upside-down day. Tony usually has Wednesday afternoon off and we do what we need to do and then chill. I can do everything I need to get done in the morning and be ready to go when he gets home. Today he had to work in the afternoon, and my mind and body is all confused! I have a lot to do today but I figured it will all be there when I'm done updating my blog!

We sent out seven letters yesterday to area churches about our adoption and advocation of Reece's Rainbow. Praying we hear from at least a few of them about what we are doing. It would be great if Tony got a chance to go speak at a couple of them to get the word out here in New England! Please pray for that...

Anyway, both interviews for the job went well, I'm just hoping and praying that the reason I haven't heard from my staffing agent is because he is checking on my job history and such. I guess if I don't hear from him by tomorrow morning, I'll be calling him. Gone are the days you are hired on the spot I guess! :P Oh well...

I guess I'll update you all tomorrow after I speak with the SA...all of your prayers are coveted!

I Guess...

I've taken far too long a vacation from this blog! I'm back and on my way out to my first interview in a year! I am so afraid to get excited, although I had a tough time sleeping last night thinking of the day we would go get our new daughters! :)

Hopefully the next blog will be that I have a job!!

Well...Finally!

We have finally decided on a homestudy provider, and are really excited to get started! We decided to change places because they seemed to take too long for just returning a simple phone call...and their web site seemed to be too interested in domestic adoption anyway, and almost to the point of trying to talk you out of international adoption. Oh Well...moving on now... :)

I had a really bad month last month with migraines and all, and then a stomach bug last week...yuk! But that is the way we are attacked, always with our health. So glad I'm feeling better.

Today I actually made red pepper relish! OMGoodness was it fantastic!!! I know what everyone is getting for christmas next year!! :)

Well, just thought I'd stick my nose in and let you all know we haven't fallen off the face of the earth...just needed time... Thank you all for hanging in there looking for us! Can't wait to go get our princesses!!!

Happy Fathers Day, And More...

I have to say this has been a tough month. Nothing too difficult, just lots of stuff...and tomorrow is Fathers Day!

Fathers Day is going to be rather melancholy for me. Tony is going to work because our sons are not going to be here, Chris is working, Austin is in Kentucky at a christian concert, and Cale is still in Kentucky, so Tony has no reason to be home...this year! :) He gave his assistant the day off so he could spend it with his little ones, and I'm just dreaming of next year when the girls will be bringing him breakfast in bed and then going to church with their new forever daddy! That is soo exciting! :D

Tomorrow is also a very important anniversary in our lives...June 20th was the day that Tony said I could look into Reece's Rainbow again, I did and saw these two beautiful faces looking back at me asking to come home. It's the day I texted Tony and asked if we could have two instead of one that they are twins, and he said sure write to Andrea and ask about them...so I did! Tomorrow is a very important day in our lives and the lives of our new girls. June 20th will always be a very important day to me, as will when we submitted our paper work to Andrea, our travel day, our gotcha day, the day the get home, their birthdays...our lives are about to change and we can't wait!!! :D

Well, I'm off to clean my house, again...I'd like to wish every dad that reads my blog an incredible Fathers Day!!!

Just A Quick Update...

I just wanted to share what I received for my birthday from my 96 year old grandmother, my kids call her bobche, which is polish for grandmother. She is the girls great grandmother. She told me she couldn't think of anything else she wanted to give me other than a hand made crocheted hat and scarf set and a hat with little ear covers for the twins! What a true blessing :) I have a set for each of them! What a wonderful birthday gift for me...

Have a wonderful day!

Getting more excited...

Okay, so I called our social worker and told her I was sending an email to her regarding scheduling our homestudy. That phone call was on Friday and I sent the email on Friday. Now I am sitting here on pins and needles waiting for the all important phone call...VERY EXCITED!

I have been sitting here ticking off the holidays before we bring our girls home. We have fathers day, 4th of July, Labor Day and, in the event that we can't travel in late October/early November, Thanksgiving! That should be it...VERY EXCITED!

Right now I'm getting ready to go away for 3 days to Rochester, NY for a Gifted Talented Conference. I've been going to these conferences with my friend Cindy for quite sometime now and really enjoy learning about the different games and curriculum that there is for children and deciding what curriculum and games to get for our girls when they come home. I'm looking forward to this weekend!

I'm also excited about weekends again because for 3 Sundays a month I have Tony back and we can go back to church as a couple! That is really exciting for me!!! This Sunday, one of my closest friends husband is going to take pictures of Tony and I so that we can have some semi-professional pictures of us for our profile and to send in a little book we are making and sending with another couple that we hope will be traveling in June! A book so the girls will recognize us when we arrive! And let them know we are their mommy and daddy and are coming to get them...we hope it all works out that way!

Well, gotta go do some laundry and pack for the weekend. Hopefully I'll blog some more before we leave on Thursday. Have a blessed week!

Well, It's Official...

Tony went to work yesterday afternoon and took over as the new manager! He really likes his new staff, and he actually was in a great mood when he got home :) He said the 30 minute ride home gives him time to unwind before he gets home...a plus for me!

His store isn't top in the market like the store he just left, but there is tons of room for improvement, so it could be a better store in a while. To put it differently, he won't be making the money we thought at first, but that's okay and here is why...

Remember my constant rant of not finding a job? Well please pay attention, this is really important and a lesson I'm learning along the way:

God is in the details. Did you get that? God is in the D E T A I L S...that's right! So this whole time, God was planning for Tony to be promoted giving us just about the right amount, nothing more and nothing less than what we will need. And that always seems to be His Way!

So now that I don't have a car during the day, because we need our car to last for a while, I will be able to do things at home instead of worrying about finding work and I'll be able to get paperwork done and prepare the bedroom for our twins...God has allowed me to stay home and be the stay at home mom that I have always felt called to be :)

Well, I have alot of things I need to do, especially call to schedule our HOMESTUDY!!! Plus some other not so fun things like clean the bathroom, do laundry and wash the floors :( But all the while I'll be thinking of my girls...can't wait to add homeschooling to my list of things to do! :)

Have a wonderful day!

Well, Kind Of A Big Day...

Let me back-track a bit...Our week started off with some so-so news. It seems that the country that we are adopting from closes down for summer vacation from July to September. Well at first I wasn't too happy, but as I started to think about it, that actually works in our favor. At the time of that news, I was feeling pressure to get things in gear and find a job (no pressure at all right?), and start planning and trying to get everything done...blah blah blah. Well, suddenly I realized I had a timeline and my brain cleared and it is clear as a sunny day. So I now can truly say that we should be traveling in October. So then today...

My day started off like most others, trying to get motivated to do something. That is difficult when you start your day with a migraine. Then it got interesting...

Tony called me about 10:30 to ask me to pray for him. Hmmm, not an unusual request, but different because he said he was going to get a visit from his Regional Market Manager. Well he didn't know what to expect, except that he was going to be given his own store! Yes, ordinarily a great thing...but under the present circumstances it could be a tumultuous situation.

Well, he had his visit and was given a store about 20 miles from here, which will necessitate a move to another town, which we may or may not do right away. We have already started our adoption paperwork here so we may just complete the adoption and move later on...still on the fence about that one.

He becomes a manager tomorrow. Along with additional hours, he will have 3 Sundays off a month (up until now he has worked almost every Sunday since last October :( ) so we can go back to attending church again, YAY, he will receive a commission on sales every paycheck and he will receive a quarterly bonus! That is the biggest news! I don't have to find a job and we will be able to move forward without fundraising for our initial fees anymore!!!! So now when people want to donate, we can direct them to our FSP so their donations are tax deductible. Then we are going to have business cards printed with the picture of our button of our twins, with our fs page and blog address to hand out to everyone and anyone who wants to see.

Our very next adoption item is our home study fee and passports which I can proudly say we can provide for those fees...we'll just have to fundraise for 12,000.00-13,000.00 for all of our other fees!!!

So, as long as things goes forward as was told to Tony today, tomorrow afternoon I will be calling to schedule our homestudy for late in June! And then we have all of our other paper monster to plan for....OMGOSH! This could really be happening....AAAAAAGGGGHHHH...Going to bed now, I can't believe what tomorrow can mean...time to dream of finally bringing our beautiful girls home forever! :)

God's blessings...

What A Beautiful Service

I just finished watching Chrissie's Celebration of Life Service a while ago. She was a beautiful princess that finally found her forever family. It was a blessing to hear about her and the story that her mother, Lorraine, told about her adoption, the joy and happiness Chrissie 'Jewel' brought to the family and the decisions they had to make regarding surgery and treatment. It really was a uplifting time.

As much as I am saddened by her passing, I can't help but feel some joy that someday soon we will see her again, this time in person, watching her dance and jump, run and play. She has been totally restored to her original splendor which God intended, and I'm sure she will still 'be the boss'!

I am grateful to the Patterson family for sharing their Serbian Sensation with the world, during the hospital stay and today for her Celebration into life. The love they all have for their princess was very evident in the service today. I am honored I was able to attend, even 2000 miles away. God has gifted everyone with many blessings today, I just pray that others can see that.

Well I'm off to spend time with hubby. I pray that you will have a God Bless evening too.

Barbara Christyn Joy Patterson

I took a few days off to just re-evaluate things and returned to my email group for Reece's Rainbow and facebook only to find out that our beloved Chrissie had passed away early Wednesday morning. My heart is broken for Chrissie's family right now. There is nothing more to say.

Click on the title of this blog and it will bring you to Lorraine's blog for Chrissie.

I'll blog again soon, just not now, I'm just too sad.

Our Anniversary...25 YEARS! When did that happen? Part II

Well, like I said earlier, we spent the day reminiscing about and visiting our past. Spent a chilly, but beautiful day together, and it's funny, it was quiet and I didn't mind too much...must have been the 'special-ness' of the day :D

We came home and after dinner, we had our beautiful anniversary cake from my sister! Here we are cutting the cake...

And the cake is being eaten...

When we cut our cake at our wedding, May 10, 1985, Tony wouldn't let me do what I did last night, and it was fun...so the next picture is what I had always wanted to do...

And yes that was a staged annoyance frown! We had fun with that and he couldn't believe I took the pic, but I just couldn't help myself... :D I'll have to work on that for next year for our renewal...everyone is welcome!

And this is how we spent today...

I can't wait til the day that the twins can 'Hop on Pop' as he is sleeping just like the boys used to do... :)

Good night all, God's many Blessings to you...

Our Anniversary...25 YEARS! When did that happen?

For me, it feels surreal...it just doesn't 'feel' possible, and yet everytime I do the math, it comes up the same...25! Unless I'm doing something wrong with my math, maybe I'm not applying the proper 'new math' rules...Did someone change the rules again without telling me?? :D Anyway, it just doesn't feel possible, and I don't feel my age either! I don't get it, but that's okay...time flys when you are having fun?

I am so happy we've made it this far. We wanted to renew our vows, but when we saw Slavka and Sandra, I wanted to have them more, so we didn't do the whole gown, preacher, meal thing...we felt we needed to bring them home and then celebrate our new family all at once, corny I know, but that's me! Take me or leave me...I always wanted a daughter, and now we're getting two! :D Complete family (maybe, we'll see what God has to say later)!

We didn't do a lot yesterday, we drove around Tony's hometown and saw places that we went to while we dated and visited his family grave and just reminiced about our early lives. I had a wonderful time, but Tony felt like he should have done more...little does he know what he is doing now will certainly benefit us all down the road. I love that he feels he needs to do more, I just wish he'd get that I never care what we are doing, I just love being together...he says it's a guy thing! Poor guys! :D

Anyway, Sunday was a special day, and I didn't realize that my sister was going to celebrate our anniversary on the same day as Mother's Day and my mothers birthday. She started her day creating a replica of our wedding cake, minus the cascade of butterflies along the side. This is the picture:

The color matched our wedding party colors and our original cake colors...I don't know what inspired her, but I'm not complaining! We were so blessed :D

She also gave us a beautiful silver anniversary frame:

I can't wait to have a nice picture to place into the frame :)

Well, that is all for now, I will blog some later since I have pics of us cutting and eating our anniversary cake! I still have 3 other days to make up for, and I really haven't run out of blog ideas, at least not yet... I'll see you and blog about last night! Hope you have a great day full of blessings!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day today!

My day was special. I spent the day at my parents house and had a nice time catching up. We celebrated Mother's Day, my mother's birthday and our silver anniversary. That was special.

Unfortunately Tony had to work, as did Austin and of course Cale is away and had to work all day. But I did have a wonderful time! I'll share what we received for our anniversary tomorrow since tomorrow is our big day!

See, I told you no pity party...I'm too blessed for one! And by the way, one of the biggest gifts was Austin getting high speed internet for the house...that means no more interuptions and more blogging and email for me! :) YAY!!

Have a blessed night!

Wow...36 + hours without internet...

Can really cramp my plans! Sorry I didn't blog, I would have if I had the chance!

I was hoping to keep up on how things were progressing with Christyn Joy, Chrissie, but not having the internet was like being on a desert island :( I had no contact with anyone...I didn't like it. The biggest issue was Chrissie updates. I really freaked when I got the digest from Lorraine and it was looking rather dark for her. But I know that God is bigger than anything we are going through, so that helped. Then when I told Tony my frustrations and how I thought it was all satan, Tony said it was all God...making me rely on Him and not the internet...wise, and that is why God put Tony together with me!

Anyway, Chrissie is doing better right now and we just need to remember to pray for her. God will take care of the rest!

Sorry for not blogging, I'll make up for the last couple of days over the next couple of days, I promise!

Hoping you all have a VERY HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!! I know that I will! :) Love to all!