Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow...

To say that God is blessing our adoption plans for Sasha and confirming that this IS His plan for us is an understatement. Yesterday, we had a family come to our home and offer a $10,000 gift to our adoption. Then, just hours later, another $5,000 to $6,000 was offered after a family in our church sold their mini van, which had been on the market for about 6 weeks. God is good! Oh, my gosh, I can't believe we are about to start another international adoption.

Meet Sasha

Updated September 10, 2009 We can't post pictures of Sasha on our blog until he is legally ours.

Through a set of circumstances only God could have orchestrated, Sasha, a 13 year old Ukrainian orphan will be living with us for three weeks. He has been with us for almost a week and we are having a blast with him. Please pray for Bucky and I! We have fallen in love with this fella and are praying God would provide the funding to adopt him (and it looks like He might just be doing it).

About two weeks ago I decided I was ready to adopt again, however, I was thinking another infant adoption. I began to pray that God would drop an orphan off at our front door because we simply do not have the money at this time to start another private adoption. Well, God answered that prayer in record timing. So, here is the story if you are interested...

There is a humanitarian aid organization called Frontier Horizons that brings orphans from the Ukraine and Nicaragua over to the U.S.A. two times a year for a three week period. The purpose of Frontier Horizons is to give the orphans an educational experience here in the United States. A family in our area paid the sponsorship fee and agreed to host Sasha during his stay in the U.S., however, for some reason they were not able to fulfill their commitment. Sasha was already on his way to the U.S. when Frontier Horizons received this news. Through a co-worker, Brian Lambert (Bucky's best friend) received the information and called Bucky. Bucky and I talked about it and agreed to host Sasha for the three weeks he is here. We were approved to host him VERY quickly because we already had a homestudy and background checks from our previous adoptions. All that happeded on Thursday of last week and Sasha arrived early Saturday morning. He is such a sweet boy, a little rough around the edges at times, but hey, what 13 year old isn't. Please be in prayer for our family, we want to be in the center of God's will at all times.

Update on Brennan

Brennan was a different child for about a week after his surgery - happy, cute and content. Then he began getting really cranky again. I took him back to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor today and his left ear (the one with the brand new tube) is infected. I have to do ear drops for a week and go back to ENT in two weeks. I don't know what they will do if it is still infected in two weeks. Please pray for me. He is sooo cranky! He cries at a drop of a hat, especially when you tell him "no" (that could just be his age,he's almost two). He may be cutting teeth too. Who knows? I am doing all I know to do to keep water out of his ears. He wears ear plugs any time I think he might get close to water. It doesn't help that Xan is going through a really rotten attitude stage with me. I am really working hard on being consistent with discipline with him right now so that this stage will be short lived. But I am about to go INSANE with all the attitudes and crankiness!!!! Ahhh, but my mom is coming in town this weekend and I can't wait to see her.

Sorry that I don't have any pictures. Our camera's LCD screen shattered and we haven't had time to fix it.

Sick Day

You know it is going to be a rough day when your baby wakes you up early, running a 103 degree temperature. Poor Brennan, he can't seem to get a break. He is supposed to have his left ear's tube replaced next Wednesday. So, when he woke up this morning running a high fever, I wanted to get him in to see the doctor asap so we could get him better before surgery. Turns out his ears are in really bad shape (the dr. said he has "angry" ears) and that's what is causing the fever. We just got off 10 days of Augmentin Extra Strength and his ears got worse while on antibiotics. So, now we are trying 3 days of antibiotic shots. He got a shot today and we have to go back tomorrow and Saturday too. They are very painful for the little fella. Please pray that these shots will provide some sort of relief until we can have the surgery on Wednesday because Brennan is miserable.

Duncan's New Park

Laura, Sarah Beth, and I (and all of our kids) went to Duncan's new park on Wednesday for a picnic lunch and playtime. We all had a wonderful time, well, everbody but Jackson, he wasn't feeling so well. :-(

Brennan


Xan


Mary Beth


Jackson


Emily


Hannah

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY!!!

Today we celebrated Xan's third Gotcha' Day. Three years ago today, Bucky and I got on an airplane headed for Guatemala to pick up our beautiful baby boy. We are so thankful that God chose us to be his parents. Xan is a smart, healthy, silly, and talkative litte guy and we love him so much! We enjoyed cake with his preschool class this morning, then this evening we had a small party at CiCi's Pizza (Xan's favorite place to eat).





Brennan is frantically signing that he wants MORE pizza.


These are some of Xan's best friends (yes, he does have guy friends too)

Emily


Hannah


Mary Beth

He Is Risen, He Is Risen Indeed!

I hope you and your family had a wonderful time celebrating Jesus Christ rising from the dead! Hallelujah, He is Risen!

After lunch on Sunday, Xan got to enjoy his first Easter Egg hunt. He had so much fun. Brennan wasn't interested until he realized the eggs were filled with chocolate. Then he got really excited. Sorry, I don't have pictures of them in their Easter outfits. I was sick Monday and Tuesday of last week, Brennan has an ear infection, and Xan had pink eye. Nobody felt like smiling last week.







What happens when Brennan feels like he hasn't had enough chocolate? He throws a fit!