Our boys! A reminder!

I just wanted to share our boys again!! I just want to pinch them! We are waiting to review our home study and than it has to be sent to the SC government to approve. Than off to immigration it goes and we will be sending it with our dossier!! God has been so good to us! Thankful for tax returns!

Making progress!!

Well it has been a while since I have posted. Saturday we will be finishing up our home study. It has taken us longer than expected but God has matched us with an amazing social worker who believes in what we are doing! It is such a blessing to have someone who knows that God calls us to do some crazy things ( like adopt 4 kids with Down Syndrome)! We are hoping it doesn't take long to get the homestudy finished. At the same time we have started compiling the documents needed to submit our dossier!!

This adoption seems so different than the last one. It seems so unreal to us at this point. Maybe it is all the waiting and maybe it is because the last adoption I was a nervous mess who had little faith in the Lord!!! This time Tyler and I just feel such peace about what God is doing in our life and how it will look in the end. The boys are in our minds so much. Sometimes we think to ourselves that we don't think about them enough! We love them even though we have never met them. But God has shown me recently that they are not mine, nor will they ever be, not truly. Neither are Hunter, Asher or Emma. But they are His!!! I can't save them physically nor spiritually. I can't save them from being an orphan. God can use me, but He is the one saving. And if he chose not to rescue them from living in that terrible orphanage, it is not because he doesn't love them. Because He is with them, He loves them more then I ever could. He cares for them more than I ever could. God does not call us to "save" these children, he tells us to follow Him! His leading!! With His strength!!! I feel so humbled right now and I pray the Lord would keep me in this place!! I am thankful for His love and His grace, and I pray He protects Gideon and Zechariah, mind, body and spirit! But I know He already is doing that!

Gotcha Day and Many Blessings!!!

Well today is December 27th, Asher and Emma's Gotcha Day!!!!! This has been the most amazing year of our life. We have learned so much of what it means to give yourself away to others. We have become mini- experts on Down Syndrome, where even Hunter is educating the public on DS! Speaking of Hunter, God really knew what he was doing when He made Hunter. That kid has more love and compassion than I could ever wish to have. I am being honest here, he has NEVER once been jealous of Asher and Emma! It doesn't bother him that people always come up to us and ask about the babies. In fact he chimes in and tells them all about the babies!! And he is the most amazing big brother! He loves playing with them and you can't get Asher to do anything if Hunter is in the room because he just lives to watch his big brother.

Ok I am going to humble myself here. It is hard having 3 kids! Haha! I know what you are thinking.... How is she going to handle 5??? Well I said it is hard, not impossible. Impossible if it was only my strength I leaned on!! With the Lords strength we are able to get school done each day, go to Ot, PT and speech therapy and have 2 EI appointments a week. And God even helps me to somehow try and manage to keep our house somewhat clean ( this is not always the case)!! This year has shown me that keeping your house straight isn't a sign if you are a good wife and mom, although it is something I try and do each day. But when you have 3 kids(or kuds for that matter) and you home school and there is all those therapy appointments each week, you just can't get it all done, and that is ok!!! Remind me that I said this next week! Children are a blessing from the lord!! All of them, the typical ones ( if there are any), the ones with extra chromosomes, the ones with missing chromosomes, all of them are worth the extra effort and work! And for those of you who keep saying how is she going to manage 5 well..... I can't.. alone. But I am never alone and I am strong, not from my own strength but from the one who made me! What blessings and lessons we have had this year!

This last week was Christmas and we really saw the ministry of Christo lived out through friends of ours. These friends of ours were one of the two couples that were our adoption mentors and heroes! The prayed for us and supported us and encouraged us with Asher and Emma's adoption!!! And they are doing the same things again this adoption for Gideon and Zechariah!!! God is so Good to bless us with the people he gas put in our life. Our friends were happy for us and rejoiced on this new adoption journey when many didn't and still don't. They have continued to pray for us and our 2 boys who are sitting in an orphanage waiting for their Daddy and Mommy to come get them!!! They have financially blessed us with our last adoption and this one! As well as asking others to help in the cause for our boys! Thank you dear friends!!!! We are so blessed by you!!! Thank you for your heart for the orphan, the unloved, the people without a voice!! God has blessed us more than we could ever ask with friends such as these. And the amazing part is this is just one of the families who have done this for us, but we have many friends that are our biggest supporters!

And the last blessing I want to share is the most recent one. Last Thursday I took Emma to the doctors office because I though she had an ear infection. As we were waiting in the exam room the lady from the front desk came and brought me a card with our name on it. At the time I didn't think much of it, thinking it was a Christmas card they gave to all their patients. As we were going to bed that night we opened the card to hang on our stairs with all our other cards and there was a gift card in it!!! We were shocked and overwhelmed with the generous gift they had blessed us with! I am not sure why we were blessed with this gift. I know that businesses adopt needy families but I don't think that is the case with this as they know we have military insurance that pats 100%, and there are so many that come in and have to pay out of pocket. There are many more people in need than us. But for whatever reason God blessed us with this gift and we are thankful, hoping for the opportunity to pass on the blessings.

Ok I know I said the last thing was the last blessing but I forgot to mention a wonderful blessing. Tomorrow is Tyler and I's 6th anniversary!! Without that wonderful man there would be no gotcha day, or adoptions for that matter. There would not be all the wonderful friends we met in Italy who will be our greatest friends for eternity. And without Emma there would be no doctors visit. I don't know many men who would want to take on 3 children or 5 children for that matter who don't share his blood, but he does! And God his made him into an amazing husband, leader of our family, father, provider and best friend. And God is the only reason our marriage is as strong as it is and will never break down. God is the reason Tyler has a heart for the fatherless, God is the reason Tyler's heart is turned towards his children. And without God our lives would mean nothing! Thank you God for this day and tomorrow, for all your blessings!! And for the heart you have given us for the orphans! May we share it with everyone we know!!!

More paperwork!

Well this week has been and will be a big week for the adoption. Saturday we had our fingerprints done for our FBI background check. Last night I went to the doctors for my bronchitis and they filled out my physical form for our dossier. We have our first home study visit on Thursday and hopefully the second will be soon. We will have to wait for all of our state background checks to come back for the home study to be complete. Friday Tyler has his physical for the HS and our dossier. So we are making alot of progress!!

It is crazy that we can already start compiling our dossier paperwork! It seems like the process is so different than the process for Ukraine. We are still praising God for all of His provision. We have been able to pay for the home study and our initial agency fees.

We are still trying to think of fundraiser ideas to raise the couple more thousand dollars we need to complete the adoption. Let us know if you have any ideas!!!!!

Our Family Pics

Last month we had friends take pictures of our family for Asher and Emma's post placement reports. We really need to get professional pictures taken, but I have to admit I am the worst at getting that done! We were so blessed to have Jeff and Kira with sweet Lily over for Asher's 2nd birthday and since time was running out, we just decided to take the pictures on our front steps. Here are a few!!

The Joys of Paperwork

This week while Tyler has been overseas I have been working on Adoption paperwork. The last adoption I really dreaded the paperwork, but now that I see what we get in the end, it is exciting!! We have sent our service agreement to our agency. We also are set up on the Reece's Rainbow site!!!!!! We also have submitted all of our initial paperwork to our home study agency. So hopefully as soon as Tyler gets back we can have our first home study appointment! There is a lot more involved on the clearance side of this adoption. Since Gideon and Zechariah's country is a Hague country, they require clearances from every state I have lived in since I was 18!!! So they need all of the addresses and dates! I can't think back that far! So I did the best I could and hoping that works. It is going to be difficult getting our clearance from Italy since we are not there now. Another blessing that we learned from our last adoption is that God will provide what we need and when we need it!

We also have a praise report!! After only 24 hours there was $200 in our adoption fund!!! When this happens it just is reassuring that God is behind this!! We are so thankful to Him for His provision of Gideon and Zechariah and our family!

We just started therapy at Palmetto Richland Rehab Center with Asher and Emma. They have been great about showing me what to do with them and I have been able to start preparing for the boys. We plan on homeschooling them right along with Hunter. I am learning there is still so much I do not know about Down Syndrome! I have been blessed to find some websites that have lots of great info on the subject! I was actually surprised how many people Homeschool their DS kiddos. I also found out they will still be able to get therapy through the school system but at home. I have also found some great info on Celiac Disease and just got my first batch of coconut flour to begin practicing!! I will let you know how it goes.

Please keep our family including Gideon and Zechariah in your prayers. We pray every day for God to protect these boys and provide for all of their physical and emotional and spiritual needs!

Here are some new pics of the kids!

Look At How They Have Grown!!

Since has been since February since I last updated the blog, I am so excited to show you the kids!

Hunter is 7 and has become a book worm! He is the most amazing young man! And most importantly he has submitted his life to the Lord!! We have been praying for this since Tyler and I were saved and praise God for Him moving on Hunter's heart! He has done so well with Asher and Emma! He lives them dearly and they are his best friends... well Asher is any way!

Asher is now cruising slowly around furniture and he can sign 15 signs!! He has the cutest little faces and he is soo ornery! He

Ms. Emma is our princess!! She is a prissy little thing who can be the happiest little thing one minute and screaming her head of the next! She sat up for 50 whole seconds on Friday!! She has alit of sensory issues but she is making such progress! She also can see now that she had her cataract removal surgery in March!