It's Miscellany Monday!

1.  My Friends for Adoption friend, Melissa, sent this to me for January.  It deserves to be in a frame and I am working on that.  This is one of my favorite songs.  I love it and it reminds me that through Christ I have victory and I need not let the world make me feel defeated.  Thanks Melissa!

2.  I've been busy with work, etc. lately and didn't get a chance to post anything around Christmas.  My 3-year-old nephew got this for Christmas and once he opened the box, this was his outfit for the remainder of the evening. (My sis-in-law said it was $1.50 at Ikea.  What a deal!)

3.  My brother, whom I miss dearly because he lives in a different state, is in high school (yes we are far apart in age) and he plays goalie for a local hockey team.  He always loved hockey and the goalie position, and this year an opportunity for him to play came about and they actually had need for a goalie on the team (totally a God-thing!) .  So he has been busy playing many games, getting experience, and having a great time.  Here he is in action.  I'm so proud of him!

 

 

4.  I was having a crazy week at home and work again last week and my sweet husband sent these to me at work to cheer me up.  Aren't the unexpected surprises the best!

5.  Ok, I just read that Russian hot chocolate is like a melted bar of chocolate that you can eat with a spoon.  Um....what can be better that that?  Yummy!  I am definitely going to have to try that.  Hmmm, I wonder if it comes in dark chocolate flavor....

Happy Miscellaney Monday!  Wanna participate?  Check out my friend Carissa's site at lowercase letters.  Thanks for stopping by!

It's 2012 - We're getting closer!

We were excited to see the turn of the new year as we believe this will be the year we finally get to be parents!  So where are we at in the whole process?  Well, in the Fall we updated our paperwork that was turning about a year old (because once it's a year old it's considered expired by Russia).  Then in October our coordinator told us we could start gathering new paperwork that will be required for court.  If we can get most of this together before we get a referral and make our first trip to Russia, then we will be able to get a court date faster.  So over the past few months we've gathered, notarized, apostilled, and fowarded 90% of the paperwork that we are able to prepare before court. And the most recent update from our coordinator is that we are now at the top of the waiting list with a few other families from our agency (YAY!), so basically at this point we are just waiting for 2 little ones to be matched up to us.  We are being told that we should receive a referral somewhere around February to April.  We're so excited!!!  We are just trying to keep ourselves busy as we continue to wait.  We hope for a referral soon, as we are ready to meet the little ones that we'll have the blessing of being parents to!

I have to also say that we are very excited to have a majority of the paperwork done.  Adoption requires A LOT of paperwork!!!  But don't take my comment as complaining...I know every bit of it is totally worth it to give 2 little ones a forever family.  We're just glad to get most of it done and be ready for the fun part - being parents!!

So, I have to add....if we only knew that we would have this much paperwork, we would not have started off with this to hold our papers....

...which we quickly filled up to the max and had to switch to this pink file box....

....(oh and yes, that is a stack of approximately 50 documents needed for court sitting next to it!) The pink file box reached it's maximum a month ago so we bought this to hold it all....

We're anticipating that this file box will be large enough to contain all the paperwork here on out. 

Welcome 2012!!!

1.  I received my Friends for Adoption goodie for the month in the mail over the weekend.  Thank you Melissa!  I love it and I will always treasure it.  It was very sweet.  Here's a picture...

2.  First favorite store is Amazon.  I love how people rate things and you can read their comments and know which products work and which don't.  I also love how they sell pretty much everything and have great prices, and they always ship my order to me sooner than they anticipate.  Great idea on their part!

3.  My second favorite store is Target.  I love that the one near my home always have enough cash registers open and I never have to wait in long lines. And, I love their on line coupons.  Double the savings!

4.  Over the weekend, we saw my nephew play his last soccer game for the season.  Check out the look on his face as he is workin' it in this shot.....Isn't that awesome!

 5.  And his brother, my other nephew, had his preschool Christmas performance. 

Oh, and yes that is a fake candle in one hand - and although it is hard to see - his tie in the other.  Guess he was feeling kind of casual that day....how cute!

6.  No matter how many years I've lived in the warmer Southwest (6 now), it still doesn't feel quite like the Christmas season without the cold and snowy weather that I grew up in.  Strange as it may sound to most, I miss the Midwest winters this time of year.

7.  Think Miscellaney Monday is cool?  Well check out Carissa's website and contact her to join....lowercase letters.

8.  Know anyone who is adopting or are you adopting yourself?  Check out the Friends for Adoption website and join it or recommend it to a friend.  Who couldn't use a little encouragement during your wait - and who doesn't love being blessed with a new friend???

Happy Monday!!

1.  Wow.  We've had a busy past few weeks!  Last weekend on the 12th our church hosted a church-wide rummage sale (and bake sale) on our behalf.  Our church is so awesome!!  Although all week long the weatherman said it was going to rain, it didn't and the weather was beautiful.  Thank you, Lord.  We are so grateful and thankful for our church's support and encouragement.  We had lots of stuff that was donated, including yummy baked treats, and lots of help.  Thank you so much HVBC!!! 

2.  This weekend, Dean's sis and her hubby had a garage sale at their house to raise funds to contribute to our adoption funds.  Wow!  We again are humbled at the love poured out to us.  I heard they had a good turn out and a busy day.  Thank you sis and bro-in-law!!  You guys are awesome and we can't thank you enough!!!

 

3.  My sis-in-law also is a rep for Thirty-One.  Ever heard of it? Here's their website thirty-one gifts .  I love their items!!   They have really cute bags, totes, purses, you-name-it, and they host parties at your home - always with a great monthly special.  So she recently had a party at a dear friend's house will all proceeds helping towards our adoption fund!  A huge thank you to my sis and to all her friends who helped contribute!  You're the best and we thank you for blessing us!!!

3.  I received my little goodie from my friend Melissa, who is my Friends of Adoption buddy.  It's so cute and very handy as I am always making lists and lacking something to write them on.  (No good to make lists on little pieces of paper or receipts that end up getting lost in the bottom of your purse, right?)  Check out what she sent to me....(Thanks Melissa!)

 

4.  My friend Melissa also makes super cute snack keepers as a way to raise funds for her adoption.  Look at the one she made for me...

I LOVE it!!!  What a great conversation starter about adoption when I bring goodies to an event.  Melissa did a wonderful job and is very creative.  And I of course had to use it right away!  If you would like one too, here's a link - Our Heart for Adoption Blog. 

5.  I just love my (not-so-little-anymore) brother.  He just turned 16 last month and he is in ice hockey and football.  He is such a great brother.  I miss him since we don't live in the same state anymore.  I feel so sad when we visit and it's time to leave.  Here's him in action:

 6.  Here is a random thought...we helped at a food bank over the weekend and they were frying up lots of turkeys for the huge community meal that they were preparing.  Never had fried turkey but wow - it smelled soooo yummy!  And I'm thankful that they guy I saw cooking them did not get hurt when some huge flames flew up the sides of the pot as he slid a new turkey in.  Yikes that looks dangerous. 

7.  In all the busyness of the holiday season, and the pushing of stores to get us to shop earlier and earlier, don't forget to take time to enjoy and count the the many blessings you have.  You might not realize how many you have until you stop and take a moment to count them.... 

like Miscellany Monday? check out Carissa's site....lowercase letters

1.  This coming Sunday, November 6th is officially Orphan Sunday.  Here's a link for more info... http://orphansunday.org/.  The idea is sweeping across to other countries and they even have a Ukraine/Russia Orphan Sunday Campaign to bring awareness to those countries.  How cool is that? 

2.  I read a great book called Adopt Without Debt by Julie Gumm and thought it was great.  It gave a lot of great ideas for fundraising and tackling the financial aspect of adoption.  Check it out!

3.  I'm not a big Halloween fan, but I made these cookies for my nephews (ages 5 and 3) who are coming over tonight.  I found the idea on the Better Homes and Gardens website (not sure how I ended up there....) but I thought the boys would think "monster cookies" are cool -- and my father-in-law probably will too. :O)

4.  Hands down the best italian beef sandwich ever is Portillo's, and I had the rare chance to devour one last week.  (Rare because we no longer live anywhere near a Portillos.)  It was sooooo yummy!!!  I'd include a picture of it if I knew how to get the picture off of my phone.  (I was trying to snap the shot quickly so as not to embarass my family too much by taking a picture of my food before eating it.)

5.  One of my favorite organizations is Children's HopeChest.  I had heard about the organization's CEO, Tom Davis, and his books Fields of the Fatherless and Red Letters from a gal that we met at an adoption seminar a couple years ago.  I read Fields of the Fatherless and it was great!  I then found out about the organization that Tom is involved with called Children's HopeChest, which is an organization that helps orphans in Eastern-Europe and Africa. 

like Miscellany Monday?  check out Carissa's site....lowercase letters

1.  If we only knew that there was sooooo much paperwork involved in the adoption process for Russia before we got started......we still would have chosen this journey!!!  What are hours of chasing all sorts of paperwork, getting documents notarized, apostilled, redone, making multiple copies, numerous trips to the post office and FedEx and so on......compared to the opportunity to be a family to a child(ren) who has none.  Every moment is totally worth the blessing to be a family to the children God has for us.  So, more paperwork requirements we need to work on over the next month or two.....bring it on!

2.  Hey, I have been blessed with a new friend - Melissa!   I met her by following some blogs and she is also adopting from Russia!   So we can exchange stories and encouragement through our journeys. Check out her blog and see what is happening with her too.  She's awesome!

3.  I also joined the group Friends for Adoption with Melissa.  October is officially the first month.  In this fun little group, we pair up and exchange a little goodie of encouragement with our friend.  (And who couldn't use some encouragement?)  Check out what I received from Melissa this weekend.  I LOVE IT!!!!

4.  Have you heard about the major floods in Thailand? Here's an article about it. Some very good Christian friends of ours are currently living in Thailand. They recently emailed us and said that although the situation is devastating the area, they are thankful to be a part of a local church that is helping those in the community who are displaced.

5. The best kind of "home made" brownies are the Ghiradeli box mix.  You can buy a big multi-pack box from Costco to make sure you always have some on hand for those times when you get a craving and need a brownie fix.  I love how they have little chunks of chocolate in them....yum!

6. I recently signed up for Groupon and purchased some great deals on car washes and maintenance.  Haven't used them yet but it seems like they could end up being some great money-saving deals!  Are others out there getting some good deals with them?

7. I'm thankful to have come across the "miscellany monday" group started by a new friend at lowercase letters and to be able to join the group!  I'm not very creative and we don't have much happening with our adoption process right now other than MORE paperwork and more waiting and fundraising.  So miscellany monday gives me a platform to write some random thoughts (and I have PLENTY of those...just ask Dean).

Happy Monday!

"cover da bebes....."

Dean's sister talked her 3 year-old son (our adorable nephew, Michael) into "letting go" of his little baby blanket in order to upgrade to a "big boy" camouflage-colored blanket.  When asked what he is going to do with his old baby blanket, he replied that he wants to give it to "unca dean and juju to cover da bebes" (translation = to his Uncle Dean and Aunt Julie (aka JuJu) to cover our little ones (the "babies") that we will soon adopt from Russia).  Does that make your heart melt or what???  How sweet!!! -- So I am long overdue (and it has been on my mind for some time...just needed to sit down and do it) to shout out a huge, huge THANK YOU to the many people who have encouraged us on our journey thus far....from our little nephews' recent questions about when we are going to get our "babies" to way back in January 2009 when Dean's sis and her hubby had a huge garage sale when it was cold (sorry to those of you back in Chicago but yes, it felt a little chilly in January here in AZ) and as a surprise to us gave us the proceeds to put towards our future adoption.

We also will not forget the precious package Julie's Mom sent to us that had an "adoption rocks" t-shirt enclosed along with a blank international adoption travel journal for us to record our future trips to Russia, a CD by John Waller with the heart-tugging song "While I'm Waiting," as well as the enclosed card of encouragement - which was in addition to the other cards she has sent and the Russian Christmas ornament last Christmas.  Thanks Mom for being so thoughtful and always sending us little goodies to spur us on our journey!

We also must say a huge thank you to Dean's parents for their encouragement and gifts for our adoption journey.  And we must also say thank you to the many, many others - our pastor, friends, co-workers, and acquaintenances who have heard numerous details or a just snipit of our story and simply gave us an excited smile, words of encouragement, or simply asked how the process was going -- you have no idea how much it means to us!  So thank you everyone for being a part of our lives, for listening to our story, for your prayers, hugs, caring words, and for your support!!!!

....and yes, Michael, we will "cover da bebes" with your blanket when we finally bring our children home!