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Heartbroken

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Late Wednesday afternoon, we received a call that Y’s aunt had assumed guardianship of him and was no longer available for adoption.  Our hearts were crushed.  We were already looking forward to getting his adoption paperwork started and having him here this summer.  Planning and preparing.  Suddenly halted.

We knew when we started this that there was no guarantee that we would actually get to bring Y home until the court date.  But to have everything end so quickly.  To know that we will never get to squeeze him and love on him and hear him say he loves us in Ukrainian and English.  That is hard.

But…

We know that God is Sovereign.  We know that while we can’t protect and care and disciple Y that the Lord is providing and caring for him even now.  God is bigger than us and can do so much better at caring for Y and for all of our kids way better than we can ever do.

We are praying for Y and for our healing heart.  We are trusting that God is providing and protecting and guiding him.  And we are praying for his aunt as she raises him as a mom would.  I pray that they both can grow in knowing the Lord.  Will you please pray that with us?

And I am praying that one day.  Even if it’s only one day, we’ll be able to see Y again and give him hugs and loves.  If only one more time.

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December Randomness

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 This is how Emmie is when I put her down and am not touching her.  To say she is a mama’s girl is putting it mildly!

 After a bit of whining, a sibling will typically come along and try to cheer her up.
 Dress up time!  Y enjoyed this spider man shirt and he was deeply saddened when they all misplaced it.
 Y quickly learned how to flip on the couch.  No lessons in that.

 While traveling for Thanksgiving, our front grille met an untimely demise via a carpet square on the interstate.  We praise God that it was only the grille that broke.  Mark was able to order the replacement on line, search youtube on how to install it and replace it in less than 30 minutes.    My hero.

 How Mark found Ace one night.
 Determination
 Feet are a glorious thing

 Y’s first day.  So much fun to see that language couldn’t keep our kids from all enjoying each other.

 A trip to the mall, Y and all the kids enjoyed watching the man decorated a cookie cake.
 But seeing Santa and having Santa actually wave to him….Y was in awe.
 Emmie just building up her muscles.  A girl has to work to look this good.
 Giant tower with giant blocks.

 And some bunny ears and photo bombing!
 Y and Emmie!  Instant bonding.
 Our sweet Y enjoying some movie time with Ceili Rain.

 Mark was working on replacing the fireplace and all the kids were piling on each other pretending something or other.  Y was just watching and a little unsure.  When I told him what they were doing, he joined right in!  There was a pile of kids and I couldn’t make heads or tails of them for awhile.

 I think Y thought that all it did was rain here.  We had some pretty serious rain for a couple of days and our creek flooded.  Mark took the kids for a walk to see the flooding.  They just had to get in it.

 Everybody eats snacks this way, no?

 Liam received a snap circuits for Christmas.  But everyone loved it.  Ace and Y worked on it for over an hour one day.  So much fun to watch.

My playdoh creations during another rainy day.  Baymax, a train, Mr. Potato Head.  I may have a future in playdoh creation.  Smirk.

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Happy 9th Birthday, Liam!

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Yeah, this is the only picture I have of Liam and his cake.  He wanted Revolutionary War soldiers on it.  Easy peasy for an over tired mama!

 When we visited Ge and Granddaddy, Liam was able to open presents from them.  So, at least we have a few of him opening gifts.

On birthday day, we took the whole crew to the movies to see Big Hero Six.  It was definitely a treat for all.  It was a very fun, good movie!

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Nine is Divine!

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The end of October brought us a beautiful picture and much anticipation and preparation as we hosted an 8 year old boy who couldn’t speak English and, as far as we know, had never experienced a Christmas with family.  We wondered if he would love us the way we already loved his picture.  If he would think we were insane or just absolutely crazy…

Yeah,  he fit right in.
December brought that boy to our home and our hearts…well, they melted.  With each smile and simple request and heart attack (the boy would jump down several steps at a time to go downstairs, I honestly wondered if he would make it without an ER trip or two), we melted more.  He took our hearts back with him when he got on that plane in January and we knew that we needed to move heaven and earth to make sure he came home to us soon.

Our Y the Brave!
And here we are.  Starting our home study.  Starting this journey.  Scared, thrilled, nervous, and anxious.  The kids are thrilled that we are seeking to adopt Y.  As we started hosting they all agreed to host him and when we asked them if they would like for him to live with us forever there was a resounding yell of approval.  We have a great agency and tremendous support from family and friends.  
So, with all that said, we are happy to announce that we are praying to add #9 to our family by the end of the year!
There are a lot of unknowns so we are taking each step slowly and carefully.  We are anticipating everything yet expecting very little (the same way we walked through hosting).  
We would covet everyone’s prayers as we walk this journey.    
Our first step is to get our home study done.  We are anxiously awaiting on that paperwork to make it to us in the mail.  After that is a commitment paperwork for our agency and then dossier paperwork and fingerprinting etc.  We’re hoping to start our travel by the fall but we know that nothing is predictable and nothing is planned when it comes to adopting.
Our goal is to do this debt-free.  We obviously don’t have $30,000 lying around to do that so we are praying that God will provide.  Within the week we will be setting up a crowd funding site and planning fundraising events.  So, keep your eyes and ears peeled!
And Y, well, he’s a part of our family, now and forever, no matter what, no matter how goofy we all are.
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Merry Christmas!

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I’m just a bit sick when I think about these next pictures.  We realized at the end of January that we have some how deleted a lot of pictures.  All of our Christmas day present opening chaos pictures are gone.  We had a tinsel fight after we decorated the tree.  Those pictures have disappeared.  And, even sadder, Liam’s birthday pictures are gone.  So from here on through almost the new year, most of these pictures are from our phones so please be patient.

 Zoe and I not only made pants for all the kids, Zoe wanted to make pants for her and Ceili Rain’s American Girl Dolls.   She did an amazing job!

 Christmas Day!  I was so excited I got to make some cute embroidered shirts for everyone too!

 We finally did it.  We got Mark a coffee maker!  And it’s a pretty red.  It has definitely been used quite a bit since then.
Christmas Breakfast and Y’s first time eating hot fruit compote and my homemade biscuits.  He approved.

 Meal time is always quite entertaining in our house.
 We got Y a rubber band bracelet hook and bands.  By the time he left he had over 15 bracelets made and they almost made it to his elbow.
 We found out pretty quickly that Y LOVES cycling!  He would have been riding every single day, no matter the weather.

Okay, we worked hard to make sure Y not only tried a lot of American food but that he had some that was rather familiar to him.  He did not like borscht even though his brief description said he did.  But cucumbers and radishes and any kind of meat…that was perfect for him.  A veteran hoster had mentioned a blog called Natasha’s Kitchen and testified that her recipes were pretty authentic for Eastern Europe.  Every time I made one of her recipes, Y was super excited and would quickly give me two thumbs up.  For Christmas supper, I made meat piroshki.  Oh my, we won’t even discuss how unhealthy these things are all fried up.  But the taste.  Ahhh, they were amazing!  This may be our new traditional Christmas supper.

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Looking a Lot Like Christmas!

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 Traditionally, we purchase our Christmas tree the week after Thanksgiving but since Y was coming, we wanted to let him in on the experience.   So, we waited.  It proved beneficial.  He really enjoyed seeing  the trees and  hiding from us and jumping out saying, “Boo!”

 Thankfully, Mark was able to explain what we were doing when the guy came to cut the tree down.  There were plenty of times that we forgot to explain what we were doing or going to do and he was so confused for a bit.

 Decorating ornaments for the tree.  I love how I caught Emmie cheesing for the camera.

 Our gingerbread train.

 I finally ran out of the fabric I had purchased for stockings some years ago.  Since I needed two new stockings, we decided to do new ones for everyone.  I absolutely love these and the pattern was so easy and beautiful.  They are fully lined and took less than 30 minutes to complete.  And, my combo machine meant I could embroider all of our names on them. I loved seeing all these stocking lining our fireplace, er, I mean, where our fireplace used to be.  Christmas season was the perfect time for us to start converting our “fake” fireplace in to an actual functional gas fireplace.

And the front yard decorations this year!
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Merry Christmas with Ge and Granddaddy!

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We traveled to visit Granddaddy and Ge and all of our extended family to celebrate December birthdays and Christmas.
True to Y’s personality, he tagged along and enjoyed the time with everyone.
 A little present balancing before the chaos!

 Checking out the presents before the chaos!

 And after opening gifts with Aunt Yaya and the fam, we celebrated Christmas with Granddaddy’s sister and fam.

 My favorite picture.  Y had gone to the bathroom but had been in there a loooong time.  We were all waiting on him to open gifts.  Mark went to check on him and discovered a sink full of bubbles.  I don’t believe he was used to liquid soap and the bubbles were just too inviting for a young boy.    He decided the bubbles needed to go on Ma and came out and attacked me.  This was one of the first times he voluntarily climbed in to my lap.

 This is all the grandkids of Granddaddy and Aunt D.  The Santa hats were a big hit this year.  Last year Aunt D and Ge decided to get together and purchase several small items that the kids could/would use.  They were a big hit (my kids still play with the goofy balls they got last year) and so they did the same thing this year.  Honestly, though, the kids all have a blast together whether they get gifts or not.

 “These are MY gifts?!”
 Y approved of the red velvet cake.
Aunt Yaya getting some Liam lovin’!
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Hosting Party

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We first learned about hosting from some loooong time friends B and H.  We followed along on Facebook as they hosted S and then prayed and prayed as they worked to bring her home in to their family forever.  She came home in the Spring, by the way.
You know how people say it just takes one pebble to make a ripple?  That’s B & H.  After their hosting, we had a set of friends host and then this past winter, there were about four of us that hosted in the area.  We all had heard about hosting from B & H. 
Since there were so many of us hosting this winter, we were able to have our own get together.  Only three families came but, hey, our family is a traveling party.
We had a “Wrap the Snowman” game.

And Y got to try his first cupcake.  Little things that we don’t think of having to tell our kids sometimes caused a few giggles.  Like, don’t eat the paper on the cupcake.  And, we don’t try on clothes in the middle of the store (Thankfully, I was paying attention and able to direct him to the fitting rooms before he disrobed).  Sugar, it’s safe to say, is his favorite treat.

B & H have been such a positive influence, encouragement and source of knowledge throughout our hosting.  We are forever grateful for them sharing their experiences and helping us through our first hosting.

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Christmas Candy Tradition

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I guess if we do something two years in a row, it should be considered a tradition.  We were so super busy getting things ready for Y that we didn’t get a chance to do our big baking days. But, we did set aside one morning to get pretzels dipped in almond bark.

We didn’t get to share these with anyone because when I stepped away for a split second, I returned to discover several faces smeared with almond bark and fingers in mouths.  Those puppies belonged to the family after that.

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