WHY?!?!?!?

I can not tell you the number of times I have heard this question.  I wish every time I had some one ask me this I could show them pictures like this.........

These are not babies.  These are children....teens.....they are disabled and can't walk.  Do you know what happens to those unable to walk????  When they are transferred to an institution at a young age, 4-6, they become bedridden.  Do you know what happens then???  Most will die, 80%, within their 1st year.  If they don't die they will lie there day in and day out.  Developing sores on their body, slowing starving both body and brain.  They are forgotten, looked at as worthless and an inconvenience.

This picture was taken in EE in 2006.  This is a real picture of what happens at the institution.  This is their bathroom.  The children are stripped down and all sat on these "potties"  These are all ages.....understand this is real not a one case incident.  This is truly how they are treated.   

Crib after crib lined.  These children may only get out to be changed and fed.  Some may have get to play for an hour or so.  Not held, loved on or comforted.  Some may only get the toy you see hung on their crib.

Those that try to climb out of their crib or self mutilate for stimulation will end up like this.  This little down syndrome boy is wrapped and tied to his crib. 

Heath is a little boy available for adoption.  He lives in an institution where he is treated extremely poor. 

Here is the play yard for heath.  Yep that shed.  See the bench.  After about 20 boys are led in there that bench is put in front of the door so they can't get out.  For the next hour or so they will sit.  No toys.  No stimulation other then them rocking.  Hitting themselves.  Hitting each other.  I know this is true because Julia Nalle rescued her son from this institution.  She saw first hand how these children are treated.

Are you understanding yet?????  I could go on and on how children are drugged all day for "better sleep" as one mom was told.  How the children are shut away in rooms, "lying rooms" where they will never be taken out of cribs or "dying rooms" where they are not even given meds to comfort them while they lay there slowly dying.  Or little Carrington who at 3 yrs old barely made it home alive after her parents got her out of the orphanage to find out she only weighed 11 lbs and her body was shutting down

This is what her mom found the first time she was able to take off all the layers and layers of clothes they had on her, to change her diaper.

Are you understanding????

1 year ago......

So this is a bit late but on Sat my little one turned 1 yrs old.......

1 year ago I sat in a hospital bed playing cards (yep it was a very easy delivery!!) and just waited to meet this little one.  I remember having the same little butterflies in my stomach I had with my first delivery.  I was over the moon excited to meet this new precious little girl that we were given.    I remember being so grateful that I didn't have to wait too long to see that gorgous sweet face that I already loved beyond words.

I look back and think how I would relive the experience of delivery over and over again....I know crazy woman but to see your child for the first time is to experience every emotion at once. 

~anticipation
~pain
~fear of the known and unknown
~pure joy
~amazement at this beautiful life
~true unconditional LOVE
~peace......knowing that whatever would lie ahead of you, you will do and face together

This past year Analeigh added so much joy to our family!!  She is just a bundle of energy and her laugh and smile are contagious.

So for all that you give us Ana we are grateful.  Life here would not be the same without you!!  You are a ray of sunshine every morning.  We love you!!

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I think of "Ezekiel's" mom.  When she saw his beautiful face did she know she would have to give him up?  Did she have any time to enjoy his laugh and smile?  Does she think of him now and wonder where he is or how he is doing?  It is so hard for me to imagine not having my children with me.  I couldn't imagine not having an amazing extended family to support me and husband who loves me and our children more then himself.  My heart truly breaks for women in countries where their society doesn't accept some children.  Where they are forced to give up part of their heart.  I won't ever know why his mom choice to not keep him.  If it was self motivated or if she had no support but I will still continue to pray for her.  

Where we are at......

Many people have been asking where we are at in the process.  Well we are in the "hurry up and wait" phase as my friend calls it.  We have gotten our paperwork in and are waiting for our social worker to come for a visit.  I hope that will happen next week.  Then we will start our online classes. 

As I posted before we are in our 6 month window to get everything into China so that they don't release him back onto the international listing.  If they do that we could lose him to some one else! 

We have put together a letter that we will be sending out to family letting them know about our adoption and some of the fundraising we are doing.  On that note about the fundraising:

We have the golf outing set up for July 23rd.  We have some great raffle prizes!!  It is a 8am shotgun start at the Lake Breeze Golf course in Winneconne, WI and is $55/person for 18 hole golf/cart/lunch.  It's a scramble so you don't have to be good at golf to participate just have some fun!!  Let me know if you want a registration form.  Leave a comment or email me.  anyone and everyone is invited!!

We are also having a rummage sale on the weekend of May 20-21.  we are looking for donations.  If you have anything let me know and I would love to swing by and pick it up.  At the rummage we are also having a bake sale for all you bakers.  I would also be grateful for anyone who would love to help in that area.

Now I'll leave you with a little girl who desparately needs a family.........

Oksana M. Date of Birth: January 29, 2006
Gender: Female
Eyes: Gray
Hair: brown
Nature: Calm

Oksana is a beautiful carrot top with blue eyes! She is HEALTHY, with no heart condition. She does have hard astigmatism in both eyes, so she will need to wear corrective glasses. But she is active and happy, described as affectionate and playful. Won't you give Oksana a family of her own?

FULL MEDICAL INFO AVAILABLE!

She is 5 yrs old and will be transferred in the next year!

If you want more info on her go here and email Andrea at Reece's Rainbow.  These children are waiting and if everyone said let someone else do it, not one of them would ever have a family!  They are just waiting to be loved

FIRSTS..........

I love seeing my kids "firsts".  I love looking back and remembering exactly where we were or what we were doing when Nathan took his first steps or Katie stood up by herself for the first time or how Ana just last week said bye,bye to me for the first time when I was leaving.

This past week I read and reread the info (it makes me feel closer to him!!) we got from Ezekiel's orphanage and then it dawned on me how many "firsts" we have missed.  After commiting to him we got to ask up to 10 questions to the director.  There was no guarantee they would answer them but they did and they also gave us some extra info.  I was thrilled but then I got to thinking .......

 One of the last things they wrote was how excited he was recently when they transitioned him into a "big boy bed".   Oh I so clearly remember both N and K's first night in their big beds.  We have pictures of Nathan just laying in his bed with a huge smile on his face.  I wanted that memory with him.  I want to go through the crying nights with teething...... I wanted to see him stand for the first time.......  I wanted to see those first steps......  I wanted to hear him say mama the first time......  I feel like everyday it takes us to get there is one more day I might miss another first and it kills me. 

I pray that somehow he can feel our love across that huge ocean and that this next year flies by!!!  Hold on little guy we are coming and we will be just as excited as you for every new first you have!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

I am so excited to say that we are now fully engulfed in the "paper pregnancy" stage!  I am still learning what I can and can't say and do on the blog but this is what I can tell you........we are in LOVE with an amazing 2 yr old boy in China and have started all our paperwork (homestudy) to bring him home.

So what does this all mean.......

We found "Ezekiel" which is his cyber name to protect his identity, on http://www.reecesrainbow.org/.  We have submitted our request to China to adopt him with an agency.  China has reviewed our papers and pre-approved us.  By doing this he is put "on-hold" for our family and taken off the international listing.  We now have 6 months to get all our paperwork (dossier) into China.  They then review that which is a much much more detailed and official "book" of our entire lives :)  When they approve that they will do the final official match of Ezekiel with us.  At that time they will also give us our travel date to go pick him up and that is when we can finally post pictures of him......uggghhhhhh I know

So tell us about him.........

One thing is that he is an extra special little boy.  Unfortunately what makes him so special to us is the same reason he is probably at the orphanage.  Our little guy has down syndrome but to us he is perfect and wonderfully made.  Made exactly how God wanted him.
 That is the info we had before we applied to commit to him.  Once we were pre-approved we were able to ask his orphanage about him.  Yesterday we got a response and can I say he will fit perfect in our family.  We are told he loves music and dancing.  They said he will dance for 30 min at a time and just giggle the entire time.  They also told us that he loves, loves, loves the outdoors.  Anything outside makes him happy.  He is just starting to walk and loves pushing his walker around out there.....lol.

So there you have it........I can't wait to share this journey with everyone.  I will post later this week how this whole journey began!!

Well I tried........

I love when the kids are very little and start trying all new things.  Well I thought I would try to let A color.  Her MiMi got her these crayons that are made for little hands to hold and scribble with.  I thought perfect.  She has been taking pens and trying to make marks on paper so this should be simple.....right?!?!? 

Ok so this is going good......those scribbles are mine but I thought perfect hand on crayon and crayon to paper.  I should have tried this sooner because I thought she would try to............

Ok spoke too soon.  That is what I thought might happen but if I explain to her that they are not to eat and only on paper that should work.........

 Ok back on track!!!

Hey mom look now I know how to take the crayon out of the holder.  I can eat more at a time!  So after about 10 min of going back and forth we decided to just stop this and save it for another time!!!

Somebody was not happy with this decision......but as soon as a gave her a pen that she couldn't eat she was happy as a clam again!!!