WINNERS: Have A Heart Giveaway!

Aleshia's open heart surgery went very well.  She came home the Thursday after the procedure and has been recovering well.  They might have kept her a few more days, but she really does not do well in the hospital setting and was doing well enough that they thought she would recover better at home.  She really is an amazing child.  I'll do a whole update post on that later! 

For now here is a picture of her glowing smile to hold you over!

I needed to end this giveaway and post that we are FULLY FUNDED for the adoption as long as everything goes as planned and tickets don't end up being outrageous!!!!  That feels AMAZING!!  Now pray we get our court date and can go get them soon!!!

Here is the list of Gifts and WINNERS!

Gift #1 goes to Alex Anderson!

Gift #2 goes to Theresa Revilak

Gift #3 goes to Amanda Sutton

Gift #4 goes to the Bowden Family

Gift #5 goes to Darla Messenger

Gift #6 goes to Chelsea Claus

Gift #7 goes to Jennifer McCall

Gift #8 goes to Alex Anderson

Gift #9 goes to "birdiebabe522"

Gift #10 goes to Julia Nalle

Gift #11 goes to Jennifer McCall

Gift #12 goes to Chelsea Claus

Gift #13 goes to Lindsay Park

Gift #14 goes to Chelsea Claus

Gift #15 goes to Chelsea Claus

Gift #16 goes to Alex Anderson

Gift #17 goes Brook Kirk

Gift #18 goes to Amanda Sutton

Gift #19 goes to Darla Messenger

Gift #20 goes to Darla Messenger

Gift #21 goes to Lindsay Park

You can go see what you won by matching up your gift #to the pictures and descriptions on the first post about the giveaway at THIS LINK!  If you are one of the winner, please email me your address to abcunroe@yahoo.com so that I can get your Thank You Gift out to you soon!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL WHO GAVE TO HELP US REACH THE POINT OF FULLY FUNDED!  I know there are some who didn't get "Thank You Gifts", but truly we are beyond thankful for the help of each one of you who have given, shared, and prayed.  Keep watching for updates as we get closer to bringing them home!!! 

Heart Surgery Take Two

Well we are leaving again for Aleshia's heart surgery. . . again. 

Please pray that it all goes well this time and that it happens the way it should and she does well.  Her emotional wounds from the orphanage and institutional life she lived before she came to us are so deep.  That makes this all SO much harder for her than even "normal". . .

Pray that we can all work together to keep her calm.  We are driving her up and arriving late tonight.  She is not suppose to have to have blood work or anything tonight.  She should just be given calming meds to keep her calm and then kept calm until the surgery in the morning. 

We were told we could just bring her up and have her there in the morning, but she is upset by getting in the van after the last trip.  We would have to leave the house about 4 or more hours before the surgery in order to arrive for the surgery.  She would be so worked up for the surgery that they would likely be unable to do it again.   This way we will get there in time for them to give her calming meds and get her calm again.  They are SUPPOSE to be prepared.  We are also able to stop and let her eat on the way up today and are planning to take her in places to make it seem less like a trip to the hospital.  PRAY THAT HELPS! 

I don't feel in the least bit "cheery", but I'm planning to fake it big time today.  I feel like I need to vomit.  I in no way shape or form know how I will be able to pull this off, but I have to do it.  She needs me to seem calm and happy today.  I'm NOT. 

Its a good thing that we've adopted so much. . . I've been faking being ok for a long time now.  I've not been ok while I wait for the kids to come home.  I've been faking it lots.  I've felt like I could go into a crying heap in the floor ever since I left my babies back in June.  I can't show that in front of my kids, because the 18 here deserve a mom who is happy and ready to enjoy life.  I'm THRILLED they are all here, so it is a balancing act of enjoying them and fighting back the tears for the 3 that have my heart on the other side of the ocean.  Poor Brent last night doesn't always get to have the "fake" though.  The poor man pulled out the Bible for our devotion together before bed and unknowingly opened to the "Love" Chapter.  The problem is that his version said "Charity" which sent me into sobs.  It was late and I had faked it as long as I could.  I miss them so much and I'd faked it all day, while preparing things to leave.  I kept thinking back to how hard it was while waiting to get Aleshia home and how I'd "faked" it for the 13 at home back then.  The things we do for our kids!!  But today is one of those days that the "practice" of faking it during all these adoptions will come in handy again I guess. 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray for Aleshia!!  Please pray for the medical teams working with her.  Her surgery will be early in the morning.  Remember the best place to keep up with updates on her will probably be on Facebook as long as my phone keeps allowing me to update because it is just easier, so you can check her Facebook page HERE.  Also please pray for Matthew, Johnathan, and Charity as they wait and the people who need to sign things and give court dates so we can get them home with us.  Not a day goes by that their names aren't mentioned 100 times here while I choke back tears. 

Here's a picture of Aleshia from Easter.

 

Our Have A Heart Giveaway is still going on and I'll end it once we are back.

We are still not fully funded to for the last of the trip

BUT we are SO close!

 

In Two Weeks

(Edit on 9-4-13 at 12:03am:  Thank you to those sharing our need to get this adoption funded before her surgery.  We still need $3,742 at this moment to be fully funded.  I know God is bigger than that amount!  These kids were His before He ever set me on the path to go get them and He knew that this surgery was going to fall at this moment too!  Keep sharing, praying, and donating because every dollar adds up!  THANK YOU!)

Two Weeks from this  moment I will be sitting in a CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit) with Aleshia. . . The thought of that makes me SICK.  I can't imagine seeing her hooked up to all those machines to keep her alive and with all those tubes draining fluids from her. 

Having an extra month because of the surgery being cancelled last time has only made me more scared and sick.  This time I know how she reacted last time.  I know how scared she is of the hospital and the scrubs.  I know how hard it is going to be to make this work.  I AM TERRIFIED FOR HER!  I HATE SEEING HER LIKE SHE WAS! 

We didn't even make it to the surgery and it was horrific!

I can't imagine how we are going to do this. . . how SHE is going to do this.

Her heart requires it, but her mind is terrified of that place.  It reminds her of the places she came from. . . OH HOW I WISH I COULD TAKE THIS FROM HER!

Please pray for her and for us!

One thing that would take some of the worry off of our family right now is to just have this adoption funded.  I would be so relieved to go into this heart surgery not having to worry about the last bit of adoption expenses.  We really just need the last bit of travel expenses.  We are needing to raise the last $3,761 of the money that will be required to purchase the plane tickets to get Matthew, Johnathan, and Charity home.  We have a HAVE A HEART GIVEAWAY GOING ON RIGHT HERE with 21 Thank You Gifts to thank everyone for helping us.  There are entries just for sharing too!  Could you help us with this last little bit!?! 

We can't stop worrying about Aleshia's surgery.  We can't stop worrying about Matthew, Johnathan, and Charity while they wait.  We can't stop the worry our kids here will have while they worry about Aleshia or while some of them don't understand why Aleshia is away from them. 

We would love to just not have to worry about that last bit of funding to get our kids home, to just KNOW that the ransom is complete and whenever we can pick them up the money is there for the tickets.  Can you help us?

You can donate at THIS LINK and really EVERY DOLLAR helps!  If everyone chips in to be the hands and feet of God then this mountain of worry will be moved!

Aleshia Heart Surgery Update

Well Aleshia's open heart surgery did not go as planned. . . .

The day started out early and calm.  We left the house with her still sleepy, in her pajamas, and doing well.  We had to be there the day before the surgery to be admitted.  The trip to the hospital was great.  She was happy and pleasant.  I can't say that things stayed that way though. . .

 I can't type it all again, because I am SO drained.  I'm adapting a post from her heart page as far as the explanation, but then adding some more details of other things too.  

 

 Our time in the hospital was SO HARD. Aleshia was all the way to the holding area for surgery before it was cancelled. The hospital itself was VERY traumatic for her. She threw up at shift changes, had to have knots in the sleeves of her pajamas, and was sticking her fingers waaaaayy back in her eye sockets. SO HARD TO SEE HER THAT WAY!!! (We requested meds, but ...were told not until later, but they have been informed that this will NOT be the case next time and a plan WILL be in place.) Four adults were required to get labs. After she kept making herself sicker they finally ran other labs bc she began to run a fever. We made it all the way to the holding are for the surgery before they got the results of an elevated white count. That ended the surgery! They started to talk about checking for lung infections, but I insisted on a strep test since we had a child with a positive test that they knew about the week prior. Our primary care had wanted to treat Aleshia then, but the first person I had to talk to at Cardiology had said "no" and not relayed the information fully and told me he worked for a different hospital. The second person said it would be up to the primary care, but it was too late at that point since our primary office is small and was closed. The rest of our day didn't go any better as the nurse didn't do the strep test right the first time and then still the 2nd time didn't use a tongue depressor and wasn't going to swab the tonsils. . . I insisted and Aleshia did test positive for Strep. She is rescheduled for September 16th for her open heart surgery. This is pushing WAY TOO CLOSE to adoption pickup time for our newest three kids. We really do need prayer for that.

 Aleshia needs lots of prayers!!!  The whole things was very traumatizing. It reminded her very much of her time in the orphanage and institution. IT IS SAD THAT THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY HAS SO LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF CHILDREN FROM TRAUMA BACKGROUNDS!!!  We are seeing regression and she doesn't want to get in the van. We had to go to our primary care provider today and she was terrified to get in the van and SO upset. Please please pray for her to be ok soon. Please pray that we can work with the people there to come up with a plan for her care for the next surgery that will reduce anxiety levels for her. Healing will be very hard if she is that upset. She cannot be so upset she is puking after open heart surgery. There is a special team there specifically for kids that have had previous issues in the hospital that I will be working with and I will be making SURE that we come up with a plan that seems to meet her needs in the best possible way.  We now know what her reaction is and we have to make sure we do everything we can to make sure we are doing everything possible to keep her calm.  I'll be calling them to start the planning next week.  Please pray for all of us as we try to come up with solutions!

 

Please also pray for our adoption of the three children we are in process for right now.  All three need to come home soon, but Matthew is in very severe condition and needs to come home extremely badly.  He has a medical expedite that says if we don't get there quickly then he may not make it home at all.  We did get good news today stating that our Article 5 interview is going to be Wednesday.  Unfortunately many people are on vacation there right now, so the signature we need for the next step could be much delayed. . . .

 

Please consider helping get them home and us get funded for their adoption by sharing or donating.  We have great gifts to offer in our GIVEAWAY SO CLICK HERE!    Our trip for them won't be that long after her surgery now with this delay, so I need to find some way to get funded and I'm trusting God to help us do that. 

 

 

HAVE A HEART GIVEAWAY!

UPDATE:  HER SURGERY WAS RESCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 16TH AND YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT IN THIS POST, SO PLEASE HELP US PUSH TO GET FUNDED SO WE CAN FOCUS ON HER SURGERY.  TRAVEL WILL BE SO CLOSE TO HER RECOVERY THAT WE WILL HAVE VERY LITTLE TIME TO FUNDRAISE AFTER IT! 

 

 

Well it is time for a GIVEAWAY!  I will be spending a lot of time away with my daughter Aleshia while she has open heart surgery.  My mother has taken time off to help with the other kids here at home.  That means that I will not be here to run auctions and work at fundraising.  Our I800 was approved by our officer last week and sent to her supervisor, so things are moving there (would have gone faster if our oldest son hadn't turned 18 while I was in country and required fingerprinting through US Immigration along with a homestudy update).  We need to raise the last of the money to get the kids home.  Everything is paid except for the money for the last trip.  I have a little toward that already too, but its a little harder to save when your little one is having open heart surgery. . . If you would like to get updates as to how her heart surgery is going you can get those on her Facebook Page Here.

 

You probably remember her One Year Update Post, but here is her side by side picture to remind you who she is: 

 

So time for the HAVE A HEART GIVEAWAY!  I want to thank everyone who is helping us work to get them home by donating and shouting while I am away from Facebook and the blog for the heart surgery. We appreciate your heart for all of our kids and couldn't do this without you!  We hope that the gifts below will be great "Thank You"s to all of you!

 

Here is how it will work:  (All donation receipts need to be sent to abcunroe@yahoo.com so that I can keep track of them by putting them in a folder while I am away for the open heart surgery and all share entries will be kept track of only by commenting on this post. )

For ever $5 donated to our Indiegogo account or our FSP listed on the right sidebar of the blog you will get 1 entry.

 

For every $10 donated to our FSP listed on the right sidebar of the blog you will get 2 entries.

 

For every $20 donated to our FSP listed on the right sidebar of the blog you will get 5 entries.

 

For every $50 donated to our FSP listed on the right sidebar of the blog you will get 15 entries.

 

You can also get 1 entry per day just for sharing this giveaway! 

 

 

GIFT #1:  Disney brand personal dvd player with 3 Disney dvds!

 

GIFT #2:

Wooden balance bike with five-position adjustable seat height to grow with child

Rubberized handle bar grips for comfort; limited steering radius to prevent jackknifing

Pneumatic rubber tires and spoke-less wheel discs for safety

Unique carry handle incorporated in the bike's body

Renewable birch wood construction and non-toxic building materials; recommended for ages two years old and up

Five-position adjustable seat height--from 12.5 to 17.5 inches

Maximum weight of 60 pounds

 

GIFT#3:  This is a 4 Pack of ItWorks Ultimate Body Applicator Wraps. 

 

 

 

GIFT#4:  3 in 1 Indoor Sports Set and a Workout Video for Kids!

 

GIFT #5:  Perfect for Your Princess to Have a Party to Celebrate Just Because God Made Her Special when this arrives!  The SweetPea Beauty Veggie Tales dvd, 2 Princess Petunia books, a set of best friend Veggie Tales Watches, and a set of stuff to throw a "just because" party (plates, napkins, balloons, and party favors!)

 





GIFT #6: WALL ART

15'' W x 11'' H x 0.5'' D

Medium-density fiberboard / metal hanger

Made in the USA

GIFT #7:  WALL ART

 

11'' W x 15'' H x 0.5'' D

Medium-density fiberboard

Ready to hang

Made in the USA

 

GIFT #8:  This Veggie Tales Prize contains a dvd, 4 books, and 2 Larry Boy wrist bands!

 

 

 

GIFT #9:  *CUSTOM RETRO APRON* You choose one of the 3 styles: Chef, Diner or Princess Panel and let me know 2 or 3 colors you'd like and Lara will create a custom apron for you.

(This family is also adopting and here is their FSP:  http://reecesrainbow.org/47374/sponsorwingler )

 

 

 

GIFT #10:  This adorable block puzzle is perfect for your little ones!  It is donated by the Jenks Family.  They are also in the process of adopting and you can support their adoption by shopping their Etsy shop.  They have lots of different styles of block puzzles and can customize one just for you as well!  : http://www.etsy.com/shop/FaithfullyCreated 



 

GIFT #11:  This beautiful Starfish Stretch Bracelet was donated by Darla Messenger.

 

GIFT #12:  These beautiful Amber Swarovski Crystal earrings were also donated by Darla messenger.

 

 

 

GIFT #13:  These awesome shirts were donated by another amazing adoptive family.  Once a winner is drawn I will give you their contact info and you can choose your size and color.  You can help out their family by buying shirts here:  http://www.walkingthenarrowpathnow.blogspot.com/2013/06/tshirts-are-ready-to-order.html

 

GIFT #14:  This Down Syndrome awareness set was donated by another amazing adoptive family.  What a great way to show of your support for Down Syndrome!  You can read more about their family here:  http://reecesrainbow.org/55675/sponsorkirk

 

GIFT #15: This amazing Down Syndrome awareness necklace was donated by Carol Miller.  What a beautiful way to show your support for Down Syndrome!!

 

GIFT #16:  Veggie Tales Book and DVD.

 

 

GIFT #17:  This package of little kids toys includes a shape sorter, Elmo dvd, and Red Rover game.

 

 

GIFT #18:  This is a 500 piece puzzle of Noah's Ark.

 

 

GIFT #19:  This is an adorable Size3 Gymboree Outfit.

 

 

GIFT #20:  Art piece by http://willpaint4babies.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/who-is-will-paint-4-babies-painting-for-now/

GIFT #21:  This Stacking Rainbow is tons of fun and is donated by Jamie Lentz who is also in the process of adopting.  You can find her store that is helping to fund their adoption by clicking this link:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Little-Sunshine-Montessori-Boutique/350544488363478



 

 

Thanks so much for helping to bring the three children already in our hearts into our homes while I am away working to help Aleshia get her heart fixed! Please pray for Aleshia, Matthew, Johnathan, and Charity!