ADOPTION VIDEO

Would you all like to see our ADOPTION VIDEO?  My wonderfully amazing friend Colleen put it together for us.  I am so unskilled at computer stuff that it is pitiful!  She did an amazing job though!  She is just starting her own amazing adoption journey to her son that she met while on my adoption trip and you can follow along with her HERE. 

Here is Our Adoption Journey to Matthew, Johnathan, and Charity 

MATCHING GRANT!

We have had a very generous matching grant offered to us.  When our FSP reads $20,411 then another $500 will be donated to our account!  This is a HUGE BLESSING! 

Here is a link to our FSP! 

Also HERE IS A LINK TO OUR GIVEAWAY with the lots of things we will be drawing for to thank people for helping by donating and sharing.

Right now I keep remembering that last bit of time with them and praying that they know I'm still on my way back to them.  They had gotten so comfortable with being loved.  I HATE THAT I HAD TO LEAVE AND IT FEELS LIKE THE BIGGEST FAILURE AS A MOTHER! 

 

 

They definitely weren't the kids that I had expected to meet or the kids that I first met at the beginning of the week even!  The were LOVING having the LOVE of a MOTHER! 

 

They are waiting!

 

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!

The Process and Why I Hate the Word WAIT

Those of us who live in the middle of the adoption world just LIVE the steps so much that we often forget that many people don't know what comes next.  Unfortunately for me, most of it involves the word WAIT after each move.  We are SO CLOSE now, but waiting is just so hard.  Please pray for us as we wait and especially for them.  Pray that the process moves quickly and that the "wait" parts are very short and the "move" parts are close together.  Pray that the government and court officials who see our case will see the urgency of Matthew's situation and expedite his paperwork through as fast as possible.  "WAIT" can mean 5 minutes, a day, a week, or two. . . . I'd really like it to mean 5 minutes. . . . but days instead of weeks could make a huge difference in Matthew's life.  There are wonderful people in the country that my children are from who really do care about children and we just need to pray that they recognize the urgency of Matthew's situation and move it along as quickly as they can.  We need to pray that holidays, breaks, and other things don't slow it down either.  PLEASE PRAY!

Next in our process is that we need our documents to be submitted to the government and then we wait on a SIGNATURE.  We pray that the government official who needs to sign it honors the "medical expedite" for Matthew.  His medical expedite states that because of his current condition it is important  for him to get home as quickly as possible because his life is in "imminent danger".  Every time I think about that I get sick. . . .

After that signature, then our documents will be submitted to court where they will wait to be assigned to a judge.

Then our case will wait for a date to be given by that judge.

Then we will wait for that date to come.

Then we will have court and become their legal parents, but will have to wait for the documents to be ready before we can even get dates for travel.  This day they are declared ours, but we still have to WAIT!

Once the documents are ready then we will be given a date to travel to pick them up and will have to wait for that date to arrive.

24 hours of travel to get to their country means lots of time spent waiting.  I hate being away from my 18 kids at home and then not even with the 3 there yet is super hard waiting.  Knowing I am getting ready to bring them home for good will make this waiting a little easier!

Once in country the wait is tremendous because once you are in their beautiful country, but can't get your children immediately it just is unbearable even though so close.

Once the day arrives you wake up WAY before the alarm goes off and have to wait for the time to go pick them up.

Once you get to the orphanage I will have to wait for them to bring my kids to me, even though I want to RUN up the stairs and grab them because I've waited way longer than anyone should ever have to wait.

After we pick them up we will have to rush back for passports and then go back to the hotel.

There will be tons to do over that next few days and all of it is just more of the process that is part of the wait to get them home to join our family and have all 21 of my kids together in one place safe and sound.

The travel to get home takes usually around 24 hours with kids who are tired, grumpy, and overstimulated.  Matthew will be needing to get some medical care soon after getting home too, but we are hoping to be able to not go straight to the hospital and have appointments set up to keep him from inpatient if at all possible.  Keith finds hospitals very stressful, so we don't want to thrust him into that right off if we can help it.  We are praying we can manage to meet all his medical needs without going straight to the hospital and will set up appointments as soon as we have some idea as to a pickup time.  That waiting in airports and on airplanes will not be easy!

NOW DO YOU KNOW WHY I HATE THE WORD WAIT EVEN MORE THAN A THREE YEAR OLD DOES???? 

I feel like a 3 year old whining, but I WANT THEM NOW!!!  God has to be tired of hearing me whine.  We really expect that we should be able to travel in October or November. . . even though I know the word "WAIT" is used a lot of times. . . it just seems like FOREVER still. . .

Please pray that they expedite on his account and that they help us get him home where his life won't be in "imminent danger" any more.  Those two words haunt me in my sleep. . . I need to make those words no longer exist for my little boy and tuck all three into their beds at night where they are safe and loved.   

You can help be a part of this end part of their journey home by CLICKING HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT OUR GIVEAWAY! 

 

Article 5! and GIVEAWAY UPDATE

Our Article 5 Interview occurred and our attorney is getting everything ready to submit.  We are praying that they will honor Matthew's medical expedite and process the paperwork quickly for a signature at the government level to get it ready for submission to court.  We need to get him home and get him some much needed medical care.  We are praying hard and we ask that you would too!

We have the Have a Heart Giveaway going on right now to thank everyone who is helping us so wonderfully with raising the last of the funds to get the kids home.  We appreciate the help so very much!  Aleshia's heart surgery is really at the worst possible time, because it is just before we will need to travel to pick them up.  It is still much better than it needing to be done after they get home though!  God has provided wonderfully for us all along and we know that everything will fall into place.  This is just a wonderful opportunity for others to get to be a part of their homecoming story!

You can click here to see all the wonderful "Thank You" Gifts that are awaiting at the end! 

Not listed on that post is $5 donations!  Every $5 donation will also receive one entry, so please email me your receipt to abcunroe@yahoo.com  Every amount is bringing us so much closer to bringing them home!!  THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS!!


Every dollar brings us closer to the goal amount of bringing them home!  I'm sure this post will make the "troll roll".  lol  Yes, there are the wonderful trolls who go around talking about how much better off kids are in orphanages.  I've even heard that our family is large and that the caregiver ratio might be better in an orphanage. See, the thing is that "caregivers" don't "care" the same as a Mommy.  I go to bed each night begging God to keep them safe till I can get there and knowing that Matthew is in misery without medical care.  I'm a Mommy.  I hurt for my kids.  I don't leave them lay ever.  I don't have apathy or think that any of them are not worth my time.  I feel what they feel.  I hurt when they hurt, even if they are on the other side of the ocean.  I sit up all night if they are awake.  I stay up too late and get too little sleep just because a little one decides that they aren't sleepy and I know that they spent too many years in a crib and I'm VERY glad for the opportunity to give them those extra kisses.  So I'm going to leave those trolls he may link back to my "fundraising" post with a little picture. 

This is what the love of a "Mommy" does:

 

We are working hard to bring Matthew, Johnathan, and Charity home so that they can have a "Mommy" instead of a "caregiver" too.  Every child deserves a "FAMILY", not just a caregiver.  We just happen to have more people here to do the loving.  Yes, the sites that like to bash large families can bash away.  The fact is that the picture above shows the truth.  The child on the left was Keith the night I brought him home at age 5 and the picture on the left was Keith one year later at age 6.  He went from couldn't hold his head up, to didn't want to be laid back!  He grew when he was loved and cared for by a FAMILY!  He came from the same place that my three children are now and they need to come home.  The place they are in now is trying hard, but orphanages cannot replace families.  They suffered severe neglect in that facility for years and the only way they are going to heal and thrive is to come home.  So the trolls can troll away.  There is the proof that what we do is making a HUGE difference and will continue to do so. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOW WHO WANTS TO BE A PART!?!  

Trip to Meet the Three Part 4: Meeting Matthew

Well, meeting Matthew was very different than I expected.  Matthew had grown since he had been given a Baba (Again this is "grandmother" in their language and is provided by a ministry there.  He received one because they found out he had a family coming.).  He had gained weight and instead of 18 pounds at almost 10 years old, he was now between 20 and 22 pounds.  I was THRILLED to see that he had gained weight!!  My immediate thoughts were that he was doing SO much better than I expected.  He was very drawn up of course, but to know that this Baba was taking the time to feed him and in such a short time he had gained so much was both thrilling and sad.  If he could gain so much so quickly, then how sad that it took knowing a family was coming for him to get a Baba.  Yet resources are limited.  They never imagined that HE would be chosen. . . this broke my heart into a million pieces. . .



This first picture was me working with him on our first visit,

because I needed to start learning for travel how stiff he is.

I needed to know for dressing purposes how much movement there is.

I needed to know for carseat purposes what his legs could comfortably do.

So I just slowly talked to him and began to move his legs while rubbing them softly.

Just a little at a time. . .

 

This picture is a very content and comfortable little boy.

It feels good to not be so tight. . .

It feels good to have your legs release.

It feels good to SMILE!

(No one there knew he could smile)

It feels really good to know you are loved!

 

This is from our 2nd visit on the first day.

This picture is how Matthew lives every day, except that most of his life is spent flat. 

He lives this drawn up.

His hands, arms, and legs are all drawn up and tight.

 

This next picture shows you the difference that 90 minutes of love and soft touch

made to my very love starved boy.

When I saw this comparison that night I could barely sleep.

His face changed.

His arms relaxed.

His legs relaxed

 This day we finally got permission for him to go outside.

You can see that even though his legs are long

(and somewhat distorted in the picture above because of the angle),

he is a very small boy for almost 10 at the time.

 

Before he went for his Visa pictures, his Baba gave him a haircut.

Since the pictures had to be taken on a white background

and he is unable to sit up

he went on this and had his picture take laying on it.

 

I'm not going to talk about my last day with him.  Aleshia has heart surgery in just a couple days and talking about having to leave him is too much to bear.  Let's just say that my little boy is laying right now in the position that he laid in for all the years before.  No one is giving him kisses or helping him relax.  No one knows everything that I learned about him during that week.

 

While I was there I learned a lot about my little boy.  His teeth have all rotted out till they are below the gum line for the most part.  Most of the cause is reflux, but no one thinks he has reflux.  See in an orphanage no one is noticing what happens after you eat. . . they don't have time.  Mommy notices when you are throwing up and swallowing it.  He also lays flat in a bed all the time, which makes the reflux worse. . . My little boy is also suffering from silent seizures.  Once he is home we will be headed straight for a neurologist.  They will deal with many issues, but the silent seizures will be addressed very quickly. 

 

The thought of how my little guy is living is heartbreaking.  I can barely breathe when I think of it.  It kills me to think that it was caused by a traumatic brain injury when his birthfather beat him into a coma.  I pray that he doesn't even remember that!  I pray he doesn't even remember when he use to be able to run around, play, and talk.  I do KNOW that he understands much more than people think. 

 

HE VERY CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE! 

 

*There are links on the right side bar if you would like to help bring Matthew, Johnathan, and Charity home.  There will be a big giveaway starting here in the next day or two as well!

 

Please please pray that this process moves quickly.  Pray for him as he endures the wait.