Hidden Treasures!!

The Hidden Treasures Auction will end tonight!!!  Go check it out before it is all over.  CLICK HERE TO GO VISIT THEM!   Make sure to look for the quilt that I made and the Princess dress that I made that Anita is modelling for the auction!!  My grandmother also made two quilts to help bring home her newest great grandchildren!!  She started making quilts just so she could help bring them home, so go check it out.  There is awesome jewelry, great gift cards, and lots of great items on there!! 

Don't forget to look at the giveaway we have going on right now on here!!  You can click HERE to see that and read about Mulligan Stew!  You should go check out that blog to see pictures of Keith meeting Julia.  We were in town for the girls' cardiologist.  Aleshia and Keith that she has pictures of on there were both from our last adoption.  Julianne was from a different adoption and was adopted from US foster care.  She was our first with Down Syndrome and is the one who made us start looking around and find the 5 Bulgarian Blessings that you all came to love so dearly!  Go look HERE at pictures!  Check out the giveaway while you are at it there too!!!

So here are some treasures for you to see from Easter morning.  These are the youngest 5 girls.  :)

Julianne is 6

and

Aleshia is 6!

Anita is 7!

 

 Ahnja is 11 now and Destiny will be 10 next month!





I recently gave you an update on Nicholas.  Keith will have an update all of his own.  It is impossible to show you how much he has grown with just one picture and he is in motion so much that most of his pictures have at least one part blurry!  lol 



Really Cool Giveaway!!!

Ok, so I have a really great prize that was donated and so I am going to add to it and make a really great giveaway!!  The last pieces of our dossier have been mailed to our children's country and will arrive in just a few days.  We need to get all our funds in place, so I can go on trip #1 to visit our 3 children!!  Will you help!!  There are 10 prizes up for grabs here, plus a whole other giveaway you can be a part of while you help!!!

So here are the prizes:

1. We have the entire What's in the Bible with Buck Denver series!  That is Volumes 1-10!!!  This is the best dvd series ever for kids and honestly has everyone in our house excited every time a new episode comes out.  They are so wonderful there that when I told them about our adoption and fundraising needs, they donated the WHOLE 10 DVD SET!!  This set retails for $129.99 and even more if each is bought separately!  We are so thankful for their help and generosity!!  They also are letting us raise money towards our adoption as affiliates, so you can shop with them and help our adoption anytime at this link:  SHOP HERE

WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO ADD THAT GREAT SET TO THEIR LIBRARY!!??!!!  

2. We have a $100 giftcard or donation to waiting child or adopting family of your choice!!  The winner of this will let me know if they prefer a giftcard to Walmart or  child or family on Reece's Rainbow to recieve the $100 once the giveaway ends!

3. VEGGIE TALE PACK #1:  This is a package of Veggie Tales DVDs

4.  VEGGIE TALE PACK #2:  This is this package of Veggie Tale DVDs

5.  VEGGIE TALE PACK #3:  This is for a package of  "I Can Read" books

6. VEGGIE TALE PACK #4:  This package of Veggie Tales Lesson Books

7.  The newest Veggie Tale movie can be added to your collection!

8 and 9!!  We are going to order and give away two copies of Volume #10 of What's in the Bible!!  This is seriously the very best presentation of the Bible ever and it is our pleasure to give it away.  Your children will experience God's love for them with an explanation that they will understand and will leave them in awe of His love and Christ's sacrifice.  

10.  I am going to order a What's in the Bible Volume #1 for someone else to start their collection just for  SHARING THIS GIVEAWAY!  So you help us get started with our giveaway and we'll help you get started with your What's in the Bible collection!  (For this part of the giveaway all you need to do is share and comment to tell me where you shared to be entered!!!)

Entering is easy as 1, 2, 3!  1)Just donate towards our adoption at our FSP:  CLICK HERE 

                                          2) Email me your receipt from that donation to abcunroe@yahoo.com

                                          3) If you want to be a part of the share gift then share this and comment!

For every $5 you donate to our adoption fund you will receive one entry into our giveaway, so the more you help us the more chances you have to win!!!!  

THEN, if you would like a chance to win LOTS of extra prizes (over $5,000 worth!!!) go see how you can enter Mulligan Stew as well!!  CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW YOU CAN BE ENTERED THERE!   This is a really great giveaway and Casey is one of the orphans that is listed there that you can give money toward.  If you donate to him, send that receipt to abcunroe@yahoo.com  for an extra entry into my giveaway as well.  

Please pray that things will move quickly with the process! The last pieces of our dossier is on its way to the children's country.  Most of our dossier is already there and translated.  We are getting so close to trip #1!!!! Aleshia will be having Open Heart surgery on June 6th, so I really need to do this trip #1 in May!  Matthew there is in such horrible condition, so I really need to get to him quickly as well.  We really need our FSP to read around $9,000 for this first trip.  Can you help us get there???    This Giveaway will go until the 20th of April!!!  

                                                                                     

Get Ready!

Ok, there will be a Giveaway with some pretty cool prizes starting here VERY soon!!  I have to finish a quilt for the Hidden Treasures Auction that will be helping us HERE.  After I get it finished, then I will get the Giveaway up and running.  I wanted to give you another little update as promised, but wow paperwork, fundraising, and 18 kids sure did keep me busy.  So here is an update that you can "see" with your own eyes.

If you remember, Nicholas came to us very "monkey" like.  He was in a horrible institution.  He was sweet, but had not had any socialization.

Tuesday, I took Nicholas to Kroger with me all on his own.  He had never gone on a real grocery shopping trip with me and I figured I'd get a few necessities and get him a candy bar for a treat and then exit.  He'd already been to the doctor's office  and done very well, but had to be redirected from his "edge of the seat" "jump and run" stance a lot.

WELL, Nicholas did wonderful in Kroger.  We filled the WHOLE CART!!  I reached him things and he put them in.  You would have never known that he was so food obsessed and had lived in such deprivation!!!!!  I was and AM so proud!  He didn't even obsess or notice the candy bar I was getting him at checkout and then got it after being buckled into the van.  He still had most of it left when we got home (about 5 minute drive but still a BIG deal!).  That means he didn't STUFF it!

So here is Nicholas's picture from the day after we picked him up.  He seriously rocked so much on day 1 that we couldn't get one that wasn't blurry.

Now here is Nicholas's most recent snap shot.  This is not from the shopping trip.  He was doing so well that I wasn't taking chances with throwing him off!  lol

ISN'T HE HANDSOME?????  

Ok, stay tuned for big things!!

Dossier will head over soon!

Yes, we have been working hard to get things ready to send over.  Because of our large family size there are always extra hoops to jump through.  We understand and expect them at this point.  So we had to jump through some extra hoops and we have jumped through them successfully.  Right now most of our dossier is already in the country that our children are in.  A few of the last documents will leave as soon as we can send them. The copy of our USCIS approval is on its way to our state's capital to get apostilled right now, so as soon as that comes back, then the last of it will be on its way!

Please pray that things move quickly.  We need to get these kids home quickly.  Matthew especially is in very bad shape.  He is 9 years old and only 18lbs.  He is atrophied badly and his contractures are severe.  He has to be in pain and they have no way to get him the treatment and care he needs. 

Aleshia (just came home in July) will be having her heart repaired June 6th tentatively, so we were really hoping to manage trip #1 before that surgery. . . PRAY!

We've been busy hurrying with paperwork, fundraising, and daily life.  I haven't gotten the full updates on the kids, but I thought this would give you an idea as to an update on how well the kids are doing!  This was done in February!!  That is Keith with the same brother (who is typically growing) the day after he came home and then 6 1/2 months later!!!  Keith is in Mega growth and is in Mega development.  He is taking steps and cruising the furniture.  He is CLIMBING TOO! lol

 

We can't wait to see the next three home and thriving. 

 

We are updating Facebook much more often and have fundraisers running on there much of the time.  You can visit us on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/ThreeMoreForTheUnroesChristmasAuction  (I started a "Christmas Auction" and it has so many likes that it won't let me change its name!  I guess we'll just keep remembering that by next Christmas they will be home!)

 

I will be putting up some special incentives there and I'll put them here soon, because the Mulligan Stew has started back up and they are graciously helping us again!!!  We'll have some cool stuff going on here too soon!!  Right now I have two children who have doctor's appointments, so stay tuned!

Where We are

Keith, Aleshia, Anita, Nicholas, and Ahnja have been home for 6 months now.  So much to update you on with them!  They are INCREDIBLE!!! 

The thing is that we are right in the middle of paperwork to bring home our next 3 children and it has to take priority.  I haven't forgot about the blog or updating you.  I just need to get to the kids as quickly as possible.  We've been doing fundraising via a Facebook page and updating there more often since the updates are shorter and reaching a large audience is easier.  Here is the link:  http://www.facebook.com/ThreeMoreForTheUnroesChristmasAuction 

The children we are adopting will be named Charity (3 year old girl with Autism), Johnathan (6 year old boy with hydrocephalus and a shunt), and Matthew (9 year old little boy who has a brain injury and severe atrophy with his legs bent at the knee and won't straighten and only weighs 18 lbs).  They are all in the same place that our Keith was before coming home.  Matthew really needs to come home and get medical treatment.  His brain injury was caused by being beat into a coma by his birthfather and there will be lots of trauma from that and being left in a crib since it happened when he was 4 1/2 years old.  A 9 year old that weighs 18 lbs is so hard to imagine unless you've seen a child from a place like they are from.  My heart hurts and I feel sick when I think of how much pain he must be in laying there unable to straighten his legs.  I worry about Charity and Johnathan too, but not nearly the same worries as I have for Matthew.  They all need home, but he needs home quickly desperately.

 

Here is Matthew, age 9

 Johnathan, age 6

 Charity, age 3

 

 

If you would like to help with the cost of getting them home, then you can donate at the chipin on the right side bar or you can visit the link for our Facebook page and be a part of auctions, stores that donate some proceeds, or contact me if you have an item to donate to an auction.  Please pray for our process to be quick and for the children as they wait!

 

More to come soon and I'll do much better with updating as soon as this paperwork is into the hands of the next person who needs it!

Christmas Pictures Any One?

Christmas pictures of the 5 Bulgarian Blessings are here and ready to share.  :) 

First of I'll show you the Family Christmas Picture!

 Ahnja

 Nicholas

 Anita

 Aleshia

 Keith

 Our 5 Bulgaria Blessings Together

 Ahnja with Destiny (these two are tight)

 Another family shot

 

I think if you look at both of the family shots, you can see the spots that 3 more little ones are meant to fill!  We can't wait to get them home and are still working hard on the paperwork to get them here. 

 

I will try to get all the kids posted on the family blog soon.  Right now it is time to bake Christmas cookies! 

Small Update

Just thought I'd give a small update.  As of today, our homestudy is being reviewed by our international agency to see if any corrections need made.  After that it will be officially printed and sent to them for the Hague certificate that we need.  Then it will go to USCIS.  All that happens rather quickly, up until USCIS.  That often takes a couple months.  Please pray that someone gets it who moves it through quickly!

We just finished up a quick auction on Facebook and I will be busy mailing things out.  The auctions have been a huge help with getting together those beginning funds.  Adoption is expensive and we just finished the last one just months ago, so the auctions have really helped us to keep moving forward funds wise.

Our social worker just finished up our first post placement visit.  That is being reviewed now.  It is AMAZING how much the children have changed.  I should have new pictures to share soon too.  We just had Christmas pictures done that I will send with our post placement report. I may be a little partial, but my kids were sure adorable dressed up in their Christmas clothes!  Hope to show you soon!

Here are a couple little boys who are waiting in the same place that Thad, Carson, and Presley are waiting.  These two still need families!

CHAD


KRAMER


Both of these boys need families so badly.  You can click on their names to learn more about them.  Reece's Rainbow has more info on them or you can email Shelley at shele337@yahoo.com