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| Steve and I |
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| Kacey |
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| Ethan |
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| Aaron |
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| Julia |
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| Regan |
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| Evan |
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| The whole crew who marched for life with us! |
Family Pic Nov 2015
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
March for Life
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Look at the difference!
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| One of our first visits to the orphanage in March 2011 |
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| She is watching Aaron play |
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| Proud daddy! |
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| Showing us how strong she is! |
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| Early on we discovered she LOVES hands. |
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| The sun shining in the patio was hard on her eyes. |
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| Second trip ~ Playing with Aaron, Dusty, and Sonja |
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| One of our last visits before Gotcha Day |
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| Gotcha Day: April 25, 2011 |
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| All dressed and ready to go! |
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| Finally asleep on the long leg over the Atlantic Ocean |
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| Getting some love from Regan ~ May 2011 |
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| Big brother, Ethan with Julia ~ May 2011 |
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| "little" sister, Regan with Julia ~ May 2011 |
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| Camping in June 2011 |
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| June 2011 |
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| July 2011 |
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| July 2011 |
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| August 2011 |
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| August 2011 |
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| August 2011 |
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| October 2011 |
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| October 2011 |
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| Getting herself to sitting position ~ Nov 2011 |
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| November 2011 |
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| Julia's 5th birthday party ~ Nov. 20, 2011 |
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| So many wonderful presents |
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| Family and friends at her party |
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| Evan, Julia, Aaron, Ethan, and Regan on Santa's lap |
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| Christmas Eve 2011 |
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| Christmas Eve 2011 |
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| January 2011 |
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| I'm a lil' Angel! |
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| 10 months home.....look at me now : ) Amazingly, Julia has doubled her weight and grown 4 inches over these last 10 months. When we first visited with Julia in the orphanage she couldn't even roll over from back to front without help. Now she can get herself to crawling position and sitting position. We still can't get her to crawl as she is very proficient at getting around on her back. But she will occasionally play sitting up in her play pen. We are in the process of getting her into the preschool program in public school where she will receive more therapy and hopefully thrive and show us all she can do! |
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Introducing Valentin's Family!!
Once again, praising God......IT IS OFFICIAL!!! Valentin is being rescued. He has a family coming for him! And his family has spent countless hours over the last few days working on committing to sweet Valentin and getting a blog started. Here they are.....The Ashton family.
The Ashton family has three children, two 3 year old boys and a 2 year old girl. One of their 3 year old boys was adopted from China with spina bifida and they just got home in October from adopting a 2 year old little girl with cerebral palsy, also from China. Here is a picture of their 3 blessings.
The Ashton family has started a blog, for all of us to follow them on their mission to rescue Valentin. The link to their blog is http://headoptedusfirst.blogspot.com/.
As I have mentioned in my last post, they are going to need all the financial help they can get. In their first blog post, they write.....
"Valentin is facing EMINENT TRANSFER to a mental institution and we have been told to prepare to adopt him from there because TRANSFER IS LIKELY INEVITABLE. We have also been told to prepare ourselves emotionally for what we will see. If the 'laying room' is horrendous then the mental institution is horrifying. This means we must move QUICKLY to rescue him.
The truth is, we need your help…he needs your help…and he needs it soon. As part of the body of Christ we know that we do not do anything alone. This is not a story of the Ashton Family going to adopt a boy; this is the story of the body of Christ working to rescue a child dearly beloved by God. We are doing everything humanly possible to complete all the paperwork, research his needs, find local doctors and resources for him, plan for travel and meeting him, plan for his return, etc... The one thing we cannot do…is pay for it all. And it is expensive. Considering Christ died for our adoption, $25,000 does not seem like too much.
We have paid for two adoptions in the last two years and have exhausted every financial resource we have. We know God will perform a miracle here and we are trusting in that with everything we have. We do not like nor are we good at asking for help, but hopefully we are wise enough and humble enough to know when we need it...to know when Valentin needs it. We know the sacrifice we are asking you to make by donating and we do not take even the smallest donation for granted. Your prayers are just as treasured."
God's army is coming together to fulfill what he has called us to do......"to look after orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:27)." God is moving mountains to pave the way for this family to travel to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to bring this 6 year old boy into the love of a home.....to no longer languish in a lonely crib. Please pray for Valentin and the Ashton family during this journey. Pray specifically for all the paperwork to fall quickly into place, for all the travel plans and the many arrangement that need to be made happen smoothly and as easily as possible, and that Valentin can hang on for a few more months and not deteriorate any further. All of this would be so much easier for this family if they didn't have to worry about fundraising. Valentin's grant fund has been growing. Please join God's army in rescuing Valentin by visiting their blog by clicking here and donate to his tax deductible grant fund on Reece's Rainbow.
The Ashton family has three children, two 3 year old boys and a 2 year old girl. One of their 3 year old boys was adopted from China with spina bifida and they just got home in October from adopting a 2 year old little girl with cerebral palsy, also from China. Here is a picture of their 3 blessings.
As I have mentioned in my last post, they are going to need all the financial help they can get. In their first blog post, they write.....
"Valentin is facing EMINENT TRANSFER to a mental institution and we have been told to prepare to adopt him from there because TRANSFER IS LIKELY INEVITABLE. We have also been told to prepare ourselves emotionally for what we will see. If the 'laying room' is horrendous then the mental institution is horrifying. This means we must move QUICKLY to rescue him.
The truth is, we need your help…he needs your help…and he needs it soon. As part of the body of Christ we know that we do not do anything alone. This is not a story of the Ashton Family going to adopt a boy; this is the story of the body of Christ working to rescue a child dearly beloved by God. We are doing everything humanly possible to complete all the paperwork, research his needs, find local doctors and resources for him, plan for travel and meeting him, plan for his return, etc... The one thing we cannot do…is pay for it all. And it is expensive. Considering Christ died for our adoption, $25,000 does not seem like too much.
We have paid for two adoptions in the last two years and have exhausted every financial resource we have. We know God will perform a miracle here and we are trusting in that with everything we have. We do not like nor are we good at asking for help, but hopefully we are wise enough and humble enough to know when we need it...to know when Valentin needs it. We know the sacrifice we are asking you to make by donating and we do not take even the smallest donation for granted. Your prayers are just as treasured."
God's army is coming together to fulfill what he has called us to do......"to look after orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:27)." God is moving mountains to pave the way for this family to travel to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to bring this 6 year old boy into the love of a home.....to no longer languish in a lonely crib. Please pray for Valentin and the Ashton family during this journey. Pray specifically for all the paperwork to fall quickly into place, for all the travel plans and the many arrangement that need to be made happen smoothly and as easily as possible, and that Valentin can hang on for a few more months and not deteriorate any further. All of this would be so much easier for this family if they didn't have to worry about fundraising. Valentin's grant fund has been growing. Please join God's army in rescuing Valentin by visiting their blog by clicking here and donate to his tax deductible grant fund on Reece's Rainbow.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
A Family For Valentin......
Thank you God in heaven!! Our prayers have been heard and answered.....there IS a family working on committing to adopt Valentin. We have been in touch with this family over the last few days and just last night they informed us they are going to adopt him. As soon as they are "officially" committed to him and have started a blog, we will post again : )
The power of prayer is amazing. There isn't a mountain too big for God to move! We are rejoicing for Valentin. And we are rejoicing with this family who will be so incredibly blessed to be his family.
The power of prayer is amazing. There isn't a mountain too big for God to move! We are rejoicing for Valentin. And we are rejoicing with this family who will be so incredibly blessed to be his family.
One thing I will tell you all is that this family has, in a relatively short period of time, adopted twice! Their financial resources for an adoption that will need to get moving quickly is somewhat depleted. They will need help financially to get Valentin home as quickly as possible. Please consider donating to his grant fund on Reece's Rainbow by clicking here.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Valentin needs HELP!!
When we began our journey to adopt Julia, I had many conversations with Adeye, who had adopted from the same orphanage, about what she had experienced. It was so hard to hear what these children's lives are like. Hell on earth......the malnutrition/starvation, the sedation, the loneliness, the lack of love and affection, the boredom, the endless rocking (self-soothing), the head banging, the chewing on crib bars. It is a very sickening reality. For many of us, it is easier to pretend the problem of thousands of fatherless children wasting away in orphanages doesn't exist. Or we convince ourselves "it is not something I can do, someone else will go."
I needed to hear these things beforehand. Maybe I thought I could prepare myself. I knew before we arrived at the orphanage that the hardest part of this journey was going to be getting a glimpse of the conditions that these children are in. And then have to leave them behind. It is terribly sad and horrible that any child be confined to cribs with minimal care for their entire lives.
One little boy, I found continually chewed and gnawed on the crib bars.
This poor little boy, I did not see awake EVER!
There was a family committed to adopt him. They knew very little about him and had virtually no medical information on him. And without anyone spending any quality time with him in this room, it was difficult for them to know what to expect. From what I know, he was transferred to this room about a year ago. Sadly, spending every day in this tiny crib in a small room with about 7 other cribs jammed in side by side and around the perimeter, has been devastating and detrimental to him.
I have heard that he is not the same child he was when he was first transferred to this room or even since I was there. The family that was to adopt him learned some medical information about him when they received their referral once in country. What they learned about him at this appointment caused them to become concerned, as they have a large family of 6 children, many of whom were adopted from other areas of this Eastern European country. They were concerned about whether they could handle the more severe special needs they had learned about. They continued on, with trepidation, to his region where they would meet him. They visited him twice, one time for 20 minutes and the next for a couple of hours. Even spending time out of his room was too much for this poor boy. Extreme overstimulation. He was found to have screaming fits brought on by seemingly nothing. And they would stop just as inexplicably. He would get agitated and start banging his head on his crib or anything he could. From when I was there, it appears he has also lost a lot of mobility, no doubt from being so confined.
This has been an extremely difficult time for this family. They have prayerfully decided that they cannot adopt him. How hard this must have been for them. They fell in love with a picture of a beautiful boy.
They completed a homestudy, filled out hours of paperwork, spent lots of money, traveled to the country, and were left with this terrible decision. This is a risk that many of us have faced when adopting from this country. I am sure this has been a gut-wrenching ordeal as they realized he is going to need a family that will be able to give him more than they can. They had to leave him there having seen his circumstances. I ask that you all keep this family in your prayers. They know that his living conditions have made this cognitively functioning child that I saw, into a child who has become disturbed. A child that has to be strapped down with padding to keep him from hurting himself.
No child deserves this kind of life. I know they are praying hard for a family to come for him in time......a family that can give this child the quality and quantity of time it will take to try to undo this damage, if it is even possible at all. It will take a very special family.
I am asking for everyone who reads this post to pray for this little boy. Pray that a family can come for him. The Lord places the lonely in families. We have seen it happen over and over again. We have witnessed the most "unadoptable" children placed in loving families. Our own Julia, was considered an "unadoptable" child. She was a frail four year old child weighing 15 pounds 8 oz. (fully clothed) with a diagnosis (Cockayne Syndrome) that gave her a life span of 4-7 years. The Lord brought her to us. We answered His call with "yes, we will go......" The road was not easy. When we brought her home she could not even roll over from her back to her front. She had never known anything else but life on her back. She is now a happy, energetic five year old, who has doubled her weight in 8 months and can get herself to sitting and crawling position. Miraculously, we have found that she does not have Cockayne Syndrome. Our prayers were answered.
Nothing is impossible with Christ. There is power in prayer. The Lord will hear our prayers for Valentin too! Please share his story. Donate to his grant fund on Reece's Rainbow by clicking here. All donations are tax deductible. No amount donated is too small. Thousands can be raised if everyone who reads this donates only $10.
"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families...." Psalm 68:5-6
I needed to hear these things beforehand. Maybe I thought I could prepare myself. I knew before we arrived at the orphanage that the hardest part of this journey was going to be getting a glimpse of the conditions that these children are in. And then have to leave them behind. It is terribly sad and horrible that any child be confined to cribs with minimal care for their entire lives.
One little boy, I found continually chewed and gnawed on the crib bars.
This poor little boy, I did not see awake EVER!
And there was one boy kept in a crib in Julia's room that I won't forget because I could not understand why he was in there. This room is reserved for "the worst of the worst." The children with the most severe special needs. They are deemed completely worthless......the children that nobody would ever adopt. They are literally kept hidden from the world, except for a few of us who get a very small glimpse. Even volunteer therapy groups are discouraged from going into this room. They are told not to bother. It didn't appear that this boy's special needs were anywhere near severe enough to warrant his fate in this awful room. He also looked entirely too big to be kept in such a small crib. He was always quiet and calm. He looked at me, seemed engaged, and could move around in his crib as his gaze followed me around the room. This is a five year old little boy we now know is called Valentin. He is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, just like our Aaron (Sergey). If a family doesn't come for him soon, he will "age" out of the orphanage and be placed in an institution, where there will be virtually no hope for him AND he will live under worse conditions.
There was a family committed to adopt him. They knew very little about him and had virtually no medical information on him. And without anyone spending any quality time with him in this room, it was difficult for them to know what to expect. From what I know, he was transferred to this room about a year ago. Sadly, spending every day in this tiny crib in a small room with about 7 other cribs jammed in side by side and around the perimeter, has been devastating and detrimental to him.
I have heard that he is not the same child he was when he was first transferred to this room or even since I was there. The family that was to adopt him learned some medical information about him when they received their referral once in country. What they learned about him at this appointment caused them to become concerned, as they have a large family of 6 children, many of whom were adopted from other areas of this Eastern European country. They were concerned about whether they could handle the more severe special needs they had learned about. They continued on, with trepidation, to his region where they would meet him. They visited him twice, one time for 20 minutes and the next for a couple of hours. Even spending time out of his room was too much for this poor boy. Extreme overstimulation. He was found to have screaming fits brought on by seemingly nothing. And they would stop just as inexplicably. He would get agitated and start banging his head on his crib or anything he could. From when I was there, it appears he has also lost a lot of mobility, no doubt from being so confined.
This has been an extremely difficult time for this family. They have prayerfully decided that they cannot adopt him. How hard this must have been for them. They fell in love with a picture of a beautiful boy.
They completed a homestudy, filled out hours of paperwork, spent lots of money, traveled to the country, and were left with this terrible decision. This is a risk that many of us have faced when adopting from this country. I am sure this has been a gut-wrenching ordeal as they realized he is going to need a family that will be able to give him more than they can. They had to leave him there having seen his circumstances. I ask that you all keep this family in your prayers. They know that his living conditions have made this cognitively functioning child that I saw, into a child who has become disturbed. A child that has to be strapped down with padding to keep him from hurting himself.
No child deserves this kind of life. I know they are praying hard for a family to come for him in time......a family that can give this child the quality and quantity of time it will take to try to undo this damage, if it is even possible at all. It will take a very special family.
I am asking for everyone who reads this post to pray for this little boy. Pray that a family can come for him. The Lord places the lonely in families. We have seen it happen over and over again. We have witnessed the most "unadoptable" children placed in loving families. Our own Julia, was considered an "unadoptable" child. She was a frail four year old child weighing 15 pounds 8 oz. (fully clothed) with a diagnosis (Cockayne Syndrome) that gave her a life span of 4-7 years. The Lord brought her to us. We answered His call with "yes, we will go......" The road was not easy. When we brought her home she could not even roll over from her back to her front. She had never known anything else but life on her back. She is now a happy, energetic five year old, who has doubled her weight in 8 months and can get herself to sitting and crawling position. Miraculously, we have found that she does not have Cockayne Syndrome. Our prayers were answered.
Nothing is impossible with Christ. There is power in prayer. The Lord will hear our prayers for Valentin too! Please share his story. Donate to his grant fund on Reece's Rainbow by clicking here. All donations are tax deductible. No amount donated is too small. Thousands can be raised if everyone who reads this donates only $10.
"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families...." Psalm 68:5-6
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