Love Makes Families

Love Makes Families
A family of 8 due to the blessing of adoption!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Will you join my colony?

Yes friends I am going to blog about bees. 
We had a lesson today in church that talked about bees and how awesome they are.
I want to share a few things about bees with you, but don't go running yet...I do have a point :)

Bees are the only insect that produce food for humans. 
Honey is considered to be the purest and healthiest food.
Honey is used as a food and for medicine.
A human could survive life on just honey.
Honey never goes bad.
Bees pollinate over 80% of vegetables in the US.
A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honey bees


Now think about how small a single bee is
If you were in a battle against a single bee, you would not be afraid.
You could stomp on it. It is so tiny and insignificant!
Now imagine a swarm of bees teamed together and coming after you....
They seem a bit more powerful don't they??


The craziest thing I learned about bees today is that in it's lifetime the average bee only produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey.

To put this in perspective... The average container of honey is about 16 oz which is about 96 teaspoons worth.

That means it takes 1,152 bees their entire life to make 1 container of honey. Crazy huh??

Similar to bees in a Colony making honey, people in the adoption community work together to bring home every child. It takes more than just a mom (Queen Bee ;) ) to rescue a child. Without the support of the adoption community, friends and family (the worker bees), we would not be able to bring our children home.

I have had many many people support our adoption and many people have given way more than their 1/12 of a teaspoon, but sadly our bottle is not full yet.

The say it takes 1,152 bees to fill a bottle of honey. I can handle that.... Do you think we can get 1,152 people to put in their 1/12th of a teaspoon to bring our boys home??

We still need about $8,000 to bring our 2 boys home..... That is about $7 per person if we get 1,152.
Honey bees live only about a month, so let's just say that each month you get a new life...
So, maybe it would be easier to get 288 people to donate $7 a month for the next 4 months...
April, May, June and July or even August.

Since I am all about adoption, I would like to adopt you into my Colony.
Will you be part of my colony??
Can you commit $7 per month for 4 months??
Or donate $28?

I only have 50 blog readers, so maybe you could each share with 5 or 6 friends.... We can fill this jar of honey if we all work together.

$8,000 seems huge to one person, but when we all "swarm" the problem together we can attack it with strength in numbers!!

Please help me bring my boys home.


Colony members:
Jamie L
Kelly M (2 spots)
Kristi C
Lisa G (June)
Rebecca (May or June)
Colleen N
Christina S
Cat H (donated)
Bobby Baird (Little B)-Done
Kimberly D
Brooke K
Cindy O.-Done
Karla A

Updated since we have received some funds :)
242 spots still left.... this will get us full funded!!!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Help a friend!! Win an ipad mini?

Ok everyone.... Just yesterday I was pleading for you to donate to my family, but today I feel called to ask your donations to go to a different  place.

You see, I have this amazing friend. She is an amazing person. Not only is she a fabulous mother to all of her children, but she finds time to be a great support system to many.
Whenever I am having a rough day, she lifts me up.
Whenever a potential adoptive parent has questions, she answers them.
No matter what is asked of her, she always finds a way.
She has even donated to MY adoption on multiple occasions.
She should be traveling on her first trip in May, and she has this amazing giveaway going on!!!
You can see that giveaway at

I want to explain to you that this family is adopting 3 yes THREE treasures from Adam's orphanage.
They just brought 5 treasures home from this Country less than a year ago.
Many people are scared to save even 1, but this family was called of God and without hesitation they followed his call.

People often say God will provide, but I have a little secret for us... all of us.
God uses his children, US, to provide.
He has the ability to make all things happen, but he likes to test his children. He likes to ask us to give a little of what we have to bless the lives of others. 

Do you feel the desire to bless the Unroe family??

I know I do. I have little to give, but I will give what I can. Not because I am an amazing person, but because God asked!! I am answering with a resounding YES!! Will you??

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Update and a Plea

Well, it has been over a month since I boarded a plane and headed to my boys' Country.
1 month ago today, I met Adam for the first time.
He is tiny, loving, adorable and perfect just the way he is.
I discovered while there that he does have a few people that do care about him, but not like I do.
Not like a Mama and a family can.
He needs to be home where he can gain weight, strength and energy.
He should not be 6 years old and just 19 lbs. 
I do not love begging. I do not love whining. I DO love my sons though.
Please help me bring them home.

Matthias is in better shape than Adam, but he still needs out.
We do not believe he can hear well if at all and he needs to get that taken care of. 
He does not speak and we do not know if this is because of his hearing or not.
I would love for him to hear me tell him how much he is loved.

I cannot begin to explain how my heart aches to have them home!!! 

Ok now that I have begged a little here is where we are.
We sent in our I800 which is a form needed to get our sons immigration status approved by the United States. The received it over 2 weeks ago, and I found out today that I had missed one of the formed needed. I sent those in today and they should have them tomorrow morning by 10:30 am.
I hope that means I get a phone call tomorrow that they approved me.

Once that is done, Our agency in our sons' Country will do the same thing on there side and get their immigration status approved to leave there or something like them.

Then they will submit our dossier to the government officials to sign off. Once we get the ever famous signature, we will be submitted for court.

After we pass court, we will get travel dates for about a month later.
Many people ask "why so long?" Well, they have to get a lot of paperwork done, get new birth certificates, and a lot of other things.

When we travel we will pick our boys up on a Monday then stay for about 9-10 days getting a few final things done like a passport and medical exam, then we will come home.

The second our boys' step on US soil they will be American citizens!

We are praying we get to go back to bring them home in August which means we need a July Court date or sooner would be awesome!!! 

Please pray with us and for us <3

Monday, April 22, 2013

Visiting Matthias

Less than 2 hours after saying goodbye to my tiny 6 year old son who I had waited 7 LONG months to meet, I find myself standing outside at the bus station waiting to board the bus to travel to Matthias' city. I was both shocked and anxious when a 15 passenger van pulled in. My guide had run inside for a minute and nobody around me spoke any English. I was silently hoping that this tiny (in retrospect) vehicle was not our "bus". I see my guide's face and start waving frantically. She comes over and confirms that this van is in fact our "bus". 20+ people are waiting to board. 
My guide is a tiny sweet young lady, but you would not have known it this day. 
She marched right through this crowd of locals and explained that she had purchased tickets in advance therefore securing our space on the "bus". Keep in mind this is the ONLY bus going to this particular city.... She told us to bring our luggage to the back and the driver left the irritated mob and looked at our large amount of luggage in disgust. He then said "It's a bus lady not a train." He literally had no space for our luggage..... Our small carryons were all that fit in the lack of cargo space in this van. We then push through the angry mob of people with our suitcases and backpacks to board the already full van. An elderly gentleman moved over, so I could sit by him. A mom put her small son on her lap, so my dad could have a seat and our guide squoze between 2 other young ladies. The driver then began smoking (I am allergic to smoke). My mother like guide (who at one point during our trip told me she would not even let me breathe without her) got up from her crammed seat and walked all the way to the front to yell and the driver and explain that he could not smoke near me.... He slammed the door and hated us "Americans" even more. It was such a blessing having this amazing woman as our guide.

The "bus" finally left with some people sitting on the ground, people standing and a young child on his mother's lap while the driver had 2 empty seats in the front by him that he refused to let anyone occupy. It was supposed to be a 2 hour ride, but that was not the case. In this Country they do road construction a littler differently. The completely tear up the road leaving just mud to drive on until the put the new road down..... It was pouring outside which meant it was supper muddy. Pot holes is an understatement. Oh and did I mention that even though one side of the road was closed that there are not flaggers or signs to let on coming traffic know?? Well basically the driver zig zaged across the road driving where ever he though the roads were best expecting oncoming traffic to yield to him. Thankfully they did. We zigged and we zagged and we dodged pot holes and bounced out of our seats for over 3 hours..... All the while I am holding our 2 suitcases in the isle trying not to let them fall and have my backback in my lap..... I was soooooo sore and tired by the time we got to Matthias' city..... Not to mention that we were almost 2 hours late for our visit by the time we found a cab (actually 2), checked in at our hotel and walked to his group home.

Our guide was not allowed to stay at the same hotel as us because it was "too expensive". I had to pay the $5-$10 more a night because it is pet free (I am allergic). We checked in, typed a quick message to our families to let them know we were safe, then we waited for her to come get us. She arrived and we walked the 10 mins to the group home. On the way, we passed the orphanage and I said a prayer thanking God that Matthias had been allowed to be in the group home for the past year and not the orphanage where he had been left lying in a crib for almost 5 years. You see Matthias has no medical diagnosis at all.... His only "special need" is delays from living in an orphanage. I believe the only reason he was not adopted earlier is because he was part of a sibling group. After a few years, they decided to split them up. 

We arrived at the group home and it is literally a home that the kids live in. We walked down the 5 stairs and were led into the director's office. We could see children in the play room, and one child was striving to get attention, but I knew it was not boy.... I honestly did not see Matthias. We spoke with the director, filled out some forms, signed the guest book, and then she left to bring in my son. 

I hate to admit this, but I was so exhausted that I could barely function.... Not to mention that I had just said good bye to one of my sons. I was so excited to meet my sweet Matthias, but I had no energy.
He came in and looked nothing like the only picture I had of him. The picture was a few years old. He had grown quite a bit since then. He smelled. Yes, my son smelled. He wanted nothing to do with me. Not to mention he was in the directors office which he rarely goes into. He was curious and looked around, but he did not look at me. He liked my guide and the worker and the director who all sat there and starred. It was like 90 degrees in the tiny office filled with 6 people and only about 2 square feet of space. It was his dinner time because our bus was late. He was hungry, he was confused and he was distant. I tried toys, but all he wanted to do was chew on toys. He broke one of the toys within 5 seconds.... None of my girls' were chewers, so this is going to be new for me.

I left discouraged. I did not have the instant connection with Matthias that I did with Adam. I even asked my guide what would happen if I decided not to adopt him (not that I would give up after 1 hour). I felt a connection with another child there more than I did my own and it scared me. We were told all of our visits would be in the director's office and that terrified me as well. 

The next morning we were told to be there at 9am. I prayed the night before and asked God to give me energy, strength and an open heart and mind. I asked him to let me leave Adam in his hands, so I could focus on my oldest son. We arrived just before 9am and were greeted by the same child that had caught my attention the day before (I am pleased to say that since arriving home, we have helped get his name out there and he has a mom  and dad coming!!). We went back into the director's office and I prayed that we could meet somewhere else. They explained that we could meet in his room and that I could feed him a snack a little later.... I was overjoyed. 

They brought Matthias in and he was still scared of me, but he let me carry him upstairs to his room. They had him dressed in the cutest outfit. I loved it. We went into his room and I think he thought it was nap time because he was not happy. The director gave him some toys, and that seemed to lighten his mood. I got out some of the toys I had and he was not interested in any of them. He kept trying to play with a socket on the wall and my dad "Poppy" kept telling him no. Then he was walking along the wardrobe in his room, and I noticed he was staring at his reflection.... That is when I remembered the mirror..... Oh let me tell you that he loves looking at himself and honestly with hair and skin like his I can see why. He lit up when he had that mirror in his hands. He had us all laughing. He was kissing himself and smiling. It was awesome. After about an hour, he climbed into my lap and gave me a big hug. It was a priceless moment. My guide and the director (who sat in on every single visit) kept explaining that I was his mom. He started playing with the toys and really opened up. I was finally started to feel connected to him. I already loved him, but my motherly bond was forming in an entirely different way than with Adam. Part of me wished I had visited Matthias first because he required much more energy. I learned this on Saturday afternoon. We were asked to come back at 1 because that was nap time.... It turns out my little stinker does not like naps and will wake all the other kiddos up if he is left in the room with them. We had the play room all to ourselves and I could tell this is where he spent most of his time because he went right to work at playing. I got out a few of his favorite toys from the morning (except the mirror because he will literally play with nothing else if that is out). I sat on a chair  (a tiny kids chair) and he kept climbing on my lap. After a while he got these bowl stacking toys I had brought and started building using one of those, a table leg and a chair. He was meticulous. He would get the angles just right and then stare at it with his fingers in his mouth. I thought this was something he had always done, but was later told that this was new since we were there. I could see just how smart he is. He was raised with so little that he has learned to play with toys in a "non typical" way. Later he climbed on my lap and threw himself backwards. He apparently likes to be hung upside down. He is so strong that he could be laying upside down and using only his abdominal muscles pull himself back onto my lap. After a while, I got tired and tried to set him down. He instantly started fake crying. I was laughing sooo hard. Every time I would give in, he would laugh and laugh. After flipping him upside down the back up over 100 times I decided to break out the "magic weapon" AKA the mirror. He saw it and crawled right over to it and starred at himself. It was awesome. The visits flew by and it was time to leave.

The next day went fairly much like the 2nd day.... 1st visit in the room, 2nd visit in the playroom. The one main thing he did this day was showed us again how smart he is.... He was playing with the mirror and ignoring everything and everyone else. When he was not looking my dad took the mirror and hid it under a tote. I believe it was while I was feeding him. As soon as he was done eating he got off the chair and crawled over to the tote, threw it out of the way and smiled a huge smile of victory. We all smiled along with him. I was pretty proud of him. I decided to try hiding it again later and he found it right away again, then he tried to hide it. It was fun. 

On a side note. He eat 5 times a day also.... Breakfast at 8, snack at 10, lunch at noon, snack at 2 and dinner at 5. He cannot eat solid food either. He eats mushed food like a smashed banana, yogurt or something similar. He has not been allowed to feed himself or even touch the spoon. the second he sees food coming, he folds his hands in his lap and opens his mouth. It is the sweetest thing.

By day 3 in the afternoon he was pretty attached to me and would not leave my sight and had to be touching me almost constantly when I was there. Days 4 and 5 we were in the play room for both visits since the others were in school. It was so much fun.... tons of building, flipping him upside down and using the mirror so mommy could get a break. On the 4th day in the afternoon we got to take him out of the group home to get his photo taken. On the 5th day (Monday) one of the workers came to change him because we were going to take him for a walk back to our hotel so we could say goodbye there.

While she was gone and the director was outside for a minute, Dad, our guide and I were playing with the beach ball that I had brought. We were basically playing volleyball. We were having a blast. When the director walked in, I was a little embarrassed and acted like we hadn't been playing. She asked to play as well, so we did. We were all laughing and carrying on. It was so much fun to get to know her a little better..... I may have accidentally hit the director in the face. I felt bad. She had been filling out her reports for our agency earlier that morning, so I asked her if she had already said she liked me before I hit her. She laughed and said not to worry that she loved us. She was a very kind lady and I could tell that she truly cared for the children. She told us to continue to play ball when Matthias came back in and see how he acted. We kept on playing and he tried to walk away lol.... I think we scared him. She picked him up and put him in her lap and helped him play catch with his Mama. It was a very fun time and he loved it. Before I knew it, my final visit was over and it was time to leave.  The director put Matthias in the stroller and walked with us back to our hotel. I thought that was very sweet of her. We walked and talked and we got to know he a bit better. I can truly say that I love her. She made it just a touch easier to leave my son behind because I knew someone loved him. When we went to get his visa photo taken, she asked if we would take a picture with him to hang above his bed. The put at rainbow as the background.... how fitting.

Just a quick insert that I forgot..... On day 5 Matthias walked all the way across the room to get to me. even though he is 6 and lives half way across the world, I got to witness his first unassisted steps.
We got a call while on the bus traveling back to the capitol that a worker with hair similar to mine walked in and he walked across the toy room, across the hall and into the director's office where she was. All by himself!! It was sad though because they said he was so disappointed that it was not me.

As we stood in front of our hotel, I cried as I told Matthias that we would be back as soon as we could. She said that she wanted to thank me on behalf of Matthias. She said she knew if he could speak that he would thank us himself. She said she loves the children and tries to give them the best care, but no matter how hard she tries that she could never replace a family. She cried and I cried. We said goodbye and she walked away pushing Matthias in a stroller.

In 9 short days, I had met both of my sons, loved on them, then said goodbye. 
I will never be able to express how emotional this trip was for me.
Meeting MY sons, then having to leave them there was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.
I was told multiple times that 4-6 months was not a long time, but imagine being without your child for 4-6 months. It feels like eternity. I was super excited to be home with my 3 girls, but leaving my 2 sons was horrible. I still do not feel "human" being home. I want to go back right now.

I have a friend traveling to meet her 3 kids at Adam's orphanage next month and I badly want to sneak in her luggage. I miss them both so much. Now, I am in tears nightly not knowing IF I will raise the money to bring them home. In my heart, I know God has this, but $8000 in 4 months is a lot.... $2000 a month. I have barely raised $200 in the 2 weeks since I have been home. 

I will leave you with a couple of pictures.... not much since I cannot share my son's face.
His favorite toy AKA the secret weapon.... the mirror.
This is his day 2 outfit which I loved. The director always tries to make them match.
 Loving on Poppy
 This water fall was the view from our hotel window

 This was the letter "Damion" wrote to his future family
 Matthias's favorite position waiting to be hung upside down

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Pleasantly surprised in Country and visiting Adam

Before we traveled to Eastern Europe, I was terrified to go.
Many people had told me so many things about the Country in general, the people, the cities I was traveling to, and many other aspects of my expected trip.
I heard things like... there is smoke everywhere, there are dogs everywhere (I am allergic), people there do not smile, nobody speaks English, the water will make you sick, the cab drivers will rip you off, the hotels are disgusting, the orphanage is filthy, the workers in the orphanage do not care about the kids, the food is so different there and many many more things.

Most of these things were not even close to accurate. I was so terrified so no reason. I packed my breathing machine, tons of medicines, tons of foods and so many things.

The flights were not nearly as bad as I thought (this was my first time leaving the Country).
I mean 24+ hours in airports was rough, but I was actually able to sleep on the 8+ hour flight.
When we arrived at the airport customs was no big deal, and our driver was waiting there for us.
He drove us to a place to exchange money then he took us to our hotel.
The hotel was amazing. Everyone there spoke English and they were very accommodating.
We did not eat dinner that night because we were pretty exhausted, but when we went down for breakfast in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised. They had fresh fruit, toast with jam, yogurt, eggs, bacon, croissants, juice, milk, water and coffee. It was all very tasty and very "American".
We walked around the Capitol and found many people that were very friendly and some even spoke English. We found a KFC and Dunkin doughnuts. Dad just had to eat some KFC, but I decided to try some Pizza. I walked into the restaurant and they spoke English as well. I was very pleased. The food was great and we had a ton of fun. We went back to the hotel and met up with 4 American families that were also there. 2 of these 4 families would be going with us to the same city and I was pretty excited about that. 

On Sunday we woke up and walked to the bus station (which was awful since we had all of our luggage and the roads and not great there), and we boarded the bus to Adam's city. The bus ride was very nice. There were only about 13 people on a huge bus. When we arrived in the city, we had to take 2 cabs to the hotel because we had so much luggage. They could not take us directly to the hotel because the hotel was in the middle of the city center which only allows pedestrians. We walked over to the hotel and went inside. They did not have elevators. We only chose this hotel because we were told that the other main hotel in this city was horrible. We lugged our 6 bags up 2 flights of stairs. I instantly started having an asthma attack from the smoke. This is the first time that the smoke had bothered me since being in the Country. I lugged my bags up 2 more flights of stairs only to discover that the room was so smoke filled that I could not breathe. My guide instantly went tot a different hotel (the one we were told was awful) and got us rooms. We lugged all of our bags back down the stairs and across the way to the other hotel. It was WAY nicer and I was surprised people had said not to stay there. It was old and a little run down, but we are in a foreign Country.... what do people expect?? 

It was also nice because both of the other families in that city were staying there also. We found a great restaurant and ended up eating there for almost every meal during our 5 day stay in Adam's city. Cabs were right outside of the hotel, so it was easy to catch a cab to the orphanage.

Monday morning at 8:30 we hoped in a cab and were on our way to see Adam for the very first time. We pulled up to the orphanage and the first thing I noticed were swings outside. The outside of the building was a little run down and I was very nervous walking inside. I was expecting the odor to be horrible and the place to be filthy. I was very pleasantly surprised. It smelled very clean and was nicely decorated with pictures of the children and pictures that had been colored. There were couches in the lobby where we sat and waited for our guide to get the social worker. Workers buzzed past us and many even smiled at us. The social worker  came out and she was a gorgeous young woman who was very sweet. They took us in the elevator and up to the 5th floor of the orphanage where they took us into a very nice play room. Again I was very surprised that they has such a nice area for me to meet my son. We were all alone in the room.... My dad, my guide and me. We were told we could take all the pictures and videos we wanted, but that we could not share them. They were for our private use only. A few minutes later (it felt like forever to me though) Adam was wheeled in by his Grandma (not his real grandma, but they have a grandma program at his orphanage). Again I was pleasantly surprised because I was told he did not have one. I looked down at my son who I had longed to hold for so long. Surprisingly I did not pick him up right away. I did not know how he would respond to being held, so I knelt down next to him and spoke to him as I cried softly. I told him the I loved him and that I was his mama. He smiled at me and my heart melted!!! After a few minutes that also felt like forever, I asked if I could pick him up. I did and my sweet six year old son snuggled into me barely the size of a 6 month old. His head under my chin and his tiny body barely reaching to my waist. It was truly love at first sight. We were bonded and nobody could ever take that away!! We sat and snuggled for a long time. Then I pulled him away to star into his eyes and I was again pleasantly surprised when he seemed to be staring back into mine. You see, I was told he was blind and could not see. After the days passed it was obvious that he could see as he rather enjoyed staring into the eyes of his mama and would smile when he would see me. Please don't get me wrong his vision is seriously impaired, but he saw me and I am pretty sure he loved me. We were lucky and had about 30 mins to ourselves before the other 2 families arrived. They came in and ooohed and ahhhhed over Adam while they waited for their 2 sons to be brought in. It was another magical moment watching these 2 amazing families getting to meet their sons for the first time. Some people asked if I was upset to be sharing our visitation room with others and I can honestly answer no. I was overjoyed to have the opportunity to spend time with these 2 amazing couples and their sons. They are my family know and their 2 boys will be forever on my heart.

About an hour after our visit began it was time for Adam's Gma to come in and feed him. He eats 5 times a day. She came  in and he knew it was time to eat.... actually about 10 minutes before 10 he started sucking on his tongue and getting a little fussy. He definitely knew it was time. She explained through our translator how he is now eating from a spoon, how often he eats and what he was eating. He eats 2 stage 3 jars of baby food around 6am, then a bowl full of yogurt with powder at 10am (it was like yogurt with baby cereal in it), then at 1 he eats another stage 3 jar, then 5 he eats yogurt, then at 9 he eats another stage 3 jar. WAY more than what I was told he eats. I was very impressed and his new diet shows because he has been gaining weight. I was told he is gaining 100 grams per week.

His Gma was so nice and even told us about the worker who stayed with him during his shunt surgery last year. They said prior to his shunt surgery he was like a new born baby.... he just laid there and did nothing. Since his surgery, he has started to make progress with being able to be propped in an upright position, eating from a spoon and he can almost roll over except his poor head is too heavy. I got to meet his Gma and the worker who stayed with him. She calls herself his orphanage mama which made me smile because you could see she loved him. The visit ended quickly and it was time to leave. I was surprisingly ready to rest because the visit was emotionally exhausting. It was 11am and we were told to be back at 3:30 pm. 

We got back to the orphanage just before 3:30 and they evening worker brought him in. She carried him in and he instantly snuggled right into me. I was a little shocked because my son was wearing pink Peppa the pig pajamas. My dad thought it was great since he loves pink, but hubby did not love it :) He was so adorable and just wanted to snuggle with me almost the entire time. I enjoyed every second. They came in at 5pm to take him, so he could eat. I missed him the second the took him. I could not wait for 9am the next day. I was so tired that I was actually able to sleep. We got back around 8:45 the next morning and my sweet baby was in the same outfit as the day before, but that is ok.... he recognized me and he smiled the second he heard my voice. Each day he got more and more comfortable with me. I got the feed him 4 times, we learned he loved music toys, he loves his Gma and 2 of the workers, he loves to make spitting noises and he is very smart. My translator would ask him where his mama was and he would look right at me and smile. She would ask him to smile and he would. We got him to where he would just laugh and laugh and everyone just loved it. His Gma and all the workers were so surprised that he attached so well. We spoke with the director of the orphanage and she is very kind. We got to speak with the doctor and he said that Adam is very healthy aside from his vision and hydrocephalus. The psycologist said he is doing very well since he recently got a Gma and she was very impressed that he was attaching so well. 

The week with Adam seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was Friday morning. Before they even brought him in, I was in tears. It was a very hard visit knowing that in just 2 hours, I would have to say goodbye until I am able to return and get him. As the Gma came in to get him, I could not stop the tears and neither could my dad. We loved this little man more than anyone could imagine. She told me not to cry and promised to take good care of him until I got back. She is a very kind lady. When I set Adam in his stroller he looked up at me and started crying. He had not done this before.... he knew!! 
I felt awful that he was crying and as she wheeled him out, I felt like someone was ripping my heart out.

I did not have much time to focus on leaving Adam because we were scheduled to meet Matthias in a city 2 hours away in just 4 hours. We got in the cab and rode back to the hotel, we gathered our items, checked out, ate lunch then caught a cab to the bus station. When the bus arrived we were in shock!! It was not a bus it was a 15 passenger van. There were like 25 people waiting to board. Our guide insured we got on even though there was no room for our luggage. We ended up having to put it in the isles of the  van and we all had to sit separately.... The ride was awful, but I will tell you more in the next post!!!!






Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Are you on the name wall?

We have been working on a little something to honor all the amazing people who have helped to bring our boys home!!!
Page 1 has already been posted
We also have 9 names currently on page #2 and I would love to get that page up today!!!
This is what the wall looks like. More to be added soon I hope..
If you want to be displayed on this name wall in the boys' room, all you need to do is donate $10 to our FSP http://reecesrainbow.org/48978/sponsormitchell
then email me at Grumpyjax@yahoo.com with your conf # and what name you want on the wall.
Some of you may have donated already and that counts too.
Please comment below or email me.
Please keep in mind these are outright donations and not donations made to receive goods.


Thank you to all those who have and who continue to support us in bringing our boys home!!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Updated pictures

Since I am not able to share pictures that I took of Adam and Matthias I thought I would give you what I can. Both have grown a ton from the first pictures I saw of them.

This was the first picture that I saw of Adam. Tiny, no hair....
This is a picture I was given when he had his surgery back in September.
He looks mostly the same now except he had a smile on his face a lot of the time.
I cannot wait to share pictures of our "gotcha" day.

This is the first picture I saw of Matthias.

I found this picture just a few days ago on another photo listing adoption site.
This is pretty much what he looks like now except his hair is a bit shorter. 
I was shocked when he walked in because he looked so different.

They are both amazing and I cannot wait to share tons more pictures!!!

Friday, April 5, 2013

We are home from trip one!.

We just got home last night from our first trip.
Kevin was not able to go, so my dad went with me.
I am very sad that Kevin could not be there, but so thankful I did not have to go alone.
We met Adam on March 25th and he is so tiny, but so amazing!
On day 1 he just snuggled right into me and we were in love.
He is tiny!! Did I mention tiny?!?!. 
He is turning 6 very soon and weighs about 19 lbs. He eats very well, and I know he will gain a ton of weight once he is home. His head weighs so much that he cannot even hold it up by himself, but that will change too. He seems very motivated, so once we get him a little bigger and stronger, he will flourish!! We found out he does have some vision although we are not sure how much. He was definitely staring into my face and when our translator would say where is Mama, he would look right at me which melted me! He is a very happy boy and loves to smile and laugh. He is very infant like in almost every way.... size, ability etc. I have a feeling though that he will advance very quickly once he is out of his crib and in loving arms for good. He made so much progress during our 9 visits with him.
I cried like a baby when I had to say goodbye and he cried too which broke my heart.
I asked his caretakers to remind him that we are coming back and left some pictures and toys for him.

We met Matthias on March 29th (the same day I had to say goodbye to Adam and after a 3+ hour bus ride). I was exhausted by the time we got there and poor Matthias got an emotionally and Physically exhausted Mama. Plus it was dinner time when we got their because our bus was late. There was not a connection on day 1 and I was terrified. I did not know how I could work so hard knowing this was God's plan then find out he was my child. After a night of rest and some prayer, I came into day 2 visits refreshed and excited to get to know my son. I was pleasantly surprised. It took him a while, but eventually he was hooked on his mama. He only wanted me and would literally hang on my or follow me if I tried to move more than a couple feet from him. He is much like a young toddler physically, but in many ways very infant like as well. He is awesome though. I imagine he wears about a size 4 or 5 which was a pleasant surprise. He also LOVES to eat. He took some of his very first unassisted steps right into the arms of his mama. I believe he will be walking when we go back to get him. He loves to hang upside down and is sooooo strong. I cannot wait to see how quickly he grows when we get him home. I believe he has some hearing loss, and I will get that addressed when we get home. Otherwise he only has delays from being in an orphanage. No "special needs".

I am more motivated than ever to get my boys home and in my arms where they will never go hungry again. Adam would cry each time his food was gone because he wanted more, but they did not give him more......no child should have to go to bed hungry.... especially not my child.

It is looking like airfare for Kevin and I will be about $1700 a piece this summer to go pick them up.
Then the boys tickets one way will probably be about $1000 a piece.
It is saying the hotel will be $2000 :(  (Because it has to fit 4 people)
Food will be about $500
Transportation will be about $500
Medicals for the boys is about $200

It is looking like $8600 for our final trip
We have $250 currently available, so we need to raise $8350
Our FSP will need to read $19,900....
It seems like a lot, but we can do this!!!

I have a ton of cute things that will be going up on Auctions.
For now the first 10 people (8 spots left) that donate $10 or more, I will send you a mini Matyroshka doll that can be used as a keychain, ornament or whatever you choose.
Please email your receipt to Grumpyjax@yahoo.com