Our home

For our Dossier we had to print some pictures of our home.

They want to see where our boy will be living.....

I thought you guys might want to see also, so here you go.

This is the front of our home

 Our upstairs living room.

 Our back yard

 Kaitlyn's room

 The girls bathroom downstairs

 Brittany's room

 Dining room

 Upstairs hall bathroom... Alyssa and Adam's bathroom

 Adam's room

 Alyssa's room

 Our room

 that empty spot by the bed is so we can move his crib in when he first gets home.

 our bathroom

 Our main living room

 Adam's stocking is the red one... until he gets home and can pick his own

 This morning the girls got out all the money from the piggy banks... They thought they would have $200 raised for brother. They had $95. I asked for my friends to help make the difference.....

We have had $8 donated so far... Can we get another $97 tonight??

I hope so.... Britt came up later, but I was too busy rolling to get another pic.

 we added a few rolls after this

Thank you to all the amazing people that have donated, prayed and shared.

Different Wings!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of those that took part in the Hidden Treasures Auction.

you have truly blessed our family more than you will ever know!! 

Remember that they are now collecting donations for February's auction!

Parents for Peyton

It is my great joy to introduce you to Peyton!

Isn't Peyton  handsome young man?!?! 

 

Jonathan and Anna have been married for 4 1/2 years. They have one son named Ishmael (which means God hears man) who is 2 1/2. The Keyzer family has the unique opportunity to live in community with other believers. Their "home" is an apartment in a large building they share with other like minded Christians who want to spend their time with their neighbors and their families and learn what it means to "share all things". One of those believers, Grace, adopted a child from Pleven this year, find her story here. Anna went with Grace on her first trip to Pleven to meet Samantha. When Anna returned home, haunted by the children left behind, voiceless in their cribs, she and Jonathan prayerfully decided that they could open their hearts and their home to rescue a child from Samantha's orphanage.

They found "Peyton's" picture on Reece's Rainbow and began praying about him joining their family. Peyton is 8 years old and only weighs 18 pounds, he has cerebral palsy, a heart condition and is, obviously, severely malnourished. Working through all their fears about his health they told their agency they wanted to "commit" to Peyton, only to find out a family had beat them to it. They were devastated. The pain was so deep that Anna stopped reading any blogs or working on their adoption in an attempt to recover. Then one day she clicked a blog and there was Peyton, with the words, "I just found out he is adoptable today!"  Anna at that moment did everything she could to get her commitment papers in and make Peyton their son. (They raised 1700.00 in 3 days to make it happen!) GOD IS GOOD. They are going to name "Peyton", Simon, which means "to hear", because the Lord heard his cries and brought him a family.

They are trying to fund raise their whole adoption and they have watched the LORD provide for them every step of the way!! Thanks for being a part of the journey and part of what GOD is doing to put the lonely in family.

 

You can learn more about the Keyzer family at their blog.

 

Our Parents for Peyton Auction will run February 1-7, 2013!  Donations can be accepted immediately!  Read How the Auction Works for details on donation.  One of the things that continues to make Hidden Treasures so successful is the creativity of our donors.  Do you have an idea for an item that you would like to donate?  Email Amy Rainey athiddentreasuresauction@gmail.com .  Handcrafted items, gift cards and gift certificates to online shops are always popular.  Thank you, so very much, for your interest in these precious children.  One by one, they are being redeemed. They matter, each and every one.

I know that I am excited to make some donations to this family. Please help them bring their son home.

On a side note I found a song that I truly love.

My sweet friend posted on my FB wall that every time she hears the song Broken Wings by Trans Siberian Orchestra it makes her think of me.... It is a beautiful song.

These are the lyrics

Dream, child
as childhood wants to do

dream all this night will allow
dream, child 
dream with an angel's view
out there safe in your clouds

wait for me now
i will be there for you
no matter what 
tomorrow may bring
this i will vow
i will be there 
for this child with different

dream, child 
stars have been rumored to
see dreams within newborn eyes
and in their arms i believe they do
keep safe until you arise

wait for me now
i will be there for you
no matter what
tomorrow may bring
this i will vow
i will be there 
for this child with different wings


More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/different_wings_lyrics_trans-siberian_orchestra.html
All about Trans-siberian Orchestra: http://www.musictory.com/music/Trans-siberian+Orchestra

Thankful

We just finished eating our Thanksgiving Dinner.

It is a tradition in our family to go around the table and say what we are thankful for.

I jokingly said I was thankful for bedtime, and that got our tradition started.

We all started listing all these things we were thankful for.....

Roof over our heads,

Food,

Family,

Friends,

Children,

Spouses,

money to buy what we need,

Heavenly Father

At that moment, Alyssa, My 3 year old daughter said

"I am thankful for Jesus."

That made us all stop and look at her in amazement. 

We are so proud of our little one.

Then we continued listing things....

All my girls are thankful for their family, and thankful that we are getting to bring home a brother soon.

The melt my heart with how much they love him already.

Of course we got the silly answers like...

Monsters,

Spiders,

Power Rangers,

and all sorts of other things.

As they were listing all of these things, I started thinking about what Adam has to be thankful about.

He does have a roof over his head, but other than that, there was not much I could think of.

I got excited to think of how awesome it will be next year when we can all be together as a family.

I cannot wait to hold my son. I cannot wait to see his smile. I cannot wait to kiss his face.

I cannot wait to tuck him into his own bed at night. I cannot wait to show him love.

I am so thankful to have him in my life!!! He is a blessing to me!!

I am also thankful for all the amazing people that have helped us in our journey to bringing our son home.

I can never say it enough.

Your love, your prayers and your donations mean more to me than you will ever know!!!!

Where we are and Halloween!

I know it has been a while since I updated you all on how our adoption is going.

We have gotten all of our birth and marriage certificates in, we have sent our marriage certificate in to be apostilled, we have sent in our I-800A application, We have our homestudy complete and in hand, we have had our fingerprints taken for our FBI background checks and sent them in, and We got this little beauty in the mail today!!!

 Kev got his passport, but I am waiting on mine. With each thing we get done and with each item we receive in the mail it feels like we are getting closer to our boy. I beyond excited!!!

The only thing that has the potential to slow us down at this point is funding :( With winter coming, it is putting our fundraising efforts on hold. We need about $4000.00 by December to pay our next set of Agency fees. We have not met our $2500 matching grant yet.... If we reach that we will be sooooo close!!! 

Please help in any way you can :)

Now on to Halloween 2012

Brittany's class paraded around in their costumes. That littlest pet shop lady bug is mine :)

 Spidey Man Lyssa (as she calls herself) was running around the hallways.

 Awww there's my Britty bug ;)

 FYI this kid is not mine, but his rodeo clown outfit was awesome!!!

 My little (well she is actually pretty big now) Kaitie Kat

 Kait playing bingo at her class party.

 Daddy helping out at the class party. I think he had fun. He is normally working and misses out on these sorts of things.

 Britt getting ready to participate in a doughnut eating contest.

 She eats like her dad lol

 Next stop.... Walmart for trick or treating :)

 Then off to the mall!!

 Ok seriously I had to snap a pick of this guy in a cheerleading outfit :)

We finished up by going trunk or treating at T & V's ward, then grabbed a bite to eat, then trick or treating around my neighborhood..... And we ended the night with lots of family and friends at my house.

We had Grandma, Poppy, Me, Kevin, Kaitlyn, Brittany, Alyssa, Veronica, Emily, Ian, Michelle, Michelle's mom, Tyson, Ryan, Kevin, and Laurie. We always have a fun time!!!!!

Less than 3 weeks!!!!

Ok friends here we go. My amazing friend, Amanda, has less than 3 weeks until she travels.

She needs $3,500 to book her flights

$500 for the train to region

$230 for her sons visa

$110 for a medical exam

and $2,224 for hotel and food for the 3-5 weeks she will be staying there.

Total she needs $6,564

We can do it friends!!! Can you find it in your heart to share $10 with a very deserving family this Holiday season.

In case bringing a child home to a family isn't incentive enough...... we have a few things to encourage you.

Just by posting on your blog or FB you will be entered to win this

You will also get an entry into the drawing for the items below. Just comment below or on Amanda's blog.

http://justonemore4us.blogspot.com/2012/10/all-that-i-have.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JustOneMore4Us+%28Just+ONE+more+4+us%21%3F%29

All of these items were donated by friends and family. 

$6,564 for one boy and for one family.

I am not sure of the value of any of these items. They were all donated with love so to me they are priceless. I will just draw in number order when the time comes, which will hopefully be soon, when we are fully funded. 

$5- 1 chance
$10- 3 chances
$25-10 chances
$50- 30 chances
$100-80 chances

If you share the giveaway (you don't have to donate), leave a comment here, and I will give you one free entry.  

1. Faith Necklace

 2. Chocolate Kate Spade purse

3. Burgundy Coach purse

4. Giraffe print Kate Spade purse

(don't you just love my new purple bracelet "K" made for me)

5. Tupperware set

(In the bags are 4 fluted glasses and a spatula)

6. Winter Scrapbook Set

7. Summer Scrapbook Set

I just wanted to let you know I am not going to ask to see who entered (FSP with Reece's Rainbow) till it it time to draw for names. So if you donate. I thank you!!! I just won't know it till time to choose names. I will use Random.org to decide the winners. 

Donate here until the FSP link is back up
http://reecesrainbow.org/12374/sponsorburlingham