Daley's Doodles and a new pic of the twins!

    We have a wonderful nurse that comes for a few hours a day, to help care for Daley, while we do the bulk of our schooling.  Miss Sandy is such a blessing.  She is grandmotherly enough to be perfect, and resourceful enough to be creative, in finding ways to encourage Daley to play, learn and grow.

    A few months ago, Daley got a new stander, and she is slowly learning to love it.  Miss Sandy finds all kinds of things for her to do in it.....like play with her bead chain, her Christmas lights, or more recently....doodle!  Yes, she actually puts the little maker in Daley's hand, and Daley makes beautiful little scribbles!  It is actually so precious!  You can always tell when she sneezes (long straight line), or when she gets bored (dark blob).    We are going to frame some of her doodles, and offer them at silent auctions for adoption fundraisers.  She has so many fans, especially at church.  Perhaps some of them may want of her special doodles!  And support a great cause!

    In other news, there is an organization that is helping in the twin's orphanage.  The orphanage was SO bad, but this group, called Half the Sky, went in and bought them mattresses~  And toys!  And blankets!  Sounds crazy, but they did not have these things before!  Anyway, I have been following their blogs about the orphanage SO closely, hoping for a glimpse of the boys, and this week, there they were!  I have shared their photo below.  They look GREAT!  And so big!  We are still nervously awaiting Illinois' decision on our adoption.  Our caseworker is pleaded our case tomorrow, and forwarding all of the additional documents we have prepared for our battle.  Praying for good news!!!

    Lots of birthdays this month!  Meng turns NINE on the 8th, Twins Wen and Wu will be THREE on the 12th, Toby turns TWELVE on the 13th - same day Grandpa Cecil turns 79!  And Brogan and Landon share a Bday, on the 19th!  Brogan will be 23 and Landon will be 2!  Love my TREASURES!

News from Illinois

Well, Illinois has reviewed our home study.  I talked at length with our caseworker this morning.  She says this is going to be a battle to get approval.  Mary D, the woman who holds all of the power to approve home studies in IL (yes, that is crazy) is SO anti-large family.  She simply cannot imagine why we would want to adopt again.  She made some rather rude comments about our family, and large families in general.

This is the deal.  We have China's approval to adopt their children.  We have an agency and a caseworker, who have given us their FULL support.  They have interviewed Dale and I and our children, have toured and inspected our home, have checked and rechecked our backgrounds, and have spent hours getting to know us.  They are in favor of our adoption.  We have met and/or exceeded all of the requirements Illinois has put before us.  We have glowing references, we are financially stable, and we have the space to house more children.  They truly have NO grounds to deny us approval.  But.....they don't understand large families.  They do not think parents could possibly have the time for as many children as we have.  Crazy thing is that I could give birth to 20 children, if I chose to (and God allowed it).  Even if half of those children were mentally disabled, no one could stop me from having more....even if I was broke, a lived in a 3 room shack.  Yet, when adopting - everything changes.  *tears*

This woman, Mary, has asked that we leave her alone for a week, so she can try to "wrap her head" around our request.  So, we will.  But, trust me, I am not sitting here waiting!  I am preparing letters, requesting additional references, putting together a family photo portfolio for her, and preparing for a FIGHT.  And mostly, I am praying!

Have you read your Bible lately?  God moves mountains, people!  He changes people's hearts, He changes their minds, He MOVES upon them, to see His perfect will happen!  My God does NOT want those boys to sit alone and unloved in that orphanage.  I KNOW He can change Mary's heart and her mind.  Would you PLEASE join me in praying for God's will!  And for my boys!  And for the hearts of my family....who are yearning and aching!  This is hard to explain to the littles.....who are SO excited to meet their little brothers!

Thank you, for your support.  I will post when I hear more!

A Link to my Boy's story

No word from Illinois yet....although I am sure it is coming SOON, and I am feeling very encouraged!  Our caseworker says she will call Mary D, if she has not heard from her by Friday.  In the meantime, here is a link, with more photos and information on Wen and Wu, for those of you who  have asked!
http://stopforsnowdrops.blogspot.com/2013/09/double-blessings-waiting-for-their.html?

Will update again soon!

My wonderful Landon, and "The WAIT"

Well, first of all, we just got back from a great weekend!  My son-in-law had a job interview in Indiana, and we decided to meet them all there for a weekend visit!  My friend has parents who just happened to have a lake house 10 minutes from the interview site, so off we went.  I have not seen that much SNOW in many years, but it was beautiful!  Spending the weekend with my grandson, Landon, daughter, Brogan and her hubs, Zachary was a wonderful time!~   Landon is so smart, and so fun!  Below are some photos of him!

And in other news.  ADOPTION.  Well, our home study was submitted to IL a week ago today.  And now we wait.  It is SO hard.  My boys are in a terrible orphanage.  They need to come home.  Their bedroom is done, our home is big enough, we have enough love, and we even have most of the money to cover the adoption expenses!  But, we wait to see if Mary D, the woman with the power, will approve us for this adoption.  It doesn't matter if our caseworker and agency are more than happy to approve us.  She has to.  It doesn't matter if we have glowing references, plenty of support, and well-adjusted, happy children.  She still makes the final decision.  And so we wait.  And we don't even know how long.  Our caseworker says 3-4 weeks.  Some people are waiting 2-3 months.  She held up one adoption for 10 months!   We are prepared to fight.  We are not just going to go away, if we are told NO.  So, she needs to be ready for us!  LOL

Other adoption news:   Well, I received the information on a  beautiful, but very ill, little gal, named Kacey.  She is 13, and has Beta Thal, like Meng, and is also aging out of the adoption program in October, which is basically a death sentence for her.  I began advocating for her, and immediately our Pastor asked for more information!!!  To make a long story short, they have locked her file, are racing through thee home study process, and are completely excited about being her PARENTS!  WOOHOO!  Helping them through some of the paperwork and red tape has helped take my mind off of  my boys.  And another church family has stepped forward to adopt as well!  God is moving on our church, and His people!  IT is awesome to watch!

Well, I will update as soon as we hear from the state.  Hopefully, prayerfully, with good news!

Enjoy these pictures of Landon!  Sweetest grandson ever!  LOL

Getting Ready for the Boys!

Well, our homsestudy is almost complete, we are just waiting on our background clearances.  The minute they are back, we ship it off to Illinois, and we feverishly pray for FAVOR.  In the meantime, we are getting READY, cause we are confident that God is going to make this happen!

This week we hired a contractor, to build the boys a bedroom.  It is completely framed, and drywalling will begin tomorrow!  I just cannot believe that soon, there could be twin 3 year olds sleeping there!  WOW!  Can you a tell I am getting excited?!  LOL  Will update again soon!

SNOW!

When I was a little girl, my dad wanted a wood-burning stove.  My mom did NOT want one!  My dad pleaded and did his best to convince her we needed one, and then he finally just went and bought one.  He worked his tail off all weekend installing it, and finally was able to burn wood!  He was so happy!  Literally just a few days later, one of the worst ice storm in Illinois history hit our region, and we were without power.  For MANY days!  Many of my relatives came to stay with us, as we were one of the few families who had heat!  For years, my extended family called my dad "Noah", since he completed his stove just before the storm hit!

I am calling Dale "Noah" these days!  We are buried under lots and lots of snow, and below zero temps.  Our snowfall for the season, has already tripled what we had last year....and this is only January 6!  I simply cannot imagine being on the farm, choring in this mess, trying to dig out in this mess, and I guarantee you we would be without power.....with no wood burning stove!  Dale found us this house, fell in love with this house, and led us to live here!  And I am thankful!  He is my Noah!
He got us moved before the storm hit!

Other news.....we have started our home study for Wen and Wu.  Our caseworker is awesome, and we are hoping to be done by the end of the month.  Hang on boys, we are coming!

This past weekend, we had the amazing opportunity to spend some time with Rory's birth family....including his twin brother!  For those of you who don't know the story, we had both boys for the first month of their lives, while their momma made that difficult decision of whether she could parent them.  In the end, she chose to parent Bryson (who we called Ronan), and allowed us to adopt Rory.  She didn't feel she could provide for Rory's needs, and we promised her we would/could.  Losing Ronan was one of the hardest things we have ever been through.  But, his momma has done an excellent job with him, and he is as healthy, happy, and full of life as his our Rory Tait!  And they sure love each other.  Enjoy these photos of their visit!

The Homestudy Update

Well, here I sit, in a very clean house, waiting for our brand new caseworker from our brand new international adoption agency to come begin our home study update.  It should not take us long to complete the update, and their our information/homestudy will be sent to Illinois, so one woman can make the decision of whether are not we are qualified to be parents again.  It seems so crazy, that I can give birth to as many children as I choose to.  But....the state tells me how many I can adopt.  But, that is Illinois!  One of only 5 states in the country that has this regulation.  

Our new caseworker is very good, and specializes in getting large families approved.  She told us she would not even have taken our case if she was not confident she could get us through.  So.....here we go!

We should have an answer in the next month.   And in the meantime, Wen and Wu sleep alone every night, on a plywood mattress, with no pillow, toys, or even a blanket.  Please Lord, let this go through.  But in the case that this is not your will......Please provide those precious treasures with a family.....and soon!  I know it breaks our Lords hearts to see these lil ones missing out on so much of their childhood.  There are SO many children who wait.  Wake up Christians!  Answer the call!  Fund those who are!  Pray for those children who wait and wait, and have such great needs, that are not being met.   

Will post an update soon!  In the meantime.....here are some new pics of my treasures~!