It's a grand old name

     We are so very excited about adding to our family once again and have been "nesting" as we make room for one more.  We should be able to travel sometime in august and get this last girl home.  We've known Heather for three years.  When we were in the orphanage in November to get our Marina we spent a lot of time with Heather.  Well, she came running every time she saw us and demanded attention!  She adopted us then!
     This will be our fifth girl and we've not run out of names like I have for the boys.  There are eight of those boys!!!   We've decided to name her after my mom.  It will be mom's 27th grandchild, her thirteenth granddaughter.  She would love it that someone is finally going to use her name.  There was an old song she use to sing to us that went like this....
     For it was Mary, Mary, long before the fashions came,
     But in society, propriety they say Marie,
     For it was Mary, Mary, strong as any name can be,
     For there is something there, that sounds so square,
     It's a grand old name!

     It is fitting that Mary Monica gets a namesake.  We will call her Molly which was also mom's nickname.  I believe her dad called her Molly Mae.  It fits this little one to a tea.  Love you mom!                                                         

A Giant Leap!!!!!

I stand amazed and humbled at the same time.  Just three days ago our total donations stood at $89.50 and I was feeling very alone.  The grant we applied for didn't come through our fund raising has been  for our conference entitled, Change Our Future,  on July 27th in Kiev, Ukraine.   It's easy to get discouraged in this adoption journey and feel the weight of it all on your shoulders. 
That's how I was feeling Monday night as I checked my FB account.  I decided to check my blog to see if the paypal had gone up.  I lost my breath when I saw the total......11,114.70!!!  In just one day!!  I showed it to david as tears of joy ran down my face.  My first thought was the incredible goodness of God and my next was how undeserving I am.   I've had so many doubts and tried to carry this myself and yet...... He is faithful.
This has given me the boost I needed to believe this will all work out.  We still have a ways to go but are so very encouraged.  Thanks to all of you who are being His hands and feet.  We are grateful.

God bless you all!!!!!!! 

Countdown has begun!

Our dossier was finally submitted last Wednesday and the countdown has begun!  We have an upcoming missions trip leaving on July 21st and we were hoping to get the first part of the adoption process over at that time.   We've just found out that we will probably travel in the second part of August.  Bummer.  One thing we've learned in this life with this group of kids is how to be flexible so onward and upward!
We are presenting our third annual conference on Children with Disabilities in Kiev, Ukraine on July 27th and it is shaping up to be an awesome conference!  Last summer we had 14 people present at our conference and we imagined it would be bigger this year.  God has shaped our conference into something entirely different and better!  We do have three presenters from the states, excluding us, and we are thrilled about their involvement but the rest of the presenters live and work in Ukraine to make life better for children with disabilities.   So instead of us telling our Ukrainian friends how things are in America for these special kids and showing them how things can be, we will have presenters who can show them how they are making changes in their own country.  It is so exciting and we are humbled that God is using us.  If you would like to make donations toward this conference you can send a tax deductible gift to: Father's Heart, 3808 Poplar Hill Rd, Suite D, Chesapeake, Va.  23321.  Make checks out to Father's Heart.
We will return from that trip at the beginning of August and most likely leave again in just two or three weeks.  We have to do this in stages this time rather than stay over there 26 days like we did with Marina.  I will go with David for the first two trips as I have to be there and he will go back and pick up Heather on the third trip.  We covet your prayers!  We have no idea how we are going to pull this all off but believe that God is able and we rest in that.  (most of the time!)  If you want to donate for the adoption we have a paypal on this site or you can mail it to Father's Heart.  We thank you in advance for your prayers and generosity.  Please share this with your friends!
Just a picture before I go.
Marina Joy enjoying her mom's sweet tea on the front porch.  Does life get any better than this?

God bless you all!