Max's Visit

Two weeks ago today, we were frantically cleaning like mad because we had a very special guest coming! I mentioned that in this post... And he came, and he left Sunday, and I never blogged about it! Shame on me!

If you didn't know who the guy in this picture was....

...it's Max!!! Max is an AMAZING young man, who has a ministry called True Hope Ukraine, in Ukraine. Max is native to Ukraine, and he is the one my dad and I went on our mission trip with when I met Logan. But instead of spending all day telling you who Max is, just go watch this video I made about him to show in church when he came last year.

He also has a new ministry video, that he should have up on his website soon.

When my parents were in Ukraine adopting Elijah, Max came down on the overnight bus, visited the orphanage with them (that would be the pictures in the video of Max and his coffee, and Max hold the little boy with casts on his legs, who is now Shea Kulp), and went in, talked to the director, and got them a tour of Elijah's orphanage! He also came to visit my parents when they were over there adopting Jonathan.

Anyways, back to when he came. Rachel stayed with us for the weekend, so she could help clean, help with the kids, and because she wanted to see Max too! :) We had invited Gary and Terri, the head of the mission committee at church, out for supper as well, and they got here, and we were outside with Gary drawing chalk... when they finally came!! I had fully intended to get the whole "THEY'RE HERE" thing on tape, but it was about 5 seconds after I squealed that when I remembered to turn the camera on. :P

Oh, but before I move on, I have to share the self portrait Gary drew of himself....

And this is who it's supposed to look like -

And for those of you follow my crafting blog too, yes, this is the same Gary who helped with the Block Party borders.. ;D

Oh yes, and this is me shortly before they came... umm I was kinda excited..... and REALLY hyper... hehe

Moving on.

After Max shared at church after supper, we came back home, and stayed up late talking! Max answered a lot of our questions (we had a list), and we learned all kinds of new stuff!

The most significant for me was when we asked about Logan and the priest... Max knows who Logan/Bogdan is, and also knows the priest personally. There is more I might share eventually, but I am very reassured Logan is in the best place he can be (outside of a family of course), and he is loved and well taken care of. I was still struggling with a lot of things related to that whole saga, but after talking with Max about it, I had a huge turn around personally. Now I'm looking want even more to going back to Ukraine  (I'm not sure if that's possible!), because Max said he'll take me to see "my" baby when I come back. :D

We learned a lot about different orphanages, and a whole wealth of other information from him. :) We were also able to skype with Elijah's birth mother having Max as a translator and learned a lot from her. Max preached in church on Sunday morning, and then they had to head back home right after church. While none of us were happy our visit was cut short, we are grateful for the time we had with Max.

My sibs, Max, and I -  L to R: Anna, Isaac, Max, lil Rachel, me, Elijah, Jonathan, and Rebekah
Elijah wasn't to keen on the 30 second photo shoot after church right before Max left!

Max always says that you have two choices - you love me, or you love me. And we all love him so very much and were happy it was us he got to stay with!! Jonathan wasn't so sure of him, but unlike last year, little Rachel (2) loved him, and she wouldn't eat her breakfast Sunday morning unless Max helped her. :)

My 5 yo sister Rebekah, "the quiet, shy one of the family", loved Wayne, and ummm let's just say things got interesting with Rebekah on Saturday night around 9:30. We thought she was in bed (ok, maybe we know her a little to well for that, but we thought she was in the basement playing or something), and instead she was outside chasing Isaac (my 7 yo brother), and the two teenage boys that came with Max around with a water gun in the dark! ahem. Shy, quiet one indeed!

Lizzy Lou

I don't need to tell you how cute she is. The pictures speak for themselves.

March 2011

April 2011

June 2011

Feb 2012 - My FAVORITE pic of her!!

April 2012

I do need to tell you that she needs a family.

This gorgeous girl has been listed almost a year, and yet everyone has passed her by. Maybe it's because she is in Russia, a country not many want to adopt from.

If she's your daughter, it shouldn't matter what country she is in - you need to go save her!!

Jesus loves all the children of the world, including the ones in Russia.

Is Lizzy your daughter??? Are you her mama???

Lizzy 15H

21mzf-15

Girl, born October 2010

Hazel eyes

Black hair

Character is calm

I love how she has grown! Old picture is from Feb 2012, and new one is from April 2012. She would so benfit from a family while she is still so young!

Lizzy has Down syndrome and is listed as HIV+; however since she is still so young that may just be that her mother was HIV+. She also appears to have strabismus in some of her photos.

LOTS more photos available!

$3714.25 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

And make sure you qualify for her region - http://reecesrainbow.org/category/waitingbycountry/russia/russia-region-15. 

Our family doesn't qualify (child coming home has to be the 5th one, or less, we already have 7) or we just might be in process for another little girl there! :)

Let's get Lizzy Lou HOME!

Waiting Wednesday: Angela

Remember this family?

The Clanton family. They were working to bring home two precious kiddos I had been advocating for - Genesis/Sarah, and Dmitriy/Seth.

Before they got over there, Dmitriy was adopted by another family, and he is now home! They choose another child, Selah aka "Lala" to be their daughter.

Clanton's are now over in country and have had court, and are now the proud parents 5, including Sarah Joy and Selah Johannah!!!

Jon and Selah, and Yvonne and Sarah

As I loaded their family picture into this post, I realized it looked so wrong! You know why? Because it's missing two precious girls! :) Their oldest, Steve, and 8 yo, Sam are over in country with them, and Shad who is 9, is staying with friends here in the US. And around May 9th, they'll all be together as a FAMILY!

Clanton Family without Shad

I have really enjoyed getting to know this wonderful family, and following their journey. If you aren't friends with Yvonne on FB, I suggest you go check out their blog!

Which brings me to today's Waiting Wednesday post. They have had a great experience at the institution they are at, and they have been able to meet a lot of other kids. One of them being the girl they sponsor through Life2Orphans, Angela.

Today when they were visiting with their girls on the veranda, Angela and some other kids were out there as well. Yvonne asked to hold her, and she rocked her for the rest of her visit. Here's what Yvonne has to say about her.

"Today she had her out on the veranda while we were out with our girls & I asked if I could swing her. I did for the rest of our visit. She nestled into me, and I cried. She has so many needs, it's even overwhelming to me but isn't there someone who can be her parents? She is full of joy. I've never seen her not smiling. She has a smile on her face & is so appreciative of everything. She can not walk, not sure if she'd ever be able to and she is gaining weight. She can hold herself up but does have alot of medical needs. Could you consider adopting her? If a family would step up, our family would help raise the money.... If you can't adopt her, could you give to her fund on Reece's Rainbow? she is Angela.... I'm glad I had the chance to swing her today and hold her although my eyes hurt from tears. I can only imagine what the caregivers think of me sobbing today... she needs a family, she's blind, she needs love... The bible clearly tells us to take care of the "least of them" We are not to close our eyes to the needs but we are to step up and do what we can....Please pray and do what you can for this precious soul!"

It breaks my heart, she is 11 years old, has many medical needs, and is one of the last to be considered for adoption. She's 11, and look how tiny she is! PLEASE help her... pray, give, and adopt her!!! She needs you!!

Here's is her profile:

Angela

Girl, born February 2001

Diagnosis:  severe grade of the mental delay, hydrocephalus, fibrosis of hyaloid, secondary glaucoma, exfoliation/detachment of retina, congenital defect of the heart partition

Angela is very small for her age.  She needs a family!

Interested families need to have a completed home study to commit.

$50.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

And let me know if you want to contact Yvonne to find out more about her and or her institution. I'd be happy to hook you up with her, and once she has a family coming for her, Yvonne will probably be able to get more pictures and updates on her.

Thank you for helping to save her life!!!

Sweet Silas.

The other day we found out some very excited news for sweet Silas!

No, he doesn't have a family yet, even though he REALLY needs one. But now he has a much better chance at finding a family!

Do you know why? Because he's not turning 8 this year, like we thought, he's actually only turning 5!! He was born in 2007, not 2004!

And because we have his correct birthdate now, we were able to find new (to us) pictures of him!!

These pictures were taken in April 2011. Isn't he precious????

However, even though Silas has not been transferred yet, he will be in the next year. The baby house he is still in, is a really nice place as far as orphanages go. But the institution he will go to might not be so nice.

PLEASE, he needs to be RESCUED before it's too late. Right, now before he is transferred would be a wonderful time to bring him home, so he never has to know the horrors of the institution.

I've blogged about it before, but there is also a giveaway for Silas going on right now that I helped put together, to help raise his ransom. He only has $184 in his grant right now. And there is still much more to raise.

There are many awesome prizes that you can win. And right now, since the ratio of prizes to donors is 12:2, you have a pretty good chance to win something!! (Some of the electronic prizes will not be given away until a certain amount is raised, and there is a separate prize for those who shared the giveaway.)

So check it all out here on Steph's blog! 

- SILAS GIVEAWAY - 

And it only runs until May 1st, so go enter today so you don't miss out!!!

PLEASE HELP US SET SILAS FREE!!!!

Silas

Boy, Born November 29, 2007

Silas is a handsome little boy with brown hair and big brown eyes.  He is affectionate and has a glowing personality.   He is engaging, alert, and aware.  He was born with CP and all of his limbs are affected by the spasticity.    he has also has strabismus, which could be corrected with surgery.   He is not able to walk, but will truly blossom in a loving family who can provide therapy and encouragement for his progress.

UPDATE (April 2012) – Silas has NOT YET been transferred to the institution, but will be in the next year.  He will remain bedridden the rest of his life is he is not adopted.

Silas was born in 2007, not 2004 as was previously listed!  The picture on the left is from April 2011.

Please consider Silas!

$184.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

New pictures...

Many kids have new pictures!! While it's exciting to get new pictures, it's so sad to see how they are growing up without a family. :(

**All old pictures are on the left, and all new are on the right! I'm finally getting the hang of this pictures side by side thing! :)

Here are some kiddos I've posted about before that have new pictures!

Abbott...

Cora Lynne...

And there are some I haven't posted about before, but their pictures  make me giggle! 
(Scratch that, I wrote this part of the post before I posted yesterday's Waiting Wednesday. I have posted about Vincent before. :))

Such as Vincent!

And Evelyn!

Seriously! Do their hats come any cuter or any more ridiculous???

And then there are some that looking at their old pictures and new pictures either breaks my heart or make me sick to my stomach.

Like Valery P...

There's also Anna S... I'm afraid she will never find a family because of the way she looks. Will someone she her as she is, a beautiful little girl, who can't help the way she looks??

This one makes me sick to my stomach - Daria B (found in the additional children here, she is 3rd from last)...

Daria is in the same region as Ksenia, probably the same institution.

All of the children in this post, or mentioned in this post are in desperate need of families!!! 

Please consider if you have room in your hearts to bring one of them home. They do not deserve to live where they are at! 

And of course, also spread the word and pray for them! They are all living on borrowing time!