Maxim

He has been waiting sooo long.

Sooo many people fell in love with him and his smile.

Sooo many people, including me, have longes and prayed for him to find a family that will love him.

And now, he has that family he desperately needs!!!

And we are PRAISING GOD!

And THANKING JESUS!

Because he will soon be coming HOME!

And once his mommy and daddy meet him, and from then on, he will be LOVED unconditionally.

Because someone has finally said "YES, I will love you and take care of you, because you are special, and you are perfect! I will look past you age, and and all your "scary" diagnosis's, and love you and help you blossom into to the boy you are meant to be!"

And be because someone has finally said that, today we are thankful, and we are rejoicing for what God has done and is doing in this little boys life.

His name means "the greastest", and he will truly be one of the greastest gifts his family was ever given!

Maxim, soon you will know what a family is, and it will be wonderful, I promise!

John Mark

Sweet baby boy has a FAMILY!!!!

Is he not the cutest little red head???

I hadn't posted about him yet, but since he is from the same baby orphanage I visited, and he was born while I was over there on my mission trip, I fell in love with him!

And now he has a FAMILY!!!!

PRAISE GOD!!!!

NDSC - Saturday and Sunday

My last two days in DC! :( The main part of the conference was all day Saturday and Sunday morning. I didn't attend any sessions, but had fun hanging out at the RR table with everyone. You may think that's a bit crazy to go all the way to DC for a convention and not go to any sessions, but you would understand how awesome it is just to hang out if you had been there! :)

Saturaday morning, after dropping the girls of at Kid's Camp, Brian, Braden and I went to see some more museums. Our first stop was....

....here - the International Spy Museum. But there wasn't photography allowed. It was really cool though, the history of spying.  Of course there was a lot about the Cold War, WW1 and WW2, but there was also about the Civil War. You wouldn't think about spies in the Civil War, but there were!

Then we were here - the Archives. And no photography there either. :P Seeing the Declaration and Constitution was really neat!

Then we went to the American History Smithonian Museum. I took quite a few pictures, but the only ones of interest are this sewing machine from 1917....

....and Braden and I by the Ruby Red Slippers! The ones I got of the original Kermit the Frog puppet didn't turn out that  well.

Back at the conference.. hanging out at the table - Charlotte Dirkes!

Dusty Hinz attacking Molly....

....with kisses. Molly was in heaven if you can't tell. :)

Molly and Sonya Hinz

Zoya B

Back at the hotel room, saying goodbye to Lococo's  -  Lilya was glad someone was finally willing to help her flip!

Elizabeth and Dax

Caleb and Lilya

Ruby wanted to do flips too, so she got Mrs. Lococo to do it with her. :)

Mr. Lococo and Julia, who is from Ukraine. :)

Ruby's reaction when Caleb told her that they had to say goodbye because he was going to go back to his house, and she was going to go back to hers. :(

All was soon right in her world again... She loves Caleb and Josh!

And Elizabeth too!

Early Sunday Morning - Me, Molly, and Elizabeth right before Molly left

Saying one last goodbye to Lococo's

Lilya and I, Caleb and Ru, Braden, Elizabeth, and Josh

Back down at the table again - Dusty and Sonya

Andrea and Michelle - The 2 main leaders of Reece's Rainbow

Right before our flight left Daxy had several diaper explosions (he would not stop!) and he ran out of outfits.... so we resorted to Ruby's spare outfit... going from 3 mo to 4T was quite a jump in sizes! It doesn't look to bad here, but trust me, it was pretty huge! ;)

The flight was uneventful, and this was looking out the window to the parking garage on the way back to the van. I took this one for Rachel, because it says 'Yellow 3G'. Lilly is in region "3G", and her color is yellow. It was perfect!

Lilly - she still needs a family!!! :(

And I finished my trip with a photoshoot of Dax in the van on the way home....

Blurry, but adorable!

Love this beautiful baby!

He crashed... still just as beautiful when he's asleep!

What a perfect ending to a perfect week with many perfect people!! NDSC was uh-mazing and I hope I can go back someday!

NDSC - Friday

Friday morning was a great start to a great day! After a RR breakfast at McD's, we dropped Lilya, Ruby, and Braden off at Kid's Camp (Ru and Braden did great, Lil no so much), and started to set up the RR table in the exhibitors hall which opened at noon. While taking Ru for a potty break, we met Elmo and Cookie Monster!

"MOM! LOOK WHO I FOUND!!"

What a diva!

Aaron had to get in a picture too!

Cookie and Molly!

And now... we'll experiment with what happens when Caleb and Molly forget their cameras, and I am in charge of capturing precious moments between advocate and baby. This is the reason I split Thursday and Friday up!

At the RR table (as are all the rest of the pictures in this post!) - Julia Nalle and Mila!

Mila B with her daddy, Shawn - she loves having a daddy!

Self portrait of the 3 of us! Dusty, Sonya, and I Attempt #1 

Attempt #2 - Dusty would rather play with my nose and Sonya would rather laugh at me

Love this love bug!

Ruby loves her Caleb!

Elizabeth and Dusty

Sonya and Josh

Lilya loves Caleb too!

And Sonya loves her Elizabeth!

Mr. Cheeks! Ohhh my goodness is he ever a CHUNK... I thought Jonathan was, but this little man is 8 mo old!

He was adopted via foster care, and Molly (above) and Caleb were loving him up!

Dusty was done with whatever Caleb was telling him... ;)

Sonya and Julia

Dusty and Julia

Elizabeth and Sonya

Sonya and I

Andrea Roberts (Director of RR) and Kendall, who a RR baby and Mr. Cheeks big brother!

Sonya and Josh

Her crazy long tongue!

Sonya and Julia

Please not that all the above pictures are in chronological order of when they were taken. By the end of the week, we were VERY good at playing pass the baby! ;)