A Baby Registry for my Bulgarian Baby

So further proof that I have the BEST family and Friends.....after all of the love and support over the past year+....I have had several friends ask me if I can put together a baby registry for Leanna. Each time I give them "the look" and each time they assure me that they really WANT me to do one.....so......I did. As it is kind of an unusual list, I thought I would explain a bit...

(Those who are completely uninterested should return to their normal Tuesday night viewing)

We registered for a lot of items under the "feeding" category. Leanna is a 6 year old child that is VERY underweight and was never taught to chew food. So.....that should be enough to help you understand the list of pediasure, food pouches, bibs, baby bullet...etc.

pull ups and wipes? Ya, she isn't potty trained. moving on...

TOYS--The list has a couple developmental items (leap pad), cozy coupe, little trampoline (for leg strength).....but you will notice the main theme is Duplo legos and plastic animals.
The Duplo legos are something I hope Leanna will learn to do with her sister. They would be good for sensory and problem solving....and fun to play with Megs.
The plastic animals? Well, I have a friend that just brought her blind son home from Bulgaria (he is precious!)....he LOVES plastic animals and carries them everywhere....so, she suggested that we get some for our Leanna girl.

baby gate....self explanatory.
monitor....self explanatory

tooth brush??? um....you might want an explanation. Leanna has had NO dental care. They don't brush her teeth and we anticipate having a long road ahead as far as fixing our sweet girls teeth and bite.

Something not on the list. CLOTHES! Our goal is to have a wardrobe set up for Leanna, so that sissy doesn't need to share. This is going to be a big adjustment for Megan, and sis LOVES her clothes! We didn't want to create a problem by requiring that Megan give up her things right out of the gate.
Leanna is a size 4/5
She could definitely use::
a swim suit
sweats
jeans
short sleeve shirts
footed jammies

Here is the link

https://www.walmart.com/giftregistry/gr_detail.do?registryId=80541754158

We are so, so, so grateful for all of you. The love you all have for Leanna is such a Blessing. We couldn't have made it through this journey without your love and support!!

Making some more stinkin lemonade! Yes, this post might be hostile.

We saw Leanna in January. When we left she knew us, she loved us, she didn't want us to leave.

We had faith that we MIGHT be back in April, but end of May FOR SURE!!! Well, April became May, May became June. We were 100% sure we would be getting our beauty in June. I was literally waiting for an email saying "Go get your baby!!"......well, instead of an email, I got a phone call......when I was at the Court Club getting ready to hot tub with my Bestie. NOT the news we wanted. We had travel dates (yay!)....but they were July 20-30th (sob). Yup, and sob I did. I had a little mini cry with my Bestie at the club, she prayed for me. But, when I got home I fell apart. That is another month that Leanna, our LEGAL daughter, is sitting in an orphanage. That is 4 more weeks that I have to sit here missing her. That week, the 20th-30th, is the week of my Dads Family reunion, that he has been so excited about for so long. I have been waiting to go see all of my family, that I NEVER see, and I would have my new daughter there to introduce to her Franklin peeps.

The whole thing just stinks.

In the past couple weeks we came to the hard decision that I would be traveling WITHOUT Sean on the pick-up trip. Of course people have opinions about this decision, but we know it is the right thing for a few reasons. 1.) If Sean went he would use ALL of his sick and vacation leave....meaning he couldn't be there for upcoming surgeries etc. 2.) After talking with other adopting families, it is important that only one parent is suffering jet lag upon coming home, there needs to be one parent alert and able to meet Leannas needs. (the jet lag in Jan kicked our butts). 3.) Our little Megan needs to have either Mommy or Daddy available. She has been having a lot of stress whenever we leave her (with sitters etc)....she is confused and just needs to have one of us with her.

So, what does this mean. This means that My Bestie, Jaimie, will be traveling with me. She is a great support to me, balances me out, and we are extremely comfortable with each other. So, if I need to have a melt down, or I need her to give me a break, I can ask her and know she is there for me. Initially my sissy was going to be my sidekick, but she will be attending the reunion, as our Dad NEEDS his kids there. :o)

So, there ya go! July 20-30!
one little prayer request, our flights are crazy pricey. We have one more fundraiser tomorrow, really hoping that we come up with what we need.....otherwise I might need to go sell a kidney or something.

When people just dont get it....just keep swimming.

So, if you are on our facebook page, you know that this picture is kind of my motivational quote. "Just keep swimming...."
Don't judge, you seriously need these things in your brain, on repeat, to help you keep from losing your mind. Like last week when we hear that we wont be hearing anything about court for a good week or more. I could cry. I sometimes do. Or I can "just keep swimming."
I have been reflecting on the whole process a lot lately. Some days I am reflecting on the insane amount of fundraisers I have done the last year+. Some days I reflect on the pure magic of adoption, where you take one of Gods precious children and give them a home. love. so much love. To watch over one of His "fatherless" children is an honor....not a burden...an HONOR.
Some days, I admit, I do sit here and puzzle at how some just don't see the beauty in adopting. I hear things like "WHY would you do this?" "Why would you take on a special needs child?" "Is this really fair to your other children?"......I have even had several people deny us financial help because they just don't understand. They COULD help financially, they are able. But, it just isn't important. (Hang with me here, this isn't one of THOSE posts...it is really positive.)....So, just when I start thinking "REAALLY???" ....something always happens. A stranger will donate 2k to our page, a new friend will offer a $50 matching grant, our care group will organize a massive event in Leannas honor, my friend in TEXAS will sell her things online to send us money. Where some will completely ignore, others will embrace. Others will ask us questions, lots of questions....they CRAVE information on our Roma beauty! Granted, most of these people don't feel called to adopt, but they are called to love and to acknowledge these precious children of God. Trust me, I get it. Adoption is not for the faint of Heart. Its just not. You have to fight hard, and sometimes daily, for just one paper to get approved. Unless you have won the lottery, you have to pour hours, often hours each day, to organize fundraisers. You have to go hold, kiss, hug, and adore your child....a child that you will leave in a termite infested building that is under construction. You leave her knowing that she wont understand, and that her caretakers will not help her understand, they are too busy watching their soap operas. I will say it again, this stuff isn't easy. It hurts. you cry. You get completely exhausted.....but, you know what? At the end of the journey you have this amazing, beautiful, happy, daughter. A girl who speaks in slang, and who apparently has a bit of a mouth on her (PTL we don't speak Bulgarian!)....She is a gem, and she is worth it.....and she is just as important to God as any one of us. She isn't broke. She isn't a mistake. She is a perfect gift....she is our daughter.
So, with that said, I am going to go do a yard sale tomorrow (for the millionth time), Im going to keep planning fundraisers, Im going to decorate her room, and find her the special shirts that she likes... and I am going to put together the toys that we bought her. I am going to not be bitter over insensitive comments and actions, because I know that people just don't understand. And, you know what? When everyone meets Leanna, people will get it. Trust me.
Leanna Laurie....we are so close. Mommy is coming!

Need some motivation...

I need some motivation.

Bulgaria?

How about a court date?

PLEASE!!!

NOW!!!

You give us a court date Bulgaria and I will figure out how to book the tickets for the GOTCHA trip this weekend!

Ok??




~Sean


#needmydaughterhomeNOW

How are the kids doing?

We are often asked how our kids feel about the adoption...

Today our oldest (twin by 20 minutes) was have a rough second half of the day. He was having a hard time being grateful for all the fun we had earlier in the day. We felt like we needed to hear from him 10 things he was grateful for or he would have to go to bed early.

So we sent him to his room to gather his thoughts, he reluctantly came up moments later, still with a tone and he didn't make it to 10 things but you know what the third (and last after food and a house) thing he came up with to be grateful for.......

Leanna.



~Sean

Murphy's Law - God's provision and a bathroom fan

I started out wanting to do a post to see who else has all the sad stories about how Murphy will show up as soon as you have a plan for your money, all the road blocks that get thrown at you when you begin the adoption processes but then I realized two things, one I am sure there are people out there that have had way more major murphy disasters than we have had and two that we have ALREADY overcome these hurdle's!

When we started this process I was of course totally on board but tend to see the quote unquote "realistic" side of things. $20,000 to adopt a kid What?? Why?? We don't have that laying around why do we think we have the right to start this process....well you see I am married to Amy and she is always there to tell me, not us, God. So we continued on and well that $20k isn't $20k its $35,000 plus incidentals (first home study wont qualify in chosen country, trips to immigration in Yakima for fingerprinting, background checks and rechecks, multiple doctors visits and revisit's ect...).

Hey but its ok, we are moving forward, money is coming in, grants are being applied for....oh wait, you don't need a water softener right?? right lets keep going. We got a Grant! and another! and humm that low mile car you bought to drive your family around it, needs tires after less than a year of owning the car and the tires where new? That's right you find out its been in a major wreck and is beyond alignment with out major repairs and may not be safe (thanks carfax you're a real big help). But that's ok we made our first payments toward getting our girl and God is providing for a new car payment as well.

By now Amy is burnt out, ENOUGH PAPERWORK! time for more fundraising, somehow she finds another gear and  gets us to our next payments and of course we don't need hot water right?? oh and clean floors? Microwave? Thought we could manage, nahh,,, but once again God provided a few generous friends, cheap walmart stuff and a home depot low interest project loan. LETS GO SEE OUR GIRL!

That did it for me (seeing our girl), no stopping us now. As Amy said in the last post, we just made our final Agency and foreign fee payments (little help from the line of credit) thanks to not our efforts but the efforts of our friends. so as I sat in our bathroom tonight and went to flip on the bathroom fan (eh hem) and it didn't turn on (sorry Amy) it inspired me to write this post. We sit now give or take (depending on flight costs) just $5-6k away from getting our girl (and a court date, GET A MOVE ON MOJ :) ) that means God has provided $30,000 in under a year to help bring us our/his daughter home to us! That is amazing.

I am not worried about the rest, it will come in time, on time. Are we stressed? yes! this process is crazy and our whole family has held together great and now we are ready to put all this aside and rest in the excitement of this new life that will be joining our family, new struggles, new concerns, new even harder challenges, absolutely but you know what? I will be able to hug her......


Sean







Sometimes when I express myself I worry about what tone people take things in so I really don't want to offend anyone so here is my disclaimer "I hope you are getting my tone at this point, truly we are blessed and grateful for all of the trials we have encountered, and as I said in he beginning there are people going through much worse and we are truly truly grateful for the provision God has granted throughout this process."

We are making Lemonade.

So, everyone knows about turning lemons into lemonade, right? not literally, but taking the bad and making it good, sweet, not quite so sour. Well, that is what I am doing.
Yesterday, we thought we had about 1k to go before being fully funded. We had a massive yard sale this last week, thanks to our Care group at church. MASSIVE. We ended the weekend with an incredible amount of cash to deposit into Leanna's account. We were Blessed. Overwhelmed. God was so good. That was yesterday. Today, we are still Blessed, and God is still good!...and we have a new kind of "overwhelming" happening. We actually need to raise about 7k....not the 1k we had thought. So, you can see how we might need to find a way to make some yummy lemonade our of this incredibly sour situation.

So, I have been thinking today on all of Gods Goodness, and here is the thing....Leanna isn't MY daughter. She is HIS daughter. He is going to provide for her. I also decided to think on all of the insanely good things that have been happening around here, and all of a sudden, it was a lot easier to see Lemonade in the midst of the lemons falling on us.

Here are a few of our Praises:

1. Our yard sale made it possible to send almost 9k to our agency. All fees paid in full, only leaving us with the travel and in Country expenses.

2. Almost immediately after hearing the news, my dear friend Sarah started helping me plan a car wash. (sidenote::: Sarah was just the host of our yard sale!) Mind. Blown.

3. My Mom and my Sister both called almost instantly to offer encouragement and their ideas on how they could try to help us out. My Mom JUST spent the weekend helping with our sale, she is such a precious lady. I love you tons Mom!

4. My Bestie invited me over for lunch today. She always seems to know when I am low and need time with her. Thanks Jaims.

5. My kids. Always providing me with Praises. Tonight both Joel and Ryan asked me what, in my opinion, were some of their best qualities. They both had projects for school. As I was listing off quality, after quality....I realized, wow! I am one lucky Momma. I have incredible kids, and 5 of them to boot.

6. So many of our family and friends have told us they are praying and have also shared our info, in hopes of helping us raise some money. It really does help knowing there are people praying.

So, as you can see, there is a lot to be thankful for. We may feel like we had the rug pulled out from under us (again).....but, at least we had a soft place to land (or maybe that is just my ginormous bootie from all of this stress eating.....HA!....sorry, couldn't help it)

When my Mom was here visiting, we had a conversation about my Dad. I adore my Dad. When we had our father daughter dance at my wedding, we danced to "Wind beneath my wings".....it was a perfect song as my Dad truly is the wind beneath my wings, he is precious. Mom and I were saying that one word that would describe my Dad is "resilient." My Dad has been knocked down several times. He has been hurt a lot. Sadly, sweet and kind people make easy targets. BUT, he has always picked himself up, and pushed forward and never let people change him. He has only become stronger through these situations. Never gave up. So, here is to hoping that maybe I have a pinch of that same resilience. If I can find that in myself, I know that we will keep pushing forward and soon we will reach the goal. Leanna in our arms forever.

G'night friends.