*****

Update

2010-02-07T00:24:00.006-06:00

Well, things have been going pretty good. Grace's cleft palate, ear tube, clogged tear duct surgery is postponed until 2/17 due to her having an ear infection. It's all cleared up now, thank goodness. She's doing well although she started grinding her teeth again :( She is making so much progress in therapy and her therapists are just thrilled, as are we. She is getting stronger every day and has even gained almost 3 pounds. I'm trying to bulk her up a bit as I have a feeling she'll lose some weight after her surgery. The surgeon told us to plan on being in the hospital for at least a week. I will be with her most of the time and our other kids will go to back up daycare. We've done this type routine before and it's hard but we make it work. We are just praying for a successful surgery the first time. Ian's cleft palate repairs have fallen apart and he still has a hole in the front. Grace's is much less severe though so we're hopeful. Feedings are still quite difficult but once her palate is healed, we'll really hit the therapy hard. Grace also recently got glasses. She is quite far sighted and has nystagmus(cross-eyes). We were able to find frames that are made specifically for kids with Down syndrome but she won't leave them on yet. They need to be adjusted properly. Once she has her surgery, the surgeon will actually put casts on her arms to prevent her from putting anything in her mouth. Since she won't be able to bend her arms, she won't be able to take her glasses off. We will really try to get her used to wearing them at that time. The kids really love Grace and are very protective of her. Sam and Ivy are big helpers. Ivy keeps an eye on her while eating as Grace loves to get bored with her bottle and play with it. She tips it upside down and since it has a huge hole in the nipple(she can't suck or swallow so the hole is huge to allow the food to flow out when she bites the nipple and gravity pulls it down her throat as she lies flat to eat), she can make quite a mess. I'm usually cleaning up mealtime stuff by then as it takes Grace quite some time to finish a bottle. Ivy loves the responsibility. Sam holds her arms for me when I change a messy diaper as her hands go right in it otherwise. Iris is so sweet when playing with her and Ian...well, he could really care less, lol. Jon and I have adjusted to life with 5 kids. It really isn't that much harder once you already are out numbered with 3. I'm posting some family pictures we had taken just a few days after we got home with Grace. I'm not really on the ball lately and haven't even mailed out Christmas cards yet. They are coming soon though :) So here they are:

Happy Family of 7!

Our Gorgeous Girls!

Our Adorable Boys!

Beautiful Grace Nadja!

Giggly Girl!

2010-01-06T23:12:00.005-06:00

Ok, so we've been horrible about posting since we've been home but seriously with 5 kids age 6 and under, who has time? After a rough couple weeks, things are going great now. Grace is really relaxing with us and we are in a routine. Her stimming noises have decreased although the teeth grinding has intensified a bit. Just yesterday, she started smiling quite a bit and today we got actual giggles from her. Turns out she's quite ticklish even though we had to "teach" her how to be. Kinda strange but she never responded to touch when we first adopted her. She's also recognizing her name as well. I will admit openly that our first week home was horrible and I cried A LOT wondering if we had done the right thing and if I would be able to accept the noises despite my super sensitive hearing issues. A lot of ongoing prayers and I can happily report that I'm so in love with this little girl and I really feel like her mom already. It took close to a year with each of our other kids to truely feel like their mom and not just another caretaker. Sure I loved them all right away but it took time for that mother/child bond to form. Grace is truely an angel on this earth and I can't imagine life without her now. I believe the drama we faced those first couple weeks was a blessing in disguise. What's equally sweet is how much our other kids adore her. As you'll see in the video, Iris is ALL about Grace and is "helping" me tickle her. Iris is VERY protective her baby sister and tells people not to touch her. Iris is also her biggest cheerleader and anytime Grace does something, no matter what it is, Iris says "good job Grace" with a thumbs up and much enthusiasm. Can't help but smile. My heart is so filled with love and joy tonight as I type this and I thank God for blessing our family and entrusting our 5 beautiful children to us. Enjoy this little glimpse of heaven and please ignore my annoying giggles. In Him, Sarah

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

2010-01-01T13:00:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year to one and all from the Maples family! Sorry for the delay in posting. We've been back home since 11:30pm on Tuesday 12/15 but there just never seemed to be enough time to get it all done. I've worked on this post 3 or 4 times before but haven't finished it, so I'll finish up the adventures of our travel day and then update what's been going on since we got home later this weekend.

Let's start with our travel day experiences. We woke to several inches of snow in Belgrade on Tuesday morning, so the concern of would we be able to even leave was in question. A quick check of several websites showed that so far everything was still on time, and per Sarah we were leaving even if I had to get out and push the plane. :)

Our car arrived around 10:20 but the driver had to park a block away, so we got our first adventure of hauling bags and a stroller through the snow. The drive to the airport was pretty slow, lots of cars and pretty bad conditions didn't help make it a quick trip. Luckly we had planned in some extra time so we still made it to the airport in plenty of time. The parking lot at the airport was still completly covered in about a foot of snow so we had another fun time dragging and pushing all our stuff around. The driver and I had our hands full of bags and Sarah was having a hard time pushing the stroller even when sticking to the ruts from previous cars. Thankfully a kind stranger helped her get to the section of sidewalk that had been cleared. We had an easy time checking in at the airport, checked our large bags and even had some time for last minute souvenier shopping (also useful for using up the remaining dinar we had).

From Belgrade to Munich was a pretty quick hour and a half flight, Grace managed pretty well. She enjoys the feeling of movement and wasn't even phased by the rough take off. We landed in Munich on time but had to ride a bus from the plane to the terminal, up a couple of floors and then over to our gate. The gate attendents helped us find the elevator and get down to our plane. Because of our last minute flight changes Grace had a bulk head seat while Sarah and I had seats in the last row of the plane. Thankfully a kind young woman in the bulkhead row agreed to switch with us. This allowed us to have a bassinet for Grace to sleep in during the flight which was a real blessing. Grace was pretty fussy for the first hour or so of the flight as she was tired, but not comfortable enough with her surroundings to let herself fall asleep. Eventually she did fall asleep and slept for most of the rest of the flight off and on.

Finally we made it to the states when we landed in Chicago. As this was our port of entry into the US we had to claim all of our luggage and go through passport control, customs and immigration for Grace's paperwork. Being that it was evening by this time the immigration desk had only one staff member working on paperwork and with several groups ahead of us we doubted if we would be able to make our connecting flight. We talked to one of the custom agents nearby and told him about our connecting flight and I think he rearranged the order to get our papers processed next, so big thanks to him.

After we got through with the immigration paper work we quickly ran to the recheck area and learned that we had about 30 minutes before our flight. The clerk told us if we hurried we "might" make our flight, but that our luggage would not make it to the plane on time. At this point we just wanted to get home and there was nothing in our bags that we had to have, so we went for it. To get to the gate, we had to take a train to a different terminal, we were in terminal 3 and we had to go to terminal 1, which took about 10 minutes. Then in the terminal we had to go through security again and have all our stuff checked, which took 15 minutes, so we were running close on time. We raced from security to our gate without even putting our belts back on. As we ran to the gate, the gate attendant called out to us asking if we were the Maples and to hurry as the door was closing! Thankfully they held the door for us and I think if we had been any later, there was a gentlemen on "stand by" waiting to take our seats. But we made it, settled in for our last flight of the day.

We landed on time and and we were back in the land of Minnesota. Our friend Sue meet us at the baggage claim, and our other friend Kristin drove our van from Rochester to pick us up. I quickly verified with the baggage claim attendant that our bags were not on our flight, they were on the next flight, so we made arrangements for them to deliver our bags the next day which was nice. The drive back to Rochester wasn't to bad, Grace seemed pretty at home in her car seat and didn't give us any problems. We stopped to get some snacks and coffee to stay awake and eventually arrived in our driveway at about 11:30pm. Home Sweet Home!

Sam came upstairs soon after we arrived to greet us, it was sure great to see him and he had the biggest smile on his face. We quietly went around and kissed Ian and Iris who were very much asleep. Ivy did wake up but you could tell she was basically sleeping with her eyes open, she didn't even remember talking to us the next morning. We talked to Holly for a little while to get the updates on how everything went, and her sister came to drive her back to her house, were I'm sure she enjoyed sleeping in her own bed. A great big thanks to Holly for watching the 4 amigos, I know they all loved her and had a great time, we couldn't have done this without her.

Then it was time for Sarah and I to go to settle in to our nice cozy bed, safely at home at the end of another wild adventure.

All packed up and ready to leave

The snow covered street outside our apartment

Our plane arriving to pick us up at the Belgrade airport

They had the snow plows out cleaning the terminal area

Sarah and Grace all settled in on the plane just waiting for takeoff

Here we go!

So long Serbia!

Sleeping in the bassinet on the flight from Munich to Chicago

I'm tired of being in an airplane now.

Holly and the Kids made us this great Welcome Home sign.

Grace having her first bottle in our house, she hadn't eaten much during any of the flights.

That's a lot of snow to come home to! Thanks to Holly, Nate & Kristen, and our neighbors for cleaning off the drive way and sidewalks!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Monday

2009-12-15T02:23:00.006-06:00

Monday was a jam packed day. We had to take Grace for a medical exam, get the visa papers prepared, pickup the passport, pickup the medical exam, and have an interview at the US Embassy to get the visa. All that and we had to hope and pray that we could get the visa back early enough on Tuesday that we could make our flight home. If we couldn't fly on Tuesday we wouldn't be able to fly until the weekend.

The medical exam was pretty painless, then Grace and I and went back to the apartment to pack while Sarah went with Jasmina to do the paperwork and pickup the passport. There was some confusion as to who could pick up the passport, but it all got worked out. A special thanks to the social worker from Blace who took the 3+ hour bus ride to Belgrade early Monday morning to help get it all cleared.

In the afternoon we had our interview appointment for Grace's visa from the US Embassy. We were a little delayed from getting the passport, but there were only a handful of people at the Embassy when we got there. During the interview they asked when we were leaving Belgrade so we told them our situation and the workers graciously said they thought they could get it done by the end of the day. So we hung out for a little while in the waiting room and only a couple of hours after getting there we had Grace's visa and we could official depart for home!!

In the evening we meet with Vlado and he and I walked to the Police station, even though it started snowing, to terminate our temporary Belgrade address. On the way we walked across the alley from the President's offices their "White House", no fences no special bars, we could have walked over and touched the building. Next to that was the Mayor of Belgrades offices, which the workers were happily removing the snow from the sidewalks, as the Mayor's office is in charge of all the departments in Belgrade. The President still has plenty of snow in front of his offices. After leaving the police station we spotted the President's car driving down the major bullivard on his way home with only one escort car. In the five minutes it took us to walk from there to the President's offices we could already see all the workers making quick exits themselves.

That was our last day in Belgrade and now we are all packed up dressed and ready to head to the airport. It's still snowing but so far all the websites show that there are no delays. The next update will be after we make it back home and can introduce Grace to the rest of the bunch.

Bye Vlado

"Ciao, ciao" Serbia

We're breaking out of here

2009-12-12T10:05:00.001-06:00

Friday we got to bring Grace with us back to stay at our apartment. Before we left we got a tour of the orphanage to see many of the children there. Let me tell you there are some awesome kids in this orphanage that would be great in a family. One boy of about 6 was my best friend for awhile. He just talked and talked and talked. He kept telling the workers that he was going home tomorrow. After the tour I had to go get my passport so I could sign Grace out of the orphanage for her official file and then we took a taxi back towards our apartment.

First we had to stop at a Lilly's store to buy bottles and some food, then we walked to our appartment and settled in. We all took a nap for a couple of hours and then we made Grace a bottle with some fruit flavored baby food, cereal, and water. Grace then got acquainted with our apartment, She quickly learned that she could move well on the carpet, but only slide backwards on the hardwood floors. We played in the apartment for a while and then made supper, pasta and tomato meat sauce for Sarah and I, and Chicken dinner baby food in the bottle for Grace. She didn't really care for her food, later we got an email from Jasmina that said she prefers sweet foods.

After supper we decided we needed some more water and some bread and pasteries from the bakery. We got Grace all wrapped up and went for a stroll, of course the minimart is 3 buildings away and the bakery is across the street so our stroll didn't take but 10 minutes. I think it took longer to get Grace in her coat and hat. We played in the apartment for a little while longer and then it was bed time. It didn't take her to long to settle in and fall asleep, when I went to check on her later her legs were all twisted up. It looked like she was sitting crosslegged and just fell over asleep.

We're looking forward to spending lots of quality time with Grace over the weekend and learning her schedule. Then on Monday we've got the medical appointment, paperwork, pickup her passport, and apply for the Visa at the Embassy. Then fingers crossed, we'll be able to pick up the visa Tuesday morning and make it to the airport for our flight home.

Good morning Princess are you ready to break out?

Yeah!

One last rest in her crib while we went on the tour.

Signing the official papers so Grace can leave with us.

Party dress to celebrate leaving.

Bye, bye Jasmina

Grace has left the building

Standing at the gate waiting for our taxi.

Grace has already picked up pulling on my whiskers from Sarah.

Taxi ride to the apartment.

Our first bottle in the apartment.

Checking out the hardwood floors.

I was trying to take this picture myself. Got a good one of Grace, but the look on my face is a little bizarre.

Grace was really interested in the picture of Ivy.

Sleep tight little angel.

Did I say angel, I meant contortionist.

Please....Someone save them!

2009-12-12T02:49:00.002-06:00

I'm posting this in hopes that someone reading my blog may be feeling led to adopt a child with Down syndrome. Please consider saving one of these precious angels before they spend their life "behind bars" in a mental institution where they will surely die. 90% don't survive 1 year in these places and once transferred, they will not be able to be adopted. Maybe not you, but maybe you know someone who's considering adopting. Please share as these kids are SO worth it!!

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URGENT PLEA!

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URGENT PLEA!

Please Grab This Button!
URGENT PLEA!

Please Grab This Button!
URGENT PLEA!

Fundraiser for another family

2009-12-11T14:05:00.000-06:00

Please visit this link and consider making a donation to this family's fundraising efforts.
http://joneseeadoption.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-can-happen-in-6-days.html

Just One Big Family Now

2009-12-10T14:59:00.008-06:00

Well, it's official. Grace is ours!!! What a very long, amazing, emotional, happy, sad day all wrapped into one. We met at the orphanage at 7am to make the 3 1/2 hour drive to Blace which is where the adoption ceremony took place. We met around a table with Jasmina(our facilitator), Jasna(lawyer and translator), the director(who happens to be a relative of Grace's), the lawyer for the social center and the social worker. Documents were drawn up for the birth certificate and we had to verify the information was correct. We signed the papers, shook hands and that concluded the "ceremony". What happens next is really amazing. We drove to another town to get the birth certificate but this is also where the hospital is that Grace's 2 sisters have been at. Grace's mother wanted to meet us so we all met in a room at the hospital. Grace's mother and father and 2 sisters were there and we had a nice visit. It wasn't too emotional as Grace's mother had really prepared herself and did not cry. She is very thankful for us and is happy that Grace will be with us. We got to take some pictures and I gave her mother a bracelet "from Grace". Our goodbye's started to get teary but we had to leave in a hurry to go back to Blace to apply for the passport before the police station closed. I am so thankful we got to meet more of Grace's family and get photos. This experience is truely priceless as this NEVER happens with international adoptions. Very very few families ever meet anyone from the child's family much less stay in touch. We look forward to updating Grace's birthfamily over the years and they have access to our blog. We've made the decision to post a few pictures of her family. So...after the lengthy process of applying for the passport(old and slow computer equipment), Jon and I took everyone out for dinner at a nice restaurant for typical Serbian food. Grace's father joined us and surprised us by bringing the oldest sister who had been at school before. She is beautiful and a very good student and gifted in music. They brought a gift for Grace(a little gold cross pendant) and a gift for me(a little pair of gold hoop earrings with crystals). We had an enjoyable meal(these people LOVE meat!!!) and then went to the village where Grace's paternal grandparents live. They wanted to meet us too. How amazing is that? Grandma had lots of goodies for us to eat even though we only had about 15 min to visit. We also got to taste some of her homemade brandy. WOW did that warm me up inside. I think I actually breathed fire, lol!! Grandma and Grandpa are so adorable. The whole family has asked us to bring Grace back for a visit one day and Grandma wants us to stay with them. I love this family and feel like I've known them for years even though I can't understand a word that is spoken. Grandma sat down next to me and was asking us to take good care of her granddaughter. She broke down crying and could barely talk. Of course, I started bawling as well. I can't even imagine how hard this is for them. I won't even pretend to know how they feel. All I know is how much they love Grace and how much they will miss her. It was very nice to hear how much they like us and are happy that Grace is going home with a family that will love her unconditionally and help her reach her fullest potential. They all loved seeing pictures of us with our other kids and asking us questions about them. The last few minutes of our day were the hardest for me as we had to say our goodbyes. We all just kept hugging and kissing and then hugging some more. Grandma and I cried and so did Grandpa. I think a few others were as well but I couldn't see anymore as I started sobbing as I got in the car. By the way I was carrying on, you'd never have guessed I just got a new daughter and whole new extended family. I will cherish these moments forever and look at our photos often. Grace Nadja Maples is one blessed little girl to have "1" whole big family that loves her very much and we are so blessed to have had this time with her birth family to be able to share this with her one day.

Social workers from Blace

Grace's Birth-Mother and baby sister

Everyone but the oldest sister and Grace

Etno Kuca Gedzo Resturant in Blace where we had a celebration lunch

Mixed Grill dinner; veal, sausage, pork and cheese filled meatballs

Lamb, potatoes, bread, and cabbage

Treats at Grace's birth-Grandparents house

This is how they have water, with jellied Strawberries and Turkish candy

And then the Hazelnut Brandy with Grandma!

Jasmina and Jasna

Saying goodbye for now.

MckMomma HP Touchsmart giveaway

2009-12-09T14:45:00.002-06:00

Blogging friend MckMomma is part of the contest to give away an HP Touchsmart computer. Go checkout her blog for many great things including the giveaway. http://mckgiveaways.blogspot.com/2009/12/hp-touchsmart-giveaway.html

He Signed!!!

2009-12-09T14:24:00.001-06:00

We got the signature today that we've been waiting for. The adoption ceremony will be tomorrow and we get to spring Grace Nadja from the orphanage when we get back. We are so excited!! We are hoping to leave here on tuesday. Look for an update of the ceremony tomorrow night.

Bittersweet Day!

2009-12-08T15:37:00.002-06:00

Well, today was the most amazing and emotional and sad day all in one that we've ever had throughout our 5 adoption experiences. We got to meet Grace Nadja's birth father, his sister and a maternal uncle. They travelled several hours today to come say goodbye to sweet Grace. Let me just tell you how much they love this little girl and how hard this meeting was for ALL of us. As soon as they came in the room, we all started crying. Very few, if any, families ever get the opportunity to meet birth family so we are totally blessed to have experienced this today. We now know why we did not get our signature yesterday. If we had, we would have travelled for the adoption ceremony today and they may not have been able to come say goodbye. I will never question God's timing again! Sadly 2 of Grace's sisters are in the hospital with pneumonia so her mother was unable to come. However, we hope to meet her after the adoption ceremony. Grace won't be with us then though so she won't be able to see her again and that breaks my heart. We got many many photos today and a little video as well to show Grace when she's older. It is so obvious how much they love her. They have our blog address and will be able to watch her grow up and thrive in our home. We are so thankful they want to keep in touch and they have invited us to visit them if we are ever back in this country. They are such warm and loving people and we feel like they are now a part of our family too. I just don't even have the words to express the love we felt today. We got to spend a total of about 3 hours with them today and even though they don't speak English, we were able to communicate. The embrace I got from Grace's father was the biggest, tightest, longest, and most heart felt hug I've ever received from ANYONE!!! We both just sobbed. I cried equally as hard when he and Jon embraced. I would love to post a few pictures but I will not unless I get their permission. I want to protect their privacy and do not want them to feel any shame or embarrassment for placing her for adoption. If they could, they surely would have kept her. Resources for a child with Down syndrome just don't exist here and her surgeries for the cleft palate are just too expensive. They asked us MANY questions today about resources for her and were pleased with what we will be able to offer her. We shared photos of our other kids and saw pictures of Grace's siblings as well has her paternal grand parents. We may even be blessed to receive some baby photos of her. God's timing and plan are perfect all the time and we couldn't be happier with the way things are going right now. I'll stop now as I'm starting to cry again visualizing Grace's father saying goodbye and looking back as he walks to the elevator.

2009-12-07T15:36:00.006-06:00

Today we had a nice visit with Grace. She was being very cute today playing with us and crawling over my leg on her own {with a little backstop assistance}. Then Sarah put her in the baby carrier, and she fell fast asleep. She's been over tired on several occasions but has refused to let herself fall asleep. Needless to say we were pretty excited that she feels comfortable with us now that she'll fall asleep with us.

Then while we waited to get word if we would get the Ministers' signature today or not, we decided to go on a minibus tour to see the sites. It was a little hard to see somethings today as it was foggy, but we figured if we have Grace with us all the time soon we wouldn't get another chance. We did get to have an excellent lunch and wonderful conversation for several hours with our tour guide and the only other member of our tour a gentlemen from Malta.

Late in the afternoon we did learn that we would not be getting the signature we needed today, so we'll have to pray that we get it tomorrow. That pretty much blew our chance that we could all fly home this weekend. :( So our homecoming arrangements are still up in the air. Now we have to decide if I will come home this weekend and then Sarah and Grace would fly home when everything is done, or if I can strech things with work and we all fly home early next week.

This evening Vlado, who we rent our apartment from, and his wife Svetlana invited us and the other family here adopting out for diner at a traditional Serbian restaurant. We had another great meal and several hours of awesome converstation.

Grace crawling over my leg, with minimal assistance

Grace fell asleep for the first time while Sarah was holding her in the baby carrier wrap.

Such a precious little angel

Sarah and I standing in front of a giant tree in the garden where most Serbian couples have they're wedding receptions in the springtime.

Standing in front of the Prince Mihailo monument in Republic Square with our new friend Renault.

Svetlana, Mary, Jim, Sarah, Jon & Vlado at the "Just Like Home" restaurant.

Day 7 videos

2009-12-06T16:56:00.004-06:00

Here are a couple of cute videos from today. First we finally caught Grace laughing on camera! She likes it when I jump with her and lift her in the air. It takes her a little while to warm up and she gets bored after only a couple of turns, but eventually she gets going.

Grace playing with Mommy. She's copied Sarah signing Mommy for several days. I thought it was so cute when she would grab Sarah's hand and hold it against her cheek. I really love our little angel.

Home Happenings

2009-12-06T16:09:00.002-06:00

Here is a note we got from Holly who is the young gal taking great care of our kids while we are gone. She is so great with them and sounds like they are having a great time. We are soooo thankful for Holly and at total peace that she is running the show while we are gone. Truely amazing. THANKS HOLLY, WE LOVE YOU!!!
p.s. I was in stitches reading this :)

Hey there Sarah,We had a great day today. We went to Chatau Theatere as planned and then to Playland McDonalds for lunch with some of my family. (I added some pictures.) Sam has been really good. For both him and Ian I've had a pretty much no tollerance rule as far as whining and willful disobedience goes. And, even though they didn't appreciate it too much at first, knowing what to expect from me is helping them allot with first time obedience. We really had a very great day with both of them. I praised them up so much tonight for how good they did, especailly Sam, and he about popped with pride. It was pretty cute. And of course after that he put out a double effort with helping me with things and helping the other kids. I have three funny/cute stories for you. (I hope this doesn't get too long, lol, it might!)The first is that Sam informed me that you can say bad words with your hands/fingers. He then informed me that mommy said he should NEVER EVER EVER do it EVER. Then all four of them proceeded to show me how it was done. Pretty funny.Second, was that tonight I left the kids pot pies on the table while we came down and read your blog posts. Well, we were sitting there and all the sudden heard a fork hit the floor. Ivy looks at me, eyes wide and said, "I think Barney ate our pot pies. Do you know how I know? He just doropped his fork!" The imagery was so funny that I really couldn't hardly be upset at Barney, even though he did indeed eat three out of the four. What a crazy dog! We'll know better now!Third was just a cute thing that happened tonight while putting the kids to bed. I always say, "Do you want me to pray for you?" And then proceed to thank God for all the good things we did that day and ask him to bless tomorrow. I was just about to leave for the night and Iris says, "Holly! Holly! Holly!" very urgently and then said, "Pray for Barney, too." So, we prayed for the stuffy, too. Pretty cute.Oh, one more thing, while I was watching Grace's movie clips I randomly said, "She's so cute, I could just take her home!" I of course was just using the expression but all four of the kids, Ivy, Iris, Ian, Sam were like, "NO!" Sam grabbed my face and looked me straight in the eyes and all the while Ivy is saying, "She belongs to us, WE adopted her!" Oh boy, some kind of love you got going on in this family! :) :) :) Anyways, I'm sure loving your kiddos! Praying for things there, Goodnight, or goodmorning. :) Holly

Saturday's Visits

2009-12-05T16:09:00.002-06:00

We had 2 visits with Grace today and when we went to her room to get her, she actually put her arms out to me. Talk about melt my heart!! She is just such a sweet child but she does know what she wants and does not want. She also cried when she bumped her head which is GREAT!! Most kids in an institution won't even bother crying as their cries will not be heard. Grace shows appropriate emotions and reactions which is wonderful. She's starting to show more interest in toys as well and played ball with us today by rolling it back to me. Very smart little girl we have here.

We really had a great day all around today. Jim and Mary(the family here adopting sweet Milos) and us spent a lot of time together today. They showed us how to use the tram which was so easy and will save us $15/day in cab fare to and from the orphanage. We then had lunch together at a Mexican restaurant. It was a cute little place and the food wasn't bad either. We then hit the open market but didn't find anything that we couldn't live without. We were in search of a nice dress for Grace to wear the day we spring her from the orphanage. The one we brought is WAY too small. She's much bigger than we expected :) With no luck there, we continued walking to the pedestrian zone which is like a big mall area similar to our outlet malls in the states. We did find her a sweet dress and leggings but failed to look at the price and it was around $70...yikes!! Oh well, we haven't spent money on souveniers yet so I felt I could splurge on Grace. We then took the tram back to the orphanage for our 2nd visit. The weekend staff is a little more laid back, should we say, and the children were hungry and fussy. We decided to walk the halls a bit with Grace and one of the nurses yelled at us. Oops!! We are confined to a very small visitation room. Not a lot to do in there with a 2 year old who doesn't have much interest in toys. ANYWAY....we then hooked up with Jim and Mary and decided to try a hamburger at a "fast food" joint. Umm....disgusting!! It certainly was not beef and I actually had to spit my bite out. Oh well. Next Jasmina(our facilitator) met us and took us to a professional basketball game. We were invited yesterday but didn't have much interest but decided to go tonight for something to do. I'm sure glad we did. We had a blast and the game was very exciting. We did lose by 2 points but it was very nerve wracking. We weren't sure what was going to happen after the game as there were many helmet wearing police officers at either entrance to the gym. The crowd was rowdy and would throw rolls of toilet paper and other objects on the court floor if they didn't agree with the ref's calls. Did I mention how LOUD it was in there? However, at the end of the game, the team players shook hands and there were no riots going on. We made it back to our apartment and are now catching up with emails and having something to eat. We're hoping to get some sight seeing in and had actually planned a tour today but the weather wasn't nice and the fog rolled in which would have made it difficult to see the sights. Maybe monday.

Now for prayers. 1. the adoption minister to sign our case on monday. If this happens, we can have the adoption ceremony on tuesday and get the passport and medical on thursday. Then all that's left is the visa. However, the US embassy doesn't do visa appts on fridays so we'd have to wait until monday. 2. please pray they will make an acception(they've done it before) to do our appt friday so we can all leave as a family on saturday. More details on that later in the week once we know in the minister signs.

We are very excited to know that Grace's birthfather will be coming here on monday to meet us. Her mother most likely will not be with as she is suffering emotionally from all of this as are Grace's 2 older sisters. So sad. Please pray for Grace's birth family that they have peace with their decision knowing Grace will be so loved and given the best opportunities to reach her fullest potential.

Well, that's today's adventures. Tune in tomorrow for more....
Good night!

Day 5 videos

2009-12-04T14:43:00.007-06:00

Just a swingin'

Determination

Grace was determind to get to her bottle. This was the first time we have seen her crawl on her hands AND knees. So far to get around, she's done the Indian crawl and dragged her legs. Now that we know she CAN do it, we will be finding lots of things to motivate her to crawl MORE. Oh how I love this girl!!

Day 4

2009-12-03T15:18:00.002-06:00

No words today just a video of our baby girl. We do suggest you turn down the sound before you watch, so you don't have to hear the corny laughter. :)

Day 3

2009-12-02T16:42:00.009-06:00

Today was an odd day. We got to spend a couple hours with Grace this morning and then did not have an afternoon visit. However, things are going very well and Grace is bonding with us and we have fallen head over heels in love with her too! She LOVES to give kisses which usually involve her tongue :) Our adoption facilitator wrote up the adoption report today and is submitting it tomorrow in favor of this adoption. This is a few days ahead of schedule so we are praying the adoption minister can be located and will not delay signing. Once it's signed, we can set a date for the adoption ceremony in Grace's birth city which is about 3 1/2 hour taxi ride away. Then the rest can fall into place and maybe...just maybe...we can come home a bit early. We miss our kids terribly. We've been able to have video calls with them through Skype though which has helped. Sam seems to be having the most difficulty and told Holly today that he is too old to cry when he misses us. Of course I bawled and then bawled some more today. It was very emotional today as I'm very homesick and knowing that Sam is having a hard time makes it even worse. I almost called Jon's parents to ask them to go get him but decided not too. So please pray for Sam and the kids as well as Holly. This trip is not easy on anyone but this is all a small price to pay for being entrusted to another of God's beautiful children. Grace is an absolute angel and will teach us all so much. I can't wait for the kids to meet her and Holly has told me how much they adore her already when they talk about her. God is so good....ALL the time.....He is good! We also got to meet another American family that is here to adopt a 10 yr old boy with Ds from the same orphanage as Grace. We enjoyed a nice dinner with them and really enjoyed the conversation...in English!
Ok, now for a few more pictures:

Having a little taste before I bite daddy's nose!

I love kisses from my mommy!

Happy 2nd Birthday Grace!

2009-12-01T15:43:00.007-06:00

OK, this is going to be just a quick recap of the day since Jon's writing it instead of Sarah. Today 12/1/09 is Grace Nadja's 2nd Birthday. Happy Birthday Grace. We got to visit Grace twice today in the morning and the afternoon. In the afternoon we brought her a tutu and angel wings to dress up in, some presents to open and a few decorations. Grace really warmed up to us today, even in the morning she was smiling and by the afternoon we had gotten her to giggle a little bit. Well that's about all I'm going to say, I'm sure Sarah will elaborate further later when she's feeling up to it. Here are some pictures from our day, enjoy.

Jon.

Happy Birthday Grace Nadja

Trying out the snuggie

Playing with Daddy

Giving kisses

smiling

Playing with Mommy's earrings

Big Birthday Girl

Reading one of the birthday books with Daddy

giggling

Birthday girl in her tutu resting on her new blankie

We Met Her!!

2009-11-30T16:54:00.004-06:00

Wow, what a day! We started the day out by meeting with the adoption ministry for about and hour. There were 10 other people in the room besides Jon and I. I was nervous but everyone was so so nice and it all went smoothly. We were prepared that they would ask us questions as to why we would adopt a child with Down syndrome but we didn't end up getting asked anything. We found out a lot about Nadja's birth family and I started to tear up. A very sad situation for her family. They love her so very much and this has been a heart breaking decision for them. Grace has 2 older sisters ages 12 and 13 who are also having a hard time with this. Grace also has a 1 year old baby sister. You will notice that sometimes I use Nadja and sometimes I use Grace. We are torn as to whether or not we will change her name at this time. Nadja's parents named her and we really like it but realize no one will pronounce it correctly back home. As for right now, we are calling her Nadja as that's what she knows. Ok, so back to our day. After our appointment, we went to the orphanage. We donned some lovely gowns and they brought Nadja to us. SHE IS SO PRECIOUS!!! Truely an angel! She is much bigger AND heavier than we thought and hope our 18 months clothes we brought will fit. According to her psychologist, developmentally she's around 12 months which is better than we expected. She is so ready to crawl and would bear a little weight on her legs. She's babbling and very observant. I tried to show her how to sign "daddy" and she came so close, THE FIRST TIME!!! So she put her hand by her mouth instead of forehead but I was impressed as she is already imitating! We got that on camera :) We spent a few minutes with her and then took off to go have her passport photos taken. She is such a good little girl and never fussed. Her hair is so long and she has the biggest brown eyes I've ever seen. Once we got back, Jon and I spent a couple more hours with her and observed her eating a bottle. That was interesting. The hole in the nipple is HUGE and she wore a lot of it but overall, I was impressed how she manipulated the nipple in her mouth. Kids with Down syndrome naturally may have feeding issues because of the tongue thrust and on top of that, she has a cleft palate. Amazing how kids can adapt. She does have a cold right now and quite a bit of nasal drainage and quite a bit of her bottle came out her nose too. We'll have to get a surgery date soon for her once we're home. That may help with her frequent upper respiratory infections as well......we hope. I would love to share all about her birth family but for their privacy I will not on here. Plus it's Grace's story and she may share one day if she chooses. I will tell you though that Grace's social worker told us that both Jon and I look a lot like her birth parents. Crazy huh? So tomorrow is Grace's 2nd birthday and we have a few treats lined up. They didn't want us buying a cake for the kids so we brought natural fruit snacks and balloons. There are 40 kids in Grace's unit alone so it should be fun. Well, it's 12:10am and we go back at 9:30 so we're headed to bed. Check out our montage from today!!!

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We Made It!

2009-11-29T14:03:00.013-06:00

Ok so here is quite a long update of our whole trip so far.

We had a slight delay leaving Minneapolis on friday. Turned out to be pretty cool though as we met a great woman and her son. The son over heard me talking to my mom on the phone and turns out to be from Garmish, Germany. We had a nice chat about Germany and of course he had lots of questions about our adoption. So did his mom. We talked for quite awhile and when he asked why "special needs" kids, all I could tell him was that it was God!! He nodded his head and gave us the thumbs up and was all smiles. He then asked for our names so he could add us to his prayer list. How amazing is that???? Just another sign for us that God is orchastrating this whole adoption. He did however, fail to mention how expensive Germany is :) Anyway, we boarded our plane and his mom asked if she could see my jewelry catalog. Of course I said sure! When we got off the plan(they sat quite a ways away from us) they were waiting til we got off. I got my catalog back along with compliments of the jewelry and then they said: "we have a gift for your new child". Behind his back, was a little pooh stuffed animal that he had gotten for him mom. This was so thoughtful and such a kind offering that I almost started crying. I also got their names and email and plan to send them a picture of Grace and her pooh bear!! Thank you so much again if you're reading this!!!

Ok, back to Germany. Once I accepted that we would just have to spend a bit more than planned, we had a much better time. We went to the Christmas market and saw some neat things. I tried real saurkraut, a bratwurst and gluhwein which is hot wine. I wasn't that impressed with the saurkraut or brat but the gluhwein was tastier than I expected as I'm not much of a wine drinker. I did get us a couple neat souveniers though but spent a little more than we budgeted for. We'll have to buy less where we are now.

We made it to Grace's city around 4:30 pm and our adoption facilitator met us at the airport. She's great and I already love her!! Her and her nephew drove us to our apartment where we met Vlado. He's in charge of our apartment arrangements. He's great too and took us on a little tour of the area. It was dark though so I'm not sure how much we'll remember in daylight. Vlado took us to the police station to register the address we are staying at. This is part of the paperwork process and we are following ALL rules and no shortcuts here. We then did a drive by of the orphanage and measured the distance as about 1 mile from our apartment. Not far to walk but there's a lot of traffic so we may take a taxi the first few times until we get brave. I know other families have walked and I want the exercise so we shall see. The weather is great so far, unseasonably warm for this time of year. YEAH!!! Vlado took us to a 7-11 type store to pick up a few groceries and then dropped us back off. There is a McDonald's less than 2 blocks from here so that's where we had dinner. Funny that since my gastric bypass in March, I can't stand McDonald's. Before my surgery, I could have eaten it every day. EWWWWWW!!!! Once we get a few more groceries, we'll be able to cook in our apartment but being Sunday evening, not much was open. Our apartment is really nice and even has a washing machine. I'm even using wireless internet right now.

So...the plan is to meet Jasmina outside our apartment at 10:45am tomorrow morning. We are 7 hours ahead of CST in MN in case anyone was wondering the time difference. We will then head to the adoption ministry for our appointment and official referral of Gracie. After that, it is my understanding that we'll finally get to meet our princess. I don't know what time that will be but I'm assuming it will be after their lunch and naps. I just pray she isn't afraid of us. This adoption is so different from our other 4 in that we will just get to visit her 2x/day until the adoption is final in about 2 weeks. The other kids were handed right over and we have them in our hotel for bonding the whole time. Needless to say, we'll have a lot of down time so I brought lots of books to read and we'll get to do some sight seeing. This city is gorgeous and I hope to get some great photos!!

So here are a few from our side trip to Germany. More to follow......

Shop after shop of just meats like this. Was making me ill actually!

I LOVE these. Jon's uncle Keith brought some tabletop size things like this. You use real candles and the heat turns the fan blades. So cool and what I wanted to buy for my souvenier from Germany. I got one and for a good price!!!

Our hotel that cost like a zillion dollars!

The ice skating rink at the airport Christmas market. I wanted to try it just to have my picture taken on the ice but I feared I would fall and then my pants would be wet and I'd be cranky so here I am "by" the ice :)

Oooooo Awwwww Gluhwein!!! Pretty tasty and warm!

My first bite of real German saurkraut. Yeah, wasn't that impressed. My mom's is much better(love you mom!)

P.S. everyone, Jon really is here with me and he got to taste the treats too. I promise to take some pictures of him too, lol!

Frustrated!

2009-11-28T06:02:00.003-06:00

Well, the title says it all. I had this brilliant idea a week ago to spend a day in Munich, Germany on our way to pick up Gracie. Since I'm 100% German, I thought it may be my only chance to visit the country. I"m beginning to think it was a bad decision on my part. First of all, I can say like 5 words in German and a couple are not nice. It too us 2 hours to figure out how to get to our hotel which is a Best Western. It is 70 Euros/night(multiply that times 1.5 for US dollars) and our room is to tiny you can barely turn around in it. There is no free shuttle to the airport. That will be another 16 Euros on top of the 26 Euros spent already to get to our hotel by train and then taxi. I certainly don't think of myself as a spoiled American and don't mind that it took us forever to get to our hotel. I don't mind that our room is teenie tiny and the power outlet already blew up our surge proctector. I don't mind that we may only be able to see the Christmas market. I don't mind that it's chillier than I thought it would be here. I don't mind anything that has seemed like an inconvenience right now BUT I do mind that the US dollar stinks!!! The bank is closed cuz it's saturday and the only place to exchange money is back at the airport!! It will cost us $1.69 for 1 stinkin' Euro. We did not plan for this as the excange rate on the internet is 1.49. Sure that doesn't seem like much but when we're looking at $8000 US dollars, that .20 makes a HUGE difference. Jon said there is an ATM outside that we may try in hopes of getting a better rate and possibly avoiding going back to the airport before heading to the Christmas Market. Bring on the Gluvein!!!(very strong wine from what I've been told). None of this will matter on monday when we meet Gracie anyway right? RIGHT???? I just keep telling myself that and now I need to make the most of my 24 hours in Germany and go have a beer and a brat :)

Getting Ready

2009-11-26T09:56:00.005-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We are getting ready to leave for the airport in about 24 hours. We have not even gotten the suitcases out to start packing yet. Good thing I'm not cooking my usual feast today and we are just making a cheesy corn casserole to take to our neighbor's for dinner! We just got new pics of Gracie today and my has she grown since the last set. Her hair has also gotten so long and I can't wait to put pretties in it. I'll get to hold her in my arms in just like 4 days. Grace is our 5th child that we're adopting and the wait does NOT get any easier with each one. Anyway, here are a couple pictures for you viewing pleasure. We are so very blessed and have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day!!!
Love,
Sarah

Good News and Another Giveaway!

2009-11-17T00:38:00.007-06:00

We got word today that we need to be in EE on Nov 30th. We are leaving on Nov 27th which is only 10 days away! We are so so excited but scared and nervous too. We'll be leaving our 4 small children with a nanny for about 2 weeks and then Jon can return home and I will follow a week later. We are also sadly about $1500 short at this point and are praying God shows off again and provides the needed funds for us. We are going to try another giveaway in hopes of raising a little more money. We are giving away a great set of educational books and a DVD. These are all brand new. The list includes:

Discovery: Pathways to Better Speech for Children with Down Syndrome
Starring: Ph.D., CCC-SLP; Professor Sue Buckley; Sally Shott; Siegrfied Pueschel Libby Kumin Director: Will Schermerhorn Format: DVD

Gifts: Mothers Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives (Paperback)
~ Kathryn Lynard Soper (Edited by), Martha Sears (Foreword)

Adventures In The Mainstream: Coming Of Age With Down Syndrome (Paperback)
~ Greg Palmer (Author)

Mental Wellness in Adults with Down Syndrome: A Guide to Emotional and Behavioral Strengths and Challenges (Paperback)
~ Dennis McGuire (Author), Brian Chicoine (Author)

Gross Motor Skills in Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Topics in Down Syndrome) (Paperback)
~ Patricia C. Winders (Author)

Fine Motor Skills for Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents And Professionals (Topics in Down Syndrome) (Paperback)
~ Maryanne Bruni (Author)

Early Communication Skills for Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Paperback)
~ Libby Kumin (Author)

Each $10 donation will get your name entered 1 time. If you donate $25, you'll get 3 entries. Please use the chip-in button if interested. If you could also please say a prayer that we get what we need, we would greatly appreciate it.
Blessings,
Sarah

International Down Syndrome Coalition For Life

2009-10-15T00:59:00.002-05:00

I'm borrowing this from my friend Shelley's blog, hope she doesn't mind. Those of you that know me really well, know that I'm 100% pro-life for ALL reasons. It breaks my heart to know that over 90% of women whose unborn baby has a pre-diagnosis of Down syndrome will abort them. There are over 200 families on waiting lists in the U.S. hoping to adopt a baby with Down syndrome. It's really sad when most health care providers actually recommend this. I'd give most anything for the chance to parent a newborn with Ds even though my plate is overflowing as it is. I just pray that women can be given accurate information before making such a final decision.

I can’t let Down syndrome awareness month come and go and not mention this organization. The International Down Syndrome Coalition For Life is an organization that promotes awareness, support and advocacy for ALL people with Ds….even those who are not yet born. None of the well recognized national Ds groups do this. These organizations start at birth…..refusing to take a stand for the most vulnerable members of the Ds community, the unborn.
In a country where 90% of children who are diagnosed with Ds pre-birth are aborted, it is important to have an organization that honors these members of the Ds community too….and advocates for their right to be born.
In a world where people are still told….today, in 2009….that the baby they just gave birth to is evil because he has an extra chromosome, that the child will destroy their lives and should be sent away and forgotten about…..we need more people to stand up and speak out like the IDSCFL is doing.
In a time when people would rather do nothing, because that’s more politically correct…..people with Down syndrome desperately need a voice that will not compromise, that will not be silent, that will take a stand even when the truth is hard to hear and say that ALL people with Ds have a right to life.

The Creed of Babies with Down syndrome

2009-10-09T22:08:00.001-05:00

My face may be different
But my feelings the same
I laugh and I cry
And I take pride in my gains
I was sent here among you
To teach you to love
As God in the heavens
Looks down from above
To Him I'm no different
His love knows no bounds
It's those here among you
In cities and towns
That judge me by standards
That man has imparted
But this family I've chosen
Will help me get started
For I'm one of the children
So special and few
That came here to learn
The same lessons as you
That love is acceptance
It must come from the heart
We all have the same purpose
Though not the same start
The Lord gave me life
To live and embrace
And I'll do it as you do
But at my own pace

31 for 21

2009-10-08T21:29:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I'm doing so good with blogging everyday am I? I did meet a sweet sweet little boy named Seth today as we were leaving Ian's therapy center. He is a cute cute cute blondie who happens to sport an extra 21st chromosome. I just couldn't help myself and had to say "hi" and introduce myself. Oh, he has the sweetest smile and most adorable little wave ever. I'm hoping his mom contacts me as I'd love to arrange a marriage of her son and Grace...heehee! Nothing new on the adoption front though and I'm going to have a very busy month and a half with my jewelry business. I just love my job :) Every time I go to work, I end up at a party! I also need to be careful what I say these days. Yesterday after the kids were done at the dentist, we were walking to our car. It was pretty chilly and Sam said "It's freaky cold!" Oops! Here's a sweet picture of Grace taken a few months ago. I can't wait to spring her from that crib and put a smile on her face!

correction

2009-10-07T22:48:00.001-05:00

Some people were having problems with the button not working. Give it a try now. Thanks to everyone who is putting it on their blog and to anyone felt led to help us bring her home.
Blessings!

Button for Grace

2009-10-07T13:02:00.004-05:00

Here is our sweet Grace. Please consider putting her button on your blog. Any donation is tax deductible but Prayers are Free. Please pray for our family! Grab the code below her button and post on your own blog or facebook. Please spread the word of adoption. The button will take you to our family sponsorship page on Reece's Rainbow. This is the adoption ministry where we found our Grace.
Blessings,
Sarah
p.s. Thanks Ali for making our button!

Grab This Button

Button

2009-10-06T23:19:00.001-05:00

Stay tuned for Grace's button coming soon!!

Wedding

2009-10-06T00:06:00.001-05:00

This is such an amazing love story. Most people would never even thing a person with Down syndrome could get married. These two prove the world wrong. They are so beautiful and so in love. I wish I knew them!

Josh & Bernadette's Ceremony Highlight from AndyCam Productions on Vimeo.

First Giveaway

2009-10-04T22:19:00.006-05:00

Here is the information for our first giveaway to help raise money for our airfare to bring Grace home. For every $5 donation, you'll be entered into a drawing for this sweet framed picture 1 time. For a $10 donation, your name will be entered 3 times. $25 will get you 7 entries. The picture measures approx. 21X17 inches. It's such a heartwarming picutre that shows how more alike kids with Down syndrome are than different. I know there are a lot of you out there with little boys with Ds.
This would look so cute on their wall. Since we're travelling soon, this giveaway will only run for 2 weeks and we'll draw a winner on Sunday, Oct 18th at 5pm. We have something planned for another giveaway so stay tuned. To make an entry, click on the chip-in widget and you'll be given directions. Thank you!

under construction

2009-10-04T01:53:00.001-05:00

Our blog is under construction. Please excuse the mess while we update layout and photos. Please enjoy my daily updates for the 31 for 21 movement.

Motivational Speaker

2009-10-03T21:49:00.000-05:00

What an inspirational young man!!!

Ruslana!!

2009-10-02T22:35:00.003-05:00

Please visit this blog:
http://www.nogreatergift.blogspot.com/
Even if you've never prayed before, please please please pray for this family and little Ruslana. She weighs heavy on my heart as I secretly wanted to adopt her. What a tragedy it would be if this family was not allowed to adopt her out of the mental institution!

Day 1

2009-10-02T00:46:00.002-05:00

Ok so it's after midnight but I'm still counting it as Oct 1st, lol. I met a lady today while I was out shopping. She was talking with our Iris who is 2 1/2. Iris is a tiny girl and this lady mentioned that she has a 4 yr old boy the same size. She went on to say he has Down syndrome. You should have seen the smile on my face. I was so excited to meet her and told her we were adopting a little girl with Ds in december. She said "oh, I just have to give you a hug". She then told me a friend of hers just adopted a little girl from Ukraine. I said "do you know if she happened to use Reece's Rainbow". Her eyes lit up and she confirmed that this family is a RR family. She told me the names and I totally knew who she was talking about. I just can't believe how small of a world we really live in. We exchanged info and chatted until I had to leave for my dentist appt. Unfortunatley, she is here for personal medical reasons and lives in MI. What's really cool is that she rarely tells people that her son has Ds but for some reason, she felt compelled to tell me today....a total stranger. I had also almost talked myself out of going to this particular store today but went anyway at the last minute. God totally wanted us to meet today and I can't wait to get to know her better. Please pray for my new friend tonight as she is going through some very scary times with her own health.

National Down Syndrome Awareness Month

2009-09-30T23:40:00.005-05:00

First of all, I need to make an official announcement as I have not done that yet on our blog. Many of you know but some do not. We are adopting one more child. Grace Nadja Maples turns 2 on Dec 1st and was born with a cleft palate and an extra 21st chromosome....aka...Down syndrome. She is in Eastern Europe and we hope to travel right after Thanksgiving to bring her home. My prayer is to celebrate her 2nd birthday WITH her. We are very excited and so are the kids. Please, if you are against us doing this, you're entitled to your opinion of our family, we ask that you please keep any negative comments to yourself. We've heard it all already, trust me. Thankfully we do have some wonderful friends that "get it" and are very supportive. We feel that this is 100% what God has asked us to do and while it won't be easy, it will be worth everything we will endure with not only 5 children but 2 of them having cleft palates and global delays. So now that we've said this "outloud" to everyone, I want to try to blog everyday this month. I make no guarantees but I've been so horrible about blogging that I'm going to give it my best effort. If you, my readers, have any questions for me, please ask and i can blog about those. Whether it be adoption in general, cleft palates, Down syndrome, what we're thinking, whatever, I'll blog about it. Some days I may just post a picture. October is National Down Syndrome Awareness month and we're learning all we can about raising a child with Ds. I also have a couple giveaways in mind that will be geared towards families that have a child with Ds or may be carrying a child with Ds. One item is a framed picture and a 2nd giveaway will be a literature package of several great resource books. Here is a little treat. A sweet picture just taken of our little Grace. Isn't she beautiful???

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-29T00:43:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-15T18:53:00.001-05:00

Summer Pics

2009-07-10T22:19:00.001-05:00

Ian turned "5" on July 2nd. He enjoyed his gifts and friends. We're all enjoying our pool and the kids like to make silly faces. Here are a few.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wordless Wednesday!

2009-07-08T12:21:00.002-05:00

"Not Me! Monday"

2009-07-06T19:51:00.006-05:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

We've been enjoying our pool a lot this summer. Since we still have 1 in diapers, she needs to wear a swim diaper "just in case". I am not so cheap that I let them dry in the sun and reuse them. Not Me!

After a busy morning of taking all 4 kids to a doctor's appt, to Toys R Us, to Sam's club and then out to lunch, I most certainly did not use the pool as a bribe to get all 4 kids to take a nap until daddy got home. Nope, wasn't me. Who would bribe their kids these days?

Ok, this one is as real as it gets around here. Because certain femine products clog our sewer system, I'm forced to wrap them and put them in the trash. Our dog is not disgusting and does not dig them out of the trash and chew them up and regurgitate them. Upon finding not 1 but 2 regurgitated packages on the CARPET, my oldest son did not say "ewwwwww....I think it's a coupon!" To which I did not laugh at before gagging as I did not clean up the mess. No more "coupons" in the bathroom trash, lol.

While swimming just this afternoon with the whole family, Jon's swim trunks did not bubble up in the front to which our oldest did not say in all seriousness "haha, that bubble looks just like a giant penis". Nope, not my son as we certainly do not call our privates by their correct anatomic name here.

I'm not sure I'll do this every monday but it is fun Keeping It Real!

p.s. while finishing up this post, my 2nd son did not put his little rump on me and totally rip ass toot. I have NO idea where he would have learned something that disgusting!

Clarification!

2009-06-29T18:38:00.002-05:00

I must clarify my last paragraph in my previous Not Me! Monday post. I've gotten a couple congratulations from it. I am not pregnant, nor are we trying to get that way. We are however interested in adopting again so we shall see what happens there. I'm just not sure I'm cut out to be pregnant and have a newborn. Thanks for the congrats anyways ladies!

Not Me! Monday

2009-06-29T11:03:00.004-05:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Since life with 4 small children is fun, hectic, crazy, wonderful and everything inbetween, I'm going to start having Not Me! Mondays so you all can laugh along with our shortcomings as parents. Mostly mine but I'll post a few of Jon's as well. This idea is not my own but I love reading others who do this so have a laugh at our expense and feel free to comment.

We wanted to skip the kids' bath the other night so as the sticky haired girls were swimming, we did not wash their hair in the pool. I also did not let our family dog swim in said pool a few minutes later. Nope, not me.

I did not hop in the shower friday night after the parade and shower each sweaty, filthy child one by one to save time. Who would do that?

Also at the conclusion of said parade when my oldest child said he had to "pee" really bad, I most certainly did not help him pee along side the car outside! And since he does this all the time and has perfect aim, he most certainly did not pee all over his foot. That would just be too disgusting.

After spending many hours this weekend going through toys and sorting them back into appropriate bins, I am not sitting here typing this post while listening to my crew destroy the toy room AGAIN! Why would I do that?

Lastly I did not hear my husband ask for the "coochy cream" while he was changing our youngest's dirty diaper. Diaper Doo, honey...Diaper Doo! I also did not laugh histerically at this and ask for clarification.

And lastly, since this is my first Not Me! Monday post and I missed posting after Father's Day, I would never dream about giving my husband the best Father's Day gift ever! The best gift you can give a dad who has many young children? A negative pregnancy test! Nope, I am not that thoughtful!!

So let me know what you think and if you'd like to see more of these. Enjoy your day and go read some more at the above link.

Rochesterfest Videos

2009-06-27T09:03:00.003-05:00

Rochesterfest MN Hot Air Balloon "Moonglow" 6-25-09

Thursday night in Rochester MN we watched as they filled 5 hot air balloons at dusk. They call it a Moonglow when the balloons light up from the inside as the propane heaters heat up the air inside the balloon to create lift.

Enjoying the Rochesterfest Grand Parade 6-26-09

Long Overdue Update

2009-06-19T00:00:00.005-05:00

Well happy summer everyone! This post is so overdue that I'm almost ashamed of myself....almost that is, lol. We have been very busy as you can imagine with 4 little ones to keep up with.
I'm will give a brief update on us all and share a few recent photos with the hopes of keeping a more regular blog from now on....wink wink.

Sam:This young man is now 5 1/2 yrs old and is getting ready to start kindergarden in the fall. He is currently signed up for afternoon class at the brand new school in Rochester. It's not even finished yet so we will see...Sam has become quite the artist and really draws great pictures. He and Ivy will sit at the table for hours coloring or creating cards and pictures by drawing, cutting, and pasting. With all the paper those 2 go through, we seriously need to think about recycling paper. My goodness!!! Sam is quite the little helper around here and loves to feel important. He loves Iris and it's so sweet to see him tend to her. Iris on the other hand doesn't always appreciate Sam's help and let's EVERYONE know it. Sam is working really hard at learning how to read this summer. It is so fun to watch your kid "get it" all of a sudden.

Ian:Wow, what a ride he has been on since coming home in dec. of 2006. He has now had 6 surgeries and the biggest and baddest was this past december. He came through with flying colors though and the surgery was deemed a SUCCESS! I guess the third time is a charm. He still has a hole in the front of his palate that won't be closed until he has a bone graft around age 10-12. I think his next surgery will be a lip revision in the first grade. His lip is too wide and doesn't function the way it should. I'm not totally convinced it's necessary as the surgeon keeps saying the kids will make fun of him. He looks perfect to me and if it's just for looks, he won't have it. The surgeon also wants to tip up his nose so it's more "western". What? He's Chinese!!! He does have a very flat nose though and he snores a lot. We shall wait and see with that one. Ian started some intense speech therapy in March and is finally making a noticeable improvement. He had to get an oral appliance made again to plug the hole in his palate but his therapist is very happy with how he is coming along. However, he will be starting therapy next week for fine motor control. He has a perfect hold on a pencil but can't control it like he should for his age. Ian will turn 5 on July 2nd!! He was also tested for sensory issues and I'll update more on that next week after the one-on-one with his therapist. She said there are major sensory issues going on with Ian and he is a sensory seeker, not avoider. He needs to touch everything and is having behavior issues socially. I have full faith in this therapy center and he'll be on track in no time. His overall prognosis is good though and both therapists are sure his delays are from being in an orphanage for the first 2 1/2 yrs of his life and not getting enough stimulation at those crucial first couple years. Ian is also registered to go to Kindergarden in he fall. The plan is for him to have 2 years there instead of making him have a 3rd year of pre-school. He needs to be challenged and be around typical kids as much as possible to be models for him. Siblings just aren't the same. Ian will still have an IEP(individualized Education Plan) in place to help him reach his fullest potential for success. Despite all his challenges, Ian is a Love and gives me a zillion hugs and kisses every day!

Ivy:She is one smart cookie!! She loves to learn and is also very creative. She has not yet attended preschool but already knows her letters and sounds and can write. She was tested today and qualified to be in a KinderChallenge class this fall. She will have school 5 days a week in the afternoons. The KinderChallenge is more academic than preschool. I call it Kindergarden for 4 year olds. By the way, she is now 4 1/2 and is ALL girl!! She's decided she loves dresses and has to wear one almost every day. Oh, and she's also in to fixing her own hair. She loves clippies and headbands. Poor girl can't keep a headband on straight for her life though. She also watches me apply my makeup and always asks me if she can wear makeup. I haven't given in on that one yet. Next thing she'll be wanting to shave her legs. Nope, I won't let her grow up that fast.

Iris:Oh Iris...this child...I'm not sure what to do with her yet. She has an opinion about EVERYTHING and makes sure the neighborhood hears it. She is a screamer and even talks loud. She is a tiny peanut but has a huge voice. She too is very intelligent that it blows my mind. At 2 yrs old, she is counting and singing her ABC's. Not 100% accurate yet but holy moly this girl picks up things quickly. Of course she has 3 models and insists on doing everything they do. She talks like crazy with full sentences. My mom calls her a "20 year old midget". She is so tiny but talks like a grown up. We definately have our hands full with this little one.

Our kids are flourishing and it is so fun to watch them learn and grow. They are having a great time this summer and swimming in our pool. It's just a blue round pool that everyone has but it really is fun for the whole family. The older kids are making friends and have playdates often. They are growing up too fast I tell ya. So, I little about Jon and I before the pictures.

Jon:Still at Mayo, same department, basically the same job with more responsibilities. Unfortunately there isn't more pay with that. I'm so proud of him though as he FINALLY finished his B.S. degree in computer information systems(or something like that, lol). He did very well and is just now waiting for his diploma to come. There will be major celebrating for sure. He's been working on this for 6 years and he only had to take 1/2 the classes as he had many credits transfer from his previous college days. Of course we did adopt 4 children in that time but he had 2 1/2 years BEFORE we got our first child to get it done. Like me, he is a procrastinator that works best under deadlines. He certainly cut it close though. Jon has also dropped quite a bit of weight as we are trying to live a healthier lifestyle. Jon also sadly lost his grandma Shirley just before Easter. She lost her battle with cancer and we all miss her dearly. The kids talk about Grammie often and that she is in heaven. I get all teary eyed to hear them talk so seriously. They were telling me just the other night how Grammie's soul is in heaven but her body is in the ground. Then I had a faint smile when they went on to let me know that she doesn't have to go potty or eat anymore. Only through a child's eye.....

Me:I have had an extremely busy, crazy 6 months. In January, I started my own business selling jewelry through Premier Designs. It is a company built and based on biblical principles and has ministries in 63 countries for women & orphans as well as providing financial and spiritual aide to start Christian churches all over the world. I'm off to a great start and excited to see how God will use this in my life. Please check them out at www.premierdesigns.com. I do home shows, catalog shows, individual order and fundraisers. If you know anyone that would like to earn a ton of FREE jewelry, send them to me and I can hook them up. It's so fun to see my hostesses get excited with all their new jewels. I am going to Texas in July for the national rally for Premier and the new line will be introduced. I'm very excited to see and buy new "samples". They are samples for my table but I get to wear them all too. I'll also be having a sample sale to make room for my new stuff so stay tuned if you are local. Now the next biggest event was that I had gastric bypass on March 3rd. This was a very scary time for me and I was fine until they wheeled me into the operating room. I lost it and cried until they knocked me out. The first 5-6 weeks were rough going but now I'm 3 1/2 months out and feel amazing! I've lost a lot of weight but most importantly, I'm healthy. I have never in my life felt as healthy as I do now. My diabetes is gone as is my acid reflux and high blood pressure. My triglycerides are back to normal and I'm off my arthritis anti-inflammatories. My sleep apnea is almost completely gone as well. All this in 3 months!! Wow!! I've been struggling to add exercise though but today I took the plunge and joined the healthy living center through the Mayo Clinic. I had orientation at 11am and went back for my first fitness class at 4:30. I have to admit I had a blast and can't wait to go back tomorrow. Hmmmm maybe I'll start craving exercise instead of junk food. That's the other bonus to my surgery. I actually crave healthy food and I'm totally repulsed by french fries. Never thought I'd see the day that I would not order fries and order a salad instead because I wanted to and not because I should. I will post occasional updates and maybe some before/after photos at my 6 month anniversary...stay tuned.

Well, that pretty much sums up our last 6 months. I have like a zillion photos to go through but will post a few tonight. Oh yeah, we also added to our family 2 1/2 months ago. I wanted a walking partner and was able to talk Jon into letting us get a dog. We have not had good luck with dogs in the past but feel we got a great one this time. We got a 2 year old schnoodle from a rescue. He was already housetrained and is great with the kids, not to mention ADORABLE!! A schnoodle is a cross between a schnauzer and poodle. He does not shed and did I mention how cute he is? A little naughty but also a great vacuum around the dining table. His picture will have to come later as I don't have any on my laptop.

I hope you all are having a great summer and please have fun and have safe travels wherever you go.
Hugs,
Sarah

Adoption Day

2008-12-11T22:59:00.002-06:00

Big day for our family today. We finally got to finalize Iris' adoption. Her name is now legally changed to Iris Ofelia Maples from Ofelia Maria Maples. Of ocurse we've been calling her Iris but now it's official. The court appearance was only 10-15 minutes. The lighting wasn't good and I'm disappointed in the photos but at least we got a few. They don't normally allow cameras in the court room but they make exceptions for adoption cases. Here are a few pics of our princess Iris.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

News on Ian

2008-12-11T22:42:00.002-06:00

Well, the last few days have been long without much progress. Thankfully his personality is returning and his energy. Problem is with eating and drinking still. Thin liquids gag him and make him vomit the pureed food he had swallowed. They turned his IV off today in hopes he'd be desperate to drink. Didn't happen and his IV is back on for the evening and night. As I type this though, he is slowly eating some pudding. He needs more liquids though and the thicker ones seem to go down better. If tomorrow goes better, we may get out saturday. I'll keep you posted. Here are a few pictures from the last couple days. The big black dog is Zach and I woke Ian up to meet him. As you can see from the pictures, Ian wasn't impressed. The dog is a newfoundland and was huge. Ian's IV infiltrated the other night and went 3-4 hours before the nurse noticed it as his legs are always under the covers. They are supposed to check it every hour though :( Ian had fun with the masks and gloves though as the nurse used a vein light to locate a new IV sight. She got it with only 1 try and Ian didn't even flinch. The other dog is Grace who is a whippet. She visited today and Ian loved her. She looked a lot like Fiona, the italian greyhound we had for awhile. The robot he is holding was something we made from FLOAM that my friend brought to Ian. He has a cheezy smile but he really had fun and likes it. He thought his emasis basin made a great hat. Thankfully the nurse had just washed it. The last photo was one I took today to show how skinny he has become. I can't wait to beef him back up a bit. He's scaring me but the doctors don't seem concerned. Ian's sleeping is greatly improved and doesn't have near as many coughing fits. He does snore more though which we'll have to watch as obstructive sleep apnea can be a side effect from this surgery. The video at the end was taken a couple nights ago. His first 5 nights were like this or worse. The fits actually got worse but I couldn't video that as I was busy helping him sit up and clear the mucous. Please pray we are out of here this weekend.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Matthew 25:35(from RR blog)

2008-12-10T22:54:00.000-06:00

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." (Matthew 25:35)

This verse, spoken by Jesus, reminds us that not only are we helping the person who is looking right at us, but by helping that person, we are serving God. Jesus says that when we are doing something for those around us that serves them in their need, we are serving Him as well. When was the last time you looked at a homeless person requesting food and saw them as Jesus, just waiting to be served? Or that person who needed an extra dollar in the grocery line ahead of you in order to buy food for their family? What about the person who has nowhere to go for the holidays and is sitting home alone just praying someone will stop in to say hello? And of course, the child waiting for a home to call their own... Do you see Jesus in them?

He says that when "I" was hungry you gave "me" something to eat, and yet the people replied saying they never saw him. But it was Him that they served as they gave to the people around them. There are so many names for this...

"being Jesus with skin on"
"living by Faith"
"compassion ministries"
"Luke 4 ministries"
"community outreach"

But reality is... living your life and giving just a small piece away to someone in need around you... this is what Jesus is about. Serving and showing love.

Do you have a heart for people? Can you spare that extra cheeseburger as you pull on to the interstate and see someone hungry by the side of the road? Can you share that extra $5 and buy a toy for the local drive for families struggling? Do you dream of another little one to call you "Mom" or "Dad"?

Another way you can reach out this holiday season is by sponsoring a child on Reece's Rainbow by going to www.ReecesRainbow.org/angeltree2008.htm. Help one more child come closer to having a family this Christmas. Think of all those "Jesus" faces looking out from their need. Which will you help fulfill? Will you feed Him? Give Him water? Invite Him in?

Geneology of Jesus(from RR)

2008-12-09T01:25:00.002-06:00

Did you know that the Bible lists out the genealogy of Jesus? Maybe you've noticed before and skipped those first 16 verses in the very beginning of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 1 verse 1? These lists are often cumbersome to read through and many of the names hold little significance to most of us, but it's not those names that bring this genealogy to mind. Of course they hold significance, but did you ever read verse 16 really closely?

Matthew 1:16 "and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ."

Joseph was Mary's husband. The ADOPTIVE father of Jesus. The earthly father that raised Jesus as his own flesh even tho he wasn't a biological relative. The one that taught Jesus his trade- in carpentry- and raised up the Savior of the world.

Now, take another look at that verse, Matthew 1:16. And think of all those verses of genealogical fatherhood (16 verses) going back 14 generations showing the significance of Jesus' family. Significant enough to be the entryway into the New Testiment put together by God's hand. All based on the heritage of Jesus' adoptive father.

There is no question that adoption is the heart of God!!

Ian Update Sunday Night

2008-12-07T20:20:00.002-06:00

So it's Sunday night and Ian is resting. Sorry I haven't updated much but I'll give you a rundown of what's been going on now. I'm including a bunch of photos and a couple videos. The video of Ian where he is playful was taken the morning after surgery. He was playful but that was the ONLY time so far. He has a ton of phlem in his throat that he can't swallow cuz it hurts and it hurts to cough it up as well. We thought he was making progress as he was taking popsicles but he has thrown up everything since then. He had pureed carrots and peaches last night which turned out to come up as a fountain. He's back to stricly clear liquids and so he hasn't eaten in 4 days. He has an appetite and wants to eat but we can't let him and that's really hard to see. Lately though I've been his scratcher. His head has been very itchy and since he has casts on his arms, he can't scratch anything. It's also challenging as he can't tell me what itches. Needless to say, we'll be here awhile yet. We're trying to keep him busy though and yesterday we got to tour the helicoptor pad up on the roof. It was his first outing and was miserable but was good to get him out. There is a picture of me holding Ian and the other guy is the pilot. Then today one of the dance companies in town did a short rendition of their full Polar Express performance. It was great. I literally had to drag Ian to it though. Once there, he seemed to enjoy it a bit and got to see Santa. He got a silver bell from one of the reindeer too. My favorite part was the "tap" Polar Express performance that I captured on video too. The last clip is pretty much how he is all the time with the exception of the playful video. He's very gurgly. They are talking about putting his IV in his hand tomorrow and taking it out of his his foot so he can start walking. I don't want this as it means a poke plus there isn't much of his hand showing below his casts and it will be extra painful. Please keep praying for the pain and for complete closure of his palate.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

End of Day 1

2008-12-04T21:32:00.010-06:00

Well, I"m going to try to get some rest. Ian wakes up crying about every hour so I haven't gotten any rest today. Overall, he's doing great although they're keeping him out of it for the first day or two. I had to give him 3 meds orally and he threw it all up with a bunch of blood. The pharmacist is making an IV mixture instead now. Here are a few pics from today.

Being silly before surgery.

Just out of surgery, poor baby.

Getting transferred to his bed where he'll be for about the next 10 days. Please pray for a quick and complete healing this time.

Meet Ian's ape friend JoJo. I put him to good use holding Ian's humidifier tube.

Ian update

2008-12-04T11:23:00.002-06:00

Well, I barely got Ian's first post typed and Dr. Clay came out to talk to me. Ian's surgery was just over an hour and it went well. Dr. Clay was able to do what he needed to and he's happy with the outcome. Of course he was the last time too....Ian has casts on his arms including his thumbs this time as he got them off the last time. They are to prevent him from putting anything into his mouth. I can't even comprehend the amount of pain this little man is going to be in when he wakes up. I can guarantee I'll be crying right along with him.

Ian 12/4/08

2008-12-04T11:00:00.004-06:00

Ian has been in surgery for 1 hour now. They are performing a pharyngeal flap. If successful, it will finally help him with his speech. It is basically the soft palate in his mouth. He will actually be in the hospital for 7-10 days though as he won't be able to eat for about 1 week. They are harvesting the tissue from the back of his through to create the "flap". Please please please pray it holds together. Most of you know his two hard palate repairs have failed and fallen apart. This is his best chance for speech and really his last chance as they are out of tissue to use for repairs. I'll be posting updates on here as well so check back if you'd like to follow his progress. Ian is a tough little dude but was so so sad when they took him back. I couldn't go back as their little monkey suits aren't large enough for me :( Immediate prayers are:
1. Dr. Clay is able to perform the surgery without problems
2. wake up from anesthesia ok
3. no vomitting happens(was a problem last 2 surgeries and the acid breaks down the stiches)
4. pain control
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

John 14:18

2008-12-04T11:00:00.001-06:00

God's Word- the Bible- has many references to orphans and to adoption. One verse that stands out to me as a short and yet compelling statement about adoption is John 14:18. "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." In this verse God isn't actually speaking directly to people that have no parents (orphans) but rather to his disciples and telling them that He won't leave them without a comforter and one to follow, but he instead will return to them and will send the Great Comforter (the Holy Spirit) in his place when he goes to the Father.

In the context of the last supper when Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to the disciples, Jesus still speaks to the heart of those that don't have parents and those that are waiting and wondering what it is that God might have for their lives- feeling like they're without a leader, without a father, without a hope.

Jesus promised the disciples that He wouldn't leave them as orphans. Nor will he leave the millions of children around the world without any hope.

In verse 15 Jesus says "If you love me, you will obey what I command." He repeats himself in verse 22. Has he prepared you to be a voice for the children? Is he leading you to become that parent for some of his orphaned children? Or maybe he's leading you to help the orphans in another way...

"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." Will you follow the call to adopt? Will you allow yourself to be Jesus' hands and feet in providing for the life of a child?

Adoption and the Bible

2008-12-04T10:57:00.001-06:00

Reece's Rainbow is going to be posting about what the Bible says about adoption throughout the month of December. I'm going to be copying the information to my blog. Here is the first snipit.

December's Emphasis on the Reece's Rainbow blog will be what the Word says about adoption. I hope you'll check back every OTHER day for a little nugget of Truth this holiday season as we highlight the Bible and God's heart for adoption.

"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you" John 14:18

Reece's Rainbow

2008-11-25T09:49:00.005-06:00

This is an amazing ministry!! It was started to find homes for children with Down syndrome. It has grown over the past couple years and there are many "other" angels also waiting for their forever families. See my sidebar for a slideshow of some of the many waiting children. Since we can't adopt right now, I can still advocate!! Now through Dec. 31st, you can click the button below and it will take you to a site where you can make donations to help a family be able to adopt one of these precious children. Who knows, maybe you'll be inspired to adopt one yourself. If we had enough money, we'd be bringing them all home :) Please open your hearts this Christmas season and consider making a donation in honor of someone instead of a gift. Any amount is appreciated but for $35 or more, you'll also get an ornament with the child's photo that you sponsored. God Bless!!

Grab This Button

Precious Sam

2008-09-05T23:02:00.002-05:00

Here is a short blurb about Sam talking to me today:

Sam: Mommy, I like God and Jesus.

Me: Yes Sam, so do I.

Sam: I so proud for them making the whole world!

Me: Awww, me too Sam!

Sam really comes up with some great insight to things. This past weekend he asked his Grandma Maples "Grandma, what kind of shows did you watch on TV when you were small like me?"

Sam is also really taking off with drawing and writing. Tonight on his magna doodle, he wrote the entire alphabet in cap letters and then all the words to the ABC song. I would right the letter and word first and then he would copy it WITHOUT any help. It was awesome and I am so proud of him. I just love how kids learn things!

Blog Makeover

2008-08-28T00:23:00.002-05:00

Ok everyone, we got new family photos taken so I felt I needed an awesome new blog look to show them off. I can't take credit for the makeover but I love it! I highly recommend Danielle and you can contact her through her link on the right side of this blog. At the bottom is her signature and will take you to her site. Well worth the price and she offers sales from time to time which I was able to take advantage of. I also have to brag a bit at how gorgeous my kids are. Their pictures turned out so great that I can't stop smiling when I look at them. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. We are heading to Missouri tomorrow to visit Jon's family. His brother and sister-in-law just had a baby girl and we can't wait to meet our new niece Harper Ann. Next week I'll be posting more pics from the summer and our trip to MO. Take care!

Aren't We Cute?

2008-08-25T11:53:00.005-05:00

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

PRAISE OUR GOD!!

2008-08-07T13:55:00.001-05:00

Here is the most recent update on Miss Emma. I am in total awe at what our Lord has done for this precious little girl and her family. This message is from their blog:

And not only are we going home FIVE days post-op, but we are going home with NO PH MEDS (Viagra was originally made as a medication to help with pulmonary hypertension and they found that it has other... helpful... side effects for men... but the PH is why Emma would have gotten it)!!! She'll still be on O2 at night but that is because "we already have it set up with home services and it won't hurt so we'll keep going," according to the intensivise. I am in awe of God's work in this little one. She sat in my lap all morning and watched Cinderella then Elmo.

They took out her drain tube, her pacer wires, and she gets her last dose of IV pain killers at 2pm today. Capitol with Codiene (Tylenol w/ Codiene) to go home with and Lasix and Enalapril, that's all! I can't believe she spent more time in the hospital for her T&A (8 days) than her OHS (5 days) and that's after all the stuff they had us prepared for with up to 6 months in the hospital, multiple surgeries, pacemaker, trach, etc. etc... and of course, the high possibility that she wouldn't ever come home. God is good... all the time!!!!

This is a PRE-OP picture, before her heart surgery and I can't wait to see that joy and smile back over the next few days!

Update on Emma!

2008-08-04T21:31:00.003-05:00

Please click on the Emma button on the left side of my blog. There are several updates on miss Emma there. I, yes Sarah, was up at 5:45am this morning to join in an online prayer group for Miss Emma. God has truely revealed himself today and has given Emma a fighting chance at a long happy, healthy life. GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

Emma

2008-08-03T21:12:00.003-05:00

I have many photos and videos to add but am joing other moms from Reece's Rainbow in a "blog silence" in honor of Emma. Some of us are waking at 5:45am to have an online prayer group before Emma's sugery. I copied the following from another mom who explains the seriousness of this surgery. I'll try to update once I hear word.

Please pray for Emma. She will be having heart surgery Monday morning. The surgery needed to be done when she was very small, but because she was in an orphanage for the first 5 years of her life, the surgery was not able to be performed. This surgery is her only chance at survival because right now her little heart is giving out quickly. Please pray for her family that they will be comforted and that God will hold them close during this time (click on her picture on the left of my blog and it will direct you to their blog). Please also pray for the doctors, that they will be able to perform this delicate operation without any complications. Please pray that Emma will be healed and live a happy and long life with her loving family.

Please help an orphan!

2008-07-23T22:27:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine is trying to raise money for a little girl with club foot AND Down syndrome. They've adopted 2 boys with Down syndrome in the past year and their Xander also had club feet. The girl's name is Raina and this is what Shelley has to say per her blog:
Anyone want a Blackberry Curve???????

I am giving away my Blackberry Curve. It is in excellent condition....I've had it less than 6 months and always carried it in it's case. It works with a T-Mobile SIM card(and I'm sure it can be unlocked for other carriers). When we changed cell phone providers, I decided to downgrade to something cheaper. I sold my husband's identical phone on ebay in less than 5 minutes for $170. I decided to give mine away instead. So, here's the deal:

On July 27th, I will pick my Xander up out of his bed, kiss his chubby little cheek.....and thank the Lord for putting him in my arms one year ago. To honor that moment one year ago, I am auctioning off my Blackberry Curve with every penny of the money raised to go into the grant fund for Raina, who is waiting in Bulgaria. Raina, like Xander, has Down Syndrome and clubbed feet. She is destined to live her life confined to a crib unless a family takes a leap of faith and adopts her into their family.

So, here's how this is going to work. There is a Chip In widget over on the side of my blog. A $5 donation made through that account will enter your name in the drawing. You can enter as many times as you want....each entry requires $5. The auction will end on July 27th and Xander will draw the winner himself. Every penny of the money in the chip-in account will go to Raina.....and someone will get my Blackberry Curve. You can keep it, resell it yourself....whatever you want to do with it. My intention is to get some money in this little girl's grant fund.

If you are reading this and you blog, PLEASE mention this on your blog. You can even put the widget on your blog too. You can get the code here. Some of you that read this get hundreds of readers a day on your blog. My prayer is to raise at least $500 for Raina's grant. That's going to take 100 entries. My husband thinks I'm crazy and I'm going to give my Blackberry away for like $20. Help me prove him wrong and raise some money for this little angel who's waiting on a mommy and daddy to call her own!!!!

Big Girl Iris!

2008-07-23T22:26:00.001-05:00

Iris took her first steps tonight!!! She's growing so fast and took two steps 2 different times. Yeah Iris!

Kids are so funny!

2008-07-23T22:22:00.002-05:00

We were on our way home tonight from getting groceries and we stopped at Taco Bell drive thru. On the way home, Sam and Ivy were in the back having a conversation that went something like this:
Sam: What would you like to drink? Coke, beer or water?
Ivy: I'd like lemonade!

Ivy rarely chooses from the options given to her. I also don't know where Sam picked up on the beer as neither of us really drink it and we rarely even have it in our house. Jon and I got the giggles.

Sam and Ivy took turns taking the order and when it was Ivy's turn, she put something(forgot what it was) up to her mouth so she actually sounded like she was talking through the drive thru speaker. I guess maybe we shouldn't go through drive thru's so much, lol.

Iris' Song

2008-07-15T16:44:00.002-05:00

Sam made up a song about Iris and it's so precious that I had to get it on video. Of course it's a little different each time but he loves Iris so much. Sam is really into singing lately and knows a lot of nursery rhymes now too. I'm so proud of him! I hope this makes you smile!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Dentist!

2008-07-15T15:14:00.002-05:00

Well, I took all 4 kids to the dentist today. The older 3 had cleanings and exams and Iris was just along for the ride. They all did great and we were all done within an hour. It would have been less except they were being pokey and the dentist was a bit behind. Funny how it costs more for them to get polished, flossed and fluorided than it does for Jon and I to have a complete cleaning and exam. YIKES! Thank goodness for dental reimbursement. I must admit that the Mayo Clinic does have some of the best medical benefits I've seen. With all these kids, we may never afford to be able to move. Oh yeah, no cavities either...YEAH! My kids actually beg us to brush their teeth. They get to play in the water that's why....grrr. Ian does have one cavity but it's in his front tooth and it's a tooth that had already been filled and the filling fell out almost immediately. So no new cavities and that on is scheduled to be re-filled towards the end of August. It's hot hot hot here today so we are inside for the remainder of the day. That's it for now!

Just Havin' Fun

2008-07-15T15:12:00.002-05:00

We were just all goofing off and I got a glimpse of the kids trying to "pretend" they like each other. I love Ivy's look when Ian wouldn't let her hug him. I also caught Iris being her silly self. She was giving me the serious look while videoing but even she couldn't keep a straight face. Check out that bod of hers. She's really filled out in the 4 months that we've had her. I'm thinking she may be blessed with the same genetics I am. Poor girl!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

ABC Kids

2008-07-06T20:15:00.002-05:00

Here are my kids practicing their ABC's. For some reason, Sam gets "t" and "y" reversed. Notice Ivy cannot hold still for a second. Also Ian pretty much knows his ABC's and if you listen close, you can make out one or two letters. I love how he says "Y". He'll get there with lots of speech therapy!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

143,000,000 orphans

2008-07-06T19:47:00.002-05:00

So many of our friends and family do not understand why we keep adopting children. First of all, we want a large family. Having just been to my family reunion, it was amazing to see everyone and one day, I want to be my grandma on her 90th birthday. Sitting there taking it all in and seeing what she has helped create. Not sure we will have 10 kids though, maybe 6! I plan to post orphan videos from time to time on my blog. We know we cannot save every child however with each child we do adopt, we are giving the world to that child. Unless you are in the adoption world, you probably aren't aware as to how big families can get through adoption. Over the past couple years, I've "met" through the internet, many families that have 10-20 kids. Now before our moms have a heart attack, this is not the road we plan to take however there will be one or two more. We are starting to do some fund raising for #5 and possibly our last child. We know we want one more for sure and with Jon's employee benefits, we need to do it before we leave Rochester. Once we leave, we know we probably won't be able to adopt again as we probably won't get the employee benefits again. In a perfect world, we'd like to wait awhile before adopting again but we want to move closer to family soon. Therefore, if we are to adopt again, we need to start in the next few months. We do not have a child or country picked out but will adopt a child with special needs again. I'm leaving you with my favorite quote and I'm sorry I don't know who said it. It may be from the Bible. "Once our eyes are open, we cannot pretend we don't see". Please watch the video, it's very powerful. I do not know anything about the organization sponsoring this video but I like it.

Our Sweet Babies

2008-06-02T23:48:00.002-05:00

The kids were in a great mood today so I took the opportunity to take some great photos of them and some not so great photos of me, lol. Not sure why they feel the need to smush my cheeks when they hug me for a picture and not Jon. How do you like that big tumor on my chin? Since working at Sam's club, my face has broken out. I'm just filthy when I get home at the end of my shift. Anyway, this is my favorite montage so far. As frustrated as I get sometimes with the kids, they are truely our angels and we are so blessed and honored that God has trusted us with their lives.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Iris' First Haircut

2008-06-02T23:27:00.002-05:00

I took the girls in for haircuts today. Iris desperately needed her first haircut and Ivy has been begging for a short style cut. Today was the day. Ivy went first and did amazing. She sat like a statue for the entire haircut and looks so cute in her short hair. Her Papa Jimmie Joe will really love it too as he has always liked short hair. The two pictures of Ivy are right after her haircut. Even though she looks upset, she's not. The sun was in her eyes so it was hard for her to smile. Iris on the other hand had a fit. She sat ok at first but by the end she had had enough. Then I made the stylist hold her for a photo and that was it. Iris was so mad and screamed so loud. Jodell is a friend of mine and Iris seems to fuss whenever she sees her. Iris still has "stranger danger" though and whines whenever anyone looks at her and talks to her. Pathetic little whine mostly.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

New Sandbox and Bonfire

2008-06-02T23:06:00.000-05:00

We decided to get the kids a new sandbox with a cover on it this summer. Last year, Ian got Giardia from our old sandbox as the neighborhood cats liked to use it for a litterbox. We ended up having to board up the sandbox part of our swingset so no one else would get this parasite that causes horrible diarrhea. They long their new crabby sandbox. We also had a bonfire at our house which the kids liked. We let Sam stay up until the fire died out which was like midnight. It was nice to have some alone time with Sam. We roasted some weenies too and just had a nice time. Sam really thought it was great too to have mom and dad to himself for a couple hours.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mommy's Birdies

2008-06-02T22:52:00.002-05:00

I brought home some ice cream from work the other day and you'd think we never feed our kids. I haven't laughed so hard in sooooo long. Even Iris sat there with her little mouth open waiting for a treat. It was funnier to be there. Then I actually got a few pictures of Iris smiling. She smiles all the time but as soon as I try to take her picture and she sees the red light, she quits smiling. I get so frustrated. I thought these were cute though.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Totally Busted!!

2008-06-02T22:43:00.003-05:00

Jon and I couldn't figure which one of the kids kept messing with the computer. We now have proof that it was all 3!!! They aren't very good at destroying the evidence yet. Short but kinda funny!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Emma's Hope

2008-05-28T22:56:00.002-05:00

Emma is the daughter of Meredith, one of my online friends. She has Down syndrome and has a very serious heart condition that at this time is inoperable. The family is seeking more opinions for Emma. Emma is 5 years old and was adopted from Ukraine a few months ago. She is adorable and has really come along way since coming home. The Cornish family have 4 children, 3 of whom have Down syndrome. Please say a prayer for little Emma that she be able to get her heart fixed and live a long happy healthy life. Click on her picture to the left to visit the Cornish family's blog!

Let's go fly a kite

2008-05-18T22:02:00.012-05:00

Jon took the kids out to fly kites today and they had a blast. They actually all did very well it looks like. I was at work or getting ready to go to work, can't remember which. We have a walker for Iris when we are outside. Since our driveway is slanted, we have a "leash" attached to the bottom so she can't make it out to the road. She walks on her tippy toes in this walker and has ruined 2 pairs of robeez already....grrrrr.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mother's Day 2008

2008-05-11T21:31:00.002-05:00

Mother's Day has for sure become my favorite holiday. I get treated like a queen and the kids "try" to be good. Jon and the kids made a great breakfast today and cleaned up all the mess. I got to sleep in and take a long nap. This year, we started a new tradition now that the kids are getting a bit older and are starting to understand what adoption means. We bought and angel statue in honor of their birthmoms. We planted a big geranium in front of the angel in honor of me, and each of the kids picked a flower to plant around the geranium in honor of each of their birthmoms. The sun was very bright today and it was very windy so we didn't get the best pictures but they are still cute. I am humbled today as I think of what the Lord has entrusted to me. He has given me 4 beautiful children to love and raise as if they were born to me. I feel very sad on Mother's Day and each of the kids' birthdays as I think and pray for their birthmoms. I can't even imagine how hard her decision was to give up a child in hopes of a better life for them. I truely wish they could see our kids and see how happy and loved they are. To Sam's birthmom Babitta, Iris' birthmom Manuela, and Ian and Ivy's birthmoms, whose names we do not know, I Love You from the bottom of my heart! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to everyone!
Love,
Sarah

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Reece's Rainbow

2008-05-02T22:58:00.001-05:00

"There are children all over the world in need of a family, love, and basic care. Many of these children have disabilities and are placed in mental institutions at the age of 4 or 5. In these places the children rarely live past the age of 10 and most die within the first year. Will you help to spread the word to raise funds and families for orphans with disabilities? Please visit Reece's Rainbow and see how your donation- however large or small- can help a child find a family. Look a little harder and you just might find the calling for one of them to be your own.

If finances aren't a way you can help, please look across their photos and say a prayer that each one will find their forever family soon. Reece's Rainbow is an International Down Syndrome Orphan Ministry which also advocates for orphans with other disabilites across the globe. Please "grab this button" and post it with a message to your own readers as well. It starts with ONE, but then grows exponentially. You never know, your own post may be one that finds a family for one of these precious children."

Please click the "button" to the left to visit Reece's Rainbow

2008-05-01T17:30:00.000-05:00

Sam is growing up!

2008-05-01T11:36:00.002-05:00

Sam wrote his name today without help. I'm so proud of him and he's tickled to death with himself. He said he is going to write his name at preschool for his teachers today. I love this kid!!

Look what I did!

2008-04-30T23:58:00.002-05:00

I promised the kids that if they took morning naps that we could have lunch at the park and play all afternoon. It was a great day and we had a blast. Ivy is definately our monkey and climbs on EVERYTHING! Iris loved the swing and giggled a lot. Sam was a daredevil and really liked the slide pole. Ian just loved it all including the baby swing. I'm glad I remembered my camera. Enjoy my first attempt at a montage. Maybe next one will have some special effects.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Family Photo

2008-04-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

Here we are Easter 08

Testing.....

2008-04-13T00:38:00.000-05:00

Well, since blogs are the "in" thing, I thought I'd get with the times and give it a try. I'm certainly not computer savvy so I'll be learning as I go. I may be asking some of you for help. We have 4 beautiful children that we've adopted from all over the world. I will introduce them one by one in order that we adopted them. I'll tell each of their stories so you can get to know us and our kids. I've never really written their stories so it will be fun to relive their adoptions. God has truly blessed us with our family. We will sit back now and enjoy raising our kids. I realize people already think we are crazy for adopting 4 kids but I don't think we are done. I seriously thought Iris was going to complete our family but God has already been working on us for one more. Right now, I'm listening but waiting for Him to show us what He wants us to do. In order to adopt again, the child will have to have a large grant towards his/her adoption as we just don't have the finances. If it is God's will, He will make it all happen. Well, it's really late and I feel like I'm starting to ramble. Check back for more later.