Adoption Update

We have been in waiting mode for 6 weeks now. We have filed for USCIS approval been fingerprinted and waiting for the paper in the mail. UGH I hate waiting. (sigh) Once we have it we will send it to the agency and they will get it sealed and our dossier will be complete and able to be sent to China. We did not make the 6 month date from our pre-approval, so our agency asked for an extension, we are waiting to hear back on that. Anyhow back to our little guys story. Phoebe began an all out prayer attack on her parents, but I confess I was an easy target. Dan was much more stubborn but Phoebe never gave up. She prayed at every meal, every bedtime for God to change Dads' heart and let us adopt again. After awhile she just started talking about her little brother, when he get's home we will do this.....he will need such and such....he needs toys...bedding, picking things out she was sure he would need, like, have to have and then she started naming him, try saying no when your "son" has a name and is talked about as if he is part of the family. In October Dan agreed to think about it. SUCCESS!!!! I was looking on an agency website at the waiting child list and saw his face and knew he was my boy. The problem was he was in China and we have never qualified to adopt from there before. So I called the agency about a sibling set I had seen from another country and she was talking and I shared how it had to be a boy and she asked if we would consider China and I told her we didn't qualify and then she explained how the requirements had changed for waiting children and not to give up. So I requested his file and prayed that Dan would be open and willing. He is soooooo cute I can't wait to share his picture but not until his referral is official. When we inquired about him the agency told us that we only had a week before his file would be sent back, ugh no pressure. We knew he was ours so I started the pre-approval paperwork and submitted it on the last day they had his file. On November 20 we received email notification that we were approved. We were so happy and started thinking about his name and working on getting the process started. We have actually not shared much of anything about it , our oldest son was announcing their first baby was due and we didn't want to interfere with their news and baby joy. We are very excited and looking toward the day that we can go to bring him home....but as it is with international adoption...hurry up and wait. We are still deciding on the name, Dan has one which is Ezra, the girls want Boaz, and I want William, so for now we call him any of those names. It gets a little confusing and sometimes people ask "how many are you adopting?" just one; but not sure which name so on any given day it's different.

Back to the ordinary.....whatever that is

Wow sorry for the long delay. Life is always crazy but the last 6 weeks have been exceptionally crazy. We have cleared out the strawberry patch, 15,000 plants disposed of and then pots refilled and 16,000 plants planted. UGH I am exhausted. We had this crazy idea that hey we had the room and supplies so lets expand the patch by another 1,000 so we did. We have all been working and now it is planted, we have some stuff to tweak on the system but it is up and going;in about 6-8 weeks we will be open for business. Anna has been doing fine and that is wonderful for all of us. We truly love our girl she has come so far in 18 months some days I get anxious because I want more from her but usually I am just happy she is here with us and we get to be apart of who she is. I did the initial paperwork in November for a referral to a clinic in Rochester and we finally heard back, did a phone interview and scheduled an appointment for August (that's how busy this clinic is) The clinic came highly recommended so it should be worth the wait. It is for children with autism. I have tried to deny that this is part of what Anna is dealing with, I can explain away many things she does, but alas it is time to face reality. I truly think that it is only a part of the total picture with her, between severe institutionalization, being pre-mature at birth and some very poor choices by her birth mom that makes the whole story but we are taking each behavior and outburst and trying to create a better life for our girl. She is so loving at home, very affectionate, seeking hugs and kisses, touch, snuggles and the nice thing everyone here is willing to give it to her. With 10 children love does not divide it multiplies.

Spring Break 2015

We took a much needed break from western New York. As the winter dragged on up here we decided to escape with the girls for a few days. I am so glad we did. Just to be outside was wonderful. We went to Savannah Georgia it was great, to see the beauty of that area and the rich history. Just what we needed. This is the first time we have taken Anna away and we weren't sure how it would go but she did great. She is a real trooper this girl of ours. She wasn't too sure about it when we left but once we arrived she was good. On Friday we went to Tybee Island and she enjoyed the sand and the water. We all enjoyed the break, to breath fresh air into our bodies and our souls.

Other Really Big News

We have started the process of adopting a boy from China!!!! We are all very excited. Having always wanted to adopt from China but never fitting the requirements ( and not God's timing ) we are now able to bring home a son. I saw his picture on a waiting child website and knew he was ours. But that is just the middle of the story. WE ARE SUPER EXCITED....... God IS SO GOOD!!! After bringing home Anna and all the challenges that came with that, we felt like we were done. We could do no more, we were so overwhelmed. I wish that I could say we knew what we were doing with her a year ago, but that would be a lie. We had no experience with all the needs that Anna had, and nothing to do but call out in prayer some days minute by minute, and God heard and would give us ideas or thoughts that we knew weren't ours; only God, and we would try it and have results. Someone would come along and make a comment about her and have you tried this or that sometimes we could say yes and it helps or no but we would give it a try. Other people would just comment and not very nicely......but hey we just kept moving forward..... Anyhow back to our boy..... Last spring in the midst of building the strawberry farm, figuring out Anna and regular life with 10 kids and 6 grandkids, our Phoebe started the GREAT CAMPAIGN ....."Mom we need a boy" over and over and over...finally I would just say we can't we have our hands full. She knew how hard it was and yet she wanted a boy. So I told her to start paying for God to change our hearts. So Phoebe started praying for that very thing. And after about a month I started to feel like it was a possibility....and then I knew that we should pursue the dream of bringing home a boy. More later....

A Little Catching Up.......Announcing our new business .....Summer Breeze Strawberries

In 2014 I was pretty absent from this blog, I had some really time consuming things going on and today I will start sharing what they were. We started a new business that just really took every second of every day between the building it and then working at it everyday for 4 months. I am going to share the website link and we are also on facebook. We put in a 15,000 plant hydroponic strawberry farm. It was a lot of work and between that and Anna and the rest of the family well....this blog was very neglected. We had a fairly successful year.....considering we had no idea what we were doing......and ended in the middle of October, our plan had been to go till the end of October but we had a very hard frost Columbus Day weekend and that was the end of strawberries for the season. Not going to lie it was good to be done I needed a break. We have our plants ordered for the 2015 growing season and I am looking forward to the planting which won't be until May. We should be open for u-pick again after the first of July until end of October (weather permitting). You can check us out at summerbreezestrawberrries.com.

One Year Home

On October 16 we celebrated Anna's gotcha day. I can't believe how quick the year went. The first 4 months were not quick they were extremely long and hard. But after I changed my attitude thing s began to change all the way around. Now Anna is not talking any where near where I wanted her to be or thought she would be but progress has been made. She is much more vocal and is asserting lots of independence and self motivation and I am very happy about that. She continues to grow and develop and that is all we can hope for.