These Girls!!

I really have to post these girls…

This is Victoria she is 7 years old and will be 8 at the end of this year.  She has athrogryposis.  It is only affecting her legs and feet.  To learn more hit up Valerie’s blog http://perfectlyable.blogspot.com/2009/12/adopting-child-with-arthrogryposis.html

here is Mara

This is Mara.  How cute is she?!  She just turned 10 a few days ago and is more like a 4-5 year old.  She is facing going to a new orphanage for older children, but not for special needs.  She needs a family to protect her!!

Please, if God is speaking to you in any way for these girls or others…contact Reece’s Rainbow www.reecesrainbow.org

Good News!

We have a few things going on.  First, Dan hasn’t heard a new update from UPS so I imagine he’ll have to call today.  They were in Kentucky on Monday so they ought to be back in Indiana by now.  Then we need to get them checked by our team with RR and then off to the SOS for apostille.

After being out of the workforce since Alexander was born, I applied for a job yesterday.  At Subway 😉  part-time in the evenings and Saturdays.  No Wednesdays, No Sundays–I won’t give up my church activities.  Basically it’s to help us get more money for the adoption.  I”m going to call tomorrow to follow-up about it.  It’s right down the road, so that would be perfect!  And Dan woudn’t work so much OT and he would have more time with the kids.  I’m looking forward to it.  Though I know God will provide…HE always has!  He is always faithful!!

I emailed Toni about Stephka yesterday, and she informed me Stephka has a family committing to her!!!!  I really prayed and believed God wouldn’t have Toni return Stephka’s file to the MOJ.  I don’t know where they found Stephka or if Toni knew of a family, but we are so excited to get word of that.  Her beautiful file was hiding deep in someone else’s waiting children vault…and now her pic is out there and a family is after her!!!  It didn’t take long at all…less than a week I would say?  Can’t really remember. 

Dan and I have begun praying for another little girl on RR (uh-oh, we know that means!)  I’m learning as much as I can about her condition, and oddly enough he wasn’t an immediate NO to it either…the bug must be hitting him too.  We will continue praying and working towards Miss Maya. 

Candy bars came in yesterday, my MIL stopped over for my birthday and she left with a case to take to work.  Dan forgot his.  The pampered chef fundraiser is going pretty well.  I have one more person saying they want to buy more when they get paid…then after that, I imagine we’ll close the show.  I was supposed to get stuff in from Auntie Anne’s and haven’t yet…so maybe the mailman will be bringing it today.  I sent another app to Sheetz for coupons…they would be big, fast sellers!  I hope they approve us this time.  We should know by the beginning of next week, if not this week. 

A great way to start off  our day….finding out about Stephka.  I would LOVE to find out who it is.  God delivers. 

In the meantime, our SW let us know of a church some of “her people” have gotten money from for adoptions.  I’m mailing their letter today.  We are going to mail out support letters here shortly as well.  I need to devise my list and choose our grant agency to work with for that.  I’m thinking lifesong.  They match up to $5,000.  That would bring us soooo close!!

here are some fundraising sites:

http://www.wecarecoffee.com   (enter Reece’s Rainbow, then “Tammy Dziagwa” for student’s name) when you purchse so we get credit.  We also don’t get any notifications if someone purchased things…so please let us know so we can thank you!!

http://www.pamperedchef.biz/k8lyn “shop online” then “tammy” for hosts name.  We get emails from supporters for that one. 

Hoping to make some headway planning the run/walk this week…guess I’d better get on that.  Also…I need to remember to ask my bible study group to bring me recipes so I can get this cookbook FINISHED!  For sales 😉

Summit Sunday!

Oh yeah, it’s Summit Sunday once again.  HOLLA!!

Still waiting to hear from the church.  I was going to ask them about it today, but decided to wait a bit more. 

I need to jet over to the Summit’s website and see how many points I get for giving shout outs to the summit each week. 

Here is the link to the Summit:

http://www.christian-alliance-for-orphans.org/summit/

I’ll also be adding it to the links on the right side of the page.

I Caused Chaos? What?!

Oh yes, I did.  Yesterday.  We got our dossier packet Friday night.  And I’m so glad I didn’t know about it otherwise I would have stayed up all night reading it…which I’m going to start doing (again) here shortly. 

The only thing I had on my mind was get the CSP and POA’s signed, notarized and mailed to Ukraine….uh…was I forgetting a step?  Apostille anyone, anyone?  Yes, yes I forgot.  We went to the UPS Store and sent the docs to Ukraine guaranteed to be there by Wednesday afternoon.

We get an email from Meredith (who is on vacation) double checking to see if we got the docs apostilled…NO was my answer…my bloodpressue was RISING!!!  Dan, smart smart man that he is, called UPS’s international number–they are stopping our documents and sending them back to Indiana.  I will hear from them tomorrow.  AND the $111 that we paid to send the docs to Ukraine is a ONE TIME FEE so we will NOT have to repay when we are ready to re-send the docs!!!  Oh yeah..UPS just made a lifetime customer out of us. 

Dan will be picking up the docs this week, then we are going to send them to the SOS so we can receive aposille on these docs and then they will be off to Ukraine AGAIN!!  God saw my flaws in all our excitement and had a plan to fix it.  No money was wasted, and very little time was really wasted overall since it was the weekend anyway.  SCORE!!

How Do We Spell Her Name?

Working On A Silent Auction

It’s not as easy as you would think!

I have 2 people who have donated some great services for it, and I have one item I’m going to donate for a child.  (imagine that, I have kid stuff?)

Though if we don’t get much of a response from people to donate things…we may do drawings for the two services that did volunteer for us.  They are pretty good things to bid on, so we’ll how it all goes.  Every dollar we get is better than not getting any for sure!!

I’ve also found a coffee fundraiser I may call about here shortly.  Think we would get a good response with that one. 

Hopefully we get word about our homestudy here soon.  We ought to have it next week (hopefully!) then we can start applying for grants again.

I think I’ve found the perfect solution for a nanny for the kids!!  They won’t be shuffled from house to house either, which I’m a big fan of.  Time will tell how it works out.

I believe I’m going to re-apply with a child waits this weekend.  Also, send out the application for Sheetz fundraiser coupons.  Myah’s condition is different than Stephka’s was, so we have a chance to try again.  Guess we’ll see in a few weeks 😉

Andrea said I was supposed to get our dossier packet this week via email.  I’ve checked in 2 different days, she would send an email to Meredith, but I’ve gotten no packet.  All in God’s time, at least I can find more fundraisers in the interim. 

Speaking of which…I’m going to run downstairs and print some applications and make a phone call about the coffee.

Sveta Friday has come again!

That sweet little girl is here again!  Sveta is from Eastern Europe and is HIV positive.

I’m trying to learn more and more about HIV so I can help people who want to adopt this beautiful pixie!!

I will be perfectly honest, the idea of adopting an HIV positive child with HIV negative children in our home scares the daylights out of me.  And its stigma and stigma alone that is causing the scare.

This link below educates you on how hiv is and his not spread.  In 25 years absolutely NO casual transmissions of HIV have occured.

In fact, I’m going to copy and paste directly from the website…I’ll also be adding the link to the page on the blogs I’m following…the work they do with HIV children in orphanages is amazing. 

 HIV is now considered a chronic but manageable disease, even easier to manage than diabetes. With treatment, people who are HIV positive can live indefinitely without developing AIDS and can live long and full lives. Positive couples and individuals can now give birth to healthy HIV negative babies.

– People who are HIV+ deserve to be treated with the same love, respect, support and acceptance that all people do. HIV is now in every community. The chance that you know somebody with HIV is very likely, yet people are afraid to talk about it due to fear that they will be treated with ignorance.

I too, plan to gain as much knowledge as I can to help Sveta and children like her, to move into loving homes!

Please continue to pray with me for Sweet Sveta, the Lord WILL provide her with a home. 

http://lifeonplanetearth.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/world-aids-day/

Naming Mayah

I’d love to say it was easy…but it wasn’t.  Naming any of our kids wasn’t easy.  I changed them daily.  We’d find a middle name, and it would always stick…but the first name…constantly changing.  I don’t think Mayah’s name will change because it means something to us.

When Dan and I first started looking into adoption we found a little girl named Maya.  She was in first grade, lived in Eastern Europe (we immediately thought Russia or Ukraine) it was over Thanksgiving, so no one was really available to help us find her.  We later found out she was in Bulgaria and already had a family after her. 

We have been through quite a few little girls since then.  Just in the past week, we have been through Isabella, Olivia, Sarah, there was another in in here too, but I just can’t remember it…and then I sent Dan a text message with Mayah’s picture and said, “Mayah Kate Dziagwa.”  Her name brings us full circle, back to where we started, and we are very happy.  Now, if only I can really decide on a spelling.  Maya, Myah, Mayah…I don’t do well at simple choices…suggestions are nice!!!

I found a dress at the store I can’t wait to get for her!!  I’m hoping they are still there next weekend.  We won’t find anything else about her until we travel this summer on the first trip.  Andrea said we should be there about 2.5 weeks and then come home and I’ll be going back for about 10 days TO BRING HER HOME!!

We will be changing the bedrooms around in May most likely.  Gage is moving into his brothers’ room until we do the remodel.  We may start on it this year, but next year is more likely.  The older boys are getting bunk beds, they are very excited about that!

Hoping to hear from our SW today about getting our homestudy revised.  Next week, we’ll be doing a lot of paperwork for more grants.  Our time is limited. 

One more note.  It was great to be on the receiving end of prayer over the past few weeks.  Which I just found out about yesterday.  My sweet, sweet friend Jenn, has been praying for us to get our of the Bulgarian program and into Ukraine’s because she knew my heart, I had discussed with her how I felt God was leading us to Ukraine and continued to force Bulgaria.  I was so excited to hear she had been praying for us.  Thank you, Lord for answering Jenn’s prayers!!

Change Change Change…

Oh yes, the Dziagwa’s have been busy!!

We are still only adopting one little girl.  Mayah Kate Dziagwa.  She’s in Eastern Europe 😉  not Bulgaria though.

Her name itself contains so much meaning for us.

Yesterday we withdrew our commitment to Stephka and AAC.  Our Bulgarian coordinator was none too happy with us, which is understandable…but we KNOW what is right for our family.  We are confident Stephka will find a great home.  We are praying for her.

AAC is an amazing adoption agency, and we really are sorry we aren’t working with them.  But we know where the Lord is leading us.  I just don’t think I’m “done” with them yet…they are going to be starting some programs I have a great deal if interest in, so God may have allowed all these contacts to be made for His purposes. 

We got Mayah’s location today, we aren’t allowed to post it…but we’re very happy with the location. 

Dan is en route as I type to apply for his passport.  We are nearly done with our dossier already!!

We are waiting for RR to send us our dossier packet so we can get started.  Dan and I are for sure driving our dossier to Harrisburg for apostille when the time is right. 

We have some changes to make with the grants…I need to contact Show Hope and provide them with the new homestudy.

Speaking of homestudy…I called our social worker, Lisa yesterday.  It was so great to talk to someone who supported our decision and understood why we were switching programs.  I had a few tid bits of information to provide for her today which I already did…and she’ll have our new homestudy this week!

Our fundraising is going well with pampered chef!  I am thinking about having a party here at the house on April 10th.  Better make my guest list!!

I will share the meaning behind Mayah’s name later.  Time to get the boys to bed.  Mama may follow…still a bit under the weather.

License is In!

 

PennDot finally sent Dan’s new license!

He hasn’t been able to order his passport because his address was never changed.  He, having a CDL, was not able to change it online in a quick fashion as his wife.  We had to fill out a form, have it notarized, and pay for it!! 

Well it’s in now, so at least that part is over.  Mine only took just a few days over 3 weeks from the day I went to the Post Office.  At least they didn’t screw that up! 

Haven’t heard word of Tracy’s flight getting cancelled again…so she should have landed in Sofia around 5:30 this morning our time. 

My other “friend”, Yvonne, went to pick up her daughter today!!  I thought about them all night, and the excitement and whatever else her little girl may have been feeling leaving the orphanage forever.  They are now in the last legs of their journey to bring her home.  I think they’ll be home this coming weekend. 

I posted on FB about finding a nanny…so I’m going to check into that.  We don’t have any family members “equipped” to watch all 3 boys for 3 weeks straight.  My MIL will be using one week for them, and most likely be able to watch them when her work day is over.  The search begins.  It will be much cheaper and better for everyone if the boys stay home while Dan and I are in country. 

I realized this morning, I don’t recall praying for Sweet Sveta yesterday.  Gage is taking a morning nap, Alexander is under the weather, and David is watching Veggie Tales with his big brother.  I have plenty of time for the Lord RIGHT NOW!

Here is to praying this is a week full of good news!