FInally some pictures...

It ended up being a super long day. We did not get Anya until the end of the day. I am up and the lights are out. She is asleep. To say the least, we are alarmed by the looks of her feet. Yes, that is her dermatitus. If anyone has any experience with how to care for this, please let me know. We are in a foreign country, so it is hard to get our hands on things easily. The doctor only gave us some iodine and some type of pill (an antibiotic) that we were scared to give her. Leaving the orphanage was rushed and the head doctor told us to come back Monday if we wanted to talk to her. She does not seem to be in any pain. Here are the pictures. The bad ones are first. It is hard to move the pictures around.

This is the dermatitus. Those are scabs.

Leaving the orphanage forever!!!!

Our facilitator and translator.

Daddy and Anya

I will post more tomorrow. The day has gotten aways from us and I better get some rest.

Thanks for checking on us and please put her dermatitus in your prayers. We will take her to the doctor as soon as we get home, but I don't want it to get worse before we get to the states.

SHE IS OURS!!!!!

SHE IS OURS!!!!

WE ARE TICKLED PINK

(or is this purple)

We have no pictures. We have had limited access to the internet.

Anya is in the hospital, so they have not let us see her yet.

She was admitted for dermatitus. Not a big deal, but because of

construction going on in the baby house they admitted her.

I will explain the details later. Right now we are waiting for

the minute we have been waiting for over a year. Our facilitator is

coming to get us to go get her at the hospital. Then.....we will have pictures!

I promise lots....

P.S. We also got our 10 days waived. Praise the Lord!!!!

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR PRAYERS!!!!

GUESS WHAT.......

We have a court date!!!!!!!!!

September 22nd

we leave the states on September 19

YES, we are more than excited

and I am overcome with emotions.

My Heart Weeps....

This post has been deleted to protect the individuals involved. Please keep praying.

Lemonade Stand for ALICE = SUCCESS!!!!

Look at all of our great customers!!!

Our lemonade stand at night....see how busy we are!!!

Two of our best customers, in the middle drinking their lemonade for a cause

The official lemonade workers, l to r

Mary Claire and Avery and their friends, Abigail Barker and Hannah Grace Leeper

YOU ALL DID AN AWESOME JOB!

About a week ago, my kids and several of their friends along with their families attended a fun filled activity packed week at a unique club located about 20 minutes from where we live. The week is attended by families and friends, and although not a camp, the week has a camp like feel where families stay in cabins that they own and either live in as a permanent residence or own them as a getaway home/cabin. Knowing that this week would be buzzing with families, my sister and I had discussed letting my kids and their friends do a lemonade stand. Our plan was to do it for one day....and I just knew we would raise about $100 dollars and maybe if we were lucky, a little over. We held the lemonade stand and the kids had a great time and business was BOOMING!!!! We were all so excited.....so, we continued the lemonade stand all week long. We did it during the day, during the night, and anytime we had some down time. We had a special recipe and many of the kids told us that it was the best lemonade that they had ever had!!!!!

The lemonade was by donation....you could give as much or as little as you wanted. The kids told everyone who we were giving our money to...a little orphan in Russia whose name is Alice. Adults and children alike gave more than we ever imagined. By the end of the week, the kids had raised.....

DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

$700.00

That was more that I ever imagined. The lemonade stand was a huge success and we can't wait to do it again next year. We are already making plans. The kids and adults alike had a great time.

Enjoy the pictures of the lemonade stand and please help Alice find her forever family. She now has an almost 7,000.00 grant.

My dad came to get some of the best lemonade around.

Even the police officers came

Working hard

Please help us find Alice's forever family!!!!

Stephanie

Pictures and Adoption Update

Over the past month, we have been waiting to hear something on the status of our paperwork, however, we have heard nothing. WAITING is hard. WAITING is really hard. NOT KNOWING is hard. We have seen her and we have held her and WE LOVE HER. We want her with us and with the waiting always on our minds, it is sometimes hard to enjoy the fun summer events without wishing and praying that Anastasia was with us.

What we do know is that our paperwork is in country being translated, processed and then on to the judges desk....however, we have no idea at what point it is or how long it will take. We should expect to have a request for more paperwork, and at that point, we would atleast know that our case had made it to the judge, but we have not had that request yet. Our prayer is that God would move on our behalf and on behalf of all of the families going through the adoption process. I have to admit, it is not easy, BUT I also know that I am not here on this earth for myself, there is something more; there are children waiting and suffering. They need families. They need you.

On this freedom weekend, I encourage you to do something to enable one of the Reece's Rainbow children to get one step closer to their freedom. Donate to a grant fund of one of these children. Help them find their mommy and daddy. Visit www.reecesrainbow.org

Adoption isn't for you????? It wasn't for me either.

and now a few pictures of the reason why we are adopting. We know that without her, our eyes would have remained closed to the realities of children with disabilities in Eastern Europe. We are so thankful that He has blessed us with her life.

If you visit here often, you will know that I can only get pictures of Ellis Anne on the go!

A face that she likes to make quite often.

Another one with her eyes closed...still trying to get a good picture

With her big sister and big brother, Mary Claire and Avery

They LOVE her so much....

God is good!

Have a great 4th of July!!!

Stephanie