december is almost gone

well mike has been in the hospital a month now. the doctors are hoping to do a heart operation this week . we continue to pray for him. also we are awiting our courtdate still. our boys are doing ok.

merry christmas to us

we received these new pictures of our little boys from Carla and Gerald who just brought their little girl home. they are a great gift to us .

memories

well today i have been doing alot of thinking of my father, he passed away 9 years ago tomorrow. i can only imagine how he would of reacted to our adopting the boys. im sure he would of love them as much as we all do already. my brother in law finally was moved out of ICU but now we wait for him to get strong enough for open heart surgery to remove a fungus that has built up around his heart from the infection.

almost christmas

well today is the sunday before christmas .which means 2008 is almost gone and hopefully we will have an exciting 2009 with our young sons home. we continue to pray for Mike (brother in law) he is still in ICU and last night things didnt look to good for him , but the power of pray seems to have helped some and they got him stable again. Thank GOD for his awesome healing power. everyone keeps asking me if we heard any news on the boys yet. it is heartbreaking to have to say no to them . we havent heard if the package has arrived in estonia yet but we pray they receive it before christmas.

christmas gifts are sent

well we are away on vacation this week and have managed to send out the christmas gifts to the children in our boys family group. we sent the boys a new set of clothes so hopefully it will give us an idea on their sizes. we are in gatlinburg all week , trying to enjoy the peace and quietness, but everywhere you look there is something we wish the boys were here to do. but hopefully this is our last vacation without our precious little boys. we continue to pray for my brother in law he is still not doing well. although he did have my brother to come visit him and he has announced he accepted Jesus as his savior . this is great news to our family now we pray mike gets a recovery or God make him comfortable .

Christmas gifts and no boys home

well today we went shopping and got christmas gifts for all the children in our little boys family group. we are mailing them out on monday from tennessee. we are going on our last children- free vacation (oops little children shall i say ). we were so hoping to have our boys home for this trip but no luck. we also have wrapped the boys gifts and placed them in the back of the tree , the gifts will be waiting on the boys until they come home.

a special angel

i found out today that there is a special little angel watching over my boys now. they say he is great with markus (takes care of him) and loves to play with aleksander and markus. this was good news for me. i know that they are not alone and they have someone to play with and watch over them . Shea is lucky this little angel is her very own little boy.

i hope people dont mess up our adoption hopes

why does people have to try and ruin something that seems to be good. i dont know everything there is to know about adoptions but i do know that every question i ask gets answered. and i never let AHI choose my homestudy agency so im sure that i was told everything that they could tell me about preparing to bring home a child. i dont know any one elses experience with barbara or diana but i know how it has gone for me. i just pray that all the unhappy people ,especially the ones who didnt even adopt the kids , would just move on with their lives and be happy as they can be. it is down hearting to think that we are so close and someone could possibly mess it up over stupidity. on an update , my brother in law is still in ICU and could be for quite sometime. but his liver and kidneys are working a bit.

its hard not to be happy

well last night we spent the night at the hospital our brother in law was rushed to the er and placed into ICU , he had pnuemonia and it turned aseptic. liver and kidneys shutting down and things dont look good for him. we pray for him . i thought there is never a moments rest for our family. then today Melonie tells me that my little angel Markus is walking. when we last saw him in july he wasnt walking and they wasnt sure if he would. when i read he was walking it made my heart rush with excitement. i hope that some day the boys will understand just how much we love them before we even brought them home.

baby austyn

here is our families ray of sunshine this holiday season. this is his first christmas. we were hoping he would share it with Markus and Aleksander. but we have decided that our boys gifts will just stay under the tree til they come. then Austyn can share in their christmas as well.

well it is confirmed no court in 2008

this is Austyn Riley , he was born the day our adoption journey began
he is my cousin's baby boy. we borrow him to take up time for now. lol

well i heard from barbara today. she just wanted to make sure we understood about our boys. we are going into everything eyes wide open. those two little boys complete our family. when we knew having children could be dangerous and we found markus it was a great blessing, but then we met aleksander and it felt like he needed to be with us to complete us as a family. now we wait til 2009 to get here so we get a date to go make them legally ours forever. i want to thank Melonie for going and getting us the pics. also thank all of the people whom we have met online that have been a support system in during this process .

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US

Our Chistmas elf and Dallas Aleksander

here is our precious James Markus

Our Big 3 year old Dallas Aleksander

well this morning we got the second best gift we could get .(first would of been getting a courtdate to bring our young ones home) someone had compassion enough for us to go visit our baby boys and send us photos. (thanks from the bottom of hearts)

IM VERY THANKFUL

today as we meet for thanksgiving dinner , i think of my two little boys so far away and not knowing they have a family waiting to bring them home. after reading all the CRAP on the yahoo group . my husband is concerned for our young boys if people start causing trouble for the children being adopted. we have decided that no matter what others think about FAS we are lucky that God brought my young cousin into our lives so we are prepared for the boys. hmmm some would say it is his plan for us. and i believe it. i do want to vent one thing here because i can... the people on the estonia group has put a bitter taste in our mouths for people , not for the children just the adults who got what they wanted a child to love and then they complain about it. i know first hand that venting to someone is a great help when dealing with FAS , my mother has helped me through it all. she has been through it all with us. when i knew that we couldnt have biological children ,i read everything i could about adoption and when our SW did our homestudy she was blown away with how well Arly behaves and does in school. she questioned Arly about us bring children into the home and she was ready for it. You get out of the child what you put into them most of the time but when dealing with FAS you never know what you get. and my undeerstanding from AHI they told us everything and if i ask anything from them they try to find out what they can. but no matter what they tell us about our boys it can never change my mind about loving them because i love them with all my heart. and im sure people are thinking well you havent got them home yet. but i didnt at first want my cousin she was kinda left on us but i never regret it. and we have chosen our boys.

happy birthday Aleksander

well my little boy turns 3 today , thousands of miles away from his family. although he isnt legally ours yet , we think of him as our son and cant wait to bring him home where he belongs.

need to vent i guess

well i been reading on the yahoo group about FAS children and adoption. both my precious little boys have been said to have FAS . i know that it is alot of work ,that it can push you to the edge at times but it can also be a rewarding experience. i know everyone has to decide for them selves about adoption and noone can decide for you. i know FAS is something people could save their children from but in most cases they dont care. but just because the mother doesnt care enough to chose healthy life style while pregnant , does this mean that the child doesnt deserve a family or someone to truly love the child. my little ones arent home yet but i am preparing myself for the worst. we have been raising my cousin since she was 10. when we first got her we had no idea that she had FAS. plus her mother refuses to believe that her party lifestlye effected her daughter. Arly didnt know how to bath or brush her hair or any of your basic life things.she wet to bed everynight for years but after being strict on her intake we have controlled her bedwetting. it takes alot of work but it is worth it to see her be happy she accomplishes something normal children do. she believes everyone at face value and lies more then 100 teenagers. school kids use her if they can to pass notes or be a slave but we handled that and now she watches herself to not let them use her. we work on everything it wasnt easy we been working on this for 7 years and she has gotten alot better. she still struggles with school but we encourage her and as long as she does her best then we let it be. i dont know what doctors gave advice to the person on the group but i have never read anything about violence and sexual acting out. i will begin to read more and find out if it is something new. after reading all the emails about FAS it makes me aggrevated to think that people regret taking in children. all i can do is pray for those who have regrets. and i pray everyday that my little boys get the chance at life that my cousin has gotten with us.

well i tried to email and ask if there is any news yet but i know it wont do any good. i just wonder how many others are in front of us waiting to go bring their children home. i just wish i had a glimpse of how exactly this waiting thing works. does the time start when the dossier is sent in or when the court applications are turned in. hopefully it is from when our dossier was submitted . that was back in may . i really cant wait to bring home the boys. we have decided to do their room in Zootles. baby jungle animals it was meant to be we got everything on sale. we also heard rfom the workers again they say markus is improving alot with making sounds and playing with more toys. Aleksander is starting to talk more.

well it has been 9 months since the adoption process began and at the rate it is going who knows it could be 9 more. sometimes i wonder if when they have trouble with other cases do they forget about the other files they have and concentrate solely on the one. it would be nice if someone knew something about what was going on with our case but no one does. sometimes i want to just email the ministry of social affairs and ask wwhat is going on. but i know it wouldnt help. i really just wish we had the boys home. i dont even need 2 weeks in advance i could leave today if we had to. thats how ready i am to bring our precious little guys home.

another day and no courtdate

well we keep waiting and it seems we will be waiting forever :( i guess im starting to get a little down because Aleksander has a birthday coming up soon and we wont have him home for it. i know i really shouldnt be down but i truly wanted to have them home before the holidays. hopefully the courts get busy and give us a date so we can bring them home by christmas.

november is passing

november has come and is going fast. and still we wait to bring home our precious little boys. im not even sure now when we will get them home. we sent our dossier out in may and now we still have no idea when the court will give us a date. we hope to bring them home before 2009 gets here, but if not we will go as soon as they allow us too.

hmm is there a method to God's plans

well i received the oddest email today . a family my nephew goes to school with emailed about estonian missionaries whom they heard speak at their church lastnight. the Cartmills are wonderful people they told the missionaries of our journey to adopt our little boys.the family has offered any help they can give us even as far as to offer their home open to us whilst we are in estonia. God truly does make a way for everything. now if we could just go bring home our precious little boys.

well atleast God heard my prayers again

well i found out today that my prayers were answered just not how i wanted them but thats ok. another family is going to be in estonia on my little ones birthday. atleast one more child will be going to their forever family. which means that it is getting closer for my precious little boys to be home. we continue to pray that we get them home soon but if not atleast in God's time.

october is gone

well october is gone and yet we wait still. hopefully we get a date in november, but if not we will continue to wait for these little guys are ours (the courts just got to realize we want them home now) my husband is still convinced we should go see the boys if we dont get them home by christmas. i think we should wait. although they are not here it seems everyone in the family talks about them as if they are already here. funny how two little boys can be part of something and not even know it. there is a whole host of family just waiting to show them what a family is and what it means to really belong somewhere and be loved. we are working on the boys room at the moment. trying to decide what to decorate it in and what color to use. currently the room is dark green and has a pirate creature on the wall( Arly is moving rooms so the boys get hers.) who knows how it will end up but once i get a court date i will jump into over drive and complete it before we go.

here is my latest picture of Markus ,

this is my most recent picture of Aleksander

getting a little impatient

well seems that waiting is not helping me learn patience . i wish we would get a courtdate sometime. my husband spoke to barbara today , she was going to have diane to check on what is going on with our courtdate. we really want to go bring home our little boys. my husband really wants to go over and spend sometime with his boys. i tried to tell him we need to wait but he really misses Markus and wants to get to spend some time with Aleksander. i finally got time to get around to our thank you cards after our toddler shower.

Application is apostilled

well my brother and i went to frankfort today. it gave us a chance to talk and him a chance to get out of the house. he had a quad -by- pass 8 weeks ago and seems to be doing pretty good. i scanned the applications and emailed them to barbara at ahi. then got them ready to post first thing in the morning. hopefully it wont take to long for them to make it to estonia. well we are back to waiting now for our actual courtdate.

Back from my fall trip

well it was a good trip we saw the mckameys perform about 6 times. it is truly amazing how the songs they sung touched my heart. i know i needed to hear some of the words from the song to remind me that "What would i do without Jesus?" i took my 8 month old cousin with me and he was a blast to watch. i can only imagine what our trips will be like once we have two more little boys to take along. at one point Arly ( the girl we are raising) said oh my how will we survive with 2 of them next time., my mom laughed and said why only two once the boys get here doesnt mean that austyn doesnt get to come anymore so there will be 3 little boys. seeing his little eyes lite up was great , when he heard the train whistle he laughed , made me wish i had the boys home already to share this adventure with austyn.well i continue to wait and pray we hear something soon. even if it is just another family gets a date that means there is progress somewhere. and that one more child has found his/her way home. well is God not great? right after i posted my blog update an email came in with our court application attached to it. swo im making a journey to the capital city tomorrow to get our last apostille completed. i filled out the boys official new names to go on their birth certificates . James Markus Hill and Dallas Aleksander Hill . I big thank you to God for answering this prayer.

time to get a break

well i been off work all this week due to the school being on fall break. would of been a great time to get our court papers we need to get filled out and apostilled . but it didnt happen. so im going to go on a small vacation just over the weekend to dollywood. it is the southern gospel festival and im going to take my mom to hear her favorite group. we really were hoping our next trip down we would of had the boys. but it didnt happen.we continue to wait on bringing home our little sons. and hope that we get them home before alex turns 3 in november.

GRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

ok is estonian courts doing anything? i mean we want to give these little children homes they need and deserve but nothing seems to be getting done for it to happen.i guess my patience is running thin , i really wish we could hear a little good news from over there. my husband is ready to go visit the boys even if we cant bring them home yet.

little bit of change

well we wont get to do a yard sale this weekend. my best friend did a popcorn sale for us at her work and i need to deliver popcorn on saturday. but we are planning the yard sale the following weekend. there is still no word about when we might go to court or even get our court papers to send back with name changes and info. but we continue to pray and ask God to lead and guide us through this process. everyone ask everyday is there any word yet on bringing the boys home. we continue to wait it out and be positive it will happen soon .

big yard sale coming up for us

well we are ready to go whenever they send us court papers and a date. but since we havent left yet we are planning a huge yard sale. family and friends have pitched in and donated stuff for us to sale. we had a big popcorn sale and just might have to take up another order on it. we are going to start putting the boys room together in the next week or so. we have decided to put them in a room together at first to help with the adjustment of moving here. we continue to pray for our young boys and that we get to bring them home soon.

two months

well it has been 2 months since we left young markus in the orphanage with alex. now steve is really impatient and i have tried to be a ready. my mother and i have packed the boys suitcase. also we put together two little backpacks filled with goodies for our time in the offices and on the trip home. our church is in revival this week so that takes up some of the time .we also found that the boys are both a little sick due to the weather changing over there so quickly. we continue to pray regularly that God make the way for us to bring home our to precious little sons.

the shower went well

well there was about 65 people at our shower and most were surprised to see Alex's picture with Markus'. we got car seats , booster chairs , a double stroller, and loads of clothing. the funny thing is we got about 25 sleepers and sippy cups. we are very thankful for everything. God is truly blessing our family by giving us the two most beautiful boys and a great loving support group of family and friends.

Our Toddler shower

well today is our toddler shower , we are about to head out but i wanted to post that we heard from the caregiver again. she says young alex is starting to talk and is doing really good. markus is learning more and starting to play with the toys we took him. we cant wait to get them home .

pictures for holly

no court papers yet

well still no court papers or date so we continue to wait .

well we go from three to five

we found out now we get to adopt both boys. payment on the agecny fees sent in today so Alex will be marked placed soon. now we wait to bring them home

September is here and no court date :(

well september is here and draggin along. it is looking more like we might come home with two little boys instead of one. we have decided if we do adopt another little boy he will have my fathers name as his middle name . everyeon is wanting to know for sure if we are getting two because our toddler shower is next saturday and they want to know if they can buy for two little boys . my sisters is excited about it . she thinks since they are only 8 months apart they need to dress alike.

we got news about Markus

we recieved an email telling us that our little boy has started therapy and he is doing very good at it. he has become more emotional and laughs alot more now . plus he is starting to stand on his own and take a few steps . this was very good news to us but steve is a little sad because he wanted to help markus learn to walk . also i found out that we might be able to get another little boy we had wanted but others were interested in him. so we shall pray about this situation and see how we are lead to handle it.i have been busy the last couple days getting markus' clothes ready for the trip to bring him home. i want to be ready when we get our courtdate. also my sister and some friends are throwing us a toddler shower in a week or so . so the reality of having our soon to be son home is more real then ever.

Life's changing

Well today is our 7th anniversary and we went out for a meal .Last week was hectic. my brother Dallas had a quad by-pass on friday .it was touch and go for a while but he pulled through by the grace of God. i took my niece and nephew to college . So now after all that it is back to just wondering and worrying about Markus and the court date.

Well the summer break is over

well it is time to go back to work , the first day of school is tomorrow and so im back to the kitchen cooking lunch for the students. i hope this passes the time faster for me . the wait to bring young markus home is dragging slowly .

Still waiting

well we heard that markus and his whole family workers and the children are going on a small holiday this week. they are going out of the city to the forest and staying in a farmhouse. sounds like fun. we still miss him like crazy. and can't wait to bring him home for good.

another day of waiting

well we visit the chiropractor today and took pictures and video of young Markus. he seems to think part of the reason Markus doesn't chew is because his jaws might be out and if that is the case we should have him chewing in no time once we get him home. He also said that he will set us up an appointment on a day he is usually out of the office so we will be the only people there and not scare Markus to bad. so now we continue to wait. i guess having a chiropractor in the family is a good thing :)
oh i forgot to mention that steve was waking me up this morning because he couldnt sleep. he was thinking about markus and was missing him. and wanted to know how i could sleep with markus over in estonia .

OUR FIRST VISIT WITH MARKUS

we arrived in talllin late ,and jelena from the romoeo aparts ,took us to city centre where our apartment was. she told us be out front @ 9 .for a big black bus. a bit puzzled we decided that we better just do it. there was no alarm clock so we slept in shifts as to make sure we were up in time.we met igor at 9 and he took us to the orphanage. it was only about 5 or so minutes from our apartment.we met the director and she lead us to markus where he was just sitting on the couch. we had asked igor if he could ask that we bring markus back over night to the apartment. the director agreed . and we changed markus and was ready to go. we took several sizes of clothes. the smallest 24months were even extremely big.we had a great visit and he was a doll. he slept all night then we were up and took him back at 11. we got to spend about an hour with him then a meeting with someone over the international adoptions there in estonia. she was very nice and spoke very good english. our next trip to get our son should be no later then early october.

preview trip soon

we leave london tomorrow evening and land in estonia night at 00:25. a worker from romeo shall be picking us up at the airport. we have bought coloring books and crayons, toys and chocolates for the orphanage, as well as some gum for the older children. we are taking some stuff for Markus ,if they allow us to take him over night. we will be visiting him monday and tuesday unitl we fly back to london . hopefully soon i shall have loads of pictures of him to post.

in england

well we are in england after a big mix up on tickets and virgin air being totally stupid , but us airways sorted us out tickets. we just had to spend a bit more then we thought . we leave here on sunday to head to estonia to finally see markus , i hope all goes well then.

a little ray of sunshine.

well after getting our flights to london setup today we got the best phone call we could get today from Barbara, we get to go see Markus on july 21-22. Steve is really excited about this . i think the trip shows him there is still hope for our future even though his mother will never see markus now. ok now we are ready to go visit who will be our son sometime in the future. we will be out of the country for almost 2 weeks . long time to be away from home .

sad news at our house today

well today started out as a good day but my sister inlaw called from england . my mother in law was killed today in a car crash. so now we are flying out to london on tuesday. so our plans for estonia will be on hold for a few weeks. unless by the grace of God we could see him whilst we are in england the flight would be alot cheaper then from the states. please pray for my husband ,steve, he is really taking this hard.

A LONG DAY FOR ME

well today i woke up early got the cover letter typed out for the I-797C. went and got it notorized , headed to the courthouse for the authenication of notary, then drove approx. 175 miles to the state capital. rushed back home got copies of the papers and sent them off to Barbara at AHI. twas a very good day we finally get to start planning the preview trip.

the waiting is over

Today as i opened the mailbox i said a small prayer. Finally the letter we been waiting on has arrived . we got the approval letter from the USCIS. now we wait to plan our preview trip . please continue to pray for us and Markus as we continue our journey towards bringing him home.

Finally a reply from uscis email

well i got up this morning to a email that told me that Jennifer Hendrix - Adjudications Officer out of louisville , will be making her decision this week if she wants to approve our I-600a. at first it kinda makes me wonder why should she get to determine if i can bring this precious little boy to our country and give him a loving home he deserves. but then i had a qucik prayer with God and ask that His will be done in Markus' life. if it means to be with us then we are really ready . i dont want to think what it will be like if he cant. so i ask for prayers and good thoughts this week for Jennifer Hendrix , that she might make a wise choice .

got the Dr to correct the mishap

well it didnt take the dr long to write me a letter to the USCIS , about her mishap of the medical form of my neice. so hopefully we will get our approval next week sometime. keep us in your prayers and please keep Markus in your prayers this will all be a big change for such a little boy. but it will be worth all the heart ache, stress and waiting.

grrr more delays

well i got a call this morning from the homestudy agency telling me USCIS has found a problem with my neice's medical form , it appears the Doctor checked yes to usage of drug and alcohol. which apparently was a huge mistake . we have to get the doctor to write a letter stating why she checked yes to the questions. this is upsetting to me but at least the USCIS is looking at my file.

USCIS process timeframe is up to our date

we are praying that we get our approval letter soon from the uscis. they are finally up to march 17. the date we visited and turned in our I-600A . this is the last thing we need before we get to make our preview trip and set up our court date in Estonia to bring home the beautiful little Markus .

A LITTLE GOOD NEWS

today i spoke with our agency and found out that the fees have been lowered a bit. that is great , we are really anxious to finally know that we get to go see and meet with him and get a court date.

Waiting? is this God's way of teaching me

Well i keep up to date on the USCIS page and how far along they are in louisville with the I-600A forms . they are up to Feb.16 -as of May15, so hopefully by the end of next month they will get to our application we filed on March 17th. once we get our approval letter we get to plan a trip of a life time. We get to go see the child God has made available for us. I didn't think it would be so stressful waiting on the USCIS to approve us but it has been an eye opening for me on just how patient i truly can be. :) We continue to ask for prayers, it is the most important part of our journey so far. Just knowing that God has made this little boy available for us to call our own is the greatest gift . It has been a challenge gathering the funds to afford the adoption but God does provide. We have saved with the help of our friends and family enough money to pay everything as it has needed to be paid so far. We should be able to travel by the end of July if the approval comes in . or maybe even sooner. Recently we have had a dissagreement on which way Markus name sounds best, either James Markus or Markus James. I choose James as his first name , since he does share the birthday of my uncle Jimmy. I told Steve that no matter what we will cal him Markus .
I pray that everything goes smooth for us. and that we get to bring him home before the end of the year.

dossier apostilled

well today me and my niece Jessie went to frankfort and got the dossier apostilled at the capital.
all the copies are made and now we just got to write the check and mail it out.

We are one step closer

well today i went and got all the dossier notorized and then certification of notary is complete as well. i am planning to go to frankfort this week and get all the forms apostilled then we are sending our dossier to the agency for translation. it is a great big step .

Fundraising success

Fundraising success
well this month we have been doing a candy sell , and the kids at RHCS love candy. now we have a FSP site on reesesrainbow.com. anyone can check it out at www.reecesrainbow.com/sponsorhill.htm this is great for us because it not only gives people the chance to help us out but it allows people to learn about other children who really need help to get to their forever families.

Well i feel so stupid, i just now after about 3 weeks thought to ask if i can go ahead and send my dossier to the agency to get things going. So now i will get everything notorized and apostilled and sent in by the end of next week. i really hope everyone continues to pray for our family. especially little Markus who sits miles apart from his forever family. We cant wait to get Markus James home. we have decided to give him the middle name James, which is Steve's dad's name and my uncle's name, whom he shares a birthday with. Its kinda like he was meant to be ours all along.

the journey began

on febuary 14th- we sent out our applications for the adoption agency and the homestudy agency. the journey had begun a long time in the making. our homestudy was quick we thought it might be a awhile before they got around to meeting us. but it was on march 16th first big day in this adoption process. we had our meeting things went well and so our journey began. on march 17th we went to louisville and filed our I-600A form and had fingerprinting done. . our homestudy was sent to us on 25 April 2008. So now we are homestudy ready and praying the USCIS gets our I-600A processed soon.