Baptism and Birthdays

Victoria turned eight this month so she had the privilege of being baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!She was blessed to be baptized by her daddy.We are so proud of her decision! She was baptized in the same baptism dress as her sisters. We also celebrated a birthday for Reece as well.He always gets a great celebration since his birthday is July 4th!

Bahamas / Florida

We had agreat time on our trip to the Bahamas!We spent a couple days in the Miami area before we left on our cruise from the Port of Miami.The beaches in the Bahamas are so incredible! They are sooo blue and warm!! The sand is soo soft and fine! Snorkeling was a favorite for the kids.The ocean water here in California is so much colder so I Loved having the water be warm!The cruise liner was really nice but, living in two cabins with 5 kids gave us a bit of a lot of togetherness !Coming home again made us appreciate our own space!These times together however, are priceless as the kids are growing up so fast!

We will not give up ! There is a plan !

From the title of this post you may have already gathered the little sweet baby boy referred to us no longer belongs to us. He will however have a home with another family .First , I will say this had nothing to do with his health or any fault of our agency.Second, we have learned the possible up and downs and risks of adoption and that having a referral does not mean they are meant to be ours.Third,we are grateful it was decided at at this point in the process. Fourth,despite another hard emotional week we are at peace and know there is a plan.We will continue our journey to complete our family. Since international adoption has been such a huge roller coaster ride we have opted to open more doors and start domestic adoption in addition to continuing with international . We are not expecting another referral from Russia any time soon because we have requested the next referral be a girl.( long story I will share another time)Some day we will understand this spiritual journey better but, for now we continue on enjoying the blessings we do have.The next couple weeks we will enjoy the blessing of our family as we spend time together cruising around the Bahamas .

Here Is The Graduate !

Miracles do happen! Despite being diagnosed with autism at age 3 he has come so very far from that time. We were told he may never talk or learn much independance.Through hard work, intensive therapies and much dedication on behalf of many teachers, specialists and yes, his parents he graduated with a GPA of 3.8! Many of his teachers and therapists through out his life were at his graduation. He was given the title of POSTER CHILD FOR AUTISM from those who have worked with him.

Autism is not something that will go away BUT, there is hope and resources to help these kids try to reach there fullest potential! Reece will be attending college in the Fall. I could really never have asked for a better gift than a son who has taught me so much. Since I was pretty young when he was a little boy I guess you could say he has helped me grow up too!

HE IS A CUTIE ! !

We have accepted a referral of a very cute blue eyed 15 month old boy from Siberia! He has the chunkiest cheeks you just want to pinch !! He appears to be pretty healthy and pray that will remain true. We go into this again with a guarded heart but, knowing all along that much faith is required .Travel for trip 1 will probably be in August. A couple of more documents are needed for the DOE so, I will be busy getting it done this week. Here we go again!!

A few pics from the week

A visit to the Griffith Observatory in L.A.

Brianna and Caroline hanging together.

Our little fish Victoria swimming with the shark.Pool time and green chlorine hair season has arrived !

Family time at the pier in Santa Barbara.

There is nothing like taking a nap with our fluffy furry friend Zorro.He makes for a very soft pillow!

Still hanging on to Hope !

Well, I will say this journey of adoption has taught me many things and continues to do so .Even when things tend to go from one disappointment to the next I continue to hang on to what we know as Hope! I do believe that someday I will look back and see the growth and faith this journey has given me. I have spoken several times to our Agency these last few weeks. They still have not received the referrals they are expecting from their region in Siberia.That being said even then we REALLY hope we will be able to accept the referral!Our documents continue to sit and "Age". I am soo tired of having to redo docs, redo notaries. authentications, fingerprints and on and on because they may expire! Things in Russia slow way down in the summer in regards to adoption so we shall see what happens. I no longer even have an estimated time frame because I just do not know! In regard to adoptions in Kyrgyzstan nothing will even be addressed until after the elections and even then it will be uncertain to say the least.I would have never thought we have two dossiers for two countries sitting at the top of the list and we still wait and wait.Really, I am not complaining but, it is just frustrating ! Again I come down to HOPE! We certainly are not getting younger and the kids are growing up .At this point we will just follow the plan according to Gods timing.