New Pics Of Our Princess!!!!!

So excited to share the new pictures!!!
My new friend Joann, who is also bringing home a little one or two ;), sent me some pictures of Olga. I was soo excited to see the pictures. It appears the kids are playing outside and she looks happy. Check out Joann's blog @ torresfamilyadoption.blogspot.com.
I was having a difficult day on Friday. Trying to sell tutus like crazy, which is going well, but wish they were selling more. Not much of a fundraiser/selling type.
Also, feeling a little disheartened with some responses we have recieved about our adoption. But we stand firm in our decision that the Lord is guiding us in our journey and we are more than excited about bringing her home. We are doing this for Olga, for the Lord and for us, not anyone else.
Having that said, we received more pictures of our precious little girl friday night. Our facilitator sent recent pics of her and Im so excited to share those too. She has changed since the summer and is so stinkin adorable, we cried and cried.
Noah said, "Are you crying because she is so cute?" I explained to him that she is precious in our eyes no matter what, but we were crying because she looks sooo happy, and this makes us happy.
We are super excited now to get over there and bring her home. She looks like such a stinker and silly girl, that she should blend in just fine with my two here at home.

By the way, our homestudy is being emailed to us today or tomorrow, completely finished. We will get it approved and then its finally complete. Im so happy it has not taken long, less than a month, for it to be complete. Our social worker is excellent and we are so thankful to have them do our homestudy.
Enough said, here are the pics. Hope you enjoy them as much as we have!!!!!;)

Passports!!!!

We received our passports over the weekend!!!
We were soo excited, the kids started yelling, and then Gracie said, "What is a passport anyway?". Too cute!
Now we can finally finish alot of the documents that need our passport numbers on them. We have got everything in and ready to go except our homestudy:(
I called our social worker today and she said we would have it by the end of this week or early next week. Then I think it just needs to be reviewed by "the gals" and then we can offically send it in. Im getting so excited. Everyday I check things off and we are getting closer to traveling!

We may be getting some new pics of her. Some people had traveled to her orphanage earlier this year and said they have some pics and maybe even a video clip of her. So we will see.
I have already sold some tutus, but Im still making them every week, so please let me know if you would like to order one!!
Please keep us in your prayers, as we continue on our journey to Olga!

Paper Chase

So I have been gone from my blog because of my exhausting paper chase I have been doing. It started with getting, by mistake, the wrong facilitator documents and having already printed, signed and notarized about 11 papers from the original set. Then I have spent hours on the phone pleading with an out of state loan company to put together, sign and notarize a document. Unfortunatley, not one person I spoke to was compassionate or helpfull! Thankfully, I was able to get our county officals to do it for me.
I had to have all documents redone because I did not do them in blue ink! Oops

And last, but I feel is the best one yet, I ordered 3 apostilled marriage certificates from Tenn., my hubby and I were married there almost 12 years ago! They arrived today and at the same time I received an email from someone in Arkansas that wanted to know if I was the same LeaAnn married to Joe on 5/30/98 in Tenn. When I responded yes, she then proceeded to tell me she received my marriage certificates and that I received hers!!!! I just had to laugh, who else runs into such things!
She has spoke with the Tenn. vital records department and all will be taken care of, but it just figures it happens to me:)

Even though I have had an eventfull time with the paperwork, Meredith and Lyndi have been excellent to work with. Better yet we should also be getting our passports by Tuesday and our homestudy next week too!!! So we should have most of it done next week.


I also wanted to post that Im still selling the tutus. They could make excellent Christmas presents and moneys go to Bringing our little one home. I have included some pictures of the ones I have made and the approx. sizes, they do adjust some because of the ribbon. Please email me at earlywinepestcontrol@verizon.net if you would like to purchase one.!!!





The pink and silver tutu is approx. 22 inches and I have a second one that is 18-20 inches in waist.
I also have a peach, gold and white one, which is really cute!, and the waist on it is approx. 24 inches.
The 3 toned purple is approx 24 inches. And the purple, yellow and black is approx. 25 inches.
They all are approx sizes and can be adjusted slightly to fit. I can also take orders if you want something specific. Just let me know!

Home Visit

Well the home visit went really well. The social worker was extremely nice.
He really just sat with us and talked about our lives together and as a family. Also how bringing Adelee into the mix will be and what our motivations are for adopting.
It lasted right at 2 hours and we were relieved afterwards.
He said it would be done next week!!!!! So we are really excited.
Still on our mission to get all of the paperwork done asap. We are really getting close.
Please keep us in your prayers. We are still needing to raise quite a bit more money. I think Im going to need some help on this part of it, not much of a fundraiser myself. So I may be enlisting some people to help ;) Also pray for Olga, that she is being loved and well taken care of and that she will find comfort knowing there are people out there that love her and are trying really hard to bring her home.

A little Overwhelmed

Ok, today is our medical appointments. I started to review all of the fine details of all the paperwork, and let me just say, its a tad bit overwhelming.
Hopefully the appts. will go smoothly. Im such a planner and organizer, and to feel confused or lost is not a good thing. Meredith from Reeces Rainbow was soo helpful this morning. I know my questions were lame, but I have never done this before, so her help was deeply appreciated!! Thanks Meredith!
We are also trying to get all the other paperwork so that when our homestudy is finished in the next week or so we will have the rest of the papers needed coming in. It is all very sureal and exciting. We are coming Olga!!!
WE NOW HAVE A BUTTON---Please see sidebar and copy our button to your page!!!!

Fundraiser

Fundraiser Time Begins...
I have recently learned the art of making tutus from my best friend, Karrie. Im very excited about making this into a fundraiser for bringing our little Olga home!

Gracie was a great helper and decided to model for me (see sidebar for picture). I have made several already and super excited about making more.

Please let me know by email if you would like to purchase a tutu and help us in our adoption process. The price of the tutus are $20.00 each (shipping included).Turn around time is 1 week or less. Email me at earlywinepestcontrol@verizon.net, and let me know the following info.
1.Aprrox waist measurement of child.
2. Up to 3 colors you would like.
3.Any other specifics you may have.

We are very excited for this fundraiser to begin and hope to do even more in the near future. These are the perfect gift for little girls!!!!

We have also donated a tutu to arewethereyetla5.blogspot.com. Sarah is doing alot on her site to help bring home Duncan, who is also a special child wanting to come home.
Thanks!!!!!
L

Paperwork Begins

Today I received an email from RR with the start of our paperwork.
How Exciting!!!
I also printed off the 45 page "How to" guide for the paperwork. Everytime we check something off or move onto the next step, its such an awesome feeling knowing that we are guided by Him and we are one step closer to bringing her home.

Please keep us in your prayers, we will have our home visit next week. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we will be finishing up the homestudy.

Exciting News

Just found out we may be getting more pictures and current information on little miss Olga. There is a family in the same country adopting a child from Olga's orphanange. I was able to communicate with them via email and their translator is going to help them meet Olga and spend some time with her. Thank You Jesus!!!!

We are soo excited to learn more about this little girl that love overflows for. We are eager to learn about who she is and what she likes/dislikes. Noah and Gracie are also asking questions daily about her and this morning Gracie woke up and the first thing she said was "Is Olga awake right now". Bless her heart, she keeps trying to figure out her little sissys time zone.

Yesterday we went for our firt homestudy appointment. It went very well. The social worker was excellent, very open about her expectation, excited about our journey with a special needs child, and understanding of the urgency of getting the homestudy finished in December. We have our parental questionaire finished and ready to email to her tomorrow. She said the home visit would be scheduled a few days after she receieved that. Very exciting!!!

We are getting passport pictures done tomorrow and the physicals and immunizations will be scheduled tomorrow also. Trying my best to keep everything in check, making my to do lists and find an overwhelming satisfaction when I check mark things done!!!

Joe and I have discussed fundraiser ideas. So soon we will post what and when those will be. I also have made tutus and they are very fun to make, so I may start selling those to assist us. Any ideas welcomed by the way.

Will keep you updated on our progress and any new information about Adelee Olga will be posted asap
In Him,
L

The Journey Begins

We are so excited....
Joe and I have decided to take the leap of faith and adopt. It has weighed on our hearts for years now but we have always pushed it aside. Thoughts of impossibility would far outweigh the constant nudging of our hearts.
Adelee Olga is waiting for us in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. Back home, Noah and Gracie are impatiently waiting for her. The love in Noah's eyes when he talks about her overwhelms me. He has such an awesome heart! Gracie is slightly confused as to why she is not here with us now, but already willing to give of her heart and toys!
She is such a special child. She has Down Syndrome with an oval window of the heart and hypothyroidism. But we are determined to not let this be her label. To definitely not let this be her only story. We feel so blessed to know she is waiting on us to come get her. The love that we have for her already is amazing.
The process of our home study is underway and should be done in December. If all goes well we are told we should travel in March or April. The process for special needs children is faster because of the urgency to find them forever families.
We are hoping to keep family and friends updated through the blog and let you in on this amazing journey that God is leading us on