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November is National Adoption Month. Although the primary purpose of National Adoption Month is raising awareness of children available for adoption through the US foster care system, I would like to take this opportunity to be a voice for the millions of children available for adoption throughout the WORLD (because they are ALL deserving of a loving home and family no matter where they were born). Two years ago I attempted to "Blog for Adoption" every day in November. I failed miserably. Rather than set myself up for failure again, this year I would like to focus my time and attention on answering YOUR questions. Are you considering adoption? Do you have questions about adopting an older child or a child with special needs? What about adopting out of birth order? Want to know how our children feel about adoption or how adoption has changed our family dynamics? Or how we ended up here in the first place? Questions do not have to be specifically "adoption-related". I...

Just in case you weren't entirely convinced that we are NUTS! Just in case you are one of those people who still thinks we are "amazing" rather than COMPLETELY CRAZY! I think this little secret that we have been harboring just might do the trick! You see, it appears that the Lord isn't quite done with us yet! And we find ourselves, once again, humbled by His amazing plans for our family and the call that He has extended. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to return to Eastern Europe in 2011 to grow our family once more through adoption!! If you think you're shocked, let me assure you that, we were absolutely stunned when we received the urgent and very direct prompting to move forward, just TWO WEEKS after arriving home with the girls and with Alexis' adoption still not finalized. So shocked in fact that, I am sad to say, we initially tried to push those promptings aside, rationalizing and justifying right and left why it would be next to impossible to do this thin...

It has been almost 3 months since I last saw my little girl's face and held her in my arms and I miss her fiercely! How grateful I am for the 7 other sweet little people who have kept me busy and have made the wait a little more bearable. Despite my lack of updates, Alexis' adoption IS progressing! After arriving home with Lily and Alayna we had to meet with our social worker to update our homestudy (to include the girls and to state that, after meeting with us, the social worker still recommended us for an additional child) so that we could file our Supplement 3 (having added members to our family) and our I800. Initially this set us back about 3 weeks, but fortunately things have progressed at a steady pace since then. We made it through the I800 approval process without a hitch and, although several families within our agency had recently experienced difficulties with the US Embassy in Sofia issuing their Article 5 letters, we were blessed to make it through that stage of th...

Those who are familiar with adoption, particularly those who have adopted children with special needs, know that the first few weeks and months home are generally filled with doctor's appointments, evaluations, tests and procedures. We have not been an exception to the rule. Our days have been filled with doctors appointments, blood work, xrays, stool samples, immunizations, brace fittings, exploratory surgeries, medications and list goes on. Fortunately all of those appointments, tests, and procedures have paid off. For those who are unfamiliar with Alayna and Lily's special needs allow me to give a brief synopsis of what we knew prior to bringing them home. Alayna was born with multiple orthopedic special needs effecting both legs/feet as well as her spine. In Bulgaria she had been diagnosed with "Polymalformation Syndrome" and kyphoscoliosis. Lily was born with cleft lip/palate. Although both had been repaired, we discovered that she still has a hole towards the fr...

It was never my intention to abandon my blog (and those who follow) upon arriving home with my girls, but let's face it, homeschooling 7 children, managing multiple special needs, and working to finalize Alexis' adoption (among many other things) has left me with very little "screen" time and, I am sad to say, that my computer and I have become virtual strangers over the past few months. Fortunately, now that we have settled into a comfortable routine with school and the initial barrage of medical tests, appointments and procedures is beginning to slow, it is time for the outside world and I to become reacquainted! The girls have been with us for 2.5 months now and they have adjusted beautifully! The first few weeks were challenging (as is the case with most adoptions), but so far, we have made it through most of those challenges with flying colors. A lot has happened in the past two months. So much that, rather than provide you with the Reader's Digest version of...