...and David Slew the Giant.....

We are Close...oh so Close!!!!  I can hardly catch my breath thinking how close we are to traveling to see our girlies! To holding them in our arms, to making them our daughters, aaahhhh!!!!!
Ok, now I'll pull myself together and continue.
I thought you might like to know just where the money goes, just exactly why we need all this cash. We are not "buying" a baby or two, we are adopting and adopting internationally is expensive. I've heard it put that the money is a ransom to bring our children out of a prison where death would be the only release. That may sound dramatic, but honestly it's not far from the truth.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask, we'll answer them as best we can.

$12,500 Facilitation Fee -
 This fee covers both girls and is paid to the team in country. They are called "hand holders" that is exactly what they are. They hold your hand and help you navigate the crazy world of adoption. To me it is a small price to pay to have experts there to help whenever you need them.

$2,500 Embassy Fees -
 This covers the all the necessary medical exams, passports and visas for both girls.

$5,000 Living Expenses -
 This is an estimate of our living expenses while in country. This will cover our apartment, our food and our transportation. We expect to be in country about 4-6 weeks.

$5,000 Flights -
We have an idea what flights will cost but until we actually buy the tickets, we can only go on an estimate. This is for ALL the flights, including getting the girls back home.

As you can see, that neatly adds up to $25,000! It may seem like a lot, but to two little girls, its a ransom of freedom! Freedom to grow and live, Freedom to be someone, to love and be loved Freedom to make their mark in this world, Freedom to not be a number, to not fade into to nothingness, Freedom from being hidden away, behind high walls, Freedom from being a sad statistic. These girls, and all orphans, deserve life! Wont you help give it to them, won't you pray for us as we travel, won't you be a part of our journey?

Thank you so much, we couldn't be stepping forth in faith like this if it weren't for your support, thank you for your prayers, we have broke down many mountains thus far, and know we will have victory!

(Hi Andrea;)

Weeks Not Months!!!!!

If this adoption was a pregnancy we would be at that part where all you do is wait!! We are in the single digit weeks before we travel. That time that seems to zip by with lightening fast speed and at the very same time c r a w l s by so slow and all you can think is how bad you want to hold your girls!
All our paperwork is on the other side of the ocean!! You've no idea the relief it was to know it was there and in the right hands! I cried, and then cried some more! I remembered back to April when I got the list of papers to be filled out. I was totally overwhelmed. But we did it, one page at a time, some pages took longer than others! But we got them all done, Praise the Lord! Now we are officially "Submitted" to our girls country. We wait now to be given an appointment to go and get our babies!
We are anticipating an 8-10 week wait, so we are about 1.5 weeks into that! YIPPEE! Oh, sorry, just excitement bubbling up a bit there.
We've decided to take the next 7 weeks or so and just relax and enjoy ourselves and take long aimless drives in the country and go for walks along the pond and..............not! We have kicked into overdrive here, organizing and purging and redoing rooms and walls and vehicles. We are nesting so to speak!
There is a lot to do before we leave. Dane and I will be gone for about 5 weeks. Dane may do some flying back and forth and Ileigh will join me at the end to help bring the girls home. We are re-making one of the boys rooms into a little girls room and moving everyone around! I am so excited to get the girls things put together and in their room! It will be a pink paradise!! Elsah is thrilled to be the resident big sister and is planning on telling bedtime stories and singing songs until everyone is asleep! We have organized the "family closet" and added the little girl clothes to it, now there is as much pink as there is blue in there!!!!  We will start the room re-do next week! I'll put up some before and after pics when it's all done! Just writing all this is making me happy, we really are that close! There was more than once I thought we might not make it this far, the light is at the end of the tunnel.
We have had some wonderfully generous contributions, and have raised over $14,000!!! Can you believe it? A big thank you for what you all have done, donating and praying, we have moved mountains already! We need just over $10,000 to complete our journey. We have tried our hand at auctions and give-aways but haven't had any success with those yet. We need to raise at least $1000 a week in order to to meet needs. Would you join us in prayer, we are asking the Lord to give us direction in our fundraising efforts. And if you have any ideas that we could use we would love to hear them! If you don't have any fundraising ideas, but do have some extra cash laying around getting dusty...;) http://reecesrainbow.org/55889/sponsoranderson
Thank you,
Misty

A Give Away!!

Help us bring our sisters home

 

We are having a give away! Two beautiful hand knit baby blankets!! These blanket were knit by my Mom, they are beautiful, knit with super soft, velvety thick yarn! They wash up wonderfully, no piling or separating. We are giving these away for a $10 dollar entry fee. After each blanket receives 15 entries the give away will close and we will draw a name for each blanket! Only $10 for such a nice heavy blanket!!
To enter just pay  your $10 to our fsp, here: http://reecesrainbow.org/55889/sponsoranderson
and then please send me an email here: mamadear27@gmail.com with a copy of your paypal receipt! Also let me know which blanket you entered for, "Pink" or "Multi"! That's all there is to it!
Thank you so much for helping us to bring our girls home, things are going well and we hope to travel this fall!!!!

Just A Walk in the Park

If something is a bit difficult or not quite as easy as you thought it might be, my Dad says, "It's just a walk in the park." Of course this phrase is said with a bit of sarcasm!
It's a phrase I've found myself saying over and over during this adoption, not all of it is hard, well most of it is. Anyway, I read a blog this morning that all at once made me cry and laugh and sigh, I hope it explains how myself and any other adoptive parents you know might be feeling.



http://wondermentetc.com/2013/08/02/dear-friends-of-waiting-adoptive-moms-some-things-to-know-also-were-sorry/



And Thank You all for your support of our family during this crazy time!!

Growing Pains

The other night I was awakened by a little face pressing into mine, a whispering voice cried,"I have a leg ache". I have been a mother for 20 years.....ok wait - wow, 20 years, how did that happen, good grief, 20 years just like that....ok, back to the story. I get woke up all the time, sometimes every night for weeks! When you have 9 children the chances of someone having a tummy, leg, or headache increase immensely! Then there are bad dreams and thunderstorms and barking dogs and howling coyotes! But that night it was a leg ache, a simple growing pain, my 7 year old is growing taller! I got up, grabbed my flashlight and stumbled down stairs for the icy/hot to rub on his leg. I met him in the hallway and directed his pitiful still mostly asleep body back to his bed. As I was rubbing in the medicine he sleepily asked,"why does it hurt to grow?" I didn't have a chance to answer as he drifted off to sleep and was soon snoring. I contemplated his question as I went downstairs to wash my hands. ALWAYS wash your hands after rubbing away a leg ache, if you don't the next morning when you put in your contacts you will experience what it feels like to have your cornea melted!  Don't ask me how I know! Why does it hurt to grow? I don't have the answer on a physical level, although I'm sure I could look it up. But it made me think of all the spiritual growing I have been doing through out this adoption. How God has made me desire, need and desperately seek Him. On my knees, on my face before His throne. Never have I prayed with such conviction, such a burning need to be heard by my Heavenly Father. And you know what? It hurt, it hurts to grow, to realize that I truly am nothing without my Lord. My ways are not His ways, my thoughts are not His thoughts. If our Father had asked me how to best work out this adoption and this time in our lives I surely would not have taken the paths we have been on lately! Sometimes it seems to be a never ending cycle of stress and pain. There are a lot of unknowns in international adoption, a lot of time investment and of course a lot of money. Then there is the prayer. While I might not have chosen the hardships we've been through I can see how God has used those to brings us closer to Him. So many of our "issues" can only be solved through prayer. There has been no other way but a miracle, and in some cases we've gotten just that! Praise God! He does answer prayer!
Things are rolling right along here. We made it past a huge roadblock, and are really trucking now! We had some good news toady from the girls country, families adopting children with special needs will be put at the front of the line for travel! This is Great news, but I'll admit it sent me into a bit of a panic! We are still needing $20,000! Wow, that is a lot of money. We are working on some fundraisers and looking for ideas. And of course, praying!! I'm going to start listing prayer requests at the bottom of my posts. If you feel led to pray, you will know exactly where we need it the most:)
Thank you for your prayers!
Misty

Prayer Requests
Please pray for our girls, they are not in the same orphanage and as far as we know have never met. We are praying that they will be comfortable with us right from the start! I read an adoption blog and they mentioned that they were praying for their child to dream of them so when they finally met they would look familiar to their little one! What a wonderful thing! I have been asking God to give our girls dreams of us, of a Mama and a Daddy who love them and are coming very soon for them!

Please remember our children here at home, we are very busy as summer continues and try as I might I am having a difficult time planning time to be with them, special time that they will remember! I want them to remember this summer as more than the summer mom and dad were totally immersed in adoption! I guess that turned into more of a request for Dane and I then for the children!

Please pray for funds for our adoption!

http://reecesrainbow.org/55889/sponsoranderson

Waiting!!

Waiting is hard for all of us, but waiting on everything to get into place so that two baby girls will join our family is especially hard.     Here are a few things that are happening while we wait.   Misty keeps a household of 11 people going, so she isn't really ever bored.   Dane stays busy traveling between New Mexico and Missouri for his job.  The kids are doing summer things and loving having a pond.  Rohan is our fisherman.  He would rather fish than eat  --  almost!  He doesn't keep them and some he has caught several times.    Elsah is pretty sure the "raccoons" are to blame for leaving her bicycle behind the van to get run over.  She had a long talk with her Dad and is sure they won't do it again, so he got her a new one.  Octavian didn't have a big boy bike, and since Dad was buying one, he might as well buy two!!     I've been busy making kid quilts.  Donagan, Aliviah and Octavian have new ones for their birthdays.   I also have finished two for the "new" babies and have knitted two blankets for them.  Keeps me out of trouble.     Jeannie

I just wanted to thank my wonderful niece, Cindy, for doing a fundraising campaign.  She is taking orders and contacting people about ordering tote bags from "31".  Because Misty and I are both new to the area, we don't know many people.  It is hard to do some of the fundraising things that work in other areas when you don't have many people to contact.   Sooo.... if any of you out there would like to help with a fund raiser, we would truly appreciate it.  I am sure two baby girls in an orphanage in Eastern Europe would be eternally thankful.  Every little bit helps reach the financial requirement necessary to complete the adoptions.  Misty and Dane are anxious to bring the babies home as soon as possible, and have been working diligently to that end. 

On another note, we have celebrated three birthdays in the last two weeks.  Aliviah turned a year old last week, Kegan was 20 on Monday and Rohan was 11 on Tuesday.  Baby "Morgan" will join this group next year.  Ferran will be 7 on June 8th.  I guess it is easier having half your grandkid's birthdays all in a three week period, but it sure is a lot of birthday cake!

An update on Ferran's birth certificate:  Papers from the pediatrician's office in Farmington should arrive here next week.  They will be sent on to the State of New Mexico, and we pray they will then issue the birth certificate. 

A Grandma's Point of View

Hi, I'm Jeannie and most know I'm Misty's mom.  I am going to try to write about the Anderson Adoption from a grandmother's view.  The one thing Misty is very short of is time, and it takes time to write a blog post.  The only reason we moved to Missouri from New Mexico in September was to be close to the family, never knowing we would be a part of this special time in their lives.

I thought I would add a few of the things that are going on, plus share a couple of "Thank You Jesus" stories.  As Misty has talked about, the paper work has been overwhelming and has taken not just hours but whole days.  They have made two trips to Springfield which is about 5 hours from here.  Every paper has to be notarized and certified and it has to be perfect.  So far they have had three meetings with the County Recorder.  It looks like those papers are now perfect!  Please help us pray that they can get a birth certificate for Ferran from the State of New Mexico.  They are having  a very hard time with that.  A special "Thank You Jesus" story was when everyone needed a physical check-up.  That doctor visit usually costs at least $100 each and they needed 11!  Our wonderful, Christian, family doctor charged $120 total.  He is also researching Down Syndrome to help take care of the girls.

Well, I'll save some of the other happenings for another day.       

And then there was Two!

This post has been a long time in coming, to be honest I don't get a lot of time on our computer! Mostly, I handle things on my phone. But making a blog post with my teeny tiny phone keyboard is not fun so I have kept putting it off!
As you know, if you follow on facebook, we have added a second baby girl to our adoption. No, contrary to popular belief, we have not totally lost our minds;) We just feel very deeply that we should do ALL we can to help "the least of these". Dane and I feel very strongly that we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus while we are here on earth.  That means that while we can and do pray for orphans all over the world, for us, being Jesus meant DOING something about the problem, it meant becoming "father to the fatherless". The more we have learned of the conditions in the baby houses in Eastern Europe the more we knew we had to do even more.  Adding a another child to our adoption doesn't double the cost in fact it's just a few thousand more. For just a "drop in the bucket" we could redeem another life, we could ransom a daughter! We felt we couldn't say no.
"Jolie" as she is know, is just 6 months younger than "Morgan" and 6 months older than our Aliviah! So, yes, we will have 3 little girls under 3!!  It will be crazy, I know, but SO worth it! These girls would spend their lives lying in a crib, with no one to hold them, no one to sing to them, no toys, no love. In all honesty the things I have learned about these baby house make my stomach turn. They keep me up at night praying God would hold our girls in the hollow of His hand, and keep them from the neglect and pain that is their lives right now.  The baby rooms are often silent, the little ones have learned no one will answer their cry, so they stop crying, they don't babble and coo because no one talks to them or engages them in any activity. They are often only changed once a day, to conserve diapers and washing. They are fed a slurry of potatoes and water in a bottle twice a day. They are left to die, no one cares, no one had a heart for them they are not the center of anyones world. I don't know why God allows such things to happen to the most innocent, I just know that He showed us what we can do about it. And we can't ignore the call. So we jump in with both feet and right now, to be honest, we are swimming against the tide, it is hard work. I believe Satan does not want these little souls redeemed, he wants them to rot, you see the very act of adoption mirrors what Christ did for us, He redeemed us and brought us into the family of God. We did nothing to deserve this adoption, He did it freely and with the greatest of love. Satan wants us to fail, and he works so hard to that end. But we must work harder! We have the victory, we are more than conquerors! We will succeed!!
Please pray for us, that everything will fall into place and we can get our girls in Gods perfect time!
Thank you So much for your donations and for your prayers, both are needed to complete this work!

What We're Up To

Life here was busy even before committing to adopt Morgan, now life has become insanely busy!!  But it' a happy kind of insanity! We have been busy painting and fixing and cleaning for our home study.
We now have an OFFICIAL button for our little adoption blog, all you do is click on it and it will take you to our Family Sponsorship Page. This is where you can donate to our adoption fund to bring Morgan home! If you donate to our FSP it is tax deductible if you send it straight to us, it's not.
Things are moving steadily, we are still thinking we will travel in September or October. One thing we've learned though, nothing is set in stone, you never know what might happen!

Matthew 25:40

Ah... where to start, I would like to think I could sit down and write a long elegant meaningful post introducing you to the new chapter in our lives, but I think I'll just write what's on my heart. 
Some of you who know me know that I was adopted. I always felt I would be the mom to an adopted child. Many times Dane and I would talk about adding to our family by adoption but the time never seemed right. So life sped on by as it always will and we got busy living life on a farm with 9 wonderful blessings. Then God asked us something, "What are you doing for the least of these?"
Um...Ah...You mean orphans and widows and those least of these? Our answer was, unfortunately,  nothing. We were busy living our lives making us happy, preferring not to see the agony and neglect of "the least of these".
Well, to make a long story short, the Lord showed us that we were to redeem the life of one of the least.
He called us to adopt!
An orphan.
With special needs.
From Eastern Europe.
Yep, we're still kind of reeling ourselves!! 
The peace that comes from being in the will of God is the best place to be though. Time and again God has given us confirmation that this is His will and His direction! So without further adieu may I introduce you to Miss Morgan.

She will be 2 in May and she is currently living in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. She has Down Syndrome, and we are very excited about bringing her into our family. She'll nestle in just right between Octavian and Aliviah!
We are starting the mountains of paperwork, and trying to get our house in order for the home study! This experience will be nothing short of miraculous and we are very exited to watch God work on Morgans behalf!
International adoption is not easy or cheap! From beginning to end it will be about $25,000! Now, like most of you, we don't have money like that just sitting around!!  When we prayed and asked God about the financial aspect of this adoption, we felt our answer was simply, "Trust". So we are trusting God for His provision for our adoption! We are continuing to put one foot in front of the other and are excited to watch our Heavenly Father work out the details!!
We do have a Family Sponsorship page set up on Reece's Rainbow, if you feel led to give to Morgans adoption and help bring her home we would be so grateful.  It hurts our hearts to think of her way over there without a Mama or Daddy to comfort her, love her and hold her, the sooner we can get there and make her ours the better.
We would also covet your prayer and will do our best to update our little adoption blog frequently. If you have any questions please ask. Thank you and may God bless you!

Here's a link to our Reeces Rainbow Family Sponsorship page

http://reecesrainbow.org/55889/sponsoranderson