Well, we celebrated Madeline's birthday on Saturday with her Sunday School friends. We transformed the backyard into Sesame Street. We had Abby Caddaby's Playhouse, Oscar the Grouch Trashcan Toss, Pin the Nose on Elmo, and Big Bird Fishing Adventures. It was a very fun party and we were so blessed by all her friends that came for the afternoon. The cake was absolutely INCREDIBLE! If you ever need a cake or dinners, you need to contact Jamie at http://www.dinnersbyjamie.com/ - unreal! There wasn't a drop left and it was a two tier cake!
Madeline had a blast and I hope that her friends enjoyed the day :) We ended the evening with friends, eating pizza, and hanging out by the fire pit. It was a perfect night!
On Sunday, we went to Willow City, Texa (close to Fredericksburg) to a baby shower. My best friend, Shelly, hosted a shower for her nephew, Case. He was born in January and they had a picnic at an old schoolhouse in his honor. It was so fun and th girls had such a great time. The food was fantastic and they have fun activities for the girls - bubbles and kites! The girls really enjoyed it and it made for a great Sunday afternoon with our family.
This week marks a special time for us. We are submitting our I600A to USCIS for the adoption of Tanya and Liza from Ukraine. God-willing, they will be joining our family this year. We have a lot of paperchasing to do but I am ready! Its been a few years since completing our dossier for Molly but I think I have enough energy :) Tanya is 15 and Liza is 10. There is some concern that Ukraine will close international adoptions due to a lady sending her 7 year old adopted child back to Russia. We are praying that this does not happen and that Ukraine will realize that there are more good adoptions than bad. If we submit our documents in June, we could travel literally that month! We are in a huge push to raise money and have so many fundraisers going at this time. We have made $170 on Adoption Bug (www.adoptionbug.com/journeythruthehills) and we've done well on our 100 for 100 = $10,000 on our Facebook. We raised enough money to send in our I600A form which costs $830! We will need to come up with $12,500 for our attorney in Ukraine by the time we leave in June or July. That is a lot of money but hey, its ALL God's money and He will provide is this is His will. We rely heavily on His Sovereignty!
Well, I think that is all for now. We have an exciting appointment in about an hour! We are in court to try to gain custody of a precious little foster care baby (1 month old). We are pretty much just trusting God with this placement. It wasn't anything we were searching for and we agreed to help the birth family. Its a sticky situation but I know that God has a certain plan for this little guy's life. We'll know something today (hopefully). So, gotta run for now. Enjoy the pics of the birthday party!
Blessings,
Becca
