New ventures

Well... for Mommy anyway. ;)  I will be winding down posts on this blog regarding Lina and will be sharing her progress on our family blog, so please make sure you follow us over there!  I'm not ready to say goodbye to this one quite yet though, and have the strong need to keep advocating for the ones we left behind.  Those children now have names and faces, and not a day goes by that I wish we could have brought them all home too.  Thinking about them itching themselves to sleep at night as they are covered in scabies and fungus.... thinking about how they must still endure the awful abuse at night.  Remembering how starved for attention they were when we walked into the room.... EVERY child deserves a family.  Every. One.

We're tapped out and going back isn't an option for us, but that doesn't mean we can't still help.  We still have contact with our facilitators in Lina's former region, and we still have Reece's Rainbow.  We were blessed to have found much support through the Reece's Rainbow community as well as through our friends and family, and I have the need to pay it forward.  You may recall my sweet friend Noel held a Tastefully Simple fundraiser for us, and we were able to earn $400 toward our adoption.  Yes, adoption is expensive, but that's a good chunk of change!  We were also able to earn a substantial amount in free products, and with that I bought the largest gift basket they make to offer as a prize in our giveaway.  Our Tastefully Simple fundraiser was a HUGE success, and I want to pay it forward by doing this for other families and waiting children as well.

So I did it.  Something I swore I'd never do (just like I swore I'd never own a minivan and swore I'd never fly to Russia)... I signed up as a Tastefully Simple consultant.  Yes, I hate cooking.  But you know what? These products are perfect for people who enjoy cooking as well as people like me who despise it! :) Add water and cook? Yea I can do that.  Add a bottle of beer and bake? Heck yea I can do that!

No, I did not start this venture to add income to our family.  As much as it would help, I need to help these kids get HOME.  I will be donating the majority of my commission (holding a small part to cover myself for taxes) to Reece's Rainbow families and waiting children.  I have two parties going on right now- one for sweet Willow who is in Lina's former baby house:

Willow's grant is a measly $64.  We can do better than that!  I have also signed up to be Willow's Angel Tree Warrior, so come Christmas time I will be pushing extra hard for her.  I pray she finds a family before she is transferred to an institution.  Right now she's in an excellent baby house headed by an amazing director.  Not a day goes by where I don't wish we could have found Lina sooner, before she had to experience this transfer.  I can't imagine how traumatic it has to be for these children.

The second party I have going on right now is for sweet Kenzi:

Her Mommy and Daddy traveled to meet her for the first time a few months ago and fell madly in love.... and the judge in their region is not making things easy for them.  And... Kenzi needs heart surgery.  Expenses have been piling up with all the extra hoops they are having to jump through, and currently they need $3,500 more.  

If you wish to help Kenzi's family, during check out on the Tastefully Simple website, click "Find Host"- and enter Priscilla Morse as the host.  Select her party and Kenzi will get 20% of your total.  If you wish to help Willow's grant, enter Amy Livingston as the host, and 20% of your purchase will go to Willow.  Easy peasy!

If you love Tastefully Simple products as I do and wish to keep reordering products, please think of me and order from my site.  I'm not currently doing in home parties, but if you'd like to hold an online/catalog party I'd be happy to hold one for you.  You will still earn all the regular host benefits and I can even hook you up with samples to have your own little taste testing party.  You can let me know which child or family you would like me to make a donation towards, or I can simply add my commission to the current fundraiser.  It always feels good knowing you're helping someone else along the way, doesn't it?  

Happy Birthday, Lina!!!

Hey, you say you have something to tell me?

ooooooooooo it's something special??

It's my BIRTHDAY?

Not sure what this birthday thing is you talk about, but I GET TO BRING COOKIES TO SCHOOL FOR SNACK???? WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

Is this day really here?? Is my babygirl really home to celebrate her birthday?? Hard to believe one year ago we were holding our big Birthday Bash fundraiser to raise money for Lina's adoption. We were still submitting paperwork to complete our homestudy, all the while dreaming of traveling for the first time to meet her. We did not know her actual birthday until we received her official referral just a couple weeks before traveling in November; we just knew it was sometime in September.

And now she is HOME celebrating with her family for the very first time. I don't know if the orphanages ever acknowledged the children's birthdays or if Lina even knows what that is. Wondering how she will handle all the attention from family and friends as we celebrate both her birthday and her Baptism this weekend. We haven't had any big holidays to celebrate yet since she's been home, so this will be interesting to see! :) We've had a few family birthday parties to warm her up a bit to the occasion.

Since Lina really has no understanding of the English words "Happy Birthday", we pulled up Ms. Google Translate to help us wish her a Happy Birthday in Russian. Yea, we played the audio several times trying to pronounce it correctly ourselves, and then we gave up and played the audio for Lina to hear herself. ;)

Happy Birthday: С Днем Рождения pronounced "S Dnem Rozhdeniya" - try saying that 10 times fast! Try this link if you'd like to hear Lady Google say it for you. Lina did smile when we played it for her, so we are thinking she may understand what it means... but still don't think she knows what all she's in for this weekend. ;)

Today at preschool we brought cookies to celebrate the big day. :) It's sometimes difficult for me to remember she is actually turning six years old.... She is attending a 4 year old preschool program, still about the size of a 4 year old just going into size 5 clothes, and developmentally she's about at the level of a 3 year old on average. We're still waiting for all the official assessments through the schools so I will keep you posted on all that.

Of course I forgot to snap a pic of the class birthday book- we completed pages with photos of Lina and listed all her favorite things... it was super cute. I did snap some pics of Lina throughout the rest of her day at school:

Listening at storytime

making a special birthday crown {that she only kept on for about 5 minutes}

playing in housekeeping

and making a craft- a self portrait :)

So, Polina Mae... you really are home, and you really are OURS. You captured Mommy and Daddy's hearts the first time we met you, and we're blessed to call you our daughter. Sure, your brother and sister may squabble with you from time to time as most siblings do, but they still tell us how much they love you and are so glad you are home with us too. Happy Birthday, precious girl, we love you SO much!!!

First purchases made for the Warm Shelter baby house with our auction money!!

I shared this on our Facebook auction page but wanted to post it here too.... because YOU help make a difference in the lives of these orphans!!  I am THRILLED we are able to continue helping the children in Pskov as it is much needed.  Our auction was a HUGE success- bringing in over $1,500!!!  We had two plans to get the money to our facilitator in Pskov... Plan A: send funds to one of the board members of the CRA (Congress of Russian Americans) who can transfer the money directly to our facilitator in Pskov.  We transferred a smaller amount first ($200) to be sure it all went through successfully before transferring the entire amount.  Our Plan B was to send funds with our trusty adoptive family who made purchases for us a couple months back and brought the goodies to our facilitator to deliver to the orphanage.

Well the money was overnighted to our contact in the CRA on a Thursday and the money was in our facilitator's hand in Pskov that Saturday!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!  She recently delivered her purchases to the orphanage and shared this note:

Yesterday I went on the market and bought warm things there (in the market of a thing usually cheaper, than in shops). It is overalls and jackets for autumn and winter and some small things for the rest of money. When I told to the hostess of things that I buy it for a orphanage, she gave me one more overalls free of charge. Today I was in the Warm shelter and gave all things. [The nurse] was very glad and surprised that all things new and beautiful. She told that inhabitants of Pskov often bring absolutely old things. The personnel doesn't want to offend people, and thanks them. But then they doesn't know what to do with these things - after all for small children important to observe hygiene. Your things certainly were pleasant to all. At first we considered it with the personnel . Then just children woke up and all started to try on clothes with pleasure. (Though then children were a little afflicted, as they hoped, they are going to conduct for walk). Laura, excuse that I not always do everything quickly. I haven't enough days off, but I want to make everything whenever possible better. For example, if I bought things in shop near to my house, they would be more expensive almost twice. One overalls there cost nearly 3 thousand rubles, and I could buy thus only two and several trifles. And in the market I bought four sets (moreover the fifth get as a gift), hats, a little knitted trousers. I am very happy with result and it was pleasant to me to see pleasure and gratitude of children and the personnel. [The nurse] wrote the small letter. There it is written approximately so: 

From office the Warm shelter: By us it is received from [our facilitator] warm clothes for children. With huge gratitude to all philanthropists - now we can walk with children in a cold season. Thanks for your kindness and understanding! 09.05.2012. 

And once again I thank you - you and all donors is such good fellows!

And below is a photo she shared of the children excitedly trying on their new clothes :) I did blur it for privacy reasons.

We will be transferring the rest of the funds from the auction as soon as we hear back from our CRA contact as he was just leaving for vacation when the first amount was transferred.  And now that we know we can transfer the money easily, we will be holding more fundraisers for the Warm Shelter baby house! :) I will keep you posted!

Be on the look out for a post tomorrow... since it will be LINA'S BIRTHDAY!!!! :)  You can read all about her first day of school HERE.