A hundred little gifts

 Here is the first photo I ever saw of our Maxim. I'm not sure if it was just a photo op, or if he was really allowed to play on a toy four-wheeler. It didn't matter to me. I fell in love with that funny looking, cross eyed little kid. Something about him grabbed my heart and made me pay attention.

I thought he was lost after being transferred to a mental institution. We didn't know what sort of facility it was at the time.

Now, after a hundred or more little gifts from people all over the country, we are very close to making him our son forever.

I have a heartwarming story to tell you. Our preschool director contacted me not long ago and told me that the school would like to have a "crazy socks" day and collect loose change for our adoption. What a fun idea! Not many families can count on this sort of community support. 

The "crazy sock" day came and went. A few days ago, the director stopped by the house to drop off a card with the proceeds of the event. She said it wasn't much but we agreed that every little bit helps. She didn't stay long. I opened the card when she left, expecting to find $20 or $30 inside.

There was $200 in that little envelope.

 God willing, a hundred little gifts will bring Maxim home. 

Last night...

Last night it happened...finally.

I very dreamed very clearly about meeting Maxim.      

I often find that I work out problems in my dreams. As a youngster, I distinctly remember visualizing myself swimming the butterfly stroke in a dream...that's how I got the timing right in my head and learned to swim the stroke properly! I confess that some of my dreams are just housecleaning for my overactive imagination. Total weirdness. However, I do believe that we can receive messages via our dreams. 

I got a message last night. As I stood in an office, I turned to look at a door, slightly ajar. Maxim appeared and I flung open the door and snatched him up into my arms. He wrapped his arms and legs tightly around me. He started pecking my cheek with kisses. Then a woman stuck her hand in my coat pocket and grabbed a croissant! Ha! It was a dream!!

The message I'm claiming is that I will, indeed, meet and hold this boy called Maxim, and that we will love each other. I needed something to hold onto as I wait for a travel date. Nothing is certain, even at this point.

As we wait, we are striving to raise the last $5000 that we need. I'm so humbled by the gracious and generous donations that we have received so far! The fact that we only need $5k more is really a miracle.

We have several fundraising plates spinning right now! Here is a rundown:

First and foremost, Maxim has been chosen as the Ten for Orphans sponsored orphan for the month of November! Ten for Orphans is a great organization and we are so honored. They seek to bring together a large number of people who are willing to make a small monthly donation, $10 or more, to help bring orphaned children into families of their own. I encourage you to join with TFO this month to help Maxim, and also to commit to a small monthly gift to help the children and families they feature in the future.

We are conducting Round Two - Art 'n' Aprons auction and giveaway at http://maximimpact.blogspot.com/.

The giveaway item for this round is a beautifully framed Nancy Noel print called "Gentle Heart."  You can see a close-up of the image HERE. 

Earn entries to this giveaway by chipping in to our adoption fund. Instructions and other ways to enter are spelled out HERE.

 

There are also art prints and cute handcrafted aprons to bid on, silent auction style at http://maximimpact.blogspot.com/

Check out this DARLING 50's style apron! Can you see yourself making magic in the kitchen wearing this little beauty?

Also, don't forget to get your Ukraine adoption t-shirts. The online order form can be found HERE.

Orphan Sunday

Did you know that today is Orphan Sunday? No? If not, you are not the only one.


Until we adopted Zhen and Theo, I had never, ever heard of Orphan Sunday. I wasn't aware of the mandate for the church to care for the fatherless. It just wasn't on my radar. I had a depraved indifference. I know I was not the only one.

I was so radically changed by our adoption trip to Ukraine. I was really hoping to inspire some families from my church to adopt as well. I'll never forget the first Sunday we took Zhen to church! He was so overstimulated and freaked out by the crowd of people in the foyer that he started to slap me and claw my face. Arrggh.

Great. Who would want to deal with a child like that? Some beautiful adoption testimony, right?

Today I read this from my friend and fellow adoptive mom, Amy:

Today, Orphan Sunday, I am thankful that my Vera is an orphan no more. After church today she bit me, hit me, pulled my hair, screamed and fought as I wrestled her to the van. I chuckled inside as I thought about saying to each person that we passed, "Don't you want to adopt a child too?" :) The scene did not exactly exude warm fuzzies about adoption. Rather, the scene shouted ORPHAN CRISIS! May I suggest, the orphan crisis is not just the millions and millions and MILLIONS of orphaned children around the world. It's not just the number. The orphan crisis lives inside each of them. They carry their trauma, neglect, abuse, etc. with them. Their trauma will not be healed overnight (or 16 months). It runs deep, friends. Whenever Vera begins to feel love from Jon or I, she does whatever she has to do to fight it. She doesn't understand unconditional love. She doesn't know how to respond to it. She has asked us why we don't leave her when she screams and hurts us. This is the orphan crisis. It's in my home and the homes of some of my dearest, most courageous friends. Would any of you tell my precious Vera that she doesn't deserve a family because of her negative behaviors? I didn't think so. So, what is stopping you?

PLEASE consider what you can do for an orphan. Foster. Adopt. Pray. Donate. Advocate. Spread awareness and be willing to step out of your comfort zone. We solve the orphan problem one child at a time.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.

What can YOU do? What WILL you do?

She's so right. If we all catch the vision, and do a little bit, we can make a dent in this crisis. 



I hope that you will catch the vision.

November Announcement

When we began this new adoption journey in July, I was certain that we could have traveled to meet Maxim by October. The pieces fell effortlessly into place at first. Then came October.

We have met one hurdle after another. One emergency followed by the next. The stress of fixing paperwork in a rush on Fridays, hunting down notaries on Sundays, driving to the state capitol in the wee hours of Monday mornings, racing to ship paperwork in time, and trying to continue to care for nine children at the same time is crushing. 

But I continue to have peace in my heart. I cannot tell you if this is the peace that surpasses understanding, or if my poor heart is just numb. It's possible that I have built a wall to protect my heart. Adoption from Eastern Europe is never a sure thing. But I keep taking the next step, in faith that this is what I am called to do. December is looking more realistic.

I recently received a few new photos of little Max. He's a happy child, but he doesn't look well. I'm feeling some cracks in my wall. The closer I get, the harder it is to keep my composure. This boy needs out now. Yesterday. Two years ago. He needs someone to pour love and life into him.

Will you just look at those scrawny legs? And those fingers and wrist. Too thin. Not cool. I have a new sense of urgency...

          ...which is why I'm happy to announce that Maxim is the child of the month of November for an organization called Ten for Orphans!!

Ten For Orphans is an organization which seeks to unite people everywhere with the common goal of raising funds that will help facilitate orphans with special needs having a family of their own by removing one of the biggest roadblocks to the process–that of money. What if thousands of people were making a small $10 donation monthly? Think of the impact!

I urge to you to go to http://www.tenfororphans.org/. I challenge you to donate $10 (or more!) for Maxim and then commit $10 every month to the children that this organization serves. Be a part of a modern day miracle.

October 31 - Whoa, where did October go?

Shoot where did the month of October go?!

Honestly the month was a blur. My high school reunion was the last weekend in September, and that seems like yesterday!

Today was crazy, but we were able to put some candy collecting costumes in time for the harvest. Zhen was such a good boy! He listened to me and only picked one piece of candy at the self-service trunk-or-treat stations. We still had to work on putting the candy in the bag for later, but we celebrate EVERY victory.

Finally, Thomas let me do some zombie make-up! I've been wanting to do a zombie for years. I love to have fun with make-up.

Poor Ruby ate too much candy. Her sugar high lasted until 10:30pm! Gonna be a cranky-panks in the morning.

I've got big news to share with you tomorrow, so please check back. I need your help. Yes, you.

October 30 - Stuff

Down Syndrome awareness month is coming to a close. I'm not sure I did much to further awareness. Are you more aware? ha!

It seems that our transportation problems will be solved tomorrow. I just need to get my teenager driving and life will be rainbows and unicorns! Well, the evenings when my husband is traveling will be more enjoyable anyway.

Daddy was gone last night. So we had cereal for dinner and I didn't even feel a little bit guilty.

Except for Ralph. No cereal for Ralph. He goes through phases with food. It used to be bologna...on sandwiches or alone. Yick! Then it was buttered bread, one piece after another. He is presently going through a green bean phase. He got a can of green beans out of the kitchen and brought it to me in the living room. He shoved it in my face until I agreed to open it for him. At least he knows what he wants, right?

Theo is getting a feeding therapy evaluation. I recently posted a video of him eating lunch, in the lunchroom at school...with all the other kids...and not grabbing their trays and throwing food!! It was pure victory. But, someone commented that he had not chewed any of the food he was eating.

That person was right. He smushes. He doesn't chew. We are going to get that looked at.

Zhen pops the lenses out of his glasses. Turkey! I pop them back in and try to keep a better eye on him. Recently he "lost" the bifocal lens for his right eye. He might have thrown it in the garbage for all I know, but it's GONE.

I took the frames to get new lenses today and guess what? Yep. The prescription is expired. Sheesh. We are going to try a new doctor but can't get in until next Monday. I hope the new doc is more tolerable than the old one.

Hey, it's a full moon. Bright, huh? Anyone else having trouble sleeping?

October 28 - Good News/Bad News

The good news is that my dossier has been successfully submitted to the adoption authorities! Better late than never, right? 

The bad news, there is still a chance that some of my papers could be rejected, and there is nothing I can do but wait for it. I don't know why some documents that were fine two years ago are not acceptable this time around. The department has been reorganized over the past year or so. Perhaps that is it. Perhaps I am being more closely scrutinized. Hard to say. 

The fun news...which I suppose could be filed under "good news"...

• Theo waved "bye-bye" to me when he left for school on Friday!!! That counts as another sign. He has two signs, now!! I've been doing hand-under-hand assistance with him lately, for eating, for coloring, for signing. I place my hands under his elbows and give his arms some support. Friday, that made his hands come alive and he just started moving his fingers up and down, WAVING!! Every single victory is so precious for him.
• Zhen did not freak out at his school "fall party." You know, the party where kids dress up but they can't call it Halloween! I was honestly worried that he would fall apart, considering his history of fear of stuffed animals, particularly puppets. I arrived at his school to find him waddling down the hall in his dinosaur suit and groovy headphones. (He has an MP3 player with a playlist and headphones to keep him calm during stressful events)
• Thomas had a great swim meet on Saturday. He's only been learning the different strokes for a few months, but he gives it his all. His freestyle looks great already! Size 13 feet and huge hands don't hurt at all. He's got a huge meet next weekend. I think he can better all his times if he works on his turns and starts.
• The four "littles" played outside all afternoon today. It's so hard to keep them busy on a long day at home, especially when the weather is not nice and they are stuck inside. This afternoon was nice! Not warm, but not howling windy, so we played out front. No one ran away. No one got hurt. Theo enjoyed picking grass and weeds. Zhen and Ruby ate the rest of the broccoli in the pallet garden. Ralph, Ruby, and Zhen took turns pulling the two seater wagon. I'd have photos of the adorable scene, but I left my phone turned off all day. Heaven!

The please pray for us news...we have transportation issues. They are not new, but we are trying to fix things this week. For one thing, Richy, who is in college in California, needs a car. I think we have found something for him, but the timing is not great for spending money. I bought him a beater last spring and it was never reliable to drive anywhere. I'm hoping to trade in that piece of junk sometime this week.