The hard and the good

Well folks, no word yet on who my next son will be. Bulgaria may have matched me and I just haven't heard yet or perhaps I'll have to wait until after Christmas to find out.

Not knowing is hard and waiting is getting old. These last two days were very hard and there have been a few tears shed that's for sure. But I will continue trusting God and having faith that the right son will find me!

In the mean time I've decided to drown my tears in iced tea and Subway. haha Silas and I went out and picked up some subs for supper. I got my usual tuna with bacon and he got the chicken breast one. I loaded them both up with veggies because it was time for Silas to eat raw veggies!!

When I got him 583 days ago (wow!!) I was told not to feed him solids because he can't chew. I threw that advice out the window and since then we've been on a journey towards Silas being able to eat every day regular foods.  He's now enjoying almost every type of food (not even pureed anymore!) with the exception of raw fruits and veggies and baked goods that are sweet. Oh and he has trouble with some meat if it has to be chewed a lot.

Well tonight he ate cucumbers, tomatoes, green pepper and lettuce!! I do believe we're not too far from him being able to sit down and eat a nice salad. It has been so encouraging to see him make progress in this area. The sound of him crunching down on the green pepper was music to my ears tonight.

Yesterday's highlight was going to the pool in the evening. We hadn't been there in ages because the hot tub wasn't open and Silas really needs the hot tub to warm up in. Yesterday the pool announced that the hot tub was working again so off to the pool we went! Silas had a blast and was so well behaved.

He learned to jump off the various benches in the pool into my arms! Jumping is one of his therapy goals. And by the end he was actually pushing off when he jumped and not just leaning towards my arms.  I also came up with a little game that he liked, to teach him "Wait".  I stood him on the bench in the hot tub and took a couple steps back. I held up one finger and said "Wait.....wait....wait.....GO!" And when I said go he could jump.  He caught on really fast and it was so much fun.

A very happy boy after his swim

 

Part of the reason he was so well behaved at the pool was because he was well rested thanks to a late nap that he gave himself. He was playing in the basement and I realized it was pretty quiet down there. So I checked on him and found him sound asleep on the floor.  It was pretty sweet. It felt like a bit of a milestone because he usually has to be in bed in order to fall asleep.

The other reason he was so well behaved is because he really loves the pool! I took a video of his reaction when I took the pool bag down. I have to keep it on a hook on the back of my door or he is constantly bringing it to me and putting it in my lap. lol

So the last two days have been full of joy mixed in with the disappointment of not hearing any news.  Whenever Silas meets a milestone I think of all of you who donated and prayed. Without you Silas would be a very different boy. I think I can paint a fairly accurate picture of what his life would be like today had he not been given a family.

When I got him at almost three years of age he was not sitting independently, not walking, not drinking, eating only purees (no lumps even), stimming constantly, he had scars and scabs from self harming and he was very underweight.

I recently learned that the remaining children from his orphanage, which was a temporary set up, were either moved to foster care or to another orphanage in a different town. This particular orphanage is becoming well known for having crib babies that weigh 10 lbs at 5 yrs old or older. They are not doing a great job obviously!

Silas would have been transferred to that orphanage and he would have been a crib baby because there's no way he would have been walking yet if he was still in an institutional setting.  In three years they couldn't even convince him that sitting up was a good idea. That's the sort of thing you need a family for.

He never would have gotten the surgery to put tubes in his ears that has improved his development so much these last few months. So he likely would have still been clawing at his fluid filled ears and wearing socks on his hands. He would have continued to be dehydrated because dehydrated kids use less diapers.

He would have likely still been only eating purees. He would be inches shorter and pounds lighter than he is now.

He certainly wouldn't be starting Kindergarten next fall!

He wouldn't know that he can have an opinion on things and make choices.

I don't say all this to bash Bulgarians. (They are a wonderful bunch of people but there are a few who need to be educated on what to expect a child with special needs to be able to do.)  

I say this so that you can know that if you donated to help get Silas home you can feel a sense of satisfaction that your dollars made a difference, a HUGE, possibly life saving difference, in one little boy's life. A life with a family is a million times better! And you made that possible whether you gave $2 or $2000, you played a role, so pat yourself on the back, you world changer, you. We love you!

Thinking Thoughts

What a month November has been! We have endured the stomach flu twice, Silas went on antibiotics for an infection, I did another auction, we went to the city twice and I had a birthday. 

No news yet on who my next little boy will be but I hope to hear something very soon. It could be any day at this point!

The auction was very successful and raised over $3100!  When combined with the sales of Brent Keno's awesome signs of $440 I am now down to needing less than $10000! It feels so good to be down to four digits. With a few more commissioned projects to finish up in the next couple weeks and the sale of these 5 felt trees I made, that will put me under $9000. Ahhhhh We're getting closer!

I only have ONE more of these custom made felt trees. They are made for small children to decorate and undecorated as they please. All the embellishments have been sewn on securely! The cost is $50 + $5 shipping and once this last one is sold then that's it for trees! I won't have time before Christmas to make any more.

 

 

All this wonderful support has got me thinking thoughts. Thoughts about how important you are to me. About how this would be so much more difficult without you. About how loved and encouraged I'm feeling. About how important it is to me that I am surrounded by people who understand or are trying to understand how to God wants us to love orphans in all sort of different ways.

 

And I just want to say thank you! And not in a light hearted "Hey Thanks" way, but in a deep, sincere and honest way. Sometimes thank you doesn't seem like enough to me. I'm sure if I was more eloquent I could come up with some other phrase to convey how much I appreciate all your help. But this is probably as good as it will get.  So thank you for being my "community" of friends and family. I hope you feel like your donations are going to a worthy cause in helping an orphan become a SON! It is SO worth it and this journey is made so much easier with you coming along side me and supporting me. :)

 

I hope I can share some exciting news about a referral very soon!

 

 

 

I've Been Submitted!

October 26th is turning out to be a pretty fantastic day. Not only is it my nephews 7th birthday but today I also found out that my dossier has been submitted to the Minister of Justice!  

 

My nephew

So what does that mean you ask?  Well, basically it means that my dossier is out of the hands of my agency and is being prepared to be matched with a child. It's a pretty HUGE step that gets me even closer to my boy. My heart leaped when I read the email this afternoon!

 

I was hoping to travel for the first trip yet this year but it's not looking too great for that. But that's okay! It'll all happen in God's time and that will give me a bit more time to raise the remaining less than $14000!   My expenses for this month were low and my income was higher so I was able to add a great amount of my paycheck to my savings and that gave the thermometer another boost last Friday. 

 

I know you all were expecting my auction to start today. It's going to be a fantastic auction but it won't happen for a couple more weeks.

 

Instead, for two weeks, I'll be doing an Uppercase Living fundraiser! Jensen Bardwell is the consultant and she's donating all 30-35% of her commission towards the adoption!

 

How cute is that Alphagator??! Just click on the picture and that should take you to the website where you can place your order. You'll need to let me know if you ordered so that I can tell Jensen to add your order to the calculations at the end of the fundraiser. There are SO many decals, you may have a hard time narrowing it down! This fundraiser will end on November 9th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The auction will still happen and I'm still accepting donations if you'd like to help out with auction items. I've got some great stuff in it that you won't want to miss! I'm thinking it will start on November 12th. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly Jamberry! There is still time to place an order. It will end on Wednesday. We had a glitchy weekend thanks to facebook being silly but the website is back up and running now so you can check out the catalogue online here:

 

 

If you want free shipping just message me on facebook with your order or email me at cwspider at mymts.net

 

 I do believe with the news I got today I've officially entered the second trimester of this "paper pregnancy" !

Auction Time Again!

My Jamberry fundraiser is going very well. If you'd like to order please get your order in soon! If you're local and you want free shipping just let me know what your order is and I'll be doing a bulk order.
If you're not local and you want reduced shipping ($2 vs $10) you can also let me know your order and I'll mail it out to you when it comes.

Click the picture to go to the event page. 

The last day to order is the end of the month but you can order any time you want.
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And now it's time to gear up for the next fundraiser. I'll be holding another auction on facebook from Oct 26th to Nov 5th. I've been busily making things and I've had friends mail me things to auction off but I still need more! This will be a great auction for you to find some Christmas gifts for friends and family. :o) 

Click the picture to go to the auction site. I'll be adding items in the following weeks and bidding starts on Oct 26th. Bring on the bidding wars! It's going to be exciting!

 

 

 

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Adoption Update

 

 

By the end of this week all my documents will be in Bulgaria. I had to redo two of them but as far as I know the rest are translated and everything should be on the Minister of Justice's desk by the end of the month. After that I'll just wait patiently for a referral. Once the referral comes I'll hop on an airplane (or three) and fly to meet my new little man!  I will try to pack years worth of loving in just 5 days and then I'll come back home.  Once I pass court I'll get back on a plane and bring him home with me where he will meet the rest of his family. He'll be grand child #9!

 

I was thinking recently about the titles a person has to describe them. Right now my little man has one title only. "Orphan".  How sad! But once the judge signs the papers to make him mine he will instantly become: Grandson! Great grandson! Cousin! Nephew! Brother! Son! What a wonderful day that will be!

 

If you'd like to play a part in that miraculous transformation from orphan to son please consider making a donation to my YouCaring site on the right of this page. Every donation is like one more person joining hands to reach from Canada to Bulgaria from me to my son!

 

 

Rummage Sale Results

The rummage sale and bake sale was held this past Saturday down at the museum. I'd say it was a smashing success! Hundreds of people came through the door and the baking was totally gone by 2.

 

 The reporter from the paper stopped by and took some photos and then the local radio station came by for a radio interview, not live thankfully!

We even had the Liberal party stop by and donate! They were out campaigning and heard what was going on and were excited to meet me.

Many people told us to keep the change when they paid and quite a few people happily added bills to the donation jar. 

I had so many great helpers.  I think there was 15 different people that lent a had where they could, including mom who was on Silas duty for over 24 hrs thanks to my night shift at the weekend job.
I lost track of the number of people who donated things to sell.  We even had people bringing stuff DURING the sale! lol

Things went very smoothly and I'd say it was my least stressful sale to date.

Anyways, the reason you're reading this is to see how much was raised right???

The grand total, after paying for the museum rental, was.........$2203!   Praise the Lord! That puts me over the half way mark now! Less than $15000 to raise!

Seeing as there's a very good chance that I'll be traveling on trip one yet this year, and I'll have all the expenses for reaching that stage plus travel, I'd like to keep this momentum going.

So my friend Litia Maclean is running a Jamberry fundraiser for me. This is quite the departure for me and a little out of my comfort zone but I'm willing to do nearly anything to get my little man home!  I'm not fancy! Like at all. But at some point this week I'm going to put Jamberry nail wraps on for the very first time. Gulp. There I said it and it's on the internet so it must be true! lol

If you'd like to see my attempt at fancy then click the picture below and join the party.  20% of each order goes towards the adoption! Go check it out. Litia is going to be posting all sorts of fun things this week.

Rummage Sale - because Rummage is fun to say

4:28am Monday morning - Brain turns on. Eyes pop open. Inner dialogue begins.

"There's a lot to do in the next few months. I'm exhausted. I need to sleep. Come on brain, let me sleep."

 "But how are you going to get it all done? There's so much. A huge yard sale. Have you seen how much is in your basement? That's going to be a lot of work. And what if you can't have it at the museum? Then what? What if you get it all to the museum and no one shows up to buy anything?

And you still have so much money to raise. Like $17000. You need to think of more fundraisers. Don't go back to sleep. We need to think about this."

"It'll all work out. Just trust God. He knows what he's doing. He knows I can't do it alone. So He's going to help.  'I lift my eyes up to the mountains- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and earth.'  See, He's going to help."

"But there's so much to do and you're so tired."

"Yes so let's go to sleep."

"But how about a fundraiser in November? Like a home based business show like for Silas' adoption? And you need to hurry up and get things organized for the auction. You still need to make more things to sell in the auction and you need to ask people for auction donations again. And you need to take pictures of all the auction stuff. We should go do that now. Come on let's get up. And don't forget about the fact that you could very well be traveling yet this year for trip one. How is that going to go? What if you plan a fundraiser and end up traveling during that time? It's too much. You're going to wear out."

"Hush, hush.  Just trust. It's going to be okay. 'I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.'  I can do alllll things through Christ. Even hard things like this. God created me to do hard things. This is my hard thing. It's going to be okay!"

"But all that stuff in the basement....and you need to advertise."

"Lord, I'm worried I won't be able to do this well. Please help me to do this in a way that glorifies You. Help me show people that I am not amazing but that what they see is your awesome power shining through me, enabling me to carry on through the hard things. I know I can't do this without You, Lord. Thank you for using me. Thank you for giving me such a blessing for a son and please be with my other little boy on the other side of the world and keep him safe. Amen."

7am - The alarm goes off.  I'm still awake. Getting up is going to be very hard. But a little boy stirs in the next room. And then I hear it.
"Grrrrrrrr. Hehehehehehe. Grrrrrrrr hehehehehe. Grrrrrr hehehehehe". 
My little man has discovered how funny it is to make growling sounds. And I got to wake up to the sweetest little giggle in the world. Getting up wasn't hard at all after that! He is such a blessing.

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Fundraising Update

Things are falling into place for the rummage sale. It will be held on Oct 3rd at the Swan Valley Museum. Just one day only, from 9-4.

Ways you can help (and I REALLY need your help)

1.) Donate items to sell.

2.) Come help me price things in my basement or come play with Silas while I price things.

3.) Come on Friday evening (Oct 2nd) to help take everything from my basement to the museum and help set it up.

4.) Come on Saturday and hang out with me and help run the sale. The more helpers the better!

5.) Come at 4pm on Saturday and help pack the leftover stuff up.

6.) Tell everyone you know about the sale. It's going to be epic! I have well over 20 tables worth of things to sell. And it's priced to sell! I want everyone to walk away with a deal or ten. ;o)

7.)Bake something for the bake sale. I figure I should make the most of this event and location and run a bake sale at the same time. Any donations of baked items would be appreciated! Let me know ahead of time if you're planning on doing this so I know what I'll be looking at as far as how many bake sale items there will be.

This is going to be one of my major fundraisers. I'm trusting that the reason my basement flooded and I couldn't have the sale in August is because God knew that having it indoors at a different location would make it more successful.

 

Fall is upon us

 

Time is flying! Summer is over and the weather is getting cooler. The adoption process is whizzing along. It's time for a blog update!

Silas

Silas had a busy September long weekend and then he had surgery on the 8th.  We traveled 5 hrs to the city in order to have our pre-admit appointment on the 4th (Friday) because Monday was a holiday. So we got to be in the city for the whole long weekend. I love all the friends and family that I have there but the city itself is not my favourite place. Too many people, too much traffic, too much construction and too much everything really.  I much prefer my small town life!

After his appointment on Friday morning we went back to my brother's house and by the evening Silas had developed a cold. Ugh! I was so worried that all the travel and time off work would be for nothing because they would cancel the surgery if he was too sick. He really needed those ear tubes.  I was using essential oils on him and praying and I had a group of friends praying too.  The interesting thing is with this illness everyone else who got it developed a bad cough.  A cough or fever = no surgery.   Silas never got much of a cough! He didn't really cough until the day after his surgery and even then it wasn't nearly as bad as the rest of us.  I caught it too and I've been coughing my head off for a week now. 

So all those prayers and essential oils worked and Silas got tubes put in his ears and all that nasty fluid that had been sitting there for a long time (years probably) was all drained out! Yay!

He wasn't a happy camper when he first woke up from the anesthesia but he calmed down once I was able to hold him and cuddle him.  Once we went back upstairs to the recovery room he drank lots of water and ate FOUR apple sauces! He was a hungry boy. 

We had to stay one more night in the city and then we headed home the next morning. I'm very thankful that we were so well taken care of at my brother and sister in law's house.  From amazing meals that my sister in law seems to whip up effortlessly to the cold meds my brother was able to get me.  And we got to spend some great time with my nieces and nephew and also celebrate my sister Sara's birthday.

Thanks to those ear tubes an amazing thing happened this weekend. I told Silas to walk through the gate while I pushed the bike. He walked through the gate and then kept on trucking down the driveway. I called him to come back......and he heard me! And he turned around and came back!! As far as I can remember he's never responded to me calling him from that far away before. God is so good!

Here Silas, I'll show ya how to work it.

Auntie Sara turns 25!

Adoption Progress

Things are moving along so smoothly for this adoption. It's so much more relaxing the second time around because I know the process and what to expect this time.


Right now my dossier is in Bulgaria being translated. Once that is done then it will be logged in with the Minister of Justice and I wait for a referral. It could be just a couple months before I find out who my next little boy will be!

Yes, that's right, in two months I could have pictures of my little boy! He won't be a mystery anymore!


 Fundraising

Despite sickness in July and basement flooding in August.....and more sickness and surgery in Sept my little red thermometer keeps on climbing! It's been amazing to watch God move people's hearts and be inspired by watching what He's doing with the adoption. I think having Silas here as evidence that adoption changes lives has helped too! There's still a long ways to go in not a very long time but God is faithful and he will provide! I've estimated that there is a minimum of 8 mths left to go but that depends on many variables.

 

I will be holding another yard sale (possibly indoors) later this month. I can now accept donations of yard sale items again. The fixing up of the basement after the flood will wait until after the sale. So if you'd like to donate anything just let me know. I can pick it up or you can drop it off, whichever is easiest for you!

A friend, Litia, is going to be organizing a Jamberry fundraiser for me the first week of October!

After the Jamberry fundraiser I'm going to be doing another auction on facebook. I've been busy sewing and gathering items for that. If you have anything to donate to the auction it would be very much appreciated! The last auction raised over $3000. Maybe I should aim for $5000 this time??  ;o)  There will be many great items in it that will help you cross some things off your Christmas gift shopping I'm sure.

Other things I've been doing to raise money are picking up extra shifts at my weekend job (a huge thank you to mom for watching Silas for those extra hours), taking on evening childcare and doing my best to stick to a budget. I'm also working hard on several more fundraising ideas.

 

On Thursday I was interviewed by a reporter at the local newspaper. They heard that I am adopting again and wanted to talk about it. I figured some good PR couldn't hurt! lol I tried to focus on Christ being the reason for adopting and talked about how God has provided for Silas' adoption and this adoption. I'm not sure how long the article will be but look for it in this weeks paper!  It's a good thing it wasn't a radio interview because I was having coughing fits the whole time. lol  Talking for 20 mins straight with a cold will do that I guess!

Mr. Serious

Mr. Silly

I hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures. Most of them were taken by my sister in law when we were down for Silas' surgery. Thanks again Carla!