Monday, November 29, 2010

A change in OUR plan...

If you follow our blog at all, you probably saw the post about us hosting Ivan, the orphan from Ukraine, for Christmas. We picked Ivan out almost immediately when we decided this is what we wanted to do, and our hearts were completely set on him being a part of our family. Well, God's plan is often different than my own, and things didn't work out for Ivan to come to our home for Christmas. Through Ivan taking his English classes, they found that he had a major fear of flying. He was extremely excited to come visit the U.S., but he did not realize in the beginning that he would have to fly. He has never talked with anyone who has actually flown before, so it was very hard for anyone to ease his fears. Our hearts were broken when we heard the news. We are still hopeful that we will meet Ivan soon...this will not be the end of our connection with him!

With all of that being said, we decided to pick another child to come visit for Christmas. This is Valya, and she is 15 years old. She seems like the sweetest little girl! We have also had a tutor working with her to teach her English, but the orphanage director told us that she keeps getting distracted. The weather is currently nice, and her friends want her to come out and play. :) She sounds pretty social! I think that having Valya here will be a lot of fun...especially because she will be home with Landry and me everyday. We are planning on baking lots of cookies, painting our nails, and lots of girly things! Please pray that our connection is immediate when Valya arrives. Right now the plan is that I will fly to Washington DC to pick her up on December 20.

Isn't she beautiful?

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Our baby is getting big!

This week we started putting some of the baby stuff up in the attic because our baby doesn't need them anymore! :( It is making me crazy how big she is getting. We put her in her bouncy seat to see if she still liked it, and it was hilarious. She did NOT want to lay back or bounce. I got some pictures for us to see how much she has grown...



This is Landry in the bouncy seat at 1 month old.

Below are the pictrures of her at 7 months. She is too sweet!




Saturday, November 20, 2010

We have been busy...

and sick! I have been so bad about updating the blog lately, but it seems like our lives have been so crazy. Landry had an ear infection, I had a sinus infection, Landry had major stomach issues (vomiting and nasty, nasty diapers) from the antibiotic, and Micah had a cold. Needless to say, we have been really out of sorts for the past week or so.
Through all of this, Landry has stayed pretty happy. She was the entertainment of the waiting room at the doctor's office. She loves other kids so much, and she would find any child that would pay attention to her and just laugh and smile at them. People kept asking, "what are you here for?" and I would say, "we THINK she is sick." :) You sure couldn't tell by the way she was laughing and carrying on. We love her sweet outgoing personality so much!
The doctor said while we were there that he thinks she is the most expressive baby that he has ever seen. You can tell exactly what she is thinking by the faces she makes.
Landry is 7 months old now, and she is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. She is one determined little baby. She is also sticking EVERYTHING in her mouth (shoes, diapers, dog toys, lamp cords, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g!). That part makes me a little crazy.
Below are a few sweet pictures from the past week. This little nugget lights up our lives!
Playing in the bathroom floor while I was getting ready.
Crawling. She is really getting fast!
Loving on mommy...
"Kissing" mommy. She has started this all the sudden where she will grab our faces and try giving kisses. Love it!

Our New House!

Our new house is finally started! We are SO excited. We went out today to see the slab that was poured this week, and we took a few sweet pictures of Landry. Micah said his parents have a picture of him when he was about 1 on the slab to the house they live in now, so he was really excited to get these pictures taken.
Progress is being made, and we cannot wait to be out on our land and have some extra room!





Monday, November 15, 2010

Precious Pictures...

We had Landry's 6 month pictures done a few weeks ago by Stephanie Henderson Photography. I think they turned out so sweet! Some are cute, some are funny....hope you enjoy!














Landry makes my life so happy! What in the world did I do before I had her?! :)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Halloween!!

We had a caterpillar at our house for Halloween this year! She wasn't quite sure what to think of her costume, but she did okay. :) I am sure she will enjoy getting candy next year, and that will make it all better!


In the "freeze" pose.


A little grin.



What is this thing on my head?!


Love this sweet girl!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Meet Ivan...

We would like for you to meet Ivan. Ivan is an orphan in Ukraine, and he will be coming to spend 3 weeks in our home over Christmas. We picked Ivan out specifically to spend this special time with us, and we are extremely excited for him to get here!

Ivan is 12 years old and has been in his current orphanage 2 years. He has no brothers or sisters. He loves to play soccer. The orphanage director describes Ivan as the "sun" of the orphanage, and she said he is always resolving conflict between the other children.

This might seem kind of out of left field, but Micah and I have always talked about how we want to adopt at some point. We don't know that Ivan will be the one or that the time is right for us now, but we feel led to have Ivan in our home during this special season. He will be arriving around December 19th and staying through January 10th. We currently have a tutor hired in Ukraine to help Ivan learn some English...we hope this will help our connection once he gets here. We have also sent him a care package with pictures of our family, home, and other "U.S" things so that he isn't scared when he arrives.
There are several other orphans from Ukraine who are planning to come to the U.S. to be hosted during those 3 weeks. If you are interested in hosting and giving an orphan their first real Christmas, please contact me...families are needed! We have some friends who are coordinating the hosting program locally. They hosted two Ukrainian girls earlier this year, and now they are going through the process of adopting them (check out there blog here). If you choose to host, there is absolutely no commitment to adopt. The commitment is to love on the child for 3 weeks while they are in the U.S., and you then have the option to stay in touch, send them packages, invite them back next year, etc.

Please pray for Ivan and his sweet little heart. We are praying that he will find a forever home through this process...whether or not this is with us. We love him already. How could you not love that sweet face?!