Orphan Movie: A Response

These are the real stories of Orphans. Nothing like what is being portrayed by Warner Brothers this weekend.

Things I Ponder: 7-24-09

Tonight I am pondering how in the world I am going to go into Liza's orphanage, see the faces of the other waiting children with DS, and take her but leave them. This is seriously weighing heavy on my heart right now. It's all I've been able to think about for a good portion of this day. So, I am praying that God will send families to see their beautiful faces and KNOW that they are meant to be the families of these children.

One of the little boys has stolen my heart nearly as much as Liza has. I pray for clear direction for myself and Rick that we would know without a doubt if we are to bring him home as well. But, then I think of the other three little boys and the little girl. Why are they not just as deserving of my desire to be their mom? I try not to do that to myself, cause it's just a guilt trip that leads to condemnation and I sure don't need that on top of everything else.

So, without further ado. Here they are, and here's hoping and PRAYING that their mom or dad will show up right on time.

This is Yulia. Isn't she precious?

This Andrey P. He's the little stinker that has stolen my heart. Let him steal yours. I'm ok with that :)This Andrey S. Only 2 years old. He needs a mommy!

Mr. Ilya. He looks so full of Joy!

Last, but certainly not least: Maxim. He is already in an institution. He deserves SO much more! Don't you see that spunk hidden in those eyes?

The Fam's Fave Recipe

When I saw the McLinky Blog Hop topic for this week I knew had to jump in. I love trying new recipes and if I was gonna swipe some from this Hop I figured I better have one for folks to swipe from me. That's only fair, right?

This is one my whole family loves! And that is saying a lot about this recipe cause Austin is quite possibly the MOST picky almost 13 year old boy on this planet. I mean, seriously, who DOESN'T like cheese?! But, that's not the point. this is about what he WILL eat. This is really very easy to put together, and SO good! Pretty sure it's mostly good for you too. At least that's what I tell myself.

Steamed Chicken Breasts with Scallion-Ginger Sauce

(from the Minimalist Cooks Dinner)

• 4 chicken breast halves, bone in or out
• 1/4 trimmed & chopped scallions, white and green parts combined
• 1 Tbs minced ginger *I use powdered ginger, not minced
• 1/2 cup grapeseed, corn, or other light oil
• salt
• 2 Tbs good soy sauce *if going by notes below in red you will need more. just pour to your taste preference
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1. Steam the chicken over simmering water for 6-10 minutes for boneless, 10-15 for bone-in.
2. Meanwhile, stir together the ginger, oil, scallions, and salt to taste in a bowl. *I add soy sauce to the sauce and make it a bit ahead of time so all the flavors have time to blend with each other
3. When chicken is done drizzle with soy sauce and sesame oil and serve. Pass the scallion-ginger sauce at the table or pour into four small bowls for dipping. *we make it up in separate bowls ahead of time

That's it! I always serve it with Rice and usually pour a little of the sauce onto my rice. Oh SO good!! I usually always make broccoli or asparagus to go with this as well. They just seem to be the best veggies for this dinner.

I hope someone else enjoys this recipe as much as we do. We are actually going to be enjoying it tomorrow. We were supposed to have it tonight....but, oops ADD Mom didn't realize we were out of oil until the scallions were already chopped! Lucky for us they'll keep overnight.

Happy hopping!

Spa Day

Tomorrow at 10 am is when our first official live (i.e. not a bloggy one) fundraiser starts. I'm trying to figure out how it's possible to be excited about something that you dread all at the same time. Only Me!

I am pretty sure that I have ADD and have had it all my life. So it is really hard for me to organize things and see them thru to completion. I have the best of intentions and even some good ideas sometimes but I just get so darn distracted. I am so afraid that I have forgotten something or that this is gonna be a big flop; yet I have checked my mental lists a hundred times and I don't see anything missing. That gets me excited! I so want this to be a success.

Here are the details. I have a friend who has volunteered to do manicures, another doing massages, and another doing Mary Kay facials or make-overs. Each service will have it's own set price and people can choose what they would like to have done. I bought some nice cheeses and fruit for a fruit tray. We'll have spa music playing and lots of blue and green hydrangeas to decorate with. Plus pictures of some of the Reece's Rainbow cuties who are still waiting for their families to find them. I'm hoping they might be in the Spa Day crowd.

We start at 10 am and Spa Day is being held at Grace Church of Fredericksburg's Kairos Hall in Fredericksburg, VA. If anyone is in the area please feel free to drop by, even if it's only to say "Hi". Also, please pray that it will be a huge success. We are hoping to at least pay off the rest of the HS fees and set some aside for travel.

Teaser

Teasers- that's what these pictures are. But, I am glad to get them. What a sweetie she is. I just wanna pick her up and kiss her all over her sweet little face.

Fingerprints All Over the Place

Tomorrow we are headed out bright and early to have our official USCIS fingerprints done. These are the ones we need in order to eventually receive the I-171H that allows us to bring Liza into the US. I've had my fingerprints taken too many times to count in my lifetime and even just in the past few years. At a few school board offices, the local police station, one of the Social Service agencies.......the list could probably go on. Literally fingerprints all over the place, at least all over Virginia. You would think there should be some laying around somewhere, right?

Well, whatever it takes. I'm actually excited about these ones. I guess it kind of makes it feel a little more real. Once our Homestudy catches up with these fingerprints and our I600A we should be approved to bring our little girl home. that's when they'll send us the I171H, then we add that to our dossier, have it all apostilled, and send it on to Liza's country. Oh, I can't wait til that day!

If you think about us around 10 am tomorrow please pray that our fingerprints take without any issues and that things begin to proceed a little faster. This makes it feel like we might actually be making progress.

New Layout Ideas?

I really want a new layout or template, whatever it's called, that will allow me to have a sidebar on both sides. I don not know HTML, except the link maker thing, and really need something easy. Any ideas? You can leave me a comment or email me: hismissionmine@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Steps In This Journey

I haven't been updating our adoption progress much because sometimes it seems like we just aren't making any progress. It's rather annoying really. I've really begun to believe that as soon as God's people step out to adopt a child the devil gets on the move to throw as many kinks in the process as he can. That just tells me even more that adoption is close to the Father's heart. Why else would Satan try so hard to sabotage them? I know of many families that have had flooding occur in their homes, appliances break down, cars break down....the list goes on and on. These things are just minor setbacks in the big picture of our journey's.

For us personally we've had some setbacks in the form of cars that break down and tickets that Rick and I both got within DAYS of each other. OY! We are also STILL not done with our homestudy. This is really frustrating to me. I didn't realize that we had to pay the entire fee before we could even have our first visit from our SW. This wouldn't have been a problem if the tickets and repairs hadn't taken part of the money that we were planning to use for the HS in the first place. Then, I found out that we also couldn't be seen until we have our Education requirements done. And just today found I out that on top of the DVDs they send us for our Ed requirements we also are required to attend Webinars presented by the agency. I just keep reminding myself that we are doing this because we wanted to have a friend of mine's sister do our HS. I know she is looking forward to meeting with us and I don't have to worry that it will end up like it did with our last adoption Homestudy SW. We have had enough experiences from foster care and other areas to really not trust Social Workers and the power they have, so if I have to jump through hoops in order to work with someone I can trust I will. I'm hopeful that we will soon be able to pay the last $500 we owe, get these Ed requirements behind us and have this HS done before the summer is over.

The other issue we are facing right now is with a piece of our Dossier paperwork. It's just a form letter from the local Commissioner of Revenue that states we have lived in our house *blank*, our house is *blank* total square feet and *blank* livable square feet, it has so many bedrooms and so many bathrooms. Easy right? The Commish should have all this info in her office already all she needs to do is type it into the document I emailed to her, print it on office letterhead, have it notarized, and let me know I can come pick it up. Unfortunately, she had a problem with this and called the COUNTY ATTORNEY to ask her advice on what to do! I have gone around and around with her, the County Assistant Admin, and the County Attorney for about two weeks now. I finally got them to tell me what the issue is and apparently she doesn't want to sign off on something she has no way of knowing. But wait, this is all public record and she's the Commish of Revenue. She SHOULD know all this, right? She says that she can't say how long we have lived in the house because maybe we haven't lived in the entire time we've owned it. Because we're multi-millionaires who have houses all over the globe you know! When we said we'd get letters from our neighbors for proof she said that would only show that she has been TOLD we've lived here that long! And she also doesn't want to sign off on how much of the total square space is livable. Umm, ok. How many 3BR, 1 1/2 bath, one story houses have a WHOLE TON of non-livable space?! We do have a porch that has it's own amount of square space, but it's clearly listed on her own appraisal sheet.I just need to remember to pray for patience in this one. We are trying to come to a solution that will work for everyone, but I am really hoping we don't have to pay someone to come out and do an appraisal just to prove to her how much living space we have.

We are making progress though. Because our HS is taking so long I went ahead and started gathering Dossier documents. We have a few of those down and I think the ones that are left are the easier ones to get. I also went ahead and sent in the
I600A and our fingerprint appointment is July 16th! YAY!! Never thought I'd be excited about having my fingerprints done, but I definitely am about these. I'm hopeful that once our HS gets there it won't be long before we have our approval. We've decided that we are going to take a loan from Rick's 401K to cover whatever costs we still need once it's time for us to travel. We're still hopeful that that amount will be very small or we won't have to go that route at all, but it's good to know it's there if we need to use it.

So that's where we are right now. Sometimes it seems like we take three steps back for every one forward but we are getting there. And most important of all we're not giving up!