The weather

I must say I love the weather right now. I know - I know some of you in the midwest are probably saying are you kidding me. I lived in the midwest for 37 years. I remember growing up on the farm and not being able to go to school due to huge snow storms. The thought of cuddling up under a blanket and watching TV is very enticing but, the weather in Arizona is so beautiful.

The leaves are just starting to turn and it is cold. Well alright not cold to some people's standards but it is very chilling. 40 degrees:)

Mr. Delta/NWA had a call the other day from one of his former co-workers in South Dakota. He said it was -36 below with the windchill. No way, you could not drag me back there.

I hope all is well with everyone and for now we are enjoying are little patch of heaven.

I admit...

Ok, I am here to admit that I am and will be forever addicted to Starbucks. Each morning for the last few months, I stop on my way to work to order a Grande, White Chocolate Mocha. Each morning, no matter how rushed and stressed out I am getting all the kids ready, this would give me something to look forward to. This is my pure relaxation.

Well, the price is not pleasant. I located the recipes for many of Starbucks concoctions. Yesterday morning I tried my favorite. Yucky... The recipe called for melted white chocolate chips and whole milk. It was not the same as the nice and smooth tasting drink that I receive at the local store.

What is a girl to do? I wish, well I wish that life was so simple and I had my own personal barista in my kitchen that would make me my lovely coffee.

Till next time.

Did you miss me...

Well probably not because I am probably the only one that reads my blog. That is how life has been for me.

Here is a recap of the last month.

1. Had Kidney stones - spent $6500 at the hospital.
2. Had USCIS fingerprint appointment.
3. Traveled back to my home state for my mom and dad's farm auction.
4. Homestudy is complete.
5. Waiting to send dossier until Mr. NWA becomes Mr. Delta.
6. I have been promoted to Senior at my job.
7. Working 40+ hours to get tax returns before October 15th deadline.
8. Kids are healthy and enjoying school.
9. Receiving random donations of ink jet cartridges and digital cameras.
10. Studing for CPA exam.

That is all for now. I hope to hear from everyone.

We made the paper.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/2008/08/08/20080808cr-adoption0809.html

Are article showed up in the paper. I hope that it brings us used cell phones and inkjet cartridges. This is exciting for us because we are not only raising money for our adoption but, helping the environment.

Until another day.

Major Scare

On Friday afternoon my husband called me at 3:30 p.m. Our new kindergartner did not get off of the school bus. Oh my gosh. Where is he. I phoned the school and the secretary contacted his teacher. The teacher says yes we put him on the bus. Where is my son. I called the bus dispatch and the lady was very rude. She says I am on the phone with the school and you just need to go to the school. I dropped everything at work and ran to my car. I called my husband and he started walking the streets to see if Draysen had gotten off at another stop. I was about half way to the school and the phone rang it was the school principal. They had located Draysen - he was put on the wrong school bus. What - you have to be kidding me. Do they understand how traumatic this is for us. As soon as I pulled up to the school I saw Draysen. I jumped out of the car and gave him a huge hug. It took me several hours to calm down. The what ifs in life...

This weeks events.

It has been an eventful week. We received our fingerprinting appointment for USCIS. We go on August 13th. Now, if we had our home study in hand we would be all set.

The kids started their new school year on Monday. Our beautiful daughter started 6th grade, Draysen off to kindergarten, and Devin in pre-school. Monday morning was tearful for this mom. I always get choked up on the first day, concerts, and other events. I am so proud of them all. As Danae got on the bus to go to her first day of middle school I had to turn away. My little girl has become such a beautiful young woman. For Draysen, the teacher had us line up outside the school and that is where we said our goodbyes. Draysen was so very excited and such a big boy. Again I teared up. My little boy, he has grown so much in the last three years since his arrival to our home. Devin was the only one with no change in his surroundings.

Our newspaper article is supposed to be published on Saturday. I am anxious to see if our article will prompt people to donate their used phones and such. Just think, if we could collect 20,000 phones at around $1 a piece. There we have it $20,000 for our adoption. Yah right - only in a perfect world. I would at least like to try it for one day - the perfect world anyway.

Other than that, tomorrow is Friday. I love Friday's as this is the last day of my work week. For now anyway, until tax season rolls around and Friday's do not mean anything, except more work.

MAXED out

Can't we get a break? Money keeps going out. A few weeks ago our vehicle gave out and we had to replace the thermostat - $400 later we were up and running. Then shortly after that our air conditioner started leaking - $150 later it was fixed. Then last night we were relaxing and it kept getting hotter and hotter in our house. Keep in mind that at this time of year, where we live, it is 115 degrees outside and it only cools down to 95-100 degrees in the evening. I called the A/C repair man and he arrived at 9:30 p.m. and... $550 later it is working again. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! It seems like we are not going to get back on track.

Of course this increases my anxiety about the additional expenses that we are incurring with our adoption. I know deep down in my heart that this is the direction that we are being called. I am stepping out in faith but, am being turned down. I recently had a visit with our church to see if we could, in some way, collaberate to raise additional funds for our upcoming adoption. I am sad to say that I was turned down because they have other priorities. This was very devasting. What am I being told? Are we going down the wrong road?

Any supporting words that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. I am on the verge of crying at every turn.

Update and some Excitement

We have completed both of our home study visits. Now we wait for the completion of our home study and for the Judge to put his stamp of approval on it. Early last week I mailed our I600A to our local office. I noticed that they cashed our check so hopefully will be hearing soon about our fingerprinting appointment.

We received a call yesterday afternoon from a reporter from our local newspaper. She is coming tomorrow morning to do a piece on our adoption. This is exciting. I will post the article.

Let see what else... the kids are excited for school to start on Monday. I will have a 6th grader, Kindergartner, and Pre-K. What an exciting time. The kids and I went on Saturday to clothes shop. We were able to find a lot of good deals.

Work is going well for both Mr. NWA and myself. Tomorrow afternoon we are having a bowling afternoon or team building session. This should be a fun time and lots of laughs.

Plea For Your Help

We are asking for your help. If you feel the call to assist please read the details below. We are collecting used Cell Phones, MP3 Players, Hand Held System Consoles, Digital Cameras, and Ink Cartridges to raise funding for our adoption. Here is where your help comes in. We are hoping that if we sent the word out that "just maybe" each of you would consider distributing the attached flyer to your social ministry contact at your church. Each church would have a collection box and the word would be spread to each member. After a couple weeks of collection, we would provide each person with a pre-paid Fed-Ex delivery label for shipping. There is no cost to you or your church. All funds received will go towards the adoption of our little girl in Russia. If you need further information please e-mail us at ddhefty@yahoo.com.

Where we are

Last week we had our first home study visit. This Thursday we will have our second home study visit. We have sent in our I-600A. I had forgotten how everything is driven off of your home study. It will be nice to have this completed document in our hands. It seems that our new state is a little bit slower than our previous state. I hope that the moons align and we will have our home study sooner than later.

I have been attending more training classes this week away from my family. It seems so quiet in the evenings, I do not know how to act. Luckily my good friend from work is with me. We have so much fun together and have so much in common. We remember a lot of the things from the 80's. What a great time period:) We usually have something to laugh about. Thanks Y.

The kids will be starting school on August 4th. It is hard to beleive this time is here already. The summer has went to fast.

The first time we met...

Do you remember the first time that you laid eyes on your new born baby or newly adopted child. Each one of these moments are vivid in my mind. I remember thinking when I held my new born children for the first time - "How can something amazing this come from me?"

When we adopted our two boys (at seperate times) waiting for them to bring Draysen to us. When we went to meet Devin for the first time they took us into a room of several little children, as I scanned each child to locate our Devin.

These memories make my worries go away and prepare me for the next step in our lives.

Another truly amazing thing is when my children are asleep:) Of course it is nice and quite around our house at that time and that is the only time it is quiet. But, sometime in the middle of the night Draysen decided to come sleep on our floor in our room. Mr. NWA gets up way early in the morning to go to work so when he left he laid Draysen beside me in bed. It is so amazing to see them sleep and it reminds me how truly blessed I am.

Things to Ponder!

1. Did you know that by rubbing Vicks Vapor Rub on a child or an adult's feet for that matter and then putting socks on will break a fever.
2. Did you know that you can use shaving cream to clean your table and counters to get the scum off.
3. As we all know kids do say the darndest things. We were in the elevator on our vacation and Devin announces to the other family in the elevator that this is his dad's peepee. Great.
4. Draysen now calls everybody by their full name (including middle name). Of course this is quite the feet as Draysen and Devin have two middle names. The middle name that we gave them along with their Russian first name. My husband (Mr. NWA) is pretty simple with John. Well Draysen must be in a Pirates of Caribbean mode as he calls him David Davy Jones Locker.
5. Gathering paperwork for an adoption home study can give a person a heartache. We have not even gotten to the good stuff yet.

That is enough for today but, there will be more to come.

Vacation Fun

I hope that you enjoy the following photos. Great fun was had by all. We traveled from our home to San Diego - which included San Diego Wild Life Park and Sea World. Then off to LA to Universal Studios, California Adventure, and Disneyland.

California Adventure

We are off this afternoon to California. Everyone is very excited. This morning Draysen comes running down the stairs saying - we are going on our trip today. It will be good to get away from the heat for awhile and to relax. I will post pictures as often as I can.

Every Little Bit Helps

First of all I would like to thank you for stopping by. Off to the right you will notice a chip-in meter. Please consider donating $1, $5, etc. toward our adoption funds. We realize that we are the ones who chose adoption, but help us bring our little girl home.

Many have said "What are you trying to do save the world". No, we are just trying to give someone a family who otherwise would not have this opportunity in life. Could you imagine this?

We thank you for your support and hope we will have our little girl home soon.

Were going to do it....

I have started the phone calls today. We are going to proceed with adoption. Please think of us and hope everything comes together.

Adoption

So many emotions, so many ups and downs. That pretty much explains the feeling of adoption. My DH and I have been on both sides of life. We have experienced the birth of our two children, the death of our son, and the joys and sorrows of adopting two beautiful boys from Russia.

Adoption was not a new thought in our lives. Back in 1995, my husband had looked at adopting domestically as we were told that we would never have any children of our own. At that time the pricing through Catholic Social Services was $10,000. We definitely could not afford that at the time as we each made $4.50 an hour. So, we decided we were going to get a dog...

As we were waiting for our new puppy to be born, we found out that we were pregnant. We had defied the medical community. 9 months later our beautiful daughter was born. Danae you are the light of our life.

In 1999, we decided that it was time to have another child. We again were told that we would not have another child. After surgery to remove my right ovary, I found out that I was pregnant with our son. In early 2000, our son Dayne was born and was all boy. Tragically, in November 2001 our son left this world and is now playing in God's garden. We miss you Dayne. If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again.

Whew what a blow. At points in your life, you think you are at the top of the world and in charge of everything. Wrong!

In September 2004, I ran across Adoption Ark website. At that time, you were able to sort by boys and girls and age. I ran across a picture of a little boy. I showed Dave and that was all she wrote. We completed all paperwork, home study, etc. In early January 2005, we were off to the Kemerovo Region of Russia, to meet our little boy. After visiting our new son, we waited 17 weeks in between trips and finally in May 2005 we were able to bring Draysen home. From day 1, Draysen fit perfectly into our family. We have not experienced any troubles with Draysen. He does have a little speech delay but, he has come a long ways in the last year. He starts Kindergarten in the fall. My baby...

In mid 2006, we felt the calling to adopt once again. We signed up with Lighthouse Adoptions (Hi Lorien) and we were off to the Mari El Republic of Russia on July 4th. We waited six weeks between trips and in August we brought home our son Devin. The honeymoon was over. It has been a very challenging two years, each day is a struggle, but we keep going and show as much love as we can.

Well guess what, I am feeling the urge again to adopt again. Of course the same questions are out there, where are we going to get the money. Who knows. Any ideas - anybody out there that has won the lottery and want to help us on our journey? Yah right.

More thoughts to come.

Life

Our life has been a wirlwind of adventure. Throughout our 17 years of marriage - my husband (Mr. NWA) and I have had many up and downs. We met in Rapid City, SD. I was going to college and he was in the US Air Force. We married in 1991 and I became a Air Force Wife. We quickly moved into new base housing and I enjoyed the perks of military life. The commissary, medical assistance and such. This only lasted for six months as Mr. NWA's term was up. He transferred to the Wyoming Air National Guard and his travels began.

Now, speeding to the present we are living in Arizona and enjoying the gorgeous warm weather. We have three children and never a dull moment to experience. We are struggling with our youngest son. Roman was adopted from Russia in August 2006. It has been a very rocky road and I am not sure that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are trying and hoping that one day things will change.

I am off to CPE for the next two days and gaining all the new tax knowledge that I need for awhile. Well maybe a month or so...

Take care.

Welcome

I would like to welcome everyone to our new blog. We are soaking up the sun in Arizona and looking at each day as an adventure. I am a proud mother of three children. Two of our children are adopted from Russia. I have been married to my husband for 17 years and it has been a ride. I will be posting about our adoption journey, the precious side of life, and of course our family adventures. Happy reading!!!!