I just wanted to thank my wonderful niece, Cindy, for doing a fundraising campaign.  She is taking orders and contacting people about ordering tote bags from "31".  Because Misty and I are both new to the area, we don't know many people.  It is hard to do some of the fundraising things that work in other areas when you don't have many people to contact.   Sooo.... if any of you out there would like to help with a fund raiser, we would truly appreciate it.  I am sure two baby girls in an orphanage in Eastern Europe would be eternally thankful.  Every little bit helps reach the financial requirement necessary to complete the adoptions.  Misty and Dane are anxious to bring the babies home as soon as possible, and have been working diligently to that end. 

On another note, we have celebrated three birthdays in the last two weeks.  Aliviah turned a year old last week, Kegan was 20 on Monday and Rohan was 11 on Tuesday.  Baby "Morgan" will join this group next year.  Ferran will be 7 on June 8th.  I guess it is easier having half your grandkid's birthdays all in a three week period, but it sure is a lot of birthday cake!

An update on Ferran's birth certificate:  Papers from the pediatrician's office in Farmington should arrive here next week.  They will be sent on to the State of New Mexico, and we pray they will then issue the birth certificate. 

A Grandma's Point of View

Hi, I'm Jeannie and most know I'm Misty's mom.  I am going to try to write about the Anderson Adoption from a grandmother's view.  The one thing Misty is very short of is time, and it takes time to write a blog post.  The only reason we moved to Missouri from New Mexico in September was to be close to the family, never knowing we would be a part of this special time in their lives.

I thought I would add a few of the things that are going on, plus share a couple of "Thank You Jesus" stories.  As Misty has talked about, the paper work has been overwhelming and has taken not just hours but whole days.  They have made two trips to Springfield which is about 5 hours from here.  Every paper has to be notarized and certified and it has to be perfect.  So far they have had three meetings with the County Recorder.  It looks like those papers are now perfect!  Please help us pray that they can get a birth certificate for Ferran from the State of New Mexico.  They are having  a very hard time with that.  A special "Thank You Jesus" story was when everyone needed a physical check-up.  That doctor visit usually costs at least $100 each and they needed 11!  Our wonderful, Christian, family doctor charged $120 total.  He is also researching Down Syndrome to help take care of the girls.

Well, I'll save some of the other happenings for another day.       

And then there was Two!

This post has been a long time in coming, to be honest I don't get a lot of time on our computer! Mostly, I handle things on my phone. But making a blog post with my teeny tiny phone keyboard is not fun so I have kept putting it off!
As you know, if you follow on facebook, we have added a second baby girl to our adoption. No, contrary to popular belief, we have not totally lost our minds;) We just feel very deeply that we should do ALL we can to help "the least of these". Dane and I feel very strongly that we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus while we are here on earth.  That means that while we can and do pray for orphans all over the world, for us, being Jesus meant DOING something about the problem, it meant becoming "father to the fatherless". The more we have learned of the conditions in the baby houses in Eastern Europe the more we knew we had to do even more.  Adding a another child to our adoption doesn't double the cost in fact it's just a few thousand more. For just a "drop in the bucket" we could redeem another life, we could ransom a daughter! We felt we couldn't say no.
"Jolie" as she is know, is just 6 months younger than "Morgan" and 6 months older than our Aliviah! So, yes, we will have 3 little girls under 3!!  It will be crazy, I know, but SO worth it! These girls would spend their lives lying in a crib, with no one to hold them, no one to sing to them, no toys, no love. In all honesty the things I have learned about these baby house make my stomach turn. They keep me up at night praying God would hold our girls in the hollow of His hand, and keep them from the neglect and pain that is their lives right now.  The baby rooms are often silent, the little ones have learned no one will answer their cry, so they stop crying, they don't babble and coo because no one talks to them or engages them in any activity. They are often only changed once a day, to conserve diapers and washing. They are fed a slurry of potatoes and water in a bottle twice a day. They are left to die, no one cares, no one had a heart for them they are not the center of anyones world. I don't know why God allows such things to happen to the most innocent, I just know that He showed us what we can do about it. And we can't ignore the call. So we jump in with both feet and right now, to be honest, we are swimming against the tide, it is hard work. I believe Satan does not want these little souls redeemed, he wants them to rot, you see the very act of adoption mirrors what Christ did for us, He redeemed us and brought us into the family of God. We did nothing to deserve this adoption, He did it freely and with the greatest of love. Satan wants us to fail, and he works so hard to that end. But we must work harder! We have the victory, we are more than conquerors! We will succeed!!
Please pray for us, that everything will fall into place and we can get our girls in Gods perfect time!
Thank you So much for your donations and for your prayers, both are needed to complete this work!

What We're Up To

Life here was busy even before committing to adopt Morgan, now life has become insanely busy!!  But it' a happy kind of insanity! We have been busy painting and fixing and cleaning for our home study.
We now have an OFFICIAL button for our little adoption blog, all you do is click on it and it will take you to our Family Sponsorship Page. This is where you can donate to our adoption fund to bring Morgan home! If you donate to our FSP it is tax deductible if you send it straight to us, it's not.
Things are moving steadily, we are still thinking we will travel in September or October. One thing we've learned though, nothing is set in stone, you never know what might happen!

Matthew 25:40

Ah... where to start, I would like to think I could sit down and write a long elegant meaningful post introducing you to the new chapter in our lives, but I think I'll just write what's on my heart. 
Some of you who know me know that I was adopted. I always felt I would be the mom to an adopted child. Many times Dane and I would talk about adding to our family by adoption but the time never seemed right. So life sped on by as it always will and we got busy living life on a farm with 9 wonderful blessings. Then God asked us something, "What are you doing for the least of these?"
Um...Ah...You mean orphans and widows and those least of these? Our answer was, unfortunately,  nothing. We were busy living our lives making us happy, preferring not to see the agony and neglect of "the least of these".
Well, to make a long story short, the Lord showed us that we were to redeem the life of one of the least.
He called us to adopt!
An orphan.
With special needs.
From Eastern Europe.
Yep, we're still kind of reeling ourselves!! 
The peace that comes from being in the will of God is the best place to be though. Time and again God has given us confirmation that this is His will and His direction! So without further adieu may I introduce you to Miss Morgan.

She will be 2 in May and she is currently living in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. She has Down Syndrome, and we are very excited about bringing her into our family. She'll nestle in just right between Octavian and Aliviah!
We are starting the mountains of paperwork, and trying to get our house in order for the home study! This experience will be nothing short of miraculous and we are very exited to watch God work on Morgans behalf!
International adoption is not easy or cheap! From beginning to end it will be about $25,000! Now, like most of you, we don't have money like that just sitting around!!  When we prayed and asked God about the financial aspect of this adoption, we felt our answer was simply, "Trust". So we are trusting God for His provision for our adoption! We are continuing to put one foot in front of the other and are excited to watch our Heavenly Father work out the details!!
We do have a Family Sponsorship page set up on Reece's Rainbow, if you feel led to give to Morgans adoption and help bring her home we would be so grateful.  It hurts our hearts to think of her way over there without a Mama or Daddy to comfort her, love her and hold her, the sooner we can get there and make her ours the better.
We would also covet your prayer and will do our best to update our little adoption blog frequently. If you have any questions please ask. Thank you and may God bless you!

Here's a link to our Reeces Rainbow Family Sponsorship page

http://reecesrainbow.org/55889/sponsoranderson