Court Today & Exciting News

Wow! I can not believe our court date FINALLY came. This has been such a long exhausting month. Our car broke down and was beyond repair. So here we are adopting two kiddos and we need a new car. We also had lots of sick - Milana had strep. I had bronchitis.Milana had surgery. (She had her tonsils and adenoids out and new tubes put in). Riley also got in on the sick action. As I said, it has been a long, exhausting month.

There was also the waiting. The day we found out our court date was amazing - other than that was also the day we found out we needed a new car. So through the sick and the car issues we continued to wait. We woke up this morning expecting an email about court. We waited for what seemed like forever. Finally the amazing Shelley emailed me around 12:30 to tell us our adoption was granted! Oh this was amazing news! Our little ones are finally ours!

Now we have some more waiting to do, but we are another HUGE step closer to our little ones! We hope to travel in 4-6 weeks to pick them up and bring them home FOREVER!!! We are all beyond excited.

The day got even better when we found out that Sevenly is once again supporting Reece's Rainbow. This time they are supporting families that meet a certain criteria. WE are lucky enough to be one of those families. Here is the link to this week's sevenly campaign:
http://www.sevenly.org/campaign/reeces-rainbow/

Here is a list of the families that will benefit from this campaign:
http://reecesrainbow.org/category/s14

Please consider supporting Sevenly and these families. Adoption is amazing. It truly is! It is also very expensive. It seems things always break when you are adopting. In addition to us having to get a new car we've had to replace our upstairs heat. Our upstairs AC has broken - fortunately we don't need it right now. We've also had a few other things break. You get the picture. It is always something. It is just the way.

If you are interested. Here is the link to the angel tree kids. Some have found their families and many, many others are still waiting. Maybe your little one is there. Or maybe there is a little one you want to put a little something in their grant fund. I know their future family would really appreciate it!
http://static.reecesrainbow.org/angeltree2013/

Counting My Blessings

I was sitting here drinking a cup of tea and enjoying the quiet - well quiet for my house. Chris is napping and Milana is loving life as she is playing upstairs with her sisters in their room. So here I sat sipping my tea and enjoying a piece of my friend Renee's delicious toffee. As I sipped my tea I got thinking about how blessed we have been in our adoption journey. 

I cried out for help a few weeks ago. Within minutes I had one friend start up a Damsel in Defense fundraiser for us. All I did was ask for fundraising ideas and she messaged me right away with this amazing fundraiser! A few minutes later another friend messaged me telling me that her adoption was almost fully funded and asked if I would like the items she was going to auction off. She mailed them to me the next day. Another friend started a chocolate fundraiser for us while she was still in her son's country picking him up. Not even done with her own adoption and here she was helping me with mine!

I've had a friend bid on the majority of my auction items when there were no other bids. I've had friends donate to our fundraisers, auctions, fsp, etc. I am just so grateful to all of those who have been helping us throughout this incredibly exhausting journey! I hope everyone knows how much I appreciate them for their roll in supporting us!

We still have such a long way to go. Right now we need about $11,000 to be fully funded. I know we will get there. I would like it to be sooner rather than later, but I know we will eventually get there.

Just last week as I was starting to stress a bit I had an unexpected surprise. A friend/co-worker started telling me how she wanted to help us raise money for our adoption. I was so caught off guard when she started to tell me all about her idea. Then of course I started to cry! (I'm pretty sure she thought I had lost my mind).

So today I am counting my blessings. Each and every person who has donated, prayed, listened, sent kind thoughts our way, or shared our story YOU have been a blessing to us!. Thank you for being such a blessing to us on this journey. It can be tiresome. In the end it is so very worth it! It helps to have you all along for the ride with us. Thank you all so much!

***The quiet did NOT last. As I typed I had children either talking to me or jumping on me. One was trying to climb through the tv. If I was rambling - and I usually am - I blame it on the kids and the dog too. He has now joyed the mayhem :)

This Is The Post Where I Beg For Help

First, I really have to thank everyone who prayed for things to start moving. Yesterday we got our I800 approval! This was a complete surprise to me because I called USCIS last week and our paperwork hadn't even made it to our Officer's desk after having been in the building for almost 3 weeks. So thank you! This was HUGE!!

I'm still a little confused about all that needs to happen next. Right now I am waiting on some information from the National Visa Center. We have to have our Article 5 Interview and then I believe Court. There is so much to keep track of!

What I do know is that we still have quite a bit of money to raise. I'm not good at all at asking for help. (If you don't believe me ask Chris. He will tell you). I was once told that if I don't ask for help, no one will know that I need it. So...with that said here goes...

We could really use your help! We still have the rest of our agency fees that we have to pay as well as all of our hotel, food, travel, some medical stuff, etc for our 2nd trip. Please continue to pray for our family - that we raise the rest of the funds we need (and fast) and that things continue to move quickly so that we can get our children home where they belong!

Feel free to share our story, pray, donate, whatever you feel you are able to do. We appreciate any and all help we can get!

If you are able to donate it is tax deductible through this link:

http://reecesrainbow.org/53171/sponsorwojcik

Thank you so much!

Down Syndrome Awareness

Our family and the Ferguson Family were recently interviewed about our adoptions as part of Down Syndrome Awareness Month. It was exciting to share our adoption stories.Here is the link to the pictures from the interview:

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/gallery?section=news/local&id=9282552&photo=1

Here is the link to the actual inteviews:

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9282366

An update...sort of

It seems like a lifetime has gone by since I met our newest little ones. I can't believe I got to hold them and love on them and then had to leave them and come home. It seems a bit cruel to everyone involved. 

I did enjoy  my time with them more than you could imagine, but boy was leaving incredibly difficult! 

The time I had with them wasn't nearly enough. It is hard to get to know someone is such a short time so I can't really say what they will or won't be like when they come home. 

What I do know is that we are all anxiously waiting. 

We are waiting for our I800 approval. It has already been three weeks since we sent it. Hopefully it will be approved quickly. Right now it just feels like everything is moving in slow motion.

While we wait we are working on some fundraisers. We currently have an auction going on. 

Any fundraising ideas you have would be greatly appreciated! We still have quite a bit of money we need to raise in order to bring our littles home. 

If you are the praying type please say a prayer for our adoption - that things start moving quickly and that we raise all the funds we need quickly.

Thank you so much!

Special Guest Blogger - Gillian Marchenko

You guys are in for a special treat today! As part of Down Syndrome Awareness Month I have a VERY special Guest Blogger today. Please enjoy this post by Gillian Marchenko - Author of Sun Shine Down A Memoir.

It is an amazing book and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a child with Special Needs - biological or adopted. Even if you don't have a child with Special Needs I think you will enjoy it as well. This book is so well written. Gillian is completely honest in her feelings and holds nothing back. I love this about her!

Enough of me and my rambling.- I'd like to turn this over to Gillian now.

It’s supposed to rain later today.

My left arm aches.

I broke it in two places, two different times in my childhood, and now sometimes when the weather changes it aches, either up near my shoulder or in my wrist; the places it broke.

The aches remind me of those times; the agony and pain, the fear of being in an emergency room as a child, spending the night for the first time in a hospital, getting attention from classmates and extended family, people signing my cast, ‘Get well soon!’. Me trying to itch the inside of my cast with a hangar, not being able to swim for half of a summer because I couldn’t get my arm wet. Being a bit doped up on the medication to ease the hurt.

My broken arm became my whole world. How could it not be when the pain was great, instant, and overwhelming?

At the time there was no way of knowing that the pain wasn’t going to be my new normal.

For all I knew I could be in that kind of fear and pain for the rest of my life.

I went to the hospital and got help. The excruciating pain eventually turned into a dull ache and then only, a flimsy itch.

Life went back to normal. I was found splashing around in the kiddie pool within eight weeks.

But a dull ache returns now and then.

And I am reminded that at times in my life, I’ve been broken.

Recently I went to four parent-teacher conferences for my kids in two different schools.

I was prepared to discuss each kid, I thought. But when I sat down with Polly’s teacher (who has Down syndrome and stars in my recently published memoir, Sun Shine Down), I was surprised to read that she hadn’t met her goals. After a whole year at school Polly still couldn’t figure out classroom procedures. She struggled with transitions every day.

Polly was cute and everyone loved her, but basically she was still just walking around making messes in class.

And the dull ache, the fact that I had a child with a disability started up again.

Polly’s birth shattered me. I teamed up with Jesus and my husband Sergei to put myself back together, but much like that pesky jigsaw puzzle you’ve almost completed, a few pieces were lost in the mix, and now I walk around with empty spaces.

Most of the time the spaces are used for good.

I have more compassion for others.

I understand grace better.

I relate to others through my brokenness.

And sometimes it feels right.

But there are other times when it still breaks my heart that Polly is behind her peers.

I am OK with Down syndrome.

But there will always be days in my life where the rain will come.

And because I’ve been broken, I will ache sometimes.

It doesn’t mean I love my kids less or that I wish my life was different.

It just aches.

And that’s OK, I think.

Author bio:

Gillian Marchenko is an author and national speaker who lives in Chicago with her husband Sergei and four daughters. Her book, Sun Shine Down (http://goo.gl/3hFdH9), a memoir, published with T. S. Poetry Press in the fall of 2013.

She writes and speaks about parenting kids with Down syndrome, faith, depression, imperfection, and adoption. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicago Parent, Thriving Family, Gifted for Leadership, Literary Mama, Today's Christian Woman, MomSense Magazine, Charlottesville Family, EFCA Today, and the Tri-City Record.

Gillian says the world is full of people who seem to have it all together. She speaks for the rest of us.

Connect with Gillian on her website www.gillianmarchenko.com, on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GillianMarchenkoPage) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/GillianMarchenk).

Amazon link for Sun Shine Down: http://goo.gl/3hFdH9

Trip 1 - The Trip There

I can't believe I met my little ones and have been back for a week already! This journey has been so different than our journey to Milana. I didn't bring my laptop with me so I didn't blog once while in Eastern Europe. Although truth be told, I really didn't have a ton of time.

I left Raleigh on Saturday September 21, 2013. I got to RDU a bit earlier than necessary so that Chris could get the girls to their soccer game. I had a lovely time just relaxing and watching Downton Abby. The flight from Raleigh to London was a bit bumpy here and there. It wasn't too bad otherwise. The airline fed us dinner and breakfast so that was nice.

When we got to Heathrow we had to hover around in the clouds for awhile until they told us we could land. I only had about an hour and a half to make my flight to B so I was getting a bit nervous. When we landed I booked it to where I needed to go. Everywhere I went I had to wait in a line. I told anyone who would listen (who worked there) I needed to catch my flight. No worries...no one seemed concerned (other than me). I was assured by person after person that I WOULD make my flight. Sadly, they were wrong.

I finally got where I needed to be only to find out they gave my seat away. Yes, you did read that right. They gave MY seat away. To say I was unhappy was an understatement. I still had about 27 minutes until my flight left. It had only been boarding for about 15 minutes, but they gave it away. So I went to yet another line to stand in to book another flight. After waiting about twenty minutes I finally was able to talk to someone although there were no more direct flights. Fabulous. I was now going to fly from London to Zurich to B.

I was scrambling like crazy to try to email everyone and anyone I could so that the person picking me up from the airport could be notified and not stuck there waiting. The wifi in Heathrow was pitiful! I was able to send an email, but that was it. After that no more wifi :(

As soon as I got on the airplane the pilot came on and told us there was a ton of fog in Zurich and that we were going to sit on the plane for about an hour. Seriously?? I almost started crying as I only had about an hour layover in Zurich before my flight left for B. All I kept thinking was "What are the chances of missing TWO flights in ONE day?"

Fortunately we took off about 30 minutes later. When we got to Zurich I ran as fast as I could to the next terminal. When I got there I was so afraid I had missed my flight. You can imagine my relief when I found out I didn't miss it. It was actually going to be leaving a little late. Phew!!!

I made it to B a little over 3 hours late. BUT...I made it! I was so relieved when I got off the plane and not only was my luggage there, but my ride to the hotel was there as well!

It certainly wasn't a dull trip to B. It did leave me wishing I had had some company along the way :)

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I am so behind in my blogging. These last couple weeks have been a whirlwind! All I can say is at least I managed to get in a short Gotcha Day post a couple of weeks ago.

Just a couple days after celebrating our 3 year Gotcha Day Anniversary with Mila, Chris and I celebrated our 14th anniversary. A few days after that was Mila's 6th birthday. I did take some pics which I will eventually post. They are super cute! A couple days after our girl's birthday was her 3 year anniversary of being home with us and then the following day was Chris's birthday. As I said...it's been a busy couple of weeks.

I have also been trying to get ready to head out of the country to meet the little ones. (Yay)!!! I really didn't do such a fabulous job of getting ready seeing as though I didn't pack until this morning. I can't believe I am finally leaving to go meet them! I wish they could come home this trip! I know it is going to be so difficult to leave them. I just keep telling myself that we are just one more step closer. Oh....I can't wait to love on them!!!

3 Year Gotcha Day Anniversary

On September 8, 2010 I picked Milana up from her Orphanage and took her out of that place forever. Unfortunately, our Gotcha Day was a rushed event. When we got to the Orphanage it was nap time. The caretakers had to wake her up and I was told to hurry up and get her ready so that we could go :(
I would have liked to have taken pictures of her with some of the caretakers. I would have like to get one of those nice pictures everyone seems to have where the parents are carrying their little one out of the orphanage forever. I don't have any of those. I am grateful that I have some pictures from that day. This one was taken at the apartment we were staying in when we got back from running around like crazy people. 

Mila was SO tiny. None of the clothes I brought with me fit her. I bought these clothes in country. As you can see - even those were too big. Three years later those shoes are still a little small.

 This is what Miss Mila looks like today - September 8, 2013. Look at how much she has grown! She is still tiny compared to other children her age, but she has grown SO much! Happy Gotcha Day baby girl :)

August 27, 2010

On this day 3 years ago Chris and I sat in a court room in Ukraine in hopes of officially becoming Milana's parents. The judge talked a lot and asked a lot of questions. He went over our entire dossier while we sat and listened to him speak in a language quite foreign to us. Our facillitator translated and told us when and how to answer when he asked questions of us.

Before rendering his decision the judge went back to his office. Eventually we were called back and given the good news that he would allow us to be Milana's parents.

And so began the ten day waiting period....

Just thought I'd stick a fairly recent picture of Milana on here.

I really love this picture of her. It shows off her wild and crazy side. Wait..is there another side??

We Have Travel Dates!!!

Four weeks ago our dossier was submitted in our children's country. We waited anxiously for travel dates. About a week and a half ago we had heard that we most likely wouldn't get our travel dates until sometime in September because the government was on vacation for the rest of the month. Regardless I continued to check my email in hopes that there might be something. I checked EVERY day SEVERAL times a day. (Wouldn't you)?

Last Friday life got a little more hectic than usual. Checking emails was not an option. The thought of travel was so far from my mind. Flash forward to yesterday. It was a teacher workday. After spending six hours in trainings my team and I decided to head to Panara for something to eat. As the car turned out of the school parking lot I realized I had tons of emails. I started deleting emails and then screamed. I had a travel date. There in my inbox was an email from Shelley - gosh I love that Shelley. Talk about a wonderful surprise! Our travel dates came when I was least expecting them. I love it!

So...in a month I will finally get to meet our two newest little ones. If you have adopted before then you know how excited I am! The thought of finally getting to hold them, play with them, snuggle them, love on them is just so amazing. I start to tear up just thinking about getting to meet them. If only I could bring them home at the end of this trip. Sigh :(  That is not how things work in their country. I understand that. It stinks a big one though. For now I will just be happy knowing that I get to meet and hold and love on my babies! Feeling so very grateful :)

Family Fun At The Beach

Cards For A Cause Fundraiser

We have been given a wonderful opportunity to fundraise for our adoption. We will be selling these beautiful handcrafted greeting cards in order to help raise money to bring Danny & Riley home. At this time we will only be selling them locally as it is a bit expensive to ship them. If you live in the Raleigh/Durham area and are interested in purchasing one or more of these sets of cards please let me know.

The cards are just $30 for a box of 30 cards. Box 1 contains 30 handmade all occasion, individually designed and embellished greeting cards and coordinating envelopes in a keepsake box. Box 2 contains 30 handcrafted and novelty cards for kids, with matching envelopes and funky stickers. These cards come in a convenient magnetic storage box.

Feel free to share this information with your friends and family. The more boxes we sell the more money we raise to bring our little ones home!

Thank you so much for your support :)

Winner of our 2nd American Girl Doll Fundraiser

Once again I would like to thank everyone for your support! Thank you to everyone who donated and/or shared our American Girl Doll Fundraiser.

And now for the winner. The winner is.............Sally P. Congratulations Sally :)

Back By Popular Demand - American Girl Doll Fundraiser Take 2

It seems that this was quite the popular fundriaser. After drawing a winner yesterday I received a couple of donations marked specifically for this Fundraiser. I started emailing people and they asked if I was doing another and if so to hold onto their donation for the next one. This morning I woke up to a couple more donations. So....I guess this IS the next one. No sense putting it off.

Once again, as soon as we get 20 donations of $20 we will draw a winner. Donations can be made through paypal to djennifer2@yahoo.com. This is helping us bring our two angels home - Danny and Riley.
www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorwojcik

As always we thank you for all of your support! Good luck to everyone :)

Today Was A Good Day

Today was such an amazing day. It started when I checked my email at about 6:20 this morning and saw that I had an email from Shelley telling me that our dossier had been approved yesterday and we had gotten our verbal referral. Now all we are waiting for is a signature from the Minister so that we can get our travel dates.

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this - how excited we all are. I am a ball of nerves just thinking about meeting our two little ones. I can NOT wait!!! Oh...to get to hold them and hug them and just love on them!!! It's going to be difficult waiting for that signature! I hope and pray that we don't have to wait too much longer to get to go meet them!

The other reason today was such a good day was that I got a fabulous package in the mail. This fabulous package contained a jar of dark chocolate toffee and a jar of white chocolate tofee. It is SO delicious!!!  If you have ever tried Renee Tam's Smitten goodies you will know why I was so excited. If you have not tried them....well you should! Talk about delicious!!!

Hope everyone had as good of a day as I did! Thanks for all of your love and support!

Thank you and The Winner....

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has donated and shared our fundraisers. I really appreciate all that you do to support our family on this journey! You are all fabulous :)

I'm guessing you are all interested in finding out who won the American Girl Doll. The winner is....Adrienne Kerwin. Congratulations Adrienne and thank you for supporting us!

American Girl Doll Fundraiser

We just found out the other day that our dossier may be submitted to our children's country this week. This is VERY good news! Once we are submitted we will receive a travel date shortly after to go to our children's country and meet them. We are excited and nervous all at the same time!

We are doing an American Girl Doll Flash Giveaway Fundraiser in order to raise needed funds for our upcoming travel to their country. Once we get 20 donations of $20 we will draw a winner. The winner will get to choose the doll they would like.
Donations can be made through Paypal to djennifer2@yahoo.com. 

Thank you so much for supporting our family!



**Donations made through Paypal are NOT tax deductible**

Fabulous News

I feel like I finally have something to share and I can't figure out what I want to say. Ugh! Isn't that always the way?

Let me back up to Friday. I was on facebook on Friday and saw so many great things were happening within our little adoption group. I was so excited for everyone. Then it hit me. I still hadn't heard anything from USCIS. So I called and again got their voice mail. (I think they were screening their calls).

All day I waited for a phone call that NEVER came. Later in the day I walked up to the mailbox....slowly. As I opened the mailbox I PRAYED one last prayer that our approval would be there. IT WAS!!!

Chris & I went to the bank that afternoon to get our document notarized. Woo hoo! That was the last paper we needed for our dossier!!!

This morning it was time to get a couple of forms apostilled - our USCIS approval, our Homestudy Addendum, and a form we had tried THREE other times to get apostilled. I went with Riley, Peyton, and Milana to drop them off. The girls and I said a prayer then and there for them to apostille all of our documents.

At the end of the day we headed back to pick up our documents - praying once more that they would be ready. We were beyond thrilled when they were all apostilled - even the form they refused to do three times before. 

After picking up our documents we were off to the Post Office to mail the rest of our dossier. (Most of our dossier is already in Eastern Europe waiting for the last few documents to arrive).

Once our documents get to our children's country they will translate them. There are some issues going on within the government there which may hold things up for us and so many others. If you could say a pray, send good thoughts, etc. that the government issues get fixed quickly we would appreciate it. We need things to get straightened out so that our dossier can be submitted and we can be invited to their country to meet our little ones.

Look at these precious faces!!! We want so badly to be invited to their country to meet them and get to love on them. 

Aren't they just so adorable?

We sure think so!

Today we got moved to the Almost There page on Reece's Rainbow! This was yet another exciting part of my day. It is so nice to move over to the next category. I can't wait to move to "Traveling Now." One day we will be there.

In the meantime we have to continue to fundraise. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to help us bring our little ones home we would truly appreciate it. Here is the link to do so:

http://reecesrainbow.org/53171/sponsorwojcik

You  could also help by sharing our link, praying, sending positive thoughts, etc. Right now we are doing an Usborne Book Fundraiser. If you would like to order a book to support our adoption you can go to:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/286817031455790/

Thank you so much for all of your love and support!

We Have A Winner....

Before I announce the winner I would like to first thank my sweet friend Kristin for donating the Wii U. Without this donation there would be no Wii U Giveaway. So THANK YOU Kristin! I appreciate you donating the Wii U for the giveaway as well as ALL of your support in rallying folks to get donating! Thank you :)

I also want to thank all of YOU! Thank you so much for donating, sharing, and praying. This means so much to us all! Adopting is huge and we appreciate all the support we have gotten. Please keep it coming!

Okay...I know you are ready for me to stop my rambling and announce the winner. So.....the winner is......Valerie C!!!!

Congratulations Valerie!!! I hope you enjoy your brand new Wii U!

Waiting

It seems we are once again in "The Waiting Place." It is not the most exciting or fun place to be, but it is where we are and we are trying to make the most of it. If that is even possible.

We have been done with our dossier minus our USCIS approval for quite sometime now. We sent in our application for USCIS at the end of April. We were hoping it would be a quick process. (When we brought Milana home it was two weeks from the time we sent in our application until the time of our approval).

Needless to say it has not been quick. Fine. I can live with that if I HAVE to. I don't like it, but what can I do. I'm (sort of) learning to be patient here. Well we got our fingerprint appointment and went on May 16th. A week went by and still nothing. I called - no Officer assigned to our case. Sigh. Keep being patient! I called again and found that a letter was being sent to request more information. UGH!!! More waiting.

Once the letter came I sent it to our Social Worker and our Adoption Agency to make sure we got what we needed this time around. Over two weeks later I got the necessary paperwork for USCIS from our Social Worker. Now we are just waiting on our oversight letter from our Adoption Agency and then we will FINALLY be able to send all the needed info to USCIS.

I hope and pray the oversight letter comes tomorrow AND we get approved (and that we get approved quickly). If you pray PLEASE pray that we get approved quickly once everything is sent in to USCIS. Once we have our approval we can send that last piece needed to complete our dossier to our children's country in Eastern Europe.

Waiting is hard for us. It is SO hard. I want to go to their country and meet them and hold them and just love on them. We are all eager for that invition to their country.

Look at these beautiful faces. Can you see why waiting is SO hard??

This is our little guy. He is listed as Danny. (Not his real name) Isn't he handsome?

This is our little girl.

She is listed as Riley. (This is not her real name).

Isn't she gorgeous???

 Even Milana is having a tough time waiting. She keeps asking when they will be home. She has BIG plans for them when they do. She is already trying to get her way in where everyone will sleep. She is so eager to be a big sister!

Thank you so much for your prayers, good thoughts, well wishes, donations, etc. We are so grateful!

Fundraiser Sunday - Please Help

One of the hardest parts of the initial stages of adoption is the fundraising. If you've had to fundraise you get that. We have not had huge amounts of success thus far with any of our fundraisers. Some of them have been pretty cool too. 

Our newest fundraiser is this Sunday from 2-4 pm. If you are local and would like to come PLEASE let me know. I'd love to have you! If you aren't local you can still help. Check out this website: www.brandimendenhall.noondaycollection.com. 

Orders can be placed online. You just need to be sure to note Wojcik Adoption Fundraiser with your order. 

This stuff is beautiful!!! There is jewelry, hats, bags, sandals, etc. I love that Noonday helps people in poverty AND wants to help spread awareness about Orphans! It is truly an amazing company. I'm so excited to have found it. 

Please consider joining us Sunday. If you love the stuff as much as I do and are able to order that would be awesome! Any prayers you can spare for our fundraising would be greatly appreciated. We are getting closer and closer o having our dossier sent to Eastern Europe. We are just waiting on ONE form. 

Thank you so much for all of your support!

Wii U Giveaway

First I want to thank my very good friend Kristin for donating this! I hope Michael wasn't too upset when you delivered the news that you were donating this to us so that we could use it to raise funds for our adoption. Sorry Michael :(

Your Mom is amazing!!!

I've given this giveaway a great deal of thought. My hope is of course that we get a lot of donations towards this adoption. International adoption is quite expensive and we could us all the help we can get! We are going to do this giveaway more or less the same way we did our ipad mini giveaway. Donations can be made to our FSP through Reece's Rainbow. Donations made to our FSP are tax deductible. If for some reason you would prefer to send it through paypal directly to us you are more than welcome to do so. Keep in mind that way is NOT tax deductible. Whichever you prefer is great.

Our tax deductible fsp:
www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorwojcik

or
paypal
djennifer2@yahoo.com

Now on to the details. We have a Wii U Deluxe Set (32 GB) that you could win by making a donation to our adoption. You can also receive entries by sharing on your blog, fb, twitter, etc.

You will receive the following number of entries:


$10=1
$20=3
$50=10
$100=30
$500 = 200
$1000 = 500

Sharing=FREE entry!!! The more you share, the more entries you will receive!!
Sharing on FB, Twitter or your blog will get you an entry. Just leave a comment below telling where you shared this fundraiser and your name will be entered.

Thank you so much for all of your support! Good luck :)

***Please don't forget to let me know if you donate so I have your name***
Thanks!!!

Where We Are...An Update

Well it seems that I am quite the slacker. I want to say that I did a MUCH better job blogging when we were in the process to adopt Milana. I suppose I could look back, but I'm just going to go with the thought that I did a better job blogging. It makes me feel better - whether it is true or not.

This time around - I don't know - it seems that life is just BUSY! I'm sure you can relate. There is just always something to do, somewhere to be, dinner to make, laundry to wash, etc. I don't know. I guess it was all there before. Who knows? Maybe we didn't eat. Seriously...we did. I guess I just stayed up super late to be sure to update my blog.

Anyway...here is where we are. We had our USCIS appointment on Thursday and had our last set of fingerprints taken. Now we just wait for our Golden Ticket. The USCIS gives us our approval to adopt...or not. Let's just pray for an approval! Once we have this last form we will have everything we need to complete our dossier. It will then be sent to our children's country where they will do a whole lot of work over there so that we can be invited to their country to meet our children. Wow! It seems like we are getting closer, but yet we are still so far away :(

This means that we have a lot of fundraising to do and fast! I'm hoping to have our next fundraiser going by the end of the day. That means that I will need to blog a second time in one day. We shall see if I can make that happen.

Please consider keeping us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to try to raise funds to bring our children home. If you feel you are able to make a donation or want to share our link it is:
www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorwojcik

Thank you!!!

Hope to get the details of the next fundraiser shortly!

We Have A Winner

First I really want to thank everyone for all of their support with our Ipad Mini Giveaway. I can't thank you guys enough for donating, sharing, praying, etc. We really appreciate each and every one of you. I wish all of you could win. Unfortunately, there can only be one winner.

I guess you want to know who won. Right? Okay, if you insist. The winner is...........Sarah Goodman!!!

Thank you again for all of your support! You guys are the best!

Love,

Jenn :)

Ramble Much?

Last night after we tucked Milana into bed and settled down to watch tv with the girls we heard a strange sound. At first we thought it was Nix whimpering, but he was sitting nearby and was fine. It took a minute to realize it was Milana crying. We ran into her room to find her still half asleep and crying.

It nearly broke my heart as my mind wandered. I started to wonder about all the times she may have woken up crying during the night with no one to hold her. With no one to tell her everything was going to be alright.

I can't begin to explain how grateful I am that she is home with us. How grateful I am that she has come into our lives. People think that these children are a burden. I assure you this little one is nothing of the sort. Does she try my patience? Absolutely! But she has done more for me than I can ever do for her. She is my baby!

She will always have a Mommy and Daddy and sisters who love her. A family who will be there for her when she wakes up crying in the night. She will never have to wake up sad and alone.

Pretty soon she will be a big sister. (Can you imagine)? Wow...Mila, a big sister?? I know she will be a great big sister to her little brother and sister. Just like her big sisters have been amazing to her. She is eager to get them home. We all are. I can't stand the thought of them alone. The thought of them crying in the night. No child should be without someone to love them.

Look at how much my sweet girl has grown in the 2 years and 7 1/2 months she has been home! Thank you to all who helped us bring her home and to all who are helping to bring our new littles home. Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!!

Love :)

Mary Kay Mascar-A-Thon To Bring Our Angels Home

 We have an amazing opportunity to raise money to bring our 2 cuties home from Eastern Europe and we need your help! We are currently doing a Mascar-A-Thon with Mary Kay Cosmetics. The fundraiser runs from now until April 21st.

We are selling the Mary Kay Ultimate Mascara. The cost is $16 which includes tax. For every mascara we sell we get $5 towards the adoption of our 2 angels.

 Turn up the wow with up to five times the volume. Take your lashes from simple to simply sensational with Mary Kay® Ultimate Mascara™, the most super thickening, superstar mascara from Mary Kay® ever! This exclusive, all-in-one formula delivers the benefits you love most – long, thick, voluminous-looking lashes that last all day. You get the exact amount of mascara you need for maximum plumping – without the clumping.




            If you are interested in purchasing some mascara and helping bring our angels home please go to http://www.marykay.com/lisamahoney   In order to place an order you must first sign in or register as a customer. Once you have registred you will be given delivery options, you can make your payment, and then there is a section where you can put your contact preferences and messages. In the message section you will be able to write that this is for the Wojcik Adoption Fundraiser. Please be sure to note this so that Lisa knows this is for our adoption fundraiser. (Lisa is the Mary Kay Consultant who was kind enough to put this fundraiser together for us)! Your final step is to review and place your order.   Please feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested in purchasing mascara! Also, if you are interested in helping us sell the mascara please leave a comment. Lisa has offered $50 in free Mary Kay products for the person who sells the most mascaras for our fundraiser!   Thank you so much for your support!

Upcoming Fundraiser at Defy Gravity

I am so exciting to be "hosting" our first live and in person fundraiser to bring our little ones home. We will be having our fundraiser next Wednesday April 10th from 7-9pm at Defy Gravity. In order to actually get to have the fundraiser we need a minimum of 40 people to join us for an evening of fun and jumping on trampolines.

If you are local and able to attend we would LOVE to have you join us! Please go to Defy Gravity's link and fill out the waiver at the top right. When you arrive tell them you are there for the Wojcik Adoption Fundraiser. Here is the link: http://www.defygravity.us/

If you aren't local please consider saying a prayer that at least 40 people show up! We would love this to be a truly successful fundraiser and would love it if the maximum 80 people showed up :)

We also have our Ipad Mini Giveaway still going on. If you are interested in that you can read about it here: http://www.jennandchrisandkpr.blogspot.com/2013/03/ipad-mini-giveaway.html

Thank you so much for your support! We truly appreciate it :)

Ipad Mini Giveaway!!!

We are getting to a place with our adoption where we really need to start kicking our fundraising into high gear. Our HS is just about finished which means the next step will be to send our USCIS application in (once the homestudy is complete). Once we get our USCIS approval we will have to get more fingerprints done. When we have final approval we can send our dossier to Danny and Riley's country. (These are not their real names).

In order to raise funds we decided that perhaps an Ipad Mini Giveaway might be fun. I have a brand new unopened Ipad mini (white) 16 gb with wifi  just waiting to be sent to the lucky winner.

Here's how you can enter. Simply go to our fsp www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorwojcik or click the picture of Danny at the top right of this blog. It will bring you directly to our fsp. Your donations made through our fsp are tax deductible.

You will receive the following number of entries:

$10=1

$20=3

$50=10

$100=50

$500 = 200

$1000 = 500

Sharing=FREE entry!!! The more you share, the more entries you will receive!!

Sharing on FB, Twitter or your blog will get you an entry. Just leave a comment below telling where you shared this fundraiser and your name will be entered.

This giveaway will end on May 4, 2013.

Thank you so much for your support! We really appreciate it! 

Today Was A Good Day

Today was a really fun day. We went to the mall to meet Lauren Potter from Glee. While there we figured we had to go to the Disney Store because...well we were at the mall and the Disney Store is fun. So we get to the Disney Store just as they are opening it up. The two women working there come up to us and ask the girls if they want to open the store.

 It was really cute! The ladies asked the girls if they knew any magic words. They tried all the magic words they could think of Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, Please, Thank you, etc. Finally they tried "Let the magic begin" and the store opened up. They all really loved it. They gave Milana a lanyard with Mickey Mouse on it.

 When we first got to the mall we waited patiently to meet Lauren Potter from Glee. Milana of course upon hearing that we were meeting someone from Glee started signing "Glee!" She kept asking to sing kareoke. (Milana is the only one in the house who will play Glee Kareoke with me. If Karissa stops by she will play it with me too).

 While waiting our turn to meet Lauren a really sweet woman told me that Milana reminded her of Lauren when she was little. Turns out that sweet woman was Lauren's Mom. I got to tell her a little bit of Milana's story - that she was adopted from Ukraine 2 1/2 years ago. I told her about our upcoming adoption. It was pretty neat. I really wished I could have talked with her more.

 When Milana walked towards Lauren the first thing she said was "Ohhhh!!!! She is so adorable!!" I love the way Milana and Lauren would look at each other. Lauren's mother told us to remember this moment when Milana is on tv! Milana certainly has the personality for all of that!

It truly was an amazing day. It was great to get to meet a tv star. It was even greater to meet at tv star who just happens to rock the same extra designer gene as my little Mila! Makes me realize that all the advocating that we have done for her in the 2 1/2 years since she has been home is more than worth it. She can and will do whatever she puts her mind to - oh wait...she already does that :)

On another note...we are working on the details of our ipad mini give away. Hoping to have a post up on that in the next couple of days. We would love your prayers and any support you are able to give - whether it be donating, sharing, etc. Thank you so much!

Snow In The South

Last weekend it snowed. It isn't the type of snow I grew up with in NY, but it was enough to make the girls VERY happy! They had so much fun playing outside in the cold, wet, stuff. YUCK!                                        

 Milana was packing snowballs and throwing them like a pro. Long after the girls headed indoors Milana was still pretending to pack and throw snowballs at everyone. (Not sure why the pictues turned this way).

 I could not get this girl to leave her hat and mittens on. Not even the hood. I could hear the caretakers at the orphanage yelling at me from thousands of miles away! LOL!

Friends Are Blessings

I have been contemplating what to write for this post for the last two days. I feel like every time I think I have the right words I lose them. It's important for me to get the words right because I want the people I am dedicating this post to know just how much they mean to not only me, but my entire family.

You see when we first started out adopting Milana we gained many amazing new friends. One such friend and her family live about 2 miles from our house. I met her three years ago when she showed up on my doorstep one day out of the blue with an outfit for Milana. She also bought a matching outfit for the little girl she was adopting. Since coming home Milana and Nadia have become BFF's.

Not only have Kristin and I become good friends, but our children have become close as well. Kristin's daughter Josi recently had her birthday party and invited Riley & Peyton. They were so excited to go to Josi's party and they had a blast. When it was time to come home they were so disappointed :(

Josi is an amazing young lady. You see, instead of asking for anything for her birthday Josi collected "Dollars for Danny" in order to help us bring our son home! When I heard that Josi was doing this I of course cried because I am afterall a crier. I told Chris about this right away and he agreed that our friends and their children were amazing! We can't thank them enough for all of their love, support, and prayers.

When I got to their house to pick the girls up from Josi's house yesterday she hugged me and told me that she prays for Danny every night. As if collecting money to help bring him home isn't a big enough gift this sweet, sweet girl is praying for him to come home! Josi you are such a gift!!! Thank you so much for helping us! Thank you to your Mom and Dad for being so amazing! I love you crazy girl!!!

Exciting News!!!

It feels like it has been an eternity since I last blogged. I can’t figure out for the life of me how I managed to blog as much as I did when we were in the process of adopting Milana. It just seems as though life takes over and there is no time to write or read blogs. I’m working on it, but I continue to prove to be a slacker in this area. I’m hoping with this bit of exciting news it will give me the added incentive to blog.


So…on with the EXCITING NEWS...we are adopting again! This may be old news as I posted it on facebook about a week ago, but maybe someone new might see it. Not to mention it IS super exciting!

This time around we are adopting a little boy. I can’t begin to tell you how exciting this is for all of us. I can only imagine that this little love will be super spoiled by his FOUR big sisters! Wow! Four girls and FINALLY a boy :) Chris will finally have another guy in the house!

You can check out “Danny” by clicking on this link:

http://reecesrainbow.org/53171/sponsorwojcik

Milana is super excited for “boy” to come home. Yes, she calls him boy – sometimes she will call him baby boy. She asks if he will come on a plane and play with her and stay in her house with her. When I tell her yes she yells “YAY!” and gives me a big hug. She has already asked if they can go to Disney when “boy” comes home. She has big plans for this little guy.

Peyton and Riley are just as excited. They have big fundraising plans – lemonade stands, they have are working on some art projects and even have some friends offering to create some original artwork to sell to help raise money. Oh! I can’t forget about the car wash they would like to have. The girls have also been asking to go on one of the trips to “Danny’s” country. We’ll have to see if we can make that work.

If anyone has any good fundraising ideas I’d love to hear them! Thanks :)