November 21st - a day to remember!

One year ago today was when we received Blake’s referral and our lives were forever changed. Click here to see the posts from this time last year. Here are a few of the lines from the post made about November 21st…

From Children's Hope: Heather, you are going to think I am nuts, but I wanted to get a hold of you before the weekend. I know this sounds crazy, but we have a three year old boy that just came available in Vladivostock (Vlad)…

I could not get home fast enough to see that picture! I used the time in the car to pray. Is this God testing us to see if we can do things according to His will? He knows I am a fanatic about planning and schedules. Is He trying to make me realize that not everything is according to my plan? When I got home Justin gave me a huge hug and I lost it. All of the emotion of the past day and a half was exhausting…

We have decided that we will call Children’s Hope on Monday and let them know that we would like to travel to meet this little boy. We are so nervous and scared, but we are excited all at the same time.

This is the picture we saw that day…



And this is Blake now…

November 14th...

It is coming up on the one year mark of some major events for our family. One year ago today our papers were mailed from St. Louis to Moscow. Here is what I wrote on the blog that day…

Off they go!

So we got this email today!

Dear Justin and Heather,
I have reviewed your Registration documents and everything is OK. Thank you so much. I am sending your documents to Moscow today, Friday, November 14. They will arrive in a couple of days. Once you are assigned a region by the Moscow office, I will contact you to let you know where that is. Then you will need to start working on Region specific documents. I will guide you through that process when the time comes. Congratulations on completing the next step in the process and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bischoff

My heart raced just reading it. I mean, I knew they were supposed to go out today, but to get the confirmation made me all nervous and excited!
----------------------
Justin and I both remember breathing a huge sigh of relief that we finally got to this stage of the process. We also both thought we had a few weeks to relax until we were assigned a region and then we would begin more paperwork. Little did we know God had other plans in mind….

It's been awhile!

So much to catch up on and so little time…

The birthday craziness was tons of fun. Blake began speech therapy at Western Illinois University two weeks ago. He seems to really enjoy it and is making great progress already. Our school district had a major case of the flu running wild through it the past couple of weeks. Somehow all of us missed the bug this time around. I thought I would just share some pictures that will show you what we have been up to.

October 22nd was Blake’s Harvest Night at his preschool. Madison decided I needed to dress as a hippie to complement her Groovy Girl costume. Brady wanted to be an Illini Super Fan and Blake is the most adorable monkey we have ever seen.


Our niece and nephew – Trevor (Darth Vader) and Alexis (Lil’ Devil) joined us.


Brady has begun swimming on the YMCA Dolphin swim team. He is very excited. It amazes me how much of a workout the kids go through. I am not that excited that there is a meet almost every Saturday for the next couple of months, but we’ll survive. Of course I had never even seen a swim meet in my life so we have a lot to learn!




This past weekend was so exciting for us! Ryan, Sandy, and Bodi True came to visit from Colorado. We met them while we were in Russia in April and really connected with them. It meant the world to us that they would take time to fly to the Midwest just to see us. We are blessed to have them in our lives. Here is Blake and Bodi.


We carved pumpkins on Sunday after church. My sister Glennda joined us along with Alexis and Trevor. Bodi missed the action though cause he was napping. Blake seemed to enjoy it at first and then lost interest part way through. He did get a kick out of seeing them glowing at night though!





Sandy was a big help to Madison, and Madison loved having Sandy’s attention!


Brady chose a very complicated design and welcomed help from Ryan.

Here is Bodi with his look-alike jack-o-latern.


Bodi would have let Madison haul him around on her tractor for hours (never mind that she is still in her dress and tights from church!)


Blake wanted in on the action too so they came up with this arrangement!


We took a walk out by our pond. Here are Bodi and Sandy.



Maddie and her daddy!


Brady really enjoyed taking everyone for a ride on the ‘bumblebee’!


On Monday, Justin took the True’s out on the farm!



What a great way to spend the weekend!


Hopefully it won’t be so long before my next entry. This weekend we will go trick-or-treating. I am sure Blake will love it! We have been praying for Justin and all of the farmers. This harvest continues to be very trying. Patience is wearing thin and spirits are low. We are hoping things begin to look up soon!

Overstreets 09 - Mary Efflandt Photography

Overstreets 09 - Mary Efflandt Photography

So I was trying something new...On webpages is often says 'publish this page to blogger' and I wanted to see what it did. It creates a title and an actual entry. The tech geek in me likes it! These are the lastest pictures of our family - just click on the blue link. Thanks again Mary!!

Birthdays continue!

I haven't had time to blog at all. Brady celebrated his 9th birthday last Saturday. Miss Madison turned 7 today!!! We have been crazy busy, and my dear husband has yet to start harvesting. Never a dull moment. I hope to get some pictures on here soon.

Happy Birthday Blake!

I hope to have time to add some pictures from Saturday's birthday party soon. In the meantime, here is Blake's rendition of Happy Birthday.

He is singing "Happy birthday to me" "Happy birthday to me" Unfortunetly that phrase contains some of the letter sounds we are still working on, but I still think it is stinkin' cute.

Happy 4th birthday dear Blake!

Stirring Feelings

I am taking a break from preparing for Blake’s birthday party to get out something that has been on my heart all of September. On the 30th Blake will turn four years old. The age of four is when children are moved from the baby home to orphanages. The orphanages then are where they stay until they are forced to leave at the age of 14-16. I know that there are horror stories out there about orphanages, and I know that there are stories of well ran orphanages, but I have just been thinking about the what if’s….. I cannot even fathom the idea of our little Blake going to live with teenagers. The children lose their innocence so fast and experience things that no four year old should ever experience. My stomach just hurts thinking about it. What if we hadn’t listened to our hearts? What if we listened to the people who suggested international adoption wasn’t for us? What if God wouldn’t have kept redirecting us every single time we tried to turn away? I am so very thankful that Blake did not have to make that transition from the baby home to an orphanage. Instead he transitioned from the baby home into the hearts of Justin and I and all of our family. For this I am grateful. I have been haunted for days with pictures of some of the other children. There is the little girl that I wrote about while we were in Russia. When she looked into my eyes it was as if she we trying to tell me her entire life story with the sorrow in those eyes. There was a little red head girl who came up to Justin and I both just wanting attention. There was the little girl whose hair was recently shaved and the little boy whose little tights kept falling down because the elastic was worn out. I could go on and on. Of course we knew we would be changed forever once we went down this path, but sometimes the burden one feels can be unbearable. I will continue to pray for those children. I pray that they too will find the love that all children deserve to experience.

Here is a picture of Blake saying goodbye to his little group mate (the one I was really drawn to).