What our eleven year old said that changed others hearts...

I wanted to tell this story as soon as our friend's etsy sale was done but even though it is later than i wanted....i AM getting to it!

I don't know if you all went to the etsy shop but i pray that you did because her etsy shop  "shotsibaby" is incredible!  Anyway, when i wrote one of my blogs at the end of the sale i saw that there were donations that had been made by other people...more people than just Krista, Krista's daughter, her mother and our friend Angel.  One of those items that was not made by these people was not selling.  I had noticed it but didn't say anything until our eleven year old spoke up in the last hours and said what i had thought all along.  Here.....

Our precious Catherine (11 year old) was helping me with finding hair bows for Grandma to give to Sophina when she said, "Oh Mom, i would feel so bad if i was the one who made those and no one bought them. I am sure that they worked hard on them and then to not have anyone buy them, i would be so sad."
Anyone want to make an 11 year old heart glad? For $18 you can buy them all!  (i did have the picture of the doll here but it isn't working so i will describe it....it is a picture of a doll that is made out of a brown fabric, it is VERY simple with a black marker used for putting on a face.  It reminds me of an old rag doll.  Some have a tiny bow on the head or a piece of cloth on the bottom.  The arms and legs and body are just from the cloth being tied into knots.  VERY simple dolls.)

Within minutes i had responses.....two were almost immediate....." I just bought 2. They kind of remind me of orphan dolls. On the outside they might not look that special, but they have a lot of heart in them, and they're just waiting for someone to love them :)  I'm sad I didn't see their value the first time I ordered. I'm just glad I saw it before it was too late."

And then another friend said that she would buy ALL of them so that we could take them to the kids at our Ethan's orphanage......SOLD within minutes!!!  We now have FIFTEEN dolls to go to the orphanage with us!

Our daughters are having a heart for those who are hurting, for OTHERS

outside of our walls, for people who aren't like everyone else and i am so proud of them for having those hearts!  Ladies who write blogs about your children....if you see a MN address coming across your blog...it is probably our Victoria keeping up with what is going on with your adoption. She is 13 yrs old and LOVES keeping us up to date on all of you!  She lets us know when someone is in great need or someone has come home or all of the things that we write about on our blogs!  Then we have a daughter who is begging to come with to get Ethan so she can get the best photos of what life is like, of Ethan, of his leaving his orphanage...of his coming HOME!  We have another who has a husband who both have said that they are open to adopting children!  They haven't even been married a year and have had this discussion.

I am so very thankful for the road that God has brought us down through the gift of our precious Sophina!

Update on her...she is almost done with her antibiotics and is doing better.  We started feeding her through the mouth on Saturday afternoon (two days short of two full weeks being fed through the tube) and the first feeding was with our new PCA...it was AMAZING....and the next feeding with our family doing it.... AMAZING.... and the next and then the next...etc..... There are VERY few people on this earth who understand what a miracle this was!!!  HUGE!!!  Last night, the fight started up again.  What is hard is not knowing if she is just not growing right now and is NOT hungry or if it is a eating battle!  We used to have to have music on or read a book or do a regular 'dance and party show' to try to get her to drink and eat!  THEN that didn't work so then Ally would use her phone to keep her occupied and then she was the only one who could feed her her food...it was horrible!  I REFUSE TO GO BACK TO THAT!!!  SO, last night through all of today's feedings were HORRIBLE! Right back to the old days of REFUSING to eat!  I had never experienced anything like it with our other four daughters...but she just despises eating, drinking is right next to it!  SO prayer is still needed in this area as it is a HUGE TIME-CONSUMING ORDEAL that is EXCRUCIATINGLY exhausting!!!  No way to have you understand unless you have done it.

Another prayer request that is tied in with a praise is that we have had TWO people donate $100 this week!!!!!  That means that we are SO CLOSE to being able to write out our LAST of our adoption fees!!! THEN all we have to raise is our last two and one-half airplane tickets, hotel and food costs!!!  WE ARE SO CLOSE TO FINISHING the fees part!!!  We only need $800 to finish our adoption fees because of these two people and others who gave on our blog RR donation spot (which is tax deductible), our friend's etsy shop fund raiser and our savings (that we have been saving for this last fee during this time).  I am praying that the $800 can come in THIS WEEK so we can write out our check!!!  

We would love it if EIGHT people would give $100!!! OR if SIXTEEN people giving $50 or THIRTY-TWO people giving $25!!!  PLEASE DO WHAT YOU CAN!!!  PLEASE continue to pray for our family---for our Ethan in his country and us here, for our finances,  for our health, for transition when Ethan comes,  for preparing for his arrival, for Sophina's eating,  and for this $800 to come in THIS WEEK!  We are ALWAYS BLESSED, Connie for the crew