More Gerson & Elviz

These pics are from yesterday. No, I don't understand why my boys have on winter-wear again (????) Anyway, it looks like they must have liked their toys b/c they are still carrying them around :)

Sweet Gerson - I love his smile and his eyes are so beautiful :)

Handsome Elviz - He looks like such a little man here! What's with the wool sweater, Elivz?

Finally! I have a picture of Elviz smiling!!!!! Here is sweet Sara any my boys in the background. . . Sara's story really inspired us to want to adopt a waiting child (oops, I mean children!), so I love it that she & the boys are together right now.

Pictures of the Boys & Something's in the Water!

Guess what I've got??? New pics of Gerson & Elviz!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to Jane :) She is in Guatemala visiting 2 of her kiddos, and she was sweet enough to hand deliver a package to my boys and take some pictures for me!

Look who we have pictures of ;)

Handsome boys!!!!

I want my Diego toy back now!!!

We are so excited to have these pictures. While I love getting pictures from the agency (I have new "tan couch" pics to post later), it is nice to see the boys "in action"! I cannot wait to meet these 2 - they look like such characters :) Gerson looks like a sweetie pie, and Elviz looks like he is full of attitude! It's so funny, because that sounds just like I am describing Parker & Brayden ;)

In other news, we had an EXCITING day at the beach yesterday! First, we saw 4 helicopters circling around for a long time. . . we concluded that they were either investigating a shark sighting or looking for a missing person. Hmmmm - either way, that is no good. Well, about 15-20 minutes after the helicopters flew away, we were playing in the water, and I saw A FIN!!!! Mom saw it at the same time. It was about 50 yards out, and almost directly in front of where we were. YIKES!!! So, we watched (and got O-U-T of the water), and it came up again and again. Mom, Peanut, and I all got a good look at it's back - it's back was flat, it was dark, and it's dorsal fin was not like a dolphin - it was a shark!!!! We (and the other people on the beach) followed it down the shoreline. It went down, circled around, started back our way, turned back around, and then out to sea. Then we saw a bunch of dolphins jumping up and swimming out. People were saying that it may have been one of the dolphins, but it wasn't. It was a shark. . . . a shark that probably had a dolphin lunch! Needless to say, we'll be spending the remainder of the week at the pool :)

Parker Gabrielle is 4 Months Old!!!

PG is 4 months old, and she is living it up at the beach!!!

Open Your Heart . . .

Way back when this blog started, it was a heart blog. . . this post is going back to our roots.

Congenital Heart Defects rank as the #1 birth defect, yet little research is done about what causes these defects and how to prevent them -- why? It's all about awareness and funding. Since you read this blog, you have seen first hand the impact that CHD research can have. Brayden Boy's heart surgery saved his life. It was not elective or advised to improve his quality of life - it was absolutely necessary. We were fortunate to be able to been somewhat elective with the timing of his repair, but many families are not so fortunate.

Brayden's CHD, Tetralogy of Fallot , was first described in 1672 and first identified and documented in 1888. . . the first repair was done in 1954. Research takes time and money. Somehow we've got to figure out how to prevent CHDs, how to repair them, and how to repair them in safer, less invasive ways.

The American Heart Associations holds annual Heartwalks around the country to raise awareness and research funding for CHDs. Please consider opening your heart and making a donation through one of our blogger buds. Sarah and Erin both have links to their donation page on their blogs, and I know that we would all appreciate your support. (Sorry Michael, I missed Sophia's KC Walk this year! I will try to do better next year :) )

**On a side note, I will be missing from blog land for a while. (Busy at work, busy at home, going on vacation) E-mail me if you need me for anything or if you've got big news to share :)

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July :)

Watching the parade with cousins Tia & Jordan :)

Ha ha - Jor Jor thinks I'm just going to sit here . . . I'm really going to make a mad dash up these stairs the second that she lets her guard down!!!!See, momma told you that I was "bright white". . .An accidentally cool pic --

Run, run, run, run!!!!

Smile, smile, smile, giggle!!!!

Vacation & Adoption Fundraising

I feel like I have to explain myself -- I don't know why, but I do. We are going on vacation in a couple of weeks. We will be driving to FL for a little fun in the sun. I am NOT looking forward to this vacation for a couple of reasons. The drive will be horrible for Brayden & Parker, and I feel guilty for spending any money on a vacation when I know that I will be asking people to support us in our adoption fundraising over the next few months. I would cancel the vacation, but we were already in the "no refund on the beach house" period before we even decided that we were really going to adopt again, and definitely before we knew that we were adopting 2 boys. Fortunately, we are splitting the beach house with my mom & sister, so it is a relatively cheap vacation. . . and we will only be participating in free activities and eating IN a lot!

Now for the adoption fundraising -- I am still trying to pull all of my thoughts together and get some things planned. Again, I will explain myself. . . many of you have been through, are going through, or plan to go through this so you know about it all too well, but some of you might not understand. So if you are confused by the fact that we need to fund raise for this adoption, here is my explanation:

You're right, we are not poor. We live a nice life. BUT there are a lot of expenses with an adoption (let alone two) . . . home study fees, agency fees, immigration fees, attorney fees for professional services, fees for the care of the children during the process, travel expenses, etc. Last time, we were able to save the money to cover these expenses, but that was with Michael working a full-time job + his self-employment and no kids. This time we are down a full salary, and we have 2 kids in diapers. . . the ability to save isn't quite the same. So, we are going to try to raise some of the money needed for the adoption through e-bay sales, a yard sale, a Pampered Chef fundraiser, magazine sales, and possibly through a spaghetti dinner & silent auction (any volunteers?).

We are not in a desperate situation. We do have the financial resources to raise these children. . . it is just hard to come up with the money to cover the upfront expenses sometimes ;) We are deliberately trying to choose fundraisers that provide a benefit to our supporters, and we only want people to support us in the way that they feel is most appropriate. What are some ways that you can provide support?? Here are a few that I can think of:

• Praying for us and our children. Pray that God gives us the strength, courage, and patience to make it through this process. Pray that He keeps Gerson and Elviz safe, healthy, and happy and that He prepares their hearts for their new family.
• Participate in a fundraiser (aka buy something!)
• Volunteer to help organize one of our events.
• Donate items to our yard sale or silent auction.
• Leave a comment on our blog just to say that you hope everything goes well or that you are thinking of us.
• Give us another possible fundraiser idea.

We really do appreciate all of the love and support that our family and friends have provided us (especially over the past couple of years)! And we know that there are already so many people who are supporting and celebrating our decision to adopt! THANK YOU!

My Shameless Plug for Sig's Blog

Super cool chick, Sig, is having a mad giveaway spree on her blog for the next 6 weeks. . . so I suggest you go there and try to win!!! E-mail Sig for access to the blog at SA3@aol.com , but please leave some prizes for me ;)

Pictures of Gerson

The biggest big brother deserves his own post, too!!! I still cannot believe that we get to adopt Gerson - I am soooooo excited :) Gerson is reported to be a very sweet boy (this shows in his pictures) and very protective of his baby brother -- oh, how that melts my heart!

Isn't this the sweetest smile you've ever seen on a boy???

Hangin' out with friends at the playground :)

The face of an angel . . .

How in the world I could end up with yet ANOTHER child this beautiful, I will never know. . .

The Montage is Back :)

Mom said she needed it back, so here it is :) You have to click it once to "activate" it, and then click play. . . enjoy!!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Important Update - The Montage is VOID!!!!

I am ***HAPPY*** to announce that the montage is void!!! We are not a family of five -- we are a family of SIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We knew that Elviz had a biological brother that was in the hogar with him, but he had already been matched with another family. Today we found out that the situation has changed, and we are adopting both brothers :)


I cannot explain the excitement and relief that Michael and I feel today! While we were excited to have Elviz's referral, we were heartbroken to think that these boys would be separated . . . they have been together their whole lives . . . and now they will STAY together!!!!!


So, we proudly introduce our sons, Gerson (pronounced like Harrison) and Elviz:

Gerson Misael, born 03/24/03

Elviz Eliezer, born 11/20/04

Catch Up on Pictures

Big shout out to Karen who got the call today - Abbie Faith is OUT of PGN!!!!! Yipee!!!!

Sorry I've not been keeping up the blog very well, but I have been busy. We were paperchasing up until last week, now we are trying get to some stuff ready for e-bay, and I've been busy at work so I'm having to work at home. I am planning to post some more info about the adoption and about our fundraising plans, but I'm not ready yet. We knew that we may get a referral pretty quickly, but we weren't expecting it this soon! Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks --

Bray-My is loving the pool this summer!

He is shaking with excitement :)

Parker Gab has really beautiful eyes, but they are so hard to photograph!!! Brayden Boy likes to wake up his baby sister on Saturday mornings. If you will look closely, you can see the PG has wet the bed - she soaks through her diaper EVERY night! Finally, I have evidence that my son smiles :) He's about to pelt me with this ball, otherwise he wouldn't have smiled for the camera!

Another attempt at the baby blues - still got some red eye!

P-Gab is a little scared here. . . I can't blame her. We never know if he's going to kiss her or try to poke her eyes out!!! But most of the time, he is just looking for kisses :)

This is one sweet, happy baby girl :)Check out this nice physique -- can you tell me where to find the weight room?And here is another nice physique :) Parker G is a super strong girl!

Please don't make fun of our dorky white board in the picture above, we have lots of appts to keep up with! I have not been doing a good job of posting about the medical stuff, but I do want to share that we got some good news this week - Brayden had another renal u/s last week, and the results showed that the hydronephrosis looks exactly the same as it did three months ago! This is good news b/c as long as it stays the same, we have nothing to worry about!!! He will have his next u/s in 6 months.

Slacker Bloggers!

OK, can anyone explain how THREE bloggers got together today and no one had a working camera???? We got to meet our blog buddies Kim & Alex and Autumn & Sophia today, and somehow we have no good pictures to show for it!!!! I brought my camera, but left the battery out of it, and the other two mommas had their batteries die while we were trying to take pictures -- are we slacker bloggers, or what?!?! I did get a couple of pics on the cell phone:

It was a real challenge to get all three tots in one picture - you can tell that they weren't all that excited about posing for us!!!

Uncle Peanut was right when he told Brayden that he might get a girlfriend today. Miss Sophia was hugging and kissing on my boy :)

It was so awesome to get to meet these families in person. AND let me tell you, these children are so adorable!!! Sophia was Miss Personality - she immediately ran over and wanted to play with Parker. She was very sweet, and she was extremely smart! I think she had the vocabulary of a 4 year old! Sophia is truly a beautiful girl. Alex, my man Alex - he is gorgeous! I cannot believe that he is only 13 months old b/c he was running around just like the bigger kids. I really mean running, too - that guy is fast! He looks all grown up with his new haircut, but he still has some curls in the back . . . I love curls!

Unfortunately, this year I did not get a picture of Brayden with Cinthya (our attorney for his case). I love that woman. . . I really believe that she is the real deal. When she saw us come in, she immediately popped up out of her seat and came over with open arms saying, "Briiiden, Briiiden!" (LOL, we found out before that they don't do that "aaay" sound in Guatemala) She had not seen us since the brunch last summer, but she remembered us and her first questions were about Brayden's surgery. . . that is love, people. I had a wonderful conversation with her, and she brought me to tears. I am so, so happy that we got to see her today, and I hope that we will get to see her when we are in Guatemala again!

After the brunch, we went by Jennifer's house to see how the Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale was going. Again - I am a slacker blogger b/c I took no pictures!!! Oh, well, maybe next time!

I just want to point out that I worked through my "touching issue" today - because I hugged Kim, Cinthya, and Jennifer :) Three people in one day - am I friendly or what?

Pictures of Elviz

For those of you who can't get the montage to play, yes, we are adopting again! Here are pics if you haven't seen them, or if you have and you just want to look at this gorgeous child some more --

Look at the sticks in his hands -- it looks like we've got another "all-boy" boy! Together, Elviz & Brayden, will have the sticks and stones to break . . . well, lots of things!

He looks so handsome with his haircut!

Just look at those lips! He is gorgeous!

How in the world I could end up with another child THIS beautiful, I will never know. . .

You are Invited - The Montage is ***NOT*** Here :)

The montage has been taken down temporarily -- until I can update it withe the June 28 news!!!!

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Happy Father's Day :) If I haven't mentioned it before, my husband is an AMAZING father. I mean, AMAZING people! And the people who have seen him with our kiddos can attest to that!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy. We love you so much!

Parker Gabrielle is 3 Months Old!

And she looks like she's ready to defend herself against big brother attacks :)

Family Picture

I'm am working on a new montage, but I'm not sure when it will be complete . . . I'm pretty sure you guys are gonna like it though!!! Hopefully, the big reveal will be soon :) While working on it, I realized that we have very few pictures of our family together! So, I've been making a conscious effort to get some, and here is a pic of us from today. Sure the picture would be better if Brayden were smiling, but this is the only shot that we got where he wasn't trying to whack Parker, so we'll take it!

Picture Post

This bath is over - I am pulling the plug!!!

Well, if he gets out, I want out too!!!

ARGH! I can't believe that Momma is making us pose in diapers!

Baby Sister, you need to work on rolling over. . . Let me show you. First you do this:And then you do this:Here, let me help you :)Hey, McKenzie Crew - thank you for this beautiful dress!