Squares for a Sister Fundraiser

Final Fundraiser

 

*Each square can be bought for the amount listed in the box.
  (i.e. box 29 costs $29)

*You can send check, cash, or make a payment to our paypal account (Lindz_42@msn.com)
*Please notify our family if you send payment so we can mark off the square

Small Prizes

*There are 10 gift cards randomly hidden behind 10 different squares.  If you pick a square with a gift card associated we will notify you and send it to you immediately!

Grand Prize

*For each square purchased your name will go into our grand prize drawing as many times as the number on the square you buy. (i.e. square 132 gets your name in the drawing 132 times)
*Once Every Box is funded we will draw for our Grand Prize.

*Our grand prize winner will receive their choice between

These 2 grand prizes!!

***IPAD AIR 2 w/ 64GB***
***50” Vizio Smart Screen HDTV***

(we will do site to store pick up at your local Walmart)

 Here is our board. As squares get sponsored we will shade them in.  We will run this fundraiser for up to 4 weeks which will be through December 6th.  Hopefully we won't need that long!!

Now GOOOO!!!

  *red squares have been sponsored*

*Update*
We have extended our Fundraiser to last until December 20th.
We need to raise at minimum another $1,950 to be able to draw for our Grand Prize Winner!

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Not Our Plans But His

It is been our plan and hearts desire to adopt a child from India.  We've applied to our agency to adopt from India and have gathered all of our documents to have our homestudy written...for India.

BUT...

2 weeks ago, a video came across our computer screen.  The same way it did with Easton.  It captured us. We watched a beautiful 4 yr old girl sing, talk, run, and be a little stubborn. The only problem...she wasn't from India.

We talked a lot.  We prayed a lot. We decided to look at her file. She's so beautiful, she's physically healthy, and she's thriving. She's delayed and has some "stubborness" but we feel like we can provide structure to help her blossom and most importantly love!  She lives in a foster home where it appears she runs the show!  She's sassy and got spunk for days. We talked to adoptive mommas who brought home children with similar "personalities" and we felt God say "you need to take a chance on her".  We had such peace about this child, and quite honestly about her location. You see, she's in Bulgaria.  Bulgaria is familiar to us, we know the process and we love  the country. It excites us to think about going back, and as bad as we had our hearts set on India, if we were to go another route, Bulgaria would be the one place for us to do that.

So here we are, God's throwing another wrench in what we thought were the original plans, but at this point we should be used to that, haha ;)  We have peace with it, because last time, when God switched things up, we got the biggest blessing out of it!

We want so badly to commit to this precious child. We want her to be our daughter. We want Easton to be her big brother.  We want....BUT...

We asked what it would take to commit to her. To put her file on hold so that we could prepare the proper documents to bring her home. This was the answer we got..

"The NGO (bulgarian agency) that has her file just changed their policy and will require the full $4000 commitment fee in order to put her file on hold.  This was on top of $3,000 due to our American agency and $1000 due to our homestudy agency.Shortly after (about 2 months) another $9,000 will be due."

I think it's time we be very transparent.  If we commit to this child we need to have the funds available almost immediately.  And not just that, but we will need to have in total about $30,000 within the next 8-12 months.
Up to this point we've been able to save and raise approximately $4,800. So that leaves us needing around $25,000. If we had a few years to come up with this, we probably could. But God always works in situations where we aren't capable. I believe, I mean I truly believe, God can move this mountain, but I also believe He will use His people, His church, to meet this need.

If we are unable to come up with the funds, it's pretty simple, we will have to walk away. We will probably return to the India program, unless God continues to pull us back to Bulgaria.  I don't worry about us, but I worry about this precious child.  We are the only family that has come forward to inquire about her. I don't take that lightly.  If we say no, how long will she wait. Will she wait until she's 6 like Easton did? Will she wait longer? I don't know the answer to that, but what I do know is that we've cried out to God.  Lord, If you want us to have this child, you have to provide.  Lord, please move in your people to make this happen.  If it doesn't happen, Lord we will accept it and move on, but Lord please don't let this be the end.

With all of this being said. We knew we needed an avenue for people to be able to be a part of this. An avenue for people to give and here's what we've decided.  We strongly dislike fundraising, unfortunately it's a part of this process, but we understand this is how some people take part in the orphan crisis. Not everyone adopts, some are called to give, and that is every bit as important! So instead of coming up with a hundred small fundraisers...we're going BIG. This final fundraiser for us will help us raise $10,000 if it's successful yes $10,000!!!  We have a few other things in place for us to provide the rest hopefully through taxes, gift wrapping, our farm, lots of sacrifices, etc. along with applications to grants toward the end. In our next blog I'm going to explain the entire fundraiser so stay tuned, it's coming tonight! If you want to be a part of this, NOW IS THE TIME, please don't wait!

**UPDATE:  After receiving official documents on this sweet girl, there were several needs she had that our family is not prepared to handle.  We are devastated that we can not move forward with her adoption, but trust that this is all a part of God's plan.  It's hard to be so sure of something, then realize it's not the path your family needs to take. With that being said, our homestudy has been written and we are waiting to submit it to India. We are going back to our original plan with the India program and are excited to get past this phase and matched with a child.

1 Year Home

While I know we haven't quite met the 1 year mark (we are off by about 3 weeks), you can tell I've gotten really bad at this blogging thing, and figured while I had the time to sit down and do this I had better just do it!

Easton's growth over a years time has been incredible.  It's really hard to measure just how far he's come because he's learned so many new things in such a short amount of time.
We are finally caught up in the area of specialists. In fact we had our last specialist visit with his neurologist a few days ago who gave us a final diagnosis based on the  MRI with no real definite picture of what Easton's future might look like. 

At some point during Easton's birth, something happened, that possibly caused him to lose oxygen for a brief period of time. This caused some scar tissue/white matter to form on his brain and in return gives a diagnosis called Periventricular Leukomalacia. Basically what we can tell from this is that Easton has a very mild case and in return is not experiencing the difficulties that many children do who have this type of brain injury (Cerebal Palsy, Seizures, etc.)  The only thing he exhibits as a result of this is developmental delays and delays in motor control. His deficits would be very small had he spent his life in a family, but because we have 6 years of neglect and no interaction to add to this, he has much much farther to go in order to "catch up". But he's making it :)

For a while we had noticed his speech to almost regress. The sounds he had picked up, he was no longer using, and every word became the same "na" sound over and over.  Our ST believed this to be because he was gaining so much in his physical development that his speech took a back burner.  Now, however, we are seeing his speech take back off.  We can point to several members of the family and he will correctly tell us who "mama", "dada", "nana", and "papa" is although he can't make his "p" sounds so it's only "ahah"!!

He is using his "b"s again well and can tell you what a bus and ball is. He looooves school and tries to say it but can only say "doo" while signing it.  He answers no with the word "nah" appropriately and says yes like a true bulgarian "da"!

We still struggle with his desire to stem (major hand flapping) any time he is overly excited or without any stimulation.  His screaming has gotten better but it still happens occasionally when he's excited or wanting to grab some attention. Even though dustin and I have grown accustomed to it, it still scares everybody who's never heard it every time. We just laugh now because well, what else are you going to do? (of course we don't let him know we're laughing)

Feeding.....feeding is going slow. He's beginning to get picky about the foods he will eat and when he will eat them. This is a big change from the 23 lb kid who came home and would eat everything in sight 24/7.  He's getting some comfort in knowing food will always be there but searching for control.  We've started setting a timer at the dinner table and saying "you have 30 minutes to eat". It seems to work. If he choses not to eat, we let him down from the table and will offer the same food for snack time later that evening.  So far he's not went to bed hungry ;)

Potty training is also a hit or miss. He can go on the potty. He knows how to tell us he needs to go potty. He just won't do it sometimes.  In church, he's golden. He always stays dry and tells us exactly when he needs to go.  Even in stores sometimes he'll tell us. At home is another story. We've started offering drinks of pediasure (his all time favorite) for rewards if he goes to the potty and is still dry. Hopefully this will work!!

We're continuing ST, OT, and behavioral therapy which are all working well.  Easton is not a fan of learning. In fact he pretends to not know things hoping it will get him out of certain tasks we have him do at home.  It's a struggle to get him to participate but we are consistent. This little boy needs to be pushed and given higher expectations than he's ever been given before. We know it's in there, we're just having to drag it out right now!

Recently, we enjoyed halloween, by passing out candy out our churches trunk or treat where Easton was Ol Mcdonald and we were his farm animals haha! It was freezing but we enjoyed it.  Halloween just happens to be the last "first holiday as a family of 3" we had. Next up is thanksgiving and we arrived home on Thanksgiving last year! I'm anxious to see how this year goes in comparison to last year. 

As far as physical growth goes his weight has finally leveled off around 47 pounds (24 lbs gained). Hes also around 44 inches tall (6 inches grown) and is continuing to grow in height. 

Last week we were able to reunite Easton and a little guy who lived in the same orphanage as Easton. They are both seven years old, but had no interest in each other. I'm guessing they didn't live in the same room. Nonetheless it was so interesting to sit down and see how they were alike and how they were different.  It becomes more and more evident to me as children continue to come home from Easton's orphanage that they certainly did him no favors, or any of the children we've seen come home recently, as they all have significant delays.

BUT, God is a redeemer and Easton is a survivor! He continues to amaze me. He's so much more affectionate than he was and is always giving away hugs and kisses!  He will fall asleep in our laps, and he will ask to be held and rocked.

We are so excited to see where this next year takes us and how much more Easton will amaze us and everyone he meets. 

First week of school

I'm pleased to say we had a successful first week of school. Easton seems to love it, really!  We love his teachers, for many reasons, but mostly because she celebrates even the smallest victories with us!

He gets so excited each morning that we pull into the parking lot and walks straight to his classroom. He jumps with joy every time he goes in there. Picking him up is another story. Dustin picks him up and he usually falls asleep before even making it home lol!!  School is wearing him out!  We are fortunate he's such a morning person because he loves getting up to get ready!

Here's  a picture from the first day!

We are all learning each other and his teachers are still learning all of his special quirks and signs!!  But on the third day we got this sent home...

You see, these are one of those small victories!!  Easton hates Hand over Hand help.  He acts like it hurts him almost, and I'm sure for something he's not use to it is quite uncomfortable.  BUT...just after working for 3 days he was tolerating it. Not only that but he's learning to pick up a pencil/crayon properly and independently.  This is so exciting!! 

We've also started new OT and ST which we are really excited about.  They seem to really be going back to the root of his issues (institutional life) and treating that, instead of just treating the symptoms/issues we have now.  They truly get the cause of his behaviors and without that it would be impossible to correct/treat.

Behavioral therapy has been a God send.  Originally our goal was for easton to be able to sit at a table for an extended period of time and focus on puzzles/work.  Well that took 2 trips to therapy and he will sit for the entire time! Of course we use pediasure for motivation. Pediasure can get that boy to do anything!! So now she is changing our goals to work with a new program called Ables.  We are anxious to see how much it helps but it focuses on fine/gross motor skills and receptive language.

 I'm so proud of my sweet boy and how hard he's working to overcome everything that once held him back!!! 

We are starting school!!!

First let me say we are wrapping up our t-shirt fundraiser and we are overwhelmed at the support. We were able to sell over 100 shirts which was our goal woohoo!!!

Next...
Easton Is Starting School!! YAY
We are excited about this for many reasons, but mostly because he will be exposed to so much more in the public school setting (i.e. language, other kids, etc.) and someone much more capable of teaching him than me will be in charge of well..teaching him!!

Summer is coming to an end, and he continues to grow like crazy. We had a school physical where he checked in at 45.5 lbs and 42.5 inches tall!!
In case you forgot, that's 22.5 lbs gained and 4.5 inches grown in 8.5 months..unreal!

We started behavioral therapy last week, and I think the Dr.'s office and school shots must have sent him into a frenzy because he cried the second we walked into therapy. I'm assuming he thought he's be getting shots again. Hopefully next week will be better. Their goals are to improve his ability to sit at a table and focus on activities, potty training, reducing the hand flapping, throwing, and climbing, and of course eliminating the screaming!!!  Well, if we even get remotely close we'll be singing hallelujah!!!

We will also start a new ST and OT this week. We are pretty excited as they seem to have a lot of experience. Easton is trying harder and harder to talk but still just can't form proper sounds to make correct words. He says daddy a lot though and is using his sign to communicate properly much more.

In more exciting news, we got our hair cut this week and he sat all by himself and laughed the entire time! YAY..he's growing up so fast!