And the Winner Is.....

Patsy of Mt. Vernon, IL is the lucky winner of the 4 St. Louis Cardinal tickets! Congrats Patsy! Enjoy the game!

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Sneak Peek at a Room Fit for a Princess...or Two!

Since certain people are getting impatient and are asking for room pictures (you know who you are!), I decided to give a sneak peek. Their room is about 75% done.

Enjoy!

And still need to add photos to our Tree of Life frame....

A Glimmer of Hope

Our dossier has been delivered to our translation team.

We know we have done EVERYTHING we can do. We pray (and ask for your prayers) that it is enough.

Please pray that our dossier is complete and correct. Please pray we do not have to redo anything.

God's hand is guiding this......we have to believe that.

"When the world says "Give up"....

Hope whispers "Try one more time."

God Doesn't Make Mistakes

Someone posted this on another site and I had to share. You may need to turn off our blog music (press pause on the iPod on the lower left side) to hear it.

It is time....

I know I said the blog would remain public until after the 1st of September, but the time has come to make it private. I have sent out nearly 75 invites to people who requested them.

I hope I chose my readers wisely and that you sincerely want to follow our journey to Eastern Europe and rejoice with us when sweet Everlyn is home with us where she was meant to be. If there is a "mole" in the group....well, God knows who you are. :o)

I am sure many of you are wondering why we are going private. Some of you already know because I have confided in you. I don't want to "taint" my beautiful blog with the ugly truth, but I will say this. I am afraid this is far from a "done deal"...even with our dossier sitting in her birth country. We have done everything we could do, as quickly as we could do it, and must leave the rest up to God.

As far as the Cardinals raffle goes, I will still announce the winner on 8-31 and the winner will get an email in case they may no longer have access to the blog.

We hope our readers will pray for us and our journey, which has been far more difficult that we could ever imagine. We are keeping our eyes on the prize and take comfort in the knowledge that God knows our hearts and how much we adore this little girl...halfway around the world...whom we have never met.

We will continue to fight for her, because in our hearts we know she has always been meant to be part of our family.

Kisses in the Wind... for our Everlyn Grace

I posted this in the beginning of our adoption journey and felt compelled to repost it. It has so much meaning to us...now more than ever.

KISSES IN THE WIND (The Waiting Child's Lullabye)

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.

--- © Pamela Durkota, written for Josh

Every little girl needs a baby doll!

....and I finally decided which one I want to get Everlyn.

Introducing Baby Stella (by Manhattan Toys). Isn't she cute? I like her b/c she is completely cloth and can even serve as a "lovie" or a pillow on the long flights home. :o) And the cutest thing (not pictured) is her "binky" that is magnetized to hold it in place over her mouth. (If only "real" kids' binkies worked that way!) LOL!

And Baby Stella has big brown eyes like Everlyn.....PERFECT! We can't wait to meet our Princess and give her her first gift from her family...Baby Stella!