So many things are happening in our lives right now I can't even wrap my head around it. The last two months have been very intense, and life changing in many ways. And my faith in God has never been stronger, I see his plans unfolding before my eyes, providing answers to previous unanswered questions, and comforting me daily.
![]()
So first some good news. I have been working on a project for the last few months that is finally coming to a stage where I can share with all of you. While adopting from Ukraine we fell in love with so many other children there, most of them over the age of 8, and we saw how overlooked and forgotten these children were. There are amazing organizations like Reece's Rainbow that do a great job advocating and bringing awareness about special needs orphans all around the world and helping to raise funds for their adoption. But there isn't a place where older children are advocated for, providing them with a voice and fighting to show that they are just as worthy of being loved and having a family of their own. After talking about this with other friends and adoptive moms we have launched the non profit Love Crosses Oceans Foundation, which will help to advocate for specific older children that desire to be adopted, raise funds for adoption expenses, and provide a place to sponsor children who have or will be aging out of orphanages and on their own. To start we are working with facilitators in Ukraine, but hope to branch out to other countries as well. I will be traveling back to Ukraine with a friend adopting children from Vlad's orphanage and meeting with different groups there that we will be teaming up with to provide the most positive and effective assistance to the orphans there.
![]()
As I mentioned in my last post there was a cancer diagnosis in my family, my mother was diagnosed and has begun the hardest fight of her life. She is the strongest woman I know and I have faith that she will beat it and come out of this journey stronger than ever. Over the last 9 months I have not been working, but had tried to find ways to work from home to help provide for my family but none of them ever worked out. I really couldn't understand why they hadn't or what we would do for the income, but I didn't stress as I knew God must have had a plan. Turns out he really did. Right after my moms diagnosis john received a much deserved promotion at work. This mad it so I no longer needed to be looking for work and would be able to be there for my mom and not having to worry about missing work. However I still have 3 kiddos and I am working to figure out a balance and schedule that works for all. And despite our crazy lives we find new ways daily that work for us, and life continues to go on :)
 |
| VLAD'S SELF PORTRAIT FOR PHOTO CLASS |
 |
| FIRST FATHER DAUGHTER DANCE |
 |
| GAVIN JUST BEING GAVIN |