Just a Little Bit of Awesomeness!!

Hey Everyone! I hope you all are having a great weekend!! I just wanted to pop in real quick and give an AWESOME update to our shirt fundraiser!! I received an email today letting my know we have sold almost 250 shirts!!!! How awesome is that!?!?! Our goal was to sell 100 and he have clearly knocked that number way out of the park!! I’m wondering if we could sell 321 (in honor of World Down syndrome Day) or maybe even hit the 400 mark?!?!!! What do you think? OH and I almost forgot the best part, now that we have sold 100+ shirts the price goes down to $12 per shirt!! So what are you waiting for? Send and email to 321awareness@gmail.com with your order information or any questions you may have. Thank you again for helping us get closer getting our sweet Baby C home!! 

Love, 

Melissa

Here is a peek at what the shirts look like...

To order email: 321awareness@gmail.com and specify your size (2T, 4T, 5/6, YS, YM, YL. Adult: XS, S, M, L, XL AND XXL) and color (Grey - as shown, Purple w/dark purple print, Pink w/dark pink print, Blue w/dark blue print, Green w/dark green print). The shirt are $20 a piece BUT once we’ve sold 100 shirts (which I’m guessing we'll knock this number out of the park!!!) the price will drop.....$5 of every shirt will go towards our adoption of our sweet Baby C and the adoption of the other family bringing home a sweet little boy with Down syndrome from Hong Kong. When ordering PLEASE leave your name, address and whether you will be paying through PayPal or by check. ALL ORDERS HAVE TO BE MADE BY FEBRUARY 25TH. Invoices will be emailed after your order is received!! :)

~An Exciting T-Shirt Fundraiser~

Hey, Hey, Hey Everyone!!! So I’m popping in quickly to tell you about an awesome fundraisers that an amazing lady is doing for us!! 

A few days ago a few friends voted for us to be part of a t-shirt fundraiser an amazing lady named Shannon was wanting to do for an adopting family. And lucky enough she picked us and another family to do the fundraiser for!! We are again so humbled and excited about this fundraiser. The t-shirt is not only helping us raise money for us and the other families adoption but bringing awareness to World Down syndrome Day!! I’m guessing you’d like to see a picture of the super amazing t-shirts...well, here you go!! :)

Now that we’ve seen these super amazing t-shirts here’s the ordering information: 
To order email: 321awareness@gmail.com and specify your size (2T, 4T, 5/6, YS, YM, YL. Adult: XS, S, M, L, XL AND XXL) and color (Grey - as shown, Purple w/dark purple print, Pink w/dark pink print, Blue w/dark blue print, Green w/dark green print). The shirt are $20 a piece BUT once we’ve sold 100 shirts (which I’m guessing we'll knock this number out of the park!!!) the price will drop.....$5 of every shirt will go towards our adoption of our sweet Baby C and the adoption of the other family bringing home a sweet little boy with Down syndrome from Hong Kong. When ordering PLEASE leave your name, address and whether you will be paying through PayPal or by check. ALL ORDERS HAVE TO BE MADE BY FEBRUARY 25TH. Invoices will be emailed out after we hit 100 orders!! :)

A little Update…

Hey Everyone!!! I hope this post finds you all doing well. We've had a VERY busy last couple of weeks and I’m excited to share with all of you!!

A few weeks ago I wrote about some fundraisers we had coming up and let me tell you they are/were amazing!! Our dear friend Shelly started a puzzle fundraiser and it is going great. The wonderful part to this fundraiser will be the awesome picture puzzle of Baby C we’ll have to hang up in her room as a great reminder of all the wonderful people who helped us bring her home!! I also talked about our online auction that my friend Beth was putting together for us. Well, we started it on a Saturday and closed it on a Monday morning and it brought in over $1600!!!! This far exceeded our expectations and we are so extremely humbled by the support of everyone who participated!! I am still in awe of the complete kindness we have received from complete strangers...We are working hard on nailing down a place for our big fundraiser and should have that ironed out next week!! We really can’t wait to celebrate Baby C!!

The other week we also celebrated David and Misha’s Birthday!!! It’s crazy to think our sweet Misha is 5 already!! He has blossomed and grown so much over the last, almost, two years and next school year he’ll be in Kindergarten!!! I can’t believe the little boy we brought home from Ukraine is getting ready to head to off to big kid school!! We decided to keep birthdays low-key this year and do a joint birthday dinner and cake for Daddy and Misha, which worked our perfectly for us. During this time we also found out our oldest son, Ryan, made the minors division for little league. We are so proud of him and can not wait for this baseball season to start...only a little over 5 weeks until opening ceremonies and games starting...but who’s keeping track, right?! ;) 

Other then that we are hard at work with adoption papers and planing our big fundraiser!! Oh wait , I almost forgot...Something else that happened of the last few weeks is we were finally talked about in a anti-adoption forum ran by trolls!! Hahahaha...I’m sure some of you are thinking “What the hell, how can you laugh at this” but I can it’s almost like a right of passage when adopting..we had some trolls leave nasty comments during our adoption of Misha and I am expecting many more this time around. And to be honest the things they say are so far from the truth it’s hard not to laugh...I welcome them talking about us because all it’s doing is getting the word out about our adoption...And just in case the trolls swing in to read this post I have to let them know, our adopted son DID NOT damage/ruin/hurt our family in any way, if fact he has made us closer as a family, he has brought the best out in all of us and has blossomed into the most amazingly wonderful little boy....I’m not sure what went wrong in your lives that you have to bash others but just remember Karma is “B” and she’ll find you in time!!...And here’s something I’ll leave the wonderfully lovely trolls with: William Shakespeare once said~ “Love me or hate me, both are in my favor...If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart...If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.” So to you trolls, thank you for reading and giving us a good chuckle!! 

I hope you all are having an amazing week!! I’m off to work on our home-study and dossier papers!! 

Love Ya,

  Melissa

It's Fiesta Time!!

WHO’S READY TO PAAARRRTTTYYY????? 

GREAT NEWs….We have a date for our BIG, HUGE, AMAZING fundraiser!!! Save the date for MAY 10th 2014!! We will be having a “Cinco De-Laney” themed fundraiser...we have plans for a taco bar, chips~n~salsa, margaritas & beer (along with non-alcoholic beverages), and loads of fun to be had....tickets will be $30 and include 2 drink tickets. We are planing a wonderful silent auction filled with lovely gift baskets, week vacation to a surprise location, and may other wonderful items!! We are still working a location and will hopefully be decided on one within the next week or two...Tickets will be on sale soon and if you’re local to the sacramento area we’d love to see at our fiesta to celebrating bring home Baby C!!

A little something about some AWESOME fundraisers!!!

Hey, Hey, Hey Everyone!!! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week, I know we sure are!! I also hope that if you reading this from one of the states that is dealing with the crazy cold weather that you are staying warm and cozy and out of the cold!! This week has been a busy one...the boys started back to school and David started some of his “honey do” projects that we’ve been talking about getting done. But that’s not what I writing about tonight...this past week I have seen the true kindness, generosity and support come in from complete strangers and some of my closest friends and I blown away by it all...If you are new to the adoption world the first thing you should know is most adoptions are funded through fundraisers...some are financially able to adopted without raising funds but we are not one of those lucky few...our reality is we do not have 20 or so thousand dollars sitting in our back pocket just waiting to be used...we need help to bring our sweet Baby C home and this is why we have to fundraise. This past week, two of my dearest friends have begun to start and plan some seriously awesome fundraisers for us. And these ladies are so amazing for taking the time out of their busy lives to help us get our girl home!!

So here is the FIRST actual fundraiser of our adoption....One of my dearest friends Shelly Ray (whom some know is the reason we adopted Misha) has started a puzzle fundraiser...$5 dollars buys you a piece to a puzzle she has had made up for us and she will write any message on the back of the piece from you to our sweet Baby C....once it is completed and placed in Baby C’s room we will have a beautiful reminder of how much love was put into her coming home!! :)) If you would like to participate in this fundraiser here’s what you do: FIRST click here--> Our FSP (it links you to our Reece’s Rainbow page where you can donate)… Second click here--> Shelly's Facebook and send Shelly a quick note that you donated to our FSP (the link from Reece’s Rainbow) and whatever message you want on the puzzle piece. Thank you in advance for helping us...it means more then words can express that we have your support!! 

Our SECOND fundraiser is being put together by Beth Herrington (whom most will remember was my partner in crime while we finalized our adoptions in Ukraine together and is family to us.). This auction is set to begin next Saturday the 18th @ 9am...it will be an online auction (via Instagram) and has some seriously AMAZING handmade/made with love items...For example a wonderful lady has made and donated fabulous scarves, hats, dresses for girls and outfits for boys, and the list of her goodies goes on...and I literally just received a text from Beth of a photo from another amazing lady who is making a hand-stitched sign with one of my favorite sayings (*hint..it has to do with Ohana). The way this auction will work is we will post pictures to a specific profile on instagram and each picture will be listed with a starting bid and it will be a bidding war until the auction closes 48 hours after it starts!! Once the auction closes we will send invoices to all the winners and once the invoices have been paid the item will be sent to you. I will post the link to the auction here on the blog aaannnddd on my facebook page here --> My Facebook     . 

The THIRD fundraiser we are working on is going to be a BIG one....our plans are in the beginning stages still buuuut clear a space you calendar for the BEST Cinco De Mayo party you’ve ever experienced!!! Our plan is to hold it on either the first (5/2 or 5/3) or second (5/9 or 5/10) weekend in May. We have ideas of a taco bar, a bar filled with beer and margaritas, chips-n-salsa, and all things Cinco De Mayo related!!! Definitely stay tuned for more details in the next few weeks!!! 

I want to thank you all for taking a few minutes out of your night/day to read this and a BIG thank you to anyone who participates in our fundraisers... your help can not just be summed up with a simple thank you, it means so much to us to have family, friends, and complete strangers helping us get our sweet Baby C home to her family who is very excited for her arrival!! Your generosity truly is wonderful!! 

Love, 

Melissa

Happy New Year….and a kinda big announcement!!

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! We hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the new year, as well as, a wonderful Christmas!! We hope that 2014 is full of happiness, love and good-times for you and yours!!

Our Christmas was very relaxing and spent with both our families. The boys enjoyed being spoiled by the grandparents and David and I enjoyed just relaxing and of course eating!! David and I brought in the New Year with a date night to celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary, a great way to close out 2013!! A big thank to you my in-laws who gave up their night to watch the boys who had so much fun playing games and watching movies!! 

Now that 2014 is upon us David and I are looking forward to the excitement that is ahead of us. Misha will be turning 5 in a few weeks, Ryan will be turning 9 in a few months (his last year in the single digits), lots of little league games coming this spring and summer fun to be had!! I am so looking forward to the fun times 2014 has in store for us!! 

OK...Are you ready for the kinda big announcement??...Are you sure??...Ok, here it is:

David, The Boys and I have someone VERY important we’d like you all to meet. For right now I’ll refer to her as Baby C (until we decided on a name)...her listing name on Reece’s Rainbow is “Chava” but that is not going to be her forever name. Baby C is 4 months old and has Down Syndrome and is currently stuck in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. And the BEST part is she is going to be joining our family sometime this summer!!!! We are super excited to be adding another child to our family and I am excited to bringing a girl into my world full of boys!! 

We hope you all will join us on our exciting journey to bringing her home...I know we sure are excited to get the adventures of 2014 started!!!! Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Year in Review

Well hellooooo there...I hope this blog post finds you all doing well and having a wonderful holiday season!! As you can tell it has been quite some time since I posted last but life has been crazy busy in the best kind of way possible. Some of you may be thinking why is she posting now, it’s so out of the blue? And my response to that is you are soooo right but I’ve been wanting to write a post for awhile but haven’t really known where to start. And tonight as I was playing around on Facebook and looking at “See Your 2013 Year in Review” on my page and thought, it’s perfect..I’ll write a year in review post (with LOTS of pictures) and get back in the blogging world once again!!! 

So without further ado here’s our year in review:

January 1st we started the year out with celebrating a late Christmas with my mom…

At the end of January, beginning of February we celebrated Misha’s 4th birthday with his first birthday party EVER. And what made the day even sweeter is we did a joint birthday party we our dear friends The Herrington's...you might remember them, we lived together in Ukraine while we both finalized our adoptions of Misha and their daughter Olivia!! The party was HUGE success and so much fun and a truly wonderful moment being able to celebrate with wonderful people who helped us bring home our babies. 

 ~Misha at the party~

~Misha & Olivia's personal cakes~

February was a very fun month for our family as we headed to Disneyland for a run-cation..yes you read that right, a run-cation. My mom and I ran in the TinkerBell Half Marathon and David and I figured why not stay a few days after the run and enjoy a little family vacation. My mom and I ran the half in 3 hours and 40ish minutes...not bad for a girl who was battling the flu. Oh, I forgot to mention that part..we’ll the day I was suppose to head down with my mom, Misha woke up with high temp. which lead to the flu..and not the stomach kind of flu, he had the “he’ll need Tamflu” kind of flu..so we drove down Saturday and and by the day of the race, Sunday, I woke up battling a fever but I didn’t go all the way to Disneyland for nothing. Plus I had a very amazing little girl, Chloe..I wrote about her here: inspiration ...cheering me on from her hospital room...so I ran the half and finished!!!

 ~The Before and after of our 1st half marathon~

~Misha is NOT amused by his new shades, but I was~

March brought on the beginning of baseball season in our house..which meant Ryan was eating, breathing and sleeping everything baseball!! And thank goodness baseball is a favorite sport for this family so we truly enjoyed every moment of Ryan’s baseball season. He was placed on an amazing team with some wonderful families who we’ve become great friends with...oh and the cake topper was Ryan’s team won the Championships for his division...I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready for next season, because I am sooo ready to see my little man out there doing something he absolutely loves and lives for!!!

 ~Ryan at bat and his awesome team~

Baseball took up a big chunk of our time which was good for us...Misha learned about cherring on his brother and towards the end of the season would actually give a loud shout when his brother (and his teammates) was at bat!! But we did make time for me to walk at my graduation from college!!! That’s right folks, I AM A COLLEGE GRADUATE!! I walked the stage in May with most of the class of 2013 but didn’t actually finish my classes until August 25. None the less, walking across that stage was a beautiful moment, and something I’d been working towards for the last 8 years. It’s wasn’t the easiest road to finishing but sticking to it really paid off and I am proud to say I am so proud of myself!!

June gave David and I a chance to get away to one of my favorite places in the world..Hawaii!! It was a much needed get-a-way, with some serious sunburns, so there are not many pictures of the two of us buuut trust me when I say it was a blast and so nice to reconnect with my husband and enjoy the time together. Visiting one of great friends Megan was a bonus to the trip!! Love you Megan!! :)

 ~The inner surfer came out while paddle boarding~

~ life on a boat with a drink in my hand may be in my future~

July we celebrated the 4th with a baseball game on July 3rd and then with our friends the Herrington's. on the 4th.who are really more like family and we had a blast swimming and eating!! July was also fun because I was able to attend the National Conference for Thirty-One Gifts...oh what’s that, you didn’t know I was a Thirty-One consultant...well, surprise I am..I’ve been a consultant since July 2011!! I had a blast and made a life long friendship with 2 wonderful ladies and I am so excited to go to the 2014 conference and catch up with those lovely two ladies!!

~Baseball Game siiliness~

 ~Swimming on the 4th~

~Thirty-One National Conference~

August was eventful since school was ending for me and starting for the boys...Ryan started 3rd grade...I’m still in denial my baby is in 3rd grade...Misha started his last year of preschool, which is also hard to swallow because that means he’ll be in Kindergarten next year. Both boys are doing great in school and are now enjoying their winter break. I finished school officially in August and have never felt more like laughing and crying all at one time like I did the moment I pressed send on my finally paper!! August also brought on “Fall Baseball” which should really be named End of Summer Baseball since there was NO kind of fall weather with 100+ temps!! None the less we had fun and I learned I enjoy watching Ryan play baseball from the stands and not from the dugout as a coach.

~Growing up too fast and I FINALLY finished~

September began with another trip to Disneyland for another run-cation....David, Ryan and I ran the family 5k on Saturday and then on Sunday I ran in the Disneyland Half marathon with my mom and good friend Mandy..we had a blast despite the heat and humidity...we finished and beat our last time with a finish in 3 hours and 32 minutes!! September also lead David, Ryan, Misha and myself to run family 5k with the Neon Splash Dash which was so much!! 

 ~Running is the best when shared with family and friends~

 ~Disneyland Fun~

 ~The Neon Splash Dash~

October was a down month for us...after finishing school..coaching Ryan’s fall baseball team and our month of running...we laid low and just enjoyed the month and Halloween with our S.W.A.T. guy and fighter pilot…

November brought on another half marathon for me..but this time it was in Las Vegas. Which meant David and I got to have another little get-a-way...and although we enjoyed our time this half marathon left me a lot sorer then the others BUT I did beat my last time of 3:32 with a 3 hour and 20 minute finish!!! Thanksgiving was spent surrounded with family and lots of laughter. We also celebrated a VERY big birthday in November…My little sister Elizabeth turned 17!!

~1/2 marathon #3 in the books~

~I LOVE her to the moon and back~

That brings us to December...this month has simply flown by in the blink of an eye....I’m not sure how I feel about only having 5 days left in 2013 but I can say this past year was crazy, fun, adventurous and I am truly blessed to be having so much fun with my best friend and our children!! 

I can't wait to see the exciting fun that is to be had in 2014 for our family!! Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Melissa

P.S. Here are some other pictures of our good times from throughout the year…