Eastern European Previo

In Guatemala, when our paperwork got "kicked out" for whatever reason, it was called a "previo." Well, our first dossier submission has resulted in an immediate previo. Apparently they have decided the wording on my husband's Power of Attorney needs to be reworded. I think it is a quick fix, and then hopefully we will be "in" by next week and waiting for our court date. It is annoying and sad to have a setback again, but at least our paperwork has actually been looked at. Our funds are growing, as is my vacation time, so there is a little bit of positive to the wait. I am just worried about our girl. I pray that she will be able to stick out this winter without becoming sick. I am still hoping and praying we can get her here this year.

25 hours later

We had our pancake breakfast on Saturday. Unfortunately we were competing with the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque as well as the Pinto Bean Festival in Moriarty, plus it was raining! But we had a few faithful attendees and we are VERY grateful to those who attended as well as to the MANY local businesses who donated food, eating utensils, and many generous gifts and gift certificates for our silent auction. We were able to add a couple hundred dollars to Mattea's fund but more than that we got to know our little town a lot better.
We all came home Saturday afternoon VERY exhausted, and I think every one of us took a 2 hour nap. We ordered out pizza for dinner, and a few minutes after we turned on the TV to relax, a tornado warning flashed across the screen. It was the first one we have seen for our area since we moved to Albuquerque 3 years ago. Then a few minutes later, our power flickered off... Thank goodness, the tornado did not touch down near our home, BUT it took down 6 power lines in Edgewood. 25 hours later, our lights are finally back on. It is very humbling to be without power for a day. I just thank God it was nothing worse.

Blogversary event...

Life With My Special Ks: TODAY'S THE DAY!!!!

The above link will take you to the Special Ks' special blogversary gift basket give-away. Head on over and join in on the fun, and check out an awesome blog!

PANCAKE BREAKFAST SATURDAY!!!!!

Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for our big Pancake Breakfast and Silent Auction/Bake Sale on Saturday. It is at the Edgewood Community Center, here in Edgewood, NM. We are very grateful to all of the local businesses who have so graciously donated either food or gift certificates or other items for our auction. I am hoping we have a good turnout.

Hurry up and wait

Once again we wait. "They" have responded to our facilitator with the statement that no dossiers will be accepted until October 14th :o( :o( :o(
The only consolation I have in that is it is only 1 week away and not months and months. Even though right now a week feels like an eternity. I am hoping that our travel date is before the holidays but that seems to be almost impossible now. I am bummed. I hope Mattea is okay.

Tuesday?

Our facilitator hopes to submit our dossier on Tuesday! Praying...

PANCAKE BREAKFAST!!!

Mark your calendars! Saturday October 11 from 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
If you aren't able to make it, please keep us in your prayers!!!

(This is a picture of Mattea from last year---)

Pancake Breakfast and Silent Auction/Bake Sale for Mattea

$5.00 per person for the meal

Lots of neat auction items and gift certificates from local businesses~

Edgewood Community Center

Edgewood, New Mexico

Come eat pancakes and help save a life!

Not yet

Our dossier has not been submitted yet. Our appointment letter was submitted 2 or 3 weeks ago and our facilitator is now waiting for an appointment to submit the rest of our paperwork. Our agency is predicting that we may travel the end of November.

OCTOBER IS DOWN SYNDROME AWARENESS MONTH

October is Down Syndrome Awarenes Month! Reece's Rainbow will be posting 31 different children, each available for adoption, on their blog, one each day. By clicking the above button, the one on the top, it will take you to their blog. The bottom button will take you to another site that will tell you all about the 31 for 21 Challenge.

Special for JOLENE

We adopted Jesse when he was almost 7 years old, a little cutie pie from South Dakota. He was a little fireball of energy and delight even though he had/has pretty severe cerebral palsy. Our pediatrician once told us that she thought cerebral palsy came with a happy gene because most kids with CP that she knew were so happy. Well anyway, at that time, Jesse's birth sister Jolene, who was 6 years older than he, was going through some rough times, residential placements and a disrupted adoption, so Mama Louise found out and said to send her on to us. So Jolene came to be my daughter at 13 years old, angry and disillusioned and determined she was'nt going to love anyone. I would like to think over the six years she spent with us that we changed her mind, because we sure did come to love her! She's a grown woman now, living in Alaska (!) and she just discovered Mom's blog. She emailed me yesterday and asked me to post some more pictures of her Jesse...Here you go Jolene, your goofy baby brother! I still love you a bunch!

Estuardo had to have a "cheese" turn too!!!

Ramblings...

I've been sick with a bad cold all week, probably heading for my annual sinus infection, ugh. I did work an overtime shift last night, which was great for the adoption fund but probably not the best idea for my health. So I crossed myself off as unavailable tonight.
I am in a funny space, this waiting space, after all the rushing around of the past couple of months. I am anxious for news, bummed out when I don't get any, and worried about the rest of our fundraising.
I started advertising yesterday for our pancake breakfast and silent auction benefit that we are having on October 11th here in Edgewood. Smith's grocery store has already donated the pancake mix, enough for about 150 or 200 people! Wouldn't that be awesome if we have that kind of turnout?! And some of the local businesses are donating items for the auction too. I will go out again on Monday to hang some more posters and see how many more donations I can find. Serena and my Mom are also donating some handmade items. The whole thing still seems a little overwhelming, but it is coming together a little at a time. The local papers are going to advertise it for us, and now all I need is a few people to help out on that Saturday and we should be good to go.
I am hoping for news from our agency on where everything is at...
On the homefront, Onnolee is now walking all over the house. She is too cute about it too. I ordered a cord for my camcorder the other day, so one of my new "to do's" is to learn how to put video on my blog so you can see how cute she is.
Estuardo is busy busy busy all the time. He is talking up a blue streak, learning many new words every day. It's nice to have a real conversation with him. He has discovered candy...my fault...and thinks it's a dietary staple now, and gets very mad when I say no. He does a wonderful frog imitation hopping on all 4's, and coffee tables were meant to jump off of.
Marisol is adjusting well to school, despite the fact that she as a new teacher and a new aide to get used to. It will be hard to top the ones she had last year, but so far she seems to be doing well. Kory and Jesse are doing well in school too. Jesse brought home his first "paycheck" from his job training at school and he was very proud.
Stew and I are both back at school, online University of Phoenix, working on our Master's Degrees. It is challenging to find the time and energy to write papers each weekend but I enjoy the brain exercise.

AND THE WINNER OF MATTEA'S HEART QUILT IS...

Marisol is the official name drawer. We figured that since she is blind, she wouldn't be able to peek...

She picked a winner...
And the winner is...

She's cute and she knows it

Onnolee showing off...

Stay tuned...

We will be doing the drawing for our quilt raffle today, now that the last few donations have cleared. I am also hoping to post some new pics of the kids and if I can figure out how, maybe even a short video. No new updates on the adoption front, but hoping for some news soon.

LAST DAY FOR MATTEA'S HEART QUILT!

I messed up with the Chip In and the initial widget closed at 4:30 this morning, grrr. So I opened a new widget just for today and maybe tomorrow, whenever it decides to shut down ... Anyone who tried to contribute earlier today, hopefully you will check back in cause I think I fixed it... THANKS EVERYONE SO FAR!!! We are halfway to our goal and that's super!!! You all are awesome!!!
UPDATE---The original ChipIn got to $295, so add that amount to what the current widget shows for our total so far. Goal is $600...
2ND UPDATE--- I will just leave it open until it closes itself ...should be some time tomorrow, I think...mind of its own...

A few thank-you's are in order...

Thank-you to Christine for all your fundraising ideas and help yesterday. Thank-you to Meredith for your advice and help with computer stuff. Thank-you to all those who have donated to Mattea's grant fund---we don't always find out who you are--- and thanks to all those who are donating to Mattea's Heart Quilt raffle!! And thanks to everyone who is supporting us in any way, we are very, very grateful!

Help an adoptive mom help other adoptive parents...

This button below links to a very special blog set up by a new friend of mine. Two of her children are adopted from China, and she has now set up a fundraising site to raise money to help other adoptive families. She says she is "paying it forward." Please visit her blog and see what she has going on, and please feel free to copy her button to your blogs if you would like. The html code in the box will add the button as you see it below.
<a href="http://www.holidayadoptionfundraiser.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa152/chakwaina/goodfortuneornament10any3for25-1.jpg" alt="Fundraiser" width="160" height="160" /></a><br/> <a href="http://puderbaughfamily.blogspot.com/2008/09/help-adoptive-mom-help-other-adoptive.html">Grab This Button</a>
The code will produce this on your website:

Just bumping this cutie pie to the top of my blog...

ONE WEEK LEFT!!!

ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT TO TAKE A CHANCE ON "MATTEA'S HEART QUILT..." (CLICK ON PHOTO IN RIGHT-HAND CORNER OF BLOG FOR DETAILS...) Our dossier should be submitted this week, which means a possibility of travel within 6 to 8 weeks! Thank-you so much to everyone who has supported us on our mission to bring this little angel home to our family!

She did it!!!

I was cleaning in the kitchen today when all of a sudden, Estuardo shouted "Gook, gook!!!" (Look,look!) Onnolee was walking across the living room! Of course, as soon as he pointed it out, she dropped to the floor, but she walked! I saw her! Yay!!!