First Christmas home

What a milestone! Their first Christmas home. Our family is complete. Some days it feels like the boys have always been here, always loved, always taken care of. It's hard to believe we've spent so many Christmases without them. 

It was their first Christmas Eve service at church. Their first time hearing their dad read the Christmas story. Their first Christmas tree. Their first ornament. Their first time baking Christmas cookies and opening Christmas presents. They did really well. It was stressful for them and their behaviors showed that but all in all it was great.

Now a song from Sarie

O Christmas tree O Christmas how lovely is your water.

How clean is your water?

Your water is so clean and also gross.

O Christmas tree O Christmas tree

Your sparkles shine like sparkling sparkles

Your waters dirty but also clean

Your branches are dirty and full of beans

Oh Christmas tree oh Christmas tree

How lovely are your branches.

Merry Christmas! 

Be blessed

Misha's 6!!!!

Some highlights of his birthday

Sarie: happy birthday Misha. Today is the day you were born. 

When getting the traditional birthday breakfast (pancakes or French toast) with a candle he screamed "Ewwww! No!!!!!!!!!" 

Me sitting on the bed crying because I burnt the chocolate I was trying to melt for the cake pops. Cake pops and Pinterest are of the devil!! ;) 

Every time we sang Happy Birthday to him, Misha sang it too. 

Paul once again wow'd us with an awesome cake.

Misha's birthday was a success. The great thing about having a crap ton of kids is we don't have to invite anyone for a party, we automatically have a party with just us. Haha. So we didn't really have a time we would have this thing, just when ever all the stuff was ready. 

The colors are Bulgarian flag colors :)

Be blessed

Lots going on

I have been meaning to write more but no time. So I will just give an update of things.

We had our first post placement report. It went ok. The house was a mess and I was embarrassed. She said I should hire a housekeeper. I would love to, but our insurance has decided to not cover anything anymore and we got denied for the Medicaid buy in program so with $30,000.00 in unpaid medical claims I think I better just clean my house myself for now.

Everyday I fight with the insurance. Everyday they deny something that usually is covered or has been in the past. They say they changed their minds and won't cover. I didn't know that was an option. We didn't go into this adoption stupidly. We knew Paul made a good living and we could afford more children with God's help. Our insurance was good, really good. Then we brought the boys home and they had more than we imagined which we were fine with but the insurance company isn't fine with. Not only have they stopped paying for the boys but also for the rest of us. Fun.

Judah needs Peptamin jr 1.5 cal per oz formula 5-6x a day. He can not eat. He can drink though. Insurance says no he doesn't need it. Also says no to feeding therapy. But they will pay for the formula which is 5,000.00 a month if we get Judah an unnecessary gtube surgery. He has an undiagnosed(not for lack of trying) bleeding disorder and doctors won't operate yet. Plus it would really be bad for him to have a gtube because he would rip it out needing yet another surgery if he ripped it out before it was healed or he would need restrained and all that wouldn't be good psychologically. The doctors and I are not he same page, unfortunately the insurance isn't.  We have 109 appeals in to them right now. It takes all my strength to deal with them daily. 

Judah also needs to start osteoporosis therapy. He is at extremely high risk for fractures. Because of the bleeding disorder they will try a med first but if it doesn't work they will need to do surgery to put in a port. Then a nurse will come to the house and give him IV treatment for 4 hrs a day 3 days a week one week a month.

We have to stop OT for the boys which is helping so much. The insurance won't cover it anymore either and it's too expensive. We were hoping to buy into Medicaid but they said my boys don't have special needs. LOL that seriously makes me laugh. Anyways, I'm just praying because God didn't bring these boys to us to fail them now. Please pray for us. The stress is killing me. I've been getting sick a lot lately. 

Judah was doing amazing until we made him take a few steps without his walker. The doctors would like him to try  and I didn't push, but it was enough for him to start giving dirty looks and acting defiant. Although it could have been Christmas too. Who knows. 

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Eph 3:20

Be blessed

To Misha's birthmother

To Misha's birthmom


Six years ago today you gave birth to our son. You and your husband and other child were probably very excited. A boy! I wonder what he looked like and if he was tiny? How tiny? Did he look different? Did you know right away something wasn't quite right?

I know that you took him home. You were his first mama. You fed him, changed him, held him, soothed him. Was he always happy? He is such a happy child. Did you take lots of pictures of him? I don't have any baby pictures. Just one picture at 4 yrs old.

Do you think about the day he went into adrenal crisis and you left him at the orphanage? I remember the day I met him like it was yesterday. I remember the day I took him out of the orphanage forever. It is severed into my brain. I am sure you remember that day, even if you try to forget. I like to believe that you had no other choice but to leave him there. I like to believe that you didn't know the hell you were leaving him in. How could you? As a mom I believe it must have ripped your heart out to leave him there. Did you look back? Did you go back to the orphanage or call to check on him? I would have slept at the gates just to be closer to him so I can imagine how heartbreaking this was for you. Do you know he has a mama and papa now? I hope they told you. Maybe it could ease your mind a little.

Let me tell you about our boy. He is joy unspeakable! He's ornery, but so smart. He loves life. Misha never deals on the crap that got handed to him in Pleven. He goes with the flow. He loves. He cares so deeply about others. He loves to be loved on, held, kissed, snuggled. He has a lot of medical issues. Nothing we can't handle but it speaks volumes to his spirit.  When I first met him he was non verbal. By the third visit he was telling his caretakers in Bulgarian that "mama was coming." I firmly believe God prepared his heart for us.

I spend my days looking at him and thanking God for giving him to me. It doesn't matter what is going on that day, when I look at Misha I get happy and smile. It's uncontrollable. He brings so much joy to our household.

Thank you for giving him life. I can't even begin to imagine the heartache you have gone through. I just wanted you to know he is safe, he is happy, he is loved, he is our world.

Be blessedVideo of Misha

Adding to our family

Well we just didn't feel like our family was complete yet, especially  after our dogs death. So we added 3 more.

Paco is 2 yrs old and is Siamese and Tabby mix. He is 17lbs (5lbs less than Misha). 

Then we were considering adding one more that was more active for Judah. Instead we found two tabbys in a desperate situation so we decided to bring them home too. They are Cinna and Finnick (we are not big hunger games fans at all!! Lol) they are 7 months old. 

The kids love them. We have never been cat people, but Paco changed all that. 

Be blessed

Ice-pocalypse 2013

Texas is not known for its bitter cold icy winters, thank you Jesus. But this week oh my! Thursday we had a storm come in and we got ice, lots and lots of ice. This isn't snow mind you, oh no, it's ice. Ice in a state that isn't even prepared for snow. I thought it would be gone the next day. That so usually how the weather here works. I mean, after all, it was 84 the day before the storm hit. Friday things were getting canceled. 

Saturday we had planned to go to the special needs viewing of Frozen. When we woke up everything was frozen. The irony was not lost on me. We called the theater to see if it was canceled and it was not. So we went. How bad could it be it was only 12 miles away. A short 20 mins down the highway. We slid walking to the car, had to dump 15 buckets of hot water on the van just to get the doors opened and the windshield thawed, we slid as we backed out of the driveway. Over an hour later we finally made it to the movie and skated into the parking space and theater. We saw so many accidents  and the roads were awful. We should not have gone. But we were safe and warm in the theater. Frozen was a fantastic movie!! The kids loved it, so did Paul and I. 

The way home took over an hour too. Tractor trailers were stuck in the ice, cars were wrecked. Paul's office party, church and our Down syndrome party were canceled too. We made it home and that's where we stayed. 

We had fun. The kids skated on the front lawn, we made a fire in the fireplace. We baked cookies and made gingerbread men. We played games and just hung out. It was fantastic! I loved being iced in. With everything canceled I didn't feel the pressure that I had to get somewhere ya know. Looks like things are closed Monday too. I'm still enjoying this. I just pray that it ends before our food runs out. 

Be blessed