REASON

JESUS, is the reason for the season !!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2 DAYS

Here we are two days later and snow again !!
We are in the 5 - 10 inches.   Got to love Maine weather.

SNOW ?

Our first major snow storm for Maine.

Can't wait to play outside !!!

FINGER PRINTED

After I posted on Friday our appointment letter arrived in
the mail. We go on December 20th ,a Friday very close to
finishing up Christmas stuff.
So we decided to try a walk-in appointment on Monday 12/ 09.........

And fitting in everything I needed to get done was a little
complicated and then add a little snow storm to the mix....

Amazing, we walked in and they took our prints in a matter
of 15 minutes.  Still amazed.


ADOPTION:  Now we wait for our I-800A approval

PICTURES

The days are going by so fast, now if this will continue until
we bring our new son and daughter home that would be great !

During Thanksgiving recess we spent time with a
lot of family and friends, fun but exhausting.

Family pictures are not easy or fun but we still try to capture a few a year.
Nathan likes to do this in the pictures so last year I decided to start using
them anyway.    Wait until he gets older and looks back at the pictures.

Christmas is getting closer and I have lots of things I am helping with
along with my usual........... buSY !!


ADOPTION:  waiting for fingerprint appointments

SNOW

Our oldest son is a senior this year and he needs to
get his senior pictures done but he kept saying " why
can't it snow, I want my pictures taking while it's snowing"
So of course we woke up to a  white covering on everything !
And mom was asked to go out and snap some pictures.

 The kids were all excited  and I did not have the heart to tell them
 that the snow was not going to stay, it was going to warn up later.

I have been thinking about all the things I am thankful for and there
is a huge list but most of all our AWESOME GOD !!! 

ADOPTION: next is fingerprinting, I-800

PA

Yesterday we received PA for our little girl.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We can't decide which way to spell her name
Rebecca or Rebekah ??

Faith, Hope and now love. Her Chinese name/sign
means love !!          

Her SN is new to us, talk about stepping out in faith.

I am still in awe.  GOD IS GOOD !!!


Now to figure out how much extra money we will need to bring her home.

TIME

Wow, time has just flown by......
We received our Agency and Social Worker approval
for 2 children. And currently we are awaiting PA  for
our little girl who will be called Rebekah.

So blessed !

THIRTY-ONE FUNDRAISER

You can go to www.mythirtyone.com/CherieKelley. 

Click on my parties( top left of page) then click on my name Cheryl McChesney

Cherie has offered to donate her commission of all sales to our adoption !!!

ANYONE IN THE UNITED STATES CAN ORDER FROM THIS PARTY
 AND IT WILL BE SHIPPED TO YOU.. YAY

Don't know what to get someone on your Christmas list ??
How about any of the products below.

• Monthly Bundles
• Storage and Utility
• Purses
• Totes
• Accessories
• Accessory Bags
• Wallets
• Thermal
• Home
• Stationery
• Gift Certificates

 Come on, check it out !


We also have t-shirts, crochet hats, angels available at the top of
this page or if you wish you can use our donate button to the right.
If you want to write it out to a non profit, leave me a message.

And Thank you, Thank you !!!!!


All the paperwork is in now we wait for the answer to
the big question !!!

Get a Medium Utility Tote for $7

With every $35 you spend November 1- 26

 

NOVEMBER

November is National Adoption Month !

Today  is Orphan Sunday !


If you have ever visited an orphanage, it will pull on your 
heart strings ! And when you leave you still see the faces
of the children who wanted you to hold them, play with
them and the faces of the children who are in need of medical care,
all the kinds of therapy, or just food. The workers do the best they can
but it is not enough for most of these children. They need families !!!


Proverbs 24:12 tells us, "Once our eyes are opened we cannot pretend 
we do not know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our 
 souls knows we know and holds us responsible to act."

"My friends, adoption is redemption.  It's costly ,

 exhausting, expensive, and outrageous.  Buying

 back lives costs so much.  When God set out to

 redeem us, it killed Him."

                                                                                 ~Derek Loux

10 WAYS EVERY PERSON CAN CARE FOR ORPHANS

1. PRAY for them 
2. SPEAK UP for them 
3. PROVIDE for their needs 
4. SUPPORT those who ADOPT them

5. PROTECT them from harm

6. VISIT them where they are 

7. GIVE sacrificially to them 

8. ENCOURAGE them to press on 

9. ADOPT THEM INTO YOUR FAMILY !!

10. MOBILIZE your church or community for them

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted
 is the most terrible poverty.-Mother Teresa  



Stay tuned.....
Our homestudy should be all sorted out !!
soon we will have a answer to our question...
Adopting 1 or 2 children ??? 




 

HATS

I am currently out of children's size Minion hats !
One family wanted 4 hats for their children,,  What a blessing
I will make more just need a couple days.

 On the adoption front., Still trying to work out the home study ???
And the one or two question.
It is all in His hands.

NO NEWS

No answer to the "two please " question.
I have prayed about this alot and I do have faith
that He can make it happen but I have this feeling
that it will be a no.  still praying

We went to a family Fall Festival yesterday, the young ones
 put on their costumes.

 A Pink Princess, and A Cat

                                               Can you guess ??

Hrutuja was a little over whelmed at first because
of all the people. By the time she was relaxed Rohana
started to get over whelmed and was crying and hitting me, she
just wanted to go home !!!  She did not want to play any of the
games to earn candy.  I showed her how toplay the fishing game
and the lady gave her M & M"s , she was like WOW !! she played
the fishing game again and then was done. I am so proud of her
 because even that little interaction was amazing to see. little steps.
The other two wanted candy ! We had a great time,
We celebrated with Waffles and Ice Cream for dinner.

ONE OR TWO ?

I have felt lead to ask about adopting two
Special Focus Children simultaneously.

We have talked about this a lot and feel that we have the
help, room and love to handle two at the same time.

I know personally that there are hard days when you
bring your children home and the days get better as time
goes on. 

Two children who will have food every day, medical needs met,
Be held and loved on by their family.

Not sure how our agency will feel about two at the same time
but the question is out there.

So Please pray for us and that Gods will be done.

"AND WHOEVER WELCOMES A LITTLE CHILD LIKE

 THIS IN MY NAME, WELCOMES ME"

                                                     MATTHEW 18:5

LOVE

HARVEST DAY

We enjoyed great weather and fun today.

 The girls enjoying the bounce house

 Hrutujas first pony ride

Rohana is a natural

 Hrutuja climbing the rock wall

 Nate volunteered to help out.

After his shift was done he enjoyed playing the monkey game.

We had a great day !!

ADOPTION FUNDRAISER BLOG HOP

Hello, we are the McChesney family and
we have made a commitment to adopt a boy from China.
Gabriel will be 10 in July and he has Cerebral Palsy.
Our Home Study is in review by our placing Agency..
The immigration process takes about two months (please) and then
on to the Consulate and after that our dossier will go to China.
Hoping to travel by summer.

Our family would be blessed with your prayers and financial support.
This will be our third adoption in four years (we brought Rohana
home in 2010). We realize it is a stretch financially to go through
it again.  When we adopted Rohana three years ago we did not have
a full picture of adoption. We only knew about it through other peoples
experiences. We are now on the other side and have a more realistic picture.
I say it is a daily roller coaster ride with many ups and downs!
In the midst of it all we are thrilled to be able to give this precious
boy a home and a family!           love, love, love



Our current fund raisers are crochet hats, T-shirts and angels
here on this blog .

 You can check out other family fundraising blogs here

 

ANGELS ?

This morning during the IEP, LAC, ESL meetings I was
told that the girls are Angels !  And my first thought was
are we talking about the same children that live with me ??
But then I thought, I am happy that they are angels at school.
They are really beautiful and very smart little girls.... BLESSED !!

The word Angel reminded me that I still have some of the
Angels that I made for our fundraising to bring Hrutuja home.

Check them out on the angel page and help us bring another angel home


Still struggling with our home study.. but praying daily.

6 DAYS

6 days went by really fast!
Monday hubby went back to work but without his cold
that he passed on to me. TY and I miss you

I helped the moms get our meal ready to serve @
House of Hope . Everyone just has a great time serving
meals to people who are in need. I am praying for a young
lady (Nychole) whom I met last night who needed someone
to listen to her and pray with her........Blessed

I am anxiously waiting to hear from either Agency
(Homestudy or placing) to let us know if they approved
of our home study yet ?. And that also means we will have
our first fees due to our placing Agency.
We have payed all fees up til now.  And it is really hard to ask for
help. We have $3000 more saved so we will be  $4220 short.
If you can help , Thank you , Thank you !!


I am certainly enjoying the sights and smells of fall.
yum, pumpkin everything... especially coffee.

And Hrutuja keeps asking about snow ?

FRYEBURG FAIR

The one fair we go to every year.

Everyone was excited to go, I love going but again we
are talking about taking Rohana into a big crouds.
Which she started to whine and fuss right away....
But thankfully it did not last long.

Once we got to Old McDonald's farm she was daddy glue.

The animal sounds were a little loud for her. They both loved
seeing the baby animals. Hrutuja walked thru the barns with
the big animals but held our hand and walked close to us.

 We enjoyed the milking room, And some ice cream.

The Alpacas were fun to watch.

What a great day. I can say it has been great to spend more time with dad.


Homestudy (rough draft) was finally sent to WACAP. 
needs to be ok'ed

BAD THING ?

Austin wanted me to make him an orange hat so that his
head would be warm when he goes walking around hunting.
As I was making it Nate said " you should make an A in
camo for the front". So I made it like that and he liked it.

We are effected by the governmental shutdown... :(
I am not sure this is a bad thing yet. We are going to spend
more time with daddy and get things done around hee.
So Dave came home early on Tuesday.
Yesterday we got some stuff done and went out to lunch
@ the Taj .    The Indian food was sooo good.

When I checked my emails, we received a grant from
our Agency !!!!!!!

Gabriel is on their waiting child list and we met the quals .!!!!

And in another email I have a job interview next week !!!


Today we are off with the kids, I'll post later or tomorrow.






 

LEGOS

Hrutuja amazes me sometimes. She is so smart,
Once she understands the concept she gets right to it.

She was playing with Lego's and she showed me this,
 She said "it's a duck!"
Then she showed me the booklet that has the picture.

I thought that was pretty cool !!
(she might not have all the white pieces she needed)

Nathan said "I should make him a hat to wear", so I did...

We are starting to get into a daily routine, we still have some hard days.
As I have read    "Gods does not call us to do easy".
 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

JUST CAN"T WAIT TO BE ON THE ROAD AGAIN.
I think that is a old song that I heard when I was a kid.
my mom was and still is a country music fan.

Well with all the bumps, hiccups, etc, etc,
our Homestudy is DONE!!!!
Now we only have 5 months to get our dossier
together and get a LID.

Nathan grew some sun flowers this year and this is his
biggest one behind him.

We have our struggles in the morning getting everyone ready
for school and to get everyone out the door. This morning I
was waiting for the bus with the girls and Hrutuja looked
at me so seriously and said"I don't want to got to school. I
want to stay home with mom".  I said you can stay home
with mom forever.    We can think about this but if you stay
home with mom we would still have to do school work.
Then the bus came and she got on the bus.
I wanted to home school them but they wanted to go to school.
So we will see what happens.

SO EXCITED OUR HOME STUDY IS DONE !!!!!

BUSY SATURDAY

We started the day off at the Annual Family Jamboree.

It is a fun time with games, prizes, crafts and hayrides and
best of all it's free. Rohana is still working on big crowds.

Hrutuja is trying to eat a donut off a string.

Old farm tractor.

                                                                     Hayride

When the girls got tired of walking in mud (rain for 3 days)

After we celebrated Austin's Birthday and then drove almost 3 hours

 to take him to the Casting Crowns, Kutless and

 the Wrecking Concert in Bangor, Maine.

Which made for a very tired Sunday, But it was FUN !!

LEADING

Last night our Church served  at The Soul Food Eatery
At .houseofhopemission.org

We sponsor one night a month, purchase the food, prep it, and
serve it to people in the community who needs a hot meal.
Or for people who just need someone to talk to or listen to
them about their life. We even deliver meals to people who
need a meal but can not get there. We served 105 meals !

Being the Team Leader can be a little over whelming at times
but seeing the faces and connecting with the people is just
an awesome experience.  Everyone who served last night
said it truly touched their hearts to be able to do this.

Sorry no pictures, it was just an AWESOME evening !!!

The children are doing great with School so far which
eventually give me more time to get my things done
and volunteer more for House of Hope.


Still waiting for the home study to get done.

INDIA DAY

 We enjoyed India Day yesterday !

We were a little early so we sat in our van for a few minuites.
Rohana was calling all the dancers "Princesses"  "Jasmine".

After all the intros the dancers started to perform.
And I really did not think the girls were paying attention
at all because there was a 2 year old behind who was telling
her mother what she wanted to do and that kept distracting
Rohana. Hrutuja was looking really board and playing with
her seat ,which kept folding up with her in it.
And Nathan had his fingers in his ears ( I forgot his ear plugs)

Rohana got off my lap and started to do what the dancer were
doing.

The girls kept telling us they were hungry. so we decided
to eat some where else since Nathan really does not like
food from India ( toooo spicey) and Rohana is just starting
to eat it again. They has so many food venders there and it
smelt soo good (yummy)
On they way to the van Hrutuja was singing all the
way and Rohana was still talking about seeing the "princesses"

We were better prepared the first time and will make sure
to enjoy the food next year !!

KINDERGARTEN

All 4 children go to school today.

The senior drives the 8th grader to a private school
and the 2 girls are so excited to be riding the bus!

They so want to go to school. That is all Hrutuja has talked about
since bringing her home. SHE WANTS TO GO TO SCHOOL !!
Even though I have taught her her letters, numbers, colors,
shapes, etc and how to write her name before she goes to school.
I am seriously having second thoughts about sending
the girls to public school. As a child I attended both public
and a private school. I liked private school better. I am
feeling so guilty about this decision. My brain is telling me
that I should be home schooling them both. praying about this !

My first free day... I will sit close to the phone and have my
cell phone in my hand when I have lunch with my oldest
daughter and my mom .

Not sure I like this quietness of the empty house.