The end of a beautiful chapter

Well hello blog! It's been a while!!

I am finally all packed and feeling pretty ready for tomorrow so I figured now was a good time to sit down and write my last update for our family of four and fill you all in a little on what we have been up to.

For those of you who don't know, Ryan and I made two trips to our new kiddos country in June. It was a crazy month and we even managed to squeeze a wedding into there! Ryan's youngest brother tied the knot and we couldn't of been more thrilled to celebrate with them! My brothers wedding was right before we left for our first trip so our Summer pretty much went, wedding, travel, come home, wedding, travel, come home... and now I leave with a friend tomorrow to go snatch our babies out of the orphanage forever, spend some time waiting in country for passports and visas, and then we are HOME ward bound baby!!

Since coming home this last time we have been trying to squeeze every once of quality family time into our days as possible. I can honestly say, this has been the craziest, but best Summer we have ever had as a family. It's hard to believe that a year ago I truthfully wondered if we would ever be able to enjoy family outings again since Ivan's anxiety was so high and he would get overstimulated so easily.

This summer has really proven just how far he has come. Not only has he handled us being away for close to 3 weeks like an absolute champ, but he's been in a wedding, gone to all of the 4th of July festivities, enjoyed many weekends at the lake, and he now looks forward to going to Sunday school and is anticipating starting school in the fall (which is coming up WAY to soon!!)

We can't even describe how proud we are of our boy. He has grown in every area imaginable and continues to astound us every day!!

Landon is taking his role as a three-nager very seriously and constantly keeps us on our toes and on our knees! He talks constantly about just about everything and has a huge imagination for someone so young. He has an opinion about everything and gets his thoughts across with a fiery passion. He has had a harder time with us being away and is not looking forward to mama leaving again. I know all will be forgotten and all the tears will be worth it once he has his brother and sister home though. He still is NOT a fan of the water, but is content playing with his cars on the beach. His best friend is Kota our dog and he insists that he must go everywhere with him. I can't believe my baby is getting so big, but it is a great joy watching him grow up.

Now for some pictures of what's been going on at the Maxwell house this Summer!!

My brothers wedding

Silly boy!

spending time with my boys before bedtime the night before we left for our first trip

Last pic before the boys went to MN with grandpa and grandma

We were so exhausted after our long trip home, but it was so good to see the boys again!

I missed my boys like crazy!!

We took the boys to a car show

playing together in sissy's room

Since getting back, this munchkin has started napping in daddy and mama's bed and sneaking in during the night. He doesn't want to let mama out of his sight.

Second wedding of the Summer and all 4 of us were in the wedding party. Aren't my boys handsome!!

I really couldn't be any prouder of them :')

Ivan was long overdue for botox injections and for the first time mama handled a surgery without daddy being there!!

but he visited us in post op over his lunch break :)

We've spent countless hours playing outside!! Ivan loves scooping rocks and pretending he's baking with them.

Ryan and I got to dress up and go on a date before leaving for trip #2 in the morning

A kitten wandered into our yard one day and we gave it a snack before going to find it's owners. Landon named it "itty bitty kitty" and was very sad that we couldn't keep it.

Our new favorite place to go.

He was throwing sand at daddy and he thought it was pretty hilarious.

Looking concerned...

Daddy attempting to put him in the water. He finally went in, but only long enough to run right back out. Just. not. a. fan.

soaking up the sun with dad

taking selfies with mom

went out for dinner after a long day at the beach

Saturday in the Park!!

Ivan going down the biggest slide with daddy. He LOVED it!!

Saturday in the Park must of worn him out! Ryan sent me this pic while I was at work. He had fallen asleep while playing on the floor.

Daddy buried Ivan in all of baby sisters clothes!! People have been so kind and donated more than enough for our little princess!!

Such an exciting day!! Ivan was able to do his first real OT assessment test. Have I said before that he's come a long ways!!

So excited for the parade to begin!!

They kinda love each other ;)

Ivan's favorite was the marching band

He just SANG and CLAPPED!!!

Waiting for the fireworks to start. Ivan loved the orchestra. He sang and clapped along to a lot of the patriotic songs since he knows them from his America cd (his very favorite thing to listen to)

He loved the fireworks!!

Landon not so much. He started screaming and then went and snuggled into Ryan till they were over.

The other day I had to run to Target to pick up some stuff for gotcha trip.  I had Landon in theTula, basket in one hand, and pushed Ivan with the other. We're kind of like a train when we go out and yes, people stare :) I don't care I just love being with my crew!

The other day Landon came in and said he wanted Ivan to come outside and play with him. Ivan didn't really want to go, but Landon convinced him that he could play with rocks. He said he would go if he got a cookie sheet so I got him this and they played together for a long time. Landon would get him rocks, Ivan would put them in the muffin tin and then tell Landon to put them in the oven and when to take them out (always in "15 minutes"). I always just stand back in awe when they communicate and play together. God has truly done miracles for this little boy who didn't know what playing was when we brought him home.

Well there's our Summer in a nutshell. I haven't been blogging or even on fb much because we've just been having so much fun together. Tomorrow marks the end of a very beautiful chapter for our family. When we brought Ivan home and became a family of four it was a challenging transition to say the least, but it's changed us. Adding him to our family stripped us down and slowly God has built us back up into something new. Something so much more beautiful than I ever could of dreamed. We don't see Ivan as "our adopted son" anymore, he's just our son.

We are family.

It's taken us a long time to get to this point as a family where we can effortlessly just... be.

We know that transition and growing pains are coming again soon, but we're ready to go through them together, knowing we'll be even stronger and closer a year down the road.

My next post will be introducing the two newest Maxwells and I can't wait!!

You're prayers are so appreciated as we finish this last stretch of our adoption race. The finish line is in view!!!

Soon we will all be together as a new family of 6!!

The Winners are!!

The $300 Lowes gift card goes to Amanda Olsen

The $200 Hobby Lobby gift card goes to Krista Smith

Thank you to everyone who entered and supported our adoption through this giveaway!

Travel Date!!

We got the call yesterday morning!!

Our facilitator: "Are you ready?"

Me: "It's next week isn't it?!?"

She confirmed my hope that we will indeed be traveling by the end of this month!

We leave MONDAY!! Yes, as in FOUR days!!

As you would expect things are pretty crazy right now.

I'm allowing more screen time and snacks than I ever do, but hey, mama's gotta do what mama's gotta do... when you get told you have to be ready to leave the country in only a couple days!!

We're feeling awesome though!!

All four of us are overjoyed to begin this journey and bring brother and sister home!!

I just noticed that I've ended almost every sentence with an exclamation point, but that isn't even exaggerating. Our life can be summed up in one big exclamation point right now! !

With that said, I'm not going to have much time to keep pushing our giveaway so I need your help to keep sharing it until it's over.

Our giveaway is scheduled to end next Friday night (May 29th).

Next Friday we will get to meet and hold our babies for the first time (endless exclamation points).

Ryan assures me that we will still be able to use random.org and choose our two winners.

We will arrange for someone else to send out the gift cards to the winners so you can get them asap!!

How amazing that this giveaway will end on the very day that we get to hold our babies in our arms.

I just can't even handle that kind of awesome!!

Sooooo pppppllleeeaaasssseee help us finish strong on this!

We have had several entries through people purchasing t-shirts, but only a couple otherwise.

I'm a little flabbergasted!!

Who doesn't want a chance to win a couple hundred dollars to improve or decorate their home this Summer???

So here's the deats one more time!!!

Don't forget you only have until May 29th to get your entries in to win

FIRST NAME CHOSEN...

A $300 GIFT CARD TO LOWES

The Second name chosen will receive a

 A $200 GIFT CARD TO HOBBY LOBBY

Here's how it works!!

Donation Amounts: 

$10 - 1 Entry

$25 - 5 Entries

$50 - 10 Entries 

$100 - 30 Entries

$500 - 250 Entries

Please Share on FB, Twitter or your blog!! This also counts as an Entry! 

Just leave a comment below telling us where you shared and your name will be entered.

Tax Deductible Donations can be made to our Family Sponsorship Page at: REECES RAINBOW

Please send your receipt to: nnmaxwell03@gmail.com

Donations can also be made in person, or through Paypal. 

Just click the yellow DONATE button on the top right hand side of our blog, right under our thermometer.

 Remember this giveaway will end on May 29th so don't wait to place your entries!!!

We will choose the winners through random.org and post the lucky names on May 30th right here on our blog!!

We are SO CLOSE to beginning the next step of bringing our babies home. Please help us finish strong on our fundraising. Every dollar we receive from this giveaway helps to lessen our financial stresses in country and once we get our kiddos home.

We are also giving 50% of what we have earned from our t-shirts and this giveaway to the Benz family as they are behind us in the adoption process and still very much in needs of funds to bring their precious son home!!

With every entry you will be helping 2 families. You'll be playing a role in saving 3 children from life in an institution. AND you'll have a chance to win an amazing home improvement opportunity!! 

Sounds like a win-win to me!!!

I have to end this last pre-travel blog entry with a HUGE...

THANK YOU!!!!

It is because of you that we are to this point! This is where the journey starts to get really messy and beautiful!! We can't wait to see God's story continue to unfold for our family. Thank you for supporting and praying for us as we take each step in faith.

If you wish to keep following our journey as we travel, please find me on facebook and ask to join our private adoption group.

Almost There!!

Still no travel date!!

I'm going a little crazy, looking at my phone every 30 seconds. I find myself imagining it ringing with our facilitators name lighting up the screen... it hasn't happened yet though.

It truly should be any day now!!

We are still hoping to leave by the end of May to go meet our babies!!

Our t-shirt campaign ended last night and we are very happy with the results. Thank you to everyone who purchased and shared!

We still have our giveaway going on though!!!

Don't forget you only have until May 29th to get your entries in to win

FIRST NAME CHOSEN...

 

A $300 GIFT CARD TO LOWES

The Second name chosen will receive a

 A $200 GIFT CARD TO HOBBY LOBBY

Here's how it works!!

Donation Amounts: 

$10 - 1 Entry

$25 - 5 Entries

$50 - 10 Entries 

$100 - 30 Entries
$500 - 250 Entries

Please Share on FB, Twitter or your blog!! This also counts as an Entry! 

Just leave a comment below telling us where you shared and your name will be entered.

Tax Deductible Donations can be made to our Family Sponsorship Page at: REECES RAINBOW

Please send your receipt to: nnmaxwell03@gmail.com

Donations can also be made in person, or through Paypal.



 Remember this giveaway will end on May 29th so don't wait to place your entries!!!

We will choose the winners through random.org and post the lucky names on May 30th right here on our blog!!

We are SO CLOSE to beginning the next step of bringing our babies home. Please help us finish strong on our fundraising. Every dollar we receive from this giveaway helps to lessen our financial stresses in country and once we get our kiddos home.

We are also giving 50% of what we have earned from our t-shirts and this giveaway to the Benz family as they are behind us in the adoption process and still very much in needs of funds to bring their precious son home!!

With every entry you will be helping 2 families. You'll be playing a role in saving 3 children from life in an institution. AND you'll have a chance to win an amazing home improvement opportunity!! 

Sounds like a win-win to me!!!




I'll keep you all posted!! Have a beautiful day!!

Sharing the Love!

Now that we have reached our goal and are considering ourselves fully funded you may be wondering what we are going to do about our giveaway.

We have decided to continue with our fundraiser simply because we have started it. Any money raised now will go into our emergency fund.

There is really no "set" amount that if reached will absolutely guarantee us we have "enough". Unexpected delays or other unfortunate circumstances can always take place so it's wise to bring a couple thousand extra. Ryan and I have this money set aside, but any extra that we can raise now just means we will have some "once home" savings for medical bills.

God has so richly blessed us though and we are eager to pay if forward, even if in a small way.

So we have decided to invite our neighbors (seriously, they live only a couple blocks from us) and dear friends the Benz's to join our giveaway!!

Any money raised in our giveaway and our t-shirt fundraiser will be split 50/50 with them.

Kaylee and Derek are a young couple that have some of the biggest hearts! They are in the process of  adopting a little boy from the same country our babies are from.

You can see their family sponsorship page and read more about them by clicking HERE 

or by following their blog HERE 

Their Henry

How adorable is he!!! Can't you just picture him in their beautiful family??

Will you help us show them some love?!?

Same rules...

Donation Amounts: 

$10 - 1 Entry

$25 - 5 Entries

$50 - 10 Entries 

$100 - 30 Entries

$500 - 250 Entries

 Tee-shirt purchase - 3 Entries

 For every entry, your name will be entered into our Giveaway and

on May 29th we will post a video of the two winners chosen through Random.org.

The First name that is chosen will win (drum roll!!!!!!)

A $300 GIFT CARD TO LOWES

The Second name chosen will receive a

 A $200 GIFT CARD TO HOBBY LOBBY

Our t-shirt fundraiser is now live!! We needed to sell 10 shirts to make our printing goal which we did, so they will for sure be printed and any purchases after this is profit!!

You can view and purchase these awesome shirts by clicking HERE

For privacy reasons Tee Spring does not pass on your contact info to us so if you buy a shirt please let me know so I can get your name entered in our giveaway!!

Shirts are available in 3 great colors!

I love the message of these shirts!! They would make the perfect gift for anyone who has adopted, is in the process, or just anyone who values the significance of FAMILY!!

Please Share on FB, Twitter or your blog!! This also counts as an Entry! 

Just leave a comment below telling us where you shared and your name will be entered.

Tax Deductible Donations can be made to our Family Sponsorship Page at: REECES RAINBOW

Please send your receipt to: nnmaxwell03@gmail.com

Donations can also be made in person, or through Paypal.

 Remember this giveaway will end on May 29th so don't wait to place your entries!!!

Your gift will now go towards helping to bring home THREE precious children and save each of them from life in an institution!!

Ready...set...GO!!

3 days!!

WOW!!!

The past three days have been such a roller coaster of awesome I just don't even know if I can describe it in words... and yet here I am trying ;)

Around a week ago we received a call from a friend during dinner and she informed us that there was a car dealership in town that wanted to GIVE us a minivan.

Supposedly a man who works at the dealership saw our news interview months ago and was touched by it. He found out from one of our friends that we only have one vehicle and right away said he wanted to help us.

Instant tears as I'm hearing bits and pieces of the phone conversation Ryan is having with our friend. I understood enough to be completely in awe of what God had done.

Ryan and I had discussed purchasing another vehicle, but it was something we knew would be a year or so down the road for us.

It wasn't even something we were praying for!!

But God knew....

I am brought to tears even today as I think about all of the past days where Ryan and I have woken up the kids at 6am so we could take Ryan to work because we needed the vehicle that day. On appointment and therapy days it wasn't unusual for me to unload and load the kids (and wheelchair) 8+ times into the vehicle. Most days I would take the kids home after a long day of appointments or therapy and they would get maybe an hour nap in before I'd load them back up to go pick up Ryan.

I'm not saying this so you feel bad for us, I'm saying it because I want you to believe that God knows our needs even more than we do.

AND HE CARES...

He cares that this life is hard a lot of the time and our bodies and weary and tired.

He sees us...

That truth would still be true even if God didn't give us a van, but isn't it mind blowing that we serve a God that delights in giving good gifts to His children?

We picked up our beautiful minivan on Saturday...

And as if that wasn't enough, that night I got home from work around 11pm and I noticed an envelope duct taped to our door. I took it inside, unloaded my stuff, and then Ryan and I opened it.

It took me three times of reading through the letter to comprehend that it was about me and the boys. AND I initially dismissed the money as I thought they were "just Bible tracts". LOL

Once I realized this was for real and not some sick kind of chain letter, I didn't even know what to do. I felt like I was going to have an emotional breakdown (the good kind, not my usual ;) first a van and now this!

The person that left us this envelope had no idea that we are funding an adoption, that Ivan isn't our biological child, or what an immense blessing, confirmation, and encouragement this would be for us....

But God knew :)

Ryan and I just kept looking at each other with huge eyes and saying "thank you Lord!"

As if THAT wasn't enough...

The next day was Sunday and we knew that our church was dedicating part of the service to our adoption.

When we got there, we noticed that the majority of the congregation were sporting our adoption t-shirts which was so encouraging and amazing by itself.

After the message they showed a short interview that they did with us a while ago and then had us up to give an update and pray over us.

Before the prayer our pastor handed us a check for $5,500 (4,000 we already knew about, but the rest was a total shock!!).

I am just pausing at my laptop right now because I can't even....

Let me clarify that our church is not large by any means and I don't think we have any extremely wealthy people in our congregation. We don't even have our own building right now so we meet in BSC's science center, but the heart of this church is what drew us in. To the outside world it may not look like our little church has much to offer, but our churches motto is "live out love" and that is exactly what Revive Christian church does.

After our pastor prayed over us we were dismissed, but people kept coming up to us, hugging us, and slipping us checks and envelopes.

I was just an emotional mess.

The support we received from our church was incredible and we felt God's presence and pleasure the whole time.

I don't know if I've really let anyone see just how hard this adoption process has been for us. It wasn't the money, or even the paperwork, more than anything we just wrestled with "why us".

We already have lots of long, hard days and there have been so many times during this process that I've just locked myself in the bathroom and told God "I don't know if I can." "I don't think I'm strong enough" or my most popular "UHHHHHHHH ARE YOU FREEKING KIDDING ME...You think I can handle MORE!!"

Sidenote: why does no one warn you about 3!! It makes age 2 look like Candy Land!!

In the past month, we have really begun to see a change happening in our family though. Landon is still a typical 3 year old monster boy, we haven't gotten less busy, and Ivan isn't getting any lighter people...

but our hearts somehow feel lighter.

Being surrounded by our church family last Sunday and having just received such tangible confirmations that God knows how hard this life is and He WILL meet everyone of our needs.

EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

I'm NOT saying that God always rewards us with monetary blessings if we follow His calling.

That would be prosperity gospel and that crap makes me sick!

No, I'm saying that God will never leave you or forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6). His ways are so much higher than your ways (Isaiah 55:8) and He doesn't give to us the way the world gives... He gives us peace (John 14:27). Peace to walk through any storm that this life could throw at us. Peace to walk ON water, even! If we're willing to step out of the boat (Matthew 14).

So we left church last Sunday renewed and revived in so many ways.

It's hard to explain the emotional and spiritual battle that wages when your heart knows what is right and fully desires it, but your brain and your body are telling you it's not possible and it doesn't make sense.

We were relieved that we were so close to being fully funded, but more than anything we had a peace.

A peace that surpassed our understanding and broke down any last walls of fear.

We haven't ever doubted that this adoption was God's plan for our family, but we've had a hard time accepting it and feeling ready for such a huge change... while at the same time COMPLETELY falling in love with our future babies, dreaming about them, and counting down the days until it's our turn for a travel date...


We have believed that God would make a way, we have taken countless crazy steps of faith, we have coveted each and every one of your prayers as we've battled not just our own fears, but delays and documents being lost. We have worked hard and prayed harder... and guess what!!!!

God HAS INDEED come through!!!

WE ARE FULLY FUNDED!!!!

 This morning I recieved a message saying that we were accepted for a $3,000 grant!!

That put us only $400 away from our goal!!

I contacted Kelsie with the Gathering Family because she had told me a while ago that they had some money raised for us, but I told her to just keep it until we were closer to traveling.

$1,500 they raised for us!!!

$1,500!!!!

There was lots of screaming going on in our house today!!

How crazy is that?!?

In only 3 days God provided over 10k for us and a minivan!!

If I had to guess, I would say that He may be preparing us to travel sooner than we were expecting. We found out that there is only one slot in front of us for travel dates and they could be traveling at any time, which means there is still a possibility that we could be traveling to meet our babies this month!!!

You may be wondering what we're going to do about the giveaway we have going on now that we've reached our goal.

There will be news about that in a coming blog post.

For now, I just want to thank each and everyone of you who have prayed for us and supported us in any way. God has used you in an incredible way to change the lives of these two children and our families life forever!!

If this adoption has taught me anything, it's that God CRAZY LOVES us.

From those of us who wresstle with fear and doubt to the child who has laid alone in a crib for years...

GOD. CRAZY. LOVES. US.

We don't have to be perfect to accept that love, we just have to come as we are, give God the pen to our lives, and HOLD ON because he's NOT a boring author :)

We love each of you dearly and can't thank you enough for following us on this journey.