NO NEWS YET!
Our facilitator check with the SDA today, they don't have an appointment date for us yet. But they will check back soon.

Matthew
It has been a while since I updated on Matthew. He is doing fine. He has become an incredible swimmer this summer. He can't touch in the pool so he has always had to wear a life jacket. He would get so mad because he couldn't go under the water. He looked like a duck with his little tushy sticking out and his face submurged. So I let him take off the life jacket and swim with water wings-you know the blow up things you put on your arms. He did pretty well with those, except him arms are so skinny the water wings would slip off when he jumped into the water. He was still getting frustrated because he couldn't get the diving sticks off the bottom, Jeff would push him down so he could grab them. So I let him take off the water wings when he was in the pool with Jeff (I don't get into the water until it is 90 degrees in the water). He took off! He swims like a pro , dives to the bottom and picks up two or three diving sticks, and can go all over the pool. He does cannon balls, goes down the slide and even swims between Katie and Emma's legs.
He is 40 inches tall now and 30 lbs.

He said a cute thing the other day to my sister Laura who just had a baby. He asked her if she got a baby in her tummy by swallowing it. Makes sense right? I don't think I will tell him yet how the baby really got in there.

We saw two pre-teen boys playing in a driveway, Matthew got excited because he thought it was Alex and Vasya. Hopefully we will hear something soon about our appointment date to go get them.

Meet Levi James Hanson! He was born 7/24/08, 6 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches long. Both my sister

Angie and Levi are going home today and doing fine.

Here they are together! Levi on the left and Cody on the right, Aren't they sweet!

They were born 6 days apart.

Here he is Sasha (Alex)! Doesn't he look like Matthew?

WE FINALLY HAVE A PICTURE OF ALEX!

A family adopting from Odesssa #9 sent us a picture of Alex (aka Sasha, which is what every Alex in Ukraine is called). He looks a lot like Matthew-even more so than Vasya. The couple said he is smart, polite, speaks and understands some English (thank goodness-since my tongue won't cooperate when I try to learn Russian). He is 4'6" tall which is an inch shorter than my niece Katie. He is good friends with the children the family is adopting and we will be able to visit them since they live in Colorado. I will post a picture of him soon. We were so excited to see what he looks like and the family was able to tell him that we are trying to adopt him--he had no idea. He thought the other family was still coming back. (We still don't know anything about why that adoption didn't go through).

Meet Cody George Robinson,

He was born 7/18/08, 7 lb 14.5 oz, and 21 inches long. He was very white blond hair and is a cutie.

If anyone is thinking about ordering tastefully simple please let me know-I've earned $250 so far and every penny helps.

OUR DOSSIER IS SUBMITTED!!!
Our dossier was submitted on Wednesday, they said it should be processed (approved) by August 1st. Our facilitator asked for an August appointment, they said they doubted they could squeeze us in, but would most likely be scheduled for September.

Now for some more exciting news! My sister Laura gave birth to a 7 lb 14.5 oz baby boy today. His name is Cody George Robinson. He is 21 inches long, has very blond hair and blue eyes. He has two very proud big sisters. I will try to upload a picture tomorrow. Hopefully in a few more days I will have news about my sister Angie's baby.

We could be in Ukraine in August!!!!!!

Our dossier should be submitted within a week, the SDA has twenty business days to accept or reject it. Those business days do not include Fridays. Then we should be notified of our appointment date. They have been giving out expedited appointment dates to some families who want to adopt older or known children. So pray that they do so for us as well.

My friend Ellen has graciously donated her profits from a tastefully simple catalog party to our adoption fund. So if anyone out there wants to order some delicious and easy to make things, here's what you do.
Go to www.tastefullysimple.com
look over the catalog, if you want to order on-line e-mail me and I will e-mail you an on-line invite.
Or you can e-mail me your order or even easier e-mail my friend Ellen at simplyellenk@gmail.com tell her you want to place an order for CARA NORBY'S party. She will tell you exactly what to do.
You can call me too if you want. The prophit is higher is for e-mail the order to her instead of ordering on-line.

This stuff is delicious, especially the beer bread!

July 5, 2008
Happy Belated Independence Day! I was thinking about our Independence yesterday on the way home from our annual picnic. I think this was the United State's 232nd celebration and Ukraine has only been independent for somewhere around 15 years. Celebrating their independence would really be something since most people living there can remember being under communist rule and since no one here was alive during the American revolution our celebration is more tradition. Anyway hopefully Vasya and Alex will be here next year to celebrate with us along with my two new nephews or nieces that are due to arrive in a few weeks.

I fed-exed (if that is a real verb) our updated documents to Ukraine last Thursday and our facilitator picked them up yesterday. He will proofread, translate and notarized them next week and hopefully get them submitted soon. We have heard that several families who submitted their documents in June for older children have recieved appointment dates for the end of July or early August. Hopefully we will get a quick appointment date as well, If you have a spare minute send up a prayer about it.

We are still fundraising, in fact I am having a Tastefully Simple catalog party. My friend Ellen, who has two sweet little boys from Guatamala is generously giving me the profits. So As soon as I figure it out, I'll let you know. It can be done over the internet.

P.S. We are looking for a set or two of sturdy used bunkbeds that someone is wanting to get rid of. So if you know of anyone(not too far from SD) let us know. Matthew is still sleeping in a toddler bed, but we promised him a big boy bed when the big boys come home.