On January 7, 2014 we committed to adopt Charlie & Lola.... On May 7, 2014 today we are submitted.. This means we are just waiting on travel dates.... We should be traveling in June to bring our little ones home. This day is just overflowing with Blessings. What a Mothers Day Gift. Our son Alex came home today from the mission field for a 3 week visit. This will be short because we together with Alex but just had to post our good news!! These two blankets were made by a very special friend of mine Lori. She gave me them a couple of week ago and I knew I would use them in the post where we announced we were submitted. When I first met Lori she was homeless. But this never stopped her from giving even when her needs were so great. She has made other blankets for family's adopting. She made one for Adalyn and for Dawn Brooks for Kolya. I've walked with Lori as she struggled to get off the streets and when she lost her best friend Mr. Jim. Lori has walked with me pray for our adoption with Adalyn and now with Charlie & Lola. She is an incredible woman and the good news is she is now homeless no more!! This picture is taken on one of several Gates we have on our little acre all made by my husband and son Addison. on this one the made a heart. The little shirts are from Stephanie Wetherington another adoptive mom we know for years along with her family. I have friends that have walked and prayed us through this journey. My friend Thereasa knows every single emotion I've had through this journey. She Prays, enourages, listens, loves me where I am at the moment and most of all intercedes with her husband Jim in Prayer for Dennis & I. There are so many more who I will post about . Please continue in Prayer for our little ones and for our Family. Thank you to everyone that has helped us in so many ways to help us bring our little ones home. We never could of done this journey without you. We thank our Father for allowing us to be a part of His plan. Our journey is not over yet , we can't wait to bring our little ones home....... Overflowing in Blessings...... Cindy  

Now our journey to Russia began. We started our paperwork and a few days later left for Maryland. On J une 3 our son Andrew & Casey were married. Now three of our children were married. Our daughter Jennifer is married to Kevin and they have our first grandchildren Westin,Trentin & Cindy Sue. Our son Aaron is married to Laura. After a beautiful wedding we all head home. Now we continue with all our paperwork. On June 27 I was at my chiropractor who is also a friend and sharing with her and another lady Susan about our adoption. I have never had a prophetic word spoken until that day. Susan told mopen a window or a door He was going to open the Gate. She also asked what my favorite color was because God was showing her a flower the size of a quarter and it was Purple. Well purple was not a color that meaTanna to pray nt anything to me then. So as I'm trying to understand everything that was spoken my appointment was over and I left for home. I walked to my back yard and we have a little path to the backyard and on a bush we have was one single purple flower. The name of the flower is yesterday,today & tomorrow. It was one of those moments you just knew you were in the presence of the Lord. Our Father is the same as He was years ago as He us today. That was the beginning of how my Father spoke to me through the color purple. At first I thought is this crazy ,is God really talking to me like this. Then I read Jeremiah and that was how God spoke to Jeremiah he gave him visuals. So if God spoke to men in the Bible like this, I was sure He could also speak to me this way. So when God would move in our adoption purple would be involved. I was still trying to figure out what the Gate meant. Well in August I moved into Lindys house to babysit her 5 children while she went to Ukraine to adopt Kole. So I took care of Genesis, Jude & Zane,Gabe & Levi. What I learned in 6 weeks would help me more than any book on adoption. It was also in that time that that God spoke through my son Alex and told me watching Lindy & Guys children would be critical for our adoption and to keep believing speaking nothing negative. At that time also God gave it was the orphanage Gates and at that time I didn't know what it fully meant. I realized all the orphans were behind Gates. This was in September. In October my friend Tanna traveled to Russia for her first trip to meet her little daughter Lucy. I asked Tanna to pray over the orphanage because the chances of her seeing Adalyn were pretty slim. Well I knew Tanna had made it and was going to the orphanage and I prayed and had friends praying also for her to see Adalyn. Little did I know Tanna was doing the same and later that afternoon I got a message from Tanna saying guess who I saw. This is so incredibly unbelievable how our Father answers Prayer. Tanna walked into Lucy's room to see her bed and guess who was in the room. Adalyn!!! Our little girls beds were right beside each other. Not only did she see her and get pictures ,she held her hand and prayed over her. Our prayers were answered more than we could ever of imagined. Then in November we heard they were going to push us ahead because Adalyn was considered a medical emergency. She desperately needed surgery and weighed only 14lbs. So in Dec. we got travel dates to leave on Dec. 15 and return home on December 23, 2012. Little did we know what was going to happen... Will continue on next post...need to get some sleep to pick Alex up at the airport. Couldn't sleep but now getting a little sleepy. Blessings Cindy.....

Our Story

This is our story that lead us to the orphanage gates. 

Dennis and I met when I was 17 and he was 21. I was still in high-school and was working at Dunkin Donuts; he was working for Jennings Funeral Home. He would come in for coffee every day. In May of 1974 he asked me out and on August 3, 1976, my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary, we were married. We went through the turmoil of not knowing if we would be able to have children, but then three years later we had our first baby girl, Jennifer - our first little blessing!  When the funeral home that Dennis had washed cars for during high-school offered him a job we made the move back to Brooksville, FL from Ft Lauderdale, FL. It was difficult leaving my family but the city life was never for me, so we moved back to Dennis' small home-town and bought a small house on an acre of land. It was beautiful but took me awhile to adjust because I so missed my family. My mom was my best friend growing up. I was raised in the military so we moved often, and making friends was very hard for me. But God's Hand was in this move. Then we were blessed with the births of Adam, Andrew, Aaron, Alex, Austin, Addison and Nora. Eight blessings God gave us to raise! In between their births we also were blessed with 9 little ones who took their first breaths in the arms of Jesus.             

Mine and my husband's hearts have been lead to adopt. Dennis was adopted along with his 3 siblings. He and his brother were adopted from California, while his two sisters were adopted from Korea. 

We had never planned on adoption, until we met a family in our town who was in the process of adopting two little ones from Ukraine. When I saw little Gabe & Levi's pictures my heart broke and that's where it all started. I got to speak with their adopting mom Lindy and then with another group of women as we organized a fundraiser for her adoption in downtown Brooksville. I started to see where it could happen, so I went onto the Reece's Rainbow website that had connected Lindy to her two little boys and I started to look at all the children. I came across a little girl named Sarah and fell in love. As I watched Lindy, my eyes were opened and my heart was broken and there was no turning back. But now how was I going to convince my husband. We had already walked through years of people thinking we were crazy for having all our little ones, but after I gave birth to Adam God told me to Trust Him for how many children we would have, so we did. Even when it got difficult, even after the birth of our youngest Nora and going through 3 years of having 6 little ones go into the arms of Jesus, we still said 'yes Lord'. The last time I was pregnant I was 45. Then at 55 I hear the call to adopt. My husband was 59 , what would he think?! I spent almost a year looking at Sarah's picture when another family committed to adopt her. My heart broke, but at least she had a family. Then a week later as I went on Reece's Rainbow a little baby girl Adalyn popped up and I just knew. I would check the website every chance I had, which wasn't often because we didn't have internet in our house at that time. I asked a friend of mine to inquire about her for me because I also was not very knowledgeable about navigating the internet either. She did, and by the time I got to her house she had already been given more pictures of the little girl. I knew, and now I had to talk to my husband. 

This was how I knew Adalyn was meant for our family - Adalyn was born with a cleft lip and palate just like our son Addison. In fact we have 3 boys born with different forms of this. Then her name - Adalyn. Our son Addison's middle name is Alyn, and so is my husband's. Addison Alyn, Adalyn.... I just knew!!! But by 3:00 that afternoon she was gone. Another family committed to adopt her and I was broken. Did I get this wrong? I had two friends Lisa and Debbie tell me 'hang in there, she'll be back'. Now I thought they were crazy!!! The next night I was in a spiritual battle and it was so bad I called Debbie and she gave me scripture, she prayed with me and told me I had to talk to Dennis, Adalyn would be available again. We would be the back-up family if the other family decided to back out. Since we didn't have internet my friend Lisa did the communicating for me. On May 26 , 2012 Dennis and I were talking in our bedroom and the phone started ringing but I ignored it because we were talking, but they kept calling back. I finally answered and it was Lisa, she had gotten a message that the other family let Adalyn go and she was ours if we said yes. So now I had to talk to Dennis. We did, and on Saturday May 26, 2012 at 12:30 we committed to Adalyn. This is where our adoption journey began.

This will be too long of a post if I continue, so I will finish the story in another post!

Blessings, Cindy......................