The last "Peet" girl has been married off!

My baby sister Katelyn got married this past Saturday. Her husband, Jared, picked the date because it was his grandparents 61st wedding anniversary. It's so hard to believe that she is old enough to get married already. I missed growing up with my sisters since I am 10 years older than Andrea and 11 years older than Katelyn. We have a lot of making up to do! A good time was had by all!! It did rain, but I am convinced that rain on your wedding day is a blessing. It is GOD shedding his tears of joy. It's a good thing I love her soooo much, because my dress looked terrible on me and my shoes were an issue from the time we got them. ;) Needless to say, I've started a dress up box for my little girl. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony and nobody even noticed that I took my shoes off. Hahahaha!!! We were reminincing about times when I still lived at home... my sisters' "fondest" memory is of me hanging them on the door knob by their underpants when they would get into my stuff. Now, tell me, does that look like the face of an evil big sister?! Come on, everyone knows that I'm the angel of the family!! My mom always said I was the easiest of us 3 girls. I keep reminding them that they got off easy. If the roles were reversed and I was the youngest, it would've been 2 against 1!! ;) I love you guys!
Congrats Kate and Jared!! May you have many years of happiness.

Blog BUZZ!!- How do I choose a country?!

Choosing a country can be a tough decision for many families when they first decide to open their hearts to adoption. You can narrow your options down but I believe that GOD ultimately leads you to your decision. A good way to start is by deciding what YOU feel is right for your family. There is Domestic Caucasian, Domestic African-American/Bi-Racial, International, and Foster Care. Ask yourself a few questions. Do you already have children in your home or will this be your first? If you do, how many and how old are they? If you are looking at international adoption, many countries have a limit on the number of children already in the home. Your age may also be a factor. Are you open to raising a child of a different race and ethnicity? We've allowed our 3 boys to be a part of the process from day 1 and this process takes time and patience. We didn't just wake up one morning and say "Let's adopt a little girl from India today." Because we are caucasian, we thought that domestic or foster care was our best option. We went through the MAPS Foster Parenting Course to become foster parents first. But... our hearts weren't there. (If you have the chance to take this course, I would encourage you to do it. We learned a lot about ourselves and our family that has help us to through our journey.) Then I had spent months and months researching adoption. I began with domestic. It seemed like the logical way to go. But again... our hearts didn't feel a connection. This was difficult because I thought for sure that would be our answer. From my experience, I found through talking to many agencies and research, that most birth mothers want their child to be the first in the home and/or at least a semi-open adoption. However, this was not true for all. When we felt led to international adoption, we again started looking at countries where their natives were more fair skinned. We thought that it would be easier for "our daughter" to be accepted by others if she resembled us some what. The more we researched the more we drifted. Having 3 children already helped to narrow it down for us. Many countries require you to make more than one trip staying 2-3 weeks at a time. We weren't comfortable with leaving the boys for that long. Finally, we decided open our hearts and let GOD lead us... and he did... he lead us to India. A word of advice... don't let others lead you, open you hearts and trust in GOD. If we had listened to everyone else, we would still be trying to find our way.


Please read previous posts to see how God answered our prayers and led us to India.

Red Letters Campaign

After much thought, I've decided to join the Red Letters Campaign. This is a way to share our story and reach out to more readers. The Red Letters Campaign asks its participants to answer 1 question per week on their blog usually relating to adoption. This allows new families to read the responses and help them through the difficult process. Other times there may be questions regarding poverty or HIV and how we talk to our children about it or other topics of concern. I'm looking forward to participating and I hope you will follow along.

Sheba is going back to India!

Today, I write with both sadness and joy in my heart. Sheba is leaving to go back to India tomorrow. Although I was able to meet and spend time with the woman who opened our hearts to India, I am sad that she is going home without raising enough money to purchase the land needed to continue caring for the children in her orphanage. She still has children without sponsors and that tears me apart, too. We are trying to find churches throughout the United States who would open their doors and allow her to tell her story. If we can do this, Sheba could come back to the US in September and October and possibly raise the lacking funds needed to buy the land to build an orphanage and school for the children. I'm calling out to all of my blog "stalkers"... please talk to your church families!! We would like to reach as many states as possible but need to have a tour schedule set for her before she can make travel arrangements for the next trip. If their hearts are not open to this, please consider sponsoring one of the children in her care. Sheba is a wonderful lady and I wish each and everyone of you could meet her in person. Spending one day with her would change your life. Please contact me if you would like more information on how you can help.

God Bless-
Maggie

It's official...

We are number 15 on the non-NRI list. Yee haw!! 15!! Good number! Shad was born on the 15th. 1+5 =6, we will be a family of 6 when our little angel comes home. I know, I know, it's a little corny, but I'm excited to just be on the list!!

I love the FedEx man!!!!

Yeah!!! The FedEx man must think I'm wacked!!! He showed up today with our dossier from being apostilled in Albany. I opened the envelope, quickly scanned the documents and stuffed them in a new envelope addressed to Dillon. :) I have been waiting all day for him!! Those FedEx men must really love us impatient adopting moms!!! Ha! Ha! Now the wait begins. I believe we enter the list at 15. I'm not sure yet. I'll post again when Jynger lets me know.

I am so glad to be done with our SWer. Shad drove 3 1/2 hours to get our homestudy last Wednesday and it still wasn't done!! So... he told her he'd be back on Friday and wanted it in his hand then. He got there on Friday and decided he had better proof it before driving all the way back home. Good thing, because she had my middle name wrong throughout the entire document. Then she had the audacity to argue the fact with Shad! Unbelievable!!! This homestudy has been a bear!! I'm so glad that it's done and our dossier is submitted and we can move on!!!!

I'm going to camp for the weekend, having a glass of my favorite wine, OK- maybe 2, and gonna do a "happy dance"!! Wooo hooo!!

Our Inspiration...

This beautiful Indian woman is the inspiration behind Shad and I adopting from India. After waiting almost a year, my friend Michele and I met Sheba Sunayana May 1, 2008 for the first time. Let me start at the beginning...

I always knew that I wanted more children but my pregnancies with both Treyton and Cooper were difficult ones so Shad decided to have a vascectomy in 2001. After months and months of discussing adoption, Shad and I decided to explore our options. At first we thought that domestic was the way to go. We did a little research and after talking to a friend, decided to go through Foster Care. The more we got into it, the more we realized that it wasn't the right time for our family. I'm very emotional and felt that I would have attachment issues. After all, the main goal of foster care is to reunite families. A couple of years went by and my desire to have a little girl was still there so we opened the door to adoption once more. But the question still remained, what direction do we go? We prayed and prayed that God would lead us... and 5 months later he did. On a cold and rainy summer day in 2007 God answered our prayers. I stopped at the Sunoco Station and grabbed a cappuccino and the local paper before taking the boys to football practice. I hadn't bought the paper in years. It was rolled in half so I never saw what was on it. I threw it on the dash and away I went. About a half an hour later Shad met me at the boys practice and got in the car. He questioned the paper when he got in. He grabbed it and opened it. He questioned me again. Again, I never looked at it! I bought it and threw it in the car. He questioned me again!! What in the world was the big deal?! Well... on the front page was Sheba and her story. A story of one selfless woman doing Gods work in India. Here was a married woman with children of her own devoting herself to caring for orphans in India. Her work started with one begging child following her home from the market. The next day he brought a friend. This continued and her commitment to helping the orphans has grown to 152 children in her care today. She gets no government support and cares for these children on her own through donations. Depending on finances, the children may not always get 3 meals per day. She is a true missionary. She sacrifices for these children. We didn't choose India. GOD chose India for us. I believe that God put Sheba's story in our hands for a reason. It was that day that we began our true journey to finding our daughter. Almost a year later, I had the opportunity to meet her. I was talking to my friend Michele and she told me Sheba was coming back to the US and she knew who to contact to meet her. Michele knew how important it was to me to meet Sheba and to "thank" her for what she is doing. It wasn't until I sat down to talk to her that I found out that the children in her care will never be able to be adopted. (Sorry, but I cry every time I think about it.) Mostly because of the part of India that they are in. I believe that all children should have a story to tell and this is one that I will be proud to share with my daughter. I think we can all look to Sheba as an inspiration through our journeys. God Bless!

Thank you Sheba for opening our hearts to India!! You will always be a blessing to our family!!

To read her full story please visit Sheba's website. There is a link at the bottom of her page to see how a local church is helping her to purchase land to build an orphanage.

What a great day today is turning out to be....

I am a firm believer in letting kids explore themselves and their surroundings and to try new things until they find what makes them happy. What an awesome surprise to down load our vacation pictures and find these beautiful pictures of nature taken by an 8 year old. Yes, these were taken by Treyton. He asked if he could take some pictures. So of course, I handed him the camera and away he went.

Who knew that Dandelions could look so pretty! I just figured that I would have to delete most of them, but instead I kept them all!! All 20 something of them!! They're fabulous!!

The best part of it is that he just thinks he was having fun.

I can't wait to see what's to come!

Jamestown Settlement, Virginia

We took the boys to Virginia a couple of weeks ago and I'm a little behind on getting some pictures posted of our trip. We went to visit my cousin, Rick, in Mechanicsville. He lives in a development that was built on the Cold Harbor battlefield. How cool is that!? I've never been a huge history buff, but I have to admit that this trip was a lot of fun. We went to the Jamestown Settlement (the first English settlement in America) and road on a ferry. There was so much to take in that is was overwhelming!! It was nice to get away even if it was only for the weekend. The boys miss their cousin Alyssa and it gave them a chance to spend some time with her.

Holy, moly it's finally done!!!!!

Just a quick note before we head out for Richmond, VA today. Our home study is done and was emailed to Dillon (and us) today for review. YEAH!!!!!!! Hopefully everything looks good to Dillon and we can get our dossier in the mail when we get back. We'll take a copy with us to look at and double check spellings and birthdates, ect. and let our SW know if we feel any changes are necessary. Pray that everything works out (and that the weather is nice for the weekend!). I'll post more when I know more!! :)