Let the Christmas Decorating begin...

We promised Lukas that we would finally put up the tree on Friday morning. After a leisurely morning my boys put up the tree while I went out to get my fresh greens for outside. When I returned home they had the tree up waiting for decorations. I'm still not use to it taking twice as long to decorate the tree with a little one around. He loves going through the ornaments and other decorations and I find I spend half my time following what he is doing and the other half re-arranging the decorations. He tends to lump them all in one spot. This year he had a little more vertical direction to his decorating with the assist of the step stool.

A little sticker fun to keep the little impish elf busy while we got things together.




The finished product. This was pretty much all we got accomplished since we had to keep up with Lukas pulling everything out faster than we could put it together. Good thing there are several weeks until Christmas.

Thanksgiving 2010 with the Robeys

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends near and far. Once again we have much to be thankful for as we celebrate another Thanksgiving with Lukas and our extended family. God has been more than gracious to us over this past year.

This year we celebrated with the Robey side of the family. Lukas was up early and assisted me with making breakfast and coffee. We then settled in downstairs to watch the annual Macy's Parade. Lukas didn't last long, he headed over to his smart cycle and would pop over from time to time to see what was going on in the parade. Needless to say, the SpongeBob balloon and Santa were the highlights for him.

Here is a glimpse of our Thanksgiving dinner with family.


LUKAS ALL SETTLED IN TO FEAST


AFTER DINNER ART TIME WITH UNCLE BUTCH


CUTTING INTO THE CAKE EARLY WITH UNCLE BUTCH


LUKAS STILL THINKS STICKERS GO ON YOUR FACE


CAN'T LEAVE MEEMAW OUT OF THE STICKER FUN


CATALOG SHOPPING IN THE TOYS 'R' US CATALOG WITH AUNT CHERYL


SNEAKING UP ON COUSIN KEVIN WHILE HE WAS NAPPING

National Adoption Day **updated

In honor of National Adoption Day I thought it was appropriate to recognize and celebrate B and J finally taking N home from Umit. Congratulations to you all and may the rest of the journey homeward go smoothly.



**Link to article from NY times about their adoption: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/europe/24adopt.html

In the midst of the celebration we continue to keep the remaining Taraz 9 in our thoughts and prayers. May they all experience the same joy and celebration that B, J and NA have very soon.

In update, M and F were given the same verdict from Astana as A and E. They were told to reprocess through the Municipal Court in Taraz. There is one more case to be heard in Astana. So, in the mean time they all wait and see what happens back in Taraz. Happily, A&E and M&F have been re-united with their children in Taraz after having been a part for a long time.

God Bless you all!

Dancing Boy

Playing with his Leap Frog Fridge Talk recorder. I don't think anything else needs to be said.

The pictures speak for themselves

New use for storage containers...napping


just kidding...playing possum


Napping with mikaela


Who cares if they won't let me go swimming, I can still pretend.

Taraz 10 Update...not a Yes, not a No, Back to Taraz they go

The first Canadian couple had their preliminary hearing before the supreme court on Thursday. This is my best understanding of what happened. A and E arrived in Astana with their Kaz Attorney and were basically told that the Supreme Court refused to hear their case and that A and E needed to go back to Taraz and re-start at the Municipal Court the same way B and J did. I pray this is a good thing for them with the exception of having wasted energy/money with paper work for the Supreme court and the extra time, stress and anxiety in the process.

I also learned today that the 2nd Canadian couple, F and M, going the Supreme Court route is scheduled for November 18, 2010. It is believed that the Supreme court will refuse their case as well because they will ask them to re-start their process at the municipal court.

My understanding is the reason why they are asking the families to re-start at the municipal court is because they now have the signatures of the locals who refused to adopt the children and these signatures are only valid at the municipal level.

The silver lining in all this for these two couples is that they will be reunited with their children for the coming weeks in Taraz. Please keep the remaining 7 families and 9 children in your prayers that they follow in B and J's footsteps this go round in the Municipal court and get the "DAs" that they deserve.

Taraz Ten...Family #2 Heads to Court

Thursday (Nov 11) the first of the families going to the Supreme Court in Astana will have their day in court. Please be praying that A&E finally get the yes they have been fighting for so they can begin the final part of the journey to bring their little boy and girl home.

NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH

November is National Adoption Month in which we recognize all the children who have been adopted and those that are still waiting for their forever families. Anyone can play a role in caring for orphans across the country and the world. If you do not feel called to actually adopt an orphan you can still help care for them by donating to the many groups that support the children and the orphanages/foster care systems they live in.

According to the State Department there were 100,000 children adopted domestically and 11,000 children adopted Internationally in the last year. There are still many, many children living without families and unfortunately most will age out of foster care or orphanages before ever finding families.

Here are just a few links to organizations that assist orphans and adoptive families

http://twoheartsforhope.blogspot.com/

http://www.spoonfoundation.org/

http://www.interlinkresources.org/about/

http://www.adoptionark.org/public/pag207.aspx

http://reecesrainbow.org/

http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/

http://lrosier.giving.officelive.com/default.aspx

http://actofkindness.blogspot.com/

http://www.showhope.org/

Update on An Adoptive Family Needs Our Help

"The Gobble's just updated their blog... they are heading to the baby house to say YES to adopting the twin girls! The money was raised in 12 hours and now two little girls will have a family!!"

UPDATE OF MORE INFORMATION FROM ANOTHER BLOG

Miracles happen! If you doubt this is so, read this..
The family who is in Kaz, presented with twin girls (not the single child they had financially planned 3 years for and consequently did not have the $13,000.00 addtional dollars they would need within 12 days) have received in donations from the vast network in the adoption community, family, and friends- $12,000.00 in 12 HOURS!
Having been in Kaz without any money, etc. I know the helpless feeling one has when one is in a very urgent situation.
This family now has the security of knowing they can adopt these 2 girls and can relax and focus on the bonding period of 2 weeks with them.

An Adoptive Family Needs Our Help

An Adoptive Family Needs Our Help
by Lori Anderson-Printy on Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 6:43pm
FORGIVE ME I ONLY ASK BECAUSE OF THE URGENCY OF THE SITUATION....



The Gobble's a family well know in the Kaz adoption community are in Kaz right now trying to adopt. It took them more than three years to get to Kaz and when they finally got there they waited another two weeks before finally being able to go to the baby house . Yesterday they finally met a sibling set-twin girls! They are three and half years old with some medical issues and the family is in love.



The problem? The Gobble's fund raised for years to adopt just one child and must now figure out how to raise an additional $9,000 by the time they finish the official bonding period in less than 2 weeks. If they are unable to raise the additional money in the next 12 days they will not be permitted to adopted these girls.



If you can help please make a donation.

Payne County Bank - Just make a deposit into Phillip and Lanetta Gobble’s Savings Account – Adoption Account.



Paypal – Our personal paypal is lanettagobble@yahoo.com



Here’s the info. For making a tax deductable donation through Lifesong:



Checks:Made out to Lifesong for Orphans Memo: Gobble 1246

Sent to:PO Box 40202 N Ford streetGridley, IL 61744



Online @ PayPal:http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.htmlmark "Gobble 1246" on memo



No amount is too small ...these darling girls are getting closer to having a family $5 at a time. You can make a difference. Thank you.

Finally...some good news on the Taraz Ten

I am happy to report that the couple from Philly, Becky and Jeremy, had their adoption approved by the Municipal Court in Taraz. Of course it was not without it's drama.

Here is the summary from the proud papa:

"After 8 days of repeated delays, this morning we were told we would receive our
decision. Instead when we arrived this morning, the prosecutor announced her
recommendation, against the approval of our adoption petition. The court
adjourned for 2.5 hours before the Judge announced his decision and so we had
more fraught hours of pacing before we returned to court at noon.

The judge decided to disregard the prosecutor's recommendation and to rule in
our favor. The prosecutor could still file a protest to the decision and we're
not sure what that would involve yet. But for the time being, this is the first
positive decision to come out of Taraz in an international adoption case in
about a year. I'm really hoping that: (a) the prosecutor's objections either are
not filed or don't go anywhere and (b) the other Taraz-Ten families will quickly
get their own positive decision, whether from the Municipal Court or Supreme
Court."

The first supreme court case in Astana is scheduled for November 11th for a Canandian couple, A&E, who are adopting a sibling pair.

May the positive court decisions keep coming and families be able to get on with their lives together.