Before you fill that little orange box on Friday...

Read this from Families Without Borders...

The Unfortunate Impact of UNICEF Policies on Guatemalan Adoptions

Guatemala is now in the aftermath of a six-month long unofficial suspension of intercountry adoptions. The government’s attempts at implementing UNICEF-supported adoption “reform” during this period involved violations of existing internal laws and constitutional protections. The ability of birthmothers to make adoption plans for their children and private foster care arrangements through private attorneys for children in the adoption process were eliminated as part of this attempted “reform”. At the same time, the Guatemalan government made no provision to fund childcare in orphanages, nor to assist birthmothers with either childcare or adoption plans.

UNICEF was instrumental in the recent suspension of intercountry adoptions from Guatemala. The Constitutional Court of Guatemala has provided a reprieve by finding the accession to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption to be unconstitutional, and therefore void. However, UNICEF continues to aggressively lobby the Guatemalan Congress to pass extremely restrictive adoption laws that, if implemented, will likely have disastrous consequences on the health and well-being of thousands of needy children and their birthmothers.

If you agree that UNICEF's positions on intercountry adoption do not support the best interest of the children of Guatemala AND that your donations to UNICEF would be better served on vaccination, education, and nutrition programs, then we ask that you contact UNICEF and ask them to reconsider these positions and re-allocate resources to humanitarian programs...

Please pray for these families...

Both girls adopted from Guatemala have been diagnosed with Leukemia...Abby & Bella. Bella was diagnosed only last week. Please pray for their families and both of these sweet girls.

The Ferrick Family-Bella

The Riggs Family-Abby

Jen

Happy 14 months, Ava!!!

Today Ava is 14 months old...happy birthday little girl!!! She continues to explore the world. She's still not saying anything but she DEFINITELY gets her point across...she is a diva and a drama queen. She either gets her way or its bottom lip out and immediate tears...can you say SpOiLeD?!? It is VERY funny to watch...

In other news, the boys have been having a great football season. They both have been playing great defense...each pulling multiple flags per game. Such a big difference from last year. They also got to carry the ball this year (since they're big seven year olds!) Brian has made a ton of touchdowns and, up until last weekend, Justin has been a linebacker. But Justin finally got the ball on Saturday and made his first touchdown! Justin was bursting with excitement...he actually came under the ropes into the stands and hugged me. Then when he got home that night he said, "Mom, aren't you so proud of me?!?" We were so happy for him...it's tough having a twin brother who has been making touchdowns all season!

Here's a sweet picture from this weekends pumpkin picking adventure...


In the middle of all this football stuff, we managed to make a few improvements on our house. We had the entire house re-stained and had all new windows installed. We really needed the windows...the house is about 22 years old and the windows were original. They were getting pretty drafty and the grids were on the outside making it REALLY difficult to keep clean (especially with little hand prints everywhere!!) We're very happy with them...it feels like a brand new house! Here's the before (blue) and after...


Jen :]

Oktoberfest...

This past weekend Craig's company had an Oktoberfest event for its employees. It was so much fun! It turned out to be a perfect fall day. There was tons of food, a live German band, German (and Domestic) beer, rides for the kids, a rock wall, games, a petting zoo and pony rides! The boys had a blast and spent most of their time at this mini racetrack for remote control cars. I think they spent two hours driving these cars...they loved it! And our Ava adored all the animals...every time we would walk away she would sign "more"! She also couldn't get enough of the ponies. I didn't know if she would be scared, but we placed her on the pony only to find that she didn't want to get off! Craig walked her around that track a number of times and each time the pony stopped she signed "more!" It was too cute. Here's some pics from the day...


Jen :)

One year ago today...

We received the call that would change our lives...our little girl had arrived! Well, she was already one month old but she arrived into OUR lives. I remember walking out of work around 2:30 (I had a P/T job last year to keep me busy while waiting for Ava) and I grabbed my cell phone expecting to see no missed calls...but there WAS one...one from my agency. My heart started pounding and I knew this was IT! I calmly called my agency coordinator back and she was on another line!!! They said she would call me back. About 45 minutes later (which felt like an ETERNITY) she called back and announced that our baby girl was here! She rattled off a lot of information but I didn't hear much of it...she said it would all be in the packet that I would receive tomorrow...pictures would be included too...so I had to wait 24 hours before I could see her face. But it didn't matter, I was already in love with the idea of her. But the next day when FedEx arrived I fell in love with her face...


And here's the little princess today...

Not much celebrating today since she has a cold, but she's still smiling thru her runny eyes & nose.

Jen :]

Look at this kid...

My beauty.



Jen :]

1st Day of School!!!

Today was the boys 1st day of school...they are officially 2nd graders! Wow, how time flies! They are going to be busy boys from this day forward...football practice 3 nights a week and a game on the weekend & CCD every Wednesday. Really, Monday is their only night off. Luckily, I heard that 2nd grade is mostly a review of 1st grade and the amount of homework stays the same. So hopefully its a smooth year for them. Here they are on the bus stop this morning...

In Ava news, we're still running all around and happy as can be. She had her well check last week and all looked good. She is STILL not 20 pounds yet, but following her weight curve at the 25th percentile. She did grow a few inches taller though and remains at the 97th percentile for height...how funny is that...Guatemalans are known for being pretty short, so the fact that she is at 97% cracks me up. She's just long and lean!

She's starting to really communicate lately...not in words but in actions. I taught her the sign for "more" and she just points at everything she wants and signs "more". It's very cute...she opens my pantry, taps on the box of Ritz crackers and says "more". If I ask if she is hungry she taps on her highchair and says "more". If the TV is off she points at the TV and says "more". If I smell that's she done something in her diaper she walks over and points at the diapers and sits down. For someone who can't talk she sure gets her point across!!

We had a nice Labor Day weekend...the boys had a sleep over at their friends house and had a blast. They went fishing with their Dad and caught two fish. We spent a day at the beach. And on Monday we all went to the 1st Rutgers game of the season. Unfortunately they lost but we had a good time. Ava had fun too and even took her nap during the game...I can't believe she slept thru that noise! Here she is at the game...you can see her looking at her brothers lollipop and signing "more"!


Jen :]