...and then there were FOUR!

Almost an hour ago, we added one more to the Madd House:

Welcome, Zeke!  You're officially a Maddex today!

(...think he'll fit in??? lol!)

The Great Chocolate Giveaway

I'm posting this from our adoption blog, Adding to the Maddness, because this blog is still public, so feel free to share this link with any of your friends for the next 5 days:

Alrighty, everybody.  You knew this was coming, didn't you?  As we start our 8th week in Ukraine, we've had time to assess exactly how much money we need to finish up Danila's adoption.

I hate asking for money (again) but the reality is, we were fully funded for a 4-5 week trip...and now we're almost doubling that timeline. **For those of you who haven't been able to keep up, the judge denied our original petition to adopt Danila, and we've been stuck in country for an additional month waiting on our appeal date.**  We've been cautious with our spending, but we can only stretch our grivnias so far.

Honestly, we need about $4000 to cover the deficit that we have in our travel/lodging expenses and our household expenses at home.  Eeeps.

So here's the deal:


Ukraine has some really awesome chocolate.  We know, because we've been eating it the entire time we've been here (on an unrelated topic, my pants have shrunk somehow)!  We've put together a bundle of our favorite European chocolate to raffle off:

For just $10/entry, you can have a chance to indulge!! Just click on the link below to donate directly to our family account at Reece's Rainbow now:

...But that's not all!


If you donate $30 or more, we'll set aside a chocolate bar OR a package of the coveted hazelnut M&Ms (your choice) for you, and send it directly to you when we get home- promise :)

This is going to be a fast and furious fundraiser...the lucky winner will be drawn Wednesday night (9/28) at midnight (EST). 

Thank you all for your support thus far...it's been a wild ride, and we can't wait to get home with all our boys.  We appreciate everything that you've done and continue to do to help us pay Danila's "ransom"-- thank you for helping us make a HUGE difference in his life.

I'll be posting this on Facebook and on our adoption blog as well, and it would be awesome if you could help share our fundraiser.

Guy Goes to School

I've found that the kids have really benefitted from a couple mornings of preschool a week.  Ian and Chase both started around 2 with a 2 morning/week program, and this year it is Gavin's turn :)

Grama was home for his first day, and shared these photos with us (thank you, Grama!).  Wish we could have been there!

On the up side, I was able to let him pick out his own backpack before we left, and he was completely thrilled with his "Boppy Twain!" choice :)

I can't believe that my littlest of littles is ready to start preschool...he's gonna love it!

PS- Yes, we know his hair is extra incredible.  He'll get a big boy haircut after we get home :)

Again? Seriously??

Grama Here!   I've been working on getting the tent/gazebo back up for a week.  I finally had it 95% up and so Brandon from next door came over and pushed the poles all the way up-took him 5 minutes.  Thank You Brandon!
I already had Chase & Gavin in bed and about 20 minutes later I was upstairs reading Ian a book.  We heard some noise and looked out the window to see a dark cloud and the noise was distant thunder.  Ian said you better take the tent down so it's not a boat, err sail again and I agreed.  I went downstairs and saw the legs of the tent/gazebo up in the air out the back door.  I ran outside and it was heading for the other neighbor's house!!  I ran over to Tiffany/Brandon's house and pounded on their back door screaming...help me!!  I ran back to the house and the tent/gazebo was now laying on it's side but back in our yard-hooray!  Brandon was running behind me and we noticed that the tarp was torn in the corner probably from the old satellite dish on the roof.  We got it all closed up and Brandon even put it back in the box.  He said this storm came out of nowhere!  At least the new frame didn't get damaged.  But the whole thing did take flight.  So now I have to sew/patch up the tarp. *sigh*
Told Ian about it this morning and he said," I don't think we should put it back up till Mom & Dad get back home.  No, we better wait till Danil gets used to us."  I tend to agree with him...seems like this tent/gazebo attracts freak wind storms, oh, and then it poured.  *sigh*

Chase's 1st day at PreSchool

Grama Here!  Today was Chase's first day of PreSchool and he did great!

His big brother, Ian, took care of him too.  He helped him before & after school and he saw him on the playground and ran to give him a hug in passing. 

Even Gavin got a taste when we went to his 2 year old preschool for his Open House and to meet his teachers.  He'll be going on Tues. and Thurs. mornings.  With only Gavin home today it felt like I was on Holiday!  But their all home now and it's the usual noisy chaos  ;)