Intro to our new blog!

O.k It took us forever, but we finally finished our new blog. I guess these things take time now to do since the babies came home. Eli is always keeping us busy now. We had to go buy a gate just to keep him in one spot! He is just always trying to get into new things trying to understand how they work. He is a very smart boy!!
All 3 babies and 4 of the others have strep throat at home. Eli has it worse than the others. Poor baby cried all night holding his neck. His fever got up to 104.5 last night. We had to put him the bath to cool him of and break the fever. Today he seems to be much better after going to the doctor and getting a nice big shot in his little butt.
Me and Tony worked this weekend to get this new blog up which will be more about our life at home with 10 kids, instead of our adoption process. We just felt the need for the change. I hope we don't loose all of our followers from Reece's Rainbow.
I was just amazed at the support we had from our friends and our R.R friends. Hope you enjoy it. This is the new blog Livinoutlove.blogspot.com

A New Blog

Here are the most recent pictures of our sweet babies. In our new blog we will include all of our family photos, and make the new blog more about all 12 of us, and not just the babies!!

Me and Tony are thinking about changing our blog to another one. Now that we have the babies home it is really about our life with them and as a family of 12. We will probably change it this weekend and everyone will be re-directed.
This has been an exciting journey to go through with all of Reece's Rainbow friends, and others that have followed along. This made our time in the Ukraine so much easier. We went through many struggles there, and had alot of silly things we had to deal with like the drama back at home. I know my family did not like me talking about it on my blog, but they did not understand it from where we stood. At home they had everyone to talk to . In the Ukraine all I had was my computer and all the friends that gave me so much advise and kept me going. This to me is like my personal journal that I open up to others to read. I guess if you don't like what it says, you don't have to read it!
So A big Thank You for those that gave us so much support!!
Now, the second stage will start. Our life at home. I feel we have so much to write about.
We have had many, many doctors apt ts. Nessie, and Elisa will have to have eye surgery to help them with their eyes, and Nessie may have to have surgery because of her reflux. Eli, well he is so healthy that the doctors make fun of him. He is 30 pounds now!!!! He does have to go to the ENT because of his hearing, but so far all is well.
Tony bought a really nice camera so we can finally post a lot of new pictures. We have all been having so much fun with it. I truly adore the moments we have right now. The kids love the babies so much. I don't think I could have asked for any better loving kids in the world.
Please forgive us if changing the blog makes it more difficult for some of you, but we felt like we needed this change to make this blog a better one!!

Look who's birthday It Is ????

Elijah turned 2 on March 1rst. We just celebrated his 2ND birthday with my daughter Noelle who turned 7. We went to Peter Piper pizza with a few friends. When it was time for the cake we gave Eli his very own piece if cake. He just grabbed his cake and shoved the entire piece into his mouth all at once. It would have been very cute, except it was bright pink icing!! Afterwards he was on a sugar high the rest of the day.
Our next news is that 3 days ago Elisa started walking !!! After a few days of trying she can really do it well now. She can even get up from a standing point on her own. My baby is growing up!! The 3 babies are doing so well. They all have done so many new things in such a short period of time. We went yesterday and bought a new camera so we finally have new pictures to show you guys!
After giving a lot of thought to what we want to do next, I am convinced I want to adopt from Ethiopia next. Tony still likes Reece's Rainbow so we will have to figure out what God is telling us to do here. Right now we are just trying to enjoy our babies as we watch them grow so fast.
I have a few pictures here for you to enjoy of their b-day party and Eli eating his cake. It was a lot of fun to watch! Hope you enjoy!

Eli on his way to his party!!

This is Eli having a blast with his cake!!

Mommy and Elisa(Leeska is what we call her) having a moment!

Miss Nessie trying to understand why Eli has a pink face!!

ELISA WALKING SHOWING YOU WHAT A BIG GIRL SHE IS NOW!!!

Babies doctor appts.

We took all 3 babies to the cardiologist apt. yesterday and they all 3 got a good bill of health!! We were so excited to hear the doctor tell us that they are all o.k.
I have been getting many emails about the Haitian babies!! I did have one lady that reads my blog follow threw with the info I gave her. She said right now they only have 8 year olds and up/ My friend form church said that in the next few weeks the younger ones will follow, but they don't want to get people excited right now because A lot of people are wanting them! If you have tried to follow up on the info I sent on my earlier blog and have not received any response please leave me an email so that I can talk to my friend working for these people. She is eager to help place these children into good, loving homes!!
email-tbarch@prodigy.net Thanks, Leah

Homeschooling and parenting

These are the only pictures I can find right now. Our camera brokeat such a bad time so we are looking to buy another one this weekend. Then we will get some good pictures on here!!

When we left to go to the Ukraine we put all of our homeschooling on hold, now it seems I can not find my way back into it. The kids are not doing well and My husband is getting really frustrated with them, when I know its my fault. Its just a lot harder with the new babies taking up so much of my attention. I'm trying really hard to make that special time to help them more, but I just wonder how so many of you guys that have adopted do this?? How do you make that time to home school, and give the babies the time they need?

The babies are going to the specialist tomorrow with their hearts. They have now gained another pound this week. I'm not sure that's so good for Eli. We don't know how to slow his weight down. They eat so much, then they cry when they are done.. Elisa is becoming so friendly with everyone. This is something we did not know if we would see or not. She was so afraid of people before that she would just look away. Now she dives out of our arms into other people standing around. She loves to show off. They have all started therapy as well. Elisa loves to throw toys, so they are working with her on that. We think that they praised her for this in the orphanage. She claps and looks around for praise as soon as she throws something.

As far as the Haitian adoption my friend said they are still looking for homes. Right now they are sending most of these babies here to Texas, but she said if you guys contact that info that they are willing to send them to homes that are home study ready. The older kids are disparately seeking homes. There is one girl that is 14 that she keeps talking about a lot. She said she is very sweet and friendly and that she needs someone to love her. I am tempted, but I promised my older daughter I would never adopt older than her!! If you guys contact that number or email and they do not contact you please email me because she said she would contact them directly herself. They are really getting a lot of calls right now, but unfortunately not a lot of calls that ready right now. Please contact me with any questions if you are interested. tbarch@prodigy.net

Give Me Your Eyes.....

What do you do when you return home from such an amazing journey and you realize that God is not done with you yet.... When you realize that there is so much more He is calling you to do? We've been home from the Ukraine for exactly one month now and life is amazing! Sure, we're busy and life can be chaotic at times, but we are soooo happy...... but not content. Ok, I know that may sound strange, but let me explain. This adoption process..... this trip to the Ukraine..... this leap of faith has changed us..... FOREVER.

There is a beautiful song by Brandon Heath called "Give me your eyes" that talks about walking through life and not truly seeing.... not truly caring about the people all around you..... the people who are hurting and hopeless. We all fall into that trap of just rushing through life with our goals and our milestones never really paying attention to the needs all around us. That doesn't make us bad people, but I beleive it makes us miss out on all that God has in store for us. I beleive our inability to see through God's eyes makes us miss out on so many of His blessings. The chorus of this song is as follows:

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

So after completing our adoption journey we realize that we are not done. God has opened our eyes to a world of need.... to a world of children who have no home and no one to rock them to sleep at night. To steal a line from the song, He's given us the "heart of the ones forgotten" and the "ones that are far beyond (our) reach". God has given us a passion inside.... a burning inside that we don't quite know what to do with yet. We want to bring more children home. We want to start an adoption ministry at church. We want to tell everyone about our experience and encourage them. We want to advocate for those children who don't have families and help raise money to get them home. We want to show people that "special needs" children are truly special and share our experience with the world. But most of all.... we want to follow God.

Have you ever been so inspired and so passionate about something, but not know what to do with all of that passion? That's where we are right now. We feel like we're going to explode if we don't do something. We know that we're called to do more, but we don't what. People keep telling us to just enjoy what we have and they're right..... we are so blessed..... but we are not done. God has given us a vision for something so more... something bigger! We just don't know what yet.

Info On Haiti Orphans....

This is one of the e-mails we've received from the Hope For Orphans organization regarding the orphans in Haiti. Hope For Orphans is affiliated with Focus on The Family and is a legitimate organization. They are not an adoption agency, but are advocates for the children in Haiti and have been working closely with our government to make a way for these children to be rescued quickly. There are e-mail addresses for a few of the key contacts in if you are interested.


Dear Families and Friends of HCRM, As you all know, we have been advocating on behalf of the many children that need homes at HCRM. Most, if not all of you have spent time in prayer about how the Lord might lead, or not lead your family to pursue any of these children through adoption. When we first got connected two to three weeks ago, we were praying for a long shot, that the doors be opened for these children to come to America and into forever families. Today is a BIG milestone in the process for the children that we have been advocating for. There has been legislation that was introduced to Congress today called the Hope Act. It is exactly what has been prayed for, that the government would allow these child (pre-earthquake orphans with documentation proving that parental rights have been terminated) to have Humanitarian Parole and be granted visas into the United States. While this legislation, coded H.R. 4603, was just introduced, we feel as though now is the time that we have been preparing for. If you, or anyone you know has a relationship with your Congressmen, please reach out to them and advocate for the Hope Act. Finally, you will see there are 15 children/sibling groups attached to this email. These are the children that have not been matched with any families, and no one has pursued them. Please spend some time with the Lord, as these children do need homes. We know that the Lord will bring ALL these children into homes, so we want to re-iterate that pure motives from the Lord are what you should go on, not an emotional decision. Please do not forward this these profiles to anyone, as we want to be respectful of these children. However, if you do know of individuals that are PAPER READY (current HS), please have them contact me, so I can introduce these children to them. As a reminder, Hope For Orphans is not a child placing or adoption agency. HCRM is the adoption and placing agency that retains the legal guardianship of these children. All matching is done by HCRM. Hope For Orphans is merely mediating and advocating for these children. For those who want to pursue a child or children from this list, you should send an email to rpennington@familylife.com and smcbride@familylife.com. Your email should include:
which children you would commit to if able (in rank order if more than one)
a scanned copy of your current home study
a scanned current picture of your family
a scanned copy (IF YOU HAVE ONE) of your I-600A or Approval
contact information to include cell phones and e-mail address Thank you for your prayers and consideration for the very special children. Pray that the Lord will bring their Forever Families to the surface.