Home 7 months Today!!

It has been so long since I've posted, I don't know if anyone is still reading. LOL

Blogging has just taken a backseat. I don't know if everything I want to do doesn't get done because I'm a slow Southern Belle or I am just not a good time manager. Whatever the reason, I'm always wanting to blog and share whats going on, but as you see I haven't. I did realize yesterday, through Holy Spirit conviction that many people reading have cared about, prayed for, and donated funds, so Anastasia(aka Annie Belle)could call us Mama and Papa. Therefore, in thankfulness for everyone who helped change the course of her life, I want to share about this blessed journey.

She is such an amazing child! In the 7 months she has been home, she has never once seemed sad or afraid. She is very independent and catches on to new things very fast. After her first cleft palate surgery in Nov, she was such a trooper. She was the best little patient and so cooperative. The time I had with her in the hospital and her recovery period at home, served to be a great bonding opportunity. When we first visited her in the orphanage, she jumped when I touched her shoulder. When I tried to sing to her, she just looked at me like "what are you doing." As time has gone on, she has slowly been allowing mama to be her comfort. You can almost see a sigh of relief on her face as I hold her and touch her face. As I have experienced the blessing of her attachment, I have wept. She is trusting me and enjoying being loved on. . When she grabs my hand and puts it on her face, I thank my Heavenly Father. Sometimes it's a long time before she will give me my hand back. LOL. She is thriving with the power of human touch! Now that she has it, she doesn't want to let it go. My heart is overwhelmed. On one hand, I grieve for what she did not have and on the other hand, I'm in awe that God has allowed me to be a part of this miracle. I am one blessed Mama!

Irina is doing fantastic! Adopting Anastasia definitely helped her blossom. She was beginning to loose her Russian. It seemed like too much for her to learn English and keep her language at the same time. But once Anastasia got home, it sparked something and the Russian started flowing! She continues to speak only Russian to Anastasia, and she is like a little mama to her. I am so proud of her!! We have friends adopting a little boy right now in Ukraine. Irina will be able to communicate with him and help them if he is ever scared or they don't understand him. The power of love and the security of a family has totally impacted Irina as well. She is not the child I brought home 1yr and 6 months ago.

Seth keeps us laughing daily. I want to use this blog to record and remember all the funny things he says. He calls Anastasia "The baby" when in reality,he's the baby. He's the only one in the family that pronounces her name in Russian "Annastaseeya"

Amy,Samuel, and Seth are all learning and communicating Russian with Anastasia. It so cute to hear the boys saying the few Russian words they now know. Since Annie's surgery, she has been in speech therapy and she is understanding so much.She is learning to articulate sounds and is learning English all at the same time I am certain that if we stopped communicating with her in Russian, she would have no problem understanding us.When she first came home all she could do was point, grunt,and play charades. It was her only way to communicate for so long,but we are encouraging her to say the word she is acting out. When she is able to speak clearly, I wonder what all she will say. I bet she won't stop talking. However, I will miss playing charades with her. LOL.

Praise and Glory to Our Lord and Savior for this journey. Thanks be to God for everyone who helped us "place the lonely in families." Psalm 68:6

UPDATE ON SURGERY!!!!!!

( Before you read this read previous post.. :)

Anastasia just got done with her surgery and is in the recovery room. Unlike planned, they were able to do a 2-surgery job, which would have to be 6 months apart, in 1 day!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!! Keep us in your prayers for a good recovery and that she wouldn't rip the stitches out!!!....:0 hahaha

Annie's Surgery!!!

Hello everyone!!! I have Big news.......Anastasia just went in for surgery!!!!! She was so excited to know that her mouth was getting fixed. Sorry its been such a long time since the last post...alot has been going on. My mom...( this is Amy posting:) has had a lot going on and asked me to update!! To catch up...... Annie is doing great! It feels like shes been here forever! She is absolutely amazing at communicating! Her hand movements and gestures and babbling is so funny....to tell you the truth I'm going to miss it when she is able to talk:( And Irina has been here for a yr and 2 months now...... I still can't believe it! She has changed so much. :D Her b-day... was September 1st and is now 10!!!!WOHOOO<3



Before........After....:D

....Look at that face....its all worth it...

Home at Last

Here is a our happy camper @ 2:30am leaving our apt. and heading to the airport. She is ready to go to America,but the smiles turned to tears when we got into the elevator to go downstairs and the elevator stopped in between floors trapping us inside!!! After 30minutes, we were freed and on our way!Thank you Jesus for answering prayer and getting us out of there unharmed! Praise the Lord!!

No more smiles again when she saw the airplane we were getting on. She pointed to the plane, pointed to herself and shock her head NO. She was excited until she saw the plane and then she changed her mind. LOL

After the 9 hr. flight, the smiles returned knowing we had just landed in America and that her sisters were waiting for her! She did amazing on the flight. I couldn't believe what a gift God had given me. She didn't cry,she didn't try to get out of the seat belt, and she slept for 3hrs of the flight! She was a little scared when we ascended and descended, but that was it! I kept thanking Him and thanking Him for this answer to prayer.

Oh, how we missed these girls and how happy they were to see their new baby sister.

Welcome Home Anastasia Belle! You made it to America!!

Swinging with Sissy!

When we pulled into the driveway,we were welcomed with our precious friends to greet us. There was food in our refrigerator, food in the crock pot, and the house was clean!! We are so blessed!! We would have never meet these beautiful people, the Tweitmeyers and the Heims, had we not stepped out in faith to adopt our beautiful girls. We are so grateful to our friends for such a warm welcome and for all they did for us while we were gone. Thank you guys for taking care of our girls and our house. It means so much. I thank my children for enduring 5 weeks of missing mom and dad and being away from their home. I pray the Lord will bless them for their own sacrifices that each of them made as we obeyed God's Word as a family, and for doing their part to care for Anastasia,an orphan no longer!!!!!Thank you to our Pastor and his family for all they did to clean our basement when it flooded. Thank you to all those that prayed for us, and donated money so we could do the Lord's will. Thank you Dylan for taking care of our lawn, and the chickens. I thank my family and friends in Alabama who took such great care of our boys. The day we came home with Annie they were still in AL. It was so sad not having them here,but they are on their way to IL for us to pick up soon!
I haven't seen a smile like this on her face until now. She's happy to be home!! She got out that van and walked in this house like she had lived here her whole life. She explored every inch of it and enjoyed every minute of her new found freedom.. FREEDOM! FREEDOM! What a beautiful sight. Thank you Jesus for such a precious gift to our family and for rescuing her!

Checking out Samuel's pedal car with Sveta in her Ukrainian shirt.

I love this picture! She is telling me in her own little cleft palate language that everything is OK. I think she is saying I like it here.

More smiles and she's in a car seat strapped down! I can't believe how well this little one goes with the flow. She has never been in a car seat before,and she's not fighting it! We are off to pick up the boys in Springfield IL. She's headed to see her brothers for the 1st time with McDonald's fries to go! LOL

Finally, all my babies together in one place!!

Mama's happy baby girl!

All the Allen's together at last and one more joins the clan.

I am so excited to get home and get settled in as one big happy family. Thank you Jesus for my family that you have so graciously given~!~

Almost Home

The day we have been waiting for finally came! We put on her new clothes, she said good-bye to those who have cared for her, and she walked thru those gates no longer fatherless.

She is on her way HOME!

She didn't like the train at all. The first 3 hrs. were hard on her. She didn't get her nap because this was her big day no time for naps.LOL But no nap made the train harder. She cried and wouldn't let me comfort her. She was very scared and kept packing everything up waving and blowing kisses saying good-bye to the train. Every time the train made a stop she thought we could get off. It was really sad to watch. Finally she sat next to me amd let me lean my head against hers. She was soon fast asleep, and the little nap helped. She was good the rest of the night as long as she could look out that window. At bedtime we said Good night tucked her in and without a fight she went right to sleep and sleep so good all night!! So we made it thru the 18hr train ride! Praise you JESUS!

We got settled in our apt after getting Annie all cleaned up and in Sissy's dress she sent for her.

She wanted to wear Papa's shirt instead of hers. What a cutie!! We have had a busy few days with medical exam,Embassy appt.,and today VISA! The Lord has brought us so far! We made it to this point! I am so thankful for all He has done!

We are on our way now. In just a few hours, we will be picked up and taken to the airport.

We are almost there baby girl. Home Sweet Home!!!!!!!!!!

All For One

Friday was a successful day! An answer to prayer! We went very early to get Annie's new birth certificate,but there was no power at the buiding. If no birth certificate, then no passport,so we prayed. We called our new friends and they prayed. Within 1 hr, the power was back on and we returned to sign the papers and pick up Anastasia Belle Allen's birth certificate ! Praise Jesus! Our times are in Your hands!



This is the building where the day started and we obtained the official document that Anastasia has new parents, a new middle and last name, and a new life!


Mama signing the document that we are officially picking her up from the orphanage. Tears filled my eyes, as we both thanked the director for all she had done to help Anastasia not lose her chance of being adopted and to keep her there until we could come. She wished us health,happiness, and the blessing of grandchildren with our Anastasia. We answered, That is why were are here, so she can have a Hope and Future! Jer 29:11


Dad signing document to legally pick her up. Then we were off to get the passport. We walked in the room and signed more papers and with big smiles we were handed Anastasia's passport! This is all very amazing! This can sometime take days. Thank you Jesus for a passport in one day!!!

With everything done here in Annie's region, we can now return to the captial city for her visa. Our train leaves Sunday@ 3pm and we arrive the next morning at 9am. Yikes! Pray for her to handle this trip.
She knows we are coming to pick her up on Sunday. Evidently she got tired of waiting for us to come, so yesterday she left her group,walked over to the director,took her by the hand,and said, to Mama! She was so brave to do that because I guess that is not allowed. I don't blame you baby girl, you know what you want and you're tired of waiting. Don't worry. We are on our way! Tomorrow you will be set free! You can begin your new life as our cherished daughter all because Jesus loves you and gave His life for you. All for You!!




I love this picture because it's the first time Annie said Papa and the first time she asked him to swing her. Until then,only Mama could touch the swing. She realized Papa's swinging was higher and more fun than moms. LOL



Oh,Guess what today is? Irina's Gottcha Day! 1 year ago today Irina Elizabeth officially became an Allen too!!

Another Daughter To Love

We had court on Monday when Anastasia officially became an Allen!! We were so blessed by the Judge who granted our adoption petition! She asked us many questions individually. We were asked questions like" Why do you want to adopt this child when you already have 4 children? and What made you cross the ocean to adopt this particular child?" We answered that we believe every life is created by God, so she is valued and the thought of her living without the love and concern of parents was so unbearable we had to cross that ocean. Each time we answered, the judge would smile and gesture in amazement. One juror had tears flowing down her face. Then the moment came when she stated it was her pleasure to allow us to adopt Anastasia and give her a new middle and last name. After many thanks to the Judge and jurors. We were the proud parents of another daughter Anastasia Belle Allen. She weighs 35lbs and is 39in tall. She has brown hair and blue eyes and she was born on Jan. 4th 2007. Anastasia was the name given to her at birth, which means Resurrection. It is very fitting since she was born 5 weeks early and was very ill. Healthcare professionals diligently provided her the medical attention she needed and spared her life. We gave her the middle name Belle after her great grandmother Lula Belle Allen.Now, 4yrs. later after the Lord saved her life, He is saving her again and giving her a Hope and a Future Jer. 29:11. The Lord gets all the Glory!! We would not be here at this time in history without His help, and the help of those He used as tools of blessing to support us on this journey. My heart has been so full and overwhelmed of all that has taken place on behalf of one little girl I haven't been able to even write about it. What I found out today was even more confirmation that it was God's plan all along to bring Anastasia into our family. I learned of all the people esp. the director of the orphanage and my facilitator who worked hard on her behalf to keep her at the orphanage able to be adopted. In Feb., the decision was made to give us only 6 months to get here. If we weren't here by July, Anastasia would have been moved into foster care unable to be adopted or sent to the internat and traumatized. Do you see how Faithful God is? He made it possible for us to get here when we did because He knew what we did not. We were never given details,but we knew her situation was urgent,so we prayed. I can still hear my little 4yr old son praying and asking the Lord to hide Anastasia, so she would still be there when we arrived. WOW! God heard our prayers, and the prayers of those who have prayed for and helped an orphan in distress James 1:27.

May the Lord be Glorified for His marvelous works Psalm 139:14.