Rise Up And Call Them Blessed...

What a blessing these God fearing women are. They truly "get it" in the sense of God's plan for the world. They are ministering to the "least of these" and practicing true religion. Oh, that we would all be so willing!
Alea is the baby on the left, for all those wondering!!!

Babies, Babies, Babies

When you see these babies, pray for their adoptions to be finalized quickly and then pray for all the other babies, just like them in orphanages all over the world who are waiting for their forever family to come and rescue them! When we pray and act on this, we are fulfilling God's plan in James 1:27. (Alea is on the far left in pink in the second photo).

Busy, Busy Orphanage!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all you do to care for our baby. The Home of God's Love currently has 8 babies, all matched with new mommies and daddies--Praise the Lord, these babies will know forever love in a forever family!

More Pics of our Lil' Doll

Here are more pictures that were sent to us. The ladies in the pictures are all care takers.

They told us that they would send new pictures about once a month. We are sending a little care package now to Alea with a blanket, stuffed singing bunny, sleeper and bunny slippers. Braylen helped choose everything! We will send her another package in time for Christmas.

Alea Tyan-ling Grace Fleck

Welcome to the newest member of the Fleck family! We got a call at 1 a.m. this morning from Taiwan saying they had a baby girl for us! She was born on May 29, 2006 at 4:15 a.m. She weighed 4 lbs. 4 oz. and was very much loved by her birthmother. Her mother simply was not in well enough health to take care of her. She was given to the Home of God's Love on August 28th and just signed all the necessary papers yesterday. Ted and Bev called us with the great news and no, we didn't get any sleep afterwards!

We called Carmen's mom and Grandma in the middle of the night, but let everyone else sleep until this morning around 8 a.m. when we began making calls!

Right now, we are working on a power of attorney paper that we need to get notarized and faxed back to Taiwan. They will then begin sending us a great deal of paperwork for us to sign, notarize and take to the Secretary of state. We are anticipating being able to travel to bring Alea home sometime between January and March of 2007.

Braylen understands she is getting a sister and is very happy! She carries her little picture around saying, "my sister" and "she's so cute!"

We are so blessed. Thank you, Jesus! Pray for Alea's safety, health and for her to soon be joined into our family officially!

Happy Days Hoe Down

Wednesday night, we went to the Happy Days Preschool Hoe Down with Braylen. They served up campfire beans, dusty biscuits and creek water! The kids all square danced for us and we got to watch a real life cowboy show us lasso tricks. It was a fun night.

Happy 50th Mom!

We surprised mom with a Red Hat birthday party on Sunday. Everyone showed up in red hats and we had a big red hat, purple scarf and slippers for the honoree to wear. Check out the glow from all 50 whopping candles! The kids had a fun counting out 50! Our digital camera is messed up, so none of the pics of mom in the red hat turned out! Guess a new camera is in the future for us! For now, will need to go back to good ole 35 mm.

Happy Birthday, we love you, Mom!

Well, Blogger isn't letting me upload photos tonight--I'll try tomorrow!

Survivor

Brad and I are in a Survivor party, where we all draw a contestant's name and that is who we are throughout the season. We each put in $5 and at the end, the winner will win $100!! So, here is who you need to root for if you don't already have a favorite!!! Brad is Nathan and Carmen is Cecilia. We all challenged Brad to grow his hair out and have it put in dread locks like Nate before the final show!

Who will win? Oh the suspence of it all! That's why we love Survivor!!!

Gotcha Day--Adoption Day!

Today marks the third year that we have officially been the parents of Braylen. We celebrate Gotcha Day, or Adoption Day each September 12th, which is the date we officially signed adoption papers claiming our forever daughter.

While we were in Kazakhstan, we bought a gift for Braylen for each year until she is 18 to give her on this date. This year she got a dress like ones girls wear in Kazakhstan to parties. We also gave her a gift from America (Dora bath set), as well as Daddy has started a tradition of giving her flowers.

This year, we invited Mamaw to celebrate with us since she journeyed with us to get Braylen. She bought a jumper for Braylen. Braylen wanted a Curius George cake and after checking out a childhood friend's blog, I got the idea for her cake (thanks, Joellen!). Braylen also wanted pizza for supper. So we opened gifts, looked at pictures of Kazakhstan, spread the table cloth from Kazakhstan, ate pizza and cake and watched Braylen's adoption video.

What a wonderful day to celebrate Braylen's adoption. Our dream is that we can celebrate many more of these days with Braylen and future siblings as we continue to give more children a forever family.

Ballet Begins!

This afternoon was Braylen's first ballet class. She is in a class with Miss Carol and has about 13 other ballet mates! I am not too sure how graceful she is, in fact I would compare the class more to a group of puppies or something, but Miss Carol has a great personality and tons and tons of patience and that is exactly what she is going to need with this group! I could never do that!

She had a lot of fun stretching, jumping, pretending to be a butterfly and learning a curtsy when her name is called. I know one of the picture is blurry, but it is her warming up!!

We Officially Have a Preschooler!

Today was Braylen's first day of preschool. After eating oatmeal for breakfast, she was already to go!

Braylen and Mrs. Henderson before school started. Braylen calls her "Mr. Henderson." We will work on that!

We arrived to school early, so we had plenty of time to take pictures. Braylen thought we were leaving before she even got to go in when I took her out to the sign by the road to get her picture! We had a meltdown, but quickly recovered as we headed back to the building!!
















She went inside and found her bag, her bucket, cubby, rug, and name on the bear chart. She doesn't really know anyone in her class, YET, but as we all know Braylen, it won't take her too long to figure it out! Most of her church friends are in the other class, but this is ok, because she will gain new friends! Mommy even made the day without crying! I still cannot believe it, but I have been preparing myself for this day since registration back in May (when I did cry!!). This is a good thing, as Martha Stewart would say!

Braylen with Mrs. Hammel
after her first day of school. The teachers walk them to the cars! She had a GREAT day! She talked a mile a minute on the way home. The highlight of the day for her: her new bag with an apple and her name on it! She carries papers back and forth in this bag made by her teachers!

The First in the Week of Firsts

Well, Braylen officially started her week of firsts tonight. She started Awana. She is in the Cubbies class and is so excited to learn her new verses. I will post a picture when she gets her vest to wear. They gave her a brochure tonight with her Bible verses to memorize this week. She will get her book next week, I think.

Braylen already knows several Bible verses (we have taught her a verse for each letter of the alphabet up to J so far), but being in Awana will give her more social interactions with other kids (everyone knows only children NEED this!!) and more opportunities to hide God's word!!

Tomorrow, she starts preschool! Yes, mom already has the camera and box of tissues ready (for her, not Braylen!!). I will post pictures of her first day tomorrow!

Scenes from the Zoo

S0me of my favorite animals at the zoo! Whoops, I mean people!!






We loved seeing the tiger and elephants as well. It was a fun day for all!

Giraffe Feeding

We went to the Indianapolis Zoo on Saturday with Mamaw and Papaw. Braylen got to feed the giraffes! We thought she would be too scared, but walked right up and stuck the carrot in the giraffe's mouth! She LOVED this! Of course, Daddy and Mamaw had to give her their food as well because she wanted to feed them more! The giraffes would stick out their very long tongues and let you place the carrot on their tongues or they would just take it from your hand. It was way too gross for Mommy to try, but looked fun! Of course, hand sanitizer was right around the corner!

How Do Your Flowers Grow?

The summer before we went to get Braylen, we made this flower bed in honor of Braylen. My brother sand blasted the stone that says "Braylen's Garden" and we take her picture here every year. This year we read a book about petunias and so she helped me plant petunias in the bed. Braylen loves petunias and can recognize that word anywhere!!!

Braylen's New Tricycle

Here is Braylen's new tricycle. She loves that it has a trunk. She pretends to go to Walmart and Kroger!!!