WE ARE GOING BACK!!!!

Back where, you ask???  Back to Eastern Europe to adopt another sweet little boy that has been blessed with an extra chromosome!!!  We are all very excited to be adding another blessing to our family.

Let me introduce you to JONATHAN, our new son (Lord willing)!!!!



Is he just one of the cutest babies you've ever seen??? :-) We already love him so much!

He is listed as "Turner" on Reece's Rainbow and here is his profile:

Boy, Born July 2010

Sweet Muffin! Turner is in URGENT NEED of heart surgery. He needs a family quickly. After we lost Marlena on the operating table, the facilitation team and Turner's caregivers feel he will most benefit from having surgery at home with his family in the US where he can recover properly. Despite his heart condition, he is growing well and a chunky monkey!
PLEASE SOMEONE RESCUE TURNER. Turner is in a region which has a history of waiving the 10 day wait for urgent medical needs. Although this can never be guaranteed, our facilitation team will do all they can to ensure the judge is well aware of the risks of wasted time for this child.

More photos available. Married couples only.
From his medical records: patent ductus arteriosus, patent foramen ovale, needs surgery URGENT!
$189.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

We will be changing his name to Jonathan for 2 reasons: I already have a nephew named Turner and there is only room for one Turner in our family. LOL (But Jonathan's birthday is only 3 days after Turner's, so that is fun.) And also, I don't think Turner is in the Bible, and we have to keep with tradition here. :-) Jonathan has been on our "boy" list of names for awhile and means "gift from the Lord".  We thought that was appropriate.

As you can see from his profile above, he is in urgent need of heart surgery, so we are preparing ourselves as best we can for that potential. I say "potential" for a few reasons. First, IF his profile is correct (taking it with a grain of salt), according to the nurse that works for the pediatric cardiologist that Elijah saw, the PDA and the PFO are really not that big of deal and most likely the holes will close on their own. Secondly, I believe in the power of prayer and the healing power of the Great Physician!  So, even if his heart is in need of surgery right now, I have no doubt the Lord could heal him right now if He chooses to do so. I would humbly ask you to pray for his healing too.

Sorry, this is already getting long, but there is more to share. I want to tell you about how the Lord has been so faithful to us over the past month. It was a month ago yesterday that we held Noah James for the first and last time. It was a horrific day both physically and emotionally, but God has been faithful to carry us through. But about a week before we found out Noah had gone to be with Jesus, the Lord laid "Turner" on my heart - very heavily. Just like He did with Elijah at the beginning. I couldn't stop thinking about him. Pat and I prayed and prayed about bringing him home (yes, even though we would be having a baby the end of August). Crazy, huh??? Yes, crazy in the world's eyes (mine too!), but not God's. We didn't have clarity or unity on what God wanted us to do before we lost Noah.  But after we did, it became very clear to us. We obviously know that Jonathan is not going to replace Noah by any means, but we also don't want Noah's passing to be for nothing either.  It is really hard to explain, I'm not sure I even understand it all. But God is God and we are just trying to walk in obedience to what He would have us do in our lives.

We hope to have him home before his first birthday in July!  How is that possible? Glad you asked. :-) As we explained in on our FSP page on RR, we were originally approved last fall for 2 children on our I-171H (aka "The Golden Ticket") through USCIS, so we don't have to go through that process again. We are praying to have our dossier submitted in EE on May 12th!!! I'll save the details of our dossier prep for another blog post, but the Lord has blessed the process and it has gone very quickly! (If I have totally confused you with these abbreviations and terms, please see the "Adoption Terms Glossary" tab at the top right of the blog, right under the new family photo.)

Oh, and by the way, if Jonathan looks familiar to some of you, I advocated for him here and here. :-)  The first time was when he was heavy on my heart. The second time was after our dossier was almost complete. LOL There are personal reasons why we decided to wait to make this big announcement, so I hope you'll forgive us for that. But in that second post about "This is War",...ya, we've been feeling that attack in more than one way, so I would appreciate your prayers for our family.

Thanks so much if you actually read this far! And don't worry, we'll still have plenty of updates and photos of Elijah here! :-) May the Lord bless you today!

Children Of God

I have been wanting to post this video on my blog for quite awhile, ever since Sarah showed it to me well over a month ago. It is the official music video for Third Day's "Children of God" song. It is now one of my favorite songs! So often, I hear songs on Christian radio and don't always pay real close attention to the lyrics. Maybe you are the same way. But, after seeing this video, I never hear this song the same way!  It gives the already powerful song so much more meaning. Please take 5 minutes to watch it and grab a Kleenex too. :-) (Scroll down and shut off my playlist music.)

At first I thought this was a weird video to post on Easter weekend. But the more I thought about it...this is exactly what Easter is about! Jesus Christ was tortured and left to die, nailed to a cross. He loved each and every one of us that much. Then He was resurrected, having paid our huge debt of sin, so that we could be what and live eternally with Him?  Children of GOD!  Without Christ's sacrifice and resurrection, we would not be able to be adopted into God's family as His sons and daughters.  See, adoption was God's idea first. When we adopt a child here, we are just mirroring what God has already done for us. Through Christ, I am a daughter of the Most High God and equal heir along with Christ!  Thank you, Lord Jesus for what you have done for ALL of us!

May you all have a Blessed Easter!

News Flash! :-)

We got the results back from Elijah's karotype (chromosome blood test) and he does indeed have Trisomy 21 with 47 chromosomes (typical is 46) or better known as Down syndrome. :-)  Just thought I would I share. Hee hee. I thought we needed a little humor here. :-)

More good news is that Carrington is HOME!!! Praise God for the miracle in her life!  But please continue to pray for the Burman family and Carrington as she still has a long ways to go of course.  And please pray for the children still wasting away in their cribs in orphanages in EE like she was. She is NOT an isolated case. There are more children like her, even in the same orphanage.  Thanks for praying!

"This Is War"

Our pastor showed this video (see below), entitled "This Is War", at the beginning of his sermon today. It is VERY powerful. Please take the time to watch it. Although it seems this video is talking specifically about reaching the lost with the Gospel, I couldn't help but think of the very real battle that each family faces as they set out to adopt a child. The evil one has had such a stronghold over Communist and now post-Communist countries that he gets ticked off when families seek to rescue one of these children that he wants to see rot away in an institution. Do you think I'm kidding?  Just ask families that have started the adoption process.  There is a running "joke" that goes something like this: "You know you are adopting when...the car breaks down, when the car has a flat tire, when your basement floods, when your most expensive appliances need to be replaced, when your car is smashed up, etc"...the list goes on and on. But these are the "easy" things...the physical things.

The emotional attack is heavy too, especially that brought on by the gov't of Elijah's former country. (And I'm not just talking about blue ink either. :-)) We dealt with that last fall when the threat of "the vote". This vote could have shut down this country to all adoptions. We could have met Elijah and then been sent home. Praise God it didn't happen! God knew! But now, there is a new and very real threat for those families in process of adopting from Elijah's former country.  On April 7th, the president signed into effect a new law that the SDA (State Dept of Adoptions - where we got our referral to meet Elijah) would now be governed by a new ministry. It is now "rumored" that the SDA could shut down in June for up to 3 months while that transfer of power happens!  That is way too long for some (all) of these precious children to wait. But, like I said, it is a rumor. To the best of my knowledge, no one knows for sure how long they will be closed, if at all.  While they are closed, at a minimum, no dossiers will be submitted. It's unknown at this time if families that have their dossiers submitted before that will still be issued appointment dates.  SOOO...that leaves lots for room for GOD to work!

Please join me in going to battle through prayer for the "war" that the evil one is waging against families trying to rescue these children, and the "war" over these children's lives. For some children, a delay of three months could be very detrimental to their health (I'm thinking especially of little ones like Turner and Nathaniel that need urgent surgery). It could also be costly to already financially strapped adoptive families who may need to redo expired documents and resend them over to EE.




Ephesians 6:10-17:

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Do you believe in miracles???

I do!!! I've witnessed one (via her blog) as Carrington has come back from the brink of death, has gained over 3 1/2 pounds in the last month, and is now singing!  Praise be to God!  Go check it out for yourself and please pray for her continued restoration. http://carringtonscourage.blogspot.com/

Matthew 18:14 - "In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish."

Waiting Wednesday...Eddie

Yes, I know it's Thursday already. :-) But I wanted to post a link to my oldest daughter, Sarah's blog. http://www.matthew18vs14.blogspot.com/ She's started an orphan advocacy blog. Her post yesterday was about Eddie, a little boy that was in Elijah's grouppa that DESPERATELY needs a family. He was transferred to the institution shortly after we left EE. Please click on over to see photos of him and a couple videos too. He has a $16,000+ grant! WOW!!!! Please pray for him and for his family to find him soon!

Playing Outside and in Boxes!!

(Sarah here) The weather is finally starting to get nice here (if you call 50-60 degrees F nice!), and we are starting to play ouside more!

Vroom, vroom, vroom!

I was a little bored waiting for Elijah and Rachel to be ready to come inside...

By the way, this video and the ones below are actually really cute IF you don't pay attention to my annoying voice... I would edit it out if I could... :)

 

And we also enjoy playing in boxes!

Elijah and Rebekah (Rebekah dressed herself the day this was taken and she had 4 shirts on... I suppose it's better then the 5 pairs of undies she wore at the same time last summer!)

"Timmmmbbberrrr!!! Boy in the box is down!"



Of course, after Elijah did it, Rachel had to do it too!



I had to "pin him down" to get a picture of his shirt! :)

We have said that Elijah knows a lot of signs, so here is him doing a few of them! :)

Papa, Moma, and Sarah:

His favorite sign! Baby Signing Time (he is actually watching Baby Signing Time in the other room right now!):

Thank you and lots of misc Elijah stuff!

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who left comments of sympathy on my last post about the loss of our precious little Noah. I am also very grateful for those local that sent cards, brought meals, flowers and gifts for the kids. We are so blessed by the love that has surrounded us at this difficult time. We were able to celebrate his life last Saturday with a small, private service. I'm so very thankful that we had that opportunity. I long for the day when I will be able to hold him again. But in the meantime, I know he is safe and very loved in Jesus' arms. We would appreciate your continued prayers for our family. Thank you!

Ok, onto ELIJAH!!! Have I mentioned lately what a JOY this little boy is?!?! Well, he is! :-) He continues to amaze me with all he is learning, and signs that he comes up with that I didn't specifically practice with him (he just learned them from watching the Baby Signing Times DVDs). He seems to be more loving lately too, but in some ways he is more aggressive too. I know the attachment process is just that - a process. It doesn't happen over night. We are continuing through that process and doing very well.

A week ago Friday, we had his kidneys and bladder checked by a pediatric urologist at Children's hospital. He was listed on RR with a kidney issue. We found out at the orphanage that it was discovered when he was only a few months old via ultrasound, but he had no problems since them. Elijah had another ultrasound last Friday, and I'm excited to say that his kidneys are fine! Praise God!  The doctor said there was a tiny bit of extra fluid on the left one (where the original problem was), but it wasn't enough for him to be concerned or warrant more tests. Of course, if he starts having UTIs or something, then we would need to investigate further. But for now, he is A-OK! Thank you Lord.

Post-adoption update - I'm not sure if I ever posted much about the post-adoption paperwork.  Yes, more paperwork, but it's super simple compared to the dossier. The first thing we were required to do is mail Elijah's passport into the EE consulate's office in Chicago. (They are SLOW. It's been over 2 months and haven't gotten it back yet. I know many people have waited 3-6 months.) I'm thankful I made a copy of his passport and visa page before I sent it. Then, his Certificate of Citizenship came in the mail almost exactly 45 days after we landed in O'Hare. We didn't have to do anything to request this to come, just turned in our sealed envelope from the EE embassy at the airport. Let's see, I guess the next thing was scheduling a post-placement with our home study social worker. We weren't in any hurry for this, and since Pat was in Argentina for three weeks starting in mid-February, we finally had it on March 24th. We filled out a questionnaire beforehand, and it was a nice visit. MUCH less stressful than the very first visit w/ our SW back in August. LOL Oh, before that, I went to the Social Security office to apply for his SS #. That was super easy too. I needed his Cert of Citizenship and the birth certificate that showed us as his parents. The guy at the SS office said it would take up to a month to get the card in the mail, but we could call the next week to get the number. (We needed it to file our taxes I guess. We still haven't filed...hopefully tomorrow!) The card came in the mail SIX days later. That was cool. A speedy gov't office...go figure. :-)

So, now we are waiting on the post-placement report. Once we have that, we have the forms to go to our county, finish the re-adoption process, and get a US issued birth certificate for Elijah. I will be relieved to have that in case something ever happened to his EE one. I would have no way to replace it. And then I think we are done!

The poor boy had to have blood drawn today to get a karotype done. This will give us medical documentation that he does indeed have Down syndrome.  We need that documentation to apply for some other gov't grants for children with Ds.

Elijah also started Speech and Occupational therapy on Tuesday at the local elementary school. So, we have officially entered the world of IEPs. He did great on his first day. I will bring him in 2x/week right away in the morning, so it won't interfere with our school time at home. Hopefully, that will work well for us. I'm excited to see the progress he'll make too, especially in the speech area.

Well, I guess that's about enough rambling. Sorry, Liz K, no pictures today!  I'll have Sarah post some more in a few days hopefully. Time to get supper going. Thanks again to everyone for your love, support and prayers for our family during our loss of Noah. We love you all!