We spent this past weekend at Homeschool Family Camp up at Silver Birch Ranch. This was our first year going, and we had lots of fun! Here are some pictures we took during the weekend (we didn't take very many!) -
Miss Rachel on the way there
Love this face!
Rebekah horseback riding
While waiting for his turn to ride, Elijah was kissing and petting the dog, Copper.
This was the closest to a smile we got with the camera, but he LOVED it! I (Sarah) had to try and guess what he was saying instead of relying on his signing, as he couldn't sign while hanging on! (He was saying "more horse", and "fun"!)
Dad ziplining - he is scared of heights so it was surprising when he landed smiling and wanted to do it again! Isaac and I (Sarah) also did it, and we enjoyed it also. It definitely is NOT as scary as it looks. But then again, the other "rides" I've been on in the past few weeks are roller coasters with 200 ft drops, so it wasn't much in comparison! ;)
Here's a vid -
Rachel waiting some-what patiently for her turn, and Jonathan wanting his nap (2 fingers in the mouth - his nuk).
Paco!
Rachel riding! She wasn't as excited as Elijah but she still enjoyed it!
In addition to horseback riding (Anna and I rode too, but no pictures), we enjoyed mini-golf, swimming, ga-ga ball, basketball, folk dancing, great food, wonderful teaching from Dave Wager, fellowship with other homeschool families with the same beliefs as us, and much more! We also got to share with several people about the plight of orphans, and our story.
We had a wonderful weekend, we are looking forward to next year!
KEEP PRAYING!!!! SELAH IS STILL FIGHTING FOR HER VERY LIFE!!!
UPDATE from Yvonne around 7am Friday morning- Since adopting the girls, I've told my husband over and over again that I have NEVER been happier or more content in my life. Our house and arms were full and there was just so much love and peace...they were meant to be with us and fit in perfectly. I've loved having the respondsibility for their lives and have been thrilled to go to all the doctors & specialists to improve their health and well being. It's been a HONOR to take care of them, even to changing their diapers:) (yes they both still wear diapers along with Sam) I love dressing them in cute NEW clothes (after all the insituions clothing) I've loved seeing their hair grow longer and have managed to give some bows in Selahs hair a little:) I've thought so many times of the long road it was to bring them into our life and the long road they walked alone before they had a family, but God intersected our paths please keep praying UPDATE from Yvonne around 7am Friday morning- UPDATE! Overnight Selah stayed about the same, her blood pressures seem to be more stable but her heart rate is still not coming down to a more normal range. Please pray that her heart rate will come down to 60-100 beats a minute. She is at about 150...again thank you all for your prayers, I've never seen or heard of anything like the support and prayers we are getting! Thank you for bringing Selah's name to God's throne continuously. Keep praying ! We have no hope except in God! UPDATE from Yvonne around 12am Friday morning- I want all of you to know, I am shattered, heartbroken and helpless. I shake off and on throughout the day (literally uncontrolably) I don't know what tonight holds much less tomorrow but I still TRUST my Savior no matter where He leads... I am not bitter at all and thank God for the deep peace that comes from him. That doesn't mean I'm calm nor does that mean I'm not anixous...I am ! I can't even sleep although I only slept 2-3 hours last night but I still trust Jesus NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS!!!!! So no matter what you are going through tonight, I can tell you Jesus can walk with you through it!!! I can truly testify to that! I am weak, and barely can type becaues I am shaking from stress, fear, heartache but I HOLD to Jesus' hand no matter what comes.... "where else can I go but to the Lord?"
UPDATE from Yvonne around 11pm Thursday night-
Yvonne has posted a detailed update on her blog - Please go read it here - UPDATE!
UPDATE from Yvonne around 10pm Thursday night-
Update...Selah's heart rate is staying too high, pray for it to come down to normal, not a good sign. Also pray that her blood pressure remains stable it's going up & coming down, it needs to stay around 120/80, Her blood sugar went really low (40) & she had to be given some extra sugar. Pray that God will heal our little sweet LaLa & give her back to us whole. Hug your kids and don't take a day for granted...you don't know what can happen! Cherish the moment!
UPDATE from Yvonne around 10pm Thursday night-
Ronald McDonald House of Rochester NY is so wondrful to us. They have provided a room in the hospital for us to sleep/take a shower in. I can't say enough about their support of our family! It's been like this everytime we've come up and they have just met our needs in such a pracital way. I'm in the room now, going to try and sleep since I didn't really sleep last night at all. Tomorrow my sweet bro in law Jim Clanton is flying up to be with us. Thank you again for all your prayers, please cover us and Selah, this is so hard....
UPDATE from Yvonne around 5:30pm Thursday evening-
Update...Sam is completely back to normal but they are keeping him till tomorrow. Selah is still fighting! The doctor that told us yesterday that she would not make it at all said today that she may make it but will not be "Selah" meaning she has so much brain damage... We need PRAYER! Pray that her heart rate will come down to a normal level of 60-100, she is at 150 and pray that she will take more breathes on her own. Pray that she will not get any infections or fevers. Please pray for our sweet girl and for the rest of the family
UPDATE from Yvonne around 7am Thursday morning -
Thank you all for your prayers....PLEASE keep praying...Selah's heart rate is up (not good) and she is taking less breaths on her own....we need your prayers....please please pray for her like she was your little girl!!! This morning my hope is all gone but I am thankful that you all can hold us up to the Father...
UPDATE from Yvonne around 11pm Wednesday night -
Looking on FB and post after post after post is asking for prayer for my family....thank you so so much! They are calling the hospital where a friend's son had a near drowning and talking to them. The protcal is different then here and different than the study but he survived....
UPDATE from Yvonne around 10pm Wednesday night-
Thank you all for the wonderful messages of FAITH! I read through all of them, with tears running down my face. We need you all to hold us up to the Father. We are devasted and have been given no hope. Jon is heartbroken....please pray for our family...we are crying out to God but are in the middle of this and it is hard.... Selah is stable and takes a few breathes on her own & has a little response in her pupils but they still do not expect her to live. We are trusting in God and God alone right now.
Thank you all for the wonderful messages of FAITH! I read through all of them, with tears running down my face. We need you all to hold us up to the Father. We are devasted and have been given no hope. Jon is heartbroken....please pray for our family...we are crying out to God but are in the middle of this and it is hard.... Selah is stable and takes a few breathes on her own & has a little response in her pupils but they still do not expect her to live. We are trusting in God and God alone right now.
This is the Clanton family. They adopted two girls from Ukraine eariler this year, and Yvonne is a dear friend of mine.
This is Yvonne's facebook post from today -
PLEASE PRAY!!! If you've not heard, we've had a terrible accident. Jon took Sam and Selah on a walk on the Erie Canal before lunch today. He stopped for a minute on a level surface, to lost control of the stroller & the stroller rolled into the Erie Canal. Jon jumped into the canal right after them. He was able to hold the stroller up & fought against the current pulling him and the stroller down. He couldnt' get the kids' unhooked but was able to pull them up some and evidently got Sam's head up. Someone jumped in and took him out and Jon and another lady pulled up the stroller so they could do rescue breathing on Selah until the EMTs got there. The Erie Canal is very deep, cold, and strong currents...the sides are cement with nothing to hold to... Sam is ok, put is being kept overnight since his body temp went down to 90 degrees. At this point Selah is not expected to live...our hearts are broken. PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR SELAH!!! We love her so much and have loved being her parents. We are asking God for mercy! She is on life support, currently she is in a study ( the only hope they could give us) The study is to keep her temp at a certain lower than normal point with the hope that could help. But they still give us no real hope and even if she should live, they feel she won't be "Selah" anymore. Please pray that God will give us a miracle for our little girl!!!!!!!
PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR SELAH AND HER FAMILY AND SPREAD THE WORD TO RALLY MORE PRAYERS!!!
If you are not friends with Yvonne on facebook, feel free to leave a message for them here in the comments and I will make sure it gets to them!
Ok, well...it is quite a bit past July 9th. It's my fault I didn't get the photos picked out for Sarah to use to make this awesome video for me. And then after she got it done, I didn't take the time to post it.
Anyway, I do hope you will take a few minutes (8 min and 20 sec actually) to watch this wonderful video Sarah so lovingly put together for her littlest brother. If you don't have that much time, skip ahead to about 7:20 to see some recent FUN videos of Jonathan. Since those videos were taken a couple weeks ago, he has greatly improved his walking skills and walks all of the time now. He has also become quite the little monkey boy too. Today alone we plucked him off the top of one of the school desks and my bed! Then he got half way up one of the stools that Elijah has never been able to get up on. This child is going to give me a lot more gray hair! :-) But to think a year ago, he was just starting to sit up on his own. Amazing!!!
Enjoy the video! A HUGE thank you to Ashley again for taking our homecoming photos at the airport. We are so very grateful to all of you that have supported us throughout Jonathan's journey home. We love you all! To God be the Glory!
