A Post I Never Wanted To Write

I have debated on whether or not to even post this, but since I posted this about our news, I knew I had to do this post. I must say, this might be one downfall to blogging (the need to share very personal things in such a public forum but I guess that was my choice in the first place), but I know this will bring God glory in the midst of our pain. Remember the name of my blog? "My God is Lord" and He sits on the throne. To Him be the Glory! He has a plan. So, here we go...

Noah James was born into the arms of Jesus on Saturday, March 26, 2010 at 4:37pm at just 17 weeks gestation. He weighed 44 grams and was 12 cm long. He will be incredibly missed by his parents, Pat and Jill, and his six siblings - Sarah, Anna, Isaac, Rebekah, Elijah, and Rachel - and other family and friends that had already grown to love him and were excited to meet him. We all look forward to the day in Heaven that we will be able to see him again. For now, our hearts grieve for our loss, but we take great peace in the fact that he is now resting in Jesus' arms. I thank the Lord for the incredible gift I had of carrying him for almost 4 months.

I know I speak for our whole family when I humbly ask for your prayers during this difficult time for our family. Please pray for God's comfort and peace to continue to surround us, and understanding for the children. We've already had some good discussions, so that has been a blessing. Also, please pray for our family as we continue to seek the Lord's will for our family - whatever that may entail.

I've posted the lyrics and a video to a song that has ministered to me more than once over the past few years, and then again in the van after we got the news. If you don't take the time to watch the video (but I hope you do - it is beautiful), please at least read the lyrics if you are not familiar with the song. I have bolded the lyrics that especially speak to me at this time. (Be sure to scroll down and turn off the playlist on my blog.)

Ok, when I went to preview this on my blog, another one of my favorite songs was playing. I added a video for that song at the very end...."Praise You in This Storm" by Casting Crowns. I thought that was appropriate for this post too. Thanks for praying.

Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman

Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say:

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say:
Lord, blessed be Your name

What we've been up to...

Thought I would do a post with pictures of what we've been doing lately! :)

"Cheese!"

Mom found him sleeping like this and had to go get the camera!



This picture shows it better. He is sleeping - folded in half! Little Mr. Flexible!



We went to HuHots (Mongolian restaurant) with my dad's buddy Rich and his family when they were in the area.



I think we need to wipe your face, Elijah!



Of course the only picture of him smiling had to be blurry!

"Alright, enough with the pictures!"

Isaac roasting a marshmallow

Anna roasting a marshmallow

After one of our many orthodonist appointments (I am just getting my braces off, and Anna is starting the process), Elijah was playing with the keys when we were all getting buckled in. Of course he wouldn't do it once I got the camera out, but he was holding them up and he was so proud of himself because he knew he wasn't supposed to have them. It was soo cute!

He does this when he gets excited, then he gets the biggest smile on his face!

First Taco!!! (He is doing the same thing, he is excited again! :))

"Yum!"

Rachel made it clear she wanted a picture taken too. When Mom pointed the camera at her, she put her fork in her mouth and pretended to eat! Little Ham!

Now you tell me - Does this little boy...

...look the same is this little boy???

I think not, but that's what the LOVE of a family can do!

 The other night I decided Rachel would look cute in pig tails... the result-

Adorable! I think it looks good on her.. Mom doesn't think so.

So, we've been saying "Cheese!", sleeping, eating, being stinkers, more eating, more saying "Cheese", and doing hair! Fun fun! :)

P.S. I tried to put a pig tails in Elijah's hair, but he wasn't to fond of the idea... hahaha

P.S.S. If you get a chance please go check out my new blog - Matthew 18:14! There's not very much motivation to blog when I have one reader who happens to be my mother and only reads my posts when I leave my blog up on her computer! :)

P.S.S.S. As always, go check out my other blog - Handiwork for Noah and consider helping to bring Noah home!

WDSD Party!

On Monday (which was World Down Syndrome Day) night, we had a party at W*ld Air (an inflatable air thing jumpy place...) with our local DS group. We all had a really fun time, and I got to meet Aleksey's family for the first time. :) The Zoromski's (who first introduced us to RR through their adoption of Lilya) were also there, and she posted about the party here. My mom will be posting more about WDSD day when she gets a chance but for now you get to enjoy pictures and videos (if the internet cooperates, these are shorter than the last ones..)!



"Mama, look at me!"





It took Rachel awhile before she wasn't scared anymore, but then she had a blast!




"Weeeee!"

Silly video won't load into Blogger so lets try Youtube! Only 15 minutes for a 6 second clip - pretty good for our internet....grrr! See why I needed help last time I did this? (Just to make me feel better, he told me it would take him less than a minute on his computer!) Ok, I got one to work! But, it's still sideways... I think I should hire someone to do all this kinda computer stuff for me. Elijah and his Papa going down the slide!




This one is taking 20 minutes, must mean it's a little longer. There we go! This one is sideways to, and its through netting, but oh well. Rachel going down the slide by herself! (If you can't tell, the thing we are in is quite small; adults are allowed, but not really meant to be in there (it was in the little kid part of Wild A*r). So instead of taking Rachel up and going down with her, I "dump" her at the top, let her go down and catch her (which I didn't do a very good job of in this clip).) :)





First family picture with Elijah home! :)

 Thanks to our local DSAW chapter for hosting this free event for it's families!!!

World Down Syndrome Day 2011 Video

Please check out his awesome video that Amanda made! At 4:9-11 there is a picture of Elijah, but don't skip ahead! More to come later on World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD) including pictures and videos from our awesome party with our local DS group!

I'M FED UP!!!!



(Let me tell, you someone didn't want me to get this post up. I've been kicked out of blogger at least 2x and now the RR site isn't coming up for the pictures I need. I guess that means I'm on the right track.)

Actually, I'm ticked. Why?  Babies are dying!!!  That's why!  These babies have done nothing to deserve to die alone,not knowing the love of a family (not that any do), but to be born the way God beautifully designed them with an extra chromosome. That's it...

My last post was about Carrington, who by God's grace, made it home just in the nick of time. She literally may not have survived another week. There has been a new blog started for her HERE. Please stop by and pray for her as she battles to survive. She has made some improvements. Praise God! Also, if you are a blogger, please grab her button and put in on your blog. The more people are praying for her, the better. Also, please keep her family in your prayers. They desperately need them as well.

Then today, the RR family received news about another little angel that has gone to be with Jesus. 

Landon

Why?  I don't know. We probably never will know. Maybe he wasn't "liked" by his caregivers, like Carrington wasn't, and was neglected. Or maybe he had an undiagnosed heart problem. I don't know...Sweet Landon, may your passing not be in vain. Rest in the arms of Jesus.

A few weeks ago, it was another little angel.

Marlena

She had a family coming for her. She was loved, but she didn't yet know it. Her family found out about her passing the day the submitted their dossier, as she had left this earth and went into Jesus' arms during her heart surgery.

Earlier this year, it was these 3 angels that went to be with Jesus.



Nikita



Dante

Sandra

How many more babies have to die before the church-at-large steps up and rescues these babies??? Most of you reading this are in the richest 1% of the world.  God has called us to care for the orphans and the least of these over and over in scripture.  It is TIME!!!!  No more excuses, no more waiting for the perfect time, no more nothing. It is TIME - NOW!!!

Let me introduce you to Turner.  Isn't he one of the sweetest things you've ever seen?

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
$99.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!
Thank God he is still alive, as far as we know, but he is in URGENT need of heart surgery. NOW.  As his profile says, the facilitators and caregivers (and I assume the orphanage director) decided to wait to give him this life-saving surgery until he was home with his family in the States. There is a special family out there for him and they need to act FAST. Please join me in praying that his family will step up and get him home ASAP. He doesn't have time to wait for the "perfect time" for a family to adopt. IS IT YOU???

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FOR CARRINGTON

A sweet child, Carrington, has just come home from Elijah's former orphanage. She is desperate need of prayers!  Her mom brought her straight to the hospital when they got home. Please click visit THIS BLOG http://angeleyesadoption.blogspot.com/ for an update. (Fri, March 18 & Sat., March 19 posts). Please do click over there. She has posted some pictures of Carrington that will make you cry. I don't have permission to post them, so I'm not going to. BUT, THIS IS THE REASON I must continue to advocate for these orphans left behind. Carrington's body is shutting down to die.  We just can't sit here and wait for the "perfect time" to donate to help other families or the "perfect time" to adopt. This could have very well been Elijah.  For whatever reason, he was in a "good grouppa", the nannies liked him, and he wasn't in the same room as Carrington and several other children with Ds. Perhaps some of you reading my blog have not particularly cared for the advocating I've done since I've gotten home, but this is reality. Carrington is NOT an isolated case. These children MUST BE RESCUED NOW.

And as usual, my friend Stephanie has some convicting words to say about this, especially to those husbands that are unwilling to step forward with adoption. (Remember, Stephanie brought home Theo this summer that was basically in the same shape as Carrington.)

Please pray for Carrington and her family!

"Answered Prayers!"

(Wow, 3 posts in three days. Pretty amazing for me! Elijah is doing well, and is enjoying pushing the limits a bit. :-) But, he actually gave me a kiss the other night w/o prompting when I came home from 4-H with the big kids. It was a bit of a headbutt with a raspberry, but I'll take it! So precious! Ok, onto the real subject of this post...)

"Answered Prayers" --- "Stow-away" --- "Be Careful What You Pray For" :-) --- "Filling Up the Van" --- "Bringing Home Two" --- "God's Timing is Perfect" --- "Trust Me"

These are titles for this post that I've had floating around in my head for the past couple of months, but I decided "Answered Prayers" was probably the most accurate.  Yesterday, I shared Noah's story and how we prayed and prayed about bringing him home with Elijah. God said, "No, I have another family for him." And He does! Well, it didn't stop there. We (ok, mostly me) prayed and prayed about bringing home a different second child...Tori, Anastaysia (who both are going home with Burmans in a week or so - YAY!), Sergey (who still desperately needs a family), and baby Christopher (who will be Masha's brother - YAY!). For each of them, God said, "No, that is not your child. Trust me. Trust me."  "Ok, Lord, I will. But my heart is breaking for these kids. My heart is longing for a second child."  We continued to trust.

Well, the Lord did answer that prayer about bringing home a second child - just in a very unique way. You see...we did bring home a second child...a little "stow-away"!  And this one was a whole lot less paperwork than Elijah was...a whole lot cheaper too! :-)  Yes, I am pregnant!!!  I'm 15 weeks along or so, and due September 1st..  We just told the kids on Sunday, and oh my - are they excited!!! (Well, Sarah (12) figured it out quite a while ago.) They were literally jumping up and down with excitement. Anna (8) and Rebekah (4) were constantly asking to "see" the baby (my bump) the next day. Very precious! I'm so grateful they have learned that children are not a liability and a burden as much of society would have us believe, but instead they are a TRUE BLESSING from the Lord.

Psalm 127:3-4 (KJV) - "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth."

I will fully admit that I was pretty overwhelmed at the thought of adding a 7th child the first week we got home. But the Lord reminded me that this child was not going to be born tomorrow and that His timing is perfect. And in His perfect timing, I didn’t start feeling nauseated until I was home from EE for a few days. It would have not been a pleasant 30 hour trip home otherwise.  Life will not be easy with a 7th child. I know that. But the Lord has continued to "prune" activities out of my life. Right now, my "life" is my children. The Lord has called me to that and I am honored to be given the privilege of "training them in the way they should go". I feel there is no higher calling for me.

And there's more...I really do feel like the Lord is preparing my heart for this baby to have Down syndrome as well. And guess what? I’m perfectly ok with that! I mean really, we chose it once. It will be ok! In fact, I will be really surprised if he/she doesn’t. That would be fine too of course. I had a nice long discussion with my midwife (that delivered Rachel) about it at my first appointment, and she is really excited for us. So, if you think of this precious little one, please join me in praying that his/her heart will be formed perfectly healthy, along with other “systems” that are sometimes affected by Ds (GI in particular). Thank you so much for your prayers!! We are really excited to see how the Lord is going to work all of this out. And who ever said that Believers lead boring lives??? Ha! Not me!

I do fully understand and recognize that our decision to have another baby may not be well received by everyone, but that’s ok. We have believed for a long time that we would surrender this part of our lives over to the Lord.  He is the Author of Life. So far, some of our family has been happy for us and supportive, some have not. But, like I said, that's ok. That's their choice. All that matters is that we are trying to walk in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are thrilled and our kids are thrilled. The Lord has truly blessed us.

Thanks so much for your continued prayers! (Prayers for a cool summer would be great too! LOL) We really, really appreciate it!

By the way, don't you think these two cuties will make a great big brother and big sister?!?!

Yep! I think so too! :-)



"My First Love"...

That got your attention, didn't it? :-) I want to take this opportunity to tell you about a very special little boy named Noah. Noah still lives in Elijah's former orphanage, but he has a family coming for him VERY soon! I'm so excited for him to finally have his forever family, and I'm very excited for his new family!  I know they will be so blessed by him. I want to tell you about an awesome fundraiser they are doing, then I'll tell you why Noah is so special to me.
























Noah's family is raising funds for their in-country expenses by hosting a give-away for an awesome Nikon Digital SLR!!! (Oh, how I would love to win this camera! You can bet I'll be donating so I can have a chance of winning it!)


Please visit their blog to find out more how you can receive some chances to win this awesome camera! Plus, just by posting this give-away on your blog or facebook, your name will be entered into a drawing for a $25 gift card from Bath & B*dy Works. Cool, huh?  If you click here, it will bring you to the main page of their family website. You might enjoy getting to know them a bit better.  I've gotten to know Grace, Noah's new mom, just a little bit over the past few months and really admire her for the integrity she is showing in this adoption process. They are a homeschooling family too!

Ok, onto Noah. :-)  Some of you that have been around here since the beginning may remember how the Lord spoke to me one night while I was looking at the RR website. I saw this beautiful baby photo of a little boy, listed as "Aloysha". God spoke to me (well, not in an audible voice or anything, but just a thought that would NOT leave me for days. I tried to get him out of my mind, but couldn't!). He said, "That's your son."  If you want the long version of this story, click here and scroll down to the last paragraph.  :-)



This is the sweet baby face that catapulted me into the adoption world!
How could anyone say no to those piercing eyes? 

 So, we started our home study process. On July 17th, we got updated photos of "Aloysha". Oh my goodness. He was so precious and cried over the new photos. What a sweet honey! These are the photos we used on the blog and on our prayer cards that everyone is familiar with. This photos are what cemented our decision, the boy we fell in love with, and the boy our church family fell in love with. AFTER we received these photos, we officially committed to bringing "Aloysha" home, who is now our beloved Elijah of course. Those last two sentences are important. :-)

Sometime the first week in August or the end of July, we received word that this photo above was not actually "Aloysha", but a different little boy with Ds. It was Aloysha's DOB, his medical listings, etc, but not his photo. I have to admit I did have mixed feelings about this. Like I said, we had fallen in love with the updated photos of Aloysha and we were preceding with his adoption no matter what. But why did this happen? Why did God call me to this other little face if it was not who we were supposed to bring home? OR WERE WE???  Did this happen because God wanted us to bring both of them home??? So, we prayed and prayed and prayed some more. Finally, the Lord brought both Pat and I to a place of unity and felt the Lord saying that he had another family for this little boy. Well, if you haven't figured it out yet, this sweet baby above is NOAH!  As it is obvious we did not bring Noah home with Elijah, Noah did end up getting listed on RR because of this case of mistaken identity AND he DOES have a family coming for him!  I couldn't be more thrilled that the Silva family is Noah's family.

Before any prospective adoptive moms freak out over this, please know this is a very unusual case. The system over in EE is not computerized, it's all paper. And the two little boys do (or did anyway) look a lot alike. Below is the side by side I made of the baby photo with Elijah and Noah's new photos next to it. I studied and studied it. I think Sarah said it best when she said, "It's like the baby morphed into 2 different little boys." 

Side-by-side comparison of the baby photo with Elijah on the top and Noah on the bottom.

 
But, if you look close at the eyes and shape of the forehead, you can see it's Noah. Plus, after actually seeing Noah in "real life", there is no question in my mind that the baby photo is Noah. It is truly amazing to me how God worked this all out. I am so excited that God used that one photo to rescue TWO little boys from the fate of an institution. To Him be the Glory!
 
I pray that you will take this opportunity to help Noah come home to his family that God designed for him from the beginning. Won't you please help?  Oh, also, don't forget to visit Sarah's blog, as she is also selling her handmade items to help Noah. Also, please consider adding her button to your blog. You'll find it on the top left of my blog.

So, now, you know "the rest of the story"...well, until tomorrow's post that is... LOL

Something to think about and a way to help LUCAS!

Yesterday, I met with the head person (Dr. B) at the local elementary school about getting Elijah started with some therapy services. (We didn't start this process right away, as nothing was "urgent", so I decided just let him hang out for awhile before starting. Speech therapy is my biggest concern right now. Anyway...) We peeked in on the OT room and the Early Childhood room. A friend had told me that she didn't think there were any kids with Ds at the school. So I asked. "Are there any children with Down syndrome in Early Childhood?" "No." "Are there any children with Down syndrome at the Elementary school?" Pause. "No."


Hmmmmm....no kids with Ds (receiving services) from age 3 to 5th grade...Now, we don't live in a super huge school district, but it's not teeny-tiny either. Maybe 5-6 classes/grade? But, it just seems like a lot of kids to me to not have ANY kids with that extra special chromosome. We (we meaning us in the RR advocacy world) rant about how awful the societies are in EE countries that these special children end up in horrific orphanages and institutions. And how could the doctors tell mothers and fathers to just leave their baby at the hospital and get on with their life? How can those mothers just walk away? (I'll tell you though, Elijah's birth mother thinks about him EVERY day. She has told me so. I'm so thankful she gave him LIFE.)

Well, that is the beginning of a long post that I started a couple of weeks ago. The post goes on from there, but I'm not going to publish the rest of it. It wasn't very coherent and turned into a bit of a rant, and will probably come across as being judgemental. But the very next day, I saw the following post on my friend-in-real-life's blog. It said exactly what I was trying to say and she's a much better writer than I am. With permission, I'm posting it below. Please see the end for more information about Ruthann and the super sweet baby boy they are adopting. They are almost done with their dossier!
 From Ruthann...
A few weeks ago, a new prenatal test for Down syndrome was in the news. It is non-invasive- only a blood draw from mom in her first trimester. And it's accuracy is phenomenal. This means that nearly all babies with Down syndrome would be found prenatally.


"Currently, 92% of all women worldwide who receive a definitive prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to terminate their pregnancy. Based on those numbers, what does the future hold for the Down syndrome population once the new prenatal tests are available? The answer lies nestled in profoundly personal decisions, but still raises an important question, one that will be asked more and more frequently as other forms of prenatal testing come to the market: which forms of human genetic variation are valuable, and which are not?"


There was a comment left that was very inconsiderate, uninformed, and by all means uncaring of life given by God.


"If you can prevent suffering, wouldn't you? Perhaps something like Type II diabetes -- a disease that is usually adult-onset and easy to manage with proper attention -- wouldn't be worthy of an abortion, but something as serious and disabling as down syndrome? I know that the individuals who have it often lead relatively good lives, but they die young and often suffer quite a bit during their lives.

I would urge the parents of these children who advocate against testing or termination upon a positive test to examine how much of their opinion is based upon their own need to care and love for their child. Yes, your child is likely wonderful and kind -- most people with down syndrome are incredibly nice -- but are all the struggles they go through worth it? Wouldn't it be good to abolish something as clearly problematic as down syndrome, to effectively cure it?"



A mom, blogger, special needs advocate felt the need to respond to this person, to try to show them that people with Ds, and other 'disabilities' do not suffer. And they are definitely worthy of life.

Please take the time to go see her response (and watch the video- it's worth it!)
 
 
Ruthann had another great post about children with Ds here. But see, she and her husband have already adopted a child domestically with Ds. Isn't that cool??? I want to give you the opportunity to help Ruthann and her husband bring home Lucas. It is so VERY FUN have another RR sweetie coming to our area. I met Ruthann back in Sept at Ds support group Mom's Nite Out. Plus, her sweet little Lucas (listed as "Aleksey" on RR) is at one of our family's favorite orphanages! I can't really say why for his protection, but just trust me. :-) (And no, he's not at Elijah's former orphanage.) Ruthann is doing a very unique and beautiful fundraiser to help raise the funds for Lucas' "ransom" - Glass etching! Please check it out here and here. Don't need any beautiful glass pieces? If you feel led, please drop some money into their Family Sponsorship account to help with their in-country travel expenses. Just click on Lucas' button on my left side bar (right below Noah's) and it will take you right where you need to go.
 
Plus, ONE more thing for those of you local!  Michelle, who introduced me to Ruthann, is hosting a "Thirty-One" and "Scentsy" party on St. Patty's Day to help raise funds for Lucas' (Aleksey) adoption. All the details are HERE. Maybe I'll see you there!

You might have done multiple adoptions if...

(Sarah here) I saw this on another blog the other day, and I thought you other adoptive mama's would find funny so I had to steal it! :) Please go visit their blog here! And for those of you wondering, no we are not adopting again anytime soon.

All the credit for this post goes to "Are they all yours?"

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You might have done multiple adoptions if.......

1) Your yearly checkups for your family include paperwork and notary signatures :)

2)  You order new birth certificates and marriage certificates yearly- just in case

3)  You are on a first name basis with the UPS/FED EX employees

4)  You check your e-mail a million times a day- just in case

5)  You are always looking at waiting children lists and thinking......is this my child?

6)  You are the master of fundraising and could give the government tips on how to save money!

7)  You run around yelling- I'm Pregnant- just to make sure people know you are expecting again!

8)  You are "waiting" most of your life.....for your homestudy to be done, for your dossier, for your fingerprints to get back, for your referral, for a phone call from you agency, to fly to pick up you child......

9)  You have sacrificed eating out, new outfits, fixing things, and instead are selling anything you can on ebay or etsy, and pinching any pennies you can ......for well forever

10)  Your homestudy social worker just says well- let's combine the post referral visits with you upcoming homestudy update visits :)

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