Monkey in the Window…and Other Stuff

Will you please pray for me?   I’m supposed to speak this Friday at the Hays Hills MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) meeting, but right now my voice is pretty much shot due to some serious laryngitis.  I’ve been ill for a few days with yucky cough, congestion, sore throat, body aches, crackling in my chest/lungs, fever that comes and goes, then I completely lost my voice…probably the same stuff Conner had when he was admitted to the hospital with his 105 fever.  Most of our children also had this, I’m just lagging behind everyone with my timing of it.  I wouldn’t be concerned about it if I wasn’t booked to speak this Friday!!!  I would be most grateful for your prayers that I’ll be well enough to speak by Friday, and that my voice will be totally healed so God may be glorified. Thank you!!!

 

On another note, here’s a video of Conner practicing his walking.  He’s still not very fond of walking without support, but he’s getting there.  He’s come SOOOOOOO far!!!

 

And, shortly after videoing Conner walking, I walked into the kitchen to discover this little monkey:

Yes, that’s our Selah in the kitchen window.  Oh my.  The joy in our home abounds.  Thank you, Jesus!

 

PS  Would you please pray for our precious buddy, Rowan?  He had two brain surgeries in the past week, and he’s having a lot of pain that’s not responding well to many cocktails of pain meds.  Pray for his pain to lessen, and keep his full healing in your prayers as well please.  This is Rowan’s 53rd surgery.  On our blog, go to the search box and type in “Rowan” and you’ll be blessed to read several entries about this precious boy whom we adore.

It’s Nacho Nacho!

 

What?  Don’t act like you’ve never used your head as a plate!

 

My Velcro hair comes in super handy for things like…oh…sticking nachos in it to save for later!

 

Seriously, you’ve never tried it?  Well, you should!  And you should say, “It’s NACHO nacho!” when someone tries to remove the nacho from your hair.  It works every time!

 

Selah Updates:

• Selah turns two October 1!!!
• She still has a major sleep disorder that hasn’t been resolved.
• Her sleep study results appointment was postponed until September 28.
• She has an appointment with her neurosurgeon and her reconstructive surgeon this Thursday to discuss the lack of space her brain has within her skull cavity.  Still praying she won’t need phase 2 of her skull reconstruction process.
• She has a neurology appointment in November to discuss her brain’s inability to regulate—or turn off—ever.  We’re in some serious need of help in this department, for Selah’s safety and everyone’s sanity.  Never ever ever have I been around a child like Selah, and I’ve been around a lot of kids!  (I worked at a day care in high school, babysat my way through college, worked in church nurseries, and taught public Pre-K for three years.)  No one compares.  Not even remotely.  When I say Selah’s always on the go, it doesn’t even begin to describe what I really mean.  NEVER.  Sits.  Still.  EVER.  But that’s not even the biggest problem.  It’s that Selah’s just not safe.  Her brain lacks the ability to do several things, one of which is to put two and two together to realize she’s not safe.  She has major fits where she bangs her head violently.  We’re navigating through this, realizing we’ve got to get Selah more help.
• She started private occupational therapy for multiple sensory issues.
• She’s such an amazing blessing to our family.  We couldn’t be more grateful for this bundle of energy.  And attitude.  And love.  And joy.
• Selah thinks the vocabulary word for “picture” (as in a framed photo) is “Chrissie.”  We have tons of framed photos of Chrissie around our home so that all of our children will '”know” their sister in heaven, whether they met her on earth or not.  (see photos below)  Selah hasn’t yet made the connection that Chrissie is a beautiful brown-eyed girl, her sister, who lives in heaven.  To Selah, the word “Chrissie” simply means “framed photo of anything or anyone”.  Selah will point to a framed photo of anything and proudly say, “CHRISSIE!”  Breaks my heart and makes me laugh simultaneously.
• Love me some Selah!

Two Teeth

Friday morning (Sept. 14), Matt opened Cooper’s and Conner’s bedroom door to wake them for school.  He was surprised to find Cooper banging his bar shoes on his face while he was still sleeping.  We had wrapped foam and tape over the hard metal bar for protection, but Cooper was not only banging the foam-covered bar across his face, but also the hard metal attachments to the shoes.  OUCH!

I heard Cooper crying, which isn’t normal for him, to I ran to see what the problem was.  It wasn’t that he was banging his bar and metal brackets across his face, it was that he had lost a tooth.  And most likely swallowed it.  (We never found it.)  Perhaps he was banging the bar shoes on his face because he was trying to knock his tooth out?  We didn’t even realize it was loose!!!  These are things we’re learning as we face life with non-verbal kiddos.  It’s a little different than an infant who can’t talk because infants don’t lose teeth…and other things.

Above is a pic of the tooth Cooper lost Friday morning.  He had already lost the two lower middle teeth sometime in Ukraine—his adult teeth had already grown in by the time we met Cooper.

 

So Friday night, after I put Cooper to bed, I stayed in the room to watch Cooper to see if he was planning to bang his bar shoes against his face again.  Sure enough, shortly after I turned out the light, Cooper started banging his shoes and bar against his face—violently.

 

Now, both boys have MANY self-stimulating institutional behaviors, some self-injurious, but this was a new one.  I started wondering if maybe Cooper was teething, as it appeared he was also chewing on the foam of the bar.  So, I shined a flashlight into Cooper’s mouth to inspect his gums to see if any molars were erupting.

 

I didn’t see evidence of teething, but I did find that Cooper’s upper middle tooth was totally loose, just dangling there! It wasn’t dangling during supper or during teeth brushing before bed!  In fact, we didn’t even know it was loose!

 

I decided to pull the tooth in an effort to keep Cooper (age 7) from swallowing it.  Cooper was a trooper!

Two teeth in one day!  Wow, what a big boy!!!  He is growing up and changing so rapidly.  It’s hard to believe it’s just been six months since Cooper joined our family!

By the way, Cooper always takes his pajama shirts off.  We even put him in a one-piece zip-up footie pajama suit, and put it on him backwards (so he couldn’t unzip it), and he STILL got it off!!!  He won’t keep blankets or covers on.  He even gets out of those sleep sacks that you zip onto them.  That was all fine and dandy during the hot summer months, but when it gets cold, I sure hope Cooper decides to keep some pajamas on!!!

 

Oh, and Cooper hasn’t been banging the bar of his shoes on his face since I pulled that upper tooth, so maybe that’s the only reason why he was banging it.  I sure hope that’s not a habit he takes up!!!

Happy 15th B-Day, Meribeth!

15!!!  My how the time has flown, lovely daughter.  You’ve celebrated three birthday with us now, but it still seems like yesterday that you were 11-years-old, new to our family and new to America.  Back in 2008, we, too, were new to this whole adoption thing, and we made many mistakes along the way.  Thank you, Meribeth, for your grace as we’ve persevered through trials and challenges.  Your courage is admirable, as you’ve navigated your way into a whole new life, family, world, language, clothing, food, and culture.  We are so very proud of you.

 

This past year has been one of authenticity and great growth.  God has revealed much to us, sometimes things neither of us really wanted to address, but God loves us too much to let things remain hidden.  I’m grateful for our times of sharing and growth, and I’m so proud of you for persevering through the trials and challenges that have tried to stand in your way.  You are triumphant through Jesus Christ, and it’s glorious to witness the transformation set forth in you by our King of kings.

 

What a privilege it is to watch you grow in your relationship with Christ, as well as in your relationships with family and friends.  God has made you such a beautiful young woman, Meribeth, and we feel so grateful to call you our daughter.  Thank you for always pitching in at home wherever you’re needed—we couldn’t do it without you!!!  We praise God for selecting us to be your forever family, we wish you a happy 15th birthday, and we look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you!

Protection from the Pistol

Please pray for our friends, The Blocks, missionaries in Guatemala.  They’re the ones starting up the new Village of Hope—Guatemala, a village that will bring faith, future, and family to special needs orphans. 

 

Yesterday, in broad daylight, their family was robbed at gun point.  A pistol was held to the head of Amy and Todd, while their children screamed from the back seat of their vehicle, just minutes from Village of Hope.  You can click HERE to read about what happened.

 

I want to do more for Village of Hope.  God continues to lay VOH on my heart so heavily, not just because I’m friends with The Blocks, but because they represent His heart so passionately to the world.  They care about the things He cares about.  Their hearts are broken for what breaks His.  They are serving boldly and selflessly, and while their lives were at great risk yesterday, what they care about more than their lives is the future of others, sharing the Savior with the ones who did this, caring about funds stolen from Village of Hope—not their own lives, nor their own belongings.

 

That, my friends, is beautiful.  I feel so very privileged to know The Blocks in real life, but I feel even more blessed to continuously see them living real life for Jesus, even if they’re in another country.

 

If you would please lift the Block family and Village of Hope up in prayer, I would be most grateful.  If God lays something on your heart of what we can do to help them, please let me know.  I know they need a security wall around the village, a security gate, security guards, etc.  If you feel led to help with that, let me know as well, or go HERE and donate (just make sure you note that it’s for VOH).

 

Join me in praising God for His protection from that pistol, and ask Him to restore all that was stolen, which was more than material goods and finances.  God is in the redemption business, He is able to remove those images from the minds of the children (and Amy and Todd), and He is able to heal. Thanks so much for praying!

The Sin of Hoarding

I’m currently doing Beth Moore’s study of the book of James.  This is one of my favorite studies, and definitely one with the deepest convictions for me.

 

Here’s just one of the many Beth Moore quotes from this study that has resonated deeply within me:

“…the sin of hoarding is more than just having.  It’s having without using.  The wickedness accelerates in the waste.  In part, hoarding means withholding what we don’t even use from others who’d treasure it.  All of us are accustomed to the saying “use it or lose it” but, the fact is, we’re going to lose it all anyway.  We’re not taking one ounce of this stuff with us when we die.”

 

I inherited from my mom, bless her heart and soul, a desire to hoard.  Thanks be to God, I’m also a giver.  That helps balance things a little bit, but I’m probably more of a hoarder than a giver.  I’d like to reverse that, with His help.

 

Truth be told, I believe most all of us are hoarders.  By nature, we’re sinful people who look after our own interests before we look after others.  We might not hoard enough to be featured on that hoarding television show, but if we take a serious look at what we could be giving away to bless others, I bet we all fall short.

 

Of course my heart goes back to James 1:27--God’s mandate that we care for orphans and widows.  Perhaps we should ask God to show each of us how we can do more to live out James 1:27?  Ask Him to search our hearts and reveal areas where we’ve been hoarding when we could be giving, blessing, and helping. Giving of our time, talent, and treasures can have an eternal impact, whereas hoarding any of those things will do nothing to further His Kingdom.

 

Time.  Are we hoarding our time?  How could we better use our time to bless others?  As Beth Moore said, “The wickedness accelerates in the waste.”  Are we wasting our time?  God, show us how we can better use our time, not for ourselves in a hoarding fashion, but for You, Father.  Help us to give freely of our time in order to bless others.  There’s so much more we could be doing, forgive us Father.

 

Talent.  Could we be guilty of hoarding our God-given talents?  Father, show us how we can better use the talents you’ve given us, not for ourselves, but for others.  Surely you’ve blessed us with these talents so we could use them to be a blessing to others.  Show us how, Lord.

 

Treasure.  How about our finances?  Are we hoarding our money or are we giving it freely to bless others?  How much more could we be giving away to help rescue orphans, to feed the hungry, to serve the widow?  We want to store up treasures in heaven, Father, not on earth.  Forgive us for being greedy.  Forgive us for not trusting that you will meet our every need, for hoarding our treasure, believing we must take care of ourselves.  Help us, Father, to abundantly share our treasure, for Your glory.  Point us Lord to the forgotten ones, the needy ones, the ones who desperately need clean drinking water and a meal in their bellies.  Show us Lord how to use our finances to bless others instead of hoarding it for ourselves.

 

More treasure.  What about our things?  Are we hanging on to more than we need?  Could we give things away to the homeless, to women’s and children’s shelters, to the needy?  Could we sell some of our stuff to raise funds to help another family rescue an orphan?  Forgive us, Father, for hoarding our stuff.  You’ve given us far more than we could ever need.  Please show us who to give our things to.  You know who needs what.  Direct us, Lord, and help us to freely give of our belongings, just as freely as you’ve blessed us with so much excess.  Take our abundance and multiply it into the hands and hearts of those who need it, those who need You.

 

Lord, we ask You to search our hearts, as well as our homes, and circumcise all the excess, the things that might be keeping us from greater intimacy with you.  We are prone to hoarding, Father, whether we realize it or not, so we ask you to not only forgive us for being greedy, but to create in us a desire to give abundantly of our time, talent, and treasure.  Convert our selfishness to selflessness and our independence to dependence upon You and only You, our One and Only.

So, How Do You Know, Part 2

This is the continuation of Part 1:

 

And so our homeschooling journey began, but not with a joyful heart, I must confess!  I really wasn’t excited about homeschooling.  I’ve learned through experience that it’s not good to obey God simply because you’re afraid of the consequences of disobedience, but that is how our journey began.

 

As much as I’d like to report that our homeschooling journey was all peachy and grand, it wasn’t at first.  Homeschooling was hard work that required much patience, perseverance, flexibility, and prayer.  Our first week of homeschooling made me want to throw in the towel, and I was previously a public school teacher, which is probably why I wanted to never homeschool and why I got so frustrated when things didn’t go the way I had planned!  The first day of homeschooling, our youngest son (age 2 at the time) tore all of the wallpaper off of his bedroom wall during his nap time.  Out of desperation, I called our local Mother’s Day Out program for this particular child, but I quickly realized that would be disobedience as well because I knew God wanted me to have all of my children home with me. 

 

While it took all of us time to adjust to our new normal back in 2002, God started to reveal blessings to us.  Blessings I never imagined would come out of homeschooling.  One of the biggest blessings was that our children became best friends.  I LOVED that and never even considered that was something God had in mind when He called us to homeschool. 

 

Relationship building was one of the biggest and best blessings that came from our homeschooling.  Each of our relationships with God grew more intimate, as well as our relationships with one another.  Learning together, laughing together, studying together, praying together, playing together, cooking together, eating together, discovering together, and sometimes even crying together—it was all what God had in store for us.  He impressed upon me that He created me to serve my family, that was His calling upon my life during that season.  He didn’t want me volunteering countless hours elsewhere, which often times caused me to deny my family.  He wanted me to put family first (next to God), in all areas of my life.

 

God never promised easy, but He did promise to never forsake us.  As we navigated the homeschooling waters, He proved Himself faithful.  He was always by our side, helping us, guiding us, teaching us, and loving us.  After a while, I absolutely couldn’t imagine life any other way.  Homeschooling eventually became something I loved and treasured.  God circumcised my heart greatly during this season, and for that, I am forever grateful.

 

I shared this story to illustrate some of the ways God might speak to us, to show us His calling in our lives.  The callings may change with His seasons for our lives, but His presence is ever present.  Always.  He never leaves us or forsakes us.  Where He calls us, He will equip us to serve.  He’s really fabulous at taking ordinary people and equipping them to do extraordinary tasks, which is what really gives Him the glory.  When we know that we know that we know that we know that there’s just no possible way that we could do something on our own, yet He enables us to do it (although sometimes it’s not pretty!), He is able to be given ALL of the glory.  We don’t try to steal any of the glory for ourselves because we know without a doubt that it was ALL Him!

 

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that I hear God best when I’m in His Word regularly.  For me, time with Him is essential.  Time spent in prayer, time spent studying His Word, time spent worshiping and praising Him, quality time spent regularly with Him.  Without time with Him, I’m unable to have the intimate relationship with our Father that I desperately need.  When my time with Him is weak, I cannot hear His voice as clearly, so for me, time is key.

 

I’ve also found that God doesn’t always beat me over the head when He wants me to do something, like He did when He wanted me to homeschool.  That particular calling involved lots of over-the-top messages from God to get me to obey.  He spoke to me in my dreams, He spoke to me through the study of His Word, He spoke to me through other people, He spoke to me through circumstances, and He spoke to me in my thoughts—gosh, He even gave me a real, live sign (the transparency on the overhead projector during the homeschool conference).

 

Regardless of how extroverted God is with His various callings in our lives, He always makes His way known.  It just might take a little time to decipher, to listen, to receive confirmation, and to obey.  Here are a few of the ways He speaks to me to help me to decipher His will:

• He will close doors that I thought He had opened—or He’ll open doors I thought He had closed. 
• He’ll put crazy ideas into my head that don’t come from me.  Many times these ideas are things I really don’t want to do (due to my laziness or fear or whatever excuse I can think of), which helps me to know the thought must be from Him. :-)  Often times the ideas pop up during my quiet time with Him, but just as often, the ideas pop up at random times throughout the day when I’m not thinking or praying about that specific idea.
• He’ll lead me down various paths during Bible study that reveals His plan to me.
• He’ll whisper things to my spirit while I’m praying—a feeling that I know He wants me to do something.  Then He seems to continue to swirl that thought in my head often, until I act upon it.
• Sometimes I’ll have a dream about something that affects my spirit deeply.  Then, during my waking hours, I cannot get the thought out of my head, often times for days and weeks and sometimes even months—until I act upon whatever it is He wants.
• Sometimes God gives me visions (visions occur when I’m awake, similar to a dream, but I’m totally awake) where He’ll put an idea into my head that occurs in a split second with such intricate detail that it would take me a day to explain it to someone else.  It seems so very realistic, like I know the ins and outs of whatever it is He’s planted in this vision.
• Sometimes God will use someone else to confirm an idea that He’s already put into my thoughts or spoken to my spirit.  Often times this occurs randomly, as was the case when our son asked me if I’d homeschool him, completely out of the blue.
• Sometimes God speaks to me during a sermon, or He’ll confirm something I’ve been praying about while I’m listening to a sermon.
• Many times God will lead me to a story or a simple scripture in His Word that relates to what I’m facing, as confirmation that this is indeed what He’s leading me to, which gives me more faith to obey.
• And sometimes God will give me a word—something that I don’t know the details about, but a simple word (or phrase) that sticks in my head.  Then I’ll see that word in a magazine, on a billboard, in a doctor’s office, in a store, and God will lead me to understand more about what it is that He’s asking of me, or speaking to me, regarding this word.  Often times that word eventually becomes a part of our testimony as God weaves all the details together as He makes that word active in our lives.

 

Regardless of how He speaks to me, I always pray about whatever it is that I feel God is asking of me.  Many times I’ll ask my husband or a friend (or both) to pray for me regarding whatever issue I’m seeking clarity on.  I’ll seek wise godly counsel if I feel the issue is bigger than I can handle with just me and God.  I’ll search scriptures, asking God to confirm or deny whatever it is I feel He’s leading me to do.  I’ll pray for wisdom specific to the issue at hand, as He promises in the book of James that He will give us wisdom, and He tells us to ask boldly.  More often than not, God will give me clarity and the strength to obey whatever it is He’s asking of me, regardless of the reasoning my flesh is so prone to. 

 

Always, always, always, I hear God most clearly when I spend the most time with Him.  Always.  The more intimate our relationship, the better our communication, the more clearly I hear Him.  Time is the key to intimacy for me.  I must spend regular quality time with God to have the intimacy we both desire.  This makes everything so much easier.  Always.

 

How about you?  Do you have a story to share regarding how you know what God’s will is or what His call is upon your life?  Do you have suggestions and/or advice for us?  We’d love to hear it.