31 cents- It's Icecream Tonight!!

Don't forget to support our heroes tonight by visiting your local Baskin Robbins (check the website to make sure your store is participating). 31 cents for a delicious scoop!!

In Him,

E

Inspiration

Inspiration. I need it many days when my brain turns to mush. I get stuck in a rut and can't seem to get out.

I came across a couple great blogs recently that have inspired me when it comes to fun activities as well as helping our little one be successful. Pink and Green Mama is OVERFLOWING with wonderful, easy art ideas. Many, many of them are fun for all ages, but so many are extremely helpful for practicing fine motor skills. Although, baby boy isn't quite old enough to play in colored rice, use the push pin pegboard, find "it" in the I Spy bottle or play the "paint chip word game", one day he will be ready.

The other blog I find so helpful in parenting a child with a little something extra is Down Syndrome New Mama. Go check out her post today about eating. Wonderful ideas about mirrors, utensil placement and how to (attempt to) avoid ruining perfectly good clothes.:) Again, saving this one to return to often.

In Him,
E

Sitting Pretty!

Oh my, I am SO incredibly behind posting! Little "Squirt" is now over 8 months! I can't believe it. To put his time with us into perspective- one of our FL social workers was about to find out she was pregnant when our angel was placed with us. Her baby is now due any day. Crazy!

And he joined the club a few weeks ago. I was sort of afraid to post about it because I thought it may be a fluke, but nope! Our sweetie is sitting up!! Alone!! For long periods of time- over 5 minutes a few days ago. Poor thing, we never did get to check off "prop sitting" on his goal chart because....well.....his arms are just too short. It just wasn't going to ever happen. So, he showed us that he can indeed do it and went straight to sitting. Woohoo!! I am always amazed at what great posture babies have. I think I need to take lessons.

He's thinking, "I'm so tired. Do we really have to do this now?"
Look at how sleepy his eyes look.

This isn't an everyday occurance around here, but it doesn't surprise me either. Wouldn't you want to spend the afternoon in your closet playing Sudoku? Crammed into a tiny ball? Fun, huh?! I have no idea what part of this she found to be so much fun. Look- she even put a lamp in the closet so she could close the door but still see.

This photo was taken the morning after the "sitting" pictures above were taken.

Well rested and RIBBONS!!!

Ribbons- the boy loves them (he also loves sequins:)! Thankfully, he has 3 sisters who are more than willing to share. I had an idea a couple of weeks ago to tie some ribbons with different textures and colors to his walker. He thinks it's the greatest thing! We also keep a small bag of them in his diaper bag. Boy, is he easy! No need for toys in this house. And wonderful fine motor therapy.

Our middle daughter lovin' her brother. Oh, boy, do they love each other!!

In Him,

E

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY FOR CHRISSIE!!! NOW!!

Pray like you never have before, my friends. Chrissie may not make it. She is on heart/lung bypass and has been "gone" for over 45 minutes now. Go here now for updates and to leave the Pattersons encouragement. To GOD be the glory!!

In Him,

E

URGENT!

A week spent on my knees begging God for healing, hope and open hearts. I received news of an adoption situation yesterday that is urgent. Could God be calling us again? We have prayed for Him to open the doors when He is ready for us to adopt again. Could the time be now?

Financially, we are still trying to build back up after Ruslana's adoption so money for fees just isn't there. I have no doubt and complete faith that He will guide us to the funds if this is in fact His will.

Please, join me in praying for this angel. He is here and waiting for Mommy and Daddy to take him home. (OH, how I pray it is us!!).
In Him,
E

Chrissie died yesterday...TODAY SHE IS ALIVE!!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST- Chrissie is a Serbian princess adopted into her forever family last fall. Yesterday she underwent open heart surgery to repair some major defects. After several complications, Chrissie died. She was dead for 20 minutes until Our Father returned her to her earthly body. She is still on life support and fighting. Chrissie is in very critical condition and her outcome is still unknown.

Please, pray for Chrissie's total healing. Pray for her pain to be relieved. Pray for peace and comfort for her amazing parents who accepted and LOVE this angel in spite of the difficult road they knew would be ahead of them but chose to bring her home anyway.

Visit the Patterson's blog and leave some encouraging words. They need to know that they are surrounded by prayers today and for the many hard days ahead.

In Him,

E

I must confess...

I love that show. You know the one where average Joes try out to sing in front of America, receive votes, sing terrible renditions of classics as a group, make TOO many cheesy Ford commercials, obnoxious performances by "current stars" (which we DO NOT watch- total trash!), receive advice from some guy wearing way too much eyeliner....you know the one (and what is with all the ginormous rings?!?). So, I am coming clean. Punish me, but I really do enjoy the show.

I must say I very much dislike the name of the show- "IDOL". It just isn't right. We've talked with our girls about "Idols" and how much we dislike the impression that word gives when associated with the show, and they get it.

Now, I know in between the judge bashing performances (I do love Simon, by the way!) there are some terrible and very inappropriate commercials. It is during those moments that the TV is muted and we all turn our attention to our very own superstar.....our middle daughter. She keeps us rolling daily. I mean, absolutely cracks me up more often that not! She performs for us quite often even if she doesn't consider it that. Her dream is to open an orphanage in Haiti and teach the kids to act. On Friday evenings she plans on having the kids put on "shows" for the people in the village. You can see the stars in her eyes when she talks about it. I just pray that regardless of where He takes her in this life, that she keeps her focus on the one true STAR-Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In Him,

E

Above Rubies

I wanted to bring attention to my favorite magazine again- Above Rubies. Each time I receive a copy in the mail, I devour it in less than a day. I also save each copy and find myself rereading them over and over. I wrote about Above Rubies some time ago but just wanted to send out another reminder. I hope that each of you are already readers of this inspirational magazine- if not, go check it out. And to make it even more appealing, can I just say that the magazine is FREE!! Oh yes, you read that right- FREE! Of course, they love donations for this is the Campbell family ministry. Just visit the website and click on "Free Subscription" in the left hand column.

While on the site, look around. It is full of strong spiritual guidance and encouragement specifically for women and mothers. If you have any questions about any of the books, I may be able to help you as we own several.

In Him,

E

Healing...

O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.

Psalm 30:2 (NIV)

Phew! What a couple of weeks. F..i..n..a..l..l..y...I think we are all well (...almost:). We have been lead to assume that it was all a very yucky virus. Which one? We'll never know. Baby most likely had pneumonia after the virus but is on the mend. Our home has been fever free for almost 5 days now, but we continue to hear the coughing (and gurgling chest from baby). I spoke with his cardiologist's nurse today, and surgery will be postponed since his illness involved his lungs. Now we are looking at the end of May or first of June. They assure me his heart will be fine to wait a bit longer- the most important this is for his lungs to be well in order to go on the heart/lung bypass machine.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3 (NIV)

I have had a rough couple of weeks. No, not because of all the illness, though, I'm sure seeing my children so sick absolutely added to my sadness.

I wonder. I turned on my husband's camera a few days ago. Have I mentioned that I haven't been able to look at the pictures from our trip since returning home? Nope, they are still on the camera. I kept thinking that I was "okay". That life was great and moving right along. We are all doing fine. I was wrong. I turned on the camera and the tears flowed. I saw her sweet face.....and I wondered.

(I want to add here that I'm not writing this post for opinions to be thrown at me. I don't need judgement. No, I just need to write out some things. To see the words on screen.)

While in Ukraine, we took many pictures and videos of Ruslana. I remember deleting the "bad" ones as soon as they were taken. I didn't want to see or share the pictures that captured the things we were concerned about. I didn't was to face the things that scared us so. So, when I turned on the camera I saw our angel. The one who stole my heart. The one God put in our lives to change us forever. The one we walked away from.

My heart cried when I saw that face. The smile we got when I tickled her the first time. I could hear her laugh as I looked at that picture. I saw the picture I have told the girls about- the one where she is sitting on the floor and her legs are literally out straight to each side. She is quite the acrobat. Hubby and I were amazed at her flexibility although we knew it sometimes came with Down syndrome.

I looked at every picture and watched every video. The tears came. "The flood gates opened." I don't think I've cried like that since December. Then, I opened the blog of a friend who is in Ukraine right now and saw the pictures of our apartment- the same apartment she is staying in. The tears.

Yesterday, our middle daughter asked if we could visit her once she's home, so she could meet her. Oh, God- how can I do this?!!

Today I opened my closet to see a bit of wrapping paper peaking out from under a shirt. I knew what it was. It was hers. A special Christmas gift bought for her by her "sisters".

The shoe shelf in the garage. Hers is still there. We have 7 of them. When we purged last year, everyone was assigned a shelf. The one meant for Ruslana is slowly gathering other things. Someone elses shoes. A water bottle. Some sidewalk chalk. Dust.

I treasure the days we spent with her. I feel like God chose me to share in something so much bigger than myself. I'm sure you are wondering how that is given we didn't bring her home, but it's true. We were blessed to meet her. We held her. And now she has a family! And I can honestly say that I am so happy for her (and for them:)!

Her new family. Her new family left Easter Sunday on their trip to "their" girl. Fitting isn't it? Easter Sunday. The beginning of New Life. I just love it when God does things like that!! I guess they will be meeting her any day. They have a blog, but I can't gain the courage to ask for an invitation. Is it because I think they will judge me? Or more out of fear? My fear to see that sweet face once again. My fear and sadness to see her in someone elses arms. My desire to be them- the one with love in my eyes.

Thus, my journey of healing continues. Grief is like this. It shows it's face when you least expect it. I wonder if I'll always feel this way. Always wonder "what if". We are confident that we made the best decision with God's help, but that doesn't make it easier. One of our dreams died the day we closed the orphanage gate for the last time.

For now, I have four treasures to hold. Four treasures who look to me to make sure things are okay. Four treasures who need to see that mommy is human and that life does go on. Oh, how I love each of them!!

Maybe someday we can send that Christmas gift to her. And our grief can come to an end.

Thank you, Lord, for sending me on this journey. A journey I didn't expect and is very hard, but a journey that I wouldn't change even if I could. For I know His plans are bigger than my own.

My life has been changed forever....and it all began with a little blue eyed girl.

In Him,

E

But Sunday's coming!!!

3 of my children are better but baby boy is still very sick- either pneumonia or RSV. We've sort of determined that noone ever had H1N1- yay!! Not that pneumonia and RSV are any better, though.



I am SO behind with everything. I realized every night as I fell into bed that I never drew a name for the giveaway, so tonight was the night. So sorry ladies! FINALLY.......the winner is......TRACY McCAIN at A Life Inspired . Congratulations Tracy!! Please email me (nogreatergiftmom@yahoo.com) so I can get your address and send your goodies along.



Many of you have probably seen this already, but I felt lead to share it here. The music is dark and freaks me out a bit, but that's part of it. The reality. The story. It wasn't warm and fuzzy. Christ suffered. Such suffering that it's hard for me to even begin to wrap my mind around it. I remember the night that hubby and I saw The Passion. Tear streaked faces, very slowly and somberly walking to our car. Silence. We entered a restaurant to eat and didn't speak a word. Tears continued. Silence. Barely touching our food. Very few words spoken until hours later.

I've heard the crucifixion story for as long as I can remember. Yeah, Jesus died on the cross. Yeah, he wore a crown of thorns and had nails hammered through His hands. Yeah, he rose. Ashamedly, it took me seeing The Passion to realized just how horrific it was. Even today the images don't escape me.

All I can say is- WHAT A BLESSED SAVIOR!! I WILL ALWAYS PRAISE YOUR NAME!!



In Him,
E