Please Pray With Us About Our Children's Birth Parents

I have needed to post an update for quite a while on how our birth parents are doing, but have been holding off.  Now, I feel that there is more of an urgency to share.

First of all, Adia's birth mom, Mommy Q, is an amazing lady!  She and I are good friends and can talk on the phone forever!  We have prayed, laughed and cried together over the phone.  The last conversation we had together she shared some deep pain that she was experiencing emotionally.  She now knows the Lord and has Him, as well as her amazing church family, but my heart breaks for her and her young son.  Her young son is only a couple of months older than Jaydon.  I am sure there are a lot of questions that he has been asking.  Without going into great detail, would you just pray for both of them and their safety?  We also want to pray that they will seek the Lord's strength and peace as they make difficult decisions.  I must say that sometimes her strong faith and love for the Lord puts me to shame.  Its amazing how much of an encouragement she has been to me, when I have tried to be an encouragement to her!

Secondly, we heard some sad news today about Jaydon's birth mom, Mommy D.  Mommy D was recently arrested.  To add another element of prayer to this is that she is currently in the jail hospital.  We have heard that she is not in good health.  I was contacted today by the social worker to let us know so that we could write her while she had an address.  So today I, as well as my friends who adopted Jaydon's sister, wrote her.  Without knowing what each other wrote, we both shared about the love of Jesus with her.  We never know when she will be discharged from jail, so we pray our letters reach her before she leaves.  Will you also join us in praying that her heart will be softened to the voice of Jesus?  We are praying that she will see that the love she is so desperately seeking can only be found by running into the loving arms of Jesus instead of chasing other things in this world that can never satisfy!  We are praying that she will stop putting off this decision before it is too late!

Our relationship with each birth mother is unique.  They are each on different paths in their life.  But the one thing that is the same with both, is that God has given us such a love for them.  They are now a part of our family!  They made a very difficult decision to place their child.  But they loved them enough to choose life and to give them a life that they knew they could not offer.

In closing, here are some recent pictures of Adia and Jaydon.  Although they are close with all of their siblings, the bond they have with each other is something very unique and special.  I love it!  We pray that as Jaydon continues to learn that he will soon see his need to become a part of Jesus' family.  It is so neat to see that seeds have already been planted in his heart.  Anytime he sees a cross, he says he sees Jesus.  To connect those two together is a huge step in the right direction. 

Thanks for praying!

One Week Pass Turned into a Longer Pass!!

In our last post, we were pretty discouraged.  However, we are learning that just as in a blink of an eye things can change for the worse, so can they change just as quickly for the better.  God is definitely taking us on a journey that encourages strength in our faith building muscles!

Since I hadn't been able to talk with Anne, we weren't sure if it would be wise to continue planning a two week home pass, so we made plans to arrange for a one week pass.  However, once I was able to talk with Anne to see how SHE was feeling about everything, she wanted a two week pass.

The day we went to pick her up, I saw the director in the office.  He asked if I had seen Anne yet, which I had not.  He said that Anne had good news for me!  Of course as soon as I was done in the office, I quickly went to find Anne. While we were walking, she wanting me to take a piece of paper that was upside down.  When I turned it over to look at it, this is what I saw....

I was so excited that I squealed!  She had been mentioning for a few months that she had hoped she would be able to receive this honor, as each month a different girl is chosen.  I knew that if she was able to come home at the end of the summer, that she didn't have too much time left to accomplish this goal.  So, as a "selfish" mommy, I started praying that if it be God's will that she be chosen.  Not too many weeks, later, we had God's answer of a "YES!"  Even if God would have answered no, in our minds, Anne had already won! :) 

As a result of this special honor, Anne gets to pick out a new pair of jeans and choose to either get her hair highlighted or get a hair cut.  We look forward to seeing what she chooses!

How does one receive the special honor of being chosen for the girl of the month?  It is through character qualities of hard work, integrity, friendliness, a willingness to help, making progress in goals, etc.  There are two main houses on campus, and the girls in each of the homes vote for who they think should win.  The house parents and staff then take the nominations and choose who they think should receive the honor.  The girls from the house that Anne ISN'T staying in unanimously voted for Anne before the other house had even voted.

Needless to say, we brought home a pretty excited girl! :)  The first week, Anne made it back in time to tell Hawa, our former exchange student, goodbye before she left to go back to Africa.   She also was able to spend time helping us celebrate Father's Day.  That week, we were also really busy preparing for our garage sale, and Anne also enjoyed being able to rearrange her room with new to her furniture.

The second week, it was a slower pace.  This enabled Anne to reconnect with some of her friends as well as allow us to have some time for some good conversation.

The day before we were getting ready to take Anne back, she got sick.  This then spread to the rest of the family.  By the time everyone was all well, it had been THREE weeks since she had left the home. Although, it was frustrating to be sick, it was nice to have her home that long.  It almost felt like things were "back to normal" again! :)

We were thankful she was able to be here to celebrate July 4th with us.

                                                    

                                     

This past Wednesday, we took her back to the home.  While we were there, we had a meeting with the host parents and the campus director.  They were very pleased with how well Anne is doing and progressing.  She has officially reached all of her goals!!  As a result, we are officially back into the TRANSITION HOME phase.

Before she can come home, we have to have at least one family therapy session with the therapist she has been seeing.  The first session has been scheduled for next Thursday.  We would appreciate your prayers as we meet together.  Following this meeting, we will get to take Anne home for another week long home pass.  Anne is looking forward to helping with our church's VBS program.

If things continue to progress well, Anne should be home for good sometime next month!!  Thanks for continuing to pray!