Birthday Boy

Six years ago God gave us Ezra.

The day he was born was one of the best, and then scariest days of my life.

There were complications and when our Ez Pez was born his lungs were acting like he was a preemie.  

He was a very sick baby.

Oh I remember the feelings of that day.  I'm a pediatric nurse myself and I remember feeling so helpless, my baby in the hands of others who were very concerned.  Doctors talking seriously and quietly, coming to my bedside with updates.  I had to have a c-section, so only Jed could go along with Ezra to the NICU.  We couldn't hold him, I couldn't feed him.  It was so sad!

Then when Ezra was several days old we went downstairs to the NICU to visit him in the night.  His nurse that night was one we hadn't had before.  

Her words "Would you like to hold your baby?"  

Yes yes yes!!!!

That night I got to hold Ezra for the first time.  He was fragile and earlier that day we had been told it would be a while before he would be strong enough to be held.  I asked the nurse what had changed and she replied, 

"I'm of the school of thought that what babies really need is their mommy."

Guess what?  From that night on Ezra started improving.  He started getting stronger, his lungs started working better!  The miracle of the mother/baby bond was witnessed that night.  I am amazed at how God creates our little ones to crave touch, to NEED touch to thrive.  They are hear our voices in the womb, they know our scent, our voice, our touch.   

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb."
Psalm 139:13

We came home just days later with a completely healthy boy. 

God is so good!!!
Ezra has been such a blessing to our home.  He is loving, caring, always the one to kiss the babies good night.  He is becoming more "boy" all the time and is totally in love with his daddy.
Happy birthday my sweet miracle boy.  May you love the Lord like crazy and follow His lead every day of your life.We are thankful for you!!!!

The One that Started it All

I am so happy today.  It's a bittersweet happiness, but less bitter and more sweet. 

Last year at this time we had no idea about the orphan crisis in Eastern Europe.  We had no idea sweet precious children made perfect in the sight of God were alone in cribs forgotten by the world.  

Then "by chance" I ran across an adoption blog that mentioned Reeces Rainbow and my eyes were opened.  I thought about those sweet faces all the time.  One face stood out among the rest.  No matter how many others I looked at, there was something special about this one.  So we prayed.  We prayed and prayed and God spoke.  He told us to go for it- this was our boy.  We were so excited!  We had prayed for this little one for months.  His picture was up on our wall, he was the child of our hearts.

Well, most of you know it wasn't long until we found out he was being adopted by another family.  You can't pre-select a child from that country, so another Reeces Rainbow family that was already there to meet their daughter met our boy and fell in love.  God totally paved the way for them to add our sweet one to their adoption.  Oh boy, the emotions that followed!  We grieved and we rejoiced.  We wept and we smiled.  It was totally confusing and horrible and wonderful at the same time.  

Shortly after that time is when God started leading us in another direction.  I know I've said it before, but I believe God led us to our boy to turn our hearts in the right direction.  He used our sweet one to open our hearts once again to the plight of the orphans.  He knew it would take us fully investing our hearts and saying "yes" to get us to the point where He could then show us the next turn in our path.

Not long after that all happened the situation in our boy's country changed.  He was safely at home with his forever family when the office of government that handles all the adoptions in his country closed down to switch to another system.  People who are in the middle of their adoption process are right now just waiting for things to open back up so they can go rescue their babies.  If we would have proceeded with adopting our boy, if he had not been rescued by the family God had chosen for him he would be sitting and waiting for us.  Worse than that, he would most likely have been transferred to an institution and possibly lost forever.  Does our God know what He's doing or what!!!?  This just blows my mind how perfect His plans are.  His ways truly are higher than our ways.   

Now we are embarking on our grand adventure and he is safe at home with a loving and wonderful family that God destined for him.  I am amazed.  

I see "my" sweet boy's face and I know God has an amazing plan for his life.  I cried when I saw pictures of him this morning, but I can honestly say my tears are tears of thankfulness.  Thankfulness to our God who holds everything in His hands.  Praise God!

You can see pictures and a beautiful post about "our" boy here.  I will always love him.  :)

Seriously, God amazes me. 

Big Day

It's a pretty big day around here.  We've got a reader Folks!

That's right, Ezra is reading!  Going into this year I was pretty nervous since Addie could already read when we started homeschooling her, thanks to Mrs. O'Connor (shout out to Jan!).  I've never taught anyone to read and it all seemed very complicated and mysterious.  But...we have success! 

I have to confess, I owe it all to Bob.  

I kept hearing everyone talking about "Bob Books".  I kept thinking "Who the heck is Bob?"  Oooooh let me tell ya, that Bob is one sweet fella.  My lovely friend loaned me a set of Bob Books and we are victorious.

WAHOO!!!!!

Ezra's an animal.  Not only is he officially a reader, you probably didn't realize he's also a Jedi.  Yep, he's one talented guy.

I love him to pieces.

I Love November

November is National Adoption Month and Orphan Awareness Month.  Jed and I have been hard at work preparing a presentation for our church.  I am so stinkin' excited to share with our body what we are most passionate about.  For our presentation we've been filming people from our church who have either been adopted, adopted a child themselves, fostered children, or somehow are actively doing orphan care.  It has been awesome.

I think sometimes when us passionate-about-orphans people get to really thinking about all the fatherless out there, all the babies without mama's, all the boys without daddies, it can get extremely overwhelming.  God, why aren't people doing more?  Don't they even care?  I sometimes feel alone in my passion.  I think about the fatherless every single day.  I pray for the orphaned ones every single day.  I look into the face of my baby and wonder what his life would have been like had he been born in a different country.  Would he have been abandoned?  Would he be languishing in an orphanage with no one to hold him when he cries?  Most likely.  It's too much.

Then I lift my head up and I look around.  I start thinking of ones I know who I can get on film from our church.  I think of name after name of those who have answered the cry.  

Phil and Kathy- fostered over 30 teenage girls and adopted their daughter through foster care.
Tim and Rosa- running an orphanage in Asia for disabled children.
Debbi- adopted as a child and so thankful to share how she was rescued by her parents.
Sam and Angie- some of our very best friends who are in Bulgaria RIGHT NOW! visiting with their children they are adopting.

Yes, the need is great.
Yes, many ignore the need.
Yes, the church needs to rise up.

But,
Many are answering the cries.
Many are not ignoring the need.
Many are rising up.

I know God is on the move and He WILL NOT forget His children.
And I am encouraged.

 I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.  John 14:18