New Horizons for Children VIDEO

Here is a precious video that New Horizons for Children put together after the summer hosting program.  All the children you see on here are orphans in Latvia and Ukraine.  All were hosted for 5 weeks this summer.  Some of them are now on the road to being adopted, while others are not.  All are, at present, in their orphanages or summer "camps" without a family.

Take 5 minutes to view this and pray.  Look at these faces and take in the fact that they are earthly orphans...this is the real deal.  See beyond the photos and realize that each has a life, a past, a hurt, a favorite color, a favorite food, a belly laugh...a life that we cannot simply walk away from.  

Pray for the children who are being adopted.  Pray for forever families to find the ones who are not yet in the process of adoption.  And take the bold step to ask God what YOU might be able to do.  Host? Adopt?  Be a wrap-around family to support an adoptive family?  Make a financial contribution to an adoption?  Advocate?  Share this video with your friends?  PRAY.PRAY.PRAY.  This is not something for someone else to do.  If you are a Christian, this is for YOU to do.  Ask Him what your part is, and step into it.

This video is best viewed in full screen or on YouTube so that you can read the Scripture promises.  (By the way, our Sandija is in this video, soon after the 1-minute mark...starting at 1:16 to be exact!)  

I have another blog post that is in the works, and I will post that someday soon.  It is a personal view of our own hosting/adopting journey.  Words have been slow in coming on that one, but it's almost there.....

What We're Up to Now...

The hosting program has ended, and really (REALLY!) I will blog soon about our experience.  We've been super busy over here.  

August 4th marked 3 years since our Gotcha Day, when we walked out of the orphanage with this doll baby from Taiwan.  Look at her now!  Seriously, I do believe that every family needs a child with Down Syndrome...look at the LOVE and JOY in this girl!  (There's a funny story about why she has a toilet seat cover around her in her high chair at the restaurant, but that's another story for another day.....).  :)

And here we go again...

Yep, we are taking the plunge to bring home another one of God's children into our family.  Let the paperwork begin!!  This is what I've been doing for the past 5 hours today!  And I haven't made a tiny dent...

Oh, yes, it's as fun as it looks...

I will share more soon...really......just as soon as I get all these stacks of paperwork done.  Has anyone seen our dining table??

Packing Day

I cannot believe that packing day is here!  These 5 weeks have been a whirlwind!!  And as soon as I catch my breath, I will be blogging quite bit about our experience.  There's a lot going on in my head and heart, but I'm limited by such tiny fragments of "spare" time!

Anyway, Sandija will leave early Thursday morning.  Today we will get all her stuff packed up, and tomorrow we are planning a special going-away treat for her.

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days...

Look at them playing while I'm cutting cake!  (Oh, and look at my hair.  Sandija thought it would be fun to put 25 tiny brains in my already-curly hair and then take them out to create a major wave...and I do mean MAJOR!)

Sandija with our birthday boy...

The girls hugging...

And the treat she picked out from the Fudge Factory.  The good news is that she realllllllly enjoyed it.  The bad news is that Mama accidentally dropped it on the garage floor, and it broke into 18 million pieces.  Soooo, back to the Fudge Factory we go!

Keep posted because once everything settles down, I have much to type...

Love Notes

I have left little love notes for Sandija over the past 4 weeks...in her bed, in her Bible, at her place at the table, with her tea.  And last week I began to receive some from her also.  Here's one that she wrote on our dry erase board.  It says, "Mama loves her children with her whole heart and soul."  And in the heart, she wrote, "Mama + children."  Ya see...this concept is brand new to her: a Mama who really loves her children.

Yesterday, she asked if she could dump out our candy bucket.  Out rolled a ton of candy and some stray cookie crumbs onto a blanket on the floor.  She was busy going through it for a long time.  Then she said, "Mama, come see!!"  And here was a "candy love note" for me.

The past 4.5 weeks have been very exhausting, training Sandija in the basics of manners, correcting pouting and tantrums, and learning in a few weeks what Mamas usually have years to learn about a child.  We've had our ups and downs.  The ups have been very up, and the downs have been like one of those rides where you free fall for 20 stories!  But here we are near the end of the ride, and we don't want it to stop.  I fully dread Thursday when we have to say goodbye.  This child is a daughter in my heart.

And, on a different note....10 years ago, I gave birth to this treasure:

This one is "a balm to my spirit," as I've called him for years.  He's the tender-hearted one who seeks to care for the brokenhearted and will take a backseat to make sure others are cared for.  And he is VERY funny...keeps me laughing every day.  Happy birthday, buddy!  I love you deeply.

God's Promises

New Horizons for Children is doing a video project, featuring the host children and God's promises for them.  Here is a sneak peek at the photo we submitted...

Celebrating Sandija

We celebrated Sandija's birthday a bit early.  Here's a peek at her special day in photos...

First stop: Dunkin Donuts.  She wanted donut holes.

And then on to the Georgia Aquarium!  Here she is trying her hand at touching a sting ray.  She was proud of herself for being brave, but she didn't like the feel of it.

Pretending to hold a fish in the aquarium...

Very fun to be in the clear tunnel, and even cooler to have a scuba diver swim overhead!

She was mesmerized!

Then on home for her birthday dinner, cake and presents...  Hello Kitty, of course!

Roses from my parents...

Her meal of choice: hot dogs, potato salad, chips and watermelon...

She asked me to take a picture of Daddy Bear eating pink cake and drinking out of a Hello Kitty cup, which she found to be very funny indeed!

A glimpse into the kind of dinner and cake time we had...

Family photo...

Did I mention that we have issues??!

I guess she liked her mp3 player and her Daddy Bear who loaded it with her favorite Christian music!

And let's just say that she was quite thrilled with her doll.  Yes, in many ways, she is still a very young child.  Precious moment as we watched her open her gifts!  Oh, and she didn't want to mess up any of the wrapping paper, so she cut it neatly open with scissors.  :)

Can you tell that she loves Mama just a bit??  And Mama loves her.

Hosting: Week 4 in Photos

Really...when things settle down around here, I have TONS to blog about!  But I seem to only have tidbits of "extra"time at my disposal right now.  I uploaded these photos last night but was too tired to even write a few words to go with them!  So, here they are...  And really, one day soon, I will have time to write more.

Here we are making homemade pizza.

She was thrilled with the final product...

Here are my creative girls...one is doing embroidery, while the other is knitting.

Sandija had her first trip to Hobby Lobby, and it can be summed up in one word: AWE!  She went from rack to rack, rubbing the material on her face.

She was truly amazed at all the things in that store!  She kept saying, "Mama, what that?  Mama, what you do with this?"  It was the best time I've had in a store in a long time.  We bought her some fabric so that she can make herself a dress when she gets back to Latvia (one of her many talents).  Needless to say, she was the  happiest girl in the state that day!

First ICEE...

First package delivered by UPS...her winter coat and gloves.  When we ordered this stuff online, she could not believe that we could click a button on the computer, and then somehow the UPS person delivered the stuff to the door a few days later!

All ready for the Latvian winter...

We bought her a suitcase for her trip back, and she chose an amazing blue one.  Here she is playing inside of it...

Dinner time at our home is usually fun and filled with interesting conversations.  When Sandija was first in our home, she told us one night at dinner, "In Latvia, we don't talk at meals.  We eat."  We explained that we eat and talk (sometimes talk too much!).  Now, she joins in the conversation and enjoys herself.

More photos to come very soon...