Just like a little bit of everything goes into a great pot of soup, so God has brought a lot of things and people into our family. He adds and He takes away, but in the process we are being seasoned and poured out, shared and blessed. The ingredients are unique but its a wonderful blend!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Calico Acres Barber Shop and Dog Emporium
Our rescued , no-longer-a - stray dog, Bosco has incredibly thick fur and is forever chewing at it. The boys needed hair cuts so it seeemd a good and efficient thing after supper last night to just tidy up all the hairs which needed trimming. Here you can see Isaac buzzing Isaiah and Malachi removing about 5 pounds of fur from Miss Bosco!
7 years ago...................
we flew into Hanoi, Vietnam and drove several hours to a little village, not very far south of the China/Vietnam border and we met, held, fell in love with, and completed the adoption of Baby Thoa, age 5 months. She weighed just under 10 pounds and fit perfectly into her size 0-3 month sized clothing. Today, Naomi ThiRose is 7 years and 5 months, weighs about 41 pounds . Tiny Naomi seemed to look so big when we saw this photo, but when we met her nanny , who is holding her in the photo, we realized that the nanny was exceptionally petite!
Celebrating seven wonderful years of knowing and getting to love Naomi, so far: 3-29-02 to 3-29-09
Monday, March 30, 2009
Junior, amateur photographer
Our new/future son loves to take pictures!!! He latched onto our camera from almost moment one after we arrived and he had the greatest time with that camera!! We ended up deleting a lot of photos of other people's photos, photos of the tv set, way way -too-close-up shots of people's scalps, too many photos of food and many random things, but he had a really good eye and many of our photos of the other children which I am working on uploading for other waiting families were taken by Junior. When Charlie taught him about the zoom, I thought he'd burst some brain cells taking that technology in: it was SO fun to watch those investigative thoughts and actions!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Bubbles
We brought bubbles for the children to play with. Bubbles are a huge hit!! Most of the time it was smarter to line the childen up to take a turn blowing into the wand.....absolute choas over fear of missing a turn caused many of the eager children to shove and push and get pretty ickity. After several good "stay in line for your turn" bubble sessions, thing s relaxed to where the kids did ok on their own, at least for a while. Top photo is Diamoh and Elsie, middle : in pink is Esther and pals, bottom is Elsie and Nehemiah. As a rule the older children really look out for the younger and make sure they get included in whatever is going on, from meals to play to that nailpolish-ing after noon . They were a joy to watch!!!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Pure fun!!!!!!!!
The beautiful little 9 year old girl with the darker complexion is Elsie, she is in love with Charlie and me, she seems to have a bond with our children. She is not matched to a family ...YET. MOST of our "family photos" have Elsie in them somewhere. I plaited her hair into what the teacher calls American Plaits, as opposed to French braids. The other lovely little girl, named is Blessing was being pretty grumpy and whiney boo. I grabbed her, tickled her and told her NOT to smile . This was the result! As you can see, none of the finger nails have a trace of the mani-pedi day when I used an "anointed " partial bottle of red nail polish to paint all the little girls' fingers and toes. The toes are holding up pretty well, despite the dirt, amazingly enough.
Morning Glory, and Liberia
I did all that I knew to do, more of what I called a goat expert friend to teach me about how to ICU care for my beautiful but languishing doe, all to no positive avail. We had to bury Morning Glory next to her babies yesterday afternoon. VERY sad for all of us. When my grand daughter came to be baby sat this morning she asked about the new babies right off ,andI hadto put a cloud over her morning too, which I buffered with the fact that we have more babies due in a few more days......
I am still processing my thoughts about Liberia. One of my most profound memories is the children and their love of singing. School has much singing as does each church service. These children who have so little by most other people's standards sing "I've got the joy joy joy joy joy, down in my heart" with more passion and truth than I have heard from most poeple who "have it all". When I taught the children "Oh how I love Jesus" one ofthe older boys asked me to write the words in his copy book so he could read it correctly. So much Liberian English is heavily accented and the phonics of many words is utterly lost, and with it, much meaning. the kids watched me singing songs with them which were familiar because they realized I was singing the words differently.They were trying to "get" the sounds right. I am sure they were confused about some of the songs they sang about the Lord, which made no sense whatsoever with the words they were given. They were so sincere and so worshipful, but when they had the "real words" there was an added depth to their worship that I picked up on right away. I had a sweet laugh as did the children when they were singing with their teacher "I've got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart" It came out with the word "pickle" in it, "the pea-aht passaunnasannnin down in my heart" and when I stopped to say the words one at a time they laughedat themselves. "OH? No pickle?" And "I've got the wonderful love of my Blessed Redeemer way down in the depths of my heart" was tons of fun as I said it with them over and over. At Christmas time they did a choreography to "Cruified, laid behind a stone" and did it again for us in worship the day before we left Liberia. BEAUTIFUL ! Two of the older girls lead the prasie and worship portion of the Sunday service and the song time worship in the daily afternoon "under the tree" sessions too. It was such a blessing to see these girls, porbably about 12 -13 leading the other children as they sang. Wewere thinking that when other families travel to visit the children that musical instruments would be wonderful forthem to bring along...maraccas, tambourines, anything (inexpensive) that they can add to the worship time with. I think they'd love that added component! My thoughts are coming together, I will have some photos soon. Most are on Charlie's computer and need to be transfered to mine via a disc. I could have easily done photos yesterday and taught school but being in the barn and helping the kids process all that death stuff kind of shifted my entire focus. Every day presents a new way to trust the Lord!
I am still processing my thoughts about Liberia. One of my most profound memories is the children and their love of singing. School has much singing as does each church service. These children who have so little by most other people's standards sing "I've got the joy joy joy joy joy, down in my heart" with more passion and truth than I have heard from most poeple who "have it all". When I taught the children "Oh how I love Jesus" one ofthe older boys asked me to write the words in his copy book so he could read it correctly. So much Liberian English is heavily accented and the phonics of many words is utterly lost, and with it, much meaning. the kids watched me singing songs with them which were familiar because they realized I was singing the words differently.They were trying to "get" the sounds right. I am sure they were confused about some of the songs they sang about the Lord, which made no sense whatsoever with the words they were given. They were so sincere and so worshipful, but when they had the "real words" there was an added depth to their worship that I picked up on right away. I had a sweet laugh as did the children when they were singing with their teacher "I've got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart" It came out with the word "pickle" in it, "the pea-aht passaunnasannnin down in my heart" and when I stopped to say the words one at a time they laughedat themselves. "OH? No pickle?" And "I've got the wonderful love of my Blessed Redeemer way down in the depths of my heart" was tons of fun as I said it with them over and over. At Christmas time they did a choreography to "Cruified, laid behind a stone" and did it again for us in worship the day before we left Liberia. BEAUTIFUL ! Two of the older girls lead the prasie and worship portion of the Sunday service and the song time worship in the daily afternoon "under the tree" sessions too. It was such a blessing to see these girls, porbably about 12 -13 leading the other children as they sang. Wewere thinking that when other families travel to visit the children that musical instruments would be wonderful forthem to bring along...maraccas, tambourines, anything (inexpensive) that they can add to the worship time with. I think they'd love that added component! My thoughts are coming together, I will have some photos soon. Most are on Charlie's computer and need to be transfered to mine via a disc. I could have easily done photos yesterday and taught school but being in the barn and helping the kids process all that death stuff kind of shifted my entire focus. Every day presents a new way to trust the Lord!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
My Redeemer Lives
This is out of sequence with the events of our trip but so powerful I want start with it.
We got to see the Atlantic Ocean at a distance as we drove every day to the children's home, and got to spend some good time on the beach twice. Each time, and especially the second time, the words to Nicole C. Mullins' song "My Redeemer Lives" flooded my mind and brought worshipful tears to my eyes: particularly just one line........."Who told the ocean "you can only come THIS FAR?"
When I saw the powerful ocean waves breaking on the beach, when I felt the unbelievable strength of the undertow, watched as the waves came, one after another, never identical in strength or reach, as I watched some come crashing up and over tall rock formations and return quickly to their deep home, all I could add to that experience was to sing those words, and know that MY REDEEMER LIVES to be Sovereign over all His earth. Yes storms may bring a disorder to the incredible process of tide ebbing and flowing and cause temporary disturbances to the land beyond the beaches, but in its perfect design, those waves DO "only come THIS FAR" minute after minute ,year after year, millenium after millenium, to the glory of their Creator, MY REDEEMER.
Stop for just a moment and think about, take some time to worship our awesome God, maker of heaven and earth, Who knows each of us from our mother's wombs and has a unique plan for each of our lives, which is even more powerful than the mighty waves in all thier strength and magesty.The God Who ordered the whole of creation into existence and sustains it, loves US and gave His only Son for us, individually and personally. I doubt that the Psalmist ever saw those waves, but his thoughts over what he had seen caused him to ask "OH Lord what is man that You are mindful of him?"
It all served to remind me in a new and different way how much I am in awe of my Heavenly Father, and how I desire to serve Him with all my heart and soul and my mind and my being
We got to see the Atlantic Ocean at a distance as we drove every day to the children's home, and got to spend some good time on the beach twice. Each time, and especially the second time, the words to Nicole C. Mullins' song "My Redeemer Lives" flooded my mind and brought worshipful tears to my eyes: particularly just one line........."Who told the ocean "you can only come THIS FAR?"
When I saw the powerful ocean waves breaking on the beach, when I felt the unbelievable strength of the undertow, watched as the waves came, one after another, never identical in strength or reach, as I watched some come crashing up and over tall rock formations and return quickly to their deep home, all I could add to that experience was to sing those words, and know that MY REDEEMER LIVES to be Sovereign over all His earth. Yes storms may bring a disorder to the incredible process of tide ebbing and flowing and cause temporary disturbances to the land beyond the beaches, but in its perfect design, those waves DO "only come THIS FAR" minute after minute ,year after year, millenium after millenium, to the glory of their Creator, MY REDEEMER.
Stop for just a moment and think about, take some time to worship our awesome God, maker of heaven and earth, Who knows each of us from our mother's wombs and has a unique plan for each of our lives, which is even more powerful than the mighty waves in all thier strength and magesty.The God Who ordered the whole of creation into existence and sustains it, loves US and gave His only Son for us, individually and personally. I doubt that the Psalmist ever saw those waves, but his thoughts over what he had seen caused him to ask "OH Lord what is man that You are mindful of him?"
It all served to remind me in a new and different way how much I am in awe of my Heavenly Father, and how I desire to serve Him with all my heart and soul and my mind and my being
My first Liberia story is NOT a Liberia story
Good morning!!!!!!!!!!!
I was so sure I'd start today telling Liberia stories. Instead I am going to work backward with a home story first. GOD IS SO GOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We fed the goats last night and discovered that my first doe to kid for the season was in labor. GOOD DEAL!! She had a long labor for #1, needed some help, but a beautiful baby girl (hurray, after last years over abundance of 'worthless" boy babies, this was GREAT!) and after a short rest, #2 BABY GIRL slid right out. Morning Glory was still obviously going to have another baby, and I was concerned that she very likely had 2 more. NOT a common thing for a dairy goat...their babies are pretty big. She rested for quite a while, and after a bit I came in thinking that she'd be fine to finish up. I was exhausted, it was after midnight and I'd been up since 4 AM, oh yes and having traveled 1/2 way around the world, I was not as wide awake as I'd normally be at that hour. I went out to the barn at 6 to discover that my assessment had been correct: 4 babies.
BUT Morning Glory was so exhausted herself, that she gave birth and never tended to the last two babies at all, and in her tired out state, never got back to the healthy ones either. I had 3 beautifully formed and configured baby girls and one handsome little boy, all dead lying next to Morning Glory who was making crying sounds , like mourning. Last night's excitement quickly turned to sadness.
HOW is God good ALL THE TIME in that? IF she'd had these babies a day earlier, my younger children would have had to handle all that, with no knowledge of what if any meds to give the mamma, how to help birth the babies, what to do with the bodies, AND I am sure would have felt an incredible sense of responsibility for the outcome. PRAISE GOD, even though it was home coming day, IT WAS HOME COMING DAY and I was there to tend to it all. Their faces were so sad this morning when I explained what had happened, they went out to see where I'd put the babies and to marvel over how big and beautiful they were, but its a sad start to the day. We only buried Walter the Saint Bernard the day BEFORE I left for Liberia.
My Liberia stories will come, and there are many. IT was a wonderful week with our children, ALL the children, seeing the Atlantic Ocean from that side of the world and splashing in it, singing Lord I lift Your Name on High with the children, teaching them some new songs and hearing them singing those songs throughout the day as they walked and played and ate.........HOW MUCH MORE BLESSED CAN YOU GET?????????? Putting some more of Jesus love into children's hearts and seeing it root and sprout. Seeing our children's faces light up as we arrived at the gate of the home, oh MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But now its time to feed that animals and start school with the kiddos at home who are so glad their mommy and daddy are home, and sad that their new sibs are not.
SO MUCH TO SHARE, SO SO SO much that I am still pondering in my heart
I was so sure I'd start today telling Liberia stories. Instead I am going to work backward with a home story first. GOD IS SO GOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We fed the goats last night and discovered that my first doe to kid for the season was in labor. GOOD DEAL!! She had a long labor for #1, needed some help, but a beautiful baby girl (hurray, after last years over abundance of 'worthless" boy babies, this was GREAT!) and after a short rest, #2 BABY GIRL slid right out. Morning Glory was still obviously going to have another baby, and I was concerned that she very likely had 2 more. NOT a common thing for a dairy goat...their babies are pretty big. She rested for quite a while, and after a bit I came in thinking that she'd be fine to finish up. I was exhausted, it was after midnight and I'd been up since 4 AM, oh yes and having traveled 1/2 way around the world, I was not as wide awake as I'd normally be at that hour. I went out to the barn at 6 to discover that my assessment had been correct: 4 babies.
BUT Morning Glory was so exhausted herself, that she gave birth and never tended to the last two babies at all, and in her tired out state, never got back to the healthy ones either. I had 3 beautifully formed and configured baby girls and one handsome little boy, all dead lying next to Morning Glory who was making crying sounds , like mourning. Last night's excitement quickly turned to sadness.
HOW is God good ALL THE TIME in that? IF she'd had these babies a day earlier, my younger children would have had to handle all that, with no knowledge of what if any meds to give the mamma, how to help birth the babies, what to do with the bodies, AND I am sure would have felt an incredible sense of responsibility for the outcome. PRAISE GOD, even though it was home coming day, IT WAS HOME COMING DAY and I was there to tend to it all. Their faces were so sad this morning when I explained what had happened, they went out to see where I'd put the babies and to marvel over how big and beautiful they were, but its a sad start to the day. We only buried Walter the Saint Bernard the day BEFORE I left for Liberia.
My Liberia stories will come, and there are many. IT was a wonderful week with our children, ALL the children, seeing the Atlantic Ocean from that side of the world and splashing in it, singing Lord I lift Your Name on High with the children, teaching them some new songs and hearing them singing those songs throughout the day as they walked and played and ate.........HOW MUCH MORE BLESSED CAN YOU GET?????????? Putting some more of Jesus love into children's hearts and seeing it root and sprout. Seeing our children's faces light up as we arrived at the gate of the home, oh MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But now its time to feed that animals and start school with the kiddos at home who are so glad their mommy and daddy are home, and sad that their new sibs are not.
SO MUCH TO SHARE, SO SO SO much that I am still pondering in my heart
Thursday, March 19, 2009
This took DAYS to create!!
We are in Liberia, it is amazing, it is AFRICA and that means that internet is something to not even think you should take for granted, add to that , you should be very grateful for electricity:be it from a huge power grid or a gas powered generator!!! I love Africa! The people are wonderful, the country of Lberia, while very poor particularly compared to US standards, is so very beautiful and I am so very much excited to be here experiencing the sites, the people and how God brought together a group of people from across the country to come to Liberia this month of March to work on an incredible constrciton project for our orphanage, but bigger still, for the town of Marshal, Liberia! God is at work, most of what He is doing we can not see with our human eyes.In fact ,most of what we'd like to see is no where near visible, BUT GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have had amazing fellowship together, although we all just met over the course of the past 4 days................GOD KNEW we needed it, needed to meet each other, and had gifts and talents and abilities to pool for the Kingdom, and the Body. Add to that , we have been at the orphanage every day since our arrival with ou children and almost 60 other precious children, their incredible care takers, and we have had an awesome time, well it just doesn't get much better than that!! We miss our home life so much, I miss my other children beyond experlatives, but this has been a week that defies verbage, despite all of my adjectives. They do not do justice to our week!
Ok so I now have learned to truly plait African hair, and do it right , and it is just about pretty ( I am not nearly as adept as the experienced young woman who does the girls hair each day and who very graciously and patiently is teaching me, and so my ends are not braided down to the very very ends of the hair like hers are, but oh my!! They are much better than what idid yesterday! I did my daughter's hair in bout 25 little braids, and she showed it off to all the girls! Yesterday she picked at it. Yesterday I got my hair cornrowed and it is so fun! The little girls pulled it all out today so I got it done all over again as well. Two of the other ladies in our team were with us today andthey too got really cool corn rows. Charlie was kept very busy playing soccer with all the boys (our Junior JOSIAH LEVI!!) is very good by the way , but s are several of the boys!) nd with folding paper into airplanes. The kids had a great time with all of that. I took a bottle of red nail polish with me today and I polished all the fingers and toes of all the girls in the orphanage, maybe 35 girls? I really prayed over that bottle of polish becaue it was not new or unused, asking God to please increase the contents if need by like He did the widow's oil for Elijah, and the contents lasted right up till the last repair job!! The girls tried to coax some more out for an additonal coating, but there was not enough! WHAT FUN THAT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did discover though that IF I sit through 70 mani-pedis AND right after that plait a whole head of hair while not drinking any water in the 90+ degree Liberian mid-day ,my feet begin to swell like water balloons!!Fortunately a good elevation and a walk around the grounds pretty much remedied the pufiness, but so did the wonderul foot massage given me, which BLESSED ME, by one young lady with us who is an Occupatonal Thereapist once we got back home to our rented house. We feasted on fresh banana and pineapple for supper......simply YUMMY!
Each morning we stop at a convenince store by our house and we each buy a 6 pack of 1.5 liter bottles of wter for the days' consumption, and we need and ue jsut about every drop!
So I started trying to catch up on some email at 11:30 Liberian time, its 12:52 AM now and all I was able to do was this post and the computer is telling me tht I may not even be connected any more. LET'S SEE IF I CAN POST!!! One of the men on our team, also a blogspot member got caught up in the same Arabic script on his blog but he figured out how to circumvent it and after successfully posting to his blog he got me through the language laraynth!
NOT sure what all tomorrow holds but we could use some fervent prayer warriors to hold ou project up before the Father for a Jericho wall, parting the Red Sea or the Jordan River touch of God's hand tomorrow for the very project we ccame to work on!
So thankful for ALL God has blessed us with this week, including the chance to meet face to face this group of people we are here with, for our precious new children and for all God is teaching us on this journey, On TOP of all the bountious blessings we enjoy at home!
Praying for all of you from Liberia!!
We have had amazing fellowship together, although we all just met over the course of the past 4 days................GOD KNEW we needed it, needed to meet each other, and had gifts and talents and abilities to pool for the Kingdom, and the Body. Add to that , we have been at the orphanage every day since our arrival with ou children and almost 60 other precious children, their incredible care takers, and we have had an awesome time, well it just doesn't get much better than that!! We miss our home life so much, I miss my other children beyond experlatives, but this has been a week that defies verbage, despite all of my adjectives. They do not do justice to our week!
Ok so I now have learned to truly plait African hair, and do it right , and it is just about pretty ( I am not nearly as adept as the experienced young woman who does the girls hair each day and who very graciously and patiently is teaching me, and so my ends are not braided down to the very very ends of the hair like hers are, but oh my!! They are much better than what idid yesterday! I did my daughter's hair in bout 25 little braids, and she showed it off to all the girls! Yesterday she picked at it. Yesterday I got my hair cornrowed and it is so fun! The little girls pulled it all out today so I got it done all over again as well. Two of the other ladies in our team were with us today andthey too got really cool corn rows. Charlie was kept very busy playing soccer with all the boys (our Junior JOSIAH LEVI!!) is very good by the way , but s are several of the boys!) nd with folding paper into airplanes. The kids had a great time with all of that. I took a bottle of red nail polish with me today and I polished all the fingers and toes of all the girls in the orphanage, maybe 35 girls? I really prayed over that bottle of polish becaue it was not new or unused, asking God to please increase the contents if need by like He did the widow's oil for Elijah, and the contents lasted right up till the last repair job!! The girls tried to coax some more out for an additonal coating, but there was not enough! WHAT FUN THAT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did discover though that IF I sit through 70 mani-pedis AND right after that plait a whole head of hair while not drinking any water in the 90+ degree Liberian mid-day ,my feet begin to swell like water balloons!!Fortunately a good elevation and a walk around the grounds pretty much remedied the pufiness, but so did the wonderul foot massage given me, which BLESSED ME, by one young lady with us who is an Occupatonal Thereapist once we got back home to our rented house. We feasted on fresh banana and pineapple for supper......simply YUMMY!
Each morning we stop at a convenince store by our house and we each buy a 6 pack of 1.5 liter bottles of wter for the days' consumption, and we need and ue jsut about every drop!
So I started trying to catch up on some email at 11:30 Liberian time, its 12:52 AM now and all I was able to do was this post and the computer is telling me tht I may not even be connected any more. LET'S SEE IF I CAN POST!!! One of the men on our team, also a blogspot member got caught up in the same Arabic script on his blog but he figured out how to circumvent it and after successfully posting to his blog he got me through the language laraynth!
NOT sure what all tomorrow holds but we could use some fervent prayer warriors to hold ou project up before the Father for a Jericho wall, parting the Red Sea or the Jordan River touch of God's hand tomorrow for the very project we ccame to work on!
So thankful for ALL God has blessed us with this week, including the chance to meet face to face this group of people we are here with, for our precious new children and for all God is teaching us on this journey, On TOP of all the bountious blessings we enjoy at home!
Praying for all of you from Liberia!!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
More from our trip....
God has been so faithful on this trip!! I don't even think I had time to post how God provided all the funds for our trip and how we are rejoicing in that!! If you could just guest write for me thatwould be so super!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amos and Pastor Paul are wonderful and gifted men! Paul has a testimony that just brings you to your knees, or me to my knees anyhow...............our children are in good care with him! He drove Charlie and me from the airport so we got to get to know him and he is amazing in his story and his walk with the Lord!
NO idea when adoptions will reopen, but the dedication of Jeremy and Kami and several others to getting the new facility moving is inspiring! The ministry mess is frustrating but they hold firm! I am optimistic over the meeting with the Senator last night. She is an amazing woman, who holds a lot of clout as a senior senator.
Better go. The kids are done with school for now so we can play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amos and Pastor Paul are wonderful and gifted men! Paul has a testimony that just brings you to your knees, or me to my knees anyhow...............our children are in good care with him! He drove Charlie and me from the airport so we got to get to know him and he is amazing in his story and his walk with the Lord!
NO idea when adoptions will reopen, but the dedication of Jeremy and Kami and several others to getting the new facility moving is inspiring! The ministry mess is frustrating but they hold firm! I am optimistic over the meeting with the Senator last night. She is an amazing woman, who holds a lot of clout as a senior senator.
Better go. The kids are done with school for now so we can play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are HERE!!!!!!!!
We are here! It is amazing and beautiful and Junior and Diamoh are so precious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for your prayers! I let everyone else take their turns with the computer and the internet, and by my turn every day so far, I got the generator failing, the internet failing, AOL not booting up, and my blog being translated into ARABIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can' get logged in to my blog yet, but I am hoping to do that this moring. We are 5 hours ahead of OK time, so its 6:30 at home and almost lunch time here.
It has been an amazing experience thus far.
Junior and Diamoh "fit" our family perfectly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! think athletic slender boys with big smiles and little girls who love to play dolls more than sports. Junior is about Isaiah's size, but more slender, he seems older than Isaiah, but I am not quite sure why just yet. Diamoh is more like a 5 year old than an almost 7 year old. Their English is not very English most of hte time!!!! They understand far more of my wordds than I do theirs and the nannies speak to them in Liberian dialects I do not understand or speak a syllable of!
The orphanage is basic, but clean and the children are very well loved and in the presence of Godly care givers. I LOVE how they pray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have takne a lot of photos, and Junior has comandeered the camera a number of times, showing us ththe has a very good eye and knack for photography. We teased him abot his first photos which all had a thumb in them, but he is quite good.
Diamoh is very attached to me already, as is Junior. Junior and Chalrie and the other boys have played soccer and Amercian football, but it is Mommy's hugs they want. Leaving the children's home every afternoon is so very hard. We wold love to be able totake the hilren with us but since we have no adoption decree, that is not possible. The children both have cried pretty hard. Diamoh actually got sick yesterday ; she was so upset tht we had to go. I am thinking it toreopen old wounds from last year when the birth parents left them. It has helped enormoulsy that we have said we would come back, and every day we have. Junior has a smile which can light up a very dark and spacious place. That smile in the day time because we are arriving is more than a mamma-heart can almost absorb. The first day we came, the moment we got out tofthe car, they both knew immediately who we were and came running ! OH my heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They did not know we were coming but our faces from our photos were so familiar there was no question!! i discovered that Diamoh would not smile in her earlier photos because she was embarrassed over her toothless smile!!! Her smile is beautfiful, toothless or not, but now she flashes it quickly!
The school teacher is handing out the new notebooks we brought and the kids are having a ball with new things.
We brought a lot of kites for the kids to fly but there has been no wind so ar to try them out. WE do have bottles and bottles of bubbles which are a huge hit.
There are 60 children here, 30 something of them have familes to whom they are matched. There are several very special needs babies as well as children from toddler age to about 13. They are all so precious and so loving. They would all pretty much sit and let me hug them all day if I would sit there, AND if Diamoh would let anyone else on my lap for any amount of time. She went into a pout yesterday when I held anotehr little girl. She didn't mindwhen I held a sick one and gave her a sponge bath to help break her fever, but when another little girl who was not sick took DIAMOH'S SPOT, she went off in a pout, hoping I'd come after her..............That was interesting. She was not too keen on my blowing bubbles with the other children either. Reading tons of books or leading songs, COOL.she was in my lap or next to me. Standing without a hand on her?? NOT COOL! More pout. We had a couple talks about that, but I totally understand. HER MOMMY was there, ...for HER!
We ate dinner last night at an awesome beach front reataurant and wathced the sun set on the Atlantic, waded in very strong undertow nad throroughly enjoyed our surroundings! Liberia 's climate and foliage are identical to Cambodia, South Vietnam and SW Louisiana or the Miami Florida areas...very beautiful!
The house we are renting is owned by an attorney and rented to an NGO , but empty right now so the NGO was glad to rent it to us. Weare with a group of others from our agency, and the fellowship and the shared passion for adoption and for furthering the Kingdom is wonderful!
we both have many stories to tell when we get home!!
Other than missing the chidren and friends at home, this is a perfectly wonderful trip, well that and if we could bring Junior and Diamoh home too, that is!
I will write again as long as the internet and generator stayup!
Love to all
Linda
Thank you for your prayers! I let everyone else take their turns with the computer and the internet, and by my turn every day so far, I got the generator failing, the internet failing, AOL not booting up, and my blog being translated into ARABIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can' get logged in to my blog yet, but I am hoping to do that this moring. We are 5 hours ahead of OK time, so its 6:30 at home and almost lunch time here.
It has been an amazing experience thus far.
Junior and Diamoh "fit" our family perfectly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! think athletic slender boys with big smiles and little girls who love to play dolls more than sports. Junior is about Isaiah's size, but more slender, he seems older than Isaiah, but I am not quite sure why just yet. Diamoh is more like a 5 year old than an almost 7 year old. Their English is not very English most of hte time!!!! They understand far more of my wordds than I do theirs and the nannies speak to them in Liberian dialects I do not understand or speak a syllable of!
The orphanage is basic, but clean and the children are very well loved and in the presence of Godly care givers. I LOVE how they pray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have takne a lot of photos, and Junior has comandeered the camera a number of times, showing us ththe has a very good eye and knack for photography. We teased him abot his first photos which all had a thumb in them, but he is quite good.
Diamoh is very attached to me already, as is Junior. Junior and Chalrie and the other boys have played soccer and Amercian football, but it is Mommy's hugs they want. Leaving the children's home every afternoon is so very hard. We wold love to be able totake the hilren with us but since we have no adoption decree, that is not possible. The children both have cried pretty hard. Diamoh actually got sick yesterday ; she was so upset tht we had to go. I am thinking it toreopen old wounds from last year when the birth parents left them. It has helped enormoulsy that we have said we would come back, and every day we have. Junior has a smile which can light up a very dark and spacious place. That smile in the day time because we are arriving is more than a mamma-heart can almost absorb. The first day we came, the moment we got out tofthe car, they both knew immediately who we were and came running ! OH my heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They did not know we were coming but our faces from our photos were so familiar there was no question!! i discovered that Diamoh would not smile in her earlier photos because she was embarrassed over her toothless smile!!! Her smile is beautfiful, toothless or not, but now she flashes it quickly!
The school teacher is handing out the new notebooks we brought and the kids are having a ball with new things.
We brought a lot of kites for the kids to fly but there has been no wind so ar to try them out. WE do have bottles and bottles of bubbles which are a huge hit.
There are 60 children here, 30 something of them have familes to whom they are matched. There are several very special needs babies as well as children from toddler age to about 13. They are all so precious and so loving. They would all pretty much sit and let me hug them all day if I would sit there, AND if Diamoh would let anyone else on my lap for any amount of time. She went into a pout yesterday when I held anotehr little girl. She didn't mindwhen I held a sick one and gave her a sponge bath to help break her fever, but when another little girl who was not sick took DIAMOH'S SPOT, she went off in a pout, hoping I'd come after her..............That was interesting. She was not too keen on my blowing bubbles with the other children either. Reading tons of books or leading songs, COOL.she was in my lap or next to me. Standing without a hand on her?? NOT COOL! More pout. We had a couple talks about that, but I totally understand. HER MOMMY was there, ...for HER!
We ate dinner last night at an awesome beach front reataurant and wathced the sun set on the Atlantic, waded in very strong undertow nad throroughly enjoyed our surroundings! Liberia 's climate and foliage are identical to Cambodia, South Vietnam and SW Louisiana or the Miami Florida areas...very beautiful!
The house we are renting is owned by an attorney and rented to an NGO , but empty right now so the NGO was glad to rent it to us. Weare with a group of others from our agency, and the fellowship and the shared passion for adoption and for furthering the Kingdom is wonderful!
we both have many stories to tell when we get home!!
Other than missing the chidren and friends at home, this is a perfectly wonderful trip, well that and if we could bring Junior and Diamoh home too, that is!
I will write again as long as the internet and generator stayup!
Love to all
Linda
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