Random thoughts...

I am doing a great woman's bible study right now. It's , "He speaks to me." It's about listening and obeying when God speaks to you. So many times He has said to me, "Be still." I am learning.
This season of my life seems to be a busy one. We are in the adoption process, we are looking for land or hobby farm, we are expecting three crias (baby alpacas), I will start homeschooling my 6th grader in the next few weeks, continuing to be challenged through parenting my daughter with cognative disabilities, and having my oldest son being a senior this year and starting to see less and less of him!! Some days are hard, but each day I know His blessings continue flowing on us, no matter what we are in the midst of.
Waiting on Josiah Blessings adoption process, has been a little easeir than the first time we went through this with our girls. The girls' room was completely ready for them, 7 months before they got home. I haven't even started tackling organizing Blessings things yet. I guess since he's a baby, it's a little different.

Since school has started, Love, our 4 y.o., is the only one home with mommy right now. So her strong willed personality, is getting a little adjustment from me! She's doing a lot better! She will proably always be a loud, outspoken little girl! Maybe a wrestler too! She gets down with her 12 y.o. brother and gets pretty agressive!!
My 7 y.o. daughter has been regressing a bit with her language. Sometimes her sentences are more like a 2 y.o. Some examples..."Mom, I held Love in." Translation..."mom, I carried Love in the house." Another one..."Mom, what number was I?" Translation..."Mom, how old was I?" Here's one that I had no idea what she was talking about..."what went in and in yesterday?" She also loves to use the word "thing" for words she gets too lazy to think about. We are trying to eliminate THAT word!
Even though she is 7.5 years, her articulation seems to be taking a back seat also. It's really hard for her when there is so much going on in her world, that she forgets to articulate so others can understand her. She is also one that getting her attention, or her to stop moving body parts to listen is getting harder. As she is growing, her disability is becoming more of an issue. Just yesterday I was playing tic tac toe with her. Four times she made the exact same moves, and I made the same exact same moves to win each time. Okay, I wasn't being the mean mom that should let her child win, I was trying to get her to "think" about the next move to try to stop me. She has not gotten to the point where she can think like that yet. Believe me, we are really trying to stimulate her brain in so many ways to get her to work those brain cells. Sometimes we see a little hope. Most times, we don't. She is doing great in school. She has a great LD teacher, speech, OT and a few other specialist that fit in her day. We have no idea what her future holds, we don't see her able to function alone as an adult. A group home seems to be more of a fit. And if you think that she is aware of her 4 y.o. sister knowing more than her, she's not. At least not yet, that may change. I'm hoping it doesnt because it will only make her more aware of her differences. She has come to understand that mom and dad have "special" rules just for her. She's okay with that. She has had too many accidents and knows that pain comes from not listening to us for her safety! (helmet for everything, no running on driveway, no bare feet outside, no necklaces on exept for church, etc. It's a long list)!
I wanted to give you a glimse of our daily life with a "special" child. It may seem like a lot. And, it was in the beginning when we were trying to adjust to parenting her, but now it's just part of our routine. It doesn't feel like it's any more work than the other kids. It's taken over three years to get the flow, but I think we are settled into it now. I truly love her to death, as much as I love my other kids. We love our kids differently, that's it!

I feel like I should be preparing myself for another little one that may be here by the end of the year. But I have so much peace about this adoption, I'm not worrying about it! He will fit, he will bring joy and laughter to our family. God has given me such peace, He wants me to believe in a miracle that He has for us. His timing is perfect! I can't wait to hold our little one!

August pics

This is such a cute pic or our Alex, who will be 8 this week.
These are pics taken at "Higher Ground" Christian Music Festival. We decorated our camper. The kids had a ball painting all over. You can't see all of it, but we had all our names and hand prints all over, the Haitian, American and Liberian flags painted all over too!


Waiting for Toby Mac!!

Praying...

I haven't posted lately due to my heart being so heavy for Liberia. There are a handful of families that are going through such turmoil during this adoption process. Liberia is going through a positive change, "God changes." Satan is not liking this, so he is firing back! We can stand here and not do anything, or we can PRAY! Covering Liberia, it's people and the hope that they have, in prayer. Protecting them from the evil one, letting God prevail and be glorified.
I cannot imagine the thought of losing our Josiah to "red tape." But that is exactly what some families are going through. Some children are even at risk to lose their precious lives due to satans hold on their family members. Some children just lose the battle for their life due to lack of medical supplies and care.
I realize that it is so hard to imagine a country that lacks the simplest things...clean water wells, basic nutrition, access to medical care, education! Yet, Liberians lack these "basic essentials" that we so often take for granted!
Acres of Hope is trying to change this. They provide feeding programs, medical care, schooling. They are increasing the programs to reach more people, including building a new hospital and school, possibly in the very near future.
Acres of hope is also the only orphanage that can and will take "special needs" children. So many of these children are considered "cursed," bringing curses to tribal villages if they have deformities. I can't imagine!!!
Please, if you have a few minutes in your day to pray for Liberia, please, please do!
Praying for the children especially. They are completely innocent! Prayer is a wonderful shield against the enemy!

New pics of Josiah!!!