Hmmmm...

What has the Hoffman household been like lately? Uhmmm, busy!!
After spending about two months being physically ill from different things, I am finally feeling healthy again! Thank God!
Last weeks sermon at church was about, "leaving a legacy." I love this! This is so dear to my heart! I want my children to grow up with compassionate hearts, a desire to help others, and to love God more than anything! Being a family of adoption is such a wonderful way to teach this. So many days have such great teaching moments. We openly talk about our girls' conditions when they came to the orphanage. How healthy they are now, how much their little brains are learning. Even though Edline has a cognative disability, she is my most compassionate child toward orphans. This became apparent when we started talking about adopting again. It's a wonderful thing to see! Another beautiful breakthrough we have has with Edline, is...drum roll please...SHE IS STARTING TO READ!!! This is just huge!!!! For a year we have been working with sight words. This has not worked for Edline, mostly due to her lack of memory recall. Well, this year she is in the LD (learning disability) class instead of the CD (cognative disability) class. They started working on only the sounds of the letters, then learning how to connect the sounds, and she has started reading 1-3 letter words this way. Granted, she seems to have to sounds out every single letter, each and every time. But, she has finally gotten this concept and is loving this!! We are so proud of her! All her teachers are just amazed at her growth! We cannot go down the school hall without someone stopping us and telling us how much they love Edline!
Conferences were this past week. We have excellent reports ACROSS THE BOARD on all our kids! All our kids have the same reports..."very pleasant to have in class." Anthony's last day in the middle school was a bit busy with the whole 6th grade class swarming him, going to miss his presence. I am such a proud momma!
I started homeschooling Anthony this week. What a great start! He loves it! I am really going to enjoy this time with him. I really feel that he will learn so much more this way, and not have the pressures that middle school puts on these kids.
We did get an official "orphan report" this week from Donna at Acres of Hope. This gives us a good idea on how Blessing is doing. It sounds like he is a bit spoiled and very opinionated! Oh he will fit so well in our family! He loves being held, ALL THE TIME, fed A LOT, and does not like a dirty diaper! It sounds like he will be a big boy. I think he is already bigger than when we brought Love home from the orpanage three years ago. (She was the size of a 5 month old, at 18 months of age). He is in a size 2 shoe already! I can't wait to hold my little baby boy!

God has been really working on me in several areas. He is so faithful and loving. So many times I feel the need to "do what I want." He stops me and diverts my path to be alligned with where He wants me to go.

I have an image that appears in my head so many times. It's not a dream, it's how my heart yearns to help orphans. Here it is... I am walking along a dirt road, by myself. I come across a child that is looking at me with empty eyes, this childs body is nothing but bones, sometimes this child has a severe deformity, a child that this place would call..."cursed" or not "worthy" of a life. So many times I see people just walking right past this child, sometimes they are business professionals on their way to work to earn enough to have that expensive car or house. Sometimes they are moms, just driving by to get to their childs soccer game. But, I don't walk by, I go to this child with a heart that wants to heal them, love them, rescue them. This is where the image ends, but the thoughts of the "other " people make me so angry. Okay, so in our regular lives, here in this very rich country, people may not see or imagine this image. But there are so many opportunities to help others. It may be a homeless person, it may be to sponsor a chid, it may be to mentor. There are so many ways to just be Jesus to others. I know that my heart is for the orphans. I truly want to be Jesus to these beautiful gifts that God created. I'm sure God weeps when people pass by these Jesus situations. I know I don't want to cause my God to weep! I want Him to say to me, "well done my good and faithfull servant."