Bringing Home Our Rose.... One Day at a Time...

Yes. 

We have our precious, lovely, loving, rescued... Naomi Rose. 

18 months and 2 days travel.

 I received her on a rainy Monday afternoon in Guangzhou, China. 

She is a treasure that has been hidden in a orphanage on the other side of the world for FOUR years. 

She has survived much. 

Honestly, she still shocks me with her personal challenges and her recovery from it all. 

She has a long way to go... her abilities and personality are only glimpses right now... glimpses with teary gasps of a very painful past. 

These post will have to come slowly. I want to say so much and yet... i have so much that i may not should say... or maybe i should. 

Bear with me if you would and I am committed to share it ...just as Naomi is sharing herself with us all... one day at a time. 

precious friend and sister in Christ, Lynn, who HATES to fly but would not hear of me traveling alone. She is a mom with 4 girls of her own. On THANKSGIVING day she left her family to fly farther than she has ever flown...just so that i would not have to walk this road alone. 

Such love the Father lavishes on us... his love for us, my sweet family. Last May HE  led us to a home in Social  Circle that we had NEVER even heard of the family who opened their home to us for 6 months while they traveled. We fell in love with them and they with us and so was born ... my "travel buddy " :) 

There was the flight from Atlanta to Tokyo

Tokyo to Hong Kong

a train ride from Hong Kong to China

a Starbucks sign that so perfectly fit the timing it HAD to be photoed 

2 sisters on a train with 2 VERY large pieces of luggage , a squatty potty,  riding BACKWARDS on a train bound for China. This MAY not EVER happen again... then again.... well, that's part of the story that I'm still processing. 

FINALLY ... China.
Wet.
Cold.
Our place to live for the next 14 days.
TEMPORARY home for Naomi Rose.

Only 2 days to wait.. so much to see while we wait.
China is truly lovely to me. 

places like this. bridges over rivers that have been holding up Christian brothers and sisters for decades.
yes. the gospel of Jesus Christ is THERE and growing. 

This is another LOVELY sight in Guangzhou. Coffee for a weary traveler and anxious mommy to be.

Where I'm going and WHO's coming back with me....

so inquisitive

We saw her sweet little face on the evening of Mothers Day 2011

oh my..... those cheeks ! 

Christmas 2011... wow...glasses 

those sweet little cheeks again...ugg...time was moving so slowly

Mothers Day gift 2012...a couple of vision questions starting to show themselves answered :) 

yep...our girly is going to need lots of help in the eyesight department :)

We received new photos and medical reports of our sweet Naomi Rose just before coming to the DR. Honestly, I've had to sit back and swallow them....I'm never really sure how the whole blog world works and so i'm not going to post her current photos... i'll be posting A TON in ONE WEEK .... but our little one is a very hurting girl. They have also shaven her head and at 4 yrs old AND being a girl ...well, let me just leave it for you to fill in the big blanks and the big gaps of no words..... i'm just sad for her.
BUT....
I leave TODAY for Atlanta, then to Tokyo , a couple of days in Hong Kong and then I'll land in China.... I'll be posting as much as possible and fb is blocked there so i won't be leaving word on that space... Please keep us in your prayers.... Naomi especially.... i'm going ROOT diggin' .... taking my sweet girl from the roots of the only soil she's known... it won't be easy...and I'm praying for some tears to come ...that she'll feel something so that we can process anything that she needs too in order to be healthy to have a true sense that SHE BELONGS !!!!
Oh my.... do i have butterflies today... !
I am one lucky girl ! THANK YOU GOD for choosing me.. for choosing us.... this family for this precious treasure...otherwise hidden from us but you CHOSE us for her ! Hallelujah ! Glory to you alone Lord for you are GOOD...... ALL of the TIME!
amen !!!!!
(more to come ........ ) 

Grayson...

Grayson doing her thing :) 

I have had this blog ready to go for a week or so now... no words... just beautiful red background and a great title that speaks my passion for the time spent here on earth.. in just a matter of 2 weeks life has popped with change... good, amazing, challenging, delicious, slow, steady, sandy change. Some of it has come gracefully and other chunks have come with tears and other parts in tides that wash up on the beach of our newer view of the world..a view from a new country.

So all of that to say... a first post... where to start ? what to say ? how do i begin sharing with you the life that we are living? how to make sense of what sometimes makes no sense to me ? :) ..... my girl.

I flipped through photos of our time here in the Dominican... only 2 weeks we've been here. And i saw her. Grayson. My sweet sweet daughter who allows God to stretch her to FAR FAR places in life. She is at an age when friends are driving, dating, living an "American" teen life and she is living a life with ( for now ) few friends..none here in her new spot of the world (yet ), living in a 2 bedroom, VERY small apartment with 3 younger siblings, sleeping on a pull out couch with her sister, using a computer for school that is OLD as the HILL and eating food that she would never choose to eat because her mother ( me) is needing to default to starchy, sandwhichy kinds of things because i still don't know what so many foody things are here yet...... i could go on but really...why ? She really is just amazing ! She is stunning.... yes, her beauty that God has allowed her is breathtaking but her look on life and her respect and honor for the Lord and her parents is ..... wow... just to be beheld and worthy of starting a blog with just her ...doing her thing... she loves to sew... she's amazing at it... she is beautiful doing it...
So... here we go... a new blog ...a beautiful daughter.... an amazing talent that she has that i hope to show more of with you.... a sunny calm morning here on the island ....

Thank you to each of you who are considering following this family of 6 ( VERY soon to be 7 ..more on that over the weekend ) .... who are serving the Lord in the Dominican Republic... trying our very best to bring LOVE to LIFE in our place in the sand... :)

Peace and good tidings to each of you ( a little Christmas music going in the background today ) . We love each of you...yep, even the ones of you we have no idea of who you are....you too. You ARE loved... YOU are VALUABLE ... YOU... were created for love and to live it out !  ,
M. E.