I apologize for this being so long getting out. Our time with our little Rose is an every day changing time and it's hard to keep up with her past as we go so quickly forward... praise be to God ! Forward...ahh... her past is so passing. Yea ! goes my soul while not forgetting at the same time. I have taken much time to pray, pray , fast even and pray again in regards to this post. After time in a fast, I decided even to seek council from a dear friend who is involved deeply in adoption and all to familiar with the surprises, blessings and hurts these journey's of surrendering can bring. After her council, I have decided to share some photos and ..with a sad heart.. with hold MOST of Naomi's story..the details... the juicy .."you're not gonna believe what God did" stuff... WHY? .. i know ! This is the stuff that NEEDS to be heard and seen ..BUT .. NEVER at the cost of the gospel, someone's job and the blessings of someone else receiving the goodness that i did in China. Just gotta trust me... God shocked me and a handful of people the ENTIRE time ! 

So... here are some photos... a million more to come as i can post them. We are about to move again here in the D. R. for the THIRD ( yuck! ) time this coming Thursday and so there is so much to post about that is happening in our every day. My thoughts are to throw out some photos today...prayerfully the internet will work ( most of the time it doesn't ) and i'll throw some more out tomorrow and then on with life and ministry here in the D. R. 

....... and so....  

Signing TONS of papers at the place where i was to receive our little Rosie. 

Getting my hands on our Naomi Rose for the very first time... hilarious little fact for ya... i HATE angry birds... i NEVER have gotten the attraction to it... what does she come to me with as her ONLY toy..yep ~ an angry bird window sticky thing.... uggg. Hilarious... her only attraction to it at the end of the day was the sucker part that adheres to the window ...and so what did this angry bird hating mama do ? I cut the bird , gave it to the house keeper and passed the sucker on to my beloved... problem solved...happy mama...happy girl . 

this is where her story gets tricky.... the short of it is ... when i received our littlest, i was handed a very wounded child. I was told that she couldn't walk for long periods of time, she can't go potty, she only eats rice, she doesn't drink anything, she cannot feed herself, she may not hear, she has never spoken a single word, she never hits anyone or herself and she is attached to no one and no one is attached to her....
( silence and LOTS of tears fell at these painful words)
a miracle of enormous proportions occurred.
We left...
Finally... together at last.
Mother and Daughter...
Healing Rain literally fell from the sky ... i knew without a doubt that God had spared my life for this child and this child had been spared for my life.
the details... the challenges... belong to God.
I am TOTALLY at peace with this.
Everything
is
miraculous.

checking me out ... :) 

trying to escape..no chance girly girl... you are LOVED passionately for the first time in your life...
no chance i'm letting you go. 

Our Rosie loves her thumb. 

photo of the Healing Rain that fell from the sky as we left the center. A more appropriate exit could not have been arranged. Rain falling .... washing away the stench of a sketchy and painful past... only to dry and make a fresh spot for LIVING . 

Just to end on a smiley note and a happier spot in the trip... while rain fell outside we headed to WalMart of all places... riding the escalator up into one of the largest WalMarts i've ever personally been in :)
New places... New days.....
more to come .... :) 

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.