C.R.A.Z.Y.....

wow... our life here is C. R. A. Z. Y.... crazy busy, crazy different, crazy stretching, crazy amounts of opportunity to do life in ministry mode, crazy labor intensive.... just crazy. I keep thinking that i will have the time to catch up on this blog... update our Rosie "stuff" , our ministry "stuff" and life is FLYING by... there are a million funny things and things of huge importance that are happening and you are missing them all .... because I'm waiting ...waiting on time, waiting on the "right" way to say something, waiting on the internet :) ..... and so I have decided the easiest thing is just to start loading photos and give a brief info tag and move on... 

Here it goes... LOTS of photos....  

Our home in the Dominican... just moving in... LOTS of work to do :) 

Banana tress in our yard

coconut trees too.

our windows have bars and little slats of glass that we roll up during the night ... we have also put screens on these to keep all of the million miscitoes out during the night

my kitchen sink... this is where I wash dishes AND ALL of our clothes ! whew ! 

I have to laugh at this one... it is a picture of our stove and our refrigerator ... both of which were GONE the day we moved in unannounced to us :) 

God kept a very cool little swing from a coconut tree in the back yard for play

backyard...just the frame on the trampoline much to my joy... no thank you on the trampoline... i have NO idea where the hospital is yet for any broken bones :) 

it DOES double as a GREAT laundry line though :) 

these are the windows being taped up with screen to keep bugs and "other" guest out... :) 

I was so very overwhelmed when we first moved in to our home...i still am on many days quite honestly.. it is very labor intensive as i've mentioned and i'm just not ( was not ) skilled in eating from the cuff, (no stove OR refrigerator) , no power, no water on many days (usually on the days,  so far, when sweet Rosie has poopy diapers) , no car to venture out ..... just when i needed a word from the Lord on the vision of such living for me ... Eli ran in and shouted that he had found this heart shaped rock in our back yard.... THANK YOU LORD ! You DO hear the cries of your people and CARE for us WELL ~ I am CERTAIN that you love us all

this man QUICKLY became SUPERMAN.... aka ...inverter guy..

i didn't even know what an inverter was until i met this man..... it is a HUGELY important GIFT given to us by several people from the states.... it basically means that in 90 degree weather  at night .... we can have AIR via FANS...ahhhhhh! 

this is the inverter.... it also makes coffee, fans work , lights come on and our computers charge..... NO ONE TOUCHES the inverter :) 

travel buddy visits the DR ..... with her sweet husband... they came with lots of goodies and encouragement. Notice to the monkey in the background :) 

Our version of the "Walton's " dinner table.... 

Grayson preparing popcorn for her English class that she has going on Saturdays. 

kids leaving school in our community

Veggie and fruit vendor in our neighborhood

Rosie goes NOWHERE without her sunglasses... TWO pair are always better  

Lynn's husband giving a try at getting down a coconut.... he did it ! 

David and Lynn... fun! 

my Valentines' Day present slash campfire coffee time with Dave.... sweetness. 

We enjoyed our Valentines Day coffee served in our Starbucks coffee mugs...each one is from the country where our boys are living... Cooper in Guatemala and Jacob in Denver, USA

Grayson began her English class this past Saturday with two students... so sweet . They showed up giving her a Valentines day bear..... 

.....30 minutes into her class of 2 , 13 more children walked up the hill with one mother who also attended class... we were all BLESSED beyond measure at the turn out... everyone saying that they had a blast and will return next week. yea~
whew...LOTS of photos... more to come...as i said...LOTS going on here... LOTS of ministry , life and blessing....
adios for now....

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 ........ )