Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

Today is Gracie's 1st Birthday! Can not believe she is one, where oh, where does time go! She is sweet, and happy little girl. Learning to stand up and hold on, won't be long and she will be walking. She is saying a few things, mama, dada, baba (bottle) and b for Bo. She is still content and easy going, loves to wrestle with Bo and loves to belly laugh. She is now drinking whole milk and eating all table food. Gracie has 4 teeth (2 on top, 2 on bottom). We will celebrate her birthday on Sunday with family!

Love those baby legs!


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Guatemala Update...

A little update on our journey with Guatemala. Today I got two EXCITING/ PRAISE emails, first one came from Debbie A who is the missionary in Guatemala, last night they got to share with the couple who they feel are the ones who may adopt the baby. The couple is so excited but also a little hesitant in some sense. Six years ago this couple was to adopt a little baby from a young mother and at the last minute the mother decided to keep the child, they were heart broken and don’t want to be put in that situation again. We know that God has a plan and we sure are praying that this couple will get to take this little girl as their own! What a praise it will be for all involved if this couple gets to start a family with children in just 4 short weeks!
My second email today came from Mirna (pastors wife), I had emailed her at the beginning of the day to just make sure to let her know that we are still planning on paying for the delivery if the need is/was still needed. Norma (mother) is to have another dr. appt this week and was just checking on that. Mirna emailed me back to let me know a few things and said that Norma was very sad that we were not going to be able to bring the baby home with us. Which was my exact fear! Mirna reassured her that God has a plan and that this little girl will have a good home. She also said that Norma has started to attend church in her village! What a blessing, we pray that God would open her heart to him!!
We are so thankful to continue to find God is still working hard for this baby girl. I am so excited that my friend Teresa and I are planning a trip to Guatemala the 1st of July for a few days. I can’t wait to get there and see everyone that we have been communicating with in Guatemala and then to meet this PRECIOUS baby girl!!! Oh how I can’t wait to see how God will deliver this baby into a Godly family!!!
In this whole journey Dave and I have not know/understood WHY God put this situation before us but we felt he had a plan and we are called to do what he asks of us. Last night as I talked with Teresa we talked about how we have prayed and prayed some more over doing the right thing. Still we don’t fully know how God is using all of us who are involved but we are doing the best we can to bring honor and glory to him, and to SAVE this baby girl. Teresa also found this verse that we feel fits the situation. For EVERYONE who has opened there hearts to pray, talk, give or listen this fits all of us.
2 Corinthian 9:10-15
10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Thank you again for continuing to pray for Norma, the baby. It’s not over and this won’t be the last you here from us!! Keep praying and trusting that God is FAITHFUL TO THE END!!!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Easter

We had a great Easter, although I didn't get the kids pictures in there outfits together b/c Gracie was not feeling well Sunday morning, so she stayed home with Daddy. We might just have a dress up day this week sometime to try and get those. We headed over to Pawpaw and Mimi's house for yummy meal and a big egg hunt. Next year ought to be a little more challenging with all six of them racing around!

Time away..

We had a nice and relaxing trip to Pigeon Forge, TN although the weather was not the best (snowed the first day and rained two days) and that the mountains aren't the prettiest just yet. But family time we did have and it was WONDERFUL! We didn't do a whole lot so that even made it more relaxing. We did take Bo and Gracie to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg and that was very fun and a great time. Those pictures may come soon having trouble downloading off my other camera for some reason.

Our cabin for the week


Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Our Journey with Guatemala....

On Friday, March 19th I got a call from my friend Teresa at 9:30am. She was down in Guatemala on Spring Break taking Spanish classes (she’s a Spanish teacher locally). She was staying with her cousin who is a missionary in Guatemala City. Her cousin had just told her of a story of a Guatemalan mother who was on the verge of ending a pregnancy and Teresa’s cousin asked if she knew anyone who would be interested in adoption. Just two weeks previous I had told her how Dave and I were starting to consider adoption and that our desire would be to adopt from Guatemala. Some of you may know that Guatemala is closed to adoption with the US (due to lots of legal stuff). Anyway, she thought of me right away and called. I was shock and overjoyed! Immediately I called Dave and told him the story, his quick comment back was “we will do whatever we can!” I quick emailed Teresa back and said we were on board send me all the info you can and we will talk and pray about it tonight!

All day Friday I was so emotional and could not believe that God had just put this opportunity into our lap, now what are we to do. We received the info first thing Saturday morning, T cousin’s, pastors wife(M) was willing to do whatever she could to help the mother to and from the doctor. M had all the information and speaks very good English so I was told to call her and right away, I did. We had a great conversation, she had a lawyer lined up for us who was a good Christian and honest man and was also willing to do whatever it was going to take to save this baby. The mother of the baby had verbally committed to not ending the pregnancy as long as they found a family who could give the child a better life. The mother is very, very poor and already has two children and could not financially or emotionally care for another child. She had already tried several abortions with this child.

First thing we needed to do was to get the mother a doctor appt. She was thinking she was about 8 month along and had not had any prenatal care. It took about a week to get the appt and everyone’s schedules together but it happened. All the while we were on vacation in TN and didn’t have internet access, so via my sister we did a little communication to Guatemala. On Saturday (27th), M took the mother to the doctor there were a few concerns with the baby size very small due to lack of proper diet and having tried previous abortions, so we got her some meds and the doctor said that the baby should be fine as long as she takes the vitamins and eats a better diet. The baby will be very small, she will also have to be born via c-section due to the mother previous surgeries. So they set a date May 14, 2010 this little baby girl will be born.

When we arrived back home the following Monday (29th) I got busy emailing and calling different people to find out what we needed to do here in the States in order to bring the baby home. Once I started looking and researching, things just didn’t look so promising for us to be able to bring this baby home. We want to do God’s will for this baby and whatever we could to help bring this baby into the world. So our hearts started to get in deep and we knew that we might never be able to bring the baby home, but again we prayed, told everyone about it b/c the more people that could pray for us the better it just might be.

Yesterday we got really good news and really bad news. First, I got a email from M that Guatemala had just passed or stated that any American families who want to adopt from Guatemala can not be charged any money for the process. Which we were first looking just 1 ½ weeks ago for the process to cost $10,000-$20,000. This meant the processing down there would be FREE!!!! WOW! What another God thing that is. Later, Tuesday afternoon we went to meet with Catholic Charities Agency here in Blm. They were researching and checking with the State of IL and the US Federal government to see if we could proceed with adoption. Going into the meeting I knew we were going to hear the words NO that we could not proceed, but I was fully trusting that God is in control and he can and does perform miracles. Well we got the NO and it was sooo hard to hear! I so did not want to hear that and it was heart breaking, my heart has been growing so much love for this little baby girl and God had already put to many things into place for this. But in some sense I did feel peace! Well today Wednesday was hard to think about where we are to go from here. I had to email M and tell her that we were not going to be able to proceed with the adoption. We were going to need to find another option. My biggest concern is that the mother would now know that we could not adopt the baby and with only 5 weeks left in the pregnancy she would end the pregnancy for good!

Today, Wednesday April 7 my friend Teresa called me just 24 hours after we got the NO news. Her cousin had just emailed her to tell her that a family in there church a Guatemalan couple just came to them asking for prayer, because they had just found out that after 6 years of trying for a family that there were no other medical options for them. So we pray now that this couple would get to adopt this precious baby girl. I feel this is what God’s plan is for this little girl. Only he knows and I am so glad that we have been and will be apart of this little girls birth. I still plan to go to Guatemala around the time of the birth to meet everyone that we have been praying with and communicating with in this process. We have trusted that God would provide for us or whoever may get this precious little girl. We are so excited for this little ones future that she may have a better life and grow up knowing and loving the Lord. We don’t know the end just yet but we do know that God is FAITHFUL TO THE END!!!