My Life is Yours

The Driver, Mini-Me and I are headed to H*iti at the end of this week. We are leading a team there to help get an orphanage off the ground. Not sure how--if at all--I will be able to post, but here is the link in case you are interested.

http://journeyintohisheart.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday (a Little Late)

Daughter of Purpose has now been with us for over a year. About two weeks after her "Gotcha Day" celebration is her birthday. Here's a few pictures with her cake (when she stopped off her scooter long enough) and one with her new Build*A*Bear. Somehow that's become a tradition in our home...building an animal. Daughter of Purpose has finally joined the club!

(L-R: Mini-Me, The Talker, Daughter of Purpose and Littlest One)

4 of the 5 kids were around to enjoy the DELICIOUS ice cream cake made by my friend, Mo. The Negotiator had fallen asleep and we couldn't rouse him to save our lives! So at least you get to see most of our team! As you can see, Daughter of Purpose is very into dolphins. I think it started during our trip to Sea World earlier this year.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Scooter Queen

Okay, so I'm really behind on this blog. I had planned on having it finished up by now, but I still have a few more stories to tell! I'll try to get to it this week. For today, the birthday of Daughter of Purpose, we celebrate that she is riding a scooter!

Yes, you read it right...she's riding a scooter. Another thing she is doing that beats the odds. Daughter of Purpose has been dying to ride some sort of mode of transportation, but hasn't had much luck yet. It wasn't until last week when we were at a friend's house that she discovered a scooter with 2 wheels in the back and 1 in the front. She actually braces herself with her weaker leg and then pushes with her stronger leg. Amazing!

We decided to give her a scooter of her own for her birthday today and she was so happy that she rode it ALL DAY LONG!! Every moment she could be on her scooter, she was on it. I thought for sure she'd ask if she could park her scooter by her bed tonight and sleep with her helmet on. She has already declared to me that she is done with the bike trailer. She told me that from now on she would be riding her scooter when we do a family bike ride. What a crack up she is!

As she readied for bed tonight, she needed me to reassure her over and over that she would be able ride her scooter in the morning. I think I have a long day of scooter riding in my future!

In the picture she was barking at me to "move outta the way" because she had a scooter to ride!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Bring it On!

Daughter of Purpose is ready to take on the swimming world. Today is our first venture into the pool and Daughter of Purpose is going to explode soon if I do not take her into the P-O-O-L!!! She has been counting down the days, as you can imagine. Now that "The Big Day" is here it is pure torture to her that she has to wait until 1:00 pm!! What were these party planners thinking? She was ready at 7:00 am!!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Gotcha Day

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Who Would've Known?

Just about one year ago Daughter of Purpose was in Russia knowing nothing of the English language. Tonight Daughter of Purpose received her Awana Cubbie award for completing her whole book. Do you know what that means? It means that every week for the past school year, she has memorized one verse from the Bible--in English. Pretty amazing if you really think about it, don't ya think?

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Directions

Another interesting thing I've noticed about Daughter of Purpose is her ability to know her surroundings. I noticed this awhile ago, but was watching to see if it was a fluke or not. We can be driving somewhere and if she knows our destination, she knows if we are going in the right direction or not.

For example, when we get off the freeway, she knows we are almost to church. We can even be driving somewhere else but is near the church and she can identify where the church is in relation to us.

It is not uncommon for her to direct me that I am going the wrong direction if I change course from what I told her our agenda was. Just the other day she knew we were going to our school group, but I decided to stop somewhere else on the way without telling her. As we pulled out of our neighborhood and I went left, she piped up from the backseat, "Hey Mom, you are going the wrong way. School is the other way."

The other moment that cracked me up was when we came out of In-n-Out Burger. In order to get to our house from In-n-Out Burger, you have to go right and then make a U-turn, but yet our house is to the left. Daughter of Purpose let me know that I was going the wrong way because home was back that way. I had to explain to her what I was doing. She still didn't really get why I couldn't go left, but once we got back to heading in the right direction she relaxed.

Since I'm directionally challenged, it is good thing that God gave me Daughter of Purpose. Apparently with her in the car, I'll never get lost!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Language Acquisition

It has been almost a year that Daughter of Purpose has been with us. If you've been following her blog, you know that she picked up the English language a lot quicker than we expected. It was at about 6 months, she was pretty fluent.

Now we're seeing something interesting about her language. Based on the questions she inundates us with daily, we're starting to realize that when she appeared to be fluent, she really was just repeating phrases. She'll hear a phrase and repeat that one. Surprisingly she'd use the right phrases in the right circumstances. In retrospect it doesn't surprise me since I'd often hear one my other kids say something like, "My tummy hurts" and then within minutes her "tummy would hurt" also, but I just didn't realize until now that she's been repeating these phrases without ever really knowing what she was saying.

Nowadays she spends her time picking apart the English language. She's beginning to ask questions about what those "phrases" mean. For example she will randomly say, "What does 'died on the cross' mean?" or "What does 'eating' mean?"

Because her talking is constant, it can drive me crazy at times, but when I put it in perspective, I try to give it as much patience as possible. It's just like having a two-year-old that asks the "why" question all day long. It is just a phase and I know it will pass.

No one really told me about the part of adopting a child from another country, but in retrospect it makes sense. As Nathan and I attempt to continue our studies of the Russian language, it also gives me perspective into our language learning. We do the same thing. We learn phrases of Russian and then later we figure out what parts of that phrase mean and then move those parts of speech around and mix them with other words we've learned.

Ahh the things you learn from adopting...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Defying the Odds

Every day Daughter of Purpose defies the odds with every step that she takes, but every Saturday she goes above and beyond that when she plays T-ball. Never in a million years did those in her Russian orphanage ever think she'd being doing something such as this.




I wish I could describe for you what it is like to be the parent of a special needs child. I suppose it's not that much different than that of a "normal" child, but yet it's like taking your parenting and putting it in overdrive. I (and my husband) am my child's best advocate because no one knows her better than we do. In those moments when doctors and physical therapists have basically let us know that this is the best they can do for her, it is us who has to step up to the plate, pushing forward to use whatever resources we have to continue on in what we think is best for her. We've had to use our own "tools" and common sense and not rely on others to do it for us. We are with her day in and day out so it is us who encourages her to press on and knows her limitations--always pushing her a little beyond what she thinks she can do. We are the ones who won't allow her to cop out and take the easy route and when she sets her mind to something it is us who stands beside her and cheers her on to succeed.

I won't kid you though, it can be a mixed bag--we can sometimes be tempted to be discouraged. We've also had moments when we've had to reconcile our hopes with reality. We all have dreams for our children, but sometimes those dreams need to be adjusted and it can be depressing to realize that your child doesn't naturally have the same abilities as her peers. It can be frustrating to deal with people's ignorance and their stares. We will never forget the moment when it dawned on us that our child may never ride a bike. We won't soon forget that after less than a year, the physical therapist basically told us that he didn't know how to help, nor the moment when the doctors basically told us this was the top of the line for her.

But we cannot dwell on these things. That's how we've gotten this far--by thinking outside of the box. Who knows, maybe she will ride a bike, but it just might need some alterations to the bike. Maybe she'll go on to be a top athlete in softball, but it might be in a different league than our other kids. It's just a matter of perspective. While we raise this incredible child that defies the odds simply by walking, we will not settle and we certainly will not dwell on the negative thoughts. We recognize that how Daughter of Purpose views the world will be learned from us. How we respond to peoples stares and questions will be the way she responds. If we accept defeat--so will she.


So we will be forever grateful that God gave us this child to raise that has taught us so much, especially that life is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe she's right (remember when she said this last summer?), I will sit in the crowded Olympic arena one day and scream my head off for my Daughter of Purpose and I know which voices will rise above all the others--the voices of her family that didn't settle, but saw something in her and pushed her on toward greatness.


May these simple Saturdays of T-ball be only the beginning...


1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Our Family Vacation

Yours

Adopting Daughter of Purpose has been an experience that has changed how Nate and I view the world. We see the statistic that there are 144 million orphans in the world and we continually ask ourselves how we can do more. Yes, we have changed the life of one child and maybe if we were to adopt again in the future we'd change that life too, but it doesn't seem like enough. It bothers us to sit in our comfortable American home knowing that there are people out there who don't even know if they will eat today. Sending off a bit of money for someone else to fix it just doesn't sit right with us. So we have prayed that God will use us to be a part of the solution. No, we don't feel called to be missionaries in the dark jungles of Africa, but we are being called to go to Haiti this summer.

Nate and I have been asked to lead a team to Haiti to help get an orphanage off the ground. We are so excited that we are nearly busting at the seams because this what we've been praying for--an opportunity to be a part of something that will impact the lives of many orphans. On this trip we will also be taking our oldest daughter because we believe that even though she is a child, she has much to contribute. We want to work alongside her in ministry and share our heart for the nations with her. What we hope is that it is a life changing experience for her. Honestly, we hope it will be a life changing experience for all of us. May we think more like Christians than like Americans...

We share all of this with you because we have begun a new blog to journal how God has lead us straight into His heart for the fatherless. Although Daughter of Purpose was the jumping point for the passion God has given us for orphans...this blog--14 degrees--is HER story. This blog will be printed out into a book for her because it is a journal of the first year of her life. We don't feel like it would be fair to take this spot just for her and change it to ours. We will continue to write her story until she has been with us one year (in May).

If you are interested in reading our journal about our passion for orphans, you can visit it at http://www.journeyintohisheart.blogspot.com/. The rub is this though...we haven't fully decided yet if we want want our journal to be public or private. Right now it is private--you have to receive an invitation to read it. For now it will remain that way, but it may change in the future. If you are interested in following our thoughts and our trip to Haiti (and we pray more beyond that) then you will need to send us an e-mail asking for permission to read our blog. If you know us personally then you probably know how to do that. However, if you don't, but would like to read it you can e-mail us at nates5bs@gmail.com. Our new blog is titled "Yours" because our life truly belongs to the Lord and we desire for God to use what we perceive as ours to become His. It is still in the works so you will have to be patient as we develop it. From my graphic art eye, it's a mess right now...nowhere close to how I want it to look visually, but the reality is that "Yours" is not about what it looks like. It's a place to journal our thoughts.

See you in Haiti...

I Have a Dream...

...of a world where no one has to live in extreme poverty...where there is no such word as orphan.

-"Red Lett*rs" by T*m Davis

Fun in the Kitchen

Here's just a few pictures from the last few days. Nothing special going on here, but a whole lotta fun in the kitchen.

First, this is Daughter of Purpose practicing being a chef. We were adding our ingredients in for Friendship Bread. You know the one that keeps on giving and you care for it each day? Then you have to find people who want to take some of your "babies" from your bread? Well anyway, we had a great science lesson about fermentation!

For St. Patrick's Day we did all kinds of green things. Daughter of Purpose certainly knows the color green and the shape of a shamrock now! I didn't wake up this morning with intentions of serving such a green meal for dinner, but as the day progressed, I kept coming up with new ideas! We had Pesto, broccoli, green milk and we even made some very green bread in the bread machine! I topped it off with green butter.

The Talker wasn't feel so great this evening so he humored me with a smile.

In the late afternoon we took a walk to McDonald's by our house and tried to enjoy some Shamrocks shakes in celebration of this fine holiday, but apparently McDonald's wasn't selling them this year. Can you believe that? We were so bummed, but still managed to have a lot of laughs over chocolate milkshakes. We were grateful for the sunshine and exercise we got!

Baffling the Doctors

Daughter of Purpose had her BIG consultation with all of the doctors, residents, physical therapists and people from the orthodic/prosthesis dept at Shr*ners. I'm sure there were more departments represented, but those were the ones I could put my finger on as we sat in the room.

I'm not really sure how to explain to you about today so I will just summarize it with what one of the doctors said to us as they examined her..."We're just trying to figure out how she is doing what she is doing. How is she even walking?" It took some restraint to not respond with, "Because God is in the business of doing the impossible--that's why."

Previous to this, I didn't really realize it, but I had become focused on what she cannot do, how to get it fixed and how to help her come to terms with that. In this light bulb moment, it dawned on me that my focus has been wrong. She is astounding the doctors with what she CAN do. I guess I never realized that her abilities are beyond their medical expectations and that is much to be thankful for. It never occurred to me that she could be in worse shape.

With that in mind and with much rejoicing for her amazing growth, the only thing the doctors could say was that she is doing great and to continue with what we're doing. They did change one of her braces, but beyond that they just want to see her every few months to keep an eye on her.

All of this makes me want to do some more research about Marion*Rudolph who had polio as a child but went on to become an Olympic runner. Who knows what God has in store for Daughter of Purpose...

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Fun in the Sun

The weather has been wonderful here, but despite that a few of our kids decided to enjoy the souveniers Nana and Papa White brought back from their cruise in a very creative way inside the house. They took the toothpicks with umbrellas on them and instantly knew what to do!

Back to Shriners

We will be on our way back to Shriners again this week. Daughter of Purpose is scheduled for a "Surgery Consult." This is the meeting where all of the doctors in the Orthopedic Unit and the residents gather (at a very early hour, mind you) to take a look at the file of and at DOP herself. They will put all of their expertise together and let us know if there is anything else they can think to do to help her. We will also learn the results of the procedure she had done a few weeks back. While all of this brainstorming is going on, we will most likely receive a long-term prognosis for her.

We honestly, don't expect to learn anything new for Daughter of Purpose. Our guess is that no surgery will help. It's basically physical therapy that will give us any results. So please be praying for us this week as we travel AGAIN. Pray also for the doctors to have wisdom and discernment. If Daughter of Purpose remains as she is today--great! However, we just want what is best for her and ask that if there is anything more we can do for her that it would be revealed. Thanks.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Perspective

Almost 10 months ago we brought home a little girl with very short hair and what was there was sparse. The hair of Daughter of Purpose has been growing steadily, but today we were able to put it into its first pony tail! Yeah!

10 months of her being with us and so much to be thankful for. This past week, Nate and I had the opportunity to view a video of a 9-year-old little girl that needs a family. It was heartbreaking to watch it and realize that this little girl is functioning at the level of a 5/6 year old. I do not believe there is anything wrong with her except the fact that being in an institution has taken a toll on her. Absolutely heart breaking.

God used this video to put some perspective into my life. We adopted Daughter of Purpose to bless her by making her a part of our family. Instead, she has blessed us. We have been so fortunate through this process to get a gem of a child. She has attached and bonded with us and learned English better than we ever expected. She truly has become one with our family in such a short time. She has exceeded our expectations for her. All I can say is that God knows exactly what He's doing and knew what our family could handle. It strikes me often that God has known since the beginning of time that this child would be a part of our family and made her to be a perfect fit. She was not in our sights, but she was in His.

I read something lately that I've been meditating on and think it is so simple, but profound. I can't remember what book it was in (I've read quite a few lately) so I'm going to do my best to relay it to you. Daughter of Purpose is like Moses...God's purposes for her could not be accomplished in the arms of her birth mother. We know nothing about her birth mother and I think I'll always watch Daughter of Purpose and be curious about where certain characteristics came from, but I am eternally grateful for her birth mother. Without her, I wouldn't be so blessed. Daughter of Purpose has become so much a part of me--us, as a family, that I have caught myself thinking, "She does that like her Daddy" or sometimes I fill out medical information about her forgetting that she did not come from my genes.

It hasn't been perfect along the way, but I certainly have nothing to complain about. God is good.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Another Good Sign

This past week, Nate and I had the opportunity to go out of town by ourselves. It was a welcomed break. It was great to be able to spend the time with just the two of us and not have an adoption hanging over our head and the stress of being in a foreign country.

It was also a good opportunity for us to see how Daughter of Purpose would do without us for a few days. I had a feeling she'd do okay, but as I began to write out information about her for my friend who would be caring for her--admittedly I got a bit nervous. I started to wonder if this was such a good idea, especially because she was getting sick as we were leaving town.

Before leaving, we had a lot of good talks with Daughter of Purpose to make sure she understood that she would be going with her big sister to my friend's house for a few days and that Mommy and Daddy would be back. She seemed to comprehend what we were doing and had only one request. She wanted to be able to call us or have us call her each day. No problem!

Well, she did have one other request...she wanted to go in my friend's pool while she stayed there. Ummm...how do you get a child from Murmansk, Russia to understand that it would be too cold? It's like the phrase, "too cold" is not in her scope of comprehension! I gave my friend permission to throw her into the pool so she'd understand what we kept telling her, but I think they got through the week without the physical demonstration. :)

Anyway, we are back from our trip and happy to report that Daughter of Purpose did an amazing job. My friend told us that she seemed to really understand what was going on and missed us in a healthy way. Yeah!

We are pleased with this for many reasons, but one of them being because we are currently praying about going on a short-term mission to Haiti with our church this summer. We have the opportunity to go and help finish up the construction and then outfitting the inside of an orphanage for use. Over the past few months, God has taught our family much about Haiti and given us a love for the country. God has given us a passion for orphans so we very much want to be a part of this project. At this point, we are taking one step at a time toward the trip and continue to pray that God will close the doors if this trip is not for us. Thus far, the doors are wide open. We ask you to pray with us that God would continue to guide us in what direction He wants us to go and that He would give us wisdom in all of the details that would need to go into something like this.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Procedure Complete

The procedure that we have been waiting for has finally been completed. As you can read from a previous post, we headed to Shriners Hospital last week at a very last minute pace. We did manage to change all of our plans and get her to the hospital on time. A 5:30 am arrival time comes very early in the morning! Nate and I both commented that it was the day that went on and on and on! I guess that's what happens when you get up before the sun!

Once we arrived at the hospital and got DOP checked in, we quickly realized this was not just a casual procedure. She was treated like an operative patient. We had to go through pre-op, procedure, doctor coming out to talk with us and recovery. It was all very official.

I do have to say that Shriners did an amazing job of preparing DOP for what was to happen. The Child Life Specialist arrived at 6:30 am and began walking her through about what would happen. They had a binder full of pictures that showed her each step of the way. After all, she was just here to take a nap (wink, wink). She got to see the 3 "stickers" that she would put on and where they would go. She saw the mask she would put on and even got to smell its cherry flavor! She saw the room she'd go into and where she would be when she was done "sleeping." We made sure that she knew where we would be all through the process. Certainly making sure we'd be there when she woke up.

Once in the pre-op room, they gave her a personal DVD player with whatever she wanted to watch. It was no question that Scooby Doo was on deck. Thank goodness for Scooby Doo because it got her "in the zone" and she didn't give a hoot what they did to her as long as she could continue to watch Scooby Doo! This "zone" allowed us to skip the medicine they sometimes give to help kids relax before the procedure. For that I was thankful because my thought was that the less medicine they gave her, the quicker she would recover.

Through all of this DOP had her "game face" on and did what had to be done. We've noticed from day 1 that she puts on this certain face that tips us off that she is "coping." She appears very calm, but we, as her parents, know it's just a facade that helps her get through. Nate and I both knew she was nervous, but her "game face" was covering it up to the average observer. Our thoughts were confirmed when more and more nurses and doctors began to congregate around her bed. We knew she was watching what was going on with the other patients in the room, but not letting on. Being no dummy, she knew it was her turn. Again, it was clear to Nate and I when she reached up her little hand to scratch her face and her hand was shaking. It was only a 2 second crack in the facade, but it did a number to my heart. That's when the protective Mama Bear in me came out. It was gonna take a lot for me to now burst into tears with worry.

Well, I managed to get through the rest of the "send off" without crying, but that time frame between when they wheeled her away and we saw the doctor enter the waiting area seemed to take forever! Thank goodness we were starving by this point and fill up some of our time with eating. Otherwise, I would've spent more time than necessary meditating on the "what ifs."

When the doctor came out and said everything went fine, I was relieved, but couldn't wait to be given permission to go into recovery with DOP. FINALLY the phone rang letting me know she was waking up. I must confess I had tears in my eyes all the way down the hallway to recovery. I just love that little girl so much! I couldn't wait to get in there and let her know that mommy and daddy were still there regardless of her response to the meds.

When I walked into the recovery room and saw her little body with all kinds of tubes, monitors, etc on her I couldn't wait for her to recover so we could get outta there. Since we've never done this with DOP, I didn't know what I was walking into. Would the meds make her wild and unlike herself (we've had that happen with one of our other kids) or would she be mellow? Thankfully, she was the mellow type and was ready to leave recovery within 10-15 minutes. Only one person was allowed in there with her at a time. Nate and I anticipated a screaming child that we would need to take turns comforting. We were done so quickly that Nate never even had to come into recovery!

I cannot skip by this one memory of this moment that stands out. When I walked into recovery, Daughter of Purpose, was waking up and had this look of "where am I" on her face. It was a look of uncertainty. There was nothing like that moment when she saw me and all uncertainty was wiped away. It was a look of relief that Mommy was here. Irreplaceable! I hope I never forget that moment.

It didn't take long for us to be out the door and to hear her little voice requesting an "Amburger." She was certainly back to herself. Praise the Lord. At that moment, I would've climbed mountains and walked through high waters just to get her that "Amburger!" Thankfully In-n-Out Burger was just down the freeway so I didn't need to!

After her tummy was full (she hadn't been able to eat since dinner the previous night) she dropped off to sleep as we drove home. She really was quite mellow for the rest of that day. The next day she was back to her normal, talkative self. It was strange to be done and on our way home by 10:30 am. Like I said, it became the day of eternity because we arrived home by 1:30 pm and still had to be parents to the rest of our kids until bedtime even though Nate and I were ready for bed way earlier than usual!

Now what did the doctor say as a result of the procedure? Honestly, nothing we didn't already know. Although he was able to confirm that she has the classic signs of having had polio. Since those signs began showing up in the first month of life, we are unclear as to whether she really did contract it so early in life or whether she got it from her birth mother. We're not sure if that is possible or not. We will address that question when we go over the results of the procedure with her doctor in March.

In March we will return to Shriners for a Surgery Consult. What that means is that we arrive there before the sun again, but this time all of the doctors and residents in the orthopaedic unit will be there. They will all go over her file, the results of the procedure and take a look at her. The purpose of this is two-fold. We will be attempting to see if there is anyone there with any other ideas for her and making a long-range plan for her medical care. Secondly, we will be doing this for the benefit of research. It will greatly enhance future patients with polio to have these doctors and residents learn from DOP's case. We are grateful for those polio patients who went before DOP so that the doctors at Shriners did not throw up their hands at our daughter, like the doctors in our city did because they said polio didn't exist anymore. It may be an early hour to be a part of research, but worth every minute to know that we will be making the difference in the life of another child.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

The Normal-ness of it All

I must confess I have been terrible about blogging lately. I am so sorry about that! I can't come up with a good reason why except just life itself! In some ways Daughter of Purpose lends me plenty to write about and in some ways she has become so much a part of us that there is nothing out of the ordinary to write about--she's just normal--and that's a good thing! It leads me to wrestle with whether I should bother to blog about the average-ness of our life and bore you to death or whether I should just blog anyway!

At some point over the Christmas season, I saw a switch over for Daughter of Purpose. Somehow I just knew she had stopped thinking in two languages and had switched to English only. Do I think the Russian is still in there? Yes, but I think her primary thought process is in English now. More and more often these days when I speak to her in Russian and she's paying attention, she asks me what I'm saying. Every once in awhile when it just requires a physical response, like "sit down" she responds appropriately. This leads me to believe it is still there subconsciously, but yet when she really thinks about it--she wonders what the heck I'm saying to her.

Another reason I believe her Russian is already on its way out is because when I sat down to do a Rosetta Stone Russian lesson this week, I did better on the lesson than she did. When I would ask her which were the right answers in Russian, she didn't have a clue. When I asked her to say the words in Russian, her pronunciation stumbled over the words like mine did when I first started speaking Russian. It's like as if her tongue has changed its abilities. This is all so very fascinating to me. Never did I think she'd become so much a natural part of us so quickly.

Here are some other indicators that she has slipped into family life in America and doesn't think a thing about it.

- She eats a taco like a pro.
- In-n-Out Burger is her favorite meal and she easily pounds a whole cheeseburger down. She's even has mastered the ability to "work" her grandparents into taking her to get an "Amburger." If only you could hear her sweet little voice saying the word.
- It is no question as to whether she'll eat pizza or not. Upon arrival, she wouldn't touch pizza.
- Each day I place a plate of fruit on the counter for the kids to munch on whenever they are hungry. She so naturally knows to reach her little hand up and get whatever she needs. This "being a part of the family" hit me again last night when I made kettle corn. There was a bowl for Valentines gifts and one for the family to munch on. Daughter of Purpose ran through the kitchen, grabbed a handful of popcorn and continued on her merry way. No thought as to asking first or waiting for me to offer. No thought as to whether this was okay or not. Just a part of the family. Can't imagine she had "grazing privileges" at the orphanage.

Daughter of Purpose knows where things go, knows the routine, and knows what belongs to who and most of the time she uses her words appropriately. I do have to say that I still miss it sometimes when I don't hear her little voice respond to my "I love you" with "I forgive you Mommy." That used to crack me up! She knew that phrase was a proper response to something just not sure which one! Now I hear her sweet little voice make sure to tell me that she loves me and receives her hug and kiss when I tuck her in.

This reminds me of when Nate and I go out on a date. She's one of the first to make sure she's given us a hug, a kiss and an "I love you" before we walk out the door. Some of our kids need that before we leave, but others just wave us goodbye. I love that she offers us that gift as we walk out, but yet doesn't cry about it because she knows we'll return. Her confidence in being a part of our family is solid. She doesn't seem to ever question as to whether we are her family and if we'll return for her. We certainly don't take this lightly. We keep it ever in our mind to make sure to be sensitive to this issue for her. Coming up soon, Nate and I will have the opportunity to spend a few days out of town by ourselves. This will be a big test for Daughter of Purpose to see how she does in that confidence of being a natural part of us. Right now, she is practically kicking us out the door because she wants to go in my friend's pool while were gone, but we'll see how it goes.

Side note, I've given my friend permission to throw Daughter of Purpose in the pool while we're away so that she will understand why she cannot go in the pool in February and stop asking me daily about going swimming! I'll let you know how that turns out.

As you can tell, we're just a normal family and Daughter of Purpose has acclimated well to that normal-ness. We are grateful for that and are glad that we don't feel like we're raising a stranger anymore. It feels more and more like we're raising the child that God intended to be in our family since before time began we just didn't know it.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Topsy-Turvy

This post has to be quick because everything is going topsy-turvy. We knew Daughter of Purpose was scheduled for her procedure tomorrow, but were told we'd have time to drive up in the morning. Ahh!! They just called to tell us that because she is youngest, she goes first and her arrival time to the hospital is 5:30 am!!

It looks like the procedure may really be happening this time so please keep us in your prayers!

Prayers for Health

Daughter of Purpose will return to Shriners Hospital next week for the long-awaited procedure. Previously it had been cancelled. So far it has not been cancelled, but she does have a stuffy nose. I have heard her nose get stuffed with no other symptoms before so maybe it's nothing, but just in case...please cover her (and us) in prayer so that she will make it to this appointment.


As I have stated in the past posts, she will be sedated, but only because of her age. It is a 30 minute procedure and we should be in and out the same day. Also, please pray for her as we send her off into the hands of a stranger for the procedure and for her recovery time as the anesthesia wears off. Thanks for praying!

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."

Please Pray!

Please pray for this family. We recently started reading the blog of this family. This past week, their house burned down to the ground. You can read more about them at A Place Called Simplicity. If you click to here, you can help nominate them for Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

Editor's note: I just went back and read this. There were all kinds of typos in this. Why didn't anyone tell me?

Where Have I Been?

It's been awhile since I've blogged and when I do it sure seems sporadic. Sorry everyone. I just haven't been in the blogging mood lately--even on my other blog. Can't really think of a good reason why. Just haven't felt like sitting on the computer more than I already do. There's plenty to blog, but for now I'm going to share with you some pictures of what's been happening this week. Later I hope to get back to filtering through our Christmas pictures and posting some of those for you to see the first Christmas of Daughter of Purpose.

This week, we've had the privilege of Extreme Makeover Home Edition coming to our town. It has been quite exciting. I am proud to say that we are a part of a church family that rallied together and raised $25,000.28 to help the very deserving family pay off their mortgage. Since Nate was the contact person for our church, he was considered a VIP and was able to take us with him one of the days (other days we went down as regular spectators). These are a few of the pictures we took while there with Nate and a few are with some friends when we went down there together.

The pictures from the VIP day are mainly in the VIP tent because while Nate and I got an up-close look, the kids stayed in the tent and were treated to free food. I was happy that it was relatively healthy since it was Chick-Fil-A. The kids sure had a good time with the cow that says, "Eat Mor Chikin." They also thought the bus ride was a kick. I was all for going down every day to see the progress and was willing to stand there for hours on the "reveal day" to help "move that bus", but when I asked the kids what their favorite part of the VIP day was and they focused in on the free food and playing with the cow--well, I decided it wasn't going to worth all of my efforts. In retrospect, I am glad I made that decision because the "reveal" was later than scheduled. So I would've been standing out there for about 8 hours. No thank you!

We are thankful for the part that we played. We are grateful to be externally focused and to have played a part in making an impact in life of a very deserving family in our community. I don't want to give much more away about the home or the family before the episode airs on March 8th, but I want to go on record as saying that I look forward to the day when Daughter of Purpose is older and we can reminisce about this time. I cannot wait to use the mother of this family as an example to my daughter about how she can do anything. It doesn't matter that she has weak muscles in her legs. God will use her no matter what limitations her body might have.

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."