What A God Journey It Has Been!

Exactly 3 years ago...

I saw this picture!

AND, I heard a voice...

It said,

HE

IS YOUR 

SON!

My heart lept, my head began to spin, and I had goosebumps from head to toe.

I answered back.

REALLY GOD?

But he is so young and we are not?

He is not even up for adoption?

How could he be our son?

Then Hubby came home and took one look at me and said 

"Obviously we need to talk".

I told him what happened and his response was

YES!

No questions, no doubting, 

just yes!

Of course after an experience like this the hard part comes...

I wanted this little boy to appear in our home as quickly and as clearly as I heard the Lord speak!

But that is not the way our God works.

Instead our journey would be filled with many opportunities to grow in the areas of patience, prayers, faith and trust in HIM.

Once again we saw God work a miracle in Luke's short life.

As he was 1 of 18 children orphans picked to have life saving surgery in Israel.

It was part of a good will gesture between Israel and CHina.

To be accurate Luke was the 18th child to be picked... the last one...

(He had his surgery when he was 18 months old.

His birthday is on the 18th.)

Then there was the realization that this surgery was much too complicated and Israel wanted to back out... Luke's foster family would not allow that to happen without a fight! They endlessly advocated for him until the Israeli Embassy decided to send Luke to Israel for the surgery...

It is amazing how God had his hand all over this little boy...

When they opened him up

the surgeon said "I cannot do this". His heart was incredibly complicated.

The other assisting physicians encouraged him to continue.

They said "people are praying and fasting for this little orphan, all over the world"!

It was a stressful couple of days all the way in MN as we prayed, fasted and waited and waited to hear how he was doing.

I will be honest- I believe what happened to me when I heard the Lord's voice BUT I had no idea if or how he was going to orchestrate all of this.

I know I have shared this whole story before on my blog but right now as we celebrate this little boy's 4th Birthday AND his first birthday at home we are reminded of God's greatness, of His faithfulness, of His immense power and the fact that HE really can move mountains. 

I am in complete awe of our Creator!

HE takes my breath away and He leave me speechless...

The little boy that the Lord spoke to us about celebrated another birthday in China.

Oh how, we longed to have him home.

We waited for a year and a half for Luke's referral to appear.

Once it arrived we were amazed on how GOD was in all the details.

Below is one of his referral pics ;-)

Then he celebrated his 3rd birthday in China November 18, 2011.

Days later would be Gotcha Day- December 5th, 2011.

It was surreal. It was like watching a movie that we were part of, only in slow motion...

On December 5th, 2011 we walked into the Henan Civil Affairs Office where this sweet little boy was waiting for us!

He had stole our hearts 2 years ago and it seemed nothing short of a miracle that "he was our son"!

We are so thankful he is home!

 He blesses our life every day!

Our God is AMAZING!

Birthday party post is next!

And The Winner Is!

Pam from 

andthentherewereseven.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoy this devotional as much as I do!

Email me your address when you can and I will send it to you!

I Should've Been A Plumber!

This is one of the issues that we never considered when adopting daughters who all desire long beautiful hair!

After all, before adopting we had only one daughter, 4 sons and no clogged drains. 

But that was back then and this is 

NOW!

We end up calling the plumber for clogged drains every 4-6 months!

This time I taped up the bathroom sink and tried to wait as long as possible...

UNTIL,

 the kitchen sink became clogged yesterday afternoon.

(paper plate time!)

When the kitchen sink is clogged and the dishwasher can no longer run for a family of many-

it's time 

to call the plumber!

He's here now, doing his thing!

YIPPEE!

We had three that were a priority but now since he's here he's checking all of them that come into contact with LONG BLACK HAIR! So far the total is at 6 drains!

I have talked to the children about not putting their hair down the drain AND combing their hair before  showering. It looks like we need to have that talk,

 AGAIN!

How do you solve this problem at your house?

So happy and thankful the drains will once again 

DRAIN!

(We will be drawing for the "giveaway" tonight!! Add a comment to that post if you want a chance to win!)

Getting Ready!

We have been busy getting ready for the new girls!

Trying on winter jackets is part of that!

Sam is bigger than Anna but smaller than Ava, which means he is the closest to Melissa's size. I am hoping this size 7 winter jacket will work for her! (It was Ava's last year.)

She seems quite petite- I hope she doesn't swim in it?

Our Missy just turned 7 last weekend.

She is 45 inches and 43 lbs. (we think?).

I think she will look adorable in pink!

Mia is the one that will be hard to plan for???

She is now 11 but everyone that has met her finds that hard to believe.

As I look at the pictures I wonder if the measurements we have are even accurate?

These children are her peers. Mia was 10.5 in the pic and Kendal- the girl in the pink was 12.5 yrs and considered small for her age.

Hmmmmm...

Many of Mia's friends have been adopted. I hope seeing them leave will help prepare her for her new family (which would be us)!

Thanks Sam, for helping out and having a good sense of humor!

A Give Away!

I LOVE this devotional!

And,

I am hoping that you will LOVE it too!

So often it has spoken to my heart as if God were speaking right to me.

PLEASE,

 comment if you are interested in winning this devotional.
AND

PLEASE, 

add yourself to the followers list on my blog IF you are not already a follower!

PLEASE,

 tell me something(anything) about your faith walk with Jesus in comment!

All entries must be in by midnight Friday, November 16th!

We will pick the winner from a hat on Saturday, November 17th and we will announce it that day! I will ship it to the winner!

Thank you!!

God's Blessing to you!!

Last Weekend!

Remember when I used to dress the children in really cute clothes!

Well, things have changed 

AND

we are going for the uniform look nowadays!

Okay, just kidding!

I'm just happy that everyone has clothes on!

They all love to dress alike!

It's fun for them!

And, it works for me!

(sometimes)

They played school while their Momma did this...

and this...

and this...
(all of THIS came from our closets, sorry no before pics, just couldn't bring myself to take them- it's something I want to forget ;-)

We have to have days like THIS!

Cause after bringing home 8 darlings and three more on the way!

THIS momma's closet was NOT looking good!

Even Katie had trouble finding things she wanted to confiscate from me!

I mean long term borrowing ;-0 !!

Don't get your hopes up. It looks much better now BUT not this good( or empty)!

I had to add a few(okay, maybe a lot of) things back in!

I think I'll look at this picture whenever I need that warm fuzzy organized everything is under control  feeling!

As for the children this weekend...

 They did just fine

We actually found the dress up clothes and they were thrilled!

And the spidies were exceptionally happy because as they pointed out...

we had way too many dress up clothes for girls!

Wow, gymnastics has really paid off!

okay... I still have work to do...

BUT, at least I can walk in and find something to wear in the morning!

(Middle shelf on the left- Wild Olive Tees!)

OH... your wondering about the summer clothes?

Hmmmm...

Ummmmm...

Well...

Hubby was kind enough to borrow me a few shelves!

(I love that guy!)

And

NO

I will not be sharing pictures of his closet!

(It's clean too but I don't want any evidence of how many shelves I may have taken over rather he let me use!)

The blogging cycle...

I love blogging and I do not intend to stop but I just have to share what seems to be happening 

E.V.E.R.Y.

S.I.N.G.L.E.

D.A.Y

I wake up ;-)

I look for ward to blogging!

Cuz, I have somethin to say about somethin!

Blogging is like a scrap book and freelance writing all at the same time! 

It's my hobby!

So I do look forward to it!

BUT... 

I have been blessed(with many children) and sometimes reality gets in the way of my hobby.

After breakfast we try to get going on school, asap!

I always hope I can sneak out a post once I get them going BUT alas, that does not seem to be happening...

Then we have lunch. After that we finish up our school work and 

THEN...

I think I will have a moment

BUT...

my popularity has grown and darn it, 

 all these little people keep on talkin to me!

(the nerve)

And I have no choice BUT to answer back!

So, then I say

"OKAY, Mommy needs a moment to herself"

and then my moment is always filled with something else...

schedule planning, house chores, Dr appts, picking up

you name it!

As early evening comes along

I think

NOW

 IS THE TIME !

but the critters want a snack and I have to get dinner planned and and and...

So, I rest in knowing that I will have time in the evening!

(insert exhale)

BUT, wishful thinking!

Hubby comes home and the excitement starts all over again!

People eating dinner, everyone chattering away, big kids stopping by to figure out their lives, hubby and I trying to have a discussion, telephone calls ( 90% completely worthless calls) and bath time, bedtime

and then comes my moment...

I stare blankly at the computer and...

I don't have a single clear coherent thought...

so...

I decide to go to bed!

IN HOPES THAT TOMORROW I will be able to BLOG!

I think I am going to hide in the pantry with my computer like I do when I am eating chocolate cake!