A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness, know that, like life, things sometimes must fade, before they can bloom again. 

Author Unknown

"If I could have a rose for every time I thought of you, The world would be empty of them."

Source Unknown

"Love is like a rose. When pressed between two lifetimes, it will last forever."
Source Unknown

A life with love will have some thorns, 

but a life without love will have no roses.

"Even if love is full of thorns, I'd still embrace it for I know that in between

those thorns, there is a rose that's worth all the pain."
Source Unknown

The rose speaks of love silently, 

in a language known only to the heart.

"Have you ever watched a rose as it fades away; the color becomes deeper as the petals dry. That's how my love for you deepens as the days go by."
Source Unknown

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

William Shakespeare

" If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I'd be picking roses for a lifetime.”
Swedish Proverb

I'd rather have roses on my table
than diamonds 'round my neck.
Emma Goldman

"The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart."
Source Unknown

I know, we were not supposed to have favorites. And I promised myself I was not. So I will blame it on her, maybe I was HER favorite?  We just connected. She just felt RIGHT in my arms. As if she was meant to be there.  She felt good.

I did share her,  a little bit.

In case you did not read my story of Rosebud here, I will share a bit.  From what I understand, her paperwork is not quite ready in China, which means at this point, she is not available for adoption.

If she DOES become available,  she will most likely be a healthy referral as I think her only issue is she was born pre-mature. Of course, hard to know for sure at her age.  So even if we wanted to TRY to adopt her, if she is a healthy referral, she would go to those who have already been waiting for years.

And if she did go out as special needs, well, it would still take God to bring her into our family. It is not as easy as saying, I want that baby! As much as I wish it were that way, selfishly.

And what does Mark say? I think he feels pretty safe in the fact that finding her is such a crazy idea and only a miracle could bring her here. In other words, he does not have much to say.  When I talk about her, he buries his head.  ;-) 

My sweet girl is having a birthday today. Her very first birthday. And though she was not even eating food yet, but still only a bottle, I had a cake delivered.  Because every baby should have a first birthday cake.  I sure hope to get a picture of her sitting with that cake. And I wish I could be with her, helping her blow out a candle and singing silly songs. Spoiling her rotten with tons of fancy clothes and toys and hugs and kisses. 

I am not going to lie. Yep, it is all sappy and all these songs on my playlist might seem corny and just to torture myself, but it is HARD.  These children we all met while in China, they are not just photos, they are flesh and blood and they live in an orphanage. They are in a crib ALL day except @ 4-5 hours TOTAL.  It is easy when it is pictures  and we feel sad, but this baby, she is more than a picture. She is real, I KNOW what she smells like. I know where to tickle her to make her smile. I know that she has long thin fingers that probably need clipped right now. I know that she does NOT care to be left in her crib.  I know that I can make her happy just by paying attention to her. She is not scared of strangers, and she is a wiggly girl. She is tiny, but mighty! 

So this week I ask you to pray for my sweet Rosebud as she turns one. I am reminded that though I am not there, though a mommy is not there, God is. He holds her in the palm of His hand. He chose her birthday and I have no doubt that He has written the story of her life. I pray that I am able to somehow, someway, watch it unfold.

Babies IN Bumbos!

As soon as I returned from China,  you might remember that I found out about a sweet boy going Home to soon. You can read about that here.  And so in honor of Evan, I collected money to send bumbo's over to China here. 

In just a few days time, I raised almost $500 for the babies of Chenzhou, in Evan's name.  The original plan was to send bumbos, but with so much money I divided it into bumbos and exersaucers.  

Last night I was having a "I miss my Chenzhou babies terribly pity party", so much so that I asked my group to pray for me.  Not even an hour later I got an email from Chenzhou, with pictures of my babies!  

Look at them in their seats!  

I sooo needed this!! This is only part of the order, so hopefully as the rest gets in, more pictures will come!

And of course it helps that they sent me plenty of my Rosebud!  ;-)

If you donated, THANK YOU!!! And if you wanted to but did not get a chance, I will be doing more things like this.  

Isn't it just like God?  When we cry out to Him, He answers! My heart really needed this, to see that they have not forgotten us, that they are ok! AND they even put Rosebud in the pants I bought her! 

I have more to share, will soon I promise!

Sawyer First time at Camp

I sent Sawyer off for his first year of camp this week.

I dreamed that he was so homesick Mark had to drive the 4 hours to bring him home.

I figured he would come home with moldy towels and clean underwear. 

He did take Papa Larry along as one of his chaperones, that was for MY sake more than his. 

He came home today.

From the smile on his face, I don't think he missed us one little bit.

His favorite activity was Archery. And he was very impressed with the food. I am certain I should be offended by this since he will hardly ever eat what I make, and THAT was cafeteria food.

He said he knows that God has a plan for his life, he is just trying to figure that out still.

He said he also learned that 6th grade girls are the most annoying ever. 

We have alot of girls in this house, but no 6th graders I guess.

 I am happy to report that the underwear were all in the dirty clothes bag.  And the wet towels were, well, in all the bags!

We missed our boy child, and are thrilled that he had such a great week!

I Miss Her

My Rosebud...

Life besides China, kind of!

I DO realize that I have 5 children here, my whole world does not revolve around China.  Though it IS all wrapped up together in so many ways.. Here is such a mix of there.....

My own Chinese Angels giving me a Rock Concert.

Most of the time you will find this child begging to get on the computer and look at pictures of babies. From China. She especially enjoys looking at the orphans who wait. She can tell you more about the Waiting Children than most agencies. Tonight she was asking how many days till she is able to go to China to work.  And what type of work she can do to save her money.

Today we welcomed Uncle Shane home, from??? CHINA!! ;-) See what I mean, this life here is so closely woven together with there. Shane left for China in August and is now home till early September. I was able to see him while there, but the kids were thrilled! If you look closely you will see we recycled our signs from our homecoming. He enjoyed that.  ;-)  It is good to have him here, because that means hearing more stories of THERE!!

Meet June

So many times when people are looking for a child, they are looking for a baby. And who can blame us them? Cute, easy, cute, cuddly, cute, quiet (in the can't talk back yet type of quiet) did I mention cute?

I will be the first to admit, I am drawn to babies. Partly because of the reasons above. Partly I dont' feel done with babies, I have all the other ages thank you very much.  But a baby, I could do a baby. 

I mean honestly, WHO thinks when they think of taking on a child... Hmm, how about a TEENAGER?  Much less, who thinks a THIRTEEN year old? 

In reality, when I think of 13 year olds, I think of mouthy, moody, monsters!

Ok, so maybe that is a bit dramatic, unless of course you are living with a 13 year old. Then you get me.


While in China I met a 13 year old girl.  I will call her June. 

Because she had a birthday while we were there. Unfortunately we did not know that.  A June girl.

I actually wonder if she even knew it was her birthday. Something tells me they do not tell the kids, hey today is YOUR day!

Because she turned 13, it means she only has ONE YEAR left to find a family.  Or she loses her chance, forever.  At 14 they are to old.


So what becomes of her?  We really do not know.

Here is what I know about June.

She is beautiful and her smile lights up her face.

She watches out for the little ones. One day she was upstairs with us and we were trying to get the kids downstairs. One of the little ones needs a walker, and we did not know where it was. We did not have to say a word, June was on it and ran off to help her little friend.

She attends school so we were not with her as much as some of the other kids.  We know she can count in English and writes well.

She has palsey of the left limbs. But it did not seem to affect her.

Her favorite color is yellow. 

And she wants a family. She told us this.

Because she only has ONE YEAR left,  she needs her family to step up NOW. 

It COULD be done. 

So she might not be what you or I would typically think of when we think of adoption. 

She is 13. she has lived in an orphanage her entire life. There will be issues to work through.

Though we did NOT see this side of her, she MIGHT be like any teenage girl.

MOUTHY & MOODY!

Or she might not, because she might just look at life a bit differently.

Regardless of any of that, she wants a family.  She DESERVES a family, doesn't she?

She needs a daddy to tell her she is beautiful before she starts looking at boys.

She needs a mommy to take her shopping, fix her hair, talk to her about life.

She needs to hear about Jesus... 

Please help me spread the word about June. WE can be her voice.  WE can lift her up in prayer till she is home.  WE could change her world. 

Coming Home

Since I have been home almost a week, I figure it is time to come back to my "home blog".  

I had a post written up today to share here about a beautiful girl we met that was looking for a family.  

Then I found out she HAS a family! 

But she is not the only one waiting, so I will be sharing.  

I hope that you had a chance to follow our journey to China. 

It was life changing. 

And I can't wait to go back!

Prayers for travel

China team heading home soon. Check out the heading home post. :-) teamchenzhou.blogspot.com. Pray for the team as they travel!

Nearing the end of the Trip

There are some more posts about the last moments in Chenzou and the beginning thoughts about Beijing.  Some pictures from Shepherd's Field are added to Flickr.

Updates from China

There are a few updates on the Team Chenzou Blog.  Pictures from the trip are being posted on Flickr.  Click on the Flickr Badge on the side bar to get to the pictures.

A Brief post up about an adventerous day

Just time for a brief post about meeting "Angel" and visiting the police station.

http://teamchenzhou.blogspot.com/2011/06/day-i-will-never-forget.html

Check Out Two New China Posts and flickr Photos

You can see two new posts

Here
and

Here

And check out photos on Flickr

Here

To China we go!

Bags are packed.

And even zipped shut!

House is cleaned.

Schedules are made. 

And in just a few more hours, Makenna &  I will begin a journey of a lifetime. 

I will get to see China through her eyes.

I pray we are never the same. 

Join us at my travel blog by clicking HERE. 

testing

testing to see if I can email my blog posts!

Flying a million miles

I have been pretty calm about the whole going to China thing overall. 

I know Mark is amazing and will do great with the kids.

Well, besides the fashion part. Hair and clothes are not his thing. And he admits that.

So the kids might be naked and their hair a mess.  BUT they will be having fun. 

Plus the kids have a whole bunch of invitations to come play. 

A bible study class even asked if they could make meals for Mark. 

 I know they will all be just fine. 

I have an amazing team, have LOVED getting to know them so far and can't wait to spend 2 weeks with them. 

God has shown up in such AMAZING ways as we have prepared for this trip.

But I had a little panic moment today. 

There is the whole thing of Mark is always in charge of electronics, I can blog and I can email, but I can't get things set up!

And the money.  Mark is my walking calculator. or bank, whatever I need.

But what REALLY hit me is this. 

I do NOT enjoy flying.  AT. ALL.

And it is one thing to get on a flight knowing I am flying a REALLY long time, to get a BABY. 

But to think of all those hours on a plane, and I come home.  With empty arms. 

No baby.  WHAT AM I DOING!!!

But, the Lord, who is always so good to remind me of why This. is. not. about. me... spoke to me.

I will NOT be coming home with my baby. 

In the flesh anyways.  ;-)

BUT, I will be coming home with SO many pictures. 

And memories.

Maybe I can't bring my ONE child home.  But maybe I can bring home LOTS of babies.

For people who are waiting. 

One of our team prayers is that we are able to take photos of kids that are waiting. 

Then come home and share about those children.  To put a story with a picture.

So while flying a million miles is NOT my favorite thing to do.

Helping families grow IS. 

Pray for us, Friday is THE day! I will be switching over to my travel blog, but will post a link here.

One week!

Remember my whiny post last week about the craziness of, well, life?

This week was no exception.

Starting with, SUMMER VACATION. 

Which is great for some children, terrible for others who need structure, schedules, consistency.

Apparently all things I stink at.

Then came a call that Mark's brother's house BURNED DOWN.

Praise God no one was hurt.  Including the dog.  Who was in the house, in her cage.

Yesterday we went to load into the van and realized that a window was shattered. All inside the van and all over our driveway.  A million pieces shattered.   We assume either hail or our basketball goal fell into it from the winds we had this week.

Not a huge deal, but a few hundred dollars and just a whole lot of hassle. Shockingly windows for church bus size vans are not just sitting around waiting to be installed.

Our hearts continue to hurt for our sweet boy in China who is still in the hospital from burns.  His mama is struggling and we feel so far away.

But VERY soon I will be there!  Prayerfully we will be able to see him somehow.  I can't wait to give him and his mama a big ole hug!

So all of this life stuff going on?  Just taking it day by day.  Keeping my focus on what is waiting.

Well, besides a bazillion hours of plane rides.  Trying really hard NOT to think on that.

Thinking of the children and the places the Lord has called us to.

In just one more week!

Help Bring Alivia Home!

Besides getting a child through adoption, one of the greatest gifts we are given is friendships with people we would have probably never met.  Kathy & I were matched as "secret pals" during my wait for Sage & her wait for her 3rd daughter from China.  She lives just a few hours away from me, so we have been able to get together on many occasions, and have just formed such a great friendship through the years. 

They have once again been called back to China for their 6th adoption! Isn't Alivia beautiful?  After 5 other adoptions you can imagine trying to come up with the money for another. But they know that the Lord has led them to their daughter, and they know He will provide.  Please take a look at their blog at all the ways you can help them in bringing home sweet Alivia.

How you can help the orphans!

In 11 DAYS we board our first plane towards China.  ELEVEN DAYS!!!!  

264 hours. 

ALMOST HERE!

We have been AMAZED at the donations we have received.

Blessed. 

And so anxious to bless the orphans, the nannies, and the directors.

God has, once again, blown me away through each step of preparing for this trip. 

Many continue to ask what we still need.

There are a few things.  We thank you in advance.

For Children & Infants

• Laxatives
• Gummy Vitamins
• Infant Vitamin Drops
• Diaper Rash Cream
• Antibacterial Creams
• Cleft Bottles for cleft lip babies

 For the Nannies

• small packets of Starbucks Coffee
• nice ink pens
• small travel size deoderant
• small bath and body lotions & soaps, men & women
• Ginseng
• Fish Oil Capsules

• Cash that we will use towards our orphanage donations. We are visiting 3 different locations! 

If you are able to help out, please let me know ASAP.  We are trying to get it all packed! Again we thank you SOO much!  Not everyone is able to adopt, but what a gift to see so many willing to step up and help the orphans!

Crazy Days

I want to continue with my Summit posts. I don't want to forget all that I heard. It helps me to write.

But life! Let me share just one day this week. That started the day before.

My aunt was taken to the hospital with chest pain.

I got a call that the baby we had custody of last summer was badly burned. 10% of his body, 2nd degree burns.

Mark was out of town.

I stayed up all night praying.

Girls had fun day at school.

We went from there strawberry picking.

Then on to the doctors office to get some medical records for the baby we still have custody of, though he now lives in China.

From there the girls had gymnastics try outs at a new gym.

Then we got to go to the Apple Store to get Makenna's IPOD fixed. Again.

By this time of the day I had apparently lost all sense of well anything and attempted to get a bit of shopping done since we were already out.

With 5 kids.

Who had not had good naps and 1 of which is never easy to shop with.

We gave up on shopping. We came home.

I was exhausted and oh so tired and having a pity party for myself.

I was reminded of this. If the Devil is not attacking then we are probably not doing anything to get his attention.

I love that!

Well, not the being attacked by the devil part. But the fact that I AM getting his attention. And He is so ready to swoop in and steal my joy.

Joy from hearing so much at the Summit. Joy I am ready to put into action.

Joy at the piles of "Stuff" piled in my room. Stuff that is going to bless orphans!

Joy at the suitcases I am tripping over. Suitcases that will hold JOY & Blessings in just 2 weeks!

I will get back to writing about Summit.

And I will pack with out stressing out.

Maybe. ;-)

Orphan Summit Part 2

I think one of the biggest things that God placed on my heart this weekend at Summit was this.

There is SO much more to orphan care than adoption.

Not that I did not know that. Not that Mark has not reminded me of that DAILY or hourly or whenever I bring up adding more.

And not that adoption is not important. It is, it REALLY is.

But, there are 147 million orphans in this world.

Many of them are not even able to be adopted.

And of those that are? Well, I can't adopt them all. I can't even come close.

So, while I am not sure what our future holds as far as more children, I do know this.

God is calling our family to big things. Things beyond ourselves and what WE think we need to be doing for the orphans.

And I also know that God wants me to learn some things about Him and WHY we should care for the orphans. Why others should. Of course I KNOW, we all know the Bible commands it.

But do we REALLY know? Deep in our hearts and soul?

That is another post.

Back to what we can do. I know the Lord wants an orphan ministry to happen at our church. A ministry that reaches not only beyond our borders, but right here in the US also. My dreams for this group are so big! I want to see us getting involved in Safe Families, Foster Care, Adoption. Funding adoptions. BUT I also want to see us getting involved with children that are not able to be adopted through support, love, mission trips.

Most important, I want to say a Resounding YES to the things He has called me too, and a Resounding NO to those He has not. Be it messy or hard, I am willing.

Orphan Summit Part 1

You might remember my post about summit a few months back.  Well this was the week.  A friend from church, who is also interested in orphan ministry attended with me.

I was blown away.

Emotionally drained.

Overwhelmed.

Wondering where to begin.

Changed. 

And loving ALL of that. 

I heard amazing testimonies.

Heartbreaking statistics.

Beautiful orphans singing.

I learned that I do not have to change the world.  I just need to do something.

I learned that I can do more to help orphans than just pushing adoption.  (though I am not done doing that to, no worries!)

I learned more about the heart of God than I thought possible.

And now I am home.

I am processing it all.

In a whole new light.

I want to share more details in the coming days, as I think through it all.

And of course I am counting down, TWENTY DAYS TO CHINA!!

Sawyer & Malaine are Baptized!

 My prayer since I have found out I was expecting each of my children is that they would love Jesus more than anything, and that they would find friends and eventually a spouse that did the same.  To watch those prayers unfold is a true gift.  

Quite a few years ago Sawyer came to us and felt He was ready to have Jesus become His Lord and Savior.  We felt he was sincere, but he was very adamant that he did NOT want to get baptized.  We were totally OK.  We wanted to be sure, and wanted him to be sure that he was ready.  

This past spring Malaine came to us one night and said, "How do you know when Jesus wants you to ask Him into your heart? "  We talked through it and she said, "well I am pretty sure He is asking me to ask Him!" But, again we wanted to be sure so we told her to sleep on it and we would talk more about it the next day.  FIRST thing the next morning she came jumping in my bed and said "Ok, it's morning, I am ready!".  So, we had the joy of walking with our 3rd child into the family of God. 

We invited Ms Jenny over to talk through with the kids and plan their baptism.   We set the date and the kids were so excited to count down to their special day!

 Pastor Jonathan did a great job of calming the kids, and having fun before we got started!

 I love this one!

 Jonathan asked Sawyer why he wanted to be baptized.

 He told him because he wanted to show everyone that He had asked Jesus to be his Lord

 And his Savior. 

 Malaine was a bit nervous, she was worried about holding on to Jonathans arm!

 He is trying to get her to look at me, she is concentrating on that arm he told her to hold!

 Malaine told Jonathan she wanted everyone to know that Jesus was in her heart.

 Forever!

 

After church we had lunch at home with family to celebrate! 

 We wanted to present Sawyer with something special and after much thought, and google searching, we decided to present him with a sword.  Yep, a REAL sword. We told him it was part of the armor of God and this was the Sword of the Spirit.  He was very excited!

And for our princess?  A crown! We told her how she is now a daughter of the King.  I hope that someday maybe she will use this pillow or crown in her wedding! 

 Beautiful girl!

 So proud of Sawyer and Malaine, so thankful God has saved them! Now 3 of our children are believers and that makes my mama heart feel good. Thank you Jesus!

Donations for China

We are down to one month before we leave! I can't believe we are so close to being back in the land of my daughters. I am ready! Well, almost ready. Ready to love on kids, not so ready to leave behind mine, or packed, or any of that stuff.

Some have asked how they can help. Besides the cost of our trip, we also take over a donation to take the director of the orphanage shopping. So that means extra cash on top of our trip. AND we are bringing over things for the kids to do, along with things that the orphanages need. Here is a list of things we would like to take with us. If you are able to donate any of these things, we would greatly appreciate it!

For the children

• jump ropes
• play dough
• inflatable balls
• balloons for balloon animals
  
• winter hats for kids
• burp rags
• childrens triaminic thin strips for kids-all varieties
• crib mirrors to hang in cribs
• medicine to treat constipation in children
• tremadol
• lotions/soaps for super dry skin
• mens depends in size small for older boys
• children's vitamin drops
  

For the workers

• hand lotions
• soaps
  
• vitamins
• ginseng
• deoderant
• lipstick/nailpolish
• makeup (lipstick/nail polish in bold colors)
• aprons
• scarfs
• stationary
• sample size perfumes
• sample size coffee packs

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!