BECAUSE HE LIVES...

HAPPY EASTER. WE SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR!

How sweet to hold, a newborn baby
and feel the pride and joy he gives.
But sweeter still, the calm assurance
this child can face uncertain days
Because HE lives

Because He lives
I can face tomorrow
Because He lives
All fear is gone
Because I know
Who holds the future
And life is worth the living
Just because He lives

AMEN

Who Needs a Baby??

Carlisle (31)

BOY, born January 16, 2009

Med info coming, please check back soon.

"SANDERS "
Boy, Born September 2010

From his medical records: Cleft lip and cleft palate (congenital). Holds his head, turns around, coos, takes toy in his hand and plays with it for a long time. Sanders will be cleared for international adoption in December 2011. ***LOOK AT THOSE BEAUTIFUL BLUE EYES***



Praises to the Lord for protecting us during the Tornadoes! Lots of people lost their homes and even their lives. We are so thankful to be spared.

I am putting these profiles up of 2 sweet angel boys that I would have in an INSTANT if we could adopt again right now. For some reason I have always been drawn to babies with Cleft Palets/Lips . We even support the Smile Train who makes it their mission to go around the world and find children with these and does surgery on them to correct them. In so many countries and villages these children are outcasts and are even made to walk around the village with paper bags on their heads b/c it is seen as a curse. A 30 min. surgery can change everything but very few can afford it.

These 2 boys are in the country that Laurel was adopted from. There is not a place for these children in that society. Put them on your Facebook, blogs ANYTHING that will help them find a forever mommy & daddy and get the medical care that they need. You can find them on www.reecesrainbow.org and they are on the "other angel boys 0-5 page". Most of all, pray for these boys. Could one of them be YOUR child??

About a Tree...

I love the trees in my yard. They are 75-100 yrs. old and when they fall or have to be cut down I feel like I've lost a friend. Ok Ok I know what you are thinking..... NO I am not a tree hugger. I just appreciate them and their Maker :) Anyway, one of our trees in our front yard was almost dead, and leaning and the combination does not make for a safe place to play under. My Dad called the Tree Man and he came and felled it for us. He didn't cut it up so Uncle John and Mr. Fred brought their tree splitter over and we made an evening (or two) of it. Laurel was completely mesmorized by the machine. She sat on a log and watched it for almost 2 hours!! Noah got his fill and moved on to bigger and better things:) Gotta love a boy. Anyway, the tree is gone and the spot where it was doesn't look half as bad as I thought. So, we made the best of it and used some branches for camo on the babies tractors. Noah loved playing army. It's a good thing b/c that's as close to the army as he'll ever get if I have anything to say about it! ;)

Laurel Progress Update: I thought I'd give a quick update on Laurel's progress since we've had some events lately and she's at her 18month home mark. She continues to do fantastic! We've had relatively little adjustment with Miss Priss and I am grateful for that. Yes, having a hearing impaired child is tough some times but honestly....... isn't raising children tough period?? She's my sweet girl. She LOVES her little brother and their fits of laughing at each other do my heart good. She has had a breakthru in her speech development and can finally do the "t" sound. It amazes me how much we take for granted normal speech and language development. It is SO much work for her to catch up but she blows through it like a champ! We are once again facing tubes in her ears b/c of fluid that wont go away. We aren't sure however we are going to pursue those right now due to the fact that 3 weeks ago she was put under for tubes but they didn't check her ears prior to the surgery so when she was under they found no fluid and didn't put tubes in...... Just got the bill for that one to the tune of about $3000!! So, to make a short story long we just may wait a bit to see if this fluid goes away. We'd appreciate your prayers for wisdom. Oh and did I mention that in the 18 months Laurel has been here, she has gained 14 lbs and 14 inches??? Amazing what a little love and sunshine will do for a child. Consider Adoption.

Spring Has Sprung....and The Long Black Train

We are so excited that Spring has finally come to the farm! It seems like it has been a LONG winter and we are a bit stir crazy. So what comes with Spring?? Baby Chickens of course. We are trying to build our flock up a bit so we can keep enjoying fresh eggs (Laurel loves her eggs for breakfast). Also, Grandaddy had this bright idea to put our garden in boxes this year to help with the weeding and watering so we are getting those ready for planting. I LOVE it being dark in the mornings longer (the babies sleep in). I LOVE it getting dark so late! I LOVE everything about Spring. New life, new beginnings, how exciting!

I was at Aunt Ruthie's last weekend and it was 70 degrees. We were able to take several walks and I got lots of pictures. The peacocks are so funny this time of year. The males spend their entire time showing off for the females. The males are so vain this time of year that they look at their reflections in my car and start pecking it, chipping the paint off the car. They do this over and over, not figuring out it is themselves. They sure are pretty but not much in the brains department.

One more reason why I am happy Spring is here. Hopefully the flu & cold season is on its way out. Laurel came down with an awful cold last week and it turned into a terrible ear infection. I'm talking 104 fevers and up all night hallucinating. It was a pretty long week. Noah & I passed a much lighter version around and we are all feeling somewhat better today.

And as for the Long Black Train Video..... What can I say? American Idol is my guilty pleasure :)

CATCHING UP....AGAIN

Miss Priss & "Spice"
Bowling for Aunt Michelle's Birthday
(Above) LOVE this picture of Poppy... he almost busted it!!

"The New Recruit"
Show off

Birding at a local park
Shopping for fresh eggs
CUTEST BABIES IN THE WORLD!!!!



Do you ever just wonder where the days go?? Yeah, me too. Mike & I have made a decision to live life more purposely and actually make time to do some fun things.... Our goal is to not let life run us over. We want to stop and smell the roses. Since the weather has been nice lately, we've stayed out quite a bit.

--We've had a bowling party for Aunt Michelle. The babies LOVED bowling and we didn't even have any smashed fingers or toes! Nana & Poppy said they hadn't bowled in years but they did great!
--We went to watch Grandaddy & Uncle John at a Civil War Reenactment. Noah loved dressing up and carrying his "gun". He may be a new recruit.
--We've had lots of walks around the farm and Laurel really loves the horses. I think Noah could really care less about them, probably because he is so allergic to them and stays away.
--Last weekend we went Birding at a local park. You can check out a backpack with everything in it you need to see & track birds. The babies really got into it.
--We had some dear friends Brian & Crystal over this weekend that we haven't seen in a while. Brian has been fighting the war for us in Afghanistan and we thank him for his service. Our babies are close to the same age and had a blast dressing up and playing together.

Anyway, that's about all that is going on around here. I love being able to watch my babies grow up and learn new things. I thank God that I can stay home to watch them grow into the people God would have them be.

THINGS I'VE LEARNED....

Laurel has been here almost a year and a half and I thought I'd give a bit of an update on her progress. We we first felt the Lord telling us to adopt this little deaf orphan girl in a very far away place we were excited but as you can expect we were EXTREMELY nervous. Would she ever be able to hear, how would we communicate with her, what is her mental capacity, are there any more significant medical issues, will she get along with Noah and a whole host of other question ran through our minds. We truly believed that the Lord would honor our obedience to this call and work these issues out. Well I'd like use my little blog as a place of public praise to my Great God for the work that he has done in this little girl.

Here's where she is right now.

**She's gone only being able to eat mush to: Eating whatever you put in her path (especially Candy!!!)

**She's gone from having NO words or gestures (only screams): To speaking in 3-6 word sentences!!

**She has gained 11 lbs and 12 inches in a year (from 18 month clothes to 4T's).

**She LOVES her brother. Did I mention she LOVES him? She likes to dress him and has been known to try and wipe him when he needs help on the potty (and he's 4) :) Ah, boys!

**She went from not knowing what a Mama & Daddy are to: Saying "I love you" and giving hugs and kisses freely

**She went from NEVER laughing: To giggling uncontrollably

**She went from Rocking herself to sleep up on her knees: To, a pacifier and now mostly pacifier free!

** Oh and she's now 95% potty trained.

This little girl is bright, has a great sense of humor and loves her new life. We can't imagine life without her.

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.

RECAP

Michelle - Needs a family
Wendy- Needs a family








YES YES I know. It has been WAY too long since I've updated this thing. I love my blog, I really do but these days I find myself falling into bed around 8:30 right after my babies. Anyway, I thought I'd offer a recap of what's been going on around the Little Red House.

My wonderful husband surprised me for Christmas and bought me tickets to see the Ice Skating Championships last weekend. Yes, he went with me (because he's the best husband in the world) and we had so much fun on our whole day date! We ate lots of junk food, laughed a lot and watched the Couples skate and Ice dancing. It was amazing!

Noah is still quite enthused with Monster Trucks.. his newest love. However, I'm not sure if we'll be watching Monster Jam on TV anytime soon because tonight he saw one that looked like a dragon and apparently breathed fire. End of that. He almost had a stroke. He also is into the Lone Ranger. Years ago when children weren't in the picture I bought a few episodes at the Dollar Store and this boy loves them. He now dresses up and has the whole strut down and everything. Funny little boy. He is my sunshine.

Now as to what Ms. Priss has been up to. She is talking up a storm I tell you!! She has finally figured out sentences and so she's using 3-5 word sentences! All I can say is PRAISE GOD! When we committed to her we fully expected to have her be completely deaf and sign to her. We prayed for different for her however. God has been so good to us and she is responding so well to her therapies and all but one of her therapists! (Articulation in still hard for her so she doesn't do as well there). However, at her latest Audiogram yesterday, it showed her ear drums are not moving at all and she has fluid behind both ears. Her tubes(which lasted about 6 months) fell out in November and we were hoping to avoid them again but there is no way around it. She's gonna need new tubes. I can definately tell she's not hearing out of the left ear. Anyway, we'll do that in 2 weeks.

As to other things..... I am really advocating for little Michelle (6) who is on ReecesRainbow.org. She was in Laurel's orphanage and we just found out she was transferred to an institution! Very Sad :( about that. She will have no kind of life there and due to the fact that she has CP and is mostly blind she will probably be bedridden for her little life. If you feel the Lord leading you, PLEASE consider making a tax deductable donation to her grant fund for someone to go get her out of her prison! Or... better yet, someone go get her. She has $650 right now in her account (up from $150)!!. I'd love to see her get the full grant of $24,000 for a family to rescue her. Also, our wonderful faciliator Tatyiana went to Kharkiv to inquire about Michelle and so she took pictures of another precious baby who WAS IN LAUREL'S GROUPA!!! Her name is Wendy (6). Wendy is4 1/2 and in immediate danger of getting transferred. We saw sweet Wendy daily. She also has CP (seems more severe than Michelle) and is blind. Please someone consider saving Wendy as well. Laurel's orphanage was very well kept and the workers really seemed to care about the kids.

Anyway, All is well here. Hoping for some pretty snow tonight! I'll be helping my Great Aunt this weekend again so Mike will have the babies all to himself! ;)