What Really Matters

Do you ever feel the prayers of others?

I want to thank you for praying! I'm not sure how many of you prayed for us? But I could feel them! It could have been just one or two of you, but I know God was in the midst and He was listening!!!

In a recent post I shared my new dream to travel with my husband and asked for prayer. Of course, I dream a lot about going back to Ukraine, but I think for now we are to share our adoption story here. I have no idea what that looks like, but I know God does! I just hope my husband will be preaching again and our hearts for adoption will be revealed and the orphans we left behind. 

With that said, let me tell you about several things that happened that encourage us!

Just the other day we heard from Vahan (Vagan in Russian), the Armenian worker we met at Lera's former orphanage in Ukraine. What a blessing! He called my husband's cell phone to let us know the Church we visited when we were there with him was praying for us and wanted to know how we were doing. Talk about God working, wow! I was so happy to hear from him, and I'm not the one that heard his voice! I just know he was on the other end of the phone talking to Jim and Jim was so excited to tell me he was on the phone with him!!!! Now Vahan knows I wrote a book and he is in it! :)

Then this morning before Jim went to work, I heard him praying after we read our Bibles...

(Jim has been working on a side job lately, he still works his full time job from 3pm-midnight.)  

...I heard him praying about another phone call he got at work yesterday...

It was from a Church looking for an Interim Pastor!

Of course I asked him about it :)!

He said he didn't talk to them...they left him a message...

I didn't push it, but I am anxious to find out how God is working, so please pray for us, and for God's continual guidance. This may not be where God will lead us, but I do know God is working and it is interesting for me to watch how He will open doors! :)

On another note, I too got a phone call from one of my book consultants this week. He wanted me to know he was sending me an e-mail with some different ideas and approaches on how to share my book. So please pray about this too! He will be calling me back in a few weeks to go over the ideas he sent me to think about. 

One more bit of news I have been praying about! My adoption agent is planning a trip to Lera's former orphanage in Druzhkovka. Only the children at the orphanage have the chicken pox and they are under quarantine. So please pray for the children that live there to be safe and for God to deliver them all from this outbreak. Also please pray for His Kids, Too! to be able to minister to the children at Lera's former orphanage...I am so excited!!!

Thank you for praying with me about all these things! What really matters is for more orphans to be looked after. As thankful as I am God blessed us with our our daughter, Lera, I know so many more orphans are still waiting! God bless you for all your prayers, for more orphans to be found, for each ones needs to be met, and especially for every orphan to love and be loved in their very own forever family!

Vahan and Lera 2009

Pastor in Ukraine 2009

Church in Ukraine 2009

Jim and I with Vahan at his Church 2009

Name of the Church we went to with Vahan 2009

Our dear church friends and their family! 2009

I linked up with Ellen Stumbo's Writing Prompt! :) http://www.ellenstumbo.com/what-really-matters/

Thanksgiving 2012

This Thanksgiving started off at school with Hannah's and Lera's classmates for a Thanksgiving *Feast! Christian holds up his edible turkey cookie and Lera holds up hers with some feathers missing. ;)

Hannah got new glasses on Thanksgiving Eve ! :)

Michelle and Howard woke up to some new piglets on Thanksgiving morning and sent us this picture! =)

Thanksgiving morning Amanda, James, Christian and Lera eating breakfast and watching the Thanksgiving Day parade! ~ Matt and his girlfriend Jessica stopped by later to join us! (Mikayla was with her mommy!)

 

Recap on our day: Alice kept the little ones busy making hand turkeys before breakfast when Amanda and I were busy in the kitchen. It was a nice day afterwards and the kids enjoyed playing outside while we got dinner ready. Caleb, Micah and Tim hung out inside on video games and joined the big kids James and Jim for Football games later while Rachel and I played a game of cards. Rachel won and not to mention the Redskins beat the Cowboys making a little history for some Norsworthy fans! :)

To Infinity & Beyond With Kool Aid Smiles & Hugs

Dear Crystal,

Thank you for who you are and what you left behind. Thank you for this picture of you with our little angels that you sent to me on Facebook (I remember it was taken in our home - you always had time for them! :). Thank you for being Rachel's best friend. Thank you for your smile, a treasure I will keep when the days are hard and the hope seems long for the trials we face without your face in our home, you left me this picture of you. Thank YOU! You are loved. You are beautiful. You won't be forgotten...

To infinity and beyond (the coolest tattoos by the way - even if I didn't know about it - thanks for doing that with Rachel - some surprises are worth keeping!)  I love you!

My Facebook post to Crystal- shared Monday, the morning after Crystal's accident from me to her wall): An angel left this earth yesterday. She was a daughter, a sister, a cousin and my daughter's best friend. RIP Crystal Benton ~ thanks for your kind and generous spirit and for your sweet smile. you were like a big sister to Rachel and we will all miss you! xx Our prayers go out to your family and loved ones. Our hearts are sad you left us too soon. But we will see you again! P.S. Please keep looking out for Rachel while your in heaven, you are her guardian angel now. Thank you. love you, from Rachel's mom...

 

Be determined to handle any challenge in a way that will make you grow.
~Les Brown

(copied from Facebook)

...fly high sweet angel...

I have a new dream!

Lately, it has been on my mind. But mostly, it has been on my heart. This month kicked off with Orphan Sunday on November 4, 2012. I wanted to share our story then, but God led us to go hear one instead. It was wonderful to be in the house of the Lord with other believers for the cause of orphans! On that day, we were privileged to go hear Amy Livingston tell how amazingly, God led her and her family on a chariot to Russia to go get their daughter!

* * * 

I tried to write this dozens of times...this is one of several tries! First let me say, God inspired a depressed mom, who couldn't understand why He gave her a sickly child, born with Down syndrome, but so desperately wanted to trust Him! ...He met me by still waters, at a man made lake, near our hometown, alone, at a place called Rocky Gorge...I needed to go there...far away from the noise, so I could listen to Him, even though I didn't expect Him to show up like He did! God spoke to me in a book I brought with me to read, titled, You Will Dream New Dreams! (above)

It was filled with parents telling their stories of having children born with different special needs. As I listened to each one tell how they took care of their children, I knew I was not alone, and I wept as I read each one. I asked God, "Will I really dream new dreams?" (please refer to my book, Chasing a Dream Where the Sunflowers Grow, ch. 6, Life goes on...) from there, God led us to adopt Lera!

I know God told me I would dream new dreams! Now that we adopted Lera, I hope to travel with my husband back to Ukraine one day, but for now, my dream, is to get the word out about the many orphans we left behind. They too, need someone to speak up for them, so they can be found! 

What a miracle it is to have both our daughters with us, now, knowing what they each lived through. Hannah with her many surgeries. And Lera as an orphan, abandoned at birth. I know God gave them to us for a reason, or they both wouldn't be here! Just like God led me to write a book about them. 

Sometimes, I feel like I'm hiding, and wonder who would want to read it? Other times I feel brave, and want the world to know their story! It's just hard to be creative without a lot of money, when the whole point of writing my book was to help more orphans.

When God led us to adopt Lera in 2007, Jim had a business making good money, but God wasn't impressed with what WE could do! He wanted to prove what HE could do! After we qualified for adoption, and signed the papers, our faith was tested, and we began to feel the bottom fall out. Jim eventually lost his business and his truck in 2011, but we GAINED a daughter! And I would do it ALL over again knowing what I know now! I'm happy our daughter is HOME!!!!! I would rather have her than anything money could buy! And I'm thankful God led me to get my book published. BUT I know there's more to do! SO MANY MORE ORPHANS ARE WAITING! It is my heart to be able to tell their story too! Will you please pray for us? Thank you friends and THANK You Lord. I WAIT FOR YOU!!!!!!!

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18 

Orphan Sunday

While I sit here thinking about it, daddy took our little blessings with him to visit the Bass Pro Shop. :)

I don't have anything special planned for Orphan Sunday, but God blessed us with two very special little girls brought together by adoption, so I wrote these letters to them.

Dear Hannah, Thank you for not giving up on me. Those first moments in time when you stepped through my comfort zone and I became your mommy, nurse, advocate, and best friend, I wasn't always good at taking care of you, but you didn't seem to mind, you still cried for me and wanted me there. Thank you for an awesome pregnancy. I knew you were special when you moved inside me like a ballerina. I felt you dancing, a tiny princess you were, stepping on my soul, making my heart smile and longing to hold you in my arms. Your day of appearance came like no other, with speed you danced into my world, and when you looked into my eyes, you took my heart where it had never been before. I loved our first night together. You tried your best to find comfort at my breast, tiring easily you found rest in my arms. The journey was difficult for you, and about to get harder, you needed your rest, the easiest delivery for me was also about to get harder, we both needed our rest. (To learn more about Hannah's birth and delivery, please read my book, Chasing a Dream Where the Sunflowers Grow).

Dear Valeria (Lera), Thank you for allowing me to be your mom. I mess up a lot and don't always understand how to take care of you, but your hugs are the best and I love your sneaky ways to get what you want. I know you can't help it and sometimes I just have to laugh instead of cry because you mean no harm. It's not your fault you were born an orphan. Abandoned at birth, you never felt the comfort every child deserves being held in your mothers arms. I didn't know you then, but God knew you. You had to survive the best you could until we understood God had a plan and let us know we were your forever family. The years you waited, you learned to survive, taking comfort in the presence of strangers arms. Before we met you in Ukraine, Daddy and I prayed and prayed for God to hold you for us, until we could hold you for Him. To this day, you still love to be held and are not satisfied with a hug unless you are picked up, where your arms and legs wrap tightly around whoever is holding you. They are the best hugs! You so desperately need them, and I need them too (I love dancing with you in my arms when no one is looking, singing praises and giving thanks to Our God for bringing us together!), just hope when you grow as tall as me, I can still pick you up, or maybe you will be the one picking up me? I look forward to our life together. Thank you for teaching me I can do hard things. It wasn't easy adopting you, but so worth it. I am not who I used to be. You changed my heart. I don't want to stop loving you or the country you were born in. My heart weeps for the orphans we left behind. I know if Hannah had been born in your shoes she would have died, without hope. I know that because she lived, you are now with us.

Thank you God for my sweet angels who flew from heaven and whisked away my heart and made me a better me...Hannah and Valeria, you are my twins, and the prayers of a desperate mamas heart for something she didn't understand, but God knew all so well. Hallelujah! Let the name of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermore. Psalm 113:2