Fatherless Friday - God is On The Move

Sometimes I can be a bit of an airhead.... Okay - maybe a lot of the time.

Last week when I posted my Fatherless Friday I was feeling really sick so I claim that as my excuse.

I posted "my kids".  The ones who are often on my heart.  The ones I have been yelling about lately.

When I wrote the post, the only two children whose grant accounts I looked up were Heath because a fundraiser is going on for him and I wanted to post his numbers and Jack because I love him dearly.  I didn't pay any attention to any of the other grant accounts.

Then on Sunday - sick and barely able to lift my head off the pillow except to lose Saturday's lunch - I received an e-mail and a link to THIS PAGE...

When I finally had the energy to open the page and look I was floored.  Absolutely floored.

It is a page for ALL the RR babes who have over $2500.00 in their grant accounts.

So what you ask??? So what???

GO LOOK!!  A whole host of MY KIDS are on that page!!!!!

A little over 6 weeks ago almost all of them had but a bare pittance in their accounts.  You could barely take your family out to dinner on what some of them had.  And most of them had been listed on RR for YEARS.

Now a bunch of them have THOUSANDS of dollars.  THOUSANDS.

And where did that money come from??? YOU GUYS.  So many of you who have faithfully and lovingly and sacrificially given over and over and over again.   Gifts of love from here, there and everywhere.  Gifts without fanfare.  Gifts without fundraisers or Giveaways.  Gifts from the heart.  Gifts coupled with prayers for families to bravely step out and cross the ocean.

Rejoice with me as I SHOW you the numbers below on not just MY KIDS  but OUR KIDS.

Your Kids.

HEATH.
Last week he had $800.00 in his grant account.... THIS WEEK HE HAS $2161.00.

PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TO HEATH THROUGH LEAH HARDWICK'S GIVEAWAY.... 

                                          BRENT                                                          SPENCER

                     In the middle of December Brent had 0.00 in his account... Now he has $3128.15.  

On December 12 Spencer had 600.00 in his account.... Now he has $7543.30

These boys were transferred to the SAME mental institute - they CAN be adopted together.  

  

 Jack.  

In December he had less than $100.00 in his account... This week he has $2285.10... Does this little boy know how many people around the world are praying and longing for him to have a family???  

   Paul                                        Nikita

                                                     $2,217.50                               $4706.00

Look at these numbers!!!  These two boys were at the BOTTOM OF THE PILE!!

Paul had $150.00 on December 12 and Nikita had $325.00.

    

                                                                                 

                            Danila                                     Yegor                                            Arina

                         $12,856.48                              $4045.00                                      $6680.83

Again - I am in total shock at these numbers!!  Click on Danila's link and see the updated picture of her!!  She is precious!  And Yegor!!  Arina!!   Are my eyes deceiving me???

         

                                                       Dimtry                                    Mark 

                                                      $3518.50                               $4190.00

We FOUGHT to get Dimtry over the wall and now look at how much has been raised.  Mark??  Sweet precious Mark??  My cup overflows.

  

   Robyn                                   Jin Wu                                   Sergei

                                $4739.61                               $3635.45                                 $8086.00

Precious babes.  Love in Action!

   

                                                  Meredith                                   HANSON
                                                  $6433.50                                     $124.00
Meredith had $620.00 in her account on December 12 after being on RR for 3 years.  Look at her numbers now!! Go Meredith Go!!  Hanson I have just added.  He is a TRUE LOST BOY.  He resides in a laying down room at Aaron's old institute so he definitely needs a lot of loving!!
                        

  

TWELVE OF THE SIXTEEN CHILDREN LISTED HERE ARE ON THE NEW RR MOVING MOUNTAINS PAGE.  These are the kids with the LARGEST RR grant accounts.  

NONE of OUR KIDS even came close to having that much in their accounts a mere 6 weeks ago.  I am in complete awe.  To see the love you have poured out on the Least of These....  It does a heart good.  Thank you.  

Keep praying for these babes.  They ALL NEED FAMILIES.  

We are removing the money barrier bit by bit.  So many dads and moms out there are terrified to jump off that cliff because they wonder how they can ever afford to pay for an adoption.  You are helping them see that GOD WILL PROVIDE.  You are helping pave the way.  Keep praying.  Keep giving.  Keep advocating.  I KNOW God is moving in hearts.  I know that some of these precious kids have families RIGHT NOW who are on their knees seeking the Lord's desire.   He is pounding on hearts.  I know this and I rejoice.  God is on the move.  

The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, 

      before the Lord of all the earth. 

The heavens proclaim his righteousness; 

      every nation sees his glory. 

Tornado Aaron

Proof...

He may be cute with his little winks and deep dimples...

But give this boy five minutes and a distracted and sick Mama and this is what you get...

Disarming smile or not...

He is a disaster waiting to happen!!

Flu Woes

Forgive my lack of posting... Mama is still sick.

I was supposed to travel to Lancaster, PA for a Christian School Convention tomorrow to share about BiblioPlan.  While there, I was also going to see two very special little girls....

Verity and Katie.  Sisters.  You may not recognize the one in the blue.  That's Katie.  Remember Katie??

The little one who was rescued out of a laying down room. 

Look at her now!!!

God is good!!

And not only was I going to get to see sweet Verity and Katie...

But I was also going to get to see another very special treasure.

My sweet Nithya.

In 2008 I had the privilege of traveling to India to help my friend Karen bring Nithya home and I was going to get to see her!!

I am so bummed.

Being sick stinks!!

It is also very very miserable....

Demolition Aaron...

Mama's sick. 

Mama's sick and Aaron is having a blast.  He is taking full advantage of Mama being completely down for the count.  The Aaron tornado has hit our house and it is going to take a month to dig us out!!  

Sigh!

Schooling Aaron

He came to us as a blank slate.

When you could get him to talk at the institute, which was rare and guarded, his speaking vocabulary had deteriorated down to simple discussions about machines and airplanes.  The two things he could see and hear while sitting in the empty shed day after day.  

He knew nothing.

Nothing.

All he had retained from his past life was a gorgeous smile and a God-given ability to find joy in the hardest of circumstances.

But whatever he had learned at the baby house was completely lost.  Wiped clean.

For our first six months with Aaron we focused on helping him feel safe and secure.  He wasn't ready to learn about colors and numbers and letters.  His learning centered around knowing that Mama and Papa were not going to leave him.  His focus was on what he was doing each day and where we were going and when we were going to go back home.  His mind could not comprehend past the deep need for the security of always knowing where we were and if he would be with us. 

Colors. Numbers. Letters.  They were of absolutely no concern to our shell-shocked little boy. 

Though he was six and was desperately behind, school was not what Aaron needed.

We treated him as we did our boys when they very very young.  We read hundreds of books, played games, surrounded him with creative toys, showed him his colors, his numbers and counted things over and over and over again.

Aaron had no trouble playing with toys, his creativity is endless.  He has a great attention span and he loves reading books.   He was happy.

In the language area he struggled.  We saw him learn s.l.o.w.l.y.  After several months he retained the color word red.  A few months later he started remembering yellow.  But it was slow.  It was discouraging.  We wondered if he would ever learn.

He could build ever challenging puzzles, he tried to meticulously color inside the lines despite his handicaps, he could figure out any mechanical device handed to him, he could navigate all around the computer, he could tell you how to get home from any point on the map but...

It took a year for him to learn to say the numbers to 10.  A year.  Despite our counting to him every day, a thousand times a day.   It took him a year to remember the words for four colors.  Four.


He just couldn't remember the words.  He couldn't keep them in his head.  Anything that didn't involve language was easily grasped and easily understood.  But remembering those pesky words.... He was again and again defeated.  It was hard to understand why.  Our theory centered around the loss of his native language at the institute.  A year where he received nothing.  The blankness of the walls and rooms.  The total lack of anything stimulating.  He lost everything he knew.  We weren't working with a six year old child who needed to go from his language to a new language.  We were working with a six year old child who LOST his language.  We were working with a child who was equal to a newborn babe in terms of what he knew.

We had nothing with which to compare.  There aren't too many studies of children who were in Aaron's shoes.  A cognitively normal child, treated as a severely mentally disabled child from birth and then at age five exiled to a mental institute out in the middle of nowhere.  How in the world??

We knew we needed help beyond what we could give him.  Speech. Therapy.  Adaptive services.

But we wanted him home with us.  We wanted to teach him and watch him grow.  We felt torn and frustrated.

We decided to get him tested through the school system.    The dreaded IEP.  We wanted to see what they said about our little guy.

Of course they fell in love with him as soon as he walked into the building.  You can't help but love Aaron.

His tests indicated that he or course desperately needed Speech, OT and PT.  They also indicated that he was way behind mentally.  This didn't surprise us.  But they did not want to label him as mentally disabled.  Everyone around the table believed after spending time with him that despite his struggle with language, Aaron is a very bright little boy.

We were so relieved.  We did not want him labeled either.  We know that he is extremely bright.  We believe with all of our hearts that if he had been born into our family that he would be at the top of his class, not at the bottom.

After testing and after much discussion, we decided on a rather strange but workable plan.

We are going to continue to home school him.  But he will also attend public school part-time.  He will receive OT, PT, Speech and will be attending Kindergarten 2 mornings a week during their math and circle time.  He will also go out to recess with his class 2 days a week and will do art, music and library.

By doing it this way we get the best of both worlds....

If we had chosen to home school Aaron full-time he would have only received speech from the school.
If we had chosen to put him in school full time he would have been placed in 1st grade and would have been completely lost in the classroom, but he would have received all the services the school had to offer.

By home schooling him part-time, he gets to go to kindergarten instead of 1st grade which is a much better match for him.  He also gets ALL the services the school has to offer.  He also gets to continue to learn his math and reading from us.

Those who tested Aaron all agreed that this was the best workable plan because he would be getting the one-on-one help he needed from those who love him best, but we would get some help in areas where we felt weak.

This past week was Aaron's first time in the classroom.

He loved it.

The children loved him.

We think for now this is going to work.

Fatherless Friday

These are some of "my kids".  The ones who break my heart on a daily basis.

Sweet Lost HEATH.

We saw him every day for six weeks.  We watched him as he was pushed in his wheelchair to the eating sheds.   Tiny little Heath sharing the wheelchair with another boy.  We would often see him sitting in the dirt, quietly rocking back and forth and playing with a dirty piece of string...  Sweet little Heath.  Quiet.  Serene.  Lost.  

PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TO HEATH THROUGH LEAH HARDWICK'S GIVEAWAY.... Heath now has a little over $800.00 in his grant account.  

HANSON

He is in the same place as Heath.  We never saw him.  Why??? Because Hanson is in a laying down room.  Hidden.  This picture is when he was at the orphanage.  This is NOT a recent picture.  

Poor little guy only has $124.00 in his grant account.  Who will love on Hanson??  

BRENT AND SPENCER

  

Both transferred to the SAME PLACE.  Both desperately in need of families.

How Long Oh Lord??

Oh sweet Jack.  

He now has $2055.00 in his account.  Will someone out there PLEASE be the answer to his prayers???

And the rest of my passed over babes... Oh No... I have not forgotten them... 

   Paul                                        Nikita

    

                                                                                 

                            Danila                                     Yegor                                            Arina

         

                                                       Dimtry                                    Mark 

  

   Robyn                                   Jin Wu                                   Sergei

   

                                                                               Meredith                                   

Some of my babes... Some of the ones who desperately need families....

Please pray for them.  Give.  Share about them on Facebook and in your Blogs.  We can't forget about them... these Fatherless babes... 

We just can't forget...