These past few days

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU READ the other post FIRST before reading this one.... it is called THREE MONTHS!!!!

First, i will tell you that God is faithful.....even when i am NOT!  My God is an amazing God and He has been One who has brought me such amazing times with Him through avenues that are not the 'typical' avenues.  A verse or a song on the radio or even on FB or messaged to me were like rain on a parched soul.  There was the VBS cd that Victoria was given early as she was a helper and was able to have it come home with her from her helper meeting.  Those songs had meanings that no one could have known.  DEEP meanings where when my friend was sitting next to me at the much later last day of VBS performance heard my heart over the words that were being sung....she was seeing what i had heard and it moved her.  GOD IS SO FAITHFUL isn't He???

One day is one that is embedded into my heart as a Mommy....a time when i was putting Ethan to bed and he was SO very sweet and our time together was SO amazing....he called me MaMa too that day.  The Lord gave me that time as a true gift as those next weeks were some of the toughest that i could have dreamed.  Another thing that brought me through my toughest days....a friend whom i am most grateful for told me that she had been told that when one adopts a child that that child is NOT the age that the paperwork says they are RATHER they are a BABY emotionally speaking SO BABIES bite and hit and pinch and pull hair!!!  THAT FACT went through my head MANY MANY times!!!  SO grateful that she shared that with me!

Bonnie is a friend who would just pop in and drop off a bag of chocolates or a great find...a tool toy for Ethan.  She would text me a message.  A friend fb messaged me verses to meditate on and oh my it was SO needed!!!  Another friend came over and brought a pizza and ate with us.  Several women let me know of their love and prayers....mostly women that i have never met before.  One woman prayed 'out loud' on FB for our family and she did it often.  I am grateful for these things and more.  My dear Mother-in-law....a blessing to me as she wrote every single day on FB....her support has meant the world to me.

Through all of those VERY hard days, weeks and these months....our girls were IN the thick of the craziness.  Ally was gone for six weeks of this and she was preparing for a lot of that time before that.  Vica and Catia had their lives changed in a WAY bigger way then we had prepared them for and thankfully they have stepped WAY up to the challenge.  I am forever grateful for their VERY INVOLVED help on a daily basis.  Liz and Nate stepped up to the plate and when i found out that we were NOT going to be just one night at the hospital they volunteered to spend the nights with our younger girls!

This past week has been amazing and a lot of it has to do with friends that answered the request for help.  Women came and helped with laundry but especially with meals!!  OH MY how that helped me out SO MUCH!  Ethan was NOT eating and Sophina was NOT doing well with her eating either and to have time to also take care of the eating of the rest of us....UFFDA!  SUCH a blessing!

These past four days have been as if i had not been breathing before and i finally am able to now!  I have been able to have alone time with three of the girls in these days and OH how i had missed that!!! I was able to get caught up on laundry.  Today, i am in the weeds on that AND dishes but i HAD to write this update and the other post as i PROMISED myself that i would on Ethan's three month anniversary.  (i missed the other ones)  I feel like baking and cooking and visiting people and getting out and being ALIVE!

Ethan has been wanting me to hold him and he is allowing me to cuddle him and he is reaching out to his siblings and being WAY WAY more loving.  He IS still doing SOME acting out but NOTHING like before!  He is EATING!!!!  He is NOT drinking BUT i am figuring out MANY things that can be doused in his rice milk ;)  He is sleeping more often in the laying down position!!!  He is more content!!!  He is acting as if he has given in to the fact that these 'workers' at his new 'orphanage' are NEVER going to leave him alone SO he might as well accept them and treat them as if they are FAMILY!!!  Even a week ago, i would have never thought that i could feel like this again BUT i am THRILLED beyond belief that we are where we are at with Ethan in our family!  I have always known that we did what God asked us to do and that it was WORTH IT BUT i LOVE it....i absolutely LOVE it that we have Ethan and that he is our son!  Our daughters are LOVING their brother this week and are warming up QUICKLY with HOPE that this trend is continuing and will just grow in leaps and bounds!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if God is calling YOU to adopt.....YES, it IS hard!!!  SOME harder than others BUT it is OBEDIENCE that God has called us to....NOT easiness!   IF God has laid it on your heart to bring home a child who is in need of a family.....DO!!!!!  IT!!!!!  God is faithful and even when He is dragging you through the sand of your life where those footprints once were of yours and then just His.....LET HIM drag you at least BECAUSE one day again....YOUR footprints will be back in the sand SKIPPING beside His!!!  THANKFUL that He is ALWAYS FAITHFUL!!!  ALWAYS even when YOU are not!!!

ALWAYS BLESSED!!!  Connie for the crew!