I'm back.....

So, the move to wordpress didn't go as planned.  I hated the format.  So, I am back to blogspot, and thrilled about it!  So much to catch you up on since I was last here....not sure that is even possible.  So, I will do a short recap.

We are a family of 8.  The Lord has built our family through biological and adopted children.  We love the Lord and seek to honor Him in all we do.  I am married to an incredible man of God who seeks His will for his life as well as our family.  I am one blessed chick!

Our kiddos range in age from 9 years to 17 months.  We are crazy busy, and loving every second of it!!

So, that your official recap.  Thanks for visiting!!

We are MOVING....

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An Outrageous Reality Around the World

Read this blog. Check it out for yourself. It's outrageous to me that a judge gets to determine whether or not a child deserves a loving family or should raised in a mental institution. Children with chronic medical conditions, down syndrome, etc are being locked away like they have no value, and are being deemed un-adoptable, despite the fact that there are loving families that want to adopt them.

http://oureyesopened.blogspot.com

My heart aches for this family, for this child. Pray with me that the Lord would move mountains, that the Lord would do a work in Russia, and in other countries on behalf of His children. Pray that He would do a mighty work in the very judge who is trying to keep this child from his loving parents.

Call to Action.....

One of my favorite verses is, Proverbs 24:12 and it says, "Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act."

This verse gives me such a sense of responsibility. It gives me an urgency to act. Emory and I believe this verse calls us to action for the orphans. He knows that we know there are 163 million orphans, and He expects us to act, He holds us responsible to act.

The urgency I feel causes my head to spin a little. I am not sure in what capacity He is calling us to act next. We own an adoption company, we have adopted 4 orphans, we are beginning the necessary steps to open a licensed agency sometime this year, but I still feel called to more. To something bigger than Emory and I can wrap our heads around.

I feel like a child with endless ambition. I sometimes forget that Emory and I can't rescue the 163 million orphans alone, although that is what I want to do. I wonder why more people don't want to rescue the orphans, I wonder how people can go about their daily lives and never think of the millions of children that are languishing in foster care, dying of aids and hunger as I type this, how there are orphans living in extreme poverty. I wonder how they can not think about this, when it seems to be all I think about.

Emory and I are often asked if we are done growing our family. That is not our decision. That is the Lord's decision. We stand here, with our "YES" on the table to whatever that means. We will go wherever He leads and seek His will for our lives and our children's lives with reckless abandon. I can guarantee you that our work for the orphans, our heart for the orphans is only getting stronger, and that our mission field is growing. I can promise you that the Lord is stirring in our hearts once again, He is opening our eyes to the growing number of orphans worldwide, He is preparing us for His next calling on our lives. We are excited to see what that is, and where it will take us!!

Pray for us as we wait on the Lord to tell us what is next. Pray for us that our hearts will be prepared for whatever it is He calling us to!

In the meantime, we are praying. Praying fervently for His will, praying for the orphans worldwide, praying for the organizations in place to serve the orphans and the widows, praying that the Lord would bless those organizations in a mighty way, so that they can continue in the plight of the orphans!

PRAY WITH US!

Little Boys...

Little boys are so much fun! Carson has really been quite the entertainment for me lately. He is such a boy! He is always dirty, he can be filthy 10 minutes after I scrub him clean in the bathtub. He eats like he is a pig in a trough. He is always covered in his food, and loves to play in the dirt. He is ALL BOY!!

Today he walked around the house with his jeans unbuttoned most of the day, shoes on the wrong feet, his hat sideways and he was quite pleased with the fact that he had dressed himself. He loves to play outside, catching bugs, chasing the dogs and collecting rocks! He is all boy. Today, I caught him outside on the trampoline examining the findings in his pocket, his loot. This is what he had in ONE pocket. It was jam packed.

All this in one pocket!

I guess I am lucky it wasn't a lizard, or a snake, seeing as how he found one today in the backyard. Normally, he isn't afraid to put a bug in his pocket along with all his little toys.

I love this boy! He is so sweet with baby Emmy, and sweet Collier. Every morning he says, "mommy, you aww da bestest mommy in da wold." I love to hear him say that! He also asks me EVERY morning if I am going to feed him breakfast. Like I didn't the day before. He is such a little helper, and he has no idea that on Sunday he is turning 3 not 6. He is pretty sure he is the same age as Michael and Aidan.

Love my sweet little Carson. He also knows his full name...he says it in such a sweet way....His full name is Carson Elias Lott...his version is CarsonLiesAlot. He says it just like that! Hilarious!!

Anyway, just wanted to share my sweet boy with you all! I am a lucky momma! I can't believe my sweet baby is 3 on Sunday!!

Lord, Thank you for Carson. Thank you for this precious, precious gift. I cannot imagine my life without this sweet boy, and cannot believe that we have been blessed to have him in our lives for almost 3 years. Lord, I pray that I can raise him up to be a light for you. Lord, draw Carson close to you.

I pray that he will come to know you as his Lord and Savior early in his life. I pray that he will be like David in Psalm 63:1. I pray he will trust YOU as Joshua and Caleb did even when others around him hold a differing view, Numbers 14:6-10 and that he will follow you, God wholeheartedly as these two did in Numbers 32:12.

AMEN.

The Starfish Story

Original Story by: Loren Eisley

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed

a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, "What are you doing?"

The youth replied, "Throwing starfish back into the ocean.

The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them back, they'll die."

"Son," the man said, "don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?

You can't make a difference!"

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,

and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…"

I made a difference for that one."

Love this story! So many of us get overwhelmed with the numbers, the number of orphans, and we think we can't make a difference. You can make a difference, for that one orphan!! I hope this little story encourages you as much as it did me, we can make a difference, don't let the numbers scare you, if you rescue one orphan, the number would go from 147,000,000 to 146,999,999! Imagine if we all rescued just one orphan!!

Can't imagine my family without the children we adopted! Boy, has God blessed our lives with the "orphans" we rescued!!

James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Back Home....

Well, we are home...and I must admit, I am a little bummed about that. Not because I love living in the hospital with Emmy, but because she was suppose to have a port put in this morning and it was cancelled, so we were free to go yesterday afternoon!

For those of you who do not know what a port is......it is a device that is placed under her skin on her chest, that gives direct access into a vein...so, you still have to puncture the skin to get into it, but it's already in the vein there are no multiple punctures looking for a good vein, there is no digging in search of the perfect vein, etc. You see Emmy has sickle cell, this is a blood disease.....when she is sick, well, even the majority of the time she isn't....her veins are really bad....as soon as they stick a needle into my child, her veins just collapse. There are very few people that are able to stick Emmy and get an IV in on the first shot....okay, let me change that....ONE person. Our favorite nurse on the IV team is the only person that can get her IV cath in on the first try. This nurse works during daytime, weekday hours only!!!

Anyway, back to the port issue. Her team had decided on Friday that they would put in the port TODAY, Tuesday March 1. Then her team undecided....they decided that she was a great risk of sepsis in her blood if we went the port route. SO, no port. Emory and I don't want to do anything that puts Emmy at risk for sepsis, that would kill her, but we do want to find a new protocol so that Emmy does not have to be subjected to the torture that she has endured for the last 14 months. She is poked at every ER visit on average, 7 times. That is an average.....that tells you that somedays she is poked many, many more than that. THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Can you imagine holding your child down to be poked that many times? It isn't fun, and it is breaking my heart.

Please pray that our team will develop a new protocol for Emmy in their team meeting today, pray that they would receive answers for all the lab tests that they are running, pray that the Lord would give them wisdom as they decide what is wrong with Emmy's brain, pray that the Lord would give me peace as I hold her down through this difficult time on her little body, pray for a miraculous healing for Emmy, pray that the Lord would wrap His arms around her each and every time we are in the hospital, and that HE would numb her sweet little body to the poke of these needles!!

Thanks for being so faithful to pray alongside Emory and I. We know that He hears our prayers, and we are believing that He will provide the answers as we have asked!