Update, Friends from Afar, and an Amazing Opportunity and Gift!

Selah is doing great but has had a low grade fever.  The plans are for her to come home tomorrow.  She is coming home on an antibiotic that goes into a nebulizer  and one for her gtube.  Both were hard to find and the hospital has already gotten me one and is getting the other tomorrow.  It was very complicated and I'm thankful for the help.  I will be so glad for her to be home! 

Today our dear friends George and Ruth stopped by to see us  They were in Florida on vacation and took time out to come and see us, that meant so much to us.  We all worked together years ago in NYC at Teen Challenge and City Church.  We visited them in Philly a couple of years ago and shared lots of laughs.  Today was really neat seeing them down "in our neck of the woods" and showing them our church and the wildlife around here...and the "Spanish moss trees"LOL  Love them, they are such an encouragement to us!

 

Brownie had to get in this picture!  I LOVE this picture:)

Jon, Yvonne, Ruth and George together again:)

 

Good times....

 

Two days in a row, we had friends visit from hundreds of miles away...so thankful that they all took time out of their vacations to come and see us!  It really means alot:)

 

I think as one grows older, friendships, begin to mean more to you than ever.  Knowing that we don't get to see some of our friends for years make us appreciate when we do see them.  Makes me look forward to heaven too, knowing that one day we will all be together....

 

-------------------------------------------

 

 

I have been given a HUGE Gift....a friend who wishes to remain anonymous has started an Orphan Fund through our church.  This friend is giving a set amount monthly...then I get to find an orphan/adopting family to give it to!  WOOHOO!  How fun is that?  I won't have any trouble finding someone,  I feel blessed to have this opportunity to do this!  The donor suggested that this might encourage others to give also so we can give larger amounts monthly...so you can give by sending a check or money order to Grace Church 7060 Berry Road, Zephyrhills Fl 33540 and mark it Orphan/Adoption Ministry!  Every penny will go to an orphan ministry or a family in the process of adoption.  All of the adoptions I have given to, the money actually goes on a grant for the child, in case the adopting family backed out, the child would still have a grant in order to help another family. 

 

This donor has set up a recurring deduction from their checking account, where their bank will automatically send the church a check.  It sounds easy to do, although I'd never heard of it.  I may also set up a PayPal account for the Orphan/Adoption Ministry too but I'm not sure how complicated that is. 

 

I'm just so excited to be able to be a part of this!  I love to give and see things happen for others:)  There is nothing dearer to my heart than reaching out to orphans, I believe it is near to the heart of God also.  Although knowing and seeing all I have, has broken my heart, but  my heart is just thrilled when I see a child rescued and placed in a family.  It's REDEMPTION...

 

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

So looking at my  pictures from Ukraine, I did not take any till the 20th when we went to court.  I must have left my camera back at the apartment.  I can't believe I missed a day much less 3 days!  Geez! 

 

Tomorrow I will load some random ones our facilitator took of the area as he was running around doing tons of work for us.  Selah had siblings and there was a court action that had to be taken on all of them, similar to a divorce, before we could proceed with court.  Our facilitator did so much work.  he would tell us"today there is much to do, very special situation"  he would also tell Jon "Jon you pray and God will work it out"  And he had total faith AND God did work it all out, it was so complicated.  But things worked out very quickly.  Sarah's paperwork was much easier and didn't require all the running around that Selah's did.  I believe she had 4 or 5 siblings so it was complicated. 

 

So during this time last year, we were anxiously awaiting court, waiting for various documents to be done...waiting...  We even had a pre court appearance before the judge for some reason, that was "interesting"   We were visiting the children daily. 

 

We would walk downtown to the park so Sam could play on the swings, it was warm spring weather.  Lovely sweet time.