Sarah and me before church.  she wore the bow all day!!!!!! 

 

Jon and Sam at the Farm Market

 

 

Some cute pics from yesterday!

Update on Selah!!!

This is hard to explain....Selah has responded before  to her cornea being touched BUT not to a hand moved in front of her face like it was going to hit her eye...well today she did! I noticed she was seeming to blink when the nurse was near so I waved my hand towards her and she blinked every time. It is a brain stem response that is a little higher up on the brain stem. I did it over and over and she responded every time! If I did it more than 4 times back to back, her response would start slowing down, probably because she was getting used to it. This is a GOOD sign!!!!!!! On the other hand she is still having MAJOR spikes in her blood pressure. Please continue to pray for more responses & low/normal blood pressure! This may put off our return to Florida date, which would be ok to us cause we so trust the medical care here!

 

We are really excited about thisnew movement!!!  This seems to show there maybe  some new brain stem recovery!!  I'm looking forward to us talking to the doctors tomorrow about it.  We want to ask again to have her re-evaluated for rehab.  We were told she wouldn't benefit from it since she had such little responses.  Maybe now they will reconsider, she has done more since when she was evaluated. 

 

We had a great day, Jon preached at Williamston Christian community church where some of our "snowbirds" go in the summer.  Ch 13 (the ABC station) videotaped his whole sermon!  A small clip was shown on Ch 13 tonight.  They picked out  some great  parts where Jon stressed the faithfulness of God.  You never know who is watching and what is going on in their lives.  If nothing else, maybe it can encourage someone to hang on to God during their trials!

 

Then we went out with a group of friends to Burnap's Farm Market and  ate outside...beautiful but cold (to us) day!   Then later  we met some of our old friends who we worked with in NYC years ago and went out to supper together.  What a great day and the best part was seeing more response from Selah!  Please pray it continues! 

 

She had the cutest, sweetest nurse who painted her toe nails with pink sparkly paint!  How cute and thoughtful:)   It just made me smile that she did that for Selah!!!   You could just tell the nurse loves her job and cares about her!  I know I say this all the time but I am so impressed with Strong's Hospital.  We are so thankful for the GREAT care she has received here.    She seems to be recovering form her dental surgery, although her mouth seemed a bit bloody tonight.  There was concern that she might have "pink eye" and she has been put on eye drops to make sure if she does, it's not contagious once she was on antibiotics for 24 hours.  We got a bit freaked out because of Sam's eyes!!!!  We've been scrubbing out hands!

 

So please keep praying!!!!!  Thank you!

Want to make me happy?

I have a good friend who has been in the process of adopting for sometime.  They were working hard to adopt a little boy with HIV & then his mom came back into the picture and they were unable to finish the adoption.  Then they were committed to going to get a beautiful little girl with HIV and a family in the little girl's country stepped forward for her.  Since then they have pressed forward despite their heartache, knowing that God had placed this desire in their hearts to change a child's life forever!   I know the heartache they have gone through and I really want to bless them.  They will be leaving soon for our children's country to adopt a child.  They are really stepping out in faith, not 100% sure of what child they will come home with but they know it will be the child God has for them.  The child they adopt will be Special Needs, with medical needs.  

So in support of Selah and Sarah would you give to their Family Sponsorship Fund?  They need around $2000 to bridge the gap, they've paid all their fees up to date out of their pocket,  living frugally...You can use either of the below web addresses to give through.  I could open both.  The top one has a cute little blurb that my friend wrote that will make you smile. 

This family will give this a child a wonderful happy and probably a bit spoiled life:)  Thank you for being a part of a miracle!!!!!


http://reecesrainbow.org/22613/sponsorcooper



http://static.reecesrainbow.org/donation-box/fsp-CooperOwen.html 

My favorite picture...

 

This has to be one of my favorite pictures....

It's Sam, Jon and Selah in the apartment in Kiev Ukraine after we'd traveled all night on a train.  Selah was so excited she didn't sleep all night!

Then she fell asleep on daddy's shoulder holding his hands!!!!

Strong's Muesum pictures!!!

 So very thankful for his life!!!

 Sam had to ride the train 5x!  he was so happy and cute on it

The kids outside the Strong Muesum

Sam and Sarah on the light up floor.  They loved it so much!  If I were ever rich I would buy them a floor that lights up!  they spent a very happy hour playing on it!

 

Yes Sam is resting on my lap so I can rub his back and he can look at the lights at the same time

 

Sarah's first ride on a merry go round.  she is actually really excited:) 

Dental surgery and Request concerning Selah

Selah's oral surgery went great. She had 6 teeth filled and 6 or 8 teeth pulled, most were baby teeth. We just want to thank Strong's Hospital and the Dentistry Department for working out all the details for us.   It was quite a job to get everything figured out and we really appreciate everything that went into getting it done for Selah.  She was originally scheduled to have this done in Florida this month but when the accident happened, that was cancelled.  It would have been overwhelming to schedule this after we go home with all that we will be dealing with.  Plus with all the problems she had with her teeth/gums she could have gotten an abscess or infection that could have affected her health.  Thank you Strong's Hospital for making things easier for us!

Once again Selah's blood pressure meds have been increased, she has a stronger patch and the BP is almost normal!  Finally!!!!!  Hope this will maintain, the last 24 hours have been the best readings she has had since the accident. 

We still don't know for sure when we will be going home, I don't think the details have all been worked out but we still think it will be next week. 

Please keep praying for Selah!  Tonight driving back and to when I was alone, I just plead with God for her.  I reminded Him how very thankful and grateful I had been for my life & how I asked NOTHING but that  He keep us healthy and all together.  I reminded Him that I didn't ask for anything else.   What came back to my mind was the word that was given to me by the German "tourist" (angel???)    at the Brandon mall...."Something BIG is coming for your family, Something is ahead of you soon and God doesn't want you to be afraid, many will see...."  I know that was a word from the Lord to me.  and that just floors me and actually makes me tremble that the God of the Universe would take the time to send me a message and it gives me courage to go on.   I wasn't promised a miracle but I was given assurance that I didn't have to be afraid.    Can you believe that God took the time to send me that message?  That blows my mind.  I am soooooo glad I wrote about it on FB and was able to go back and read what I had written so I know I didn't imagine it or was remembering it wrong!   I did laugh a little about it at the time  and thought it meant we'd adopt the other three children that we grew attached to while at the Ukraine institution our girls were at....everyone told me to go buy a lottery ticket (the lottery was really big around then)  we kinda laughed about it but I knew in my heart that the lady was not a looney toon... I sensed something when she spoke, I so wish I'd paid more attention to what she said, I have such a bad memory for details.   But maybe that was just what I was supposed to remember....God knew what was ahead, I don't have to be afraid and many will see....  I have to constantly remind myself NOT to be afraid....  In my flesh, I'm afraid of the future, scared witless, to be honest!  But my spirit is not afraid...I'm not claiming that God is going to heal her, I do not know but I KNOW He will be with us. 

The joy of serving God and walking through tough times or times when I've had to really hang on to God's hand, is that when a new trial comes, you know that God has been with you before and He will do it again!  This year 2012 has been an amazing year for our family.  We have seen and experienced God's hand like no other time in our life.  We have learned to trust deeper and more confidently.  We have seen some WILD answers to prayers and have even been blessed above what we have even asked for or thought about., during our adoption.  We had miracles in Ukraine as far as paperwork/court process/facilitator/lodgings/favor....  We had the miracle of two little girls who were older, delayed and instiutionzed come into our family with NO issues whatsoever!    We had crazy miracles of provision...    Then the accident.....and even then there were miracles with the medical students and doctors who were at a picnic nearby who ran to help and had the training that was needed.  It seemed God had everyone right in place to help Jon rescue the children.  Sam survived with no issues, his eyes didn't even get any infection from the water.  Selah survived despite what every doctor said to us in the beginning..so we have been blessed in many many ways.   Just typing this, has encouraged my heart and spirit.  We serve a good God.  How can I but trust Him???   I will not  question God foolishly...I will not turn my back on Him.  Even if He doesn't do what I want Him to do, I still am going to say I serve a faithful, good God!   I can trust Him!

In that vein....I was going to save this for later but it seems to fit nicely now.......
(I may lose some of you now....but...)

When we get home, we have some requests....If you come to visit us/Selah, do not come because you think you are the one to "pray the prayer of faith"  don't come arrogantly demanding that God does this or that because I will stop you and ask you to leave.  Respect our theological viewpoint that we trust God, we don't tell the God of the Universe what to do.   We aren't "speaking Life" or claiming anything, we are not "name it/claim it" and never have been.  We believe we try to interrupt scripture within the context of the Bible and take the whole bible in context, not just little bits and pieces.  Don't come unless you are  going to be with us for the long haul.  This is going to be a long walk and we don't need any "fly by nights" coming in and doing their christian voodoo...If you're not going to be there for the long haul, with us don't bother coming.  I don't mean to sound mean or nasty but I'm at a point where I am very focused and I don't need to have to deal with anything or be fakey polite. 

Also we have had someone come and pray for Selah who prayed that she would be healed and totally "normal", with none of the delays she had before the accident.  That REALLY bothered both of us.  She was PERFECT to us before the accident!  We chose her and Sarah and felt like we were getting beautiful little hidden jewels!  She is still perfect to us but so far away and we miss her!  The point is Selah (Sam and Sarah) were made by God and we were not and are not ashamed of their delays/mental retardation.  They are beautiful to us and we love the way God allowed them to be born.  I can't imagine any of them being any different.  In the beginning with Sam we did ask for God to heal his mind but we quit praying like that and I believe we began accepting that Sam was fearfully and wonderfully made JUST the way he is!  His DNA is so unique that I just have to believe that God made him that way.  You may not believe like we do, but do not disrespect what we believe.  We live this life, not you!  God gave him to us and allowed us to adopt these perfect girls!  They might not be perfect to you and it may bother your theology that we accept them just the way they were born mentally.  I've yet to read/hear of anyone EVER in history who was born mentally retarded (and no the word mentally retarded does NOT bother me IF it is used in the right context)  and then healed later.  Can we just accept that God creates us all differently???

Now I can pray that God heals Selah from the affects of the accident and maybe that doesn't make sense to you but if you can accept the bible says in Psalms 139 that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made  then that does two things for me.  One it lets me know that the children are fearfully & wonderfully made.  Two, we want to see her come back to where she was, where God made her.

Maybe God allows children to be born different so it will teach us all to be more accepting of others and more loving.  As a society, we are only as good as how we treat our "weakest" members  I didn't understand that until I had Sam and then found what a precious Joy he brought to us.  His life keep us tender. 

You may not understand what I'm writing but we have dealt with some CRAZIES since Sam was born and I've a bit tired of craziness!  It's only gotten worse now and I'm done with it!  Someone just cornered my husband and told him it was up to him to get Selah healed....wow...that really puts the respondisibity on my husband huh?  Good thing #1 was that I was not there.....LOLOL  #2 that our trust is in God not Jon's or anyone else ability to "get Selah healed"  

Do people not realize some of their theology is NO different than voodoo???  Really...when you think you can manipulate God (or a god) then you have more power than God.  So if you think by reciting certain scriptures or singing certain songs, praying certain prayers a certain way or whatever will make God do what you want, then your faith is no different than someone who trusts in voodoo.  There is no formula to get God to do what you want.  Is it so hard for us humans to just sit back and let God hold the reins of our lives?  Can we not trust the Creator? 

I'm not saying God delights in tragedy or causes it  but we live in a fallen world, these are the effects of sin.  Death reigns in our mortal body.  I don't think  God caused the accident nor do I believe it was "Father filtered"  (dear God deliver me from silly christian slang that makes me want to throw up)  (Father filtered means that God only lets things happen in our lives that is filtered through him, basically meaning He puts his stamp of approval on it...weird way of thinking to me!)  I believe based on scripture that things happen in life, God knows what lies ahead and in His mercy may prepare us and He will certainly walk  with us through it.  I don't believe God micro manges our lives but I believe that He does bless us in ways we don't even understand.  There is a balance there and I am trying to stay right there, in balance.  ( maybe at some point I'll discuss Arminianism  vs Calvinism which are the two main thoughts of Protestant churches.....we  are Arminianist believing in the Free will of man  and that God knows in His Foreknowledge  but He chooses to limit Himself in His dealing with man by not making man into robots that are preprogrammed)  Most of the discussion between the two camps are more in regards to the issue of salvation but for me it goes much further than that.  I'm not sure I can explain this subject clearly at almost midnight....but I'm sure I will revisit it again!!!  The reason I feel I need to share this is a forewarning to be honest...disclaimer here...if you act crazy from this point on, you will be stopped! 

So if you are still my friend....let me know:)



This evening I drove down to Mt  Morris to pick up our friends' son to spend the night with the boys.  I dropped them off at Laser Tag for them to play a couple of games.  We have some sweaty happy boys:)  Driving to Mt Morris is the furthest south I've been in 6 weeks!  It's such a beautiful area, rolling hills, fields of corn...cute little Village...

Today the weather has been odd, warm and rainy then chilly.  Right now I'm freezing again!     This is me with my comfy Pj's(thanks Loretta!) on and my nice homemade slippers (thanks future DIL!!!) and nice blanky (thanks Kelly)  I'm sitting in the cornor of the  small tv room our family has kinda taken over at the RMH:) writing my blog!  (actually this pic was taken a few days ago but I'm wearing everything again and am in the same spot LOL)

Strong's Muesum and Update on Selah!

I took the kids to the Strong's Muesum today, as a late bday present for Shad. It's an interactive play place for kids. We had a blast:) Sam ENJOYED the train ride ( 5 times he went on it!!!) And he and Sarah LOVED the light up floor. I sat there for an hour with them while the boys played old video games. We all had a good time together Today Jon stayed with Selah. She did good, her BP is still a bit unstable and final plans haven't been made yet for transfer to Florida but we still think it will be Tuesday or Wednesday. Tomorrow they are doing her oral surgery thankGod. We had seen two dentists before the accident and she had been referred to a thrid for the surgery as she had so many teeth/gums issues. We are thrilled that she will finally get all of it taken care of here and ahve some time to recover. We appreciate Strong's Hospital for setting this up for her!! We feel it will protect her from prombems in the future. Knowing that we'll be leaving soon, I've been going through all the things we have collected in the past almsot 6 weeks! It is such a blessing to have all the cards from so many of you all. You really don't know how much everything has meant to us and you'll probably never get a thank you card although I have saved everything that had an address on it! but we do thank you for our hearts!!! I've tried 3x to post some pictures from today and it is just not happening! Blogspot has changed alot of things and it's not working! Even my post is looking odd when I hit "preview" Sorry I had some cute pictures of the kids. Will try later to psot them Please keep Selah in your prayers tomorrow around 1pm when she is having her dental surgery!!!! Thank you all!!