The Shepherd's Crook Ministry

Sunday we were blessed to have The Shepherd's Crook Ministry and its founders Scott and Kathy Rosenow with us. TSC is a ministry that has been around for awhile and has a spotless reputation.  In 2006 they featured Shad, as a hard to place orphan.  I got to know them through his adoption and have appreciated them ever since.  Scott and Kathy live what they preach, having adopted 17 children from about 6 different nations.  All of their children were "hard to place" either because of a special need or being an older child. 

Here is their FB page
https://www.facebook.com/tscorphans

Here is Kathy's blog
http://myfrontporchlookingin.com/2015/01/27/tampa-trip-continues/
Love this blog since it mentions us, my friend Angie and my friend Jan- They ministered at each of their churches this weekend and we are all contacted now for many years....

And this is their website
http://www.theshepherdscrook.org/

I urge you to consider giving to this wonderful ministry.  After hearing them speak, I am reminded again of the importance of adoption and the beauty of it!!!  They NOT only help children to get adopted but help the ones left behind.  I'm just blown away by their personal story and how God has led them thus far.



Kathy and Scott sharing

 

The kids singing

 

All of them wanted to meet Selah since they've prayed for her for so long

 

Jaden kept calling Shad "Papa"  Shad LOVED it!  He sat with him and talked with him all through lunch. 

We were honored to have them come and share about their lives with us.  These are the people I admire.  They make a real difference in the world and live what they talk about.  Again I encourage you to go to their sites and read about them.  Support The Shepherd's Crook if you can!!!!   Pray for them that God will open doors so they can help more children. 


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On a personal front.....

The house is moving right along.  We are still waiting on the windows where ever they are in the world....hopefully they will come in tomorrow!  Today we went by to meet a group of new volunteers who are working on the house.  Sarah was a bit upset as they were cutting the siding and the noise drove her crazy.  Steve was carrying her around.  When Sarah gets nervous she pats us on our back, Steve said he probably has a bruise from being "patted" on the same spot for about 20 minutes! 

Well my research about redoing our new van turned up a lot of issues.  I finally got a clear answer that a Kia can NOT be made handicapped accessible.  So as I began to look at trading in the van for one that could be refitted I found out that it costs $15,000 to remodel a van.  We have looked at some handicapped accessible with the idea of trading the Kia in BUT the lowest price we found was about $20,000 for a 12 year old van.  I'm very disappointed.  The doctor and company had bought this van before discussing it with us as a wonderful surprise and we so appreciate it.  After I found out it was a Kia, I knew that we had been told that our Kia could not be refitted when we first brought Selah home.  Then we were told it might be possible with an older van but after all of that it's not.  We couldn't have afforded it anyhow.   Right now we are just going to wait for a few months to figure out the best thing to do.  We need to get moved into the house first and get all that paperwork and financing done before we look at trying to finance a van for Selah but it has got to happen.  She is getting too big and it's not safe for her or us to move her back and to and in and out of a wheelchair.  She needs a van that she can be loaded into while still in her wheelchair.  If you would please pray that this will work out for us and soon!!!!!

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Cook-out

Wesley Chapel Toyota is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to help build our home.  They made a video of one of their work days.  It shows the home, complete with a drone fly over :)   Our family was there also.  I can't load it on here but if you go to my Facebook page below you can view it. PLEASE like the FB page too:)  Thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Real-Life-By-Yvonne/1405082996394656


Yesterday we picked up the van that was given to us by Dr  Bonati  of the Bonati Spine Institute.   It's a 2008 Kia Sedona.  Now we are in the process of finding who can make it wheelchair accessible for Selah.  It's funny we have a Kia Sedona that is grey it's a bit newer but everything is about the same in both vans.  We were originally told that our van couldn't be made handicapped accessible but now they have told us a Kia possibly can be modified.  We will have to take out some seats so that's why we couldn't do it with our van as we need every seat!   So I'm researching how we can go about doing it.  Just to have a vehicle that we can fit for Selah is wonderful.  Transporting her is one of the hardest things we do.

 

 

So we ran around getting paperwork done all day (we- as in me and all the kids)  No one got a nap!  Then we went to a cookout with the RV volunteers of Habitat for Humanity.  That was fun, getting to spend time with some of the folks who have worked on our house.  The little ones did much better than I would have though they would have done with all the traveling they'd done. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah had a friend feeding her baked beans. 

 

 

 

So these are retired folks who come to Florida (or several southern states) in the winter with their RVs.   They camp out at the HH's RV park and work Monday - Friday.  They are all an amazing bunch of folks.  Some commit to a 2 week time period, some are there for  months.  It's easy to see the friendships that are made and grown as they all work together.  I'd encourage you to get involved in something like this if you like to RV and to help others.  There are lots of sites like this one you can work on and I believe they also do this in the northern states in the summer where RV'ers can live on a site and work for Habitat! 

 

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Totally different subject....

 

I've been asked how we communicate with Sam, Sarah and Selah. 

 

Well Sam says NO- his only word besides Mama and Dada every now and then.  We LOVE when he says NO and we hear his voice.  Since Sam understands some receptive language- what he hears - we can continue asking basic questions like "does Sam want to eat ?"  until he makes his happy sounds - sounds like "wooda wooda" then we know what he wants.  He doesn't understand non concrete ideas like he wouldn't understand "are you in pain?" so that's hard.   It's like communicating with an 18 month old

 

Sarah also has more receptive language skills than what she can express.  If I ask her to come to me, she will scoot over.  If I ask if she wants to eat, she'll clap and/or open her mouth.  She has said Mama a few times but she doesn't say anything else but will parrot back vowel sounds and enjoys that.  She doesn't understand as much as Sam.  So with Sarah it's like communicating with a one year old

 

Selah is like a baby, we can tell by her face expressions and her body if she is upset.  We also have her on a machine that measures her heart rate and her oxygen level.  If her heart rate is high, she is upset. 

 

So basically think back if you have kids, just like you KNEW what your baby wanted, it's basically the same thing for us.  We know them and have learned how to meet their needs by the clues they give us. 

 

So since I've been asked that question a few times lately I thought some of you might be thinking it. 

 

 





Quick note!

As you can tell things are busy around here!  That along with too many annoying computer/satellite issues, when we move we will have the high speed Fios thank God!  I've lived in the country now for 10 years and even before then we only had dial up in our house which was out of the city limits.  We've never known the joy of real wifi  LOL SOON we will!

We went by the house today and the doors and some windows are going in.  the company sent the wrong size windows so we won't have them for a few more days but they'll all be in by sometime next week.  The siding is going up too:)  It has to fit up with the windows so it can't all be done until the rest of the windows are in but it looks great!

 

 

Here are some of the guys working hard.  the house was a beehive of activity today.  Some new volunteers were here so we met them and got a chance to know each other.  It's exciting:)

 

Well hope you all had a nice weekend and that this week is going good for you.  I have some longer blog posts coming but sometimes things have to roll around in my mind....

 

 

 



Crazy Week

What a crazy week....I think I say that a lot.....

Well Steve got the job and started training.  He's loving it. He set up a checking account today so he can have direct deposit and got a ATM card....LOOK OUT!

Monday was a hurry up and wait day for us.  I rushed around getting the kids ready for teachers and therapists and no one came.....

Tuesday Selah had a doctor's appointment.  We get her loaded in the van...and the van won't start....   So my nurse drove us.  On the way there we put Selah in the back seat and she was so stiff, it was awful.  We didn't bring her wheelchair because as we were trying to load it, it would not bend at all.  So when we got to St Joe's I went in and got a "regular" wheelchair.  Well by that point she was so tight and straight that all we could do was lay her in it and go up to the doctor's office.   Once we got there she had a "storm"...I was just about to have one with her by that point.  Luckily we were taken right back and could lay her down and give her her meds.  she calmed down.  The doctor's appointment was to see if she could have Botox injections in her legs to see if we could get her knees to bend again like they did before her hip operation last summer.  She is cleared to have it done, although the doctor is not sure it will help her.  What was so annoying is that his staff SHOULD have scheduled us for the Botox without this appointment as he had seen her and already ok'ed it before....  It made me feel good that he seemed annoyed with his staff. (It really made me feel good as just that morning I had called to confirm her appointment as I never got a call from their office.  It took me over 10 minutes for a receptionist to confirm the appointment)  So we talked to him about how we were going to take her home and he said we could put her in the front seat as it was more hazardous to her bones to have her in the backseat since it didn't recline.  She's so tall that her feet got stuck under the front seat on the way there.  On the way out of the office, I sat in the wheelchair and held her across me.  She is so long we had to be careful with her legs in the hallways.  The nurse pushed us out.  Our nurse said later she should have taken a picture, it looked like I was a new mom bringing home her new baby LOL   I don't know what people thought who saw us, but it worked.  She was much happier on the way home and more relaxed. 

Wednesday we thought we had the battery issue fixed, just thought someone had left the lights on....NOT~!  I went out to go to the Y and found it dead again.  Jon had to come home and jump it off, I picked up Shad from school early and then headed to a THREE hour wait in Walmart for a new battery to be put in...I was about to offer to do it myself when they finished!!!

Thursday Steve worked all day and Jon was involved with the prison's annual review.  He found out today that his portion with the chapel was in 100% compliance to all the state/federal regulations:)    That's a GREAT thing!!!!

Thursday night Steve spoke for a group of volunteers for Habitat for Humanity.  We all went with him and he did a great job.  The meeting was held at Wesley Chapel Toyota in one of their big conference rooms.   Steve did good and Shad helped hand out prizes, he loves to do that!

 

 

Here are some pictures from last Friday when Wesley Chapel Toyota folks worked on the house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today the roof is on, including the shingles....WOOHOO!!!!  Doors and windows go in Tuesday!

 

 

Hope you all have a great weekend.  Jon's bringing home Chinese for us to celebrate his good score on his review:)

Shad's 9 year "Gotcha Day"

Shad has been our son now for nine years.  His actual "gotcha day" was on Thursday and we celebrated it by going out to eat today and he got two video games on Friday. 

Shad is a very unique kid/old soul.  Everyone that meets him loves him.  He is very outgoing and involved in life.  When I first met him in China, he was interested and agreeable to go with me.  There was another little boy meeting his new family for the first time who was freaking out.  Shad looked at the other kid like he was crazy! 

I went on my own to get him as Sam was not quite two and was very sickly.   Also at that time, one of those Asian flus was making it rounds so I didn't want to risk the kids getting sick.  I flew out on a Friday and got to Chengdu China late on Saturday night.  Sunday I got some sightseeing in and on Monday morning we were off to the orphanage to get the kids.

 

We drove and drove to the outskirts of Chengdu to get to it.  When we finally pulled in, my heart was just bursting!!!   They escorted us into a small conference room.  No one seemed to really know what was going to happen next and THEN the nannies came in with Shad and the other little boy.  Shad was very interested in everything that was going on.

 

 

 

This picture was our first one together.  Shad looks a little questioning in it LOL.   He got over it quickly and we started playing together.  We had been told that he was totally blind and delayed....NOT!  I was busy trying to keep him out of things within minutes.

 

 

After we signed some papers and made arrangements to meet the next day at the Adoption Office, we all left.  Shad immediately fell asleep on my lap.  The other kid, screamed!   At the time I was feeling pretty superior to the other family now I know that he falls asleep as soon he gets in a car LOL!!

 

When we got back to the hotel, I took him up and gave him a bath.   He had on FIVE layers of clothes.  At first I had thought he was a chunky two year old but as I got the clothes off, I was sicken to see marks all over his little skinny body.  It looked like insect bites or welts.  His back near his waist was bleeding from this skin condition.  He only weighed 19 pounds once we did the medical exam the next week in Guangzhou.  I thought Shad was skinny weighing only 19 pounds at 2.5 years old until we got Sarah who weighed that at 5.5 years old!

 

 

This picture was after his bath.  He seemed dehydrated.  Luckily I'd brought some Pedilyte and a bottle

 

 

 

This is a picture the next morning of us signing the adoption paperwork.  Even the taxi driver got included somehow LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are pictures of us at the Chengdu Panda Rescue as we sightsee waiting for all his paperwork to be done so we could head off to Guangzhou to get the America stuff done. 

 

 

 

 

This is a picture in Guangzhou of Shad on our balcony. 

 

You know I absolutely HATE to fly....well to get Shad I had to fly to Newark NJ, then OVER the North Pole into Beijing, then from there to Chengdu which is like flying from NYC to Phoenix Arizona and that was on a China airlines!  I was by myself till I got to Chengdu which is as far from Florida as you can get on the globe-literally on the other side of the world!!!!

From Chengdu we had to fly to  Guangzhou which is like flying from Phoenix to Miami FL, again on a Chinese air line.  It was a cultural experience.

 

So the family I traveled with, the mom cried all the time.  She had her mom, her husband and teenaged son and she cried.  I was all by myself with a little guy who was pooping raw hamburger looking stools.  I felt like slapping her  (geez I hope she is not reading this but she annoyed the heck out of me!)  Once we got to Guangzhou, we met up with some other families who were adopting through our agency but most of them were first time parents and very serious.  The other kids were younger and all seem to cry a lot.  I was very thankful for Shad!!!  All the men loved Shad who would eat anything and eat them all under the table.  More than once I had to stop them from feeding him extra food.  Shad was rather obsessed with food.  No one could believe how much food he could eat. 

 

Shad was and is such a unique boy.  I have to admit the first few months were not easy.  He was very independent and strong willed.  He threw a few crazy fits, where he would throw himself on the floor and bang his head.....no matter what kind of floor.  We managed to get those little fits STOPPED!  While we always knew he was our son, it was a new experience for us, as Steve was such an easy going child and Sam was still such a sickly child, we'd never dealt with a child like Shad.  There were a few times I thought we'd "bitten off more than we could chew" but within a few months, he really began understanding FAMILY and that he could come to us for his needs.  He was always funny and engaging so we'd have plenty of laughs when he was in a good mood.  At one point I talked to the social worker and explained to her how defiant he was and the social worker laughed at me and told me I had a two year old!  She did assure me that we'd see some big changes at the three month mark and we really did.  Things got easier and easier with him as the months past.  NOW looking back, I really feel his behavior was just a regular two year olds behavior.  At the time, it was so different than the other boys' behavior that it was a bit overwhelming.  Now when I hear people talk about their post adoption issues, I realize we really did not have many issues.

 

Shad has no memory of China but does want to go back and visit some day.  He has become such a fun kid.  Everyone loves Shad and he is enjoyable to be around.   I'm usually the one to pick him up from school and we do errands together.  I'm always glad for those times so we can talk, just the two of us.  He loves to read and his reading level is very high.  We are reading some of the same books right now and we discuss them together. 

 

He has a very Southern accent and loves ribs!  He is more like Jon and me as far as being social.  He is really like Jon in many ways, it is uncanny and we love it!  He is comfortable in social settings that make me uncomfortable LOL  He has no fear of people not liking him!  We kid him all the time and instead of the show "Everyone loves Raymond"...it should be "Everyone loves Shad". 

 

He's a great kid and I'm thankful that God gave him to us.  We would have missed out on so much if we were not the ones who got to be his parents. 

 

 

 

Shad meeting Jon!

This picture is priceless!!!!

 

And some pictures from today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Busy Week!

This has been a busy week for us.

Yesterday Jon had the day off and we all went by our new house.  We didn't realize that there would be a large group there but the folks from Wesley Chapel Toyota was working on the roof.  We got to meet and thank many of them and take some pictures.  They had a guy out with a drone taking pictures of the work.  It was a lot of fun.  We'd never seen a drone before so that was interesting. 

 

here is the drone

 

 

the back of the house, the roof is almost ready to be shingled.

 

 

The next two I borrowed from HH's site.  They are from earlier this week.  We are pictured with some of the RV workers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is an adorable picture of Shad watching the roof go on earlier this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a good family day yesterday just going out to eat and then running a few errands together.  I was thinking that days like that make up the patchwork of our lives.....

 

I found Sarah's bed set yesterday and bought it.  She will go from a crib to a twin bed when we move and I found a beautiful quilt for her bed, the main color being PINK of course!   Even is she doesn't see her room, it's going to be a lovely, warm room, with a soft quilt and blanket for her. 

 

We stopped at our doctor's office and dropped off all kinds of paperwork for the poor man to fill out!  Literally have SIX different requests for each girl and a couple for Sam. 

 

Today we (as in me, Steve and Shad went through Sam's & Sarah's two toy boxes ( as in Sam's toy boxes- her tends to take her stuff) and got out every toy that didn't work, put I new batteries or threw it away.  I usually do that before Christmas but didn't have time this year, so now it's done.  I was afraid I was going to go into a seizure due to all the toys going off at the same time as we tested them LOL.  

 

Besides reading the Harry Potter series (I'm on book 5) I picked up some books at a thrift store.  One of them was "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" by Capt Ted Lawson.  What a great book about General Doolittle's daring bombing of Tokyo a few months after Pearl Harbor.   One of my father-in -law's close friend was on the Naval ship that the bomber flew off of and he was the one who pulled the things that hold the plane down, off of one of the planes.  He had some amazing World War Two stories to tell us.  I love WWII history.    I'd encourage all adults and teens to read it.  Good history from a personal aspect.   IF I believed in reincarnation and I do NOT....I'd think I lived during WWII as interested in it as I am!

 

 

 

We have a NEW thing that Sarah is doing that is not as fun as most things she does....she CRIES now....   Since we got her home (almost 3 years ago) she has seldom cried, maybe ten times.  Well that is changing!  She cried once on our NY trip and we think it was because the hotel bed was so high that it scared her.  We ended up making her a pallet on the floor as she was too upset to lay on the bed, even with me holding her.  Now this past week she has cried twice at the end of a meal when one of us has been slow to give her dessert -she loves her sweets.  Today she cried because she'd gotten her hands dirty in the back of her diaper, no one is sure how it happened.  she was in the living room and she most have noticed she needed changing and put her hands in it!  I was changing her to put her in the bath and she had so much poop on her hands that I told Steve to hold her hands so she didn't get poop on her face/eye area.  Oh she did not like having her arms restrained!!!  She threw a fit so I hurried up and got her in the tub and then she was all happy.  

 

It was nice having an angel girl who never cried but this is good.  When she cries, she finds it hard to stop and I feel it is because she had to keep quiet for all those years plus no one came to her cries.  Now I rush to her ( I can't stand to see her upset) and she is learning her needs are met when she cries, something that babies learn....    I am just glad I can be the one to go to her and give her comfort.  This is natural and a part of her emotional learning.  It makes my heart sad for all the orphans who have no one to care for them.....

 

Well just remembered I have to order some food for a luncheon after church tomorrow.  Hope you all have a good weekend!!!!

 

 

 

Winning Wednesday!

Titles are hard to come up with some days!

Yesterday I started classes at the Y.  I did Yoga and an aerobics class yesterday and today. Today I also met with a personal trainer and found that my BMI (Body Mass Index) is not where it should be!  She also taught me how to use some of the machines I'm not familiar with so between classes I did 30 minutes on the bike.  I'm just really thankful I am still able to walk! 

The classes I take are the "Silver Sneakers" class for older adults....let me just tell you, those classes will kick your butt if you do them just like the teachers tell you to do!  Of course there are folks who can't and there is no pressure but the classes are fat burning!  I thought the classes would be boring and slow......NOT!

Tomorrow I have to miss classes as Sarah has a wheelchair appointment.  Our PT felt it is best to get her a wheelchair that will fit her, instead of continuing to use a stroller.  Sarah will probably never walk long distances.  She still is not consistent with her walking skills and doesn't have a huge desire to walk.  However with me gone yesterday....she scooted all the way down the hall looking for me.  That made me happy/sad....I always worry what she is thinking if she can't find me!

Yesterday the trusses went up on the house and Shad and I watched some of it.
(oh boy my pictures came out normal!)

 

Shad standing in front of the swamp across the road.  He was hot in his sweatshirt, quite a warm day yesterday.

 

 

I love swamps....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well Steve got an email from the Department of Corrections and they are starting his background!  It had all the instructions and info.  He is really excited.  He also has a job interview tomorrow with Walmart for a part time job which is great because it will take a few months for all the paperwork to be processed.  He then has to wait his turn to get into a class, so it will be a while. 

 

 

This is a busy week for us!  This afternoon I made myself sit down and do paperwork.  So many different things to take care of for the kids.  We are putting Sarah and Selah on the Medi-wavier wait list and there is so much paperwork to do, I did get some done today so I feel a little lighter.  But I still have more to do.

 

Hope everyone is having a great week!