My nephew visits his mom

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flying home from ft lauderdale

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RAINFOREST CAFE IN FT. LAUDERDALE FLORIDA

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In The Garden Mother's Day

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What does Ethiopia look like????

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FLORIDA VACATION APRIL 2007

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camping pitures 2008

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Christmas cookies

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God still sends me Rainbows

Today God was talking to me even in the car on the way to church. My 13 year old daughter was looking up out the van window (I thought at the sky) on the way to church. These were her words to me. "Mom do you know that God knew all along what he was doing even a along time ago". I asked her, " Lauren what do you mean. She said, " God must have made those birds and squirrels feet out of rubber so that when they run up and down those power lines they don't get shocked and die." Lauren has always been an amazing child whose thought process has always amazed and amused me. She has always had a great memory until 7 years ago when she became very sick. She began running a fever of 104 one day. The doctor said she had strep throat and sent her home. The next day she woke up she had red spots over her entire body, even on the bottom of her feet and the palms of her hand. She was still running a 104 fever and she only wated to lay around all the time. Her doctor was not in town that day so I took her to a different doctor. He said that she must be allergic to the medicine so he changed her medicine and sent her home. The third and fourth day now she is still running a high fever of 104, her red spots have not gone and she still continued to lay around. I call to see her doctor, but she is leaving at 12:00 that day to go out of town. My sister is a nurse in a hospital about thirty minutes from our house and she tells me to bring her down to let one of the ER doctors look at her. She is not running a fever when I get to the hospital because we have been altering Tylenol and Ibuprofen every four to six hours. The ER doctor says, well she's not running a fever so maybe the other medicine she is taking is now beginning to work. She fell asleep on the way home that night, but when she awoke the next morning her fever was back up to 104 and her red spots were still completely over her entire body. On Monday morning after eight days of running a high fever of 104, she was admitted to the hospital. After several tests the doctor informed me that her liver function was elevated and after giving her a spinal fluid test the doctor ruled out meningitis, but she did have encephalitis.Being a special educator, I knew very well what problems encephalitis could cause to my child. The doctor still didn't know what was causing the high fever and the red spots over her entire body. She took her off all the medicine, began giving her IV fluids and began running several tests on her. After two days in our local hospital, she was sent by ambulance to Egleston children's hospital in Atlanta. Egleston's symbol for their hospital is a beautiful colorful RAINBOW. She was put into a room with a note on her door "Infection Control" All people entering should completely dress in coats, gloves and masks. Of course my husband and other family members did not have to because we had already been exposed to her illness. My husband stayed during the day and went home in the evening to be with our other three chidren. I sat in the rocking chair in Lauren's room and watched my six year old just lay there still running a fever with spots over her entire body, and not wanting to eat, she was having to wear a diaper and had several IV's of medicine running through her. By the 12th day of her sickness, her veins could not take anymore IV's so they had to insert a pic-line. This was a scary procedure for her and us. The people at the hospital and the people in my hometown were all praying for her. One school even had her name taped on their desks to remember her in prayer . On the 13th day, the doctor's were still waiting on results so everything that they thought that Lauren might have, she was on Medicine for in the hospital. I had a peace the whole time I was with Lauren in her hospital room, but I was getting anxious not knowing what was wrong. I did not have my bible with me at the hospital, but I knew God was in my heart. I prayed to God and I asked him, God I know you healed a man in the bible who had leprosy by telling him to go wash in the water seven times. My daughter can not get up to go get in the water in the bathroom, but I have this wet washcloth in my hand and I am going to wash over Lauren's body with it seven times because I beleive that You can heal her if you so desire. The next morning when Lauren awoke, her fever was gone and all of her red spots were gone. GOD IS AWESOME. We were able to take Lauren downstairs in a wagon at the hospital to an arts and crafts activity they had for the children in the hospital. She was really to exhausted to do anything, but she enjoyed being able to get out of her hospital room of confinement. While we were downstairs the doctor came and found us and told us to return to our room. We didn't know what was going on. The doctor told us that we could take Lauren home and she would continue on her medicine for two to three weeks. Lauren would need to stay out of school for about a month and should visit a physical therapist until she could regain her strength. As I was getting Lauren ready to go home I was preparing her things and worrying about the road ahead of us now when we got home. In my mind I was thinking, "how much has this encephalitis affected her brain, How long will it take for her to walk and run again, how much as she forgotten as a result of this brain swelling". God had just performed a miracle within her hospital room and I was still worrying. Lauren had not spoken much during the two weeks of her illness and I remember complaining before she got sick how much I wish she would just be quiet so I could think. Now I wanted her to talk so I could know that everything was going to be allright. The nurse walked in our hospital room and handed me a box of markers. She told me since it was time for Lauren to leave she could draw a picture on one of the tiles on the bathroom wall before she left. You see all of the children at Egleston get to draw a picture on the tile the day they leave. Lauren took her markers out of the box and God talked to me as she began her drawing. Lauren used just about every color in the box to draw a RAINBOW. For those of you who learned the correct order of the colors of the RAINBOW you know the acronym ROY G BIV. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. Guess What Lauren remembered it too, When she drew that RAINBOW -God told me that Everything was going to be O.K.. A week after Lauren came home from the hospital-The doctor called to let us know the test results-"Lauren had had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever" We had been home one day from our vacation in Tennessee when Lauren had got sick, but My son had not told us that he had pulled a tick of of her until later." Lauren couldn't remember how to spell her name when she returned to school and even today at 13 she forgets how to spell simple words, but she has a love and compassion and wisdom way beyond her years that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Today on the way home in the pouring down rain, I was singing along with my country Christian CD-My favorite song Amazing Grace when all of a sudden the rain started slowing down, the sun began to shine out of the cloud filled sky and Lauren said," Mom we are going to get to see the sun set". I said Yes!! Right in the midst of these dark clouds everywhere. I was driving trying to turn my head around so I could see the beautiful SUN bursting through all of those clouds. The sky was so amazing because the darkness was just turning into such a bright orange-yellowish glow It was almost blinding. Then all of a sudden when the SUN BURST completely made it through the clouds TWO Huge, MAGNIFICENT, AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, RAINBOWS lit up the sky in front of us and stretched all the way across the sky. We were so excited and in so much AWE of how GOD still puts HIS sign in the sky to REMIND us AGAIN when we are feeling down that Everything is going to be O.K. My CD at this time when the RAINBOWS appeared was playing "HOW GREAT THOU ART" I just smiled and said GOD you truly ARE. MY Kellianna will not get to come home to us from Guatemala, but God is still with me and He CONTINUES to Send ME HIS RAINBOWS EVEN IN MY DARKEST HOURS to remind me EVERYHING IS GOING TO BE O.K. WE LOVE YOU KELLIANNA WHEREVER YOU ARE!!! MAY GOD SEND HIS RAINBOWS TO YOU DURING YOUR LIFETIME YO LET YOU KNOW THAT HE WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU ALWAYS!!

Peace after the Storm

Tonight it is storming outside. Although I see the lightning and hear the thunder I feel peace inside my comfortable home. God has given me a peace among the many storms that have taken place lately in the uncertainties of the Guatemalan adoption process. I feel that God is leading me through this journey and although many people may have comments both encouraging and hurtful during this adoption I am GOING to PGN Praise God Now!!

He is the only true hope and true faith I can have when others let me down.

I pray tonight God that you will send your blessings and lay your hands on the authorities in Guatemala to allow all adoptions in their country now to finish completely within the next three months so when the Hague goes into affect in April all new adoptions can begin smoothly and in order. Thank you for all of my blessings that I have received and for those blessings that I will receive. Amen.

Here is a picture of my children taken in April 2007 at Flagler beach during vacation.

My oldest child Allen is 16 years old and he is standing behind the girls.

From left to right Lauren age 13, Allison age 11, her twin sister Brittany age 11 and Schyanna age 14 my new adopted daughter who we fostered for three years before her adoption in Decembeer.

In front of Lauren is my nephew Christian who was three years old in this picture.

The next picture is a picture of my husband, Greg and I taken at Easter.

Waiting on Kelliana Maria

Hi,

This is the beautiful baby from Guatemala that we are waiting on. Her birth name is Anayeli, but we are going to name her Kellianna Maria.

Isn't she gorgeous with her pudgy cheeks, cute nose and that head full of hair!!

My husband and I have been married for 17 years and although we have 4 biological children and one adopted child who we just adopted on Dec. 12,2007, we really felt led to adopt a baby.

We have been foster parents for over three years and we have felt the loss of several children who have came and left us. When the older children leave, you know in your heart that you have made a difference and you hope that one day they will come back and visit you and we have had a few come back and visit or call. When a baby leaves, you don't know whether you will ever see the child again and you know that they will not remember you as they get older.

My 13 year old girl told me one day after a baby we had fostered for nine months had left us, "Mom i want another baby to come live with us, but I don't want her to have to leave-"I want her to stay forever". A couple months later I had dreamed that I was pregnant, but when I awoke I remembered that I could not physically have anymore children. I was very saddened when reality set in so............ the journey to our adoption began.

After several weeks of researching Surrogate mothers, searching agencies, speaking to unfriendly agencies, and researching domestic adoptions, God led me to Celebrate Children Agency. From the first conversation on the phone with Angela at CCI, I felt a sense of hope and complete confidence in this agency.

Because My husband and I were already foster parents, I had hoped that our Homestudy would be sufficient for an International Adoption, but ours was too old so we began our paperwork process.