Hematologists, birthdays and Easter...

Okay, so I am realizing that I uploaded these pictures in entirely the wrong order.  Oh well.  

This week we met with our hematologist and I loved her.  The appointment went beautifully; she communicated well...listened to us AND she was humble!  The thing that won us over the most was that she wore bright red Converse @ll-stars, and she used the term "Spidey-sense".  There ya have it folks - she is BRILLIANT.  The only thing that concerned me a bit was the facility, and the fact that there is NO way for me to take the other kids with me on transfusion days, but the Lord will take care of that when it is time.

Then, our second oldest turned 12!  Yikes, where does time go???

 Easter.  I love Easter.  I love celebrating my Savior's victory over sin and death.  I love being reminded that His grace paid for my sins...past, present, and future because when He died, ALL my sins were future sins; and He paid for them.  Sigh.  Oh the joy, peace, and relief.

This year we participated in a program called Forget the Frock.  An idea started by a mom that grew up in the South with all the dresses and bows and hats that came with Easter.  Then she decided that she wasn't going to do that anymore...not with children dying of starvation, preventable disease, and orphans without care.  So, she created this program so that people could buy t-shirts to wear on Easter to raise attention to the orphan crisis and where all the funds would go to orphan care and the hungry/needy in various places all over the world.  Loved this!  Hoping to do it every year!

 Because every 12 year old boy needs a machete pocket knife

Easter egg hunting...not sure why their eyes are closed :)

We're back....

Well, I am not sure where to begin.  It has been a long, long time. :-)  So much has happened.  But, as you might have guessed, we are adopting again.  So, that means that I will try to be better about updating the blog.

Let me try to re-cap 6 months quickly so as not to loose people.  The boys went on their missions trip...had an amazing time and fell in love with the country.  This led us to consider foreign work for our family.  As we pursued this road, had meetings, sought Godly counsel, and prayed for direction, it seemed as if the Lord wasn't opening doors for this.

Enter Lainey.

We saw a little one with Beta Thalassemia Major.  Quite a mouthful.  I had no idea what it meant, and after researching it, wasn't sure that we could handle it.  Ha. But God, could we really handle anything?

She needs blood transfusions to live.  Here in the States, she has such a wonderful "prognosis"...but in Ch*na, there is a blood shortage.  Her prognosis isn't good at all.  She has been approved by the US government for a medical expedite.  So, we are in the waiting mode right now.  Ch*na has all our paperwork - we are just waiting on them.

Interestingly enough we have had people ask about "life expectancy".  You know?  For some reason (I believe it was the Lord, really), we didn't even think about that.  Because do any of us really know our life expectancies?  Of ourselves?  Our "healthy" children?  "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be"  Psalm 139:16  We'd better live for eternity.

I can't promise that I will be great about updating, but better than before.  Nothing eloquent.  Just thoughts, experiences, and a record for our friends, family, and the kids to be able to go back and look at when they get older.