Bamboo Project Update: Another Gotchya Day!

     It's been several months since there has been a Bamboo Gotchya so our prayer team is READY! The family leaving for China tomorrow is a special one, in many, many ways: First, this isn't their first Chinese rodeo...or their second...or their third.  This is the FIFTH return trip to China to bring their child HOME. Five times of stepping out in faith and believing AGAIN that God would see them through the paperwork, the fundraising, the travel, the attachment, the medical care. Seems the fifth time isn't any easier than the first. Trusting never is. 

     Second, this their second welcoming of a chromosomally enhanced beauty. There is a big sister at home who is already an expert at training parents to get down with their Trisomy self. She will guide her new sister in navigating their family & environment together. The thought of these two giggling the hours away in their shared room in Florida makes my face ache in smiles! 

     Third, the Bamboo child that is waiting to come home to this family is an older child. Adoption, transition and attachment is a whole other ball game than a toddler or preschooler. Not to mention medical & developmental catch up.  This family that has fought so hard to bring this child home (truly, they met with some serious opposition!), will continue to fight for their daughter's success for a long time.

     Fourth, as Mama and sister board the plane to China, Dad and the siblings are staying behind with a daughter that is literally fighting for her life. One of the big sisters came home from China with a serious heart condition, not expected to live through her adoption. God moved and she has lived YEARS beyond expectation. Currently, she is Number 1 on the national heart transplant list. That means at ANY moment, a heart could come available and big sister will be in life altering surgery...even while her Forever Mama is half a world away. My heart doesn't know how to process that. It is an Isaac On The Alter moment; Lord I'll trust Your word no matter what.  Part of this family's journey while in China, is to find a way to get a message to this daughter's birth family---your sweet girl lives; she is fighting and God is winning!

 

So...the prayer list for this family is significant.

• Travel mercies for Mother & daughter over our continent, an ocean and through a foreign nation.
• Physical & emotional health over their new daughter/sister. She is old enough to understand that a new forever is coming very soon. Pray that peace floods over her heart & mind.
• Peace over this sweet Bamboo girl's caretakers and nannies. I've seen videos of this precious one and she has PERSONALITY! She is certainly going to be missed by many who have cared for her deeply.
• Continued health over the sister left behind in Florida. For God's perfect timing in regards to her heart transplant. That if it were to take place while Mama is in China that there would be no fear or anxiety on anyone's part, for there is no distance in God's peace, comfort or healing hand.
• For seamless transition and attachment in this family as they welcome the newest member of their family. That any medical needs would be found quickly and developmental resources would be accessed without issue. 
• For God to be glorified through this whole process. That China would see that children with Down syndrome are of high value: they are wanted; they are loved; they can thrive and be wildly successful in a loving family. I am confident that this little one has nothing buy success in front of her!

March Random-ness

Not sure how March came and went (is going) so stinking fast. I kid you not, there is still a pile of pumpkin decorations in the pantry waiting to be put away. I'm seriously considering just leaving them there, grabbing the 4th of July stuff and putting it up next weekend...you know, to celebrate Easter. Good grief.

Here are some random happenings from March:

 

I don't know who gave me this idea, but I seriously have been loving our seasonal foot/hand print art projects together.
What a fun way to see how much he is growing!

China Momma was right when she said Isaac doesn't love 'soft toys'. The boy has boxes of stuffed animals that he doesn't want anything to do with. But every once in a while he'll decide a specific bear needs to be diapered or put down for a nap. This particular day, he was giving the bear the nap time run down.

Close your eyes like THIS!

 

 

 

This boy has a serious thing for his Gramma.
Gramma just spent four days in the hospital and Isaac, being the expert patient, was quick to show her how to get the bed to go up and down, how the water-straw in her arm was hooked up to the machine and when the doctor listens to your back, you have to pretend to blow out a candle. All essential information for a successful hospital stay.

 

This bouncy ball has been a recent favorite. We have spent hours bouncing it in the kitchen against the cupboards. In fact, if you bounce it just right off the dishwasher, it'll bounce off the oven, off the fridge and into the sink!  SCORE!!!

 

 

The Battle Of the Bink: This particular scene takes place nearly every Sunday. Isaac scurries into Auntie Jessie's arms, pretends to give Baby Max a kiss then steals his precious bink. Baby Max gives Cousin Isaac the stare down...and Isaac could care less. It's totally a cousin thing.

 

 

The highchair and pack-n-play have officially been dismantled and put away. It's nothing but big boy chairs and creative distraction while Momma is getting ready in the morning.

He knows he is not allowed to play with my jewelry in the drawers of the vanity, but when I walked in to see him lining up all my adoption necklaces I couldn't scold him. In reality, those pieces are his anyway.

We've been doing a lot of reading readiness in the last few months. Speech delay complicates things a bit, but reading is by no means impossible at this stage of the game. Every night we read and re-read the same books signing, spelling, and practicing our words.  I caught him practicing on his own one more and it made my heart smile (yes...he has pants on under there).

 

Lazy Sunday afternoon. It was a bit too quite for too long today and I found him in his favorite chair just chilling. No TV. No music. No books or toys. Just kicking back and enjoying the day.

 

 

 

 

World Down Syndrome Day 2015

March 21st. The 21st day of the 3rd month of the year. A day picked specifically to celebrate those with a 3rd copy of their 21st chromosome. And this day specifically to increase awareness of the global blessing of Down syndrome!

 

There is no firm data on how many beautiful people there are world wide rocking the extra genes. It is estimated that anywhere from 1 in 690 to 1 in 1000 births across the globe is blessed with an extra chromosome. Sadly, in most developed countries with access to prenatal care and standardize genetic testing, there is still a high rate of terminations when DS is diagnosed in-utero. That truth breaks my heart. In many underdeveloped countries, when a newborn is found to have DS there can be instant abandonment, medical neglect and if they survive, lifetime of institutionalization. This reality is sometimes more than I can bare.  The very fact that my perfect little Asian son with Down syndrome lived to be adopted into a new forever is an absolute miracle. A miracle that has rocked my world!

In the last four years, mainland China has come a long way in recognizing Down syndrome as an 'adoptable' condition. When we started our adoption journey in 2011 there were less than five children with DS throughout China available for adoption (possibly as few as two). Now, rumor is that approximately 10% of the current children in China waiting for their new forever are chromosomally enhanced. That's nearly TWO HUNDRED sweet beauties with extra almond eyes ready and waiting for a hope, for a future.

 

As we hope expectantly for hearts and nations to change, we can advocate for those sweet hearts that wait. There are multiple children with Down syndrome on the Shared List. Advocacy sites like Reece's Rainbow provides opportunities to fund grants for waiting children. Bethany Christian Service's Bamboo Project is expanding to meet the advocacy need (see below). By standing for these children we are declaring: You, sweet child, were created PERFECTLY with an amazing piece of extra; you are loved, you are wanted; we will fight for you and your future; we will expand our hearts to welcome yours and expect God to work wonders because of your very presence on this earth!!!

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!  Let's change some lives in 2015!!

 

 

 

 

 

The UNbroken Leg

Our week started with a broken leg. My sweet little boy had fractured one of his tiny little bones.  I let the news sink in for all of three seconds before my mind raced to make the To Do List: Call family, notify school, arrange for time off work, we’ll need pants to fit a casted leg, extra oral syringes for around the clock ibuprofen & Tylenol, he should have a good bath before the cast goes on, going to the movies will be a fun distraction, are there even any good boy movies out right now?, he hasn’t needed PT/OT in a while but maybe I should call them for life after the cast, where is that picture of me in a cast when I was a kid?, etc, etc, etc. I even mentally wrote the blog post describing the events of the week for extended family members; I would reference time traveling laser chickens (it’s a thing) and show my cute boy in his cute cast. And this was all before the pediatrician finished typing up her report in the exam room.

Distal tibia fracture = "Toddler's Fracture"

 

Making the To Do List wasn’t a bad thing to do. There was no sin in it. God created me to have a quick & organized mind. It’s what makes me good at my job and slightly (but delightfully) irritating to some close friends & family. But it was only in a passing breath that I remember uttering “God, breathe life into these bones!”. I couldn’t remember the scripture reference (minor prophets kill me!), and couldn’t even recall that awesome Chris Tomlin song with those words, so I pictured the cover of the CD that I knew the song was on as my stamp of faith...then I moved on to the next thing on the list.

 

The beauty of the situation is that the passing prayer and worship CD-cover faith, is all that God needed to do His work (in truth, He doesn’t NEED me at all to do His will).  He hears the prayers tucked deep into the very heart He created. And even when I forget to speak the words, He hears me…and is delighted to respond. He responds to the prayers I don't know how to utter, to the prayers I've long forgotten, to the prayers I'm practically too busy to pray. When my humanness (repeatedly) fails, the Holy Spirit is there to speak on my behalf. "I call out to the Lord, and He answered me" (Psalm 3:4).

Our week may have started with a fracture, but it ended with a healing. “I’m not sure why you are here,” the pediatric orthopedic surgeon said, “His exam is totally normal and I don’t see anything unusual on his xray”  I argued that a radiologist and three physicians confirmed the fracture earlier in the week. I could even see it for peet’s sake. “I don’t know what to tell you,  there is no fracture now, it must have been a soft tissue shadow.”.  Riiiiiigggghhhhhttttt.

 

"All the earth shall worship you and sing of your glories.  Come, see the glorious things God has done. What marvelous miracles happen to his people!"  Psalm 66:4-5 

 Gotta go…Isaac is trying to climb up the bookshelf…with his UNbroken leg!

What If...

This post popped up in my Facebook feed last night:

"Guys. I am in tears as a child with special needs is about to be delivered to my house in the middle of the night. My house. I am a single mom of 4 but there is no where else for him to go ....because he has special needs. We need more foster families to STEP UP and be on the front lines with our county agencies. Kids don't come in to care during normal "business hours". This is just not OK. ‪#‎fostercare‬ ‪#‎churcharise"

The reality of foster care is unbelievably painful. Frankly, it's embarrassing. How did we as humans come to a place that we can't care for our most vulnerable...our sick, broken and undefended children? The truth is, it is sin. An awful, awful, awful consequence of our first decisions in the Garden. The reality of foster care is that it is our own darn fault. We did this.

But the Lord says, by His grace, we can have a hand in fixing it. Forty-one times in the Old Testament alone, God says: care for my sweet babies, take them as your own and love them like I love them.

What if the Church actually did that?  What if even half of those sitting around us on Sunday morning heeded the call to care for the widows and orphans in our own communities?  As followers of Christ we can't be satisfied with the horrible statistics that are associated with children in the American foster care system:

 

BUT...WHAT IF:

*Empty-nesters opened up a bedroom?

*Young families kept the spare highchair available just in case?

*Grandparents put their years of parenting experience to fresh use?

*Singletons gave their undivided focus to a sweet one in need?

*Fathers mentored an extra son?

*Mothers nurtured an extra daughter?

*The Church fought for EVERY child in a 100 mile radius of their sanctuary?

 

What if every child in foster care never had to fear multiple placements, abuse, anger, emotional isolation?  What if every child in foster care was welcomed out of their brokenness into the arms of Jesus through a family that let their heart break with what breaks His?

 

The What If can happen! 

The Church can arise!

Foster care as we know it can be forever and radically changed!

 

Please prayerfully consider becoming a licensed foster home.  Become the home that a precious child comes to know Peace in. Give the gift of a loved child to their forever family.

 

 



 

A gift from our own Chinese foster family.