Today Reminds Me of Skylark!

Do you remember the old book and movie Skylark from the Sarah Plain and Tall series? It didn't rain for months and due to drought she was sent back to her family with the children to Maine. Her quiet husband showed up after a bit to rejoin his family, and all he said was "Rained". :)

So I will celebrate with this! It Rained!! It IS raining! It will keep on raining! It has been a LONG time! Happy Fall! For Texas, this means water falling from the sky!

All My Boast is in Jesus

I have had so many things swirling in my head to write about, and sometimes things just get stuck! We had a lovely lunch with family after church yesterday and loved being together. But family is not where we place our hope. Things are not where we place our hope. Money is not where we place our hope. Security is not where we place our hope.
We sang the song yesterday "All My Boast is in Jesus". It has been swirling around in my head all day today. I have sung it, played it on the recorder, and now I'm writing about it. He is where I place my Hope and He is Who I boast about!
The Song ends with singing 3 x's "MY BOAST IS JESUS CHRIST!" What exactly does that mean?


The only thing I can Boast in is Christ and Christ Crucified and what HE has done in my life and in the lives of my family and what HE continues to do! All praise to HIM. We live in a finite, material world, but we are both finite and spiritual. Everything was created by God and HE created everything that was made. There is nothing we know of that does not have the hand of God in its creation. That is one of the reasons I love nature so much. I can see it visibly. I can see the layers in the Grand Canyon, I can see the intricate details of a blade of grass under a microscope. I take for granted much of the time that I can plant a simple seed and it will grow into a plant for delightful flowers, or food; each after its own kind! If God is so detailed with nature, and animals, and he knows the hairs on my head and a feather that falls from a sparrow, then He knows me.

He knows my flaws and my faults, he knows my repentence and my rebellion. He knows ALL. And.... HE LOVES ME. He loves not because I am good or do good, but because he has chosen to love me. He delights in His children. His Character is perfect, and that is where I struggled for many years, misunderstanding the true character of God. Many times we hear that the God of the New Testament is different than the God of the Old Testament. This is not so. In Fact, in Exodus 34:5-8 "Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped."

The same is true today. THE LORD, our LORD is merciful and gracious and forgives sin. He IS just in his judgments. He does NOT just brush sin off. THAT IS WHY He sent His Son. Jesus, the second person on the God Head, who created all things, THE WORD (John 1) who walked among us, entered the very creation HE spoke into existence, humbled himself, EMPTIED himself and became a man, born of a virgin, FULFILLED all prophecy from the Old Testament perfectly, willingly laid down his life and took the punishment for our sin.
Sin was not ignored, Sin was PAID for! We who were born into sin, and know no other world, trust that Jesus paid what we deserved; the price of death. Jesus was the perfect lamb! The Lamb with out blemish, the FINAL and COMPLETE sacrifice for sin. BUT HE DIDN'T remain in the grave. Without the resurrection there would be no hope. The Resurrection, bodily, not just spirit, happened! GOD raised HIM from the dead! The Stone was rolled away! The Curtain at the Temple that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, that was a barrier between God and man, was torn from TOP TO BOTTOM and exposed the Ark of the Covenant! Roman Soldiers stationed around the tomb could not hold him there. Satan could not hold him there. HE CONQUERED and WON, and ALL who are HIS he will never lose.

Right now, He is preparing a place for us, if it weren't so he wouldn't have said it. (John 14:2-3) He says something else in John. I will not abandon you as orphans! This speaks loudly to my heart. No matter what heartbreak happens in this world, GOD will NOT ABANDON me! And this does NOT depend upon my perfection, but HIS faithfulness! So yes, ALL MY BOAST IS IN JESUS!

Just Keep Blogging!

I've had a few folks ask if blogging is a thing of the past. Many of my fellow bloggers, who were regulars and we followed each other's blogs have stopped. I know I slowed way down due to needing to take care of personal needs within the family and then cancer hit along with a bit of old age. Then, when I tried to post one day, bammo... my blog had been taken over by bad malware. Thanks to dear Erika, she saved the day and the blog!

The last few years the girls have asked if I was going to keep it up. They certainly want me to. It is a good exercise to get things out of my mind and in writing. Many years ago people had very secret diaries. They wrote all their personal thoughts in those books under lock and key so nobody could see them until after they were gone.

I don't want to do that! I want my family to know what I think and how I feel, what I love and how I view life. I also love that we can all share our thoughts. I have a few boundaries to respect. Our sweet Sarah doesn't want photos of the children on the web due to the sad state of our world, extracting photos for ill purposes. I totally respect that, and it is why only My Mike was seen having a tea party. LOL

Our lives have changed so much. I have written about it a lot over the years, and the focus was on adopting the girls and raising them. But now, they are all on their own, all living lives that could have never been possible had thy remained in Orphanages. I'm so thankful to just be a fly on the wall of their lives, watching them embrace everything about family life, marriage, children, and Jesus. What miracles they are. What miracles our sons are, all grown and married and now OUR AGE when we started this blog! HAHA


We have 2 grandsons in the military now. We have a grand daughter that delights in being a lumberjack. We have a grand daughter in art school, one who is learning guitar and ukelele, a grandson who is interested in astro physics, a grandson who is excelling in math and science, a grand daughter who loves tea parties and was just introduced to "Toy Story 5" last might. She was carrying around a very old Jessie doll from the "Toy Story 2"and hugging her like she hugs her new baby sister. Our grandson stopped by yesterday for Pizza and fellowship. He is flourishing on his own. He looks great!

We have a grand son living on the East coast, 2 more in the south east enjoying school and a grand daughter there who is on a cometitive swim team. We have 2 more grands in elementary school on the west coast. I THINK that is everybody. Ha.

It was suggested I use a different blog for what is going on now, but I don't think so. I tried to do that a while back here, but it doesn't feel like home like I do on the family blog. I'd like to keep this one as it morphs and changes because that is how life is. We are older, and it is good to express how older folks feel about life. Our perspectives might change a bit, or while we reflect, that isn't all of life, we have much ahead of us, as far as we know. Life is lived one day at a time because tomorrow isn't guaranteed.

I want to share my heart about things not for my kids to find out about them after I'm gone, but for them to know about them now. I appreciate EACH one of our children for how they have enriched our lives and helped us to stretch and grow in ways we never knew we needed to. :) I'm thankful for our church family that loves us well and I'm thanful to the Lord for HIS lifegiving word, for His Salvation and endless kindness and mercy. He has blessed me with what I do not deserve and lavished upon me blessings that are not material and cannot be bought.

AND THAT, I will comntinue to share as I keep this blog going, and morphing. I pray it will be a testimony of the Glories of God in a simple lady's life, who happens to love Jesus, converse high tops and blogging.

For Such A Time As This

I have been known to love antiques, and to relish in history imagining what it would be like to live at the time of Laura Ingalls Wilder during her childhood; living in a log cabin on the Prairie. There was something about history that made me feel like I had been born at the wrong time period, and it would have been better to have lived long ago!

But over time, the Lord convicted my heart that this was a sinful attitude. I was born in HIS perfect timing, for THIS day. It is wonderfully freeing to look at life this way. I can still love history and admire things that are old, but also be thankful for the present time in which I live.

What a great opportunity is given to us to make a difference in the now! Things are certainly different than generations before, but there are so many opportunities that didn't exist long ago. There are food pantries to give to for those in need. There are missions opportunities both to be active in, and to offer support for. We have opportunities to fly anywhere in the World in a matter of hours! We have strong churches with Ministers that don't need to travel from church to church. We have beautiful schools and if we so choose, we can teach our children at home. Books are prevalent in our society at a much lower cost than ever before.

I am relatively safe in my home, which was much different than the realities of the little house on the prairie time period! Many families died during those times of todays preventable diseases and from hostile tribes who did not want westward expansion.

While many famililes never moved away from each other, many did, and it meant only letters being exchanged. Today, if people live far from each other we have cars and highways to stay in contact.We have cell phones and constant ability to take all sorts of photos to share with each other. And we can call each other and hear those wonderful familiar voices.

God chose for me to be born now, to live now, to thrive now. And what He has chosen, is good.
My satisfaction in this life is in Christ. He is my life. He is my song.

The Path of Life

52 years ago, to be exact, I took a test in high school that would give me direction for my future. I lived in California at the time and we took these aptitude tests. My scores came back and while I wasn't surprised at my strengths, I WAS surprised at how strong my strengths were and HOW WEAK my weaknesses were. I scored in the 99% for engineering. All those gears and wheels made sense to me. I scored in the 5% for secretarial strengths. YES 5%! I was supposed to be an engineer. Ha!

What am I? Well, I have been the secretary in our small business for years, and I'm sure that Mike would be the second one to tell you, me being the first, that I am not the best fit. But I do try! And I would say, if I took that same test today, I would score higher, just because of all the years of practice. However, I'm not just a secretary. I am a wife, a mother, a grand mother a servant of Christ, a peer Biblical counselor, a "Sanitation Engineer". :)
Some things come easier for us than other things. And the truth is, those early tests, while helpful for deciding a career path, that is all they are really good for. They are suggestions.

A while back when I was in my 30's I watched a very funny skit about little souls getting ready to go into babies being born, (I know silly, but it was a skit) and the head angel was telling the souls what kind of baby they would be. They then told them about the kind of life they would live and most were excited except this one that began to rock back and forth, then suck her thumb and finally hide under the table. It was well done and very funny.

The truth is, God does not reveal to us our personal future and all that life will present. If he did, we would all be hiding under tables sucking our thumbs! However, in His WORD, He promises to never leave us or forsake us. He didn't prevent the children of Israel from being stuck at the Red Sea but He was there WITH THEM, and provided a way of escape right through the middle of the waters. He went with them, and guided and protected them.

I can see how over many years the Lord has been with me through all the twists and turns of this life. I never would have dreamed I'd be where I am now, sitting at this computer on a 100 plus degree day, not caring about the humidity and typing to you, my reader. But here I am.

How did I get this old? How did I go from NOTHING, abandoned with 4 little boys, to married 37 years and 8 children, including 4 girls? How did I go through some of the things we went through together that were tragic, including our son having a stroke causing Cerebral Palsy, our daughter needing her feet amputated, wrongs against us that cannot be mentioned?

BUT GOD!!

He says in Isaiah 43, "Fear Not! For I have redeemed you! I have called you by your name you are mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the waters they shall not over flow, when You pass through the fire you shall not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle upon you, for I am the Lord your God!"

What a huge encouragement from the Lord. Of couse this is allegorical, but the implication is very real to my life. I'd be that little soul hiding under the table, but God in His wisdom only gives us the next step. And then He gives us His WHOLE WORD! Our thoughts are not his thoughts, and for those who LOVE Him, he truly does work ALL things for our good and for His good will and purpose.

There is much to learn through hardship and trial. It is best to lean on HIM and trust Him through it all. There is an old song by Andre' Crouch called "Through It All". It says, Through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus, I've learned to trust in God, I've learned to depend upon His Word.

I am so thankful for all of my life. The Lord has been with me, with us, all along the way. I didn't like having cancer, or the surgery that followed, but He was there with me. I didn't like the betrayal, but He was with us all the way. I didn't like the long trials in my first marriage, but He was with me to lead and guide. And He is with us now. I have no idea of the future or what it holds. BUT I DO KNOW the one I can count on for all things. And I'm still a secretary! :)

FRESH WATERS POURING OVER MY SOUL

I don't know why but today has been a day of brain fog, and feeling kind of meh... I don't have these days very often and busied myself with other things, like looking back at old memories and re reading some old posts. Doing that didn't really help. Then, it was obvious that I needed to refresh myself with scripture. I needed the pure milk of the word to overflow me. And THEN....
This happened!
I never just "open my bible and see where it will fall open". But I sat down and opened it, and it DID fall open to a very familiar passage that has washed over my soul many times. The first time was when I was 25 years old. I was in a very difficult situation and a few months before had given birth to my fourth son. Things in my home were terribly difficult. My then husband had walked away from Christ and embraced a life I had never dreamed could happen. But it did. My Dabba, his mother was a wonderful mother to me and a fellow sister in Christ. She brought to me my VERY FIRST study bible. It was an Open Bible, NKJ version which I loved. As I poured over the pages of this bible and learned about each of the books, the time it was written, how it relates to Christ, or prophecy, who wrote it, etc. ; I was drawn to the book of Isaiah. And then drawn to Isaiah 55.

This has become one of my favorite passages in scripture. I remember reading it and tears welling up as I read and knew it was speaking to me.

Here is the Passage: Isaiah chapter 55.


Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. YES, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to ME and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me, Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David.
Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know and nations who do not know you shall run to you. Because of the Lord your God, and the Holy one of Israel. For He has glorified you.
Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heaavens are highter than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down adn the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth adn make it bring forth the bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my WORD be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void; but it shall accomplish what I please adn it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

For you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace, the mountains and the hills shall break for into singing before you. And all the trees of the fields will clap their hands. Instead of the thron shall come up the cypress tree and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree. And it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
So here I am, 68 years old being refreshed in my soul once again by the scripture that calls me to come, eat, rest and be satisfied in Christ alone.

The Natural Longing for Change: An Observation

I have been longing for it to rain. It has been over a month since we had any rain. It has been over 100 degrees for a long time. It cools down at night into the upper 80's and then comes the 100's. My desire is that it will rain and then that the temperatures will cool down. We are in the last few weeks of summer and then comes FALL!

Fall is one of my favorite times of year and I am always longing for it to arrive. It is so exciting to see the leaves change color and begin to drop to the ground.

After Fall arrives, then we desire snow. Sometimes our desires are fulfilled, sometimes not and we just get ice!

The fall and winter can cause us to LONG for the warmer days of Spring and Summer and we start all over again with the seasons!

I have been working on trying to embrace each season fully. When I am satisfied with the season I am in, I can be content in the heat as well as the cold! The same goes for the seasons of life. We have been through many seasons in our lives. Learning to embrace the season we are in is a lesson in trusting the ONE who created them all. From Birth to the End, God knows our days! Just as we can count on the sun to rise and the morning without question, we can count on the fact that our Heavenly Father placed it there and He is in control of all seasons, both in Nature and in the seasons of life.
As we learn to embrace where we are, there are many treasures to be found. The wisdom God gives us as we grow cannot be traded for earlier times. The rich blessings of being satisfied in Christ cannot be traded for our younger lives. It is often asked, "If you could do it over again, would you go back to high school, or being in college?, etc." The answer is NO!!
I love how Mike and I are growing old together with each other and in the Lord. I love our morning coffee and bible study and discussion that can go on uninterruped until he looks up and sees he is late for work. (in the back yard) :)
I love how our kids have grown up and while it is fun to reminisce, it is even more enjoyable to see them all embracing life, walking with Christ, and raising families.
This season is longer than the 4 three month seasons that divide our year up. This season can be long or short; that is up to God, but it is a season where we continue to learn and grow. It is a season of blossom and pruning. It is a cup of finely aged wine. It is a cup of reflection, but also a cup of joy. God created the seasons for us to experience and lift up praise to Him. The scripture says that the Trees of the field will clap their hands! He created our seasons in life to do the same. We clap with thankfulness and joy and we give praise to HIM, the author and creator of our faith.

Me as a young baby, a teen, and then as a new mom

REFLECTIONS ON ADOPTION PART 2

I wrote a post a few years ago here and at the end it said, "To Be Continued"... so HERE is the continue. :) Mike and I are getting close to retirement. We already qualify for Medicare, and I started drawing my social security over a year ago. He will have full benefits in February. So, I guess that qualifies us as "elderly". :) It IS however a little humorous when you ready the news and they say something about an "elderly" person and then you find out they are 8 years younger than you are!

Even our old rocking chair is showing its age. That rocker holds many, many memories and now new babies are being rocked in it. In fact, I think I have rocked almost every grand child in it. It is the place to talk, to sing songs, to read books and to pray.

As I reflect on the last 35 years when adoption touched our lives, beginning with Mike adopting all of the boys, and then 22 years ago when we began with the girls, one thing rings out. INHERITANCE! Every child born to their parents inherits their name and legacy. It is a gift from the Lord. A child is securely placed into a family and they identify with that family, that name, those grand parents, great grand parents and they take on the identity of that individual family. In our case, our children are MINICHS.
I remember explaining this to the children when they were very young; "You are Minichs! That comes with responsibility! Honor your name!:) Sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn't. :) But it didn't change who they were.
Our children, because they are OURS, and there is no distinction between biological or adopted, are inheriters of what we leave behind. That isn't just the physical, but it is what our family has built over the years. It is a legacy of love and acceptance, of memories and of a solid future built on the Solid Rock of Christ.

As Christians we too have been reminded that we have an inheritance in Christ and adoption is a perfect reflection of our relationship with God. It is mentioned in Scripture that we are joint heirs with Christ and that we can come to God the father and call him Abba, which means Daddy. He lovingly accepts us with all of our flaws and slowly and perfectly teaches us to be His children through His sanctifying work which begins at His beckoning to us to come, just as we are, and rest in His love. He'll wash us, He will cleanse us, He will guide and teach us.
Oh what an inheritance we have! So now that our children who range in age between 26-47, are grown and have their own families; some just beginning, and some are close to the finishing line,they too will carry on the inheritance of how they were raised. They will carry the good and the bad, and as we always say, "Keep the good, throw out the bad and make things even better for your kids!" And they will provide for thier children the inheritance of a good name. They have and will continue to establish their own legacies for their families; and the generations go on. This blog has taken on many topics and has been an honest look into life. We are no longer adopting, but we are LIVING and I will continue to write and reflect on our lives as I can. I don't want to start anything new, this place feels like home. I wanted to finish that reflection. So there you have it. :)
And now I will go and rock in my rocking chair. It is still a great chair!

TRANSITIONS

I was looking up the meaning of the word "Transition" in the Noah Webster 1828 dictionary to see what Noah had to say about that word. :) Quote: "Passage from one place or state to another." "Change". There were a few more definitions regarding music, or geology, but these will suffice.

I started this blog in 2007. Since then we have had many transitions. I think the only thing the same, is that we live in the same house, but even the house has had some transitions, like updates, newer floors and paint. Our parents, Ed, Lois,My mom, My Dabba have all passed away. Our brother passed away, a niece passed away recently. There have been some changes in marriage for a few of our kids. 2 of our sons now have new wives. All of the girls have married. We have 18 grand children. (including the one about to be born to Albina in a few weeks)

Our grand children are grown, many have moved out on their own. They are pursuing college and carreers and it seems like just yesterday they were digging up treasure in the back yard at Easter.

The days of Scottish Rite Hospital and surgeries are over, and the days of youth group and camp are over. We have been through many transitions in our lives and we are not far from starting a new transition. RETIREMENT. This will be a slow transition, but it is certainly one coming up very soon.

I have loved each transition, as it is exciting and I love seeing my family grow and change, not necessarily the sad parts of course, but those also are a part of life.
We still go to the zoo and the newest little ones will benefit from zoo trips as soon as they are old enough. Our Christmas celebrations are a little different with old friends and new. We started hosting a Christmas Party for family, friends and our ministry group and it has turned out to be quite fun. it is really fun to see our adult kids invite their friends they grew up with and to see all of them converge here is just wonderful!

But it is quiet here and the hallways are filled with memories of long ago. The memories make me thankful, but the memories are not all that we have. We have what lies ahead! The present and the future! While things have transitioned, it isn't a negative thing at all. It is a great adventure! Every change in life brings a new family dynamic, including health issues; aging and its effects.


So I have been writing on about normal transitions within family, but what about the transitions that have effected our sweet girls besides the growing up part. They transitioned from one country to another, from orphan status to cherished daugthers, from rejected to loved, from destitute to having a home. And they continue and will continue just as we have and the boys have to make changes in life. Each of them have already married and most have children. Our daugther who hasn't had children YET, is a fantastic Auntie to her nieces and nephews. The photo I chose for this post will always be true. If you want to make changes in the world, love your family.


The Lord has been with us throughout our whole lives and will continue to be with us in these new transitions. We have lived more of our lives than we have left. It is our intention to use the time we have left to glorify our Lord in all things. And as we move on into older adulthood, we know our children will carry the torch that was lit long ago to love their families with their whole hearts and to reflect Christ's love for us.

So What Have We Been Doing?

We've beem Staying Engaged and Busy!

After graduating all the kids from homeschooling, our church started a biblical counseling ministry. I joined. There is a lot that goes into being a biblical counselor including, a 14 week overview course, a lot of reading, a test that requires 44 short papers, and then 50 hours of supervised counseling. We also attend yearly conferences to learn more. This year we will be heading to TN.

I have learned so much through this process and donate my time to helping others. We have a good hierachy that backs us up and keeps us responsible for making sure proper HIPPA papers are filed as well as proper reporting if ever needed.
Overall, the last 5 years have been so rewarding. I love seeing people succeed in the Lord. The expereiences I have had in life, some of which I never thought could be used to help another person, have been used by the Lord.

(this is an old photo of the shoppe with a few of us in the hammock) I'm also helping Mike in the business. I am old enough to be retired, and so is he, but for now we work. :) We are doing some remodeling and planning to stay where we are. We truly enjoy seeing the grand kids and hosting various events including Christmas and Thanksgiving, the 4 of July and Easter.

We have a ministry group that regularly meets at our home and we also host the 5th Friday night Movie night. September 12 we will be hosting a party to welcome our Son's new wife into our lives. What a blessing! So this is some of what we are doing presently. I'm so thankful for the Lord's blessing us with family and friends.

The Heavens Declare The Glory of God

Have you even been in awe of the beauty of what you are seeing and all you can think about is scripture that flows out of you declaring the Lord's magnificant glory? That is what happens when I go to the Grand Canyon, or sometimes just look at the beautiful sunset in Texas.

It happens when I see the sun set in Florida.

It happens when I think about the complexity of a blade of grass.

This is a microspopic view of a blade of grass! Isn't it amazing! It looks so happy and does make me wonder if it appears differently when mowing the lawn. :)
Nature causes me to worship the creator who made it all! This is My Father's World!

Joyful Moments

These sweet girls have been together most of their lives..... AND NOW

They are together in these special moments too. :) It has been a bit since I have written and much has transpired. But tonight, I want to write about something very dear and special. When Sarah came home to us in May of 2005, she was a bundle of joyful energy. So much had happened in her short little life and she had traveled from Ukraine to Texas via a different family. Much happened in her first 10 months in America that was NOT GOOD, but GOD had another plan for HER and for US. We were NOT world travelers or very adventerous. We were just simple, living our lives folks and happened to have adopted our Anna who was distantly related through marriage. We had raised our sons, and then we were enjoying raising Anna. Sarah came to us through an email. We answered that Email and our social worker was on it! What a HUGE blessing she was to us! So sweet and funny and spunky! She could speak a very good Texan! But she didn't understand much! LOL After just 6 weeks of being home she started to talk about her best friend left behind in Ukraine. She missed her so much. So at 6 years old she was an instrument of the Lord to bring her sister, Erika home to America. There were MANY people in our lives, used as God's intruments, both financially and committed through much prayer. We were sent a photo from Papa Dima, and then we found out that she NEEDED to be adopted SOON! If she hadn't, she would have gone to an institution for the rest of her life! Why? Because she had arthrogryposis. That's it! A physical handicap can land you in a permanent institution in Ukraine with no way out. Our paperwork, for Erika's adoption appeared on the director's desk on the very same DAY that she was being sent to an institution. Her bags were packed. And then, after an email between us and the director, they were UNPACKED! She didn't know what was happening...... But God.... So, 7 months later, we went to Ukraine to get her. There is much on this blog about that. You can look into the archives. (starting with the very first post) 5 years later, we adopted another sweetheart and completed our family with an 11 year old from Russia who had been adopted 2x's in the US. Life was doing well and then we had some HUGE struggles. This post is not about those struggles. IT is about GOD's faithfulness to us as a family to bring us THROUGH them to the other side. And HE DID! We have been enjoying all of our children and grand children, watching our younger girls work through college and entering adulthood over the last few years. They are STILL room mates with a dear childhood friend Marion. They live about 15 minutes from us in an apartment and we see them regularly. We have also seen some very special young men regularly too. :) And THEY are ALL what this post is about. You see, these two young men, have devoted themselves to these precious young women and have asked to marry them. It took place about 3 weeks apart. We knew it was coming, but oh the joy that it has happened and plans are in the making. :) Our girls are so in love and committed to godly young men who cherish them. And we get to cherish them all! I am in AWE of all that God has done in their lives, how HE has woven our lives together and not just OURS, but MANY MANY lives who have been touched by God's precious and loving plan for all of us. Not only do we gain sons, we gain their loving families also. So our family becomes all the larger. What blessings they are to us! So here are some very special photos.... Donato and Erika's photos were taken by a stranger on the beach.... :) James and Sarah's photos were taken by Erika, hidden away where Sarah couldn't see her. :)