It's a BOY!

I never thought that I would ever be able to say those words. But today it happened. Jon opened an e-mail that he thought might be spam, but something told him to open it before he deleted it. When he did, he was shocked to find a little face staring back at him. When Natalie brought me the printed out e-mail (in the bathroom, no less) it was a good thing that I was where I was because that's where I would have needed to be. If you get my drift. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I am still in SHOCK!

Anyway, you aren't really interested in all this.

So......

Here he is


Born: July 5, 2009 (6 weeks early!)
Name: Jonathon Joseph JinChung (Jake)
Weight: 3 lbs. 14 oz.
Nationality: Taiwanese

Time does Heal

Twenty years ago today, my life was irrevocably changed. At the time, I felt as though my life would end, that the world as I knew it was gone forever. But GOD had a plan. Personally, I though HE had lost HIS mind. I was angry at HIM for years. But HE put up with my temper tantrums, my shouts about injustice, my cries of sorrow. He patiently waited, in HIS fatherly way HE consoled me. And now I am beginning to see HIS road for me. HE had taken me down that path because HE wanted me to be a strong wife, to be a passionate mother, to really appreciate children on a higher level. I never, Ever thought I could love again. Love, unconditional love, was far more painful than blind, innocent love. You understand all the risks and accept them - regardless of what might happen. Or how long you might have.

B., M., K., and E., I will always love you and never forget what you gave me.

Caution....Rant in progress

Sorry for that, I just needed to rant for a moment. All better now. Well, sort of.

Not Much to Say ~

I was told that this blog has been kind of depressing lately and with not much to tell, I haven't been too inspired to post. But I will fill you in on what I know (little though it is)..... We were accepted into a program in Taiwan. We are working with a maternity home which does independent adoptions. They assist women-in-need with their prenatal care and delivery. The women are given parenting classes and/or counseling if they want it. IF they decide that they can not care for their child, the option of adoption is offered to them and this home assists in placing the child with an adoptive family. The home helps the adoptive family with all the Taiwan paperwork and appointments, and the adoptive family just needs to handle the US paperwork. The ladies running the home are vacationing in TX with their families until August, when they return to Taiwan. So, referrals and any new baby news will resume when they return. Since it is a small organization, they limit how many waiting families they accept. And since they can not predict when a baby will become available, our wait time is uncertain. But at least I feel and believe that this will happen.

Changes about the Christmas Quilts

I was reading Facebook and was saddened when one of my on-line buddies, Shelby, said that she was going off-line for awhile because she needed to re-group her life. She has this wonderful organization that helps special needs children find their forever families. Unfortunately, with the economy is such dire straits, she is having a hard time finding donations to help give grants for these children. Shelby said that she wanted to have a fundraiser auction this coming October, but no one had come forward to donate items for the auction. She had decided that she would just let the Elison Project fade away. But GOD had other ideas for her. From out of the blue, she received a donation of a special carved ball from China. And so began new found mission. Shelby would continue to look for donations and continue to try and help special needs children unite with their loving families.
When I read Shelby's post, my heart broke. After working so hard to help others, to see her so upset and feeling hopeless, it just made me so sad. I wondered what I could do. I knew that sending money was out of the question, but maybe I could send her something to auction off. Like a lightening bolt it struck me that I had two Christmas quilts that would make wonderful items to auction off. I mean, isn't that what I was planning to do with them? Though we could use the donation ourselves, I was 'told' that these quilts were needed elsewhere. Without any hesitation, I contacted Shelby and let her know that there were 2 quilts coming her way for the auction. That was the easiest e-mail for me to send. I hope and pray that she gets lots of money for them. Please go to her site - The Elison Project (click on the link above). I hope you are inspired to help, too.