Prayers that Avail Much

Andrew and Kathlena Oct 25, 2008

Mommy's little helper

Reading time

The boys helping me cook in the kitchen

Kathlena helping make blueberry pie

The number of buckets of tears cried during our adoption and waiting process were more than I can count. At times they were tears of frustration, longing to get through red tape and just bring home our longed for children and other times they were tears of great joy that we were one step closer to the reality of bringing them home. Praising the Lord in those difficult days that seemed they would never end in hopes of being in the days we are in now was hard. But He is so faithful to redeem the time. Though, difficult at times to swallow the loss of those years when you adopt an older child we are seeing so much fruit in such a short time. We praise the Lord for each day of Andrew and Kathlena's lives even when those days were spent apart.

When adopting older children the word "time" seems to take on new meaning. You have time lost, catch-up time, time passing, time waiting and thankfully time redeemed. In the past six months(really since we began the adoption process) I have prayed, mourned, and rejoiced over all of these facets of time. Trusting the Lord to faithfully grow us together as a family.

The day we took custody of Andrew and Kathlena we began right away to teach our newest family members what was most important to us...reading God's Word with us, praying with us, and serving each other with love. It wasn't long before Andrew picked up on our daily disciplines of praying before meals and reading the Bible with Daddy as something to expect. At about 1 month with us he had enough English verbal skills to utter a simple prayer on his own and wanted to, saying "Thank you for this food, Amen". It was so sweet and the beginnings of him participating and assuming a responsibility as a member of our family. In time we began to see him increase his words, mimicking what he has heard his father say as he learns through the Hebrew method of time spent seeing, hearing and doing things one on one. His depth of thinking revealed through his practice of praying gave us a good measure of what he was thinking of that day and was precious encouragement to Mom and Dad. Especially on those days when it seemed we were going backwards more than forwards...more joyful tearful buckets filled.

As Andrew's knowledge and understanding of his new world has grown we have been able to discuss more in depth why we do what we do. What started as a simple prayer that gave him confidence that he belonged has in time also led to great conversations with him about who we are talking to when we pray and why we pray. Similar conversations are held about why we read the psalms each night at dinner and why we listen and read scripture daily. Quickly, he has learned that our faith is important-not because we say it is but because he sees us striving to make it a priority. Having young children "drinking from the fire hose" so to speak, in our home watching more than listening to us has been very humbling. We see the Lord redeeming the time not only in Andrew and Kathlena's lives, but in all of us.

Our older children have been such a blessing and they are learning up close that love is a sacrifice and a decision not just a feeling. How thankful I am that the Lord made a way for them to be with us at every turn of this adoption journey-traveling both trips to Russia. They have endured the pain and the triumphs, I can't even imagine the depth of character and strength the Lord is refining in them through this process, but I pray it is all to His glory. I have seen both Emily and J.Michael rise up to the task, imperfectly, but with great resolve to do what it takes to bring Andrew and Kathlena into the fold of our family.

Today was one of those "Aha" days for Kathlena and Andrew. It was so precious...my bucket was running over...

At lunch we sat outside and as usual Andrew asked to pray which is then usually followed by Kathlena praying. Andrew has such a grateful heart and he loves to pray about everything. It is not unusual for him to pray about every item of food on the table, all of us, the toys he has played with that day and the places we have been, but in addition to that today he prayed thanking the Lord that "Daddy loves Andrew and will always be Daddy for Andrew and for Mommy who loves me so much and Andrew loves Mommy and Mommy will always be Andrew's Mommy. " We have spoken these phrases to him since day one and prayed that somehow he would understand and know that this is not temporary but forever. I believe we are seeing the dawn of that understanding taking place in his heart. Okay, where is my bucket...I am getting my keyboard wet even now remembering this. All praise be to the Lord for answering our feeble prayers and allowing us to taste the sweet fruit of trusting in His perfect timing.

Then Kathlena asked to pray and we are expecting her usual sweet "Foood, men" but she began to clearly speak "Food, Mommy, Daddy, Mimi, Lily(EMily),Bubbie, water, food, Thank you Mommy," at this point Andrew elbows her and says "Kathlena don't forget the Andrews" to which she continues with some inaudible random words then clearly says "Andrew, aMen" Kathlena is just beginning to really blossom verbally. Institutional life made her very silent, withdrawn verbally, but now she is gaining speed and we believe the wave of words is about to hit shore. The dots are connecting and she has much to say! So precious to see the time redeemed...years of silence and solitude now broken and replaced with the fullness of being loved and tremendous growth. The Lord is so faithful and we praise Him for his mercy and grace on our family through difficult days of not seeing progress, but pressing on to see the "Aha, I get!" days that we long for and trust will come in His perfect timing.

Sardine Lessons

On the evening of Oct. 20, 2008, the 5 month anniversary of Andrew and Kathlena officially becoming part of our family we decided to play a game called Sardines. This fun game for all ages we learned from some friends of ours at church. We are finding out it is a favorite of many kids and adults we know.
So, we began to play and Mommy was to hide first. Oh! yes, I suppose I should explain the game first. Here is how it goes... It is sort of a reverse hide and seek. You turn all of the lights in the house out (best to play at night also) playing in the dark makes obvious hiding places not so. Then one person hides while everyone else counts to 60 then you go looking for the hidden person. The twist is when you find them you quietly "disappear" hiding with them until the last person is left to find everyone hiding.
Okay, so back to our night of sardines. Andrew and Kathlena being a little frightened of a dark house I decided to give them small glow sticks to carry while they searched so they could "see" better and feel more secure about walking through a dark house. Mommy hid first and was met with lots of giggles and fun when found by the boys first. After playing for a while J.Michael hid and Andrew began following Emily some as well as searching on his own. Kathlena and I found J.Michael first and hid with him (Kathlena is a great hider...so quiet, a few times I thought she had fallen asleep, but no, just quiet). A long time passes and Emily stumbles upon us leaving only Andrew to find us. We could see him come near by the light of his glow stick, but not close enough to find us. We began to hear him call for Emily which quickly revealed he knew she had now found us too and that he was alone. His voice betraying his nervous emotions made my heart leap to scoop him up, but my spirit said wait. A few minutes later he comes in and he finds us. "I found you!" He was excited and grabs hold of me tightly saying "Mommy, I thought I had lost you, Andrew was crying for you(inside he did not do this aloud) and so sad as you were lost to me. I never want you to be lost to me because I love you so much."
It broke my heart but then I was quickly reminded that this was a safe way for him to deal with fear and experience being lost in the safety of our own home. We talked about how brave he was and what to do if you get lost somewhere. We also discussed staying close to Mommy in busy places so you do not get lost...only now with a better understanding of being lost. I realize I could have consoled him only and stopped the game giving into his fears and training him to avoid such situations in life, but instead chose to take the opportunity to speak truth into his heart about being brave, courageous and pressing on when he meets difficult circumstances. I could also have allowed his past to color my response, but instead as I am growing in my biblical understanding of parenting, I am purposely focusing on training the character of the man he will one day become by speaking the truth of Christ's faithfulness and power to overcome (Ephesians 6:10-11, 16) life's struggles. Viewing these struggles as stepping stones towards a deeper understanding of our need to rely on the Lord not man's wisdom, but the authority of the Word of God for all things pertaining to our life on this earth. Andrew's name means "Mighty Man" and each day as I pray for our children I pray that the Lord would raise up my sons to be mighty men for the Lord's kingdom. I didn't set out to train on this issue as we played our game of Sardines, but I was admonished by the Lord that in all we do we are training; teachable moments are constantly at our feet for the taking. A simple child's game, Sardines, who would have thought it could have had such a big lesson?

Imagination Station

Andrew and Kathlena are growing so fast and their little minds are quickly revealing a greater depth to their personalities through there English language development. Pay close attention to Andrew speaking...truly amazing that he did not know a word of English just 5 months ago and is learning to speak his own thoughts and give clear directions to his sister. They are such adorable playmates together and with Emily and J.Michael too.

One of my favorite new phrases of Andrew's is "da do da dis" only his "da's" are not yes but "the" in English. We asked him the other day what "nyet" meant and he looked at us with a quizzical face and said "I don't know" The rapid loss of language is as amazing as the new one emerging. I had read about this in preparation of A and K coming home until my brain hurt, but there is nothing like seeing it happen to catch a glimpse of the complexity our minds have to adapt and change given by our infinitely wise Creator.

Kathlena has recently begun to say her full name now...Yeena is fading. Here is a video of her saying it over and over while running around. Nana you may need to have your motion sickness patch on to view this and anyone else who gets sick on the merry go round...just a little warning : )

*a note to remember when viewing video scroll to the end of the blog to pause/stop the music so you can hear them talking on the video.

Emily is 14, Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Kathlena and Mommy playing in the dressing room while

Emily tries on clothes.

Kathlena loves shoes and size does not matter.

Hmm...this looks like some shoes I saw on

ladies in Russia.

Well we settled on the glittery flip flops like

Mommy's.

After we had our fill of bargain hunting at Ross and "playing"

dress up we decided to get a bite to eat at Chili's.

We had a quick lunch...Nachos mmmm

Okay, Mimi I really want that chip...enough pictures and

hugging, I am hungry.


Emily's great food photos...doesn't this make you want to

head to Chili's right now?

Kathlena is really taking to getting a pedicure.

The ladies were so sweet they gave her lotion

to put on too.

Emily's beautiful toes...I remember when they were Kathlena

size...they grow up too fast.

One of Emily's favorite dinner's Chicken Pot Pie made by

a sweet lady around the corner from us who sells her home

made goods. Mom's Secret Chef

Emily's ultimate birthday cake, Reese's Peanut butter

Playground from Cold Stone.

J.Michael was trying to get Kathlena's cake...

I was shocked she didn't stick him with her fork.

Obviously she is loving her piece of chocolate cake now.


Mom and Dad staking claim to their leftovers.

Before Pedicure

After pedicure...cute feet. Can you tell whose is whose?

Kathlena got confused and thought our painted

toes were candy...must be the chocolate cake buzz.

Sweet Emily at 14 with no more braces!!!

Hope you had a memorable day my darling Emily. You are a crowning jewel to your mother and father. Your strength of character, love for your heavenly Father and gentle sweet spirit bring much joy and happiness to our household.
 Psalm 1:3 "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." We love you.-Mom and Dad

No internet...much to post...limited access

Our internet line hanging over the road was knocked out by a disaster relief truck last week. Charter, our internet provider told us 2 weeks before they could get to us to fix it. This is the third time this has happened-the last time the line repairman having mercy on us did attempt to move the line as high as he could without restringing more line.
This past Friday by some miracle the charter lineman was out at our house last and "fixed" the line only we still did not have internet as our modem was fried when the line was yanked...arrrrgh. So, today David was off to Conroe to get a new modem only to come home and find not only the newly repaired charter line on the ground, but our phone line also which was our plan B to switch internet providers to Consolidated...they are due out to connect tomorrow. So we will see how this goes, but posting will be sketchy since a homeschool mom with 4 children in a Starbucks for hours is not very conspicuous nor cost efficient.
On a brighter note today is my oldest blessing's 14th birthday. It has been a big week for her as she got her braces off too. What an even more beautiful smile she has now. Wow, does time fly. It seems only yesterday she was a baby and now so grown up. I will write more and post pictures about our girly day as I am able. Happy Birthday, sweet Emily!
We will have another consult with the optometrist tomorrow for Andrew. The immediate good news for him is NO MORE PATCHES! He has been so relieved even if it is only for a short time as we suspect we will need to use them but in a more directed, specific way. The optometrist was able to tell us what is going on in his eye and that he is trying to use a different part of his eye to see which all the patching was not going to improve his vision. I am so excited to see where this leads us and so thankful that the Lord directed us this way. He is so faithful!!
Okay, Emily and I have to get out of Starbucks and head home for her birthday dinner. Hoping to post more soon. Have some adorable video I want to share of Andrew and Kathlena playing...their language is growing so rapidly and they are the cutest little kids. We are closing in on our first post placement visit also so I am beginning preparation for this also....