Family Musings

To say the least, the last couple of weeks have not gone very well for our family.  It seemed like every time we turned around, something happened to one of us.  I jokingly tell everyone that one thing I’ve learned in 36 years of life is that if “something” needs to happen it will happen to me.  However, this time it goes beyond the simple “something.”  The events of the last few weeks are directly related to bringing our precious Igor, Leeza, and Trenton home.

The Enemy never wanted this adoption to take place and he has steadily thrown “little dramas” in our path since December when we committed to adopt our children.  Now, since we are literally days away from receiving a travel date, he is worried and is throwing all kinds of “something” in our path.  The reason he does not want these adoptions to go forward is because he DOES NOT want three beautifully and perfectly created children of God to ever hear of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  He does not want our three children to learn of the One who created them and loves them more than any human could love them…even more than their mommy and daddy waiting to bring them home.  He is worried because, unlike society, he KNOWS our special needs sons and daughter ARE able to learn about and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.  He knows that each one of them IS worthy and capable of so much more!  And, he knows that part of the reason God has called us to adopt 4 children with Down syndrome is because we are to tell the world that babies with Down syndrome WANT to be born and they WANT a family who will love and cherish them!  I’m reminded of the old saying that says “God doesn’t make junk!”  Babies with Down syndrome ARE NOT junk…they are created by God and DESERVE TO BE BORN!!!

The Enemy is justified in his worry.  As with our adoptions of Copeland and Silas, we have answered a call from God to adopt Igor, Leeza, and Trenton.  But unlike our two previous domestic adoptions, we now have to step out in faith and travel to a foreign country to adopt three special needs children who will be transferred to a mental institution to die if no one comes for them.  We have had to rely on faith each and every time there has been a document that needed to be completed and ultimately approved by the US State Department.  We are relying on faith that the Ukrainian State Department of Adoption (SDA) will, in fact, approve us to adopt our babies.  We are relying on faith that He will provide the $35,000 + it is costing to bring our beautiful sons and daughter home.

We are humbled that He would ask us to rely on our faith in Him.  We count it a privilege that God has asked us to adopt our children and spread His message of faith, hope, and love.  Wasn’t it James who wrote the following almost 2,000 years ago:  “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”? (James 1:2-4 NASB)

So, bring on the broken car windows, stolen laptops, stolen confidential adoption documents, badly sprang ankles, ear and eye surgeries, and various illnesses!  WE HAVE FAITH AND TRUST IN GOD'S PROMISE THAT IGOR, LEEZA, AND TRENTON WILL COME HOME SOON!!!!

Stay strong our beautiful precious children, we are coming...

Update coming!!

Thank you to all of our followers who have asked for an update on our adoptions.
I am currently typing this on my iPhone, so I hope this will post okay! We have ordered a new laptop with hopes we will be getting it in the next couple of days. However, we are still praying that the thief (or thieves) will return our laptop that they stole from us.
Once our new laptop comes in, I will update our blog and let all of you know the "adoption happenings" over the last 4 months. I am SOOOO excited to share how our God has remained faithful even when we didn't deserve it.
As we are still fundraising for our children's grant, I'll also update everyone on how God has blessed us with donations from friends and strangers!
So, until then, we pray that each of you have a very blessed week...

Our Adoption Journey 2011 Video

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Answering a Very Special Call to Adopt

During my last year with SAISD, I began a friendship with a student with Down syndrome.  Every morning, without fail, she would come find me so that we "could talk."  I was constantly amazed about how much joy this sweet girl had and how, with one smile, she would make my day.  Furthermore, it warmed my heart to see my students accept her as a true friend when she would come to my classroom for a visit and not as a special needs student who needed pity.  This beautiful young lady was a true gift of God.  From this relationship, God gave me the desire to try my hand at teaching special education.  I took the TEA/SBEC special education certification exam and passed. 

At the end of the school year, I resigned from SAISD because Copeland would be starting kindergarten in the fall.  I needed to teach for the same district he was in so our school holidays and breaks would be the same.  After receiving my special education certification, I applied to Northeast ISD as a secondary special education teacher and was hired in July as a high school special ed co-teacher.  I was placed in a regular classroom to give extra support to students with mild learning disabilities. 

Within the first month of the school year, I was given my own classroom to teach 9-12 grade Reading labs since I was the only spec ed teacher also certified to teach Secondary English and Reading.  The majority of my students had learning disabilities and many were emotionally disturbed.  I was so excited to have the opportunity to teach such wonderful students.  One of the strongest gifts that God has given me is compassion, especially very strong compassion for "the underdog" or anyone that is pushed aside by society.  I have always taught my students that as long as they respect themselves, each other, and me I would fight tooth and nail for them.  (On more than one occasion, I have found myself "at odds" with other teachers and a few administrators because of this promise.)  Once my students realized that I took this promise seriously, they began to come around and were willing to try their best both in and out of the classroom.

Once again, God placed a student with Down syndrome in my life at my new school.  “Adam” was a 19 year old senior who was very proud of the fact that he could read, learn, and would graduate at the end of the school year.  Adam began to occasionally come into my classroom before school and during lunch so that he could have a place to read and talk about his books.  These times quickly became a highlight to my day.  In fact, I would find myself very disappointed on the days that he didn’t come visit me.  Adam was very funny and I was constantly struck by the fact that he could pretty much “hold his own” while discussing books he had read, music, and movies. 

God had touched my life with two wonderfully smart and perfect students with Down syndrome.  I realized that it was time to adopt again and that He was calling David and me to adopt a special needs child, specifically a child with Down syndrome.  So began what would, unbeknownst to us, a calling that would last a lifetime. 

The In-between Years

In May of 2004, David, Copeland, and I moved from Frisco, a city in far North Dallas, to San Antonio.  We had been wanting to relocate to south Texas for quite a while and were very excited when David got a job offer with a very good company in San Antonio.  David actually started his job the week between Christmas 2003 and New Years in San Antonio while Copeland and I remained in Frisco.  David comuted back and forth on the weekends for four months as we prepared to move and start a new journey in San Antonio.
After Copeland's adoption I had been a stay-at-home mother and it was now time that I went back to teaching.  I was very conflicted about going back to work and having to put Copeland in daycare, but I knew God wanted me back in the classroom.  So, I began submitting my application and resume to school districts in and around San Antonio praying that God would lead me to where He wanted me to teach.
This prayer was quickly answered as He provided the "perfect" teaching opportunity that completely eased my mind about placing Copeland in daycare.  I was hired to teach 9^th through 12^th grade English at a private Christian school that was a ministry of a local Baptist church (I was the WHOLE high school English department!).  Another ministry of this church was a daycare for children 18 months old through pre-k.  Both of these ministries were on the church's campus.  So, while I was teaching high school English at one end of the church, Copeland was attending daycare at the other end...we were literally three minutes away from each other!  It was evident, though, that this teaching job would only be for one year; long enough for me to transition back to teaching and for Copeland to transition to daycare.  God had called me to teach public school and to use it as my mission field so it was important that my ministry continue.  Also, David and I needed additional income to pay off some unsecured debt that we had accrued over several years.  Teaching at a private Christian school would not provide the means necessary to get us out of this debt since my salary was extremely low.
I was hired by San Antonio ISD to teach high school reading at one of their Title 1 schools for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years.  Not only was I given the "perfect" mission field, my salary more than doubled (benefits were also so much better)!  God once again provided what we needed.  Although the high school was located right in the middle of a very high-crime and gang area in San Antonio, I was never afraid or harmed; God wanted me there and I never doubted that for a second.  Hurricane Katrina hit my first year at the school and we were a school that took in a high number of the high school aged evacuees.  On a daily basis, we had to break up fights among our old and new students while trying to reach both student populations.  We had several lock-downs because of shootings and deadly weapon crimes in the area surrounding the school.  Through it all, I knew God was in control and what would happen would happen; He would bring me through everything.
After weeks of strict discipline, consistency, and high expectations, I earned the respect of my students.  Even though I was "white" and very much in the minority on that campus, my students knew they could trust me and that I respected them as individuals.  I constantly heard "Miss, you got our backs and we got yours."  This proved true on several occasions as I fought for my students and as they stood up for me among peers and sometimes other faculty members.   
I absolutely loved the two years I was at that school as God allowed me to minister to my students in and out of the classroom.  There were so many small, but profound breakthroughs made by my students that I will forever cherish in my heart. 
I was constantly asked by students, parents, and members of the community why I was teaching at this school and not at a “better and easier” school.  Every time I would give the same answer, “this is where God wants me for now.”  It was very neat to see how this simple answer added me to a number of individual and church prayer lists.  These prayers were very well received and I was honored to have so many people praying for my students and me. 
Looking back now, I know that God had a specific purpose for all the “non-specific” prayers said on my behalf during those two years.  It was during this time that, unbeknownst to me, God began to plant the seed of adopting children with Down syndrome.