The Day Every Gymnast Dreads

 Everyday as we drive to the gym, we take a few moments to stop and pray for Connor's safety and testimony while he does gymnastics. But, this day was the day that every gymnast (and parent) dreads.  At the tail end of practice, when "free play" means children run around like crazy people, a teammate stepped on Connor's foot and slipped, fracturing his big toe. Connor was in horrible pain and with one look at the toe, we knew a trip to emergency was in order.

Paige was the hero that night as Daddy lay upstairs, with an excruciating headache, sleeping and Jake was fighting a stomach bug that had him throwing up.  What I thought was a ten minute trip to pick-up Connor, turned into an hour & a half adventure away from home.  Sweet Paige called me several times:

Call #1:  "Um, Mommy, Jake is throwing up, what should I do?"

"Just rub his back and tell him, 'it's okay.'"

Call #2:  "Um, Mommy, what do you want me to do with the throw-up?"

(God bless her!)

"Do you mind just dumping it down the toilet and putting the bucket in the laundry room sink?  I'll take care of the rest when I get home."

Call #3:  "Mommy, Jake fell asleep and I'm all alone here."

She was a trooper. I came home to a clean bucket.  She had loved on her brother while he was sick and cleaned it all up.  She welcomed Connor with questions and excitement!  She was beside herself with wanting to tell Daddy all that had happened while he was sleeping!  She lovingly made Con a make-shift bed on the couch for the night and then dutifully crawled up next to him and fell asleep.  She's going to make a GREAT Mommy one day!

The next morning excitement brewed as we were off to Medical Supply to get some crutches.

I don't know who was more excited to have the crutches Connor ....or Paige! :)

Con must spend three weeks off of his foot before a re-x-ray to see how it's healed. 

It's not going to be easy to keep this energetic boy down, but we'll try our best!

1+1=

Thank you all so much for your comments, texts, emails, calls and prayers in regard to Viktoria.  We were so touched by the outpouring of love that we've received.  We have also been given word that should her paperwork be cleared in the future, we will be New Horizon's first call! Please continue to keep this sweet girl in your prayers for God's perfect unfolding for  her little life.

We had less than 24 hours from the time we heard the news of Viktoria until the hosting profile site closed.  Still whirling from the news we wondered how it would be possible to find another child so quickly.  But, with 50+ kids still waiting to be hosted, we knew God's plan was bigger than us.

He did not disappoint.  

After much prayer and heart searching we found the Lord placing in our hearts another 10 year old...Elizavetta.  But, what is even more exciting is that Elizavetta has a 15 year old sister, Alona who stole our hearts as well.  Various circumstances and information led us to these beautiful girls and confirmation of their being exactly what God had planned all along has been astonishing. 

The girls like breakdancing so we're thinking that between our gymnast and our hip-hop dancer they'll fit right in.  They also enjoy singing, dancing, soccer and volleyball.

They will arrive sometime on December 18th, which gives us  roughly 42 days to shift gears, double up on clothes, dentist and optomitrist appointments, reorganize our sleeping arrangements, Christmas shop for a TEENAGER and brush up on our breakdancing!  :)

No problem.

God has shown us in undeniable ways that His fingerprints are all over this story.  We are so undeniably grateful.  We continue to covet your prayers as we prepare to open our family, our hearts and our home to these two, precious daughters of the King.

Bonds of Love

Is it possible to fall in love with a child, just from a few paragraphs of information and a picture?

It is.

For the last 8 weeks our family has prayed and prepared for the upcoming arrival of sweet Viktoria from Ukraine.  We've bought her clothes, a Russian Jesus Storybook Bible, a winter coat and the start of some Christmas presents.  We've begun learning Russian in hopes of making her more comfortable in those first few days of being here as she settles in to life in a new country.  We've made a count-down chain to have a visual of how many days we have left before she arrives. We've prayed for her everyday. In fact, we've been praying over this family opportunity for nearly 10 months.

The kids are giddy excited anticipating her arrival. We talk about her life, her needs, and how we can share Jesus love with her.  We share ideas of fun things we can do with her and show her while she is here. 

Me. I talk online with other host families and we all share ideas and encouragement and books and senerios to prepare for.  We pray for each other. We see God work miracles in fundraising and we watch the hosting list get smaller every day and rejoice.

But, I was not prepared at all for the call I got at 12 noon today.  The call that stopped me dead in my tracks and left me speechless.

"Mrs. Posey. Due to issues of paperwork, Viktoria is no longer clear to travel at Christmas."

I've read all about how hard adoption is. The waiting. The snags. The surprises.  I was prepared for that...when we would embark on the adoption front. But, I was not prepared for this. It never crossed my mind.  

How do I tell my kids?

It's time for dinner, kids and oh, by the way, Viktoria is no longer coming for Christmas!

There is so often a curse to lining your ducks all up in a row and planning it all out to a T. When someone comes along and rearranges your ducks or yanks it right out of your pretty line...it's earth shattering. 

I'm not angry. I know God knows exactly what is best for us...
For Viktoria.

I know that in the end we'll see His hand all over this experience and give Him glory. But, the sting is still there. It still hurts not knowing if she'll ever make it to our home...into the arms of these sweet kids who have loved and prayed for her to know Jesus and to feel safe in our home.  But, God does. And as she falls asleep tonight somewhere under the stars of Ukraine, I know that the hand of the heavenly Father who holds her is the same Father that will wipe our tears as we drift off to sleep tonight as well.

Will you pray for our family as we grieve this loss and seek God for His leading for His next steps for us. There are still many needing homes to host them this Christmas, but the profiles close out tomorrow night at midnight. Your prayers for us are coveted.

Meet Viktoria

We are so excited to share that we will be hosting a little girl in our home this Christmas from Ukraine.

Viktoria will be living with our family for four weeks through the hosting program of New Horizon's for Children. NHFC is a ministry that works to bring children to loving, Christian homes and expose them to Jesus and His love for them as their heavenly Father and possibly provide them with a forever family.

It is our hope that you will join us in prayer for Viktoria and for our family as we follow the Lord on this amazing journey. 

In the Special Book

On Thursday morning this special girl asked Jesus into her heart. It's a precious story, where after four days of a Salvation foundations Bible lesson she sweetly said, "Mommy, you know how you asked me if I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart? Well, now I do!"

She prayed with Mommy, with her two brothers looking on.

The moments following were filled with music, dancing, tears and BIG smiles!! We had a party like no other! She called Daddy and sweetly said, "I asked Jesus in my heart and now my name is in His Special Book!"

We made a special birthday cake (brownies) and had another party when Daddy came home.
Connor immediately made a sign and placed it on the front door that read, "My sister just asked Jesus into her heart!!!!"

That evening Daddy read her a special blessing.

And she received a devotion book just for little girls!

There's been a skip in her step and her smile is even brighter and our somewhat shy little girl has boldly told EVERYONE she see that she is a new believer!! We couldn't be more excited that all our little ones are now written in Christ's "Special Book."

If this is the ONLY benefit/blessing we receive from our adventure in home schooling it will have been worth it!

Never Say Never

Every year about March as re-enrollment comes around Steve & I begin to pray again about what God's will is for our children's education the following year. We absolutely, love, love, love Oakland Christian school, but for whatever reason, be it the Holy Spirit, or other otherwise, we seem to always throw around the idea of homeschooling for a few weeks before putting to rest the idea and signing the papers to send them again to our great school.

This year was a little bit different, as the new year brought in some serious opposition amongst our school administration and many parents & teachers within the school. Satan had a hay day in the school and while we were very on top of things and confident that God was in control and would work through the struggles to bring about His will for OCS. Through that process, Steve & I found ourselves wondering what our other options would be if for some reason things did not iron out like we prayed they would. Once again, homeschooling was brought to the forefront of our thinking.

All the while there was a calm inside of me that things at school would be fine and I talked about it from time to time, but never really thinking it would be necessary. Then, the last weekend of March I attended a conference that Lisa Welchel spoke at. She had a table full of all her books for sale. I had already read many of her books, but one caught my eye: So You're Thinking About Homeschooling?"

The title intrigued me. Why yes, I was thinking about homeschooling. Maybe this would be the book that would set the idea to rest once and for all. Lisa interviewed 15 different families all with different reasons for choosing homeschooling and with different schooling styles. I bought the book.

As I drove nearly three hours home from the retreat with just my thoughts, my music and my God, I found myself filled with a nudge to really give this homeschooling idea a chance. I read the book in two days.

I'm not sure at what point it happened, but before I was even half way done with the book I was talking homeschooling with Steve in a way that I never had before. The completion of the book was also the beginning of our kids Spring Break from school. Time off of school with the kids is always special and this week was no different.

The desire to have this unrushed time with my children on a regular basis became more of a longing. To have more time to implement to them all the things of God I desire to share with them, to travel as a family to desired destinations without having to squeeze it into peek times, to deeply root life skills and to continue to solidify our family closeness, would all be a gift.

I always said I would never home school. And quite frankly, I've never seen a reason to because we live so close to such a fantastic Christian school. But, as I sit back and look across the room at my three little ones, I realize that their littleness is beginning to fade. My time of influence is lessening. There is so much I want to share. So many things we'd like to do. So...why NOT take a year off of traditional schooling and school at home...or on the road! I don't think I would ever regret trying it, but I might surely regret NOT trying it.

And so it stands...Posey's are homeschooling for the 2011-2012 school year. Follow our journey on our family blog.