Little Does she know....Little Does she know we are COMING!!!

We got our travel letter today to pick up AnnaBella! We need to arrive in country on Tuesday, September 6th, and our "gotcha" day of our precious girl will be Wednesday, September 7th! 

We will be able to travel home with her on either Friday, September 16th or Saturday, September 18th! 

We are OVER the moon excited about this and sure do covet your prayers as we prepare everything here for travel! 

This trip it will be Grace and I going to get AnnaBella. Grace came with us 2 years ago to get Jerry and JoyAnna! Glenn is going to stay here with all of the kiddos!

God has been sooooooo faithful to us in how He worked this ALL out in His perfect timing! What a blessing that we didn't get travel dates the whole time that JoyAnna was in the hospital, and that we also got to meet our newest grand baby who was born last Monday! 

What a blessing, too, that Glenn's work schedule (he's self employed) has worked out perfectly, too! 

AnnaBella's Bulgarian name is Pepa. This means..."God has added!"...and He truly has! This will be one of her middle names here in America! 

God is good...ALL the time! This adoption, our favorite song and our theme has been John Waller's song, Jesus Hears the Orphan. Please take a moment and watch this. It's based on his own adoption story, and this is actually footage of their adopted daughter. What a blessing this has been! What a touching story! Jesus truly does hear the orphan! And truly, little did she know they were coming for her! That's how we feel about AnnaBella! 

Thank you ALL for your love, encouragement and support! We sure do love you!

AnnaBella is truly a Daddy's girl! 

This is her energy ALL the time! So kind and loving! 

Hang on sweetie! We are coming for you! 

FULLY FUNDED!!!!

Praising God this morning that we are MORE than fully funded for our adoption of Little Miss AnnaBella! What an amazing blessing from the Lord! Thank you Jesus! We got accepted last night by Gift of Adoption for an amazing grant, and along with VERY generous donations over the last 2 weeks, that puts us MORE than over the top which will allow us to get some important things we need to help get things ready for her when she gets home! God is good! ALL the time! ALL the time...God is good!

Yes....my life is forever changed...and so am I...

I know I haven't written in a bit...I'm sorry for that. Let me help you to get caught up! ...

I was chatting with my Dad the other day. I was talking with him while here at the children's hospital in NH with JoyAnna. He wanted to know how she was recovering from her surgery. (she just had her first of several foot reconstruction surgeries on Friday) As I was sharing with him all that we had gone through in such a short time, and how hard it was for me to have JoyAnna in so much pain he said to me with tears in his eyes... ( he had such an incredibly tender heart toward our precious little girl!)...

"Mary....you life has changed so much, hasn't it?"

(tears are always in my eyes readily these days) "Yes, Dad", I answered, it has and I wouldn't trade it for anything! 

I'm writing this blog post from my little twin sized bed in the "insect" room at David's House. Each room has a theme and is decorated accordingly.

My home away from home right now while JoyAnna is recovering from her first foot reconstruction surgery. Jon and I are sharing this room, with butterflies and caterpillers on the walls, and pretty lady bug bed spreads.

 It's so peaceful and quiet here. It's absolutely beautiful, this home. Lots of love and caring here, and I am so very thankful for it. This home where you can stay as long as you need at no cost at all. This home that is run by volunteers. Sweet wonderful people who are so kind and caring, who come in daily to clean and make meals..  The other night I spoke with the program manager here for an hour or so. She was asking me about my family, and so of course I got out my i-Pad and showed her everyone and told her all about each one. (My husband has a joke with me....he'll start to watch the time when I start chatting with someone and he says it's just a matter of a minute or so before I get out a photo, and then hand out our business card, etc. I LOVE doing this! )So when I got to sharing about JoyAnna, and Jerry, and of course Zoey, and I shared with her where the girls had come from and how Zoey died before we could come and bring her home, she cried and just kept saying over and over..."I had NO idea, how can this be happening, this is criminal, I really had NO idea"....This is such a common answer. This is when I gently say to folks..."well, now that you know.....there are many ways to help and be a blessing"...and then I give out our family business card and share about our blog and such. Planting seeds...sharing truth...showing God's love. She cried when I showed her this photo of Jerry and JoyAnna at one year home! She was shocked and she herself said..."their lives are forever changed!"...yes, Susan, they are, but so are ours, too. So are ours...

This is the first time I haven't stayed right in the hospital room with JoyAnna. It was recommended that I sleep here since I'd have Jon with me to help for transporting Joy to the surgery and coming home. I'm thankful for the good night's sleep that I'm sometimes getting, but I sure do miss not being there with her. 

I'm remembering this verese..."I lift my eyes up to the Lord, where does my help come from, it comes from You Lord, the maker of heaven and earth!" Psalm 123:1

This has by far been her hardest hospital stay. I have NOTHING to compare in my life to the pain this little ray of sunshine has experienced in her life already, and NOTHING to compare to the pain she is having from her foot surgery. Bone surgery is the most painful surgery to recover from. The first 3 days are the worst, and we are just completing day 2.  I don't have any experience with this type of pain, but dear readers, Jesus sure does, doesn't He? And so does my Heavenly Father, too. 

Oh dear blog readers...Can I confess something to you....?? I'm struggling with such anger issues toward her orphanage, and those people to contributed to the reason why she even needs this surgery to begin with...I find this anger rising up out of seemingly nowhere...especially when JoyAnna is screaming out in pain......UGH.........but that isn't going to help JoyAnna right now, nor will it help those all around her. And so....I must nail that anger to the cross, and I ask Jesus day in and day out to remove this anger from me, and allow me to love these people.... I pray that God will give me a spirit of reconciliation...."that I will love my enemies, and bless them that curse me, and do good to them that hate me and pray for them that despitefully use me,.....that I may be a child of my father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:44-45 You know something, too, JoyAnna really has no anger toward her caregivers...maybe fear...but no anger. Maybe post traumatic stress related to medical care...but no anger. Lord, please do NOT allow me to teach this to her. PLEASE!!

We thought we'd be able to go home today (Sunday), but that was not to be. It's not looking good for going home tomorrow, either. Her pain needs to be under

 control, and she needs to be able to sit up and tolerate that for a good length of time.

She had about 3 good hours in a row today where she was comfortable.  This is progress, but it's not enough progress. Her night last night was really restless. She had many night terrors, my dear friend Chloe told me tonight. (Chloe is a nurse's aid we've had all 3 times we've been here overnight and we love her! She is like an angel from heaven just for JoyAnna!) 

This morning was really hard, too. And there have been many, many people that just don't understand what it means to not be able to have a voice like you and I have. JoyAnna isn't able to answer the question..."on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your pain like?" as we would answer it. Instead she indicates her pain level with the type of cry she has. I know her cries VERY well. I know when she's hungry, or tired, or frustrated, or grumpy, or even when she is faking it. I also know VERY well, when she's in pain. 

JoyAnna spent 7 long years with NO ONE answering her cries. Not many people caring enough to even determine what kind of cry it was. But I know, I know those cries  very well, and so does everyone in my family. And you know what?? The wonderful nurses at the hospital are beginning to know those cries, too. What a blessing it was for me to run into two of my favorite nurses tonight before I left. One of them came up to me and just hugged me and hugged me and said..."Oh Mary, she looks so good, she's doing so well! You have done such an amazing job with her!" This precious nurse has seen JoyAnna when she first came home, really at her worse since she came here! Thank you dear Chloe for your wonderful words, like a balm to my soul this night. 

I am clinging to this verse given to me by a dear, dear friend this week:  

"but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 4:31

Dear God, renew my strength, dear Lord...I am weary....I am so weary....But I have the power living within me that has raised Christ from the dead! For this reason I will NOT grow weary while doing good! I will NOT lose heart! I know that God promises that I will reap! 

So very thankful to have her big brother Jon here on this trip with me. What a wonderful young man he has become. So kind and loving and helpful to me and to JoyAnna. He's a HUGE blessing! Love you Jonnie, and so does Joy! Don't you think??

So to answer your question Dad....my life is NOT my own. This world is NOT my home. This life has changed so much, and therefore so have I, and because God entrusted us with this precious little girl rightly named Joy, I am forever changed and continually blessed. Trusting in the God who promises to restore what the locusts have eaten...

Good bye for now! 

"Joyfully" blessed today!

Just had to share this video with you! Our precious JoyAnna has been home for 15 months now! Here is a side by side photo of her. On the left in the orphanage and on the right from last week!

This little gal has been through soooooo much! Unnecesary surgeries, tied to a crib, infrequent human interaction. 

The difference is astounding!

This video is from this morning:

Are you interested in helping us to make this kind of difference in the life of another little girl?? Check out the side of the blog. There are MANY ways to help!!! 

Thank you! To God be the Glory! 

Jesus Hears the Orphan!

Praising God this day that Jesus truly does hear the orphan! Thank you Jesus! Listen and rejoice!

'Orphan' by John Waller - A Beautiful Music Video about Adoption from billsammons on GodTube.

What an amazing difference a year makes! Take a peek!

I thought you might like to take a walk down memory lane with me and my family. One year ago we brought home our two precious Bulgarian children. To God be the glory! GREAT things he hath done!  Here are side by sides every month over the last year. The photos on the left are on August 6th, 2014 when we landed in Manchester, NH. The photos on the right are each month on the 6th. It's incredible! It's a miracle! Praising God!!! These pictures are TRULY worth more than 1,000 words! 

Just HAD to put these photos of JoyAnna, too! Truly, she has had a most amazing transformation!! Don't you think?? From a scared little girl to a beautiful young lady! The Lord has truly replaced what the locusts had eaten in this little gal!! :)

What happens when we say, "YES, Lord, YES!" Part One/Reece's Rainbow

 You know what? God is good!! and you know when?? ALL THE TIME!! That's right! He is! 
I can't write this all in one post and so I'll do it in a couple.

So, come January of this year, we were going along with our life, which is VERY full, with 9 kiddos at home, when God started the prompting. ....."Hey, have you considered who I will bring to your family next?"....

"What?" I said. "Seriously God, our plate is FULL, we have sooooooo much going on, we, we, we, we,....." I was full of excuses and so was my husband. You see, at the end of January, early February, we had enough money in our savings account to put on a mud room. We live in a VERY small cape, and our space is limited with 11 people living here. So we decided a mud room off the kitchen slider would be awesome. Give us space, places to hang stuff, keep dirt from coming onto our new wood floors, etc. We had it ALL figured out! Right hun?? That's always when is happens! ALWAYS. When one of us gets the "nudge" to do something.

You see, even though our life was super full, it truly had settled GREATLY, and we were really sailing along quite nicely! (if I do say so myself!). To quote the lego movie...."everything was AWESOME! everything was cool with a capital "C" ". And...there was a mud room in our future to boot! Glorious space!!! YAY!! BUT....God saw something or should I say someone different in our future. God saw a way that we could continue to store our treasures in heaven, where moth and rust will NOT destroy. God saw a little girl. God showed us this little girl, again and again and again. And so in March, as a family we went and saw the limited release movie, "The Drop Box". 

 Have you seen it? It's out on DVD now! Precious blog readers, this movie changed our life! This pastor taught us so much about unconditional love! He's nearly 70 years old! A couple of the things he said in the film hit us right between the eyes and straight to our hearts:

Pastor: God sent them to earth with their disabilities. They’re not the unnecessary ones. They teach people. They live with smiles on their faces.

Pastor: We never faced any major troubles.

Glenn and I thought to ourselves, ..."how can we think that our life is too crazy with all that we have going on, and with JoyAnna and her special needs and all that we think is a LOT for us, when this pastor is caring for his own 27 year old special needs son with such love and compassion AND all of these other orphans in his care and the ones that get deposited into the box, too! 

And so we took  just about ALL of that money we had saved up for our mudroom, and we said, "YES", to this precious little girl. The mud room can wait! We were soooooo excited! We started researching and planning. Thing is, another family also said, "Yes" to our little girl, too! We said, "YES", at the same time.  And God saw fit that this little one would be matched with that family, why? Because God had another little girl perfect for us! Bait and switch?? NOPE! A total God thing! And you know what else?? God has put us in touch with this awesome family that God picked for that little girl, and they vacation only 1/2 hour from our home! We'll get to meet up with them next month! They are new to adoption and so God has shown us how we can minister to them and they can come along side of us. AND...how we can get our 2 Bulgarian beauties together sometime in the future!! Oh God is sooooooo good!

Okay, so we called our home study agency. They were just out to our house for our first post placement report for Jerry and JoyAnna. We asked them about a home study update for this new adoption. They told us that would be fine and someone would be in touch with us regarding when they could come out, etc. THEN, we got a call. A dreaded call. The agency had new management, and their clinical supervisor was NOT in favor of us adopting again so soon. Our children hadn't even been home a year yet. We needed to wait! UGH, and so we prayed. We prayed and asked God what we should do! We had NO idea!! We really felt like the door had closed! God prompted us to call back the agency and make an appeal to them. To tell them that Bulgaria had built in safeguards into their adoption system so that there was really no way you could bring home another child too soon! No way at all! You could commit to another child after 5 months, but that the new child or children would NOT come home for well over a year! So we made the appeal and they said, "YES!" We couldn't believe it! Well we should have believed it because God was in it! 

So they came for the update. Thing is, they were skeptical. Totally thinking that we were in over our heads! Seriously, the update meeting did NOT go well. Or so we thought. When they left, our eldest daughter at home said..."Mom, that didn't go well, and I do NOT like that lady!". So we prayed, and prayed, and prayed. They called us and said..."Okay, we are willing to do this, BUT, we have many parameters that MUST be met. They listed them......
1. Only one child.
2. You can NOT bring the child home before January of 2016.
3.  The child must be ambulatory (able to walk)
4. The child must be between the ages of 2-6.
5.  The child can NOT require surgery within the first year.
6.  The child can NOT have any severe special needs.
7.  Special needs accepted would be:  Down's syndrome, missing an arm, etc. 

The list went on! BUT you know what??? This list fit our little girl that God had shown us EXACTLY!!! And so today we just got this note from our home study agency:

"Hi Mary:

It is all complete!  Attached is a PDF copy and I am sending you two originals in the mail as well.  I’m also sending two originals to Little Miracles, per their request.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need anything else!"

WHAT???? This is a miracle! A total miracle!!!! 

This is truly what happens when you say, "YES" to the Lord!!! 

Can I get an AMEN?????

This precious little girl...

This precious little girl:  Miss JoyAnna Yanka Deneva Winslow turns 8 today! The picture on the left shows her at her orphanage in April last year. (2014). Although she's only been home since August last year, the changes in her have been a true miracle from the Lord! 

She is such a blessing to us! Energetic and truly joyful, she reminds us to thank God daily for ALL of our blessings!

She is certainly one of them! Happy 8th birthday love!! May this next year bring you amazing strength and growth!  We sure do love you bunches!

March "GLADNESS" here at Grace Abounding Farm because God says: "Serve Me with gladness: come before My presence with singing!~ Psalm 100:2

Doen't this photo just EXUDE such gladness??

Been thinkin' a lot these days about March, and Spring, and planting my garden...starting seeds indoors and all manner of things that happen in March around here. But this March....this month...brings even more blessings, and even more opportunities for growth and strength. You see this week, the first week of March,  JoyAnna begins her physical therapy. We go on Wednesday to meet her physical therapist and be evaluated! We are soooooo excited that she has reached this point and will be able to progress.

Just yesterday at church, Glenn gave the message. It was titled:  Standing firm, Standing strong, even if you are standing ALL alone!. It was an amazing message given by my hubby. Such an encouragement and such a blessing. In it he referenced JoyAnna, and her progress that she is making. Here is an excerpt:

                               "We’ve been talking a lot in our family about standing strong when it comes to JoyAnna, too. You all know that she is in the process of the Dr’s trying to undo all of the damage done to her feet and legs by being tied to her crib for 7 years. She’s endured months and months of a casting process to slowly make it so that her feet are at the right angle so that she can some day stand and maybe some day even walk.

Let’s take a look at this…because I truly feel there is a real illustration here regarding our walk with the Lord as a believer! Let’s look at JoyAnna’s right foot. This was the first cast on her right foot. Believe it or not, this was progress, GREAT progress, but not enough to stand. Could she stand after this casting? No..and you know what…looking at it, you may even think it hardly made a difference, BUT, it did! 

I feel that this is the same way with looking to God’s word to help shore us up and stand strong for Him. When we stand on His promises, and commit our lives to Him daily, we’ll have progress, it may be very slow at first, but don’t lose heart!! It does make a difference!

Look at JoyAnna’s 2nd casts on her right foot. Can you see the progress? This was in only 2 weeks time! But she still couldn’t stand at that angle, right?

Now, something to consider is this…the casting was replaced every two weeks right away…NO time in between! This reminds me of putting on the armor of God daily…and not leaving any part of it out!! Right? Otherwise we will lose progress! The enemy is always looking for a foothold in our lives, right?

And so look at this…her 3rd cast on her right foot They got a right angle! After only 6 weeks they got the perfect angle for standing! Look at that!!

BUT….this progress, did not come without GREAT pain and suffering on her part. During that 2 week period she cried and cried. She lived on pain reliever, and she didn’t sleep much and neither did we! You see that is when she got a huge pressure sore on the back of her heal. This sore was from the inside out and when that cast came off, the sore burst and it left a hole in her heal. It served as a reminder to me that standing firm and standing alone for God is not easy, and it can be painful for us. We aren’t promised that we will have an easy road, are we? Straight is the road and narrow is the gate, and it’s not an easy road! But look at the progress that this 2 week period made for JoyAnna! Incredible! And so due to the sore, they did another casting process  to allow it to heal more.

Then, once those casts came off, she was fitted for the leg brace that she’s wearing today on her left leg. And we had to wait another month before her heel was healed enough to have a brace made for her right leg. 

And so that brace is now made. She doesn’t have it on today, because we give her Sundays off from wearing it. It’s still very hard for her. Some days she can wear it only an hour, and some days she can wear it all day. We never know. She still has the sore on her heal, but it’s a scab now, but it still hurts her. 

Let me tell you something….one of the hardest things for me to endure each day is hearing JoyAnna’s cries of pain when her braces are being put on for the day. These are sobs of pain and agony…because her feet want so much to go back to “what they know”…and their old position…but when Mary or Grace work her ankles and massage them and get them into her braces, once they are in and secure, she calms right down. All of this so that one day she will be able to stand, and then maybe bear her weight, and then maybe, Lord willing to walk. 

Page Three

I know God has great plans for this little girl…I just know it. This leg braces…solid and firm standing alone, are really a perfect picture of what God will do in and through us if we let Him. If we will chose to stand firm, and stand alone each and every day! 

Sometimes our children complain about this and that…jobs that they need to do around the house, or the cold temperatures, or something like that. I am always reminding them of JoyAnna. Truly…she had NO reason at ALL to have Joy and yet she does…and has…even in the midst of all that she’s been through to try and get her to be able to stand some day!"

And so it's this message that I'm reflecting on today as we prepare to go to JoyAnna's first physical therapy appointment. First of many! That's for sure! We sure would covet your prayers! I know it's going to be tough. Just today, she could only wear her braces for the morning, that's it. It's sooooo hard some days. She's getting some skin break down on her left ankle now, too, which is so painful for her!

Then, on the 17th of this month, Glenn and I and JoyAnna will be headed to our local equipment center for JoyAnna to be fitted with whatever equipment she'll need here at home to help her. A stander, a special bed, a bath seat, a seat/stroller/high chair combination, etc. In the 6 months she's been home, we've just used whatever we've had on hand and made due. This is going to be awesome!! We are praising the Lord for the provision as well!

So you see here at our farm...as we prepare for the gladness of March  (including celebrating Jerry's 11th birthday on Saturday and then Jon's 12th birthday a few weeks later!) we look to the Lord and thank Him for our many blessings!

Over much of the country you'll hear and see celebrations of March Madness:

Not even really sure what that is....I think maybe college basketball. But here...we are full out celebrating March Gladness with the Joy of the Lord as our strength!

Sure do love each one of you and would LOVE to hear from you! Send us a note...we LOVE comments on our blog...or emails...or phone calls...or better yet...even visits!!

PS...can I share a little secret with you, too. This is another reason for gladness...another excerpt from Glenn's message yesterday:

"I know what God says in His word, and I know that this (adoption) is our mission field. As a matter of fact, we are seeking God’s will and His timing as to when to add to our family again! I promise to keep you posted on this! Please pray for me on this as well as it will be another test of standing alone…especially with my own family, and also with my fears about money and provision. I know these fears are from the enemy and NOT from the Lord!"

And so I promise to keep you posted on that regard as well!  (BIG SMILES!)