Videos of Luke's Orphanage on youtube

For those of you interested, there is are 2 videos of Luke's orphanage on youtube. Just search all gods children orphanage fedja. The opening picture is a little Haitian girl in a cream colored dress. It was added 2 days ago on the 5th of November. There are quite a few of Luke in there. He is the little guy always smiling or goofing off on the tramp. The little girl crying being held by a man is Merildia-Luke's sister. She is 2. They remind me of each other with their big expressive eyes and thick lips. It is a great way to see some of where he came from. The kids wear uniforms to school at the orphanage. They also got a new trampoline there. The little girl with the great eyelashes is a true orphan. She is just precious and has a little sister who is 2-3. The picture of her is her little face kinda serious with her long lashes. (HINT HINT for those of you who might like to adopt) Not all of the kids are up for adoption. Some of them just live there as there families cannot afford to keep them. Most of the kids have only 1 living parent. It is not unusual for the living parent to live on less than $1.0o per week. Can you imagine? The caucasian woman in the pictures sticking her tongue out in some of the photos escorted Luke to the US for us. I love her and we are becoming fast friends. Enjoy the video!

1st Haircut and Mr. Doug's Big Tractor

Today we went over to our good friends the Unruhs' and Paula helped me with cutting Luke's hair. No, he is not in pain. Just performing for the camera. He comes up with these awesome faces and so he did this for Courtney. I even saved it for his baby book!

Then we went outside and he loved the farm equipment. He is learning the names of big implements and could not get over this big "tractor" We are working on combine but big tractor is stuck in his mind. He loved it!

Yesterday morning Laci told me she was going to "help train Luke to not clean." We have told her that we need her help in teaching him things. I guess she sees how neat he is and what a problem it is(we are loving how he likes to help us pick up) So we laughed at her perception of cleaning. When I came home from the store yesterday evening, the twins were such great help so we secretly joked that he is rubbing off onto her and training her.

We are off to Pump it Up this morning. We are going with our friend Abby and her girls. Hopefully a lot of energy will be worn off!!!
(As I have reread my blog I see lots of errors. Please forgive my typos. I am usually hurrying and not wanting to forget any thing and the don't reread each time.)

We have a court date and other prayer requests...

We have a court date to finalize our adoption. It is on the 12th of Decemeber. Everything is going well legally except that the Immigration officials have Luke's birth certificate and we need to find another copy. So I would ask that you all pray that another one can be obtained with EASE from the Haitian side of this. I feel at peace but want to have all our ducks in a row. In order to get our adoption credit we need to have this all finalized by the end of the year. In addition we cannot get healthcare on Luke until he is in our name legally. If we had to we could apply for a medical card but would rather not go that route if we can avoid it since we have a family plan.

Also I would ask that you continue to pray for the house situation. We dropped the price today and hope that will bring a new set of lookers. The market is slow but God is big. Our desire to downsize would not only decrease my need to work but would potentially give us some extra cash to pursue Merildia's adoption. Since this adoption process started we have felt the blessings of giving to others. We are feeling what we have missed out on by not giving more of our money towards things that scripture mandates.


One funny thing today is that Luke got stuck in his sleeping bag. He was climbing in it and didn't turn around and thought he was in there forever. His heart was beating wildly and he was sweating profusely. I was talking to my friend Sheri and so she now knows we are still alive!!

Luke is speaking quite a bit of English. We are going to video him in hopes to put it on here so all of you can hear his really cool accent. He says "What are you doing?" "Oh my worb(not word)" "I don't know". I know he will lose the tone he has but it is so fun right now.

Today I have been trying to meal plan. I have inventoried all my food and meat and made meals for at least 6-7 weeks. I am hoping this will help save in the food area. I am also starting some poultry/beef/venison bases to have on hand for fast meals. I will tell you the kids are climbing the walls and we are now headed outside. Tim has no idea what he is going to walk into when he gets home. heheeh
Have a good evening.

We voted!!

This afternoon I told the kids that we needed to go vote and look how Luke dressed. It is awesome to see how he thinks. He even chose red and white!! He heisted the tie from Tim. He loves it! We plan on getting him his own.

This is Luke's biological sister Merildia. We would love to get the adoption process started to get her. We know that having her here would be such a blessing for them growing up. God will have to provide the funds. We have decided to set up an account with GVCM to help start a fund for getting her here. If you feel led to donate don't hesitate to let us get you the contact information.

Only 1!!! and first verse

Luke and Laci are in superchurch and learn verses each week for candy(like we need any). This week it was exciting for us as Luke wanted to learn 1 Timothy 4:12, "Do not let any one look down on you because you are young" He even said it at superchurch. Pretty exciting. He seems to really be understanding and today while we were driving he looked out the window and said, "Oh my word!" I noticed today he seemed a little more frustrated at times that we didn't understand him. He is so worn out times and every time we get into the van says, "Domme" which mean I want to sleep or bed. He also like for us to sit in the back between him and Laci. We decided today we are going to start carrying pillows in our vehicles to make it easier for us.

I think I shared earlier that Luke loves to snuggle and kiss and hug. We have been working on how and when to kiss and who. So today we have the kids outside and they are playing and I sat down on Tim's lap and began to kiss Tim. He did not like that one bit. He made all kinds of signs towards Tim and me and shook his head no. Then I asked him if I could kiss him and he shook his head yes a whole bunch. Then he wrinkles his nose and looks at Tim and points to me and then shakes his head and says, "No beze" for No kiss. We were not sure what to think as none of the books talked about this. We knew he might bond more with one parent at first but didn't think he would be quite this possessive. So to work it out I kissed all over each of the girls faces(S & C really loved this part) hehe and said "My girls" and kissed his face and said "My boy" He seemed satisfied but kept his eye on Tim. So then I went to Tim and gave him 1 kiss. Luke frowned but didn't asked as upset. About 30 minutes later he came to me and said "One kiss for Daddy!" I said how about 2 kisses and he said "NO 1 kiss" I said "Only 1 kiss for my Luke?"and he held up both hands showing his five fingers and said "10 for El peno Luke" When Tim is around he reminds us that Tim only gets one. Tim laughed and said I guess we'd better make it a good one then. I learned the Kreyol word for married but who knows what concept that he has of that one.

He seems to be sleeping a little better. He gets up at least one time per night and usually we try to go lay down with him. I feel like I have a GIANT newborn that eats A LOT!! He weighs close to fifty and I know he has lost the use of his legs since arriving in the USA. He loves to be carried. We do it as much as we can but my oh my is he solid as a rock! Today he has eaten literally 8 full meals and just brought me a box of spaghetti to cook. I am running out of ideas. Thankfully he likes soups so I have 3 made and feed him 3 bowls at feeding. He ate 7 bananas in a 24 hour period and half of the chicken that I roasted in the crockpot. At first we figured this would slow down when he realized that we have plenty of food to eat(Well we did! heeheh) but I think he just eats like a horse.

He continues to be a blessing for all of us and we love looking at life through his eyes. Tonight Laci leaned over kissed his cheek, looked at me and said, "I love him so much" What a blessing that even though she is adjusting to sharing toys, parents, sissies, and her life that she still feels the blessing of adding Luke to our family.

Thanks to those of you praying for our home. No sale yet but I am reminded in Galatians 6 to "not grow weary while doing good for in due time we will reap the harvest" Tim and I both feel God leading us to sell so but we are ready NOW and at times feel weary. That is me this weekend. Have a great week.
Ronda

BACK TO BASICALLY NORMAL!!

Hey!! Its Shelbie...My mom had some stuff she had to get done so i'm updating

He is basically back to normal. I think its helped spending all that time with Ne Ne.

Yesterday was his first trick or treating experience. He really liked it. We went to our cousin Kim's house and trick or treated in her neighborhood. He got tired after about a block and insisted upon being carried. He got so heavy. both mom and dad and I had him on our shoulders...i know i about died!! But he is a fun kid! lol.

Today a ton of people were here. Ami and the kids, and Abby and her family and a lady and her husband that my mom works with. It was pretty funny! Luke really enjoys having Ne Ne around!! They can speak Kreole together!

He is catching on so quickly to English! I'm not sure if we are all just starting to understand him, or if he really is getting better at speaking! But its so much fun to speak to him in Kreole. I am finding myself answering people in Kreole. Whenever i do i get these weird looks. Most of my friends are starting to get used to it, but some people that don't know that Luke is from Haiti and doesn't speak English, look at me like I've lost it!

Keep praying for us all!! Peace, understanding and Love!!
THANKS!!!