A Familiar Place

King Charles I - statue right next to Trafalgar Square.....
The official plaque from where all mileage is measured from London- right next to the statue above......
The famous Horseguards.....for her Majesty......
A nice policeman who is guarding 10 Downing Street entrance.........he was great and talked to our kids. Of course Andrew was in heaven because he wants to be a policeman when he grows up.
The sign for 10 Downing street....wondering what the fuss is about....well 10 Downing Street is where England's Prime Minister lives. (Like our President, but just a slightly different system)
There it is that common type house with the policeman standing outside. That's it. No real fuss. Anyone know who is Prime Minister at this time? Used to be Tony Blair....now it is Gordan Brown....there now you have learned something today :)
Fun pics with the red telephone boxes you see in England...
Yep, trying to get a pic with everyone smiling and looking at a camera....almost impossible!
This is what the view is as you look down from inside the London Eye "pod". See those huge white beams.....and there are loads of HUGE CABLES too holding that thing up! Because it is literally on the water.
Hello Jonathan....
Our reason for everything.....our babes.....
See this face....
and this one......
Awww...and these.....
and this one...
What about this one.....
and that handsome smile (watch out ladies)...
Beautiful spirit inside and out......
full of fun......
And who could forget how much they are worth? Not me!

So after crying, praying, crying, praying pattern going on in our home.........we are pulling ourselves up by the boot straps. Why? Because we are in that familiar place of fighting for what is necessary. Fighting for what matters! Knowing that God has placed Naomi in our family- COMPLETELY HEALED her, and now it is our turn to deal with whatever is necessary to bring her HOME!!!!

We have been there before....with Abigail there was a possible father that showed up the day of termination of parental rights.....(actually he didn't give a toss it was his parents). We waited a grueling 6 weeks to find out if he was the biological father or not. In the end he wasn't. Then we had to go through an interview process with people saying well we will have to see if there is a family of the right skin color who is interested. All this after she had been in our home for several months already.

With Andrew......his biological mom was released from the hospital (mental ward) to her grandmother's care on the opposite side of the state.....and he was placed in the care of that county's foster care system......with out us! He was supposed to be coming home to us!!! For 7 weeks of agony we prayed and cried, and experienced such a deep depression I still remember it vividly.

With Matthew....a doctor had told biological mom that if she made it so she couldn't have any more children she would get Matthew back. Then shirtale relatives that were only using her for her free housing moved in. Making the foster care go on and on......we did however bring him home from the hospital.....but in the foster care system - NOTHING is certain until the fat lady sings...and you have officially adopted a child. Which we did 2 weeks before moving to Louisiana.

With Joshua, Sarah, & Elizabeth.......where do we start. The sheer torture of having a case that drug on for 3 YEARS!!!!! The biological parents telling them constantly they were coming home, the possibility of them going home- happened several times, them being drug through a horrible relationship between the 2 of them. A Court Appointed Special Advocate (who should have fought for the kids) took one look at us and decided we were the wrong skin color! She then FOUGHT AGAINST US THE ENTIRE LAST YEAR OF THE CASE! I was ripped apart verbally on the stand more than once by both the casa worker and the judge himself. Needless to say there were times when we shriveled up in a corner and cried and cried until we couldn't anymore. The pain was so much we almost couldn't take it any more!

With Jonathan.....well before he even came along we had our Hannah Grace who passed on to Jesus' arms. The loss of a child that you have dreamed about - thought about constantly.....was unbearable! And to have people say- well at least you didn't bring her home.....- wow! Really? Those people need to go to sensitivity training schools! Then we got caught in Ethiopia creating the Central Agency and were held up even more months before we actually were able to go. 4 1/2 months later we finally traveled!!!! We failed court 3 times!!!!!!

So now with Naomi......we will take that stand again, because we are not taking it alone. We are commanded to follow God's Will. God is with us just as He was with Moses when the Isrealites didn't want to see his face again because he went to Pharoah and then the Isrealites had to work even harder, or with Joshua taking down Jericho- he must have been laughed at for walking around the big wall, but he did it anyway- because that is what these men were told to do.

We know we have been told that Naomi is our child. When we saw her sweet face on the waiting list. When we were told her possible medical conditions. When we had to get all our stuff done asap!!! We did it- WHY? Because that was our Calling from Christ! God never says - do this because it is easy. He never told Paul that because he changed his name and now he understood who God was that life would be a piece of cake. THE OPPOSITE happened!

So we have pulled ourselves up- remembering the Facing The Giants quote- when we win we will praise HIM and when we lose we will praise Him! So join us in praising a God who is faithful. Who wants HIS CHILDREN to COME HOME! We have finished getting some great people who are our bosses, and friends to write on our behalf as well as our social worker. We will be praying for a softening of heart. Last year she questioned our ability to have a 7 th child...now she just found a loop hole to say we shouldn't have number 8. It has to do with our non traditional income. We have benefits that far outweigh our actually numbered salary. So she is using this against us. So there you have the it. She needs a seeing Jesus moment! We are praying for it!!!

We can not say Thank You enough to all of you who have commented, written, and supported us in prayer and petition! We completely feel surrounded in prayer warriors who have carried us to Jesus! Thank YOU ALL!!!!!!! The battle for souls of people far outweighs any other battle and we gladly take it on for Christ!