Alea

I'd like you to meet Alea.

Alea was born in China on September 28, 2011 and abandoned three months later on December 28th at the local bank.  The police were called but were unable to locate Alea's parents. She was taken to the local orphanage. There was a note with her telling of her medical condition. The orphanage realized they would not be able to provide the care (including surgery) that Alea would need, so they contacted New Day Foster Home asking if they would be willing to try to help save her. Alea arrived at New Day on February 22, 2012.

Alea was born with severe biliary atresia, and she needs a liver transplant to survive. On April 9th, I received this "Knee Time" prayer e-mail from New Day explaining that organs for transplants are virtually nonexistant in China. Without a miracle, Alea would not survive.

I don't know about you, but I read that and I think. That IS NOT okay. There has to be a way. I e-mailed Karen, the director at New Day, and asked her if the orphanage would allow Alea to come to the states for surgery if we found a hospital and doctors who were willing to do it pro bono. She said that they would allow that.

The next day, I posted a simple request on Facebook: who has a high-level contact at a children's hospital in the US that might be able to help little Alea?

Several people contacted me, and they all went to work contacting their contacts. Meanwhile, we prayed and waited to see what God would do.

And God did what God does: He showed up, and He moved mountains (a whole mountain range, in fact).

I cannot give any details yet, however there is a major children's hospital here in the US that is in the FINAL stages of approving Alea's liver transplant surgery thanks to the contacts, persistence, and hard work of another New Day mom, advocate for orphans, and friend of mine, Andrea.

This hospital is awaiting just one final approval from a woman who is on vacation this week and will return next week. We anticipate their final decision next week.

In addition, Andrea also made some calls and found an organization to cover the cost of Alea's medical visa, transportation to the States, and her passport. (Yeah, Andrea is no joke I tell ya, and she's got connections.)

WOW. And I thought that it might be hard. Not with God, it's not.

There is a thing or two that is not covered, and we will get to that....but for now, I wanted you to fall in love with little Alea, to print out her picture, stick it on your fridge, and for you to PRAY without ceasing for her.

Pray that all the final approvals will come through and we will get the green light to bring her to the states for the surgery to save her life.

Pray that the sea of red tape will part to make it possible for Alea to get here sooner than later.

Pray for Alea to remain healthy and strong while she waits and prepares for surgery.

Pray.....and thank God for His provision for Alea, and ask Him to continue to continue to move mountains for Alea, because there are many more to come!

For those of you who will ask me, "How can I help?".....stay tuned! There are a few things that Alea still needs, so if you would like to be a part of a miracle, then you will have an opportunity to very, very soon!


Meanwhile, just look at her little face and dream about what God can do in and through her little life....because He has already started!

Easter

I love Easter. I love it- it is my favorite holiday (in the sense of holy-day)- because of it's spiritual significance.

Cooper also loves Easter. Less so because of it's spiritual significance, and mostly because it involves an insane amount of chocolate.

We started the celebration a day early with an Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's weird. The Easter bunny leaves CASH in some of these eggs. Why he doesn't do that at our house, I'm not sure! As a result of the cash, the competition is fierce

Yes, that's a $20 bill in Cooper's loot bag. He was the big Easter winner this year. Why can't I get in on the egg hunting action?

Easter morning, the kids had a quick egg hunt before we headed off to church.

We hosted Easter dinner for a total of 17 people, even WITHOUT a working stove top or oven. That was interesting. Chloe and I discovered Hershey's Kisses stickers, and we love them. We especially enjoyed these FREE printables for our Easter kisses!

After dinner, the kids dug right into their candy. I love how they went directly for the huge chocolate bunny! :)

All in all, it was a great day- but getting a great family picture? That's next to impossible! This was the best we could accomplish!

Thankfully, Chloe is alway photogenic.

It was a great week preparing for and then celebrating Easter. I thought the kids had a really good understanding (as much as a 5 or 6 year old could understand) of Christ's sacrifice for us and of what His resurrection means. The just yesterday though, Cooper prayed this prayer:

Dear Jesus, thank you that you got down off that cross and you didn't died. Thank you for putting our sins in that big hole behind the rock. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.


So, I think maybe something got a little lost in translation there. We're gonna keep working on that!

One last note along those lines: just a couple of days before Easter, I discovered this awesome way to help your kids experience and understand the Easter story. I did some of this with the kids, but really limited because I didn't have all the stuff on hand. However, I am bookmarking it, and I am definitely going to do it in it's entirety with the kids next year. (In fact, if you have not already bookmarked the Impress Your Kids blog, then you are really missing out!)

Lastly, Easter morning service brought me to tears with an amazing presentation of the following song in church by a friend of mine. I had heard it before, but that morning, the truth of it moved me to tears. I meditated on these words all week long. I hope you are as encouraged by it as I have been.

I am His because He is ALIVE!

What We've Been Up To

Wow- our days have been full, and we've been them. Here is just a taste to catch you up.

Basketball. Chloe has never enjoyed playing any sport, but basketball may just be her sport. She's still all about socializing and making friends on the court (during a game), but hey....we're all a work in progress, right?

Cooper has taken to writing. He learned his letters and all their sounds INCREDIBLY fast upon arriving home, but recently has begun writing.  I left the room the other day and came back to this:

I thought that was pretty creative. I helped him spell "love" in this next sentence, but didn't know what he was writing till he told me to come look.

"I love mom." Yep....his first written sentence. He knows how to kiss up! :) Turns out that he also is a crazy puzzle fanatic, and he is unbelievably good at it. His concentration is amazing. He is NOT a quitter (as if I didn't already know that!).

Saturdays at 8:00am, where do we go? Ballet. Oh my. 8:00am....what was I thinking? But, Chloe really enjoys it. Good thing too, because it is at 8:00 AM on a SATURDAY.

We've also been working on Chloe's room. She wanted a "Paris" themed room, and I was happy to oblige. It isn't completely done yet, but for my first (ever) DIY project, I made her a changeable art gallery (a la The Louvre) for her room. This girl LOVES to create artwork, and she needed a place to hang her masterpieces. Now, she has it:

In between all that, we enjoyed a nice, traditional St. Patrick's Day. My 100% Irish dad might finally be proud because we made corned beef and cabbage. Scot is a great cook, so he even created his own recipe for sauteed cabbage with carrots, and it was delicious! (There is bacon in there too...yum!)

I handled dessert: Pot O' Gold cupcakes. Making them made me happy!  The kids loved them too!

Seemed appropriate, because I feel like the luckiest girl alive. I've been stopping to enjoy the small moments in life more, and it's been great.

Next up....a post about Easter! :)