Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone; but, still miraculously, my own.
Never forget, for a single minute you didn't grow under my heart, but in it.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

 
We have been hit with alot this month that was unexpected.  We did not expect to enter this holiday with no job and without Nannie Beth here on this earth with us.  We have had to make a conscious effort to REMEMBER to give thanks in ALL things!!  May God richly bless your family this Thanksgiving and into the Christmas Season coming soon!


Saturday, November 17, 2012

National Adoption Day 2012 and Prayers needed for our family

Today is National Adoption Day so I wanted to share a couple of collages I have made.  One for today and one for the National Adoption Month!  Adoption has changed our lives so much for the better.  Touched us in so many ways and changed me to my core!  My daily life not only focuses on how adoption affects me daily with my sweet boys, but also my advocacy has given me such a wonderful joy to hopefully help build families and to make a difference! :)
 

 
Tomorrow (Sunday at 1 pm) we as a family will go to Bobby's Sister (and now my sis too) Beth's Memorial Service.  Tuesday was a very sad and difficult day as she passed from this earth into the arms of Jesus.  We were blessed to be there with her in a room full of love and family!  Please keep her daughters and their families, her husband, grandchildren, neices, nephews, siblings and families and all whose lives she touched in your prayers! This has been so incredibly difficult and painful.  I am blessed to have been able to call Beth my sister and I can't imagine my life without her love and care in it.  She adored our kids, all 3 of them and prayed for the children of our heart to come.  She took joy in knowing when we adopt a girl she will be named for her! :)  She saw something in my Jeremiah that few really do!  I so miss her.

 
In addition to that loss, earlier in the day on Tuesday Bobby lost his job.  So we are thrust yet again into unemployment.  We are hanging on as tight as we can to God and praying it will NOT be as long this time till Bobby is earning a good income.  We are prayerful that God will show us what we are to be doing!   We have already been blessed by people bringing a few meals this week, and being told a thanksgiving basket is coming early week and just the texts, emails, facebooks messages, cards in the mail, etc of love and support and sympathy for our family this week.  I ask my bloggy friends to please just bathe us in prayer.  I can't begin to express the overwhelming feeling in our hearts this week.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Happy National Adoption Month!

November is National Adoption Month and a very special month for our family because it was Nov 5, 2007 when we found our Noah!!!!! :  and Nov 7, 2007 was when I made the first blog post about him specifically and showed him to the world!!!!  I love that it happend in National Adoption Month! :)  Sunday was Orphan Sunday so I just could not let this week go by with out a post so I thought I would share some pics :) 

Panda acting silly have a mini haircut! We we trying to let it grow out gracefully because some fans said they like it better longer but HE hates it!  He cries and says dis dis mama ugggh  I think it is sensory and also it feels hot to him.  Anyway he has since had it cut shorter again!

Jeremiah happy boy :)

We got a bit of fall weather and were excited to wear our coat and need it!

Jeremiah not quite as excited but so cute!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE FALL! :)  and my fav time is Nov1 through the new year :) 

We were blessed with Bobby's Cell group putting in a small sidewalk and parking pad to help with loading and unloading Jeremiah especially in rainy weather!  Louisiana tends to have 2 seasons HOT and WET and sometimes they join each other!  We get a little cool if we are lucky but alot of times it is wet too.  And with red clay and a wheelchair do not match.  HUGE BLESSING this was :)

Jeremiah's handprint as best as they could get it.  The men tried to stetch out his hand with the high tone but it was hard.  :)  I will never forget them down there helping him do that!
 
hard to see the boys hand prints and names but we love it!  Wish we had thought to put the dates!

Noah LOVES to get his picture made!  He will say camera me!  heehee

We had a fun homeschool field trip to the Corn Maize and Fun Farm!  :)  Noah jumping with some friends on The bouncy thing!

Jeremiah reaction as we started towards where the ponies were!!  That boy LOVES horses! :)

Such a happy cowboy!
 
 
Noah rode this thing over and over!  Train mama , train!

another cowboy! :)

We were blessed to go to our friends adoption benefit in Texas even with my torn calf muscle and the Lord had me speak and share our adoption testimony and Jeremiah's miracles!  It was not my comfort zone but God uses us as HE sees fit!  :)  I pray it helped the family for others to see how important helping a family go after an orphan can be, especially a sick child.

This was the flyer for the concert!  Please keep our friends the Pattons in prayer!  They will be leaving soon for China!  It will be a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING for the Patton family this year and there will be 2 less orphans in the world this Thanksgiving! :)

Fun at  In the Zone with friends!

Noah LOVES Jeremiah so :)

riding down the big slide together! :) look at that loving care on Noah's face!

Library storytime! :)  Noah loves it ;)  He has so missed it for 4 weeks with me down with my leg!

so proud of his project at library!

another camara me mama shot!

Saw the eye dr recently.  This was too cute of him sleeping with his shades on!!  He so cried with the dilation drops.  They affect him soo bad :(  He was not the same all day, just like his mama!  I get physically sick and have to just go to bed when I have mine done :(

playtime at our friend Chino's house! :)  I love their trampoline with the net for safety! 

Noah and some buddies at Church with ELECTRONICS!  That boy loves anything electronic. he will be up in a strangers lap if they have an ipad!  He is overly friendly alot of the time anyway but electonics makes it worse! heehee
 
Well, just wanted to post a bit and show a bit our fall before the holidays are upon us.  I can't wait for them!  I really want to get back to regular posting if for our record even if none of you are following anymore.  I LOVE looking back over the blog and so it is so cool to me to think about doing this for our entire life :)  Takes time but so worth it ;)
 
Happy Fall All! :)  I send you kisses in the wind from me and my sweet boys, my big baby girl and hubby too!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Four Years! Wow!


4 YEARS!!!  I can't believe that it has been 4 years since Noah was placed in my arms!!! Wow!  I have been so emotional as I think in gratitude yet again to the Lord and to St.Lucy Center and the country of Taiwan for the HUGE blessing of Noah! :)  To Go be the glory great things HE hath done! :)  Children are a gift from the Lord! :)  The most amazing gift we could ever be entrusted with ! :)  So now some pics of our day yesterday!  We had plans originally for a small party and different things and those plans had to change, but we did have a wonderful family day together and I pray Noah was blessed and felt the love from all of us on his special day!

Began our day with extended bathtime!  It amazes me the difference in bathing Noah now than 4 years ago.  Then he was petrified!  Now he BEGS for a bath.  It is playtime but really learning time for him! :)  I love to watch him play!  I am sad I do not always think about it like this and sometimes I am caught up in things and either skip the bath or am frustrated I must stop and take time for this.  How stupid I am when I feel that way. Such an opportunity to learn from my son! :)  


Then it was off to Bowl and Grow Bowling League registration!  Noah will be in a little league every Saturday morning! :)  He will have a coach and a few little teammates!  Yesterday they just let the kids bowl for free after we registered them and it was Noah's first time bowling with no ramp to push the ball down!  I have to say for having never done it I was quite impressed with how he just jumped right in and tried and all :) He did great! :)  I can't wait to see how he grows and changes during this year's league! 
Next we got some lunch and then we were on the the park! Noah had a total blast! 

He is more and more agile!  I can so see that he has come so far with his physical therapy! 

After playing on the play equipment a bit he asked to play in the splash pad!!  He has such joy when he gets excited! :)  loved watching him! :)
Trying to redo the gotcha day picture of the 3 of us :)  

This was hillarious!  Trying hard to get a family picture using my phone and me take it while in the picture!  did not go well as you can see! LOL  never did get a good shot!

Then we were off to the ice cream parlor!  First time ever at one for the boys! :)  They loved it :)  LOOK at Noah's MINI banana split!  HUGE lol

A few random shots from the day! :)  The ones of Noah cracking up in the van just make me smile!  Was not sure I could even get him as I drove down the road like this but he and daddy were playing and giggling and I knew I wanted to remember that forever :)

It amazes me how much this sweet Panda boy has grown and changed!  I look at pictures and video of his first week home and I am amazed!  he was so tiny :)  I miss my baby Noah so much but I LOVE my Noah right now so much!  I think I can't possibly ever love him more and then the next day I do! :) 

For those who have never seen or want to see again!  Our actual gotcha day video and pics are in this video along with other things!  the music is great too :)  Enjoy!

Friday, August 31, 2012

Remember Table Boy???

Remember Table Boy?? :)  Well, my sweet Noah still loves to get under tables.  He would still be on the coffee table shelf if it had not become my entertainment center and have no way for him too now up against he wall!  He gets under kitchen table to make forts, he climbs in cabinets at the doctors office that has 2 shelves and he has been known to climb on shelves or tables in a store.  even at 5!  He loves tents if he can find one :)  As I was taking shots of him under the table yesterday I thought of the old table boy and had to have some shots from the past to share with these :) So who has been here since my Panda Boy was also table boy?






Monday, August 20, 2012

For anyone interested Pics galore of our first day of school on our Home School Blog :)
http://trainupachild-dca.blogspot.com/2012/08/noahs-2012-2013-school-year-has-begun.html

sneak peak

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Changes

So many changes around our house lately.  We no longer have nursing services.  Not sure If I have shared that here or not.  We had it for 10 months and it had some good times, some fun times, and then some other times. But the reason we do not have nursing is because it came to my attention the program we were in was for children who are homebound 24/7 and as we have not chosen that life for Jeremiah and choose to take him to the Park, the pool, the library, on walks, to play places, etc then it was not right for them to chart as if we were home when we were not.  Once I became aware of this and we prayed we put in our two week notice to stop nursing.  I would at some point love to have an aid or a mother's helper to help me with some lifting and to help put him on the slide, hand him to me in the pool or whirlpool when we are at one and can stretch him in there, and do therapy activities with him.  To be another set of hands to help open his hands to do handprints on a craft when we paint etc.  I do not have the funds at this point to pay someone to do any of that and I have not been able to find a place that offer's aids through insurance for chidren.  I will say I soo missed my baby when we had the nurse so much and so it was good to have him all to myself for a few weeks before more changes came into play.  

We made the decision at the end of the year last year that Jeremiah would attend a local therapy program at the public school.  The opportunity for him in this particular program, with this particular teacher and therapists was just too good for us to not give it a try.  This program is only available to us for this year and next.  Then if we stayed in the school system he would move to one of two different schools that have a severe and profound class and everything would be different.  We have met some parents that had children in these older child programs and were totally NOT impressed.  My goal is at that point to have him come home and have the finances to hire someone to assist me with his schooling during our homeschool day.  I would train them in stretching, therapy activities, etc.  and some things he would do along with Noah with modifications.  Again it is hard to predict what things will be like in 2 years but for now as long as he is doing well, progressing and not  staying sick we will continue this program.  Here are some pictures from his first day this past Monday Aug 13th!  I stayed with him the entire first day and trained everyone on what to do, then on Tuesday I started dropping and picking him up. Sigh.  I drop him between 7:35 and 7:45 depending on how the line works and then I pick him up at 12:15.  His stamina is not enough that we can do the full day at this point.  


Hoping you can see all these :)  It was so good for me to be there the first day, train them on what I needed too, meet with everyone that will be working with him including Main Teacher who has 28 years experience and a Master's degree in severe and profound children, 2 sweet para's in the classroom with him.  2 other para's trained in case the other's are not there, APE teacher, Speech Therapist , principal, and on and on it went.  They were all so friendly and excited to have Jeremiah there!  It put my heart and mind at ease :)  And to be there for Jeremiah to meet his 2 little classmates was so amazing!  His class has a ratio of 1 to 1 with 3 adults in it at all times :)  and the 3 little kids.  That was a gift from God because when we observed I think there were 8 children last year.  Jeremiah will also be having visual therapy once a week and OT one on one and also once or twice a week he will go to a sensory lab where everything will be modified for him to participate in all aspects! :)  Also, the teacher and para's are receiving training in Brain Gym to do with him!  he had a little of this last year with the teacher that came to the house once a week to work with him.  Now he will have it every day.  

Sunday our Church had a Back to School Fellowship the night before Jeremiah's first day!  Great timing.  We had a big potluck meal together and every student from preschool to master's degree student's were prayed for :)  Here are some pics from that night.


They gave each child a 7up with a little poem attached to it of 7 ways to have a great first week! ;)  Noah was so excited! :)  I love the shot where he has his hand over Jeremiah because they are gonna pray!  Pastor called them up from preschool thru 5th grade.  Then jr high and senior high, then college.   Then he would have the family come behind them to pray over them while everyone else did too.  I dont have pics of us behind the boys.   After all the students were done he called up all the teacher's and said Homeschool teachers too so Celeste sent me up there :)  It was an awesome night!  :)  I love that our Church puts such an emphasis on family and on education and praying for a good new year of school!  



 As most of you know, We had to cancel our trip to Chicago for the Taiwan R.O.C.ks family reunion and I was so devastated!  A dear friend Lisa was so sweet and sent us a little gifty in the mail to help us feel connected in some way to this year's event!  The boys LOVE their Taiwan R.O.C.ks tshirts :)  and they got some stickers and a blow up ball :)  Soo sweet! ;)
Aren't they cute?? :)  

Everything has changed with private therapy as well now that Jeremiah is in his class, and I will be starting school with Noah on Monday for our first year with 5 mornings a week full curriculum, and we will be starting a homeschool co-op in September and we have field trips and such to fit in as well.  So we finally got everything coordinated for both the private therapy for both boys and the home based school therapy that comes to work with Noah and this week started all that up :)  Here are a few pics of those :)

Jeremiah has regressed since this last surgery this summer so I am prayerful between private therapy and all the therapy at the school program that he will soar!


Noah so loves his Mrs. Kathy that has been his speech therapist last year and now this year!  He gets so excited when she comes.  His special instructor is different this year, BUT she is near and dear to our hearts! Maria is the FIRST person who ever worked with Noah when I very first brought him home from Taiwan :)  It is so cool having her back working with us and there sweet love for each other is even stronger now :)  I am blessed that I count both of the ladies friends of  mine as well so that makes for a great year for us all :)  Noah also started his private OT and PT again for this year and he feels so comfortable up there and is really progressing well!  Next week he will start APE back with a school therapist at our house who was Jeremiah's APE guy last year.  And a couple times each semester our favorite OT from the school Mrs. Amy will come out and see him too and will give Maria and I some tips on things to work with him on each week! I think this is going to be an amazing year for Noah and Jeremiah!!  

LOVE this and with my new love of butterflies to symbolize the new life the Lord is giving me in my journey to a better me I love this particular one of it even more! 



I also wanted to share that Noah had his speech re eval for the current year that placed him with expressive and receptive language at 3 years old!!!!  Yes, he is 5 years and 4 months old, BUT from where he started this is HUGE for him!!!  I am so excited and I can't wait to see all the progress he will make this coming year!  I am nervous and excited about our upcoming year that we begin Monday.  I am not really sure yet what to call our grade because I am doing some K5 stuff but some he is not ready for so it will be more preschool / K4.  Anyway, praying it all goes well! :)  
I also wanted to share that Bobby is now 8 weeks in to his railroad training!  It has had some tense and nervous moments to it but he is loving the railroad.  They pay so well, even for training!  It is helping us try and catch things up for us because everything is so far behind after the past year.  If we can stay afloat till October then everything should be ok.  Please be praying because he has at least 10 more weeks of training left.  He has tests in the training and he has to pass those with an 85 or above.  If not then they can retake the test the next day but then need a 90 or above to pass at that point.  If they do not pass one then their services are no longer needed by the railroad.  Kinda scary that you can loose your job but until training is totally complete there is no guarantee of a permanent job.  We are really having to learn to press into the Lord and trust that HE has this all under control.  More and more the Lord is showing me in so many areas that God is able!  I know it, I say it all the time, and I have seen it in healings, in bringing home my boys, but it is so true in EVERY area of life, and God cares about the big things and the little things too!!!  



I thank the Lord for the gift of my kids! All 3 of them!!!  I look at these boys and I think wow it really did happen!  God bridged the ocean and brought them home.  Taiwan really handed them to me and trusted me to be there mom! Wow! :)  God really sent me a husband!  An amazing husband, a Godly husband.  One who really does love and not hurt, abuse, and destroy his family.  A man that works so hard and will do whatever it takes to try and care for his family!  I saw this picture above and it is sooo true!  EVERY good gift does come from Father God!!!  I am learning more and more to see my heavenly Father as a Father!  He is shaping and molding me into the woman He has for me to be.  I feel like I have failed Him daily but I pray each day it is a little less than the day before!


I have so felt that things were crashing in on me in alot of ways lately!  THIS I am clinging too!  I hope this helps someone else who reads this blog and sees this too!  No matter what things look like ALWAYS remember...
GOD IS ABLE!!!!!!


THE WAIT FOR NOAH IS OVER!!!! November 3, 2007~September 8, 2008 First heard about Noah~Noah in our Arms!
AND NOW THE WAIT FOR JEREMIAH IS OVER TOO!!!
April 1, 2009~ June 7, 2010 First committed to Jeremiah~Jeremiah in our Arms!

The FIRST Picture we EVER saw!

The FIRST Picture we EVER saw!
Noah WesLee 5 months old

The First Picture we ever saw of:

The First Picture  we ever saw of:
Jeremiah Harold Sisemore ~1 year


Kisses in the Wind

KISSES IN THE WIND
I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.


May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I sent to you each night.


When Love Takes You In!