Prayers for Baby Alex Tuesday

Tuesday morning at 7:30 am, Baby Alex, who my friend Kim is fostering through COTA is having his bilateral cleft lip surgery. Baby Alex is a baby from Panajachel, Guatemala, that COTA discovered this past January during their partnership with Mayan Families. Please keep this beautiful baby boy and his skilled surgeons, doctors and nurses in your prayers as they delicately work to repair his lip and give him a beautiful smile!

Please keep Baby Alex's mami, Gloria, and papi, Manuel, in your prayers as well... I can only imagine their fear of being so far away from their baby during his surgery.

Please check for updates on Kim's Blog through the day.

Look at this sweet angel... the next picture we see will be of his brand new lip!

OFF TO CAMP!

Today, we dropped Grant off at camp for two weeks. He was so excited to be going and could not wait to get there! This is his fourth year going and he always has a great time!

We took some pictures of him and his doggies before he left today... here he is with Tucker.


And with Nacho.


And the obligitory picture in front of the sign, which is always embarrassing to my kids for me to take for some strange reason. Could it be because I stop my car and put my hazards on and make them jump out and pose while cars are coming up behind us? I don't think so...


Sophie and Grant at the water pump outside his cabin. She misses him already and keeps asking when we are going to go back and pick him up.


And a picture with his mommy... and, yes, he is taller than me... when did that happen?


Miss the little bugger already!

URGENT PRAYERS NEEDED!!

UPDATE: Eliana is in her mommy and daddy's arms and appears to be doing very well! Thank you for all the prayers and donations! It sounds like they received their airfare and a week's worth of hotel funds covered! They never have to let her go again! Lindsey is officially fostering her in Guatemala until she can come home forever! Check out their blog for pictures!

URGENT PRAYERS NEEDED FOR THIS ANGEL BABY GIRL!



Chris and Lindsey Wheeler's Baby girl is extremely sick and in the hospital -
PLEASE get on your knees for her right now and for this precious family.

If you can help them with their trip to GC please let Juju know or go to Lou's blog either one - we are scrambling to get them some help right now.

Thank you for praying and believing for a miracle for this precious child!

Post this and help us get the world out!

UPDATE FROM LINDSEY'S SISTER, LAUREN:

First of all, thank you to everyone who is praying for Eliana. They definitely appreciate and feel your prayers! I wanted to just give a quick update with what is going on with sweet girl. Eliana threw up several times in the night and got choked, and thankfully her foster mom heard her choking and coughing. She immediately called the doctor, and he rushed her to the hospital. The doctor said that if her foster mom hadn't heard her, she would've passed away. (Thank you Jesus for waking her up!!!) They haven't heard anything new, but they do know that she is still in the hospital. Her body is SO tiny, so please pray that she can remain strong.

Obviously, Lindsey and Chris are not doing well right now. Please pray for peace and comfort as they deal with this from hundreds of miles away. They are currently doing some laundry and are probably going to fly there tomorrow (nothing is official yet!). Also pray that the doctor will contact them soon with an update. As soon as I hear anything else, I will definitely write an update. Thank you again for your prayers and encouraging words!

Lauren

Anyone that would like to help.....please contact Lou at lou0728@yahoo.com. She has arranged for their flights to Eliana tomorrow and is accepting Paypal donations to help them! Thank you, friends!

Favorite Foto Friday #45 - MY BRUDDER AND ME

This week's FFF is "Daddy (or other significant male role model) and Me". Sophie has been working through some of these questions lately since, as most of you know, I am a single mom. On Father's Day, she questioned me about Sissy and Grant's Daddy and then told me that "Mommy's Daddy is my Papa". She is becoming so much more aware of the world around her and the people that are in it.

She is blessed with some wonderful men in her life... her wonderful Godfather, Uncle Gilly, who she ADORES! Then there is my father, aka Papa, but she does not get to see very often. My mother's husband, Jeff, thinks Bug hangs the moon and she enjoys this very strange ritual of rubbing heads with him when they are together (not sure about that one).

BUT, the ONE most influential male role model in her life is her big brother, Grant. She loves her "brudder" and I think she pretty much melts him into a puddle as well. He loves it when she runs into his arms and gives him a big hug or even just crawls up into his lap to read a book or watch tv. They also love to pester the heck out of each other, which is incredulous to me as they are 10 years apart. He knows just how to push her buttons to make her squeal an indignant "Leave Me Alone" ear piercing scream... LOL! But, for the most part... he is the one who she will rely on to grill those boyfriends when they come by for those first dates, he has been the one to take her into the big pool, down the big twisty slide, in the inflatable jumper, etc. Grant is her idol... here are a few pictures of their evolving love-fest:

The first time he held her... she was 10 weeks old.


Helping her stand...


He was the only one she would allow to take her in the water in Destin...


I love this picture...


Even sat on EB's lap with her...


Yeah... he's a tough guy and she loves him...


Even went sledding on 1/4 inch of snow!!


In Cancun...


And this past Spring Break on the beach...


Grant has a big role to play in her life... he just may be the man who walks her down the aisle someday... and I don't think she would want anybody else!!

Now... for the MR LINKY FFF LINKING DIRECTIONS!! Go to your blog and click on the title of your FFF post - your post URL will appear in the address bar in your browser and it will contain the exact link to your post! Simply highlight the address, right click, choose copy and then paste it in the "URL" spot in the Mister Linky - just under where you put your name (you can put your name and the name of your child/ren in the picture). Don't forget to click the "Enter" button and voila... you are linked!

It is important that you are linking just your post and not just your blog web address so everybody can link directly to your FFF post!!



Next week's theme is "SUMMER LOVIN"!! You can define that however you want!!!

Blogging

Do you know that I spend many moments of my day reading all of friend's blogs and immersing myself in the beauty of your words and pictures that I neglect my own blog?! I am definitely not a writer, but started this blog as sort of a "scrapbook" to keep of my family and what we have going on. It has turned into more pictures than anything else and I desperately want to blog about more important things but find myself at a loss for words most of the time.

Being a mom is the most important thing in the world to me, as I know many of you feel the same. My kids are my world and I have very little social life outside my FFF posts - LOL! This has been an insanely strange year... dealing with my son's illness for the greater part of the year, which I am happy to report is finally under control and he is finally thriving and we are not feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders anymore. My first baby turning 16 and becoming more independent, strong and beautiful every time I turn around. And my little Bug, who has definitely come out of her shell since turning 3! Wowza... I cannot even describe what my mild little baby has turned into... Additionally, I turned 40 and have lost 25 pounds over the past 6 months and feel better health wise than I have since I was in college. So many changes in such a short period of time.

Now the summer is here and we are enjoying more of a laid back time but the days just seem to slip by! I decided to tackle a renovation project at home that has become much more monumental than I expected but I know will pay off when it is complete. I envision us spending more time at home just at the time when teenagers start spending more time away... sigh...

I am looking forward to another mission trip to Guatemala this fall and have been spending some time researching paths for our group to take this year and cannot wait to go back!

I definitely see 2008 as being a very monumental year for our family and hope to become more of a blogger to chronicle our family and also to make positive changes in the world around us. I have been so inspired by so many friends and their own struggles and victories. I hope to share more of our own as well.

Hope you enjoy the ride!


*This pic was from March, we need a new family pic!

Favorite Foto Friday #44 - BLOOPERS

OK... I did not realize how hard this would be to actually "find" a blooper picture to post as I delete my bloopers as soon as I load them on the computer. So, I really had to dig back to find some from the days when I did not want to delete any! I guess the most common blooper is the whole "looking away right when the camera comes out" picture... I have a ton of those.


Then, you have the "Oops, I blinked" pictures... have a ton of those too.


Then the... "I'm outta here" picture...


Then, you have the teenager's "get on with it, mother" faces whilst the "toddler slowly slides out of the lap Annual Christmas Card picture taking adventure" picture...


Yes, bloopers are easier to discard these days with digital technology... but some can truly make the story! Looking forward to seeing your FFF Bloopers!

Now... for the MR LINKY FFF LINKING DIRECTIONS!! Go to your blog and click on the title of your FFF post - your post URL will appear in the address bar in your browser and it will contain the exact link to your post! Simply highlight the address, right click, choose copy and then paste it in the "URL" spot in the Mister Linky - just under where you put your name (you can put your name and the name of your child/ren in the picture). Don't forget to click the "Enter" button and voila... you are linked!

It is important that you are linking just your post and not just your blog web address so everybody can link directly to your FFF post!!



Next week's FFF theme... "DADDY (or other significant male role model) & ME"! With Father's Day coming up this weekend, pull out those cameras and take pictures of some of those special men in our lives that we would like to honor and celebrate on this day.

Weekend In Chicago

We had such an awesome weekend in Chicago! We went up to meet with a group of Guatemala Adoptive Families that we met during our process and have become wonderful friends with. About nine families got together with their beautiful children. I will not post pictures of those families that do not have a public blog but wanted to share some pictures of our fun weekend!

We arrived very early Friday morning and did our own little Chicago tour, including shopping on Michigan Avenue, taking a trolley tour and visiting Navy Pier... boy, does Chicago live up to it's nickname "Windy City"... it was extremely "knock you over" windy!






It wasn't long before we met up with our friends. Bug was in heaven playing with Patrick & Emma (our not so frequent blogging friends)


Emma & Sophie


Sophie & Caleb


Ring around the Rosie with Patrick, Emma & Maya


Riding the choo choo on Navy Pier




Grant and Hannah enjoyed multiple rides on the swings and ferris wheel.


The ever gorgeous Sofia


Beautiful Sela


Maya took a turn pushing Sophie on the swing in Lincoln Park.


Funny Patrick




These two had a blast together... Sophie just LOVES Patrick!


The beautiful Hannah with her little brother, Caleb


We even made it to the beach!!

It was so fun to watch adorable baby Charlie toddle on the sand.


And enjoy a frosty treat from the Ice Cream Man.



And just enjoy digging in the sand...


What a beautiful city! We can't wait to go back to Chicago and we look even more forward to visiting with our friends more often!