Our family now had seven kids, Naomi, Parker, Meribeth, Mattie, Sawyer, Asher, and Kiefer. Naomi and Asher were still adjusting in November when God surprised us with Ella and Selah.
Ella and Selah’s story is pretty crazy, you can read it HERE. I had always wanted a baby sister (doesn’t every girl?), and so all of my dreams came true with Selah Karis. She and I have a special bond and I love her almost like my daughter (is that creepy…..?). I loved every minute of rocking her to sleep and playing on the floor with her. I remember sitting next to her Bumbo seat while she was watching Barney, reading my Bible every night. She was just my little love!! Even though she had THESE diagnoses, I still loved her recklessly. She ended up undergoing skull reconstruction (the last picture of her is in the hospital for that surgery). We also had to figure out ethnic hair with Ella. Man, that was an uphill climb!
My little Bug Bug (Selah):
During this time, God was really teaching me about worship. We started going to a new church after Chrissie died because it was too hard on my dad to sit in the same sanctuary where her celebration of life was. I was soaking all of the teaching up. I joined a worship dance team and God birthed a love of worship in my heart. He was revealing His Holy Spirit to me, also. Then God called us to another church in the summer of 2011, and we still go to that church. He was taking me down a road to intimacy with Him. Now, my eyes are still being opened all the time and I have SO much to learn it is ridiculous, but during that time our relationship was deepening every day.
God asked our family to host two Ukrainian boys in the summer of ‘11, Vlad and Dima. That was an amazing summer. 11 kids running around in the Texas heat, it was pretty sweet
We believed God asked us to adopt them, and both Vlad and Dima wanted us to adopt them, so after they went back to Ukraine at the end of the summer, we started the process to adopt them.
I had the privilege to go with my dad to Ukraine in December of 2011 to go bring Vlad and Dima home (so we thought). When we got there, we were told they were no longer available for adoptions. They put a bunch of pictures of other kids in front of my dad and basically said, “Pick some different ones”. We went back to the apartment and were desperately trying to figure out what to do. After a series of crazy events, God led us to Conner and Cooper. They were two boys who had Down syndrome living in a dark place. They were both so tiny from malnourishment, and we feared Conner wasn’t going to make it very much longer.
Dad and I flew home on December 21st, and on December 23rd, my Nana suddenly and unexpectedly died after having a heart attack while she was alone in her home. That Christmas was the worst ever. I was battling jet lag (it was way worst coming home), Selah was not sleeping through the night (the beginning of her sleep disorder, I’m talking staying up for hours on end), my Nana had just died, and we didn’t get to even “do” Christmas until the 31st. I remember Christmas day was a Sunday, and the night before Selah was up for a LONG time and Meribeth and I switched off all night because we were trying to let Mom sleep after Nana had died. We walked into church dead tired. Not even functioning. Blah. Then a few days later I spoke at my own grandma’s funeral. Again, not trying to complain, this was just a pretty stinky week.
A big part of the next few months was Selah’s sleeping disorder. Mom and Dad left to get Conner and Cooper in January, so Meribeth and I switched off staying up with Selah every other night. Selah would go to bed really late (because we couldn’t get her to go to sleep earlier) then she would wake up, and we would rock her for anywhere from one hour to five hours. Then she would usually wake up another time for a while. But there was really no pattern. I remember trying to do Chemistry after staying up all night, and just being blank. A 14 year old really just can’t function like that. But God! He really did give me the strength to get through that. I was able to get an A in every subject that year and eventually Mom did come back
Conner and Cooper are awesome. I love Down syndrome. Coop-Coop and Ner are the nick-names I’ve given them, and I can’t get enough of their love
Me with the littles:
Fast forward past an awesome summer, some more sleepless nights, Asher leaving our family (after two years of respite, he returned to his original adoptive family), and a lot of adjusting since Conner and Cooper were 7-year-olds, but developmentally at about 6-month-olds. God led us to an awesome sleep specialist who put her on an awesome sleep cocktail which has allowed her to have more predictable nights! Which means SLEEP for us (a chorus of angels singing “Halleluiah”)! We now have ten kids in our home, and four new kids in our school room (we are doing respite homeschooling for another family). It’s been a wild ride, but I wouldn’t change any of it (ok, I would choose to have Chrissie by my side right now). I will continue to strive to bring honor and glory to my Papa God, love my neighbor as myself, and be like Jesus.
I have a whole lot more to learn, but hey (as my favorite Uncle Si would say), I’m only 15
Wow you are one amazing 15 year old Mattie. I LOVE your blog. Thank you for sharing and for touching my heart. You and your family are such an inspiration. May God continue to bless each of you, each and every day.
ReplyDeleteSteph in Los Angeles