Lifesong for Orphans

Recently I discovered that I could help advocate for Lifesong and their work for orphans by posting some of their special posts on our blog.   Take a minute to watch this video and read this amazing story about Lifesong's work....





William from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.


Six year-old William once asked his mother, “Why do other children walk on the bottoms of their feet? Why am I like this? What did you do to me?” When she told him that it was God who did it, not her, William said, “Then please tell God to fix me.”

William was born with clubfoot, affecting both of his feet.  If William had been born in America this common deformity would have been easily fixed when he was still a baby.  But in Zambia it’s a different story.  In Zambia, where the resources are few and the funds are even fewer, healing is only a distant dream.





Last February Lifesong Zambia coordinator, Dru Smith wrote about William in her newsletter.  When Wendy in Illinois heard his story she was prompted to act.  After a thorough investigation she discovered CURE Clubfoot International, which had a clinic in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia!  In April William was fitted for casts (first in a series of 3) and then had corrective surgery on his right foot in June and his left foot in September (the video was taken in September just before his second surgery).

God used His people to “fix” William.  Today William can walk!  Soon he will be strong enough to return to school, play with the other children, and be able to do many of the simple tasks we take for granted!





Through this journey the Lifesong staff has been able to help not only William, but his family as well.  William’s brother, Bright, and cousin, Gift, have both been enrolled at Lifesong school.  In addition his father, Victor, who was unemployeed now works in the Lifesong gardens!  We’re so thankful our God is the master at doing “abundantly and immeasurably more” than we even think to ask!


*Find out more about Blogging for Orphans here.

Swaziland - Kruger National Park

Our family had the opportunity to go to the Columbia "Zoo-Zoom", as Isabelle calls it, over the Christmas break. We took some wonderful pictures of the girls feeding the giraffe. Unfortunately we had a camera malfunction and lost all the shots.

In lieu of the zoo shots, I decided to post some of Michaela's and my favorite photos from our safari in South Africa. Unfortunately we had the auspicious privilege of setting the Kruger record for the hottest day ever in the park...it was over 120 degrees. Let me tell you that is HOT when you are in an open safari vehicle on the plains of Africa. Due to the heat, we did not see any Big Cats. They all, wisely, stayed in the shade. The rest of the animals cooperated and came out even despite the heat.

I kept saying the entire day, how can anyone see these animals and not believe in a Creator!

This was our safari vehicle. I felt like I was in a movie when we walked up to it!

This was our driver, Lynn. She was complete with a South African accent which made the entire trip complete.

This elephant was within 10 feet of our vehicle. He was not at all concerned about us.

And this was my favorite sighting of the day...

"How many are Your works, O Lord! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures." Psalm 104:24

15 and a Learner's Permt

In October, Michaela turned 15. We continued our relatively new tradition of taking the birthday girl to the restaurant of her choice for lunch. Michaela chose BBQ. A girl after her daddy's heart!

Then in the evening we ate Grandma's tacos, had an ice cream cake and opened presents (some homemade by the little girls.)

Our hope was to take Michaela to get her learner's permit shortly after her birthday. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. Being the very patient young lady that she is, she never complained. Finally last week, Phil took her to the DMV office to get her learner's

Now after years of driving on the farm in our farm truck...ahem...she'll be able to legally drive, with an adult, on the open road. Way to go girl!

ITP, Riding, Sledding, Snow Angels and the ER??

Sarah Mei continues to struggle with her chronic ITP. This month her counts fell low enough, she required a treatment. The only upside to a treatment is her platelet counts usually go high enought that she is allowed to ride horses for a few weeks. That is her FAVORITE activity, and she takes full advantage of the opportunity.

Torie and Michaela are wasting no time in teaching Sarah Mei how to jump Hustler our 28 year old mare. We've owned Hustler since before Michaela was born. She has taught all the girls how to ride, so I guess she is used to the drill by now.

The timing of Sarah Mei's treatment also worked out perfectly. The snow fell shortly afterwards, so she was allowed to sled. Riding and sledding...double-fun.

Michaela was a good sport and pulled the girls up the hill...over and over and over....

While the girls were sledding, Torie had fun riding in the snow.

I think Brego was questioning her sanity at this point.

It's hard to believe that this horse is the same horse...

Brego and Torie have their 1st big show of the season in four weeks. I think Torie has her work cut out for her.

After sledding and riding, the girls made snow angels.

Life with five daughters - soon to be six - is amazingly fun! I hear families say they can't adopt because their children are too old. I love having older children and younger children!! It's so sweet to watch the interaction between them. Don't use that as an excuse. It's beautiful!


***I wrote the above post Sunday afternoon to be posted on Monday. The pictures were taken earlier in the week. After the original post, we had a slight development...***

Last night Sarah Mei took her last ride for a while. The hematologist gives her a window, based on her platelet trends, and Sunday was her final day to ride, probably for months. It's always a bittersweet ride. Just as she was finishing, Hustler our VERY old, typically VERY quiet mare, inexplicably decided to canter away with her.

Needless to say, Sarah Mei took her 1st "flying lesson", as we like to refer to falling off a horse in our family. Of course this is not an unusual occurrence at our house but with an ITP child, it requires a trip to the ER...yuk. Thankfully her platelet count was still at 89 (a number that would have horrified us 9 months ago but which is our new "good" number now).

We will make a follow-up visit to the Dr. today to check for internal bleeding but everything looks fine.

I loved the ER Dr.'s comment..."I'd rather see this than have a child sitting on the couch playing video games all the time." Amen!

Never a dull moment in our house...

Adoption - One Step Closer & Isabelle's One Year Gotcha Day

Although our adoption process feels like it's moving at a snail's pace, we're finally one step closer. Despite paying for a 2 week expedite, our homestudy extended to a full 5 weeks...sigh. Then due to the Christmas/New Year holidays, the initial processing of our INS paperwork was postponed.

Finally, on Thursday, we made progress when we received our fingerprinting appointment in the mail. Our appointment was scheduled for February 10th. However, in my normal patient fashion (read with sarcasm), Phil and I walked into the USCIS fingerprinting center on Friday a.m. and our fingerprints were taken...one step closer!!

The word on the Yahoo adoption groups, which is surprisingly accurate, is it's taking 60 days to receive an I-800a. The I-800a must be sent to China before they can process our dossier. Once it is sent to China, the average wait to travel is about 5 months. My best estimate is we will travel sometime in late summer. SO SLOW....

One word of praise in this process goes out to our caseworker...Xiaoqing with BAAS. I don't think the woman ever sleeps. No matter when I call or e-mail, she always gets right back to me. She is amazing. We are so blessed and encouraged by her!!

We also just found this picture of Lily on an advocacy page. We have no idea how old the photo is? We estimate it was taken last July or August when Lily was 2 1/2.

This week we also celebrated Isabelle's one year Gotcha Day. It's our tradition to go to our local Mexican restaurant to celebrate their Gotcha Days. It makes sense right?? Don't ask. Nothing in our family ever makes sense. It's just our favorite restaurant.

Isabelle's favorite part was the ice cream dessert...of course!

One more thing...we chose Lily's name because our agency, BAAS, advocated for our daughter under the name "Lily". After praying for her by the name "Lily" for 3 months (before realizing she was our daughter), she was Lily to us.

The Lord also reminded me of His care for her when I was reading Luke 12:27a..."Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin..." He used this passage in another significant way...but that story will have to wait for another blog post.

Torie and Michaela have never helped name one of our daughters, but this time they've implored us to name Lily, Lily Rose in keeping with our last 3 daughters' southern flair in names. So after much discussion, and concern on my part that I'll never be able to remember another two-name name...LOL, we decided that our Miss Lily will be

Lily Rose Jinli Horton