Ode to Leah

With the brothers getting a lot of the attention around here, it's time for a little sista magic.

Check out my girl gettin' her grove on during slip and slip time!

A picture of redemption, that girl is.....

Update!

Hi Friends.  Thank you so much for all of the kind thoughts and prayers for us.  Things are going quite well.  I wish I could call each of you and shriek with joy and cry (some more) and pray together, but it just can't happen, yet.  If you have skype, though, please email me your address and we'll see if the Internet is working during that window!! YAY!

Leah's first night went great.  She ate rice and carrots and bananas and granola bars and, and, and.  The orphanage told us she doesn't eat solid food.  Yea.... not so much.  She eats TONS of solid food!  And loves it.  Hilarious.  Seth and Leah are doing just fine.  Some acting out by Seth when I'm around, but for the most part, very good.  Taking Leah's meds this morning was a challenge (they gave us pills?!?!?) but we'll keep working on it.  Please continue to pray that we can come home with my dad and Kathryn -- on November 1.  

Here are some more fun shots for ya.

A very special THANK YOU post

When we began collecting things for our adventure, I asked some of the people I know in Uganda what they need.  The leader of the African Hearts told me that the boys I met when I was there would love to have Bibles.  Okay, I thought.  Fifteen Bibles.  Doesn't seem too hard!

I wondered if I could get a discount on them somewhere and asked my friend Sasha if her family's company (Crossway Books) would offer me one.  Well, they did more than that.  They gave us 15 beautiful, leather bound, ESV Bibles for FREE!!! 

What a blessing these Bibles will be to those boys!  Brand new, barely opened Bibles for them to read and pour over.  I can't wait to see the delight on their faces!!  THANK YOU Sasha and family!!  We are SO grateful!!

Meanwhile, we have so much stuff, I think we are actually going to use the three bags each limit that we have.  Oh my!  It's great to have so much to gift people with but, honestly.  I'm a little overwhelmed by all the stuff!  It will be fun to show everyone pictures of how their gifts blessed and blessed and blessed.

So here is how you can pray:

Pray for safe travels and safety in Uganda. I'm sure you all saw the terror alert that we saw. It is unsettling but I know God is in control and we rest in His safety. Mom, Seth and I do have a 12 hour layover in London. Please pray for us both for the 2 year old craziness that is travel (smile) and for safety there. Dad and Kathryn will be flying the 18th and home the 1st. Mercies for those days, Lord.

Pray that the legal process in Uganda goes smoothly. The judge grants the order without requesting additional paperwork; the official documents come quickly; the Embassy is responsive.

Pray that Leah and our family would bond quickly and that love, a deep enduring love, would come easily. I know this will be a challenge. For me and for Seth and for all of us. But God open all of our hearts, Lord Jesus.

Pray that we can do some serious blessing of those kids over there. At African Hearts and the orphanages. Let us be a blessing to them, in Jesus' name.

Last, pray for healing of Leah's body. Make her whole and healthy, again, in Jesus' name.

Looking forward to our first post from Uganda, coming soon!
Love,
Deb, Seth and Leah Grace

Nursery fit for a Princess

I wasn't planning to do it.  And then the restlessness and nesting took over and I did it.  Sigh.  Yep.  Leah Grace will have her "own" nursery when she gets here.  Here's a little look at Seth's nursery when he came home. 

Cute, right?  Farm animals and gender neutral because I didn't know who might be joining us when I set it up.  :)  This time around, I know who's coming and I know that she is a little spunky Ugandan princess.  So here's the nursery this time:

Also cute, right?  You can feel free to tell me it's cute, even if you don't think so.  Ha.  Poor Maggie has lost her room again.  Seth's big boy room used to be Maggie's room.  And then Seth grew up.  So Maggie moved to the nursery.  Last night, as I was rearranging and preparing a space for Leah, Maggie gave me this look.

So sorry Mags.  I moved her chair to my bedroom and hope that she will join me there and not feel too marginalized.  Poor first born.

Still praying for October! 

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog!  While it was "fun" to post on Seth's blog and separately on my writing blog, it will be more fun (and make a lot more sense!) to have ONE blog.  :)  So this is it!  Seth will probably still post some of his thoughts and feelings.... it will be obvious when it's him and when it's me.  Ha.  And maybe sometime soon we'll hear from Leah Grace as well.  Here's hopin'! 

This blog was designed by my friend Lisa whose blog you can see here and whose web page creating blog is a button in the margin.  Cool, right? 

Anyway, here we all are -- Chosen.  :-)  Welcome aboard!