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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
And the Journey Begins....
We were greeted from the gates by my hunka husband and my children. Caleb was the only one not there and he was sound asleep at home. (our afternoon was much more pleasant because he had gotten his nap) haha
Pastor Chris came to welcome the newest member to his congregation. My man can BRING TRUTH any given Sunday...we are SO BLESSED to have Strong Tower Bible Church to walk along beside us in life!
Grace and Michael FINALLY loved on their little sister face to face! I am so proud of these kiddos. They speak BOLDLY on behalf of the orphans of this world. The Lord is already using them mightily for His kingdom. I cannot wait to see how they make a difference in this world later in life.
Remember the post on "fancy shoes" for my little angel? Check these princess slippers out! She turned into Cinderella the minute that they were placed on her feet!
Gwen, Mary Pat (Katie's Mom), Myself, Tara, and Kim
Poppie and Nonnie (my parents) couldn't wait to get their hands on her....
Pop (mike's father) got a little lovin in also!
This a a family pic minus a few. Both of my sisters (Susan and Dana) came to see us. My brother's wife is suffering from colon cancer (her inspirational walk of faith) so he and his family were not able to be there. Mike's sister Ruthie and her family will be coming in from Ohio for Thanksgiving (YIPPEEEEEEE!) and Mike's little sister, Mandy, is is India picking up her little girl Mia (for her story) right this very moment. Mike's Mom is is Indiana keeping her other 3 children so that we can have the most fabulous Thanksgiving EVER with 2 new children added to our family! God is good!
Auntie GiGi and my sweet Joshua
A few of my high school friends(Renee and Amy) showed up also, but I haven't received any pics with them yet. Needless to say, my heart was SO blessed to have people drive hours to come welcome Josie home.
We are so blessed to have such a strong circle of support. The Lord is blessing us DAILY with more and more people to walk along beside us through our adoption journey. What could be a lonely road, HE is giving me little glimpses that HE is walking ahead of us EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.
Josie was fabulous the second long flight also. She slept and played. I filled a shiny little change purse up with money and she took the coins out one by one and lined them up on her seat OVER and OVER again. She counted 1,2,3,4,5 as she place each coin. Baby girl is SMART! The first night she slept from 8pm til 6:30am, took a nap from 12pm-3pm the next day, and went back down for the night at 8pm last night. She is doing much better than me. I woke up at 3am and laid in bed until 4am, finally said "forget it!" and now I am up posting ....yea, I know, CRAZY. I let my children stay home from school yesterday and Mike stayed home from work to have a "Josie Day". It was a great day! we built a fire and stayed in our jammies most of the day. She is now crawling and walking all over the place, SMILE on face, calling all of her siblings by name. God is Good....
I have had MUCH frustration on the Amazima Ministries side. Some of you know that I am Katie's sponsorship coordinator. I have been trying to get pictures to match with families since August. The first time that I traveled to Uganda we could not get the pictures to upload properly so Mary Pat was going to bring them when she returned. The electricity kept going out, so Katie couldn't get them uploaded for the second time. I traveled BACK to Uganda to bring the flash drive home full of pics (so excited, gonna send all of this out and get it DONE) last week and took it to get them printed yesterday...POOF! out of 320 pictures only 16 are there. I could have broken down and SOBBED! I have been getting email after email wondering "where is the info and pic of my sponsored child that i sent in money for?!" on top of that, I took the paperwork to Kinkos to get copies of the information of each child duplicated and it all came back on the wrong sized paper! Satan is at work. We can be encouraged that Amazima is doing A LOT of great things. So many children are being fed and cared for......satan will not deter me. Mary Pat is going to help me and we are going to send out all of the info and send pics later. I see satan at work VIVIDLY trying to keep us from caring for the least of these. Satan knows that these sweet children are in the center of Christ's heart. Satan will try his best and we will not be discouraged!
Our Saviour promises that He will empower us accordingly. The degree in which He strengthens us is based on two variables: the difficulty of our circumstances, and our willingness to depend on Him for help. We are called to look to HIM for all that we need, and to watch and see what He will do. We are to be content simple sheep, listening for His voice and follow Him. He will lead us into restful green pastures and guide us along paths of righteousness. Thank you sweet Saviour for NEVER leaving me or forsaking me.
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About Me
- suzanne
- I am a lover of Jesus. I have the most fabulous husband that anyone woman could ask for. The Lord has blessed us with 7 beautiful children. I started this blog so that friends and family could follow our trip to Uganda to visit Katie Davis. I have decided to keep blogging to help bring orphan awareness to the world around me.
34 comments:
suzanne,
my family and i are blessed to have been introduced to you via katie's blog and are sharing your JOY as you bring josie love home! thank you, LORD!
and as one of the families waiting for our amazima packet, we assure you that we don't mind the wait at all!! even if we never got a picture of our child, we are confident that the money we invest is bringing a return far beyond anything we even know of. i know that it is frustrating to have things like the missing happen, especially when you know it's the devil at work, but don't let the thought of those of us waiting for a packet pressure you at all. i am sure i am not the only one who doesn't mind the wait. we will continue to pray for ALL amazima children until we can pray for ours by name.
may the LORD continue to bless and provide for your family and sweet josie!!!
erika
acupofcoldwaterclothing.blogspot.com
So overjoyed for Josie Love and your whole family. I can't imagine what her heart must feel. I'm praying that our family, and Gwen's family, and so many others will be walking this same footsteps very soon.
You are so right about the spiritual attacks on Amazima. Satan is smart. He doesn't waste his time. He attacks hardest the things that are closest to God. I guess we can take this as a compliment?!?!? God has already claimed the victory.
Thank you for laying your life out to be the living body of Jesus. Many blessings will surely fall your way.
Love in Jesus,
Amy
What wonderful pictures, what a blessing to see, what joy, oh how Jesus must be smiling to see His precious daughter finally in your family!!!
You are an inspiration!!!
Congratulations on bringing Josie home! Praying for you all.
Congratulations!!! Art and Gay are our neighbors, so I have been following your story closely. I am sure that Thanksgiving will be extra special this year!! Praying God's blessings over your family... especially Josie!
WELCOME HOME!!!!!! Thank you for sll these peictures and for the time it took to write this post. What a wonderful homecoming you had, and I'm so glad the plane ride went well and that she is sleeping so well. Now we need to get you some sleep!
You're so right about Satan wanting to kill any plans that we have to take care of these orphans. It is warfare- we must fight! Thank you for being on the front lines. Well done!
welcome home!!!!! beautiful josie welcome home, we are praying for her health and a quick adjustment for the whole family and lots of rest for you!!!!
Welcome home Josie Love!
Suzanne - what an amazing post!
My heart is full of so much joy!
I'm blessed by your words and heart so full of His love!
Looking forward to hearing that God brings back the photos missing!
Love you!
Jill
Suzanne, I'm a lurker (but a long time one) of yours AND Katie's blogs. So thrilled to read that Josie Love is home. Thank you for sharing your story - step by step. God has used yours and Katie's stories - and lots of other events in our lives - to lead us to adopt as well. We are adopting from Ethiopia. I just want to thank you for sharing and being transparent. Our family will be praying for your family in the coming weeks and months! What a blessing!
Hi Suzanne,
I'm also a long-time lurker! I am so thrilled to see little Josie Love home and IN YOUR ARMS!!! Thank you Jesus!!!
Just a thought but have you tried using file recovery software to recover the files on the flash drive? I've had excellent luck using it in the past- email me if you need help!
Love and Blessings,
Erica
such a beautiful family
Hi Suzanne,
My heart is bursting for you guys! I am a recent blog-lurker :) I was able to meet Gwen at the clothing launch last weekend and I have been praying for all of you through your journey!! Your daughter is beautiful and I will be praying her transition to her forever home is smooth.
Thank you for sharing your story and the work the Lord has put before you - I know you hear this but I have to say it too! YOU ROCK! GOD IS GOOD :)
Brooke prayed that Josie would sleep well on her first night at home. God is good! So excited for you all and we'll continue to pray for your family as Josie settles in! Julie J
What a wonderful way to start my Wednesday! I am overjoyed for you and your family...Josie is finally home. I have followed your journey and prayed for you from Texas for several months and will continue to pray for this new leg of your journey. You are touching many lives with your openness and honesty through this process...and moving many to action. I thank God for you. Congratulations and Welcome Home Josie Love...there are a lot of us loving you from afar today!
Good afternoon, I also am a long time lurker, I am so glad that you have Josielove home. What a wonderful Thanksgiving you and your family will have all being together! Congratulations, and enjoy. Welcome home Josie Love!
I have followed your journey for some time now but never have I posted but after sitting here with tears in my eyes I had to say "Congratulations". This has been such an emotional & joyous story, I love to see how God has worked through you all & these blessed children. You & Gwen are such an inspiration to me & I love to get my devotion everyday through your blogs. Welcome home & she is so precious!!!!
Congratulations on getting your sweet girl home! What a beautiful family you have!
Oh how I have been anxiously waiting for you to post pictures! My heart is beaming with joy for your family. What a beautiful homecoming! I wish I had know your flight schedule ahead of time so I could have been there. I'm so glad Josie is sleeping good and seems to be adjusting well. I can only imagine what her heart must feel. She is one special little girl! I can't wait to meet her and see that precious face. Praying God's blessings over your family and Amazima Ministries. Please let me know if you need anything. Love ya!
Welcome home Josie!
Welcome home to your family Josie! I have been following your blog for the last two months. The story of Josie is definitely an inspiration to me. My husband and I just sent in an application to Generations adoption agency to adopt from Uganda. We are really excited! Thank you so much for allowing God to use you in my life. God is starting to stir peoples hearts in Atlanta, just like he has in Nashville!
Oh praise the Lord, Josie is HOME!!!!!!!
Such sweet reunion! Your family is so beautiful, Suzanne! Designed by God!
Love,
Laine
My heart is so GLAD to hear of the amazing homecoming miss Jlovie received from friends and family alike! As you continue to struggle with the pictures just know that those children are still being fed, those sponsors still believe in what Amazima is doing, and most of all the LOVE of God is being shown to people on BOTH sides of the planet! Be patient friend (or blogging friend whom I have never met who is also a sister in Christ! :) ), God is at work here in bigger ways than anyone knows! I'm SO glad Katie texted you asking for pictures, they are amazing! Have a wonderfully BLESSED Thanksgiving!
RaVae
Happy Happy for Josie Love's sweet homecoming. God is so good to us!!!
I have learned of your site through finding Katie's journey and two friends in Nashville spreading the word (Tabitha and Katie from Green Hills Church).
Amen to your words regarding Satan's obstacles. Keep the faith and continue the race - you are right where God is asking you to be! Praise Him for the work you guys are doing!
My heart was so sad that I couldn't be there....but I was go happy to see Grace carrying that little bundle of joy out of the van and into her new home!!! I AM CRAVIN' ME SOME JOSIE LOVE! :)
CAN'T WAIT FOR THANKSGIVING!!!
LOVE YA'LL!
Abbie
Oh it is SO wonderful to see that smiling baby girl at HOME!
Just a thought about the lost pics...a good friend had that happen and she went to Kim Komando's website (Komando.com) and downloaded a card rescue program that found almost all her pictures on her disc! Sometimes they get viruses, but the info is still there. I hope that works for you! Hug that precious girl and I can't wait to meet her in person!
Praise the LORD!
Dear Suzanne,
Perhaps the closest thing on earth to a believer's welcome at the gates of heaven is an adopted child's welcome at the gates of an airport. Thanks for sharing your journey with all of us. One down--146,999,999 to go.
Congrats to Josie Love and the rest of your family! (And don't let Satan rob you of your joy. God's plans are bigger than Satan's roadblocks.)
Celebrating with you,
Kathie from Georgia
YAY! I'm so happy and have been anxiously awaiting this post in Roswell, Georgia!!! Praise the Lord! My husband came home from work the other day and I said YOU KNOW WHAT TODAY IS?! He looked at me like he was missing a birthday or anniversary and I said "It's the day Josie Love is coming home!!!!!" We were celebrating and have prayed for this day!!!!! YAY! We can't wait for Spring 2010 to get here to bring home our son! Praying for the ministry ahead...and excited to be a part of it!!!!
Hello! Blog stalker here! :)
Had to add my welcome to the little lady I've been praying so much for. :).
God is indeed awesome....oh the prayers he has answered...amazing!!
Thank you for the post....you did a stalker's heart good! Hahaha
With love (that comes from belonging to the same heavenly family :D),
Amy Lusse on Cali
Congratulations!! You have a beautiful and supportive family.
God Bless,
Isabelle
I wanted to let you know that I posted the story of Josie on my blog.:)
another stalker here! I have been waiting for this post also! you have such a loving and supportive family and little Josie Love is precious!
I, too, am waiting on an Amazima packet, but I can wait forever!! You have much greater things at the moment to worry about!
CONGRATS!
soo glad to see pics of baby girl HOME!! Will be praying for those pics. God will rule!!!
Hi there! Welcome home to Josie Love! I hope you are all enjoying your time together. I have recently looked into sponsoring a child in Africa and noticed that you are Amazima's coordinator. My husband and I are looking for a sponsorship opportunity. Do you have any information that you would be able to share with us? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Sarah
saalwine@gmail.com
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