Teyolla and Keyolla turn 17!

Wow! Hard to believe it but we just celebrated Tey and Key's 17th birthday! I remember the day Derek called me from the Marshall Islands to tell me that he had just held the most beautiful twin girls in his arms! This was only a couple days after they were born! Derek and I were engaged at the time. He was in the Marshall Islands, completing a one year teaching commitment. Little did we know that these two beauties would be our daughters 10 years later! The story of how the girls became ours is truly amazing!

Tey and Key are such a huge blessing to us! We are so proud of them and are so blessed to call them "ours!" Not only are they beautiful on the outside, they are on the inside as well!" I can't imagine life without them! They bring much laughter to our household and much love to all they know!

We love you sweet girls!!! Thank you for the beauty of your lives! You're the very best!

Happy Birthday!


For those of you who still can't tell our girls apart :) ...Teyolla is on the left, Keyolla is on the right!

Camille's Children-Thirty One Miracles and Counting

I met a wonderful new friend named Athena last night. She told me about a book that she was reading. It's a first person story (from the mom's viewpoint) of a woman and her husband that adopted 31 Down Syndrome kids. Amazing! I'm buying this book right away! Here's a quote that Athena highlighted for me.

"Love isn't a pound of meat that can be weighted or a truckload of bricks that can be counted. Love isn't finite and measureable, bound by logical rules. Love is illogical and irrational. It is bottomless. There is plenty to go around, whether there are two children or thirty-one children. -Camille Geraldi's response to a criticism that she couldn't possibly love thirty one-children well.

The title of this book is the title of this blog.

In the arms of Jesus

Our friends, Daniel and Levi Lim, along with their young son Samuel and baby daughter Emma, left Kansas City a couple months ago, to fly to their homeland in Myanmar (Burma). They went there to help with relief efforts in the aftermath of the cyclone that hit their homeland in May of this year. There were over 15,000 deaths as a result of the Cyclone. Many children were left orphaned and this is the main group that Daniel and his family were helping.

Daniel and his family were due to return to Kansas City in just a couple of days, when their baby Emma, who was almost 1 year old, came down with a very high fever. She also had complications with her breathing and was put on a respirator and then eventually had to be put on life support. She passed away in the night and is now in the arms of Jesus. Our hearts break for their loss, as my husband and I know the great pain of losing a child. Our only hope with pain that runs this deep, is that we will see our little ones again one day, in a place where there are no more tears and where death is no more, in the arms of Jesus.

Please pray for this precious family, that God's grace would be with them and that they would feel His love as they walk through this very hard time.

Thank you.

INS Approval!!!

We are so excited! We received the letter we've been waiting for from the INS, approving us to adopt three special need's boys instead of two. This means we have been approved to adopt little Mikey as well as Sasha and Misha! So, now we are just waiting for our invitation from Ukraine to go and meet our little fellas! YAY!

Beautiful Elia Jane

My awesome nephew Nicholas, took these beautiful pictures of his sister, my niece, Elia Jane. Elia, as most of you know, is the little beauty that my sister-in-law, Tracie, and brother-in-law, John, adopted.

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain on the widow pane and to the birds singing. I started thinking about my little LiLi (Elia) and about how the hand of the Lord rescued her and set her in her "Forever Family." Her story is another miracle of God's goodness and His grace.

There are some days that we get so busy, we don't take time to hear the sound of the rain, or the birds, or, to look at the intricacy of how God created each of our children. Sometimes we don't even take time to dwell on the goodness of God. He is amazing in all his ways! When He created each of us, he had a plan, a wonderful plan, beyond our wildest dreams. If we could learn to rest in who we are, and in the beauty of who our amazing God created us to be, our lives would be much happier! YOU are beautiful, and just like my little Lili, you have been set apart for a special purpose, only you could fulfill. Your life matters, in a great way! Be blessed today as you ponder your value in the eyes of a perfect God!

The Amazing Koth Family!

These are our precious friends, Chuck and Jane Koth and family! As you can see, Chuck and Jane have a really big heart for children. They have three biological children and 10 adopted children! They also take care of beautiful Sharon, Chuck's sister, who has Down Syndrome. Chuck and Jane recently returned from Ethiopia with their three newest little blessings, Pinieal, Dagmawit and Hallelujah! Please keep the Koth family in your prayers as they are all on another great adventure! We love you Chuck, Jane and family and pray the Lord's most precious blessings over all of you!

Mikey

As most of you know, we are in the process of adopting Misha and Sasha from Eastern Europe. With much prayer and thought, we've decided to pursue the adoption of another little boy in the same orphanage. His name is Mikey and he is four years old. He has cardiomyopathy and possible Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, although the FAS hasn't been proven yet. All three boys are little buddies and we are excited about being able to give them the love they so deserve! We are waiting for the approval from INS to be able to adopt Mikey.

Please pray that all will move quickly and that we will get an "Invitation Date" to go to Eastern Eurpoe to meet our boys soon! We
don't want Mikey to be sent to an institution while we are waiting to get approval on his adoption. He is so precious and he's been through enough trauma already.

Thanks so much!

God bless you and have a great day!

Cast all your care on Him; for he cares for you

I woke up today with an overwhelming sense of peace! The Lord is amazing! What seems to be a crushing burden to us at times, is really like a little dust on the scale to Him. Jesus truly never forgets about us. We need to not doubt His grace in hard times. He loves us as much in seasons of trouble as he does in times of happiness. His eyes are fixed on us. He will always bear our burdens and will always meet our needs. What a faithful God we serve!

Our circumstances can sometimes rule our lives. I think if we all remembered to leave our concerns in the hands of our very gracious God, our lives would be much happier!

Have a blessed day today and remember that you are loved, very much!