There has been a calling placed on my life...that of a Pastor's wife, mother, child advocate, and speaker.
God has led me to start this blog to help
those who need support and encouragement in their journey of life
I am so blessed by the Lord to
be a mom to ten wonderful kids with special medical issues as well as be called a "cancer survivor". My
life has been filled with trials and victories He has given me to share.
I invite you to come along and be filled by His glory.
Currently our home study is in review with WACAP and we are close to submitting to USCIS for immigration approval. In order for our home study to be released from our agency we need to pay the post-placement fees. This comes to $700.00 and is needed as soon as we can raise it.
We are expecting out tax refund to help pay for these adoptions. Unfortunately, we do not have it yet.
Please take a look at this fundraiser for our boys---
I will be having a drawing for TEN Vera Bradley purses plus two beautiful sterling silver bracelets
Purses are valued at $30-85.00 and the bracelets are valued at $75.00-125.00 retail.
See photos below of the items for the drawing.
To enter I am asking for a donation of 10.00 for the first entry and 5.00 for every entry thereafter.
With each entry you will be entered to win 10 purses and two silver bracelets.
(so for your donation you will be entered in every drawing
and have a chance to win multiple purses!)
Please use the chip-in to the right to submit your donation.
Chekcks can be mailed to
Kelly Rumbaugh, 15 Smith Avenue, Westminster, MD 21157
The drawing will be held on JULY 4th--
this gives you lots of time to tell your friends! (please!)
I have been urged by a very good friend to share Jack's story and I pray you are all blessed by it.
It seems God knew long before me that Jack was going to be my son.
In June 2009, I travelled to Xi'An to adopt my daughter, Brighton Faith. She is from a very rural area in ShaanXi province called Yan'An. I visited there in 2008 when I went to take Brighton a walker to help her learn to ambulate. She had a very severe club foot then as well as spina bifida. Since I had already been to see her SWI, I did not feel it was necessary to travel 4 hours to visit again. So, we found ourselves in Xi'An with time on our hands.
During my waiting weeks for Brighton, I had agreed to deliver some boxes to Starfish Foster Home. I took one with me on the plane and checked it as a bag. Upon arriving, I mailed it to Starfish so I did not have to lug it all over Beijing while I visited with my "Chinese sister" Angela. The box arrived before I did in Xi'An.
I had all the contact numbers for Amanda DeLange, who is the founder of the home and a very active momma to 50 kids she fosters. I called and made arrangements to visit and see what Starfish was all about.
I was excited to go see the kids and look into how I could help Amanda with her needs for the children.
Angela, Brighton, and I went to Starfish by taxi in the morning and arrived at the gated apartment community.
We found the right apartment building and headed up by elevator to the apartment. As the doors opened, I gazed into the hallway and saw two four seater strollers and many other toddler play things. Amanda was at the door seeing out a group of Australian phyisicans. She has world wide connections and this is how she saves so many tiny lives.
After hugs and greetings we were ushered inside to be asked to take off our shoes and have a look around.
It was June and stinkin' hot outside---the apartment did not have AC so the windows were open and the babies and nannies were glowing with perspiration. There were truly babies "wall to wall". Nannies sat with babies in their arms smiling a welcome to me.
I made the rounds to see each child as Brighton wimpered from her stroller. She was having no parts of getting out....the stroller was her ticket out with mommy. This apartment had a wide range of ages represented and I was just amazed at how well the children got along and how organized the home was -- especially with the number of people and children in there day to day.
The children were certainly being cared for in a loving environment which is not the case in most orphanage situations! These little lives were being shaped by their nannies. They were being given security and love and this is what makes for a healthy child...and a healthy bonding/attachment experience when they are adopted.
As we were getting ready to leave the home, I asked Amanda what we could do for her and her babies.
(I was expecting her to ask for material things or fundraising.....) She looked behind me and caught eyes with a handsome little guy. I turned my head to see who she was looking at and found a small boy with a very large head. He was being cradled by his nanny. His gaze caught up in her eyes. Amanda simply stated:
"Help me find Jack a family"
Immediately, I thought to myself that it would be quite a task to see beyond this child's physical apppearance. His head was so heavy that it had to be held up for him to see around. I will never forget the moment she told him to speak... He said "momma" to his nanny. God was showing me how sweet his little voice was and how he really was smart enough to make the connection that his nanny was his momma.
I left that day not thinking I could do much for this little boy. His head was so large and most people would immediately jump to the conclusion he was brain damaged. Not many families are willing to adopt a child with such a physical anomoly. Especially if they looked at him and didn't really SEE him for what he is....
a child
a child with value
a child who is desperate for a family
a child deserving of a family
A little more than a year passed and I found myself home with two more children from China. A "rush" adoption of Samantha who was 5 days shy of aging out of the CHinese adoption system and Piper who was 11 at the time of adoption. It was a simultaneous adoption processed in 4 months...amazing. (and another
blog post for another day) I was scouring the internet--reading my groups e-mails and clicking on blogs. I love to keep up with the Chinese adoption world as they are like my family and have been since 2004.
I decided to go to my friend, Annie Hamlin's, blog to see the beautiful kids needing families that she posts every week. Her blog always has the children that are hard to place or new to the shared list/agency lists.
Usually, they have needs that are severe or maybe rare. Thats when it happened--
I
SAW
JACK
He looked like a normal little kid as he had grown into his head. He was grinning ear to ear--just like the gaze he gave his nanny when he said "momma" that day. I was hooked.....I knew it-- and it hit me like a ton of bricks....it was ME...I was the momma he was looking for.
I knew the chances were next to none that I would ever get a glance from the CCAA. I had been diagnosed with breast cancer just two months earlier and I knew CCAA had not granted any family a PA that had a parent with a history of cancer. It was even hard to get any agency to go to bat for a waiver "that big".
I was still in chemo treatment and had no idea what that would bring.
BUT- I had to try...It was in every fiber of my being that he was mine.
I called the agency that had Jack listed with a grant. I am not one to look money in the eye and turn my back. (Especially since Jack would be the 7th adoption in our family in as many years.) I prayed before I called that this agency would listen to my plea...that I am fine and I could parent Jack. Having a child with the exact diagnosis as Jack would either be in my favor or be held against me. I chatted with the agency rep and she said she would talk with her director....but first she needed to see a letter from my doctor----
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
I know many of you will have opinions that may be of concern-
I have heard it all before.
The bottom line is that we feel called to each of these boys and
we are being obedient to the Lord. We are willing
to step out in faith and we know that God ordained these boys
from the beginning of time.
I understand that some of you may feel you need to share your concern with
Bill or I. PLEASE-- keep your thoughts of negativity to yourself.
We do not need or want to hear them
We live our lives to please Christ.....period.
I ask that if you have concern that you pray for usin a way God leads you.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
I will post more on the way God brought each of these little guys intro our life.
They both have their own story... each one God breathed.
Samantha and I have shared many nights in the kitchen
cooking and laughing at each other.
We always agree to more salt.....
but---never agree to what part of the chicken is best to eat.
A few things I have learned:
Many Chinese like their rice as "soup" also known as congee. Just cook the rice to the package directions and then add more water to make soupy.
Anything resembling a barely cooked vegetable on top of the rice soup is great
The hotter the better for any dish (this is a personal preference but my girls cannot get it hot enough!)
NEVER throw away the juice of anything-- noodles, dumplings, cooked chicken, browned beef
Remain hungry at all times when Samantha is cooking. She expects you to eat some.
The best part of the chicken is the dark meat. (Chinese think the breast meat is the worst part of the chicken---it is the least expensive part of the chicken to buy in China. The wings and thighs are the most expensive.)
Noodles and rice are breakfast foods....so are any vegetables I can find.
Below are some photos of our meal last night:
I served "Jiao Zi" and mussels. (much to my husbands dismay)
The kids love dumplings (Jiao Zi) - I can get them by the 50 pack at BJ's
and the kids put them down like
they haven't eaten in four days! Sometimes we make our Jiao Zi
but usually buying them is the way I go.
I also happened to have some mussels in garlic/butter sauce that
were frozen so I thawed and cooked them.
I may have been awarded the "mom of the year" award
last night had a vote been taken.
My kids love mussels and Jiao Zi...Joey ran shouting thru the
house last night "Jiao Zi! Jiao Zi!"
They all came running
So, the dumplings were served in a bowl
WITH the juice and then the mussels were added--with their juice.
Everyone was "fat and happy" at the end of the meal.
Piper even drank the dumpling juice out of a glass.
She loves the juice! (EWWW)
So, if you have learned anything from this post, its--
The Kids are finally back at school today...almost a week off!
We had lots of fun and some hairy times too. Everyone was ready to go to their designated corners a few times!
I took a photo of our house this a.m. This is a build-up of ice and snow over the last 10 days. It hasn't melted much in between storms so the piles are everywhere!
Samantha wanted to come with me to take photos. She had Bill's big boots on so she got up in the snow pile! She had a hard time getting out of the snow---see below:
She is so sweet and fun! We just love her to death!
As we shift into February and get going again I have my LAST chemo appointment this week. I am thankful I only have four and this is the last to get through. This past treatment has "hung on" longer than the other two. My fatigue has been with me the entire 21 days and I just can't seem to get going some days. Last Saturday I slept in and when I finally got up it was 12:38pm. I thought it might have been 10:00! Simple trips out make me very tired so I only do a little each day.
Friday, they will hook me up for the last time. It takes about 3 and a half hours to drip into my system. Not a big deal. Its always interesting to chat with others that are there. Saturday I go back for my liquid gold.
It is a shot that is 6 mg of neulasta. This drug helps the bone marrow stimulate to make white blood cells. I am told it keeps me out of the hospital. This shot costs 8,900.00! That's why I call it liquid gold....
Unfortunately, this is also what puts me in bed for several days with bone pain. I'll take it to walk this Earth for many more years.
Ya know--the Fall was really hard but I have to say--we got through it with the help of many.
God does not give you more than you can handle---He walks beside you every step of the way.
Every time we were down or needed that GOD WINK...it was there.
I challenge you to listen to my husband's message from 10/31/10---
Its called "Why I'm not scared" and he gives his testimony of our weeks in September and October. Through my cancer diagnosis, Brighton's 5 surgeries, and his father's hospitalization and passing.
You can listen to it here
Well...I guess thats it for now.
Time for school with Samantha and Joey!
Posts
