Whew... ok... now where were we?

So the past month has been insane! Mid-May I picked up my good friend Jordan from the airport! Me and Jordan met last summer in the Philippines when we were both paired to work on the same team at GH, along with Kyla and Courtney. I was thrilled and looking foward to being able to reunite with Jordan and Kyla this summer! (Courtney was called to stay home and do missions in the US this summer.) June started off with me, along with Jordan this time, heading back to the airport to pick up Kyla. A few days later, we were heading back to the airport again to pick up our first team of the summer, a team of 21 from Americans stationed in Japan. The team was wonderful and helped out alot at GH, but anytime you are partly responsible for a team, it gets a tad stressful, and 21 is alot of people. Team Japan was to stay 10 days, and a few days before they left, we welcomed our second team, a team of 9 from TX. The two teams overlapped for a couple days, so there for a while we were hosting 30 people. Transporting 30 people, along with our people, the staff, the guys, the white girls, the monsters...etc, takes alot of coordination, a packed jeepney, a packed Kia, a packed Crosswind, and a packed Frontier, basically 4 very big vehicles packed. Team Japan headed out and Team TX finished out their 10 days. All in all, the teams faced some very unexpected circumstances, multiple breakdowns, vehicles getting stuck, outreaches in monsoons, etc., but the teams did so good!! They accomplished so much and were part of the planting of so many seeds for God's Glory! A few days before the TX Team headed out, Ate headed out as well, out of the country, for a couple weeks.



And within the next few days, 12 of our kids and 2 of our older kids (both age 17) started public school, which means, girls getting up at 4:30 to be at GH and ready to work by 5. Kyla getting the kids awake and dressed for school, Me getting 14 lunches ready, and Jordan accompanying 12 kids to school. Getting up at 4:30 AM makes for a very very long day!



To say my head has been spinning, would be an understatement. There have been so many ups and downs, yet ... no major crisis! Praise the LORD!!



LORD, Thank you so much that You are faithful! You are faithful to give us everything we need, exactly when we need it! You give us energy; You give us strength; You give us wisdom; You give us life; You give us a reason to live. You are faithful, even when we are faithless. Thank you LORD!!

~ To God Be the Glory!

Kim

I forgot to add a pic of Kim for my last post.. so here it is! Here is someone's baby girl:

~ To God Be the Glory!

The Story of a girl...

Kim was found... at 3 years old she was found abandoned in a field. She was so close to death, Ate wondered if it was worth the fight to try and save her... yet ... she tried...and by a miracle of God, Kim lived. However, without knowing her past and with the effects of severe malnourishment, Kim had some major delays and began showing signs of autism. When I first met Kim, she was smart... the caregivers assumed because of her mental delays that she was retarded and helpless...and she knew it.. and used it. She knew exactly how to get away with anything. Me and our team began working with Kim and holding her responsible and correcting her actions and teaching her sign language... and she became a new child. When I came back in December, I resumed working with Kim. I had her using the potty regularly, and began really working with her on listening and obeying directions. Through the course of the months, we had several battles of the wills... seeing who was more stubborn. (I won.) The most memorable being when I fought for an hour to put Kim's hair in a pony tail... I wanted Kim's hair up and out of her face and Kim wanted her hair down and a mess. Everytime I would get it to the point of putting the ponytail holder in.. she would drop to the floor and go limp like a fish... let go of the hair.. and she was fine. Eventually I caught on...and I started playing too. When she went down and dropped to the floor... I dropped to..I rolled when she rolled. She didn't like that very much... but after 50 minutes she had a ponytail in; it was the messiest ponytail you've probably ever seen... but it was in. She then stood up, looked me straight in the eye and in an instant reached up and yanked it out. I turned her around and we started round 2...10 min later.. ponytail #2 was in. She stood up, looked me in the eye... and left the ponytail alone. I said, "Thank you Kim." and gave her a big hug... she hugged me right back.

That was one of the big defining moments in our relationship, where we really figured out who was going to be running the show. I became Kim's person that when she was in the middle of throwing a temper fit for the on duty caregiver, I could walk in and say "Kim, that's enough, stop now." and she would look at me and get herself together and that would be the end of it. I've seen her go from a true wild child to a happy behaving little girl... and then today we got some news...










... KIM HAS BEEN MATCHED WITH HER FOREVER FAMILY!!!! No longer is there 'prayerfully' or 'hopefully' a family... she has officially been matched today.. SHE HAS A FAMILY!!! This is something that I have been praying for months for! I have been praying that the Lord would have a special family out there for Kim...and today she was matched with that family! Praise the LORD this is truly a miracle that we have been praying for!! Oh our God is so good and faithful!!!

~ To God Be the Glory!

New Baby MJ!

This is our newest addition to Gentle Hands, Mary Joy (MJ) was born Wednesday morning. I got the text to be expecting her arrival at about 4:10 AM Wednesday morning and went and picked her up at 9 AM from the midwife's birthing clinic where she was born. She is just precious, a beautiful little angel from God!

Look at all that hair!

A tiny little smile on her first day in this world!


Sleeping soundly on the way home!

Welcome little MJ!!

~ To God Be the Glory!