heart for orphans & 3 special orphans

Something happens to your heart when you go through an adoption....I can not quite describe it but it seems--from our own experience as well as from reading about other families-- that you just will never be the same.

You just can not forget the children left behind. Your heart aches for each orphan that you see on a waiting list. You want to help more orphans.

Before we'd gone through it I thought "yeah, we'll probably do that one day" and I felt sad for orphans but I was able to go on with my daily life as usual. Now things are different. We think alot more about orphans. We pray for them. We LOVE following other adopting families' blogs and rejoice when their children are taken out of the orphanage forever. We delight to see pictures and hear about how they are doing in their families. God has given us new hearts that care about orphans. It can be overwhelming...when we see the pictures of so many precious ones who need homes...and painful, when we hear of children who are transferred or who die at the institution, sometimes when a family was on the way. It can be distracting from other things. But still, it is a good thing...for we know that God has a heart for the orphans and He is making us like him.

Below are pictures of 2 special children we saw when we adopted Sean and then saw again when we adopted Lily and Joshua. One other little boy we saw died by the time we got back there (he'd been transferred and didn't live long there) We pray that this will not happen to these children. They would so benefit from therapy...good nutrition...a home...love of a brother or sister....a Mommy and Daddy who love them. Please pray that they will soon have these blessings that we take for granted every day. Both of them either were just transferred in September or if not, face imminent transfer to the institution as they are already 5 and were already kept longer than usual.

This little girl is called Leila on Reeces Rainbow. She was in Sean's groupa nearly 2 years ago. She would smile when we talked to her. She was often kept in the crib or the stroller all by herself and we didn't see them take her outside with the other kids, though when we adopted Lily we caught a glimpse of her outside in the stroller.
Here is what is says about her:

Girl, Born March 30, 2005

Miss Leila is so pretty! Dark hair and giant brown eyes, she is waiting for her forever family. Leila does not have a specific diagnosis for her cognitive and physical delays. her speech is severely delayed and she is not able to walk her own. She does have starbismus and an astigmatism.

Leila is blessed to still be at the baby house, but needs a family quickly.




This little boy is called Brandon on Reeces Rainbow. He has Cerebral Palsy. This is what it says on RR about him:
Boy, Born November 21, 2005

Brandon is a sweet little boy who was born with CP. His speech is very delayed, but he is at least able to get around on his own and is not bedridden. The change in him, to be in the loving environment of his own family, would be remarkable, surely!

Brandon is blessed to still be at the baby house. He turns 5 in a few short weeks and is facing the institution.

More photos available.

I noticed today that there are a few other special needs children at the orphanage there... like this precious little girl Diana who has cystic fibrosis. HOw different her life would be here in the U.S. where she can get the medical treatment she needs!





Diana (29)

Girl, Born April 24, 2003

Look at that pretty smile! Light brown hair and big brown eyes, Diana is waiting for her forever family. She was born with mucoviscidosis (cystic fibrosis) and has a pancreatic deficiency. We are waiting on more info about any possible medications or treatments that she takes for this, and about her prognosis medically. However, she is described as a smart and delightful girl. She is active and friendly and will do well in a loving family environment. She deserves the opportunity to live out her life at HOME, with opportunities to succeed outside of her orphanage.

Join us in praying for these children. And if you don't yet have a heart for orphans, I pray God will give you one too.

Thank you!

Joshua is doing better! Please keep praying for him. Thank you!!

We hope to get better soon!

Love,
Naomi Adamson

Quick update

Sounds like there may be a small area developing in one of Joshua's lungs but it wasn't conclusive...still given his condition and history, the Dr went ahead and started him on an antibiotic to treat for possible pneumonia.
Thanks for praying!

Pray for our son Joshua

Real quick before I post I just wanted to answer a question...
YES, we found a house! After much searching and looking at places (with kids who were very tired of driving around in our van all day each weekend)... we believe the Lord has showed us where we are to live (and it is actually the first place we looked at...of friends of friends) We are thankful that we can now focus on getting settled and once moved, on to "normal" if there is such a thing.

Please pray for our son Joshua. He has an 18th chromsome disorder which affects many things...he has hydrocephaly, an abnormally small corpus callosum (connects the brain hemispheres)....
functionally he is like a few month old baby...he can roll over but not sit up on his own, he needs to be fed by bottle or puree by spoon, and he is at higher risk for aspiration and pneumonia with feeding.

With our current illness, we've been watching him closely...last night he had dark blood in his secretions from his nose (we've all been congested here) so we are concerned about pneumonia. His daddy is with him at Urgent care right now. He doesn't seem in distress but we want to stay on top of it with his condtion.

I'd like to post more about Joshua soon but for now, if you'd lift him up to our HEavenly FAther with us, we'd be thankful





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Prayers

We've been taking turns being sick here at our home. We'd made a trip to Maryland to visit with my (Traci)'s parents and grandfather and came down with it there. Thankfully Mommy stayed well to take care of everybody (since Daddy got sick) until we got home. Slowly everyone is getting it in one form or another. The day I was the most sick my big girls were amazing...they took over. They came up with their own schedule of activities, made meals, took care of and did fun things with the younger children and did some schoolwork...while my son and I laid on the couch sick. Oh, and they brought me lots of tea. What a blessing. Now one big girl is feeling sick so I'm hoping by tomorrow I will be better :) It always makes me so grateful for "health" when we recover from an illness..hopefully it will be soon.

Please keep our Joshua in your prayers...we watch him carefully because he is more at risk for pneumonia (he's our boy with an 18th chromosome disorder)So far he seems to be okay, just congested.

Please also pray for the Malone family who we've heard have some illness (especially their son Eli) and they are due to leave overseas for their adoption of Ethan, the little boy with DS that our kids fundraised for, in one week. We're praying they all recover well before they have to be separated. You can learn how to pray for them here

More photos

Thought I'd share a few more candid shots of the children. The nice portraits are in the previous post in case you didn't see it yet. These ones make me smile too.


Thanks Katie for the great photos...we sure will miss having our photographer and good friend :) close by.



Disorganized again...love how the 2 littles are both looking up at Mommy


Big brother helping Sean walk in the creek


Aidan with his second little Mommy


Elsie loving her baby brother



Our energetic one


Naomi swinging with Lily


Sweetness


Brother and Sister love

scroll down for more...

Family Pictures

Before we left SD, our good friend Katie offered to take our family pictures. She loves taking pictures and we were blessed to have some really nice quality pictures of the family now that it has grown by 2. They were taken in our backyard in the Black Hills where there was a creek....so beautiful! We miss that :)
ENJOY!

The Adamson Family of 11


(you wouldn't believe how hard it is to get 9 children looking the same way, let alone smiling)

Shot of the kids together (at this point some were beyond the cooperation stage)...


Haylee


Naomi


Jonah


Annabelle


Elsie


Sean


Joshua


Lily


Aidan

(he had just gotten over being sick...so his eyes look so tired poor baby)

To go or not to go...out to dinner

The other night our family went out to eat at the Olive Garden...thanks to Uncle Paul's generous Christmas gift! We've had a lot of unexpected bills lately so we welcomed a free and delicious meal at a place we don't usually get to go to.

HOnestly, though I love the food, my first thought was to just send John with our oldest 5 biological kids who can all, when needed, sit quietly and blend in pretty well... as well as 5 children can, as even when we just had 5 of our 9 we attracted some looks and comments (ie. "are they all yours?") But they know pretty much ( maybe not always our almost 4 year-old , but the rest at least) that in a restaurant you need to sit quietly and behave a certain way.

Our special needs kids with DS don't know about social norms of behavior. It can be interesting. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable but we are getting more used to it! If Sean is excited, ie. if he sees FOOD, he will let you know it, with great exuberance! If Lily is upset because you are not feeding her, she will let you know it, by arching back and banging her head against the chair...hard...over and over. They like to make noise....forks and tables work well...and they like to touch...EVERYTHING.

Our son JOshua has an 18th chromosomal disorder and cognitively is like an infant though he is four. He is getting more alert and aware of whats around him, and likes being near us. But when he is sad, he cries...very LOUDLY...unconsolably at times. When he is happy, he squeals...LOUDLY. We have gotten used to it, but the thought of this possibility at a quiet restaurant was daunting and honestly, I didn't want to risk it.

But, at the spur of the moment we decided to head to the Olive Garden one night and the kids were very excited. I don't think JOhn had thought about these things but I was wondering how this would go, and mainly worried about us disturbing those who'd come to pay alot of money for a nice dinner. I also didn't want to be uncomfortable...because I knew it was something I couldn't control...at all. You see, I can't reason with Joshua to be quieter. Sometimes feeding or changing him or comforting him helps, sometimes it doesnt right away. I can't control if Sean will yell with excitement or grab someones food :) or if Lily would throw plates down .

It started rough...Joshua started crying hard when we first got in so we hurriedly filled his bottle to feed him (making a note to remember to feed him before we go out next time). I think the greeters at the restaurant weren't sure what to make of us. After the 2nd bottle, he calmed down and would you know he was quiet and happy the rest of the time in his stroller?

Despite my hope to be in a private room off to the side, we were seated at tables in smack in the center of the main dining room. Oh boy. After the initial chaos of figuring seating arrangements so all little ones had someone to help them, we ordered and were situated. I took Lily in my lap since she'd started hitting the table and after that she did amazingly well since she had my individual constant attention to feed her and hold onto her arms when needed :) Sean did pretty well next to his brother and myself (with reminders to be quiet) and enjoyed every minute of eating the good food (as did Lily who loves to eat too). Our baby did well too even though big sister fed him instead of Mommy...they often do but you never know when he's going to only want Mommy. The kids enjoyed talking and playing the menu games, and of course trying everyone's food...one advantage to having a big family.

Much to my surprise it went quite well and we had a good time, despite feeling like we were on display. It was a true blessing when an older man stopped by and told us that he had enjoyed watching our family....and seeing the children helping each other and enjoying each other, which he doesn't usually see. Wow, was that humbling....first after knowing I didn't know about bringing everyone, and then just knowing that it was only by God's grace. AS we were leaving too, another table stopped us and commented on how we had a beautiful family and they enjoyed seeing us, and one of them worked in special needs. I mentioned about our special needs adoptions and one lady there was leaving for the Ukraine the next day!

Once again I was reminded what blessings all of our children were and that they are not just for "us" but are for the blessing of others and for the glory of God.

Christmas and New Years Blessings to You

O come let us adore HIm,
O come let us adore Him,
O come let us adore Him ...
Christ the Lord!

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13


I love this picture that our friend Katie took of our kids last year. Our kids LOVE dressing up and playing the nativity. We have several photos from other years. THere is such a wonder in the Nativity...and children get that, they know that babies are special...and how wondrously special when Jesus, the Savior of the world, was born as a baby. We had a lot going on this year and didn't get to dress up for it but then again, we can do that any day, because the wonderful thing about Christmas is that every day we can rejoice in the fact that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world in order to save us from our sins, through His giving of His life on the cross. Amazing love and the most amazing gift of all.

As our they sing in our kids video,
"may your best present of all be Jesus...
may your best present of all be God's Son,
may your best present of all be the one God gave to you."

I've been delaying taking down our tree as it seems Christmas has gone so fast this year. Maybe because we've been very busy trying to find a house. IT has been truly exhausting spending most our weekend and some evenings driving to homes, looking online at properties, arranging visits...it has gotten very wearisome for all, especially the kids, but
Good news...we just decided on a home and we are very relieved to be able to "rest" from the work of looking. The funny thing(not really) is that it is the first one we looked at...the home of friends of friends but sometimes we are slow to know God's provision.
Now that that is settled, I want to just linger longer next to the Christmas tree and ponder about our Savior's birth a bit longer. Sing some more carols. Drink some more cocoa and snuggle with the kids and read a book. Play some more games together.

We enjoyed a relaxing Christmas weekend. It snowed here on the East coast so we couldn't drive to MD to see my parents as planned the day after Christmas so we postponed until the next weekend. We really needed to rest and spend time together after all the business. I've never been so disorganized and "not ready" for Christmas but that was okay as our children were blessed at our simple Christmas. It delights my soul to see them use their hands to make little thoughtful gifts for each other...and be excited to receive simple things. We know our main gifts this year are our children Lily and JOshua being here with us--so amazing that were were just committing to them last Christmas--- and that my dad (Grandaddy) is here and doing well, after having emergency cardiac surgery early in the summer.

One highlight of Christmas morning was the kids getting just a little money in their stocking to send to a Reeces Rainbow orphan ....and the kids looking at the Angel tree online and picking which one they wanted to send money to... and then seeing a few of the older ones give more of their own money. Just wanted to share that so you too can have that blessing maybe next year...another adopting mom from Reeces Rainbow shared that idea with us and we hope to do that each year. Doesn't matter the size of the gift...its a special way to encourage our children to give to those who really need it (which kids love to do really).

Blessings to you and your family! If you didn't receive our family letter, we'd love to send you oe if you email us at childrenpreciousinhissight@gmail.com