We just adopted…BELLA is finally home & we are all in love with her!

Josh and I have felt it on our heart for years to adopt even before we had kids.  We have tried several times to look into different options but before things could go very far it would always fall through.   We know that at the core of Gods heart is a longing and a desire for children to have life, be loved and cared for.  Here is the answer to YEARS of prayer and a life saved!!  Introducing BELLA CHRISTIAN NEELEY born Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 7:11 am 3.52 kilos, or 7.74 lbs

“True religion is this to care for the orphans and the widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”-James 

I got the call on Sun at 1:45 am that Mary had gone into labor and we (Amanda my friend & I) were to meet her at the hospital.  So I got dressed fast and ran in the dark to my friend Amanda's house down the road a ways to get her.  There was a little confusion and we finally got a hold of the guy who was to take us to the hospital (remember neither of our families have cars, and bus’ don’t run in the middle of the night here unless they are just getting done drinking or coming from a kava bar (not good if you are the one getting a ride!).  We had woken him up and it turns out he went right back to sleep! So an hour later we figured out what happened and had to wake Amanda’s husband  Jeff (you can’t go out as a girl with out a guy in the  middle of the night for safety reasons.)  Then we had to pray for a Taxi cause it was the middle of the night and just as I prayed one showed up (we had only seen two vehicles period in the last hour we had been there!)!

Finally after much waiting and praying Little Bella was born at 7 am!  

This photo is of when she was only 20 min old!  Pre bath.  I was the very first person to touch her after delivery except for the nurse who delivered her!  She was under a heat lamp crying while the nurse attended to Mary (birth mother) and I was able to touch her and soothe her.  I was even able to give her her first bath !

The kids and Josh came as soon as they were allowed at about 8:30 on their way to church which happens to be right behind the hospital.  They were all so excited to meet her!

Notice the falling off diaper! Dahlia was crying cause all She got to hold were Bella’s feet.  Pierce and Dahlia just love having a little sister.  Dahlia keeps tugging on my pants saying “I can’t see my baby” when I am holding her. 

This morning she got out of bed saying “Ours baby! Ours baby!”  Like where is our baby?  Usually she yells “mama” and waits for me to get her out of bed.  Unfortunately at this point Bella much prefers if Josh or I hold her…Don’t know why :) 

This is the brave lady who gave Bella to us.  She is sitting with her daughter on her left and her sister on her right.  She is 36 and is not married, and the father is long gone.  Her parents are not willing to take another of her children as they have raised the other kids (the girl above 18 and two boys 7 and 10).  She knew we were her answer to prayer as to what to do concerning the baby.

Giving the baby up was hard for her to do even though she had planned it for months.  It was a bit emotional at the actual passing over when she got off the bus before us.  She didn’t say anything and I croaked out an awkward “Thank you, thank you” not knowing what else to say.  I am pretty sure she didn’t see me crying as I received the baby from her sister who was with her cause she wouldn’t look at me.  I think she was trying not to let me see her emotions.  I  wrote her a letter and stuck it in her bag at the hospital.  I just wanted to go beyond the language barrier and say that we were honored and thanked her for choosing life for our now daughter.  I reminded her that the love we feel for this baby is the same love God has for us (including her) as He says in the Bible he has “adopted” us in to His family.  I continued to tell her that God has a plan for her life and for Bella's life and that we were blessed to be a part of it.  I also reminded her that God brings the best out of a very bad situation and that this was exactly that.  We have asked her to write a letter to  Bella telling her why she choose to relinquish her to us and that it was not because she didn’t love her…  I hope that she will do that for Bella's sake and for hers. 

Please be praying.  we have committed to making this an open adoption where she can come and see the child and when we live on our land further North we will come and bring the whole family to pownogisu where she is from so they can all see her as she grows.  We believe in Gods redemptive work and want to bring healing and not just tear her away.  We have an uncle of the baby's that is a good friend that we want to have teach her her native tongue (local to that village) as well as Bishlama, so that she doesn’t loose her culture. 

We find it amazing that somehow God arranged it all to go so smoothly.  What a blessing little Bella is to us.  Truly Gods gift to us.

Preschool is growing!

World vision came to our school to donate a few toys and small colored books after a request was put in so that was a huge blessing.  We were missing quite a few kids as it had been a bit rainy and we usually cancel for lack of facilitys on a rainy day, but we stayed for the World vision workers (the two ladies one by me and the other by Pierce).

We seem to literally get a few new kids a week, but because the kids get sick so often we maintain our numbers of attendance at about 20.

Some of our kids like this little boy Jimmy are completely neglected!  They come to school dirty, with out having had breakfast (they walk on thier own to school), and when they are sick they are just left in the house on the dirt floor all day alone.  We found out Jimmy had been missing school cause  his parents left him with pink eye in his house alone with a fever and no medicine and no one to take care of him!  SHOCKING…  We are learning who we need to check in on.

The little boy in the blue and red shirt on the right is named Joel and the same thing happend to him.  The teacher went to see where he had been and found him alone on the dirt floor with a fever and a stomache ache dirty and with everyone gone to town.  No one was getting medicine for him or caring for him.  We have also seen signs of abuse that lead us to believe he is NOT treated well. 

Richard above, is only about 3 or 4 but his mom treats him badly and leaves him alone all the time to wander the village.  He often ends up at our house for luch.  He is always welcome, so when he is wandering around with his parents gone and the shack locked up he sometimes comes over.  We are finding that preschool is not the end of our work and figuring out how to show these children love and help them practically is more important than ABC’s.  We are looking into finding out if these children’s parents really want them or if there needs to be some intervention to get them into homes where they will be cared for.

There is so much need here!  We have a family ministries team coming in to work with us at YWAM so we are hoping to arrange parenting classes to help.  These children need an advocate so that is where we feel God has us helping.  Please be praying!

Movie day with the preschool at my house!

Every Friday is movie day at my house for the preschool.  We crowd around the computer for an educational show as part of our class as a special treat!  Everyone loves it.    Our class grows every day almost!  We are now up to 20 kids.  We were missing several due to pink eye.  Pierce is really suffering from pink eye at the moment.  Poor kid.  Pink eye seems to go around like colds.  Dahlia is Just recovering from her third bought!

We just had several kids join who were going to local schools but ran out of funds for school fees.  We are working on getting a few more volunteers and we are meeting weekly to start adjusting the lesson plans and planning crafts etc..  It seems to be going really well.