A Few Pics...

Our half-way complete family photo...




Team pic, we got permission to include the kids!




Ellie, in the morning after a bath, calm and mellow.




Our first hug!!!

Please Remember these little ones...

Just got an email from the two team members we left at the children's home for an extra week. Two of the babies have been taken to the hospital. One little guy, Christian, is having trouble breathing, and Jenifer, has been on an IV and is not very responsive. Pray for the doctor caring for them to have wisdom in their treatment and for the babies to regain strength and health.

8/1 Update: Apparently, Jenifer makes trips to the hospital every so often for tests, so she is okay, but prayer is still needed for wisdom for her doctors. Christian is doing better, but will stay for a few more days for observation, and might be then transfered to another hospital.

Vivian did mention that she, Nicole and Ellie are fine. I had not thought much about them being there this week today, so it was nice to hear about how my girl is doing. Ellie really did seem a part of our team as well. We had her folding and sorting clothes at one year old!

Ohhh...I am missing my little Sweet Cheeks!!!

What can I say?!??!!!! She is just fabulous!! Ellie was amazingly snuggly the first few days, then the personality started coming out! First, she will give you a little "huh" laugh. Then, the next level is a grin and the dimples below her lips on either side appear, i.e. the addition of the nick-name "Sweet Cheeks". The final reel-in is when she adds a nose wrinkle and belly laugh!

I was told that the Mama's would sometimes refer to her as Vanessa, because Maria is a common name. Now, I am quite sure that only the agency knows her as Maria. Her nick-name Vane (Bah-nae) is what she responds to best. Ellie is a nick-name of Elizabeth, so she has names in abundance. It seems like one of her quirks to have lots of names. :) So, we are rethinking what her legal name will be, we might just use them all!

She loves to sleep on your chest and will allow you to rock her to sleep. Coming off two active boy babies, who preferred to collapse when they are tired, it was nice treat. I knew when she would fall asleep, because her head would start sweating profusely! Vane enjoys looking at books, throwing her toys, and tasting everything. Everyone on the team loved to get her to stick her tongue out, especially during meetings. :) We found out that she is waving, blowing kisses, and can walk holding onto only one hand. She would repeat "da" or "ma" after us. The Mama's say she is "muy bonita y muy inteligente" and I agree! Ellie was not a fan of the rice cereal I would make up for her, but eventually, I got her bottle figured out, it had to have cereal added too. I was surprised to find out how little "real food" she eats.

The Mama's all seem to love her. It might have been somewhat over done because I was there, but they would all call to her from across the room to get a smile, or I would have to hunt her down after they swiped her for a hug. :)

It has been good to get home and see my other little people, but we ache for our family to all be together. I had to harden my heart some to get through church yesterday. Daniel was preaching on how we have all we need for life and godliness, and Ellie came up quite a bit as an illustration. There were, of course, her pictures on power point and afterwards, lots of hugs from people with wet eyes. I spent much of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday crying, so I needed a break. We met a family that was on both of our flights home, on their pick up trip of a baby girl a few weeks younger than Ellie. She was across the gate area, and turned to where I could see her face and I lost it. The in-flight movie was "Meet the Robinsons", which seemed like a cute distraction, so we watched it. I did not know until getting in to it that it was about an orphan boy looking for a family. There were some positive messages about adoption, but the scene with the birth mother leaving him as a baby on the steps of the orphanage was too much to take. I am sure that the crew was concerned because we were so emotional over a cartoon.

I have lots of other pics that did not get to the website, and memories to record over the next few days and weeks...so stay tunned! Thanks for your prayers and encouraging notes!!

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY...THEN PRAY SOME MORE!!!!!!

Two of our team members are still in need of their passports!!!!!! They have been waiting for months!!! Please pray that they can get them on Friday morning (they drove up to Chicago to see what they can do)!!!! Thanks!!!
Update: They were processed this morning and the gals should be able to pick the passports up at 3:30pm on Friday!! Praise the Lord!!
Update#2: Passports are in hand!!

Return to you soon...I've got a little girl to love on!

To get updates on our trip and view pictures, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pastordanbennett/BethanyGuatemalaTeam

I am claiming basically all of Colossians 3, "Set your minds on things above," "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...and be thankful..." and "Whatever your do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

This week will be wonderful and hard as anything, so I am trying to allow the Lord to prepare my heart to keep an eternal perspective! Thanks for your prayers!!!

In His Grace,

Whitney

Case Update

I have been praying all last week and weekend that our case has made progress and found out today that the Lord answered that prayer! I checked email this morning and there was still nothing from the agency. As I was leaving the computer, I prayed again that we would hear something soon. I walked back by the office minutes later and we had just received an email from the agency!
Our papers are in Guat and our case has been presented for Pre-Approval from the Embassy! Our caseworker said that this should have happened "week before last", so that would put us 5-10 days into the 60 day wait for PA. Daniel, love the man, is a famous pessimist, so I will keep the count at 5 days starting today and maybe we will be pleasantly surprised. :) (I had a dream last night that we were 20 days in for PA, so I help to balance out that pessimism.) We will be going through family court for the social workers report at the same time, and Lord willing, the two will be complete at the same time, then on to PGN! To spell it out, we are in this stage of the process until at least early September, unless the Father has different plans, either longer or shorter. We continue to covet your prayers for the Lord to bring Ellie home in His perfect timing!!

Happy Birthday Baby!!!!!

Little American citizen to be:




These are July update pictures. She was below 5% for height and 10-25th% for weight. They say that Ellie is walking along furniture. Hopefully, we will get an update on our case soon!
We picked out a little "Elle Elephant" at our local Build-A-Bear place and added a voice recording device with all of our voices to leave with her. Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!! WE LOVE YOU and can't wait to meet you and bring you home! WE ARE PRAYING for you every day, probably every hour that we are awake!

Added comment: I think she has had a hair cut! I didn't think about it when I first looked at the new pictures, but it definitely has more shape to it. I don't see her mullet, either! :) Maybe they wait until they hit the one year mark to trim it up.

Thank you all so much for your prayers for Grace. She went home to be with the Lord on Monday. She is now whole and perfect! The Lord allowed for our contact, the woman who sent us updates on Ellie, to tell her family about the small beautiful service that was held for Grace at the home. Through her tiny six-pound body, God has been glorified in her life and will continue to be glorified in her story.

Please pray for Ken, Amy and their six children as they grieve. This family has been so faithful to the Lord, even in this difficult situation! Also, please pray for the mama's that work there. They seem to hold little back in loving these children. Ellie has three specific mama's that care for her, but because Grace needed extra care, all of the staff was very involved in her care. She was loved by many there and the many who prayed for her from afar!

Job 1: 21b "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD."

One more blessing

Our friend is back in the states, but she sent us these pics of Ellie that she took on Saturday. She told us that Ellie has a cold, i.e. the snotty nose. I think I can kind of see the good view that she has from her bed (per high rent district comment). I definitely could use a hug from this little sweetie today! Tomorrow is her last day as an "infant", as she will turn into a one-year-old toddler on Thursday.