On the Journey With My Chosen One!

I am sure you might wonder why I call her chosen rather than adopted.... well, adopted is just her physical condition, CHOSEN is what we both are to be a family together! God is so rich in His Blessings, and He has chosen each of us from before the time we were knit in our mother's womb to be a FOREVER family! How BIG is that? How BIG is our God!?! Thank you for following our journey and for praying for us as we wait and continue to grow in the love of God! -- Blessings!



Liliana's Verses

Matthew 17:20 - " ... For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: "Move from here to there", and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."




Zephaniah 3:17 - The Lord your God is with you. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.




Proverbs 3:5-6 ~ Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.




Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.


Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Remembering When....

CAUTION!! --- EXTREMELY LONG BLOG!!--- BUT WORTH IT!
Written on Christmas Eve....

My soul magnifies the Lord….!
It was one year ago TODAY that I found out the news from Peru that I would be receiving the greatest gift anyone could ever ask for, next to Salvation! My sweet Precious Peruvian would become forever mine! And, WOW! What a year it has been!
An AMAZING ride!
A living testimony of God’s goodness and faithfulness!
A trip to Peru…..
Meeting my child for the first time….
Experiencing so many new things….
Adjusting to new routines…..
Adjusting to MORE new routines….
And, experiencing our firsts:
First visit with family
First Independence Day
First Halloween
First Thanksgiving
First visit with Santa
First big car ride
First Christmas with her family
And yet, there are so many more things for the list!
What an enormous joy this year has been! I have been AMAZED at God’s goodness and grace all year long! Yes, there were difficult times, struggles, some times when I am sure each of us thought that we may never get used to something new that we had never experienced before…..it has all been worth it, every single minute!
As I sit here and type this blog, I am reminded of how I told God last year, “Lord, not my will, but Thine will be done!” And, I meant it! And, God’s will was done and is being done! I pray that daily I am fulfilling God’s will and strive daily to be the Godly parent that God would have me be……NOT PERFECT…. Won’t ever be there, but I strive to live by His word. That means that Mama has learned lots of new things this year! There have been days of great triumph and days where I felt like such a huge failure! The biggest lesson I have learned is that parenting is a life –long lesson in HUMILITY! And, “Mom”is the MOST REWARDING title ever given to a human being!
I have really been pondering Mary this year, and her position as Mother of the Savior of the World! (Funny thing, this topic was on my mind and then our Preacher at church talked on this very topic this year…. Hmmm…interesting!) Anyhow, what must it have been like for her? I mean honestly, did she have to discipline Jesus when he was a little boy? Potty training? Training Him up in the way he should go? Wow! Some days I just hope I get it right….. can you imagine?!? But, just as Mary did two thousand years ago, she said, “Lord, not my will, but yours be done…” and she trusted Him. I daily strive to do the same thing…. Trusting Him to help me be the Mom that my Precious Peruvian needs and that God would have me to be! (Granted, there are a few things that I learned along the way to add to my New Year’s Resolutions for 2012!) But, my prayer is one of Thanksgiving and Praise for being able to see and hold the heart of God this year! God’s heart is for the orphan, and what an amazing privilege (Not as Amazing as Mary’s privilege, yet Incredible in its own right) to be blessed with the beauty and joy of having my Precious Peruvian at HOME! God is sooooo good and so faithful, there aren’t even enough words for the page!
Well, I know this will be a really loooonnnggg blog….. but it has been a while in coming! Let me give you an update on my sweet Precious Peruvian!
We are making more and more new strides every single day! Every day is like a little surprise package just waiting to be opened! In the last month, she has really just opened up! She talks all the time, now bear in mind, it isn’t all understandable all of the time….. sometimes it isn’t even Spanish or English! She has created her own language and it often times has the intonation of Minnie mouse’s voice! HILARIOUS! But, honestly, she practices her talking all the time! This is such an amazing thing considering she would say about 5 words/phrases 8 months ago when I met her for the first time!
She identifies her animals, and gives them all the correct sound… most of the time! “Mooo” is without a doubt her most favorite animal sound and depending on the day, ALL animals say “Moooo”!
She can identify a lot of her colors and has chosen a “favorite” color…..PURPLE! She has a pair of purple socks and she gets sooo excited about putting them on for bedtime… it is too funny!
She has really started identifying and recognizing people…. And calling them by name! She loves her Grammie and Paw-Paw (who she calls “Papas” which means “potatoes” in Spanish! HaHa!) She got to see her Uncle Bubba & Aunt Stephie and cousins for Thanksgiving and again this week for Christmas! We had a good trip to visit with Aunt Mary & Uncle Jack and she got to meet some more of her cousins. And, now she is getting to meet the rest of the family for Christmas!
She is really starting to get the idea of Home and the permanency of it! After our Thanksgiving trip, she really started understanding what it meant to go “home”…. What a great feeling!
She is loving her school! She loves to go every day and is talking more and more with the other children there! The language barrier is still a bit of an issue, but she is overcoming that very quickly! She has so much fun there that sometimes she doesn’t want to leave… oh what a good that does this Mama’s heart!
She is learning to express her emotions in words….Phew! Mama is so glad! We still have a long way to go with this one, but she is coming along! She identifies “happy” and “mad/angry” really well! She isn’t afraid to express her opinion either!  She has started understanding “yes” and “no” and will answer “yes/no” questions with a pretty good accuracy! However, she is quite the “teaser” and will sometimes say “no” or “yes” depending on the question, just to see your response!  Too funny!
Her personality has really started coming out! She is a funny one! She loves to laugh and sing…. And oh do we sing! She has most songs learned after the 2nd or 3rd time of hearing them. She might not have all the words down, but she has the tune perfectly and sings it at the top of her lungs! For example, tonight…. In the tub…. She was singing “Jingle Bells” at the top of her lungs! I did video it, but since she was in the tub, not going to post it on the blog…. It was soooo cute though! She loves the “Hey!” part! She is learning lots of new things musically speaking…. She knows how to keep a steady beat, she is matching pitch a majority of the time and she loves to hear and learn new music, especially if it is sung by Mickey or Minnie Mouse or the Veggie Tales! She just loves to sing her heart out! And, it brings such joy to my soul to hear her! So, sometimes, if you live nearby and see me singing to the top of my lungs…. We are just enjoying a little musical family time! 
She is doing great with her various therapies and is coming along quite well in almost all of her areas of development. We are still a bit behind, but she is improving dramatically! Thank you for your prayers in this area! We have also been for all of our check-ups except for the eye doctor. Our latest visit was to the dentist, where surprisingly she had NO cavities! I was shocked…. Especially because we have a “Skittle” economy at our house…. We call them “candies” and she gets 2 or 3 for using the potty, cooperating with Mama, etc…… but thanks be to God, no more check-ups until the summer! And, she is doing really well!
Well, I know you really want to see some pics….. I have so many to upload that I am going to just upload them…. They will be of our Thanksgiving, a train ride to the “North Pole”, our visit from Santa at our house to find out what she might want for Christmas (which by the way, she doesn’t totally understand just yet!) and our Christmas visit with her cousins! And, you will also see pics of our first Christmas morning!
And…….my New Year’s Resolution for 2012 is to keep up with the blog a little better!! Soooo sorry! Thank you to all of you who have prayed us through 2011…. It has been such an Amazing Ride… and I am so thankful for the MANY who have stood in the gap for us!
Blessings & Love…. And continuing to strive to make His Glory Known!
Becca


Thanksgiving with her cousins and eating Thanksgiving feast for the first time was fun!

Helping out with the tree decorating... she tried really hard to get those ornaments to stay!

Our train ride to the "North Pole" with our sweet friends.... and Santa was there too!

Baking cookies for Santa's visit to our house!


At first she wasn't so sure of Santa, but after a few minutes she warmed up to him, and had a great time with her visit with Santa....at our house! So fun!

Christmas with her cousins...yes, she has them wrapped around her little finger... they adore her, and she has so much fun with them!


Her Christmas present...a ukelele.... she spotted it right off, and we didn't open another present for 30 minutes! She loves it, has played it and played it... the challenge is keeping it in tune so that Mama doesn't go crazy, but she loves playing it!

Her other favorite Christmas gift.... her Minnie Mouse "bicycles" (as she says it!)

And..... just when you thought you were finished ---- Here are pics from her Birthday Bash on December 31st with the family and her sweet cousin whose birthday is just a few days after my Precious Peruvian's!




And, last but not least.... my favorite... she got to meet her Great-Grandmother for the first time while we were visiting Grammie for Christmas.... here are 4 generations, some born from tummies.... and ONE born from God's heart!