Sunday, November 29, 2009

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

We have so many things to be thankful for this season! It's been a nice long weekend and I'm thankful for the rest, the family time, and most of all- God's mercy and grace to us!

Lots of good things have kept us busy lately.....we travelled to Lubbock to visit Joel's family last weekend and celebrated an early Thanksgiving together. It was a fun time and the kiddos played together amazingly well. Hannah was right, the drive WAS super easy and we had a really great time! Joshua Nahome is still asking if he can go back to Uncle Jon's house-- he fell in love with the riding tractor in their back yard and loved having the extra playmates in Lubbock!
We made lots of sweet memories and are so thankful that we only live 6 hours from Jon and Maci! :)Here are a few pictures from our visit..... These cool dudes had fun at the Tech VS OU game...Poppy and Mommommy really enjoyed being with all the grandkids at one time! Aren't they festive in the Tech Fan attire!! Very FUN!!



We returned home on Sunday night and started a very full, but thankfully, also a very short week! We missed being "home" with our extended families' over the holiday but we were so glad to be invited to spend the day with some very special families from our church. It was a really wonderful day. We had planned to eat lunch with them, visit and then come home by 3ish but we had such a great time that we didn't even get ready to leave for home until 7pm!! Time flies when you're having fun!! The food was just great also! We were blessed to be in the company of such wonderful people and enjoyed our time a lot! Thanks Lisa for hosting us all!!

I shopped until I dropped on Black Friday! I actually broke some shopping records for myself and I am pretty excited! I got all of my Christmas shopping done on that one day! The crowds weren't too bad and I actually never had to wait in a line to check out! It was fun and I'm thankful that I got so much done!! Joel and I also went on a date on Friday night. It was heavenly! We went to eat Mexican food and then to see the new movie, The Blind Spot! I really can't say enough GREAT things about this movie! It was moving, inspiring, and tells a great story about caring for orphans and children that have no one in the world to love them! It was a thumbs up movie and I definitely highly recommend it! If you haven't seen it yet--do GO-- it's worth the watch!

The details for the mission trip to Ethiopia are all miraculously working out. I continue to be amazed by God's work. Agitu, the director of our adoption agency, will return to our hometown on Dec 16 to meet with the directors of Fruitful Harvest, an international mission ministry from our home church to plan the trip to Ethiopia. The kiddos and I will be travelling back home for the meeting and we'll just stay there for the holidays....Joel will fly there when he gets his block leave time. We just LOVE those cheap Southwest one-way tickets! :)

Well, I'm out of computer time......the little boys need to be loved on and want me to read a new book to them before they go to bed, so I will close for now.
I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with many memories and opportunities to share the GOOD things that God has done for you in your life. His mercy, grace, and love endures forever!!

Praising God from Whom all blessings flow,
AMY

Psalm 37:4 "Delight thyself in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart."

Isaiah 61:10 "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hat clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

Friday, November 20, 2009

Hello friends.....

Good Morning Bloggy Friends!! I hope you haven’t given up on me and decided that I must have totally abandoned this blog due to the recent inactivity! HAHA! It’s been crazy busy but more than anything- I’ve been so overwhelmed by all the lessons that God is teaching me that sitting down and sharing has seemed like an impossibly big task for my short times on the computer! There are so many things going on that Ill back-track a little and try to catch you up on the happenings of Team Newsom!

I’ll start with Orphan Sunday on November 8……the kiddos and I made the 12 hour drive to East Texas again a few weeks ago to visit family. The Lord had lots more in mind for our time there and He worked out all the details so that Agitu, the director of Better Future Adoption Services was able to come visit our family and also speak to our church congregation about the orphan crisis in Ethiopia-- on Orphan Sunday! We were very blessed by her visit and look forward to watching God unite BFAS and Fruitful Harvest efforts to take a medical mission team to share the love of Christ to Ethiopia in the coming months!! AMAZING!!!

Joel flew there for the special weekend and I was also able to share our adoption testimony at our church on Orphan Sunday! I was very nervous about speaking in front of a crowd, but the Lord was good to me and HE provided the words. My prayer was that our testimony planted a seed for just ONE family to sponsor, pray for, or adopt just ONE child in obedience to God’s calling for the body of Christ to care for orphans! If only ONE orphan would find another family to show some of Christ’s love to them--- it was worth it all! I was reminded by scripture in the days before Orphan Sunday that it is important for believers to SHARE what God has done for us with one another! God can use the smallest testimony for HIS GLORY and to fulfill His purposes! I'm thankful for God's grace.....

While we were in East TX, we also attended a dinner with the folks who are working hard to raise support and awareness for orphans in our home community through a new adoption ministry called Compassion for the Fatherless…….check out their website at www.compassionforthefatherless.org . God is so good and is doing such good stuff here!! It was an amazing time of fellowship and time with truly inspiring and REAL people that have a passion to do God’s work for orphans!! We were so blessed that night! I was inspired to DO MORE. GIVE MORE. SHARE MORE. LOVE MORE.

Our little Halleuleia Halloween Project was a huge success!! A big shout out to my kiddos, the Pearce kiddos, Aunt Vickie, and also KATY and ALL the 3rd graders at Como-Pickton Elementary School for an awesome collection of CANDY! Over 60 pounds of candy was collected in the days following Halloween and is now on its way to soldiers in rural Afghanistan to share with the children living in primitive villages on the borders of some very volatile countries. WOW!! What a SWEET joy it will be for our soldiers to GIVE this candy out! What a SWEET message to these children in Afghanistan to RECEIVE this candy!! Very cool!! Thanks guys for the sweet support to our soldiers!!

More recently, we were blessed to meet and visit with a sweet missionary family here in El Paso! What a treasure they are to God’s kingdom! Team Newsom has teamed up with the VH Homeschool Ministry to help support this missionary family ( and 3 others!) that are here sharing the Gospel to orphans and poverty stricken families living in Juarez, Mexico. We’ll be collecting donations of blankets, clothing, shoes, food, and Christmas goodies for the needy children in Juarez in my garage!! Yes, IN MY GARAGE!! Then we’ll give it all to these missionaries so that they can SERVE MORE, DO MORE, SHARE MORE, LOVE MORE!

Now, for those of you who know me well know that this donation collecting thing is a pretty big deal for me since I am such an OCD-kind-of-girl and being disorganized makes me crazy! Well folks, here is the good news-- God is not done working on me yet and and those 8 trash bags full of donations sitting in the middle of my now disheveled garage have actually made me CRAZY EXCITED to be helping orphans across the border! What a joy it is to GIVE!! God is good!!

Please pray for us this weekend as we are travelling....we’re really excited about going to visit Joel’s family and spending some special time together in Lubbock, TX! It will be a treat for us all to have some quality time with everyone!!

This trip and my sweet kiddos reminded me a few days ago that dealing with LIFE has so much to do with our perspective and a gratiful attitude!! This conversation made me laugh but also was a good reminder that I need to count EVERY blessing.....here's how it went: ”Mom, how long is the drive to Lubbock going to be?” I replied, ”It is a 6 hour drive.” Hannah then said, “Wow—this is going to be a great trip. That’s a really short drive.” HAHA!! I guess if you are used to doing long 12 hour drives and all the sudden, it’s only a 6 hour drive—that does seem like a SHORT trip and yes, Hannah is right---it will be a GREAT trip too!

Super thankful for the small things today.

Many Blessings to You and Yours,
AMY

PS—Nahome is doing GREAT!!! What a blessing and a real sweetheart!! He is so fluent now that most people that meet us don’t even know or realize that English is his second language!! Wow!! AMAZING!

Matthew 11:29 Jesus says, "Take my yolk upon you , and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls."

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Hard Answers......

There have been several times over the past few weeks that I've been driving down the road or working in the kitchen preparing dinner when all of the sudden, big tears well up in my eyes and I can only pray for God's grace in sharing love and giving hard answers to difficult questions. Today was another one of those days.

Joshua Nahome is doing very well. His language skills are really amazing me and he is communicating well. He has been home nearly 4 months now. He is actually communicating so well now that he has many questions for me and he's caught me un-prepared to answer many of them, but somehow, thankfully, the Lord PROVIDES and out of my mouth comes words that have been kind and were able to soothe and love a confused little boy.

Nahome asked me today, "Is Tigist coming?"

What a hard moment for me to truthfully tell this little boy, "No, Tigist is not coming." I'm so thankful that I was also able to say... "Tigist is in Ethiopia and she loves you very much and wants you to be happy and live in America." Thank you Lord for giving me eyes to see and understand WHY you had us adopt Nahome while we were in Ethiopia. I did and could not understand before I saw it for myself, now I've seen and I know WHY and I also know Tigist LOVED Nahome very much.

These were hard moments. I realize that it is normal for all adoptive children to dream of their birthparents coming for them, looking for them, searching for them.....but I didn't think it would happen this early. I thought those were teenage adoptive issues, not 4year old issues! I didn't realize that he has been waiting for her to come here. I had to tell him the truth because I don't want him to have false hopes or be more confused by vague answers so I felt that even though the truth hurts--- we have to tell him the truth about these questions.....Tigist is not coming. I wish she could, but she is not.

The harder conversation for me was this one......

Nahome then said, "No food Tigist have. Nahome hungry Tigist. No cereal, no pizza, no water, no candy. Nahome hungry Tigist Ethiopia. Nahome no hungry Mommy.
Why Tigist no food, no stores Ethiopia? Why Mommy food, store?"

I really wish I could change those facts in his life. I'm so sad that they endured so much pain. I am so thankful that this little boy has enough to eat now in our home, but it burdens me that he and his birthmother were HUNGRY enough for this little boy to remember that and tell me.

I'm really thankful that we adopted an older child. Questions like the ones above are difficult to answer without being moved to tears, but what a blessing it is to know the WHY behind his adoption and be able to share Tigist's love for him. It is very neat that he remembers and I am thankful. I also love to listen to him tell stories about his memories of Ethiopia! He tells very animated stories of wild dogs in Ethiopia, the cat that killed their only chicken, the stinky outdoor bathroom with bugs, his bed on the dirt ground, his food cooked with fire, his rest time at night, the foods he ate there. Last week, he even pulled an old blanket out of Mama Carr's closet and said that the blanket smelled like Tigist. I am thankful for these memories and I am praying that the Lord continues to give me love, grace, and mercy when Nahome asks me questions that are hard. I pray that I'll be able to tell him about the unconditional, sacrificial love that his sweet birthmother, Tigist, has for him and that he'll somehow, someday....

he will also understand.

Thankful for the blessings and the hard questions and hard answers, too-
AMY

Jeremiah 20:13 " Sing unto the Lord, praise the Lord: for He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers."

Psalm 132:15 " I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread."

Psalm 37:3-5 "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so that you should dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed. Delight yourself in the Lord; and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways unto the Lord; trust in Him and He shall bring it to pass."

Amos 5:4 "For this says the Lord to the house of Israel, Seek me, and you shall live."