Moving Mountains

My Upcoming Trip to Haiti...

2011-10-08T21:24:00.003-04:00

Yes, that is right. In one week I will finally be standing on Haitian soil again. I cannot wait.

Here is a little bit about my trip... More to come soon... I will be tweeting from Haiti and I hope to update my blog a lot while I am there.

Here is a news story that was done yesterday.

Mother traveling to find adopted son's family in Haiti: wane.com

Go and check it out...

Rebekah

Aother Lead Story For Our Girls...

2011-06-17T18:28:00.000-04:00

Parents Allege Poor Education for Blind Students

2011-06-16T22:39:00.000-04:00

Parents Allege Poor Education for Blind Students

A Boundless Playground In Our Backyard...

2011-06-12T10:45:00.002-04:00

This just opened Friday afternoon about 3 minutes from our house. It is amazing and so much fun to see my kids playing all together. I will have to get pics of Jonas swinging. My favorite pic in my head that I need to shoot is Hannah and Angelina on the swings; soaring so high, with their canes on the ground beside the swing. AMAZING!!! THANKS TAYLOR AND FORT WAYNE!

Indiana's first boundless playground opened Friday in Fort Wayne: wane.com

You Are Arrested...

2011-05-17T16:45:00.002-04:00

Luca exclaimed as I was cooking lunch... I love 4 year olds and their creativity...

A Franciscan benediction...

2011-02-11T10:36:00.002-05:00

I saw this on someone's blog and loved it...

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths,
And superficial relationships
So that you may live deep
Within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression,
And exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice,
Freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain,
Rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your
Hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with
Enough foolishness
To believe that you can make
A difference in the world,

So that you can do what others

Claim cannot be done.

To bring justice and kindness to
All our children and the poor.

Amen

Blizzard: February 2011

2011-02-03T11:24:00.003-05:00

Read the article below... This comical scene made the front page of our Fort Wayne News Paper. It is great being the photographer... you will never see how bad I looked. And yes, I really went to Walmart looking like that too. I do things like that you know... :-) I do want to add: Angelina does have boots and gloves. She wears her UGG type boots and they are fine... But, not for this amount of snow. :) There, I had to say that... I am a good mom... lol...

Blizzard of helping hands

Level 1 emergency keeps city streets quiet; Neighbors push out cars, clear sidewalks

Jeff Wiehe

The Journal Gazette

FORT WAYNE – With her 10-year-old daughter packed into the van and her plaid pajama pants tucked into her boots, Rebekah Hubley got behind the wheel, turned the ignition, backed out of her driveway and tried to swing around the cul-de-sac where she lives.

Then the van stopped – smack in the middle of some deep snow missed by the plows earlier in the day.

Hubley tried to go forward. Her tires spun. She tried to go backward. She was still stuck. Soon, her husband, clad in a sweat shirt and athletic shorts, was out. Her neighbors followed. They had shovels.

And a snowblower.

For many, Blizzard 2011 quickly turned into a big dig as the snow that blanketed the area the past two days stopped falling and people began venturing outside.

And wherever a driveway needed to be shoveled, a sidewalk cleared or a car pushed out and freed from the clutches of the piled-up snow, Fort Wayne residents seem to have been ready with a helping hand.

“This is just neighbors helping neighbors,” said Janice Hayden, who helped dig out Hubley’s van at Mowhawa and Kendawa drives.

At first, it was slow going. The city was nearly a ghost town in the early morning.

With schools and many businesses closed – plus a Level 1 emergency in effect for Allen County, meaning only emergency vehicles were to be on the road – the morning rush-hour traffic along West Jefferson Boulevard and Interstate 69 was non-existent.

Not until noon, when the Level 1 emergency was downgraded to Level 2, did people really begin to go outside, if at all.

“Yeeehaaaawww,” Hubley yelled as her van was finally pushed out of the snow after about 20 minutes of back-and-forth driving, her tires screeching and smoking while she pulled the vehicle into her neighbor’s driveway.

About 1:30 p.m., Hubley was trying to get to Walmart so she could buy her daughter, who she recently adopted from China, new boots and gloves.

Her neighbors jokingly chided her for not getting those things before now, even with all the warnings leading up to this week’s storm.

“We just don’t look like this on a normal day,” Hubley jokingly said of the situation – her and her neighbors in pajamas, her husband in shorts, all the while trying to get a van unstuck from the snow.

Snow totals in Allen County ranged from about 7 inches to 12.6 inches, with about 10 inches officially in Fort Wayne, according to the website of the National Weather Service of Northern Indiana.

So it’s no surprise that stories similar to Hubley’s abound.

The Campbell family of Fort Wayne received a call from parents of a friend who live in their subdivision in Waynedale, Christi Pettys Campbell said, because the parents needed dug out and their son lives too far away to help.

So, Campbell’s husband, Derek, took their three children, ages 7 to 12, to help out their neighbors.

“They took shovels, snowblower and great attitudes with them,” Christi Campbell said in an e-mail. “Learning at this age that you help those who can’t … it’s what will hopefully stay with them for a long time to come.”

Campbell said she hopes her children remember this when they grow up – and that their dad helped as many on the block as he could each time he went out just because he could, not because he expected or wanted anything in return.

On the south side of town, Ken Howard’s pickup truck was stuck.

He spent a half hour shoveling around its parking spot on the street in front of his Hoagland Avenue home. He tried to push it out, drive it out, everything he could.

Not until his son, K.J. Howard, arrived were they able to push it free.

And where was Howard trying to go? That’s not entirely clear.

“Now that I’m out, I’m not sure what to do,” he said while laughing and driving off.

That seemed to be the case for many.

Glenbrook Square and Jefferson Pointe, the two large malls in the city, looked abandoned as many of their stores were closed. Walmart on Apple Glen Boulevard had few customers at 2:30 p.m., and the parking lots for many restaurants were sparsely populated.

Though the morning seemed dead other places, breakfast was still hopping at Cindy’s Diner downtown on Wayne Street.

John Scheele, the diner’s co-owner and cook, said he ignored the Level 1 emergency and decided to open in the morning at the usual time.

“Somebody has to feed the snowplow people and wrecker drivers,” Scheele said during the lunch hour as a pair of wrecker drivers swapped stories at the end of the diner.

Some of the regulars weren’t at breakfast like usual, Scheele said, but they were replaced by people he had never seen before. Many walked there. Someone with a shovel cleared the entire walkway in front of the diner.

“I have no idea who shoveled it,” Scheele said. “It was a free gesture, I guess.”

For many, it was just as well that many of the businesses closed and there was nowhere to go – it gave them a free, unexpected day with the family.

Rafael Sanchez walked down Webster Street toward Rudisill Boulevard about 1 p.m. with son Jonathan atop his shoulders. Next to him strolled his wife, Maribel, and his other son, Juan. They had just visited the in-laws, Sanchez said.

With the sun out and the side roads bad, it was a good day for a walk.

A truck driver for a floral shop in Fort Wayne, Sanchez did not know until the morning that he would not be working Wednesday. Now, he could watch a soccer game with his boys. Barcelona was playing Almeria in a Spanish King’s Cup match.

“Do you know Barcelona?” Sanchez asked. “They are the best. They have so many good players.”

As he talked, one of his sons excitedly repeated “Barc-e-lon-aaa.” Sanchez reeled off a few players to watch for and pondered the team’s chances in future European Cup play. They’re good, he said. Real good.

Then, hand in hand with his boys, he walked home.

Barcelona won 3-0.

jeffwiehe@jg.net

Joyce McCartney of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.

Jonas's Adoption is FINAL...

2010-11-27T11:22:00.005-05:00

Finally, after 2.5 years of Jonas living with us; his adoption was final on National Adoption Day: November 19, 2010. It is soooooo nice to have that chapter of our lives closed... His Haitian name was Wendjylove Brice and his official American name is Jonas Wendel Brice Hubley. Here are some pics from that amazing day. And... if I can say so myself, though I know I am very biased, he is the most handsome 4 year old Haitian boy in his little suit!!! :-) I think he resembles a young Denzel Washington in some of his pics. I wish so bad that his momma could share in this joy too and see how amazing he is doing. She will someday... if I can do anything about it... ;-)
(all of the pics are in reverse order for some reason, and I don't feel like fighting blogger today... :-)

Our Adoption Made The Beijing Times...

2010-10-17T21:19:00.003-04:00

I completely forgot that there was a reporter from The Beijing Times at Bethel the day we adopted Angelina. There is a lot of wrong information, but I guess that goes with the territory of reporters...

Here is a link to the article... http://www.beijingtoday.com.cn/expat-news/american-couple-adopts-blind-chinese-orphan

Chunyan meets her new parents/Photo by Xie Fei

By Liang Meilan/Jacklyn Liu

Last week the Bethel Training Center for the Blind in Fangshan District saw its 13th blind orphan adopted this time, by a couple from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The nine-year-old girl, Wang Chunyan, is going to be the American couple’s fifth child. In their 30s, Rebekah and Ryan Hubley have three biological children and a four-year-old boy who was adopted from Haiti in May 2008.

Rebekah said she likes the “full time job” of being a mom and a freelance photographer as well as a teacher at Huntington University. “For me, going out of the house and doing some work is a relaxing break,” she said.

What’s special about the family is that three of their kids have vision problems. Their oldest biological daughter, nine-year-old Hannah, was born blind, and the child from Haiti is visually impaired. The experience of taking care of these disabled kids has prepared the couple for the adoption of Wang.

They got to know the girl in February 2009 from someone who adopted two blind girls from Bethel. After collecting information about the girl, the couple learned she fit perfectly into their family.

But the adoption process was not rushed. “Before we really got in touch with the girl, we first prepared ourselves and did the adoption paperwork that was required. When all these were done, we talked with her on Skype, telling her our intentions and cultivating a relationship,” Rebekah said.

The whole process took one and half a years. Hou Meimei, Wang’s “mom” in Bethel, said they opened special classes for Wang to learn corresponding courses in the US.

“Thanks to Bethel’s consideration, we are not worried about transition issues. We believe Chunyan will soon take in the role of daughter,” Rebekah said.

Unlike most charity houses for disabled kids, Bethel – a non-profit school founded by a French couple in 2003 – has unique methods of raising and educating blind orphans.

“We have a lot of foreign volunteers who come regularly to be teachers in music, language, science and psychology, among other subjects,” said Hou, who is also a teaching assistant, adding that the most important thing is teachers and “moms” don’t force the kids to learn what they don’t want to.

“The curriculum for each age group is diversified, which is seldom seen in other charity houses,” she said. “The education concepts we use were introduced to us by many foreign experts who are also volunteers here.

“Though the kids are vision impaired, their behavior is normal and they even do better than ‘normal’ people in many aspects.”

Jacklyn Liu, a 16-year-old volunteer from New York, was amazed when she first saw the blind kids.

“It was impossible for me to tell how they were different from other children except when I looked in their eyes” she said. “I was astonished that two of the children proudly played the piano. They are open and talkative.”

“I will never forget the children making efforts to hold my hand to make sure I didn’t crash into the walls,” Liu said. “I came to Bethel to teach these orphans; instead, they’ve taught me.”

Established seven years ago with three blind children by the French couple Guillaume and Delphine Gauvain, the center grew into a big family with 40 children and more than 50 staff members.

The children’s dormitories have large bunk beds for those seven and above and cradle beds for toddlers. “We create this international environment with different age groups to teach the bigger children how to take care of the smaller ones,” Hou said.

Leaving the orphanage can be hard. Hou recalled the story of a child who spent five years at the orphanage, starting when she was three months old. An American family adopted her, but the girl kept calling and saying she was living in a strange place. “The girl was too attached and refused to adapt to her new environment,” Hou said, stressing that the first several months are crucial to the children and their new families.

The Hubley couple is doing all they can to make sure Chunyan adjusts to her new life. Chunyan is enrolled in a fine arts school, but her parents aren’t letting her go just yet. “The top priority for us is to really let the girl know that we love her. It will take time,” Rebekah said.

Children in Bethel are constantly in need of medical help. Information about donations and volunteering can be found on the website bethelchina.org.

Things are Going Good...

2010-10-10T17:17:00.003-04:00

I have risen from the ashes... I think... :-) We had the worst weekend last weekend, but I think we turned a corner. We have had the best week with Angelina and our family has had the best weekend yet. I have a great friend that keeps telling me: "Rebekah, it has only been 8 weeks." It feels like it has been 8 years some days, but I am seeing a light at the end of this tunnel. I will be back soon with photos and lots of stories that have been kept in my head.

Thanks for your prayers and support! This is by far the hardest and most emotionally draining challenge that I have ever had to face head on.

A Little More Time...

2010-08-26T15:09:00.002-04:00

I know everyone is dying for pics. Yesterday was the first day that I felt like a normal human being. I have not had the energy at night to even start going through my pics. I am very anal and will not post them without going through them first and weeding out the bad ones. Sorry, it is my profession... :-) Angelina is doing great and fitting right in with our family. I need a couple more days to gather my thoughts and figure my emotions out. I feel like there is a tornado in my head... I will be back soon... promise!

We are HOME!!!

2010-08-22T20:56:00.002-04:00

We got home yesterday morning... I was in a fog all of yesterday and went to bed at 7pm. That is unheard of for me. I will be in bed by 9:30 tonight. The kids start school tomorrow, so it will just be Jonas, Luca, and Angelina here. Jonas starts on Wednesday and Luca does not start until September 7. Angelina will start in a few weeks or so... we will follow her lead. I will take her to school tomorrow to finish up anything for her IEP meeting... I am just getting all of my pics downloaded to the mac, so bare with me. I will leave you with a family pic that was on Ryan's computer...

See you soon...
Rebekah

A message from Rebekah...

2010-08-14T15:01:00.002-04:00

Rebekah and Ryan got to Guangzhou yesterday with Angelina and out of all the cities they have been to so far it is their favorite. They are having a great time but because China blocks a lot of internet sites they can't share everything with you yet because they can't get onto email, facebook or their blog. She has been able to talk to the kids through skype and they are all super anxious for Mom and Dad to come home with their new sister. Missy, Rebekah's sister, is here today and Luca especially is in 7th heaven. They are at the park playing and Jonas is taking a nap. Rebekah's parents are coming tomorrow for pizza- should be fun! Not a dull moment in the house of the Hubleys :)
Anna

Meanwhile...

2010-08-08T23:45:00.007-04:00

While Rebekah and Ryan are in China getting their beautiful and long-awaited daughter (finally!), Jane and I have been chilling with the rest of the Hubley clan. It's been crazy fun- we started out by going to MI for 3 days for the annual GLA reunion where the kids got to play with friends from all over the states, and even from different countries! We went to a potluck, a reunion, play-world, a park, the pool, and the beach all in 2 days... and the kids were troopers the whole trip. On the way back to Indy today we stopped at the beach in South Haven where Jane's family was staying and took a few planned pics (featured below). Unfortunately it was cold- so we didn't do any swimming as we had hoped, just some wave-chasing and rock-finding. We are happy to be back in the familiarity our temporary home and the kids were so ready to get home by the end of our road trip. It was the perfect time away to distract the kids from Mom and Dad leaving... but Jonas especially was ready to get back. Got some pics of the temporary fam- these are for Rebekah and Ryan ;)

We are getting a glimpse into life with 4 kids, and having fun every day while trying to make the kids forget that mom and dad are missing... these aren't easy shoes to fill but it sure is fun trying! The kids are so excited talking about mom and dad and their new sister coming home!

Stuck...

2010-08-07T04:58:00.002-04:00

We are stuck in LAX for the night. Delta flight get here too late and then we puttzed around and did not taxi to the gate. So we are upgraded to first class and we will now fly to Beijing through Tokyo... :-) Hopefully soon I am sleeping in a bed...

Indy...

2010-08-06T19:48:00.003-04:00

Sitting in Indy waiting on our flight to board... Next stop, LAX... :-)

Less Than 24 hrs...

2010-08-05T23:48:00.003-04:00

Okay, we are under 24 hours now... :-) We leave tomorrow for Indy about 3-3:30pm. I have to go and register all of the kids for school in the morning... The schools would not let me do it early.

The kids are with Anna and Jane up in MI at a GLA gathering and all are asleep. Thanks girls for being sooooooooooo amazing with my kids! It means sooooooo much!

Okay, off to finish packing.... Ahhh, I hate the night before a trip.

I will leave you with some new pics that just came in an e-mail tonight.

Less Than 48 hrs...

2010-08-04T21:53:00.002-04:00

That's right, in less than 48 hrs., we will be leaving for China. I promise that I will be updating daily and our sitters are going to high jack the blog and put updates up for us from the home front. So many posts, you won't know what to do... Stay tuned... :-) I am off to pack the kids. They leave tomorrow with Anna and Jane up to MI to go to the GLA adoption gathering. It is a big one this year with all of the kiddos home from the earthquake. I am so bummed that we will not be there, but we are so excited to be going to China to get Angelina....

Maybe I will update tomorrow, or maybe in China... You will just have to check back to see... :-)

Thanks in advance for your prayers...

Rebekah

We Got The Call.....

2010-07-19T20:31:00.002-04:00

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got the call from China. Possibly leaving July 30th to go to China. Pray that we get our first request for a consulate date of August 11th. It would make arrangements for our kids soooooooooo much easier!!! We will leave China August 14th...

Thank you Jesus!!!

Oh, and also pray that China will reduce our inter-country fees. WACAP is going to request this tomorrow. Also pray that Chun Yan's original orphanage will allow us to pick her up at Bethel instead of having to pick her up at her original orphanage. Picking her up from Bethel would be so much less traumatic! God is good and He has the cards all lined up... I just need to sit back and relax... :-)

Your prayers are greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks,
Rebekah

Soooo Excited...

2010-07-16T00:36:00.002-04:00

We feel sooooooooo blessed!!! We got the mail yesterday from our old house, (which should all be forwarded and is not...) and we got a letter from Shaohannah's Hope. I was so nervous to open it, for fear that we had not gotten the grant. I opened it and discovered that we had been chosen to receive a grant of $5,ooo. I could not cry because it would have turned into the 'ugly cry'... :-) We feel so blessed to be a part of this organization and to be receiving a grant from them. We are just waiting to hear from the CCAA that it is time to travel and then we will make plans to go. Everything is done... hopefully we get the call...

On a side note, Ryan is in Haiti at GLA, helping John Bickel put up a pole barn. He left on the 9th and will get back on the 19th. Luckily I have Anna here helping me. Things always happen when a spouse is away: On Tuesday I ended up in the ER with what they found to be an ovarian cyst on my left ovary and Hannah had an allergic reaction to peanut butter while I was on my way to the ER... Really??? can anything else go wrong??? :-)

Okay... so I will leave you with some new pics of the kids from a trip to the Saeger Farm last weekend... I always get their pic by or on the swing every year. Some of my favorite pics of the kids have been taken there. Oh, BTW... look who is standing... and walking independently sometimes too. The most steps he has taken is 18. Yeah Jonas!!!!!!!!

I am still alive...

2010-06-29T22:43:00.002-04:00

For those of you left out there that still check in on this blog: we are still alive and have not gone to china yet. We moved and I am trying to keep my head above water. I will get pics up soon. We are loving the house, neighbors, and the NE side of the city. We are just waiting to hear from China on our visa date and then we will get our plane tickets and head over. We can't wait, but I am so glad that we moved prior to bringing Angelina here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Day by day I am getting more things unpacked... Luca has introduced himself to the neighborhood in big ways... When I have more time, I will tell the stories. Lets just say that they involve, in no particular order, fire, cars, and jay walking... ahhhhh... this boy is going to give me gray hair!!!!!!!! :-) Until later... Thanks for being faithful and I will be back soon... Off to unpack more boxes...

Out of the Mouth of Babes...(Luca)

2010-06-03T13:42:00.003-04:00

To preface this, Luca is watching Stuart Little...

Luca: "Mommy, I am going to break the TV, hop inside, and get into the movie, and then you would see me inside the TV."

Me: "Really???"

Luca: "Yah, then I am going to get inside that mommy's tummy."

Me: "Why do you want to get inside that mommy's tummy?"

Luca: "Because I have never seen inside that mommy's tummy."

Me: "Okay..." :-)
---------------------
Gotta love my Luca...

Breakable...

2010-05-25T12:18:00.003-04:00

This is my new favorite song... This past weekend Hannah and Micah's school had an entire day of performances. (They go to a fine arts magnet public school) One of the dances that was performed was to this song "Breakable". They carried around signs at first and said things like, "They call me stupid", "I get made fun of for wearing glasses", etc... Then in the middle of the song they tore up their signs and threw them in the air and continued dancing... The perfect part to this song was that one of the dancers was a boy...

Here it is... BREAKABLE...

Out of the Mouth of Babes...

2010-05-19T09:13:00.002-04:00

This morning...

Luca: "Mommy, go get your boobies on so we can go somewhere!"

Translation... "Mommy, go get out of your pajamas and put your bra on so we can go somewhere."

This is a very sad day... Even my 3 year old knows that without Victoria's Secret's MEGA PADDED PUSH UP BRA... I have nothing...

Boy, nursing 3 kids did a # on me... lol...

Have a great day!
Rebekah

My MJC Entry...

2010-05-15T18:56:00.005-04:00

Disclaimer... This is probably not what they were looking for, for the contest... but, this is what Matilda Jane Clothing means to me... (If you don't like conceptual ideas, this will not be your thing... :-) It was fun creating in my mind what I wanted to do, and then completing it... I wish I would have had my new camera last week... but oh well.. (The 10 finalists have been chosen and I can't wait to see all of the different ideas!!!) I am hoping they put them up tonight...
--------------------------------------------------
Matilda Jane Clothing means a lot to me in a different sort of way. The clothes are amazing, the designer is amazing; but it is something different. Hannah is stared at all of the time when we are out in public. Not in a mean way, just I think more out of curiosity, since it is not every day that you see a 9-year-old girl with a cane. When Hannah is dressed in her MJC, even if it is just for a few seconds, people look at her clothes first. Then they notice that she is blind. Hannah doesn’t know that they are staring and she could really care less. But for me, as her mom, it gives me a brief respite from the stares and questions. I honestly don’t see her as blind, I see her as Hannah. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your amazing designs and funky clothes!!! Hannah loves wearing her MJC because she gets so many compliments. I love MJC because we can blend in for a brief time. Sincerely, Rebekah Hubley—Mom to an AMAZING girl!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please Don't Stare...

She cannot see you staring, but I can...
Have you never been taught that staring is rude???
No you were not; your mom is staring too...
When you stand and stare...
It makes me feel as if there is something wrong with her...
She is my flesh and blood...
She is a little girl, just like your little girl...
She is blind, not deaf...
When you want to know something, ask her...
She has no shame in being blind, nor should she...
When you are talking about her, she can hear you...
Her hearing is acute...
When you say comments like...
"Oh, isn't she cute, they even cut her hair in a wedge..."
I WANT TO HIT YOU!!!
Why wouldn't we???
She is a little girl...
Please treat her with the respect that she deserves...
Someday when she is making well over six figures...
You might be saying,
"I wish I would have gotten to know her...
Instead of just staring at her..."
She has feelings...
She has likes and dislikes...
She is crazy gifted in music...
She has a memory that I covet...
She has a zeal for life like no other person that I know...
She is the most loyal friend you could ever have...
She will never stare at you...
She will never judge you for your looks, clothes, color of skin, or weight...
She is the real deal...

I understand when you are staring it is out of ignorance...
So let me educate you...

You are staring at MY DAUGHTER...
You are staring at a little girl that did not choose the way she was born...
You are staring at one of the 5 most precious things in my life...
You are staring at a music prodigy...
You are staring at a high honor student...
You are staring at the South Side valedictorian of 2019...
You are staring at a future grad of Juilliard...
You are staring at an actor...
You are staring at an author...
You are staring at A LITTLE GIRL WHO HAPPENS TO BE BLIND...

You are staring at Hannah....
PLEASE STOP!!!
I understand a look, her blindness is unique...

BUT STOP THE GAWKING, FINGER POINTING, AND PROLONGED STARING!!!
She is just a little girl, just like yours...
She cannot see you staring, BUT I CAN...
-------------------------------------------------
The last page we included a page that we brailled, "Matilda Jane Rocks!!!" Love-Hannah
and then I ink printed above it...

So, there you have it... my entry... :-)

We got one...

2010-05-13T21:12:00.001-04:00

God is good!!! We got a call tonight that we were awarded the grant for James 1:27. We will receive 2500k from them. I am so excited... God is going easy on Ryan's nerves... :-)

China Adoption Update...

2010-05-13T08:29:00.002-04:00

Well, we are sailing right through the system. I hesitate to even type that... but I am not superstitious so no worries... :-) We are so used to Haiti's system, so I feel like we are moving lightning speed. Our dossier got to China in March and we got our letter of Seeking (LOA) last week. This letter proposes the child to you (even though we knew about her last year) and you have to check a box that you and your husband either accept or reject the proposal. Obviously we checked yes! :-)

At this point, we signed a bunch of papers for WACAP and got them notarized and then we filled out our final immigration papers. Can you believe it??? We filled out our I-800, a DS 230 (immigration form for Chun Yan), and a W864. We sent everything back to WACAP Friday and it got there Monday. Our I-800 and other immigration papers were submitted on Tuesday. Our Letter of Seeking was sent back to China and now we just wait for our I-800 approval. This could take anywhere from 2-4 weeks. Once that is approved, we copy and send our approval letter back to WACAP right away and they send it on to China for our Visa appointment. Can you believe it??? We are probably looking at 4 months from time of dossier submitted to gotcha day... This is how it should be...

Now, this is for special needs cases, but still. So was Jonas and we are still not even into legalization and it is over 2 years since submission... That's crazy!!!

If you want to pray for us, here are some requests:

We are still 18k short... (no biggy for God, right??? ;-)
We have applied for a bunch of grants and we have a feeling that if we are awarded them, it will come in right before we leave. I am not worried about it, but this will give Ryan a heart attack... :-) Here are the ones we applied for...

James 1:27--The review board met last month and we should be hearing something soon...

Shaohannah's Hope--We got an e-mail yesterday that everything we submitted was what they needed and we needed to do an update form and then it would go on to the selection board. If awarded a grant, we would hear the second week in July... right in the nick of time... :-)

A Gift of Adoption Fund--Waiting on one more letter of reference and then it will be in the mail on Friday.

Our Creator's Hope--Submitted this via e-mail and got a response that they are not accepting new apps right now... Wish I would have seen that before filling that out...

National Adoption Foundation--Submitted an online application and will wait to hear...

Caroline's Promise--Sending this one out tomorrow...

Sea of Faces--I have to wait until June 1st to fill this one out...

So, all of that above was about 10-15 hours of work, if not more... but soooo worth it if we can make up for our lack of funds...

God is faithful, and He will provide somehow...

IF you know of any other grants that I did not list, let me know. We have all of the work done and can just plug in our info...
----------------------

Lots to do in a short amount of time... I am so excited for Emily Vanderwell to come down in June. She is going to be staying with us for about 3 weeks or so to help out in any way while we finish everything in June and get ready for China in July. She will be a Godsend and I cannot say enough amazing things about this family!!!!!!!! We have met so many amazing people through our adoptions. God's blessings are astonishing! They blow me out of the water when I stop and reflect on how much He has blessed our family.

I am telling you; if you are afraid to follow God's will for your life, think twice... It might seem scary at first, but the blessings for your obedience far outweighs the uncomfortable feeling of stepping out in faith. Once you get accustomed to that 'feeling', you know when you get 'it', this is exactly where you are supposed to be...

Have a great Thursday...

Rebekah

Sooo Cute...

2010-05-13T00:10:00.001-04:00

You're Invited...

2010-05-03T23:27:00.004-04:00

Check out this invite below for the wonderful people at Matilda Jane Clothing... I am entering in the contest, even though I probably will not win... I have thoughts and ideas floating around in my head, and I just need to get them out of my camera and into an entry... :-) I will share my entry when I send it in...

I keep forgetting to update about our fundraiser... But, we raised over $850.00 that night, with the help of Matilda Jane Clothing! Thank you to all who came out for that amazing evening!!! I took a few picks, and I need to find them to post... I did not take many since I was so busy talking to everyone. It truly was an amazing night!!! Speaking of our China adoption: We got our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) today, so now we have to fill out some more immigration papers and get them back to WACAP and then once approved, they get sent back to China. Then, we get our invite to travel... Yeah!!!!!!!!

(Click on image to enlarge)

If you are having issues getting the image to enlarge, just hop on over to Denise's Blog and check see the invite full screen. Denise and Matilda Jane are so the "real deal"!!! They have such giving hearts and are always doing things for other people. I don't know about you, but this is the kind of person and company that I want to support!!! If you haven't yet, you must go and check out her amazing clothes here...

Have a great week!

Rebekah

Too Funny...

2010-04-29T22:03:00.001-04:00

Okay, click this and watch it full screen to get his expression. This is too funny... And, he is speaking to teenagers... which makes it even funnier! ENJOY!!!

Watch This...

2010-04-27T22:04:00.000-04:00

Thanks Nancy... this is great!

Good News...

2010-04-19T22:16:00.004-04:00

This is going to be a short blog about the day: I am exhausted...

Good news today. My melanoma was caught early, so no need for a lymph node biopsy. If any more come back melanoma and are deeper, then they will do a lymph node biopsy. Loved, loved, loved the first doc (plastic surgeon); not so much the second doc. So, going with the first doc: He wants to remove 5 moles that look most suspicious, and then if any come back atypical he will do a wide excision on the bad ones. Then, he will remove another 5 until an entire batch of 5 come back normal.

I will call the plastic surgeon tomorrow to set up my appointment to have the one lesion removed by a wide excision and then the 5 moles that look suspicious will be biopsied.

AND- We had an offer on our house today and we countered it tonight. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! A total God thing that I will go into tomorrow! Why do I ever doubt that God is not in control??? Clearly when you read the story you will know that He was in control all along... Not that you needed to know that or anything... :-)

Goodnight... I am exhausted... I slept awful last night!

Tomorrow...

2010-04-18T22:50:00.007-04:00

Tomorrow is a big day: 12:30 Ryan and I go to the surgical oncologist and then at 2pm we go to the plastic surgeon. I have good hours and then I have down time and wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much time to think about things. Like: What if I had not found the mole. The pic above is similar to the mole removed a couple weeks ago and is probably melanoma too. This mole could easily fit under a standard pencil eraser. The other mole had 3 little dark moles right by it like a cluster of grapes. Nothing was raised, hurt, itched, or was red. They are not alarming in the slightest.

Something just told me that they did not look right. Maybe it is because my sister has worked with plastic surgeons for almost 10 years, maybe it is because my dad is a doctor??? How many people without this added knowledge are walking around with cancerous moles on them??? What if????????? What if it is worse than what we think???

I know I shouldn't go there... but I have been there a few times since Thursday. I am not ready to be done on this earth... I want to live past 100... I feel like every mole on me right now could be cancerous.... I just want them all off. Too bad I have thousands of freckles and probably well over 100 moles. Hardly any of them are raised. The one that was melanoma was completely flush with my skin. Not the ugly mole that you are thinking of...

So, those are my thoughts... Probably most of them are illogical, I know that. Hopefully I sleep tonight...

Thanks for your prayers!

Rebekah

MELANOMA...

2010-04-15T10:51:00.004-04:00

PLEASE PRAY: I got the results back from pathology on a mole removed from my lower leg on April 5th. Dr. Acker called today and it is melanoma. They sent the tissue sample up to the University of Michigan for a second opinion, and it was confirmed. I go to see the surgical oncologist on Monday... I do not have time for this...

Please pray that everything comes back clear and I that I will not need surgery...

Please Don't Stare...

2010-04-12T18:15:00.006-04:00

Please Don't Stare...

She cannot see you staring, but I can...
Have you never been taught that staring is rude???
No you were not; your mom is staring too...
When you stand and stare...
It makes me feel as if there is something wrong with her...
She is my flesh and blood...
She is a little girl, just like your little girl...
She is blind, not deaf...
When you want to know something, ask her...
She has no shame in being blind, nor should she...
When you are talking about her, she can hear you...
Her hearing is acute...
When you say comments like...
"Oh, isn't she cute, they even cut her hair in a wedge..."
I WANT TO HIT YOU!!!
Why wouldn't we???
She is a little girl...
Please treat her with the respect that she deserves...
Someday when she is making well over six figures...
You might be saying,
"I wish I would have gotten to know her...
Instead of just staring at her..."
She has feelings...
She has likes and dislikes...
She is crazy gifted in music...
She has a memory that I covet...
She has a zeal for life like no other person that I know...
She is the most loyal friend you could ever have...
She will never stare at you...
She will never judge you for your looks, clothes, color of skin, or weight...
She is the real deal...

I understand when you are staring it is out of ignorance...
So let me educate you...

You are staring at MY DAUGHTER...
You are staring at a little girl that did not choose the way she was born...
You are staring at one of the 5 most precious things in my life...
You are staring at a music prodigy...
You are staring at a high honor student...
You are staring at the South Side valedictorian of 2019...
You are staring at a future grad of Juilliard...
You are staring at an actor...
You are staring at an author...
You are staring at A LITTLE GIRL WHO HAPPENS TO BE BLIND...

You are staring at Hannah....
PLEASE STOP!!!
I understand a look, her blindness is unique...

BUT STOP THE GAWKING, FINGER POINTING, AND PROLONGED STARING!!!
She is just a little girl, just like yours...
She cannot see you staring, BUT I CAN...

Today...

2010-04-06T00:10:00.003-04:00

(I don't know why the font size in this post is so huge... I cannot make it smaller for some reason... Blogger is being difficult. :-)

I am writing this after midnight, so actually it will be tomorrow morning... :-)

Off to bed soon, but want to tell you what a cool opportunity we have tomorrow.

Long story short, about 1-2 months ago a family from Louisville, KY got in touch with us because their 3 month old baby girl was diagnosed with the condition that Hannah was born with. This is such a RARE disease, that I don't know ANYONE with Hannah's condition. The eye disease that Hannah was born with is known as FEVR (Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy).

To make it easy to understand, lets break it up...

Familial - This means that it runs in the "family" (i.e. a genetic disease)

Exudative - Refers to the whitish fluid exuded from abnormal blood vessels.

Vitreo - Refers to a disease of the vitreous humor, the transparent gel like substance filling the eye.

Retinopathy - Refers to abnormal changes in the blood vessels of the eye which feed the retina. The retina is the thin layer in the back of the eye which changes light into electrical signals which are then sent to the brain and decoded, giving us an image when we open our eye(s).

There is only one sight that I know that is really dedicated to FEVR: That is how rare it is. So, the sister of the mom found this sight and found this post that I wrote years ago.

---------------------------------------------------

Hi,
I am not sure who this message will reach, but I hope that it is an encouragement to all of you. I had a normal pregnancy and great delivery.
Hannah was born a healthy 9lbs. 2oz. The day after she was born, they told us that she might have congenital cataracts; bilaterally. We went down to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis when she was three days old. We were then told that she either had FEVR or Coat's Disease. Her Retinas were totally detached bilaterally. At 3 weeks old we flew to Duke University to see Dr. Cynthia Toth. We were hoping to have her retinas reattached. Dr.
Toth said that even if she did the most perfect surgery, she was not sure that it would give her any sight, because her retinas were not fully developed. We were told to go home and start raising her like any other child. Since Hannah was our first, we did not know any different anyway.
God gave me a promise in that hospital: "Even though Hannah is blind, her body is totally healthy! Nothing is wrong with her, she is not going to die." Those words have always brought me a peace of mind. We also went out to Philadelphia when Hannah was six months old to see Dr. Tazman at the Will's Eye Institute. He too, said that there was nothing that they could do for her vision, but that her eyes looked stable. I told you all of that, to tell you where we are today.
Hannah is diagnosed with FEVR, but they are not 100% sure that is what she has. Regardless of her diagnosis, she is 100% blind. She is now 4 yrs. old and doing awesome. This is her second year of pre-school, and she can recognize 1/2 of the alphabet in Braille. She is very independent, and loves life. I will not lie; raising a child with a vision loss requires a lot of time and patience. But, the reward of your hard work is watching your child blossom. Hannah loves to swim and play at the park, and she loves amusement parks. The more thrilling the ride the better.
If you are parent of a child losing their sight, I know that it must be frightening. But, be so thankful for the time that your child got to see.
Being a parent of a totally blind child since birth; teaching her things would have been so much easier if she had had some sight. You would not believe how a little sight can help in mobility and orientation. Be thankful that your child got to "see" who you are. So many times we focus on the negatives going on around us, and we forget to treasure what they still have. Sight, for any amount of time, is a gift from God! I wish that Hannah could see, but she does not know any different. I have to remind myself that we can not feel sorry for her, because that will only handicap her.
Someone once asked a blind girl if she wished she could see. Her response has always stuck with me. She said, "The only reason I wish that I could see, is so that my mom would not be sad anymore." What a lesson that is for us as parents of blind children!!!! We need to empower our children, and not handicap them with pity. If you have ever stayed at a Ronald McDonald House, or been in the Hospital with your child: you know that our children are the lucky ones!!! They will be living a totally happy and fulfilled life.
A great book to read is : "If you could see what I hear" by: Tim Sullivan
What an uplifting story he has. I saw him on Oprah when Hannah was just a baby.
Do everything with your visually impaired child, that you do with every other sighted child. We took Hannah snow skiing for her 4th birthday and she loved it!!!!!!!!!!! There is a great place in Michigan called Challenge Mountain, and they teach any person with any dissability to ski--for free.
I hope that I have encouraged someone today, or even gave you a new perspective on things. It is not always easy, but God will never give you more than you can handle. Phillipians 4:13 reads: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Have a great day, and I would love to keep in contact-
Rebekah Hubley--Hannah's mom

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Well, to say all of this: We are meeting the Talbott family tomorrow. Pray that it is an encouraging day for them to meet Hannah and realize that their little girl will too be doing amazing things, even without sight. I am so excited that God is giving us this opportunity to encourage another family. I would have loved to meet a little girl when Hannah was a baby. It was very lonely and isolating sometimes being the only person around raising a child that was blind.

I hope to have a lot of pics of the kids at the museum and lots of stories and a new friendship.

Like Summer...

2010-04-01T14:09:00.003-04:00

(Do you like my new 'do' and bikini??? he,he... That really is my body after carrying 3 over 9lb. babies.. Isn't this what you look like too??? :-)

Hearing the most beautiful bird chirping outside, (Hannah would know what kind of bird, because she just knows things like this :-), wearing a tank top, my favorite summer jeans, and being barefoot, makes me feel like summer is just around the corner. It is 75 right now and I am in heaven!!! ;-) Now, I live in Indiana and have to be realistic... It could possibly snow next week; it has been known to snow in April.. YUCK!!! BUTTTTTTTT, I am thinking positively and BELIEVING that summer is almost here. I LOVE not wearing layers, putting coats on EVERYBODY, and just being barefoot. I love the simple things in summer. Makes me feel like a kid! I am really a kid, just my b-day says that I am 32. Who cares right??? I am not counting!!! ;-)

Have a great Easter weekend and we will be enjoying spring break here next week. I am so excited that the weather will be cooperating!

e-mails...

2010-03-27T22:33:00.002-04:00

If you have sent me a message saying that you want to follow our china adoption, I need your e-mail please! :-) Heatherly, I don't have yours... If I e-mail you.. I have your address...

China Adoption Blog...

2010-03-26T17:30:00.002-04:00

So, we got our log-in date today from China... It is 3-18-10... Since China does not want families to share information regarding the child publicly, I am going to have a separate blog for our China Adoption. This seems like the simplest thing to do. I really want to be able to write about it, and share things to those who want to pray for our adoption. So, tonight I will start a private blog. Let me know if you want to read it.

Leave a comment or e-mail me...

Thanks,

Rebekah

YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS!!!!!

2010-03-25T14:47:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine just told me of Bryan Post. He specializes in counseling traumatized children, both foster and adopted. We do not have any children with RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder). Angelina seems fine, but we do not know how she will react when she comes into our home and realizes that she is never going to be living at Bethel again.

PLEASE WATCH THIS AND PASS THIS ON TO ANYONE THAT NEEDS IT:

Dumb Moment...

2010-03-23T14:30:00.002-04:00

Please come and join me on hopefully my DUMBEST MOMENT of 2010...

I was speaking to a friend on my cell phone this morning and I went to get out of the car to go into the grocery store. I then proceeded to search for my BRIGHT PINK cell phone for the next 4-5 minutes... All along talking to my friend on MY CELL PHONE... Seriously, how did I get to be 32??????? Please somebody, make me feel better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol...

Please share with me your "dumb moments" and lets all have a laugh... I will post the best one or maybe all of them... :-)

Tonight...

2010-03-19T09:05:00.002-04:00

We are soooooooo excited for tonight!!! The Matilda Jane Fundraiser is going to be GREAT!!! There are so many people coming, and some from out of state. I just heard from one of my roommates from college the other day: She lives in Toledo, OH and she and her daughter are coming. AMAZING!!!!!!! A couple other friends and their daughter are driving clear from Detroit, MI. Thanks guys!!!!!

Also, I was so scared, worried, nervous, etc., about the Film Producer being here. Well, it has been amazing! I picked him up from the airport on Wednesday and I feel like I have known the guy forever. Yesterday we did a lot of filming while I was editing photos on the computer, and I told him that it felt like I had just gotten 3 hours of therapy. It is amazing how just talking about certain situations and feelings and how I feel about things; is very therapeutic. I am going to miss Vince when he goes. :-) He will be back maybe one more time before we go to China, and then we are all going to China together.

Thank goodness we all clique, or it would be a very LOOOOOONG trip to China and back.

If you think about it, please pray for Ryan and I. This is a lot of responsibility that has been given to us, doing this documentary. We are representing a lot of things, and we want to be true and always honest about ourselves and our faith. Without our faith in God, we would not be doing these things today. Please pray for boldness and honesty, and that everything that we do and say would glorify God!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!

Rebekah

Matilda Jane Trunk Show Fundraiser...

2010-03-15T12:59:00.006-04:00

Click here to read about our Matilda Jane Trunk Show Fundraiser Friday: March 19, 2010...

Jonas's New Kicks...

2010-03-11T15:09:00.002-05:00

Anna, this is for YOU!!!

This is just one of his pairs... more pics of the blue and red shoes will follow. I decided on a very monochromatic outfit today with his new kicks... I know, kinda boring, but so classy. :-) I love these particular converse because they are kinda dressy, and will look great with a lot of things.

Anna, don't I have the BEST smile...

Anna, PLEASE come to Indiana...

Do you hear me yelling your name???

Just Joking...

My kicks look great with my AFO...

Stems are very good and nutritious...

Mom wanted some close-ups...

Seriously, I will be sad if you do not come...

Ha, Ha... but not mad for too long...

I love life!!!

And, I am very ticklish!!!

I think I am going to...

SNEEZE...Mommy, do you have a kleenex?

So Handsome!!!

And very dapper I must say...

Best Fishy lips ever...

Anna, a kiss for you!!! Please come to Indiana...

Update on the house showing...

2010-03-10T21:39:00.002-05:00

So, long story short... they could not get into our house because the lock box did not work. I knew right away when we got home to put the kids to bed, so I called our realtor. (She left her card in the lock box handle) She called them and they turned back around to see it. We loaded the kids back into the van and drove around for another 30 minutes. (The kids were not very happy about getting back into the van to just 'drive around' while someone goes through our house.) We got home around 8:30 and had them all in bed by 9pm. Found out a bit later that we are in their top 2 choices. Our realtor is finding out how we can be #1.

Yeah!!!!!!!!!! Praying that this is it! It would be awesome to have this behind us!!!!! I will keep you all updated... Thanks so much for your prayers!!!!

House Showing...

2010-03-10T14:35:00.000-05:00

We have one tonight at 6:30. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY THAT IT SELLS!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!

Matilda Jane Extravaganza...

2010-03-09T00:04:00.012-05:00

Click the above photo to read the details...

You read it right, a Matilda Jane Trunk Show Fundraiser. I am SO EXCITED!!! I had never heard of Matilda Jane Clothing until this past November/December. The amazing thing is this; the designer lives less than 5 minutes from my house! Who knew that Fort Wayne was home to such an amazing artist and clothes designer???

So, I went to my first trunk show in December at a friend's house. I fell in love with the clothing and I got Hannah something with her Christmas $. Hannah LOVES her Matilda Jane Clothes!!! They are all different fabrics, buttons, colors, details galore, and oh so comfortable. The week of Christmas I got a box in the mail from Matilda Jane and thought it was the Velma Velour's that I ordered for Hannah. I opened it up late that night only to find about 8-10 different coordinating outfits for Hannah and Angelina (Chun Yan). How did this happen? How did they know about Angelina??? I was so confused. I did not have Hannah with me at the party, but I went on and on about how she would love these clothes. When I left, my friend Beth told the Trunk Keeper about our China adoption and Angelina. So The Trunk Keeper, Sara, told Sam at Matilda Jane about our family and that is how we got all of these amazing clothes for Hannah and Angelina. (I am pretty sure this is how it all went down... :-) Here are some of the clothes that the girls got (and certain things like the sparkle town pink shirt, black velvet pants, and the pink leggings; we got 2 for Hannah and Angelina) Amazing...huh...:

So, to say all of this... I was excited to have my own Trunk Show! My goal of the Trunk Show was to be able to get Hannah and Angelina coordinating outfits to wear home from China. That way, 4 pieces could make multiple outfits since they wear the same size,and most everything mixes and matches. But, the week before my show all of us were puking and there was no way for the show to go on...

Okay, bear with me...THIS IS WHERE IT GETS CRAZY!!! :-)

The week before we started puking, I get an e-mail from Bethel: Where Chun Yan (Angelina) lives, wondering if we would be willing to be in a video for Bethel. We said sure, just thinking it would be for their website or something...

Little did we know that we had just signed up for a full fledge documentary on Bethel... They had already been following Angelina around for about 3 weeks when they contacted us. So, will you see this documentary??? Yes, you will... Next fall it will be released to Sun Dance and Tri Becca Film festivals and then it will be released for TV. The producer is coming to our house next week for 3 days and they will be filming at the fundraiser. This is so crazy, I cannot believe that I am typing this!!!

Once I knew that I had to cancel my trunk show, due to puking, I started thinking... The producer wanted us to do something when he is here filming to get ready for China. What were we supposed to do? We wouldn't pack that soon; filming us all day would be boring; so I thought about a fundraiser. Then, I thought about Matilda Jane, and through the course of some e-mails, we now are having our Matilda Jane Trunk Show Fundraiser. It is amazing how God works all of the details out! One of the girls from Bethel, Calliandra--one of Angelina's friends, is even going to be here the night of the fundraiser. They are coming down from Michigan. I can't wait... have I said that yet??? ;-)

So, if you live in the area and follow this blog, come and join us for a night to celebrate adoption, Angelina, and some amazingly awesome clothes!!! When do you get to come to a party and the Designer is the host? I have gotten to meet Denise Demarchis once, and she is great! I love creative people, being an artist myself, and I love hanging out with people whose minds are constantly filling up with things that need created. She has no formal training in clothing design, she is just an amazingly gifted person with ideas filling her brain, and she was not afraid to take a risk. Thus, came the inception of Matilda Jane Clothing and now we all get to enjoy these amazing works of art.

I know there are some families in the Fort Wayne area that have adopted or are adopting from China right now. Please come and join us... Anyone is welcome, just let me know if you are going to attend so I can make sure there is enough to eat and drink.

If you can't attend the party, but you would like to order something; just let me know and I will fill out an order for you and it will go towards our China adoption. 25% of all proceeds will go to our travel expenses. Please still come even if you cannot order anything at this time! It is going to be a great night to remember!!!

Here are the details:

Date: March 19, 2010

Time: 6:30-9:00pm

Location: Denise Demarchis's house (The Designer of Matilda Jane Clothing)

**If you are wanting to come, let me know and I will give you the address and directions to her house**

(Here is just a sneak peak of Denise's pure designing genius!!!)

Some Goodies for Jonas...

2010-03-08T00:52:00.004-05:00

So, I just remembered today that I had Christmas and B-day $ for Jonas that is yet to be spent. So, I had fun getting him some new kicks and the long awaited Haiti shirt. I have to be so particular about his shoes, because the kid is a shoe Houdini!!! He has an AFO (Ankle Foot Orthotic) on his left foot for stability and nothing on the right. He has left-hemi Cerebral Palsy,this is why he needs the AFO. Fortunately, the kid has super narrow feet, so even with the AFO, I can still wear Converse on him. Since he is the shoe Houdini, I have to buy the high-tops, or he would never have a right shoe on. :-) He CAN NOT get these off, so this will be our shoe of choice for a VERY LONG TIME. At least they are in style... :-)

So, what is he getting in the mail soon??? He already has a black pair and he grew out of his red pair last year. Finally his feet are starting to grow. For as HUGE as he is, already wearing 5/6 pants and tops at age 4; his feet are tiny. He wears a toddler size 8 in Converse, and I am ordering 9's, so they last a little longer.

With no further ado:

Pray for Haiti tonight: It is going to be COLD!!!

2010-03-06T22:09:00.003-05:00

Here is an update from Dixie at GLA: Pray for Haiti, it is rainy and VERY COLD FOR HAITI. These people are in Colman tents, at best: pray that they can huddle together and stay warm. I am such a fair weather camper: I hate to camp in the rain! This is not a choice for a lot of people in Haiti anymore, this is their new REALITY! Thank God tonight for your warm house and plenty of blankets...
-----------------------------------------
Quiet Day at GLA
Posted by Dixie. No Comments

It continued to rain all day and is still raining now! The weather in Port-au-Prince is the same as here. The low temperature tonight is supposed to be 71 degrees Fahrenheit (21C) in Port-au-Prince. That is cold for Haiti. Cold and Rainy! Here at GLA, it is about 20 degrees cooler than in Port-au-Prince, so it will get to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit tonight. That is 10 Celsius. Yikes! That is COLD for here! Up in Kenscoff, it will be in the low 40’s. I do not know what is going on with this weather! Please pray for the people without shelter and blankets. They have to be freezing down in the tent cities.

I am freezing sitting here writing this note. I am really thankful to have my warm little lap top on my legs keeping them warm! You have to remember that our homes have no heat and are very open. The houses are mainly nothing but ceramic tiles and cement, so they stay cool in the heat. But it means they are awfully cold in this type of weather too!

I finally got to take a nap late this afternoon and missed supper again! It felt good to get some extra sleep and I hope to get to bed early tonight. One good thing about it being so cold is I sleep better when it is cool and not hot. I love putting an extra blanket on the bed and being nice and warm but having my face cool. Makes me think I am back in Illinois where the winters are so cold!

Someone asked me if I missed winter and I said NO WAY! I do not miss scraping my windows on the car every morning. I do not miss the winter storms and the blowing snow. And I definitely, do not miss having to put the kids into snow suits before going outside. Can you imagine 150 kids being put in snowsuits every day? Not me! Gives me an upset stomach just thinking about it!

Have a wonderful Sunday and I pray that the Lord gives you a special day!

Technorati Tags: Haiti,weather

Dear Sick Germs...

2010-03-04T08:36:00.003-05:00

Please leave our house!!! You have been staying at our house for over 3 weeks now and you have definitely overstayed your welcome! You are strong and vigilant and have hit everyone in our house in a different way. Please take your Snotty Army, Ear Infecting Militants, GI Infantry, and your Wheezing Calvary, and go set up camp somewhere else!!!!!!!!!! We are done with you!

JUST LEAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update and Perfect Pitch

2010-02-21T21:21:00.002-05:00

Did you think that I stopped blogging??? I did last week... EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US, Jonas just had a touch, WERE PUKING OR HAD THE BIG 'D', AND SOME OF US BOTH; FOR 4 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!! YUCK!!!! Never in our almost 11 years of marriage and almost 9 years of raising kiddos, have we ALL been sick at one time! Lets just say I never want to see puke again. I will not go into details, but the worst puke was Micah last Sunday night: Top bunk, asleep in the corner, with Hannah sleeping peacefully below.... I will let you fill in the blanks. Not a pretty sight or smell... :-(

Then, we get a call Wednesday night that someone wants to see our house on Thursday afternoon. Seriously God, you have a great sense of humor. We have the best realtor on the planet and she came over Thursday morning to help me get ready for the showing. Result of the showing: Realtor loved it, but the couple thought it was a smidge small. Another showing on Saturday, and we will probably get feedback for that tomorrow. We just want to sell and move to a bigger house. Soon we are going to have 5 children under our roof and we feel that our 3 bedroom/1 bathroom house is getting small. :-)

----------------------------
On another note (no pun intended), we just discovered a couple of weeks ago that Hannah possesses perfect pitch, also called absolute pitch. I was floored! She has been in Piano lessons since 1st grade and her school is a music and fine arts magnet school, but I was still not expecting this. She also plays the flute and cello.

She knows all of the keys on the piano instantly and she can transpose other instruments to the piano. For example: Her band teacher played his trumpet that is written in 'C', but that same note on the piano is a B flat; and Hannah can transpose his trumpet notes to the correct notes on the piano. WOW.........Julliard, here we come!!!

Here is an interesting article about blind musicians and absolute pitch:

Perfect pitch common among the blind
Science News, Nov 25, 2000 by J.T.
12Next
Stevie Wonder. Ray Charles. Jose Feliciano. Because of such legends, there's a perception that blind people make great musicians. Scientists do have some evidence from blind people that brain areas normally devoted to vision become involved in hearing or in controlling the dexterity needed to play an instrument. A new study now finds that blind musicians are more likely to have perfect pitch than sighted people are. Perfect pitch is the ability to identify the pitch, or frequency, of a musical note without a reference note. This talent, perhaps as rare as 1 in 2,000 among the general population, seems to result from a blend of genetics and experience. People with early musical training are much more likely than others to have perfect pitch, but the skill also runs in families (SN: 11/16/96, p. 316).

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Roy H. Hamilton of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and his colleagues surveyed 30 people who have been blind since the age of 6 or earlier. Within that group, 21 reported having a musical background and 12 of them--57 percent of the musicians--said they have perfect pitch. People who claim to have perfect pitch are invariably correct, says Hamilton, and when the researchers tested 7 of the 12, they confirmed the skill in each.

The prevalence of perfect pitch among the blind musicians is about two to three times that usually reported for sighted musicians, says Hamilton. Now, in an effort to pinpoint brain regions responsible for perfect pitch, the investigators are conducting brain-imaging studies of blind musicians. A previous imaging study in sighted people revealed a brain region that's larger in those with perfect pitch than in others.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Science Service, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group

We Are The World: 2010--Haiti

2010-02-14T01:48:00.001-05:00

I was compelled today to put 'real' faces with this song... I took these photos on my last 2 trips to GLA--Jonas's orphanage... I hope you enjoy...

We Are The World: 2010--Haiti

2010-02-13T09:50:00.001-05:00

I found this today, and I think it is amazing!

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY DAY TOMORROW...

2010-02-11T21:14:00.002-05:00

Here is the line-up for tomorrow...

9:30am Hannah has to be at Lutheran for her endoscopy.

Micah has to be to Dr. Stein's (ENT) at 10:15 for his post op check from his T&A surgery on the 20th.

Then at 1pm Micah has a kidney/bladder ultrasound and then an appointment with Dr. Cain (peds urologist) at 2pm.... "Calgon, take me away..."

Never a dull moment in the Hubley household! I am just thankful that all 3 appointments are at Lutheran Hospital! Thanks God!!!

Selah's Website & Haiti...

2010-02-06T23:27:00.003-05:00

I went over to Selah's website and found this blog entry. I let Amy know about RHFH and how much they love Selah's music and how much it ministered to them before and after the earthquake. I love Selah and the people that make up the group. They are the 'real deal'! I can't wait to see them February 20th here in Fort Wayne... Love you guys...
-------------------------------------------------

Haiti

January 26, 2010

On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, two weeks ago, an earthquake shattered the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti. As a Christian, our first thought is usually to pray for the people, for the rescue efforts, for healing. But sometimes when something like this happens so far away, we can feel disconnected from it, like it isn’t really happening because it’s not happening to someone we know. Well, I have the privilege of knowing a sweet little boy from Haiti named Jonas, and was blessed to meet him and his adoptive mother, Rebekah, several months ago while on tour, and this is happening to them, to their friends and their family.

Rebekah adopted Jonas from God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage in Haiti. Prior to his adoption, Jonas was cared for at the orphanage by a sweet woman named Anna Kagstrom, she took care of him for 9 months. Since Rebekah and her family met Anna she has become a part of their family. Originally from Sacramento, California, Anna has spent 15 years in Haiti and calls it her home. Currently, Anna home schools the children of Licia Betor, a woman who runs Real Hope For Haiti, a rescue center and clinic that treats hundreds of malnourished children daily.

In the last two weeks, we have received several emails containing a link to Licia’s blog and we wanted to share it with you. On January 15, 2010, Licia posted a blog entitled “I Am.” She spoke of the earthquake, of people in her life and what they were doing in Haiti right at that time, and she ended her post with this:

“This CD below has been playing everyday non-stop since the earthquake in the office. It gives me so much peace to listen to it. I have no idea how to contact this group to thank them for their music. But it has been a true blessing to me.”

We are so blessed and honored to know that our music has served as spiritual healing in this horrible time. God is so great, and he shows up wherever and whenever we need him. Please take the time to read Licia’s blog, it will inspire you.

If you would like to help the people of Haiti, here are two great places to donate:

CLICK HERE for God’s Little Angels Orphanage

CLICK HERE for Real Hope for Haiti

Sincerely, Amy

Jonas in the News...

2010-02-02T00:12:00.001-05:00

Family struggles to adopt Haitian boy

Adoption paperwork likely buried under rubble

Updated: Monday, 01 Feb 2010, 8:17 PM EST
Published : Monday, 01 Feb 2010, 5:05 PM EST

Janice Allen

It's been almost two years since Ryan and Rebekah Hubley began the process of adopting a four-year-old boy from Haiti. The earthquake's made the long, and difficult process even harder since most of their adoption paperwork is now buried under rubble.

"We love him, he's our son now, so just like when you birth your own children, you don't know what's going to happen," Rebekah told NewsChannel 15.

Rebekah first began thinking about adoption in 2007. By August, she and her husband had started the process withBethany Christian Services . She found a little Haitian boy named Jonas on the organization's website and knew he was the one.

Jonas had been abandoned as an infant, and was visually impaired.

"I thought who else was going to want to adopt him, because that would be a scary thing," explained Rebekah.

It didn't scare Rebekah, who already has a biological daughter who is blind. One of her sons is also special needs.

Jonas was able to travel to Fort Wayne on a medical visa in August 2008, while the family continued the process of adopting him. Once here, they learned that he is also cognitively impaired as a result of his visual impairments. His condition has affected his speech, and mobility.

The family had yet to finalize Jonas's adoption when the earthquake hit last month. Rebekah tells NewsChannel 15 she's since learned all the adoption paperwork is gone.

"At this point, we don't know how the finalization of the process is going to work, cause the adoptions are not technically finalized yet," said Barb Hartsell, an adoption specialist with Bethany Christian Services.

It's frustrating for the Hubleys, but unlike some other couples adopting from Haiti, they are lucky enough to already have Jonas at home with them.

Adopting a child from Haiti can take up to three years, and cost about $20,000 thousand dollars.

As a result of the quake, the Hubleys believe that they will have to complete the adoption process domestically.

After meeting Jonas, Rebekah founded a non-profit called "Hands that Heal" , which helps other Haitians in need of medical resources.

She says her family isn't done adopting. They are also currently in the process of adopting a nine-year-old girl from China.

UNICEF...

2010-01-31T18:58:00.003-05:00

This is the real acronym: United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund

Here is a new one that my friend (Sarah McCubbin) and I just came up with:

Uneducated (People) Negating Innocent Children's Emotions and Freedom.

UNICEF: YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 GLA Families on Larry King Live...

2010-01-27T00:27:00.002-05:00

Great interview Wilkin's and Stanley's. Jaime... I was cracking up at Danise...and that one of your girls would not go on camera. That would have so happened to us!!! I would have been on the inside, like "come on kids, it is not everyday that we get to be on Larry King Live!!!" :-) Lovin' Danise offering Jean Dany her lollipop and him denying her!!!! I was laughing!!!!!!!! Sorry, not at your expense... lol...

Okay everybody, enjoy two of our families from GLA... I am so proud to be a GLA parent!

Dixie's account of the "Mass Exodus"...

2010-01-24T13:17:00.000-05:00

24 January 2010 6:30 AM

I tried all day yesterday to blog without any success! I thought my days might be quieter while I was in Miami, but they are just as busy as when I am in Haiti!

Our trip from GLA to Miami was pretty exciting! I slept 2 hours Thursday morning and then was up trying to get things ready for us all to leave. I was on the phone and coordinating cars, people, and children up to the moment we got in the cars to leave. Thankfully, all of the staff did their jobs perfectly and we had cars and vans for everyone, all paperwork was in order and packed into a suitcase, clothes and food was packed, and the kids were bathed and dressed on time! That in itself was a miracle!

About 11 AM that Thursday morning, we had another large aftershock that sent the women running out of the house! It took everyone to get them back in to finish getting the kids ready. Pastor Joel Trimble came with his video camera and took video of the whole process of loading the children and he went all of the way to the airport and into the plane with the children. Hopefully, he will post some of the video on You Tube.

We were late leaving for the airport and thankfully, the traffic was not bad. The drivers took a shortcut to get us there but it was through an area hit hard by the earthquake. Our older children had not seen any houses that had fallen during the quake. Seeing them personally, really affected some of the older children and they were very sad when we drove by.

This time, we did not have to spend hours in the heat of Port au Prince like we did when we went to take the Dutch children to meet their plane. We were there for 8 hours that day. FRiday, we were there about 4 hours. We were also allowed to get out of the vehicles and wait on a nice grassy area. We made it a great adventure for the children and it helped so much that I took 10 staff members with us. The older children kep asking me..."Are you going too Mme John?"..."Is Molly going too Mme John?" When I told them that yes, we are all going! They were happy and very few of the children cried when they joined their families. We were all there and it was just as if they were in Haiti.

The Miami Airport and several missions in Miami sent some volunteers on the plane to help us. We had been told that there would be extra passengers who would help us take the children out, but they did not show up. So each of the volunteers and staff had 3 to 4 children to take care of. Needless to say, it was an INTERESTING ride!

We arrived in Miami about 12:30 AM Friday morning, we spent 7 1/2 hours in Immigration. Yes, it took that long to process all of the children! The airport personel were so nice. They brought toys, baby formula, diapers, wet wipes, and food! They even came in and held babies! GLA kids are usually so well behaved when we go places and they did not disappoint us here either! They sat for that whole time or laid in the floor and took naps with very little whining and crying! I think we adults whined more than they did!!!

But it was all worth it when the children were united with their families! The airport had provided us with two conerence rooms where the parents could sit and wait and where we could bring the children to change them and get them ready to meat their parents. We had run out of clothing in the middle of the night and our spare clothing had been taken to another location, so we desperately needed to change some kids before they met their new families!

We had a well organized reunion, the children did well with it all. Nobody was afraid or crying. Parents were overjoyed. It was a miracle that these children got to come home without the process being finished. Some of these parents would have had to wait another year or more to take their children home under normal circumstances!

The GLA staff was so exhausted that in a way it helped us send the children home with their adoptive families. We were sort of numb and our emotions were numb too! Some of the children had been with us 6 years, others 4 years! That is a LONG time and those children...it was hard for them to leave! Most of the children did really well and others will be sad for a little while, but we are all so glad they are with their forever families and safe.

We all went to our hotels and collapsed. I slept 5 hours until Haiti called an woke me up! And then went back and slept 8 more hours! I will never get that sleep back that I lost...but this sure helped!

Saturday, I had to go to the CNN studio here in Miami and talk for 5 minutes about orphans and the ability to adopt the new ones. I explaind that all new orphans from the quake disaster must be placed in orphanages until it can be determined that they are truly orphans and family does not come forward asking for the children. Only if President Preval and the international community can come to an agreement to let the orphans be adopted. I do not foresee UNICEF especially letting this happen without a lot of noise from their side! I would love to see the orphans adopted, but we just need to pray that this is possible later after things have settled down in Haiti.

We also went shopping and bought tarps, tents, blankets, towels, and lanterns to hand out when we get home. We spent some of the donations that came in and bought enough to help our staff that lost their homes and the surrounding community. We are also going to help some of them rebuild their homes at least for the ones that owned their homes and for the others, we will try to relocate them to a different housel.

Sunday

We are still waiting for confirmation that we can fly back to Haiti today. if not, we will fly into the DR and drive across the border. I will update this as I know what is happening.

24 January 2010 11:10 AM

I forgot to tell you that one of the babies that was brought out was very sick before we came and we feared that we would have to leave he behind. On the way to the airport, she was taken to a hospital that had a team of American doctors, they looked at her and gave her fluids and thought she was stable enough to travel. it turns out that she had meningitis. She went directly into a hospital here in Miami and her adoptive mother came to the hospital to stay with her. The last report we received was that she was stable.

I want to personally thank everyone that was so kind to us throughout this process. Our sincere Thanks to:

First to Aaron and Tanya Ramsay for being there and making things happen!

To Tanya, Jill Wilkins, and their team in Miami who worked hard with little sleep to make our arrival and the meeting with between the adoptive parents and children go so well!

To our volunteers that arrived in Haiti to help during the evacuation of the children and the arrival of humanitarian aid.

Pastor Joel Trimble for video services and finding buses for all of the kids to get to the airport in Pap,

everyone at the PAP airport for allowing us to sit on the grass and be inside on the runway, to Vision Airlines that provided the charter jet and all of their employees that held babies on the flight!

To Miami International Airport staff and administration, who went beyond what was usual to make our arrival all of the way through the reunion with the parents and finding us a shuttle to our hotel. I take my hat off to them and I cannot express our gratitude with just these words!

To the Marriott Airport Hotel for their welcoming spirit and great hospitality. I will stay here again!

To limo service that CNN hired to come and take us to their office. The driver took us to Walmart to buy tarps and tents after the show and we appreciated it very much!

To everyone that had any thing to do with making this happen!

Our Haitian Adoption...

2010-01-23T20:46:00.002-05:00

(She had some great pics of Jonas, but I cannot copy and paste them...)

Haiti quake speeds adoption for some

City family has been going through process for 2 years

By Ellie Bogue

of The News-Sentinel

Rebekah Hubley holds out her hands to her son, Jonas, who, at age 4, is learning to walk. With a smile and some encouragement, Jonas takes seven steps toward his mother.

“Oh, that's great, Jonas. That's the farthest you have gone yet,” said Hubley, laughing.

The past two years have been an uphill climb for the Haitian-born orphan, who has special needs. The Hubleys, a family of six including Jonas, are still in the process of adopting him from a private Christian orphanage in Haiti, “God's Little Angels.”

Eighty-three children from the orphanage were flown to Miami on Thursday night to go to families that had already started the adoption process.

“Some of those people only got their adoption decrees at Christmas,” said Hubley. Because of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince that killed an estimated 200,000 and left 400,000 homeless, the agency is bringing the children to the United States to finalize their adoptions. The orphanage needs space for all the new orphans they are expecting from the earthquake.

“You never get a Haitian baby anymore; the adoption process takes too long,” said Hubley. “If parents are really lucky, they might get a child when they are a toddler, and that's if you started the process when they were a baby.”

The orphanage is in the mountains above Petionville north of Port-au-Prince and missed the full strength of the quake. All Jonas' adoption paperwork is now buried in the rubble of the Haitian government building in Port-au-Prince. There are nine steps parents must go through in adopting a child from Haiti, and the Hubleys, after two years, were only on the third.

Fortunately, Jonas has been in Fort Wayne for the past two years on a medical visa. Rebekah Hubley has been in touch with the orphanage, which is still standing; all its children and staff are safe. A staff member who was outside the building when the quake struck said the building swayed at least two feet in both directions. Nannies and children inside were knocked off their feet. Food for dinner flew off the stove; amazingly, all the eggs in the kitchen pantry remained unbroken.

The Web site of the orphanage says prospective parents interested in adopting will need to wait until things in Haiti are straightened out. Hubley said the orphanage doesn't want a child adopted to the U.S. before the child's parents or relatives can be located. The earthquake may only have made the child an orphan through separation.

An added complication for Hubley is the nonprofit agency, Hands That Heal, which she and a friend started through her church, Avalon Missionary, 1500 Lower Huntington Road. The agency, which offers free medical treatment for orphaned Haitian children, is based at the church but is not a part of it. She is anticipating an influx of children who will need their stateside services.

American doctors and hospitals donate their time and services to help. The agency connects the children with doctors and hospitals, and finds a host family while the child is stateside. Their first patient came in February 2008. People in Haiti know about them through “Gods Little Angels” Orphanage, word of mouth and through a larger agency that has its own medical clinic in Haiti.

Currently, Hands that Heal has five children here; one child went back just before the earthquake. Hubley has been talking with Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd District, and staff member Kathy Green, trying to work out the snags.

“There were medical visa kids who were getting ready to come over, and they are stuck,” said Hubley. On the flip side, she noted there are also children here who were ready to go back and are now stuck in the States.

The first child they had through their program in 2008 is now 2, and Hubley has no idea whether the little girl made it through the earthquake.

“Someone said this is a country of such dichotomy - you have the poor and you have the rich, and the earthquake did not discriminate. The poor really fared better than the rich because they lived in shacks of tin and mud, which collapsed around them, not like the heavy cement block buildings,” said Hubley.

Hands that Heal
If you would like to learn more about Hands that Heal or make a donation, go to http://handsthatheal-mk1618b.blogspot.com or contact Rebekah Hubley at r_rhubley@hotmail.com. Checks can be made to Avalon Missionary Church, 1500 Lower Huntington Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46819-1361.

Dixie speaks to the Media...

2010-01-23T09:47:00.000-05:00

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1441068.html

Congrats Catherine, Kevin, and Benicio...

2010-01-23T00:15:00.000-05:00

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI141853/

NBC Nightly News--GLA

2010-01-22T21:09:00.000-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Another video from this morning...

2010-01-22T13:33:00.000-05:00

http://cbs4.com/video/?id=90089@wfor.dayport.com

1st Video coverage of the GLA exodus...

2010-01-22T13:21:00.001-05:00

http://cbs4.com/video/?id=90089@wfor.dayport.com

Another article from this morning...

2010-01-22T13:14:00.001-05:00

Orphans From Haiti Unite With New Families At MIA

Reporting
Michael Williams
E-mail

MIAMI (CBS4) ―

Bethany Christian Services

One of the most heartbreaking stories from the devastation in Haiti is the children. Nearly 80 orphans from Haiti arrived in South Florida to meet their adoptive parents for the very first time. From the chaos of Haiti to the comforting embrace of loved ones, they arrived at Miami International Airport Friday morning to meet the families who have opened up their hearts and their homes. They are from 'God's Littlest Angels', a Christian orphanage outside of Port-au-Prince which stood through the earthquake.

"Here's my son, right here, he's great," said one proud adoptive father.

These adoptive parents, from all over the country, have waited years in some cases, for this moment and thought it was lost when the earthquake struck.

Tim and Annette Franklin from Vermont are adopting 2-year-old Gedeleine.

"It's amazing. It's an amazing moment," said an emotional Tim Franklin to CBS4's Michael Williams. "We wondered a week ago if this moment would ever come. Now it's here, it's awesome."

Kevin Downes is a California film producer. He and his wife were touched by the plight of Haitian children through a documentary he's working on. Now 21-month old Benicio is an orphan no more.

"It's overwhelming, it's exhausting, it's tiring, it's a long journey but more than anything we're just thankful," said Downes.

The last leg of a long journey included 7 hours of immigration and customs paperwork before happy reunions at the airport early Friday.

Jennifer Ebenhack and her husband, missionaries living in Haiti have a son and daughter and are adopting three Haitian children who have lived with them for years

"Only god can make something miraculous out of such a horrible nightmare," said Ebenhack.

Her adopted son Justin couldn't be happier to be here.

"I'm very excited because now I get to come here with all of them and see all of my relatives and I get to see my great grandmother and great grandfather who are too old to see us," exclaimed Justin.

While the earthquake twisted steel and shattered the country, the human spirit has endured. Every reunion that took place this day, and will take place in the future, is testimony to that strength.

"Our hearts break for everyone still in the country, but we're glad that she's here and that she has the opportunity for a future that she didn't have," said Gedeleine's new dad, Tim.

Of the 80 children who arrived Friday, 58 came to the U.S. through the Bethany Christian Services, one of the largest adoption agencies in the country. Right after the earthquake, Bethany worked with its Haitian counterpart Gods Littlest Angles to receive clearance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"All of these children escaped from this tragedy unharmed, but it is important to remember that there are millions of others who still remain in Haiti," said Pam Harrington, director of international adoption services for Bethany.

If you're interested in adopting an orphan from Haiti, click here to get more information from the Bethany Christian Services web site.

GLA brings American children to the US...

2010-01-22T13:08:00.002-05:00

Here is the first article that I can find on GLA's families being united. I am looking for some video coverage...but no luck yet.
----------------------------

83 Adopted Haitian Children Arrive In U.S.

Adoption Process Expedited After Haiti Quake

POSTED: Friday, January 22, 2010

UPDATED: 12:59 pm EST January 22, 2010

MIAMI -- More than 80 Haitian orphans arrived in South Florida Friday to begin their new lives with their adoptive parents.The 83 children from an orphanage in Petionville and their new parents were in various stages of the adoption process when the earthquake struck last week. Most of the paperwork was lost in the rubble of the government buildings in Port-au-Prince.

Info: How You Can Help

In light of the disaster, the U.S. smoothed the way for the children already in the process of being adopted to come and live with their new parents."Our hearts break for everyone who's still in her country, but we're glad that she's here and she has the opportunity for a future that she didn't have," said one adoptive father.The parents were at Miami International Airport early Friday, exhausted and elated to rewrite the future of their children."We just had to learn that every moment was really fluid. We weren't sure what was going on. We were, but it changed so frequently. But that's OK because what everyone was doing was the impossible," said another adoptive father."I fell down on the floor on my knees and was crying, crying, crying, thanking God, and shaking so hard I could not send an e-mail to all my family. My hands would not type," said an adoptive mother.The children, who have seen lots of heartache in their short lives, showed that they were willing to open up to new people. One of the children, Daphne, was proud to demonstrate her hair braiding skills in the airport terminal.The families also kept in mind the children who were not given the opportunity to come to the U.S. Their leaving opened up dozens of beds in the orphanage, which can now be used for other children who have lost their parents.

Micah is having surgery tomorrow...

2010-01-19T21:47:00.003-05:00

Please be praying for Micah tomorrow. Around 1pm he will be having his tonsils and adenoids out. This is an easy surgery as far as he is concerned, but I have been told that recovery is not very easy. Lots and lots of popsicles!!!!! I will update after we get home tomorrow afternoon/evening.

James 1:27

2010-01-19T08:29:00.001-05:00

James 1:27 (New International Version)

27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Latest update from Dixie (GLA)...1-18-10

2010-01-19T08:11:00.002-05:00

Here is the latest from Jonas's orphanage:

-------------------------------
18 January 2010 10:45 PM

Is it ever going to get better? The day starts at 6 AM and ends at Midnight every day! I do not mind the long days, but pile high stress on top of that and it is too much! Everybody forgets to eat because we are so busy! Every country where we do adoptins wants scanned documents before they will approve the children to enter their country and we need to email them ASAP! Scanning documents here is not easy. Making photocopies of 800 documents take a long time! Stephanie, Melanie, and Amanda have worked so hard on getting documents pulled and copied or scanned and have worked two solid days and need a third day before they will all be done!

I was interviewed by CNN news again this morning. I think it went fairly well and I was given enough time to tell about the need to get the children to their families. The US, as usual, issued a statement about allowing children to come to the US and it is long and detailed and confusing! We just want to know can all children in process go??? I think they can but will find out when we get to the US embassy with the documents!

Today has been hard. I am tired and "fussy". I have no patience with passive people today. I want people talking to me that are on fire to get these kids out like we do! If you cannot fight for the children, please do not call me right now! See, I AM REALLY "fussy" tonight!

The Dutch plane comes tomorrow to take 100 children to the Netherlands. We mst be down at the airport early. We then will wait for a flight bringing in some relief supplies. We are very thankful that supplies are coming. A couple of other orphanages are coming to share in the donated goods. They are almost out of food.

We also heard today about an orphange with 60 children in it south of Port-au-Prince that collapsed and the children were killed. So much suffering and misery! The devastation runs from Port-au-Prince clear to Jacmel! The media is not showing you that far south yet, but it is bad. I do not know if we will ever know how many people died from this. People are still dying from their injuries!

We also heard of another orphanage with 80 children where the orphanage was destroyed and the children are all living outside. they are running out of food and water. We will try to get some to them as soon as possible. People have been so good about donating. We are thankful to have some funds to help community that is suffering!

I must go to bed. I need to be up early again. We have all promised ourselves a couple of days of sleeping in when this has settled down! And we are going to do it, too!

And Life in Haiti goes on...

A Big Aftershock...

2010-01-16T12:10:00.002-05:00

A little over an hour ago, I was skyping with Anna at RHFH. In the middle of our skype she wrote, "we just had a huge aftershock... poeple are going crazy rebekah!"

Cazale is a good hour and 45 minutes outside of PAP. I just spoke with Tom Vanderwell and he said that the aftershock was big enough to send all of the staff and kiddos back out of the house for the day.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, DO NOT FORGET TO PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF HAITI!!!!!!

Latest update from Dixie (GLA)...

2010-01-15T14:42:00.000-05:00

14 January 2010 11:55 PM

It's really 12:40 AM but I didn't want everyone to think I did not blog on the 14th! I know that I wrote something earlier but it is NOT here! The web site monsters must have eaten it, because it has disappeared!

Today, I just want to cry! I just want to crawl into a corner and curl up for awhile. I may just have a good cry later...I think I deserve it! My hands have shook all day from stress. All of my staff said the same thing today. I think the shock is wearing off and the stress of surviving and keeping the children safe is taking its toil on all of us. The stories and photos we are seeing is so sad. Our staff has lost lots of family members. Our cook said he had 11 families members who died! Some of staff has not come to work. We are fearful for them. They live on the side of a hill in Port au Prince. Another staff member said that most of the houses in this area are collapsed. Please pray for these people. Especially for Madeleine and her family.

I finally got sleep last night and even slept through a big aftershock at 7 AM this morning. I was tired! My day started early and I have not stopped all day long. Phone calls, skype conferences, and just running the orphanage has been more than enough work today.

I think the news people will now go on to stories of things down in the city. We were their only contact in Haiti for 48 hours almost. Now they have crews of journalist arrive and they are going down in the midst of things to get first hand reports. Maybe we can stop talking on the phone now and return to our work!

Members of our US and Canadian board are coordinating relief efforts and donations are being collected to bring supplies into Haiti for the orphanage and surround area. A chartered plane is coming in on Monday with some volunteers and some supplies. We are struggling to take care of all of the babies since many of the workers have not come to work.

The international efforts will of course be centered down in the worst areas but there are people who lost their homes and family members around us. We will focus our relief efforts up here in the mountains for now and bring food, water, and also help rebuild homes here. We will also be preparing to take in more orphans as needed.

Our families from Canada, Holland, and Luxembourg are all being airlifted out of Haiti. We took the Canadian family to the airport tonight to catch a French flight. They missed that flight but the airport personell said for them to stay and they would get them on a flight out of Haiti. The rest of the families will leave tomorrow.

We continue to have aftershocks. Will it never stop shaking??? When I told my staff that they might last up to a month, they all moaned and said "NO!". They do not like them either! As I am writing this , my desk is shaking! I HATE THESE AFTERSHOCKS! I said after the hurricane that I thought that was the WORST thing and I never wanted to live through that again, but I think an earthquake has now become my number 1 least liked thing!!!!

Well, it is 1:10 AM and I need to go to bed! If you want to see some earthquake photos that Laurie took downtown, keep checking www.godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org . I just do not have time to add them to our web site PLUS we have had so many visitors to the web site that it keeps going down! So Tom Vanderwell will put them on the blog for me. You can thank Tom for finally getting these to you. I have had good intentions since Wednesday to get them posted!

I want to thank everyone who has posted on my facebook and written me emails. Even if I do not answer, know that I am reading everyone and it means a lot to know that you want to help and are praying for us. It truly does mean a lot to me! I also am very thankful for all of the donations that have come through Paypal and through the Blog site for the Haiti Relief Fund. It is a little overwhelming to think of the outpouring of funds to help the children and those effected by this disaster! Thank you!

God is good. He has protected us and we all praise him. Our nannies sing about their love of Jesus. They sing of His goodness and faithfulness. I feel so blessed to be here at this time and having the nannies minister to me through song and their total reliance on God! Makes me feel humble. I do not know if I would do as well in their shoes...

Laurie Bickel interviewed by Matt Lauer...

2010-01-14T23:09:00.004-05:00

Laurie, is Dixie Bickel's daughter, and she is in charge of the finances at GLA. When Ryan and I were in Haiti we went out with Laurie, Dixie, and John Bickel for dinner the night before we left for the States. We ate at this amazing restaurant in Petionville, and I wonder if it is even still standing??? We ate and talked for a 2-3 hours with them and had a great time. Laurie loves Haiti and is very adept at getting about PAP. She has went out each day and today was interviewed by Matt Lauer and had a lot of her photos posted during the interview. Please take the time to watch this and please donate to GLA or other humanitarian organizations in Haiti.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Adoptions in Haiti...

2010-01-14T22:18:00.003-05:00

Many of you have asked what the earthquake will do to our adoption of Jonas. I have tried not to think about it because so many are still trapped or need medical attention. So many have died, this is not a time to think about myself. I would be lying to you if I told you that I have not stopped to think about our adoption.

Here is what I know. Remember when we went to Haiti in October to sign the paper for the Judge. Judge Cadet is not reported to be dead and he was crushed in one of the government buildings downtown PAP.

Where is our dossier??? ( A dossier is a file that holds ALL OF THE PAPERS that we spent hours gathering and getting state sealed, notarized, and approved by immigration.) Where is it??? Well, we are currently in Parquet, so that means more than likely that our file, dossier, is in one of the buildings that no longer exists. Haiti adoptions are completed a lot by hand, and the different offices are not always 'organized'. So, our papers are probably EVERYWHERE along with hundreds of other dossiers.

So, what will happen with Jonas's adoption??? I do not have ANY FEAR that it will be completed, I just don't know how it will happen at this point.

Here is what Dixie, the director of GLA, our 'O', wrote about current adoptions today:

14 January 2010

Our lawyer was able to get through to us today. She says all of the government buildings downtown were damaged or destroyed! She reported that Judge Rock CADET was killed in a building collapse.

I have asked our lawyer to petition IBESR and the government of Hait to allow all children in the adoption process to be allowed to join their adoptive families. We are all going to need beds for orphans who have lost their family in this disaster! I need all of my families to contact their adoption agencies and government officials to allow these children to leave Haiti without a Haitian passport on Humanitarian or Refuge visas! I KNOW the USA government can issue emergency passports for situtations like this because they did it for me during a crisis in Haiti from a poison in a children's fever medicine and children were dying. We sent 11 children out of Haiti during that time and most did not have a Haitian issued passport. Please find out if your government has such a system in place! (All DUTCH Families: Please work through NAS to get these children home. They are trying to get ALL children in process and not just those finished in Parquet. So join forces with NAS and not to confuse the issue with the Dutch Government.)

Some of your dossiers are thankfully with us in our office. Others are wtih other government sections and we do not know if they are intact or not. I do know that the National Palace, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, DJI building which is part of the legalization department, National Cathedral is gone. I do not know about Immigration or IBESR!

I do not know if this is possible but let us explore the possibility of getting the children out so that we can take in more orphans.
--------------------------------------------------------

So, that is where we are at... I have a peace...

As our little boy turns a year older today, Jonas--Happy 4th birthday, I still cannot get his Haiti family out of my head. I pray that they all have survived. I also have had a crazy prayer today: God, if he does have siblings and they survive and their mom does not, if it be Your will--bring them to GLA. I have not shared this prayer with Ryan... ;-) When God called us to adopt Jonas, He did not just call us to him, He has called us to take care of him and his Haiti family. I have said this before, but we adopted a family, not just one member. My heart is breaking and praying for a family that I have never seen nor touched. Please God, spare Jonas's family and unite us with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dixie Bickel....

2010-01-13T23:55:00.001-05:00

This morning, Dixie from GLA, was interviewed my Matt Louer. Please consider donating to GLA today!!!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Earthquake update from GLA...

2010-01-13T08:41:00.003-05:00

(Here is the latest update from GLA--Jonas's Orphanage) My heart is sick this morning... I am going to try to reach Witlene, one of our adult HTH patients. Ryan and I were just at her house in Haiti in October. I am worried, because their house is on a second story. Please pray for Witlene and her family today. Please pray for all of Haiti, especially Port Au Prince. With everything going on and with all of the destruction in PAP, I really doubt our adoption will be complete this Spring/Summer. So many offices were damaged downtown and that is where our paperwork/dossier is at. Can you imagine, an already ineffective system, now having all of this paperwork scattered about??? I don't know for sure that this has happened, I am just being realistic. This earthquake is a catastrophe on so many levels, it is hard to wrap my mind around it. I am so glad that Ryan and I were in Haiti in October: I can see in my head the Haiti that I grew up in... It will be very sad to return and see the devastation. Please pray for Jonas's Haiti family... I cannot get my mind off of them.
---------------------------------------

(Dixie's Blog)

Last updated:13 January 2010

13 January 2010 1:20 AM

At a few minutes before 5 PM on 12 January 2010, a large earthquake hit Haiti. The center was a few miles south of Port-au-Prince. On the map, it looks like we were not far from the center here at the orphanage if you draw a straight line between the center of the earthquake and the orphanage. We have heard that the gravel pit across the valley from us partially collapsed which we have worried about for a long time!

As things started to shake, I knew it was an earthquake and I jumped up trying to get out of my office. Items were falling off my bookcases and even the monitor of my computer fell off my desk! Many of my good glassware fell out of the hutch in the dining room and food that was being cooked for the children flew off the stove and landed on the kitchen floor! Statues fell off the shelves, items in the pantry fell too! But not 1 egg was broken out of 6 dozen sitting on the pantry floor! Kids fell, staff fell to the floor because the house swayed so much!

Dr. Claude was out in the driveway playing basketball and he said that the orphanage swayed about 2 feet back and forth for 30 to 40 seconds! he was afraid that the building would fall! Thankfully, the building stayed standing and John cannot find any cracks in the walls which is pretty amazing!

All I could do was pray that the house would stay standing! John was yelling at us all to get in a doorway, but we could not walk! Finally we got into the doorway and stayed until the major shaking stopped. Everyone went outside after the earthquake. We had multiple tremors after the big one. They came about 10 minutes apart and last a long time! the staff refused to return to the house and eventually, we brought all of the children outside and put blankets on the ground.

The internet phone has not stopped ringing. BBC, NBC, the Today Show all have called multiple times! It is 1:45 AM now and they are still calling! I am so exhausted but we do not want to go to bed. The nannies came in at 10 PM but we had two strong after shocks about midnight and the nannies and babies are sleeping outside on the ground on blankets! It is cold tonight. The temperature is about 60 degrees if not colder! I pray that the cold is not too cold for them!

My son, Mark, was at school in Port-au-Prince when the quake happened. His school is on Delmas which is one of the worst hit areas. A missionary family finally was able to bring him home about 10 PM. They said that there were multiple houses down that you could see from the street. Caribbean Market was destroyed along with so many other buldings! Walls were collapsed and there are dead people lying under them! Please pray for Haiti and for all of who are here! We had 8 visitors come today. What a welcome, huh?

We continue to have aftershocks. We have had 3 in the last 5 minutes! I have never heard of aftershocks like we are having! They are almost continuous and lasting for a minute or more each time! I do not like this!

We will know more hopefully in the morning. I do not know if I will sleep tonight or not! I will post photos later on Wedneday. I am just too tired right now to post photos!

PLease Pray for Haiti...

2010-01-12T22:28:00.003-05:00

Please pray for Haiti!!!!!!! If you have not seen on the news: Haiti was hit with an earthquake today with a magnitude of 7.3, with multiple aftershocks over 5.0.

Here are some pics that I found on Twitter: ( I do not know who took these photos, so I cannot give credit where credit is due...) (If you are reading this with small children around, do not scroll down. The devastation is real and this country is in turmoil!!!!! Just pray!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Also, it is times like this when I wish I knew Jonas's Haiti family. I am praying for his family and I cannot even put faces or names in my mind to pray for them. I do not know if they survived today. I know that his family was in or nearby Port Au Prince. I am so thankful at times like today that his mother chose to abandon him at a Haitian orphanage in May 2007!!!!!!

He is alive and healthy!!! He had his 4 year old well check today and is in the 75% for height (North American growth chart, might I add... ) and he is 85% for weight. We have a big boy on our hands, not that I needed to tell anyone of you that know him already and have picked him up... ;-) He is developing leaps and bounds and our pediatrician was so impressed at how he walked down the hallway just holding on to my hand... Go Jonas...
---------------------------------------------
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."

United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were unaccounted for.

Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in some places.

Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.

"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the group's offices in Maryland.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.

"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this," he said.

Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, said late Tuesday that the headquarters of the 9,000-member Haiti peacekeeping mission and other U.N. installations were seriously damaged.

"Contacts with the U.N. on the ground have been severely hampered," Le Roy said in a statement, adding: "For the moment, a large number of personnel remain unaccounted for."

Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said a portion of the National Palace had disintegrated.

"Buildings collapsed all over the place," he said. "We have lives that are destroyed. ... It will take at least two or three days for people to know what's going on."

An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, as well as many poor people. Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.

Kenson Calixte of Boston spoke to an uncle and cousin in Port-au-Prince shortly after the earthquake by phone. He could hear screaming in the background as his relatives described the frantic scene in the streets. His uncle told him that a small hotel near their home had collapsed, with people inside.

"They told me it was total chaos, a lot of devastation," he said. More than four hours later, he still was not able to get them back on the phone for an update.

Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said from his Washington office that he spoke to President Rene Preval's chief of staff, Fritz Longchamp, just after the quake hit. He said Longchamp told him that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the national palace. He too had not been able to get through by phone to Haiti since.

With phones down, some of the only communication came from social media such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who manages the famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the aftershocks and damage reports. The news, based mostly on second-hand reports and photos, was disturbing, with people screaming in fear and roads blocked with debris. Belair, a slum even in the best of times, was said to be "a broken mess."

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5 miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.

The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California. The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-au-Prince likely caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.

"It's going to be a real killer," he said. "Whenever something like this happens, you just hope for the best."

Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.

Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some panicked residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking homes. But no major damage was reported there.

In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of significant damage.

"We felt it very strongly and I would say for a long time. We had time to evacuate," said Monsignor Dionisio Garcia, archbishop of Santiago.

The few reports emerging from Haiti made clear the country had suffered extensive damage.

"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visiting Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust."

Bahn said he was walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.

"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."

Bahn said there were rocks strewn about and he saw a ravine where several homes had stood: "It's just full of collapsed walls and rubble and barbed wire."

In the community of Thomassin, just outside Port-au-Prince, Alain Denis said neighbors told him the only road to the capital had been cut but that phones were all dead so it was hard to determine the extent of the damage.

"At this point, everything is a rumor," he said. "It's dark. It's nighttime."

Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy for Haiti, issued a statement saying his office would do whatever he could to help the nation recover and rebuild.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti," he said.

President Barack Obama ordered U.S. officials to start preparing in case humanitarian assistance was needed.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned to send a military aircraft carrying canned foods, medicine and drinking water and also would dispatch a team of 50 rescue workers

Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland reporting that many people had died.

"We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food, medicine, shelter, etc.," Jean said on his Web site.

Brazil's government was trying to re-establish communications with its embassy and military personnel in Haiti late Tuesday, according to the G1 Web site of Globo TV. Brazil leads a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force there.

Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said he was concerned about everyone in Haiti, including his relatives.

"Communication is absolutely impossible," he said. "I've been trying to call my ministry and I cannot get through. ... It's mind-boggling."

Yahoo News
--------------------------

Haitian Palace before...

Palace today...

These are real people, with real families... Don't turn away... They might be poor, but they have the same basic needs and feelings and emotions that we have...

PLEASE PRAY FOR HAITI... DO NOT TURN AWAY BECAUSE YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE... WHAT CAN YOU DO TODAY TO HELP? YOU ARE READING THIS UNDER A ROOF WITH CLOTHES ON AND FOOD IN YOUR FRIDGE... WHAT WILL YOU DO???

Happy Birthday Micah Ryan Hubley

2010-01-10T00:10:00.004-05:00

I am still up, so technically I am still 'living' January 9th, but by the clock I should be sleeping because it is January 10th. :-)

7 years ago, January 9, 2003, Micah came into our world. Wow... where in the world has 7 years gone? Honestly, the first 2 years are completely a blur! I wish I would have been blogging then. He was in and out of the hospital so much, I don't have a lot of memories of just sitting at home and playing with him. Sad, huh...

I will post pics tomorrow of how he spent his 7th b-day. It was with his best buddy, Joe, and they wanted to go to Build a Bear. Fun times!!!

Tomorrow, actually today, we will celebrate with family and friends and have a party. So, I am off to finish some food for tomorrow and then hit the bed. Joe is spending the night, so I will have 4 boys and 1 girl to get ready for church tomorrow... Good times at the Hubley house!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Micah...

2010-01-04T22:13:00.003-05:00

(Wouldn't it be nice if it was really that warm out today!!! :-)

I am off to bed, but wanted to post real quick. This is one of my New Year's resolution: to become a more 'faithful' blogger. :-) Anyways, we had Micah to the ENT today to have a look at his tonsils, and we walked out of the office with a date for his surgery. January 20th Micah will have his adenoids and tonsils removed. Over the past 2 years he has gotten sick sooooo frequently and no one else in the family catches what he gets. He has also had some nasty strep throat over the last year or so. So, we are sad that he has to endure yet another surgery, but we know that he will be much healthier and sleep much better afterward.

If you or your kiddos have ever had a tonsil/adenoidectomy, any advice would be great! Jonas had his adenoids removed when he was circumcised, and he did not have too much discomfort. But, I have heard when tonsils and adenoids are removed it is much more painful.

So, please respond with things you would have known and things that worked good for recovery.

Thanks so much!!!

China's Weather...

2010-01-03T22:04:00.003-05:00

CY is about 1 hour outside of Beijing, and this is what it probably looked like at Bethel over the New Year's weekend. Pray for safety today as people are already headed back to work, since it is already Monday morning in China.

---------------------------

Sun Jan 3, 11:32 am ET

BEIJING (AFP) – A freezing front swept over much of northern China Sunday with snowstorms snarling road and air traffic, schools set to stay closed, and some of the lowest temperatures in decades forecast in coming days.

Snow storms were expected to continue through Monday and the mercury was set to plunge in the next 48 hours when China returns to work following a three-day New Year holiday, the Beijing meteorological station said.

Gale force winds sweeping down from Siberia could result in temperatures as low as minus 16 degrees Celsius (three degrees Fahrenheit) in the capital on Monday and Tuesday, it added.

In some parts of northern China temperatures were expected to drop as low as minus 32 degrees Celsius.

Classes at primary and middle schools in Beijing and nearby Tianjin would be suspended on Monday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Heavy snows hampered traffic at Beijing Capital Airport where about 90 percent of all flights were delayed or cancelled on Sunday, the last day of the holiday, China Central Television said.

Over 500 flights were delayed and about 400 flights were cancelled, stranding thousands of passengers, it said.

To ensure safety under the snowy, icy and foggy conditions, only one of the airport's three runways was in operation, reports said.

Inbound and outgoing flights at other airports in northern China were also experiencing delays and cancellations, they said.

With Beijing set to return to work, the head of its traffic management office, Song Jianguo, said 7,000 traffic police would be deployed for Monday's morning rush hour, along with 5,000 volunteers to maintain order at crowded bus stops, Xinhua reported.

The city authorities had mobilised a vast army of 300,000 people to clear snow, the agency added.

Major highways in Beijing and Tianjin, as well as in the surrounding provinces and regions of Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia were closed due to the heavy snowfall earlier Sunday, but some roads opened later in the day, China Central Television said.

Long-distance bus travel in north China was also being hampered by the weather, reports said.

With snows expected to continue in the region throughout the night, traffic was likely to become even more snarled when the nation returns to work, the reports said.

Meanwhile, the agriculture ministry said it had dispatched teams of experts to farming areas to advise farmers on how to protect their crops in the extreme cold weather.

(Article provided by: Yahoo News)

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Merry Christmas To All, and To All a Good Night...

2009-12-24T20:50:00.009-05:00

We did our traditional baking and decorating cookies for Santa tonight. Micah made sure that we had 2% milk, because that is what Santa drank in Disney's, "Prep and Landing". :-) Also, we had to have Chocolate Chip cookies. Hannah did not want to get messy, so she read a new Junie B. Jones braille book that came in the mail today. Jonas, well Jonas, would do more damage than help, so he ate oranges in his high chair and he kept licking his fingers to get every last drop of orange juice. :-)

Have a Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!

Notice the 'labels' on the stockings... Micah wanted to make sure that no one was confused at to whos stalkings were whos. :-)

If you look at Luca's face...not all of the icing went on the cookies...

You have been caught...

Three of my crazy boys...

Don't even think about it...

Gosh, these oranges are GREAT...

Just one last drop...

You all were SOOOO CLOSE...

2009-12-21T23:27:00.009-05:00

ARE YOU READY???

ARE YOU SURE???

I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE WE DID THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOME WILL SAY THAT WE ARE CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOME WILL SAY WE SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS LONG AGO.....

OKAY, okay, okay, do you want to know???

WE CUT LUCA'S HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????

I know, I know, I can't believe we actually did it either... To get the entire photo series, if you are my friend on facebook, I uploaded an album of 50 pics to document the entire 'event'. This was a BIG DEAL TO US!!! ESPECIALLY RYAN! Luca has been asking for months now to get his hair cut like Micah, Jonas, and Daddy. Yesterday he asked again and we caved... He is soooooo proud of his new look. I thought we might luck out like Sampson, and tame his strength and strong willed personality by cutting his locks, but no such luck! :-)

Okay, okay, okay.... I know you are dying to see the new look... My favorite, favorite pics are of him checking himself out in the mirror! He is still adorable, I just have to take a double look every time I see him. I think we will be letting it grow out for a while now... The look is just too tame for his 'inner personality'! ;-)

The mullet look was soooo bad... He was done by now, but we were now committed to this cut!

Can you believe all of the hair?

Finishing touches...

"Now I look like Daddy with my big boy cut"

Yep, lookin' pretty good!!! :-)

"They really cut all of my hair???"

"Oh well, I love it!!!"

"You can cut my hair, but you cannot take my personality away!!!"

Stay Tuned...

2009-12-20T23:10:00.002-05:00

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post... YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT RYAN AND I DID TODAY... We did something that EVERYONE will be shocked with, and we are still in shock ourselves... I will have a lot of pics to go along with the post.

If you can guess what we did, I will have to think of some sort of prize. But, what we did is soooooooooooooooooooooo crazy I don't think that anyone will guess it. I will give you a hint: Ryan and I both participated in the 'event', and the 'event' had nothing to do with us...

We are a bit sad that we did what we did, but it won't last forever!!!!!!

ANY GUESSES???????????????????????

Invisible...

2009-11-25T22:40:00.001-05:00

Thank you Sarah for sending this to me! I needed the reminder today...

"Into My Heart"

2009-11-17T00:22:00.002-05:00

These two videos are TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!! The only reason I am singing in the first one, is because Luca would not sing without me. I love how Luca can sing an entire song with one note!!! :-) Amazing... lol... I recorded this a couple months ago, but with the Selah concert this past weekend, it reminded me to upload it...

The second video... Well this is the REAL DEAL!!! Selah did a benefit concert for God's Littlest Angels Orphanage this past weekend. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! We listen to Selah around here ALL THE TIME... So, when we were in Haiti a few weeks ago, Jonas had a really hard time going to bed the first couple of nights. Ruth, our babysitter, decided to bring him downstairs, wrap him up in a blanket, and put on Selah. IT WORKED!!!

So, the day of the concert, I told Selah the story and Amy wanted to sing to him. Before the concert, when I did not have my camera, she sang to him and he was COMPLETELY STILL THE ENTIRE SONG!!!!!! He did not move a muscle... It was also completely silent in the room where she was singing...

After the concert, she found him and sang to him. It was not not as quiet so he did not respond as well, but you will hear how COMPLETELY ANGELIC her voice is!

Really, I sound AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL, compared to Amy!!!!!!!!!!!!! So please, do not compare my singing to hers!!!! Really, I sound much better in the shower... lol... :-)

Hands That Heal in the news...

2009-11-11T23:23:00.001-05:00

Hands That Heal got some amazing PR today... Hopefully this will cause some more awareness of the need to help within our community. God always provides in mysterious ways!!!

Here is the video... (Hands That Heal interview)

Linda Jackson did a great job editing our 45 minute conversation. HTH was prominent and that was my hope! This ministry has nothing to do with me, but all to do with the people of Haiti needing help, and how God provides in the most miraculous ways!!!

Not Going Private...

2009-11-08T15:57:00.003-05:00

I may change my mind, I do this often, but I no longer feel comfortable going private... I am not a person who lives in fear. I need to be sensible and smart, but not fearful. I will not be posting much or any about Chun Yan until we have our official LID (Log In Date).

Nothing bad happened, we were just given good, sound advice from our agency that we need to not put a lot up about her until we have our LID... If I had known before, I would not have posted some things, but I did not know, and I don't want to feel like I have done anything wrong: I HAVEN'T!!!! To me making the blog private would be hiding something, and I have nothing to hide... :-)

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self–discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7

This blog has helped a lot of families out there raising children with special needs and I want to be "easy to find" and not private.

So, anyway...There ya have it... I am no longer going private! :-)

Thanks to those of you that wrote and wanted to follow us privately... If I decide to change my mind again... :-) I still have your e-mails...

Going Private...

2009-10-30T21:25:00.004-04:00

I am going private with our blog for a couple months. Please e-mail me if you want to follow us while we go on the "DL" for a little while. I will be going private Monday, November 2nd.

you can contact me @ r_rhubley@hotmail.com

Hannah is not different, she is just blind...

2009-10-27T23:55:00.002-04:00

Don't think I am leaving Jonas out in this at all... He is visually impaired, but has a lot more sight then Hannah ever will. She and Chun Yan are totally blind, not even one ounce of light perception. Plus, Jonas will always need much more assistance than the girls... My girls will be independent some day just as your children will be...

Remember these tips if you ever encounter a blind person. Remember, you are the only one intimidated about talking about their blindness, not them. To a blind person, being blind and talking about it is no different than me telling you that I have freckles and blue eyes... Hannah has never been ashamed or embarrassed about being blind, actually she is very proud of her blindness and her crazy, extreme, braille reading skills!!! I want to keep it that way for her and for Chun Yan.
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Courtesy Rules for Blindness
From the National federation for the Blind.

THE COURTESY RULES OF BLINDNESS

Ten simple, straightforward pointers which encourage sighted persons to feel comfortable and at ease with blind persons, is also helpful to know.

When you meet me don't be ill at ease. It will help both of us if you remember these simple points of courtesy:

I'm an ordinary person, just blind. You don't need to raise your voice or address me as if I were a child. Don't ask my spouse what I want—"Cream in the coffee?"—ask me.

I may use a long white cane or a guide dog to walk independently; or I may ask to take your arm. Let me decide, and please don't grab my arm; let me take yours. I'll keep a half-step behind to anticipate curbs and steps.

I want to know who's in the room with me. Speak when you enter. Introduce me to the others. Include children, and tell me if there's a cat or dog.

The door to a room or cabinet or to a car left partially open is a hazard to me.

At dinner I will not have trouble with ordinary table skills.
Don't avoid words like "see." I use them, too. I'm always glad to see you.

I don't want pity. But don't talk about the "wonderful compensations" of blindness. My sense of smell, touch, or hearing did not improve when I became blind. I rely on them more and, therefore, may get more information through those senses than you do—that's all.

If I'm your house guest, show me the bathroom, closet, dresser, window—the light switch, too. I like to know whether the lights are on.

I'll discuss blindness with you if you're curious, but it's an old story to me. I have as many other interests as you do.

Don't think of me as just a blind person. I'm just a person who happens to be blind.
In all 50 states, the law requires drivers to yield the right of way when they see my extended white cane. Only the blind may carry white canes. You see more blind persons today walking alone, not because there are more of us, but because we have learned to make our own way.

For more information about gifts, bequests, programs for the blind, or other matters concerning blindness or the blind, contact the local chapter in your area or contact:

The National Federation of the Blind
200 East Wells Street
at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Phone: 410-659-9314
E-mail: nfb@nfb.org

Finally, some of my favorite pics from GLA...

2009-10-27T09:57:00.007-04:00

This is from the Main House, Day #2... More to come soon... Blogger loaded them in a very random order and I am not fighting with it...

Just a little lovin'...

2009-10-25T22:24:00.003-04:00

Seriously, I could have held him all day long!!! He never stopped laughing!!! I fed him a bottle a little later and he fell asleep in my arms... Too precious for words...

Photos and Stories Coming Soon...

2009-10-21T21:10:00.003-04:00

I have never let you down before, and this trip is no different. I think I took over 400 pics and I have already went through 1/2 of them and weeded out the bad ones. Hopefully tomorrow I will start getting some up. If you are a GLA parent, I specifically took a lot of pics of the kiddos there. Trying to take individual shots... I don't know a lot of the kids personally anymore, but I have fallen IN LOVE with some new faces. Stories and photos coming soon...

We got in at 3:30am last night and I am beat!!! If you know me well, you know that I love to stay up until the wee hours of the morning doing my work when the house is completely quiet. Haiti might have turned a new leaf for me. I was in bed by 9-10pm every night. One night I was asleep before 8pm... I know!!!! I was so refreshed every day by 6:30-7am, so I am going to try to carry that back with me. I think I will be a much nicer mommy in the mornings!!!

So, in saying that... I am off to bed! That's right, going to bed at 9:15. :-)

Goodnight!!!

We are in Haiti...

2009-10-15T17:58:00.001-04:00

We made it, even minus the shooting 50 ft. from the car... No big deal...just some police officers with AK 47's shooting at some guy that did something??? I was laying in James's lap telling Ryan to duck!!! :-) New things in Haiti all the time!!! ;-) So, now I am at GLA holding a snuggly little sweet smoochy boy on my lap as I type. Well, better go...he is getting squirmy!!!

Off to dinner... :-)

Headed to Haiti...

2009-10-15T08:26:00.003-04:00

Ryan and I are getting ready to board our flight from JFK to PAP. We are going down to GLA to sign our judge paper. I can't wait to step off the plane, take my first breath of extra hot Haiti air, and feel like I am back to a place that is my second home. Pray that we stay healthy, we normally don't get sick when traveling, but prayers are still appreciated!!! :-)

Pray for our sitters and kiddos at home. They are being well taken care of, but Ryan had to push Luca back inside the door yesterday and leave as he was screaming for him to come back. He just doesn't understand why he can't come with us. It will be easier on him since all of the kids had to stay home.

Looking forward to 5 days alone with Ryan and just being able to serve in any way needed at GLA, without the responsibility of taking care of our kids.

Well, gotta go...the plane is boarding... Haiti, here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 STEPS...

2009-10-04T21:57:00.007-04:00

That's right... Jonas took 3 steps unassisted tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has been using a walker regularly since the beginning of school, just to work on his balance. If he did not have mild cp on the left side, he would already be walking. So, I have some new shoes/boots for him since it is getting colder and they are wider at the sole. I had him standing after I changed his diaper and he stood for the longest time and then took one step initiated all by himself!!!!!!! I cheered soooo loud and he had the BIGGEST SMILE EVER!!! Then, we were at Ryan's parent's house tonight and he was standing again and took 2 more steps. WATCH OUT WORLD...JONAS WILL BE WALKING IN NO TIME!!!!!!!!!!! Selfishly I am hoping that he is walking by the time the next Haitian gathering is in Michigan. Dixie, the director of Jonas's orphanage, will be there and so will a lot of other people that have known Jonas since his arrival at GLA in May of '07. The gathering is Nov. 14, so we have some time to master walking... :-) ---------------------------------- (Below is a very cool poem that a friend of mine found online...It could not fit our situation more...)
A GIFT FROM HEAVEN

"I'm sending you a child " God said, " to take care of for me.
you'll need patience, and understanding 'cause this child, he cannot see.
you'll learn the beauty of a smile,you see, his learning will be slow.
But with the love that you will give I know that he will grow.

This child will bring you pride and joy with each new thing he learns
though there will be times be brings you worries and concerns.
But you're the kind of parents that I know can make it through.
That is why I'm sending him to the two of you.

The lessons he will teach you not everyone will see,
because he will also have what's known as CP.
His learning will take effort and progress will be slow
but the love and joy he'll bring you few "normal" kid's parents know.

I'm not sending him because you've sinned, nor to punish you,
I'm sending him to you because I know you'll love him too.
This child is a special child I wouldn't place just anywhere,
I want him with a family I know will take good care.

And after searching wide and long the whole world through and through,
I decided that this gift of love would be sent from Heaven to you."

WE LOVE YOU JONAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About Bethel...

2009-10-03T21:40:00.004-04:00

Bethel is where Chun Yan is right now. They have updated their web site, and here is a little bit about how Bethel was founded...

-----------------------------------
Bethel was founded by a young French couple. While in France, Delphine studied Sociology and Guillaume studied English. They continued their studies in the US for three years. Their adventure took them to Canada, New Brunswick where they headed a project called "the shelter"; a place to help youth as well as drug addicts and prisoners. After a few months in Hong Kong they moved to Mainland China. In 2003 they moved to Lang Fang to start Bethel. In December 2003, they received the first three orphans in their own house alongside their other three children (Emilie 7, David 6 and Benjamin 3). With time they received more and more orphans. Today they care for 35 blind children.
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Here is some more info if you want...

The LOVE IS BLIND Project

Bethel is a not-for-profit organization that provides foster care, education and professional training for Chinese orphans who are blind or visually impaired. The Project’s training center, named The Love is Blind Project, is located on a 17-acre property, near a small village outside Beijing. The organization was founded in 2002 by a French couple, Guillaume and Delphine Gauvain.

In addition to providing quality care and education for blind orphans, the Project envisions the development of a community that is self-sustaining and respectful of the environment. We are currently producing our own eggs, fruits and vegetables, as well as raising chickens, goats and cows. Our use of the raised-bed gardening method, allows our visually impaired students to work independently in the garden.

This is a model we hope to reproduce in other parts of China and the greater Asian community.

The Project in its current location offers services for up to 70 children at a time, and includes these aspects:

1. Foster Care: seven separate houses where we strive to create a family atmosphere, providing 24-hour care for our children

2. Education: our school offers classes in English and Chinese Braille, Conversational English, Chinese, Mathematics, Science, Orientation and Mobility, Daily Living Skills, Physical Education, Social Studies, etc…

3. Professional training: in farming, gardening, language translation and piano tuning

4. Training for state run orphanage staff which allows Bethel to touch hundreds of thousand of children

5. Farming: Our project is self sustainable as we grow our own vegetables and fruits. We have several gardens and raise goats and chickens

We place great importance on providing a variety of exciting activities for the children, including sports, arts and crafts, field trips, music and entertainment, all of which are especially designed for the blind and visually impaired.

Organization Profile and History

2002 Guillaume & Delphine do some research on NGOs work in China and try to find a people group that is not being reached

2003 G&D open the first house in Lang Fang, Hebei and receive 3 blind orphans from Tianjin orphanage (8 staff)

2004 G&D open the 2nd home, care for 12 children (18 staff)
Board of Directors Set up

2005 Opening of the 3rd home, care for 24 children (40 staff)
start of Bethel school (2 staff)
Partnership with Children’s Hope International Social Work Committee

2006 Opening of the 4th home, care for 31 children (60 staff)
Expansion of Bethel school (6 staff)

2007 Move to new facility in Dou Dian
Set up of a farm (food self sustainability)
Renovation of the premises
Registration of Bethel China Ltd. In HK
Registration of Bethel China ltd. Rep. office

2008 Construction of 7 foster homes
Build second floor to adjacent building (on-going renovation)
Operations size (80 staff)
Purchase agreement with the landlord

GLA Fundraiser...

2009-09-30T22:56:00.005-04:00

So, most of you know that I am a photographer, but I actually graduated college with a BA in Graphic Design. I just have used my photography WAY MORE than any designing. So, when the opportunity arises to use my design skills, it is always a lot of fun.

So, for the GLA fundraiser, I was in charge of designing the tickets, posters, and postcards for the event. Selah and Avalon will be doing a private concert just to benefit GLA. I LOVE,LOVE, LOVE Selah so I am so pumped to be within driving distance to go to the concert. John and Dixie will be there too, and the next day will be the Haiti gathering. So, it will be a great weekend.

The beautiful subject in the poster is Bo Watson, more than likely. He has an identical twin brother, Noah, but Laurie is pretty sure that this is Bo. They are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!!! I took a bunch of pics of them when I went to get Jonas at GLA, and I had to use this one for the poster. There is so much purity and innocence about the photo. No clothes--I LOVE SKIN-- (they had just got done playing in the 'pool'.), just beautiful chocolate brown skin, and amazing facial features!!! I love those boys... they are a hoot!!!

So, if you are anywhere near MI, November 13th, come on out and enjoy a night that will benefit GLA!!!

(Here are a couple other pics of the boys that day...) Just moments before these pics they were all smiles, having a blast in the water. We had to take them out because one of them pooped in the water... so, I was not their favorite person... :-) If you read Laurie's blog at all, you will know that poop has been a theme for them lately...they had A LOT of buggers in their bellies!!!

34,000

2009-09-25T18:43:00.002-04:00

That's right! 34,000 hits.... That's crazy... So, who are all of you that read my blog???? I would love to know!!!!!!!!!!!! Is there anything you want to know about our crazy brood that I have never shared??? Ask away... :-)

House Showing...

2009-09-22T15:09:00.003-04:00

Pray, Pray, Pray!!!!!!!!! It has been weeks since we showed our house, and our realtor group just called and someone wants to come through it tonight... YIKES!!!!!!!!!! This summer I made sure that our house was in "showing" condition most every day. Well, I have become complacent with the lack of showings. Not that it would take long to get it looking great, but I have 2 kiddos here and 2 more to get off the bus in 20 minutes. Nothing like an adrenaline rush!!!!! :-)
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Okay, the realtor just called and they are going to come through the house on Thursday... Whew... :-) I guess you know what I will be doing tonight, and tomorrow.... Getting my house to look like Martha Stewart's... lol...

PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR HOUSE SELLS!!!!! I packed up all of our winter clothes this summer to make our closets really spacious, and I will be so depressed if I have to unpack winter clothes and box up summer clothes...

COME ON GOD...PLEASE SELL OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a visual tour of our house...

3 Posts Yesterday...

2009-09-14T08:56:00.002-04:00

I know, it must be a record. Just a FYI if you wanted to read them all. :-)