A Very Happy Saturday

The weather was lovely here in Kansas City on Saturday. After sleeping in and have a nice breakfast, we quickly tackled the house cleaning chores so that we could spend the afternoon outside together!

Elia Grows

Aunt Lois update

My mom called this morning from Little Rock. She flew in last night to spend the week with Lois. She asked us to pray today as Lois has to have some bone marrow testing, and it can be painful. She said that the nurses had just left after doing some other blood work, etc, and that Lois was "resting and looked beautiful".
I'm so grateful that my mom has this time to be with her sister. Pray that as my mom ministers in prayer and through reading the word over Aunt Lois that Proverbs 3:6-8 would come to life in Lois' spirit and body!!!!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make your paths straight.

Do not be wise in your own eyes;

fear the Lord and shun evil.

This will bring health to your body

and nourishment to your bones."

ALSO: mom met a man in the waiting room this morning from St. Louis, MO. His name is Don Klinger, he has the same form of cancer as Lois, and has been receiving treatment for 4 years. Mom asked if it would be ok to share his needs with us so that we could pray for him and he was very grateful!

Spirit of Adoption

It is almost impossible when holding Elia not to have the reality of "the Spirit of Adoption" stir in my spirit. At times it is just plain overwhelming, and I find myself in tears. I look at my daughter and feel intense love for her, knowing full well she did not come from my womb, but from a deep place in my spirit. My heart is full of love for this "chosen one". She is my joy and my delight (Luke 1:14). She could not possibly be more loved on this earth than she is here in our family. We reached out and said to this little one we did not even know, "we will have you, we will love you, you will be ours forever. Yes, there is so much we do not know about you, but we choose to call you our own."

The judge questioned us at our initial custody hearing. At one point he asked what we knew about Elia's family history, medical history etc. He said, "You do not have full information on her background, are you still willing to take this child into your home." To that we said, "Yes, we are". In saying that we said to this little one, we accept you as you are, no holding back. We choose to love you forever.

A friend told us that in Hebrew culture. A child who is adopted can never be disowned. A man can disinherit his biological children, but he can never disinherit a child he has sworn to love and care for through adoption. It is a binding contract for life.

Ephesians 1:5 says, "His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure." (NLT) When I think of the Elia, and my frail human love for her, I marvel at the love of the Father. Who has adopted each of us who call on His name into His family. He does it not out of some sense of obligation to His creation, but because it gives Him great pleasure. It pleases the Father to call us His sons and daughters.

Friday night we sang this song, and I was wrecked once again as I thought of the Father's amazing love, and the intensity of the Spirit of Adoption that calls us all into the Father's embrace.

"Lord it was you You created the heavens
Lord it was your hands that put the stars in their place
Lord it was your voice that commands the morning
Even oceans and their waves bow at your feet
Lord who am I compared to your glory
Lord who am I compared to your majesty
I am your beloved, Your creation
And you love me as I am
You call me chosen for your kingdom
Unashamed to call me your own
I am your beloved"

I was holding Elia as I sang this song and I began singing it over her. The impact was huge in my heart, taking me one tiny step deeper into the Love of the Father. We are His Chosen, and He unashamedly calls us His own.

She's a Honey!

Funny Girl!

For MORE FUNNY FACES check out NICK'S BLOG!!!!

Best if Used By

Ok, you see that all the time and ignore it occasionally on some products, right? I had a box of "Banquet Dessert Bakes: Chocolate Lava Cake"
and decided to make it last night for dessert. I don't usually do those packaged things, but it appeared to be easy so I gave it a go!

Here's the deal, about 10 minutes into baking, the dessert exploded in my oven leaving the below pictured results.

I called Banquet...My complaint was taken over the phone and someone is supposed to call me back. The lady on the phone asked about the expiration date, and when she discovered the product had expired, she said, "Oh, that's why it says 'best if used by...'." My response was somewhat sarcastic, and went something like this, "It doesn't say DON'T use after this date or it will explode! It just says BEST IF USED BY..."

So, it's BEST if your dessert does not explode in your oven, so I highly recommend looking at those dates, and then the deeper issue is IF a dessert will explode if not used on time, do you really want to eat it in the first place. I mean seriously, whatever chemicals cause the below explosion, are still there when you eat it before the date in question right? Just a thought! I'm staying away from Banquet Dessert Bakes at this point!

Continued Prayer Please

Please continue to keep Aunt Lois in your prayers. She is back in the hospital after having an extremely painful night on Monday. She had to be put on morphine for the pain. Her chemotherapy started last night, I do not have a report on how that went.
She is receiving treatment at University of Arkansas Medical Sciences.

Two New Members of the Family

Well, here we go! As John put it there are now 10 living beings in our household. We have added two rabbits to the mix! Both quite delightful and bringing much pleasure to Taylor and Isabelle, the keepers of the bunnies!

Aunt Lois Update

Aunt Lois had to have a third back surgery yesterday because they discovered that her tail bone had a slit, so she is back in the hospital. Her daughter Julie is with her now, and my mom will fly in this coming Sunday to spend a week with her. Her Chemotherapy treatments will begin on Tuesday.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers.

A Nice Day

God is BIGGER than Cancer!

Update on Aunt Lois:
Thank you all for praying. Aunt Lois had the second surgery on her back on Tuesday and as she described "it was very hard, but I went into it with NO FEAR"... thank you to all of you who prayed against the spirit of fear! God is faithful!
In addition the nurse told her after some recent testing that she had "no signs of cancer in her blood or in her urine test"... the nurse said, "you are a very unusual case". This type of cancer of the bone marrow, affects the blood and Aunt Lois blood is cancer free!
AGAIN thank you for praying. She will begin Chemo soon, pray that all traces of cancer are eradicated from her body, her bones, her marrow, that not a trace would remain!

Aunt Lois has been discharged from the hospital and is in a hotel across from the hospital where she will remain while she receives treatment.
Pray for various family members who will travel and take turns staying with her!

THE SUN SINGS

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

Psalm 19:1-3

Check out this article

BABY SHOWER

Granted!

"The child now known as ELIA JANE LOUX, born March 7, 2007, has been placed in the temporary custody of the petitioners JOHN R. and TRACIE L. LOUX pending adoption."

THUS READS THE PAPERWORK SIGNED BY THE JUDGE TODAY!

thanks for your prayers!

Family Photos

Our dear friend Shelley Paulson took photos of our family shortly after Elia's homecoming.

Here's the link to a slide show!

Court Date

The Loux's go to court tomorrow to get temporary custody of Elia Jane in the state of Missouri. Right now our custodial rights are through Louisiana. We go again around the 6 month mark to finalize.

Keep us in your prayers tomorrow at 9:30 AM. Favor with the Judge and peace in our hearts! THANKS!

One of the Benefits of Home Schooling

You have really nice company when you're doing your reading assignments!

Our Sweet Girl

NAP TIME! Isabelle thought Elia needed something soft to help her fall asleep.




LAUNDRY TIME: Nick thought it would be fun to bury sissy in her clean laundry pile!

Aunt Lois- 2nd surgery

Aunt Lois will have a second back surgery tomorrow (wed) at noon. Today they fused three vertebra with a type of cement (three separate incisions with only an epidural). It was quite painful. Unfortunately they found two other broken vertebra in a MRI later on, and will have to go back in and repeat the procedure on those two areas tomorrow.
PRAY especially for a spirit of peace, she is battling fear, as she know the pain she experienced in yesterdays surgery! Pray against the spirit of fear please!
thanks friends!

6 Weeks Old

Our Journey began 6 weeks ago today, as we got into the van to meet our beauty! Hard to believe!!! She's weighed in at 9lbs 12 oz last week. We're sure she's pushing 10lbs this week! Gotta love those cheeks!

Baby Faces

This just cracks me up!

Aunt Lois is in Surgery

She is having surgery on her back right now to have the cement put into her spine to help stabilize her back. Pray that it is successful and that she'll be walking soon!

Update on Aunt Lois

Aunt Lois has been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the blood that affects the bones and weakens them, causing pain and fractures.
She has two broken ribs and three broken vertebra that they are treating with a medication that should help them heal more quickly. In addition, they will be injecting a paste/cement-type substance into her back to strengthen the weak areas. Most patients are able to walk again in about 24 hours after this procedure.
She will begin chemotherapy in about a week, and will live in an outpatient hotel near the hospital. Family members are taking turns staying with her during her treatment.

That's the update! I thank you all for your continued prayers for her and for the family during this season of leaning heavily on the Lord and trusting Him for complete healing in Aunt Lois' body.

A friend, and intercessor here at IHOP said that she was praying for "a Holy BLOOD Transfusion so pure and clean she can feel the quickening of life in every cell". I like that prayer a lot... will join me in agreement for this.

Prayer Please

Please pray for my Aunt Lois (pictured here with my mom). She is at a cancer treatment center in Little Rock, undergoing testing for cancer. They suspect that she has a form of cancer that is in her blood and is affecting her bones. We are believing God for complete healing in her body. Please pray for peace and strength for the family also.

Beauty

A friend recently posted about "beauty", and made the point that God created us to enjoy beauty but too often we don't take the time to do so. She wrote... "God has time for beauty, do you? Do I?"

I was going through some of my son Nick's photos and found these. I'm so grateful that he has taken time to enjoy beauty.

Nana and Elia

It seemed that every time I would glance over at John's mom with Elia, she was praying.
This little one has captured all of our hearts!

Easter

Today was Elia's first Easter! We were so blessed to spend it with family. John parents and his grandmother are here to meet Elia and visit family for the weekend. It was also a blessing to see John's Aunt Ruth from Bentonville, Arkansas.

Happy Grandparents

Elia's Blessing

We were honored Friday evening to have our family gather for a time of blessing over Elia. Present for the event were: John's parents, his maternal grandmother, my parents, Derek and Renee and their clan (John's brother), Alex and Heather (John's sister), and Randy and Kelsey Bohlender and their kids (our brother and sister of the heart).

It was a beautiful time of speaking love over Elia, reading the Word over her life, and hearing the prophetic stirrings from the heart of the Lord for her.

Elia

A friend told me the other day that she remembered an old song from the 80's that was about a young woman name Elia, though she said she thought it was spelled Elya in the song. All she could remember that was one line said "Elya will teach them to pray".
After a tiny bit of digging I found it!

She told me when I found it not to be surprised if the lyrics were prophetic over our Elia's life! (By the way, Elia and Elya are both pronounced El-ee-a, hope that helps some of you who haven't heard us pronounce her name yet!)

The song Elya is from Silverwinds album "A Song in the Night"
The lyrics are as follows:

Elya
By Georgian Banov and Besty Hernandez

She has a smile on her face
She has a name like a flower
Her laughter is music and grace
That comes from mysterious power

Elya will tell about Jesus
To children behind iron walls
Where truth is forbidden and sentenced to prison
Her country believes what is false

Elya will teach them to sing
Elya will teach them to pray
And the love that she’s giving to children will never die

Elya you must not give in
Elya you know you will win
You’ve planted your seeds underground
And they’ll reach to the sky

Her Bible is stained with her tears
Under the bed where she hides it
She comforts her mother from fears
And they pray every night no one finds it

Elya spend years in a prison
For teaching the children the way
They tried to break her
But nothing could shake her
They can’t take the Spirit away

Elya- A True Story
This song was inspired by the faith and courage of Elya Kasper, a young school teacher. In 1977 she was condemned by her government to four years in prison for teaching her students the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Destiny

Dave Sliker's recent post on the destiny of his children has provoked me to share some of my thoughts of late on my own children's destinies.
I have been thinking lately of the solemn responsibility that John and I have of shepherding our children into their destinies. It provokes me to lean hard and to pray often for much wisdom in my life. Every day we are responsible to nurture the destinies of four amazing children. Oh, Father give me wisdom and great revelation!

John reminded me last night as I was pacing with a fussy baby and speaking rest over her, that caring for her was an act of worship. Mom's out there, do you get that? Every time you care for "the least of these" you are doing it to HIM. The King of all Kings is captivated by your tenderness and your sacrifice as you nurture those He has entrusted to you. Judson Cornwall shared with a frustrated mother, that even though she was no longer able to serve the way she had served and do the things she had always done before, that her act of caring for her children was an "act of worship". I have held that in my heart for years as a reminder during the times when I could not even get a shower because someone small needed me.

Yesterday in the Prayer Room, a dear woman of God walked up to me as I was holding Elia, laid her hand on Elia's head and said, "She's been rescued. She just got her destiny back!" I look into this little ones eyes, and I see greatness. I see someone truly remarkable. I see one that God reached down and rescued. It blows my mind, and sobers me with the seriousness of the responsibility before me.

So today, I am unshowered at 11:15AM. I smell like baby puke. I am tired. But I tell you this I am blessed to be holding a young woman of great destiny in my arms and I would not want to be anywhere else.

Papa is Here!

And the tree fort is getting a make over!

Isabelle's Photography

Isabelle captured this moment and chose to photograph this in black and white, perhaps inspired by our recent visit with friend and photographer Shelley Paulson

I think it's lovely!

Elia Meets Mema and Papa

My mom and dad are here visiting from Pennsylvania. I'm so happy to have them here! They are enjoying their grandchildren, and are getting lots of cuddles in with their newest grandchild, Elia Jane!