grown2worship: And God Grew a Family...part 5

Ok ya'll...I know I have not done a great job of posting lately

but I have not had much free time these days:)

(and I am certainly not complaining about it!!!)

this post is a long one...but I just had to get the rest of the story out!!

Our final days in the Philippines were laced with God's blessings and faithfulness!!

(View from our apartment window)

On Thursday morning,

we were picked up bright and early by our agency liaison and taken to the

ICAB (intercountry adoption board).

This is were we were to sign the final documents and receive Aaron's travel papers.

Waiting for the social worker to meet with us

Aaron was given a filipino flag and a jeepney as a souvenir.

Not our most attractive photo but the only one we had in front of the ICAB:)

I have to share another testimony of God's faithfulness!!!

We truly wanted to bless Aaron's orphanage while we were in the Philippines.

To do that we needed to remain on a tight personal budget while we traveled.

We knew we would be tight financially but were confident God would provide.

While meeting with the ICAB social worker, we learned that we had over paid and there was a credit on our account. We had the choice of being reimbursed for the money

or to gift it to Aaron's orphanage.

I will admit that I have no concept of conversion from US dollars to filipino pesos:)

And I just love the orphanage.

So, without even thinking about how tight we were, and that we had already blessed the orphanage just a few days before, I quickly blurted out that we should gift it!!

As soon as it came out I knew what I had done, but at that point...it was done:)

Later, I went up to my hubby and humbly apologized for my impulsive answer and not letting him make the decision. He acknowledged that it would have been very helpful for the remainder of our trip, but that again, God was in control and we cannot out give God.

Let me just say, God was so incredibly faithful and not only met our needs...

but blessed us beyond measure!!!

A dear friend of ours from home has family and friends in the Philippines that she wanted us to meet.

We were so excited to make new friends,

but could not have anticipated how very loved and blessed we would feel

over the course of the next several days!!!

On the evening of our ICAB visit our sweet boy was acting a bit withdrawn.

These fabulous ladies lavished love on each of us,

reassured our son that he is blessed to have a family and how much God and his family love him,

picked us up at our door, took us to a fabulous shopping location where our children were able to find souvenirs with the money they saved for the trip, bought us treats, and took us to a fabulous dinner!!

I love it when you feel like you have known someone your entire life after just a few hours!!!!

Riding filipino style...no seat belts and cram as many as possible in the back:):)

(I personally loved the excuse to hold my children on my lap...

they are starting to think they are too big)

The following evening we were blessed once again!!!

(our children before we left for another night out in Manila)

Another wonderful friend of a friend

picked us up and took us to a fabulous restaurant in Manila!!

We were so very blessed by "T"'s kindness and generosity!!

I am sorry to say that we don't have a photo from this eventful evening:(

You see, our baby girl has a fatal nut allergy.

We even brought 4 epi pens with us to the Philippines.

We have never had to use one but didn't want an overseas trip to be the first.

We were running late when our host arrived Friday evening. When we learned he was waiting downstairs, we quickly rushed out of the apartment not wanting to cause him to wait.

(can you guess what we left behind???

We have not gone ANYWHERE without an epi pen in the last 8 years!!!)

Our host kindly ordered for us and checked all the ingredients listed.

But at the end of the meal...we ordered dessert.

I have a tremendous sweet tooth and was lured by a certain chocolate mouse cake on the menu.

I asked if it had nuts or was processed with nuts.

Even our sweet boy asked in tagalog...

but unfortunately many do not understand the severity of the allergy

and the idea of cross contamination.

Kylee had ordered plain vanilla ice cream, but because we asked about the cake, and they assured us it was safe...I gave her several bites of it:(

Before long she did not look like herself...

she politely walked over to me and said, "Mama, I itch all over and I am having a hard time breathing"!

(that is when I realized we did not have the epi pens with us!!)

I quietly excused us and we rushed to the bathroom!!

Kylee was very panicked and saying

I DON'T WANT TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL IN THE PHILIPPINES!!!

(let me tell you that is the last thing this mama wanted to do as well!!)

While there, we found that the ladies bathroom had complementary mouth wash.

Yep, I have never seen such a feature and even laughed about it an hour before when I entered to wash my hands. But at this very moment, while praying like never before...we just helped ourselves and rinsed her mouth out several times!!!

Still praying all the while, we calmly exited the bathroom and told our host that she was having a hard time, and would there be a pharmacy nearby.

I still marvel at the calm and peace we were able to exude!!

Kylee remained calm because she didn't want to panic me,

(and she didn't want to be taken to the hospital)

I remained calm so Kylee would not panic.

And NO ONE else seemed to even see the extreme severity of the situation.

Within minutes we were at the pharmacy and my hubby hurried to get some Benadryl.

(it has never been prescribed for us to use Benadryl. Her allergy is a +5 and we had been told to go right for the pen. But, we know others who have used it and that was our only option at the moment.)

Hubby came out with 5 capsules wrapped in cardboard!

Let's just say that DID NOT ease my anxiety!!

We gave her one and she immediately fell asleep!!

I held her with my hand over her nose to be sure she was still breathing:(

Then, when we arrived back at the apartment, she woke up and walked upstairs as if nothing had happened!!!