Recovering Noah

These are just a few of the pictures that we took in India. There were so many - it was really hard to choose. The majority are on Facebook, so shoot me an email if you want to see all of them. Hope you enjoy it!

This is a picture of me with my boy, Michael. Isn't he handsome? I know that I keep posting videos of my boys, but believe it or not, I do have pictures of my girls, but I just haven't posted them yet. Okay, rereading that sentence I realized that saying I'm going to post pictures of "my girls" probably didn't come out the way I meant it. You all know I'm talking about pictures of the little girls I feel in love with and not... uh... uh.... you know, THE girls... like... uh... the name of that place where people swear they go just because the hot wings are supposedly fantabulous . Okay... so, uh.. yeah, let's get back to the point.... Michael is the sole reason I'd planned on going to India. Michael is mostly nonverbal and has autism and Sarah wanted to see if I could do RPM (the therapy we do with Noah) with him. And, of course, I was dying to meet Sarah and see her kids. And then I get to India... and completely fall apart. I wasn't prepare...

One thing I really detest is uploading photos to Blogger. It takes forever - and, though, I'm sure there's an easier way to go about it, it's so cumbersome. My plan is to eventually do a slideshow put to music and post it on Youtube and this blog. It will take a week or two before I get that together. In the meantime, if you want to view the photos in my album on Facebook - but aren't friends with me on FB - please email me at recoveringnoah@yahoo.com with your name as it appears on FB and I'll add you. I'll try to add more videos and do more blog entries this week. Thanks! Leslie

Just wanted to write a quick post and ask everyone (you know, all five of you out there) to please bear with me while I'm adjusting to being back home. I'm suffering from horrible jetlag and just can't seem to get it under control. I've been up since 1:00 this morning (it's now 6:00) and I'll soon be headed to bed. Thank goodness I've been blessed with a fabulous hubby who puts up with it. But he goes back to work tomorrow and I dread to think of the state I'll be in. Anyway, I live in a house with extremely light sleepers, so the clicking of a keyboard in the middle of the night just won't do. As soon as things return to normal (i.e. as soon as I quit keeping vampire hours), I'll post more videos and pictures and thoughts and such. Just wanted to explain the lack of posting on here since I got back. Had a fantastic time. Sooooo much to sort out, but am looking forward to getting back into a regular routine on Monday morning. Right now, I just so...

I'll be posting videos all weekend. Please scroll down to see if you've missed any videos that I may have already posted. I love my boys!! They completely captured my heart... probably because I could see my little Noah in each of them. Whatever the reason may be, I am in love with each of them and wish I could just take them home with me and give them a family. I did have some video of Joshua, but Nicky was in it and he was not feeling well and was crying, so I decided not to post it out of respect for him. I have to say, though, that Nicky is one of my favorite boys there. I see such potential in his eyes. I really do. Oh my gosh, my heart just swells thinking about him. These videos are short, but I can't help but post them. If you read Sarah's blog (and if you don't... why not??) then you're already taken by the children, so these are for you. :-) The little boy at the end of the above video opened up so much by the time we left. I finally got him to smile a...

Well, we're back. We arrived back late Wednesday night and I've spent the last day and a half sleeping, recuperating, and trying to sort through the many, many emotions floating through my head. I was afraid that I would forget the kids once I arrived back home and settled into my routine, but I've found it's impossible. They're all I think about. I'm not sure what God's plan is for our family in regard to Sarah and her kids - whether it's to go back short-term or move there long-term - or whether it's just to spread the word and try to get people to volunteer or send financial support - but all I know is that those children are firmly ingrained in my heart and are now a part of me. And can you all please take a moment and think of my dear mother who most likely just had a heart attack in reading the above paragraph?? (Love you, Mom!) I most likely won't post tons and tons of thoughts just yet because I barely seem able to make a coherent sentenc...

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their sweet and inspiring comments on the blog post I wrote over the weekend. Ruth, I. Heart. You!!!! :-) I would love to make this another long post, but the truth is that the only reason I was able to do that on Saturday was because I was literally in bed for about 24 hours and I borrowed Sandwich's laptop. The computer here at the internet "cafe" (lol - you really do need to see this place!) has a sticky keyboard and it's very hard to type... so this will be a short one and I'll save the long ones for when I return. This is my last blog post until probably Thursday or Friday. Today, we run errands and I'm going with one of the ayahs to buy spinning toys for the kids with autism. I'm very excited. I was finally able to pull myself together yesterday and work with Michael! He is so smart and has loads of potential. I truly, truly believe he has the potential to be high functioning and verbal if he is worked wi...

I’m laying here in bed in a hotel in the middle of Ongole, India with a raging case of Delhi Belly. Aren’t I just the luckiest girl? Fortunately, Sandwich is letting me borrow her laptop while she and Rosebud work with their group of kids this morning. She thought it might be good for me to type out all the millions of thoughts that have been running through my head since we arrived. I’m thinking that maybe it might be good to give everyone here a break from hearing those millions of thoughts every single time they turn around. So, where do I begin? Not too long ago, a well-known blogger went on a mission trip and I was so excited to see how it changed her life. I really enjoy her blog, but it seems so materialistic at times and I was really curious to see if it changed her in anyway. I followed the blog everyday while she was gone and only rarely did she mention the poverty and the heartbreak that she saw. And it’s not been mentioned at all now that she’s returned. And I’ve always...

Okay, you're just going to have to go to Sandwiche's blog to find out what's happening. We have about 15 minutes in the morning to get on email (between the time the Internet place opens and we leave for SCH) and I just can't get it all in. My mornings are spent emailing my husband telling him I miss him and emailing my parents and assuring them that, no, I have not decided to move here. LOL. Parents, eh?? Although the thought has crossed my mind. Many times... Anyway, Sandwich brought her laptop and is able to type up blog posts in Word and then copy them to her blog in the morning which is how she's able to keep every one so up to date. So please go to her blog to see what we've been up to. I promise to email more when we get back. Just an FYI to our church buddies... we have an amazing team here. The teens are doing great. I am just floored by how everyone is adjusting. The only tears have been mine! We were truly, truly blessed with our team. We all get a...

We made it! Hope you've been reading Sandwiche's blog (www.blessingssandwich.blogspot.com). She's been giving all the details. I've been very emotional since meeting the boys at the boy's home and can't really formulate thoughts right now. But when I do, watch out. It'll be a watershed! Sandwich and I have joked that everyone needs to go to her blog for the facts and my blog (when I do eventually blog) because mine will have all the emotional content. Everyone knows I live and breathe through my emotions... and India is a very emotional place. India with adorable little orphans who melt your heart is even more emotional. India with adorable little orphans who have autism and who melt your heart is.... uh oh, here comes the tears... For our church group, we're all okay. Everyone is doing great. I'm actually the only one who's had a breakdown... and out of the TX group, I'm the only one who's been before. The newbies are handling it grea...

Hey there! Guess what time it is? It's 5:15 in the morning. Who needs to get off her butt and jump in the shower and get ready to leave for India in an hour? Me! Just call me Last Minute Leslie. I just finished handwriting 10 letters to the kids, one for each day that I'm gone and feel like I've written 10 short stories. I'm getting all emotional. I'm going to miss my kids so much!! It just feels differently leaving this time, knowing that I've got three little ones at home. The good thing is that Sim will be home for two weeks and he's, you know, the "Fun Parent". I came home the other day and found him with one end of our balance beam (it sets about a foot off the ground) raised up onto one of our kitchen chairs which just happened to be sitting on top of our coffee table. I walked in and found Nandi literally touching the ceiling! For those of you who are local, please check in on my kids now and then and make sure there aren't any broken ...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! I can't believe it!!! I walked by him sitting at the table and kissed him on the head and said, "Have I told you this morning how much I love you?" And he said, "Iduvumum" Of course, I was stunned. And I said, "Noah, did you just say, "I love you mom? Yes or No?" And he said, "Esssss" Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Of course I cried. And called Sim. And called my mom. And Noah was so pleased with himself that he took me by the hand and led me straight to the TV so that he could watch an Elmo video. I guess he thought, "Hey, I told you I love you, so now I get a freebie." This officially goes down in history as the best day of my life. (Doing carthwheels and happy dances and thanking Jesus). Yayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

If you haven't read today's earlier post, Noah asked for a globe for Christmas... on Christmas Eve, nonetheless. Santa nearly had a panic attack but managed to pull through in the end. Oh, and Sarah, if you're reading this, Santa left two extra swings (like the one in the video) for us to take to India. I would like to thank Santa's elves (blog readers) for making it possible to buy two swings to take to India (by purchasing raffle tickets. In fact, I'll be doing a blog post next week on what your donations were able to buy). P.S. I have no idea why my voice is so high in the video. It's the voice I reserve for puppies and babies.... which might explain why so very few babies like me and the little Yorkie puppy I was playing with earlier today bit me on the nose. But, more importantly, check out the mile wide smile on Noah's face when he gets in the swing. It's worth enduring my voice for....

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately... I've been spending a lot of time with my older son who is now... BABBLING !! Remember how I told ya'll that a few years ago I believe God told me that Noah would start talking around 8 or 9 years old?? Well, babbling's the first step, right?? Hallelujah! So, let me tell you what we did for the 12th Day of Giving . We gave Noah the gift of normalcy. You see, for the last 7 1/2 years, I've babied Noah. Some for good reason (he still relies on me to meet most of his basic needs like dressing, changing, bathing, etc), some for selfish reasons (while my other "babies" were getting bigger, it was nice to know that I could still cuddle and rock Noah and baby him) and then some reasons were purely because I'm lazy (it's easier to carry a child than have him throw himself on the floor in the middle of a parking lot and refuse to move). But on Christmas Eve, we decided that we had to do something about it.... and the m...