Mike and Lindy Waskosky

Last Wednesday Mike replaced our hot water heater because our old one died on us. We had been showering with hot water for only 30-60 seconds at a time before it turned cold and we had to turn the shower off and start it again, so the hot water heater would light and heat the water again.  Finally it stopped working all together, and a friend graciously allowed us to borrow their hot water heater they were not using. So, we were really excited to get a new hot water heater and have a nice shower again. Mike installed the hot water heater with Kris’, his mom’s help since his dad is traveling. Mike did a great job and we were excited.

We left for a big parade in the next town over. The kids loved the parade, but it was a hot day, so we decided to leave early. When we got home Mike walked in the door thinking he should check the heater just to make sure everything was doing well. When he opened our back door there were huge flames spilling from the gas hose that was once connected to the heater. He ran to turn the gas off and almost as soon as he did the flames went out.

The area stayed incredibly hot, but we surveyed the damage and the only thing that had been seriously damaged was the plastic plumbing tube that was connected to our toilet.

We are incredibly grateful to the Lord. We know this could have been way worse and believe He prompted us that day.

Although we have no hot water, we are so grateful nobody was hurt (Mike’s mom was upstairs and our maid was cleaning a different part of the house) and we are so grateful that there was no further damage to our house. Our clean water system is very close to where the fire was and was not damaged…such a blessing…this is not something we can replace here!

We have had a crazy couple of weeks…Rosa has had several problems with her leg, we have spent LOTS of time at the doctor, she has had infections, Mike and I have had some really scary/crazy dreams, we have been exhausted, felt discouraged about many things and things have just been seeming to go wrong. This fire has been a reminder of the Lord’s care and love for us. It was a reminder He is watching over us. He sees all. He knows all. He is good. Really good. And so we have the strength and courage we need to press on because of Him.

Thank you Lord! You are the reason we are here and why we do what we do….thank you for reminding us.

Since coming to Ecuador the Lord has been doing a lot in our hearts in regards to family. We work with kids who have been hurt deeply by their families or abandoned completely and that has awakened our hearts to the importance of healthy family life. More than that it has opened our hearts to the Lord’s heart for us as His children. It is through that context that the Lord began speaking to me in a very profound way about adoption.

The Lord constantly put these two verses on my heart, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15) and “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’” (Matthew 25:45)

I longed to share my joy in being adopted by adopting. I realized that along with helping and loving a child, adoption is ministry unto the Lord and my heart lept with joy at that thought.

Mike and I began talking about adoption, and more often than not, I said too much, wanting to convince Mike that we ought to look into adoption. Although I was probably very annoying, Mike also began to pray and seek the Lord. The Lord was working…

Rewind for a minute, a few days after we had arrived in Shell, we heard about Rosa being adoptable for the first time and we thought we would take her into our home shortly after we arrived, but due to many circumstances, we went through a very hard time and decided it would be best not to take her in due to her many special needs.

Once we began seeking the Lord again about adoption, we kind of ruled Rosa out because we felt we wouldn’t be able to “handle” her. However, the Lord had something else in mind…

When we were visiting the states through times of prayer the Lord revealed to us that we were indeed supposed to welcome this precious girl into our family, and so we purchased everything we might need for her and began praying a little harder.

Rosa has been living with us for a week now, and it has been smoother than we imagined. She has seemed to blend right in with our family. Tristen LOVES her and wants to do everything with her (he even invited her to keep him company when he needs to go to the bathroom). Elisha is a little more jealous, but doing better each day (it helps that he shares a room with her and they giggle and play when they wake up in the morning while they wait for us to come and get them).

There, of course, are challenges because Rosa cannot walk yet. She will turn five in March (our birthdays are days apart), but has not been able to walk because she was born with club feet. One foot was amputated, so she is in need of a prosthesis, which we hope to be able to get in the near future. Right now she is in a cast because we are “straightening” her other leg. After the cast comes off, she should be able to begin to learn to walk more and more.

Rosa also has a problem with her jaw. For some unknown reason at this time she cannot open it very far and as a result doesn’t speak much or chew her food (I cut everything very small). We are working everyday on using words and sign language, doing massages on her jaw and other exercises.

“Getting used to” a child with special needs presents its challenges, especially here in Ecuador where there are little resources and difficult conditions for a person who cannot get around by walking. However, we have found great joy…more than we imagined…in having this precious, fun-loving, beautiful little girl in our home. Many of our concerns have disappeared and we are seeing how God has intervened, offering us grace, providing financially, giving wisdom, and placing people in our lives to help.

We hope to legally adopt her in the future. Ecuador is a difficult place to adopt from, so we have to wait two years before we can legally call her Rosa Waskoksy, but already she is a part of our family. We often call her Rosa-faith. We gave her the middle name Faith and it seems to fit perfectly!

Please join us in prayer as we continue to adjust:

• Pray for Rosa…she spent her whole life at Casa de Fe and has never been in a family setting and we think it can be overwhelming for her at times.
• Pray for her as she has this cast on…the straightening process is painful.
• Pray that we would have wisdom to parent all our children!
• Pray for Rosa to learn to walk! She can do it even now for short spurts, but we think she can learn to walk well!
• We are homeschooling right now a we bond and help her learn more English! Tristen loves this time too!
• Pray for finances to cover the medical expenses we will have!

When Mike and I were thinking of baby names I made a big list of names I liked and showed it to Mike. The name we both really liked was Joel, which means messenger. However, we could never settle on it. Then one Sunday our pastor talked about Elijah and Elisha. That afternoon we talked about the sermon and both agreed that we liked the name Elisha. After we prayed about it, we knew that is what we should name our son. We knew it was kind of a risk. It’s not a common name and people often think it is a girl’s name before they see Elisha. (You can’t mistake him for a girl once you see him. He is a big, handsome dude)

We looked up the meaning for “Elisha” after we decided on the name and found that the meaning is “God will save me” and “Protected”. The verse that goes with it is Psalm 62:7, “On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.” It was settled, the little boy growing inside me was Elisha and we called him that every time we talked to him.

My pregnancy was normal and baby Elisha was healthy; however, I always had a sense to pray for Elisha. I remember praying the meaning of his name over him all the time. I wasn’t scared for Elisha, but I just had a strong sense to pray for him because something might be wrong.

September 18th finally arrived. It was my due date and I was still pregnant. I was convinced that morning that I would be pregnant forever. I went on a really long walk, played outside with Tristen, and had dinner plans with Mike. It was a beautiful fall day and I didn’t expect the arrival of sweet Elisha, but at 3:30 while I was at the park with Tristen I was having steady contractions. One of my friends told me she thought I was in labor, but I didn’t believe her. Just 30 minutes later on my walk home from the park I was starting to change my mind. I called Mike and told him not to be late coming home from work. By the time I was off the phone with him I was having contractions every 7-8 minutes. He rushed home and we left for the hospital. (Good thing my parents live close and could take Tristen…thanks mom and dad!)

When I got to the hospital I was already 6+ cm dilated. Good thing we left when we did!! They gave me the option of walking around or breaking my water for me. I chose to walk around, which didn’t last long. I am not a very patient person most of the time. So, the midwife, who also delivered Tristen, broke my water. When they broke my water they found out Elisha had had his first or more bowel movements in the womb. The midwife informed me that they would call a NICU team to standby so they could clear Elisha’s mouth and lungs in case he had ingested any of the stool. Only 45 minutes passed before I was ready to push. I only pushed for 6 minutes and our baby was out.

It was such a different experience from Tristen’s birth. Tristen came out kicking and screaming. Elisha didn’t cry and they didn’t stimulate him to breathe because they didn’t want him to ingest any more stool. He was gray in color and didn’t move. I looked away and prayed. I had peace and I didn’t want the sight of Elisha to steal that from me. Soon I heard faint crying and before I knew it I had a little brown-haired squirmy baby in my arms. He was really stinky because he had been in a giant poop bath, but he was beautiful. They weighed him and he was a perfect 6lbs 5oz. We watched his first bath, first footprints, and I fed him for the first time. It was so amazing and it all happened so fast! We thanked God for our precious boy, especially since we heard from the nurse that she had never seen such thick stool from a baby before. She told us we were “lucky” he didn’t ingest any of it.

Introducing him to Tristen and adjusting to our new lives was really wonderful and difficult, but we remained so grateful for the health of our little boy. We had heard before that it is really dangerous for babies to have their first bowel movements in the womb. However, it didn’t hit me how blessed we were and how the Lord protected Elisha until I was at his two week doctor appointment. Our pediatrician told us that she used to work in the NICU often and out of all the babies she saw in there, the ones that had swallowed stool in the womb were the sickest and died the most often. She told us it was a blessing from God that Elisha was healthy.

Elisha:
“God will save me” and “Protected”
Psalm 62:7, “On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.”

Thank you Lord for our precious son!

We have been going through all of our stuff lately, so we can get rid of things and pack our bags for Ecuador. While I was going through stuff I came across a scrapbook I made after my senior year of high school. When  I was a senior my class went on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic, and in the section about the Dominican in my scrap book I found this prayer:

“November 20, 2003 1:30am.

Lord I think You are calling me to be a missionary. I can’t sleep because my mind is racing at this possibility. I have thought about it before, but have never taken it too seriously. I have never heard You so clearly, yet it scares me because I feel so inadequate. I hardly know what it means to be a missionary; I hardly know anything about You. I want to know you so much more and I want to be in the center of your will. So, I pray tonight that you would guide me and take my fear. Lead me in Your ways and continue to show me where You want me to be.”

I remember writing this prayer six years ago. Even more than that I remember sitting in a small classroom in the Dominican Republic sweating while listening to a missionary say he believed there were some of us seniors sitting in the room that were called to be missionaries. The Lord nudged me and spoke to me more clearly than He ever had up until that point in my relationship with Him. There was no denying that I had a calling upon my life. Up until that point I wanted to be a teacher. It was incredibly difficult to surrender that dream to Him because I had the dream of being a teacher since I was about five years old.

There have been quite a few things that have been difficult to surrender to the Lord while walking out what He has called me to. Living close to my family. A house. Money. Two cars.  Having comforts and conveniences. The list goes on. Honestly, there have been seasons when if the Lord had not held me up and I did not have a wonderful husband and great friends, I would have walked away from this calling. I would have given it up to buy a house and have “security” from a “real” job. I really would have turned my back and run, far and fast, but the Lord, in His grace and mercy, called me again and comforted me with His promises.

Now as we prepare for our February fourth departure, once again I can’t sleep because my mind is racing. Racing at the thought that it has been six years since the Lord has called me and I am about to step into what He has. For six years He has been preparing me, teaching me, loving me, and growing me. He has brought me a wonderful husband that has a similar vision. He has blessed me with two boys that will be lights shinning in the darkness. He has allowed me to cross paths with great teachers, godly mentors and wonderful friends.

It is not that I have “arrived”, no, like in my prayer I still feel so inadequate and I have so much more to learn, but to see the fruit of six years is amazing. It is a milestone in my walk with the Lord. It has been a difficult and joyous journey and I am beyond excited to continue to walk with the Lord into this next season of life.

One more thought, when we got married I got pregnant on our honeymoon, which was unplanned and one of the best things that has ever happened to me in my life. At that point, I had really given up on ever becoming a teacher because I wanted to be a stay at home mom and didn’t finish my schooling. Well, now that we are heading to Ecuador the Lord is allowing me to step into a teaching role. I get to home school my brother-in-law, David, who is 14 and has down syndrome. The Lord is giving me back my dream I surrendered to Him and beyond that, my kids get to be involved, so I still get to be with them. So, the Lord is bringing me to Ecuador to be a missionary, but I get to be a stay-at-home mom, and a teacher…I never could have planned it so well myself.