It's a worthy fight

Guest contributor: Troy

Rihanna is a blessing to our family but it has not been without difficulties.   She has had no formal structure or discipline in her 3 years and does not know how to share or treat others or express herself when she does not get her way.  We are going through intensive training with her but it is tough to say the least.   I encourage you to pray for Cathy as this will be toughest on her as she will be caring solo this coming week for the first time as I return to work. 


However this experience reminds me of an incredible story of a child named "Little Annie":

Speaker Zig Ziglar tells about "Little Annie" Sullivan, as she was called when she was young. Little Annie was no stranger to hardship. She was almost sightless herself (due to a childhood fever) and was, at one time, diagnosed as hopelessly "insane" by her caregivers. She was locked in the basement of a mental institution outside of Boston. On occasion, Little Annie would violently attack anyone who came near. Most of the time she generally ignored everyone in her presence.

An elderly nurse believed there was hope, however, and she made it her mission to show love to the child. Every day she visited Little Annie. For the most part, the child did not acknowledge the nurse's presence, but she still continued to visit. The kindly woman left cookies for her and spoke words of love and encouragement. She believed Little Annie could recover, if only she were shown love.

Eventually, doctors noticed a change in the girl. Where they once witnessed anger and hostility, they now noted an emerging gentleness and love. They moved her upstairs where she continued to improve. Then the day finally came when this seemingly "hopeless" child was released. 

Anne Sullivan grew into a young woman with a desire to help others as she, herself, was helped by the loving nurse. It was she who saw the great potential in Helen Keller. She loved her, disciplined her, played with her, pushed her, and worked with her until the flickering candle that was her life became a beacon of light to the world. Anne Sullivan worked wonders in Helen’s life, but it was a loving nurse who first believed in Little Annie and lovingly transformed an uncommunicative child into a compassionate teacher.

"How do you account for your remarkable accomplishment in life?" Queen Victoria of England asked Helen Keller. "How do you explain the fact that even though you were both blind and deaf, you were able to accomplish so much?"

Ms. Keller's answer is a tribute to her dedicated teacher. "If it had not been for Anne Sullivan, the name of Helen Keller would have remained unknown."

And so it goes. Just how far back does the chain of redemption extend? And how far forward will it lead?

Day 3 with Rihanna!

I hope you did not miss our awesome post from yesterday about our new little girl, Rihanna!  Our blog website lost a bunch of posts from all over the place and really, can a new mother of 3 be expected to re-create what was lost??!!  

Anyways, this is day 3 with Ri (or Ri-Ri, as she calls herself...or Ri-na-na, as Will calls her).  We are doing some "cocooning", as my caseworker calls it, trying to stay together and home a lot so that Rihanna feels safe and taken care of, and so she is not afraid of us going anywhere or giving her to another family.  She is really enjoying having a brother and sister, except when one of them is playing with a toy that she wants!  I am doing a lot of role-playing and coaching to teach them how to handle these situations.  This has been 3 days of intense mothering, and I am so thankful for my small group (from church) who came and cleaned our house and brought us meals this week.  

The hardest time for Rihanna has been bedtime.  Either she just doesn't like bedtime in general (like most kids) or she may be afraid of Troy and I leaving her alone, although she still has Cate to keep her company.  When we leave the room for bedtime or naptime, she screams until I return.  I have to scratch her back to calm her down and then she falls asleep.  

I keep looking at my THREE kids and thinking, oh my gosh, this is crazy!  We know up's and down's are coming, but I have to say that it feels so good to know that we are giving a real  home to a girl who did not have one.  It makes me think of the Bible verses, "God defends the cause of the fatherless" and "he sets the lonely in families".  

Burwell, party of five

As Cate Burwell would say, "We got our girl!"
We are so excited to announce that God has already answered our adoption prayers and brought little Rihanna to live with us.  We heard about her situation a few weeks ago and started praying that we might become her "forever family", as they say in adoption world.  We met her on Sunday and she and Cate and Will just fell in love with each other right away...as Troy said, "it was like they were separated at birth and are finally back together!"

Rihanna is a newly 3-year old.  She is tall (Cate's size or taller!) with long legs and long fingers that seem made for playing basketball, if you ask me.  She has a great, huge laugh.  She calls us "Mama Cathy" and "Daddy Troy" and hopefully at some point will naturally shorten that to Mama and Daddy.  She is bright, loves to sing, loves to ride her bike and play ball.  

She moved in with us yesterday, and as a new mother of 3, I am already WORE OUT!  It is kind of like kid-training...teaching Rihanna how our home works, and teaching Cate and Will how to respond to this new sister.  We are trying to lay low and stay home a lot over the next 2-3 weeks so that we can all get used to this new life.  Pray for us when you think about us!  We have felt that doing something like this has been a "calling" that we have both had since before we ever even met, but that doesn't mean it is going to be easy, right?!  Anyways, IF we ever make it out to a nice restaurant again (??!!), that will be our line... "Burwell, party of five!"