Making All Things New

 

My favorite photo from summer in Oregon

Thank you to everyone who prayed over those requests (and in general) that I posted a few weeks ago! The Lord has graciously answered each one in personal, tender and powerful ways. 

1) Will is much less agitated. We found the right medication formulation, it seems, and he's just so much happier and able to be who he really is! We're still in queue for his therapies but happy to wait until the new year. 

2) David is much less homesick due to great friends in our neighborhood and lots of forts in the nearby woods. (Their fort Christmas party is today. I baked cookies for it last night, at David's request. 😊) He also decided he wants to take one of his teachers back to Papua New Guinea with us because she's just so great! He and Seth have both said they really enjoy school now.

3) Seth's teacher woes have worked out beautifully. The teacher he was struggling to understand and please is now his favorite. He's figured out that she really does mean so well and cares about him. He got a great report card!

4) Marcie is doing MUCH better, although we know there are highs and lows. She has a precious relationship with her dad, and that really seems to help her weather the storms of life and emotions. Reminds me of the need we have for our Father through all the ups and downs on this journey to Heaven!

5) Gracie continues to be the most homesick (and sick, with colds - her tiny little ear, nose, and throat passages just keep getting infections!). But she's VERY happy to have her biggest brother at home goofing around with her and her other big brother David always looking out for her and making her laugh.

6) Isaac is doing fabulous! It's such a blessing to have him here! "Out of 10, you would be 80 billion!" Seth just said. The Lord has just been so good to Isaac (and us!), providing for him for college in amazing ways. 

7) Gavin is beautifully devoted to this family. I'm unendingly grateful for who he is.

I, too, am doing much better than I was earlier this summer and fall. My body and brain is calming down, praise God. It seems I was in high alert all the time, and that was exhausting! Until very recently, it felt that something was just wrong. 

I realize that Christmas will never be like it was when I was a little girl (My family had great Christmases in Colombia!). When we're children, it's, "Everything is magical, and 'Santa' is coming!" 

Now that we're adults, seeing the world around us - in PNG or America - it's, "Everything is broken, and Jesus is coming!" 

The latter hope is TRUE, and more beautiful by far. 

Waiting in hope, 

Carrie

You can't see it really well, but the manger with star above is cut into the throne. 
One of Gavin's ornaments, per my request. 

A wish come true! Going to Bolder - a climbing park - thanks to a generous Christmas gift!

Getting their tutorial in the ropes course climbing.

Hugs for Grandma (from Will and his cousin) at the Arboretum! 

Zoo Lights with Aunt Naomi! 💗 Will is not a fan of cold and stayed home.

The Christmas music and art night for the kids' school. Good thing Isaac is strong and Gracie is small!

Update for you sweet people who still check the blog ;-)

I have been too overwhelmed to blog for quite a while and mostly stay off of FB too, but I found out on Sunday one sweet lady has been checking our blog daily! (We love you, M.D.! You have blessed us so much through your prayers and love and beautiful afghans.) Quick update on the kids: 1) Will has his ups and downs. School is a struggle for him some days and other days he loves it. I hope the Thanksgiving break is just what he needs. PLEASE PRAY for his agitation. His brain is just so "on fire" with activity vs. other people's brains, even at rest. He feels like it's a superpower, so that's a positive! But it can really affect his relationships with his siblings and others. Will is supposed to be doing occupational therapy but it finding it so challenging and frustrating he struggles to tolerate even a small amount. PLEASE PRAY for the right therapies and therapists! We are so grateful for what he has now but may need to "step it up." 2) David is doing drum lessons, a dream of many years! I can hear him practicing right now. He is doing well, although he's very homesick. He's so mature for his age and naturally quiet that it's too easy for his emotional needs to be overlooked. PLEASE PRAY for his comfort in homesickness and in dealing with the turbulence of siblings. 3) Marcie is really struggling with anxiety and PTSD-type issues, as well as significant spiritual challenges. PLEASE PRAY for her heart and soul, and for the LOVE of her Savior and parents to be unmissable to her. She needs to know she is very, very special and cherished. 4) Gracie is precious but struggling with some anxiety and grief too, as well as her own autonomy as a compliant and quiet child in a household with strong wills. Things seem to have reached a head, and she's not just going to "take it" anymore. PLEASE PRAY for the mind of Christ for her, and for love and compassion and understanding and WISDOM for Gavin and me as we navigate these important relationship decisions and interactions. 5) Seth is doing amazing, but qualifies for special education for slow processing and math concepts. He is LOVING his cousins nearby! PLEASE PRAY for his encouragement in dealing with one teacher in particular who seems to struggle with his struggles. She means so well and is a dear woman. 6) Isaac is just incredible. He rates his college experience 15 out of 10. Boyce College has been an Ephesians 3:20 school for him. PLEASE PRAY he can enjoy this time with family without pulling out his hair (ha ha, he's been so sweet and happy to be back!). PLEASE PRAY for self-discipline as he's going from working 25 hours a week as a full-time college student in Biblical and Theological Studies to having lots of time on his own. He has determined to help a lot in the kitchen, woo hoo! Gavin and I are also having ups and downs with our kids' struggles and joys. I am seeing a counselor for some issues related to the difficulties of these past couple of years overseas. I am having lots of trauma responses I didn't forsee. God is faithful. Isaac gave me an excellent book, Midnight Mercies. Ephesians and Psalms are also a great encouragement. PLEASE PRAY I would fix my eyes on Christ and see His provision daily. Please also pray for financial wisdom here in America with the rising cost of living! We appreciate you!

Post from Facebook back in September

From September 15th, never remembered to put it on the blog! Turns out having babies three months early is REALLY HARD on the adolescents they become. We were warned in the NICU that this period of their lives would reveal areas of disability and struggles related to extreme prematurity. At the time I was just so grateful they were still alive, I must have shoved it out of my mind to deal with later. My mom had to remind me. As Gavin's Aunt Colleen says, "This is all part of the miracle." ❤ They are a miracle. They are God's. They are entrusted to us. I'm unendingly grateful that I get to have these kids with their unique needs. 🥰 And I'm grateful to be Stateside for a while to get the help they - and we - need. I have always grieved and really struggled over my "failure" to hang on to them longer, but that is gone now. Thank God. Will got the ball rolling when he broke his water before dawn at 27 weeks 5 days. He was the quint who was in distress at the time, despite being the biggest (2 lb 10 oz, or 1190 g). He had meconium staining and was urgently worked on by our dear Dr. Burgess, who has since gone to be with the Lord. He seemed so healthy in the NICU, never any huge scares, but now he's the one who has the most long-term consequences of extreme prematurity. In breaking the water and forcing all five to be born so early, he was just getting out when he needed to get out, in the wisdom or our Sovereign Heavenly Father. God sovereignly ordained that the rest would live. God saved Seth through those agonizing months while so many of you prayed. People we'll never meet besieged the Throne of Grace for Seth's life. He has long-term issues too, of course, but he's amazingly healthy, and loving and cute and happy and lively. And he has a good brain that can do hard things despite all those months and even years of low oxygenation. He just needs some therapy and accommodations to help him do those hard things. So, if you're still reading this long update, please pray our kids will get the therapies and accommodations they need soon. We're on waiting lists. PRAISE GOD for a lovely math tutor "grandma" for Gracie, for JD Jondavid-Kelli Lovell to work via Zoom with Seth, and for a small "whole person" school for Will this year. Please pray for stamina for Gavin and me as the homework load with four kids at a hybrid school is daunting. So many new things are bombarding them: multiple classes and passing periods, multiple teachers, multiple apps and programs to do their work in, multiple assignments to do at home. Most days we work from 2:30 to 6:00 and usually have to go back to it after breaking for supper, or catch up the next morning. Plus there's a whole new culture to adapt too, with educators and students they don't know. Meanwhile, they are really homesick and desperately miss their PNG friends and family (April and Dilu Narumao!). Please pray for God's continued amazing provision. He is SO GOOD. Love! Carrie Jones P.S. We know people care so much about our kids and want to suggest things that have helped, in their experience, but we've been buried with suggestions - literally pages of them. Right now we can't process through any more. We'll reach out on FB or in person if we need suggestions for a specific need or child! Thank you for caring.

Keeping Up With The Joneses - Our Eyes Are On You

Jones Clips - Back in the US

Keeping Up With The Joneses - May 2023

Article in UK women's Christian magazine - some clarifications included

https://www.womanalive.co.uk/my-son-got-five-siblings-one-for-every-year-he-prayed/15156.article

Clockwise from top: Isaac, Will, Marcie, Seth, Gracie, David

Jemimah did a fantastic job on this article of our crazy, grace-saturated story! In the UK it's published in an actual hard-copy magazine. I wish they sold it in PNG so I could get a copy! They don't ship out of the country. 

There are a couple of details that aren't exactly right, but it was my fault in the interview for not clarifying. 

It was 8, not 9, years (thank God) before we had a successful pregnancy.

Also, my miscarriage was before my ectopic rupture by 4 weeks - it was twins, one in uterus, one in fallopian tube, which later ruptured. 

We didn't go back to the USA to do fertility treatments, but we did take advantage of our regularly-scheduled furlough - after a solid three-year stint in PNG - to try to conceive and then prevent a miscarriage. My body wasn't doing well on its own!

Gracie and Marcie (not Seth) were the two smallest, but Marcie was only half-an-ounce smaller than Seth. The problem was that he came out after Marcie, and he was a "wimpy white boy," as they say in the NICU. [White baby boys do the worst for some reason. Will and David were great, overall, but last-born boy Seth not so much.] 

Gavin does indeed do wonderful, needful medical flying, but his primary role is flying Bible translators and church planters in and out of the bush. 💕

Spring Break!

 Life has been so full-on (in a good way)! I am finally posting some photos. We just returned from our last family trip with Isaac in PNG. It was a wonderful one, and we're grateful his friend Kori could join us.We drove down the Lae and then took a quick bout trip up the coast to near Salamaua Island. [Lae is where Amelia Earhart last was seen alive. She took off from the Lae airstrip. Salamaua and Lae are also WWII battle sites.]

Everyone had a GREAT time and I know the kids will be begging to go again when we return to PNG after our upcoming furlough. We leave PNG June 7th. Isaac starts college mid-August.  

The water is SO warm!

Our boat captain inserted himself when he saw we were doing a selfie. 😄

Getting close to our destination!

A quick playtime on the beach. Lae is behind us, not visible from this distance.

A 20-minute walk to the waterfall

David daring to jump with his Daddy's and guide's help. All of us but Gracie jumped into the deep part.

Gavin and me - it was surprisingly cold but felt amazing after the heat

Gavin and David

Happy and heading home