Sonora, California, July 2011~

Dear Journal~

Hello!  Terri Ruth here!  Hope this finds you all blessed and happy!  We re doing fantastic; we couldn't be any better!

We have five children now (we would have had six if Nashi lived, but she still lives on in our hearts; she's our little guardian angel!).  We adopted a little four-year-old boy from Africa (Kenya) named Jabari and a six-year-old little girl from China (her name is Denver Xue Nicole).  We are so happy they are finally here; the other kids just love them to pieces and so do we!

Jabari is perfectly healthy other than having a deformed leg and a missing hand; as for Denver, she has mild cerebral palsy but can walk under her own power.  Both are absolutely adorable!

I am happy to say Mordechai and Wally (our two boys adopted from India and China) are doing a lot better at Hebrew school.  They have finally picked up the nuances of the Hebrew tongue; it won't be long before they speak Hebrew better than the rabbi or their instructor!  LOL  Tovah and I are so proud of them; both Mordechai and Wallace have worked so hard!

Alyssa (our daughter adopted from Russia) is getting so tall: last year at this time she was a tiny peanut of a child; now she is nearly as tall as me, and she is only going on nine years old!  She must have had some height in her family; it's the only thing that Tovah or I can figure out! LOL

We still go to temple or to our "other" church, Sonora Christian Assembly of God; we alternate.  One week it's temple; the next, Sonora Christian.  That way the children can have the best of both worlds.  We are Messianic Jews; we believe in Jesus Christ and in salvation whereas people who follow the traditional Jewish faith do not.  We have made a lot of friends at Sonora Christian just as we have at Bat Yeshua Temple.

Seems that Tovah or I are always doing something: if it isn't shuttling kids back and forth to school, doctor's apointments, or sporting events (or to Disneyland on special occasions), then we go to our meetings at temple or being involved with our other church doing many different activities.  THEN you add me working with the Canavan Disease Foundation or helping out with the organization I started in memory of our little girl who died of Canavan disease at the age of nine three years ago.

It's a wonder I or Tovah even SLEEP!  LOL

Hard to believe that Nashi has been gone for three years.  It just doesn't seem possible!  We still miss her as much as we did on the day she died but at least we can now go into her bedroom or talk about her or look at pictures of her without breaking down into a torrent of tears!  God has healed the hurt in our hearts, but we still grieve silently and in our own way; there isn't a day that goes by when we don't think of our precious little Nashi.  She was such a special little girl in more ways than one!

I'm just grateful that Hyman (our homegrown child; he was the only child born to us; the others are adopted) never had Canavan's.  Canavan disease is a horrible experience, not only for the child who has it, but for the entire family as a whole!  It can rip your world apart in so many ways, but we were determined to give our daughter the best life possible.  We must have succeeded because she lived to the age of nine.  A lot of kids who have Canavan disease don't live past their fourth or fifth birthdays.

So we must have done something right! :)

In October, we are going to have our first annual Nashi's Hope Walk as a way of raising awareness of not only Canavan's disease but any other neurodegenerative disease that can strike families without warning and hopefully raise funds as a way of helping families who are experiencing what we did when Nashi was alive.  We want to give these families a sense of hope and encouragement, to tell them that "they aren't alone in this battle; there are many people who care about and love you so much".

We're also doing it to keep Nashi's memory alive.  To not to do so would be dishonoring her, and I personally don't think we could live with that.

Well, Jabari is yelling, so I'd best see what he wants.  He sounds rather urgent.  I will write in here soon with another update; hopefully I will write before our Nashi's Hope Walk in a little under three months from now!  Until then, this is Terri Ben Ami saying so long; Yeshua bless!

~Love, your friend in Cali, Terri Ruth.  :)

P.S.: My daughter, Alyssa, took this picture of a squirrel in a tree in our backyard; she wanted me to share it with you! :)