To Be a Mother: September 2009

Mom to 20 Kids-Rose Malavolti Discusses Adoption

PURELIFE 2009: My Story God's Glory

"I Want to Be A Mommy!" To Be A Mother

Stiletto Run to STOP CHILD TRAFFICKING

GO to STOP CHILD TRAFFICKING NOW..to learn more and contribute.

National Anthem/Jessica Helms

Okay...so I am on the MOTHER THE WORLD
first leg tour with my kids heading from NC to Illinois. I stop to hang out with the Bateman's my new adopted family. Jessica is one of my neices. She just happened to sing for me in the basement the National Anthem. She is so awesome and unaware at how great she is. That is totally refreshing....I love how God just gives you this wild idea to travel the world talking about motherhood and then you are treated to quality entertainment in a basement in KY...Praise Him! Jessica loves to sing Christian music and is a strong Christian so I seriously doubt would be inspired to sign a record deal in a secular market..But seriously ....she ROCKS...and I am proud of her...I love the Bateman family...and Jessica and all of her siblings..my new extended family. Video quality isn't that great because of lighting.

HIV ADOPTION VIDEOS at TO BE A MOTHER of TWEITMEYER FAMILY

IT WAS A CRAZY DAY...HERE ARE OUR BLOOPERS!!!! 16 kids between the two of us....

Lisa's Baby Died Here (Rockford Abortion Mill)

So, I just returned from a book tour for TO BE A MOTHER . It was an awesome trip. As I headed out in prayer it was revealed to me to video tape women and men, families while we were on the road. I stayed in Rockford, Illinois (my hometown). There is an abortion clinic there that has aborted 50,000 babies. The abortions take place in a clinic that is housed in an old elementary school that was built in 1898. Bob Brady (the man holding the angelic sign in the video) went to this school as a child. The parking lot where the mothers park prior to abortion was where he played at recess...when I was there I saw a beautiful sign of Jesus that had been painted by a pro life activist mail man Joe Nicosi...in the window of the abortion mill the owner had placed a picture of Jesus giving the finger to the counselors with a sign that says JESUS HATES YOU!!!! There are also rubber chickens covering Jesus on a crucifix and dolls dressed up like nuns in coffins. This is where the women go to abort their babies up to 18 weeks. While there I watched Lisa Johnson a woman who had an abortion at the clinic at the age of 14. Lisa goes to the clinic with her SILENT NO MORE sign (I REGRET MY ABORTION)..She hands out literature with her testimony along with directions to the pregnancy clinic. In her literature she talks about how the abortionist showed her a petrie dish of her baby post abortion and said "see it is just a blob"....That abortionist died of cancer at a young age. Lisa told me she was saddened by that because she always held out hope he would be saved...Listening to her I had tears in my eyes. Her voice is strong...her voice is filled with compassion, sincerity and strength. Still, you can hear that her pleas are genuine....50,000 babies are lost to this clinic...where children used to play outside with joy in their hearts...pray for these prayer warriors....who stand outside of this clinic..

Rifqa Bary's Testimony! Mothers of the World..Help to Save Her Life!

Rifqa fled her parents home in Ohio for fear of death in proclaiming her Christianity. She is in Florida now. On Monday there is a possibility that she will be sent back to Ohio. If that is the case she may end up killed...please pray..

Spider PIG-800 mile serenade

I heard this song for 800 miles...When we stopped I decided to get it on tape because they were still singing..

Disney as a Second Language!

Decaf Frap High-TO BE A MOTHER /Mother the World tour

I didn't give them these drinks the church had an awesome coffee bar and the kids were treated to decaf fraps....

BUSY BUSY on TOBEAMOTHER/MOTHERTHEWORLD TOUR!

We haven't forgotten you all out there in the blogosphere. I have just been really busy with my 5 kids/flip cam and book tour. I have learned so much. I have 300 video clips to edit for all of my blogging friends/some amazing stories about adoption and confessions...and some really amazing interviews with some incredible mothers...

A couple of nights ago we were at a place called THE FAITH CENTER in Rockford. It was amazing..and we had a great turn out in spite of the fact that the BEARS and VIKINGS were playing or was it the BEARS AND GREEN BAY...This is football territory so anyone that comes out on football night has to want to come...I will tell you more about that later.

Yesterday i drove to Joliet to interview Carolyn Twietmeyer from PROJECT HOPEFUL.. . I also interviewed Rose Malavotti..a mother with 20 kids from Haiti, Mexico etc...Have video of her.

Today I spoke for a homeschooling group and tonight I am speaking and singing with no piano...

Will update soon..

Deanna

To Be A Mother/Video: Older Child Adoption-Bateman Family

We are traveling cross country talking to people about parenting/motherhood. First stop was in Kentucky to visit the family of Cody and Elaine Bateman. They have 19 kids (14 at home). Most of their children were adopted as teens. Hear what they have to say about adopting older kids and being adopted as older kids

Titus 2:3-5 (New International Version)

3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

To Be a Mother: Kentucky

We just spent an amazing two days with the Bateman family in Bowling Green. Elaine Bateman is Mrs. Kentucky and the proud mother of 19 kids (14 at home). Many of the children are 18-30. I am about to post some video clips but in a nutshell , I am being convicted to know that we need to continue love and mentor our children after they leave home....and after 18. I will chat more about it later..

OLDER KID ADOPTION: Kentucky! Day Two!

We spent yesterday driving from Asheville to Bowling Green. The view was surreal and gorgeous in the mountains of Western NC and Tennessee. I had a lot of time to think. I am still amazed where God has taken each and everyone of us. And I am all butterflies combined with awe.

We are staying with the Bateman's in Kentucky for 2 days. Elaine is MRS. KENTUCKY and Cody is an awesome inspiring man who is indeed a Pastor. We had a worship service in the basement with 20 people. So, the Bateman family has fostered/adopted/given birth to 19 kids (fourteen are still at home). I have learned via international adoption that the older kids are rarely adopted. In places like Africa, China, Russia often the older orphaned kids have to end up living on the streets once released from the orphanages. THere have been reports too that pimps are tipped off for when the girls/boys will 'age out" and they will wait for the kids and then force them or manipulate them in to sex slavery. In America it is hard enough for older children to be adopted...there is too much fear.

Most people when adopting are specific with their requirements. Many do not want to adopt children with any 'special needs'...Special needs can mean an older child, childhood abuse, medical concerns, learning disabilities. I have learned since adopting my 4 children and raising two other children that I gave birth to, that there are no guarantees. My first baby had a heart murmer that cleared up, my son has growth issues, my baby has eye issues, my son and daughter from Africa have permanent holes in their eardrums from chronic ear infections. My kids threatened to jump out 2nd floor windows when they came home or run away. My Ethiopian son would pull fixtures out of the wall in anger until we had to spackle the dry wall..

Raising kids is not easy...but it is so rewarding and we are not alone..all things are possible with the help of God and miracles happen. Abused children heal and grow to inspire and care for other children. Drug addicted babies even grow to graduate from college. Kids who watched their parents die sometimes move on to love and embrace new parents and learn to trust again...(my children are a perfect example)..

So, I am watching women in America and meeting people who have mothered children who need villages of mothers to care for them. I am meeting women who have taken in children who have no other mothers to care for them...and I am seeing young adults who have never given birth move beyond their childhood abuse and into their futures as mothers through teaching, counseling and hugs...

God is amazing..the human capacity is amazing..so why do we so often choose to shut down, block our giving to others out of fear...THROUGH FAITH IN HIM we can heal hearts and change the world.We can be His hands and feet., MOTHER THE WORLD one person/one child at a time..

Look for updates on OLDER CHILD ADOPTION...

To Be A Mother: 5 kids on road trip and the DVD player is broken

Great Review of TO BE A MOTHER by author Dennis Gerard Embo

Grace that continues to amaze,

September 3, 2009

Review by: Dennis Gerard Embo, author of

St. Augustine of Hippo opens Book I, Chapter 1 of his with a doxology, proclaiming, "You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and to your wisdom there is no limit." Deanna Jones' spiritual memoir takes the reader from a very dysfunctional childhood relationship with her human father to her ultimate and joyous discovery of God as her spiritual "Father" and deliverer. Hers is very much the story of a woman who enters adulthood alienated from God, but who in the end we see experiencing God's presence in very intimate and tangible ways. The immediacy of God's presence in so many of her personal experiences as she rises from intense inner pain and despair to wonder and elation is beautifully expressed in the pages of this book.

One aspect of the book I particularly appreciate is Deanna's level of candor in which she shares with the reader her youthful naïveté; her alternating fear and love for her mentally troubled father; her fits of rage against what she came to realize later was a very distorted concept of God as a fearful ogre like her human father; her inner turmoil as she grappled alone with her unplanned pregnancy, her decision to abort, followed by her life literally coming unraveled; her cherished dream of a successful career as an entertainer collapsing before her in a heap.

The remainder of the book can be compared to the aftermath of a violent storm that has just passed. The rain finally stops, the clouds begin to dissipate, and the sun, little by little, begins to break through the clouds. Such was Deanna's slow ascent into presence of One she had once despised and feared: God. But not God in some abstract theological construct, but God as a caring and forgiving Father. Here begins a story filled with fascination, wonder and surprise as the grace of God, manifested through a wide variety of personal circumstances, and even dreams, looms larger and larger in her life until that day when she comes to the realization that God, her heavenly Father, had been with her all along, even in her darkest hours. To paraphrase Augustine, "...you were with [Deanna], but [she] was not with you."

For me one of the most endearing parts of the book is Deanna's self-effacing confession that she is anything but a [Jill]-of-all-trades when it comes to children and what mothers and elementary school teachers have come to know and (not always) love as "arts and crafts." Perhaps arts and crafts are not Deanna's forte, but what she certainly has succeeded in doing is penning a moving personal memoir that once again reaffirms the new life even the most despairing of us can discover in the inexhaustible ocean of God's mercy, and the wonders of His love.

TO BE A MOTHER: Book Tour Send off Video

Upstaged by my 4 year old daughter...video...

To Be A Mother: "A BOOK FOR ALL WOMEN" Review by Jodi Jackson Tucker

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book for All Women!,

By	J. Tucker "Orphan Hugger" (Durham, NC) -

This is an amazing story of redemption and grace. I expected a predictable memoir, but Deanna is a powerful writer who puts you right inside the story. I could not stop reading! Every woman should read this book...the themes are universal and the outcome is an encouraging reminder of God's amazing love. This book reminded me that it is never too late for any of us. Who doesn't have regrets from her past? Deanna shows us how to rise above circumstances and past mistakes, and continue to evolve during every season of our life. I loved the book and found it very inspiring.

Road Trip for TO BE A MOTHER

Well it is the eve before I take off with my 5 kids for a book tour. It should be fun! We are heading to Asheville tomorrow around 4 to be with my sister overnight. Friday we take off for KY to be with my friend Elaine. Saturday we will stay with Elaine again and drive up to Illinois on Sunday. I am praying I am well rested and able to drive all that way....We are also praying that hearts will be changed moved and healed through the book...Amazing little book so far. Up at #1 most of last week. I thought then it had stopped building momentum..it went down to almost 100 and now is back at 10. I am so humbled by this whole experience and so happy but overwhelmed also...we just appreciate the prayers and hope that you all will be looking back here for our video/blog/motherhood tour...

TO BE A MOTHER :September Sched Book Signing

9/4 and 9/5- In Bowling Green, KY .interviewing Elaine Bateman (Mrs. Kentucky) and hanging out with her fabulous family..
9/9Joliet, Illinois Interviewing/hanging out with Carolyn Twietmeyer (PROJECT HOPEFUL) .
9/12 Book Signing in Rockford, Illinois (place to be determined)
9/13 at Our Saviours Lutheran (8am, 9:30, 11 ---to sing and sign/sell books TSHIRTS in between)
9/13 6pm at Faith Center (speaking/concert)
9/15 Lunch and talk with HALLSTROM Mom's group
St. James Catholic Church in Belvidere - Talk/few songs...
9/16 Heading home
9/19--- A Favored of Life at 6pm at Good Hope Baptist - Play...book signing after
9/25-9/27 --Purelife NYC (I will be interviewed on 9/26 in the morning session and signing books throughout the conference)

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