Life is kind of rolling over us at the moment as we begin playing catch-up from all of those appointments that had to be postponed during Scott’s treatment and recovery. We are also trying to maintain a quarantine as much as we can to prepare for Roslyn’s upcoming very major bladder surgery, and squeeze in one more book signing. Oh, and get a second book published! And we seem to be in the midst of some significant spiritual warfare as we try to keep all of these plates spinning.

I mentioned in our last update that the family is going through some tough stuff. This has not changed except maybe to get worse in most ways. We are sometimes struck anew by just what an insane mission God has called us to. It may all look rosy from the outside, but there are times (like now) when it’s absolutely bloody and grueling on the inside. We are fighting for the very lives and souls of these so-loved sons and daughters God has brought to us. And we are weak, broken, very human ourselves. We need your prayers so badly.

Specifics you can pray for are: wisdom (need SO much of that!); patience (some of our sweeties are pushing all the right buttons to drain us of this before noon each day); guidance about future steps that remain unclear to us (we are responsible for preparing every one of these children for life in the world – that is incredibly daunting at times!); discernment concerning  heart issues with our children; material provision (there is so much required to meet the daily needs of a crew this size); time and energy (there are so many children/teens/young adults under our care, and we are running short on both of these things each day as we try to be all that they need us to be); our marriage (there is so little time available for us to connect and maintain the unity required to do this as a team. And Satan loves to aim many flaming arrows at this foundational piece of our family and this mission).

I will quickly list a few details about the things mentioned in the first paragraph:

• The appointments for the kids are piling up now, just when I need to be able to focus on getting school well underway for all of them. This is discouraging for me at times. And each appointment seems to just lead to more future appointments and procedures. Some of the 10 appointments from last week have resulted in news that 3 children will have to have very major jaw surgeries in the future (not imminent, thankfully); 3 will have to start braces on their teeth pretty much right away; and 3 others will have to spend a full day at Children’s in the coming weeks for training with a new kind of bowel cleaning system to help with their bowel incontinence. And each of these things leads to battles with insurance companies as we try to get them to do the things we pay them to do with those huge monthly premiums. I’m sure many of you can relate to these exhausting and time-consuming battles.

• Roslyn goes into Children’s here in Cincinnati on 9/11 for a major bladder reconstruction surgery, and will be in the hospital until about 9/21. Because this is such a huge and difficult surgery, and because Roslyn has always had a lot of fear and anxiety, it will be critical that Scott and I are both with her pretty much the entire time and able to focus on just meeting her needs. Iris Klaber, one of our dear friends, is trying to put meals together for the family during our absence. She is getting pretty desperate as those slots are not filling up. This is one of those situations that requires us to swallow any pride, and humbly ask for help. Feeding this crew is a full-time job all by itself, and Greg and Kristie will have their hands more than full trying to care for all of our children as well as their own 8 little ones while we are gone. This can only work if we don’t have to even think about what they will eat. We can’t begin to count the times friends, far and near, (and even some strangers) have helped us through times just like this by taking care of this essential piece of daily life for us. And we’ll never be able to express our gratitude or just what a huge gift this kind of help is. If you are interested in helping, you can go to http://www.takethemameal.com, type in Rosenow and this passcode – 8509, and sign up to help for one meal during that time. Even non-local friends have helped in the past by sending meal cards or money to cover pizza, Chipotle, Chinese take-out, or Chick-fil-A for a meal. Iris can give you details about how to do that. Her phone number can be found at the link below.

• We have another book signing coming up here in the Cincinnati area. As always, we would love to see you there. Details are as follows:
  DATE: September 10, 2016
  PLACE: The Village Troubadour
  46 Eswin Street
  Greenhills, Ohio
  45218
  Time: 4pm – 7pm

• We have been pretty surprised at the ways in which God has used our first book to touch and move hearts. This is exactly what we prayed for. We want to remain open to any ways in which God wants to use the things He’s done in our lives to show His faithfulness to a watching world, but finding time to follow Him into these ventures, and deciding what to even try to accomplish, requires much wisdom and soul-searching. We do believe He wants us to continue the story that was left hanging at the end of Swaying in the Treetops, and we do plan to do that eventually. But we have also felt for quite awhile that God was leading us onto a little off-the-original-path project first. So we have been (kind of secretly) working, here and there, on a second book project we were calling Book 1.5, and that project is nearing completion now. We have finally chosen the title Through the Branches: A Humorous and Inspirational Look Inside the Daily Life of a Most Unusual Family for this next book. It will be a much smaller book and a much lighter read than Swaying . . . or the yet-to-come continuation book to Swaying . . . It is for those who have said that they long to peek into our windows and see what daily life is like in our home. It will be made up of a collection of short snippets (funny, sad, inspirational), and our goal is that it will help you feel that you have come and spent a little time with us. We hope that you will find that it’s written in such a way that will allow you to pick it up and put it down and read it here and there as time allows, and get to know our family a little more personally. We’re working hard to have it published and available in time for Christmas giving, and it’s our desire that it will pique the curiosity of those who have not yet read Swaying in the Treetops: A True Story of Faith and the Fatherless. Stay tuned. We will post updates as we complete the writing and begin the publication process.

Thank you for loving us. Thank you for praying for us. Thank you for even taking time to read these updates. We are feeling the need for tangible reminders of your presence in our lives at the moment, and we thank God continually for the support system He has built around us. We are so grateful for your choice to be a part of that.

Here are a couple of sweet pictures of Roslyn as you pray for her in the coming weeks. We’ve been through this surgery five times already with other children, and we know what’s ahead for her. It’s not going to be easy. It’s so hard to watch them suffer.