These eyelashes are so precious. Pure sweetness.
A Table for Eight
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Picture of the day!
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| Israel sledding on ice. |
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Picture of the day!
Look what I taught Israel today! They thought I was pretty cool. I am not sure my teenagers would have had the same thoughts! :)
Remembering
A year ago this week Mike and I were on an adventure that changed our lives forever. On the 22 of January 2011 Mike and I traveled 8 hours to Durame, Ethiopia in a white van with 8 other families. It was such a great day driving through Ethiopia and getting a better sense of this beautiful country that our boys were from.
I remember watching children running through fields, playing with sticks, and herding their families herds of goats or oxen, or hanging out in front of their round mud huts. What a wonderful, simple, beautiful life they have and I wondered if my boys had come from a different circumstance if they would be running around in these fields, playing with sticks and rocks and living with such joy in the simple. You see with adoption there can also come a sadness about what these children are losing. I would never want to take a child from such a wonderful, rich culture but our boys had no alternative. They were orphans in a third world county with no other options.
When we were choosing our adoption agency something that was so important to me was that adoption was the last resort. An agency that had people, and organizations in place that could help these families in country. I wanted what any mother would want, help to keep my family together. I wanted an agency that would know the culture, the needs, and heart to help the people. Whether that be a health clinic, education, mother and children's centers, or simply sponsorship. An agency with an amazing reputation and integrity.
As we drove back to Addis Ababa after meeting Dawit and Israel's brother Ufayesa I was so sad, so burdened, so blessed, and so honored all at the same time. I was sad that they could not stay together. I pictured my oldest Sean having to make this hard decision and being separated from his younger siblings. I was so burdened to help the remaining part of our boys family and so blessed that God had chosen me to see the miracle of Ufayesa's prayers being answered through our family coming along and saying yes to God when He asked us to adopt. I was honored to meet such a wonderful young man who was raising the rest of the family on his own and learning and growing not only educationally but spiritually. I was honored when he said to Mike and I you are now my new mother and father. Yep a few more tears flowed when he hugged us goodbye and said that to us in English.
What an incredible and incredibly hard day that was. One that is permanetly etched in my mind. The sights, sounds, smells, emotions, and absolute assurance that we were doing what God had intended us to do long before we knew.
I remember watching children running through fields, playing with sticks, and herding their families herds of goats or oxen, or hanging out in front of their round mud huts. What a wonderful, simple, beautiful life they have and I wondered if my boys had come from a different circumstance if they would be running around in these fields, playing with sticks and rocks and living with such joy in the simple. You see with adoption there can also come a sadness about what these children are losing. I would never want to take a child from such a wonderful, rich culture but our boys had no alternative. They were orphans in a third world county with no other options.
When we were choosing our adoption agency something that was so important to me was that adoption was the last resort. An agency that had people, and organizations in place that could help these families in country. I wanted what any mother would want, help to keep my family together. I wanted an agency that would know the culture, the needs, and heart to help the people. Whether that be a health clinic, education, mother and children's centers, or simply sponsorship. An agency with an amazing reputation and integrity.
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| A new hospital being built with the help of our agency. |
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As we drove back to Addis Ababa after meeting Dawit and Israel's brother Ufayesa I was so sad, so burdened, so blessed, and so honored all at the same time. I was sad that they could not stay together. I pictured my oldest Sean having to make this hard decision and being separated from his younger siblings. I was so burdened to help the remaining part of our boys family and so blessed that God had chosen me to see the miracle of Ufayesa's prayers being answered through our family coming along and saying yes to God when He asked us to adopt. I was honored to meet such a wonderful young man who was raising the rest of the family on his own and learning and growing not only educationally but spiritually. I was honored when he said to Mike and I you are now my new mother and father. Yep a few more tears flowed when he hugged us goodbye and said that to us in English.
What an incredible and incredibly hard day that was. One that is permanetly etched in my mind. The sights, sounds, smells, emotions, and absolute assurance that we were doing what God had intended us to do long before we knew.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
One Whole Year
It is hard to believe that we are coming up on a year home with Dawit and Israel. Our family is busy, fun, crazy, loud, and totally in love with these 2 boys. Life is not perfect. We are a normal family with all of our stuff. Sometimes I think when we read blogs about adoption or family life we can get the idea that things are perfect and the kids smile all the time, don't fight, don't argue about curfews, never make big mistakes, always smell wonderful, and eat their broccoli without being begged. I will be the first to say that we are normal, real, dysfunctional and have trained the finer elements of arguing and sarcasm to our offspring. So with all of that said let me show you a video of our first year with Dawit and Israel. All of our shining moments. Smiling, joyful pictures!! Because you know what? It is ok to celebrate and say in all our realness we had a blast this year!!
We love you Dawit and Israel. We are so grateful that God gave us such an amazing gift. The two of you!!
We love you Dawit and Israel. We are so grateful that God gave us such an amazing gift. The two of you!!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Thank-you Grandma and Grandpa James
This is just a cute video of Israel enjoying singing with his Grandparents. They sent recorded books with their voices. They love them and spend a lot of time reading with their Grandparents even though they are not here! So cute.
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