Be the 7 percent, Our adoption story

UPDATE on give away!

2012-02-18T09:00:00.002-06:00

I am experiencing som issues with my comment button. Please send me an email at bradandjj at yahoo.com instead of commenting to fulfill to requirements to be entered into the drawing. I am extending it until Monday.

1st EVER blog GIVE AWAY!!!!

2012-02-16T13:52:00.002-06:00

Yes, I am still alive! Sorry it's been so long. But, I have something great I want to offer to you guys. I subscribe to Lysa Terkeurst's daily devotions (which I highly recommend) and today she talked about Chris Seay's new book called 40 Days of Solidarity With The Poor. There's also a DVD that goes with it. You can check it out here: www.chrisseay.net SOOOOOO, since I am so excited about this and I will be participating in this for Lent, I thought I would do my first EVER blog give away. That's right. I am going to give away a book AND DVD of this. I will try to get it to you in time for Ash Wednesday. It's going to all depend on when it arrives at my front porch of course. So here's what you need to do, leave a comment explaining WHY you want to read this book AND after watching these 2 YouTube videos, tell me what country you are going to eat like. Got it? I will put all the names in a hat and draw it randomly on Sunday. Feel free to spread the word.
Ok, the 2 YouTube videos are listed on Lysa's website which is here:
www.lysaterkeurst.com Part 2 is listed first so just scroll down and watch part 1 first and then watch part 2. Read the devotion called "Why I dumped my mealtime prayer". It's great.

Peace even in the crazy times

2011-12-16T11:32:00.002-06:00

It's been forever since I've posted. It's been crazy and chaotic since I've posted. Yet it's been peaceful since I've posted. Why? Well, we still have 5 kids. We are still an active duty family and daddy is still gone a lot. He actually was home for 1.5 weeks during Thanksgiving which was AWESOME. Of course it wasn't relaxing and time to sit on the couch and eat bon-bons time. We got a lot done. Things that I can't do by myself with 5 kids (like painting a bedroom that's been waiting to be painted for almost a year now). Before we had 5 kids painting a bedroom by myself wasn't such a big deal but having a 3 year old and a 15 month old changes things a bit. And there's still meals to make, homework to do, schooling (for the ones that are homeschooled, etc you get the picture. Tag teaming is great. I got to help out in Beau's classroom for a little bit on day. Preston, Kalayna, and I also went and volunteered in my uncle's classroom. He's a teacher at an inner city school. He's only 7 years older than me so he's more like a brother than an uncle. It was awesome and Preston and Kalayna had a great time. They played wonderfully with the kids and we can't wait to go back and do it again. It's great to be able to be an extra set of hands for someone. I know how thankful I am when I have an extra set of hands.
So even though nothing has changed with our family make-up, how do we have peace you may ask? Especially during the holidays? The holidays are super crazy trying to find the perfect gift, not spending too much, or spending too much and then not having enough money for necessities,etc. Well this year we are completely focusing on THE GIFT of our Savior. This life is not all about us and yet the ways of the world totally make it seem like it is. We have to remember God's command about "keeping oneself from being polluted by the world." For us, that means we need to stay focused on Him and what Christmas really is and was meant to be. Not what the world has turned it into. I am not saying that the way you do it is wrong. I am saying what works for us and what is helping us to follow God's commands. Some people that don't believe in this thinking sometimes get offended and think they can't buy our kids gifts or mention the word santa. That's not it. WE are not spending $1000 for each kids, WE are not focusing on santa, OUR house is focusing on the BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR. If you want to buy our kids a gift, that is fine. It's not going to be the focus of their day and our kids are not gift motivated. It doesn't prove anything to them and it doesn't buy happiness or love. That's not how our family works. Kalayna also asked if we could start out our Christmas morning by giving to other first. Um, absolutely! So it will be a surprise to them, but we are going to start out by buying a lamb (or 2 as Brad suggested) for a village in Ethiopia. They will get to choose whether to by some shoes for children in Uganda, some chickens for children in varying countries in S. America, etc. There are many options out there from different organizations we trust. Kalayna also has made a bag labeled "donations" on it for kids locally. I am guessing we will have to wait until the day after Christmas to drop those off. Another exciting thing happening is that I am helping to coordinate some "faith in action" mission activities with our church. We'll be doing a feeding of a meal in January in an inner city. We'll also be sending home 2 non-perishable meals home with each family. I'm so excited to be helping with this. Then we're also working a mission trip to S. America somewhere. Can't quite release details, but it's super exciting. I love being the hands and feet of Jesus.
I just can't describe the amount of peace that overcomes me as we strive to be like Jesus more and more every day. Don't get me wrong, my attempts are miserable failures most days but every morning we start again fresh and need to try harder. I learn so much from my kids and I love the term "a childlike faith". A child's faith is so pure. I love it. If I don't get to post again before CHRISTMAS, from our family to yours- MERRY CHRISTMAS! Keep the focus! Keep your eyes and heart on Him, the babe in the manger. Find true peace.

A moving post...

2011-10-27T09:40:00.002-05:00

I just read this blog post from a fellow blogger. They are using the same agency that we used. I just had to share:

When Princess was six months old, I attended a Women of Faith conference on an anonymous donor's dime. I'd signed up to go not knowing how I would pay for it since we hadn't had an income for a full year. When it came time to pay for it, I was told someone had not only paid for my admission, they'd also sprung for the box lunch.

I worried what people would think that I was eating that $10 lunch when it was well known around my circle that we couldn't afford....well....anything.

And then they did their World Vision sponsorship push that they do. And God said, "Go." So, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. And look the long way. And stood ten feet away from the table. When I finally mosied my way close enough to the table covered in children's pictures, there she was.

Almnesh.

I refused to pick her up. I chit-chatted with the lady who was saying things like, "You usually know right away who it is. Blah, blah, blah." And I was saying things like, "Yeah, no income for a year. No way. Just thought I'd check it out."

Walked away.

Came back.

Walked away.

Took the long way round.

Came back.

She was still there. And God said, "Jamie, you need to know someone has it worse off than you."

Jamie: Roof over her head. Haven't missed a meal. Has a back-up plan if evicted. Loving husband. Great kids. Exhausted, yes. Broke, yes. Blessed, yes.
Almnesh: too thin, carries water, can't afford school, yup, she wins.

So I went home and told my husband, with hanging head. And HE said, "Well, I won't argue with God."

We've sponsored Almnesh for ten years now. And it started when we had no idea HOW we would find the money to do so. I was worried that whoever paid for me to be at WoF would see me signing up to sponsor a child and think, "Well, sheesh, she's not as bad off as I thought." I was afraid of what my parents would say if they found out. I feared what Brent's parents would say if they found out. I feared anyone knowing. It was a terrifying act of obedience.

The next month we received the first paycheck we'd seen in 13 months. We spent the next I don't even know how long, clawing and scratching and digging ourselves out of $25,000 of credit card debt we'd racked up in the preceding year. More babies came. Hard times came and went and we paid those off, too.

And now I find myself on the flip side. We have reached a level of comfort that feels incredibly.....uncomfortable.

I am completely undone.

I find that my thoughts are consumed with ending poverty and injustice. I'm constantly sharing stuff on Facebook and here on my blog about places to give and things to do and books to read. I spend too much time on blogs of people serving selflessly. I'm reading Mother Teresa and Katie Davis. And my heart cries, "Not enough. We aren't doing enough."

And I worry what people think. I'm afraid that someone will see me in the park with my Kindle (an unasked for gift) and judge me for the post I made earlier in the day regarding "necessity." And I'm afraid of what people will say when they see me eating at the local Mexican restaurant after I've made a comment about starving children. And I'm afraid of what people think when they see me snap at one of my children right after I tell them I'm adopting another.

And yet, I find myself angry with people for not getting it. For not seeing how good we ALL have it.

And I picture them thinking about me Yeah, you're one to talk. You have something to give away. I've seen your house.

And they are right. And I'm unhinged. I'm sick of the extravagance. Because I can hold bead parties (and will) and I can sell goods crafted by women in vocational training (and will) and I can sponsor children and I can give to my church and I can adopt a child (and get all sorts of wild accolades about my selflessness) and I can donate to the local food bank and I can volunteer at the meat cannery and I can boycott stinking Hershey for their child labor practices (and Pepsi for their fetal testing--knife to the heart--fire your PR guy) and it's NOT ENOUGH.

Because there are still children going to bed tonight that won't wake up tomorrow. Malaria is still rampant when all it takes to slow it down is a $18 mosquito net. Women are still selling themselves to feed their children and ending up with AIDS so they leave them as orphans anyway.

Oh Dear God when will we wake up and see that this life we have in America is so crazy extravagant and DO SOMETHING so that babies don't have to starve and their mothers have no choice but to let them be raised by strangers or watch them die?

A dear woman in my life gave me a t-shirt the other day that says "ordinary hero." She gave it to me with the sentence, "I'm not doing anything heroic." And the unsaid sentence was, "Like you." Which is bogus. I think I know her heart well enough to believe that she IS an ordinary hero. And I'm still sane enough to believe that adopting one child only makes me a hero in the eyes of people who can't fathom it. But what no one seems to understand is that the thing that would make me a hero today is if I could find a way for her to stay with her mother. If I could turn back time and get her daddy the medicines that would keep him alive and providing for them. If I could come up with a crop that would withstand drought.

I'm hoping ripples count for something.

And as I've said a lot lately, I have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. But I'm stinking tired of not speaking up because I'm afraid of what people are thinking. If I can convince the people around me to be an ordinary hero: sponsor a child, donate to the food bank, volunteer, serve, love, give....if I can do that, maybe I can deserve the title on my tee. And until that time, I'll still wear it because it says, "I heart Africa." And my daughter is there.

END OF BLOG POST!!!

That's where my heart is. And I think that's where a lot of fellow adoptive parents' hearts are. But how do we get other people to feel and see the same things? I struggle daily with this, all while kids die. Simply because they don't have food. And mothers have to give their children away because they have no resources to care for them. At what point will people realize that the money that "they earn" at their job is not really theirs? It's God's. He has commanded, get that COMMANDED us to care for widows, orphans, and the fatherless over 40 times in the bible. Not everyone is called to adopt, but EVERYONE is called to care for them in some way. What are you doing? Sponsor a child, volunteer at a food shelter, donate to a local food bank, etc. And is a 1 time donation enough? Do more! Give until it hurts, because I guarantee they are hurting more.

From the Steven Curtis Chapman concert

2011-10-24T21:20:00.003-05:00

I know I haven't said much about the concert accept for the fact that we went. Well, words really can't describe it. You see, we got to meet Steven Curtis Chapman. We had no clue this was going to happen. It was completely orchestrated by God. He then took us out on stage. I am still just so thankful that I did not have to say anything because I was crying, no it was sobbing, the whole time. All I could say was "thank you, thank you, thank you." You see, we got a grant from his organization, Show Hope when we were in the process to adopt Beau and Amaya. Check out their website at www.showhope.org Truly amazing! He is so down to earth and humble. He was saying thank you to us. I mean, seriously. Wow!
Anyways, not only was Steven Curtis Chapman there but so was Josh Wilson and Andrew Peterson. Honestly, before that night I didn't know a whole lot about either one of those other 2 guys. I sure do now. We are just in love with their music. I just found this on YouTube of Josh Wilson playing Amazing Grace at the concert. It's definitely not your ordinary Amazing Grace. All 3 of them are just amazing musicians.

How do I fix my comment button?

2011-10-23T21:57:00.002-05:00

I've had several people tell me that they tried to comment on my blog and they couldn't. I am not computer savvy at all and so I have no clue how to fix this issue. Can you help? Obviously you won't be able to leave a comment so would you do me a favor and send me an email at bradandjj at yahoo dot com ?

We did it! Africa Hope Run results!

2011-10-22T12:55:00.004-05:00

The Africa Hope Run was a success! Preston finished about 5 minutes ahead of Beau, Kalayna, Amaya, Mehret,and I but we all "did it for the glory of God" and finished strong. It was a bit chilly this morning, only in the 40s but once we got going we warmed up fast. It was amazing to see over 1000 (I am guessing anyways) people show up to raise money for the people of Malawi. And what was EXTRA special for us was that many of our family and friends stepped up and sponsored us and helped reach Preston's goal of $200 per mile. So far we raised $610. WOW!!!! We still have a few checks that are waiting to show up and so we will send the rest of the money in once it all gets here. Praise be to God! It was SO exciting to be able to give all that extra money to the kids in Malawi.

(And as we neared the finish line I let Amaya get out of the stroller so she could run a bit of the race too. Well she decided she was going to be out of control and look behind her and be all crazy so she fell 2 times. She started to throw a MAJOR temper tantrum and so back in the stroller she went. The temper tantrum continued for 20 minutes. YES! 20 minutes. I tell ya what! This girl is strong willed. But, not stronger willed than her momma and daddy. Sorry honey, we're serious about this parenting stuff and you're not going to get away with acting like that. 3 year olds don't rule our house. So as the rest of us were having our bagel, cookie, or whatever we chose after the race, Amaya sat and watched. After her 20 minute tantrum she said, "I'm all done with my sassies, can I have a treat now?" Ah, I busted out laughing so hard I almost fell on the ground. Are you kidding me? A cookie after that drama. Um, sorry honey. That would be a no. And when I say no, I mean no. Maybe next time. One of these days it's going to sink it that temper tantrums are no fun, especially when everyone else gets a treat and she doesn't. It's not being mean, it's parenting. She will learn. I keep telling myself, she will learn. In the mean time, it's hard doing fun things like this when she acts this way. Everyone stares. Wonders what is wrong with her, or me. Why aren't you doing anything? You don't understand. She WILL NOT listen. There is no consoling her, calming her down. Yes, I am sure a cookie would have shut her up. But she is not getting rewarded after acting that way. So we stood off to the side and waited for her to get it all out of her system. I wasn't going to just leave and ruin it for the rest of the kids who had just done an amazing job. And Brad was on duty and so it's not like one of us could take her to the van. Joy. Yes, joy. Just being real with you people. Life is grand sometimes but it's real hard sometimes too. I just always say that it brings me closer to Jesus. So this is Amaya after the race. Isn't she beautiful?

An exciting Run/Walk that benefits Malawi THIS SATURDAY!

2011-10-17T10:51:00.002-05:00

This morning I was watching our local news and I saw a pastor from an area church talking about a run/walk that they are having this saturday called Africa Hope Run. Watch this video to learn more.

2nd annual Africa Hope Run: fox11online.com

Right away I wanted to show the kids so I hit rewind (so thankful for technology sometimes). Kalayna instantly started saying, "I want to do it, I want to do it." Then I showed Preston the video online. He really wants to do it. I talked to him about the idea of asking people to sponsor us so that we could show up with more than just our registration fees (and it allows people to contribute who won't be able to attend the race). He was really excited. I gave him an example of "like maybe instead of just saying, here's our $30 for mommy and $20 for each of the kids we could say here's also some money that friends and family members gave. Maybe we could give like $200." His eyes got really big. And then I explained that sometimes people will sponsor you mile for mile, like $1 for every mile you run or something. So Preston said, wouldn't that be awesome if we could get $200 for every mile we run? And then doubt started filling his head. Instantly I said, let's post this to my blog and see what God does. How awesome would that be to be able to show up with a couple of hundred dollars? He's beyond thrilled at even the possibility of it. Will you sponsor us? We will be doing the 5k on saturday. Brad is on duty so the 5 kids and I will be doing the run/walk together. 6 of us x 3.1 miles. Mile per mile? A set amount? Anything will help these amazing kids in Malawi.
(And let's get that doubt out of Preston's head.)
I've created a ChipIn Account where you contribute through PayPal right away. If you'd rather send a check you can email me at bradandjj at yahoo dot com to get our address. I think something might be wrong with the comment tool on this blog but I have no clue how to fix it. You can also try that but check and make sure that the comment went through after you post it.

We are off to see Steven Curtis Chapman tonight!!!!

2011-10-15T09:51:00.003-05:00

We are so beyond excited to be going to the Steven Curtis Chapman tonight. We were blessed during our adoption process to receive a grant from Show Hope and so we got an email about a month or so ago asking if we would like to volunteer at his concert. I replied INSTANTLY to say "YES" we would all be there. ALL 7 OF US!! We would love to serve in any way possible. I found out we will be advocating for the orphans and talking about child sponsorship. How perfect. We just can never say thank you enough to Show Hope and Steven Curtis Chapman for the amazing gift they gave us. Are any of you going to be there? If so, leave a comment so I know to look for you.
Oh, and if you haven't watched the video that I posted on the last post, GO WATCH IT!!! Please!!

My heart is breaking today!

2011-10-12T13:35:00.003-05:00

After having a conversation with a fellow adoptive mom this morning, my heart is breaking even more than it has been lately. I know I have said this many times but Ethiopia has changed me, for the better. My heart aches for the people of Africa. I cry out for people to have their eyes opened and DO SOMETHING to help those in NEED. I was doing some research today about Orphan Sunday so I could present it to my church and I came across this video. It about knocked me off my seat. I beg you to please watch it and share it. It's amazing. We can not ignore this CRISIS that is going on.

True Religion from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

I am constantly asking God how we can help more. Yes we have adopted 2 kids and we sponsor 1 child, but we can always do more. I am dying to go on a mission trip but funding is short. Are there people willing to donate funds to those willing to go on mission trips? I'm even afraid to ask because I see the results we got when we were in the adoption process. Just because I am a stay at home mom does not mean I am not called to care for the orphans, widows, and the fatherless. I am. We all are. I am going to attend the Created for Care adoption mom retreat in Georgia in March to find out how I can be a better advocate for orphans. How can we get "Christians" involved more? I've got to do something with this torn apart heart that God has given to me. It's about to kill me, really.
So much has happened in the past month and half since I've posted that I didn't even get time to post. Mehret turned 1 but she had the chicken pox so her birthday party consisted of just us. Oh well, short and sweet is always good too. Then my mom had to have surgery on her pancreas because she found out she had insulinoma. Then 4 days after that while she was still in the hospital Brad's dad passed away in AL so we packed things up as fast as we could and drove down to AL. He had about 4 days off when we got back and then he had to get back to work. Then Beau turned 9. We kept it small again due to the chaotic nature of our month. We did go see the movie Dolphin Tale though so even though we didn't have an actual birthday party, we went to the movie theatre which is something we only do about 1 time a year because it's just so expensive. (I have a huge issue with spending $50+ for a movie when you can wait a few months and pay $1 at redbox. The other $49 can go to orphan care.) So here we are about the middle of October already finally getting to get our roof and siding taken care of after a hail storm that happened the end of May. It's really just been THAT crazy. Oh and somebody side swiped our van and took off and I really didn't care about the cosmetics of it accept that the van door wouldn't open sometimes. I would be fine with the automatic door not working too but it wouldn't open at all. So, we had to take that in to get fixed. We were hoping to get carpet in the lower level finally since our lower level is actually the other half of our living space but I just can't bring myself to spend $3000 on carpet when there are children dying of starvation. I mean seriously. The carpet that is down there is just fine even though it's not officially laid down. It will be fine for a little while longer. This stuff just really eats at my heart. Ok, I am starting to just ramble now. Hopefully it won't be another month before I post again. Enjoy the video.

Have you experienced this, I need advice

2011-08-22T12:58:00.003-05:00

I need some advice. I wasn't even sure if I should even post anything about it on here but I figured I would put it out there and see if anyone has experience with this sort of thing. We adopted Beau and Amaya Feb. 2010. So they've been home for over 1.5 years. One of the issues we are having is that Beau still has food issues. He can rarely ever tell if he is full. He will just eat and eat and eat. The little bit of college education I have is in Pediatric and Prenatal Nutrition. I have done a TON of research about this already but nothing seems to be helping. We still need to tell him when he needs to be done. He also does have cognitive disabilities that I am guessing are part of his eating issues but I just don't know. It is so challenging to go anywhere or do anything where there is food. ANYTIME someone asks him if wants something he ALWAYS says, "yes". There is no such thing as just "snacking" or "having a few" around Beau. I always give him the biggest portion out of all the kids and he ALWAYS asks for more. So I give him a 2nd serving. He used to always ask for a 3rd serving until Brad and I talked about it and just decided this was not healthy and 2 servings at every meal is plenty. He eats more than me at pretty much every meal. The thing is, he is super skinny. He is hyper. He wears it off. But eating so much it not healthy. I am NOT going to just do what the average American child does these days and snack and eat constantly. Just because his bodies naturally stays skinny does not mean he can eat and eat and eat all day long. If he still feels hungry (if he even knows what that means) I tell him that he can have a piece of fruit. He ALWAYS does. I have done countless research online and some people have suggested putting snacks in ziploc bags and putting them in a drawer where he can go get one when he is hungry. He would eat them non stop all day. He has no control. He gets grumpy when we tell him he is full and he needs to be done. This is very frustrating. I feel that just because Beau has eating/food issues that our other children shouldn't have to get punished for it. Going to a buffet is not even an practical option right now. Eating at people's houses is king of embarrassing. I pretty much tell people up front that either Brad or I will get Beau's plate. Normally you'd think nothing of the host asking your kids if they want more. They usually can tell them if they want more. Preston, Kalayna, and Amaya will tell them if they do or don't want more. Beau will ALWAYS say yes. And he will say yes to a 3rd serving, and a 4th serving, and a 5th serving....... At school they laugh and say "he is such a good eater. I wish I could get my kids to eat like that." They don't get it. There's such a deeper issue. I feel like such a mean person all the time but he can't make smart choices on his own and so many people don't "get it". Especially when most of America just eats and eats and the food choices are ridiculous and childhood obesity is OUT OF CONTROL. Even if he was eating fruit and veggies all day long, there is an issue when he can't walk away and recognize that he's full. He likes everything. Every commercial on TV that he sees that deals with food he says, "mmmmm, that looks good. Yum, I want to go there." Honestly, it gets really really annoying. Last night Preston and I mentioned something about ice cream (even though we rarely have any at home- it's a treat that we have when we are out occasionally.) and there came Beau running in to see what we were talking about. Seriously, we can not mention anything about food without him stalking us. If he hears the pantry door open, there he is. The whole time I am preparing lunch or dinner, he sits on the chaise lounge and watches me. It's annoying, tiring. I know I am complaining but after more than 1.5 years of this I don't know what to do. I need advice, help. He needs help. I worry about him as an adult. I am starting to hate food and eating. I dread meals. It doesn't have to be this way. It's tiring. He gets very grumpy if Preston or Kalayna happens to get more than him at a meal. The thing is, they know when their belly is full. They know when to say they've had enough. I don't feel that I need to put the same restrictions on them just because he has an eating disorder. Do you have a book recommendation? Experience with this same sort of issue? Please, comment and let me know. If you don't have something nice to say, you can keep that to yourself. Thanks!

Barely time to even sit down

2011-08-17T10:38:00.016-05:00

Well we are on a 34 days stretch of having daddy gone. He's at training in another state right now. I was going to do a blog post before he left and well, I didn't have too much to say besides I DREAD THE NEXT 34 DAYS so I didn't post anything at all. I can officially say we are half way through it and I'd like to say it hasn't been too bad, but, yes there is a BUT. Beau got shingles 3 days after he left. I got mastitis 4 days after he left. Then things cleared up, or so it seemed. We took a last minute trip to IL to see the amazing Block Family do a presentation on missions and adoption. It took us about 6 hours to get there and it was oh so worth it. Please pray for this awesome family as they move their beautiful family to Guatemala in a few days. You can follow their journey at www.buildingtheblocks.blogspot.com

We got home Sunday night and packed up so that we could go camping from Monday to Wednesday with 2 other adoptive families. They are 2 very special families to us. They are the ones God used to inspire us to adopt. He had always had adoption on our hearts but we always kept making excuses like "we can't afford it", "maybe when Brad is done in the Coast Guard", etc etc blah blah blah. Well, as soon as we met these kids, it was TOTALLY obvious that God was telling us STOP MAKING EXCUSES. The time is right now. And man oh man was he serious. Our adoption process was complete in 9 months, start to finish. Keep in mind, we didn't even have a savings account. Only God could do something that amazing. Only God. He provided every last penny. He moved every last mountain to get our kids home. So spending time with these gems from Ethiopia is just priceless to us.

Beau loved exploring nature. There was an injured baby bird so he "built a bird house" for it. It was so cute.

They went swimming- for hours at a time and came back with purplish blue lips cause they were so cold.

We've discovered that a hammock is close to being a necessity at our house. All the kids LOVED it.

Mehret was pretty much attached to me the whole time but I did catch her being happy without me for a while. Our friend's son was trying so hard to get her to like him and she finally let him give her some of her "puffs" (dissolvable baby food). She is completely in the "stranger anxiety" stage right now.

We got home Wednesday and did a bunch of laundry and got packed up again so that we could head out to Minneapolis on Thursday morning to visit a friend until Saturday. We got to do lots of super fun things while we were there. I got to go to IKEA, we went to the Mall of America and each kid got to pick 2 rides to go on. It gets really pricey if they just go on all the rides they want to. With 4 kids riding, we had to set a limit.

The Nickelodeon Scream Team (I think that is what they are called anyways, I am not sure because we don't get all the extra channels on TV like Nickelodeon) came around and "collected screams" and then did a few dances. Of course my kids (any my friend's kids) participated. It was so fun.

After that we went to Sea Life which is also inside the Mall of America. It was awesome. Since we've lived in Hawaii twice, we are very used to sea life like this but Beau and Amaya have never seen this up close and personal. It was so awesome to have them see it in real life. I kept sending Brad texts with pictures the whole time we were there. I hate that he missed it all.

Saturday we went to an Ethiopian Restaurant in St. Paul. I didn't take my camera in with me but it was great and the people were so nice. After that we went to the Como Zoo. It started to down poor right as we got there and got out of the van. It only lasted about 10 minutes but long enough to get us soaking wet. The sun came back out though and we enjoyed some time looking at all the animals.

We got home Saturday night about midnight. I got all the kids in bed and the van unloaded. Then Sunday morning Kalayna woke up with an itchy bug bite. About an hour later she had another bug bite. Did she have bugs in her bed? Nope, she has chicken pox. Later in the day Amaya started breaking out. I was dreading this since Beau got shingles. I did not vaccinate my kids against chicken pox because that vaccine was created for the convenience of working mothers. I don't work outside the home. It doesn't make sense for my kids to get those chemicals injected in their bodies for my convenience. But really, do they need to get the chicken pox while Brad is gone for 34 days? Kalayna doesn't have them too bad but Amaya's are pretty bad. She's pretty fussy about it. I found some Benadryl spray. I don't usually like using anything with chemicals or medicines. I prefer natural remedies but I saw this spray and thought I would give it a try. Every 10 minutes or so Amaya asks for some. Right now that stuff is priceless. It keeps her happy, well as happy as she can be with chicken pox.

That's it for now. Hopefully it won't be another 5 weeks until I get a chance to post again. One thing's for sure, it's bedtime right now.

Summer is going way too fast

2011-07-06T12:00:00.009-05:00

I absolutely can not believe that it is July already. We have been so busy but yet it seems as though I haven't gotten anything accomplished. Maybe that's because I'm constantly running around doing things for the kids and not doing much to actually cross off things on my own "to do" list. The 3 oldest took a theatre class the month of June that was mon-thurs for 2 hours a day. Their performance was on the 30th. They LOVED it. Preston did great keeping Beau near him and reminding him what to do. I wasn't sure if I should even sign Beau up for it but I figured I would let him try. He for sure needs someone like Preston to be by him reminding him constantly what to do. Preston and Kalayna did great and remembered their lines. It was a first for everyone.
Preston has been playing baseball since late April. I love watching my kids play sports. It's just so exciting. Beau is playing baseball too. He plays for the Miracle League which is for children with physical or mental disablilities. He loves it.

He has had 2 games canceled due to weather and it completely BUMS HIM OUT when that happens. They can pick what kind of bat they want to use and of course, he chooses the short chubby bat that you'd normally have your 2 or 3 year old use when they first start experimenting with a baseball and whiffel ball. Beau is 8 years old but still no where near that age socially, academically, or mentally. We still don't have a diagnosis of any sorts besides "cognitive disibility". Since he is missing his hand and he is almost blind in his right eye I am guessing it's all related. It's really just a mystery. Beau and Kalayna play soccer through the rec department once a week. Preston was too old for the rec department this year so hopefully in the fall it will be his turn for soccer.
Amaya is riding her bike really good now. Of course it still has training wheels but she has it figured out finally and her legs can reach.
Mehret had her first bike ride on Monday and loved it. I am sure there will be many more to come.

Amaya LOVES getting sprayed with the hose. I was watering the garden the other day and she came over and kept saying, "get me mommy, get me." So I did and she just LOVES it.

Preston has continued to be such a big helper. He LOVES Mehret and can't stand to hear her cry. She doesn't cry very much at all but if she does he will scoop her up and make her happy. I found him reading her a book one day. Melt my heart!

Mehret loves to chew on watermelon. She isn't into baby food a whole lot yet. She still gags sometimes. She is a breastfeeding baby, that's for sure. And that is ok with me. She is growing great and I don't need to go anywhere without my precious love.

There are some very special kids that were adopted from Ethiopia about 4 years. They were the ones that God used to help us realize that we needed to stop making excuses about why it was not the right time to adopt (money, or lack of I should say). Helen just got confirmed and we were there to witness it. Helen is also Amaya's godmother. She is one AMAZING girl. We love her to pieces.

We also got to witness another AMAZING event. We have been blessed with some more amazing friends who have recently adopted from Ethiopia. He has been home since March. He was baptized in May. They had a party to celebrate afterwards. We're so blessed to have such amazing friends.

We've gotten together with several friends that have adopted. It's such awesome therapy to be able to talk with fellow CHRISTIAN adoptive mommas. I love it.
I think that's all I got for now. Hopefully it won't be so long until my next post. Have a great July!

2 very belated birthdays and a few thoughts!

2011-05-25T08:11:00.005-05:00

I have been very bad at posting anything on this blog. I wanted to get the series done before posting anything that didn't have to do with the series and then well, I got out of the habit of posting. I want to make sure that I post pictures of Kalayna's birthday from way back in March (the 23rd to be exact) and Amaya's birthday on May 3rd. Kalayna had a barbie cake and so of course Amaya wanted something just like her big sister but we switched it up a little bit and made it a Strawberry Shortcake cake. She loves Strawberry Shortcake.
Kalayna's birthday:

Amaya's birthday:

Amaya sang to herself while we all sang to her. It was so cute. This was her 2nd birthday that she celebrated here in America with us but this year she really understood what was going on. She was SOOOO excited in the month leading up to it. First she wanted a Barbie cake (because Everything and I mean EVERYTHING she does is just like her big sister), then she said Strawberry Shortcake, then she said Blues Clues, then she said Strawberry Shortcake again. She just couldn't decide. We don't do a whole lot for birthdays. We make them feel extra special on their day. They get to pick what they want to eat. They get a few presents (nothing big or expensive). We have a few people over for cake (usually Grandma and Grandpa and the next door neighbors). We used to make birthdays bigger but now that we have 5 kids, man oh man it just really adds up financially.
I know I have said this a couple times before but ever since we have been to Ethiopia, we see things in a different way. Life isn't really all about us. We don't want our kids growing up thinking life is all about them either. Because it's not. It's all about God. Yes we make them feel special and it's fine to spoil them a bit on their birthdays but to spend hundreds of dollars for just 1 day? Not our cup of tea. How about send that money to a child in true NEED? Give a child an education, food every day, medical care, and God's Word for an entire year. That's how we roll anyways. We really don't NEED anything more. Our physical needs are more than met. Our bellies are MORE than full (too often). Let's share the love and blessings from God. Just our thoughts and ideas. Everyone can do their own thing.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend. The older I get the more I realize it's more than just a fun 3 day weekend. It has so much meaning. Take time this weekend to think about all those who have put given their life for our freedom. The ultimate sacrifice.

Before and After pics and Amaya's 3rd Birthday!

2011-05-03T09:27:00.007-05:00

Today is Amaya's 3rd Birthday! We are going to celebrate on Saturday since Brad is not home today. She sings along with us when we sing happy birthday to her though. She's LOVING her special day so far.
I wanted to post "progress" pictures of Beau and Amaya. I will show you their referral pictures and a recent picture of each of them. It's stunning, especially Amaya.
Here's Amaya on Sept. 28, 2009:

And this is Amaya now: (ok so she's being goofy and has a piece of food hanging out of her mouth but this is our Amaya being who she is-GOOFY at ALL TIMES!)

And here's Beau back in March/April of 2009:

And here's our handsome man now:

I am amazed at how much God has helped these kids grow not just physically but spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Only He could do this. It's nothing short of a miracle. All praise and glory be to Him.
Happy Birthday Amaya Papaya. We can not imagine our life without you. You have added so much joy and laughter to our days. We're so thankful that God led us on the journey to you. We love hearing you call us "mommy and daddy". You admire your big brother and sister and baby sister. God knew you needed every one of them. They love you to pieces. Happy Birthday!
(Yes, we have many many many crazy insane moments and days- I am not going to sugar coat anything. But at the end of the day, we can't imagine life without any of our 5 kids. If God leads us to it, He helps us through it.)

Day #10 and 11: It's been 1 year already?

2011-04-06T10:35:00.010-05:00

Day #10 and 11: Saturday, February 6, 2010 and Sunday February 7, 2010:
So we were supposed to be arriving in the US but due to the MAJOR snow storm in the DC area, all flights were canceled. We got to spend another night in Addis Ababa at the Guest House. Saturday we just enjoyed our wonderful travel group's company and hung out at the Guest House. Beau was very anxious to get on the airplane and go to America. He kept saying, "America, America." We took a few pictures of our awesome travel group.

Most of us were on the same flight to DC which was awesome. We ended up seeing a couple of the families that we met while we stayed at the Yebsabi Guest House at the airport too. Some of them were on our same flight also. I really wish that I would have swapped info with them so that we could have kept in touch. I often wonder how they are doing.
Our flight went really well. The kids did great. They slept a decent amount, as much as we could ask for anyways. Brad didn't get a whole lot of sleep. For some reason, I felt like my skin was literally crawling for a couple of hours. It was very uncomfortable and I kept getting and tried to stretch to get rid of that feeling. I can remember that feeling very vividly just typing it right now. Yuck! I don't know if it was the anti-nausea medicine or just part of the pregnancy or what but it wasn't fun. Thankfully nausea only set in a few times.

Our luggage all arrived in DC and customs went fine. Our goodbyes to our travel group friends were fast, which was probably a good thing because I get emotional real fast. It was a good thing that I didn't have a long time to realize that it would be the last time (for a while but hopefully not forever) that we would see them. We were SO fortunate that our flight was NOT canceled to Chicago. It was one of the very FEW, if not the only one that day that was STILL on schedule and not completely canceled. The other people in our travel group rented a car and drove to Indiana (yes, from DC to Indiana) and North Carolina. There were just so many flights that had been canceled for so many days in a row that it would be so long before they would get a flight. All the local hotels were booked. It was crazy. Our flight to Appleton was also on time. We made it!! I called home in DC and Chicago. I couldn't believe we were so close to being a family of 6. I couldn't wait to get Preston and Kalayna in my arms again. I missed them so much. We missed them so much. I couldn't wait to see how all the kids reacted to each other. So much excitement. So here we are:

Preston meets Amaya for the first time:

Meeting Beau for the first time:

Kalayna meeting Amaya:

Grandma meets Amaya. This is really real? Tears were shed. I think through the whole process is what just talk. Nobody in our family had ever adopted before. But seeing these precious lives was so amazing.

This is just part of the group that showed up for our homecoming. We didn't get a whole group shot.

Thank you to:
My mom and Jay (Grandma and Grandpa) for watching Preston and Kalayna while we were in Ethiopia and coming to the airport
Others that came to the airport:
Carla (for taking pictures also, they're priceless)
Amy and Abby
Steve and Christy, and their 8 kids: Alex, Kiley, Faith, Zeri, Solly, Aman, Aben, Tsion (the last 5 were adopted from Ethiopia) and they are in process to adopt 2 more Ethiopian beauties.
Praew and Gabby (the 2 international students that we hosted)

We headed home, TOOK A MUCH NEEDED SHOWER, talked with my mom and Jay for a while, ate some of our favorite foods, and then after they left we went to bed. Every one slept GREAT. We were all EXHAUSTED.
The kids were great. Beau found the spiderman toy right away and just said Spiderman a lot. He wasn't too shy but not overly excited either. Amaya stayed by me a lot but did venture a little bit to see some toys. We didn't have any crying at all. They really did great. Preston and Kalayna did great. Of course they didn't want grandma to leave. They had been spoiled, and I mean SPOILED for the past 11 days. Grandma loved EVERY second of it. She didn't want to go back to work either. Thank you Grandma.
Thank you God for leading us on this wonderful journey of adoption. It was so scary to take that leap of faith knowing that financially we did not have the money to do it but we knew it was what You were calling us to do. You provided every single penny needed. It has been a very challenging journey filled with lots of unknowns, unexpected health issues, but our eyes are open wider than ever before and our hearts are bigger than we ever thought possible. When times are tough and we think we can't go on, You are there. You knew what home these kids needed to be in. You knew that they needed a big brother and sister and that Preston and Kalayna needed them and this journey. You also knew that our family needed a baby. Our Mehret Honor has been the biggest blessing to our whole family. She has been the calm in the storm. Hearing Beau say, "I love you Mehret Honor" is the sweetest thing ever. Watching Amaya sing "Away in a Manger" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain" over and over and over again to Mehret and then watching Mehret smile at her is PRICELESS. Hearing Amaya tell MANY people out in public that Mehret is her "baby sisser" even when they aren't asking makes me so proud. Hearing Beau say his prayers makes me want to cry (good tears) because all other forms of learning are very difficult. (Yes, it is a diagnosed condition and not just because he's from Ethiopia or an adjustment issue that will "click" some day.) He loves Jesus. He loves going to Cross Training (the bible class that Preston, Kalayna, and Beau go to every Wednesday night). I could go on and on. Yes there are many difficult times too. Many times where I pray for patience and guidance from God (and too many times where I don't handle things in right tone of voice or the way I wish I had). But did God ever promise us an easy peasy life? No! Nor do I want it to be. If my life is always comfy and relaxing, I am not serving the Lord with my whole heart and that is not ok with me. We should always be striving to be more like Him and He never just sits back and does nothing. It's been a great year. We've learned so much. Our marriage has grown so much. Each and every member of our family has grown so much and learned so much.
Before and After pictures are next.

Urgent! Please Pray!

2011-03-11T07:36:00.002-06:00

Brad called woke me this morning to tell me of an earthquake in Japan which is devastating but the news that effects us more is that there is a tsunami that is predicted to hit Hawaii in about 45 minutes. Brad forgot that Beau doesn't have school today and that we would be sleeping in. That's ok, knowing this I would much rather be awake and praying. Since we have lived in Hawaii 2 times, we still have very dear friends that live there. Mehret's godmother and her family live there. So please pray for the country of Japan. Please pray for the Hawaiian islands as they brace for the possible tsunami.
And as I watch the news for updates, already some of the focus has turned to how this is all going to have an effect on the U.S. financial markets. Really? Really????? Money is already the focus when their is death and disaster that has just struck less than 24 hours ago? Ok, more prayers for the focus of many to change, change and focus on God. Focus on how we can help those in Japan and the areas that are going to be effected by the tsunamis.
Reaching for my bible and reading the many verses that remind me to "cast all my anxieties on Him..." and "Do not fear for I am with you....".

I will return to my series of posts, I promise. Free time has been NON EXISTANT lately.

Day #9: It's been 1 year already?

2011-03-03T21:33:00.004-06:00

This is the 2nd post for the day, don't miss Day 8.
Day #9: Friday, February 5, 2010
When we were walking around Thursday evening after Beau's haircut, a couple of homeless/street women with babies told us that their babies were hungry. We noticed that they did not have any shoes either. We gave them some water and a few snacks. We tried to find a place to buy shoes but were unsuccessful so we told them to meet us (through a translator) the next morning and we would buy them some shoes. So we got up, ate breakfast, and then headed up to find a clean outfit or 2 for their babies and some shoes for the mothers. They never ended up showing up. We were so sad. A couple from our travel group did find a really nice rug that they purchased with money that was donated from their church for the care center. The floor in the infant's room was just concrete and they thought it would be great to have some carpet or a rug down to make it softer for the kids. They bought that and then Brad and Tim carried it back to the Guest House. We walked quite a long distance (or so it seemed anyways) which was really nice. We got to see a lot. When we got back to the Guest House we ordered lunch. Michelle was looking at her paperwork and noticed that Weyni's visa was not the IR3 like it needed to be. It was an IR4. She got in touch with Haile, the representative for our agency in Addis Ababa and they tried to get it worked out. Needless to say, it didn't get fixed that day. While she went to the US Embassy with Haile we all watched Weyni for her and played out in the court yard. Bubbles were a hit.

Our flights were supposed to be leaving that night. She couldn't leave with the wrong visa. They needed an IR3 to get back into China. What a mess. There was a huge snow storm in Washington DC which is where our flight was going and it ended up getting canceled. I was very anxious to get home to Preston and Kalayna but I also hated leaving Michelle behind. It made me feel so much better that we all could spend another day with her and not leave her alone. We had all taken our luggage down to the lobby and then found out that it was canceled. Beau kept saying "America, America, America" over and over again. He was so excited. We had to have the front desk staff explain to him that we had to stay one more night. We had to carry all the luggage back upstairs. No, there were not any elevators. So we get to spend another night in Ethiopia. I'd much rather do that than get stuck in an airport and be stranded with thousands of other people because of a huge snow storm. I'd rather just wait it out until the snow passes and then get home without delays. So stay tuned for yet another day in Ethiopia.

Day #8: It's been 1 year already?

2011-03-03T20:35:00.006-06:00

(I know, it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted. I realized I don't have many pictures of the next few days of being in Ethiopia for some reason. I know one of my memory cards says it needs to be reformatted and I have NO CLUE what that means or how to fix it, but I can't view the pictures on there at all. I think some pictures from those days are on there unfortunately and I hadn't downloaded them to my computer.)
Day #8, Thursday,February 4, 2010:
Today we got to visit the care center in Addis. Beau and Amaya only spent about 1 month or so at this care center. They were transferred to this care center after we passed court. It's just standard protocol. That way the agency can get all their paperwork done and ready for our Embassy appointment. It was great to see all the kids there. We only had 2 care packages to deliver to kids there because most of the ones that we were delivering were to the kids in Mekele. The other families in our travel group brought the packages for the kids in Addis. We were the only family from our travel group that traveled up to Mekele. I found the kids that I needed to give care packages to. The one little girl was pretty shy. She was about the same age as Amaya. She didn't cry at all but she wouldn't smile or talk or let me hold her or anything. Several families requested foot tracings of their kids so I did that. Brad had the camera this time so we didn't get as many pictures as I normally would have taken. I had Michelle's camera so I could get a bunch of pictures of her little guy for her. She stayed back at the Guest House with Weyni. It was a tough decision. They did not have Embassy approval for Alazar yet and they had already traveled in September to see the kids so they could get the type of visa they needed. She didn't want to see Alazar and then leave him AGAIN and have him think that she was a person who comes to visit and then leaves. We totally understood where she was coming from. So I just took her camera for her and stalked Alazar around the care center and took as many pictures as I could for her. He was soooo adorable. I know it was killing Michelle not to see him. Thankfully he got to come home just 2 weeks later. The care center in Addis was very nice. It's very obvious that Addis Ababa (the capital city) has access to a lot more goods than Mekele does. We were very impressed by the Mekele care center also but the Addis one was almost like a house in America. It had a big gate and walls around it with barbed wire all the way around the top.

Leaving the care center was very very hard for me. I tried my hardest to hold in the tears and I did until we made it through the gate, and then I just couldn't anymore. A couple of us were standing out by the vans waiting for a few more people from our group to come out and we just talked about how great the kids were but how sad it was to leave them behind. We were so thankful for the care they were given. The nannies were all wonderful. We were a little nervous about how Beau would handle going back there but he did great. It seemed as though he was proud to show off his mommy and daddy. It was his turn. When it was time to leave he jumped in the van and waved good-bye to his friends. We had left Amaya at the Guest House with Michelle and Weyni. We didn't feel it would be good for her to see the nannies again and wonder what was going on. It would have been much harder to explain things to her.

It was very cute and I loved that he was happy to be with us but I felt so sad for him. He was leaving all he knew, not necessarily that care center but the culture. I knew that this is what God's plans were but it was all just overwhelming for me. I also know it doesn't take much to make me cry either.
The sites of Addis continued to amaze me. The area around the care center was more spread out and modern (well for Ethiopia anyways). There was a new road being paved but still lots of cattle and people walked down the road while it's under construction.

We went back to the Guest House and ate some lunch quick. Then it was time to go shopping. Brad stayed back with the kids. There were about 4 of us that went shopping to a place called the Post Office. No it's not a package shipping place. It's place to buy Ethiopian gifts and souvenirs. I bought a couple of things but didn't go overboard.
When we got back to the Guest House a couple of us walked up the street a couple of blocks to get Beau's hair cut. It was so long and in knots. He was so excited to get it cut. It was clearly the first time he had ever gotten his hair cut somewhere besides the care center. So cute. What a difference it made. That night for dinner we went to a cute little diner type place. It was a lot like something we would find here in America. The food was great. After that it was time for bed. We were all tired from a long day.(Especially me. The kids had a nap but I didn't and I had been walking all day long. Normally I love to walk a lot but being about 10 weeks pregnant, I was exhausted.)

Back to the series: Day #7: It's been 1 year already?

2011-02-15T08:48:00.005-06:00

Day #7, Wednesday February 3, 2010: Our Embassy Date

We all got up, ate breakfast, and got ready to go to our Embassy appointment. This is the big day we were waiting for (after court of course, but we had already passed court). The US Embassy would issue us the kids' visas and that would allow us to BRING THEM HOME to AMERICA. Everyone in our travel group headed to the Embassy at the same time. We were told that it could take several hours for everyone to get done. Other adoption agencies have appointments on the same day also. We packed toys and snacks. Thankfully our agency got appointments first so we were in and out within an hour or 2. Not bad at all. It was VERY cramped inside the building though. There weren't any seats left at all. We sat on the floor with the kids and then I finally went outside with Amaya where a couple other families were with their little ones. They did great though. After we left the Embassy, we headed back to the Yebsabi Guest House to get our bags. It was time to move over to the Grand Guest House where the rest of our travel group was staying. We ordered food from Zola, an Italian Restaurant that also has Ethiopian food that DELIVERS to the Guest House. After that, several of us took naps with the kids. I took Amaya to the doctor up the street because she had a terrible cough that actually made her throw up. He said she had bronchitis and an ear infection. He gave her a prescription. Tigest, the receptionist from the Grand Guest House, walked with me to get the prescription. She was SO nice the whole time we stayed there. I can't say enough about the staff at the Guest House. For dinner, our whole travel group went to the Zebra Grill. It's a restaurant that is owned by an Ethiopian native who was adopted when he was little and then returned to Ethiopia to open the restaurant. It was very fun to go to eat with the travel group.

As we were getting back in the van to head back to the Guest House, there was a very poor mother with her baby on her back who was trying to tell us that her baby was hungry. Through all the hustle and bustle of getting everyone in the van, I finally got the other people's attention and asked them what we should do? We were told that if we give one person money or food, then we would have tons of people coming up to us. But my heart was aching for this mother. We had a take out box of food that I was just about to give to her and then the van drove away. This sight was so common. We saw many mothers with hungry children. It broke my heart. They didn't have shoes on their feet. The children would be nursing as they walked down the street. Nursing from breasts that did not have much milk in them. A very sad sight.
We got back to the Guest House and pretty much went to bed. We were all tired from a long day.
Stay tuned for day #8.

An interruption in the series.....

2011-02-06T13:21:00.003-06:00

To say GO PACKERS!!!!! We fired up the grill to cook our brats. I made a fruit pizza with a big letter G made out of grapes on it. Now we're heading to my mom's to watch the game.
Paw Paw (Brad's dad) has been saying he wants the opposite team to win for the past several games just to get the kids all worked up (because I KNOW he really does LOVE the Packers). They even painted him some Packers art and mailed it to him last week. He lives in AL. So, this one's for you Paw Paw!

GO PACK GO!!!
Even Amaya's been saying that for months now!! It's been an awesome year for football in our house. Auburn one the BCS Championship and now the Packers are in the Superbowl. Wow!! Brad LOVES Auburn, and that is an understatement.

Day #6: It's been 1 year already? Our GOTCHA day!

2011-02-04T07:54:00.014-06:00

Day #6
February 2, 2010- Our Gotcha Day. A day that will always be a special day for us. We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary of being together. Although we didn't do too much to celebrate yet because we are waiting until daddy comes home for the weekend. We can't celebrate without daddy.
We woke up to the sounds of dogs barking. We were hoping that it would be different since we were in a much bigger city now. Nope! Still tons of dogs barking through the night. I told Brad that it must be because they are starving too. So the whole trip we kept somewhat joking about the starving dogs. It probably was a reality though sadly. I am huge animal lover so it broke my heart. Right next to the Yebsabi Guest House were houses (again, nothing like here) and when I was looking out the window one morning I saw the lady let the dog out of the gate. I guess the dog goes and looks for food during the day and just comes back home at night. It makes sense though, how could they spend money on feeding their dog when they barely have enough to feed their family? Not EVERYONE in Ethiopia is poor. There are some that are middle class or wealthy. It just seems like poverty is EVERYWHERE and even the "middle class" in Ethiopia, their living conditions are very poor compared to anything we have here.
So anyways, we went down and ate breakfast. At the Yebsabi they have a chef there who cooks all 3 meals. He was so nice and a great cook too. It was nice to not have to worry about ordering out food. There was 1 other family from our agency besides Michelle and Weyni staying there and then also several families from another adoption agency. They all knew that we were going to be meeting our kids that morning. Several of them asked if we minded if they would come down to the front area to watch as our kids were brought to the Guest House to meet us. We didn't mind at all. Now I wish that we would have exchanged info with them though because they probably have some great pictures. I am curious to know how they are doing with their kids. They all had their kids with them already. We thought they were coming at 9. So we ate and then went outside and waited.

I kept going to the gate to watch for the van to bring the kids. Weyni helped me watch for them.

I finally called Haile, the director in Addis Ababa to make sure that they were still coming. It was about 10 a.m. by now and I just couldn't wait anymore. They finally arrived about 30 min. later. We had went inside and were sitting on the couch in the lobby when they got there. 2 nannies were with them. Beau was holding one of the nanny's hand. Amaya was sleeping so the other nanny was carrying her. Wow! Was this moment really happening? I couldn't believe how much hair they both had. Beau's was SO thick. The last picture we saw of Amaya we knew that she was growing hair finally. It was so cute. She had on the outfit that we had sent in one of the care packages. It fit her perfectly. I just stared at her while she was sleeping. The nannies tried to wake her up but she wouldn't. One of the nannies went into the bathroom and splashed water on her face. She was NOT a happy camper. What a way to wake up to your new mommy and daddy. She looked at us VERY hesitantly.

Beau was just VERY quiet. We could tell he was really nervous. They both had runny noses. Thankfully we had brought medicine along. I had the nanny ask him a few questions. He didn't know much English at all. He gave us each a hug. We sat down with them and got out some toys to try and break the ice. The chef asked him if he wanted some tea. He said yes.

He still talks about having tea for the first time. He really liked it. He still had the photo album that we sent to him several months ago. Brad started looking through that with him. It was obvious that he had looked at it several times. Several pages had been torn out and it was a little ragged. We were just excited that he still had it. We kept asking who those people were and he would always say, "mommy, daddy". He brought a tear to my eye.

We took them up to our room and gave them a bath and did a lice treatment right away just in case they might have brought anything with them. We didn't want to take anything home with us. We didn't see anything in their hair at all but it's better to be safe than sorry. We put a fresh change of clothes on. Beau was SO excited to see a whole bag full of clothes, JUST FOR HIM. We had a backpack with toys in it. He was SO excited about that too. Amaya wanted to be held. They BOTH LOVED the water. I thought Beau was FREAKING OUT about the water so I shut it off quick but then he looked at me like, "why did you shut the water off?" So I turned it back on. He LOVED IT. It was obviously his first time EVER taking a REAL shower. He would have stayed in there ALL DAY LONG. I can't imagine how good that must have felt to get completely cleaned up and not just sponge bathed in a little tub that your body can't completely fit in. We gave them both some medicine for their colds and fevers. We played with the toys with them and they started to come out of their shells.

We went down and ate lunch. They ate so well. They weren't picky about anything at all even though they had runny noses and Beau had a fever.

We are so thankful for the chef at the Yebsabi Guest House. He spoke Tigrinya and Amharic. Tigrinya is the primary language in Mekele so that is what Beau and Amaya mostly knew. They knew a little bit of Amharic since they were in Addis Ababa for the past month and that is what those nannies spoke. He translated a lot for us.

After nap time, we all went up and took a nap. The kids did great. They were used to laying down for about 2 hours at the care center after their lunch. I was really tired from being pregnant anyways so it all worked out great. What a great way to bond too- snuggle time.
When we woke up we went outside and played soccer. Weyni and Michelle came outside and joined us. It didn't take us long at all to realize that Beau really didn't ever get to play with a ball much before. His coordination was well, not very coordinated. Thankfully he has come a LONG way since then. He had a lot of fun kicking the ball around in the courtyard though. Amaya pretty much just wanted me to hold her. I finally just handed her off to Brad so that I could get a chance to play with Beau and her and Brad could bond too. She wasn't too happy and first but she did warm up to him after a little while. It was so cute. After dinner they had a coffee ceremony for all of us families staying there. They also cooked out on a grill outside. It was awesome.

We went up to our room to start getting in jammies. Beau was very excited to put yet another clean pair of clothes on. Pajamas are not something he'd ever had the luxury of wearing before. He felt VERY special. Michelle and Weyni came to our room for a while so Michelle could download her pictures on our computer just in case hers would get damaged or lost or something. It was so fun to be able to hang out with them. Weyni, Beau, and Amaya all played and got along well. We still called them Gebrezgabher and Debrework then though. We didn't start calling them Beau and Amaya until about a month after we got home and we could communicate better with Beau and ask him what he wanted us to call him. He picked Beau right away.
We pushed the 2 double beds together and all 4 of us just slept in the 1 big bed together. They fell asleep pretty fast and slept great through the night. We only had to give Amaya a bottle 1 or 2 times through the night. Not bad at all for the first night.
Stay tuned for Day #7, our embassy appointment date.

Day #5: It's been 1 year already?

2011-02-03T22:01:00.008-06:00

Day #5
February 1, 2010- We woke up early again because of the all the different animal sounds.We were actually able to take somewhat of a normal shower since we figured out how to work the hot water heater. It was refreshing. Dawit met us at our hotel again and then we walked from our hotel to a market that was nearby to try and find a soccer ball for the kids that lived by the care center. We bought one for them and one for the kids at the care center. We went back to the hotel and waited for the taxi. As we waited, a poor homeless man (who was also a dwarf) came up to us and held out his hands. Dawit gave him some change. I didn't have any coins, I just had paper birr. I asked Dawit if it would be ok to give him 1 birr and Dawit said that would be very nice. I was thinking it might not be enough. The man held his hands up in the air and started saying something and walked away. I asked Dawit what he said and he told me that he was praising God. I had to turn away because I started crying. I wanted to go give that man everything I had. Why didn't I give him more? I didn't realize that 1 birr could make such a difference in this man's life.
We headed to the care center again. I was so excited to see the kids again. Brad was too, he just doesn't show his emotions or communicate it like I do. As soon as we pulled up in front of the care center, the kids were waiting. They were wondering if we brought them their soccer ball. We gave it to them right away.

They were so excited. The ball they had been playing with was so tattered and worn out. The thing is, they were still so happy and thankful for that old soccer ball. I was also so amazed at how little the kids were that walked to go get water, carry their siblings on their backs, and yet had smiles on their faces.

We went in and saw the kids again. This time, I wasn't feeling very good. I went and laid down on the one of the beds. I kept trying to get up and go see the kids but the nausea just wasn't going away. The nannies were SO sweet. I had told them that I was pregnant. There were only 1 or 2 of them that spoke English but it didn't really seem to be an issue. We just used our own made up sign language to communicate or sometimes I would ask the nurse who knew English pretty well to translate for me or tell one of them something. They were all so excited when I told them I was pregnant. One of them said she wanted to be the Godmother. How cute! When I wasn't feeling well they had the cook make me some injera and shiro right away. I didn't want to be rude so I ate some but the smell just made it worse. I just wanted to go to sleep so bad. I knew these were my last hours that I would get to spend at the care center though and I just prayed that the nausea would go away. We gave them some stickers that can go on the walls to help decorate in the babies' room and in the big kids' rooms. Some were educational ones and some were just fun ones. They started putting them up right away. They also started putting away all the donations that we brought.

We had to start saying our good byes and it was SO hard. Even though we had only been there for 2 days, I fell in love with these kids and nannies. They all felt like family. I didn't want to leave. This one nanny in particular whose name is Mehret holds a special place in our hearts.

(Her and the little girl that I posted about in Day #4 named Mehret are the 2 that we named our baby girl Mehret after.)
Once again, I had to just turn away because I was crying too hard. Our flight to Addis Ababa was pretty uneventful. I slept the whole way. I was feeling pretty sick. I was very excited to get to our hotel in Addis though because I knew we would finally get to meet Michelle. She is another adoptive mom who I had been talking and emailing with for several months. Her and her husband live in China with their 2 bio kids and they were adopting 2 kids through our same agency. They had visited Mekele back in September so that they could get the type of visa they needed. This meant they had also seen our kids. She gave our kids their first care packages. She was the one that told Beau that he had a family. We ended up having the same court dates. And we got to travel at the same time. Well they ended up being delayed with their son so only Michelle traveled to pick up their daughter at the same time we were there. I couldn't wait to finally meet her. We got to our hotel and walked in the front door and right there was Weyni. I recognized her right away.

She was so beautiful. And there was Michelle. I dropped my bags and gave her a hug. It felt so surreal. Was I really meeting her finally? We had talked almost every day for the past month or 2. She was the one that talked me into taking a pregnancy test. The one I cried on the phone to when I was overwhelmed thinking there was no way that I could handle it all (being pregnant and bringing home 2 kids). It was so exciting. We had each ordered different hair care products ahead of time (for our girls of course) and brought samples for each other to try. We brought head bands for each other's girls. She had found satin pillow cases for my kids and brought them for me. I ordered the Kakakiki brushes and brought hers for her. It was so fun being on the journey together and then finally meeting in person finally. They were eating dinner so we took our bags up to our room and sat down to eat also. The hotel was very nice. We would only be staying there for 2 nights though and then we would be moving to the place where our agency usually has families stay. It was just booked full those nights so some of us had to stay at the Yebsabi.

We were fine with it. Everyone was very nice there. After Michelle put Weyni to bed, I went up to her room and we chatted for a while. Then I figured I should get to sleep because the next morning we would finally get to meet our kids. I was just out of control excited.

Day #4: It's been 1 year already?

2011-02-03T09:51:00.017-06:00

Day #4-
January 31, 2010- We woke up by about 3 a.m. (Ethiopia time). We had fallen asleep by about 9 or so. We could hear goats, dogs barking, donkeys, and Muslims dong their chanting (or whatever it is that they do) all night long. It was a little bit hard to fall back asleep but we did manage to get a few more zzz's. We just ate some cereal bars and water for breakfast that we had brought along. Dawit came to our hotel around 8 and we took the taxi to the care center. We thought that was so nice of him to take the taxi to us (he does not have a car, so he takes a taxi too) so that we did not have to ride by ourselves to the care center and try to communicate to the taxi driver where we were wanting to go. The drive to the care center was amazing. I took several different pictures of different types of buildings.

Then we saw this huge herd of cattle. I asked Dawit if it was ok if I took a picture and he said yes. I never wanted to be rude but yet I didn't want to miss the opportunity to take pictures of things that we NEVER see here in the US.

The driver stopped and backed up so I could get a better picture.

(Notice the man is on the right hand side and is walking with a cane. The hill doesn't look as big in the picture but trust me, it would've been a hike even being perfectly healthy.)
I felt bad because the cattle herder noticed that I was taking a picture. I wished I could have gotten out and told him how amazing he was hiking up that big hill with all those cattle. It was hot out and from what I could tell he didn't have any water on him. It was also very apparent that he had a huge injury (or possibly even missing part of his left leg and had a make-shift leg of some sort attached, I couldn't really tell because it all went so fast). I was amazed at the work ethic. Wow, could a few people here in America use a lesson or 2, huh? I had to turn away and look out the window as tears streamed down my face. I asked Dawit where he was leading the cattle to and he said probably to a pasture to eat. I looked out the window and this is what I saw.

This is what it looked like all over. What were they going to eat? If you look real closely there were tiny little shoots of grass or something green shooting up but was it really enough for them to survive on? I guess they walk their cattle back and forth every day. Wow! I guess that's why the cattle was so thin. To say I was amazed is a complete understatement but I don't even know of a word to describe how I felt.
We arrived at the care center and there were kids outside. I was just assuming they were kids from the care center. They were anxiously awaiting our arrival. They started hugging us and we hugged them back of course. I didn't realize until we walked through the gates that they were not from the care center. Dawit explained to me that the street children get very excited to visitors (white people especially) and love to give them hugs. We did really stick out in Mekele. We were pleasantly surprised with how beautiful the care center was. The palm tree outside reminded me of living in Hawaii (and no, not all of Hawaii is luxurious and resort-like).

The street kids were so cute.

We walked through the gates and into the care center. Oh my goodness gracious! It took EVERY LITTLE BIT of strength that I had in me to not break down and sob. I felt like I was living in a dream. For months I had been seeing pictures of these kids, these nannies, these rooms, and now we were there. Standing there. Breathing the air, hearing the noises of the kids and babies. I almost couldn't breathe. It was wonderful. The first thing I saw was this beautiful little girl. (And yes, she is home with her family now and I do have permission from them to post these pictures)

She looked like a porcelain doll. I knew exactly who she was. I asked Dawit if I could hold her. He said yes. I went and scooped her up.

(please pardon my nasty hair/looking like I hadn't showered in a while. We only got a sponge bath and my flat iron and hair dryer only worked while we had electricity which was sporadic)
I gave her kisses and hugs and told her that her mommy and daddy loved her and were coming for her soon. I held her while I walked around the room looking at all the babies. Brad took his turn holding her too.

I can't remember how many were there but there were probably 15 babies or so. The older kids were in the building next door. I would like to write about every single kid but it would take HOURS. There was a little boy "J" who would just giggle every time I said "hi" to him. Of course I had to keep going back to make him giggle. I just couldn't get enough of him. He was in a crib with 2 other boys. They would look and smile at me too. There was also a tiny little 5 lb. little girl whose parents I had been emailing with. They had just accepted their referral THE DAY BEFORE, while we were traveling. I knew about their referral when I checked my email at that internet cafe. I knew to check for their little girl "S". I held her and took a bunch of pictures for them. I was so excited to be able to email them later and tell them that she was little but seemed VERY healthy. She was BEAUTIFUL. I took a picture of her on the scale for them. There were twin girls who were 7 lbs. I remembered seeing pictures of them just a month before and they were SO tiny. They looked SO amazing. I could just tell instantly that these children were so loved and well cared for. I took pictures of the twins on the scale also. I couldn't wait to email the twins' parents and tell them that they were doing great. I knew that they were worried because of how little they were. Oh I could just go on and on about these beautiful babies. Before I knew it, Brad was saying we needed to move on and go see the big kids. It had been 3 hours already. What? No way. We've only been at the care center for 20 minutes. But I did hold almost EVERY SINGLE BABY already. That's how much I was soaking up these babies. I really just couldn't get enough of them.
We headed over to the big kids' building. They were all in a room watching a movie. They all stood up as we walked in. I couldn't believe the respect they had. Would that happen here in America? I'm gonna guess NOT. I was humbled. There was 1 little girl in particular that I COULD NOT wait to meet. We had been considering adopting her for a while. We had already accepted the referral of Beau. She was about the same age as Beau, but in between Beau and Kalayna probably. (remember ages are kind of guesses). Kalayna really wanted us to adopt her and had even cut out her picture from the waiting children's list and had it hanging on her door. Since we home school I wasn't sure if having 4 kids all within a 3 year age group would be too much. I felt God was leading us to a younger child. We prayed about it and then before we knew it a family accepted her referral and Amaya came into care and was placed on the waiting child's list. Anyways, Kalayna colored a picture for her and had us bring it along so we could give it to her. I spotted her instantly. She was SO beautiful. She was much smaller in person. Her name is Mehret (her family now spells is Merette).She is the little girl (along with the nanny that I will talk about in a moment) that we ended up naming our little surprise baby Mehret after)

All of the kids were smaller than I was thinking they were going to be. They were all just so beautiful. Once again, I just wanted to drop to the ground and sob. I couldn't believe how blessed I was to be there, experiencing it all. I went around and said hi to each and every child and gave them each a hug. They looked at me like I was crazy but I just wanted to hug each one of them. I spotted the brothers to the "porcelain doll" in the baby room. They were just as adorable. Wow!

It was time to give them all the care packages that their families had sent to us to give them. I couldn't wait. I knew that I wanted to take my time giving each one their packages and taking pictures as each one opened them. I knew how much it meant to us to see our kids open their care package once when someone hand delivered it to them so I wanted to do the same for all of these parents. If they had sent clothes, we put them on them and took a picture. If they sent a photo album, I sat with them and went through each picture and told them "mommy, daddy". We took 5 or 6 boxes of organic cereal bars that we could hand out to each kid. Personally I didn't want to give sugary things to them (I guess that's where my little bit of college education in pediatric and prenatal nutrition comes in) when their little bodies desperately needed healthy food. Each one of the kids devoured their snack when we gave it to them. Mehret's parents sent her a sweater dress, sunglasses, and a card that played the song, "I wear my sunglasses at night". She came out of her shell when I had her put it all on and then she opened the card. She got the hugest smile on her face. She was BEAUTIFUL.

(the picture quality isn't good. The setting got switched and Brad didn't notice it until about 30 pictures later. Oops!)

Then she gave me this amazing hug and kiss on the cheek. Oh eat my heart up. I couldn't wait to tell her parents about her!
They made us coffee/had a traditional coffee ceremony (both days actually). I LOVE coffee but Brad usually doesn't like it. Well, they put so much sugar in it for us that even he liked it. Wow, did we get a buzz off of it though. The cups were small too. It was the best coffee I've ever tasted. Along with the coffee the make popcorn (at least I think that is what it is, that's what it looks and tastes like). It's so yummy. They also cut up some oranges and bananas for us. I wasn't sure if we should eat them or not. How had they been washed? Was it bottled water that they used? But I didn't want to be rude so we ate them and we were fine. We had brought Cipro with us just in case anyways. (The best thing we had was FAITH. It worked too, we never really got sick or had any issues and our baby that was in my belly turned out PERFECT.) They also made us injera and Shiro. It was excellent, a little spicy for my taste but it was so good. Brad couldn't get enough.
It was time to leave. As we walked out of the gate, there were more street children. They asked if we would get them a new soccer ball. We told them yes. Dawit said he would take us to a place where we could try to find one. I told Dawit that I wanted to go somewhere so I that I could email our kids. We stopped at the Axum Hotel. It's probably the nicest hotel in Mekele.

He had tried to get us a room there but there was some sort of convention going on during the time when we were there and the only place that had rooms left was where we ended up. We were fine with it. We were only there to sleep anyways. We're really not picky people. I also sent a few emails to some of the parents to tell them about their kids. I just couldn't wait until we got to Addis Ababa when we would have more consistent internet access. I wanted to tell them NOW how their kids were. I remember being in their shoes and knowing when someone was seeing my kids. I would check my computer constantly to see if there were updated pictures or an email from that family.
Then we invited Dawit to eat dinner with us. We went across the street from the Axum to a "nice" Ethiopian Restaurant. As we walked in there were dead animals hanging up (it was a butcher shop). This was a common sight around town. It was so great to be able to sit and talk with Dawit. We learned so much about the culture and about our kids. We both admired him so much for all that he did for our kids and all the kids at the care center. He had such a strong faith in God. The food was fabulous too.

I loved how they brought clean water for us to wash our hands and hand sanitizer before we ate. After we were done they brought us a warm wash cloth. It was great. Can we have our restaurants around here start this? The total bill was only $10 for EVERYTHING, even Dawits. Incredible. But yet so many people there can't afford that EVER? We really are so blessed, spoiled rotten and really don't even know it unfortunately
We headed back to our hotel and Dawit said he would meet up the next morning again. We stood out on the balcony and watched people walk by for at least an hour. I was just in awe of how many people walk EVERYWHERE. I kept telling Brad that I wish I could somehow make it a LAW that EVERYONE in America HAD to visit a 3rd world country for AT LEAST 1 month during their teens or 20s and LIVE IT. Not stay in a nice hotel, not have hot water to take a shower in every day, etc. Would America be the way it is today? I'd bet NOT. Those are just my dreams. I know it will never happen. This is what we saw.

It was time for bed. Sorry for the long post. I am trying to document as much as possible for my own records too.
Stay tuned for Day #5. Another shorter trip to the care center and then we head to Addis Ababa.

Day #3: It's been 1 year already?

2011-02-01T08:24:00.007-06:00

UPDATED! I just realized I am OFF of my dates. I am going to try to get a couple of days of our trip posted today so that I can get caught up and be able to post Feb.2, 2010 tomorrow on Feb. 2.
January 30, 2010- We arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We had a 5 hour layover before heading up to Mekele in the northern region of Ethiopian where we would spend 2 nights. We followed the directions given to us by our adoption agency (IAG) to follow the yellow signs to get our visa. It also said in there not to go slow and take your time because you could wait a couple of hours. Everyone on the airplane needs to get a visa. So we gathered our things and just walked fast, didn't stop to use the bathroom and what do you know? We were the FIRST in line. I was so excited because well, I WAS SICK. I couldn't wait to find a bench and lay down. After we got our visa, we exchanged some of our US dollars for birr. It was crazy having so much cash on us. It made me nervous a little bit. The little office where they exchange the money was unorganized and nothing like an office would be here in the US. We weren't even sure if that is really where we should exchange our money. Thankfully we had that binder (which I had taken pages out of so that I didn't have to carry the ENTIRE huge binder with us) that I could keep checking back through. It was a life saver. After that we went and got our baggage and then got checked in for our flight to Mekele. We headed upstairs where there are a few little restaurants and tried to find something to eat. NOTHING sounded good but we sat down at one place and NOBODY asked if we wanted anything. By that point I was ready to throw up so I just needed a bench to lay down and sleep. Forget the food. So we walked down to the end of the hallway where nobody was and there were some empty benches. I layed down and fell asleep right away. I woke up to a man in blue camouflage talking to Brad. I could tell he was REALLY nervous. We didn't know if he was in the military or a police officer or what he was. He was asking Brad where we were going, what we were doing, etc. The government in Ethiopia is pretty corrupt and Brad had been "educated" on things before we left since he's in the military. I was a bit nervous too but I was so out of it that I didn't pay too much attention really. After the man walked away we both just took a big deep breath. Now we laugh about it but it definitely wasn't funny then. We finally got to Mekele and it was so exciting to see the sign with our names on it being held up. Dawit, the director of the care center in Mekele at the time, was waiting for us. He grabbed our bags out of our hands right away and was so welcoming. It was so exciting to finally meet him. He asked if we wanted to go to the care center right away or go to our hotel. We definitely wanted to go to the hotel. We both we DYING for a shower and something to eat since we never did get anything at the airport. I guess the kids at the care center were anxious for us to come but we told him that we would just come first thing the next morning. It was already 7 pm or so anyways. So he dropped us off and got us all checked in at our hotel and then he said he would bring the taxi back in the morning to pick us up.

(We heard a noise in the cabinets so Brad opened the one on the top to check and see what was in there making the noise. It BROKE OFF COMPLETELY. OOPS!! That's why there isn't a door on one of the cabinets. I was so nervous that a bat was going to fly out during the night, or a mouse would come crawling out. We brought flashlights with and I MADE Brad look in there really carefully and he couldn't see anything.)

(This is Brad filling up the tank of the toilet so we could flush it. We couldn't figure out how to get the toilet to work. There was a hose next to the toilet. We ended up figuring out that we had to fill up the tank ourselves in order to flush it. NO IT'S NOT A PICTURE OF HIM GOING TO THE BATHROOM)

I could not wait to meet all the beautiful kids at the care center. Our hotel did not have Internet access so he walked us up the street to an Internet cafe so we could email the kids and tell them that we made it. When I say Internet cafe, it's NOT an Internet cafe like it is here. It was very hard to type anything at all on the keyboard. The keys were stuck and hard to push and the place was really dusty. The computers were old. I really wanted to take a picture but I didn't want to be rude. Typing took FOREVER because I had to just use 1 key/1finger at a time. I am NOT complaining, I am just putting it into perspective for anyone who has never been to Ethiopia. The walk to the Internet cafe was about 5 blocks of VERY bumpy broken up sidewalk. Actually I am not sure if you could've even called it actual sidewalk. It was basically dirt road with parts of cement.

(This was what was right across the street from the Internet cafe. I thought this little girl was adorable.)
We passed an elderly homeless lady who appeared to be too weak to even stand up. I almost lost it. Of course this was our first day being in Ethiopia so I definitely was in SHOCK. We had been told that if you start handing out money or anything you will have swarms of people really fast. I didn't realize this is the case in Addis Ababa, not Mekele. I so badly wish I could go back and give her food and money. Why did I pass her by? I feel absolutely terrible about passing her by. So after we were done emailing, we headed back to the hotel and said good-bye to Dawit for the night. Brad and I head downstairs to eat dinner. The waiter didn't speak English at all. We were trying to tell him we wanted a coke and a bottled water. He understood coke. In Ethiopia coke, diet coke, and Fanta are pretty common. They come in glass bottles. We knew we shouldn't drink water out of a regular cup though. I kept saying bottled water. He had no clue. He brought a waitress over. She knew a little bit of English but still didn't know what bottled water was. So I finally just settled for diet coke. I didn't really want to caffeine with being pregnant and we were going to be going to bed soon. But a diet coke is better than nothing right? When we were back in WI, we had visited the Ethiopian restaurant in Milwaukee which is about 1.5 hours from our house about 4 times before we came to Ethiopia. We LOVE Ethiopian food. We were familiar with what things were. We knew what to expect. We were SO excited to have an entire 10 days of Ethiopian food. It sure did taste yummy. Thankfully the pregnancy hormones didn't affect it too much. Sometimes the CONSTANT smell of berbere everywhere you go did make me a little whoozy and I didn't feel like eating injera EVER again but I got over it pretty quick. We didn't know what the tipping policy was in Ethiopia. We would much rather give too much than not enough. Our dinner was about $6-$7 for EVERYTHING. How amazing. This same thing back in Milwaukee would have been $30 or more. I was pretty bummed that I couldn't have Tej. It's the Ethiopian honey wine. It's amazing. But I probably save us a few bucks on the trip. =) We stopped at the "front desk" (NOTHING like a front desk here and everything was hand written-no computer) and asked for some bottled water. We ordered 4 of the BIG bottles of water. We used this to brush our teeth also. The man that went to get the bottled water literally RAN to get the water. I guess he had to go down the street to get the water from a store. I didn't realize that or we would have went and got it ourselves. They definitely treated us like we were better than them and I DID NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL. Just because we are from America does not mean for any reason that we are better than them. Dawit also ALWAYS carried our luggage and it made me feel so bad. He WOULD NOT let us carry it. I felt like we should be doing so much more for him. He took such AMAZING care of our children. So we went up to our room and tried to take our showers. We had to turn the hot water heater on first and wait a while until the water warmed up. Then we had to hold the hand shower in one hand while we showered. It was interesting but yet we were thankful for the experience. It just made us so thankful. Thankful for everything. We didn't look at things there as disgusting or bad. We cherished every last minute. This was our children's' hometown, their birth country. We LOVED it. We are NO BETTER than any of the people there. I would pack up my bags and move there IN A HEART BEAT. Brad has a commitment to the Coast Guard for 7 more years but then we need to do some serious talking and see where God is leading us.
We stood outside on the little balcony that we had. I couldn't get the camera to take good pictures for some reason but this is what I did get.

(people walked around town at all hours of the day and night. It calmed down a lot at night though)

(This was a dried up water fountain. It was still pretty though)
That's all I've got for now. I know the post was long but I want to document all I can think of. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post. Day #4 is our trip to the care center for the first time. AMAZING!!!! That's the ONLY way to describe it. Surreal. Amazing. Not enough hugs. I LOVED THEM ALL!!!!!!

Day #2: It's been 1 year already?

2011-01-31T08:16:00.006-06:00

UPDATED! I just realized I am OFF on my dates. I just updated the dates. They are correct now.
January 29,2010-
Our flight left out of Washington D.C. at about 9 a.m. We wanted to make sure we got to the airport in plenty of time since it was an international flight. The shuttle driver that took us from the hotel to the airport was from Ethiopia. I was so excited. I could tell right away by his accent that he was from Ethiopia. He asked where we were going and we told him. I didn't realize that there is such a huge population of people from Ethiopia in the D.C. area. It's amazing.

So our flight was direct to Addis Ababa. We just had to stop in Rome for about an hour for gas. We couldn't get off the plane at all though.

We had to take a picture of us in Rome.

The flight went really well. It wasn't bad at all. We are really used to traveling though. We've lived in Hawaii 2 times and those flights aren't short either. We've done countless 14-20 hour road trips to visit Brad's family in AL or to visit my family when we were stationed in NJ. I am usually the one to drive on the long road trips too because Brad gets sleepy and isn't a fan of driving at all. So for me, being able to sleep and relax and not have to pay attention to anything was GREAT. It's the first time since having kids that I have had to opportunity to fly without tending to a child also. Needless to say, I slept almost the whole way. It was GREAT. Brad didn't sleep as much and he was ready to get off the plane. I wasn't very good company for him. I was also trying to fight off nausea. Sorry honey. When I was awake we talked about Preston and Kalayna and what they would be doing. We talked about how amazing the adoption journey had been, how blessed we were to be going to Ethiopia, blessed to be adopting, blessed to be going to Mekele and seeing the region that the kids were from, blessed to have these 10 days together and experiencing this together, how shocked we still were that I was pregnant, some ideas and plans we had for adjusting and bonding (but we also realized that every child is unique and we needed to be flexible and go with the flow), and just how anxious we were to JUST GET THERE. I was so nervous that I was going to be SICK AS A DOG the whole time we were in Ethiopia, not because of something I would pick up there but because of this surprise pregnancy. When I was pregnant with Kalayna I threw up pretty frequently for about 6 weeks and I could NOT go in a vehicle for more than 5 minutes without throwing up. I knew we would be doing a lot of driving getting to and from places and the driving there would be crazy so I was just worried that I would be sick all the time. How was I going to do it while trying to make 2 kids feel comfortable and loved? I prayed and tried to just give the fear away to God and trust that He would take care of everything.
Stay tuned for Day #3. We arrive in Addis Ababa and head up to Mekele.

Day #1 of: It's been 1 year already?

2011-01-30T11:18:00.003-06:00

UPDATED! I just realized that I was OFF on my dates. The dates are now correct.
January 28, 2010- Brad and I were leaving out of a local airport in the early afternoon, heading to Chicago, and then on to Washington D.C. where we would spend the night. We had to do this in order to catch the flight out the next morning to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This was going to be the VERY FIRST TIME (besides when we flew home 3 months after we "legally" got married in Hawaii before Brad deployed so that we could renew our vows in front of our family and friends and have our "wedding") that we have traveled together just the 2 of us. Any other time we have traveled it has been to visit his family, my family, or to move (which has been often because he is active duty Coast Guard). We had been saying that this trip was going to be our "honeymoon" because we've never had one of those either. He deployed 12 days after we married. As soon as he got back, we headed home to WI (where I am from) to have our "wedding/renewal of vows". Then we drove straight to AL (where he is from) and stayed with his parents. Honeymoon at the parents? I think NOT. Not that a honeymoon in Ethiopia sounds anymore romantic but at this point it's looking like it might be the closest we'll get to a honeymoon. Well, finding out that I was pregnant pretty much turned this trip into anything BUT a honeymoon. The sickness was HERE TO STAY. Brad, we WILL get a vacation to ourselves (without me being pregnant) some day. Really. We will. Even if it's just for 2 days. We will. So anyways, we were very excited to go on this trip together. We were going to be gone for 10 days. We had decided early on that we wanted to go up to Mekele in the northern region of Ethiopia where Beau and Amaya are from. We wanted to find out as much about where they were from as possible. We wanted to see the care center where they spent most of their time and meet the nannies that cared for them. We wanted to be able to tell them thank you in person. We wanted to take many pictures to be able to show them when they got older. All of this also meant being away from Preston and Kalayna just a few more days. For Brad, it's something he has to do on a regular basis. For me, I had ever only been away for 1 night. I was FREAKING OUT!!! That's why when I was "late" I didn't think anything of it. I was STRESSED OUT! BIG TIME!!! My mom was going to stay with the kids the whole time we were gone. That helped ease a lot of the worries. At that time we also hosted 2 international students. 1 from Thailand and 1 from S. Korea. I had prepared meals up ahead of time and put them in the freezer to help ease the load on my mom. I had typed up several pages of "instructions" about our routine, doctors phone numbers, how to care for the dogs (even though she is the one that watches them when we go somewhere), neighbors phone numbers, etc. Yes it was probably overboard but it made me feel better.
We were taking 4 duffel bags and our carry ons. We decided to use duffel bags because our suitcases weighed 10-12 lbs themselves. Our weight limit was 50 lbs per bag and we were allowed 2 bags per person from D.C. to Addis Ababa. We wanted to make sure that we stayed under that weight limit because the fee was $200 if we went over. That was per bag that we went over. Yikes! We had an entire bag full of care packages to take to kids in Mekele from their families here in America. I believe there were 36 kids all together that we had care packages for. We had posted to the yahoo group that our agency has that we were willing to take care packages to the kids in Mekele for them. Not many parents travel to Mekele so it was nice to be able to hand deliver a care package for them. It was so exciting to get all these in the mail. I really felt like I "knew" the kids before we even got there. The 2nd suitcase was full of donations for the care center in Mekele. Most donations go to the Addis Ababa care center so we wanted to make sure that we made all of our donations to the Mekele care center. We had asked the other families that had kids in the care center if they wanted to contribute and we were SHOCKED by how much they all wanted to contribute. We raised over $400 in a matter of a few days. We went to target and walmart and used that money VERY wisely. We bought boys and girls underwear (of all sizes), hand sanitizer, shampoo and conditioner for the bigger kids, baby lotion, baby soap, feminine hygiene products, diaper rash cream, baby powder, and several other things I am sure. We had 1 cart completely full. How we managed to fit it all in a large duffel bag I am still not sure. I did have to stick some things into the other bags to even the weight out but it did all fit. 1 bag was full of the things we would need for Beau and Amaya in Ethiopia. It was full of their clothes, shoes, shampoo, diapers for Amaya, a few bottles because we didn't know if she still took a bottle or not, some toys, snacks, etc. The other bag had our clothes and some more donations in it. We packed VERY light. We each took 3 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, a few pairs of underwear and socks, the only shoes we took were the ones we had on (nice tennis shoes), shampoo, soap, my flat iron, lotion, a little bit of eye makeup so I didn't like so ill (even though I felt like it), and that's about it. Oh, I took some crackers, ginger, some more crackers, and couple little snacks to help ease the nausea. We put all of our important documents in our backpacks. We took our laptop with and had that as a carry on. We were hoping to be able to get internet access on it and email the kids often or maybe even chat with them. I had set up their own email account just for when we were gone. They were so excited about that. I didn't take a whole lot of things like books or magazines or anything for on the plane because I knew I would be tired and just enjoy the opportunity to SLEEP a lot and talk with Brad.
Saying good-bye to the kids at the airport was terrible. Preston cried and cried and cried. He's a momma's boy. Kalayna cried too but she was excited to have Grandma come stay at the house. Preston had decided he wanted to come with us several weeks before we were going to leave but it was too late at that point to try and get his shots. We also didn't have the extra $2000 or so it would take to bring him with. Once we got to D.C., we went straight to our hotel which was very nice. I had found a great deal on priceline. We went next door and ate at the Sheraton for dinner. It was so nice to be able to go eat dinner together, just us and kick off this journey together that way. We do not get to go on date nights very often at all so all of this was very special. It was getting late so we pretty much called it a night and tried to get some sleep. Neither of us slept well though, we were too anxious and excited about the week ahead. Sorry no pictures from today. Just picture me sobbing because that is what the day basically consisted of. It killed me to leave my babies. Why is it when you talk to your kids on the phone they sound SO angelic? I called them once we got to Chicago and then a couple times when we were in DC. My heart literally hurt. Check back tomorrow for day 2 of "It's been 1 year already?"

We heard some great news just 1 year ago....

2011-01-29T08:16:00.003-06:00

So I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday but Jan. 28, 2010 I found out that I was pregnant. It was a TOTAL and COMPLETE SHOCKER! I have polycycstic ovarian syndrome and to help regulate that I have to take a birth control pill. With PCOS the chances of becoming pregnant are a lot less. I had the chance of seeing a specialist in Cincinnati, OH many years ago (before even getting married) to learn how to help regulate some of the nasty side effects of it. While I was there he said more than likely I would never have any kids. I was devastated. I learned how much diet effects this type of disease and really watched my carbohydrate intake since them. Thankfully God had a plan and I was able to have 2 biological children, Preston and Kalayna. We did have 1 miscarriage in between there though. This time around though, we were COMPLETELY surprised. I was still taking the birth control pill. Brad is only home on the weekends. We thought we were done having biological kids (we didn't struggle to get pregnant again). God put adoption on our hearts. WE WERE LEAVING FOR ETHIOPIA IN 2 DAYS!! So instead of adding 2 kids to our family, we would be adding 3 kids. I was overwhelmed. And that was an understatement. I cried, and cried, and cried, and cried. And I am so ashamed that was my reaction. I know that my hormones were in FULL force. I went in to my doctor quick so they could check my hormone levels. It showed that more than likely I was more than 8 weeks along. Wow!! I couldn't believe it. She prescribed me a different malaria medicine to take with. We were going to be traveling outside of Addis Ababa to Mekele for a few days and the travel doctor that I saw to give my vaccinations recommended the malaria medication. I read the label and it still said not to take it if you are pregnant or intend to become pregnant so I tossed those to the curb too and just placed it ALL in God's hands. I figured that He blessed us with this pregnancy, if it is His will He will keep me and this baby safe too. We ended up only seeing 1 mosquito anyways. My doctor also prescribed some anti-nausea medication. There was reason for my sickness after all. And it was probably here to stay. YUCK!!! I also went to the store and loaded up on crackers, ginger, and anything that was organic and said it helped ease morning sickness. I knew I probably wouldn't find much in Ethiopia. I was dreading being sick in Ethiopia.I knew our days were going to be crammed full.
If I could've just had a mirror into the future to have a sneak peak at her beautiful little face to ease my worries.

Thank you God our beautiful little girl. She is perfect in every way. She has brought such a special dynamic to our family. I just can not imagine life without her. I NEEDED her and did not know it. Thankfully you did.
Stay tuned for our "It's been 1 year already?" series of posts documenting our travels to Ethiopia to pick up Beau and Amaya. I never got around to posting pictures of our trip after we got home, so you'll see them now. I was just slightly exhausted and sick and posting pictures was NOT a top priority.

Oh the hair! Help me!

2011-01-27T21:50:00.008-06:00

Amaya's hair. It's out of control. Or maybe I just don't know what to do with it. That's more than likely the case. I did TONS of research before we brought the kids home about African hair care. I bought a couple different kinds of hair products. I know which ones I like best and which one of those work best. I know her hair needs TONS of moisture. The problem is, she is 2 years old and HATES having her hair brushed. She screams to have it brushed. She LOVES the finished product and is so proud of it. All the screaming just makes me dread doing her hair. When she first came home I cut it a couple of times just to trim off the damaged ends. In her referral pictures she was bald probably from malnutrition because she was 18 months old approximately. Now her hair is about 3 inches long when I pull it straight. It is so gorgeous when it is soaking wet, like when she is in the bath tub. The ringlets are so long and perfect. But as soon as she takes a nap or puts on her winter hat, it's flat and gets frizzy. Yes, I have her sleep on a satin pillow case. Yes, her winter hat is lined in satin.
I took some pictures of her hair the other day when I was giving her a bath. I always put a ton of conditioner in and brush it while the conditioner is still in. I even bought a Kakakiki brush that is suppose to help minimize breakage. If her hair looks white, it's the conditioner.

I wanted to try to braid her hair. I read on one of the blogs that I like that she blow dries the hair first and it makes it easier. So I portioned off her hair and started to blow dry a little part.

I tried to braid it and it's definitely going to take me lots and lots of practice. So since she was actually sitting somewhat still (I put on some cartoons that she likes, there are very few that she will actually sit still for) I decided to try and flat iron it. I just wanted to see what it would look like.

Ok, so we won't try that again. So I ended up just putting it in 4 pony tail/balls and put moisturizer in it. So now I am trying to think of what else to do. So I need a new moisturizer? A different brush? Does her hair need to be thinned out a bit? It is super super thick. I know I could take her somewhere and have them do her hair but that is really expensive and well, that's just not really an option. Any suggestions?
Amaya's godmother Helen (she was adopted from Ethiopia several years ago and inspired us to adopt, we love her so much) gave her a doll that looks just like her. Amaya was SOOOO excited to get it in the mail the other day.

And now I really can't wait for spring and summer because she also got a lawnmower. Now she can help me cut the grass. Woohoo!!!

Look at the hair in those pictures. It's crazy! What do I do? I don't use products with lots of chemicals in them so it needs to be natural and/or organic. It's not worth it to me to be putting dangerous chemicals on her head (or any of my kids' bodies for that matter) just to "look good".
Maybe we'll just have her walk around in her grasshopper towel all day and then we won't have to worry about the hair.

A wonderful African Children's Choir

2011-01-24T09:47:00.002-06:00

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while and just keep forgetting about it. Back in September, on Beau's birthday to be specific, we went to an African children's choir performance called Watoto. They are orphaned children from Uganda. The performance was INCREDIBLE. We bought a CD afterwards and we just can't stop listening to it. The kids know all the words to the songs, well the words that are in English. Right now they are in the Virginia and Indiana areas. I believe they are heading to DC and Michigan next but don't quote me on it. Check out their schedule at http://www.watoto.com/the-choir/see-the-choir You won't be disappointed, I guarantee it. It's worth a drive. We can't wait to see them again, even if it means we have to drive a few hours.

Our sponsor child

2011-01-20T21:13:00.004-06:00

We have been talking about sponsoring a child for quite a while now. There are so many different organizations to choose from, so many children in need, how could we decide? Adopting Beau and Amaya really opened our eyes to a whole new world. We really do know that starvation is real. We have seen it first hand. Our kids still suffer from the effects of malnutrition. We know how important yet unattainable an education can be. We know how much the people of Africa NEED to hear the Word of God. It's not just the people of Africa, but that is where God has placed the ache in our hearts right now. Just because we adopted 2 kids does not mean our mission is done. Right now we are stretched thin financially, but we can still do more. Instead of Brad and the boys going to get their hair cut, I have started to cut it at home so that we can sponsor a little boy in Ethiopia. A little bit more work for me, a little less luxury for Brad, Preston, and Beau (they got to watch TV, get a neck massage, warm towel, etc all for $10) but it allows us to give a child a meal EVERY DAY, an education EVERY DAY, hear the Word of God EVERY DAY, get basic medical care WHENEVER needed, and a small birthday and Christmas present. Wow! All of that for just $34/month. The kids are already asking what else we can do or give up so we can sponsor another child. They each want to sponsor their own child. It just makes my heart so proud to hear that. We got to send our sponsor child an email last week. We decided on an organization called Hopechest. We have the opportunity to go on mission trips with them every year and actually meet our sponsor child. I am seriously considering going this November. Mehret will probably be done nursing or close to it anyways and I am dying to get back to Ethiopia.
So I ask you, what can you do? Is there something that you are willing to give up so a child can have at least 1 meal a day, attend school, and learn about Jesus? Maybe skip 1 time of eating out as a family just 1 time a month, just 1 time a month of eating out? Next time you go shopping, buy one less item of clothing? If you get your nails done, would you consider giving it up so someone could simply eat? If you're thinking of getting a new car or house, would you be willing to leave room in the payments so you could send $34 to a child who really NEEDS it? If overtime work is an option for you, are you willing to put in a few extra hours so a child may live? Will you be the HOPE for a child? Please take at least a few minutes and truly think about it and see what you could possibly do. Check out www.hopechest.org Also check out Karen Wistrom's blog. She is the one who will match you with a sponsor child in Ethiopia. You can look at the pictures from her most recent mission trip in November. The pictures are incredible. Her blog is www.family-from-afar.blogspot.com

I would like to introduce our sponsor child Abel:

Tonight when we were praying before dinner I told the kids that I wanted us each to say an extra prayer for Abel. I want to start making this a routine at dinner time. So I said a special prayer for him first. I said something about him having a good meal that is nutritious for his body and making it safely to school because I know he has to cross a river to get to school. Preston was next and he said something about having something healthy to eat and learning a lot in school. Beau pretty much copied Preston. I was surprised he didn't say something about having chicken to eat because he loves chicken and when he was in Ethiopia he says he only had injera. He never got chicken. He wished he had chicken. Then Kalayna said something about Abel eating healthy and being thankful for school. Then of course Amaya had to say a prayer too. Keep in mind she is 2.5. She had her hands folded and she said, "Jesus, (couldn't understand her next couple of words).....potty.........open door....never ever.....ever...potty...and then....potty.... Amen." The other 3 kids had started laughing until I gave them "the look" for laughing during prayer. It was pretty funny but Amaya was doing her best and in her little 2.5 year old mind she was praying. She started it with Jesus and ended it with Amen. I explained to Preston, Beau, and Kalayna that she was maybe praying for Abel to have access to a potty in Ethiopia. I asked Beau if he had a potty when he was in Ethiopia and he said no. I told them how that can spread diseases easily and then they all told Amaya good job and what a good prayer that was. She was so proud of herself. She ALWAYS has to do what the big kids do. She understands so much. She didn't care that they started laughing, she just kept praying. She had something major to tell Jesus.
So here is our prayer for Abel today:
Dear Jesus,
Please keep Abel safe on his walk to school. Nourish his body with the food he will receive. Thank you for providing food for him. Thank you for the education he will be receiving. We pray that he is thankful for all he is given. Help us learn from him and all those who are less fortunate. Let us always be willing to give more with a willing heart. We pray also that he has a clean place to potty as Amaya said so that diseases don't spread. Thank you Lord for this wonderful opportunity to sponsor a child.
Amen.

A CRAAAAAZZYYY Day around here!

2011-01-14T20:28:00.006-06:00

Beau's school had Green Bay Packer Day and Crazy hair day today. They often have days where they dress up or do certain things and we almost always participate. Things like carzy socks day, red, white, and blue day, pajama day, etc. Well today was a double whammy. The Green Bay Packer part was easy peasy. We're big GB fans. The crazy hair part, not so much. What do you do with a boy's hair that is only 1/2" long? Well, this momma got creative. With about 15 min. left to spare before the bus got here, I whipped out the buzzers and shaved a G into one side of his head and a B into the other side. His hair was kind of long and in need of a hair cut tonight anyways, so I figured we'd have fun with it.

And if you do it for one kid, then they ALL want to do it. Preston has ALWAYS wanted a mohawk. Brad and I are NOT into mohawks at all but he also is in need of a hair cut so for the day he got what he wanted. He also wanted side steps cut into his hair. I remember that being popular back when I was in grade school. Oh I hope that is not coming back again.

I did Kalayna's hair all crazy in a bunch of different ponies.

And Amaya, well her hair is crazy most days all by itself. No moisturizer=crazy hair. I just acted like I did something to her hair and she was happy.

Now it's off to give the boys hair cuts. Our day of fun is over. When daddy got home, he was going to go to the grocery store quick but he wouldn't take any kids with him. I wonder why?
Paw Paw, I hope I didn't give you heart trouble. IT'S ONLY FOR A DAY!!

Oh the fun of the holiday vacation!

2011-01-09T21:57:00.010-06:00

I am way behind on posts to this poor blog. It's been go go go since daddy got home on Christmas Eve eve. He was home for 10 days and we crammed them full of a little bit of house work and lots of get togethers with family and friends. Kalayna and Amaya were sharing the smaller room and Beau and Preston were sharing the bigger room. We wanted to switch them around so that the 2 boys would have the smaller room since they have the bunk beds and the girls would have the bigger room since they have the twin bed and trundle (which takes up more floor space/sq footage). Also, when Mehret sleeps through the night eventually (or when mommy is ok with her not sleeping in her crib right next to mommy)then she will move up to the girls room. When I was still pregnant, the kids argued about where the baby would sleep. NEVER was it an option that the baby would have the 4th bedroom. If it would be a boy, then it would sleep in Beau and Preston's room. If it was a girl, then we would swap rooms and it would sleep in Kalayna and Amaya's room. So we swapped rooms and painted the new boys' room. It was pink and purple so it did really need to be repainted. We are going to wait to repaint the girls' room for a different time, maybe when daddy has a few days off again. I love how the boys' room turned out. We went to Lowes to get the paint and I always check the Oops paint selection just in case there is something that I like. It's the paint that other people have had custom mixed but it didn't turn out to their liking so Lowes marks it down to $5. Wonderful Valspar or Behr paint for $5. It's awesome. I have painted several of the rooms in our house that way. I found a 5 gallon bucket of paint in a gorgeous neutral tannish color (which is what I was looking for anyways) and it was marked down to $30. It was the Valspar primer and paint High Definition paint that is normally $143 for 5 gallons. I was VERY excited about this find. I think I am going to repaint our master bath this color too. We have 5 gallons of it, why not?? So we got all the closet things, toys, beds, dressers, etc switched which felt great to get it all done.
Christmas day is always very fun. It was Beau and Amaya's first Christmas with us. They thoroughly enjoyed it. We went to my mom's house and some of my aunts and uncles were there. My sister, husband, and their 5 kids were there. Yes, my mom has 10 grand kids and only 2 daughters. She's in 7th heaven. We did manage to snatch a grand kids picture.

After eating our usual huge lunch, we went sledding. I take that back, mommy helped get everyone bundled and then took pictures of everyone and just as I was about to get bundled, Amaya was ready to come in.

Amaya liked to give everyone a push down the hill.

Preston got a snowboard for Christmas and had a blast using it for the first time. I was really surprised how well he did. I was so nervous he was going to break his arm, again. He's already broken it twice. The first time he was only 2 years old and had to have emergency surgery.

Amaya had NO fear of going down the hill, even head first.

Beau's big grin after making it down the hill.

Then later on once it got dark, the tradition is to go in the hot tub. Yes it was freezing cold outside but the hot tub is so nice and warm. It was Beau and Amaya's first time in the hot tub. They LOVED it. Amaya would have loved to sit at the bottom of it if we would have let her. She also has NO fear of the water. We actually have to keep telling her to keep her face out of the water.
(Yes, the picture is supposed to be like that. It's the steam from the hot tub.)

We spent the night at my mom's house instead of driving home at midnight. We did some more sledding the next day and just vegged at her house until we drove home (about an hour away) in the later afternoon. Beau liked to hang out and watch TV in Grandma's room. (I think he really liked having control of the remote by himself.I also think he really needed to detox from all the activity from Christmas Day. It was nice and quiet in Grandma's room.)

During the week we got together with several friends. We went sledding with some friends of mine from high school (who are also Beau's godparents now) that we love spending time with. We also got together with some friends who are adopting from Ethiopia and will be traveling to meet their little man in a little over a month. We are so excited to meet him soon too. His picture is up on our fridge. We also had dinner with Mike and Jenny, our next door neighbors (and also Mehret's godparents), and the kids played and watched a movie while us adults played a game. It was quite fun. If you haven't seen the new Veggie Tales movie "It's a Meaningful Life", you should. It's really cute and the song by Steven Curtis Chapman is really good. That's the movie all the kids watched.
So our break was full of a little bit of work and lots of play. It was great. The time we have daddy home always goes by way too fast. Then this past week Kalayna and Preston both got sick. Mehret had a bad cough last weekend. Earlier in the week, I was just out-of-energy. I think it was a combo of eating too much junk, not enough sleep, and then catching a bug of some sort. We are all doing better now though and hopefully no one else gets sick for the rest of the winter.
Oh, and I can't end this without a few new pictures of Mehret.
Here she is with my Uncle Keith, so actually her Great Uncle Keith. He's my mom's baby brother (there's 8 in her family). He's actually only 7 years older than me so he's more like a brother to me. He lives in the Dominican Republic right now though and so we only get to see him for a couple weeks at Christmas and then for a month or so over summer.

Mehret and Preston. I think she's already learning that if she does her "I'm scared" cry, that her big brother's heart breaks and he will hold her. Preston and Kalayna both adore their baby sister and are constantly asking to hold her.

Beau likes to hold her too but sitting still is a challenge for him so he'll ask to hold her sometimes but not as often or for nearly as long as Preston and Kalayna. Amaya loves to hold her too or as she says, "I carry Mennet". But it consists of literally 3 or 4 seconds and Amaya giggles the whole time and then she says "mommy carry Mennet." It's cute though.
Ahh, back to the grind of another week again. Don't forget that Auburn plays Monday night, the 10th in the BCS championship game against Oregon. Go Auburn!!!! Wareagle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wear your Orange and Blue with pride. =)

Christmas program 2010 was a success...

2010-12-20T08:40:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was Preston, Beau, and Kalayna's Christmas program at church. They have been looking forward to it for a while now. For Kalayna and Beau it's their first time being in one. They've been practicing their singing around the house for weeks now. So much so that Amaya even knows the words to "Away in the Manger" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain". They all did so good. I thought Kalayna would get really shy once she got up in the front of church but she didn't. She sang out loud and clear and did SO good. She totally has Brad's personality and is silly and goofy around the house but as soon as we get around other people, they climb inside their shell and are really shy. We video taped the program because Brad wasn't able to be there, he was on duty. He'll get to see it on Christmas Eve. When we got home I took a few pictures of the kids in front of the tree since they were dressed in their Christmas clothes. I don't know what to do to get Amaya to sit still for even a half of a second. Any ideas?

And then were were done because she was off and running.......

So many firsts for the kids this year...including Christmas

2010-12-11T22:35:00.010-06:00

This is the first year that Beau and Amaya will really get to celebrate Christmas. As far as Beau says, they never celebrated Christmas before. He never knew that it was Jesus' birthday or what Christmas really was. On Monday his class is going to be going to the mall and they are going to see Santa. I've become not such a fan of the big man but it's still a first for Beau to go see him and have the experience. Brad doesn't want to completely do away with Santa, so we just haven't put much emphasis on that whole idea at all. This morning we decided we would go to the mall and take the kids to see Santa so that we could see their reaction ourselves. I hate missing out on any of their firsts. His teacher said she was walking him out to the bus one afternoon at school and he walked past the office and stopped dead in his tracks and said, "It's Jesus' birthday?" because he saw the Christmas tree up. I would have LOVED to see his reaction to that Christmas tree. I missed it. I am so glad she told me about it and I am even happier to know that his first reaction was....Jesus. Not presents. Not Santa. But Jesus. So proud. He gets it.

After we left the mall we went to pick out our Christmas tree. The past 3 years we've gone and cut down our own tree at a tree farm about 1 hour north of here. The owner of the farm gives free trees to active duty military. He served about 50 years ago himself and is such a nice man. Since we have a blizzard warning today that was supposed to start at about 4 or 5 this afternoon, we knew we couldn't fit everything in. Brad heads back to work tomorrow. He comes back Christmas Eve eve. So today was basically our only day to get the tree as a family. So we had to just go get a tree from one of those places that sets up shop in a parking lot. Good enough for us. The kids had a blast. We picked one out in about 5 minutes because it was starting to snow/sleet. As soon as we got out of the car Beau saw this little piece of a branch and asked if we could have it as a tree.

Amaya ran around like she owned the place. (Like she does most places we go to.) Preston tried to talk us into the biggest one. Kalayna was willing to anyone we thought was good. She just wanted to go back in the van because her legs were cold with only tights on.

The little branch that Beau had picked up, well Preston decided that would be great for mistletoe. (aahh, the innocence of a 9 year old.)

Let the ornament hanging begin.

Daddy and Mehret supervised the ornament hanging.

And here's the finished product:

Our first snow fall....and the Bumbo seat

2010-12-10T11:32:00.006-06:00

Mehret is now 3 months old. Time is flying. When Brad's dad was here in October he asked what we still needed or wanted for Mehret and all we could really think of were either diapers or a bumbo seat. We didn't really need one because we made it just fine when Kalayna and Preston were little without one but they do look like they would be really handy to have. When we were in Ethiopia, the 2 care centers that we went to both had them and babies were constantly sitting in them. It helps them learn to sit up and strengthen their muscles. So Paw Paw and Ninny got us a Bumbo Seat for Mehret when they were here. Now that Mehret is holding her head up really well, I sat her in it the other day. She looks so adorable sitting in it and seems to really like it. The kids were so excited that she could finally sit in it. We were all gathered around her.

Last night we got our first accumulating snow fall. We got about 3"-4" of the white stuff. We are supposed to get more tomorrow. Yuck! I'd prefer the beach year round so Hawaii was perfect for me. The kids like to go out and play in it but usually by the end of the season they are ready for the warm weather again so they can ride their bikes and get the sprinkler out. Preston wanted to go out and play in the snow right away this morning after Beau got on the bus. The girls were a little bit slower moving. Kalayna wanted to color. Amaya took her grand old time eating breakfast. But then the girls wanted to go out and play. I came down with a nasty cold/fever/body aches yesterday but I still took the girls out for a bit to play. By this time Preston was ready to come in and finally eat his breakfast. I grabbed my camera to capture Amaya's first time playing in the snow. She didn't really go out and play in it last spring when they got home, only Beau did. Putting on her snow pants was pretty exciting to her. She giggled putting on her boots.

She didn't know what to do with a sled. I had to tell her what to do. She giggled and screamed with excitement as I pulled her around our yard and the neighbors yard.

Kalayna started doing snow angels so like always Amaya plopped herself down next to Kalayna and copied what she was doing. It was adorable. So now Mike and Jenny (our neighbors) have snow angels in their front yard.

The only way I could get Amaya to come back in the house was to say I would make her hot chocolate. Mehret needed to eat and I knew I shouldn't stay outside too long with my fever and not feeling well. Hopefully tomorrow I will get pictures of the boys playing outside too. I had Beau try on his snow pants and boots last night so he would know how to put them on at school today. He was so excited. He was doing a dance around the living room. He thinks they are so cool. He never cares that pretty much everything use to be Preston's. I think he actually likes it. He looks up to and admires Preston so much, it's cute. I really just think he is just so happy to have things to call his own. His own dresser full of clothes that are just his, his own snow pants and boots, his own bed that he doesn't have to share with 3 or 4 other kids, some things that are just Beau's. Even if they used to be Preston's, they are Beau's now. I know a lot of kids who wouldn't touch hand me downs or they wouldn't be good enough for them. Well at our house, we LOVE hand me downs.
Oh and one more thing that was so cute, when Preston was outside playing the neighbors were outside shoveling and asked if Preston wanted to help shovel a neighbor's house up the road. He went with Jenny and Alex(he's 2) to help shovel. I think he ended up pretty much playing with Alex the whole time because I kept looking out the window and I saw him pulling him in the sled, putting his mittens back on when they would fall off, he'd let Alex throw snow at him and make a game out of it, and just play with him. It was so cute. Preston has such a big heart for little kids. He can play with kids of any age. They don't just have to be his exact age. He loves babies, toddlers, 4 year olds, 9 year olds, teenagers, and adults. He's such a good kid. Yes we do have our struggles but overall he is a good kid with a huge heart. He makes me so proud.

Only 2 days left for 50 FREE cards

2010-12-08T22:17:00.002-06:00

If you are anything like me, you haven't even ordered your Christmas cards yet. I had great intentions of ordering them before Thanksgiving so that I could get them in the mail over Thanksgiving break. Well money was tight and they were not a priority. Shutterfly is making it a little bit (ok a lot) easier this holiday. They are giving 50 free holiday cards to any blogger who writes about Shutterfly on their blog. Well, I am more than happy to write about Shutterfly. We have used them for our picture printing needs for over 5 years now. The quality is incredible. Shipping is so fast, even when we lived in Hawaii. You can buy prepaid plans which bring the price per picture down to 9 or 10 cents each. They offer FREE photo sharing and storage. There are many different things that you can do with your photos too like make a photo book, put it on a coffee cup, enlarge them really big, etc. I highly recommend you go check them out and if you haven't ordered your holiday cards yet, print them through shutterfly. I also love them because I don't have to haul all 5 kids out to the store to print my pictures. I just sit here at home with my coffee and click away on the computer and then wait for the mail to come a few days later. And if you haven't made a photo card before, shutterfly makes it super easy. It's always so nice to get all the photo cards from everyone every Christmas.

Baking Cookies at Gaga's House

2010-12-06T18:51:00.011-06:00

Saturday we went to my mom's house to bake Christmas cookies. It has become an annual tradition. We make the traditional cut out cookies with frosting and sprinkles and we also make peanut butter balls. Brad has actually taken on the peanut butter ball making himself. Going to Gaga's house (my mom is usually called Grandma but Amaya can't say "grandma" so she says Gaga and it is so cute so now everyone says Gaga) is so exciting for everyone and then add onto it the fact that they got to make TONS AND TONS of cookies, what could possibly be better right? I was excited to see what Beau and Amaya's reaction would be to their gigantic Christmas tree but they both walked right past it without even saying anything. It's got to be 15 ft tall at least and they both acted like nothing was there. I had to point to the tree and ask them what it was. Then they finally got excited about it.

We didn't waste much time before we broke out the cookie dough. Beau was too busy playing with all the fun toys at Grandma's house so he didn't start helping with the cookies right away.

Amaya helped herself to the pans.

After about 3.5 seconds, Brad and I looked at each other and decided that we did not want to take 10 lbs of flour home with us in the van so we stripped Amaya down to her diaper to make cookies.

Ohhh, she was so excited when she got to start making the shapes in the dough. She squealed in delight every time she made a shape. She started going so fast and overlapped them. We had to slow her down a little bit and guide that energy and excitement.

Then it was time to clean up the flour mess so we could frost the cookies. Amaya just started grabbing the kitchen hand towels and spreading the flour all over the floor. Beau grabbed an oven mitt, got it soaking wet (he can't twist the water out of it very good on his own because he only has 1 hand), and then began to wash the floor with that. The floors were so sparkly (and slippery). I was feeding Mehret when Beau busted out the oven mitt so I didn't catch any pictures of it. I wish I had though, it was priceless. It's kind of a good idea. I mean, I wouldn't use that same oven mitt for baking too but it looked like it worked good. Just slip it on your hand and scrub away. Hmm, he might have an invention up his sleeve.

Then on to frosting and decorating. We ended up having 221 cookies. I don't know how many peanut butter balls. Way too many!

Daddy was glued to the TV for the Auburn game. You might notice in some of the photos that he has as many of the kids in Auburn gear as possible. Some (Kalayna)of the kids had already gotten dressed for the day but the rest had their wardrobe picked out by daddy. All of our babies have all had an Auburn outfit from the moment they arrive home (bio kids and adopted).

Saturdays have been pretty happy around our house this fall. Auburn is undefeated. I will say though that it would be nice if the games wouldn't be so close and such come from behind wins. Daddy gets pretty on edge, undies in a bunch, etc if you know what I'm sayin'. WAR EAGLE!!!!!

Are you wearing red today?

2010-12-01T10:30:00.002-06:00

Today is a day to think about the HIV/AIDS crisis that is going on across the entire world. Up until last year I never really gave HIV/AIDS a whole lot of thought. This year is a whole different story though. We now have a beautiful daughter due to the affects of HIV. When we found out about Amaya we didn't know for sure yet if she was HIV+ or not. It would take about 3 weeks to get the results. We educated ourselves about HIV/AIDS briefly and had decided that we would still accept her referral even if she did test positive for it. She didn't deserve anything less in life that we did just because she had HIV/AIDS. We had been looking at her picture for a couple of days and had fallen in love. She ended up testing negative for HIV but we were prepared for either result. I encourage everyone to educate yourselves about HIV/AIDS. If you are considering adopting or taking the steps to adopt already, consider adopting a child with HIV/AIDS. Here is a website with lots of info: http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/
Today we pray for Amaya's birth mother. We pray that she has access to some form of health care. We pray that she is not suffering. We pray that she reaches out to the Lord during the hard times. We also pray for all those affected by HIV/AIDS. We pray for a cure. We pray that more people may be educated about preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Are you wearing red today?

Beau is thankful for...

2010-11-27T20:57:00.005-06:00

Beau came home from school on Tuesday and I started looking through his folder to see what he worked on that day. I came across a piece of paper that had "I Am Thankful For..." written on the top. The kids must have had to look through magazines and cut out pictures of things that they are thankful for. Beau had 5 things on his. The first was a letter E made out of M&M's, then a big juicy hamburger, next was Edy's slow churned ice cream, then a muffin, and finally a picture of oranges, lemons, and limes. Every single thing on there was food. Beau is thankful for food this Thanksgiving. I just started laughing when I saw it because that's very typical of Beau. He's a very good eater. He finally does tell us when he is full but he is always asking what's for lunch or dinner. He always comments on commercials on TV that have to do with food. He always likes to come check out what I am making when I am cooking or baking. I think I was laughing though to kind of hide the tears. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. This time last year he was still in Ethiopia but at least in a very caring care center/orphanage. The year before that he wasn't so fortunate. He was not even 30 lbs at 6 years old. He wasn't eating every day. When he did eat he says that it was only injera (the sourdough type flatbread that they eat usually with other things). His family was tremendously poor and couldn't afford chicken or any type of vegetable to go with it. It completely put things into perspective for us this year. As I gave him his plate on Thanksgiving, he just got a huge smile on his face and said "Mmmm, yummy. Thank you mommy." He always is very polite. The night before Thanksgiving he lost his 2nd tooth here in America, 3rd tooth total we think. He gets very excited when a tooth gets even slightly wiggly and wants it pulled out right away. It's his top front one. He looks so cute. A picture will be coming soon.
It was time to take Amaya's cute box braids out the other day. We all got a kick out of the big poof after all the rubber bands were out. We let her run around like that all day.

Brad is a HUGE Auburn University fan. (He is from Alabama.) His Saturdays revolve around college football, especially the Auburn game. He doesn't just sit still when they are playing either. Amaya's catching on real fast. She had to be just like daddy.

Saturday was also her first night in a big girl bed. She had been sleeping in a pack n' play. In Ethiopia she shared a crib with another little girl so we figured a pack n' play all to herself would be just fine for a little while. Well she started rocking it back and forth and we were afraid that she was tip it over and hurt herself and she is getting bigger now. Kalayna's bed has a trundle underneath. Kalayna was more than happy to give Amaya the top bed so that she could sleep on the trundle. Amaya looked so cute sleeping in the big bed, but I don't think I am ready for her to be a big girl yet.

I have so much to be thankful for that I don't even know where to even begin. I am most thankful for God's unconditional love. Without it, I'd have nothing. Without Him, I'd be lost and condemned to hell forever. But instead, I have the gift of eternal life. I'm so thankful for my husband. A husband who shares the same dreams and goals for our family. A husband who loves God. A husband who would give it all for his family. A husband who serves his country with pride. I am so thankful for the gift of my 5 children. Even though I had multiple doctors tell me I would probably never be able to have kids, my God proved them wrong. He can do anything. i am thankful for food every day. I am thankful for clean drinking water every day. I am thankful for a warm home to sleep in. I am thankful that my mom who lives an hour away but makes it seem like only 5 minutes. She will come up whenever I need her. The kids love their grandma (Gaga as Amaya calls her). I am thankful that my mom has found someone who loves her and loves all of us too. (My dad died in a car accident when I was 7 and she didn't remarry until 1 year after Brad and I married. He never had married or had kids so he treats us all like his own and the grand kids all call him grandpa, but they'll also never forget who their real grandpa is too.) I am thankful for the ability to home school. I am thankful for the resources available at the school very close to us for Beau. I am thankful for all my friends from high school that I still keep in touch with and get together with. I am thankful for my friends from college that I still keep in touch with. I am thankful for all the military families that we have met and have become very close with. I am very thankful for all the adoptive families we have met through this incredible adoption journey. I am thankful for Beau and Amaya's birth families. I am thankful for the nannies and workers at the care centers in Ethiopia where Beau and Amaya were. I am thankful that God led us on this road to adoption. I am thankful that Brad said yes during the journey when I was doubting. I am thankful that I said yes when Brad was doubting. I am thankful that we were able to go to Ethiopia and see the beautiful people of Africa.
The list could just go on and on and on. Yes I am thankful for all the material things too but that's not what I am most thankful for. Going to Africa has truly opened my eyes and helped me be thankful for the more important things in life.
Thank you God for EVERYTHING! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Dear Women of Africa

2010-11-19T10:28:00.004-06:00

3 days before we flew to Ethiopia to meet Beau and Amaya and bring them home forever, I found out I was pregnant. It was very much a surprise to us because I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and because of that I am on the birth control pill to help regulate things. Plus, if you've read my blog for any amount of time you've figured out that Brad isn't home a whole lot right now due to the fact that he's in the Coast Guard. So, with all those things factored together the chances of me getting pregnant we PRETTY SLIM. But we serve an AWESOME God who knows exactly what we need. And I need my Mehret Honor more than I can tell you all.

But anyways, the purpose of this post is to say that this whole pregnancy, labor and delivery, and now afterwards has been COMPLETELY different from my other pregnancies since being in Ethiopia. I can not stop thinking about the women of Africa and how they must endure so much hardship that we never even think of. For example, when I was having terrible morning sickness I could call my doctor up and she gave me some anti-nausea medicine to help me stop throwing up so much so I could be a mommy to my 4 beautiful kids. I could also go down the street in my van (not walk miles while nauseated and then not have any money when I get there) to get some ginger to ease the nausea. Maternity clothes. This time around I think I only bought 2 new shirts and a pair of capri pants and otherwise the rest I either wore my regular clothes as long as possible or they were my clothes from my previous pregnancies or my wonderful friends borrowed me theirs. When I was in labor and Brad was driving like a mad man to the hospital I couldn't help but think about being a woman in African in labor. How thankful I was to be able to speed to the hospital and deliver in a clean hospital room with a doctor and PAIN MEDICINE. I tried to imagine myself laying on the side of a dirt road by myself or some friends, possibly not even the father because he might have been working in the fields or even worse, he might have passed away. I had a nice comfortable bed to lay on. I had a doctor and many nurses to care for me and Mehret. They used sterilized products when they cared for us. Amazing. After Mehret was born, I was served warm delicious food almost instantly so that my body could recover and I could start producing milk for Mehret. Within a day I started producing more than enough milk for her. When I sit down to nurse Mehret now, I think about what it must be like for many women not only in Africa but all around the world to not be able to feed your own baby. How does that feel to not have enough food for not only your own body but then for your child also? Your body can not produce enough milk to feed your baby because it can not even keep up with the basic needs of your own body. I am so thankful that we have food (too much) that I can keep my body nourished so I can produce breast milk for Mehret. Would I have what it would take to give my children up knowing that they would get what they need? Life. If I couldn't provide them even food, could I give them up or would I be too selfish and rather have them die next to me, with me? I look at them, all 5 of them and I am pretty sure I would be too selfish. I don't think I could give them up. But then again I don't know what that feels like to not be able to provide for my child. Even when money is super tight, we still have bread and bananas, clean water, a warm bed to sleep in at night, and PRAYER.
To Beau and Amaya's birth mothers:
Thank you for having the strength to give them life knowing that you couldn't anymore. You are much stronger than I could ever be and I commend you for that. I look up to you and praise God for you.
I pray for all the women in Africa and all around the world who are pregnant or have children and are living in poverty. I pray that they have the strength to get through each day. Giving up your child for adoption does not mean you are a bad mother, it means you love your child so much that you want them to live and you can set your selfishness aside. When I see pictures of women in Africa, I wonder how many of them are mothers? How many no longer have their children living with them due to death or having to give them up? How many of them have their hearts literally broken in 2? How many think about their children all day and long to hold them again, if only they could simply give them food?
Dear Lord, Thank you for my blessings. Please help me remember how lucky I am to have these 5 amazing children in my care. Many times I run short on patience and I get frustrated. Give me the strength and courage to get through each day being a mother who is thankful and patient. Help me remember the women and mothers around the world who aren't as fortunate. Please be with the mothers around the world who ache for their children. Please help us find a way to help all those who are struggling to provide for their children so they do not have to give them up. Amen.
This pregnancy has been a blessing in so many ways. Obviously Mehret is the big reason. It also has opened my eyes to so many things. God has shown me so many things for which to be thankful for and also where we should be helping others. Thank you God, for the VERY surprise pregnancy. You surely know what you are doing, Lord. God does not make mistakes. (But I would like to know, what is the purpose of morning-or all day-sickness? Really, Lord??)

(I want to put a picture of some beautiful women of Ethiopia but Mehret just started crying. I will try to look through our photos from when we were in Ethiopia and post one or 2. It really helps to have an image to go along with what I am saying I think.)

Gifts worth giving

2010-11-17T10:22:00.005-06:00

As I have mentioned in a previous post (or several), since being to Ethiopia we view life in a completely different way. The holidays have a completely different meaning for us. I am really struggling this year with all the "buy buy buy" that is plastered all over the TV ads, internet websites, newspapers, etc. gearing us up for Black Friday and the Christmas season.

Let's just completely forget all about Thanksgiving and having a day to think about all the things we should be truly thankful for. Don't even think about our Savior's birth, just focus on all the awesome gifts that we NEED that we'll get for Christmas. AHHHH! It makes me want to scream, puke, shake the world til they "get it", all while people are literally STARVING to DEATH!!

Oh and keep in mind all this ridiculous spending is happening while we are in a huge state of economic depression. Really? It must not be too bad people if you are lining up hours before stores open to get those "unbeatable" deals on things that you just "have to have".
How about giving gifts with a purpose this year? I have 2 different ideas for you so far. The first one is from a family who adopted 2 children through our same agency. They traveled 2 weeks prior to us. They are going back again and are adopting a 9 year old girl. They too have been forever changed since being in Ethiopia and God has been moving them in wonderful ways to care for the orphans. Here is the blog post the Irvin family did yesterday:

CHRISTMAS TREES OF GLORY
So, here it is. Your big chance to join with me and the folks at Children's Hopechest to impact the lives of 84 needy kids in Ethiopia.

The video that I posted yesterday gave a shocking statistic. Americans spend 450 BILLION dollars year after year after year buying stuff each Christmas. Usually, the stuff purchased is a luxury item and often it is forgotten by the new year. This year, we have the opportunity to give gifts that matter and have an ongoing impact.

Trees of Glory needs funding to construct a barn to house 5 cows. The cows will graze the land that is at risk of being taken back by the government, thereby fulfilling the land use requirement and protecting the land. Remember, this land is a vital piece of property at TOG as it separates the school from an existing well. It's a pretty simple solution to the problem. One that doesn't sound very heroic. But, for people who struggle just to survive, this is an insurmountable hurdle and it will make a big difference for them.

That's where you and I come in. For just $1100, Hopechest can purchase the supplies needed to construct the barn. Hopechest has estimated the cost of each cow to be about $900. So, for about $5600, the land at Trees of Glory will be protected. This project will not only protect the land, but it will also provide a sustainable food source and good source of protein from the cows' milk and give the care point a potential income source.

While $5600 may sound like a lot, let's break that down a bit. Like I said, I'm not sure how many people read this blog, but even if just 10 blog readers made the commitment to pass this information on and worked to raise a tenth of the money needed, that would only be $560 per blogger. You wouldn't be committing to giving that much money, just to spreading the word, advocating for these kids and inspiring others to give a gift that really matters this year. If your blog reached 10 people who committed to spreading the word and encouraging donations, the need would be met if each of those bloggers raised just $56 each. So you see, if we all work together, the larger sum becomes much more manageable.

So what I'm really hoping is that at least 10 of my blog readers will respond and commit to advocating for these kids over the next month through your blogs, emails and/or facebook pages so we can get this money raised ASAP for Trees of Glory.

So here's how the fundraiser works. We're calling this fundraiser "Christmas Trees of Glory" because we want you to look at your Christmas lists this year in a different light. Think about your part of that 450 billion that Americans will collectively spend on Christmas gifts in 2010. Now this year, instead of going to Target or Toys R Us, do some of your shopping online by making a donation (of any amount) to the Trees of Glory Livestock Fund (all donations will be given directly through Hopechest's secure website).

You will then receive a gift card like the one pictured below (designs may vary slightly) and an envelope for each of the donations that you make. So, if you want to make a $5 donation for 5 of the people on your gift list (think teachers, co-workers, relatives, friends...), you'll donate $25 to Hopechest and then email me at jirvin79@gmail.com to let me know that you've made a donation (that way we can track the donations and make sure they are allocated properly to the livestock fund). Also include your address and the number of gift cards/envelopes that you need and we'll mail them off to you. The back of the card will briefly detail how your gift will impact the lives of the kids at TOG.

Pretty simple right?

To review:

Make a donation at http://www.hopechest.org/ (go to the site, click on the orange GIVE button on the far right side at the top of the home page)

Under "Gift Information," click on "choose a fund" and select "designated gifts"

Then write in your gift amount (if you're giving gift cards to more than one person, just add up the total amount to be given and write it in the blank, then when you email me, just clarify the number of total gift cards needed-that will save you from having to make multiple donations)

Then (this is the important part) under the "notes field" be sure to add in the Trees of Glory Livestock Fund code which is "ET2119-LIVESTOCK."

Finally, add in your info and follow the prompts to complete your donation.

Once you complete your donation, send me an email at jirvin79@gmail.com with your donation amount, your mailing address and the number of gift cards that you need and we'll send it out to you within the next few days. So that we are able to get the cards to you before Christmas, please make all donations prior to December 18th. If we have not met our goal by then, we will continue fundraising through other avenues, but the gift cards will no longer be sent.

I know that's a lot of information all at once. If you have any questions, please email me.

I'd also love for you to send me a comment if you are planning on posting this information on your blog or other outlet just so I can have an idea of who's participating. Feel free to copy any information posted here and encourage your blog readers to post it on their blogs so that we can reach as many readers as possible.

You can be creative in your advocating and even do other fundraisers of your own (ie. bake sales, garage sales, raffles....) to raise funds. The goal is to raise all of the funds. How we do it makes no difference.

I've been praying about this fund raiser for several weeks and my biggest prayer is that God will work in amazing ways and that all glory will be His.

Happy Blogging!!

Let's be the hope for these kids this Christmas!!!!!

(The picture of the card didn't copy and paste so if you want to see it on their blog go to http://steadfastminds-ethiopia.blogspot.com/ I recommend you go visit their blog anyways and see pictures of their ridiculously cute kids and be spiritually motivated.)

Another idea also comes from a family that adopted infant twins through our same agency. They are selling BEAUTIFUL scarves that are actually from Ethiopia. Scarves are VERY popular in Ethiopia, as they are in the US too. They are actually giving away a scarf or 2 and you can go sign up for one and also buy 1,2, or 20 and find out all about the WONDERFUL cause. Also, see pictures of these absolutely ADORABLE babies that we got to hold, kiss, take care packages to, and just simply adore when we went to Mekele back on Jan. 30th and Feb. 1st when we traveled to pick up Beau and Amaya. They were only 7 lbs. back then and I couldn't take my hands and eyes off of these beauties. I can't wait to see them again some day. Here's a link to their giveaway and the gorgeous scarves. http://jonandamyg.blogspot.com/2010/11/yes-its-is-time-giveaway.html

So make sure you check out those websites and consider giving gifts that truly make a difference this season. If you would like your adoption fundraising item or anything that supports an orphan, widow, or the fatherless to be listed on my blog, leave a comment and include your email address please.
You've got to be the change you want to see in the world.~ Ghandi

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2010-11-16T12:14:00.002-06:00

Today is Brad's birthday and once again, we aren't able to be there with him to celebrate (thanks to the military life we live). It will have to wait until the weekend. I think it's more disappointing for the kids than for him. As we get older, it's more exciting for our kids to celebrate our birthdays than it is for us. The kids are VERY excited that it's daddy's birthday and they can't wait for him to get home on Friday and sing and celebrate. Well, they are singing to him on the phone today but it's just not the same as it is in person.
Happy Birthday to daddy who lives his life for his 5 kids (even when the reality of having 5 kids is still sinking in). We're so proud of your dedication to our family and our country. You set such an awesome example for so many.
We love you Daddy!

Oh how Mehret is loved!

2010-11-15T16:48:00.006-06:00

2 posts in one day, wow! I have been meaning to post some more pictures of Mehret but I keep forgetting so I better get it done while I am at the computer. Mehret is 10 weeks old today. Already!! I just CAN NOT believe it. She is smiling so much. Her siblings all just ADORE her. The first thing I hear every morning when I walk up the stairs with her is, "Can I hold Mehret?" She is growing so fast. I have to take her into the doctor this week for her 2 month check up but I am guessing she is 10 lbs. She was born at 6 lbs. 7 oz. just 2 months ago. Really, why must they grow so fast? Here is our little Princess Mehret:

Here she is with all her siblings gathered around her:

I am SOOOOO thankful for Preston. He is such a big helper, so responsible, LOVES kids (especially his siblings), and has such a big heart. I'd be lost without him right now. Here he is holding Mehret:

She even got to take a bath with her 2 big sisters. She loved it and so did her sisters.

And one more, here is Mehret with Jenny (one of her Godmothers, the one that lives next door, not the one that lives in Hawaii).

A new hair style

2010-11-15T16:39:00.003-06:00

So we tried a new hair style today. It's a lot like the only other one I know how to do but it goes one step further and the balls of hair actually get braided. I guess it is called block braiding. It took us about 4 hours start to finish. It's a little hard to do with a 2 year old that had lots of energy and her hair is only about 3 inches long. I can't wait until it is a little longer and I can hang on to it better. So here are a few pictures of it.

Preston and Kalayna have been talking a lot about inventions lately and what they want to invent someday. I think I know what I want to invent when I grow up: A doll with real African American hair so that I can practice doing different hair styles on it without it wiggling around constantly. Oh it's so hard to do Amaya's hair. She just NEVER sits still. Anyone that has ever met her can testify to that one.

A year ago today...

2010-11-12T17:55:00.003-06:00

A year ago today was quite a sad day for us. It was the first court date for Beau and Amaya but we didn't pass the first time. We were missing the all too important letter from MOWA. We were given a new court date a month later, on Dec. 10th. It seemed as though it would take FOREVER for that date to get here. Our hopes and dreams of having them home for Christmas were dashed. If we would have passed on Nov. 12th, we could have had the Dec. 23rd Embassy date and flew home on Christmas. Looking back on it now, it was a blessing in disguise to not be traveling on Christmas and be missing out on the holidays with Preston and Kalayna too. Beau and Amaya wouldn't have known what was going on anyways and it would have all just been a confusing mess for them. This year they will know what Christmas is about and it won't be so overwhelming for them. We will all be able to enjoy it so much more.
Every year our church has a Praise Band Concert and I remember crying at most of the songs because in some way or another I could relate the songs to the kids and how much I missed them and longed for them. I would just think about next year (which is tonight) and picture them there with us. Well that time has come. How time truly flies by. What a difference a year will make at the Praise Band Concert for me. I doubt tonight I will be crying tears of sadness. I am sure I will be wiping a few tears of joy though. (There is also a chance I might just be ready to leave since I am taking the 5 kids by myself. Daddy is on duty again this weekend so I am flying solo once again.)

One Nation Under God. In God We Trust!

2010-11-11T20:08:00.004-06:00

Today is a day to take time to thank all those who have served or currently serve in any of the 5 branches of the military. (yes there are 5 of them not 4: Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy) Our family would like to say a huge thank you to all those that have served proudly and are currently serving today. We know first hand the challenges that come along with being a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine. Brad has been an active duty member of the Coast Guard for 13 years now. I have been married to him for 10 of those years and let me tell you, it's not easy but we wouldn't have it any other way. We couldn't be any prouder of him or the many wonderful life long friends we have made through the military. It surely takes someone special who is willing to put it all on the line at any given time for their country and their fellow comrades.
Thank you daddy for your 13 years (and counting-his goal is at least 20 years and then retire) in the Coast Guard. Thank you Paw Paw, Brad's dad (US Army). Thank you Papa, my dad (he died in a car accident 21 years ago but we will NEVER forget him) (US Army and Air Force). Thank you Uncle Tom, my dad's brother (US Air Force retired). Thank you Uncle Todd and Aunt Susan (US Air Force and US Army). Thank you grandaddy, Brad's grandfather (US Coast Guard). Thank you Grandpa, my grandpa (US Army retired) Thank you to all of our wonderful friends that we have made that are now like family. Military friends often become like family. The bond is indescribable, not only between the service members but also their families. THANK YOU!
One Nation, Under God.In God We Trust! United We Stand! Support Our Troops!

9 years ago..

2010-11-05T10:29:00.003-05:00

My first baby was born. After 22 long hours of labor at 6:35 a.m. Preston Austin was born. Life couldn't be better. Everything I had every dreamed of was wrapped up and laying in my arms. He was perfect. Brad and I made the decision before we even started trying to have kids that one of us would be home with our kids. Since Brad is in the military and I have always wanted to be home with our kids, it was just a no-brainer who would do that job. We vowed not to let money become more important than time with the kid(s). I have enjoyed spending pretty much every day of his 9 years with him, minus our trip to Ethiopia to bring home Beau and Amaya.
Preston is a very smart, funny, kind, generous, sensitive, caring, thoughtful, God-loving young man. We are SO proud to be his mommy and daddy and have been so blessed by having him in our lives.
Why do they have to grow up so fast? This momma can't handle the thought of any of my kids ever getting old enough to move out. Thank goodness he is only half way to 18. I hope the next 9 years don't go as fast as the last 9 years.

How far from God have holidays become

2010-11-02T09:19:00.003-05:00

Our sermon at church on Saturday was about Martin Luther and the nailing of the 95 theses. On the drive home afterwards it really got me thinking about how each holiday has really gotten away from God and religion. I never even knew that October 31st had to do with Martin Luther. I always thought it was about Halloween, spooky things, getting dressed up, CANDY, etc. What has Christmas become? Santa, gifts, decorating, spending tons and tons of money on things we really don't need nor do the people we are buying the gifts for probably. It's even gotten to the point where a lot of people call it x-mas. What? Completely take the Christ out of Christmas? If you haven't noticed, last week I added music to my blog. Turn up your volume and listen to the first song. Really listen to it. It made me cry the first time I listened to it. Amazing. Do we really think of Christmas like this. Do we sit and think about the day that Jesus was born? I feel that way about the day my children were born. The day I got to hold my adopted children in my arms finally. I wanted the news of the birth of my children to RICOCHET off the mountains. Why are we forgetting about the KING? Our Savior? And Easter. Now a cute fuzzy bunny is more important than the rising of Jesus from the grave. What an incredible event for us Christians. The entire advent season is so deep and meaningful. Christ's suffering and dying on the cross for us. He gave up His Son for us. Wow. For me? And then every year on that day I get all excited about a bunny rabbit and that is what I am teaching my kids about? Yes, I teach them about the true meaning too but is that what they get most excited about?
For the past couple of Halloweens we haven't bought costumes or gone trick or treating. We just celebrated Fall and did something else fun. Since being to Ethiopia in February, not only did the sugar high and creepiness turn me off but so did the waste of money. I added up how much just Halloween alone would cost our family. AT LEAST $200. That could sponsor a child for 6 months. Yes, I know everyone needs to have fun every once in a while and we definitely do. A lot of fun. We have too much, spend too much, waste too much, trust me. Since being in Africa I can not get these faces out of my head. I can not. Africa has truly changed us. I know many people will not agree with what I have to say but this is my blog and I just had to write about it this morning. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. We are trying harder and harder every day to not be so wasteful. What would happen if for just 1 year, instead of spending money on Halloween costumes and candy/junk for for the day-JUST ONE DAY everyone would give that money to orphans. I am going to guess that many of those orphans could have food, shelter, clothing, and the priceless WORD OF GOD for at least a year. One day in our lives here in the US could give them all of that FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR. WOW!!!! It just literally makes my heart hurt. When we were fundraising for our adoption so many people had the excuse of, we don't have the money but yet when it comes to "holidays" like this they spend absolutely ridiculously amounts of money on what?? a costume that they wear for 1 day? candy that does their body no good at all?
How about Black Friday. How much money is spent on Black Friday? I would guess that a good majority of the things purchased on Black Friday are not necessities. Wouldn't it be AWESOME if people waited in line ALL NIGHT LONG to get into church on Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving. Is it all about the bird and stuffing our faces? Don't get me wrong, I love my turkey and I am guilty of eating waaaaayyyy more than I should. Do I spend the day actually praising and thanking God for all the things I do not deserve but yet He still gives to me?
I know the answer to all of this is Sin. How thankful I am for God's unconditional love and forgiveness. I pray that more and more people see His love and forgiveness. I pray more and more eyes may be opened to the TRUE meaning of these days. I pray that we may all be less wasteful of what God has given to us. I pray that we may all find MORE joy in praising and thanking HIM than some earthly object or ourselves.
Again, these are just my thoughts as of late. I am guilty of all the above mentioned things too. I am pointing the finger at myself too.
(I apologize if this post is all choppy and not well written. I am trying to get it written before homeschooling starts and before Mehret needs to eat. The kids are playing well and I know that will all end real soon. My computer time is VERY limited these days.)
You've got to be the change you want to see in the world.~ Ghandi

Pumpkin painting

2010-10-27T08:45:00.007-05:00

We intended to carve our pumpkins this past weekend but then I started looking up recipes to do some cooking and baking on Sunday and found some amazing pumpkin recipes. I showed them to the kids and Preston had the great idea of just painting the pumpkins and then we can use the insides for yummy pumpkin recipes. I still intended to do the painting over the weekend while daddy was home to help but that never happened. We busted out the paints last night.

(Notice Amaya's pumpkin looks just like her. We just HAD to give it the poofy hair do and eye brows. In a picture down below you will notice she made the eyebrows nice and big, she didn't like the nice even eyebrows I guess)

All was going great until I told Amaya that she was all done. It was getting to be about 7:30 and I needed to get her in her pajamas, teeth brushed, and in bed soon. Our fun turned into not so fun, REAL FAST.

And then it caused this:

Thankfully I had already painted Mehret's pumpkin and the other 3 kids were just about finished up with their pumpkins. I had them turn their pajamas right side out (when we paint I have them put pajamas on inside out so if they get paint on them, it's just pajamas and it's on the inside), brush their teeth, and get in bed. I finished baking the pumpkin muffins that I had started and called it quits myself. Well, I had to switch laundry, feed Mehret, clean up the kitchen, get Beau's backpack ready for school, etc but I didn't paint my pumpkin too. We'll have 5 pumpkins this year, not 7. That's OK with me. Brad recommended that maybe the mommy pumpkin could have a straw with a glass of wine or something. Great idea, daddy. Brad's pumpkin was the one I baked to use the insides to make the pumpkin muffins with anyways so now it just makes more sense that it's just the 5 kids' pumpkins, right? I mean I wouldn't want to only be missing the daddy pumpkin. I think I am just trying to not feel so guilty for not painting my pumpkin.
Here's Mehret's at least:

Happy Fall!

A day at the museum

2010-10-27T08:18:00.004-05:00

On Friday Preston and Kalayna were supposed to have a field trip to the cranberry field with their homeschooling group but it got canceled because the harvest was finished. They were very disappointed so we went to the Children's Museum instead. Paw Paw and Ninny got us the family annual pass for our Christmas present last year and we LOVE it. Daddy got home at 3 so we picked up Beau from school and went straight to the museum until 5 when they close. It was a great time to go because very few people were there. I have a feeling we will be going there a lot in the near future now that the weather is getting nasty.

Can it possibly be?

2010-10-19T18:26:00.014-05:00

I am just in awe that my baby girl is 6 weeks old already and we have been home from Ethiopia now for over 8 months. Everything is going amazingly well, we are so blessed. Beau celebrated his 8th birthday, his first birthday here in America with us and he says it is the first time he had a birthday at all. He was extremely excited about it and had picked out his cake flavor a couple months in advance. A week before his birthday we went to Milwaukee to the Ethiopian Restaurant and a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game. He was originally supposed to have a doctor's appointment that day also but the night before we headed down there, it got canceled.

We got Beau a baseball glove for his birthday but gave it to him at the restaurant so that he could have it for the game. We didn't catch any balls though.

Beau requested the Grandma and Grandpa come with to celebrate the day with us. Here's Grandma with 2 of her granddaughters.

Mehret was such a good girl through the whole game. She stayed snuggled in the front carrier the whole time and never made a peep. She is such a good baby.

Daddy enjoying the game with his boys.

Amaya was her goofy old self through the whole game. I don't know if she even realized we were at a baseball game.

Beau's birthday was on a Thursday so we waited until Friday night (when daddy would be home) to have friends over for cake and ice cream.

All the kids are absolutely adoring their baby sister. Every day they all keep asking if they can hold her. She sure is loved.

Paw Paw and Ninny (Brad's dad and step mom) came to visit last week. We had so much fun. His dad has cancer and congestive heart failure. He made a bucket list and on it was a ride on a bi-plane. My mom happens to work at a place that has those so we took him there to go on a ride. It was so fun to watch him take the ride.

While they were here we also had Mehret baptized. We were so glad they could be here to witness such an important event in Mehret's life.

Mehret's sponsors/godparents are our neighbors who have become great friends of ours over the past 3 years. God obviously has a plan in everything he does and I couldn't be more thankful that he had us buy a home right next door to Mike and Jenny. They have watched out for the kids and I during our 2.5 years while Brad was still in Hawaii and this past year of Brad only being home on the weekends. They are always here for us. Our parenting styles are almost identical, which is very hard to find these days. They are very strong in their faith. It's been absolutely priceless to have them right next door and so supportive of everything (the adoption and our surprise pregnancy to name a few). Their Christian faith is so evident in everything they do. We knew we could count on them to pray for Mehret her whole life. Thank you Mike and Jenny for being Mehret's godparents. She also has another godmother, Katie who is one of my best friends and a fellow military wife. We met out in Hawaii and she has 4 kids. It's impossible to try to describe how strong of a bond there is between military families. It's like family, sometimes stronger. Her husband is currently overseas. I was able to be in the delivery room for the birth of her 3rd daughter. Thank you Katie for praying for Mehret and being there for us always.
I am just so amazed at how well everything is going. Home schooling is still flowing very smoothly. Mehret is such a good baby that we are able to get it done most days without her even waking up. She's been sleeping great at night and waking up every 4-5 (so NOT like Preston and Kalayna, or Amaya when they first got home). Yes there are some nights where she wakes up every hour or 2, but those are few and far between. This past weekend I even got a girls' day out with some good friends from high school. We're starting to turn the big 30. Not me yet but the first ones in our group are so we went on a bus tour to 5 wineries in the area. It was so fun. I pumped up enough milk in advance and it worked great. Brad took the kids to grandma's house and everyone had a blast. I missed the kids like crazy but it was good to have a day to myself and relax with my friends. It's not too often that I get out by myself, but I am not complaining. I LOVE being a mom.

Our angel baby has arrived!

2010-09-23T12:18:00.005-05:00

On September 6, 2010 at 12:32 p.m. Mehret Honor entered this world at 6 lbs. 7 oz. 19 in. long. Labor pains started at 7 a.m. and they didn't waste any time and within an hour they were only 5 minutes apart and STRONG! My mom came up and we headed up to the hospital. I got my epidural at about 11:50, for some reason they had to wait for my platelet count to come back before they could give me the epidural and it seemed like they lost my blood sample a long the way or something, it was taking FOREVER for the anesthesiologist to get there. I really liked this epidural this time, it just took the edge off but I could still feel my legs and move them and I could still feel the contractions. I definitely had pain when it was time to push and felt more involved than the last 2 times. A little bit more pain meds would have been fine by me too but now that it's all said and done it wasn't so bad. I couldn't believe how fast it all went this time. With P it was 22 hours and K was over 10 hours. She weighed less than the other 2 also. P was 7 lbs 2 oz and K was 7 lbs. 8 oz. She looks just like K and her daddy, without a doubt. She's such a good baby. I never realized how much I needed her until I saw her little face. When I found out that we were expecting our 5th child 3 days before we flew to Ethiopia, I panicked A LOT. I just couldn't imagine handling 5 kids 5 days a week by myself. Now I can't imagine my life without a single one of them. God really does give you the strength to get through it all. B had to go back to work last Wednesday and yes I cried to see him go because I knew it was going to be 5 days before he would be home again (he had duty right away this past weekend) but it really wasn't bad at all. I even managed a trip to the grocery store with all 5 and a trip to the doctor's office with all 5 and the kids did great. I definitely got the comments at the grocery store though.
The 4 older siblings are doing great and loving their baby sister. A is doing amazingly well with her and hasn't attempted any acts of violence against her (very surprisingly). She normally gets very jealous when any of the other kids come near me or B and she has also wanted to nurse since the first day we met them in Ethiopia so I thought for sure when this baby was born and I was holding her and nursing her, she would be very jealous but she has done great. Thank you, God!
We would like to introduce to you our 5th blessing, Mehret Honor (she is named after B and A's nanny in Ethiopia that we absolutely adored who loved our kids dearly):

Still no baby, but lovin' this summer weather

2010-08-29T14:44:00.008-05:00

No, no baby yet. I just can't believe it. I've tried racing on my bike against my 8 year old several times, the doctor stripped my membranes twice now, I took black cohosh for several days, and yesterday I played soccer with my husband and kids. I was actually full out running after that ball and still nothing. I still managed to score a goal or 2 (I think they let the ball get past them out of shear pity for me).All that did was put me in severe pain for the rest of the night because I used muscles that haven't been used for a very long time or maybe not in that manner. I guess they are just aren't used to holding up a bowling ball and running at the same time. I'm glad after a good night's rest that I am able to walk a little better because it's looking like Brad will have to head back to work for the week because no labor, no baby, means to work he goes. When he leaves he's gone for the whole week. Here's the latest baby belly picture:

A couple of weeks ago B had his appointment in Milwaukee at the Children's hospital. It went very well. He will be having an EEG to check for brain seizures, a brain scan/MRI, and genetic testing (thankfully we don't need any of his bio parents' info for this). We're anxious to get results but it's going to take a while. In September we go back to Milwaukee to see a speech specialist and then in October we go back down to see a hand specialist because he is missing his left hand. We doubt there is anything that can be done to help him but maybe the doctor might have a clue if all of this could be linked in some way. He does so well without his hand that at this point it might set him back to actually try to get a prosthetic, if it would even be possible. We've been told by one doctor so far that it won't be possible. We'll see. While we were in Milwaukee we had to go to the Ethiopian Restaurant of course. We ALL loved it. We've been there several times before we went to Ethiopia, but this was the first time taking B and A since they've been home. They loved it. We'll be going every time we go down to Milwaukee too I have a feeling.

It's been so beautiful outside this summer. It reminds me of living in Hawaii which I dearly miss (well some aspects of it). Brad and I met and married out there 10 years ago and we've lived there again since then. I just miss the weather and the year round outside activities. Hawaii will always somewhat be a "home base" for us. It's where my heart always is in a way. I moved out there to go to college and really just learned so much about myself, God's creation, and then I met Brad and got married there too. It was just so peaceful. I can't say I was perfect because I by no means was but I discovered a lot about myself when I was there. So when we have days like this, it just makes my heart so happy. We played in the sprinkler and enjoyed watermelon today. I even sported my bathing suit top it was so warm. I don't want fall or winter to come, ever.

(If B's left eye looks a little different from his right, it's because he's been wearing a patch since mid June and so his face has gotten a sun tan accept for where the patch usually is. Of course the patch comes off when he's in water or sleeping.)
School starts on Wednesday for B and we plan on starting back up with homeschooling P and K on Wednesday also, depending on the arrival of the baby of course. I love the flexibility of homeschooling. I'm all organized and ready to go though.
So now maybe my next post will be pictures of baby #5?

Getting closer to #5

2010-08-11T19:58:00.003-05:00

We technically have 5 more weeks to go until baby #5 should arrive but I've been starting to dilate for 2.5 weeks now and as of Monday at my appointment, the baby was dropped "really far" as the doctor put it. She thinks I will make it another week but who knows how much more than that. After yesterday, I thought I was going to be in full blown labor. I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions and it a lot of pain. When the baby is that low, it's just painful. I had cut the grass and messed around in the garden. I shouldn't have been doing that but Brad won't be home for 2 weeks because he has duty this weekend. It's just part of being a military wife, you gotta hold up the home front. Then the reality of going into labor and bringing this precious little bundle home really sunk in and of course nesting hit hard last night. I should have went to bed early but instead I stayed up til 12 and did about 4 loads of laundry and put all the clean covers to the infant swing, car seat, etc back on, and folded boy and girl (since we don't know the sex yet) newborn clothes. I am getting so excited to meet this little munchkin that kicks like a pro soccer player. He/She is already learning from his/her older siblings who also love soccer. the doctor said she would not prevent delivery at this point, I am far enough along, yeah!!!
On another note, B and A had their big dental appointment last week. They had to be sedated to take care of their 8 cavities, and numerous other dental issues. A came out of it wonderfully even after having 2 teeth pulled out. B got sick from the anesthesia for about 24 hours. Then on friday we had his appointment in Milwaukee at the Children's hospital to learn more about his cognitive disabilities. The doctors down there were WONDERFUL!!! They want to do a brain scan, EEG, and genetic testing. We just have to wait and see if insurance will cover it or we need to find some other options. Genetic testing alone is $4000 just for the blood draw. AHHH!!! So we are praying that they will cover it. The doctors themselves were going to call our insurance and explain that he really needs this done, it's not just something they want to do. So we don't have answers yet but they definitely see what we are talking about and were just so nice. I love meeting doctors like this.
Amaya has been doing so well with her manners. She has always been a hitter and a biter. She hasn't bit in over a week now and she has learned that if she hits, it's very naughty and she needs to say "sorry" to who ever she was sassy to and give them a hug. If they don't pay attention to her she gets upset and keeps saying "hug, hug" until they give her a hug. So we are making progress. Naps are very necessary for her or her attitude is just TERRIBLE! I am just praying that she is nice and gentle with the baby and loves it, not jealous.
P and K are doing great with the whole adoption. It was a big struggle for P at first because his expectations were that he was going to have someone close to his age to play with (along with K of course, which they have always played very well together too). We didn't know that B was going have these significant delays/disabilities and that he would really act like a 3 or 4 year old. It was very frustrating for P. It was very challenging for all of us, I won't lie. It still is. We knew that he was missing his left hand but we had no clue about any behavioral issues at all but this is who God has placed into our family and we need to do our best as his parents and siblings. It's been a great lesson for all of us. K has been very caring and plays great with him 95% of the time. We all have our not so nice moments.
Summer is sadly coming to an end faster than I would like. We will start homeschooling September 1 and that is also B's first day of school. I am excited to teach P and K this year. It will be interesting to juggle a newborn and keep A busy while we do our school work. Say some prayers for us, please! Maybe my next post will be a birth announcement.

Comments and labels

2010-07-20T19:36:00.003-05:00

I stopped by a blog that I absolutely love and have followed for about a year now. I read it every day when we were in the midst of our adoption process and now that we have the kids home, well time doesn't allow the daily visits to the blog but I check it when I can. I felt like I could completely relate to this ( http://buildingtheblocks.blogspot.com/2010/07/no-weapon-forged-against-you-will.html ). We only (chuckle) have 4 kids but pretty much every time I leave the house with the kids, we get comments. Some of them are nice, some are not so nice, and some are just stares. Let's face it, I am a white mom with 2 white kids, 2 black kids, and I am pregnant. Dad is in the military (most people out in public don't know that is why he is not here) so he is not here with us 5 days a week. It's obvious that some people assume the worst about our family sometimes. Others comment very nicely. Also, when we started the adoption process it was not something that was taken very lightly (or nicely) by some members of our family and that was voiced. We told them why we were adopting and that their approval was not necessary for us to continue, but it is very hard to hear such harsh words from loved ones. This extra blessing (pregnancy) that was totally unplanned by us but part of God's plan all along has thrown all of us for a loop, but if that is what God has planned for us, we are not going to say no, OBVIOUSLY! So when people ask if we are done having kids, that is a very hard question to answer. We feel that we have our hands very full and would probably be done but if God leads us somewhere, we will go. It's that simple. If we hadn't followed His leading before, we wouldn't have B and A right now. So if you would please just take a few moments and go to the site I mentioned above. It's moving.

Great news, I think I have mentioned it before in other posts, there were 3 kids ages 6-12 that were in B and A's care center in Ethiopia that had been waiting for a family for over a year and each of the 3 now have a family coming to get them. One was a sibling set and one was a 6 year old girl. We got to meet all 3 of them when we went up to Mekele in late Jan/early Feb right before we picked up B and A and my heart just melted for those kids. I have been praying for them ever since. I can't wait to see pictures of them with their new family. I'm still part of our agency's email loop so I get to stay somewhat up to speed with what's going on with the children. God is so good!

An overview of the past month

2010-07-02T11:15:00.011-05:00

My how time flies. I can't believe it's been over a month since the last time I posted. Life with 4 kids keeps me hoppin', that's for sure. I am going to compile one big post to overview this past month.
We've hosted 2 international students that attend our area Lutheran High School for the past 2 years. 1 has been the same student for 2 years. She is from Thailand and she graduated this year. She returned to Thailand now and it was very sad seeing her go. She became a Christian in those 2 years, becoming baptized and getting confirmed. It was amazing seeing her grow and transform into such an amazing Christian woman.

We also took a little trip up to see daddy at the Coast Guard Station before she left. It was very fun. We've been up there several times but this was our student's first time going with us.

We went for a scenic drive while daddy was working. There are several beautiful streams and waterfalls along the road. We usually stop and get our feet wet and skip rocks. This was the first time that B and A got to do that. They had a BLAST.

3 of the kids experienced their first 4 wheeler ride at my cousin's graduation party. Mommy road with when it was time for Miss A to go. She was happiest when it was going fastest. I think we are going to have our hands even fuller as she gets older. She is such a dare devil. P was a little hesitant to go on. At least one of our kids has some fear left. I was pretty much freaking out seeing them on there even though they were going slow. I am surprised I didn't go into labor.

At the same graduation party, which was at my aunt and uncle's house, we got to see a day old calf. Miss K LOVES animals. We got to feed it a bottle because the mommy wasn't doing to well. Thankfully mommy and baby are doing great now though. Miss K also helped out Uncle Doug when it was time to do chores. She would have slept in the barn that night if we would have let her.

We took a trip to the zoo. The kids got to feed the giraffes. I thought Miss A might be a little scared because she gets scared when she feeds the dogs treats but she wasn't shy at all.

For Father's Day we took Daddy to Breakfast on the Farm. It was something we've never done before and was quite fun. We got to eat a yummy breakfast and tour a big farm.

I have some more pictures of this past weekend when we had some friends come stay with us for 5 days. B and A got to experience a water park for the first time. Oh were they in LOVE!!!! Neither of them have any fear of the water. I think A swallowed about 5 gallons of water but she loved it. P and K are doing great with their swimming skills. It was just nice to relax and have daddy home for 5 days. Hopefully I will get those pictures up soon. We have another 3 day weekend ahead of us. I can't wait to see B and A's reaction to fireworks. I know they will love them. Stay tuned!!
Oh, and Baby number 5 is due in about 10 weeks. (still in shock about it but getting very excited. The kids CAN'T wait and love watching my belly move).

Summer fun!

2010-05-24T20:51:00.011-05:00

We have been having lots of fun being outside lately. The weather has been gorgeous. Today was 90 degrees. B and A are experiencing so many new things and it is just amazing to see how they just dive into everything with such excitement (unlike their reaction to dogs when they first got home). This past weekend Brad brought home the morale boat from work and so we got to go fishing twice. He got to come home Wednesday night because Thursday was our finalization court date for the adoption. Of course, we passed. I have never heard of somebody who didn't pass after bringing the kids to the US already. It's just a formality thing (another way for the US to make money I think).

As soon as we were done with that, we headed out fishing. I love fishing just as much as Brad does. It was so much fun. We caught 8 white bass that were all at least 15" long or so. B and A LOVED being on the boat. A was happiest when we went really fast. Otherwise the only way to keep her happy was to let her eat. Luckily we had brought some healthy snacks with and so she stayed pretty content. B just sat with his fishing pole waiting for a fish to bite. Unfortunately he didn't catch a fish either of the days. We went back out on Saturday and spent 7 hours on the water. He was very patient though and still had a blast. P and K loved it like usual. We are just one big water/fishing/boating loving family. Thank goodness for the Coast Guard morale boat, or we'd never get out on a boat. =)

P had his first piano recital this past week. We're so proud of how well he is doing. He played 2 songs and they both had to be memorized. He did great even though he was really nervous.

Another very exciting thing that happened in B and A's life this past week was THE ICE CREAM TRUCK. We were in the house with the windows open and I heard the music. I didn't think that's what it was at first though because we've never had an ice cream truck come through our neighborhood here in WI in the 3 years that we have lived here. I kept hearing the music though so I glanced out the window and sure enough, it was the sugar van. I knew B and A would love it because P and K love any chance they get to see an ice cream truck. I grabbed a couple dollars and we all went running out the door. I wish I would have video taped their excitement. B didn't quite understand what we were telling him, that there was ice cream on the truck and they will come to our driveway and we can get some. He loved the music and was jumping up and down just waiting for it. (He loves all music and jumps up and down and is wild on a regular basis anyways, so I still didn't know if he understood what was happening). He wanted 5 of everything. They almost inhaled the ice cream. Some of B's dropped on the driveway and A right away scooped it up and almost got it in her mouth before I stopped her. She still thinks nothing of just picking up random food items, no matter how old they are, off of the dirty nasty ground and eating it. Reflections of her life before. Some people had told us that it might take the kids a while to adjust to cold foods such as ice cream because in Ethiopia, they don't have refrigeration very often. Well, God knows our family well. These kids LOVE their ice cream, and they have from day 1.

The sugar rush started pretty much right away and A landed herself in a time out pretty fast. K is learning to ride her bike without training wheels and A wouldn't listen to stay off of the side walk and up closer to the house so that she wouldn't get run over. Yes, she understands what we are saying. She sure looked cute in the time out though.

P has been so good to K while she is learning. He helps her get started and then she can go pretty far on her own.

And last, but not least is baby number 5. He/she is doing great. I am starting to show a lot more. For a long time I wasn't showing much but it's obvious now that I am pregnant. I am about 23 or 24 weeks along right now. The baby moves a lot and the kids have felt it finally.

Pictures of the birthday girl!

2010-05-04T09:38:00.007-05:00

I got my old camera to last long enough to take some pictures of Miss A on her big day. Usually it will only take about 10 pictures and then the batteries are dead. That is why we got a new camera to go to Ethiopia. Well that "new" camera is broken already, so I had to resort to the old one. Miss A had a great birthday. Here are some pictures of the day.

At first she didn't know what to do with a present. She learned real fast. We only did 2 presents from us though, we didn't want to overwhelm her. One of them was her Birthday Girl Princess Crown she wore for about 5 hours straight. It also had clip on earrings. She was so beautiful.

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Happy 2nd Birthday Miss A!!

2010-05-03T11:16:00.002-05:00

It's Miss A's first birthday in America, but she's turing 2. We are not sure if this is her actual birthday or not but it is what we chose for her birthday. I am trying to get her in for a quick photo shoot, since my camera is broken and we don't have a picture of her on our walls yet. Well we do, but it is just a couple of small ones from when she was still in the care center in Ethiopia.
Miss A, we are so thrilled to have you as part of our family. You make every day an adventure. Everywhere we go, people say how adorable you are and want to take you home. We are so lucky to have you. God truly blessed us when we gave you to us.

Doctor's appointments galore!

2010-04-29T21:25:00.002-05:00

We have been to so many doctor's appointments lately that I can not even fit all of them on my calendar at once sometimes. When we first got home from Ethiopia, we took both B and A into the pediatrician right away, which I highly recommend. They both had giardia, A had pneumonia, B had scalp ringworm (but we didn't realize it until about a month later, so that was another doc. appt.), B has molluscum contagiosum (big name for a viral skin thing that just has to run it's course), and A also had cryptosporidium (sp?). We've had to go back and forth taking in stool samples, getting blood work drawn, and getting shots. Within a couple of weeks I started noticing that there might be some learning issues with B so we consulted with a school and he has now been attending 1st grade in the special ed program for about 3 weeks. We haven't gotten any diagnosis yet, we should find out more on May 21st. The school nurse tested his vision and suspects something going on with his right eye and possibly his depth perception. So their originally scheduled late July appointment thankfully got bumped up to May 11th for B at least. A will wait until late July still. A trip to the dentist was a must. When we got to Ethiopia, A's front 2 teeth were broken off. We still don't know how it happened but in prior pictures, she has normal teeth in the front. It was also obvious that B has some major cavities. This past week they both went in for their first dental experience. B has 8 cavities and will need to be sedated to have all his teeth repaired. A has to have the front 2 teeth pulled out and has 6 other cavities besides. She also is getting sedated for her procedures. This past week we also had their audiology appointments. Everything was great with A but B had some MAJOR wax build up in both ears, his right ear had a mini-monster living in it I think. I couldn't believe something that huge could come out of an ear. His hearing levels did not test at normal levels in that ear so we go back in a month to have him rechecked. It could just be from the cold that he has or from the wax being in there for so long.
We've also been going back and forth to my OB appointments every 4 weeks. I am now 20.5 weeks along. I had to bust out the maternity clothes about 2 weeks ago. We had our 20 week ultrasound this past Friday. The baby looks GREAT. We did not find out the sex this time. We figured that we would leave everything about this baby be a surprise, after all this pregnancy is about as surprising as they get. =) I can tell I am definitely a lot busier this time around, I have only gained 1 lb. so far. I chase 4 kids all day and barely get a chance to just sit and eat a normal meal so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. With P and K I gained the usual 35 lbs. I am about 7-8 lbs heavier starting out this pregnancy than I was with them though too. I won't complain if a couple weeks after the baby is born I only have 5-10 lbs to lose. Especially going into winter! WI winters are long enough, I don't need another downer like 25 lbs extra to carry around. =)
The kids are all doing great. B loves school. The only thing he can tell me about his day is what he ate. It's always a hamburger and ketchup (I have the calendar though so I know what he really ate). P is finishing up his first year of homeschooling. I have loved the experience. K also thinks she is home schooled but technically she is just pre-k so we have been working on letters and numbers. She does great though. She really has developed into such a wonderful little lady. Miss A, I could write a book about her. She is strong willed, happy, doesn't like to share mommy, sleeps through the night (finally), takes a good nap during the day(75%of the time, finally), is a good eater, and is learning fast. She has started to become a little pickier about eating and will choose not to eat her veggies. You know that doesn't fly with this momma so she gets only her veggies first, when that is gone, she gets the rest of her dinner. It works like a charm. Her English is coming a long great. She is so independent, too independent sometimes. I gave her her first haircut last weekend. The curls were getting so out of control and I could tell the ends needed to be trimmed up. The really nice thing about really curly hair is, I can cut it and even if it is not super straight, no one can tell. It turned out really cute. I think we will keep it a little on the shorter side until she gets old enough to sit still to have it braided, and until mommy learns how to braid her kind of hair.
I wish I could post some pictures but our camera is still broken and I haven't had much time to figure out other options and money, well that's just not coming in as fast as it's going out so it will just have to wait a while.
Enjoy the last day of April!

Life in the fast lane

2010-04-19T20:49:00.003-05:00

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've updated. I guess it's a sign we are keeping busy. Weekends always fly by with daddy home and we never get everything accomplished that we hoped to. The house is messier than I wish it would be, but we have 4 kids now and no we don't have a nanny or a housekeeper so I guess that's how it's going to have to be for a while. Maybe once this 5th little one is born I will have more energy back and I can get more accomplished. That usually means that I stay up way later than I should and then I am exhausted in the morning. Where are those extra hours in the day that most of us could use?
Mr. B (we aren't really calling him G much anymore) started school last week. I homeschool P & K but there are some things going on with B that we feel he needs to be evaluated by some professionals and see what could possibly be going on. He loves going to school, he even takes the bus. Yes, I loosened up enough to let him ride the bus but only because it's the special needs bus as of right now so there are only 4 or 5 other kids on the bus. It's not too overwhelming for him. A large bus with lots of kids would definitely be too much for him. The school nurse thinks there might be some vision issues going on so he is going in on May 11th to get that checked out. I'll be curious to see what the school evaluation is at our meeting on the 21st.
Miss A (trying not to use D anymore) gets sassier by the day. She loves shouting "No", screaming in a high pitched voice for no reason, and hitting. Yes, she's quite the handful. We started to see some improvement for a couple of weeks but then she reverted again and seems to keep getting naughtier. I am not sure what is going on with her. She is definitely strong willed, no doubt about that.
Mr P has a little less than 2 months to go with his homeschooling cirriculum for 2nd grade. He is doing GREAT. He is really smart and everything is pretty easy for him. He loves doing the science labs. He has a great memory, almost too great sometimes. He is adjusting better to having a follower around him all the time too.
Miss K seems to have grown up about 10 years instead of just 1 since she turned 5 in March. Her hair cut is just beautiful and makes her seem so grown up. She also loves working on her letters and numbers and her homeschooling. She could color all day long I think. She is starting to sound out word/read and is so proud of herself when she gets a word right. I think we have another smarty pants on our hands.
Baby #5- well I am 19 weeks along right now. I've had to bust out the maternity clothes and a couple of friends have let me borrow theirs (THANK YOU SO MUCH) since I pretty much only have winter maternity clothes and this time I will be pregnant in the summer. I go to the doctor for my 20 week ultrasound and appointment on friday and we are very excited to see how much the baby has grown. We are not going to find out the sex of the baby though, we're letting everything about this one be a surprise. I think we have decided on a girl's name but not a boy's name yet. I tend to like the more unique names and B likes the generic names.We have approximately 20 more weeks to decide. I haven't thrown up in almost 2 weeks, which is so awesome. Finally!!! I hope it stays that way.
Our camera is broken so it might be a while before I post pictures. We just got the camera right before we went to Ethiopia and now the lens will not extend and turn on. In all the hustle and bustle of getting ready to travel, I am not sure what I did with the receipt so it is making it hard to get repairs done using the warranty. Plus it's just barely past the 90 mark so the store is unable to print me a new receipt. Uhhh, go figure. Maybe one of these days it will just miraculously work again. Ok, I think I am waaaayyyy to tired now. Enjoy the warmer weather!

All about hair

2010-03-22T20:14:00.008-05:00

Kalayna has been waiting very patiently to donate her hair to Locks of Love. Since her 5th birthday is tomorrow, she decided she wanted to do it for her birthday. It is now long enough and so we made the appointment on Saturday so daddy could be with us for the big event. She donated 10 inches of her beautiful hair to a child who no longer has hair because of cancer or some other illness. Her friend Emily, who also lives next door to us, came with us and also got her hair cut.
The before pictures:

The hair getting chopped off:

The beautiful princesses:

After their hair cuts we came back home and painted their toenails and finger nails and had a mini tea party.

And then for little Miss D, we took her 18 pony tails out and her hair was a big poof, a huge fro. Thank goodness for moisturizer, that's all I have to say.

And one more of the almost 5 year old:

A yummy dinner after a busy day!

2010-03-20T09:47:00.008-05:00

Our friend Amy made chicken enchiladas for us last night and they were oh so yummy. EVERYONE thought so. It was so nice not to have to cook and still be able to enjoy a nice home cooked meal.

This is little Miss D (A) asking for more.

This dinner was perfect after our eventful day. We had a field trip to go on with Preston's homeschooling group. It was at a place called The Building for Kids. We have an annual pass thanks to Paw Paw and Ninny (that's what they got the family for Christmas). The kids love going there. It was G and D's first time there. They all did great.

And to end the day, Miss K did some tricks with the dogs. P and K came to a lot of the 60 or so obedience classes that we took Saylor to last year when I was training her to be a therapy dog. It has made the kids very good with dogs and the dogs listen to them very well. Sometimes I think that they listen to the kids better than me. Saylor is the one without much white. Betty is the one with white around her neck. (note:we did not name Betty, she came to us at about 9 months old already named and at that time we did not know if we were going to be the ones to keep her or not. When we finally realized there was no way we could give up this sweet boxer girl, we were so used to Betty, that it has been hard to change her name. We wanted to switch it to Sarge though.)

Our first attempt at doing Miss D's hair

2010-03-16T18:28:00.002-05:00

Saturday I did D's hair, more than just the usual moisturizer (and a lot of it). We think it turned out cute but I am not sure what experts would say about it. It took about 30 min. She got antsy after about 15 minutes but was so proud of herself when she got to see herself int he mirror with it done. It makes her face look so cute, not that it isn't always anyways. I am not sure if I will ever be able to do lots of little braids, my hands would cramp up real fast I think. She would have to sit better too. It's nice to have a change though and exciting to try new styles. I am not sure what I will try next.

Homeschooling

2010-03-15T19:10:00.002-05:00

I am trying the homeschooling thing out this year with Preston, well and Kalayna too. She is only 4 though so it preschool stuff for her. Now with G(B) home, we are working on a few things with him too. I am really enjoying having them home, despite some of the battles we go through. The positives far out way the negatives. It's nice not having P coming home with the sassy little comments or sayings that some kids say these days, no crying about bullying, having evenings to play outside and not be in a rush to get dinner on the table, homework done, bathed, and in bed on time. We haven't decided what to do next year. I want to keep homeschooling, but Brad thinks it would be easier if we send them to a school since we will have our 5Th one arriving in September. I am not so sure that running back and forth to school 3 times a day is going to be much easier. Then homework for 3 kids, dinner, baths, and in bed on time all crammed into a few hours, by myself. Keep in mind, Brad isn't here all week long. He home Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. No matter what it will be challenging, but God will get us through. This is such valuable time with the kids and I just want to cherish every part of it and make sure we are making the best decision for our kids. I don't want society making the decision for us. I want them to learn and know that what God says is the most important, not what their peers say. Such decisions. Enjoy the pictures of homeschooling at the kitchen table. Normally we are at their littler table but we moved everyone out into the kitchen for the day. Yes, even little Miss D (A) has to be a part of everything.

Learning to pray

2010-03-14T15:57:00.003-05:00

G(soon to be B) and D(soon to be A) are learning really fast that we pray before we eat and we pray before we go to sleep. G will sit and wait until everyone is sat down with his hands folded before he takes a bite, which is what we expect but I am happy that he has learned this already, and little Miss D prays along with us. She somewhat folds her hands and whispers into them. Here's a little glimpse of what she looks like. It's so adorable. It becomes a distraction during prayer time though because she is just so adorable. Everyone just wants to look at her instead of focusing on the prayer.

This past week went even better than the last. G is learning that temper tantrums don't get him anywhere (not positive anyways) in this household so it's useless to even try it. This week is going to be in the 50's all week so we should get lots of outside time. I am so excited! The snow is pretty much completely gone now, FINALLY!

FINALLY, pictures!!!

2010-03-08T21:46:00.011-06:00

It has taken me forever to get pictures up, I know. The ones of their baptism did not turn out well and so I am waiting for someone else to email their copies, hopefully I can get those posted soon too.
First of all, Little Miss D (soon to be Miss A) actually sat on the potty 7 times today and went potty all 7 times. Poopoo 2 of the times. I am so excited. Here's the princess doing her thing.

And the big sister is LOVING being a big sister and is very good at it. She is so loving and caring to both of them.

Mr P has been having a hard time having someone follow him so close CONSTANTLY and wanting to do everything he does. Mr G has his sassy moments and it is frustrating to Mr P. We are trying our hardest to fight off the devil though and saying extra prayers to get us through. He is such an amazing big brother to Miss D (A) though.

And Mr G, he is happy 99% of the time. He definitely knows how to through the temper tantrums though when he doesn't get his way. We haven't had many other issues though besides the tempers. He eats great, sleeps great, and is so excited about everything.

And here are some more random pictures of all of them. Oh, and I am 13 weeks along now so I am not so nauseated anymore and I am starting to get some more energy back, thankfully. I am still in shock that we are going to have 5 kids. Wow!!
Enjoy the pictures.

Can't forget the furry members of the family. G and D are doing much better with them. Still not fully comfortable but they are getting there. All the dogs want is to be close to them.

And one more of my handsome Mr P!

Back home again

2010-02-26T23:13:00.003-06:00

I have been terrible at posting, I know. Life has been very busy. 1.5 weeks after getting home from Ethiopia with our 2 newest children, we took a road trip down to Alabama to visit my husband's side of the family. We were gone for a week. So now we just got back wednesday night. We are once again unpacking, doing tons of laundry, and trying to get into a routine before daddy has to go back to work for the firs time in a month on Sunday afternoon. Oh, to throw another little (ok, huge) thing into the mix, 3 days before we left for Ethiopia we found out that I am pregnant. Shocked!?!?! Yes, we were. We didn't think we would have any more bio kids, actually we were preventing it. I guess we are that .2% now aren't we. So I have been nauseated on and off (thank God for anti-nausea meds), very tired, and just not feeling like myself. We have been back and forth to the pediatrician's office several times. We have about had it with stool samples. Both kids have tested positive for giardia and once they are on meds, we had to recollect stool to make sure it is gone. We're pretty sure Debrework's is back. We can tell by the smell. Gebregzabher is still on his meds though and doing great. Hopefully we can get that cleared up and gone FOR GOOD! Thursday was my turn for the doctor. I am already almost 12 weeks along. My doctor did an ultrasound and so we got to see the baby and the heartbeat. The kids were so excited and I think it really helped Gebregzabher realize that there really is a baby in mommy's belly. We were trying to tell him but he would just repeat what we said, I don't think he really understood. They were so excited. I just can't wait for the 2nd trimester, hopefully I will start to feel like myself again. My how God has different plans for our family than we thought for. 5 kids!!!