If you truly believe

What is she laughing at?

2012-01-17T14:48:00.001-08:00

This is one of the ladies employees by Mission Ethiopia. The women make beads for necklaces and also gorgeous ornaments out of mud in the shape of Africa. We enjoyed visiting them while they worked.

When I walked up on this lady I noticed her laughing. I asked her what she was laughing about and she pointed to a picture in the Sky Mall magazine, you know the one in the seat pocket in front of you on every airplane?

This is the picture she was laughing about. It's a picture of a dog lounging on a beautiful bed/couch. She absolutely could not believe that in America dogs sleep on such beautiful beds! I have to tell you...I was pretty embarrassed.

I just smiled, shook my head and rolled my eyes that universally says, "This is nuts, huh?"

The advertisement, which thankfully I don't think she could read says, "All the comforts of a couch, with free monogrammed pillow...starting at $79."

Ugh...don't get me started!

My friend, Eve Pohl is in Korah right now and last year started a family sponsorship program for some of the most needy families there. She mentioned today on Facebook that the greatest need she sees right now for so many people there are beds. There are numerous people sharing one little twin size mattress and many others who sleep on mats or just on the dirt. They desperately need beds and bedding. A mattress there is $50 and bedding $10. She's asking for donations from people who'd like to help. Her ministry is called Hope for Korah.blogspot.com.

Check it out. I'm very impressed at what's she's doing.

Just think...$60 for a persons bed or $79 for a dog bed, albeit with a free monogrammed pillow. (for the dog who can read?)

No one asked my opinion but I will choose the person every time.

Christmas fun

2011-12-27T07:33:00.000-08:00

We are blessed to have a pond in our back yard which is perfect for skating. We enjoyed a little Christmas Day skating. And yes, this is the same pond that Katie and De got married in front of last summer:)

Girls with skills.

Blaine sets up a big light and we even skate at night. So much fun!

MJ doing great this year on his skates. The minute he gets off the bus after school, he begs to go skating.

Blaine and MJ.

Aliya is terrified but is learning. She's never been on skates or rollerblades ever. Scary!

De and MJ.

Mihiretu the risk taker...his pants give away how many times he fell!

Blake and Reno.

The hunting thug in his jammy pants:)

We always have to do the traditional "family with the birthday girl" pose. It's not easy getting everyone together in a picture so I take every opportunity I can!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with family and friends.

Blessings,

Laura

Heavy heart for my friends today

2011-12-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

Remember the beautiful house by the trash dump I wrote about recently? This is what it looks like now. Our friend, Biruk went to visit them yesterday and was absolutely shocked at what he found. The trash dump has completely encroached upon this property and they were forced to take down the bedroom end to make room for the trash. You can see just how close it is to the house now.

Just the living room portion of the house is now left.

Wendimu and his parents. Just 2 months ago this was a little paradise next to a trash dump. My heart is broken and the looks on their faces say it all. They are staying just a few more days in hopes that the government will help them find a new home. Not sure if that's going to happen or how that works.

I absolutely cannot believe that in the period of 2 short months this could happen. It was inevitable at some point, of course but this is so soon. I am thankful to Biruk for sending these pictures to us so we can be praying for this family.

With all the internet awareness of Korah and the trash dump now going all over the world, the government has decided to clean up the dump adjacent to the main road so it "looks" better to the average passer-by. It really does look nice, all covered in grass now. But one needs to look a little deeper, come off the road and walk into the community of Korah and see where the garbage has gotten pushed to see how it's impacting real people. I suspect that is why this has happened over the past 2 months. It should have taken much longer for the trash to encroach on their property but looking good to the "world" is so important.

I'm struggling with the inequity of it all today. I just returned from the grocery store where I filled my cart, loaded it all in my SUV, drove to my house and loaded it all into my pantry and refrigerator, on the way home stopping for a car wash. All the while, holding back tears and my heart feeling like it weighs a ton because I know that on the other side of the world, this family is in imminent danger of being homeless.

Sorry this is not going to wrap up into a perfect little platitude today. Of course, we are praying that the Lord will provide them with another home and we have already seen that He is faithful in their lives.

I understand...if you build your house near the edge of a trash dump, eventually you will lose it to the trash. I'm not down on the dump people. I'm just upset for my friends.

And today my little mind just cannot wrap itself around the inequity of it all.

The BIG news!

2011-12-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

Our friends who we traveled with, Kevin and Denise have begun the adoption process for an older sibling group!!

They told us a couple weeks ago but I wanted them to have the chance to share the news with everyone they wanted to tell before I blabbed. It's been hard news to keep quiet!

This is a couple who's youngest child is Blake's age-21, and they are complete empty nesters. They love to travel together and do a lot of biking in the summertime. Currently, their time is theirs and they have all freedom.

But not for long:)

And they are giving it up by choice.

They knew that when God brought them on this trip with us to Ethiopia, that He would require something of them. They weren't going to visit this place and forget it. They weren't sure what their long term commitment would be but they were open and willing for whatever God had for them.

Within 2 weeks of being home, they were certain that adopting was in their future. God confirmed it when Kevin asked for a sign that this was the direction they were to take. They have been our friends for a long time and they remember back 6 years ago when God gave me a dream and showed us we were to adopt. Well, God did it! The next morning was a Sunday and as soon as Denise turned on her phone, she had an email announcing that it was Orphan Sunday! They had no idea that it was. Great confirmation the very next morning!

They are moving full speed ahead. They're signed up with a great agency and busy taking their pre adoption classes, learning what it means to adopt older children.

And through this they are simply giddy with excitement! They remind me of a young couple expecting their first baby:)

We are, of course THRILLED beyond words for them. It's fun to be able to share in this journey and walk along side them.

I am secretly hoping for a couple/few new friends that are my kids ages. Yes, I said few as they are open to 2 or 3! How fun would that be?!

Never, ever doubt that God can change your desires to something the world simply can never understand.

Blessings,

Laura

Wendimu's invitation...the blessing we received

2011-12-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

Habtamu is one of Katie's special friends from Korah. I've shared pictures of him before. He now attends the boarding school in Sheshemene. Katie has a bond with him and still communicates with him through a friend there who has Facebook. She sent him a gift bag last fall with some presents and photos. Needless to say, he was really happy to see her when we showed up at the boarding school. The two of them were inseparable and she and De even went back to visit them the next Sunday with Sumer on her regular visit.

This is Habtamu's family - Dad, older brother Wendimu and his beautiful mother. Wendimu came to the clinic and stayed and visited with Katie and De all day. He came back the next time we were there. His English is great and he's a very sweet guy. He knew of the connection with Katie and his little brother and graciously invited all of us to his home to meet his parents, have coffee and to see that they still had the pictures Katie had sent to Habtamu.

We got permission from Sumer and off we went through the streets of Korah on our way to his home.

Always with children in tow.

Wendimu leading the way...we just followed. Along the way, he told Katie that he lived near the dump. She was unfazed and said, "Ok." He said, "No, I live really near the dump. You can see it from my house."

As we crossed over into the dump, I began wondering just where he was taking us.

A little farther into the dump.

Over some trash.

And into this beautiful, lush oasis we walked.

With a gate to help keep out intruders.

It soon became clear that we were in a little haven.

Most people in Korah have no land in which to plant anything but this family had found a small piece of fertile land, built their home and planted several types of crops.

The front door faces away from the garbage dump, which is not far behind the back of the house. The air was fresh here...it was so pleasant.

We were warmly welcomed by his parents. They seated us and his mom began preparing coffee for us. Their house with its high ceiling was so clean, bright and well cared for.

She had roasted barley for us to snack on.

And prepared some wonderful coffee for all of us.

After a nice visit, we expressed our thanks and said our goodbyes.

His parents followed us out and you can even see his mother standing at the end of the line, watching us leave. So sweet.

Wendimu is a 3rd year engineering student at the University of Addis Ababa. He is a very bright young man with a great future ahead of him. We asked him how he affords college. In Ethiopia, he told us, if your grades are good enough and you can pass the National Exam, you can get into college. When you graduate and get a job, then you begin to pay back your tuition. Awesome opportunity.

We were all so impressed that adjacent to the huge Addis Ababa city dump stood this lovely home and grounds. Inside this home lives a beautiful family, so full of hope now for their sons' future. (There is a middle son who also attends the boarding school)

Seriously, what we would have missed had if we had not made this friend and accepted his invitation. As I said before, the homes we visited were highlights for all of us. It's then you can see how people really live.

I think about the experiences and relationships we miss out on in our lives because we don't step out of our comfort zone. Our lives are so much richer for this experience and we have a much better understanding of the culture there.

Who would have thought? We had no idea that we would find such beauty, hope and joy just yards from the garbage dump.

I keep thinking, "What if we hadn't gone? What if we'd gone to New Zealand as we'd always dreamed of doing for our 25th anniversary?"

Denise, Kevin, Blaine and I all agree...we had more fun - not just a more fulfilling time, but more FUN in Ethiopia than we could have had anywhere else in the world.

So glad we all went. No regrets...not a single one.

Next post...a BIG, BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

This is for you, Biruk!

2011-11-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to find a way to pay tribute to our friend, Biruk so I'm going to do it through these photos and stories.

Katie, De and Blake met him when they were working in Korah previously. He was there with another American friend, helping her. They all began hanging out and became fast friends. You may remember that I mentioned a guy who took a punch from a shop owner in Addis for Katie and De? That was Biruk. Biruk was helping them with a purchase and told them not to buy their items from this particular shop owner because he was ripping them off. When they walked away the man punched Biruk. Poor guy! We've been Facebook friends since then.

We knew when we went that Biruk was planning on spending as much time as possible with us Ferengy's (American's). He met us with the wonderful Korah welcome committee at the airport and literally almost never left our sides until we had to go into the airport to leave. He went home a couple times for things and stayed behind when we went for 2 days to Hossana but otherwise he was with us. Katie and De had a bunkbed in their room at the guest home where he stayed. We LOVED every minute with this kid!

In the picture above, he is interpreting for me at the Korah clinic. He is an incredible interpreter, rivaling any adult interpreter and better than most, that we've ever had. He is intuitive and sensitive. He knows what we're thinking before we even say it. His maturity is unreal and I had a very hard time remembering that he was only 17 years old and not a peer of mine!

One time he let his age show.

At the clinic in Korah, you will remember that my job was triage nurse. All the patients who were seen first came to me or the other nurse, Janet. We took down their names and their medical complaint. You can imagine the types of medical problems these people had...everything under the sun. Well, I am a nurse and a mother so not much flusters me.

The other thing you need to know about Ethiopia is that youth is not respected. If you are a young person, older people look down on you.

Ok, so here we are. I am heavily relying on Biruk for his interpreting skills and these mostly older people need to respect him enough to relate their personal medical concerns to him...a 17 year old boy.

It went very, very well...overall. I have to be a little blunt here to tell this story so I hope this doesn't make you blush too much.

Here's a little overview of the more sensitive cases:

Biruk: "She is having trouble with her breast..."

Biruk: "Her menstrual cycle keeps going...it never stops."

Women lifted their shirts. Boys pulled down their pants. We saw it all and all the while, Biruk was completely unfazed...a true professional. I was impressed! I don't know any other 17 year old boy who could conduct himself like Biruk.

Until...

One of the days was particularly long and exhausting and we both were feeling it.

Toward the end of the day, a mother came through with a son of about 9, although he looked 6. Biruk proceeded to ask her what kind of problem he was having. After listening intently, he leaned in close to me and said, "He is having a problem with his butt hole."

Me: "Ok, what kind of problem?"

Biruk: "Something is coming out of his butt hole."

Me: "Is it a worm?"

(Don't forget where we are, ok?)

Biruk: "No it's not a worm. It's more like," he then makes a gesture with his hands like something being squeezed through his tight fingers and says, "it's more like meat!"

I totally understood what he was trying to tell me but by this time it was all he could do to hold in his laughter! He kept saying quietly, "He's having trouble with his BUTT HOLE!" This would bring more snickers and I am ashamed to tell you...I couldn't hold back either! Soon, I pulled myself back together and announced my diagnosis.

The poor kid had a hemorrhoid.

Even the best translator can have trouble with a word. Here "meat=tissue."

We just had the best time that day!

This pic is outside the shelter in Korah on sheep killing day. From left to right is Goshu, Murad (both Korah church leaders), De, Katie, Biruk and Danae (she nannies for Sumer).

Biruk and Katie on their balcony. A beautiful view.

De, Katie and Biruk.

In the van.

Biruk ate like a king (as we all did) the entire time we were there. This is kitfo, a traditional Ethiopian dish that is a huge treat that they rarely get. It's raw meat mixed with spices. I warned him not to do it! Maste told us he's gotten tape worms from eating it before but Biruk wouldn't listen. Hope he's tapeworm free!

Donkey carting in Sheshemene!

I do have a small fear of hyenas and they all know that there. So whenever there was a dog present, I was told it was a hyena. This is one tame hyena who lives in Korah.

Best buddies.

Messing around on sheep killing day!

I love this picture! Biruk did kill one of the sheep and was feeling pretty macho about it!

I have something else to tell you about Biruk. He is one of the most godly people I know. He loves Jesus and relies on God for absolutely everything. His faith is huge and can and will move mountains. God impressed on his heart when he was a very young boy that he'd one day be an evangelist, sharing the gospel to people who've never heard it, in places where it is not welcome.

He's been looking into schools in the U.S. He wants a theology degree and a minor in music, as he wants to use music in his ministry. He's interested in North Central University in Minneapolis. We've told him that if God provides the tuition, he can live with us. So as of now, we are praying for God to move the 'tuition mountain.' Can't wait to see what God will do!

He spent so much time with us and not in school that we all went to speak with his principal. We explained what he was doing with us and for us but the principal wanted to know what it was that we were doing for him. He was very concerned about Biruk missing school but with the promise that he'd make it all up, finally gave him permission to miss a few more days to be with us.

We really are indebted to and thankful to and for Biruk. He helped us with so much while we were in Ethiopia! Honestly, I don't know what we would have done without him there. He is an outstanding young man and I know God will use him greatly in the future.

So this Thanksgiving, among so many other things I am giving thanks for our friend, Biruk.

We love him!

Saturday in Addis Ababa at the feeding center

2011-11-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

We had all decided when we went to Ethiopia that we wanted to be busy. Our group did not have a need for rest but wanted to be put to work and be busy all the time. That is exactly what we did.

Maste gave us an idea for an opportunity to serve on a Saturday...go volunteer at the Hope Enterprises feeding center in Addis. We really had no idea what we'd find when we got there other than a lot of hungry people, so we went. When we arrived we told the workers there that we were there to volunteer and they put us to work.

Above you can see Kevin beginning to fold the injera.

This was the result. They stacked plate/bowls 5 high and covered the table. At this point, I had no idea exactly why but we followed directions.

This center is open every day but Sunday, serving breakfast and lunch. (I think breakfast) People can pay 1 birr (about 5-6 cents) for a token, which they exchange for a meal. This place has things figured out perfectly and do an impressive job with organization. They feed 750 people at the site where we were (mostly to men and boys) and another 250 next door (mostly to women).

Blaine helping fold injera.

Counting to make sure there's enough.

The people are allowed in in groups of about 170 each. They get in line, hand the man their token, pick up their plate with injera, go over to the outdoor sink to wash their hands and proceed to the tables that sit under a large, covered roof. This process happens 3 times until all the people are fed and all the food is gone.

As I have said before, I will not exploit people. I don't try to be dramatic or take graphic pictures of people to shock Americans.

I do believe it is important, however to paint a picture of this day in a vivid way because it is the one and only day that I was shocked...shocked to the point where I had to take a step back, reabsorb the tears that had formed in my eyes and get back to work.

Most (I'm guessing all) of the people who visit this feeding center are homeless. There are many street kids, boys of about 10-14 years old who came through the line. They are always charming, giving you a wink. It's cute until you realize the reason they are so charming is because they know it gets them something. Cute, charming people earn more as beggars or sales people. It's for survival...and that's sad.

There were men who came through the line that I wondered how they'd be able to carry their plates, since they were walking on their hands. I'm not sure what happened to their legs...was it a birth defect or an injury? Whatever caused it, their legs were crippled and small. So they walk on their hands. Oh, their poor hands. The streets of Addis Ababa are filled with broken glass, gravel and other things you wouldn't want to walk on even with shoes. But these men have no choice. I offered to help those men but they had their own method. They either stuck the plate under their chin and carried it that way or had a friend who helped them.

A few women came through the line, one woman who stuck out to me in particular. She had a sweet baby on her back and was being led by her other daughter, a 3 or 4 year old girl. The mother was completely blind.

The one thing they all had in common was they were dirty and very hungry. It was nice that they had a place to wash their hands and they all did so eagerly.

After they took their plates of injera and sat down, Blaine, Katie, Kevin, Biruk and De went out with buckets filled with a lentil stew and a large ladle and began dishing out the "wat" or stew as it's called. I'm pretty sure Denise and I had the cleaner job as the others came back with their fronts covered with lentils!

As the first group finished their meals, they returned their plate to the counter and we were to dump whatever was left on the plate into a plastic pail on the counter and then put the plate into the blue tub to the right to be washed and readied for the next group of people coming through. When I say we dumped the remains of the plates in the bucket that's an inacurate statement. There was usually very little left or nothing on the plate so we actually hit the plate on the side of the bucket to get the plates cleaner for washing...or so I thought.

The bucket got about 1/3 of the way full of scraps. An old man walked up to the counter and opened up a little plastic shopping bag and looked at the man who was working with us. As I watched, the worker then took a plate and began mixing the scraps up. He then, using the plate as a scoop, gathered half of the 'scraps' and put it into the mans bag, which the man then tied up and walked away.

This almost did me in. I literally took a step back as my eyes filled with tears (as they are now again as I tell you this). After this man came with his bag, another did...then another. There were simply not enough scraps to go around for these people to have another meal that day.

I don't know how to hit you with this as hard as it hit me except to say...if you went to McDonald's and everyone dumped their leftovers into a bucket, then someone mixed it up and then gave it to those who wanted something for supper later...this was exactly the same thing. It seemed so dehumanizing at first but of course...these people NEED something for supper or maybe they bring it to someone who is sick. It would be MORE of a shame to waste it...I get that.

It just simply took me off guard and shocked me.

I got over it and went on but I will never, ever forget that.

Never.

It was a huge blessing to be there and get to serve that day. We all enjoyed the work and the people.

God showed us in a new way...the need is just huge.

We were told that on Saturday a sponsor pays for the entire day and 1000 people eat for free. They put the sponsors name up on the window to honor them.

And just how much does it cost to feed 1000 very hungry people the only meal they will have on Saturday?

About $60 USD. $60 to feed one thousand people!

It made me think...how many dinners have we spent that much on ourselves or even a couple times, just on myself? Yes, we have done it.

I think I'll have to pass when I see that price next to a steak on the menu next time. I'll get the salad.

Meeting our boys biological family in Hossana

2011-11-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

Cows, donkeys and sheep in the road are so commonplace in Ethiopia that we almost didn't bother getting a picture of it. It finally dawned on me that we might have no pictures of this so one of us took these.

This drive is on the way down to Hossana, which is about 4 hours south of the capital city of Addis Ababa.

Just drink in this view! Absolutely breathtaking. The drive to Sheshemene is similar but we noticed some differences...fewer people walking along the roads and more of these round huts.

We also noticed that the crops in the region were big and healthy. We've heard so much about drought and famine in southern Ethiopia but we didn't see that here. They had good rains and that's produced these beautiful crops. The bad famine is farther south, it seems.

This is the hotel where we stayed in Hossana. There is a restaurant attached where we took our sponsored kids to lunch and also Mihiretu and Misganaw's family. Good food.

An early morning view from our balcony at the Lemma Hotel.

We had the room with the view here. Kevin and Denise overlooked a parking lot or a bus station.

The gas station in Hossana. No, I'm not kidding.

This is the Hope for Hossana school. It is supported by Children's Home Society, the adoption agency used to adopt the boys. It is a beautiful facility full of children of all ages. The man in the white coat is the teacher...all teachers in Ethiopia wear white coats like this one.

Ok, seriously...do you see what they are learning?? Impressive to say the least!

We were pleased to visit this school as since we adopted the boys, our family has sent support for this school. It is a complicated issue and hard for many to understand but after you adopt a child, you may not financially support their biological family in any way. The agreement is that when the biological family chooses to make and adoption plan for their children, the only contact they may have with the adoptive family is the yearly post placement reports (they may view them) or we may send them an occasional letter with photos or drawings by the children. That's it! So by supporting this school in their community, we feel we are supporting their family in an indirect way. Otherwise, what will we say if one day they ask us, "What did you do to help our family in Ethiopia?" Supporting this school has been our answer.

The reason is simple. If we sent monetary support or gifts to the family, other desperate families might see that and decide to "give their child/children away" in order to receive such support. This is shocking and difficult for the Western mind to conceive of. But trust me when I say that you have to see this kind of poverty to comprehend it. Who knows what lengths I might go to as a mother? I can understand thinking, "I will give away one of my children to save the other 4...the new family will send me money and the rest will survive." This is avoided by adoptive families NOT being allowed to do such things, as hard for us as that was and is.

We completely understand and agree with this policy. It's about ethics.

So this school was the sight chosen for us to meet with Mihiretu and MJ's family and we were doubly blessed that day.

Only Blaine and I were allowed in the initial meeting with their family so Katie and De, Kevin and Denise remained outside. You can see what happened to Katie and De. Surrounded! One little boy asked De if he was his real brother. He asked if De was from Ethiopia and if his name was Eyob. He said that De looked just like his brother who'd gone to America. So cute.

I don't know any other way to do this but to make this the worlds longest post ever. But I have to give you some background to this meeting. It's important to us to retain our boys' privacy and I've always done that. I've never posted any picture of their family.

Their story is very typical with really nothing to hide but not every child has that kind of story. It's important never to ask an adoptive parent, "What happened to their parents?" or "Did they die of AIDS?" Oh, man that's a bad one. You may be curious but don't ask.

There is pain with each and every adoption story, international and here in the U.S. When you ask, you put us in a bad spot..protecting our child/children or risk making you mad. We'll choose our kids every time. Please don't be mad at us.

I have chosen today to share some of their story because I want you to see that they are human beings...real people. I know that when we adopted them almost 5 years ago, I mentioned on my blog that we'd met their mother and that she was incredibly lovely. I had not mentioned that their father had died and left her with 7 children to care for and she could not do it. M and M were the youngest and she chose to place them for adoption. She told them in a recording that she loved them so very much that she wanted them to live and have a future. Selfless...more than I can comprehend.

When we decided to take this trip, we immediately knew that we must visit her to reassure her that we were holding up to our promises that we'd made her in regards to the boys. We promised her they'd attend church, own their own Bibles, learn them, etc. The least we could do was to show her these things after she'd entrusted her most precious gifts to us.

We made arrangements through Children's Home Society to meet her. Soon after we made these arrangements, we got some wonderful news. It was shocking but wonderful. Their father was alive. He'd gone looking for more farmland and after he'd been gone a long time, she got word that he'd died. But in fact, he had been very sick but he recovered and came home! What a thrill for her and the rest of the family. We'd never have known this if we hadn't arranged for this visit.

So not only did we get to see their mother, we got to meet their father and their siblings!

This is the boys maternal grandparents. I can't say enough about them. They are strong Christian people who simply could not stop praising the Lord when they say each photo of the boys! She kept raising her hands in praise, saying "Yesus Christos." She couldn't stop thanking Jesus.

I chose to include a few, carefully selected photos for the first time. My desire is that you see the love and connection they have to us and we have to them. The photos I've chosen to share, with the exception of the grandparents' are not full face. That's by design. We do have some portrait type family pictures with all of them and all of us but those will hang in our home, not be put on the internet. Hope you understand.

This man hugging Katie is the boys' father. He looks very old but considering the hard, hard life he's led, we believe him to be about 50. The sweetie walking away is the oldest boy, who if he turned around, you would see Mihiretu's face looking back at you. Really, it is eery in a good way.

The girl hugging Katie is the oldest sister, who also looks so much like Mihiretu. The boy on the left is the oldest brother, the girl behind Katie is the younger sister and the little guy in the grey shirt is Mihiretu's older brother.

Meeting them was a priceless time for all of us. Since we got home, I can't look at Mihiretu without seeing his mother, sister and brother. I look at him and wonder.

I have so much more to share about our feelings but I know this is an epic post so I better quit now and come back to it later.

Thanks for sticking with this one. You're amazing if you did!

Meeting our Compassion boy in Hossana

2011-11-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

Our afternoon ended with a visit to Mandefro's home. We were honored that their whole family was there, meaning that his parents stayed home from work and his sister skipped school for a day, a big sacrifice for them.

Of all the homes we had the privilege to visit, Mandefro's compound was right up there in beauty. It was clear that his family had worked hard to keep up their property. This is the view walking into their yard.

Just inside their front door, we received such a warm greeting by his family. I would say his family, according to Ethiopian standards, is middle class.

Mandefro's sister roasting the coffee beans for the coffee ceremony. This is all done right in the house, smoke and all.

Mandefro's mom finishing the roasting of the coffee beans. The floors of these homes is actually dirt covered with a large piece of linoleum.

His mom putting sugar in the cups.

Pouring the coffee into cups. The glass jar with the stick in it is inscence burning.

Under the lace is baskets filled with treats...oranges, bread and honestly the best popcorn I have ever had.

Mandefro's and I peeling oranges. Ethiopia has some amazing oranges.

his family and us. Isn't their compound gorgeous? The trees behind us are called false banana plants. They grow no bananas but they are very drought resistant and have a root that they make a food called kocho. It is one of their staples. Kocho looks like a slice of Parmesan cheese but tastes like Limburger cheese and dirty socks. It is by far one of the worst things I have ever eaten! If you have Netflix, you can watch all about Ethiopian food on Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern. He says that the false banana root spends 3 months fermenting in the ground after its been chopped up. Yep...that explains it! Fortunately Mandefro's family didn't offer us any!

Us with our sweet boy.

As we sat in their living room they had obviously read our letters because they asked us about our house fire. They asked about Aliya's adoption and knew all our kids' names. It was clear that they were as interested in our lives as we were about theirs.

We all enjoyed meeting our sponsor kids, their families and to be so warmly welcomed into their homes and lives.

We stayed overnight in Hossana and on Thursday met with Mihiretu and Misganaw's family. I've thought and thought about how much of this to share online? Hope I do it justice tomorrow.

Taking the boys to lunch

2011-11-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

After we went and had the feast there, we met the 2 boys we sponsor at the restaurant and had lunch. We'd spent so much time with Ayano's family that it was now 2pm and the boys were pretty hungry! We, of course were not since we'd already eaten at Ayano's. But eat again we did!

Our boys started out acting very shy but warmed up as time went on.

In Ethiopia, it is a sign of respect and love to feed another person. It's done very regularly and is completely normal to see. Ayano started it out by feeding Denise some of his injera, wat and tibs.

Ok, now Katie!

Mandefro, our oldest sponsored child got into the game and fed me.

And then Blaine!

After lunch, the boys went into the courtyard to show us some of their soccer skills with Ayano's new ball. They put the American kids I know to shame:) Little did Mandefro and Temesgen know that in their backpacks were a sweet soccer ball for each of them, too!

Even in a fancy suit, Ayano had skills.

This is Temesgen, our younger sponsored child. He was so sweet but very shy and quiet.

Blaine and I had made up a Shutterfly book with pics of our family. The Ethiopian's were very interested in seeing our 3 Habesha (Ethiopian) kids and what their new lives looked like as American's.

Lunch! Each of the boys had tibs, either beef or lamb fried in oil with jalepeno peppers. Very delicious and a big treat for them.

The whole group of us waiting for lunch to come.

This was a full day! We met with Ayano's family and went to his program. We took everyone out to lunch, which I think cost about $30 or $40 USD for all of us. We next will visit Temesgen's house and mother and after that we'll visit Mandefro's home and family.

Just too much to post all at once!

Tomorrow, Temesgen's home visit.

Blessings.

Compassion International kids are real kids!

2011-11-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, we visited the kids we sponsor through Compassion International. We and our friends, Kevin and Denise sponsor boys from the Hossana region of Ethiopia. We all did this by design as this is the area that Mihiretu and MJ are from and gives us another connection to this area.

We left early in the morning to make the 4 hour journey south to the town of Hossana, where we would first meet Ayano, Kevin and Denise's little boy. We'd meet our 2 sponsor boys next, as they are at a different Compassion project in the area.

The above picture is the church where Ayano's project is. The kids attend school at a local school but come here for many activities the church offers. A sponsorship through Compassion allows the child to do all of this. It is a great benefit to them as they get their school fees paid, all their school supplies (which can be a huge expense for a poor family) and so, so much more. It was wonderful to see how much they do for the kids and mostly that they learn about Jesus' love for them here. As you can see, it is a big and beautiful church they have.

In this building, we found dozens of young mothers and babies taking a class on parenting. They are at-risk mothers, and so therefore they qualify for the program. I wish we had a picture of their faces when we walked in! We were the first ever Western people to visit this site. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we were the first white people they'd ever seen in the flesh. I know very little Amharic but I do know how to greet someone properly and when I did, they women burst out laughing. They must have though, "How can this white lady know our language?" The women were warm and kind but when I squatted down by a little toddler to say hello, he screamed in terror. Poor little guy! He ran back to his mommy and all the ladies giggled.

We sat in the office Compassion Director there and he told us about the area and how they were able to help the children in that region. It was impressive and they took us coming very seriously. You would have thought we were dignitaries from the U.S. with the speech he'd obviously spent hours preparing. So sweet.

Above you can see Denise and Ayano. He is holding the letters that he'd received from Denise and Kevin.

Kevin, Denise, Ayano and Atkelt. Atkelt was the representative and interpreter from Compassion. He stayed with us the entire time, explaining many things about Ethiopia and it's culture. At one time, he himself had been a sponsored child through Compassion. He told us about his sponsors, an elderly couple from Germany who wrote him letters and encouraged him in his faith. He is a college graduate and a very, very impressive young man with perfect English. It was an honor to have him with us.

We were able to present our kids with backpacks full of gifts. Ayano received this soccer ball from Kevin and Denise and honestly would not put it down the entire day! He's pretty proud of it.

After visiting the Compassion project, we were graciously invited into Ayano's family home. It was a wonderful experience. We were warmly greeted, pampered and spoiled rotten by his family. This is Ayano removing the gifts from his backpack. As he pulled each one out, he raised them above his head, all to the cheers and clapping of his family! It was hilarious!

Ayano got Smarties!!! Yea!!! Just look how adorable this boy is dressed! I think the church bought him this suit since we were the first to ever visit a Compassion child at their project. He was the sweetest boy and he stole all of our hearts from the minute we laid eyes on him.

Kevin and Denise presenting Ayano's parents with a new set of sheets and some utensils. They clapped for that, too! Just look how happy his mother looks.

Atkelt led the kids in a Bible song in Ayano's house.

This is the outside of Ayano's home. Notice the sheep (that looks like a goat) all curled up under the window?

This family had gone ALL out on us. I cannot imagine what it cost them to put this spread out for us. We were unable to eat the uncooked items, but the scrambled eggs and carrots were delicious. Popcorn is a traditional item that Ethiopian's eat with their coffee ceremony, which she did for us. We were blown away by their generosity right down to them buying each one of us a bottle of pop. For people who didn't have much, they shared ALL they had with us.

Humbling.

Most of the family. I think there were 4 older brothers missing from the picture. Doesn't the dad look like Lionel Ritchie? Yes, there is a funny story behind that one!

My absolute favorite picture!

So you see, when you sponsor a child through Compassion International and you write them letters, they get them. When you send a Christmas gift or Birthday gift (money) the people in the project really do use it to buy the child a gift. Many people mistakenly believe all the money you send goes into a pot and is split between anonymous children and the picture they send you is just one child in a project. Not true! They are real, living, breathing, beautiful children with hopes and dreams.

What an incredible honor to get to contribute to that in a small way.

Next, post...our Compassion boys!

Clinic days in Korah

2011-11-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

We participated in a week long clinic for the people of Korah to receive free medical attention. The 6 of us (Katie, De, Kevin, Denise, Blaine and I) joined up with a the first ever medical group that Visiting Orphans had sent out. The group consisted of a retired doctor, a nurse practitioner, a 4th year medical student, many nurses, a pharmacist and non-medical people.

I am an LPN, albeit a rusty one. My job, along with Janet was to do triage. All the patients came to us first and we, through interpreters found out what what there medical problem was. A group of about 15 people came into our half of the church and came one at a time to our table.

We saw a huge variety of people with a myriad of medical concerns. The boy above had problems with his eyes. They were so red and bothered him. Unfortunately, we had nothing go give him. This was often the case and that was the frustrating part. Next time...bring eye drops.

Beautiful mother and her 2 little ones.

This was the side of clinic where the patients received treatment. These 2 nurses showed the people a lot of love and care.

All the patients received a bottle of water, a toothbrush and toothpaste. Toothpaste was in huge demand. They call it "Colgate" whether it is actually Colgate of not.

More sweeties. These kids had already been triaged and were waiting to see the doctor.

I guess you can see who Blaine attracts...the girls! Like father, like son...Blake did the same thing. In all his pictures from last year, he is surrounded by girls.

There is no such thing as being lonely in Korah. The minute the van drives in the kids surround you, run after the van and follow it until you get out. It is so wonderful!

The little girl on the far left is Marta. She is in love with De. She comes off as a tough little cookie but she really is soft and tender. The second day we were there, she presented De with an envelope with a love letter inside and a cute heart shaped necklace. He wore it the rest of the trip...so, so sweet. On the last day when we pulled away, she stood there watching us drive away with big tears running down her cheeks. The other girls were surprised at her show of emotion and began laughing at her. She made her 'mean face' and stomped off. De has a special way of bringing out the very best in people, even tough cookies like Marta.

The girl in turquoise with her elbow on Blaine's shoulder is Beza. She is a girl we sponsor there in Korah. She's very sweet and as all the girls do, she loved Blaine.

The girl in the brown sweater toward the right is Fasika. If you have an amazing memory, you will remember that she and Katie bonded when they were there a couple summers ago. If you remember, the group of kids from Korah were taken out into the countryside for a field trip and while they were out there, Fasika demonstrated to Katie how to properly use the restroom where there is absolutely no restroom and shielded Katie with her large skirt. A girl like this is special...so of course, we had to sponsor her, too!

This is the street outside the church compound. These people were waiting their turn to come in to be triaged and see the doctor.

I enjoyed doing this triaging job immensely. I loved meeting each person, asking them their name and telling them mine. I loved shaking each persons hand.

Blaine tells me that I paint a very rosy picture of life in Ethiopia and I suppose that's true. I'm not one to sensationalize what I see...I tend to downplay it. That's because I personally think it's wrong to 'use' people for a picture. It's wrong to make yourself look like a saint because of 'what you've done.' The truth is, each person to me is beautiful. They may have leprosy and have no fingers. I'm guessing these people don't get touched much. They may be crippled to to the point where they can hardly get around on their crutches. They may have scabies. They may be blind and have weeping eyes. They may have TB and be coughing uncontrollably. Snot may be pouring out of their nose. Most always they are filthy and smell.

I don't care...I honestly don't see those things. Well, I guess I do see them but they don't matter to me whatsoever.

I touch every. single. one.

I smile at them and listen to their complaints. I show them I care and take them seriously.

There were multiple amazing 'photo ops' where a sensational picture could have been taken. But I'd rather live in the moment and not make suffering people feel like spectacles. So we don't have any pictures like that. I prefer to give people their dignity.

There were frustrating moments in clinic. The most frustrating moment for me was when the man, who was probably about my age came in with his wife. His complaint? He couldn't read his Bible. He brought it in to show me. What did this man need? Reading glasses. I saw them at the dollar store before we left. $1. $1 reading glasses would have changed this mans life. We didn't have them. Next time...bring reading glasses.

At the bottom of a bin, someone did find a pair of glasses. Not sure where they came from. I tried them on and couldn't see a thing. They had been someones prescription glasses which they donated.

At the end of the day another man came in with his wife, complaining of vision problems. Feeling frustrated and wishing I had some glasses, I remembered this pair of prescription glasses. I realized it was the biggest long shot in the world, but I offered this man these glasses. He slowly looked around, blinked a few times and declared that he could see people better. He left happy. I was happy. God knew which person needed those particular glasses. He prompted me to give them to the right man.

At the end of each day, we saw between 110-150 people every day.

Amazing experience.

Tomorrow...our trip to Hossana.

2011-10-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

The kids in Korah were very impressed with Blaine's muscles. People there tend to have skinny arms that look nothing like Blaine's. All the kids took a squeeze and declared him, "Rambo."

As most of you know, Korah is a community of 130,000 located in Addis Ababa directly adjacent to the city garbage dump. This is the trash dump and as you can see, there are people picking through the rubbish to find things they can sell or eat.

It does seem that the government is trying to make changes as it relates to the trash dump. In the last 18 months, many people have had pictures of it on their blogs and on facebook. Having the world now aware that people live and make their living in the trash dump has begun to bring about some changes by the government there. There was a sign on the corner of the dump that said something about a "reclamation project." They are letting grass grow on parts of the dump. It seems like they are attempting to make it better.

The other difference we noticed was that the roads around Addis Ababa were in MUCH better condition that they were the first time we were there. Seems like the government is pouring money into benefiting the people. Many, many improvements...lots of new construction.

Back in Sheshemene at the students health evaluations...Maste came dressed for the part but trust me, he's a lot of fun and a great interpreter but he is NOT a doctor!

These are poinsettias at the boarding school in Sheshemene. Honestly, they are about 10 feet tall! So beautiful. I had no idea they got this big.

If you need love, visit Ethiopia! There are always kids surrounding you, hugging you and putting their arms around you. If you bring out pics of your family, you have a completely captivated audience. These kids are looking at our family pics on Blaine's iPhone.

This is the street that the Ethiopia Guest Home where we stayed is located. The homes are in gated compounds and each have their own guard.

And the truth comes out...you can eat REALLY well while in Ethiopia. Not just Ethiopian food either, although you can get that anywhere and it's wonderful. This is Sishu. It's owned by an American and you can get excellent burgers and fries here...just like in America!

More tomorrow,

Laura

Day 2 in Sheshemene

2011-10-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

Our first morning in Sheshemene we awoke to monkeys right out our hotel window! I was so excited, never having seen a monkey in the wild before! We got ready as fast as we could. Katie and De were already up and De was after a closer look at the monkeys:)

To get a closer look at the monkeys, where would one need to go? Up on the roof! So De led the way and I followed. This is as far as I got because going up is one thing, coming down is another! He took this pic without my being aware...can you read my mind? "Oh, I really, really want to do this but..."

I found my Halloween costume in Sheshemene...I'm going as Eve! Is this a huge leaf or what??

This group got up early and took a walk. I went out to the street to find them coming down the street on this donkey cart. It's not a mode of transportation for people but Maste (light blue shirt) thought it would be fun. The people on both sides of the street were stopped, looking and laughing.

My sweet De, who doesn't ever want me to be left out, called to me and said, "RUN!" So I did with my 30 pound backpack on my back. He hopped off and yelled, "I'll take your bag! GO!" So go I did and flew onto the donkey cart. I hate to be left out of fun!

Just as we got off the donkey card this group of school children came running up to us, yelling, singing and cheering. They had just won a trophy for an academic competition and this was their way of letting the town know and celebrating their accomplishment. It was awesome!

We took the quick 5 minute drive from our hotel to the beautiful Lake Awassa. We all wanted to see it but Biruk had never seen it before so we made the visit there a priority. It was everything an African lake should be. Absolutely, positively beautiful!

Kevin and Denise at Lake Awassa.

These boats could be rented for 500 Birr, about $30 USD. A guide would take you out onto the lake to view the hippos. Yes, I said HIPPOS!! Unfortunately, it would take over an hour and we needed to meet the rest of the medical team for health evals. at the Akake boarding school. Notice the cute little bird sitting on the boat.

Kevin, Biruk, Katie, Me and Denise. Notice the man fishing in the reeds behind Biruk.

Biruk, De and Katie.

Aliya lived in Sheshemene for a few years before coming to the orphanage. As I watched the people there, especially the kids, I imagined her as a young girl attending school, eating sugarcane, and just living the life they live in Sheshemene. All children who are adopted have a past...a "before they joined your family" past. She has so much more "past" than most kids who are adopted. She was a 10 year old running those streets. Seeing this gave me a better appreciation for where she came from and just how far she has come from there. We missed the majority of her growing up years. She came to our family at age 14 1/2. That's a lot of years.

Without giving too many details...we took care of some business in Sheshemene for Aliya. It was difficult, emotional, hard, but also good and we pray that it helps bring her closure. At least now this girl knows just how far her parents will go for her-all the way across the world and back.

I pray that this experience will never be far from my mind. So easy to forget.

Sheshemene Ethiopia

2011-10-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

A couple days after we arrived, the Medical team and us made the 4 hour journey down to the town of Sheshemene. Over 200 children who once lived in Korah and got their food from the trash dump there now live in a beautiful boarding school here. Last year was their first year at the school. I cannot even imagine the transition they had! I think of Aliya's transition year with us here in the U.S. Wow! How much more difficult would it be for a group of children who once lived with no rules and in and among dangerous gangs in a dump to come to a structured boarding school? It is nothing short of a miracle to see the changes in the kids.

The young man who is talking to me in the pic above is Tilahun. He was instructed to give us a tour while the clinic was taking place on the rest of the students. We were told that our job for the day was to visit with the students. SCORE! There is nothing I like better:) Tilahun walked us to the cafeteria since it was lunch time. On the way, this articulate young man told me that he loved school and wanted to be a pastor when he grew up. Melt my heart! He loves the Lord and wants to serve Him.

He wanted to take and show us his dorm right away but I insisted he eat lunch with the rest of the kids first. We sat down for lunch and he asked me if I would share his lunch with him. How could I turn that sweet offer down? The kids each received a huge lunch of injera, wat (lentil stew) and cooked cabbage. Tilahun shared his injera and wat with me. I was very moved by this unselfish gesture.

It wasn't long before Katie found Habtamu...or Habtamu found Katie-not sure which one! Katie and Habtamu formed a special bond when the kids were there a couple summers ago. He always called her, "My muzzer" (mother). As you can see, this young man is just a few years younger than Katie but he really loves her and she loves him.

Katie and Habtamu. Is he a handsome kid or what? He and his older brother are both sponsored and at the boarding school. They have an older brother named Wendimu who is a 3rd year engineering student at the University of Addis Ababa. He spent a lot of time with Katie and De while we were doing the clinic in Korah. After his classes were over, he came and talked with them for hours. He actually invited us to their home, which of course we accepted. Just wait for that post! Amazing!!

De and his little buddy whom he calls Little Thug. It seems that De holds some sort of celebrity status with the people of Korah. As soon as we entered the lunchroom, kids started pointing and saying, "DE!" Kids peeked in the lunchroom window waiting for him to acknowledge them. They didn't forget Katie either, as they were calling for her, too. Many asked where "Freeek" was. That was their name for Blake, as for them "Freeek" is a name used for a person with a different style. At the time, Blake had a mohawk and the kids loved it!

Tilahun escorted us to his dorm room, which he shares with 7 other kids. He was so proud to show us his bunk and then he opened a small cupboard, probably a 2 foot cube size which held all his worldly possessions and pulled out this certificate. He earned the rank of 4th in his 6th grade class! He also pulled out an Amharic/English phrase book and told me he wanted me to have it. I tried to turn him down but he was insistent that I have it. He was so proud to have something to give to me. I was so humbled. So humbled. All he owns is in this cupboard and he wants me to have one of his books. How unselfish! I will treasure it always.

Our trip was absolutely wonderful! We had the best traveling companions in Kevin and Denise, Katie and De. Any opportunity that presented itself, we all jumped in with both feet and no fear. No one hesitated. No one complained. We took everything in that we could! This was the best 25th anniversary destination that we could imagine. So many memories, so many bonds formed that will not be broken.

In the days ahead, I will walk through our trip with pics and memories. It's too much all to do at once...trust me:)

Thank you for your prayers!

Tomorrow, more Sheshemene.

Blessings,

Laura

Leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow!

2011-10-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

The time has finally arrived...we leave tomorrow. Katie and De left very early this morning and will be waiting at the airport for us when we arrive late Friday night!

We have actively been preparing for this trip for over a month. It's amazing how much work goes into a trip like this. We are allowed 2 suitcases per person at 50# a piece. So with Katie and De, we are allowed 8...and we have them, believe me. In total, 7 bags are full to the brim with donations. We have shoes, beautiful clothes for teenage girls, great teenage guy clothes, medical supplies, jugs of glaze for the women to make bead necklaces, dolls, baby bottles, backpacks loaded with goodies for our Compassion boys who we will meet next Wed., boxes of Pop Tarts for Sumer's kids there, rubber rain boots for a couple of extra special girls in Korah and a goodie bag for each of them, and on and on. We're loaded! We will take our clothes in our carry ons to make more room for the donations.

We found out yesterday that Air Canada is threatening to strike tomorrow...yes, we are flying Air Canada to Frankfurt. Any prayers would be appreciated!

There are a couple special missions that we will take on this trip. Next Thursday, we will meet with the boys' family. We have a photo album to leave with them and we'll have them watch the iPad to see a little movie Blaine made of the boys, from the time they joined our family till now. I hope they LOVE it. I need to process that trip and then we will see what's going to be ok for us to share with you all. It will be an emotional time for all involved but I will try to be strong and not cry! This will be a very exciting and exhausting day:)

Another mission we will be on concerns Aliya. We will be trying to acquire something for her that she greatly desires. I cannot say more but do please pray for us as I think we are entering unchartered territory here. Pray for a positive outcome.

Otherwise, we will be spending as much time as possible in Korah at the clinic. Not sure if I shared this yet or not but my job will be triage nurse. I am an LPN and will so the specialized job of applying bandaids to owies and giving hugs when needed. Seriously! That's my job! How perfect is that? I will send all other more serious health problems onto the doctors or more experienced nurses if they need much more than a bandaid. This is totally the perfect job for me and I cannot wait to do it!

We will have stations set up and each station will have an interpreter and a non-medical person to be a runner and to take the patients to the next station or pharmacy. Hopefully the people will get the relief and help they need medically as well as the spiritual help they need. We pray they all understand that they each are a unique creation of the God who wants to know them personally.

Katie just called me and they made their connection! They had on hour in Dulles to make their flight and it went perfectly. They got to the gate and boarded immediately. God sure worked that one out. They are so excited and in 13 hours they will be landing in Ethiopia.

I will not be able to update this blog while we are gone. Hopefully, I can post on facebook so check there if you can.

Thank you for all the support, prayers and encouragement you have given us..family, neighbors and friends. You are a blessing to us.

Laura :)

Two weeks to Addis

2011-09-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

A few sweeties enjoying some sweeties!

She is precious in His sight.

Some of Korah's precious treasures.

Yesterday, I got the suitcases out and began to go through and pack our donations. We are allowed 2 bags a piece, 50 pounds per bag. We are full so it looks like Blaine and I won't have any clothes! Ok, that's an exaggeration. Katie and De are allowed 4 bags total so Blaine and I will have one bag to share and that's all we need.

I have received 2 boxes from Dave, the man who owns the guest home where we'll be staying to bring down with us. He has a ministry that serves the women of Korah, as well as some other poor women in Addis. They have learned the skill of bead making and now have 9-5 jobs making bead necklaces. This has enabled them to learn a skill, get off the streets, stop begging and take care of their families. So we are bringing jugs of glaze for the beads. Dave is praying for a real kiln to be made available to these women who then could make some high quality beads and therefore sell more necklaces. If you'd like one of these necklaces, leave me a comment telling me how many. You can send payment after we get home. Not sure the price but am sure it isn't outrageous. Just think- Christmas gifts and helping women out of poverty all at the same time!

I did want to put this out there in case anyone is wondering if they could bless the people of Korah from home. We are still and always will be in need of over the counter meds like antifungal cream, triple antibiotic ointment and hydrocortisone cream. The amazing thing that I didn't know is that you can buy these items and many more at the Dollar Store...yes, for a DOLLAR. I wiped our Dollar Store out last week...it was awesome! So here's your opportunity! If you want to do this, just drop the goodies off at my house and I promise they will go to a great cause. Incredible the difference a buck can make!

We also will be taking a suitcase full of supplies for the medical team that we'll be there assisting. There is a dental team there right now who unfortunately had their equipment held up at customs and it seems they won't release it to them. They are making do but it is a very big blow to the team. So the medical team has decided to split up the supplies as much as possible between team members. Pray our supplies don't get held up.

It seems that Katie and De will now be flying out a day earlier than planned. Ethiopian Airlines cancelled the Thursday flight they were to be on so in order for them to be there on Saturday, when we all travel to the town of Sheshemene to the boarding school to do medical exams on the students, Wed. was the day they had to leave.

Blaine and I made a beautiful Shutterfly book for Mihiretu and Misganaw's Ethiopian mom to have. We included pictures of them as really little guys up to the present. I know she will LOVE it and cherish it. We haven't heard yet for sure if our meeting is all set up but we are hoping and confident it will work out for her.

We also have some things we are trying to do for Aliya while we are there. I can't share what but in planning all this, something has triggered in her and sent her into a tailspin. She has told us a lot about her past but it has taken her many months to share what she has shared. But we know she is holding a LOT inside her. I told her to let her walls down, that she is safe and secure here in this family and we love her and always will. She says that she will never let her walls down. This comes from a girl who has been deeply wounded and is afraid of being hurt again. She simply can't let us in yet. If I'm being honest, this past week has been awful with her on many levels. Please pray that we will be able to acquire in Ethiopia what she needs and that in doing that, she will have peace. We know that God is a God of healing and we trust that He knows what He's doing.

We would also appreciate if you'd begin to pray for us and our team as we prepare for, travel to and return home from Ethiopia. If you've read this blog very long you will know that the enemy loves to come and create chaos when we step out in faith. We've had it happen so many times and we just need prayer. You have also seen in reading about our lives that God ALWAYS wins in the end.

Let the countdown begin!

Blessings,

Laura

Since you asked:)

2011-09-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Nancy, I think you're right in your assessment. People simply don't want to face the pain and poverty. I've always been fascinated with missions and the adventure of it and would LOVE to hear about your past trips sometime.

Kathy, yes I would love to do a neighborhood ladies get together after we get back:)

Jennifer, you're a girl after my own heart for sure! And since you asked...

We arrive in Addis Ababa on Friday and leave Saturday morning for Sheshemene (a town in the countryside, south of Addis). We just so happen to be going exactly when a Visiting Orphans medical mission group is going and we will be joining up with them to assist them in any way. I am an LPN but a rusty one but the others in our little group are non-medical. There is still plenty for them to do - crowd control and other tasks will keep us all busy from dawn till dusk. We are doing health evals. on the kids who originally came from the trash dump but are now attending the boarding school in Sheshemene. There are 250 kids there so that should keep us busy for a couple days! We'll be staying overnight in a hotel in Owassa, which I'm sure will prove very interesting to say the least;)

After we're done with the clinic there, we head back to Addis on Monday (I believe) to begin the medical clinic in Korah. Here we will see, I'm sure a lot of different health problems. I think the goal is to see 150 people a day (or close to that). There will be a pharmacy in which people will be given meds to help with whatever problem they suffer from.

On Wednesday, the 6 of us (Katie, De, Kevin, Denise, Blaine and I) will leave early in the morning for Hossana, which is about a 4 hour drive south into the countryside. We have been there before as this is where Mihiretu and Misganaw are from and where we went to meet their Ethiopian mother when we were there adopting them.

Our plan is that we will meet with the 2 boys we sponsor through Compassion International and Kevin and Denise will meet with their little boy. Pretty cool that all the kids we support are from the area that our sons are from. That was by design, even with Kevin and Denise. How cool is that? We will get to tour the project (school) the boys attend and then get to visit their homes. We'll take all the boys out to lunch and get to spend time with them. They are older boys, who often get overlooked for sponsorships-ages 12, 13 and 14. We specifically asked for older boys for this reason when we began sponsoring them. Can't wait to meet them!

Then we also will be visiting with Mihiretu and Misganaw's Ethiopian mom and hopefully some of their siblings. We're really praying to have this amazing chance to meet them. This is being set up by Children's Home Society, the agency we used to adopt them. We will be thrilled to see her again and show her video of the boys, how big they've gotten, that they're healthy and happy. We'll present her with a photo album full of pictures of them. I would want this if I were her and I know it will mean the world to her. We want to bless her as she has blessed us.

We then will spend yet another night in the countryside at a hotel before heading back to Addis to complete the clinic in Korah and then help in any other way is needed.

Does that not sound like an amazing trip?? I think so, too!

Thanks for asking. It was fun getting to talk about it!

Blessings,

Laura

School starts- from Kindergarten to college:)

2011-09-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of school. Aliya started 9th grade, high school! She was up and ready to go on time this morning. A couple hours into school, she texted me (a big school no-no!) and told me, "Everything is good here!" I am happy for her that's she's having a good first day.

Her schedule was changed to only having one ELL class (she was to have 2). Her previous ELL teacher and her dean decided that she could handle more academic classes so they made the change. If it ends up to be too much for her, they will pull her back into 2 ELL periods per day. The other change came (still kicking myself!) when the original schedule came out and she was put into a lower Algebra class. She was VERY upset by this and couldn't understand why she couldn't be in a 'regular' math class. Blaine and I were completely relieved by this as this meant much less homework for her at night (read-Blaine helping her for 1-2 hours per night). I did question the dean about it and was told it must have been a mistake and since she earned a B last year in Algebra, she would be moved up to the regular Algebra class. She was absolutely thrilled because she thinks that she needs no help and should do all the work the other students are doing. She gets very offended! Oh, my goodness. She has no idea!

Misganaw had his visit to Kindergarten today. Tomorrow he starts for real. His teacher seems sweet and he cannot wait to go tomorrow on the BUS! I did see that having so many older sibs can be detrimental in terms of sharing. He was playing with the cash register in class today while I was filling out papers. From the corner I hear, "Hey, I was playing with that FIRST!" The youngest has to learn to fight for turns and that carries through to school. We will have to work on that! He did make friends with the little boy and when I walked over to them later, I saw that MJ had made a gun and was shooting the boy. I heard the boy say, "The teacher won't like that you made a gun." Oh, boy. Just how much trouble will my little boy get into this year?

So our youngest is a Kindergartner and our oldest is beginning his senior year in college. How fun is that?????

We now have under 6 weeks until we go to Ethiopia. Denise and I are getting a kick out of the reaction we get when people hear what we are doing. What we've found is that the huge majority of people who hear that we're going to Ethiopia do NOT want to talk about it at all. They don't ask any questions like, "what will you be doing?" or "how did you get involved in that?" They look away, change the subject or just ignore it all together. Why is this? I really have no idea!

I had one lady at football practice who was very friendly and chatty tell me that she thinks the boys play in the Metrodome for their last game. I asked her when that was. I mean, how cool would it be to play where the Vikings play? She told me it was in October while we are gone and I said, "SHOOT!" She asked if we were gone and I simply replied that it was our 25th anniversary and we were going to do some humanitarian work in Ethiopia.

She looked away and a few minutes after a long silence she said, "You've been married 25 years?"

"Yep."

"So you're going to Ethiopia?"

"Yes."

More silence.

The end.

This is the MOST conversation I've ever had when a stranger hears we are going to Ethiopia.

Anyone have any idea why this would be? If someone told me they were going to an unusual place like that, I'd have a million questions. Maybe I'm just nosey!!

Blessings,

Laura

Aliya's Florida adventure

2011-08-06T07:49:00.000-07:00

How is this possible? This picture was taken just 2 years ago, while Bibi (Anaya's mom) was at Layla house to bring her home. If you've read this blog for a long time, you will remember this girl as Aliya's best friend. You may also remember that she is the girl we first thought we would adopt. She is the one we were pursuing at the time of the fire. It turned out that she was a very important piece of our adoption journey to Aliya, although she was not to be our daughter. She already had a family but seeing her face on a waiting child list led us to adopt the girl who was to be ours!

The same 2 girls just 2 years later! Is this as mind blowing to anyone else as it is to us? The first picture looks like 2 girls who live in an orphanage. The second one looks like 2 girls who are loved and treasured in a family...2 typical American girls.

From this...

TO THIS!!!!

Upon finding out that we were adopting best friends, Bibi and I made a commitment to keep these girls together as best friends. We would get them together whenever possible, even though we live many states away.

Best friends reuniting at the airport. Aliya went for a week to visit Anaya in July. They had the time of their lives!

They nearly were eaten by a shark at Universal.

Spent time at the Portifino Resort there. Look at those Ethiopian beauties!

It was a time to talk and remember their time at the orphanage. They shared even more of their stories with each other, which was healthy for them. But mostly they enjoyed themselves in the present and talked about the future. Because they have families who treasure them the sky is the limit for their future. In fact, Aliya came back announcing that she now wants to be a doctor...either an HIV or cancer doctor. She wants to return to Ethiopia to help people. I love this idea and we'll support her in whatever she chooses to do. We all know she is determined enough to do anything she sets her mind to;)

Over the past 2 months, we have seen changes in Aliya. She seems to be understanding what it means to be in our family. She understands how we work and what doesn't work (slamming doors, not giving us eye contact, lying, rudeness) and how to function peacefully in our home. We know high school will bring a whole other bunch of issues but we feel we've gotten her over a huge hump in terms of being a member of our family. She has become a happy and well adjusted 15 year old. It was hard work and sometimes I didn't know if I could do it another day. This is probably not the picture I painted over the last 18 months on this blog but I can now tell you that all that hard work has paid off.

We are thankful that God led us to adopt a teenager.

The Wedding

2011-07-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry these are a little out of order but here are a few of the wedding pictures from two weeks ago. The wedding was in our back yard and turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day! Thunderstorms were threatening but God held them back:)

Blaine and De built this pergola next to our pond for the ceremony. It turned out beautifully and we'll enjoy it for years to come. Behind the pond used to be all weeds but they worked together to make it look like a park. My sister in law strung crystals and hung them from the pergola...so pretty!

Katie and De went with the unity sand instead of the unity candle just in case they had a windy day.

Katie saying her vows...just seconds before the tears started and she had to whisper the rest.

How did I get these so out of order??? I LOVE this picture because not only are Katie and Blaine crying, Blake has lost it at this point. He was overwhelmed and seeing his dad and sister both crying...he couldn't hold it in:) Misganaw is unfazed and is looking for our ducks, it seems.

Thank you for the beautiful sunshine Lord!!

Yea! Married!

M.J. and his adorable cousin (also adopted-from Colombia), Maria. They love each other so much!

Father of the bride with his daughter:)

The wedding party...Mihiretu, Aliya, Trevor (De's brother), Kelly (friend), M.J., Katie, Maria, De, Kammi (friend), Blake, Heather (my niece) and Damien (De's nephew).

The wedding was all that it was dreamed to be. It was so personal and heart felt. It was small, just the way Katie wanted it...only 75 people.

After the wedding, we all went down to McCormick & Schmick's for a delicious dinner. We showed a sweet video that Katie's Aunt Jenny made for her which included De answering questions about why he loved Katie and how his life would be if she wasn't in it. He was so honest and it was a tear jerker. The best part is that he said, "You were the one who introduced me to Christ and my life will never be the same for that."

Then we had a surprise video to show. I had Maste and Sumer (friends from Ethiopia) secretly make up a video of their friends in Korah wishing them well and congratulating them on their wedding. Surprisingly, I was able to keep it quiet (a miracle in itself) so it was a complete surprise to Katie and De. A highlight was of Maste telling De that if he was in Ethiopia, he would have had to jump over a cow or several cows to earn a girl like Katie to marry! De loved that:)

Katie and De took a quick honeymoon at a downtown hotel because the only other place they wanted to go was Ethiopia. It seems that they have found someone to work for them while they are away so...a honeymoon in Ethiopia it is!

Our friends, Kevin and Denise have their tickets all booked (non-refundable to boot) as have Blaine and I for 14 days in October:) We are absolutely beyond excited to have the opportunity to take this trip with our friends and introduce them to the people who have captured our hearts.

Katie and De will be joining us and we can't wait to share this experience all together!

God has been so good to us. We are thankful for all that He's brought us through and for the fact that He's brought us out to the other side. We're thankful for a great son in law who loves the Lord and our daughter with all his heart.

God has brought many gifts out of the fire we had. This trip is just one more. We figured out that we had enough miles on our credit card to pay for our airline tickets to Ethiopia! Everything I had to re-purchase went on that credit card. I thought at least we could get some miles out of the deal. Never did I dream that we'd have enough to pay for this trip!

Good does come from bad:)

A very big week!

2011-06-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

25 years ago today, Blaine and I were married. I know, we're having a hard time believing it, too! We were 19 and 20 years old and totally in love. We had no cold feet or second thoughts. We'd already been a couple for 5 years...Yes, really! Middle school sweethearts:) Through all those years, we never had a break-up or separation of any kind. Never even considered it.

Never would we have even imagined the direction our lives would take over our years of marriage! I'm so glad God doesn't show us what's to come...I would have completely freaked out. He's brought us through many things. Blessings beyond what we could have imagined. Hardships, too. Through it all, Christ has been our center and has led and guided us through all major life events. I can tell you neither of us foresaw being the parent to 5 children!! We hadn't even considered adoption 25 years ago...never entered our minds. We thought 2 would be perfect and we'd have them young so that we'd still be young when they left the nest...lots of us time!

Ha! God had other plans, didn't He?? (Insert HUGE smile here!) I absolutely cannot imagine at this point our lives any differently than they are. Blake has already left the nest and now this Sunday, Katie and De will be getting married. My baby girl. If things had been left to us and God had not intervened in His amazing way, we'd be empty nesters in 5 days. The thought frightens me, honestly. I'm just not ready for that.

God knew in all His wisdom that we needed more kids, even when we did not see that.

So this is a big week at our home.

Our 25th anniversary!

Daughter getting married!

M.J. lost his first tooth today!

So thankful that God knows more than we do:)

Blessings,

Laura

Beautiful shower

2011-06-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Look at this shower food! It tasted as pretty as it looks.

These are cake on a stick! Also as yummy as they looked. Later we had our choice of a gorgeous chocolate cake, dotted with fresh raspberries. Inside each raspberry, she put a little Godiva white chocolate pearl. The other choice was a fresh fruit tart. I chose a little of both! Good choice:)

Katie's aunts gave her a beautiful shower tonight. They had a great vision, did all the work and this was the result:) All I had to do was provide the backyard and make sure it was mowed. Absolutely stunning.

My sweet bride! Three weeks from tomorrow, Katie and De will be getting married in our backyard.

We had the most beautiful weather. Praying God provided a day exactly like today on June 26th!

As the evening wore on, all of the lit candles (some hanging in trees, some on the bridge that spans the little river in our pond...candles everywhere!) mirrored the stars in the sky.

There were a lot of special people there...cousins, aunts, great aunts, grandmas, wonderful friends, oh yeah...and the mother of the bride! We had the best night! Thanks Auntie's for all the thought, work and LOVE you put into showering Katie with blessings. How blessed we are.

My girl

2011-05-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Aliya brought a few things with her when we picked her up in Ethiopia. This was one of them. A very, very precious treasure. It's a picture of her on a beach outing with a friend. I don't know how old she is here but I'm guessing maybe 9?

She is so cute, isn't she?

This is precious for so many reasons. It's a special gift to have a piece of your history in the form of pictures or momentos. Not everyone has those things. We take them for granted here but we shouldn't assume everyone has the same physical memories that we have.

Aliya had her final choir concert last night. It's her final middle school concert ever. They made it special by having the kids bring a picture of them as a baby and then a current picture and while they sang a couple songs, the pictures played in the background. Such a great idea, but what if Aliya hadn't had *this* one picture of herself? She would have been the only kid not to have one. I can tell you what she'd have done. She wouldn't have wanted to even go to that concert and as stubborn as that girl is, she would have stayed home. And I wouldn't have blamed her. Ouch. That would have hurt and been such a reminder that life was hard and wasn't fair to her.

So if you are a teacher please remember this:) These kind of assignments can remind our kids who were older when they joined our families that they are not equal with the other kids.

Anyway, off my soap box:)

As I watched Aliya last night standing in the first row of altos, I thought, "This looks like a girl who has always lived her and been in this school." She looked so comfortable and happy. She danced and did the motions to the songs. She giggled and interacted with the girl next to her, like they'd been friends all their lives. I was so proud of her.

It's hard to believe she's only been here just over a year now. She's getting more comfortable and at home. The first year had some pretty rough parts but now we're all finding our groove and it feels so good!

Truly, God does not give us more than we can handle:)

Blessings,

Laura

The promised pics!

2011-05-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

Reno, Katie and Blake. Reno is Blake's new buddy. He's a nice dog and a great companion. The kids LOVE him.

Here is the basement flood that happened a few weeks ago. Ugh...so hard to see since it was all NEWLY re-done from the fire. Oh, well:)

Katie and her lovely bridesmaids at her shower.

MJ at his party for his preschool friends. How can my baby be 5??

All of us (minus De who was working) at MJ's family birthday party.

Here they are!! These are our 6 precious little ducklings. Blaine thought it would be fun to get an incubator and some duck eggs and let the kids watch the process. Let me tell you, it was just as much fun for the adults as for the kids. I don't know why we never did this before! We kept the 6 eggs in the incubator for about 25 days or so. One day, we noticed a little, tiny peck hole in one of the eggs. Then another and another egg had little holes. Within 2 days, we had our first duckling. Mihiretu got to see the second hatch. Katie and De got home in time to watch the third one and the other 3 were out by the time morning came!

Misganaw and duckling. This little guy or girl is just under 2 days old! I had no idea they would be this big (not sure how they EVER fit in those chicken sized eggs) and agile! They follow us around the yard in a little line. Make way for ducklings!

We've been busy, busy, busy planting and getting the yard ready for the wedding. It's only 6 weeks away!! Lots of preparations being made. It's such a beautiful time of year and we are enjoying every minute of it.

It's been a couple weeks now without a catastrophe in our family and home. I cannot tell you how absolutely wonderful it feels. It doesn't feel like a dark cloud is hanging over our heads anymore and I'm feeling more like my old, optimistic, happy go lucky self. We've been praying for a covering of protection from the Lord and He's sent one. I'm asking Him for a season of relief and He's giving us that.

Thank you! Thank you, Jesus!

Blessings,

Laura

A catch up

2011-05-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry about my lack of posts lately. A friend was still very concerned about Blaine since I hadn't posted about his MRI results. Sorry! I honestly wasn't sure anyone was still reading my few and far between posts anymore...especially since they haven't contained any good pictures lately! I will have to remedy that. I know...promises, promises:)

We did see Blaine's neurologist last Friday. He reviewed his MRI and saw nothing out of the ordinary there! Praise God. So why is he having the symptoms? Well, since he his spinal cord had been demylenated (when he was paralyzed), he can have these symptoms now when he's under physical, mental or emotional stress. And he was under a large amount of stress at work for a few weeks, which seems to have brought this on.

The other thing he was having was the headaches. You can see on his MRI that one of the vertebrae in his neck looks different than the rest. It was broken in the accident 5 years ago. The doctor feels that is leading to his headaches so he gave him a medicine to try at nighttime. He said it works miracles in 2/3 of patients and does nothing for the other 1/3. The jury is still out on if it's helping Blaine or not. He thought it was at first...but we'll see.

We were so thankful and relieved that everything looked good on the MRI! There was a concern for MS but the dr. said in all his years of treating MS patients, he has never, ever seen anyone who had as many spots (lesions) in his brain and as much demylenation in his spinal cord as Blaine (when he was paralyzed) go on to have a completely clear MRI later. The lesions just don't disappear like that. So he ruled out MS. We were pretty concerned about that.

With Katie and De's wedding just 7 short weeks away, we find ourselves busy (ok, scrambling) to get preparations done. I wish sometimes that I was one of those people who gets everything done early and then coasts until the end. I. AM. NOT. Invitations WILL get printed and addressed today. We meet with a florist on Monday. I spent 5 hours at the nursery yesterday picking out trees and shrubs for the yard and now we have some planting to do:) She had a beautiful shower last weekend and another coming in 3 more weeks. Her dress is being altered. So things are being done...just seems there is still a lot to do. They are waiting to hear on an offer they made on a short sale town home right here in our town...only 10 minutes away.

Blake is now the proud owner of a Boxer named Reno. He is 15 months old and his owner had health problems and was unable to keep him. He's a great dog and Blake is loving his new companion. Blake is also continuing to make improvements on his home. He and one of his roommates installed some can lights and a drop ceiling in the basement bedroom. Blake is learning how to patch walls and fix whatever needs fixing. In one week, he will have completed his Junior year at the U of M and will begin summer vacation. We're so proud of him!

Aliya is doing well in school, although she "hates" Health class. She has officially added Social Studies (Geography) to her course study so the grade she gets in there will be permanent. So far, she has a B. She's got a couple friends from school who she enjoys spending time with. This morning, she is at the zoo with one of the girls' family. She is continuing to feel at home here with us and has a comfortable fit in the family, I think. Things will change when Katie moves out, which I am *hoping* will improve their relationship, which is currently like walking on eggshells when they're in the same room. However, Aliya ADORES her dad, does everything with him and asks where he is several times every day. I just purchased her a ticket to go visit her friend, Anaya (who she was with in the orphanage in Ethiopia). She is visiting her in Florida for a week this summer and although she is scared to death to fly alone, the reward is worth it!

Mihiretu is now in baseball for the first time. He LOVES it! What sport doesn't this kid love? It turns out, he is also a natural at baseball. My prediction...this kid will get into college because of sports. The only problem is, which one? He continues to be one of the bigger kids in his class...80 pounds in 2nd grade and has NO fear. Mihiretu was tested recently due to his struggle with reading and was found to have a med. to high IQ but has some sort of disability when it comes to reading fluency and writing expressed thought. So he will get special help in school for this, which we are thankful for. It is a very real possibility that this was caused from the malnutrition that he suffered until he was 4. Sad.

Misganaw is still our little clown and big talker. He's recently been telling me about the Giant Pacific Octopus and how it has "jet REpulsion". He rides his bike up and down the driveway and yells, "Jet REpulsion...out of the side of my bike!!!!!" This makes him go very fast:) I so often smile a little smile at God when I think of how in my kind of "older years" gave us such a precious bundle of joy. He really brings such delight and enthusiasm to our family. He is a great way to end a great string of kids:)

As you can see...we have an overabundance of things to be thankful for!!

Love,

Laura

My funny boy!

2011-04-25T16:55:00.000-07:00

I know...this picture is from the fall but the expression is 'typical MJ.' He's been cracking us up lately and I thought I'd give you a little peek into the window that is life with this sweet 4 year old.

This mama is sad but I must admit that he will turn 5 in less than 3 weeks. I asked him on the way home from preschool what he'd like for his birthday treat when the time came. I even gave him some options...chocolate donoughts? cupcakes?? cookies??? What does he reply?

"Well, not tree sap. Tree sap is for the Giant Rhinosarus Beetle. They eat that. I don't have any Giant Rhinosarus Beetles in our class."

What???? I laughed, which I find myself doing a lot with this little boy and dropped the subject for another day.

A couple days later I asked him the same question again. What does he reply?

"Well, not milk weed."

"Hahahahah! Why NOT milk weed?"

"Milkweed is for the (sorry for the spelling...just going by his pronunciation) Maxilla."

"What is THAT?"

"It's a yellow and black caterpillar. The kids in my class would not like milk weed."

No I guess they would NOT.

Where does he come up with this stuff? He tells me about he Giant Pacific Octopus that has "arm regeneration" and if a "predator fish bites one of his arms off, it will regenerate in eleventeen weeks."

Mostly, he gets it completely correct and now he's telling us he wants to be an animal doctor. I was hoping one of my kids would be a dentist but an animal doctor would be just fine, too.

I asked him a third time what he thinks he'd like for his birthday treat for preschool. What did he reply?

"Cookies with M&M's!!"

Perfect.

Before Easter, he told me that George Washington died on the cross. "They pounded nails in his hands and he died."

I asked him, "Wasn't that Jesus who died on the cross?"

"He did it first then George Washington did it next. The sins got him!"

Oh, my funny boy!

Blessings,

Laura

Encouraged

2011-04-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

I met with one of our pastors last week to get some advice and prayer about all the hurdles and mountains that keep popping up in our family. We only had a very short time but he did help me. He told me to pray that God would reveal any blatant sin in our home, like pornography or adultry. (This is the hard part of going to a new church...they don't know you.) I don't see anything like that in our family but I will pray that God would show me if there is anything. If there is nothing like that then it is a spiritual battle, which we knew.

He said we do not need to have a martyr attitude, that these things will keep happening to us. He advised us to pray that it all will stop. We will go to the elders of the church for prayer for our family, which is what the Bible says to do. So I feel encouraged again:)

We are getting ready for Easter. We're actually attending Easter service at church tonight (Saturday) to make room for visitors who will inevitably come on Easter Sunday. Never done that, but hey...why not?? Easter dinner will be at our house tomorrow with one extra friend at our table. My friend, Emily will be with us as her family will be out of town. Emily is one of my heroes. She has been on more mission trips than anyone I know and to so many countries. She just spent the last several months in Uganda working with the curriculum for the school system there. This girl is very close to her masters degree in International Development and who knows where God will take her from there. Love this girl and so glad she will be with us for Easter. Then on to Joani's for Easter supper after that!

God has been so good to our family. We are thankful for His provision, protection, encouragement and for the ability to get out of bed each morning and serve Him and serve others. Nothing gives us greater joy. After feeling beaten down, God lovingly gave us a huge blessing yesterday...wish I could share but I cannot...but trust me when I say that we all were giddy with excitement over what God is doing! Just when we needed it most:) What a loving God we have.

The thought that Jesus died to pay for my sins and cover me and make me clean simply takes my breath away. Have a blessed Easter!

Laura

Seriously????

2011-04-17T14:13:00.001-07:00

People who know what's been happening in our family have asked me why I haven't updated my blog...so I am.

First of all, Katie is recovering very well. So well, in fact that she is now allowed to go in the hot tub and had her weight restriction raised to 20 pounds. She feels well...so much better than before the surgery. Thanks for your prayers, cards, love and support.

Last Monday, Blaine told me that he'd been having some of the neurological symptoms that he had when he became paralyzed two summers ago. He feels an electrical shock down the back of his legs. It seems he's had this a few times since his paralysis (I didn't know this) but it resolves itself. He became alarmed when he had a problem with his vision on Monday where he was seeing zig-zags in part of his field of vision. This pretty much freaked him out. I talked him into calling the neurologist who'd seen him for the paralysis and we were waiting for a call from him the on Tuesday.

My mom was over, helping me rake and get the yard ready for the wedding and we were talking about what God could be doing with this, the latest happenings with Blaine's health. I mean, we just got over Katie's mongo surgery just 4 weeks ago and now this? Oh, my.

I began talking with God myself as I was raking. I reminded Him that when Blaine was last int he hospital that I knew that I was not able to pursue the adoption (for Aliya) if he was not able bodied. We can hardly keep up with the kids we have now and I really, really need him. I was asking God to relieve some of the extreme stress Blaine has been under for the past couple weeks and that he really needed a break.

Just as I was praying this, De ran outside and yelled at me to come in the house. There was water all over the laundry room floor!

He pulled out the washer from the wall...nothing. He pulled out the dryer and there was a hole in the sheetrock and water was spraying out all over! I remembered that MJ had turned on the spigot (hooked up to a hose with a sprayer on it) outside a couple hours earlier so in my limited knowledge of all things plumbing, I ran outside and turned the spigot off and De told me it stopped. We got the floor cleaned up and wiped down the dryer.

It then dawned on me to check downstairs in case some water dripped through the ceiling. As I walked down the stairs, I could hear it. It was POURING out of the ceiling, out of every light fixture, all over the pool table and wood floor! I could not believe what I was seeing. All I could think was, "God...WHY????"

We got the water turned off and the electricity shut off and began the clean up. It took every towel we have but we had it cleaned up before Blaine got home. I knew that we could not claim this on our insurance after the fire. We'd have to pay for it but worse than that...Blaine would have more work and stress on his already overburdened self. Stress is what caused the paralysis in the first place!

I did not cry during Blaine's recovery after the accident.

I did not cry after the fire.

I did not cry when he became paralyzed.

I did not cry (much) when Katie went through her surgery.

I DID cry after this. I lost it. Couldn't keep it together.

When Blaine came home, I think he was so shocked to see me in such a state that he hugged me and said, "It will be ok. It's just some sheetrock and a wood floor." So calm.

So we are once again at a place where we are trusting God to take care of us in the amazing way He has so many times in the past. After the flood, the neurologist's nurse finally called back and said the dr. wants Blaine to have an MRI and then see him. The "good" thing is that he felt the zig-zag vision problem was a migraine. Is that good? :) Now I know I'm crazy when I say that a migraine is good. Oh, boy!

So the basement is torn up...part of the ceiling has not sheetrock or insulation and half of the wood floor is torn up. Blaine did find out that they do make the same wood flooring so we won't have to pay for a whole new one, so that's good.

We honestly are starting to feel like Job here, you know from the Bible? I am going to try to get an appointment to talk with our pastor and tell him our story because there is a strong spiritual aspect here and I want some direction.

I feel like we have a "Kick me Satan!" on our backs. It's crazy.

We know that God is greater, stronger, higher, wiser, all knowing, all powerful, and all present. He's obviously allowing this all to happen but I'd sure like to know why.

So if once again I could ask for you to pray for us, we'd really appreciate it. Pray that Blaine will not have to go back on Prednisone and that the MRI will show nothing. Pray for protection for the rest of the family, strength and encouragement.

Pray for Katie, who now is close to wanting to cancel the wedding and go before a judge in her pretty dress and marry De to take some of the stress off her dad. Her surgery really took the wind out of her sails. I want her to enjoy this time, not look back on it with bad memories.

We thank you in advance for your prayers again!

Love,

Laura

I have pics of the basement. I'll post soon.

A regular day

2011-04-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

I wake up this morning thankful.

Thankful for the beautiful sunshine.

Thankful that the little guys can sit and watch cartoons this morning.

Thankful that I can make a nice breakfast for my family.

Thankful for our home.

Thankful that the fire that found us displaced 2 years ago today is in the past.

Thankful that it is a regular, glorious day!!!!!

Hope you are thankful for your wonderful, regular day:)

Blessings,

Laura

Why did we adopt? Part 5

2011-04-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

This post is the very first post on my blog. It was dated April 1, 2009, two years ago yesterday. We started this blog to chronicle our second adoption. Little did we know that our lives would change just over 24 hours later when we lost our home and everything in it.

Adoption miracle Today we move from caringbridge.com to blogspot. I wanted to catch you all up to date on what has happened in our family. Sorry if this is long. I've condensed it as much as I could. Hope it's not confusing! Many of you know that I have been greatly troubled for a long time about some things. The fact that there are orphans in the world is bad enough for me but the fact that they are suffering illness and starvation, lack of education and knowledge of Jesus Christ is unbearable. Even though I wanted to share this with Blaine, I kept this pretty much to myself because with the state of the economy, business has not been good. I didn't want to stress him out any more. I didn't want him to think I had an agenda. I didn't. I really thought God could use me to speak to groups or do some writing so that others might be inspired to open their hearts and homes to the blessings of adding a precious child to their family by means of adoption. So adoption, while near and dear to my heart wasn't what I was thinking about for us. Finally, one night I told him. I read to him what I'd written on the old caringbridge site about orphans, the poor and the widow being Jesus in disguise to us. We decided to each begin to pray that God would show us exactly what our next 'assignment' would be on behalf of these people whom Jesus told us love and care for. So we did. Maybe a year ago or so, I signed up with RainbowKids.com to receive emails with waiting kids in Africa. I did this just for fun so I could see the kids who were available. I never received a single email until last week. There was an email from them on Tues. and one also on Wed. Weird! So Thursday morning I told Blaine about it (since we were both on the look-out for what God has planned). I quickly showed him the email, we looked at pictures and he went to work. Apparently, he went to work and looked them up again and did what they tell you not to do under any circumstances if you don't have a completed, approved home study...he fell in love. Like we did the last time God spoke so clearly about adoption, we began praying. He prayed with me that night that God would show us clearly if we were to pursue adoption and that this girl would get the right family for her, whether it was us or someone else. The very next day, “We have the first round of God’s answer.” He proceeds to tell me this story: A man came into his office, asking to see some office space for rent. He had looked at it 2 months prior, but Blaine hadn’t seen him since. For Father's Day last year, I had made up for Blaine big 20x30" canvas pictures of each of the 4 kids for his office. The way it is arranged takes up his whole wall and if I may say so myself, is stunning. The man looks at Blaine’s ‘wall of children’ and says, “Cool, where did you have this done?” Blaine told him. He really liked the pics but clearly was wondering about the 2 black kids in the pics but he didn't ask. They came back to his office after relooking at the space to work up some numbers. The man (Daniel) was sitting in a chair with his back to the pics but kept turning around and was obviously wondering about the boys. Blaine finally said, “Those are all my kids and the 2 little boys we adopted from Ethiopia.” Daniel’s face turned to shock, he stood up, tears came to his eyes, he grabbed Blaine’s hand to shake it and said, “God is good, God bless you, Thank you, Jesus.,” over and over again. He said, “You have no idea what you’ve done for these boys. Your family will be blessed…your children, your children’s children and for the next 100, 200, 300 years your family will be blessed because of what you’ve done.” Blaine replied, “Yes, our family is blessed and God is good.” Daniel, grabbing Blaine’s arm, “I KNEW it!!! You are a believer and brother in Chirst!” They told each other where they went to church. Blaine asked him where he was from. He replied, “Nigeria.” Daniel proceeds to tell Blaine that he was so blessed to come to America and therefore has an obligation to take care of as many people back in Nigeria as he can. He has sent over a half a million dollars so far and supports over 2000 people there. He has 40 sibs, his dad is muslim with 4 wives and he supports them all. God just continues to provide for him and he keeps sending as much as he can. He tells Blaine that some rebels cut half of his mom’s ear off, two of her fingers and almost took her hand off. He was able to bring her here for surgery, which he payed for to have her hand repaired from it’s mangled state. Blaine told him that we were actually praying about bringing another daughter from Ethiopia to join our family. He broke into praising God all over again!! The then proceeds to tell Blaine, “I want to be in this building and I am ready to sign the lease.” Blaine, “Ok, I’ll get it printed up for you. Do you want to come back Mon or Tues to sign it? Daniel, “No I want to sing it now.” Blaine, “It’s rather lengthy and you’ll want to read it.” Daniel, “I’ll wait, Go ahead and print it up.” He waits, Blaine gives him the over 20 page lease and he asks where he should sign. Blaine shows him. He flips through it, signs the lease and hands him cash for a deposit. Wow! Unbeknownst to me, Blaine had been praying for 3 weeks that if God wanted us to adopt, that He’d show Blaine that financially we would be able to handle it. The economy being what it is, they haven’t signed a single lease in 6 months. One hour after Daniel left, the real estate leasing agent called and said, “Good news! We have a restaurant for Farmington. They want to sign a lease Mon or Tues and are very excited. Also, a consignment shop wants to sign a lease on Mon or Tues, as well." We have waited for 3 long years for a restaurant for our mall in Farmington. It will bring in other tenants as well because they are an anchor. Nothing for 6 months and then 3 leases in ONE DAY !!! Blaine called me right after all this happens and says, “God is working fast.” Woah, understatement! We get our income from leases. This is the assurance God gave him to proceed. Now we are praying that God would show us clearly which agency to go with. This matters so much because we know that God has a child picked out for our family and this has been predestined from the very beginning of time. So it’s just not random. We hope to have this decided with God's direction by early next week so we can proceed with a home study. While God was busy moving in my heart over the last months, I would often tell Him out loud, "God, please tell Blaine not me this time." I told Him this over and over. While my heart was hurting for these kids and I felt like I couldn't take the burden anymore and I would say this out of exasperation to Him. And what did He do for me?? He told Blaine this time. Blaine is fired up. Let me tell you, when hear from the Lord it gets you fired up!! I can't really say why God works so dramatically with us when it comes to adoption. This doesn't happen with other things...just adoption. Keep in mind that all this has transpired over the period of 4 days! From not knowing what direction God had for us to go to getting that it was adoption and then getting such powerful confirmation.This is why I am confused when people say, "I don't want to be a Christian...way too boring!" Are you kidding???? Anything but. That's it in a nutshell. Please pray for us that we'd continue to see God's direction toward which adoption agency He has for us.

**Two short years ago, this evening our house burned down. I had our home study application on my desk, ready to fill out that coming Saturday. That fire (which you can read all about if you go all the way back to the beginning of this blog) slowed us down in our adoption of Aliya but it DID NOT stop us. We started working on her adoption just a couple of months after the fire. God really showed Blaine and I that we should go forward with it and now we know why there wasn't time to waste. Just a few months after Aliya came home, it was determined that all of the girls her age were tool old to be adopted and they were sent to a boarding school. She would have been among them. We got her just in time:)

Why did we adopt? Part 4

2011-04-01T06:52:00.001-07:00

Finally! After 3 long months of waiting (wasted time, I'm thinking) the week of our pre-adoptive classes arrives. Our class takes place on a Thursday, all day and Friday, all day.

The Sunday of the week of our class, Blake began to get sick. By Monday, I was very concerned. He was having bizzare symptoms that led me to think he had meningitis. We didn't mess around and took him down to the ER at our children's hospital. They ran test after test. We were there all night. Blake basically lay there, too sick to care what they did to him. Eventually, after a chest w-ray was taken, the doctor shocked with the news that they thought he had cancer...lymphoma. His white blood count and his red blood count were way, way out of whack. We were to go home and see his pediatrician that day.

Wham! Like a boot right in the stomach.

We did go to our pediatrician and she talked with him about the possibility of this being cancer. He was only 16 and he was sure he would die and began immediately thinking about who he could give his worldly possessions to. Makes me teary just thinking about it.

She told us to come back each day that week to repeat the blood work to see what happened.

We were stunned, broken, and confused.

It took me about a day of this to think..."Hey, God clearly told us we were to adopt. We can't do it if Blake has cancer. He'd be undergoing treatment and it just wouldn't happen. Hmm...this is NOT cancer. This is a spiritual battle to stop our adoption and it's not going to happen."

We prayed over Blake. I prayed Ephesians 6 over him and for him. Each time I read it, I was more and more certain that Blake would be fine. We went every day for a repeat of his blood work and it changed very little but did increase slightly on Wednesday.

We had an appointment for him on Thursday morning at 8:45am and our class began at 9:30am and we were 30 minutes from the agency. I got permission to be slightly late to our class by the agency (they are VERY strict about being timely). We took him that morning and had his blood drawn. We sat, waited and prayed. I was so confident that he was ok that I had my niece waiting in the parking lot to drive him home so we could go straight to the class!

The doctor came in very surprised. She said his numbers had risen to almost normal and that it must have been a rare virus that attacked both lines of his blood, where usually it either on or the other, not both. Well, that's all we needed to hear! We got Blake into his cousins car and off Blaine and I went to our class, in complete awe of the goodness and faithfulness of our God.

We walked through the process and only had to wait 6 short weeks before we were matched with 2 adorable little brothers, Mihiretu and Misganaw. What a shock it was to us to know that we were going to be parents to a baby again, as at the time of our referral, Misganaw was only 5 months old! We were absolutely over the moon!

We felt like we were the most blessed people on planet earth. God had clearly spoken to us, showing us what He wanted us to do. He led us through the entire process and had placed the boys in our family that He had planned for us. If we hadn't made it to that particular class on that particular month, we would not have been matched with our boys. They would have gone to someone before us.

But God...

He knew. He showed us clearly to proceed. Adoption is a faith journey like none other we have ever been on. When hard times or bumps in the road (or mountains in the road in some cases) come, DO NOT GIVE UP! This is the time to do battle. By adopting, we are literally taking enemy territory. Think about it. The enemy hates adoption because it is by that very thing...adoption, that God has brought each Christian into His family and made us His children and heirs.

Praise His name!

Our adoption battles have been particularly fierce. After adopting the boys, we decided God had one more child for us to adopt. We proceeded with much joy and enthusiasm but it was very short lived because the very next day, we lost our home and everything in it.

It was battle time again.

Why did we adopt? Part 3

2011-03-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Each day God revealed to us about adoption or Africa. It was unreal!
The first day as I sat down to do my daily Bible reading, I randomly opened my Bible up and began reading. The passage I'd opened to was Mark 9:33. I began reading there. By the time I'd read 3 verses, I came to verse 36 which says, "He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, (37) Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." I got the goosebumps. I didn't need to read anymore than those five verses. God had spoken.
Another day, my friend Emily had left a little gift hanging on my front door knob. It was a beautiful bracelet made in Africa. She just thought I'd like it and since she was home visiting from college, she brought it for me. Hmmmmm....
Each night we prayed that God would show us clearly what he wanted us to do with the dream he gave me. Then each day we waited to see what He'd do.
On Friday, the final answer came. I was at a convention when my phone rang. It was Blaine. He'd been at his last physical therapy appointment. Physical therapy was a frequent appointment he'd had for the last 6 months since the accident. This appointment had been made weeks before. As he walked in for his appointment, the P.T. asked him, "So what's new?" Blaine told him that we were considering adopting. He asked, "Where from?" Blaine sort of shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Ethiopia."
Now keep in mind this is early 2006 and very, very few people had adopted from Ethiopia at that time. Absolutely no one we knew. Or so we thought.
Dave replied, "Really??? Cool, that is where our youngest 2 girls are from. They've been with us for just a few months."
Are you serious??
Got it! Total confirmation.
So the phone call I received from him was almost giddy. He knew God has spoken and he knew what we were to do; adopt from Ethiopia! He told me to make the phone call and do what it to move forward. It was an exciting time!
It wasn't long before we decided that we should adopt siblings because our kids were older and the new child would need a playmate.
We chose Children's Home Society and Family Services because of another answer to prayer. Because of the supernatural way God chose to tell us we were to adopt, we really were conscious of asking Him each and every step of the way what He wanted us to do. We went to their initial meeting and during a break, I began looking through the calendar they make up with pictures of adopted children on each page. As I quickly paged through it, my thumb stopped on a page with beautiful children on it. " I wonder where they are from?" I read their story and as it concluded, it said this family currently lives in _______ (our town)! What? CHSFS a huge agency and does adoptions all over the U.S. But the one page I stop on and read about...this family with Ethiopian kids lives in my little town? More confirmation. Ok, we've got our agency.
After paying the initial fee, we signed up for the earliest pre-adoptive classes that were available at CHSFS. We had to wait 3 months to get into those classes. Ugh...we were so ready. Why did we have to wait, Lord?
We could never have forseen what was coming our way.

Why did we adopt? Part 2

2011-03-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

I knew that adoption would bring stress, good and bad, and I simply was not up for it.

Katie later came to me later that day and said, "Mom, I really don't understand why you and Dad don't adopt. We have a great family. We have a big enough house. We have enough love.

I replied, "Katie, you have no idea what it takes to raise children. It's a lot of work and commitment. I just started on a walking program with my friend. We just bought a boat. We just got to take you kids to Cabo San Lucas. Children require a lot of money. People with lots of children can't do all these things."

Mom, we're talking about kids with no family and no home." And then the clincher, "And how do you know that this is the only chance this child will hear about Jesus and one day go to heaven, all because you adopted him."

Oh, stab me in the heart!

I told her that everything she was thinking and saying was 100% correct. But I also told her that as a potential mother to this child, my heart had to be in it. I had to want it and I didn't anymore. The stress of the past several months had taken so much out of me.

We began talking with friends about taking a cruise with them. Boy, if anyone deserved it, it was us! A cruise it was.

Just a few weeks later, it happened. I had a dream.

In my dream, I am on a cruise to Addis Ababa, Africa. I'm shopping in the outdoor market, my arms full of bags. I'm alone but having the time of my life. Then I realize that I forgot what time to get back onto the ship. Finally, I find an English speaking man on the beach and ask him. He tells me he's in a hurry and runs off towards a small boat. I then realize he's going back to the cruise ship, as well. I then put my hands down and take the hands of two children. I never see them but I tell them, "Come on you guys, we have to go now!" That is the end.

When I awoke the next morning, I immediately told Blaine about this dream. I just thought it was so weird. Addis Ababa, Africa? What was that? Why did I remember that name so clearly?

Blaine asked me if there was a place called Addis Ababa and I told him that I had heard of it but it was probably in Saudi Arabia or Iraq and possibly I'd heard about if from the war. It was late March, 2006. I also told Katie and Blake that morning and I told Lisa, my friend who we were planning the cruise with.

The dream didn't mean anything to me at the time. It was just so clear and striking.

A couple weeks later, we found ourselves at the funeral of Blaine's grandma. At the luncheon afterward, a woman was showing the pictures of her adopted grandchildren. Blaine stood behind me, looking at the pictures and commented, "They are beautiful!" Then he leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Get the name of their adoption agency."

WHAT? I almost fell off my chair.

We talked about it the entire drive home and I realized that my husband was serious about this.

Less than a year ago, he had said that adoption could ruin our perfect family. What had changed?

It was the accident. He said that he realized that life was short and precious. He learned that it was not all about us and how early we could retire and have 'us' time. It was about eternity and how we could effect it.

Wow. Ok. I'm on board now. If this is where the Lord has led my husband, I was now listening.

As soon as we arrived home, I called my friend...the one with the cute little 4 year old who sat across the table from Blaine just a week before. She knew about adoption and was the only one I knew who could help me.

She was of course excited when I told her how serious Blaine was about this. We talked, she gave me phone numbers and details but then I remembered something. Each of her 3 adopted children came to their family at the age of 3 weeks old. I quickly told her that I really was interested in adopting an older child. Blake and Katie were 16 and 14 years old. I just couldn't handle a tiny baby at this stage of our lives.

"Oh, if it is an older child you are thinking about, you need to check out Adoption Advocates. I've had them on my favorites for years. They do a great job with the kids. They do adoptions in Ethiopia."

I'm thinking, "ETHIOPIA?? Huh??"

She gave me their website and told me to check them out, telling me that these kids were loved and wanted but for various reasons, their biological parents couldn't parent them. I told her that we were leaning more towards domestic adoption and thanked her for the information.

By then it was 10:00pm and Blaine was getting ready for bed. I stopped off in the office to check out this website quickly.

I can honestly tell you that if I'd ever seen an Ethiopian person before, I didn't know it. I wasn't even sure what they looked like, other than they had brown skin. Now I could pick out the Ethiopian person in a crowd! They have a very distinct look. But then I had no idea!

I read about Ethiopia on this website, looked a the pictures and read a little about the orphanage they ran. Paraphrasing, it said, "AAI facilitates adoptions between children and American parents. Located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia..."

There it was...my dream!

I called Blaine in and had him read it. He remembered, as well. We both agreed that God wanted us to do something with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Africa...wherever that was!

We went to bed, silent for a while, while trying to take it all in. What did God want from us? Clearly, He was telling us something.

I told Blaine that I didn't want to be like Jonah from the Bible. God clearly told him to go to Ninevah and he didn't really want to go, so he went the other direction. Well, we all know what happened with Jonah. He got swallowed up by a fish who God directed to take him to Ninevah and spit him out there. Not so pleasant. I didn't want to disobey God they way Jonah did.

So we decided to pray every day until God gave us confirmation about what he wanted us to do. The very next day, it started.

Why did we adopt?

2011-03-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is going to be an old story to many of you who know us well but for the sake of some people who are newer to reading this blog and haven't heard it, I thought it was high time for a revisit. Actually, I don't know if I've ever shared it on this blog before...hmmmm.
This is going to be long...maybe 7 or 8 installments. I'm going to include all the pertinent info and am going way back to 2005 so it all makes sense. As you read, just watch and see the faithfulness of God who still speaks to us today as He did in the Bible.
Here it is how it all began:
Katie (my 18 year old), then 13 and I began dreaming of adopting a little boy just like her little cousin, Benjamin who came by way of adoption from Colombia. We spoke with Blaine about it and he *seemed* to think it was a good idea so I did some research but when it came time to plunk down some home study money, he decided it wasn't such a good idea. "We have a perfect family right now. Why would we take the chance and ruin it?" Just being real here. Those were his feelings at the time. So we have up on the adoption.
A couple months later, Blaine and his dad (who worked together) were on the side of a highway, checking out some of their property when a woman who was distracted by a bee in her car, swerved off the highway and struck my father in law's truck. Marv was standing at the back of the truck and was killed instantly. Blaine was on the side of the truck and was thrown into the air and landed in the ditch by the highway. As you can imagine, this was extremely traumatic to the family...the loss was enormous.
Blaine was rushed to the trauma center. He had a severely broken femur, broken neck and half of his face was broken to pieces. He spent 2 entire days in surgery repairing the femur and mending his face together with metal plates.
It took him months to recover but on Christmas Eve that year, he walked across the room, unaided by a walker or crutches. What a gift that was! He did it for his mom.
Three months later in March, we went to lunch at a friends house. Dan had experienced a similar horrific accident a few years before and was offering support to Blaine and us. I always loved and admired this family. Their oldest son and Blake were great friends. They were in the same home school co-op as we were. They had 2 biological children and had adopted 3 black American children. This had always intrigued me and seriously impressed me!
Well, that Sunday after church we went to lunch at the Clark's house. Blaine sat across the table from their 4 year old son, Isaiah. I watched that day as Blaine's heart melted for that boy.
As we got in the car to leave, he commented on Isaiah's cuteness. I agreed and off-handedly said, "We should have a little one like that." I didn't really mean it, not at all. It was just a not-thought-through comment. But he replied, "Yeah, we should."
All I could think is, "He didn't just hear what I said or he NEVER would have responded like that."
When we got home, I started doing dishes and began wondering where Blaine and Katie were. I found them in the office looking at waiting children on the computer! What??
At this point, I am NOT INTERESTED! After the past 6 month we just came through, the very last thing I needed was more stress. Do not even go there!

Hurdle crossed

2011-03-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

Today I find myself sitting in yet another hospital room posting on my blog.

Katie had her surgery yesterday. We were told that it would take 30-45 minutes and then someone would come out and tell us what kind of tumor it was. We were told that if it was cancer, it would take him about an hour to do staging (going to the next layer of tissue to check for cancer and on and on until they don't find anymore). She was nervous going into surgery and so were we all but we all felt confident that they wouldn't find cancer.

God had given me many assurances in songs in the past couple weeks. One day, when I was searching for His voice to get me through, He literally spoke loudly to me through Bob Marley. Yes, I said Bob Marley.

"Don't worry about a thing. Every little thing is gonna be alright." Hearing that gave me such a peace at that moment...seriously.

"Oh, no You never let go, through the calm and through the storm. Oh, no You never let go, every high and every low. Oh, no you never let go, Lord You never let go of me."

But as 45 minutes passed, then 1 hour, then an hour and a half and no one came to tell us anything, I was certain that whatever news we received would not be good. I thought, "She is so full of cancer and they are trying to stage it all so they can give us an idea what's to come." Or "She is bleeding so badly that both doctors are needed to work on her so no one can come out and update us."

The ob oncologist finally came out 2 full hours after surgery to talk to us. I was completely prepared for bad news. So when he told us there was no cancer, I was numb. I could not accept the good news. I listened, asked a few questions but couldn't let it sink in.

He told us that it was a boarderline tumor. It's my understanding that this means that it is precancerous. It was completely contained so that is good. He did do staging just in case. He checked her lymph nodes and the fatty layer on her stomach. He didn't find anything concerning there but we will know tomorrow from pathology what they find. But it is not cancer and that was my concern.

She was given an epidural simply for pain management after surgery. It is helping to keep her relatively pain free. She's itchy from the pain medicine that is going in the epidural but they are giving her Benedryl for this and it's helping. She's been up and walking and is doing great with that.

Tomorrow morning they probably will shut the medicine off and she will have to begin oral pain meds. Pray this goes seamlessly for her.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Your encouragement means so much. I've read them all to her and she just smiles with each one.

Sunday morning, God spoke encouraged me with this song.

"Our God is greater,

Our God is stronger,

God you are higher than any other.

God You are HEALER,

Awesome in power.

Our God.

Our God."

Blessings and thankfulness,

Laura

Our latest hurdle...yep, one more

2011-03-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

De and Katie. Awwwww......

See De's face? This is how we are feeling today:) "Yahooooooooo!"

I better explain.

Last week, I took Katie in to the OBGYN for an appointment. She hadn't been feeling right and felt she may have a cyst on her ovary.

The doctor said she felt a mass in her abdomen and sent her immediately for an ultrasound which showed a 24 cm. mass on her right side. They could not see her ovary at all so they felt it probably was a cyst but she needed a CT scan and tumor markers done.

The doctor was very alarmed and even though she remained calm, we could tell she was concerned.

So was I.

Two days before, Aliya had asked me, "What is your greatest fear?"

It didn't even take me a second to think about it. My greatest fear is seeing my children suffer.

And here it was.

My daughter is getting married in less than 4 months. We have the MOST beautiful wedding dress purchased and plans are being made. What if this is cancer? What will happen to everything then? I mean everything. What will we do?

God has brought our family through some real doozies. I know we are not alone in suffering and trials. Many people suffer much, much more than this family has. But most would agree...we've had some big things to deal with...the accident in which Blaine's dad was killed and Blaine critically injured, Blake's cancer scare, the house fire, Blaine becoming paralyzed and now my daughter (my closest friend) has a mass the size of a volleyball in her tiny self.

Yes, I did say the size of a VOLLEYBALL in a girl who weighs 112 pounds and is just over 5 feet tall!

Really? I could not believe we had yet another huge obstacle to overcome in this family.

My mind went completely out of control. I completely related to David in Psalms 31 when he talked about wrestling with his thoughts. I was wrestling big time.

The only way I can describe what was going through my mind is to say it's the emotion you would feel if you lost your little child at the Mall of America and couldn't find them for 15 minutes.

What would you think?

"Who has my child? What will they do to them? Where will they take them? Will I ever see them again? Are they crying right now? Are they scared?" On and on in rapid succession you mind would go. Complete panic! I struggled to control my thoughts.

That is what my mind was doing. Horrible. Agony.

On top of that, I had to be strong for Katie. To act like things were ok and I was unaffected and fine. That's a role I have played before with Blaine and I don't like doing it. So hard.

Finding the words even to pray to God were hard to come by for me. I mostly just said to Him, "Please, God."

By Tuesday afternoon, I began to feel God's peace. I found myself much less panicky and more trusting. Many people were praying and I really began to feel the presence of God holding me up and supporting me.

Thursday was her appointment to review the tumor markers and CT scan. De went with us and we prayed before we went in. The doctor came in and I immediately saw the relaxed look on her face. She told us the tumor markers came back fine...she was looking for a rare tumor that can effect teenagers. The CT scan showed that yes, she did have an ovarian cyst, 24 cm. (huge) but no other organs were involved!

She doesn't feel it is cancer at all and neither do we. Katie will meet with another doctor who will assist in the surgery next Thursday. He is an OBGYN oncologist and will be there just in the rare case that there is cancer present. This is standard procedure in the case of such a big cyst. Her surgery is scheduled for March 21st. She'll be in the hospital 2-3 days and recovery will take 6 weeks.

But she WILL be ready for her beautiful wedding and she WILL be fine!

We are just praising the Lord for His incredible mercy and grace. I'm sure this experience will make us all stronger and even more empathetic to others' suffering. Even though we would never ask God to "Bring the rain" like the song says (we've had to much rain and we personally wouldn't ask for more), we will learn from the things He allows to come our way.

We are even more able to see God's lovingkindness through this latest hurdle in the E. family!

Thank you for your prayers,

Laura

Guest post

2011-02-26T05:59:00.000-08:00

A blog friend asked me a few weeks ago to do a guest post on her adoption blog. It is up and running today so I though I'd give you the link. She's almost at the end of a weeklong series on adopting older children, which is why she asked me to contribute.

http://teamchase4andcounting.blogspot.com/2011/02/adopting-waiting-child-aliyas-story.html

There is the link. Do read back on her blog several days as she has other guest posters telling their stories. It's been a blessing reading them. You will enjoy them, too!

Have a blessed weekend!

Laura

This and that

2011-02-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

Just a little update to say we had a wonderful Valentine's Day at our home. We took steaks out of the freezer, set the table with red candles and red tulips, turned the lights down and enjoyed each others' company. We took the opportunity to celebrate Aliya's 'gotcha day' also and had 8 huge chocolate cupcakes for dessert.

The Federal Government must also have felt especially loving since Window 11 guy arranged it so Aliya's Soci*l Sec. card arrived on Valentine's Day! How thoughtful is that? I think he must be trying to make it up to me for all the problems! One more reason to celebrate;)

Another HUGE thing we have recently celebrated is that the entire fire paperwork is done! Yes, it took us almost 2 years to finish it but finished it is! If that isn't great enough, the insurance company gave us the entire amount we sent them....no questions asked or hassles given. Really, this is a blessing to us and we didn't expect it. If you need a GREAT insurance company, check out Travelers. They have been really good to deal with and very fair with us.

I do have to go on record and say how thankful I am for my sweetie. Blaine is a husband who knows me and understands me. His ear is always listening to God's heart. When he hears God's voice, he listens. I'm very excited to have him visit Korah this year when we go. Can't wait to see what God shows him there.

I'm sure thankful that God made him for me.

We *may* have some wonderful friends who just *may* join us on our trip to Ethiopia. This couple is also celebrating their 25th anniversary. When we originally told them we were going, they discussed it and commented that visiting a leper colony for one's 25th anniversary would be a very weird thing to do, but since it was us, it seemed pretty normal:) I love it:) Anyway, they are praying about it and seriously considering joining us. How WONDERFUL is that???

I guess they are just as WEIRD as us now!

Oh, one more thing. Our oldest birdie is leaving the next in 2 short days. He closes on his house on Friday and even though he won't have water until early the next week, he is going to move in and begin working on it. Do you think he is in a hurry to get away from us?? We will miss our boy. He is our first to leave the next for us. Pray for all of us:)

Blessings,

Laura

A year ago this week...

2011-02-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

I accidentally put these out of order...sorry! It is so hard for me to believe that it has only been one year since we were in Korah. So much has happened since then. It feels more like 2 years ago we were for the first time. Visiting there has change our families life for the better.

What a personality this man has! Leprosy has left him a begger.

A typical home in Korah...Pastor Antonay leading the way.

It is also the one year anniversary of Aliya joining our family. This seems completely unbelievable to us. I love this picture of her.

Aliya at Layla House standing in front of her bed.

If you look at this girl marching off the airplane, so full of confidence and boldness, ready to meet her dad, brothers, grandmas, aunts, uncles and cousins, you will know the teenager we live with today:) Independent!

First hug with Dad? Looks like she's known him her whole life.

Not the slightest bit nervous.

Sisters!

This past year has been yet another faith building and stretching year for me. Who said adopting a 14 year old would be easy?? No one! We have learned a lot together in the process of growing together as a family.

We are and will continue to learn to trust one another. Even when you've been independent (and you can visually see that in the above pics!) you still need a mom and dad to instruct you and set boundaries. Ooh, this is a hard one!

I really cannot imagine experiencing as a young girl all the loss and changes this child has experienced. When she tells me about how she came to the orphanage, the decisions she had to make, the responsibility she shouldered...I am in absolute AWE of her.

I hope I'm not betraying anything she's told me by saying this but this really blows me away. At about age 13, she made the decision to come to the orphanage and take a chance on getting a family. SHE made that decision by HERSELF. Can you imagine being 13 and deciding to go to the big city - 5 hours away from the town where you lived to a place where you knew no one, didn't have any idea what they'd do to you when you got there, had no idea if a family would choose you, and then had no idea if they did choose you what kind of people they would be?? That is total faith. She felt like God wanted her to go there so she did.

I am so thankful God led us to her. Her faith was rewarded. God brought us together in His own amazing way. Only He could have orchestrated all of this: the timing of everything, how we were relentless even after our house fire when everyone told us to put the adoption on hold...too much stress (which it was!) but we felt God pushing us to press on. If we had taken that break and put the adoption on hold until we moved back into our house, she would have been very close to aging out with the 6 other girls and would never had the chance to have a family. To say it was a tough summer that year would be the understatement of the century! But...what if we didn't trust and listen to God? I shudder to think.

Every step, He sustained us and gave us the strength to go on. We would need that experience for when she came home.

We are thankful for our newest daughter. She is a blessing and will do big things in this world. She challenges us, frustrates us, inspires us, makes us laugh and makes us cry.

To think of where she's come from in one short year boggles my mind. From speaking very little English to the A honor roll at school. From eating with her fingers to eating with her fingers less;) From being an orphan to having a family. Even though we have a ways to go, much progress has been made.

Aliya, we love you and are glad you are with us.

Blessings,

Laura

Didn't want to bring this up but...

2011-02-07T20:06:00.001-08:00

A few days after I was at the S*cial Security office (for the second time), I received a letter stating:

"We cannot issue a S*cial Security card at this time because:

The Dept. of H*meland Security is unable to verify the immigrant document you submitted as evidence of your lawful alien status. You should contact that agency to clarify your immigrant status. YOU NEED TO UPDATE THE NAME WITH THE DEPT. OF H*MELAND SECURITY.

Please contact us when:

You can give us the documents we need."

Seriously???? Oh, my gosh!

I called immediately and explained and re-explained why this would not be necessary. Aliya is a citizen and became one when we readopted her here. Secondly, on the adoption paperwork from the court it has all of her alias' on it.

No I do not want to just bring her down again and have someone review my paperwork. I don't want to take her out of school again.

And no, I do not need to update her green card since she is a US citizen!

Just look at the alias' and you will see that even though her green card says one name and she goes by a different name now, they are all her alias'....so there! It's all legal.

She was going to look into it and call me back. She didn't.

I called again today and re-explained the situation to a very overwhelmed and overworked woman who also told me she'd check into it and call me back.

I didn't hold my breath.

We went out for dinner and when we got back, guess what? Window 11 man himself was on my answering machine!

He told me he processed her application and we will receive her social sec. card in a couple weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! They did it!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't have to go back down there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, God!!

Thank you, Window 11 guy for calling me back and getting it done!!

I am happy.

Love,

Laura

Why did we adopt - part 2

2011-02-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

I knew that adoption would bring stress, good and bad, and I simply was not up for it.

Katie later came to me later that day and said, "Mom, I really don't understand why you and Dad don't adopt. We have a great family. We have a big enough house. We have enough love.

Oh, stab me in the heart!

We began talking with friends about taking a cruise with them. Boy, if anyone deserved it, it was us! A cruise it was.

Just a few weeks later, it happened. I had a dream.

When I awoke the next morning, I immediately told Blaine about this dream. I just thought it was so weird. Addis Ababa, Africa? What was that? Why did I remember that name so clearly?

The dream didn't mean anything to me at the time. It was just so clear and striking.

WHAT? I almost fell off my chair.

We talked about it the entire drive home and I realized that my husband was serious about this.

Less than a year ago, he had said that adoption could ruin our perfect family. What had changed?

Wow. Ok. I'm on board now. If this is where the Lord has led my husband, I was now listening.

I'm thinking, "ETHIOPIA?? Huh??"

By then it was 10:00pm and Blaine was getting ready for bed. I stopped off in the office to check out this website quickly.

There it was...my dream!

I called Blaine in and had him read it. He remembered, as well. We both agreed that God wanted us to do something with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Africa...wherever that was!

We went to bed, silent for a while, while trying to take it all in. What did God want from us? Clearly, He was telling us something.

So we decided to pray every day until God gave us confirmation about what he wanted us to do. The very next day, it started.

Why did we adopt?

2011-02-03T14:09:00.002-08:00

This is going to be long...maybe 7 or 8 installments. I'm going to include all the pertinent info and am going way back to 2005 so it all makes sense. As you read, just watch and see the faithfulness of God who still speaks to us today as He did in the Bible.

Here it is how it all began:

Katie (my 18 year old), then 13 and I began dreaming of adopting a little boy just like her little cousin, Benjamin who came by way of adoption from Colombia. We spoke with Blaine about it and he *seemed* to think it was a good idea so I did some research but when it came time to plunk down some home study money, he decided it wasn't such a good idea. "We have a perfect family right now. Why would we take the chance and ruin it?" Just being real here. Those were his feelings at the time. So we have up on the adoption.

A couple months later, Blaine and his dad (who worked together) were on the side of a highway, checking out some of their property when a woman who was distracted by a bee in her car, swerved off the highway and struck my father in law's truck. Marv was standing at the back of the truck and was killed instantly. Blaine was on the side of the truck and was thrown into the air and landed in the ditch by the highway. As you can imagine, this was extremely traumatic to the family...the loss was enormous.

Blaine was rushed to the trauma center. He had a severely broken femur, broken neck and half of his face was broken to pieces. He spent 2 entire days in surgery repairing the femur and mending his face together with metal plates.

It took him months to recover but on Christmas Eve that year, he walked across the room, unaided by a walker or crutches. What a gift that was! He did it for his mom.

Three months later in March, we went to lunch at a friends house. Dan had experienced a similar horrific accident a few years before and was offering support to Blaine and us. I always loved and admired this family. Their oldest son and Blake were great friends. They were in the same home school co-op as we were. They had 2 biological children and had adopted 3 black American children. This had always intrigued me and seriously impressed me!

Well, that Sunday after church we went to lunch at the Clark's house. Blaine sat across the table from their 4 year old son, Isaiah. I watched that day as Blaine's heart melted for that boy.

As we got in the car to leave, he commented on Isaiah's cuteness. I agreed and off-handedly said, "We should have a little one like that." I didn't really mean it, not at all. It was just a not-thought-through comment. But he replied, "Yeah, we should."

All I could think is, "He didn't just hear what I said or he NEVER would have responded like that."

When we got home, I started doing dishes and began wondering where Blaine and Katie were. I found them in the office looking at waiting children on the computer! What??

At this point, I am NOT INTERESTED! After the past 6 month we just came through, the very last thing I needed was more stress. Do not even go there!

Our 4 year anniversary-looking back

2011-02-03T11:19:00.000-08:00

Four years ago today, we made this walk from our guest home to the care center where our boys were lovingly being taken care of. I remember thinking how surreal this was at the time. In the light colored building, we would meet our 2 new sons...in just a few MINUTES!!! We don't have video of this so I have to rely on my memory for this but as we walked up to the gate and the children saw us coming, they began yelling, "Mihiretu...mama...daddy! Mama..daddy!!

We walked through the gate and spotted him in his bright orange shirt. Blaine knelt down and instantly Mihiretu came close and leaned into Blaine and put his arm around him.

So. Sweet.

This is the first picture we took of Mihiretu. Look how TINY he is!! Tiny is not a word that can be used to describe this kid today!! We brought toy cars and a flashlight to use to play with him when we met. He spoke no English and we spoke no Amharic but we managed to get to know each other through play. We began building trust but passing the car to him and he'd pass it back.

This is the first picture I have with Misganaw and the first time I held him. He refused to look at me and all of us until we took him off the grounds of the care center. I can't even imagine what this little guy was thinking. I can hardly believe I'm the mother of a baby again!! That's what I'm thinking.

This was one of Misganaw's nanny's at the care center. She loved him so much and had a very hard time letting him go. I had to comfort her through her crying...my heart broke for her. I'm so happy they love the children the way they do.

Taking it ALL in here. We could tell immediately that the boys loved each other very much. Mihiretu was a pro at carrying his little brother around, as small as he was then.

Masse (the man who ran the guest home then) and tiny Mihiretu.

Mihiretu eating double fisted in Dulles in the Delta Club. We could see we had some work to do on his manners:)

A weary dad holding his new baby. Misganaw still looks dazed but it didn't take long for our wonderful bond to form with both boys.

This is my memory lane today.

I still cannot believe God saw us fit to parent these two precious boys! Often times, I say in my head, "I am the MOST blessed mom in the world." These boys have brought such life and laughter into our family. They have taught us so much about unconditional love and resiliency.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being a 45 year old mom of a pre-schooler. I love his hugs, his 100 I love you's a day and all the funny things he says. On the way home from pre-school today, I asked him, "Do you know how much fun it is to be your mommy?" I told him it is a LOT of fun. He proceeded to tell me, "If I was your mommy and you were the little kid, I would let you have as much candy every day as you want!" Interpreted...he loves me so much!

I love watching Mihiretu grow. I love watching him learn to read, make friends and memorize Bible verses. He's so excited that today is his 'gotcha day' (the day we 'got' them) because he knows there will be a special treat after dinner tonight. What he doesn't know is that there will also be a special treat before dinner, too! The other night he hugged me and told me, "Mom, you and my mommy in Ethiopia are the BEST mommies in the world!" I told him, "Thank you! Your Ethiopian mommy loves you very much and she was a wonderful mommy to you and Misganaw."

Soon, I will write about why we adopted in the first place. If you don't know the story, it is a miraculous one that only God could have orchestrated! Can't wait to revisit it.

If God is tugging on your heart about adoption...LISTEN. You could be missing the biggest blessing imaginable.

Love,

Laura

Misganaw's thoughts on 'family'

2011-02-03T06:33:00.000-08:00

On the way home from church last night, Misganaw in a very impassioned voice says, "Mom, Blake, Katie and De are part of our family."

Then Mihiretu started talking and so I just let Misganaw's comment pass.

But then he repeated it, louder and with more passion, "MOM, Blake...Katie...and De are part of our family!"

I replied, "Yes, that's right, Misganaw."

He continued, "And family does NOT put out family!"

Then I realized what he had obviously been thinking about. Blake is in the process of buying a house and it looks like he'll be moving out yet this month. Misganaw thinks we are putting him out. Katie and De are getting married in June and have been house shopping, as well. He thinks we are putting them out.

I explained to him that we love Blake, Katie and De but they *want* to move out and start a home of their own. I asked him if he was sad about this. He said, "Yes, it's just not nice. We are family and we love each other."

Precious!

Later today, I will post another walk down memory lane from 4 years ago.

I think my pre-schooler has a pretty good understanding about 'family.' Don't you?

Blessings,

Laura

My baby is 21

2011-02-01T13:58:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a walk down memory lane. My oldest is 21 today! How did that happen? I love this picture of the 2 of us. Blake looks about 11 to me here. I look about 11, too! Ugh...

A little out of order but for educational purposes: this is Blake with Lyme's Disease. See the bullseye spots all over his back? Only one deer tick bit him and it caused several spots. He was one sick kid.

I'm guessing he's about 13 here, maybe 14.

The first band he was in...UPS.

Blake's graduation picture. So handsome!

Blake when he was in Weaver at the Loom. Fun times!

In Korah at Great Hope Church leading worship.

Blake with beautiful Korah girls!

More pretty girls...

I'm just a little nostalgic this week. So many memories to think about. If you can't tell, my baby turning 21 is a biggie for me. It's fun to look back, remember and see where God has brought my son. He's faced some challenges (of course, being in this family you can imagine!)

We love him with all our hearts and are excited to see what God has for him in his future!

In a couple days, I will take another walk down memory lane going back 4 years...can you guess?

Love,

Laura

Social security with update

2011-01-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

Guess who got all A's again this past quarter?? Miss Aliya! She has also made her case for this quarter to be out of one of her ELL (English Language Learners) classes. She so wanted to be in Geography (the class she did the presentations on Ethiopia for), which means that now she only has one ELL class for extra help and work on the basics. She went to her dean 3 times to ask for this, spoke on more than one occasion with the Geography teacher and yesterday her ELL teacher called me to see how I felt about it. I told her to make the switch asap or I will endure the wrath of Aliya, who when she wants something, does whatever she can to get it and in the meantime can make life a little unbearable:)

She came home yesterday asking me if I had spoken to the ELL teacher and if I did, why in the world did she have to wait until THURSDAY to start??!!!! I politely reminded her of her doctor appointment on Wednesday afternoon, so Thursday would be the soonest she could start. Oh, my. This is one determined girl!

Monday, she and I went downtown to the Social Sec. office to get Aliya's Soc. Sec. card. If you've never had a card and you're over 12 years of age, you must apply in person. Also, I had Mihiretu's card to get (long story...but he came to the U.S. on an incorrect birthdate on his green card and that had to be fixed before he could get his Soc. Sec. card). Then Misganaw's card had to be updated because he is no longer considered a resident alien, he is a U.S. citizen.

When we arrived, I took a number. They were on number 7 when we arrived. I chose number 109!!! No lie. So we waited an hour and a half to two hours before they called number 109. We were so excited to be called:) We went back to Window 11, I handed the man all our paperwork (remember how much I despise paperwork??????) and he asked me for my drivers license. I handed it to him, he did a few things and handed me back my drivers license and says, "Your drivers license is expired."

"NOOOOOO! Please don't tell me that!" I promise, I am the same person I was on Christmas day when my drivers license expired (not on purpose...I really didn't know).

He didn't care. It was ALL I could do to hold back tears, seriously. So back we go today. I have my new drivers license AND my passport. Don't mess with me this time!

I'll let you know how this one goes.

Blessings,

Laura

So she starts Geography on Thursday.

*Update* Another story from the social security office today. We got there, took a number and it was number 173 AND they were on 155!!! Wahhoooooo! Boy, were Aliya and I excited. So excited, in fact, that I didn't hear the window number when they called our number 173. I went back and asked a sweet lady and guess what she said....Window 11!!!!!!!! Oh, no! Not HIM again!! Ugh. Ok, we go back and produce our documents. I give him my license with the yellow piece of paper they give you at the license bureau when you renew. He proceeds to tell my, "I will *try* it with this. I'm not sure it will work."

Seriously?????

Fear not for I have brought my passport. I told you...don't mess with me!

The long and the short of it is we got it all done:):):):) It took him a full hour and a half to complete our requests but we got it done. I think it might have been his 3rd day on the job. Wow, the government is so efficient!

Exceedingly proud!

2011-01-07T11:12:00.000-08:00

Today was really a monumental day in Aliya's life. She was asked several weeks ago on Ethiopia to speak the 8th grade geography class. She was very excited to do this, that is until this week when reality hit and she got scared. With help from her ELL teacher at school, she prepared a powerpoint and a script. We downloaded a video of Korah for the kids to see. I wasn't completely sure how she'd do or even if she could do it. This was a very big deal. She prepared for a 15 minute presentation which would be repeated 5 times to the 5 different geography classes!! Wow, that is HUGE, huh?

I went with her for her first 3 classes today for support.

She didn't need it:)

By the 3rd class, Aliya was speaking for the full class time-45 minutes!

She did amazing! I mean REALLY amazing! The kids listened attentively, asked great questions and tried berebere (Ethiopian spice-spicy!). They were respectful to her and appreciative. She was composed, animated and poised. She was confident and honest. She told the kids that when she came here, she was scared to start school. She told them in Ethiopia, it is easy to make a friend, but it is much harder here. She told them she used to cry at night because it was so hard for her at school and she wanted friends so badly.

She told them that even thought life in Ethiopia is hard, the people are happy and always have a smile on their faces.

She represented Ethiopia and its beautiful people well.

She represented our family well.

She represented herself well.

Today, Aliya made me so proud to be her mother. She showed me that it all has been worth it. She showed me that taking a chance and investing in people IS the right thing to do, NO MATTER HOW HARD IT IS! She showed me that whatever challenges we face are worth making the effort to overcome.

How would we have known this blessing if we hadn't adopted a teenager?

Blaine and I went yesterday to a counseling session at the Family Attachment Center. It was very eye opening. We told her about our family and about Aliya. I told her how I'd been struggling and stressed over certain persistent issues. She was a wise woman and intuitive. She asked questions and took notes. We sensed that she had a good idea who Aliya was.

She told me that even thought some of her behaviors are sprinkled with 'adoption behavior', basically we just had an adolescent on our hands! It was really eye opening for me to think of it this way. Blake, even though he made some very dumb choices in middle school and some of high school, was always respectful to us as parents. (If that makes any sense) Katie, quiet honestly has always been a respectful, obedient and never challenging child, even though the teen years.

So a 'normal adolescent' I wasn't used to!

Since she has always been with us less than a year, she hasn't had the benefit of growing up knowing the expectations of us as parents. I think if she had been with us since babyhood or toddlerhood, these things would be easier. But coming in when she did, she still has to learn these things.

I also was told that we as parents instruct our small children all the way up on how we want things done. Because of this, they MAY intuitively know us well enough to know what we are thinking and feeling without saying a word. Katie does this with me better than anyone else. So I guess I was expecting Aliya to do this, too. After all, if I have a sad or mad face wouldn't you know how I feel? Women...come on...you know what I mean!!

Well, with the cultural differences, Aliya does not pick up on these things and I was unrealistic to think she should be able to do this.

I need to use words...simple and direct. Imagine! I can't beat around the bush or expect her to read my mind. This will take work, indeed!

I've been schooled.

We were also told that, in the counselors experience, we have been blessed with the top 1% of older adopted kids in terms of behavior, etc. She said the fact that Aliya has decided in her mind that we are her family, she loves us and accepts us is the biggest advantage we have. Also, the fact that she improves after a correction from us, is a huge issue in our favor!

After all that, some advice on techniques, advice on picking our battles and a book recommendation on adopting teens (I didn't know such a book existed!), we have decided that we will not pursue any further counseling, as it is really not needed. The counselor told us she will be a different person at 20 or 25 than she is now at 15, just due to growing out of adolescence. Whew!!

A couple things that the counselor said to me really have stuck out in my mind. Aliya was a very independent young girl and had to be as responsible as an adult for a few years. I wondered why a child who had to be an adult wouldn't jump at the chance to be a child, knowing she had a family who would take care of her.

She told me that a child who has had to be independent like that has a hard time giving that up. "Being dependent is a scary place to be," she said.

LIGHTBULB! Of course. She holds on to her independence (even when it doesn't make sense) because if she gives it up completely and something happens to us and she is left alone again, she will be even farther behind. In her life, this has happened and been a reality so to let it all go...she just cannot do it...at least, not yet. Way too scary.

She MUST retain some control as her life has been very out of control for years. So we need to pick our battles and let her retain control in things that don't really matter (not life and death stuff, safety, etc.)

So today is a new, fresh start for me. A new perspective. A new appreciation.

I am a blessed Mom. A blessed mom of a future teacher. (my prediction!)

Laura

Christmas pics and getting it off my chest

2010-12-26T14:20:00.000-08:00

Our family this Christmas. Yep, my birthday is on Christmas and yep, I am 40 plus 5! I've included De in our family picture this year since in 6 months he will be our son-in-law.

Mihiretu, me and Katie enjoying our huge snowstorm a couple weeks ago. Katie was digging out a snow cave, I was shoveling the front sidewalk and Mihiretu just looks like he's in pain, doesn't he?? Haha:)

Aliya opening her box of ornaments. I bought them for her to catch up with the rest of the kids who have received one for every Christmas, so they have quite a collection. Now she does, too!

This years ornaments for the boys, Woody and an alien.

Making Christmas cookies during the blizzard.

The boys having fun in the snow. Just look at Blake's car behind them covered in snow. Awesome!

Christmas morning. This is Damien (De's nephew visiting from New York) and Blake.

De went deer hunting with Blaine this past fall and actually shot his first buck. De LOVED hunting!!! Blaine decided to get him his own gun for the years to come of hunting. Could this smile get ANY bigger???

Why, YES IT CAN! I like to call this picture, "De's GUNS." Kapow!!

I know...finally I post some pictures! It's about time. We had a wonderful Christmas and I'll share about that in a minute.

Some of you have been wondering why my posts have been so few and so far between in the last few months. I alluded to it some time ago but today feel like giving you a little of the nitty gritty.

They best way for me to explain the last year to you is to quote Dickens. Maybe it has been the last few years, in all honesty.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness;it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of dispair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."

It has been up. It has been down.

We have been through a lot of different things in our lives. If you've read this blog for very long, you already know that. Lots of hard stuff. Among the hardest is adoption. I know that might surprise many of you but the year after we got the boys was personally my hardest year, closely followed by this past year. The year of the fire was a doozy, too.

All things considered, Aliya's adoption and subsequent transition has gone well. But we have had our way ups and our way downs, and the downs are just unbearable for me. I don't want to go into detail but the things we are dealing with are pretty typical older kid adoption issues. They all make sense to me and I understand them, but it seems that we need some professional help to learn how to deal with them and give us tools to help. I'm hopeful that they will be able to help us, as they deal with attachment in adoption exclusively. So with me hanging on by my teeth quite a bit of the time, it has been hard for me to find the time and energy it takes for me to blog.

I know that if we had never adopted our lives would be much less busy and stressful. We knew that going into it. Let's face it, both Blake and Katie are moving out this summer and we'd be 6 months from becoming empty nesters. Instead, we were obedient to the Lord's leading and brought 3 more children into our family and now it looks like 14 more years before we will be empty nesters! Would we change it if we could? No, NOT ONE THING!

Our lives would be simpler for sure but much emptier. We are thrilled to be used by God in this way and humbled that He would choose us to raise 3 more kids, whom He gave us for a purpose. Every day, we get to look into the faces of our children who would have certainly have had a very different outcome if God hadn't placed them in our family. I could give you details of where I think they'd be but I won't...because they are NOT there. They are here. With us. Safe. Warm. Fed. Loved. In a family, where ALL children should be.

So all that to say, I've been struggling and trying to keep it together. I really don't know how you moms of more than 5 kids do it! God has given you something He hasn't given me:) But I am blessed and thankful to have the 5 I have and will continue to learn to be the best mom I can be.

I am also wondering if Blaine and I have an adrenaline problem. Seriously! Here is what we have on our plates for the next 6 months.

-Planning our daughters wedding:)

-Katie and De are looking to buy a house

-Blake is looking to buy a house

-Blaine and I are going on our 25th anniversary trip to Korah, in Ethiopia!!

Oh, did I just throw that one in at the end??

Anyway, ALL big, huge stuff. I wonder if we just will not allow ourselves some down time because our bodies have a need for an adrenaline rush after all the stuff we've been through in the past few years.

Blaine surprised me on my birthday the other day with a handmade card. On the front, he put a picture of me and it said, "My beautiful wife and I are..." turn the page and there is an airplane and it says, "going on an airplane to..." turn the page and it is a picture of giant hands holding the world and it says, "GUESS WHERE?" turn the page and it is a pic of Ethiopia and it says, "KORAH." Oh, boy I bawled like a baby in front of our 20 Christmas guests. I couldn't even talk or see Blaine through my tears.

I never begged him or even mentioned it after he told me that going to a Korah would not be on his itinerary for our 25th anniversary. I accepted it. But he knows me and how much it would mean to me to go there. He also knows God wants him to go there and see it for himself.

You see, we know that God has a bigger plan for our lives. We just have to be willing and maybe go out of our comfort zones to see what that is. And that my middle school sweetheart (yes, I did say middle school!) gets that and wants to go to a leper colony for our 25th anniversary why the next 25 years are going to be a roller coaster ride!

Congratulations if you made it through this ridiculously LONG and way overdue post!

Happy New Year,

Laura

Wants or needs?

2010-12-08T09:14:00.001-08:00

The other day, Mihiretu brought home an assignment they had done in class. They are learning about goods vs. services and wants vs. needs.

It starts out with someone buying a CD. This is a 'good' and a CD is a 'want.' So far, so good!

Next, they paid for a car wash. A car wash is a 'service' and is a 'need.' WHAT?????

Then they buy a new outfit. This is a 'good' and a 'need.' Alright, clothes are a need.

Then they got a hair cut. This is a 'service' and a 'need.' Really?

Then they bought a pizza. This is a 'good' and a 'need.' Ok, food is a need.

I asked Mihiretu if he really thought a car wash and a hair cut were really needs. He told me they had a substitute that day and this is what she said! He hadn't really thought about it, just filled in the blanks. Ugh...seriously?

I brought him back to Ethiopia. He remembers some things still. I asked him if people in Ethiopia would think a car wash or a hair cut was a need. He looked down at the floor and replied, "No."

This led to a good discussion where we talked about thinking for himself and not believing everything the teacher says all the time. If he KNOWS something to be true, no one should be able to change his mind.

I don't know this substitute but maybe she has never been to a developing country to see the difference. We live in suburbia USA where we run our cars through the car wash whenever we want to. If our hair needs color or a cut, we make the appointment and take care of it. No problem.

These things are luxuries.

But 'needs' they are NOT!!!!!

So off base in America sometimes.

Let's teach our children the difference.

Count your blessings,

Laura

What a week:)

2010-11-28T14:26:00.000-08:00

I do believe we have had one of the best weeks ever!

This news actually deserves a post of it's own but I will insert it here. De asked Katie to marry him on Wednesday afternoon, at a beautiful park with big snowflakes falling from the sky! My baby girl is engaged! We love De like a son and are THRILLED to have him in our family, officially. We are not sure when the wedding will be but I'll be sure to let you know! The ring is beautiful (they let me be a part of helping pick it out!) and these two are very happy and excited! Sorry, sorry, sorry I don't have a picture right now but I will post one soon!!!

We have had full, busy days since Wednesday when we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. Thankfully, I have 6 leaves to my table! Even with that all 20 of us were elbow to elbow, enjoying conversation, laughter and great food. We had all the usual family, but were especially blessed to have my nephew Brian and his wife, Sara, who were here for another special event that would come on Friday:) We enjoyed meeting Bader, Blake's friend from Kuwait very much. I'm pretty sure I've never met anyone so proper and formal and with such good manners! He kept putting his hands together and bowing slightly to me in thanks! He later told Blake that he had a great time, had never had food such as this but loved it and has never met any American's who were so hospitable. How sweet is that?

He wants to take in everything traditionally and culturally that he can while he's here in the U.S. to study, so we invited him again for Christmas dinner. He said he doesn't know much about the American Christmas tradition so I thought we could help him with that!

Bader told us that when he was a boy, they would receive videos and inevitably there would be one with Santa Claus on it. He said, "We did not understand who this man was who came down a tube in your house and deposited gifts under a tree, then left up the tube." His father explained it was an American tradition:) See what an opportunity we have to open our homes and share our traditions and ultimately the love of God with these young international students?

Thursday, I went with my friend Stephanie to work out which was a good thing since we enjoyed a second Thanksgiving dinner at Blaine's moms house with his family. It was equally as yummy and lovely. The little kids LOVE to play together in her big basement so they had loads of fun. I'm still trying to figure out why at the dinner table there was only one conversation going on at a time and it could be easily heard. At my house, there were 5 different conversations going on, it was loud and chaotic (in a fun way). Why is Blaine's family better behaved?? I'm really trying to figure this out:)

Friday was wedding day. My wonderful nephew was set to marry sweet Holly on Friday evening. We had to be at the wedding site for rehearsal at 9:20 a.m. and ended up staying the entire day doing this and that, until the wedding which was in the evening. Blaine and Blake were ushers, Mihiretu did a reading (I was so proud of him!) as did I, Katie did the photography with her Aunt Jenny and Aliya helped in various ways. It was beautiful and a complete blast! We feel privileged to have been a part of their special day!

Saturday morning, we went to the gift opening and then home to pick out the E Family Christmas tree. Everyone but Blake went and the girls chose a HUGE and gorgeous tree! This was Aliya's first tree picking experience and she did well!

In our family we have a tradition that each year, I buy each child a new ornament that is special for them. This way, when they move out they can take them all with them and remember why they were given them. Well, we got all the ornaments out and Aliya was enjoying looking at them all. I explained the tradition to her and then told her to wait a minute, that I had something for her.

I had shopped and purchased 15 special ornaments for her, wrapped each one and put it in a nice plastic tote with a handle. I brought them to her and told her to open them. It was very special and she LOVED them! She loves popcorn (they eat lots of popcorn in Ethiopia!) so I bought her a glass popcorn ornament. Since this year was her first airplane ride, I bought her a glass airplane. All were special and the other kids all oohed and ahhhed over her ornaments which I know made her like them all the more!

The tree is up and beautiful! The house smells like Christmas.

This week filled us up with much love, encouragement, family time, laughter, conversation, dancing, joy, beauty and sharing.

We are thankful indeed!!

I promise pictures to come!! Bug me if I forget!

Love,

Laura

Look who is coming to dinner!

2010-11-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry for my lack of posting lately. Sometimes there are seasons in our newly formed family that are difficult and even though I have much to say, it is hard to know just what to say. I don't want to say too much but I want to be honest in our struggles. It's a very fine line and I err on the side of not saying too much.

I can say we had breakthrough the other night when we had a mom, dad and child meeting which exposed some brutally honest feelings and perceptions which I think shocked the child. It has brought about a very positive change in behavior, attitude and respect for me as Mom. Not sure how long it will last but I'm enjoying it for now. Continue to pray for a positive and strong attachment within this newly formed family. We'd appreciate it!

As many of you know, there is rarely a holiday that passes that we don't have an extra or two or more as guests at our table. Not sure how it always works out that way but we are thrilled to open our home and share our dinner and family traditions with someone who would otherwise be alone on a holiday. We don't believe anyone should ever sit alone on a holiday!

So...

The other day, Blake came home with a request...well, not really a request because he knows our feelings about people sitting alone on holidays. He'd already made the invitation and he was simply letting me know that we were going to have an extra guest at our table for Thanksgiving.

The guest is Bader, Blake's friend from the U is from Kuwait. He's only been here on a student visa since September. Blake met him the first week of school and they've been friends ever since. Blake's other friend at school is a Liberian girl so they all hang out together and have lunch together. Very international!

The other day, Bader asked Blake, "I am wondering something. I have asked some of my fellow classmates (he's very proper:) about the best restaurant where I can go to enjoy a traditional American Thanksgiving. They told me Perkins. Is this correct? Is Perkins the best place for me to go for a traditional Thanksgiving?"

Blake (now laughing) says, "NO! Perkins is NOT the best place for you to go for Thanksgiving! You have to come to my house."

Bader: "Really? You would have me over to your house?"

Blake: "Yes, we usually have someone extra at our table. My parents won't mind at all."

So guess who's coming to dinner?

Blake just told me that Bader wants to meet with him this week to discuss how things are done here and what he should and shouldn't say at our house! Blake told him he can say whatever he wants here. I am surprised and thrilled that he wants to come to celebrate a Christian holiday with us since he is Muslim.

What a great opportunity we have as American Christians to reach out to international students!! What an privilege to have this young man in our home to show him love, acceptance, fun, and how a typical American (ok, we're not actually typical) family celebrates a holiday. He will always have in his memory when he goes back to his country. He'll see how we behave as Christians, how we pray, how we interact. This is hugely impacting!

So let me challenge you. Is there anyone that you can have for dinner who has never celebrated a traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas? Or do you know anyone who will be alone on these holidays if you don't welcome them in?

I can tell you from experience...you will be blessed as much as you will be a blessing!

Laura

Re-adoption final!

2010-11-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was re-adoption day for Aliya. When a child is adopted from Ethiopia, they must go through a re-adoption here in MN. It is a formality, really but an important one as this is the day she officially becomes a U.S. Citizen!

The judge was very sweet, as was our last one with Mihiretu and Misganaw's re-adoption. He and the court reporter were very curious about our family because we were adopting a teenager. They said they almost never, ever see that and that all the adoptions they see are for babies or very young children. The court reporter hung back to talk to me and try to figure us out. I told her that we felt that older children are just as deserving as the 'itty bitties' are but they just don't get a chance as often. She agreed and blessed us as we left:)

(Look who's around the judges shoulder! Misganaw is taking over!)

Me, De, Blaine, Katie, Aliya, Misganaw, Mihiretu and Judge Spicer. Blake is missing because he had to be at school. We took the boys out of school to be there. Aliya did well and because she is over 14, she had to be sworn in by the judge and answer his questions. When he told her to raise her right hand, up went her left and he told her, "no, your other right." He was so friendly...she told us the judges in Ethiopia are NOT at all like that. They are more serious. We told her the judges here are serious too, if you have broken the law but that they LOVE doing adoption cases because they are fun.

He asked her basically if she understood that she would be our daughter forever and did she want that? She said, "Yes." The judge and the court reporter clapped. So sweet!

We got Chipotle for lunch (Aliya's choice) and then back to school for the last couple hours.

I don't think she understands the significance and privilege of being a U.S. Citizen. I tried to explain it to her and how much work it is for a foreign born person to become a citizen here. I told her that many foreigners would do anything to have her status but by adoption, it comes automatically.

It is exactly like how we join the family of God. Everyone wants to go to heaven someday. It's a status everyone desires. When we accept His free gift of salvation, he adopts us into His family forever. You can't work for it, it is automatic because of His love for us. Such a beautiful picture!

Yesterday, Aliya wanted Katie to take her to Target. They came home and Aliya was hiding something behind her back. She had purchased me a beautiful purple bouquet. Katie said it was completely her idea and her own money!! Thank you, Jesus...more progress in our relationship!

I have so much to catch you up on but not enough time, once again. I do want to ask for prayer for our dear friend, Kim. We had dinner with her on Friday night, and even though she was having a flare up of her MS, she was doing well. We got a call on Saturday morning and she was taken by ambulance to the hospital. She is now in ICU. It's still a bit of a mystery but she does have some sort of infection, her heart has been effected and weakened and she was having trouble breathing. This is a very hard situation for her family and friends. Please pray for her complete healing, strength for her family and that God would be glorified in all of this.

Blessings,

Laura

Aliya's parent-teacher conferences

2010-10-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

I went to Aliya's parent-teacher conferences last week. It was such a positive experience for me and for her to hear how much her teachers love her!

I was told so many good things about her.

"Her English has improved so much since last year!"

"She advocates for herself in class."

"She is not afraid to ask questions in class."

"She asks until she completely understands."

"She always has a great smile."

"She is a hard worker."

Aliya has joined the after school choir that meets Monday's and Thursday's. She surprised me and skipped out of it to come to conferences with me. I'm sure it was so good for her to hear all the praises from her teachers!

Not to mention that she is getting all A's and one C (Algebra)! She just hates that she is getting a C and she needs to be reminded of how far she's come:) It is really amazing and mind blowing that she has come this far after only 8 short months in the U.S! We are really proud of her.

She loves singing and loves choir. The after school choir is preparing for the Christmas concert and she came home singing, "Mr. Grinch." Firstly, she has no idea who the Grinch is. Secondly, there are a LOT of lyrics in that song. Thirdly, with Aliya's accent, the song sounds really funny! So the other night, probably 50 times, she sang,

"He's duh bad banana, with duh grizzy block pilllllllllllll."

Translation-"He's a bad banana, with a greasy black peel."

She calls him Mr. Grich.

Pretty hard not to laugh!

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for our respect and attachment issue. God has been answering your prayers and things have been better this past week:) A work in progress.

Blessings,

Laura

Ups and downs

2010-10-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the old DCtalk song, "Hardway?" It has been playing over and over in my head all day.

"Some people gotta learn the hard way.

I guess I'm the kind of guy who has to find out for myself."

Why has this been going through my mind all day, you ask? Let me tell you.

This takes us back to Aliya getting up for school. We've already had some struggles in this area, if you remember. Well, I have been having to get her up so that she has time to make the bus. Yes, her alarm goes off but she simply shuts it off and falls back to sleep. So Mommy has had to be the alarm, a job I despise.

Blaine came up with a good idea. If she misses the bus and I have to drive her to school, it will cost her $5. She did not like this at all and overcompensated by waking up at 5:45 (instead of 6:20, which would be perfect!), getting all ready and then falling back to sleep in her bed.

This happened yesterday and I waited until literally 2 minutes before the bus was to come before I went up to wake her. I thought this experience would be enough. She made the bus but wasn't one bit happy about how it all turned out.

I picked her up from school and she, without provocation apologized to me, hugged me and told me she loved me. Now THIS is PROGRESS!! Praise the Lord. I was really proud of her. It is a step toward our bonding process.

That brings me to this morning. I waited until I heard the bus go by and then proceeded to wake her and tell her the bus was gone. She had been up at her usual 5:45, gotten completely ready and had fallen back to a dead sleep.

We got into the car and I quietly asked her, "Are you ready to do it my way?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you just get up at 6:20 and get ready, it will work the best."

"No, Mom...I can do this! I really want to do it this way."

"It really didn't work too well for you this morning. Now you have to pay me $5. You don't want to do that too many more times."

"I won't. I really will do this. You will see."

And it starts playing in my head..."Some people need to learn the hard way. I guess she's the kind of girl who needs to find out for herself."

Why does she want to get up at 5:45? I don't know. I ask her and she tries to explain it to me but it is lost in the translation somewhere.

I printed a blog post from someone on my favorites that I LOVED. Sorry, I can't remember who it was to give them credit!! But here it is: (with a few changes)

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that.

And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to repaid in full.

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.

THEN your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most Hight, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."

Then she puts it into the context of adoption...

"If you only want to adopt a child who is going to be easy, what credit is that to you?

And if you will ONLY adopt a child who will repay you with a thankful, grateful attitude and will love you back, therefore fulfilling YOUR need for love and kudos, what credit is that to you?

But LOVE these children and do good to them.

Keep on giving of yourself without expecting anything in return.

THEN

your reward will be great and you will be sons (and daughters) of the Most High

BECAUSE He is kind to us...

and He adopts us (ungrateful and wicked as we are) into His family."

Praise God...I know I do not deserve it!

Adopting a teenager is one of the most wonderful things we will ever have the opportunity to do. We have been blessed and so has she. God had a plan and this is it! Are there challenges and frustrations? YES! Are they insurmountable? Not with God's strength.

Just imagine...our Father God puts up with us every day telling Him, "I can do this! I want to do it MY way! It will work, you will see." Hmmmm...

I just wonder how many $5 bills it is going to take for her to learn and trust that I know best?

If she is as stubborn as I am with my Father sometimes, it could take a while:)

Blessings,

Laura

Sweet text from Aliya

2010-09-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

Word for word, here is one of the best texts I've ever received!

Aliya: "Hey mom i LOVE YOU SO MACH"

Me: "I love you too! But why are you saying that?" (This was a first...I just had to ask what caused her to say this)

Aliya: "Becaue you are mom!" (awwwwwww, my heart melts!)

Me: "You have just made my day! Thank you:)"

Aliya: What that mane (interpreted-What does that mean?)

Me: "It means that you made me very happy:)"

Aliya: "Ok"

How sweet is that??????

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

Also, I just got a call from Blaine who is whisking me away in October to Cabo San Lucas for 4 days!! We are going with Todd,( his business partner) and his wife. We have never done anything like this before! So spontaneous. Blaine and Todd are determined to catch a huge fish!! I am determined to sit on the beach, drink pina coladas, visit with Mona and read some good books.

Now I HAVE to get serious about my workout!! Oh, my!!

Blessings,

Laura

Aliya's first birthday-at age 15!

2010-09-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Aliya's 15th birthday yesterday. It was an exciting day!

Aliya has never, ever had a birthday party before. I really wanted this to be a memorable day for her and we wanted her to feel so special so I went all out (for me) and hung crepe paper, a banner and got a bouquet of 15 balloons + a Happy Birthday balloon! I never decorate for birthdays, just not my thing. We had 26 people when we brought together Blaine's whole family and my side, too. Lots of people brought her balloons, knowing this was a first for her. Here is part of her balloon collection!

Blaine modeling one of Aliya's new bracelets (or brasslets, as Aliya says!)

This is Aliya's expression when she found out this was a gift card to buy MAKE-UP!

Katie, Aliya and my mom in their birthday hats. Aliya had never seen birthday hats and thought this was really weird. She almost refused to put one on. But, as you can see, Katie got her not only to put one on, but two:)

Aliya and Grandma Joani, who gave her a pair of special earrings.

The family. (I look a little creepy but, oh well!)

Aliya ordered pizza and coffee cake for her birthday so that is what she got, with a chocolate cake to boot.

Her official birthday is Sept. 28, tomorrow so if you happen to see her or can facebook her, be sure to wish her a "Happy Birthday!"

I'm thinking about making her favorite Ethiopian dish, Shiro Wat for her birthday dinner tomorrow. We will see!

Blessings,

Laura

Trust

2010-09-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

Trust.

I know it takes time to develop.

But waiting has never been my strong point!

I realize that I rarely share the stresses or negatives of adopting, especially where Aliya is concerned. As much as I want to be completely transparent and 'real', I also realize that she is 15 years old and we are trying to develop trust with her. There is nothing I would want to interfere with that. We respect her and want that from her, as well.

But today, I think I will let you in on our morning. I always appreciated reading other people's blogs who had adopted older children and learning from their stuggles. So here it goes.

It took Aliya a little while to learn how to wake up with her alarm. She used to get up at 6:15 in order to get ready and out the door by 7:01 to catch the bus. She felt that she had too much time in the morning and I agreed.

It was decided that she could reset her alarm and wake up at 6:25 but not a minute later. Well, somehow now it is 6:30 before I hear her feet hit the floor. We've had discussions about this to no avail. We know that she was very independent all her life (had to be) and it is best that she learns lessons on her own, not by us telling her.

The other issue in our morning story is that Miss Aliya is sick. She has a sore throat. She sort of let me in on that one, but then quickly denied that she was sick, saying, "I NEVER get sick." She even let me look in her throat with a flashlight and it was pinkish AND I can hear it in her voice AND she's not eating much AND is super tired BUT SHE IS NOT SICK! Just want to make that clear:) She did tell me that she was afraid to say she was sick in Ethiopia (even if she was BUT remember, she NEVER gets sick) but if she was, the housemothers would make her go to the doctor. I told her that I'm not the kind of mom who makes her kids go to the doctor if they are sick. They have to be really sick to go to the doctor.

Ok, this brings me to this morning.

She comes down the stairs at 6:30, saying, "I do not want to go to school today."

I say, "Why not?"

Aliya, "I have no idea."

I say (knowing full well she is sick), "Are you feeling sick?"

Aliya, "No."

"Are you sick, Aliya??"

"Nope." When you read this word, you have to emphasize the P and sort of make a popping sound with your lips to get the full effect:)

"Okay."

When I look at the clock, I see that it is 7:00 and she is still in her room. I ran upstairs to tell her. She came down and as she was getting her things together, we hear the bus coming. She gets her flip flops on and as she is running down the driveway (which is long and then she has a 1/2 block more to go) I yell to her that I will drive her. She keeps running. The bus waits and waits but she makes it. I'm sure she said, "No thanks" but I couldn't hear her with her sore throat and flip flops flapping!

Oh, my.

I feel so badly that she must feel so alone. She doesn't trust us enough to tell us how she really feels, both physically and emotionally yet. This is the MOST frustrating part of parenting an older adopted child for me. Just being honest here.

She also does not want to take advice about things like allowing yourself enough time to get ready in the morning. Because of her previous level of independence, she feels that she knows what she's doing. She doesn't need advice. She's handled everything fine before.

Ugh.

If she had said to me this morning, "Mom, my throat hurts and I didn't sleep well last night," I would have let her stay home and sent her back to bed, which she would have LOVED! I knew she didn't feel well but I had to stand my ground. She has to learn that there are advantages to share feelings with Mom and Dad. We are safe and can be trusted to handle things for her. We love her. We care about her. We want the best for her.

I know that she has only been home 7 months and she really is doing remarkably well in so many ways.

But trust?

We have a long ways to go.

My heart is breaking for her right now.

Blessings,

Laura

School updates

2010-09-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the no-pic post today. Katie has the card reader so I'll try to add some pictures later.

The school year has gotten off to a good start. Aliya is now in 8th grade and officially turns 15 on September 28th. She is enjoying being on the soccer team at school. Her schedule is a pretty 'easy' one due to the fact that 2 of her classes are taken up by ELL (English Language Learner) class. The only 2 'hard' classes she has this semester are English (in which so far she's getting a B+!!) and Algebra. Other than that, she has P.E., Art and choir. She has an A in choir and an A- in Art. Way to go, Aliya!!!

I have spoken with both her English teacher and her Algebra teacher to explain her situation in having only been in this country 7 months and they have been wonderful in making assignments and expectations realistic for her to attain. I sort of have a feeling that she will surpass their expectations and do more than has been assigned just due to the fact that this girl is COMPETITIVE! She definitely wants to 'SHOW YOU!' But seriously, her teachers seem to enjoy having her in class and she has the same ELL teacher that she had last year.

In our state, we must do a re-adoption when we adopt from Ethiopia. It's a formality, really. I have our date scheduled for October 21st. The kids are off school so everyone, hopefully will be able to see Aliya become an American citizen! That becomes official when the re-adoption is granted by the judge. It was a fun and positive experience when we did it with the boys so I expect it will be again with Aliya. I'll share pictures when that day comes!

Mihiretu is doing well in school. Home schooling him this summer (and Aliya, too) really, really paid off. They made great strides in their understanding of phonics and are reading at higher levels. Mihiretu still gets extra help and will get ELL this year. He qualifies because English is actually his 3rd language spoken.

Aliya doesn't understand this at all! I explained to her that he spoke Hadiya first, then at the care center he learned Amharic and then English. So she began asking him questions in Amharic. He, of course cannot understand a word of it! He told her that he remembers one word-"birutkan," which means "orange." She told him, "Oh, wow." (Not in an impressed way)

I don't pretend to understand how the human brain learns but I do know that he has language and reading delays which I attribute to having his brain filled up with 2 other languages before the age of 4 1/2. Although you do not recognize it if you speak to him, sometimes he hesitates or forgets a word while his brain goes back a 3rd time for the English version. This takes time and effort on the part of his brain. The other thing that could be a factor is the degree of malnutrition he suffered before coming to us. If you see him now, you can see that 'big boy is definitely NOT malnourished now' but he was moderately malnourished for the first 4 years of his life, which certainly can have an effect.

But he is doing great in school this year and like I said, his reading has improved by leaps and bounds since the torture (I mean the schooling we enjoyed every day) this summer! I home schooled Blake and Katie - Blake all the way through high school until he went to college in 11th grade, and Katie until 10th grade so I'm pretty seasoned. But teaching these two stretched me to my absolute LIMIT! God gave me the grace I begged for and we got through it with wonderful results!!

Misganaw LOVES preschool again this year. Is there any way that I can keep him this age forever? Honestly, the thought of him going to Kindergarten next year is going to be a killer. But at least it is only a 1/2 day. What about the next year when he's gone ALL day???? What in the world will I do all day??? Yuck. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

P.S. "Lord, I need a little something to fill my time starting in the fall of 2012."

Hmmmmmmm......

Blessings,

Laura

It's too late

2010-09-12T06:21:00.000-07:00

Remember that I mentioned about the changes taking place in Ethiopia regarding adoption? Well, I am very sad to say that upon closer medical examination, 9 girls have officially aged out of Layla House. ALL of the older girls are now gone.

Gone.

There are no more older girls there.

I cannot even comprehend this.

There were 3 girls who had younger siblings. They did not want to be split up but after some very unselfish thinking on their part, decided that they wanted their younger sib to have a *chance* at a family. So if the younger child is matched with a family, they will join their new family in America and the older sister will remain behind, alone.

An friend, who recently traveled to pick up her new son at Layla House gave me this sad report yesterday. I've been trying to digest it. Aliya hasn't been able to sleep. She's been on the phone, talking with some of the other older girls who did fortunately get families and are here in the U.S. These girls are their friends. They spent every day with them for a year or many years. They were their roommates. They were their classmates. They all hoped and longed together for a family to choose them. They rejoiced together when one of them got that highly desired 'welcome bag' telling them they had a family who wanted them.

Now these older girls' hope for a family is gone.

The two girls photographed with Aliya above are sisters who aged out. They are not just faces, they are girls around 15 or 16.

Please pray for them. Pray that Jesus would be their hope and that they would find that He is enough. Pray for protection and direction for them. Pray for God to provide a 'family' for them in Ethiopia. I don't know what this looks like but He does.

There are now several boys, ages 5-8 who are waiting. We need to redirect our focus on finding them families. Some of these are the younger sibs of the older girls who aged out. We cannot let them down. If you know of anyone who is interested, please tell them. Above all, pray for them.

This is the first time in Layla House's history that children have aged out. They've always been able to find homes for kids until now.

Pray also for the kids from Korah who should have arrived at boarding school today or yesterday, I believe. Pray for a smooth transition for them. Pray that the teachers and other kids there welcome them with open arms. Pray for those left behind and not able to go to the boarding school, that they will carry without their friends. Pray for hope for them, as well.

I have a heavy heart tonight for these kids who are struggling right now. I feel like I've let them down somehow. I know that I am not responsible to save every child (at least that's what I've been told) but man, this hurts.

Christians, we gotta do better.

Blessings,

Laura

Cheers!

2010-09-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

Today is purple day in MN so my boys wore their #28 jerseys today in to represent. When I picked Misganaw up from pre-school, a mom asked him, "So who are you cheering for tonight, Misganaw?"

Without missing a beat, my little sweetie pie replied, "My mom."

That's right, buddy. Always cheer for Mom!

All the kids are doing well at school so far. Aliya is enjoying her classes and teachers. She seems to thrive in social settings. Soccer started for her last week and she LOVES it! Tomorrow she finds out if she made A or B team. She is hoping to make B team, and she probably will since she has doesn't have any real team experience. She loves the game and puts in her heart and soul.
I am so surprised at how much better she can understand and communicate this year with school. Much progress was made over the summer!

Mihiretu likes his teacher and seems to be enjoying school. No home work yet! He's in football and had a game tonight. They got creamed! My boy needs to keep his eye on the ball and quit dancing on the field! He really is a good player when he stays focused:)

Many blessings and cheers for Mom,
Laura

We are all important

2010-09-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

The Village of Korah - A short documentary from Session 7 Media on Vimeo.

You will want to watch this video over and over. It's so well done...incredibly sad and incredibly beautiful-all at the same time.

A quick update-252 kids have been sponsored to the boarding school! (It is at capacity)
-22 have been sponsored to a technical school (There are more young adults who are eligible to be sponsored to
technical school. The cost is $600 per year. This needs to be done fairly quickly as school is soon to begin)
-Just imagine what sponsoring a young adult so they can get an education at technical school would do?

Watch and enjoy!

If you haven't yet read my previous post about the kids who need you, please take the time to do so and then pass it on.

Much thanks,
Laura

Kids who need you

2010-08-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

I've had something on my mind for a little while and since time is of the essence, I thought I'd better share it now.

See those gorgeous girls in the picture above? Just over a year ago, they had no family. They were alone, waiting, praying and hoping for one but they didn't have one. Most of us cannot fathom how this would feel, me included. I've always had a mom and dad who I could rely on and who always had my best interest at heart. They were there to give advice, give a hug, or a word of correction when I needed it. Thankfully, one now is my daughter and the other is her best friend who now has a wonderful family in Florida.

I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. You all know there are kids out there in this situation. What I need to tell you is that there are some changes taking place in adoption in Ethiopia and it is NOT good for the older kids. (This is my opinion but I think most would agree)

The agency we used to adopt Aliya, Adoption Advocated International has taken in children over the years who are more difficult to place. These include older kids, sibling sets and kids who are not perfectly healthy. I appreciate that they have given these kids a chance for a home, when others strictly deal with healthy babies and toddlers, who are much easier to place with families. So there are kids who have been waiting for families for years at Layla House.

Layla House is really a transition home for kids who are waiting for families to come pick them up. It's not supposed to be an orphanage. I think it has been that. But things are changing now. By the end of the school year, all kids age 8 and over will be returned to their original orphanages where they came from. I am thankful that these places exist but (again my opinion) these are not the best places for these kids. I'm sure they are not as nice a place as Layla House. But let's face it...most people do not want to adopt an older child. They want a baby or toddler, not a pre-adolescent or teenager. So these kids have waited and now they will have to make another huge transition.

To the kids who are being forced to leave, Layla House is their home. They have friends there who are like family. They have house mothers they love. This is the place where their hopes were raised every time they saw one of their friends go home with a new family. Now they will have to leave and I can't help but wonder what this will do to their spirits? Will they lose their hope?

My heart breaks for them. It is so wrong.

From personal experience, adopting a older child and a sibling set has been very rewarding for our family. That's not to say that it comes without a lot of work. I would be lying if I said that it was as easy as pie.

I haven't said this publicly yet but when we adopted Aliya, I decided that I would have no expectations of loving, mother-daughter relationship with her. She is 15 after all. It's not like I can hold her, give her a bottle, and do the things moms do with their little ones that naturally bring about bonding. Don't get me wrong...I do believe that will come in time and we're working on it. But I think it's a mistake to put huge expectations on these kids and then put lots of pressure on them to comply.

This relationship is NOT about us and what we can get out of it. It is completely about Aliya and what we can give to her.

She will now always have a family, support, love and a safe place to come.

Every child needs and deserves this but with these kids being transferred to their old orphanages, I think it is less likely to happen for them and for other older kids in Ethiopia. It's going to make it a LOT harder.

At this time, there are 4 older girls who are about to age out and will then never have the chance to have a family. If you or someone you know are interested in them, you will need to act fast and get your home study done in order to not see them age out. They are great girls. They are Aliya's friends.

Secondly, there are many kids who are age 8 and above who really need families soon! It is a situation that is really serious. I can tell you that their is a sibling set that Aliya thinks is amazing. The girl is probably 15 and is an excellent student. She stays up all night to study for tests. She is sweet and really wants a family. She has a younger brother, who I do not know but am told he is just as amazing.

Can you pray about and for these kids? Can you spread the word?

You never know who may respond.

Blessings,
Laura

What's happening with Korah?

2010-08-29T15:01:00.001-07:00

Oh, those faces. Just can't get them out of our minds. I pray that God keeps them burned in our minds forever.

I haven't blogged much about Korah lately so I thought I'd write a little today to give you an update.

Teams are still going to Korah to work. Project 61 is the ministry from Sumer's church in TN that is wonderfully coordinating all things Korah at the time. Honestly, I am so impressed at the type of people who must attend her church. I'm in awe, really. People have rallied around her and her family, who now live in Korah. They have sent team after team to work and develop relationships. Many have become sponsors. ALL have become advocates for the people of Korah and spreading the word far and wide. Korah, a place that was barely on the map (figuratively speaking) is now known by people all over the world! Christians have been deeply and forever effected when they've seen the faces and heard the stories and are taking action. God's people have awakened! And they're on FIRE!

The first news I'd like to share is that all the slots for the boarding school have been FILLED! 250 kids, who formerly lived in a dump or other difficult situations (like having no parents) are leaving on September 12 for the boarding school in Shashemane, Ethiopia. They are living now in the dorms that Katie, Blake, De and Zach worked on when they were there getting prepared to attend boarding school. Can you even imagine the day they arrive there? I've seen pics and let me tell you, it is BEAUTIFUL. Lush and green, no pollution, a library FULL of books, lovely dorms and a dining hall just waiting for kids to sit down for a meal.

There are also children who will attend school right in Korah at the Great Hope Church there. The school is called Bright Hope School and many kids in the community will go to school there in the fall. There was an organization who was doing sponsorships to this school but that relationship has ended and now Project 61 is taking over these sponsorships. The great thing about this is with Project 61, there are NO administrative costs involved. So when you send $35 to sponsor a child, it all gets sent to the school and it's work. They are not equipped to send pictures of kids (the way Compassion or World Vision does) so when you send money, it basically goes into a pool for all the kids to go to school. (Correct me if I'm wrong please!) Because Katie developed relationships with Fasika and Beza when she was there, we are 'sponsoring' them to Bright Hope. The other little guy that Katie fell in love with is being sponsored to the boarding school by another family who also fell in love with him and made the decision to sponsor him when they were visiting Korah.

There are many people who have talked about different projects that they'd like to see done in Korah. As you know the needs there are staggering but God has sent very qualified people from different organizations and fields to research, talk with govt. officials and get the work done. I had the opportunity to be a part of a conference call the other day and hear these people talk about their area and what is currently happening.

I can't help but tell you, I was so excited to hear what they all had to say. Progress is being made! REAL progress. These are people who are not going to give up on Korah. These are 'get the job done' kind of people. One improvement I will share is the need for water in Korah. If you'll remember, people have to walk 45 minutes one way to a dirty river for a jerry can of water. Can you imagine doing this? I'll tell you, it looks very promising that water will be coming to Korah. The changes it will bring to the peoples lives cannot be measured or overstated. Please pray the the proper steps will take place to see this happen.

We have a couple other things in my mind that we are praying about and asking God to show us if we are to be involved in them. Please pray with us.

I wanted to share this encouraging update to let you know that your prayers have been effective.

I will update (I actually have a wonderful short movie I will share soon) when I hear more.

Keep praying,
Laura

Home from the Black Hills

2010-08-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

First, I wanted to share with you a picture of Blaine's office wall. These (except for Aliya's pic) were Father's Day gifts for Blaine last year. All he wanted for his birthday this year was a picture of Aliya to complete his wall. Katie took it...is it not beautiful??? He loves it so much that now he wants new ones of Mihiretu and Katie to update them! Every time he looks up from his desk, he sees these 5 beautiful children looking back at him. What could be better than that?

Ok, on to South Dakota. We got back a couple days ago from a 5 day camping trip in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We took the 3 youngest kids and had such a blast! It was weird not having all the kids with us but I guess with work and kids getting older, things must change. This is a picture of Aliya at Bear Country. I love it because she looks so happy and pretty:)

We had warned the kids that buffalo were dangerous and that they shouldn't be approached. These were in Custer State Park and were so far away that we thought it was safe for them to get out of the truck to take a look. Misganaw needed a little coaxing from his big brother that it was safe. Cute, huh? Mihiretu is very nurturing and sweet like that:)

We went to a cowboy cookout dinner and they had this jail there. Mihiretu is only pretending to be sad. Just such a cute picture!

We bought the all the kids cowboy hats. This is Misganaw in his. Adorable!

We all LOVED Mt. Rushmore so much!! So beautiful and patriotic!

Yummm! Cowboy cookout!

Blessings,
Laura

We're off again!

2010-08-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pics of our week at the cabin. I LOVE this picture of Blaine and our nephew-in-law, Bryant. I love it because when I think back to last year at this same time, Blaine was still recovering from his being paralyzed in July. He was on mega doses of Prednisone which turned him into a completely different person. The guy in this picture...THAT is my husband!
Praise God for His healing! You should have seen these guys spinning the jet ski around just to get thrown off and do it again and again!

Misganaw and me. He fell asleep on the boat (again)! So cute!

This is my darling Mom, who even though this is only her second year fishing, has become a great fisherwoman! How cute is SHE? She's one of my greatest supporters and is always, always there for me.

This is my sweet sister, Pam. She loves my kids more than just about anyone! She's also a huge help to me and I love her bunches!

I'm waiting for Blaine to return with a part for the camper and then we will be on our way to "Mountain Smushmore." You see, Misganaw actually believes that we are going to a mountain made of "smushmallows." Poor kid, I keep trying to explain it to him but I guess he'll have to see it to believe:)

This trip will include only the 3 youngest kids, Blaine and I.

We cannot wait to get there but have run into many obstacles with the electrical system in the camper. Hopefully, these will soon be repaired and we'll be off!

Blessings,
Laura

Our week at the cabin

2010-08-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

Aliya learned a new skill this past week. The CANNONBALL!!!

Splash!!

This is Mihiretu...I know you thought this was some 12 year old! Hard to believe this kid just turned 8 and is a 2nd grader...hmmmmm.

But here's the proof, Spongebob Cake and all! We bought him a little special cake just for him on his birthday.

This picture is of Mihiretu's and my foot. This was not taken to show you how badly I need a pedicure. It was not taken to show you that I cut my leg. It was definitely NOT to show you my tiny, stubby toes!! Ok, get your laughter out now!!! This picture was taken to show you that my little guy who just turned 8 and is going into 2nd grade has BIGGER feet than his mom!!

I have lots of pics to post in the days to come of everyone at the cabin. We had a wonderful time with my family this past week. We did lots of relaxing, floating, eating :) and jet skiing.

Sam and Nastassia's wedding was beautiful! I'm sorry I cannot show you because BOTH of my camera batteries were dead!! But I have friends who will get me the pics they took because you just HAVE to see Misganaw in his tux!!

We were really proud of our little ring bearer! He was a sight to behold, let me tell you. This kid was born to be a ring bearer. He could give classes to other potential ring bearers!

Without any rehearsal, he walked up with his new wife (or so he thinks) perfectly! After the ceremony, the new little couple :) was supposed to walk back down the aisle. Misganaw was rearing to go but his new wife was not. She was adorable but a little shy and she stood there looking at the ground shaking her head, "no." He stood at he front of the aisle motioning with his finger, "Come on, you can do it!"

After the ceremony, while taking pics, the bridesmaids got him to kiss her on the cheek during a picture. This poor girl, she screamed and ran away crying to her dad! The photographer and all the bridesmaids were laughing their heads off but I knew Misganaw would feel badly about this so I went over to comfort him. He looked at me and loudly said (with hands out to his side going up and down with every phrase) "MOM, she didn't....EVEN....like it!"

Then at the reception, he was so anxious to get onto the dance floor. I told him to wait until the father-daughter dance was done. Well, the second the music stopped and some rap song came on, my little man bolted onto the dance floor and began BREAK DANCING!! And I mean this kid can break dance!!!! Everyone formed a circle around him and he went to town! I sat there with my mouth wide open! I couldn't believe how this kid could dance. He went like this all night, even getting his new wife onto the dance floor. They had a blast together!

So I'm thinking...he's such a natural ring bearer that maybe I should make him available for other weddings. You know, like "Rent a Ring Bearer" where for $100 plus the cost of a tux, you can have the CUTEST, funniest, most adorable ring bearer AND then to keep your reception from becoming dull, you could have him for another $100 plus dinner and LOTS and LOTS of cake and punch until 9:30 or until he falls asleep, whichever comes first.

What do you think??

Blessings,
Laura

I promise...I'll get some pics!

If you truly believe

What is she laughing at?

Christmas fun

Heavy heart for my friends today

The BIG news!

Wendimu's invitation...the blessing we received

This is for you, Biruk!

Saturday in Addis Ababa at the feeding center

Meeting our boys biological family in Hossana

Meeting our Compassion boy in Hossana

Taking the boys to lunch

Compassion International kids are real kids!

Clinic days in Korah

Day 2 in Sheshemene

Sheshemene Ethiopia

Leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow!

Two weeks to Addis

Since you asked:)

School starts- from Kindergarten to college:)

Aliya's Florida adventure

The Wedding

A very big week!

Beautiful shower

My girl

The promised pics!

A catch up

My funny boy!

Encouraged

Seriously????

A regular day

Why did we adopt? Part 5

Why did we adopt? Part 4

Why did we adopt? Part 3

Why did we adopt? Part 2

Why did we adopt?

Hurdle crossed

Our latest hurdle...yep, one more

Guest post

This and that

A year ago this week...

Didn't want to bring this up but...

Why did we adopt - part 2

Why did we adopt?

Our 4 year anniversary-looking back

Misganaw's thoughts on 'family'

My baby is 21

Social security with *update*

Exceedingly proud!

Christmas pics and getting it off my chest

Wants or needs?

What a week:)

Look who is coming to dinner!

Re-adoption final!

Aliya's parent-teacher conferences

Ups and downs

Sweet text from Aliya

Aliya's first birthday-at age 15!

Trust

School updates

It's too late

Cheers!

We are all important

Kids who need you

What's happening with Korah?

Home from the Black Hills

We're off again!

Our week at the cabin

Social security with update