Remember 1995?

That was the year I took a huge leap of faith and said "I do". In a world where marriage is mocked and commitments are for the short term, that could have been risky business. I stand in awe of how 12 years have now passed (we just celebrated our anniversary) and I can't imagine having taken any other path OR any other man. Are we perfect? No, who is. Are we happy? You bet!

Did I see back then where life would take me? Not even close, but what I have learned is that's God's plan for my life is ALWAYS better than I could have imagined for myself. It's not that I'm living a fantasy or living on easy street. Like one of my favorite songs says, "who am I, that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name...?" I am humbled that He reached out to me and drew me to Him. What unexplainable comfort in knowing that the One who made me, walks with me through each day, carries me when it's tough, and points out the scenic spots I might otherwise miss. He even gave me my man, the right man, to brighten the path for me and make me laugh. I'm rambling now but I wanted to list 12 things about my man that I love and respect him for -- everyone should know.

1. He loves his Lord and is willing to surrender his own plans for God's plan.

2. He makes me laugh and that is Oh, so priceless!

3. He works hard to take care of us.

4. He is a good listener, better than I am.

5. Have you seen this manly hunk o' muscle? Hubba, hubba!

6. He's such an all-around good guy, everybody loves him

7. He is a man of principle and is COMPELLED to do the right thing.

8. He's super smart and knows how to think for himself.

9. He's versatile - he can change diapers, wash dishes, chop down trees and gut dead animals (so dreamy)

10. He's played a big part in giving me my four "little people".

11. He has a vivid imagination and is awesome with the kids

12. He's all mine, til death do we part.

I love you babe! May God give us many more years, many more laughs and may He help us survive this parenting thing :)

Doro Watt (Chicken Stew)

Here is my Ethiopian chef, Hope and her Momma Lori, my dear sweet friend. "A-wad-a-ha-low!" (I love you)

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OK, one last recipe for everyone. Doro Watt is practically the "famous" dish in Ethiopian food and a big hit with about half of our family. :) This is the second time in a week we've had this as Hope invited me over to watch her make this one from memory. All I have to do is bring the injera and that's a good deal for me. Keep in mind there is no written recipe, she just goes by what she sees and smells (which is fun to watch). After watching Hope & Spiderman devour two huge helpings, I can attest it must taste like it did "back home". Here we go....

1 medium onion, chopped

3/4 cup cooking oil (she used alot more)

Cook together on medium heat

Add 1/3 cup berbere spice (Hope uses a cup but I can tell you, it's still too spicy with this smaller amount. If you didn't get this in Ethiopia, you can buy it online or make your own)

whisk together and let it boil for awhile. This part is vague, Hope watches the sauce for the brown to turn redish. Apparently it is subtle as I didn't see a significant change but she sure got excited when she saw it.

2-3 cups water, continue boiling 5 more minutes

Next add:

4-5 lbs of skinless chicken, preferably legs (on the bone) and thighs (cut off the bone)

boil at medium heat for 15 minutes. Add:

6 whole hard bolied eggs, peeled

5 potatoes, peeled and diced

2 tsp of salt

2 cloves of garlic

Boil on medium heat for another 15 minutes

Spoon over injera and enjoy, kinda spicy!

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Now as for my unrelated comments, I have a tip for some of you. If you are adopting an older child, pray for God to bring you another family in your area (in your church is even better) who will do the same. I am still in awe of how God called Hope's family to adopt right as we were paperchasing. This journey has been so much richer sharing it with another family and knowing the kids have each other with a shared understanding. Their differences in gender and age don't even seem to matter for this. This adoption has been such a deep and wondrous experience and it is so much richer having a "mom friend" walking the joys and sorrows with me each step of the way. (For a beautiful expression of some of these ponderings, read my friend Jens post called "How can it be?") Lori has been such a gift to me and I never even thought to ask God for this. Now there are two other families at our church adding to their families from the same orphanage. ASK!

Ethiopian Shiro

If you've eaten Ethiopian food, you've probably had Shiro since it is a staple in their diet. It comes from dried, ground chickpeas. Here is the lovely cook who made our yummy shiro (vegetarian paste) and doro watt (chicken stew) for dinner tonight. I kept asking her Momma for the Shiro recipe and she told me every time, "there is none- you just have to watch her do it". Well, today I did just that and attempted to write everything down. It was truly delicious! This is my interpretation of the recipe:



boil 3 1/2 cups water
then add 1/2 cup oil and whisk together
add 3/4 cup of Shiro powder, whisk frequently and continue boiling for about 5 minutes
Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1 Teaspoon of minced garlic and 1 Tablespoon of butter.

Continue stirring over medium heat for another 5 minutes til the Shiro thickens to a thinish paste. Spoon over some injera and enjoy. Konjo!

Injera for dummies :)

This post is for my friends who are bringing home children from Ethiopia.



I was determined to learn to make injera for Spiderman in case he needed some comfort food during his adjustment to America. It sounded very intimidating when I read recipes for injera and it almost scared me off. Anyway, this is my recipe for Faux injera and to tell you the truth, both Hope & Spiderman claim they prefer it this way. It is wheat instead of teff and it is NOT fermented.

Keep in mind that I am NOT a cook, it is not my hobby or my preference to make things in the kitchen. (some of you know this) I say that so you know this really is easy or I wouldn't have made it more than once. If you want to do this, you really CAN do it. Here we go:

You will need a large skillet (preferably non-stick) and some sort of lid (mine doesn't even fit on my pan). I use a ladle but Ethiopians actually pour the batter from a pitcher.

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 cups of water, maybe more

Whisk the batter until smooth and very runny. In fact, it seems like it is too runny but the key is to keep the injera very thin, more like a crepe. See this photo.
















Heat your skillet with medium-high heat and gently coat the pan with cooking spray before each piece of injera. Pour the injera into a spiral, about 1/2 cup. This is where I thought it was tricky at first. I can't pour it spiral enough to keep it thin and joined together SO... I use the back of my ladle to spread the injera as thin as I can. Put the lid on the pan and let it cook for about 45 seconds. You can peek underneath but you don't want the bottom cooked crispy, the top is really just steamed.
















Look at this photo and you can see it isn't all cooked on top. When it is done, it will not look wet like this. Your finished injera will feel spongy and that is just right. Stack them on a plate and cover with a towel if you'll be eating soon. I usually make them early in the day and you can microwave them just fine. Wa la!

Now if you've never eaten injera before, this will give you the right texture and idea for eating but it isn't at all sour like the fermented teff version (Nat & Jen, that means it won't evoke those "memories" for you). It's really pretty good. When Spiderman came home, he liked to eat injera with his scrambled eggs (he loved eggs!). I thought it was a small gesture to show him we wanted him to feel at home.

Happy 2008

OK, one more try at shameless advertsing and fundraising, all wrapped up into one. For those of you who haven't checked it out yet, our adoption agency puts out a calendar every year of the adorable children they have helped join their forever families. The proceeds go toward their orphan care around the world (they do not just complete adoptions). Anyway, as you can see by their website photo, Spiderman made it in the big shot for May. What you can't see is that Boo made it in as the big shot for June. I don't know how we pulled that off but since we did, I feel the need to get the word out (or brag, whatever I should call it). You can order your very own calendar from allgodschildren.org and then you can see these sweet faces AND remember to pray for the approx. 143 million orphans around the world. Happy new Year!

Oh what joy...

new Christmas jammies
The Lego chaos began
Spiderman with his very favorite, RC car
Christmas is exhausting! Who needs a nap?

The kids loved this fun gift from Aunt Susie and it filled up our afternoon yesterday.
excitement!

The Lego store moves into our home - or so it seems

The precious baby Becky gets a new outfit
she's got personality Goose was inspired to give Santa a little advice

As you can imagine, it was an exciting holiday at our house. For the last 3 years, we have eaten a traditional Guatemalan tamale dinner to celebrate Christmas Eve. NO MORE. None of the kids were thrilled to eat them and our Guatemalan "princess" was sobbing in her room because she didn't even want to try them (yes, we required it). That is not worth it! Well, after dinner we had our traditional birthday party for baby Jesus followed by reading the Christmas story. Jaybird did the honors and read it to us for his first time, precious! Then, they get to open Aunt Susie's gifts - new jammies to wear for Christmas (I love family traditions). You could feel the anticipation at bedtime and Goose penned her last minute message to Santa.

Despite going over the "rules" of Christmas morning last night, Spiderman still ran into my room at 6:23 AM today and asked, "Mom, can I go get my stocking?" Please, go, just let us sleep!! By the time all were up and fed (yes Mom, we still do the poptarts in our stockings for early feeders, just like when we were kids), they were ready to dig in to the tree. As you can see by the plethera of photos above, they were very pleased with their gifts. Thanks family, for all your gifts which added to the fun. Spiderman said (more than once), "there is no Christmas in Ethiopia". What a bittersweet comment to think he's never had a Christmas gift before but also to think, we overdo so much in America. While they do celebrate the holiday, it certainly isn't anything like what we do here in the States. May we truly be thankful for the real reason of the season and not get caught up in what we did or did not receive this Christmas. I'm reminded that there are still so many children in the world who long for a meal, a hug, or a family. We are all so very blessed.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It's so much work taking a photo of the four kids together, this was the best we got. I did think you might appreciate the hard work if you saw some of the looks they gave me in the unedited versions. :) Notice who the biggest goofball was.

With one week til Christmas, I wanted to write a little note for all of you who may just be tuning in to this blog. I know, it was lazy of me not to write a Christmas letter but I figured if you really wanted to know what's going on, you'd be willing to come here to find out. :) Nice to see ya!

Also, 4 months ago today we boarded a plane from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to bring our new son home to America. It is amazing how quickly time flies! We really have settled into a familiar routine and Spiderman seems to blend into it naturally. The biggest change we've seen in him has been the amazing speed at which he has learned English (and lost his Amharic). To think we struggled to communicate on that long trip home and now he speaks so clearly I forget this is a new language for him (although we have the fun accent). He can even read at a Kindergarten level which still surprises me. The second biggest change is that he will eat most of the things we make with minimal complaining :) My man laughed the other day when I said we were having chicken for dinner and Spiderman said, "I love that". He sure has changed his tune about some things. The third biggest change is that he can sleep on his own comfortably now. For the first 3 months he needed to share his bed with big brother and now they usually alternate every other night. (we did overhear Jaybird telling him one night, "you know for years before you came, I slept alone everynight".) When you think of everything this sweet boy has been through in the past year or two, it is amazing to see God bind his heart to us so seemingly easily. We had really braced ourselves for a long, challenging transition this year and we marvel at how little was really necessary.

OK, as for the rest of the brood, you can read more about them if you look back at Novembers' posts. Jaybird continues to excel in his schooling and really loves to get it done so he can play Legos or chess. Goose still spends her time dreaming of motherhood and taking care of her baby doll or her siblings, whoever will let her. Boo is enjoying drawing and writing her name more and more but still lives in her imagination.

As you can tell, I'm on my third year homeschooling and that takes up most of my "free time" (HA). Whenever I feel overloaded, it's good to remind myself how much more I get to see of them and do with them than if they were gone each day. I'm also looking forward to seeing what develops with a new foundation I get to be a part of. Kinsman Redeemer (link is at the right side of the blog) has been started by some friends who have a heart to financially help families who feel called to adopt children. I have seen God do amazing things at our church this year regarding orphan ministry and I sense He is nowhere near finished working here. I'm thrilled to have a front row seat!

Not to leave out my man of course, he is plugging away working for the Conservation Department. He really is good at his job and it's amusing to watch how excited he can get over hearing quail nesting somewhere they haven't before or complaining about some annoying species of grass choking out the native wildflowers (of course he uses their ridiculously long names when he's doing it). No surprise to anyone who knows him, hunting is still his passion (check out the buck photo from Nov) and working on his parents' hunting farm is icing on the venison cake.


We realize only God knows the future but we are looking forward to a quieter year ahead (quieter than what?) building new family memories. It is sad and sweet at the same time to look through family photos. Sad to see how much of our life has passed without Spiderman "doing things" with us but sweet to hear him say, "when can I do that?" We have lots of things to experience again so that our memories will be shared ones. You are invited to check back in on us here, throughout the year, to see what is going on with our crazy, colorful clan.