"Just for fun" Soccer

Tizita's family has been organizing weekly soccer games at our church. As you can see by these smiles, they are a big hit with the kids.


This week, the two newest families home from Ethiopia were able to join in and the crowd was getting pretty big. It couldn't help but remind me of watching the soccer games at Hannah's Hope Ethiopia.

Afterward we enjoyed some freezy pops and playing on the playground. Boo has a new buddy as Ridge is the closest to her in age.

Earlier that day, Hope was getting her hair braided and Goose wanted hers done as well. I am by no means an expert but this sweet girl was still impressed by her hairdo and felt she had a good connection to the Ethiopian girls.

Independence Day

Well, another first for Spiderman was celebrating Independence Day. There was a lot of explaining going into the week and MUCH anticipation. We spent the morning going to a neighbors field to shoot off Jaybird's real rocket he bought this Spring. As you can see from the background, we had a beautiful day!

This is the rocket at liftoff. It was something else as it travels 1,200 feet into the air and then we had to watch to see where it would land (or should I say the kids got to chase it some distance). He had enough motors to shoot it 3 times and now he is scheming on how to get more.
In the afternoon we went to the local parade with Hope. Jaybird and Goose got to ride on the firetruck with Dad this time and as they were at the front of the parade, there was time for them to join us when they were done.

That evening we went to a friend's home for swimming, eating and fireworks. This is always interesting for a first timer but as I suspected, Spiderman LOVED it! The Kosmiski's really get into the fireworks and we had fun watching the show and letting the kids do things like sparklers. Spiderman was in awe and on a couple of bigger ones, drew back like he was scared - just a bit.

To finish off the night, we saw the city's display not far from home. You can imagine the kids were up late but they had a "blast" right up until collapsing in their beds.

OK, I had to throw this in there as Goose has collected her first dozen eggs (and then some). We average 3-4 each day and the kids get really excited each time we find one.

chickens and turtles and friends, Oh My!

Well, we are finally chicken farmers! Saturday we picked up 5 hens from a homeschooling friend, one of them was already sitting on 6 eggs. We got home late that night and my Sunday morning, the kids were all up at 6:30 am DYING to go check on the chickens. We didn't get a rooster so we could sleep in. Now the kids are waking us up earlier out of excitement. Go figure.


Well here is my chicken girl "hangin' with her peeps" (remember the post of how she got us into this?). The hens were all terrified of us the first day so if we came in the coop, they ran to their house. I convinced Goose she should read to them so they would get used to her being around. Later that afternoon she told me she was done because, "I can tell when and animal is listening to me and they are not!"

Here is the gang trying to figure out if we had any new eggs that morning. It turns out they have been productive but we didn't know til tonight as the "broody hen" kept stealing everyones eggs thinking she could hatch them all. We "rescued" the 5 we knew were good but there were four more mixed in with the original 6 she had. For all we know, we could end up with baby chicks in a few weeks (or some really smelly, rotten eggs). This is quite an adventure for all of us.

Saturday morning we found a turtle and the kids were thrilled. Here are the boys pretending they were eating a turtle sandwish. Can you see the turtle laughing? No? Me neither. Poor turtle is completely ignored now that the hens are here. After all, what can HE do?

Last week we were hopping with extra kids around the house. The best bud was in town - from Texas - and Jaybird & Goose were THRILLED to catch up with him. Now Spiderman fell in "buddy love" with Joe as well and after a week of fun and sleepovers, was truly sobbing after saying his goodbyes on Friday. As heartbreaking as it is to see, I know that this is some form of delayed grieving as he again has to say goodbye to someone he loves. Life can be so hard.

Here they are with Joe at one of their goofy moments.

One year ago today

That's when we took a big step of faith and accepted the referral of Spiderman. I remember what a big struggle it had been getting to that point (you can read about it in my first blog post ) and we had just begged God to make it clear to us if this waiting child was OUR son. Ironically, in this case the peace from God didn't come until after we signed those papers and I know a spiritual battle had raged in the heavenly realms to put this precious boy in our home. I shudder to think what would have been had we been too timid to step forward as Spiderman has been such a sweet blessing to our family.

So one year ago today, we finally knew who it was God had for us but it would still be a couple more months til we met this little guy. Boy did we pray that God would equip us to handle the job of parenting this guy, that he would be prepared to receive our love and that God would knit our children together as siblings. God has answered in mighty ways in all 3 accounts and He continues to grow us all together each day. His ways are perfect!

Here are a couple of photos of Spiderman while he was still in the government orphanage in Ethiopia. We did not see these photos until he had come home but I wanted to share them with you. I know I'm his Mom but I can see that sweet spirit in his eyes, even in the midst of such hardship.


If you can't tell off hand, Spiderman is right in the middle in the blue shirt. I believe this was the first day that AGCI came to the ophanage and at the time, he was just one of many children needing love and attention. I tell him that out of all these children (in this photo) "God chose you to come to Hannah's Hope because He would be bringing us to you". At the same time it breaks my heart not knowing how many of these children remain in that overcrowded orphanage, waiting for their own someone to come.


What a precious smile! This was the same day that Spiderman was "picked" to come to Hannah's Hope in the first group of 6 older children. All I can say is that he wasn't "supposed" to be among that group but God intervened and praise God He did! That was on Feb. 3, 2007 and though we knew nothing about him that day, it was on Feb. 4th that God brought my man and I to a place of surrender to adopt again. God's timing is PERFECT!

They are home!!!!!!!

We were thrilled and surprised that the Eastin's and McCarty's were up to coming to church this morning. What a way to celebrate Father's Day! It was emotional to see the kids all meet up in Sunday School and give hugs and exchange shy looks with one another. Spiderman was the only one who couldn't communicate (as he has lost his Amharic). There was certainly excitement in the air.

Introducing Tigist, Hope, and Amerech - the three 11 year old girls (I think they make up about half of their Sunday School class)

and here in the next class is Spiderman, sitting by Getaneh, Azmera, Goose and Genet. Tizita is sitting accross from them. Almost half of this class was "imported by God" and as Goose said, there are going to be lots of brown faces in our class now! :) Spiderman was pretty quiet but after church he declared, "I can't wait til these guys can speak English!".

Late this afternoon, we went to the Eastin's to deliver some Ethiopian food. The other families were there visiting already and so we stayed for a bit. The girls are here watching someone jump on the trampoline and seem so at ease having each other around.

Here you can see 7 of the 8 Hannah's Hope kids playing. Other than ours, all the other kids have siblings, teenage to all grown up. That is proving to be quite a help to the families as they try to recouperate from their jet lag and need some extra hands and energy at times (I hear that Getaneh is non-stop, FULL of energy!) I'm sure they are not lacking for attention either as they are well adored.

Happy Father's Day!

This is my man with his little princess. I had to say that I watched the funniest interaction with them the other night. They were playing "Kung Fu Barbie" all by themselves and you should have seen the slick moves each of their Barbies were making. I would have killed for a video camera but this man is precious with his children!

We took my man out on a camping trip last night in honor of father's day. There was fishing, bike riding, four wheeling, napping (hey, I needed one and the boys were game too), exploring and eating. The favorite was our first attempt at making s'mores at the farm. I know Grandma will mark that occassion as she chronicles the life of their new farm. I gave the kids my pointers for toasting the perfect marshmallow and the kids caught on quickly. We overate and stayed up late so by bedtime Spiderman prayed that he wouldn't vomit. :) Yep, that's camping like I remember!

Before we went camping, we had a yard sale that morning (bad timing I know). The kids were encouraged to clear out lots of stuff as we said we would buy a trampoline if we made enough money. Well they've always wanted to have a yard sale and they really want a trampoline so it worked wonders cleaning out the house. Goose had planned out all these "special attractions" to help out and we decided on selling cookies. As you can see from this photo, she was pretty irresistible and the first sale was for 20 cookies! As the plate dwindled we whipped up a batch of brownies and by the end of the morning, she made over $11.00, just on the treat table! She has a future in sales. :) Oh and for the record, we will be trampoline shopping this week.

Welcome Home Tizita!

Praise God! We were happy to travel to Tizita's new home on Monday and meet the little girl we've been praying for. Though she and Spiderman didn't know each other in Ethiopia, it still seemed to bring her some comfort knowing he had come through Hannah's Hope and now seems so settled in his new home. Not only that, my girls have been praying for her for awhile now and were thrilled to finally meet their new friend. I loved watching how language was not even an issue for the kids. They navigated blowing bubbles, playing games and exploring this fun play castle in her backyard with many giggles. We are praising God for her safe journey to her forever family, though her parents are still recovering from jet lag and the expectations of a very active 8 year old. :) (Yes, believe it or not, this little firecracker is 8 1/2 yrs old - older than Jaybird - and just a hair shorter than Boo).

Here are the girls together. While Goose loves her new friend, Boo has claimed her for her OWN! They are about the same size and walk around with their arms wrapped around each other. Keep praying! This weekend two more families leave to bring home the next 5 beautiful kids - stay tuned!

Before heading over to Tizita's house, I made some Ethiopian food (all my recipes are on this blog "somewhere"). Spiderman chowed down at lunch time and as eating Ethiopian food is a full blown, messy "sport" for him, he had to go shirtless to spare me the stains.

This is just a recent shot of Spiderman's giggles. As you can see he's getting those little man teeth in his mouth finally and actually lost another one on Tuesday. I was mortified the next morning when he came to me and said, "Mom, something's wrong. What happened to the tooth fairy?" Yep, I TOTALLY forgot about it. I explained that this happened to Goose once and the tooth fairy came the next night and he seemed appeased. With many reminders to myself written around the house, I'm happy to say that this morning he showed me his cash along with a note from the tooth fairy, apologizing and explaining her delay. He is satisfied and I'm RELIEVED!