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!

Memorial Day

We had a fun Memorial Day as my man took our girls to ride in a local parade with him. He is a volunteer rural firefighter (that comes with country living I guess) and they rode in "The Truck" while the boys and I collected candy at the roadside. The girls really enjoyed the fame.

Afterward, we went to a friends for a BBQ and some swimming. The food was great, as was the company, and the kids LOVED the swimming pond. Now this was not your average swimming hole - they had a small dock to jump from and even a rowboat. It was a beautiful way to enjoy some sunshine.

This is Goose (on the right) and her best friend, plunging in together.

The boys took their turns but had just as much fun boating and water fighting with the bigger boys.

Boo and her friend made the most of the shore with some gourmet mud pies. Man can those girls bake!

Just a parting shot, the older kids all dipped into their piggy banks to buy goggles for the pool. As we bought a family pool pass this year, we expect to get our use out of them for sure. Spiderman thinks they are REALLY cool!

Our day in Court

Monday we finally made it through court to get Spiderman's adoption recognized in the US. This is just the first step in the process of obtaining his American citizenship. The process went smoothly despite doing it without an attorney and here we are with the Judge. For those of you who know my work history, the last time I worked with this judge was the day before Jaybird was born, 8 years ago. I've been home ever since.


The court docket was behind and we had to wait over an hour til our turn. The kids were very patient and read books in the hallway. As you can see, Hope was there to take the same step in her citizenship process. We had invited the other local families who are adopting and had a wonderful gift while waiting for court. Patty received her travel call from AGCI with a departure date of June 8th!! Lisa then said she received the same call earlier that morning!! There was some screaming, hugging and crying as we were all able to celbrate together. What a gift that the next 5 waiting kids will be home so much sooner than we imagined. An even bigger gift is for the two families to be able to travel TOGETHER as the McCarty's have never even been on an airplane before. Icing on the cake is that tomorrow, the Smith's leave to pick up their daughter as well. Within the next 2-3 weeks, all 6 Ethiopian blessings will be joining our church family.

After court we came home and celebrated with ice cream and slip n' slide. Hope wasn't so sure she wanted to try something that the boys made look so dangerous but in the end, had just as much fun as the others.

This is a double slide intended for racing but not for colliding. Intended....

On another note, Spiderman has continued to grow. He is now a whopping 48 pounds (which means he has gained about 8 pounds since coming home). It's finally kicking in, although you wouldn't notice to look at him. He's trying to eat more protein so he'll grow the last 1/2 inch needed to get on the water slide at the city pool next week. I'm praying they'll let him slide anyway. :)

I had to throw this one in here. As we promised, Spiderman got his chance to really fly a kite. We went out to the local lake the next day where there is ALWAYS wind. Look at that precious smile! He enjoyed seeing the superhero kite take flight and wants to do it again soon.

Moments in May

Just some photos to capture some moments we've shared recently. Here is my man with a nice size morel he found in our yard. The irony is how much time we've spent looking for them with no luck and he practically steps on this one at home. So yummy!



We finished up our Awana year with a kite flying night. It wasn't nearly windy enough but here is Boo giving it her best shot. Spiderman was quite disappointed at how these attempts turned out but we'll do it again soon when the weather is right.

Here is the fearless Spiderman at a reptile presentation at the local university. I was amazed at his eagerness to hold all the snakes, lizards and turtles. He wanted this snake for a pet.

Really all the kids did great. Here are the older 3 helping to hold up the giant Burmese Python. Boo would pet it but wasn't as excited. The African tortise was really neat but I didn't get a good picture of it.

Today was finally warm enough (barely) to break out the new slip and slide. The boys are camping with Daddy tonight so the girls had a friend over and let their girliness hang out all over the place. What a completely different feeling it is having just girls here with no boys around!