3 months and Today!

2 years ago as we began our adoption journey, our hearts ached for a little girl or boy... We had no idea what the journey would end up being like but trusted God along the way. Here we are, November 30, 2012...

3 months ago on August 31, we brought two precious sweet boys home to our family.


- 3 months ago we had a clingy baby boy who didn't crawl well, couldn't stand, and only wanted his momma.

Today, we have a walking, signing (as in sign language), starting to kinda talk little boy who still loves his momma and daddy, but is venturing out to Grandma Tina or some of his aunts, while keeping a close eye on where Mommy or Daddy is.


- 3 months ago we brought home a sweet and tiny "6" year old little boy who knew hardly any English other than Mom, Dad or simple words like Please and Thank You.


Today we have a sweet little boy who has grown almost TWO inches and speaks English fairly fluently, asking me this morning "Mommy, we please have spaghetti to eat tonight? Spaghetti is favorite!" (and yes, we are absolutely having spaghetti for supper! And chocolate cake to celebrate 3 months home!)

- 3 months ago, that little boy didn't know a stranger and loved to wander off in public places.



Today, when he meets someone new, he asks us if they are family. Today, while he still loves to venture off, always stays within a close distance and makes sure we are within site and no longer approaches random strangers. He even is shy at times with meeting someone new, which is very good!

- 3 months ago, he screamed and cried and acted as if I was the meanest person in the world when he went to the doctor for the first time and had lots of blood drawn and I had to practically drag him out of the hospital because he didn't want to come home with me.


Today (or yesterday, rather), he had blood drawn, not even flinching, watching the nurse do it and when she was finished, he ASKED her to do it to his other arm!

- 3 months ago we didn't know much about Mikiyas' background or story.


Today, as he learns more and more English, we learn more and more of his story and while our hearts sadden as he describes and tells us different things, we are so thankful that God gave him to US!

- 3 months ago, Mikiyas had no idea what "I love you so much" meant. He knew what "I love you" meant and what "so much" meant, but together, he did not. He thought of himself as "yucky" and unloveable because of the HIV.


Today, Mikiyas completely understands what "I love you so much" means, as he hears it from Michael and I daily. He truly understands and comprehends it, whereas before, he couldn't even fathom how we could love him much at all. Now he accepts the HIV (for now) and knows that we and lots of others love him regardless of it and that we will never think any different of him just because of those 3 letters.

- 3 months ago we had no idea how things would differ as our family went from 4 to 6.

Today our family of 6 seems as if it's always been this way. The kids love each other, but can still argue like brothers and sister, which in my book is good!




Today I am so thankful for these last 3 months. We have seen so many improvements and changes and milestones. Eyob walking and "talking", and Mikiyas losing his top two teeth! Along with the addition of 2 more kids, we've had our share of more doctor appointments. HIV doctors, cranial doctors (which for anyone following Eyob's journey and why we brought him home quicker than usual, it still ended up being too late for any treatment for him. :( ), and are preparing for our first surgery with Mikiyas next week (to repair a perforated ear drum) and also will be seeing cardiologists and adding new meds to his daily regimen for a heart condition we found out he has called Cardiomyapothy.

Many things have changed: twice the amount of laundry and dishes. Twice the amount of cleaning up. An entire kitchen shelf that had to be emptied of extra dishes that is now full of medicines that boys take daily. Twice the amount of time to get ready in the morning, especially Sunday mornings.

I couldn't be more thankful for these changes and will forever be grateful that God not only chose us for this journey but that Michael and I chose to listen to Him with obedience. I'm thankful that despite my doubts on if it was even possible, God provided a way. I'm SO thankful for every single one of our friends and family who have supported us along the way, both financially and prayerfully.  You all played a HUGE part in this journey and we owe you so much! For those wondering how much of a difference you made, please remember, that because of you and our awesome God, two sweet boys who would not have had much of a chance at a great life in Ethiopia are home now. Home with a Mommy AND a Daddy and brothers and a sister who love them. Who are surrounded by extended family and church family that love them. And they will never, ever have to question if they are important. If they are good enough. If they will be loved. Mikiyas and Eyob  will always know what "I love you so much" means....

This Christmas season we have so much to be thankful for and are so excited to witness Christmas through their eyes!! Praising God for so many great and awesome changes this year!

The embassy trip and home again - Part 2!

I left off the last post as we landed in Washington DC... So to continue... We had 2 more flights to go before we made it to Florida... The last flight was amazing. I have never appreciated an airline (US Airways) so much before.  Our seats were all separated, so when we got on the plane, Michael explained that we were all separated, and that we had been travelling for over 24 hours, we are bringing home two boys from Ethiopia who are new at flying, and would really love to sit together if possible.  They totally accomodated us and helped us throughout the flight. One of the attendants stopped halfway through the flight to tell us thank you for what we did and asked us what made us adopt. It's funny when people ask that because my first answer is always "Well... God!" It's a great way to start off our amazing testimony! He then explained that he was adopted and so he just loved what we did. Before the plane landed, they gave us a large water bottle to take with us because they knew that we still had quite a drive and thought it'd be helpful in case we needed to make a bottle for Eyob. Then, as we were landing, they announced on the intercom that they had a special family travelling, then announced our names and told a bit of our story and asked if everyone could please remain seating when we land so that we could be the first ones off. It was definitely NOT needed, but so appreciated. It was such a great ending to our long travel!

As we got off the plane, we made a quick stop to the bathroom for a diaper change and then rode the train to the main terminal, not having a clue how many people would be there! As we walked out, we were greeted with around 40+ people, tons of signs and balloons, and loud cheering. It was amazing! I was SO excited for Ilana and Aydan to meet their brothers and for everyone else to meet them, too. Poor Eyob was tired and way overwhelmed and wasn't sure of all the people, but Mikiyas ate up all the attention! Thankfully we had an amazing photographer from Tampa donate her time who got a ton of amazing photos- thank you again, Melissa from Contemporary Captures Photography . She not only got great photos, but truly captured some amazing memories! Thank you to each and every person (and a special thank you to my momma who flew all the way down, just to be a part of it) who came all the way to the airport to not only support us but to welcome home our boys. You have NO idea how much it means to Michael and I and how thankful we are for each and every one of you and grateful that you were a part of that special moment! The ride home was interesting... Mikiyas and Eyob had NEVER been in a car seat before and were not happy about the restriction. Eventually everyone calmed down and fell asleep, and then I became the emotional one and cried all the way home. Partly from being exhausted, partly from being so overwhelmed (in a good way), partly scared that I was finally becoming a mom of 4 (what if I couldn't do it?!), and lots of other emotions all in one. The biggest was that I was SO happy and SO thankful about our amazing homecoming, but so disappointed that one of our absolute biggest supporters - one of whom we had told first 2 years ago when we had decided to adopt - One that had loved these boys before they even knew of them and anytime we talked about the adoption, got tears in his eyes - my daddy... He wasn't there... Never would I have imagined that he would never get to meet the boys, much less even know their names... When we started the journey, I pictured him being one of the first to hug and kiss my child... But alas, he wasn't... The blessing, though. He had the best seat in the "house" to view it all... I was just really missing my Daddy at that moment...

After a 2 hour journey, we made it home. It was dark, but we were greeted with balloons outside the house, and a huge "Welcome Home" sign created by our amazingly talented niece Kaelyn. We carried all the kids inside where Mikiyas just walked silently from room to room checking everything out. He was amazed about everything and had to gently touch just about everything. He couldn't believe he had his OWN bed, but was more comfortable sleeping with Aydan that first night. Eventually everyone crashed in their beds (Eyob in the pack'n'play in our room) and we all slept until about 7am. We woke up with 4 wide awake kids in our room. It seemed like I was dreaming. Still couldn't believe ALL my kids were together...

As the kids ate breakfast and I began putting stuff away, I found sweet notes and Bible verses put up throughout the kids' rooms and a fridge and freezer full of food. I still don't know to this day just who all gave us food or wrote the notes, but I just want to say thank you to whoever did. It meant so much to us and the food helped us out SO much for a few weeks! You have NO idea how helpful premade meals are at times like these! So thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone!!

So it's been 5 weeks since we've been home with our boys... I can hardly believe it! Sometimes it's hard to believe it's already been 5 weeks, other times, it seems like they've always been here... Watching all of their firsts, especially Mikiyas can be SO entertaining. His first escalator ride at the airport was so very humorous. He kinda did the splits and just giggled the whole way. By the time we made it to Tampa, he was an escalator and moving sidewalk pro! He was amazed by the ice dispenser, a bathtub, putting milk in cereal (another outrageous giggle), the abundance of toys (which in our house is NOT much compared to the average American household), and the fact that he had a whole closet full of clothes. Just for him. Never have I seen a little boy SO excited to have clothes... Oh, and the microwave? He was amazed and said "Mommy, flashlight?" thinking that it was one giant flashlight because of the light in the microwave.

Mikiyas came home knowing very little English and now after five weeks his English has grown astoundingly. And if he doesn't know what something is in English, he asks, "Mommy, in English?" and will point or use hand signals to show me what he wants to know. He's a very smart little boy!

Eyob has gone from sleeping in our room to now sleeping in the boys' room in his crib. He had some issues sleeping through the night for the first week or so, but thankfully quickly transitioned and sleeps all night! This momma is happy about that! :) Both of them transitioned/adjusted so much quicker than we had planned, so we ventured out after a couple weeks cooped up in our home. First the beach, and then a week later we tried church. They loved it!! Mikiyas is especially a huge fan of church and asks daily "Church today, Mommy?" and is always disappointed when it's not a Wednesday or Sunday!

Anyway, there's so much more to write, but I have to wrap this up for tonight! Will try to write another blog post again soon!

Here's a video we created with the rest of our journey:

The embassy trip and home again - Part 1

We left the transition home two and a half weeks ago... Can't believe it's already been that long! Sorry it's taken so long to update on here. I post updates once and awhile when I have a minute on Facebook, but I know there are a lot of blog followers that aren't on Facebook! So sorry!!

First of all, I'll update from our trip.... Here is the video of Mikiyas seeing Daddy for the first time on Sunday:



Monday, we attended Embassy and were once again in a crowd of older adoptive parents and Ethiopians and agency directors who commented about how young we were... :) I guess we'll just have to get used to it! We later went to Kaldi's, an amazing coffee shop that looks similar to Starbucks (but SO much better in my opinion!!), for ice cream and coffee to celebrate. The next couple days we stayed at the guest house with the boys and played and loved on all the other kids and babies for their momma and daddies who can't be there yet. Each day, Mikiyas would say "Mommy! Daddy! Aeroplane?" And we'd have to tell him how many more days. He was SO excited!!

We went out to dinner with our driver and in country director, Woudneh, at a raw meat place (blech!) per Michael's request... I was hungry, but not near hungry enough to eat any of that. Lost my appetite watching it, haha!

Michael with the fresh beef that the meat was cut from...

The "appetizer" of just pure, plain raw beef. They would cut chunks of it and eat it like that.

The extremely spicy-make-you-cry raw beef

He ate a lot...  I kept telling him not to eat so much or he'd get sick.... Lo and behold... He ended up getting sick the following day... I didn't really feel sorry for him! ;)


We wanted to see Eyob's birth mom on this trip but when we got there were told that they had been unable to get ahold of her so we wouldn't be able to see her. We were pretty bummed, but understood. Wednesday morning, we got a phone call from Woudneh saying that the birth mother would be coming to the transition home that afternoon! We were SO excited! Not only would we be able to meet her, but she would also get to see Eyob! The meeting with her went so well and we were able to learn a lot about her, her family, among many other things. She was very happy to see Eyob and to be able to hold him. The pictures and videos we got of her are priceless and will be so appreciated by Eyob when he's older, I'm sure!

Wednesday night, the boys slept in our room with us, and Thursday morning, I woke up to Mikiyas rubbing my face and grinning from ear to ear. He is one sweet boy, I tell you! I said "Hey, Mikiyas, guess what?" And he shrugged and I said "Aeroplane! TODAY!" and he could hardly contain his excitement! :) We showered, packed and spent the afternoon outside with all the kids and nannies! It was a beautiful day! Before we knew it, it was time to eat a quick supper and get ready to go. Before children leave to come to America, the transition home children/nannies have a tradition of singing some songs together. Here's a snippet of them singing with/to Mikiyas:



After hugs to everyone, we hopped in the van and ventured our way to the airport. Mikiyas was so excited! Eyob wasn't too sure what to think and was happy as long as his momma was holding him! We went through security, got in line for our tickets and then waited for a few hours for our plane. Thank goodness for our awesome travel agent who put us on the same plane as a fellow adoptive friend that I've "known" for awhile and this past summer got to know even more as we messaged back and forth and prayed for each others' sons... We finally got to meet and Mikiyas and their sweet little boy, Muse, hit it off immediately!

Unfortunately we didn't get to sit anywhere close to each other on the plane, though. But both boys were so tired and fell asleep within minutes of getting on the plane. Once we were up in the air, we put Eyob in the bassinet and I tried to sleep for awhile.

It was an interesting flight with a few hours of sleep here and there...

The sunrise over the Atlantic as we got close to the US.

Eventually after 17 1/2 hours, we finally made it to Washington DC! Never had we been so anxious to walk! We went through Immigrations and Customs and the boys were officially US Citizens! We found our new friends, the Hapners and hung out with them for a couple hours on our layovers. Mikiyas was so excited!

Our continued journey home will be coming up in the next blogpost! :)

My heart could seriously burst.! :)

So, here it is at 1 o'clock in the morning (6pm back at home)... I cannot sleep any longer! So I figured I'd write a little about the first couple days...

So, the trip to DC went well! We met a very sweet elderly couple at our hotel in DC that lives just 20 minutes from us. How crazy and small is our world? The following day, at the airport as we were waiting for our plane, we met another younger couple who was travelling the same flight as us. They are also adopting, they are Bible-believing Christians, and she homeschools. It was really neat to meet another couple and we sat and chatted with them until it was time to board. On the flight to Addis, we sat next to an Ethiopian woman who looked a bit older than Michael and I. We saw she was reading a Bible and Michael leaned over and said "I see you're reading the Bible! Are you Christian?" And she was! So we talked with her off and on throughout our very long 13 hour flight about church and whatnot. There were LOTS of kids and babies on this flight. And I'd say just about every one of them in our section of the plane somehow knew that Michael was the one to go to (I'm serious, ANYWHERE we go, kids are just drawn to him). Babies, toddlers and little ones came up to him to play with him, sit in his lap, etc. It made Michael and I so giddy and excited to see OUR little ones! All those little moments were blessings for us during this trip. Little "God-sightings".

Michael and I did not sleep much on the plane. Partly from being excited, partly from not being tired, as it was a flight from 11am until just a bit after midnight US time. Michael and I stay up until that time, so it was hard to sleep and exhaustion really set in as we waited in line for an hour at the Addis Ababa airport for visas. Finally we got those, converted our US dollars to birr, got our luggage and went out and found our awesome in country director Woudneh! Excitement and adrenaline kicked in at that point!

We made our way to the guest house/transition home and came inside since it was raining. Just a few minutes later, I heard a VERY excited little boy running around the front of the guest house. Here in Ethiopia, you take your shoes off before entering a home, so he quickly took his shoes off and ran into the guest house, straight into Michael's arms. It was SO precious! (I got a video of it, and will have to post it when we get home. The internet isn't quite fast enough to upload videos here.) Mikiyas would not stop hugging and kissing Michael, rubbing his arm, and just snuggling into him, almost afraid to let go. So all while eating breakfast, he sat with Michael rubbing his cheek along Michael's arm. Michael of course was absolutely loving it! Eyob was brought in at the same time and went to me, but didn't have much reaction. He just kind of stared, a lot like the first time we met him. He warmed up as the day went on and we found out he is crawling up on his hands and knees, whereas last trip, he was barely sitting well and barely doing the army crawl on his belly! He also has 2 teeth! Eeek! Just so excited he's not walking, yet, and we get to witness that first at home! :)

We napped a bit after lunch and spent some time outside playing with all the other little ones before we came back in as it got colder to spend some more one on one with Mikiyas and Eyob. We then ate supper, gave the kids back to the nannies and decided to go ahead and head to bed at 8. 5 hours later, we both are awake and can't sleep anymore! Jet lag stinks! But oh, am I SO happy to have these two guys close again! We're going to see about having them sleep in our room tomorrow night!!

Tomorrow is our embassy appointment (at about 6am FL time)! Pray that goes smoothly! :)

He is SO happy we are back! (And also pretty happy with his new clothes and shoes! Finally his very OWN clothes!)

 Eyob. He had just woken up from a nap in my arms! Hence him not being quite awake!

 Still not too sure, but isn't he so handsome? Eek!

 Michael, Mikiyas, and his good friend Alazar!

 Eyob! You can see his new bottom tooth! 

 Hours later and STILL excited! He can't wait to see Ilana and Aydan!

Our sweet boys!! Eek! 

Praising Jesus

So last night, the gates of heaven were stormed by friends and family from all over the world for our sweet boy, Mikiyas... And I am SO happy and in awe of our amazing Father who has defended this child of His who is an orphan no more... After an almost 2 year journey, this chapter is finally about to close. At 8:59am, God answered all those prayers! I got an e-mail declaring that they decided to clear Mikiyas to come home!! I immediately began to shake and dialed Michael's number and when he answered, I burst into tears. Tears of joy. Tears of overwhelming emotion that has been held up in my heart for weeks. Tears of just pure awe in our Lord... Michael, of course, was afraid that it was bad news, and as I choked out that Mikiyas was coming home, I bawled even more. Those words, "Mikiyas is coming home", even brought Michael to tears (although, I'm sure he won't admit it to anyone else!)...

I cannot praise and thank God enough for what He has done for us... THANK YOU, LORD!!! We will NEVER have to say goodbye to our boys again (at least not until college. but yeah... Not even gonna think about that!)! They will FOREVER be in our family. AMAZING!

So... we will be leaving Friday night and getting to Ethiopia Sunday morning. Sunday, August 26 will be our "Gotcha Day"!!! Then we'll attend our embassy appointment on Monday afternoon (early Monday morning your time) and then will leave Ethiopia Thursday night and get to Tampa on Friday night at 7:30. Anyone local is welcome to come to the airport join the homecoming party!!! :)

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has gotten us to this point. Your prayers and support are SO appreciated! The next post you'll see will probably be from Ethiopia!!!!!!!!!! WAHOO!!

Prayer Requests...

So, unfortunately this blog post is NOT about Mikiyas clearing embassy like I said I hoped it would be in the last post... But this is a really important post either way... I swear this adoption journey changes each day!

We need some major prayer warriors... We heard from the embassy yesterday and the investigative unit did go to the police station, and the police station is supposedly going to go through their files and come up with a full report to give to the embassy on Wednesday (tomorrow). It could go one of two ways. That the report is sufficient enough and Embassy clears him, OR Embassy doesn't like what it says and they will send his case to USCIS Nairobi, which can add weeks or months to his case...

That said, Michael and I are planning to travel this weekend either way. If Mikiyas does clear, I'll be shouting at the top of my lungs in excitement and we'll be bringing them both home next week. If Mikiyas does not clear, we will still travel to bring Eyob home to start getting him the medical care he needs, because we cannot hold him behind for weeks/months. Then Michael will go back by himself whenever Mikiyas does clear...

Now, for specific prayer requests:

1. Pray that the police DO turn in the report they said they would on Wednesday

2. Pray that the police report is what the Embassy needs to clear Mikiyas on Wednesday

3. Pray that if Mikiyas' case does NOT clear, that God will help him understand why we are coming and bringing only Eyob home with us and that we WILL come back for him, too! This part breaks my heart in two and I pray that we don't even have to do this... :( He is old enough to know what is going on, but not old enough to fully understand why we would be leaving him again and it hurts too much to even think about right now...

4. Pray for Michael and I if Mikiyas' case does NOT clear. Saying goodbye once was hard enough and to even think about saying it again is just something I'm dreading...

5. Pray that if Mikiyas' case does NOT clear, that God will help provide the funds for the second trip for Michael and Mikiyas, as two separate trips were really not in our budget.

6. Pray for our trip... Right now, I think we plan on leaving sometime this weekend and getting back sometime mid-late next week. Will let you know once we book tickets on Wednesday.

7. Pray for sleep tonight for Michael and I. I'm already a big ball of nerves today and I know Michael and I will be so nervous tonight that it will be hard to get any sleep...


Thank you, everyone for the prayers up to this point. I have no doubt that God can answer these prayers and I'm trying so hard to trust Him, even if the outcome is not what we want... 

Waiting...

Waiting is definitely something I struggle with... It's been 8 very long weeks since we said goodbye to these two beautiful little boys...

8 weeks without hearing "Mom!" or "Dad!" from Mikiyas. 8 weeks without feeling Eyob's sweet, slobbery kisses on my cheek. 8 weeks without feeling his warm breath against my neck as he sleeps peacefully in my arms. 8 weeks without Mikiyas' amazing little hugs that could light up anyone's day...

8 very. long. weeks...

People ask me how I'm doing and as I put a smile on my face and say "Okay", deep down, I'm really not. Deep down, my heart aches and feels so divided. Many days end with me in tears. Bless Michael's heart for putting up with such a sappy wife. You'd think I just had a baby and had baby blues with how emotional I've become! Until my boys are home with us, I don't think I'll ever fully be "Okay"...

While people can say to trust God's timing, unless you've really done this, it's hard to fully understand that trusting God's timing is not always easy and I've frequently questioned it... Thank goodness God loves me despite my constant questions and second guessing of His time.

During this time, there's been a lot of refining in my heart and mind... I've had to give up control. Control of the situations and control of the timing. I've done what I can. Eyob cleared embassy and right now we are still waiting for Mikiyas to clear. The embassy is trying to get in contact to interview the police officers that were involved in his case. This is one of those things that I cannot control unfortunately. I cannot control the time it takes for the embassy to get in contact with the police. I cannot control whether the police will cooperate. I cannot control any of it. While I'm disappointed that we haven't been able to bring them home, and worrying about if we'll be able to bring Eyob in time for any treatment for him, I have to rely on God. I have to give up my need for control and remember that He has it under His control. And remember that God is good.  God is HOPE. And most importantly, God is peace. Peace for my heart. Peace for my ever doubting, questioning, worrying, fearing mind. God is here in my heart and mind. God is here in this adoption. And as bad as it hurts to not be with them, I know that God is with my boys! God is protecting them and loves them, even more than I do, which is hard to fathom.

The past 9 days since Eyob cleared has been full of sleepless nights as we've been constantly checking our e-mails being in contact with the embassy or to check if Mikiyas has cleared (because of the time difference, their daytime is our nighttime/early morning). By 10am, almost everyday I feel defeated and depressed that Mikiyas has not cleared and that's the moment that I've learned I need to, instead of run to my pillow, run to God and allow Him to comfort me with his amazing unending love and promise that He is GOOD and that He has not left my boys and He has not left this adoption from the very beginning over 2 years ago...

Many have asked what they can pray for specifically. Here are a few specifics:

- Pray that the police cooperate and that the embassy is able to get the answers they need (in a timely fashion!)
- Pray that the embassy will get the answers they need in order to not send Mikiyas' case to USCIS Nairobi (which can add weeks to our wait)
- Pray that when Mikiyas does clear, that there will be somewhat inexpensive plane tickets available (as many have been selling out so many options are more expensive) for when we would like to travel (preferably right away)
- Pray that when it comes time for us to finally bring the boys home, that it will not be too late for Eyob to have treatment for the Plagiocephaly. That we either bring them home very very soon, or that Eyob will actually be a bit younger than we think and that his skull won't be as developed.
- Pray for Michael and I. For patience throughout this last leg of the journey....

My next blog will hopefully be about Mikiyas clearing... Hopefully we'll find out SOON!!!!