You can help bring my nephew home.....

My sister and her husband are in the process of adopting a special needs baby boy from China. This is their 3rd adoption in 4 years so they could use all the help they can get with the finances.

They had a marvelous idea to have a fundraiser using "squares" the Michigan vs. Michigan State football game. You can find out more information here. This is a fun way to help out a family and maybe win some cash-o-la yourself.

It's been a year!

A year ago today my life was deeply changed. We got the call we had prayed and waited for. The wait seemed so long and miserable. It's amazing how life on the other side of waiting flies by.

A year ago today we got the call! We met our sweet girl through pictures. We got the call...."I'd like to tell you about a baby girl." We heard about our baby girl. The girl of our dreams, the girl we had been praying about for over a year. As I write this I cry bitter sweet tears. I am so blessed by Melia Serawit and it's insane how much I love her and how immeasurably happy she has made our family but it breaks my heart to think about her birth mother who a year ago at this time was mourning the loss of her baby, and she probably still is.

From the time we started praying about adoption and praying for our babe, we also prayed for her birth family and we still do. I don't know how the spiritual realm works but I do feel a connection to her through the greatest Father of all. I've also been amazed lately as I've read my Bible at the references to the Lord being close to the poor and the broken hearted. I trust that He's comforting Melia's birth family.

Click here to read last year's post about "the call"

Cute kids for your viewing pleasure....

They are the boys' biggest fans at the soccer games!

Addie looks like she's crying but she's really cheering:)

Addie's Antics

Running to me crying in the reptile house at the zoo...

I think something horrible must have happened, someone tried to kidnap her, she almost fell into the turtle pond....

Nope.

Through sobs she says,

"I don't want other people to look at my favorite animal."

Seriously, kid. What is going on. That's crazy! Wow. I've got to deal with that insane idea before I can even get to the bigger one...An alligator cannot be your favorite animal- Mommy hates them. They are creepy and ugly and give me bad dreams.

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Me: Addie, please take that pop tab out of your mouth. (One of Caleb's many collection pieces).

Addie: It's not a mouth mommy, it's a bathtub for it.

Me: Huh?

(She's not mad in this picture, she makes faces like this all the time to be funny)

________________

Addie: Mommy where is Melia's Daddy?

Me: You mean your Daddy, too?

Addie: No, you my Mommy and dat's Melia's Daddy.

Me: Can't we both be your Mommy and Daddy?

Addie: No. Daddy's Melia's and you're mine.

Me: What about the boys? Am I their Mommy and Daddy their Daddy?

Addie: No

~She's been keeping this idea up for about a week now. She really calls Michael Melia's Daddy most of the time. Sometimes she slips up and calls him Daddy but she's pretty sure of her theory here. She's proud that Melia's her sister and the boys are her boys, but I'm solely her mommy. I feel badly for the boys who at ages 5 and 6 are parentless. More craziness from the cutie.

Although, upon further thought maybe she is thoroughly confused...Michael has been hammering it in Melia's head that his name is Daddy. She called him Michael for a few months. So maybe Addie's thinking that since he doesn't tell her 50 times a day his name 'is Daddy' like he does to Melia he's not her daddy. (Melia is now successfully calling him Daddy)

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I love my nutty little girl!

Goodness and Love

So much in life is uncertain. Of course my days seem very uniform. Wake up, feed kids, drink coffee, clothe kids, direct kids, redirect kids, more coffee, more with the feeding, more with directing and redirecting... you get the idea.

But the rest of the stuff in life like jobs and health and the questions of will Addie always take a binky, will the boys remember how cranky I am with them, will we move, will we stay, how, when, and where...

I don't know about the future.... how many poopy diapers will I change tomorrow, how many fights will break out, what major mess will the girls make, how many tears there will be....

but what I am super convinced of is that

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23:6

When the days of little kids seem long and mornings seem longer (because I stay up too late enjoying the quiet) it's good to know that my God has good things for me each and everyday of my very blessed life.

Melkam Addis Amet

Happy Ethiopian New Year! Here's a great website that explains a bit about Enkutatash... http://ayannanahmias.com/2010/09/02/happy-ethiopian-new-year-melkam-addis-amet/.

We spent part of the day celebrating my sweet niece, Elli's birthday. She really is one of the sweetest girls in the world. I love her so much. It's amazing to see how she already has such a servant's heart at such a young age.

We spent the evening celebrating Ethiopian New Year by taking the Ethiopian babies out to dinner at A Taste of Ethiopia. Micah and Melia loved the injera and all the attention that was given to them at the restaurant. I was so impressed by Melia's ability to pick up the food so daintily with the injera. I enjoyed the little touch of Ethiopian culture we had tonight. It made me miss Ethiopia!

Later in the night Caleb read this awesome book that was given to us from a friend....

It's a great book that explains some of the Ethiopian holidays and talks about how amazing the Ethiopian people are. I recommend it!

Golfin' with Dad

Michael finally caved to Caleb's pleas and took the boys "real golfing."

Here's a couple of thoughts about the day from Michael.....

They were both ecstatic about the chance to go. I found a par 3 golf course that cost $5 for me and $4 each for the boys. I thought it was only 9 holes, but it was actually 18! What a deal! Well, we only made it through 5 holes in an hour and a half, and the boys and I had had enough. At that point Nathan was so frustrated that he was walking back to previous holes on the mostly un-inhabited golf course and taking the flags out and laying them on the green. He was taking his frustrations with golf out on the course! As we walked off the course, after some counseling from me, the boys were in better spirits. (to be fair, Caleb really enjoyed the whole experience and kept his frustration under control). I asked the boys, "did you guys enjoy your time, even though it was really hard?" Nathan quickly responded, "It's not hard for me." Caleb agreed, "It's not hard for me, just frustrating." They both said they would like to go again...maybe next time we'll get through 8 holes!

Both the boys have some perfectionist tendencies. Sometimes Nathan's emotional and perfectionist tendencies collide and form a big storm. It doesn't happen too often but when it does -- watch out!

Michael took some cute videos but I'm not sure how to upload them on blogger.

This was a summer highlight...

The boys called 911 and hung up. When I say the boys....here's how it went "Nathan you want to call 911." "Ok."

Minutes later I look out the front window and see police officers getting out of their car and the boys running up to the house. They were freaked out. The police saw the rage in my eyes and for some reason they literally played the "good cop" role. It went something like this...

"Oh, boys, you'll never do that again right? Great! Now do you want to see the police car? I'll let you turn the lights on."

Really cop-per you're encouraging this behavior? The boys were so freaked out and felt horrible about the whole thing so it was good that he was nice, I of course played the bad cop role and after I took the pictures sent them straight to bed.

The cops were so nice. They really were excited about hanging out with the boys. It was super cute. As the cop was showing them the car I heard him say, "sorry the car's dirty, we were just in a dirty part of town." I wanted to to discuss the fact that he was apologizing to my 6 year old about the car being dirty and I was really wondering about the dirty part of town. Like so many times in my daily life, I'm too shocked by what is happening to ask questions.