Winter Fun!

After getting about 7 inches of snow over the last 2 days, David and Mr. Y decided to show me their new favorite place this morning. At the end of our little dead-end street, is a large wooded area, complete with trails, little streams, and some serious hills. We discovered it during 2010's long, beautiful autumn, and we enjoyed quite a few long walks along the trails. This past fall was very wet, and we didn't have the chance to visit the woods, but now we have uncovered its incredible beauty by winter. The best part? A steep hill with a long, straight stretch at the bottom...absolutely PERFECT for sliding down on Yikealo's little snowboard.

Okay, true confessions here: I may have shrieked like a banshee on my first trip down the hill, but boy, was it ever fun! And...a certain five-year old thinks it is the best thing ever.

Goodbye, 2011!

It's been a beautiful, calm year...filled with waiting and hoping and watching and growing and learning. It's hard to believe that it's over already, but we are looking forward to what 2012 will bring too. Regardless of the circumstances in which we may find ourselves, we know that God is faithful, and we can't wait to see what He will teach us in the days ahead!

Our December numbers were #31 for a girl and #22 for a boy. This year we have moved 53 spots on the girl's list and 40 spots on the boy's list. Last week we came so close to getting a referral: the family directly behind us on the waitlist saw their little girl's face for the first time. They turned in their dossier two days after we did, and we had exactly the same age parameters. So why did they get the referral instead of us, you ask? Well, there are a couple of answers to that question. First, their new daughter is somewhere between the age of 4 & 5...they don't know an exact birthdate. We can't actually go all the way up to our highest possible age of 59 months yet, since Yikealo is only 5 and a half, and there must be at least 10 months of age between him and his new sibling. Our agency didn't want to take a chance that this little girl might be too close to Y's age, and therefore the next family was called. However, I personally believe this far simpler and yet more profound answer: she wasn't "ours." She is not who God has planned for us, and she needed someone else. We are confident that God knows His plans for all of us, and we rest in that knowledge. His timing will be right...no matter how long that takes.

To our future child: we love you, we miss you, and we can't wait until the day when we can finally see your face. Until then, we will continue to pray that God will hold you in the palm of His mighty, loving hand. Maybe 2012 will be the year...

My Sister, My Friend

"One's sister is part of one's essential self, an eternal presence of one's heart, soul and memory." Susan Cabill

One of the greatest blessings of our second adoption journey has been sharing the experience with one of my very favorite people in the world: my little sister. I cannot begin to catalog the number of hours that we have spent on the phone over the last two years - comparing notes, asking questions, excitedly talking about which family just got their referral on our agency's waitlist. It has definitely strengthened what was already a powerful bond forged through our childhood.

Erica was born when I was 18 months old, and apparently, I wasn't too keen on the new intruder at first! I'm told that I attempted to bite her nose off at one point, although I do not remember any such behavior at all. From my earliest memories though, Erica was always there - someone to play with, share a room with, and most importantly to boss around! She put up with a lot from me, and we have some old recordings to prove it. We shared our clothes and our toys, read books out loud together for hours on end, and made up lots of silly games. We've had many of the same interests and hobbies for as far back as I can remember, and there is a very goofy side to our personalities that you probably won't see unless you happen to be around us when we're together.

Erica lived with David and me for a year and a half while she was in college, and I loved having her close. We live 3 hours away from my family, and it was so special to have one of them near for a time. I have loved watching her mature into a Godly wife and mother over the last 12 years, and it is amazing to be sharing with her the beauty and the pain of being an adoptive mother. It has been incredibly affirming to see God speak to her in much the same way that He has spoken to me, and I have watched in awe at the way that she has changed and grown spiritually during her adoption journey of the last two years. It is such a blessing to be able to ask her questions about the adoption process and to know that she'll have the answers, to have the shared experience of visiting Ethiopia, and to talk to her about what I'm feeling in regards to Y's birthmom and to KNOW that she understands perfectly.

Today, I want to wish her a very happy 35th Birthday! Erica, I can't begin to tell you what an encouragement you are. You are one of God's greatest gifts in my life, and I can't wait to see how He leads your life through this next year!

All About Me (as told by Mr. Y)

We've been making a book about Yikealo as part of his Language Arts class. One day he was supposed to tell me all about himself. This is what he said:

• I like being with my Mom and Dad.
• I like to wear costumes.
• I like to chase the kitties.
• I like to play with toys.
• My name is Yikealo, and it means "God is able."
• I do not like being sick.
• My favorite food is macaroni & cheese and pizza.
• My favorite colors are blue, lava color, and fire color. 
• I like getting surprises.
• I am five years old.

Then he was supposed to draw a picture of his family. Here we are, in all of our glory.

 (Why do I look like some sort of horrific alien centipede anyway?)

When asked to say one sentence about the other members in his family, he responded,  "My Dad likes to sleep a lot and play a lot with me. My Mom is always excited about how good her little boy is being." Hmmm...he was certainly accurate about his Daddy, but not so much about his Mama!

On another day, I prompted him with sentence starters, and this is how he answered:

• If I had 3 wishes I would wish for a brother or sister, I would wish for more time to play with Dad and Mom, and I would wish to go to Disney World with my family.
• The most fun I ever had was getting wet at "Neraggrer Falls!"
• My favorite meal is spaghetti and Gogurts. (Not sure why his favorite foods aren't part of his favorite meal, but hey, I guess you're allowed to change your mind when you're 5!)
• One thing I do well is learning to read.
• One thing I want to get better at is counting.
• It makes me angry when Quinn hits me.  (Suz, he DID have to think long and hard about this one!)
• Something I would like to see is a lion that can talk and spit fire. (?!)
• The happiest day of my life is when Dad doesn't have to go to work. (Awwww!)

On another day, we were supposed to read the old days-of-the-week poem and discuss how it related to Yikealo.
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day,
Is blythe and bonny and good and gay.

Of course, we do not know the day of the week on which Yikealo was born, so we just had a fun discussion about which of the attributes fit him the best.

Y: "I think that Wednesday might be right because I was sad when I was a little boy and didn't have a dad. Then, after you adopted me, I was sad when Daddy had to go to work."
Me: "Are you sad now?"
Y: "No."
Me: "So which other day might be a good choice?"
Y: "Thursday, because I had to travel all the way around the earth to get here!"
Me: "You're right...that is a good one. Any others?"
Y: "Well, you said that I'm giving, and I like to share sometimes, so maybe Friday?"
Me: "I do think that Friday would be an excellent choice for you, because you are one of the most loving people that I know, and you do share very well most of the time."

I love learning more about how my little guy sees himself, and I love that so much of his identity is wrapped up in having a family.

Entertaining Comments from the Boy

Yikealo, as always, has been full of wisdom lately. Here are a few of his most recent tidbits for you to enjoy:

• "Mom, were you alive when Baby Jesus was in the manger?"
• "If I was wearing my Spiderman costume, who would be faster - me or a cheetah?"
• "Do turtles like to eat eggs like we do - I mean, all cooked up - or do they only like them plain and not crushed?" When I asked what made him think that turtles liked eggs in the first place, he replied, "Because EVERYBODY likes eggs!"
• "When we get to heaven, will snakes like me?"
• "If Mimi was here, would she have to help me make my bed?" (Just checking, apparently, that the division of labor would be fair if other children were in the house.)
• When asked why in the world he needed to use QUITE so much lather for his bath this morning, he informed me that he was trying to turn himself into a snowman. Hmmm...I think someone is getting a bit desperate for snow.
• While kissing my hand, "My ma'am, would it honor you to kiss me and be my wife?"
• To David and me, "You are not allowed to kiss unless you feel sick or unless your neck hurts or your head hurts. Otherwise, no kissing each other!" (We do NOT follow his kissing rules, by the way!)
• "When we get to Heaven, will God teach us how to walk on water?"
• My parents have an old Bugs Bunny book that Yikealo finds extremely funny. He giggles hysterically at Elmer Fudd's speech impediment every time we read the book. Two days ago, while I was cooking supper, Y was sitting at the table putting a puzzle together...while carrying on a lengthy conversation with Elmer Fudd...in which Y was trying diligently to teach the imaginary little bald guy how to say "rrrabbits" instead of "wabbits." From the sound of things, the boy wasn't very successful!

Our waitlist numbers for the month of November didn't change much...we are still at #34 for a girl, and we actually moved back one space to #25 for a boy. On Sunday in church, Yikealo spent most of the afternoon service constructing buildings from magnetic blocks and songbooks. He informed me that one building was a church in "Ee-THO-pia" and the other was a church in America. He then folded up small pieces of paper into thin strips on which he drew faces - one for David, one for himself and one for me - and placed all of his "stick" figures into the America church. A fourth wadded up piece of paper became "my new brother or sister" and was placed into the Ethiopia church. Next, he made a paper airplane, placed the three figures representing us onto it, and flew us all over to "Ee-THO-pia", where we met our new family member and brought him/her home to the church in America. I think that someone is very ready to meet his new sibling! From the looks of things, though, he'll have a bit of a wait yet...

Fun Holiday Weekend

Well, we're coming off of a crazy-full, fun couple of days, so getting back into the swing of school this morning should be interesting! Mr. Y always misses his Daddy so much after a weekend, and after four days of quality Daddy time, I'm sure that the behavior will be slightly worse than normal today.

On Thursday, following our Thanksgiving service at church, we spent the day with David's family, eating, talking, playing lots of games, and just generally having a wonderful time together. I love this family!

We had the chance to spend some quality moments with our newest family member: little Rhett, our first great-nephew. I'm not really old enough to be a great-aunt yet, am I?!

Yikealo got to go home with Uncle James and Aunt Susan that evening and spend the night with all of his little boy cousins, which has to be toward the top of his list of fun things to do.

On Friday morning, the whole family headed over to James and Susan's for our annual Christmas cookie baking day. We were there from 9 in the morning until about midnight, baking cookies, eating way too much, putting together puzzles, ordering Christmas cards, and playing lots of games. Let me tell you, when David gets together with his brothers, and everyone is starting to get a bit slap-happy from the late hours, things get a bit silly! We were sort of laughing ourselves sick by the end of the evening.

On Saturday morning, we drove out to Chris and Erica's house to meet their two newest family members. Yikealo was SO excited to meet his new cousins from "Ee-THO-pia."

Jalen and Jordan seem to be doing really well so far, and it was great to be able to spend a little time with them. The only small snag was when Jordan at one point confused me for Erica. Erica and I had just been discussing whether we looked too much alike to be confusing for the boys, and a few minutes later, Jordan tugged on my skirt and demanded, "Amama...PLAY!" Chris and I corrected him and pointed out that Erica was "Amama", and then he looked slightly bewildered as he glanced between the two of us. I guess that answered our questions pretty clearly!

The kids all spent quite a bit of time playing outside together on the swing set in the back yard. The crazy little boys kept trying to go down the slide while standing. At one point, after Chris had told Jalen "aydelem" (no) several times, the ornery little guy ended up in a time-out for a bit. Jordan immediately went to get his own time-out chair out of the playhouse so that he could sit beside his brother...so cute!

 

 

 

 

 Yesterday after church, we started decorating the house for Christmas...I love this time of year! It's even supposed to start snowing this week!

 

Processing...

First, as I'm sure most of you have heard by now, Chris and Erica's beautiful twin boys, Jalen Opiyew and Jordan Uchan are home from Ethiopia!

We even got to talk to them a little bit on Skype this morning. Yikealo was SO excited to see his new cousins - he has been praying faithfully for them every night since we first heard their names back in June. J and J were mostly interested in eating their "muz" (bananas) and seeing our "Meow" when David held a rather disgruntled Frankie up to the webcam, but it was so fun for us to hear their raspy little voices and see them moving around. Please continue to pray for their adjustment to their new life. They have had so many changes in such a short time, and it is going to take a long time for them to fully process everything.

I've been processing a lot too. Last Saturday, David and I helped with a food distribution project at our county fairgrounds. Every month a local Christian hope center combines with a regional food bank to distribute free groceries and services to families who fall within 200% of the poverty level. This was our first time helping, but we definitely plan on being involved in the future. The two of us were taking families through the food line, piling their groceries in a wagon, and hauling everything to their vehicles, where we helped load the food. In approximately 3 1/2  hours, we helped to distribute 30,000 pounds of food to 597 households (representing over 1800 people), many of whom waited in the cold for over 3 hours. It was heartbreaking and so good for me to see. I mean, this is my fairly prosperous midwestern county! Yes, they got a very nice amount of food, but as a friend of mine said, "I really don't think I would ever wait this long just to get this amount of groceries." I definitely wouldn't...but then, I've never known that kind of need, either. Most of the people were so grateful: we received lots of hugs and so many fervent "thank yous" and "God bless yous." One grandma came through with three young grandchildren. They were incredibly well behaved and had so much fun helping to push the wagon. Several times, they turned wide eyes up to their grandma and asked, "Is all of this really for US?" It made me cry. It's made me more thoughtful and more grateful this week. I've been praying for lots of new faces: Mary and Barbara and Rosaleen and so many others. I've been asking myself new versions of the same questions that I've been asking for the last couple of years since we returned from our own journey to Ethiopia: why have I been blessed with so much, and what does that mean as far as my responsiblity? What changes can I continue to make in my own life so that others don't suffer as much need? Why was I born into a wonderful nuclear family and taught the truth of the Gospel for as far back as I can remember, while so many others are trapped in Satan's morass of lies and broken homes and poverty?How can I be more effective in bringing light into the darkness?

"For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."  Luke 12:48