Who did it?

Many times throughout the course of our day I find a mess or a job that is incomplete and I wonder who is responsible. I might try to find the culprit, often with little success.

Yesterday I opened my silverware drawer and found this note and I had to laugh out loud.

"Please take the spoons from this side until there is no more. Thank you."

This little sign was obviously written by a child who prefers the neater side of life. There are only two children in my house who might possibly fit into this category. And one of them is unable to write full sentences yet.

I quickly decided that Sweet Pea had enjoyed organizing the silverware and was hopeful that the other seven people in our home would appreciate and respect her efforts.

Good luck Sweet Pea.=)

Sweet Momma

Our Easter

Our Easter weekend began with our home group on Good Friday. Our home group leader did an amazing job including all the kids. The kids all took turns reading scripture that foretold the resurrection. We talked about what life would have been like to be a follower of Jesus during that time.

We took communion together and took time to share and explain through each step. We then had the privilege of washing each others feet. The first time I ever had the opportunity to do this was last year and I found it quite humbling to have my feet washed. It is easier to be in the servant role.

My whole family was amazed at how special our night was with our home group. The focus on Christ and the resurrection was so much more meaningful.

Here is Little Buddy washing Stand-Up Dad's feet. He used a lot of soap and took his time. So sweet!

Saturday evening we took time to color eggs. There were five dozen eggs. Let's just say that the kids have had egg salad sandwiches for the last few days with more to come.=)

A silly shot while coloring eggs

Here is the group before church on Sunday. It is an amazing life being part of God's family and doing our best to serve Him! What a privilege to raise these children to know the one true God!

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!!!

Sweet Momma

We Are Still Here!!!

Little Buddy and Sweet Molly

I think I have finally been completely swallowed by the busy lives of eight people.=) It is time to pull myself back to my love of blogging.

I am sure our lives are not much different than yours...at least I hope not. Let's see, over the last two months we have spent time at our homeschool co-op, YMCA homeschool PE, AWANA, Bible Quizzing, 4-H sewing, Jr High and Sr. High activities, Speech class, piano lessons, basketball for Pumpkin, Care Group, Teen Pact for Elsie and actual homeschooling.

I had the privilege of speaking at two local MOPS groups and I also attended the recent Beth Moore conference in our area (thanks Stand-Up Dad.)

This past weekend I was able to go away with M&M for her purity weekend. We used the curriculum by Dennis and Barbara Rainey, Passport2Purity. It was a wonderful time spent at a beautiful cabin by the Chehalis river. We also enjoyed shopping and a special dinner out together.

I returned home to sick children. The flu is slowly working it's way through our family. Four down and four to go.=) I do not like sickness at all. But I love how we have to slow down and rest. As I write this, there are five children sitting at our kitchen table playing with play dough. I love the simple pleasures of life.

As Spring is working its way into our lives I feel as though our two little ones are experiencing a bit of rebirth as well. They have been home 16 months now. They have been through a lot in terms of adjustment. But I see God fulfilling His promise in the lives of these little ones.

I am watching my little ones rest. That might sound weird, but it is a true miracle. For many months they have seemed all right on the outside. But inside, their hearts were on high alert. They were very quick to jump into survival techniques at any given moment. Over time, this has reduced greatly. They are able to express real emotion and let go of grief.

They are at a much healthier place. Each day I hear Sunshine say something like, "Mommy, I am so glad that God gave you to me as my Mommy! I would miss you if you weren't my Mommy." And she means it!

Little Buddy is such a dear one! He has huge holes in his emotional development. God is showing Himself in this little guy every day. He still loves to have fun more than any other thing, but he can identify his favorite activities as playing with his brother and sisters, being silly with Daddy and playing Wii.

There is still much to work on and some of their issues will need a God intervention for healing. Believe me, we are praying for that!

I think that the greatest gift that I have seen recently is the feeling of "normal." I know that may seem odd. But each child added to a family changes the dynamic. A new baby is an adjustment for everyone. The adjustment to two preschoolers has been a long process. To say that Little Buddy and Sunshine are the only ones who have adjusted, would be a mistake. Every person in our family has adjusted. Praise God, we are all the better for it!

We have all extended grace beyond what we thought we were capable. We have "loved" more than we expected we would and we have experienced joy beyond measure!!

God is so incredibly GOOD!

Sweet Momma

Another Piece To The Puzzle

Sunshine has been telling me about a holiday that her family celebrated from the time she came to live with us. The holiday is called "Ashenda." My two little ones were born in Mekelle, which is in the northern part of Ethiopia (in the region called Tigray.)

She would get excited when she told about the beautiful dresses that the girls would wear and how they would braid their hair in a special way. After the girls looked their best, they would go in groups throughout the streets singing and dancing. As they sang, the neighbors would give them money.

Celebrating Christmas brought back all of their Ashenda memories and I began to search further for more information. It is easy to find Youtube videos that show girls singing during Ashenda, but I wanted to know more.

During the holidays we began taking Sunshine and Little Buddy to see an Adoption Attachment Therapist. Our little ones are having some very real grief issues related to their six siblings that are still in Ethiopia. There is one sister, in particular, that they are both grieving deeply for. Her name is Tirhas. She is the oldest sister that was living at home. She took great care of them as long as she could and they miss her very much.

They are beginning to deal with the loss and all that goes with it. But they were both thrilled when I found a book all about Ashenda. The most amazing part was the name of the book, "Tirhas Celebrates Ashenda!"

The book is written by Ato Yohannes'. Ashenda is a coming of age holiday for girls from the Tigray region of Ethiopia. This book was distributed at the Ashenda festival this past year in honor of the First Tigray Children's Book Week. An organization called Ethiopia Reads has recently built the first library in Mekelle. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book, you can email Janet Lee at janet.lee35@gmail.com.

Adopting older children comes with many blessings. One of the greatest desires of my heart is to bring peace to their hearts. This book helped to fill in another piece of their story, which in time brings healing.

Sweet Momma

There is a new TEENAGER at our house!!!

Happy Birthday M&M! Today we celebrated her 13th birthday!

I don't know why these milestone birthdays cause me to pause at the speed of time and how incredibly blessed I am by God. M&M is the second child in our half dozen. I often think that I should have named her Joy, because that is what she brings into my life.

In honor of her 13th birthday we had a very special birthday party celebration. M&M invited all the women in her life that she admires as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. She also invited their daughters and we had a splendid Tea Party!

At the party we ate scones with devonshire cream, finger sandwiches and, of course, tea! After we enjoyed the treats, M&M was blessed as each of the women read a letter written just for her. Each of these amazing ladies shared from their hearts. They shared scripture, words of wisdom and words of blessing.

As the mother of this amazing young woman, I was so touched to hear their words of praise and blessing for my daughter.

It was a perfect way to celebrate my daughter. I plan to create a scrapbook with all the words of encouragement that she will have to look back on as she goes through the teen years and on into adulthood.

M&M with her older sister Elsie

Happy Birthday to my beautiful M&M! May God bless you and keep you. I am so proud of the young woman that you are and look forward to how God will work in your life in the years to come.

I Love you Sweet Girl!

Sweet Momma

Sweet Pea is 10!

Happy Birthday to my little Sweet Pea! I cannot believe that it has been ten years since God gave me this precious girl.

She was born as the third daughter into our home. She fell right into the "girly" lifestyle laid out before her. She was the easiest baby and toddler by far. I am constantly amazed at the quiet and gentle spirit that God has given to her. She is easy to spend time with and truly enjoys her quiet time alone.

In the last several years God has given her a fierce heart for those that don't know Jesus. She prays for neighbors and friends daily.

This year she is learning to sew and cook. It is so much fun to work side by side with her in these projects. It lets me see even more of her heart.

She is gentle and quiet, but she loves and cares deeply. I know that God will use these gifts in an amazing way now and in the future.

Thank you God for this beautiful young lady who is my daughter and is growing into a precious friend.

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

Sweet Momma

Merry Christmas Again!

Today we celebrate the Ethiopian Christmas! All of our kids think this is great! We have not yet established firm traditions for this holiday, but we had a lot of fun preparing and enjoying Ethiopian food today. They were the happiest kiddos in the world. They chose the recipes out of our Ethiopian cookbook called Exotic Ethiopian Cooking by D.J. Mesfin.

Sunshine wanted Potato Stew which is basically fried potatoes with a lot of onions and berbere. It was really good. She said it was even better than the potatoes she had in Ethiopia. I am feeling quite proud about that. We also had a lentil sauce that I have made before. They love it. The last item was cooked beets that we picked from our garden this past summer and froze for just such an occasion. They laughed about how the beets turned the injera purple. They also ate beets in Ethiopia. I feel so blessed that we can drive to Seattle and purchase fresh injera and keep it in the freezer to please these precious little tummies.

They repeated the same meal for dinner and are looking forward to more left overs tomorrow.

During the last part of our day they completed a very special project. Our family has had the privilege to meet weekly with an Adoption Attachment Therapist. We have been meeting with her for about six weeks and we are just starting to see some progress in the hearts of our children.

This past week as Sunshine met with our therapist they began talking about the loss of both of her parents in Ethiopia. She asked Sunshine if she had the chance to say goodbye to them. The answer was "No." I had never thought about this very crucial step in the grieving process. How could my kiddos begin to let go of their grief if they had never said goodbye? They talked through the process of how to begin to do this and drew some pictures to remember her parents and begin to say goodbye.

Part of the drawing included a large rock that was placed at the grave of each of their parents with their name on it. This gave me an idea.

After therapy I asked Sunshine if she would like to find a large rock for each of her parents and put their name on it? We could place the rocks in our yard or in the house. It would be a real symbol of their parents and the lives they lived.

She was thrilled with the idea! We shared the idea with Little Buddy and he wanted to help too.

The next day we went out to our rock pile in our back yard and they each chose a rock. They decided that they wanted to paint the rocks. So we scrubbed the rocks clean and went to the craft store to choose colors that reminded them of each parent.

Sunshine chose two colors of brown that reminded her of a dress that she had that matched one that her mother wore. Little Buddy chose a blue that reminded him of his daddy's policeman uniform that he wore to work everyday.

How do you choose a color to represent a life? That is what we did as we sat on the floor at the craft store. It felt surreal to me. But this is reality to my little ones.

Tonight, on Ethiopian Christmas, we painted the rocks.
When each of them had added all the color it was my turn to paint their names. I was surprised at how emotional this was for me. On this stone I write the name of the woman who carried my children in her womb and gave birth to them. I have known her name for over a year, but this rock makes her real in my house.

So many thoughts flood to my mind. I wish I could tell her that they will be loved and safe and cared for as long as I am alive. Thank you for the gift of these amazing little ones.

The stone for their dad is so amazing. We found out while in Ethiopia that he was sixty years old when he died. That is quite old for Ethiopia. He must have been a strong man with much courage. He obviously loved his family. The silver on his stone is for his silver hair.

Oh, I wish we had a picture. But not as much as my little ones wish we had a picture.

When I put Little Buddy to bed tonight I asked him how he was feeling about the rocks. He said that he felt a little bit happy and a little bit sad. "Now I have to say goodbye," he said. Hopefully some day soon it will feel OK to do that, but we will wait until he and his sister are ready.

In the meantime we will honor the memory of two precious people in the lives of our children and now in our family as well.
Sweet Momma