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

Christmas Fun!

I love this time of year! Every day holds a new surprise or fun activity. Some of these things can overwhelm a well-balanced child. It has been a challenge to find a path through this season for our new kiddos. They are so happy that they have been home a year and we are now repeating traditions. They have a little frame of reference as to what is going to happen.

Sunshine made me laugh when she said, "I like Christmas this year better. I was so grumpy last year." Yes she was, but who could blame her?

Some of our fun has included: Riding the train at the Tree Farm and cutting down our tree, a trip to Seattle to see the Nutcracker, our homeschool co-op Christmas concert where M&M, Pumpkin and Sunshine sang and Elsie signed in ASL, decorating the house, making cookies and candy, celebrating Advent, and rehearsal for our church Christmas Musical that will happen tomorrow night.

In the midst of all of this we have begun therapy. What a blessing at this time of year. We have had two visits and I am praying that this will be the help that my little ones need.

Stand-Up Dad has been traveling A LOT. We are all looking forward to him coming home tonight and not traveling again until after Christmas.

Our greatest desire this time of year is to try to slow our hearts in the midst of the busyness and focus on the reason that we are celebrating.

The birth of Jesus Christ changed the world! Because of Him, we can be changed for eternity!

God Bless You and Yours! Merry Christmas!
Sweet Momma

Happy Family Day!!!

Yesterday we celebrated our first Family Day! Last year on this day our family was complete! December 1st will be a day that we celebrate every year. The big kids love to tell the story of how they took a nap after dinner, because our flight was coming in very late at night. My dear friends brought our four big kids to the airport to meet our 12am flight.

It had been 37 hours of travel and we were all quite exhausted. But the reunion/meeting time was so sweet! As a mom I was overwhelmed when I saw my big kids. I had missed them so much. It is not easy being on the other side of the world away from four people that you love so deeply. After hugs and hellos we piled into our van and filled every seat.=)

When we got home it was very early in the morning. Sunshine and Little Buddy wanted to explore their new house. We gave them about an hour and then said it was time for bed.

The next morning was filled with much play and dress-up and generally getting to know each other. The picture above is the first picture of all six of my children together.

We celebrated Family Day with cards and a little candy. We also spent time in prayer around the breakfast table thanking God for our first year all together.

Our breakfast was a traditional Ethiopian porridge that my little ones call "G'at." They like the porridge with oil and berbere. My four oldest had theirs with oil and cinnamon sugar. For lunch we ate injera with shiro sauce and boiled eggs. The smiles on my little ones faces were huge! Sunshine said that her tummy was happy. She also said later that her fingers still smelled like berbere. This made her happy all over again. Maybe it has been too long since we had Ethiopian food.=)

I ended the day by meeting with an adoption attachment therapist. The meeting went very well and I am anxious to see what the next weeks and months will bring in terms of healing for my children.

I want to take a moment and thank you for your prayers on our behalf. It has been an amazing, eventful and challenging year. But I have never felt more in the center of God's will. Please continue to pray God's best for our family.
Thank you in advance,

Sweet Momma