Happy New Year

Happy New Year!! What a year 2010 has been. It was fun to look back at my resolutions for this past year and to see that I had actually done them. You can read them here. As I have prayed for this coming year, I do believe that I am to just continue to go deeper in the areas that the Lord highlighted last year. The one area that I have not been faithful to die to myself is in the area of my eating. I am beginning Weight Watchers on Monday and I am very excited.

Noah has been home almost 9 months and I am amazed at how far we have come as a family. He is doing extremely well. The past couple of months his language has grown at a very fast pace. He is so much fun and I am still amazed that I get to be his mom. Doug worked New Years Eve so it was just me home with the kids. Here is a video of Noah that was the highlight of my night. Enjoy!!

All Aboard

This past Saturday was a beautiful fall day. My mom had called the day before to see if we would like to take Noah on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Noah loves trains and I was so excited to watch him experience another first. He was a little apprehensive when the train first pulled in. After that, he was in heaven. Not only was he on a train but he was with his grandma and grandpa for the day. We had a great time. We walked around the historic city of Peninsula, had lunch, learned about beavers and then got on the train to head home. It was a beautiful day. Here are some pictures of our day.

Hard to believe......

It is so hard to believe that one year has passed since our fundraiser. Last year at this time we had no idea what our son would look like. We had no idea how we would pay for his adoption. We were running around like crazy people trying to pull it off. We also had one child who had just recuperated from Swine Flu. It was a crazy but wonderful time.
Here I sit one year later having one of the cutest Ethiopian boys ever in our home and his adoption completely paid for. As a matter of fact, his adoption tax refund will pay for most of our second Ethiopian prince's adoption!! God has been so good!! Noah has been a perfect fit for our family. He is such a funny boy. The other night Doug was praying at dinner. A couple of seconds into the prayer, Noah begins to pretend like he was sleeping and starts snoring really loud. Needless to say we all lost it!
Noah also got to see snow for the first time yesterday. We didn't have much but he stood for probably a half an hour and watched it fall. I leave you with a picture of that shows his excitement.
One other thing. I will be updating my blog concerning our second adoption. Please pray. There is a little piece of paper that we need in order to have our home study update completed. It is taking four months as of now to get it. This is heartbreaking to us because it mean 9 months before our boy is home. Thanks so much!

Until I breathe my final breath........

Until I breathe my final breath, I will continue to bring awareness to the orphan crisis!!! November 7th is National Orphan Sunday. What are you doing to make a difference?? If you are a Christ-Follower, doing nothing is not an option! James 1:27 tells us this. Not all of us are called to adopt but all of us are called to act! If you need ideas on how you can make a difference, feel free to contact us and we will help you find a way to make a difference in the life of an orphan.

Do Something Now from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.

Moving........

Several times in previous post I have talked about wanting to be closer to our church family. Well, God has provided a way for that to happen. This past weekend we moved into a home that we are renting for at least the next year! We are so excited about this new season of our life. This house is a perfect fit for our family. The move has been the hardest on Faith. She had a lot of great friends in our old neighborhood who she is going to miss so much. Noah has been a trooper. He is one of the most easy-going kids. As long as his family is with him, he is good!! We are looking forward to making an impact in our neighborhood and community. It is exciting anticipating what God has next for us.

So on to another way we are moving. We are moving forward and adding to our family again through adoption. We have officially accepted the referral of a little boy who was on our agency's waiting child list. This was not on the radar for us but we know that he is our boy. We saw him at the beginning of the month and took some time to pray before accepting. We will be starting a new blog that will be private at least until we get him home. We want to make sure to tell his story just as we did Noah. I will put a link to our new blog on here as soon as it is set up. In the meantime, please pray for our little guy. Please pray that he would remain healthy. Please pray for us and the children. Pray that God would prepare all of our hearts for our new addition. Also, please pray for the finances for this adoption. This is much earlier than we anticipated returning to Ethiopia. If it was up to me, I would have waited to adopt again until we had our tax return in our hands in March(we get back all the money we paid for Noah's adoption which is enough to pay for this adoption). The problem with that is that we take away the opportunity for God to show up. From the beginning of Noah's adoption, we said that this had to be God's story or we didn't want to be part of it. That is still true with this adoption. God MUST show up!! Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support. This blog will continue with updates on Noah. So here are a few new pictures of our cutie to enjoy:)

6 Months Home......Really??

Six months ago this week, we held Noah in our arms for the first time. Where has the time gone?? In some ways it seems like yesterday and in other ways it seems like he has been here with us forever! We have come such a long way since that time.

I have heard that the one month, two month and six month home marks are monumental in seeing changes with the children. I would have to agree. As we got close to the 6 month mark, Noah's language has exploded. He is understanding so much more but better than that is that he is communicating so much more. Some of that is because he knows more English but most of it is because he is more settled and feels safe. He is now expressing his feelings, wants and needs. He has quite the sense of humor and loves to make us all laugh. He is incredibly affectionate with us. At times I feel as if my heart might burst with how crazy in love I am with this kid! All I can say is that adoption ROCKS!!! The joy and laughter that has been added to our home because of Faith and Noah is worth every tear, every night of lost sleep and every penny spent!! Who knows......we may have to just do this again:)....to be continued...........

We are now in the process of moving. Two and a half years ago, God began knitting our hearts with a church community almost a hour away. I have written about our journey in other posts. In the beginning of September we had an awesome opportunity present itself concerning our housing. God opened some doors in order for us to move forward. As we have been studying what it means to be on "mission", we have begun to look at our lives in a completely different way. As hard as this is to move, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. This season is a time a shedding for us and I feel more alive than I have in a long time. Please pray for us and especially our children. This transition is going to be hard especially for Faith but we are believing that God is at work in her heart and preparing her for the good works that He has planned for her.

So the crazy ride called life continues for us. I couldn't do any of this without the grace of God and the most wonderful husband and father I know!! I leave you with a couple of pictures.

Better Late than Never...........

I can't believe that it has almost been 2 months since I updated our blog. I am finding that since returning from Ethiopia, I have had a difficult time putting my thoughts into words that everyone can read. I have never been a writer so it is amazing that our journey was documented like it was.

So, I am sure that the question you all have is how is Noah doing. He is amazing, beautiful, a joy, and a delight. I really do not believe there are enough adjectives to describe him. All that to say that some days have been difficult but the good days far outweigh the bad. This past week we were in Chicago to meet up with some moms and friends of his from the IAN care center. We had a blast except for a trip to the local ER. As I watched all of the children, I was once again undone by how perfect Noah fits into our family. It also was cool to see how the other kids fit so well into their families. It reminded me that God is in the business of placing the lonely in families!!

We have been home four months and the changes in Noah are amazing. We have not had the huge growth changes that others have had. Since our referral in December, he has grown 7 inches and gained 8 pounds. He is in the 90th percentile for height and weight. We have had two appointments with the IA doctor. We do believe that he is about six months older than his paper birth date. We have decided to keep his birthdate the same because it will only help him in the long run to be older in school rather than younger. Plus it means that I get to keep him with me for two years:) He is doing great with his English. He is now speaking in three and four word sentences. His attachment is coming along great. We are still pretty limiting in what we do with him and I don't regret it for a minute. Our family and friends have been very helpful and understanding. Last night before bed Doug sat down on the floor. Noah got up from where he was sitting and moved so that he could sit next to his Ababa. This totally melted my heart. It has been fun to see Faith and Noah begin interacting as siblings. Faith is a great big sister but does get annoyed by her little brother at times. I remember being so excited the first time the argued.

One highlight from the past month is that we readopted Noah. We had the pleasure of sharing our journey with an amazing judge. After the hearing, we had to wait to get some paperwork from the clerk. She told us that she had never seen the judge so moved. She said that our boy stole a piece of the judge's heart. This was great to hear and we once again are humbled by how just taking the steps of obedience has brought God glory.

Here are a few pictures of what has been happening the past two months: