Merry Christmas

I bought the Third Day-Christmas Offerings cd the other day and love it, especially this song. The message resonates so much how we felt last year at this time.

Sand in my hair...and a few other unmentionable places

The PNW (Pacific NorthWest) Conference of our church owns several church camps. I have been going to the one in Long Beach, WA since I was a wee little one myself. It has been great going back as a family and being able to share some of the great times I had as a child with my own kids. For the past four years, we have gone to a family camp every August that is held during a huge Kite Festival. This was Nora's first time on the beach. I knew how much my little girl loved water and was fully expecting her to just take off for the ocean...which she did. What I wasn't quite prepared for was her fascination with the sand. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Paying no attention to her parents and high tailing it for the largest body of

water she had ever seen!

Splashing! Is there anything more fun to do at this age?

For some reason my daughter thought she was a bulldozer and loved walking around with her head pushing up the sand. As you can see from the pictures, her beautiful black hair turned a lovely shade of sand each time we went down to the beach. Yordy has tight curls, that seem to trap all sort of matter. The sand was in her hair for over a week. And yes we do bathe our children, but you try getting ground in sand out of those curls!

I'd say she enjoyed her time at the beach...especially the sand!

Getting Real

I had read all the adoption books. I knew how to get my baby to bond with me. I was ready for her to hate me and want nothing to do with me. I was prepared for the worst and hoped for the best knowing my God would be standing right beside me the whole way. What I wasn't prepared for and what I had never dreamed possible was that I would have a hard time bonding with her.

My Lord knew I had been praying for this little girl for years. I was in love with her before I saw her face. The moment that cherub popped up on my screen I was in love, head over heals. I couldn't wait for everyone to get it all together so I could go over there and pick up that beautiful girl.

Well, once I had her in my arms I cried with joy. She was the one chosen for our family by the Creator. I had complete trust in Him. Then my inadequacies started showing through. My little one was sick...fever, vomiting, diarrhea. I knew something was definitely wrong, especially as she really wasn't eating. She was getting lethargic. The poor thing was stuck in the care of a new person, one who did not know how to comfort her. I felt like a first time mom. This was an almost 7 month old that I was just getting to know. I was away from my support system. I was scared and confused.

In steps God, in the form of my wonderful travel group. We had a doctor and a nurse with us that helped determine we needed to get Yordy some help before I left on an almost 30 hour trip home. I had fellow parents coming to pray for me and Yordy. I had my sister-in-law with me who talked me down from tears in the middle of the night, when I was up exhausted for the 10th time with vomit or diarrhea all over me.

Yordy's sickness forced her to bond with me. She got comfort and love from me right away, when she really needed it. I on the other hand started getting depressed. A depression that mainly came from guilt about not feeling the same for her as I did for my other two children. Guilt is not from God.

I just want to encourage anyone who is having a hard time with their little one. It may not be all rosy and perfect. It is ok for the love to grow. It is ok for it to not be there from the start. It is ok for you to not feel that "I would die for you" unconditional love you have for your other children just yet. It will come. God is faithful and good. The Lord has stepped in each and everyday to help us bond as a family and now Yordy loves mommy and mommy loves Yordy...with all her heart.

Thank you God for being present even when I couldn't see you. Thank you Lord for holding me each day and helping me to see that what I was feeling was ok. Thank you Lord for creating this great love for this child. You are a most great and loving God.

Don't fall off the chair just because I posted...and other milestones

Today is the day we have known Yordy longer than we have not. She came home the day before she turned 7 months and today she turned 14 months. Somedays I can not believe that 7 months has passed. It feels like she has been a part of our lives since her birth. She is very attached to all of us and we are all attached to the little one God placed on our hearts so long ago.

She is a joy and we can not be more pleased that God chose her to be a part of our family. Bug told me today that he loves having his baby sister and he doesn't want her to go back to Ethiopia. He is just 3. It again gave me the opportunity to talk of God and His special plan. How Yordy came to us as a gift, just like he and Bean did, just in a little different way.

We truly are blessed to have been given these three children to love, teach and raise to know and love our Lord and Savior. Our quiver is full.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Psalm127:3-5

Taken at the Union. Yordy was pretty sick with a high fever and a double ear infection.

Who is this kid who can't keep his hands off of me?

She is the most easy going child. Her brother and sister were a little more high maintenance.

Always ready to ham it up for you!

I think swimming may be in her future. She is fearless and always ready to dive in...even if the water is ice cold as it just come out of the well.

Playing with her big sister!

Turning one!

Thank you Lord for this beautiful arrow in our quiver!

Chicken Pot Pie

10 months old

Yordy has been pulling herself up for a few weeks now and is cruising around furniture. All this from a child who couldn't lift her head up for more than a few seconds when we brought her home. I understand why they can't give them tummy time at HH, but am just amazed at how quickly these kids catch up!

Yordy getting her first haircut. When she came home it looked like someone had just stuck a toupee on her head. She had several inches right on top and NONE on the sides or back. We had to give her a trim on top to even things up a bit!

The leaning tower of Yordy!

The little Ethiopian princess is growing like a weed. From one doctor's appointment to the next one two months later she gained almost 3 pounds and grew over 2 inches.

Finding a New Normal

I know a month since my last post. What have I been doing. Well, we have been finding a new normal.

Life with three is very different for me...a big change. Not the change I thought. I was worried about managing three kids and our day. That has been going pretty well. Everyone is adjusting better than I expected...except for myself. I am adjusting to all the extra housework. I know it sounds silly, but somehow in the change from a four person household to a five person household the laundry and dishes have doubled. I really don't know how it happened. Yordy's clothes are the smallest of them all. How does adding her into the mix make my laundry basket full EVERY SINGLE DAY? Enough laundry woes.

The kiddos are doing super. The adjustment seems to be pretty easy on them. Bean is the poster child for firstborns responsible, dependable, a perfectionist. She loves Yordy and shows it in her protectiveness and her mothering.

Bug is going to land Yordy in the hospital. He is the most affectionate child, but at 3 he doesn't understand that you can't give your 9-month old sister a bear hug like you do your dad. Here he is doing some bonding with dad while painting.

Yordy is truly a joy and seems to have transitioned easily into our family. She just started crawling about a week ago and is now into everything. She has the brightest smile. It just lights up her face.

Even though the day in and day out of parenting can get kind of tedious, I am reminded what a gift God has given me and what a wonderful responsibility I have to raise these children in His image.

4 weeks ago today...

My three little angels.

I was elated, exhausted and so excited to unite my family of 5. I can't believe Yordy and I have been home a month now. Time passes by so quickly and yet when I look back, so much has happened.

Our little Ethiopian (from now on known as Yordy-endearment for her Ethiopian name Yordanos that I use) has made amazing improvements.

• She was pretty shaky sitting on her own. Know she is quite catty and even making attempts to crawl.
• When on her tummy her neck muscles were so weak she could not lift her head up for more than a second. Now she is on all fours in an attempt to crawl. (For all you new moms out there crawling may seem amazing, but do not encourage your children. Those of us with kids know that it just opens up the world to them. You can't leave them for an instant, you look away and they are gone and they find the most amazing things that were on your floor and put them into their mouths-yuck!)
• She was only eating rice cereal and now eats everything and anything. Maybe peas aren't her favorite, but she still will eat them.
• She went from eating bottles every few hours, because that was what she was used to to going 4 hours at a stretch and only taking 4-5 bottles a day.
• She will end up in the emergency room sometime soon from getting too much love from her exuberant older brother. Bug is a lover and smothers the poor girl ALL DAY LONG.

Bean tries to be her mommy and when I am doing mommy duties like feeding her a bottle, Bean will be right next to me feeding one of her babies.


• She is now taking 2 naps each day, although getting her to sleep is still a trial of patience.
• She cries when other people hold her...yes she is attaching well!
  

We are in love with life and enjoying our new family of five.

Praise God for these gifts He has given me.

Prayer Request

I ask for prayers on behalf of a wonderful family that was in the process of adopting their daughter from Ethiopia. They found out last night that she had passed away. Please pray for their comfort and peace as they walk this unexpected and heartbreaking path.

Laundry

I forgot how much laundry babies can create. Lucky for me I have such a cute helper!

Bath Time

Here are our little ones helping give Nora a bath. She loves the water...even when her little brother pours water in her face! She is a very even tempered baby and at this point is MUCH easier than our other two were at her age. We are just working on establishing some sort of schedule for her. She doesn't want to nap during the day and wants to be held all night right now. She had her first doctor appointment today and is headed back Friday for blood work. All just routine stuff.

Jason is back to work Monday. He is ready...I am not. Three kids is waaaaayyyy more than two. I didn't realy notice the jump from one to two, but I really notice the difference from two to three.

I am doing MUCH better. I was sick for 7 days. Icky, lay on the couch and not get up sick, but thank goodness it went away on its own and I am not hosting some parasite : )

Introducing...

Nora Yordanos

After suffering from an ear infection, a sinus infection, pink eye, and cutting her first tooth, she is doing great. It is amazing because she is a completely different child than the one I met last Monday. Then she was obviously getting sick and now she is a little spark plug with a ton of personality.

Now we just have to get me better! The doctor hopes I picked up a virus on the airplane and not a parasite on my trip. Lovely.

Formula, formula, diapers, formula, toys, formula, oh and more formula

Thank you to everyone who donated to the traveling families to get formula and other donations to Hannah's Hope. It was so amazing unloading all of our luggage, sorting and piling everything up. Almaz had tears in her eyes when she walked in and saw everything. She said she thought the formula would last a month and a half! Praise God for pulling his people together to help!

Forgive me if I don't post more now. I am sick. I just wanted to share these amazing pictures.

Amazed, blessed, excited and a little bit nervous

Those are just a few of the things I have been feeling this week.

I am so amazed that this journey if finally coming to an end and the next chapter with Dora : ) is about to begin. I am leaving in less than 24 hours and still it seems very surreal. We have been at this since last December, so it feels very unreal that this beautiful child that God placed on our hearts is finally coming home.

I feel so blessed by the number of donations I was able to collect and purchase. God is good and certainly used His people to get the needs of these children taken care of. I can not wait to get a picture of everything I was able to collect.

I am so excited to meet this little girl...to walk down that cobblestone path that others have walked before me...to know this child that God placed on my heart so long ago...to feel the weight of her in my arms. I want to take it all in...every sight...every smell...everything even though I know my heart will be broken further for these children of God.

I am a little bit nervous. I hate to fly. Enough said : )

The family and I traveled up to the Seattle area to stay with my brother overnight before the flight. I am traveling with my fabulous sil and we came up early so we could have time to get everything packed. It only took about 3 hours!! You have to keep re-weighing and re-stuffing the bags to get them just right. I was blessed that another family in our travel group had an extra bag and we went there first and managed to stuff it full of 65 lbs of donations. Then my sil and I used two of our 4 bags for donations. We overstuffed all three bags because with our airlines it is cheaper to exceed the weight by 20 pounds per bag than to pay for an extra bag.

Thank you all for the blessing you have been and continue to be...especially my sisters.

50 pounds of formula looks like this...

I am leaving in less than 2 weeks to pick up my sweet little girl, but my heart is heavy. Ethiopia is facing a critical formula shortage that impacts the whole country, but especially the orphanages.

I borrowed this from Charisa's blog, because she did such a great job explaining it and is heading a formula drive through our adoption agency. Please read and see how you can help.

From Charisa:

Hello friends!

We have recently been made aware of the formula shortage in Ethiopia right now because the birr (Ethiopian currency) has lost value due to the downturn in the Ethiopian economy. Because of this trading with the Middle East, the normal source of formula, has been hampered.

This has resulted in a shortage of formula in the country and more specifically, dear to our hearts, the orphanages. Imagine trying to care for those precious babies and not knowing how you were going to feed them! I cannot fathom the heartache that must be. They are desperate for formula. This comes straight from Almaz, the director at Hannah's Hope.

Some of those same babies that I loved on, specifically at Enat Elam, are becoming sick from lack of formula and being fed powdered milk.

I have talked to Julie, my case manager, about specifically what we can do, here it is:

If you want to purchase powdered formula (no liquid!) , specifically up to about 12 months of age, you can give it to me (AMY). If you are further away, email me and I can give you the address of a traveling family to send it to. We will send this with traveling families as they go to Ethiopia. This is the best way to get it to Ethiopia.

Monetary Donations-- Because God is faithful and we are going to receive an enormous amount of formula (I like to think big with God) and sometimes people would prefer to just give money, we can collect money to help pay for the extra luggage charge to send over with formula with families traveling to Ethiopia. This is the cheapest way to get it there.

As far as monetary donations, they can be marked Formula for Ethiopia and made out to AGCI and sent to address at bottom or you can also give monetary donations to me and I will send them on.

I know that I am always coming to you guys with one cause or another...and I am so grateful for your help each time. I just really want to help these precious babies! It absolutely crushes my heart to think that they are without the formula they need to grow and live. They already have so many odds stacked against them.

If we each just send one can of formula, what a difference we can directly make to those babies!

I can't imagine the pain and heartache the orphanage directors are going through...trying to feed all of those babies and not having what you need to do it. Can you imagine?

All God's Children

3308 NE Peerless Place
Portland, OR 97232
http://www.allgodschildren.org/

***************************************************

So far I have collected 50 pounds of formula to take with me and I probably have enough money to purchase another 50 pounds worth. God is faithful and He is working through people just like you, but the formula I have collected is not enough. If you would be willing to donate a can, you can give it to me or I can pass along contact information for a traveling family that is closer to you. You can also make a monetary donation to AGCI. Thank you for being "secret agents" of God and helping live out the Kingdom of God here on Earth.

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

That's right, we passed court and are tenatively scheduled to travel January 10th-16th. Praise be to God. Thank you all for your continued suport and love. I am in a state of shock.

Thank you!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has kept us in their thoughts and prayers. I have felt pretty peaceful about our court date the past few days and know it is because we have been absolutely covered in prayer by our family and friends. I have felt like I was in a Verizon commercial and there is a band of people following me throughout my day in love and prayer. Probably the most touching example are my three friends who are in Ethiopia right now picking up their babes. They took time together yesterday to hold my little girl and pray over her. Thank you for the peace everyone.

Now that the big wait until the court date is over, a new wait begins. Waiting to hear news about our court date! I continue to be in prayer that we passed and that this wonderful peace I feel continues!

Please join us in prayer

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

Well, we are a little over a day away from our court date (with the time difference, our court date is Tuesday night here on the west coast) and I am a bundle of nerves and hope. I am able to find peace knowing that God's timing is perfect. I know that we serve a God that can move mountains. He is sovereign over all. We are all His children and He holds each of us in His hands, even our little one who is so far away from us right now.

I ask that you join us in praying specifically that:
*Our case is heard on the 10th (our scheduled date.)
*All our documents are complete, in order and in the file.
*Any of little girl’s birth family that needs to attend the hearing does so. Please also pray for their travel, and that they will be given an amazing amount of peace.
*That Jason and I will be filled with patience and peace as we wait to hear news. (It may take up to a week.)

I know God loves our little girl more than I can ever imagine and trust that His plan and timing are perfect. I will continue to hope, because I know He will fulfill the plan He set for us.

"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3

Thank you for supporting us through your love and prayers on each step of this journey.

I also ask for prayers for Autumn's brothers and their case. Her parents are adopting two little boys and their court date is on the 9th (or tonight on the west coast.)

Feeling a little...

scared, nervous, excited. I am just a ball of anxiety right now. Each step of the wait in this adoption process has gotten progressively harder. You think that when you finally see your child's face it will all get better. Well I have been looking at her beautiful face for just shy of 2 months now. The wait is even harder now and I know that it will only get harder still until my little one is in my arms.

I fully trust in God, but I don't think trusting in Him excludes feeling scared of what the outcome will be. I pray that His will be done, but I also know as a mother I will be truly heartbroken if His will does not mean bringing her home at this time. Whatever happens I will trust in Him and His plan.

I feel like I can't let myself get too excited, because I don't want to have an even bigger let down if we don't make it this time through.

One week from tonight (Ethiopia is 11 hours ahead of us on the west coast) a decision will be made. I just continue to petition God that all our paperwork is together and the judge looks upon us favorably. I don't want to wait any longer for this child that God placed upon my heart so long ago.

New pictures

I wish it was my hand this cute little one was holding!

I found a great surprise in my e-mail when I got home this afternoon. One of our case workers has been in Ethiopia for a few weeks and she took pictures for everyone. I got about 10 new pictures of our little sweetie. What a way to make my day!!! I can't believe it has been 6 1/2 weeks since I saw her beautiful face. Hopefully it won't be too much longer until it is my hand she is holding! 20 days and counting until our court date!