Journey to Elizabeth... at OneTrueMedia.com

I am giving in to my "mushy" side (something I don't like to do often)! And have created a video montage of our journey over the last 14 months, to bring Elle home. My main motivation is not to entertain, but that this will someday be something Elle will enjoy and will help fill in any "gaps" in her background.
So grab your popcorn (all three bites worth) and enjoy the show. :-)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

"NO EeeeeAN, NO!"

Thankfully, Ian is blissfully unaware that this comment is being directed at him!  I am mean how can anyone not want this handsome little man to touch them, chase them, play dolls with them, give them generous (although rough) hugs and kisses or share his sticky left over candy with them?  He is such a sweet boy with mostly good intentions, but the girls just don't see it that way.  So the screams that echo down are hallways are probably going to be, "NO EeeeAN!" for quite sometime.  Let's hope that over the years Ian remains in La-La Land and is content to play with his trains as he watches the fashion show from the sidelines. :-)

Show Hope....

As some of you may remember, this past spring we recieved a grant from Show Hope to help with the cost of our adoption.  This was a huge blessing and helped us be able to bring Elizabeth home debt free!  In conjunction with receiving the grant the only thing that Show Hope requires is that you send them an "update" when your child(ren) come home.  This letter is to include not just information about your child, but also information about your family's journey and reasons for pursuing adoption.  As of last night, I finished our update letter to Show Hope and Brandon thought that I should share it with you all here.  So... Here it is! :-)

Thank you!!!!  Those two little words sum up so much of our adoption journey.  We are so appreciative of the support that we have received from Show Hope, our family, our friends and most importantly, to God for the new gift that He has bestowed on us… a beautiful daughter! 

Elizabeth is our daughter’s name, it means “God’s Promise” and that is truly what she is to us!  She is one of the bravest little girls that I have ever met.  She is only 4 years old and has handled all of the travel, cultural changes and unfamiliar faces with a bravado that I have rarely seen in adults.  We are blessed that she is already attaching well into our family!  Her giggle is infectious (I wish you all could hear it), she has the biggest brown eyes that exude confidence and gives the best hugs any parent could ask for. 

Our journey began about a year and a half ago.  We were feeling the call to adopt internationally and answered that call on our knees.  After praying and beginning to save some money, we signed on with our agency and were set to pursue an adoption from Ethiopia.  Since we truly felt that our call through adoption was to help meet the needs of the country’s children, we were open to age and gender.  And as we went on the wait list it became apparent that we would likely be referred a toddler.  We have two bio-kids, whose ages were 18mo and 4yrs at the time, and the 4 year old was very excited to be gaining a sibling who would be able to play right away!  Throughout our 14 month wait and even now as we have Elizabeth home, there have been times of panic, excitement, fear, doubt and joy.  Thankfully, we rest on God’s unchanging sovereignty and have been blessed beyond belief!

Elizabeth was born in a remote region of Ethiopia and around the time of her birth, her father passed away from Malaria.  For the next 3 ½ years her birth mother loved and nurtured her to the best of her ability, until she could no longer find a way to do so.  Ethiopia is currently facing severe drought and food shortages, not to mention complications from infectious diseases, which have left the country’s children parentless.  Almost half of the population is under the age of 18!  This beautiful country and its people have captured our hearts and we feel humbled to have the opportunity to come along side them and love one of their little ones. 

I cannot begin to imagine making the decision that Elizabeth’s birth mother did, to relinquish her beloved daughter, but by doing so our family has gained an immense blessing.  This journey, called adoption, has only served to teach our family more about the love that Christ has for his church.  Adoption always has another side and our adoption as “sons of the heavenly Father” required the ultimate sacrifice.  Show Hope’s generosity toward our family has given us a new appreciation for that sacrifice, one that we hope will bring all of our children to a saving knowledge of Christ and his love.

Again, we cannot thank you enough for supporting and helping us on this journey.  We anticipate the day that we can tell Elizabeth of all of the people that helped to bring her into our family!  What a blessing to have other believers that we have never met, show such love and compassion toward our family.  THANK YOU!

It's a stampede!!

Well, when the kids woke up this morning I thought they seemed a little off.  There was a lot of low groaning, their noses seemed a little clogged, their ears a little droopy and before I knew it I had a whole herd of cows running through the house!!!  Lucky for us, that also meant free chicken at Chickfila!

A Brave New World!

The following are some pictures from the past week or should I say Elle's "first" week?!  There are many firsts pictured and needless to say, they have been a pleasure and a privilege to watch.  I hope you enjoy the snapshots and can imagine what life must now look like through these little eyes! :-)

Home sweet, home!

Ahhhhhh.... Can you hear our sigh of relaxation?!  No, well it is kind of hard to hear above the swish of dress up clothes, the beeping of toy cars, the squeals of laughter and the click of "high heel" dress up shoes on the hard floor, but it is there!  We are so happy to be at home with Elizabeth, Addie and Ian.  And we are very happy to have the help of Grandma and Granddad for a couple of days as we try and get over jet lag and adjust to three kiddos running around.
Overall our Embassy trip was wonderful and Elle has done so well with all of the changes.  The airplane trip was mostly uneventful, with only one temper tantrum over the seat belt.  (Not too bad for a little kid trying to deal with all of the changes over the past week.)  And once we arrived home, she and Addie became fast friends!  Now I am sure that we will have more bumps in the road as Elle adjusts to our family and us to her, but being in our own home with everyone is such a relief and we are so thankful that we can FINALLY, REALLY begin our journey!! :-)
Now with that nice little segway, I want to let you all know that we are going to be changing/updating the name of our blog.  Like Galatians 4:5-7 says, once we receive the adoption of sons, then we are "no longer a bondservant, but a son, and if a son then an heir through God!" and we are also told that "children are a heritage from the Lord." (Psalm 127)   Therefore, we are going to rename our blog "Inheriting Heaven."  We firmly believe that God has gifted us with these 3 children and we recognize that their value is eternal.  With the help and wisdom of God's Word we believe that they will be "heirs through God!"  What a wonderful inheritance that Christ has provided us through his death on the cross!  Now, as we seek to raise and train our children accordingly, we hope to keep you updated with our progress as a family through this blog.  I ask that you will continue to keep us in your prayers, not just with our transition with Elizabeth, but as we strive to reach such a lofty goal of imitating Christ and His love to others through our family.  Thank you for your help and support as we continue this adoption journey in the physical world and spiritually through Christ!