A.J. fix

just because....i knew you were starting to forget his precious face, so this is a good-will gesture for you.....alright, and me....because i love to stare at my new son.  much the same as i'd stare at my newborn babies for long stretches of time, memorizing their features and soaking in the newness of them...i thought since adoption news is scarce at the moment a picture or two would suffice.  below is sweet big sister Hannah enjoying a moment with her new bro...both Joelle and Hannah were so fabulous with him.  i was blessed to watch them interact...

one more thing.  our file has been received at the High Commission in Nairobi.  we're nearing the end of one full week of waiting.  this final step could literally range from two weeks to five months.  we're praying for it to be sooner than five months, but also waiting on God's timing, knowing it is always best.  we'll keep you posted!  thanks again to our amazing families, friends and church for the ongoing loving support.  we so appreciate you!

oh how i love DHL courier!!

so efficient they are!
Sat. Nov. 20th, Arrived at sort facility Nairobi, Kenya 13:02
Sat. Nov. 20th Processed at Nairobi, Kenya 13:40
next, to be delivered Monday when businesses re-open.
YAY!!!!  then i can direct my obsessive-compulsive tendencies to the CIC website where our visa application status is updated.  the magic words we want to see are ALEMAYEHU JEFFREY- "decision made".

en route

finally....the documents, all of them are on their way via DHL to Nairobi Kenya where they will travel to the High Commission.  then we await the final step~ the issuance of a visa.  and it isn't until they arrive that we are officially waiting for this last step to be processed and completed.  I'll track the package but i expect by Monday or Tuesday it should be there....this week has shown me that apparently i haven't learned all i need to know about exercising patience.  the Oxford dictionary describes patience as "the calm endurance of hardship, provocation, pain, delay, etc."  me, patient?  not so much....i'm so thankful God is so graceful and patient with me because i clearly have a long way to go....

scared

seems strange for me to be sharing book recommendations.  i read like four books a year.  seriously.  pathetic, i know...i love to read, it's not that....the reality is that often sleep trumps reading when i'm afforded the blissful quiet time to do either....or when i actually start to read i simply don't last more than a few chapters at a time before my eyelids protest and drop.  someday that will change (and i'll miss the chaos busyness)....at the moment, however, i need my book choices to have substance.  naturally i was drawn to "Scared", by Tom Davis after following his blog and orphan care ministry (in case you hadn't noticed, i'm a bit passionate about this topic), and seeing a timely facebook reminder after a dear friend read the novel and raved.  it is fiction, but tragically based on very real and devastating stories coming from Africa.  stories of pain, loss, violence, resilience, sacrifice, enduring love and faith.  woven through the novel is an inspiring call to action.  I brought it with me on our recent trip to Ethiopia, but didn't get as far into it as i'd hoped.  i was a bit caught off guard by my own emotions tied to meeting our son, his family and the court process.  the book wasn't on the radar much that week...tonight i finished it, and it left me with a deeper desire to give of my abundance.  not to wallow in guilt, but to remember those all around me and across the globe who are without.  if you get a chance, scoop it up at a library or add it to a Christmas list.  so worth the read.  and yes, i'll be returning the copy i have to the church library tomorrow! ;)  next up on the list: "The Color of Water" by James McBride and "The Connected Child" by Karyn B. Purvis.  not necessarily in that order.  see you in about six to eight months for the reviews.  try to contain your anticipation without holding your breath. k?

sisterly love

it's been an amazing joy to watch our five children embrace the idea of a new brother.  it's not as though they haven't had oodles of time to wrap their minds around the idea, after all....even from the beginning, back in May 2008 when discussion started to pick up around this very idea of adopting another child, until today they have not wavered in their desire to have another sibling join the crew...not to say they won't scrap lots with him once the newness wears off, because it does and they will!!!  they're still normal kids.  seriously though, they seem to really be genuinely super excited about nearing the end of the process and the anticipated homecoming.  today Layla made this drawing for A.J.  her idea is that we'll hang it over his bed and he'll know it's him!  (so she carefully copied a photograph, thus the pink sleeper again!) plus, then he'll know how happy we are to have him join our family.  great idea Layla!  during her careful drawing session she announced that it was good she was drawing him because "i'm probably the best drawler (yep, drawler) of necks in my whole class" :)  "ohhhh, that is a good neck Layla...." how precious.  she has her father's humility...

love this song...

Amos Story~ music and video by Aaron Ivey 

ok, so there are a bunch of amazing adoption related songs out there....thank me now for choosing to link the "less sappy" of the two i was considering.  (in a few months, in a state of desperation i'll probably link to the other.  consider yourself warned).  Aaron Ivey is an adoptive dad with two children from Haiti.  he is also a gifted song writer/musician.  he has a huge heart for Haiti.  speaking of Haiti, they completely need prayer right now.  with hurricane Tomas and the cholera outbreak, i wonder how much a country can endure...anyway, Aaron wrote this song while he waited for his son Amos to have his adoption finalized, and he is in fact home now so that is great.  i can relate to the lyrics (and the small secret desire i have to splatter paint on a piano as well, might be therapeutic...) and i know some of you will as well.  if i had any remote clue blogging skills at all i'd be able to get the little video box to show up right on this actual page, but all i know how to do is provide the link.  cut me some slack, would ya?!  anyway, i hope you enjoy the video.  i love this guy's musical style and sound.  I should add that some of the video footage is his own.  his wife, his Haitian daughter Story and his son Amos.  they travelled to Haiti to spend time with their children at least once before going back to bring them each home separately. 

this is dedicated to my A.J....

miss you little fella...

i long for the day when we board another one of these.....

to do more of this....for longer than a few minutes....

i love this picture (even though my facial expression looks as though i'm in physical pain! :) whatever...).  this was the first time i held A.J. on my lap, and less than an hour after hearing "he's yours".  almost two weeks ago now.  missing him today and longing to be together for good~ to love him and snuggle him and nurture his little heart in a way that brings security and joy to his little spirit.  to mean more to him than just another passing person with a lap to sit on.  i want to get to know him~ his quirks, his character, his tendencies.  also his likes, (soccer ball~ check!) dislikes, his fears, his hurts, his talents, his desires.  can't wait to know all of those things that make him who he is.  just like i've had the joy of learning about the other five kidlets....

hopefully it won't be too long, Alemayehu....we can't wait!

the scenic route

the girls and i were talking tonight about driving in Africa.  we were on our way to basketball, going down highway 402.  we were all struck by how dull and uneventful the driving is here!  mostly that is a good thing.  a sign of order and technology and modern advances in transport available to most.  a sign of affluence and infrastructure.  in Ethiopia, however, a six hour drive can feel like two, or three hours at the most.  there is literally so much to see!  whether in the heart of Addis, or out on a winding road to and from the numerous rural villages, it is almost too much to take in.  complete sensory overload.  cattle, goats and children everywhere.  people always visible, walking the highway or road, to and from a well, market, etc.  children with babies slung on their backs, adults carrying a makeshift stretcher with a patient in tow (we saw this twice.  the driver would only speculate whether the patient was dead or alive at that point).  how would that feel if you were alive and seriously ill?  bouncy and hot~ less than comforting i'm guessing...round mud and grass huts dotting the landscape, so beautifully crafted and actually very pretty to see.  banana patches, acacia trees and different coloured plots of field, looking much like a quilt from a distance.  add a touch of adrenaline for every time the driver seems to just miss a herd of cattle, oncoming vehicles (thank goodness for the invisible third lane that seems to magically appear just on time) or people at the side of the road who seem unfazed by the traffic hurtling past, all while unbuckled and talking on one, sometimes two cell phones....no exaggeration....jeff commented that driving in Ethiopia really only requires a gas pedal, brake and horn.  the horn is used repeatedly...anyway, i don't think the pictures quite do the scenes justice, but you get the basic idea.