one hundred seventeen

this is how many days have passed since we met our boys. it seems a lifetime ago. it is hard to believe they have not always been with us.

the delayed update is due to several things. i.am.busy. can you believe it? we finally got a decent computer. yea b. the main reason....i cannot put into words the past 117 days.


we get the question, "how are things going?" very often. i will start there.


things are going extremely well. crazy well. the boys are amazing. the girls are in love. we feel very blessed. we are thankful everyday that these two have joined our family. life is full and wonderful and loud.

many of you (does anyone even check this anymore???) have had the pleasure of meeting the boys. for those of you who have not....i will tell you a bit about them.


chala is 4 1/2 now. he almost always has a smile on his face. his eyes sparkle in a naughty way. his voice is shrill and high pitched. he never stops talking. he never stops moving. he loves his daddy. he is hilarious. i love that God gave us a son from the other side of the world, with the exact same sense of humor as me!! throughout this process (adoption), i thought about a lot of things. i wondered if chala would be scared, shy, reflective, outgoing....i never considered he would be funny. another blessing. he loves to play. he loves to ride his bike. tonight, he asked for a t.v. in his room. (the answer was no.) he is a joy. he lives life in a big way.

this little boy is lit from within.




jonas is 2 days shy of 11 months old. we have known him for more than half of his life. he is the happiest baby we have ever met. always smiling and laughing. seriously, what a buddy. we are crazy about him. when we returned home from ethiopia 3 1/2 months ago, jonas could not hold his head up. now, he is crawling, pulling up on everything, cruising on furniture. it seems that every day he has a "new trick". he weighed in at about 12 pounds in the middle of february. now, he is 20+ pounds. he will eat everything. this includes beads, woodchips, and the toilet brush. he is ticklish on the back of his neck. he will blow zerberts on your cheek if you'll let him. he prefers his momma to everyone else. his momma prefers it that way, too :)


they make us smile. all six of them. the boys are doing fantastic. the girls are doing fantastic. our hearts are full.



but, this amazing journey has a hard side. at the same time that our new additions make us laugh in some way, and while our love for them is deepening....our heart breaks every day.

for them. for their birth family. for what they have lost.



i wonder if jonas' birthmom ever got to see his huge brown eyes? i wonder if she knew that he has a birthmark on the right side of his chest that looks like a kiss? i wonder if she held her amazing baby?



they don't know that he wrinkles up his nose when he laughs. or that when you rub his left cheek, his eyes roll in a sleepy way.


they have never heard his giggle.


but then i remember that they HAVE heard chala's......and that may hurt worse.



these boys.... that have meshed their lives with ours....who we love more than we thought we could after 117 days....they have a story. and a history. and another family.



they will have questions that we cannot answer. they will have questions that are hard for us to answer.



but we will walk that road with them. we feel honored to be a part of their story.




in the meantime, we will live in the moment. and laugh while they laugh. and hold them when they need us to.

and marvel at how God heals hearts.