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.

Ethiopia Pictures

Check out some of the pictures from our journey to Ethiopia.

Ethiopia Pictures

Success!

We are back from the embassy and we are all set!! We sat for quite a bit, but the boys were perfect! ( please be the same on the plane, please be the same on the plane....). We are counting down the hours til we leave. Sitting in a hotel room with a ( very curious and active) 4 year old and a baby is getting old. Especially when one is craving a chocolate brownie and some fresh air! :).

Btw- those who described chala as 'reserved and quiet, an observer', lied to us. Quite the opposite.

This time tomorrow we will be in the Addis Ababa airport! Less than 24 hours now!

lh

Sent from my iPhone

Wow.

Hello friends and family!!

We are feeling so blessed here today. Chala slept all night, clinging to the photo album of our family! He woke up happy and jabbering. Anna, Claire, Lauren and Emma-- he can say your names!! He LOVES to play, another child to destroy our basement!! :). He picked out a shirt with trucks on it and can count to 5 in English. So far, he is not shy at all, which we were expecting. He is crazy about B. ( of course!!)

Jonas did great as well. He is an easy, happy baby!! So cute. I woke up to his face looking at me with a big grin! What a sweet baby. He only woke for a bottle ( though he is a slow eater!). He went right back to sleep.

We are so happy to say we are heading home tomorrow!! Sone days it felt that wouldn't happen. We will cherish our time here but I never want to be away from my girls that long again!!

Our travel agent told us there are no bassinets available on any of our flights. Hello 36 hours of baby holding!! Please pray that the flights go quickly and well. We are so hoping there is no delays!! Snow, cooperate...we are coming home!!

We are leaving for the embassy in 1 hour. I am praying there are no issues. The paperwork for 2 children was rather complicated!

signing off in Africa!!

Lindsay

Sent from my iPhone

Time to change our blog name

we have 2 boys!!

after the day we had yesterday, to say we were feeling overwhelmed would be an understatement.

at 2:00 we headed over to Enat Alem.  the first things we heard were "here is chala!" he came outside with a shy smile.  he is adorable.  he quickly took to us (due to the fact that we had a bag of toys).  he saw the hotel van and headed out of the courtyard and hopped inside.  our driver,sami, told him to go and say goodbye to his friends. he casually flipped his hand and said "caio".  currently he is singing to himself and playing with anything he can find that has wheels.

baby jonas is beautiful.  he was in his crib, pushing up on his arms when we arrived.  he greeted us with a smile!  he is napping right now and did not enjoy his bath.  the nanny told us that he goes to bed at midnight and wakes for the day at 5am.  in between those, he wakes for 3 bottles. so much for a sleeper!  the orphanage was such an improvement from the last one! the kids seem happy and well loved! praise God.  the nurse director showed us jonas' record and told us that they were told he would likely pass away on the drive from the other orphanage. i wept. she told us that after 20 days she thought he may live.

things are going very well.  i am feeling tired and a bit stressed because it is all new....but things are going well.  so far chala has been very happy.

jonas is wheezing a lot. it makes me nervous to be so far from our doctor. i am wishing we had a pediatrician traveling with us.  please pray this improves and doesn't get worse before we arrive home.

tomorrow is our embassy appointment.  they told us it could be quick or it could take all day. hoping for quick.

i am desperately missing the girls.  i feel constantly on the verge of tears, and cannot wait to be back home with them.  pray for me that these remaining days in africa go quickly and well.  we are very much dreading the airplane ride home with 2 kiddos but are looking forward to where it will take us!

please keep us in your prayers. life changes so quickly.  we know God has taken us here and know he has his hand on all of this.  the big picture can seem too big to digest!

we will try to get pics asap.  it is pouring and the power is out.  the hotel is running on a generator.

love,

lindsay (and brian and boys)

the meeting

Hello! Sorry for the lack of info...our hotel struggles to keep the Internet working.

Today, while we were eating lunch, we were informed that we would be meeting the boys dad in 30 minutes. Needless, to say, it was a little stressful.

The meeting itself.....well, we are still reeling. It will take a while to process today. Also, the orphanage ( where the boys were at first) was hard to see. It was a hard afternoon. We would appreciate your prayers as we sort out the meeting and our hearts.

Tomorrow we get the kids! It doesn't seem real! We have been here less than a week, but it seems we've been here for a long time. We won't be heading to Enat Alem until 2:30.

Anna, Claire, Lauren and Emma....we miss you SO much!! I cannot tell how much I want to be back at home with you!

We will update after we meet the boys ( if we are able)!!

Love,

Lindsay

Sent from my iPhone

Pictures from Ethiopia

Hippos in Lake Awassa

Beautiful Country

Lake Awassa