One Sought Me

Post from Todd: It's been an interesting wait- the near 50 or so weeks of waiting to hear about our child ready to adopt in Ethiopia. The two years of preparing and planning- and in this time God has taught me plenty.  Now that we have our referral of a 10 month old little boy, I have learned that when I first began praying for Tarik he wasn't even born yet .  I was already loving that little guy before he was formed in his mother's womb.  I was imaging what he'd look like, and how he would fit into our family.  Many thoughts flooded my mind as I pictured what Tarik would look like and how his personality would unfold.    Then as the idea stewed in my heart that Tarik was not even born yet when I first started praying for him, it made me have a deeper appreciation for my own Creator.  It made me concentrate on how God loved me before I was born .   In fact, God loved us all before we were born.  He is the omniscient/all knowing God.  Scripture tells

We are so thrilled and extremely grateful to the Lord for directing our paths and leading us to this day that we can announce that we accepted a referral of a precious little one!! Our adoption process through Ethiopia has opened our hearts and stretched our minds in ways we never knew possible!  In several ways, Todd and I are not the same people who started off in this journey 2 years ago. And for that, we also praise the Lord for His goodness, His love, and His teachings.  God has shown us more of himself through His word, through life events, provisions, trusting journeys, changes of the course, ups and downs, and now He has shown us His little precious child who needs a family! Finally the day has come that we can announce that we have a referral!!!!!!   Thank you Lord! Our agency called us in the evening and it was a blessing that the entire family was together.  I have our agent's number on a special ring tone so when I heard that it was her, and saw her name on

  Tonight was a special night as we were able to connect with new friends who live in Ethiopia.  In our community we have friends who live here in the states and they are from Ethiopia.  The family has been so kind to us and have taught us many things about their country including traditions, foods, and language. The wife's sister, who lives in Ethiopia, has come to visit here in the states!  Yetinighet and her two daughters came in this weekend and will be staying for a little over one month. We were able to meet them tonight.  They brought us all a gift of a traditional Ethiopian outfit.  The kids put on their clothes and we enjoyed a coffee ceremony together.  Coffee ceremonies are a time to socialize or mark a special event.  Yetinighet roasted the coffee beans then prepared them in the traditional pot serving it to us with the coffee set.  (you'll see it in the pictures). The daughters speak very good English as they attend a private school where they are taug

In December of 2012 we started this blog to share about the love that God has for His children, about our family, and to share about our adoption journey! I posted pictures from a family photo shoot of Fall 2011 (visit the post here ) and they looked like this:     Now, almost 3 years later, we scheduled another family photo shoot on location in our yard.  These were taken on the day of our 15th wedding anniversary and we had a great time celebrating our blessings in this way!  It's hard to believe how much the children have grown! One of my best friends, who was in our wedding party 15 years ago, is the photographer!  That was a special treat.  You can check out her beautiful pictures at her blog site:   www.acrossthewoodenbridge.blogspot.com  Thanks for praying for us and for watching as our family grows in height, age, and in family members! Erin and Todd

During my recent (June 2014) missions trip to Haiti I was witness to many amazing things.  Amazing in a beautiful way and amazingly heartbreaking ways.  God surely was the coordinator of this trip as several planned events came to pass, but several unplanned events were better than we could have ever imagined. God knew the perfect timing of our missions team coming to Haiti and the exact people that we would encounter along the way.  He brought the children to the Bible lessons.  He held off the rain and dimmed the sun so that we could paint.  He opened our eyes and our hearts to know more of who He is.  I know that my life has changed after experiencing this trip. Take some time to read through previous posts about the trip where I journal through our time in Haiti.   Haiti Day One ,  Day Two ,   Day Three , Day Four , Day Five   One experience particularly touched my heart .  A team of three of us were serving in Haiti by painting a mural on the orphanage gate during the mornin

Thank you so much for checking in with our adoption process!  Thank you for thinking of us, praying for us, and encouraging us as we continue to wait for news!  God hears every prayer and for that we are very thankful! As many of you already know, we are hoping to adopt two siblings from Ethiopia. We started this process in December of 2012, completed our home study, and all requirements were completed in June 2013 and to Ethiopia by August 2013.  It's been a long wait and amazing road thus far!  God is with us all the way.  He goes before us, and He stands beside us. Last week we received a phone call from our agency.  Not "the call" that we were expecting, but we knew this adoption journey would be long one, and turns out it's a winding road too.  Twists and turns, waiting and more waiting that is out of our control. However, we rest in the peace that God is in ultimate control of this adoption journey. Our agency proceeded to tell us that in the 7 orphanage

Haiti Trip Journal Entry Day 5 Thursday, June 5th Another early morning but sooner than expected from the alarm clock as I awoke from the lack of the humming sound of the fans shutting off.  We lost power at about 4 a.m.  That means the solar panels didn't get enough juice from the overcast day yesterday.  That's ok.  I'll take the overcasts days for great days to paint!  So no fans this morning which makes me sticky and super hot awfully fast.  I tossed and turned a bit in bed until it was 5 a.m. and then it was time to get up anyway.  Another awesome, God-sent day for painting! My room-mate and I start the day with praying and listening to praise music on our phones.  We have been drawn to the song "Write Your Story" and "Press On"  as we know that God is writing each of our life story as we trust Him every step of the way.  And when troubles and stumbles do come our way, we 'press on!' Several second coats needed done today along with