One Sought Me

We're home for Christmas!  We're together with our new son and we are very grateful for this Christmas time to be a family.  The first Christmas for Tarik and looking back from last Christmas, we have come a very long way! Read about 2014 Christmas here.  Here are a few photos of just us being us. Although I wish we had matching outfits, cute red scarves and mittens, the real us was balancing tears from a loose tooth, changing poo diapers, keeping sharp clippers from becoming weapons in sword fights, snot sneezing from allergies, and well....memories!  This blue spruce tree was planted by my father-in-law in 1974 and trimmed ever since to one day be used as a Christmas tree.  What better year to build family memories than when our family is all together at last!  We've always had artificial trees so this was a change for us.  The tree cutting adventure was well, an adventure!   From ours to yours, a very...

Celebrating and praising the Lord for bringing Tarik home!  Today marks 8 weeks that Tarik has been home in the United States with his forever family!  Everyday we thank our God for this precious gift through adoption! Tarik is doing amazing! We can tell he is covered in prayer and that God's hand is upon him.  God's story in Tarik's life continues to unfold. I can honestly explain these last 8 weeks best by comparing it to having a new born baby. We are new to each other.  And just like a new mom to a newborn baby, I am learning about my child.  What sounds he makes mean that he is happy.  What sounds and facial expressions translate to meaning he wants something, he's hungry, or getting bored with a toy.  Remember we don't speak the same language. What are his interests, his likes and dislikes, his food preferences, his temperament...and the list goes on and on.  It is my joy of a responsibility as a mom to learn about and respond to my son...

Many times in our first weeks home, I try to imagine what our little 'just-turned-two year old' thinks of this new world he was swept into?  For all his life he has been in an orphanage with peers to play with and adults who are the caregivers.  For all he knows, that is what adults do.  And thanks be to God, our son had wonderful, caring, and affectionate "Nannies" who did hug him, kiss him, feed him, play with him, and sing songs with him.  That care developed a huge place in his little mind to be able to trust adults and build relationships with them.  But how do you explain a family to little one who never has never known?  How do you say, "I am your mom" and expect that he even knows what that is? Remember the movie, "Look Who's Talking" starring John Travolta as James, Kirstie Alley as Mollie, and Bruce Willis plays the voice of Mollie's son, Mikey?  The movie spans Mikey as a newborn baby through a young toddler. Although he was...

Pictures tell more than one thousand words, so I will let the pictures to the talking.  This is the Ethiopia that we saw all around us during our stay.  The roads are the ones we walked on.  The people are dear friends.  The shops we bought our bread and tea. The air was cool and damp. May what you see in this city begin to open your eyes to the beauty of life in Addis Ababa.