So, I haven’t written in awhile, really because there is no update.  As of the 18th of April we have been waiting for one month.  The month has gone by fairly quickly because the Lord has given us a huge dose of perspective.

A close friend of mine just had her first child.  She was so nervous about the delivery.  I just chalked it up to first time jitters and the fact that no woman looks forward to pain.  I over and over again assured her that everything was going to be okay.  Well, I was wrong and everything wasn’t okay.  Her baby wasn’t breathing or moving when he was born because of a lack of oxygen.  Because of the grace of God and the people he put in that delivery room her baby was stabilized.  That evening he was brought to Children’s Hospital and today is the 8th day he’s been there.  Little Ben has come a long way in those eight days and they are looking forward to bringing him home in the next couple.  We rejoice because God chose to heal this child because God is good.  I can’t help thinking that if things hadn’t worked out the way we wanted if everyone would be throwing around that catch phrase “God is Good”.  It wouldn’t have changed who God is.  We all too often only acknowledge the fact that God is good when good things happen to us.  But God is unchanging and He is unable to be bad.

What does this have to do with our adoption journey?  I haven’t figured that all out yet.  But I know that I have this glorious picture in my head about what my daughter is going to look like and how she will fit into our family.  And if that fantasy becomes a reality, then Praise God, because God is Good.  But if it doesn’t work out the way I envision it, then Praise God, because God is Good.

This is a question I get a lot.  And for starters, we never tell our baby names before the baby is born.  We like it to be part of the announcement of the child.  And also, we don’t get anyone’s opinion of it beforehand.  It’s hard to hate a name when you are holding a precious newborn in your hands that has that name!!

But this time it is obviously a bit different.  We haven’t even talked about names.  This does not mean that I haven’t been thinking about names however!  I have a few that are my favorites.  But it really depends on how old she is when we get the referral.  If she is 3 months old, I would have no problem with changing her name completely, or keeping her given name as her middle name like my sister did.  If she is 18 months old, her name already has meaning to her and we would have to decide what to do.  My biggest concern is if she is older and her name is very difficult to pronounce.  I grew up having a last name that was butchered constantly, I would hate for my daughter to have to go through that with her first name.  So, we would use the name we choose and her given name together for awhile and eventually drop the given name.

So, no we don’t know what we will name her, but if we did, we wouldn’t tell you !

The boys have participated in a local AWANA program for the past three years.  It is at a church in our town weekly.  They have a lot of fun and then during the week they are to memorize scripture.  They earn badges and prizes.  Yesterday was our awards ceremony.  The boys each completed their books which was quite an accomplishment!!  Ethan even got a plaque that he is pretty proud of.

I am so glad that they are hiding scripture in their hearts so that it is easily accessible when they need it!!

Is he really getting ready for Kindergarten?  I know he is ready and I know he would have even been fine going this school year, but it is still hard to believe that my baby is old enough to start school in the fall.

He is so excited.  We have about 5 other cowboy hats in our basement from various activities.  This one that he got at Kindergarten round-up has a special place on his bed.  He cannot wait to go to the same school that Ethan goes to and walk home with him!

This is his buddy Austin in the picture with him.  They have known each other since birth.  Even though they are almost a year apart they will both start Kindergarten in the fall.  Although, Austin and his family are going to move to a new school district before then .

They grow so fast……..

I am not sure we have ever had an Easter as gorgeous as this years.  The weather was so nice and the boys actually got to wear shorts, it was great!!

I have always had a dilemma with Easter.  We grew up doing the eggs and baskets.  I’m sure we did a down-played version of the Easter Bunny as well.  But as I have grown up and really understood all that Easter means, it really bothers me that the Easter story has been commercialized into a glorified spring celebration.  I don’t think its wrong to celebrate spring, but it is not the same celebration as Easter………..or so I thought.

Before I came to understand where the term ‘Easter’ came from I decided to do spring baskets this year.  So on the first day of spring (a random Saturday), the boys got baskets full of goodies.  I wanted the boys to realize that celebrating spring and celebrating Christ are two separate occasions.  So we did the spring baskets and then on Easter we did an Easter egg hunt with something called ‘Resurrection Eggs’.  It is a set of 12 eggs that each have a symbol inside.  When you put them all together it tells the Easter story.  There were also some eggs with candy and some with coins scattered about as well.

Then, come to find out what Easter really means.  It was originally the celebration of the goddess Eastre, who was the goddess of springtime and fertility (her symbol was the rabbit).  This was a pre-Christian celebration.  After these people converted to Christianity they began celebrating Christ’s resurrection around the same time.  So, they decided to just combine the 2 celebrations.   So the term Easter has always been a celebration of spring.  Now I fully believe that that celebration wouldn’t still be around if it hadn’t been coupled with our Savior’s resurrection.  I mean, there is no commercialized holiday celebrating all of the other seasons and I’m sure there was a goddess for all seasons!!

So I might re-think how we do it next year.  It is just such an important holiday that I don’t want to be overshadowed by a rabbit breaking into your house in the night.  Oh, that reminds me.  I said to the kids, “Do you really think a rabbit comes into our house in the night and leaves you presents?”.  Both of them said, “NO”.  Then Eli said, “Rabbits aren’t that smart, I think its a man dressed in a bunny suit”………CREEPY!  Give me a real rabbit anytime, I don’t want any man dressed in any costume coming into my house!!  Here are some pictures from our day.

So the boys spring break was the week before Easter this year.  Usually it ends up being the week after Easter, but it didn’t really matter because we had no plans to travel.  It was a very pleasant break.  They did a lot of playing in the basement together.  And more than one time, as I was enjoying my alone time upstairs, I thought, “I have a good thing going here, they really entertain themselves well, why is it again that we plan to add a potential toddler to this mix?”.  It was all in good fun, I’m sure our daughter will add some craziness, but also a lot of love and enjoyment.

During the week the boys got to play with friends and we met some friends at various places.  The end of the week Sean took the day off and we headed to a park for the day.  We spent the time hiking and picnicking, it was so much fun.  Here are some pictures from that (Jill, they don’t even compare to your hiking pictures, don’t judge )!.

The last picture is the boys’ favorite, of course.  Anything to do with butts or poop gets a lot of laughs around here (not from mom).

A couple of weeks ago Sean and I got to host a party in E’s classroom about Africa.  At the beginning of the year the teacher passed around a paper for all of the parents to sign up to host a continent party.  The paper made its way all around the room.  When it ended with us the only country that had not been taken was Africa (imagine that!).  So we happily wrote our names down hoping and praying that we would be in the waiting process by the time our party rolled around.  Well we were in the waiting process, just barely.

We read to them a couple of stories about African children.  E got to point out where Africa and Ethiopia were on the globe.  The kids seemed very excited when we told them about our adoption plans.  In fact one little girl piped up that she had been adopted from Asia a couple of years ago.  I was so happy for the warm response.

We led them in making a mini rain stick and we had fruit salad for a snack.  Just another way to feel connected to Africa.

We have some friends who are currently in Ethiopia and getting ready to pick up their son, my heart just leaps for joy for them.  I cannot wait to meet him!  Here’s a picture from our party.

Sean’s mom came out to visit 2 weekends ago.  It is always so nice to see her and visit.  She stayed with us this time.  The boys just enjoy having her here so much.  Ethan is always so sad to see her go.  Here are some photos of her playing with Eli and her being the mystery reader in Ethan’s class.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the night before we cut his mohawk Sean died Ethan’s blue for the basketball game. You can’t really tell in this picture though.  Ethan thought he was pretty cool, he was right