A Story of Love: Our journey to Nati and Mihret {Part 1}

Get your tissues ready.

I decided that I didn't want to wait until the kids came home to share our journey with you all. I started this video on the plane on our way to Ethiopia and it is probably the most emotional one I have ever worked on. God has done so much this past year and I wish I could share every detail, but that would take days- so this is my attempt to sum it up.

Yes, I know that our children are not home yet. But did I mention that they are OURS??!! :) AH! God is so good! All we wait on now is their visas, which will take anywhere from 6-12 weeks. We are praying that we will be back to bring them home by the end of January, but whenever God allows it to happen, we are resting in the fact that HE has done miracle after miracle and has made them a part of our family. We are in the home stretch now. This is only part 1, but as you will see- it is a huge part of our journey. Thank you to every single one of you who have been a part of this journey as well. God has used YOU to bless our family in more ways than any of us will ever know. We have told Nati and Mihret about so many of you who have prayed for them for so long. Very soon, you will get to see the evidence of God's faithfulness first hand and I pray that as you are blessed by this story, you would give all the glory to the One who made it all happen.

So sit back and relax, turn up the volume, and get ready to witness one simple testimony of God's unending love and faithfulness...

The only statistic that matters.

So what is our response???

One way God uses ordinary people to work miracles

I know I've been on somewhat of a video kick lately, but it's just hard to not share something that I think you will LOVE. I saw this months ago, but was reminded of it again when a friend was talking about wanting to be used by God to help others be able to adopt. This is a true story about how God can use ordinary people to change the course of someone else's life. And of course it has to do with adoption- what else?! It's less than 5 minutes and definitely worth watching!



Are you willing to be used by Him to possibly change the life of another?
What are you waiting for?

Some of her cuteness... {on video}

For Christmas Randy surprised me with a great little video camera and I have not stopped using it since! It's one of those tiny little ones that you can just put in your purse or pocket and have handy for whatever and it is much easier to upload the videos to the computer as well.

Well who do you think has gotten the most video coverage at our house?

Of course I just had to share a few! These were all taken last week and amazingly she is walking even better and sturdier this week! So go ahead and enjoy a few minutes of this sweet funny girl.

This first video was one of the first times she could stand up on her own. Love how she spins around and around before she actually stands up!




Without a doubt our girl LOVES music! She has a little cd player in her room and EVERY time we go into her room, she points to it and says her version of "music" until we turn it on. We bought a few Korean children's cd's while we were in Korea and I am so glad we did- it is her favorite music and she does her little dance every time she hears it.



Finally got this one on video.. here is our 17 month old reading her first book:
BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR! (yes, I realize that it the only thing she is saying, but boy is it cute!)



And this one is just a short clip of her walking around with her book- she calls this one brown bear too.


Oh I love this girl!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Waiting...

Ask anyone who has adopted or been in the process, and they will tell you that waiting is one of the hardest parts. Our wait has been relatively short compared to some, but even so- we are longing to hold our baby girl soon. It is harder for me than Randy and the boys, but now we are all at the point of being ready for her to join our family-like NOW! This week has been a turning point for me though and I am no longer going to try and "predict" when she will come home, but rather enjoy each day to the fullest that I can and trust that the Lord will bring our girl home in His perfect timing!
This video I made kind of sums up this past year while we've been waiting for our Little Elliana.