Snow...real Snow!!!

We have SNOW!!!!

Petite Girl

At her One-Year pediatrician appointment, Maegli weighed-in at a precious 15.5 pounds!
She is our petite girl and so full of smiles every day. Daddy's favorite time is when she wakes from her afternoon nap and he gets to feed her dinner. Our smart girl is now signing "more" for food and we're hoping to add "please," "food," and "milk" soon. She does love to eat...only, we're wondering where she's packing it away!

Maegli's Portrait

Maegli was too funny at her portrait session. She was a very happy girl...and very active! She kept crawling away! That's what we wanted: to capture this precious age-and-stage.

January Media Recommendations

Mike:
The Hunters Blades Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore
True to his past, Salvatore writes another winner in the Drizzt Do'urden saga. He owns the well-earned reputation of vividly described battle scenes, and these three books don't disappoint. Any fans of The Lord of the Rings would enjoy this series - a very quick read to boot.



Amy:
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
This book, written in 1939, is a coming-of-age tale of "Huw Morgan", growing up in a coal mining town in Wales. It is beautifully written - one review said the book "is told in Welsh words which have Welsh music in them" - so true, the book reads like poetry. I grew up hearing stories of my Great-Grandfather (Papa) who was a Welsh coal miner (and loved music)...so, I felt a special connection to this story.




Kids: Snazzy CD by Go Fish
We've been dancing to this CD around the house! The Bible Book Bop will be a homeschool standard for us.

Sledding...without Snow

What three boys do in January, with no snow, and 50 degree weather? They go "sledding"!
They take turns sending each other down a hill on a fast moving "big wheel" - Whee!

Working Order

How long will this last?
Over the weekend, Mike (and his Dad) fixed our walker wagon. After being well-loved (abused?) by three walkers/runners in the past, it need some major work to be ready for Maegli (too keep the frame together and prevent the wheels from "popping" off).
The boys were thrilled to have the wagon back in working order - and had a blast testing it out for Maegli...although, will it survive for Maegli? How long will these repairs last?

Birthday Girl

Maegli is now 1!
Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

The first cake was oh so yummy! Maegli didn't know what to think of this sweet confection at first...but she quickly figured out that strawberry cake is a fantastic (messy) treat...mmmmm!
We had a fun first birthday celebration for our sweet princess, made extra special by the weekend visit of Grandpa (Mike's Dad).

We are thankful for Chaska's post-cake clean-up!

One Year

It's been one year...(after three hospital stays and two weeks of bed rest) one year ago, our precious daughter was born into this world...and, today, our baby girl is one-year-old!
What a blessing she is in our lives. We love you Maegli!

Hendo

The Hardball Times posted a great article on Rickey Henderson yesterday for his HOF election. Although a jerk to a lot of people, he was an amazing ballplayer.

The Kids

Survival

(*No animals were seriously injured in this tale)
Our wonderful smooth-haired collie, Chaska, has a wonderful survival story to share:
Over the holidays, while we were out of town visiting family, we received a call from our neighbors to let us know they hadn't seen Chaska. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do being so far away, except worry. When we arrived home, we searched the neighborhood, called and called for her, distributed flyers, hung posters and made phone calls to all of the local animal shelters. We had no luck finding our dog :(
She had been missing 6 days and we were losing hope when our neighbor walked into the backyard with an orange Chaska!!!! You won't believe what happened to our poor puppy: she was next door...in a sinkhole...2 feet across and 4 feet deep. We think she was stuck in the hole SIX days!!! Chaska has been home a week and is doing just fine (she was a little dehydrated) and has enjoyed resting from her adventure. We are so fortunate she was found!!!
Moral of the story: watch out for sink holes!

Say Cheese!

...gotta love that $9.99 portrait package at Sears!

2-Year-Old

Burke is now 2

Happy Birthday Burke!!!(hmmm, do I need to use a fork? Mom, can I use my fingers? mmmm, much better)

One Year Ago...

Amy was on bed rest (34-weeks pregnant) and our baby boy, Burke, celebrated his 1st Birthday.

Our Adoption Story

adopt

1. to take by choice into a relationship; especially: to take voluntarily (a child of other parents) as one's own child
2. to take up
3. to accept formally
4. to choose

Synonyms:
adopt implies accepting something created by another or foreign to one's nature.
embrace implies a ready or happy acceptance
espouse adds an implication of close attachment to a cause and a sharing of its fortunes.

God Loves Adoption:

Whoever accepts a little child in my name accepts me. Matthew 18:5

As Christians, we know that God loves adoption because our own belonging in His family models it. We are not born children of God; we become members of His family through adoption. The foundation of adoption is in God and at the heart of the gospel. We are the "children of God", but not His literal children. God has adopted us into His family through the death of His Son, Jesus, on the cross, giving us a new home and a new future. In love, God predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will. Ephesians 1:5

Adoption is a beautiful picture of making someone a part of your family forever. A true understanding of adoption gives us an overwhelming sense of permanence: God's permanent relationship to His children and the permanent relationship of the adopted children in their families. Each child deserves to know the love and affection only a family can provide. God has called us ALL to take care of the poor and the orphaned...adoption is the most permanent form of care. A father to the fatherless...God sets the lonely in families. Psalm 68:5-6

Our Call:

It was not of us, but of God's love and His persistent calling...

We have always believed children are a gift from the LORD. Psalm 127:3 In 2006, we were incredibly blessed to be parents to two wonderful boys. In November, God began moving in our lived and revealing His incredible plan. At the time, our oldest son, Hendrick, was not yet 3-years, and our youngest, Davis, was 7 months-old. This was not a time were were thinking of growing our family. But, thankfully, God had different plans. He put adoption on our hearts.

For an entire week in late November 2006, God made very clear to us individually that we are called to adopt - a very clear call! For Amy, God spoke through a book, TV show, cover story in Christian magazine, vivid dream (where she gave birth to a dark-skinned child), devotional ready from Acts 8:27 - So he started out, and on his way met an Ethiopian, conversations, the Sunday morning sermon -- it was really amazing. God was speaking so clearly! Amy was unsure how to even bring up adoption to Mike - this was crazy! Then, independently, Mike brought it up! Mike said: "I really feel like we need to adopt from Africa" - wow!!! God had been working on both our hearts at the same time.

We jumped right in. We felt convicted that "to delay is to disobey" and we desired to follow God and to be obedient to Him. It didn't make any sense for us to pursue adoption at that time, but we knew that if God was calling us to adoption, this was His perfect timing. We put this adoption in God's hands. We knew He would be faithful to us.
We believe that God grows families in many ways and we were so humbled that God would choose us to grow our family through adoption.
Within a week, we found a Christian adoption agency...and in two weeks we were pre-approved for international adoption and the ball started rolling...

Ethiopia:

God specifically called us to adopt from Ethiopia. There are over 140 million worldwide orphans (a mind-boggling statistic). Ethiopia, located in East Africa, just north of Kenya and west of Somalia, is slightly less than twice the size of Texas and home to roughly 70 million people....4.6 million orphans.
Traditionally a Christian nation, it is one of the oldest countries in the world and one of the very few African countries that was never colonized by Europeans. Ethiopia is a country rich in culture, customs, food, languages, people groups and full of breathtaking landscapes...and was the home of the Queen of Sheba. Ethiopia traces its history and ruling lineage back to King Solomon and the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba. It is believed that the son of the Queen of Sheba nd King Solomon became the next Ethiopian king, so every Ethiopian monarch since can trace their lineage to the throne of David. The empire, which started with Sheba's son, Menelik, continued until 1974 when the death of Haile Selassie marked the end of the 3,000 year-old dynasty. Following his death, Ethiopia was stricken with crises of war and famine.
+Today, Ethiopia faces an orphan crisis, as 4.6 million children have no family, primarily due to poverty and AIDS. Many orphans live on the streets, while other live in public and private orphanages.
+Ethiopian are a proud people with a great loved for their children, and because of this, Ethiopia is one of only a few African countries open to international adoption.

Adoption Process:

The most amazing thing in our adoption journey was the feeling that this was exactly God's plan for our family. We were so humbled by God's awesome provision for our family in this venture. God was orchestrating every detail. International adoption has a unique set of challenges and can be emotionally and financially draining. At every step in the process, God provided and gave us peace. We were so blessed. We couldn't have planned this if we had tried, but nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1:37 This adoption was clearly God's plan.

• We didn't realize when we jumped in and began the process that at the time of our adoption in 2006/2007 Ethiopia was the ONLY country were we were eligible to adopt. (God had a plan!)
• We became pregnant with our daughter 6-months into the adoption process...at the time of our adoption, Ethiopia was the ONLY country that allowed a pregnant couple to adopt, and we were working with the ONLY adoption agency that allowed a pregnant couple to continue with an adoption. (God had a plan!)
• When we received the referral information for our son, his estimated birth date was November 2006 - the SAME week we had received our call from God!!!! We believe when our son was born, God called us, his family! (God had a plan!)

We were meant to jump right into the process - God led us to the right adoption agency and protected us throughout the adoption journey so that we would line up perfectly with our precious child. God had a plan!
We welcomed our son, Burke Zerihun Atnafu, home in November 2007.
Read more on our blog about Ethiopia, our Adoption, and see our Adoption Time-line.

Reflections:

We feel incredibly blessed with our children - our lives are so much richer as a result of God's plan for our family. Being parents is the most challenging yet most rewarding thing we've ever done - we hope and pray to add to our family in the future. We have so much fun; our lives are so full of love - why would we want to stop now?
We sincerely hope and pray God will call us to adoption again. We believe He will. God has put adoption on our hearts and we believe He has more children for us in Ethiopia. This past November 2008 - two years after the initial call to adoption, one year after our son arrived home - God spoke to us again: God gave us a sense of peace and assured us "I have more children for you." Our now 5-year-old son, Hendrick, tells us we will have 4 more children: "two from the belly and two from Ethiopia"...He's praying, and we will be praying for Ethiopia and our future children.

Children are a heritage from the LORD. Psalm 127:3 Some of God's greatest blessings come to us through our children.

A New Year

New Years Eve at our home: folding laundry while wearing pajamas :)

It seems that with each year, time moves faster...we ask 2009 to please slow down!
If time won't slow down, maybe we can.
We wish to enjoy each moment. The kids are growing so fast! This year, we will no longer be able to say "we have four kids 4 and under". This year we will have a 1, 2, 3, and 5-year-old - oh my!

Watch out 2009, it's going to be a fun year!