Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

We keep having power issues. We've had 2 days within the past week and a half that we've not had power for over 24 hours, and it's been sporadic off and on since then.

Safety continues to be at the top of the list. It seems we hear more and more about car accidents, robberies, and now terrorist threats.

We are trying to sort out some logistics concerning traveling to Ethiopia with all the kids and then on to the US for our home assignment. Please pray we can figure it all out!


Praise~

Our family will be here in 17 days!!

We had a great weekend together!

Our church tent has been packed for about the past month! There isn't enough room for everyone to sit down until the children leave for children's church!

New Family Picture

We took some pictures after church yesterday to try to get a good one to put in Ezra's photo album. I think this is the very last one we took. Nathan was tickling Ruth's tummy to get her to smile. :) 

Pool Fun

Adoption Update

Well, there isn't any new news to update you on since last week. However, we have booked our room at a guest house in Addis Ababa. Yay! We're getting things accomplished. We've also been corresponding with another CWA family that will travel the same time we do for their March 29 court date. We are both booked at the same guest house. So it should be fun to meet another family traveling when we are!

We've also ordered matching adoption t-shirts for our whole family to wear when we come off the plane in the US! Minus 1 Project is selling some great shirts for an awesome price.

Speaking of coming off the plane in the US, it looks like we will all be arriving in the US with Ezra. We will have paperwork and readoption things to take care of on our home assignment before we head back to Kenya. We are excited about being there during the summer. Nathan is super excited to get to ride his bike and we are all excited about possibly going to the beach!

I think that's all the adoption news we have for now. We are down to a one month wait for meeting Ezra! We are S.U.P.E.R excited!

Really?

Is our Ruth really big enough to be riding a bicycle? Where did my baby girl go?

Sweet Friends: Updated

Last night, we had Chris and Emma and their precious family over for dinner. They are our friends from our old neighborhood. Our kids just have a blast together! 

 They appear so calm here. Other than John. But dinner was quite a hoot. The adults at the big table could hardly hear ourselves talking a couple of times. But man were they having fun. :)

 Here is the newest addition to our brood of children. Baby Ethan is about 7 weeks old. Isn't he just adorable?! I love babies!! BTW, notice Ethan is not really dark, it's just my skin that is so light that makes him look dark. ;)

 These crazy kids were wrestling after dinner. They did a pretty good job of not getting hurt.

 Before they left, Ruth asked to play Ring Around the Rosie. It's her favorite game lately. 

What a great visit we had! It was nice to be able to relax and not worry so much about the kids behavior because we are both in the same stages of child rearing. We'll have to do this more often!

Alright, so I've been called out for not posting the falling down picture. ;) Here you go, Emma! I will give away my secret. Mommy always strategically plans to find a nice, soft seat to "fall down" on. Nathan just figured it out last night as he was taking the pictures. Ha, ha. Mommies have to have some perks, right?

Ripe

Remember that avocado from a few posts ago? Yeah. They are awesome! We cut one up last night to make guacamole for our mexican dinner. It was absolutely gorgeous! It made a whole cereal bowl full of guac. And it was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s!

Wordless Wednesday

The Container!

Yep. That long awaited. And I mean long awaited container. Like over a year of waiting. A.R.R.I.V.E.D.! Nathan called me yesterday around 1pm to tell me to get the van keys ready because he was riding his bike home to get the van. The container was supposed to be delivered to the hangar Tuesday afternoon. And it was! He helped unload the 40ft container all afternoon and loaded our stuff into the van to bring home. It all fit except for the slide and Preston brought that home for us. We opened the slide and the kids thought that was GRAND! They didn't know about any of the other stuff in the van so we left that until after they went to bed. 

 Nathan put John and Dinah's new bicycles together and I forgot to take a picture. It was like Christmas Eve around here Tuesday night. We were up until midnight with Nathan putting the bikes and playhouse together. Here he is working on the playhouse.

My extremely tired Hubby working hard for his kiddos!

 The new bikes. Dinah's is a 16" and John's a 14". If we had known the container was going to take so long to get here, we would've ordered a 16" for John as well. Oh, well. 

 Daddy inside the house putting it together.

 And the beloved slide! I think Ruth is enjoying it the most.

 The first time in the playhouse. And boy is it a hit!

 Many hours of imaginative play have already happened in the house! Love them!

 And trying out the new bike. Don't worry. They always wear their helmets when they are outside our compound.

 John giving his a try. These bikes have taken some adjusting. Kenyan bikes have hand brakes. Even on the kids bikes. So the coaster brakes on the American brakes have taken some getting used to. But they have done great. They are both getting the hang of it.

 Ruth and the slide. 

 The playhouse has a doorbell that gets pushed countless time per day. :)

Ruth decided to climb over the side instead of using the door. They all thought that was the funniest thing. Crazy kids. Gotta love 'em! 

For now they are enjoying the bikes, slide, and playhouse. They don't know Mommy and Daddy have a sandbox and kitchen hiding for when these grow old. :)