Life Unexpected

Tonight I had one of those "tear up because you are overflowing with gratitude" moments, right at the start of the Varsity Volleyball game.  We had just finished the JV game and I was doing was has become routine this season.  I was hanging out with my little man, snatching what few seconds I could get with him before the Varsity game.  Nate was talking with a family who had been following our story for quite some time, while Biruk was crawling at lightening speed across the gym floor as our girls got ready to warm up.  Then the music started.  I looked over and there was Biruk, in one of his newly made volleyball onesies, sitting on the gym floor with this huge smile on his face, "dancing" to the beat of the music.  This mama was overwhelmed with God's goodness. The past several years of our journey, there have been a lot of difficult moments, and for some reason, many of them came during volleyball season.  Whether it was seeing what seemed to be every

When I was about 15, I tried out for my very first volleyball team.  I knew nothing about volleyball.  The only knowledge I had was "gym class volleyball" (which no offense, is the WORST kind of volleyball).  My sophomore year of high school, a friend had encouraged me to try out for the JV team.  I figured it wouldn't hurt to try, but also reminded myself that the chances of me making the team were slim to none.  To my surprise, after 3 days of tryouts, the list was posted and I had made it.  That year I would spend most of my time warming the bench. The following year, after living in Upstate New York for 12 years, God called our family to Bel Air, Maryland, where my Dad would serve as Pastor.  I would start my Junior year in a totally new school, one that was double the size I came from, one where I knew no one, one that would shape me in ways I couldn't have imagined.  As a junior, I knew the chances of me making the volleyball team were once again slim, and

I t has been 6 weeks since we have been home, which is incredibly hard to believe.  It feels like just yesterday that we were in Ethiopia, staring at a small crib that held a tiny boy we would soon call our son.  It’s even harder to believe that we now get to tuck that little guy in and call him our own…EVERY NIGHT.  I have had the privilege of being on maternity leave for the past 6 weeks.  My church was extremely gracious to go above and beyond in not only giving me 8 weeks maternity leave, but paying me during that time as well.  Those weeks have been an incredible blessing that Nate and I have tried to take advantage of as much as possible.  Prior to getting the call that we had been matched with the cutest baby boy in Ethiopia (which I am pretty sure no one can argue with us now that the world has met Biruk), we had spent a lot of time talking about what we wanted our life to look like as a family.  Nate and I knew that we wanted to do everything possible to bond with our n