Life Unexpected

Today marks four weeks since we became a forever family with Biruk and three weeks since we have been back on US soil.  It feels like we have had him forever!  He is smiling, crawling (almost at a flying speed), pulling himself up to stand up, laughing like crazy, babbling, and growing with every minute.  We are taking in every moment we get and just soaking it up.  That being said...this mommy is exhausted (which is a whole new blog post for another time)!  I feel like I am behind on just about everything, including blogging about our trip to Ethiopia which took place almost a month ago.  Despite the lack of blogging, not a day goes by where I don't think about Ethiopia.  It's always on my heart and on my mind, and I still continue to occasionally pinch myself when I look at that sweet little Ethiopian baby that we now call our son, grateful for all that took place in Ethiopia. While I wish that I could sit down with every person in the world and sh...

Three hours is an awful long time to think.  Especially when you are going to pick up the child you have been dreaming about for what seems like your entire life.  Not only were we instantly going to become a forever family, but this would be the day that we would have the chance to meet Biruk's birth mom.  While I had never met her before and I knew very little about her, I had found myself praying for her all the time.  I had prayed for peace.  I had prayed for healing.  I had prayed that God would just embrace her with all of his love.  And as we drove through the windy roads of Ethiopia that morning, I prayed that I would find the right words to say to the woman who had given us the greatest gift we had ever received...a son that we would love for the rest of our life. We arrived at the orphanage and assumed that we would meet Biruk's birth mom in a neutral setting, not at the orphanage.  We entered the gate and rather than start with a me...

How do you put into words a description of the day that you have been dreaming about for 8 years?  I have held off writing this blog post, partly because I am now a mom (limited time...and when you have the time, you are tired!), and partly because I think I am still processing.  July 22, 2013 will forever be in my heart as a day that changed my life in one of the best ways possible...the day we brought home our son.  You can dream forever about wanting something to take place, but when the reality hits that it is actually taking place...it almost feels surreal.  Becoming a forever family has been just that.  I have to pinch myself at night to remind myself, "This is real!  There is a baby in your house.  And he is yours...FOREVER!"  I have to remind myself, this isn't just a story I heard from someone else.  This is our story.  It's the story we have been dreaming about.  It's the ending we have been praying for, for what seems...

We had decided to go to Ethiopia several days early to spend a little time exploring Biruk's country.  We had no idea what we were going to do, who we were going to hang out with, or where we would explore.  The first day we spend resting at the guest house.  In case you didn't catch the description of the guest house our last trip, I have decided it's like teen camp for adults!  Seriously...it is the greatest place on earth!!!  The guest house is literally a house run by Birtukan, an Ethiopian woman who is absolutely amazing.  Birtukan was sponsored as a child through World Vision and decided when she grew older, she was going to make a difference in one child's life.  She now has an amazing ministry you can check out here:   http://yezelalemminch.org/ .  She is one of the most inspiring women I have ever met.  Birtukan and her husband not only run this ministry, but they also run the guest house, which primarily houses families who a...

It's been almost two weeks since we picked up our son, Biruk.  Even as I write those words, it feels surreal. I have waited to blog about our trip, partially because we have had major jet lag since being home, but mainly because I feel like there is so much that I want to express, paint a picture of, capture, and put into the perfect words, that it is overwhelming.  God's goodness is overwhelming.  God's faithfulness is overwhelming.  God's grace is overwhelming.  And often words don't do that justice.  So I will start from the beginning and hope that in the end of writing about our 10 day journey, the world will not only fall in love with a little boy named Biruk, who is now our son, but will fall in love with the God we serve, who has remained forever faithful and who continues to write an unbelievable story for our life. I believe my last blog post was us leaving our vacation with our family in New Jersey and heading home for the night to pick up som...

I can’t believe we are leaving for Ethiopia in less than 10 hours.  After an amazing week of vacation with our family in Stone Harbor, NJ, we “circled up (as my Grandma used to call it)” for prayer, stopped one last time at Springers, our favorite ice cream shop, and said a tearful goodbye to our family.  This time the tears were not of heartache or hurting, but of excitement, anticipation, and indescribable joy.  Side note…our family cheered as we walked away from them.  I seriously felt like we were leaving our wedding ceremony and heading off on our honeymoon.  I guess this honeymoon will have to include a lot of stinky diapers, a lot of baby learning, and a reunion with the cutest baby in the world…our son Biruk. We have no idea what the next two weeks will look like.  We have been imagining the day for what seems like forever and it almost seems surreal that it has finally come.  We have no idea what to expect, but I think that’s ok.  ...

We just returned from our Annual Progressive Dinner on the Boardwalk.  By “we”, I mean Nate, my two sisters, and my two brother-in-laws.  Several years back Nate and I decided that we would literally eat our way down the boardwalk.  We stopped at whatever food stands we wanted, tried new snacks, bought desserts we had never tried before and called it our “progressive dinner.”  A few years ago, Nate and I decided to invite my sisters and their husbands along for the adventure (knowing they were dying to go), but made sure they understood that whatever we ate…they had to eat too, even if it didn’t sound good.  Tonight was no exception as we ate pizza, fries, water ice, custard, chip-sticks, corn on the cob and more. I love my family.  I have said it before and I will say it for the rest of my life…I love my family.  We were in Laura’s Fudge Store tonight, each ordering something for “dinner,” when my brother in law, John, bit into his chocolate co...