Monday, May 14, 2012
He has a name and a face!!:)
I don't know how many people actually look at this blog, but I wanted to put a picture with the letter now that we've made our first trip to Ethiopia and Temesgen has become our son officially!!! He's a beautiful boy with a sweet heart and a lot of soccer skills!:) We are praying it's a crazy short wait until we go back to bring him home- we are so ready to have him with us and I know he's ready to be here too! Here he is..... :)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Blessings for Amy & Shane
Our good friends of many years, Shane & Amy and their boys Jonah, Landon, Abuzaid and Kalid are just weeks away from bringing home a new 8 year old son and brother from Ethiopia (we'll call him "T" since we can't post his full name).
We want to "shower" this family with financial gifts to help with travel expenses as they travel twice to Ethiopia sometime this spring. If this is something you feel called to do, send a Facebook message to Amy or Rachel and we can get you the mailing address. Or email at hornshoe4@yahoo.com.
We hope that all of us together can truly bless this amazing family with gifts to help them on their journey to bring sweet "T" home to his forever family!
We want to "shower" this family with financial gifts to help with travel expenses as they travel twice to Ethiopia sometime this spring. If this is something you feel called to do, send a Facebook message to Amy or Rachel and we can get you the mailing address. Or email at hornshoe4@yahoo.com.
We hope that all of us together can truly bless this amazing family with gifts to help them on their journey to bring sweet "T" home to his forever family!
This is a blog post I, Amy, wrote before we had decided to adopt T. But while I was writing it, it was hitting me that maybe we were supposed to do more than write a post about it. :)
When we first started our paperwork for adoption in December of 2009, we said we’d adopt a child of either gender, under 2 years of age. We didn’t know much about adoption and, to be honest, adopting a younger child seemed ‘safer’. But a couple of weeks into the process, we decided that we didn’t ‘need’ a baby. We knew there were older kids out there who get put on waiting child lists because there aren’t enough people willing to adopt them. I know fear plays a big part in it because we had some of those same fears. There’s a lot of unknown with adoption and thinking of bringing home an older child brings even more unknown- more history you don’t know, more time exposed to the effects of poverty and lack of medical care, more firsts that you miss. I understand all of that, BUT there is another side of it. These children need a home- period. It’s not their fault that they were relinquished later in life. It’s not their fault that they are the age they are. They need a family to love them just as much as the babies and younger kids do.
We set out to bring one child home and assumed it would be a boy since boys tend to be the ones who wait. Well, one boy quickly turned into 2 boys who were brothers- ages 3 and 5. We had 2 biological boys at home who were 6 and 8.
The last 17 months have been wonderful. We were shocked at how well the boys transitioned into our family and into American culture. Our 4 boys are brothers, through and through. They love like brothers and fight like brothers. Lack of language was a fear we had before bringing them home, but that turned out to be not a problem. We just figured out how to communicate with bits of Amharic, signs, and gestures and they quickly picked up English. Their English is not the same as kids their own age yet, but it’s progressing much faster than my Amharic would have!! Abuzaid, who is now 6, started kindergarten a few weeks after he came home and has done so well in school. He’s in first grade now and is a great reader who loves school and loves to learn. Kalid, who is now 4, is in preschool and enjoys every minute of that! We get to talk with them about life in Ethiopia and help them remember and keep that family history.
Of course, it would be wonderful to have known them since they were babies- I’m sure they were adorable and I could guess about their personalities they would’ve had. But, they didn’t need a home when they were babies- they needed us when they were older. We love them immensely and couldn’t imagine our lives without them!
When we first started our paperwork for adoption in December of 2009, we said we’d adopt a child of either gender, under 2 years of age. We didn’t know much about adoption and, to be honest, adopting a younger child seemed ‘safer’. But a couple of weeks into the process, we decided that we didn’t ‘need’ a baby. We knew there were older kids out there who get put on waiting child lists because there aren’t enough people willing to adopt them. I know fear plays a big part in it because we had some of those same fears. There’s a lot of unknown with adoption and thinking of bringing home an older child brings even more unknown- more history you don’t know, more time exposed to the effects of poverty and lack of medical care, more firsts that you miss. I understand all of that, BUT there is another side of it. These children need a home- period. It’s not their fault that they were relinquished later in life. It’s not their fault that they are the age they are. They need a family to love them just as much as the babies and younger kids do.
We set out to bring one child home and assumed it would be a boy since boys tend to be the ones who wait. Well, one boy quickly turned into 2 boys who were brothers- ages 3 and 5. We had 2 biological boys at home who were 6 and 8.
The last 17 months have been wonderful. We were shocked at how well the boys transitioned into our family and into American culture. Our 4 boys are brothers, through and through. They love like brothers and fight like brothers. Lack of language was a fear we had before bringing them home, but that turned out to be not a problem. We just figured out how to communicate with bits of Amharic, signs, and gestures and they quickly picked up English. Their English is not the same as kids their own age yet, but it’s progressing much faster than my Amharic would have!! Abuzaid, who is now 6, started kindergarten a few weeks after he came home and has done so well in school. He’s in first grade now and is a great reader who loves school and loves to learn. Kalid, who is now 4, is in preschool and enjoys every minute of that! We get to talk with them about life in Ethiopia and help them remember and keep that family history.
Of course, it would be wonderful to have known them since they were babies- I’m sure they were adorable and I could guess about their personalities they would’ve had. But, they didn’t need a home when they were babies- they needed us when they were older. We love them immensely and couldn’t imagine our lives without them!
We are Amy and Shane.
In 2009, we were living a ‘normal’ life with our 2 sons Jonah and Landon. But God started speaking to our hearts about His heart for the orphan. So we started the international adoption journey and quickly brought home our newest sons from Ethiopia- Abuzaid and Kalid, who were 3 and 5 at the time. Their transition has been incredible and we have been so content with our little family of 6. We had been praying for all the waiting kids ever since we came home in 2010- praying that families would be open to older kids; praying that these kids (especially the boys) who wait while all the younger kids come and go, would finally be told it was their turn. But we ‘knew’ we were done. We already had 4 boys and Shane is the sole provider at our house. Four boys take a lot of energy and a lot of resources and we felt ok with ‘just’ praying for the boys to find homes.
Then, these amazing adoptive moms from different places around the country started planning an auction to raise funds to bring these boys home. I was in awe of their hearts- the work they were putting in to fight for these boys- to fight for a future for them. They didn’t have to do this- this was something God placed on their hearts and He was behind it all. God used this auction to show my husband and me that He could help us do more than pray. It all seemed so crazy when I first brought it up to Shane- another boy?? 5 boys in our house?? Paying for all the food that 5 teenage boys will eventually be consuming?? How would this all work?? Well, the funny thing is that God has been prepping us for this for a year and a half (as long as T has been in the orphanage). He put the older boys on our hearts to pray for. He blessed us with a larger home that has plenty of space for another child. He has surrounded us with friends and family who love our boys and support us in our journey no matter what we decide to do. He has it all covered.
So we committed this decision to prayer- LOTS of prayer! I asked many friends to join us in prayer. I would look at the waiting boys every day- praying for them. Then one day, when I looked at T, I truly can say that he just looked like my son to me. He looked like he belonged in our family. After some undeniable God moments, Shane decided he should be in our family too.
We know it won’t be easy- there are lots of things about adoption that can be difficult, but there are lots of things about parenting any children that are difficult! We know that all 4 of our boys are behind us 100% and can’t wait to bring their new brother home. We know that God’s heart is for the orphan and that He loves T even more than we do and was rejoicing even more than we were when we decided to bring him home.
You are all a part of T’s story- we will be able to tell him that people from all over the country followed his journey and prayed him home, celebrating that he finally found a family.
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