Little M's Journal

Yesterday the little man drew this in his journal. He continues to be so excited and thinks of them so often. We can't wait to see them all together. 

Paper Love

We sent the last of the paperwork off today and with it went some love from the little man to his brother and sister. 

Ways You Can Help

With the match of a sibling set, our adoption costs have now doubled. We are going to be doing everything we can to raise the additional funds. If you are interested in joining us in this endeavor  please see the ways you can get involved below.

Click on the image above to visit our Just Love Coffee storefront. Anytime you shop under our page (Woven Together By Love) and purchase coffee, we will receive a portion of the proceeds. We also have the ability to offer paper ordering forms that you could share with friends, your office or church. Let us know if you are interested! You can also click on the button to the right of this message and access the page through our blog. 

We will be doing another fundraising garage sale this summer. If you have any items that you would like to donate to the sale or feel like sharing your muscles and time the day of the sale, let us know!

We will be trying to come up with some more creative ways to raise funds and will keep you posted along the way! You are also welcome to share as you see appropriate. We appreciate all the help!

Celebrating Mother's Day

Jody Landers wrote:

Children born to another woman call me “Mom.” The magnitude of that tragedy and the depth of that privilege are not lost on me.

This so eloquently sums up the bittersweet feelings that I experience each year on this holiday. Although I greatly appreciate the recognition and honor, it is also completely humbling to reflect on the privilege and opportunity to raise this little man, and someday in the future our two sweet babes, knowing that they were and are all so loved by two very beautiful women that would have loved to celebrate this day with them.

The First Purchase for Sweet M.

It has felt like a whirlwind of events since Tuesday and I keep asking myself if this is really all happening. 

Sometimes it almost seems too good to be true. 

So today, while out with a friend I allowed myself to make a small purchase for our sweet babe, M. 

I would be lying if I said I am not nervous about raising a daughter. It somehow feels so much more scary to me than raising a herd of boys. 

I want so badly to do right by her and not screw it up.

Dear sweet M, I hope the weight of the world you feel on your shoulders is someday much lighter. 

Love you little girl.

A Story to Remember

As you may recall from this post, we had recently encountered a difficult moment in this adoption journey. Sometimes if felt as if we were hanging on by a thread. We knew God had said to adopt from Ethiopia again - we had even spent 40 days fasting last spring to confirm that we had indeed heard correctly. We knew that we were deeply connected to Ethiopia and couldn't fathom walking away from this country, so we kept waiting, but the waiting was so hard at times and a true test of our patience and faith.

When we began this adoption journey two plus years ago, it was because our little man had been daily praying for his brother and sister. Initially we thought these prayers were cute. Then after several months of consistent prayers from him, we began to take time to pray and consider and that is what led us into starting our second adoption.

Fast forwarding through October of 2010 to September of 2012, when I awoke early one morning after having a dream. I can't tell you all of the details, but what I do remember is walking behind two little children toward M. and having such a sense of urgency to update our home study to include two children. Later that day I called our state agency and found out that despite someone in the office previously telling us we could not accept the referral of a sibling group, that we indeed could! So we began another round of chasing papers, getting things updated, and getting to know our local postal workers.

Now fast forward to this spring. After our most recent experience, we weren't necessarily praying that anything would happen soon, just that it would happen in a way that would allow for us to know without a doubt that this would be a story our family would be woven into. Around the first week of April, I started feeling such an urgency to be praying for our next referral. This urgency would come while I was teaching, preparing dinner, or in the middle of the night. I started composing emails to friends and family and yet they remained in my drafts folder because I couldn't quite articulate all that I was feeling.

On the evening of May 1st, after putting our little man to bed, Micah and I sat down to talk. Our conversation eventually led to the things we would like to accomplish this summer and what projects we should do on the house. As that list began to grow, we started to feel overwhelmed and shortly after Micah suggested that we maybe begin looking at some different homes to have a better understanding of our options. The thought of this made me sad. I love our home, the work we have put into it, the tree we planted in M's honor, the fact that it was our first home and where we brought M home to. Even typing this, I get teary eyed thinking about having to leave it behind. However, I also know that what we want to accomplish will demand a lot of my husband and I would much rather spend that time with him. So here is how the week unfolds:

• Wednesday evening - We have a conversation regarding our home and looking for other options
• Thursday - We begin looking at homes online
• Friday - Micah shows me pictures of a home he found online that he really likes, I have a conversation with a dear friend about the process of selling a home by owner
• Sunday - We look at a few houses with some friends, one being the house Micah found online. He loves it. After Micah finishes teaching at church we head home and make the decision to put our house up for sale by owner.
• Monday - We begin touching up the house and while working in the kitchen Micah tells me, "You are usually the emotionally led person, but I just have such a strong feeling that this house (the one he found online Friday) is the home that we are suppose to live in. 
• Tuesday - 
• In the middle of teaching, my phone rings - it is our adoption agency. I let it go to voice mail.
• After a full day of teaching I head home to meet with a gentleman giving us a bid on house work. Thirty minutes after he leaves, I am meeting with the realtor for a market analysis. He tells me what he thinks the house is worth and that he potentially has someone that would be interested and pay cash. We also schedule an appointment to do another walk through on the house Micah likes. 
• This whole time I am starting to freak out about how quickly things are moving with our family - we are NOT these people! People that make sudden decisions and big changes to our lives!
• The realtor leaves and I rush off to get the little man from school. As we are walking back to the car, I am explaining to him how will be going to look at a house that evening. We talk about how this move would allow for our family to have a little more room for when his brother or sister comes home. His immediate reply, "You mean when they both come home."
• We start driving home and within 30 seconds I get another call from our adoption agency. I pull over and tell M. that he needs to be quiet because this might be about his brother or sister. His reply, "Tell them I want my babies!" The following conversation went something like this: 

Holt: "Hi, yada, yada, yada - small talk that I can't remember"

Me: Freaking out and trying to control my voice 

Holt: "Well, I am calling because we have a referral for your family."

Me: "Oh wow! Can you tell me about the child?"

Holt: "Well, it is actually two referrals."

Me: "What?! Really?! Well can you tell me about the children?"

Holt: "It is a sibling set. A 4 year old girl and a 2 year old boy."

Me: "A girl and a boy?!" - Uncontrollable sobbing begins

Little M: Raises his fists up in the air and says with such joy, "I told you they had my babies!!!!"

After the phone call ended, M. and I headed to Micah's work to share the news. Of course, I started by telling him about the house and what the realtor had shared. Then the little man was able to tell his Aba the exciting news. Micah could hardly believe it and immediately wanted to see pictures of the two babes. 

Our family, overwhelmed with excitement and shocked, had very little time to process as we rushed off to the house appointment. As the evening wore on, we were able to share the news with family and some friends - the whole time feeling amazed at our little man's faith that this is what would happen!

We feel so honored that we have been invited into this beautiful story and that our families journey will be woven together with these two beautiful children. Despite the odds, regardless of "the rules", God showed himself by answering the consistent prayers of our son M. Now we pray that this story captures the beauty of who God is and offers hope and encouragement. We certainly know that not a day will go by, when we look at the faces of these two babes and are reminded of the incredible ways in which God works.