In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Ephesians 1:5-6
Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl! Helen turns five years old today! She is at Mother's Day Out right now, but this is a picture of her before she left for school. They have been working on the letter "P" this week and today is Pajama day. That is why she still has on her nightgown! They are also having Pizza for lunch! She thinks it is pretty cool that she gets to wear pajamas and have pizza on her birthday! Here she is with our birthday flag this morning! Helen's friend Sophie turned five yesterday, so we got them a cookie with their names on it to share with their friends at school today! Here is a picture that I took of the girls before I left. I'm sure they are having a very fun day!
Just a couple of pictures of Will after his bath! I've been meaning to take some pics of him with his little hoodie towels for some time now, and I finally did it yesterday! I just think babies looks so cute when they are all wrapped up in their bath towels!
Serious cuteness!
And here is Beckett last Saturday morning before his first basketball game. He is playing basketball for the third year and they started their season last week! He had a fun time playing and scored two or three baskets! He is getting so big! Love him!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
New post over at The Slam! Check out Beckett's turkey adventure!
If my research is correct, my title is the way to say Merry Christmas in Amharic. January 7th is the day that they celebrate Christmas (Gena) in Ethiopia and this is based on the Orthodox calendar. I won't claim to understand their calendar, but I continue to try! They are eight years behind the Gregorian calendar. Gena is Ethiopia's main religious occasion with people going to churches for special ceremonies commemorating Jesus Christ's birthday. We have tried to learn a little bit about how they celebrate Gena and we look forward to sharing this with Will as he gets older! In the meantime, I just had fun dressing him up in one of the traditional outfits that we bought for him and taking a few pictures!
Will says, "Melkam Yelidet Beaal!"I thought I'd show two of my favorite things that I purchased when we were in Ethiopia. I love this nativity scene that was handmade by Ethiopian crafters.
I also loved this piece that portrays the birth of Christ as well. The left side closes and the wood on the outside is beautifully carved.
In the future I hope to learn how to cook some Ethiopian foods and we can have some traditional Ethiopian meals to celebrate Gena!
I know that I still need (and want) to post some pics of Christmas, but this was too cute not to go ahead and put on here! Last night while the boys were at BSF, Helen and I tried out her new Easy Bake oven! So fun! She likes to bake with me, but she was beyond excited to use her new oven to bake some goodies for Beckett and Sean! Not only did she receive the Easy Bake oven, but Nana got her the apron, hat and oven mitt to go with it. Here she is modeling her ensemble: Here she is mixing the yellow cake batter. All she had to do was add water! Now this girl can crack eggs and measure all kinds of ingredients, but this was BIG time! I guess it was because it was all hers!
What is the saying? A watched Easy Bake oven never cooks? It seemed like it took forever for that little lightbulb to bake her cake!
I didn't take any pics of her mixing or spreading on the frosting, but here is the final product! She was so proud! She cut it in half and gave the other half to her big brother. He went on and on about how it was the best thing he had ever tasted! So sweet!
I think that she liked it too!
She is going to make brownies tomorrow while Beckett goes to his enrichment class. We'll let you know how it goes!
What a wonderful Christmas celebration we have had at the Harper Hullabaloo! It has been a whirlwind for the last two days....but so worth it! It all began Thursday night when we attended the Christmas Eve service at church. We then came home and the kids put on their new pajamas and set out milk and cookies for Santa! The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicolas soon would be there!
And St. Nick showed up in a big way! Or as Beckett put it, "Santa brought the bomb this year!" (Basically, he brought them each the one thing that they had asked for!) B and H came in our room at 4:30 am on Christmas morning, ready to go check and see what Santa had brought, but we were able to hold them off until 5:30. (old mom and dad needed their sleep!) By 10:00 we were at Sean's mom and dad's house eating breakfast and sharing gifts with family and by 1:00 we were on the road to B-wood to visit with my mom and dad. Granbob got tickets for himself, Sean and Beckett to go see the Titans play on Christmas night against the Chargers. They had a blast! It was a LONG day, but a very good one! I'll post more pics and tell a little more about our Christmas in a day or so, but just wanted to share this cutie pic of the kiddos! Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!
Just last night, Sean and I were talking about Will and the "what ifs" and the "whys". What if Will was still in Ethiopia? What if his birth father had not relinquished him for adoption? What would have happened to him? Why us? Why did God choose our family for Will? So many questions that we will never fully understand. Yet we are so unbelievably thankful for this opportunity to be involved in His plan for our family and for the orphans!
It was brought to my attention this morning that our amazing agency, All God's Children International, has a new video on their website about being the voice for the voiceless. There are so many children with no family, no hope for a future and they need us to speak for them. Maybe God is speaking to your family about adoption. Maybe you can help by providing funds for orphan care. Maybe you or your family could serve the children by going on a mission trip. If God is speaking to you in some way, I encourage you to join Him! You will be blessed!
We are so thankful that we obeyed the call and that Will is a part of our family. It has been six months and it is hard to remember life without him! But I was reminded this morning. Reminded of how far he has come in the 8 months that we have "known" him. At 1:19 in the video, you can see Will's referral picture. I almost didn't recognize him even though I stared at that picture for weeks! He was so tiny and under-nourished; a result of the extreme poverty that so many of the families face in Ethiopia. Let us not forget the voiceless. My prayer is that even though we are home with Will and that he is thriving, that we will not forget what we saw. That we will continue to be a voice for the voiceless and speak to others about how we can all help. Deuteronomy 4:9 says, "Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." That is my prayer.
(If you would like to watch the video, you can mute the play-list at the bottom of the page. You can also see Sean and the top of Will's little head toward the end of the video when Kristi is meeting LL for the first time. We had just met Will right before she met LL and we were able to share that special time with them!)
Helen's friend Sophie turned five yesterday, so we got them a cookie with their names on it to share with their friends at school today! Here is a picture that I took of the girls before I left. I'm sure they are having a very fun day!
Just a couple of pictures of Will after his bath! I've been meaning to take some pics of him with his little hoodie towels for some time now, and I finally did it yesterday! I just think babies looks so cute when they are all wrapped up in their bath towels!
Serious cuteness!
And here is Beckett last Saturday morning before his first basketball game. He is playing basketball for the third year and they started their season last week! He had a fun time playing and scored two or three baskets! He is getting so big! Love him!
