Five Lewis Crew

wordless wednesday

2012-02-01T12:17:00.002-06:00

overheard at our house today {big sister edition}

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-06:00

izzy (while watching micah be silly and belly-laugh his way through a game): mommy, thank you so much for bringing micah home. he's my favorite baby!!

that's good stuff, people.

wordless wednesday (best buds)

2012-01-04T20:27:00.000-06:00

overheard at our house today (baptism)

2011-12-29T10:41:00.000-06:00

only you fellow brook hillers will be able to fully appreciate this...

izzy (reading her testimony from inside the storage ottoman/baptism pool): my name is izzy lewis, and i'm almost four years old. i came to know christ not long ago. when i met him he said, "izzy, what are you doing here?" and i said, "jesus, i need your help finding the gruffalo."

abby: well it's now my privilege to baptize you - my sister in christ - in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.

buried with christ...

and raised to walk in newness of life!!!!!

wordless wednesday (why i have a hard time getting a workout done)

2011-12-21T14:46:00.000-06:00

EEEK! it's one of our favorite christmas traditions...

2011-12-15T20:49:00.000-06:00

wordless wednesday

2011-12-14T07:00:00.002-06:00

silent night

2011-12-13T10:59:00.000-06:00

and the answer is no. it's not that uncommon to find izzy asleep with a "baby in her belly". :-)

wordless wednesday (a watched pot...)

2011-12-07T14:40:00.001-06:00

wordless wednesday (leaf piles)

2011-11-30T07:00:00.001-06:00

hope fulfilled

2011-11-29T15:07:00.000-06:00

i know you're probably surprised to hear from me. after all, as my mom pointed out recently, it has been close to two months since i've written. i've accepted that because of the nature of my business, this little blog will probably have some major peaks and valleys, but as the fall rush is gradually slowing i'm ready to once again overwhelm your eyeballs with photos of my darlings.

but first...

josh and i decided this year to do something "christmas-y" with the kids each day between now and christmas. we've got a handful of things already on the calendar - baking cookies, watching "rudolph", attending christmas concerts - but the first order of business was getting our tree up as soon as we got back home from our thanksgiving travels. so yesterday we pulled the truckload of boxes out of the closet and set to work. we assembled the tree, hung the lights, and started on the slew of ornaments. the little ones excitedly grabbed handfuls of them out of the "kid box" while i gingerly unwrapped the ornaments out of the "super-special-please-don't-break-these" box. i gently picked up one of my very favorites and turned it over to read the back for the 1000th time - for your child known only by god. then like i have every year since 2005, i wept for the child we lost that year.

like she has with every little one that has ever been a part of our family, my mom cross-stitched a special gift particularly for that baby and i hang the ornament in a prominent place on the tree each christmas. but this year, as my mind moved from the loss of our second child all those years ago to judah's death last year, i couldn't help but wipe the tears and smile with joy as i remembered a post i wrote last christmas. the sixth stocking is a story of grief and hope - grief over the tremendous loss our family had just experienced but hope that in the next year the lord would bless us with a child. this is the third year that we've hung six stockings on our mantle but it's the first year that our house has been home to six people. and now, just inches from that first ornament made by my mom is another that she recently gave us...

praising god for his faithfulness!

weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

psalm 30:5

overheard at our house today (the gospel edition)

2011-10-02T21:19:00.001-05:00

abby (while praying): god, please be with all the people who don't know you in china and ethiopia. and in wisconsin.

later while looking at this picture on my phone...

jack: mommy, is that jesus on the cross?
me: no, baby, that's abby in panama city.

wordless wednesday (the mailbox)

2011-09-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

"can i vacuum, please?"

2011-09-27T17:00:00.002-05:00

it's without a doubt izzy's favorite way to serve, and between her and her tongue, they can vacuum a mean floor.

"i did it!!!"

the red plate and two of my men

2011-09-26T22:47:00.000-05:00

the year josh and i got married we moved to nashville, TN for a time of leaving and cleaving. for those of you who know the whole story, you know that unfortunately, nashville wasn't that great to us. but one of the huge gifts that did come during that time was the ability to spend a lot of time with my cousin and her husband who lived just a hop, skip, and a jump down the road. tracy and todd had this particular tradition that they had done within their own family for a while, and when we got married they passed it on to us.

the red plate.

what's the red plate, you ask? well, it's not much more than a. red. plate. it's more about the who and why of the red plate that makes this tradition so wonderful. anyone who's experiencing something special - a birthday, the first missing tooth, first day of school, anything - gets to eat their meals that day off of the red plate. and today was jack's turn - because our big boy turned FIVE YEARS OLD today!!

if you can't tell, jack's stuffing his face with a blueberry muffin (filled with five candles, of course!) before we jetted out the door this morning for our second big event of the day. another precious man in my life was celebrating a big milestone as well because as of friday evening this week, my dad will officially be a retiree! his secretary had put together a celebration with several members of his police department and josh, me, my mom, my sister, and our combined seven little people were invited to attend.

no, the lunch wasn't at the mcdonald's play place, but judging by that crew, it probably should have been. :-)

**tracy, in case you're wondering, that IS the original red plate that you gave us as a wedding gift eleven years ago. anytime we've moved it's gotten packed with the 'very important and breakable' box so it doesn't get damaged. and since i didn't feel comfortable carting it into the restaurant for daddy's big manly retirement party, i'll be serving him some goodies on it this weekend.**

the night owl strikes again

2011-09-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

we arrived in marietta on saturday afternoon only to realize that we'd left half our baby gear at home. we didn't forget to put it in the car...we just flat forgot we'd need it. you'd think we've never traveled with a baby before. but one of the joys of mine and josh's younger siblings now birthing babies as well is that they tote around much of the same gear we do. and not only is their gear nicer (let me tell you, a lot's changed in the last three years!) but their younger brains work better than ours so they actually remember to pack what they'll need.

one of the didn't-make-the-trip items was the baby monitor. since all four of our little peeps were sleeping in one room while josh and i were down the hall in another room, we thought we should make a wal-mart run to get a backup monitor in case micah protested his first night away from home. but before we could make it out the door, josh's sister, rebekah, offered us her ultra-swanky video monitor.

ummm, hello!

i'll admit that this thought has crossed my mind before: a video monitor? really?!? what do you do? just sit and watch your baby sleep all night?

YES, and it's fantastic! well, i guess there wasn't much sleeping going on while i was eyeing my littlest two, but i got a sweet glimpse into their world together. and what a cute, funny, precious world it is! (my apologies to all the video-monitor-owners out there that i used to secretly giggle at. you may now return the favor because not only did i watch my babies over the monitor for 30 minutes, i took pictures as well!)

the night owl crept up to micah's crib and whisper-yelled to see if he was awake...

when he responded with an immediate jump to his feet, playtime soon began.

i'm usually a pretty big stickler for bedtime, but for some reason it didn't seem all that important on this night. :-)

where the wild things are

2011-09-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

it's not just a book...it's a place. and i can say with complete certainty now that it's in pine mountain, ga. on our visit to marietta over labor day, josh's family took us on our first "wild animal safari", and we all came home disgustingly filthy...but full of smiles.

if you ask izzy what her favorite part of the day was, she'll tell you with an excited flair that it was the gruffalos. ironically, she'll also ID that as the part she didn't care for so much. but who can blame her? i was thrilled/terrified as well when the massive monsters moved from outside our van window to head-completely-in-breathing-and-slobbering-in-our-faces...

this is when izzy and i almost made a run for it...

sometimes, though, massive heads or expansive horns got in the way of the animals being able to put their whole heads through the window. no worries, though...that's why god made two-foot-long tongues. EEEEK!

and if you're wondering about micah, he wasn't such a fan of the whole mess at first. for all you fellow adoptive parents out there, i know what you're thinking, and in my defense, i had no idea the gruffalos would actually try to get inside the car with us. there was no turning back once we had entered the gates...

but he eventually calmed down in my arms and was content to work the finger-of-much-soothing while he cuddled with grandpam.

you know, now that i think about it, i think the squeals of delight might have been as "exciting" for him as anything else. see for yourself - and enjoy jack's bull's-eye at the :32 mark (or should i say bull's-nose)...

wordless wednesday (googly eyes)

2011-09-07T00:30:00.000-05:00

the day is here. the hour has arrived.

2011-09-02T16:11:00.000-05:00

izzy has wanted to be a "ballewina" for as long as her big sister's been donning slippers for her weekly class. and after an entire summer of asking if it was time to go yet, izzy's big day finally arrived and she had her first ballet class this week.

i loved hearing abby encourage izzy and share in her excitement. if only i had a nickel for each time i heard her say, isabel, only ____ more days until you get to start ballet!!

but ballet wasn't the only first this week. we were ecstatic to be asked to join in a homeschool co-op with a couple of sweet friends for this year, and yesterday was the kids' first day at "miss bwook's house".

(please excuse the direct-sun-freak-out my blue-eyed little ones are doing in that last photo.) :-)

music appreciation {lewis style}

2011-08-29T09:55:00.000-05:00

jack got his red guitar fixed this week, and our ears are all bleeding a little now because of it. we finally decided to take him out in the yard so the whole neighborhood could partake in the joy, and i shot a couple of minutes of concert video. in loading the video into my movies folder, i saw a bit of a theme that i'd like to share with you. please enjoy music appreciation: lewis style.

my favorite moments:
the acrobatic feat at 0:46
the sudden burst of hunger at 0:54
jack's transformation from 1:14 to 1:25
and finally, the lumberjack-esque dance at 1:42.

birthmarks {playing bride}

2011-08-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

birthmarks {rock soup on a sunny day}

2011-08-26T07:00:00.001-05:00

wordless wednesday (homeschool funnies)

2011-08-24T23:00:00.001-05:00

birthmarks {learning to do "man-work"}

2011-08-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

and now for the girly-girl version of yardwork...

the anniversary

2011-08-22T10:58:00.000-05:00

i woke up before the sun had yet risen thinking about him, but there were no tears, no falling apart. just that quiet sadness that's forever mingled with a contented peace.

last saturday was the one year anniversary of judah's death.

i was in memphis shooting anna and scott's wedding, and i knew that the whole day would be a whirlwind of activity and excitement. i thought that would probably be best. in fact, between getting out of the hotel, inhaling breakfast after a snafu at the local cracker barrel, making a wrong turn on the way to the church (my precious second-shooter, anna rootie, and i aren't the best navigators), and running around getting everything set up once we arrived, i truly hadn't had much time beyond those first early-morning moments to think about him or about what august 13 had held for our family just one year ago.

as i usually do, i met and chatted with some of the other wedding vendors for the day and ended up in conversation with the florist who was wrapping up the final details on her gorgeous work. as she was preparing to leave, she asked if i would do her a favor. sure, i replied.

there's one more set of flowers right here, but i don't have a name for who it belongs to. it's for a friend of anna's who lost her son last year at this time. anna asked if i would make it the same as the others but add a single blue rose in the center. would you mind helping me find who this belongs to?

as she looked away from the flowers to my face, my tears gave it away. i think that friend might be me, i said quietly. she put her hands over her mouth and said, i didn't know. i'm so sorry. i thanked her over and over for her beautiful work and assured her that the tears were all sweet now. yes, they still come easily when i talk a lot about judah, but crying doesn't necessarily mean anything bad. it just means i'm feeling.

thank you, anna, for such a precious and thoughtful gift to me on such an amazing day for you. i treasure the many calls and messages you've sent me throughout our adoption journey, and i'm so thankful for your constant encouragement. i love you, friend.

wordless wednesday (this is what happens when i let jack feed the baby)

2011-08-10T07:30:00.000-05:00

speaking of isabel...

2011-08-09T14:07:00.001-05:00

izzy may have gotten her blonde hair and blue eyes from her daddy, but there's one thing that for sure came straight from her momma...the night owl gene. the norm is for izzy to be awake looking at books, playing with her babies, or singing away in her bed (remember the christmas carols?) hours after everyone else is in dreamland. recently she's added a new twist to the nighttime excitement, though...

i went to check on the little ones a few nights ago before i went to bed and found abby, jack, and micah sleeping soundly in their beds (very soundly for one little guy in particular)...

i was expecting to find izzy in her normal position (a la favorite-blue-blankie-draped-across-the-face)...

but instead, i found an empty bed. she wasn't in the bathroom, she wasn't in her closet, she wasn't anywhere. contrary to how these pictures look, it's really dark in the kids' rooms (i just use a super-sonic flash to take these...daring, i know) so as my eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, i could see a lump on the floor at the bottom of her bed. found her.

that one was good, but the next night was even better...

nowhere near her blankie or her book (or her BED, for that matter)...but sleeping soundly.

once again, though, i don't think her daddy minded very much at all.

besides, she seems to be in good company...

overheard at our house today (drama)

2011-08-08T10:57:00.000-05:00

izzy (screaming from the next room): aaghhhh!! mommy, hurry! there's a big spider on my leg.
me (running through the kitchen to grab a paper towel): i'm coming, baby!
izzy: oh hurry, please!! it hurts so bad!!!!!!!!!!!
me (arriving to see the nastiness on her lower leg but unable to get down to it because i'm holding a sick baby): quick, put your leg up here and let me get it off.

me: izzy, it's a dried cranberry.

the importance of flushing

2011-08-02T15:49:00.000-05:00

lots of us have funny photos that look a little something like this...

but i hope that none of you have had the experience of finding what i did today. while preparing lunch this afternoon, micah went missing. i be-bopped around the living room and school room area until i finally discovered him in the bathroom...eating used toilet paper out of the potty that some other little person had forgotten to flush.

really wish i was making this up...

wordless wednesday

2011-07-27T14:12:00.001-05:00

birthmarks {the way they sleep}

2011-07-26T14:08:00.000-05:00

sometimes it's sweet...

sometimes it's messy...

a lot of times it's upside down...

but it's never boring.

that's ok...it gives daddy one last cuddle with them each night before we head to bed ourselves.

that's what happens when we wake up with nothing to do

2011-07-25T21:54:00.000-05:00

two things have been the topic of conversation around here recently: finding a time to travel to my grandmother's house for a visit and josh's craving for williamson brothers barbeque. so when we woke up this past saturday with no schedule, no sessions, no plans - nothing! - we made an impromptu decision to kill two birds with one stone. we headed to the booming metropolis of eastaboga as well as had a delish all-you-can-eat meal at williamson brothers - just outside of atlanta.

yes, it's true...we drove to georgia for lunch. we don't ever do stuff like that, and it was such a fun memory (despite my pitiful attempts at a full-fam photo)!!

clearly micah's got a lot to learn about having a photographer momma. he thought our cute photo op was time for a round of "head, shoulders, knees, and toes"...with the emphasis on head.

some of the damage (josh is a pro at this)...

and the day wouldn't be complete without a picture of my sweet meme...

and my sweet tootles on our way home.

birthmarks {big shoes, little feet}

2011-07-21T14:23:00.000-05:00

birthmarks {the beginning}

2011-07-20T18:15:00.001-05:00

i can remember vividly one of the moments that brought me to the point of confession. i was changing micah's clothes a few weeks back, and as i pulled his shirt up over his chunky tummy, i noticed something i hadn't before.

a birthmark. something given to him by the lord that makes him unique, something that makes him who he is.

my first thought was, how in this world has he been home with us for a month now and i'm just now noticing his birthmark? yes, bringing baby #4 home has certainly been unique from our first three experiences. we weren't able to spend those early weeks with micah doing nothing more than rocking, cuddling, and studying his features, which was even more reason to slow down now that he's home. i want to be a mom who notices the freckle on her six-year-old's right pointer finger and the birthmark behind her four-year-old's right ear.

or the tiny mark on her new baby's belly.

so here's what's on my heart: the lord has given me this precious family, and everyday for us holds something unique, something that makes us who we are.

kind of like birthmarks. they're the things i want to notice and the things i want to remember.

it's too late for wordless wednesday...

2011-07-13T19:05:00.001-05:00

UPDATED BELOW. the two-seconds-later photo might be even better than the first! it warms my heart to see izzy, the former baby-of-the-house, so ecstatic about her new baby brother's accomplishment.

guess who took his first steps tonight?!? WHOO-HOOOOOO!!!!!

a lewis reunion

2011-07-13T13:49:00.000-05:00

as i mentioned before, we now have a big one-year-old in our house. typically around here a first birthday calls for a big celebration equipped with all of our family, balloons, cake, goodies, and a loud rendition or two of the "happy birthday" song. having only been home a few weeks, though, micah wasn't quite ready for such hoopla, so we opted for a quiet day at home. but it wasn't without its fun...in fact, we had a huge treat in getting a visit from much of josh's family who came in from connecticut and florida for the day.

micah got to meet many of his family members for the first time on his birthday...

while the rest of us were able to catch up since the last time we got to be together.

don't worry, micah still got his sugar.

and aunt jaci and uncle greg might have even taught him a little birthday dance.

the day was made even more special by the fact that micah wasn't the only new baby to join us this year. baby hadley was a doll, and we were all so thrilled to meet her.

we love you guys!!

wordless wednesday (who needs swim diapers?)

2011-06-28T23:30:00.000-05:00

sugar's newest fan

2011-06-28T14:13:00.002-05:00

while abby was visiting at my parents' house over the weekend, she and my mom set their baking skills to work and made a slew of cupcakes in honor of micah's first birthday.

unsure led to like led to love led to carnage.

and a nice glass of milk to wash it all down.

june 27

2011-06-27T07:00:00.004-05:00

we landed in ethiopia the second time on a beautifully bright tuesday morning. we gathered our luggage, loaded everything into the driver's van, and he drove us through dusty, rocky, people-filled streets to the gates of acacia village. the bald, toothless baby that had met us there just three months earlier now had a head full of hair and two darling teeth peeking up from his gums. but something else had changed, too. his smiley, go-with-whatever character seemed different. by this time he had spent more than three months with the nannies at acacia, and he knew them, he loved them, and he wanted them.

the first tears i ever saw my son cry were as the social worker, helen, placed him into my arms.

after a couple of meetings with the nurse and a counselor for some here's-what-he-likes-and-doesn't-like training, the gates closed behind us and we left with micah in our arms. he didn't smile. he didn't even want to look at us.

he cried in the bath...

and even when we were playing, he sucked his finger continuously for comfort.

when we landed back in the states, his sheer exhaustion and the overwhelming excitement of our homecoming proved too much and he fell into tears over and over. (photos courtesy of my sweet friend and fellow photog, lacey, of LB studios)

but then we saw it happening. we saw his expressionless face begin to grin. the grins turned to smiles. the smiles turned to laughter. and after six weeks of having our sweet baby home, he knows the love of a family...

he no longer cries in the bath...

and his tears have been replaced with belly-laughs of joy.

happy first birthday, micah alexander lewis. we love you, we pursued you, and we thank the lord continually for the gift you are to our family.

"god settles the solitary in a home."
psalm 68:6

june 26

2011-06-26T15:21:00.000-05:00

one year ago today, our lives changed dramatically. funny thing is, we had no idea it was even happening.

june 26, 2010 - the day that a painfully small baby was born into the arms of his mother in ethiopia. as most women there do, she labored and delivered him in the difficult conditions of her home, and after naming him after her father, she quietly walked - son in her arms - to the local orphanage and asked them to care for the child she called eyoel.

the world would say that this baby came into existence wrongly by an unknown man who forced his way, took what wasn't his. but i know in my heart that it's so much more than that.

"for you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. i praise you because i am fearfully and wonderfully made."

psalm 139:13-14

four weeks after his arrival at the orphanage, eyoel's paperwork was finally processed and he was given a new family. a new name. we began the final steps in the process of adopting judah alexander lewis as our own.

the lord numbered judah's days at forty-nine here on this earth and the rest will be spent in an eternity with him in heaven.

scripture tells us that god has a plan for each of our lives, but how much can a small, sickly baby really accomplish in a few short weeks? ask these ladies...i bet they've got the answer. we met them because of judah. we love and serve them because the lord graciously ushered them into our lives through judah's death.

as we sang songs of praise this morning at church, tears formed in my eyes as i remembered the immeasurable joy our family had on the day judah was birthed into our lives.

but even more than that, i wept with comfort and anticipation of the promise we also sang about: "hallelujah, he has saved me. sin and death shall reign no more!"

come, lord jesus!

"...weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."

psalm 30:5

confessions

2011-06-24T23:07:00.000-05:00

somewhere along the road i let things start getting out of control.

this blog became more widely read, we left the country a couple of times, my business close to quadrupled, and we added a baby to our family. in turn, my "mismanagement" of those four situations led to these four issues: i began writing as much (or more) for others as i did for us, i returned to the US exhausted, my clients saw more of me than my family did at times, and i wasn't sure i was investing the time i wanted and needed to into our sweet chunkers.

sooo...under the gentle and loving leadership of my fantabulous husband, a couple of things are changing around here.

1. i'm going to do a lot more photo posting and a lot less writing on the ole blog. yes, there will be times that i'll get all gushy and want to say something, but as a rule this is, in essence, a picture scrapbook of my little people's childhood years. so that's that.

2. i'm reworking my business a bit. allison lewis photography isn't going anywhere, but as you'll see when my new site launches, i'm taking a decidedly "bridal turn" because a) i LOVE LOVE LOVE wedding photography. b) even more importantly, though, that business model fits much more appropriately with where i am in this season of life. i desperately want to return to my roles of wife, mommy, and photographer. in that order. but not to worry - what this does NOT mean is that i'm dropping all of my children and family clientele. in fact, i hope to continue working with my existing clients, but i'll only be taking a very limited number of new clients and will be shooting a limited number of sessions per month. (on a very important side note, THANK YOU to the many, many of you who have supported me so much on this crazy photography journey of mine. i really, seriously, completely adore the time i spend with you, and it's wonderful to be trusted with some of the most precious times in your lives!! i'm not complaining at all about the business boom over this last year - just need to make sure my job doesn't take the place of my Job.)

**vulnerable moment of the night: i'm kind of freaking out about putting this out there for everyone to read. my brain is swimming with thoughts of, "what if you lose all your business? you've got to make something!" but this is an issue i've been prayerfully wrestling with for a while now and after talking with josh, my parents, and a couple of trusted friends, i know this is the right move. i'm stepping out in faith and trusting that the lord will help me to reorder my priorities while continuing to provide for our needs.**

speaking of wedding photography, i'd love for you to take a peek at two of the couples (now sweet friends of mine) that i worked with earlier this month HERE and HERE.

but because i'm moving to "less words/more pics" (not that you'd know it by this post), why don't you cast your eyes on these darlings? you know what they say...a watermelon a day keeps the doctor away!

and because i don't have any pics of him with his face buried in a watermelon, here's a favorite of micah...

and now...GOOD NIGHT! (sleep is part of my new plan as well)

wordless wednesday (singing in the rain)

2011-06-22T14:38:00.000-05:00

until LIGHTNING appeared...

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

wordless wednesday (the little mommas)

2011-06-08T23:13:00.000-05:00

overheard at our house today (the girls edition)

2011-06-05T23:00:00.001-05:00

izzy (singing praise and worship music at the top of her lungs): here i am to worship, here i am to bow down, here i am to say that you're my mom.

abby (to me while both standing in the bathroom): mommy, do you hear that?
me: what, baby?
abby: listen (then talking talking talking)
me: i'm not sure what i'm supposed to be hearing, honey.
abby: can't you hear my gecko bouncing off the walls?

me: come here, sweet little girl.
izzy: mommy, i'm not little. i'm tall feet long!!

when "scorching" is the forecast...

2011-06-03T15:32:00.000-05:00

our family loves playing outside in beautiful weather. hiking, biking, paddle-boating - we like just about anything outdoorsy. in the spring and fall, that is. 100+ degree temps, on the other hand, are one way to ensure that we keep our feet firmly planted on the floors of our usually air-conditioned house ("usually" because our upstairs unit pulls a once-a-year summer shutdown on us just to make sure we appreciate it).

but a few days ago the kids and i were climbing the walls and josh had developed a tic from spending the whole workweek in his windowless basement office so we waited until the sun dipped down a bit then we treated our lawn and our kids to some sprinkler time.

one thing i've loved most about this past almost three weeks of having micah home is watching him experience almost everything for the very first time. it's all new and novel, and it's encouraging me to see things in a new light as well. i couldn't wait to see what he thought of the sprinkler.

what? he doesn't look impressed?? he certainly had strong feelings about it...just not the kind i had expected.

jack tried to console him...

and while that did stop the crying, what he really needed was some momma and daddy time.

then he was happy to cheer his siblings on from the sidelines.

i didn't notice it at the time i was snapping these photos, but even the older kids' "sprinkler jumping technique" tells of each of their personalities. take abby, for example. abby is a rule-follower, and she loves to make a beautiful production out of almost everything.

izzy, while she can dig up some huge worms in our backyard, is our girly-girl. she's delicate and sensitive, and she does everything with a sweet touch.

then there's jack. i'm not even going to try to explain him...i'll just trust that you fellow mommas-of-boys understand. :-)

but back to micah's "new and novel" time at home. one of the first things we jumped on when we took custody of him was trying to facilitate some communication abilities between each of us. not only were we trying to overcome a 10-month-old's lack of expressive language, but we were also trying to bridge the gap between the amharic and english languages. here's a short video i took of him at lunch time today that just warms my heart. (thankfully i'm a much better photographer than i am videographer)

HAVE A SUPER WEEKEND!!!!

wordless wednesday (first word?)

2011-05-25T19:23:00.002-05:00

appropriately titled...

2011-05-21T15:44:00.000-05:00

we've been home with micah for one week now, and as i sat down to write a quick blurb about our first seven days together as a family of six, i came up with way more blog titles than i did blog content.

in the throws of our giardia infestation, the award for the most appropriately-titled post went to:
welcome to crazyville! i'm allison, and i'll be your guide today. but thankfully that title no longer seems fitting as the meds have kicked in, the colons have settled, and peace has been restored to our home. the new first-week title should now be something along the lines of this: from crazyville to the place of contentment - it's a beautiful drive.

all in all, bringing micah home this week has ushered in a wonderfully fun and exciting time of transition for our family. have there been bumps and bruises? yes, absolutely there have, and i would never want to give an impression otherwise. adoption is in no way a cakewalk and just because we're past the "getting him home" phase of this journey doesn't mean that we're past any and all tough times. but my little non-blog-readers of today will be the big and knowledgeable readers of tomorrow, so i always try to ensure that i don't write anything that might be hurtful or difficult for them (adopted or otherwise) as teenagers or adults.

so with that said, here are a few of the highlights that stand out the most from our first week together:

giardia is no joke, people. no joke. (that's probably a lowlight rather than a highlight)
micah absolutely knows who his family is - especially his momma. *grin* he'll search me out in a room and crawl as fast as his chunky knees can carry him into my arms.
his siblings adore him. they adore him so much, in fact, that we're now having to do additional heart training on turn-taking and sharing.
the nights are either fantastic - or they're looong. he's slept 11-12 hours straight half the nights home, and he's been awake and upset for some two-hour chunks the other half.
jet lag was nothing this trip. apparently not sleeping most of the time you're in a foreign country helps to keep you from ever settling into the different time zone.
with the exception of the parasite, micah got an incredibly clean bill of health from the pediatrician. after the doc's encouraging comments, we're even more thankful to the staff at acacia village for the effort they put into providing a loving, safe, and healthy environment for our children before they come home.
micah LOVES to swing.
he's not such a fan of baths.
the dreaded first experience with a carseat has been a complete non-issue. thankful for that!
we've been so greatly loved on by friends and family during this process. from the amazing aunt bethany and grandpam who split lewis-child duty on BOTH of our ethiopia trips to the constant stream of amazing dinners we've had pouring in each night, we've been well cared for, and we're so, so thankful for the help and support during this transition.

i'm sure there's so much more that i could write about now, but today's daddyday and my four little people are up from their naps, so i'm out. adios!

we're healed and we're happy

2011-05-20T00:27:00.000-05:00

if you're feeling the need to see some major cuteness, click over to my photography blog. don't say i didn't warn you. :-)

the petri dish known as my house

2011-05-17T19:12:00.000-05:00

we apparently brought two things back from africa: the cutest baby boy ever...and a parasite.micah's had some, um, "symptoms" since we picked him up last week, and despite my intense efforts at excessive hand-washing and lysoling, the parasite won out and i caught it. (i'd like to think that 32 hours of travel - most of which was spent on a crowded plane with african water that you're not supposed to use - had something to do with that.)

then this is what our afternoon has looked like...

yep, the girls have the northern hemisphere version of the bug (and jack's complaining of belly pain, too). and micah? he can explode a mean diaper, but he's as happy and precious as ever.

here's a little something that was supposed to post last week while we were gone. it didn't show up for some reason, and i thought tonight was a good time to put it up.

because if i don't laugh, i'll cry.

day one and counting

2011-05-15T22:23:00.001-05:00

josh and i talked over and over in ethiopia about when this would feel real. when would we actually grasp that micah was ours and that the getting-him-home portion of this process was over? the plane ride over was exciting...

and taking custody of him shortly after our plane touched down in ethiopia melted my heart.

driving away from acacia village for the last time with our baby in our laps was thrilling, but we were still having a hard time believing that he was really ours after all this time.

it might have begun sinking in as micah and i played together at our guest house...

and watching my husband love on our new son made me weepy.

things got a little more real when after 30-something hours of traveling, our plane finally touched US soil and micah became an american citizen (micah's doing his happy dance - you just can't tell in this photo).

but it wasn't until we stepped off of our sixth plane in five days and were met by a host of family and friends that it really hit.

micah is ours...and he's home.

i've been writing this post in my brain all day today, and i've tried unsuccessfully to come up with the words to thank you - the amazing gift of family and friends - for the countless ways you have loved and supported us during this 2 1/2 year process. as my dear friend, kerry, stepped into our living room today, laid eyes on micah, and collapsed into a weepy mess, i was reminded of how she and so many others have invested into the life of a precious boy in ethiopia. once without a family, micah lewis is now loved dearly by not only the other five members of the lewis crew but also by the countless members of an extended family who have poured their lives into bringing him home. so i know this doesn't even come close to expressing how deep my eternal gratitude is but...thank you. the lord has moved in mighty ways for the sake of this sweet baby's life.

great is thy faithfulness...

2011-05-14T21:41:00.000-05:00

...lord unto me.

we'll see you at 4:15!!!!!!

2011-05-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

the little engine that could

2011-05-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

frosty the snowman

2011-05-11T07:00:00.003-05:00

what was i scared of?

2011-05-10T07:00:00.009-05:00

please pardon the enormous amount of dog barking in the background. our neighbors all love dogs.

let me hold you longer

2011-05-09T07:00:00.002-05:00

rambling thoughts from a momma the day before GO-time

2011-05-07T10:06:00.000-05:00

1. is this seriously happening?
2. i'm so thankful to the lord that this is seriously happening. and on mother's day?!? what a gift.
3. i really like how the "brother room" turned out.

4. but i think the "sister room" might be my favorite. it's so girly and sweet.

5. the best part was the cost to completely redo the two rooms: $25 for one can of paint, $20 for a quilt from wal-mart, and some furniture moving sweat.
6. is it weird that i used leftover living room paint to paint the boys' room?
7. micah looks so big in the new pictures we got yesterday.

8. i'm super excited to have an evening out in DC with my hubby tomorrow night.
9. but it's kind of sad that we won't be with any of our munchkins on mother's day.
10. 17+ hours straight on an airplane with an infant is a really long time. especially when it's followed by 9 more hours of travel before we get home.
11. it's a little stressful that we leave early tomorrow morning, and i'm out of town all day today shooting a wedding.
12. i should probably take advantage of my two hours home and wrap up the packing instead of blogging.
13. i'm so thankful to bethany and grandpam for keeping our little ones while we're gone. after keeping them for a week for our first trip in february - and offering to do it AGAIN in may - i've officially inducted them into the "rock star hall of fame".
14. i'm really going to miss abby, jack, and izzy.

15. oh my word, i'm going to be holding micah in 2 1/2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

16. we ask that people pray for our safety in traveling, health for us all, peaceful hearts for the little ones here, and that the lord would continue to reveal himself and work in our lives and those around us through micah's adoption and life. all glory be to god!!!

wordless wednesday (i'm not the only one who's grown through this adoption process)

2011-04-27T07:00:00.007-05:00

december 2008:

april 2011:

i know, i know...

2011-04-26T21:57:00.000-05:00

it's almost 10:00 at night, and i'm just now getting this info out. it's been a looooong day of talking to airlines, coordinating a herd of people to help with the little ones, and doing this freak-out/nesting/packing/cleaning thing that keeps happening when i get new info about our travel dates.

what was that? travel dates??

that's right, friends! we found out tentatively yesterday - confirmed today - that we leave next sunday to go get micah and bring him home. next sunday. mother's day. the beauty of that isn't lost on me.

we'll be gone less than a week this time and will be returning to birmingham on the afternoon of saturday, may 14. so many of you sweet people have asked if it's ok to greet us at the airport when we arrive, and the answer is a resounding YES! it's yes as long as you don't mind a potentially bleary-eyed, weepy mess of a momma, her pack-mule husband, and the cutest little chubby chunk of preciousness you've ever seen. :-)

we are one happy group of people today. and praise god from whom all blessings flow!!!!!

salvation comes from the RISEN king!

2011-04-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

my little people surprises

2011-04-23T16:05:00.000-05:00

jack: he loves all things music. it's no surprise to anybody who knows him that he can play a mean electric guitar (a red one, mind you) and that he plays his drums all. day. long.

isabel: she's sweet, she's cuddly, and she adores dresses and all things pink.

so imagine my surprise when jack found a suddenly strong interest in this:

and when izzy dug in the backyard to find and play with this:

like me, josh loves that jack is so passionate about music at such an early age, but a little part of him was bummed that it didn't look like jack had much interest in going out back and hitting some balls. but out of nowhere, the little guy asked to go outside and play baseball and now his favorite game is playing "ground balls" with his daddy (which he follows up with a celebratory band performance back inside).

(for the record, i'm still waiting to see how the throwing part of this new endeavor all shakes out...)

little izzy cracks me up - and perhaps grosses me out - when she decides to "dig foh wohms".

abby and jack are content to let her do the dirty work...

and dirty work it is!

just when i think i've got them pegged, they throw me a curve ball. but hey, that's part of the joy of parenting all these little people!

torn between "in awe" and "of course"

2011-04-22T15:14:00.000-05:00

i began praying a while back about doing something to help our friends, family, and yet-known friends know and love the women and children of sadamo genet the way we do. several options came to mind, but when the opportunity for a $1,000 matching donor arose, i knew the lord had provided the golden ticket. so twelve days ago, on compassion sunday, i shared with you that we needed $1,000. by the grace of god in all of our lives, not only could our $1,000 instantly turn into $2,000, but that money would go directly to the sadamo genet child survival program in ethiopia to nourish bodies - and to nourish souls.

i prayed this prayer over and over: by the prompting and work of the holy spirit, lord, please provide us with a minimum of $2,000 to deliver to those in need for your name's sake. on good friday - the day that our savior was pierced for our transgressions, the day he was crushed for ouriniquities. our peace came from his punishment, and byhis wounds we are healed.

now we are free to SPREAD HIS GLORY, and we are free to GIVE.

five-thousand, two-hundred dollars. i'm grateful to the lord. i'm grateful to you. and i'm grateful to the lord for you.

"this service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of god's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to god. because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise god for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. and in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace god has given you.

thanks be to god for his indescribable gift!"

2 corinthians 9:12-15

overheard at our house today (jack edition)

2011-04-21T07:00:00.002-05:00

daddy (after teaching on the matthew account of the sheep and goats parable in family worship): "what two animals did you hear jesus mention in that story?"
jack (after thoughtful consideration): "ummmm...an african elephant?"

me (after a brief "around the world" science lesson): "guys, if you could get on an airplane and travel to anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?"
jack: "i would want to go to ethiopia. or moultrie."

looks like i may need to schedule another weekend of photography sessions down south!

wordless wednesday

2011-04-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

just two days left to make the most of this thing i like to call god-math.

best. weekend. ever. (part trois)

2011-04-19T22:06:00.000-05:00

"shower" just doesn't cut it. my dear friends, kerry and dawn, went out of their way on saturday to throw what can only be rightly referred to as a baby deluge.

when kerry first asked me about doing a baby shower to celebrate micah's coming arrival, i was just coming off of the diaper shower from these sweet friends, and our family had been tremendously blessed with a closet full of diapers, wipes, and formula. so we shifted gears a bit and turned the shower into a donation party to gather some desperately-needed supplies for acacia village (where micah lives right now in addis). as i was putting the guest list together, my heart warmed as i realized the diversity of those the lord has brought together to surround us in love and support us throughout this journey. mine and josh's families, other families i used to babysit for, decades-long friends from college, photography clients, and our real estate agent - it almost has the makings of some goofy television sitcom. but the lord has grown each of those relationships into some of the most dear ones in our life.

and one thing i've learned about dear friends and family is that they care about what you care about. in some big, big ways.

in case you're not getting the full effect there, let me quantify it for you. what you're seeing is 760 diapers, almost 1,600 wipes, enough formula to make 108 bottles, outfits for 15 of the older kids at acacia, and enough disposable gloves, baby wash, bottles, antibacterial hand soap, and diaper rash ointment to stock every babies 'r us store in the southeast.

and it's all going to ethiopia.

that touches my heart and humbles my spirit. oh, and it should tell you something that the shower hadn't even begun yet when i started crying...thanks to this beauty that kerry asked a friend paint for micah's room:

not only does it pull in the meaning of micah's name - "who is like our god?" - but the red leaves of the tree are made up of the fingerprints of so many of the people who are loving and praying our baby home. (by the way, i'm keeping it handy for a while longer because there are definitely some fingerprints missing. this boy has been adopted by far more hearts than just our own.)

so come on over and stamp away! i'll leave it by the front door while we're in ethiopia. :-)

oh girls, i am so thankful for you. each of you. and i praise the lord for his loving gift of family and friends.

best. weekend. ever. (part deux)

2011-04-18T23:50:00.000-05:00

after the acrobats finished their balleweena performance, some amazing friends of mine took advantage of the family we had in town and planned a donation shower to gather goodies to send to acacia village where micah currently lives in ethiopia. but first, it's impossible for me to share about that shower without telling you about another...

the lord has richly blessed me with a group of women from church who have become dear friends over this last year or two. we all worship together as a part of the same faith family, many of us homeschool together, a handful of us are adopting together, and one of them is stuck with me weekly in our small group. our lives are woven together in many unique ways, and i count it a true joy to live life with these precious gals. shortly after we arrived back home from ethiopia in february, several of them got together to throw me a diaper shower to help us get ready for a new baby in the house. a HUGE thanks to lacey, carrie, amelia, brook...

and jenny (the chic with the camera) for coordinating such a tremendous showing of love and kindness.

oh, and remember how i said that we were walking this adoption journey with others?? lora lynn and sheryl were fresh off an airplane from uganda adopting their collective three children between the two families - and somehow they drug their jet-lagged selves over to brook's house to love on me.

these sweet friends and the others who came spent their time that night showering us with gifts...

writing us letters of encouragement and truth (which i still haven't been allowed to read - although i did, to no avail, try to enlarge this photo so i could see what was written on the cards)... :-)

and most dear to me, covering us in prayer for everything from a successful court date to quick bonding and attachment to health and provision... (in case you're wondering, this is my "hold it together, allison" face. by the time the last amen had been said, i had failed miserably.)

girls, i love you all so dearly, and the lord blessed me beyond measure when he put you each in my life. thank you!!!!!!

we'd better start looking for flights to ethiopia!

2011-04-18T15:24:00.000-05:00

you know it's got to be something big for me to post twice in one day! we just got confirmation from our agency that micah's paperwork has been finalized and is being submitted to the US embassy tomorrow!!! you know that means, don't you??

our baby's coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!

best. weekend. ever.

2011-04-18T13:04:00.000-05:00

family, friends, dancing, fun, laughter, tears, giving, receiving. this weekend was busy, but i'll start with this sweet girl...

this weekend was the ballet recital that almost never was. the dress rehearsal got canceled at the last minute on friday because of the terrible storms that destroyed many areas of the southeast, and what we now know is a raging infection invaded poor abby's ear and almost kept her out of the performance on saturday. after much praying, she woke up feeling well and chipper the morning of the recital, and she was thrilled to be able to participate in the dance with the rest of her class.

but if abby was thrilled, izzy was ecstatic. that girl wants to be a "balleweena" so bad she can't stand it, and she was soaking up every minute of the hour-long recital.

this year's recital was called "the joy of the lord", and it was a circus-themed production. abby's class - the "acrobats" - started their performance with a bang. if you look behind abby in this picture, there's a little one upside down in a handstand...

...and abby whipped out a cartwheel to add to the excitement. (please tell me you can see her tongue stuck out in this picture. she's like her momma in that there's a direct line from her brain to her mouth. brain concentrates, tongue emerges.)

no offense if you're one of them, but there are some CRAZY parents at these things. i'm pretty convinced that some of them camp out at the church the night before the performance to get the best seats. it probably looks like the apple store when a new iphone is released. a friend of mine somehow scored a seat on the front row and she was gracious enough to offer for me to piggy-back off of her awesome view. it made for some pretty darling pictures when abby saw me...

but these are some of my favorites...

until next year (when we have two balleweenas)...

good news all around

2011-04-15T20:00:00.001-05:00

a) our house didn't blow away in the massive storm that just came through. neither did anyone else's house around here.

b) after 10+ years of wondering, i now know that my wedding gown still fits. the fact that i actually drug it out and put it on tonight isn't as weird as you might think, though. i'm styling a bridal session for sunday, and i thought we might be in need of an additional dress. (so why did you need to try it on? you ask. well, it kind of just fell off the hanger and onto my body. it was really weird.)

c) on a significantly more important note, we've hit our original $1,000 goal for compassion's sadamo genet CSP!!!!!! but please, please don't interpret that to mean that we don't need more. there are 15 additional women in the village who desperately need the teaching, training, and provision that enrollment in the CSP offers; at this point, though, compassion doesn't have adequate funding to enroll those women and their babies. besides, if the lord can turn $1,000 into $4,000, there's no telling what he could do with more.

i'll just go ahead and say it...i'm praying for $5,000. :-)

god-math

2011-04-14T12:44:00.002-05:00

UPDATE: after today's mail run and a precious friend's delivery to our house tonight, YOU have given $890 to the women and children of sadamo genet. (and if you do the god-math, that equals $3,560!!!) but don't stop now - if we can give that much in four days, imagine what the lord can lead us to do by the time good friday comes!!

ORIGINAL POST:
i've never claimed to be a genius. in fact, since josh and i began the blessed journey of parenthood, i would come closer to saying that i've engaged in a bit of a "brains for babies" trade-off. the old noggin isn't quite as sharp as it probably once was (as evidenced by the fact that yesterday i walked upstairs with the sole intent of retrieving the dirty clothes baskets and came down empty-handed. three times).

but i can do simple math.

even my 1st grader's got this one down. as she sits at our kitchen table completing her math lesson each day, she can whip out some addition and "equals/does not equal" facts. take this one, for example:
$1,000 = $1,000, right?

not so in god-math.

if you've been us following for a while, you know that this journeystarted out more than two years ago when the lord called us to adopt ababy from ethiopia. in july 2010 we fell in lovewith the son we had waited so long to have. the next month we clung desperately to one another here while he wasbeing buried in an unmarked grave there. we had thought we were naming judah for life here on earth; but in actuality, his name - "to praise" - held far more more meaning for our lives here on earth and his eternal life with christ. by god's spirit our hearts and eyes were opened wide to the many needs of ethiopia and her people, and days after judah's death, the lord graciously began a work that i wrote about in this post. here's an excerpt:

on friday when we got the phone call that judah had died that morning,the forceful weight of grief came crushing down on us. and i didn'tjust do the weeping thing. i did thelay-on-the-floor-in-a-fetal-position-sobbing-so-hard-that-i-could-barely-breathething.

it wasn't pretty.

but i just couldn't escape that still, quiet voice that kept reminding meof the very purpose for which we had named our precious baby. judah - "to praise". i suppose it's one of the mysteries of the LORD, but josh and i feltthat judah's death could wreck our hearts while simultaneously provideus with a beautiful opportunity to praise GOD for his goodness, mercy,and love. through the pain, we clung desperately to isaiah 55:8-11:

"for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways myways," declares the LORD. "as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than yourthoughts. as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do notreturn to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish,so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is myword that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, butwill accomplish what i desire and achieve the purpose for which i sentit."

we knew that GOD had a larger purpose in what was happening -- we justdidn't know what it was, and we surely didn't know how to get there. so we prayed...

we prayed for the LORD to extend judah's influence far beyond the sixweeks he lived on earth. we asked him to give us clear direction onhow we should move ahead. but most importantly, we prayed that throughhis grace, we could affect significant change in judah's name -- forGOD's glory.

our prayer became this: "please multiply the reach and the effect of this story."

we had soon partnered with compassion international to support - in judah's name - a child survival program in the small village of sadamo genet, ethiopia. it was our utter delight and joy to meet the mothers and babies there in february of this year and listen as they shared with us stories of hope, healing, and provision. but even greater than that, the women served there heard the gospel for the first time through the work of compassion and its supporters, and sixteen of those precious mothers have surrendered their lives for god's glory.

fast-forward to this past week when i received an email from our case worker, patricia, letting us know that four babies had died due to a measles outbreak in the community that quietly found its way to the doorstep of the orphanage there. in some ways it felt like i was going back to that day in august when patricia told me that judah had died. so armed with god's leading - and a donor who was willing to match the first $1,000 that we could raise for the sadamo genet CSP - we set out on a mission. $1,000 equals $2,000.

by the time tuesday morning rolled along, a second donor had offered to match the first $1,000 as well. $1,000 equals $3,000.

today is thursday. josh called me down to his office first thing this morning because he needed to tell me "something important". as i rounded the corner i immediately searched his face for a hint of what was to come. the glimmer in his eye gave away the fact that what he was about to say was good. i just didn't know how good.

yes, the lord has stirred the heart of yet ANOTHER $1,000 matching donor!!! now $1,000 equals $4,000.

when we commit our hearts and our resources to eternally impacting the lives of others, we're acting in obedience to the lord's commands in scripture. he honors that obedience, he blesses that obedience, and clearly, he multiplies that obedience as well.

and that, my friends, is god-math.

*the instructions below are copied from the original post. i'm both marveling and giggling at the bolded phrase.*

IMPORTANT: in order to be able to track all giving toward the $1,000,i need to receive the money here and send it in collectively tocompassion. please send your tax-deductible checks (payable to compassion international!!)to me, and i'm going to sendthem in to compassion on good friday (april 22), and i'm prayingfervently that by the prompting of the holy spirit, i will have a minimum of $2,000 to deliver on that powerful day. if you are uncomfortable mailing your check to me, please donate online HERE (but comment or email me with your giving amount so that i can add it to the needed $1,000).

"but who am i, andwho are my people, that we should be able to give as generously asthis? everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comesfrom your hand."

1 chronicles 29:14

the rotating door that is my mailbox

2011-04-13T17:43:00.000-05:00

news from and for ethiopia abounds!

on the sadamo genet CSP front, three checks showed up in my mailbox today totaling $200 for compassion. and as you all know, that $200 has already wonderfully transformed into $600 thanks to two matching donors!!! but we're a long way from the $1,000 base that we need to maximize this campaign, so be it $10 or $100 (or another $1,000 match, for that matter!), please give sacrificially for the sake of the earthly and eternal lives of the women and children of sadamo genet. read HERE for details and instructions on giving. THANK YOU to those who have already given. it's been a long time since i've been so pumped about checking the mail. :-)

something else arrived today as well that made me smile. really big. we got copies of micah's ethiopian birth certificate as well as the court decree naming us as his parents. legal, final, perfect.

(insert big, goofy grin)

we've known for ages that micah was our son, but there's something incredibly gratifying about getting documents in from the federal first instance court in addis ababa that are signed by the judge saying josh and allison lewis are his parents. you know that line in mandi mapes' song, this love (which plays on the second half of our video with micah) that says, "i'll take your hand, honey; you can take my name"?

geta'endale lewis*. he's a lewis now and forevermore. ours. (*getaendale is micah's birth name, which in amharic translates to "the lord saves". YES!)

with the documents that arrived today, we were able to complete our paperwork for the US embassy and mail it out for delivery this week. we're almost there, people!!!!!!!!!!

blessings in and blessings out. i'm so grateful today for the lord's calling, love, and provision in our lives and the lives of so many around us.

to god be the glory!

my phone call this morning deserves a big, fat WHOO-HOO!!!!!!!

2011-04-12T10:53:00.000-05:00

the lord never ceases to amaze me.

my phone rang at 9:10 this morning but as i looked at the caller ID, i didn't recognize the number. i answered, hello? thanks to the roaring chatter of little people over the breakfast table, i completely missed my caller's introduction and had to ask her to repeat herself as i took the stairs two at a time toward my (quiet) bedroom.

what followed was something along the lines of this...

my husband and i have been following your adoption story this whole time. we've rejoiced with you, we've cried with you, and it was through tears that i read your post this weekend. for the next few minutes we talked about orphan ministry and the privilege we have of caring for the "least of these". and then she dropped an enormous, delightful bomb on me:

god has put it on our hearts to offer another

$1,000 matching donation.

ummm, i'm sorry. what was that?

we've now got a SECOND matching donation for the first $1,000 that's given to the sadamo genet child survival program. if you send $10, it automatically turns into $30. if you send $100, it's instantly $300. the math just keeps getting better and better!!!!

if you're anything like me, you want the most bang for your buck. sale prices make me giddy, and it's been my personal mission in the past to walk out of publix each week with a total that was less than my coupon savings. well this is one of those golden opportunities where our bucks can have some serious bang because every dollar we give is TRIPLED!

please read HERE for instructions on your tax-deductible donation. and thank you, thank you, thank you for your love demonstrated through your giving.

remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give,not reluctantly or under compulsion, for god loves a cheerful giver. and god is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at alltimes, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

2 corinthians 9:6-8

overheard at our house today

2011-04-11T12:02:00.000-05:00

jack screaming from the next room over
me (while running in to see what's happening): what's wrong, buddy? what happened?!?
jack: i bit my shoulder!!!!
me (looking at him with a look of obvious confusion): i'm sorry, what? WHO bit your shoulder?
jack: i did. oh, it hurts so bad...
yes, there were some major bite marks. no, i still don't know how he managed that. or WHY, for that matter.

isabel (skipping in from playing outside): mommy, i love you sooo much.
me: oh honey, i love you so much, too.
isabel (running back outside to play): i just wanted to come tell you that because i feel so happy.

NEEDED: $1,000

2011-04-10T07:00:00.005-05:00

it was the first time in a while that i had felt that feeling. that sick at my stomach, this-shouldn't-be-happening feeling. i was sitting at my computer late thursday night catching up on work when i saw an email from our adoption case worker, patricia, that i hadn't read yet. we've been getting the thursday update for a while now, so i opened it expecting the typical news of the current happenings in ethiopia as it pertains to their government and adoption. but what my eyes soon fell on were words that made a lump form in my throat...

"tragedy struck this past week at shashemene (an ethiopian orphanage that our agency works with) as a measles outbreakclaimed the lives of four infants. thought to be carried into the orphanage bya child who had been hospitalized, the crisis sent several morechildren to the hospital as a result of the accompanying secondarypneumonia."

"claimed the lives of four infants." that phrase crept down to the innermost parts of my being and painfully reminded me of the phone call we got from patricia on august 13, 2010. it struck me that after reading her thursday email this week, i now know of five babies within about 150 miles of one another who died from preventable disease. 150 miles. that's about the distance from birmingham to atlanta.

if you're like me - and i'm guessing you are - you don't know five babies who have died from measles or pneumonia in your area. in fact, i'm guessing none of us know five babies who have died in a matter of six months from anything. and certainly not preventable disease. i imagine that five infant deaths within a short period of time in our area would cause not only a panic, but an uproar. we would demand answers, and we would demand a solution.

well folks, i'm on a mission to effect change in ethiopia through a present solution, and i'm asking you to please join me.

as most of you know, after judah died we partnered with compassion international to sponsor a child survival program in sadamo genet in memory of our son. and in february, the lord blessed us beyond measure by allowing us visit that program and spend time laughing with, crying with, and learning from the mothers and children who are served there. before you read another word here, please read about our trip to sadamo genet if you haven't already. i can't imagine closing the page of that story and not being changed. those women are real, their children are real, and their needs are great.

in light of the obvious, dire, and ongoing concerns within the village of sadamo genet - spiritual, medical, developmental, etc. - i would like to challenge us all to answer the call of 1 john 3:17-18 and spend our worldly goods on behalf of those in need. let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. food for their hungry bodies and food for their hungry souls. it just doesn't get any better than that.

BUT HERE'S WHERE IT GETS REALLY, REALLY EXCITING...

a donor has come forward and has offered to match the first $1,000 that is given to compassion for the sake of the mothers and babies at sadamo genet.

WHAT?!? count with me, people...that's $2,000 that can literally help save the lives of children like judah and those precious four babies that died this week at shashemene by providing them with proper nutrition, preventative medical care, and needed sick care. i have hugged these necks and held these babies. oh please see the true impact of your giving.

this is gadisa (the little guy who's pictured on the main page for the sadamo genet program.)

on the day that micah officially became our son, this blog received almost 1,400 hits in a matter of hours. let's be really conservative and say that half of those hits were duplicate visits. that's 700 people that joined in celebration with us as the lord showed himself mighty in light of some enormous obstacles. 700 people that cared enough to share our story. now if each of those 700 people donated even the cost of a single meal at a typical american restaurant, we could have the needed $1,000 knocked out in no time. think about it - this could be so simple but so huge!

so here's what i'm asking you to do: GIVE to the babies of ethiopia. do you need to think about it? pray about it? i'm going to respectfully answer with a big, fat NO on that one. you can scarcely turn to a book in scripture in which the lord doesn't command his followers to serve, look after, defend, share with, or show kindness for those in need. let's give!!

IMPORTANT: in order to be able to track all giving toward the $1,000, i need to receive the money here and send it in collectively to compassion. please send your tax-deductible checks (payable to compassion international) to me, and i'm going to send them in to compassion on good friday (april 22), and i'm praying fervently that by the prompting of the holy spirit, i will have a minimum of $2,000 to deliver on that powerful day. if you are uncomfortable mailing your check to me, please donate online HERE (but comment or email me with your giving amount so that i can add it to the needed $1,000).

thank you so very much - and i really mean this - for caring about our story, for supporting our family, and for loving the children of ethiopia. it's truly a marvelous place! i'm eternally grateful that my heart has been tuned to the beauty and needs of that country, and i'm praying that yours will be as well.

REPOST this. TWEET this. TALK IT UP on facebook.

help me raise $1,000 in twelve days!!

wordless wednesday (the dishwasher brigade)

2011-04-06T08:46:00.000-05:00

the past few weeks in 100 words or less

2011-04-05T22:37:00.000-05:00

we romped around in the creek (read: muddy water) with the cobbs...

and had an evil-knievil-of-a-time riding the monster truck in the backyard:

the kids and i hit aldridge gardens for a science lesson (really we just needed a getaway for some good mommy/kiddie time):

uncle bailey helped josh get the roof on the hand-me-down playset we got 18 months ago but just made it around to assembling (have i mentioned that josh is a total rock star for putting this thing together? alone. from memory.) and all the dead grass? see the monster truck blurp above:

while the guys were working, the little lewis ladies and their sweet cousins cuddled a bit (brayden and jack must have been off alternately wrestling and playing matchbox cars):

during the 7 minutes they were all well, some of the fanning crew came over to play on the aforementioned playset:

and in an act designed either to exhibit great love for the newest fanning or to make me insanely jealous, josh spent 30 minutes doing this:

the kids made giraffe sandwiches for lunch one day:

and then, much to my delight, asked me to take their pictures:

to be accurate, izzy requested a "sheshun":

abby and izzy worked intently on their arts and crafts:

and we had a night in with the taylors (the answer is no, i don't have a clue what abby and izzy were doing with their mouths or why jack was staring me down like i was interrupting some fine dining experience):

and finally, josh and i took a picture of our own to celebrate baseball's opening day:

so maybe "100 pictures or less" is more like it, but there - i'm officially caught up with photo blogging. i've got wordless wednesday ready to go for tomorrow, but i'm praying that with our agency's wednesday report from ethiopia will come some good news to trump it!

need a killer mother's day gift?

2011-03-31T09:29:00.000-05:00

since, god-willing, i'll be headed to ethiopia sooner rather than later, i'm doing the allison lewis photography giveaway a little early this year. come join in the fun (and snag FREE pictures while you're at it)!

there's too much going on for a wordless wednesday

2011-03-30T11:07:00.000-05:00

i wanted to share with you that we heard some fantastic news from our adoption agency this morning: our paperwork is completely and finally through MoWA!!! we passed court on march 10, but we were still dependent on that agency to process some final documents for micah's birth certificate. with all of the uncertainty surrounding MoWA's involvement in ethiopian adoptions, our case worker had told us to expect it to be a while before we traveled to bring him home.

but in light of how powerfully the lord showed himself in getting us through court in the first place, we a) confessed that we don't know the perfect time to travel but b) began praying that he would push our paperwork through and would allow us to travel in april before i begin a rush of weddings and other exciting photography events (i.e. the late-may birth of a precious friend's baby). so today when i got the news from patricia, i wrote her back after learning the relatively little amount that needs to be done before our embassy appointment and asked about expected travel dates.

she said, possibly april.

WOWZERS!!!!

please pray with us for good reports, processed paperwork, and perfect timing. and make sure you pray for this little guy, too.

jack would like a stuffed anne perry for his birthday

2011-03-29T23:31:00.000-05:00

as i was telling a friend tonight, i intentionally put my camera away for a while around here because i woke up one day and realized that i was spending way more time documenting life than i was living life. if josh and i took the kids to the park, i came home with 150 photos...but no memories. if we headed to the zoo for the day, i returned with loads of animal photos, abby/jack/izzy photos, and abby/jack/izzy-with-the-animals photos. but i interacted almost solely from behind the lens of my camera. so i tucked it away, focused on playing with my little people, and found a much healthier balance.

so now that i'm back to blogging about day-to-day life with the lewis fam, i thought i would pull out photos from some of our recent fun and prove to those of you who thought the life and times of the lewis crew had all but vanished that we're still here, we're still having fun, and i'm still taking pictures of it all.

i'm just taking less pictures of it all and enjoying it mostly sans camera. :-)

a few weeks ago, our friends anna and paul brought their three girls up to birmingham for a visit and a little playtime. now i've talked about this family many, many times before, but let me say it just one more time: the lord blessed us immensely when he crossed our paths almost 15 years ago when we were all freshmen at samford university. i simply adore anna and paul, and i simply adore their little darlings.

this is what kept addie entertained during their visit...

but this is how poor audrey kate and anne perry spent most of their time here. with my kids all in their faces.

but in their sweet, good-natured way, they soaked it all in and actually seemed to enjoy it.

even when jack did this... (notice both of his hands)

what warmed my heart the most, though, was seeing jack and anne perry play together so much. my girls are always up for playing with a baby, but jack...not so interested. he's been talking continually lately, though, about wishing his little brother would come home soon, so i think he was happy to spend some time with the under-one crowd.

gracious, i love these little people. all six (hopefully soon seven) of them!

that's what happens when you bite my daughter

2011-03-27T15:04:00.000-05:00

you know that book about the "five love languages"? i can't remember all of them, but there's something about acts of service, gift-giving, et cetera, et cetera. well i'm convinced that abby has a love language all of her own, and it's wrapped up in picture drawing. that girl whips out anywhere from 3 or 4 to sometimes 20 pictures a day that she's drawn for me, josh, one of the grandparents, a friend or neighbor, the mailman, the checkout lady at the dollar tree, or anybody else that comes to her little mind. here's one of my recent gifts (apparently neither abby nor i was feeling so hot that day):

as an expansion of her love of picture-drawing, we've been working in school on writing with words as well. typically it's been with an assigned topic or a suggested word bank, but not too long ago, abigail took to some creative writing all on her own. i found this lying around a few weeks back:

can you read that darling six-year-old phonetic spelling? i am special because god made me. you are too. and i love god like you. god, you are holy and powerful.

gracious lands, that makes this momma's heart leap for joy.

a couple of nights ago, abby took her notebook to bed with her and this is what i found written in it the next morning:

we used to have a cat. her name is nala. she kept eating chipmunks so we gave her away at the pet store. oh by the way, nala bit me in the arm. the sad part about this is that the next three pages were more stories about the dogs gracie, daisy, and belle that we "yoost to have".

clearly pet-owning is not one of our spiritual gifts.

the heavy, the light, and everything in between

2011-03-23T23:53:00.000-05:00

i vividly remember how this whole blog thing got started. josh decided we should have a way to share pics of the kids with friends and out-of-town family, so HE set up a blog (i had never even heard of a blog), and HE named it the five lewis crew, and HE wrote several posts beginning in july of 2009.

he hasn't written since august of that year. (which is a shame b/c i thought he was a really funny writer.)

so somehow this blog thing fell into my lap. i decided to use it as a scrapbook of sorts of the kids and the things we all do together as a family. i wrote about one of my finest homeschooling moments and the day abby's friend's leg fell off; i shared about how i fed my kids in the trunk at mcdonald's and how i almost became a vegan; and i posted pics that made me weepy...

and some that made me laugh out loud...

little did i know that this blog would also become a vessel through which i shared some of the most difficult and painful seasons of my life. i'm so thankful for the sweet connections it's has allowed me to have with people around the country (and some around the world), but i realized last week that somewhere along the road of sharing the weighty parts, i lost the day-to-dayness of what i started out to do. so with that said, i'm not dropping the meat, but i am mixing back in the fluff. i'm going to work on being deliberate about photographing the tidbits of life with our little people and preserving those memories and stories here.

and i can neither confirm nor deny that today's email from my mom has anything to do with it: i'll get straight to the point. when are you going to update your blog?!?!?!?!? hee-hee and stay tuned! :-)

wordless wednesday (an important brunch meeting)

2011-03-16T10:01:00.000-05:00

now that my feet have finally touched the ground

2011-03-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

i would like to go on record as saying that the events of march 10, 2011 were some of the most awe-inspiring i've ever been witness to. our passing court (a day EARLY at that) still has no earthly explanation, which only confirms that that was truly a day of god's power and glory on display.

i'm not sure how to properly thank all of you, the people who have become so personally invested in micah's story, for everything you've done for us through your prayers and encouragement. in a matter of hours after posting the news, we got literally hundreds of emails, facebook messages, and calls from family, friends, and in many cases, perfect strangers who have now become perfect friends. we learned that families and groups gathered in various states across the country to bow before the lord and to pray specifically for us to be passed miraculously through court. three friends shared with me that they, too, woke up during the night on wednesday night with a sense of prayer urgency regarding our court case. you prayed and god answered. he answered mightily! so from this momma's heart - a heart that has waited, celebrated, grieved, grown, and rejoiced - thank you so. very. much. for what all you've done for our family. for micah.

it was physically impossible for us to respond to each and every message, but we are compiling them all into a booklet that will go in micah's baby book as part of his adoption story and as evidence of god's grace in his life. we did want to take a minute, though, to answer some of the main questions that were asked and let you know what's up next.

1) so what happens now?
at this point, micah is legally ours but the US embassy in ethiopia is gathering some documents to finalize the adoption. we're filling out a handful of forms, but for the most part, we're waiting.

2) when will you travel back to get him?
hmmm...good question. the guesstimate we have at this point is 6-8 weeks from now so we're planning to travel in may-ish (with the emphasis on ISH).

3) where is micah?
the week before we traveled to ethiopia to appear in court, micah was moved from his orphanage to our agency's foster home for children who have adoptive families waiting to bring them home. the facility is called acacia village, and it's a peaceful, amazing place that josh and i both fell in love with during our visits there in february. micah is being well-loved, well-cared-for, and well-fed (as evidenced by his girth). :-)

4) how can we continue to pray?
i'm so glad you asked! the changes surrounding ethiopia's adoption system most dramatically affect the families waiting to get through court. an estimate i read recently said that children could spend as many as SEVEN YEARS in their orphanages waiting for their adoptive parents to pass, and the collateral damage from these changes (such as extreme overcrowding in the orphanages and reduced adoptions because of the increased wait time) stands to have dire effects on the most defenseless of ethiopia's population. sooo....

pray for the officials who are calling the shots there to have a tremendous change of heart and for the lord to bend their hearts favorably toward adoption (see proverbs 21:1).

also affected by these changes are the families who are through court but are waiting for paperwork (such as birth certificates) to be processed. until that's completed, the staff at the US embassy can't finish their job.

pray for micah's paperwork to be processed quickly and correctly so that we can bring our baby home. this so-close-i-can-taste-it portion of the journey is proving to make us somehow both sweetly calm and sadly heartsick for our little guy.

the logistics of our expected timing could prove to be a bit tricky. i'm shooting three weddings around the time that we think we'll probably travel, and telling a bride a couple of weeks before her wedding that i'll be out of the country is simply not an option.

pray that in his ever-perfect timing, the lord will send us back to ethiopia during a period that a) won't conflict with my work schedule and b) will allow me time to get back on my feet before spending 10 hours a day on my feet with a camera glued to my face. (speaking of weddings - and just because i ADORE them - check out this engagement session i just shot for one of the aforementioned couples.)

we love you, family and friends, and we're so thankful to the lord for not only bringing us all together to pray for micah, but also for showing himself mighty and faithful in the process.

HE'S OURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-03-10T09:08:00.000-06:00

the lord kept me up praying until after 2:00 this morning.

at 8:22 the phone rang.

our case worker, patricia, said he's yours.

how did this happen?!?!? i cried. our court date isn't until tomorrow.

she replied, i have no idea.

but then again, we know exactly how it happened.

"shout for joy to the lord, all the earth. worship the lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. know that the lord is god. it is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. for the lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithflness continues through all generations."

(psalm 100)

and now, after 148 days of having a son in our hearts that we couldn't introduce, we would be honored for you to meet micah. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!!!!!!!

psalm 46:10

2011-03-09T22:23:00.000-06:00

i knew it would come. i knew i would begin to feel that gnawing sense of urgency shouting at me to do something! it's a battle i've fought for as long as i can remember, so the only surprise here is that it took so long to show up.

so today i popped off some emails to a couple of people tied to our case, and i pulled up JCICS's petition to ethiopia's prime minister, compared the signatures to my email address book, and sent more emails personally asking any friend or family member whose signature i didn't see to go and sign it*.

*this event in and of itself needs some talking about. first of all, there have been over 18,000 signatures in two days and it's literally growing by the minute. WOW!!! and no, i did not dig through all 18,000 to find my target email audience. there's a search feature, and i typed in each last name until i found what i needed (unfortunately, that doesn't make me sound any less desperate). :-) i have to say THANK YOU, though, because i was so humbled and touched by the countless times i saw the signatures of our friends and family members who are going to bat for micah and the five million other orphans who are directly affected by this decision. serious warm and fuzzy.

further, i started on a tazmanian-devil-type cleaning spree of our house (which is my go-to response to feeling out of control), but as i was shoveling spring clothes into drawers, winter clothes into bags, and dirty clothes into the washer, i heard truth coming from upstairs. josh was laying on the bed with all the little people explaining to them a bit more about what's going on with our court date on friday morning local ethiopian time. as he explained the significance of passing court, he pulled out his bible and read psalm 46:10.

be still and know that i am god.

i can't bear the thought of not passing court on friday if i didn't do every. single. thing. within my power to bring our baby home. but at the end of the day, i have to continually confess my desire to control and then remind myself that all of my efforts are in vain if the lord's hand is not in them.

"...if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. but if it is from god, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against god." (acts 5:38-39)

"who can speak and have it happen if the lord has not decreed it? is it not from the mouth of the most high that both calamities and good things come?" (lamentations 3:37-38)

"unless the lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. unless the lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. in vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat - for he grants sleep to those he loves." (psalm 127:1-2)

"in his heart a man plans his course, but the lord determines his steps." (proverbs 16:9)

"there is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the lord." (proverbs 21:30)

now...in the interest of updating, we got this notice from JCICS tonight:

In only 24-hours, over 11,000 concerned individuals have joined our Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children by signing our petition.We extend our thanks to all who have supported this initiative bysigning the petition, distributing the campaign information andexpressing your support of child protections and ethical adoption.
Today, we have continued our communication with the Ethiopiangovernment and respectfully brought the outpouring of concern to them.We believe that there may have been positive developments and willprovide further updates as information is confirmed.

praise god!! we continue to ask that you go to the petition and spend the needed one minute to sign it. and finally, it's now thursday morning in ethiopia, meaning we're about t-24 hours from the court hearing that will either grant us legal custody of micah or will put us into an "indefinite" waiting period before we reach that point. we beg of you to commit this to prayer, particularly as you go to bed tomorrow night and as the lord puts it on your heart throughout the night.

as for me, i'm going to go pray while i bake a few goodies for my amazing hubby's birthday tomorrow. :-)

prayer

2011-03-08T23:04:00.001-06:00

if i'm being completely transparent here, i need to tell you that my prayer life hasn't always been the greatest. in fact, it's probably been the most poorly trained of the spiritual disciplines in my life. i'm easily distracted, i haven't always made time with the lord a priority, and in all honesty, i've struggled to see the correlation between prayer and god's movement at times.

do i like sharing this? not in the least. but it's important for me to do so in order to tell you what the lord has so graciously shown me over these past few months.

this was the picture that i posted on the night of thursday, august 12, 2010. it was izzy, of her own accord, kneeling on the bedroom floor praying for her very sick brother, judah.

he died the next day.

now at two years old isabel had not yet been drawn to the lord or seen her need for his saving grace. but i, as a believer, was on my face praying the exact same prayers of healing for my infant son who died hours later. what does that say about prayer? but more than that, what kind of god would do such a thing as take the life of a child from his praying mother?

the kind of god who would take the life of his own son to save his created children.

"yet it was the lord's will to crush him (jesus) and cause him to suffer. he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." (isaiah 53: 10, 5)

i didn't even realize it at the time, but during the previous few years, i had fallen into the trap of "comfortable christianity". i was content to cruise along on autopilot, scarcely needing to cry out to the lord for much at all; my faith was culturally normative, and it didn't cost me too much of anything. the problem with that is that according to jesus christ himself, that's no faith at all (matthew 16:24-25). i haven't shared this publicly before, but realizing a disconnect of sorts, i began praying in the early summer of 2010 that god would work in my life - through whatever means necessary - to bring me to my knees and to restore the intimacy of our relationship. and while the events that unfolded that august were not at all what i would have chosen for myself, i know for a fact that god brought them about to answer that very prayer.

yes, i realize that might be a tough pill to swallow. but i believe with every ounce of my being that the lord took judah's life for my good and for his glory (romans 8:28). how could any of that be "good", you ask? by human standards, it's not and it never could be. the events of that august were ugly, they brought heart-wrenching pain, and out of them i walked a terrible and dark path for many months. but the americanized or worldly version of "good" is far from the "good" that the lord desires for his people - which is being conformed to the likeness of his son (v. 29). lord, i pray that that is taking place in my life.

"'for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the lord. as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what i desire and achieve the purpose for which i sent it. you will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. this will be for the lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." (isaiah 55:8-13)

so if god's going to do what he's going to do regardless, what's the point of praying? follow along...

there are many passages in scripture that address god's faithfulness to answer our prayers, and it's through prayer that god accomplishes the fulfillment of his will. just in the gospel of john alone we hear that "you may ask me for anything in my name, and i will do it" (14:14), "ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. this is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" (15:7-8), and "the father will give you whatever you ask in my name" (15:16 and 16:23). so if we pray for something earnestly "in jesus' name", doesn't the lord promise to answer in the way we prayed for him to?

not at all.

it's not so much that as believers we're praying in jesus' name as it is we're praying with jesus' heart. as you saw above, god's been using a long chain of events to draw me closer to him and to (prayerfully) make me more like jesus. one of the most amazing byproducts of that transformation in a believer's life is that his heart begins to care less about immediate comfort or desire and more about matters of eternity and the glory of god. so in reality, praying in jesus' name has nothing to do with slapping a moniker on the end of a god-chat; rather, it has everything to do with truly knowing the lord and desiring his glory.

so, do i know it's god's desire for us to pass court on friday? no, i don't. so then how precisely is our family praying for the end of this week? let me back up a little in romans 8. verse 27 tells us that "the spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with god's will." we've got great comfort in knowing that even when our prayers feel like they're sometimes floundering around in uncertainty, the holy spirit is perfecting them before our holy god. we may not know the eternal, perfect will of the lord, but he does.

secondly (and this has been a much harder heart-stance to adopt), we are doing this:

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to god." (philippians 4:6)

that little "with thanksgiving" phrase is quick to read, easy to say - but sometimes so difficult to pray. praying with thanksgiving means that i am to praise god, even now, for how he will answer regarding our court date on friday. if we pass, i praise him.

if we don't pass court but rather wait indefinitely to hold our son again, i praise him.

and why do i do this? because he's proven that he will move in sovereign ways that are ultimately for my good and for his glory. i've seen it. it's my life.

please understand, my friends, that this isn't something i just took upon myself to start doing. i want my baby home. my heart aches terribly for his presence. but how can i walk away from the incredible working of the lord in my heart (through judah's death) and not trust in god's sovereign and perfect plan?

"this is the confidence we have in approaching god: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. and if we know that he heard us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." (1 john 5:14-15)

we're praying fervently and expectantly for our court date on thursday night here and praying equally intently for god's glory everywhere. please join us?

(also, please take one minute - i promise that's all it takes - to sign this petition to prayerfully change the course of adoptions in ethiopia.)

in the pipeline

2011-03-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

from a voice of america article written last week:

Abigail Rupp, head of the consular section at the U.S. Embassy in AddisAbaba says the cutback is likely to result in a drop in adoptions tothe United States from last year’s 2,500 to fewer than 500. She saysthe biggest concern is for the estimated 1,000 children currently inthe adoptions pipeline, who may be forced to wait more than a year fortheir cases to be considered.

"We share the government’sconcerns about the vulnerabilities in the process. But certainly wehave concerns about children who would be waiting longer for theiradoptions to be final. That would mean they would be in an orphanage ortransition home for a longer period of time," she said.

this is serious stuff, people. as the momma of a baby who died waiting, i beg you to pray for those 1,000 children who are trapped "in the pipeline". pray for the adoption establishment in ethiopia as well as the agencies and officials who control it.

and please, please...pray for our son. we expect our case to be heard again sometime friday morning (which, because ethiopia is nine hours ahead, will be sometime thursday evening/night here).

we love you and appreciate your encouragement, notes, and most importantly, your prayers. thank you!

we need you

2011-03-07T18:42:00.001-06:00

i'm going to get straight to the point here. we've been told that shy of miraculous intervention from the lord, we will not pass court on friday. as you might have seen in various reports over the weekend, officials in ethiopia just made some drastic changes to the process of approving adoptions, and if upheld, those changes will have immediate and dire effects on adoptive families and the children who so desperately need homes. for example, it's our understanding that if our case isn't approved on friday, we enter an indefinite waiting period that has the potential to stretch into 2012. difficult news when we thought micah would be home in birmingham this month.

these changes have been described by many as direct attacks on adoption as adoption paints such a beautiful picture of how the lord himself has adopted us into his family. and the only way i know to fight such an attack is through a united front of prayer. that's where we need your help...

starting tonight - even now - please join us in praying intently for these things:

that the hearts of the presiding officials will be softened and bent toward the children and families affected by these changes
that the sudden and drastic changes to the adoption procedures in ethiopia will be reversed
that our family and the other families we also know who are trapped by these changes will be encouraged and strengthened
that our attorney will feel a sense of urgency to fight for our case
and that through god's power and for god's glory we will pass court on friday and that micah will finally and legally be OURS.

do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer andpetition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to god.

-phil. 4:6

wordless wednesday (huckleberry finns in the creek)

2011-03-02T14:27:00.000-06:00

court and cuteness

2011-02-28T18:27:00.000-06:00

i haven't shared much about the potential additional delays that we're now facing with our march 11 court date - mainly because up until this weekend of some heavy and honest prayer, i've been really discouraged about the whole thing. but thankfully the lord is faithful even when i'm not, and by god's grace, i'm in a place of contentment and peace now.

but we still need your prayers!! we got word this week of two snags that could drastically slow our timeline from this point on: 1) the agency that's responsible for submitting an approval letter for us in country announced that they're dropping their daily case load from 30 letters per day to 5 per day. if you do the math, that points to no approval letter in time for our new march 11 court date (this is the agency that caused us to not pass because they unexpectedly closed the week of our first court date). 2) if the government shutdown takes place this week, the adoption-related officials at the US embassy in ethiopia will leave on furlough, so even if we were to pass court, there wouldn't be anybody in place to push us through the last leg of the process.

but take heart!! we received an email from our case worker this afternoon that our attorney in addis is trying to get our case moved up from the 11th so that we can hopefully avoid this series of potentially loooong delays. if you'll recall from this post, we've been praying daily that the lord would sovereignly and miraculously move us through court earlier than march 11th. please, please pray with us specifically toward this end.

for the first time in a while, i can truthfully say that i'm at peace with whichever direction this goes. it's not that i want micah home any less than i always have (no, in fact, after the past couple of days of getting the nursery painted and set up for our baby boy, i'm more excited than ever!), but as i wrote to some friends this weekend, i don't understand why this journey has been so long and sometimes heart-wrenching...

but the lord does.

he has sovereignly ordained every step, and while i haven't always liked it, i find myself more in awe of the lord and walking more intimately with him now than i have ever before in my 20+ years as a believer. i think that's greatly worth anything i could ever walk through.

with the heavy stuff out of the way, let me share a pic of izzy from her first night in the big girl bed. jury's still out on whether she was excited or not...

wordless wednesday

2011-02-23T09:30:00.000-06:00

a whole lot of preciousness

2011-02-22T21:05:00.001-06:00

i've got so much left to share (most of which will have to wait until after our second court hearing on march 11), but i'm all BFF with photoshop this week as i'm wrapping up some wedding album designs for a couple of recent brides. so in lieu of a "real" post, i leave you with this:
a whole lot of preciousness.

the fun of compassion

2011-02-18T15:53:00.000-06:00

we were 7,800 miles away from home, but something felt so comfortable and familiar about sadamo genet. maybe it was the amazing welcome or the scores of little people - i don't know what it was, but i could have stayed there all day and more.

after our short tour and the time of sharing from the mothers there, our gracious hosts served us with a traditional ethiopian coffee ceremony. by this point in our trip, we had taken part in several coffee ceremonies (and i might have developed an intense love in the birthplace of coffee), and we were always wowed by the meticulous and beautiful process by which the women would prepare the dark, delicious drink. always present: fresh flowers, a traditional coffee urn, and an aroma that i crave even as i type.

but they had saved their best for last. fekadu led us to a table that held a massive, circular loaf of bread that was probably two feet in diameter. he listened to our hosts and translated that this was a delicacy reserved for very special occasions and that the women, knowing we were coming that day, had decided to work together to serve it to us. that, my friends, will humble a person. the program director presented josh with a knife and asked if he would do the honors of "breaking the bread".

josh took the knife, placed it against the loaf, and began to cut. at least he tried to. what he didn't realize was that this special occasion bread had the consistency of a wooden log, and he was going to have to put a whole lot of muscle into it if we were ever going to eat. the best part is that the women watching got quite a giggle out of this light man's struggle.

as we were wrapping up our time of food and fellowship, some of the older kids arrived from their tutoring lessons. i began soaking in the freshness of these uncertain new faces...

but one particular face kept drawing my eyes back time and time again.

her name is mihiret. mercy. i don't know the circumstances of her family or her birth, but i do know that in the ethiopian culture, a name's meaning is everything. this child of mercy spent twenty or thirty minutes in an uncertain dance of wanting to approach these new, light faces she had never seen before but, along with her friends, being a bit too afraid to do so.

i'm sure i wanted to know her even more than she wanted to know me, so i spent much of my time from that point on gently coaxing her in. and lucky for me, many childhood games are universal, so before long, i had a new playmate and friend.

mihiret was thoroughly intrigued by the small black box i kept sticking in front of my face, so i took her aside and gave her a two-minute sign-language crash course on digital photography. then i set her loose...

this one got the most giggles out of mihiret and her friends (it's a good thing everyone there was used to us by this point)...

i've got a couple of other things in the works, but for now, i'll leave you with a parting shot of some of the precious women and children of the sadamo genet child survival program...

bring him home

2011-02-17T13:29:00.000-06:00

as i've gotten more and more calls and emails over this last week asking about our adoption process, i've realized that i didn't do a very good job keeping you guys informed of what actually happened with our court date in ethiopia. so before i continue on with the "stories of compassion", the nutshell version of our court appearance is this: it didn't go well.

we expected to arrive in ethiopia on wednesday, spend thursday and friday with micah, and then go to court to gain legal custody of him on monday. we found out at our meeting with the attorney on friday while we were there that because the ministry of women's affairs (MoWA - an agency similar to DHR here) had unexpectedly closed for the week, we wouldn't have a ruling on monday but that he expected it to be handed down within a day or two of our court date. by the time we touched ground back in the states, micah should be ours, and we would go back in a few short weeks to complete paperwork at the US embassy and bring him home.

so on monday, february 7th we nervously entered the small room where the judge sat behind her desk and a virtual mountain of files. she asked us several questions related to our preparation for international, interracial adoption, and after recording our answers, she pulled out a small notebook, flipped through several pages of it, and pointed to a specific line item recorded in it. she and our attorney spoke several things back and forth in amharic, and then it was over.

the attorney guided us back through the densely packed crowds down several floors of the government building and out to the street. no sooner had the sun hit my face then i excitedly asked, what just happened in there? in the typical gentle and quiet ethiopian way, he explained that since MoWA didn't have their letter of approval in, the judge was bumping our case to a second hearing. and the flipping of many pages in that notebook? that was her finding her first available court date which ended up being almost five weeks later on march 11.

it wasn't great news in and of itself, but when you add it to the seemingly endless pile of our adoption-related "not great news", it was a weight that, at that moment, felt too heavy for me. sometimes it still does.

so many of you have asked if we were brokenhearted over leaving micah back in ethiopia last week. after seeing how lovingly and well cared for he is at acacia village, leaving him wasn't the hardest part. it's leaving him for so long that's weighing heavy on our hearts. what we thought would be a few weeks quickly and unexpectedly grew into a few months. i handled it pretty well at first, but this week has proved to be much harder and it's brought with it fresh tears. i feel like i should say i'm completely at peace with all of this, but if i'm being totally transparent and honest (a scary thing for me sometimes), i have more questions than anything and i'm really wrestling with god on some issues - adoption and beyond.

to answer the question so many of you have lovingly asked, here's how you can pray: pray for peaceful and encouraged hearts, intimacy with the lord, health for micah, and a successful court date. josh and i are also asking god to sovereignly and miraculously move us through court earlier than march 11. but above all else, we want this to be our heart's cry:

though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet i will rejoice in the lord, i will be joyful in god my savior.

-habakkuk 3:17-18

the colors of compassion

2011-02-16T18:55:00.000-06:00

our small, stagnant-aired van begins tomake its way out of the grey hue of the city. burning trash, opaquestreams of water, and trailing exhaust from thousands of well-worncars and buses – addis ababa feels to me a suffocating weight today.

aswe circle one roundabout after another, our path seems to be leadingtoward somewhere fresher, perhaps somewhere brighter. oh, it’s notthat addis has no appeal. in fact, by this, our third full day here,we’re actually quite smitten with the friendship, fellowship, andlove that oozes from the city and her people.

but the grey.

our translator, fekadu (who lightheartedly told us that he chose forhimself the american nickname kyle because it means “handsome”)engages us with stories about the people and places we’re passing. we stop mid-road at times to let the ever-present flow of goats,bulls, and wandering children pass, and kyle uses these times to tellus who he used to be and who he’s been able to become.

handsomefekadu himself used to be a child under the care of compassioninternational’s program, sponsored by a family in australia. hetells us of the joy of being supported and loved by a family acontinent away, and he humbly shares about theopportunities he was given wholly by the faithful generosity ofintimate strangers who wanted more for him.

the beginning of his story isn’t thatnew for us. we’ve seen the diligent work of compassion and itssponsors time and time again. we’ve marveled at the glimmer in achild’s eyes as she proudly clings to her sponsor family’s photosand letters, and we’ve listened tearfully to another as he thankshis world-away family for food, for books, for clothes. but thefarther we climb into the mountains of that village land, the morewe wind through the story of a life that was radically impacted bythe work of compassion.

when fekadu aged-out of the regularsponsorship program, he was given opportunities far beyond what mostyoung men and women of his country ever know when he was sponsored byan american family in the leadership development program ofcompassion. he was guided, shepherded, taught, and molded. he madethe most of the extreme rarity of university training, becoming aveterinarian several years ago. i sit against a dirty window and marvelat how the immaculate landscape seems to turn greener and fresherwith each new detail of our guide's life story.

as he completes hiswonderful tale, i ask about a compound that’s perched oddly in themiddle of the countryside and fekadu explains its utilization as agreenhouse, a center of floral exports from the amazing land we’repassing through. but i realize there's one thing missing out here. for allits bustle, grime, and grey, the city does have something of greatvalue that this outlying beauty doesn’t – accessible water. suddenly, i become shockingly aware of the scores of girls and womenwe’re passing on our long drive who are hunched over with bodies decades beyond theiryears - bodies gnarled and bent by a life of carrying life-givingdrink from here to there. there to here.

where do they get it? i ask.

fekadu answers, the water? they getit from the greenhouse.

i stare at his face, perhaps waitingfor him to correct a mistake. you mean, from that greenhouse? yes, that’s the one. it’s miles away from us by now, and it’smiles away from them always. as the exhausting weight of these youngand old lives alike begins to settle into my western heart, we arriveat our long-awaited destination. our driver gingerly turns the vanoff of the poorly constructed road onto a path that could be labeledas a rocky trail at best. the grey concrete of the city’sconstruction has long since given way to the tan straw of thecountryside’s huts, and i watch with a mix of excited wonder andstabbing heartache as children much smaller than my own run in andout of see-through, six-foot square houses.

we make a hard-rightturn onto another dry, bumpy path and shortly stop at the doors ofcompassion international’s sadamo genet child survival program. the program director for the CSP meetsus as we climb out onto the hard soil, thanking us profusely forvisiting in a thickly accented mix of english and the village’slocal amharic dialect. i try anxiously to soak up everything aroundme - the big metal gate, the makeshift guard station, the pattern ofthe stones under my feet, and the friendly, ongoing battle betweenethiopia’s hot sun and its cool mountain breeze. but fast as mybrain tries to memorize, there’s no way to fully grasp what iwitness next.

the director ushers us through the gateand waves his arm toward the right to reveal a living wall of darkand beautiful mothers, children, and babies. colors everywhere! and then i see it – they’re each dressed in their brightest andfinest clothing, but the vibrancy of their ethiopian threads issurpassed only by the limitless colors of the roses they each hold intheir hands. i have so much, they have so little. i came to servethem, but they are ministering to me. the beauty of thatmagnificent moment overwhelms me and i kneel to the ground in flowingtears as child after mother after child offers me a welcoming gift.

looking up from the dozens of roses i now hold, i see frightened andanxious faces on several of the littlest around me. the programdirector explains with an awkward giggle, we’ve only ever hadone other visitor here before, so for most of them, you’re thefirst light person they’ve ever seen. we all laugh and exchange gentle hugs –and for the rest of the day the only colors that seem to matter areon the roses i hold in my hands.

they're proud to show us theirprogram. medical care, childcare training, fellowship, and most importantly, christ’slove – they learn about it every week. each day holds its ownagenda, and we walk through the wooden rooms of the program’s fewsmall structures hearing about how every component of the CSP isdesigned to give these women and their children needed basics,training, and education. finally we find ourselves in the resourceroom – a room lit only by the sun through the small windows anddoor – and we sit toward the front as mother after mother carriesher little ones with her to the front to talk not about the globalpurposes of compassion international but to share about the real andintimately personal impact that the sadamo genet child survivalprogram has had for her and her children.

the first woman to come forward is asoft-spoken mother of several small children. she shares about how,since joining the CSP, she has learned how to properly carefor her children and has received the needed clothes and blankets tohelp keep them warm and dry.

for the next mother, the fellowship ofother moms and believers has been vital to her as she’s welcomedher first child into the world. she’s been taught how to sew and isnow making and selling clothes to provide an income for her family.

but it was the next woman’sunexpected words that broke me.

when i was eight months pregnantwith my daughter, i knew i was going to have to give her away afterbirth. there was no way to pay for her to eat, to provide what sheneeded. your giving let me keep my baby.

i’ve long since known the drasticquality of life improvement that is birthed out of the programs ofcompassion’s child survival programs. i had even begun tounderstand the true difference in life and death that this ministrycan make. but until that moment, i had never been so poignantlystruck by the knowledge that through the work of compassion and itssponsors, mothers are freed from the unimaginable decision ofchoosing which of their children’s mouths to feed.

which of their children to keep.

several other women share about their children and their lives. some make me laugh - others make me cry. but one common thread weaves through the tapestry of each of their stories: compassion international's child survival program offers them hope, joy, and a future.

want to help change a life? save a life? these women and children are real people with real needs. i've hugged their necks, kissed their cheeks, and bonded my heart to theirs. i wholeheartedly urge you to please join with me in sponsoring the families of sadamo genet. for only $20 per month, we can radically impact lives.

come back next time for coffee, the breaking of bread, and photography lessons (ethiopian style). you won't want to miss it!!

meeting micah

2011-02-10T09:00:00.004-06:00

**from my journal entry on february 3**

my brain is going ahundred different directions right now. i can’t believe that josh and imet our son this morning. as soon as our new friends, al and lyndsey,announced that the driver was here to take us to acacia village (ouragency’s transition-type home for children who are being adopted butare waiting for their parents to pass court), i started getting nervousand my tummy filled with butterflies. after more than two years ofpraying for our son, we were about to meet him for the very first time.

weall hopped in the van together, and our driver began the – oh, howshould i word this – the treacherous drive to acacia village. it’s notdangerous in terms of the terrain (with the exception of the occasionalportions of completely missing road); it’s more like a weirdlykind-of-organized-mass-of-vehicular-chaos. no stop lights, very fewlines on the roads (and when they’re there, they’re ignored), and anever-ending game of cat and mouse with two-ton toys. more than once weslammed on our brakes to avoid hitting cars, men running through thestreets, children playing in the middle of the road – not to mentionthe goats. lots of goats.

al and lyndsey shared thewealth of knowledge that they’ve gleaned during their three weeksliving here, and before i knew it, the twenty-minute drive was over,and i heard, “look, there’s acacia village.” oh. my. word. i can’tbelieve this is really happening. the guard let us in, and we drove upto a simple but beautiful building that’s situated 7,500 feet above sealevel on a stunning piece of property surrounded by lush-lookingmountaintops, a funny-looking italian pasta factory, and a dormantvolcano that guards the landscape from 13,000 feet above. withinseconds of our arrival, precious brown faces began to peer and call tous through the ground level windows. i don’t know what i was expecting,but i do know that i was wonderfully taken aback at the joy that exudesbountifully from that sheltering home. smiles, laughter, and singingpermeated the walls and easily found their way through to the lifeoutside. the children are well-loved there.

once inside,we were so sweetly and warmly greeted by the older kids at acaciavillage who were gathering to prepare for a day out. one-by-one, theylocked eyes with us, took our hands in both of theirs and each saidwith toothy grins, “hello” or “welcome” as if they were sharing with ustheir exotic retreat. al and lyndsey’s five-year-old daughter, signey,opened a bag of candy and offered it to the friends she had begun tomake there, and each boy and girl patiently filed past, warmly thankingtheir little blonde benefactor for the single piece of candy they hadeach chosen. and before i knew it, they were all gone. the foyer areagrew quiet, and helen – sweet helen – who so giftedly helps operateacacia village, asked "would you like to meet your baby?" i threw myhands over my heart and excitedly whispered, yes please!

she took us upto a second-story balcony area that overlooked the amazing mountainsbehind us and told us she would be right back with him. we readied thevideo camera and strolled along the sunny patio as we waited. withinminutes, helen walked out of the door with micah in her arms. with ourson. not wanting to scare him, i walked slowly in that direction as iheard josh behind me frantically whisper something about "not working"and "what’s going on here?"

it’s true - we have no videoof our first moments with micah. but as josh and i have talked about itthrough the day, it’s almost more special that way. no sooner had helenhanded him to me than she quietly snuck away, leaving the three of usalone to become a family. and so as it turns out, that moment truly isand will forever be ours alone. i laughed at the wonder i was holdingin my arms and i let the tears roll freely off my cheeks. it was almostlike an athlete who collapses into an exhausted heap of thankfulnesswhen he finally crosses the finish line of a tremendous race. so muchtime, so much work, and so much prayer. and for what? for the preciousbaby who stared quietly at me with huge brown eyes at that very moment.

idon’t even know how long we stayed out there. maybe two hours? we heldour baby, played with his feet, rubbed his soft head, and whispered welove you so much over and over in his ear. we rejoiced over being ableto pick up on some of his unique quirks and traits: he sucks almostcontinually on the knuckle of his right index finger, he giggleswithout fail when josh tickles his head or neck with his scruffy beard,and he makes sweet, quiet murmurs while he sleeps.

which brings me to the most amazing part of our time with him today.

aftera long time of playing, taking pictures, and shooting a couple of shortvideos (we figured out the camera problem), micah began to get sleepy.i cradled him in my arms as he sucked his finger and succumbed to theexcitement of the day. i laid down on the patio with him on my chestand josh soon came and sat behind me so i could lay my head on his leg.and there we stayed. 30 minutes? an hour? maybe longer. daddy, mommy,and new baby boy basking in the heat of the african sun, the cool ofthe mountain breeze, and the love and thankfulness of a tremendousblessing from the lord. huge, exotic-sounding birds joined with thenearby braying donkeys to compose an appropriate lullaby for ourethiopian-born son.

no pictures, no video. just perfect.

partof me feels like i should just stop writing here. this was, after all,a picturesque ending to an enormously blessed day, but there’s one morepiece of this story that begs to be told. after micah woke up, we tookhim with us to the infant room so we could see where his little cribwas. the room was incredibly small – maybe 6 feet by 8 feet – and ithad a row of small bassinet-type cribs lined on one wall. 7 or 8 ofthem i think. micah had just been moved to acacia village the weekendbefore our arrival so his area was a little more sparse than some ofthe other babies’ beds, but my heart leapt for joy a bit when i saw thename on the next bed over. biniyum. we have some friends from churchback in birmingham who are also adopting from ethiopia (and whothankfully and prayerfully passed court here last week), and theirprecious baby is micah’s next-door neighbor. the boys were born withindays of one another in completely different parts of the country, butthey’re already sharing their lives together 7,500 miles away fromwhere they will soon live and grow up.

but the storydoesn’t stop there. in the cramp of the room, i hadn’t noticed aparticular little guy laying in a carrier kicking his legs excitedlynear my feet. i took one look at his face and gasped. most of you don’tknow that five days after judah died, we actually received a referralfor another baby. it’s impossible to explain the agony that went intosaying no to a baby who desperately needed a home, but our heartsneeded time to heal. and he needed a family that was ready and waitingfor him with fully-prepared and excited hearts. on august 18, 2010 weweren’t that family. but there i was, staring at that same face i hadseen so long ago in referral documents. i gingerly lifted up his leg toread the name tag around his ankle. his name, his story, and a twingeof guilt came over me. until, that is, i looked at the sole objectlaying in his crib.

a photo album.

thealbum was full of pictures of a mom, dad, and brother who are in lovewith the baby they’ll be traveling back to take home soon. al andlyndsey met them not long ago and told us what a wonderful family thatsweet little guy is going to have. god has so richly provided for allof us along the way.

our amazing friends and family - ourhearts are full beyond measure tonight as the sun fades from theafrican sky. we’re in a continual state of thankfulness for theperfection of this day and for the story of adoption that we’ve been soblessed to take part in. thank you, thank you for the roles that youhave played in this journey. the lord has truly used each of you incountless ways to encourage, support, and love over these last coupleof years.

we can’t wait for you to love micah as well.

wordless wednesday (it's good to be home)

2011-02-09T21:06:00.000-06:00

i just wish we all were...

guess what?!?!?!?

2011-02-08T09:00:00.004-06:00

the singing shepherd

2011-02-07T09:00:00.005-06:00

daddy didn't want to be left out of all the fun

2011-02-06T09:00:00.003-06:00