Category: Parenting

I know we’ve been pretty quiet since we brought home our kids from Ethiopia. That is mainly because there is no time to be on the computer! I know we need to write about our time in Ethiopia, but I wanted to quickly give a little update because I know many are wondering how we are doing. Thanks for being patient with us and praying for us in the meantime!

Some things we have been doing:

• teaching all three kids to ride bikes (everyone pitched in to help 🙂 )
• many, many doctor appts
• training to eat new food
• playing games, throwing footballs, etc.
• teaching Saturday (and every day) chores
• going to the movies
• Friday night pizza and movie night at home
• church
• little bit of ESL tutoring
• Facetime with Ethiopian friends now in America
• Erin’s daily band camp and some babysitting
• Girl time: Caitlin Tigist, Erin, and mom clothes shopping in Spfd
• registering for schools (will be spread across 4 schools this year!)
• van shopping (that’s a fun family outing, right??)
• Kieran got braces
• fun with friends

One of our favorite friend gatherings was a bonfire at the Belley’s home along with the Mott family. The Belleys just came home with their new Ethiopian son a week and a half ago, and the Motts are working really hard to bring the older brother of their two Ethiopian daughters home as well–hoping to do so before the end of the year. Our Lincoln-Ethiopian community is growing into a beautifully woven tapestry!

Fun planned for next week before school starts for Erin & Kieran:

• one new kid birthday party
• family trip to zoo
• Big Daddy Weave concert for the bigs
• more doctor appts!
• Maura to church camp

Many of you have also asked what you can do to help us. So here are some ideas:

• PRAY! I know that is a given, but we need prayer warriors! Satan hates adoption and family and would love to disfigure a picture of God’s redemption. So please pray for peace and unity in our family, and for wisdom for us as parents.
• Supplies–when you are at the store, grab an extra item below. These are the things we go through like crazy!
  • 2% milk
  • bananas another other fruit
  • baby carrots
  • toilet paper
  • dishwasher detergent
• Funding–We still have some adoption bills to pay, and we need to buy a 15-passenger van (driving two vehicles everywhere is not going to work for long!). Lifesong for Orphans has agreed to keep our donation account open until the end of September, so if you are still wishing to help us out, you can find details on how to do that at our fundraising tab.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement! You truly are a blessing to us!

The Creator of the universe finds parenting to be challenging:

I reached out day after day
to a people who turned their backs on me,
People who make wrong turns,
who insist on doing things their own way.
They get on my nerves,
are rude to my face day after day,
Make up their own kitchen religion,
a potluck religious stew. (Isaiah 65.2-3)

Why should we expect it to be happier, easier, or somehow different?

This post, which appeared today on the Tapestry Adoption & Foster Care Ministry Facebook page, offers a better perspective:

God does not say to us: “Clean up your mess, get your act together, straighten yourself out, act your age, and stop embarrassing me…and then you can come to me and we can have a relationship.”

Instead, he says: “I will come to you in the midst of your mess, misbehavior, immaturity, impulsiveness, disobedience, selfishness, and falling apart…and I will meet you just as you are, right where you are. But, I will not leave you there. I will gently, yet firmly, lead you toward the hope, healing, and freedom that can only be found when you are truly connected.”

May our parenting reflect more and more this life-giving, grace-filled, transformational love of a God that runs to us, even when we are still far away.

The journey is not always happy, but there is joy when you know how to see it.