STAY TUNED......

Today

Today is a very special day. There's no great name for it and no big celebration. It will only happen one time so there will be no anniversary of it, but today is a very special day. As of about nine or 10 this morning, our daughter has been in our care longer than not. As of today our daughter has been in our arms, felt our love for her expressed through hugs and kisses and cleaning diapers, longer than not. Today our daughter has been in our home longer than any other home she lived in. It seems like such a short time to have known her, and it is, but today our daughter has known us as Mom and Dad longer than anybody else. Today my heart soars and is humbled by God's goodness. Today I have pondered on and been thankful for God's perfect, sovereign plan for our lives. Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.

-amory

Taking A into my arms permanently

Leaving Hannah's Hope

My wild child now!

Dear birth mother

Dear birth mother,
I wish I could write this letter and know that it would get to you. I wish that I could find some way to tell you about our daughter's first year of life. Instead I will just have to write what I have to say and pray that God writes it on your heart all the way across the world. Our daughter is resilient and amazing. She has now been in our home for six months. It has been the most beautiful, sweet, happy six months. She has gone through more change in her first year of life than some people go through in their entire lives and has handled it like a champ. Not having heard much English before she was seven months old, she said her first words the week before she turned nine months old. She started walking at ten months old and by a year old she was practically running. At 13 months old she has over 30 words, about 40 if you include animal sounds. She can point out the color yellow and tell you that it is yellow. She has a sweet, obedient spirit, but is also passionate with a temper at times. She says please and thank you and likes to know that she has done something good. Our daughter LOVES books and would sit in your lap and let you read to her for hours if she could. Every now and then she'll read the book to you, which just might be the cutest thing ever, though completely unintelligible. She loves to dance to music and will randomly break out singing "lalalala". She is above the growth curve and according to the pediatrician is very muscular. Our daughter is thriving. Our daughter is a survivor and has fight in her. God has used our daughter to break down walls and heal hurts. Our daughter is loved.

I like to go back and read my old blog posts to see what God has done in our lives. Every time I finish reading I am humbled and thankful. We have such a merciful God! A year ago I was tired of waiting and frustrated. I was about to be very frustrated as our waitlist numbers actually went up one month. Embassy requirements were changing and things looked very, very uncertain. But, a year ago a little girl had just been born and was being loved and nurtured by a wonderful woman that had a very hard decision to make. While I was complaining about my waitlist numbers not moving, a woman on the other side of the world was handing her daughter over to an orphanage. I thank God for that woman, her courage and love. Now that little girl is my daughter. A year later, I try and carry on the torch that was started by a woman on the other side of the world, to love and parent a sweet, sassy, silly little girl. I pray I do her sacrifice justice. I pray I have the same courage and wisdom in raising A.F.T. Thank you God for using a woman on the other side of the world to give me such a beautiful gift. Whoever is reading this...please take a moment to pray for all of the birth mothers/fathers and families that have had, or are going to have to make this difficult decision.

-amory

Somebody is one!

Happy Birthday sweet girl. One year ago today, as I sat waiting for the big reveal of your nursery to be set up, I had no idea that you had just been born. God's timing is funny that way. One year ago today I had no idea that the very neutral nursery taking shape would soon be filled with hot pink. God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams with your sweet, silly spirit. I love seeing your personality finally coming out. I love that you LOVE to read books. I love your sweet giggles and perfect smile. Happy Birthday Aerin Faith Tarikua. I can't believe you're already a year old, but I have LOVED every second of it.

Family Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas! Last year we wrote at Christmas about how God was teaching us to better understand the theology of adoption. As you will remember, at this time last year we were on the waitlist to adopt a child from Ethiopia.
This year, our daughter is home! This year, God has shown us mercy, healing and redemption. In March we got “the call” for a beautiful nine week old baby girl. We had thought all along we would probably be matched with a boy because we had always been closer on the boy waitlist, but God had a different plan. On March 9 we discovered that we were #1 on both the girl and boy waitlist. God DOES have a sense a humor, and also wanted us to know that He is ultimately in control. It was a joyous shock on March 10th when our agency called and said “there is a little girl I would like to talk to you about.” We always knew that call would change our lives, but we never knew just how much. Suddenly, we had hope. We had a daughter.
What followed can only be described as the longest, hardest, best, most joyful year of our lives. It has been a year filled with heartache and grief, blessings and indescribable joy. In May we flew to Ethiopia for our court appointment and to meet Aerin for the first time. It was a sweet time, but at the end of the week we had to leave our daughter in Ethiopia and fly back to the U.S. to wait on the U.S. Embassy to approve our adoption. It was the longest six weeks of our lives as we awaited our approval. Finally on July 21st we received our approval and our dates that we could go get our daughter. On July 30th we boarded a plane to become parents.
Our first five months home with our daughter have been a blast! She has gone from rolling around to talking and walking. She is bursting with personality and a strong will. She is the most passionately happy person we’ve ever known. She loves her Daddy and dogs. Bryan is still teaching English and coaching basketball at Mansfield High School. Amory is still working at the bank. We’ve both had an interesting time trying to balance work and being good parents, but we’re figuring it out. We’re so blessed to have friends and family that have helped make the transition a little easier for us.
“Once our eyes are opened we cannot pretend we do not know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows we know and holds us responsible to act” (Proverbs 24:12). This verse is fitting for the year we’ve had. We’ve seen toddlers, yes, toddlers fighting for survival on dirty third-world streets. We’ve seen an infant experience terror and grief. God has opened our eyes to this fallen world. Yet, in the midst of that we have witnessed healing that only God’s perfect plan can bring. We have seen children whose eyes were once dull become bright and full of life. We have had the privilege of witnessing redemption. That is what Christmas is about to us this year. Not the presents or tinsel and tidings. The fact that God sent his perfect, sinless Son to be adopted and raised by a sinful man so that He, Jesus Christ, could redeem this fallen, broken world, is what speaks to us this Christmas. Join us this year in celebrating the healing power of God’s redeeming love.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come; Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns; Let men their songs employ; while fields and floods, rocks hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sin and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.

Orphan Sunday/Happy 10 months old!!

I feel like it is fitting that our daughter turns 10 months old on Orphan Sunday. She is now an orphan no more and it makes this day more poignant to have her in our arms. We didn't seek to adopt to fulfill some great scriptural calling to defend the orphans (though it is a GREAT calling). We simply wanted to be parents and experience the joy of raising a child. We wanted to follow God's leading as to how that would look and God lead us to adopt from Ethiopia. HOWEVER, ignorant as we were when we began our journey, God has opened our eyes. HE DID call us to defend the orphan (which is a commandment that God gives over and over again in scripture to ALL of us), He just had another way of leading us to that. Now I'm not saying that it's God's will for everyone to adopt to save the orphans, and if that's the only reason you want to adopt...please, re-evaluate your motifs. But, it's clear that God does want us to defend the widow and the orphan, so I ask; how is that fulfilled in your life? For us, God used our desire to become parents to turn this

(first picture we saw of Aerin)

into this.

-amory