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

September wrap-up

I realize I haven't posted very much...and still haven't finished my posts from Africa, but I guess I should at least give an update on our progress so far.

I have tried to write down the dates for everything new that A has done and, while looking back at that list, I noticed that I don't really have anything written down for August. A started army crawling a couple weeks before we brought her home, so that wasn't new. She already waved. All I can think of that she did in August was start crawling more as her main transportation mode and rolling around less. Oh, and her first signed word, but that's all. I think August was a month for adjusting to her new life with us, without all of her friends around and with three new pets. And then there was September.

Oh my, I ran out of room on my piece of paper to write things down. It seemed like everyday there was something new and big that she was doing. It was such a BUSY month developmentally. Here's an abbreviated list of some of her milestones in September:

FOUR teeth came in, all at once, now she has SIX!!
Clapping
Crawling on hands and knees (when it behooves her)
Pulling up
Clucking her tongue
Dancing
Waved hi
And as her final touch on the month...her FIRST WORD!!


Yep, you read that correctly, she just last week said her first word. She had said it a couple times, but I thought it a fluke and possibly just babble, until this weekend when she waved hi back at me for the first time. I was so excited and explaining to Bryan how she waved at me when I said hi (yes, she's been waving a while, she just hadn't put it together yet) and was showing him when she said it, "HI", in front of Bryan. Turns out that it wasn't just babble. Tonight we were at bible study and I was in a different room from her when one of our friends yells to me "did she just say HI to me?" It felt nice to know that I'm not crazy, my kid really did say her first word.


All I can say is...thank you Hannah's Hope. I don't think September would have been possible with out the special care she received there. Hannah's Hope is why we adopted through AGCI. We knew that their setup would allow our child to have the most individual attention possible and give her the best opportunity to develop normally and boy, did it ever!


Being a mother has been so much fun. It would be fun even if all of these things hadn't happened, but it has been so special to get to see so many "firsts" all at once. One of the hardest things about waiting was knowing my child was growing up without me in Ethiopia. I constantly thought of all of the firsts that I was missing out on. What a blessing it has been for God to show me that, while I did miss out on a few things, He has a TON of firsts that I get to be a part of.

Transition

I've had many people ask how our transition is going since we came home with Aerin. I don't bring it up on my own, and I have yet to post about it because, honestly, I feel a bit guilty about it. I like to say that God knew we were first time parents that would struggle with figuring it all out. So, He gave us an idiot proof baby. She is so easy most of the time that it blows my mind. I prepared myself for our daughter to be up every couple hours and barely eat or have some developmental delay or birth condition that we would have to adjust to. God has BLOWN us away by giving us a daughter that is developmentally advanced, fit as a fiddle (not even a parasite), eats like a pig and sleeps all night. I want to lay it out there because, it will come out eventually as I continue to blog. My post today though is not to brag, but to be real. I don't want someone that is looking at blogs trying to decide to adopt to see my comments and think that this is easy. It's not. We know that it won't always be this easy. Well, it's already not always that easy. This morning my daughter screamed for 30 or 45 minutes, a heartbreaking scream of fear, as I laid her down for her morning nap. She would go to sleep, I would lay her down, and she would wake up screaming..over..and over. That's her easy nap time. She has slept in that same crib for her naps so...so many times. Yet for some unknown reason this morning, she was terrified of me leaving her. I had to hold her until she had been asleep a long time before putting her in her crib. This happens every now and then, hopefully less and less. But, this is a small part of the hard stuff that comes with adoption, even with a young infant as easy as our daughter. That an infant can have a fear of being left amazes me, but emotional scars start very young.

I grieved for our daughter's loss almost continually before we brought her home. It's so easy to forget now that she is home and so sweet, fun and happy. It's moments like this morning that I grieve again for her. I grieve that our daughter has to have already, at less than 7 months old, suffer the loss of 2 mothers, her birth mother and the special mother that took care of her at HH. She's in her forever family now, and we're not going anywhere, but I know that she will always have to deal with her loss. That loss will be evident as show grows up and wants to know why she looks different from us and who she looks like. It won't always be as easy...adoption never is, but it is oh so worth it.

-amory

-here's a post of encouragement for any of you that are struggling with your adoption transition.

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/09/06/after-the-airport

8 Months Old!

Happy eighth month birthday sweet girl! Every other month we have longed to celebrate with our daughter her monthly birthday milestone. Last month we were able to celebrate it by getting on a plane and flying home. This month we celebrated it by Aerin's first trip to the zoo!! It is so much fun to be able to
have these moments with the daughter we prayed for
so long to have. It was even better to be able to have family with us. Aerin went to the zoo with her cousins M and H and Aunt L.

She was reserved at first but by the end of the day decided that she LOVES koi fish and mandrills. Aerin learned to clap this week and started clapping and laughing while we fed the koi. She also had her first ride on a carousel. She decide

d to ride the ostrich but wasn't too sure she had made the right decision once the carousel started. As always, Aerin was a trooper and made it through the ride and was bouncing once it was over for more.

So, happy eighth month birthday baby girl...it was a blast!

-amory

**Please, no comments on my pastiness that is made evident by my latte daughter being next to me. I also would not normally have a band quite that wide on her head, but I was trying to hide her hairline from the sun as much as possible.**

One Month Ago

One month ago today, we became parents. One month ago today, we, as a family of three, walked out of the black gates that kept our daughter at Hannah's Hope. August 1st, 2011 is our Gotcha Day. We already loved the little girl in the pictures and the little girl that we played with in May, but one month ago today we learned to love the little girl that also screamed, cried and refused to take a bottle from us. One month ago today we fell head over heals, crazy in love with our daughter.
We waited over two years for that moment, and I can still hardly believe that right now my daughter is sleeping downstairs. It's hard to believe how far we have come in just one month. God has entrusted us with a ridiculously sweet natured, loving, silly little girl that gives the sweetest, yet ickiest, slobbery kisses.
The song that helped start it all is still a perfect description of this adoption process for us.
"Everyone needs compassion,Love that's never failing;Let mercy fall on me. Everyone needs forgiveness,The kindness of a Saviour;The Hope of nations. Saviour, He can move the mountains,My God is Mighty to save,He is Mighty to save." Christian lyrics - MIGHTY TO SAVE LYRICS - HILLSONG AUSTRALIA
Our God is and has been Mighty to save. He has shown us compassion that we didn't deserve, love that never failed and His mercy has unceasingly rained down on us. He moved mountains and bureaucracies to bring our daughter home. HE IS MIGHTY AND TO HIM BE ALL GLORY AND HONOR AND PRAISE!!

Home

I know you all have been waiting for an update, but my time is now dictated by a 7 month old!
We've been getting settled and trying to figure out what our routine is. I can say that it has been wonderful! We are enjoying every minute of having Aerin home with us...yes, even the poopy diapers, because they remind us of the hard parts that we wanted for so long. Hopefully I'll get a chance to update you all in the next couple days on what happened while we were in Ethiopia, but for now I'll leave you with a few pictures of our sweet, silly girl. By the way, we knew it when we saw her at our court appointment, but we have had confirmed that this girl is NOT camera shy. She can be fussy, see the camera flash, pep right up and start posing. Yes, I do mean posing. If I didn't already know how shady the modeling industry was, she would be a photographers dream baby model.