things to love this Christmas....

so many choices.  i must start with a popular song that moves me this season.  love the lyrics.  love how the true Christmas message is captured with such beauty....Laura Daigle sings Light of the World with such giftedness~ someday i'm singing with her in heaven!!  such talent!  if this is your first time hearing about this song, consider it an early Christmas gift, from me!  you're most welcome!

then there is the annual West Jet wonderfulness here...makes me just want to purchase some good ol' plane tickets from this really nice company.  just to show support, you know?!? :)

then, in my own home, and out and about during Christmas functions, among the normal and crazy and mundane and predictable, are certain Christmas wonders that bring me joy each and every year...

a Starbright performance with family...ushering in Christmas in a Christ-centered way...i hope this becomes a new tradition for us.  the picture is a bit dark, but special to me anyway so it's going up! :)

homespun Christmas ornaments that the kids sort of love/hate.  they don't make for the most perfect designer Christmas tree, but man, do i love seeing these every year.  i love looking back at their tiny faces and remembering them that way (this is necessary! :))...such effort was put into creating these ornaments and i'm very happy they continue to find their way onto the tree.

sugar cookie decorating with two sillies...

 Hudson's Haitian nativity set from a sweet friend....love these pieces...

Christmas assembly times two this year...always precious.  Hudson closed off his class song with a one-line solo in a deep male opera-style voice.  so fun and a total surprise to me.  he even kept it a secret! :)

 deliciousness made by the kids with photo credits going to Adam...

wishing you all, dear family and friends, a restful, joyous and meaningful Christmas...love to all from our family to yours!

five

somehow, someway, five years have passed since this boy became ours.  tomorrow marks AJ's fifth Gotcha Day! in the picture below, our first ever of AJ on the day of his adoption referral, he was just a tiny boy on my computer screen.  one whose eyes told a story of deep loss in his short three years of life.  my joy in the moment of laying eyes on him, finally seeing the face of our son after such a long wait....well, i'll never ever ever forget the magnitude of that moment.  the literal miracle that lead us to him in the first place was so vivid still and though the process had been slow and so very uncertain, there he was looking back at me.  the realization of a dream and a prayer and God's plan unfolding there before our eyes....

 

Alemayehu Jeffrey, on the court day when he took on his daddy's name as his middle name, and the first time Jeff declared him to be "AJ"...

finally, in December of 2010 on our way back to Ethiopia for the second time to bring home our son.  needless to say, after the snowstorm of all time and almost missing our flights out of Toronto, we were happy to lay our heads down on our luggage once finally at Heathrow in London....didn't matter that there were no options to stretch out or that we were exhausted mentally and physically, we were picking up AJ and beyond relieved to be nearing the end of a really long journey...

AJ, guarded and unsure of his new daddy....

but not for long....the silly, sweet and spunky side emerged within the day and we got to see his eyes dance and his dimples on full display.  smitten we were....

AJ and I below~ i was completely overjoyed.  no other way to say it.  surreal, surreal...isn't my face almost glowing? :)  it's that beautiful Ethiopian morning sun, but still...

happy 5th Gotcha Day AJ!!! 

 i love being your mom, and am so totally thankful God gave us you!

ecosystems...riveting stuff below

i'll spare you many of the bizarre and complex details.  in short, i'll just explain that Layla's class was assigned a project where each student was charged with the task of creating an ecosystem.  an ecosystem is defined as "a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment." sooo...here it is, $35 dollars in, after two trips to the pet store, this is day one of fish living with snails and rooted plants with floating plants all within a jar filled with "aged" water.  there are lots of flaws to this project, in my opinion, both in the design and execution of a successful ecosystem that has any real potential to last.  perhaps this is why i've dubbed it the "project of death"....but as i said, i won't get into it too much here, cuz hey, the pictures are cute.  all four were entertained for many minutes staring into the jar and watching the fish and snails adapt to their new home, for however long or short :( that may be....ahem...

even since this picture was taken, we are down one member of our "thriving" ecosystem.  we started with five happy little fish, and now there are four hearty ones remaining.  imagine my horror one evening when i walked by the counter, stared into the jar as i often do (i've grown a wee bit attached to these rascals), and had to do a re-count and another re-count to confirm my worst suspicions.  yes, we were down a fish...i scoured the bottom and sure enough, there among the shoots of the rooted plant, lay the poor little fish belly up and perfectly still with a sort of glazed-eye look that oddly seemed to lock gaze with mine.  i dreaded the thought of telling Layla, and then there was the whole process of "retrieving" it from the bottom.  how was i going to do that?  with a serving spoon?  applied suction from a turkey baster?  well, i thought about it for a bit, only to have the decision taken right out of my hands a few hours later when i walked past again to see the large snail consuming the fish slowly and methodically right before my piercing eyes.  i couldn't believe it.  this was the most "real" part of the ecosystem i'd seen so far.  the brutal realities of aquatic life i suppose.  i broke the news gently to Layla the next morning.  she took it well.  

two days later, early on a school day i came out to the kitchen to make coffee.  first things first, right?  i glanced at the jar, as always, and to my horror discovered the large snail was literally MIA, gone from the jar, nowhere to be found.  and this snail is large~ approximately the size of a ping pong ball.  there's no way you wouldn't see it.  i had a moment of brief perplexing panic, wondering why this ecosystem had gotten so twisted, so fast.  i slid the jar over a bit to realize the snail had decided to escape through the night.  there he was, inside his shell, opening facing up, appearing lifeless right there on my kitchen counter.  i repeat, on my kitchen counter...nice....without a second to waste i grabbed a sheet of Bounty and scooped the poor fella up and gently plopped him back into his homemade ecosystem.  i wished him well, but feared the worst.  it's almost as if this snail is super intelligent and knows the future is bleak~ he was making a run for it while there was still time...as i sanitized my counter, i saw small signs that Mr. Snail might be okay after all.  the smaller white snail literally approached, and something that may have been CPR occurred,  and before i even began making breakfast the larger snail was back to exploring the jar, slow but sure as snails seem to do...from that moment on~ we make sure the lid is on!  

good times!!  even still, this will be a project i want to remember a decade from now, or even six months from now at the rate my memory is going.  i suspect Layla will enjoy this memory too one day. 

yonas

so in October we received awesome news about Johnny that i blogged about here,  then November proved to be equally awesome when i woke one day to "Yonas news" from Eyob.  brief refresher~ Yonas is a boy we met in 2010 when we were in Ethiopia picking up sweet AJ. 

 i've blogged many times about Yonas since our first meeting five years ago, but the very first time i mentioned him was here.  Yonas is now somewhere around sixteen years old and living in Addis Ababa.  he has some contact with Eyob, the man who is director of the organization and orphanage where AJ spent time before we were cleared to adopt him.  Eyob has facilitated Yonas' sponsorship by seven Canadian families~ all invested in loving this boy from across the world.  each family heard his story back in 2010 and wanted to be a part of speaking Hope and Love into his life.  pretty nice.  since that time, Yonas has received medical care that has led to a diagnosis of HIV, and he now has regular ARV medications and has regular assessments and treatments that have brought him around to a position of looking and feeling well.  Praising God for this!

so, we've attempted many various forms of communication with him over the years.  this has proved to be daunting, to put it mildly.  the coolest experiences have been when our two sets of friends, on two different occasions during two different years, visited Ethiopia and literally tracked him down, meeting Yonas face to face and delivering tangible love to him from all of us back here at home. chalk that up to amazing friends and impressive logistics and one powerful, loving Heavenly Father who helped to accomplish those precious encounters.  

soooo, one morning last month i woke to a message from Eyob.  gotta love Facebook, at least for this, right?  Yonas had come by his office on that particular day.  they'd taken some pictures and he'd even taken time to write a letter to us. 

the pictures below are the latest.  in the first one he's holding some shoes and clothes he was able to purchase from the sponsorship money sent by the seven families...

these two are pictures of a picture, so you do see a glare, but that's how they came to me...what a handsome young man.  so happy to see his sweet grin...

and this is his letter to us in Amharic...

 see the translation below, again blurry but probably legible if you click on the picture to enlarge it....completely melted me to read his sign off, "your son, Yonas"....so thrilled that he knows there are people in another land, far away, that care for him as surrogate parents.  Yonas hasn't a forever family of his own, and this means so much to see that he understands how much he is loved....

 well, you can imagine my eyes brimming with tears as i stared at his grown up face and his beautiful penmanship.  he looks like a young man now, all handsome and appearing healthy.  Eyob translated the letter for us as well~ super nice of him to do so. 

Yonas and Eyob, at the KVI office. 

 so awesome and wonderful.  i look forward to the day when Yonas has his own Facebook account and we can correspond more regularly.  

could have been....

i'm pretty sure i could have been a wrestler.  i'm fairly certain actually.  ahhhh....the beauty of my own healthy imagination and perception, right??  haha...plus, who can argue with hypothetical?  it's perfect...i can just about picture the medals, the podiums~ yes- with some good coaching, and a bit of determination i think i could have been okay at it!  if only it was a competitive option for girls back when i was the age of my own scrappy ones.  i even remember play-wrestling with a dear childhood friend in her unfinished basement.  we simply copied our big brothers.  and they were always roughhousing.  Karen is a super strong lady today~ she for sure would have been a fierce contender.  she is physically and mentally tough, and super sweet as well.  nice combination...we could have been a force together on a highschool team.  i just know it.  :) :)  oh how i wish...

 for now, the three oldest will randomly and spontaneously battle me in the family room, or wherever there is open space. 

it usually unfolds something like this.  

and in these moments i love to imagine the real-deal matches that could have been.  i do think my girls are especially fortunate to participate in this sport.  and wrestling season is officially underway.  i'll be the "wrestling wannabe" cheering from the edge of the mat, with butterflies in my stomach and tension in my neck muscles, all the while living vicariously through their adventures and celebrating their own amazing opportunities...can't wait!

reunited

this is special. like so seriously off-the-charts awesome!!  it made my month of October~ a total highlight.  but first the back-story must be explained.

  

when Jeff and i were dating, some time before our own tribe of children arrived, we decided to sponsor a child through the amazing organization of Compassion.  these people, this mission, this working model of releasing children from poverty through Jesus' name~ well, it is a beautiful thing to see when hope and purpose is restored and the real life-changing love of God is experienced first-hand~ by sooo many children for the very first time.

   

so, we began sponsorship of a precious boy at that time.  he was from the country of Bolivia, and his eyes were beautiful, dark and tentative. he was nine years old. 

 Johnny looked unsure of exactly what to make of having his picture taken by the workers that day.  i wish i could know what his heart was feeling on that very day, in that moment...he was probably brand new to the Compassion project in his village, yet perhaps feeling hopeful that this would be a good thing for him, that his future was a bit more secure by having the project workers there and involved in his life. 

from our end, Jeff and i were invested from the first look at his sweet face.  Johnny became more and more like our sponsored Bolivian son.  his name was regularly spoken during our prayers, we wrote letters and always anticipated the annual update picture to see his progress.  as Johnny grew he would sometimes share his future plans and desires as it related to school and future career.  he began to dream and plan and see options as real and open to him.  and then one day we were told that Johnny was old enough to graduate out of Compassion's program, and we were given the option of selecting a new child to sponsor.  this was over a decade ago now, and naturally, we lost touch with Johnny, but never once forgetting him and wondering from time to time where life had taken him.

  

until last month.  oh my heart.  i received a text from Jeff showing a screenshot of Johnny's Facebook profile, saying "Look who i got a friend request from!!"

real tears.....there was our "little Johnny", all grown up and now a young man living life and looking healthy and well and happy.  let me say, seeing him, seeing his photos once again~ it was incredibly exciting and heart warming.  i felt very parental in that moment too~ like a mom beaming for a grown child she'd let out from her nest, with the huge satisfaction of knowing that all appeared well.  so very nice....i'm so grateful God has had a clear hand on his life....

we quickly connected over Messenger (and thus my love/hate relationship with Facebook continues).  still, on that day and each since, i've been super thankful for the means to converse instantly and at no cost.  pretty neat.  Johnny has graciously shared with me his perspective of Compassion, of being a part of the project there in Bolivia, and how that shaped his childhood, his future, and even rippled out to his family members in various ways.  he has really good memories of Compassion that were obviously sweet to hear. 

this has renewed my faith and commitment in a worthy charity such as Compassion.  they are making a giant difference in this world.   Johnny is doing well.  my heart is full.    

cross country

dedication, perseverance, hard work, mental toughness....all words that accurately describe a cross country runner.  my crew of six just finished their 2015 season at their respective schools.  they had to grind out a long list of practice days, lots of unpredictable weather ranging from too hot to rainy, cold and blustery.  some days i felt bad for them having to lace up and hit the road for practices.  i'm so much more of a "must have the perfect weather conditions" kind of runner.  far from die-hard, that's for sure.  all six have varying opinions on the sport as well~ ranging from "i actually hate running" to "i love this and am sad it's over".  i get that.  even still, so much is learned in the process of belonging to a school team, working hard at being your best version of you in the sport, and competing against others who have shown up to race.  after all, i'd say just being there to run is a victory in itself!

on this day, it was gorgeous outside....Joelle had her best season yet, pushed forward by more training and discipline...her last as a highschool senior!

Hannah appears so have mastered a beautiful smile while in running motion and pain.  not sure how that happened.  she appears to be loving every second, but i can assure you she is not.  she did it though, and i'm proud of that for sure.

Adam's first year competing at the highschool level.  he'd definitely rather be wrestling.  he did really enjoy the bus trips to out-of-town meets and time with his friends on the team.  fun memories!  can't believe he's in highschool....

AJ was certain he'd be "crushed" based on his age.  as it turns out, he did run with nine year olds while he is only eight.  we reminded him that he was Ethiopian~ therefore getting "crushed" wasn't in the equation...so when the race marshal walked the start line asking the four fastest from each school to be in the front row and the four slowest to make a second row behind them, AJ was certain he was "front row worthy"...confidence of his father i'd say... :)

Layla lives and breathes race day.  no mention of nerves, just happy to hit the course.  she loves it and is always sad when the season is over.  i could see her doing a half-marathon with Jeff one day.

Hudson placed individually and with his team...he looked strong and happy with his finishes...he always seems to have some "finishing speed" which helps a lot when exhaustion sets in for so many others. 

                                                     

as we've told them a zillion times, this running thing is all about personal bests.  and we saw lots of that this year.  they worked out their cardiovascular systems, contributed to a team and saw what they were capable of.  so good...

up next....drum roll...wrestling!!    

boy happenings

so, this is late.  really late....another end of August happening being posted way after the fact.  but hey, in ten years, who is going to notice or care?  this blog is a rolling record primarily for my kids, to look back and soak up their childlike cuteness, to remember key events and great life highlights...these snapshots in time are "timeless".  the one below is a pre-game pose from my baseball loving boys.  posing for their sister like real-deal serious threats...makes me look forward to baseball next spring already...

and this also happened a few weeks ago.  Jeff and Adam were so excited to head off to a Lions game one Sunday~ and both loved the whole football experience.  it was their first live NFL game, and i think it will be a memory they enjoy for years to come....

i would have enjoyed that pizza :) ....so happy they could...

post-game prayer huddle....awesome!!

love these four boys so much!  thankful for shared life experiences of fun and leisure and excitement sprinkled through our day-to-day.  

a sketch- by Hudson

Hudson has never been a huge fan of art, drawing, or anything that requires slow and careful attention.  he'd rather just be on the move.  he'd much rather be doing gross motor muscle activities than fine motor ones.  it's who he is.  no time for colouring as a toddler, no interest in crafts or picture making of any sort.  

of course, this can make school projects a challenge.  he's starting to be able to access use of technology in the classroom more and more which takes much of the pressure off.  thank goodness!!  recently he was asked to draw a picture of someone in sports....he chose Amar'e Stoudemire, he found the exact picture he wanted online and after some basic instruction he took to the page, not tracing, but doing his best to copy the picture exactly as it was.  

can't even tell you how much i enjoyed seeing his finished product.  he worked so hard on it.  so carefully.  made me smile for sure.  Great effort, Hudson!  i love your version~ almost looks like Amar'e is running toward a giant who wants to block his path to the basket....LOVE it!!

thanksgiving continues

thanksgiving celebrations trickled into another weekend, and i'm so glad they did!  Jeff and i are blessed with two amazing families, both close by, and this means there are lots of opportunities for fun with grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles.  new and old.   this weekend we spent it with Jeff's side of the family. 

   where did all these kids come from???

  i love these times.  i cherish our memories,

  

  the food is always delicious....so delicious.  

 it's lively and funny~ every single time.  so much to be thankful for...  

next will be Christmas!  i always look forward to it as well!