A giving heart

An unexpected bonus of adopting children from the third world is that my older kids have really developed a wonderful sense of responsibility to the world's needy people. My oldest daughter, Emily, made this video and she is hoping to organize a sponsorship of an Ethiopian child by her sorority at Iowa State. She is planning to be able to help and serve others in her future career in social work. We are so proud of the kind and empathetic heart that she has. :)

Big Love

Sarah told me this story recently: "Mommy, when I was in Ethiopia, my love was small, only this big." Here she made a little heart with her hands.
"But then, you came and whole family came and now my love is this big!" And she threw her arms open wide.
My love is big, too. And growing every day. :)

Vacation

Summer is winding down, school starts here in a couple of weeks... I love summer and hate to see it drawing to a close, but we were able to take my parents with us on a great vacation before we all get back into our school time routine. Thanks for coming, Mom and Dad. :)

Candace and Sarah saw the ocean for the first time.

My mom and my big kids.

Up close and personal with one of the famous Barbary Apes.

Some summer fun

These are some pictures from our trip to visit relatives in Indiana last month. We visited the fabulous Indianapolis Children's Museum with Grandma Spears, Aunt Johanna and cousin Meredith. If you are ever near Indianapolis, you should go! It is the world's largest museum for kids, and it is wonderful.

Twins, Daddy and Meredith hanging out with dinosaurs.

Sarah, Candace and big brother Kenneth in the Egypt display area.


The Barbie exhibit was super cool! My sister Johanna and I loved it; probably even more than our little girls did!


This is our family with my parents at their 50th anniversary celebration. Kind of a wacky photo, but the only one from the evening with everyone in it!



Anna and the twins playing in the wading pool at Grandma's house.

Personal selfishness

I've been thinking about selfishness a lot lately. My own. It is making me more than a little uncomfortable. I've been thinking about how easy it is to accuse someone else of selfishness, and also how easy it is to excuse my own selfish behaviors.

We have a beautiful home in an idyllic setting... it's way more than what is needed to comfortably house my family. Is this selfish? Is it selfish to have frivolous things like jewelry that I treasure? You could feed a lot of people or send a lot of children to school for the amount of money that paid for my treasured bracelet.

Is it selfish to want another child when we have five already? Five who each have their own particular needs... some more major than others, but all important to that person and our family. What about taking a child from half way across the world, away from his family and culture... is that selfish?

Or spending a couple of thousand dollars on surgery for our beloved little dog?

I don't know the answers. I am going to try to find them.

Beautiful Nebraska

Don't worry, be happy... for us

There is nothing really new to report on our new adoption. We got our fingerprints for the FBI last week, and next week we are going to get physicals. We are still waiting for application paperwork from the agency.

I have a funny feeling that people aren't really excited for us this time around. When we were referred twins instead of one child in 2008, some people seemed to think that was a lot to add to our family at this stage in our lives. Mostly, though, people were excited and supportive. I feel like the reaction with this adoption is something like this:

Me: "We're going back to Ethiopia to adopt a 3 1/2 year old boy!"

Person: "Wow. Really? Well. That's great."

I don't know, maybe six kids is the magic number where people begin to wonder if we are on our way to becoming the Duggars. Maybe some think we are too old to have a four year old at home. Maybe some think transracial families are strange. Maybe I'm just reading a lot into the situation that isn't really there.

I guess I'll get my giant shoe ready to move into just in case.

Back to Ethiopia!

"Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world." James 1:27

Tom and I and all of our children are so happy that we will be welcoming a new son into our family... three and a half year old Feyissa, from the Hadiya region of Ethiopia! We're not sure how long it will take since the adoption process has changed some in Ethiopia. Also, we found Feyissa on a waiting child listing, so the order of completion of some things is different, and we're using a different, larger agency. There is a lot to work through...

But for today, I'm just happy to be able to share the news.

A golden anniversary

I love my mom and dad so much. They are wonderful parents and have a marriage that is a great example to all five of their children. They celebrated 50 years of marriage on June 18, 2010.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

All grown up

This cute little curly-haired boy...

...is 21 years old today. Happy Birthday to our oldest child, Kenneth. We love you.

His and hers

I mentioned in my last post that Tom and I had our 24th anniversary earlier this month. Here is how we chose to commemorate this milestone:

His...

...and hers.

It's a first for both of us. We feel like such rebels... with a cause. :)

Our social scene

We had a rather busy social scedule the last couple of weeks. Here are some pictures from a few of our activites. Last weekend, the girls went to two different birthday parties. The first one was a bowling party with their second cousin (or third or fourth; anyway, she's related to us), Moira.

The next day, they went to a party for their new friend, Maddie. Maddie's parents are hoping to adopt from Africa some day soon, and they live in a nearby town.

And finally, Tom and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary last week. We went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and enjoyed ourselves very much. Later this week I'll post more about how we're commemorating our anniversary!

This last picture is totally unrelated to the rest of the post. It's a picture of the twins' "new" beds with their cute lady bug quilts. These beds were Tom's when he was a little boy, and Kenneth used them, too. We got these new spreads when the twins moved into their own room a month or so ago. Candace made the beds and picked up the room all by herself while I was out with Anna and Sarah.

Home one year... and forever.

One year ago today, after 20+ hours of flying and a 45 minute drive from Eppley Airfield in Omaha to rural Ashland... Candace Selam and Sarah Fikir walked through the door of their forever home.

It's good.

Our first year

One year ago today we first met our daughters, Candace Selam and Sarah Fikir. The first year has been very hard. Our family changed forever, and change is never easy. But this change has been worth the difficulties... because with it came great joy and boundless love.

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School's out for the summer!

At our house, that means it's time for swimming in the lake.

Pretty as a picture... darn that bright sun, though!

Sarah "swimming"

Mermaids emerging from the depths of Big Sandy Lake.

Eek! A fish!

Warming up on the sandy beach.