First Holy Communion

On a windy Saturday afternoon, two precious children of God

 prepared to receive their First Holy Communion.

Beautiful twin sisters... Candace Selam and Sarah Fikir.

The whole family was there to celebrate...

...even Grandma Miles came from Indiana!

Mommy and Daddy are very happy and proud.

Mass began with a procession of 

First Communicants into the church.

Sarah and Candace were so excited!

Receiving the holy sacrament.

Receiving blessed scapulars.

 Happy girls!

Some pictures are by Abbey Marie Photography.

Happy birthday, Anna

Saturday, Anna came back from college to attend prom with her good friend Scott.

He was crowned prom king.  :)

On Sunday, the cute little baby pictured above...

...celebrated her 19th birthday a day early.  

Today is the real deal.  Happy birthday, sweet and funny Anna.  

We love you so much.

A spring evening

Spring is starting to show around here... finally... and although the clouds were out, the warm temperatures lured the kids back outside after dinner this evening for the first time in awhile.

Sarah swinging... I love to watch little kids swing.

  They just radiate joy.

Eyasu jumping on the trampoline with Alli.

Thomas

Candace, Zachary and Sarah with their sand pie.

Thomas, Alli and Zach on the trampoline.

It was a nice evening for doggies, too.

Easter

Our Easter weekend started with egg coloring on Saturday.

  Here are Candace and Eyasu stretching their creative muscles.

Zachary and the twins

Sarah and Candace adding some artistic details.

Thomas studying the instructional diagrams.

The boys made these awesome ninja eggs, chosen by Alli.

Alli picked out these princess-y jewel eggs for the girls.

Next we attended Mass in our Easter finery...

followed by an egg hunt.

It wasn't super challenging!

The littles were pretty pleased with their treasure.

Next was brunch followed by a lazy Sunday at home.  I got the kids to pose for a nice photo before they ditched their good clothes.  I think they look pretty nice.  :)

Holy Thursday

Ready, set, go!

 These are packed and ready...

to go here...

to work with all of them...

and help mamas to blossom and families to thrive... why?

Because... every mother matters.

Spring Trip 2013

Birthday girl

Twenty-two years ago today, this squawking, slightly yellowish bundle of joy came into our world.

Baby Emily, fresh from the womb.

She grew up into an accomplished, loving and talented young lady who will graduate soon from Iowa State University and will be pursuing a masters' degree starting in June.

Emily... photo by Abbey Marie Photography

 (find Abbey's photos on Facebook)

Happy birthday, Emily!  Thank you for lighting up our lives for twenty-two years... we love you so much.

The birthday girl!

Two young authors

 We were very proud of Candace last year when she was selected to represent her class as a Young Author for AG elementary. This year, we are proud to have two young authors! Candace was selected once again, and Thomas was chosen for his class. Thomas was also selected as one of the three school wide winners, with his story chosen as the best from all of the kindergarten and first grade classes! In addition to these fancy certificates, winners also received smiley face pencils and enjoyed a special pizza party.  Each child will have a poster of him/her hung in their classroom, promoting a love for writing.  Honors and benefits already- at the ages of six and eight!

Young authors Thomas and Candace.

AG Elementary Young Authors of 2013

Winners for the three age divisions.

The three age group winners will have their work published by our local newspaper sometime in the upcoming weeks... we can't wait to see our little boy as a published author.

Hot pants

The story goes like this:

The twins are getting ready to take a shower.  While taking out  Candace's braids, I survey the pajamas they have brought to wear to bed that night.  Acceptable, but missing a pair of clean underwear.  I send Sarah back to my bedroom to get a clean pair.  She returns in a tardy and lolly-gagging fashion several minutes later.  I undo her hair and a few minutes later, both girls are in the shower.

But wait, what is that smell?

It smells like something burning... did Tom accidentally do something weird with the oven when he was cleaning up the kitchen?  No... so where is it?  The burning smell intensifies and Tom comes running in as I am babbling about how there is a FIRE somewhere, yikes oh mighty.  We finally notice smoke pouring from our bedroom ceiling fan and quickly turn the fan and light off.  As I help the twins finish their shower, Tom gets the step ladder to investigate.

Here is what he found:

Exhibit A

In case it isn't clear, that would be one pair of little girl's Barbie underwear, burned to a crisp, and the corresponding light bulb aforementioned undies landed on when tossed nonchalantly over the shoulder of the cotton-headed ninny muggins sent to get another pair.  Wow, where did they go after she tossed them?  Little Missy saw no sign, so she fetched an additional pair and went on her merry way.

Feeling pretty glad about two things:  1) I was in the room the entire time things were heating up, so we kept the damage low (one pair of undies and a light bulb) and 2) we managed to clear the smoke quickly enough that the dang smoke alarms didn't go off.  Oh, and I guess I should add 3) my house wasn't burned to the ground due to hot pants.

My big mistake

I made a big mistake recently. Anyone who has ever considered adoption or been through an adoption knows to avoid this one.

I fell hopelessly in love with a waiting child.

We haven't been looking for a child to adopt.  Still, I am on certain lists and emails come my way... and there was this boy.  And through a set of circumstances and "coincidences", I became certain that this child was destined to be mine.  I prayed and prayed; knowing that, at best, this was going to be a tough sell for almost everyone in my life.  I was sure that God was speaking and that this boy belonged to me.  Walls would come tumbling down.  Patience and faith were the keys... patience and faith.

Except they weren't the keys and this boy will not be my son.  Months passed while I patiently prayed for the pieces to fall into place.  But they didn't fall the way I had hoped for.  Tom feels our family is complete and will not be swayed from this position.  He, reasonably, doesn't want to risk tipping the delicate balance we have developed in our family.  While I might hear God, this time Tom does not.  Not here and now in this situation.  Faith and patience did not turn out to be my allies... while I was faithfully praying and patiently waiting, the agency advocating for this child quietly eliminated their waiting child list from Ethiopia and with it the listing for "my" boy.  I am too late.

I cry now for this child who was never mine and never will be.  I wonder what will become of him, a child with a significant special need in a third world country with absolutely no services to assist his family in caring for him now or to help him be a productive member of society in the future.  Will he grow to adulthood?  Will he get any education?  Will he be surrounded by people who will nurture him or will he end up on the streets?

I don't know.  I have no way to know.

I am sad that I will never have this boy to hold and love.  The ache I feel in my heart is almost unbearably painful.  I am sad that I was so wrong about what I thought God was asking me to do.  I wonder why it is so hard for me to hear God accurately, and yet so many other people seem to have a direct line right to their eardrums.  I feel foolish and faithless and hopelessly wrong.

And my heart is broken, with two big holes in it... a hole for this child and a hole for my faith.