Faith Day!!!

Sunday was the anniversary of having Faith in our family. We call it "Faith Day!" It's the day that we went to Ethiopia and took her out of the orphanage and she became a part of our family!! It's a day we'll never forget...we went from a family of three to a family of four. 

We got Faith and Joseph dressed up in Ethiopian clothes and went out for ice-cream!! It was fun to celebrate with friends who walked through the process with us! We know that many people were praying for our family and especially for Faith when we accepted her referral and realized that she was malnourished. She had been in the hospital for pneumonia a couple of times, which was scary. You'd never know that she was so unhealthy by looking at her now...she's as healthy as can be and we're so thankful! 

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12 mo post placement

A couple of days ago I sent in Faith's 12 month post placement report. It's always fun to reflect and think about the progress that she's made! She's a real blessing to our family! It's fun to watch her grow and change. 

Here are the pictures that I included in the report. You can click on the picture to make it larger.

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One Year Ago...

Tomorrow, November 21st, we celebrate the anniversary of Faith joining our family. This year went by quickly. I can hardly imagine our family without her! She's just a natural part of our family.

Here are some pictures from a year ago:

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Friends on TV!

One of my college roommates has adopted through the foster care system! It's been so fun to reconnect with Tracy with adoption! Recently her family was on the local news as a way to celebrate adoption for Adoption Awareness Month!! Go check out the video here.

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Thankfulness and Adoption

Isn't it ironic that November is National Adoption Month as well as the month with Thanksgiving? I'm more than thankful for my adoption into God's family. I'm thankful that our two adoptions are complete and our two kiddos are no longer orphans. Yes, it's true, adoption and thankfulness go hand in hand. :)

I watched this video tonight and my heart was stirred. It's still astounding to me that there are so many children without parents. I wish I could do more. I wish I could adopt them all. And yet, there are days when I know I couldn't handle more than two. I'm thankful that God is bigger than me.


Freed to Visit Orphans from Together for Adoption on Vimeo.

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We passed court 1 year ago

Two months after we first held our baby girl we got an email that we passed court and we were officially her parents. It's hard to believe that our court date was a year ago today. I remember waiting and waiting for the courts to open after being closed for the rainy season. I was hoping the get a court date by the end of October or beginning of November. Instead we got an email that the court date had happened and we passed!! What shock! It would be another month before we would go get her, but she was officially ours!! So exciting!!! :) 

Amazing how much this sweet little girl has changed since the first time we held her. She is still a bundle of joy, but now she's an active, independent bundle of joy. Sometimes I wish I could go back to when she was this small and just hold her, but it's so good to see her so healthy and happy now.

We're blessed.

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Each family has a story

I'm always amazed about how God puts families together! We're coming up on a year of having Faith in our family. It's been an amazing journey. Extremely difficult and extremely rewarding. It's neat how adoptive families all have a different story of how God knit their family together!

This family's story is pretty touching:

God Story: The Howerton Family from ROCKHARBOR on Vimeo.

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9 month post placement report

Last week I turned in our 9 month post placement report for Faith. It's hard to believe that she's been with us for 9 months! It's been a huge adjustment for all of us and it seems to have gone by in a blur. It's kind of nice to have to write these reports because it forces me to reflect. It's all for God's glory that she's doing so well! Developmentally she's made huge strides and it's so fun to see! She talks, she walks (forward & backward), she eats great, she's happy and healthy!!! We're so blessed by her!!

We're required to turn in 12 pictures. Here are the pictures I sent in:

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Meeting Faith

One year ago today we met Faith for the first time at the orphanage in Ethiopia. You can read my blog from that experience here. We were handed a tiny malnourished baby that we fell in love with instantly. We became a family of four that day even though we had to leave her behind for three months. Our lives haven't been the same. We've all changed for the better! We're so thankful for this sweet little girl in our lives.

Here are some pictures from that short time that we got to spend with her:



Here's what she looks like now, far from malnourshed:

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sentimental

I'm starting to get real sentimental....we're coming up on the anniversary of getting Faith's referral. August 11th, 2009 was when we first fell in love with our baby girl!
Here was the picture we saw first.

I couldn't believe how much I loved her the moment I saw her....it really was love at first sight. (It was that way with both kids)

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Fav Photo

Here's a favorite photo of the week of Joseph and his friend Morgan. We went to a wedding and they dressed up in their local dress.



Don't forget to check out our family blog if you want to keep up with us!

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Favorite Photo Friday

I know it's Saturday...I'm a little behind. Here's our favorite photo this week:

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Ethiopia videos

I came across these videos from Ethiopia. I thought they were both good. It's a good picture of my children's birth country. :)

This first one is 8 min long....so if you have time, enjoy! I enjoyed watching it, because it just gives a good idea of what Ethiopia is like.

Ethiopia: The Whole Picture from Paul Hassell on Vimeo.

This one shows a visit in an Ethiopian home including the traditional coffee ceremony. I thought it was a very nice video!

Coffee Ceremony from Paul Hassell on Vimeo.

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Favorite Photo Friday

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Faith has been with us for 6 months!!

I just finished Faith's 6 month post placement report. It's crazy how time flies. Time sure passed slowly during the waiting period. We're enjoying this little girl so much! She is such a blessing to our family. She just fits in so well! Joseph loves her too. He's often giving her hugs and kisses. She loves to be wherever he is. I hope that as they grow up they'll continue playing together so well.

We've enjoyed watching this precious girl grow! She's as healthy as can be now. She changed so much in 6 months and we're especially thankful for her health! She only has two teeth, but two more on the top keep threatening to come in. We'll all be much happier when they finally break through. She's getting closer and closer to walking. She loves reading books and singing songs. She has started saying and signing some words.

Here's a video of Faith communicating:

Faith "talking" from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

Here are the 13 pictures that we included in the report we sent to Ethiopia:

Faith, we love you sooo much and we always will! :)

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Jojo Day 2010

Today is Jojo day! We had Joseph in our arms two years ago, April 28th. In the adoption world this day is called "Gotcha Day!" I'm not sure whether we got him or he got us. This little boy sure has changed our life. We see things with a new perspective since he joined our family. Joseph sees everything and everyone as FUN!! He's full of life, always ready to run, jump, and explore! He doesn't stop for very long. Sometimes just long enough to watch Jungle Book 2 - another fun adoption story!

Every year we need to write a post placement report and include pictures. Here are the 12 pictures I included in the report:

Here's a slideshow of Jojo pics over the last year. It's been a year of transition. We've moved twice, traveled a lot, and added Faith to our family. We're thankful that the transitions are over and we can just enjoy being a family of four! Today we're especially thankful for Joseph!!

We're thankful for friends who celebrate this blessing with us.

We dressed the kids up in Ethiopian clothing before we went out for ice-cream to celebrate. Here's a couple pictures of our kids all dressed up:

Here's a short little video of Joseph saying, "Jojo Day!"

Jojo Day! from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

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catching up

It has been a while since I've updated this adoption blog. Not much adoption news lately, I guess. I've been updated our family blog more. Check it out if you'd like! I'm not sure what I'll do with this blog...I'm still deciding. It's an adoption blog and our adoptions are complete. But, at the same time, I know our lives will always be about adoption...our kids are adopted and we love adoption!!!

Well, since we last updated, we celebrated Faith's first birthday.

Here's a slide show of her party! She sure is growing up fast! She already has two teeth and she loves to be on her feet! She's such a blessing!!

Tim's parents came out here to visit and we had such a great time with them! Here's a pic of all of us together:

We were excited to meet another family that lives close to us that has adopted two kids from Ethiopia. Here's a picture of their kids and our kids when we met them! We hope to see them again soon. They don't live far, but seeing them does involve a few hours in the car.

I've also been in touch with another family in a nearby city that is beginning their adoption journey! They've chosen to go with the same social worker and agency that we used...wow! It's so great to have more families like us that live close!

In other news...Faith's hair has been growing longer and longer. When Joseph's hair gets too long, we just cut it. I've been putting conditioner in her hair and I've even started putting it into pig tails! It's so cute! Here's a couple pics:

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Two Years Ago

Two years ago today, February 14th, we got a phone call. There was a baby boy waiting for us in Ethiopia. We fell in love with him at first sight!!! It came a little earlier than we expected, but we were thrilled! What a wonderful Valentine's Day gift it was!!

This is Joseph's referral picture:


This is what Joseph looks like now.

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First salon experience!

Today Faith had her first Salon experience! Her hair has definitely gotten long enough to start actually styling it. So, I took her to a great Ethiopian Hair Salon!! It was run by Ethiopians for Ethiopians...pretty cool!

Here's a few pictures of her before she got her hair styled:




Here's some hair style pics:





Here's a slide show of her fun hair style:

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Post Placement meeting

On Sunday we flew to Dubai to meet up with our social worker, Randy Barlow. He happened to be coming to Dubai to meet with some other families and we happened to need to take one last (I know we've said that before) visa hop...so it all worked out well!

We started out at 6:00 am and got home at 11:00 pm. It was a long day.

Here we are arriving into terminal 2. We had never flown into terminal 2 before.


We took a taxi to meet with Randy at his hotel. We left home with this single stroller that was in bad shape and came home with a new double stroller! (Some friends had given us a double stroller, but the wheel fell off...bummer!)


We took a couple pictures with Randy, but Joseph wasn't cooperating...ugh!



After our meeting with Randy, we went to one of our favorite restaurants! :)


Our kids really did enjoy the double stroller! Awww!

While we were at the airport Faith got the giggles. Here's a fun video of her laughing...

Giggling Girl from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

They didn't sleep on the flight home, but they fell asleep 5 minutes before we got home! We were all tired when we walked through our door. We went straight to bed.

(They're so sweet when they're asleep!)

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Tomorrow we will meet with the Social Worker for a Post Placement Interview. I just finished filling out the questionnaire and pulling together some pictures. It's fun to look at her pictures...it's so obvious that she's doing really well! It feels so good to write that she is healthy, fully recovered from pneumonia, sleeping and eating well! This girl really is thriving. We're so blessed!

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Gotta love Nammy & Papa!

Adoring Grandparents from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

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Second Week in Colorado

After spending two weeks in Albuquerque, we flew back to Colorado. We needed to get Faith's passport in Denver and then we stayed a little longer to enjoy Christmas Day at Jeni's parents' house.

We stayed in Denver for two nights and enjoyed some down time with Jeni's parents. It was nice. Our hotel was close to the passport agency, which was great! Joseph got some one-on-one time with Grandma and Grampa while we took Faith to go get her passport.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of my mom with Faith:


Faith was excited to get her passport!


Grampa loved being with Faith too.


We took Joseph to a fun indoor toddler play place. Joseph was totally in his element!


Once we got back to Longmont we got to see Tim's sister, Karla, and her family again!! Here's some more pictures with them:



It was starting to feel normal to have two sleeping kids in the back seat.


We met up with Ellen in Superior right before we had some professional pictures taken. Here she is playing Patty Cake with Faith in McDonalds.


Christmas Eve with cousins:



Christmas Day we hung out with lots of family.
In this picture Jojo is opening Nana's presents for her.


Two crazy Uncles!


Jojo had to show my Aunt Rosa how Arabs drink hot tea:


Uncle Ross got Joseph a Mr. Potato Head:


Faith loved sitting on Nana's lap:



The day after Christmas I got together with some of my Teacher Friends. We taught together when we lived in Denver. When we were teaching I was the only married one and now we are all married with kids. In the picture of the kiddos three kids are missing. Maybe next time we'll get all of the kids together.



Here's proof that we made it to Denver! I love the Denver skyline!


My Grandma (Joseph & Faith call her Nana) was so sweet with Faith:


Here's a picture of a very happy Grandma!

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