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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